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

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.

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

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

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

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

Here

The plot of Here, the dreadful new formal experiment from director Robert Zemeckis, is fixated on a plot itself — a plot of land, to be more specific. The film begins millions of years ago when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and as their extinction comes to pass and the ice age takes hold, the camera stays fixed on that location as large swaths of time come and go. The bulk of the Zemeckis’s focus is on a house that’s built on the land around the turn of the 20th century, which is eventually purchased by Al (Paul Bettany) and Rose Young (Kelly Reilly) after World War II. We see their lives unfold, specifically as their oldest of three children Richard (Tom Hanks) grows up and takes the house over for his parents as he and his wife Margaret (Robin Wright) raise children of their own.

Based on a groundbreaking 2014 graphic novel by Richard McGuire, Here is a feature-length movie that could have worked as a short film or even a Super Bowl commercial. At 105 minutes, it’s positively intolerable. If Robert Zemeckis wanted to make this concept of an unmoving camera work, he could have at least composed his vignettes linearly. We start at the chronological beginning in the first few minutes but after that, Zemeckis and his Forrest Gump co-writer Eric Roth choose to interrupt the story of the Youngs with other periods of time. There are scenes of Native Americans roaming the land hundreds of years before and sequences with other inhabitants of the house before and after them. There are even brief moments in colonial times outside the estate of Benjamin Franklin’s illegitimate son William. Instead of Zemeckis treating each of these sections as their own chapters, he opts for a nonlinear storyline where we spend no more than a handful of minutes at a time in each era.

Not only does this method of storytelling undercut any sort of narrative momentum but it also corners the characters into paper-thin caricatures who only get a few minutes to share who they are and what they want. Worse yet, Here makes copious use of digital de-aging (courtesy of new generative AI tech) to make the actors playing the Youngs match whatever age they’re supposed to be. We’ve seen this technique and face swapping and other visual effects of the like pop up in recent blockbusters but because of the story he’s telling, Robert Zemeckis forces himself to put this CG effect front and center. Even though this isn’t nearly the worst de-aging effects I’ve seen, the amount of screen time that utilizes it eventually draws attention to how much the effects are being used and deteriorates the illusion.

As unconvincing as the AI-assisted effects can be, they’re nothing compared to what Zemeckis and Eric Roth have brewing in their cliche-riddled screenplay. Thankfully, some of the chronologically early segments play out wordlessly, with Alan Silvestri’s overbearing music score doing the heavy lifting instead. If the golden rule in screenwriting is “show, don’t tell”, the pair of scribes break it early and often. It’s not enough for Zemeckis to set the scene for each of these vignettes; the characters have to loudly explain when and why we are in any given point of time. It’s an enormous disservice to the actors, who are doing their best to establish their roles while having to spew weapons-grade pablum about how quickly time passes, how important it is not to have regrets and other hoary platitudes.

It’s not like Zemeckis has been immune to cornball sentiment in the past but in the case of previous winners of his like Forrest Gump or The Polar Express, at least we can be distracted by the creakier elements of the presentation. Here, there’s nowhere to go and nowhere to hide. Locking the camera down in a fixed position of course is both compositionally dull — no matter how often you try to switch out the set design — and emotionally unengaging. Potentially poignant moments and mundane glimpses of domesticity are treated with the same exact framing and thus, their dramatic impact is dulled. The camera is unmoved and so are we. Compelling camerawork isn’t always about lush cinematography or showy hyperactivity; it can crucially aid the filmmaker in telling smaller stories-within-stories through close-ups, two shots and really everything else that isn’t just a static shot. Here’s hoping Here is the last time Zemeckis chooses to limit himself with ostentatious obstructions.

Score – 1/5

New movies coming to theaters this weekend:
Heretic, starring Hugh Grant and Sophie Thatcher, is a horror thriller about two Mormon missionaries who are drawn into a game of cat-and-mouse in the house of an Englishman while trying to convert him to their faith.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, starring Judy Greer and Pete Holmes, is a Christmas comedy adapted from the 1972 novel of the same name about a group of juvenile delinquent siblings who inadvertently find themselves starring in the town’s Christmas pageant.
Small Things Like These, starring Cillian Murphy and Eileen Walsh, is a historical drama about a devoted father who discovers disturbing secrets kept by the local convent in his small Irish town and uncovers shocking truths of his own.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Conclave

Following up his much-lauded remake of All Quiet On The Western Front, director Edward Berger returns with another stirring ensemble piece that will likely garner attention as we enter awards season. Conclave, adapted from the Robert Harris novel of the same name, is technically a more hushed affair than Berger’s war epic from a couple years ago but no less subtle in its thematic ambitions. Fortunately, the obvious allegorical parallels go down easier when the story is pulpy papal pap and not a deadly serious wartime fable. Peter Straughan’s screenplay isn’t aiming for an entirely plausible and comprehensive step-by-step account of what happens within the walls of the Vatican during times of transition but proves that you don’t have to do so when you give a talented cast delicious barbs to volley at one another.

When the pope is found dead after a heart attack, there’s a vacancy in the Vatican and it’s the job of Cardinal-Dean Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) to gather the College Of Cardinals to select a new leader of the Catholic Church. Sequestered until a majority vote of 72 is reached, the clergymen convene and several lead candidates naturally emerge. Lawrence’s vote is for Aldo Bellini (Stanley Tucci), a progressive whose views Lawrence feels will be a relatively smooth transition from the liberal-leaning former pope. An early favorite hailing from Nigeria is Joshua Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), certainly more conservative socially than Bellini but not as much as staunch Italian traditionalist Goffredo Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto). Also in the running is Canadian Cardinal Joseph Tremblay (John Lithgow), who worked very closely with the pope before his unexpected death.

The stellar cast of almost all male performers, also including Carlos Diehz and Brían F. O’Byrne in small but crucial roles, gets a sliver of gender diversity with Isabella Rossellini as the nun in charge of feeding and housing the Cardinals during the conclave. Most of the runtime — believe it or not, the fastest 2 hours you’ll spend in a theater this year — is dedicated to shifty-eyed, zucchetto-wearing men whispering about alliances and strategy. By contrast, the scenes with Rossellini’s Sister Agnes have an openness and even empathy to them, which breaks up the ministerial maneuvering nicely. Having said that, most of the fun of Conclave is in seeing how these Cardinals scurry off to their corners to quietly decide the fate of the Church’s leadership and Peter Straughan’s dialogue is juicy without being preposterous.

Though the plotting, with its potboiler provocations, seems fitting for seedier surroundings, Conclave is nothing if not a first-rate production from any aesthetic aspect. Because of Vatican City filming restrictions, the production couldn’t actually take place within the Sistine Chapel but thanks to set designers who worked tirelessly, a replica was crafted for shooting. The results are extraordinary, as ornate and thorough as you would expect from the pope’s actual ancient residence. The pristine cinematography from Stéphane Fontaine revels in the marvel of this hallowed space, often contrasting hues of red and white to imply the conflict and reverence associated with the duty these men are taking on.

It’s no secret we’re in the middle of a contentious election season and while Conclave isn’t partisan in its political proclamations, it doesn’t make a secret of tying its events to the selection of the US President. “No sane man would want this papacy,” an anxious Bellini remarks at one point, the irony of course being that he is one of those men. Though it’s done under the guise of humility and grace, the Cardinals participate the same kind of gamesmanship and blackmailing that we’ve seen in countless election cycles before and will no doubt see in the future. While Edward Berger and Peter Straughan aren’t saying anything especially profound with this commentary, it undoubtedly lands better when politics already seem to be on the top of everyone’s minds. Paradoxically, Conclave could also function as a diversion for those seeking reprieve from endless campaign texts and phone calls.

Score – 4/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Playing in theaters is Here, a family drama starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, covering the events of a single spot of land and its inhabitants, spanning from the past to well into the future.
Streaming on Netflix is Time Cut, a sci-fi slasher starring Madison Bailey and Antonia Gentry, following a high school senior student and amateur inventor as she accidentally finds a time machine and travels back to 2003, the year her sister was murdered by an unknown killer.
Premiering on Disney+ is Music By John Williams, a documentary about the life and career of the titular composer and conductor, responsible for countless classic pieces of film music.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

Smile 2

Narrowly avoiding a straight-to-streaming release two years ago, the surprise hit Smile opened wide to over $200 million at the box office. Inevitably, the series continues this fall with Smile 2, a satisfactory sequel that picks up both atmospherically and chronologically right where its predecessor left off. After a bravura cold open paralleling a high watermark sequence in the True Detective episode “Who Goes There”, returning writer-director Parker Finn begins setting the table for a similar story in a very different setting. More than most sequels, this follow-up is particularly burdened with recreating the element of surprise from which the original benefited. While it doesn’t outdo Smile in the scare department, it provides another spooky tale set in this demented universe and makes a case for itself as an ongoing franchise.

Smile 2 centers around international pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), who’s about to kick off a worldwide comeback tour a year after a car crash that took the life of her actor boyfriend Paul Hudson (Ray Nicholson). Left with residual pain from the accident, Skye has secretly been scoring painkillers from high school acquaintance Lewis (Lukas Gage), who commits an act of violence against himself similar to the brutal event that kicked things off in Smile. In the days following, Riley begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations that she’s unable to explain to her mom and manager Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt) or her close friend Gemma (Dylan Gelula). With her first show just days away, Skye has to race against the clock to figure out what’s behind the grinning visions that are haunting her day and night.

Much of Smile‘s success as an effective horror outing came from Sosie Bacon’s terrific lead performance and Smile 2 similarly strikes a chord with a female lead bolstered by outstanding acting. Naomi Scott is asked to do quite a bit here, convincingly singing and dancing to several original songs in a way that falls in line with how megastars like Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga likely prep for their elaborate shows. Her Skye is not always the most likable character either and that’s even before the “smile curse” is passed on to her, often impatient and demanding with those on her crew while still saving face with her fans. But Scott roots these imperfections in her character’s unresolved trauma stemming from the fatal car crash that forever altered the trajectory of her life and career. Mental health details, like the depiction of trichotillomania and self-soothing practices, give her performance layers of authenticity that make it easier to get lost in the story.

As can be the case with horror sequels, Smile 2 tries a bit too hard to dissect its conceit and the mechanics of the “Smile Entity” and its curse are fuzzier this time around. Psychologically, it’s scarier when the malevolent force affects relatively smaller occurrences to make the protagonist question their sanity. Compared to its predecessor, this movie opts for more elaborate scenes and subplots of unreality that make it more frustrating for us in the audience to track what’s happening. There are several swaths where we have to subconsciously backtrack and figure out what actually happened to Skye versus what she experienced. Certainly some of this is expected and warranted for a psychological horror film but Parker Finn plays a little too fast-and-loose with some of his storytelling this time.

While both Smile films exceed the two-hour mark (atypical of lower budget horror fare), the pacing continues to be crucial in allowing the psychological dread to build. This time around, it also accommodates a subplot with Peter Jacobson as a nurse with a cock-eyed plan right out of Flatliners; his Taub character from the long-running medical show House would be proud. Like the first entry, Smile 2 is handsomely shot and features an unnerving detuned music score from composer Cristobal Tapia De Veer, in addition to the aforementioned pop tunes. Depending on how Smile 2 does at the box office, we may find this series bearing its teeth in theaters for years to come. As long as Finn has strong ideas for how to keep the franchise fresh, I’m all smiles.

Score – 3/5

New movies coming this weekend:
Playing only in theaters is Venom: The Last Dance, a superhero sequel starring Tom Hardy and Chiwetel Ejiofor, which finds reporter Eddie Brock and his symbiote alter ego on the run from both humans and alien members of Venom’s home planet.
Also coming to theaters is Conclave, a religious drama starring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci, following a cardinal tasked with organizing the election of the successor to the deceased Pope, who discovers the former Pope had a secret that must be uncovered.
Streaming on Netflix is Don’t Move, a horror-thriller starring Kelsey Asbille and Finn Wittrock, depicting a seasoned killer who injects a paralytic agent into a grieving woman, who must run, fight, and hide before her body completely shuts down.

Reprinted by permission of Whatzup

My thoughts on the movies