Venom: Let There Be Carnage - Movie Review

Dir: Andy Serkis

Starring: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, and Woody Harrelson

1h 37m

What happens when that little voice inside your head, the one that helps you reason good versus bad decisions, tells you to eat people? That's the strange dilemma between an odd couple journalist named Eddie Brock, played by a committed Tom Hardy, and an alien symbiote named Venom, voiced with grumbly enthusiasm by Tom Hardy. 

"Venom: Let There Be Carnage" is the continuation of the relationship between Eddie and Venom, this time moving from a conflicted new friendship into something more akin to an old married couple. Director Andy Serkis crafts a lean and mean comic book oddity that feels just outside the norm of the Marvel cinematic formula. That's a good thing, even if the final result struggles to excel beyond the limitations of an average script.  

Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) finds balance in his chaotic life, living with an alien inhabiting him and consistently providing a manic internal dialogue and a craving for brains. They co-exist in a messy apartment, with holes in the ceiling made by outbursts from Venom and two chickens lovingly saved from a dinner plate and renamed Sonny and Cher. Their relationship is on rocky ground. Venom craves freedom and urges Eddie to embrace a role as protector of the city - while also allowing him to eat the heads of the bad guys they defeat. Eddie fears exposing the truth of his sudden abilities to solve cases the police can't and hopes to resolve his broken relationship with his former girlfriend Anne (Michelle Williams). 

Eddie finds attention from a serial killer named Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson). After Eddie writes, with Venom's help, a story that solves a slew of cases, Cletus is fast-tracked to the front of the death row line. As a final request before the execution, Cletus asks to see Eddie one last time. Cletus bites Eddie during an altercation, and a piece of the symbiote attaches to Cletus, unleashing a monster born for carnage. Eddie and Venom set their differences aside to save the world. 

Director Andy Serkis takes a breakneck approach to storytelling in "Venom: Let There Be Carnage." The film, without credits, is under 90 minutes. That's unheard of for superhero films these days. But what Serkis does in limited time is focus on the highlights for fans of the Venom character. 

Tom Hardy composes an unusual Eddie Brock, providing the mostly unlikeable journalist with enough charm and awkwardness to sympathize with the character. Hardy's nervous and timid performance is an essential quality for Eddie's composition because the story doesn't leave much time for character development. At the same time, the film quickly introduces the film's key villains, a lovelorn couple played by Woody Harrelson and Naomie Harris. Harrelson, whose performance feels just a few steps away from his character in "Natural Born Killers," goes for broke. While the wild-eyed Naomie Harris, whose superpower is a ferocious scream, isn't offered much to do besides looking unhinged. A side story following Eddie's love interest Anne, a completely underutilized Michelle Williams, feels like an afterthought from the narrative.

"Venom: Let There Be Carnage" leans on its oddball vibes and harmless humor, along with an oddly captivating performance from Tom Hardy, to keep this sequel centered on simplistic entertainment value objectives. For the most part, it succeeds in honoring the path set by the original film. If you enjoyed the first "Venom," you will find reason enough to smile with this sequel.

Monte's Rating

2.50 out of 5.00

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The Many Saints of Newark – Movie Review

Directed by:  Alan Taylor

Written by:  David Chase and Lawrence Konner

Starring:  Michael Gandolfini, Alessandro Nivola, Leslie Odom Jr., Vera Farmiga, Jon Bernthal, Corey Stall, Ray Liotta, Billy Magnussen, John Magaro, and Michael Imperioli

Runtime:  120 minutes

‘The Many Saints of Newark’ commits a sin because it’s better suited as a series.

“The Sopranos” ran for six glorious, Emmy Award-winning seasons from 1999 to 2007.  Fourteen years after Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” accompanied the fateful and sudden shudder to black on the last scene of the series finale, a “The Sopranos” feature film – “The Many Saints of Newark” - arrives in theatres and HBO Max.

Yes, believe it!

“The Sopranos” creator David Chase has been approached to write a movie about our “favorite” New Jersey mob family before, but he always resisted.  However, in an Aug. 19, 2021 Rolling Stone interview with Alan Sepinwall, David explains that the genesis of “The Many Saints of Newark” came about 20 years ago from screenwriter Tom Fontana. 

“Tom said he thought it would be interesting to do a story in Newark in the old days of Johnny and Junior.  That appealed to me because my mother (came) from Newark at that time.  My parents met in Newark at that time,” Chase says. 

He adds, “I never forgot (that conversation).” 

This 1960s/1970s prequel – set during Tony Soprano’s teen and preteen years - looks and feels authentic for the big screen.  Unfortunately, director Alan Taylor and screenwriters Lawrence Konner and Chase include way too much story for only two hours.  

Quite ironically, this flick is so well-suited for a new series, perhaps 10 one-hour episodes, but instead, the movie feels like Taylor, Konner, and Chase jammed snippets from these characters’ lives – some new, others very familiar - into a 120-minute highlight reel.   

It’s 1967, and we first meet Tony’s uncle, Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola).  He runs a numbers racket, and he and his top soldier in the field, Harold McBrayer (Leslie Odom Jr.), chase down a random collector who holds out on them.  

Where’s all the cash?  The envelope seems light. 

Dickie is Christopher’s dad.  We never meet Michael Imperioli, but he does narrate from the grave.  Christopher appears as an infant here, long before his addictions come to a head (See Season 4 Episode 10), and “Newark” treats us to several well-loved characters, decades into the past.  

Casting director Douglas Aibel and a slew of actors deserve heaping praise and dozens of future favors for delighting fans with actors and performances who wildly resemble younger versions of the famous personalities.  

Billy Magnussen and John Magaro are dead ringers for Paulie and Sil, and so is Samson Moeakiola as Pussy Bonpensiero, although he doesn’t have many speaking lines. 

Corey Stoll plays a fine, ornery (and yes, bald, even during the late 60s) Uncle Junior, and Vera Farmiga – who should star in everything – plays Tony’s mom, Livia.  With Farmiga’s prosthetic nose, Livia in this film eerily resembles Edie Falco – who, of course, plays Tony’s wife, Carmela, in the television series – so one has to believe that Konner and Chase are dancing with Freudian themes. 

Last but not least, James Gandolfini’s 22-year-old son, Michael, rightfully is a teenage Tony, and William Ludwig is our hero at an elementary school age.  For the record, Ludwig looks strikingly similar to Robert Iler, so again, well done, Mr. Aibel! 

Paulie, Sil, Pussy, Tony’s sister Janice (Alexandra Intrator, Mattea Conforti) make occasional appearances.  Still, the film’s primary arc is Dickie’s, who sports a four-headed hydra of plot threads, which include leading his shady enterprise, juggling relationships between his wife (Gabriella Piazza) and girlfriend (Michela De Rossi), coping with his irritable dad (Ray Liotta), and mentoring his nephew Tony.  

From a fan’s perspective, taking care of Tony should be Dickie’s most essential responsibility, but regrettably, the other three gather up (about) triple the amount of screen time.  

Hey, that’s just quick math.  

Granted, Dickie’s ongoing tension with Harold, Giuseppina (De Rossi), and his dad offer some genuine and curious sparks, but ultimately, we mostly care about his influence on the young and impressionable Tony.  

Dickie and Tony do get some actual face time, as Mr. Moltisanti offers stand-tall-and-do-the-right-thing spiels.  Indeed, his messages are well-intentioned, but Dickie lives with a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do code, and sometimes, Tony witnesses his uncle’s nefarious transgressions.  Since our young protagonist’s dad (Jon Bernthal) is serving time, any thoughts of Tony following positive role models are wasted brain synapses.  

This film successfully conveys that Johnny’s (Bernthal) void and Livia’s constant misery built Tony’s foundation of adult criminal philosophies and mental illness.  Tony isn’t The Beaver, and Johnny and Livia aren’t Ward and June, but we rarely see the young man internalize and process these events.  (Although, admittedly, we do on a couple of occasions.) 

Instead, the script usually cuts away from Dickie’s laundry list of headaches and flips to Tony bouncing a basketball, reading a comic book, or beating up an ice cream man and stealing his truck.  So, how does he go from good egg to goon?  Sure, T’s immoral environment is pouring the cement, but we don’t get nearly enough time with Tony to observe his change from the aforementioned “d” to “n”. 

“The Many Saints of Newark” commits a sin because it seems like the filmmakers took a 10-hour narrative, chopped, sliced, and diced it - like Ralph Cifaretto (Joe Pantoliano) in Season 4 Episode 9 – and glued a few pieces back together into a linear – but unfulfilling - story.  

It’s a movie with humor, realistic dank 60s/70s cinematography, vicious violence, a Van Morrison song, and some folks we know, but due to the film’s construction and focus – and it pains me to say this - it’s missing its heart. 

Jeff’s ranking

2/4 stars

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The Guilty - Movie Review

Directed by: Antoine Fuqua

Written by: Nic Pizzolato, based upon the film “Den Skyldige” (“The Guilty”), written by Gustav Möller & Emil Nygaard Albertsen

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Riley Keough, Peter Sarsgaard, Ethan Hawke, & Paul Dano

Available 10/1 on Netflix: http://www.netflix.com/TheGuilty

By Jen Johans

If you haven’t seen “The Guilty,” you should see “The Guilty.” Let me try this again. If you’ve seen “The Guilty,” you might like “The Guilty.” No, that’s still not quite right. It might help if I tell you that there are two versions of “The Guilty.” There’s the original 2018 Danish film from director Gustav Möller, which was one of the year’s very best movies, and then there’s the new American remake directed by Antoine Fuqua, which debuted last week in theatres in selected cities and will arrive on Netflix on October 1.

Knowing this, I'm sure you can probably guess which of the two pictures I prefer because that's usually the way it goes with remakes of foreign films that frequently lose something vital in the English translation (just like all too often, the book is better than the movie). Of course, there are definite exceptions to this, but in the case of “The Guilty,” it isn't enough just to say that, yes, as predicted, the original version of the film is far superior to the American remake.

Because as a work, it is utterly dependent upon a few major plot revelations that slowly and methodically unfurl over the course of its very stressful roughly ninety-minute running time, since Fuqua's “The Guilty” adheres very closely to Möller's own film, the version you see first might just dictate which one you prefer. 

Set over the course of a very long night in a 911 emergency call center in Los Angeles, as Fuqua's film opens, we meet a police officer who has been temporarily reassigned during an investigation into some sort of conduct violation that we learn more about later on.

In the midst of L.A.'s fire season where the calls are coming in hot and the air is so smoky and polluted that it's exacerbating his asthma something fierce, Jake Gyllenhaal's Joe answers incoming distress calls with the same degree of breathless disdain, cynicism, and entitlement with which he used to patrol the city's streets. Whether it's people requesting help because they took too much speed or were robbed by a hooker (both incidents play out exactly as in the original), Joe counts down the minutes until his hearing the next day, after which he hopes to get off the phones and go back on the beat. However, suddenly, a call comes in that does the unthinkable; it makes Joe not only care but also get very involved.

A woman's (Riley Keough) voice comes in on the line speaking to Joe as though he were her child. But before he disconnects from what he assumes is a wrong number, something in the timbre of her voice stops him. Shaky, tear-filled, and in a state of panic she's trying to hide, when he hears a man (Peter Sarsgaard) ask her who she's talking to, Joe starts piecing together the narrative that she's been abducted by her husband by asking the woman yes or no questions only.

Barely able to sit still in his chair – his jittery hand forever fondling his inhaler because he knows it's only a matter of time before he runs out of breath once again – he becomes a cop again before our eyes. Demanding help from the California Highway Patrol and others who are inundated by fire, crises, and crime calls of their own, Joe tries to route squads to pull over a white van traveling eastbound on the I-10 and also send cars to her home to check on these children that she keeps talking about.

Getting even more frantic when they get disconnected and she doesn't answer the phone, he calls her home to talk to her young daughter who helps Joe fill in a few more blanks. Rather than be the first one out the door from his final shift, he abruptly refuses to leave until he sees this case through to the end. Restrained by legal red tape, jurisdictional issues, and bureaucracy, Joe eventually goes into an isolated room, closes the blinds, and devotes the rest of the film's running time to trying to bring Keough's Emily Lighton home safely.

That old macho rage at a forefront – for reasons both good and bad – he makes a request to his loyal sergeant (voiced by Ethan Hawke) to go and kick some doors in when the more he hears and uncovers about Emily, the more alarmed he becomes. But is he really listening or is he working out his own personal issues with regret as a father in the midst of marital strife? Is he fighting to save Emily or himself?

Both versions of “The Guilty” serve as a reminder that whenever one interacts with emergency services in the form of police, fire, or paramedics, it's on one of the worst days of our lives. Communication, as the works reveal, is at the forefront of our experience, and limits are placed on what gets conveyed, understood, the authority figure's abilities to help (read: not hurt), and whatever they're going through on their own as well.

Where the two works differ greatly is in terms of their approach. Subtle, whittled down, and respectful enough of the audience's intelligence not to give us a lot of overt messages, excuses, spell everything out, or punctuate every new revelation with an intrusive score, Möller's “The Guilty” is masterful in the way it slowly builds to its unbearably tense conclusion. 

In stark contrast, anyone who's seen a film by Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day,” “Southpaw,” “Olympus Has Fallen,” etc.) knows that subtlety is not his strong suit. The new "Guilty" is utterly overstuffed, both with the baggage of Joe and the gravity of America in the present moment. Filled with symbolism, from the fires raging outside and internally in Joe to that damn inhaler, and punctuated with cacophonous sound to drive his points home via a score that “tells” you what and how to feel, "The Guilty" is a lot to absorb without a headache. Also, it's loaded with explanations for behavior that in some ways augment the film by commenting on the problems faced in our country and in others, just play like speechifying sound bites.

Whereas the original film (which Gyllenhaal first saw at Sundance in 2018 and knew immediately he wanted to remake) was content to let the battles within his dynamic main character come to the forefront as needed and often in his micro-expressions or through actor Jakob Cedergren's eyes, the new version makes our lead much more vocal, demonstrative, and unhinged. One of the strongest American actors of his generation, Gyllenhaal is more than up to the task to bring humanity to what is largely a one-man show, save for the remarkable contributions by members of its vocal cast, including Keough, Sarsgaard, Hawke, Paul Dano, and others.

But while the film goes big when it should go little, its tendency to push to the extreme lessens as it continues, when Fuqua, his cinematographer, and editor pull back slightly, and Gyllenhaal dials the bravado down several notches. As someone who grew up around cops, let me be the first to say that they most definitely have a Cop Voice, Cop Manner, and Cop Behavior. And just like when someone gets out of the military, it takes some time for them to leave that behind and just assimilate with the rest of us, Fuqua – who's made many movies dealing with this very thing as both director and producer – understands this well. Gyllenhaal's Joe learns to modulate his voice and behavior the longer he's on the phone with Emily and the film is better for it.

Still, though, the first chunk of his “Guilty,” which was written by “True Detective”'s Nic Pizzolatto (though by their own admission somewhat rewritten by Fuqua and Gyllenhaal), plays like a dropped character and subplot that was edited out of “Training Day.” Far more of an extreme contrast than we truly need as Joe evolves over the course of the movie, as I watched this one, I kept thinking of not only the original Danish production but also Steven Knight's brilliant UK movie “Locke,” from 2013 as well.

Truly a one-man show in terms of actors on the screen, in Knight's film, we see Tom Hardy's character answer a phone call on a drive home that changes everything for him. Something as simple as which direction he's going to go and what he's going to do next has life-altering stakes, and just like in both versions of “The Guilty,” made a few years later, the film's drama comes from his interactions with others whose voices we hear on the other end of his various calls.

Shot in real-time as Hardy made the same drive each night and went through the same emotional drama only a handful of times as if it were a play, both versions of “The Guilty,” were shot similarly. Yet instead of just letting it play out real-time over 90 minutes with Hardy in a car and the cameras ready to go the whole time, both “Guilty” productions were completed in shoots ranging from 11 (Fuqua) to 13 (Möller) days. But by focusing less on manufacturing drama and more on letting it play out on its own, both “Locke” and the original version of “The Guilty” work so much better with far less artifice than the 2021 rendition of the latter.

In the end, of course, Fuqua's film might still be worth watching if you liked Möller's original “Guilty" and are curious what the new incarnation might look like Americanized, with all of these gifted actors, and with the volume turned way, way up. But if you've never pressed play on the original, I'd highly recommend seeing both "Locke" and “The Guilty” before you see “The Guilty,” to see how to tell the story of a man on a phone at a crossroads in his life right.

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My Name is Pauli Murray – Movie Review

Directed by:  Julie Cohen and Betsy West

Starring:  Pauli Murray (archive footage), Patricia Bell-Scott, Brittney Cooper, Chase Strangio, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg 

Runtime:  88 minutes

‘My Name is Pauli Murray’:  Please meet this American pioneer

“I want to see America be what she says she is in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.  America, be what you proclaim to be!” – Pauli Murray

During the opening few minutes of the documentary “My Name is Paul Murray”, Karen Rouse Ross – who is Pauli Murray’s grand-niece and the executrix of her estate – explains, “Pauli did not share a lot about her life with me.  I knew she was a priest.  I knew she had been a lawyer, but she never ever mentioned any of her accomplishments.  I went and read (her papers), and then I realized, ‘Oh my God.’”  

Ross may not have known Pauli’s accomplishments, but admittedly, I never heard of Pauli Murray.  

Shame on me. 

About 50 minutes into this doc, I began to realize that Murray – who passed away in 1985 at the age of 74 - was a civil rights and women’s rights champion whose impact rivals Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s.  In fact, about 10 minutes later, the film points out that Murray pushed the ACLU to accept Ginsburg on its board.   

The parallels between the two women, as well as their accomplishments, are staggering.  After the movie ended, this critic noted that directors Julie Cohen and Betsy West also helmed “RBG” (2018), the insightful doc about our country’s late justice.  

During a Sept. 30 Q&A at the Angelika Film Center & Café, Cohen discussed that she and West learned about Murray during their “RBG” work.  

“(Betsy and I) did a little Googling on Pauli Murray and (started) to read up and learn a bit more about the myriad of things that Pauli had done, leading us to be somewhat astounded that we didn’t know about this incredible figure,” Cohen said.

Murray was a pioneer of the highest order and truest definition.  According to Google, a pioneer means “a person who is among the first to explore or settle in an area” or “a person who begins or helps develop something new and prepares the way for others to follow.”  

Indeed, Pauli explored new areas in the legal world, and she paved the way for other landmark idols of American history.  In other words, Pauli was a pioneer for the pioneers.  

Vastly ahead of her time.  

If you are unfamiliar with Pauli Murray, it would be a disservice to list her staggering achievements in this review.  Watch the movie, but for the moment, know that she was a modern-day Renaissance woman who fought for the underrepresented, especially during earlier decades that one wouldn’t expect.

Think of it this way.  This documentary is like discovering that Neil Armstrong – in July 1969 - wasn’t the first person to walk on the Moon.  Instead, 20 years earlier, someone else flew into outer space and stepped on Madame Luna.  Granted, Murray wasn’t an astronaut, but you get the point.  

Cohen and West follow straight-up doc methods in revealing a crystal-clear picture of Murray’s life.  Except for the cinematic biography’s first 10 minutes, the movie generally follows a linear path, where we discover that Pauli grew up in humble beginnings in North Carolina.  When she was three, she moved to Durham to live with her aunts and grandparents (on her mother’s side).  

Her family had mixed-race backgrounds, but she identified (or was identified) as black.  Murray also challenged her gender identity, a taboo subject throughout most of the 20th century, but she did so silently, which caused her emotional anguish. 

In most respects, however, Murray moved like a rocket ship, a one-woman force armed with a keen will to make progress.  For example, she sent repeated letters to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt about the University of North Carolina’s discriminatory admission standards, and she eventually got First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s attention.  

Murray called this practice “confrontation by typewriter.”

She was also a voracious reader, and the bio explains her embrace of education, which began at a tender young age and continued throughout her life, as she earned several degrees.  

To tell this extraordinary story, Cohen and West recruited experts like Rutgers University professor and author Brittney Cooper, University of Georgia professor and author Patricia Bell-Scott, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Pauli Murray (who thankfully documented her memoir via audiotape).  

Murray once said, “When my brothers try to draw a circle to exclude me, I shall draw a larger circle to include them.”

Well, make sure that you draw a big circle on “My Name is Pauli Murray” on Amazon Prime or your local movie theatre listing and devote 88 minutes to this film about this dedicated human being.

Jeff’s ranking

3/4 stars

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Dear Evan Hansen - Movie Review by Monte Yazzie

Dir: Stephen Chbosky

Starring: Ben Platt, Kaitlyn Dever, Amy Adams, Danny Pino, Nik Dodani, Julianne Moore, and Colton Ryan

2h 17m

"Dear Evan Hansen" makes its way from the stage to the screen, banking on its Tony award-winning success to translate its problematic subject matter into a moving musical movie sensation. 

Director Stephen Chbosky, who is no stranger to youth-focused drama, having directed "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" and "Wonder," has the unenviable task of adapting the stage content for the movie theater. It proves a tremendously difficult task as "Dear Evan Hansen," a story about adolescent mental-health concerns translated with musical numbers and teen rom-com sentiments, fails in finding its emotional pulse. 

The film opens with a teenage Evan Hansen (Ben Platt) writing a therapy-assigned letter addressed to himself. Evan, struggling with crippling social anxiety, among other undisclosed mental-health concerns, is reframing with positive affirmations about his final first day of high school. After being yelled at by a volatile classmate named Connor (Colton Ryan), Evan retreats into his loneliness, an existence of yearning for the girl he likes to notice him, eating lunches alone, and trying desperately to be more than just an invisible face in the crowd. 

One of Evan's self-addressed letters finds its way into the hands of Connor, who again challenges Evan in front of all their peers. The next day Evan is called into the principal's office and is informed that Connor took his own life. Connor's parents' (Amy Adams and Danny Pino) only clue is one of Evan's self-addressed letters. Believing Evan was Connor's only friend, the parents begin asking Evan questions about their relationship. Evan untruthfully fabricates a story that initiates a series of lies that grow greater as Evan propels into popularity. 

"Dear Evan Hansen" is a problematic film. The handling of a narrative centered on mental-health concerns for young people builds a complicated character at the core of its story. It asks the viewer to sympathize with a young person who manipulates a tragic situation. Along the bumpy path, Evan leads two grieving parents into falsehoods surrounding their deceased son while also using the problem to gain time and attention from the girl he has a crush on, who also happens to be the sibling of the boy who took his own life. 

The narrative handles issues of suicide, grieving, loneliness, and the impacts of social media on mental-health concerns with surface-level exploration. It's neither meaningful nor thought-provoking when the characters are offered minimal time to explore some of these concerns. It is often undercut by a musical number that pulls the emotion away from young people simply being honest with one another. It's troublesome, difficult to watch at times, and leads to a finale that doesn't feel at all earned. 

Ben Platt, reprising the stage role, is an excellent performer with a beautiful voice, but he doesn't pull off the look of a high school student. Platt has a few shining moments, primarily when tasked with carrying a musical number. Still, the subtle performance pieces surrounding the character's struggle and motivation are lost in the superficial narrative. Kaitlyn Dever, playing Evan's love interest Zoe, does an excellent job of balancing grief and hope. Playing Evan's mother, Heidi, Julianne Moore mostly disappears for much of the film but in her small moments provides a sense of gravity when questioning her son and a tender sensibility found in her struggle as a single mom. 

"Dear Evan Hansen" offers a few moments to discuss issues of mental health for young people. Most of these scenes happen between two characters, sometimes one sole character, with minimal emphasis on showy dance routines and without heavy-handed emotional coercion. Within these small, quiet scenes, the film brings valuable attention and an important message to the conversations surrounding depression, loneliness, grief, and coping with negative feelings. I wish there were more of this. Unfortunately, much of the adapted stage sensation fails to connect meaningfully with the situation and emotions found in the source material. 

Monte's Rating

2.25 out of 5.00

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Dear Evan Hansen - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Directed by:  Stephen Chbosky

Written by:  Steven Levenson

Starring:  Ben Platt, Kaitlyn Dever, Julianne Moore, Amy Adams, Danny Pino, and Colton Ryan

Runtime:  137 minutes

“Dear Evan Hansen”:  Beautiful ballads crash into an ugly narrative

“On the outside, always looking in.  Will I ever be more than I’ve always been?  ‘Cause I’m tap, tap, tapping on the glass.  I’m waving through a window.  I try to speak, but nobody can hear.”  - Evan Hansen (Ben Platt) 

Evan lives in dire straits.  He’s a senior at Westview High School, and like many other students, he carries anxiety about his current place in (and state of) the world.  

Comedienne Carol Burnett said, “Adolescence is one big pimple,” and she’s right.  

Evan frequently feels that he could burst into tears, but he mainly frets.  While other kids stress about grades, dating, curfews, driving, and peer pressure, most of his classmates have found their close array of confidants, compadres, or sworn allies.  

Not Evan.  He’s doesn’t have one true friend, and his troubled mental state is more disastrous than the average teen.  He suffers from anxiety and depression and takes Zoloft and Wellbutrin to help cope through his days.  Still, his self-esteem remains lower than a limbo bar in Antarctica.

However, Director Stephen Chbosky and writer Steven Levenson attempt to offer warm empathy for Evan.  They feature teenage mental illness as a centerpiece of their film, adapted from the Broadway play of the same name.  Director Michael Greif’s live theatrical hit garnered six Tony Awards in 2017, including Best Musical, and Platt earned Best Performance by a Lead Actor in a Musical.

No question, Platt can sing his lungs out, and composers Justin Paul and Benj Pasek cranked out a flat-out beautiful, vastly-catchy collection of tunes, including “If I Could Tell Her”, “Anybody Have a Map?”, the centerpiece track “You Will Be Found”, and the opening solo “Waving Through a Window”.  And why not?  Paul and Plasek are the melodious minds behind “La La Land” (2016) and “The Greatest Showman” (2017). 

Yes, this is them!  (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) 

Do yourself a favor and find Platt’s “Waving Through a Window” rendition from the 2017 Tony Awards.  

Fabulous stuff.  Completely fabulous.

The music isn’t the problem in “Dear Evan Hansen”, and neither are the performances.  Platt’s Evan sells teen angst as well as Crispin Glover’s George McFly (“Back to the Future” (1985)) and Anthony Michael Hall’s Brian Johnson (“The Breakfast Club” (1985)).  Evan, George, and Brian are three peas in a pod.  Well, three separate pods because these loners wouldn’t function in one.  

Also, Platt’s co-star Kaitlyn Dever (“Booksmart” (2019)) is awfully convincing as a grieving sister, and so are Amy Adams and Danny Pino, as Zoe’s (Dever) parents. 

Why are they in mourning?  Her brother and their son, Connor (Colton Ryan), commits suicide, and Zoe, Cynthia (Adams), and Larry (Pino) are left with a dozen questions but have zero answers.

Unfortunately for this family, Evan repeatedly lies about his friendship with Connor and then provides false answers to their inquiries, as one fib snowballs into an avalanche of deceptive falsehoods.  Soon he can’t control the narrative in school or online, and he volleys from embarrassment to elation because he suddenly feels seen and heard.  He’s no longer waving through a window but stepping through it and embracing others and himself.

To be fair, this crashing mountain did begin with a misunderstanding, not a lie.  So, Evan isn’t at fault at first.   

But misunderstandings occur with regularity in movies and television.  Take “Three’s Company” (1976 – 1984) and look at any episode.  The sitcom’s mix-ups are either resolved by the end of a 22-minute show or within just a few moments, like when Mr. Furley (Don Knotts) thought that Jack (John Ritter) and Chrissy (Suzanne Somers) were a couple, but they were simply putting up a shower curtain (while fully clothed).  Pretty harmless.

Here, Evan’s shameful lies and coverup are wickedly harmful, and with the film’s 137-minute runtime, we have to endure our protagonist’s horrible errors in judgment for – what seems like – an eternity.  Yes, Evan is – somehow – featured as a protagonist, as he smashes into a delicate narrative about a kid taking his own life.  The sad thing is every single moviegoer knows – straight away - how this brutal story will end for him.   

Quite frankly, it’s difficult to muster up any sympathy for Evan, as the real victims are Zoe, Cynthia, Larry, and anyone else who believed him.  Maybe “Dear Evan Hansen” would offer a different vibe as a straight-up drama, like “The Spectacular Now” (2013), which effectively and empathetically dealt with alcoholism.  Perhaps the original Broadway version imprints differently, or the live production sets Evan’s abhorrent decisions (more) in the background as the music takes center stage (pardon the pun).  

I haven’t seen the play, so I don’t know.  

However, I experienced the movie.  Hey, I’ll listen to the exceptional music again and again, but one viewing of this flawed film is more than enough.    

Jeff’s ranking

2/4 stars

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I'm Your Man - Movie Review

Director: Maria Schrader

Writers: Maria Schrader and Jan Schomburg, based on the short story by Emma Braslavsky

Cast: Dan Stevens, Maren Eggert, and Sandra Hüller

(In German with English subtitles)

By: Jen Johans

A tall, kind, supportive, handsome, dark-haired man with a British accent who looks at the woman that he's with with puppy dog levels of adoration, if Thomas (Dan Stevens) seems like the perfect man, that's because he is…for the most part. Unfortunately, however, what he isn't is a man.

A humanoid robot designed to be one hundred percent compatible with Alma (Maren Eggert), a Pergamon Museum academic who has agreed to evaluate Tom for a three week period in order to fund and further her own research into ancient cuneiform writing, although their prospective relationship seems like a joke to the deeply uncomfortable Alma, Tom takes his romantic mission deadly seriously.

From being startled when she gives him his own bedroom instead of sharing a bed with him to being hurt when she's too busy to indulge in a romantic brunch he whipped up for her the next morning, just like we all learn and adapt to our own partners over the years, Tom does as well. Not allowed to tell others that he's a robot, an embarrassed Alma deposits him in a cafe by her work the next day and, just like the metaphorical puppy dog he resembles following his “master” around, Tom happily stands outside in the rain once the business closes and waits for her to return.

Humanistic and true, despite the fact that it deals in the artificiality of technology, acclaimed actress turned director Maria Schrader's German film “I'm Your Man” – which she co-wrote with Jan Schomburg, based on a short story by Emma Braslavsky – begins as a gentle comedy of manners and errors. But, aided immensely by the chemistry of our leads and the fact that the delightful Stevens never once slips and plays Tom with a wink instead of absolutely straight, the film soon modulates into a melancholic, timely meditation of the importance of human affection and connection and a study of loneliness in contemporary society.

Embodied extraordinarily well by Eggert (in a difficult balance of vulnerability and strength throughout), the more we learn about Alma, including the source of her pain and the reason why she's put up so many walls, the more we understand how hard it is for her to knock them down for someone – anyone – let alone a robot programmed to be her dream beau. 

Choosing, as we all do, which people we're willing to let into our weird little worlds, Alma is a woman who's been burned in the past. Furthermore, the screenwriters' decision for the film's tech firm to bring to life a mate who, through no fault of “his” own, calls up the mental picture of someone Alma loved when her life was much simpler and everything was in front of her both professionally and personally, makes “I'm Your Man” resonate on a deeper, more universal level than one would assume going in.

While on the lighter side of philosophical, it nonetheless raises valid questions about how relationships build or disintegrate over time as our needs change and how we all walk around with different levels of trauma. Yet Schrader's movie has far less in common with other films about romantic robot surrogates like Steven Spielberg's Kubrickian “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” than it does with either mythology or George Bernard Shaw's “Pygmalion” (and its musical counterpart “My Fair Lady”).

A critical hit overseas, especially in its native Germany where lead actress Maren Eggert won the first-ever gender-neutral Silver Bear acting prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, although the ending of “I'm Your Man” comes off as abrupt and a bit tonally dissonant with respect to the rest of the film's harmony, it's still a wholly impressive foreign import overall.

Befitting of the phrase “and now for something completely different,” while the tendency would be in America to play the whole thing for laughs, there's something far more refreshing and earnest about Schrader's approach. Following Tom's lead, as you view “I'm Your Man,” it gazes right back at you with interest, hoping that – if you look closely enough – you'll catch not only a flicker of recognition but your whole self reflected back at you as you watch.

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Belfast - Movie Review

Written and directed by:  Kenneth Branagh

Starring:  Jude Hill, Caitriona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench, Ciaran Hinds, Olive Tennant, and Lewis McAskie

Runtime:  97 minutes

“Belfast”:  You might fall in love with Branagh’s love letter to his hometown

Aug. 15, 1969.  Apollo 11 landed on the Moon the month before, and a modest music festival called Woodstock kicked off that day in Bethel, New York.  

These two landmark events took place 384,000 km and 5,087 km away, respectively, from Buddy (Jude Hill), an inquisitive and lively kid from Belfast, Northern Island.  Well, the said engineering marvel and rock concert might as well be 100,000,000 km away because Buddy’s world is his mom (Caitriona Balfe), dad (Jamie Dornan), brother (Lewis McAskie), granny (Judi Dench), and grandad (Ciaran Hinds).  Well, let’s include his friends and Catherine (Olive Tennant), his classmate at Grove Park Elementary School, too.  Our young hero wants to marry Catherine someday, but hey, he has to speak to her first. 

Oh, the poor kid.  How to break the ice?   

As writer/director Kenneth Branagh’s film opens, Buddy pretends to slay dragons with a wooden sword and trash can top when Ma (Balfe) calls him home for dinner in their friendly and neighborly brick row housing community.  

Life seems pretty swell for “Buddy from Belfast”, as his Pop (Hinds) calls him once.

Not so fast, because some Northern Irish neighbors are fighting with one another, and not just with their fists.  The Troubles – a 30-year conflict between Catholics and Protestants - began in the late 1960s, and it takes Buddy and most everyone by surprise.  Looting, gunfire, arson, and harmless knocks on front doors followed by threats are the ingredients in this explosive concoction, but Ma, Pa, Will (McAskie), Granny, Pop, and Buddy still have to get up each day and get along.  For the moment, however, they have to live with the nearby (or next-door) aggression and bloodshed.

Branagh was born in Belfast, so this movie is personal, deeply so. 

During a Q&A after a Sept. 12 Toronto International Film Festival “Belfast” screening, Branagh said that once COVID shutdowns began in March 2020, he put pen to paper and wrote this screenplay.  

He added that he wanted to write this story for 50 years. 

Since the five-time Oscar-nominated actor/screenwriter/director was born on Dec. 10, 1960, he would be 8 years young on Aug. 15, 1969.  This partially autobiographical film is a love letter to his hometown, that yes, features the violence and tension of the day.  It’s a central theme, but Branagh dives into warm, frank, and hilarious memories of family, neighbors, and schoolmates that peacefully challenge the surrounding on-screen conflicts.   

For a movie situated in the middle of sporadic clashes, you – indeed - find yourself smiling a lot during “Belfast”.  Buddy often interacts with his mom, dad, and grandparents, and they offer him blunt discourse, but sometimes, it’s laced with humor.  For example, Pop gives Buddy valuable advice to address long division in his math class, as he recommends fudging the actual numerals.  

To help his odds of figuring out an equation correctly, hey, a 1 could be a 7, or a 2 could be a 6, right?   

Branagh pens dozens of everyday moments, comments, and simple glances with heartfelt zeal.  These brief – but frequent – exchanges between family members (and some others) offer real surprises that pop off the gorgeous black and white screen.  Speaking of pop, Kenneth also includes several pop culture references, and each specific visual mention lands a cinematic bullseye. 

We get an absolute sense of Branagh’s childhood memories during this short and (mostly) sweet 97-minute film.  He pays thoughtful homage to them and Belfast by majestically framing countless shots with the precision of a scientist filled with joy and nostalgia.  Meanwhile, Hill (a charismatic wonder), Hinds, and Dench will frequently keep you in stitches.  

(For the record, Hinds and Dench are treasures!)

Still, the local violent struggles are either on-screen or lurking somewhere off, and Ma and Pa need to make a life-changing decision on whether or not to stay in Belfast.  The danger is genuine, and while Pa works in London (and only comes home every other weekend), Ma attempts her best to keep the family safe and financially afloat.  Balfe and Dornan are rock solid as Buddy and Will’s folks, but since Pa is frequently out of town, Caitriona makes the most of her frequent screen time with a performance worthy of a supporting Oscar nomination.  Look, existing in 1969 Belfast can be a difficult task, but family is everything despite the arguments and tough love. 

Branagh seems to have poured his heart and soul, his everything – including an accompanying toe-tapping soundtrack filled with a wildly famous Belfast native - into this film.  Fifty-two years ago, this city was Branagh’s entire world, and in 2021, he may have just become Belfast’s leading travel and tourism ambassador.  Who needs the Moon or Woodstock? 

As they say in Belfast…Yeo!  

Jeff’s ranking

3.5/4 stars

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The Eyes of Tammy Faye - Movie Review

Directed by:  Michael Showalter

Written by:  Abe Sylvia

Starring:  Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Vincent D’Onofrio, Cherry Jones, and Gabriel Olds

Runtime:  126 minutes

“The Eyes of Tammy Faye” changes perceptions

Mention Tammy Faye Bakker to anyone who lived through the 1980s.  The first image that comes to mind for many such folks is comedienne Jan Hooks playing her during a 1987 “Saturday Night Live” The Church Lady sketch.  

Tammy Faye/Jan begins hysterically crying with mascara pouring down her face after she says, “I put my hands up, and I said, ‘Demonic raisins, I rebuke you!’” 

Raisins?  

If you’ve never heard (or seen a clip) of Tammy Faye Bakker, she and her husband, Jim, ran and hosted a popular Christian television show called “The PTL Club” (1974 – 1987).  However, the program abruptly ended when Jim became embroiled in an adultery scandal, along with blackmail and missing funds from the PTL (Praise the Lord) Ministries.   

Soon after, life became a whole lot worse for Jim, and the public – by and large – vilified both him and Tammy Faye.  Her image became synonymous with the aforementioned SNL moment of unforgiving – but also hilarious - ridicule.

Hooks, along with Phil Hartman as Jim and Dana Carvey as The “no-nonsense” Church Lady, delivered a brutal takedown that compares to Tina Fey’s impression of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.  Except in Hooks’ case, she only needed a singular sketch to deliver this everlasting impression, and once SNL sets its sights on your person with a dead-on impression, you’ve crossed a bridge with no way back.  Well, in most cases, because U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brent Kavanaugh seems to be faring just fine on the highest bench in the land, even after Matt Damon – as the judge - carried on about beer and Tobin, PJ, and Squi in 2018.  

The point is that the Bakkers ran into titanic career problems, but they also fell into a worse perception quandary, and Tammy Faye was seen as a sideshow or – with her trademark cakes of makeup – a clown.  

Well, Jessica Chastain aims and succeeds in changing opinions about the famous/infamous televangelist in much the same way that Margot Robbie did with her portrayal of detested figure skater Tonya Harding in “I, Tonya” (2017).  

Chastain gives a transformative performance here that deserves an Oscar nomination, and this film is her passion project. 

During a Q&A after a Sept. 12 Toronto International Film Festival “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” screening, Jessica stated that she wanted to produce – and star in – a Tammy Faye narrative feature after watching a documentary, presumably the 2000 doc with the same name.  Chastain saw Ms. Bakker as a sympathetic figure, and, through the 2021 film, she communicates her perspective. 

Director Michael Showalter and screenwriter Abe Sylvia forge a straightforward biopic that chronologically follows Tammy Faye’s life, except the opening few minutes.  It’s a film that moves quickly through several major lifetime highlights, and because of Jim and Tammy Faye’s collective drama and involved and winding rise to fame, the movie deliberately emphasizes dates, locales, and church organizations that help us follow along the sacred and unholy paths over a lengthy 126-minute runtime.

She was born and grew up in humble beginnings – as the oldest of eight children - in International Falls, Minn.  Located near the Canadian border, this city is one of the coldest places in the U.S., and her childhood was almost as icy.  Her mom, Rachel (Cherry Jones, who will always be the police officer in “Signs” (2002) to this film critic), runs her household as an authoritarian, and since Tammy Faye is her eldest, our young heroine never really catches a break.  

Their family attends church, but TF loves to worship, which even befuddles her mom and stepdad.  Fast forward to her college years at North Central Bible College, where she meets Jim (Andrew Garfield).  The lovebirds immediately become inseparable, and their religious calling and pure ambition take them from school and on the road to spread the Lord’s word.  

Although the movie’s makeup department makes Chastain almost unrecognizable during a vast majority of the 1980s scenes, the team deserves kudos for helping our 44-year-old actress look like a 20-something during the early stuff from the 1960s.   

Chastain’s upstart, idealist Tammy Faye from the 60s and 70s overflows with plucky charisma, as she’s a constant source of positivity and bubbly energy and even comes up with a popular puppet idea for kids.  This pair has a blast, and Showalter and Sylvia include some comedic, endearing spots for the audience, so no matter your feelings about Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, they are a likable duo in the movie’s first half.  Dare I say that TFB’s Betty Boop cadence is downright adorable.  

Still, their journey inversely veers ethically downward against their meteoric rise, one that includes television stardom and rubbing elbows with Pat Robertson (Gabriel Olds) and Jerry Falwell (Vincent D’Onofrio).  

Garfield is especially good at depicting Jim’s obsession with securing more pledges rather than furthering righteous deeds.  During the film’s second half, Garfield’s Jim regularly looks exhausted, like he just got off the phone with an angry creditor, and in one scene, that’s the case.  

He’s compromised.  He’s tainted. 

By default, so is Tammy Faye, but the screenplay keeps her and the audience in the dark on Jim’s daily corruption.  He’s twisted in a tornado of schemes, but the stormy details are mostly kept off-screen.  Instead, Tammy Faye and we see the stresses on Jim’s face but don’t know the extent of PTL’s money problems.  In the movie, Tammy Faye freely shops and lives extravagantly, but she’s not involved in the day-to-day and long-term dishonestly.  In a way, she’s a mob boss’ wife.   

More surprisingly, Tammy Faye maintains progressive stances that clash with Robertson and Falwell.  She also stands up to the industry’s patriarchy, so - as previously mentioned - “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” may effectively change your previously-held beliefs.  

First, Tonya Harding in 2017 and now Tammy Faye in 2021.  Who would’ve thought that was possible?  

As The Church Lady would say – but without sarcasm - “Well, isn’t that special?”

Jeff’s ranking

3/4 stars

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Everybody's Talking About Jamie - Movie Review

Directed by:  Jonathan Butterell

Written by:  Tom MacRae

Starring:  Max Harwood, Lauren Patel, Sharon Horgan, Sarah Lancashire, and Richard E. Grant

Runtime:  109 minutes

“Everybody’s Talking About Jamie”:  We’re keenly watching and listening too

When director Jonathan Butterell’s movie begins, everyone’s not talking about Jamie (Max Harwood), but his mom, Margaret (Sarah Lancashire), and his best friend, Pritti (Lauren Patel), love conversing with him!  Jamie’s in Grade 11 at Mayfield School, and he and Pritti aren’t terribly popular, but they generally get along fine with everybody, save Dean Paxton (Samuel Bottomley), a relentless bully with a hefty backpack full of verbal insults.

Other than attempting to navigate through present-day teenage mazes and hazes, their primary strife is preparing for their future, as Miss Hedge (Sharon Horgan) – their only schoolteacher, it seems – frequently requests her students to think about careers.  Pritti, as studious as the English winters are grey, is singularly focused on becoming a doctor, while Jamie secretly covets an altogether different path.  He, at 16, wants to become a drag queen, and this cinematic musical – based on the theatrical play and a 2011 television documentary “Jamie: Drag Queen at 16” – is a positive film about finding the courage to be yourself.   

Our young lead character, openly gay, certainly has valid struggles – such as coping with the aforementioned bully and finding his father’s (Ralph Ineson) acceptance – and the movie certainly delves into those troubling spaces.  Still, the narrative doesn’t deeply dwell in horribly dark places for very long stretches.  The film projects more supportive tones, and the playful, lively numbers – like “Don’t Even Know It” and the title track – help lift Jamie and our spirits through a majority of the 109-minute runtime. 

Visually, cinematographer Christopher Ross captures lush, green rolling hills and blue-collar brick housing in Sheffield, England, located east of Manchester and south of Leeds.  Even though Margaret (who, by the way, is the BEST mom) and Jamie live on a tight budget, they and most others are usually smiling.  Also, Butterell caught some weather breaks during his shoot, because the sun usually shines brightly (except for some exceptional rain in the opening scene).  In other words, this film might give a boost to the Sheffield tourist industry.  The Airbnb locals should be pleased!  Inside Jamie’s school, art directors Liz Simpson and Adam Tomlinson offer warm color palettes of purple and neon blue when Jamie and his classmates break into catchy songs. 

Even though Jamie wrestles with the idea of slapping on his red, sparkling high-heels, finding a dress, applying makeup, and embracing the mettle to perform, the movie’s overall engaging direction barely lends any doubt that he will reach his goals.  Jamie certainly recognizes his on-stage anxieties, but the film’s light ambiances regularly reassure us that life will turn out alright.  

Look, “Everyone’s Talking About Jamie” does feel like a Disney Channel feature, where the rough edges are smoothed out with chocolate bars and comfy blankets.  That’s not a compliment, but Harwood is exceedingly charismatic.  The camera loves him, and we love him back.  He gives Jamie an authentic on-screen voice while also offering empathy to anyone who emotionally labored in high school.  Certainly, 99.9 percent of adults faced internal churn and doubts from ages 13 through 18, but Jamie and this movie specifically speak to LGBTQ audiences.

Looking back, however, Jamie’s drag queen mentor, Hugo Battersby (Richard E. Grant), might carry the most gravitas in the picture.  Hugo reveals his 1980s story, his heydays and crippling hours, as a VHS cassette presentation entitled “Adventures of a Warrior Queen – 1987” presents both tender and tragic nostalgia.  

Hey, can Richard E. Grant star in everything, and can we get a Hugo prequel?  

Well, for now, we’re all talking about Jamie, and we’re keenly watching and listening too. 

Jeff’s ranking

2.5/4 stars

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Ten Essential Werner Herzog Documentaries

Werner Herzog turns 79 years young on Sept. 5, and this forward and fearless Oscar-nominated filmmaker frequently makes narratives and documentaries.  One of the most celebrated aspects of Werner’s documentaries – at least to this critic - is his narration.  His one-of-a-kind cadence, eccentric and blunt word choices, and old-school perspectives make him a most welcome verbal chaperone for his daring on-screen choices.

Well, in honor of this legend’s birthday, I’m looking back at ten essential Werner Herzog documentaries.

“Land of Silence and Darkness” (1971) – Fini Straubinger is a teacher, an astonishing one.  Fini, 56, organizes group events and one-on-one meetings to connect with those who cannot see and hear.  One might rightfully dub her a miracle worker, and Fini is also blind and deaf.  Werner follows Fini as she communicates with brand new friends  – at several sessions - through a deafblind alphabet.  She spells out words on their hands and hosts irreplaceable experiences like a trip to a botanical garden and access to zoo animals.  We see that physical touch is a vital need for these men and women.  At one point, the screen goes black, and these words appear: “When you let go of my hand, it is as if we were a thousand miles apart.”  It’s unclear who said the statement, but one can imagine that many blind and deaf individuals feel this assertion.  Well, for 85 on-screen minutes, we aren’t going anywhere!

“Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe” (1980) – Werner did not direct this 20-minute short, but he is the bonafide star, as he (spoiler alert) eats his shoe in front of an attentive UC Theatre audience in Berkeley, Calif.  The man of the hour vowed to dine on his footwear to help motivate his friend Errol Morris to make “Gates of Heaven” (1978).  Morris did, and so Herzog does!  Director Les Blank not only captures Werner preparing his meal with garlic, onions, and hot sauce, but Herzog offers several declarations about flawed society, filmmaking, and television for the camera.  “We have to declare holy war against what we see every single day on television,” Herzog calmly asserts.  Beautiful!

“Lessons of Darkness” (1992) – Iraq only needed a couple of days to invade and capture Kuwait in 1990, but the military set fire to the Kuwaiti oil fields that burned for months and months.  The result was an environmental catastrophe.  In-kind, Werner’s 53-minute documentary barely touches the actual war.  His movie almost entirely focuses on the gruesome latter, as he captures the utter devastation of menacing blazes, miles of black smoke, and toxic oil lakes that soak in the desert.  Several swooping shots by helicopter reveal a post-apocalyptic horror show that Herzog ironically sets to classical music.  War may be hell, but so is its aftermath.  

“Little Dieter Needs to Fly” (1997) – In the documentary’s second minute, we see Dieter Dengler driving along an empty, winding road in foggy Northern California. Werner recites, “Men are often haunted by things that happened to them in life, especially in war or other periods of great intensity.  Sometimes you see these men walking the streets or driving in a car.  Their lives seem to be normal, but they are not.”  For Dengler, a German-born American and Vietnam vet, he lived through a six-month nightmare in a Viet Cong prison camp.  Decades later, these two men – filmmaker and pilot - travel back to Southeast Asia, as Dengler recounts his story, but he does so with his close ally, Werner, and they lend their voices and spirits together.  Dieter inspired Werner to subsequently make a narrative feature, “Rescue Dawn” (2006) with Christian Bale playing Dengler. 

“My Best Fiend” (1999) – Werner featured Klaus Kinski in five of his films, but after watching “My Best Fiend” – in which Herzog describes, rationalizes, and demonizes his contentious relationship with the man – you’ll wonder how they ever finished one.  Although their initial movie was “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” (1972), they first met when Werner was 13.  Werner travels to a specific Munich apartment building – his childhood home for a stretch - and recalls his family lived with Klaus for a few months.  What?  Werner illustrates Kinski’s sheer madness at that time, and the documentary also offers footage from all five flicks, including the infamous actor’s mindless rages on “Aguirre” and “Fitzcarraldo” (1982), as Herzog and others on the sets describe their surreal experiences too.  Still, Werner worked with him for years, but hey, what are fiends for!

“Grizzly Man” (2005) – Timothy Treadwell lived with grizzly bears for 13 summers in Alaska, but he never reached his 14th.  A grizzly killed Timothy and his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, towards the very end of his 13th trip.  However, he filmed over 100 hours of footage during his last five tours.  After his passing, Werner masterfully constructs his doc by interviewing Alaskan locals and Timothy’s friends and family, and then includes the grizzly man’s jaw-dropping clips.  Confident but misguided, the 40-something Treadwell – sporting a blonde “Prince Valiant” haircut – frequently expresses his love for the animals, as the 1,000-pound behemoths sometimes step within a foot or two of our ill-advised protagonist.  Werner perfectly opines, “I discovered a film of human ecstasies and darkest inner turmoil.”  

“Encounters at the End of the World” (2007) – Werner grabs a camera and hops on a military plane that flies from New Zealand to Antarctica.  His Oscar-nominated documentary is a gorgeous and equally frank look at an Antarctic summer.  While he shoots some downright spectacular cinematic moments – like scuba divers swimming below the ice, rogue penguins leaving their colonies, and an active volcano dangerously bubbling and gurgling – Herzog focuses just as many minutes on the scientists’ daily grind.  Werner distinctly expresses displeasure for McMurdo Station, a research center that resembles an “ugly mining down” with “abominations such as an aerobic studio and yoga classes.”

“Cave of Forgotten Dreams” (2010) – In 1994, Jean-Marie Chauvet, Eliette Brunel, and Christian Hillaire discover a cave in Southern France that contains art dating back 32,000 years on its walls, the oldest paintings ever discovered!  Werner and his small crew were granted access to film this miraculous find.  A majority of the artwork depicts animals – like horses, yaks, and rhinos – and Herzog and his team make the most of their precious time.  The doc’s most glorious moments occur during the actual cave time when we see these majestic images, ones from an incomprehensible lifetime ago.  Just incredible.      

“Into the Abyss” (2011) – Two young Texas men are found guilty of murder, and while one serves a 40-year sentence, the other, Michael Perry, is on death row and awaits his looming execution.  Werner travels to Southeast Texas – north of Houston – to candidly converse with the crucial people affected by this fateful, senseless day.  Herzog finds several perspectives of the crime and an eye-for-an-eye justice system through the victims’ families, local police, acquaintances, a death row worker, the convicted murderers (Perry and Jason Burkett), and a couple of surprises.  Werner does declare his opposition to capital punishment but gives complete respect to every interviewee and grants them open camera time to opine.  

“Into the Inferno” (2016) – Werner’s doc is about volcanos, and when starring down into one, he narrates, “It’s hard to take your eyes off the fire that burns deep under our feet. It couldn’t care less about what we are doing up here.” He’s right, and while Werner delivers plenty of Herzog-esque pitch-perfect commentary, volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer supplies scores of facts and figures. This dynamic duo travels to Vanuatu, Ethiopia, Indonesia, North Korea, and Iceland as they speak to the locals, absorb the volcanos’ impact on the cultures, and explore the combustible geological formations. Our director can’t help but divert his attention towards some bizarre tangents that capture his eye except, of course, when he stares into an inferno!

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CODA - Movie Review

Written and directed by:  Sian Heder

Starring:  Emilia Jones, Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur, Daniel Durant, Eugenio Derbez, and Amy Forsyth

Runtime:  111 minutes

Bring tissues.  You may sail away on an ocean of tears.

Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones) loves her family.  She also works on their fishing boat practically every day.  For anyone who labored with their mom, dad, brothers, or sisters in a family-owned business, you know that you’re locked into a 24/7 commitment.  

Okay, Ruby doesn’t immerse herself in everything-fish for every waking or sleeping moment.  Still, she regularly sets her alarm for 3 a.m. to accompany her dad, Frank (Troy Kotsur), and her older brother, Leo (Daniel Durant), on their vessel, The Angela Rose.  The three sail the Massachusetts coast, searching for the freshest of seafood, and the kids don’t fight the Rossi System because helping their dad is just what they do.  Their mom, Jackie (Marlee Matlin), does her part by maintaining their home.   

Our worker bee also is a high school senior, but college isn’t a thought.  Ruby maintains a full-class schedule at Gloucester High School, so life has loaded this 17-year-old with piles of assignments.  

She also has one additional commitment.  

Frank, Jackie, and Leo are deaf, so Ruby is a critical human rudder as a hearing deckhand on their boat.  She is present to answer radio calls from, say, the U.S. Coast Guard, and she also frequently interprets for her mom, dad, and brother with other fishermen and fisherwomen – and others in their town – day-to-day, month-to-month, and year-to-year.  The Rossis live catch-to-catch (rather than paycheck-to-paycheck), so Frank can’t hire someone else.  Ruby is it. 

However, she smacks into a sudden riptide that emotionally yanks her in another direction.  Ruby joins the school choir because Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) - a boy she likes - signs up first.  However, she discovers her passion for singing, a pursuit that runs thick with irony.

“CODA” isn’t an ironic coming-of-age story.  It’s a straight-up one, albeit with a twist.  Ruby is a Child of Deaf Adults (CODA).  Although this dynamic isn’t a unique cinematic story.  Writer/director Sian Heder’s film is a remake of “La Famille Belier” (2014), nominated for six Cesar Awards.  Louane Emera – who played Paula Belier, Ruby’s 2014 counterpart in the French picture – won the 2015 Most Promising Actress Cesar, and after watching Jones’ performance, she has a bright future as well.  

During a Jan. 28, 2021 Deadline Hollywood interview, we discover that Jones (19 years young) never had a singing lesson before being cast, and she learned sign language for the role.  You could’ve fooled this critic because Jones effortlessly carries both skills on-screen like she’s been signing and professionally singing for almost two decades.  Emilia has a beautiful voice, one that will stop you in your tracks and bring tears to your eye for good measure.  

Heder’s movie is a lovely, heartwarming affair that tugs on our emotions in the most critical moments.  However, to get there, she tows us through Ruby’s trying scheduling dilemma, which – admittedly – can be laborious.  The movie’s runtime is 111 minutes, but looking back, you’d swear “CODA” is well over two hours.  Not only does Heder frequently volley between our young protagonist’s two worlds, but the writer/director also regularly features Ruby’s mischievous friend, Gertie (Amy Forsyth), and Miles.  We hope that our lead and Miles capture some teenage romance, and Walsh-Peelo is a familiar face because he made a splash in “Sing Street” (2016) as a lovestruck teenager who formed a band to impress an older girl.  The roles are reversed here, and Ruby is a flat-out superstar who doesn’t realize it.   

(Note: Jones and Walsh-Peelo are English and Irish natives, respectively, and they offer splendid American accents.  You’d never know that they are from across the pond, but as a minor criticism, neither one sports a hint of a Massachusetts accent.  (i.e. park the car = pahk the cah).  Well, their General American English enunciation is more pleasing anyway, so let’s roll with it.) 

Indeed, the script rolls through several moving parts.  To complicate matters, the Rossis attempt to form a collation with other locals to sell their own fish rather than continually watch intermediaries deeply cut into their profits.  

That’s no easy task, but it’s not particularly engaging for the audience to sit through either.  Now, I’ve seen the movie three times, and during the first screening, following the family’s new business pursuits felt like a humdrum slog.  However, after subsequent viewings, I realized that this procedural plot point is pretty darn vital to the story.  Heder needs an anchor to keep Ruby more involved with the fishing business, and revamping their distribution model is a fine script idea.  The added gravitational pull effectively drags Ruby farther away from choir, and we feel her angst and conflict along the way.

Ruby’s home life – like just about every teenager - isn’t anxiety-free, and in her case, the family’s trade is everything.  Her folks aren’t dolling out chores but responsibilities.  Therefore, Heder reinforces this reality by regularly pitting Ruby into a constant stream of minor battles.  Granted, she doesn’t live in an abusive home.  Not in the least, but she faces a daily grind of arguments. 

What is her reprieve?  Singing.

Her harmonious gift catches the high school’s choir director’s attention.  Bernardo Villalobos (Eugenio Derbez) believes Ruby could earn a scholarship to his alma mater, the Berklee College of Music in nearby Boston.  

Derbez is a rock star as Ruby’s teacher, as Mr. V. balances pure enthusiasm for his choral craft with hilarious sarcasm and intolerance for failing to meet him halfway, even for the smallest of points.  

For instance, Bernardo wishes to speak with Ruby and Miles after class.  The kids slowly stroll back to their teacher, and he casually responds, “Today, if it’s possible.” 

Later, Mr. V. discovers that these two didn’t practice their duet together.  He frustratingly points out, “Duet.  It’s in the word.  You must ‘do it’ together.”  

Derbez, a massive television star in Mexico and a graduate of the Mexican Institute of Cinematography and Theatre, lands and delivers his best U.S.-based acting role to date, one that allows him the freedom to explore his comic talents as well as his musical ones.  Truly, Derbez’s Mr. V. is one of the great big-screen educators in recent memory, and you’ll find yourself cheering on Ruby’s incremental progress during every precious lesson.

Time, however, is a precious commodity, and Ruby finds herself unable to fit two immovable objects – after-school lessons with Mr. V. and her fishing obligations – into her schedule. 

Her relatives’ reactions to choir range from indifferent to discouraging, and Jackie takes the most pessimistic view.   She doesn’t see the point and feels that her daughter is just a teenager with her priorities out of whack.  Perhaps Ruby is expressing a rebellious streak.  

Jackie says, “If I was blind, would you want to paint?” 

That hurts.  

Jackie doesn’t get it, but then again, she has a different viewpoint, especially since Ruby accuses her of not socializing with the other fishermen and fisherwomen, their spouses, and kids.  Ruby mentions that her mom only catches up with her deaf friends once a month, so yes, Jackie’s time revolves around her household, and she closes herself off from nearly everything else.  To be fair, it’s more of an assumption but a fair one.  Matlin plays Jackie with her character’s flaws on display, but to her, financial solvency takes priority over a teenager’s whim.  

A pragmatic approach, for sure, because who wants bankruptcy?  Still, this movie is about Ruby’s journey, so Jackie’s objections become a serious hurdle.

Leo and Ruby crash into hurdles rather than step over or around them.  These siblings bicker more fervently (and more vulgarly) than British Parliament’s Question Time during a three-day hunger strike and immediately after an England World Cup loss.  How’s that for argumentative?  Leo resents Ruby because their folks lean on her - through her hearing – and he feels emasculated or reduced in stature.  He wants to make big decisions for their business but believes that Ruby constantly undercuts him.  If there’s an heir to the throne, Ruby will wear the crown, a title that she doesn’t want.  Durant’s Leo is a bit brazen with a chip the size of Fenway Park on his shoulder, and he adds a contentious dimension to Ruby’s stress.  Then again, their relationship also plays like fun sibling rivalry, although they frequently use vocabulary that one cannot repeat on terrestrial radio.  Think of the seven infamous words and multiple them by 100.   

Ruby communicates more than seven words to her dad.  They sign frequently, but she has the most emotionally distant relationship with him (within their home).  

Frank doesn’t have a hipster beard but a long, straggly one.  Kotsur – regal and charming in person (as I’ve met and interviewed him) – is considerably unkempt as Frank, a man weathered and pained over the years through economic strife and hard labor.  He probably never gives his physical appearance and clothing choices second thoughts, and perhaps, they are reflections of his internal churn.  

Back to the point at hand, Frank’s overwhelming concern is keeping a roof over their heads, so his daughter’s choir fascination is just a distraction.  Still, he doesn’t encourage or discourage her.  He’s Switzerland.  He doesn’t interfere.  As long as the fishing continues unabated, Frank and Ruby are at peace but still detached.  So, Heder offers plenty of room for their father-daughter rapport to grow, which is all by design.  

Days and nights at the Rossi residence would feel mainly routine (because we’re experiencing Ruby’s life-voyage through her eyes) except for two key elements.  First, Heder sometimes includes frank, sexual humor that flies out of seemingly nowhere.  These unexpected moments tonally don’t fit into the movie, but no question, there are some genuine belly laughs here, and Kotsur and Forsyth are especially funny. 

Second, everyday parenting and consternation over cash flow problems rise above the mundane for moviegoers because the Rossis communicate through sign language.  No question, watching Frank, Jackie, Leo, and Ruby interact is a rare encounter at the movies.  The four characters’ everyday discourse - even with the smallest of details, like Jackie telling Ruby to stop slouching - adds layers of nuance and newness to the cinematic experience, certainly for hearing communities.  They are refreshing ones for deaf audiences.

There are bonds between the hearing and deaf, both behind the scenes and on-screen.  In addition to Jones, Heder learned to sign for this film, and the director also includes a striking scene in which hearing viewers experience music through a deaf perspective.  Even though the moment lasts for perhaps 10 or 20 seconds, it will remain with you for weeks and weeks after the end credits roll.   

With its rare big-screen focus, unexpected humor, beautiful song choices (which will not be revealed in this review), and some downright touching moments, “CODA” resonates, but it all comes together through this acting ensemble and their obvious chemistry.  Just as Ruby seems like she’s been signing and professionally singing for nearly twenty years, Frank, Jackie, Leo, and Ruby feel like a genuine family, and Mr. V. is her second one too.  

Ruby connects with both clans.  Will her worlds no longer collide but unite?  Well, you have to watch “CODA” to find out, but bring tissues.  You’ll need them because you might sail away on an ocean of tears.

Jeff’s ranking

3/4 stars

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Candyman – Movie Review

Dir: Nia DaCosta

Starring: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Colman Domingo, Kyle Kaminsky

1h 31m

In 1992, director Bernard Rose brought author Clive Barker's short story, "The Forbidden," about an urban legend known as The Candyman, to gruesome cinematic life. The film starred Tony Todd as the hook-wielding ghoul who fell in love with the wrong woman and was punished by racists for his desire and Virginia Madsen as the inquisitive grad student searching the housing projects of Cabrini-Green in Chicago for the origins of the urban legend. By saying his name five times in the mirror, you invite the Candyman into the world, hook, gore, and all. 

The film, which has grown a cult following over the years, is a rare horror film well ahead of its time in examining the injustices, frustrations, and rage for the treatment of Black people in America through the lens of genre filmmaking. While Bernard Rose's vision may offer a few unforgettable chills and a more than memorable villain, the story seemed only to graze the surface concerning the politics and social commentary found inherent in a story about the sins of America's past. 

In the thought-provoking, confident continuation of the myth, directed by Nia DaCosta, Candyman's legend has been hushed to forgotten folklore, not even a bedtime story to scare the little ones. Gone are the distressed Cabrini-Green housing units, in their place, a gentrified living tower with sleek designs and floor-to-ceiling windows that illuminate the Chicago skyline. Candyman, in present times, isn't the one we remember from the past film. Instead, the tale exists with a falsely accused Black man blamed for giving candy with razor blades to White children. His demise, at the hand of aggressive law enforcement, is the lore that is remembered for current times. 

The story of Candyman begins to take greater shape in DaCosta's account once a painter named Anthony (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) begins exploring the ruins of Cabrini-Green. Anthony's insight and very soon obsession with the myth starts to consume him. The relationship with his girlfriend Brianna (Teyonah Parris) begins to suffer after Anthony's Candyman art exhibit ends with the gruesome murder of two people. Soon, Anthony comes face to face with the unspoken legend from the past, leading more unsuspecting people to remember and say his name. 

DaCosta, who wrote the script along with Win Rosenfeld and Jordan Peele, takes this urban legend and imbues it with current themes of social commentary surrounding the injustices for people of color, the brutality inflicted on Black bodies, and the historical trauma, some as recent as last year, perpetrated throughout American history. It doesn't take profound observation to connect the tagline for this film, "Say His Name," to the Breonna Taylor incident that advocated to "Say Her Name." The design of CANDYMAN paints Chicago as a modern landscape with deep history underneath its glossy exterior. The opening credits display a masked Chicago skyline hidden in the fog. It's a nice callback to the birds-eye introduction of the original film. And, instead of framing the scares and violence with an abundance of gore, DaCosta focuses her fear more on creepy factors utilizing mirror tricks and depth of field to display how close Candyman is throughout the film. It's a nice touch that allows this version of the myth to shape its unique atmosphere. 

The perspective of CANDYMAN shifts, perhaps too often, between Anthony and Brianna as the film leads towards its ultimate culmination. When the third act hits, the emotional notes established for Anthony disappear to a large extent as the film focuses on Brianna's journey towards the truth the movie has kept a mystery. 

In one of the film's best elements, DaCosta utilizes shadow puppets to reimagine the past and how stories are changed, exaggerated, and hidden the longer they are kept. It's a beautiful and elegant touch. It's within this technique that CANDYMAN tells the most intriguing tale. Storytelling, folklore, and spoken traditions exist to keep a piece of history alive and relevant, no matter how horrifying those pieces may be. To allow the world to know that a people, place, or event existed. It also allows for a reframing of traumatic events, a way to make sense of the fears and monsters that have brought sorrow and pain to the world, in a manner allowing for stories to capture those traumas and take away their power. You can feel this version of CANDYMAN engaging in all those aspects of storytelling.

Even amidst some late missteps, Nia DaCosta's CANDYMAN utilizes the horror genre and vengeful spirit to tell a powerful tale of social, economic, and racial inequality.  

Monte's Rating

4.00 out of 5.00

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Final Set - Movie Review

Written and directed by: Quentin Reynaud

Starring:  Alex Lutz, Kristin Scott Thomas, & Ana Girardot

Runtime:  1h 45min

“If you'd won quicker, you'd suffer less.”

Watching her son, thirty-something professional tennis player Thomas Edison (Alex Lutz) apply an ice pack to his knee during dinner, Judith (Kristin Scott Thomas) can't help but ask, “why lose the first set?”

Having helped propel Thomas to early greatness as a young prodigy, Judith struggles to remove her coaching hat to support her son the way that a typical mother would. Coming from a place of not only criticism but also love – because to care for Thomas and the knee he'd had operated on multiple times in the past is to question why he still feels the need to try to compete against the top players of the world at his age – to say that their relationship is complicated would be an understatement. But understating it is precisely what makes their dynamic and everything else in French writer-director Quentin Reynaud's “Final Set” so real and compelling.

Minimal and precise, the dialogue between not only Thomas and Judith but also Thomas and his loving, supportive, but equally conflicted wife Eve (Ana Girardot) is spare throughout the work which boasts a quasi-documentary feel. Yet, delivered by this exceptional group of actors who can say so much with a look or tone, we feel the weight of one’s meaning even though the English subtitled lines are spoken in French. In fact, generating a great deal of conflict and depth from these micro-moments, it's a film where those inquisitive looks over dinner or cautious actions – even the way one character packs or carries a tennis bag – speak louder than words.

From the Australian Open in January to the ATP finals for the highest-ranked male players in November, tennis, more than most sports, is essentially played for eleven months out of the year. Unfortunately, with a ranking of 245, which is a far cry from the great hope he was supposed to be twenty years earlier when he choked during a grand slam, Thomas' respectable but still low stats keep him out of most major tournaments, which cater only to the top players in the sport. 

And while he would prefer to enter every competition he can, his wife – a former player herself who now handles the behind-the-scenes business decisions – has to gently remind her husband that when you subtract the travel, food, and lodging costs, far too often, the actual winnings from some of these events don't justify the expense. Supplementing the income he barely receives from matches he's allowed to enter by working as a children's coach at his mother's tennis club, while everyone around him is waiting for him to hang up his racket or join the over thirty-five tour, Thomas decides to make one last stand at Roland Garros.

Otherwise known as the French Open, at Roland Garros, tennis is played on courts of famous red clay where the surface of the terrain not only sticks to a player's shoes, socks, legs, clothes, and arms if they take a nasty fall, but as legends like Andre Agassi and Roger Federer are first to admit, it's also sheer hell on the knees. And if it's hard on those joints at any age, you know it's destined to be agony for Thomas whose prominent knee surgery scars, arthritis, ligament lesions, and osteoarthritis are shown and discussed within the first five minutes of Reynaud's movie.

Nonetheless, knowing he doesn't have a lot of time left but not quite ready to follow in his wife's footsteps and train for another career because – despite being a husband and father – a life outside of tennis isn't something he's ever considered, Thomas decides to make a run at the Open by playing several brutal rounds as a qualifier. Facing other players not lucky enough to get in via wild card or ranked highly enough, even though his wife Eve tells him to “have fun” before he leaves for a match, we know that for the serious Thomas, fun doesn't really enter the equation. No, in this quixotic, underdog run, it's just about determination, desperation, and the work.

Drawing a parallel throughout to a cocky, young, but exceptionally gifted seventeen-year-old phenom on the rise (played by real pro player Jürgen Briand), who even Eve admits reminds her of her husband, obviously, you know that eventually, the two men will have to square off at some point to achieve the dramatic potential of Thomas “playing himself” in “Final Set.” Still, it's in the authenticity of the film's battle to that battle – and particularly the amount of regret, guilt, excitement, frustration, and pain of both the past and present that flood our main ensemble from start to finish – that makes this film feel like something beyond just your typical inspirational sports drama.

Furthermore, the time that Reynaud takes off the court and how much trust he puts into this excellent trio of actors (with once again, Scott Thomas doing some of her best work both later in life and in French) makes his bold decision to spend the film's final twenty-five minutes on the court so incredibly effective. Set during a showdown between the two pros at different points in their life, Reynaud goes right for the greatest hits of dramatic tennis. 

Zeroing in on a five-set grand slam match between a David and a Goliath, which features a never-ending deuce, racket smashes, cramps, long rallies, and more, the film achieves something so thrillingly intense that for a long time, I actually forgot for a while that I was watching a movie instead of championship play. More than that, as someone whose TV is often left on The Tennis Channel, it was only after the movie ended when I was reading the film's production notes that I realized that the final match went on for nearly the length of a traditional “act” of a Syd Field screenplay.

Yet, similar to the way that I love a good football movie even if it isn't a sport I actually watch, this isn't to say that one needs to be an avid tennis fan or even know much about the sport to enjoy “Final Set.” Filmed at Roland Garros and using that tried and true blueprint of “Rocky,” which similarly spends a good chunk of the film's last half right in that boxing ring as we watch events unfold in what I'd call “hyper-real time,” Reynaud's film is wildly ambitious in its scope. Refreshingly, though, it's as invested in the human story as it is in its tennis, which comes through in the film's fully earned last shot. A superbly executed ensemble effort that plays out against a backdrop that's the stuff of modern myth-making, as we watch Alex Lutz's Thomas fight against time and his own body's wear-and-tear, we're right there with him, eager to battle it out to the very end.

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Autumn Sonata – Movie Review

Written and directed by:  Ingmar Bergman

Starring:  Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann, Halvar Bjork, and Lena Nyman

Runtime:  93 minutes

In the autumn of her life, Bergman gives a sonata for the ages

Cinema legend Ingrid Bergman was born on Aug. 29, 1915, so it’s the perfect time to reflect on her work.  Let’s look back at her extraordinary performance in her last theatrical film, “Autumn Sonata”. 

“Autumn Sonata” (1978) - Charlotte Andergast (Ingrid Bergman) is a mom and concert pianist, but to her, not necessarily in that particular order of importance.  Definitely not.  In her 60s now, Charlotte has enjoyed a long career of playing (and vacationing) just about everywhere, and she isn’t shy about casually mentioning her long list of faraway cities where she has left her symphonic mark.  Los Angeles, Madrid, Zurich, and Hamburg pop into conversations, and her longtime partner -  Leonardo, who just passed away - had a home in Naples, she says.  

Charlotte lives a privileged celebrity existence, although one based on a foundation of hard work and God-given talent.  The woman is musical royalty in influential circles and with appreciative audiences, but she isn’t cherished at home, and quite frankly, Charlotte has never been too concerned about reveling in her role as a mom. 

Now that Leonardo passed, her 30-something (or early 40-something) daughter Eva (Liv Ullmann) offers her mom a place to rest and heal, and since the two haven’t seen each other in seven years, this could be a golden opportunity to mend their estranged relationship too.  Eva is married to a dutiful older man, Viktor (Halvar Bjork), and they have a grand, spacious home with plenty of room for Charlotte to have her privacy and hold court with her hosts.  

Will time heal all wounds, or will the scabs rip right open?   Well, if “Autumn Sonata” featured the former, we’d have “Love, Actually” (2003), but this isn’t that movie.  

“Contention, Actually”, “Baggage, Actually”, or “Triggers, Actually” could be fine alternative titles, though.

Writer/director Ingmar Bergman’s (for the record, no relation to Ingrid) troubling family drama is almost entirely contained within Viktor and Eva’s house over the thrifty 93-minute runtime.  Ingmar’s picture is minimalist, but he infuses so much backstory into the here and now that both Ingrid and Liv relive their characters’ past strife and command it to the surface in subtle and brutally frank ways.  Since this mother and daughter now exist under one roof for a short time, they are forced to confront their differences because simply pleasantries won’t last more than a few hours or a day, tops. 

Where else can they go?  

Eva isn’t leaving her residence, and there’s no escape for Charlotte unless she storms out under some heightened duress.  Charlotte and her husband managed their household affairs when Eva was a minor.  Today, the two women are temporarily paired in Eva’s home, and Charlotte has to play by her rules.  (Additionally, another person - in addition to Viktor - lives there, and every scene with this individual pours fuel on an already explosive circumstance.  These uncomfortable moments also effectively enforce Charlotte’s already existing indifference towards her family.)  

No, her daughter isn’t ordering decrees, but Mom isn’t running the roost either.  She has to play defense if Eva becomes aggressive about historical gripes.  

“Autumn Sonata” is a movie about parental mistakes – that are inevitably made by every mom and dad in some ways – and the imprints on their kids.  Granted, Charlotte didn’t verbally assault Eva about mistakenly using wire hangers and subsequently beating her with one, but Ingmar and Liv show that her general apathy was just as harmful.  Perhaps, more so.  

Although Viktor offers his inputs on occasion, the movie – which would be a dynamite play - is a two-person production.  Ingmar relies on his two accomplished actresses to perform the heavy lifting, as the camera frequently moves into intimate spaces during their exchanges.  The results are explosive, hurtful, and revealing, and while Eva has straight-up motives for divulging her anger, Charlotte dances between sorrow and resentment.  

Both women’s performances are rich and heroic.  Liv already earned two Oscar nominations walking into this picture, and she probably should’ve secured her third here.  Ingrid garnered her seventh Academy Award nomination as Charlotte.  She won three Oscars, and if not for Hal Ashby’s “Coming Home” (1978) – in which Jon Voight and Jane Fonda won Best Actor and Actress statues, respectively – Ingrid may have captured her fourth.  

Well, no matter.  The planet had already etched Bergman’s legacy in gold, but in her last theatrical role - during the autumn of her life - she gives a sonata for the ages.

Jeff’s ranking

3.5/4 stars

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Annette - Movie Review

Dir: Leos Carax

Starring: Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, and Simon Helberg

2h 20m

In the opening 10 minutes of director Leos Carax's musical "Annette," the cast, director, and writers Ron and Russell Mael (alternatively knows as the band "Sparks") break the fourth wall and perform a surreal musical number while walking through the illuminated streets of Los Angeles. It is a moment of joyous cinema, a unique introduction that seemingly prepares the viewer for something special to follow. Unfortunately, 130 minutes later and I was still waiting for the feeling the first 10 minutes gave me.

"Annette" is a complicated artistic vision from two complicated creative artists. Leos Carax, who helmed one of my favorite movies of the last decade, "Holy Motors," is an impressive auteur at twisting fantasy into a distinctive and startling reality. Ron and Russell Mael, featured so lovingly rare and embracingly odd in Edgar Wrights's documentary "The Sparks Brothers," have composed beautiful blends of pop-rock music throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In "Annette," these two creative forces craft a frustrating, confusing musical mishmash of emotions that seldom finds its tone and often struggles to identify what it is trying to say to the viewer.

Henry (Adam Driver) is a comedian with a biting, cutting edge one-person performance piece. Ann (Marion Cotillard) is a world-renowned opera singer whose beautiful voice aches with torment and joy throughout every single note. Henry and Ann fall in love and begin a much-publicized relationship, making media headlines with every transition in life. Their glamorous lifestyle is a shared experience, but also a selfish one; both Henry and Ann have egos that they must compete with, both in the relationship and individually.

Ann gets pregnant and gives birth to a little girl named Annette. Her representation is seen through the use of a wooden marionette. Henry and Ann grow further apart once Annette is born. Henry's career spirals out of control negatively, while Ann's star continues to shine brighter. Henry becomes egocentric, Ann becomes discontent, and Annette watches her parent's future falter.

Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard give committed performances from start to finish. Driver does a great job of embracing the self-loathing, arrogant nature that grows more rotten as the character struggles to maintain relevance. Marion Cotillard lovingly imbues the tender and tormented characteristics of her ambitious opera singer. The issue with "Annette" does not exist in the level of commitment these two fine actors give their characters. Instead, it's the story they must operate.

The Mael brothers have composed albums that challenged the contemporary norms of pop rock music, many times emulating but never copying the popular trends. They have always been distinctly individual creative minds; throughout "Annette," ideas surrounding performance, the artistic process, and even the vessel for this film, the musical genre, shift in tone that straddles the line between mockery and sincerity.

Annette, a wooden marionette with expressive features and deliberate movements, represents how the two adults, mostly Henry, view their child. The execution of this element is unsettling. While it defines Henry's devolving mentality in small ways, the story becomes so lopsided with the emotion it is trying to coerce that the subtle pieces get lost in the confusion. As the film progresses and grows less like an incredible performance piece and more like a bleak relationship drama, "Annette" never recovers.

While Leos Carax composes a few scenes with dazzling flair and enchanting whimsy, and some of the songs connect with amusing results, the majority of "Annette" feels misguided.

Monte's Rating

2.25 out of 5.00

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Nine Days – Movie Review

Written and directed by: Edson Oda

Starring: Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Tony Hale, Arianna Ortiz, David Rysdahl, and Bill Skarsgard

Runtime: 124 minutes

Spend two hours to experience ‘Nine Days’

“Our house is a very, very, very fine house.” – “Our House” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (1970)

Will (Winston Duke) lives in a fine house. At first glance, his place is a turn-of-the-20th century (or ballpark, a 1930s) one-story ranch coated with mustard-yellow paint, and a white-post fence decorates the front. Actually, this residence seems ordinary, but its chosen lot is a little bizarre. The abode sits on an ambiguous, desolate desert with distant nondescript granite mountains in the background, and a completely flat landscape of sand and dust immediately surrounds the homestead. No one will find cul-de-sacs, Targets, dog parks, or children’s birthday parties here. (This spot could be a few miles away from the I-10 freeway between Phoenix and Los Angeles. In reality, writer/director Edson Oda filmed his movie in Utah.)

The dwelling, however, is far from commonplace. It’s mystical. Although no one observes traditional birthday parties with cake and favors, the events in Oda’s “Nine Days” could offer the possibilities for those particular future celebrations.

You see, Will interviews souls – who appear in person as everyday adult human beings – for nine days. As a one-person judge and jury, he decides if they should be born into the world.

Look, this man has a more important job.

Oda’s film features a small collection of characters, and it’s set in primarily one location, so it feels perfect for Broadway. Although, Oda isn’t a playwright. The man has nine short films on his resume. “Nine Days” is his first full-length feature, and it’s a beautifully crafted, deeply thoughtful story that confronts the human condition and a myriad of its aspects. He taps into several familiar personalities with his on-screen souls, and when watching them converse with Will, one can visualize friends or family. Perhaps, our co-workers are speaking.

Maria (Arianna Ortiz) could be Sofia, a sweet mom of two, from accounting.

Alexander (Tony Hale) acts just like Dale from sales, looking forward to happy hour and the weekend ballgame.

Mike (David Rysdahl) is Sam, the tech whiz from IT who spends much of his free time logging into work after hours.

Emma (Zazie Beetz), however, is a unique candidate and has a distinctly different relationship with Will, as she returns his curiosity with reciprocal interest. Through and through, Oda assembles a talented ensemble, including some virtuous moments with Benedict Wong, who plays Kyo, Will’s boss or colleague. Kyo and Will’s work relationship is a little vague. That’s by design, but there’s one hundred percent clarity that Wong’s character cares about Will’s well-being.

Someone should.

Even with many engaging supporting turns, “Nine Days” is Duke’s film. Duke stands 6’ 5” and is a towering on-screen presence, but Will is a gentle giant, an introspective and serene one. No telling how many years, centuries, or eons that Will’s been interviewing potential newborns. He intimately knows his craft, like a professor teaching Economics 101 every Fall and Spring semester for 30 years. Even though he has a little over a week to assess a candidate, he probably zeroes in on his decision within the first few minutes of discourse. (See also Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink”.)

The film’s narrative isn’t over in a blink. The 124-minute movie is a fairly straightforward tale – with sure, a supernatural concept – but it sways into Will’s backstory and further explores his connections with Kyo and Emma. Our lead has legitimate reasons for his stoic, fatherly mask, but some gentle, well-placed pushes from those within his orbit can peel away this thin veneer. In more pragmatic spaces, Oda spends sizable amounts of camera time on a couple of conventional, electronic living room objects. Still, emotional swells are tied to these devices, and they have vastly essential functions (that will not be revealed in this review).

Still, “Nine Days” isn’t a gadget movie. Far from it.

Without invoking a specific religion, it’s a spiritual one, a film that could appeal to anyone who has lived and breathed on the planet, and at times, it may be impossible to hold back tears.

Yes, Will lives in a fine house, but he makes it an extraordinary home.

Jeff’s ranking

3.5/4 stars

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The Suicide Squad - Movie Review

Written and directed by: James Gunn

Starring: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Viola Davis, Daniela Melchior, Joel Kinnaman, Nathan Fillion, Pete Davidson, David Dastmalchian, Jai Courtney, Michael Rooker, and Sylvester Stallone

Runtime: 132 minutes

‘The Suicide Squad’ kills

And you thought a talking tree was weird.

Writer, director, producer, and occasional actor James Gunn pulled off some pretty darn impressive cinematic magic in 2014. He directed and co-wrote “Guardians of the Galaxy”, and stirred millions of moviegoers to passionately care about his Marvel Studios’ space adventure, one starring an NBC sitcom actor, a pro wrestler, Uhura from the new “Star Trek” films (but donning green makeup), a talking raccoon, and the aforementioned tree. Gunn’s film raked in 733 million dollars at the box office.

How does that happen?

Gunn’s unbarred imagination and charisma are two good guesses.

Well, Warner Bros. Pictures hired Gunn to helm a new Suicide Squad escapade, “The Suicide Squad”, and according to Louis Chilton’s The Independent Aug. 3, 2021 article, the new movie is neither a sequel nor a reboot. By my count (and it could be inaccurate), three squad members – Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Col. Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) – plus Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) are carryovers from the 2016 flick. Now, how many TSS felons, in total, appear in the 2021 version?

It’s difficult to determine because an array of men and women sporting bright primary and secondary color spandex and pleather frequently and quickly pop on and off the screen. It may be easier to shovel an incoming Miami, Fla. tide back into the ocean during hurricane season than accurately count the number officially included on Waller’s Suicide Squad.

If you’re not familiar with the D.C. comic or the 2016 film, here’s a quick rundown. Waller heads a government black ops program comprised of super and non-so-super villains to lead “The Dirty Dozen” (1967)-type missions to protect or serve the United States’ best interests. If the baddies are successful, Amanda knocks time off their prison sentences, but if a squad member fails to follow orders, she can push a red button and blow up the person’s head to smithereens via a well-placed microchip inserted into their skulls before deployment. Unsurprisingly, the assignments are hyper-treacherous, so chances for survival are slim, and hence the team name. However, their alias is Task Force X. Still, Suicide Squad has an edgier and catchier moniker.

For this movie, Waller gives the orders to travel to Corto Maltese – a South American island nation - and destroy a towering, bleak laboratory that quasi-resembles a cylinder version of Pyongyang’s infamous Ryugyong Hotel (nicknamed The Hotel of Doom) before its partial-remodel, of course. The Squad doesn’t know the exact nefarious guests inside, but since a military faction – not friendly to the U.S. - overthrew the Corto Maltese government, it’s best to mess up their plans today rather than confront a more menacing adversary tomorrow.

Ms. Waller explains all this in a classroom setting to her star pupils: Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), and King Shark (Sylvester Stallone).

Here are some brief bios:

Bloodsport is a mercenary/bounty hunter-type and imprisoned for firing a Kryptonite bullet at Superman. This incident was off-camera.

Peacemaker is a muscle-bound all-American soldier with an overzealous love for the country, and he wears a spherical silver helmet, which his team refers to as a toilet bowl.

Ratcatcher 2 is a pleasant 20-something with a connection with rat populations.

Polka-Dot Man can fire thousands of polka dots from his hands that act as bullets, lasers, or something.

King Shark is, well, a walking, talking 7-foot shark who wears cargo shorts and enjoys a steady diet of human beings.

These particular and several other villains-turned-temporary-patriots dive into a kamikaze – by-sea and by-land – assault on Corto Maltese. Waller and Flag devised an overarching plan, but individual confrontations occupy immediate spaces of gory clashes and utter lunacy. Lunacy with sarcastic, twisted humor because not all of these Dirty Two Dozen or so will make it out alive. Although we don’t want our brand new on-screen friends to perish, Gunn and his team take mischievous glee in devising various deaths for our amusement. Think of your reaction to Marvin’s (Phil LaMarr) sudden end at the accidental hands of Vincent Vega (John Travolta) in “Pulp Fiction” (1994).

“Oh Man, I shot Marvin in the face,” Vincent says.

Gunn appears to take a similar approach, except he doesn’t have just one Marvin. He includes gunplay, explosions, runaway helicopters, and much more that deliver fatal blows to many villainous peeps.

Since Gunn dials down his extensive cast to fewer antiheroes, the narrative can focus on a smaller crew, allowing more screen time to develop the characters, explain their backstories and current motivations, and create chemistry. “The Suicide Squad” isn’t all 132 minutes of non-stop bloody chaos. The script gives us chances to pause for a few serene moments where these frenemies have opportunities to build friendships. So, when a fatality feels close, we sense those grave tugs and scratches and shift and wince in our theatre seats for King Shark or Harley Quinn to find safety.

Then again, Robbie’s HQ can sometimes lull us into her damsel-in-distress routine, which is a deception, because she’s one of the fiercest fighters in this wild bunch, and Gunn ensures to capture this essential and entertaining dynamic. For the record, Robbie was born to play this D.C. character…and, sure, Tonya Harding too.

Gunn might have been born to make “The Suicide Squad”. He nicely finds a pleasant Guardians’ vibe with his Suicide brood, that includes playful camaraderie and catchy rock or punk tunes, like Kansas’ “Point of Know Return”, The Jim Carroll Band’s “People Who Died”, and Pixies’ “Hey”, to name a few. He also returns to his creepy, crawly horror roots, and to be more accurate, his slithery ones. Elements of his sicko, midnight-madness horror film “Slither” (2006) slink their way into this picture, which partially turns “TSS” into a grotesque and colossal monster movie.

To quote C+C Music Factory, “Things that make you go Hmmmm….”

And “Holy smokes!”

Look, “The Suicide Squad” kills, as its fearless director, film crew, and actors perform in a whip-smart, tonally spot-on chaotic symphony, where the on-screen insanity may be primarily CGI-based, but these flawed characters – at least the core ones left to finish the fight – are rock solid. I’d gladly invite this crew over for Thanksgiving dinner, as long as Peacemaker takes off his helmet at the table, Ratcatcher 2 doesn’t bring her closest friends, Polka-Dot Man keeps his polka dots to himself, and King Shark promises not to eat any guests. Maybe Bloodsport can speak with his pals beforehand.

Is this movie for everyone? Clearly not, and you’ll probably want to save your grandmother from a “The Suicide Squad” viewing, unless, of course, she’s a pro wrestling fan...and intrigued by a walking, talking 7-foot shark sporting cargo shorts.

And you thought a talking tree was weird.

Jeff’s ranking

3.5/4 stars

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The Suicide Squad - Movie Review by Monte Yazzie

Suicide Squad

Dir: James Gunn

Starring: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Viola Davis, Joel Kinnaman, David Dastmalchian, Daniela Melchior, and Sylvester Stallone

2h 12m

The modern superhero movie has allowed audiences to grow familiar with strange, odd, and unusual sights. Like an underwater kingdom where an aqua man telepathically controls marine life. Or a young boy who turns into a powerful being just by saying the words "Shazam." It's commonplace to see superhumans battle giant creatures, massive monsters, or ancient gods on the big screen at least once a month these days.

Director James Gunn, who is responsible for producing a specific brand of strange and silly to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with two "Guardians of the Galaxy" films, tackles the reboot/sequel of the bad-guys-gone-good 2016 movie "Suicide Squad." Leave it to James Gunn, the director of some horribly beautiful cinema like "Slither" and "Super" who also got his start in the Troma Entertainment brand, to make the best kind of silly and perverse comic book movie to date.

The mix of dark and mindless humor, gory and unflinching violence, and the odd and quirky heart he gives the characters we shouldn't care about is a combination of everything the writer/director has tailored over all these years. "The Suicide Squad" forms a pitch-perfect comic book movie with a new stance to the saturated market of world-saving heroes. And yes, he also contributes more strange, odd, and usual sights, like a walking, talking shark who sounds like Sylvester Stallone.

Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) organizes a group of outcast bad guys who do covert operations that the world's superheroes can't do. The Suicide Squad, as they call themselves, is assigned to invade the fictional Corto Maltese to stop a government coup with plans to unleash a secret weapon on the rest of the world. The team is led by the reluctant Bloodsport (Idris Elba), a marksman who is touted as putting Superman in the hospital with a kryptonite bullet. The rest of the team features Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), both from the previous “Suicide Squad”, and new teammates like the rodent controlling Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchoir), the demoralized Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), the homicidal justice seeker Peacemaker (John Cena), and a giant walking shark named Nanaue (voiced by Sylvester Stallone). In true comic book fashion, the ragtag team must accomplish their mission before the world is destroyed.

James Gunn takes absurdist humor to incredible extremes throughout the film, taking a bloody or violent moment and undercutting it with some comedy element. Whether dark, deadpan, silly, or sometimes all of them at once, it's within this humor-driven sensibility that "The Suicide Squad" finds its footing for the composition of the characters that range from unredeemable to misguided.

Gunn is an accomplished screenwriter, bringing straight tension and horror with the remake of "Dawn of the Dead" or modernizing the live-action follies of the ghost hunting gang in "Scooby-Doo." Gunn finds the unusual beats and abnormal rhythms in storytelling. It's what separates and defines his unique style.

Throughout "The Suicide Squad," Gunn takes the formulaic structure of the superhero film and modifies it just enough to make it feel out of rhythm. With a character like Harley Quinn, who fans would assume might be front and center in this film, Gunn places the well-known character in a supporting role while giving her the best fight scene the character has in any film. The arrogant Peacemaker is perfectly cast with John Cena, who is doing the charming bad guy wrestler character, even at one time showing up in a mock pair of "tights." Gunn abrupts the accustomed structure with characters like Nanaue, also known as King Shark, and Ratcather 2, providing them with a piece of the strange heart that grounds the film with emotion amidst the chaos and mayhem that happens consistently on-screen.

"The Suicide Squad" combines heart, humor, and heroics in fun, ingenious, and gruesome ways. It's the most fun film of all the summer blockbuster films in 2021.

Monte's Rating

4.00 out of 5.00

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Jungle Cruise - Movie Review

Dir: Jaume Collet-Serra

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Édgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, and Paul Giamatti

2h 7m

My first ride, on my first trip to Disneyland, was The Jungle Cruise. The mechanical boat tour into the Amazon was pure joy. The scary rhino, the underwater hippos, and the mysterious 8th wonder of the world all combined for a magical experience. It was fun, exciting, humorous, and very silly.

The same can be said of director Jaume Collet-Serra's harmless "Jungle Cruise," a sometimes amusing and completely summer popcorn-worthy journey into the Disney ride adaptations. Part "Pirates of the Caribbean," part "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Jungle Cruise" wears its influences proudly on its sleeve. It even features not one but two charming heroic leads pushing the film forward.

Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) is a reckless and confident explorer trying to lead an expedition into the Amazon to find a powerful secret deep in the jungle. With the help of her brother McGregor (Jack Whitehall), Lily must steal an ancient arrowhead stone to find the path to the old treasure. Traveling from England to South America, Lily and McGregor need a boat and a captain to make their journey. They find help from Skipper Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson), a hustling tour guide who owes money to a grumpy riverboat dealer (Paul Giamatti). Skipper Frank cons Lily and McGregor into hiring him, unaware that the dangerous German Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons) is hot on their trail. The hunt for the secret treasure leads all groups into a supernatural conflict with the cursed ancient conquistador Aguirre (Édgar Ramírez).

Amid a story combining a bevy of complicated and distracting influences, "Jungle Cruise" maintains much of its momentum because of the chemistry and charisma between Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson. Their banter, wisecracks, and insults are humorous and add an element of fun to almost every scene. Jesse Plemons and Jack Whitehall are also good in supporting roles. Plemons, with a thick accent, chews up the scenery with glee. Whitehall, with a haughty attitude and a trail of suitcases in tow, shines consistently.

The story struggles to keep up with the many other stories it's trying to tell. Aguirre, composed of snakes, and his undead jungle inhabited conquistadors, are trying to break their curse. Prince Joachim travels in a submarine and wants to rule the world. Add Skipper Frank and Lily's combined, and sometimes different, motivations to find the treasure, and "Jungle Cruise" gets lost on its journey.

"Jungle Cruise" doesn't do anything completely different from other Disney adventures of recent memory, but that doesn't keep it from having a whole lot of fun. Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt keep the cruise cruising for over 2 hours. Their chemistry is infectious. "Jungle Cruise" is fun, a popcorn film with a little bit of everything for viewers looking for a nice summer cinema distraction.

Monte's Rating

3.00 out of 5.00

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