Monday, January 27, 2025

Cinema Playground Journal 2025: Week 4 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness


Brave the Dark
⭐️⭐️
Genre:  Drama
Director:  Damian Harris
Starring:  Jared Harris, Nicholas Hamilton, Jamie Harris, Sasha Bhasin, Will Edward Price, Kimberly S. Fairbanks


Angel Studios latest is a joint venture of the Harris Brothers, sons of the great Richard Harris.  Directed by Damian Harris, Jared Harris stars as a teacher who takes a troubled teen into his own home, where he patiently tries to build bridges with him through understanding and compassion.  It's an all-well-and-good heartwarming story that's based on true events, but there is little to the movie to differentiate from other films of this type (other than Angel Studios' signature move of directing to a charity website at the end, with a talking head addressing the importance of the film's subject).  Brave the Dark is a rather bland salute to the importance of teachers.  It seems to have a solid idea of how teachers can inspire their students, but unfortunately it has little idea of how to inspire the audience.  The movie is flat and lifeless, and while performances are capable enough, the drama just doesn't launch because it's delivered through hackneyed means.  Brave the Dark is one of those movies that wants to make a difference, but the problem is that it's made for an audience that strictly watches movies exactly like this.  If your method of spreading the word involves preaching to the choir, you're doing something wrong.  That being said, of all the movies I've seen from Angel Studios, this one might be the best.  Kudos for achieving mediocrity.  Now let's see if you can break that ceiling.


Flight Risk
⭐️⭐️
Genre:  Thriller
Director:  Mel Gibson
Starring:  Mark Whalberg, Michelle Dockery, Topher Grace


Michelle Dockery got tired of playing posh on Downton Abbey, so she decided to give action hero a try in this thriller, where she plays a U.S. Marshall escorting stool pigeon Topher Grace to witness protection, only to discover that their pilot, Mark Whalberg, was sent to kill them.  Fundamentally, there is very little wrong with Flight Risk, as everyone performs their roles admirably and the pacing is efficient enough.  The film feels like the only piece missing from it is that someone forgot to make it exciting.  I'm not sure if Mel Gibson is used to directing a film like this.  Flight Risk has the lowest budget of any film he has made, including debut drama The Man Without a Face (which was made thirty years ago, so inflation makes the gap even wider).  Since then, Gibson got used to large-scale epics after taking home box office and award glory in Braveheart, and in some way, by going this small, he seems a little out of his comfort zone.  The film's premise seems bulletproof, by setting a closed-space thriller on a single set, taking the audience on a real-time ride as the characters try to land their plane.  Gibson doesn't take advantage of the set for claustrophobic tension, while there is futher action that is implied to be happening at ground level that we only hear as exposition over communications.  The premise is giving Gibson in-roads on how to make itself an edge-of-your-seat experience, yet he curiously ignores most of them.  Flight Risk turns into a flat watch that barely requires attention.


Inheritance
⭐️⭐️
Genre:  Thriller
Director:  Neil Burger
Starring:  Phoebe Dynevor, Rhys Ifans


Another posh player going into thriller territory, Bridgerton's Phoebe Dynevor stars in this chase movie as the daughter of Rhys Ifans, who is kidnapped in Egypt and the kidnappers are insisting on her retrieving a mysterious drive in India for his safe return.  The film is more basic than its twists and turns would have you believe, as the twists themselves are rather basic in general.  The movie almost feels intentionally low-key because the film is more about technological experimentation rather than plot, as it's one of the new wave of films that are shot entirely on an iPhone, the most large-scale of which is coming in a few months with Danny Boyle's long-awaited horror sequel 28 Years Later.  I tuned out of the story pretty early on (though I had little trouble following it because of its simplicity) and started studying what the chosen camera offered the movie.  Most noticeably, the film was mostly done in long singular takes, which is actually impressive in its own way, because those are very hard on the actors.  Dynevor and Ifans deserve credit for working with that and still coming through with pretty solid performances.  Second, the mobility is more active than I'm used to from a film, as the camera can fit in tight spaces and circle the actors for greater immersion, showing off that everything is filmed on location with no crew in sight.  There are a few caveats to this, as the film succumbs to motion blurring quite a bit, which is an issue when you're basically stylizing in handheld shaky cam.  The audio also seems to suffer, but I'm also not sure how they recorded for this movie (I imagine they didn't entirely rely on the phone for that).

As for the movie itself, it's fine.  It's not terribly exciting and it's very predictable, but it's an okay diversion if you just want a simple, empty calory thriller, and it's probably a better option for that audience than Flight Risk.  There's even a car chase halfway through that is pretty solid.  What I think is more interesting about this movie is that it's an indication that it's opening a door, and the idea that anybody who owns an iPhone could potentially be a filmmaker.  That's exciting to me.  I guarantee you we'll see a lot of garbage from this, but the gems that result would make it all worthwhile.


Nickel Boys
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Oscars Nominated:  Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay
Genre:  Drama
Director:  RaMell Ross
Starring:  Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Heschinger, Daveed Diggs, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor


It's Oscar season, which means it's crunch time!  It's time to take a look at the movies that passed me by this last year that the Academy is telling me I need to take a U-turn for.  In the case of Nickel Boys, I had seen trailers for it, but it never opened in my neck-of-the-woods.  Even my arthouse didn't carry it.  Post Oscar nomination, it was seemingly dumped in my theater with little fanfare to satisfy the curious.  It through my schedule for a loop this weekend, because I didn't know it was playing until I was literally in the theater, but I made the screening work.

Based on the novel by Colson Whitehead, Nickel Boys sees two Black teenagers being held in a reform school called Nickel Academy throughout the 60's.  The duo depend on each other during the dark days, as the staff mistreat and abuse the children under their watch.  The film is presented in first-person perspective, literally offering us a look through the eyes of young Black teenagers as the camera substitutes itself into their point of view, interchanging throughout the course of the film.  The intention of this seems to be to insert an audience-member into the shoes of these characters, offering up the perspective of what it's like to be a Black kid growing up in a hostile environment.  Nickel Boys has lofty ambitions of immersion, though I'm not entirely convinced it pulls it off.  The film's dreamlike tone makes it feel emotionally distant, while the more aspects it tosses into its narrative flow, the more it starts to feel chaotic.  I feel like the film successfully shows us through a character's eyes, but it never feels like we're in their head.  The experimentation has just enough flavor to it to be worth the effort, even if it doesn't always hit the way it wants to.  Other than that, the movie is an efficient drama, giving us a tale that is bound to make the compassionate angry, while making us glow with the bonds being formed.  It's unfortunate that is the gimmick doesn't work for an audience member, then it will stunt the emotion of the piece.  Unfortunately, I found myself in that group, but I still found the film admirable.


Presence
⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre:  Drama, Thriller
Director:  Stephen Soderbergh
Starring:  Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Eddie Maday, West Mulholland


Steven Soderbergh plays with the spookums in this supernatural drama, which sees a family with strained relationships move into a house, only to be gradually aware that there is omnipresent being watching over them.  The cinematography is the star of the show, as the film is presented in a first-person point-of-view from the specter watching over them.  The camerawork echoes the voyeuristic ambition of a film like Zone of Interest but takes the next step in allowing the camera to be an extra player in the movie.  It works beautifully, as it can often bring unease in what we don't know about its motivation while also conveying sadness, as it's actions seem beneviolent and harmless, spending most of its time hiding in a teenage girl's closet.  David Koepp's script is solid and efficient, although it holds me back in just how glowing I feel about this movie, as certain plot elements are vague and dwindle while dialogue can be overscripted.  The ghost story aspect also falls to the wayside pretty easily at times, with only sudden camera flourishes to remind us what the actual story of the movie is.  I'd argue that the movie also struggles to stick the landing, opting for an ending that is abrupt and poetic over full resolution.  Horror fans may want to be warned that the movie isn't really horror, with more of a tragic drama presentation than anything thrilling.  But there is something special at the heart of this movie if one is willing to see it, and it could very well go down as one of the greatest haunted house movies of all time.


Sing Sing
⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Oscars Nominated:  Best Actor - Coleman Domingo, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song - "Like a Bird"
Director:  Greg Kwedar
Starring:  Colman Domingo, Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin, Sean San Jose, Paul Raci, David "Dap" Giraudy, Patrick "Preme" Griffin, Jon-Adrian "J.J." Valezquez, Sean "Dino" Johnson


I'm very happy that Colman Domingo is getting the recognition he deserves.  He's been on my radar for a while now and has yet to give a performance I've seen that hasn't popped straight off the screen.  This is his second year in a row where he has earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination.  He's not going to win, because Adrian Brody, Ralph Fiennes, and Sebastian Stan are brutal powerhouses to be reckoned with, but at least he can sleep well at night knowing his performance in Sing Sing was less vanilla that Timothy Chalamet's in A Complete Unknown.

Based on true life experiences, Domingo stars as an incarcerated man at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, who fulfills his time behind bars by throwing himself entirely into the facility's theater group.  What's interesting about this film is that it is produced and performed by former Sing Sing inmates, who each play themselves in the movie, relating how much this rehabilitation program meant to them during their time spent in prison.  They're pretty good actors, as well, lending both authenticity and skill to a heartfelt production.  This movie is so tender, taking archetypes known for their hardened exterior and allowing them to be soft, open, and joyful.  It's a rousing and cheerful examination of life for those who are confined, learning to live for something more than just their mistakes.  It's a beautiful movie.

Netflix & Chill


Star Trek:  Section 31
⭐1/2
Streaming On:  Paramount+
Genre:  Science Fiction, Action, Adventure
Director:  Olatunde Osunsanmi
Starring:  Michelle Yeoh, Omari Hardwick, Kacey Rohl, Sam Richardson, Sven Ryugrok, Robert Kazinsky, Humberly González, James Hiroyuki Liao, Joe Pingue


Paramount is still evolving what today's version of the Star Trek franchise looks like.  In some ways, it's very exciting, because what we get is more-often-than-not very new and different.  However, for some, there is comfort in Star Trek's familiarity, which makes the new cold and scary.  This is probably why Strange New Worlds is easily the most digestible of the new Star Trek line, because it takes the familiar and created something fresh out of it.  Now, Paramount is offering up the proposal that maybe direct-to-streaming films could be an exciting new venture for this cash cow, all the while I've been clamoring for Lower Decks:  The Motion Picture.  Instead, they gave us Star Trek:  Section 31, a Star Trek:  Discovery spin-off that was reformatted into a VOD movie because Michelle Yeoh became far too expensive for a weekly TV series now that she has an Oscar.

The film catches us up with Philippa Georgiou, the former Terran Emperor from the Mirror Universe, now trapped in the mainline Star Trek universe by the Discovery crew, only to join the Federation's Section 31 black ops division before being flung nine-hundred years into the future then spit back out nine-hundred years earlier again by the Guardian of Forever because Yeoh left the series (this is a long story, but it's basically the first three seasons of Discovery in a nutshell).  Now back at the time she started (give or take a decade), Section 31 catches up with Georgiou and re-recruits her, as they go off on a mission to protect the universe from a dangerous weapon before it can be used.  Rapid-fire editing and action setpieces ensue.

Section 31 is an excellent idea for a Star Trek spin-off because it's something we know about this universe that has yet to be fully explored.  The division was introduced in the shadows on Deep Space Nine, and slightly re-emerged on Enterprise, but our best look at them yet came on Discovery when Georgiou joined their ranks.  Now we're going deeper into this organization of individuals who get their hands dirty so Starfleet officers like James Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard can keep them clean.  Some Star Trek fans don't like it when Star Trek explores the darker side of utopia, but my view of Star Trek is that it isn't exactly utopian, but rather that it's a message that utopia can't actually be obtained but must always be strived for.  There is no light without darkness, so I am fully invested in whatever story this universe might hold.  Sadly, the Section 31 movie fulfills very little of what potential a Section 31 spin-off could promise.

Throughout the film I was mostly reminded of ensemble action films like The Expendables, The Losers, or Suicide Squad, just with a science fiction setting.  That's not entirely unappealing, because movies like that can be a lot of fun.  Section 31 flails around as it starts throwing out concepts with very little purpose to them other than for its own personal quirk or so it can hit the ground running for the next scene.  The film is largely plotless noise, barreling through a crash-course of settings for our characters to either bicker or fight their way through.  Usually, Star Trek movies are driven by character choices within conflict.  Section 31 is conflict whirlwinding the characters.  What's off-putting about this is that it makes the movie kind of trashy.  Star Trek has explored trashy quadrants of its own galaxy before, but it has never been trashy itself.  Even when it's mocking itself (like Lower Decks) or when it's targeting children (like Prodigy) or even when playing itself up as hardboiled or edgy (like Deep Space Nine, the Kelvin films, Discovery, or Picard), Star Trek has always presented itself with grace.  Section 31 does not.

There are slivers of fun to be had.  The action, while not really above what you'd normally see on each TV series every week, is pretty good (Michelle Yeoh always brings her A-game to choreography).  There are a lot of fun tidbits and deep cuts in the movie as well, including Kacey Rohl as Michelle Garrett, future captain of the Enterprise (as seen in the Next Generation episode Yesterday's Enterprise).  But like most of the characters here, she is more of a caricature than an actual character.  The movie's lack of detail really hurts both its characterization and its story, as the movie feels more-often-than-not like a TV pilot that wasn't picked up because little about it clicked.  Section 31 is dragged kicking and screaming into being a one-off, but it doesn't work as one.  It might be an indicator that these Star Trek event films were dead before they even got started.  That's a shame, but if Section 31 is them running out the gate with their guns blazing, maybe they shouldn't bother.

Oscar's Trash Can


Black Box Diaries
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Oscars Nominated:  Best Documentary Feature Film
Genre:  Documentary
Director:  Shiori Itō
Starring:  Shiori Itō


Japanese journalist Shiori Itō chronicles her endeavor to expose sexual assault after her public accusation of fellow journalist Noriyuki Yamaguchi, who she claimed raped her in 2015.  Itō faces backlash publicly, which leads her to publishing her book Black Box, where she writes about her experiences and the state of Japanese patriarchy on related laws.  The film further chronicles the subsequent lawsuit that Yamaguchi filed against her, and her perseverance in telling her story.  The film is mostly a bunch of filmed meetings, but the ambition is clear that words have power, and the truth is a power that needs to be fought for.  Itō is a very compelling person to center such a film around because she is very strong, yet soft and vulnerable.  She puts on a brave face and faces her backlash head-on, known in her country as "the girl who was raped," but she'll also break down into tears when she inevitably receives support because she spends a lot of her journey fighting alone.  It's hard not to feel for her.  I could nitpick the film's pacing, as the film just lays itself out flatly with events as they transpire, but even if that were an issue, it doesn't change how powerful the film is.  It's a tough and frustrating watch, while also courageous and inspiring.  Itō transcends being a victim and becomes a symbol of taking back one's power.  Itō ends the piece assuring that, despite her success, her experience will still haunt her, but we all hope she regained a little bit of peace through this work.


Flow
⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Oscars Nominated:  Best International Feature Film, Best Animated Feature Film
Genre:  Adventure
Director:  Gints Zilbalodis
Starring:  KITTY!


A group of mismatched animals take refuge in a boat as the sea level in their area rapidly rises in this pantomime fairy tale from Latvia.  Beautifully animated like a storybook, the film is very deftly crafted with a loving hand by multitasking director Gints Zilbalodis.  Through his eye, we are shown a eye-popping adventure of a group of misfit creatures who become an unlikely family in the confined of a single space with a shared goal of survival.  Animated stories that take place in nature are a dime a dozen, though most feel the need to anthropomorphisize the animals in each movie by some method in order to better communicate with the audience.  Flow takes a riskier approach in not wanting to do that, choosing to let the animals of this film act like actual animals (mostly).  There is a keen attention to detail in the way they behave and the way they move, lending authenticity to such a fantastical tale.  And it even goes the extra mile on selling the friendship of the beasts by making the main lens of the movie be the eyes of a small cat, one of the most paranoid and distrusting creatures you can name.  As the cat softens to its fellow travelers, we start to believe in their comradery.  If there is one detail that soils the illusion of the movie, it's that the movie can't keep the charade of animals being the main characters up for its entire duration, sometimes accelerating too hard into human attributes after long patches of subtlety.  It's enough to snap me out of the movie, but not enough to keep me from admiring it as a work of art.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater
Babygirl ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Brutalist ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 
A Complete Unknown ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Gladiator II ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Moana 2 ⭐️⭐️
Mufasa:  The Lion King ⭐️⭐️1/2
Nosferatu ⭐️⭐️⭐️
One of Them Days ⭐️⭐️1/2
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ⭐️⭐️1/2
Wicked Part I ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Wolf Man ⭐️⭐️

New To Digital
The Damned ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Nosferatu ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ⭐️⭐️1/2

New To Physical
Elevation ⭐️⭐️
Here ⭐️⭐️
Heretic ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rumours ⭐️⭐️
Smile 2 ⭐️⭐️1/2
The Substance ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Oscar Nominations
A Lien (N/A)
Alien:  Romulus ⭐️⭐️1/2
Anora ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Anuja (N/A)
The Apprentice ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Beautiful Men (N/A)
Better Man ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Black Box Diaries ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Brutalist ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Complete Unknown ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Conclave ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Death by Numbers (N/A)
A Different Man ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dune Part Two ⭐️⭐️1/2
Elton John:  Never Too Late (N/A)
Emilia Pérez (N/A)
Flow ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
The Girl with the Needle (N/A)
Gladiator II ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I Am Ready, Warden (N/A)
I'm Not a Robot (N/A)
I'm Still Here (N/A)
Incident (N/A)
Inside Out 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Instruments of a Beating Heart (N/A)
In the Shadow of the Cypress (N/A)
The Last Ranger (N/A)
Magic Candles (N/A)
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent (N/A)
Maria (N/A)
Memoir of a Snail (N/A)
Nickel Boys ⭐️⭐️⭐️
No Other Land (N/A)
Nosferatu ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Only Girl in the Orchestra (N/A)
Porcelain War (N/A)
A Real Pain ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (N/A)
September 5 (N/A)
Sing Sing ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
The Six Triple Eight (N/A)
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat (N/A)
The Substance ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Sugarcane (N/A)
Wallace & Gromit:  Vengeance Most Fowl (N/A)
Wander to Wonder (N/A)
Wicked Part I ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
The Wild Robot ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Yuck! (N/A)

Coming Soon!

Monday, January 20, 2025

Cinema Playground Journal 2025: Week 3 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness


The Brutalist
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre:  Drama
Director:  Brady Corbet
Starring:  Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Emma Laird, Isaach de Bancolé, Alessandro Nivola


Emerging as an award season frontrunner, The Brutalist finally opened nationwide this weekend.  As far as I was concerned, it could take its time.  I need to mentally prepare for a four-hour ballbuster.  I still wasn't ready for it, but I cleared an evening to watch this monolith anyway.  The verdict is that the hype is real, and the movie is great.  Forgive me if my enthusiasm is tempered, because I am exhausted.  But something needs to be said for how investing the story is.  We live in a world where this movie is four hours long and Wolf Man is a hundred minutes, and somehow the latter is the bigger slog.  I don't blame you for not wanting to watch this movie, though.  It's one of those movies that is a commitment.  Not all of us are ready to go steady yet, baby.

The Brutalist is an immigrant story, seeing Adrien Brody playing a post-WWII Jewish man immigrating from Hungary to the United States, where he spends many years going through highs and lows as an architect.  The movie has a smart critique of the "American Dream," showcasing initially idealism, eventual hardship, limited success, while eventually facing the problem that despite the open promise that America provides, it hides a xenophobic underbelly.  As much as it is an immigant story, the film also is the tale of an artist, one that displays talent while struggling to have many appreciate his vision.  The film is ride-or-die on its production design, which thankfully puts forth an effort on designs that look period specific, while also timeless enough to look amazing through a modern lens.  That's the tip of the iceberg of the film's craft, which is top notch, both in front of the camera and behind.  The acting is uniformly excellent, commanded by Brody every time the camera meets his face.  There are elements to the craftsmanship this film that remind me of The Godfather, from the cinematography to the lighting to the quiet casual approach to its drama.

The sunshine and roses are limited, and it does creak the longer it goes on.  The first half is considerably stronger than the second, where the film begins to succumb to several vices that it had been masking.  The movie comes damn close to soiling itself in the home stretch, as there's a plot twist toward the end that's mediocre shock value disguised as metaphor that can't scrub away the stink of trashy nonsense no matter how good the movie around it is.  It comes close to really downgrading the movie for me, but I understood the intention enough that I elect to ignore it in favor of praising the film's best aspects.  By this point in the movie, I was rooting for it to keep my interest, so I started battling my own misgivings.  If your movie makes me want to believe it's a powerhouse despite flaws staring at me in the face, I'll take that as a sign that you created something worthwhile.


One of Them Days
⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre:  Comedy
Director:  Lawrence Lamont
Starring:  Keke Palmer, SZA, Katt Williams, Janelle James


We've all had one of them days.  That's the premise of this goofy comedy, where Keke Palmer and SZA play roommates who find that their rent money is missing, and have to come up with the cash real fast, as it's the first of the month.  Along the way, everything that can go wrong, does go wrong, because it's "one of them days."  I found myself reminiscing about the old Ice Cube/Chris Tucker vehicle Friday while watching One of Them Days.  Admittedly, I haven't seen Friday in decades, so the comparison might not be apt, but I did get that sense that this movie could be a similar seminal favorite of a generation about people having a bad day, are tired of adulting, and just want to stop.  It's a pretty funny movie with a rousing duo at its center.  Keke Palmer and SZA have electric chemistry on display and reliably bring laughter to the audience.  They're playing a different ballgame than the filmmakers, who struggle to keep up with their energy.  That's really what drags this movie down for me, because I felt the directing wasn't up to the task of creating a comedy like this.  It often seems careless of how to frame its comedy and gagwork to emphasize for the biggest laugh, letting the cast do the legwork, settling for "funny enough" instead of hysterical.  But the movie is a good time, and is more sturdy than you might expect going into it.


Wolf Man
⭐️⭐️
Genre:  Horror
Director:  Leigh Whannell
Starring:  Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Matilda Firth, Sam Jaeger


Every generation needs their own Universal Monster legacy, I suppose.  The black and white classics seem quaint by today's standards, but while their shocks have diluted over time, they're still fun and admirable films that stand out among their contomporaries.  A select group of these films were recreated in full color with boundary pushing violence by Hammer in the 1950's, which are more uneven, yet still endearing.  Then we went through a period starting in the 90's where studios pumped a lot of money into lavish period piece movies directed by the likes of Francis Ford Coppola, Kenneth Branagh, and Stephen Sommers, with varying degrees of success, but if I'm being honest, I have a soft spot for that entire generation because of how pretty all those movies wound up being (these are all production design MVPs, in my book).  It was this period that we last saw the Wolf Man, in a movie that was overwhelmed with production woes and reshoots, losing a director during pre-production, only to finally be released in 2010 after many release date delays in a damage-controlled state by Joe Johnston.  Like its kin from the previous decade, it was very pretty to look at.  Its script left something to be desired, even as it layered aspects of other werewolf movies such as Werewolf of London, Curse of the Werewolf, and An American Werewolf in London, only creating the feeling of being overstuffed with elements that aren't enhancing each other.  While Universal did kinda write this movie off, they were reportedly keen to bring back the Wolf Man even a few years after that film by working a new version of the character into their ill-fated "Dark Universe," with former Scorpion King Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson being their top pick for the role.  We all know what happened to the Dark Universe, but unfortunately we'll probably never know just how close we got to a Rock-led Wolf Man movie.

Enter Leigh Whannell, the writer of Saw and Insidious, who sold Universal and Blumhouse on his idea for a modern reinvention of The Invisible Man that steered away from its source and instead became an allegory for domestic abuse.  The film was one of the very few box office hits in 2020, because it was one of the few that had a healthy release window that year.  He seems to have accidentally ushered in a fourth generation of these titans of monsters, as Blumhouse asked him back to do the same thing with the Wolf Man, while extending invitations to Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin to make yet another version of The Mummy and Whannell's Saw and Insidious director James Wan to helm a long-gestating remake of Creature from the Black Lagoon.  Whether or not this sort of modern-retooling franchise is something they're intentionally doing, I'm not sure, but it's worth a shot.  And if Invisible Man is anything to go by, they'd certainly stand apart from the films that preceed them.  This particular take on the Wolf Man took origin in actor Ryan Gosling, who sold the pitch to Blumhouse as a vehicle for himself.  He eventually dropped out, and I'm not sure just how much of the resulting movie is his idea and how much of it is Whannell's own work.  Whatever the case, there isn't a lot here to take credit for.

This new take is about a family taking a trip in Oregon, only to be attacked by a feral man-beast in the woods, which in turn infects the father with the distinct werewolf curse.  Werewolf/Wolf Man lore is played with in a very loose way in this film, as it tosses the idea of only changing during the full moon in favor of one transformation and done, you're a Wolf Man forever.  It's all done to power the theme of protective paternal instinct and fear that one is turing into one's own parents, as we watch the transformation through the eyes of a family who is afraid of what the father figure is becoming while also hoping his love for them overpowers the beast that's rising.  The original Wolf Man, at its core, is a story about a man turning into something primal and his fear that he might harm his loved ones.  The good news is that this new family-centric take keeps that basic idea intact.  The bad news is that it's done in a way that's neither exciting visually nor emotionally.

The most difficult thing about watching this movie is the same thing that made the last Wolf Man movie frustrating, where you see all the elements that have potential that the movie struggles to really tap into.  The difference between that movie and this one is that the 2010 movie also had an element of over-the-top craziness to it that kept it spicy.  This one just stays flavorless from beginning to end.  You can tell what Whannell is getting at, but it's always elluding his grasp as he chooses to maintain a less-is-more strategy.  He leaves a lot of this movie intentionally vague, wishing to maintain an aura of ambiguity by keeping the thing focused squarely on the people who are unfortunate enough to stumble upon whatever the fuck is going on and just want to flee it.  This is a strength, in a way, as Whannell never bogs the film down with exposition.  The problem is that he also offers up a movie with a lot of empty space in it.  If he doesn't want to fill it with exposition, he needs to offer something else.  He's hoping the family dynamic drama will do that, but while that seems promising in its opening, it gets more underwritten as it continues, making the film come off as one-note.  I see what Whannell is trying to do.  I wish it worked as well as his Invisible Man movie, but it's only halfway there.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater
Anora ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Babygirl ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Better Man ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Complete Unknown ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Conclave ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
The Count of Monte Cristo ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Gladiator II ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Homestead ⭐️
The Last Showgirl ⭐️⭐️
Moana 2 ⭐️⭐️
Mufasa:  The Lion King ⭐️⭐️1/2
Nosferatu ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ⭐️⭐️1/2
Wicked Part I ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
The Wild Robot ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

New To Digital

Coming Soon!


Monday, January 13, 2025

Cinema Playground Journal 2025: Week 2 (My Cinema Playground)

Multiplex Madness


Better Man
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre:  Drama, Comedy, Musical
Director:  Michael Gracey
Starring:  Robbie Williams, Jonno Davies, Steve Pemberton, Damon Herriman, Raechelle Banno, Alison Steadman, Kate Mulvany


A biopic where APES EVOLVE FROM MEN?!?!?!?!?

2024 was the year for unconventional musician biopics, probably.  I didn't get that memo, but here we are.  Look, the Lego one I get, because it works as a playful metaphor for lifelong, outside-the-box creativity.  I'm not sure I understand why Robbie Williams wants his biopic to be about a CGI ape, unless he just wants to blow out the budget for the sake of eccentricity.  Thematically, maybe he's saying he's "a dancing monkey," I think?  The closest they come to actually justifying it in the movie itself is when a character calls him "a fucking animal," otherwise we're just asked to roll with it.  To be fair, it's pretty funny to just make your lead a chimpanzee for no other reason than "because we can," so what really can I judge about it?

Anyway, Better Man is a biopic about Robbie Williams, where Robbie Williams plays himself as a CGI primate.  I don't know shit about Robbie Williams, I probably heard the "nahnahnahnaaaaaaah" song before (whatever the fuck it's called), but, other than that, I have little context for who this wanker is.  The film feels like it's intended to be a metaphorical relation of the whirlwind of fame through the lense of drugs and depression, told halfway through a fever dream.  In that respect, the movie is a success, even though its successes are minimal and at war with its eccentricity for the movie's heart.  But considering how much a disaster the movie is in danger of being at any given moment, the fact that it does anything with success is pretty impressive.  The film's style does relate an old hat tale of a troubled celebrity drowning sorrows with substance and sex, and without its florishes there would be very little about this movie to comment on.  I guess I should commend the film for finding a slick way to dress it up.


Den of Thieves:  Pantera
⭐️⭐️
Genre:  Drama, Crime, Action
Director:  Christian Gudeghast
Starring:  Gerard Butler, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Evin Ahmed, Salvatore Esposito, Meadow Williams, Swen Temmel


I've never seen Den of Thieves.  Is it any good?  Because this one wasn't.  Gerard Butler and O'Shea Jackson Jr. are back as their popular characters of...um...the guys from Den of Thieves.  This time instead of being wherever they were in the first one and doing whatever they were doing, they're now in France doing a heist for diamonds.  Jackson's character is okay with Butler being a cop and joining their caper because reasons.  There are probably some dynamics I'm missing from the first film, but I'm not too interested in seeing what they were because I was pretty bored throughout this movie and am not keen to repeat that experience.  The thing about heist movies is that they take forever to get to an actual event, and in the meantime they try to keep you hooked with charisma.  Den of Thieves 2 substitutes charisma with it's own grizzled, self-serious melodrama and expects the same result.  It just feels like a brick wall of machismo grunting, which is probably what Gerard Butler does best, so at least he knows what his range is.  To be fair, the heist sequence is the highlight of the movie.  It's slick, clever, and has good tension.  The rest of the movie anchors it down, so I'm not sure I can recommend it based on that alone.  Den of Thieves fans might like it, though.


The Last Showgirl
⭐️⭐️
Genre:  Drama
Director:  Gia Coppola
Starring:  Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Billie Lourd, Dave Bautista, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka


I'm trying to think about whether or not I've ever actually seen anything starring Pamela Anderson.  Obviously I know who she is, because I hit puberty in the 90s, but I don't think I've ever sat down and watched anything with her in it.  I've seen the occasional episode of Baywatch, but that was mostly because my dad would stop on it every once in a while.  I saw enough of it to know that despite the female forms on display, it wasn't really my cup of tea.  Looking down her filmography list, it looks like my only context for her entire career was a small role in Scary Movie 3 and a few episodes of the Spike TV animated series Stripperella, which I watched hoping for a good laugh, but, like the rest of their animated comedy line-up, it was trash.  I also saw her in King of the Hill and Saturday Night Live, probably.  So, I'm more familiar with Pamela Anderson the "image" and not Pamela Anderson the actress.  If The Last Showgirl's argument sunk in correctly, I probably wasn't the only one.  It always seemed to me like Anderson was someone who wasn't really taken seriously, but people paid attention to because of the size of her bust, and she disappeared because she got older and younger boobs were thrust into the spotlight.  It's a really shitty thing for a person to go through, and The Last Showgirl is here to hammer that message home.  I wish it had done so better.

Anderson plays a woman in her fifties who still performs as a member of a Las Vegas Berlesque act called La Razzle Dazzle, only to struggle to move on when she hears it's closing down.  Also, she has a strained relationship with her daughter because she spent so much time being a showgirl and not enough being a mom, maybe.  Anderson is pretty well cast here, though I'm less likely to give her awards hype for this performance, but I'm going to admit that I'm not in love with her role mostly because I'm not in love with the screenplay.  It's cool that Anderson got a late-stage art film role that turned some heads.  And the "Former sex symbol struggles with generational shift leaving her behind" story seems personal for her, I just wish they had made it less monotonous.  The movie is less a substantive look as its theme and more of a story of a self-centered woman in her fifties having a nervous breakdown.  The character's thoughts and feelings are probably very justifiable, but there is little in the story that explores them in an open way.  She glows about her glamor, admires beauty, but usually when reality comes knocking, she often avoids it.  That last aspect of the story needs to be explored more, because when it pops up, it doesn't go anywhere.  There's a scene halfway through the film where one of her fellow dancers, played by Kiernan Shipka, visits her in the middle of a personal crisis and Anderson's character turns her away because she's too absorbed in her own crisis.  It feels like, as presented, this should be an important point in the story's emotional core, but it's kind of brushed off as the film continues.  Little things like this often present themselves in the story, but the film deflates them as it reverts back to its primary point:  the unfair treatment of women as they age.  I agree that treatment sucks, but I also think a film should be a more rounded package than this.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater
Babygirl ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Complete Unknown ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Count of Monte Cristo ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
The Damned ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Gladiator II ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Homestead ⭐️
Moana 2 ⭐️⭐️
Mufasa:  The Lion King ⭐️⭐️1/2
Nosferatu ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ⭐️⭐️1/2
Wicked Part I ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

New To Physical
Saturday Night ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
We Live in Time ⭐️⭐️1/2

Coming Soon!

Monday, January 6, 2025

Cinema Playground Journal 2025: Week 1 (My Cinema Playground

Multiplex Madness


The Count of Monte Cristo
⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre:  Adventure, Thriller
Director:  Matthieu Delaporte, Alexandre de La Patellière
Starring:  Pierre Niney, Bastien Bouillon, Anaïs Demoustier, Anamaria Vartolomei, Laurent Lafitte


There are dozens of adaptations of The Count of Monte Cristo, the most recent of which being a Disney production from twenty years ago from the director of Waterworld starring Guy Pearce, Richard Harris, a very young Henry Cavill, and famed jerkass Jim Caviezel in the title role.  You might ponder if we need another one, but this latest adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's famed revenge thriller comes straight from Dumas's homeland of France itself, which gives it just that much more authenticity.  The story is, of course, that of a man imprisoned for many years, escaping only to discover that his fiancèe has moved on by marrying the man who betrayed him.  He then spends even more time plotting and elaborate revenge scheme to make those who wronged him suffer.

The Count of Monte Cristo seems to be a call for a return to swashbuckling period adventures.  The last attempt I vividly recall here in the States that wasn't a Johnny Depp led pirate movie being fellow Dumas adaptation The Three Musketeers, directed by kinetic bad movie autuer Paul W.S. Anderson, who is probably the last person who should make one of these movies.  If Anderson's Musketeers movie was an argument that they should die, then Monte Cristo is an argument that they should be reborn, showcasing that we can make them today with more grandeur than ever before.  This film is as large, sweeping, and adventurous as one would hope for in a Dumas adaptation.  It's a beautifully detailed epic made with passion.  The film is so grandiose and stunning that it's scope will dazzle while the performances will captivate, making this daunting three-hour adventure one to relish in.  It's certainly a case where a film's runtime is not an issue, as it allows us to bathe in the film's beauty while the story never stagnates.  The film is constantly in motion, with the only quibble being that it begins to creak toward the middle as the film begins to run out of time for its elaborate setup and begins to rush with time jumps.  I probably wouldn't have been against the movie being even longer if it meant smoothing out these rough edges, but it's an excellent tale told with power in spite of this.  For those who miss the classical period sagas of yesteryear, the film is a must-see that will scratch an itch they've probably had for decades.  I'm actually impressed at my theater for carrying this.  Normally I don't see this much of a banger on the first week of January.


The Damned
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre:  Horror
Director:  Thordour Palsson
Starring:  Odessa Young, Joe Cole, Siobhan Finneran, Rory McCann, Turlough Convery, Lewis Gribben, Francis Magee, Mícheál Óg Lane


You know, this is the second time in as many weeks that I've gone to a dramatic horror film that had a parade of walkouts and some dude falling asleep, loudly snoring throughout.  The same thing happened when I went to see Nosferatu last week.  But at least the guy who went to slumberland this time had the decency to do it halfway through, while sleepyhead at Nosferatu didn't last five minutes.  Meanwhile, the walkouts were less patient here, lasting a half hour rather than ninty minutes.  I bring this up because this should give you an idea of what type of horror film The Damned is, because while it's very good, it won't be in everyone's wheelhouse.  The Damned is one of those horror movies that is more about mood than scares, which means horror filmmakers will love it for its craftsmanship and horror fanatics will probably hate it because it doesn't go hard enough.  The film's story takes place at a 19th century fishing outpost in the Arctic.  The residents witness a ship sink off the coast, but choose not to assist as to not strain their resources.  Soon they begin being seeing haunting images of vengeful spirits, who they believe have come to punish them.  The film uses its horror metaphorically, showcasing the concept of "haunting" clashing between literally and figuratively, while stringing the audience along to guess as to which one is really at play.  It's a film about the guilt of making a hard choice when a result can lead to suffering.  Those seeking adequate BOO-factor from their ghost stories won't find it here, though the ghost scenes the movie does provide are excellently crafted and well-photographed.  I feel the movie could have raised its tension to allow for some balance with the psychological drama, but I find myself not being able to complain too hard when the movie is this handsome.  But I might have been tempted to rewatch it, otherwise.

Movies Still Playing At My Theater
Babygirl ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Complete Unknown ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Fire Inside ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Gladiator II ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Homestead ⭐️
Moana 2 ⭐️⭐️
Mufasa:  The Lion King ⭐️⭐️1/2
Nosferatu ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ⭐️⭐️1/2
Wicked Part I ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

New To Streaming
A Real Pain ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Wicked Part I ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Coming Soon!

Sunday, January 5, 2025

2024 Cinema Playground Journal Archive (My Cinema Playground)

Week 1 (Night Swim, Some Other Woman, Weak Layers)
Week 2 (American Fiction, Destroy All Neighbors, Role Play)
Week 3 (The Beekeeper, The Book of Clarence, Cult Killer, Founder's Day, Freud's Last Sesson, I.S.S., Mean Girls, All of Us Strangers)
Week 4 (Godzilla Minus One (Minus Color), Miller's Girl, Suitable Flesh)
Week 5 (Argylle, Fitting In, Scrambled, The Zone of Interest, The Eternal Memory, Rustin, Society of the Snow)
Week 6 (Lisa Frankenstein, Out of Darkness, The Teachers' Lounge, The Monk and the Gun, Skeletons in the Closet, May December)
Week 7 (Bob Marley:  One Love, Land of Bad, Madame Web, The Taste of Things, 20 Days in Mariupol, Oscar Nominated Shorts)
Week 8 (Drive-Away Dolls, Ordinary Angels, Seagrass, The Stolen Valley, Stopmotion)
Week 9 (Dune:  Part Two, The Promised Land)
Week 10 (Accidental Texan, Cabrini, Imaginary, Kung Fu Panda 4, The Peasants, Perfect Days)
Week 11 (The American Society of Magical Negroes, Arthur the King, Knox Goes Away, Love Lies Bleeding, The Prank, Snack Shack, Thorns, Uproar, Driving Madeleine, One Life)
Week 12 (Ghostbusters:  Frozen Empire, Immaculate, Late Night with the Devil, Problemista, Road House)
Week 13 (Asphalt City, Godzilla x Kong:  The New Empire, In the Land of Saints and Sinners, Shayda)
Week 14 (The First Omen, Monkey Man, Wicked Little Letters, Io Capitano)
Week 15 (Arcadian, Civil War, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, La Chimera, The Long Game, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Sting)
Week 16 (Abigail, Hard Miles, Sasquatch Sunset, Villains Inc., Housekeeping for Beginners, Rebel Moon:  Part Two - The Scargiver)
Week 17 (Boy Kills World, Challengers, Unsung Hero, We Grown Now)
Week 18 (The Fall Guy, Mars Express, Tarot, Limbo)
Week 19 (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Not Another Church Movie, Poolman)
Week 20 (Back to Black, I Saw the TV Glow, IF, The Strangers:  Chapter 1, Wildcat)
Week 21 (Babes, Furiosa:  A Mad Max Saga, The Garfield Movie, Sight)
Week 22 (The Dead Don't Hurt, Ezra, In a Violent Nature, Summer Camp, Young Woman and the Sea)
Week 23 (Bad Boys:  Ride or Die, The Watchers, Hit Man, Under Paris)
Week 24 (Inside Out 2, Latency, Tuesday, Treasure)
Week 25 (The Bikeriders, The Exorcism, Thelma)
Week 26 (Daddio, Horizon:  An American Saga - Chapter I, Janet Planet, Kinds of Kindness, A Quiet Place:  Day One, A Sacrifice)
Week 27 (Despicable Me 4, Fly Me to the Moon, MaXXXine, Beverly Hills Cop:  Axel F)
Week 28 (Dandelion, Longlegs, Robot Dreams)
Week 29 (Oddity, Twisters)
Week 30 (Deadpool & Wolverine, The Fabulous Four)
Week 31 (Coup!, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Kneecap, Peak Season, Trap)
Week 32 (Borderlands, Cuckoo, It Ends with Us,The Last Front)
Week 33 (Alien:  Romulus, My Penguin Friend, Skincare)
Week 34 (Between the Temples, Blink Twice, The Crow, Strange Darling)
Week 35 (1992, Across the River and into the Trees, AfrAId, City of Dreams, Good One, Reagan, Slingshot, You Gotta Believe)
Week 36 (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, The Front Room, I'll Be Right There, Red Rooms, The Thicket)
Week 37 (The 4:30 Movie, The Critic, The Killer's Game, Speak No Evil, Transformers One)
Week 38 (A Mistake, Never Let Go, The Shade, The Substance, Super/Man:  The Christopher Reeve Story)
Week 39 (Azrael, Bagman, Lee, Megalopolis, My Old Ass, Notice to Quit, The Wild Robot)
Week 40 (Blink, A Different Man, Joker:  Folie a Deux, Monster Summer, White Bird, Salem's Lot, V/H/S/Beyond)
Week 41 (The Apprentice, Piece by Piece, Saturday Night, Terrifier 3)
Week 42 (Goodrich, Rumours, Smile 2, We Live in Time)
Week 43 (Conclave, The Line, Venom:  The Last Dance, Your Monster, Don't Move, Woman of the Hour)
Week 44 (Absolution, Here, Hitpig, Lost on a Mountain in Maine, Time Cut)
Week 45 (Anora, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Christmas Eve in Miller's Point, Elevation, Heretic, Meanwhile on Earth, Small Things like These, Weekend in Taipei)
Week 46 (Bird, A Real Pain, Red One)
Week 47 (Bonhoeffer, Gladiator II, Wicked Part I)
Week 48 (Moana 2, Dear Santa)
Week 49 (Werewolves, Y2K)
Week 50 (Kraven the Hunter, The Lord of the Rings:  The War of the Rohirrim, Queer)
Week 51 (Homestead, Mufasa:  The Lion King, Sonic the Hedgehog 3)
Week 52 (Babygirl, Bloody Axe Wound, A Complete Unkown, The Fire Inside, Nosferatu)