The True History of the Kelly Gang (2020)

While the rest of us may not be overly familiar with Ned Kelly, he's a legend in Australia, a Bush Ranger (thief, criminal), who is viewed as both folk hero and despicable criminal depending on one's point of view. The latest film treatment of his life, from director Justin Kurzel, paints him as a 19th century punk rock rebel, leaning into historically questionable facts like cross-dressing, and playing into the violent masculinity of the Australian historical coming of age. It is a striking film if somewhat problematic.

George MacKay as Kelly and Essie Davis as his mother are both riveting. They are complex and angry and horrible and victims of a cruel class system that ensures they remain face down in the dirt. Each of the actors give incredible performances and are supported in doing so by Kurzel's complex style of story telling which is both visually exciting and off-putting while also gives time to his characters to breathe and grow into who they can be.

Kurzels' film is frenetic and intense. He hyperfocuses on both the high stakes of each moment and the emotional impact. In this the film  is incredibly strong, giving purpose and pathoes to Kelly and his troupe. The film's take on Kelly is that he's forced into the life that he has, perhaps with another upbringing he would have been a civic leader or some other upstanding citizen. But faced with the world he grew up in, surrounded by the desperate adults who influenced him in his youth, he was given little to no choice but to step up and lean into the criminality his culture pushes him to. The film doesn't make him out to be a hero, his choices are celebrated. He's more tragic hero, left without choice, and brought down by his own mistakes.

But the film kept slipping into some pitfalls that I couldn't resolve in a way that felt okay. Kelly is often seen as a part of the hyper masculine culture of Australian identity and its push back against the effete British overlords who oppressed them. The film ties to wrestle with this a bit by playing with two ideas, the frock wearing of the bandits and the homoerotic connections between Kelly and the men in his life. It is an interesting narrative choice but I'm not sure the film manages it well. First I don't know if Kelly and his gang actually participated in the cross dressing phenomenon that some Bush Rangers did. It was a tactic seen as presenting instability perhaps madness and instill fear in ones enemies. The idea of gender bending as a way of signalling insanity is gross in itself but the way this film takes this on for Kelly is troubling. It portrays feminization of men as often a weakness to be disdained and the dress wearing as almost a necessary evil. For this to work the film needs to break through some of that discomfort in seeing men in dresses but it never gets there. It leaves it as if the dresses are a tool and nothing more. This perpetuates a kind of toxic masculinity which the film doesn't deal with.

This leads directly into how much the film sexualizes its male characters in titillating ways. Hoult, Hunnam, and MacKay are all presented nude often in sexual situations. MacKay even has a physicality with his character's good male friend which borders on a full on sex scene. He even kisses another man  but this is again presented as a moment of performative madness. Still all the male affection  transcends any of his relationships with women. Women's sexuality is often seen as vile, from his mother's need to be sexual to survive and his sisters being property for men to use. It is the men who get to be sexual in appealing ways, but always at moments of weakness. It is never presented as a position of strength. The film send us these unconscious messages about men nude and in dresses that is negative. The film's attempt to explore the problematic nature of masculinity in Australian history is noble but mishandled.

Despite these hurdles I found The True History succeeds where it tries to show just how limited Kelly and his people had it. His is the lashing out of a caged animal and it is tragically sad. He never truly stands for anything other than just survival. Many of those around him attempt to make it about standing for something but the films shows us this never really amounted to much. The film is gorgeous and painful in its exploration of those themes. As Kelly becomes more and more violent and his notorious acts are played out, they are not celebrated. They are increasingly horrific and sad. His end is portrayed as a desperate descent into madness. The film ends on a scene of proper Australian society celebrating and it feels truly unpleasant. The True History of the Kelly Gang is a bit of a gut punch, and perhaps that is the best way to tell the story of this history. Perhaps there isn't much good in it, perhaps it is a tale of the nation's shame instead of the nation's hero. 

The True History of the Kelly Gang
Starring: George MacKay, Essie Davis, Russell Crowe, Charlie Hunnam, Nicholas Hoult
Director: Justin Kurzel
Writer: Shaun Grant

The Willoughbys (2020)

Many of the best children's stories deal with very serious issues presented in a way children are able to deal with them. On first blush The Willoughbys is dark, the themes portrayed are serious neglect and child abuse. Underneath the absurdity of the animation and story, is a tale of surviving abuse, the way we process that, and the effects it has on people. Yet it is presented in a way that is accessible and very entertaining.

I was skeptical at first. Heavy doses of absurd rarely play well for me. But in terms of this story specifically it is almost necessary due to the heavy nature of the story. And as the film progressed I found The Willoughbys found the right balance of fun silliness and the narrative demands of its story. Underneath it all this is a story of resilience and connection even in light of trauma, even in light of uncontrollable changes.

The animation style is refreshing. Although it is CGI it is very textured, designed to look like stop motion animation. For example the characters' hair is made to look like yarn, the sets look like pop up books. The film has an original look which doesn't feel like anything else.

The story is a bit meandering. It almost feels episodic as it careens through different plot points which get resolved rather quickly. This gets worse as the film goes on moving from one random scenario to another. The story feels rushed and this exacerbates how disconnected much of it feels. The film isn't perfect and suffers from pacing issues. But overall the story's focus is on what real family means and that is satisfying. it is an impressive early outing from Bron Animation studio which shows a great deal of promise.

The Willoughbys
Starring: Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, Alessia Cara, Sean Cullen, Martin Short, Jane Krakowski, Ricky Gervais, Terry Crews
Director: Kris Pearn
Writers: Mark Stanleigh, Kris Pearn

Extraction (2020)

One of my favourite directors is a former stuntman (Gareth Evans). The profession has been producing more and more directors. I think there is something about the role which gives you good training for directing. But that doesn't mean every stuntman is going to be a great director. In this case Marvel Universe stuntman Sam Hargrave makes his feature debut with this rather standard action film. He shows us he has a good eye for impressive visuals and incredible action sequences. Not sure it says much else.

Extraction is a very cliched film. Self-destructive hero who has seen too much of the dark side of humanity is called into save the kidnapped child of a rich gangster and he finds his humanity in saving the child. Yes this story has been told so many times before. Here the point seems to be as obvious about things as possible. The film's script hands you everything you need to know and need to feel in telling this story. Characters tell you exactly their feelings and motivations every chance they get. This is a film that doesn't require any thinking. There won't be a twist you don't see coming. I see the appeal of that, well on a limited basis.

Chris Hemsworth is here to look tough and stay exactly within his wheel house. The role is "gritty" in a predictable, two-dimensional way so it feels perhaps a bit more of a stretch then his Thor part. Hemsworth is a decent enough actor to pull this off and does fine with what the film gives him.

Where the film works is the action and visual. It is a striking film to watch. The action is amazing and the film looks beautiful. I mean it when I say the action in this film makes it worth the watch. The film is fairly brutal and violent so be prepared for that. There just isn't a lot beyond that. A film like this can rise to higher levels through a number of techniques such as creative world building that invests us in the backstories of the characters or morality analogies making comments on issues that arise through its plot but the film doesn't really do any of that. It sticks to its all too basic story and fills it with predictable but glorious action set pieces.

I'm not exactly sure if it's the writing or the direction which is so sleight. Avengers Endgame director Joe Russo wrote this and it feels like it has his flashy but perhaps insubstantial touch. Plus the film doesn't truly wrestle well with its white savior themes, but again this is par for the course with this sort of action film. There are few moments where the film even tries to be anything but a cliche.Fortunately it is easy to forget that when you're lost in the incredible set pieces. They are top notch and show a lot of potential for perhaps a better written movie.

So if escapism is all you want, Extraction isn't a waste of time. Just don't expect anything more.

Extraction
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Rudhraksh Jaiswal, Randeep Hooda, Golshifteh Farahani, David Harbour, Sam Hargrave
Director: Sam Hargrave
Writer: Joe Russo

Macbeth (2015) REVISIT

This Macbeth film adaptation came out in the height of the popularity of Game of Thrones and it shows. Very reminiscent of the popular TV show, director Kurzel's take on the Scottish Play is bloody, medieval, and emotional. His film is visually spectacular and rich with pathos through the casting of truly strong leads with Fassbender and Cotillard. While the text is somewhat truncated, I enjoyed this film for capturing the spirit of Macbeth and adding some interesting interpretations.

First there is the visuals. The film is bathed in reds (covered in blood? out damn spot?) and is gritty and grimy. The Scottish nobles live in the medieval squalor we picture in these sorts of streaming TV show epics. There is a groundedness which comes from this aesthetic with earthy art direction only punctuated with the menacing red I mentioned. This is the story of a heinous crime against state and and against humanity and against nature so the bloody feel is appropriate. It sometimes saturates the screen with too much smoke and slow mo but it still remains a visually stunning film.

For the story, Kurzel sticks to the basics of the plot, allowing a lot of time for battle scenes which are quite enjoyable and well filmed while still getting the story and the point of Macbeth across. The film pushes right to the line of gratuitousess in the violence but doesn't cross it. One of the tricks to adapting Shakespeare is finding the right places to cut text. I felt this screenplay did a good job of keeping the talking to the essentials without losing a lot of what makes this play so popular. The famous speeches and lines are there. The plot and motivations are clear. Allowing the film's visual story telling to do its job. You feel it all. I appreciated the balance he strikes here.

But he also brings in something interesting I hadn't seen before in a Macbeth production. He creates a back story of the Macbeths loosing a young child and this motivation propels them through the film. The child's ghost appears to them at important moments as the child which could have been. It is a powerful tool well used here to give them more motivations behind their plotting. This allows Cotillard to truly shine by giving a rather restrained and quiet performance as Lady Macbeth, focusing on her reaction to loss, unlike the more common showier takes on her. I really enjoyed watching her and the richness she brings to the villainous character. She makes us empathize in ways I haven't before with this character. Fassbender plays off this. Often Macbeth himself can be played as a victim of his wife's deviousness but here he is a doting, loving husband trying to do the right thing just being convinced that what is right is actually something terrible. He has his own agency in the choices he makes and is motivated by conflicting drivers. It all comes together in a truly interesting way and both actors are up to the task.

The film's use of the supernatural is mostly downplayed and suggested, which is probably my preferred way of doing Macbeth. Still, the witches here, so vastly different from Polanski's shock and awe version, are interesting as they are given a rather natural and benign feeling. They don't appear to agents of evil or even just chaos. They remain more a force of nature. They appear to be just present, observing, without the malevolent air they are often presented with.

So overall I really enjoy this film. It is tight and interesting and provides the space to two truly wonderful performances to inhabit this space and this play.

Macbeth
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, David Thewlis, Paddy Considine, Elizabeth Debicki, Sean Harris, Jack Reynor
Director: Justin Kurzel
Writers: William Shakespeare, Jacob Koskoff, Michael Lesslie, Todd Louiso

Run This Town (2020)

Run This Town is what you would get if Aaron Sorkin wrote a Canadian political drama. Rapid fire intelligent dialogue, sexy smart characters, political intrigue critiquing the modern right. Run This Town is as exfiltrating as The West Wing. But focused on the quieter moments, the way diverse communities interact, the interconnectedness of urban life, and finding a hopefullness in the futility of it all. There is a real Canadianess in Run This Town which is different from American political thrillers.

Run This Town tells the schemes and political background of Rob Ford's last year as mayor of Toronto and looks at the ways political structures and the realities of the business of media tear down our opportunities for good government. Due to some copyright issues it changes some characters and facts but mostly sticks to the story which highlights the way our dysfunctional democratic institutions create situations where figure heads who bring in the mass support can get away with disgusting behavior. 

Writer/director Tollman uses a hyper kinetic filming style, split screen effects, flashy colours lighting, and other very music video feeling techniques to create an electric excitement throughout the film. But he slows it down at moments that need to be highlighted. There is a scene in the middle where Ford has a racist, sexist melt down in front of his staff, harassing them. It is a hard scene to watch in how it shows the powerlessness of those on the payroll of the mayor who try to get the work done and what they go through. There is another moment where Massoud's character is confronted with his own competing interests which is quite tender. Tollman balances his use of spectacle film making with these more powerful moments well.

I do find Tollman's approach is a bit on the nose. He often shoves his characters' issues in our faces. I'm willing to forgive this mostly as I find this works in this specific film and his style overcomes this or compensates for it. Run This Town remains a truly watchable film and it makes its point, even if it is a bit heavy handed in doing so.

I felt the entire cast felt up to the task of giving the film the energy it needs. Mena Massoud (Aladdin) is especially sharp as a Ford apologist on the mayor's payroll who is good at what he does and remains ambitious as he knows exactly what he's doing and the trade offs he's prepared to make.People talk about Damien Lewis' transformation into Ford, and I think he does a good job of finding some subtlety in a role which could have been total caricature, but for me the heart of the film was Massoud, conflicted and complicit, failing yet still the protagonist of the story. Platt feels flat in this, a rather thankless role which is meant to be our hero but fails to generate much sympathy.

But perhaps in those two roles the real Canadianess of this film comes out. Canadians often find themselves in the contradictions of our lives and these two characters personify that, even if they are constructs not based on real individuals. The film ends with a rather bleak message of futility yet with a spark of hope which I alluded to earlier. There is a happy ending in the tragedy which just felt so completely Canadian.

Run This Town
Starring: Ben Platt, Mena Massoud, Mina Dobrev, Scott Speedman, Gil Bellows, Jennifer Ehle, Damien Lewis
Writer/director: Ricky Tollman

The Twentieth Century (2019)

Writer/director Matthew Rankin's work isn't known for its subtlety or its mainstream appeal. So it wasn't too surprising when he put out a film about William Lyon Mackenzie King's rise to prominence as Canada's 10th Prime Minister. It also wasn't a surprise his subject wasn't buzzing on everyone's lips. Rankin's film is a surrealist experiment filmed like something out of Guy Madden's oeuvre. All of this adds up to what could have been a truly audacious project called The Twentieth Century.

In my mind this sort of experiment is an interesting one with plenty of possibility. Canada, being a young country, has a need to reflect on who we are and why we make the assumptions about ourselves that we do. We create certain myths of who we are and exploring why that is would be fascinating. Tearing a lot of that apart and holding an unflattering mirror to us would be a bold statement. Also promising is how King's story is ripe with potential for a fascinating take. His history is rather sordid with all sorts of innuendo and urban legend at our disposal to be exploited.

Which is perhaps why The Twentieth Century is disappointing to me. I felt like the opportunity to explore Canadianness through this lens is mostly missed by this film. There are some tongue in cheek references to being a Canuck and Great White North culture, some cliched jokes, but little in the way of in depth analysis and deconstruction of the Canadian identity mythos. Most of the King story line is farcical without much tie to the real man or even the legends surrounding him. Therefore he's just a device, not a real person or even an idea of a real person on which to build this story.  Instead the film exists in a fantasy Canada bearing little resemblance to the actual one, not enough to really take a look at our real nation while we watch this.

But Rankin's inspiration may not have been to accomplish any of these things. They are just my assumptions based on my own ideas of what a film like this should be. He may just have wanted to tell his absurd tale and enjoyed the idea of King, as rich a figure as he is, as the subject. So I should just examine what is here instead of what I might have wanted a project like this to be. Unfortunately for me there was little here to hold my interest. The story felt more like a series of Wes Anderson style joke scenes without enough of a story or character to keep me invested in it. Yes the film looks amazing, in that we're-trying-to-look-cheap-and-indie way films like this look, and it was enjoyable just for spectacle. There are some truly beautiful visuals here, even overlit and hazy as much of the film is. But all that wears off quickly and even in the rather short run time I lost interest.

So from the perspective of curiosity watching The Twentieth Century was interesting... enough. But as a narrative it didn't hold my attention. It also felt a bit like a missed opportunity as it could have offered us some hole poking in our Canadian identities which we could so badly use.

The Twentieth Century
Starring: Dan Beirne, Sarianne Cormier
Writer/Director: Matthew Rankin

Jusqu'au déclin/The Decline (2020)

A young man fascinated with survivalist culture, looking to protect his family, attends a training camp with a survivalist leader when the camp becomes divided after a tragedy and he has to fight to survive the camp itself. This tense deconstruction of paranoid militaristic culture is fascinating both as a thriller and as a look at the troubling nature of the mix of xenophobia and weapons fetishization.

The film follows the group of people who come together and bond over their fears and their apocalyptic idealization. They create a kind of family based on who is not part of who they are. Then when something happens they quickly turn on each other. Their culture of distrust and blame explodes onto themselves. The film becomes an analogy for building an identity and a culture on fear of the other, on celebrating violence and weapons as a tool for solutions, and on individualism. The culture falls apart, and until people can start working for a greater good, they all go down. All of their sills at surviving on their own don't help when their problems arise from not being able to trust each other.

The film also works on the level of thriller. As the parties reach their conflicts the film becomes a more and more intense game of cat and mouse. The film's northern forested setting makes for a beautiful backdrop to the action, also creating both the sense of claustrophobia as well as the isolation necessary for the story. The film's short running time keeps the action tight. The Decline quite expertly puts you edge of your seat.

The Decline is an exciting debut for first time feature director Laliberte. I'm eager to see what he can do next.

Jusqu'au déclin/The Decline 
Starring: Guillaume Laurin, Real Bosse, Marc-Andre Grondin
Director: Patrice Laliberte
Writers: Charles Dion, Nicholas Krief, Patrice Laliberte

Earth and Blood (2020)

Known for his french action shoot-em-up films, including a recent collaboration with JC Van Damme, writer/director Leclercq has delivered here a strong shoot out film with significant pathos that mostly delivers. The story is straight forward but executed very well if thinly drawn. The film sticks to its story and tells it in a way that is gripping and compelling in its rather brief runtime to give a very satisfying watch.

A terminally ill man decides to sell his remote sawmill only to find out his business has been compromised by criminals and he has to fight his way out to survive and for his daughter to survive. It is a simple idea that pays off as Leclercq focuses on blending the drama of the man's desperation along with some well structured action set pieces. Even in the short time he manages to touch on ideas around legacy, responsibility, a parent's love of their child.

Earth and Blood remarkably avoids a lot of stereotypes that this genre tends to revel in, partially it does this by casting almost entirely people of colour so the film doesn't become an invasion analogy of "foreigners." It also features a deaf character in a lead role whose deafness isn't used to victimize her. The film navigates a lot of these pitfalls well for its short run time.

Earth and Blood is beautifully shot in a lot of twilight sky semi-darkness bringing out the majesty of the woods and the mill. And when the action starts it gets bloody so be ready for that.

Leclercq sets up his cornered shoot out scenario simply and effectively and then lets loose. I enjoyed the way he built tension through a slow burn first half so that when the bullets started flying you really felt it. Sure the characters and themes could have been developed more in a longer film and perhaps much of that is drawn rather thing. But for what it does Earth and Blood succeeds; a tense standoff that is thrilling to watch.

La Terre et le Sang/Earth and Blood
Starring: Sami Bouajila, Eriq Ebouaney, Samy Seqhir, Sofia Lesaffre
Director: Julien Leclercq
Writers: Jeremey Guez, Julien Leclercq

Othello (1995)

Othello remains one of Shakespeare's most popular plays to be produced even today. Perhaps this is because of the themes it explores, multiple these which often remain relevent regardless of the era. The most prominent of these for modern audiences are the racial themes playing through the narrative. These, for us today, are often of primary concern as we live in a time with some of the most open discussion of challenging racist assumptions history has seen. And one of the most troubling aspects of modern film adaptations is how often Hollywood felt comfortable casting white actors in the title role, most often employing blackface when white actors portrayed the Moor. Remarkably a black man wasn't cast in the role in a major film adaptation until 1995. And I would argue that fact in itself makes it the most relevant film adaptation of Othello so far.

Because Othello is about many themes, one especially is about alienation and the challenges in our culture of true inclusion. The idea of casting actors in blackface upends the ability for the story to communicate that effectively. Stage productions in the late 20th century and early 21st century have been playing with ways of exploring this, but films have a bad history with this story. Parker's take was revolutionary just by being true to the text in having an othered actor in the title role.

Parker wisely casts Fishburne at the height of his career. He is a strong actor and here he nails it bringing both the character's rich strengths and his tragic weaknesses to the fore. Because Othello is about more than just about race an actor of real power and range is required and Fishburne here is remarkable. Othello is also about masculinity and its failings, aggression and the pursuit of power. It is about how much of that intersects with race and otherness. It is about the abuse of women at the hands of men. It is one of the richest plays in Shakespeare's oeuvre for the intersections of quite complicated ideas. Parker and Fishburne prove up to that. Othello's arc of succumbing to his jealousy and suspicion is horribly tragic. He also fully portrays Othello's acceptance of his own responsibility for his evil actions, one of the few of Shakespeare's tragic heroes to truly do this. He plays all the layers and Parker sets out his story in a way that gives Fishburne the platform to do this effectively.

An equally clever choices was to cast today's most accomplished Shakespearian film actor as one of history's most fascinating villains. Branagh as Iago is perfect. Branagh can land on the theatrical side of things (no complains here) but in this film he remains rather understated which I feel is a good choice for Iago. Iago is often considered one of the best villains ever written. He is complex and frightening. Some say he is a portrait of pure evil while others see him with complicated motivations. Branagh gives us all that. He and Fishburne play off each other wonderfully. Iago here is a master manipulator, using the racism of the Venetians to his advantage, and using the toxic masculinity of Othello against himself. It is as if he can see all the failings of everyone around them and best play them to his advantage. He is evil here for his willingness to advance himself at the cost of all others, and to take pleasure in it.

Parker films his story in a dark, lush Venice which is gilded and elite. It is the powerful we are critiquing here, and those who seek power by cooperating with that power. The film happens mostly at night lit with candles and torches. It is all very romantic. And when the awful violence occurs it is horrible yet somehow fits into a world that is structured as such.

My main critique of this film would be its Desdemona. Parker doesn't do much to give her any agency and I feel the play needs that to be truly successful. She can't just be the victim. She isn't written that way. While Irene Jacob feels weak here I'm not sure if it is her or the film not giving her the scenes to flesh out her character. Here Emilia is given far more to do and say but even her relationships with Iago and Desdemona aren't fleshed out as much as I would have liked to see.

However other than that I love watching this film of Othello and honestly don't feel any version with a white actor in black face can rival it.

Othello
Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Kenneth Branagh, Irene Jacob, Michael Sheen
Director: Oliver Parker
Writers: William Shakespeare, Oliver Parker

Trolls World Tour (2020)

I wasn't a fan of the first Trolls movie. I found it more than trite, but insultingly condescending. Could a sequel fix what was wrong for me? Well, pretty much it does what I didn't like the first time.

The idea behind the film is that we shouldn't be intolerant of the differences between us, particularly different cultures. "We're all trolls, differences shouldn't matter." says the overly optimistic Kendrick character (names Poppy, naturally). And that's great on a superficial level. But like the first movie, which had the superficial message of being yourself and finding happiness, Trolls World Tour also tackles the message in a way that is insultingly naive. There are stories, especially aimed at kids like this one, which are brilliantly creative in the way they create analogies for real world problems. They often present marvelous deconstructions of the world's challenges and help us, even when we're young, find ways to overcome those challenges. The Trolls films aren't one of these.

The film's most fun moments are the way it plays with cliches about different forms of music. Whether it is skewering rock, country, jazz, or another other genres the film has a lot of fun with this. Again I would say the film does this on the most superficial or superficial levels. The jokes are just so easy and predictable. But this takes away from its goal in the end. I never felt the movie made a good case for what makes the different genres appealing to their fans.

And this is a big part of how I feel the movie fails. If the moral of the story is that we should all embrace differences but can't get us to see the beauty in those differences, than is it really achieving it's goal. Like its predecessor. It pays lip service to the ideas it plays with but is lazy about it. There were moments I thought the film was going to get somewhere interesting. For example the story points out what wrong with the whole "deep down we're all the same" mantra and starts to talk about why differences do matter., not only matter but are essential and should be celebrated. For me it is how the film drops this and doesn't get through this idea that is my problem with it.

And generally the film is boring. The story is rather uninspired and most of the joy comes from hearing the jukebox playlist performed by the cast. It's like we only enjoy it because we recognize the ditties. So generally while I was being disappointed with the film's narrative failings I was also bored with the story. Not a good combo.

Trolls World Tour
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, James Cordon, Rachel Bloom, Ozzy Osborne, Anderson Paak, George Clinton, Mary J Blige, Kelly Clarkson, Sam Rockwell, Jamie Dornan, Kenan Thompson
Director: Walt Dohrn
Writers: Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, Elizabeth Tippet, Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky

Same Boat (2020)

I am drawn to the idea of films which are shot in clandestine ways. Certainly documentaries have used this technique but I am only aware of a few examples of fiction stories. In this case, writer/director Chris Roberti assembled his cast and crew for Same Boat on a cruise ship and shot a film without anyone knowing that's what they were doing. While the film has a high dose of on the margins indie feel to it, it is quite remarkable in how much there were able to do without anyone knowing they were filming a movie.

But even if it didn't have that hook, the story idea behind Same Boat is intriguing. Central character James (also played by Roberti) is an assassin from the future whose job it is to go back in time and kill people who will go on to do bad things before they do it. But while on this job (which happens while his target is on a cruise ship) he falls in love with her and second guesses his career choice. The film is clever and poses some interesting questions. It's short run time allows the film to tell its story without getting lost down rabbit holes, instead focusing on the story and relationships.

As I said, Same Boat scores high on the indie feel. His cast are mostly unknowns (all the better to get away with filming secretly while on a cruise ship - imagine if George Clooney tried to do that) and many of them are fairly wet behind the ears. But Roberti and his co-lead are both strong enough to pull off the boundary pushing plot and make it feel real. They also make the relationship feel real which is essential to the story working. The side characters err on the side of being a little too ridiculous. The subplots are rather over the top. But they remain charming, especially the on board magician.

Time travel plots are always problematic as there is always a reason to pull the damn things apart. Roberti smartly stays away from explaining that too much, giving just enough explanation to make the film's version of time travel reasonable. In this end this doesn't distract from the enjoyable story and charming cast of characters.

And anyone who has been on a cruise will recognize the entire cheesy vibe and all the wackiness of such a vacation. Generally this little guerilla production pulls off it's mission with a satisfying story that asks some interesting questions about what it means to be a bad person, or maybe just a person.

Same Boat
Starring: Chris Roberti, Tonya Glanz, Evan Kaufman, Katie Hartman, Jeff Seal
Writer/Director: Chris Roberti

Angels in America (2003) TOP 100

Often attempts to bring a story designed for the stage, especially a masterful one which has a very powerful stage presentation can be perilous. A theatrical performance is a very specific type of experiences and one that can't always be transposed to a screen in a way that captures the same emotion, the same catharsis. After having the profound experience of seeing Angels in America performed on the stage, I was worried how a film could recreate that.

Also this film is an attempt to capture a very specific time in American history. Angels in America is a story very rooted in the mid to late 80s as the world faced a plague, a virus plague for sure, but also a plague of extreme selfishness in political culture, an era which ushered in our current political dynamic. It is rooted in living a certain period of time. All of this made filming an Angels in America movie a difficult challenge, yet one the film successfully overcomes, bringing the play to the screen and bringing that play's analysis and narrative to full life. Kushner's screenplay remains true to all he does in his stage play and Nichols brings a cinematic beauty and cohesion to the story of Prior Walter.

I love that they chose not to try to contain the story into a regular movie length and instead stuck to the play's format, two plays with three acts. The film maintains much of the theatrical experience in even having most of the roles played by multiple actors. Other than a few exceptions (which allow the inclusion in the cast of James Cromwell and Michael Gambon for example) the main cast plays all the parts with Streep and and Thompson doing the bulk of that role switching heavy lifting. It all works to enrich the story as it does on the stage. A good example of this is how Justin Kirk playing both Louis' lover and the man he sneaks off to have anonymous sex with brings in all sorts of emotions that wouldn't be there if different actors had played the parts. The cast here is another reason the film is so strong. It has one of the best casts I've ever seen assembled for an event like this.

There is no need to exalt the work of Streep as we all know she is always perfect, but I will just say this, her ability to bring such beautiful complexity to Hannah, the mormon mother who comes to her son's rescue as he flails, is the heart at the centre of the film. Also not shocking is that Jeffrey Wright in his multiple roles, but mostly as the heroic Belize, drag queen nurse, is a revelation. And Emma Thompson has the range to be both glorious angel of God, homeless person living with madness, and butch nurse care giver.

Kushner's portrait of actual historical figure Ray Cohn here is remarkably complex and brilliant. He uses the character to outline American evil and how it manifests. He deconstructs the Republican model we see so clearly in Mitch McConnell and his ilk today. I would argue this may be Pacino's best performance. He brings to it the grandiose scenery chewing that he can do so well but balances it with touches of subtlety in personal moments. It fits perfectly with Kushner's portrait of Cohn and all he represents as complex villain who the film dares us to not feel at least a little for while remaining steadfast in our hate of him. 

Kirk has all the amazing screen presence necessary to embody Prior, the centre of this interlocking set of stories, the prophet, revelator. It isn't a small feat to pull him off yet he succeeds with flying colours. But I want to mention the lessor known Shenkman, in the film's most challenging role, Louis, a character who is hard to appreciate. He manages to make him fully real, relatable even. I have a difficult relationship with Louis and think I see a lot of me in him that I don't like. Seeing him played so compassionately here, warts and all, is wonderful. Shenkman's Louis is smart but dumb, weak but strong, and loving yet completely fallible and earns the partial redemption the story gives him.

Also strong is a young Patrick Wilson who has the thankless role of Joe. His scenes with Shenkman and Parker bring a realness to this story that is necessary. Parker herself gives what is likely my favourite of her performances, joyful in her soul crushing sorrow and her ultimate arc towards liberation from her nation, her religion, and her marriage is beautiful.

For me what makes Angels in America, the complete film, work so well is how all involved are dedicated to bringing the original play experience to life so fully. Cast, writer, director, are all A-list and at the top of their game in some of the most complex work I have ever see them do. And as the the 6 hours comes to its completion and Prior gives his inspirational closing remarks, remarks I remember first hit me like a lightning bolt to my heart the first time I saw it performed, I am transported back to that first time and I feel it wholly.

Angels in America is beautiful and painful and full of hope and remains as relevant as it always has been. This film became one of my favourite ever through the sheer power of its story, the beautiful way it encapsulates it in this moment in time, and the collection of remarkable performances. I have watched it more times than I can count and each time I get more and more from it and I still cry as it comes to its conclusion.

Angels in America
Starring: Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Jeffery Wright, Mary Louise Parker, Patrick Wilson, Justin Kirk, Ben Shenkman, James Cromwell, Michael Gambon, Simon Callow
Director: Mike Nichols
Writer: Tony Kushner

Spencer Confidential (2020)

I didn't rush into watching Spencer Confidential, the 5th collaboration between star Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg mostly because I haven't liked any of the previous 5 films. Finally seeing the film didn't prove me wrong although the film isn't terrible and is lighter with more of a comic bent than their previous projects. That being said it is still rather generic and disposable like most of their work together.

Spencer Confidential is based on a series of books about an ex-cop ex-con played by Wahlberg. Its fairly standard loner brings down crooked cops story line doesn't offer much new but it does offer enough not to be boring. It's just overly average, filled with the sorts of cliches that we expect in this sort of film.

But there are some highlights in the supporting cast. Wintson Duke, Iliza Shlesinger, and of coarse Alan Arkin are all hilariously entertaining to watch. Wahlberg is typically boring in the lead but his supporting cast are so enjoyable when they are on screen they make it worth watching. If this does become a series I hope they each continue to get roles cause I'd watch them all again playing these characters, especially Shlesinger. If any character got a series I'd like it to be hers.

So as a Netflix release it's a good fit. It offers enough to watch if you don't have much better to see but not enough that you won't feel bad for having spent money on a ticket.

Spencer Confidential 
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Winston Duke, Alan Arkin, Iliza Shlesinger, Bokeem Woodbine, Post Malone, Colleen Camp
Director: Peter Berg
Writers: Sean O'Keefe, Brian Helgeland