JohnDeSando Reviews

Abigail (2024)

The same tropes and a nice smattering of witty dialogue.

[23 April 2024]

"I'm sorry about what's gonna happen to you." Abigail (Alisha Weir)

In "Abigail," six "professional" kidnappers (Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Kevin Durand, William Catlett, and the late Angus Cloud), snatch a 12-year-old "tiny dancer" ballerina hoping to relieve 50 million big ones from her wealthy dad. Thanks to the way-too-revealing trailer, we know she will deliver on the quote above-Abigail's a vampire, you see, and amusingly the crooks have nicknames from Sinatra's rat pack.

Despite assurance from the boss, Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito), that the "the hard part's over," the fun for Abagail has just begun-- promising stuff from writers Stephen Shields and Guy Busick, before the tropes take over. Thankfully, Weir, with her sardonic one liner's, is a natural horror giver with a long future ahead of her even outside the bloody business.

As we get to know the crooks in the opening sequences, "Abigail" is a promising font of witty repartee doing a Usual-Suspects comic routine, reminiscent of Guy Ritchie. Alas, once the gore begins, and it does fully and frequently, horror-fest fans will be satisfied and word guys like me will lament the lost opportunities for smart dialogue.

Thanks to Barrera and her shag haircut, we can recall fondly the horror flicks of the '70's-she wears well, and we should see more of her in Scream-like films, if not slipping over into Kristen-Stewart art- house territory.

Thanks to the collective known as Radio Silence, two founders and directors, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, continue their Ready or Not and Screams V and VI craftsmanship with this gore fest that not only entertains but also includes some of that snappy dialogue- "What are we talking about, like an Anne Rice or a True Blood? You know Twilight? Very different kind of vampires." Kathryn Newton's Sammy

"What can I say? I like playing with my food." Abigail

"I f--ing hate ballet." Frank (Stevens)

Wicked Little Letters (2023)

Witty foul language to keep you laughing the whole time.

[18 April 2024]

"More true than you think" (opening credits)

Profane language, especially in the written word, is dicey for Americans. For Brits depicting a plague of gutter language written to a God-fearing spinster, Edith (Olivia Colman), is a riot of naughtiness. 1920's Littlehampton, Sussex, investigates the anonymous writer expanding their poison pen to other wary residents, whose lives are usually circumscribed by gossip and taffy. This may be a true story.

Although the jokes are vintage, understated Brit, none is particularly laugh inducing in an odd crime that begs resolution. Easy enough, as Edith's next-door neighbor, young Irish immigrant Rose ( Jessie Buckley, a comedic surprise) wildly qualifies for small-town prejudice. Writer Jonny Sweet's vulgar dialogue is constantly creative while supplying local wannabe sleuths with a cause, while Colman and Buckley (last seen together in The Lost Daughter) spit the blue words in Oscar-worthy style.

Add that Rose walks around in "feet as bare as goose eggs" while Edith's father (Timothy Spall) is tightly wound with a most intimidating moustache, almost lifted from early film comedies, and you have a hint of British farce.

Although the final resolution is never in doubt, the rambunctious, almost slapstick set-ups keep the amusement at high dudgeon, so the audience doesn't get drowned in fusty Brit story-telling and old-time Irish hating. Keeping the proceedings at least moderately fair, is Woman Police Officer Gladys Ross (Anjana Vasan), whose own pride of office is constantly challenged by the decidedly paternalistic power structure.

Director Thea Sharrock and writer Jonny Sweet have crafted a small comedy saved from being one blue-trick pony by actors who make blue hairs smirk at every turn. Although Wicked Little Letters may not rise to the level of the recent Triangle of Sadness or Four Weddings and a Funeral, it is as soothing as lounging on the beach at a small seaside town after exhausting London.

Civil War (2024)

A masterpiece of pop apocalypse!

[14 April 2024]

"What kind of American are you?" Unnamed Soldier (Jessie Plemons)

Writer/director Alex Garland's masterpiece, Civil War, asks each American in this election year about their understanding of their own allegiances and, should the time come, how they would display their loyalty to democracy, election or not.

Four photojournalists travel in their "Press" station wagon to Washington, DC, where insurrectionists are descending on The White House to take down the president. The audience can be forgiven if they are reminded about the Jan 6 storming of the Capitol Building.

Garland has deftly left the rebels ambiguous so that the audience can think for themselves what political persuasion would deign to sabotage democracy. Seasoned journo Lee (an impressive Kirsten Dunst) is well-known for her hard-nosed, stoic reaction to war, a required attitude necessary for her as she boldly follows foot soldiers in the immediate line of the action. The assignment transforms the stoic Lee in ways both predictable and surprising.

The youngest member of the four is Jessie (Cailie Spaeny), a 23-year-old newbie who stands for us in her astonishment and love of artistry with the camera. As she faces down the slaughter all along the road to DC through West Virginia, we, too, learn that war in any form is ugly and inscrutable.

All the journalists follow the war more closely than I would have thought, sometimes directly behind the soldiers. Their passionate purpose, to depose the president, is scary in their determination and their efficiency in getting to DC.

Along the way various indeterminate rebellious factions spread destruction seemingly without detection or detention. In one memorable set piece, the journalists come upon a devastated farm where, headed by an unnamed care-less soldier (Jesse Plemons), asks the what kind of Americans they are (see quote above) and shoots if he doesn't like their hesitation. Garland is reminding us of the random nature of crime and the uneasy defense of democracy in the face of rabid insurrection.

Another unforgettable segment is the final scene storming the White House, where the three-term president is reduced in honor and courage. Again, Garland shows how vulnerable we are in the face of determined insurrection.

The genius of Civil War is not taking sides but placing our point of view in the action to witness the danger to justice and democracy such mindlessness as Jan 6 poses to a nation. Although the cinematography can't compete with, say, Independence Day, it beats it by a country mile in making us face the unthinkable danger we face without the safeguards legitimate authority could provide in times of danger. In a way, I am reminded of the multiple and varied reactions to D W Griffith's Birth of a Nation.

With a contentious election forthcoming, we would do well to consider whether our choices align with the democracy our Constitution once promised. Civil War gives no answers, but in a masterpiece of pop apocalyptic, challenges us to think about the freedom we once took for granted.

The First Omen (2024)

Surprisingly good prequel.

[10 April 2024]

"Get thee to a nunnery! Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?" Shakespeare's Hamlet to Ophelia.

I know, I know: I used the same quote a few weeks ago to begin my review of Immaculate, a scare fest about novitiate Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) traveling to Italy to become a nun and serve the aging nuns for whom the convent exists. It's the same setup in The First Omen for Margaret (Nell Tiger Free), who's going to Rome in 1971 to take the veil and help orphans. Both stories are energized by the Catholic Church's obsession with virgin birth.

With encouragement from her mentor, Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy, a man who can handily play good or evil because of his snarky smile and ambiguous whimsy), Margaret arrives with great joy from the elderly nuns, just as Cecilia did. I am ambivalent about nuns given my eight years under their thumbs in grammar school, for filmmakers seem also to love the possibilities of good and evil represented by their black and white uniforms. Sonia Braga is especially scary as Sister Silva.

First-time director Arkasha Stevenson pays homage to the Richard Donner 1976 horror classic, especially heroic for Stevenson since the original has become revered. The First Omen embraces a new take on the Antichrist by claiming its birth will bring back the faithful out of fear:

Father Brennan: (from trailer) "How do you control people who no longer believe? You create something to fear."

It also enjoys even more body horror than the original, often to the exclusion of coherent plotting. While it is faithful to the chaotic demonstrations and riots of the time in Rome, The First Omen does miss Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar-winning score.

Margaret begins to feel the presence of the demon, who is destined to use a young woman to come into the world just as Christ the Savior did through Immaculate Mary. Although we can expect the arrival of Antichrist Damien, the devil of the original Omen starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick, right now Margaret must fight the sins of the flesh even before she confronts the arrival of Damien.

She does have a go at a disco, dressed to kill, so to speak, the night before taking her vows. That fling will have import, just as Catholic doctrine promised when we fall into sin. The rest of the film is formula for jump-scare horror flicks because like Nazis, these good-looking religious are waiting to show their true colors, not healthy in any scary film.

Although no new cinematic ground is dug up here, its special effects are impressive mainly in the workups for births. What remains is the usual nun/Catholic horror porn with lots of blood, ugly evil ones, and unholy nuns and priests. In this version, not as in Immaculate, the priests are sometimes good guys, while the nuns are uniformly homely and malevolent.

Late Night with the Devil (2023)

More bright parody than found-footage scary

[5 April 2024]

I always say the most powerful art form in the history of civilization is movies, but Late Night with the Devil also reminds me of television's cultural power. It has grown to such a degree that when it is depicted like this, embracing the medium through film, I can find top places for both communication forms.

As a parody of '70's TV, Late Night is found-footage perfection with its ancient technology and still-green performers as stunned by the medium's power as we are today with AI-we know how to use it, yet we still cannot control it. It's sweeps week with a Halloween special like no other.

As the essential late-night host, Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) is bland and handsome enough to have the job but lacks the wit of his superior rival, Johnny Carson. To compete for the kingship, Jack invites dicey guests like parapsychologist June (Laura Gordon), young and possessed Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), conjurer Carmichael (Ian Bliss), and medium Christou (Fayssal Bazzi). They deliver more than Jack could have imagined as the aud witnesses vomiting, levitation, and fiery orifices, among other boilerplate horror effects. Always, however, there is the scent of chicanery accompanied by what seem to be reality.

Late Night is standard horror stuff accompanied by a realistic set design and questionable tricks that gradually take over the theater and TV land. Brother directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes let their satirical subtext take over when TV seems to be pandering to the occult, which brings high ratings and horrendous outcomes. While horror is usually hyperbole, this corrupt TV stuff shines a light on our gullibility and greed while we abhor the violence and applaud the avarice.

The Cairnes and their cohort have crafted a satirical reality that goes far beyond sideburns and wide lapels. It also a reference to Carson's attempt to expose Uri Geller's spoon-bending that only made him a resounding celebrity.

Late Night is about the power of media to frame the debate and convince the audience of the Devil's own power-just watch the current presidential election the way we watched 1977's The Tonight Show, Dick Cavett, and Exorcist II: The Heretic. Those were the instruments of the ultimate influencer.

Immaculate (2024)

Get thee to this nunnery--it's that good.

[29 March 2024]

"Get thee to a nunnery! Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?" Shakespeare's Hamlet to Ophelia.

Immaculate is one of the horror films not horrible in the generic sense that uses multiple tropes like jump scares and mis-directions to scare the bejesus out of the audience. It is rather a well-thought-out dissection of the forces with which a normal young woman must contend as she prepares to take her vows to become a nun.

It is also a rather somber treatise on the hopes and dreams of a faith community investing in one figure outsized enough to achieve quasi sainthood in her lifetime. Cecilia (a remarkable Sydney Sweeney, reminding us of Anna Taylor-Joy with uber-expressive eyes) travels to picturesque Italy to become a nun in a famous convent.

Sweeney plays her as an innocent who eventually becomes the hopes of a major enclave of nuns veritably waiting for the re-emergence of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in this case the virginal Cecilia. They are certain it is Cecilia because she becomes with child, and, well, she's damned comely and innocent.

Although Immaculate has its share of wicked ladies, some of whom will get a share of the requisite horror-trope blood, the real evil belongs with the males, a cardinal (Giorgio Colangeli) and resident priest (Alvaro Morte), for instance, whose paternalism would turn Christ over more than once were He to have a grave.

Throughout, director Michael Mohan and writer Andrew Lobel have kept a sure hand showing the large assemblage of devout ladies strongly ruled by a small contingent of men who couldn't possibly understand the struggles of women who have cloistered themselves from the normal joys and sorrows of those who embrace love and desire in a normal world.

Part of the visual success comes from cinematographer Elisha Christian's grey-dark lens, which invests the glorious Italian country side and majestic estate with gloom. Helping immensely the demonic feel is Will Bates's score, somber and ethereal at the same time.

Immaculate is a classic religious scare like The Exorcist but with less spectacle and more thematic heft. It uncovers the demands religion makes on the most devout while it successfully reminds me of my awe and fear of the black and white authority figures that ruled my primary schoolscape.

When Sister Alexia stood me up in sixth grade and called me a "dirty thing" for holding a girl's hand, it took quite some time for me to realize it wasn't the right call and even longer to see that sex was the demon those penguin dictators couldn't control.

See Immaculate because it's one of the year's best entertainments with insights far beyond most horror films. See it as a training film for the nun experience.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

A ghost of its former self.

[23 March 2024]

In the newest entry of an enduring franchise, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the Spengler family has re-camped in the iconic firehouse initially fighting a NYC sewer dragon and eventually a stock monster with booming voice and spindly giant height. The newest Ghost is emblematic of the futility inherent in trying to find a formula that repeats but renews one of our culture's most beloved comedy horror flicks.

Even with original 'busters Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, this new version lacks the snarky joy of that first edition and arguably one or two subsequent attempts. Because the cast of characters is too large for its reinvention, this Ghostbusters qualifies as a hot mess of personnel left hanging and incidents sometimes shoe-horned in for what purpose is not apparent to me.

I will stand out from my colleagues and like daughter Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), dorky with round glasses (think Harry Potter) and a big brain, who seems to fall in love with a sylphlike ghost (Emily Alyn Lind), whose relationship writer/director Gil Kenan and co-writer Jason Reitman lack the courage to introduce as a brand-new motif, lesbian action. Too bad because the film needs serious updating.

As the recurring intergenerational good guy, Paul Rudd has little significant to do than try of integrate himself into The Spengler family and more importantly, find a place for the always outsider, Phoebe. Rudd doesn't add much more than he does as Antman. Oh, well, he's a nice guy.

But then nice is this innocuous installment, a dull extension of a once promising franchise. It's time for Murray to become a ghostly presence himself lending a bit of needed snark but not committing his soul. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a chilling reminder of the glory that was.

One Life (2023)

Hopkins brilliantly plays the Brit Schindler.

[16 March 2024]

"I don't know what you're doing, but if you're doing what I think you're doing, I don't want to know." Doreen Warriner (Romola Garai)

So, too, did the US and the rest of the world turn a blind eye to the beginning of the Holocaust in 1939. Nicky Winton (Anthony Hopkins), dubbed The British Schindler, was a stockbroker with Jewish roots who could not ignore the thousands of refugee children fleeing the incursion of Nazi Germany into Prague.

Bases on a true story, One Life celebrates Winton's heroic effortson the eve of WWII to take those children under the Kindersport Project to London by trains that were increasingly fewer as the Nazis commandeered them to rid Europe of Jews. Hopkins' Winton depicts a round-glasses, "ordinary" man as he calls himself, and other selfless saviors of the helpless families.

Yet it took extraordinary ingenuity and dogged determination to convince Brit authorities to issue documents required for each of the thousands of children to have passage from Czechoslovakia to unoccupied territories. The emphasis of this stirring docudrama is, like Zone of Interest, the activity outside the concentration camps, the world of brave bureaucracy that exalts the efforts to keep the vulnerable out of the ovens.

Consequently, the film lacks the horror factor in favor of realistically depicting the panic among unsung heroes themselves in danger of being transported to the camps. Director James Hawes jumps between Hopkins as elderly hero and his younger self, played deftly by Johnny Flynn as an increasingly effective savior of, at final count, 669 children.

The 1988 BBC magazine show, That's Life, featured Winton and his bravery. Acknowledged, among other heroes, was his mother (Helena Bonham Carter), who effectively prodded the authorities in London to recognize the inhumanity in progress. Like that show, One Life prods us to remember the many heroes of WWII. The great number of survivors who attended the show was an indication of the enduring story still to be told about arguably the greatest testimony of man's inhumanity to man-the Holocaust.

"I consider myself a European, an agnostic, and a socialist." Winton gently characterized himself.

Cabrini (2024)

A superior biopic about a real American hero and saint from Angel Studios

[8 March 2024]

Although I avoid religious films that have a holy message to relay, I have become a cheerleader for Angel Studios because of the two films I have seen, the box-office-wonder Sound of Freedom and now the beautiful and engaging biopic, Cabrini. They have a production richness not only exemplified in the realistic and lush cinematography (shout out to Cabrini lenser Gorka Gomez Andreu), but also believable heroes such as the human trafficker hounds in the former and the canonized Mother Cabrini (Cristiana Dell'Anna) in the latter. Both films have the same director, Alejandro Monteverde.

The realism and the goodness of the characters helps make the two films memorable for putting us directly in the action (in Cabrini 1899 New York City) and only subtly sanctifying the heroes. The elements of first-rate filming are in Cabrini: original music by Gene Back that captures spirituality while exalting humanity, Alisha Silverstein's spot-on period costumes, and an equally-impressive Carlos-Lagunas production design. Over them all is a lean and effective story by Monteverde and Rod Barr aided immensely by the creative editing of Brian Scofield.

As always, the acting makes the difference: Besides Dell'Anna's award-worthy interpretation of the diminutive "entrepreneur," David Morse's archbishop is imperious and difficult, matched growl for growl by John Lithgow's intractable mayor. Senior to them is the impressive Giancarlo Giannini as Pope Leo XIII, who assigns the NYC slums to Cabrini's future as the eventual patron saint of immigrants.

Mother Cabrini, despite her failing health and being a woman in a paternalistic society, is a superlative example of the feminist Gloria Steinem could imagine: kind and ambitious, tough and savvy, in love with children who need her love. It would be next to impossible not to shed a tear watching her build an orphanage and then hospitals in the spirit of her selfless mission to help the disadvantaged.

But then that is what this film does as it portrays the uncomfortable world of early 20th-century poverty while encouraging us to clap for the heroism of Cabrini and her soldiers, including a Mary-Magdalene-type prostitute, Vittoria ( Romana Maggiora Vergano). The comparison to Christ's journey is never emphasized, all the better to realize the everyday heroism of our fellow humans.

I am impressed once again by the ability of director Monteverde and the Angel Studios to craft a biopic that reeks of reality while it spiritually transports to the worlds of authentic heroes. Cabrini is, like the current Oppenheimer, a true, albeit "inspired by," biopic with heart and grit.

Dune: Part Two (2024)

Epic novel--epic adaptation

[5 March 2024]

Since the first part of Dune (2021), Paul (Timothee Chalamet) and mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson-about as tough a lady as ever depicted besides Lady Macbeth) join the native tribe of Fremen on sandy planet Arrakis after being clobbered by the family of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard). We know more than ambition is involved, viz., spice, a mind-opening drug and fuel (damn good stuff, I'd guess).

The Freman leader, Stilgar (Javier Bardem-always room for more of his talent), believes Paul is their Messiah to defeat the Harkonnen and their eventual new leader, Feyed (Austin Butler, sans hair and guitar but with a very bald head and bloody cudgel). Paul readily assimilates with Fremen and totally assimilates with Freman Chani (Zendaya),

Paul may be an outsider, but then so was Christ, except that Paul (and Biblical Paul) is reluctant and Christ not so much. With romance developing between Paul and Chani, the allusion to Christ steps aside except for those who think there's more to the Jesus and Mary Magdalene friendship. Anyway, it's classic salvation by an outsider ( consider, if you will, the US and Vietnam).

The special effects are what makes this epic film about as beautiful as any you will ever see, which includes riding monstrous worms and a tank bigger and more nimble than any you have ever seen. While the landscape has an inherent greyness much of the time, director Dennis Villeneuve invites comparison to David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia from the blistering landscapes to the blue eyes. Even the worm's magic elixir is arrestingly blue.

The conflicting interests go beyond Arrakis as Emperor Shaddam IV (underused Christopher Walken) and his hip daughter, Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), involve themselves in the dynamic and dangerous political scene. As for the Spice, the Harkonnen clan have already begun renewing production while Fremen want the opposite- a hot mess.

The visual splendor and intricate politics return in yet a third epical rendering, Dune: Messiah. I, for one, can easily last another three hours.

Perfect Days (2023)

Perfectly poetic minimalist excellence, Oscar nominated.

[2 March 2024]

"Next time is next time. Now is now." Hiyarama (Koji Yakusho)

Few of us could claim ever to have a perfect day, so how about a film that shows those days for a middle-aged man who cleans state-of-the-art toilets in Tokyo? In the Oscar-nominated Perfect Days, acclaimed German director Wim Wenders gives us the minimalist story of Hiyarama, who meticulously, almost religiously, performs his daily cleaning duties for The Tokyo Toilet.

Not only is Hiyarama a high priest of clean, but the toilets are handsome examples of how the lowliest of life's functions can be part of the world's beauty. They become a central motif showing that this humble man, peaceful and happy in his dignified labor and love of nature, has found happiness in the littlest parts of the universe such as a shoot about to become a tree, playing shadow tag with a stranger, or beginning each day by smiling at the light filtering through branches high above him.

Another important motif is the considerable cache of cassette tapes, from which he opens the day with The Animals' House of the Rising Sun. Lou Reed's Perfect Day may suggest Hiyarama is aspirational as well as immersive in the present. When he mellows out with Nina Simone all is made well. The tapes serve to comment on the narrative and connect him with a culture to which youths have already connected. As my introductory quote reveals, he lives in the moment ("Now is now.")

Lucky for us all, Wenders employs his understanding of Japanese "komorebi," the light and shadows shimmering through tree leaves. Yet it is not just nature that keeps this unassuming cleaner happy-his niece has an unconditional love for him while his wealthy sister turns up her nose at his humble life.

Although most of the film shows him repeating his simple routines, Wenders rewards our patience by introducing the human dimensions to his life, small as they might be, probably the most gratifying part of the simple man's happy-go-lucky days.

It becomes clear that Wenders and co-writer Takuma Takasaki want us to see as our protagonist does a happiness the smallest parts of life can bring.

Enjoy the final sequence that, like the poetry this small film is, says it all with as little as a tear and a smile.

Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

Wacky and absurd--just like the B-Movies half a century ago.

[23 February 2024]

Ethan Coen shows why his satirical collaboration without brother Joel is a way to go that can be almost as entertaining as with. Go-Away Girls is a lowbrow satire of the '6o's and '70's B-movies with randy girls, thin plots, and uneven dialogue, all hallmarks of that era's cheese.

In 1999, two lesbians, Jami (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan), are going South (in its multiple connotations) from Philly to Tallahassee to refresh their lives but unfortunately hijack a Dodge Aries with gang-related merchandise in the trunk. Not until later do they discover the goods, just as low brow as the film's plot, and already subject of a manhunt by not the brightest goons in the South. The humor is broad and bawdy, goofy and glib, funnier a half century ago rather than now.

The dialogue between the two protagonists sometimes sounds screwball like but still obvious, not subtle, almost on point ("How was it?" "Bouncy"). That period and genre are faithfully reproduced by Cohen and his writer, lesbian wife Tricia Cooke, who long ago was allegedly cooking up this tale with "Drive-Away Dykes" as a title. The Linda Ronstadt needle drops seem more appropriate than ever.

The make-out sessions are almost slow-mo between the leads and various road lesbians, not the least of which is a session in Marietta with a team of athletes, almost as randy as Jamie, but none as shy as Marian. The emergence of Marian into full-fledged lesbian is one of the film's delights; in fact, the gay sexuality of the film is admirable, much more acceptable to our time than fifty years ago when girl-on-girl mating was not viable and dildo prominence unthinkable.

The treatment of men as intellectually inferior was always a part of the genre, notwithstanding dumb-blonde stereotypes. The lampooning of men's stupidity, best exemplified in the bickering goons played by Joey Slotnik and C. J. Wilson, is a plus in the humor category as it is an homage to the insight of those times when the general populace was still downgrading women.

Drive-Away Dolls is an ode to sapphic lust and a road trip faintly echoing the liberation of Thelma and Louise. All in all, it is worth seeing the period reenactment and the sexual joy that we only lately fully accept. Joy also looking ahead to the second entry of Coen and Cooke in a planned lezzie trilogy.

Or, if you're not free enough to enjoy fully the alternative ribald trip in Drive-Away Dolls, you can enjoy a cameo of Miley Cyrus saying straight into the camera, "Hey, handsome, you want to get plastered?" Or that it's a spare 84 minutes of wacky nostalgia and titillating absurdity.

Bob Marley: One Love (2024)

A limited look at a music legend

[17 February 2024]

I wish I knew superstar Bob Marley better after seeing the biopic, Bob Marley One Love, but I don't. For such a music legend, the greatest exponent of reggae and a tireless promoter of peace for Jamaica, director Reinaldo Marcus Green and his host of writers patch together impressive music and a few poignant scenes from 1976 to 78 into a whole that doesn't give the sense of his greatness before he died of cancer in 1981 at age 36.

As Marley, Kingsley Ben-Adir has the star power of the original Marley with a casual charisma that convinces us he could bring peace to the two warring factions in post-colonial Jamaica. Because Marley eventually leaves home to tour the world and land in London, we are limited in learning about the close connection to his homeland from his birth on.

A reason to see this unimpressive bio is to watch the inception of the album, Exodus, which Time Magazine called the best of the 20th century. As successful as that was, peace was not to be so, an impossible task even the great Marley couldn't pull off.

Lacking throughout is an intimate look into his psyche, such as we did get in the recent Oppenheimer. Both bios dwell on a few key years (a blessing rather than trying to depict the whole life), but One Love never goes deeply except in the successful scenes with his wife, Rita (Lashana Lynch), which have the kind of soul revealing power lacking in most other scenes which too often scan the surface.

The lesser dramatic revelations such as his passion for soccer, Africa, and the genesis of the simple Exodus album cover are well represented. Less so is insight into reggae while he lived in his homeland. The most we get serves just to verify that he was a charismatic cross between Mick Jagger and Freddie Mercury. The real Bob Marley is yet to be seen.

Madame Web (2024)

A fresh take on super heroines.

[16 February 2024]

Just when I thought the Marvel Universe had no where to grow, along comes the endearing Madame Web. Anchored by Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, with her coy smile and I-got-it attitude, this superhero barely shows her powers largely because she's not fully aware about what they are, except for a curious ability to see into the immediate future.

Without the usual overdose of bombs and fisticuffs of the formulaic super-hero films, Madame Web accentuates the humanistic sides of its heroes, including three teen-age "orphans": Julia (Sydney Sweeney), Mattie (Celeste O'Connor), and Anya (Isabela Merced), who hook up with Cassandra, all four on the lam from a pesty black-costumed spider out of an Amazon arachnid tribe that will eventually bring us the goody-boy Spider Man. But right now, Cassandra is at the forefront of heroic activity as she seeks answers such as the death of mom in the jungle and why her fingers tingle.

I like this minimalist adventure because even usually-vacuous teens have interesting personalities and traits that, unbeknownst to them, will serve in the future as they assume their super-hero mandates. Meanwhile, jousting with Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim), the man who double-crossed Cassandra's mom in '73 Amazon, means stopping traffic and trains and disorienting the bad boy in the slow revelation of Cassandra's emerging power and leadership and their own ability to survive without parents. Although Ezekiel is one of the most boring villains ever, the emphasis is on the emerging heroines.

While the search for parents and roots has been a romantic staple for years, especially in super-hero films, Madame Web gives a touch of reality as our 4 heroines have realistic reasons for being untethered. They act civil, not the usual way for teens in this genre.

Although the buzz on Madame Web has been modest and the time of year indicative of the studio's lack of confidence, with Dakota Johnson's Casandra in charge, I can see a bright future for a genre showing its age. Getting bitten by a Peruvian bug has definite life-enhancing advantages.

Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

A comic horror story more like Scissorhands than Chainsaw.

[9 February 2024]

You don't have to be a horror aficionado to appreciate the comic/weird vibe of "Lisa Frankenstein," a teen-rage coming of age story, set in the 1980's with blue eyeshadow and jellies, and a titular protagonist (Kathryn Newton), who courts a corpse. At least it's better than the soulless living adults like her ex-cheerleader, Stepford stepmom (Carla Gugino) or clueless father (Joe Christ). Her sister, Taffy (Liza Soberano), is not much better, in fact she's quickly becoming vacuous like stepmom.

No wonder Lisa falls for a real living-dead Victorian (Cole Sprouse), whose emergence from the bachelor cemetery is a boon for a love-starved Goth queen. Although Lisa is just as selfish as the rest of her 1980's teen generation, Newton, writer Diablo Cody, and director Zelda Williams give her just enough sarcastic wit and sexual hunger to make her come alive and, turning the genre tables, more appealing to her peers the more gothic she becomes.

Never do we doubt the corpse is loveable (think Edward Scissorhands) as she builds his body back (she specializes as a seamstress in her hobbies) just as Dr. Frankenstein did 200 years ago, some parts essential for a horny teen. Mary Shelley would approve.

In another genre twist, the teens throughout the film are not your usual vampish enemies, mean girls if you will, but rather occasionally concerned with each loss or abduction as if loving family were their main concern. Make no mistake, they are the genre-required baddies with an occasional gentleness unheard of in this world.

Throughout, Diablo Cody's dialogue reminds us not to take the macabre filth seriously, for this active corpse should eventually go back to the grave and we to the ironic imbalances of the living. "Lisa Frankenstein" amuses by subverting the very subgenre she is using to give us a mashup of tropes like no other horror tale.

After all, being a teen and finding true love and true sex is a full-time job that in a genre twist like this makes a girl even more desirable. Go figure.

The Iron Claw (2023)

As good as it gets for wrestling and family.

[8 February 2024]

Kevin Von Erich (Zac Efron): narrates-- Ever since I was a child, people said my family was cursed. Mom tried to protect us with God. Dad tried to protect us with wrestling. He said if we were the toughest, the strongest, nothing could ever hurt us. I believed him. We all did.

The real star of The Iron Claw is the father of four wrestling boys, Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany),whose bullying, demanding, uncompromising fathering produces champion wrestlers and suicidal sons in equal measure. To see the transformation of Zac Efron as Kevin into a muscle-bound competitor is to see an actor just as comfortable as Christian Bale and Robert De Niro in their malleable acting ages.

Narrator Kevin reminds us of his devotion to his dad and his brothers as immutable, resulting in tragic outcomes that seemingly were caused by the smothering nature of nurture. When asked by the aggressive fangirl Pam (Lily James) about what he wants in life, Kevin responds, "to be with my brothers." The jury's guilty verdict of involuntary manslaughter for Jennifer Crumbley in the case of her son's murders at Michigan's Oxford High School is a confirmation of the horrendous effects of abusive parenting that doesn't have to be physical.

Although the docudrama concentrates on the psychologically abusive treatment of the boys, it also touches on the secondary role of women in their lives, especially the long-suffering but compliant mom, Doris ( Maura Tierney), who turns away Kevin's plea for help when she tells him to work it out with his brothers!

While several scenes give a realistic view of in-the-ring action, the real action is outside, in the ring of family life, where the push to breed world champions produces suicides and mentally-abused young men who know not how to survive outside wrestling.

It's the '80's and many of our fathers chanted along with the audience, one, two, three, just as their fathers counted to ten in boxing. The toxic effects of body over mind were rarely as well depicted in The Iron Claw.

Fake or real, disturbing or disabling, this story has ramifications for all families, in wrestling or pickle balling. The Iron claw is as good as it gets.

Argylle (2024)

A welcome respite at this weak movie time of the year.

[2 February 2024]

I never expect much from pre-Oscar movie releases, except for maybe The Silence of the Lambs and Everything Everywhere All at Once. Argylle is a mild surprise this February, not the caliber of the two aforementioned-Oscar winners, but enjoyable enough, and imaginative enough, to be mentioned in their presence. If you hope it's better than the Kingsman influence, it is (the same director brings it in), while it can't beat his genre-subverting superhero take Kick-Ass.

Argylle can be downright silly in the face of a solid premise. It's a spy spoof, risible along the lines of the recent Knives Out or Murder on the Nile, if they were espionage takeoffs. Introverted novelist Elly (Bryce Dallas Howard) is completing the latest edition of her agent Argylle (Henry Cavill) spy novels when she is spun into a version of her novels all too real as a rogue spy division attempts to kidnap her for her forecasting gift, which has real-world plots that bad boys can use.

With Sam Rockwell playing a non-fictional spy, Aiden, and Bryan Cranston sneaking about as a kingpin mostly wringing his hands at incompetent goons, characters combine the humor of the satire with the tension of a Bond thriller having its tongue firmly in place. Samuel L. Jackson as a key component never hurts any spy satire either.

Besides the humor, director Vaughn and writer Jason Fuchs have colorful set ups and welcome twists with magic-realism touches that complement the conjunction of Elly's writing and the reality of espionage.

Too many working parts and characters, together with some cheesy CGI, mar an otherwise welcoming comedy at this dead-zone time of year. After all, how much Oppenheimer and Maestro can you take before you despair about life in general?

Just to see Cavill in one of cinema's best hairdos makes you happy to be lying in the lounge chair of a fancy theater, eating your bucket of popcorn, and shouting to your bud while no one else is there. That's real enough for this hungry critic.

As fir the cat, you'll buy the back-pack, guaranteed.

The Beekeeper (2024)

Almost artful. Statham's best.

[14 January 2024]

"If a beekeeper says you're gonna die, you're gonna die." Wallace Westwyld (Jeremy Irons)

When patrician bad boy, Oscar-winning Irons intones this threat/reality, you can figure The Beekeeper, Jason Statham's newest blood fest, may be a cut above his usual tongue-in-cheek tomfoolery. It is, lusty as his revenge motif is and metaphoric as the title wants to be.

Retired federal operative, read "assassin," called a "Beekeeper," Adam Clay (Statham),--hear the metaphor start ringing-- witnesses the exploitation of an elderly friend, Eloise (Phylicia Rashad), by ruthless internet scammers, ending in her suicide. Director David Ayer and writer Kurt Wimmer not quite subtly weave the analogy of Clay ridding the hive (read society) of bad bees, even ones at the very top of the hive's government.

I know, The beekeeper is just another example of revenge porn, but they have crafted an early try at literacy while keeping us fed on the nectar of ramming order into a chaotic political world such as our current presidential race fosters. While the script may offer too many ham-handed allusions to the figurative underpinnings, I found myself pleased by the attempt and remembering how the Bard eloquently incorporated the motif into one of his bloodiest and most romantic battle plays when he speaks of

"the honeybees, / Creatures that by a rule in nature teach / The act of order to a peopled kingdom." The Archbishop of Canterbury in Shakespeare's Henry V.

Statham, 56 and feisty as ever, is as stone faced as ever, but the surprisingly effective setup with the death of his friend at the beginning casts a serious and almost literate overlay to otherwise transparently fabulous death actions that would otherwise be plain silly. Avenging the scammed elderly seems noble given how many of us have seen the sudden blinking warning that our system has been compromised and don't do anything but "Call this number!" If you're old and electronic averse, you're ready to be scammed.

Stepping outside the usually-absurd carnage, The Beekeeper touches on such important societal blights as corrupt political campaign funding and malicious interference of family members with otherwise benign politicians. Although bad boys are as bad, if not worse, than any you have seen in these oft-cliched thrillers, this film tries to be more original, topical, and literate with both the good and the bad.

Not bad for a Statham cliche.

Night Swim (2024)

Clean your pool regularly, for this is one menacing intruder.

[11 January 2024]

Blumhouse has produced over the years some smart horror films like The Black Phone ( a personal favorite) and Amityville and ones less so, but always with a characteristic devotion to the usual tropes and at least a modicum of thematic intelligence. The latter is evident in their newest scare fest, Night Swim.

The setup is a dangerous swimming pool, whose past the new family should have studied to know that more than one life has been lost under suspicious circumstances. Dad is an ex pro-baseball player with a disability that cut short his career. Surprisingly, the water from this pool at the house they just bought is restorative for him, but at a price. No one in the family is exempt from the terror the monster in the pool brings as tradeoff for the restorations.

The figurative connotations of the inky black cloud that encircles victims under water are seemingly many, including the sins of a parent visited on the children or the insidious nature of evil, striking randomly and exacting a toll on all those around.

While mom (Terry Condon) tries to save dad (Wyatt Russell) and her children, the monster lies in wait to pull one of them in again, as it did years ago for the child of the previous owners. While Dad ignores the horrific effects of not taking proper safety, so too have others who know the history of the house and pool.

Night Swim is a well-spent night with a moderately scary horror story that serves as a cautionary tale about safety in backyard pools and family sins shared like pee in a backyard pool.

The Color Purple (2023)

A musical for today and all time.

[5 January 2024]

Musicals are especially rich in American culture with a long tradition of making everyone feel good walking out of the theater. In that tradition, The Color Purple (2023) excels with robust songs and dance by its African-American cast and plentiful Black cultural history. In addition to reprising several bits from Steven Spielberg's memorable 1985 adaptation of Alice Walker's acclaimed novel, this version crackles with new talent while not slavishly imitating the original.

Not only do the women take center stage, in both benign and painful ways, but also the men are close to being stereotypes of the troublesome males whites have mistakenly generalized even to this day. The best examples of good v bad are in the characters of Celie (Fantasia Barrino) and Mister (Colman Domingo).

He has abused her, especially separating her from her beloved sister Nettie (Halle Bailey and Ciara) and enslaving her to everything in his house, reminiscent of the full-bore slavery only a few years before the 1910's. In the musical tradition, he may be rehabbed, but Domingo is such a fine actor (see him streaming in Rustin) that he will always be that abusive Mister. This film version of Marsha Norman's stage musical (2005) is starker than most in the musical genre but just as lyrical, maybe even more so.

The film's color is richly saturated, reminiscent of the startling brilliance of mid-20th century Hollywood's technicolor. However, director Blitz Bazawule and writer Marcus Gardley make sure we are not fooled because the frame is filled with bad guys until the denouement when the good guys dominate. Additionally, the bad ones are worse than most stock villains in the genre.

In a sense, the newest Purple reflects the world created by Steven Spielberg and Oprah with an uplifting outlook-the sisterhood is strong, for it can change Celie's future, and the men are maybe worse than the original's stock but redeemable. This iteration could be celebrated if for only the singing and dancing of Danielle Brown, Taraji P. Henson, and most of all, Fantasia Barrino.

Musicals this enjoyable should be seen on the big screen especially during the holiday seasons. Or whenever the musical genre offers superior adaptation.

Ferrari (2023)

Two exciting races in one exciting adventure: Ferrari at work and at home.

[29 December 2023]

"You win on Sunday; you sell on Monday." Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver)

Except for the fine racing docudramas like Ford v Ferrari, not many mainstream racing movies recently can compare with Ferrari for visceral and psychological impact. Director Michael Mann not only has some of the best racing sequences of the Mille Miglia, the thousand-mile open-road race around Italy including right through Rome, but he also captures the no less tame race in Ferrari's own family. The bright-red colored cars, rosso corsa or racing red, are emblematic of the race's passion and bloody danger, just like his life.

Adam Driver gives the best performance of his life portraying the charismatic Italian icon, Enzo Ferrari, with a scowl to strike fear and a cool to help us understand that Ferrari and Italy are synonymous. Not only are there racing events that help sell his extravagant cars, there is soap-opera grade turmoil over his hitherto unknown mistress, Lina (Shailene Woodley), his bastard son, and his wife, Laura (Penelope Cruz).

Woodley's role is the weakest as she slips into anger over her covert relationship and pushes for her 10-year-old son to have the famous name he deserves. Next to the seasoned actress, Cruz, Woodley is miscast.

His wife, Laura, is crucial to funding his business, which now hangs on to winning the race for its survival. Throughout, however, he is even keeled and never better than when he counsels his team on what it takes to win.

Some of the pep talk is downright existential. Not for nothing do his workers call him Commendatore or Commander. Nor is this serious adventure to be confused with the ultimately campy House of Gucci and Driver's portrayal of each titular hero. He can be seen in the black and white faux newsreel at the beginning of the film with goggles and an Alfa Romeo.

Mann is a master of racing pieces along with exceptional cinematography and sound design to make Ferrari memorable and give us all a pure cinematic landscape that relaxes before we struggle over the ultimate race, Oscar.

Poor Things (2023)

A picaresque fantasy with a lead's Oscar-worthy performance.

[22 December 2023]

"I have adventured it and found nothing but sugar and violence." Bella Baxter (Emma Stone)

From Voltaire to Tim Burton and Frankenstein to Wes Anderson, Poor Things has just about all you could ask for in a fantastic fairy tale about a late nineteenth-century girl coming of age in a world she is determined won't be dominated by men. Throw in an Oscar-worthy lead performance by Emma Stone, and you will have a pseudo-bio to give Barbie and Nyad a serious run for Oscar and Golden Globes.

Director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster) once again shows he's a tough competitor for the most imaginative film of the year. Without Time Burton, it's his year for the wildest story with challenging themes, gorgeous sets, and bizarre characters, none more strange than mad scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (who else but Willem Dafoe?). He has resurrected Bella (Emma Stone) with the brain of a child, who eventually roams the great cities of the world such as Paris and London looking for pleasure and growing incrementally in her understanding of human foibles, especially men's.

She blithely takes a job as a sex worker, having learned about sexual pleasure and agency through louche cad Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo in another Oscar-worthy role). Her bildungsroman experiences, from which she learns how to navigate a corrupt society, leave her far and away from the poor creation of the crazed Dr. Baxter.

From the expressionistic Baxter lab to the toy-like luxury liner, the set design is almost as sumptuous as Barbie's, and Bella's developing libertine persona is more colorful than even commercially-successful Barbie's. That Stone is the leading Oscar-worthy role of 2023 is obvious; that her character has much more to say about equality and Puritanism than any other film of that year will be manifest at the end of the Oscar 2024 ceremony.

Duncan's attempt to reel in Bella's uncontrolled language by giving her only these three responses could as well describe Poor Things: "How marvelous," "Delighted," and "How do they make the pastry so crisp?"

May December (2023)

A winner from Todd Haynes and Netflix.

[16 December 2023]

Figuring out Todd Haynes' tone in Netflix's May December is just one of its many delights. Throw in two top-tier actors, Julienne Moore and Natalie Portman, and you are in for a challenging serio-comic film experience.

The title pretty much tells us all we need to know with an older woman, Gracie (Moore), having married a much younger man, Joe Yoo (Charles Melton). As if that imbalance weren't enough, the couple became embroiled in tabloid fame.

Into lives that seem tranquil enough comes the outsider, the character who changes things. Natalie Portman's TV actress, Elizabeth, visits to get a sense of Gracie as she plays her in an independent film about the scandal. Elizabeth gets to know the scene a bit too well visiting Joe at his hospital job as an X-ray technician. Artifice and reality begin to merge.

Given that it's Natalie Portman playing Elizabeth and Joe's vulnerable as he was in the pet shop with Gracie, no wonder the original scandal takes wing again with a turn not likely to surprise anyone. It's director Todd Haynes's territory, where a character like Gracie is clueless to a certain extent, allowing the drama to take on comedic undertones where surprises about fellow human beings modeling soap opera characters ring true but no less dangerous than on the tellie.

No scene is more telling about the juncture of reality and romance than when Elizabeth visits Gracie's daughter's high school acting class to equivocate about sexual pleasure during sex scenes. Coupling Haynes's naughty innuendos with Michel Legrand's overtly soap opera music, what seems like a developing tragedy repeating the tabloid circus in 1992 turns into a parody of ordinary folk played by actors who are ordinary themselves. Haynes hits human weaknesses universally.

May December starts with a tabloid set up of older woman-very younger man to a more probing study of motives and maturity, wherein an older woman evades reality and a younger man begins to create his own. Not bad at all for comic melodrama.

Silent Night (2023)

A new violent masterpiece from John Woo.

[8 December 2023]

"Kill them all." Brian (Joel Kinneman)

John Woo's reputation for stylized violence is well deserved if only for his new revenge thriller, Silent Night. His slow motion mixed with a nervously moving camera, piercing closeups, stunning wounds, and imaginative car chases that seem real are just a few of his signature shots. His Cantonese hits like The Killer and Hard Boiled established him as an auteur of blood violence par excellence. That he is not reluctant to be sentimental gives most of his thrillers an extra measure of charm in the presence of mayhem.

Woo's Hollywood masterpieces like Face /Off and Mission Impossible II remind his devotees how 20 years have not diminished his ability to carry off astonishing stunts and car chases better than Steve McQueen's. His bird motif, which he has used before with white doves, adds an artistic flare not usual with bloodbaths.

In this new thriller with almost no dialogue (maybe 10 swear words is all I could hear), Woo outstrips Wick and Equalizer for profound anger with a need for revenge propelling Brian ( Joel Kinnaman), shot in the throat by a gang that killed his son (Anthony Giulietti), is now a mute father who has lost his only child to that stray gangland bullet. "Kill them all" he writes on his calendar for the next anniversary, Christmas Eve.

Neither he nor Woo needs words; the silence is bracing and ominous, and I'm a word guy with an insatiable appetite for good dialogue-- not needed here. His pans smoothly bring back a happy family life, sequences that even I welcomed in place of sentimental word tripe too often softening traditional revenge films.

Woo is smart enough to enlist our sympathy with a child born to melt the audience and a wife/mother (Catalina Sandino Moreno) so engaging and loving as to make the body count (less than Wick but more than Equalizer) seem acceptable and desirable. Words? Not needed.

Few other revenge films have such a hard-nosed ending as well. Woo courts the dismay of fellow violent filmmakers by engaging our sympathy for the bereaved parents and nothing for any of the villains, even a young woman wielding a machine gun.

Although David Fincher's recent The Killer shows how intense-but- minimalist action can be powerful, Woo wins the revenge race with barely a word.

Rustin (2023)

Robust doc about the hero of the peaceful march on Washington.

[3 December 2023]

"When we tell ourselves such lies, we do the work of our oppressors." Bayard Rustin (Coleman Domingo)

Who gave MLK the platform for his famous "I have a dream" words? None other than Bayard Rustin, the activist, conceptualizer, and organizer of the largest peaceful march on Washington in history. That August demonstration gave Martin Luther King to history while it is now with the docudrama Rustin that Bayard will long be remembered.

Even with his posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, Rustin was not known as well as he could be. One possible contributor to that neglect was his homosexuality, a notoriously damning attribute in the 1960's. In fact, he was booted from MLK'w inner circle for just that reason. The docudrama takes pains to show the extent and sincerity of his romantic commitments, almost to the extent of being less intense about his organizational skills.

If I could carp about the drama's limitation, it would be the excessive time given to his love life rather than to the complex web of dependencies needed to attract and accommodate over 200,000 marchers.

Director George C. Wolfe and the accomplished Coleman Domingo (sure to be nominated) keep Rustin lovingly in the foreground while they allow such secondary characters as enemy Adam Clayton Powell (Jeffery Wright) and Roy Wilkins (Chris Rock) to interfere as they did back then. Wright's Powell almost upends a meeting, and possibly the entire demonstrations, as he tries to paint Bayard as a danger to the enterprise. The biggest impediment is his being arrested for lewd conduct with men in Pasadena years ago.

In the end, Bayard Rustin organized the biggest peaceful demonstration in the nation's history, whose underpinnings were the principles of non-violent resistance, a condition lasting through today, not withstanding the horror of the Jan 6th riot at the Capitol

Thanks to the docudrama, available on Netflix, Bayard Rustin gave the template for peaceful resistance. Thoreau would approve.