Multiplex Madness
Babygirl
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Director: Helina Reijn
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Sophie Wilde, Antonio Banderas
Just in case you've seen Eyes Wide Shut and felt Nicole Kidman didn't have enough orgasms in that movie, here is Babygirl to fill that void (her void? Pretend I said something adequately dirty). Babygirl sees Kidman as a big business lady who secretly lusts for a submissive sexual relationship, which takes form in an affair with a younger man who begins to dominate her life in more ways than just the bedroom. It's a bunch of steamy stuff, probably more ingrained with the mentality of such a relationship than the much more popular Fifty Shades movies. Babygirl is a movie about control, both living a life full of it and flirting with the excitement of losing it. The movie is well-made and well-played with all of this, though I confess I didn't find it very interesting, even if coming up with sex puns to describe it is my jam. Kidman has been in the Oscar conversation for this role, but I'm not sold on her getting an Oscar for showing the camera her o-face. Antonio Banderas probably deserves one for taking a role that implies he's bad at sex and completely selling it, though. That's fucking acting, right there.
Bloody Axe Wound
⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Comedy, Horror
Director: Matthew John Lawrence
Starring: Sari Arambulo, Billy Burke, Molly Brown, Eddie Leavy, Jeffery Dean Morgan
A Complete Unknown
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Drama
Director: James Mangold
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Boyd Holbrook, Dan Folger, Norbert Leo Butz, Scoot McNairy
Speaking as someone who doesn't follow music, barely knows anything about Bob Dylan, and doesn't really give a shit about him either, I wasn't looking forward to A Complete Unknown. The trailers looked like an Oscar bait performance showcase that is just an actor changing his voice and getting into bland melodrama interactions like "I just wish they'd let me be."/"Be what?"/"Whatever it is they don't want me to be." I knew the movie was probably going to be better than the trailer, which was predictably formatted for a base mass appeal, but seeing this movie on my list for this week did give me something of a headache. I enjoyed it, in case you can't tell.
Timothée Chalamet gives this movie's Oscar-baity performance, vocally-graveling his way through the film as influential musician Bob Dylan, who struggles with maintaining a monogamous relationship with a normal girlfriend while also wishing to break free of his folk music background and form the music he wishes to make. The movie is an argument for artistic freedom of expression fighting outside perception and expectation. It often shows that through Dylan working both withing the grain when he's vibing with it and against it when it doesn't suit him, sometimes coming off as a bit of a dick in the process. It's funny to think that the movie's climax is almost the opposite of Bohemian Rhapsody, which ended on the note of the band Queen bringing the house down with its most legendary performance. A Complete Unknown sees Dylan doing something similar, but gets heckled and booed, because it's primarily an audience that doesn't want "that new shit." That doesn't matter to Dylan, because he sang the music he wanted to sing, expressing his individuality. A Complete Unknown sometimes struggles with its own individuality in telling a tale of individuality, while coming off as a good enough story of Timothée Chalamet doing a Bob Dylan voice. There are interesting thematic works at play at times, though the film's time jumps sometimes act like a skipping record. It's a lot of life story for two-and-a-half hours, centering on someone who doesn't really want to let you into his psyche. It sometimes gets in its own way because of that, but it's still a worthwhile watch in spite of it.
The Fire Inside
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Drama, Sports
Director: Rachel Morrison
Starring: Ryan Destiny, Brian Tyree Henry
The most interesting elements of The Fire Inside are kept out of the trailers, which sell it primarily as a grounded inspirational sports biopic. That's only half the movie, because the film is more about what happens when a goal is achieved and the achievement doesn't live up to one's expectations. Telling the true story of Claressa "T-Rex" Shields, as she rises from obscurity to win the Gold medal for Women's Boxing at the 2012 Olympics. That portion of the narrative is a bit basic, if well-filmed. Where the film goes from there sets it apart, as it tells a story of disillusionment as we have a woman who worked hard to achieve something inspirational, but finds herself in an environment where it matters very little. Shields finds herself a victim of capitalism and advertisement politics, because while she is a well-known figure, she lacks the feminine sex appeal while being in an un-ladylike profession. The film goes on a spiral to show her struggles despite the perception of being a winner, and it does so with enough power to stand out from similar tales. It's a shame that it does struggle to fully grab attention until it hits that mark, but that's of no fault of stars Ryan Destiny and Brian Tyree Henry, nor director Rachel Morrison. Everyone brings their A-game to a project that clearly wants its message to be heard.
Nosferatu
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Horror
Director: Robert Eggers
Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Holt, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Willem Dafoe
I firmly believe we could use a modern Dracula adaptation that goes hard. We've had recent gimmick films, like Dracula Untold, Renfield, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, and Abigail, but not a true, full-blooded Dracula adaptation. The last time cinema recieved that was when Francis Ford Coppola did one in the 90's, which went pretty hard itself. Robert Eggers most certainly seemed like the man who could do another one, but he went for a remake of Nosferatu instead, which is a total Robert Eggers thing to do. For those who don't speak cinephile historian, Nosferatu: A Symphany of Horror is quite possibly the most widely praised horror film of the 1920's, but it was also blatant plagiarism. The film is pretty much a carbon copy of Bram Stoker's iconic novel Dracula, and it was treated as such by the Stoker estate, which tried to ban the film and even have every print destroyed. But life finds a way, and the film survived, even as many other films of its period disappeared entirely. The world benefited from that, because the film is a stunning work, as it became the definition of German expressionism and an inspiration to countless filmmakers, from Tim Burton to Guillermo del Toro. Robert Eggers is also one of those filmmakers, and just looking at a film like The Witch would make any horror enthusiest drool at the idea of this man's style fusing with that of original film director F.W. Murnau. The final film is a mixed blessing, but what we recieve makes those who believed smile with content knowing that they were right to want this.
This is, of course, the Dracula tale through the Nosferatu lens. Nicholas Holt is a real estate agent who is selling a nearby residence to secret vampire Bill Skarsgård, who becomes infatuated with Holt's wife, Lily-Rose Depp. Skarsgård is the most interesting casting here, as horror fans would know him best for his role as Pennywise in the It films. A lesser filmmaker would have had Skarsgård's Count Orlok just be Pennywise, but bald with pointy ears. Eggers never takes the easy way out though, choosing to give Orlok a bit of a design overhaul, reimagining him to look less like a rat-man and more like what an era-appropriate nobleman turned undead corpse might look like. One might wish for something a bit more recognizable in Orlok's design, but Eggers compromises with little details that make his silhouette look like traditional Orlok, including the pointy fingernails and chewed up ears that make them look pointy. The use of Orlok is bolder than the design, as he spends most of the first half, in shadow and out-of-focus, making his presence more imposing than his figure. And when Orlok is let loose, Eggers is as relentless as you'd expect, with no boundaries to what the horror will affect and what the film is willing to show.
The issue that Nosferatu bumps into is an issue Eggers has always struggled with, and it's that his eagerness for theatricality sometimes causes the tension to stumble. In some ways, watching Nosferatu is like watching a touring play production of Dracula from the 1930's. Everyone speaks large with towering mounds of dialogue and the film is heavily staged. It looks damn good doing it, but some will be turned off by the film's flair for the dramatic. Eggers also tries to beef up the film by adding to the attraction between Orlok and Lily-Rose Depp's character in a romance that deviates from the traditional Dracula/Mina romance in an attempt to be its own thing. It's needless and senseless, leaving a slight shitty aftertaste to it. It's all an attempt to make this version of Nosferatu a film with a lot of grandeur, but not all stories need such a heavy, overthought approach. The original Nosferatu works wonders within its simplicity via its pantomime and stunning cinematography. More show and less tell is probably the lesson from this. However, I will say that cinema is just that richer a place that Eggers got to make his version of this movie, with his distinctive elegant photography of the sickening and the brutal. I'm very happy I got to see this movie, because the best aspects are exactly what I wanted it to be.
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
Gladiator II ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Homestead ⭐️
Moana 2 ⭐️⭐️
Mufasa: The Lion King ⭐️⭐️1/2
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ⭐️⭐️1/2
Wicked Part I ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
New To Digital
Conclave ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Gladiator II ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Werewolves ⭐️⭐️1/2
Y2K ⭐️⭐️1/2
Coming Soon!
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