Review: Air

Image courtesy of Amazon.

It wouldn't be factually incorrect to say that Ben Affleck's "Air" is a movie about the making of a shoe, but that would be selling this very well made, highly engaging, and often surprisingly funny true story woefully short. 

To date, Affleck's work behind the camera has primarily involved crime pictures and one Oscar-winning true story about some serious subject matter - so "Air" is arguably his breeziest work as a director, but also possibly his best. And yes, it is primarily concerned with how a group of employees at Nike - a company that, in the mid-1980s, sold a decent amount of running shoes, but was falling way behind its competitors - namely, Converse and Adidas - in the game to nab high-profile basketball players to wear its shoes - came up with a concept to lure basketball star Michael Jordan.

As the film opens, Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon in a great performance) - considered somewhat of a guru at the company - shrugs resignedly as another basketball season passes and his fellow execs aim low in finding three players to endorse their shoes. While watching TV one evening and seeing a commercial in which a tennis racket is marketed as capturing the essence of the star - Arthur Ashe - who wields it, Sonny comes up with an idea.

His fellow Nike execs aren't exactly sold on Sonny's concept of using the year's entire budget on just one basketball player, and it is generally frowned upon when Sonny travels to North Carolina to visit Deloris Jordan (a terrific Viola Davis), the shrewd mother of rising star Michael, to tries to convince her that her son would be best suited in Nike shoes (he's more prone to Adidas). This leads to some hilariously profane calls involving Jordan's agent (Chris Messina).

But Sonny gets Deloris to agree to at least bring her son to Oregon - where Nike is headquartered - for a meeting. At this point, the film becomes what one might call a process movie as a group of characters - Sonny, Nike marketing director Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), player-turned-exec Howard White (Chris Tucker), shoe designer Peter Moore (Matthew Maher), and Nike co-founder Phil Knight (Affleck), who insists that his Porsche is "grape," not purple and is quick with the Zen aphorisms - prepare for a specific job. In this case, it's coming up with the shoe - the Air Jordan - and pitch to land the basketball star during his visit.

This film boasts one of the best ensemble casts I've seen in a while. Damon is compelling, sympathetic, and poignant as Sonny, a middle aged guy who knows he's running out of chances, while Davis brings an understated calm as Deloris, a woman whom everyone in the scenario recognizes as the one in charge. Affleck displays a comic timing of which I was currently unaware, Messina adds some foul-mouthed hilarity, Tucker's fast-talking repartee provides for more than just comedic effect, Bateman deftly mixes dry delivery with world weariness, and Marlon Wayans gets a solid cameo as George Raveling.

Do the filmmakers go a little overboard in trying to capture the time period? Yes, perhaps, the opening credit sequence - which blends Jane Fonda workouts, Ronald Reagan, Cabbage Patch Kids, and clips from "Ghostbusters" and other popular movies of the era - combined with the nonstop needle drops lays it on a little thick. But it's not to the film's detriment. "Air" often takes a lighthearted approach to the material and is frequently good for a laugh.

However, the picture occasionally diverges into more serious territory - for example, the divorced Strasser talking about how his 7-year-old daughter has become used to him not being a presence or, during another sequence, how he is bothered by the fact that the manner in which Nike's products are produced might be exploitative. 

The film's piece de resistance, however, is a phone call late in the picture during which Deloris and Sonny negotiate a deal and, in the process, the film veers from being a comedy about capitalism into a drama about equity. It's a great moment of acting between Damon and Davis in a film that - especially considering the subject matter - is one of the bright spots of 2023 moviegoing so far.

Review: Spinning Gold

Image courtesy of The Boardwalk Entertainment Group

 The problem with "Spinning Gold" isn't the material. Hell, this is the story of a record company (Casablanca Records) that, in the 1970s, fostered the careers of Donna Summer, Kiss, Bill Withers, Parliament, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and The Isley Brothers, and it's directed by Timothy Scott Bogart, the son of Neil Bogart, the company's founder.

There's a whole lot of interesting material to be mined here - George Clinton's insistence on the record company purchasing him a space ship, Summer being plucked from obscurity as a performer in Germany and her seemingly orgasmic experience recording "Love to Love You Baby," and the strange events leading Bogart to believe that Kiss' song "Beth" was a dig at the record company executive's marital strife.

Unfortunately, the film falls into the trap that some pictures telling stories about real people and events occasionally do. Rather than letting the story flow organically, "Spinning Gold" tries to cram everything in, making the story feel like - as a character in the "The History Boys" described history itself - one fucking thing after another. Nearly every scene in the film could be described as "... and then this happened."

One problem is that Bogart (Jeremy Jordan) himself might be an unreliable narrator - hell, he even says so. He has a penchant for exaggeration and it's possible that in making a film about his own father, the film's director doesn't have enough distance between his lead character to be subjective. Based on Jordan's portrayal and the film's screenplay, the biggest takeaway about Bogart was that he was full of energy and always scheming about ways to market his struggling company.

Also, because there's so much taking place here, scenes that should have more impact - Bogart being threatened by Motown for stealing its artists or Bogart leaving his wife and children for another woman - just fly by without much fanfare. There's a lot of great music here, but the portrayals of those creating and performing it feel more like a Wikipedia page than fully developed characters in a movie, although there is a solid scene here in which Bogart has a heart to heart with a young Gene Simmons (Casey Likes).

"Spinning Gold" has a lot of energy - for better, during the live Kiss performances or Jason Derulo's profane portrayal of Ron Isley; but also for worse during an odd scene that kicks off the picture when Bogart attempts to get Edwin Hawkins to sell him the rights to his hit song "Oh Happy Day" - but it's not always channeled in the right direction. 

This is the type of movie that might help you next time you attend a trivia night, but as a film the interest stemming from the material itself - but not always its execution - is what occasionally keeps it compelling. There's likely a great documentary to be made about Casablanca Records and how it took on the major record labels to score some gargantuan hits, but "Spinning Gold" feels more like a really crammed VH1 "Behind the Music" episode. It feels like a missed opportunity.

Review: A Thousand And One

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

A.V. Rockwell's "A Thousand and One" was considered a surprise winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival. I haven't seen many of the films screened at the festival yet - but the only surprise about Rockwell's film taking the prize for me is that there was any doubt. 

This is a very powerful, beautifully acted, and engrossing film. It tells what one might call a small story, but the culmination of everything that takes place over a period of a decade and a half make the film a mini-epic. 

The story opens in 1994 as Inez (a terrific Teyana Taylor) is being released from a yearlong stint on Rikers Island for a crime that's never made quite clear. Inez is a person who takes shit from absolutely nobody and, upon returning home, shows up at her old place of work and squabbles with her ex-boss - who won't take her back - before staying with a friend, whose mother instantly clashes with the new houseguest.

Most importantly, the 22-year-old Harlem resident feels the need to be near her son, Terry (played by Aaron Kingsley Adetola, Aven Courtney, and Josiah Cross at ages 6, 13, and 17, respectively). The boy has for several years been living in foster care, but when Inez visits him in the hospital following what appears to be an accident at a foster home, she decides that he'd be happier and live a fuller life at home with her. So, she basically kidnaps him from the hospital.

Struggling to scrape together money for food and to find a place to live, Inez - who exhibits tough love toward her shy young son - pays her way by doing women's hair and eventually finds other work as well as romance with a man named Lucky (William Catlett), who has his share of flaws but ultimately warms to Terry and acts fatherly toward him.

The film at first plays like a thriller - and there is suspense surrounding whether Inez and Terry's secret will be discovered as they mostly live off the radar - but it grows into a captivating saga that can be summarized by that quote about the family you choose. 

Changes in time are often marked by music (some mid-1990s Wu-Tang Clan pops onto the soundtrack) or audio news clips about changes taking place in New York - Mayor Rudolph Giuliani cleaning up Times Square, the fatal shooting of Amadou Diallo by NYPD cops, stop and frisk, the gentrification of the city's neighborhoods, and the election of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The societal changes involved in these moments out of time also make subtle commentary on the action taking place in the film.

The film's solid script and direction are complemented by excellent performances across the board. All three young actors portraying Terry are very good at capturing the various stages of this young man's difficult childhood, while Catlett provides some subtle supporting work as Terry's father figure. But it's Taylor's breakthrough performance as Inez that makes the film so powerful. I'd had little previous exposure to Taylor but the performance has the feeling of one in which an actress disappears completely into a role. 

It's still early in the year, but "A Thousand and One" is the first movie of 2023 that feels like a contender. This is a powerful film with strong performances and captivating storytelling that stays with you long after the credits roll. I'm excited to see what all involved get up to next.

Review: John Wick: Chapter 4

Image courtesy of Lionsgate.

"John Wick: Chapter 4" is a nonstop orgy of incredibly well-choreographed mayhem that is relatively short on dialogue - well, at least from its titular lead (Keanu Reeves) - and there's no use following all the intricacies of the plot, which revolve around the High Table still attempting to seek out Wick and execute him.

There are numerous new elements added into this fourth sequel - lead villain and High Table leader Marquis de Gramont (Bill Skarsgard) becomes Wick's primary nemesis, but there's also a hotshot assassin who goes by Nobody (Shamier Anderson) who's hot on Wick's trail for a bounty as well as a blind assassin (a badass Donnie Yen) who was a former friend of Wick but has a daughter being threatened by the High Table in exchange for his cooperation.

Meanwhile, a supporting character from the other films gets bumped early in this one, leading to Winston (Ian McShane) - last seen shooting Wick and making him fall off a building, a gag that gets replayed over and over again in this new film - reaching back out to Wick to cooperate on challenging the marquis to a duel to upset the balance of power at the High Table.

The story here is a little flimsy but that's no matter as the picture is pretty much a nonstop series of jaw-dropping set pieces that get even more elaborate and outrageous as the film progresses toward its climax after two hours and 45 minutes.

The first set piece is a shootout in a neon-lit Japanese hotel, where Wick has come to meet with an old friend (Hiroyuki Sanada) about his present situation. High Table thugs, accompanied by Yen, show up and all hell breaks loose. Each action set piece is more incredible than the last.

And then we get to France, where a bounty is placed on Wick's head prior to his engagement to dueling with the marquis. In one of the film's nuttier choices, a woman DJ plays songs on the radio to taunt Wick as the assassins look for him and, I swear to God, the scene is basically lifted from Walter Hill's seminal 1979 cult classic "The Warriors."

From there, we get the two most incredible action sequences - a balletic feat of choreographed gunplay and martial arts in the middle of the road in front of Paris' Arc de Triomphe and a shootout along the steep streets of Montmartre leading up to the historic Sacre Coeur church - in the film, which rival any scene in any action movie that I can recall from the past however many years. The audience with which I saw the film frequently laughed at the audacity of these scenes, while also being transfixed by how well crafted and intense they were.

"John Wick: Chapter 4" may be simplistic in the story department - while also overly complicated in defining the parameters of this world in which Wick and company exist - but it's filled with breathtaking stunt work, choreography that often feels more like dancing than your typical bland Hollywood action fight scenes, and style to spare. In terms of big budget studio action moviemaking, this is the best example that I can recall in some time. It's also the best entry in this franchise to date.

Review: Return To Seoul

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

The young woman's name is Freddie (Park Ji-min) and she gives off the impression of confidence during her travels in South Korea, the place where she was born but then given away to adoptive parents in France. 

During an opening scene at a restaurant, she surprises newly-made friends Tena (Guka Han) and Dongwon (Son Seung-Beom) during a discussion about line reading music when she grabs various other people in the restaurant and gets them - all strangers - to congregate at one table. Similar to line reading, she is engaging all of these people in conversation without prior practice.

During that same scene, Dongwon explains to her that it's considered insulting in South Korea if you do not allow a friend to pour a drink for you as it's a means of showing that they're willing to take care of you. But Freddie, who is on her own in a country that is foreign to her despite her origins and whose plan - whether she'll actually admit it - is to seek out the parents who gave her up for adoption, has long been able to take care of herself and pours the drink herself. 

During a later scene, she again displays what appears to be confidence by dancing in a bar in front of everyone else, while during another sequence she makes a pass at a French arms dealer visiting Seoul by whom she'll later be employed.

But this confidence is seemingly a form of overcompensating for her discomfort with the real purpose of her trip. When finally meeting up with the father (Oh Kwang-Rok) who gave her up for adoption, she comes off as withdrawn and quiet. She becomes increasingly uncomfortable with the sorrowful messages he texts to her after he's been drinking. During a later scene in which she finally tracks down her long-lost mother - who is divorced from her father - she appears even less confident.

"Return to Seoul" is a beguiling movie and one of its best qualities - aside from Park's stellar performance - is that you never quite know which direction it will go next, and the direction it chooses is always  captivating. The film jumps around in time - the first scenes are Freddie's original visit, and skips in time detail either other periods later in the future when she visits Seoul or others possibly suggesting that she's living there. It's never quite clear.

The film veers back and forth through various moods - somber during Freddie's meetings with her father and his overly eager extended family, dreamy during scenes in which she wanders through neon-lit Seoul, and stylish during nightclub and bar scenes that are punctuated with some great needle drops that I'd never heard before.

But what makes the movie so compelling is the character of Freddie, who is lonely, moody, compulsive, occasionally petty, distant, vivacious, vulnerable and, as one character tells her, "a very sad person." Her attempts to distance herself from emotion - the pleas of her birth father and dismissive comments made to boyfriends who she treats as expendable - show that she is a person who has never fully healed from a long-ago wound.

This is the first film I've seen from director Davy Chou, who has made at least one other feature, a documentary and some short films - but what I've seen so far is impressive. "Return to Seoul" creates a complex and interesting character and throws her into a story about the complexities of human relations and juggles multiple timelines (although the film is told in a linear fashion). I hadn't heard much about the picture until it popped up on a number of best-of-the-year lists in December, but I can now see why it received so much love. This is a very good movie from a director whose next project I anxiously anticipate. 

Review: Scream VI

Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

As far as horror movie sequels go, "Scream VI" is better than it probably has any right to be. Most franchises in this genre have long since lost steam by the time they crawl to their sixth chapter. That being said, while it has its share of intense and well-made sequences, this latest "Scream" is a middle-of-the-road entry in this series and occasionally feels like it's treading water, that is, when it's not ripping off one of the previous entries in the franchise.

Last year's "Scream" was the best entry since Wes Craven's beloved 1996 original, introducing a slate of new characters - Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), the daughter of original killer Billy Loomis; her sister, Tara (Jenna Ortega), who survives a Ghostface attack at the beginning of that film; Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown), a niece of slain Randy Meeks from the original two films; and her brother, Chad (Mason Gooding) - as well as bringing back some old favorites.

This latest "Scream" is sorely missing the presence of Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell, who didn't return due to contractual disagreements), whose absence is explained with a throwaway line by Gail Weathers (Courteney Cox, back in fine form). Another "Scream" alum, Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere), returns, but this time as an FBI agent in one of several of the film's plot threads that ask for the audience to extend its disbelief.

Tara is in New York City for college and Sam has tagged along to watch over her. The Meeks twins are also attending school there. The film opens in typical "Scream" fashion with a person (Samara Weaving) being taunted on the phone, only to be murdered in an alleyway by a guy wearing a Ghostface mask, who then surprisingly takes the mask off (it's Tony Revolori) and heads home, where he in turn is taunted by someone else on the phone.

It's hard not to explain further who Revolori's character is and why he targeted the film's first victim, but suffice it to say that another killer (or killers since this is "Scream") have plans for Tara and Sam that came into conflict with those of the characters involved in the opening sequence. By the way, I figured out who the killer(s) were early on in the film during a conversation when a throwaway line gives away the game.

Of course, there's the obligatory scene in which the resident horror film buff - in this case, Mindy - explains the rules of franchises, when the characters realize they are now in one. This includes a higher body count, gorier murder sequences (this is the bloodiest "Scream" to date), and a mention that no characters - legacy or otherwise - are safe. There's also the obligatory needle drop of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.

Despite some bumps, "Scream VI" has a number of elements to recommend it. The cast is solid across the board, the film is a little scarier than previous "Scream" entries, and the picture relies less on its long-time characters - though Gail gets a solid bout with Ghostface in her apartment - and allows the new ones to develop a little, although the Meeks twins are underserved here. The new characters are, naturally, fodder for the slaughter. Dermot Mulroney also pops up as the detective on the case and the father of one of the new characters.

There are some impressive set pieces, especially a sequence on a subway filled with New Yorkers - although the film was actually shot in Montreal - dressed in Halloween costumes, a number of which happen to be Ghostface masks and robes. It's a legitimately tense and well-shot scene, only to be upstaged by an over-the-top bloodbath during the finale.

Craven's 1996 will always be the best in the series, and 2022's requel is the runner up. I have a soft spot for 2000's underrated "Scream 3," and I think we all agree that "Scream 4" was a low point. For many fans of the series, 1997's "Scream 2" often ranks among the highest, but I've long considered it a mixed bag. This, perhaps, explains why "Scream VI" falls somewhere in the middle or slightly lower for me among the entries in this series - it rips off the setting (college) and elements of the finale from "Scream 2." 

It's as if the horror movie series that riffs on the cliches of the genre in which it belongs has actually succumbed to adopting them. "Scream VI" has its share of fun moments, a few good scares,  and some decent characters, but it recycles major plot points from the second film in the series, just as last year's "Scream" did the original, although that film did it to better effect. And yes, I still think it's a mistake to have Sam taking part in conversations with her dead father. "Scream VI" is not half bad for an entry in a horror series that has been running for 27 years - but if it continues to another chapter, I hope it reinvents itself rather than becoming a greatest hits package with new faces.

Review: Creed III

Image courtesy of MGM.

"Creed III" - which is the ninth film in the series of films that began with 1976's "Rocky" and is the directorial debut of star Michael B. Jordan - doesn't make too many moves that you can't see far in advance. But let's be honest: The boxing movie provides its own formula, and there's rarely room for surprises or invention unless, say, you're talking about "Raging Bull." 

So, while this third entry in this spinoff series may feel familiar, it's an example of a well-trod storyline handled well. In the process, it introduces a compelling new nemesis while also deepening what we know about the film's hero, Adonis Creed (Jordan), the son of Apollo Creed, who was Rocky's first foe and eventual friend.

As the film opens, young Adonis (Thaddeus J. Mixson) is inseparable from Damian Anderson (Spence Moore II), an older kid with a talent for boxing whom he idolizes. But a run-in with a man named Leon - during which Adonis attacks the man and Damian comes to his aid by pulling a gun - leads to Damian landing an 18-year prison sentence. One of the film's few flaws is a lack of adequate explanation regarding the attack itself.

In the present, Adonis has won another bout, making him the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world. He decides to throw in the towel and retire, spending more time with his musician wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson), who makes reference to continued hearing problems that are never again addressed in one of the film's rare instances of short changing a character, and young daughter.

But one day after leaving the gym where he helps young fighters train, he runs into Damian (Jonathan Majors), who has recently been released from prison. Their first encounters are awkward as it seems that Adonis is uncomfortable in the presence of his old friend - due, perhaps, to lingering guilt over the fact that Damian landed in jail following a row that Adonis started.

There's no need to detail the entire plot here, but suffice it to say that while Adonis at first helps Damian get back into the ring - where he scores a surprisingly brutal victory over a boxing champion named Felix Chavez (Jose Benavidez) - their friendship eventually goes sour and turns into a rivalry. Adonis comes out of retirement to challenge Damian to a fight.

Jordan shows here that he not only knows his way around in front of the camera, but also behind it. "Creed III" is flashy and well made, featuring some of the stylish montages you'd expect in a "Rocky" spinoff. Sylvester Stallone's presence is missed, but there's really no good place to have inserted him in this story, so the decision not to have included him makes sense.

Majors - who has been seemingly ubiquitous as of late - is a major asset to the picture. At first bubbling with a nervous energy, Damian becomes increasingly aggressive as he seethes over what he believes to be the unfairness of Adonis living the life that he was supposed to have lived had he not ended up in prison. From the start, the reunion between the two characters has the uneasy vibe of a tension that is destined to boil over.

And Damian's appearance provides a catalyst for Adonis' own history to bubble to the surface, much to the dismay of his mother (Phylicia Rashad) and wife. In the process, we get to know a little more about our lead character, which is not something that can always be counted on as franchises begin to stack up their entries. In this case, it's welcome.

Will its producers and talent find more ways to tell the story of Rocky Balboa or Adonis Creed? Most likely, especially if this latest entry makes money. Will the series be able to keep up the level of quality? That remains to be seen. In the meantime, "Creed III" is an enjoyable entry in a series that is still going after 45 years.