Crush (2022) - Review

 

It's truly a wild thing that a quaint 100-minute rom com involving a cast of young diverse people, in both race and sexuality, is still kind of a radical thing. Even looking back at the last big “gay” romance movie with 2018’s “Love, Simon”, a large part of the plot of that film revolved around the typical “coming out” experience. A rom com, or even romance film, featuring queer people just being themselves, without the potential headaches or trauma of coming out, might not be rare anymore, but it certainly isn’t the norm.

That is merely one of the reasons that “Crush” feels just so… nice. It's formulaic and cliched certainly, anyone who’s seen a high school rom com in the last twenty years will see that obviously. But it's in the little details and actors that it manages to charm its way right into any viewer’s heart.

It’s all about Paige, played by Rowan Blanchard (“Girl Meets World,” “Snowpiercer (2020)”), a high school junior struggling to apply for Cal Arts and still pinning after queen bee and childhood crush Gabriela, played by Isabella Ferreira (“Love, Victor”). When Paige is then framed for vandalizing the school, she makes a deal to join the sparsely populated track team in exchange for not being suspended. She ends up training with Gabriela’s sister, AJ, played by Auli’i Cravalho (“Moana,” “All Together Now”), and things quickly spiral into a love triangle and mystery to find the vandal.

Truly this is a film where the cast is just fun, light, and charming enough to sell the material without overpowering any of it. Blanchard is just so good as Paige. She’s fun and adorable, awkward but not shy. The kind of person you want to befriend almost as soon as you meet her. Ferreira plays Gabriela as the popular girl, for sure, but not in a mean or annoying way, letting her be just as fun and carefree as the rest. The last of the main trio, Cravalho is just snarky enough to pull off the silent tomboy type without letting it get in the way of any likability for her character.

Rounding out the supporting cast is Tyler Alvarez (“Every Witch Way,” “American Vandal”) and Teala Dunn (“All Night” “Are We There Yet? (2010)”) as Dillon and Stacey, Paige’s best friends and a couple, also running against each other for student body president. They’re back and forth competitive nature and overly sexual relationship is a hysterical delight and they’re great in every scene. Aasif Mandvi (“The Daily Show,” “Evil”) and Michelle Buteau (“First Wives Club,” “Tales of the City”) are also here as borderline cameos as the track coach Murray and the school’s Principal Collins. They’re perfect comedic relief, stealing every scene they’re in and providing constant laughs.

But, in terms of supporting cast, this movie belongs to Megan Mullally (“Will & Grace,” “Parks & Recreation”) as Paige’s mother Angie. She’s the kind of ridiculously over-supportive cool mom that borders on cringe-inducing but never crosses that line. She’s a constant smile machine, showcasing real love and support for Paige and her friends while still strutting that awkward cool mom strut, dropping innuendos and awkward sex talks around every corner.

There’s not really anything radical about the filmmaking or visual storytelling here, but it's a nice, quiet film where everything serves its purpose well. Sammi Cohen, a longtime director of comedy skit website CollegeHumor, makes her feature directorial debut and keeps everything moving at a nice even pace. The script, written by Kirsten Kin and Casey Rackham also in their debuts, peppers in tons of curse words and awkward interactions you can’t help but smile at.

The most impressive thing about it is how it all just seems to “get” the longing looks, the awkward smiles, the bouts of anxiety all associated with crushes in high school. It’s hardly a revolutionary piece of writing, but it’s got it where it counts and the cast really sells each and every silly, romantic, charming line and dreamy gaze. And again, after decades of queer romance films featuring angry parents, secret meetings, and being not about the romance itself but the hiding of it, it’s just so nice to see a film this charming and cute also be so proudly open and freeing. There’s no hiding here. It’s just so so gay.

“Crush (2022)” is lightweight fare to be sure, but it's also the kind of lightweight romantic fare you can’t help but smile through. The cast is utterly charming and the script is just funny enough, even as the ending seems to stumble into every rom-com trope it possibly can. It’s an awkward and anxious high school romance that’s still extremely cute and ridiculously gay in the best ways. 3.5/5

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent - Review

 

Humility might just be the greatest lost art in Hollywood. Even in our age of more down to earth, “average” celebrities, it can be hard to distinguish genuine enthusiasm or personality for something manufactured for maximum appeal. Yes, it seems like the age of true “movie stars” may be slowly dying, but those that remain still encapsulate that idea wholeheartedly. And there might not be a better example than Nicolas Cage (“National Treasure,” “Leaving Las Vegas”).

The actor has made a career out of his wild personality and film roles. It’s not every day you see an actor decide to tackle roles like his in “Mandy,” “Prisoners of the Ghostland,” “Willy’s Wonderland,” and “Pig” all in quick succession, let alone also peppering in voice roles for films like “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies” and “The Croods: A New Age” and hosting documentaries like “History of Swear Words.” His career is as enigmatic as it’s ever been, and writer/director Tom Gormican (“That Awkward Moment,” “Ghosted”) and co-writer Kevin Etten (“Workaholics,” “Desperate Housewives”) have sought to both take advantage of that resurgence and celebrate Cage’s career as a whole with the bizarre and borderline cartoonish “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.”

Playing a fictionalized version of himself, the film stars Nicolas Cage who finds himself accepting an offer to visit a wealthy playboy’s birthday party on his own personal island. Once he arrives, insanity ensues from various angles, with Cage forced to reconcile his familial struggles and his personal views of himself in order to make it out.

Cage is excellent, delivering a performance that easily switches between comedic and dramatic when the script calls for it, and it's arguably one of his finest performances yet. He, of course, brings the crazy, but the elevated nature of the material allows him to get weirder than he might otherwise get, even when the material is at its most dramatic. He also plays brilliantly off of Pedro Pascal (“Narcos,” “The Mandalorian”), who co-stars as the wealthy playboy Javi Gutierrez.

Their chemistry is phenomenal, and the film is at its best when it's just the two of them going on wacky misadventures, strengthening their bromantic bond and further exploring the unexpected budding friendship between these two deeply weird men. Even when they’re apart, Pascal nails the script’s weird tone, and he’s consistently the best and funniest part of the film, at times even upstaging the magnanimous madness of Cage.

The rest of the cast is fine, clearly overshadowed by the two central performances and no one seems to even be trying to match them. Gormican and his cast seem well aware that this movie is the “Nick Cage and Pedro Pascal show” and they’re more than happy to let them be the centerpiece. Tiffany Haddish (“Girl’s Trip,” “Tuca and Bertie”) is fine, far more subdued than normal, and she’s virtually wasted by the time the film ends. The same goes for Sharon Horgan (“Together,” “Disenchantment”) as Nick’s ex-wife Olivia, who still manages to make the most of her limited screen time. Ike Barinholtz (“The Oath,” “Blockers”) is a borderline cameo, simply vanishing from the film for no explained reason; at least Neil Patrick Harris’s (“How I Met Your Mother,” “Gone Girl”) role is clearly a cameo, but he makes the most of his limited time.

It’s hard to look at this film as anything other than weird or ambitious. Even for as recognizable of an actor as Cage is, the concept of an actor playing themselves in a satirical way isn’t always a guarantee. For the majority of the movie’s runtime, it all gels together hilariously. There are bits of existentialism, of both broad and specific Hollywood satire, and of generally goofball bromance behavior. All of these competing types of films are funny and fine enough, but it is an extremely hyperactive movie that’s almost too eager to please at times. Also, for as funny as each of these different types of humor are, it does feel like the film can’t decide what type of movie it wants to be, leading to the aforementioned hyperactive attitude.

By the time the film hits its third act, it does settle into one specific groove, but that's oddly when it becomes the least interesting. Instead of going for any crazy motifs, it all becomes a fairly generic action film by the last twenty-five minutes. This would be fine if not for the relatively small budget that’s forced to the center stage in the choppy action sequences. You can smell the cheapness in these moments. The same extends to the music by Mark Isham (“A River Runs Through It,” “Crash”) and cinematography from Nigel Bluck (“The Peanut Butter Falcon,” “True Detective”). In the first two thirds of the film, it's all big strings and creatively framed shots, setting up the film’s own identity. But by the time things turn more generic in the plot, the same goes for the film’s musical and visual identity.

If a movie’s biggest flaw is that it’s too eager to please, it's hard to fault it. There are plenty of worse issues to have. However, as fun as it is to watch Cage and Pascal’s bromance and to watch Cage parody himself, the film’s hyperactive nature and overly generic third act harm the overall feature. It’s still a fun and silly adventure, and by far one of the more original concepts in recent years. Yet, it doesn’t quite all fit together flawlessly, resulting in a fun, if fleeting, adventure that revels in its silliness and not much else. 3.5/5

The Northman - Review

 

Robert Eggers (“The Lighthouse,” “The VVitch”) is one of those directors in a special class of A24 darlings who’ve truly broken into the mainstream, alongside the likes of Alex Garland, Ari Aster, Daniels, and the Safdie brothers. Not only is he working with bigger budgets and larger scale concepts, but his latest film is now also distributed by a larger studio, Universal via its Focus Features banner. With that larger scale comes larger expectations, and “The Northman” is certainly Eggers’ true, brutal vision of a Viking revenge film, for better and for worse.

Set in 895 AD, the film follows Amleth, played by Alexander Skarsgård (“The Stand (2020),” “Big Little Lies”), a Viking warrior prince, who returns to his homeland seeking revenge against the man, Fjölnir the Brotherless, played by Claes Bang (“The Square,” “Dracula (2020)”), who killed his father, King Aurvandill War-Raven, played by Ethan Hawke (“Before Sunrise,” “Moon Knight”), and kidnapped his mother, Queen Gudrún, played by Nicole Kidman (“Moulin Rouge!,” “Big Little Lies”), enlisting in the help of sorceress Olga of the Birch Forest, played by Anya Taylor-Joy (“The VVitch,” “Emma”), to help him.

It’s not nearly as complicated as it sounds, and Eggers and cor-writer Sjón (“Lamb”) use both visual storytelling and an incredibly economic script to dole out information in both complimentary spoken dialogue and visual forms. And that balance is important, because both of those forms can be, frankly, bizarre and hard to parse at times. It’s choked full of spells and chants, some of which are hard to understand because of either the language or the audio mixing or sometimes both, and also supplements all of it with hallucinogenic visuals that offer more questions than answers. Which is why that balance is so great. It’s never hard to understand despite all of the stimuli being thrown around at once.

Skarsgård and Taylor-Joy are the stars of the show here. They’re both incredible, channeling a remarkable amount of depth and emotional weight to what could have easily been a pair of two-dimensional characters. Their chemistry is wonderful, and their bond is a true highlight to watch grow as the film progresses.

Kidman’s screen time is used smartly for maximum impact, and despite only being here for maybe twenty minutes, there are singular scenes that are better than the entirety of her “Oscar nominated” performance in “Being the Ricardos.” Bang, like our two leads, injects a lot of emotion into what could have easily been a rote character, even if he isn’t quite as fleshed out as the others. Hawke isn’t given much time to do anything, but he does a great job with the time he does have, as does previous Eggers collaborator Willem Dafoe (“The Lighthouse,” “The Florida Project”) who’s role, while great, is little more than a cameo in the grand scheme.

In terms of pure technical merits, “The Northman” might just be one of the most visually striking and purely gorgeous films in recent years, maybe much longer. Its locations might be low tech but the way it uses lighting, music, and darkness are impeccable. Every new scene and camera movement allows for new fun to be had by Eggers and his cinematographer Jarin Blaschke (“The Lighthouse,” “The VVitch”). It really does feel like watching a director get to play with everything in the toy box, underscored by a thumping and psychedelic musical score from Robin Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough.

It's in the film’s pacing where everything grinds to a halt. Having films that focus on brutal violence, rage or revenge obsessed characters that are as purely toxic and meat headed as they come, with no real “lesson” to be learned, that’s all fine and well. Movies like that have existed for years, and they should continue to exist. But the pacing of “Northman” makes it drag even in its most visually and emotionally interesting moments.

By the time it all ends, it does sort of land with a bombastic thud. A showy and dramatic ending that makes your eyes wince as the theatre lights turn back on and make you think “that’s it?” It just becomes exhausting, going from bloody death, to threat, to psychological dream, to more bloody deaths, to more threats, etc. etc. etc. Even if the film itself is gorgeous and has a story that is impeccably acted and is, at its core, emotionally interesting, in execution it's just an exhausting display of violence and toxicity. It's cool to look at, but to what end is that coolness used? And again, that’s not to say every film has to be a morally balanced plate of cinematic vegetables, but it can at least be a better paced violent gore porn revenge fantasy. No amount of gorgeous technical artistry and production design can fix that.

“The Northman” is not for everybody, and it certainly wasn’t on paper either. It has a great cast, led by two arguably career best performances with a sort of visual flair and hallucinogenic styling that makes you wonder what your popcorn might have been laced with. But even all of that can’t help when the film feels easily twice as long as it is and just leaves you drug out by the end of it. It’s a hard thing to deal with; a film that is so rich that, even as you’re begging it to end, it still manages to do cool and fascinating things. 3/5

The Bad Guys (2022) - Review

 

More movies than we’re likely aware use the phrase “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” and are proud of it. Sometimes it's not really about being “original” rather than providing the right cocktail of familiar elements to make something refreshing and entertaining, if not all-out new. Dreamworks Animation’s latest film, the directorial debut of French animator Pierre Perifel, “The Bad Guys (2022)” certainly isn’t shy about the films its riffing on, but that doesn’t matter when the adventure and general vibe of the film is just so much fun.

Following a group of con-artists and thieves made up of Mr. Wolf, voiced by Sam Rockwell (“Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”), Mr. Shark, voiced by Craig Robinson (“The Office,” “Hot Tub Time Machine”), Miss Tarantula, voiced by Awkwafina (“Crazy Rich Asians,” “The Farewell”), Mr. Snake, voiced by Marc Maron (“GLOW,” “Maron”), and Mr. Piranha, voiced by Anthony Ramos (“In the Heights,” “She’s Gotta Have It (2017)”), the film shows their attempts to be good so as to trick Mayor Foxington, voiced by Zazie Beetz (“Deadpool 2,” “Atlanta”) and Professor Marmalade, voiced by Richard Ayoade (“The Watch,” “The IT Crowd”), into thinking they’ve turned over a new leaf whilst planning their biggest heist yet.

There are splashes of the “Oceans” movies, “Reservoir Dogs,” “Pulp Fiction,”  as well as the filmography of Guy Ritchie and Luc Besson. It’s clear that this is a film that loves the heist/crime genre, and it wears this distinction proudly. It’s a nice change of pace as Perifel and write Etan Cohen (“Men in Black 3,” “Tropic Thunder”) don’t dumb the genre down for kiddie audiences. Sure, the goals and scope are different, but there’s just as much fun planning and heisting as there is in the average “Oceans”-type film.

It’s the vocal performances that really take the cake though. Every cast member has an extremely naturalistic styling to their deliveries, making it all feel like any other kind of film. So often Hollywood animated films have casts full of big-name celebrities who phone their performances in, but that isn’t the case here. There’s some genuine nuance to these performances, with Beetz and Rockwell in particular absolutely knocking it out of the park.

The vocal performances also go a long way in helping the film establish its tone and voice. It’s hard to take this phrasing seriously, but the film has a genuine swagger to everything. The way its plot flows, the vocal performances, the slick animation, the way everything moves. It’s such a confident film, and little touches like the fact that the opening credits call it “A Caper by Dreamworks Animation Studios” and that the closing credits don’t say “voiced by”, instead stating “Sam Rockwell played Mr. Wolf” sell the very particular vibe of the entire film. It’s practically bleeding energy and enthusiasm at every frame, but not in a hyperactive way. It’s all a style that comes from a love of the type of film its imitating, and it even boils down to an incredible score from Daniel Pemberton (“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” “The Trial of the Chicago 7”) that makes sure everything thumps and beats in harmony.

Visually, its all so incredibly slick, with colors that pop at every turn and wonderful stylistic touches throughout. Motion lines and exaggerated movements are abound here, with Perifel’s background in French animation extremely apparent. The way the humans and cops jump and run, the exaggerated nature of the yelling and designs, and the two-dimensional work done for characters’ eyes and motion lines; it's just one of the most gorgeous looking and stylized films Dreamworks has ever put out.

Despite how much it loves the heist genre, that does come with a cost. The plot isn’t anything particularly special, moving through much of the same motions of other family animated films and heist movies of the past two decades. It’s not exactly full of surprises, but the performances, visual style, and general swagger and energy of the adventure helps to overcome the potential sameness or safeness that the plot could otherwise have.

What “The Bad Guys (2022)” brings to the table is a genuine love of the heist film genre that bleeds into every other aspect of the film. The animation, voice performances, music, the entire film’s style has such an infectious energy that it practically dares you not to have a good time or smile the entire way through and it goes a long way towards propping up its fairly cliched story line. It doesn’t fix it, but it helps to excuse it, as you’ll be too engrossed in the swagger that the film radiates to care. 4/5

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Review

 

Truly, the film industry hasn’t been the same since “Sonic the Hedgehog” released in theatres way back in February of 2020. While there’s obviously one huge reason why, the film also represented a somewhat groundbreaking moment in Hollywood: a studio listened to criticisms and changed a product for the better. After the disastrous original design, the film’s release date was pushed back a few months and Sonic’s design was overhauled. The result was a lot of fan goodwill and a warm, if not overwhelmingly so, reception from critics and fans as it raked in a good amount of cash.

Now, the ultimate test is here: the sequel. Returning director Jeff Fowler (“Gopher Broke”) and returning screenwriters Pat Casey (“Transylmania,” “Golan the Insatiable”) and Josh Miller (“Transylmania,” “Golan the Insatiable”), with John Whittington (“The LEGO Batman Movie,” “When We First Met”) along for the writing ride now as well, have their sights set on one large goal: pleasing fans. If the first film existed simply to introduce Sonic to a mainstream audience, even if he had to be crow-barred into bog standard family film fare, this sequel is here for those who stuck around, for those who’ve been fans of the Blue Blur for thirty years or three.

Picking up a bit after where the last film ended, Sonic’s comfortable life in Green Hills is uprooted when Eggman returns to Earth, now with an angry red Echidna in tow named Knuckles. The pair are after a mysterious emerald and it's Sonic’s job to stop them, now with a young eager twin tailed fox named Tails alongside him. If that sounds far closer to the games it's based on than the first film, then take that as the first of many improvements made in this sophomore outing.

Ben Schwartz (“Parks and Recreation,” “The Afterparty”) continues to be perfect casting as Sonic, rivaling his best voices from the last three decades, in games or other media. He gets the fun loving, big hearted nature of the hero, without making him so silly the dramatic moments can’t land. Colleen O'Shaughnessey (“Sonic Forces,” “Danny Phantom”) joins the cast, reprising her role from the recent games and media as Miles “Tails” Prower, the genius inventor who idolizes Sonic. She’s a great addition to the cast, continuing a career of bringing life to one of gaming’s greatest sidekicks with enthusiasm and gusto. Speaking of gusto, Idris Elba (“Beasts of No Nation,” “The Wire”) also joins the voice cast as Knuckles, and if ever there was a Hollywood actor who throws himself into any role, it's Elba. You can tell that he cares just as much about delivering his lines with weight as a space Echidna as he does a drug dealer or lawyer.

While they’re still the least interesting part of any animated-live action hybrid, the humans here are as entertaining as they could possibly be. James Marsden (“X-Men,” “Hairspray”) and Tika Sumpter (“Get On Up,” “Southside with You”) are back as Tom and Maddie Wachowski, Sonic’s adoptive parents and there’s just as much charm pouring out of the two of them as there is silliness. Natasha Rothwell (“The White Lotus,” “Insecure”) gets a lot more time in the spotlight as Maddie’s sister, Rachel, resulting in some of the film’s funniest lines and most crowd pleasing moments.

But of course, everyone pales in comparison to Jim Carrey (“Dumb and Dumber,” “The Mask”), reprising his role as Doctor Robotnik, aka Eggman. He’s once again delivering every line as extremely as he can, cementing his performance as one of the greatest villain roles in modern cinema. And for anyone saying he’s too extreme, you clearly haven’t seen Eggman in a recent Sonic game. Let’s not forget his right hand man though, as Agent Stone, played by Lee Majdoub (“The 100,” “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency”), is just as delightful and even a bit more mischievous than before.

Silly is the word of the day here. Yes, the entire concept of Sonic as a character, world, story, etc. is silly, and the film openly embraces that. It’s more accurate to the games, but not in a cynical corporate way. It’s an expansion of the first film, and it openly embraces as many of Sonic’s game elements as one could possibly fit in one film. It’s a film for the fans, plain and simple, with no other goals than to just make a lot of people smile. Look no further than the 122 minute runtime as an example of the filmmakers wanting to squeeze as much fun out of this project as possible.

Its a glorious tribute to a three decade long series but it's not without its faults. The film is the most invigorating in its latter half, and it still features its fair share of kids' movie fart jokes and pop culture references. It also continues the baffling trend of dance fights, a kids movie staple that seemed to appear out of nowhere a decade or so ago. You’d be hard pressed to be bothered by any of it during the film though, as the few lows are so overpowered by the exhilarating highs felt in the film’s latter half, and it's all because, underneath it all, the film takes Sonic and his friends extremely seriously.

That love for the source material is felt in every fiber of the film. There are Easter eggs and references everywhere and it feels more willing to embrace its weird and silly side inherent to the franchise's roots than ever before. In an age where the phrase “it knows what it is” can feel like a backhanded compliment, it's a privilege to say that “Sonic The Hedgehog 2” knows what it is, and embraces it.

Yeah, it’s not a cinematic masterpiece, but nor is it a terrible film by any means. “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” ratchets up the game lore and story and it results in a movie not afraid to get weird with it all. It's got some minor speed bumps, but when a film like this is made without a shred of cynicism and has people behind the scenes who clearly care as much as the ones buying the cup toppers and showing up in character t-shirts, then you know you’re in a for a good, silly, and adventurous good time. 4/5

Petite Maman - Review

 

The latest film from acclaimed French writer/director Céline Sciamma (“Girlhood,” “My Life as a Courgette”) has arrived and after the massive worldwide success of her previous feature, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”, there are plenty of eyes on this one. The attention is well-deserved: her latest, “Petite Maman” is a sweet little delight, a story of mothers and daughters and playing that comes with an extremely short runtime and an extremely carefree energy.

“Maman” follows Nelly, played by Joséphine Sanz, an eight year old girl who goes to her grandmother’s home with her mother, played by Nina Meurisse (“A Woman’s Life,” “The Frozen Dead”), and father, played by Stéphane Varupenne, and finds herself playing with a young girl named Marion, played by Gabrielle Sanz, in the woods.

It’s the kind of movie that the most casual, mainstream moviegoer will easily scoff at; a seventy-two-minute long movie about two girls playing in the woods with little actual “plot” and a lot of meandering and little dialogue? While all of that is true, this is the sort of movie that’s the filmic equivalent of a tone poem. Not a lot strictly happens, but so much is communicated on an emotional level. It’s no mistake that NEON decided to release this in US theatres on Mother’s Day weekend.

Joséphine and Gabrielle are the perfect kind of child actors: the kind where you can’t tell if they’re aware that they’re acting. So much of the film is seeing the world through the eyes of an eight year old girl and it's mesmerizing. The little moments of independence and kindness shine through, and it feels like an oddly different experience than you might think. Extended moments of the two of them making food or playing together are just warm smiles turned into cinema. Meurisse is incredible. The few moments where she’s onscreen are packed with so much emotion and subtle acting that it’s awe-inspiring. It’s the kind of performance you wish took up more of the film based purely on how good and sparse it is.

Musically, the film also impresses. It uses one song, from French musician Para One, in three different ways at differing points throughout, each creating a different impact based on the way they’re crafted musically and woven into the film itself. It’s a simple but remarkably effective use of a great track.

Despite how wonderful it is, the film’s lightness makes it difficult to really critique or talk about. It’s fully deserving of the lavish praise that’s been heaped upon it, but there’s not really much to say about it either. It’s like a sweet poem or a cup of warm tea. Rather, if you have a younger sibling or cousins, it can most directly be compared to being led around by a younger family member who points out all the little things and details you never noticed as an adult.

“Petite Maman” is the kind of sweet film that's incredibly simple at its core but so emotionally evocative and powerful. The two leads are just so lovable and it's the kind of warm film that just washes over you and then is over. If anything, it could be just a bit longer. But, even without that, this is a soothing salve for an increasingly angry and loud cinematic market; the kind of calm, sweet, funny, film that makes you want to give your mom a big hug. In the absolute best interpretation of the word, its childish. 4.5/5

Dual (2022) - Review

It might be a cop out to describe a film as one you’ll either “love or hate”, but the style of Riley Stearns (“Faults,” “The Art of Self Defense”) is certainly a divisive one. His films tend to trade in absurdity, with characters delivering purposefully stilted dialogue with conviction and commitment. Yet they’re also dark and sometimes even incredibly violent, leading to a genuinely odd cocktail of a cinematic experience.

“Dual” is, unsurprisingly, pretty much another example of the kinds of films Stearns has been making for years. It's awkward and funny in its extremely blunt world and dialogue, and finds humor in this bluntness and the general absurdity of everything. It’s the kind of movie that makes you roll your eyes at the weirdness on display, deriving humor from mostly that sole source.

Karen Gillan (“Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle”) stars as Sarah, a young woman with an undisclosed terminal illness who decides to have herself cloned, apparently a common practice in this not to distant future time period, so that her loved ones are able to go on living. However, after she makes a miraculous recovery, she falls victim to a law instated after the cloning process was introduced: to prevent multiple clones of people from running rampant, she’ll have to duel her clone to the death in one years time.

It's a simple premise that gives way to plenty of absurdities, and if it seems like that word is being overused in this review, well that’s just how Riley Stearns makes movies. It’s all about the weirdness, the uncomfortable nature of it all, and how that collides with people who just want to live their lives, forced into difficult situations.

Aaron Paul (“Breaking Bad,” “BoJack Horseman”) plays Trent, a combat trainer Sarah hires to train her for the duel, and he provides a source of silly seriousness. It's hard to tell if he’s actually good at his job or if he’s just a cheap, inexpensive failed trainer, but Paul is easy to like. Beulah Koale (“Hawaii Five-0 (2017),” “Shadow in the Cloud”) plays Peter, Sarah’s boyfriend, and he’s a weirdly emotional nugget of a character, both irritating and heartbreaking at the same time, balancing the tricky line Stearns likes to walk so well.

At only a little over ninety minutes, it's not a long journey and things move fairly quickly, but even then it can feel like there’s a lack of things happening. It’s a sparsely populated future world that’s more interested in hinting at the darker realities of things that have happened since widespread cloning has become a reality. But it doesn’t overcome the fact that it just hints at these things, and it results in a film with a largely cold feeling to it all. It might be on purpose, but it still feels off putting in an intentional kind of way.

While every film should stand on its own, it's hard not to compare this to Stearns last film “The Art of Self Defense.” Both utilize the same overall styles, but the big emotional core of “Self Defense” is missing here, because as good as Gillan is at delivering the dialogue and how especially good she is in the dual roles, the character of Sarah is just hard to like. You do root for her, and she isn’t uninteresting as a main character, but it feels like there’s a lack of a change to her as a character. She trains and becomes more physically fit, but a lot of the more emotional changes we’re told about don’t play out on screen; we’re just told about them.

That’ll likely lead to plenty of people bouncing off “Dual” and it's hard to argue against that. It’s a cold film with a very specific perspective and sense of world. The script is remarkably dark and funny though, and it's all communicated well both visually and by its small cast. It has so many little details and things going on under the surface that those who wish to commit to this absurd little tale will likely get a kick out of it. But, at the risk of repeating myself in a review for a film about cloning, this is a film you’re likely to either love or hate. 3.5/5

Ambulance (2022) - Review

 

Michael Bay (“Bad Boys,” “Transformers”) isn’t exactly what one would call a good filmmaker in the traditional sense. While his films all have an audience and he’s had plenty of box office success, most of his films are, to put it lightly, remembered unfavorably. But he has a distinct style and visual language and clearly loves the art of movie making, so a new film from Bay is always an interesting proposition, such is the case with his latest film “Ambulance.”

Starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” “Aquaman”) and Jake Gyllenhaal (“Zodiac,” Nightcrawler”) as adopted brothers Will and Danny, respectively, the film follows their failed attempt to rob a bank in downtown Los Angeles to help pay for Will’s wife Amy’s, played by Moses Ingram (“The Tragedy of Macbeth,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi”), experimental surgery. They make their getaway by commandeering an ambulance and taking EMT Cam, played by Eiza González (“From Dusk till Dawn: The Series,” “Hobbs & Shaw”), and injured police offer Zach, played by Jackson White (“Mrs. Fletcher,” “Tell Me Lies”), hostage inside, which leads to a citywide manhunt from the LAPD, including Captain Monroe, played by Garret Dillahunt (“Fear the Walking Dead,” “Raising Hope”), and FBI agent Anson, played by Keir O’Donnell (“American Sniper,” “Paul Blart: Mall Cop”).

This is easily the most straightforward movie Bay has made in years. There’s no intergalactic threat or complicated morals on display. It’s a simple tale of two brothers on the run, trying to keep each other alive. Bay excels in this simplicity as the film doesn’t have an overarching plot, rather escalating situations that pop up to both impede the brothers and put their love to the test. Its in this way that Bay successfully builds and sells us on their love, making it the central emotional force of the film.

That love and emotional force really works, not only because its built up in the film but because of the skill and chemistry of Gyllenhaal and Abdul-Mateen. The latter is a delightful force of calm fury, playing the straight man of the pair and really nailing the dramatic moments. It’s just the right blend of action and dramatic acting that helps make his character easy to root for. Meanwhile Gyllenhaal might just be the more perfect actor for Bay’s wavelength. He gets the extremes of his filmmaking style and plays perfectly into them, completely unhinging himself from reality and full diving into the world of overblown machismo and excess that is a Michael Bay film.

González plays off the two well, and she quickly establishes herself as the film’s big character to root for, building an increasingly interesting central moral dilemma that’s far more complicated than the film initially makes it seem. Meanwhile, the rest of the supporting cast is all fine, fitting neatly into their respective archetypes and roles as written. It’s the same determined police captain you’ve seen in every movie like this and the same goes for the FBI agent, injured cop, concerned sick wife, etc.

That central moral dilemma is not only the idea that, despite being a decorated veteran, Will has been driven to this point to afford required surgery for his wife, but the question of who the audience should root for. How can Cam “win” or even survive if Danny and Will get away? It might not be the most complex thing in the world, but its far more layered than you might expect from a movie like this. The same goes for the portrayal of the police force, which is depicted as aggressive and brutish, even when one of their own is injured. It’s a stark contrast to the cool headed, morally black and white, pro-military and police films Bay has made in the past, and its more interesting as a film and within his filmography because of it.

Whoever decided to give Michael Bay access to drones to shoot this film deserves a Nobel Prize. While there are plenty of standard shots, both on the ground and flying high, there are also a handful of sequences where it feels as though the POV is a drone injected with adrenaline, zipping along the LA skyline. It can feel dizzying at times, but it helps us get into the heads of our two brotherly leads. The drone shots are confusing and disorienting, but so is their constantly changing situation and it works to communicate that in a fun and visually inventive way.

All of these individual elements could be seen as simplistic and nothing new, and they absolutely are. But the combination of all of them together in this movie feel like a slam dunk. The last thirty minutes especially are a microcosm of what Bay as a director can do when he’s working with the building blocks that he knows best: masculine love and emotion, with dutch angles, blood, tears, and epic music with plenty of guns on display. Its remarkably, shockingly effective.

As a popcorn movie, its hard not to enjoy “Ambulance”, but as a Michael Bay film, it feels like a revelation. Its so clear that, while there have been moments of coolness, Bay has been sleeping through his career post-the first “Transformers” film. If this is what he can do when he’s firing on all cylinders, lets hope he gets to keep doing this kind of stuff for a very long time. It’s a big and bombastic in its action, but focused in its drama, resulting in a big macho character drama the likes of which doesn’t really get made anymore without a big license on the poster. It’s an absolute blast. 4.5/5