A few reviews

[TM2YC]

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
Considering the two best actors/characters from the first film, the people who made it worth watching, were not going to be in the sequel (sort of), this had a hurdle to get over. Unfortunately instead of starting fresh with a new fun direction, it's all about mourning the absence of T'Challa/Chadwick Boseman. I'm well past caring about this franchise, so I simply wanted 2-hours of escapism. Remember when it was crazy fun like Tony Stark welding a robot suit in a cave and then flying around to AC/DC? Instead I got 2.5-hours of leaden, ponderous, boredom from a film that thinks it's 'War and Peace'. I know it must be possible for fans to care about an adaptation of some nonsense from a 1960s children's comic as earnestly as this wants them to, but I was not up to the task. The thing that really ticked me off from the start about this one, was how bad and cheap it looks. There isn't one FX shot in the whole thing that looked like anybody took pride in doing it, some look as I did them in half an hour. There are CG wave FX round the hulls of ships that look poor next to 'Titanic' and I recently saw that back at the cinema for it's 25th anniversary. I dreaded every scene that was not in daylight because otherwise this is so poorly lit and lacking in contrast, that I sometimes strained my eyes to tell what the hell was happening on screen at all. Why do films look this bad now? on this massive budget? Could they not afford lights?!? The post credits scene with the always fantastic Lupita Nyong'o was the only point that gave me "the feels"... in the bit after the main film is over.

This is an actual screenshot from a quarter billion dollar movie:

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Barb Wire (1996)
There were two big reasons why me and my friends wanted to watch this post-apocalyptic-ish movie at the cinema on my 15th birthday back in 1996 but I can't remember what they were right now. We regretted our shallow decision and afterwards suspected this did not have quite the same budget as the previous year's 'Waterworld'. This was the 2nd time I watched it, many years later and although it's still not a good movie, it's entertaining and colourful enough to make me chuckle. There is an extra level of tension from wondering if the duct tape holding the sets and props together will hold. After just watching the dreadfully shot/lit quarter-billion dollar 'Wakanda Forever', I was left pondering how and why 'Barb Wire', a no-budget piece of 90s schlock could look so much better. There are smoky, chiaroscuro shots that rival 'Blade Runner'. It can't be that these guys had more talent than the Oscar winning makers of 'Wakanda Forever' and they certainly didn't have more time, money and resources. It must just be that people actually cared about films looking good back then... even Pamela Anderson B-movies. The action is fairly well handled too and when that and the visuals combine it can sometimes be pretty cool:

'Barb Wire' is from that weird 90s pre-'Iron Man'/'X-Men' era when the idea of respecting comic book source materials (and the fans of such) had never crossed their minds. So rather than drawing closely from the BW comics (which I've never read) they instead, copy-and-paste the script from 'Casablanca' and then apply the surface details of BW comic over it. It's insane how much this is a plotpoint-for-plotpoint, scene-for-scene, character-for-character, unauthorised remake of 'Casablanca'. I guess they figured nobody would care enough about this movie to sue. The HD transfer on Netflix looks very nice by the way.

Here is a puppet discussing the similarities to 'Casablanca' (but I think this way underplays how close the films are):

 

[mnkykungfu]

Turning Red (2022)
I enjoyed the film more vicariously through lovely Canadian YouTubers Simone & George who were more appreciative of the specific references to Canada in the 2000s and Chinese-Canadian culture:

The beauty of most Pixar films is that I never felt like I needed to be a toy, or a bug, or an alien, or a father fish, in order to understand and totally empathize with the struggles of the main character. The specific nods to the world of those characters were fun and amusing to me, pulling me in to a new way of looking at things that was an enjoyable 105-minute escape.

Turning Red felt like I had to already be like the main character in order to understand and empathize with her struggles. The specificity did not pull me in, but rather pushed me away from a story cluttered with annoying and overbearing details. No offense to anyone who it clicked with, but it failed the central Pixar mission in my book.

A highly enjoyable double bill of Michelle Yeoh's first starring movie and her latest...

Yes, Madam! (1985)

I've seen clips of the fights and stuns here so many times over the years it almost feels like I've watched it... but I haven't. It's on my list of a Cynthia Rothrock 10-film marathon I hope to get to this year.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
I thought it had too little of the first two and too much of the last one but it's still a blast.

It really does live up to the title, right? Sheer ballsiness for going so full-in on the bizarre comedy and the committed drama, and somehow mostly making both work? The Daniels never quite balance tone for me in their films, but I think this came the closest to doing everything they wanted it to do... all at once.

 

[TM2YC]

The Harmony Game (2011)
For me, 'Bookends' was the creative peak for Simon and Garfunkel (and for late 60s NY folk) and I never fully warmed to the bigger pop productions on their final album 'Bridge over Troubled Water' (similar to how I feel about 'Revolver' vs 'Sgt. Pepper'). Jennifer Lebeau's making-of documentary makes me keen to give the album another go, as it does a terrific job of placing the work within it's context of US social and political change, as well as the usual footage of people talking sat at mixing desks.

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Simon and Garfunkel: Songs of America (1969)
After watching 'The Harmony Game' making-of 'Bridge over Troubled Water', I was curious to see Simon and Garfunkel's controversial (at the time) CBS TV special, from which the documentary drew a lot of contemporaneous footage, as well as discussing it's making. The sponsor pulled out and apparently 1 million viewers had switched over to watch figure skating by the first commercial break. It was originally broadcast (only once) on 30th November 1969, two months before the release of their 'Bridge over Troubled Water' LP but while it was still being recorded, so it also features material from their then still current 'Bookends' LP. 'Songs of America' is a vérité style "state of the nation" counter cultural view of America and how their music relates to it. The most powerful section is footage of the lives, deaths and funerals of Dr. King, JFK and Robert Kennedy, cut to the then unheard song 'Bridge over Troubled Water'. 'El Condor Pasa (If I Could)' soundtracks union marchers, the line about "Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike" (from the song 'America') is ironically played against footage of piles of rusted/burned cars and the spectre of the Vietnam War hangs over everything. So I can see why the conservative (with a small c) sponsors might have balked, but it's powerful and beautiful stuff. The concert footage of Garfunkel singing is magical.

It's difficult to find in decent quality (the Criterion channel has it) but it is on the internet:

 

[TM2YC]

She Said (2022)
In the brief prologue, Director Maria Schrader eloquently captures the dream fantasy of making movies, against the nightmare reality of making movies with Harvey Weinstein, with one hard cut in space/time to contrast the two. The rest of the film isn't as clever but it's still a riveting and horrifying 'All the President's Men' style investigative-journalist thriller. I remember being impressed by Zoe Kazan back in 2008's 'Me and Orson Welles', so have been waiting for her to get roles as good as this. Her character interviews several people but Samantha Morton steals the show in her guest spot. This "globe-trotting" aspect sometimes felt awkward because they clearly didn't film in any of the real places, or have enough time/money to dress New York up to look convincingly like any other country/place. IMO, it was a mistake to cast Ashley Judd as herself, there is something ironically unreal about a real person dropped into a dramatisation, which breaks your acceptance of the rest as reality.

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Aftersun (2022)
The first part felt like it was mostly staring at nothing for a minute, while ambient noises happen, sometimes this is interrupted by people mumbling. This low-key bit was a slog to get through but it becomes exponentially more powerful and engaging as it goes on, building to one of the most beautiful, sad, artistically satisfying ends to a film I can recall. The sprinkling of diegetic pop music works so well but the use of Queen's 'Under Pressure' in the final moments is genius. It hit me in a similar way as Guns n' Roses 'Sweet Child of Mine' did at the end of 'The Wrestler'. Where everything you've seen and are still seeing, connects with the lyric to a song you've heard a thousand times in a new and deeper way. The haunting final shots are going to stick with me, in fact the next day I was listening to Billy Bragg's masterpiece 'Tank Park Salute' (a song sung from the perspective of a child mourning their parent) and the scenes from the film flooded back and felt part of that song. I've rarely been as disinterested by a film at first, yet ended up loving it so much. I want to watch this again.

 

[TM2YC]

Catch Me If You Can (2002)
I didn't find 'Catch Me If You Can' that memorable when it first came out but I loved it today, it's such an energetic and glossy crime/comedy/thriller, with emotional depth too. I'd forgotten this was a sort of Christmas movie, not just in the setting but in the theme of a broken family and holding on to the romantic dream of what it could've/should've been. The only nitpick I'd have is that we never really have to face up to the destructive consequences of Abagnale's crime spree, it's only addressed once in the mildest possible way. Playing that up too much would have taken us in a dark direction and away from it being such a fun caper but I could've used just a pinch more saltiness.

 

[TM2YC]

The Whale (2022)
This is up there with my favourite Darren Aronofsky films and I only like about half of his work. It's not quite as emotionally satisfying as 'The Wrestler' and not quite as daringly extreme as 'Mother!' but it's strong on both counts. Brendan Fraser and Hong Chau's performances are outstanding. So good in fact, that they don't even require any of the other technical elements of the film to sustain 2-hours, so it's a bonus that they are all excellent too. I wasn't sure about the artistic choices at the very end though and nobody will be surprised to find this one-set movie is based on a stage play.

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

Triangle of Sadness. I hadn’t seen either of Östlund’s earlier films so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. For me, it’s a mixed bag. First it’s definitely overlong. Second, at least for the first two acts, it felt more Ike a season of White Lotus, a show I’m also lukewarm on. It suffers from diminishing returns as it becomes more and more heavy-handed in its satire. The first act is arguably the best and the second act is solid until it’s not. The third act feels superfluous as it loses any subtlety. which is a shame because it really felt like it had potential. An example of this (actually towards the end of act 2) is the quote trading between the American Marxist captain and the Russian Capitalist, which was a great scene but was unfortunately sandwiched between extended barfing scenes. Like Everything Everywhere All at Once, it’s a movie that feels frustratingly close to great if it could’ve showed a modicum of restraint.

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

Women Talking. The titular women talking plays out a bit like 12 Angry Men. But here the women are debating their own fate, which in their minds is an issue of no less than eternal salvation. Polley does a great job of taking us out of the room/barn occasionally to make it feel much less stagey than it could’ve been. There are great performances across the board and the film hinges on them. The movie is set in a culture and tine and that feels far removed from our modern culture, but that only served to strengthen the relevance of the themes for me. Things (perhaps) play out differently in “our world” but that feels almost a matter of semantics. In the end, it’s the debate that’s the focus but the final act held so much emotion and tension for me. It’s a really great film.

 

[TM2YC]

The Batman (2022)
After the dreadful Zack Snyder Batman era, I wasn't enthusiastic about seeing what looked like more of the same tone but this was way better than I'd feared. I was also concerned it would go the route of the 2019 'Joker' film, where in an effort to be "dark and gritty" they've gone so far away from the source material, that it's barely recognisable as the same character/setting, but no, this is 100% Batman, just more lo-fi, leaving plenty of room for gadget evolution in future films. The stripped down "Last of the V8 Interceptors" Batmobile was cool but I didn't like the suit at all, it looks a bit "Hockey pads" to me. There is some beautiful lighting in this movie but sometimes you can't see it because the camera is often 100% out of focus, and the rest of the time, just 90% of the screen is out of focus. It's got a very unique look, with extremely well integrated FX, it doesn't look real but it's not supposed to, it's a dark fantasy world. The trouble is every scene is shot and lit the same way, which becomes a bit visually meaningless after 3-hours. While story elements were influenced by 'Year One', the whole atmosphere was about as close to a translation of the excellent 'Arkham Asylum' video game as you could hope for.

You often hear the more hardcore side of the Batman comic fanbase bemoaning these movies because Bats isn't shown being "the world's greatest detective", but I reckon they'll be well satisfied here. After a bit of a jumbled beginning and a loose ending, this is a pleasingly linear detective story, with each scene evolving out of a discovery made in the previous scene. Anytime it deviates from that, you start to feel the excessive runtime and the detours in to franchise-building become obvious and tiresome. Despite the length, it still needed way more of Andy Serkis' Alfred, you can't just expect us to care about the character being imperilled because we've seen these movies before, you need to give us some reason to care for this Alfred. It could have used more humour too, or any lightness of touch in fact. I thought Colin Farrell's Penguin was specifically channelling Robert De Niro's Al Capone from 1987's 'The Untouchables'. While this needs some trimming in places, overall I really enjoyed 'The Batman' and look forward to the next instalment.

 

[mnkykungfu]

^You nailed a lot of my thoughts on this, except that as one of the "more hardcore" fans, the "detective" story in this absolutely did bother me. If you follow the narrative thread, Batman never really does any detecting. He literally just looks at what Riddler tells him to, and goes where he tells him to go. That's the starting point of a lot of these kind of Batman stories, but the whole point is that somewhere along the way he needs to get ahead of the criminal, and go where they don't plan for him to be, before they want him to. Batman never does that.

(And not to contradict or take over your review, but I did also have big problems with Pattinson - who can be a great actor - as both Bruce Wayne and Iron Man...er, sorry, Batman, not to mention multiple other casting and story decisions. To me, this is The Amazing Spider-Man after Raimi: lesser and unnecessary.)

 

[TM2YC]

I see what you are saying but you missed a stage out...

He literally just looks at what Riddler tells him to >solves the puzzle< and goes where he tells him to go.

It's true that Batman is following Riddler's bread crumb trail but Batman does have to do some detection to find those "crumbs" at each step. e.g. getting input from Alfred using his old skills from "The Circus" (indicating this Batman exists in the John le Carre shared universe) to break a cypher.

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I had a last minute binge of some of the remaining Oscar contenders...

The Fabelmans (2022)
For some reason I kept thinking this was called 'Meet The Fabelmans', as I got confused with Peter Jackson's 1989 film 'Meet the Feebles' .
Wow! Gabriel LaBelle as Sammy/Stephen is a sensational young actor, with so much depth and range. Looking forward to more from him. Most of the rest of the cast are great too but I personally thought Michelle Williams was wildly overacting, to the point where I initially thought we were supposed to believe her character was suffering from a mental illness. It's like she's playing the mother as a drunk Judy Garland in an SNL sketch. I could've done with more about "the magic of cinema" (although we do get some beautiful moments in that vein) and less about the family (but that might be down to me not being tuned into Williams' many scenes). David Lynch's brief cameo is the best thing I've seen all year and after watching Peter Bogdanovich's 'Directed by John Ford', it was accurate to real life.

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Triangle of Sadness (2022)
I can see why people have compared this to 'The Menu' but I enjoyed it much more. For one thing, it has a sympathy and understanding of the characters and their flaws, that is never lost, no matter how awfully they behave but it doesn't let them get away with it either. A key scene being the old oligarch Dimitry cradling the body of his wife Vera in a way that shows he genuinely loved her (despite his mistress), then he quickly starts stripping her corpse of her valuable jewellery. It never coalesced into a single targetted message but I enjoyed laughing at all the satirical grenades it's lobbing randomly in all directions (sometimes literally). The projectile vomiting scene was my highlight.

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Women Talking (2022)
A bit like '12 Angry Men' but more cinematic, although I could've watched just these characters fiercely debating in one room/set for the whole runtime, like in that other movie. All the cast are top notch but 'Die Hard 2's Sheila McCarthy was the stand out for me. It boggles the mind that this is based pretty closely on a real case and I couldn't get the fact locked into my head that this takes place now (more or less) and not in medieval times. This continues the rule that anything with Jessie Buckley in it is brilliant. One nitpick... I thought there was an "uncanny valley" aspect to the heavy desaturation of the visuals, that's so close to black & white but not, that I was constantly aware of it and distracted by it.

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

Women Talking (2022)
A bit like '12 Angry Men' but more cinematic, although I could've watched just these characters fiercely debating in one room/set for the whole runtime, like in that other movie. All the cast are top notch but 'Die Hard 2's Sheila McCarthy was the stand out for me. It boggles the mind that this is based pretty closely on a real case and I couldn't get the fact locked into my head that this takes place now (more or less) and not in medieval times. This continues the rule that anything with Jessie Buckley in it is brilliant. One nitpick... I thought there was an "uncanny valley" aspect to the heavy desaturation of the visuals, that's so close to black & white but not, that I was constantly aware of it and distracted by it.

As a PSA, Women Talking appears to be available for Amazon Prime subscribers free for a very limited time. I rented it a few days ago, but now see it in Prime for free. It’s worth anyone’s time and definitely worth your $0 if you’re a Prime subscriber.

 

[Hymie]

It was only available over the weekend as a treat due to the Oscars. I was home sick and took the opportunity to watch it and quite enjoyed it. Some great performances all around and a very well done screenplay by Sarah Polley.

 

[asterixsmeagol]

I shouldn't have waited! I was going to watch on Saturday but wasn't in the mood for something heavy so I just got caught up on some cartoons.

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

I think it’s still a pretty cheap rental.

 

[mnkykungfu]

I see what you are saying but you missed a stage out...
It's true that Batman is following Riddler's bread crumb trail but Batman does have to do some detection to find those "crumbs" at each step. e.g. getting input from Alfred using his old skills from "The Circus" (indicating this Batman exists in the John le Carre shared universe) to break a cypher.

The important difference is that Batman in Detective Comics or in The Animated Series or in the Arkham games or any good media doesn't just go where he's led by the nose. While at the scene, he finds a stray fiber or notices a pattern in the locations or the types of victims. He detects something he's not supposed to that allows him to get the jump on the criminal. Hence: World's Greatest Detective. Here, he was like the World's Greatest Crossword Puzzler...he was given a structure and expected to complete it and he did. So...yay?

The Fabelmans (2022)
but I personally thought Michelle Williams was wildly overacting

I also liked this quite a bit, though I'm with all those who think Williams is one of the greatest actresses of her generation. For me, her portrayal of Spielberg's mother was entirely accurate to the eccentric, free-spirted lady she was, and it was quite soulful.

 

[TM2YC]

The important difference is that Batman in Detective Comics or in The Animated Series or in the Arkham games or any good media doesn't just go where he's led by the nose. While at the scene, he finds a stray fiber or notices a pattern in the locations or the types of victims. He detects something he's not supposed to that allows him to get the jump on the criminal. Hence: World's Greatest Detective. Here, he was like the World's Greatest Crossword Puzzler...he was given a structure and expected to complete it and he did. So...yay?

That's a fair point. I think you mean it needed something like the scene in 'Se7en' (which has got to be another influence on The Batman), where Somerset pulls the illegal library info, to get ahead of John Doe's games and they nearly catch him at his apartment (a scene that is almost replicated, at least stylistically, in TB). Although the riddle solving element is kind of The Riddler's USP as an antagonist, they might do a better job of what you are wanting, given another villain.

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

I think it was definitely a Fincher does Batman in the same way there was Scorsese does Joker. I’d much rather these directors establish their own signature. Everyone borrows, but these seemed excessive to me.

 

[TM2YC]

TwentyFourSeven (1997)
This first black & white, feature-length effort from Writer/Director Shane Meadows has all the terrific elements of his later works. Flawed, sympathetic characters, themes of forgiveness and guilt, against the backdrop of post industrial decay. The ending scene is so powerful, eloquently mapping out the more positive direction of these character's lives, just by the way they sit with each other. The final message we're left with is that although your plans might end in failure, the fact that you cared enough to simply try can make the difference. Bob Hoskins is so damned good as always. Even the presence of young James Corden in his first film role couldn't spoil things for me.

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Oliver & Company (1988)
I was absolutely the prime age demographic for this last pre-"Disney renaissance" adaptation of 'Oliver Twist' when it came out. After my parents took to me to see it at the cinema, I was drawing pictures of the characters like Dodger and Tito in my school books, wearing merch badges and I think I had a story book of it too. Watching it again today on Disney+, I was not charmed and taken back to my childhood. There is an awkwardness in the way it's trying to project a young, current, street-smart, cool, late-80s New York attitude but decides to do that with Billy Joel and Bette Midler. If they'd been really bold, they'd have made this a Hip Hop musical with a soundtrack from that era, featuring the likes of Run-D.M.C. and Salt-N-Pepa. I note that this had a slightly higher budget than the subsequent classics 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Aladdin' but it isn't on screen, the animation and backdrops look cheap and rushed. 'Oliver & Company' isn't terrible by any means but I have to admit that at only 74-minutes, it still felt long.

Amazing! This guy has a 35mm fan scanned trailer on youtube:

 

[TM2YC]

The Godfather: A Novel for Television (1977)
This was how I first watched 'The Godfather' films (or rather the 'The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980' version), edited into chronological order and extended in length. It was sometime in the early 90s, when my family borrowed the big black VHS boxset from the library. I don't think I've seen it since. The extended first movie is much like the longer version of 'Fellowship of the Ring', in that it's lovely to have more of a good thing but the original shorter version is just as good. The real reason to savour this version is for what it does with the second film. The young Vito prologue and Robert De Niro scenes now begin the story and are extended so they form their own 1-1/4 hr movie. The attention to the tiniest details of character and place in these scenes mean they feel completely natural preceding the original film, so the Sicily sequences in that work just as well as callbacks to the prologue (instead of the other way around). It allows this material to be enjoyed as a complete story but it also means the 1950s GFII story is set free from being interrupted by it. Combined with a few extra scenes, this concentrated GFII flows so much better, is better paced and easier to follow (Michael's machinations wise) and feels equal in quality to the first film. It's still a meaty 2.5-hrs in length. Again, this is how I was introduced to these movies and why I've spent decades watching them again and again. I'd still recommend it today for new viewers to the saga.