A Real Pain (2024)

A Real Pain didn't work that much for me. Despite the reviews it's getting, especially for Culkin's performance, the film felt emotionally stilted and Culkin, while often brilliant, had a character written so thinly that I never felt connected to it. The film felt like it was telling us more than showing us most of the time with characters voicing their inner monologues instead of making us feel real. The connections between Culkin's characters and Eisenberg's also never felt earned. 

A Real Pain is rather short in duration and I feel this hurt it as it didn't have time to really create the characters or build their relationships in a way that felt real. So as they attempted to deal with trauma, it didn't resonate. The film relies on a lot of assumptions on how we are supposed to feel. The most powerful moments were near the end touring a concentration camp where Eisenberg allows us to just take in the images of that legacy of evil and suffering. But his attempt to connect that to the characters he had written wasn't successful.

I never bought into the relationship these cousins had in a way that made me invested in them. And the script didn't make Culkin's character either a clown nor a martyr. He was mostly just awkwardly existing in scene to scene. A Real Pain felt like a lot of potential that just never quite materialized. 

A Real Pain

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Will Sharpe, Jennifer Grey 

Writer/Director: Jesse Eisenberg

Pedro Páramo (2024)

This ambitious film, from the cinematographer of films like Barbie, Brokeback Mountain, and numerous Scorsese films, and first time feature director, Prieto, is a winding story of ghosts and legends, attempting to chronicle Mexican history as well as a very personal story of a man searching for meaning by searching for his unknown father. It is a gorgeous film filled with fantasy and intimacy, and attempts to wed quite a few ideas and themes together throughout its tale. 

Pietro is already an excellent cinematographer and Pedro Páramo is visually an incredible film. But what struck me was his skill at taking on such a daunting task of adapting this sort of colossal story. While I am less familiar with the source novel and its relevance to Mexican culture and literature, he manages to make the grand and often fanciful narrative all feel very accessible. His film comments on identity, history, religion, and more while also telling a very compelling and personal story. 

The film's messaging is complex and nuanced, not just giving us a simplistic idea of what finding one's history means. Páramo isn't hero nor villain and our main character has to wrestle with that in whatever state he ends up through this tale. Pedro Páramo is fascinating for many reasons, the remarkable screen chemistry of star Rulfo for one, but especially because it gives us as many questions and answers. 

Pedro Páramo

Starring:  Manuel García Rulfo, Tenoch Huerta

Director: Rodrigo Prieto

Writer: Mateo Gil

Heretic (2024)

Heretic was the third widely popular horror film in 2024 that didn't work for me (after Late Night With the Devil and Longlegs) and my problems with each are similar. In each case there is a fascinating premise, shot in a truly engaging manner, featuring great casts, who third act (or second act - as in a two act play - in this case) just falls apart into a series of horror movie cliches and tropes that pull apart the threads of what made the ideas interesting in the first place. Heretic lost me about half way through and never was able to get me back as it became just another stereotypical thriller that was neither scary nor interesting. 

The first part had me going. Grant plays this well measured academic religion nerd ready to quite politely but forcefully debate and discuss with the young true believers (in this case Mormon missionaries) who have come to his door. Yes he's creepy but in that mansplainy way that men who think they have it all figured out can be. There are suggestions that he's not being completely honest with these inexperienced missionaries, who naturally are young women, which adds layers as it becomes a choose-the-bear-not-the-man sort of story and the game of cat and mouse can begin against the backdrop of a rather interesting discussion of religion as control. But then...

The film decides it's not just good enough to tell this story as a battle of wills and world views that might collide and potentially lead to ambiguity and doubt. It has to throw every horror movie cliche into the mix. From jump scares to horror basements (in an impossibly constructed house holding numerous prisoners) and people we thought were dead jumping back to life for one last strike. But the worst part is it jettisons any piece of what made it interesting in terms of theological debate. It attempts to tack some on at the end but it all feels too little too late as it simply becomes a final girl narrative. Even the final moment, the butterfly, is it there or is it imagined? it felt like so much of a cop out. The movie isn't prepared to commit to anything and try to be everything to everyone. That makes it feel like it's nothing to anyone. 

I want something more interesting when I see horror. Grant's character even promises this. He suggests that we (although he's talking to the girls) may be terrified and might even want to die. He's referring to contemplating the meaning (or lack there of) existence, the idea of societal control. But the film's elaborate and frankly just too convoluted to believe, kidnapper plot just never gets there leaving us nothing but creepy women in robes and cages, multiple stab wounds, and plenty of gore. But little to nothing to reflect on. 

Heretic

Starring: Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East

Writer/Directors: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods

Anora (2024)

I haven't met a Sean Baker film I didn't like. Anora may be his highest profile movie with its win at Cannes and the Oscar buzz it is getting which makes it feel the closest to a mainstream break out for him since The Florida Project. Anora is even more accessible with its charming lead actor and hilarious story that almost any adult audience could enjoy. Yet it never once compromises or becomes safe. Anora is a beautiful, tragic portrait of a woman striving for happiness in a world that does everything it can to keep it from her. 

Yes so much about what makes Anora work so well is the singular performance of Mikey Madison. I loved how much she loved her character, consistently and constantly playing her with a power and strength, even when showing vulnerability. Her self-worth was evident throughout no matter what the others around her were doing to try take that away from her, consciously or subconsciously. The script only gives us a little to work with on who this woman is, and there are plenty of times we could make assumptions. She defies all of that but rounding her out as a fully realized human being, and one who knows who she is and advocates for herself. She is funny and sexy and smart and relentless... who she needs to be, even when she has weaker moments. 

Madison gives one of those performances that you'll remember. The rest of the cast is good as well, especially Evdelshteyn (as the adorable yet spoiled rich kid who makes you like him despite how much of a douchebag he is) and Borisov (the thug with a heart of gold who will never be good enough for her). But really this is all about Madison and how she tears through this movie like a force of nature. 

Anora had me thinking about a lot. The film overtly references the elephant in the room, Pretty Woman, but tells a very different story. This isn't a fairy tale yet it also isn't a nihilistic film either. Somehow we know Ani will be okay... as much as anyone can be. There is a joy in this story that is palpable despite the challenges that face our hero. Baker is good at telling these stories that offer us joy for characters who are really struggling. Anora's most powerful moment comes right at the end, and it is a catharsis that is wholly relatable and felt by all of us. I believe there are parallels here with the ending of Pretty Woman, although it is a very different ending, that just felt like such an honest release. It is the sort of ending that just leaves you stuck in your chair as the credits role, feeling all of it until you can collect yourself. 

Anora is a triumph. Madison is a force of nature. Do yourself a favour and let yourself experience this film.  

Anora

Starring: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov,  Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan

Writer/Director: Sean Baker

Close to You (2024)

I didn't know the script for Close to You was extensively improvised by the actors until after I watched it but it made so much sense in how real it all felt. The scenes had an unscripted authenticity to them that had all the awkwardness and honesty of real conversations without the poetic posturing of many screenplays. I'm not saying I don't enjoy wittily crafted dialogue but Close to You just felt so raw and so realistic I was sweating during some scenes. 

This is a testament to the incredible cast headed by Page who gives one of the best performances of the year. Anyone connected to a trans person will recognize many of the moments in conversation that often come up and this film captures so much pent up emotional trauma from well meaning cis people. I was breathless in certain moments as the nerves were struck so credibly. 

Another strength of this truly impressive script is how it doesn't hold our hands and tell us exactly what is happening at every moment. There is a significant portion that could be perhaps fantasy, perhaps dream, but also credibly real. The film doesn't give us an answer, nor does it tell every moment chronologically. Instead it allows us to feel its moments... moment to moment. And that makes it end up feeling even more satisfying than it might have told more traditionally. 

Close to You is the sort of passion project that audiences are lucky to get from such creative talent. 

Close to You

Starring: Elliot Page, Hilary Baack, Peter Outerbridge, Wendy Crewson, David Reale

Writer/Director: Dominic Savage

 

Here (2024)

Here is an interesting experiment which never quite takes off. The "gimmick" of filming in one spot representing centuries of time actually works better than I had hoped but the problem mostly rests on the script which doesn't quite tell a compelling enough story. The film needed to focus on the connection between the physical space the people walking through it but that connection was mostly superficial. While Here never quite gets boring, it also never quite captures the audience's heart. 

Hanks and Wright are strong enough actors (along with their supporting cast, especially Bettany and Reilly) to pull off the range of the lives they are playing. I had no problem with the de-aging as in many ways it works much better than the aging make up films have put us through for decades. But the real test was how it would feel to watch a movie where the "camera" was placed in one spot the whole time. Surprisingly this worked for me. Zemeckis' use of the "space" along with different zones in the frame depicting different times, made it quite compelling.

As I mentioned it's the script that lost its way. It attempts to do so much and ends up doing so little. It becomes just a surface story for all the many threads it weaves instead of building any one of its narratives to a truly satisfying story. We are to be so moved by Hanks and Wright's final moments in the home but I found it hard to muster up much energy. 

So as an interesting experiment it had me quite fascinated, but as a story it didn't hold my attention. 

Here

Starring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, Kelly Reilly, Michelle Dockery, Gwilyum Lee, Ophelia Lovibond, David Fynn,  Zsa Zsa Zemeckis

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Writers: Eric Roth, Robert Zemeckis

The Wild Robot (2024)

Writer/Director Sanders is responsible for one of my all time favourite animated films, Lilo and Stitch. I love how wholly original and unlike anything else it is. He is also responsible for a film that mass audiences love a lot more than I do, How to Train Your Dragon. It's not that I don't like it (although I will pick apart its sequels), it just never resonated for me. The Wild Robot falls between the two for me. It is sweet and beautifully told if rather predictable and overly standard for my tastes. Still, it's hard not to appreciate a story that is so much about finding family. 

If I was going to nit pick anything it would be how little the film surprises you. Honestly anyone who has seen a movie before can tell you exactly what is going to happen at any point. Still, the art direction is gorgeous and the film just sticks to its story earnestly. I am a sucker for found family films, films that remind us that love comes from the least expected places and we can find our place amongst those who aren't anything like us. For that The Wild Robot overcomes any critique I have for lack of originality.  

The Wild Robot

Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Catherine O'Hara, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames 

Writer/Director: Chris Sanders