Category Archives: Thriller

The Moment

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The Moment     4 stars

For the first Sundance movie to be seen by me after the festival, I found The Moment now showing in theaters and starring Charlie XCX. This mockumentary about the British pop singer has her playing a fictionalized version of herself during the summer of 2024. It seems to be modeled after the Rob Reiner Spinal Tap movies that mocked the behind-the-scenes events around rock music. The Moment does this for pop music and for a much younger audience. It starts with the release of the star’s hit album and her desire to extend the “brat” summer indefinitely as she prepares to go on tour. The “mockumentary” camera follows her and her crew, her friends, her manager and the record label executives as they plan for the opening concert and the rehearsals. Key figures in the process are Charlie XCX’s artistic director Celeste (Hailey Gates) and a documentary director, Johannes (Alexander Skarsgard), filming the fictional meetings and the preparations for the tour. Much like This is Spinal Tap, the film captures some of the ludicrous aspects of the entertainment industry and shows how the egos of the various parties interfere with the project, including rather passive aggressive behavior on the part of the big shots. Included is a ridiculous plan to market “brat” credit cards to a subculture of LGTBQ+ fans that includes free tickets to her concert. Charlie XCX reserves some of the ridicule for herself as she tries to control the project while at the same time sabotaging it. Skarsgard is excellent as the two-faced film director who is shown as both cooperating in the creative process but is also power hungry as he questions the choices made by others. The behavior of the creative talent is the most amusing aspect as they try to stay on the good side of Charlie XCX, while trying to get their own way at the same time. And like in This is Spinal Tap, when things fall apart, they do whatever it takes to put the blame on someone else. While The Moment was not nearly as funny as the Spinal Tap movies, I frequently found myself laughing out loud.

The Secret Agent

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The Secret Agent             5 stars

A favorite genre of mine is the political thriller and if you share this feeling, you should not miss Kleber Mendonca Filho’s extraordinary movie The Secret Agent. The setting is 1977 southern Brazil, a time of extreme authoritarianism and oppression that feels appropriate for today. Early on we meet Marcelo (Wagner Moura of Civil War and Dope Thief) who is driving a bright yellow VW Beetle through desolate country and stops at an isolated gas station to buy gas. There is a dead body that has been lying on the ground for days with the attendant explaining that he tried to rob the place and got what he deserved. They are still waiting for the police, but the police have their hands full as Carnivale is in full swing. (It is mentioned that there have been 91 deaths reported during Carnivale so far.) When police car does show up, they are only interested in trying to shake down Marcelo for some cash. This movie packs a lot in its 2-hour, 41-minute runtime. There are corrupt cops that engage in killings and disposal of bodies (and body parts), a loose knit organization that protects people in trouble by hiding them and giving them new identities, discoveries of body parts inside the stomachs of sharks, a corrupt businessman who will let no one stand in the way of his greed, a pair of professional hitmen and a mysterious dismembered “hairy leg” that attacks people in a park. What I really like about the movie is the way the story is told. The characters are introduced slowly, and we don’t get much background to start with. Marcelo finds a room to stay, in a house belonging to an old woman who seems to have a lot of connections. He has a young son who is staying with the boy’s grandparents. Other characters are introduced, such as the corrupt police chief, but we don’t know how they are related to Marcelo. Eventually, we learn more using flashbacks and learn that Marcelo was a researcher at a company with government funding. The pacing starts out very slowly, but builds as the characters are developed and the relationships become clearer. Finally, the tension rises to a fever pitch as the paths of the characters finally cross. But that is not enough. The director has added scenes at the end that take place decades later that deliver the message that time does not heal all wounds. This is the way a good thriller is supposed to be made. A nice tough is seeing how communication was done in the age before cell phones and the internet. Everything was land lines and telegrams. There is little doubt about why The Secret Agent was nominated for the Best Picture, Best Actor, Casting and Best International Feature Film Academy Awards this year. Filho has made many other well received films, but as they are from Brazil, I have not heard about them before. He is getting some major recognition this year.

Parasite

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Parasite                5 stars

The movie to see in theaters now is Parasite, the creation of Korean director Bong Joon Ho, who previously brought us The Host, Snowpiercer and Okja.  This movie does have a message about the haves and the have nots, but does so with biting wit and a story that holds our interest throughout its 130 minute run time.  We are introduced to a poor family in South Korea who are scraping by with menial jobs but are far too smart to starve.  The son learns of a wealthy family who needs a tutor for their daughter to learn English so he easily gets the job through lies and false credentials.  Before long the family of four all secure jobs with this family using lies and various deceitful schemes landing them work for which they are not qualified in this luxury home.  It doesn’t hurt that the rich couple seem to be extremely gullible willing to believe almost anything.  Just as this family of con geniuses are enjoying their newfound wealth, an unfortunate discovery is made that takes the movie through an unexpected and dark turn.  I will leave you to find out what happens at that point, but be assured you will not be bored or distracted from what lies in store for these characters.  There is plenty of suspense and action for the faithful moviegoer.  I found Parasite to be one of the best films I’ve seen this year.  I just hope that more people skip the usual Hollywood fantasy/action movies and seek it out.

Night Nurse

Night Nurse.        4 suns

Another entry in the NEXT section was Night Nurse, by Georgia Bernstein who is from Northbrook, Illinois.  The film can be described as an erotic thriller with a comedic tone. The setting is the night shift at a retirement home where the elderly residents are cared for by a team of nurses. A new nurse, Eleni joins the staff and is assigned to take care of Douglas, a man in his seventies.  Eleni is soon persuaded by Douglas to participate in a scheme where elderly men in the area are called on the phone and made to believe that she is their granddaughter and she has been in an accident and is being held by the police.  The men must send money to help her out.  Not only does she go along with the scam, but the two engage in erotic sexual behavior during the calls.  (It’s very steamy.) Eleni is not the only nurse to participate as most of the nurses are included in this erotic club. Douglas gets away with this by feigning dementia, so the administrators have no suspicion about the scheme (even though Douglas has bought a new convertible and drives his harem of nurses around in it.  Don’t think about it too much.) Mimi Rogers of erotic movie fame with films such as Someone to Watch Over Me, Desperate Hours and Full Body Massage plays the role of the doctor in charge of the home. The movie is a nice little diversion to enjoy. The movie was made with a very small budget. The director said that she hired personal friends as the nurses and had a family connection to Rogers.  She used her grandmother’s house as the movie set.  She got the idea for the movie after someone made an attempt to scam her grandmother out of money by using such a scheme.

Send Help

Send Help            4 stars

If you’ve ever seen a Sam Raimi directed horror movie you know you are in for plenty of comic violence, bloody gore and perhaps a moral message as well. And it’s certainly going to be fun. In Send Help you get all that and more from the Director of The Evil Dead movies and Drag Me to Hell and Executive Producer of Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess. When I saw the preview, I knew I had to see this one. In the headquarters of a nameless corporation, Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams in a role unlike any of her earlier ones) has been faithfully working in the Strategy and Planning Department for seven years and has been promised a position as vice president by the president if she sticks with it. She is very smart and well read at survival techniques (being a big fan of the TV show Survivor) but not well liked by her co-workers. Bradley (Dylan O’Brian) arrives as the new president after the sudden death of his father, the previously mentioned company president. Bradley doesn’t appreciate Linda’s disheveled looks and openly mocks her. He then promotes his fraternity brother, who has been there only six months to the coveted vice president position leaving poor Linda in shock. Bradley can’t get rid of Linda because she is too valuable to the company. So, he takes her along on his private jet to an important meeting concerning the impending merger in Bangkok. But before the plane lands it encounters a terrible storm that causes the plane to crash somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Linda survives the crash and finds herself on a deserted island. Before long though she finds Bradley has washed up on shore, unconscious and with an injured leg. She nurses him back to health and the two of them survive on coconuts, native fruits and fish. All that survival knowledge comes in handy, and she relishes this environment where she is the one in authority, but Bradley resents the circumstances where he has no valuable skills and must be subservient to Linda. Their stay on the island becomes a battle of wills with each eventually feigning a spirit of cooperation but also holding something back from the other. Along the way there is conflict growing between them, plenty of exaggerated gore (in Sam Raimi fashion), injuries (real and implied) and vomiting. McAdams really sinks her teeth into this role, gleefully relishing the circumstances she finds herself in. O’Brien is convincing as the obnoxious rich kid who has had everything handed to him, smirking at those who are less privileged. You really want to hate him. The dark comedy accelerates to a dramatic and violent conclusion that only Sam Raimi can pull off. I was laughing my head off. So go see the movie and have a great time for two hours.

No Other Choice

No Other Choice               3 stars

Man-su is the kind of man who has it all.  A good paying job, a beautiful wife, a house in the suburbs and two children.  He is a successful middle manager in a Korean paper company and a past Pulp Man of the Year.  But suddenly an American company has bought out the company and that can only mean job cuts. Man-su finds himself out of a job and after a year of searching still has not landed a new one forcing spending cuts at home. What can a man do except kill the competition for what openings there are in his industry? This is the premise of Park Chan-wook’s comedy drama No Other Choice.  It seems I don’t see things the same as most of the critics as I didn’t appreciate the change in style going from serious drama to slapstick comedy.  There was too much of a change in tone that bothered me.  Man-su (played by Lee Byung hun of Squid Games) takes out fake job ads for a paper company to find the best candidates so he can find them and murder them.  Then he will be the most qualified man remaining.  The problem is that Man-su is really bad at killing, often getting mixed up in the victim’s lives. Then he bumbles his way through each situation. The movie is a long way from being plausible, but apparently that is what Park has in mind.  I wasn’t buying it, which ultimately made the movie less interesting for me. It doesn’t get my vote for Best Foreign Film Academy Award.

The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse                 4 stars

The Lighthouse is a very dark moody horror film that follows the interactions of two lightkeepers who must work together on an isolated island somewhere in New England in the 1890’s.  This film is by the horror movie master, Robert Eggers who made The Witch a couple of years ago.  This movie may not have quite the supernatural elements that that excellent horror movie did, but certainly scores on its hopeless mood using black and white filming, a smaller screen and some very mournful music and sound effects.  The two actors portraying the lightkeepers give us amazing performances.  Willem Dafoe is the aging experienced man who gives the orders, instructing the younger worker, Robert Pattinson in some of the worst back breaking, miserable work you can imagine.  Both give us haunting and masterful performances.  If there were an Oscar for the best curses uttered by an actor, Dafoe would win easily.  The story centers on the conversations and interactions between the two men as they alternate from hating each other to showing genuine concern for one another.  But ultimately the movie is about a slow descent into madness with a few fantasy elements thrown in.  It is up to the viewer to interpret what these fantasy scenes are about.  And since it is a horror movie there are some very unsettling scenes involving human bodily functions and sexual images.  This film is definitely a downer about humans in a deteriorating situation, but does it in a most impressive manner.  It is not a movie for everyone.

It Was Just an Accident

It Was Just an Accident                  4 stars

It Was Just an Accident, by the noted Iranian filmmaker, Jafar Panahi is a revenge movie but is deeper than that as it questions the cost of revenge. I have never seen any of Panahi’s other films, but I understand that he has many productions to his name and is well regarded. A minor accident at the beginning of the film sets in motion a series of events that will have a lasting effect on the lives of several persons that were held captive in a notorious prison run by the oppressive Iranian government. Vahid is a mechanic who one day hears the sounds of a customer in his shop who is being served by his partner. He thinks he recognizes the customer’s limp as the prison guard who tormented him using “enhanced interrogations” while he was being held in prison years earlier. The man is Rashid, a man with a family, who walks with a limp because he has an artificial limb. Vahid schemes to find Rashid’s home, follow him and kidnap him, then sets about trying to bury him alive in the desert. But Vahid’s problem is he can’t be absolutely sure he has the right man since he was always kept blindfolded while in prison. So, he sets out to find other people who were also held prisoner and tortured by the same guard, bringing them all together to identify Rachid and confront their own past nightmares. They have heated arguments about the situation discussing whether to let him go or execute him. Things get even more complicated for them when they find out that Rachid has a wife who is in desperate need of medical aid and they must help her and the couple’s daughter. They find that given the chance for revenge, the cost to their being and sanity may not be worth any satisfaction they may receive. The ending is very powerful and not what I expected. Jafar Panahi was himself held prisoner by the authoritarian regime and was prohibited from making more films, but he hasn’t let that stop him. You can understand why the Iranian government doesn’t want him to express his views. He made this movie without the knowledge of the government using amateur actors and what could be termed as low production techniques, filming it all in Iran. Nevertheless, he has produced a powerful film, one that achieved critical success and won awards at the Cannes Film Festival last year. I was lucky enough to find it in the theater where I saw the full effect of the drama. Don’t be surprised to see it mentioned in the Academy Award nominations in a few weeks. It happens to be the official Academy Award foreign film submission from France.

The Good Liar

The Good Liar                    3 ½ stars

The Good Liar brings together two senior Hollywood legends in Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren for an intricate con game as McKellen’s Roy, an experienced con man seeks to gain the trust of elderly widow Betty (Mirren) and deprive her of her millions in life savings.  We get a steady building story for a while as we learn of Roy’s background as a con man and see how he convinces Betty that he is everything she is looking for after they meet with the help of an online dating service for mature people.  All is not perfect as Betty’s grandson Stephen (Russell Tovey from Years and Years) gets suspicious and looks into Roy’s background.  The viewer gets a good dose of Roy’s character as certain scenes make it clear that he has little regard for the suffering of others.  Things take a turn when flashbacks reveal some of Roy’s true story dating back to the 1940’s.  After this point things start to get a little unbelievable when the characters make decisions that you wouldn’t expect them to.  The movie does have a twist as all good con movies should, but it’s not unexpected as the promotions for the movie have already hinted at it.  This movie gets an A for the acting talents of its stars and C for the story.  It’s best to see this one if you haven’t already seen the previews.
 

Knives Out

Knives Out                          4 ½ stars

One of the best movies of this year has to be Knives Out, the traditional murder mystery in the style of Agatha Christie.  Written and directed by Rian Johnson, the renowned detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) has been hired to solve the murder of crime mystery writer Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) who has been found in his estate with his throat cut.  There is no shortage of suspects as his entire dysfunctional family seem to have enough motive to do him in.  there is plenty of changes in direction and red herrings as are required in a good mystery.  One such event happens at the reading of the will which points to one particular suspect of great interest.  It is then up to the great Blanc to sift through all of the clues and mis-directions to come up with the real explanation for Harley’s demise.  The movie is filled with stars including Don Johnson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Ana de Armas, Toni Collette and Frank Oz.  This is a very enjoyable film that will keep your interest throughout.