Reel Views, Review

The Damned

Set during a particularly harsh winter in the Westfjords of Iceland, the new psychological horror film The Damned may not be the most comforting to watch this time of year but it might make you hug your space heater a little tighter tonight. Percolating with an icy dread at every turn, it’s a sparse and chilly evocation of how harsh conditions in nature can cause the humans braving them to create monsters that may not even be there. As the maxim from Game Of Thrones forebodes, “winter is coming” and at times, Thordur Palsson’s feature directorial debut almost plays like a spooky subplot from that series. Though the storyline sometimes moves at a glacial pace, even with a sub-90 minute runtime, The Damned is punctuated with a haunting conclusion that will be burned into my memory for some time.

Settled in a Arctic bay fishing outpost during the 1800s, the movie stars Odessa Young as Eva, who has led the crew since her husband Magnus passed several months prior. As her team of fishermen ready their longboat one morning, they see a large boat shipwreck on a set of jagged rocks in the distance. The group is split on what action to take, as Eva and helmsman Ragnar (Game Of Thrones‘ Rory McCann) deem that intervention could be dangerous, while other crew members feel it necessary to aid potential survivors. When a barrel of food washes up to their shore, Eva decides it’s worth the risk to venture out with the hopes that other capsized resources could be collected. The expedition yields unsettling results and the superstitious charwoman Helga (Siobhan Finneran) fears their actions may have caused evil spirits to travel back to their settlement.

Just as Eva has a large responsibility taking care of her people, Odessa Young is taking on quite a bit with this role and she does an excellent job holding the center during this dreary tale. We learned that Magnus died the previous winter while going out into unsettled waters, so decisions like the one Eva has to make about the capsized ship weigh heavily on her. Young displays an engaging combination of inherited resiliency and taciturn vulnerability, helping us get into her character’s headspace when the edges of her reality begin to blur. I don’t believe I’ve seen her in another film since the 2020 biopic Shirley, in which she plays a character about as different as Eva as is possible. Here, she proves she can handle a leading role with quiet command and I hope other directors will take notice.

Director Thordur Palsson, who also conceived of the story for The Damned before passing screenwriting duties to Jamie Hannigan, certainly knows how to set the mood for his frigid fable. But too often during its midsection, it feels like a film with a strong setup and an effective ending with too much blubber in the middle. Once a supernatural angle is introduced into the story, Palsson becomes a broken record with scares that don’t feel cheap but do feel redundant. There just isn’t quite enough incident here to fill a feature and I wish he had worked with Hannigan more to establish a story that takes advantage of the whole ensemble cast. The movie necessarily becomes more insular when it moves into a more subjective perspective through Eva but it suffers from succumbing to more familiar genre beats from then on.

What I appreciated most about The Damned in the final stretch is how it doesn’t get too esoteric for its own good and lets the narrative arrive at a chilling but still satisfying conclusion. Too often, I see “artsy” horror movies that don’t bother to resolve their otherworldly plot elements and simply scapegoat the protagonist’s disturbed psyche. In other words, this is not a film that falls back on an “it was all in her head the whole time” alibi. Yes, it’s still a horror movie and yes, there are scenes where the characters’ minds may be working against them, but the brutal conditions to which they’re being subjected certainly explain why things may not be quite as they seem. The Damned doesn’t completely reach its potential but it marks a solid start from a director with a knack for bone-chilling storytelling.

Score – 3/5

New movies coming to theaters this weekend:
Better Man, starring Jonno Davies and Steve Pemberton, is a music biopic about the life of British pop singer Robbie Williams, who is portrayed as a CGI-animated chimpanzee because he’s always felt “less evolved than other people.”
Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera, starring Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr., is a heist sequel following two thieves from the original, who are now embroiled in the treacherous world of diamond burglary.
The Last Showgirl, starring Pamela Anderson and Dave Bautista, is an indie drama about a seasoned showgirl who must plan her future after the burlesque show she’s starred in for 30 years closes abruptly.

Column, Reel Views

My Top 10 Films of 2024

2024 saw the chasm between tentpole event movies, and basically everything else, widen. Audiences seemed to either rush out to their most anticipated titles on opening weekend or stay at home to wait — in some cases, only a few weeks — for rental or streaming. Whether you went to the theater or watched from your couch, there were plenty of great options throughout the year. I watched just shy of 200 new releases in 2024 and these are my 10 favorites:

  1. Challengers (streaming on Amazon Prime and available to rent/buy)
    After a string of projects that were hit and miss for me, Luca Guadagnino served up two winners in 2024, the better of the two being this tense tennis tug-of-war for three. Told with back-and-forth chronology that metaphorically simulates the head motion one makes while watching a match, it’s an electric and steamy sports epic with a trio of strong performances. The propulsive music score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross will undoubtedly buzz in the ear buds of gym goers for years to come.
  2. Civil War (streaming on Max and available to rent/buy)
    Alex Garland has gotten better each time out with his directorial efforts and this hot-button wartime thriller is his salient statement yet. Kirsten Dunst is at her best as a world-weary photojournalist making sense of her duty to a country that is falling apart before her lens. I’m not sure I saw — or heard, especially —a more gripping finale last year than the extended setpiece outside the White House that concludes with an unshakeable still image.
  3. His Three Daughters (streaming on Netflix)
    Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, and Elizabeth Olsen are all in top form in this meditative family drama from writer-director Azazel Jacobs. They play a trio of estranged sisters whose differences become even more apparent when the time comes to care for their dad as he enters hospice. The writing is sharp and perceptive about the positions that loved ones can take toward the end of a loved one’s life, while the direction is empathetic about how these approaches all have their place.
  4. Hard Truths (coming to theaters in January)
    This caustic character drama is an annual reminder that I need to make more of an effort to make time for the work of English writer-director Mike Leigh. His 16th film is centered around an irascible misanthrope, played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who’s seemingly lost sight on how much her anger is covering up a depressive disorder. True to the movie’s title, it’s hard watching a lead character alienate the only people who choose to stick with her but the effort is rewarded with profound truths about how we relate to one another.
  5. The Brutalist (coming to theaters in January)
    A historical epic erected as a monument to larger-than-life cinema, Brady Corbet’s latest is awe-inspiring filmmaking of the highest order. Adrien Brody stars as a Holocaust survivor who emigrates to the United States from Poland with the hope that his architectural ability will lead to prosperity. Shot in VistaVision and accompanied by a superb sweeping music score by Daniel Blumberg, Brady Corbet’s colossal vision of the American Dream will hit you like a ton of bricks.
  6. Dìdi (streaming on Peacock and available to rent/buy)
    There were quite a few comedies last year that were set in the 2000s but writer-director Sean Wang’s dazzling debut cut through the mix with observant direction and a hilarious script. The coming-of-age tale of a Taiwanese-American eighth grader finding his way amidst changes in technology and friendship made for cringe-inducing humor that will especially relate with millennials. There are also turn-on-a-dime moments of poignancy with the title character’s family that solidify it as a generational gem.
  7. A Different Man (now available to rent/buy, streaming on Max starting January 17th)
    This existential dark comedy is, fittingly, one of two films on this list that dealt with duality, identity, and an obsession with changing one’s outer appearance at whatever cost. Sebastian Stan is stellar as a disfigured actor who undergoes an experimental medical procedure that reverses his facial condition but leads to other unexpected complications. Writer-director Aaron Schimberg addresses provocative themes with a sardonic wit that makes his feature one of the year’s most original.
  8. Dune: Part Two (streaming on Max and available to rent/buy)
    The follow-up to Denis Villeneuve’s first half of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi odyssey is as inspiring and incendiary as its companion piece. Austin Butler and Florence Pugh are excellent additions to an already extraordinary ensemble cast, which sees Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya eclipsing their performances from the predecessor. If Dune Messiah is adapted to round out Villeneuve’s trio of Dune films, it could cap off one of the best movie trilogies ever made.
  9. The Substance (streaming on MUBI and available to rent/buy)
    Maybe there’s something wrong with me but I couldn’t stop smiling when I left the theater after seeing Coralie Fargeat’s body horror opus. Demi Moore is Oscar-worthy as an aging fitness TV star who takes an experimental drug that spawns a much younger version of herself. The satirical commentary on how female celebrities are overexposed, and then jettisoned when they hit a certain age, is razor sharp.
  10. Nickel Boys (coming to theaters in January)
    No director evoked the power of lived experience more exquisitely than RaMell Ross with this period drama about a pair of Black teens sent to a ruthless reform school. Filmed largely from a first-person point-of-view, the movie seamlessly juggles perspectives back and forth between the two main characters. Both a technical marvel in terms of editing and cinematography and also a storytelling marvel in terms of emotional depth, it’s a movie that feels miraculous and magical.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Review

A Complete Unknown

Making a biopic about a legendary figure like Bob Dylan is always going to be tricky because everyone knows something about him and some people know everything about him — at least it seems that way. James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown doesn’t put forth minutiae about the singer/songwriter that will be new to hardcore fans, nor does it hit every bullet point of Dylan’s Wikipedia page. But it’s an immersive and intricately-rendered look at the most important transitory period early in his 60+ year music career. Those who don’t already get his appeal or personally enjoy his music should at least gain a sense of appreciation for his impact on rock history and why he matters to so many people. But along with his co-writer Jay Cocks, Mangold sets out first to make an engaging story about a young stranger who came out of nowhere and was everywhere in just a few short years.

Our story starts in 1961, with Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) hitchhiking with his guitar from Minnesota to New York City, where he hopes to meet his ailing idol Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) in a nearby hospital. While paying him a visit, he finds Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) already beside and at their request, he plays them a song that enraptures them both. Seeger introduces Dylan at clubs and coffeehouses throughout Greenwich Village, catching the attention of fellow folk singer Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) and her manager Albert Grossman (Dan Fogler). After the release of his debut album in ’62 and its follow-up a year later, Dylan quickly becomes one of rock’s most vaunted troubadours, troubling to his girlfriend Sylvie (Elle Fanning), who didn’t expect such a meteoric rush to fame.

The climax of A Complete Unknown centers on Bob Dylan “going electric” at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, a seminal decision that alienated acoustic purists but allowed him to venture onto new sonic pathways. Mangold doesn’t try to explain away why Dylan chose to bring a backing band to a folk-oriented fest but instead, he paints a portrait of an iconoclast who values his musicianship above all else. Understandably, the spotlight is brightest on Chalamet here and while it’s not a transcendent performance, he certainly does a believable job conveying both Dylan’s raspy timbre and musical chops. I don’t think he peels back new layers of understanding behind the artist’s genius but I don’t know that the movie needs him to either. “You can be beautiful or you can be ugly, but you can’t be plain,” Dylan says of performers at one point and Chalamet’s work doesn’t fit into the “plain” category.

Like Dylan at Newport, Chalamet also has a talented ensemble backing him up in this musical endeavor. Edward Norton has tended towards self-centered and arrogant characters more recently in his career, so it was a treat watching him melt into a character here who is much more soft-spoken and tender in his disposition. Elle Fanning has something of a thankless role as “the girlfriend” or “the muse” but she brings a grace and poise to the performance that make her moments stick out. The biggest find here, though, is Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, whose angelic voice and delicate fingerpicking on stage didn’t always translate to submissiveness off-stage. As someone mired in both a professional and personal relationship with Dylan, she has no problem standing her ground when Bob’s ego gets the best of him. Barbaro is both magnetic and authentic as Baez the musician and Baez the person.

As he did with his thrilling sports biopic Ford v Ferrari back in 2019, Mangold brings out all of the period elements of the 1960s without drawing too much attention to them. I expected A Complete Unknown to mirror Inside Llewyn Davis — still a much better film, even though it’s a fictionalization — but the look of the two movies is completely different. Where Bruno Delbonnel’s camerawork in Davis was meant to execute the warmth of cozy coffee houses like The Gaslight Cafe, DP Phedon Papamichael’s camera frames the events with more tactility and grit by comparison. There have been numerous documentaries about Bob Dylan and given the era it focuses on, it’s fitting that A Complete Unknown is most visually analogous to Scorsese’s No Direction Home. Mangold wants us to feel like we were in the room when Dylan broke out and if you’re in the mood to travel back in time like Mangold had Indiana Jones do in his Dial Of Destiny last year, then you’ll want to get acquainted with A Complete Unknown.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Opening in theaters is Sonic the Hedgehog 3, an action-adventure sequel starring Ben Schwartz and Jim Carrey, following Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails as they reunite against a powerful new adversary, Shadow, a mysterious villain with powers unlike anything they have faced before.
Also playing only in theaters is Mufasa: The Lion King, a live action-styled prequel starring Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison Jr., focusing on the future king of the Pride Lands when he’s a cub who befriends an heir to a royal bloodline named Taka.
Streaming on Netflix is The Six Triple Eight, a war drama starring Kerry Washington and Ebony Obsidian, centering on the contributions of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, an all-Black and all-female battalion, in World War II.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Reel Views, Review

Y2K

During his 9-season tenure at Saturday Night Live, actor Kyle Mooney often exuded a goofy and amiable charm in his sketch roles, so it stands to reason that his directorial debut would possess those same qualities. To say that the disaster comedy Y2K doesn’t take itself too seriously would be quite the understatement, which will be a bug for some and a feature for others. As its title implies, millennials are squarely in the film’s key demographic; even if other age groups understand the barrage of late 90s references Mooney and his co-writer Evan Winter throw into their screenplay, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll appreciate them. But if you’re looking for a throwback that plays like a blend of 1998 movies Small Soldiers and Can’t Hardly Wait, then Y2K is here to dial up the nostalgic fun.

Set on the final day of 1999, the movie follows teen buddies Eli (Jaeden Martell) and Danny (Julian Dennison) as they try to find a New Year’s Eve party they can get into at the last minute. After getting bullied by stoner skaters Ash (Lachlan Watson) and Farkas (Eduardo Franco) outside a convenience store, the pair run into the smart and popular Laura (Rachel Zegler) inside and she lets them know about a party at the house of Soccer Chris (The Kid Laroi) that night. Eli’s attempt that evening to turn his crush on Laura into something more is thwarted by The Millennium Bug, which causes all manner of technology from appliances to computers to become violently sentient. While most of the kids at the party die at the hands of the now-conscious electronics, Eli and Laura form a group with several others to venture out and try to unplug the superintelligence trying to end humanity.

In terms of alternate history pitches, “what if Y2K really happened?” is a tantalizing one but not exactly one that Mooney and his team look to explore too deeply. To a certain degree, it seems to parody the kind of tech paranoia popular in mid-90s sci-fi thrillers like The Net and Virtuosity in the way it ups the stakes to outlandish proportions. But it’s all backdrop for what’s primarily one of those teen comedies about how going to one cool kid’s party can change the trajectory of your whole life. The characters here are all easy enough to hang out with for 90 minutes but I wish that Mooney and Winter had fleshed them out a bit more; Laura is the most developed one here and even she basically becomes Angelina Jolie’s character from Hackers by the third act. Compared to another period coming-of-age story like Dìdi from earlier this year, the writing here is laughably thin.

Mooney may not have the most sophisticated film on his hands but he certainly packs it to the brim with as many turn of the century touchstones as possible. There are needle drops from pop rock acts like Edwin McCain and Semisonic, with plenty of other zeitgeist zingers invoking all manner of pop culture fixtures from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time to Billy Blanks. And should you still carry a torch for stylings of nu metal act Limp Bizkit, Y2K should immediately leap to the top of your must-watch list. There’s a running bit of clever commentary courtesy of a rap enthusiast character played by Daniel Zolghadri, who chastised his friends Ash and Farkas for foregoing thoughtful hip-hop for what he deems as “corporate music”. He freestyles as Prophets Of Intelligence and gets on his high horse about posers selling out but when it comes down to it, his taste and talent isn’t as “elevated” as he thinks it is.

There really isn’t much tension in Y2K as to whether or not the ragtag band of high schoolers will somehow overcome the evil robots, though there are some unexpected casualties along the way. The violence bestowed upon the teens is as impractical as it is ridiculous, with blenders lunging at crotches and Barbie Jeeps arming themselves with power tools. Midway through the movie, Laura pulls up a video that conveniently explains the supercomputer’s evil plot in lengthy detail with visual aids. Does it actually make sense that machines heading towards technological singularity would divulge their plan as carelessly as a James Bond villain would? Of course not. Y2K is a diverting enough initial outing from Kyle Mooney as a director, who I hope will keep honing his storytelling chops from here on.

Score – 3/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Playing only in theaters is Kraven The Hunter, a Sony’s Spider-Man Universe entry starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ariana DeBose, following a primeval assassin who starts down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences.
Also playing in theaters is The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim, an animated fantasy starring Brian Cox and Gaia Wise, set almost 200 years before Peter Jackson’s trilogy, when the king of Rohan and his family defend their kingdom against a powerful army.
Streaming on Netflix is Carry-On, an action thriller starring Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman, following a mysterious traveler who blackmails a young TSA officer to let a dangerous package slip through security and onto a Christmas Day flight.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Column, Midwest Film Journal

Denzelmber: Flight

Originally posted on Midwest Film Journal

If the archetypal Denzel Washington performance can be summarized in a single word, it would be “control”. No matter who he’s playing, we in the audience trust that his character has things under control. Robert Zemeckis knows we expect this, which is why he opens his 2012 character drama Flight with Denzel strutting down a hotel hallway to Joe Cocker’s “Feelin’ Alright” after ripping a line of cocaine. In fact, it’s so in line with what we expect from his characters, it could certainly be seen as a cocky needle drop so on-the-nose that it’s meant to play for laughs. But like the plane that Denzel’s pilot character Whip Whitaker flips mid-air later in the first act, Zemeckis inverts Denzel’s cool, calm and collected persona in his story of compromised heroism. Washington has been outstanding in many films but his work in Flight remains my favorite of his still-thriving career.

As Whip Whitaker, Denzel exudes the brand of confidence we expect of our commercial captains and it’s not unearned. After taking off from Orlando, Whitaker ably navigates through a storm during takeoff so perilous that it even rattles his young co-pilot Ken Evans (Brian Geraghty). We learn Whip was likely able to stay so sedate during the emergency because he’s still drunk the night before, a condition he exacerbates by pouring a couple shooters of vodka into an orange juice bottle while addressing the cockpit after the fracas. A sudden mechanical failure leads Evans to cede control of the plane back to Whitaker, who turns an uncontrolled nosedive into a crash landing that spares the lives of almost all aboard. Whip wakes up in the hospital with Charlie Anderson (Bruce Greenwood), a friend of Whip’s since their days together in the Navy, by his bed on behalf of the pilots union.

Now it’s Charlie’s turn to navigate a vessel on the ground even more unstable than the one Whip maneuvered in the sky. Charlie and Whip go back a ways but the former doesn’t seem to realize the extent of the latter’s personal issues until he learns more about the details of the emergency crash-land. Charlie brings in a “co-pilot” in the form of criminal negligence attorney Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle), who calls attention to the toxicology report done in the hospital that indicates Whip’s BAC as .0.24%. Given the scale of the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board is forced to conduct a thorough investigation and though Whitaker’s actions were heroic, his compromised state during the flight means he could be facing serious prison time. While waiting for the NTSB to rule on the cause of the crash, Whip finds comfort in the arms of Nicole (Kelly Reilly), a fellow addict he met while recovering in the hospital.

Wisely, Zemeckis doesn’t allow his film to get mired in the bureaucracy of lawyers prepping for the public hearing the NTSB will hold to pass along their findings about the incident. Flight is focused on Whip, what drives him to drink and why it’s so difficult for him to confront his alcoholism. He sees in Nicole a wounded soul struggling to overcome her demons but doesn’t quite seem to consider how much alike they may be. Like everyone else, she’s in awe of the expertise and instinct that allowed him to save all but 6 of the 102 people onboard that fateful flight. But the stress of the NTSB’s in-depth inquiry leads Whip to hit the bottle even harder than usual, causing Nicole to take the role of caretaker more than girlfriend. She hasn’t known him long but knows he needs help, twisting his arm to attend an AA meeting in which he sullenly sits cross-armed before leaving a few minutes after it begins.

As a Denzel Washington vehicle, what Flight does so brilliantly is make us reconsider the confident characters that the larger-than-life actor has portrayed in the past and wonder how many had the struggles that Whip has here. If the first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have one, he’s been stubbornly standing with his heels together for years. Even though it cost him his marriage and a relationship with his now-teenaged son, his addiction remains the most crucial priority in Whip’s existence. Calling the aftermath of the crash a “come to Jesus moment” lines up nicely with the “Act Of God” designation that can appear on accident reports. When Lang brings up the term while surveying the crash site with Whitaker, Whip solemnly ponders “whose God would do this?” Zemeckis taps on the theme of religion earlier in the movie, by way of a cancer patient character played by James Badge Dale who posits that even if you hate God, you’d be a fool not to believe in one.

Though every actor who appears in Flight, including John Goodman and Melissa Leo, makes the absolute best of the screen time they have, Washington is not only perfect for this role but flawless in his execution. After spending more time with Charlie and Hugh after the accident, he’s all too happy to direct his indignation at the airline for giving him a plane that was doomed to fail but isn’t able to admit that his intoxicated state points to deep moral failing. The scene where he attends the funeral of one of the flight attendants shines a spotlight on the vulnerability that Washington brings to this performance. He spends most of his time up to the NTSB hearing scrambling to cover his six, specifically in trying to convince one of the surviving flight attendants that he was in good shape to fly. His desperation and consternation in this moment flies in the face of the stoic, sun-glassed specialist we see in the opening moments of the movie.

Rewatching Flight after seeing Zemeckis’ disastrous Here in theaters last month, it’s a testament to just how right or wrong the veteran filmmaker can go depending on the story he’s piloting. After the one-two punch of What Lies Beneath and Cast Away — the latter which incidentally hinges on a plane crash — in 2000, he spent the rest of the decade on mo-cap animated ventures that leaned into technical innovation. Though the terrifying aircraft setpiece in Flight utilizes CG effects, they still look convincing and Zemeckis holsters the technical wizardry throughout the remainder of the film. He trusts his actors and knows that the special effect is in watching these performers make magic in their interaction with one another.

Reel Views, Review

Moana 2

It was never going to be an easy task following up a cultural phenomenon like Moana, which still remains Walt Disney Animation’s finest offering of the past ten years. Originally conceived as a long-form streaming series for Disney+, Moana 2 doesn’t quite have the narrative poignancy or thematic sophistication of its predecessor. Where that film felt like it was actually trying to speak to a teenage audience, this sequel brings things more in the kid-friendly range with easy laughs and an easier-to-follow plot. The fact remains that this lush and vibrant setting is nothing short of enchanting and any excuse to revisit the world of Moana is worthwhile, no matter how it compares to the original. Perhaps I’ll change my tune once Moana 5 is released but until that time, I intend to stay on the boat of this franchise.

Following her transition to chiefess of the Motunui people, Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) also acts as their lead wayfinder, voyaging to other nearby islands in search of inhabitants. In her exploration, she learns of the sunken island Motufetu, which once served as a connecting point for the nearby isles but was pushed to the bottom of the ocean by the storm god Nalo (Tofiga Fepulea’i). Emboldened by visions from her ancestors, Moana recruits a team to raise Motufetu from its watery depths and restore the channels to the separated sea. Accompanied once again by haughty demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) and joined by Moni (Hualālai Chung), Loto (Rose Matafeo) and Kele (David Fane), the crew ventures across the treacherous ocean to break Nalo’s curse.

If Moana was a journey of self-discovery and independence, then Moana 2 is about the next step into maturity, wherein our heroine takes on the responsibility of looking after others. She now has a much younger sister Simea (voiced by Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda), who acts like Moana walks on water and misses her dearly when she leaves for her expeditions. Her tribe looks to her for guidance on issues big and small as they crop up on Motunui and she even has a fan club of adoring “MOANA-BEs” who idolize the young trailblazer. During the story’s main quest, Moana doesn’t always have the right answers but like any good leader, she considers the capabilities and commitments of her people when making decisions about what to do next. The storms are always easier to ride out when you have the right people by your side.

Like Moana, Moana 2‘s adventure storyline is supplemented by new original songs, although Lin-Manuel Miranda did not return as lead songwriter this time around. While this sequel doesn’t quite have instant classics like “How Far I’ll Go” and “You’re Welcome”, new tunes like “Beyond” and “We’re Back”, penned by Opetaia Foaʻi, Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, are welcome additions to this series’ songbook. Auliʻi Cravalho’s singing was, of course, lovely in the original but her voice seems even more powerful and assured this time around. Once the crew gets sailing, “What Could Be Better Than This?” finds the four main performers trading humorous lines, with Rose Matafeo as a standout among them. The rousing ensemble number “We Know The Way” is also reprised here and Maui gets another cheeky uptempo anthem with “Can I Get A Chee Hoo?”

Also returning from the first movie are the sentient coconut pirates from the Kakamora tribe, who get even more screen time than the first adventure and remain a cute concoction within this magical universe. Their antics certainly play a role in the narrative but also seem to play double-duty as a way to keep kids entertained. The Kakamora have aboard a gelatinous, bug-eyed creature whose noises seem pitched to emulate the “goat scream” fad from several years ago. Moana 2 has several moments like that, where it feels like it’s dumbing itself down just to hit the marks with everyone and I wish it didn’t. But the animation and craft in this sequel is just as impressive as it was the first time around and the color palette is always a wonder to behold. Just because the waves aren’t quite as high in this sequel doesn’t mean it’s not worth the trip back out to the dazzling blue.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Playing only in theaters is Y2K, a disaster comedy starring Jaeden Martell and Rachel Zegler, set at a high school party on New Year’s Eve 1999 which imagines if the millennium bug actually caused all technology to come to life and turn against humanity.
Also coming to theaters is Werewolves, a horror thriller starring Frank Grillo and Katrina Law, following two scientists who try to stop a mutation that turns people into werewolves after being touched by a supermoon event the year before.
Streaming on Netflix is Mary, a biblical epic starring Noa Cohen and Anthony Hopkins, telling the story after the birth of Jesus wherein Mary is forced to flee when Herod’s insatiable thirst for power ignites a murderous pursuit for the newborn.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Reel Views, Review

Gladiator II

Ever the maximalist and never one to simply let a good thing be, director Ridley Scott was destined to reenter the world of Maximus someday. Alas, that time has come and Gladiator II has made its way into theaters across the world. In typical sequel fashion, this follow-up has more of everything: twice the Colosseum-set battle sequences, three times the amount of hushed, lamp-lit conversations about family and fate; heck, there are even two emperors this time around. If Scott and scribe David Scarpa had applied this ethos to the story itself, we’d have quite the swords and sandals epic on our hands but the actual premise here — said another way: a justification for its existence in the first place — never develops much past its initial paces. But like an equipped gladiator, this film does have a couple potent weapons in store and knows how to use them.

Gladiator II finds Rome in a state of unease, under the rule of the corrupt twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) 16 years after the death of Marcus Aurelius. Desperate for new leadership, the Roman people champion fearless general Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), who has just returned from a conquest over the city of Numidia. During the battle, Numidian warrior Hanno (Paul Mescal) loses his wife and is captured by the Roman army. After being transported to Rome, the enslaved Hanno makes quite the showing in fierce gladiatorial combat and catches the attention of gladiator trainer Macrinus (Denzel Washington). With vengeance on his mind, Hanno plans to rise up the ranks and topple both Acacius and the emperor brothers to return the city to its former glory.

The most immediate challenge Gladiator II faces as a sequel to a universally loved film that won 5 Academy Awards and grossed almost $500 million is in carrying on without the two leads from the original. The towering performances of both Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator are understandably difficult to top and try as they might, Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal simply don’t leave the indelible impression of their predecessors. Mescal’s wheelhouse is more in low-key work of indies like All Of Us Strangers and Aftersun but as a brooding fighter, he feels miscast and out of his element. Pascal fares some better in his role as a stoic leader but the character isn’t written with nearly the same depth or feeling as Maximus or Commodus from the previous tale.

While Connie Nielsen and Derek Jacobi reprise the roles from the first film, the strongest performances in Gladiator II come courtesy of players entering the arena for the first time. Joseph Quinn brings a more familiar but still palpable menace to his Geta but Fred Hechinger brings an unhinged impudence to Caracalla that makes him the more dynamic spectacle. Speaking of his vision for Rome, he announces, “there will be games…and mass executions!” so flippantly that its casual cruelty is almost endearing. As for the aforementioned games, the fight scenes are enjoyable staged but often marred by CG effects that seem almost instantly dated, particularly in a sequence meant to mirror the Battle Of Salamis. The digitally inserted sharks don’t look great but when two ships collide with one another, the resulting havoc is especially unconvincing.

For a movie about brawny brawlers, it’s apt that one man would carry this film on his back and that man is Denzel Washington. Put bluntly, he is the reason to see Gladiator II and if he was replaced by another actor to play his role as an advisor with aspirations of authority, it would sink the whole project. Introduced shuffling his many-ringed fingers while overseeing combat, Washington is simply having a magnificent time luxuriating in Scott’s larger-than-life version of Rome. You’ve never heard someone enunciate the word “politics” quite the way that Washington does in a memorable moment from the third act. It’s no coincidence that when the narrative shifts its focus towards Macrinus and his ambitions, the movie becomes infinitely more enjoyable. Gladiator II doesn’t quite best its forerunner in the ring but still has enough spectacular to keep us entertained.

Score – 3/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Playing only in theaters is Moana 2, an animated musical sequel starring Auliʻi Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson, following the titular adventurer as she receives an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors and must journey to the far seas of Oceania once more.
Streaming on Paramount+ is Dear Santa, a Christmas comedy starring Jack Black and Keegan-Michael Key, about a young boy accidentally mixes up his spelling and sends his Christmas list to Satan instead of Santa.
Premiering on Max is Sweethearts, a romantic comedy starring Kiernan Shipka and Nico Hiraga, involving a pair of college freshmen who try to break up with their high school sweethearts on the same night before Thanksgiving.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Reel Views, Review

A Real Pain

Following up last year’s When You Finish Saving The World, Jesse Eisenberg makes another compelling case for himself as a writer and director with his sophomore effort A Real Pain. This time, not only is he in front of the camera as well but also giving one of the best performances of his career in the lead role. Since scoring an Oscar nomination playing Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, Eisenberg has alternated between big studio pictures and much smaller indies. These back-to-back dramedies suggest that he’s most comfortable with projects over which he has more creative input. It’s not hard to imagine a career trajectory for Eisenberg similar to Woody Allen, writing and directing a collection of stories investigating the human condition while popping up in lead or supporting roles.

As A Real Pain opens, Benji Kaplan (Kieran Culkin) sits patiently at a terminal in JFK awaiting his cousin David (Eisenberg) hours before their flight. The pair are destined for Warsaw, where their recently-deceased grandmother spent her remaining days and allocated funds in her will for Benji and David to make the trip to connect with their Jewish heritage. Once in Poland, they meet up with tour guide James (Will Sharpe) and the rest of the group, the overwhelmingly friendly Benji making fast connections with the other tourists while the more neurotic David holds back. As the Heritage Tour makes stops at locations marred by the atrocities of the Holocaust, the Kaplans reflect on their family’s place in its history while also bickering about their comparatively insignificant interpersonal drama.

While Eisenberg and Culkin are aided by a talented supporting cast that also includes Jennifer Grey and Liza Sadovy, A Real Pain is primarily a two-hander between the Kaplan boys. Even though they were born 3 weeks apart, they’re cousins and not brothers, even though they certainly argue like it. While Benji has bummed around upstate New York his whole adult life, David took the more “mature” route after college, heading into the city to sell digital ad space and support his wife Priya and their son Abe. Benji is closer to the rest of their mutual family, so he takes the death of their grandma harder than David does but nevertheless, they find themselves together on this journey tied by shared history but typified by their pronounced differences.

Eisenberg’s eloquent manner in distinguishing these two characters, both in his writing and direction, is what ironically makes A Real Pain a joy to behold. It’s a film of little moments that speak volumes about how these two guys see themselves and the world in which they somehow coexist. David is horrified when Benji wants to do something that is outside David’s admittedly small comfort zone, even if that means talking with someone in the tour group during a visit to a concentration camp. Introverts in the audience will cringe at the carefree attempts that Benji makes at making connections with people and David similarly resents his lack of self-consciousness in doing so. David’s bitterness with Benji’s seeming lack of insecurity doesn’t limit itself to their waking hours; the two share a hotel room and when David looks over at Benji sleeping as peacefully as a baby, the look on David’s face says “why can’t I have that?”

It’s the time of year when movie award consideration kicks into high gear and I wouldn’t be surprised if A Real Pain earns quite a bit of it, especially for its main two performances. Though David isn’t a character polar opposite of ones Eisenberg has played in the past, he digs deeper into what drives this character and why the relationship with his cousin is so hard. But Culkin especially seems likely to earn an abundance of praise for his portrayal of a young man so stripped of inhibitions that he can drive people crazy with his openness while being none the wiser. If David is our main character, then it’s easy to read the film’s title and surmise that it’s referring to Benji but in the film’s subtext about the vast scale in degrees of personal suffering, Eisenberg reminds us that conflict is all about context.

Score – 3.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Coming to theaters is Wicked, a fantasy musical starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, adapting the first half of the Broadway smash hit which tells the events leading up to The Wizard Of Oz through the eyes of Glinda The Good Witch and The Wicked Witch Of The West.
Also playing in theaters is Gladiator II, a historical epic starring Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal, following up the 2000 Best Picture winner as the son of Maximus is forced to enter the Colosseum and must look to his past to find strength to return the glory of Rome to its people.
Streaming on Netflix is The Piano Lesson, starring Samuel L. Jackson and John David Washington, which follows the lives of a family during the Great Depression as they deal with themes of family legacy in deciding what to do with an heirloom: the family piano.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Reel Views, Review

Heretic

Between his collaborations with Guy Ritchie and last year’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Hugh Grant has seemingly had a ball playing villains recently. The trend continues with the new A24 chiller Heretic, in which Grant plays the deferential and droll Mr. Reed, who may not be as kindly as he initially appears. After reaching out to the LDS Church for more information about their cause, Mormon missionaries Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) are summoned to his house one rainy evening. While Mr. Reed says his wife is just in the kitchen making pie, the Sisters begin professing their faith in an attempt to convert but are met with prickly retorts about the nature of religion and belief. As the conversation between the three continues, Barnes and Paxton get the creeping feeling that they were invited into Reed’s home under false pretenses.

The writing and directing team of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who were behind last year’s Adam Driver-fronted sci-fi stinker 65, at least start off with much better footing for Heretic. We spend a little time with Barnes and Paxton before arriving at Reed’s home, their candid conversations serving as a nice contrast to the professional front they have to put up when their duty begins. As we slowly learn, Reed is also putting up a front that gradually deteriorates and the three performers are terrific at guiding their characters believably through the transition. Grant, of course, rose to prominence playing coiffed charming leads in romance movies but here, he uses his charisma as bait for an elaborate trap that doesn’t fully reveal itself until late in the runtime.

Without giving too much away, the gist of Reed’s plan involves trying to get the missionaries to question their fundamental beliefs, which he does with Reddit-ready rhetoric about organized religion and philosophy. It’s perfectly okay that Grant’s character isn’t as clever as he thinks he is but the main problem with Heretic is that the movie itself isn’t as clever as it thinks it is. Some of the dialogue and the exchanges are thought-provoking and illuminating but when the talking stops and the time for action arrives, Beck and Woods can’t see the forest for the trees. The more convoluted the situation gets and the more plot elements that are introduced, the less interesting the initial gambit becomes. This feels like a story that Beck and Woods developed without having a conclusion in mind at the outset.

Faithful to its raison d’être, Heretic has an immediately alluring look courtesy of cinematographer Chung Chung-hoon. Once the Sisters spend a little time at the house, Reed informs them that his house has timed lights which can click off mid-conversation without warning. Despite the sudden changes in brightness, the faces of the three performers are always lit with just the right levels to exude dread and insecurity. The set design also aids in the illusion of a cozy living room that becomes more worldly and sophisticated as Reed’s machinations arise. While most of the editing works well, there are several cuts involving violence that seem oddly clipped and obscure their narrative impact. It’s possible Beck and Woods were at one point trying to skirt an R-rating but the confusing cutting during a few key scenes feels like it was left over from a PG-13 iteration.

For at least the first half, Heretic is watchable due to the trio of terrific performances that are ever-shifting to reveal new details about who these people are and what makes them tick. As Reed keeps making excuses as to why the two girls must stay in his house, Barnes becomes more suspicious of his motives than Paxton does. Where Paxton also tends to sidestep Reed’s barbs about the folly of religious practices, Barnes is more game to return the volleys and refute his points. As it turns out, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East were both raised Mormon, although neither of the actresses are currently members of the church. Perhaps the film was developed with their shared past in mind but Heretic could’ve used more time in the oven before sharing it with the masses.

Score – 2.5/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Playing only in theaters is Red One, a Christmas adventure starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, following the North Pole’s Head Of Security and the world’s most infamous bounty hunter on an action-packed mission to rescue Santa after he’s been kidnapped.
Also coming to theaters is A Real Pain, a family dramedy starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin, involving a pair of mismatched cousins who reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother.
Streaming on Netflix is Emilia Pérez, a French musical starring Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez, telling the story of a feared cartel leader who enlists a lawyer to help her disappear and achieve her dream of transitioning into a woman.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

My thoughts on the movies