Review: The Rental

Image courtesy of IFC Films.

Dave Franco's directorial debut, "The Rental," proves that the actor has some talent behind the camera, especially when it comes to creating mood and building suspense. On the other hand, the screenplay by Franco and Mumblecore auteur Joe Swanberg leaves a fair amount to be desired. Typically, a film's ending isn't a make or break deal for me - and in this case, the film had already run out of gas by the time it reaches its final 20 minutes - but "The Rental" has one of the most dissatisfying finales in recent memory.

The setup is simple - perhaps, too simple, one might argue considering the frequency with which such scenarios are made into movies. Two couples - successful Charlie (Dan Stevens) and his girlfriend, Michelle (Alison Brie), and Charlie's less successful brother and former jailbird Josh (Jeremy Allen White) and his girlfriend, Mina (Sheila Vand), who's also Charlie's business partner - take a getaway weekend trip to a secluded and expensive looking home in Oregon.

From the start, there's seemingly some tension - both from the fact that Charlie is a success, while Josh is not, but also because there's some obvious sexual tension between Mina and Charlie. Add to the mix the creepy - and possibly racist - owner of the B&B where the couples are staying who seems to have a problem with Mina being of Middle Eastern descent - plus the fact that he wouldn't rent the place to her in advance, telling her it was booked, but then renting it to Charlie when he called afterward. Also, a secret involving Charlie's dating past comes up, making things more awkward.

All of these elements combine to make a fairly tense mood, coupled with the creepy fog of which Franco and cinematographer Christian Sprenger make great use. The film takes a turn toward being a thriller/horror film shortly after two of the characters do something they shouldn't and then discover hidden cameras in the rental home.

While one might be led to believe these various moving parts will come together in the final act in a manner that provides a few scares and some resolution to the various issues between the characters, one would be incorrect. The final 20 minutes of the movie are among the most dissatisfying I've seen in a while. The film moves into slasher territory - albeit relatively low on gore - and the ending will likely leave some scratching their heads. For the sake of full disclosure, it wasn't until I read another review that I fully understood who the mysterious figure is who torments the group during the final scenes. Once I figured that out, the ending struck me as even more ineffective.

Franco's brother, James, has made numerous forays into directing, and Dave Franco has some obvious talent as a filmmaker - he does a good job of setting the scene for this story and keeping a tense mood throughout, that is, up until it unravels. But "The Rental" didn't work for me overall. Instead of utilizing the drama between its characters to build to something interesting - or even use the tension between the characters at the service of a good horror story - the picture merely falls apart when it falls back on familiar genre tropes.

Review: First Cow

Image courtesy of A24.

Similar to Kelly Reichardt's other films, "First Cow" is what one might call a slow burn because it leisurely introduces its characters and story and takes its time getting to its destination. Some might call the filmmaker's works slow, but I'd say they're measured and patient.

"First Cow" is a gentle tale of two men who struggle to make it during some very tough times - in the wilds of Oregon in the 1820s. The film - which is based on Jonathan Raymond's novel "The Half Life" - starts with a mystery, of sorts: a young woman and her dog are walking along a secluded trail, when the pup starts digging in the ground. The woman finds two skeletons laying side by side under the earth.

At this point, the story picks up its 19th century tale by introducing Cookie Figowitz (John Magaro), a cook traveling with a group of surly trappers who bully him when he has difficulty finding edibles in the woods. While out searching for food one night, he stumbles upon a shirtless Asian man named King-Lu (Orion Lee), who has fled a group of Russians. King-Lu tells Cookie that the Russians killed one of his friends and, in self defense, he in turn killed one of them.

Due to his generous nature, Cookie helps King-Lu hide out, keeping him out of sight of the trappers with whom he's traveling. Once they arrive at a fort, he parts ways with the group. Shortly thereafter, he runs into King-Lu again. The two men overhear a conversation taking place about the local governor's purchase of the territory's first cow - the cow's mate and calf died on the trip from San Francisco.

Cookie and King-Lu sneak over to the governor's property at night and steal some of the cow's milk. The next morning, Cookie has fried up some biscuits mixed with various ingredients he picked up during his apprenticeship days in Boston. King-Lu is astounded at how tasty the biscuit is, and he comes up with a plan - the two men will sell the items in the local market square.

Their plan results in a success - after a few days, men start lining up for, and even squabbling over, the biscuits, which are limited in amount due to the amount of milk they are able to pilfer each evening. Cookie has dreams of opening a hotel in San Francisco, and King-Lu wants to find success in the country in which he has made a new home.

Then, one day, their delicacy is noticed by the governor himself - played with snotty aplomb by Toby Jones - who wants to try the biscuits. We know this might spell trouble for the duo. Sure enough, the governor is so impressed that he invites the two men to come to his house to serve food at a gathering he is hosting. Their appearance sets off a chain of events that lead to the film's dramatic climax.

"First Cow," which was released for just a few days in theaters before COVID-19 shut down movie theaters and is now available for streaming, is a movie that takes its time getting to where it's going. In fact, the actual plot doesn't even kick in until at least a quarter of the film's running time has passed. But this is the type of film in which story plays second fiddle - the focus instead is on the hypnotic visuals in which the camera holds on scenes of nature and early 19th century life as well as the camaraderie between the two leads.

"First Cow" is about finding friendship - and in this case, brotherhood - in the places you might not expect. The picture slowly but surely builds from that opening scene of a discovery to a lovely - and somewhat devastating - final shot in which Reichardt allows us to use our imagination to figure out how one led to the other.

Magaro and Lee are both very good in understated performances, and the narrative slowly sneaks up on you and builds to something both moving and enlightening. Like Cookie's biscuits, Reichardt provides viewers with some simple ingredients, and manages to make something magical out of them.

Review: Greyhound

Image courtesy of Apple TV+

Tom Hanks gets another chance to explore his fascination with World War II - following his leading turn in Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" and his executive producer role on "Band of Brothers" - in the lean action thriller "Greyhound," a competent exercise of skill that is visually impressive and occasionally intense, even if lacking somewhat in other departments.

The only small bit of characterization we get for Capt. Krause (Hanks, who also wrote the film's screenplay) is at the beginning of the picture when he meets a woman (Elisabeth Shue) with whom he's romantically involved in a lobby, where he suggests she meet him overseas for a rendezvous - and where he drops a hint about proposing to her - but she tells him she'd rather wait until he's back safely from the mission he's about to undertake.

That mission involves Krause taking command of the USS Keeling - also known as Greyhound - while leading a convoy of 37 Allied ships across the Atlantic Ocean in 1942. Those familiar with history will recognize this as part of the Battle of the Atlantic, during which Allied ships and German U-boats engaged in what is known as the most complex Naval battle in history and thousands of lives were lost.

The mission is Krause's first across the Atlantic, and we get a few moments of him praying and some strategy discussions with his second-in-command (Stephen Graham). Otherwise, much of the film's brief 82 minutes involve Hanks pacing in and out of the ship's command center while either navigating dangerous waters, where U-boats are lurking beneath, or announcing maneuvers to protect the convoy.

A large percent of the film feels as if it were in a foreign language - Krause and the men aboard the ship continuously shout out Naval jargon involving degrees, rudders and methods of attack. For a film in which the camera is primarily focused on people wandering around the control room of a ship or overhead shots of ships attempting to outmaneuver or fire at each other, "Greyhound" mostly remains visually interesting.

But the picture often feels more like a Naval vocabulary test, rather than an action movie in which characters are developed and, therefore, make us care about their fate. Of course, we want to see the Greyhound sink the Gray Wolf, a German U-boat that comes off as a serial killer in the way in the way it lurks just out of sight and sends over verbal messages through the Greyhound's speakers, taunting the crew. But this has more to do with a thirst for seeing Nazism defeated, rather than the film making us feel for its characters.

Not surprisingly, Hanks is always a great person with whom to keep company during the course of a movie because he has screen presence and elicits empathy. On the other hand, this film is a technical exercise in which most other elements - character development and narrative, especially - take a back seat. Other films - say, "Mad Max: Fury Road" - can pull off such a feat successfully, but the brief running time of "Greyhound" doesn't give it enough time to draw us in, and the confined spaces - whereas "Mad Max" utilized its vast expanses - can only go so far visually.

Ultimately, "Greyhound" isn't a bad movie, but it's not nearly as good as you'd think, considering Hanks' previous involvement in films about World War II. It feels more like a B-film a director would make with a low budget and no-name actors, rather than a major studio picture with a big star. The film's ending is effective and provides a few moments of emotional resonance once the mission is completed, but it also serves as a reminder of what had been missing throughout the rest of the film, which comes off as more of a technical exercise.

Review: Palm Springs

Image courtesy of Hulu.

The sci-fi rom com "Palm Springs" may be an extended riff on better source material - the Harold Ramis classic "Groundhog Day" - but it has its own share of surprises, some genuinely funny sequences and a personality of its own.

The film opens with a character named Nyles (Andy Samberg) awakening in a hotel room to the sound of his much younger girlfriend's voice. As it turns out, they are in Palm Springs for a wedding, but from the first few scenes something seems off. At the wedding reception, Nyles saves a young woman named Sarah (Cristin Milioti) - the sister of the bride - from her unpreparedness when it's time to give a speech. Later, the two nearly hook up in the desert until, well, something interrupts them.

I won't go into too much detail, but suffice it to say that the bizarre - and bloody - way their sojourn to the desert ends up is no matter. They get another chance. And then another. And another. Yes, much like "Groundhog Day," Nyles and Sarah end up reliving the same day - Sarah's sister's wedding day - after Sarah follows Nyles into a cave that sets this scenario into motion.

When we meet Nyles at the beginning of the film, he's already been reliving the day for some time, so Sarah is the new person to the scenario - and J.K. Simmons plays an angry wedding guest named Roy who blames Nyles for also bringing him into the loop. Much like Ramis's film, the characters go from shock to nihilism and, ultimately, try to figure out how to get out of the loop - but unlike Ramis's film, benevolence doesn't help much.

There's some great comedy to be had as a result - especially Nyles's rundown  of with whom he's slept at the wedding during the course of his repeating the day and another scene involving some feces on a lawn (trust me on that one). There's also a solid supporting roster of characters in the film, including the wedding's other guests and a bar full of bikers and old drunks where Nyles and Sarah tend to end up after failing to unravel the mystery of how to break the time loop.

Quantum physics is later brought into the story - and there's a post-credits sequence involving several of the characters that doesn't exactly add up - but the plot mechanics here aren't exactly the driving force. Instead, the chemistry between Nyles and Sarah, who's just as game to the antics in which one can become involved when forced to relive the same scenes over and over again, is what makes it work.

There's also some philosophizing in the picture that might cause you to examine how you'd handle such a situation. Should one take the nihilistic approach and merely do whatever your heart desires since your actions seemingly have no consequences? Or, should one aim to be kind to others and learn from one's mistakes? In the case of Nyles and Sarah, the question is raised whether it's worth it to actually take the time to get to know someone in such a situation, or whether having a romantic relationship can be a dangerous thing if you're literally stuck with someone indefinitely with no means of escape.

"Palm Springs" is a fun movie. Although one could argue that it steals the setup for a much better film, it takes the concept and runs with it in its own directions - and as a result, it remains amusing, occasionally charming, often funny and even thoughtful. While the film lacks somewhat in the originality of its storytelling device, it more than makes up for it in execution.

Review: The Truth

Image courtesy of IFC Films.

Hirokazu Kore-eda's "The Truth" - the Japanese filmmaker's first foray into another language; in this case, both French and English - chronicles the release of a memoir by a revered, aging French actress named Fabienne (Catherine Deneuve), and the arrival of her somewhat resentful screenwriter daughter, Lumir (Juliette Binoche), and her American TV actor husband, Hank (Ethan Hawke), to celebrate the book's debut and to watch Fabienne on the set of some French science fiction film in which she has a supporting role.

Upon noting the various omissions and fabrications in the memoir, Lumir confronts her mother on several occasions, asking her why she failed to tell "the truth" in her book. Fabienne tells her daughter that she "never tells the naked truth" because "it's not interesting." During a scene later in the film, two characters speak about the past and memory, prompting one to note that, and I paraphrase, memory deceives people to no good end, and that what you think you might remember in your past could be your glossed over version of the truth.

The difference between biographical fact and fiction is one of several interesting themes running through the Japanese master's latest picture, which follows on the heels of his Cannes hit "Shoplifters," a film that made my top 10 of 2018. The friction between Fabienne and Lumir parallels the absurd plot of the film in which Fabienne is starring alongside a young actress named Manon (Manon Clavel) of whom she's obviously jealous for her youth, especially because she reminds the viewing public of a once great actress with whom Fabienne was close friends - and whom Lumir considered a mother figure - and who died an early, tragic death.

In the film within the film, a mother played by Clavel finds out she's dying, and to halt the process she travels to outer space to live in an attempt to slow down her aging process. In the meantime, her husband and daughter (played by several actresses of varying ages, including Fabienne as the most aged version of the character) grow older on Earth without her. At one point, the daughter has become much older than the mother, whose years in space have prevented her from growing old. Lumir's precocious daughter asks Fabienne if the science involved in the film's story is valid. "Probably not," she replies.

Much like the outer space mother in the film within a film, Lumir feels like Fabienne has somewhat abandoned her, recalling a childhood in which she was often on her own. Her mother's anecdotes in her memoir involving her holding Lumir's hand as she walked her daughter home from school are, as Lumir points out, all fiction. So, why fabricate? Fabienne, like so many of us, wants to remember the past in a manner that makes her think better of herself than she might otherwise.

Deneuve and Binoche make a compelling and convincing mother-daughter team, and the film's best moments are when the two of them are emotionally jousting. Hawke's role in the film is pretty small, but he brings some moments of levity as Lumir's good natured husband, a self-described "second-rate American TV actor."

For those unfamiliar with his work, Kore-eda's films are often family-centered dramas that are simple in terms of storytelling and gentle by nature. So, some of the more tense moments in "The Truth" might come as a surprise to longtime fans of the director's work. But ultimately, the film bears the humanistic stamp one would typically associate with a Kore-eda film, and there are some pretty moving passages here. This is the director's first film shot in a language other than Japanese, and it's proof that his talents - plus those of his cast - transcend language barriers. This is an engrossing and very well-made movie.