Category: Movies

‘Last Night in Soho’ is a ghost story that needs fewer ghosts | TIFF movie review
In Last Night in Soho, an aspiring fashion designer escapes her drab London life by transporting by to the 1960s and inhabiting an aspiring singer. But eventually dreams become nightmares.

Edgar Wright is anything but subtle in his filmmaking and storytelling. When asked, “how much?” he answers with a resounding, “yes!” — and that’s typically for the better and worse with his films. He’s a lover of the cinematic form. That’s evident in all of his movies. However, it’s often at the expense of his storytelling. And that is the case with his latest crime mystery psychological horror ghost story *takes breath* Last Night in Soho, which played at the 2021 Toronto Film Festival.

That long list of descriptors is why it does and does not work. It tries to chase down too many threads — pun intended. Though, the thread that holds it all together is Eloise Turner (Thomasin McKenzie proving yet again that she’s a force to be reckoned with), a young aspiring fashion designer who gets the chance to chase her dream when she’s accepted to the London School of Fashion.

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Eloise, who is from a remote English town, is excited to go to London to not only find a bigger space for herself but to follow the footsteps of her late mother — who she just so happens to see once in a while. Eloise has a sixth sense, if you will, that makes her more connected to those that have passed. There isn’t much explanation of the phenomenon, so you just have to go with it.

When she arrives, her nightmare roommate makes it impossible for her to live in the student dorms. Instead, she finds a room to rent in an old house in Soho owned by Miss Collins (Diana Rigg) and her life seems like it’s about to fall into place — until she goes to sleep. Her first night sleeping there, she suddenly finds herself transported back to the 1960s. However, she’s not herself. She inhabits the body of a young woman named Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy) as she breezes into a nightclub with the intention of being a star. And Taylor-Joy performance convinces us that she is going to be.

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The way the camera sweeps between the two actresses is Wright at his finest. Eloise in her gray pajamas stares into a mirror where Sandie, in her flowing unstructured pink dress, stares back. Suddenly with a sweep of the camera they’ve switched places. Later on, as Sandie twirls on the dance floor with a music manager (Matt Smith) who promises to make her a star, she suddenly switches to Eloise. Another move and it’s Sandie again.

Those first few scenes of Eloise romping through the 60s are glorious in their visuals — the production design and costumes only amplify the kinetic energy — and help move the story forward at a breakneck pace — until it doesn’t. The problem I often have with Wright is those hyper-stylized visuals and frenetic editing eventually get in the way of the story. Like he’s thinking of stories in the context of how he’s going to present them.

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Eventually, those visions of Sandie and the 60s turn from an escape to an inescapable living nightmare as it bleeds into Eloise’s reality. And with that turn, it feels like Last Night in Soho jumps the shark. Jump scares pervade the horror and Eloise, our relatable outcast heroine never quite returns to form as the ghosts take their toll on her.

In addition to the ghost story, there’s a murder mystery that begins to take form. However, like the apparitions that haunt the streets of Soho, your interest in it is often fleeting. And to the film’s detriment, the entire third act, which is genuinely thrilling and unfolds stunningly, hinges on your investment in it.

As an experiment in the cinematic form, Last Night in Soho doesn’t disappoint and fans of Wright will likely be able to overlook its weaker elements to find satisfaction in the film. Even those that aren’t can revel in the film’s visuals, energy, and standout performances by Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy. But in the canon of Wright’s career, Last Night in Solo feels minor.

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September 13, 2021
‘Dune’ is a spectacle that gets lost in a sandstorm | TIFF movie review
House Atreides is tasked with controlling the mining operation on the dangerous desert planet of Dune, but what they don’t know is political intrigue is afoot

On the surface, Dune is ambitious and thrilling. However, it feels like a good movie that flirts with greatness but never quite gets there. Though it’s stunningly made and designed, the classic story just doesn’t hold the same weight as it did when it was first released and the decision to only release half of it doesn’t help.

Why did Blade Runner 2049 work when it really shouldn’t have? When it was announced that Denis Villeneuve would direct the sequel to Blade Runner it had already toiled in development hell for nearly two decades, usually the kiss of death even if the film eventually does see the light of day. However, Villeneuve delivered a singular meditative vision that didn’t set out to remake the original, but rather expand on the world that was already there and dive even further into its thematic depths. That’s what Villeneuve had to do with Dune, especially after David Lynch’s much-maligned 1984 adaptation. And while he delivered on the world-building and action, underneath feels like a lack of a beating heart.

Erring closely to Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, Dune follows the members of House Atreides. Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) is tasked with stewarding the dangerous desert planet Arrakis, which is used by the Empire for its endless supply of “spice,” a powerful substance that has supernatural effects on humans. He, along with his concubine Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and son Paul (Timothée Chalamet), journeys to the planet to begin the difficult work controlling the spice mining operation. However, political intrigue is afoot as Vladimir (an unrecognizable Stellan Skarsgård), Baron of House Harkonnen, is plotting the downfall of House Atreides.

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The world, captured gloriously by cinematographer Greig Fraser (Lion, Zero Dark Thirty), is built with terrific detail that makes it so fun to explore. The world is littered with fun details in the costumes (Ferguson’s Lady Jessica is a fashion icon), ships (dragonfly spaceships!), and culture. The mythology feels rich and deep. Like there are endless layers to parse through.

There is a gaggle of names and places to keep in order, but Villeneuve’s deliberate pacing makes it easy to keep track of the story — almost too easy. The story is quite simple, for better and worse. Better because heavy exposition tends to bog down sci-fi. On the other hand, he exposes how thinly built the plot of Dune is.

Though Dune was heavily acclaimed at the time of its release and still stands as one of the most influential novels ever written, nearly six decades later we’ve seen countless iterations of the “chosen one” storyline that is at its core — Star Wars, The Terminator, The Matrix, even Harry Potter. This undercuts the exceptional world-building that Villeneuve accomplishes by giving us a story that frankly fails to take full advantage of what the world has to offer.

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And the main part of that failure is Paul himself. The movie hinges on our desire for his success and the success of his people. And while yes, it’s easy enough to understand that House Atreides and the Fremen are good and House Harkonnen is bad, we’re never shown in earnest why we should root for them. We’re simply told.

On the surface, Dune is ambitious and thrilling. The few action set-pieces are tight and suspenseful as are the scenes of pure dramatic heft. In particular, many of the scenes between Ferguson’s Lady Jessica and Chalamet’s Paul start to find the humanistic quality that the rest of the film is missing. In one scene, Jessica and Paul use their shared knowledge of hand signs and telepathic powers to take down a group of soldiers. It’s the kind of plot and character-driven action that made Blade Runner 2049 so successful. However, in Dune it feels like it slips away like sand through your hands as soon as it is over because it’s difficult to muster up a connection to any of the characters.

Dune, or Dune Part 1 as the title card puts it, feels like half of a movie. Unlike all the “chosen one” films I listed above, it can’t stand on its own. Even the introduction of the Fremen people (led by Zendaya and Javier Bardem) feels cut short. There is a lot of story to get through, but the decision to split the film may have stretched the story to its absolute limit. I don’t mean to sound overly negative. Dune is a good movie that flirts with greatness but just never quite gets there — much like the chosen one. But perhaps, as the story goes, it’ll get there in the end.

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September 12, 2021
‘The Guilty’ puts Jake Gyllenhaal in the Oscar race | TIFF movie review
The Guilty follows a suspended police officer working 911 dispatch who falls upon an abduction case that he becomes determined to solve

The Guilty is a tense, innovative, and constantly twisting police procedural that unfolds in real-time and solely through phone calls to incredible effect. However, it elevates itself by also acting as a character study and indictment on policing and toxic masculinity. Jake Gyllenhaal has officially entered the Oscar race.

The Guilty, a remake of the 2018 Danish film of the same name, is a masterclass in adapting a non-English language film for American audiences. The trend of making English-language versions of acclaimed and successful foreign films has been picking up steam to mostly negative results — I’m looking at you Downhill. And more often than not, it’s because the studios commissioning these films don’t understand what makes them successful in the first place. That’s not the case with Antione Fuqua’s adaptation, which premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival.

Fuqua, best known for his thrillers and directing Denzel Washington to an Oscar for Training Day, doesn’t set out to recreate the Danish film. He’s too singular of a filmmaker for that. Rather, he filters the original’s plot through a distinctly American — and Fuqua — lens.

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Jake Gyllenhaal plays Joe, a former police officer relegated to 911 dispatch duty pending his trial. The reason for his suspension is kept close to the vest, however, Joe’s discontentment with the situation is not. He regularly snaps at co-workers, has coughing bouts that are caused by the wildfire smoke in the air (and maybe something more mental), and regularly pushes the boundaries of his job often talking back at 911 callers.

And that’s why when a woman named Emily (Riley Keough) calls feigning talking to her child Joe takes it upon himself to solve the case. Unfolding in real-time and the most intense episode of Law & Order: SVU, Joe realizes that Emily was taken against her will by her estranged husband Henry (Paul Dano) leaving her six-year-old daughter and infant son alone at home.

Coordinating with the California Highway Patrol, his partner Jim (Eli Goree), and various others and armed only with the information in the police database, Joe attempts to find Emily before it’s too late. That part of the plot is similar to the Danish version. However, in the background of all this — and throughout the screenplay written by True Detective’s Nic Pizzolatto — the wildfires and general distrust in the police loom large. That change alone validates the American version’s existence.

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There are many twists and turns that we only hear through calls that come through with the brilliant immersive sound design that puts us firmly in Joe’s point of view. Being in his point of view and watching the film unfold in real-time adds a sense of urgency, desperation, and helplessness. And while Fuqua’s smart directorial choices are one reason for this, Gyllenhaal’s terrific performance is captivating. It’s especially impressive considering he never leaves the screen for a single second of the film.

As thrilling as it is to unpack The Guilty as a police procedural what makes it great — and an Oscar contender for Netflix — is its grounding as a character study into toxic masculinity and the psychological effects of giving power to a person. Joe, our “hero,” brings his own outside circumstances to the situation — his own separation from his wife and daughter, his impending case — and uses that to motivate his decision-making for better or worse. He changes throughout the film. We watch as this case tears away at his psyche before the dam breaks — and with it, Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance soars.

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September 10, 2021
‘Old’ is perhaps M. Night Shyamalan’s weirdest | movie review

In M. Night Shyamalan’s Old a group of vacationers become trapped on an isolated beach where time is sped up and everyone is aging rapidly

Old is a weird psychological body horror that’ll divide audiences. The odd tone of that film makes for an interesting B-horror movie that either you’ll love, hate, or love to hate. The precise wavelength that Old is on is hard to catch, but once you do it’s almost impossible not to enjoy. Grab some popcorn, sneak some alcohol in a water bottle, and check your cynicism at the door,

Just when you thought The Happening was M. Night Shyamalan‘s most bizarre movie along comes Old. But if you know anything about the director, it’s that when he swings he swings hard and when he misses it’s in spectacular fashion. Old is no exception. There’s a level of delusion when it comes to M. Night Shyamalan that I love. For the most part, I think he’s in on the joke of his films — at their core, they’re midnight B-movie features. However, I think there’s a bit of him that’s still stuck in The Sixth Sense of it all where he believes he’s a prestige filmmaker — and that’s alright.

Old follows the Capa Family — Prisca (Phantom Thread‘s terrific Vicky Krieps), her husband Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal), and their kids, preteen Maddox (Alexa Swinton) and six-year-old Trent (Nolan River) as they arrive at a luxurious tropical resort. They’re greeted by warm faces, exotic drinks, and a vacation riddled with clunky expository dialogue. And I mean bad… like “I’m an actuary, I analyze risk!” bad. Actually, every character is defined by their occupation and proudly announces it every time they get — phrases like “I’m a doctor” and “I work in a museum” are exclaimed almost every five minutes. There’s even a rapper called Mid-Sized Sedan. You can’t make this stuff up.

Suggesting they get off the beaten path, the hotel concierge gives them directions and passage to a secluded beach that can only be reached through a narrow canyon pass. Along with other guests from the hotel — doctor Charles (Rufus Sewell), his young wife Chrystal (Abbey Lee) and their daughter Kara (Kyle Bailey) — they settle in for the longest day of their lives… literally.

Before long they discover the body of a woman in the water who died of unknown causes which immediately makes the group suspicious of Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre), who was the only person on the beach when they arrived. Long-married couple Jarin (Ken Leung) and Patricia (Nikki Amuka-Bird) — he’s a nurse! she’s a therapist! — join the group and try to turn back for help, but quickly realize that they can’t leave the beach because of some unseen force. With no way to call for help and no way to leave, they’re left waiting for rescue. However, waiting on this beach isn’t exactly an option as each of the kids begins to age rapidly before their eyes.

The cast of Old. Courtesy of Universal Pictures.

They soon calculate that one hour on the beach equals two years. “Racing against the clock” takes on new meaning. As things go from odd to downright absurd, the group struggles to find a way off the beach before they die. And die they do in spectacular fashion.

Shyamalan has never been one for true horror. He’s famously said he’s not a horror filmmaker even though his film The Sixth Sense is one of the few horror movies to be nominated for Best Picture. However, Old is a psychological thriller that uses body horror elements to make you feel uncomfortable in a way that only some filmmakers can hope to achieve. The fear of aging and our own mortality is enough horror.

And the way that Shyamalan moves the story along is quite brilliant. One incident folds into the next and as time marches along the revelations, particularly to the teen versions of the children played masterfully by Hereditary‘s Alex Woolf, Eliza Scanlen and Jojo Rabbit‘s Thomasin McKenzie, become increasingly shocking. It’s quite incredible how well-paced the movie is despite its bizarreness.

The tone is something you’ll either love or hate and have you questioning whether Old is as serious as it’s meant to be. There’s a sense of camp to it all. For example, the therapist character chides at precisely the wrong moment that she, “doesn’t like the relationship dynamic here.” And another character who is slowly succumbing to some mental illness repeatedly asks what the movie with Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson is — it’s The Missouri Breaks, by the way. It’s over-the-top, but never not entertaining.

Can I call Old a good movie? I’m not sure. Shyamalan has used the “you didn’t get that this was a satire” defense when it came to The Happening, which in some ways I accept. The odd tone of that film does make for an interesting B-horror movie that either you’ll love, hate, or love to hate. The precise wavelength that Old is on is hard to catch, but once you do it’s almost impossible not to enjoy. Grab some popcorn, sneak some alcohol in a water bottle, and check your cynicism at the door.

July 22, 2021
‘Poser’ is a punk-rock exploration of obsession — Tribeca 2021
Poser follows an underground alt music fan as she finds a way to infiltrate the community and get closer to her idol

Poser is an engrossing, darkly funny, and embarrassingly relatable trip into the underground alt music scene that proves we’re all posers in some way.

Poser, which premiered in the U.S. Narrative Competition at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, begins with a question, “how would you describe your music?” The answers range from queer death pop to experimental indie to indie pop to “I’m in a duo, I wouldn’t really identify ourselves as a band.” It’s directors Ori Segev and Noah Dixon’s — the film is their film debut — tongue-in-cheek way to tell us that they’re in on the joke — even if they have complete reverence for the underground alt scene that they’re exploring.

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The movie’s protagonist Lennon (Sylvie Mix) also has reverence for the community. Actually, reverence might be too light of a word. Obsession is more apt. She’s driven by her desire to be a part of it to start a podcast which brings her through warehouse shows, house parties, and underground concerts where she seeks to learn exactly what makes the people she looks up to tick. That’s when she encounters Bobbi Kitten — the lead singer of Columbus, Ohio based band Damn the Witch Siren.

Bobbi is everything Lennon wants to be. Confident, cool, creative, and a fixture in the scene. Lennon uses her podcast to learn more about each artist, what makes them tick, and taking recordings of their song — keeping them highly obsessively organized on cassette tapes in her small apartment. Though hilariously she tells her sister she wants an apartment where “the bed is in the kitchen.” You know, for the vibes.

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Eventually, her podcast and connections lead her to Bobbi. When Lennon mentions she’s also a songwriter Bobbi asks her to perform a song, which she does. This leads her to becoming Bobbi’s sort-of protege, shadowing her through her life — exactly what she wanted. You could guess where this leads.

Poser, for better or worse never quite goes full-tilt horror, like its clear inspirations — Single White Female and Persona chief among them — however what it does become is an engrossing psychodrama about obsession, creativity, and the very human desire to be a part of something. Lennon makes a few errors along the way as she finally begins to assimilate in the community she desperately wants to participate in and it all begins to crumble around her.

But Poser never goes as far as you want it to. At least genre-wise. Still, it’s impressively assured for a first feature, especially considering the very premise could go off the rails extremely fast. Constantly engaging, darkly funny, and, especially for us indie kids, immensely (and embarrassingly relatable) — I worked for an alternative radio station in college for god’s sake.

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June 16, 2021
What to Stream Vol 2: The Invitation, The Farewell, The Half of It

Welcome to What to Stream, our weekly roundup of the best movies streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, and HBO Max. Today’s theme: Asian directors

Happy Thursday! May is Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, which celebrates the contributions of AAPI Americans. Today’s recommendations are all films directed by AAPI women. This was originally published in my weekly newsletter that helps readers know what to stream.

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Enjoy the beautiful weekend!

The Invitation ?

▶ Streaming on Netflix

Tammy Blanchard in The Invitation. Courtesy of Drafthouse Films.

Why it’s great: The Invitation is the perfect kind of slow-burn. Kusama is extremely patient. She waits and makes you question what kind of movie it is until it finally reveals itself in a stunning manner.

With a jangling score and off-putting visuals, it slowly ratchets up the tension to an unbearable degree. Every beat feels like it’s going to be the moment that something is going to happen. You’re constantly preparing yourself for the jump and when it comes it’s as satisfying as you’d imagine. 100 mins.

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The Farewell ?

▶︎ Streaming on Prime Video

The Farewell is based in part on director Lulu Wang’s life. After finding out her grandmother — who she affectionately calls Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen) is terminally ill, Chinese-American writer Billie (Awkwafina) travels back home to China to say goodbye. Instead, though, her family hides the diagnosis from Nai Nai and creates an elaborate fake wedding to keep it from her. Here’s the trailer.

Zhao Shuzhen and Awkwafina in The Farewell. Image courtesy of A24.

Why it’s great: The Farewell is a movie of dichotomies — Chinese culture and American culture, parents and children, mourning and celebrating, youth and old age — that appropriately straddles the line between drama and comedy. Even during dramatic moments, it seems that there’s always something fun going on in the background to remind us that everything in the movie is based in love.

It’s so difficult to make the exploration of emotions and family strife entertaining, but director Lulu Wang was able to pull it off by avoiding the melodramatics and instead focusing on the characters, their experiences, and their relationships with each other. 100 mins. [Full review]

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The Half of It ?

▶ Streaming on Netflix

The Half of It, directed by Alice Wu, follows Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis), a straight-A student who helps her father with the bills by writing papers for other students. This is why she’s approached by sweet but hopeless jock Paul (Daniel Diemer) for help writing love letters to the school’s misunderstood it-girl Aster (Alexxis Leimer). While Alice and Paul’s friendship develops, so do Alice’s feelings for Aster. Thank you to Alison for the recommendation. I’ll send you my therapy bill. Here’s the trailer.

Leah Lewis and Alexxis Lemer in The Half of It. Images courtesy of Netflix.

Why it’s great: On the surface, The Half of It is a serviceable high school dramedy. However, at its core, it’s a sensitive character study of identity and how the town we grew up in shapes it, for better and worse. And though it only skims the surface of sexuality, it’s distinctly queer. The gaze is queer. The themes are queer. This is a movie that only a person that has experienced it could accomplish. And although it has all this complexity, it still has the moments of joy and levity we crave in a coming-of-age. However, those moments happen where — and between characters — we least expect them. This is a love story. But not between who you think.

There’s a chance The Half of It fades into the background of the multitudes of Netflix romantic comedies that are shuffled away in the mysterious algorithm. But I hope that the right audience sees it. It feels like a cliche now, but if I had seen this movie when I was a kid, I feel like the world would have been different for me. I’d see it differently. I’d understand myself and how to love differently. I’d understand that confusion is just a part of understanding. And that running after a train may look ridiculous, but that’s love. 105 mins. [Full review]

? P.S. You can see every movie I’ve ever recommended right here.
? I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic on Rotten Tomatoes! You can find new movie reviews here and here.

May 6, 2021
‘Wrath of Man’ delivers classic Jason Statham | movie review
In Wrath of Man, Jason Statham plays a mysterious stranger who joins an armored truck company with an undercover mission looking to seek revenge

Wrath of Man comes really close to being the loud dumb revenge action movie you want it to be. And even if it doesn’t get completely there, Jason Statham’s classic hero performance and the twisty plot keep you in the vault.

The best loud dumb action movies are the ones that realize they’re a loud dumb action movie. John Wick fueled three movies with its tongue-in-cheek approach to presenting its characters and story — and of course, some incredible action choreography. The moment I discovered Wrath of Man had the same realization is when Terry (Eddie Marsan) says about Jason Statham’s H, “I’m starting to think he’s a psychopath.”

Admittedly, Wrath of Man is nowhere near as subversive or innovative as the John Wick series. However, it does evoke a lot of the same feelings. In the genuinely thrilling opening scene, that we’ll see litigated several times throughout the film, two armed truck guards are driving the vehicle out of the holding facility to make a drop. From the inside of the truck in a single shot, we see them blocked by a cement truck and forced out as the robbers cut their way inside. We hear three gunshots before cutting to black.

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We’re then introduced to Patrick Hill (Statham) as he goes through the interview and vetting process to join a cash truck company responsible for moving hundreds of millions of dollars around Los Angeles each week. His supervisor Bullet (Holt McCallany) dubs him as “H” and shows him the ropes. H is proficient, but not perfect. In fact, he scores a 70 on all the assessments, just enough to pass. Little do his coworkers know, H has a secret agenda to joining the company which becomes clear when a job he’s on is the target of a robbery — the robbers include rapper Post Malone. H singlehandedly takes down every single assailant — and his warpath isn’t over.

Eventually, Wrath of Man reveals itself as a revenge movie through a series of flashbacks that are as thrilling as the movie’s first third. Though the action is more subdued, Statham’s stone-faced assassin character leaves you leaning into the screen. Director Guy Ritchie lets the world unfold before your eyes without explaining every single detail giving you time to be enveloped by the story and never giving you a moment to rest. Wrath of Man is a surprising success because it doesn’t necessarily do anything new. Statham is playing the exact character he’s known for playing — he even parodied it in Paul Feig’s Spy. However, Ritchie is a master at tone knowing exactly when to lean into action, drama, or the satirical elements of the story. Wrath of Man is a lean 120 minutes of pure fun that’ll even have you chuckling here and there.

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May 7, 2021
What to Stream Vol 1: Mad Max: Fury Road, Speed, The Mitchells vs. The Machines

Welcome to What to Stream, our weekly recommendation for movies streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, and HBO Max. Today’s theme: action.

Happy Thursday! Since my dad said I recommend too many sad and slow movies that “normal people” wouldn’t like, today’s recommendations are three thrilling, non-stop action movies featuring some stellar car chases. This was originally published in my weekly newsletter that helps readers know what to stream.

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In movie news: The Oscars were this Sunday and… they got weird. Nomadland led the field with 3 awards including Picture, Actress for Frances McDormand, and Best Director for Chloé Zhao — she’s the first woman of color and second woman ever to win the award. Here are my full thoughts.

Enjoy the beautiful weekend!

Mad Max: Fury Road ?

▶ Streaming on HBO Max

Mad Max: Fury Road finds us further into the post-apocalyptic wasteland where the original took place where a tyrannical ruler called Immortan Joe has taken four women as his prisoner wives. With the help of warrior Furiosa (Charlize Theron), wannabe soldier Nux (Nicholas Hoult), and a drifter named Max (Tom Hardy) they escape but quickly find themselves hotly pursued by an army. Here’s the trailer.

Why it’s great: Mad Max: Fury Road is one of my favorite Best Picture nominees of all time for its pure audaciousness. It is the fourth installment of a cult 80s post-apocalyptic action series that spent nearly a decade in development hell — yet, it feels like a fully realized magnum opus of an action movie.

From the opening shot, it immerses you in George Miller’s carefully crafted world and then immediately slams on the pedal and goes. Miller utilizes every cinematic tool available to him to take over your senses and completely control your perception of what is happening on screen giving you no choice but to get lost. 120 mins.

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Speed ?

▶︎ Streaming on HBO Max

One bus. One bomb. 50 mph. One Keanu. Speed follows police officer Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) who, along with passenger Annie (Sandra Bullock) has to prevent a mad bomber from blowing up a bus and killing those aboard by keeping it traveling at 50 mph. Here’s the trailer.

Why it’s great: Speed is the quintessential 90s action flick filled with corny dialogue, ridiculous stunts, a hilariously thin plot, and Keanu Reeves — but these are all the reasons it works so well.

Fueled by Keanu doing the thing that makes Keanu Keanu, Speed is an irresistibly fun and fast-paced action-thriller that is literally all gas, no brakes. Before the end, you’ll find yourself cheering for our heroes and saying “okay, we’ll have to base it on sex then.” 115 mins.

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The Mitchells vs. The Machines ?

▶ Streaming on Netflix (starting tomorrow)

The Mitchells vs. The Machines follows the eponymous Mitchells, your run-of-the-mill dysfunctional family on a road trip to bring daughter Katie (Abbi Jacobson) across the country to film school. During their trip, however, Mark Bowman (Eric Andre) a tech tycoon reminiscent of another Mark, unintentionally unleashes a robot apocalypse led by a Siri-like smart assistant called Pal (Olivia Colman). Finding themselves as the last humans left to save the planet, the Mitchells have to do something they’ve never done well: work together. Here’s the trailer.

Why it’s great: Produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller — best known for The Lego Movie and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse — The Mitchells vs. The Machines is a colorful and hilarious assault on the senses that functions perfectly as an action movie, family movie, comedy, and audacious exercise in animation.

Like the pair’s other films, The Mitchells constantly challenges and subverts what an animated movie can be while still being completely reverent and masterful. Basically, they punch you in the face with graphics and color and then put you in a chokehold with profound explorations of real issues we find in our relationships. However, unlike some other studios *cough* Pixar *cough* The Mitchells vs. the Machines is unapologetically for kids and it’s all the better for it. 113 minutes. Full review.

? P.S. You can see every movie I’ve ever recommended right here.
? I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic on Rotten Tomatoes! You can find new movie reviews here and here.

April 29, 2021
‘Golden Arm’ strikes gold | movie review
Golden Arm follows a down-on-her-luck baker is convinced by her college roommate to train for and compete an arm wrestling competition

Golden Arm is an irresistibly charming and funny tongue-in-cheek sports movie that overcomes its unevenness with a knockout lead performance by Mary Holland.

▶︎ Available to buy or rent

I first discovered Mary Holland last year in Clea DuVall’s Happiest Season, where she was the clear scene stealer as overlooked sister Jane. Her oddly charismatic deadpan style that always seemed to hit the exact hilariously self-deprecating note was hard to resist. But with Golden Arm, a new comedy from director Maureen Bharoocha, she trades her scene-stealing role for a lead one. And she… well she’s the golden arm.

Holland plays Melanie, a down-on-her-luck baker with a slimy ex-husband and an inability to stand up for herself. Sensing that she needs a change, her old college roommate Danny (Betsy Sodaro) convinces her to join in on a cross-country big rig delivery she’s making. However, Danny has ulterior motives. After losing an arm wrestling match to Brenda the Bone Crusher (Olivia Stambouliah, she wants to train Melanie to take her place in a tournament and take Brenda down.

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Along the way, Melanie has a Rocky-like training session with Big Sexy (the delightful Dot Marie Jones), a run-in with a very angry bar owner (Kate Flannery), and some touching moments with Danny about her recent divorce. That last point is a light thematic line throughout the film that gives it some meaning and development for Melanie making Golden Arm more than a fun satirical romp. While the movie’s plot feels familiar — and takes a while to find its footing — Holland’s endearing performance matched with Sodaro’s energetic one keeps you hooked and rooting for them both.

By the end, through some chuckles and genuinely heartwarming moments Golden Arm ends up greater than the sum of its parts. It manages to be a comedic feminist spin on the classic sports film by simply empowering its characters — and performers — to be all they can be. It’s a more than enjoyable 90 minutes that leave you charmed and smiling.

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May 4, 2021
‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ is a winning match | movie review
A quirky less-than-perfect family finds themselves as humanity’s last hope as robots take over the world in Netflix’s new animated film The Mitchells vs. The Machines

No one is doing animation quite like Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. From the pure audacious laugh-a-minute humor of The Lego Movie or the inventiveness — and reinventive-ness — of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, the pair constantly challenges and subverts what an animated movie can be while still being completely reverent and masterful. Basically, they punch you in the face with graphics and color and then put you in a chokehold with profound explorations of real issues we find in our relationships. However, unlike some other studios *cough* Pixar *cough* The Mitchells vs. the Machines is unapologetically for kids and it’s all the better for it.

The Mitchells are your run-of-mill dysfunctional family that aspiring filmmaker Katie (Abbi Jacobson) is eager to get away from as she goes to film school across the country in California. Her mother Linda (Maya Rudolph) tries to be supportive of her dream as she tries to keep the family together, but Katie’s father Rick (Danny McBride) can never seem to get the “supportive parent” role right. The relationship between Katie and Rick is a central throughline throughout the movie that shows an understanding of the psychology between parent and child so well. McBride’s vocal acting of a father trying not to assume he’s always right is priceless.

In an effort to patch things up, he takes it upon himself to plan a cross-country journey to take Katie to school — yeah that’s going to work. However, in the middle of their travels, tech tycoon Dr. Mark Bowman (Eric Andre) mistakenly causes a robot uprising led by a Siri-like personal assistant called Pal (Olivia Colman). Finding themselves as the last humans on Earth capable of stopping the apocalypse, the family, including dinosaur-obsessed younger son Aaron (director Mike Rianda), have to work together to shut Pal down. The movie’s then set out into an action-packed, color-splashed unrolling ball of hilarity that maintains its poignancy throughout.

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April 28, 2021
‘Wrong Turn’ is a slasher so right | movie review
A group of friends on a hiking trip on the Appalachian trail take a Wrong Turn and stumble upon a primitive society cut off from the modern world who are determined to use any mean necessary to keep outsiders out

Wrong Turn combines the pure genre thrills of early aughts slashers with more modern horror sensibilities to make a surprisingly satisfying folk horror romp.

There’s something so comforting about Wrong Turn. Wait. That sounds wrong when people are literally being killed and mutilated in the woods. I guess a more apt description is that it’s nostalgic. It’s comforting because it feels so familiar. The Wrong Turn franchise was a staple of the bad slasher series boom of the aughts that was mostly dominated by reboots of 80s films that removed everything that made them the genre so enjoyable to watch. However, with Mike P. Nelson at the helm directing from a screenplay by Alan B. McElroy — infamously known for writing Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and the original Wrong Turn — this iteration gets it just right.

Jen (Charlotte Vega), her boyfriend Darius (Adain Bradley), and their friends arrive in a small town in rural Virginia where they plan to start a hike on the Appalachian trail. Before they leave, they’re warned by local Nate (Tim de Zarn) to stick to the marked trails as the woods contain unseen dangers. Horror fans should recognize de Zarn as “the harbinger” in The Cabin in the Woods. You know, the man that is basically wearing a “you will die” sign as the hapless teenagers march towards their bloody fate. That would’ve come in handy for this group since they ignore his warning and… take a wrong turn off the trail.

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Unlike its previous installments, or most early aughts slashers, Wrong Turn isn’t afraid of a losing your attention. Nelson is patient as he slowly builds the dread-filled atmosphere with Stephen Lukach’s musical score. Even when after a giant log comes careening down the hill at the hikers sending them the clear signal that something is amiss, he allows the event to sink in and chill you. It feels more akin to a folk horror like The Descent or The Blair Witch Project.

It would be a disservice to spoil exactly what is going on in the woods, but the way that the screenplay retcons the original lore is effective and extremely entertaining, even if it’s somewhat clunky in its execution. The second act can’t meet the pure genre satisfaction of the first, but by the ending it’s all worth it. When Wrong Turn doesn’t try to have too much on its mind, it’s a horror nut’s dream movie filled with great scares, inventive kills, and just enough plot to stitch it all together. And its ending (and I truly mean the last 30 seconds) is so great that it’ll leave you more than satisfied.

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April 25, 2021
‘The Father’ is Anthony Hopkins’ greatest performance in decades — Sundance review
The Father puts you in the shoes of a man (Anthony Hopkins) suffering from dementia as he tries to figure out what his reality truly is

While Sundance has had a mixed track record in recent years as a platform to launch an Oscar contender, I have almost no doubt in my mind that Anthony Hopkins will receive a Best Actor nomination for his performance as the eponymous father Anthony in playwright Florian Zeller’s directorial debut The Father, which played in the Premieres section at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. It’s a rarity for an actor as esteemed as Hopkins to get another career-defining performance this late, but there’s no other way to describe it other than a tour-de-force and perhaps his greatest role to date.

Adapting from his own play Le Père, Zeller tells the story of Anthony (Hopkins), an elderly man who recently moved in with his daughter Anne (Oscar winner and overall lovely human Olivia Colman). For much of the beginning of the movie, it seems like a pretty standard drama about a man facing a deteriorating mental state as he deals with dementia — similar to Michael Haneke’s Amour, a film I adore. He’s forgetful and sometimes paranoid, particularly about his watch, which he believes his caretaker stole.

However, as the movie unfolds, it becomes clear that we’re watching it from Anthony’s perspective. It starts out slow at first, small changes in the environment, forgotten names or events. At one point his daughter tells him she’s moving to Paris to be with her new husband. The next, she’s still married to the man she’s always been with (Mark Gatiss). In the next, that man changes to a completely different person (Rufus Sewell).

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Zeller begins to play with the viewer in other ways. More than any movie about dementia I’ve seen in the past, it truly gives you the feeling of what it feels like to be in and out of lucidity. Suffering from dementia should feel like a horror movie and that’s what The Father achieves. Surprisingly, it’s the moments of clarity — if there ever truly is one — that are the most horrific. You’re never sure what reality actually is.

Hopkins’ is an emotional powerhouse whose empathetic performance is impossible to not completely give in to. While the movie, to its fault, sometimes feels a little too much like a play adapted to the screen, it feels like an honor to be front row to such a raw and emotive performance. Not once does it ring false. Brilliantly, you can see the man that Anthony once was beneath the confusion.

It’s difficult to make a movie about this subject matter move with so much rhythm. However, once The Father has you, it’s hard to fall out of its momentum. It may feel stagey at times, as movies based on plays often feel, but it almost works for the effect that Zeller is going for. The devastating final act is when you finally crash to reality and Anthony Hopkins delivers some of the greatest work I think I’ve seen on screen. It may be early, but one of your Oscar frontrunners is here.

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February 13, 2020
The Best Jake Gyllenhaal Movies (and where to stream them)
Jake Gyllenhaal, the Oscar-less powerhouse actor, has turned it iconic performance after performance in some of the greatest movies of the century. Here’s where to watch them.

Jake Gyllenhaal is arguably one of the greatest actors of his generation making his Oscar-less status a bit confounding. Nonetheless, he’s turned in some of the best performances of the 21st century in some beloved films. Even better, he rarely repeats a performance, so every movie is different. Here are some of our favorite Jake Gyllenhaal movies and where to stream them.

Zodiac ♌️

▶ Streaming on Prime Video

Zodiac tells the very true and very terrifying story of the infamous “Zodiac Killer,” who terrorized the San Francisco bay area in the late 1960s and early 70s. The movie follows three men obsessed with figuring out who the killer is: political cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), journalist Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.), and detective Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo). Here’s the trailer.

Jake Gyllenhaal in Zodiac. Courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

Why it’s great: I often cite Zodiac as my favorite David Fincher movie — although if you ask me any other day that might change. It’s a dark and menacing crime thriller on its surface like Se7en, mixed in with an investigative drama. But Fincher is doing a lot more when you dig deeper. It’s a disorienting story. He plays with time and place to confuse you and put you in the headspace of the characters. Those characters are complex and motivated to a fault — Gyllenhaal’s Graysmith is borderline obsessive. You realize then that this isn’t a police procedural. You’re not watching to solve the mystery — you’re watching to solve the characters. 162 mins.

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Enemy ?

▶︎ Streaming on Hulu

Enemy follows Adam Bell (Gyllenhaal) is a college professor living an unremarkable life. That is until he watches a movie and discovers one of the actors (also Gyllenhaal) looks exactly like him. He becomes obsessed with learning the identity of his doppelgänger, but what he finds is even crazier than he — and us — could imagine. Here’s the trailer.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Jake Gyllenhaal in Enemy. Courtesy of Hulu.

Why it’s great: Enemy is a puzzle that needs — and wants — to be solved. However, director Denis Villeneuve and screenwriter Javier Gullón don’t make it easy for you, which makes the movie so fun to watch over and over again. They’re careful to give you clues and hints — some obvious and some you have to work for — that will guide you to some conclusion. But the real joy of the movie is that everyone’s conclusion will be different. Gyllenhaal gives two of his best performances as very distinct characters that share some bond. Look out for the small inflections he uses to differentiate the two. It’s masterful. 90 mins.

Nightcrawler ?

▶ Streaming on Netflix

Nightcrawler is about perpetual hustler Lou Bloom (Gyllenhaal) and his endless pursuit for success. One night, after witnessing stringers—freelance video journalists—recording footage from a car accident he finds his new line of work. As he dives deeper into the L.A. underbelly of crime, he maybe becomes too involved in getting the story. Here’s the trailer.

Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler. Courtesy of Netflix.

Why it’s great: Nightcrawler takes clear inspiration from two of my favorite Martin Scorcese movies — The King of Comedy and Taxi Driver — but it’s careful to emulate and not imitate. Instead, Lou Bloom is a wholly original and terrifyingly compelling anti-hero. His extreme obsession with his new career is offset by the fact that he’s actually good at it—for all the wrong reasons. As he defies any moral standard to get his story, we watch almost helplessly as people around him become pawns in his game rather than actual humans. And while a lesser movie would mine that for pure horror, Nightcrawler asks whether or not that’s already happening anyway in our society.

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Okja ♌️

▶ Streaming on Netflix

In Okja, set in the not too distant future, The Mirando Corporation led by CEO Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton) announces that they’ve bred a new species that they’re dubbing a “super pig.” They send the pigs out to 26 different farmers to find the best way to raise them. One of those farmers is Mija’s (Ahn Seo-hyun) grandfather. The young girl forges a bond with their super pig who they name Okja. So, when the Mirando Corporation and their hired animal “expert” Johnny Wilcox (Jake Gyllenhaal) take Okja away, Mija goes on a globe-trotting adventure to save her friend. Here’s the trailer.

Why it’s great: To try and classify Okja would be a disservice to the movie. It’s as one of a kind of a film as they come — and that’s its greatest virtue. For this movie to work, it has to march to the beat of its own drum. That beat is a wonderfully unconventional movie that’s sometimes satire, sometimes dark comedy, but all heart. And like any great Bong Joon-ho movie — and there are a lot of them — the biggest success is its characters. From Tilda Swinton’s wonderfully camp Lucy Mirando to Paul Dano’s cool and calm animal right activist Jay to Ahn Seo-hyun’s quiet but tough Mija to Okja herself, just like the movie’s style they’re wonderfully off-kilter and colorful, making them a delight to watch. 120 mins.

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April 16, 2021
‘Alone Together’ finds Charli XCX at her most vulnerable | SXSW
Alone Together follows musician Charli XCX as she writes and records her album how i’m feeling now while under lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic

While working through the writing, producing, and release of her album how I’m feeling now, Charli XCX explores creativity, self-doubt, and connection in the age of the pandemic to great and surprisingly poignant effect in Alone Together.

Music documentaries that follow an artist’s creative process — Lady Gaga’s Five Foot Six or Taylor Swift’s Miss Americana come to mind — are meant to drive (or combat) a narrative that is put onto them. But with an almost blank slate to write in for her public persona, Charli XCX is able to do something completely unheard of: be herself.

Despite her mainstream success with singles like “Fancy” and “Boom Clap,” Charli XCX has become somewhat of an underground sensation. You can’t walk into a gay club without at least one of her tracks bumping out of the speakers. In letting go of her preconceived notions of success, Charli has found exactly that. She was on a roll in 2019 and early 2020 after a well-received fourth studio album sent her across the world on tour for thousands of fans. Full disclosure: I was one of those fans in New York.

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However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, like everyone else she was under lockdown in her home in Los Angeles. When the film begins, she already made the decision to do the impossible: write, record, and release her fourth album in under five weeks. The album would be called how i’m feeling now and she commits to capturing the entire process along with her two managers and boyfriend Huck.

What makes Alone Together such a successful documentary is that it isn’t trying to capture Charli’s career as a whole or explain the essence of who she is off the stage as Charlotte Emma Aitchison is. The film captures a specific moment of time and all the very raw and intimate feelings she encountered during it. From her self-hatred and doubt to her trepidation about the future of her relationship and frustrations during the creative process.

Though there are moments that feel too Gen Z to be genuine, the end result is powerful and profound because Charli anchors the whole film in her psyche. You come away knowing more about the musician, but more importantly you see her doing what we all have been doing this year: finding ways to cope. In that case, Alone Together is a more than apt title.

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March 18, 2021
Hulu’s ‘WeWork’ documentary isn’t a disaster, and that’s the problem | SXSW review
WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn is a step by step telling of how Adam Neumann founded a company so big it was bound to fail

While the rise and fall of WeWork is an interesting enough fable to fuel Hulu’s WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn for some time, it’s not a spectacular enough disaster to be anything more than a rundown of facts.

WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn is just one of the many films attempting to chronicle the age-old story of humans and their misguided belief that they’re too big and too important to fail. Most notably, Netflix and Hulu’s dueling Fyre Festival documentaries — Fyre and Fyre Fraud, respectively — offered two different approaches to telling the tale of overinflated ego and the gloriously entertaining burst that follows.

Netflix’s Fyre approaches the subject almost as a true-crime documentary by giving us the breadcrumbs — with a suspenseful atmosphere — that eventually led to disaster. On the other hand, Hulu’s Fyre Fraud was a satirical comedy of errors that took a social media angle to the Fyre disaster. Both have their merits — though Netflix’s film is more successful — because their angle on the subject is clear. WeWork, on the other hand, tries to piece together the best of both approaches but ends up feeling less than the sum of its parts.

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Just like the title tells us, the movie begins with the making of WeWork. It gives us the background of New York City’s cutthroat real estate market, founder Adam Neumann’s early years in the US after immigrating from Israel, and how the idea of a futuristic coworking space would come to life. We follow the early development years that those of us that have worked in a startup knows all too well — long hours, impossible deadlines, and stretch resources. But the team did it.

However, the one thing missing from the narrative is Chekov’s gun, a narrative concept that presupposes that if a story element is introduced in the first act (ex. A pistol hanging on the wall), then it has to come into play in the second act (ex. Firing the pistol). WeWork doesn’t tell us exactly what is going to lead to the downfall. If anything, it does a lot of work to tell us why WeWork *will* work instead of why it won’t.

There are perhaps flashes of it. A throughline in the first half is Neumann’s pushback at the categorization of a real estate company. “It’s a community,” he’d reply. Another bit of foreshadowing involves Neumann’s wife Rebekah, Gwyneth Paltrow’s cousin — a fact she points out frequently as one former employee notes, and her surprising amount of control over the business. However, neither thread payoff.

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WeWork’s flaw that it devotes precisely the wrong amount of time to both the “making” and “breaking” of the business without intermingling the two. What made the Fyre or even something like The Social Network so compelling is they give you the signs that point to the imminent failure. Instead, WeWork does exactly what Neumann does: sell us the vision.

However, when the movie moves to the downfall of why his vision doesn’t work, it feels like it’s telling us rather than showing. And because of that, it’s never as entertaining or biting as your want it to be. Perhaps it’s because the story of WeWork isn’t as much of a spectacular disaster as the Fyre festival and Neumann isn’t as intriguing of a figure as Billy McFarland or Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos fame.

For those not familiar with WeWork’s downfall, the documentary is a more than serviceable Wikipedia entry to catch you up. However, if you followed the news, the WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn doesn’t add as much color to the story as one might have hoped. If you already knew that WeWork was a highly expensive train barrelling towards an unfinished bridge, then you already know the story.

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Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter and Letterboxd. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.

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March 17, 2021