Encanto (2021)

Encanto is the 60th film made from Walt Disney Animation Studios, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs all the way through 101 Dalmatians, Beautify and the Beast, the Lion King, Frozen, and Zootopia. It is quite the legacy. Sure there is a Chicken Little or an Atlantis the Lost Empire in there from time to time but it remains the best animated track record of any studio ever so there is a lot to live up to. As I watched Encanto I had quite a bit of mixed feelings, some of it impressing me greatly while other parts of it losing me. As I've reflected on it more, it does feel like a bit of a mess that includes some gloriousness and some weakness that keep it from reaching some of the heights of the studio's work. 

The idea is an interesting one. We are introduced to a magical family, they all have a special "gift" or power which they use for the benefit of their village; all except one. Mirabel has no special abilities. The film spends a lot of time introducing us to her family and showing off all their powers and spending time with the amiable Mirabel and highlighting her not doing anything magical, but boy is she a special human being. The film kinda hits us over the head to make sure we get it, again and again. 

And then the family's magic is somehow threatened. They have a candle that symbolizes their magic or is the source of it or something, and they have a magical house which lives and breathes and helps them and the candle starts fading while the house begins cracking. None of this is explained but Mirabel none the less goes on a quest to discover a a solution including at one point "finding a vision" (whatever the heck that means) and singing the kinds of story driving songs that these kinds of musicals tend to have. 

But here is the rub. The story screams dues ex machina in that it never truly establishes what the problem is or how the potential solutions may effect it so it can just have her do whatever is convenient in the moment to fit what they want to put up on screen. None of it feels purposeful or organic so the film's story begins to drag. Despite the visual beauty of the film the story never grabs you. And in the end the story oscilates between two poles, an attempt at exploring generational trauma, which is interesting, and a rather cliched family-means-everything sort of message that just feels forced. The latter undercuts a lot of the former in ways that disappointed me. When the family overcomes their plight it all just feels inevitable, like there was no real chance of failure, because real stakes were never established. 

I did appreciate quite a bit about the film though. It is stunning to watch. The animators pulled out all the stops to make a visual cornucopia for us to enjoy. And I do like the idea of telling a story that doesn't feel cookie cutter, like we know where it is going to go. I was always wondering what was going to happen next which helped hold some interest despite the film taking short cuts and easy answers each step of the way to transition from one scene to the next. I appreciated that unlike most films (with the first Cars film being one of the notable exceptions) there are no bad guys in this film. Encanto's main struggle to overcome is within the main characters and not due to some dastardly villain. I find stories like that so satisfying. But again I'm not sure the writers convinced me there was that much of a struggle to begin with. 

I also appreciated that the songs were complex and rich, both lyrically and melodically. There weren't just catchy little ditties or smarmy pop ballads. They were essential for communicating information, developing characters, and moving the story forward. However with all that being said, they weren't catchy little ditties (other than We Don't Talk About Bruno which has gone on to become a huge phenomenon mostly because it is so catchy) meaning often the failed to truly grab your ear worm by the tail and make you sing the songs on the way out the door. The best musicals do both but there is no Let It Go that will live in your memory for years to come. 

So overall Encanto is a mixed bag. It did somethings I truly appreciated but also often frustrated me with its lack of cohesiveness. Maybe it will take me multiple viewings to truly appreciate but for now I don't feel overly motivated to give that a try. 

Encanto

Starring: Stephanie Beatriz, María Cecilia Botero, John Lequizamo, Diane Guerrero, Wilmer Valderrama, Maluma, Alan Tudyk

Directors: Jared Bush, Byron Howard

Writers: Charise Castro Smith, Jared Bush

 

House of Gucci (2021)

House of Gucci has an A-list cast, A-list director, and a salacious plot but never finds the right balance between camp and high drama, never connects to any real sense of commentary, and struggles to find a consistent tone. It's a long film that feels long, yet feels like its still missing so much. Mostly a misfire, there are elements within it that are fascinating and moments of performances that are stunning, but they are mixed with scenery chewing and sloppiness that takes away from the film. 

Often while watching House of Gucci I had difficulty following the characters' trajectories. They would do one thing in one scene and then suddenly have progressed to an entirely different perspective without the film showing us how they got there. The characters are just poorly drawn, fluctuating wildly and unpredictably between motivations and personalities. We have some of Hollywood's best and brightest here yet they oscillate between playing it straight and hamming it up. I never felt I had a handle on what I was watching therefore it often left me feeling cold. 

The story feels exploitative. Watching the rich and powerful flounder always feels like a cheap passtime. What director Scott did with his All The Money in the World was just so much more complex, interesting, and insightful.  Gucci just feels like watching The Real Housewives of... something. Gucci suffers from American Hustle syndrome. it's all about the hair and costumes and the story takes a sideline. There were moments I was almost getting into it. Gaga or Pacino (or any of them really) would have a tremendous scene and then the film would just slip into something distracting that took me back out of it. Also others are wasted. Why cast Salma Hayek if you're going to give her little to nothing to do? 

And then it just ends. The film takes a really long time to reach its climax, a climax it teases in the first moments, and then it never finds a way to pay it off. The ending is rushed and never capitalizes on the murder or the investigation at its heart. If the film developed a deeper insight into the inner workings of the family perhaps it could be forgiven, but because the film sticks to its melodrama so much it should at least get into the fall. But so much of what happens in Gucci just happens. Dad dies. Uncle goes to jail for tax evasion. Betrayal. Murder. It all just happens without any setting the stage or developing the pathos in each situation. So when the film suddenly jars to a halt and then prints across the screen what happened to each character afterward in "real life" it doesn't feel shocking it just feels predictable. 

This is one of those films that one would imagine should be so much better because of all involved. And maybe that's what makes House of Gucci such a disappointment. 

House of Gucci

Starring: Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, Salma Hayek, Jack Huston, Reeve Carney, Camille Cotton

Director: Ridley Scott

Writers: Becky Johnston, Roberto Bentivegna

 

Shadow of a Doubt (1943) REVISIT

Legend has it this is Hitchcock's favourite of his films. I can see why. It is part screwball comedy, part unsettling thriller, that just comes together very well. Shadow of a Doubt is the story of a young woman who starts to suspect her beloved uncle might be a murderer. It starts out very charming with Wright's family being a delightful collection of characters who are a joy to watch interact. But as the story progresses and the clues swirl around her handsome uncle the story begins to take a dark turn with a thrilling ending. It's an encapsulation of much of what makes Hitchcock's films so compelling.  

I hadn't seen this one before, shadowed no doubt by his bigger more famous films. But Shadow of a Doubt is a surprisingly engaging and entertaining film. Perhaps it is not as shocking or sexy as many of his bigger films but it is a solid watch. And once again I am taken by how well Hitchcock draws the female character at the centre of the film, making her up to the task of taking on the challenges before her. She is clearly gaslit but all going on around her but she doesn't need to be saved. She is a full protagonist in all senses of the word.

Give this one a watch if it's one you've missed, like it was for me. I can see why it held a soft spot for its director and it holds up well to this day. 

Shadow of a Doubt

Starring: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Macdonald Carey, Henry Travers, Patricia Collinge, Hume Cronyn

Director: Alfred Hitchcok

Writers: Thorton Wilder, Sally Benson, Alma Reville 

@Zola (2021)

Unflinching, funny, terrifying, sentimental, @Zola is a gut punch of a movie. Based on a  real life series of tweets that went viral, a live tweeting of a night of prostitution and violence, @Zola is a wild ride that winks at honesty. We might never know how accurate the real Zola's tweets were but none of it seems far from the truth. And this cast brings it to raw life in a way that you can't turn away from.

What I loved about the film is how it neither shamed nor talked down to its subjects. @Zola doesn't glamourize them but still manages to make them fully human. It would have been easy for @Zola to slip into parody or criticism. It avoids that and walks a very fine line. Zola herself is brought wonderfully to fully dimensional life by Paige who captures the comedy and tragedy of the situation and the character. Keough and Domingo are also strong, both of whom have become some of my favourite character actors of recent years. 

Prepare yourself for an experience as you sit down to watch @Zola. You might be pushed a bit to your limits but you won't be disappointed. 

@Zola

Starring: Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, Colman Domingo, Nicholas Braun, Ts Madison, Jason Mitchell

Director: Janicza Bravo

Writers: Jeremy O. Harris, Janicza Bravo

Operation Hyacinth (2021)

Imagine the Al Pacino film Cruising but without the homophobia or the comforting heterosexist ending. Operation Hyacinth, based on real events in Poland, is that film. It tells the very real story, a story that has played itself out in most of the world, of state persecution and violence directed towards queer men, and makes it finally no about the other, but from the point of view of someone personal. 

What ends up being fascinating about Hyacinth is how it explores its lead character's flowering, his discovering that he may have more to his passions that he imagined, or that his repressive culture allows. This is a story that has played out in western culture again and again,  but what makes this movie work is how it eschews the idea of a straight saviour taking pity on the poor homosexuals and has a man find out that there is more to him than he thought. He isn't necessarily a gay man, perhaps his love for his fiancee is real, but he also finds the ability to love, lust after, and connect with, a man as well and embraces that he too is one of the other. 

The film succeeds by putting its audience there too. It is at its heart a crime story, a good cop against the corrupt system movie, and it forces the audience into his point of view, the queer point of view. 

Unfortunately it is a story that likely it repeating today, making this movie even more powerful. 

Operation Hyacinth

Starring: Tomasz Ziętek

Director: Piotr Domalewski

Writer: Marcin Ciaston

 

tick, tick... BOOM! (2021)

Andrew Garfield ends up being perfect as the gregarious, endlessly optimistic, stubborn, and ridiculously talented Johnathan Larson. And the wunderkind Lin-Manuel Miranda is the perfect director to bring it to the screen. Larson is mythical in musical theater and this autobiographical work which really found an audience after his death and after his magnum opus Rent was a sensation is an idiosyncratic tale about the passion to write musicals. But in the hands of Miranda and Garfield and with the voice of Larson, it is just charming and sensational enough to capture almost any audience. 

Garfield inhabits the role so completely and apparently effortlessly that he is just endlessly watchable. His charisma is on fire here and his chemistry with costars Alexandra Shipp and Robin de Jesus is off the charts. Garfield is surprisingly adept at balancing the singing and acting together to fill out the entire role and is a joy to see on screen. 

And even though tick, tick... BOOM! feels like a proto Rent in both music and theme, Miranda brings it to life in a completely captivating manner. It becomes an ingenious hybrid between the feel of a one man independent show and a film. Miranda knows a little something about being a heterosexual musical theatre genius and his loving treatment of Larson is sensitive and adoring in an irresistible way. 

With it's follow-your-dreams message, perfect for Miranda's optimistic sensibilities, tick, tick... BOOM! is a delightfully inspiring and easily watchable film that should be able to win over almost anyone. 

tick, tick... BOOM!

Starring: Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesus, Joshua Henry, Venessa Hudgens, MJ Rodriguez, Jonathan Marc Sherman, Judith Light, Bradley Whitford, Richard Kind, Tariq Trotter, Bebe Neuwirth, Chita Rivera, Joel Grey, Phillipa Soo, Phylicia Rashad, Bernadette Peters, Adam Pascal, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Lin-Manuel Miranda 

Director: Lin-Manuel Miranda

Writer: Steven Levenson

 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

So first confession. I am not a Ghostbusters fan. I find the first movie a bit grating, the second a real mess, and I find the McCarthy/Wiig film the funniest of the bunch. So I went in to see Afterlife without a lot of expectations and it pretty much lived up to them. The story was slow and plodding yet satisfactorily sentimental. I enjoyed it while recognizing that it isn’t a great film either.

There is a real ugly trend in film criticism right now to shit on nostalgia. “Nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake” is a phrase that gets under my skin and makes me lose respect for those who use it. Fuck that. If you love something and want to see it paid homage, then who the fuck cares if a critic wants to rain on your parade. I thought Afterlife, a tribute to a film I don’t much care for, was a sweet and loving tribute that pushed all the buttons that I would want if I gave two shits about the original film. It actually almost made me care.

Sure wouldn’t it have been great if this film managed to convert me to a Ghostbusters fan? But maybe this isn’t for me. And maybe its not for cynics who want to ruin the fun for audiences. While it may not be a great film it isn’t a bad on either. And I imagine for those who love this world that it was a pretty nice revisit.

So if you are a Ghostbusters fan Afterlife will probably give you all the feels. If you aren’t you can still enjoy it for the rather silly and nonsensical fun that it is. But if you are a jerk you can try to feel all superior about why it really isn’t very good. 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Starring: Paul Rudd, McKenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon, Logan Kim, Celeste O'Connor, Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, Harold Ramis, Olivia Wilde

Director: Jason Reitman

Writers: Gil Kenan, Jason Reitman  

 

The Power of the Dog (2021)

Jane Campion's bleak western epic is powerful as a slow burn and difficult due to the troubling nature of its lead character, played with wonderful awfulness by Benedict Cumberbatch. But I struggle with the nature of a story that almost pathologises queerness and never quite overcomes this burden. 

This is the story of two brothers, rich ranchers in the early 20th century. One marries a widow and takes in her and her son. The other is a vile bastard who takes every chance he can to be nasty. The film follows him and his new nephew-in-law as they discover each other's fondness for other men and the ending gets dark. 

Where I struggle is with the film's handling of its queer characters. At first they feel like cliches, there is the sensitive effeminate youth played by Smit-McPhee, and Cumberbatch's closeted bully, taking out his internalized homophobia on the younger man. Yes, as the story progresses both become more complicated and go beyond the stereotypes. However both remain deeply unlikable and unrelatable in their otherness. Cumberbatch's character is a deeply cruel man, and even when he takes a liking to Smit-McPhee his personality remains brutal. As the younger character evolves we see him showing psychopathic tendencies, or least a strong lack of empathy and his own potential for cruelty is explored. 

The film doesn't seem able to disentangle their personality failings from their queerness. Or perhaps more acutely it relies on their queerness to be a source of their pathologies. There is no exploration of how they become who they are so it is implied it is all natural.  Just who they are. All of it together. The straight characters around them, who are the control group for the audience centring us, struggle to deal with their inconvenient traits and they are only able to find calm once the queer men are neutralized. 

Campion tells her story methodically, laying one piece after the other in a slow path that doesn't rush. So when Cumberbatch takes a rather sudden turn towards Smit-McPhee it is a bit jarring. Still she quite effectively builds a disquieting tale that is clearly intending to make us uncomfortable, even with the peace at the end. Still I wish she had found a way to make it so the central problem of her story wasn't queer cruel men. 

This raised the question of the heterosexual gaze on queer narratives. I admit that there are amazing queer films out there made by straight film makers. But I think that bar is hard to clear due to the way heterosexist impulses may be imprinted on those queer narratives when the film makers and actors don't have the lived experience to inhabit the queer characters authentically. 

In this case it is the pathologiszing of the closet. There is a popular mythology around homophobic men secretly being closeted homosexuals. This sort of rationalization centres queer men themselves as the problem instead of the heterosexist world they exist in which creates the oppression they are responding to. Campion's film doesn't unpack any of this. Instead it centres our view as the audience within the sympathetic and loving straight characters as they observe the quite othered queer characters who are the centre of this story. Therefore our view remains from the outside with heterosexist expectations and assumptions layered in. This is also evident in Cumberbatch's performance. While technically amazing, it lacks the queer insight to deconstruct his character's behaviour. 

Perhaps a queer director could have layered these contexts into the story. Perhaps a queer actor could have made the character more multidimensional. Perhaps not. The source of this story is a novel written by a gay man who lived the majority of his life closeted. Was this written at a time in his life when his critique of the heterosexual majority culture was capable of disconnecting his own participation in that? I don't know. I don't know the answer to any of these questions. But I do not that this film feels very much like one that doesn't get into the hearts, minds, and underlying motivations of its queer subjects. So no matter how beautiful it is, how elegantly filmed, or how powerfully performed, The Power of the Dog remains a disappointment for its queer audience that it pushes to the margins. 

The Power of the Dog

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirstin Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Frances Conroy, Keith Carradine, Adam Beech

Writer/Director: Jane Campion 

 

Red Notice (2021)

Put some of the world's (and the moment's) biggest stars and put them in a vanilla, standard action comedy where they each get to play the same character they play in every movie and you pretty much get Red Notice a film that is an exercise in giving audiences exactly what they expect. Sure Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot are all extremely likeable with winning formulas. But perhaps the first two's respective schticks are beginning to wear a little thin, when they aren't in something that offers anything unique. 

The Rock seems to think he's in another Fast and Furious spin off. Reynolds is... well exactly like he is in every movie. I found both takes starting to get a little grating. Can they do anything else? Perhaps why should they. Audiences pay to see them be these characters. They pay to see them regurgitate the same thing again and again. Gadot may not be as ubiquitous, but her sexy, smart kick ass it beginning to become her brand too. 

Red Notice is slick, with a warm colour palette and enough of a story that it doesn't bore. Some of the action sequences are really quite beautifully shot. The hunour is well what you would expect and the story is decently entertaining. Red Notice doesn't drop the ball but also doesn't stick with you. I dare people to be able to remember the intricacies of the plot 45 minutes after it's over. This is disposable entertainment that requires little to no attention to be able to engage with it. Audiences love that shit. 

So other than just feeling rather been-there-done-that, there is little offensive or terrible about Red Notice. There is also little that's great or interesting. But there is a large audience that doesn't want great or interesting and just wants to know exactly what to expect and get exactly what they order. 

Red Notice

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, Chris Diamantopoulos, Ritu Arya, Ed Sheeran

Writer/Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber 

Belfast (2021)

Sometimes, when you are watching a movie, you know almost right away that what you are seeing is magical, that it is capturing all that is transformative about cinema. The film is going to be the sort of experience that will stick with you, that you will remember, and that you will want to return to over time. I knew that early on when watching Belfast. I can't remember laughing and crying as much as I did during Belfast. It's that sort of film. Magical. 

Branagh has been one of my favourite film makers for a long time but he's been working as director for hire for most of the past decade to better or worse results. But Belfast is a true writer/director mini-masterpiece. We could get into all the ways the film is structurally amazing, from the techniques he uses to build his characters, tell his story, and evoke emotions. Belfast is a masterclass on all that. Gorgeously filmed it is the kind of movie you will be glad to see on the big screen with all its silver screen glory but it completely absorbing on a small screen as well. But really what makes Belfast so amazing is just how much it hits you in the feels, all the feels. 

Belfast is joyous from start to finish. I pretty much had a silly grin on my face through the entire thing, even when I was tearing up. This is no pretentious art film. It is filled with more heart than most other films I've seen all year put together. The emotion is raw and real and loving. Despite dealing with heavy issues it isn't cynical at all. It is earnest and hopeful and grateful. 

Belfast's cast is amazing. Sure you hear the names Judy Dench and Ciarán Hinds and expect top quality performances but both outshot even my highest expectations. Dornan and Balfe bring an honest, compelling portrait of love through difficult times that is infectious to watch and more romantic than most romantic comedies. And yes the young Jude Hill is everything they are saying about him. He is magnetic on screen and carries the entire film on his tiny shoulders. You will just want to watch him come to life on the big screen. 

Belfast is all of the things. It is the real deal. It is why we love cinema. It is magic.  

Belfast

Starring: Jude Hill, Jamie Dornan, Judy Dench, Ciarán Hinds, Caitríona Balfe 

Writer/Director: Kenneth Branagh

Passing (2021)

The film Passing is both simple and complex at the same time. The structure is beautifully delicate, mostly following the discussions between two characters as they meet over and over again through a period of time, but those conversations richly explore the complicated intersections of race, gender, and class barriers. There is an incredible tension built over the course of the film as the perilous situations of its centred characters begin to unravel. The movie is a ticking time bomb that is gripping from its first gorgeous moments. 

Passing truly is a gorgeous film. There is something inexplicably beautiful about black and white films and the director of photography has found the magic sweet spot between the medium's strengths and the beautiful art direction. It is a joy to watch each scene. 

But there is more to the choice of blank and white photography here. Certainly there is the obvious symbolism, but there is more to that. The lack of "colour" in the film blurs lines and creates visuals that amplify the characters' experiences, their points of view, and how they are viewed. It is an essential part of the film's make up to be shot this way.

At the heart of this are the incredible performances of its stars Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga. Both are incredible to watch and their chemistry together is off the charts. Also strong is André Holland. It is a dream team that delivers. 

Director Rebecca Hall has made an incredibly impressive debut with Passing, a film that shows a passion for both the subject and the craft. 

Passing

Starring: Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, André Holland, Alexander Skarsgård, Bill Camp

Writer/Director: Rebecca Hall

 

Saboteur (1942) REVISIT

Saboteur is the story of a wrongly accused man on the run. We've seen these stories many a time from The Fugitive to Dark Passage. Hitchcock himself explored it in films across his career like The Lodger and North By Northwest. There is something truly satisfying about these stories as they play into our persecution fears and usually provide a cathartic release in their vindicative narratives. What makes this one fascinating is the way Hitchcock explains the paranoia of war time. 

As his hero Barry Kane runs across America while trying to prove his innocence he encounters the kind of fear and othering that comes along with the us-vs.-them mentality that wars engender. Interestingly when he does find an openness to his plight it comes from those already seen as outsiders, a kindly blind man, a circus train full of "freak show" performers.  It is the rich and powerful who are determined to persecute Kane and the most "American" who are the quickest to turn out to have bad intentions. We see a villain being a kindly grandfather character. Saboteur makes us question who we see as moral.  

There are strong themes of democracy vs. fascism, with the fascists not necessarily being the Nazis (who at the time were terrorizing the world with war but many westerners may not have understood yet the whole horror of Nazism) but the Americans that use the war to push for an anti-democratic ideals. It's the rich and powerful plotting to bring about the downfall of democracy by fearing Americans into supporting it. Saboteur is remarkably prescient. 

The ending comes on a little fast and I'm not sure it resolves things. Perhaps that is all part of the plan, the story isn't wrapped up nicely in a pretty little bow. Instead the threat lingers which is perhaps more frightening. The film has a stunning finish to match it's amazing opening set piece, a stylish and ominous start to what ends up being a truly entertaining film. 

Saboteur 

Starring: Robert Cummings, Priscilla Lane, Otto Kruger

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writers: Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison, Dorothy Parker

 

Summertime (2021)

After his impressive debut feature Blindspotting, director Carlos López Estrada follows it up with this film that is what you get when you make a film entirely out of spoken word poetry. Summertime is a love letter to the real L.A. not the Hollywood/Beverly Hills/Compton stereotypes the rest of the world sees as L.A. but the L.A. that is lived in by real Angelenos. And it is rather glorious. 

This freeform narrative about intersecting lives through the City of Angels is rapid-fire and hits multiple emotions all at once as we careen through moments, little yet powerful moments, and come out the end having experienced something unlike what most movies offer. I can't speak to the authenticity of the Los Angelas experience captured here but the explorations of extraordinary moments in a day feels very authentic. It is about joy. I haven't felt such a joyous movie in a long time.

The characters speak beat poetry throughout, and it may take a few viewings to truly appreciate each piece but most of what I heard was impactful and engaging. 

Shot without a famous cast, Summertime highlights very real feeling personalities. One of the standouts here is Tyris Winter, who appears to be making a name for himself recently, and here he truly shines. If anything I wanted more of him on screen. But he's not alone. Everyone face here is watchable. You just want to know these people. 

Summertime is gorgeous and sweeps you up in its rhymes and joy, the kind of lyrical film that you can watch again and again to appreciate all it brings to the table.  Bring it on Estrada, whatever film you want to make next. 

Summertime
Starring: Tyris Winter

Director: Carlos López Estrada

Writer: Dave Harris

 

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021)

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain feels like it is attempting to be a Tim Burton movie, with a delightfully off weirdness and Claire Foy channelling Helena Bonham Carter. This story of an artist Wain who likely was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia during his lifetime, is charming as one of those misunderstood oddball narratives and Cumberbatch and Foy are both so talented they bring a delightful life to their characters. But in the end I'm not sure how memorable this little story will be. 

The script is delightfully clever with funny little bon mots throughout  Sharpe's direction is energetic and takes advantage of the beautiful art direction. He finds lovely little ways to bring out the emotion in his story visually. There is always something to watch during the film. And the two leads are both doing a wonderful job of bringing their respective eccentric characters to fully realized life. Everything about The Electrical Life should mean they hit it out of the park. But despite all of this I never felt myself getting truly invested in the story. 

For me the film never found the spark... dare I say electricity, needed to truly come alive. I enjoyed it and there was much about it I liked. But it didn't capture me in the way I would want to enjoy it again and again. 

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy, Toby Jones, Olivia Coleman, Andrea Riseborough, Hayley Squires, Nick Cave, Taika Waititi, Richard Ayoade

Director: Will Sharpe

Writers: Simon Stephenson, Will Sharpe

  

 

Finch (2021)

Tom Hanks is no stranger to the one-man-show movie. He's the only one on screen for most of Castaway and he does it again with Finch (sort of), a post-apocalyptic story of an isolated man trying to survive a harsh climate who builds a robot for the sole purpose of that robot taking care of his dog after he dies. It is the sort of film that likely could have gone far into the schmaltzy side of things easily but Hanks with his gravitas and charm saves it so it ends up being quite a lovely tale if rather bland. 

Hanks isn't entirely alone. Caleb Landry Jones, with his own unique brand of quirkiness, plays Jeff, the robot through motion capture and voice over. He stumbles over some of the regular problems of playing a robot in terms of balancing just how much personality and emotion a machine should have. But his chemistry with the on screen Hanks is strong so he makes it work. 

And then there is the dog who is as cute as can be and makes you want to believe a man would go to all this trouble to ensure his future safety. The film therefore is about just how far we go for love, what relationships mean to us, and just how much our connections drive our purpose in the world. Director Sapochnik does a good job of building tension and emotion during the thin plot he has here so the film doesn't tire during its runtime. All in all this is the sort of film that one might not be motivated to see on a big screen but given the chance to check it out in the comfort of ones own home (on a bigger TV if possible as visually the film comes together quite nicely) it would be worth experiencing. 

Finch

Starring: Tom Hanks, Caleb Landry Jones

Director: Miguel Sapochnik

Writers: Craig Luck, Ivor Powell  

 

Spencer (2021)

It have little passion for or interest in the Royal Family and their drama. And I struggle to work up much sympathy for powerful rich people who are victims of their own privilege. Yes Spencer is a gorgeous movie with a strong performance at its centre, but as it plays out it feels drawn out overly simple in its explorations. It ends on a note that feels neither earned nor revelatory, just expected. 

We are used to seeing Diana Spencer played in popular media (from The Crown to numerous film takes on her life) as the poor little rich girl who got devoured by fame and fortune, power and prestige. We are also used to seeing the ruling House of Windsor as villains who used her for their own purposes and spat her out when she was no longer meeting their needs. I get it and think it's likely not far from the truth. But it just feels done before. 

Spencer's take on the tale is to follow the poor princess through (basically) one day, in this case Christmas Day, to get a glimpse behind the palace and just how painful all that service must have been. Diana is losing her mind, not sure of what's real, seeing visions, being tormented by the family she married into and the servants there to serve her. She has one friend who adores her and her children enjoy every moments with her, well except for one where her mental health issues are clearly causing her son some trauma. We see how lovely she treats the servants so we know she's the good one.

The film is brilliant in the way it runs us through the routines of the royal household, the schedules, the militaristic discipline. It is the royal life itself that is destroying her. Even the Queen admits she realizes that she herself is just "currency." We watch as armies of uniforms go through the motions of making everyday life for these people, preparing the meals, dressing them, managing every details. The film's point is well made here as this drones on and on. 

And this all happens within a beautifully shot film. Director Larrain knows how to make beautiful movies and here he not only has the sets and dresses which make every scene gorgeous, he has Kristin Stewart looking as lovely and princess-like as the real Diana. He focuses on her almost entirely, and she delivers a wonderful performance of a woman on the edge yet always held back by that noble British stiff upper lip. 

But as the film reaches one sort of climax, Diana rips the humungous pearls off from around her neck which dramatically fall down the stairs to symbolize her breaking her chains the whole things feels just so on the nose. I kept waiting for there to be something to make me realize something I hadn't before or to feel something more than I had before. I never got there. The film just expects us to assume such a thing and for me that just wasn't enough. 

So as the film which just showed us how regimented her life was ends with her just driving off with the child who will be the future King of England in the passenger seat so she can take him through the KFC drivethru and then sit, unprotected along the Thames looking out at the Tower Bridge while they eat their fried chicken, I had to ask myself what was the point? This is a beautiful film with a great turn by Stewart that doesn't offer a lot under the surface. 

Spencer

Starring: Kristin Stewart, Timothy Spall, Sally Hawkins, Sean Harris, Jack Nielson, Freddy Spry, Jack Farthing, Stella Gonet, Amy Manson

Director: Pablo Larrain

Writer: Steven Knight  

 

The Harder They Fall (2021)

While the events of this story are fictional... These. People. Existed.

The history of the western genre is one of myth-building, one designed to tell a certain narrative, a narrative that erases the stories of so many, centres the importance of certain people only, and justifies a history of violence and genocide. Only recently have there begun to be a critical mass of westerns which challenge that narrative. Yes there were black cowboys, outlaws, and lawmen. Many of those actual historical figures have been woven into this fictional cowboy story that is both traditional western embracing many of its classic tropes, and modern action movie featuring innovative story telling techniques like we see from auteur directors of our age. 

Director Jeymes Samuel, yes that guy, the Bullitts, brother to singer Seal, balances the tensions of this movie remarkably incorporating the audacious film making styles of a Baz Luhrmann or a Quintin Tarantino (but finding a visual and musical language all his own) while setting it all in a down to earth western even down to the final shootout climax that tells a damn good story that pushes all the requisite oldtimey buttons. 

And he fills his film with one of the best casts you could imagine. At the centre are Delroy Lindo, the statesman of the group who I feel has been doing some of his best work recently, as well as relative newcomer Jonathan Majors who has been strong in most of what I've seen him in so far but here really breaks out as the real historical figure Nat Love. But look at the rest of this cast -- it is a dream come true and everyone brings their A game. Weather its Elba's complicated villain, King's ambitious gangster, Beetz' independent entrepreneur, Stanfield's reflective sharp shooter, Deadwyler's gender non-conforming dynamo... I mean it goes on and on. 

I don't want to imply that Samuel copies anyone. He's found his own tone and voice with this film that mixes a strong kinetic energy with moments of intimacy, all tied together with a clever musical song score that gives The Harder They Fall a real sense that we seeing something unique here.  

Samuel's story explores the creation of a nation that is looking to exclude large parts of its population and the people who are desperate to carve out their piece even if it means making bad choices. It uses the western genre's morality play to juxtapose different players through a rock-and-a-hard-place plot which leaves much in the shades-of-grey department. No one is guiltless. No one is unsympathetic. Instead we see a group a people making their way in a harsh country that doesn't want them. Samuel builds his characters from the ground up. They may not bare much resemblance to the historical figures they take their names from but that's not the point. People of colour existed in the old west and they belong in these stories. 

Samuels takes his time to tell this story, through his visuals, his characters, and his rich, entertaining dialogue. The Harder They Fall is damn good storytelling and a hell or a great ride. 

The Harder They Fall

Starring: Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Delroy Lindo, Regine King, Zazie Beetz, Lakeith Stanfield, RJ Cyler, Danielle Deadwyler, Dion Cole, Edi Gathegi, Damon Wayans Jr. 

Director: Jaymes Samuel

Writers: Boaz Yakin, Jaymes Samuel

    

 

The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021)

I fully admit that Wes Anderson's films just aren't my bag. There is a smarmy detachment to them, a refusal to take their own stories to heart, that allows an icy "oh so what?" quality for those who don't want to seem to debase themselves with fandom. It's like they are too busy being clever to ever allow true feelings to infect the audience. We are to just marvel at the ironic wit and never let ourselves care too much. They are the cinematic defence mechanisms. They are films for the cool kids who look down their noses at the nerds and their provincial franchises. 

Sure they are visually stunning (even if the straight on camera style does get tired quickly), filled with the best casts pretentiousness can buy (now that Woody Allen has lost that pull), and the scripts are pithy and rapid fire so we don't have time to realize the emperor of these stories is wearing no clothes. I often find myself laughing but it's a hollow, unsatisfying laugh, the kind that won't trigger the same reaction on repeat viewings. 

I actually found The French Dispatch a bit of an easier pill to swallow than his more recent films like The Grand Budapest Hotel or Moonrise Kingdom, as this was a series of short stories, none of which had time to wear out their welcome. The thing about pithy shallow stories that are too cool for school is they don't hold my attention for long. These were blissfully short and I could just enjoy their ironic hilarity without having to focus on the fact they aren't about anything. There is a revolution story with nothing to revolt against, an artist with no passion, and a kidnapping with no threat. All of this is set in the French ville of Ennui (of course) and is there to get us to care about a dead publisher who we see on screen for mere minutes. Because again the point isn't to care...

So while The French Dispatch was still not really for me, it was tolerably cute through most of it and didn't overstay it's welcome. I still feel like when people try to sell me on Anderson's film it's like explaining a joke that's so funny because it's not funny kind of circular logic. But to each their own. 

The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun

Starring: well everyone...

Writer/Director: Wes Anderson