Category Archives: Drama

Nanny

Nanny                                   4 suns

The winner of the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize was Nanny, a film with supernatural elements that doesn’t quite rise the level of full-blown horror. We meet Aisha, an undocumented immigrant from Senegal, who gets a job as a nanny to a wealthy Manhattan couple taking care of their girl, Rose. Aisha is a mother herself, but has left her young son in the care of a cousin back in Senegal. Her hope is to be able to bring the son to the U.S. to join her one day. However, the situation is less than ideal as her employer’s problems begin to spill over to affect her own life, compounded by a supernatural presence that appears to invade her thoughts and dreams. Hope comes in the form of the grandmother of a man she meets played by Leslie Uggams, whom she can confide in. The film portrays the difficulties faced by immigrants who are parents in the U.S. as well as dealing with issues of mental illness among a population not equipped to handle them. Fortunately, the movie ends with a hopeful note.

The Substance

The Substance  4 ½ stars

For a searing indictment of the obsession with youthful looks and beauty double standard in today’s society combined with some of the grossest scenes Hollywood has produced lately, you can’t miss with The Substance currently in theaters. This science fiction horror film by French director Coralie Fargeat is sure to be remembered by all who see it. (She previously brought us the over-the-top and bloody as hell revenge movie aptly titled Revenge in 2017 that was a condemnation of rich white men who have little regard for women.) In The Substance we first meet Elizabeth Sparkle (a still stunning Demi Moore in one of her finest performances), who rose to stardom in the nineties and now stars on her morning workout show. But the sexist producer, Harvey (Dennis Quaid) wants to dump her and replace her with someone younger and hotter. Elizabeth learns of a black-market treatment called The Substance that claims to create a new, better version of yourself. Who wouldn’t want that? She quickly signs up for it and is directed by a mysterious voice on the phone of how to get it and implement the procedure. In a very long sequence with no dialogue, she carefully does as told, injecting the drug, leading to the resulting division of her body into two, one the new younger version (Margaret Qualley of Drive-Away Dolls) and the other, her original self. Part of the bargain is that Elizabeth must alternate between the two bodies every seven days, using the correct food and stabilizer that are provided. Both bodies are her and she must “respect the balance” as the mysterious voice says. Otherwise, things can get ugly. The young Elizabeth, who goes by Sue lands the part of the new star of the workout show with her youthful body being ogled by older men. Everything seems great, especially when she is offered the opportunity to host a New Year’s Eve show; that is, until Sue takes more than the designated amount of time creating a conflict between the two bodies. As one would predict this leads some very unfortunate consequences for the pair. What follows can best be described as a David Cronenberg horror movie on steroids as the amount of blood and gore reaches new and absurd heights. There is an abundance of closeup shots when things get messy as well as on Dennis Quaid’s face (and his sloppy eating habits) as well as loud sound effects to emphasize how gross it gets. The film certainly gets very self-indulgent, but it delivers on its message of condemning the impossible beauty standards of our society. It reminds us that trying to relive one’s past can only result in disappointment. If you like this movie for its action and blood you should be sure to find Fargeat’s Revenge. You won’t be disappointed.

All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front  4 ½ stars

This time I went from the horrors of narcissistic billionaires to an even greater horror, the viscousness of all-out war, by viewing the 2022 film, All Quiet on the Western Front. This is the German language film based on the well-known novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque. The book was made into the Academy Award winning film in 1930, and now we have the latest version, made with all the special effects of the present day. The film, by director Edward Berger, holds nothing back in presenting how horrible and devastating war can be. (I also happened to take a guided tour of World War I battlefield sites in France around this time so got a first-hand view of some authentic locations where The Great War was fought.) The opening scenes focus on a World War I battle between the Germans and the French showing us what trench warfare was like, with the soldiers seeing their comrades killed in an instant. But then we see the aftermath, with the bodies being gathered for burial as well as the gathering of the uniforms of the dead. The film then follows the path of the uniforms showing how they are cleaned and then mended so they can be reused by the next group of soldiers, giving us the feeling of a never-ending cycle of death. Like the book we follow teenage recruit Paul and his friends who are very enthusiastic about joining the army and the glory that awaits them. They are assured that the war will be over soon, and they will return to their homes as heroes. Of course, this is not to be as we are treated to one scene of horror after another showing the effects of modern weapons of war. Often the assaults result in scenes of hand-to-hand combat between the adversaries but based on my tour and readings, actual hand to hand combat was a rarity in World War I. More common were the artillery bombardments resulting in large casualties followed up with infantry attacks causing the enemy to retreat from their trenches. In this respect the movie and book are not accurate. We are also treated to scenes of comradery among Paul and his fellow soldiers during the quieter times in the trenches and the surrounding countryside. Against these scenes are those showing what life is like for the higher brass who issue the commands sending thousands of men to their deaths. These well-fed men with their large mustaches feast on their wine and cheese seemingly without a thought of concern for what the men are going through. They are only concerned about their own glory by achieving the victory in battle that forever eludes them. The frightening scenes of battle are backed up by an unsettling score and some of the best cinematography I have seen. The movie was the recipient of four Academy Awards which are well deserved. If you are at all interested in anti-war films, All Quiet on the Western Front must be on your list.

Licorice Pizza

Licorice Pizza                      5 stars

Over the past decade or so filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson has brought us such memorable and entertaining films as Magnolia, There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread. This year he has done it again with Licorice Pizza, a comedy romance set in early seventies Encino, California, concerning an on again, off again romance between 15 year old Gary (Cooper Hoffman, son of Philip Seymour Hoffman) and 25 year old Alana (Alana Haim). This may sound as inappropriate and implausible but Anderson makes it work and keeps us rooting for Gary in his quest for romance. It is not only Gary’s pursuit of Alana that keeps our interest, but also the many other exploits and situations this unlikely pair find themselves in. Somehow, 15 year old Gary starts a business selling waterbeds with Alana’s help as well as that of his 15 year old friends and later opens a pinball machine arcade. Gary has a mother who occasionally appears, but he is largely on his own in his various pursuits. He is even a frequent customer of a restaurant visited by Hollywood figures. Young actor Hoffman pulls off the part making you love his character, pimply face and all. Alana, who lives with her Jewish family (with her own real life family playing the part) at first finds Gary’s proposals ridiculous but later is drawn in by his persistence. The film is also noteworthy for the choice of music taken from artists of the sixties and early seventies including The Doors, Gordon Lightfoot, Wings and Blood, Sweat and Tears. There are some special supporting roles that deserve mention, especially Bradley Cooper as a narcissistic movie producer with a bad temper. His performance is worthy of an Academy Award nomination. Sean Penn makes an appearance as what seems to be a porn movie producer and John Michael Higgins is a Japanese restaurant owner who makes some very offensive racially insensitive remarks toward Asian women in some controversial scenes. Apparently the film is loosely based on the life of a friend of Anderson’s giving it an element of truth. Through much of the movie I had the feeling that this is completely ridiculous but it is still funny. Maybe in 1973 things like this could have happened. I have no doubt that Licorice Pizza will be nominated for Best Picture and it very well could win the Oscar.

The Power of the Dog

The Power of the Dog     4 ½ stars

Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog is classified as a Western but is unlike any western that I can remember. There is no gunplay or fist fighting, but there is plenty of conflict and tension in this slow moving drama set on a cattle ranch in 1925 Montana. Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch), one of two brothers operating the extravagant family ranch, is a swaggering, commanding cowboy who demands as audience. When he sees vulnerabilities in others, he takes advantage of them including his own brother George (Jesse Plemons) who he berates, referring to him as Fatso. Phil’s character is established when the ranchers come across the lonely widow Rose (Kirsten Dunst) and her son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) at a nearby restaurant and Phil sees his chance to berate the young, effeminate teenager. George sees the beautiful qualities in Rose and soon marries her and makes her the woman of the ranch. We all have come across people like Phil before. He is the bully, who despite being highly intelligent, seeks gratification by attacking others to make himself feel important. He even goes out of his way to appear stinky and dirty to embarrass his brother when guests come for dinner. The dialogue is usually kept to a minimum with the camera focusing on the vast landscape with New Zealand standing in for Montana. The score with its eerie sounds serves to magnify the tension that we feel between the characters. I won’t give away the plot but there is a frequent reference to an older ranch hand who has passed away and was the one who taught Phil and George about ranching. This is important. The movie is based on a book and has something significant to say about what it is to be a man. There is a lot going on below the surface with these multilayered characters that makes this a first-rate drama. However, the slow pace and lack of physical action is bound to turn off some audiences.

The Last Hand

The Last Hand                    ½ star

This week I went back in time to 1995 to find an old DVD release called The Last Hand. This is a dreadful film noir movie with cheap sets, convoluted writing and bad acting. It is set in a small Nevada town where some locals get together for a regular Friday night high stakes poker game. On one particular night, the usual loser Benny, hits it big and wins around $30,000 only to be killed by a gunman while driving home. Benny’s son, Clyde shows up the next day to find out what happened to Benny, but the cops are uncooperative, being controlled by one of the casino owners. As Clyde follows the path of Benny’s last hours he finds a maze of bad debts and mistrust among the card players and two of their lady friends that leads to more murders. There is also the matter of Benny’s will and the deed to his ranch that may reveal the motive of the killer. By the time I got to the end most everybody was dead and I didn’t care how it was going to turn out anyway. Then the filmmaker slapped on an ending that didn’t make sense to say nothing of the plot holes and seeming coincidences in the story. One notable point is that Benny is played by Batman’s Frank Gorshin. There is also a young woman, Grace played by Hudson Leick in her second film appearance, before she got the role of Callisto in Xena, Warrior Princess. Stay away from The Last Hand. As I say, I watch these movies so you don’t have to.

Parallel Mothers

Parallel Mothers              4 stars

Filmmaker Pedro Almodovar returns to the big screen with Parallel Mothers, a very feminine movie with a feminine cast, almost three years since Pain and Glory. He once again casts Penelope Cruz in the lead role, this time as Janis, a single woman who finds herself pregnant and sharing a hospital room with a 17 year old girl, Ana (Milena Smit) who is also about to give birth without any partner present. The movie is about close bonds that form between people in spite of some very messy circumstances. It really has two distinct aspects. Besides the feminine relationships that Almodovar is so known for (also Julieta and Broken Embraces starring Cruz), the movie has a political aspect being set in Spain, a country that experienced a civil war in the 1930’s. Janis persuades Arturo, a forensic anthropologist to uncover a suspected grave where the fascists of that period are believed to have murdered and buried her great grandfather and several other men from the area. In so doing we hear the stories of how this terrible event has affected the lives of the descendants so many decades after the events. Janis is a single mother, whose mother and grandmother were all single mothers and still feels ties to family that she was too young to meet. There are several interesting twists in the story about these women that I can’t go into without revealing the plot, but I will say it is about a secret that was kept for too long and the effect that has on others. Look for Parallel Mothers to earn some significant award nominations including for Cruz.

A Hero

A Hero                  4 stars

For my first new release of 2022 I had the chance to see A Hero, written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, the acclaimed filmmaker from Iran who previously won Oscars for his films, A Separation and A Salesman. This time he brings us a morality play called A Hero, about a man, Rahim, who has been imprisoned for failing to pay a debt, but is allowed a two day leave to visit family. Rahim has a family who stand by him through the ordeal and a girlfriend who has found a lost purse containing several gold coins, so after some consideration, Rahim decides to try to find the owner and return the purse. With the eventual success of reuniting the owner with the lost coins with the help of his girlfriend and some prison officials comes newfound fame as his story is picked up on social media and he is proclaimed to be a hero by the community. With his fame, Rahim hopes he can find a job that will persuade his accuser to allow his release from prison, as Rahim promises to repay the debt. The story then becomes an example of no good deed will go unpunished, when certain details of the story of the returned coins don’t match up and Rahim is not able to prove what really happened. The movie has similar elements to Farhadi’s earlier works, where the characters are neither good nor bad. Their actions fall in a grey area as they find themselves trying to do the right thing in a difficult set of circumstances. I liked the story and the fact that we get to see what life is like in a foreign culture that we are normally not exposed to. The movie is a bit long at just over two hours and it sometimes gets a little tedious as parts of the story seem to get retold a few too many times. Since it is all done with subtitles, one does have to pay close attention to what is said. I expect that Asghar Farhadi will receive one more deserved Foreign Film Academy Award nomination for A Hero.

The Harder They Fall

The Harder They Fall       4 stars

Jeymes Samuel has created a fantasy western based on real people that existed in the Old West. This is a violence filled movie with heroes and villains much in the tradition of the old Hollywood westerns only with an all Black cast. It seems to be set in the Oklahoma territory where freedmen settled after the Civil War, featuring all Black towns but with white folks nearby. The film is all about style at the expense of historical accuracy, that is to say it is a crowd pleaser. The actual story is not that important, but it is about an outlaw, Nat Love (Jonathan Majors) seeking revenge against a ruthless gang leader, Rufus Buck (Idris Elba) who murdered Love’s parents. Love is picking off Buck’s gang one by one until things change when Buck is freed from prison by his gang that includes badass Trudy Love (a wonderfully cast Regina King). There is plenty of tough talk, faceoffs and shootouts accompanied by a Reggae style soundtrack that will keep the audience engaged through the two and a quarter hour runtime. The dialogue is sometimes not true to the era drifting into more modern lingo, but accuracy is not the point of the film. The ending is a seemingly never ending showdown reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino’s westerns, stretching the limits of credibility. The all star cast is rounded out with Zazie Beetz as Stagecoach Mary, Delroy Lindo, LaKeith Stanfield, Daniel Deadwyler as Cuffee, Damon Wayans Jr. and Deon Cole. If you are looking for a great action movie with some over the top violence, then you should not miss The Harder They Fall, available on Netflix.

Nightmare Alley

Nightmare Alley                                                4 ½ stars

Four years after creating the weirdly romantic film about a woman and her fish man lover, The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro brings us a gritty, lurid film based on the 1946 novel by William Lindsay Gresham that shares the same name, Nightmare Alley. When you see the famed Mexican director’s name associated with a film, you know you are in for something unusual and disturbing. We can sense that this is a story of betrayal and doom. We first meet Stanton Carlisle, a man down on his luck in 1939 as he is burning a body inside an old house. The mysterious Stanton played by Bradley Cooper in one of his best roles to date manages to get hired at a carnival by the boss (Willem Dafoe). The carnival features a very seedy collection of freaks and sideshow performers in scenes that capture the feel of the depression. Stanton is immediately drawn to the carnival’s mentalists Zeena (Toni Collette) and Pete (David Strathairn) and finds he has a gift for reading people, eventually leaving and creating his own act, teaming up with another of the performers, Molly (Rooney Mara), whose beauty makes her stand out from the carnival freaks. As the pair perform their craft in high end clubs, Stanton encounters Lilith Ritter, a wealthy psychoanalyst whose clientele includes politicians, judges and business tycoons. Cate Blanchett plays the role expertly as her very presence commands our attention. She was born to play roles like this. Soon enough this pair devises a plan to separate the elite from their money with an elaborate scheme that is bound to lead to ruin, (though I won’t say whose). The film gets the feel of forties film noir movies that is aided by an astounding collection of gifted A list actors. Nightmare Alley was previously made into a movie in 1947 starring Tyrone Power, but I am sure del Toro did it with a much bigger budget. I am expecting it will receive a few Academy Award nominations later this week.