Category Archives: Drama

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom  4 ½ stars

In an Academy Awards first, a movie from the mountainous country of Bhutan was nominated for an Academy Award in the Foreign Language category. Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom takes a familiar theme of a new teacher assigned to a class of poor students and gives it a new take, with a setting in the Asian village of Lunana, a real village in Bhutan that must be one of the most isolated spots in the world. Ugyen is a young man who is fulfilling his government contract as an elementary school teacher who really wants to move to Australia and perform as a singer. His boss remarks that he is the most unmotivated teacher she has ever seen so gives him the assignment to serve one term as teacher in the remote mountain village of Lunana where a post is available. Ugyen, who likes to listen to music on his iPod most of the time has no choice but to make the journey to Lunana, a trip of six days on foot through the mountains accompanied by two guides and three horses. When he finally arrives he is greeted by the village elder Asha who has great respect for teachers who “touch the future”, along with most of the village and the children who are to be his students. Lunana is without running water, has only solar panels for electricity and the main source of heat is burning yak dung because paper is too valuable to burn. Ugyen undergoes something of a transformation from thinking of teaching as an annoyance to seeing its value and having a sense of purpose when seeing the enthusiasm of the students even amid such conditions. He also learns more of the local culture by hearing the music dedicated to the life of a yak herder. The audience feels the transformation going on as Ugyen’s experience progresses. The movie’s premise may sound like a cliché, but it is moving especially since all of the cast has never acted before. The real life residents in the village had never even seen a car or a camera before. The movie’s film crew had to manage in the remote location for a three month shooting schedule as well as make the long journey on foot. I will leave it to you to discover what Ugyen decides to do at the end of the movie.

Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer   4 ½ stars

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” These are the words that J. Robert Oppenheimer, played by Cillian Murphy says early in the Christopher Nolan new epic film Oppenheimer about the life of the theoretical physicist who was chosen to head the Manhattan Project during World War II. We don’t know if Oppenheimer really said this but it demonstrates just how troubled he became as he would come to terms with the incredible destructive power unleashed with the atomic bomb. The film gives us the story of Oppenheimer’s life and how he led the project located in the desert at Los Alamos, New Mexico, including the scandal of an affair and the drama of two court hearings. The movie packs a heck of a lot in the three hour running time. It is about the creation of the bomb, but is just as much a tense political thriller. It follows multiple time lines and a myriad of characters from academics and the military using both color and black and white footage sometimes interspersed with images of explosions and rotting corpses and faces. Nolan often uses short scenes with only a few longer ones all of which are packed with dialogue jumping from one time to another. It would be nice to see the years the scenes occur in, but there are many clues given as the time lines stretch from the nineteen twenties to the nineteen fifties. Oppenheimer’s (Cillian Murphy) main enemy in the film is Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission after the war who first recruits Oppenheimer then seeks to destroy his career. One may be surprised to see that the achievement of completing the first atomic explosion happens about two-thirds of the way through the film with the hearings taking up the remainder of the movie. In the first, occurring around 1954, Oppenheimer is accused of being an agent for the Soviets with communist leanings when it is brought out that his views toward the weapon changed with the development of the H-bomb and that his wife, Kitty (Emily Blunt) may have been a member of the Communist party many years before (the worst accusation in the America of the 1950’s). In the second, a Senate hearing is held for the confirmation of Strauss as the Commerce Secretary for President Eisenhower in 1959. We seem to go through endless testimony from individuals who played a role in the Manhattan Project, some on Oppenheimer’s side and some who are not. Throughout the entire movie, it is Murphy’s performance that makes it a success more than anything letting us see Oppenheimer’s talent as a visionary who is also deeply troubled by the threat brought to humankind by this creation. There are a great many actors with supporting roles in this complicated story that will be familiar to audiences. To mention a few there are Matt Damon, Josh Hartnett, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Casey Affleck, Florence Pugh and Jason Clarke without going into the individual roles. (Gary Oldman is great as Harry Truman being a real jerk.) To really understand what is going on, one would have to see the movie more than once. I can guarantee that it will keep your attention throughout, thanks to Nolan’s writing and an excellent score by Ludwig Goransson. I would say though that the sex scene in a hallucination that Oppenheimer has could have been left out and nothing would be lost. It is safe to say that this is one of two must see movies of the summer. We will be looking for many Academy Award nominations for Oppenheimer next year, I am sure.

Haunted Mansion

Haunted Mansion            2 stars

A number of years back Disney came up with the idea of making a movie based on a Disney ride and voila, Pirates of the Caribbean appeared on movie screens and became an instant success. Then just a couple of years ago Jungle Cruise came to the theaters and delighted many movie goers. Now we have the latest Disney release based on a Disney ride but this time you would be better off going to the park than to the theater. Haunted Mansion features a young woman named Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her nine-year-old son, Travis, who have taken possession of an old mansion that is over two hundred years old only to discover that it is inhabited by ghosts. She goes looking for help and finds a priest named Father Kent (Owen Wilson), a quantum physicist (LaKeith Stanfield) who has lost his wife, a medium (Tiffany Haddish) and a past his prime college professor (Danny Devito). None of the team can turn down the job because they all discover that once they enter the house, a ghost travels with them wherever they go, so they have to take on the challenge of removing the ghosts from the mansion. After many missteps involving spooky portraits and endless hallways with trap openings they eventually discover there is one ghost present who was a terrible man named Crump, (Jared Leto) who is collecting hundreds of souls in the house, tormenting them for eternity. With the help of a spirit trapped in a crystal ball (Jamie Lee Curtis) and a quest to find an artifact belonging to the horrible Crump some of the group leave on a venture to complete the challenge and rid the world of Crump. It’s quite a gathering of funny talented people that should make it an entertaining movie. The trouble is that it feels like a collection of poor CGI effects that make constant reference to the Disney ride and other past Disney movies. There are the obvious portraits with moving pictures, the descending floor, the guy playing the organ and the dancing spirits. There are even chairs that pick up characters and try to eject them from the property. It all feels like the movie makers are trying to inject everything they can find to mimic the ride. I had grown tired of the silly action by the time it was over. What a waste of comedic talent. I did find Hadish to be funny in her role as the medium and enjoyed seeing Jamie Lee Curtis if only briefly. Nice try Disney. Maybe you should make the movie first and then make the ride based on the movie. Another ghost movie called Ghostbusters comes to mind that I would gladly see again for more laughs.

A Good Person

A Good Person                  3 stars

A Good Person, written and directed by Scrubs star Zach Braff and starring Academy Award nominee Florence Pugh (of Midsommar, Little Women and Oppenheimer and Princess Irulan in Dune 2!) brings us into the all too familiar world of drug addiction and PTSD. In this movie it is Pugh who plays the drug addict, Allison, a young woman who had everything going for her including a loving fiancé and an active social life until a tragic accident resulted in her being addicted to OxyContin. Allison has a falling out with her mother (Molly Shannon), is afraid to work and is not above blackmailing former friends in order to score more drugs. Things are bad for Allison but also in pain are her fiancé, Nathan (Chinaza Uche), Nathan’s father, Daniel (the legendary Morgan Freeman) and Daniel’s granddaughter, Ryan (Celeste O’Connor of Selah and the Spades). You see, Daniel’s daughter and mother to Ryan were killed in the tragic accident. Long after the incident these people are trying to get on with their lives, some better than others. Daniel is now responsible for Ryan who has been acting out in high school. Having been an alcoholic before, Daniel is in a position to try to help Allison out of her addiction but it is a painful situation given the loss everyone has suffered. While Florence Pugh puts in a good performance as Allison the film feels rather formulaic on this all too familiar subject. Better movies come to mind like Requiem for a Dream, Rachel Getting Married and Clean and Sober (which features a young Morgan Freeman). There was also Sound of Metal in 2019. (Outstanding!) It’s a tough assignment to measure up to some of these excellent movies. Braff gave it a try, but it was also reported that he specifically wrote the movie for Pugh since the two were at one time involved in a relationship. It’s certainly not great. I will be watching closely for the release of Dune: Part Two which includes Florence Pugh playing the part of Princess Irulan.

Four Good Days

Four Good Days                 4 stars

I took in Four Good Days, a movie that previously appeared at Sundance and that deals with that old subject of drug addiction and the effect it has on those around the addict. In this drama by Rodrigo Garcia we are graced with two excellent actresses: Glenn Close as Deb, the addict’s mother who has been burned too many times by her daughter’s lies and thievery, and Mila Kunis as Molly, the addict with a heroin habit that has lasted for ten years and has lost everything including her marriage and her children. The movie starts with the two meeting and Molly begging for help from Deb with the shocking appearance of her skin and hair making it clear what her life has been like, but Deb refusing her daughter because she has seen it all before and won’t be fooled again. But finally she relents, taking Molly to a detox facility. Once there the doctor informs them there is a drug, Naltrexone that will neutralize the addiction for a month, but Molly must be drug free for four more days before taking it. And her only option is to stay with Mom and her husband Chris, (Stephen Root) until she can take the drug. Here is where the drama sets in. Deb knows she cannot trust Molly and lets her stay in the garage where a door alarm will sound whenever the door opens. We know that Molly could relapse at any time, but we still root for her hoping these two can find a way. And we really feel for Deb who is in anguish every step of the way over the hard choices she has to make. Most aspects of this movie are familiar as we get more background about the characters and how they got to this point. The desire to blame others for their problems is a constant theme. The story is based on the lives of actual people who we see at the end. It is the performances of the two principal actors that make the story especially compelling. Incidentally, Glenn Close and Rodrigo Garcia previously worked together on Albert Knobs in 2011.

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!

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.

Ginger Snaps

Ginger Snaps      3 ½ stars

It was Halloween night, October 31 so what better way to celebrate than to see an old-fashioned creature feature at a local theater nearly full of horror movie fans? I took in a viewing of director, John Fawcett’s Ginger Snaps, a horror movie set in a suburb in October, leading up to Halloween night. It is a revival of the feminist menstrual horror genre that got its start with Carrie back in 1976. Teenage sisters Brigette (Emily Perkins) and Ginger (Katherine Isabelle) are outcasts in their high school, but are close to each other and like to spend their time staging photos of teenage death scenes, a hobby that is useful when you want to cover up a murder. As the film opens, we learn that there is a vicious creature lurking outside that has been attacking and disemboweling the neighborhood dogs. Coincidently, 16-year-old Ginger is experiencing her first period, thus drawing the attention of the creature which claws her badly and bites her. Luckily, the creature, that seems to resemble a large dog is struck and killed by a van driven by Sam, a young greenhouse owner and local pothead. We then see how Ginger is slowly transformed into something foreign, as she starts to sprout hair, and grow claws and a short tail. Younger sister Brigitte is always there to keep Ginger’s secret from Mom and Dad and try to find a solution to the mess, even getting Sam’s help to formulate a cure using his knowledge of lycanthropic folklore and herbal cures. Unfortunately, things get out of control as Ginger must satisfy her appetite for human flesh at the expense of fellow classmates and unlucky school staff members! The film is quite bloody and violent as expected and a little weak on special effects as it was made back in 2000, making a measly $27,000 at the box office. But the writing is good enough to keep viewers in suspense as events spiral out of control but reminding us of the powerful connection between the two siblings. Ginger Snaps is a must for werewolf movie lovers everywhere and is best seen in the company of friends. If that isn’t enough for you, there was also Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed and Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning.