Category Archives: Drama

Official Competition

Official Competition        4 ½ stars

Official Competition by Argentine directors Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat brings together the great talents of Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martinez in a satirical comedy that absolutely skewers the filmmakers of “art” movies and the mega-wealthy. Cruz plays internationally renowned film director Lola Cuevas who has a curly head of hair that must be seen to be believed. She is hired by a millionaire owner of a pharmaceutical company to make a movie based on an award-winning novel called Rivalry, though the millionaire is clueless about art or movies. Lola decides that the two greatest actors in Spanish cinema must be a part of this great venture: the legendary actor Ivan Torres (Oscar Martinez) who despises the movie industry and the star of mega-hit blockbusters Felix Rivero (Antonio Banderas) who is obsessed with his own stardom. The book being adapted concerns the conflict between the two brothers played by Ivan and Felix where one of them blames the other for their parents’ death. Most of the movie (Official Competition) focuses on the rehearsal process which takes place in the wide open spaces of a modern architectural marvel that epitomizes great wealth. As the two starring men begin rehearsing under Lola’s direction we get a taste of their eccentricities and how differently the two view their craft. Lola has her own methods that sometimes make the actors endlessly repeat their lines until they are perfect and makes them participate in “exercises” that cause them tension and pain to the point where a normal person would just walk away. (In one scene the two actors must bombard one another with the most vile insults they can think of.) Their remarks and actions reveal how much Ivan and Felix despise each other. Their acts of one-upmanship get increasingly absurd as each is determined to show just how “great” they really are. Eventually the absurdity turns to an unexpectedly dark level. In its satirical fashion, the movie never deviates from the theme of showing how pretentious and narcissistic those in the art world can be. The movie belongs mostly to Penelope Cruz who brings her acting to genius levels as she conveys emotion with the slightest stare. Despite the focus of the movie on the art world, it can be enjoyed by all audiences. This is the kind of movie I think of for my favorite kind of comedy.

The Bikeriders

The Bikeriders                   4 ½ stars

Mike Nichols’ The Bikeriders (in theaters now) is an homage to the biker films of the sixties, and a remembrance of a culture long gone. The biker club, The Vandals, based on a real gang from Chicago in the sixties, is a collection of misfits, young to middle-aged, working-class men who only belong to each other. We commonly see them in bars at night or in open fields during the day dressed in their grimy clothes and jackets drinking beer. Their jackets sport rebellious patches such as the extended middle finger and German crosses. They are outlaws in a sense as the cops fear them, but they rarely commit any real serious crimes, preferring their typical brawling and riding through small towns. Occasionally, they are seen on the road, riding in a pack somewhere in the Midwest. While it’s not a traditional drama it does have characters you can really feel for, that seem very real. The movie is told in a narrative form with a photographer named Danny Lyons (Mike Faist) interviewing various members and taking their photos. It is based on actual interviews the real Danny Lyons did with club members and their wives and girlfriends in making his photo-anthropology book, The Bikeriders. In the movie the story is narrated by Kathy (Jodie Comer of Free Guy and the TV series Killing Eve) as she relates her story to Danny, about how she met and fell for Benny (Austin Butler of Elvis), a young heartthrob and member of the Vandals. She soon marries Benny, but in a sense also marries the gang, finding her life intertwined with other members. Chief among them is Johnny (Tom Hardy of Inception and Mad Max: Fury Road), the gang’s leader and close friend of Benny. The three of them create a great ensemble of characters whose fates are interconnected. Comer mastered an upper Midwest accent and gives an honest performance of someone attracted to a world she doesn’t really understand. Butler, coming off his roles in Elvis and Dune, Part 2, is a man of few words, but can communicate with a look and a glance with his eyes, a la James Dean. Hardy is his iconic self, a real tough guy, a Marlon Brando type, who can fight when needed, but is aging and realizes his time as leader is fast running out. With the high drama in this story, you can expect there to be tragic consequences. The cinematography is quite arresting with the many outdoor scenes of the Midwest and an impressive collection of classic cars and motorcycles. The outstanding score includes many familiar songs by artists such as The Animals, The Shangri-Las, Bo Diddley and Cream. Nichols is well known for his previous excellent movies including Take Shelter, Mud and Midnight Special. The Bikeriders may be his most classic film yet.

Quo Vadis, Aida?

Quo Vadis, Aida?              4 ½ stars

Quo Vadis, Aida? from 2021 is a movie that should be seen when the viewer is in the frame of mind to accept a truly tragic situation. The movie by Jasmila Zbanic is based on the true story of what happened at the village of Srebenica, Bosnia during the war there in 1995. This is where one of the greatest war crimes in Europe was committed with the murder of thousands of innocent Bosnian men by the Serbian army. The film is told mainly from the point of view of Aida, a middle-aged Bosnian woman employed by the United Nations as an interpreter. This provides her with insight and access to what is going on at the UN base camp where thousands of Bosnian refugees are seeking protection after being driven out of their homes. As this tragedy unfolds she is also trying to see that her husband and two sons do not fall into the hands of the soldiers. The film shows us the senselessness of war in general and the complete ineffectiveness of the UN to prevent an atrocity due to failure of policy and of bureaucracy. We see how the nightmare unfolds step by step as Aida tries to work with the UN officials to find a way to protect her family and is met by resistance from the authority figures. The UN officers are not solely to blame as they are restricted by the orders from their superiors and so are prevented from following through on their promises to protect the local population. The film plainly tells how this atrocity happens and its effect from a personal point of view. The viewer should go into the film knowing there will be nothing pleasant about the ultimate outcome, though there are few scenes of direct violence shown on screen.

The Midnight Sky

The Midnight Sky             2 stars

The Midnight Sky, directed by and starring George Clooney was released at the end of 2020 during the pandemic but I never heard of it until over a year later. Judging by its media presence few people had seen it. This science fiction drama concerns a reclusive genius scientist named Augustine Lofthouse who has isolated himself at an arctic research station as a catastrophe threatens to destroy most of the human population on Earth. So you know right away that we are in for some heavy drama of the hopeless variety. Added to the mix is a group of astronauts and scientists who are headed back to Earth after a several years long mission to investigate the habitat on a distant moon of the planet Jupiter. Unfortunately, no one has informed the crew of the spaceship of the recent developments back home. So it falls on Augustine to find a way to contact them and reveal the bad news and warn them that they would be better off not returning to Earth. (Nevermind that his communication with the ship happens instantaneously despite the fact that the ship is still in deep space.) We are never told exactly what happened, but we assume there must be a radioactive atmosphere around most of the planet due to some human activity. The movie moves at a very slow pace and has an ominous tone to it that really gets depressing. There are a few flashbacks to the young Augustine where we find out he had a promising family life at some point and that it all changed leading him to a lonely life. Some harrowing moments are experienced by Augustine and by the ship’s crew that they manage to survive, but this does little to take us away from the doomed feeling we get from the film. There is nothing fun or for that matter thrilling about the movie. It certainly is no Gravity. There is a plot twist in the movie that I won’t describe, but will only say that I thought the filmmakers were setting this up in a deceptive manner by holding back certain facts until they are revealed at the end. I have not appreciated this type of plot device in other movies and was sorry to see it here. There must be better ways to treat the subject of global disaster than what The Midnight Sky has done. I will say that the special effects used to create the spaceship were impressive. If only they had been used in a better movie.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever              4 stars

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

My Octopus Teacher

My Octopus Teacher      5 stars

I finally saw the 2021 Academy Award winning documentary “My Octopus Teacher” by documentarian Craig Foster. Foster filmed his underwater encounters with the eight-legged subject in the waters off South Africa near his home after going through a period of crisis in his own life. In the film he made daily trips to the kelp forest where all sorts of colorful creatures live and followed the life of a single female octopus, bringing the experience to a personal level. It isn’t a film of scientific study but succeeds in showing what it takes for this animal to survive in the sea, including escaping from the sharks that prey on the octopus and finding ways to catch its own source of food. He does all this using just a snorkel and without a wetsuit allowing him to get close to the animal which reacts to him with curiosity. He even catches a close encounter with one of those hungry sharks followed by a long period of recovery for the mollusk. The film is only a little over an hour and a half long but by the end you feel that you understand something about this creature that is almost an alien to humans. For nature lovers this is one that should not be missed.

Orphan: First Kill

Orphan: First Kill               ½ star

Orphan: First Kill is the prequel to the 2009 movie Orphan about dwarf young woman who passes herself off as a child who also happens to be a psychopathic killer. Judging by First Kill I won’t be seeing the earlier one. The movie explains how Esther, the diminutive 30 year old and the most dangerous inmate of an asylum in Estonia escapes and makes her way to America and convinces a grieving family that she is their lost daughter who disappeared four years earlier. First Kill breaks one of the rules of horror movies at the start by leading with scenes of bloody mayhem instead of waiting the customary 20 minute minimum. After that it asks way too much of the audience to believe as the premise plays out. In the first Orphan Esther is played by a 10 year old playing the part of a 30 year old pretending to be a 10 year old. In First Kill the same actress is a 25 year old playing the part of a 30 year old pretending to be a 10 year old. I can’t tell which is harder to believe. Perhaps we are supposed to blame the victims for falling for such an absurd trick. There are other inconsistencies that are not explained such as the lack of any genetic testing in this modern age of DNA and how the medical doctors could be fooled by the masquerade. There is an attempt to make things more interesting with a twist that is introduced midway through the movie with Esther not being the only one with a secret to hide. I advise everyone to stay away from Orphan: First Kill, especially with so many interesting movies coming out in the next few weeks.

The Woman King

The Woman King              4 ½ star

The historically based action drama The Woman King opened with much anticipation and succeeded in delivering. The mostly female production staff tells the story of an African tribe in the early 1800’s that was home to an all female army of fierce warriors who defend their home and people from neighboring warring tribes. This is in the period when the slave trade was still practiced in West Africa, though the United States was done with the trade by this time. The slave buyers here are represented by the Portuguese speaking Brazilians who pit the African tribes against one another, encouraging them to provide human slaves from their enemies. Viola Davis appears as the battle tested Nanisca, the general of the Agojie, the elite troops of the kingdom of Dahomey. Her role here is unlike any other she has had before (Fences, Doubt, The Help) as she goes full on action hero, charging into the enemy ranks and overseeing the training of the female soldiers. She has plenty of battle scars from her years of service and is very circumspect about her own situation in the quiet down times. One can tell there is a story from her past that is slowly revealed in the film. There is also the story of one of the young soldiers, Nawi, (Thuso Mbedu of The Underground Railroad) who is given to the army by her father after she refuses to be married off to an old rich man. Her path to becoming a warrior is equally intriguing to that of Nanisca as she learns the consequences of disobeying orders, but becomes key to the developments in the story. John Boyega of Star Wars fame does an impressive job in the role of the King of the Dahomey, who must decide what is the best path to take for his people and find a way of ending the practice of selling humans for profit. Like any good action movie there are plenty of scenes of fighting with the weapons of the time: swords, spears and flintlocks causing great loss of life and bloody wounds on both sides of the conflict. These scenes put together by director Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball, The Old Guard) become quite extended and realistic. The script is by Dana Stevens based on a story by Maria Bello and others. I don’t know just how much of the story is true, (It is an “inspired” story.) but it is well past time that this episode of history of African women fighters is recognized.

Don’t Worry Darling

Don’t Worry Darling        2 ½ stars

By now everyone has heard some of the behind the scenes drama about Don’t Worry Darling, the Olivia Wilde directed vision of a utopia of married couples set in a 1950’s suburban paradise where the wives relish in house cleaning, modern dance lessons and preparing epicurean meals for their husbands who spend their days at work on a mysterious project called The Victory Project that no one understands. That drama is something I don’t need to go into, but in the movie itself it doesn’t take long to get the feeling that something isn’t right in paradise. Alice (Florence Pugh does a fantastic job!), the housewife to husband Jack (Harry Styles) starts to see signs that things are amiss in her world. She hears strange tunes, sees food that is not real and imagines the walls of the house are closing in on her. Her seemingly happy neighbors who all share the same cul-de-sac and with whom they all indulge in wild drunken parties don’t see the same signs and deny that there is anything sinister going on. The one exception is Mary (Olivia Wilde) who wants to put a stop to Alice’s suspicions. There is plenty to be suspicious about as the head of The Victory Project, Frank (Chris Pine) is treated like the worshipped leader of a cult. There is something demon like about him and in this case Pine is suited to the role. This type of dystopian society film has been done many times before only in a less preachy manner. Eventually, we get to an explanation via a heavy use of flashbacks. There is a definite feminist message against a very repressive society and a praise for those who would rebel against it. One gets the feeling that there was a lot of anger behind the writing of this film. For a superior treatment of a similar theme, only from a racial perspective I much prefer Get Out, the 2017 horror film by Jordan Peele. But it does appear that Don’t Worry Darling has its fans. Don’t count me among them.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam        4 stars

The new comedy mystery drama Amsterdam by writer-director David O. Russell has a very long and winding plot that takes us through three countries over 15 years, involves a murder mystery of a war hero, a murder frame job, an extended love affair, a massive political conspiracy and a truly lasting friendship at the heart of everything. Those familiar with some of Russell’s past works won’t be too surprised at this. (See I Heart Huckabees, American Hustle and Joy for some very involved plots.) In Amsterdam we meet our three close friends who meet as a result of The Great War and the injuries sustained in this war to end all wars. There is Dr. Bert Berendsen (a very talkative Christian Bale) whose mission is to care for all those war veterans suffering after the war and honor them at an annual gala. His best friend is Harold Woodman (John David Washington who we remember from BlacKKKlansman), who he met while commanding a unit of African Americans in France in the war who is to become an accomplished lawyer. And there is the American nurse Valerie (Margot Robbie) who cared for them after they were severely wounded in battle. Together, the three banded together in Amsterdam to care for damaged soldiers from the war. When we jump ahead to 1933 the three of them become ensnared in the suspected murder of their commanding officer from the war that may lead to one of the greatest political conspiracies this country has ever experienced. Did I say that the movie has wandering plot? It needs to have a lot going on to give its all star cast the roles that tell the story. Apparently, Hollywood stars are clamoring to work with Russell as I counted no less than sixteen recognizable names among the cast. This includes Michael Shannon and Mike Myers, as two ornithologists who work for the government (British and American), Matthias Schoenaerts and Alessandro Nivola as two cops investigating a murder and Taylor Swift as the daughter of the murdered victim. Much of the comedy seems to be in the tradition of the zany comedies of the nineteen forties, especially that of Robbie who really lets it fly. You will have to be patient to get to the point when all is revealed. Eventually the climactic scene is reached when a critical choice must be made that will affect the lives of millions. Many people will see it as a cautionary tale about what America is going through today, but the film has been in development for many years so you can judge for yourself. In the end the film is about the friendship of our trio of heroes that wins out in an ending that is reminiscent of Casablanca. You may hear some negative reviews about Amsterdam. Many critics hold the meandering plot against what Russell has done here, but I found it all to be very entertaining.