Wendell & Wild - Review

 

Celebrating a director’s return to a specific genre/medium/subject that helped them catapult into success is a glorious thing, doubly so when they managed to make their comeback film good! Henry Sellick (“Coraline,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas”) returns to the world of macabre stop-motion animation with his latest adventure “Wendell and Wild”, which he’s co-written with Jordan Peele (“Nope,” “Get Out”) and based on his and horror writer Clay McLeod Chapman’s unpublished book. With years spent on production and full creative control, Sellick’s latest returns to the high quality expected from his works.

The film follows thirteen-year-old orphan Kat Elliot, voiced by Lyric Ross (“This is Us”), who decides to summon a pair of demon brothers, the titular Wendell and Wild, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key (“Keanu,” “Schmigadoon!”) and Peele respectively. She must also contend with the mysterious Sister Helley, voiced by Angela Bassett (“9-1-1,” “Black Panther”), Father Bests, voiced by James Hong (“Everything Everywhere All At Once,” “Kung Fu Panda”), and her new friend Raúl, voiced by Sam Zelaya, while Wendell and Wild must deal with their father Buffalo Belzer, voiced by Ving Rhames (“Lilo & Stitch,” “Mission Impossible”).

As Sellick’s return to the realm of stop-motion and directing in general after several projects failed to find a start, there’s something exceptionally cathartic here. He’s gone on record stating how he wants the film to look like the medium, not hiding the seams in characters’ face pieces and purposefully lowering the frame rate at certain moments. The result is a film that, more than any stop motion piece of entertainment over the past two decades, feels like watching puppets come to life.

The way everything moves and contorts, twisting into macabre versions of real-life items or movements, is nothing short of spectacular. From the twisted theme park of Buffalo Belzer to the different textures and various goops seen throughout the tale, this is a film that simply doesn’t feel or look like any other, even the ones that share the same medium. Despite the themes of death or the inanimate objects being articulated, the big thing this film has to its advantage is just a lifelike quality that sweeps you up.

Even if it’s animated in a great way, part of that liveliness comes from the voice cast. Ross is a great protagonist, imbuing Kat with a spunk and spirit that makes her an instant favorite. She’s a delight to watch throughout the entire film and helps stamp this adventure with a clear sense of identity. Key and Peele are also great, managing to move the two demonic brothers beyond just animated versions of themselves. There’s a great back and forth on display and their relationship is honest and believable. Bassett is also a highlight, making Helley an incredibly likable character and one who’s easy to connect with. Rhames and Hong are also standouts, and Zelaya, in his film debut, is so easy to fall in love with as Raúl.

If there’s one thing you can confidently say about Sellick’s films is that they’re never short of ambition. “Wendell and Wild” might be about a young girl trying to control a pair of demon brothers, but its also about guilt, family, art, the prison complex system, and religion. There’s a lot going on here, and it results in a movie that feels a bit overstuffed with ideas. Each get time to develop, but never to the same degree. The film’s central idea, focusing on the evils of profit prisons, is well developed and makes sense in the main plot, but the others don’t get nearly as much focus. Even beyond that though, the emotional core of the film is so incredibly well done that an overstuffed nature doesn’t matter, as it always comes back to the emotions of the characters and their arcs.

Musically backing Sellick up is composer Bruno Coulais (“Wolfwalkers,” “The Secret of Kells”), who Sellick previously worked with on “Coraline.” His score here is just as excellent as it was on that film, blending a great sense of creepy, atmospheric tunes without losing any playfulness you’d expect from an animated adventure like this. Building out the film’s musical identity though is its mixtape of various songs that play throughout. The works of X-Ray Spex, Ibeyi, The Specials, and Fishbone come spilling out of Kat’s boombox at multiple occasions and they help to build the film’s unique tone and emotional state.

While not reaching the heights of his career, “Wendell and Wild” is still an absolutely delightful film that shows how skilled Sellick is at this craft. With a great voice cast and an emotionally satisfying, if overstuffed, plot, it’s a wonderful time. Here’s hoping it doesn’t take another ten years for Sellick’s next movie to get made. 4.5/5

Aftersun - Review

 

When reflecting on childhood, it’s easy to see things that went completely ignored or unnoticed as a child. The ways people acted around you, the ways your parents acted, the various emotions and difficulties that tumbled around, just outside your young mind’s realm of focus. “Aftersun”, the debut film from writer/director Charlotte Wells is an introspective look on exactly those kinds of feelings.

The film follows Calum, played by Paul Mescal (“The Lost Daughter,” “Normal People”), and his daughter Sophie, played by Frankie Corio, as she travels to see him and the two of them take a summer vacation to Turkey. Along the way, Sophie films the vacation and asks her dad questions about life, as the pair of them each grapple with their own internal struggles about growing up.

Mescal is absolutely phenomenal. His quiet performance is a powerhouse of understated love and care. The balance on display as Calum struggles with putting on a show of warmth for Sophie while also dealing with his own demons is not only a great winkle to this coming-of-age story, but is also a display of heartbreaking emotion from Mescal. Corio is also fantastic, mixing her childlike wonderment and innocent love of her father with the burgeoning interests in boys and the exploits of kids older than her. But arguably eclipsing their individual talents is the chemistry between the pair when they’re together. Its not only one of the best acted films of the year, but its one of the most open and honest portrayals of a parent child relationship we’ve seen in a very long time.

Within this relationship is a very clear longing from both of them. What that longing actually is might not ever be directly stated, but Wells uses tons of fantastic visual metaphors and simple camerawork to get at the heart of it all. There’s an almost liminal sense to the film, a melancholic detachment that is both extremely engrossing and also heartbreaking to see. Part of that is due to Mescal and Corio, but it also comes from the film’s setting. We never see a map or overhead of this unnamed Turkish resort, and it can feel fairly confusing, but always on purpose. It perfectly communicates that childhood feeling of visiting a place and enjoying it, but never really grasping it as a place itself.

Melancholic is the perfect way to describe this film, not just because of the emotions and liminal sense of the locations, but also because of the pacing. This is one of those movies with quote-unquote indie movie speeds, meaning it meanders quite a bit but never without purpose. It’s slow and feels it, despite capping out at less than 100 minutes. This will likely be a turn off for many as it can make it hard to sit through. This is one of those movies that’s easy to get invested in if you know what you’re getting into, but can easily feel like there isn’t much immediately happening.

If a slower paced film is your cup of tea though, then you’ll likely adore “Aftersun”, an undeniable strong first feature from Charlotte Wells that makes stars out of Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio. It not only has their fantastic chemistry at its disposal, but the film’s liminal and melancholic feeling creates an atmosphere of undeniable distinctness. It’s a coming-of-age film where it isn’t just the child realizing things about themself. 4/5

Ticket to Paradise (2022) - Review

 

There’s something oddly nostalgic about watching two big name celebrities bicker back and forth while drinking beautiful drinks and standing on beautiful beaches, knowing that by the end of 100 minutes they’ll have fallen in love. It’s a formula as tried and true as movies running at 24 frames per second, but despite never really going away, the rom-com hasn’t been nearly as big of a theatrical focus as it was in the 90s and early 2000s. But with a mini-resurgence thanks to works like “Marry Me” and “The Lost City”, the theatrical rom-com revolution continues with “Ticket to Paradise.”

Shortly after their daughter Lily’s, played by Kaitlyn Dever (“Booksmart,” “Unbelievable”), impromptu engagement, longtime divorced couple David and Georgia Cotton, played by George Clooney (“Ocean’s 11,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”) and Julia Roberts (“Mystic Pizza,” “Eat Pray Love”) respectively, decide to bury the hatchet and devise a plan to sabotage her wedding to prevent her from making the same mistake they did: getting married too young. Along the way they have to contend with Lily’s best friend Wren, played by Billie Lourd (“Scream Queens,” “Booksmart”), Georgia’s young pilot boyfriend Paul, played by Lucas Bravo (“Emily in Paris,” “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris”), and the suspicions of Lily’s fiancé Gede, played by Maxime Bouttier.

Directed by Ol Parker (“Imagine Me & You,” “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again”) and written by Parker and Daniel Pipski, “Ticket” is nothing radical for the genre by any means. It’s an exercise in formula down to its opening sequence and third act emotional revelations. It’s nothing to write home about, but there’s also a comfort in the experience. It’s a technically well-made film, without any drastic issues with editing or production, so it ends up being a competently made, frothy and familiar movie which invites comfort for some viewers because of it.

Clooney and Roberts have great chemistry, easily tossing barbs back and forth, making plans and doing a lot of drinking and scheming. These aren’t particularly challenging roles, but the pair cranks up the charm and are clearly having a blast. Dever is also great, getting to work with a bit more emotional material without ever losing her seemingly effortless charm. Bouttier is also a great straight man to a lot of the absurd events, helping to ground the movie in a legitimate sense of love. Meanwhile, Lourd and Bravo both steal virtually every scene they’re in, cranking up their comedic chops to be the best form of comic relief they can; yet another film in a series of comedic misadventures that would make Lourd’s late mother quite proud.

This is the kind of movie that’s hard to say a lot about. It’s a cocktail of a film; light and sweet, without any really “healthy” substance, but it doesn’t need to have any. It’s a distraction, a misadventure that’s meant to provide 100 minutes of smiling and laughs, and on those fronts it absolutely succeeds. For a good idea of what era of cinema this feels like a throwback to, there’s even an honest to god outtakes reel during the credits.

If you’re looking for beautiful beaches and beautiful people, look no further than “Ticket to Paradise.” If you’re looking for anything further, than you’re probably better off looking elsewhere, but this is a fun distraction that seeks to just entertain, and that’s where it succeeds with flying colors. It’s nothing fancy, but its colorful, sugary, and fun; a margarita of a movie, (and drinking one while watching probably wouldn’t hurt). 3/5

The Banshees of Inisherin - Review

 

There’s something about loss or the mere prospecting of losing someone that makes humans behave in funny ways. It can make you erratic or somber or just plain crazy. Martin McDonagh (“In Bruges,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”) is no stranger to tales of humans behaving in erratic ways when presented with emotional hardships, but his latest film, “The Banshees of Inisherin”, is arguably his most fascinating exploration of that concept yet.

Starring a mini-“In Bruges” reunion of Colin Farrell (“Horrible Bosses,” “The Batman”) and Brendan Gleeson (“Paddington 2,” “Mr. Mercedes”) as Pádraic and Colm, respectively, it follows Pádraic struggling with the news that his lifelong drinking buddy and best friend Colm has decided he no longer wants to be friends with him and that, for every time he continues to try to speak to him, he’ll cut off one of his own fingers.

It’s certainly a bit of a dramatic leap, but the chemistry and banter between Farrell and Gleeson make it all work perfectly. Farrell plays Pádraic with a dullard innocence, the kind of character who’s so sweet and well-intentioned that you can’t help but pity him and hope it all goes well for him. Gleeson, meanwhile, is a big teddy bear of a man who just wants some peace and quiet. Both characters are so excellently performed and so well written by McDonagh, that you can’t help but want them both to get exactly what they want.

Rounding out the cast is Kerry Condon (“Better Call Saul,” “Dreamland”) as Pádraic’s sister Siobhán and Barry Keoghan (“The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” “Eternals”) as Dominic, the town’s requisite outcast/idiot. Condon is truly fantastic, she’s extremely charming and she and Farrell have a great sibling dynamic. She’s just a truly compelling character from every angle, and it’s a joy when she pops up opposite Farrell or Gleeson especially. Keoghan is also great, giving Dominic enough depth to avoid him becoming just another village idiot type. He's clearly a struggling boy, and he delivers a lot of heart and emotional energy hidden behind his oafish statements and clumsy social interactions.

If there’s anything that stands out the most here, it’s the emotional current running through the entire film. So often it feels like movies nowadays have so many hidden meanings or metaphors that it can risk losing the strength or honesty of the emotional arcs of the characters. And while there are surely metaphors and meanings in “Inisherin”, the emotional story of Pádraic and Colm is so palpable, so centered. It’s a rich tapestry of emotional filmmaking.

This is an exceptionally funny movie, with Gleeson and Farrell trading some really amusing barbs. But it’s not funny in a jokey sense. It’s the kind of honest dialogue that just feels like how real people talk to each other, especially people they’ve known their whole lives. The honesty of the humor also means that it never takes away from the depth and intensity of the themes of isolation, loneliness, and depression.

The cinematography from Ben Davis (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” “Guardians of the Galaxy”) also helps to frame this small Irish island in a very interesting way. It’s at once a vast land of greenery and cliffs, a wonderous land to live in. The film itself seems to acknowledge this with the first shot, with an almost comically bright rainbow behind Pádraic as he strolls through town, birds flying away behind him. But as things get more intense, this broad land ends up feeling far more claustrophobic and constricting, playing with the aforementioned themes, backed by Davis’s fantastic shots. Complimenting this is the great score from Carter Burwell (“The Big Lewbowski,” “A Goofy Movie”), which lends everything a light, almost fairy tale kind of musicality that quickly becomes sinister without ever really changing its tune.

McDonagh has crafted an exceptionally rich character drama that never sacrifices any of the weird bits of dark humor that comes from both a premise like this and just the naturalistic dialogue of real life. The entire cast is exceptional, and its shot and musicality is virtually perfect as well. This is truly one of the standout films of 2022, extremely engaging and dramatic without being overbearing or sacrificing lightness and life. 4.5/5

Black Adam - Review

 

While there are fewer and fewer actors nowadays who can be said to have the draw of a classic “movie star”, undeniably one of those few has to be Dwayne Johnson (“Moana,” “Red Notice”). The man has spent the last two decades or so cultivating a brand of four-quadrant general audience entertainment that, with films like the “Jumanji” sequels, “Hobbs and Shaw,” “Jungle Cruise,” and “Skyscraper,” promises at the very least some pleasant popcorn action flick escapades.

Which is why his fervent desire to play Black Adam, the title character of this new DC superhero film, is so baffling. For a man who’s built his career on pleasing audiences and making everyone from a ten-year-old kid to your grandmother smile, why on earth was he so dead set on playing such a dower, deadly character who seems chemically concocted to be against his own skills?

The film follows the titular character, played by Johnson, who is awoken from a five thousand year long slumber by Adrianna Tomaz, played by Sarah Shahi (“The L Word,” “Fairly Legal”), who asks him for help in handling the militaristic invaders to her country of Kahndaq. After dealing with some soldiers, Adam attracts the attention of the Justice Society: Hawkman, played by Aldis Hodge (“Hidden Figures,” “One Night in Miami…”), Doctor Fate, played by Pierce Brosnan (“Goldeneye,” “Mamma Mia!”), Atom Smasher, played by Noah Centineo (“The Fosters,” “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before”), and Cyclone, played by Quintessa Swindell (“Voyagers,” “Trinkets”), who arrive in Kahndaq to bring Adam to justice. Meanwhile, there’s also a plot surrounding the mythical Crown of Sabbac, which is said to give its wearer great powers in conjunction with the powers of demons.

It's a lot of plot for one movie, but the film itself seems to know that since it essentially drops the storyline it seems to be setting up for the first half in favor of a much less interesting and routine story for the latter half. Initially, it looks like the film is going to be digging into the idea of heroism and who gets to determine who’s a hero. When the Justice Society arrives in Kahndaq, they’re in no uncertain terms chastised for not involving themselves in the countries issues before and for coming in to try and tell the people who they can and cannot have as their leader.

It's an interesting idea for a superhero movie, a genre where so often it feels as though the idea of power and who gets to lord over others is often pushed to the wayside. However, as interesting of an idea as this is, halfway through the film its sidelined. It’s as if the moment writers Adam Sztykiel (“Due Date,” “Rampage”), Sohrab Noshirvani (“The Mauritanian,” “Informer”), and Rory Haines (“The Mauritanian,” “Informer”) realized they’d have to actually start deconstructing these ideas, ideas that sound shockingly similar to some of the US’s past military strategies, it’s dropped in favor of a generic antagonist who’s so evil everyone has to make nice and fight together.

Johnson seems miscast, plain and simple. It’s the kind of role that is easy to see him take on early in his career, when he was still acting as a side project to his wrestling. But now that he’s crafted his skills to best play everyone’s big brother, he just comes across in a role like this as bland and uninteresting. Keeping a dower face isn’t the same as being a badass, and it can very easily simply turn into a boring and rote performance. It’s somewhat baffling given this is his second film with director Jaume Collet-Serra (“Orphan,” “The Commuter”) and their previous outing together, 2021’s “Jungle Cruise”, at the very least played to Johnson’s wiseass charms.

The rest of the cast fares a bit better, with Hodge and Brosnan being the highlights. Both have easy chemistry with the other and make it easy to believe in the longstanding friendship the pair apparently have. Swindell is also a cheery bright spot, with a big smile and brain that’s easy to be charmed by, even as they’re woefully underutilized. Centineo continues his trend of playing the doofy smiley guy, this time on the big screen instead of in the next batch of homogenized Netflix teen rom com flicks. Shahi doesn’t feel wasted, but the script certainly doesn’t do her any favors. What starts as an interesting character who’s dealing with a lot of political and emotional conflicts at once quickly devolves into a mom yelling about her son. Her brother Karim, played by Mohammed Amer (“Ramy,” “Mo”), fares much better, and his cherub like smile and sense of humor help him earn a surefire spot as the standout of the film.

While we’ve seen plenty of heroes mow down plenty of bad guys before, the film’s tone is so wildly uneven that it becomes hard to take enjoyment in most of it. One moment we see Black Adam floating through the air in slow motion, setting up brutal kills while Paint it Black thumps in the background and merely moments later, Hawkman is chastising Black Adam for his brutal killings of the soldiers. The film wants to, for at least a bit, address how ruthless Adam is, but it also wants the audience to point in awe at his skills. It’s trying to have its cake and eat it too, but beyond that, its not doing the work to even bake a good cake to begin with.

Because even when its all working at its best, what’s on display simply isn’t that interesting. It’s visually bland, save for the costumes of some of the characters, and simply feels like going through the motions. The handful of weirder moments, like a direct homage to John Wayne, feel disconnected from the rest of the film. Given that this was apparently somewhat of a passion project for Johnson, it’s remarkable how little weight or enjoyment seems to have been put in. It’s worth noting that it is refreshing to see a big budget studio blockbuster where only two of the main cast of characters are white, but that doesn’t matter for much when the film itself is too bland to resonate in any way.

“Black Adam” is the cinematic equivalent of water off a duck’s back. There’s nothing terrible about it, no glaring editing issues, ungodly awful performances or visual effects, and no massively fumbled plot elements. Instead, its simply too bland to leave any lasting impact. The film’s most interesting elements are abandoned halfway through the film and replaced by the most generic form of generic plot contrivances, hoisted on the shoulders of a miscast Dwayne Johnson and the likeable but not memorable supporting cast. For a movie with a main star as passionate about it as Johnson, something this lifeless simply shouldn’t have been the result. 2/5

Halloween Ends - Review

 

The circumstances surrounding this “Halloween” film are, without a doubt, the most interesting of this new trilogy. After the 2018 “requel” film and “just moments later” set sequel, writer/director David Gordon Green (“Prince Avalanche,” “Eastbound and Down”) has abandoned what was originally described as being one trilogy of films all taking place on the same night, virtually in real time. Instead, the final film in this trilogy “Halloween Ends” features not only a time jump, but the most divisive, bizarre, and intriguing twist on a “Halloween” film since… well, “Halloween 3.”

It's hard to summarize, even briefly, the plot of “Ends” because watching the film, it becomes apparent that what was advertised is very much not the movie audiences are shown. While what was shown in trailers and television ads seems like just another slasher film, what’s here is much more interesting. The film follows Corey Cunningham, played by Rohan Campbell (“The Hardy Boys,” “Mech-X4”), who, years after an accidental death of a child he was babysitting, meets Laurie Strode, played by Jamie Lee Curtis (“True Lies,” “Knives Out”), and begins dating her granddaughter Allyson, played by Andi Matichak (“Miles,” “Assimilate”) as Laurie sense more sinister things are afoot.

There’s a lot to dig into here, and suffice it to say that, given this is the final film in this new trilogy and of the “canonical” franchise, spoilers are abound. Regardless of how well executed it is, what Green and his writers Paul Brad Logan (“Manglehorn”), Chris Bernier, and Danny McBride (“The Righteous Gemstones,” “Eastbound and Down”) have delivered is a film unsatisfied with being just another slasher adventure with Michael Myers. There’s plenty of ruminations here on the nature of grief and moving on, and about how the way you treat others can infect their souls. There’s a surprising amount of talking here, and its at the very least interesting. Given how haunted Haddonfield has always been by Michael, even when he isn’t traipsing around, its refreshing to have a film where that’s at least partly addressed.

Curtis has the most emotional work to play with here of the series and she does a great job bouncing back and forth between someone trying to move on and struggling to forget. Matichak also does a great job with her arc and what she’s given, but some scenes are just kinder to her character than others. Campbell, meanwhile, is the film’s most fascinating performance for its most fascinating character. Once the hullabaloo of what this movie is dies down, it’s not hard to see Corey becoming a fan favorite character in the franchise.

The kills are appropriately brutal, and after two films all (mostly) set on the same night, it’s a breath of fresh air having one that doesn’t. It allows things to gestate and materialize over time and therefore make it all feel much more satisfying by the time things are over. It’s a shame that so much of the script feels super ham-fisted in what it wants to say but having a messier but more emotional script is better than having a sterile one.

It's hard to know what exactly to say about “Ends.” As a film, it certainly has a lot on its mind and wants to please a lot of people. It’s hard to think of any die-hard fans who aren’t at least pleased by the last twenty minutes, but there are unmistakable airs of “Halloween 3” here as well. It’s much much weirder than any “Halloween” film besides that third one and it has a lot to say. Whether or not it says it well is up to interpretation, but its there regardless and it’s simply wrong to say its serving up the same movie we got in 2018 and 2021. It’ll be divisive for sure, but its at the very least inspiring some kinds of conversation amongst fans, which is more than can be said about 2021’s “Halloween Kills.”

Tonight, Halloween ends, and according to Jason Blum, so does the franchise as far as they see it. What the future holds outside of Blumhouse’s hands is anyone’s guess, but “Ends” at least sends this new trilogy off on its most interesting note. It’s a big messy movie with a lot to say and a lot of people to please. Its sloppy for sure, but in an endearing way, not afraid to get super weird and play with the constraints of what the last two films were. If nothing else, it’s the most interesting movie in this new trilogy by far. 3/5

Decision To Leave - Review: A Lingering Mystery that's Easy to Obsess Over

 

There are few directors working today, or possibly ever, with as impressive a resume as Park Chan-wook. This is, after all, the man behind The Vengeance Trilogy consisting of “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance,” “Oldboy,” and “Lady Vengeance,” as well as “Thirst” and “The Handmaiden,” amongst other films and the television miniseries “The Little Drummer Girl.” Anytime a director of his caliber announces their next project, its cause for celebration, which is the case for “Decision to Leave.”

The film follows insomniac detective Jang Hae-jun, played by Park Hae-il (“Memories of Murder,” “The Host”), as he investigates the death of an immigration officer, which requires that he interview the man’s wife Song Seo-rae, played by Tang Wei (“Lust, Caution,” “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”). After interviewing her, not only does Haw-jun believe she may be involved with her husband’s death, but he begins to fall for her as well.

From the jump, there’s a darkly comedic throughline to the entirety of the film that in a bizarre way ends up enhancing the intensity and melodrama. While he is a good detective, Hae-jun is also played as somewhat of a buffoon. He isn’t an idiot, but Hae-il portrays him as a smart man simply pushed to do stupid things given his feelings for Seo-rae, and it develops into a fantastic character turn. It wouldn’t work though if Wei wasn’t absolutely phenomenal. One might initially wonder why she receives top billing, but after just a bit of the film it becomes strikingly apparent. As she commands each character’s attention, it almost feels as though she’s reaching out and doing the same to the camera and viewing audience, without ever showing her hand.

Working with cinematographer Kim Ji-yong (“A Bittersweet Life,” “The Fortress”), Chan-wook has crafted one of the most incredible looking films in recent memory. While it isn’t a colorful bonanza or a display of detailed visual effects, almost every frame seems as though it’s tricking the viewer or hiding something in some way. From borderline magical mirror shots, to zooms and backgrounds that defy logic, it's a visual feast only matched by the sumptuous performances.

If there’s anything to criticize, it’s the film’s length. While it is clearly a very deliberately plotted film, and Chan-wook leads the viewer along at exactly the pace he wants, it doesn’t take away from the fact that this is still a two-hour and twenty-minute film. Every minute is utilized, but again, a long movie is still a long movie, and this one unfortunately doesn’t have the distinction of feeling shorter than it is. One thing that does help though is the masterful editing, with transitions that feel like magic tricks and some of the best usage of texting and phone screen overlays in a film in years.

A film like this might be full of twists, but the twists do not make or break the film. Rather, they’re used in a smart enough way to enhance the characters they happen to. You don’t care about whether or not Hae-jun will actually solve the case or whether Seo-rae is involved or not because of the twists. You care about them because of the script, co-written by Chan-wook and Chung Seo-kyeong (“Thirst,” “The Handmaiden”), and then those twists further enhance or complicate those feelings to create a richer, more interesting tale, set to a gorgeous score from composer Jo Yeong-wook (“Thirst,” “The Handmaiden”).

It’s hard to talk about the best parts of “Decision to Leave” without fully spoiling the entire affair. Rest assured, if you’re a fan of noir style mysteries or even films following hapless protagonists, or, quite simply, really really good movies, you’ll have an absolute blast trying to trace the twists and turns along with Hae-jun and try to piece every detail together. You will have to settle in for a film that feels exactly as long as it is, but it is absolutely worth the stay. 4.5/5

Tár - Review

 

The tale of a tortured artist is hardly anything new in Hollywood. But it doesn’t mean it still can’t be interesting, especially when said artist seems to be doing everything possible to sabotage herself and her possible success. With his first film in almost two decades, writer/director Todd Field (“In The Bedroom,” “Little Children”) has teamed up with Cate Blanchett (“Carol,” “Thor Ragnarok”) to tell the story of such an artist with “Tár.”

Starring Blanchett as composer Lydia Tár, the film follows her preparation of Mahler's 5th Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic as its first female composer and the first composer to perform all of Mahler’s symphonies with the same orchestra. Assisting her is her personal assistant Francesca, played by Noémie Merlant (“Heaven Will Wait,” “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”), and her sickly wife Sharon, played by Nina Hoss (“Homeland,” “A Most Wanted Man”). Things become complicated after Olga, a young Russian cellist played by Sophie Kauer, joins the symphony and previous events in Lydia’s life begin to surface.

“Tár” is hardly the type of film one could call tight or constrained. Taking place across two different continents, across two-hours-and thirty-eight minutes, and with plenty of that time spent simply talking, it’s clear that this is a film that isn’t going to adjust itself for audiences. You either get on its wavelength or get off. It’s a remarkably emotionally affecting film, the kind that uses all of its tricks, sometimes all at once, to illicit a response from its audience.

Blanchett is phenomenal, turning Lydia into a fascinating display of hubris and control. She’s a genuinely despicable person, not just in large obvious ways, but in the little split-second decisions she makes. Merlant is also terrific, bringing Francesca to life with an easily identifiable pity to her. It’s easy to empathize with her and want her to simply quit or stand up for herself. The same is true for Hoss as Sharon. Blanchett and she have perfect chemistry, although not in the way you’d think. They easily bicker back and forth, feeling like a real married couple in the ways they pay attention to each other’s little details in work and at home.

Kauer, in her film debut, is fantastic opposite Blanchett. Their scenes together show so many fascinating cracks in Lydia’s façade, and its by far the film at its most interesting; to watch a woman who’s so effortless in her control of others simply lack that control and struggle o comprehend it is a marvelous experience.

So much of “Tár” is just that, a marvelous experience. It’s a film clearly and impeccably crafted by a singular vision, for better or worse. Some scenes feel over-long, and the film overall certainly doesn’t fly by. Even if it makes great use of its runtime, it certainly doesn’t feel any shorter. It also doesn’t help that so many moments feel bizarre simply for the sake of it and don’t feel like they add any additional strength to the film or it’s themes. Yes, a film doesn’t have to entirely “make sense” to be good, but to have these scenes slotted into an otherwise fairly standardly coherent movie feel simply out of place.

Musically, the film is impeccable. It’s not just that the music is great, but its so woven into the film itself given its setting and characters that it just builds everything around it up. The score from Hildur Guðnadóttir (“Chernobyl,” “Joker”) manages to be effectively creepy and also light, like a reprieve from Lydia and her twisted life, managing a fantastic double act. It’s also fantastically shot, with plenty of gorgeous uses of light and darkness throughout from cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister (“Antlers,” “The Terror”).

Given all of its individually fantastic elements, and a fantastic bit of schadenfreude in its ending, it seems like damning the film with faint praise to not completely acclaim it. But, for all it’s fantasticness, “Tár” can’t help but feel like another movie about a tortured artist who ruins their own life. Yes, its fantastic, phenomenally acted and impeccably put together, but it can’t help but feeling like another movie in that subgenre. There isn’t anything here, apart from Blanchett’s commanding performance, that sets it above the others. Even her performance, as good as it is, feels more like another in a line of toxic artist roles, without anything to transcend it above the others.

That might seem harsh, but make no mistake, “Tár” is still a fantastic film. It’s a juicy drama filled with great performances and technical merits, with a mastery over its music and visual styles. It might have a few too many ambiguous scenes for how straight forward the overall film is, and it doesn’t rise above the others in its subgenre the way it thinks it does, but its still absolutely a film worth seeing and an experience worth having. 4/5

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile - Review

 

In the grand tradition of post 2000s cinema, following in the footsteps of films like “Stuart Little,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” “Peter Rabbit,” and “Paddington,” here comes yet another film featuring a CGI animated talking animal interacting with a modern-day family to craft various hijinks and life lessons, all based on a classic children’s book series. But this one is different; in this one, the animal doesn’t talk, he sings!

“Lyle Lyle Crocodile” sees magician turned stage performer Hector Valenti, played with wide-eyed whimsy by Javier Bardem (“No Country for Old Men,” “Skyfall”), finding a best friend and singing partner in Lyle, a crocodile who can’t talk but can sing! However, after Valenti disappears for a while, a new family moves into his old building, finding Lyle in the attic. Hilarity ensues.

The film kind of stars Shawn Mendes as Lyle, and his “starring” role is just one of numerous oddities that leave you scratching your head by the time the adventure is over, but more on that in a bit. Constance Wu (“Hustlers,” “Crazy Rich Asians”) plays Mrs. Primm, the matriarch of the family that takes over Valenti’s building, with her husband, Mr. Primm, played by Scoot McNairy (“Halt and Catch Fire,” “Narcos: Mexico”), and her son, Josh, played by Winslow Fegley (“8-Bit Christmas,” “Nightbooks”). Wu is clearly enjoying herself, but the material simply isn’t there to provide anyone with anything interesting to do. The same goes for McNairy or Fegley. Bardem is mostly saved from this, purely based on his own larger than life charms managing to overpower the doldrums of this formulaic script.

Directed by duo Will Speck and Josh Gordon (“The Switch,” “Office Christmas Party”) from a script by William Davies (“Johnny English,” “How to Train Your Dragon”), there is a lot of weirdness here that needs to be gone into, the weirdest of which is Lyle’s voice. He, as a character, cannot speak. Whenever he tries to, only guttural animalistic noises come out. However, when he sings, is the sultry tones of Mendes crooning about. And it never stops feeling weird. Maybe when he’s a tiny baby crocodile, it’s acceptable, but when he’s a towering seven-foot-tall crocodile dancing around the kitchen with Wu, it feels too weird for suspension of disbelief.

Lyle as a character simply looks too “real.” In the pursuit of realism, he’s been rendered with the same hyper realistic level of detail that one would find in any normal crocodile in the background of a jungle set adventure movie. It makes everything just feel too weird, as if at any moment he might snap and take a bite out of Bardem’s head. The story itself isn’t good enough to help overcome any of this weirdness either, mostly trafficking in typical “believe in yourself” messaging that’s plastered counseling office posters and family films for the past three decades at least.

The songs, from the writing duo of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (“Dear Evan Hansen,” “The Greatest Showman”), most well-known for the music of “La La Land”, do a lot to prove that maybe the music from that movie was just a fluke. The music, like the messaging, is so basic, content to just dance about in typical pop music fashions and melodies, spouting the same “I was lost but now I’m found” messaging of anything you could find within five minutes of flipping through radio stations. The songs, like the rest of the film, aren’t bad but don’t inspire any level of memorability.

What’s here is a film that’s unobtrusive and unoffensive, but nevertheless bizarre in the execution of its main element. There’s nothing here that’s terrible, but nothing that goes beyond a simple sense of blasé filmmaking. It’s hard to find anything particularly insightful or critical to say about it because the film itself doesn’t inspire much beyond some glazed eyes. This story has been told before and in much better ways as well. It’s hard to imagine kids or families getting excited at the prospect of it being told using the voice of a Vine star turned international singing sensation. When the most memorable part of your film is how out of place your lead character looks, then maybe the film you’re making just isn’t destined to leave an impression of any kind. 2.5/5