Things Heard & Seen (2021)

The film makers behind American Splendor are back with a very different movie, a ghost story that fumbles being both scary and original. Things Heard & Seen feels like it is going through the motions, borrowing the cliches of the genre and never reaching past them. The film ends on what appears to be an attempt to present a twisty mystery but what in reality just feels tired and anti-climactic. 

The film needs time to do its slow burn but in that it looses us by being, well.... boring. The tension its trying to build never quite gets there, partially due to how vanilla the characters feel, how much they seem like every other movie of this ilk. So when it starts to gear up and the set pieces start coming none of them feel earned, and I already had checked out, no longer caring.

Berman and Pulcini haven't had a film for a while and unfortunately this isn't a triumphant return. This one feels like a misfire. 

Things Heard & Seen 

Starring: Amanda Seyfried, James Norton, Natalia Dyer, Karen Allen, F. Murray Abraham 

Writers/Directors: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
 

GIrl (2020)

Girl is a pulpy narrative set up as a revenge thriller but twists into something a bit different. It ends up exploring the nature of family and how our worlds are shaped by our family, here not for the best. This is a dark take, one that asks us some difficult questions. 

It is also an enjoyable story, one that grabs us quickly and holds us for its full run time, never dragging or veering off from its point. The film is a bit relentless in how it never gives us a moment to relax. There is a moment or two when you think you can, but the film quickly turns to its more pessimistic story and we're back on the edges of our seats. 

Thorne is strong here, giving a powerhouse performance, playing against type. Faust manages to both direct and play a delightfully creepy scenery chewing role. And Rourke is pure... well, Rourke, having the right amount of gravitas and evil. 

Once the film's twists are revealed the story takes us to an end that is the logical conclusion so there are no surprises there but they are satisfying and a bit challenging. We are used to narratives that reinforce our sense of family and belonging and this little story throws all that up in the air giving us an comfortable finish to this bitter little pill. 

Girl

Starring: Bella Thorne, Chad Faust, Mickey Rourke, Lanette Ware, Glen Gould

Writer/Director: Chad Faust

 

Rebecca (1940) REVISIT

Rebecca is a ghost story, sort of. It is the story of a woman whose name is never revealed to us except as she is the second Mrs. De Winter. She is surrounded by people who do not think she is important and, once married, is constantly reminded of the titular Rebecca, the first Mrs. De Winter, whose presence is everywhere. It is about real life ghosts, the kind that haunt us and get in the way of us living our lives. In this case our heroine is only ever allowed to be the second of her name. 

The first act is a romance, the unnamed heroine is swept off her feet by a handsome rich stranger. The scenes are romantic although they feel a bit dated in the way modern audiences understand romance. Still it fits with what we are going to see later, as a woman who never gets to be more than her husband's wife. We are brought into her joy as we see her being mistreated and her journey becomes ours for a reason. The first act is all setting us up for the next chapter, where her world comes crashing down around her due to how no one is able to let the dead Rebecca stay in the past. Fontaine's character is idealized; sweet, pretty, and kind. We are to both sympathize and empathize with her as well as struggle with her against the memories of the past. These attributes are what makes us feel the way we do about her. The whole film is about putting us on her side, we are being conditioned to care about certain people instead of others. 

I was first introduced to this film through reading I had done on queer coding in Hollywood's golden age. This is perhaps the classic example with the "villain," Mrs. Danvers, being presented as lesbian in the eyes of audiences of the age. Hitchcock commonly used queer coding in his films, often in ways that were subversive, not just to pit his audience against certain characters. But here it is the classic use which is portrayed. Danvers is cruel due to her love of the previous Mrs. De Winter, and her end isn't presented as tragic, it's what she deserves, because we are on the side of the sweet and charming new Mrs.  

But as I rewatched this film with a more 21st century eye, I began to see how today's audiences are prepared to watch these stories differently. This is the story of a woman who finds out her new husband played a hand in the death of his first wife from an unhappy marriage, attempted to cover it up, and then she makes a conscious decision to help him "get a way with it." The audiences of the time would have seen all of this as just based on their values of the day but today it is hard not to see this as confounding. We have to question who really has acted badly, and whose actions were justified or not. Perhaps today we might view this story with different eyes, different understandings. And perhaps as Manderlay burns down we are wonder what justice has been served? 

The film remains outstandingly beautiful and Hitchcock slowly builds the tension in a delicious manner, transitioning from the romance of the beginning into the growing claustrophobic energy of the second half. The only film of his to win the Best Picture Oscar and often cited as one of his best films, I think the film's story is fascinating for the way it needs some re-examining.The visual and narrative elements have held up incredibly but the story at its centre is one that leaves me feeling chilled. Watching a story designed to illicit certain emotions only to have a very different reaction, different sympathies, is a fascinating experience and in that the journey of the film remains a powerful one. Perhaps it is time to reevaluate Rebecca as something of darker tale that it may have even been originally intended. 

Rebecca

Starring: Lawrence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, George Sanders

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writers: Robert E Sherwood, Joan Harrison, Philip MacDonald, Michael Hogan

Mortal Kombat (2021)

What I expected and wanted from a Mortal Kombat movie: a decent story that provides for graphic fights to the death. What I got from the reboot of the Mortal Kombat movie: a decent story that provides for graphic fights to the death.

Sometimes a B-movie transcends its pulpy tropes and conventions and becomes something more. That's not what's happened here. What this film does is recreate the feel of the play of this popular game, from the moves to the visuals, but in a cinematic narrative format. It does so better than the earlier movie attempts. It is just what it needs to be, and nothing more. It is short and satisfying. You'll groan at the hits and cheer at the victories. That's what we're buying our tickets for. 

The film captures the nature of the characters and manages to bring them vibrant life. Sure the characters are one dimensional and the film does nothing to expand that. But they are all this story requires. 

So yes, sure, I believe any property has the potential to speak more profoundly to the human experience, can capture something honest and real in its narrative. But it's okay for some stories just to be simple, fun, and rather meaningless. Maybe no one is screaming for a Mortal Kombat movie to explore the existential pain of loss and death, sacrifice and honour. Maybe all we want is the "finish him." 

And we get that here. 

Mortal Kombat

Starring: Lewis Tan, Joe Taslim, Jessica McNamee, Joss Lawson, Mehcad Brooks, Ludi Lin, Tadanobu Asano, Chin Han, Hiroyuki Sanada

Director: Simon McQuoid

Writers: Greg Russo, Dave Callaham

 

Stowaway (2021)

Stowaway is one of those films that feels more like a thesis than a story. It's built on a problem. A mission to Mars designed to support 3 people is disrupted when a fourth person "stows away," albeit accidentally, and forces them to wrestle with the idea that they will all die unless one of them dies. That's it. That's the whole movie. The film spends a lot of time, I mean a lot of time, explaining why there is no other way. One of them has to be sacrificed. Finally (mild spoiler) one of them chooses to sacrifice themselves and the movie ends. 

Despite what feels like an overly constructed idea that never quite finds a way to be organic, the film still mostly works. The runtime isn't excessive. Writer/director Penna manages to build incredible tension throughout, as well as a great deal of empathy. The film is strong in how it honestly generates the sense of loss, personally felt by the audience. The small cast means there isn't a lot to distract us. The script smartly invests us in this handful of people and forcing us to choose one ends up being emotionally fraught. A lot of this has to do with the cast, top notch all, who deliver on this idea, making the payoff strong even if, again, I felt it was a bit too pat. 

But the idea itself is a worthy one to explore. Sure this is a simple premise and the film just makes excuses for why there can never be any other solution. But it speaks to something more. We in western culture have agreed tacitly that for the rest of us to thrive some of us must be sacrificed. This story puts this in our face and forces us to make a choice. Who should it be? There are very good, logical reasons why it should be one, but the film asks us to recognize the consequences of that. By casting the only black actor in the role of the sacrificial lamb the film is teaching us more about ourselves than we may want to face. The film, even with its small cast, gets us to look at how gender and race and vulnerability play into how these choices are made in real life.

So while the film felt a bit too overly constructed it overcame this enough for me to appreciate what it was doing. And I liked that it didn't find a way to miraculously pull a heroic moment to save the day as that would have truly missed the point. Sure I would have loved it if the film spent a little more time making it all feel more natural but it still did what I needed it to do to get onboard. And it made me ask myself some difficult questions, the answers of which I really didn't like. For that it gets points. 

Stowaway

Starring: Anna Kendrick, Toni Collette, Daniel Dae Kim, Shamier Anderson

Director: Joe Penna

Writers: Ryan Morrison, Joe Penna

 

Porky's (1981) REVISIT

Known as one of the most infamous teen sex comedies ever, on rewatch Porky's turns out to be so much more than I remember from my adolescent days. Remarkably it is written and directed by A Christmas Story director Bob Clark who, within this irreverent sex romp, layers in an insightful and not-at-all subtle deconstruction of racism in 1950 Americana. Also the film surprisingly refuses to villainize sexually active women, instead centering them while playfully mocking the horny teen boys pursuing them. 40 years on and Porky's is surprisingly progressive compared to pretty much any film of the genre to come before or later. 

The film isn't perfect for sure. There is fatphobia sprinkled through out which isn't forgivable. But the approach to the unrelenting male sexual drive is fierce. There are numerous scenes of men getting their comeuppance for being aggressive with women or not seeking consent, all stitched into the "tittilating" scenes designed around humour. The men are the butt of the jokes, no pun intended. The film is equal opportunity with its nudity, showing full frontal of women and men, more likely for laughs than for exploitation. Clark cleverly blends the ad advertised "peepshow" elements with his larger messages about what we'd now call toxic masculinity, institutionalized racism, and sex positivity. Before even mainstream films were exploring these topics, this subversive little sex comedy was taking them on, grabbing the bull by the preverbal horns. 

And the film remains damn funny. There are some truly smart lines in this film, often rising above the toilet humour these sorts of films focus on, while also making some truly funny sex jokes. Yes the film is knowingly absurd but that feels like a device used to tell this story, a story which manages to entertain throughout, not just during the nude scenes. I mean there is no reason for a drain to be in a locker room shower in the place where it is for the film's most famous of scenes, but that doesn't matter. It's for the laughs, not even for the shock of seeing naked women in the shower, a blink and you'll miss it moment that is transformed into a scene of hilarity instead, as well as another opportunity for the film to come down on the men for peeking without consent. 

As I said, the women of the film aren't shamed for being sexual. A number of the female characters embrace being sexually active and the film never makes us disrespect them for it. In fact when a couple of teachers are fired for having sex in the locker room, this is scene as an injustice, not as an appropriate consequence. In other ways of upending our expectations, the muscular jock most often played as the dumbass is presented here as a candidate for Princeton. Porky's continually refuses to fall into the stereotypes not only of the genre but of popular movies in general of the age.

And the film, sold on it promise of peek-a-boo nude scenes, ends up telling us a story about sexually positive teens shutting down the racist, sexual puritanism of their 1950 American town. This little piece of Americana actually shakes up the very notions we have of that and makes us laugh along the way. 

Porky's

Starring: Dan Monahan, Kim Cattral, Nancy Parsons, Boyd Gains, Susan Clark, Alex Karras, Chuck Mitchell, Art Hindle

Director: Bob Clark

Writers: Roger Swaybill, Bob Clark

 

Oscar Nominated Shorts (2021)

Short films are a joy, they allow a different sort of film making than most features ever are able to explore. They can offer us something a bit unique, more original than we are used to seeing in longer films. This year, as a fan of animation, I am very disappointed in the crop of animated films nominated in this category. I know there were way better short animated films released this year. because I have seen them. But the Academy nominated a better crop of live action and documentary films, even if the latter are on the depressing side as they confront much of our inhumanity... and those who have the strength to stand up to it. Here are my thoughts on this year's picks. 

Live Action

Feeling Through

This is the story of a young man confronted with a connection he wasn't expecting at a time he didn't need it, when we encounters a deaf blind man in the middle of the night. Simple in its presentation but powerful in its execution, this lovely story of humanness is the most inspiring of this bunch, but not in a cheap way, in an honest feeling way.

The Letter Room

Funny and poignant, this is the only of the nominated short dramatic films which features Hollywood stars (Oscar Isaac, Alia Shawkat), and its story moves from humorous to emotional very effectively in its short run time, beautifully taking us on a complicated journey in the way only short films can. A reminder of just how wonderful this genre can be. 

The Present

There are many places in the world where arbitrary systems interfere with the day to day lives of regular people. This Palestinian example is powerful in the way it slowly builds the microagressions into a moment of terror which will make your heart pound. 

Two Distant Strangers

Who would have thought you could mash up Groundhog Day and Queen and Slim into what ends up being a prescient examination of the trauma of being a young Black man in America. It never quite ends up being what you expect and keeps challenging your expectations of where it's going to take us. It is my favourite of the group. 

White Eye

This unassuming little film about a moment in time, about a man finding his stolen bike, and how that expands into consequences he didn't anticipate, is beautiful in its simplicity reminding us that sometimes the simple things have big impacts in our lives and the lives of others. 

Animation

Burrow

This little story about a bunny trying to build a home in a busy corner of the underground is cute and all, but when you look at all the other Pixar Sparkshorts which were released last year you have to wonder why the academy nominated this rather unremarkable film. However I do love that Pixar, a studio created to make CGI animated films, is producing these hand drawn shorts when few other major studios are working in that medium any longer. 

Genius Loci

Speaking of hand drawn animation, this French film is a self-consciously a series of hand drawn images. Its story is almost as abstract as its visuals. It presents a difficult narrative to get into, one that feels purposefully opaque which keeps some of it from resonating. But what one can crack from this is powerful in its way. 

If Anything Happens I Love You

The most tragic and powerful of the group, this bleak tale is about finding hope after the worst that can happen, and perhaps not letting it get worse. The film is stark with its colourless palette and mood. Still, perhaps more than the other films in this category it stirs up emotions, difficult ones. 

Opera

While striking for all that is going on at once, all the little pieces moving, the film drags on a bit and feels more like it's trying to make a point than tell us a story. I appreciated how different it looked from most other animated films we see in its dedication to its form, but it didn't have enough to grab us to sustain its runtime. 

Yes People

The only CGI animation in the bunch and it's cleverly designed to look like old school CGI. The film is the least of the group, being sweet and cute but with little substance, or even compelling story. 

Documentary

Colette

This story of a French resistance member going to visit the site of a concentration camp where her brother was killed challenges a lot of our contemporary assumptions about WWII and those who were caught up in it. It also gets us to see how recent these events and their legacy remain. I appreciated how it avoided being 'inspiration porn" and perhaps touched on something deeper. 

A Concerto is a Conversation

The happiest film of this group, this film is a celebration of a musician's success and the sharing of that with his grandfather, a man who overcame so much to create the world his grandson can be be a success in. My favourite of the nominees, the film is beautifully shot and lovingly made. It is a short love letter to being all you can be and recognizing where you come from. 

Do Not Split

This observational style doc about protestors in Hong Kong willing to use violent tactics to advance their cause is tense and riveting. The film doesn't comment directly so we are just witnesses to the clashes between protestors and the state forces. In the west we often turn a blind eye to what's happening in Hong Kong and this film forces us to take a hard look. 

Hunger Ward

This is one of those films that is so difficult to watch. The idea of watching children starve is appropriately horrendous, but how do we ever bring about an end to this completely man made horror until we look it in the face? Hunger Ward forces us to face the worst of ourselves yet perhaps some of the best of ourselves too, in how it focuses on women doing everything they can in the worst situations. Longer than is almost tolerable, but also powerful in the way it forces us to confront a horror that we want to turn away from. 

A Love Song For Latasha

This is the story of Latasha Harlins, who was murdered in a convenience store, as told, not through the circumstances of her death, but in the memories of her life by those who love her. It's a gorgeous film and the power of it comes from the joy it celebrates even while contemplating the terrible loss of life that happens each day in the USA.

Ride of Die (2021)

Ride or Die starts with an attention grabbing opening and it's not clear which way it's going to go with it. A young woman picks up a man, goes home with him, and in a scene which is both sexually and violently explicit, she kills him. The film is shot with neon vibrancy at that point and it all leads the viewer to wonder whether the film intends to exploit these themes for titillation, or if the film is forcing us to wrestle with the violence and sexuality in a way that will explore how these forces permeates or culture and how we are complicit in them. Former soft core pornography film maker Hiroki teases us and puts us on edge with how he blends the shocking into his story. 

The film then becomes a road trip as the killer and the woman she loves (who it turns out was the abused wife of the dead man) go on the run. Hiroki spends the time on developing who they are, how they got to this point, and where they might end. What makes Ride or Die work is the way he balances the explicit parts of his story with the character development so investing the audience in who we are watching that the intensity of the graphic scenes becomes more real and not just titillation. He tells this story of these two women finding a real joy as they run towards what they explicitly say is their end and encounter so many road blocks (no pun intended) on this journey mixing the tragic with an exuberant liberation. But it also explores how complicated their relationship is, asynchronous, and not necessarily romanticized. Hiroki films much of this part in the sun, creating a beautiful pastoral feeling while the film wrestles with all the complicated emotions happening.  

I am always a bit concerned about how we tell the stories of others, stories that aren't ours. I understand Hiroki has a history with LGBTQ stories and he does manage to make his central characters more than stereotypes. He finds little moments to pull us into his characters's arcs. There is a lovely little scene between a grown daughter and her mother which is charming and inspiring. There is a little moment with a cab driver that speaks to how much culturally is stacked against these women. It is these moments in the film that make it more than just a revenge thriller, more than just a movie with explicit sex scenes and it then makes the intense moments more effecting. Still, Hiroki uses an unblinking eye, a choice which some may legitimately find problematic. He makes us watch and he may have good reasons for that, but there are also issues which may not completely be overcome. The film might hit different people differently, negatively and positively, or perhaps both. For example there is a Blue is the Warmest Colour moment near the end which one can view a few ways.

But in the end the film seems to do more right than wrong, especially with its deliciously ambiguous ending which avoids the big climax one thinks is coming and instead remains rather understated leaving you wondering truly what will happen next. 

Ride or Die

Starring: Kiko Mizuhara, Honami Sato

Director: Ryuicki Hiroki

Writer: Nami Sikkawa

 

Love and Monsters (2020)

Love and Monsters is a fun little comedy adventure about a young man crossing post-apocalyptic monster infested territory to find the woman he loves. Amusing and endearing there isn't a lot to say about this cute little story. Boy survives the end of the world, seeks out girl, and in his quest befriends dog, precocious young girl, and a robot. He fights monsters. It hits all the beats you'd expect and provides some solid entertainment for 109 minutes. 

Love and Monsters has been nominated for its well done special effects and that is well deserved as the world they've created is immersive and adds to the pleasure of the story. The monsters aren't scary enough to upset younger viewers but just weird enough to be an unsettling delight. 

I will call it out in its lack of representation. The film is a bit of a romance and focuses on all the romantic pairings around O'Brien's character as he seeks out the love of his life. Yet for some reason everyone is heterosexual. Not a queer pairing in sight. Do we really still make movies in this decade where everyone is heterosexual? Come on... Especially in a film that keeps finding reasons for O'Brien to take his shirt off?

Still the movie is a fun watch with a story and characters that are satisfying enough for its run time. 

Love and Monsters

Starring: Dylan O'Brien, Jessica Henwick, Dan Ewing, Michael Rooker

Director: Michael Matthews

Writers: Brian Duffield, Matthew Robinson

 

Thunder Force (2021)

Thunder Force is very much a "vehicle," a film designed to highlight the talents of its star with really no other purpose for getting made but to deliver a new dose of that star's qualities to their audience. Vehicles are sometimes quite entertaining, often they are not, but most of the time they fall somewhere in the middle and that's pretty much where Thunder Force lands. Simple and rather forgettable it's a chance to get a McCarthy fix and not much more than that. 

I mean maybe Thunder Force does something a little bit more. Hollywood still doesn't make films that centre certain kinds of people and McCarthy using her star power to make a light, silly film about two women who are not Hollywood's preferred size or age, is a good thing in itself. Spencer is also always a delight to see in films and has defied the Hollywood structure to make a very successful career making all sorts of films, the kind of actor/producer who can do anything. Truly a pairing of these two talents is welcome just in itself. 

But the film really is the barest of minimums when it comes to its story, performances, and even comedy. It really does feel a little throw-away with its strung together story, its over simplistic themes, and to be honest McCarthy has been funnier. But then there are moments that manage to be truly enjoyable and truly funny. So while Thunder Force may not be McCarthy's comedic tour de force, and while sometimes it gets a bit on the boring side, there are times when Thunder Force will make you laugh. So maybe it's not a complete waste of time. 

Thunder Force

Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Octavia Spencer, Taylor Mosby, Bobby Cannavale, Jason Bateman, Pom Klementieff, Melissa Leo, Kevin Dunn, Melissa Ponzio, Ben Falcone

Writer/Director: Ben Falcone

 

 

Tremors Shrieker Island (2020)

Confession: I am a huge Tremors fan. This does not mean I think the Tremors movies are "good." Admittedly some are kind of painful while the rest (other the the first film) are B-movies at best. But I'll die on the hill that the first is a classic. I adore it and I will defend it as quality entertainment. However after that... well...  after the first couple sequels really sunk to lows, I find the franchise found a groove that I can dig (no pun intended) and I look forward to more graboid action each time there is a new film. 

With effects getting cheaper and other factors leading to the quality of low budget films going up the last few movies in this series have actually managed to be fun and entertaining if still ridiculous spectacles. Shrieker Island is one of the better of the bunch. Yes it's silly. Yes it's camp. Yes it is B-movie, no D-movie, glorious! You know exactly what you're going to get and you get it and it's fun. This, for me is as close as I get to a guilty pleasure.

Michael Gross takes his Gummer character to the next level and is, as always, a delight to watch. I liked them pairing him with Jon Heder, the comic timing was a better fit than with Jamie Kennedy. One way they save on costs is to cast unknowns throughout with just one or two "headliners" if you can call these guys that. But it works, with Richard Brake (Joe Chill from Batman '89 no less) being especially creepy as the corporate villain. 

The premise is a fun one; this time they are stuck on an island with the monsters. Sure the premise isn't original or anything but that's not why we enjoy these movies. No this film doesn't come close to raising the franchise to anywhere near the level of the first film, but for creature feature delight this is a hard one to beat. Despite the plot points here I just hope they keep this going cause I'm still down for more. 

 

Tremors Shrieker Island

Starring: Michael Gross, Jon Heder

Director: Don Michael Paul

Writers: Brian Brightly, Don Michael Paul

The Mauritanian (2021)

The Mauritanian is one of those movies that tells an important story but never quite finds a way to pull us in as emotionally as it should. The story is just laid out for us, one bread crumb at a time, without putting much of an artful spin on the story. Fortunately the power of this story is enough to make it compelling all the way through but little about The Maurtanian would compel someone to watch it again and again. 

Rahim is rightfully spotlighted for his wonderful performance. His role is a difficult one as he is presented as a victim without clean hands, a character who spends most of this time locked up. But he makes it work. His portrayal is powerful and complicated. 

Foster on the other hand, while completely competent and giving a performance worthy of her legacy, feels like she won her Golden Globe more for just being Foster instead of giving any specific high point in her career. 

So while little about The Mauritanian as a film stood out for me, the story remains a strong one. These tales of the Bush era are important films to be coming to light in the hopes that discussing what went on will prevent us from going down a similar road in the future. 

The Mauritanian

Starring: Tahar Rahim, Jodie Foster, Shailene Woodley, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zachary Levi

Director: Kevin Macdonald

Writers: MB Travin, Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani

 

I Confess (1953) REVISIT

There is no real consensus on Hitchcock's I Confess. Often seen as one of his lessor films, there are cults of appreciation of this moody, melodramatic film. I was first introduced to it through the film Le Confessional, Robert Lepage's gorgeous family drama centered around the making of this  film. While the film might be a difficult one to really embrace like some of his greater crowd-pleasers, there is a great deal I appreciate about it. 

I love the way Hitchcock plays with the intersections of faith and the secular world, the ways differing priorities intersect. I find the director's use of melodramatic elements to speak to this quite effectively, creating the right mood and emotional punch the story needs. Sure the film has a constructed feel to it. But for me that works in dissecting the structures we've put in place to define ourselves and our world. 

In many ways I Confess is full of the lush, pulpy, elements which make a story delicious, like a guilty pleasure. Forbidden love, murder, blackmail. It's all there. Are we, as the audience, to confess our desire for such a story? Setting the story in the (at the time) very Catholic Quebec City, and centering it around a priest wrestling with his desire, it is a dramatic exploration of guilt and shame, all wrapped up in a thriller. The exciting ending chase and shootings all ends in a request for forgiveness, an act of contrition. Through the story Hitchcock offers us forgiveness. 

the film drags a bit in the middle and yes it is very predictable, but for me, I Confess works in how it confronts us with our own devils, our own shame. We seek out in stories, in media, the kinds of violence we don't want in real life. Movie can be cathartic for our fears, our darker desires. Hitchcock perhaps understands this better than many of his contemporaries at the time, and he's helping us through that. 

I Confess

Starring: Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writers: George Tabori, William Archibald

 

Godzilla Vs. Kong (2021)

Fantastic stories of mega monsters have been with us as long as we've been telling each other stories. The word "Titans" goes back to the greeks and legends of giants and monsters were already old school by then. Genre novels like Doyle's The Lost World or Burrough's A Princess of Mars were full of pulpy adventures. Early cinema's golden era featured monsters of all varieties destroying things and perhaps reaching us about ourselves. We've never given up on our fascination with these sorts of stories and Legendary's ultra match up of the Titan Kings is just the latest in what will likely live on for generations after us. 

The approach with Godzilla vs. Kong is to keep it simple stupid. The story is just enough to give the monsters a reason to fight without making either a villain. Are the giant Kaiju size plot holes and do characters do ridiculous things. Sure there are and you bet they do. But does any of that matter? Hell no! What GvK doesn't do is talk down to its audience. Despite the amount of suspension of disbelief required for a film like this, the film isn't stupid just simple. It is what it sets out to be, never trying to pretend it's anything more, a fun story of two monsters fighting and the rest of us caught up in their wake. 

And like our post-modern era demands, it is us, the humans who are the villains. We've pretty much set that up for this entire run of this specific monster series so it's not a spoiler, and GvK is the pay off. The moral here isn't revolutionary. It's the same "man's foley" story we've seen a thousand times. It is appropriate and what a film like this sets out to do. I wouldn't have expected anything else. I'm not saying you can't make a monster movie that transcends the tropes of the genre, we have plenty of examples of that (including the vastly superior predecessor in this series Kong Skull Island), I'm just saying Godzilla vs. Kong isn't that and that's okay. This is about spectacle and little lesson about taking humanity down a peg. It's about children or all ages loving these giant monsters and wanting to revel in that love. The film's tight run time and straight forward plot allow it to forgive the story's weaknesses and just let yourself live in this joy. 

And the film is gorgeous. Setting the majority of the battles in Hong Kong at night creates a visual palette that is just irresistible to watch. Sure the monsters are wonderful rendered but we've seen that done well in this series before so here it's really about how they are used in the frame, how they interact, and the world they inhabit. It is spectacular. COVID got in the way of many seeing this as it was intended, on the biggest screen possible, but whatever size you are seeing this on it is gorgeous. 

For me the film had just the right amount of emotional punch, child like glee, modern big screen effects glory, and the bare minimum narrative thread to tie it all together to make it work. While it didn't exceed expectations or break open the genre, or revolutionize cinema, it entertained and gave the kid in me a fun ride that I thoroughly enjoyed. And that's enough. 

Godzilla vs. Kong

Starring: Alexander Skarsgard, Millie Bobby Brown, Robecca Hall, Bryan Tyree Henry, Shun Oguri, Eiza Gonzalez, Julian Dennison, Lance Reddick, Kyla Chandler, Damian Bichir, Kaylee Hottle

Director: Adam Wingard

Writers: Eric Pearson, Max Borenstein

 

Bad Trip (2021)

Hidden camera comedy is not my cup of tea. It feels predatory to me, especially when the jokes are about making people feel unsafe. So much of Bad Trip was really uncomfortable watching the cast make the unsuspecting people around them think they were in danger, think others were in danger. This sort of thing doesn't make me laugh and I have a hard time understanding how it makes others laugh. 

There are some seriously funny people in this. Haddish and Howery are people who can make me laugh and laugh hard, and there are times in this film where they do that, when the humour isn't about terrifying people... or about Andre getting naked, something that happens a lot in this film. So for me Bad Trip oscillated between funny, laugh out loud moments, and painful cringey moments that were just so unpleasant. Watching a guy get raped by another guy in a gorilla suit, or watching a newly married couple make out with a priest at their wedding, or a suicide attempt. Sorry, not funny. 

The film manages to be funny occasionally; like I said these people are hilarious comedians and they are truly funny. I just wish I spent more time laughing and less time cringing. 

A bit of a post-script: who doesn't recognize Haddish in this day and age? How is she able to fool all these people into thinking she's an ex con? I had similar questions about the Borat sequel...

Bad Trip

Starring: Eric Andre, Lil Rel Howery, Tiffany Haddish, Michaela Conlin

Director: Kitao Sakurai

Writers: Dan Curry, Eric Andre, Kitao Sakurai

 

Concrete Cowboy (2021)

Most of us don't know about the urban cowboys who ride their horses around Philly, a real life group of mostly Black horse riders who live in the heart of Philadelphia and oppose the gentrification that city, like so many others, is seeing. If you, like me, had no idea about them, I recommend you read up on them. Director Staub's film, Concrete Cowboy, features a fiction story set amongst these modern horsemen and gives us some insight into their unique piece of Americana. 

Concrete Cowboy at its heart is a story of a father and a son, each struggling with the America they are born into and the limits of what that offers them. Each making what they can of it. In that way the story is more universal, the need for connection, for roots, for community. But in the way it focuses on the very Black urban experience, and the even more so in the context of this special community, it becomes about something truly special. 

Sure the story itself isn't very surprising. It pretty much goes exactly in the direction you would expect it to. And director Staub's approach isn't overly radical either. He lays out the story in a fairly straightforward manner, hitting all those story beats that one would expect. But he shoots his film in a soft lit style that makes it warm and beautiful to look at. The film is quite gorgeous, and the pacing, lyrical and sensitive, lets this tale, one we've mostly seen before, wash over us in a beautiful manner. He also centres his actors so exquisitely, allowing them to bring this tale to life realistically and invitingly. 

Elba, as he is always, is powerful in his titular role. An actor who doesn't always get a fair shake from Hollywood, Elba is a talented professional and his gravitas is a strength of the film. But he's not alone. Moonlight's Jerome is a young firebrand and he lights up the screen when he's on even if he is in a role that feels a bit too much of a place holder. Same with Selma's Toussaint playing another character that could be a cliche but she transcends that in her performance. But at the centre of this film is McLaughlin as the protagonist of this story, finding his connection in ways he never expected. 

It is the setting in this unique mash up world of intersections we wouldn't expect which lifts this otherwise familiar father/son story into something remarkable. The story is a bit of a crowdpleaser but one that feels honest and real, especially in light of its very unique setting. Concrete Cowboy is the sort of film you do not regret watching and likely will sit with you for a while after seeing it.

Concrete Cowboy

Starring: Idris Elba, Caleb McLaughlin, Jharrel Jerome, Byron Bowers, Lorraine Toussaint, Clifford "Method Man" Smith

Director: Ricky Staub

Writers: Dan Walser, Ricky Staub