Sunday, July 20, 2025

Review: Eddington

Image courtesy of A24.

Director Ari Aster has gone from one of cinema's most acclaimed new horror maestros to oddball provocateur. While the latter description tends to result in the type of films that I find intriguing, Aster's earlier work remains - to me, at least - the most effective.

"Hereditary" was a nightmarish horror movie that announced the arrival of a real talent while "Midsommar," if not quite as memorable, boasted a great lead performance and was mostly gripping from start to finish. I admired his odd "Beau is Afraid," even if I didn't quite love it, but his latest film, "Eddington," somewhat misses the mark, despite some solid performances and memorable moments.

The film, a social satire-turned western, is seemingly loaded with potential. It is set in 2020 in a small New Mexico town amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the summer Black Lives Matter marches following the murder-by-police of George Floyd. The film aims to examine why and how society collapsed during this moment and neighbor turned against neighbor, rather than having the empathy that was required of the moment.

The film's lead is Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix, who's solid here), the small town of Eddington's sheriff who doesn't believe he should have to go along with the new rules about masking in public. He defends an elderly man in a grocery store who refuses to wear a mask as a crowd of masked onlookers criticizes him and captures the moment on their iPhones.

Cross's primary antagonist is Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), who scolds Cross during the scenario. Their animosity goes further back, however, due to Cross's wife (Emma Stone) allegedly being impregnated by Garcia when she was 16 years old. Garcia - and Cross's wife - deny that this is what happened, but the sheriff's mother-in-law, an avid conspiracy theorist, fans the flames of the rumor.

Following the grocery store masking incident, Cross decides to run for mayor, challenging Garcia, which inflames tensions in the town. At the same time, a group of primarily white youths starts holding Black Lives Matter protests after Floyd's death. Garcia's son (Matt Gomez Hidaka) and a young woman (Amelie Hoeferle) seem sincere about the protests, though the film takes a somewhat jaded portrayal of their characters, while another youth (Cameron Mann) has other intentions.

Meanwhile, Stone's Louise Cross has gotten mixed up with a shady cult-like figure (Austin Butler) who appears to be obsessed with pedophiles in places of power. All of this makes Cross, who starts the film as world weary but becomes increasingly unhinged, begin to lose his grip.

There are some interesting moments in "Eddington," primarily in the film's first half as it examines the mostly bad behavior of Americans as they react to one of the most perilous moments in our recent history. Phoenix and Pascal make for good nemeses and there's some decent tension in their escalating feud.

But as the film nears its halfway mark, it starts to spin out of control and, at times, comes off as an empty provocation. One of its main problems is its satirical marks. There's plenty of satire to be had at the expense of people whose absurd conspiracy theories fueled the drama during the COVID-19 pandemic and there are brief references to things like Ivermectin and the Pizzagate conspiracy (though it's not called that here).

But the film makes the same mistake as our lost-in-the-woods national media by thinking it must somehow even the scales between the two sides it's parodying. It wants to make all sides look crazy, but it is a ridiculous comparison when trying to show how everyone lost their minds during this era by making Black Lives Matter protesters and the vaccine deniers who refused to wear masks appear as one and the same.

It's also telling that the ultimate shootout in the film doesn't come from gun-toting Trump supporters - you know, the types who have actually shot up synagogues and grocery stores - but rather right-wing media's favorite imaginary boogeyman, Antifa. The film gets bloody during its denouement, and its end is cynical enough to ring true in our current moment, which is somehow even more awful than the one depicted here. 

But while Aster elicited some genuine shocks in his two early horror movies - and even to an extent in the peculiar "Beau is Afraid" - he's not on as firm of footing this time around. There are some interesting elements in "Eddington" and most of the performance are good, but it's a social satire that only partially captures the craziness of the moment that we had the misfortune to live through five years ago.

Review: I Know What You Did Last Summer


Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing.

Horror reboots have become so prevalent that the release of the first theatrical "I Know What You Did Last Summer" film in the 21st century should come as a surprise to no one. 

In recent years, there have been some reboots that have been marginally successful - the first of the new "Scream" and "Halloween" movies - and some not so much ("The Exorcist"). I have yet to see the new "Final Destination" movie, which received surprisingly good reviews, and I can't say I'm looking forward to the umpteenth attempt to reboot "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Please, folks, don't feel the need to bring back "Urban Legend."

In this latest "I Know What You Did," a group of teens - once again in the small town of Southport - find themselves in the similar scenario of having done something bad the previous summer. In this case, a bout of drunken revelry in the middle of the road on a winding hill leads to a car flying off the edge and killing its driver.

Like clockwork, the group of friends - Ava (Chase Sui Wonders), her BFF Danica (Madelyn Cline), old flame Milo (Jonah Hauer-King), party boy Teddy (Tyriq Withers), and former friend Stevie (Sarah Pidgeon) - start receiving threatening notes and some side characters who have connections to the group start getting picked off by a person in a rain slicker with a hook (and various other weapons).

The group researches the massacre that took place in the town in 1997 - a word, like Forrest Gump's name, that you could place a drinking game with, considering how many times it gets mentioned - and seeks out its survivors: Ray (Freddie Prinze Jr), now a local bar owner who seems a bit cranky, and Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt), who had apparently married Ray after the events of the 1998 sequel, but has since divorced him, seemingly not amicably.

Julie is now a teacher and lives in a town far enough away. She tells the group of teens who seek her advice that she wants nothing to do with it, but we know she'll be drawn back in anyway. In terms of plotting, "I Know What You Did Last Summer" is by-the-numbers and the violence, while occasionally gruesome, seems tame compared to some of the gorier series of the modern era.

There's a genuine surprise near the film's end that deserves some credit because it's the sort of thing that the "Scream" films have mostly avoided in the sequels. But the film's end otherwise lands with a thud, primarily setting up the possibility of a sequel (I also apparently missed a post-credits sequence that moves the needle further in that direction) and the film seems to end mid-thought in the middle of a conversation between two characters.

There are worse horror movies out there than this semi-legacy sequel (I've now seen all three "Terrifier" movies and can honestly say that I don't get the appeal), and plenty of other bland films of the genre populating the cineplexes these days (I missed the mostly lambasted "Megan" sequel, but just saw the mostly forgettable "Until Dawn"). In other words, it's just another of many films of its type flooding the marketplace that has little in the way of differentiating itself from the pack. 

While the "Scream" films - at least, certainly the first one - were a revelation at the time of their release and helped the genre to regain popularity, the original "I Know What You Did" films were never that good. The first one had atmosphere and was watchable, but the series probably didn't need a reboot. As one character in this latest entry notes, "Nostalgia is overrated."

Friday, July 11, 2025

Review: Superman

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
 
I’ll admit, it took me a little while to warm to James Gunn’s “Superman.” I have no problem with comic book movies taking a more lightweight route – not every film has to be overly dripping with gravitas like Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy – and the director’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” films are a case in point on how to mostly do that well.

But in the first few minutes of this new “Superman,” I thought the film was going to end up in  “Superman 3” or “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace” territory, but it eventually settles into its groove somewhere around the halfway mark.

It’s around this time that Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi) becomes a central figure in the story. Dressed in an outfit that resembles one of the Warriors (“come out and play-ay-ay”), Terrific joins Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) on a rescue mission and really gets to strut his stuff. From there on, the film became more engaging and engaged – and by that, I mean with the current moment.

It’s been hilarious to watch certain sectors of the U.S. population go into tailspins over this new film featuring America’s most iconic superhero, whom they have now deemed “woke.” At the same time, it’s surprising just how much the film comments on – or is prescient enough to foresee – our current, perilous moment.

At various points in the picture, the term “alien” is hurled at the caped crusader (played by David Corenswet), which we can take to mean “immigrant.” Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) is a tech mogul who wants to create his own corporate technocracy and has captured those he opposes and thrown them into underground gulags in other dimensions.

Meanwhile, Luthor has partnered with a former Soviet bloc-style dictator who has illegally invaded a neighboring country. All the while, a gullible public is easily fooled when the media takes Luthor at his word and allows him to deem Superman a “threat.” I mean, ahem!

And the good thing about all of these elements is that they’re handled in an intriguing and believable manner. These themes are present throughout, but not in a clunky or heavy-handed way.

I’m of the mind that it’s not necessary to reboot comic book heroes every few years when a new actor comes on board – but that’s where we are in current film culture. We’re in the middle of a new Batman series. There’s yet another attempt at “Fantastic Four” later this summer. And so, of course, there’s a new Superman series in which we basically start from scratch.

The good thing about this one is that it’s not an origin story, but instead throws us right into a new story involving these familiar characters. It takes a while for the film to get its groove, but around the halfway mark it finds it and never lets up. This isn’t the greatest “Superman” movie (that remains the 1978 version) and it’s nowhere near the bottom of the barrel (the aforementioned ‘80’s sequels and the “Dawn of Justice” debacle). All in all, it’s a reasonably enjoyable summer movie.

Sunday, July 6, 2025

Review: Jurassic World: Rebirth

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.

By now, you know the formula: People, against their own good judgment, travel to the now-abandoned islands populated by dinosaurs from the other "Jurassic Park" films on a mission and some of them get devoured, while a few others survive and flee the island to the tune of John Williams' now-iconic score. It's now just a matter of how it's executed.

Despite mostly middling reviews, "Jurassic World: Rebirth," while generically following this formula, is one of the more watchable of the recent sequels. I wouldn't go as far as saying it's good or that I'd recommend it - but if you go in knowing exactly what you'll get, you won't be disappointed (or surprised either).

In this film, a group is gathered - a mercenary (Scarlett Johansson), a friend of hers who is handy with getting people out of sticky situations (Mahershala Ali), a scientist (Jonathan Bailey), the sleazy businessman with ill intentions who's just waiting to get eaten (Rupert Friend), and a whole lot of expendable minor characters. Add to the mix a family on a boat vacation whose vessel ends up going in the wrong direction and runs into the other characters, who save them with the caveat that they must travel to the island for the mission.

The mission involves extracting the blood of several of the species there that can apparently cure cancer. I'll remind you at this point that most people don't come to the "Jurassic Park" films for the well-thought-out plots or scientific theories. 

Naturally, the corrupt character played by Friend wants the blood samples to sell to the highest bidder, while Bailey's scientist wants to share it with the world, arguing that "science is for everybody" (can't argue with him there). Johansson and Ali's characters want to retire from their lifestyle with the money the job will bring in.

Just to up the ante, this particular island is abandoned and populated with some of the mutant dinosaurs that were too violent or scary to be included in the original park. Then again, there's a nice sequence in which the group of humans stumble upon a large herd of brontosauruses and are amazed by their beauty. If you're looking for consistency, you're in the wrong movie.

Anyway, the family and the group seeking the dinosaur blood get separated early on after an attack on the water. The family is left to fend for itself - and the daughter adopts a cute baby dinosaur that she names Dolores - while the other group chases after the three dinosaurs from which they need blood. There's a particularly thrilling sequence involving a flying dinosaur from which they need to extract a sample.

As far as summer blockbusters go, you could do worse than "Jurassic World: Rebirth." It is far from the best of the series (that's still Steven Spielberg's 1993 original) or the worst. There's hardly anything original about it and most viewers in the audience will be able to guess what happens next at all times.

But it has some thrilling sequences, a few unique and scary new dinosaurs, and some great cinematography. The cast isn't given much to do, but it's always a pleasure spending time with Johansson and Ali. So, yes, this latest "Jurassic Park" is just business as usual, but it's passable entertainment. It delivers exactly what it promises.

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

The Best Movies of the 21st Century (So Far)

Mulholland Drive
The New York Times recently released a ranked list of the top 100 films of the 21st century so far, based on polls it took of directors, writers, actors, and others in the global film industry. Each participant was able to list his or her top 10 list.

Since then, I’ve seen a number of other similar lists pop up. Although I currently don’t have a Rolling Stone subscription and couldn’t read the entire list, that magazine released its top 100 list. That’s more like it.

The idea of narrowing down all of the movies I’ve seen this century to 10 is daunting and a bit ridiculous, so instead I’m including my non-ranked list of the top 100 of the century so far. Then, because narrowing it down to 100 is even a bit limiting, I’ve included a list of runners up - lots of them.

So, enjoy. And drop your own lists in the comment section if you so choose.

Sunday, June 29, 2025

Review: F1

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

A sign of a good movie is when a topic of little interest to the viewer still makes for a compelling watch. Such is the case of Joseph Kosinki's "F1," a Formula 1 racing movie about a formerly washed-up driver, Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), who returns to racing to help out a friend, Ruben (Javier Bardem), whose team is struggling to stay relevant and ends up clashing with his young hotshot teammate, Joshua (Damson Idris).

Sound familiar? If you think this sounds a little like the blockbuster hit "Top Gun: Maverick," you'd be correct and you might not be surprised to learn that this film is directed by the same person. As for the subject matter, I'll admit to having no interest in professional racing. Cinematically, it has resulted in one decent film ("Days of Thunder") as well as a mediocre one ("Driven") and an overrated satire ("Talladega Nights").

Kosinski's film doesn't reinvent the wheel here or do anything radical to shake up the sports genre. Instead, he does what so many summer blockbusters fail to do these days - develop interesting characters - and even goes so far as to making this the prime feature of the film. As such, "F1" is pretty compelling.

Sonny was once a rising star in the world of racing. As a young hotshot driver, he was known for his reckless style of racing, which ultimately led to an accident that derailed his career. Since then, he has bounced around in various driving stints - we're told he was a New York City cab driver at one point - but the big time has always eluded him.

His friend Ruben, another former race car driver, shows up with a desperate plea: One of his two drivers is out for the season and he needs someone to fill in. Sonny later learns he was only eighth choice in this scenario. But he accepts the offer and immediately clashes with Joshua, an arrogant young driver who clearly has his eyes on bigger things than the APXGP team that he's currently on. Needless to say, the team is not having a good season.

You probably won't be too surprised to see where this all leads, but suffice it to say that the film makes up for its lack of originality with some terrific camerawork amid the nauseatingly fast-paced race sequences. This is a good looking film.

More importantly, the picture boasts a sturdy lead performance by Pitt, one of filmdom's last true movie stars, and has a great supporting cast. Bardem is always a welcome addition to any cast and Kerry Condon, who was so good in "The Banshees of Inisherin," is a scene stealer as Kate, the team's feisty technical director. Idris is solid as Joshua and Sarah Niles makes her small role as Joshua's no-nonsense mother count.

I've missed a number of this year's summer movies (and will likely play catch up on streaming), but a majority of them haven't caused a whole lot of excitement, namely because they are sequels, reboots, or additions to cinematic universes that seem unnecessary. While I'm not saying anyone needed a Formula 1 racing movie, this is a pretty good one. It's fast paced, well shot and edited, and includes a cast that develops characters you care about. For a summer blockbuster, that's typically more than you can hope for.

Sunday, June 22, 2025

Review: Caught By The Tides

Image courtesy of MK2 Films.

I've long admired and enjoyed the work of Jia Zhang-Ke, one of China's most highly acclaimed and prolific filmmakers whose work often employs a fiction-docudrama hybrid. His latest, "Caught by the Tides," should have been my cup of tea, considering that it features characters from some of his finest films, was shot over a period of many years (I've always been a sucker for movies that explore the passage of time as a theme), and features the melancholic and often beautifully shot imagery one would associate with a Zhang-Ke film.

With some works, what you get out of it has to do somewhat with what you bring to it - or, rather, how much of yourself you're willing to give to it. In this case, I'll fully admit that at times I wasn't completely following the film - which has an elliptical pattern, even for this director - or as invested in it as I have been with his other works.

This is not to say it's a bad film by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I appear to be in the minority in terms of where I stand on it - which is this: I'd place it somewhere in the realm of Zhang-Ke's films that go heavier on the docudrama angle, such as "24 City" or "Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue," both of which are movies that I'd rank lower in his filmography. 

The film has some of the startling imagery and moody editing and use of music that his best films - namely, "Ash is Purest White," "Platform," "Unknown Pleasures" or "Mountains May Depart" - utilize, but it didn't strike me in the quite the same way. It's entirely possible I could have a different experience watching it a second time (which I eventually might).

Suffice it to say, this film is significantly more elliptical than any of the other films I just praised. It starts in 2001 and ends somewhere during the COVID-19 pandemic (2022, I believe), and various characters pop in and out of the action. There's a fair amount of dancing and singing (karaoke and otherwise) and, as usual, Zhang-Ke's greatest concern is observing the vast changes that China has undergone over the past few decades.

There's an entire section set in 2006 against the backdrop of the Yangtze River, where the forced migration of citizens in the region occurred to make way for the installation of the Three River Gorges dam, a topic that the director covered extensively in his film "Still Life" (another good one).

The film, shot over two decades much like Richard Linklater's "Boyhood," basically follows the story of Qiaoqiao (Zhao Tao, a Zhang-Ke regular) as she pursues her missing lover, Bin (Li Zhubin). The picture's various eras can be distinguished by the film stock, which varies from grainy video during Aughts-era scenes to crisper images for sequences set in the present.

Qiaoqiao's character first debuted in Zhang-Ke's acclaimed 2002 film "Unknown Pleasures" and the way she's utilized in this film also recollects her work in "Still Life" and "Ash is Purest White." In some ways, "Caught by the Tides" plays like a greatest hits of the director's work, not only in terms of style and themes that he often explores, but also his cast members and characters.

As such, "Caught by the Tides" feels a little like a summary of his body of work - but, for me, it is a lesser entry. Not a bad movie, but not nearly as evocative as the great "Ash is Purest White," the moving "Mountains May Depart" or his early works that put him on the map, such as "Platform" or "Unknown Pleasures." Perhaps, the film deserves another try - but for now, it's an intermittently interesting work that feels like a minor film for a significant director.