Smile
I could accuse Smile of being unoriginal, but that’s shallow criticism for a move that takes such delight in scaring its audience. Highly Recommended. Continue reading Smile
Category: Movies
See How They Run
In 1950s London, Angela Christie’s Mousetrap has just completed its one hundredth performance. American director Leo Köpernick (Adrien Brody) is in town ostensibly to hash out a screenplay with Mervyn Cocker-Norris (David Oyelowo), but the two cannot agree on how to turn the stage production into a movie. At the afterparty, Köpernick hits on the lead actress (Pearl Chanda), implying that she can get the lead role in his movie for…favors. This naturally upsets her lead actor and husband (Harris Dickinson). After a fight, Köpernick is attacked and killed backstage. Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) and Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) are put on the case, and together they unravel just how many people had a reason to kill Köpernick. It’s a classic whodunnit, but like Christie’s stories, the murderer may surprise you.
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Barbarian
Barbarian is a welcome new member of a group of horror movies that makes you think while it scares you. This subset of the genre includes movies like Freaky, Get Out and It Follows and doesn’t have an official designation that I’m aware of. I collectively refer to them as “brainy horror”, which is lame, I know. (Impale me on a spike if you must.) Like those movies, Barbarian is first and foremost a top-notch horror movie, filled with scares and enough disturbing images to fuel nightmares. It’s also incredibly devious in how it uses your familiarity with the genre to subvert your expectations at every turn. Most importantly, it earns its place alongside the other noteworthy brainy horror movies by being a very entertaining film from beginning to end.
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The Invitation
How to make a movie about Dracula feel new, or at least new-ish? The Invitation addresses this by telling a very familiar story about a very familiar character through the eyes of Evie (Nathalie Emmanuel), an African American toiling away in the States as a waitress. Her job sucks and with her mother’s recent death, misses having connection to a family. The answer to her ennui arrives when she completes a DNA test and discovers she’s actually a long-lost relative to the white-as-can-be Alexander family in England. Her best friend Grace (Courtney Taylor) cautions her not to go, but nobody ever listens to their best friend’s advice in these movies.
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The Batman
Gotham: a city beset with drugs and crime. The police are overwhelmed and have sought the help of a vigilante known as Batman (Robert Pattinson). Bruce Wayne, the man behind the mask, is more than willing to oblige. After two years, he has instilled fear into the city’s criminals, but criminal activity is on the rise despite his actions. Within this hellish landscape emerges a man dressed in green and the city’s power structure in his sights. On Halloween night, he brutally kills the mayor, but isn’t satisfied with committing murder. Instead, he leaves behind ciphers, a card addressed to Batman and the words “No More Lies” scrawled on the victim’s face. With each successive murder, the Riddler (Paul Dano) exposes the corruption at every level of Gotham. For reasons known only to himself, he seeks revenge upon the people in Gotham’s power structure, including the mayor, the police commissioner, district attorney (Peter Sarsgaard) and a “rat” who helped them all put a gangster behind bars years ago. Surprisingly, millionaire and philanthropist Thomas Wayne is also implicated by the Riddler, making Bruce a target as well.
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Minions: The Rise of Gru
In this prequel sequel, Gru (Steve Carrel) is intent on joining the Vicious6, a group of super villains who have deep-sixed their leader, Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin). Even though the minions have given Gru nothing but unwavering loyalty and dedication to his cause, he doesn’t believe that the minions are ready for prime time. What 11 & ¾ year-old kid doesn’t need some help becoming a supervillain? As for Wild Knuckles, he’s furious that the team he founded tried to kill him. If you haven’t guessed, Minions: The Rise of Gru is about loyalty. Well, it’s about loyalty in those moments when it isn’t hilariously funny.
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Nope
The flying saucer movie has been a staple for over seventy years. The first movie to feature a UFO, appropriately titled The Flying Saucer, came out in 1950. Since then, the genre has primarily been about a flying saucer, or flying saucers, showing up on Earth causing problems for hapless humans. There have been some great ones over the years, including The Day The Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ET. However, this category of science fiction mostly exists to provide cheap thrills. Oh no, a big-headed alien has just abducted our helpless heroine! Send in the Army and all of its tanks, jets and men with machine guns!
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Thor: Love and Thunder
What if all Gods are jerks who couldn’t care less about the suffering of the faithful? For Gorr (Christian Bale), the sole surviving member of an extinct race whose daughter just died, the answer is simple: kill ‘em all! If I didn’t know better, I’d accuse Thor: Love and Thunder (or Thor4) of appropriating Nietzsche’s most famous quote (God is dead) for a plot device. Not to worry, this is the only deep thought the movie has to offer over its two hour run time.
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Where The Crawdads Sing
If Where The Crawdads Sing was only about a girl living in the North Carolina marsh who, after being abandoned by her entire family, learned how to survive and grew up to become a successful nature illustrator, the movie would have been a compelling one. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t have anywhere near the confidence that Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones) has in herself. Instead of following through on the themes of independence and self-reliance, the story chooses a safer approach by including a plethora of subplots that are under-cooked and unconvincing.
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Elvis
Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis tells the story of a performer who, if you’re versed in American popular culture, needs no introduction. This movie, however, is not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill biopic. While the movie does a decent job of recounting the key events of Elvis’ life, it intends to remind us of how exciting Elvis was as a performer. Mission most definitely accomplished there, as Austin Butler and director Luhrmann amazingly channel the electricity of Elvis on stage, when he was at his best. The movie also tries to refurbish Elvis’ image by addressing criticisms of racism and cultural appropriation. Even though the movie’s attempts were made in good-faith, I doubt they will likely win over any new converts.
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Detroit Cineaste 