Monthly Archives: November 2019

2019, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Waves (2019): Intense, but Overlong

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After successfully directing a thriller, Trey Edwards Shults (It Comes at Night) has returned to making family dramas. Waves is the story of teenagers and their emotional journeys. Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.; It Comes at Night) is a popular kid on the wrestling team driven by a strict, unforgiving father (Sterling K. Brown; This is Us). The film follows his relationship with his father and his girlfriend then shifts to his younger sister Emily (Taylor Russell; Escape Room) and her boyfriend Luke (Lucas Hedges; Manchester by the Sea).

Shults shoots Waves in a heightened reality. This is the brief period of adolescence on the cusp of adulthood where everything is felt deeply. The vibrant palette of the streets of Florida are slightly oversaturated with colors like Tyler’s bleached blonde hair and the deep blue skies popping out onscreen. His camera moves with a ferocity, constantly tracking in or swirling around his characters, that is matched by the film’s music. Composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the score brings its own intensity that creates an entrancing effect.

This energy extends to the acting as well. All the dialogue is delivered for maximum impact. Nothing here is meant to be lighthearted. Brown, as Tyler’s agressive father, is never at ease. Even in moments that should be playful, like when he arm-wrestles his son, he brings a fervor to his actions that is unsettling. He behaves as if each action is the most pivotal moment in his life. This style of deliberately melodramatic performance, when combined with the visuals and soundtrack, is initially intoxicating.

Shults creates a volatile chemistry between Tyler and his father.

The film’s first half is a tour de force of urgent, impassioned filmmaking. Tyler’s commitment to his athletics, his relationship with his girlfriend, and the impossibly high standards his father sets for him are vividly brought to life. It’s a testament to Shults’s abilities as a writer and director that Tyler’s world is set up using little to no exposition. The relationships are established through the expressive, but authentic performances. Tyler’s arc unfolds explosively with each story beat barreling forward to the next and is consistently gripping with Harrison deftly handling the changes to his character. As his story reaches its crescendo, the film seems to have perfectly captured Tyler’s life and all of its complicated emotions with an intensity that leaves the audience mesmerized and exhausted from its pulsing energy.

Then, unfortunately, Waves continues for another hour. The story shifts focus from Tyler to his younger sister Emily and her relationship with Luke, but the new plot can’t match the impact of the Tyler’s story. It feels unnecessary after what preceded it. Many of the complaints normally thrown at melodramas, that Waves had been able to avoid in its first half, suddenly become relevant. The acting style feels unnecessary when Emily and Luke’s story has significantly lower stakes than Tyler’s story and the new actors aren’t able to match the earlier performances. As a film of two distinct plots, Waves is a mixed bag. It’s an intense emotional rollercoaster followed by an unworthy second story that never justifies its inclusion.

3/5 stars.

2019, Recent Reviews, Reviews

The Lighthouse (2019): Strange, but Not Scary

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Refusing to fit the mold of standard horror films, Robert Eggers (The Witch) has created another hyper-specific period piece, albeit with poor results. Winslow (Robert Pattinson; Good Time) is brought to a remote island to work as a lighthouse keeper under the supervision of Wake (Willem Dafoe; The Florida Project). The men begin a terse working relationship, but animosity grows as the two develop suspicions about each other’s intentions.

If nothing else, the film is devoted to its aesthetic. Eggers, a former production designer, has created a world worn down by the ocean. The lighthouse has a brick façade with weathered paint and the ramshackle house they live in is cramped and broken-down. The buildings are built for functionality, not comfort and it adds to the prison-like feeling of the location. Eggers also chooses to avoid modern conventions by neither shooting his film in color nor in widescreen to add to the period’s authenticity. While other filmmakers often use black and white out of nostalgia or beauty, Eggers uses it for its harshness. The visuals are in the vein of German Expressionism and hint at the potential for insanity, even if the film isn’t able to add meaning to that insanity.

The film’s cohesive visuals are its strongest asset.

Pattinson and Dafoe carry nearly the entire film and are fully invested in their roles. Neither Winslow nor Wake seem like the kind of people anyone would want to be stuck on a remote island with. Both appear to be hiding some part of their past. Pattinson’s Winslow is, comparatively, the relatable character. He wants to avoid small talk or drinking and focus on the work ahead until their tour of duty is over. Dafoe’s Wake has other interests in mind. He is cranky, impulsive, and enjoys his power over Winslow as he demeans him and has him slave over difficult, unnecessary tasks for his own sadistic pleasure. There are moments when he appears to be kind as he invites Winslow to drink with him, but behind each of these actions is a short, potentially dangerous temper. His impulsiveness and cruelty is what allows for the Winslow’s suspicions to form.

Eggers uses the dynamic between Winslow and Wake and their isolation to fuel to film’s mystery. As Winslow is mistreated by Wake, he begins to doubt Wake’s intentions. He suspects that Wake is hiding something from him when he refuses to let him onto the top floor of the lighthouse. Additionally, in his loneliness, Winslow begins to see strange occurrences like animals behaving oddly and images that may or may not be hallucinations. The unknown combined with the potentially unhinged thoughts lead to several strange scenes of erratic behavior that range from rude to oddly humorous to aggressive. As unique as the situations may be, the film’s failing is that these moments don’t progressively build on each other. They instead feel like only partially connected abnormalities. In The Witch, a film that was also built on mistrust with a potentially supernatural bent, every scene escalated the story’s tension in a cohesive direction that built to a conclusion in line with the bizarre events that preceded it. In The Lighthouse, committed performances and distinctive visuals can’t save a narrative that never unites its unusual digressions to create tension, horror, or an ending that gives meaning to the bizarre occurrences.

2/5 stars.

2019, Recent Reviews, Reviews

The Current War: Director’s Cut (2019): Power Games

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After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017 to negative reviews, The Current War: Director’s Cut has been overhauled with new scenes and editing that form an exciting historical rivalry. Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch; The Imitation Game) seeks to power the country with his patented direct current and uses his fame to spread the technology. His rival, George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon; Take Shelter), favors using alternating current for the distance it can travel and the two become locked in a battle to electrify the nation.

Despite its appearances, The Current War is not a lethargic period piece. The film moves at a brisk pace and never lingers too long on a single moment, ironic considering one of Westinghouse’s earliest inventions was a braking system. The camera is also always on the move tracking characters, often at oblique angles, and there is an interesting use of repeated cut-ins, timed rhythmically during pivotal decision moments, to add weight to situations. Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) never allows the period or its trappings to prevent the film from appealing to modern sensibilities.

In his portrayal of these pivotal historical figures, Gomez-Rejon is fairly kind. Cumberbatch, utilizing a slightly improved version of the annoyingly flat fake American accent from Doctor Strange, makes Edison a bit of an egotist, but not quite the ruthless businessman many accounts have described him as. He’s relentless in his pursuit and unwilling to conform to the ideas of others, but his moral digressions are shown as lapses in judgement caused by desperation rather than standard practice for his business. Even as he uses underhanded tactics to smear his opponent, he never becomes a villain.

Edison uses extravagant reveals to sell his technology while Westinghouse relies on plain economics and functionality.

Westinghouse, on the other side, is the practical industrialist. Shannon makes him seem like a no-nonsense proprietor who manages his affairs with integrity. Unlike Edison, he seems principled and focused on the work rather than its marketing. Where Edison will step into the spotlight, speak to reporters, and sign autographs, Westinghouse refrains from spectacle. In a crucial sales opportunity, he ignores any sort of demonstration and instead lets the buyers know his product is better and cheaper, hands them evidence, shakes their hands, and walks away. Shannon’s pragmatic gruffness and his laconic lines reveal Westinghouse to be the true lead of the movie, with a ethical code worth rooting for.

The film also features Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult; About a Boy) in a minor role as a brilliant inventor that briefly works for Edison only to later develop a key technology for Westinghouse. His role in the real events may have been significant, but his limited screentime make him feel like an afterthought, used mostly for his now ubiquitous name recognition and for one particular line that winks directly at the audience.

The competition between Edison and Westinghouse becomes an exciting horse race. The men are shown as always being on the verge of winning the battle, but also precariously close to complete failure with media issues, personal problems, and financial worries constantly threatening to thwart their success. Their strategic moves, and their impulsive decisions, create an engaging chess match, even though the outcome of their rivalry is known. The Current War: Director’s Cut is an involving, bustling drama about two great titans of industry locked in a literal and figurative power game.

4/5 stars.