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2019, Recent Reviews

Glass (2019): Bent, but Not Broken

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After the surprise success of Split, Shyamalan’s follow up has become the much awaited sequel to this nearly 20 year film series. Having escaped capture, Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy; Atonement) continues kidnapping innocents until he and David Dunn (Bruce Willis), the main character from Unbreakable, find themselves caught and locked up in a mental institution with Dunn’s nemesis Mr. Glass (Samuel Jackson). They are placed under the supervision of a psychiatrist who claims they have delusions of grandeur, mistakenly believing themselves to be superheroes, and plans to cure them of this mental illness.

The leads are enjoying themselves reprising their roles. Willis, who has phoned in many of his performances, is fully invested in his weary, but committed Dunn who now runs a security store and patrols the city at night. McAvoy continues to embrace schizophrenic acting as he switches from playing a nine year old boy to a strict British woman and more. While sometimes resembling a comedian improvising new characters, the jarring personality changes are entertaining to watch. Jackson plays up his Mr. Glass as a cartoonishly evil villain that fits the film’s explicitly comic book tone. His erect hair and shimmering purple suit make him a cross between a mad scientist and the Joker with enough heinous acts onscreen to reinforce his threat, despite his physical appearance. The other returning cast member, Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey, plays a limited role and is pushed to secondary character status for the bulk of the runtime.

The pale, but pronounced colors rise far above the visuals of most superhero films.

As with all of Shyamalan’s films, the focus eventually shifts to the plot twist. In the case of Glass there are multiple reveals late in the film. None of these is as impactful as the twist from The Sixth Sense or as unexpected as the larger universe connection in Split. At the same time, the twists are inoffensive. They reveal some information which breaks a central relationship, but nothing that recontextualizes the narrative so far. They serve as additional facts rather than major paradigm shifts.

There are also attempts to flesh out the greater film world that fall flat. Shyamalan tries to expand his mythos with secretive organizations and hints at expanded lore, but these attempts at world-building come too late to have any effect. As the third, and presumably final, film in the series, this effort is unnecessary and distracts from the central story.

The final question of Glass is whether it builds on Shyamalan’s recent resurgence to good favor or if it is a trip back to his string of bad features from the mid-2000s. The true answer is neither. The film is somewhere in between. The story isn’t thrilling or surprising, nor does it create emotional investment, but the acting is enjoyable and the craft is strong. Shyamalan reteams with cinematographer Mike Gioulakis who adopts a striking color palette. He uses soft hues of purple, yellow, and green to represent Glass, Crumb, and Dunn, respectively, that are rarely used together in film and give the title a distinct, contrasting aesthetic. It won’t live up to the hype generated by the surprise reveal in Split and falls far short of its potential, but Glass is harmless entertainment.

3/5 stars.

2019, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Perfect Strangers (Perfectos Desconocidos) (2019): Dinner with a Side of Secrets

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Just how well do you know the people closest to you? That is the question at the center of the Perfect Strangers (Perfectos Desconocidos), the Spanish remake of the Italian hit that has been remade or is in development in a dozen other countries. Having never seen the original, I can only compare it to the French version starring Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) released as Nothing to Hide in the US. A group of old friends, three couples and a recently-divorced man, meet for dinner, wine, and fun during a lunar eclipse. As each party member is distracted by their phones, someone points out that their personal devices have become black boxes of their lives, containing all their secrets. This sparks the idea that will change their night and possibly their lives. They decide to play a game where, for the entire dinner, everyone places their phones on the table and publicly reads any text message and answers any phone call on speakerphone. What follows reveals more than expected between people who have known each other for decades.

The Spanish version distinguishes itself with its pop art style. The film’s visuals feature garish colors with blue interior walls, bleached blonde hair, and the hostess’s hot pink outfit as just a few examples. Anyone who has seen a movie by Pedro Almodóvar will used to the bright aesthetic. The editing is fast with short reaction shots and rapid cutting between different angles of the dinner. The cinematography is kinetic with the camera sweeping along the length of table or swiveling in the center to quickly capture everyone’s contrasting emotions, often to comedic effect. The reasoning behind this style is simple. The movie is essentially a bottle film, taking place almost entirely inside a single apartment with a small cast, and adding some energy to the visuals can help prevent the single setting from becoming stale. It serves the film well during its many humorous moments when the quick shots highlight the different personalities but it also undermines the more dramatic beats.  

The diverse personalities make for an entertaining meal.

This style gives the film a lighter tone. It makes the already short runtime pass by quickly but prevents its dramatic moments from having weight. There are several serious, tense, and touching moments throughout the story but the brisk pace doesn’t allow for breathing room. Before a difficult revelation can create an impact, the film has already moved on to the next phone call or text message.

The reason Perfect Strangers has been and is being remade so many times is that its premise is enticing and its characters are relatable. The script is strong featuring likable people with long histories together and their own perspectives. One couple is recently married and extremely passionate, another is distant and embittered, and the third is somewhere in between with the single guy as the odd man out. They have clear affection for each other and the potential of revealing what even the best of friends may keep secret presents a juicy source for drama. This iteration has a strong foundation in its dramatic and comedic script and enjoyable performances from an entertaining cast, but the faster pace and lighter tone limit the film’s more serious moments. Watch the French remake instead.

3/5 stars.

2018, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Roma (2018): Gorgeous Visuals with a Humble Story

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In a wealthy suburb of Mexico City in the 70s, Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a maid and nanny, attends to the affluent doctor’s family that employs her. She lives in a separate apartment with another staff member and spends her days taking care of the four children, husband, wife, elderly grandmother, and pet dog.

The film is shot entirely in black and white. As the much anticipated release from director Alfonso Cuarón, this marks a stark shift from his previous feature Gravity, a $100 million special effects driven thriller. He works on a much more intimate scale here and uses his images to not only set the time period but also to establish the film as a willfully humble story. Cuarón acted as his own director of photography and the visuals are gorgeous. Black and white films often receive unearned praise for their beauty, but that is not the case with Roma. The digital cinematography has incredible detail and the special attention that has gone into use of shadows, reflections, and depth of field show the work of a master visual stylist.

Cuarón has created his own version of an Italian Neorealist film. He is interested in the everyday life of the subjects in his selected microcosm and never shies away from events that could be called mundane. We see Cleo cleaning floors, doing laundry, and dressing the children. None of these actions propels      the plot forward, instead they serve to establish a routine. This is a slice-of-life story and Cuarón embeds the audience in the smallest details of daily patterns. There are a few too many of these scenes, but the film’s greatest success is that most of these banal tasks aren’t boring. The film is on the longer side, but the majority of the additional scenes feel deliberate and necessary to fully comprehend Cleo’s existence.

Cleo’s chores form the bulk of the screentime.

Through her interactions, we see the subtle, but firm, difference between Cleo and her employers. She may technically live in the same house and spend her days with the family, but she is distinctly not one of them. Although the children clearly have affection for her, often saying “I love you” as she tucks them into bed, and the adults care about her well-being when she is in need, they are quick to order her around and occasionally take out their frustrations on her. We never see Cleo do the same to them. No matter what personal struggle she may be facing, she isn’t afforded the luxury of rudeness because she is at the bottom of this social ladder.

There are a few moments that have a sudden impact. Once Cuarón establishes the regular rhythm of Cleo caring for the family, he introduces conflict that creates emotional reactions. These feelings are amplified by Cleo’s subdued body language. Even in the most climactic scenes, her strongest expression is a quiet sob and the resulting effect is that the viewer absorbs the remaining emotions she is unable to exhibit. This can be an incredibly powerful technique and one that Cuarón has used in the past. Unsaid emotions have a greater impact than any dialogue could deliver, but as successful as this method can be, there are too few emotional moments across the runtime and the ones that are present don’t provide a strong enough payoff. Roma is an incredibly well made film that features flashes of emotion, but not enough to take it to the next level.

3/5 stars.

2019, Top Lists

Most Anticipated Movies of 2019

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With 2018 coming to a close, it’s time to look at what the new year might offer. This list covers the films and filmmakers I’m personally most excited about based on the topics, casts, and track record of the creative teams involved. Some may slip into 2020, but all of them are going to be worth keeping on your radar. Here are my most anticipated films of 2019:

11. The Good Nurse (TBA)

Tobias Lindholm has made a name for himself making tense, morally complex thrillers like A Hijacking and A War and his English language debut presents tantalizing subject matter. The story follows Charlie Cullen who allegedly killed hundreds of people during his 16 year nursing career and, with a cast that reportedly includes Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne as the leads, there is sure to be ample fuel for Lindholm’s drama.

10. Arctic (2/1/2019)

A survival story in the bitter cold of the Arctic is by itself an interesting premise, but adding Mads Mikkelsen (The Hunt) as the lead makes this a definite must-see. The film opened at Cannes this year to positive reviews with critics praising Mikkelsen’s performance and the film’s uncompromising vision.

9. The Lighthouse (TBA)

The Witch is one of the most interesting horror movies of the past few years, with meticulous period detail and escalating paranoia that few films can achieve. Robert Eggers’s follow up is sure to be in the same vein with Willem Dafoe playing an elderly lighthouse keeper in this dark horror-fantasy.

8. Everything Everywhere All At Once (TBA)

Very little is known about the newest film from the Daniels, but their involvement is enough to warrant a place on this list. The film is described as an “inter-dimensional action film” with Michelle Yeoh and Awkwafina of Crazy Rich Asians starring. I’m personally not a huge fan of Awkwafina’s style of humor, but the Daniels’ history of creating absolutely bonkers music videos and their first feature Swiss Army Man make me excited for anything they have to offer.

7. Jojo Rabbit (TBA)

WWII Germany is not where most people would think to set a comedy, but most people aren’t Taika Waititi. Hunt for the Wilderpeople was one of my favorite movies of 2016 and coming off Thor: Ragnarok, a studio film that neutered many of his best quirks, it’s nice to see him return to a smaller scale. The script is hilarious and features another precocious boy in a coming of age story with Waititi playing the child’s imaginary friend: Hitler. The film is filled with the well-meaning buffoons and dialogue misunderstandings that make his work so consistently entertaining.

6. I’m Thinking of Ending Things (TBA)

It’s been more than a decade since Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) released a live action feature. His movies can sometimes be too reflexive for their own good, but are always thought-provoking. With some added freedom and budget from Netflix, he can hopefully put together one of his signature introspective stories.

5. Untitled Danny Boyle/Richard Curtis Musical (6/28/2019)

This is the most mainstream film on my list and I can’t deny my appreciation for Richard Curtis’s work (Notting Hill, About Time). Some may call him cheesy, but he creates sympathetic, endearingly awkward characters and stories with unabashed heart. The pairing of his writing with strong direction from Danny Boyle seems like a great fit. The film’s story follows a struggling musician who, for currently unknown reasons, is the only person able to remember the Beatles and uses their music to launch his own career. This silly, but promising setup with a talented cast starring Himesh Patel and Lily James could be one of the most crowd-pleasing movies of the year.

4. Long Day’s Journey into Night (Spring 2019)

After opening to incredible reviews at Cannes this year, Bi Gan’s sophomore feature has hit unexpected pre-sale records in China and is poised to be an arthouse breakout there. The film has received huge praise for its dreamy visuals, startling use of 3D, and a supposedly 50+ minute long take. Building off his stellar debut Kaili Blues and tackling new artistic challenges, Bi Gan is shaping up to be an original filmmaker to watch.

3. Wounds (3/29/2019)

Babak Anvari’s feature debut Under the Shadow was my favorite film of 2016 so I’m predictably excited for anything he has slated next. His new film, whose title seems to be in flux, is based on a horror-mystery novel called The Visible Filth about a man that finds a cell phone that sends his life spiraling into nightmarish territory. It features Armie Hammer and Dakota Johnson in the lead roles and seems perfectly suited to Anvari’s penchant for creating scenes of almost unbearable tension.

2. Ad Astra (5/24/2019)

This sci-fi thriller, co-written and directed by James Gray, may be the movie that delivers on what Interstellar could not. The film stars Brad Pitt as an engineer who travels through space searching for his father, played by none other than Tommy Lee Jones, who has been missing since he left for a mission to Neptune 20 years earlier. Ad Astra has Gray’s largest budget to date and with his focus on character and proven ability to tell decade spanning epics (The Lost City of Z), it could be the smart sci-fi we’ve been waiting for.

1. Climax (3/1/2019)

Gaspar Noé is one of my favorite filmmakers. He may be a provocateur and indulge himself in some unnecessary scenes, but he also creates visceral experiences like no other. Climax premiered at Cannes this year to the most positive reviews of Noé’s career, so much so that he was disappointed he didn’t hit his normal walk-out rate. His film follows a dance troupe whose celebration changes when they find out their drinks have been laced with LSD. Noé has played with hallucinatory imagery before but devoting an entire film to this setup, powered by his and his regular cinematographer Benoît Debie’s technical skill, is going to be an unrivaled example of pure audiovisual experience.

2018, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Bird Box (2018): Weak Knock-off

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Bird Box is told in two timelines. The first follows Malorie (Sandra Bullock; Gravity) as she prepares two blindfolded children, named Boy and Girl, to travel to a community downriver. The second tells Malorie’s backstory and fills in why the world appears to be in a post-apocalyptic state. On the way home with her sister following a prenatal checkup, Malorie realizes that something is very wrong. People are suddenly acting suicidal and jumping off buildings or running into busy streets. As chaos ensues, she finds refuge in a stranger’s house along with other stranded individuals and discovers that some unknown, unearthly entities are creating the havoc by controlling anyone who makes visual contact with them. From that point on, Malorie and company cover all windows and only step outside with blindfolds to protect themselves from contracting whatever frenzy is tearing their world apart.

Within Malorie’s journey is a blunt subplot about her personal growth. Her pregnancy is unwanted and unplanned and she repeatedly states that she is not mother material and has no desire to be. The writers intend the pregnancy and eventual raising of the children to allow for her to realize her parental instincts and see herself as more than she had previously believed possible, but the acting and writing is so heavy-handed that she appears to only have two phases of growth, being completely against the idea of being a mother and wholly embracing motherhood, with neither being believable and without a smooth transition between the two states. Her treatment of the boy and girl seems less like someone unsure of their ability to raise children and more like someone just annoyed that they have an additional responsibility. When she does finally accept them, Bullock acts with unconvincing, forced emotions and delivers the most predictable, corny dialogue. Her growth into motherhood is a flawed, failed attempt at character development that doesn’t engender the desired sympathy.

Malorie’s interactions with the children never create believable bonds.

Bird Box is the amalgamation of A Quiet Place and The Happening that no one wanted. The conceit of needing to cover your eyes to avoid infection could have been an interesting premise but the film does little to exploit the potential. Furthermore, limited sight does not allow for the tense situations that avoiding sound does. There is minimal risk to accidentally alerting the creatures because a simple blindfold negates their power whereas in A Quiet Place even a small false move could create a noise loud enough to lead to death. This danger infused tension into every movement, but in Bird Box their situation is almost entirely within their own control and the creatures don’t directly harm the characters so the narrative doesn’t provide enough reason to be afraid of the unexplained beings. The main consequence, that characters enter a suicidal rage, isn’t as laughably bad as in The Happening but the visuals of people ending their own lives still fail to produce a lasting emotional response. Bird Box is an unnecessary, weak twist on existing horror ideas that doesn’t understand what made them successful or learn from their mistakes.

2/5 stars.

2018, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Apostle (2018): A Better, Modern Wicker Man

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After receiving a desperate letter from his younger sister explaining that she has been taken captive by a cult on a remote island, Thomas (Dan Stevens; The Guest) is forced to join the cult in an attempt to save her. He has been dealing with his own personal issues after traumatic events left him in a mental breakdown but must put his needs aside to help the one person in his family that always believed in him. He ventures to the island to find it led by a charismatic “Prophet” named Malcolm (Michael Sheen; Midnight in Paris) who claims to be the voice of the island’s god, a being referred to only as The Lady. The film marks the English language debut of Gareth Evans best known for writing and directing the incredible Indonesian action series The Raid.

Apostle relies on drab visuals to represent the cult’s condition. The island has been developed with houses, churches, and farmland, but nothing in the production design communicates levity or joy. The cast almost exclusively wears cool, dark colors favoring muted blues, browns, and blacks. Buildings look worn from inclement weather and every daytime scene takes place under heavily overcast skies. The few characters that show signs of positive emotions soon face events that remove their happiness making for a downtrodden, gloomy community.

Thomas’s constant unease extends to the audience.

Evans successfully moves in a new direction, which may disappoint some. Fans of The Raid series looking for a continuation of the kinetic martial arts, will not be satisfied here. The film is closer to the thriller genre and relies more on tension and mystery than action. There are a few action scenes and their swift brutality reminds of Evans’s previous work, but they are few in number. The tension is created by Thomas’s infiltration of the cult. The severe consequences of being deemed a traitor or “blasphemer” are established early which makes every decision potentially lethal. Stevens displays the constant unease of the situation and appears to be looking over his shoulder at every opportunity. There are also questions surrounding the group’s unusual rituals and beliefs that may have some supernatural basis that further raise the stakes on Thomas’s mission and deepen the mystery.

The film feels like a modern, violent update to The Wicker Man. It also features a man going to save a young woman from a religious group living in isolation on an island, but Apostle takes the premise much further. It doesn’t immediately condemn people for having their own beliefs, but it also points out their moral inconsistencies. It delves into the fine line between speaking the good word and becoming a demagogue and shows how easily someone can shift between the two. Malcolm founded the community with idealist beliefs but, on the verge of famine, he has turned to kidnapping an innocent woman for ransom money. The struggles he faces test his rectitude and willingness to compromise. Other leaders are less steadfast and, while preaching virtues to others, violate them when personal issues arise. Exploring the drastic consequences of making small concessions to personal beliefs gives Apostle moral complexity to bolster its taut mystery.

4/5 stars.

2018, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Hold the Dark (2018): Vague Symbolism

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Medora (Riley Keough; Mad Max: Fury Road), a mother living by herself in rural Alaska, reaches out to a writer for help in a desperate situation. Her son has been taken by wolves and though she doesn’t expect to find him alive, she wants the wolf found and killed. Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright; Broken Flowers) spent years among wolves studying their patterns and his novel gave Medora hope that he could find the one that took her son. Her husband Vernon (Alexander Skarsgård; True Blood) is deployed in the military and she wants to have some closure for him when he arrives.

Unlike director Jeremy Saulnier’s previous films, Hold the Dark has a much less explicit plot. Blue Ruin and Green Room were both simple in terms of narrative details, but the plot here relies on symbolism, psychology, and barely noticeable background details. There is a dark history to the small Alaskan town and passing comments from strangers indicate there is more to Vernon and Medora’s relationship than Core is aware. As he leaves their house a local woman tells him that there is something wrong with Medora and to stay away. This could be a great setup for Core to unravel the town’s mysteries, but that never happens.

The freezing landscape is the film’s most developed character, which isn’t saying much.

Most of the plot is left unexplained. Sometimes an ambiguous ending provides an opportunity for thought and interpretation, but that isn’t the case here. The entire story is ambiguous and feels like it is missing key details and background, which may have been lost in the transition from book to film, that are necessary to understand character motivations. Without them, several leads commit terrible crimes for little discernable reason. There is some gesturing towards animal spirits and a man wears a wolf-shaped mask before committing several murders, but it does little to entice the audience when the script, by Saulnier’s regular collaborator Macon Blair (I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore), never effectively builds on these clues or links them to the characters.

Saulnier is known for being a master of tension and genre thrills. He emphasizes the location’s frigid cold and a hopelessness that comes with the bleak environment. Yet, there are also scenes in Hold the Dark that feel straight out of a slasher movie and are incongruous with what initially seems like a gritty story of small town corruption like Winter’s Bone. The violence is well done and each shot or stab feels painful, but we never have a narrative base to interpret these actions from. The characters are not given time to develop before they act unnaturally and it prevents the audience from connecting. This in turn reduces the stakes in the skillfully composed set pieces, leaving Hold the Dark as little more than a competent production filled with vague, uninvolving symbolism.

2/5 stars.

2018, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Private Life (2018): Desperation and Conception

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After years of unsuccessfully trying different methods, a Manhattan couple in their late forties, Rachel (Kathryn Hahn; Bad Moms) and Richard (Paul Giamatti; Sideways), takes increasingly drastic steps to have a baby of their own. They simultaneously attempt in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and adoption in case either method fails. Writer and director Tamara Jenkins (The Savages) examines the process and the effect it has on their personal well-being, their marriage, and their extended families.

Jenkins contrasts how important the IVF process is to Rachel and Richard with how little it matters to those around them. Some of their friends and extended family treat it like a routine procedure without understanding the gravity of their situation. The medical staff at their hospital are the most grating. The nurses approach the process from a cold, clinical perspective and perform their tasks without sensitivity to the meaning it has for their patients and their main doctor has an inappropriate informality. He nonchalantly compares malfunctioning organs to soda machines and repeats the same corny anecdotes with each visit. These attitudes might seem comical at first but when compared to Rachel and Richard’s long history of attempting to have a child and what it means to them, it seems downright cruel.

Hahn and Giamatti show the cost of the couple’s continued failures.

As a couple pushed to their limits, Hahn and Giamatti portray weary characters. They have spent years attempting various fertilization procedures and adoption methods but to no results and the emotional toll is apparent. Each passing anniversary or nearby family is another reminder that they still don’t have the life they want. Their failure to conceive creates feelings of inadequacy and regret, especially in Rachel. She feels partly to blame for her predicament. Both Rachel and Richard are successful artists that prioritized their career and, in Rachel’s case, she repeatedly chose to delay having kids in favor of completing other career milestones like finishing a play or book.  Hahn and Giamatti show the desperation of a wife and husband exhausted from their efforts. Giamatti, known for his bombastic acting, is subdued here with the gray in his beard and drained expressions showing his lack of energy. Hahn’s performances shows more determination but also more frustration. Her Rachel is fed up with the lack of results and uses a short temper as a defense for the blame she expects to be placed on herself.

Ultimately, Private Life is about family in desperation. In order to pay for the expensive treatments, Rachel and Ricard are depleting their life savings and having to borrow large sums of money from Richard’s brother. They are on the brink of collapse and it has damaged themselves and their relationship as their journey to parenthood has consumed the last years of their lives. Every subsequent failure has deepened their suffering and they feel powerless to do anything about it as they find themselves at the mercy of doctors and adoption specialists. Jenkins has taken a sensitive, sympathetic look at the heartache that comes with failing to participate in a basic part of human existence and being unable to lead the life you so desperately desire.

4/5 stars.

2018, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Bumblebee (2018): The Transforming Giant

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Looking to expand the reach of their most popular franchise, Paramount has created a standalone prequel to Transformers. Set in the 80s, Bumblebee is the origin story of how the yellow robot came to Earth and how that led to the presence of other transformers. The film stars Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) as Charlie, a high school senior who gets an old Beetle only to realize that it is a transformer. The spinoff also has a new creative lead with stop-motion animator Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings) taking the reins from Michael Bay in his first live-action feature.

Despite its connection to the larger Transformers universe, Bumblebee does not make any attempt to imitate Michael Bay’s style. The film is closer to The Iron Giant than anything else. When Bumblebee first meets Charlie he is innocent and scared, with no recollection of where he is or why he came there. The change is a little jarring since the prologue on Cybertron sets him up as a formidable fighter yet on Earth he has a puppy-like demeanor, but this allows a series of cute scenes where Charlie tries to explain how he has to behave, similar to training a new dog. The quest to return him back to his home also recalls E.T. and there is even a scene where he makes the well-known pointing gesture towards Charlie. Bumblebee becomes her only friend and their relationship provides the film’s heart.

Their relationship can be a little cheesy, but it makes Bumblebee more than just a fighting machine.

The action is much clearer than previous films in the series. Bay has always been known for creating massive, hectic battles with a shaking camera that can be disorienting. Knight prefers a cleaner look to the action. Fights between Decepticons and Autobots and the military are more plainly choreographed which makes the combat more digestible if a little ordinary. Knight adds a few flourishes especially in a chase scene where Bumblebee, in vehicle form, outruns a police officer in a tunnel using his transforming powers. The robots are mostly identical to Bay’s designs but because the majority of the film only features three transformers, each clearly marked by a single primary color, it reduces the issue of not being able to distinguish between robots during battle.

Being set in the 80s means Knight pulls out all of the required references. Charlie starts her morning by eating a bowl of Mr. T branded cereal, listens to a Walkman, and has an extensive tape collection. Unfortunately the movie does fall into some 80s high school clichés when it comes to bullies. Charlie is not in the popular crowd and the way a group of girls comes by just to make a mean joke about her deceased father stretches belief and is a cheap shortcut to sympathy. The musical references end up being the best part of the setting. Bumblebee’s reactions to different tunes and his timely playback of songs as a means of communicating are always entertaining. The chosen tracklist is mostly filled with the expected 80s artists like Steve Winwood and Rick Astley, but while the song choice doesn’t necessarily innovate, its earnest use prevents the music from feeling trite. The film doesn’t have high ambitions, but Bumblebee is a warm, pleasing story of friendship between two outsiders.

3/5 stars.

2018, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Vox Lux (2018): Diva Drama with a Mediocre Lead

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After making national headlines for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, sisters Celeste (Natalie Portman; Black Swan) and Ellie (Stacy Martin; Nymphomaniac) write a song about their encounter that allows Celeste to become a worldwide pop star. In the present, Celeste is releasing a new album and starting a tour while dealing with mental and physical issues and attempting to raise a teenage daughter of her own.

The film is framed with biopic style narration from Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man) that creates an interesting conceit. It makes the film a deliberate retelling of the Celeste’s life rather than simply portraying the actual events and Dafoe’s tone has the perfect level of retrospective regret. The film uses his voiceover to frame Celeste’s adulthood as inevitable given each of her childhood vignettes. With the exception of the final lines, which feature a laughably bad coda, the narration adds a fatalist twist to the story.

Portman’s acting ticks are noticeable, but have limited benefit.

Portman is winning significant praise for her lead role and, by her low standards, she does an adequate job. She plays Celeste as a neurotic, self-absorbed diva that, while aware of her potentially fading stardom, still believes she is the best out there and dismisses the contributions others have made to her success. Portman is an actor that often suffers from what is called mechanical acting. Her gestures, physicality, and the delivery of her lines feel rehearsed so instead of seeing a character onscreen we notice an actor attempting to play a character and the same issue persists here. The noticeable aspects of her performance are her adopted mannerisms, not an intended emotional state. But, compared to Portman’s history of bad to awful acting, this is one of her more tolerable outings. Regardless of the final quality of her acting, she is nothing if not committed. She throws herself into the role, especially in a late dance performance, and this ethic, despite a lack of results, is admirable.

The real star of the film is its direction. Brady Corbet (Childhood of a Leader) uses a bold, grimy style. The story has an explosive opening that establishes the film’s grungy aesthetic. The events onscreen feel like the unfiltered, unpolished version of behind the scenes videos for a concert where the star and their entourage are bickering and getting high instead of collaboratively preparing for the next show. It is this internal drama that is the film’s focus. There has been a lot of advertising about the original songs being composed by pop musician Sia, but, while well-made, they are inconsequential to the narrative. Vox Lux isn’t a story of stardom corrupting an innocent youth, Corbet is interested in how fame released, and continues to grow, an inner version of Celeste that always existed but would never have manifested without the freedom allowed by her global success. This a unique and interesting angle to take on effect of sudden fame, but with a mediocre lead and an embarrassing narrative bookend, Vox Lux isn’t able to maintain the strength of its shocking opening.

3/5 stars.