Review: Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny

Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

The fifth - and likely final - Indiana Jones movie may not be in the same league as Steven Spielberg's original trilogy, as was the case with 2008's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," but director James Mangold has a flair for high-octane set pieces and Harrison Ford, donning the hat and whip for the final time, remains such a presence at age 80 that he makes up for some flaws in "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny."

Naturally, the film opens with an extended scene in Nazi Germany - of course, Indy gets to punch a few Nazis - where he and an archaeologist pal (Toby Jones) steal part of Archimedes' dial, which is said to be able to predict fissures in time, from a Nazi scientist named Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) and a group of Hitler's thugs aboard a train. The opening scene, which features a somewhat unrealistically de-aged Ford, is one of the film's many action set pieces, albeit not its most inspired.

We jump ahead to 1969, where Ford - no longer de-aged - awakens in his apartment in nothing but a pair of boxers and shows up to work, where he's been given a retirement sendoff. We learn that he and his wife (Karen Allen) are separated. Shortly thereafter, he's approached by a young woman, Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), who is the daughter of Toby Jones' character from the beginning. She knows that Indy has half of Archimedes' dial, and she intends to find the other half. However, she's led Voller, who is still alive, and a group of villains for hire right to Indy.

Most of the rest of the two-and-a-half hour picture involve chase scenes or Indy and Helena - accompanied by a young boy named Teddy (Ethann Isidore) who they pick up in Morroco - attempting to keep the dial away from Voller and company, or attempting to get it back from him.

The film's best set piece is a chase scene through the narrow side streets of Tangier in which Indy, Helena, and Teddy ride in a small cart in pursuit of Voller. There's some great action choreography during the sequence, which is the closest to capturing the spirit of the earlier Indiana Jones movies' action sequences. 

On the other hand, the finale involves Indy, Voller, and most of the other main characters ending up in a specific place and time that I won't divulge - but suffice it to say, it's a bold and somewhat unexpected choice. And I'm not sure it works. The Indiana Jones films have often had an otherworldly element to them, but only around the edges. They've primarily been adventures set in the 20th century with an interest in history and archaeology. The final scenes of "Dial of Destiny" go a little further than it possibly should into the realm of fantasy.

The original Indiana Jones trilogy was comprised of three of the best adventure movies of that era - and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" remains one of the greatest of that genre of all time - and a lot of credit goes to Spielberg, who perfected the blockbuster and made adventure movies featuring large canvasses, but with care, whereas so many tentpole pictures these days feel like marketing campaigns to make more money for seemingly never-ending extended universes.

This time around, it's Ford who is the glue holding it all together. We're in an era in which popular films of yesteryear are being given one more spin - the recent "Top Gun" sequel was an example of how to do it right and, in my opinion, was significantly better than the original film. "Dial of Destiny" is pretty fun at times - and Ford remains a genuinely great screen presence - and it's better than your average summer blockbuster. But neither of the 21st century Indiana Jones movies are on par with the original trilogy. 

Review: Asteroid City

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

There are few other filmmakers whose work is as easily spottable as Wes Anderson. Within one minute of one of the director's films, there's no mistaking who is the author. Somewhere around his fifth or sixth film, it briefly felt as if his style was getting in the way of his films' emotional resonance - a charge that continues to occasionally, and unfairly, get lobbed at his work - but Anderson's past few movies have settled into familiar visually and stylistic territory, while venturing off into interesting directions otherwise.

His previous film, "The French Dispatch," was woefully underrated and, personally, I thought it ranked among his best. His latest, "Asteroid City," is a curious thing indeed - and I mean that in a good way. More so than, perhaps, any other film of the director, "Asteroid City" is one that I needed to sit on for a day or so to collect my thoughts before I wrote anything about it. I'm not sure that time span was enough.

On the surface, this is a typical Anderson affair - albeit one of the most visually stimulating of his career - filled with quirky characters (numerous big-name actors appear for one scene only before disappearing into the background), sardonic repartee, and fussy attention to the minutest details. You know, typical Wes Anderson stuff.

And yet, this is a film that's not as easy to pin down as some of his previous works. There's a lot going on here and this is the type of picture that makes you work for it. That's something that I enjoy, but whatever a viewer will get out of this particular film might involve the amount they're willing to put in.

To summarize - well, that's a bit of a fool's errand. In short, we are introduced at the beginning to what appears to be a 1950s broadcast of a documentary - narrated by a thinly mustachioed Bryan Cranston - chronicling the production of a play by a playwright named Conrad Earp (Edward Norton). Whenever the film is in black and white, we are witnessing the behind-the-scenes of the play's coming together; whenever we witness the brightly-colored desert town where the bulk of the action takes place, we're watching the actual play, although the sets and everything else give off the impression of a film, not a play.

It's 1955 and this desert town is hosting a space camp where a group of scholastically-gifted youths are competing for the top prize. The competition is being hosted by the military, which no doubt wants to snatch up the idea from the prizewinning teenager. 

Competitors include Ricky Cho (Ethan Josh Lee), who is there with his father (Stephen Park) and has a skeptical view toward authority; the slightly obnoxious Clifford (Aristou Meehan), who likes to challenge people to dare him to do all manner of foolish stunts and is attending with his grouchy father (Liev Schreiber); Dinah (Grace Edwards), who is there with her melancholic movie star mother Midge (Scarlett Johansson); and Woodrow (Jake Ryan), who is attending with his three lookalike sisters and father, war photographer Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman), who has neglected to tell his brood that their mother died several weeks prior.

When Augie's car breaks down in the desert town, Augie begrudgingly calls his wealthy father-in-law, Stanley (Tom Hanks), who is still in pain from the loss of his daughter and seemingly on lukewarm terms with Augie. Other characters pop up, including a teacher (Maya Hawke) and her busload of students, a scientist (Tilda Swinton) and a general (Jeffrey Wright) who is tasked with leading the proceedings. Things are complicated when an alien ship lands during the opening ceremony - and a tall, lanky extraterrestrial scoops up the meteor that crashed into the town centuries before and is the sole reason for the event being held in that spot - and everyone present is forced to quarantine.

This sounds like a lot - and, at times, it is. At times, characters question their place in the universe and, ultimately, the film poses no less a question than what the meaning of life is and what exactly it is we're all doing here. However, it's often disguised by the film's clever dialogue and often most noticeable when the actors in the play within the movie press their director for more information on the play. "I don't understand the play," one character says, while another asks, "Am I doing it right?"

Similar to Anderson's "Rushmore," still one of the director's finest films, artifice is used to cover up pain and anguish. In that earlier film, Schwartzman's Max lived a performative and overly ambitious adolescence so as not to address the pain of having lost his mother. In "Asteroid City," Schwartzman - who gets the MVP here for his soulful portrayal of the heartbroken photographer - is masking the pain of having lost a wife by taking photos of everything from the alien visitor to Johansson's sad but flirtatious actress.

As I'd mentioned, "Asteroid City" is among Anderson's most visually stimulating films - there are mushroom clouds in the desert, gorgeous juxtapositions of differing color palettes, an expressive extraterrestrial, odd birds that roam across the screen, and the beautiful contrast of the desert landscape against the blue sky. For a movie so bright and colorful, there's a lot of heavy material floating between the numerous characters portrayed by its ridiculously talented cast. 

I'll probably need to see the film again to fully wrap my head around everything I witnessed here, but for now I'll say that even if "Asteroid City" doesn't rank as high as Anderson's previous film ("The French Dispatch") in his overall body of work, it's well worth seeing and another solid entry in this singular director's oeuvre. 

Review: Past Lives

Image courtesy of A24.

When she spoke about "heartbreak feeling good" in that commercial, Nicole Kidman might have been talking about "Past Lives," director Celine Song's wistfully romantic and crushingly sad debut film. The picture takes a lot of tropes we've become accustomed to - an immigration tale, a love triangle, a story set over a period of several decades - but still feels wise, poignant, and deeply moving.

Na Young (Seung Ah Moon) will soon become Nora when she and her family move from Seoul to Canada when she's a girl. Before she leaves, however, her mother wants her to leave her home country with good memories, so she asks her who she has a crush on - as it turns out, a boy named Hae Sung (Leem Seung-min) - and sets up a date for the two of them. 

The two young people have obvious chemistry and there's a beautiful shot of them as they part ways for their new lives: Na Young walking up a staircase and Hae Sung heading down an alleyway. Then, 12 years pass and the two reconnect online - Nora (Greta Lee) is an aspiring playwright in New York City, where she emigrated a second time, and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) has wrapped up his military service and is going to school to be an engineer. It's obvious that these two continue to have chemistry, but when it becomes obvious that neither is relocating, Nora suggests they take a hiatus from their online chats.

Another 12 years pass. During this period, Nora has met another writer, Arthur (John Magaro) during a retreat in Montauk that features some of the most gorgeous golden hour and nighttime photography I've seen in some time. They marry and seemingly live happily in the Village in New York City. Hae Sung, who has just broken up with a longtime girlfriend, decides to take a vacation in New York, although both Nora and Arthur are skeptical.

Their skepticism is validated as it turns out that Hae Sung has chosen his destination as a pretext to catch up with an old friend. Arthur tells Nora that when she talks in her sleep, she only speaks in Korean - which is a part of her that he'll never be able to completely understand, despite his noble attempts to learn her language. He is therefore - and, perhaps, not without reason - concerned about Hae Sung's impending visit.

Upon their first meeting, the concept of in-yun is introduced, albeit as a pretty funny punchline, and it's explained to refer to providence or fate. The idea is that if two people in a crowd pass close by each other and their sleeves touch, this must have been caused by events from thousands of years ago. Similarly, if two people marry, it is because something from their previous lives dictated this to occur.

There's a long - and often emotionally wrenching - sequence late in the film as Hae Sung goes out to dinner with Nora and Arthur. The conversation is forced, but not unfriendly. At one point, Nora and Hae Sung begin speaking their native language and discuss the what-ifs of their lives - possibly, they might have dated and broken up or gotten married and had kids, had Nora stayed in Korea. She tells him that while the girl she once was no longer exists for her, she still exists somewhere, possibly in Hae Sung's mind.

During this entire exchange, the camera occasionally pans to Arthur, and we wonder if his Korean lessons have allowed him to understand his wife's exchange with her childhood sweetheart. "Past Lives" is extraordinary, not just because of its lovely visual style and dialogue, its superb performances and poignant score, but also how it doesn't shortchange any of its characters. These are three people who have found themselves in an almost unbearable situation - and it's easy to feel empathy toward all of them.

This is an assured debut for Song. It may wear some of its stylistic or thematic influences on its sleeve - I'd have a hard time believing that Wong Kar Wai or Richard Linklater aren't among them - but this is a film that is so much more deeply felt, soulful, and thoughtful than most movies you'll see these days.

There was a recent Hulu program - "Fleishman is in Trouble" - that depicted a character played by Lizzie Caplan who was going through some sort of midlife crisis and ended up being the most fascinating character in the show. Her character didn't so much mourn the loss of her youth than the loss of possibility that being young entails. 

Similarly, in "Past Lives," the characters don't so much mourn their choices - Nora and Arthur obviously love each other, and Hae Sung appears pleased about that - as they do the idea that once you've reached a certain age, there are certain choices no longer available to you. Decisions you've made have led you down a path that has been determined by past actions, and where you are now is likely to determine where you'll be later in life. In "Past Lives," the choices have been made, and this lovely film is a dirge for roads not taken. It's one of the year's best.

Review: No Hard Feelings

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures.

Movie theaters were flooded with comedies like "No Hard Feelings" just several years ago - but raunchy, slightly impolitic films of this sort have mostly all but disappeared, although the existence of this picture and trailers for "Joy Ride" and "Strays" suggest they're making a slight comeback. 

While I'm not necessarily sure that's a good thing - many of these previous types of films felt as if they were trying too hard to be outrageous and, in the process, forgot to be funny - this new Jennifer Lawrence comedy has its share of hardy laughs, even if the overall picture feels like we've seen it all before - well, sort of.

As the film opens, commitment-phobe and all-around screwup Maddie (Lawrence) is falling behind on the payments for her mother's house. Maddie has lived in Long Island's Montauk community her whole life and smirks at the rich families who move in for the summer and leave in the fall. Her mother died some years back, her father was a non-presence, and she has left a string of failed relationships in her wake.

At the film's beginning, an ex driving a tow truck hauls off the car that Maddie uses to earn a living - she's an Uber driver - and she's left with a conundrum as to how she'll save her mother's house. She spots a bizarre ad regarding a rich couple (Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti) who want to hire a young woman to date their dorky son (Andrew Barth Feldman) and give him some life experience - among other things - before he leaves for college.

Maddie secures the gig - if that's the right word - and instantly begins playing the sexpot as she introduces herself to Percy (Feldman) at the animal rescue shelter where he works. Percy is sweet but awkward and his first reaction to her coming on to him in the slightly creepy van she is borrowing from a friend and driving Percy home in leads him to believe he's being kidnapped, and his response is to mace her.

Against all odds - and, most likely, flying in the face of all that's likely - the two become friends, with Maddie all the while trying to come up with ways to seduce the young man - he's 19 years old, which also makes him a little old for someone who's several months away from starting college - so that she can fulfill the duties of her job and get paid.

The film has its share of laughs - the awkward introduction at the shelter, an even more awkward first date at a bar, and a skinny dipping scene that results in a somewhat shocking visual gag. Lawrence goes all in on the outrageous elements of the film's humor, but there's something slightly missing here. The central duo make for a decent comedic team, but their relationship never feels like more than the setup for a series of jokes. 

Percy's character is full of inconsistencies - he notes that he has no friends but then seems completely comfortable running into someone he knows at a restaurant and later, albeit assisted by a few drinks, attending a party for incoming Yale students. The dramas that develop between the characters - Maddie and Percy, Percy and his parents, etc. - also feel as if they were recycled from the comedy movie factory, rather than come off as organic.

So, while "No Hard Feelings" is far from perfect, it has its moments, most of which are built upon the absurdity of the film's central premise and the actors' ability to run with it with mostly straight faces. Lawrence is always a welcome presence in a movie, even if the work she has taken on since returning from her acting hiatus - this film and the overrated "Don't Look Up" - haven't ranked among the best films in which she has starred. Regardless, "No Hard Feelings" is bound to elicit a few well-earned chuckles.

Review: Elemental

Image courtesy of Pixar.

"Elemental" might not rank up there with the best of Pixar's offerings - which include "Wall-E," "Up," "Inside Out," and "Ratatouille" - but it's a likable, funny, and engaging animated picture that, in typical Pixar fashion, offers enough to keep both younger audiences and adults engaged.

As is also typical of Pixar, the film juggles some weighty material amid the colorful, fantastical world it depicts - consider how "Wall-E" portrayed a dystopian future, "Up" dealt with aging and death, and "Inside Out" focused on a child's conflicting emotions. 

The story at the center of "Elemental" allows for the film to consider the challenges posed to a couple who are two members from different backgrounds - which could stand in for an interracial couple or one in which two cultures clash - and the hurdles they must overcome.

The film is set in a New York City-like metropolis where all of the elements - earth, air, fire, water - coexist, although not always harmoniously. The film's central protagonist is Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis), a hot tempered fireball and second-generation immigrant who will one day inherit the Fireplace, a store created by her father when he and Ember's mother emigrated to Element City.

Ember's father (Ronnie del Carmen) recalls having to leave his ancestral home to make a better life for his family, and he views the Fireplace as an emblem of his success. However, he has yet to hand over the store to his daughter because of her inability to connect with customers as well as her red-hot temper, which often causes items in the store to burst into flame.

One day, after a customer ticks her off, Ember's outburst causes a rupture in the store's basement, and a city inspector, an individual composed of water named Wade (Mamoudou Athie), appears within the flooded room. He writes up some citations for the store, which cause Ember to pursue him into Element City, where she rarely ventures, to convince him to rip up the ticket.

At first, their relationship is combative, but as they spend more time together - primarily trying to work out a problem involving water slowly making its way into the fire-dwelling portion of the city, a plot thread that is not always as clear as it probably should be and somewhat of a distraction from the rest of the story - they begin to like each other.

It is Wade who gets Ember to admit that she's not as keen about taking over the Fireplace as her father is, and Wade's wealthy mother suggests that Ember consider becoming an artist after witnessing some of the glass sculpting of which she is capable. This, of course, sets up a conflict among Ember and her parents, especially considering that her father has a longstanding hatred of water, which he blames for some of his problems.

"Elemental" has a depth to it that is typical of Pixar and makes it stand out from most animated films, which are taken mostly at face value. It's not on the level of "Inside Out" or "Soul," two recent films that exemplified the animation studio's ability to rank among the best films of any given year. But nor is it the misfire that some critics are portraying it as. 

It's a solid Pixar movie with some eye-popping animation with often gorgeous color palettes, and an occasionally sweet story about both the immigrant experience and a cross-cultural romance. As usual, there's enough here to entice viewers of all ages.

Review: Lynch/Oz

Image courtesy of Dogwoof.

It's noted by film critic Amy Nicholson early in "Lynch/Oz" that the classic 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz" was, much like the ubiquitous "It's a Wonderful Life," a flop at the time of its release. Over the years, it became a beloved film after being broadcast on television. It was likely there that a young David Lynch saw the picture and was seemingly transported by it.

In Alexandre O. Philippe's documentary, Nicholson and five filmmakers - including John Waters, David Lowery and others - discuss how the influence of "Oz" can be seen on Lynch's work. This may sound like an academic exercise, but "Lynch/Oz" is a rigorous and fascinating piece of documentary film criticism. It's easy to see the influence of Victor Fleming's classic on Lynch's 1990 road picture "Wild at Heart," but its fingerprints are all over many of his other works as well.

Lynch, like so many great musicians and other artists, has taken a piece of art that spoke to him at one point and injected it directly into his own work, mostly in subtle and occasionally unnoticeable ways. As Waters - a director who also claims to have been inspired by "Oz," and you'll laugh when you realize he's right amid clips of his own work - and other narrators in the film point out, "Oz" has an outsized influence on so many films that tell the stories of characters who find themselves as strangers in strange lands who strive to make their way home. 

Once you know where to look for them, "Oz" pops up all over Lynch's mysterious and fascinating pop surrealist films - characters click red shoes together ("Wild at Heart") or are named Dorothy ("Blue Velvet") or Judy ("Twin Peaks"), as in Garland, and in my favorite personal touch, Lynch uses curtains as symbolic doors to other worlds ("Blue Velvet," "Twin Peaks" and "Mulholland Drive"), much like the curtain in "The Wizard of Oz" concealed the mystery behind the titular character.

The biggest surprise for me in "Lynch/Oz" was how much of an influence "Oz" apparently was on "Mulholland Drive," Lynch's poison letter to Hollywood. That film was also about an innocent (Naomi Watts) who arrives in a strange place (Hollywood) and meets a series of strange characters, although "Wild at Heart" is the Lynch film that most overtly references "Oz."

For those interested in David Lynch or critical thinking exercises about cinema, "Lynch/Oz" will be a delight. Much of Lynch's work has fascinated me and a few of his films hit home in a personal way that one wouldn't typically expect from surrealist thrillers. 

This film gives viewers a lot to chew on, provides a bevy of fantastically arranged movie clips, and features some great anecdotes (courtesy of Waters) and insight (especially Nicholson) that make this one a must-see for those who love the movies and, especially, the work of this unique and brilliant auteur. 

Review: The Boogeyman

Image courtesy of 20th Century Studios.

When I was young, Stephen King's "The Boogeyman" short story (included in the "Night Shift" collection) creeped me out, despite its culmination not exactly sticking the landing. Much as the short story "The Raft" (adapted into a creepy segment in 1987's "Creepshow 2") left me feeling uneasy about what I can't see below the water's surface, "The Boogeyman" made me uncomfortable at that time about closet doors being left open.

There have long been rumors that the short story would be adapted into a film, but what's curious about Rob Savage's translation from page to screen is not only the fact that the film bears little resemblance to the short story (no problem there as I judge any film on its merits and what's on the screen, rather than based on what's missing), but also how generic it feels. "The Boogeyman" feels like a throwback to the jump-scare heavy type of PG-13 horror movie that was churned out regularly about a decade ago. 

The film opens with a piece of the action from King's story. A man named Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian) visits a psychiatrist named Will Harper (Chris Messina) and tells his tale of woe - after his newborn died of natural causes, a creature referred to as "the boogeyman" latched onto his family's grief and killed his two other children. The town blames Billings and thinks he was behind the killings, although he wasn't charged in them.

During the session, Harper goes to place a call that he believes a dangerous man is in his home, giving Billings time to go and hang himself in an empty room in the house. Shortly thereafter, Harper and his two daughters - sullen teen Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and younger Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) - begin to see and hear strange things around the house. Perhaps, the boogeyman has latched onto the grief of this family, which lost its matriarch a short time before to a car accident.

"The Boogeyman" follows all of the beats you'd expect of a supernatural tale of this kind - the line between reality and fantasy gets blurred, the sinister being first makes bumps in the night to freak the characters out before increasingly becoming more aggressive, nobody believes Sawyer and Sadie, and then the appearance of a figure connected to a previous boogeyman-related tragedy pops up to provide some advice. You know the routine, and "The Boogeyman" sticks to it.

There are a few jump scares that are a little creepy, but I've long felt that this is a cheap horror movie tactic - much preferring movies that build dread and scares based on mood, tone, and atmosphere - and "The Boogeyman" traffics in them. The picture also features teenagers acting casually cruel - in this case to Sadie over the loss of her mother - which is another favorite trope of these types of movies, although the denouement involving those characters isn't as satisfying as cliches might dictate.

Stephen King movies tend to fall in several categories - the classics ("The Shining," "Carrie," "Stand By Me"), the solid ("The Dead Zone," the first half of "It" and "Misery"), the strange ("Maximum Overdrive") and the disasters, of which there are really too many to name. 

"The Boogeyman" falls into the final category - the mostly bland, which also includes such entries as the remakes of "Pet Semetary" and "Firestarter." It's hard to fathom that this film was borne out of the short story that gave me such a genuine case of the willies when I was young.