Category Archives: Movies

Movie Review: Next Goal Wins

Searchlight Pictures

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Even someone as disconnected from the world of professional sports like myself knows that soccer is a low scoring game. It’s quite a shock to discover that it is a historical fact that the American Samoa team were crushed, annihilated, and humiliated by Australian National team losing to them by the astounding seemingly impossible score of 31-0. Next Goal Wins is the comedic, true-life inspired, sport feature film from Taika Waititi.

If you have seen comedy sports team movies before, such as The Mighty Ducks or The Bad News Bears, then you will instantly recognize the structure of this movie. The irascible tantrum throwing coach, in this case Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) is tasked against his will to bring a team of outcasts, misfits, and oddballs into some sort sporting shape before an emotionally important game. Along the way the team learns something of value from the coach and the coach learns that there is more to life than sports and that he shouldn’t judge on early impressions.

Nothing in Next Goal Wins breaks this fundamental story construction, but two things do make this movie distinct. First, the film take time to respect and enjoy the culture of American Samoa. The people of this island nation are the real heart of soul of the production. Secondly the film is very much fixed in the off-beat humor of its director and co-writer Taika Waititi. Waititi’s humor is grounded in humanism. It is rarely cruel or mean and often celebrates humanity’s oddness that produces such infinite variety. Much like his current HBO series Our Flag Means Death, this film elevates the weird and different illustrating that joy is a much better way to live than anger.

This film is not a deep exploration of human soul, but it is concerned with that soul and that to be happy is important and sometimes it is choice. This is one well worth seeing.

Next Goal Wins is currently playing in theatrical release.

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Movie Review: The Marvels

Marvel Studios

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Marvel Cinematic Universe films come sin several flavors and tones, from the intensely personal and dramatic such as Captain America: Civil War, the thematically serious such as Black Panther and its critique of both colonialism and ethno-isolation, to the comedic and lighthearted such as Ant-Man. 2023’s The Marvels, while resenting world-ending threats for humanity, falls cleaning and intentionally into the light and comedic category.

As a side effect of a magical device entangles the power of Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) the three women are forced into an oddball partnership to stop the murderous revenge rampage of Kree warrior Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) bitter from the fall out of Captain Marvel’s ending the Kree wars and domination depicted in the film Captain Marvel. Supporting characters include Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Kamala’s immediate family introduced in the limited series Ms. Marvel.

The ‘mismatched partners’ is a classic genre of cinema and while that sort of story is often a two-hander, screenwriters Nia DaCosta, who also directs, Egan McDonnell, and Elissa Karaski juggled the competing needs of the ‘forced partner’ comedic tones with the serious world dying stakes that are often a requirement of superhero movies, and the family conflicts quite well. The Marvels is principally a comedy, one that finds its humor in familial relations, both blooded family and the found variety. Any doubts about the intentional comedic tone are dispelled by the tongue in cheek use of the song Memory from the musical Cats. The difficult problems of exposition dealing with characters entering the theatrical world who were created in the streaming series format is handled with quick amusing lines. (You got your powers walking through a witch’s hex? Yup.)

The cast is uniformly good and talented, handling the FX work and the comedic character beats with equal skill. The cinematography by Sean Bobbit is perfectly adequate capturing the sequences with enough flair to have some emotional impact but not quite reaches truly impressive levels.

While The Marvels will not reach the heights of becoming one of my favorite 5 MCU movies it is certainly well cemented in the upper half of this franchise and with a running time under two hours it makes for a pleasant and fun distraction.

The Marvels is currently playing in theaters and well worth the trip to see it on the impressive big screen.

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Spooky Season Finale: Mulholland Dr.

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I had planned to cap off Spooky Season with a re-watch of David Lynch’s masterpiece Mulholland Dr., but sadly sleeping poorly on the night of the 30th, having extra errands add extra stressors to the day, getting zero words down on my werewolf novel, and a minor headache in the evening left me with the brain capacity of a reanimated slug.

Mulholland Dr. is an amazing piece of cinema that the first couple of time I viewed it left deep emotional impacts while remaining just out of intellectual understanding. I think I finally have an interpretation that works for all the aspects of the film, but it could be something entirely of my own invention. Lynch’s work, with the exception of his adaptation of Dune, defies convention and straight forward representation.

The key to understanding Mulholland Dr. is knowing that one of Lynch’s favorite and formative films is 1939’s The Wizard of Oz, and this film is his most direct reinterpretation of that classic movie’s themes. Lynch’s film is the story of a young woman, Diane, played by Naomi Watts, who dreams herself to a magical setting, Hollywood, which she describes a ‘this dream place.’ In the land of her dreams Diane is instantly recognized for her tremendous acting talent and falls in love with a mysterious amnesiac woman, Rita, that loves her back. There are subplots with a vain director tormented by infidelity and criminals forcing his casting choices, but the locus of Diane’s dreams are her career and the love between her and ‘Rita.’ None of this is real and more than halfway through the film we are shown, but it is never explained to us, Diane’s real life, where she is Betty, her career is shit, the woman she loved, ‘Rita’ has left her to marry a man, and everything ends in murder and madness.

In The Wizard of Oz, we experience Dorothy’s real world before being shunted of to her fantastic fantasy. In the end we return to reality and the deeply uncynical message that there is no place like home. Mulholland Dr. inverts all this, we first experience the Diane’s fantasy, unaware that all the characters in it are reinterpretations of people she has already met, so when we meet them in the real world it is reality that is strange, threatening, and confusing. Our disenchantment with reality is the same as Diane’s. This is not the glittering land of dreams that Hollywood has always presented itself to be, and we do not like that. In the end Diane’s madness at what she has done in reality breaks down her ability to separate dream from reality and what had once been a dream transforms into a nightmare as she pursued by figures of innocence from her dream to her death.

Mulholland Dr. is rarely counted among the films or horror but the deep unease and unsettling nature the film places for me it squarely in that genre. It is a film of dreams and nightmares and how though those two things feel very different that are inf act the same thing.

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Even More Spooky Season: Who Invited Them?

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Adam and his wife Margo are throwing a housewarming party with the guests principally Adam’s co-workers and employers. However, one couple, Tom and Sasha, professing to be neighbors has crashed the party and linger well after the other guests have departed. As the two couples, with drinks and drugs, get to know each other Tom and Sasha’s presence inflames lingers issues for Adam and Margo. It becomes clear that Tom and Sasha are not what they claimed and are manipulating the rising tension for some hidden agenda.

Who Invited Them? falls into the genre of horror that is suspense/thriller without any supernatural elements. Suspense/thriller is very script and character dependent and without relatable characters behaving in understandable ways it very easy loses its suspension of disbelief. This movie doesn’t completely fall apart but neither did it fully engage me, and I was always at a bit of distance from the Adam and Margo never really invested in their relationship. Still, I was curious enough to keep watching and see how the entire plot unfolded and what coming reveal might twist the script into a new direction.

Sadly, the reveal when it was presented turned out to be precisely what I had suspected with Tom and Sash’s goal proved to be underwhelming. Perhaps more damaging to the film overall success as a story is that in the final resolution Adam and Margo turned out to be far too passive as characters with happenstance and chance playing far too great in the movie’s climax. Still at a scant 80 minutes Who Invited Them? plays quickly and for some it is a thrilling psychological horror, just not for me.

Who Invited Them? is streaming on Shudder.

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Spooky Season Symbolically: Enys Men

Neon Pictures

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Enys Men (Pronounced In-es Main) is a 2022 cornish Folk horror set on the windswept desolate island of Enys Men. Set in 1973 the film follows an unnamed naturalist as she repetitiously records the ground temperature and her observations of seven flowers growing on the island while fascinated by a tall, weathered stone figure looking out over the sea and with lichen growing upon it. Amid the repetitive actions of the naturalist the film often intersplices unsettling sequences and imagery. The film’s narrative is nearly non-existent, doing away with such traditional conventions such as character arcs or any sort of act structure, relying upon imagery to convey emotional meaning.

Enys Men is more akin to poetry than narrative film and its sedate pacing will task many viewers. The film is reminiscent of the works of David Lynch but not as lyrical nor as impactful. I think that there is a quite small audience for Enys Men and sadly I cannot be counted among them. It lacks both the weird factor of something like Mulholland Drive and a stronger narrative nature of hold on it, leaving it, like its unnamed naturalist, trapped between worlds.

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Spooky Season Pre-Code Edition 2: Murders in the Zoo

Paramount PIctures

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Released in 1933, 90 years ago, Murders in the Zoo is playing as part of the Criterion Channel’s ‘Pre-Code Horror’ selections. While some of the scenes, particularly one at the front are gruesome and would have been stripped once the production began serious enforcement this film is less transgressive than many pre-code classics.

Eric Gorman (Lionel Atwill) is big game hunter, millionaire, and philanthropist with an inflated ego is and murderously jealous of any man showing attraction to his wife Evelyn (Kathleen Burke.) Gorman murders his victim by staging animal attacks and accidents.

With a running time of just 62 minutes this movie is clearly a traditional B feature. Atwill has appeared in several early horror films and as a ‘second banana’ performed quite well, however hampered with a lackluster script and second-rate dialog he proved inadequate as a lead to carry this movie.

Murders in the Zoo has none of the sacrilegious flair of Paramount’s better known pre-code horror The Island of Lost Souls and wastes far too much time with a bumbling secondary character meant for comic relief. A few scenes are effective and unnerving, particularly Gorman dispatching a rival in the jungle on a hunt, but over all this movie is dull, plodding, and scarcely worth anyone’s time or attention. Viewers concerned with animal welfare and cruelty are advised to skip this feature as in the climax of the story big cats are forces to attack each other and no production justifies such cruelty.

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Season 3 Reservation Dogs & Native Media

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My sweetie-wife and I finished watching season 3 of FX’s Reservation Dogs a dramedy set on a Native American reservation in modern day rural Oklahoma as it follows s collection of teens, their less-than-legal antics, their interpersonal events, and the lives of the larger community around them. The series, a first with American television, with all the creatives coming from Native American backgrounds explores the lives of its characters while both simultaneous·ly honoring culture and religious belief and avoid the ‘noble savage’ stereotype. These characters feel real and continue to feel real even as they encounter spirits of their ancestors, vengeful mythical beings from their heritage, and possibly even extraterrestrial encounters. The mystical never comes off as either jammed in to make the story standout from wider American culture nor overly praised for being native but simply another part of the tapestry of the story’s world.

Our interest in the show when it premiered in 2021 came from the fact that Kiwi creative Taika Waititi served as the series executive producer, but the series has very little of Taika’s erratic chaotic energy and much more the product of its showrunner Sterlin Harjo, a creative whose career I shall watch closely.

There appears to be a little boomlet in Native media and it is one I welcome. In addition to Reservation Dogs there has been the excellent Predator prequel Prey set among the Comanche during the 18th century which also presented as a viewing option the ability to watch the film with an audio track entirely in the Comanche language. A sequel to Prey is already in the works,

 

 

 

The series Resident Alien about an extraterrestrial who mission to slaughter humanity is derailed by his interaction with the Earth’s population also utilizes Native Americans among it cast and world building avoiding simple tropes and cliche presenting its native characters as actual characters.

 

 

 

 

From north of the American border came Blood Quantum a Canadian zombie apocalypse movie with much of its cast and characters coming from First Nation peoples. (The Canadian equivalent to the phrase ‘native American.’)

It is quite a privilege to watch so much media that rejects the racist or adoring portrayals of native peoples in favor of more complex, emotionally interesting, and culturally engaging fare that is now finally becoming available.

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More Spooky Season with Terrific Writing: Velvet Buzzsaw

Three years before he gave us the best Star Wars ever with Andor writer/director Dan Gilroystalked the secluded, shadowy streets of horror cinema with Velvet Buzzsaw.

Netflix

Set in the world of high-end art Velvet Buzzsaw is populated with artists, buyers, critics, and agents, very few who are in any meaning of the word admirable people. Morf Vandewalt (Jake Gyllenhaal) is an insufferable, pretentious critic hiding behind a shield of ‘truth’ to remain unconcerned with the lives he casually destroys. Ruthless and amoral galley owner Rhodora Haze (Rene Russo) has abandoned art and her days as a punk rocker for commerce and profit. It is Rhodora’s protege Josephina (Zawe Ashton) that sets the plot and nearly everyone’s doom into motion when she discovers the masterful and disturbing art of her now deceased neighbor Vetril Dease. Ignoring the man’s last wishes that all of his art be destroyed upon his death and Stealing nearly a thousand pieces from Dease’s apartment Josephine and Rhodora exploit their ‘find’ launching a new, exclusive, and very expensive artist into the stratospheric heights of the art world. It is not long before those who have transgressed against Dease’s art or even art in general find that curse locked within Dease’s creations from his troubled and unbalanced mind stalks them to their doom.

Velvet Buzzsaw is not horror of the grotesque. It is not horror of sudden violence and gruesome deaths. This film is horror of the uncanny. The film is a slow burn, treading carefully from the bright artificial world of Los Angeles into a world ruled by incomprehensible forces and terrible retribution. A dark horrific satire, but by no means a comedy, this film passes judgement on those that abuse art with cynicism and profit. It is not by chance that the characters that survive the film have all in their own manner rejected the lifeless selling of art for the more honest living of life for art.

This also made a perfect companion piece to go with Pickman’s Model. Not only are both stories about artists and what they see with their eye, but Velvet Buzzsaw has a distinctly Lovecraftian vibe as Morf slowly uncovers the history and horror of Dease’s life and the trauma that propelled his art.

Velvet Buzzsaw is not for everyone. The characters, for the most part are thoroughly unlikable, but I found them interesting. This is not a horror movie with some splatter kill every ten minutes to wake up a jaded audience and it requires your attention, but for those who this is their jam Velvet Buzzsaw will bury itself in your mind.

Velvet Buzzsaw streams on Netflix.

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Spooky Season but With Terrible Writing: Space Probe: Taurus

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So, time was running late, and I wanted something I hadn’t seen before that ran for under an hour and a half. Scrolling through the options on Amazon Prime I stumbled across Space Probe: Taurus, clearly a cheesy, low-budget, bit of fare. I went in with low expectations which the film failed to meet by lightyears.

Space Probe: Taurus (SPT) has a script that appears to have been written by a terrible pantser. That is someone who doesn’t outline first but discovers their characters and plot as they write and usually then has several ‘clean-up’ passe to sculp everything into a coherent story. SPT never achieves anything approaching coherence in its plotting. The movie is a series of events that bear little to no relation to each other or any sort of overall plot or theme.

We start with a failed space expedition, Faith One, (This script has made me feel so much better about my poor naming talents.) which has ended in disaster and to prevent the spread of infection at the sole survivor’s begging is self-destructed by remote. We never mention that incident nor return to or even attempt to return to that location again.

After stock footage of various Atlas launches, we join with the new mission, going to a new place, Hope One (Hope for what? I don’t know it’s never explored.) on route to Taurus. The crew would have been cliched a decade earlier, the gruff, tough as nail, male Commander, the flippant, womanizing second, the older, wiser, and more levelheaded senior scientist, and the very attract female scientist there to ‘do science’ and get everyone their meals.

Shortly after launch, because the writer/director has literally no conception of the size of space, they encounter an alien ship floating free in space. Hard as nails commander and flippant guy board, meet an alien who attacks them and, after killing the alien then flee back to their ship. Before departing they plant a friggin’ bomb on the alien ship and destroy it. This incident will never again be referenced or have any effect on the continuing adventure.

There follows some terrible interpersonal interaction scenes with only Francine York playing the pretty woman scientist showing any acting talent at all.

Next, the ship encounters the bog standard ‘meteor swarm’ Their shields protects, mostly, but what damage their receive causes the computer to malfunction and they go very far very fast. (Shades of Lost in Space) They are not lost but must land to make repairs. Attempting to land on a planet with a surface that is only 60% water, they miss dry land, coming to rest on the seafloor. They make repairs, Hard as Nail and Pretty Scientist now decided to have a love story but are interrupted by giant crabs. The giant crabs present no danger to ship and just kind of scuttle around the tiny model.

Making to completely logical decision that while the rest repair the ship Flippant Guy should go ashore and collect a tiny, tiny box of samples. He’s stalked by a monster and attacked on his return, dying of his wounds. With the ship repaired and having learned that this planet can support life, they name it after Flippant Guy and go home.

I have seen my fair share of bad 50s and 60s SF movies. I can forgive cheap. I can forgive stock characters. But come on, you have no excuse for a script this friggin’ terrible. Paper is really cheap, and you can keep drafting until, even if you can’t get it right, you can get it better than this.

Space Probe: Taurus Do not watch. Trust me, I’ve made thsi seem far mnore interesting that it is.

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Spooky Season Continues: Sleepy Hollow (1999)

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I am going to try to alternate these Spooky Season posts between films and television I have watched before and ones I have not, Sleepy Hollow I watched in the theater during its original run.

Loosely based on the classic American short story Sleepy Hollow re-united Director Tim Burton with his favorite actor Johnny Depp for a unique take on the tale of Ichabod Crane and his encounter with the headless horseman terrorizing an isolated community.

Paramount Pictures

In this adaptation Crane (Depp) is a police constable from New York City, despised and distrusted for his belief in scientific analysis and rationality, now dispatched to the community of Sleep Hollow where gruesome decapitations have struck fear into the farming community. Upon arrival the town’s leading men advise that the murders are the work of a vengeful spirit, the headless horseman taking his revenge on the locals. Crane, a man of reason rejects their superstitious folktales assuring the men that the murderer is a man of flesh and blood. What Crane encounters in Sleepy Hollow upends his world view about reason, science, the supernatural and himself.

While the story is officially set in upstate New York in the last years of the 18th century there is no doubt that thematically and artistically the production is thoroughly English with stylistic flairs that call to mind the heyday of Hammer Horror. The cast, with few exceptions, is deeply English from Hammer veteran Christopher Lee is what is little more than a cameo to genre favorites such as Michael Gambon, known to younger audiences as Dumbledore (2) from Harry Potter and Ian McDiarmid, (Palpatine from the Star Wars franchise).

The film is photographed with desaturated color save for the blood which is rendered in brilliant crimson. The production design reflects Burton’s quirky with more than one moment evoking the ‘Large Marge’ jump scare from Burton’s first feature, Peewee’s Big Adventure.

Sleepy Hollow is not a film that will deeply scare you, leaning closer to adventure than true horror but the copious blood spurts and on-screen decapitations will test some audiences. I thoroughly enjoyed this film on its initial release and continue to enjoy it on home video.

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