Review: Elemental

Image courtesy of Pixar.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Review: Lynch/Oz

Image courtesy of Dogwoof.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Review: The Boogeyman

Image courtesy of 20th Century Studios.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Review: You Hurt My Feelings

Image courtesy of A2.

Nicole Holofcener's "You Hurt My Feelings" is a low key but often subtly funny dramedy about how the white lies we tell to others to soften blows can occasionally have negative consequences. It also explores the dangers to the ego of exposing oneself to the world - especially through artistic means - and inviting criticism.

Much like the director's previous work - which includes "Enough Said" and "Lovely and Amazing" - Holofcener has a strong sense of how people's minds work and a great ear for dialogue. For a comedy starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the film has a surprisingly understated vibe and the laughs build off the behaviors of the various characters who are feeling angst for various reasons throughout the course of the picture.

At its center is Beth (Louis-Dreyfus), a creative writing teacher whose memoir sold fairly well - but not as well as it could have, her mother reminds her - and who is struggling to put the finishing touches on a novel. Her agent doesn't seem too excited about the novel and, during the film's central moment, Beth overhears her seemingly supportive husband, a psychiatrist named Don (Tobias Menzies), tell an actor friend (Arian Moayed) that he too isn't too enthused either about his wife's latest work. This sets the film off on the course of its various characters having trust issues with each other - or even trusting their own abilities.

While Beth frets about her novel, Don wonders if he is doing a poor job at his own work. He occasionally mixes up patients' histories, one bickering couple demands that he refund them $33,000 for years of therapy they believe have been fruitless, and another patient mumbles insults just within earshot at the end of each session.

Meanwhile, Beth and Don's son, Eliot (Owen Teague), is struggling to write his first play while working at a so-called "pot" shop. Beth's worries about his handling drugs result in one of the film's best gags late in the picture. At the same time, Eliot's girlfriend has dumped him and he wonders if he was at fault. All the while, Beth's sister (Mikaela Watkins) is unhappy in her line of work - picking out decor for new homeowners who are seemingly never satisfied, while her husband (the actor) struggles in his career and gets a complex after being fired from a play.

During the course of the film, the characters learn that honesty may be the best - if not the easiest - policy, even if it's difficult to see in the short term. The strife between Beth and Don after she feels betrayed when overhearing his pan of her novel results in a great scene during which the two characters air out all their grievances, which ultimately end up being holiday gifts that they later laugh about when realizing their problems are so trivial.

At just 93 minutes, "You Hurt My Feelings" breezes by and it might feel slight in comparison to some of Holofcener's other films ("Enough Said" is probably my favorite), but there are some universal truths that are often humorously and occasionally awkwardly -  I don't mean that as a slight - drawn out by the characters in this film that will likely ring true for many. It may not be the director's best film, but it's a funny and enjoyable showcase for its talented cast.

Review: Master Gardener

Image courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

Paul Schrader's past three films have all centered around men whose troubled pasts inform their mostly peaceful present existences, which are shaken up by the presence of newcomers or challenges that threaten to expose their pasts. 

In "First Reformed," Ethan Hawke's pastor was a former alcoholic with a crisis of faith whose son was killed in Iraq and whose quiet existence is upended by the arrival of a younger woman and her environmentalist husband. "The Card Counter" followed Oscar Isaac's former military torturer who indulges in nonstop card games to prevent him from doing something harmful.

Joel Edgerton plays Narvel Roth, the latest troubled man at the center of one of Schrader's films - in this case, the engrossing "Master Gardener." Roth has a deeply troubled past - which I won't divulge - but has been working for some time as the gardener extraordinaire for Miss Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver), an heiress with a sharp tongue whose estate includes a massive - and, apparently, award winning - garden. As the film opens, they are preparing for a spring show.

Haverhill tells Narvel that she has a favor to ask him: Her niece Maya (Quintessa Swindell), who lost her mother to cancer and her father to a drug overdose, has been struggling with "lifestyle issues" and could use some mentoring. She requests that Narvel take Maya under his wig, show her the ropes of gardening, and help to straighten her out. At first, Narvel - whose myriad past problems help him to notice others' struggles - recognizes that Maya is an occasional drug user, and learns that she has an abusive drug-dealing boyfriend.

Although Maya is a quick study in the garden, her extracurricular activities lead to some problems at the estate, especially when Narvel notices a bruise on her face. It's difficult to describe what happens next without giving away Narvel's secret, although there's a scene early on in which he strips to the waist in front of a mirror that gives us a glimpse, and how he uses his past to confront Maya's problems.

"Master Gardener" is kind of a thriller and sort of a romance. It deals with some controversial topics - and some have argued that the film doesn't appear to want to tackle those subjects in depth, although I believe the topics exist in the context of the film to enable Narvel to prove to Maya that a troubled past doesn't necessarily limit the possibilities for one's future. 

Seemingly out of the blue, there is a strangely surreal sequence that might be a dream or a fantasy that doesn't entirely work. On the whole, however, "Master Gardener" is a compelling film with a tightly controlled performance by Edgerton. Swindell is also very good, and Weaver gets in a strong supporting performance as Haverhill, who is also more complex than she might outwardly appear. 

Perhaps the biggest shock is that the film, considering that it's one by Schrader (writer of "Taxi Driver" and director of such downer classics as "Affliction" and "Hardcore"), is ultimately hopeful. The director's work as of late has been notably grim and bleak - albeit quite good - and described as Bressonian, so it's genuinely surprising that the film's coda suggests that people can, in fact, change for the better. This is another very well made film from a director who has been on a winning streak as of late.

Review: Hypnotic

Image courtesy of Ketchup Entertainment.

Robert Rodriguez's "Hypnotic" is the type of lower budget action thriller that was once prominent and has all but disappeared as movie studios focus on getting their latest blockbuster on eight of the 10 screens at your local multiplex. Although the film has its flaws and its inspiration very obviously comes from one specific source, "Hypnotic" is intermittently entertaining, even if its nonstop twists eventually become a bit too much.

Rodriguez has long made pulpy action films and thrillers - his best work includes "El Mariachi," "Desperado," "Sin City" and "Planet Terror," his contribution to the underrated "Grindhouse" double feature - but his latest is more of the mind-bender variety. At one point in the film, the lead character played by Ben Affleck believes that he's witnessing the road he's on curve upward and head up into the sky, and the rest of the world appears to be upside down above him. My first thought was that Rodriguez had been binge watching Christopher Nolan movies lately.

That director is an obvious source of inspiration for this thriller, which finds Affleck's Austin-based Detective Daniel Rourke searching for his young daughter, who was kidnapped in front of his eyes in a park. As the film opens, Rourke is undergoing some sort of hypnotic therapy when he's called to the scene of a bank robbery. He spots a mysterious man (William Fichtner), who is apparently using some sort of hypnosis to convince security guards and a bank teller to carry out the robbery. Even more strange, Rourke's missing daughter's name appears on a piece of paper in a bank vault.

When Rourke follows the mystery man to a rooftop, the stranger convinces two cops who are accompanying Rourke to shoot each other before he disappears by slipping over the side of the roof. Rourke, baffled, learns that a woman called in the tip to the police. He is led to the business of a psychic named Diana (Alice Braga), who spins a fantastical web about a government agency - of which she was once a part - that employs hypnotics, and how one particularly powerful hypnotic (Fichtner) had escaped its grasp and was in search of a top secret weapon known as Domino.

The plot veers off in many directions and engages in numerous sleights of hand, many of which involve a character breaking out of a hypnotic state, only to find that their reality is different than what they supposed it to be at any given moment. This is both a compelling manner in keeping this thriller propelling forward, but it's also - on occasion - an easy way out when the story starts becoming too labyrinthine. In other words, it occasionally works, but others times doesn't.

"Hypnotic" is much more polished than your typical Rodriguez picture, who typically tends to lend a grindhouse vibe to his movies - think "Machete" or "Planet Terror" - or make movies for his children (the "Spy Kids" movies, for example). As a Nolan-inspired knockoff, "Hypnotic" isn't half bad. It's not a great thriller, but it moves quickly and has some surprising twists. It even recycles an old joke from "Desperado." 

But I appreciate that a modest, mid-range budgeted thriller can make its way to theaters, when so many others of its type are heading directly to streaming to allow for the summer's blockbusters to take up every single screen. It's nice to know that such movies still - at least, for the time being - exist.

Review: Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3

Image courtesy of Walt Disney Studios.

I've long been feeling superhero fatigue, especially how the two major comic book companies have utilized the concept of the extended universe - which, on the surface, is aimed at incorporating any given sequel into an overarching story that spans across multiple mediums (movies, TV shows, etc.), but to me has always felt more like marketing.

So, I'm always pleased to find any given chapter in these ongoing sagas that stand out slightly from the pack and feel like, for lack of a better phrase, their own thing. This is the case for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," which isn't as good as the original entry in this franchise, but better than the second film. 

The characters in this series have always felt like the oddballs and outcasts of the extended Marvel Comics Universe - and, in this case, that sentiment goes a long way. Thankfully, there are few throwbacks or callouts to previous Marvel movies - with one small exception involving one character's plot line - and seemingly not too many setups for future Marvel movies. It's a standalone movie without the endless references to previous movies and much less in the way of marketing.

It also focuses - often grimly, I'd warn younger viewers - on the topic of animal cruelty, which makes for a more compelling narrative than just the latest plot about a supervillain who plans to destroy or take over the world (although there is that too). The character of Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) takes center stage here, even though the character himself is in a coma of sorts for most of the proceedings.

As the film opens, a powerful being (Will Poulter) attacks the Guardians' fortress, severely injuring Rocket - for whom he had been sent to kidnap. The Guardians discover some sort of device that is implanted in Rocket and they band together to find the villain who implanted the device so they can save him. The details on this are either nebulous or I missed something.

Regardless, the film features a significant amount of flashbacks that show a younger Rocket, who had been captured by a mad scientist known as the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), whose plan is to create perfect utopian societies by speeding up the evolutionary process. 

To do so, he experiments cruelly on pretty much anyone or anything he can get his hands on - including a cute, young Rocket, who befriends a rabbit, otter, and walrus who are also held in captivity. There are some grueling scenes involving the torture of animals, but a rescue sequence late in the picture will likely please PETA. I thought the be-kind-to-your-furry-friends subplot was a nice added touch.

There's also a subplot involving Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and her lost memory, and how that affects her relationship with Quill (Chris Pratt). But what's nice about this "Guardians" is that it gives every character a few memorable moments - Drax (Dave Bautista) finding that he's good with kids, Nebula (Karen Gillan) having newfound appreciation for teamwork, and a Groot (Vin Diesel) joke that I saw coming since the first installment of this series.

No, "Volume 3" doesn't reinvent the wheel. It's a little overlong and there are, perhaps, too many scenes of characters in peril in which they all miraculously survive. The 1970s needle drops of the first film have been replaced primarily by 1990s ones. Some relationships are left unresolved, and while this is being billed as the final "Guardians" film, I'll believe it when I see it. 

Comic book movies as of late have felt increasingly tired and repetitive - but this is the rare case of a director (in this case, James Gunn) elevating the material by injecting his own nutty personal tastes and attitudes into material that might otherwise, at this point, feel bland. In short, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is pretty decent.