Author Archives: Ron

About Ron

I like to watch movies and share my thoughts on them. I have been writing reviews and distributing them since 2013.

Strawberry Mansion

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Strawberry Mansion       5 suns

One of the weirdest full length films I have seen at Sundance has to be Strawberry Mansion. It is a most bizarre blend of the world of dreams with a very odd future as envisioned by the filmmakers. A dream tax auditor arrives at an elderly woman’s house for the purpose of reviewing her years of recorded dreams so that the required tax can be levied, since this is what you do in the future. The woman, Bella in alone and lonely so insists that the tax man stay and have treats like a strawberry ice cream and have dinner. The tax man views some of Bella’s dreams that feature her as a young woman. He also has his own dreams that always seem to involve ads for fried chicken and other products. (There is a lot of fried chicken in this movie!) It is only through Bella that the man learns the real reason for the ads as the two of them travel through a bizarre and colorful journey to strange lands and odd creatures (such as sailor rats and a blue demon). The amount of imagination and work that the two filmmakers put in will amaze you. This was a film that has been many years in the making. It’s only about an hour and a half long, but there is quite a story packed in that time. I thought it was one of the best I’ve seen.

The Pink Cloud

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The Pink Cloud                  4 suns

In The Pink Cloud a young couple, Giovana and Yago who have just met are forced to live together in a city apartment in Brazil after the world has suddenly been enveloped by a deadly pink cloud that can kill almost instantly. The two can only communicate with others through their laptops and phones and have to order food and supplies shipped to them through tubes. The circumstances lead them to starting their own family and raising a son which goes on for several years. The interesting thing is how one of them adjusts well to the involuntary confinement and isolation while the other faces a level of anxiety that puts stress on the relationship. There are some interesting games played with neighbors through the apartment windows! The film was written and filmed well before the pandemic so it’s interesting how some of the character’s experiences are the same as what we have been going through. The filmmakers said that the only change they made was in the news casts changing from a cloud covering only Brazil to one covering the whole world. I have to give a big hand to the actors that carried out this job and made the movie believable and realistic.

One for the Road

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One for the Road              4 ½ suns

The road trip romance One for the Road from Thailand was quite a pleasant surprise. Set in New York city and Thailand, Boss, a young Thai bar owner in New York gets a call from his long time friend, Aood who has cancer and doesn’t have long to live. He wants Boss to come back to Thailand to help him see his former girlfriends one last time so he can return something to each one. It then becomes a road trip with the two of them making the journey to each very reluctant girlfriend. Through flashbacks we gradually get more of the story of the past relationships, with each encounter having an American pop song to go along with it. Eventually, the story gets even more interesting as we find out more about the past and the secrets begin to come out. I was very curious about how it would turn out in the end. This is a topnotch romance drama out of director Baz Poonpiriya, who may be new to directing. (Have not heard of him before.) The performances are all excellent as well. See it if you get the chance.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

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Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning                            4 ½ stars

It has been two years since we last saw Ethan Hunt in multiple struggles against the bad guys and performing death defying acts of bravery as he once again fights to save mankind from extinction. That was in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, starring Tom Cruise in the seventh film of the long running franchise. Now in the eighth and presumably final film, the 62-year-old super action star steps up one more time to rescue the world. But not before we get multiple montages from the previous films showing endless fight scenes, spectacular stunts, previous cast members of his team, villains and love interests and all those disguises. You may recall that there was an AI being called “The Entity” that escaped from a Russian submarine and found residence in the servers throughout the world, and in the process sank the submarine. On the submarine is a hard drive containing the source code of The Entity that would allow the owner to control it, but only if they have the physical key that will allow access. The Entity has also earned a following of thousands of fanatics that will do its bidding. Plus, it seeks to sow discord and keep us divided making it a possible future Republican political candidate. Among them is Gabriel (Esai Morales) who wants to control The Entity for himself but needs Hunt to get the hard drive for him. In the earlier movie Ethan Hunt managed to obtain the key from Gabriel but now needs the cooperation of the US government to get to the sunken submarine so he can recover the hard drive and disable The Entity. Oh, and I should mention that The Entity is in the process of taking control of all the nuclear arsenals in the world so that it can launch the weapons and annihilate mankind because people are the main problem of the world in the mind of the AI being. Complicating things further is the aim of the government to control The Entity itself, while Hunt believes no one should control it as that would be too much power for anyone to hold. It is a race against time as the US president (Angela Bassett) may order a nuclear strike against all the nuclear control centers of the world before The Entity can get control of the US weapons, but that would kill millions of people. The hope is that Ethan Hunt’s impossible mission against The Entity will succeed in time, (because Hunt always disobeys orders, but he always gets the job done). There are many familiar faces that you will recognize from previous films that I won’t list here. Now, if you don’t understand all of that, that’s OK. Just enjoy all the prolonged fight scenes and improbable stunts in hostile environments that should kill Hunt but don’t just like all the previous Mission: Impossible movies. It’s a great way to spend nearly three hours of your time in a movie theater, especially since after nearly thirty years this is reputedly the final film of the Mission: Impossible series.

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

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Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris               4 stars

2022’s Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, directed by Anthony Fabian, is about as light a movie as they come while being completely charming. Starring Lesley Manville (who commanded her role in Queer last year) as Ada Harris, a middle-aged housekeeper for wealthy clientele, it is like a fairy tale for older women. The movie is based on a novel and is set in 1950’s London. Mrs. Harris is kind, does her work diligently and likes to spend time with her friends (Ellen Thomas and Jason Isaacs). One day at the house of one of her employer’s she spies a genuine Christian Dior dress and falls in love with it, but it is like a dream that can never be realized. Later, Harris, whose husband was killed in the war, suddenly comes into some money and there is no doubt what she must do. Fly to Paris and buy one of those Christian Dior dresses! She charms her way into a Paris Dior fashion show where she is very out of place with the high society crowd but manages none the less to form friendships with company employees and acquaintances of Christian Dior while butting heads with the boss (Isabelle Huppert). There are a few bumps along the way as she manages to buy the dress, lose it and then get it back again. But the charm comes into it as she performs selfless acts for those around her, making their lives better, as well as changing the course of the company, Christian Dior. It’s all very light-hearted and unlikely and a pleasant break from the serious dramas, horror and action movies I’ve seen lately. You won’t be disappointed.

Sinners

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Sinners                 5 stars

Ryan Coogler’s new movie, Sinners, about vampires invading a small rural Black town in 1930’s Mississippi, defies genre. While it certainly is a horror movie, it is also a gangster movie and a musical featuring an assortment of Blues numbers with varying styles. It’s hard to believe that this is only Coogler’s fifth time directing, previously directing Creed, two Black Panther movies from the Avengers universe and Fruitvale Station. This time it is in a setting he truly makes his own and is something that could only be made by Coogler. And it is also the fifth time he has featured Michael B. Jordan in a prominent role; this time actually making it two roles with Jordan playing twin brothers, Smoke and Stack. The pair were gangsters in Chicago having acquired a fortune during prohibition, and before that were soldiers in World War I, but now they have returned to their hometown and plan to open a juke joint and make more money. The pair are unsavory, certainly and won’t hesitate to hurt someone who crosses them. Smoke is the serious one of the two, while Stack is more flamboyant. The twins buy an old sawmill from a white man, paying cash, being assured that the Ku Klux Klan is a thing of the past, words that will haunt them later in the film. They link up with Sammie (Miles Caton), a young preacher’s kid who is a master Blues player on the guitar and will play a major part in the events to follow. The brothers reunite with a number of the townsfolk they knew from before and it is clear there is a long history at play here, especially with the women that includes Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) and Annie (Wunmi Wosaku). The recruiting of musicians, cooks and patrons for the evening’s entertainment takes a good hour of the movie during which we get a taste of the music of the time. It’s apparent to me that the Blues figures highly in Ryan Coogler’s background. It is only after the party starts that we get a hint at the bloodbath that is to come. But first we get a massive display of the music and dancing created here where we see figures from beyond the present dating back to old African culture and future entertainment with musicians on electric guitars and DJs. After the first of the vampires arrives at the venue, it occurred to me that this resembled Quentin Tarantino’s and Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn, the vampire movie from the nineties. As the action filled killing progresses, the characters are not sure who they can trust and suspicions fall on those who were previously close. This was a familiar element that I remember from John Carpenter’s The Thing, when a blood test was used to clear the suspects. Here the act is the forced eating of garlic, a plant fatal to vampires. Everything leads to a final confrontation that leaves few survivors. Not only is Sinners easily the best horror film of the year so far, it gives us an impressive collection of cultures that were a part of the South in the 1930’s including Black, Chinese, native American’s and Irish. I don’t know how long Coogler worked on this soon to be classic, but he certainly had a lot to say. Be sure that you stay all of the way through the credits and don’t miss the multiple endings.

Empire of Light

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Empire of Light                  3 ½ stars

Empire of Light by director Sam Mendez (who is better known for 1917 and the James Bond films) is an old-fashioned romance movie about a love that is not meant to be. This movie is about a small group of people who work in a once grand movie theater on the southern coast of England in the early 1980’s. The theater still attracts customers, but it clearly has seen better days as parts of the building have fallen into decay and lack of use. There we meet one of the employees, Hilary (the award-winning Olivia Colman), a middle-aged woman who does some of the theater’s menial tasks and has some hints of mental issues. The other employees are considerably younger than Hilary, other than the projectionist, an interesting older man (played by Toby Jones). Hilary is in an abusive relationship with the manager, Mr. Ellis (a detestable Colin Firth) who routinely asks her for sessions of sex on demand. One day a new employee is hired there. He is Stephen (Michael Ward), a young black man in his early 20’s. Since this is the eighties and tolerance isn’t really a thing yet, the area is plagued with gangs of young skinheads who like to beat up on black men, so Stephen has plenty to deal with. It seems natural that he and Hilary would soon become better acquainted, but things can’t be maintained given these circumstances. Even so, seeing what Stephen is going through gives Hilary the courage to stand up to the abusive Ellis in dramatic fashion. The film moves rather slowly at times but gives us a deeper understanding of the characters in the story. It is quite a departure from Mendez’ more popular works. The movie was nominated for Best Cinematography in 2023, which is well deserved.

Burden

Burden                 3 stars

I Missed Burden at Sundance 2018 as it was a hard ticket to get and was an award winner at the festival. Then somehow it wasn’t released to theaters until 2020. Burden is a true story about a poor white man, Mike Burden (Garrett Hedlund), raised on the hatred toward blacks so prevalent in the South. Mike serves the KKK in the small town of Laurens, South Carolina and works as a repo man for a small rent to own company. In both roles he works for Tom Griffin (Tom Wilkinson) who is the Grand Dragon of the local KKK chapter and to whom he regards as a father. Griffin, who preaches white supremacy and violence, has acquired the local dilapidated movie theater in town and turned it into his dream, a museum to the KKK called The Redneck Museum, where the exploits of the Klan such as lynching and cross burnings are glorified. The town has a substantial black population so the museum soon catches the attention of Rev. David Kennedy (Forest Whitaker) who leads protests against the racist museum but in a peaceful manner, in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.  Kennedy still honors his uncle who was lynched by the Klan decades earlier. Then we follow the challenges that Mike faces when he starts seeing Judy (Andrea Riseborough from 2018’s Nancy and 2020’s gorefest, Possessor), a dirt poor single mother who does not approve of Mike’s involvement with the KKK. The movie gives us a picture of the hatred and violence that blacks continue to receive, but this has been done so often in movies before. (See Blackkklansman) The movie is set in the 1990’s so what I don’t see is a representation of the much more subtle forms of racism that are common today. Think of Charlottesville, 2017 and the treatment blacks get from some white police officers. The acting is very good. Hedlund was made for this kind of role, a head strong uneducated white southerner redneck (see also On the Road and Mudbound). I thought the movie didn’t give us enough reason to believe his transformation that led to him leaving the Klan. Though the movie is based on a true story, it has a predictable feel to it. Burden is worth seeing but I wouldn’t call it an award winner.

First Cow

First Cow                             4 ½ stars

Kelly Reichardt’s new film First Cow opens with a quote, “The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship”, that tells you what the movie is all about. Set in 1820’s Oregon territory it is about the unlikely friendship between soft-spoken cook Cookie (John Magaro) and the ambitious, shady Chinese immigrant King Lu (Orion Lee). I must really like this director since this is now the fifth movie of hers I have seen, and I have enjoyed each one. (See Certain Women, Night Moves, Meek’s Cutoff and Wendy and Lucy.) The pair meet in unusual circumstances at a small settlement with many interesting characters and team up out of necessity and concoct a small business adventure that earns attention. The setting is quite different from other movies of the period as the drudgery and grime of daily life is emphasized over more dramatic events. The movie is an adaptation of the book The Half-Life by Johnathan Raymond but only uses a portion of the story and still keeps it interesting. Much of the film occurs in darkness and it is done in 4:3 screen format which gives the film a very intimate feel. The story progresses very slowly so the viewers who give up on movies in the first half hour will likely be disappointed. The use of period music and instruments also helps put the viewer in that time period. No one could have guessed that the making of buttermilk biscuits would be used so effectively as a plot point. Star Trek fans will appreciate what was likely the final on screen appearance of Rene Auberjonois. And Toby Jones does a perfect job as wealthy Englishman, Chief Factor. First Cow is a real gem from the year 2020.

Crimson Peak

Crimson Peak                    2 ½ stars

Crimson Peak, a gothic horror movie, was written and directed by Guillermo del Toro who brought us such master works as The Shape of Water and Pan’s Labyrinth. Although the movie is filled with striking visions, elaborate sets and outstanding costumes and camerawork, the story just doesn’t match up to his other works. Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska of Alice in Wonderland and Piercing (and whom I saw in person at Sundance)), the daughter of a wealthy businessman in 1890’s New York has an unusual interest in ghosts and likes to write ghost stories. She is swept away by the visiting Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston of Thor movies, Avengers movies etc. and I Saw the Light), an English inventor and baronet, and quickly agrees to marry him and go to live with him and his sister in England. The sister, Lucille (a sinister Jessica Chastain of The Tree of Life, Zero Dark Thirty and Molly’s Game) obviously has less than trustworthy intensions toward her new family member. In England the scene shifts to one of the most elaborate and creepy haunted mansions seen out of Hollywood. It is immense with long corridors and underground chambers that hold old secrets. It also has a decaying roof, is full of moths and is built on a field of red clay that gives the structure its red color that seems to symbolize blood. Edith’s gift of seeing ghosts leads to her horrifying visions of blood covered spirits that both terrify her and give her clues about what the more human demons have in store for her. The movie is great to look at, but I didn’t find the story to be anything special. For more interesting horror movies check out Relic or Amulet or even The Rental. You could also go back and see del Toro’s The Shape of Water for a real treat.