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.

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain                      5 stars

The animated film Little Amélie or the Character of Rain co-directed by Mailys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han is short and simply drawn but presents a complex story of self-realization by a toddler. It is based on the writings of Amélie Northomb about her own life growing up in Japan. The story is set in 1970’s Japan where a Western family is living with their three children. The father is a Belgian diplomat. Amélie is the baby and is completely noncommunicative with the family, but she has a wild imagination as described by the narrator. She sees herself as God but is set apart from humanity. Or she sees herself as a tube, something that food passes through without changing. It isn’t until she is two and a half years old when her grandmother from Belgium visits and gives her some chocolate that she finally connects with the family and can immediately speak in complete sentences. (Her first word is vacuum cleaner.) She likes their Japanese housekeeper, Nishio-san the most, who introduces her to Japanese customs and the idea that Amélie’s name means rain. She becomes fascinated by rain and sea creatures, something that leads to a dangerous situation when she wanders off on her own. Even though Amélie is a Westerner, she sees herself as Japanese preferring the company of Nishio-san over her own family. Later though, she learns of the suffering caused by the war and the resentment of the Japanese landowner toward white people, but she is incapable of understanding such complex issues. The animation is done with few colors and without defined lines, preferring a fuzzy look in a minimalist style. The movie gives us some idea of how a toddler might see the world around them, doing all this in only 78 minutes. The movie is up for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award.

Brittany Runs a Marathon

Brittany Runs a Marathon            4 stars

Brittany Runs a Marathon is the new starring vehicle for comic actress Jillian Bell who I have seen previously in several movies always in supporting roles.  Here she is Brittany, a young woman in New York City who is facing issues of low self esteem mainly due to her weight and physical appearance.  She gets to know a neighbor in the building, Catherine (Michaela Watkins) who is a runner so she decides to join her running group, then meeting Seth (Micah Stock) who is also clearly out of shape also, so they have that in common.  Of course there are several comedic scenes of these two struggling to complete short distances that comes so easily to the other runners.  Then at the same time Brittany has to deal with her roommate Gretchen, who is of course petite and beautiful and Jern, the young Indian man who she shares house sitting duties with.  Then there is also Brittany’s sister and her husband, Demetrius, who are there to offer encouragement through her difficulties.  The trio, Brittany, Catherine and Seth decide to train to enter the New York City Marathon so this serves as the back drop to all of the relationship issues going on in Brittany’s life.  The movie succeeds due to the acting and comic timing by Bell who finally has her starring role in a movie.  I have not read any interviews with her but she clearly goes through an amazing transformation during the movie losing over thirty pounds from beginning to end.  Among all the comedic situations, the movie delivers a clear message about allowing others to be a part of one’s life and not shutting people out.  This is actually the second movie this year that paired Bell and Watkins.  The two also appear together in Sword of Trust which was out just a few weeks ago.  Jillian Bell also made appearances in Bridesmaids, Rough Night and Office Christmas Party.  Brittany Runs a Marathon was a hit at Sundance earlier this year where I first heard about it.

Mary Poppins Returns

Mary Poppins Returns   3 1/2 stars

I finally got to see last year’s Mary Poppins Returns, the long overdue sequel to the original Mary Poppins from the sixties starring Julie Andrews.  This time around it is Emily Blunt taking on the title role, a daunting task that she lives up to very well, capturing the personality and always in control attitude of the magical nanny.  This time she is back to take care of the new Banks family with young Michael (Ben Whishaw) who is widowed and Jane (Emily Mortimer) all grown up and in a crisis as Michael’s own employer is about to foreclose on the family house.  Mary takes the three children on some thrilling adventures through animated lands much like in the original movie and finds time to rescue the family from their troubles.  It is also fun to see Lin-Manuel Miranda as the always smiling and cheerful lamplighter, Jack and Dick Van Dyke in a brief special role as the owner of the bank.  There also memorable appearances by Meryl Streep, Colin Firth and Angela Lansbury.  It is very tough to be compared to such a masterpiece as Mary Poppins, a movie I loved watching repeatedly as a child.  The musical numbers may not be quite up to the level of the creations that made the original movie so memorable.  The tunes don’t stick with me the way they did, but then I’m not a nine year old anymore.  Maybe today’s kids will find Mary Poppins Returns to be as enchanting as the original seemed to me way back then.

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights          2 stars

Director Emerald Fennell gives us a very different take on the gothic novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte by casting two of the hottest stars working in Hollywood today in the leading roles. I have never seen any of the many previous adaptations of the novel nor have I read the book. I only know that it has a reputation as a tragic love story. But I doubt that Bronte envisioned her story to be nearly as steamy as portrayed on the screen here. Previously, Fennell, the actor turned director brought us Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, two movies that combine revenge themes with sex and she continues that theme in Wuthering Heights. This movie has a lot of sex. And I mean a lot of sex! And it’s not just the two main characters either. Even the opening scene is very suggestive of what is to come. In the beginning we meet Catherine (Charlotte Mellington) as a twelve-year-old living with her father (Martin Clunes of Shakespeare in Love and Nativity 3: Dude, Where’s My Donkey?) in a large, isolated, but decaying house in the countryside called Wuthering Heights. Living with them is another girl, Nelly, who serves as a companion for Catherine, but also as a servant. They have other servants too, so they’re not exactly poor. One day, father brings a young boy home with him as he couldn’t stand seeing him wandering the streets with no one to care for him. Catherine takes to him immediately, calling him Heathcliff (Owen Cooper of Adolescence), the name of her dead brother. But Father thinks nothing of beating and whipping Heathcliff when he doesn’t live up to expectations. We flash forward several years and find Catherine (Margot Robbie of Barbie and The Wolf of Wall Street) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi of Frankenstein and Saltburn), now in their thirties and still living with her father along with a grown Nelly (Hong Chau). Things have changed and now they are quite poor, the father having gambled away his money. Catherine and Heathcliff (represented as two of the most perfect specimens of humans) now look at each other quite differently and you can see that things will soon take a turn. When a new neighbor moves to the area (five miles away), Catherine investigates and meets Mr. Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif), who is fabulously wealthy, has an enormous estate, and very stylish clothes, carriages and servants. There is also a young woman, Isabella, living with him who we never find out exactly how they are related. Naturally, since Catherine is poor, she must marry Edgar for the benefit of the family even though she is madly in love with Heathcliff. And this is where things go awry and jealousy takes over all sense of right and wrong. Both Catherine and Heathcliff make it their purpose to get revenge on each other for their circumstances but still end up meeting secretly repeatedly for sessions of mad sex. And they do it a lot, with most of it in the rain it seems. There is plenty of ill will and jealousy spread around between them and every other character as well. In fact, I would say that there is not a single character in the movie with redeeming qualities. Everyone wants to cause harm to someone or even themselves. The contrast between the two families is greatly exaggerated, showing Edgar’s extravagant wealth and Catherine’s beautiful clothes and jewels versus the dirty unkept look of the Wuthering Heights house. Not only is the selfish nature of the characters disturbing, all the rain and the fog make everything about the film depressing. I suppose that that’s what Fennell was going for, but I couldn’t enjoy it. I can’t say if that’s what Bronte’s original novel is like. (Perhaps it was, but without all the sex.) I will point out that most of the music was written and performed by Charlie XCX so it has that going for it.

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Avatar: Fire and Ash        3 stars

As incredible as it sounds it has now been seventeen years since James Cameron brought us Avatar, his spectacular CGI-3D movie about the blue-skinned inhabitants of a distant planet called Pandora and the efforts of humans to dominate and exploit it for its natural resources. The humans developed a technology that allowed them to blend in with the alien race in copies of their bodies. Then in 2022, came Avatar: The Way of Water, which followed a family of the Na’vi race who flee from their own tribe and come to live with the Metkayina, another tribe that has a close relationship with the sea and the creatures that dwell there. Both movies were noted for their colorful and overwhelming special effects using body capture technology and their tales of exploitation of native cultures by a technologically superior race in the search for valuable resources (an indictment of corporate greed). Cameron’s latest incarnation, Avatar: Fire and Ash continues the story, with most of the same characters and the same astounding special effects of the first two films. We follow Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), the fearless Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and their family through family drama, their dealings with their Metkayina hosts, adventures with some incredible animal inhabitants and the inevitable conflict with their human pursuers, who seem to never learn from their past experiences. Meanwhile, Jake’s enemy, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), has not given up on tracking down Jake, who he regards as a traitor for “going native”. (You may remember that Jake and Quaritch were both humans who now inhabit Na’vi bodies, able to breathe the air of Pandora that is toxic to humans.) The movie feels like it has little to add to the story, featuring much of the same conflicts and action that we’ve seen before despite its three and a quarter hour running time. One very notable addition though is the villain, Varang, who leads her tribe, the Mangkwan, who prey on the vulnerabilities of other Na’vi tribes and steal whatever things of value they can find. Varang is ruthless and smart as well, able to adapt to new situations. It doesn’t take long for her to see the value in allying herself with the vengeful Quaritch. Oona Chaplin is perfect for the role of this native leader. (Chaplin is the granddaughter of the legendary Charlie Chaplin.) Overall, this third iteration seems like more of the same including the relentless greed of the humans and the spirituality of the native Na’vi. Of course, the movie did not need to be nearly this long. The word is that James Cameron is planning on two more movies in this series (each probably over three hours). I feel that the story has been played out and it is time to move on to something else. We will see if he follows through on this plan.
 

Little

Little                      3 stars

For a film on the light side you can see Little, a comedy produced by and starring teen actor Marsai Martin from Black-ish.  Jordan Sanders (Regina Hall) runs her own company and is a tyrant in doing so.  Her employees including assistant April (Issa Rae) are run ragged trying to satisfy Jordan’s wishes.  That is until a little girl uses her magic powers to turn Jordan into her thirteen year old self (Marsai Martin) putting her back in middle school.  As fantastic as this turn of events seems it doesn’t take long for the characters to accept it as the new reality.  Despite being so young again Jordan still seems to see the world through her adult eyes and strives to manipulate people into doing her bidding.  The film certainly has its funny moments and some great music, but the story is unconvincing.

The Goldfinch

The Goldfinch    2 ½ stars

The Goldfinch is the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning book of the same name about Theodore, a boy who suffers through the death of his mother in a terrorist attack on the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  There is a lot to pack in to this story in two and a half hours, but the story unfolds very slowly before certain secrets are revealed.  The film has several time jumps as the story goes from the time the boy is a teenager being cared for by his mother’s saintly friend (Nicole Kidman) and his uncaring father (Luke Wilson) and then to Theodore as a young man (Ansel Elgort) working with an antiques dealer (Jeffrey Wright).  The movie takes an extremely long time for the story to come together and it hits us again and again with its symbolism such as the red headed girl Theo is fascinated with.  If you watch this one don’t do it too late at night or it may put you to sleep long before reaching the end.

Judy

Judy       4 ½ stars

The highly anticipated biopic Judy features Renee Zellweger as the doomed singer-actress Judy Garland in her final months before she died.  This is truly a showcase of Zellweger’s talents as she clearly captures the decline of the health and stature of one of America’s greatest talents.  Those who remember Garland from the sixties will find Zellweger’s approach to the role as remarkable as she is engulfed by the character.  I am so glad that the story was not the usual biopic piece that covers a performer’s entire career, but rather only focuses on a brief period of Garland’s life, that being the London tour she went on in 1969 only six months before she died of a barbiturate overdose.  This allows us to see what feels like a complete story that doesn’t jump over large periods of time.  It also allows the supporting characters to have parts that blend in with the story.  There are flashbacks to Garland’s early years as a child star under the control of the studio headed by Louis B. Mayer.  These scenes are meant to show how she had no childhood as her personal life blends into her onscreen performances including how she was given amphetamines to keep her energy up.  The movie is not all tragedy though as the viewer will be delighted to see her with adoring fans and to see a moving rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow near the end of the movie.  A near certainty is that Renee Zellweger will be expected to take home the Best Actress Academy Award next year.

The Moment

The Moment     4 stars

For the first Sundance movie to be seen by me after the festival, I found The Moment now showing in theaters and starring Charlie XCX. This mockumentary about the British pop singer has her playing a fictionalized version of herself during the summer of 2024. It seems to be modeled after the Rob Reiner Spinal Tap movies that mocked the behind-the-scenes events around rock music. The Moment does this for pop music and for a much younger audience. It starts with the release of the star’s hit album and her desire to extend the “brat” summer indefinitely as she prepares to go on tour. The “mockumentary” camera follows her and her crew, her friends, her manager and the record label executives as they plan for the opening concert and the rehearsals. Key figures in the process are Charlie XCX’s artistic director Celeste (Hailey Gates) and a documentary director, Johannes (Alexander Skarsgard), filming the fictional meetings and the preparations for the tour. Much like This is Spinal Tap, the film captures some of the ludicrous aspects of the entertainment industry and shows how the egos of the various parties interfere with the project, including rather passive aggressive behavior on the part of the big shots. Included is a ridiculous plan to market “brat” credit cards to a subculture of LGTBQ+ fans that includes free tickets to her concert. Charlie XCX reserves some of the ridicule for herself as she tries to control the project while at the same time sabotaging it. Skarsgard is excellent as the two-faced film director who is shown as both cooperating in the creative process but is also power hungry as he questions the choices made by others. The behavior of the creative talent is the most amusing aspect as they try to stay on the good side of Charlie XCX, while trying to get their own way at the same time. And like in This is Spinal Tap, when things fall apart, they do whatever it takes to put the blame on someone else. While The Moment was not nearly as funny as the Spinal Tap movies, I frequently found myself laughing out loud.

The Secret Agent

The Secret Agent             5 stars

A favorite genre of mine is the political thriller and if you share this feeling, you should not miss Kleber Mendonca Filho’s extraordinary movie The Secret Agent. The setting is 1977 southern Brazil, a time of extreme authoritarianism and oppression that feels appropriate for today. Early on we meet Marcelo (Wagner Moura of Civil War and Dope Thief) who is driving a bright yellow VW Beetle through desolate country and stops at an isolated gas station to buy gas. There is a dead body that has been lying on the ground for days with the attendant explaining that he tried to rob the place and got what he deserved. They are still waiting for the police, but the police have their hands full as Carnivale is in full swing. (It is mentioned that there have been 91 deaths reported during Carnivale so far.) When police car does show up, they are only interested in trying to shake down Marcelo for some cash. This movie packs a lot in its 2-hour, 41-minute runtime. There are corrupt cops that engage in killings and disposal of bodies (and body parts), a loose knit organization that protects people in trouble by hiding them and giving them new identities, discoveries of body parts inside the stomachs of sharks, a corrupt businessman who will let no one stand in the way of his greed, a pair of professional hitmen and a mysterious dismembered “hairy leg” that attacks people in a park. What I really like about the movie is the way the story is told. The characters are introduced slowly, and we don’t get much background to start with. Marcelo finds a room to stay, in a house belonging to an old woman who seems to have a lot of connections. He has a young son who is staying with the boy’s grandparents. Other characters are introduced, such as the corrupt police chief, but we don’t know how they are related to Marcelo. Eventually, we learn more using flashbacks and learn that Marcelo was a researcher at a company with government funding. The pacing starts out very slowly, but builds as the characters are developed and the relationships become clearer. Finally, the tension rises to a fever pitch as the paths of the characters finally cross. But that is not enough. The director has added scenes at the end that take place decades later that deliver the message that time does not heal all wounds. This is the way a good thriller is supposed to be made. A nice tough is seeing how communication was done in the age before cell phones and the internet. Everything was land lines and telegrams. There is little doubt about why The Secret Agent was nominated for the Best Picture, Best Actor, Casting and Best International Feature Film Academy Awards this year. Filho has made many other well received films, but as they are from Brazil, I have not heard about them before. He is getting some major recognition this year.