Review: Irresistible

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

Jon Stewart, former "Daily Show" host and comedian, has long been one of America's sharpest political satirists, so it's disappointing that his second feature as a director - following 2014's much better Iran-set drama "Rosewater" - feels tone deaf and, considering all that has occurred in the United States these past weeks and months, somewhat dated.

The film is a satire on big money in politics, and as such it scores some points - two of its three lead characters are political consultants from the two major parties. But when it comes to depicting middle America - hell, its portrayal of "big city" Democrats fares even worse - the film often comes off as condescending and misguided.

Steve Carrell plays Gary Zimmer, a longtime political strategist who's shocked to see Hillary Clinton lose to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. As a means of revitalizing his image, he spots a video of a small town Wisconsin military man lambasting that town's public council for its treatment of immigrants, and decides to convince the man to run as a Democrat for mayor. He and his other Washington D.C.-based political consultants believe the best way to win the country back from the deplorables is one small office in one small town at a time - or something like that.

The military man, named Jack Hastings, is played as a silent type with a sense of wrong and right by Chris Cooper - who else? - and he agrees to Zimmer's scheme suspiciously quickly, especially considering that his town typically only votes Republican. Jack's daughter, Diana (Mackenzie Davis), gets involved in the campaign as well, and she often acts as the voice of conscience to Zimmer.

Zimmer is tormented upon the arrival of Faith Brewster (Rose Byrne), a GOP operative who lies with impunity, and for whom no low is too low. Faith is brought in to help the struggling campaign of the town's Republican mayor, whom Hastings is challenging.

So far, so food, right? Well, "Irresistible" takes a number of misguided steps that are difficult to discuss without giving away too much. Suffice it to say there's a plot twist late in the film that throws Hastings's motives for giving the speech about immigration that drew so much attention into question. However, Stewart aims to use this twist as a Capra-esque statement about good natured people from small towns working together to swindle big city types - a theme present in numerous Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1940s.

However, in this case, Hastings's speech is piggy backing off actual immigrant woes, so that so-called "real Americans" of the predominantly white, rural heartland can save their own community. Even worse, there's a scene in which Hastings appears before a wealthy group of New York City-based Democratic donors, and they are supposed to represent the greed of the major parties.

However, this is the film's only scene in which a multi-ethnic group of people - comprised of women and people of color - are gathered in one place, and yet this group of people supposedly represents the flaws of our electoral system, while the camaraderie of the lily white Wisconsin community in which Hastings lives is supposed to be symbolic of the American spirit - or some such thing.

There's even a scene early in the film in which "special interests" are smugly referred to - and we are to take that to mean the concerns of the numerous groups that make up the Democratic Party. Don't get me wrong - the film's lone GOP party representative isn't portrayed very kindly either, but the myth of the sympathetic small town community - which we are reminded again and again is a conservative town - is perpetuated here, while the snobby, big city liberals who drink lattes and discuss the struggles of immigrants and women having control over their own bodies - and yes, the GOP party shill played by Byrne - are the villains.

It's an odd stance, especially coming from Jon Stewart - and especially in this day and age. Spike Lee's recent "Da 5 Bloods" was prescient in a powerful way, while this film feels instantly dated, much as Zimmer's approach to campaigns felt so after 2016.

"Irresistible" has some decent arguments to make about the need to get big money out of politics, and although its plot twist is far fetched, there's something to be said about average Americans working together, rather than relying on corrupt party politics - and there are a few funny moments, including a surreal sequence in which a billionaire with an electronic voice box that responds in a sing-song manner visits Hastings's campaign and a few others involving the absurdity of how campaigns use polling. But otherwise, this sophomore feature from one of our nation's best political satirists should have been much sharper than it is.

Review: Wasp Network

Image courtesy of Netflix.

Much like his 2010 masterpiece "Carlos," Olivier Assayas's new film, "Wasp Network," packs in a lot of story and includes political intrigue, betrayals, terrorism and a real-life story set in a previous era. But while his previous picture unloaded all of this information across the span of four-plus hours, the director's latest crams it all in in just over two hours.

In other words, there's a little bit too much going on in "Wasp Network" and there are too many characters - often more than one can process, thereby making it somewhat of a challenge to figure out how each of them fit into the narrative. That being said, the picture is not the misfire it was represented to be after debuting on last year's fall film festival circuit. No, it's not among Assayas's best films - especially considering the very strong run he's had this past decade - but it's still good and intriguing.

The film follows a group of individuals from Cuba who, in the early 1990s, made their way to the United States, mostly through defection, for purposes that aren't quite made clear until halfway through the movie. We first meet one of these individuals - Rene Gonzalez (played by Edgar Ramirez, who portrayed Carlos in Assayas's film) - as he lands in Miami and renounces his home country.

Rene is a pilot, and he claims that the rationing in Cuba made it impossible for him to fly - or ever become a commercial pilot. He leaves behind a young daughter and wife, Olga (Penelope Cruz), who don't understand why Rene has abandoned them. They are later reunited in the United States through the help of a man named Gerardo Hernandez (Gael Garcia Bernal), who has a mission of his own in America.

In another story, a soldier named Juan Pablo Roque (Wagner Moura) has fled Cuba by swimming to Guantanamo Bay, where he announces that he has defected. He quickly finds success in the United States - and one of the film's weaknesses is that it doesn't make it very clear how he has done so - and meets a young woman named Ana (Ana de Armas), whom he plans to marry.

The film purposely keeps the relationship between all of these various characters nebulous intentionally, so that an element of surprise is possible when all is revealed later in the movie. Rene flies missions for a group of well-to-do Cubans in Miami who have fled Havana during which he drops rescue items to people on rafts who have also left their old country behind. They also drop fliers over Havana that speak out against Fidel Castro's regime.

The film's later half includes terrorist attacks, a character defecting again back to Cuba, espionage and all sorts of other intrigue. At times, this wealth of material feels rushed, and the film might have benefited from the running time Assayas dedicated to "Carlos." Plus, a number of secondary characters who are introduced add slightly to the confusion.

Regardless, the film is gorgeous to look at, features a number of strong performances and the material is nearly always captivating, even when there's an overabundance of it. Assayas is among the world's most interesting directors, and he's had a particularly productive run during the past 10 years, which saw some of his finest efforts - "Carlos," "Something in the Air," "Clouds of Sils Maria," "Personal Shopper" and "Non-fiction."

"Wasp Network" would be considered a weaker film among that bunch, but it's still well worth a watch. There's a lot going on in the film, and most of it is intriguing, even if it's occasionally difficult to figure out how one piece - or character - fits in with another. Still, the film is proof that even a minor work from a major director has its share of benefits.

Review: Da 5 Bloods

Image courtesy of Netflix.

Spike Lee's powerful new film, "Da 5 Bloods," provides a history of the past 50 years in America through a series of quick, iconic snippets - the moon landing, Johnson announcing he won't seek another term and Nixon resigning, the killings at Kent State, a helicopter being pushed overboard following Operation Frequent Wind, the execution of Viet Cong member Nguyen Van Lem and speeches about the war in Vietnam and African Americans' struggles by Malcolm X, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis and Kwame Ture - but it's a Martin Luther King Jr. speech, which took place about a year before his assassination, culminating the picture that truly captures its essence.

Reading from Langston Hughes's "Let America Be America Again" - chosen for many reasons, most likely, but especially as a rebuttal to "Make America Great Again" - MLK reads:

O yes, I say it plain
America was never America to me
And yet I swear this oath
America shall be!

It's an unexpectedly hopeful way to end a film that goes to some pretty dark places and ends with a series of violent, bloody scenes. But Lee's film ends on a note of optimism using historical footage that bookends the story well, just as "BlackKklansman" culminated with the emotional gut punch of the scene in Charlottesville.

Lee's work has always been prescient and consistently interesting - even in films that don't quite work, such as "Da Sweet Blood of Jesus" or "She Hate Me" - but he's recently been on fire. "BlackKklansman" was his best film in two decades (and one of his best overall) and "Da 5 Bloods" would also rank highly in his overall body of work.

The director has tackled the topic of black veterans before - with the World War II-set "Miracle at St. Anna" - but this new film does so with much greater success. The film follows the story of four Vietnam vets - who call each other "bloods" - named Otis (Clarke Peters), the voice of reason among the group; Eddie (Norm Lewis), who owns a successful car dealership; Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), the joker of the group; and Paul (Delroy Lindo), a troubled man whose demons are just below the surface.

At the film's beginning, the men have a reunion in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) with a mission on their mind - they will attempt to exhume the body of their former squad leader, Stormin' Norman (Chadwick Boseman), who was killed in Vietnam, and dig up a box of gold bars they buried years before in the jungle. Norman, portrayed in flashback, is a mythical presence - Otis refers to him as the group's "Martin and Malcolm" - who schools the group on black history - from Crispus Attucks, the first black man killed in the American revolution, to Milton Olive III, the first black soldier in Vietnam to be awarded the Medal of Honor - and counsels them through MLK's death.

Tensions soon arise after the four men reunite. Otis reconnects with Tien (Y. Lan), an old flame with whom he learns he has a daughter, and Paul doesn't trust her; plus, the slightly shady French smuggler (Jean Reno) with whom they'll work to get the gold out of Vietnam doesn't inspire much confidence. There's also a group led by a young Frenchwoman, Hedy (Melanie Thierry), that dismantles bombs and joins up with the veterans, and David becomes interested in Hedy, causing a rift with Paul, who doesn't trust Hedy or her group's other two members.

Also, Paul's bitterness and anger threaten to explode at any minute. Just moments after a joyous dance sequence during which the Bloods seem to float across the dance floor at a nightclub to Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give It Up" - which bears similarity to the cathartic moment in "BlackKklansman" during which the characters did the same to the Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose's "Too Late to Turn Back Now" - the other three men learn that Paul is a Trump supporter.

Not only does he advocate for building the wall on Mexico's border, but he has anti-immigrant tendencies and seems to recoil whenever he comes into contact with the Vietnamese - most notably, during a scene in which the men travel down a river on a boat and are approached by merchants. Paul dons a MAGA hat throughout the film, and it occasionally passes to other characters, becoming almost a character in itself. Otis is shocked that Paul could support "President Fake Bone Spurs," while Paul's own son refers to the "klansman in the White House."

While Trump is obviously a presence in the film - and viewed as dangerous - Paul's character is also the most complex, a man whose country has failed him and who - rather than leaning toward empathy as Otis does - has been swayed by the MAGA tenet of selfishness, even when it's at other's expense. A character who could have been a caricature, Paul is a fascinating individual, and what goes a long way in making him so is Lindo's terrific performance - probably the best I've seen this year so far. Often wearing more than one emotion on his face at a time, Lindo gives a titanic performance that reaches its crescendo during a long monologue directly into the camera as he wanders lost in the jungle.

In terms of plot, Lee borrows from some other films - "Apocalypse Now" and especially "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," even replicating two of that film's scenes - but he makes the references feel like an homage, rather than regurgitation. One particularly effective stylistic touch is Lee's use of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" album - the film uses seven tracks at various points in the film to comment on the action.

But, perhaps, the most interesting stylistic touch in the picture is in the flashback scenes. Rather than using special effects - as "The Irishman" did - to de-age the characters, all four of the older actors look exactly the same in flashback, with Boseman looking obviously younger, as they do in the present. While some might question why Lee didn't instead choose four younger actors to portray the characters in flashback, there are some hints to explain his choice.

At more than one point, characters in the film note that those who take part in a war never actually leave it - for them, it never actually ends, as certainly evidenced by Paul. This, coupled with the possibility that the flashbacks are meant to be the four surviving men viewing their experiences again through older eyes, is likely the explanation for how they are portrayed during the flashbacks. These men are still reliving their traumatic experiences, and so the scenes in flashback remain raw to them 50 years later.

"Da 5 Bloods" is, at times, not quite as smooth in transitioning from various tones, such as humor to horror, as "BlackKklansman" was, but its ambition, heart, terrific performances and remarkable timeliness - there's even a Black Lives Matter sequence late in the movie - make for a great viewing experience, regardless. Its four lead characters are men who made sacrifices to a country that refused to grant them equal rights when they returned home - but despite America never living up to the  promise of freedom it claims to provide for its citizens, similar to Langston Hughes's oath in "Let America Be America Again," the film's characters hold out hope that someday it will. The finale of Lee's film shows that the director holds out that same hope. This is one of the year's best movies.

Review: Shirley

Image courtesy of Neon.

Elisabeth Moss has been literally all over the place these past few years - TV shows, horror movies, indies - and Josephine Decker's "Shirley" is yet further proof that there's seemingly nothing she can't do. From her years as Peggy on "Mad Men" to the present, Moss has never been anything less than consistently interesting to watch.

As iconic Gothic horror writer Shirley Jackson, her latest role feels more in synch with her performance in last year's "Her Smell" than other recent work in that the film doesn't ask you to like the character, and yet it's hard to take one's eyes off individuals who are such intriguing messes. Decker's film is good overall - in fact, it's the acclaimed experimental filmmaker's best picture so far, in my opinion - but it's Moss who holds it all together with her riveting performance.

For those unfamiliar with Jackson's work, she wrote one of the most memorable of all American short stories - "The Lottery" - as well as the "The Haunting of Hill House," which is frequently cited as one of the greatest ghost stories ever written (it's also spawned numerous movies). My personal favorite of her work is "We Have Always Lived in the Castle," which Decker's film strangely mimics somewhat in terms of plot, although the film is set much earlier when Jackson's sophomore novel, "Hangsaman," is being written.

When we meet Jackson, she's at a party with her womanizing professor husband, Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg), who is entertaining the guests. When pushed to answer a question by an attendee, Jackson clams up and the whole affair becomes a little awkward. Arriving in the middle of the party is a young couple - Rose (Odessa Young) and Fred Nemser (Logan Lerman) - who will stay in the famous writer's home while Fred pursues a teaching position at Bennington College.

Rather than receive a warm welcome, Shirley immediately senses that Rose is in the early stages of pregnancy and harangues her about it, while Stanley makes flirtatious overtures toward Rose. Things also become awkward when Stanley takes a roundabout way of suggesting that the young couple do some work around the house - making meals, cleaning up, etc.

The film is told from the perspective of Rose, who at first dislikes Shirley, but eventually forms a strange bond with her as the novelist attempts to overcome writer's block and finds in Rose an inspiration - the other inspiration is a true case story of a young woman who disappeared in the nearby woods. As Rose and Shirley's friendship develops, tensions arise between Rose and Fred, and Fred and Stanley, who smirks at the young professor-to-be's dissertation. The film culminates in an unusual way that suggests one character has almost taken on the personality of another.

Decker's previous films - "Maleline's Madeline," "Thou Wast Mild and Lovely" and "Butter on the Latch" - could best be described as avant garde, experimental works that frequently include elements of horror and occasionally explore various stages of psychosis. "Shirley" includes some of these motifs, such as Jackson's apparently troubled state of mind, and Decker's camera drifts to rest on close-ups of objects such as snails or mist, giving it an occasional surreal vibe. For me personally, the technique worked better for me in "Shirley" than in her previous films because the more avant garde elements of the picture were jarring when combined with a more straightforward narrative.

There's fine acting from each cast member - Young gives a complex portrayal of a young woman discovering herself, while Stuhlbarg projects the same professorial vibe that he did in "Call Me By Your Name," but in this case he's a devious pot stirrer, rather than the understanding dad - but it's Moss who carries the whole thing. As is the case with much of the actress's work, she loses herself in the role, giving the character a sense of pathos even when she's being horrid toward her boarders. "Shirley" is an offbeat biopic that's made all the better by the fact that its filmmaker rarely plays by the rules of that subgenre.