Review: The Friend

Image courtesy of Bleecker Street Media.

David Siegel and Scott McGehee's filmography is so vast in terms of style and content that it's often easy to forget some of the films they have created together. A number of their pictures feel as if they don't belong in the same category as the others.

Their work has included the black-and-white, noirish "Suture" and the thriller "The Deep End" as well as family dramas "Bee Season" and "What Maisie Knew" and the moody "Montana Story." Their latest, "The Friend," is their best and an addition to another sub-genre - the literate New York intellectual milieu drama - in which they've never worked.

In the film, teacher and writer's-blocked author Iris (Naomi Watts in her best performance in some time) is stuck. She's been putting off her latest novel, instead working on a book of correspondence written by her best friend, acclaimed author and larger-than-life personality Walter (Bill Murray), with his daughter following his suicide. No worries, this isn't a spoiler as it's laid out at the film's beginning that Walter has died. He appears only in flashback.

Iris is distraught at the death of her friend, who was briefly a lover many years before but has mainly been a confidant and pal during Walter's three marriages. All three of his wives, including his present one, have shown up for his funeral. His latest wife asks Iris to come by the house when she has a chance. Upon doing so, Iris learns of Walter's last favor he asks of her - besides, of course, working on his letters of correspondence book - adopting his dog, a massive great dane named Apollo.

Reluctantly, Iris does so and learns about great danes quickly that it is difficult to get them to do anything they don't want to due to their size. This includes moving Apollo off her bed, so she takes to sleeping on an air mattress on the floor. To make matters worse, Iris is threatened by the management company from her building that she will be evicted if she doesn't ditch the dog.

Naturally, Iris begins to bond with the pup, who also seems sad and disconsolate over the death of its master. No, this is not what one might call a cute movie nor is it a treacly film of the type in which a dog is the main character and observes the actions of a smarmy family. "The Friend" is a poignant film about friendship, the lengths one would go for those whom one loves, and making new friendships. Also, it's one of the better films I've seen of late about grief and the process of acceptance.

Watts has long been a great actress - I just recently rewatched the remarkable "Mulholland Drive" and was impressed all over again by her breakout performance in that film. She's been very good in a number of other films over the years, but it's been a while since she's had a juicy role, so this film is being viewed as somewhat of a comeback, and it's well earned: She's very good. 

Murray is also solid in what mostly amounts to a small supporting performance and the rest of the cast is also memorable - most notably, Constance Wu as one of Walter's more difficult ex-wives and Carla Gugino as the ex to whom Iris is closest. Much like in "Mulholland Drive," there's a scene late in the picture in which Watts concocts a fantasy - in this case, it's a conversation with Walter. It's a powerful moment in a movie full of them - and much more so than one might expect about a person bonding with a gigantic dog. This is one of the year's cinematic bright spots so far.

Review: Holland

Image courtesy of Amazon Studios.

Mimi Cave's "Holland" is a film that drops two large twists on its audience late in the picture. The first is genuinely surprising and effective, the second is being referred to as a twist but is really more of a head-scratcher as to why anyone would think this is a viable way to end a movie.

The picture bears some similarity to such films as "Don't Worry Darling" or "The Stepford Wives" in that it follows the story of a married woman in suburban America - Holland, Michigan, which has a lot of tulips and more of a Dutch influence than I'm willing to suspend my disbelief - who begins to think something's off about her husband, a dentist who goes to more conferences than she believes is necessary for his profession.

Nancy (Nicole Kidman) thinks Fred (Matthew Macfayden) is having some sort of affair and she enlists a fellow teacher - Dave (Gael Garcia Bernal), an immigrant who has been made to feel unwelcome in their small town - at the school where she works to help her to investigate. Fred comes off as a gaslighter, seemingly always telling his wife to ignore things that seem off and to just forge ahead.

Meanwhile, Fred complains to his and Nancy's young son, Harry (Jude Hill), about women in general and it's a scene that is meant to make viewers feel uncomfortable. Fred has a large train set that he obsessively shows Harry how to operate. And every few weeks, it seems he's off to another conference. Nancy becomes suspicious when she finds evidence that he had been in Madison, Wisconsin, a place he never mentioned to his wife that he'd traveled.

As Dave and Nancy sneak around, attempting to find evidence that Fred is cheating, they strike up a romance, although Dave feels uncomfortable running around with a married woman. He tells Nancy that he wants to be with her - but only in the right circumstances. Needless to say, their snooping leads to a surprising place.

I can't divulge any more without giving away the film's first big twist (the good one). There's literally nothing I can say about the second one, other than: Why? The first time the film pulls the rug out from under us, it's shocking and adds some significant suspense. The second time makes no sense whatsoever.

Kidman and Bernal make a decent team as the would-be lovers undertaking the investigation and the film's second half becomes increasingly more compelling after we learn some surprising new information. But "Holland" is, ultimately, a mixed bag. 

It clearly draws comparisons to such movies as "The Stepford Wives" or "Don't Worry Darling," films about women who realize that the patriarchy is lying to them. But it doesn't really go anywhere thematically interesting with this concept. 

Also, like such films as "Blue Velvet," the movie clearly believes that there's something awful under the surface of the suburbs but, unlike that movie, doesn't really have much to say about it. "Holland" is, for a spell, suspenseful and its performances are good, but it doesn't really do much with what could have been rich material.

Review: The Alto Knights

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

Barry Levinson's "The Alto Knights" was written by Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote the book on which Martin Scorsese's classic "Goodfellas" was based, but while that previous film was one of the greatest movies ever made about mafia life, this new film feels a little aimless, despite its subject matter being intriguing enough and Robert De Niro doing a fine job of double duty as 1950s mob bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese.

The film opens in 1957 when Costello nearly escapes an attempt on his life after a hitman's bullet grazes his head in an elevator. Genovese is behind the hit, which comes after a long period of tension between the two men, who had grown up together and ascended the New York mob ranks before Genovese fled to Italy and got stuck there during World War II and Costello took over as the boss of bosses in New York, using diplomacy over force and paying off cops and politicians alike.

In his older age, Costello seemingly wants to live a quiet life, while Vito is paranoid and hot tempered. It doesn't take much to incur his wrath. During one such instance, he kills his wife's former husband after the man dared to eat at the same restaurant and another man who stumbles upon the scene becomes collateral damage.

Costello further enrages Vito when the U.S. Senate begins a series of hearings on organized crime, and while Vito and others plead the fifth, Frank offers to testify, although it's clearly a strategic mistake, resulting in him walking out halfway through his testimony. He tries to set up a national meeting among mob bosses from around the country that also ends in disaster.

While De Niro does a good job of portraying both men - his Costello is laid back and diplomatic, while Vito is temperamental and psychotic - it's a curious choice to have him portray both men, who look alike because the same actor is playing them, but who aren't related in any way. The film also builds tension as the spat between the two men gets out of control, but a quick view of Wikipedia will inform you that it all ultimately leads to nothing. 

While a chronicle of the U.S. mafia during one of its pivotal eras is, no doubt, always going to provide a reasonable amount of intrigue, there's no sense or urgency here when all is said and done. In other words, I'm not sure there was a reason to tell this story. 

Levinson, who previously directed the very good mob movie "Bugsy," and De Niro are veterans of the genre - and they do what they can to make "The Alto Knights" moderately interesting - but this is not one of the more compelling examples of a mob movie.

Review: On Becoming A Guinea Fowl

Image courtesy of A24. 

Rungano Nyoni's "On Becoming a Guinea Fowl" is a strange slow burn of a film about a Zambian family's trauma that begins with a peculiar scenario that ultimately takes the viewer to some startling places.

As the picture opens, Shula (Susan Chardy) is driving home from a late night costume party dressed in what appears to be a Missy Elliott-like outfit when she sees something on the road, continues to drive a few more feet, sighs, and then stops. It's a man's body that turns out to be the corpse of her Uncle Fred, an individual for whom we get the sense she doesn't have much affection.

Shula places a call to her father (Henry B.J. Phiri) who doesn't seem too concerned and can't bother to tear himself away from a party. Finally, Shula's cousin, Nsansa (Elizabeth Chisela), shows up, seemingly drunk, and gyrates in front of the car while Shula takes direction on the phone from the police, who tell her they won't be able to make it until dawn. The police tell Shula to keep away from the body so passersby don't get any ideas regarding their role in the scenario.

Much of the rest of the picture involves Shula's family - which is dominated by several aunts who make their grief well known by constantly wailing - trying to work out the details for the funeral. The aunts are feisty and like to dictate, and they treat Uncle Fred's younger wife - with whom he seemingly has a lot of young children - pretty cruelly.

But there's clearly something going on that we can't quite put a finger on. Shula is pretty hush-hush about her past experiences with Fred, while Nsansa tells a somewhat humorous story about how he tried to force himself on her, but bumbled his way through it and failed. Not so humorous is how their other cousin, Bupe (Esther Singini), seemingly suffered through such a scenario over and over again. We get the sense that his failure with Nsansa wasn't replicated with Bupe.

"On Becoming a Guinea Fowl" takes its time getting where it's going. There's an expression about how it takes a village to raise a child, but in the case of this film it can be posited that a village can also corrupt the lives of the young by sweeping the crimes of one of its members under the rug. And that's exactly what is going on with Shula's family. When she mentions Fred's mistreatment of the family's younger women, she is told to leave the past in the past and that whatever wrongs he did will be buried with him.

There's an interesting sequence late in the picture in which we see a cartoon that Shula and her cousins must have watched as children. It describes the guinea fowl, a bird that has a loud screech that it uses to warn its herd when predators are lurking. This concept is used to great effect in the film's semi-surreal finale.

I have yet to see Ryoni's previous film, the acclaimed "I Am Not a Witch," but this new one proves that she has her own unique visual style and storytelling devices. This is a film that requires some patience, but it ultimately ends on a note that is thematically compelling and more than a little harrowing. Those with a taste for offbeat cinema will likely find it of interest. 

Review: Black Bag

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

Steven Soderbergh's lean, twisty "Black Bag" is my favorite of the director's two 2025 first-quarter movies - his other, the first-person ghost story "Presence," was also of interest. The picture, which clocks in at just above 90 minutes, is an espionage thriller and dissection of a marriage with almost no fat and superb leading performances by the always reliable Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender.

The film gets right down to business as spy George (Fassbender) is given a tip-off that there's a traitor in his organization and he receives a list that includes five names - one of whom is his wife, Kathryn (Blanchett). Other names on the list include Freddie (Tom Burke), a cocky friend whom George passed over for a promotion; Burke's date, a young surveillance worker named Clarissa (Marisa Abela); Zoe, a psychiatrist for the organization (Naomie Harris); and James (Rege-Jean Page), a go-getter who received the aforementioned promotion and the boyfriend of Zoe.

After the tip-off, George plans a dinner party in which he invites all of the suspects and slips a little truth serum into the food. He plays a game with them in which he asks each person to come up with a resolution for the person sitting to the right of them. This causes a scene when Clarissa takes Freddie to task over his cheating. Zoe and James also strike a cold tone with each other.

Meanwhile, although it appears that George is investigating his own wife, it also hints that he might be doing so not so much to out her as the possible traitor - and the evidence, at this point, seems to suggest that she's the most likely one to fit the bill - but to figure out how to protect her. Pierce Brosnan plays the head of the British spy agency where all of the characters work, and he is leading the charge to figure out who the mole is.

The traitor in the organization has supposedly stolen and attempted to sell information about a program known as Severus that can apparently cause a country's meltdown by triggering a nuclear reactor. In this case, it has been purchased by Russian dissidents who want to use it against Russia, but doing so would lead to the death of many innocent people. 

While "Black Bag" is a sleek spy thriller, it is also an engaging film about a marriage - in this case, one in which both spouses are involved in a high-stakes line of business in which lying comes second-hand and trust can be dangerous. Whenever one of the characters has to run off for an assignment that's top secret, the explanation for their absence is "black bag," which is seemingly spy lingo to notify the other person that they can't divulge any information.

The film begins with a dinner scene and ends with what appears to be another, although George assembles the same characters instead for the purpose of playing a game. The film ends on a more playful note and a hint that what we should have been focusing on the entire time in "Black Bag" was less the labyrinthine plot mechanics revolving around Severus and more George and Kathryn's marriage. 

This makes Soderbergh's film stand out in this particular genre. This is a film more interested in the nature of truth and fabrication in the relationships involving all of the picture's principle characters, but most notably George and Kathryn, than it is being your typical spy movie. As such, "Black Bag" is an engaging, well acted, and unique spin on this genre.

Review: Opus

Image courtesy of A24.

Bearing some similarities to 2022's "The Menu," Mark Anthony Green's "Opus" also focuses on a reclusive artist who calls a group of people to a secluded place to unveil something. Hint: It's not something good. Although a horror film, the picture is also a social satire on celebrity culture and those in the media who perpetuate it. Despite its flaws, this is also a film of its time - a story that involves a form of mass hypnosis and a complicit media that is willing to help put viewers in the trance.

The film follows the resurgence of Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich), whom we are to believe was the biggest pop star of the 1990s. His musical style - created for the film by Niles Rodgers & the Dream - sounds like a mixture of club music with an occasional touch of mystical indie pop. In the film, however, Malkovich dresses more like Elton John and - it's noted by another character - goes through six costume changes in a period of hours.

Moretti has been absent for nearly 30 years and he has resurfaced with a new album titled "Caesar's Request" that he intends to unveil to a select group of journalists at his compound in the Utah desert. The group includes a social media influencer (Stephanie Suganami), a past Moretti nemesis (Mark Sivertsen), a TV journalist (Juliette Lewis), a paparazzi (Melissa Chambers), a shady magazine editor (Murray Bartlett) and one of his cub reporters, Ariel (Ayo Edebiri), from whose perspective the story is told.

Ariel is surprised to get the invite as she is a nobody compared to the rest of those gathered. And there are many gathered. Moretti's compound is filled with people dressed in blue robes who seemingly spend their days practicing archery, painting, or taking part in a number of artistic endeavors. Each guest has a personal assistant for the weekend who takes service to the next level by essentially stalking their guest's every move.

Ariel is right to start thinking that things are off, even when the others just explain it away by Moretti's eccentricities. During one scene, Moretti takes Ariel to a spot on the property where people cut open shells searching for oysters to include in their necklaces. This explains the cuts all over everyone's hands. Each of the guests are made to wear specific outfits and Ariel is disconcerted when she is told that every visitor is forced to undergo a shaving of their private area. All of this, of course, screams cult and Ariel starts to fear for her life.

During the film's setup - which takes up a large chunk of the picture - "Opus" does a decent job of building suspense and creating intrigue. When things finally go haywire, it loses its grip. It's easy to see where everything is going and the film becomes less convincing once the bloody mayhem begins. There's a final scene that involves somewhat of a plot twist that is intriguing, but it's an idea that should, perhaps, have been introduced earlier to get more out of it.

"Opus" ultimately doesn't stick the landing, but it's an engaging enough journey for its first two-thirds. Edebiri is solid as Ariel, a curious reporter who is smarter and more talented than most give her credit for, especially her arrogant boss (Bartlett). 

Malkovich, not surprisingly, is the main draw here and it's clear he's having a ball playing such a deranged weirdo. I might not exactly buy Malkovich as a pop star, but his performance as Moretti is so off the wall that I was willing to play along. The film might be somewhat of a mixed bag, but the elements that work here nearly make up for those that do not.

Review: Mickey 17

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

Bong Joon Ho's latest, "Mickey 17," is his third dystopian science fiction film that focuses on disparity and authoritarianism after "Snowpiercer" and "Okja." It's also his first since the Oscar-winning "Parasite," which also told a story of the haves and have nots.

The picture works for the most part and is, on the whole, enjoyable, although it also one of the director's more minor works. If "Parasite" and "Memories of Murder" represent the South Korean filmmaker working at his peak, and "Okja" and "Snowpiercer" are his second tier, his latest is more on the level of "Mother" or "The Host."

The film pulls some elements from our current political climate. Mickey (Robert Pattinson) and his partner in crime (Steven Yeun) are on the run from a gangster after their plans for a restaurant fall through and they can't pay him back. They hop a ride aboard a ship heading to a distant planet. 

Timo (Yeun) is talented enough to land a gig as a pilot, while poor Mickey ends up volunteering to be an "expendable," an individual who is basically used as a guinea pig and dies over and over again. His memories and DNA are used to print out a new copy of him and he basically picks up where he left off each time a new version of him is created. The deaths are presented as comical and absurd - viruses, being stranded in space, etc. - and he comes to view death as an annoyance.

On board the ship, Mickey meets Nasha (Naomi Ackie), with whom he falls in love, and the mission into space is led by a lunatic former politician named Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo, still in "Poor Things" mode) who failed at an attempt to run for office and has a massive ego, but is all the while pretty unintelligent - sound familiar? His wife (Toni Collette), who is obsessed with making sauces, is nearly as bad as he is.

However, Mickey is sent on a mission that leads to a cave where is presumed dead after being surrounded by a large group of creatures that Marshall nicknames "creepers." But rather than kill Mickey, they help him out of the cave. All the while, a newer, more arrogant version of Mickey (18) has been printed out. When 17 and 18 meet, they become enemies, vying for Nasha's attentions and making several attempts to snuff each other out.

There are some interesting elements in the film about the lower class rising up against the upper crust - which eventually comes to a head due to Marshall's intolerable behavior - but the subtext revolving around the creepers that has to do with colonization and immigration are more subtle, almost to a fault. 

Pattinson deserves credit for his commitment to such a wacky performance, portraying two very different versions of Mickey. Having gotten used to him playing more serious or stoic roles over the years, this performance enables the actor to stretch his comedic muscles. 

Overall, I was mostly amused by "Mickey 17" and, as is customary for a Bong Joon Ho film, it's great to look at. After a film that leaves so much to chew on like "Parasite," it seems inevitable that the follow up might pale a little in comparison. In terms of the director's sci-fi output, "Snowpiercer" and "Okja" are superior. "Mickey 17" is fun and plays with some interesting ideas that are relevant to our increasingly dystopian society, but it's more of a lark when compared to its director's overall body of work.