Review: Secret Mall Apartment

Image courtesy of Submarine Entertainment.

What is it exactly that qualifies something as art? Must it be an object or can it be an act? Is it required to be permanent or can it be fleeting? These are all questions that are posed - but not necessarily answered - in Jeremy Workman's documentary "Secret Mall Apartment," which is about a group of Providence, Rhode Island artists who found a vacant spot in a massive mall in the early 2000s and created an apartment, where they were able to spend time unnoticed by anyone for about four years.

The idea for the apartment was borne during a debate in Providence during the late 1990s over how spaced was used. The city, at that point, had seen better days and its administration thought the best way to revitalize it would be to create a massive luxury shopping center. Many of the communities who lived in proximity to it opposed the mall because, as they argued, they couldn't afford to shop there and would soon be squeezed out of the area when property taxes went up.

All of this turned out to be true, including the demolition of a beloved spot for artists and local musicians known as Fort Thunder, which hosted underground concerts and space for burgeoning local artists of varying kinds. One of the artists associated with the spot, Michael Townsend, noticed a place during the mall's construction that seemed to be empty and was far away from the stores and pretty much everything else. He correctly assumed that the room was intended for storage of some sort, but was later forgotten.

Michael and some friends broke into the room and decided to create an apartment for a select group of artists where they could hang out. A group of eight artists - including Michael's then-girlfriend Adriana Valdez Young - bought furniture in the mall and then lugged it up to the room. There's a harrowing sequence of them pushing a couch up a steep ladder in the upper regions of the mall.

"Secret Mall Apartment" is the story of how these eight artists spent time in the apartment - although none of them actually lived there - unobserved for about four years. As such, it's a well-made and interesting documentary feature. It should be noted that when law enforcement eventually cracked down, it was only Michael who faced any sort of repercussions (they were surprisingly minimal), so it's interesting that all other seven artists basically outed themselves by participating in the film.

But while the story of the apartment is interesting enough, if not quite mind blowing, it's the other endeavors of the artists that are most interesting in the picture - namely, a unique onsite sculpture involving mannequins that Michael put together under a bridge in Providence prior to the mall apartment and his group's "tape art" that they used to decorate a local hospital and then placed all over New York City in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in an effort to honor the lives of every person who died at the World Trade Center site.

Of course, this art's format is tape, making it ephemeral, and there's some interesting discussion in the film about how Michael views art and how many of his own works are short-lived and only live on in photos. There's also an argument made in the film that the apartment itself was a work of art, and one of the less compelling elements of the documentary involves another artist trying to recreate it some years later. 

A film like "Man on Wire" is, perhaps, a more memorable documentary on what exactly can define art - in that case, a tightrope artist walking between the World Trade Center towers in the 1970s - than "Secret Mall Apartment." Perhaps, it's because the stakes are lower in this film. Regardless, it's a mostly interesting documentary about a region-specific art movement that you've probably never heard of, but will likely find compelling nevertheless.

Review: Another Simple Favor

Image courtesy of Amazon.

Paul Feig's "Another Simple Favor," a sequel to the quasi-popular 2018 film "A Simple Favor," is one of those sequels where it appeared that the entire cast wanted to vacation in a gorgeous spot, so they built an entire film around it, kind of like Adam Sandler has been doing in recent years.

Against all odds, the film brings the two lead characters from the original back together again and introduces a slew of new ones - there are Italian mobsters, FBI agents, book agents, twins, creepy aunties whom we didn't know existed, and various others - and plops them all down on the gorgeous Italian island of Capri.

As the film opens, the once-mousy Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick), who is now an author, albeit not quite a best-selling one, and true crime online influencer (is this a thing?), is promoting the book about her experiences with murderess Emily (Blake Lively) when the latter pops up at a book signing and basically threatens to sue Stephanie if she doesn't attend her wedding in Capri. The explanation for why she's no longer in prison for murdering her father and sister is flimsy at best.

Suddenly, Stephanie is in Capri with a book agent (Alex Newell), a character who does not need to exist for the purposes of this movie, and Emily, but also Sean (Henry Golding), the sort-of ex of each of them, as well as Dante (Michele Morrone), the beefy scion of an Italian mob family that is at war with another family that, for whatever reason, will be attending the wedding.

Elizabeth Perkins pops up as Emily's mother, while Allison Janney is a mysterious aunt whose behavior gets stranger by the moment. There's also a bumbling FBI agent (Taylor Ortega) who is following Stephanie around and Portia (Elena Sofia Ricci), Dante's unfriendly and seemingly sociopathic mother. There's also another character who becomes integral late in the film whom I can't discuss without giving away spoilers.

Needless to say, Stephanie is skeptical as to why Emily wants her there, and isn't comforted much when Emily regales her with a tale of a god who brought people to the island to entertain him and, when they didn't, threw them off the cliff.

Shortly after everyone's arrival, a murder occurs - and then another. There's a lot going on in this film - some of it amusing, some of it not so much - and the picture often feels like it's juggling numerous plot lines, styles, and genres. Sometimes it's funny, while at other times it plays up the murder-mystery element Occasionally, a character might be charming or funny, only to be later revealed as a lunatic.

"Another Simple Favor" has its moments - the tete a tetes between Stephanie and Emily are occasionally amusing - and there are some scenes I could have done without, especially a sequence involving the usage of a truth serum. The original 2018 film was one that didn't really need a sequel, yet the finale of this one hints at more to come. 

This is a film that could be described as busy. Juggling multiple storylines can lead to success if each of the plot lines are intriguing. Some of the ones in "Another Simple Favor" are amusing enough, but others fizzle out, resulting in a sequel that's only intermittently successful and, more often than not, running on fumes.

Review: The Shrouds

Image courtesy of Janus Films.

Everyone has their own manner of processing grief, and occasionally some methods might veer toward the unusual. In David Cronenberg's latest film, "The Shrouds," which was conceived of in the wake of the loss of Cronenberg's wife to cancer, the central character, Karsh (Vincent Cassel), uses methods that are off-putting to women as he attempts to get back on the dating scene. 

In one of the film's opening scenes, his latest date is taken aback to learn that Karsh - who owns both a cemetery, restaurant located on the cemetery's property, and a company known as GraveTech that acts as an Internet-connected mausoleum - has created technology that allows grieving people to watch their loved ones decompose within their graves. 

Why would anyone want to do this? Karsh explains that he was with his wife every step of their lives since they met and feels horrible to think that her body is alone in its grave. Therefore, he and GraveTech's users can log onto a screen in which they see their loved one's body within the grave. In the casket, they are covered by "shrouds" with cameras in somewhat of a reference to the Shroud of Turin.

But something is afoot. One night, the mausoleum is vandalized, with several of the graves having been overturned, and Karsh is locked out of the technology that allows him to view his wife's body. Could it be the Russians or the Chinese, whom he is told might be trying to compete with his technology? Is it an act of protest from a group denouncing the moral implications of the technology? Could it have something to do with his wife's relationship with the doctor that treated her whom Karsh never met, but suspects something of a romantic element might have been taking place?

He gets paranoid suggestions from Terry (Diane Kruger), a dog groomer and twin sister of his wife, Becca (also Kruger) as well as a conspiracy theorist. He gets more tech-savvy answers from Terry's ex-husband, the nebbish Maury (Guy Pearce). Karsh also gets involved with the blind wife (Sandrine Holt) of a Hungarian billionaire who wants to utilize the technology as his own impending death from illness looms - and there's a possibility that this scenario might play a role in the mysterious sabotage.

Cronenberg has long been known as the king of body horror, which derives from so many of his films having to do with the horrors of the body's ailment, whether it's the gooey remake of "The Fly," the twisted tale of twin doctors "Dead Ringers," the recent surgery-heavy "Crimes of the Future," the medically-themed "The Brood," or "Videodrome," a film about losing the sense of one's reality that suggests "leaving the old flesh behind."

In many ways, "The Shrouds" also feels like an answer to the director's moniker. Throughout the film, Karsh has dreams in which Becca comes to his bed nude at night and her body is seen slowly disintegrating from her disease. At one point, she shows up with a missing breast or an arm. During a scene in which they cuddle, her hip suddenly snaps because of the frailty of her bones. While Cronenberg's body horror movies suggested the frailty of the flesh, his latest is based on the very real horrors of the body's wasting away due to age or disease.

While I liked "The Shrouds" and found its labyrinthine conspiracy theories compelling and mysterious, the picture ranks more in the realm of some of his more recent films such as "Maps to the Stars" or "Cosmopolis," rather than some of the aforementioned body horror classics or the work from his highly productive late 20th century-early 21st century period - for example, "Crash," "Spider," "A History of Violence," "Eastern Promises" or "A Dangerous Method."

Cassell makes a compelling lead as a seemingly Cronenbergian stand-in and the rest of cast - Kruger playing double duty, Pearce as the squirrelly technology expert, and Holt as the mysterious wife of the Hungarian billionaire - are also good. Despite some squirmy sequences involving decomposing corpses, "The Shrouds" is a bit milder than some of the director's other films, especially the recent, grim "Crimes of the Future." It's not one of his best, but it's possibly his most personal and overall a good film.

Movie Review: Sinners

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” may at times feel like a riff on Robert Rodriguez’s “From Dusk Till Dawn” and, sure enough, the final third of the picture is fairly similar to that one – but this is also a movie with much more on its mind and, for the most part, works as a period piece, gangster drama set in the South and somewhat a musical that touches on race and, yes, features vampires.

Not all of this necessarily works, but overall Coogler’s latest – a big budget studio film that is a nice reprieve from all the IP, sequels, and reboots – is an engaging picture. It also helps that it has such a strong cast, from Michael B. Jordan playing two former mob-affiliated brothers, Hailee Steinfeld as a family affiliate who had an affair with one of the brothers, Wunmi Mosaku as the former lover of the other brother, Miles Canton as a cousin and budding musician, and the always-great, scene-stealing Delroy Lindo as another musician.

There’s a lot going on in “Sinners,” but the general premise is that Smoke and Stack (Jordan) – considering how much this film is indebted to the blues, I can only assume that these names were inspired by a certain Howlin’ Wolf song – are brothers who previously did jobs for Al Capone in Chicago and, in 1932 Mississippi, have returned home to open a juke joint in the middle of nowhere.

They enlist the help of Sammy (Canton), a shy cousin who is gifted with the guitar, and Delta Slim (Lindo), a cranky harmonica player, to provide music on opening night. Mosaku’s Annie – with whom Smoke once had a child who died – will help run the joint, while store owner Grace (Li Jun Li) and her husband will mind the bar. A large man named Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller) will provide security. A seemingly shady man sells the brothers the building and swears that the Ku Klux Klan is no longer active in the area, upon their inquiry on the matter.

The film’s first third does a nice job of establishing its many characters and what their relationships are to each other. The picture is gorgeously shot and its first section involves numerous scenes of its characters making their way through sunny, but isolated, landscapes. The film’s middle portion involves the opening night. And the final section involves the event’s intrusion by a trio of white vampires – who also happen to be in a band – as they lure guests outside, pick them off one by one, and form a small army that’s ready to invade the juke joint, that is, if they’re invited in.

Not every scene in the film works. For example, during Sammy’s debut, Coogler and company make a strange stylistic choice by portraying various types of artists of consequence through the ages – from African dancers to men on electric guitars and even a DJ scratching a record – hanging out in the juke as the music plays. I’m sure there’s a point to be made here about the power of music and those who possess the quality to transfix others by playing it, but it comes off as half baked.

Also, the final confrontation with the vampires comes off a bit rushed after what felt like a significant amount of buildup. However, a semi-cathartic scene following that when Smoke takes on some Klan members more than makes up for it.

In recent years, Coogler has primarily been making films that might qualify as existing IP – “Creed” or “Black Panther” sequels – that were good, if not earth shattering. This is the first original film he has made since “Fruitvale Station” and while it doesn’t reach the levels of that powerful, lower budget picture, it’s still an engaging movie that juggles a variety of genres and concepts, mostly in a smooth manner. All in all, it’s pretty good.

Review: Warfare

Image courtesy of A24.

If nothing else, director Alex Garland's "Warfare" is an example of impressive execution. The film, based on the actual experiences of co-director Ray Mendoza, throws you right into the melee of being under fire in an intense standoff between American forces and Iraqi jihadists in 2006. As such, it's a gripping experience that is likely to make you queasy.

But much like Garland's 2024 film "Civil War," another example of an impressively executed scenario, the film is lacking in other areas that might have made it even more compelling. In the case of the previous film, I thought that the director took a disturbing scenario that has clearly been on the minds of many Americans and made an intense thriller out of the material without providing much insight or perspective. 

Likewise, "Warfare" is gripping because of the nature of what it's about and due to the execution of the scenario, but it provides little in the way of context - or even characterization. We hardly know any of the characters' names or much else about them. We certainly don't see the jihadists firing upon them, at least not much more than brief glimpses. We don't know how or why the scenario unfolded, other than that this group of NAVY Seals is cornered in a house and is nearly blown to tatters by people firing on the house.

Now, there's some argument to be made that doing so is a way of refuting Francois Truffaut's assertion that there's no such thing as an anti-war movie. That comment was made to point out that by investing audiences in characters set against war backdrops and the exciting nature of such stories glamorize the experience. "Warfare" does no such thing. We know little about the individuals involved and the scenario that unfolds is merely horrifying - and not exciting in the traditional manner in which a war movie might be presented.

As the film opens, the group of Seals, led by a character portrayed by Will Poulter, bust into an Iraqi home in the middle of the night. They argue that they're there to protect the family inside, although it really comes off as more of a hostage situation if we're being honest. The first 30 minutes of the picture does a solid job of capturing the occasional boredom of participating in a war. The men mostly sit around the house, looking through rifle scopes at the streets outside and listening in as they receive information and direction from their superiors via radio.

At one point, a soldier spots some men entering a house across the street holding weapons. Shortly thereafter, a grenade is thrown through the window into the house and an attack ensues. A tank is called in to rescue the men, but is blown up, critically injuring two of the men (played by Cosmo Jarvis and Joseph Quinn), who spend much of the rest of the film bleeding and screaming as the others try to hold their wounds together.

A second platoon is sent in as a rescue mission and the final quarter of the film involves the two groups of men trying to extricate themselves from the house while firing upon the mostly unseen assailants surrounding it. The film has a "you are here" style of pseudo-documentary filmmaking that is effective and unrelenting.

But what "Warfare" ends up being is mostly an exercise. It's an effective one, but it's nothing more and nothing less than watching a grueling wartime scenario play out in real time. Both "Civil War" and "Warfare" deserve praise for their execution - but unlike some of Garland's previous works, such as the screenplay for Danny Boyle's great "28 Days Later" as well as the solid "Ex Machina" and "Annihilation," there's not much deeper under the surface. It's an example of a well-made portrayal of things that happened without much in the way of context, characterization, or perspective.

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.

Review: Last Breath

Image courtesy of MetFilm Production.

I wanted to like director Alex Parkinson's "Last Breath," a true story disaster film, a little more than I did, considering some extraordinary elements of the events that took place. The film tells the story of a diving team that is sent to the ocean's floor to work on some pipes, but one of them is left stranded after his umbilical tether gets snagged, leaving him with only several minutes of oxygen left in his tank.

The film takes the somewhat formulaic approach of men who have a tough job going through the routines of their work. There's not a whole lot in the way of character formation - Woody Harrelson is the jovial diver Duncan who is nearing retirement age but not ready to call it quits, Simu Liu is the gruff and all-business-all-the-time diver Dave, and Finn Cole is Chris, the diver who gets stuck below and has a girlfriend to whom he promises he will return safely.

Above the water is the team of technicians who work frantically to correct the desperate situation below. The team includes Cliff Curtis as the captain and MyAnna Buring as one of the technicians. Most of the scenes involving these characters finds them furrowing brows while things go south at the ocean's bottom.

The main problem with "Last Breath" is that it takes an incident - albeit a harrowing one that is good for creating drama - that could have made for a compelling 30-minute TV episode and stretched it out to the length of a feature. Much of the dialogue involves people shouting out commands or expressing concerns.

Some of the underwater photography is engaging from a visual standpoint, but there are also times when the murkiness of the ocean's depths makes it a bit difficult for viewers to see exactly what's going on. The script's dialogue is primarily expository dialogue when its characters aren't spouting platitudes.

I've probably made the film sound worse than it actually is. At its core, "Last Breath" is a movie about men working perilous jobs and finding themselves in a terrifying situation that has a resolution that somewhat defies the odds. As such, it's engrossing enough and some obvious tension helps move along the proceedings. 

But at the risk of repeating myself: What could have made for a gripping half-hour of TV feels like an overly long telling of a story that probably took a total of about 30 minutes in real life, but has somehow turned into a 90-minute movie.

Review: The Monkey

Image courtesy of Neon.

Add Osgood Perkins' gory, death obsessed Stephen King adaptation "The Monkey" to the increasingly large pile of 2025 horror movies that featured elements I admired, even if the entire film didn't completely work for me. That list includes "Heart Eyes," "Companion," and "The Damned." Perkins' latest is more of a comedy (albeit a bloody one) than a straight-up horror movie and the only real suspense is who might survive.

"Everybody dies and that's life," one character in the film tells a young boy who has seen his share of trauma. And that pretty much is what "The Monkey" is about - that death is coming for all of us, and its timing is something beyond our control or comprehension, although most of us likely won't face the same gory deaths that the folks in this picture do.

Based on the King short story from the "Skeleton Crew" collection, "The Monkey" plays like a chapter of "Final Destination" by way of W.W. Jacobs' "The Monkey's Paw," but the increasingly grotesque body count is played more for laughs at the outrageousness of it all.

At the film's beginning, a father (Adam Scott) tries to return the titular object - a stuffed monkey with a drum and sticks as well as a creepy dead-eyed stare - to a pawn shop, but fails. His two sons - twins Hal and Bill Shelburne (played by Christian Convery as children and Theo James as adults) - are cursed to discover the object's horrific power at an early age as it first claims their mother and then pretty much anyone else who crosses their path.

Some years later, Hal is intentionally estranged from Bill, who bullied his brother when they were younger, as well as from his son, Petey (Colin O'Brien), whom he fears would be in danger should he be in any proximity to his father. Although it has been years since the monkey wreaked havoc, the bodies start piling up again and there's a plot twist as to why.

And boy, do the bodies pile up. People fall victim to beheading, evisceration, impaling, shotgun blasts to various parts of the body, being stung to death by wasps, electrocution, aneurysm, and being trampled by horses. All of this would have been significantly more disturbing if most of these preposterous deaths weren't played for laughs.

Perkins is a talented director and much of this film's success is due to this. His "The Blackcoat's Daughter" was a menacing thriller and last year's "Longlegs" was one of the best serial killer films of recent memory. 

So, while "The Monkey" is an amusing take on life's random cruelty, it feels like a bit of a step down from the director's most recent film. You might be amused by the film's outlandishness and there's a little more to it thematically than your typical horror movie, but it feels like more of a lark when weighed against this director's more somber and unsettling body of work.

Review: Becoming Led Zeppelin

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. 

If you're interested in gossip or dirt about Led Zeppelin, then Bernard MacMahon's documentary "Becoming Led Zeppelin" is likely not for you. At one point, lead singer Robert Plant mentions that there were a "lot of drugs and girls" at one point during the band's meteoric rise, but that's about all you get in terms of the band's somewhat wild reputation.

If you're interested in the music of Led Zeppelin - which I am - then you'll likely get a lot out of this band-sanctioned documentary that interviews the three remaining members of the band (Plant, guitar virtuoso and band mastermind Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones). There's some great concert footage, a fair amount of information about the group's members that you likely didn't know, and of course a lot of great music.

My only slight disappointment - and this is only a personal one, not having anything to do with the film or how it was made - is that the picture focuses solely on the band's beginning and, therefore, zeroes in primarily on their first two records. Of course, those two albums are rock 'n roll classics, but so are albums three through six, so it was a little disappointing that we didn't make it that far into the band's career during the film's two-hour running time.

But Martin Scorsese once said that cinema is the totality of everything that's on the screen - and so, in this case, focusing on Led Zeppelin's first 18 months is obviously a choice. But there are a lot of great tidbits of which I was completely unaware. For instance, I had no idea that early on Page predominately worked as a session musician, providing backup for Donovan and numerous others. I also had no clue that both Page and Jones are playing backup on the theme to the James Bond film, "Goldfinger."

Page and Jones had worked together and so had Plant and Bonham, who died in 1980 but whose archival interviews blend nicely with those of the other band members in terms of what's being discussed in this film. Page first saw success with The Yardbirds and then took over that band when Jeff Beck fled. At first, Led Zeppelin performed as a new iteration of The Yardbirds but, as we learn here, changed their name based on a suggestion by The Who's Keith Moon. Like I said, lots of interesting tidbits here. It also helps that all three of the film's living subjects are articulate and good storytellers. 

But the film's raison d'etre is the use of its concert footage, much of which - I believe - has never appeared in a documentary or been seen by a wide audience, other than those who were in attendance at the shows. So, there are some blistering live performances of "Whole Lotta Love," "Ramble On," "What Is and What Never Should Be," and "Dazed and Confused" as well as one of "Communication Breakdown" that seems to be bursting with manic energy. This is a movie you'll want to see in a theater with a good sound system. It's loud and may literally rattle you - but there's really no other way to experience it.

Review: I'm Still Here

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures.

Although it's set in early 1970s Brazil, director Walter Salles' Oscar-nominated "I'm Still Here" resonates in a profoundly disturbing way at this given moment. The film follows the story of the family of Rubens Paiva, a former congressman, after he is taken prisoner by the country's military dictatorship and his wife, Eunice (a fierce Fernanda Torres), searches for answers.

The film takes a long and patient approach to the material. Its length is meant to convey the long, arduous journey that Eunice and her five children went through as they waited for news of their husband and father. At one point in the narrative, Eunice and one of her daughters, Eliana (Luiza Kosovski), are taken in for questioning and Eunice languishes for what seems like weeks in a dank cell.

The reason for Rubens' arrest, despite that it has been years since he was involved in Brazilian politics, is that the country's dictatorship is seemingly rounding up anyone that it might deem to be a threat. There are accusations that Rubens was abetting terrorists, which Eunice sees as ludicrous, but her disinterested tormenters just keep repeating the same questions.

The film starts in 1970, skips ahead late in the film to 1995 when the Brazilian government began to release information on those who disappeared during those horrific days, and finally to a 2014 family reunion in which Eunice, still alive at age 85, seems haunted still, although we learn that she suffered from Alzheimer's later in life.

The film, which boasts gorgeous cinematography and a great soundtrack of Brazilian music as well as a terrific performance by Torres, is Salles' best since his 2004 "The Motorcycle Diaries," one of the better Che Guevara chronicles. And much like that film, "I'm Still Here" is about an educated individual who becomes politically active after witnessing first-hand the cruelty of politics.

Grounded by Torres' powerful performance, the film is an often nerve-wracking experience as it places us inside the household of a family whose patriarch has been disappeared by a corrupt political regime. There are a few dramatic moments - the scene in which Rubens is arrested is pretty tense and the sequences in the police barracks where Eunice is kept while questioned are scary - but the film's overall tone does a great job of capturing the devastating effect of not knowing. 

We see the years pass and while the family, due to its determination to stick together and their becoming activists in one form or fashion, gradually heals, all the while we know that below the surface they continue to suffer from not knowing the truth. Salles' film, which was a surprise Best Picture nominee at this year's Oscars, is a powerful political drama about a terrifying subject at a moment in time that is also greatly unsettling. 

Review: Heart Eyes

Image courtesy of Screen Gems.

Obviously inspired by the "Scream" films and blending the genre that Wes Craven's film revitalized with the rom com, "Heart Eyes" is a gory thriller that also doubles as a love story between two advertising copywriters. The film takes its love story seriously, while also not skimping on the gore, which it has in abundance.

Although its central story is somewhat half baked - and its ultimate explanation during the final scene is even more so - the premise is that a serial killer known as Heart Eyes targets young couples in love on Valentine's Day and hacks them to pieces. 

The picture opens at a winery where an obnoxious man is attempting to propose to an equally obnoxious woman, although both of them are prioritizing whether the moment is adequately caught by a photographer snapping photos from the woods. Needless to say, their moment is literally cut short.

In Seattle, a young ad copywriter named Ally (Olivia Holt) is struggling at her job after her difficult boss doesn't like her ad concept about doomed love - she references "Titanic," "Bonnie and Clyde," and "Romeo and Juliet" - to sell fancy rings. 

Earlier in the day, Ally has a Meet Cute with a smooth and charming fellow named Jay (Mason Gooding) at a coffee shop. However, she is none too pleased when she realizes that he's a star copywriter who has been brought in to fix her campaign. They don't exactly hit it off.

But that doesn't prevent the Heart Eyes Killer - who is in town for Valentine's Day to wreak havoc - from picking the duo to be among his victims after he sees them kiss. Unbeknownst to the killer, the kiss only occurred to make Ally's ex-boyfriend jealous after they bump into him while exiting a restaurant on Feb. 14.

Most of the film involves Ally and Jay - who are seemingly more resourceful than the other couples who are easy prey for the killer - attempting to escape Heart Eyes' clutches, while numerous others do not. This leads to beheadings, eye gouging, an inventive murder of a couple coupling in the back of a van, and multiple stabbings.

For the most part, "Heart Eyes" is fun and breezy on the rom com side and somewhat icky on the horror side. It's clever enough and Holt and Gooding have good chemistry. There's somewhat of a twist involving Heart Eyes' identity and while I could see that coming, I was underwhelmed when the killer gives the speech about the modus operandi. Truth be told, it's a little lame.

That being said, "Heart Eyes" is a mostly amusing blending of two genres that don't typically mesh. If it's a success, it'll likely face the endless parade of sequels that this type of film tends to generate. For now, at a moment when there's a glut of gory horror movies, this one is slightly better than average.

Review: Companion

Image courtesy of New Line Cinema.

How much do we want to humanize AI? Do we want our computers and gadgets thinking for themselves? Some of the lazier variety, perhaps, want the items they own to anticipate the need, so to speak, thereby making humans almost useless - which, come to think of it, is what AI might end up doing anyway.

These questions are not exactly pondered in Drew Hancock's "Companion," a film that I must refer to as a horror movie, even though it's not particularly frightening, even while it's often gory and isn't funny enough to be considered a comedy. But they are thoughts that I pondered afterward.

I'm not going to be able to discuss the movie at any length without giving away a major spoiler - assuming that it even is one at this point - but you've been warned. In the film, a guy who the filmmakers want you to believe is a nice one, Josh (Jack Quaid), but who you secretly know probably isn't, takes his seemingly docile girlfriend, Iris (Sophie Thatcher), to a secluded cabin for a weekend getaway.

They are joined there by a woman named Kat (Megan Suri), who seemingly doesn't like Iris, as well as a creepy Russian named Sergey (an unrecognizable Rupert Friend), and a gay couple - Eli (Harvey Guillen) and Patrick (Lukas Gage). Something seems off from the beginning, especially when Josh tells Sergey that he's welcome to spend the morning at the beach alone with Iris, while he and Kat remain at the house where they're all staying.

A death occurs and it comes out that - in case you hadn't guessed it - Iris is a robot, albeit a lifelike one who dotes on the every need of its companion and has sex with them. But there's a plot afoot among some of the characters and Iris is quickly seen as a liability - and a scapegoat - in the scenario. Josh tries to shut her down but she escapes, and spends much of the rest of the film trying to stay away from the other characters and, in some instances, being captured and abused by them.

There's clearly something to be said in this film about toxic masculinity. Josh naturally thinks he's a good guy, despite the overwhelming evidence that he is not - and he treats women poorly, regardless of whether they're human beings or robots. 

But while "Companion" could have also had something to say about whether it's a good idea to give robots minds of their own - as the "Terminator" films did - this one is clearly in the AI's corner because Iris is more likable than the horrendous Josh or Sergey. Instead, there's simply a lot of plotting involving how Iris - and another character who is a robot - can be programmed or deprogrammed. 

"Companion" is amusing enough, and yet it's not quite enough, considering the topics it covers at this particular point in time. It has a few good laughs and it's occasionally gruesome, but the manner in which it addresses a capitalistic society in which everything is commodified, toxic masculinity, or the dangers of AI are mostly window dressing. The film has its moments, but I feel that it could have been more.

Review: Presence

Image courtesy of Neon.

The title of Steven Soderbergh's latest, an experimental first-person POV ghost story, does a lot of lifting. It refers not only to the presence that is haunting the house of the appropriately-named Payne family, but the lack of presence that the family members have in each other's lives.

As the film opens, the family visits a massive, recently renovated house and quickly cuts a check. Rebecca (Lucy Liu) is behind the push to purchase the house as she believes it will enable her jock son, Tyler (Eddy Maday), to get into a good school in the neighborhood where it's located. Rebecca's husband, Chris (Chris Sullivan), seems distracted and there's an occasional reference to some possibly shady behavior involving his wife from which he appears to be distancing himself.

And then, there's Chloe (Callina Liang), the film's lead character who is in the process of grieving her best friend's death to drugs. An element of mystery is introduced when we learn that Chloe's friend was one of two young women who died similarly from an overdose and that Chloe knew both of them. 

The young woman is noticably upset and the rest of the family mostly walks on eggshells around her, although her brother is prone to occasionally insensitive comments toward her and Rebecca, who clearly favors her son, shrugs and says that the only thing that can help Chloe is time. Chris points out - and possibly accurately - that this conclusion might have to do with the fact that it enables both he and his wife to do nothing about the situation. When the atmosphere in the house isn't funereal, it's tense.

And all of these proceedings are witnessed by a ghost who lingers in the house. It's not until late in the film when we learn whether the spirit is malevolent or benevolent, but it occasionally causes a disturbance by rattling shelves or glasses and makes things fall off the wall. During one unnerving sequence, it moves Chloe's books around and stacks them neatly.

Another character, Ryan (West Mulholland), a jock friend of Tyler's from his new school, is introduced a ways into the film and he will end up playing a central role. There's a scene late in the film involving him that is particularly chilling, although it's one of the few scenes in which the film loses the tight grip it has formed because there's too much expository dialogue in the sequence during a monologue that is delivered in a manner that isn't completely convincing.

"Presence" is a slow burn and, as such, it begins slowly before ultimately building to something powerful that makes an impact. It's one of Soderbergh's more experimental efforts - like "Bubble" or "The Girlfriend Experience" - but more so in terms of style and camera work, rather than narratively. Much like Robert Altman, Soderbergh is a director who likes to dabble in genres and put his own unique spin on them. As such, "Presence" is the first movie of 2025 that I can recommend.

The Best Movies of 2024

Image courtesy of A24.

Needless to say, 2024 was not a good year. For movies, it was a slow burn, starting off with a few highly recommended films and then ending with a bang following a gap in which only a few films of interest were released. 

It has been nowhere near as good as the banner year of cinema in 2023, but not so dire as some lesser years of recent memory. My top 20 this year had more genre - mostly horror - films than in recent years, and while my two favorites of the year were epics in length, my top 10 had some shorter entries than usual.

Three of the films in my top 10 were from actors-turned-directors, though to be fair one of them already had a few under his belt. Also, only two of my top 10 films this year were from directors who had previously cracked the list. The other eight were all newbies.

Also, while this wasn't one of the best years in film in recent memory, there were as always a number of films that just missed my top 20 that deserve to be recognized. These include: Malcolm Washington's "The Piano Lesson," Steve McQueen's "Blitz," Agnieszka Holland's "Green Border," Josh Greenbaum's "Will & Harper," Nuri Bilge Ceylan's "About Dry Grasses," and George Miller's "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga."

There are also a few acclaimed films that I have yet to see. Once I catch up with them, I'll add them to the top 20, if warranted. These include Aaron Schimberg's "A Different Man," Paul Schrader's "Oh Canada," Greg Kwedar's "Sing Sing," Mohammad Rasoulof's "The Seed of the Sacred Fig," Gints Zilbalodis' "Flow," Tim Mielants' "Small Things Like These," and Tim Fehlbaum's "September 5." Also, Francis Ford Coppola's "Megalopolis," which I liked, also deserves points for its sheer chutzpah and existence.

These are my 10 runners up (20-11) for 2024:

20. Nosferatu (Robert Eggers) - One of the better adaptations of Bram Stoker's novel in recent years. Atmospheric and cryptic. Reviewed here.
19. Oddity (Damian McCarthy) - Hands down, the scariest horror movie I've seen in recent years. This Irish picture is long on atmosphere and features some of the most gasp-inducing moments of recent memory.
18. The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders) - At a time of such discord, this lovely film is a good-hearted and gorgeously animated fable that will lift your spirits.
17. Juror #2 (Clint Eastwood) - This legal thriller/morality tale is Eastwood's best film in a few years. It deserved more attention than it got. Reviewed here.
16. Perfect Days (Wim Wenders) - Some might considered this a 2023 movie, but it didn't make it into wide release until February - so, in my book, it's fair game. Wender's film is his best in a long time and it makes a strong case for living a life of simplicity. Reviewed here.
15. Hit Man (Richard Linklater) - This film's tone often swings wildly, veering from comedy to romance to dark noir territory, but Linklater handles it all deftly. One of the year's most flat-out enjoyable films. Reviewed here.
14. A Complete Unknown (James Mangold) - While Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There" is the definitive Bob Dylan movie, Mangold's more traditional biopic is surprisingly engrossing, very well performed, and makes the wise choice of focusing on a specific period of the icon's career, rather than doing an all-encompassing career overview. Reviewed here.
13. Challengers (Luca Guadagnino) - The sexiest movie about tennis ever? Guadagnino's first (and best) of two films this year is a wildly entertaining sports movie and romantic triangle drama. Reviewed here. 
12. The Substance (Coralie Fargeat) - Nothing I can say will prepare you for the insanity of this horror/satire revolving around the pressure on women in Hollywood - and American society - to remain young-looking and beautiful. Demi Moore gives what is likely her best performance and viewers' jaws are likely to hit the floor again and again. Reviewed here.
11. Longlegs (Osgood Perkins) - Nothing more and nothing less than a great genre picture, Perkins' serial killer thriller is long on spooky atmosphere and unsettling imagery. Also, Nicolas Cage gives one of the year's most frightening performances. Reviewed here.

And, now, for the top 10:

10. I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun) - It took a little extracurricular reading before I fully got this occasionally dreamy, sometimes nightmarish allegory for gender dysphoria, but I grew to really like it. The film has mid-career Gregg Araki vibes, but with the low-fi style to which Schoenbrun fans have become accustomed. This one will stick in your memory. Reviewed here.
9. Woman of the Hour (Anna Kendrick) - One of the year's genuine surprises, Anna Kendrick's directorial debut is a true crime thriller about an actress who comes across a serial killer on a game show. Tense and chilling, this is a harrowing thriller about a society that doesn't listen to women's concerns. 
8. Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross) - It's a rare thing when I love a movie based on a book that I revere. This is likely because I prefer something new over adapting a story with which I'm already familiar. But in this case, Ross' adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer winner is something new - a first-person POV account of two young Black men who were abused at a reformatory school during the height of segregation. Unique and powerful. Reviewed here.
7. Conclave (Edward Berger) - Less about religion than it is about power structures, Berger's film about the choosing of a new pope plays like a paranoid 1970s thriller. It features a great Ralph Fiennes performance and a bevy of solid supporting performances as well as a genuinely surprising ending. Reviewed here.
6. All We Imagine as Light (Payal Kapadia) - As luminous as its title suggests, Payal Kapadia's directorial debut is a moving and visually gorgeous tale of sisterhood as well as a city symphony of Mumbai, where it is set. One of this year's biggest hits the Cannes Film Festival - and it's easy to see why. Reviewed here.
5. Anora (Sean Baker) - Although "The Florida Project" remains my favorite Baker joint, his latest is a crass, stylish, brassy, and all-around film that starts as a tale of amour fou before slowly transitioning into a chronicle of the haves vs. the have nots. Mikey Madison gives a star-making performance. A firecracker of a movie. Reviewed here.
4. Hard Truths (Mike Leigh) - If Leigh's "Happy Go Lucky" was the story of an overly pleasant person, then his latest is a chronicle of an overly unpleasant one. But in the case of both films, there's much more to it than that. A film about the difficulties of living in the modern world, which - I don't have to tell any of you - is a lot. Reviewed here.
3. A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg) - Eisenberg's sophomore feature is a major leap forward. Easily the year's funniest, but also among its most moving, the film suggests that it's an honorable thing to try to put oneself in another's shoes to understand their pain, but a lot harder than one might think. Reviewed here.
2. The Beast (Bertrand Bonello) - I saw this film back in April and have been thinking about it ever since. Although I'm still not 100 percent sure I could explain it to you, Bonello's latest is part period piece with Giallo touches, part futuristic Cronenbergian sci-fi chronicle, and part Lynchian surveillance thriller set in Los Angeles, with a Henry James short story as a jumping-off point and an overall concept having to do with the fear of falling in love. Reviewed here.
1. The Brutalist (Brady Corbet) - In this third film as a director, actor Brady Corbet aims for an American epic in the vein of "There Will Be Blood" or "Once Upon a Time in America," and succeeds, although the film's style and imagery clearly has been inspired by the European masters. "The Brutalist" is also fascinating in that it is many things at once - an immigration tale, a saga of how capitalism destroys art, and an increasingly mysterious story about obsession that culminates in an epilogue that shines a new light on the entire endeavor. Reviewed here.

Review: Nickel Boys

Image courtesy of MGM Studios.

It's often the case that my favorite movies are not based on great novels - and that my favorite novels are often better than the film adaptations. This is, perhaps, because I'd prefer to see something new, rather than a new representation of a story with which I'm familiar.

So, what makes director RaMell Ross' adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Nickel Boys" - a book that I loved - special is that it is something new. The basic concepts and characters of the novel remain intact, but Ross - who was best known up until now for the documentary "Hale County This Morning This Evening" - has taken an experimental approach to the material.

"Nickel Boys," the film, still tells the story of Elwood and Turner - two young Black men who suffer at the hands of the staff of a horrific reformatory school in Florida during the early 1960s - but the picture adopts the concept of seeing the world through someone else's eyes. The film has a first-person point-of-view format in which the audience is literally seeing through the eyes of either character at any given time - therefore, other characters address the camera when speaking to them, and so on.

This approach can be a little disconcerting, at first, but it also allows for a fair amount of compelling experimentation. Rather than going step-by-step through Whitehead's story - although it does follow it pretty faithfully - the film gives us snippets of what the two young men experience; just enough so that we can tell what's going on, but allowing the audience to fill in some of the story themselves.

Elwood (Ethan Herisse), a book-smart young man from Tallahassee, unfairly gets into trouble after he hitches a ride to college with the wrong man, a convict of some sorts, and winds up getting sent to the Nickel Academy. There, he meets Turner (Brandon Wilson), whose reason for being there is a little more nebulous. Elwood not only suffers from the mistreatment of the horrible men who run the place - especially Spencer (Hamish Linklater) - but also from other boys being held there.

Throughout the course of the story, which takes place from the early to late 1960s, we seen scenes from later years in one of the young men's lives, at times in the 1980s and possibly later. For reasons that those who've read the book will understand, we only see this character from behind. Some years later, he is still trying to process what happened to him at Nickel Academy, especially as the academy pops up in the news once bodies of some of the young men who were kept there are unearthed.

Due to the time in which it is mostly set, the story is interspersed with imagery from that era - the space race and shots of Martin Luther King Jr. giving speeches. But the film also takes an experimental approach, occasionally showing images - a few of which border on surreal - that aim to capture the essence of the Black experience in America. Most of these images are not familiar, but add to the film's occasional free-floating mood of melancholy.

This is not a film that will guide you step by step. There are scenes where, if you blink, you might miss what happened to a particular character. I was only able to fill in the blanks because I've read the book. Therefore, "Nickel Boys" is a film that involves active participation, and those who are willing to take on a challenge will be rewarded. 

This is an often devastating, frequently moving film about the struggle against societal bigotry, but it's also about perseverance, survival, and writing wrongs. For fans of the book, the film might not be the film version they'd expect, but it's a unique - and, ultimately, effective - approach to this story. I'd highly recommend it.

Review: The Brutalist

Image courtesy of A24.

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free," a character states early in Brady Corbet's epic "The Brutalist," quoting Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. Late in the picture, another notes during a speech at a celebration of sorts that she refutes the old adage that "it's not the destination, it's the journey," and believes the opposite, which certainly holds true for several of the main characters in this incredible film.

The picture's title refers to a type of architecture and its lead character, Laszlo Toth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian Jew who finds his way to the United States in the post World War II years after surviving a concentration camp with his wife and niece, is a practitioner of that particular style. However, the title could also refer to more than one of the film's characters, whose brutal treatment of others or themselves provides much of the drama in the movie.

The film opens with a remarkable sequence in which Brody is seen making his way through a rowdy crowd in tight quarters, and it's not until he has broken through to the daylight that we realize he is on a boat approaching Ellis Island in New York City. His first sight of the new world is the Statue of Liberty, but based on the boat's position in the water, we see the iconic monument inverted, which I'm sure is meant as a symbolic gesture.

After one of the more creative title sequences of recent memory, Toth makes his way to Philadelphia to meet up with his cousin, Attila (Alessandro Nivola), who emigrated to the U.S. some years before and runs a furniture business known as Miller & Sons. "Who's Miller?" Toth asks his cousin. This is, of course, the anglicized name he has taken to assimilate. 

The cousins get a job refurbishing a library after being hired by a man named Harry (Joe Alwyn), who wants to surprise his father, Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pearce), an extremely wealthy man, with the renovation. But while Laszlo and Atilla are working on the house, Harrison comes home and finds his home in disrepair, throws a fit, and kicks them out. Atilla blames Laszlo for the loss of the job and gives him the boot, sending him to live in a shelter, where he gives in to heroin addiction and befriends another immigrant named Gordon (Isaach de Bankole).

Some time later, Harrison seeks out Laszlo after discovering his work in a European architectural magazine and seems fascinated by him. During a dinner at Harrison's swank house, the wealthy man asks Laszlo why he chose architecture. Toth cites the destruction of the Holocaust and how his structures - like many great pieces of art - are built to survive for generations. "My buildings were designed to endure such erosion," Laszlo says.

Van Buren lures Laszlo with a new project that he wants him to build. It's meant to be a community center dedicated to Van Buren's late mother, but more keeps getting added to the project - a gymnasium, a reading room, a chapel - almost to the point of it being farcical. And yet, Laszlo tackles the project with the requisite seriousness and proposes a structure that is awe inspiring to Van Buren.

Laszlo is all but forced to move in with his benefactor, who utilizes his wealthy and powerful friends to help Laszlo's wife, Erzsebet (Felicity Jones), and a niece, Zsofia (Raffey Cassidy), who has been orphaned and will play an important role late in the picture, get to America. As time goes on, Harrison becomes more abusive toward Laszlo, culminating in an act that could best be described as past the point of no return, although there were a fair amount of indignities that preceded it.

One of the elements that makes "The Brutalist" so compelling is that while it's at once about many things, it is never pigeonholed into one particular storyline or theme. On the one hand, it's an epic about the immigrant experience, but it's also about how capitalism (in this case represented by Pearce's Van Buren) destroys art (represented by Toth) by attempting to control the artistic process and taking what it needs from it before tossing it aside.

The film is also about obsession and the prisons we create for ourselves. Van Buren's obsessions are fleeting and costly, whereas Toth's become all-consuming. There are a series of scenes in which he haggles over what seem to be some minor measurements regarding the structure he's building for Van Buren that take on a fascinating new meaning during the aforementioned speech given during the epilogue. This also ties back to the Goethe quote at the film's beginning in a compelling manner.

As the film nears its end, it becomes increasingly mysterious and some major acts that seemingly occur are either left to the imagination, or the audience is left to come up with its own reasons as to why they take place. At three hours and 35 minutes, this is a long film that takes a little work on the viewer's part. Its first half is the more propulsive, while the second is slower and becomes increasingly vaguer on the details. But there is major thematic payoff at the film's end.

There are many things to admire about this third film from actor-turned-director Corbet, whose first film, "The Childhood of a Leader," was an impressive directorial debut and whose "Vox Lux" was overall pretty good. But this picture is a major leap forward. The film, shot in VistaVision, is filled with stunning imagery and imaginative use of camera movements and angles. It also brings back the vibe of a moviegoing event with an overture that opens the film and a 15-minute intermission, which is frankly a practical move for those needing a bathroom break.

Corbet aims for the Great American Novel narrative style of classic films such as "The Godfather," "There Will Be Blood," or "Once Upon a Time in America," though the film's pacing, camera work, and visual style suggests a careful study of the great European masters.

The performances are phenomenal across the board. Pearce is brilliant as Van Buren, a man who can seductively lure people into his orbit so that he can get what he wants out of them. His most memorable scene involves his character expounding upon how he once got revenge on his grandparents. But it's Brody who carries the film in what is likely his best performance to date. Laszlo is at once a tragic figure, a genius, a survivor, and even occasionally a brute himself. It's a tough act to juggle, but Brody gives a performance that ranks as one of the year's very best.

This is a great film - the movie event of the year - but it's also one I appreciated for its mere existence. It is difficult in America to even get a movie financed these days that is aimed at adults, much less a three-and-a-half-hour arthouse epic that becomes more open ended as it goes along. "The Brutalist" is both deeply engrossing and intellectually stimulating, a rarity in modern American filmmaking.