Les Trois Mousquetaires: Milady (2024)

As breaking film adaptations into two parts is all the rage, we now have the second half of the big screen, French, adaptation of The Three Musketeers, this one subtitled "Milady" to highlight how the film has taken Green's character and made her central to the story and our attention. And I am here for it. I truly appreciated the first film (2023's D'Artagnan, aptly subtitled to focus on the actual main character of the novel The Three Musketeers) and this second half is bigger and badder and gives us one of the years greatest villains and gives Green the chance to shine. 

This film seems to veer from the source material more than the first one did but most of the film's changes are fascinating and make for great swashbuckling and melodrama. The film is epic in a big screen pop corn flick sort of way but directed as historical drama with all the gravitas that comes with it. It is easy to let yourself get lost in this classic adventure and let it take you where it will. 

This adaptation's real strength comes in its ability to create delicious ambiguity. We are to sympathize both with the monarchy and the anti-monarchists. We are to applaud the introduction of Hannibal, an analogue for the real life first black Musketeer. And we get the wonderfully complicated, love to hate her but also hate to love her, Milady. Green tears up the screen with her tour de force portrayal. While Cardinal Richelieu is normally the big bad in adaptations, here he is sidelined by the far more captivating Milady. And thank the heavens for that. 

So together D'Artagnan and Milday create a fun and very satisfying double feature revisiting one of literatures favourite adventure stories but perhaps through a new lens. And that lens, in my opinion, makes it a far more interesting story in the end. 

I won't spoil it but the ending certainly leaves open the possibility for more, in fact almost demands it. I'd be down for another chapter in this series. 

Les Trois Mousquetaires: Milady

Starring: Eva Green, François Civil, Vincent Cassel, Pio Marmaï, Romain Duris, Lyna Khoudri, Louis Garrel, Vicki Krieps, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Ralph Amoussou, Éric Ruf 

Director: Matthieu Delaporte

Writers: Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte

A Family Affair (2024)

There has been much made of the sheer lack of chemistry between the romantic leads Kidman and Efron and it's painfully true. Watching them pretend to fall for each other really is torturous as there is little to no believable connection throughout A Family Affair, the film that can't decide if it's rom-com or dramedy with social commentary and ends up being none of the above. This is the second made for streaming film of 2024 featuring big stars that fumbles the May-December (I do hate that phrase) love story by having the younger man in the picture just be completely uninteresting and unworthy. 

I do think Affair is trying to be about the mother-daughter relationship (as was the afore-referenced The Idea of You) but this one fumbles that attempt even more. Affair continues to miss its chances, each time one arises, to give us characters we can care about or relate to in any way. The ideas are so thinly drawn that we can't take any of them seriously but the film takes itself too seriously to at least be funny about any of it. 

Kidman is a legend and King has such incredible screen presence and a shit load of potential. Both are wasted here in what is really a film that functions at an Efron film level. 

A Family Affair

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Zac Effron, Zoey King, Kathy Bates

Director: Richard LaGravenese

Writer: Carrie Soloman

 

Daddio (2024)

Daddio didn't really work for me. I loved the premise and I can be a sucker for this sort of story, characters trapped in a certain space and forced to interact for a real-time-ish duration. But as the film sped on I felt less and less engaged in where it was going. It was like the more the characters revealed themselves the less I was interested. 

Daddio is about the conversations between a cab driver and his fare, a woman returning home after being away. Hall's characters start out interesting and someone mysterious. But as they open up to each other they become more and more cliched and far less interesting than I imagined them. There "reveal" things about themselves and each other but I found the revelations rather blandly predictable. They became boring people. 

As Daddio reaches its conclusion there is supposed to be an emotional payoff that just falls rather flat. In fact some of it feels a bit desperate. Both Johnson and Penn do good jobs with their thinly written characters but there isn't enough to either of them to be that watchable. And the gimmick, of them being in this cab for an hour and a half, just becomes more tedious than revelatory. 

Daddio

Starring: Dakota Johnson, Sean Penn

Writer/Director: Christy Hall

 

A Quiet Place Day One (2024)

Just like the first two Quiet Place movies, which aren't about monsters that hunt by hearing and are in fact about something far more real, Day One finds its centre by focusing on something more than silence. Effectively scary and unnerving, Day One is strong due to its quest for life. We follow a character who may have given up and decides she is going to seek out living, what it means to be alive, more than running to just stay alive. 

Krasinksi's Quiet Place movies are about how terrifying parenting is and just how little control we have as parents over the lives that are entrusted to us. Day One focuses instead of finding out own agency in choosing how we want to live, and how we want to die. Casting Nyong'o, an actor of very high caliber, was important for pulling off such a story. She has the chops to deliver a complicated yet relatable character in the centre of this horror story and imbuing it with the strength to make this something more. 

Day One may not quite reach the heights of the series, partially due to the fact that it never escapes its NYC setting, a place which has been the scene of so many horror stories, and never quite finding a way to differentiate it from other disaster movies. Perhaps it never quite finds the originality that the other films do. Day One feels a bit more standard, yet still strong, especially in how it doesn't linger on the horror moments and instead finds its strengths in the human story. Not having to create the world that the other films set up give it the freedom to be on its own and hit the ground running yet it keeps its story small and personal which mostly works for me. 

Writer/Director Sarnoski, whose first film Pig was remarkable, has delivered here even if he hasn't quite captured a zeitgeist in the way this series debuted. Overall I am happy to say there is not yet a bad A Quiet Place movie yet.  

A Quiet Place Day One

Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, Djimon Hounsou

Writer/Director: Michael Sarnoski 

Thelma (2024)

Squibb is a standout in anything she is but this vehicle (scooter) for her shows off just what a treasure she is. Her performance is funny, touching, introspective, and damn well one of the best of the year. She plays a woman who goes on a revenge trip after being scammed in a telephone con and on the way she finds connection, gun play, and meaning. Thelma is a thoroughly funny and delightful film. 

I smiled or laughed almost all the way through Thelma. (I'm sure the name is a reference to that other famous woman out for revenge film.) Yet I was struck at just how powerful the film is as it explores her relationships both with others (especially her grandson and an old friend) but also with facing the end of her life. Squibb balances it all perfectly and is a joy to watch from beginning to end. 

I want to mention Hechinger as well whose character is not just there as support to Thelma but also has his own struggles to deal with. The film recognizes that life is challenging all the way through. Seriously by the time McDowell shows up at the end one is just blown away by the cast. 

Thelma is the sort of film that anyone of any age could enjoy and should. Get on that scooter and get down to your local cinema now to see it!

Thelma

Starring: June Squibb, Fred Hechinger, Richard Roundtree, Parker Posey, Clark Gregg, Malcolm McDowell 

Writer/Director: Josh Margolin

Cora Bora (2024)

Cora Bora is a lovely, completely engaging film that is centred around a singular performance from Statler who shows off she has both the screen presence and acting chops to carry this offbeat story and character. Her Cora is slightly a hot mess and her decision to return to Portland as her music career is struggling to reconnect with her girlfriend turns out to be fraught with challenges. But it's her awkward grace and outsider charm which makes watching Cora's misadventures so much fun. 

The film could have easily just been quirky comedy but the screenwriter, director, and Statler herself infuse the story with a pathos and gravitas that is unexpected. They are entirely up to the task however and the emotional beats hit as good as the comedy ones. Cora Bora comes all together to deliver a full meal deal that will mostly have you smiling with maybe a few moments of misty eyes. 

Statler is certainly the star of this show but her supporting cast is excellent as well, especially Jacinto and Mayeri in what could have been thankless or one note roles that become so well defined. 

I think that thing that made me enjoy the film so much, besides Statler's presence on its own, was just how unexpected it was. 

Cora Bora

Starring: Megan Statler, Jojo T Gibbs, Manny Jacinto, Ayden Mayeri, Margaret Cho

Director:  Hannah Pearl Utt

Writer: Rhianon Jones 

Inside Out 2 (2024)

Inside Out 2 does what a good sequel should, take the story of the first to new places and not just rehash what we've seen before. In some ways this story is a no brainer as the flow from a child's emotions into a teen's emotions is the next logical step in the story. Riley's growth to incorporate more complex and difficult emotions is rich for opportunity and the Pixar folks have cast their magic again making a very satisfying continuation of one of their best films. 

Riley is a great "every woman" character who is designed to be very relatable to almost any audience. In someways that makes her development border on cliche but the film manages to skirt this just enough to make it all feel honestly real. My main critique of the first film is that I am not sure all the metaphors truly work (personality islands always felt a little forced for example) but the film boldly swings and succeeds in being beautifully watchable both visually and narratively so I forgive it. 2 has some of the same issues but it's main new conceit, of memories forming identity, is a winner. Also any movie that make Ennui into a character gets a gold star in my book. 

I'm not always a big fan of sequels, even to movies that I really love. But when it makes sense, when it truly continues the story and evolves into something new, a continuation can be great. In fact Inside Out 2 shows us that a trilogy might be warranted as there are still Riley's late teens to contend with. Maybe this isn't something Pixar would tackle but if they had the nerve to personify her sexual and romantic feelings as they develop, that could be an amazing movie if handled sensitively and honestly. Maybe that's not somewhere Disney wants to go.

Inside Out 2

Starring: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan, Tony Hale, Liza Lapira, Maya Hawke, Ayo Edebiri, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Paul Walter Hauser, Yvette Nicole Brown, Ron Funches, June Squibb, Yong Yea, James Austin Johnson, Paula Poundstone, Pete Doctor, John Ratzenberger, Flea, Frank Oz 

Director: Kelsey Mann

Writers: Meg LeFauve, Dave Holstein 

Sous la Seine/Under Paris (2024)

Under Paris is the kind of B-movie I can get behind. This isn't Sharknado. The film takes itself and its premise seriously and walks a fine line between the obviously ridiculous plot and the world it creates so that you can buy into it and enjoy it for exactly what it tries to do. It builds real suspense and captures the Jaws sequels and Deep Blue Sea sort of vibes that makes shark movies so much fun. 

Under Paris smartly uses its less than top tier special effects sparingly so that we aren't too pulled out of the film. It focuses on characters and its shark attack scenes are well done, often using chaos and panic as the way to build fear for the audience. I was on the edge of my seat throughout most of it. Also the run time is just long enough to entertain without dragging its plot. 

So while Under Paris is admittedly a bit silly, it commits to its story and if you do too the film can be quite enjoyable. And I really appreciated the ending which I hope means we'll get more Under movies to continue the mayhem. 

Under Paris

Starring: Bérénice Bejo, Nassim Lyes

Director: Xavier Gens

Writers: Yannick Dahan, Xavier Gens, Maud Heywang, Yaël Langmann 

The Watchers (2024)

From the first frame The Watchers shows that debut director Ishana Night Shyamalan has a true talent for film making. The frames are beautiful, the story telling notes are strong. The problem with the film comes not from her skills as a film maker. The problem arises from the fact that there isn't a good story here. She hits the beats and builds the tension and films this gorgeously. But there is no denying the story falls short. 

High concept films can be tough. You have to sell the truly unbelievable and make it believable, and if there is a twist, it has to be earned and feel inherently natural. If it feels like things are forced it pulls us out of the story and the whole house of cards can fall down. The story has to resonate and The Watchers doesn't get there. 

There are just far too many logical leaps that need to be made to get the high concept plot chugging along. The plot (as in plan not story) is so complicated and relies on so many steps that there ends up needing so much explaining and there are so many times when observant viewers would go "well wait, how did that work? that doesn't make sense!" Time and again I had to ask myself, how could that have developed as in the context of the story things just seem far to convenient.  

The first line is voice over where Fanning's character refers to a forest that's "does not appear on any map". Really? People seem to know about it, roads seem to go through it. Did it need to be so cryptically described in a way that within world it could be questioned and disproven even? 

All of this makes The Watchers just fall apart so by the time the big "twist" is revealed, I already didn't care. If one is going to build a world the world needs to be work and the world of The Watchers just doesn't no matter how beautiful Shyamalan's film making is. 

The Watchers

Starring: Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouéré, Oliver Finnigan, Alistair Brammer, John Lynch

Writer/Director: Ishana Night Shyamalan

 

The Great Escaper (2024)

I watched The Great Escaper, a film set on the 70th anniversary of D-Day on the 80th anniversary by sheer coincidence. I had expected a charming comedy about an old man escaping his nursing home to be part of the celebrations, but The Great Escaper was so much more than from. From Parker's wonderful direction, to Caine's career topping performance, to the scene stealing presence of Jackson, this film is a quite unexpected emotional ride that is not only a tribute to those who sacrificed so much in was but also to two actors who have such stellar careers. 

Th Great Escaper is the final film for both Caine and Jackson, the latter because she passed away soon after the film was made and the former because he retired making this his farewell film. And what a good choice. Both are wonderful in it. Caine brings so much more to the character than one might expect, playing the role with such a fullness. This isn't a film that is just about a funny old man. His Bernie is such a richly developed character who is incredible to watch. Caine has lost none of his screen presence. Jackson is just delightful as well. But their chemistry is a big part of what makes the film work so well. 

The Great Escaper is far less about him "escaping" and so much more about how his connection to that time and place has such an impact. I was not necessarily prepared for how emotional it would be. Caine's gravitas creates moments that are just so powerful, as in his making connection with former German soldiers who had fought on the same beach, or his comment "what a waste" while standing in a grave yard filled with headstones. But also the love and connection between him and Jackson's character. Parker doesn't shoot this in a way that glosses over anything. He adds little moments that are unexpected and finds such a beautiful way to marry future and past, and draw connections between the living and the dead. 

The Great Escaper is a fitting ending to Caine's incredible career. It is great to see him go out on such a high note. 
 

The Great Escaper

Starring: Michael Caine, Glenda Jackson, John Standing, Danielle Vitalis

Director: Oliver Parker

Writer: William Ivory

In a Violent Nature (2024)

Slasher is low on my list of preferred horror genres. I understand why people are drawn to them on an intellectual basis but experientially I tend to get little out of them. However there can be examples that I find interesting, especially when a film maker plays with the sub-genre in a way that is interesting. For me a lot of In a Violent Nature was interesting, from Nash's desire to mix Terrance Malick style narrative with the classic tropes of slasher films, to his exploration of the lasting effects of trauma. Some of the film's almost cartoony violence was less impressive than I'd hoped although I did like how he themed his killer's strikes around each victim specifically. But for me the film was made in its last ten minutes. 

In a Violent Nature is almost an experiment in taking all the cliches and tropes of the most typical of typical slasher films and finding a new way to film them. There is a special place in the oeuvre of Canadian cinema and this film picks up on that while also attempting to tell this story in a new way. Mostly that worked for me as an intellectual exercise, with incredibly beautiful cinematography and restrained long shots that don't drag out the point too much. Nash creates a chilling tension that works because he follows his killer. I actually found this quite effective in building tension as instead of the typical waiting for the killer to pop out we are waiting for his reaction to the victims he stalks. The film is quite beautiful to watch even as you're waiting for the next attack. 

I actually found the violence the least satisfying. While it was gruesome it was almost cartoony. I liked how the kills are crafted to say something about each victim, but generally this sort of violence isn't interesting to me. The characters are purposefully uninteresting and sketched thinly. Even the performances leave something to be desired and I believe this is on purpose. What is interesting is the fear, the lead up to it. Which is why the ending was so powerful for me. The next paragraph spoils a bit so skip it if you haven't seen the film.

In a Violent Nature has set us up to expect the killer. It's aping of the genre sets us up to expect the killer. We are used to one last "hurrah" as the once believed monster to jump out and take one last bloody stab (pun intended) at our final girl. But Nature doesn't do that. Nash teases us with tight shots that leave us to believe we aren't seeing him hiding just out of sight. It plays the game that these sorts of films do. But instead of delivering that last catharsis it just leaves us hanging... wondering... unable to settle. Like the final girl staring off into the woods we imagine seeing things. Did we see something? Is there nothing there at all? We are left unable to resolve our fears or tension. The film actually shows us that the killer's bloodlust is satiated, that he has reached his goal, that this chapter is over. But we can't let it go. Just like our heroine. 

In a Violent Nature may have some things to say about able-bodied privilege and how we other some folks but I'd have to ruminate on that more to say something intelligent on that. I do think the film is commenting on that trope of the genre as well but I'm not exactly sure how. Still what In a Violent Nature leaves me with is a lingering unease and a questioning of what these sorts of film can offer. 

In a Violent Nature

Writer/Director: Chris Nash