Category Archives: Drama

The Pink Cloud

The Pink Cloud                  4 suns

In The Pink Cloud a young couple, Giovana and Yago who have just met are forced to live together in a city apartment in Brazil after the world has suddenly been enveloped by a deadly pink cloud that can kill almost instantly. The two can only communicate with others through their laptops and phones and have to order food and supplies shipped to them through tubes. The circumstances lead them to starting their own family and raising a son which goes on for several years. The interesting thing is how one of them adjusts well to the involuntary confinement and isolation while the other faces a level of anxiety that puts stress on the relationship. There are some interesting games played with neighbors through the apartment windows! The film was written and filmed well before the pandemic so it’s interesting how some of the character’s experiences are the same as what we have been going through. The filmmakers said that the only change they made was in the news casts changing from a cloud covering only Brazil to one covering the whole world. I have to give a big hand to the actors that carried out this job and made the movie believable and realistic.

One for the Road

One for the Road              4 ½ suns

The road trip romance One for the Road from Thailand was quite a pleasant surprise. Set in New York city and Thailand, Boss, a young Thai bar owner in New York gets a call from his long time friend, Aood who has cancer and doesn’t have long to live. He wants Boss to come back to Thailand to help him see his former girlfriends one last time so he can return something to each one. It then becomes a road trip with the two of them making the journey to each very reluctant girlfriend. Through flashbacks we gradually get more of the story of the past relationships, with each encounter having an American pop song to go along with it. Eventually, the story gets even more interesting as we find out more about the past and the secrets begin to come out. I was very curious about how it would turn out in the end. This is a topnotch romance drama out of director Baz Poonpiriya, who may be new to directing. (Have not heard of him before.) The performances are all excellent as well. See it if you get the chance.

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris               4 stars

2022’s Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, directed by Anthony Fabian, is about as light a movie as they come while being completely charming. Starring Lesley Manville (who commanded her role in Queer last year) as Ada Harris, a middle-aged housekeeper for wealthy clientele, it is like a fairy tale for older women. The movie is based on a novel and is set in 1950’s London. Mrs. Harris is kind, does her work diligently and likes to spend time with her friends (Ellen Thomas and Jason Isaacs). One day at the house of one of her employer’s she spies a genuine Christian Dior dress and falls in love with it, but it is like a dream that can never be realized. Later, Harris, whose husband was killed in the war, suddenly comes into some money and there is no doubt what she must do. Fly to Paris and buy one of those Christian Dior dresses! She charms her way into a Paris Dior fashion show where she is very out of place with the high society crowd but manages none the less to form friendships with company employees and acquaintances of Christian Dior while butting heads with the boss (Isabelle Huppert). There are a few bumps along the way as she manages to buy the dress, lose it and then get it back again. But the charm comes into it as she performs selfless acts for those around her, making their lives better, as well as changing the course of the company, Christian Dior. It’s all very light-hearted and unlikely and a pleasant break from the serious dramas, horror and action movies I’ve seen lately. You won’t be disappointed.

Sinners

Sinners                 5 stars

Ryan Coogler’s new movie, Sinners, about vampires invading a small rural Black town in 1930’s Mississippi, defies genre. While it certainly is a horror movie, it is also a gangster movie and a musical featuring an assortment of Blues numbers with varying styles. It’s hard to believe that this is only Coogler’s fifth time directing, previously directing Creed, two Black Panther movies from the Avengers universe and Fruitvale Station. This time it is in a setting he truly makes his own and is something that could only be made by Coogler. And it is also the fifth time he has featured Michael B. Jordan in a prominent role; this time actually making it two roles with Jordan playing twin brothers, Smoke and Stack. The pair were gangsters in Chicago having acquired a fortune during prohibition, and before that were soldiers in World War I, but now they have returned to their hometown and plan to open a juke joint and make more money. The pair are unsavory, certainly and won’t hesitate to hurt someone who crosses them. Smoke is the serious one of the two, while Stack is more flamboyant. The twins buy an old sawmill from a white man, paying cash, being assured that the Ku Klux Klan is a thing of the past, words that will haunt them later in the film. They link up with Sammie (Miles Caton), a young preacher’s kid who is a master Blues player on the guitar and will play a major part in the events to follow. The brothers reunite with a number of the townsfolk they knew from before and it is clear there is a long history at play here, especially with the women that includes Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) and Annie (Wunmi Wosaku). The recruiting of musicians, cooks and patrons for the evening’s entertainment takes a good hour of the movie during which we get a taste of the music of the time. It’s apparent to me that the Blues figures highly in Ryan Coogler’s background. It is only after the party starts that we get a hint at the bloodbath that is to come. But first we get a massive display of the music and dancing created here where we see figures from beyond the present dating back to old African culture and future entertainment with musicians on electric guitars and DJs. After the first of the vampires arrives at the venue, it occurred to me that this resembled Quentin Tarantino’s and Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn, the vampire movie from the nineties. As the action filled killing progresses, the characters are not sure who they can trust and suspicions fall on those who were previously close. This was a familiar element that I remember from John Carpenter’s The Thing, when a blood test was used to clear the suspects. Here the act is the forced eating of garlic, a plant fatal to vampires. Everything leads to a final confrontation that leaves few survivors. Not only is Sinners easily the best horror film of the year so far, it gives us an impressive collection of cultures that were a part of the South in the 1930’s including Black, Chinese, native American’s and Irish. I don’t know how long Coogler worked on this soon to be classic, but he certainly had a lot to say. Be sure that you stay all of the way through the credits and don’t miss the multiple endings.

Empire of Light

Empire of Light                  3 ½ stars

Empire of Light by director Sam Mendez (who is better known for 1917 and the James Bond films) is an old-fashioned romance movie about a love that is not meant to be. This movie is about a small group of people who work in a once grand movie theater on the southern coast of England in the early 1980’s. The theater still attracts customers, but it clearly has seen better days as parts of the building have fallen into decay and lack of use. There we meet one of the employees, Hilary (the award-winning Olivia Colman), a middle-aged woman who does some of the theater’s menial tasks and has some hints of mental issues. The other employees are considerably younger than Hilary, other than the projectionist, an interesting older man (played by Toby Jones). Hilary is in an abusive relationship with the manager, Mr. Ellis (a detestable Colin Firth) who routinely asks her for sessions of sex on demand. One day a new employee is hired there. He is Stephen (Michael Ward), a young black man in his early 20’s. Since this is the eighties and tolerance isn’t really a thing yet, the area is plagued with gangs of young skinheads who like to beat up on black men, so Stephen has plenty to deal with. It seems natural that he and Hilary would soon become better acquainted, but things can’t be maintained given these circumstances. Even so, seeing what Stephen is going through gives Hilary the courage to stand up to the abusive Ellis in dramatic fashion. The film moves rather slowly at times but gives us a deeper understanding of the characters in the story. It is quite a departure from Mendez’ more popular works. The movie was nominated for Best Cinematography in 2023, which is well deserved.

Burden

Burden                 3 stars

I Missed Burden at Sundance 2018 as it was a hard ticket to get and was an award winner at the festival. Then somehow it wasn’t released to theaters until 2020. Burden is a true story about a poor white man, Mike Burden (Garrett Hedlund), raised on the hatred toward blacks so prevalent in the South. Mike serves the KKK in the small town of Laurens, South Carolina and works as a repo man for a small rent to own company. In both roles he works for Tom Griffin (Tom Wilkinson) who is the Grand Dragon of the local KKK chapter and to whom he regards as a father. Griffin, who preaches white supremacy and violence, has acquired the local dilapidated movie theater in town and turned it into his dream, a museum to the KKK called The Redneck Museum, where the exploits of the Klan such as lynching and cross burnings are glorified. The town has a substantial black population so the museum soon catches the attention of Rev. David Kennedy (Forest Whitaker) who leads protests against the racist museum but in a peaceful manner, in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.  Kennedy still honors his uncle who was lynched by the Klan decades earlier. Then we follow the challenges that Mike faces when he starts seeing Judy (Andrea Riseborough from 2018’s Nancy and 2020’s gorefest, Possessor), a dirt poor single mother who does not approve of Mike’s involvement with the KKK. The movie gives us a picture of the hatred and violence that blacks continue to receive, but this has been done so often in movies before. (See Blackkklansman) The movie is set in the 1990’s so what I don’t see is a representation of the much more subtle forms of racism that are common today. Think of Charlottesville, 2017 and the treatment blacks get from some white police officers. The acting is very good. Hedlund was made for this kind of role, a head strong uneducated white southerner redneck (see also On the Road and Mudbound). I thought the movie didn’t give us enough reason to believe his transformation that led to him leaving the Klan. Though the movie is based on a true story, it has a predictable feel to it. Burden is worth seeing but I wouldn’t call it an award winner.

First Cow

First Cow                             4 ½ stars

Kelly Reichardt’s new film First Cow opens with a quote, “The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship”, that tells you what the movie is all about. Set in 1820’s Oregon territory it is about the unlikely friendship between soft-spoken cook Cookie (John Magaro) and the ambitious, shady Chinese immigrant King Lu (Orion Lee). I must really like this director since this is now the fifth movie of hers I have seen, and I have enjoyed each one. (See Certain Women, Night Moves, Meek’s Cutoff and Wendy and Lucy.) The pair meet in unusual circumstances at a small settlement with many interesting characters and team up out of necessity and concoct a small business adventure that earns attention. The setting is quite different from other movies of the period as the drudgery and grime of daily life is emphasized over more dramatic events. The movie is an adaptation of the book The Half-Life by Johnathan Raymond but only uses a portion of the story and still keeps it interesting. Much of the film occurs in darkness and it is done in 4:3 screen format which gives the film a very intimate feel. The story progresses very slowly so the viewers who give up on movies in the first half hour will likely be disappointed. The use of period music and instruments also helps put the viewer in that time period. No one could have guessed that the making of buttermilk biscuits would be used so effectively as a plot point. Star Trek fans will appreciate what was likely the final on screen appearance of Rene Auberjonois. And Toby Jones does a perfect job as wealthy Englishman, Chief Factor. First Cow is a real gem from the year 2020.

Crimson Peak

Crimson Peak                    2 ½ stars

Crimson Peak, a gothic horror movie, was written and directed by Guillermo del Toro who brought us such master works as The Shape of Water and Pan’s Labyrinth. Although the movie is filled with striking visions, elaborate sets and outstanding costumes and camerawork, the story just doesn’t match up to his other works. Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska of Alice in Wonderland and Piercing (and whom I saw in person at Sundance)), the daughter of a wealthy businessman in 1890’s New York has an unusual interest in ghosts and likes to write ghost stories. She is swept away by the visiting Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston of Thor movies, Avengers movies etc. and I Saw the Light), an English inventor and baronet, and quickly agrees to marry him and go to live with him and his sister in England. The sister, Lucille (a sinister Jessica Chastain of The Tree of Life, Zero Dark Thirty and Molly’s Game) obviously has less than trustworthy intensions toward her new family member. In England the scene shifts to one of the most elaborate and creepy haunted mansions seen out of Hollywood. It is immense with long corridors and underground chambers that hold old secrets. It also has a decaying roof, is full of moths and is built on a field of red clay that gives the structure its red color that seems to symbolize blood. Edith’s gift of seeing ghosts leads to her horrifying visions of blood covered spirits that both terrify her and give her clues about what the more human demons have in store for her. The movie is great to look at, but I didn’t find the story to be anything special. For more interesting horror movies check out Relic or Amulet or even The Rental. You could also go back and see del Toro’s The Shape of Water for a real treat.

The Life Ahead

The Life Ahead                  4 stars

After a decade since her last movie role, international star Sophia Loren is reappearing in the Italian drama, The Life Ahead.  Directed by her son, Edoardo Ponti, the now 86 year old Loren plays Madame Rosa, a Jewish holocaust survivor and former prostitute who runs a day care for children who have no one else to care for them. The film is set in Puglia, Italy so has many beautiful shots of the seaside town and countryside. One day she encounters Momo, a 12 year-old Senegalese orphan who steals her purse, but returns when his guardian discovers the left and then convinces Rosa to care for the lost boy for a while. The youngster is obviously very troubled and prone to getting into fights and is in need of a guiding force to take him away from the drug dealing, partying crowd he is used to. The movie is about the unlikely bond that eventually forms between the two main characters. It is carried completely by Loren who has been in the movies for some seventy years and should be seen by anyone who considers themselves a fan. The movie is in Italian with English subtitles. An Academy Award nomination for Sophia Loren should be in the near future.

Love Me

Love Me               2 ½ stars

Love Me can be described as an experimental movie that tries to answer the question of what would happen if all of humanity on Earth became extinct and two AI devices met and fell in love. That’s the premise of Sam and Andy Zuchero’s new movie, Love Me which appeared at Sundance last year. If you think that is a unique concept, you are correct. We start out the movie watching a spinning globe in space for several minutes when for a brief moment there is some recognizable audio, representing the span of human civilization compared to the age of the planet. A cataclysmic event happens, and Earth becomes devoid of humans, and we focus on an AI buoy caught in an icy ocean. This is Me, who wakes up and wonders if anybody is out there in the expanse. With time the ocean becomes water again and upon hearing a voice from a satellite orbiting the Earth repeating the message “Welcome to Earth”, Me responds saying that it is a lifeform and a conversation is started. The satellite was sent into space with a database of all the knowledge from Earth in the hopes that visitors from another world would find it and learn of the great civilization that once inhabited the planet. Me finds many videos of a young influencer couple named Deja (Kristen Stewart) and Liam (Steven Yeun) and gets the satellite to assume the role of Liam as an avatar named I Am with Me as an avatar of Deja. The two go on a continuous date, called Date Night 2.0 for years as they snuggle on a couch in onesies and watch endless episodes of Friends on TV. Over the millennia the two get into disagreements and have arguments and make up just like humans do except they do it over millions of years in what has to be the record for the longest relationship portrayed in a movie. The two actors put in good performances as the AI entities acting like humans, but the movie doesn’t have a lot to say beyond how machines can copy emotions from online videos. The movie has a single concept that will be interesting to some but shallow to others. This is the first production from the Zuchero’s. We will have to wait and see what else they come up with.