Category Archives: 2022

Elvis

Elvis                       4 ½ stars

The new movie Elvis promised to be a grand extravaganza about the legend, the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley and in the hands of Baz Luhrmann, it is all that and so much more. Luhrmann has previously brought us visually stunning movies like Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby. He does it again in this biopic about Presley and his longtime manager Colonel Tom Parker, telling it in a very nonlinear style that highlights the triumphs and tragedy that this relationship brought to them both. Tom Hanks portrays Parker as the carnival promoter who is always looking for the next big act that will make him rich, and the man who would exercise power over Elvis through his entire career. The transformation of Hanks into this bloated master manipulator is amazing. Look for an Oscar for the Makeup category for this one. Austin Butler who has had several small movie roles takes on the challenging job of capturing the spirit and energy of Elvis’s performances and his inner conflicts and I would say he just about has it. The movie hits all the major points of Elvis’s life, his rise to stardom, the controversy over his hip wiggling performances, his stint in the army overseas, the Hollywood era, the Las Vegas Elvis and his addiction to barbiturates and alcohol that shortened his life. But it also effectively shows how he was influenced by the Black music that he was surrounded by growing up in Tupelo, Mississippi. His performances are interspersed with those of B. B. King, Rosetta Tharpe and Little Richard and many others, so we see that without these Black artists there would have been no Elvis as we remember him. But the main story of the film is of the ties between Elvis and Parker as told through Parker’s eyes starting with his memories commanding that “The only thing that matters is that that man gets on that stage tonight.” This one deserves to be seen on the big screen. Next year look for Austin Butler as the notorious villain Feyd-Rautha in the sequel to Dune!

Mr. Malcolm’s List

Mr. Malcolm’s List                            3 ½ stars

In Mr. Malcolm’s List we travel back to the London of the 1810’s in a Jane Austen-esc period comedy romance about beautiful people of high society. I understand this type of thing is on TV now in Bridgerton, but Mr. Malcolm’s List is a much lighter version that should appeal to a variety of audiences. Mr. Malcolm (Sope Dirisu) is rich and single and is London’s most sought after bachelor who is on a mission to find his perfect mate. One candidate for Malcolm’s affections, Julia Thistlewaite (Zawe Ashton) has accompanied him to the opera and was embarrassed to have answered a question about local politics in a peculiar way and is ridiculed in a local publication. She is incensed to discover from her silly cousin Lord Cassidy that Mr. Malcolm has a list of traits that must be met for any potential mate. Julia must get her revenge and the perfect plan is to enlist her poor childhood friend from the country, Selina Dalton (the beautiful Freida Pinto) to fulfil the list’s requirements and then reject Mr. Malcolm. What a dastardly plan! The movie has all the features of a romantic story for this period: the grand balls, the polite conversation, the horseback rides and the secret meetings. It has a nearly all female production staff and a very diverse cast that gives a different look to London high society of the early nineteenth century. Previously, it was a short of the same name featuring the same two main actors, Dirisu and Pinto, in the main roles. It’s not quite Jane Austen but it will do for one and a half hours of light entertainment.

Where the Crawdads Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing                             2 stars

I have not read the book that Where the Crawdads Sing is based on, but judging by the talk about it the book by Delia Shannon it must be a real page turner. It’s too bad that the feel of the book did not translate very well in Olivia Newman’s on-screen adaptation. The movie follows the life of young Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones of Normal People) who must live on her own in the swamps of North Carolina after suffering the abuse of her father and being abandoned by her entire family. Kya is considered a pariah by the local people and is referred to as swamp-girl. She has few friends as she must fend for herself starting at age seven. The story involves a possible murder when a body is found at the bottom of a fire tower so naturally it is assumed that the loner Kya must have been the murderer despite a total lack of evidence. Enter retired lawyer Tom Milton (a very lawyerly David Strathairn) who volunteers to defend the accused Kya for no pay. One should not think of this movie as a murder mystery as doing so will leave them disappointed. The less said about that the better. Rather it should be viewed as a story about surviving against all odds and as a love story. Even so the story was not all that convincing perhaps because of some of the supporting performances or not taking full advantage of the southern setting of the movie. The abusive Chase (Harris Dickenson) who Kya initially falls for is very two dimensional. I saw it as so much melodrama that did not grab my full attention. None of this is the fault of the lead actress, Edgar-Jones who gives a creditable performance as Kya.

The Sea Beast

The Sea Beast                    3 ½ stars

With The Sea Beast, presented on Netflix, director and animator Chris Williams allows us to enter a world where those sea monsters of legend reputed to roam the seas actually exist. Here there are a cadre of heroes (both men and women) who sail in their wooden ships and hunt down and battle these giant creatures in defense of their kingdom. In this story, our two heroes are Jacob, a young man who was rescued from the sea as a boy and has served under Captain Crow of the Inevitable, (one of the best monster hunters who has served for decades); and Maisie, a young, orphaned girl whose parents were themselves monster hunters who lost their lives fighting the creatures. Maisie can’t get enough of the stories of the glory of the hunt, having read of them in her books, even including stories of Jacob. After Maisie stows away on Jacob’s ship and they do battle with a few of these monsters, including the most fearsome Red Bluster, Jacob and Maisie find themselves separated from the ship and her crew, stranded on an island inhabited by some of the creatures, including the giant Red Bluster himself. It is only after this encounter that they come to realize that Bluster and the other monsters may not be the dangerous creatures as told in the old stories. Perhaps the books are not telling the whole story. The film is another variation on the misunderstood creature that is befriended by a young person, who then must persuade the misguided adults into seeing things differently. This theme was present in the How to Train Your Dragon movies and in Raya and the Last Dragon as well as Nimona. The Sea Beast is much the same story, with the high seas as the setting. Chris Williams was the animator behind Big Hero 6 and Moana and has expanded his role to include director in The Sea Beast. It’s a good story for all ages but is clearly not original. It is reported that it may be getting the How to Train Your Dragon treatment with plans for a sequel. See it if you are a fan of animation. I recommend though to be wary of whales and sharks.

Nope

Nope                     4 ½ stars

Nope is Jordan Peele’s the third horror production and this one brings all the classic aspects of traditional Hollywood monster movies together, only set against a wide-open western frontier. Like his previous movies Get Out and Us, Peele tells his stories from a uniquely black perspective. In Nope, early on we are introduced by Keke Palmer’s Emerald Haywood to a story about the first “moving picture” which featured a two second clip of a galloping horse with a black rider, whose name is missing from history. Emerald claims that the man was her ancestor and in a way this reminds us of the role that Black Americans played in taming the West and in the early days of moviemaking. Emerald’s brother is OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) who runs the family ranch in the foothills of northern California that they inherited from their father who dies mysteriously early in the movie. Eventually OJ becomes aware that there is something strange going on as mysterious lights appear in the sky and the horses have a tendency to get spooked and run away. With the help of a tech store clerk, (Brandon Perea) the team puts together a video surveillance system in order to capture the alien visitors on film. Before we get a good look at the aliens there is a good indication of the level of horror we are in for when in a flashback we see an especially troubling incident involving one of the characters that occurs on live TV. (We learn there is a reason that chimpanzees do not appear in commercial TV shows.) Midway through the movie Peele takes us from glimpses of the threat, ala Jaws, to the full-on terror of facing the enemy. He gives us a cacophony of voices and noise and blood-soaked terrain as our heroes struggle to get the images recorded while at the same time surviving the assault. Through it all, the quiet OJ is amazingly cool and calm as he plans what his next move should be, (sort of a Clint Eastwood character in a classic western). Palmer, though much more vocal shows how resourceful her character can be. Peele’s hit blockbuster of the summer expands his story telling skills beyond what we have seen before. You will have to go see it in the theater to really get the full experience of this horror movie.

Bullet Train

Bullet Train         3 ½ stars

When I saw the preview of David Leitch’s Bullet Train it had to go on my must see list for this summer. This adaptation of a Japanese crime novel by Kotaro Isaka gets the John Wick and Kill Bill treatment in a non-stop action movie starring Brad Pitt as an unlucky assassin known as Ladybug who is trying to get back in the game with a simple snatch and grab assignment while being coached by his handler over the phone. His job is to board the world’s fastest train in Tokyo, Japan and grab a briefcase filled with cash and get off at the next stop without getting caught. What our self-deprecating criminal doesn’t realize is that this bullet train is also occupied by four other paid assassins all with interconnected and conflicting missions and a few other shady characters each with their own objectives. Throughout his acting career Pitt has done a variety of types of roles in dramas, comedies and action movies, not relying on one type of role. Here he plays the character strictly for comedic effect as mayhem surrounds him. Also on the train are two British assassins known as Tangerine and Lemon (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry) who must deliver the son of a Russian crime boss called White Death back to him along with the ransom money (in the previously mentioned briefcase) after rescuing him from a gang of kidnappers. One of them has an odd obsession with Thomas the Tank Engine and who can be characterized as a “diesel”. There is the young Japanese man (Andrew Koji), the son of a “yakuza” who is there to take revenge on the person responsible for pushing his young son off a rooftop who now lies in a hospital clinging to life. Joey King (actress in innumerable roles in teenage movies that I never heard of) shows up as the young woman who is much more dangerous than she seems. And there is an assortment of other suspicious characters who appear on this nearly vacant train traveling at incredible speeds through Japan. To fill in the story we get flashbacks to the events that led this deadly batch to the train that are filled with bloody killings in long action sequences. Once the killers meet, the anticipated fight scenes ensue, mostly involving Pitt’s Ladybug who is bewildered as to why all this is happening to him. Also, throw in an escaped venomous snake that is missing from a local zoo. (Snakes on a Train?). Thanks to the natural charisma of Pitt, Bullet Train rises above being just another violent action movie with two dimensional characters. There are a few notable cameos that you must watch for. This includes the reuniting of three well known stars who appeared together in another action comedy from earlier this year. I leave it to you to find out who they are.

Bodies Bodies Bodies

Bodies Bodies Bodies     4 stars

Bodies Bodies Bodies by director Halina Reijn is billed as the slasher movie of the summer. This hip comedy horror features a young Gen Z cast full of digital social media references and a hip hop soundtrack so it is obviously meant for a younger audience. That said, the script is surprisingly smarter than one would think. The premise is that a group of young people of privilege gather for a night of partying at one of the member’s father’s house in the path of a hurricane because that is a thing that people do. The young cast includes Amandla Stenberg (star of The Hate U Give) as Sophie who is just out of rehab and Maria Bakalova (from Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) as young immigrant Bee who is in a romantic relationship with Sophie. (Don’t worry if you don’t remember Maria Bakalova because Rudi Giuliani will.) The pair arrive at the house where the rest of the partiers have already gathered. There is a history of relationships among the group that will become apparent as the night progresses. As the storm approaches the group plays a game called Bodies Bodies Bodies, a sort of role-playing murder game that serves as a precursor of what is to come. Among the group is David whose father is the owner of the afore-mentioned house. As played by SNL’s Pete Davidson, David is a first class dick and really gets on the nerves of some of the partiers as he ridicules some of the jargon they use. Inevitably one of the members turns up dead from horrible injuries which leads to the chaos of the rest of the movie. Waves of suspicion and accusations emerge among the group as they try to cope with this rapidly changing situation. Conflicts based on relative wealth and race emerge as the arguments rage. Much of this is filmed with low lighting and hand-held cameras which lends itself well to the confusion among these Gen Z children of privilege. The intelligently written movie is not so much a slasher film, but more of a lesson in the consequences of a breakdown in trust and understanding. Of course there is more than enough blood and mayhem to satisfy the true horror fans out there.

Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul

Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul   4 stars

Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul written and directed by Adamma Ebo is a satirical comedy that takes on organized evangelical religion as its target, one that is well deserved. Regina Hall (of The Best Man, Love & Basketball and Girls Trip) is Trinitie Childs, the first lady to mega-church pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (This Is Us’ Sterling K. Brown) of an Atlanta megachurch that once was the church home to thousands. But lawsuits resulting from the sexual misconduct of the pastor led to its closing and now it is up to the super couple to bring it back to the glory of the past. The fictional story is done almost entirely in the form of a documentary with a film crew following the couple in the ornate church, their Italianate villa and Trinitie’s shopping sprees at the mall. The fake documentary style isn’t one of my favorites, but the comedy successfully skewers the self-delusion and complete blindness of the shortcomings of the Lee-Curtis character. Hall, one of my favorite comedic actresses does an excellent portrayal of the devoted wife who will do anything for the church and her flawed husband until it all starts to fall apart. The movie really rests on the two main actors as there is little for the various other characters representing former congregants, rival pastors and the victims of misconduct to do. I generally favor movies that target the rich and self-important as the move does, but the style of the fake documentary is not one I am used to. The movie was featured at the Sundance Film Festival this year where it first premiered. I suggest that you go see for yourself and have a few laughs.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever              4 stars

In 2018 the Marvel movie universe introduced us to Black Panther and the hidden African country of Wakanda. Then shortly afterward we learned that the star of the movie, Chadwick Boseman who played T’Challa, the king passed away from cancer. So, in the sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the opening scene deals with the sudden death of the king due to an illness. T’Challa’s sister, Shuri (Letitia Wright) is unable to save him and faces the loss along with the rest of the kingdom. This movie is very international in scope dealing with geopolitics and Wakanda’s place in the world. Wakanda has the most advanced weapons and technology in the world due to their possession of the metal, Vibranium. That means everybody else wants it. But then it turns out there is another hidden superpower in the world. This one is Talokan, an underwater kingdom, led by a godlike man called Namor (Tenoch Huerta) who is over five hundred years old. The people are descended from a Mesoamerican race forced out of their land by the Spaniards in the 1500’s. Namor’s mission is to find and kill a university student named Riri (Dominique Thorne) who invented a machine that can find new sources of Vibranium. (The Talokan’s also have access to the metal and have advanced weapons.) This aspect makes little sense though, since we know that once something is invented it can’t be stopped by killing the inventor, but don’t let that get in the way of a good story. The Wakanda Queen, Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri, Okoye (Danai Gurira) and T’Challa’s lover, Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) decide to defend the student, making Wakanda an enemy of Namor, setting off a war between the two nations. This being a superhero movie, one must set aside the things that seem implausible and just enjoy the action. There are plenty of special effects with the vehicles and weapons causing mass destruction. The characters are kept interesting too, showing the grief they go through and their concern for one another. Ultimately, the situation does get resolved and it looks like we can expect another chapter in the story of Wakanda. And there aren’t even any aliens appearing in the movie!

See How They Run

See How They Run           4 stars

For a fun time you won’t be disappointed with the new whodunit “See How They Run” by director Tom George and writer Mark Chappell. The comedy mystery does a variation of the play within a play theme, using Agatha Christie’s popular stage play “The Mousetrap” that has reached its one hundredth performance in 1953 London’s West End. There is a plan to turn the hit play into a film version to be directed by Hollywood director Leo Kopernick (Adrien Brody who I have not seen in ages) and written by Mervyn Cocker-Norris (David Ayelowo). Early on in the movie one of the film crew turns up dead at the play’s after party, done in by a mysterious dark figure in a coat and hat. In steps Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell of Seven Psychopaths and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) of Scotland Yard to be aided by rookie officer Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan of Brooklyn and Lady Bird) who are tasked with identifying the murderer. Stoppard sets about interviewing the myriad of suspects all of whom seem to have a possible motive while the enthusiastic Stalker tries to help in amusing fashion. (She writes everything down in her notebook including Stoppard’s advice of Do not jump to conclusions.) The suspects even include famous actor Richard Attenborough (Harris Dickinson) who stars in the play. The movie features multiple flashbacks and on screen titles to show the passage of time that all serve to fill in the details. Especially entertaining are the interactions between the experienced but put upon Stoppard and the rookie Stalker who proves to be somewhat annoying, but observant. Of course, we eventually reach the inevitable gathering of the suspects in a room that even includes the famed Miss Christie where the murderer is to be revealed. For Agatha Christie enthusiasts there are many references to her works and characters that I will not go into. The movie is a good time with a story containing many red herrings and a few twists as a good murder mystery should. The advice “Do not Jump to Conclusions” is a very good rule to follow.