Shazam! (2019)

I love it when genre films, in this case superhero films, are about something more than just their on the page story. Shazam! found it's magic in exploring the meaning of family. The film looks at families in a number of forms and finds its heart in the family we choose. It's a beautiful take and it imbued the film with more than just its superhero origin story.

Yes characterizing the film as the Big of the superhero genre is a fair description. So fair the film actually references outright in a funny scene. The film is also being described more as a comedy than most hero films but I think this is an unfair description. This is no Deadpool or Guardians of the Galaxy. Here the humour isn't the driving force, shoved down our throats at every turn. It is intrinsically organic to the narrative and always just the right tone.

The film is also assumed to be more "family friendly" than other DC films. Again I'm not sure that's completely true. There are some rather intense moments so the film remains a bit much for kids too young. But for older kids and adults who remain kids, Shazam! finds the sweet spot of all the right kinds of entertainment.

But it doesn't take much to tell a superhero origin story. They are a dime a dozen these days. What Shazam! gets right is the emotional tone and punch. I actually teared up at the end. Asher Angel captures an honest and insightful portrayal of a kid seeking his home. But it's Jack Dylan Grazer ad Freddie Freeman who is my hero in the film. He goes between humour and pathoes effortlessly and gives his disabled foster kid character a very real world power.

Yes Shazam! is as fun as they say. It is an homage to 80s kid adventure films like Goonies and lives up to the legacy. But it is also something even more. I never thought I'd be this excited about a Shazam! film but it was magical.

Shazam!
Starring: Zachary Levy, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Mark Strong, Grace Fulton, Djimon Hounsou
Director: David F. Sandberg
Writer: Henry Gayden

Us (2019)

Get Out wasn't a fluke. Jordan Peele is a beautiful film maker and a daring story teller. His Us is chilling and thought provoking horror, still in the vein of Twilight Zone but a little more straight up scarefest. He grabs you from the first disconcerting frame, through a troubling title sequences, and thrusts you into a terrifying tale without wasting any time teasing or faking out his audience. And when the ride is over it isn't easily digested or explained away. It is a conversation piece that will have you thinking about so much and checking over your shoulder.

Us does what a good horror movie needs to do; it delivers on its ending. Most horror, no matter how stylish or artful, just can't make a satisfying ending (I'm looking at you Susperia) but Us manages it threefold. It gives an in-story explanation which is satisfying, it also gives us an unnerving little twist (nothing Shayamalan shocking, just the right amount of twisting), and it leaves enough left unsaid that there is so much to discuss. What is the story really about? How does it make you feel? What does it all mean?

At the centre of this is Lupita Nyong'o giving an earth shattering performance. She is revelatory, complicated, and riveting. She's always good but here she reaches a new level. Horror is a genre that often gives female actors great roles and this is sure to be a classic. Peele films her and the rest of his cast with a striking colour palette making the film gorgeous to watch, I wanted to pause many frames just to take in his composition and structure. Plus his script is tonally perfect. He has just the right amount of humour without taking away from the gravity of his story. He balances all the emotions just so and delivers on making a truly rewarding film going experience.

Prepare to be scared and mesmerized and perplexed and stimulated. Us is the real deal. 

Us
Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright, Evan Alex, Elizabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Anna Diop
Writer/Director: Jordan Peele

Captive State (2019)

Alien invasion movies tend to focus on the invasion. It's an excuse for action and, most often, explosions. It usually ends in humans defeating the invaders and sending them on their way to a triumphant musical crescendo. But these movies, while they can be great as entertainment, often miss something that should be inherent in the genre.

Alien invasion is about colonialism. A technologically advanced society comes to where they are not invited and asserts control through violence. It is the story of colonialism. Interestingly it is the colonialist societies which tell these tales and celebrate the resistance of the "freedom fighters." Perhaps it is about purging some unconscious guilt? We often tell ourselves the stories we want to to make ourselves feel good.

Then along comes a little movie which focuses not on the invasion, but the occupation, and the resistance to that occupation. Interestingly it is criticized for not being inspiring enough, perhaps for not telling the narrative we want from these films, about the triumph of the humans over the aliens. Perhaps because it shows some humans picking the sides of the aliens, collaborators who benefit from the occupation. Perhaps because Captive State explores a very human like response to invasion, one that is complicated and difficult and more like actual colonialism.

Writer/director Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) attempts to make a different sort of alien movie. One where the humans aren't all heroic and triumphant. He puts in some action sequences but limits them to when the story needs them. His focus remains on the story of a resistance, how they operate, how they interact with the collaborators. And he makes an interesting movie. I found his tale fascinating and inspiring. But what I appreciated most is the way he ties resistance to colonialism as heroic. It's not about a military resistance force as we're used to seeing. It's about resistance and the way that manifests, often on the fringes, with the marginalized.

I enjoyed his visual palette. He films the movie in documentary style (hand held camera, long shots, as if filmed by someone actually in the story) but still manages to find a way to bring colour and beauty into his scenes. There are gorgeous shots throughout. He's made a visually stunning film which also screams cinema verite.

The film isn't perfect but it is ambitious and gives one a lot to chew on. Its pacing may be a bit uneven but despite this I found it engrossing throughout. Wyatt has given us something meaty here and I'd even be interested in finding out more about what happens in this world.

Captive State
Starring: John Goodman, Ashton Sanders, Machine Gun Kelly, Vera Farmiga, Kiki Layne
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Writers: Erica Beeney, Rupert Wyatt

Wonder Park (2019)

Wonder Park, like many animated films, isn't about what it appears to be on the surface. It is about grief, how we deal with loss, and how we hold on to ourselves during such a crisis of self. But Wonder Park is also heavy handed and rather uninspiring. It has ambitions that it doesn't live up to. And in the end it isn't as entertaining as a movie about a magical theme park filled with animals should be.

There is an overly generic feeling to Wonder Park. Little about the art or character design inspires any sort of... well, wonder. The characters are unlikely to inspire the kind of love children of all ages feel for their favourite animated characters. I couldn't even tell you their names. Everything is generic at Wonder Park, like a low rent version of something greater.

Wonder Park also falls into a rather common trap American animation often falls into of over emphasizing everything. Every roller-coaster is unbelievably steep, every ferris-wheel dangles from the most precarious peek, etc. Yes the point is that we are in a young girl's imagination, but the film goes to great lengths to make her creativity based on real engineering and so seeing her fantasies be so fantastic feels dishoneset.

But the biggest sin of Wonder Park is just how uninspiring it is. The story is rather pedestrian and predictable. Like the design, like the characters, the story of Wonder Park is overly common. It isn't outright boring but it is rather uninteresting.

So despite what Wonder Park could have been it just isn't there. I think there is something here which, like a much superior film Inside Out, could have truly explored in a deep way, the emotions and resiliency of children. But it doesn't get anywhere near there.

Wonder Park
Starring: Jennifer Gardner, Matthew Broaderick, Keenan Thompson, Ken Jeong, Mina Kulis, John Oliver
Director: Dylan Brown
Writers: Josh Applebaum, Andre Nemec

Triple Frontier (2019)

I truly enjoy stories which explore a deconstruction of our understandings of heroism. We have hundreds of years of history of hero narratives, so when we look at tearing that apart to explore how complicated human beings are and how the way we build up heroes can be problematic, there is a rich area to be mined there. Triple Fontier looks at a group of men, the kind that are often painted as heroes, and asks us to see them somewhat differently. But while it flirts with this idea it doesn't have the boldness to take it all the way. But as it goes forward it gives us an interesting adventure story which does make us question some of what we're used to in these sorts of stories.

Director J.C. Chandor has made some films which peaked my interest but never completely grabbed me and Triple Frontier falls squarely in that category. It starts out strong, setting up the kind of guns and testosterone action we recognize easily, but then starts to make us see the characters self-destruct a bit as their "mission" goes off course. They make some terrible choices and things don't go as we would hope. Chandor films some tight and engaging action and throughout I was taken with it.

I think where it let me down is the ending. The film offers a redemption that didn't feel 100% honest. But it's a minor complaint. I still enjoyed the film more than I thought I would. The cast is strong (except Charlie Hunnam who is bad in everything he's in) and despite my usual lack of interest in soldiers-on-a-mission movies. It gives us some interesting things to think about and despite the ending being a bit pat it remained satisfying.

Triple Frontier
Starring: Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Pedro Pascal, Garrett Hedlund
Director: J.C. Chandor
Writers: Mark Boal, J.C. Chandor

Evening Shadows (2018)

I remember as a child seeking out films featuring LGBTQ characters and the struggle to find representation on the big screen. Often those characters would be rather two dimensional, noble examples with few imperfections and often their story was a simple existential struggle for acceptance for being who they are. Flash forward to my adulthood and now I seek LGBTQ films which feature a range of characters in diverse situations. The entire "please accept me for who I am" narrative is not just a bore but rather condescending. I don't need media to tell me it's okay to be gay. Yes queer people are human and deserving of respect. Just saying that isn't enough to make for an interesting movie.

I had heard so much buzz about Evening Shadows, described as the first Indian queer film to get wide circulation. I was eager to get a non-western perspective on queer cinema so upon finally getting to see it I jumped on the opportunity. Very early in the film I was greatly disappointed. Everything about Evening Shadows is pandering and simplistic. The story follows Kartik (Devansh Doshi) as he returns from the big city to his family home and spends a weekend with his mother, Vasudha (Mona Ambegaonkar). He comes out to her and she reacts almost comically horrified. Then they pass the time discussing his vanilla gayness, how he's just like everyone else, until she has to take on her son's identity as part of her own and accepts him.

As is often the case with these "gay is okay" films Kartik isn't a real person, complicated or flawed. He's handsome and loving, but of coarse cliched in his sensitivity and attraction to "women's activities" like cooking. He has a stunningly handsome and perfectly supportive partner back in Mumbai who basically just talks to him on the phone to offer support mostly wearing tank tops or hanging out shirtless so the gay audience can ogle his body. The journey Kartik and Vasudha go on is rife with safe and predictable beats as they work through her conservative values to get to the truth about how she loves him no matter what. While there is something inherently insulting about being told you are loved despite being who you are, I can put that aside for my real beef with the film is just how corny it is most of the time. No one is a real person here. Kartik's father and the rest of the conservative world around him are just as two dimensional as he is.

I struggle with the cultural relativism that would make a movie like this have to be so cliche and so uninspiring. Regardless of what it might do for folks who struggle to be okay with the queer people around them, for me it offers nothing, not an interesting story, no remarkable performances, and certainly not an examination of Indian life as a queer person.

Evening Shadows
Starring: Mona Ambegaonkar, Devansh Doshi, Ananth Mahadevan, Arpit Chaudhary
Director: Sridhar Rangayan
Writers:  Saagar Gupta, Sridhar Rangayan

Stan & Ollie (2019)

Laurel and Hardy were long before my time, but even with seeing old films I can't honestly say I ever appreciated them. So when a film was coming out about their life, I had to muster up the energy to see it. That paired with the fact that I never really enjoy Steven Coogan's work. The saving grace for the films is I love watching John C. Reilly so at least there was that.

I imagine I am not the only one for whom the story of Laurel and Hardy isn't in high demand. The film needed to find some way to make us care but after finally seeing it I'm not sure it did. The film picks up their story late in their careers. They are already waning and the world is ready to move on. They are already nostalgia and their contemporaries, Chaplin or Abbot and Costello, had easily eclipsed them. So why should we care? The film never makes a strong case. It neither shows us what made their act great or worthy of remembering, nor show us who they were as persons to make us care.

About half way through Stan & Ollie I asked myself what was I learning about their character, their humanity and I couldn't answer the question. Each is portrayed as rather 2 dimensional average blokes with very little to invest me in who they were. The film crafts this as a bit of a tragedy but never offers us anything to feel emotionally invested in. The side plot of their bickering wives felt tacked on. Generally Stan & Ollie just felt rather forgettable and for a movie that purports to make us remember celebrities we may have forgotten that's a rather risky approach.

Stan & Ollie
Starring: Steve Coogan, John C. Reilly, Shirley Henderson, Danny Huston, Nina Arianda
Director: John S. Baird
Writer: Jeff Pope

Captain Marvel (2019)

I've already outlined how the Marvel formula doesn't work for me. While I have enjoyed a few of the films in this series, the majority leave me rather cold and Captain Marvel is firmly in the latter category. Before the world freaks out (cause we're all supposed to love these movies) I will say it's fine. It's completely fine. It's just that these films just don't spin my wheels. It's great that so many others enjoy this sort of thing but I just don't.

Captain Marvel is the sort of action movie that goes exactly where you think it's going to go with no nuance and little artistry. It holds your hand. Characters tell you exactly what they are thinking and what they are doing in each scene. The plot is in your face. When there is a plot point or a motivation that could be a grey area a character jumps in and spells it out for you. While I get that a lot of people want this sort of lack of ambiguity, it bores me. I remember the reaction to Doctor Strange (a film I feel is very much in the vein of Captain Marvel) and how people called it mesmerizing because of the visuals yet for me the plot was so linear and paint-by-numbers I couldn't be dazzled by the effects. I felt similar here. There is a mystery about mistaken identity and yet the film is so obvious throughout. I felt it was a missed opportunity to make a film that keeps us guessing.

I think, for me the biggest disappointment here is tied to the nature of the plot. It is focused on stolen identities, self-discovery, doppelgangers, not knowing who to trust. Yet the film doesn't exploit this to tell a mindbending story leaving it's audience wondering "what are we seeing," or "can we trust what we've just seen." The film goes to great lengths to actually do the opposite, spell everything out for us, make sure no one is wondering about anything and that we get everything handed to us. I understand that for most movie audiences this is desirable. But it is just  not what I prefer. And here, in the face of a plot and character that just screamed out for this potential, I found it to be a waste.

And then there is the signature Marvel humour. Once again so much of the dramatic moments were undercut by the need to throw in jokes. I know. I know. The fans dig it. Great. But I just got frustrated as action sequences would loose any sense of risk due to the way the film eased this through humour. Once of the big battle scenes at the end is all for laughs and I never felt the stakes were high. But this was especially brought home for me near the end when there was, what I felt, was going to be a redeeming moment for the film. Captain Marvel faces her enemy, a man, who is basically mansplaning to her, accusing her of giving in to her emotions, a scenario so common and so prevalent that once again the film had a perfect opportunity to do something great. It was a perfect moment for the film to stand for something. And the film ends it with a joke. I thought this was a pivotal moment which could have had a real impact. But these films aren't about impact. They are about mass appeal. And a joke is easier to digest for the mass audience. It still drove the point home but for me it felt more hollow, less bold.

I will give the film credit for creating a true 90s feel. While style can overrun substance I felt they found the right balance of making this feel like a 90s film and capturing the esthetic of this without taking away from the story. Perhaps the soundtrack was a bit over the top. It often felt like the songs were wedged in there to scream "hey remember the hits of the 90s" but other than that the look and feel of the film had a strong yet subtle 90s air.

I know this will be a popular film cause it gives audiences what they want. I guess I just want something more.

Captain Marvel
Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Jude Law, Annette Benning, Lashanna Lynch, Djimon Hounsou, Clark Gregg, Lee Pace
Writers/Directors: Anna Bowden, Ryan Fleck 

Isn't It Romantic (2019)

A good idea and a charming star save Isn't It Romantic from being completely forgettable. It feels edited down to barely nothing and skimps on what could have made it rather subversive. But it's damn funny and rather entertaining.

The idea of subverting and undermining the rom/com tropes is a good one and the film flirts with this but only ends up doing it on the most basic of levels. There were moments I felt the film was going to do something a bit more radical but it never got there. Instead it just plays lovingly with the cliches of the genre, which in itself is fun, and at least sends home the right messages (spoiler alert: she needs to learn to love herself not fall in love with anyone else).

And Rebel Wilson as always is hilarious and entertaining to watch. Even when the script feels rather mundane (which is often) she is funny and she pulls off great chemistry with Adam Devine (her Pitch Perfect co-star). I also liked that the film didn't try to make her anything other than she is. She is smart, successful, and actually fairly happy with her life. The film doesn't try to make us feel she needed to change. The only change required by this plot was her falling in love with herself. Sure the story is a little hamfisted in getting her there but she still gets there.

So Isn't It Romantic could leave you really wanting more or you could just take it for the light harmless fluff it is. For me there were just too many moments when I saw it could do more, go farther, which took me out of my enjoyment a bit. But I still laughed.

Isn't It Romantic
Starring: Rebel Wilson, Adam Divine, Liam Hemsworth, Priyanka Chopra
Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson
Writers: Erin Cardillo, Dana Fox, Katie Silberman