Review: Mufasa: The Lion King

Image courtesy of Disney Studios.

Much like the "Star Wars" films or "Wicked," Barry Jenkins' "Mufasa: The Lion King" is an origin story of a popular film. In this case, it's the story of the father of the titular character from the 1994 Disney classic and its 2019 live-action - although I'm not sure if this phrase truly applies here - version of the same story.

As such, it's not particularly necessary, but also not half bad. The unexpected quality on display in a film that could be seen as a cash grab - although its opening weekend gross seems to suggest this has backfired - is probably due to the fact that it's directed by Barry Jenkins, one of the most interesting American filmmakers to break through in the past decade with his now-classic "Moonlight" as well as "If Beale Street Could Talk" and the TV series "The Underground Railroad."

In other words, there's a little more artistry than one might expect in a blockbuster film based on a beloved Disney property that is being released right before the holidays. The film even features Jenkins' trademark close-up shots of faces, albeit in this case of digitally-created lions and not people.

The film provides the origin story of how Mufasa (once voiced by the great James Earl Jones and now by Aaron Pierre) and Taka (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.), better known as Scar, came to be brothers and then enemies. At the film's beginning, Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter) is sad while awaiting the return of her parents - Simba and Nala - from a mysterious mission. The wise old mandrill Rafiki (John Kani) is left with storytelling duties.

Rafiki tells Kiara how Mufasa was, as a child, separated from his pride by a flood and attempted to wander his way home. On the way, he meets another pride and quickly bonds with Taka, although a rivalry is thrust upon them by that pride's leader, who wants Taka to one day be king. Taka's mother takes a shine to Mufasa and teaches him how to hunt.

When a group of vicious white lions led by Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen) attacks the pride, Mufasa and Taka are told to flee. They set out toward a mythical land that was once described to Mufasa by his mother. Along the way, they meet Rafiki as well as a female lion, Sarabi (Tiffany Boone), which sets up a love triangle of sorts. 

Although Taka has feelings for Sarabi, she begins to have her own for Mufasa after she is impressed by his courage and his ability to commune with nature. The film ends with a battle scene involving the white lions in a place that is iconic to "The Lion King" story as well as a betrayal that we can all see coming.

Despite the film being another in a long line of origin stories trying to cash in on the success of the original, "Mufasa: The Lion King" becomes an increasingly engaging adventure film. Although its target audience skews younger, it's dark and suspenseful enough to engage adults. 

It's filled with songs written Lin-Manuel Miranda and, I hate to say this but, although they vary in catchiness (I could have done without the "bye-bye" song) they don't really add much to the proceedings. This was similar to how I recently felt about the acclaimed "Emilia Perez," a movie I liked well enough, but one that could have done without musical numbers.

Regardless, "Mufasa: The Lion King" is decent for what it is. Would I prefer to see an original creation from Barry Jenkins? Well, of course. But his presence here has elevated what could have been another run-of-the-mill blockbuster origin film into something that's reasonably enjoyable. 

Review: All We Imagine As Light

Image courtesy of Janus Films.

A film about sisterhood and creating one's own family when the one assigned to you has failed you, director Payal Kapadia's "All We Imagine as Light" is also a poetic city symphony - in this case, of Mumbai - and the best picture to come out of India in some time.

The movie is what one could call a slice of life, and indeed it starts out - and occasionally circles back to - what come off as documentary-like interviews with Mumbai citizens, who briefly tell of their circumstances, before diving into the story of its three main protagonists.

All three of the women at the center of Kapadia's film have, in some form or fashion, been let down by their families. There's Prabha (Kani Kusruti), a dedicated nurse whose husband from an arranged marriage has been living abroad and working in Germany for years. He rarely calls her and to describe the couple's relationship as estranged is accurate. Prabha is friends with Dr. Manoj (Azees Nedumangad), who is new to the city and is clearly taken with her - but she remains aloof to his overtures.

Prabha's roommate, the much younger Anu (Divya Prabha), who works at the same hospital as Prabha, is secretly seeing a young man named Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon) because her family would not approve of her dating a Muslim. The young couple sneak off for the occasional make-out session in the rain, but do not have anywhere where they can consummate their relationship.

Prabha's widowed friend, Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) is in danger of being evicted from her home of many years after her now-deceased husband failed to leave her any information or documentation proving that the home is hers. She visits a lawyer who tells her that no evidence that she can provide will hold up in court. Nearby is a luxury property with a sign reading "Class is a Privilege Reserved for the Privileged." Prabha and Parvty toss rocks at the sign, putting holes in it.

The film's first half is primarily concerned with introducing these storylines, with the occasionally lovely flourish filled with haunting music that is accompanied by gorgeous night-time shots of Mumbai, teeming with life and filled with lights of varying colors.

In the second half, Prabha convinces Anu to help her to move Parvaty back to her seaside village, which sets all three women off on their own adventures. Unbeknownst to the others, Shiaz has followed them to the village, so he and Anu finally have a moment alone in the woods.

Meanwhile, Prabha stumbles upon a scene along the shore where an unconscious man is pulled from the water. She revives him, saving his life, and helps to place him in a house where he can rest. A woman tending to the room mistakes Prabha and the man as husband and wife, so Prabha - in one of the film's few mystifying moments - fantasizes that the man is her estranged husband, and carries on a conversation with him as if this were the case.

While the three women were somewhat adrift prior to this journey - Prabha seemed conflicted about her relationship with the kindly Dr. Manoj and spent more time than was healthy prying into Anu's love life, while Anu purchases a burqa for the purpose of sneaking into Shiaz's neighborhood for a tryst and Parvaty struggles with her possible eviction - a final stop at a cafe suggests that these three women, all disappointed with their actual families, might form one of their own.

"All We Imagine as Light," which is an impressive feature film debut, was one of the hits of this year's Cannes Film Festival and has made frequent appearances on year-end lists. It's easy to see why. This often luminous, gentle, and very well acted drama is of the type that sneaks up on you and works its magic. It's a subtle film - but like the city it depicts, it's teeming with life.

Review: Queer

Image courtesy of A24.

Luca Guadagnino is on a roll and staying busy. His first film of 2024, "Challengers," was the sexiest movie about tennis ever made and his latest, an adaptation of William Burrough's "Queer," is a period piece in an exotic locale with anachronistic needle drops (Nirvana, Prince, and New Order, to name a few) and a touch of surrealism. He has already wrapped production on another film starring Julia Roberts that will release next year.

"Queer" is, to my knowledge, only the second Burroughs adaptation - the other, of course, is David Cronenberg's bizarre translation of "Naked Lunch" - and it's easy to see why. Burroughs' work is often freakishly outlandish, surreal, unsettling, and sexually graphic to the extent that it doesn't really lend itself to cinematic adaptation. Not surprisingly, Guadagnino's new film exhibits all of these traits.

The picture opens in Mexico, circa 1954, where a gay, drug-addicted American writer named William Lee (Daniel Craig) is seemingly wasting away and cavorting with regulars - including fellow barfly Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman, nearly unrecognizable) - at a local dive. There, he stumbles upon a young, handsome, and bespectacled Eugene (Drew Starkey), who may or may not be gay, but who goes to bed with William anyway. 

The film's first half feels as if it should be keeping company with Luchino Visconti's "Death in Venice" (based on the Thomas Mann novel) or Gerard Blain's "Les Amis" - in other words, an older man becoming obsessed with a younger one, although Eugene is old enough for William's interest in him to not be borderline pedophilic as in the other two films. William is smitten with Eugene and does his best to keep his attention occupied during the film's multiple semi-graphic sexual encounters.

But the picture goes in a completely different direction once William - now strung out and seeking more drugs - convinces Eugene to accompany him to South America, where they go deep into the jungle searching for a psychedelic plant of some sort. There, they meet a doctor (a truly unrecognizable Lesley Manville) who is suspicious that the two men are there to steal her research.

Things, from this point, just get truly strange before jumping ahead some years when William - now seemingly sober - arrives back in town, only to get bad news about Eugene's whereabouts. The film then skips ahead again many years - and seemingly back to William's obsession with the younger man - in a finale that's confounding, surreal, and sad.

Guadagnino has dabbled in surrealism before - his much-debated "Suspiria" remake was full of it and his cannibal romance "Bones and All" featured some truly bizarre moments. His films are also known for - ahem - bringing the heat, as evidenced in "Call Me By Your Name" (his best to date) and the wildly entertaining "Challengers," which is my favorite of his 2024 offerings.

"Queer" marries these two techniques. There's plenty of sex - a few scenes are bordering NC-17 territory - and a fair amount of surreal touches. It's less plot-driven than an accumulation of incidents centering around a love story that is self-destructive. William should know better than to fall for the aloof Eugene, whereas the younger man should know better than to get the older one's hopes up.

Through it all, Craig gives one of his finest performances to date and among the year's most fearless. There are times when the film feels as if it might be trolling the audience - such as the absurdity of the trip to the jungle and a moment late in the film in which one of the most notorious scenes from Burroughs' real and fictional life is reenacted - as to whether it's all a bit too much. But on whichever side of that argument a viewer might fall, it's doubtful they won't be engaged one way or another. This is a unique entry into a filmography that has become increasingly interesting.

Review: Maria

Image courtesy of Netflix.

Director Pablo Larrain's third film in his unofficial trilogy of iconic women facing loneliness and life changes focuses on opera diva Maria Callas (portrayed here by Angelina Jolie) as she grapples with losing the thing that has long defined her - her voice and ability to sing.

The other two films in Larrain's trilogy were "Jackie," my favorite of the three, which followed Jackie Kennedy in the minutes and hours after her husband's assassination, and "Spencer," which chronicled a few lonely days and nights in the life of Princess Diana around the Christmas holiday. 

In many respects, "Maria" feels the most like a chamber piece, although there are a handful of scenes in which she ventures into cafes - where she openly tells waiters and bartenders that she's there to be adored, and not for the cuisine - or the odd recitals, which become increasingly painful for her.

But most of the picture is spent in her luxurious Parisian home, where she spends much of her time hanging out with her dedicated maid Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher) and manservant Ferruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino), who double as her only friends. The trio plays cards and Bruna humors Maria by telling her that her voice still sounds good as she flips an omelet. Occasionally, Bruna and Ferruccio move Callas' massive piano to various spots in the apartment due to whichever way her whims are moving her.

The picture's story - mostly set in the apartment - includes two framing devices: an interview with a reporter named Mandrax (Kodi Smit-McPhee), which is also the name of the medication that she's on and who may or may not be real, and her fateful romance with shipping magnate Ari Onassis (Haluk Bilginer), who is careless with Maria's affections.

This is the first Jolie performance in some time that I can recall and it's among her best. It's a challenging role and the camera is trained on Jolie at nearly all times. Maria is portrayed as somewhat of a diva, albeit one who is self aware. She bosses Ferruccio around, but there's always a sense of playfulness involved, and he doesn't seem to take her demands to heart. Callas is also a tragic figure and Jolie's work here is never anything less than deeply felt.

Whether we are seeing the real Callas here - again, there's a sense that much of what is going on in the film is a result of whatever illness she is suffering or the medication that she's taking - or whether she remains a mystery to us completely is left to the imagination. 

Similar to "Jackie" and "Spencer," the film is much less interested in biography - and certainly not hagiography - than it is in a situational examination of its character's psyche at a specific moment. As such, "Maria" is an engrossing and moving experience.

Review: The Order

Image courtesy of Vertical Entertainment.

Justin Kurzel's eerily prescient crime drama "The Order" is a gripping investigative thriller that features two powerful lead performances - Jude Law as a federal agent who had planned to wind down his career, only to get caught up in an investigation involving bank robberies, a few murders, and an Aryan Nation sect near Denver circa 1983, and Nicholas Hoult as one of the group's frightening true believers who wants white supremacists to step out of the shadows - you know, kind of like they're doing at this moment in the United States - and try to take the country by force.

The film opens with a man being led to the woods where he is executed. A later assassination involves a Jewish disc jockey who routinely gets hate calls from anti-Semites and goads them. The robberies involve everything from banks to armored cars and get increasingly more violent.

Law's FBI Agent Terry Husk has been relocated to the Denver region from Idaho, and he tells Officer Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan), an eager and ambitious young cop on his new beat, that he once took on New York crime families and the KKK. Husk's family is supposed to join him in Denver, but the timeline seems vague and he rarely seems to hear from them. He routinely has nosebleeds and drinks a little too much.

Although Husk doesn't believe the crime patterns he's seeing - which span from late 1983 to December 1984 - aren't typical actions associated with Aryan Nation groups, he believes that an offshoot of a local white supremacist church - a group led by Hoult's Bob Matthews - are following the outline of a novel titled "The Turner Diaries" by William Luther Pierce, the chairman and founder of the white supremacist National Alliance.

We learn in the credits that the book has been used as inspiration for everything from the assassination of Alan Berg, the disc jockey killed during the film, to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the 1999 London nail bombings, and the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Much like "Zodiac" or various seasons of "True Detective" - with which this film shares a particular vibe - Kurzel's picture follows the federal agents and state police officer who become obsessed with the case and continue to investigate it at their own peril. 

The scenes involving Matthews and the white supremacist church in which he is a member are chilling, especially during a scene in which a man who was once seemingly Matthews' mentor discusses the long war that involves getting their members in positions of power, such as the courts and Congress. Just a month ago in the United States saw a victory for persons involved with groups such as the ones depicted here.

Kurzel's films often give us an inside look on dangerous groups of people, whether it's the bandits from "The True History of the Kelly Gang" or the mobster family in "Animal Kingdom." While "The Order" primarily tells the story from the point of view of Husk and Bowen, it occasionally follows Matthews and his crew. 

The film's ability to humanize these characters - Matthews is seen doting on his wife (and the other woman whom he has impregnated), although his wife looks disturbed when he shows his young son how to shoot an automatic weapon - makes their mission all the more disturbing. And that's the entire point: Fascists who want to force people to live in a society dictated by rules borne out of their own prejudices also have families, friends, and the occasional barbecue.

"The Order" is a solid true crime thriller that is even more relevant at the moment than it likely was when the film went into production. Law gives one of his better performances of recent years, while Hoult is convincing as the fanatic hiding in the body of a so-called family man and good citizen of the community. It's also terrifying because it hits so close to home at the present moment.

Review: Juror #2

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

Clint Eastwood's "Juror #2" - the actor-director's 40th effort behind the camera and, possibly, his last - is a well-made, old-fashioned courtroom drama that tackles questions of morality and the pursuit of justice - and the lack thereof - in our criminal justice system.

This is the type of adult entertainment that is so very rarely found in the mainstream cinema anymore, one that has been overpopulated with sequels, reboots, nonstop comic-book-to-screen adaptations, and all other manner of corporate-driven IP. It's a movie that requires a little thought and leaves something to chew on afterward.

It's also a fine film to be Eastwood's last, should that be the case. The director hit a career peak in 1992 with "Unforgiven" and had a renaissance between 2003 and about 2014, cranking out a number of his best films during that period, including "Mystic River," "Million Dollar Baby" and the World War II pictures "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima."

Although I liked "The Mule," a few of his more recent efforts - "Richard Jewell," "The 15:17 to Paris," and "Cry Macho" - were lesser works, so it's nice to see Eastwood once again back in his stride. Any time a film that comes out that has something to say about societal ills, it makes it seem relevant. In the wake of the recent failure of the United States' criminal justice system, this one couldn't be any more timely.

The film focuses on a writer named Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) who gets stuck on jury duty, when he'd much rather be at home with his very pregnant wife, Allison (Zoey Deutch). Having once been chosen to serve on a jury, I know how hard it can be to get out of it. Justin faces such luck and is chosen for a murder trial that has dominated the news.

A prosecutor named Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette) with aspirations of becoming the next district attorney - the film is set in Savannah - is leading the case, facing off against a charismatic lawyer played by Chris Messina. The case involves a young couple who was bickering at a bar one night. When the young woman left in anger to walk home in the rain, she never returned home. Her body was found in a creek on the route from the bar to her home.

It's difficult for me to discuss the film without giving away a major plot point, though it's introduced very early in the film and the entire story revolves around it. So, if you don't want anything spoiled, perhaps, you should avoid reading further.

While the boyfriend at the bar is arrested and charged in his girlfriend's death, Justin - an alcoholic who hasn't had a drink in four years - realizes that he might have accidentally been responsible for the girl's death. 

On the night in question, he was at the bar where the argument took place between the couple. Although he didn't drink - Justin was at the bar during a moment of crisis, though he didn't give in to temptation - he struck something on the road during the drive home. Thinking it was a deer and seeing nothing along the road in the rain, he decided to continue driving. But the spot where the girl was found dead and the timing lead him to believe that it was he, not the accused, who killed the girl.

Although most of the other jurors - which include a former cop (J.K. Simmons) and various other characters whose own prejudices regarding the case only slowly become obvious - want to convict the accused man, Justin tries to dissuade them to obtain a "not guilty" verdict due to his own guilt. He seeks advice from his lawyer (Kiefer Sutherland), who is also his sponsor, and is told that he would likely spend his life in jail because law enforcement would not believe that he hadn't been drinking on the night in question.

"Juror #2" plays like a thriller, although its tense moments have less to do with questions of whodunnit, but more the moral quandaries that plague Justin and, increasingly, Collette's prosecutor as they realize that an innocent man might lose his freedom due to their actions.

It's a compelling film that only occasionally veers into the realm of the unrealistic and it's powered by solid performances from Hoult, Collette, Simmons, and other members of the jury, most notably Cedric Yarbrough as a juror whose own experiences blind him to the possibility that the man whom he is judging might be innocent.

So, while on the whole, they might not make'm like this anymore, Eastwood is thankfully less interested in modern filmmaking trends and still making films for adults with a little meat on the bone. The picture also has a great ending that is sure to lead to some discussion. This film has flown a little under the radar, but deserves a greater audience.

Review: Gladiator II

Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

Are you not entertained? For the most part, I was, during Ridley Scott's sequel to his 2000 blockbuster and multiple Oscar winner "Gladiator," although the film is guilty of the excesses displayed by the emperors in both films.

To be sure, this sequel is a much campier and gorier - but not nearly as effective - sword and sandal epic than the original. This time, there's not just one - but two - deranged emperors, beheadings, fights with large monkeys, Denzel Washington delivering a speech with a decapitated head in hand, and - I kid you not - a scene involving sharks in the Coliseum.

The film opens with the Roman army attacking a colony where a refugee from Rome named Hanno (Paul Mescal) lives peacefully with his wife. When his spouse is killed and his colony and captured by a Roman general named Marcus Acacias (Pedro Pascal), he vows revenge.

Hanno is taken to Rome, where he quickly catches the eye of Macrinus (Washington), who trains gladiators and seemingly has a knack for swaying influence in Roman politics. There could be an entire film about Macrinus that would have been more compelling than some of the goings-on in "Gladiator II," which is partly due to his character being such a sinister figure of devious machinations and partly because Washington does such an effective job of - and is clearly having a great time - portraying him.

It's no great secret that Hanno is not just an ordinary warrior who has managed to end up in the Coliseum. He's the son of Maximum (Russell Crowe), the hero of the first "Gladiator" film, and Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), who happens to be involved romantically with Acacias, just to make matters more complicated.

Hanno agrees to fight in the Coliseum after Macrinus promises to find a way that he can one day face Acacias in battle there, assuming that he survives. Meanwhile, Macrinus has plans of his own to influence the Caligula-esque young emperors portrayed by Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger.

Much of the film sees various plots being set in motion - one involving Acacias and Lucilla attempting to overthrow the throne by bringing the general's army to Rome, another involving Hanno's aim to get his revenge, yet another in which Macrinus tries to manipulate everyone so that he can get closer to the throne, and there's even a friendship between Hanno and the doctor (Alexander Karim) who tends to his wounds after each fight.

And yeah, as I mentioned, there's a scene in which the gladiators battle each other in the Coliseum while it's filled with sharks. No further explanation is necessary or available because at no point do the filmmakers even try to explain how this is humanly possible.

Despite some occasional silliness, "Gladiator II" is a mostly enjoyable spectacle. There's a sequence late in the film in which Hanno tries to rouse his gladiators to battle by talking about how they can one day achieve the Rome of their dreams, and not the one in which they inhabit that is marked by cruelty and corruption. Let's just say that hit a little close to home at the moment. 

So, no, "Gladiator II" is not as good as the original by any stretch of the imagination. But as far as Hollywood spectacles go, it's amusing enough and very expensive looking - and it has the benefit of a great Denzel Washington performance. 

Review: The Piano Lesson

Image courtesy of Netflix.

There are ghosts both literal and figurative haunting the characters of "The Piano Lesson," a new adaptation of August Wilson's play of the same name. The picture is directed by Malcolm Washington, who finds himself joining the family business of adapting Wilson's work to the screen - his father, Denzel, starred in and directed an adaptation of of "Fences," while brother John David Washington takes the lead in this film as Boy Willie.

The movie opens in 1911 when a group of Black men are springing a piano from its home somewhere in the South from its white owner, Sutter (Jay Peterson), during a July 4th celebration. One of the men stays behind and flees as his home is burnt, while the other two escape with the piano and a young boy on a wagon.

In 1936, Boy Willie shows up in Pittsburgh - where Wilson was from and where many of his plays were set - to claim his rights on the piano. He is given a frosty welcome by his sister, Berniece (a terrific Danielle Deadwyler), who has no intention of giving up the instrument, and a friendlier greeting from his uncle, Doaker (a more restrained Samuel L. Jackson).

Boy Willie has brought along his easygoing pal Lymon (Ray Fisher) to help carry the piano. Also in the mix are preacher Avery (Corey Hawkins), who is trying to convince Berniece to marry him, and another relative named Wining Boy (Michael Potts), who seems willing to share wisdom on various matters, that is, until he takes to the drink.

"The Piano Lesson" is an engrossing and very well acted film about heritage and generational trauma. Boy Willie and Berniece are just a generation or two removed from slavery and their father was killed years before while trying to remove the piano - which he had carved for Sutter, who separated his family through trade. For Berniece, the piano represents the struggles of her family, with which she is not willing to part. But for Boy Willie, it is an artifact that can be sold off so that he can buy farm land down South for himself.

Meanwhile, a ghost occasionally pops up, threatening that "The Piano Lesson" might turn into a horror movie. The ghost is Sutter, who died when falling into his well, and there are some questions as to whether this was the result of an accident or foul play.

The cast is excellent across the board. Washington plays Boy Willie as a blusterer who seems to believe that if he just keeps talking he will wear people down, so that he can get what he wants. Due to his size, Lymon is an imposing figure, but he's one of the gentler souls of the bunch. Doaker is wise to stay out of the conflict between the two siblings. And although she's not technically the lead character, Berniece is the one who makes the greatest impact due to Deadwyler's terrific work here.

Due to the fact that "The Piano Lesson" is a play, much of the film is spent indoors and a majority of its running time is centered around its characters talking. So, it's a good thing that its cast does such a splendid job of bringing these characters to life. 

And its most captivating aspect is the debate between Boy Willie and Berniece as how one can best honor one's troubled history - by hanging on to an artifact surrounded by so much pain as a means of tribute for those who made their mark on it, or to trade it for money that can be used to make a better life. It's a compelling question in a very good adaptation of a work of one of our greatest playwrights.

Review: Blitz

Image courtesy of Apple Films.

 

Steve McQueen's "Blitz" is a visually stunning boy's adventure set against the backdrop of the London Blitz during World War II that is much in the same vein as Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" or John Boorman's "Hope and Glory," only much more intense.

During the Blitz - which was taken from the German word Blitzkrieg and translates to "lightning war" - many youths in London and other populous British cities were sent to the countryside to remain safe while their parents remained behind. In McQueen's film, George (Elliot Heffernan) is the young man being sent away as his mother, factory worker Rita (Saoirse Ronan) stays in the city with her father (portrayed by musician Paul Weller).

But what makes "Blitz" unique among the coming-of-age World War II stories is that it is the rare one to tell the story of a child of color witnessing these momentous events. George's father was a Black man from Grenada and - during a harrowing flashback - we learn how he was separated from Rita during an evening out at a nightclub.

George experiences casual racism (being chased away while looking in store windows) and more of the overt kind (young British children mock him about his race) during his daily routines. And once the bombing of London begins, the film examines how the differences among various characters are treated during a moment of great peril.

George is packed away on a train with other children to leave London, but he decides to hop off and head back home after feeling guilty about an unpleasant parting with his mother at the station. During his journey home, he comes across a kind-hearted Nigerian soldier named Ife (Benjamin Clementine) who takes him out on his rounds to ensure that people are adhering to London's lights-out policy at night.

While de-camping at a bomb shelter, Ife has to step in after a white British couple has demanded that a Muslim family sharing the space must hang a sheet so that the white couple does not have to see them. Earlier in the film, George told Ife that he didn't consider himself Black, but it is at this moment - both the mistreatment of the Muslim couple and Ife's righteous stance against the bigots in the shelter - that George reconsiders.

At turns, the film almost becomes Dickensian after George unfortunately runs across a group of crooks led by a creepy Stephen Graham and Kathy Burke who force George - a la "Oliver Twist" - to begin stealing from homes hit by bombs. A sequence at a nightclub where the bodies of the recently killed remain seated in their chairs is particularly unsettling as the crooks pilfer their wares, all the while cracking jokes about the deceased.

While the film's script is occasionally a bit on the nose - a speech about socialism's similarities to Christianity and another regarding how people should respect one another - its often incredible visuals more than make up for it. 

The picture opens with an evocative sequence in which firefighters respond to a burning building that was hit by a Nazi bomb. A firehose out of control knocks a firefighter unconscious, while the others attempt to get it under control. Later, George and others sleeping in a subway tunnel during the Blitz must try to escape as water floods in during the film's most harrowing sequence. In another stunner, George flees a dock and crosses a bridge as German bombs explode all around.

Some have labeled "Blitz" as a minor McQueen film. While it certainly isn't on the level of the remarkable "12 Years a Slave" or the engrossing five-part "Small Axe" series, it is still a solid piece of entertainment. It may not tell us much new about the London Blitz - although its focus on a boy of color makes it unique among stories set during this period - but it's a very well shot and directed period drama with stunning set pieces and solid performances (Heffernan is a real find and Ronan is great as always). It might not be one of McQueen's greatest films, but it's well worth a watch.

Review: A Real Pain

Image courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.

People are enigmas and when it comes to understanding another's pain, we're all basically tourists. How can it be, for instance, that someone could be a lonely person when they are the ones who command attention in a room when they enter it or be the first to make friends when they meet a group of strangers?

This is one of many questions in Jesse Eisenberg's sophomore directorial effort, "A Real Pain," which marks a major step forward for the actor's efforts behind the camera. The film, which runs a brisk 89 minutes, follows the story of two American Jews - David (Eisenberg) and his cousin, Benji (Kieran Culkin) - who are on a Holocaust tour of Poland to reconnect with the homeland of their recently deceased grandmother, Dory.

David is neurotic and lives in New York City with his wife and young child, while Benji - who considered Dory his best friend - is a man adrift, apparently living with his mother in Binghamton and seeming to have no current prospects on how to move his life forward.

While David takes great pains to be mannered among the small group with whom he and Benji are taking the tour - it consists of a good natured guide (Will Sharpe), a single woman (Jennifer Grey), a Rwandan genocide survivor who has converted to Judaism (Kurt Egiywan) and an aging couple (Daniel Oreskes and Liza Sadovy) - his cousin, on the other hand, has no problem pushing buttons.

And yet, the group responds to Benji, both his antics (getting them all to pose in front of a statue representing Poland's efforts in World War II) and gregariousness to his occasional outbursts (in one scene, he takes umbrage with the concept that a group of Jews are riding in posh first-class on a train when Polish Jews during the Holocaust rode trains to concentration camps in deplorable conditions; during another at a Polish graveyard, he critiques the guide's insistence on talking in a place where hushed respect is, perhaps, more appropriate).

For a movie about grief, "A Real Pain" is often riotously hilarious. From a comparison between two goodbyes involving the tour guide, Benji, and David to a scene in which Benji's over-exuberance in hearing about the Rwandan survivor's experiences makes one cringe, this film has some of the biggest laughs of any movie I've seen in the past few years.

But it's also a somber picture. The film's score fades away for a moment when the group tours a concentration camp as silence is the only noise befitting such an occasion. There are constant reminders of the horrific things that went on in the country that Benji and David are touring some decades before. There is also, of course, what appears to be the recent loss of the men's grandmother. 

And then, there's whatever is going on beneath the surface with the two cousins. There's a reveal late in the film in which David overshares with the group about Benji's struggles. It's a powerful scene because Eisenberg's David is so convincing in portraying how a person can love someone deeply - in this case, his cousin - while at the same time finding him as abrasive, off-putting, and frustrating as most others feel who come into contact with him.

Eisenberg has somewhat more of a challenge as the buttoned-up David, but "A Real Pain" belongs to Culkin, whose Benji is one of the more memorable film characters I've experienced in some time. He's the guy who never quite grew up and masks his pain with boisterous - and occasionally obnoxious - behavior. He's funny and charming, but can also turn on a dime and make things awkward when something rubs him the wrong way. It's one of the year's great performances.

And "A Real Pain" is one of the year's great movies. It's a lean film that uses its time wisely for great impact. It's loaded with laugh-out-loud moments but there's also a lot to unpack in this story of two people who care about each other but have drifted apart due to the events of their lives. There's something admirable about trying to put oneself in another's shoes and attempting to understand their pain but, as this film argues, this is something that none of us can fully comprehend. 

Review: Emilia Perez

Image courtesy of Netflix.

It's been quite a season of unique moviegoing experiences, from the outrageous horror satire "The Substance" and the gutter poetry of Sean Baker's Palm d'Or winner "Anora" to Jacques Audiard's trans crime musical "Emilia Perez." The latter was a hit at Cannes and is certainly audacious.

The picture opens with a lawyer named Rita (Zoe Saldana) winning a court case for a client whom she knows to be a murderer. Shortly thereafter, she is contacted by an even bigger criminal, a Mexican cartel leader named Manitas Del Monte, who has an unexpected job for her. 

Manitas wants to transition to become a woman and needs someone to move his family - which includes Jessi (Selena Gomez) and several children - to Switzerland, help him fake his death, and start a new life after having a sex-change operation.

Some years later, Rita is in London for work and runs into a woman named Emilia Perez (Karla Sofia Gascon), whom she soon figures out was the former cartel leader. At first she fears for her life, but Emilia tells Rita that she needs her help in bringing her family back to Mexico. Of course, none of them will know who she really is.

If you're thinking this is merely a film about a person who has transitioned getting the chance to reconnect with their family, well, you're in for some surprises. Yes, "Emilia Perez" is a musical - and the musical numbers, I'll add, are varied in quality - but it also follows Rita and Emilia's initiative to help families of the hundreds of thousands of Mexicans who have gone missing due to cartel kidnappings unearth the bodies of their loved ones. 

"Emilia Perez" is vibrant, well acted, and full of energy. It's also a little all over the place. As I'd mentioned, the musical numbers are a mixed bag - some good, a few I could have done without - and the plot veers wildly - occasionally, it concerns itself with the attempt to relocate the missing people, while at other times it focuses on the tension between Jessi and Emilia, whom the former doesn't know was previously her spouse, and there's even a romance between Emilia and a woman who comes to claim the body of a missing spouse.

But for the most part, "Emilia Perez" works. Saldana gives one of her finest performances, while Gascon - who is apparently a Spanish soap opera star - is a revelation and Gomez is grittier than one might expect. So, while not every single aspect of the picture works - the film is directed by a Frenchman and it has an outsider's view of a country's turmoil that is noticeable - "Emilia Perez" is a unique and engaging moviegoing experience. There's a lot going on in this film and most of it is enticing. 

Review: Heretic

Image courtesy of A24.

Although I'm not sure a movie about religion and control was exactly the remedy I needed after one of the worst weeks in American history, I have to give credit where it's due: Scott Beck and Bryan Woods' "Heretic" is a creepy and unsettling horror movie with a wicked performance by Hugh Grant and one of the spookiest villain's lairs of recent memory.

The film's setup is simple enough: Two young women from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) - show up at a semi-secluded house on a snowy night to spread to the good word. There, they are greeted by a man named Mr. Reed (Grant), who at first seems nice enough as he welcomes them in and makes promises of blueberry pie that his wife is making in the kitchen.

At first, the trio ponder theology through various lenses, from Reed's questions about the Mormon church's history of polygamy to a discussion of which is the best fast food franchise and how that relates to religion. But as Reed begins to act creepier, and the two young women realize that the front door is locked, they recognize that they could be in some sort of danger.

Reed shows the women two doors - one marked "belief" and the other "disbelief." He asks which is scarier: The idea that God exists and allows such suffering or that we might just be all alone on this floating rock out in space. One of the two doors, he says, will lead outside since the front door apparently can only be opened once per day.

There's an interesting point to be made during these discussions before "Heretic" turns into a full-fledged horror movie when Reed tells the women that they thought that his wife - who does not exist - was in the kitchen and that they chose to believe what they were told, even long after signs should have alterted them otherwise. Naturally, he compares their choice to that of believing in God before beginning a lecture, of sorts, on the numerous religions around the world and how close they are in comparison.

The film feels like an unholy blend of topics that Ingmar Bergman might have pondered in his heyday - namely, the role of religion in a world of horrors and suffering - and something similar to the "Saw" franchise. And what ultimately makes the film work is Grant's sinister performance as Reed and Thatcher and East's solid work as the two sisters.

The finale leans a little heavily on aforementioned elements regarding the two young women's faith - and a character seemingly revived from the dead momentarily could, perhaps, have used some rethinking - but this is an otherwise intelligent, moody, tense, and thought-provoking horror movie. Call it elevated horror or whatever you will, but there are few mainstream films - horror or otherwise - these days that tackle weighty subjects in such an engaging manner as this one. 

Review: Anora

Image courtesy of Neon.

Sean Baker's Palm d'Or winner "Anora" is a real spark plug of a movie - a wild, coarse, often funny, and occasionally very sad movie that starts out as being a tale of amour fou, but then spirals into a wild chase through New York when one of its lead characters goes missing.

Baker's films often feature sex workers or those working in sex-related industries. His "Starlet" featured porn stars, while "Red Rocket" chronicled the tale of a former actor in that line of work. "Tangerine" was about two transgender sex workers and his masterpiece, "The Florida Project," followed a young girl and her mother, who occasionally dabbled in sex work.

The title of his new film refers to the full name of Ani (Mikey Madison), a Russian-American exotic dancer who occasionally lets a client take her home for money. Ani's sharp tongue and observational insights seemingly disarm her clients - while performing a dance at a strip club, a client asks her if her family knows where she is at the moment. She poses the same question to him.

One night, Ani meets Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), a fun-loving young Russian who is living in the United States at the moment, while his oligarch parents reside in Russia. He offers to pay her for sex, so she makes several trips to his ridiculously laid-out pad in New York City's outer boroughs. He then invites her to a New Year's Eve party and, finally, to Las Vegas, where in the spur of the moment, he proposes to her.

Not too long after their hasty marriage, two men - Igor (Yura Borisov) and Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) - show up at the door and tell Ivan that his parents want the marriage annulled and that they are flying to the United States to see that this is carried out. Ivan flees the scene and Ani engages in a physical struggle with the two men that goes from being unpleasant to comical. Another man, Toros (Karren Karagulian), who works for Ivan's family shows up and the four take an extended cruise through New York City as they search for Ivan.

"Anora" is really made up of three parts - the first sequences of partying when Ani meets Ivan, the search for Ivan, and a finale in which Ivan's family arrives. The first third - the amour fou section - feels like a blast out of a cannon, all propulsive motion as Ani and Ivan meet and fall in love. The second half often feels absurdist as the four characters search for Ivan and spend a lot of time hurling invective - or, in one scene, just hurling - at each other. The final third is the most, at times, poignant or, at others, just downright sad.

Madison, who was previously seen in one of the recent "Scream" sequels and as a Manson family member in Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," gives a star-making performance. She's a ball of fire and her character is among the most memorable I've seen in a film this year. The rest of the cast is good as well, especially Borisov as Igor, who gets off on the wrong foot with Ani, but eventually tries to make amends.

While "Anora" is quite good, my favorite Baker film is still "The Florida Project," which was one of the biggest gut-punch films I've seen in the past decade (and my favorite movie of 2017). "Anora" has a gut punch of its own and by the time you get there, you'll realize how many mood shifts the film has undergone and how Baker deftly juggles hilarity and heartbreak in the course of its two hours and 20 minutes. 

Review: Here

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures.

 
The concept for Robert Zemeckis' latest film, "Here," is ambitious but the execution, unfortunately, doesn't quite match it. In theory, the film sounds like a great idea - a reunion between the director of "Forrest Gump," one of the biggest films of the 1990s, with its two co-stars, Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, that involves a time shifting narrative all from the perspective of a single camera angle from the corner of a room. 

The film is based on a graphic novel by Richard McGuire that tells the story of a single plot of land, from the dinosaurs to the colonial period of American history up through the 1920s and World War II and, finally, settling in to tell the story of a family from the 1940s to the present. The primary story in the film involves World War II veteran Al (Paul Bettany) and his wife, Rose (Kelly Reilly), and their children, one of whom grows up to be Richard (Tom Hanks).

The main concept at play in the film is that Richard and his wife, Margaret (Wright), live with Al and Rose and feel stuck in the house for decades, complicating their marriage, while at the same time Richard gives up his dream of being an artist to sell life insurance and Margaret regrets that she's never gotten out to see more of the world.

One of the film's primary stumbling blocks is its use of de-aging technology that makes Hanks and Wright look like younger versions of themselves. The somewhat plastic-looking versions of these actors often mute the emotions that their characters are emoting. The scenes in which they are older are more convincing.

There are some issues in the script department as well. Often, the characterizations feel a little skin deep and the fact that the film jumps back and forth in time so frequently - from story to story - means that any momentum that starts to build is quickly cut off during a scene, only to be replaced by stories taking place on the plot of land in the past, which include an aviator and his wary wife, an inventor and his significant other, Benjamin Franklin's grandson, some Native Americans living on the land before a home was placed there, and a Black family who move in after Richard and Margaret have moved on.

One example is a sequence during which the father of the Black family is explaining to his son how to act if he is ever pulled over by a cop. The scene's power is undercut by the fact that it is brief and then is quickly followed by some other foray into one of the past stories. Only Richard and Margaret's story is given any weight and even they are frequently interrupted by a quick jaunt back several hundred years.

"Forrest Gump" was a film that gave a tour of the 20th century through the eyes of its main character. "Here" occasionally includes landmarks as that film did - we hear The Beatles on TV for the first time, lots of reruns old TV shows, and the occasional needle drop ("Our House" is maybe a little too on the nose) - but it doesn't feel as momentous because we aren't seeing these moments through anyone's eyes so much as they are being used as indicators as to what year we are in at any given moment. While this is helpful from a narrative standpoint, the constant jumping around in time ends up giving all of the stories the short end of the stick.

"Here" has its moments - a reunion between two of the characters in the house and a home movie screening are effective scenes - but for those hoping for something that resembles Zemeckis' past hits, namely "Forrest Gump," his latest feels more like a conceptually interesting experiment that doesn't quite stick the landing.

Review: Conclave

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

The most interesting movie about organized - or, in this case, disorganized - religion in some time, director Edward Berger's "Conclave" is likely to be one of the year's most talked about films, and not only due to that twist near its end. 

The movie plays like a political thriller, although its story would not suggest such intrigue. "Conclave" opens with the death of a pope, who seemingly left behind his share of secrets and some unresolved palace intrigue. Ralph Fiennes plays Cardinal Lawrence, the man who has begrudgingly been tasked with leading the conclave that will select the next pope.

Although the film doesn't go so far to suggest that Lawrence has lost his faith, he openly tells his closest allies in the church - which include Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci) and Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz), a man whom no one in the Catholic Church hierarchy knew even existed until he turned up for the conclave from Kabul, where he secretly presides - that he doesn't believe he's the man for the task.

In one of the film's strongest scenes, Lawrence opens the conclave with a bit of controversy - a speech in which he attacks the nature of certainty, which he says removes the mystery of religion but also, in turn, the necessity of faith itself. 

Lawrence's speech could be viewed as a warning to some of the cardinals vying for the spot as the church's leader. Among those gathered include the ambitious Cardinal Tremblay, who will resort to unethical tactics to remove others from contention; Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), an African bishop with some controversial views and possibly some skeletons in the closet; Bellini; and Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), an Italian who wants to overturn the liberal order favored by Lawrence and Bellini and return to an ultraconservative church.

While the film is not technically a thriller - other than the pope dying in the opening scene, the only other violence in the film is a series of surprise terrorist attacks around Rome during the course of the conclave - it sure plays like one.

When Bellini's candidacy begins to falter and Tremblay and Tedesco begin to rise to the top of the pack, the liberal consortium begins to panic and two unlikely figures end up getting pushed to the forefront. I won't give anything else away, other than to say that Lawrence gets a chance to question how much he himself wants to be part of the church's power structure and there's a major plot reveal late in the film regarding another character.

Fiennes has long been an actor of great stature, but his performance here ranks among his very best. Tucci is solid as Bellini and I'm not sure I've ever seen Lithgow play such a loathsome character (other than his villain role in "Blow Out"). Diehz is the film's breakout performance as the cardinal whom no one even knew existed and whose role as a Mexican cardinal leading missionaries in dangerous locales around the world (first, the Congo, and then Baghdad and Kabul) lend him an air of mystery.

This is a very intriguing film, especially as the film is less about religion and more about power structures. In fact, the most interesting element that has anything to do with religion in the film is Fiennes' early speech about the dangers of certainty - although this is also clearly aimed at the regressive beliefs of some of his fellow cardinals, namely Tedesco, who gives a long-winded speech attacking Muslims and calling for the church to conduct a holy war amid the terrorist attacks in Rome.

Berger's previous film, the adaptation of "All Quiet on the Western Front," was solid and was nominated for a bunch of Oscars, but I think "Conclave" is even better. It is, thus far, one of the standouts in a year that has otherwise been a bit lackluster so far.

Review: We Live In Time

Image courtesy of A24.

It's been a while since I've seen a weepy that aims to tug at the heartstrings like "We Live in Time," a reasonably decent romance featuring solid performances by Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh. In the early 2000s, these types of films were seemingly everywhere, especially following "The Notebook" and the boom of Nicholas Sparks adaptations. But they've been curiously fewer and far between since - perhaps the COVID-19 era wore out viewer's tolerance for stories centered around diseases.

This film, which is told out of sequence (and, on occasion, a little confusedly) tells the story of the romance, marriage, childbirth, and ultimately battle against cancer for Almut (Pugh), a successful chef who wants to take her career to the next level, and her husband, Tobias (Garfield), whose work has something to do with promoting a cereal, although it's oddly nebulous.

It's a little unclear why director John Crowley ("Brooklyn") tells the story out of sequence, other than the impact that a specific scene can have when we learn new information that sheds light on something that came before. At times, this can feel gimmicky, but at others it works.

The film's most interesting moments revolve around Almut's work as a chef. Once she is diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer, she is told by her doctor to go easy in terms of work. However, she takes part in a challenge involving chefs from around the world - and without her husband knowing about it - in which she partners with a younger chef from her restaurant. The film also features what has to be the most memorable birth sequence of recent memory.

"We Live in Time" is somewhat by-the-numbers in how it handles the romance between Almut and Tobias - they have a meet-cute that involves her hitting him with her car - and her battle with cancer. But what makes the scenes work, for the most part, are the film's lead actors, both of whom are good here. 

The film doesn't reinvent the wheel for this type of picture or do anything you haven't seen before - its non-sequential format is its most unique element - but it's slightly better than your average film in this subgenre. 

Review: Rumours

Image courtesy of Bleecker Street Media.

Canadian director Guy Maddin is one of filmdom's most unique voices - an auteur whose films are offbeat tales that often look as if they were made in the 1920s or 1930s (including two of his finest, "The Saddest Music in the World" and "Careful") or strike a personal note ("My Winnipeg").

His latest picture, "Rumours," features some of the same visual stylings and quirky beats, but it feels like a far cry from many of his best-known films. For starters, the film is in color, is set in the present, and features some well-known actors (Cate Blanchett, Alicia Vikander, and Charles Dance).

The picture is mostly a one-joke pony about a group of world leaders - Blanchett is the German president, while Dance is the U.S. president, despite his having a British accent - who have gathered at a remote location for a G7 summit and are sitting around a gazebo where they are trying to put together a statement on some unnamed international crisis.

The joke is that while things begin to crumble around them - which mostly revolves around graves in which the bodies of semi-prehistoric natives have been discovered and, much later, these natives arise and roam the countryside similar to a George Romero film - the world leaders expend all of their energy on personal crises (several of them have had or currently are having affairs with each other) and their angst at crafting their statement, which, in light of everything, seems pretty inconsequential.

So, while this might all sound more straightforward than your typical Maddin film, there are touches that alert you that you're in his universe, namely, a massive, pulsating brain discovered in the woods and, at several points, instances of zombie native masturbation (no, seriously).

"Rumours" is occasionally amusingly quirky in the way you might expect from a Maddin film, but it's also a little bit of a slog. There's little in the way of changes of scenery and the satire here doesn't feel as sharp as one might expect from the often-hilarious Canadian filmmaker.

Some of the film's laughs are generated by the Italian leader's seemingly inexhaustible selection of cured meats that he carries on him and the fact that Dance's U.S. president is about as British as one can get. Some plot elements veer toward the absurd - as one would expect in a Maddin film - such as a character suffering what seems to be a serious injury after he merely fell and rolled around a little in the mud.

But these minor amusements aside, "Rumours" is a curiously low key and not always effective Maddin creation. It's exciting to see him working with such a great cast and there's some of the usual humor you'd expect, but the film is ultimately a minor entry in his body of work.

Review: The Apprentice

Image courtesy of Briarcliff Entertainment.

Ali Abbasi's controversial new film, "The Apprentice," is a surprisingly watchable and frequently unsettling origin story for America's worst person. The picture's title refers to the popular reality show in which Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) was once the star, but in the context of this story it refers to Trump's mentor-friend relationship with the notorious lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong).

There are more than a few scenes here in which the groundwork is laid for the Trump who would later go on to become its 45th president and is currently seeking the role of its first fascist dictator, but mostly the picture is a well written and intriguing story about how a guy with few morals but a lot of bluster was able to rise to the top through the tutelage of an unscrupulous mentor.

As the film opens in the 1970s, Trump has just been admitted to the Manhattan billionaire's club and has taken a date to an exclusive lounge where he fawns over the wealthy and powerful people hanging out there. It's here that he meets Cohn, an unrepentant bigot and sleaze merchant who is proud of his ability to hob knob with Richard Nixon (he previously worked with Joseph McCarthy) and blackmail people.

Trump wants Cohn to represent his family after his father, Fred Trump (Martin Donovan), and he have been sued by the federal government for refusing to rent to Black people. Cohn decides to take the family on as a client but, more importantly, take Donald under his wing.

Cohn teaches him the three most important tricks of business: attack, attack, attack; reframe the truth as being only what you say and deny every accusation; and never admit defeat, but rather claim victory even when the truth shows otherwise. Sound familiar?

A viewer who dislikes Trump might believe it would be hard to spend two hours in his company - and while this is somewhat true, I still found "The Apprentice" to be compelling and watchable. The film is shot in the seedy 1970s style one might expect from a film set in that era and there's an ever present sense of menace during its entire running time. 

Stan gives a solid performance as Trump, looking somewhat like him and and sounding a little bit like the real estate tycoon, but certainly nailing his mannerisms. In many ways, Strong gives the most compelling performance as Cohn, a ruthless man who views those lower on the societal totem pole as weak and not deserving compassion, that is, until he contracts AIDS (Cohn was gay, although he denied it) and suddenly finds himself being viewed by Trump in the same manner.

Ali Abbasi's filmography has been one that never fails to surprise. His "Border" was a freakish film about a Danish border security guard, while "The Holy Spider" was a haunting true crime film about an Iranian serial killer that cracked my top 10 of 2022. "The Apprentice" feels more in line with Abbasi's second film in that both study sociopathic behavior that comes to be deemed as acceptable by society. 

While I wouldn't go as far as saying that "The Apprentice" does a great job of capturing the essence of what has made Trump such a prominent figure in American politics and culture, it's an often fascinating origin story about how a sociopath is given the tools through a mentor of equally questionable morals to conquer the world or, at least, smooth talk his way to the top. 

Yes, it was difficult to spend two hours in Trump's company - especially during the scene in which he rapes his first wife, Ivana (Maria Bakalova) - when we are inundated with his awfulness on an hourly basis thanks to our feckless media, but "The Apprentice" is a film that is a little more watchable than you might expect.

Review: Saturday Night

Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

Jason Reitman's "Saturday Night" is nothing less than what it appears to be - a play-by-play of the hours and minutes leading up to one of the most momentous nights in comedy TV history. Filmed in the style of Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu's "Birdman," the picture follows a number of personalities as they navigate the sets of NBC just before the show was set to go on the air in 1975.

Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle), the show's creator, is our main window into the proceedings as he attempts to get one of his stars, John Belushi (Matt Wood), to sign his contract as well as nail down a final script - a board is covered with numerous pieces of paper with skit titles, clearly too many to squeeze into 90 minutes of television - and hob knob with skittish producers (Willem Dafoe is NBC big wig David Tebet while Cooper Hoffman is producer Dick Ebersol, who takes a lot of abuse from pretty much everyone).

The cast is massive. There's a cocky Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), a fast-talking Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O'Brien), affable Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn), Jane Curtin (Kim Matula), and Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris), who fears he is the cast's token Black cast member. There's also George Carlin (Matthew Rhys), future Letterman band leader Paul Schaffer (Paul Rust), Billy Crystal (Nicholas Podany), Nicholas Braun pulling double duty as the shy Jim Henson and eccentric Andy Kaufman, and even an appearance by Mr. Television himself, Milton Berle (J.K. Simmons).

The list goes on and on. Surprisingly, a number of the figures get their own memorable moments - Henson pleads gently over and over again with Michaels for a script for his Muppets bit, Carlin gets to rant and rave, Morris connects with musical guest Billy Preston and later with Curtin when he ponders what exactly he's doing there, Kaufman does his Mighty Mouse routine, Belushi goes ice skating, and Chase has a confrontation with Berle that he was not likely expecting.

And yet, the film feels more like a series of enjoyable moments, rather than any sort of deep dive into the relevance that "Saturday Night Live" represents for American pop culture. So while "Saturday Night" - the film's title refers to the show's original name, which later added a third word - isn't anything more than it purports to be, well, that's perfectly fine. It's an amusing behind-the-scenes look at what allegedly took place while the show's cast and crew struggled to get it on the air.

Considering that next year is the 50th anniversary of that evening, it should come as no surprise that Reitman's film exists. It's an enjoyable homage to the show's lasting legacy and a number of the cast members nail their impersonations. It's not likely to give anyone new insights into the show, but instead it celebrates the quirky collaborative spirit that has allowed it to last this long.

Review: Joker: Folie a deux

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

While I wasn't particularly a fan of Todd Phillips' first "Joker" movie, I could admire Joaquin Phoenix's committed performance and its visual style, clearly trying to mimic the 1970s films of Martin Scorsese or Sidney Lumet. One of my complaints with the film was its seeming self-importance; that it was a facile film that thought it was making a big statement. 

While its sequel, "Joker: Folie a deux," is technically a riskier venture - hell, it's sort of a musical - it also just feels, well, lost. My objection is not so much that it is a musical - in fact, there's a decent enough argument as to why that might have worked - but that the filmmakers once again think they are doing something so daring by making it one.

Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) is by all accounts a deeply disturbed individual who often lives in a world of fantasy. If you think about it, musicals are movies in which characters suddenly exit the land of reality by breaking out into song and dance that is often choreographed and scored to music. Therefore, making this film a musical could have been an interesting way of approaching Fleck's story.

The film picks up where the other left off, that is with Fleck in a mental institution, where he's mocked and occasionally abused by the guards. His lawyer (Catherine Keener) seemingly has sympathy for him and is trying to ensure that he doesn't go to trial on the grounds that he is mentally ill. However, Arthur meets a woman named Lee (Lady Gaga) - short for Harley Quinn - in the institution and the two begin a, ahem, bad romance.

Lee appears to be a Joker fan and quickly endears herself to him. She encourages him to take control of his own narrative and, against all good judgement, he decides to fire his lawyer and defend himself in court. If making the film a musical seems like a strange choice, making its second half a courtroom drama is even weirder.

For starters, Phoenix, once he begins acting as his own counsel, speaks in the voice of a southern man for no apparent reason. His theatrics are occasionally tolerated in the courtroom to unbelievable lengths. At the end of all this, something happens that enables Arthur to be out on the streets, all leading up to an ending that will likely leave most people scratching their heads.

I'll say this: Phoenix again remains committed to this character and Gaga is pretty decent herself. It's too bad they're left to navigate this film full of strange choices without better direction. At various points in the film, Fleck laughs his bizarre, unnatural laugh - and like it did in the last film, it feels too forced, much like most of "Joker: Folie a deux."

Review: It's What's Inside

Image courtesy of Netflix.

Game nights are seemingly treacherous terrain, according to horror and thriller films as of late, from last year's "Talk to Me" to "Bodies, Bodies, Bodies." The latest in this subgenre, director Greg Jardin's "It's What's Inside," is more of a thriller with science fiction elements than a horror movie, and there's only one mildly bloody scene, but it still has some of the same trappings of the aforementioned films.

The picture primarily takes place at a large, somewhat secluded house where a group of friends are gathered to celebrate the impending marriage of Reuben (Devon Terrell). The group includes a couple experiencing problems with their sex life - Cyrus (James Morosini) and Shelby (Brittany O'Grady) - which allows for an amusing opening sequence involving this issue.

Others include ultimate bro Dennis (Gavin Leatherwood), hippie Maya (Nina Bloomgarden), influencer Nikki (Alycia Debnam-Carey), and stoner Brooke (Reina Hardesty). A final member of their group when they were in college - Forbes (David Thompson) - is mentioned and seems like a distant memory until, that is, he suddenly arrives and Reuben mentions that he'd invited him.

The last time Forbes was seen was during a raucous party that led to him being kicked out of school and his at the time underage sister, who had been having a fling with Dennis, to go into a mental hospital. Upon his arrival, Forbes introduces the idea of playing a game, which turns out to be a little more than anyone bargained for.

The game involves flipping a switch on a box - any explanation I could give would probably be as flimsy as that given by the film - that leads to all of the persons at the party switching bodies. In other words, their consciousness pops up in the bodies of one of the others present. Some members of the group are put off by the game, while others seem to relish in the freedoms it allows.

One of those freedoms ultimately becomes being able to hide which personality has ended up in which body, leading to some double crosses and secrets being unearthed. When two of the characters run off for a quickie on a balcony, tragedy ensues and the rest of the film revolves around the various characters debating whether to return to their original bodies, especially considering that two of those bodies are now corpses.

While I'm sure that something deeper could have been done with a story involving the quandaries of swapping bodies with someone else and what freedoms that might entail, "It's What's Inside" is content with merely plot twists and seeing actors portray other characters who have become disembodied. It's amusing enough, but not as memorable as "Talk to Me," which I liked well enough and had a fair amount of atmosphere and some decent shocks.

"It's What's Inside" often feels like a dark comedy with bits of horror or science fiction thrown into the mix. It's funnier than it is scary, and its final punchline - despite that you could probably see it from a mile away - will likely result in a smile. But I feel like this film could have been more than what it ultimately is - a mild divertissement.

Review: Megalopolis

Image courtesy of Lionsgate.

According to legend, Francis Ford Coppola – a legend if there ever was one – has been working to get his mad vision, “Megalopolis,” onto the screen for at least 40 years. This would have followed shortly after the release of his 1979 masterpiece “Apocalypse Now,” a film with a fabled, gonzo film shoot that left some baffled upon viewing it. Whether “Megalopolis” will one day be as esteemed as that classic remains to be seen, but if nothing else can be said for it, the film is certainly a picture that could only have been made by Coppola and is clearly a work of a highly personal nature to the filmmaker.

Exactly what the film is about is open to debate. Narrated by Laurence Fishburne – who also has a small part in the picture – the film references everyone from Marcus Aurelius to Shakespeare (in fact, Adam Driver’s first bit of dialogue in the film is from “Hamlet”) and features characters named Mayor Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), Clodio (Shia LaBeouf), and Cesar (Driver). It is set in New Rome – which is, much like Gotham City, basically New York – amid talk of its decline.

The mayor is at odds with Cesar, an architect of some sort who wants to build a utopia known as Megalopolis within New Rome, which prompts Cicero to remind him that “utopias eventually become dystopias.” In a plot point that is well utilized but never quite explained, Cesar is able to momentarily stop time. At moments, he sits atop towers that he may have built and views the city below, much as an artist or filmmaker might look upon his creation and determine where fixes need to be made.

A TV reporter named Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza) – yes, that’s really her name – is seeing Cesar on the sly while also carrying on an affair with his aged uncle, Hamilton Crassus III (Jon Voight), a business mogul. LaBeouf’s character is a cousin who often acts as a henchman for Crassus. Other figures within this orbit are played by Fishburne (Cesar’s driver), Dustin Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, and Talia Shire.

Cesar has a hint of mystery about him. His wife died under mysterious circumstances, and Mayor Cicero – then a district attorney – prosecuted him for it but didn’t get a conviction, and it is hinted that the mayor’s case against him might have been a corrupt attempt to take out a possible political rival.

The film’s drama lies in Cesar’s latest love interest, Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, who takes an interest in Cesar’s worldview and work. Their romance is a little undercooked, but becomes a major plot point when Julia becomes pregnant. Meanwhile, LaBeouf’s Clodio is a rabble rouser from a rich family trying to act as a man of the people in order to radicalize them and turn them against the establishment – sound familiar?

There’s a lot going on in “Megalopolis” and not all of it completely makes sense or is fleshed out – there are several mentions of a satellite heading toward Earth, but it eventually is forgotten, and there’s a threat of a large-scale riot near the film’s end that never quite materializes. Amid all this is the sense of a civilization on the decline and whether it’s possible or worthwhile to save it – which also, unfortunately, sounds familiar.

But even if the film’s story – and what it all means – remains somewhat obscure, there are plenty of incredible visuals upon which to feast and a number of interesting ideas bouncing around. One particularly memorable scene involves Cesar being chauffeured around New Rome at night, driving through the mist and neon lights. During this voyage, a large concrete statue representing the scales of justice bends over in dismay and lies wounded in the street as police attack a homeless encampment nearby.

At several points in the film, “Megalopolis” features a three-way split screen with gorgeous visuals filling all three. At another, we are mesmerized by a gorgeous shot of the cosmos. At a birthday celebration, a Roman-style chariot race takes center stage and, at another moment, an actor in the actual audience of the movie theater in which I saw the film interviews Driver onscreen during a press conference sequence.

Where it might occasionally be lacking in cohesion or structure, “Megalopolis” makes up for with chutzpah and vision. This is a film that will likely garner love-it-or-hate-it responses, something which Coppola himself admitted during a New York Film Festival interview with Spike Lee, Robert De Niro, and Dennis Lim that ran before the screening I attended.

While I can’t quite say I loved “Megalopolis” – and it’s certainly not on par with his greatest works, namely “The Godfather” films, “Apocalypse Now,” or “The Conversation” – I admired it, and it’s well worth the price of admission for filmgoers seeking a unique experience and excited about wandering through the imagination of one of the all-time greats, both in terms of influence and body of work.