Tag Archives: Mark Strong

The TIFF Report, Vol 3

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Knox Goes Away

Director: Michael Keaton
Cast: Michael Keaton, Al Pacino, Marcia Gay Harden, James Marsden, Suzy Nakamura, John Hoogenakker, Joanna Kulig, Ray McKinnon, Lela Loren
Synopsis: When a contract killer is diagnosed with a fast-moving form of dementia, he is presented with the opportunity to redeem himself by saving the life of his estranged adult son.
Thoughts: If you didn’t think you needed to see a drama directed by and starring Michael Keaton where he plays a hit man with Creutzfeldt-Jakob’s disease in 2023…you were wrong. Knox Goes Away is pure Keaton cool cat, a crime pic that delivers on an early promise to follow through and not pull punches. There’s an efficiency to the film, to the directing, that can only come from someone who has been in this business long enough to know how to keep an audience engaged but still leave sufficient room for characters to be formed and explored. Is it the most refined crime film you’ll see this decade? Probably not, but there’s something special about seeing Keaton (the rare actor you want to root for, whether he is playing a good guy or a bad one) move through this world with confidence most actors half his age don’t possess. And who doesn’t love a good twist that gets dunked into the mix at the perfect time? Keaton must have cashed in a few favors to get Marcia Gay Harden and James Marsden for supporting players, and he creates some pleasant moments with Joanna Kulig as an escort who sees him as more than a client…for a while. Then you have Al Pacino (rarely moving from a seated position) awake and alert as Keaton’s trusted connection, apparently roused from the coma he’s been in for his last several movies. Consistently keeping you on your toes, this could be one to keep an eye out for those who love to untangle triple cross tales.

The Critic

Director: Anand Tucker
Cast: Ian McKellen, Gemma Arterton, Mark Strong, Ben Barnes, Alfred Enoch, Romola Garai, Lesley Manville
Synopsis:  Adversaries are forced to take desperate measures to save their careers in this scintillating tale of ambition and deceit in the theatre world.
Thoughts:  Ian McKellen in a period thriller as a snippy theater critic who resorts to murderous ways to stay relevant? All I needed was to read this logline, and I didn’t need to know more about The Critic because I was on board. I’m not sure if going in blind kept expectations low or didn’t level-set them at all, but the movie is middle-of-the-road Wednesday afternoon entertainment that feels overly worked and not half as wickedly clever as a Patrick Marber screenplay should be. Based on the 2015 novel Curtain Call by Anthony Quinn, director Anand Tucker has all the suitable material to create snappy suspense, but there’s a key ingredient missing.   That pivotal spice is interest and Tucker’s film strains to develop any (or keep ours) as it plods along with a frumpy slump. I was frequently bored with the goings on of this world, and as a theater/movie nerd who loves this period and all the backstage gossip and backstabbing that comes with it, I’m precisely the target audience this would/should be speaking to. The supporting cast of The Critic is stacked with dependable players (Gemma Arterton as McKellen’s critical target of ire and eventual accomplice, Mark Strong as his editor, and Lesley Manville as Arterton’s mum) who usually have nothing to do but look good in Claire-Finlay-Thompson’s costumes. No one does an exhausted sneer like McKellen, and as a nasty theater critic in pre-WWII London intent to keep his job and willing to resort to Shakespearean deceit to do it, he’s in fine form. If only the movie had as much bite as McKellen’s critical bark.

Sing Sing

Director: Greg Kwedar
Cast:  Colman Domingo, Paul Raci, John Divine G Whitfield, Sean San Jose, Jon-Adrian Velazquez, David J. Giraudy, Sean “Dino” Johnson, Sean “Divine Eye” Johnson, Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin
Synopsis: A theatre troupe finds escape from the realities of incarceration through the creativity of putting on a play in this film based on a real-life rehabilitation program and featuring a cast that includes formerly incarcerated actors.
Thoughts: It’s not coming out until 2024, but Sing Sing is one of those films you can tell is going places. Based on the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program (RTA) founded in 1986 at Sing Sing maximum security prison, Greg Kwedar’s film uses a handful of professional actors (namely Colman Domingo and Sound of Metal Oscar-nominee Paul Raci) but is predominantly made up of real-life former inmates/alums of RTA. Most of the time, casting non-professional actors can have drawbacks, but it is the key to Sing Sing’s ultimate soaring success, lending pure authenticity and raw honesty to the semi-fictionalized story as scripted by Kwedar and Clint Bentley. Domingo (also represented at the fest with biopic Rustin) plays Divine G, a leader of sorts in the RTA who takes a new member, Sean “Divine Eye” Johnson, under his wing as they begin to mount their spring production. At the same time, Divine G is preparing for his next parole hearing and assisting his fellow inmates on theirs, even though many have been resigned that making their case to a blank-faced board won’t change their sentences. As you may expect, there’s a degree of darkness to Sing Sing that gives it a weight to carry forward, which can sometimes slow the pace. Still, the beautiful hearts of the performers and the joy they feel from creating and performing are the electricity that energizes the movie. If some have suggested this is more of an advertisement/endorsement for RTA and similar programs, then so be it; it demonstrates the individualized power derived from placing the incarcerated into creatively fulfilling roles while they serve out their time. 

The Burial

Director: Maggie Betts
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Tommy Lee Jones, Jurnee Smollett, Alan Ruck, Mamoudou Athie, Pamela Reed, Bill Camp, Amanda Warren, Dorian Missick
Synopsis: Inspired by actual events, a lawyer helps a funeral home owner save his family business from a corporate behemoth, exposing a complex web of race, power, and injustice.
Thoughts: Let’s not forget the power of the rousing David v. Goliath courtroom drama because director Maggie Betts and her co-screenwriter Doug Wright sure haven’t with The Burial. It may be old-fashioned, overlong, and frequently pandering to cliche (one summation is played to a horn-drenched underscore so loud it nearly drowns out the speaker). Still, it worked like gangbusters with our packed crowd at the TIFF. Set in 1995, the film follows a standard formula where a little guy (a small-town funeral company) is taken advantage of by the big guy (a big-town funeral company) and needs the help of a shiny savior. What makes The Burial interesting is that the little guy is played by Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones, who we might often associate as the one who would swoop in and save the day for Jamie Foxx (another Oscar winner), who instead is playing a flashy lawyer used to working with much more prominent cases. These types of courtroom-savvy films don’t get made anymore, at least not with the kind of regularity that we were used to. Thundering opening statements, “gotcha” cross-examinations, late-breaking reveals that threaten to derail the case, all the elements that made audiences think that trial cases were as exciting as a broadcast wrestling match. Of course, years of CourtTV have shown us otherwise, but movies like The Burial remind us how a little Hollywood magic can turn the mundane into grand, if unbelievable, entertainment. Betts has also made a good-looking and easy-to-watch film on top of it, which is almost icing on the cake.
Full Review Here

Pain Hustlers

Director: David Yates
Cast: Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Andy García, Catherine O’Hara, Jay Duplass, Brian d’Arcy James, Chloe Coleman, Britt Rentschler
Synopsis: Pharmaceutical drug reps unwittingly help kickstart the opioid epidemic in the pursuit of financial success.
Thoughts: From director David Yates, Pain Hustlers is a flashy, fast-moving chart of the rise of the opioid crisis via shady pharmaceutical start-ups with another sensational performance from Blunt (A Quiet Place). If only the rest of the movie were as layered with nuance as Blunt’s turn as Liza Drake, a down-on-her-luck exotic dancer who unexpectedly finds her calling as a rep for a Florida drug company. While Yates (The Legend of Tarzan) never lets the scope overwhelm the message, it can drag a bit as it moves toward the second hour. It’s a big production that wants to feel like it’s made with the same verve as The Wolf of Wall Street or The Big Short, but it lacks a hard-nosed edge to play in the same league as those films. It also suffers in the timing arena as well. I feel like this story has been told multiple times in film, limited series, and documentaries over the last half-decade, so my brain was already saturated with the structure of a) a person who comes from nothing who b) makes it big and c) learns there’s a considerable price for getting what they want. What I did appreciate in Pain Hustlers, and this is what has always made Yates a strong director, is the way he pays attention to minor character turns, casting excellent actors (like Britt Rentschler from the also fantastic Pretty Problems as the wife of a man who becomes addicted to the drug Blunt shills) to fill out pivotal roles.
Full Review Here

Hit Man

Director: Richard Linklater
Cast: Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, Austin Amelio, Retta, Sanjay Rao, Molly Bernard, Evan Holtzman
Synopsis: A sorta-true crime comedy thriller about role-play, romance, and the precarious pursuit of self-knowledge.
Thoughts: Oops, it happened. I had heard it occurs at these big festivals but wasn’t sure I’d be affected. Yet, it still happened. The overhype machine got me with Richard Linklater’s Hit Man, a good but not great grey comedy that confirms Glen Powell is an A-List star who favors solidly B material. Powell plays an ordinary Joe Schmoe working for the local police in a tech support role who pinch hits for an undercover detective posing as a hitman for hire and displays a talent for being a master of deception. Creating different personas and crafting unrecognizable looks, the man at the center of this “sorta-true” story eventually falls for one of his marks. He gets in over his head trying to keep her out of harm’s way from his job and other criminal cohorts. Overlong and hinging on a second-act series of heretofore police ineptitude that is more convenient than plausible weakens what had started as a breezy good time. Though not exactly a newcomer, Adria Arjona makes a considerable impression. I suppose the blazing chemistry between Arjona and Powell creates the type of self-fanning fire rarely seen in movies, which is why Hit Man created such waves in TIFF and eventually sold to Netflix for release in 2024. I chalk that up to Powell being so charming that he could make an audience believe he’s attracted to the apple tree next door, but if we want to hang the success of Hit Man on the heat generated between Powell and Arjona, I won’t object. The two share a scene of aural deception, which will likely be mentioned in every review, that hints at the kind of high-stakes comedy the entire film should have partaken in. As is typical, Linklater’s knack for finding the right players of (un)familiar faces (to me) in minor roles gives the film homespun authenticity.

Wildcat

Director: Ethan Hawke
Cast: Maya Hawke, Laura Linney, Philip Ettinger, Rafael Casal, Cooper Hoffman, Steve Zahn, Vincent D’Onofrio, Alessandro Nivola, Willa Fitzgerald
Synopsis: Exploring the life and art of American author Flannery O’Connor while struggling to publish her first novel.
Thoughts: I grew up reading the work of Southern writer Flannery O’Connor in my high school English class, but it had been some time since I cracked open one of her novels featuring eccentric characters living through strange conditions. With his experience as a published author navigating a niche market often struggling for acceptance, poet/writer/actor/director Ethan Hawke was a perfect filmmaker to take on a biopic of the late writer. His approach is both literary and literal, frequently spinning off into small productions of O’Connor’s short stories that are arguably self-indulgent but not nearly as indecipherable as you may be led to believe; Wildcat is a hard-to-love look at author O’Connor as she navigates a chronic illness and being stymied artistically by an industry not used to her lyrical prose. As director and co-writer, Ethan Hawke can’t always balance blending reality with the short stories that play out (usually with stars Maya Hawke and Laura Linney in multiple roles) in fantasy. Still, every so often, the film locks into something that starts to burn brightly. Maya Hawke still can’t shake the extreme resemblance to her famous mother, Uma Thurman, she gives off onscreen but digs deeper than ever to try O’Connor’s mousy look and repressed attire on for size. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Linney perform poorly in a movie before, but she treads close in Wildcat with a few outlandishly overplayed roles that are beautiful buggy crashes we often can’t look away from. Not for everyone…but if you’re up for seeing MANY different sides to Linney, give it a go.

Memory

Director: Michel Franco
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Peter Sarsgaard, Brooke Timber, Merritt Wever, Elsie Fisher, Jessica Harper, Josh Charles
Synopsis: Sylvia is a social worker who leads a simple and structured life. This is blown open when Saul follows her home from their high school reunion. Their surprise encounter will profoundly impact both as they open the door to the past.
Thoughts: This year at the Toronto International Film Festival was a bit different because of the ongoing Writers Strike and the Actors Strike, both of which hadn’t been resolved to allow these key figures to attend their premieres at fall film festivals without a special waiver. Thankfully, there were some exceptions. Hot off a strong showing in Venice, Memory arrived at TIFF23 and brought stars Jessica Chastain and Venice Volpi Cup for Best Actor Peter Sarsgaard to talk after. In the film, written and directed by Michel Franco (Sundown), Chastain is a single mother social worker carrying the tumult of unresolved pain from her childhood. A recovering addict, her efforts to remain on track are challenged after attending her class reunion and spotting a man she believes factored into her trauma. Sarsgaard plays the man, and as it turns out, he has his own obstacles which will open both up to a greater understanding of problems from their past and how they face their future.   While it’s clear both actors bring their typical dedication to the process, and their performances are admirable, they’re stuck in Franco’s flighty plot, which square dances around many heavy subjects but never bothers to face them head-on. I’m amazed that Sarsgaard was singled out for his role when Chastain is going for something far more profound and nuanced. Whereas he is playing something just below the surface, she’s several layers further down, exploring a new part of her craft. The resulting film has good actors (wow, does Merritt Wever need a lead role soon, and holy moly, when is Jessica Harper going to get some recognition for her years of work playing brittle women?) assembling thin connective tissues that eventually snap during a protracted finale. Memory begins with some momentum but quickly swings into an inertia it can’t escape.

Fingernails

Director: Christos Nikou
Cast: Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White, Annie Murphy, Luke Wilson
Synopsis:  Anna and Ryan have found true love, and a controversial new technology proves it. There’s just one problem…Anna still isn’t sure. Then, she takes a position at a love testing institute and meets Amir.
Thoughts: There was a palpable excitement in the Princess of Wales Theatre before Fingernails held its International Premiere, and once Greek filmmaker Christos Nikou’s wistful sci-fi romance began, you could see why. The futuristic view of a love match and how we accept our mate starts strong, with Jessie Buckley, Jeremy Allen White, and Riz Ahmed all delivering wonderfully human(e) performances. It gets rocky in the second half when Buckley begins to question her match, and we begin to question why she’s making a fuss in the first place. Unsurprisingly, Nikou worked with Yorgos Lanthimos because this often feels like The Lobster for the McDonald’s crowd – easy to devour at the outset but gets greasy at the end. Fair warning: the entire premise of the picture is based on a test that is done by pulling out the, yep, fingernails of its subjects, and while the movie isn’t incredibly gory for the sake of being graphic, there are a few sequences that will have you cringing in horror as a nailbed gets ripped clean. The three leads are all doing admirably reflective work, and the role of the conflicted girlfriend, wondering if she should want more, seems to fit Buckley like a glove. I do wish Ahmed and White had pushed (or been written to push) their characters a bit further into some degree of decisiveness instead of making Buckley’s the only one that affects the action, but that’s also part of the reason Nikou’s script for Fingernails has drawn this love triangle with such sharp angles in the first place. Oh, and it’s got a killer soundtrack.

The King Tide

Director: Christian Sparkes
Cast: Alix West Lefler, Clayne Crawford, Frances Fisher, Aden Young, Lara Jean Chorostecki, Michael Greyeyes, Ryan McDonald, Ben Stranahan, Amelia Manuel, Cameron Nicoll, Kathryn Greenwood
Synopsis: Ten years after a child with miraculous gifts arrives at an isolated East Coast Island town, her adoptive parents must decide whether her safety is more important than their community’s prosperity.
Thoughts: Though the premise (mysterious infant child with mystical gifts washes up on the beach of a remote island fishing village) has all the makings of early Stephen King, The King Tide owes much to Shirley Jackson. Things get dark quickly as the town becomes more dependent on the girl and less inclined to let her leave…or anyone else enter. This TIFF23 world premiere from director Christian Sparkes is a Canadian-made gem, with gorgeous scenery giving it a real sense of place and isolation…making the situation that much more fraught the tighter Sparkes fixes his gaze on the danger in commodifying those we should be caring for. Exceptionally well cast with a mix of familiar faces and Canadian character actors, I especially warmed to the chilly Frances Fisher (also at the fest in Reptile), who is showing a continued verve for playing wicked women. Also finding a real groove in these slow-burn pictures is Clayne Crawford, who is nothing but confident charm as a conflicted father and mayor of the town. To its credit, it prefers to hold its cards close to its chest, never letting on how this might turn out. That allows the finale to catch you with breathless surprise, a haunting conclusion befitting an enigmatic tale told with an assured hand. I can see this one easily slipping by unnoticed because it may not have the name recognition or the flash, but it’s worth keeping track of for the artfully crafted screenplay and terrific performances.

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The TIFF Report, Vol 2

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His Three Daughters

Director: Azazel Jacobs
Cast: Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, Natasha Lyonne, Jay O. Sanders, Jovan Adepo
Synopsis: A tense, captivating, and touching portrait of family dynamics surrounding sisters who converge after their father’s health declines.
Thoughts: When I hear the words “film festival,” tight-quartered dramas dealing with fractured family dynamics are often the type of motion picture that comes to mind. No, really. There’s something about the potential for a hefty emotional impact of this pressure cooker environment that lends itself to the type of audience that would appreciate seeing this work first. The starker and rougher around the edges, the better; whatever gets to that raw center to expose the wound we all know exists in every family. His Three Daughters picks at that scab for much of its run time, with director Azazel Jacobs (French Exit) wisely balancing his screenplay with enough pleasant surprises that even a late-in-the-game big swing winds up working because what has come before is so strong.
A perfect match of director and actors, His Three Daughters features three outstanding performances from Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and especially Natasha Lyonne as sisters coming together during a beautifully brutal moment in their lives. Coon could have created this brittle and biting person in her sleep, yet she’s always fully alert and playing off the other two women. I’m not as high on Olsen as others have been in previous projects. Still, she finds a necessary neutral core as the Switzerland sister usually tasked with sending the other two off into their respective corners. Lyonne has been a scene-stealer for years, but she graduates to heartbreaker in her best performance on film.   Builds and builds to a powerhouse finale that will leave many viewers, myself included, exhausted but nonetheless better for the experience.

One Life

Director: James Hawes
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter, Jonathan Pryce, Johnny Flynn, Lena Olin, Romola Garai, Alex Sharp
Synopsis:  Follows British humanitarian Nicholas Winton, who helped save hundreds of Central European children from the Nazis on the eve of World War II. an act of compassion that was almost forgotten for 50 years.
Thoughts: In many ways, there’s a “what you see is what you get” feeling involved while watching One Life. I went into this film starring Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins expecting a pat retelling of the known honorable work Sir Nicholas Winton and others did to save children in Prague at the start of the Nazi rise. I found much of the movie to be a well-made, if artfully talky, Sunday matinee paint-by-numbers way of illustrating this effort, and the performances across the board were blessedly as solid as you would want them to be. However, I wasn’t prepared for the emotional gut punch of its final act. The movie works in one of the best last-inning rug pulls, one that doesn’t feel as emotionally manipulative as it likely is. Then, right as you’ve cleared away the first round of tears, first-time feature director James Hawes circles back with another wave to ensure no dry eye in the house by the time the credits roll. The film would be an impressive achievement in general on a technical level, but I can’t remember the last time we’ve had a true three-hanky weepie that you could feel good about later. This is the one.
One thing to note: Anyone reviewing this outside of its premiere at TIFF23 might have trouble, like me, separating the film from the experience of being in the audience. When the movie was over, Hawes came onstage to say a few words (while the audience continued to compose itself) and delivered another whopper. One of the children Winton had saved was in the audience, watching their story be told. Queue the third round of crying. Hawes then asked anyone else in the audience who was there today because of Winton and his team’s work, and another half dozen people stood up. Sustained applause during the lengthy standing ovation that followed was the biggest I’d heard at TIFF, and being in this audience, THIS audience will forever be etched in my movie-going memory. 

Days of Happiness

Director: Chloé Robichaud
Cast: Sophie Desmarais, Sylvain Marcel, Nour Belkhiria, Maude Guérin
Synopsis: A young orchestra conductor faces a crossroads in her life and career.
Thoughts: We should get the obvious out of the way as we begin. Yes, Days of Happiness shares some overlapping plot points with 2022’s Tár, and comparisons to it are, I suppose, inevitable. However, pitting the two films together would be unjust because they focus on two different female protagonists with separate intentions. Writer/Director Chloe Robichaud’s intimate and beautifully nuanced Days of Happiness tracks a young queer music conductor rallying against an oppressive father/manager and her history of pleasing others. Faced with diminishing prospects in staying the course with what is expected of her, she wants to expand into new areas but is discouraged by the people who should be offering support. Robichaud’s screenplay may plunk out a few clunky notes here and there and lacks the kind of sharp denouement audiences may be tapping their toes for, but it builds slowly to a stirring, lasting crescendo. Of note is a brilliant leading performance from Sophie Desmarais with solid support by Sylvain Marcel as her harsh dad & Nour Belkhiri playing her conflicted lover. As with Tár, another selling point is to hear stunning orchestral music conducted convincingly by the star, in this case performed by Quebec’s Orchestre Métropolitain onscreen, which we found out at a post-show discussion Desmarais toiled diligently on to learn the proper methods, gaining high praise and respect from her seasoned coach.

Quiz Lady

Director: Jessica Yu
Synopsis: A tightly wound, game show-obsessed woman must come together with her chaotic sister to help pay off their mother’s gambling debts.
Cast: Awkwafina, Sandra Oh, Jason Schwartzman, Holland Taylor, Tony Hale, Jon “Dumbfoundead” Park, Will Ferrell
Thoughts: There’s a broad appeal to this very broad comedy written by Jenn D’Angelo (Hocus Pocus 2), but it sadly doesn’t showcase either Awkwafina or Sandra Oh operating at the top of their game. True, there are enough moments in Jessica Yu’s film that give both women opportunities to play outside their comfort zone, but neither look settled in this new space. Oh comes across as really swinging for the cheap seats and whiffing it…yet she never embarrasses herself like other actresses could have. There’s a bit of a desperation in Oh’s desire to break out of her usual role, and it’s admirable, but paired with Awkwafina, it feels misaligned. Awkwafina fares better, but I didn’t ever fully buy her as a person so withdrawn or reserved.
I’m going to toss a late-breaking curveball your way. Here are two reasons why I will tell you to 100% see Quiz Lady. The first is for Ferrell giving one of his least Ferrell-y performances and nailing it. As the host of the quiz show Anne idolizes, he has a Fred Rogers charm that isn’t phony or played for laughs. There’s a moment when Terry and Anne get 1:1 time that’s some of the best onscreen work Ferrell has ever done. The second is for a cameo appearance near the end that will get most viewers who grew up in the ’80s a little misty. That it involves national treasure Holland Taylor’s (Bombshell) crotchety next-door neighbor character is even better. Genuine feeling goes a long way, though it can seem at odds with a comedy that often takes on problems it can’t fully solve.
Full Review Here

Lee

Director: Ellen Kuras
Cast: Kate Winslet, Josh O’Connor, Andy Samberg, Alexander Skarsgard, Marion Cotillard, Andrea Riseborough
Synopsis:  A fascinating portrait of the great American war correspondent Lee Miller, whose singular talent and ferocious tenacity gave us some of the 20th century’s most indelible images.
Thoughts: It’s frustrating to realize there’s no good way to go about a biopic. No magic formula will make one life more interesting than the next. It’s all about how you find your way into this life and if you can successfully illustrate the world they impacted. While this biography of American war correspondent Lee Miller has a standard entry point (subject relates their story to a captive listener) and a script so musty theaters should come with dehumidifiers, it’s how director Ellen Kuras moves these pieces around that gives Lee its critical energy. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that it has Oscar-winner Kate Winslet and her unimpeachable star power that will easily help to sell Lee to the masses. Winslet is terrific as the model turned photographer turned war photojournalist, throwing herself passionately into the role but never losing herself entirely. You always see Winslet’s bright eyes bringing Miller to life (the actress looks strikingly like Miller), and her investment gives everyone around her a reason to shine as well. The supporting cast of familiar faces, some appearing for one or two scene cameos, are intriguing. Notable standouts include Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie) as the editor of British Vogue, who sent Miller on assignment to Normandy, and Andy Samberg (Hotel Transylvania), who turned in a commendable performance as another journalist who accompanied Lee on her exploits and carried a torch for her. I did appreciate that there was more to the structure of Lee than initially met the eye, and the final reveal worked for me when I expect it may seem trivial to others. Still, Lee has stuck with me longer than I might have thought it would, and while it may not turn out to be the prestige-y awards contender its filmmakers hope it will be, I do believe it will (re)introduce the world to Miller and the vital work she conducted.

Mother, Couch

Director: Niclas Larsson
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Rhys Ifans, Taylor Russell, Ellen Burstyn, Lara Flynn Boyle, F. Murray Abraham
Synopsis: Three estranged children come together when their mother refuses to move from a couch in a furniture store.
Thoughts: I’ll admit that I expected to come out of Mother, Couch ready to write a review about Lara Flynn Boyle and how nice it was to see her back on screen after a long absence. I’m still high on Boyle after all these years (raise your hand if you still like Poltergeist III….no?), but she’s less of a factor in Mother, Couch than I was hoping to see, not that there isn’t plenty going on in this absurdist comedy to begin with. The cast alone (Ewan McGregor, Rhys Ifans, Taylor Russell, Ellen Burstyn, Boyle, and F. Murray Abraham) for Mother, Couch should attract attention. Still, the film has an uphill battle to keep a viewer focused on its critical message of parenting, living a flawed life, and letting go of what’s broken. I would best describe this as a mixture of mother! and Beau is Afraid, two movies that will likely scare more than a few of you reading this. If you like either of these films, you’ll buy into Larsson’s strange story of a man’s journey through hell during one day of furniture shopping with his family. It’s all a metaphor for the circle of life and how we become the parent to our parent at some point, yada yada yada, but it’s intent on being as weird as possible becomes fascinating after a while. McGregor is doing spectacular work here, capably handling the bizarre turns Larsson throws in, and I loved seeing Burstyn cast so deliciously against type. Often showing up as a calming peacekeeper, she’s a chilly antagonist here in a platinum wig (with a flip!) that gradually lets it be known what she thinks of her children in emotionless detail. This will not be everyone’s cup of herbal tea; it requires a bit more caffeine to get through a long middle stretch that feels like it’s treading water, but the finale is a Big Fish-y reminder that as much combat as we engage in with our parents, we have a responsibility to them in the end. 

The End We Start From

Director: Mahalia Belo
Cast: Jodie Comer, Joel Fry, Katherine Waterston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Gina McKee
Synopsis: A new mother, her partner, and their infant are driven out of London into the English countryside by cataclysmic flooding in this adaptation of Megan Hunter’s prophetic bestseller.
Thoughts:  For all its bells and whistles, I was expecting a bit more heft to this adaptation of Megan Hunter’s novel from 2017, The End We Start From. Hunter set up a doozy of a real-world feeling situation with a modern-day ecological crisis of Biblical proportions (massive flooding) wiping out much of London and lower-ground areas worldwide. Those who survived the initial destruction depend on finding shelter and food from the waste while fending off fellow scavengers who know the supply is limited. It’s during this frightening time that the pregnant leading character, identified only as Mother (Comer), gives birth and has to fight for the lives of both her and her newborn. Despite an unsurprisingly stalwart performance from Jodie Comer, the film, from first-time feature director Mahalia Belo, comes off like The Last of How We Live Now on The Impossible Road. Apocalyptic occurrences acting as catalysts are overdone without a creative edge for justification. It’s all so bleak and depressing, with Comer the one bright spot that stands out amongst the small cast. Muddy dialogue (maybe the sound mix was off?) kept characters at a distance, and even a slight turn from producer Benedict Cumberbatch couldn’t shake the film out of its expected path forward. This is not to say that director Mahalia Belo hasn’t crafted a good-looking movie that shows assured confidence, just one that we’ve seen done better in its previous similarly themed iterations. If it feels like more of a vehicle for Comer to show the type of range we already know she can muster, I would count The End We Start From as a modest success but not one that demands certain attention.   

Seven Veils

Director: Atom Egoyan
Cast:  Amanda Seyfried, Rebecca Liddiard, Douglas Smith, Mark O’Brien, Vinessa Antoine
Synopsis:  A young theatre director is forced to re-examine her own trauma while working on a remount of Salome.
Thoughts:  Celebrated Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan has worked for nearly forty years in the business and has amassed many awards for his character-driven, narratively complex works. None of them are expressly commercial, and when there is a hit (1997’s The Sweet Hereafter is likely the best example, netting him his only Oscar nominations), it’s often more of a critical darling than a box-office bonanza. My appreciation for him is quantified. For every film that fascinates me, there are three that I can’t embrace fully…or perhaps can’t get my tiny brain around. Also an acclaimed director in theater and opera, Egoyan’s new film Seven Veils blurs the line between both mediums to varying degrees of success.
The good stuff first. It was terrific to see Egoyan introduce the world premiere of Seven Veils, collaborating with, among others, the Canadian Opera Company, where he recently directed the production of Salome featured heavily in the film. And the singing by true opera talent was breathtaking. Unfortunately, despite a few arresting sequences of visual brilliance, Egoyan’s latest drama is a stark reminder that not everything can be molded into a psychoanalytic exercise. Amanda Seyfried is a dependable actress but completely miscast in her role as written.   Playing a young director enlisted to remount an opera originally staged by her former mentor with whom she shared a fuzzy history, Seyfried feels too young for the directing job and the role in general. Don’t even get me started on all the weird “that never happens” incidents during the rehearsal process, further taking any sense of reality/urgency out of the picture. Drop the curtain quickly on this one – it’s a flop.

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Movie Review ~ Murder Mystery 2

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The Facts:

Synopsis: Full-time detectives Nick and Audrey struggle to get their private eye agency off the ground. They find themselves at the center of international abduction when their friend Maharaja, is kidnapped at his lavish wedding.
Stars: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Mark Strong, Mélanie Laurent, Jodie Turner-Smith, John Kani, Kuhoo Verma, Enrique Arce, Zurin Villanueva, Dany Boon, Adeel Akhtar
Director: Jeremy Garelick
Rated: PG-13
Running Length: 89 minutes
TMMM Score: (5.5/10)
Review:  While it won’t ever be remembered as the most significant hit for either of them, 2011’s Just Go with It introduced undeniable screen chemistry for superstars Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. The slight comedy is one of the better in Sandler’s run of par-baked rom-coms that were wafer thin but brought in huge box office dollars, no doubt aided by Aniston’s dry delivery and a fun cameo from Nicole Kidman as a free spirit in paradise. So, it wasn’t a massive surprise the leads worked together again eight years later in the summer Netflix feature Murder Mystery.

Arriving at the right time for the film to be a success, the film found the A-listers as a married couple that reached a plateau in their relationship but found their groove once they became involved with international treachery on a European vacation. Farcically continuing to implicate themselves along the way, the duo became semi-sleuths while they evaded the authorities and narrowed down the villain from a diverse array of suspects. Beating the original Knives Out to the punch by a full five months, Murder Mystery gave audiences a taste of what they could expect from the return of the whodunit. It wasn’t grand entertainment, but it did entertain.

The way sequels get churned out nowadays, I’m surprised it took four years for Murder Mystery 2 to find its way onto Netflix. Still, here we are with another harmless romp from screenwriter James Vanderbilt (who wrote the new Scream and Scream VI in the interim) that takes a concerning while to re-establish its charm. Mired in fuddy-duddy exposition that weighs down the opening stretch, once we settle in, there’s little to keep Sandler and Aniston’s follow-up caper from winning us over by its breathless pace alone.

Returning home after putting their first case to rest, Audrey (Aniston, Office Christmas Party) and Nick (Sandler, Hotel Transylvania) decided to go into business for themselves and start a private detective agency. Years later, it’s not turning a profit, and the same marital issues are beginning to rise to the surface again. Good thing that their old friend, the Maharajah (Adeel Akhtar, Enola Holmes), calls to invite them to his island wedding, an all-expense paid trip they leave for immediately. The weekend affair will end with the Maharajah marrying the beautiful, but maybe suspicious?, Claudette (Mélanie Laurent, Oxygen). However, before they can exchange vows, the royal is abducted for ransom, and a dead body is left behind…the first of several cadavers of characters we’ll be introduced to. 

It’s not long before Nick and Audrey are on the run again, falsely incriminated in the nefarious plot by real-world technology involving deep fakes (hey, how about that recent picture of the Pope in a designer puffer jacket?) and finding themselves in the convex of double and triple crosses. Whom can they trust? A scheming Countess (Jodie Turner-Smith, Queen & Slim) and her sidekick (Zurin Villanueva, recently in MN as the lead in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical), a famous secret agent (Mark Strong, 1917), the Maharajah’s overlooked sister (Kuhoo Verma, The Big Sick) or head of security Colonel Ulenga (John Kani, Black Panther) who made a considerable sacrifice before for his boss?

New director Jeremy Garelick (The Wedding Ringer) takes over for Kyle Newacheck, resulting in a mixed bag of success.   The sequel feels on par with the first, eschewing the oft-told rules that say subsequent installments to a series must be more extensive and impressive. Fans will show up for the stars, not the intricate plot (if you can’t figure this one out, stay away from the complicated stylings of Matlock) or the impressive production design (Sandler and Aniston live in an apartment I swear Netflix has used in at least three other films they produced). Murder Mystery 2 is an ordinary sequel that gets everyone, including the audience, from Point A to Point B without too much trouble and then quietly says goodnight. Sometimes, that’s OK, and if you go in expecting another Knives Out film, you will be disappointed.     

Movie Review ~ Nocebo

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The Facts:

Synopsis: A fashion designer suffers from a mysterious illness that confounds her doctors and frustrates her husband – until help arrives in the form of a Filipino nanny who uses traditional folk healing to reveal a horrifying truth.
Stars: Eva Green, Mark Strong, Chai Fonacier, Billie Gadsdon
Director: Lorcan Finnegan
Rated: NR
Running Length: 96 minutes
TMMM Score: (7/10)
Review:  A lament I’ve plunked out here quite often is the downfall of the mid-range thrillers that were so easy to churn out in the late ‘80s through the mid-2000s.  Produced on a modest budget with dependable actors, these were popcorn-chomping date night fare that was good for a weekend or two in theaters before heating up the video store shelves months later.  With the advent of streaming services and more franchise-based entertainment, these one-shot efforts were pushed to the side when studios focused all their time and money on making their blockbusters break the bank.  It’s a bummer because we’ve seen in recent years filmmakers and screenwriters that know their damsel in distress from their woman fights back scenario and their nightmare stalkers from their killer nannies. 

The new Irish-Filipino psychological thriller Nocebo is just that kind of easy-to-digest thriller that you can imagine would play as well in 1997, starring Kim Basinger as it does in 2022 with Eva Green (Cracks) in the lead.  Directed by Lorcan Finnegan (Vivarium) from a script by Garret Shanley, it’s solid entertainment that may have shocks up its sleeve but has more on its mind than cheap tricks and sordid plot details.  Nocebo has a rather intriguing thread to follow along with, and it rewards those who stick close and will keep its secrets until the end.

Children’s fashion designer Christine (Green) has a good thing going with a busy life in Ireland.  Her home is desirable, her husband Felix (Mark Strong, The Imitation Game) is successful in his own business, and her daughter Roberta “Bobs” (Billie Gadson, Cruella) is at that pre-adolescent phase where she’s coming into her own.  On the eve of her latest launch at a tony shopping center, a mysterious phone call brings terrible news that we won’t know the full details until later.  At the same time, a ghostly mutt appears riddled with ticks in the pristine shop, and one winds up burrowing into Christine’s neck.  It’s the start of months of debilitating sickness and night terrors for Christine, leaving her incapacitated and unable to work.

When she does decide to muster all her strength and rise above the illness her doctors can’t pinpoint, she finds that she still doesn’t yet have the stamina.  A knock on the door reveals Diana (Chai Fonacier), sent from the agency at Christine’s request (she can’t remember calling, but…her memory has been spotty), who quickly takes control of the household and Christine’s well-being.  Tossing out the mountain of medications prescribed by her doctors in favor of remedies she’s brought from her homeland, Diana can help Christine into health.  Her husband isn’t convinced Diana is the saint she wants them to think she is, and the more they rely on her, the stronger her influence becomes. 

Finnegan and Shanley expertly keep Diana’s secrets hidden just out of sight for much of Nocebo’s swift running time, almost until the final scene when all is revealed.  It’s a satisfying response to the questions we’ve been jotting down throughout.  Helping to sell it is the terrific performance of Fonacier as a maybe villain with her side of the story to tell before the night is through.  It may become apparent what’s happening and why early on.  Still, try to keep the advanced puzzler in your mind at bay and enjoy how it all develops. I promise there’s something interesting happening that has some decent stakes for everyone involved.  When you’re working with a small cast like this, and they are giving it their dazzling all (Green, as usual, approaches Christine in an atypical fashion), it’s exciting to witness.

Movie Review ~ TÁR

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The Facts:

Synopsis: Set in the international world of Western classical music, an exceptionally detailed portrait of a Promethean artist eventually hoisted on her own petard
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner, Mark Strong
Director: Todd Field
Rated: R
Running Length: 158 minutes
TMMM Score: (9/10)
Review: The power is in the approach. Knowing Tár was created by writer/director Todd Field for Cate Blanchett helps to clear away all of the discussions going in and analysis after the fact centered around phrases that begin “If Tár were told from a male perspective,” or “Had Tár been played as a male.” Homing in on Field’s intent to tell and expressly communicate this perspective gives weight to his film, making it unique among his contemporaries. Further, it elevates the work Blanchett and her costars are doing.

It’s essential to keep this in mind when considering a viewing of Tár because it’s not one to be taken lightly. A commitment to focus on the words, sounds, and textures brought forth by the production will produce the maximum return for the viewer. I can understand why there’s been such a concerted effort to get critics into theaters to see it on the most iant screen possible, too. Like the top blockbuster, this is Cinema (yes, that’s with a capital “C”) but one that throws you for a loop in different ways than you could imagine.

The moment we enter the world of the film, it’s very good to be Lydia Tár. The first-ever female chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, she’s an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony-winning composer (one of the select few living EGOTs), author, teacher, shrewd businesswoman, and connoisseur of the finer things in life. She’s also an ego-driven narcissist who indulges in affairs with younger women while her partner looks the other way back home in Germany. Stringing along a devoted protégé with promises of a shot at becoming her assistant conductor, she’s not-so-secretly unwilling to let other women down the path she blazed.

As she prepares the Berlin musicians to record a final piece by Mahler during a period of heightened stress, her personal and professional life collides and begins to crumble. Accusations of impropriety, forever embedded in the public consciousness after the #MeToo movement, begin to follow her and eat away at the glass castle she’s formed around an empire that hasn’t come without tremendous sacrifice. Genius turns to obsession, and control becomes an unwieldy creature she can’t tame or keep time with.

If I’m being sincere, I found Tár to be hard to access for much of its first hour, and I started to worry that all of the good notices I’d heard had been the result of group festival fever. I’ll love Blanchett in whatever she does, but there’s a robotic emptiness to Lydia Tár at the beginning caught me off guard. Field runs the closing credits at the start of the film, purposely highlighting the art and artists involved first. That’s close to four minutes of blackness followed by an exposition of Lydia’s career backstory, delivered via an onstage interview with Adam Gopnick (the real one) from the New Yorker. Feeling more recitative than performative, Blanchett’s Tár was going to be a tough nut to crack.

After sitting with the movie long after it ended, you realize how intentional all of this is, how Lydia has given these same answers countless times, been asked about similar sources of inspiration, or her career trajectory. Reserving her personal life as her own, she saves the warmth and varied intonation of her speaking for those she deems worthy. As viewers, we know this because we see it over the next two hours. It’s in her tender moments with Sharon (Nina Hoss, The Contractor) and their daughter (Mila Bogojevic). It’s the small kindness she offers as a reward to assistant Francesca (Noémie Merlant, Portrait of a Lady on Fire), and it’s in the flirtatious edge she imparts toward a new cellist (Sophie Kauer) that becomes a distraction and consequence on every other relationship she’s juggling.

Unsurprisingly, Blanchett (Nightmare Alley) is magnificent, and the role is another feather she can add to a cap ready to take flight by this point. The film reaches its peak slightly before she does, so we’re left to enjoy the afterburn of her work almost as an extended epilogue. Few actresses could hold onto an audience in this way, and it’s a credit to Blanchett that she does. As towering as Blanchett is, Hoss contributes mesmerizing work as her better half. It’s a quiet performance that’s scant on dialogue, but Hoss does so much with her silent expressions that an entire conversation often happens between the two actresses absent of speech.

At close to three hours, Tár is a bundle-up and hunker-down experience that is rewarding for more than just the art house crowd or those with a subscription to the symphony. It’s for anyone that has followed the political landscape of the last five years and is invested in future change. Eagle-eyed viewers will also spot several visual cues Field and cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister (Antlers) have included. Tiny slivers of fractions of glances that let you inside Lydia’s mind. I’ll see the film again for that alone to catch what I missed.

Movie Review ~ Cruella

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The Facts:

Synopsis: Penniless and orphaned in London at twelve, four years later Estella runs wild through the city streets with her best friends and partners-in-(petty)-crime. When a chance encounter vaults Estella into the world of the rich and famous, however, she begins to question the existence she’s built for herself in London and wonders whether she might, indeed, be destined for more after all.

Stars: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Mark Strong, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, Emily Beecham, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Jamie Demetriou, John McCrea, Abraham Popoola

Director: Craig Gillespie

Rated: PG-13

Running Length: 134 minutes

TMMM Score: (8/10)

Review: As a lifelong fan of all things Disney, I must admit a certain coolness toward the canine adventures found in 1961’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians.  Based on the 1956 novel by Dodie Smith, the animated film has remained a popular title for the studio, despite having one of the most blatantly vicious villains.  A live-action remake in 1996 was just the juicy bit of rawhide star Glenn Close could sink her teeth into playing that very villainess, Cruella de Vil. So though the character still wanted puppies to make a Dalmatian coat of her own, Close’s performance somehow made Cruella less frightening and instead amped the camp.  The less said about the ill-advised 2000 sequel, the better, and you really don’t want a deep dive into the disastrous 2009 musical with its eye on Broadway that premiered in my hometown but closed on the road before the real dogs in the show had a chance to grow up and age out.

Where to go from there?  The remake had been done, the musicalization was donzo, but with Cruella still getting a fairly good reception whenever she turned up in Disney theme park shows or in television on the Disney-owned ABC’s Once Upon a Time it was clear audiences were somewhat keen to see her show up at the party.  After the success of Maleficent and its sequel, how about running old de Vil through the origin story factory and see what pops out?  To me, this sounded like an idea for the birds, not the dogs.  While Maleficient’s journey toward cursing a princess to eternal slumber might lend itself to a bit of Disney magic, where was the fun in finding out how a skunk-haired meanie developed her admiration for fur and luxury canine couture?  Not even bringing on I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie or two Oscar winning Emmas felt like it would do the trick.

Well, like a style guru who must capitulate that a checkerboard print does indeed work for all seasons, I have to say that Cruella is an absolute delight and one of Walt Disney Studios most confidently unique offerings in recent memory.  To take a villain many lovers of Disney’s animated oeuvre outright despise is a bold move to begin with, but to give her the kind of genesis the writers have (granted, it took five of them) is a wonder in and of itself.  Add to that a cast of actors that sparkle at rest and shine in action and you’re off to the races with a film that operates at full tilt for much of it’s 134-minute run time. 

An older Cruella narrates her early years when she was called Estella and Cruella was merely the name for her dark side that came out when she felt threatened or got into mischief.  Though she tries her best, Estella can’t always keep her bad side from taking over and that’s why she and her mother have to leave another school in a small village outside London and head back to the city, but not before a late-night stop at an imposing manor hosting a costume ball.  Here is where Estella takes her first steps toward life on her own and how she winds up roaming the streets of London alone, eventually meeting young pickpocket street urchins Jasper and Horace who welcome her into their makeshift home.

Years later the gang is grown-up but still at it, though Estella (Emma Stone, The Favourite) longs for a life that stimulates her passion for fashion.  Though some fancy footwork Jasper (Joel Fry, In the Earth) and Horace (Paul Walter Hauser, Songbird) get her in the front door for an elite department store that sells clothes by The Baroness (Emma Thompson, Late Night), London’s most chic designer.  True, it’s a janitorial job…but it’s something.  A series of right time/right place events occur, leading Estella and The Baroness to cross paths with Estella eventually joining her fashion house as their youngest designer with cutting edge ideas.  However, as she quickly learns, the demanding job comes with a price…and a very wicked boss.  Soon, an old friend Estella had locked away comes roaring back and this time Cruella isn’t going to play second fiddle to her better self. 

One need only look at the screenwriters for Cruella and a lot of what transpires in the film begins to make sense.  Writer Aline Brosh McKenna is best known for adapting The Devil Wears Prada in 2006 and there are quite a number of parallels between Cruella and that blockbuster.  There’s more than a little of that Miranda Priestly bite from Prada in Thompson’s The Baroness, though Thompson is handed even more rapid-fire one-liners and small bits of physicality that drive home her sting.  Make certain of this, Miranda Priestly is no match for The Baroness.  Then you have Steve Zissis, a long-time friend and collaborator with the Duplass brothers who are known for their quirky approach to filmmaking and fleshing out characters.  That’s evident in the supporting characters of Cruella, with a number of the secondary players far more developed than they normally would be in these types of films.  That’s how Fry, Hauser, and even Mark Strong (Shazam!) as the stoic right-hand man for The Baroness are able to sneak in and steal some small moments here and there.  Finally, Kelly Marcell worked with Thompson in 2013’s Saving Mr. Banks so she knows how to write caustic one-liners for the actress and also bravely adapted the screenplay for 2015’s Fifty Shades of Grey.  This experience no doubt helps with a little of that duality found in the Estella/Cruella scenes, chiefly near the film’s finale when Stone gets quite the scene that would be an 11 o’clock number if it was set to music.

Speaking of Stone, while I’ve found the actress successful in fits and spurts over the years (I still don’t agree with that Best Actress Oscar win, though, sorry!) she’s a fabulous choice to bring this classic personality to live-action life.  In her early scenes, she’s appropriately green and goofball but the more she learns of the game she has to play to get ahead, the faster she comes into focus with self-confidence.  I was nervous when her adult Cruella side first appeared because the shift is admittedly jarring, and Stone’s interpretation of Cruella’s upper-crust purr is more broad comedy than the sophisticatedly arch tones the rest of the film has been playing with.  Anything would be jostling next to Thompson though, who plays the role so brittle you expect her to crack into shards to shred anyone in her wake at any moment.  In a more creative climate, this kind of role would win Thompson an award, but the character is probably too soulless to be rewarded.

Knowing it was well over two hours going in, I tried to find places where director Gillespie might have trimmed things up, but I’m at a loss to say what could go that wouldn’t do damage to other structural parts of the story.  While it has a fairly large climax halfway through, the energy of the movie never dips.  Besides, with a driving score by Nicholas Britell (If Beale Street Could Talk), wonderful production design from Fiona Crombie (Macbeth), and stunning costumes courtesy of 2-time Oscar winner Jenny Beavan (Mad Max: Fury Road), there’s little reason to ever be bored – there is always something to take in.  I’d have liked to see a little less digital work in the outdoor scenes but seeing that much of Cruella was filmed on a soundstage, this was obviously unavoidable.

Parents, take note that Cruella rated PG-13 and it’s for a reason.  I’d wager it’s one of the darkest films ever released under the Walt Disney Studios logo (i.e., not Touchstone, Hollywood Films, etc) but I’m glad nothing seemed to be truly, uh, neutered.  The darker parts are meant for a more mature child, likely the ones already watching Disney Channel works that have a similar feel, like The Descendants.  If you’re one of those people that get hung up on the “dog coat” of it all, try to remember this is Disney we’re talking about.  It’s important going in to try your best to separate this movie from the 1956 film and its remake, don’t put this one in the doghouse on principle alone.  If you do, you’re going to mess a heck of a fun ride. This is a highly enjoyable endeavor, well worth the cost of renting it for a family night on Disney+ with Premier Access.

Movie Review ~ 1917

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The Facts:

Synopsis: Two young British privates during the First World War are given an impossible mission: deliver a message deep in enemy territory that will stop 1,600 men, and one of the soldier’s brothers, from walking straight into a deadly trap.

Stars: Dean-Charles Chapman, George MacKay, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch

Director: Sam Mendes

Rated: R

Running Length: 119 minutes

Trailer Review: Here

TMMM Score: (10/10)

Review: As we come to the end of the second decade of the 21st century, many have been looking back at the past ten years in movies and musing on how the medium has evolved.  Could we have predicted ten years ago that a service that used to deliver DVDs by mail would become a heavy-hitter film studio producing movies that are becoming more and more friendly with Oscar?  Would we know that the biggest hits in the end-of-the-year box office tally would be dominated by franchise pictures and the mid-budgeted flicks that kept theaters packed in the ’90s would largely be wiped out?  Even the way we watch movies has changed from having to physically go to the video store to nowadays when we can view thousands of choices at the press of a button.   What hasn’t changed is the process of getting out of your house, battling traffic, and sitting shoulder to shoulder with others to have a shared experience of movie-going.  Sure, the seats are reserved now and more comfortable (and heated!) than your chairs at home but there’s no comparison to being in a cinema seeing a movie on the big screen.

Films about the first World War aren’t as common as those set in WWII (like 2019’s Midway), Vietnam (2015’s documentary Last Days in Vietnam), or in more recent wars that still play a large part in our daily news headlines.  The Peter Jackson-produced documentary They Shall Not Grow Old was a staggering piece of filmmaking using real footage from the first World War but for me it wasn’t able to overcome some narrative challenges that were almost unavoidable considering the approach.  That’s why the imminent arrival of movie like 1917 is so exciting to me.  Here’s a large scale war film that, overdone as the genre may be, strives to be something unique and not just because of its well-publicized “one-shot” cinematography.

By 1917, the “war to end all wars” had been going on for four years and had claimed thousands of casualties.  Shortly after the German armies had retreated from their trenches in France, officials received intel the German drawback from their enemies was a well-set trap and now a British battalion of over 1,500 men was walking straight into an ambush.  Two soldiers, Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman, Blinded by the Light) and Schofield (George MacKay, How I Live Now) are called up and tasked with delivering news of this ensnarement to the front lines before men are sent to a slaughter they are unaware of.  Though the stakes are already sky high for the British forces, the importance of success is even greater for Blake because his brother is in the company that will be sent out on the attack first, facing certain death.  The two young men set off on a breathless mission through enemy territory that will bring them up through idyllic countryside that masks hidden dangers and enemy-built trenches designed to slow their progress.

Based partly on the recollections of his grandfather, director Sam Mendes (Skyfall) co-wrote 1917 with Krysty Wilson-Cairns and the two have crafted a corker of a war movie that hits the ground running and doesn’t offer much reprieve over 119 minutes.  That forward motion is largely a direct result of Mendes working with Oscar-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049) to shoot the entirety of the picture as if it was one long interrupted take.  Without these obvious moments of cuts, the effect on a viewer is something akin to a relentless rollercoaster with moments of flattened cruising that are small respites to harrowing drops and spins.  It’s clear there are moments when Deakins had to cut to use a different camera but aside from a few obvious splices they are hidden so well you’d have to be focused solely on finding these moments to really see them.

Utilizing state-of-the-art technique, “how’d they do that” camera moves, and lighting nighttime scenes to increase their intensity tenfold, it could have been easy for the movie to become all about this trickery but thankfully everyone involved doesn’t let the technology overshadow the story.  Mendes helps this along with the casting of Chapman and especially MacKay as the young men on a mission who risk their lives to get their message into the right hands.  Chapman’s bravado at the outset hides the fear of arriving too late to save his brother while the more world-weary MacKay has his eyes further opened as he encounters civilians and other troops along the way.  The two aren’t totally familiar faces to audiences and that works to the advantage of the immediacy and “anything can happen” created by their mission.  The inclusion of more known names/faces such as Mark Strong (Shazam!), Andrew Scott (Victor Frankenstein), Richard Madden (Rocketman), Colin Firth (Magic in the Moonlight), and Benedict Cumberbatch (Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch) could be seen as a distraction but all play their roles succinctly without much preening for the camera.

This is really a boffo film that knocked my socks off.  I’m not usually so enamored of movies about the war but there’s something in the humanity on display from Mendes and Wilson-Cairns that moved me on a whole other level.  Aside from the jaw-dropping filming from Deakins that is truly incredible (if he doesn’t win the Oscar this year, I’d be stunned) there is rarely a frame that feels out of place or extraneous.  While some war movies can drag on and be a punishing sit, 1917 uses its running time wisely by never letting the characters (or the audience) rest too much.  As I watched the film I became conscious that I was holding my breath for a few reasons.  First off, the tension created was so spot-on and could only be achieved by a filmmaker who knows what he’s doing.  The second is that I didn’t want this spell to be broken and for Mendes and his team to make a misstep.  Thankfully, I believe Mendes achieved the mission he set out for and 1917 is one of the very best movies of the year.

The Silver Bullet ~ 1917

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Synopsis: Two young British soldiers during the First World War, are given an impossible mission: deliver a message, deep in enemy territory, that will stop their own men, and Blake’s own brother, from walking straight into a deadly trap.

Release Date:  December 25, 2019

Thoughts: Every year around this time it becomes pretty clear who the Oscar front runners are and the pundits start to put their ballots together with ballpoint pen.  There’s always those last slots they keep open, though, for the movies that don’t screen until very late in the season and that’s where a movie like 1917 will play a big factor.  Last time I checked, no one had seen this World War I film from Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes (Skyfall) yet and that’s fairly unheard of in mid-November.  That creates a bit of an electric excitement because there’s hope this could be a game changer and knock a few sure things off their paths to Oscar gold.  Paired again with the legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins (who finally won an Academy Award for Blade Runner 2049) and supposedly shot to look like it was filmed in one continuous take, Mendes appears to have something fairly mighty on his hands and history buffs are hoping 1917 can succeed where another anticipated war film like 2017’s Dunkirk couldn’t and snag some top prizes come year end.

Movie Review ~ Shazam!

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The Facts:

Synopsis: We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s case, by shouting out one word – SHAZAM! – this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult superhero Shazam.

Stars: Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Grace Fulton, Faithe Herman, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand, Cooper Andrews, Marta Milans, Adam Brody, Djimon Hounsou

Director: David F. Sandberg

Rated: PG-13

Running Length: 132 minutes

TMMM Score: (8/10)

Review: Those poor souls over at Warner Brothers/DC Comics were likely looking at 2019 and feeling crestfallen at their prospects. With three highly anticipated Marvel films set for release and their Wonder Woman sequel pushed back to 2020, it must have felt like any hopes of getting another foothold in their franchise ladder weren’t going to happen. I’m not sure how much faith they had in Shazam! at the outset but they should have pumped this one up a bit more than they did. Sure, I saw the preview more times than I needed to before other films but going into the movie I wasn’t expecting anything vastly different than the soulless offerings they’ve been churning out in the past decade.

Thankfully, it seems like they may have stumbled onto something good.

Foster kid Billy Baston (Asher Angel) has found himself on the wrong side of the law for the last time when he is apprehended after obtaining information from a police database. He’d been attempting to find his mother after they were separated when he was a toddler and hasn’t given up hope that she’s out there and is looking for him as well. Taken in by another foster family that already boasts a diverse line-up of kids in similar family situations, Billy bides his time until he can run away again to continue his search.

When he’s mysteriously brought to the temple of an aging Wizard (Djimon Hounsou, Serenity) tasked with guarding the seven deadly sins, he absorbs the fading Wizard’s magic and turns into a buff superhero (Zachary Levi, Thor: The Dark World) anytime he says the Wizard’s name: Shazam. Unware of the extent of his newfound powers, Billy has the mind of a teenager in the body of a mature adult and at first doesn’t exactly use his upgrades for good. Though he runs through some trials of his abilities with his foster brother (Jack Dylan Grazer, IT), he starts to be the kind of hero that’s only looking out for himself instead of assisting others.

He’s put to the ultimate test when Sivana (Mark Strong, The Imitation Game) enters the picture. Obsessed with finding the temple of the Seven Wizards that he too visited as a young child, the grown man eventually makes his way back to the hidden dwelling and frees the sins from their prison. Now being used as their vessel for evil, Sivana sets his sights on taking the Wizard’s power from Shazam (who has become something of a local Philadelphia celebrity) and eliminating everyone he loves.

If there’s one thing that’s been sorely missing from the DC slate of superhero movies it’s a sense of humor and finally the stiff suits at the studio backed up and let wiser talents guide this process – and it’s largely successful. Though the previous credits for screenwriters Henry Gayden (Earth to Echo) and Darren Lemke (Goosebumps) might not have suggested they’d be the right choices to bring Bill Parker and C.C. Beck’s superhero to the big screen, Shazam! is a welcome change of pace from the darker-hued adventure films the studio has been greenlighting. Adding director David F. Sandberg (Lights Out, Annabelle: Creation) was another inspired choice as he’s nicely able to balance the lighter/more comedic elements of the plot with the darker edges supplied by Sivana.

Sandberg has cast the film well starting with Levi as our hero that becomes more than the sum of his bulging muscles and caped suit. Seeing that he’s actually a teen given awesome powers, Levi might overplay the sarcasm and wise-cracks a bit early on but it provides him a place to jump off from as he grows into a more responsible hero and a more understanding teenager. He has a nice rapport with Grazer and his other foster siblings, adding some layers to a character that could easily have been pretty one-dimensional. The villain role doesn’t seem to be much of a stretch for Strong at this point and while he’s perfectly fine in the part it would have been nice to see it played by someone a little less expected. It’s just too easy for Strong to slide into these wicked characters by now.

While it’s a good 10-15 minutes too long, spending unearned time with Sivana and following Levi through perhaps a few too many blunders, Sandberg and the screenwriters manage to introduce a late breaking twist that I found pretty delightful and nicely inclusive. Buoyed by strong performances by the child actors (a rarity these days) and a nice dose of humor and creativity, Shazam! is a fun right turn from the careening curve DC studios couldn’t pull out of.

Movie Review ~ Miss Sloane

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miss_sloane
The Facts:

Synopsis: In the world of political power-brokers, Sloane takes on the most powerful opponent of her career and will do whatever is required to win.

Stars: Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alison Pill, Jake Lacy, Sam Waterston, John Lithgow

Director: John Madden

Rated: R

Running Length: 132 minutes

TMMM Score: (7/10)

Review: Miss Sloane is a timely political drama that has a stacked deck in its cinematic favor.  An Oscar nominated director and multi-award winning actors have been brought together with mostly good, but never great, results.  While that may sound like the movie overall is a disappointment considering the pedigree in front of and behind the camera, it has enough energy to rise above the scenes that enervate its forward motion.

Jessica Chastain (The Martian) plays the titular character, a sought-after D.C. lobbyist as ruthless in her pursuit of winning as she is about making sure her flame red hair is always tucked neatly behind one ear.  (At one point, I doubted she had two ears since we never saw the other).  As the film opens, Sloane is about to go before a congressional hearing to defend herself over accusations of impropriety, charges that could, if convicted, carry a lengthy term in prison.  Showing how the sleep-averse Sloane got into her current hot seat is what occupies most of the picture, tracing her path from a plum job at a high powered conservative lobbying firm to a grassroots boutique agency opposing a gun bill.

The parallels to David and Goliath are evident as Sloane and her recruits take on the big boys who begin to care more about derailing her than they do about pushing through their political agenda.  Sloane isn’t afraid to go up against her former employers, even if they already may know exactly what her next unscrupulous move will be.  Brief forays into high tech spy surveillance (what’s being done with cockroaches might make a PETA supporter reconsider squashing them on sight) and peeks into the upper pill popping Sloane’s personal affairs via clandestine meetings with a kindly gigolo (Jake Lacy, Love the Coopers) thankfully break up the heavier moments with stale political rhetoric being recited expertly by Chastain and the rest of the cast.

The script from first-timer Jonathan Perera is very of the moment, even if it plays like the pilot of a new HBO series.  If you listen carefully, the entirety of the twists the film has in store are given away by one character within the first ten minutes but it’s buried so well by Perera that you don’t notice it until you’re walking to your car.  Director John Madden (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) maneuvers his actors well and keeps the film moving at a nice clip but at 132 minutes there’s probably a good ten to fifteen minutes that could be jettisoned in favor of a tighter running time.  While some may accuse the film of cheating in its final act, I’ll again point to Perera outright telling us what’s going to happen and then delivering on it.

As much as I like Chastian, I have to say that for the first twenty minutes of Miss Sloane I wasn’t sure what the hell she was doing.  Showing a ballbuster temperament on the surface without going very deep, I got worried that Chastain was using this as an exercise in overacting instead of layering in her performance.  Eventually, though, the actress tuned in and that’s when the film really starts to zip along.  Like the best complex characters, there’s not a lot of backstory given to how Sloane came to be how she is and that makes her one of the more interesting characters to show up in film this year.  The race for a Best Actress nomination is a tight one and Chastain might just find herself as one of the five nominees.

Supporting Chastain is Mark Strong (Zero Dark Thirty) as Sloane’s boss at her new firm and Sam Waterson (The Man in the Moon) as her previous employer who sets his sights on destroying her completely.  Waterston may have more hair on his eyebrows than Strong has on his whole body but Strong easily bests Waterston performance-wise by underplaying expertly.  You can’t totally fault Waterston, though, because the first half of the film finds many characters shouting at each other…guess no one in Washington knows how to use their inside voices.  Though I’m a fan of Michael Stuhlbarg (Doctor Strange), his terribly old-school New Yawhk accent only made me detest his already detestable character more.  Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Beauty and the Beast) and moon faced Alison Pill (Hail, Caesar!) are the lone prominent female roles and both are afforded showcasing scenes.  As the head of the congressional committee cross examining Sloane, John Lithgow (Interstellar) is his usual blustery self.

At the center of Miss Sloane is a debate over gun control that continues to be a hot button issue in this increasingly political climate.  Even as a work of fiction, Miss Sloane makes some interesting points about the current state of affairs regarding the NRA and the landscape of big business in our nation’s capital.  In setting out to tell this story, Perera and the cast aptly keep the conversation going without letting the movie be solely about that important issue.

An intelligent, well-read picture, Miss Sloane may be overstuffed and take some time to let its actress find her way but it winds up being a pleasing film with good intentions.  If it had been made as the first episode for a cable series, I’d be setting my DVR to record future episodes.