White Noise (2022)

One of my (not-so) guilty pleasures is disaster movies. I love stories of the struggle to survive and the exploration of what that brings out in people. One of the reasons I say it's (somewhat of) a guilty pleasure is that they are usually b-movie schlock and don't do a great job of capturing honesty in their narratives. But when they do they touch something in me. 

Based on what many consider to be a modern literary classic and directed by a film nerd darling, White Noise is the antithesis of the mass market disaster movies, it's a disaster movie for intellectuals, for cinemaphiles. Noise follows the same structure as the book, a three act play that flows through (1) set up, (2) disaster, and (3) aftermath. It explores through a mix of sardonic comedy and a talky, conversationalist script themes of destructive modernity. The disaster part is relatively short but captures a lot of what I truly enjoy about disaster movies and Baumbach tells a truly exciting story. But that is only a piece of what What Noise is about, it's a device to explore other things. So as well done as that part is, it is kind of a hook and not the substantive part of the film despite perhaps revealing a lot about the characters we are following. 

His set up and after math feel more normal Baumbach-ish. The script is awkwardly funny (sometimes more successful than other times) and the film leans into the quirky nature of its characters often to the point of excess. This means the characters don't feel very real. They feel more like caricatures or archetypes who don't talk like real people but like people from a novel. So I was torn through much of the final half of the film because many of the themes being explored were interesting but it often felt so clumsy and artificial how they were being explored. I always saw Driver and Gerwig as playing characters to fit the purpose of the story and not as actual people.  

Yet despite all the fumbling I kept enjoying the film's themes and its own rough explorations of it no matter how much the characterization kept pulling me out of the story. White Noise managed to pull out of being only a cerebral exercise occasionally and in those moments not only was it engaging but it was also interesting and I think overall it managed that more than it didn't. 

White Noise

Starring: Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy, André Benjamin, Jodie Turner-Smith, Lars Eidinger

Writer/Director: Noah Baumbach

Matilda the Musical (2022)

Matilda is a much beloved story about a brilliant girl, who comes from a horrible family and attends an even more horrible school. Like much of the work of legendary writer Roald Dahl's is filled with grotesque cruel adults and often quite horrific incidents of abuse. The dark undertones of his work can be disturbing and yet often empowering as the children in his stories overcome that abuse. The magic in the best adaptations is to find a way to balance telling these stories of children suffering at the hands of the adults in their lives with their ultimate success in overcoming it all through their own uniqueness and caring. 

Tim Minchin and Dennis Kelly's stage musical adaptation accomplishes this quite well, retaining some of the upsetting aspects while inspiring a lot of hope and humour. The songs are inspiring and catchy and the story just comes together into a crowd pleasing delight despite how terrible a lot of what we've seen is. 

Taking to this the screen, I loved director Warchus' style in telling this story which is filled with rich colours and a slightly magical approach which suggests fantasy while remaining grounded in the real world. This helps Matilda's story feel both realistic and incredible at once fitting a tale of a brilliant young girl living in a world designed to keep her down while she finds her own ways to escape. It captures the balance of the stage musical so well.

The cast is clearly having a fun time. Matilda isn't a story for subtlety so the cast go to extremes with their roles, Emma Thompson's character being the best example of this covered in ugly make up and stomping around like she's Godzilla in B-movie. But that's all part of the charm of the story, and a big part of mitigating the horrors of the character who is truly criminal in her behaviour.  

The film hits all the right notes and finds just the right balance. It is beautifully filmed making it a joy to watch. While it might be a bit dark for younger children, this adaptation of Matilda fits into the Dahl canon of films. 

Matilda the Musical

Starring: Alisha Weir, Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, Sidhu Vee

Director: Matthew Warchus

Writer: Dennis Kelly

 

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody (2022)

I Wanna Dance With Somebody may not be that great a movie. Instead of crafting an organic feeling narrative it just hits the beats of the legendary singer's life, one to the next. It doesn't create real characters, instead having each of its subjects simply fill a role. But despite all this it still manages to make you care about the woman at the centre of its story, and it gives up and coming star Naomi Ackie a chance to truly shine. 

Despite being rather rote in its general approach, I Wanna Dance With Somebody handles its beginning and ending quite well. The film choses to centre its story around Houston's iconic 1994 American Music Awards performance grounding her life story in this high point both artistically and emotionally. She is still one of the biggest stars in the world at this point and she is also surrounded by support and love, two things that wouldn't necessarily be true by the end. The film starts there with her being introduced to perform and it ends there with a Bohemian Rhapsody style recreation of the full performance which shows off all that the film and Ackie can do. And in doing so we don't get a gratuitous and exploitative death scene. Instead she gets to go out as she lived, a legendary performer. 

Otherwise the film mostly just bounces from one event in Houston's life to the next often without establishing much context or creating much emotional weight. Her addiction issues feel tacked on and some of the motivations of those around her widely swing without feeling organic. I didn't feel the film did her romantic relationships much justice. Props for including her long time relationship with Robyn Crawford, but the film doesn't explore it enough for it to have any real emotional heft. And the film is rather ambivalent about her marriage to Bobby Brown. Is he a beard? Is he a true love? Is he an abuser? The film never establishes any of it so it always feels like he's just in the background. Tucci as Clive Davis is probably the strongest role in the movie after Whitney and it's no surprise he nails the performance which the film centres as one of the most positive relationships in her life. 

But by focusing on the music, and the music moments, Whitney truly comes to life. Ackie mimics her seamlessly but also infuses a real humanity to Houston. We see her as we remember her, as The Voice, performing show stopping songs. So in the end the movie might just overcome its faults to be a love letter to its subject and inspire a remembrance of her greatness. 

I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Starring: Naomi Ackie, Stanley Tucci, Ashton Saunders, Tamara Tunie, Nafessa Williams, Clarke Peters

Director: Kasi Lemmons

Writer: Anthony McCarten

 

Babylon (2022)

Babylon, impressive as it is technically throughout, jumps the shark numerous times before trying to tie all of it back into an "aren't movies grand?" ending which ends up feeling far more manipulative than genuine. Babylon is both entirely cynical and tear-jerkingly sincere at the same time but as it approached it's ending I was tired of Babylon, feeling like it was just recycling ideas from other films about how we are supposed to feel about what we are watching instead of evoking what we really might feel. 

The film starts out all Baz Luhrmann-y with an incredibly shot, sepia-toned circus of excess and hedonism which subtly (and not so subtly) wags its finger at its subject, and us for being drawn to it. We meet the hot mess that Robbie is playing and we see how the main character (since this seems to be confusing for some) that Calva is playing falls for her head over heals. Not because the movie actually gets us to fall for her but because the movie signals us to fall for her. Her character is never more than a damaged object for us to love because she's beautiful and broken and we know this because she tells us right out that she cries on screen by "thinking of home." Oh sweet child...

The protracted scene is incredibly structured to bring out the exact predictable response in its audience and plays out in excess, like most of the over three hour film, to make sure we get it all. And from there we follow Calva as he rises and falls along with the dying silent era of Hollywood, in love with the woman who is bad news and risking it all for her, only to have that blow up in his face and lose it all, before stumbling across a cinema to once again find the magic of movies. But baked into this story is the madonna/whore narrative of women and their roles in our lives that just never felt good. Babylon wants to be a "how the sausage is made" story that gets us to still love the sausage, but it keeps going so far down its own rabbit holes that it loses the possibility of love, only to tack it on at the end without earning it. As he confesses his love for Robbie's character at the end I never bought it. I never could see what he loved in her, not without the sort of man-takes-care-of-woman-cave-man schtick that feels gross. And this relationship is the metaphor for loving movies that, once again, the film never earns. And the film never quite gets us to celebrate why we love movies either. So its final moments in a cinema shoving the love of movies down our throats fell flat for me. 

But there is so much technically good about Babylon. Chazelle films his story in a way that is hard to look away, every frame feeling like a show piece for a gallery. And Calva is so cinematically beautiful his presence is just so riveting. The rest of the cast are all experts and deliver great moments, especially the quieter ones like when Smart explains to Pitt why it's over. And the music! Oh the music... Hurwitz' score (despite him stealing from his own La La Land score somewhat) is incredibly infectious. His Voodoo Mama will stick with you even after the credits roll but the entirety of the score both evokes the time period and transcends it to shake even today's audience. 

But so much of the film left me cold, so much so that by the time Calva's character was being dragged underground into what can only be spectacle for shock value sake, I was already done. I didn't believe the love story and I had lost faith with the character arcs. Pitt's final moment felt unbelievable and sudden, despite the film foreshadowing it all the way through from the first few scenes. The women characters only get to die off camera but that made sense in a film where women were all pretty much just objects for the men to build their arcs around. 

Babylon isn't a great film but it is built and filmed like a great film. It is acted and scored like a great film. But it has so little original to say and just so much manipulation, the more I think about it the less it does for me. It's not that I hated it. I've just seen it all before because I've been to the movies, because I've actually fallen in love, been wowed with wonder, and found revelation in the movies. I don't need this to tell me to do it.  

Babylon

Starring: Diego Calva, Margo Robbie, Brad Pitt, Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, Toby Maguire, Lukas Haas, Max Minghella, Samara Weaving, Katherine Waterston, Olivia Wilde, Spike Jonze, Flea, Jeff Garlin, Rory Scovel, Eric Roberts

Writer/Director: Damien Chazelle

 

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

Knives Out is smart, funny, and truly entertaining but I think it stumbles in the middle a bit before getting back on track to a truly impressive ending. And it introduces us to the endlessly watchable and engaging character of Benoit Blanc, wonderfully brought to life by Daniel Craig clearly having way more fun than he ever had as Bond. So the idea of bringing back this master detective to solve more mysteries feels like a no brainer. And now that we have the sequel it delivers in more ways than one. 

For starters, I am going to posit that Glass Onion (whose subtitle "A Knives Out Mystery" I will completely ignore because it's just truly awful) is an even better movie than its predecessor. Some of the kinks that bug me about Knives Out are fixed here and the character of Blanc is richer and more fleshed out. This is one of the rare sequels that improves on the source material. It also brings back some of what made the first one good, including a biting and uncompromising critique of the wealthy and their predatory predilections. 

It also brings back the way the first film switched gears half way through, giving us one mystery at the beginning and switching it out for another at the half way point, playing with our expectations and upending the drawing room murder mystery tropes the stories are playing with. It also (like the first one) brings together a great cast, clearly having a fun time with their characters. Glass Onion is another smart funny script, a sharp mystery, and some twists and turns with our hero Blanc at the centre. 

Really at this point the only question left is when can we get more Blanc?

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Starring: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Katheryn Hahn, Leslie Odam Jr., Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Jessica Henwick, Madeline Cline, Noah Segan, Jackie Hoffman, Dallas Roberts

Writer/Director: Rian Johnson

 

The Whale (2022)

Oh boy there is a lot going on in The Whale, and I don't mean there is a lot going on in terms of plot or characterization. I mean there is a lot going on in the background, the baggage of the film, and what it leaves for the audience. 

Writer/director Darren Aronofsky has crafted his protagonist in this film to be as sympathetic and possible, whose queerness and size are designed really only to illicit our sympathy although perhaps not empathy. He remains othered enough that we are not necessarily supposed to relate to him or see ourselves in him. His choice perhaps is for his audience to see themselves in relationship to him either as Chau's character (if we are generous to ourselves), or maybe Sink's, or maybe even Simpkins' (if we are being truly honest). But this in itself is a choice which is challenging for the film as its subject is subject to our gaze and whatever we bring to that. Perhaps this is bold in how this forces us to confront our own fatphobia and homophobia but I'm not sure its successful in getting us there. And the whole time his central character remains more on display than in connection with his audience. 

There has been a lot of talk of Fraser's performance here and it is remarkable, understated, and lived in. Fraser commits fully to being Charlie and doesn't overdo it. The movie benefits from his power in this role perhaps mitigating some of the film's other poor choices. But his character remains a martyr, suffering completely at the hands of the rest of the cast out of his guilt over his sin of living his full life. The script occasionally has him defend his choices but mostly punishes him for it. I went back and forth throughout the film as to whether or not I felt it was treating him fairly. But in the end he remained more of a repository for the anger and discomfort of our culture, than someone to transform it. 

And Aronofsky doesn't quite find a balance in tone here. The Whale wants to be an intimate film but its characters speak like they are reading a laundry list of their feelings so that the audience can understand. There are many times a character will rush out in anger dramatically only to stop at the door, pause, and return in very "acty" feeling moments. The characters rarely felt real, more like stand ins for archetypes. It wasn't just Fraser's Charlie who felt like a device, pretty much all of them did. 

So yes I think Fraser deserves the praise he is getting for this despite the film being problematic in many ways, some of which are just Aronofsky being Aronofsky. I think it is an interesting watch because it certainly gets you thinking about stuff even if it's not maybe what it wants you to. 

The Whale

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins, Samantha Morton

Writer/Director: Darren Aronofsky

 

Aftersun (2022)

Aftersun is a quietly subtle yet surprisingly powerful film. The rather simple story of a father and daughter on a vacation together doesn't go in for big dramatic moments and instead highlights little details, interactions between them and those around them, and the power is in the performances of the two leads who connect (and don't) in fascinating yet minute ways. By the end one feels the gut punch of this relationship despite never having a moment of intense dramatic explosion or emotional outpouring. 

From first time feature director Wells, Aftersun finds this incredible language for connecting us to the inner worlds of its subjects. Wells crafts a masterful narrative between daughter and father which says little outright yet says so much. Her structure for her story is genius in how it connects all the dots. The film is charming and melancholy and gives you much to sit with as the credits role. 

Relative newcomers Mescal and Corio are both strong, playing off each other quite remarkably. Mescal's character is a portrait of all the complexities of fatherhood, the failings and the striving. His final moments in the film practically had me in tears. But Aftersun's strength is always in its subtlety. 

Aftersun is a stunning debut by a talented film maker, and two actors who have promising futures ahead as well. 

Aftersun

Starring: Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio, Celia Rowlson-Hall

Writer/Director: Charlotte Wells

 

Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (2022)

Bardo may be the most Iñárritu of all Iñárritu movies. Fluid and non-sequitur, Bardo follows a reporter through his surreal day dreams and his self-doubt, his ruminations on personal identity and national identity as a man, a father, and as a Mexican from a very personal perspective that may not speak very much to those whose identities are not those things. It is stunning to watch but also meandering and sometimes draggy. 2022 was a year when established directors (mostly male) chose to make deeply personal films reflecting on who they are and this feels like a part of that movement.  

What worked for me with this film is how he has his characters say the quiet parts out loud, even if the film implies it is only in his head. It is often quite funny but always with an ironic hint of melancholy. And Bardo is visually beautiful, fluid in its camera work and narrative structure, colourful yet contrasted with an intense use of shadow. 

But Bardo is often opaque and inaccessible. It throws ideas at us, some of which hit and others that do not. It also doesn't really hold up for its run time. I do think for someone closer to the identities being explored/indulged here, the film might be more compelling. Still, even when I wasn't enjoying the film, it was fascinating to watch. Perhaps it isn't for a casual viewer but could mostly be appreciated by those curious about its subject or just film nerds who enjoy when a director plays with form in this fashion. Bardo is a lot of playing with ideas and that in itself is worth a watch for those who are interested in exploring these things. 

Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths

Starring: Daniel Giménez Cacho

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Writers: Nicolás Giacobone, Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Empire of Light (2022)

To say Olivia Coleman is amazing in her film feels a bit obvious and expected. She is in a rare league with few peers who consistently fills her screen with incredible performances. Yet still watching her in Empire of Light was a revelation despite any high expectations I may have had. Her role is filled with drama and subtlety, her character experiencing depression, love, exploitation, passion, self-loathing, fear, and even some confidence. And watching her experience it all is just, well... amazing. 

Empire of Light is a loving tribute to cinema, the story of the staff of an old movie house on the south coast of the UK in 1981. It is the mundane and magical, the lives of these working people, their friendships, their loves, their frustrations, all set against bringing us the magic of the movies. I admit I am a bit biased to stories about just how much joy movies bring to our lives. Mendes finds this spark. 

Gorgeously shot in a beautiful old movie house and filled with references to the films of that year, Empire of Light also touches on the UK of the time including the racism and financial hardships faced by the working class during Thatcherite England. But in the end, despite the lows his characters face, Mendes is telling a story of hope in the darkness, just like a movie. He maybe gives into some cliches a few times throughout, but his story still resonated for me. It is about people perhaps lost in their journey finding some solace and perhaps finding their way. The magic of the movies. 

Empire of Light

Starring: Olivia Coleman, Michael Ward, Colin Firth, Toby Jones

Writer/Director: Sam Mendes

 

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Let's be honest about 2009's Avatar. It was neither an epic masterpiece for the ages nor an overrated mess that has no cultural footprint. The truth lies far more in the mushy middle. The film was a game changer that took filmmaking to the next technical level but its pedantic plot and script, while well intentioned, was rather standard and struggled with its own assumptions. The film was inspiring and moving but in a rather hamfisted manner narratively while blowing us all out of the water with how it looked. It was an experience like no other at the time but had serious weaknesses in character development and plotting, and while it became a phenom for months, that lasting impact of the movie is questionable and still debated to this day, when people even talk about it. 

And now we have Avatar: The Way of Water, a sequel that, despite being a long time in the making, is not nearly as far from it's predecessor as many others we've had lately. Legacy sequels of long loved movies are a dime a dozen in the 2010s and 20s. It is common in this day and age for audiences who weren't even alive when the first film came out to embrace a franchise. But it is also common to see the visual spectacle championed in the first Avatar, even at home on streaming services. And is Avatar long loved or was its moment in the sun intense but fleeting? I think the answer to that is different if you ask a North American audience or audiences from other parts of the world.       

As a movie itself Avatar: The Way of Water is far more average than its predecessor. The story is a good one, but fairly cookie cutter and predictable. There isn't really a twist you won't see coming. The characters are all 2-dimensional with only two characters getting to be complicated and interesting in any way near the end (Spider and Neytiri). And I find it hard to muster up any wonder at the film's technical achievement. Does The Way of Water take film making to the "next level" as this film did? I'm not sure it translates to the audience in anyway that it does. While a spectacular looking film, and a film I understand pushed the boundaries of film making technology for today, nothing about it wowed me in the way I was wowed in 2009. I think technically I can appreciate the renderings of water and other impressive features of the film but nothing about that part of the experience moved me like other leaps of advancement in film making have moved me. 

Having said all that I'm not negative on this film. I had a great time at it. Despite its length the film rarely drags, maybe only a bit in the middle of the first act which ironically feels rushed. And the third act is one long amazing battle sequence. Cameron plays to his strengths and he knows how to shoot action movies. Yes perhaps he was treading some familiar Cameron ground, aping his previous films Titanic, The Abyss, and the first Avatar, but I was oooh-ing and aaaah-ing all the way through the battle even if, as I mentioned, I kinda knew what was going to happen and wasn't ever surprised by any turn of events. It isn't hard to guess who survives and who dies and what each character is going to do in any given moment. But the film is engaging and grabs you anyway. It is damn entertaining for sure. 

And the franchise's message, while blunt and overly simplistic (and perhaps a little eurocentric in its understandings), is still an important one that resonates. Avatar was and remains a celebration of the essentialism of living with our environments, no... more than that, living as part of it, being connected inherently to all. Sure it does so with an almost new-agey vibe which is likely why it puts a lot of people off. But in some ways The Way of Water handles its anti-colonialist narrative better than the first film did with less of the white saviour and noble indigenous tropes which plagued the first film (I said less... he's still stuck a bit in this mindset).  So at the heart of it Avatar is giving us an important moral to the story, perhaps without any finesse and with some eye rolling moments, but it is accessible to almost any audience member. 

So for me Avatar: The Way of Water is neither the greatest film of the year nor the worst. I am sure it will be a better experience on the big screen than at home. I can clearly say I enjoyed it, am not clamouring to see it again any time soon, but know I likely will enjoy it again when I do see it for a second time... or more. So much of our media dialogue is focused on binary extremes. It either has to be the very best or the very worst. We have to rank things in numerical order to make sense or our experiences of art. None of that makes sense to me. I generally liked this film and there were things about it that impressed me more or less. I'll watch it and enjoy it again and will certainly go see the next film. 

Avatar: The Way of Water

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Jamie Flatters, Britain Dalton, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Jack Champion, Bailey Bass, Filip Geljo, Kate Winslet, Matt Gerald, Giovanni Ribisi, Edie Falco, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, Jermaine Clement, Brendan Cowell, CCH Pounder

Director: James Cameron

Writers: Amanda Silver, Rick Jaffa, James Cameron

 

Argentina 1985 (2022)

Naturally I'll be attracted to films that set lawyers as the heroes. Despite the plethora of lawyer TV shows, often the process of court hearings remain mysterious to the general public and the process specifically of prosecuting war crimes even more so. For a film to be able to help lay out this painstaking and fraught process is a success in and of itself. 

Argentina 1985 follows the real life prosecutors who brought to life the war crimes committed by Argentinian fascists during the late 70s and early 80s. This film's focus isn't necessarily the lives affected by the totalitarian regime or even the lives involved in the trial. It is the importance of such legal work, bringing to light crimes against humanity, making the case that war crimes, even those committed by people you support politically, are anathema to civilization itself. Much of the world lives in fear, and much of the world justifies horrific actions by those who advance their interests. But the role of the lawyers in actions like this is to win over a culture to justice. 

Sometimes Argentina 1985 loses some of the human drama in its focus on the importance of its subject. The film is a bit long and doesn't always maintain its narrative power. But it is gripping in the case it makes for the triumph of law over dictatorship and as it ramps up to its final act, it has a triumphant power up there with A Few Good Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, or other courtroom classics. 

Argentina 1985

Starring: Ricardo Darin, Peter Lanzani

Director: Santiago Mitre

Writers: Mariano Llinás, Santiago Mitre

 

Spoiler Alert (2022)

I know it's based on a real life story but Spoiler Alert often feels less original than most life stories and more like a jumble of other movie moments all pushed together. Watching Spoiler Alert get a film that we are familiar with and know exactly what to expect, hence the appropriate name? A lot of Spoiler Alert feels like what we've seen before, pulling scenes from rom-coms (the meet cute), from gay movies (the awkward coming out to parents scene), to every other cancer movie (the lying sick at the beach house moments). It hits all the right beats, but often it feels like those beats are being trotted out along some sort of formula. And when we reach the ending it feels like it was prescribed, the logical conclusion. Yet despite how rote it often feels the film manages to wring some pathos out of its story, enough to make it passable in the end. Perhaps it is the actual lived experience of the author played here by Jim Parsons. 

I struggled to find any chemistry between the leads. Both Parsons and Aldridge are good in their roles but together they don't make a convincing couple. But then again a lot of Spoiler Alert isn't overly convincing. For example, as I mentioned, the film make a comedic moment out of Aldridge coming out to his parents, yet the film never establishes any of the tension to make this feel honest. Never once does the film establish any resistance to their son's queerness in his parents nor any internalized homophobia in Kit to make his stumble over being his true self with them. Instead the film has a character actually verbalize "it's hard" in reference to coming out so the audience gets it but it never makes us feel it. We are just to assume it because we are told. Like we are to assume their falling in love earlier. The film again has a character explain to us "you're just his type" so it doesn't make us have to feel their falling for each other, something which doesn't really ever happen organically. 

The film is at its best when it upends some of these expectations. The couple actually does break up at one point (but even this is handled poorly since we just get to accept that they are going to be together and the film just announces them having broken up so again we don't really see it happen) BUT I did appreciate how the dynamics of their love continuing despite the separation makes for some of the most interesting aspects of the film. There is a moment near the end when Parsons makes space for his lover's other lover to come say goodbye that finally doesn't seem like something we've already seen in every other movie like this. And the cast is good; with what they are working with they do a great job. Aldridge especially is strong in not just making his sick person feel like parody. 

So while Spoiler Alert may not be the next great thing it's also not so bad. Perhaps it manages to hit some real emotions along the way. 

Spoiler Alert

Starring: Jim Parsons, Ben Aldridge, Sally Field, Bill Irwin, Antoni Porowski, Nikki M. James

Director: Michael Showalter

Writers: David Marshall Grant, Dan Savage

 

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)

The story of Pinocchio is and has always been a fairly dark tale. Like most people of my generation my primary experience with the story has been Disney's version, a film that disturbed me as a child, and that I still struggle with enjoying as an adult. But the story of Pinocchio has always been a hurdle for me, not just the famous Disney take. There are many adaptations and many variations to this tale about a man who makes a puppet who was brought to life and wants to be a "real boy". Maybe there is something about needing to be seen as a "real boy" that has always got under my skin, and not in a good way. 

Famed director del Toro, who has a strong predilection for horror, has leaned into the disturbing nature of this story for his gorgeous stop motion film based on the Italian legend. He still aims his movie at all ages and manages to do so without speaking down to any of his audience. He focuses on the loss at the beginning of the story quite heavily and he ties it all back into the ending. Death is a recurring theme and is examined both in seriousness as well as with some black humour. 

Del Toro sticks to the episodic nature of the story, picking and choosing adventures for our boy puppet protagonist to experience and many of the common themes of this story are there; lessons about lying, learning about who will try to exploit you for their own gain, and learning about who will sacrifice themselves for your benefit. But del Toro also uses the story to highlight other themes I have never seen as part of this story. He sets his version in fascist Italy and explores the puppet metaphor for the nature of totalitarian ideology. In this way it is Pinocchio's DISobedience which makes him a hero, and the realness of his boyhood (his authentic humanity) comes from his defiance. In this film, instead of learning to be a good boy, Pinocchio's success comes from his desire and willingness to break the rules. This changes a lot about the story in ways that I truly appreciated. It also brought to my attention some of the reasons the oft told story rarely resonates for me. 

There is a celebration of uniqueness in this tale. Geppetto learns he has to love his child exactly as he is and not attempt to make him anything else. As a parent this is something I can relate to intensely, and as any parent knows this is both the easiest and hardest thing in the world. And, as per the darkness of this version, there is also a need to learn about the fleeting nature of life and love, and how much it enriches our experience of loving someone knowing that it will not last. This is a powerful and difficult lesson and one the film handles deftly. 

Stop motion animation is one of my favourite cinematic art forms and this film is a truly beautiful example of it. Shadowmachine (Robot Chicken) and The Jim Henson Company (well... you know) were the animation studios behind this and their work here is extraordinary. From the character designs to the created world to the absolutely beautiful visuals, Pinocchio is a lovely film to watch. 

So for the first time I gained a new appreciation for aspects of the story Pinocchio I hadn't had before. I'm not sure the film won me over to rewatching it over and over again, but it may be the interpretation of Pinocchio I appreciated the most. 

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

Starring:  Gregory Mann, Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton, Ron Perlman, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson

Directors: Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson

Writers: Guillermo del Toro, Patrick McHale

Violent Night (2022)

Violent Night lives up to its name and premise. Santa as action hero works, especially because Harbour plays him as "everyman" and with a real commitment to his arc, a disillusioned man finding his inspiration on Christmas Eve. Sure this isn't an unfamiliar trope but the juxtaposition of this oft told Christmas narrative in hard R action movie genre, is a fun twist that is pulled off quite nicely. 

Sure most of the characters outside of Santa himself are 2-dimensional and their arcs are rather rote. But the cast, especially Harbour and Leguizamo are committed and tell a tight and fun story. As I mentioned this is hard R so it's not for the squeamish. And the casting of D'Angelo is genius. She plays a character you love to hate and plays it well and her ties to the Vacation series is a nice touch. 

Violent Night never rises above exactly what it is sold as, but it also doesn't disappoint in delivering what you are buying. Even it's anti-capitalist message isn't radical as most Christmas movies have a thread of this running through them all the way back to It's a Wonderful Life... hell even back to Dickens' classic. I'd be up for more Violent Night movies in the future with Santa saving the (holi)day in numerous parts of the world once Christmas Eve at a time. 

Violent Night

Starring: David Harbour, John Leguizamo, Alex Hassell, Alex Louder, Beverly D'Angelo, Brendan Fletcher

Director: Tommy Wirkola

Writers: Pat Casey, Josh Miller

 

Emancipation (2022)

Emancipation, at it's heart, is an action film. For all its important subject matter and emotional gravitas, this is an escape movie, set against the back drop of one of America's great evils, the Antebellum South. It is the story of a man's pursuit of freedom from the horrors of slavery, set as an actual chase film. It is literally and figuratively about escape.  

And Emancipation is a bold and striking vision with its black-and-white-ish colour palette, artful flourishes in its cinematography, and the kinetic movement of the action film genre. Director Fuqua's aesthetic has always been stylish and adrenaline pumped, often prioritizing this over a narrative substance. Here he incorporates a powerful emotional story, the loosely fictionalized story behind a famous photograph, into his action to give it a strong punch. Along the way his protagonist encounters true horrors while on the run. He uses this rather simple story to hint at something larger, the historical truth about slavery, and confront his audience with it.  

The film is perhaps a bit on the two-dimensional side. The characters are often thinly drawn, being little more than archetypes, even the subject of the story, the man from the consequential photo. Fuqua's focus is on the chase and its resolution and less on creating real people. The bad guys are very bad the good guys are very good and this is a morality play so it all "works out" in the end despite what we know to be true about the legacy of slavery. But Fuqua isn't McQueen and isn't making another 12 Year's a Slave, and nor should he. This may not be a profound exploration of the social and economic structures of white supremacy but it is, on top of being an engaging action piece, a brutally honest mirror held up to the face of the United States that we shouldn't look away from.  

Emancipation doesn't always maintain its energy. The film feels a little long in places, and it's ending feels just too pat. Emancipation is a film of extremes and perhaps it all becomes a bit too operatic by the end. But still this Peter's journey, this symbolic journey, is very engaging and Fuqua exudes style making this a fascinating watch and a comment on its nation. 

Emancipation

Starring: Will Smith, Ben Foster, Charmaine Bingwa, Steven Ogg, Mustafa Shakir, Timothy Hutton

Director: Antoine Fuqua

Writer: William N. Collage
 

Troll (2022)

I have a soft spot for monster movies, especially when they are well made films that don't feel just like mayhem without any plot. They make us think about what's truly important when the shit hits the fan, they explore our relationships with myth and legend, and they can be extremely fun watches. Troll is all those things. The director of 2015's The Wave (one of the better disaster movies of the last decade) has delivered again with a smart and fun monster movie that ends up being a great watch. 

Troll sticks to the typical formula so it may not be the most original film but does it well creating tension and mystery before delivering the action that we come for. The effects are good and the script doesn't condescend (a typical fault of these sorts of films) making all of this just work. Yes it has the dramatic scenes of government officials debating what to do. Yes there are a lot people standing around in uniforms. Yes it has the expert who no one listens to until it's too late. Yes she is followed around by a comic relief character. Yes the film turns the tables by making the "monster" sympathetic. So while Troll doesn't reinvent the genre or do anything we don't expect, it does it all with grace and style and deliver a fun time. 

And it has a little bit to say. The film's story takes us down some high level and not to deep critiques of colonialism, specifically western Christian colonialism. This is a theme that could have been explored further but I like that it took it on. 

It also delivers the final end moments suggesting more is coming... will we get a while series of Troll movies? I'd be down for that. 

Troll

Starring: Ine Marie, Kim Falck, Mads Sjøgård Pettersen, Billy Campbell

Director: Roar Uthaug

Writers: Espen Aukan, Roar Uthang

 

Lady Chatterley's Lover (2022)

I've heard there is a general consensus that this adaptation from the director of The Mustang, may be the best film take on the famous novel by DH Lawrence. While I enjoyed watching this quite beautiful film it did make me wonder if the ultimate film adaptation is still waiting to happen. The film is lush and romantic with genuine affection for its source and for its characters, but there were times I felt the film felt rushed or muted in some of its themes. Still I did come away affected by it, especially in its swooning final moments.

The first act of the film sort of rushes to it's premise, setting out who's who and establishing quickly their positions and points of view. It's all very effective but it often feels rote and less organic than I might have enjoyed. Once the film gets to the meet of it, Lady Catterley's Lover focuses on its two romantic subjects with a delightfully rose coloured eye. de Clermont-Tonnerre is making a romance and approaches it all from that view, the sexuality, the passion, the emotion. To use the Greek categorizations it is all from a very pragma and less eros. 

For me this hyperfocus was a bit of a weakness. The novel this is based on was infamous in its time (perhaps even today) in its exploration of sexuality and the celebration of erotic passion, often banned and condemned for the way it portrays sexual urges and satisfaction as not only valid but valuable. The film shifts this to tie it all in essentially to a tool for monogamous love building. The film contrasts Lady Chatterley's sex less love (presented as tolerable friendship) with her husband with her sex filled love with her games-keeper (portrayed as full and whole) instead of examining the ways she can have different loves with different people. And the sex, while the film doesn't shy away from it, has none of the shock power that the novel had in its time. I felt there might have been value in finding a way to trigger the audience in ways similar to the ways the novel did. But here the sex scenes, shot so beautifully and lovingly, is there not to challenge us but to woo us. They are enticing, pulling our hearts into their love so we are enraptured. 

This provides the film with a narrow view that the Lady and the games-keeper belong together and the trappings of her marriage are. holding her back. It feels very modernly standard. Lord Chatterley becomes a villain standing in her way instead of another actor caught in the rigid expectations of British society also stifled by all the rules. His perspective isn't examined in any depth. He has lost the use of his limbs, and perhaps his own sexuality, but the film never touches on his loss, even as a tool for developing his villainy. His proposal to her to find another lover to impregnate her is just given without us understanding how he got there. It is used to show him as not caring for her (he is singularly focused on getting an heir in any way possible) instead of presented as a human being who is managing his own losses and passions. 

But the film is strongest when it focuses on the love between its central characters and it is beautifully shot and executed. Again all of this is to justify for a very 21 century audience the giving-it-all-up-for-love ending is so powerful, but it feels like this is reducing the literary classic to a bit of YA emotion instead of exploring the power of sexuality boldly as the novel did. So for me, while this adaptation was good for what it was, I hold out hope for a Lady Chatterley's Lover adaptation that rocks us as deeply as its legacy deserves.  

Lady's Chatterley's Lover

Starring: Jack O'Connell, Emma Corrin, Matthew Duckett, Joely Richardson

Director: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre

Writer: David Magee

 

Guitar Lessons (2022)

The story of a curmudgeon who takes in a wayward teen who is the rejected son of a former bandmate may not be the most original story, but after some stumbles out of the gate Guitar Lessons finds its footing and tells a surprisingly touching story. Writer/director James films his story quite beautifully, finding a visual language that is disarming and deeply personal so the audience gets into the characters' emotions in a way that feels quite honest. 

Sometimes James' dialogue is awkward and often the film thinks it is being funnier than it is. But what works here is that James doesn't let things be one note. He will start something as a joke (often jokes that are a little on the obvious side) but let it circle back into something deeper, something touching. Lund may not be the best actor in the world but the film allows him to play to his strengths including a truly lovely scene in the middle where he does little more than play the guitar which is very watchable (and listenable). 

So while Guitar Lessons isn't the strongest, it does come around and ends up being a worthwhile, satisfying, and even moving watch, reminding us how much a talented film maker can do with a very small budget. 

Guitar Lessons

Starring: Corb Lund, Kaden Noskiye, Aaron James, Conway Kootney

Writer/Director: Aaron James

 

The Inspection (2022)

First time writer/director Bratton's autobiographical film The Inspection is a tight but powerful portrait of a man resisting in the face of ongoing aggression. His experience is specifically set in the hyper zealous environment of a US marine bootcamp, where toxic masculinity is celebrated and the purpose is to break people. He sets himself (as he did in real life) as a queer man into the centre of this and this is his tale of survival. 

The Inspection uses his experience as a marine as a symbol of his entire life. As a queer black man he has faced the aggressions of the world around him, designed to ensure he doesn't survive up to this point and it has almost broken him. It is in his pursuit of this extreme goal where everything he has faced up to this point is intensified that he find his means of over coming. As the marines intend to break him down to build him back up that is what he has done for himself by the end of this film. He has not only survived, he has found his strength and those opposing him are broken in front of him. 

Jeremy Pope is remarkable as Ellis French (the fictional version of Bratton) throughout the film giving a stand out performance. He doesn't portray French as a pillar of strength instead letting us see his power through his humanity and weaknesses. In a scene near the end he confronts his mother (played by the also stunning Union) where in the face of her rejection he stands up to her with "I will never give up on you" and he is one of the strongest film heroes we've seen this year. The Inspection is a portrait of a man who has overcome so much and has found the strength to continue to overcome. 

The Inspection is lean in a few places and sometimes feel s a bit rushed. But its focus on what is essential to its story keeps the power of its story fresh and relevant. Pope demonstrated that he is a force to be reckoned with, as did first time director Bratton, and I can't wait to see what both of them will do next. 

The Inspection

Starring: Jeremy Pope, Gabrielle Union, Raúl Castillo, Bokeem Woodbine, McCaul Lombardi, Aubrey Joseph

Writer/Director: Elegance Bratton

A Christmas Story Christmas (2022)

There have been a few follow ups to the cult classic A Christmas Story but nothing has captured the imagination of audiences in the same way as that film has. The awkwardly named A Christmas Story Christmas is perhaps the most successful at tapping into the nostalgia for the first film. Some of this has to do with the returning cast, especially Billingsley back as Ralphy, and while it doesn't quite hit the heights (or the lows - parts of the original film doesn't age entirely well) it does certainly evoke a lot of feelings of the first film and in that brings joy, while telling its own compelling story very much in the vein of the first. 

There are those who are critical of films whose main purpose appears to be capitalizing on nostalgia for previous movies, especially if they do so with an uncritical eye towards their subject, and honestly a lot of that critique if valid. But I think there is also something to be said for exploring that emotional connection to the past, especially in a film about the holidays and our emotional connections to holidays of yesteryear. What other time of year evokes such a pull to revisit the past, traditions, memories? Movies themselves play such a part in this. We all have our favourite films that rewatch every holiday season, whether they are the Christmas movies that feature into cannon (everything from It's a Wonderful Life to Die Hard) or films that have culturally become revisited each holiday season even if they aren't holiday themed (The Sound of Music or The Lord of the Rings series are good examples). A Christmas Story Christmas is a story about trying to recapture emotions from the past and both failing and succeeding, but perhaps in new ways. It is both that and about that and that is interesting. 

But there is enough of a fun story here that A Christmas Story Christmas is just pleasantly watchable, even for those who've never seen A Christmas Story. Certainly fans of the first movie will appreciate it more and this is far more engaging and fun than the other attempts to recapture the story of the Parkers. This with the first film make a lovely double feature.  

A Christmas Story Christmas

Starring: Peter Billingsley, Julie Hagerty, Ian Petrella, Scott Schwartz, R.D. Robb, Zack Ward, Erinn Hayes

Director: Clay Katis

Writers: Nick Schenk, Clay Katis

 

Spirited (2022)

I ended up enjoying Spirited far more than I expected. Is it a little heavy on the wink-wink-aren't-we-being-clever schtick that its two stars are famous for? Yes it is. Are the songs from Academy Award winning it-boys Pasek and Paul a little on the catchy but forgettable side? Yes they certainly are. Do we need another take on Dickens' A Christmas Carol? No we don... well, maybe?

Spirited is Farrell and Reynolds playing to their strengths. Easily the two could have phoned this in but they don't. They commit to it and are clearly having a great time, meaning no matter how formula or schmaltzy it gets it's hard not to have a good time.

The twist here is that after Scrooge dies, he takes over for the Ghost of Christmas Present and does that for hundreds of years. But he's getting tired and needs a change. But when he finds a human as "unredeemable" as he was he gets inspired again. It is a clever little idea that is generally well executed. But the real pleasure is in watching everyone have so much fun. I laughed out loud a number of times (Sunita Mani is hilarious BTW) and all the cameos are so much fun. And, yes, Spencer should be cast as the love interest more often! Why isn't this a thing??

But I have one word for what makes Spirited so enjoyable: Choreography! Seriously. As tongue in cheek as this film presents itself as, the film makers are clearly fans of old Hollywood musicals and this is a love letter to them. The dance numbers are grand (go big or go home!) and spectacular. These guys watched Spielberg's West Side Story remake and said "hold my beer!" 

So I could nit pick this thing to death but in the end it was a lot of fun. It isn't anything revolutionary or even that moving. But I'll likely watch it again most holiday seasons. 

Spirited

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Will Farrell, Octavia Spencer, Sunita Mani, Patrick Page, Tracey Morgan, Rose Byrne, Judi Dench, Jimmy Fallon

Director: Sean Anders

Writers: John Morris, Sean Anders