Willy's Wonderland - Review

 

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I think the Five Nights at Freddy’s creator should get a security system installed at his house because “Willy’s Wonderland” seems obsessed. This is one of those odd cases where this low-budget horror film likely wouldn’t have gotten any attention outside of its similarities to the Freddy’s franchise if it wasn’t for one thing: Nicolas Cage (“National Treasure,” “Moonstruck”).

Some actors have renaissance that catapult them to critical acclaim. The likes of Ryan Gosling and Matthew McConaughey went from staring in low quality rom-coms to racking up roles in independent drama and awards each year. Nicolas Cage seems to have taken an opposite turn; his career started with beloved cult films like “Raising Arizona” and awards hits like “moonstruck” and “Honeymoon in Vegas.” However, in recent years he’s tumbled into what some refer to as his “Cage Rage” era.

Over the past few years, he’s starred in horror/thriller films like “Mandy,” “Joe,” “Mom and Dad,” and “Color Out of Space” where buckets of blood or various other liquids have been spilled at his own hand. “Willy’s Wonderland” is no different; Cage is a silent tough guy who agrees to clean a run-down family pizza establishment in exchange for the money to repair his car which broke down just outside of town. It’s a convoluted set-up for an extremely convoluted plot.

That plot can’t seem to decide whether it’s trying to be serious or silly, flipping back and forth between moments where teens have sex in a room where a group of children were murdered, or serial killers involved in bloodless satanic rituals. Its overblown and clearly is just an excuse to see Cage rip some animatronic creatures apart, which is where the film is at its chest best.

Cage is a silent force of nature, patching up wounds with duct tape and constantly drinking cans of Punch soda. It’s a role that seems made for an actor who just wants to let loose and take nothing seriously. If the rest of the film had his energy, it might be a legitimately enjoyable piece of cult horror wackiness.

Unfortunately, the rest of the film doesn’t have his energy. The group of kids who slowly are murdered throughout the film are just laughably bad, giving the appearance that we’re watching a Disney Channel Original horror movie. Emily Tosta (“Mayans M.C.,” “Party of Five (2020)”) Is at least trying to do something with her role. What she’s trying to do is a mystery, but she’s clearly trying. The only other actors even of note are Ric Reitz (“Drop Dead Diva,” “The Loft”) and Beth Grant (“Jackie,” “Lucky”) if for no other reason than they clearly understand what kind of material they have and ham it up at nearly every turn.

However, you don’t read a review for a film like “Willy’s Wonderland” for critiques on the acting. Hell, you might not read a review for a film like “Willy’s Wonderland” at all, but if you did, you read it to know if the gory fight scenes are worth the price of admission. In a way, yes. The lower budget has a clear effect on the animatronics and how they look; the first fight looks a bit goofy and not like anyone is actually hitting each other, but it’s clear that when the film is in Willy’s, that’s when it’s at its most entertaining.

It’s not every day you get to see an Academy Award winning actor curb stomp an animatronic gorilla with a urinal, and Cage’s wild-eyed commitment brings the absurdity to life. Really, it’s the little things that make it enjoyable. He’s on a strict timeline, so Cage’s janitor takes frequent pinball breaks and always changes to a clean Willy’s t-shirt when his gets soaked with oil and blood. These moments of weird consistency make the ride an eye rolling piece of popcorn carnage. We haven’t even touched on the color correction that would make Zack Snyder blush or the editing that feels like the editor forgets what scenes they’re editing on a constant basis.

Is “Willy’s Wonderland” a good movie? Hell no, even Cage can’t save the bizarre plotting, editing, and laughably bad acting from the teens. Sure, if you watch this movie, you watch to see Cage drink soda, kick ass, play pinball, and stay absolutely silent. Is it a bit too much to expect more from this? Possibly, but it’s not hard to see a version of Willy’s where the fun is legitimate, instead of guilty pleasured. 1/5

Breaking News in Yuba County - Review

 

A violent suburban crime satirical dark comedy from the director of “The Help” isn’t exactly a sentence you’d expect to hear, and yet “Breaking News in Tuba County” is exactly that. Tat Taylor’s (“Get On Up,” “Ma”) dark comedy centered around Sue Buttons, a stressed out and unappreciated housewife who covers up her husband’s heart attack to make it seem like a disappearance so she can claim media attention.

That’s merely one layer of the plot, because it also involves Sue’s brother-in-law, his boss, his mafia contacts, Sue’s sister, Sue’s husband’s mistress, a police chief, and a whole lot more. In a word, think of it like “Fargo” but set in midwestern suburbia instead of Minnesota, eh?

Allison Janney (“I, Tonya,” “American Beauty”) stars as Sue Buttons and she does a fine job with the material she’s given. Janney excels at bringing these kinds of sympathetically conniving characters to life, and Buttons is no different. Its easy to sympathize with her just as much as despise her. She flips the switch between legitimately frustrated and conniving criminal so quickly that the line starts to blur even for her.

However, the rest of the film’s performances don’t come close. This is a truly jam-packed film, with the cast consisting of Mila Kunis (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Family Guy”), Regina Hall (“Girls Trip,” “Support the Girls”), Awkwafina (“Crazy Rich Asians,” “The Farewell”), Samira Wiley (“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Detroit”), Jimmi Simpson (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “Westworld (2016)”), Juliette Lewis (“Whip It!,” “August: Osage County”), Wanda Sykes (“black-ish,” “Over the Hedge”), Matthew Modine (“Stranger Things,” “Weeds”), Ellen Barkin (“Switch,” “Animal Kingdom”), and many more. It’s not worth breaking down their individual performances though, because despite them all being across the board fine and serviceable, every single character in the entire film suffers from one extremely solvable problem.

For any star-studded crime comedy like this, it’s important that you care about the characters. It doesn’t require hours of backstory, but it does require some. However, the film’s biggest issue is that, apart from Sue, no one gets any of that backstory. No one gets any character arcs or moments of choice. It leads to a lot of watching famous people put on accents and say jokey lines while things happen around them.

Even despite getting the most character development, Janney never really feels like Sue. She feels like Allison Janney playing another Allison Janney-type character. Its incredibly frustrating that as the film continues and body’s start to pile up, none of it hits with any impact because you simply don’t care about the body’s that are piling up or the people doing thing piling.

Here’s a perfect example: Awkafina plays the daughter of a mob boss. Early in the film, he tells her that she lost his money because people don’t fear her. She then makes it her mission to make people fear her. However, the two scenes we see her in prior to being told people don’t fear her are of two people being very afraid of her. We’re being told one thing and shown another.

More frustrating is that the film is only around 90 minutes. While short movies are fine and length isn’t immediately a point of criticism, the fact that its this short for a mystery film with a clear lack of character development makes this increasingly frustrating. Its easy to see a version of the film that’s around 30 minutes longer with more meat on its bones to make it a better product.

This lack of audience care for the characters therefore makes those perfectly fine performances across the board seem worse. If you don’t care about the people on-screen, then it becomes a lot easier to nitpick bad accents, weird line deliveries, and leaps in logic. Even moments that do manage to be emotionally effective, like a home invasion towards the film’s end, are soured due to a truly bizarre musical score that sets said home invasion against a wacky whistle and banjo track.

“Breaking News” is a film that just seems like it has contempt for its own characters. They move through the plot simply to further the plot. Someone needs ransom money, so let’s rob a jewelry store! Are there other avenues to get the money? Sure, but they’re bad people, so robbing it is! It’s almost as if first time screenwriter Amanda Idoko wanted to write a crime comedy and then halfway through just started hating every character involved.

Its sad because apart from the music and lack of character development, there isn’t much to criticize. The film is shot competently, and the pacing feels right. It doesn’t drag too much, and there’s even something to be said for its large number of female and POC cast members, even letting Wanda Sykes, a lesbian, play a lesbian.

But if your film is centered around characters you’re supposed to care about, it doesn’t matter how average or fine the rest of the film is. If you botch the characters, everything else tumbles down around it. “Breaking News in Yuba County” is a film that will quickly fade from your mind soon after watching it. It wastes a clearly game cast with a poorly written plot concerned more with stacking teetering plot threads than it is with the characters trying to solve them. 1.5/5

Barb & Star Go To Vista del Mar - Review

 

Do the first crowds of people to see cult films know their seeing something special? Did audiences who flocked to see “Shaun of the Dead,” “Anchorman,” or “PopStar: Never Stop Never Stopping” think “Oh, this is a moment people will talk about for years!” Because that’s how it feels watching Kristen Wiig (“Bridesmaids,” “Saturday Night Live”) and Annie Mumolo’s (“Bridesmaids,” “About a Boy (2014)”) latest collaboration “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar”: like watching a cult film being born.

Wiig and Mumolo are the titular Barb and Star, two lifelong best friends who decide to go on a trip to sunny Vista Del Mar, Florida. That’s the barest of descriptions for two reasons: one, the film is so absolutely bonkers that to explain what the plot is would ruin it and two: even if you were to explain the plot, it’s the kind of thing that only really works in motion.

Fair warning, this is not a movie for everyone. While a phrase like that is normally reserved for gruesome horror flicks or overly long dramas, “Barb and Star” need that warning because things are just that gleefully silly and wacky. It’s less of a sense of humor and more of a vibe.

One of the crowning achievements of that sense of humor is the sweetness at its core. Despite the overwhelming wackiness on display, at no point does it ever feel meanspirited. Neither Barb nor Star are ever the butt of the joke, despite the seemingly massive targets on their backs. Wiig and Mumolo clearly care about these two and that care extends to the audience. By the time the film ends, there will likely be a spot in your heart carved out for these two middle-aged goofs.

Jamie Dornan (“Fifty Shades of Grey,” “Once Upon a Time”) seems absolutely liberated after years of playing Christian Grey. His role as the attractive and slightly daft Edgar is delightful. He leaps and prances, singing to seagulls and falling in love. Dornan seems far more committed to this silly movie than he ever did in the “Fifty Shades” series. Wiig also plays his possible girlfriend Sharon Gordon Fisherman with virtually the opposite attitude of Star with understated success. The other two major cast members, Damon Wayans Jr. (“New Girl,” “Happy Endings”) and newcomer Reyn Doi are both good, but the film simply seems far less interested in them, with Wayans borderline being wasted.

Quotes flow freely and constantly from ever moment of the film. From little “blink and you’ll miss it” ones to entire set piece moments, the entire adventure seems custom designed to be as comedic as possible. Even if a joke doesn’t land, in less than 5 seconds another one will come along that likely will. Its also a great example of the broadness of the comedy spectrum. This isn’t just people telling jokes; “Barb and Star” employs a lot of cameos, musical jokes, physical gags, etc. Hell, there are even jokes using the film’s sets.

One could easily damn “Barb and Star” will the comedic equivalent of the “jack of all trades” cliché, and it does have faults. Things don’t really launch into comedy nirvana until they reach the titular Vista Del Mar, and things do slow down a bit for plot to happen about an hour or so in. But it almost doesn’t matter because at the end of the day, the goal “Barb and Star” doesn’t seem to be about being a comedy.

Its about the sweetness. That sugary center of goodness that lets us kick up our feet and give in to the ridiculousness. That’s where Wiig and Mumolo’s adventure really shines. From the tips of their wigs to the bottoms of the culottes, this is a hysterical adventure with a duo you’ll want to spend many, many more vacations with. Barb and Star forever. A hundred years, Barb and Star. 4.5/5

Earwig and the Witch - Review

Expectations are the bane of any film critics existence. Should one consider a film’s marketing and the studio or director’s past works when judging it? Or should one just take a step back and examine it for what it is, severed from those predispositions? Well, here’s the thing, anyone who’s seen a Studio Ghibli film before knows that its virtually impossible to go into a new film with no expectations. Yet, even if that were possible, “Earwig and the Witch” would be a disappointing 90 minutes in just about every way.

The latest Ghibli film, and the first to be animated in CGI (more on that later), is directed by Gorō Miyasaki (“Tales from Earthsea,” “From Up on Poppy Hill”), son of studio co-founder and legendary director Hayao Miyasaki. After an overall average first film with “Earthsea,” it seemed like Gorō’s skills were sharpening with the wonderfully bittersweet “Poppy Hill” and the epic and graceful television series he directed “Ronja, the Robber's Daughter.”

Yet “Earwig” is a complete step backwards, even beyond “Earthsea.” While most regard that film as being Ghibli’s worst, even its biggest detractors can admit that the animation is still gorgeous, and it nails the atmosphere of its world, while the plot and characters are what leave something to be desired. “Earwig” ticks nearly all of those boxes, however.

The main character, a young girl named Earwig, voiced in English by newcomer Taylor Paige Henderson, is painfully annoying. Where Ghibli has toyed with young female protagonists who begin as annoying before finding their place in the world (“Spirited Away”), Earwig has almost no redeeming qualities to her. The plot simply continues to allow her to be terrible to all those around her. She even states that her main goal with her best friend is to eventually get him to do whatever she wants.

Bella Yaga, voiced in English by Vanessa Marshall (“Star Wars: Rebels,” “Superman: Red Son”), is equally as annoying, but it at least fits her character as a witch. She’s manipulative and doesn’t seem to care remotely for Earwig, which just further motivates Earwig’s desires to either escape from her new foster mother or force her to teach her magic. Her familiar, a cat named Thomas, voiced in English by Dan Stevens (“Legion,” “Beauty and the Beast (2017)”), is a bright spot, with his droll delivery and petrified fear of Yaga providing some small bits of personality.

Meanwhile the third occupant of Earwig’s new foster home is the Mandrake, voiced in English by Richard E. Grant (“The Iron Lady,” “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”). He’s a towering monstrous fellow who enjoys his food and quiet. He’s an imposing force and the film uses him sparingly, which leads to him being one of the more interesting characters.

Earwig’s annoyance isn’t the fault of Henderson, merely the plot and dialogue are just poorly written. At times the overall plot grinds to a halt for nothing to happen for moments on end. At one point, Earwig creates a potion to protect herself from a potential threat. Yet despite said threat looming over her as she acts carelessly, egging it on, it’s another almost 40 minutes after she makes the potion that we even see or know if it worked or not.

“Earwig” has problems sure, but some could be somewhat argued over. But it’s the carelessness with which the plot is tossed around that hurts most of all. So many previous Ghibli movies are expert examples of building tension; “Howl’s Moving Castle” is a perfect example of that. While it is the first film script for one of the two screenwriters, Emi Gunji (“Ronja, The Robber’s Daughter”), the other screenwriter is Keiko Niwa, who’s written wonderful plot heavy Ghibli tales like the aforementioned “Poppy Hill,” “When Marnie Was There,” and “Ocean Waves.”

To talk about the visual for a moment, they’re painfully dull. All of the Ghibli charm and character that normally inhabits their characters is sucked out of the dull and mannequin-esque models. Rarely do their faces move more than slightly, and the few times that they do try exaggeration it often looks hideous. One moment in the middle of the film tries to execute the trademark Ghibli laugh to horrifying results. The environments fare much better, as they focus on the hyper detailed look Ghibli films are known for. Yaga’s brewing room is a particular highlight, and hand drawn sketches at the credits seem to almost be toying with the audience, offer crumbs of what could have been.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR “EARWIG AND THE WITCH.” PLEASE SKIP TO THE FINAL PARAGRAPH TO AVOID.

If the plot was boring an uninteresting, that would be one thing. Yet, the film somehow manages to butcher its biggest leading plot thread and pack so much interesting plot and character development into the ending epilogue that it might make your head spin. Instead of ending it with Earwig befriending a reluctant Yaga and Mandrake, the film jumps ahead 6 months to see Earwig now basically running the entire home?!?! Somehow this massive jump wasn’t included as a part of the rather light 80 minutes prior despite being far more interesting than anything that had come before.

Not only that, but the film also directly ends on a cliffhanger that seems to reintroduce Earwig’s mother into her life. While ending on a note like that wouldn’t be too out of place, its baffling that it was the first thing introduced in the film, never mentioned again after the opening credits, and then abruptly reintroduced directly before the film ends. For those who do manage to get drawn into the plot, it’s a maddening decision. And for those like myself who thought the epilogue was the most interesting part of the film, it borders on criminal.

END OF SPOILERS

If “Earwig and the Witch” had this visual style but kept the trademark Ghibli plotting, it would have been a fine, if dull looking, first time effort. If it had been a gorgeous CGI interpretation of the studio’s art style with a bland plot, it would’ve been disappointing but likely would’ve shown what could come in the future. Yet this is the worst of two worlds: a bland looking and boring fantasy adventure with an annoying main character and a bafflingly plotted adventure. Ghibli die-hards should consider viewing with caution and everyone else should stay far away from what can only be a witch’s curse. 1.5/5

The Reel Life's Year in Film: Best of 2020

With the hellish year that was 2020 finally behind us, it's time to see where everything ranked on my Year in Film Best of 2020 list.

Wonder Woman 1984 - Review

Leave it to DC of all companies to deliver one of the oddest and most exuberant superhero films in years in one of the oddest years in years. Patty Jenkins (“Monster,” “Wonder Woman (2017)”) is here with the follow up to her 2017 hit, and “Wonder Woman 1984” is a bigger, bolder, brasher, and more experimental film, for better and worse.

Gal Gadot (“Wonder Woman (2017),” “Ralph Breaks the Internet”) and Chris Pine (“Star Trek (2009, “Hell or High Water”) are the sole returning cast members here, and they both continue in the excellence they established in the previous film. Gadot is still a wonderfully calm and powerful heroine, but she’s more intelligent and less innocent in her second outing. Likewise, Pine plays with a bit more wide-eyed optimism (thanks to plot circumstances I won’t spoil here) than the strong jawed soldier seen before.

The two other leads are Pedro Pascal (“Narcos,” “The Mandalorian”) as the slimy TV personality Maxwell Lord and Kristen Wiig (“Bridesmaids,” “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”) as Barbara Minerva. Wiig sells her first action film role with confidence and bravado that slowly evolves as the film continues, allowing her character to remain believable and sympathetic without losing the gradual change needed to sell her arc.

Pascal, meanwhile, is a complete force of nature. His character of Maxwell Lord is an interesting one from the start, but as the film progresses, he becomes more devious and maligned in increasingly interesting ways. His arc definitely isn’t what it would appear to be at the start, and by the time things end, Pascal has given what might be one of his strongest performances yet.

While Pascal’s arc may be unconventional, that goes for the movie as a whole. After a not bad, but just out of place, prologue we leap back into the world of Diana Prince and the year 1984. From there the story takes several twists and turns, delivering much less action than one would expect and a lot more talking, character development, and exposition.

When the punches do fly, the action is choreographed excellently and with gusto. Gadot sails through these sequences, flying through the air and toppling enemies of all sizes with skill and perfected grace. The CGI work is also impressive, and even the clearly worst bit of it thankfully takes place at night, making it easy to hide.

This is also an expansively colorful film, with bright reds, greens, blues, yellows, and much more popping in every frame. Maybe it’s the 80s sheen, but even the scenes in darkened environments still pop with vibrancy and color. This further extends to the music, which imbues the first film’s trumpets and guitars with synths and 80s beats.

It’s difficult to talk about what makes this film truly interesting without going into spoilers. While the action, dialogue, acting, music, etc. is all great, that alone wouldn’t make for a film worth talking about, only a movie that passes the bar. Where “1984” goes above and beyond is creating a plot that is intrinsically tied to its characters.

Jenkins and her co-writers Geoff Johns (“Smallville,” “Aquaman”) and David Callaham (“Ant-Man,” “Zombieland: Double Tap”) have created a story that all comes back to choices and consequences and puts some truly tempting decisions in front of every character, good and bad alike. It makes for a film that takes some interesting turns and prevents a feeling of sameness and predictability. Whether or not you think it all works or if it’s all too cheesy for its own good, that’s up for debate. But Jenkins and her writers took a big swing on a less straight forward and more bizarre narrative and it largely succeeds.

This even comes down to the ending, which thankfully avoids DC’s particularly bad habit of turning interesting plots into big grey CGI monster fights. It is a superhero film that somehow maintains a high level of general enjoyability and fun without losing its seriousness. It keeps its sense of hope without cheapening the danger and stakes, which is no small feat.

Instead of sticking to tried and true tropes, “1984” instead chooses a larger, more escapist route to provide a colorful and hopeful experience. This is a film that plays fast and loose with magic, wishes, hopes, and dreams without cheapening the journeys its characters go on. It’s all a kind of extravagant window dressing to continue to address Diana as a growing and evolving hero and the world she wants to protect. It even ends in a profoundly hopeful and un-blockbuster-like way and it’s one of the film’s absolute best moments.

This is a long film, an extravagant one, and a colorful one. Those who loved the grittiness or the realism of the first film will likely have already been lost by the rainbow drenched posters, but those who decide to stay will be treated to a thoroughly satisfying escapist fantasy adventure, with one of the most varied and interesting plots in a blockbuster in quite some time. It isn’t perfect but it sure is wonderful. 4/5

Soul - Review

 

How to describe “Soul”? It’s not an easy thing to do, for either a plot or emotional stance. There’s a lot going on under the surface, visually, and emotionally in Pete Docter (“Inside Out,” “Up”) and Kemp Powers’s (“One Night in Miami,” “Star Trek: Discovery”) animated music adventure. One thing’s certain though; it’s an adventure unlike anything Pixar’s done before.

Jamie Foxx (“Collateral,” “Django Unchained”) plays Joe Gardner, an aspiring musician who dies only moments after getting an opportunity to potentially launch his musical career. What happens after that is an extremely complicated and emotionally intelligent adventure that still finds a way to pack in the trademark Pixar lighthearted wit with boatloads of introspective discussions and potentially traumatizing imagery.

Foxx delivers a performance that rivals his absolute best roles, vocal or physical. He comits to this character in such a genuine and complete way, lending him the kind of small vocal touches that only the very best voice actors can do. Tina Fey (“30 Rock,” “Mean Girls”) as 22 is also excellent, and the pair have a delightful, if initially apprehensive, chemistry.

The rest of the supporting voices are also great. Pixar has a great track record of having standout characters who may only appear for a handful of minutes due to their excellent vocal performances and the same is true here. The likes of Graham Norton (“Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie,” “The Graham Norton Show”), Rachel House (“Thor: Ragnarok,” “Hunt for the Wilderpeople”), Alice Braga (“Elysium,” “Queen of the South”), Richard Ayoade (“The IT Crowd,” “Submarine”), and Questlove are all great, though even amongst the supporting cast there are standouts.

A confrontation between Joe and his mother, voiced perfectly by Phylicia Rashad (“The Cosby Show,” “Creed”) showcases her uniquely warm and stern voice in excellent capacity. Donnell Rawlings (“The Wire,” “Chappelle Show”) appears for mere minutes as Joe’s barber Dez, but the comforting teddy bear nature of his voice and character leave a lasting impression. And the wise, soulful nature of Angela Bassett’s (“Boyz N The Hood,” “What’s Love Got To Do With It?”) Dorothea Williams, one of Joe’s jazz idols, easily places her in the upper echelon of Pixar’s many mentor figures.

There is a lot going on in this tale, and Doctor, Powers, and writer Mike Jones all manage to keep it just light enough to still be considered family fair. However, they also avoid spelling things out for the audience, which not only shows that they clearly respect their viewers intelligence to piece a story like this together, but also allows different viewers to take away different things from this tale.

It’s a potentially catastrophic way to tell a story; to leave it so open for interpretation that anyone can get something different from it. However, Docter’s decades of experience as one of Pixar’s best directors and Powers’s experience as an award-winning playwright both coalesce here in just the right ways to keep everything precariously balanced.

Musically, Pixar films have always been great but occasionally blend together. This is not even remotely the case with “Soul,” which features a great mixture of original Jazz compositions from Jon Batiste and an ethereal and melodic original score from Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (“The Social Network,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)”).

It is virtually impossible to talk about “Soul” without mentioning the way it looks. Pixar has always been at the bleeding edge of visual fidelity for their films, but “Soul” feels different. Not only are many of the environments and concepts far more abstract than even in “Inside Out,” but the usage of contracting colors, 2D animation, and pure white space is both gorgeous and sometimes utterly haunting. It’s also impressively and faultlessly lit, giving some environments a legitimate photorealistic look.

Skin and cloth textures are also a highlight, as is the wide variety of people on display. There are varying body types and ages of all kinds, and it’s hard to describe why this is worth mentioning until you see it. Something about watching Joe talk with his mother and seeing the creases on her face as she squints and talks to him are breathtaking. It also helps that Pixar consulted with cinematographer Bradford Young (“Arrival,” “A Most Violent Year”) to make sure that their lighting worked with the various tones of black skin present in the film.

“Soul” feels like a remarkably calm film given how much it talks about death, life, purpose, and meaningless-ness. It feels like sitting down and pouring your heart out to an old friend, someone who will sit with you, joke with, but never invalidate the worries you’re mentioning. Its difficult to describe how incredible it is to just watch it. From a technical level, its flawless. From an emotional level, it seems chemically combined to allow each viewer to get something different out of it.

As someone who wants to create and who worries about what they’ll leave for this world one day, it’s an earth-shattering revelatory masterpiece. Pixar-Nay, Pete Doctor and Kemp Powers have created the next great masterpiece of animated storytelling, and what will surely be remembered as one of the best films of this new decade. 5/5

Promising Young Woman - Review

 

Where to begin? From Emerald Fennell, most well-known for show running Killing Eve in its second season, “Promising Young Woman” is an acid soaked take on the revenge thriller, bolstered by phenomenal performances, a tightly wound script, and an absolutely career defining lead performance.

It’s been thrown around quite a bit in the pre-release advertising but make no mistake, this is a film for exactly the moment in which we live. There’s an anger and spitefulness behind this entire story that feels like it could only have been made right now.

Carey Mulligan (“The Great Gatsby,” “Inside Llewyn Davis”) plays Cassie with such real boiling anger. Her performance is nothing short of breathtaking as she teeters between a character so ahead of everyone else, so in her element, and yet so impulsive and at times idiotic that it becomes impossible to tell what direction she or the film will take next. Bo Burnham (“Eighth Grade,” “Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous”) is also equally good, though his performance is more one-note that Mulligan’s. It doesn’t change the talent on display and the true impressive way in which he pulls off this roll that is completely different than anything he’s done before.

Everyone in this film is expertly crafted and performed, even if they’re only on screen for mere moments. Alfred Molina (“Spider-Man 2,” “An Education”), for example, is onscreen for maybe 5 minutes and yet his short time here won’t be forgotten. The same goes for the rest of the supporting cast including Laverne Cox (“Orange is the New Black,” “Doubt”), Alison Brie (“Community,” “GLOW”), Connie Britton (“Friday Night Light,” “American Horror Story”), Max Greenfield (“New Girl,” “A Futile and Stupid Gesture”), and Chris Lowell (“Private Practice,” “Graves”).

Now, there’s a lot to unpack with a movie like this. From the trailer alone it’s clear that “Promising Young Woman” deals with sexual assault, survivor’s guilt, believing victims, victim blaming, and a whole lot more. Describing the overall film as a pulpy revenge thriller feels like doing it a disservice but there’s no other way to describe it.

Colors pop from every frame, from sky blues to bubblegum pinks. Neon is everywhere and the framing of background elements over Cassie as she glides through these sequences like a fallen angel are clearly hallmarks of a director who is taking advantage of having full control over her work. Fennell and cinematographer Benjamin Kračun (“The Third Day”) take full advantage of the staged, almost storybook styled sets to create a mouse trap of a film that creeps in more and more as thing progress and the bright blues and pinks become less and less comforting.

The slow churning score, featuring numerous string cues and reworkings of classic female centric songs, like the cover of Toxic heavily utilized in the film’s marketing, set the stage for a film rife with tonal shifts like skateboard ramps. Anthony Willis’s (“Fortnite”) score is an absolute perfect fit for Fennell’s twisted tale, as if you ground up the bright atmosphere and acidic dialogue and pressed it into a record. It’s a great compliment to the wild tonal shifts that Fennell handles so wonderfully gracefully, and it all comes back to how deathly seriously the film takes itself.

Even as moments flip and flop back and forth from musical montage to virtually silent feats of tension, the events taking place are always treated with the same level of intensity by the actors, crew, and Fennell herself. Directing from her own script, the dialogue feels punchy and alive. Some might find it hokey, the way each line feeds to the next, but it’s the same kind of flow that Tarantino has been using for years. Think Tarantino and Sorkin with an acid-soaked sense of humor.

It’s not a film that asks you to identify or even agree with its protagonist and what she’s doing, merely experience this tale with her. So many moments seem cherry picked to create discussions, from the way that scenes and characters are framed to the specific pieces of dialogue used in certain moments.

Everything comes to a head in the third act though, as plot and style come crashing together in a thundering cacophony of color and dread. It’s when Fennell’s film is at its more somber and also most delirious, as it fully commits to the grim nature of its tale and the pulpy thrills therein. The ending, to not mince words, will be remembered and discussed for years to come.

This is not only a daring and audacious first feature from Fennell, but an absolutely thrilling, grounded adventure that will be remembered for a long time. It’s a singular vision of a film, laser focused to communicate one feeling and one message as effectively and expertly as possible. Whether it’s the superb performances, the sense of production design, costuming, narrative style, music, or any of the other numerous elements; “Promising Young Woman” is, without a doubt, one of the best films of the year. 5/5

One Night in Miami... - Review

 

No one really knows what happened the night of February 25^th, 1964 in a small hotel room in Miami, Florida. All we really know is that four men; Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay), Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke met to celebrate Ali’s title win against Sonny Liston. While we don’t know what really happened, playwright and screenwriter Kemp Powers (“Soul,” “Star Trek: Discovery”) created a stage play of a fictional account of that night and now Amazon and Regina King (“Watchmen (2020),” “If Beale Street Could Talk”) have adapted the play into a film, with Powers writing the screenplay and King directing for the first time.

The play itself is an ambitious idea, trying to recreate what some of the biggest civil rights leaders in American history might have said to each other and discussed on a crossroads night for all of them, but thankfully the film nails arguably the most important aspect: respect. Even as these figures are being portrayed not as moral pariahs, but as real humans with flaws and internal issues, there’s the utmost level of respect on display from the actors and the crew.

Kingsley Ben-Adir (“The OA,” “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword”) keeps a firm tone and levelheadness as Malcolm X but isn’t afraid to show the conflicted nature of some of his actions. There’s a lot of imitation to his speech patterns and vocal inflections, but nothing ever turns into parody or impersonations, keeping a high level of realism and respect.

The same goes for Eli Goree (“Ballers,” “Riverdale”) as Ali. While his voice has been impersonated thousands of times, Goree keeps everything balanced. He’s a big teddy bear, but that’s not where his character begins and ends. He may not be the most intelligent guy in the room, but he’s got his own kind of smarts and keeps his wits about him the entire time.

Aldis Hodge (“Leverage,” “Straight Outta Compton”) and Leslie Odom Jr. (“Smash,” “Hamilton”) may have roles smaller in scale, but they still stand toe to toe with Goree and Ben-Adir in terms of the skill and focus brought to the film. Hodge’s Jim Brown is the most mellow and soft-spoken of the group, maintaining an almost audience surrogate perspective as he mostly sits back and interjects when the other three are almost at each other’s throats.

Meanwhile Odom Jr.’s Sam Cooke is an energetic and fiercely opinionated man who seems to be Malcolm’s exact opposite. The two’s exchange towards the middle of the film about civil rights and the duties of a public and celebrity figure are without a doubt some of the most interesting material the film has to offer, and Odom Jr. knocks his role out of the park entirely.

Thanks to the pure electricity of the performances and the chemistry each actor has with the rest of the foursome, “One Night in Miami…” never feel stagnate. It bucks the typical slow burn trope that most serious dramas have and manages to make the one room it mostly takes place in feels lively and expansive.

There are also legitimate moral quandaries at play here, not the typical civil rights discussions that most studio dramas regurgitate year after year. There’s discussion of what someone owes the world based on their status and their success, if its better to succeed publicly or from behind the scenes, and even the examinations of religion and what kind of people organized religion can turn us into. Powers’s material isn’t a light affair by any means, but the crackling dialogue and actors keep it from ever feeling overbearing.

Simply put, “One Night in Miami…” is a gorgeous period piece with some terrific acting and writing. It’s all one could want from an adaptation like this; it delivers the material, moral questions, and superb acting all wrapped up in a gorgeous and well shot 60s era. If this is an indicator of things to come, Regina King may even surpass her high acting skills with her directing ones. 5/5

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - Review

 

August Wilson is likely one of, if not the most, respected and well-known playwright of the last century. If you don’t know his name, you surely know his masterpiece, “Fences,” or any of his other numerous plays. But three years before that play premiered, a very different work of his debuted; “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

Based on the life of the “mother of the Blues,” the play takes a behind the scenes look at the recording of one of Ma’s albums and the tensions that flare up between her, some of her band members, her manager, and the white recording executives. It’s classic Wilson genius, filled with explosive dialogue and heightened personalities.

For the most part, this film adaptation from director George C. Wolfe (“Nights in Rodanthe,” “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”) and writer Ruben Santiago-Hudson (“Lackawanna Blues,” “Their Eyes Were Watching God”) is a faithful recreation of the play. However, there are some changes that dampen the experience slightly, making this a good, but not great, version of an incredible play.

For something so dialogue heavy, it’s imperative that one gets actors who can carry this dialogue and, thankfully, Wolfe and Hudson have a cast of extremely talented people here to carry this work. Each cast member delivers their lines with pure conviction, regardless of their role in the story, and it results in even the smallest of characters standing out.

Colman Domingo (“Selma,” “If Beale Street Could Talk”) is one of those standouts as he plays Cutler, Ma’s guitarist. He’s a gentle but firm soul, clearly the one who’s been with Ma the longest, and he serves as a mitigate between her and everyone else in the film. Jeremy Shamos (“Bad Education,” “The Big Sick”) as Ma’s eager to please everyone manager Irvin is also great. He’s so anxious and tries so hard to make everyone happy without resorting to ridiculous leaps and rarely does he succeed.

Yet, as good as this supporting cast and these standout supporting roles are, nothing compares to the work that Viola Davis (“How to Get Away With Murder,” “Widows”), as Ma, and Chadwick Boseman (“Black Panther,” “Marshall”), as Levee, are doing. They are positively electric, Davis delivering a feisty and nasty role here, teetering between being a talented artist who wants what she deserves and a vengeful diva with expert control. It’s a meaty role that Davis has completely and entirely committed herself to with astounding results.

Boseman is also just as electrifying. In this his unfortunate final role, he’s ended his career with an exclamation point. Levee is the perfect kind of August Wilson character; someone who so clearly deserves the world and yet is shortchanged at nearly every turn, both because of their own ambitions and the cruelty of the world. Its an astonishingly good performance and the perfect way to end a career for such a talented artist.

The few shortcomings that “Black Bottom” has are the unfortunate products of moving a stage play to film and trying to update it without straying too far from the original work. There are times where some of the characters discuss racial injustices that feel too far removed from the era in which the play is set, as if they’re clairvoyant and it brings the reality of the film down as a result. These moments wouldn’t be so glaring if it wasn’t for the fact that this only happens about half the time. You can clearly see the difference between the words written by Wilson and by Hudson. Hudson’s work here isn’t bad, its only when he tries to emulate Wilson’s poignant writing style instead of adapting it do things start to crumble. Luckily, this only happens in a fraction of the film, as glaring as it is.

It also suffers as a film small in scope. Like other play to film adaptations, “Black Bottom” only really takes place in a couple of rooms, and while there is a lot of excellent work done here with costuming and production design, it still feels like it takes place in just two different rooms. However, that production design, costuming, and overall feel of the period is immaculate. Faded paint and the hot Chicago sun create a bubbly and steamy atmosphere that is a treat to watch.

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is a wonderfully constructed film with towering performances shortchanged just a bit by some of its writing and scope. This is an incredibly enjoyable film, not a masterpiece but a really great time. It wouldn’t be as great without Davis and Boseman, but their absences would still leave a very enjoyable film to watch. With them here though, it is a wonderous, if not perfect, tribute to artistry and getting what you deserve. 4/5