Category Archives: 2023

Fremont

Fremont              4 ½ stars

We return again to a movie that was first shown at Sundance in 2023 with Fremont by Iranian born filmmaker Babak Jalali. One wouldn’t think that a story about an Afghan immigrant escaping from her war-torn country to the United States would make for a good comedy, but that is exactly what Jalali has set out to do. Donya (Anaita Wali Zada, who herself escaped from Afghanistan) is a young Afghan woman who was a translator for the US Army and now resides in Fremont, California, having left her family behind. She has a job working in a Chinese cookie factory in San Francisco, where she seems to have a very bland life. She lives in an apartment building where many fellow Afghans reside, but has contact with many non-Afghans due to her job. There is her boss at the cookie factory who is always upbeat and seems to care about her, her coworker who is often looking for a date, and her psychiatrist who she seems to have conned into giving her free sessions with her complaints about not being able to sleep. Zada portrays Donya with a deadpan look, never cracking a smile or showing any emotion, yet she is someone that people have empathy for. At the factory she lands the job of writing the cookie fortunes when she convinces the owner that she has the intelligence to write the encouraging yet vague messages that the customers will find interesting. But then she takes the chance of writing a personal message with her phone number and putting it in the cookies in an attempt to reach out to someone. This could change her life but may lead to other unforeseen consequences. The style of the movie done in black and white and with straight ahead shots seems to be from an earlier period of filmmaking and something we haven’t seen in a while. The film is very low key and slow moving, but is guaranteed to get some laughs from the audience. Zada is right for the role of Donya and is very believable as the young Afghan who seems lost yet determined to change her life. Fans of the show The Bear will recognize Jeremy Allen White as the lonely mechanic that Donya meets on one of her adventures. Fremont is a moving story about a lost person who holds on to the possibility of being found. I recommend it.

Dumb Money

Dumb Money                    4 stars

The new based on real events movie Dumb Money by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) starts by introducing the players on screen showing us their estimated worth. That way it becomes clear who the good guys are and who the bad guys are in the stock trading world, or who are the billionaire hedge fund managers and the retail traders (who the billionaires refer to as Dumb Money). In the early days of 2021 while America wasn’t watching the news about Donald Trump’s second impeachment, they were following a story about a small publicly traded company called Gamestop that was being promoted by a single nerdy small investor named Keith Gill (Paul Dano of Little Miss Sunshine and There Will be Blood). He broadcast his message of belief in the stock on Youtube and Reddit under the name of Roaring Kitty, convincing thousands of small investors to buy it to show the big guys on Wall Street that the stock was undervalued, making the phrase “I like the stock” a rallying cry. The hedge fund managers are all betting against them, selling Gamestop short, allowing them to make a lot of money when and if the stock crashes in value. (I don’t really understand how this works but the movie helps to explain it.) The billionaires are portrayed by Seth Rogen, Vincent D’Onofrio and Nick Offerman who strut around in their luxury suites and tennis clubs. The little guys who buy into the stock and hold it with religious fervor are a nurse named Jenny (America Ferrera), a retail clerk (Anthony Ramos), and a couple of college students (Talie Ryder and Myha’la) who are all desperate for money. The movie provides some non-investing characters to ask questions about what is happening, allowing Gill to explain it in easy to understand terms. These include his wife, Caroline (Shailene Woodley) and his idiot brother Kevin (Pete Davidson in another well executed smart-ass role). All this eventually leads to the climax of a congressional inquiry when there is an apparent impropriety that protects the billionaires from further losses. The movie effectively tells the story of what happens when Wall Street greed collides with the power of social media combined with the isolation brought on by the pandemic. Dumb Money is not The Big Short by any means but dramatizes a story about stock trading done in a way that makes it relatable to the average viewer. Also, fans of hip-hop artist Cardi B should be pleased by the choice of music.

A Haunting in Venice

A Haunting in Venice      4 stars

For the third time in six years the world’s most famous detective, Hercule Poirot, as portrayed by Kenneth Branagh is on the case to solve another mysterious death. With Branagh again directing, it is after World War II and the world is getting back to normal, with Poirot having become a recluse, quietly retired in Venice. But he can’t stay hidden for long when the renowned American mystery writer Ariadne Oliver (a more subdued yet comical Tina Fey) tracks him down to recruit his services regarding the death of a young woman, Alicia Drake on behalf of her mother, Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly). The catch is that Poirot must attend a children’s Halloween Party on All Hallowed Eve in a large, dark decaying house to be followed by a séance where the dead Alicia is to be contacted. In that respect the movie is a departure from the two earlier outings, Murder on the Orient Express and A Death on the Nile. The exotic locations are exchanged for the confined setting of a creaky, mysterious mansion on a stormy, rainy night and there is a distinct focus on the supernatural with odd camera angles and sudden noises happening periodically. The séance is conducted by the famous medium, Mrs. Reynolds (Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh), attended by Poirot, Drake, and Oliver as well as Drake’s housekeeper Olga (Camille Cottin), the doctor who treated Alicia, Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan of Belfast), his 12-year-old son, Leopold (Jude Hill also of Belfast), Poirot’s bodyguard and Mrs. Reynold’s assistant. As you would expect with Hercule Poirot being present, the suspicious séance is followed with one of the participants experiencing a fall which proves fatal. Unable to reach the police, Poirot follows his usual protocol, locking everyone in the mansion, interviewing all the potential suspects one by one until the mystery can be solved. The case is based on one of Agatha Christie’s novels, Halloween Party, but it definitely has a supernatural slant to it with apparitions and strange noises contributing to the mystery. Mystery writer Oliver has another motive it is clear as she wants to find a way to increase her book sales and challenge the great detective’s skepticism of all things spiritual. The film is greatly enhanced by actors Michelle Yeoh, Tina Fey and Camille Cotton, but there is a real treasure in the young Jude Hill who is so excellent as the doctor’s precocious son. Branagh previously cast him in Belfast where he was again the son to Jamie Dornan. It will interesting to see what else awaits this young man. I found A Haunting in Venice to be the best of the three Poirot movies and want to assure viewers that the movie belongs in the world of mystery thrillers and is not a true horror movie. See it while it is still in theaters!

Flora and Son

Flora and Son                     4 ½ stars

I returned again this week to a film that appeared at Sundance but missed at the festival. Flora and Son is the latest creation of writer/director John Carney, who previously brought us Begin Again, Sing Street and his masterwork, Once. Again, the Irish filmmaker has created a simple story about conflict in a relationship that centers around and is resolved by the process of song writing. This time the story is about a young, Irish, working class, single mother, Flora (Eve Hewson (daughter of Bono)) who is struggling to raise her 14-year-old son, Max (Orén Kinlan) in a small Dublin apartment. Max, unfortunately has a habit of stealing and getting into trouble at school and is facing the prospect of being sentenced to a juvenile facility. In an effort to keep him out of trouble, she recovers a discarded guitar, has it restored and gives it to the troubled teen, hoping to get him interested in music. Max wants no part of this plan, but Flora is drawn to the guitar and goes in search of online guitar lessons, and in so doing finds Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a musician in Los Angeles who hires himself out for personal lessons online. The pair discuss the chords on a guitar and what it means to write a good song and before long Flora is critiquing Jeff’s songs and suggesting ways to make them better. The discussions get quite personal as they discuss the feelings created by a song and refer to song terms like the verses, the chorus and the bridge, something you only see in a John Carney movie. Occasionally, Jeff is shown in the same room with Flora to show how they are connecting over their discussions. (The viewer must ignore the fact that performing music together via Zoom is not practical due to the time delay.) Carney is always interested in his characters getting closer together, but also in the process of writing good music which I love to see. And ultimately there is hope for her son, Max as he reveals some musical talent as he learns to use a synthesizer to create rap music, and mother and son find that they do have a common bond in music. The movie has the right amount of humor and successfully dealing with family conflict without getting too sappy though it is probably not Carney’s best movie. Flora and Son is newly released in theaters so I suggest you see it there while you can. It is also available on Apple TV+.

Dicks: The Musical

Dicks: The Musical                           3 stars

The title of this movie leads you to believe that it is about dicks. This screen adaptation of a musical play first performed in a basement in New York does deliver. It has two of them. The screenwriters, Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson play Craig and Trevor, two self-obsessed straight men who are in love with themselves and don’t care who they screw over to get what they want. But then one day they meet each other for the first time, discovering that they are competing to be the best salesman for the same company, Vroomba, selling parts for this mysterious machine. They each have one half of a locket they each got from their parents, making them separated identical twin brothers. Of course they look nothing alike which only adds to the bizarre nature of the comedy. They set about to reunite their two separated parents, Harris (Nathan Lane) and Evelyn (Megan Mullaly) by donning wigs and switching places and persuading the two to arrive at a restaurant for a prearranged meeting. (Has anyone heard of The Parent Trap before?) Evelyn is now a wheelchair bound recluse in an apartment filled with odd knickknacks and horrendous looking wallpaper, and who keeps her vagina in a purse. Huh? Harris has come out as gay and has a secret as he keeps two bizarre looking creatures that he rescued from the sewer, referring to them as the Sewer Boys. Besides the bizarre nature of the premise the movie is going for shock and screams, containing almost nonstop references to sex acts (both straight and gay) and genitalia and plenty of use of the f word. It’s all done to music that is more memorable for the content than for the tunes themselves. There is no doubt that it succeeds in being outlandish, offensive and gross. It tries to reach a status of a cult movie, but I doubt it will be another Rocky Horror Picture Show. There are two other roles that are quite notable. Megan Thee Stallion is excellent as Craig and Trevor’s boss in a boiler plate office where she emasculates all the male employees in “Savage” style. And Bowen Yang of SNL does an admirable job as God who narrates much of the story as only Yang can. Dicks: The Musical is not the funniest movie of the year, but it is easily the most irreverent. It is fun just to see how offensive it can get.

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour           4 ½ stars

Concert films are one type of film that I very rarely see, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to see Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour in the theater. Since I can’t remember seeing any specific concert film before I can say that this was the best concert film I have ever seen. But seriously it is an experience you shouldn’t miss if you have the chance. The film is taken from a single performance, Taylor Swift’s final stop of the Eras Tour in Los Angeles. The show is extravagant to the maximum, lasting over two and a half hours with amazing sets, a myriad of costume changes and accompanied by a dance troupe with Taylor at the center of it all. She performs songs from throughout her seventeen year career broken down by periods of inspiration that she calls her eras. How she has the energy and stamina to go so long including well staged choreography is beyond my comprehension. The film is heavily edited with closeups of her and many shots of the adoring fans in the audience. So call me a Swifty now. I loved it.

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.