Friday 30 June 2017

The Beguiled (2017)

Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled is one of those films I find frustrating because there is so much I responded to and yet so much that was confounding me at the same time. The film's flaws were too glaring to be overcome by the film's strengths and I end up feeling disappointed at the promise which is somewhat squandered.

Coppola crafts a very tight, judiciously edited take on the story which has been told previously. This is the story of how sexual repression leads to a devolution of morality when temptation is thrown into the mix. It's a fascinating idea but I found Coppola's sparse approach to the tale did a disservice. She is so focused on the economy of her story telling, her film feels short changed, the emotions never earned, the positions assumed.

What I mean is that she rushes her take, focusing on plot point after plot point, without building up sufficient emotion or feeling to then make the reactions of her characters feel honest or real. I appreciate succinct story telling but the story still needs to generate organic feeling emotions, motivations, and perspectives. I didn't feel much of that here. Instead it felt like Coppola just expected us to go along with whatever action or reaction her characters were taking. Man shows up to a house full of isolated women who live in a morally strict culture. They all immediately start fighting over his attention. He acts on his desire with one of them. Panic ensues. Violence breaks out. Choices are made. It all just happens so fast. It all felt so by the numbers.

I would have loved it if Coppola had taken the time to show us under the skin of each character, to get inside their heads and hearts so we could feel what they were feeling. The tensions which are necessary to sell this story need to be palpable, not just thrust upon us. When Colin Farrell's character turns to rampage it felt out of the blue and unrealistic.

And then there is the issue of the film removing the black characters which are a part of the source material. Coppola's excuse is that she didn't want to present black characters in a surface way, but my problem is she could have chosen not to present any of her characters in a surface way. The issue of slavery intersecting with the gender politics could have added a richness the film is lacking. 

The film is beautifully shot and lushly decorated. But the characters feel far less fleshed out. It is a bit of a wasted opportunity.

The Beguiled
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning
Writer/Director: Sofia Coppola

Despicable Me 3 (2017)

Full disclosure: I think the Despicable Me movies are overrated. If you're one of the folks who thing the sentimental absurdity that makes up this series is the cat's ass then we're likely not to agree. I don't despise the movies, and each has moments I enjoy. But overall I find myself wishing they were more inspired, more deviously subversive. The whole premise that this super-villain and his adorable minions end up being sickly sweet is disappointing to me.

Despicable Me 3 suffers from what a lot of third parts suffer from in movie series. It starts to feel tired, like we've seen it all before. Hardly any of it feels fresh, especially the whole subplot of Kristin Wiig's Lucy discovering how to be a mom. It all seems like the film is just giving us what we expect and want instead of taking us to the next level or in an interesting new direction. Many film series get stuck in these ruts so it's not surprising. I found myself laughing less, bored a little more.

Perhaps a good way to illustrate this is the film's antagonist Balthazar Bratt. He's hilarious cause he dresses in outrageous 80s clothes, dances 80s style to 80s tunes, and wears and 80s mullet. Cause the 80s are just automatically hilarious?? No thought was put into this one note character who is essentially boring after the first scene. Perhaps as a minor villain to be overcome in the first act he would have worked but he doesn't sustain interest for the full 90 minutes. 

These films are their best when they go full into riffing on the absurd. That's why the minion segments, usually far more random than the A plot, are the most enjoyable. Once these films get bogged down in what are essentially overly sentimental stories, they loose me.

So chalk this up as just another piece, exactly like the rest in this series. If that's your groove, more power to you. For those wanting something fresher, this is past it's prime.

Despicable Me 3
Starring: Steve Carrell, Kristin Wiig, Trey Parker, Julie Andrews, Pierre Coffin
Directors: Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda
Writers: Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio

Wednesday 28 June 2017

Baby Driver (2017)

Director Edgar Wright has a visual language that speaks to me. He finds a way to tell stories that is different from how anyone else does. He brings a different energy, a different texture to film making and it's an energy I enjoy. So far he hasn't made a film I didn't love. Baby Driver doesn't break his prefect record in that department.

His take on the prototypical crime film blends the rich characterization and layered dialogue of a Tarantino film but leaves out the racism and fetishization of violence. He throws in a tragically earnest yet doomed romance straight out of a Linklater film without the angst. And he sums it all up with one of the best shoot out scenes since Heat. But he does so all in a way that is one of the freshest, most exhilarating films to play all year.

Baby Driver is fun and pulse pounding from start to finish. The secret is the music. Wright scores his film with a song score which works, not only because it plays thematically with the film's gimmick, but because he populates it with just the right song throughout. So much of the dialogue is made up directly of lyric quotes. There is a sense that this world he has created is soaked through with music. The music is almost a character in the film. And the film moves to that music. Baby is alive with that music.

Ansel Elgort has never been better. He is fluid throughout the film and moves with the camera through an array of dances which are integrated into his character's being. This is a film filled with big C Characters but it is all about Baby and Elgort delivers on that. He's captivating.

I smiled all through through Baby Driver and just wanted to continue enjoying it. It would be hard to imagine not having a great time at this film, and isn't that why we go to movies in the first place?

Baby Driver
Starring: Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, Lily James, John Hamm, Jon Bernthal, Eiza Gonzalez
Writer/Director: Edgar Wright

Tuesday 27 June 2017

The Bad Batch (2017)

Director Ana Lily Amirpour seems dead set on avoiding making definable movies. she follows her first feature, a "persian language vampire western" with a story of cannibalism in a post-apocalyptic dystopia, but without turning to horror tropes. The Bad Batch is dreamlike and fantastic without being unintelligible. It's disturbing and upsetting without being gory. She tells the story of a young woman making her way through an impossible world and she does it elegantly. But she may fail to invest us in that woman's story enough to take the journey as enthusiastically as she may need us to.

I appreciated Amirpour's visuals. She finds this visual language of textures and light which is gorgeous to watch (like Ridley Scott's work in Thelma and Louise) and its necessary since the film isn't drowning in dialogue. Instead of through endless talking she tells her story through her characters' actions. Often those actions are horrific, but the other great strength of the film is how she doesn't dwell on it. Her gaze is far more interested in the impact of the events than in reveling in them. Unlike the kind of film making style where we witness the blood and gore, the horrific happens in The Bad Batch and the camera moves on, just giving us enough to understand, feel it, and wrestle with it.

For example, I don't believe it is spoiling it to say the main character is captured by cannibals and they remove one arm and one leg from her for meals. The film doesn't linger on the amputations but spends a great deal of time in its story showing her walking on her prosthetic, improvising with one arm. The film is about consequences of horrible things, not the horrible things themselves and there is something incredible interesting about that.

Another example is how we witness her murder someone, but the murder isn't a set piece to be ogled. But what comes out of that murder ends up being a major plot point. Amirpour seems interested in where things go after the horrors. She takes her time to tell her story, milking moments for their full range of emotions, often difficult ones.

Where The Bad Batch falls down is that her central character isn't successfully compelling enough to carry through the length of the film. Amirpour has created this world and her vision for it is remarkable, but the heroine of this tale just isn't quite enough to get us into it. She rails against the world she is plunked into. "I want to be the solution to something" she says at one point. But her heroism is never crafted in a way we understand it. We are just to assume she is a good person without motivation. I feel people are being too harsh with Aminpour in their critiques of this film. But I admit that I didn't care enough about the main character and her journey to become too invested.

Perhaps this is intentional. There is somewhat of a feeling that The Bad Batch is trying to be a "slice of life" sort of story set in this bedlam. Perhaps her central character and the folks she interacts with are supposed to be thinly drawn, unremarkable. There are characters introduced (like Giovanni Ribisi's character) who appear as if they should be more interesting than they are. But then they don't offer us much.

Still, what kept me interested was Amirpour's approach to telling her story, how she eschewed the graphic features of living in anarchy for an exploration of what it feels like. There was a haunting feeling, not quite hopelessness but perhaps more of a purposelessness. The movie never answers the "why" and perhaps that is part of what I responded to, both in a desire for an answer and in the bittersweetness of not having it. Clearly this film is not for everyone but it's also not as remote as it appears. The Bad Batch is certainly more fascinating than most are giving it credit for, even if it's not perfect.

The Bad Batch
Starring: Suki Waterhouse, Keanu Reeves, Jason Mamoa, Jim Carrey, Diego Luna, Giovanni Rabisi
Writer/Director: Ana Lily Amirpour


Sunday 25 June 2017

Captain Underpants the First Epic Movie (2017)

Never having read the popular book series this film is based on, I wasn't quite prepared for the all out audacity of Captain Underpants. It is an all in love letter to absurdity and toilet humour and it is completely endearing. I'm one of those who doesn't often find fart jokes funny but there is no denying the Captain saves potty jokes in glorious fashion.

Quick paced and clever, Captain Underpants is consistently entertaining. It makes its compelling argument against seriousness and for absurdity with simple yet effective style. Basically it's the sort of film that will make you smile no matter how hard you fight it, no matter what age you are.

Expect to laugh your ass off and leave feeling good.

Captain Underpants: the First Epic Movie
Starring: Kevin Hart, Ed Helms, Nick Krall
Director: David Soren
Writer: Nicholas Stollar

Friday 23 June 2017

Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)

Sigh.

It's not like these Transformers movies are getting better. They remain inanely written, ridiculously filmed, laced with racist undercurrents, and far too long to suffer through. If anything it is like they just double down on it making each one even worse than the last. Critiquing this film would just be a summary of the critiques from all the rest. At some point I just had to come to the realization that this franchise just isn't for me.

I am the kind of film fanatic that likes to think I can enjoy any kind of movie, that I can find that spark in anything. But Michael Bay seems dead set on proving me wrong. I can't swallow all of this. It's just too much of a bad thing.

I've got to hand it to Michael Bay and his fellow film makers on these projects. They stick to their overly unrealistic guns and deliver the same thing again and again and again. And clearly there is an audience for it. Lately that audience appears to be mostly outside North America, but it's still there. It's just not me.

There was a time early in this century when all the big film franchises were ones that I didn't care for. I remained a film fan, sought out the smaller amazing little films and waited for the tide of popular opinion to shift back to something I could be excited about. That time has come as many of the biggest movies are movies I love again. But some remnants of that time remain. The Transformers franchise is one of those remnants.

So I'll suffice it to say that this film and its ilk are not my cup of tea. And increasingly, in an age where the biggest lines at the multiplex most often are for films with a great deal more artistry, more integrity, and more meaningfulness, it is not the cup of tea of most audiences either... at least on this side of the ocean.

Transformers: The Last Knight
Starring: Marc Wahlberg, Josh Duhamel, Stanley Tucci, Anthony Hopkins
Director: Michael Bay
Writers: Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, Ken Nolan

Thursday 22 June 2017

The Book of Henry (2017)

The Book of Henry is a difficult movie to appreciate. It is not completely successful in what it iss trying to do, or what I assume it is trying to do, which is pay tribute to the mind of a child and the kinds of solutions children dream up to deal with complex and frightening adult worlds. The film needed to find a way to do this that is consistent with the kind of fantasy workings which play out logically in a child's plans and I'm not sure The Book of Henry gets there. But the movie not being completely successful doesn't doom it to failure either. It is filled with little moments which have a spark of both charm and magic as well as an over arching story which is touching.

As the film moves through its somewhat incongruant stylistic and genre choices, it can feel sometimes disjointed. The third act requires an amount of leeway as it gets a bit absurd. Absurdity is a legitimate story telling technique but it has to be pulled off well. This film only sort of gets there but when it does it can be moving.

It struggles with some difficult issues. For example, part of the film's story deals with how to respond to abuse you see around you in the world. It's not an easy question. The film's approach, to take a child's view of how to do that, a view that is absurd in the best way, is fascinating in itself. The challenge is for us to buy into it. For some audiences it will resonate. I'm not sure director Trevorrow will sell it to everyone.

But there are moments that are magical. There is a dance sequence near the end which captures a great deal of the difficult emotions involved with the difficult topics. There are moments of relationships between characters which spark something, although there are often missed character opportunities as well.

The Book of Henry is a challenging film which doesn't quite succeed but still offers some inspiring moments.

The Book of Henry
Starring: Naomi Watts, Jacob Tremblay, Sarah Silverman, Jaeden Lieberhar, Lee Pace
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Writer: Greg Hurwitz

Saturday 17 June 2017

Cars 3 (2017)

Most people will tell you Cars is their least favorite Pixar property. I certainly ranks low on my list of Pixar films but I've grown to have a greater appreciation for the series' first film over time. The second got way off track and really doesn't hold up. Fortunately the third is a bit of a return. While I am still more interested in Pixar innovating with new stories, Cars 3 captures something nostalgic and charming which reminds me of what I do like about Lightning McQueen and his friends.

The Cars series is mostly an appeal to the youngest of movie goers (certainly the Planes spin off caters to that demographic). But there is something for the old folks too in its call out to preserving older values. Cars 3 is about passing the torch, but not in a "retirement" sort of way, more in a finding new life sort of way. That being who you are doesn't mean things aren't going to change, but perhaps means that you grow into something new. There is also a nice story about the value and satisfaction one gets in moving from the mentored to the mentorer.

If there is something interesting here it is in the way the film challenges our ideas of usefulness. Many cultures have a way of valuing elder statespeople in what they offer to their communities while western culture has moved away from that. Cars 3 is about finding that again.

The story drags a little in the middle but picks up by the end, finds its groove and races across the finish line. This isn't Toy Story 3 and won't have you in buckets of tears. But it will make you smile and that in itself makes it good.

Cars 3
Starring: Owen Wilson, Cristela Alonzo, Armie Hammer, Chris Cooper, Larry the Cable Guy, Paul Newman, Nathan Fillion, Bonnie Hunt, Tony Shaloub, Cheech Marin, Jennifer Lewis, and of coarse John Ratzenberger
Director: Brian Fee
Writers: Kiel Murray, Bob Peterson, Mike Rich

Friday 16 June 2017

My Cousin Rachel (2017)

There is little one can say about how great My Cousin Rachel is without getting into spoilers. I guess you could point out it is very well acted by its cast. You could mention directed with a flare for suspense and uncertainty as well as capturing natural beauty and contrasting that with the tension inherent in the story. And you could say that the story is just one big satisfying mystery which plays into our cultural fears while upending them at the same time.

But to truly understand why you should see My Cousin Rachel you need to see it. You have been warned, spoilers from this point out.

My Cousin Rachel is a treatise on men's perceived entitlement to possess women. It is quite brilliantly crafted to suture its audience into the perspective of its "hero" played by the classically handsome Sam Clafin. It plays without suspicions about the lovely, independent, and therefore devious Rachel played perfectly by Rachel Weisz. We react with Clafin seeing her in full arsenic and old lace mode. The film is structured like a thriller so a villain is necessary and must be hiding in plain sight. We are quick to jump to conclusions, trust in what the good men are telling us, only to have that all upended by the film's Shayamalan like "twist" that Rachel is not the witch we have suspected her of being at all. That the real villain is our hero, is us.

Rachel does a very clever job of getting us to see our own biases towards strong women and deal with that consequence. It's a mirror held up to our sexism. From the marketing to the film's inherent style, tone, and structure, Rachel leads us down the garden path of our own making and holds us accountable for it.

"Why can't I live my life the way I want?" Rachel asks and as the audience we are faced with the way we support the statement in principle yet still participate in the ways that prevent women from doing so. A little more direct in its indictment of sexism than the film this one is remaking, My Cousin Rachel is extremely satisfying and entertaining and leaves a bittersweet taste in your mouth at the end.

My Cousin Rachel
Starring: Rachel Weisz, Sam Clafin, Iain Glen, Holiday Grainger
Writer/Director: Roger Michell



Monday 12 June 2017

It Comes at Night (2017)

In its initial release audiences were leaving It Comes at Night muttering about how terrible it was. Bad word of mouth is killing the film's potential at the box office. Many great films fall victim to general consensus gelling around negative responses. It Comes at Night is not the first and it won't be the last. But it is a great film. Don't let people tell you otherwise.

I think perhaps the negative reaction has to do with expectations, as it often does. When we convince ourselves we are going to see a certain film and the movie surprises us by being something completely different, we often react negatively. This is why people want trailers that ruin plots. The security of knowing what to expect is more important than the experience of having our expectations upended. We want to know what we're getting and have a hard time when things don't go as planned.

Cause It Comes at Night is not what you expect it to be. It is also not an easy watch. It Comes at Night plays to some fairly base fears, the kind we don't often want to admit to, we don't often let see the light of day. Marketed as a horror movie (cause Hollywood often doesn't have the vocabulary for a more diverse spectrum of films) It Comes at Night is about horrors, but not about monsters or "killers" or ghosts. It is about the horrors of humanity.

Probably the strongest part of It Comes at Night is how it makes us complicit. There is a situation where we, the audience, are made to feel motivated towards something evil, and feel relief in that evil. It is masterful but difficult. No not difficult, somewhat soul destroying. Perhaps that's why audiences are calling it a "bad movie."

We often call movies "bad" when they challenge our comfort with who we are. This movie, masterfully written and directed to cut us just perfectly by Trey Edward Shults and featuring a cast that is spot on perfect throughout, It Comes at Night is a powerful hour and a half that will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time and leave you thinking about a great deal. Perhaps asking people to wrestle with themes after the movie ends is too much for most folks. For those who appreciate that, It Comes at Night is just the punch in the gut you need.

It Comes at Night
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Carmen Ejogo, Christopher Abbott, Riley Keough
Writer/Director: Trey Edward Shults

Sunday 11 June 2017

Sleight (2017)

I think the thing that make Sleight work as well as it does it the gentle, nurturing approach that writer director J.D. Dillard brings to his film. Sleight is gorgeously shot, focusing on little details, finding beauty in common, everyday things. From the washed out greys of Bo's daily grind to the shadowy colours of his evening proclivities, Dillard finds a way to film it all so that you don't want to stop watching. Sleight is the kind of film which is a joy to watch.

Every great film needs a great story and Sleight is no slough there either. While perhaps not that original, Sleight's narrative is engrossing from start to finish. Young, disenfranchised, barely an adult himself, has to make his way in the world while supporting his little sister after their parents died. Sure he encounters all teh typical challenges from not being able to afford to live in a better neighbourhood to getting involved with gangs and crime. The twist is he's a magician and how he uses his skills, and his smarts, to outrun the deck which is stacked against him.

Bo is played by the magnetic (no pun intended) Jacob Latimore. He is another big part of the success of Sleight with his naturalistic and compelling performance. Will this be his breakout role? It certainly wouldn't surprise me. He has the movie star thing going. Also strong is Dule Hill in an against type role which surprised me as I haven't seen him do anything like this before.

Sleight quietly builds through its gut wrenching plot and comes out the other side completely satisfying. This is one of those little films you need to make a point of seeing.

Sleight
Starring: Jacob Latimore, Dule Hill, Sychelle Gabriel, Storm Reid
Writer/Director: J.D. Dillard


Friday 9 June 2017

The Mummy (2017)

The Mummy movie franchise in all its incarnations, struggles with a serious flaw which none of the films have been able to overcome. The 1932 film, inspired by the success of Dracula and Frankenstein, and the of the moment phenomenon of the opening of King Tut's tomb, was a bit of a hybrid between those two films. While it's plot holds close to Dracula's (ancient evil terrorizes "modern" world) the film makes the monster somewhat sympathetic like Frankenstein. But at the heart of the story are the colonial assumptions of the exotic and other being frightening and threatening to the western protagonists. The mummy here, while we understand his motivations and perhaps even feel bad for him, remains an outright villain and not a tragic figure like Frankenstein's monster. This take is carried through multiple films all the way through the 50s.

Fast forward to the 90s and we get Brandon Fraser's guilty pleasure Mummy series which takes the same basic story with its same basic colonialist assumptions and Indiana Joneses it into a fairly enjoyable and accessible adventure which spawned it's own round of sequels and spin offs. Again, the villain's motivations are relatable but his easterness is used to alienate us from him and it is another film about white people appropriating a foreign culture (taking their artifacts without permission) and remaining the heroes.

Now were in a new century with what we would assume to be a better understanding of these issues. However once again we have white folks saving each other from the brown people they have wronged. This present day set story, with all that we have at our disposal around post-colonial theory, could have been a real opportunity to reinvent this tale into something exciting. But that opportunity was missed by following the same story and falling into the same traps.

Despite this The Mummy isn't a failure. As a straight up action film it actually works fairly well. Writer/director Alex Kurtzman does a fairly good job of staging his set pieces and delivering some solid action. For me it was what stitched it together which didn't work. In Universal Studios' desire to create a "dark universe" of interconnected monster movies, they throw in a bunch of exposition which has to basically be narrated. I didn't feel like it worked as an organic part of the film. But this wasn't the only piece that didn't work.

The humour mostly falls flat. There was not a good balance of tone. Most of the film is melodramatic which allows for the level of action to exist in a believable way. But a great deal of the jokes were more in the line of cheesy action film one liners. It felt disjointed. This is most clearly embodied in the casting of Jake Johnson (a funny man) as the sidekick character. He never fits well with the rest of the film's more gothic tone. Cruise's attempts at jokes are fairly stale and the rest of the film is jostling between the action/horror plot, and the sporadic humour moments. It just never gelled.

So perhaps it is that The Mummy never finds a cohesive vision for what it's trying to do. It is trying to be set up for a new series of movies, laying ground work without being able to successfully tie that groundwork to the first film's plot. It also can't find a way to bring in humour without that pulling us out of the film. Finally it never wrestles with its colonial assumptions leaving a modern, thinking audience disappointed.

Being a fan of the original Universal Monsters oeuvre, there is a part of me that really wants this new take to succeed. What what I've seen so far I am hesitant to think it is going to.

The Mummy
Starring: Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutellla, Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance, Russell Crowe
Writer/Director: Alex Kurtzman