Ophelia (2019)

"It is high time I told you my story, myself."

I am drawn to stories that re-examine famous tales but from different points of view than we are used to, the idea of centering different characters so that we experience some time told tale with new insight is fascinating to me. The idea of the film Ophelia is that idea. While not an entirely new idea (retelling Hamlet from Ophelia's point of view has been a touchstone of feminist criticism for decades) it remains a very effective tool. And Claire McCarthy's film treads some new ground, while telling a truly engaging story.

Ophelia shows us the story not just from the younger woman's perspective but from the play's other legendary female character Gertrude. The King is abusive and neglectful. Claudius is caring if ambitious. Polonius is a loving father but weak. Hamlet himself is selfish and spoiled. It is Ophelia and Gertrude who are the complicated ones with agency beyond what Shakespeare envisioned for them.

Stories like this can be challenging as we know where things will go so the task is to invest us in how it will get there. Well McCarthy does this, making a beautiful film which invests us in Ophelia in ways he hadn't before and gives meaning to the words of the play (although the language isn't Shakespeare's prose the film sticks close to the meaning while imbuing a new way of understanding them) which helps us experience the story differently.

Ridley is powerful in her take on Ophelia. She has just the right mix of strength and vulnerability to make the character meet McCarthy's vision. And Watts truly makes the film, in a duel role which explores numerous natures of the burdens laid on women in western culture. Ophelia may be the centre of this tale, but Gertrude is the battle scarred survivor whose choices lead her to survive.

My main complaint is the economy of the film. I felt it rushed somewhat through Hamlet's plot points. I enjoyed what the film was doing and wanted to see if explore this more, with perhaps even more intricately than the short run time allows. Still what it does pack in here is interesting and its perspective is one I appreciated more than I thought I would.

I enjoyed the ending, one that I imagine will be controversial. It is rooted in Shakespeare's tales so it isn't without precedent. I like the idea that Ophelia's story isn't entirely known to us, that perhaps he held on to something more that we aren't entitled to. 

Ophelia
Starring: Daisy Ridley, Naomi Watts, Clive Owen, George MacKay, Tom Felton, Devon Terrell, Dominic Mafham
Director: Claire McCarthy
Writer: Semi Chellas

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

You can tell from the poster what sort of movie this is. It is a love letter to old Hollywood, a bygone era before the modern age of cinema began, one that looks adoringly at the films and the people of the time and celebrates them. Tarantino has made his career paying homage to genre films and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is like a summation of that, an homage to all that inspired him as a film maker. With just enough cinematic magic to give us the fairy tale ending we want.

I'm not a fan of true crime. The idea of entertainment based on real suffering is difficult for me to swallow. I understand the fascination with murder and the need for us to work through our fears around these horrible crimes, but the genre boarders on exploitation and quite easily crosses over. When I heard Tarantino was making a film centred around the murder of actor Sharon Tate I was worried. Especially with his penchant for stylized violence, the sort of thing that worked brilliantly in the fictitious stories where he explored sexism and sexual violence in heterosexual relationships (Kill Bill) or what if fantasy of WWII (Inglourious Basterds), but in recounting a horrific true life crime I worried he would more than cross any reasonable line. I was wrong.

This is Tarantino's most mature film. Sedate and stoic for a Tarantino film, Once Upon a Time In Hollywood shows him doing all the things he does well (deep dive character development, crafty interwoven plots, smart and sharp dialogue) but doing it with less adolescent urgency and more tempered pacing. A long film that never feels long, Tarantino tells a story about a friendship set in the world that he loves and that created the art he loves for good or for bad. He gives them a rose coloured narrative and us a cathartic way to look at this world as well.

His Tate isn't victim or object. We've come to see her in that light. Instead Tarantino casts her as a lovely human. At times I wondered why she was so prominent in the film when her character never does much of anything. But I realized she does do something important. She lives. She has connections. She experiences joy and frustration. She doesn't get the arc we are expecting. She instead gets to be alive before that fateful night. Instead of this being about her death. This film is about her as a living breathing person. I'm not sure I've seen something that frames her that way before.

Tarantino's Polanski isn't romanticized or celebrated. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actually uses him very little. It was Tarantino's first film after parting ways with sexual predator Harvey Weinstein and he slyly comments on Polanski's own sexual crimes by having another character specifically turn down sex with a minor due to the fact that she's a minor.

Tarantino pulls this off despite all my fears about what this film could be. It is none of those things. Instead it is that tribute to Golden Age Hollywood and to friendship really. In many ways it captures all the things that make a Tarantino movie a Tarantino movie. However in all of that it may also be the least exciting. That's not necessarily bad. It doesn't have the glitz and glam of his usual efforts. His style is muted and although it start to peek through in moments he keeps it rather restrained. While I was never bored throughout the long run time, the story full enough to keep it engaging throughout, I was also rarely excited or moved. In some ways the film is rather touching. But its emotional impact is slighter than some of his other works.

Another down side is a weird, disjointed scene featuring Bruce Lee in the middle of the film. The scene is played for laughs but has a strong air of racism with it that took me out of the film and made me feel fairly gross. I don’t see a good reason for Tarantino playing this scene this way, making Lee a laughing stock. The excuses that it is about building Pitt's character don't make sense. It didn't require making Lee seem like an ass to accomplish that. The whole part just felt way out of left field and took away from an otherwise strong movie. While I love that the film reimagines history and changes events to tell its story (it's not claiming in any way shape or from to be historically accurate) there is no need to paint a real life person as an ass without reason.

But overall this little loving fantasy is worth seeing. Well made. Well acted. And with a twist which gives the ending the kind of feeling that feels really good leaving the cinema.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Al Pacino, Margaret Qualley, Timothy Olyphant, Austin Butler, Kurt Russell, Zoe Bell, Bruce Dern, Dakota Fanning, Michael Madeson, Luke Perry, Mike Moh, Damien Lewis
Writer/Director: Quinton Tarantino

The Lion King (2019)

Once again Disney has mined their catalogue to put out a remake of one of their classics which doesn't come close to the magic of the original. Like some of these films there are some adjustments which I appreciated but mostly I felt it was either copying the original and not quite being as great, or making changes that just didn't feel as magical as what came before. I truly wish they could put this energy into making something new but I know audiences like something safe and secure where they don't have to wonder if they are going to like it.

So first what's good? Like their remake of Aladdin, I was happy to see them remove the gay-coding of the villain. The new Scar isn't a simple usurper who clearly isn't as worthy due to his lack of masculinity as he was in the first film. He actually articulates a different vision for the Pride Lands and has an ideological basis for his coup. Basically he argues a need for greater exploitation of the resources. While Mufasa managed a system that took into consideration the needs of all the citizens and managed conservation of resources, Scar wants a trickle down system which benefits the top of the food chain as much as possible without regard for the depletion of resources or the consequences for those further down the line. He is backed by the greedy who stand to benefit from such a reign. Basically he's a conservative.

I also appreciated the way the film gave more agency to its female leads (also in a way similar to the Aladdin remake). Both Nala and Sarabi are given more power and more leadership. I liked the new song for Beyonce. This was a welcome addition.

Sure I love Timon and Pumba in the original and here they are another bright spot. Billy Eichner (Timon) talked about how much freedom he and Seth Rogan were given to ad lib and improvise. The most changes to the film come from their scenes. Their chemistry is wonderful and their characters remain some of the best in the film. While I laughed a much of their material, one of their scenes also highlighted the issues with this film. There is a joke midway though Hakuna Matata which plays on our knowledge of the original film and it's version of the song. The joke that got the loudest laugh was one that takes a joke from the first film and then plays it differently. In this case, if you hadn't seen the first film you wouldn't get it at all and the joke would fall flat. However if you have seen the first film it's the best joke in the movie. Basically summing up this film making approach which relies entirely on recycling old ideas and your audience's knowledge of a product they have already consumed.

Overall the film never gave me any of the feels of the original. I had a hard time mustering any excitement to see a story that I had seen before when I knew how it was all going to play out. Seeing photo-realistic CGI animals wasn't enough to outweigh the loss of the gorgeous animation of the original film. This was most striking in the I Just Can't Wait To Be King number. While the first turns beautifully stylized and gives the animators some amazing opportunities to show off the beauty of the medium, here it was just a bunch of realistic looking animals running around. It lost all it's magic. So much of the film felt this way but this scene encapsulated it the most.

I couldn't feel anything when Mufasa died or when Simba and Nala discovered the changing feelings of adolescence. The real looking animals just didn't emote in the same manner and didn't offer the same connections their 2D animated equivalents did.

I know these films are popular and I am in the minority for not getting into line. They just don't offer me much of what I want when I go to a movie.

The Lion King
Starring: Donald Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Seth Rogan, Billy Eichner, Alfre Woodard, John Kani, John Oliver, Beyonce Knowles, James Earl Jones
Director: John Favreau
Writer: Jeff Nathanson

Wild Rose (2019)

This is the sort of film that launches a career. It's a tour de force for Jessie Buckley, rising star, who knocks it out of the park in a role and a film which could have been far more ordinary, but ends up being nothing but. The story of a wanna be star, who is just a little self-destructive, and overcomes her hurdles to find her dream is a story told again and again, but writer Nicole Taylor and director Tom Harper find a refreshing and invigorating way to tell it, and most of that has to do with finding this scene stealer Buckley.

Buckley shows us a million things in her face as her character Rose-Lynn pursues her dreams of being a country singer in Glasgow of all places while having just got out of jail and taking to raising two young children she likely didn't plan or want. The film doesn't get mired down in the difficult stuff too much, leaving all of the pain, indulgence, and passion to Buckley who brings it out so wonderfully, so touchingly, so raw. She is completely captivating.

And she plays off against Julie Waters, always a force to watch herself, so well. The two are magnetic together each supporting the other into amazing roles. Waters is understated compared to Buckley and that balance they create works perfectly.

I think one of the things I appreciated about the film is it doesn't have the traditional pay off a movie like this has. Without spoiling it I thought the ending was far more satisfying that one would usually suspect.

And then there is the music. This is the sort of country music (don't say western) that I can embrace. It's all songs by the likes of Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Joe Henry, Chris Stapleton, John Prine and the like. If you're wanting country radio you're out of luck. This is the hard living, roots country which, as the lead describes, three chords and the truth. Buckley nails all the music so perfectly, so lovingly. There is pain and passion in each note. A music film rises and falls on its music and this is a triumph. 

A crowdpleaser without being condescending, Wild Rose is the kind of film that makes me love being a film lover. I'll be singing along many more times I am sure.

Wild Rose
Starring: Jessie Buckley, Julie Walters, Sophie Okonedo
Director: Tom Harper
Writer: Nicole Taylor

Crawl (2019)

Horror director Alexandre Aja doesn't always make the kind of horror movies that speak to me. After his impressive and upsetting debut, High Tension, his films have fallen more on the B-movie side. While Crawl falls quite plainly into the B-movie category it is all the things one would want from such a film. It's a tight, compact story, full of excitement and chills, with a real enough story and characters to pull us into the fun.

Here's the simple story; during a hurricane a young woman attempts to rescue her father and encounters alligators who are  hunting. Standard pitch: Jaws with alligators. Aja tells this just just as it needs to be told. He gives us a clear and real picture of who his hero, Haley, is and then sets up her struggle. We follow her through it without her making terribly horror movie cliche decisions. The hurdles she faces are frightening without being ridiculous. And the story is just captivating enough to propel you through it.

Fun, scary, and not stupid. While I tend to be drawn to horror that comments more on issues in our culture, perhaps explores how our society can be a terrifying place, sometimes a movie that's just fun frights can be entertaining too.

Crawl
Starring: Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper
Director: Alexandre Aja
Writers: Michael Rasmussen, Shawn Rasmussen

I'll Take Your Dead (2019)

Part home invasion thriller, part gangster film, part family drama, part haunted house movie, I'll Take Your Dead comes together as one taught and fully satisfying piece of art horror.

This is the story of a man who gets rid of bodies for gangsters, his life on his farm with his disturbed daughter, and how it all inevitably goes wrong. I did love that the film embraced its genres fully without reservation.

Like a great creepy story told late at night with a flashlight under your chin, I'll Take Your Dead goes beyond the tropes of its genres and weaves a little tale that gets under your skin. While I admit it is one of the rare occasions when a "horror" movie scared me (the jumps actually made me jump and look over my shoulder) it was a different kind of skin crawling which truly got me. It was the way the film taps into some pretty real emotions, the kind that offer you something to really chew on.

For parents, I'll Take Your Dead will truly make you reflect. Like recent horror mini-masterpieces The Babadook and It Comes at Night, I'll Take Your Dead explores how frightening being a parent truly is, the way we make choices we never thought we'd have to make, and the ways we fail.

Shot on a shoestring, the film occasionally feels like it cuts a corner here and there but the performances, the passion of the film makers, and the sweet pulpy story make up for any flaws to deliver a truly enjoyable experience.

I'll Take Your Dead
Starring: Aiden Devine, Ava Preston, Jess Salgueiro
Director: Chad Archibald
Writers: Jamie Laforest, Chad Archibald

The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)

Exciting debut films from promising directors seem to come a lot more often these days, perhaps as film making becomes a more accessible medium. The latest is The Last Black Man in San Francisco, a beautifully shot sentimental film from first time film makers Joe Talbot and Jimmie Fails. Shot for very little but accomplishing so much, The Last Black Man in San Francisco is an great example of the idea that new film makers can get their visions made and we get to experience them as an audience.

Fails plays a fictionalized version of himself, a man attempting to reclaim the home his grandfather built, facing all the barriers, large ones and small ones, a black man in modern America faces. Talbot films his story with an invested eye, truly capturing the big and small moments in a way that shows a deeply insightful understanding of what this story means.

It is a delicious film to watch. A little garish (in all the best ways) while completely lush, The Last Black Man is a shows both as rough but ready to take on the task of making great films. If The Last Black Man in San Francisco is any indication, they are headed for some great things.

The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Starring: Jimmie Fails, Jonathan Majors, Danny Glover, Tichina Arnold, Mike Epps, Thora Birch
Director: Joe Talbot
Writers: Rob Richert, Joe Talbot