Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

Pure fan service. 

And I mean that in the very best way. 

I know a lot of critics love to shit on fan service, but I take a different view. Yes it can be poorly done, but when it is done well, hits a certain sweet spot narratively, it can be very satisfying. I mean what are movies for, especially those tied to a franchise that fans support and cherish, than to be made for the fans? Sure I love it when IP films can challenge our expectations and upend our understandings of the characters and themes we love (I adore The Last Jedi) but I also appreciate it when a film delivers for long devoted fans, a story filled with dialogue referencing our favourite memories and an arc for characters we love, that just makes us smile and revel in why we love these characters in the first place. 

It isn't long into the runtime of Deadpool & Wolverine that we begin to see what this is. It is a love letter to the 20th Century Fox Marvel Universe. While it references the Avengers films, this celebrates all that we loved and didn't love about the X-men films along with the the other stories Fox licenced like Blade, Daredevil, The Fantastic Four, and a few other surprises. It gives them one last shot, and it is as much fun as any Deadpool movie while also adding a sentimentality that would seem incongruous with Wilson's vibe. But D&W walks that line expertly. 

There are likely a lot of things we could pick apart if we really wanted to but why would I want to. I love the Fox X-men films (well most of them) and while I have made my piece with moving on it was truly lovely to get one more adventure in that world. In fact I am likely satisfied with this to the point where I don't want any more. 

Deadpool presents as being entirely irreverent but in the end there is always a large amount of heart, something I have a hard time finding in the MCU. I don't think I want any more mixing of this old Marvel world with the new. So let me have this and we can move on to phase whatever of Disneyfied world of Marvel. 

Deadpool & Wolverine

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Matthew Macfadyen, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, Stefan Kapičić, Brianna Hildebrand, Shioli Kutsuna, Channing Tatum, Jennifer Garner, Wesley Snipes, Aaron Stanford, Dafne Keen, Tyler Mane, Jon Favreau, Chris Evans, Ray Park, Kelly Hu, Jason Flemyng, Vinnie Jones, Henry Cavill, Chris Hemsworth

Director: Shawn Levy

Writers: Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Zeb Wells, Shawn Levy 

Twisters (2024)

I adore the film Twister, and it holds up well from a story perspective, performances (wow that amazing cast!), and even special effects. I went into Twisters with a little caution but also a whole lot of excitement and generally I was happy with what I saw. I found. Twisters to be a worthy follow up even if it didn't quite capture the zeitgeist in the way the first film did. 

 What I appreciate most about these films is how they are the opposite of a disaster movie. Instead of people running away to survive they are chasing after the disaster to defeat it. They celebrates science (both films worked to incorporate as much real world science into their fictional worlds) and tells stories about saving lives. They don't focus so much on villains as their stories are more about overcoming tragedy. And they are ensemble pieces. Even if there are "stars" in both cases the films have strong casts who all get moments to shine. 

It might be hard to live up to the legacy of the Hunt/Paxton film since that film was ground breaking for it's time in a way that this film just isn't. Like the Avatar sequel some of the wow factor is just not there since we've seen this ground broken before. But the story is solid, the cast do a great job with their characters (which generally are drawn fairly well, and the storms are scary. Yeah for me tornadoes are a trigger. There is something about seeing people face them that is empowering. 

Sure I'll admit Twister is a classic that probably could have stood on its own without there needing to be a franchise. It told its story and brought us into that world completely enough. Not every big movie needs a sequel. But Twisters does a good job of adding to it. Is it necessary? Not really. But was it fun? Hell yeah!

Twisters

Starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, David Corenswet, Sasha Lane, Harry Hadden-Paton, Daryl McCormack, Tunde Adebimpe, Katy O'Brian, James Paxton

Director: Lee Isaac Chung

Writer: Mark L. Smith

Fancy Dance (2024)

Gladstone follows up her high profile role in a Scorsese Oscar bait film with this powerful, quieter, and in my opinion far more satisfying picture about a woman searching for her missing sister and caring for her niece. She once again gives a towering, subtle performance that is filled with sustained yet understated strength and pathos. 

Fancy Dance tells a fairly straight forward story but manages to pack into it so much of a female indigenous experience, all so naturally a part of the narrative. The story feels authentic while also being very engaging and cinematic. Tremblay, whose work has focused on documentaries before this, shows a true talent for narrative storytelling. She keeps her film making tight yet richly drawn. 

Fancy Dance builds to a very natural yet emotionally full ending, one which Tremblay very deftly handles with grace. The film will sit with you after the credit role, as will Gladstone's performance. 

Fancy Dance

Starring: Lily Gladstone, Isabel DeRoy-Olson, Ryan Begay, Crystle Lightning, Audrey Wasilewski, Shea Whigham 

Director: Erica Tremblay

Writers: Miciana Alise, Erica Tremblay

Longlegs (2024)

Longlegs is the second horror film of 2024, deemed by the masses to be the next horror masterpiece, that didn't cut it for me. While I appreciated what Perkins did with style, the terrifying way he filmed Longlegs so that it would chill audiences, the story felt hollow and in the end left me just cold. Nothing about the story of Longlegs terrified me, nor even made me uncomfortable. Everything felt like it was the image of horror instead of actually being horrific.

Longlegs is filled with images that we commonly associate with horror stories; creepy dolls, devil worship, a serial killer basement, crime scenes shot forensically, evil nuns, deformed and insane appearing villain. All of it feels like it is trying too hard. 

The cast all act off the whole time, unlike how people really behave. Everyone from Underwood's agent and his family, who all talk like they are reading a script in the most mundane way, to Witt's damaged mother who appears to be trying to appear mentally ill. But its the central characters who took me the most out of the story. Monroe's spectrum coded hero is so socially awkward but is never reacted to as such that I felt like she didn't exist in the world around her. And Cage's maniac is so completely over the top his creepiness blurs into camp in a way that drains it of terror. 

So much of Longlegs doesn't feel real. Without a real world grounding he fear dissipates quickly.  The "evil plot" is convoluted and never quite comes together in a cohesive way, whether it's the agent's graphing of dates that feels like it could have been interpreted to mean almost anything, to the whole doll/possession magic which feels overly elaborate. Longlegs lacks a simplicity that would have given it a far more terrifying vibe. 

I will give credit to Perkins for his visuals. While I found his story and the way he directs his cast to be lacking, I did enjoy the atmosphere when it didn't feel forced. The problem is it often does with his heavy handed tropes. I really wanted to enjoy this film and went in expecting to see something terrifying. About half way through I found myself not being moved to much but disappointment. 

Longlegs

Starring: Maika Monroe, Nicholas Cage, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt

Writer/Director: Osgood Perkins

 

MaXXXine (2024)

West has made a very satisfying horror trilogy and is clearly having a lot of fun paying tribute to different style eras of film making (namely 70s genre films, golden era Hollywood, and 80s crime dramas). Maxxxine is another fascinating if uneven chapter in this saga and a beautifully shot homage to the greed decade with something to say about the brutal pursuit of fame. 

I wasn't sure the narrative was woven very clearly through this story and it sometimes feels like it's stumbling over itself to get from plot point to plot point. It maybe shoves its hypocrisy argument in our faces a little too hard but it's not a bad point and it certainly is an interesting take. I think Pearl remains the strongest of the three films but this one, like X, has at its centre the thing that makes it all work so well, Goth's performance. 

Goth really inhabits the. anti-heroines of this series. She is doing some fascinating things here and continues to build on Maxine first introduced to us in X. It's hard to take your eyes of her. She is complex and difficult and my only real complaint is that I wish the film gave her a better arc that could have shown off even more. But what she does here is wonderful to watch and Goth has cemented an iconic status with this role. 

I hear West is developing even more films in this series and despite some inconsistency here I'm down for Maxine to return. 

MaXXXine

Starring: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, Kevin Bacon 

Writer/Director: Ti West

Beverly Hills Cop Axel F (2024)

Axel F leans hard (and I mean HARD) into the nostalgia. Everything from the songs from the original soundtrack to reference to scenes from the first movie to cameos from your favourite characters scream "we're doing this again" to fans of the original. It ends up being a fairly solid action comedy and fans of the 80s classic will likely love it. I'm not sure it will do much to win over newer generations. 

Murphy is funny... enough. The plot is entertaining... enough. Everything about Axel F is just enough that it can be enjoyable but for all it's attempts to recapture lightning in a bottle it never captures the zeitgeist that was this phenom. To be fair the original film with its typical 80s faults didn't age super well and Axel F, which attempts to drop most of what didn't age while still holding onto what did, ends up being good... enough. 

I do think that they pulled it off for fans who wanted another visit to this character and world and that in itself is an achievement because it would have been easy for this to be a big stinker, which it isn't. It offers a nice little walk down memory lane, even if it is wearing rose coloured glasses. 

So if you are a fan of Murphy or this franchise then rest assured you'll enjoy this. Otherwise, you can take it or leave it knowing you won't hate it but also likely aren't missing anything if you're not chomping at the bit for it. 

Beverly Hills Copy Axel F

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige, Kevin Bacon, John Ashton, Judge Reinhold, Paul Reiser, Bronson Pinchot,  Luis Guzmán, Christopher McDonald 

Director: Mark Molloy

Writers: Will Beall, Tom Gormican, Kevin Etten 

Kill (2024)

Imagine The Raid but on a train, but in India. Kill is the very simple yet entirely satisfying film about a man who has to brutally fight his way through a train full of mobsters. It is John Wick style violent and Bollywood style earnest, but it is just a really fun ride (pun intended) that is endlessly entertaining. 

Star Lakshya has the face (and body) of a movie star and this is a star turn as the very heroic tragic hero. Juyal is a deliciously moustache twirling (metaphorically, although he's as handsome as the lead) villain. This film's plot is basically a fight to the finish, last man standing. Not as ironic or tongue in cheek as Bullet Train, Kill is straight up fight movie that is beautifully filmed and economic in its story telling so we just get the basics... which is all we need. 

I appreciated the film's ending even if it was a little on the overly romanticized side. It just felt right after all we saw. Kill delivers and then sticks the landing. 

Kill

Starring: Lakshya, Raghav Juyal, Tanya Maniktala

Writer/Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat

 

Kinds of Kindness (2024)

After a couple of bangers director Lanthimos is back to his wicked ways. This anthology of "short" films featuring the same cast rotating through different roles is likely to leave many audiences confused and please those into absurdist comedy. But as each little story resolved itself one question kept popping into my mind, why?

Why did Lanthimos include some odd detail about the characters? Why did they choose this line in this moment? Why are his characters acting one way in one scene and then their motivations appear to take a 180? Why was there a compulsion to tell these stories at all? 

Kinds of Kindness is a little wacky, a little dark, a little meandering, and a little confounding. The characters aren't consistently drawn even through individual interludes and there are often weird for the sake of being weird details included that add little to nothing to the story or the characters. For example there is a rape in the middle of the last story that is awkwardly filmed and truly unpleasant yet the film never truly wrestles with is implications or the effect it has on the audience. It has that "I'm an award winning director and I can do what I want" sort of vibe. 

But what Kinds of Kindness is not is entertaining. Neither is it impactful. Neither is it emotionally stimulating. It is a bit tedious for sure. But you don't come out of it happy to have endured it. 

Kinds of Kindness

Starring: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie 

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Writers: Efthimis Filippou, Yorgos Lanthimos