I’ve seen plenty of movies this year, but didn’t have the
chance to review them all. Maybe I didn’t catch it in theaters, maybe I didn’t
have enough to say to warrant a full review, or maybe I just didn’t have the
time. To make up for this, I’ve compiled a collection of short reviews of
movies that, for whatever reason, I didn’t get to the first time around. Enjoy.
Game Night
This was the first movie I saw in theaters that I didn’t
review, mostly because I had a hard time making heads or tails of it. The basic
premise is that a highly competitive couple (Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams)
who hold weekly game nights with their friends decide to invite the husband’s
brother (Kyle Chandler), who shakes things up by holding a murder mystery with his Stingray as the grand prize. He ends
up getting kidnapped for real, but everyone thinks it’s all part of the game,
so they set out to find him, thinking the real danger is all an act. Game Night is a weird case for me
because I get the joke, I just didn’t think the joke was funny. I only laughed two
or three times tops, most of the characters were unlikable dumbasses, certain
scenes left me squirming or cringing for all the wrong reason, and there were
moments where they killed the joke by explaining it. Funnily enough, what
really stood out to me were the editing and cinematography. Most modern comedy directors
do very little with the camera (I’m looking at you, Judd Apatow), but here the
camera work was so creative and kinetic that I wondered if the DP or editor
ever worked for Edgar Wright or David Fincher. (The DP only has comedies under
his belt, as do two of the editors, save for Gregory Plotkin, who mainly does
horror movies.) With Game Night, I
found myself in the same predicament I was in with Lady
Bird, where I acknowledge how well put together it was, even if
it failed to get me jazzed up, but had a hard time reconciling the final
product with the rapturous praise it was receiving at the time. Perhaps I’m
asking too much of this movie, but with this premise and presentation, I felt
like they could’ve been so much more.
5/10
The Death of Stalin
After a twenty-four-year tenure as ruler of the Soviet
Union, Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror came to an abrupt and unceremonious end
when he died of a stroke in 1953. This created a power vacuum with his various
underlings competing to take his place. Naturally, this would be a great
subject for a comedy. Now, I’m not exactly a scholar on Soviet Russia, so I
can’t ascertain the veracity of this movie’s historical accuracy (although according
to two friends of mine who are hardcore leftists, as well as this video, it
mostly checks out), but even if it were as historically accurate as 300, that wouldn’t stop this from being
one of the funniest comedies of the year. Director Armando Iannucci has made a
name for himself with political satires like The Thick of It, In The Loop and
Veep, finding humor in the farce and incompetence of the world’s biggest
power players and delivering it with razor sharp dialogue, so the story of the politburo’s
struggle to find a successor seems right up his alley, especially since the
reality plays less like Game of Thrones
and more like a middle school student body campaign. The performances reflect
this ludicrous nature. Jeffrey Tambor plays Stalin’s successor Georgy Malenkov
as a nervous, easily manipulated sweat fountain, Simon Russell Beale plays
Lavrenti Beria as a slimy bully whose psychotic tendencies were becoming a
liability, and Steve Buscemi plays Nikita Khrushchev like an unassuming jokester
whose clownish demeanor was all part of an elaborate power move to stay on
Stalin’s good side and keep allies on his. Part of the fun is mining humor from
the absurdities of real events (such as a radio orchestra scrambling to perform
a piece again when Stalin requested a recording of a broadcast they didn’t
record, or how his guards didn’t come to help him because they were ordered not
to disturb him), but also the abject horror of the circumstances surrounding
it. You’ll laugh one minute at just how ridiculous and incompetent these
bumbling idiots are, only to have that laughter dashed by the realization that
these bumbling idiots were responsible for the death of millions. Iannucci is
determined to draw laughs from the audience, whether they’re genuine or
nervous.
8/10
First Reformed
This… this is a heavy one. Ethan Hawke plays a preacher at a
small historic church who’s slowly dying of stomach cancer and drinking himself
to death. One day he’s approached by a member of his congregation (Amanda
Seyfried) to intervene with her husband, a radical environmentalist who’s
planning on martyring himself by suicide bombing a power plant. The preacher
ends up becoming radicalized himself after talking to him and doing some research, and
tries to carry out his mission when he discovers that the mega-church that owns
his facility is funded by a polluting energy conglomerate. Written and directed
by Paul Schrader, the screenwriter behind Taxi
Driver, Raging Bull and The Last
Temptation of Christ, First Reformed collides
religious self-flagellation, environmental apocalypse and good old-fashioned
mental breakdown into a cavalcade of anti-catharsis that’s about as uplifting
as watching your grandma die. Hawke presents a career-best performance,
conveying a well of self-hatred, repressed anger and guilt without ever raising
his voice above a hush, and pulling off the nearly impossible task of making
his character less likeable as he becomes more sympathetic. His faith doesn’t
necessarily degrade, so much as it’s internally weaponized. He keeps a journal
in lieu of praying (which doubles as narration and internal monologue), he’s wracked
with guilt over his son’s death after he sent him to fight in Iraq, and his
research on the onslaught of climate change and continuous environmental damage
lead to some drastic decisions. The final climax builds up to the promise of
some unholy act of martyrdom, one last stab at God on the way down to Hell, but
emotionally denies the audience of any catharsis. And because it’s also an A24
movie, it also has to end abruptly with an image that leaves you asking “Wait, that’s the note you’re ending on?”
Powerful stuff, but not exactly the feel-good hit of the summer.
8/10
Jurassic World: The
Fallen Kingdom
My least favorite kind of sequel is the kind that can only
be exist by retconning important details from the original. Because of this,
I’ve always been against Jurassic Park
sequels on principle since they only exist because nobody learned their lesson
the first time. I wouldn’t have bothered had I not been dragged to see it by a
friend, and had I written a review then, it probably would’ve been nothing but the
words “This movie is fucking stupid!” repeated for three pages. Basically, a
few years after the revamped Jurassic Park is destroyed and abandoned, Claire
(Bryce Dallas Howard) and Owen (Chris Pratt) find out that there are still a
few surviving dinosaurs roaming the island, and they’re called upon to rescue
them before a volcano erupts and kills them all. Once they get there, they find
out the transparently evil billionaire who organized the rescue was only doing
it so he can capture them, sell them to the highest bidder, and maybe crossbreed
them into a super-predator that can be used in war. I will give credit where
credit’s due, the first act where everyone is racing to get off the island
before the volcano blows is admittedly pretty exciting, even if lava in this
movie pretty much has the same effect as boiling water. And it’s at least aware
that the sequels have all been pretty much the same up to now and at least
tries to do something different, but the amount of times it tries to bend and contort
itself in order to make sense is exhausting. They try to give it some substance
by digging up the old “should these dinosaurs be allowed to live?” debate
that’s been hanging over the franchise from the beginning with Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum)
testifying against it in court, and the movie ends with a definitive “YES”,
because how else are they gonna keep making these? They were so preoccupied
about whether they could that they never stopped to think if they should. They
stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as they
could, and before they knew what they had, they patented it, packaged it,
slapped it on a plastic lunchbox and now they’re selling it, they’re selling
it.
3/10
Teen Titans Go! to the
Movies
If you’ve never seen Teen
Titans Go! before, then I can only assume you haven’t watched Cartoon
Network in the last four years, or you don’t have children. While it’s been one
of the channel’s tentpole shows for a while now, it’s also garnered a lot of
hatred, partially because it’s a reworking of a beloved series from the mid
00’s only aimed at a much younger audience, and because of its oppressive
overexposure and oversaturation, with reruns making up a massive chunk of their
schedule. I personally can’t make it through a whole episode without wanting to
headbutt a buzz saw, but I contemplated biting the bullet and seeing it when
rumors floated around that it was way better than it had any right to be. And
lo and behold, they were right. Apparently when I wasn’t looking, the writers
gained a ton of self-awareness and used it to their full advantage for their
big screen venture. The Teen Titans (Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy and
Raven) are upset that they’re the only superheroes without their own movie,
primarily because nobody takes them seriously, so they set out to fix that. The
result is essentially Deadpool, but
with a target audience still in the single digits: a wacky joke-a-minute
lampooning of the superhero genre packed with self-aware, self-referential
humor, silly musical numbers and regular shots at conventions like DC’s recent
ultra-serious grimdark streak, superhero origins, and Teen Titans Go!’s own weird place in the landscape of superhero
animation. It’s not as meta or deceptively deep as either of the LEGO
movies, but there’s enough gags and jokes to keep both the kids and their
parents laughing. There’s a surprisingly dark joke about Batman’s origin story
that left me flabbergasted with how they were able to get away with it, and the
final line of the movie had me in tears. Kids will love it, parents can enjoy
it without wanting to blow their brains out, even the most ardent Teen Titans Go! hater will have to give it
up for this. I was really surprised by this one, and I think they will be, too.
7/10
Crazy Rich Asians
It’s kind of funny how such a small change can make such a
big difference. Crazy Rich Asians
became a pretty big deal this summer for being the first American movie since
probably The Joy Luck Club to feature
a prominently Asian cast and crew, and because of this, it was met with both
critical and financial success. (Although apparently the reception in China
hasn’t been as warm. Go figure.) It’s one of those things you don’t really
realize is lacking until you get something like it, and seeing a murderer’s row
of our best Asian actors in a diverse set of roles puts a lot of perspective on
just how pigeonholed they tend to be. While the movie is marketed as less of a
movie and more of a cultural touchstone, the story itself is kind of basic. In
this case, Rachel Chu (Constance Wu), a Chinese-American economics professor,
is travelling with her boyfriend Nick (Henry Golding) to Singapore for his best
friend’s wedding, only to find out that he comes from an obscenely wealthy
family and is heir to their vast fortune, making him Asia’s most eligible
bachelor, and making her the target of every debutante on that side of the
Pacific, as well as the subject of ire for Nick’s iron willed mother (Michelle
Yeoh). You’ve seen this story before and can probably guess the beats before
they happen, but they’ve never been presented before in this kind of setup or
context. It’s nothing to write home about, but the devil is in the details.
Much of the conflict hinges on the cultural differences between Asians and
Asian Americans, something I’m woefully unequipped to speak of with any authority,
but adds a recognizable amount of depth to the tried and true but well worn out
Meet the Parents formula. The
performances help significantly, with Constance Wu bringing a mixture of grace
and beleaguerment, while Michelle Yeoh brings depth to a character who could’ve
been a stereotypical tiger mother. They’re supported by a wide array of characters
that seemingly walked in from other movies, my personal favorites being Gemma
Chan as Nick’s sister whose glamorous exterior hides a heart of gold, and Awkwafina
as Rachel’s excitable best friend/tour guide. I wish the story was stronger, but
beneath all the glamor shots of excessive wealth and rom-com tropes, Crazy Rich Asians is a quietly
revolutionary for the doors it’s opened, and for that, it should be celebrated.
7/10
Searching
If you haven’t seen or heard of this one, I don’t blame you.
It slipped under the radar at the tail end of August and largely went
unnoticed, but I aim to fix that because this is hands down one of the most
creatively framed movies I’ve seen in a long time. David (John Cho) is a single
dad whose daughter Margot (Michelle La) went missing, so he tries to find
information for the detective in charge of the case (Debra Messing) by breaking
into her laptop and going through her search history and social media. But as
his investigations dig deeper and deeper, David suspects something foul is
amiss and that he and Margot probably weren’t as close as they thought. Essentially,
it’s Megan is Missing if it weren’t
written by a lobotomized chimp that hates teenagers and doesn’t know how
technology works. The central gimmick is that the entire movie is focused on various
computer screens, with all of the action being seen through all the open
windows: web browsers, video chats, livestreams, desktop folders etc., but it
never wears out its welcome, and in fact adds to the mounting tension. The
movie is a thriller at heart, something that Hitchcock could’ve strung together
if he had access to this tech. Much like Eighth
Grade, it understands how much of an intrinsic part of our daily lives
this technology is and uses that fact to its advantage. One moment it shows how
things like digital photo albums and calendar marks on a computer can be just
as significant and sacrosanct as the paper equivalent through a breathtaking montage
of Margot’s early life that’s basically the first ten minutes of Up done on a Windows XP monitor, then a
few minutes later it gives parents a quick tutorial on how easy it is to hack
into their kid’s social media accounts. There are moments where it kind of
feels like it’s cheating, such as certain updates being conveyed through televised
news reports, but the best movies with gimmicks end up with the gimmick not
really mattering. Easily one of the most original and underrated movies of the
year, this deserves way more recognition.
8/10
Apostle
This Netflix original has the same mean streak as First Reformed, but is way heavier on
spectacle. A former missionary (Dan Stevens) from early 20th Century
England is sent to rescue his sister from a cult situated on a remote island
under the leadership of their charismatic prophet (Michael Sheen), who’ve kidnapped
her and are holding her for ransom. When he gets there, he discovers the cult’s
true motives and the horrifying secret behind their sustainability. The plot
borrows the basic outline of The Wicker
Man, except both you and the protagonist know it’s a cult going in, and it goes
in a completely different direction. The real point of comparison for me,
though, would have to be director Gareth Evans’ action bone cruncher, The Raid: Redemption, particularly in its
brutal, tough-as-nails approach to violence and torture. Those scenes are few
and far between, but when they come, it’s like slamming your head into a
concrete floor. Between that, we get the unraveling of the mystery around the
cult, the island and its inhabitants, slowly peeling back the curtain to reveal
a plot of happenstance, deception, imprisonment, sacrifice and the consequences
of disturbing the delicate balance of nature. The buildup drags for a bit too
long, focusing on slow-burn tension and creepy atmosphere, but it makes the
final payoff all the more explosive. Sprinkle in some stellar performances from
Dan Stevens, Michael Sheen, Lucy Boynton and Mark Lewis Jones, dexterous camera
work and a chilling score, and you got yourself a nice pulpy concoction of noir
and supernatural horror. If the anti-climax of First Reformed left you feeling cold, this should be enough to
satiate your bloodlust.
8/10
Green Book
Some movies don’t strive for ambition, but try to make up
for it in sincerity. That’s why every Oscar season we get a slew of earnest,
middle brow, message mongering crowd pleasers that drum up sympathy by playing
to the audience’s white guilt. Based on a true story (as these often tend to
be) and named after an essential travel guide listing hotels and establishments where black people were allowed to stay, Green Book is about as
by-the-numbers as it gets. Set in the early 1960’s, we meet Tony Vallenloga
(Viggo Mortensen), a bouncer at the Copacabana who’s hired by classically
trained jazz pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) to be his driver and bodyguard during a tour of the Deep South, and although they’re complete opposites, they learn from each other, overcome their prejudices and become friends by the end. It’s essentially a
color-swapped, gender-flipped rendition of Driving
Miss Daisy, and while having the black man be the refined, dignified one
and the white man be an uncouth loudmouth is a unique spin, it didn’t shake the
feeling that I’ve seen this all before. That’s not to say the whole venture is
cynical, or that it can’t be effective. A lot of this has to do with our two
leads. Mortensen manages to find depth in a character who’s more or less a
stereotypical Italian-American New Yorker, and Mahershala Ali does phenomenally
as the cultured, sophisticated gentleman who commands respect wherever he goes, even if that respect won't earn him a seat at the table.
Unfortunately, the movie tends to dip into problematic territory. The movie
makes no bones about Tony not being the brightest or most tolerant guy, throwing
out a glass just because a black man drank from it, and acting shocked upon learning
that Don never listened to Little Richard or eaten fried chicken, but that’s
mild compared to the prejudice hurled at them on their journey. But the movie
often has him go through a change by coming to Don’s rescue whenever he gets
accosted by racist townies, drunkenly wanders away from his hotel at night, or
caught by the police at the YMCA with another man. This could easily be
interpreted as a “white savior” narrative, and quite frankly, we have enough of
those already. It’s beautifully shot, well-acted, and no movie that can make me
laugh as hard as the pizza scene did doesn’t deserve my complete scorn, but we
can do better than this.
5/10
The Ballad of Buster
Scruggs
The latest from the Coen brothers is a first for me: an
anthology. This Netflix exclusive is a collection of six quintessentially
Coen-esque vignettes all set in the old West, complete with their signature
dark humor. In this six-part collection, an upbeat balladeer (Tim Blake Nelson)
is revealed to be a notorious, cold blooded desperado, a bank
robber (James Franco) gets way in over his head, a traveling impresario (Liam
Neeson) exploits a poetry reciting amputee for profit, an aging prospector (Tom
Waits) strikes gold, a woman (Zoe Kazan) travelling West with her brother finds
love on the Oregon Trail, and five strangers share an uncomfortable stagecoach
ride. Aside from the book that opens and closes each episode, there’s no real
connective narrative tissue binding these tales together. The only real
connecting factors are the time period, the Coen brother’s increasingly
jaundiced view of humanity, and of course, the looming specter of death. There
are scenes of over-the-top violence peppered throughout, including a shootout
straight out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon, and each story ends with someone dying. The
stories run the gamut of emotions and styles, from jaunty vaudeville to
absurdist gallows humor to tender and humane. Of course, the problem with
anthologies is that you probably won’t be in love with each individual segment.
In my case, the titular story and the one with the prospector were fantastic. Buster
Scruggs is essentially Deadpool by way of Annie,
Get Your Gun and could easily carry a whole movie by himself, while Tom
Waits was able to do just that with his time. The only story I outright hated
was the one with the impresario and the amputee. Even for a Coen brothers
movie, it was way too bleak and mean spirited for my taste. If you’re not
familiar with the Coens’ work, I’d say this would be a decent place to start,
as it’s a smorgasbord of their different moods.
7/10
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