Category Archives: 2023

The Exorcist: Believer

The Exorcist: Believer                     2 stars

It’s nearly Halloween, but we don’t have a new Halloween movie to give us an evening of frights like we have in previous years. But David Gordon Green, the director of the new Halloween movies has provided us with The Exorcist: Believer, the sequel to the 1973 phenomenon, The Exorcist (directed by William Friedkin). Those of us who are old enough can remember all the buzz around the original, when Linda Blair’s Regan was possessed by a demon making her vomit pea green soup and spinning her head around. It was even considered to be a contender for the Best Picture Academy Award. The same cannot be said about Believer after fifty years have gone by. This time we have two little girls who have been possessed by demons after the two friends disappear into the woods, reappearing three days later and thirty miles away with no memory of the elapsed time. The two girls, Angela (Lidya Jewett) and Katherine (Olivia O’Neill) start behaving very strangely after their return, becoming violent and have horrible scars on their bodies. Angela’s very concerned father, Mr. Fielding (Academy Award nominated Leslie Odom, Jr.) seeks out Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn, returning to the role) the mother of the original Regan who wrote a book about her experiences with a demon possessed daughter years before. Fielding becomes a believer that there must be something to this exorcism business, and convinces Katherine’s parents, two very devout evangelicals, that they need to hold an exorcism in order to rescue their daughters from possession. A team of believers is assembled that includes an elderly nurse who had at one time joined a convent (portrayed by the amazing Ann Dowd who can’t be in too many movies), as well as some pastors and one catholic priest. Thus, we have the setup for the present movie where the incantations are recited with the appropriate angry response from the two demons. The trouble is that it all feels like something we have seen so many times before. We have the heavy use of makeup on the two girls, the demonic voices threatening those present, the violent consequences to those that get too close to them (especially to Chris MacNeil) and one spinning head with fatal results. There are several gotcha moments as expected and even though the opening scenes set in Haiti do a good job of setting up the story, it all felt too familiar and staged to be entertaining. I do feel some curiosity into going back and seeing the original after all this time.

Cat Person

Cat Person          3 stars

The movie Cat Person begins with a quote by Margaret Atwood: “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” In one scene early in the movie 20-year-old college student, Margot (Emilia Jones of CODA and Fairyland) has a vision of a dog standing over the decapitated body of a fellow dormitory resident. These are early signs that things will not work out well for the movie’s characters. The movie is notable for being based on a New Yorker short story that created a sensation and for one of the most cringeworthy sex scenes ever to appear in cinema. Not having read the short story I can’t comment on it, and I won’t go into the history of the making of Cat Person. (But it did show at Sundance this year.) I can say the movie adaptation is a commentary on the perils of misinterpreted signals between men and women as well the dangers of basing a new relationship primarily on text messaging. The aforementioned sex scene takes place midway through the movie where it is clear that Margot is not into the first date awkward sex with Robert (Nicholas Braun of Succession), the 33-year-old man she met on her job at the local movie theater concession stand that shows revival films and monster movies. The scene is painful to watch as Margot has a conversation with her out of body self in a debate about whether to put a stop to it or just see it through out of pity to the insecure Robert. Prior to the scene we see how conflicted Margot is toward Robert as she alternately pictures Robert at a job, or in therapy sessions with a psychiatrist, but also as a serial killer who might try to murder her! We also see examples of women’s needs to please men such as a musical scene where Margot and her mom (Hope Davis) perform a dance routine to “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” for her stepdad. Fortunately for Margot she has a college roommate in Taylor (Geraldine Viswanathan) who provides the voice of reason telling her how she should handle her situation. Unfortunately I thought, is how the film eventually wanders into all out stalker movie mode in the stunning conclusion. I would have preferred that it stuck with the theme of differing expectations of men vs. women in a new relationship and stayed away from the more horror aspects. On the positive side, as we saw in the movie CODA (for which she received numerous awards), Emilia Jones looks like a major acting talent with a long future. Doctor Who fans can find her in a role on the show in Season seven. The film’s director, Susanna Fogel is also noted as having directed the 2019 hilarious female comedy, Booksmart. See Cat Person if you can tolerate the uncomfortable sex scene and some hateful text messaging.

Anatomy of a Fall

Anatomy of a Fall              5 stars

Last summer when I was in France, I saw many ads for Justine Triet’s movie Anatomy of a Fall (or Anatomie d’une Chute as the French say) so I was naturally very curious about it. The movie was shown at Cannes and won the Palme d’Or award, so it deserves some attention. The movie starts with Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller), a famous writer being interviewed by a student in a secluded chalet in the French Alps. After a few minutes the interview is interrupted by loud music being played that Sandra explains is from her husband who needs the music when he is writing. When it becomes impossible to carry on a conversation the interviewer leaves and we are left with a feeling that something is not quite right in this home. Shortly after, the couple’s sight impaired son, 11-year-old Daniel, returns from a walk in the woods to find the body of his father, Samuel outside the home, where it is apparent that he suffered a fatal fall from the attic window. The police start an investigation and Sandra obtains the help of a defense attorney in Vincent Renzi (Swann Arlaud) who gets Sandra’s version of what happened that day. Sandra is soon indicted for murder and we have a courtroom drama on our hands. While the movie is a murder mystery/thriller, it is also an analysis of a good marriage that has been falling apart for years. In this respect it is like Marriage Story, only as a possible murder. During the trial we learn that Samuel blamed himself for the accident that took Daniel’s sight at 4 years old, and that Sandra had one or more affairs during their once happy marriage. The couple moved to Samuel’s French hometown so he could better focus on his work, leaving London where Sandra was happy. Being a native German, she struggles in the new setting as she is less than fluent in French. More facts are revealed in the trial leading to more doubt about her story, until it is revealed there is a recording Samuel made of a fight they had the day before the accident that is played in real time in court, showing just how damaged their marriage was as they both resent the accusations launched by the other. The scene is played as a flash back and is the only scene we see Samuel speaking. The writing of the scene and the superb acting by Hüller will have you wondering is Sandra sincere or is this all an act. Hüller can also be seen in two earlier excellent movies, Requiem and Tony Erdmann. Anatomy of a Fall is mainly in French with English subtitles, but most of Hüller’s dialogue is in English. The movie is currently playing in theaters.

Trolls Band Together

Trolls Band Together                      3 ½ stars

Just out in theaters is DreamWorks’s third installment of the colorful candy-tone animated Trolls series based on the popular children’s toy of the sixties. This time it is Trolls Band Together with gray-toned Branch (the legendary Justin Timberlake) and pink Poppy (Anna Kendrick of the Pitch Perfect movies) returning for another popular tune filled adventure that will appeal to the kids and to adults alike. As the film opens we get Branch’s origin story finding out that he has four brothers that were part of a popular boy band called BroZone years before. (The opening performance contains obvious references to NSYNC and other boy bands of the early 2,000’s era. At one point one of the brothers says “We’ve gone from boys to men, and now there’s only one direction for us to go: the backstreets.”) Branch was in diapers at that time and was referred to as Baby B. Older brothers Floyd (Troye Sivan), John Dory (Eris André), Spruce (Daveed Diggs) and Clay (Kid Cudi) have all gone their separate ways, but John Dory has returned to seek Branch’s help on a desperate mission. It seems that the pop-star duo, Velvet and Veneer, (Amy Schumer and Andrew Rannells) have been holding brother Floyd prisoner. These two stringy characters have no musical talent of their own, but they have engineered a way to extract the musical gift from the troll and use it themselves, enabling their star status at Mount Rageous. But if the trolls can “band together”, and create “perfect family harmony”, they will be able to free poor Floyd from imminent doom! Poppy insists that Branch must get the family together to rescue his brother. So much for the setup. Beyond that, there are harmonious tunes galore as we take a ride through various boy band songs and medleys of music from the seventies and eighties. It’s all done on the background of some very crafty and colorful animation with the smooth textures and troll hair we have seen in the earlier Trolls movies. And of course, there is the eternal message of togetherness and how brothers will always have one another’s backs. This may not be the best of the Trolls movies but for pure animated fluff, it may be worth an hour and a half of your time.

Joy Ride

Joy Ride                4 stars

Here’s an idea I haven’t seen before in a movie. A sex comedy road trip starring primarily young Asian women. (The sex comedy movie genre is now referred to as raunch-com in the industry.) In Joy Ride, written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao and directed by Adele Lim (writer for Crazy Rich Asians), we first meet best friends Audrey (Ashley Park making a transition from a successful career on Broadway and starring in TV’s Emily in Paris) and Lolo (Sherry Cola) as 5-year-olds on a playground when Lolo punches out a bully who calls the Asian girls an ethnic slur. Audrey was adopted from China by white parents while Lolo is a recent Chinese immigrant with her parents. As adults, Audrey is a lawyer in a law firm and has the opportunity to go to China to land a big client. Lolo is successful as an artist making sexually graphic art pieces. Lolo volunteers to travel with Audrey as a translator as Audrey is not fluent in Chinese, but she is bringing her odd cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu) with them. Deadeye has a very odd personality and is nonbinary and is an obsessed K-Pop fan. Once in China the trio meet up with Kat (Stephanie Hsu, nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in last year’s sensation Everything, Everywhere, All at Once), Audrey’s college friend who now stars in a popular Chinese soap opera along with her fiancé (who is unaware of Kat’s long sexual history). Once together in China, Lolo convinces Audrey through some trickery that they should track down Audrey’s birth mother in China, who gave her up for adoption when she was a teenager. Having established the premise, the joy ride begins as this quartet of twenty something’s journey through Beijing and rural China, encountering a drug dealer, a professional basketball team and Lolo’s extended family. The trip, of course, includes plenty of references to various sex acts and anatomy, both female and male, as well as some on screen action requiring gymnastic talent, like The Devil’s Triangle (Don’t ask). They even try to impersonate a popular K-Pop group to gain certain favors from the authorities. (How could that go wrong?) (And there is a performance of Cardi B’s WAP that will get your attention.) Naturally, the movie goes for extreme gross-out scenes to get “I can’t believe they did that” reactions from the audience. But it all serves to show how close friends will always come back to support each other even though they have differences that sometimes drive them apart. Fans of the raunch-com movies should all enjoy the movie. I missed it in theaters and finally found it online. Some viewers will recognize Meredith Hagner as a female drug dealer. (Hagner was a regular on the comedy Search Party and is married to Wyatt Russell, son of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell!)

Napoleon

Napoleon            1 ½ stars

The long-anticipated Ridley Scott epic Napoleon about the man who sought to conquer all of Europe appeared in theaters on November 22 and I was there for the first day. It combines my interest in movies and military history so it was a must see. Joaquin Phoenix (of Walk the Line and Gladiator) portrays the emperor from his rise to power from an artillery officer to claim the throne through a coup, to his ultimate demise and exile from France. We also get a big dose of his love life with his wife, Josephine, taking up way too much of the film. The movie can be described as a spectacle of grand scale battle scenes, grandiose balls with aristocrats decked out in their finest and comical love scenes between the horny Napoleon and the standoffish Josephine. One would expect it to be a difficult task to cover such an expanse of history in a two and a half-hour film, but Scott’s version of it is especially hard to follow to the point of being laughable. There is little to connect the scenes as we pass through the events of history. During the revolution there is a representation of Robespierre, but we don’t really see what he is about or why he was so powerful. A few Marshals of the French army are there, such as Junot, Ney and Berthier, but they are just characters in the background with Napoleon barely interacting with them. During the movie there are scenes depicting the battles of Toulon, Austerlitz, Borodino and Waterloo with great looking clashes of soldiers and cavalry charges, but we never get much explanation of why they are being fought. There is no mention of the peninsula war, very little about the Prussians, a major participant in the wars, or of any naval actions. After the burning of Moscow in 1812, we immediately go to Napoleon’s ouster from being emperor ignoring the two years of the war in Prussia. In much of the movie we see a very petulant Napoleon who is all about settling scores with other heads of state, but none of his genius in his vision of a united Europe. In the battle scenes themselves there is nothing to show the tactics of warfare of the time, not to mention all the historical inaccuracies. The British were not entrenched at Waterloo like the movie shows us and there is nothing to show how the British defended farm buildings or used slopes of hills to their advantage. In one scene, Napoleon points to Waterloo on a map saying that is where he will defeat the enemy. (Nevermind that it is the defender that chooses the site of battle, not the attacker.) The funniest line is when Napoleon rages against the British saying “You think you’re so great just because you have boats!”. I had to laugh. Also ridiculous were the sex scenes between the emperor and Josephine making them appear like animals in the act. I would have to say that they did a good job with the uniforms of the soldiers and the weapons of the time. The firing of the artillery and the effects on people and horses did look realistic. But the movie was not worth two and a half hours of my time and I am sure there are much better dramatic works available about Napoleon and the wars in Europe of this period. I don’t know what came over Ridley Scott to create this mess.

Saltburn

Saltburn               4 ½ stars

It was in 2020 that I saw Promising Young Woman (at Sundance), the revenge movie written and directed by Emerald Fennell, who went on to win an Oscar for Best Screenplay, about a woman on a mission of revenge on behalf of women who are raped by men preying on them on the local bar scene. So, I had to see her new movie, Saltburn where she takes on the superrich and the war of class society in Britain. This is a movie about desire and deceit and the need to get whatever one wants no matter the cost. (And all set in the picturesque English countryside). We meet Oliver Quick (Irish actor Barry Keoghan who made quite an impression in The Banshees of Inisherin and The Killing of a Sacred Deer and has a face you will never forget), a working-class young man who is starting to attend Oxford in the early 2000’s. Oliver is smart but is a bit dorky and doesn’t make friends easily. Then one day he happens to let a fellow student, Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi of Priscilla as Elvis Presly) borrow his bike when Felix’s bike is broken. Felix is incredibly handsome and well-liked by guys and girls alike and most importantly is from a family of vast inherited wealth. Oliver is very fortunate to have this new rich friend who is so willing to help him out in situations at the college. But other students around them insist that this friendship is misguided and won’t work out. At the end of the school year, Oliver finds that he has no place to go due to an unfortunate family situation. But that is no problem when Felix insists that Oliver come and stay at Saltburn, the Catton family estate and mansion in the English countryside. At this grossly opulent and gargantuan property Oliver meets the family consisting of mother Elspeth (Rosamund Pike), father Sir James Catton (Richard E. Grant), and sister Venetia (Alison Oliver). Also, there is another one of Felix’s school friends Farleigh (Archie Madekwe) and a friend of Elspeth’s, “Poor Dear Pamela” (a fiery redheaded and tattooed Carey Mulligan like we have never seen). Saltburn is the kind of place where people lie naked in the grass but play tennis in tuxedos. There are also servants that are nameless to Felix and extravagant dinner parties. It is then that we see how things change as Oliver appears much smarter and manipulative than we had imagined and is driven by a desire to get what he can out of this family. He appears to be in love with the handsome Felix as we gather from certain homoerotic scenes but is also not above seducing the confused Venetia. And he can strike back at Farleigh in revenge when Farleigh embarrasses him at a party. But Oliver is not the only one controlling people as he learns when Felix is not fooled by Oliver’s act and tries to turn the tables on him. Like the thriller Promising Young Woman, events spiral further into the unexpected and we wonder how far it will go, and then yes, the movie delivers and goes even further. The film defines obsession showing us no limit as to what certain people will do to fulfil their wants. There are sex acts and total nudity abounding especially as the film reaches its climax. Perhaps Emerald Fennell will be earning more awards including Academy Awards with this one. It’s not one that will bore you.

Dream Scenario

Dream Scenario                 4 stars

One of the most prolific actors today is Nicolas Cage having appeared in some one hundred movies. He has also portrayed some of the oddest characters we’ve seen. Remember Adaptation and The Weather Man and of course Ghost Rider? He stars in Dream Scenario (directed by Kristoffer Borgli), a sort of fantasy horror about the price of fame in today’s society. Cage is Paul Matthews, a meek college professor of natural science who is bald, has a beard and wears glasses. There is really nothing special about him. He is whiney and still dreams of writing a book based on his graduate work from many years ago but has never done anything about it. One day strangers start to recognize him and then many of his students tell him that they remember seeing him in their dreams. They tell him that they see themselves in strange situations such as floating in the air or they see alligators crawling toward them, but Paul is there not doing anything, just walking by. Soon word spreads as hundreds of people report seeing him. Paul finds he has become famous, though his wife, Janet (Julianne Nicholson) does not experience the dreams and she feels left out. Paul hopes that the newly found fame will allow him to find a publisher for his book. But Paul finds the dark side of fame when a strange man invades their house and threatens the family. Things take an even worse turn for poor Paul as the dreams with him grow more violent and threatening to the point that people start to shun him, and his classes must be cancelled. When he is invited to a dinner party all of the other guests cancel because of him. He goes from being sought after for product advertising to possible appearances on Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson. The movie sort of feels like a darker The Truman Show where fame is visited on those who did nothing to deserve it. The fact that it is Nicolas Cage in the role only makes it more memorable. Cage’s movies are especially notable for having scenes where his anger is unleashed. (There was even a montage video that was made to show this.) Of course, the movie blesses us with a couple of Cageworthy scenes where he verbally attacks those who insult him. The film is put together well as the tone of the movie gradually shifts from light comedy to something approaching horror, (though nobody ever gets killed). It’s fascinating to see how a life can be forever changed with a little fame. Some have said the movie is an indictment of this society’s cancel culture. Borgli, as someone relatively new to directing, gives us a keeper in Dream Scenario. Also making appearances in the cast are Tim Meadows and Dylan Baker, both as friends to Paul and a bearded Michael Cera as the man trying to promote Paul as a celebrity. Anyone who likes quirky dark comedies should check out Dream Scenario. I wanted to see it the moment I saw the trailer!

The Holdovers

The Holdovers                   5 stars

Based on a list of several comedies I’ve seen over the years that includes Nebraska, The Descendants, Sideways, About Schmidt and Election, Alexander Payne must be one of my favorite directors. Now with The Holdovers, he has outdone himself. Payne is reunited with Paul Giamatti from Sideways to create a story about three lost souls that are forced to spend their Christmas break together at a New England boarding school for privileged young men in 1970. Giamatti is Paul Hunham, a professor of ancient civilizations who loves his profession, but despises the boys who have little appreciation for the insights Paul has to offer. Paul has been teaching at Barton Academy his whole adult life, but the staff and students all hate him. Since Paul previously found it necessary to fail one very politically connected student, the headmaster decided to punish him by selecting him to be the one to stay over Christmas break to supervise the holdovers, or those unfortunate students who have no place to go. Angus Tully (newcomer Dominic Sessa) is among the smartest yet most troubled of the students at Barton. He has been kicked out of three schools already and will have to go to military academy if it happens again. At the last moment he finds that he must be part of this small group instead of going to St. Kitts for break. Rounding out this trio is Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the African American head cook whose son graduated from the school, but then went on to serve in Vietnam and was killed earlier this year. She hasn’t gotten over the loss and you can just see the pain she experiences. The three combine to give us many humorous scenes, but also have a lot to share with each other about life and the struggles they are going through. Paul and Angus are both compelled to share critical moments from their past that shaped their lives. Oscar nominee Giamatti really gives a first-rate performance of the sad sack that is Paul who has an alcohol problem but keeps a positive outlook that hides the pain in his life. This may be Giamatti’s best performance to date or at least since Sideways. Sessa makes Angus a combative, smart aleck character who can also come to the defense of the unfortunate. I look forward to seeing more of him. (Also, fans of the series The Good Wife will recognize Carrie Preston in a small but important role.) The Holdovers will undoubtedly get several Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Everyone should see this one.

Poor Things

Poor Things        5 stars

What if you took Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein about a mad scientist reanimating a human of stitched together body parts in the 19th century, but substituted a woman for the monster, made it a comedy and oh, added a lot of sex? You would have Poor Things, the new movie by director Yorgos Lanthimos (known for his previous outings Dogtooth, The Lobster and The Favourite). The Greek director has created a sort of alternate world set in Victorian London, but with a mixture of odd architecture and transportation and clothing styles that shouldn’t exist. Behind the dark comedy and the science fiction aspects is a story of discovery of the depravity of the modern world and female empowerment. Early in the film in London we meet Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), our mad scientist who has a very disfigured face, along with a young woman named Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), who is his “experiment”. In his household are a few of his earlier experiments on live animals such as a dog with a goose head and a chicken with a pig’s head. Bella killed herself before Godwin (or “God” as she calls him) retrieved her body and then brought her back to life but with a few changes. Her mind is wiped clean, and she is being retrained in how to live. She can barely talk and struggles to walk and eat normally. Behaving like a toddler without inhibitions, Stone pulls off the act with comic effect. With the aid of a medical student as God’s assistant, Max (Ramy Youssef) Bella gradually learns to behave more normally and is taught about the outside world, but also discovers free will and masturbation. She is confined to the house, but when a self-centered lawyer (Mark Ruffalo) finds her and is stricken with her he convinces her to join him in travels across Europe. Leaving Dr. Baxter, Bella sees the world and is enlightened about many things like dancing and fashion and how others perceive her. She also learns about pain and suffering in the world and has empathy toward the unfortunate. But there is also the sex that she finds so enjoyable or as she calls it, “the furious jumping”. She even finds out that women can make money by having sex with men and becomes very accomplished at it in a Paris brothel! Lanthimos uses some innovative techniques like filming the first part of the movie in black and white to make it look older and using wide lens shots at low angles. The music is unquestionably strange throughout. The selection of placing the movie during Victorian times when women were especially subservient to men makes Bella’s transformation into an independent, confident woman who won’t be owned by a man all the more stark. There are several characters that can be regarded as cads, but strangely, Dr. Baxter isn’t one of them. He could be described as being paternal toward Bella, wanting to protect her from the evils of the world. The movie held my interest throughout and had many fun moments of satirical comedy, and did I mention there is lots of sex?