'Blood Red Sky' A Review

Blood Red Sky is a vampire/plane hijacking movie, Passenger 57 meets Dracula, the movie begins at the climax then flashes back to the beginning with Nadja(Peri Baumeister) and her son Elias boarding a plane in Europe on their way to the US to meet a doctor for treatment of a mysterious illness. After take off a crew of terrorists, who's motive is and remains opaque, take control of the plane. What they didn't count on was that Nadja, is a vampire!

Baumeister gives a pretty decent performance, conveying vampire savagery as well as maternal love with equal commitment. Kais Setti who's character befriends the mother and child also does a good job. The terrorists are mostly performed with run of the mill mustache twirling although its nice to see Dominic Purcell, of Prison Break fame, as their leader although he's underutilized. The cast is serviceable if not particularly inspired.

The issue is the script, it's a great idea, you can imagine it was an elevator pitch a film executive salivated over, but the execution is muddled, the pacing sluggish, there are emotional and narrative ambitions which are not effective and run counter to the basic, bonkers but fun simple premise. It's not terrible but it's not particularly successful either. Netflix has pledged in 2021 that they will release a movie a day, which is great, and there's a lot in Blood Red Sky that's decent, but there needs to be a better balance of product and process. Releasing a movie a day is great but if, in aggregate, those movies slant to the mediocre or the banal the feat is kind of pointless.

Vampires On A Plane.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

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Chicago Heat

Although fleeting

summer descends

lead blanket like

for a period of days

or weeks

a thick and sticky

morass 

of humidity

a swamp of air

a jungle of barometric pressure

climate charged 

with a lethargic fervor

only to dissipate

a reprieve

from the headsman's axe

only to sink again.

'Jolt' A Review

Jolt is an action movie about Lindy(Kate Beckinsale) a woman with a physiological condition that prevents her from regulating cortisol making her fast, strong, and quick tempered. The movie opens with a narrated montage of her upbringing- being experimented on, the military etc. As an adult in the present, under the direction of her psychologist Dr. Munchin(Stanley Tucci) and with the protection of a electroshock vest rig, she attempts to lead a normal life. After a promising date her suitor is mysteriously killed and she sets out to avenge him.

Beckinsale is a great action star, her physical presence and her ability to bring reality to the more absurd plot machinations this kind of genre can fall into is unquestionable(see the Underworld series). She's a joy to see on screen but she simply doesn't get enough to do. Too much time is spent on the shoe-horned semi-contrived emotional journey of the character when the fact is this is an action movie, we want to see Beckinsale kick ass and, although she kicks some, she doesn't do it nearly enough. The support cast is all solid, Tucci is great per usual, Bobby Cannavale and Laverne Cox are wonderful but underutilized, the real sore spot is Jai Courtney who continues to have a career solely based on his chiseled jaw line.

Visually its got a bit of that rich neon kind of vibe, soundtrack pumps, but ulitamely, whether because of the script of budget constraints, there isn't enough action and too much time is spent on the somewhat unnecessary 'twists' of the plot and attempting to bring arcs to the characters which taken together hinders the momentum, rendering a pace that fits and starts when it should pound. Ultimately it's kinda boring.

Currently available on Amazon.

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'Val' A Review

Val is a documentary actor Val Kilmer. Cut from hundreds of hours of raw footage the actor shot himself over his career, home movies, and material shot in the present all narrated by Kilmer's son from narration he wrote. Sound like a lot of Val? It is!

For anyone familiar with at least some of his work, particularly his work in the 80's and 90's, this is a unique, revealing, and interesting look at the life of a well known actor. He's career is eclectic, his personality is mercurial, but he, throughout, has that same magnetism and charm that made him so compelling in Top Gun, Tombstone, et al. 

The wealth of footage is clear and there are some really wonderful backstage gems and some intriguing observations from Kilmer as he is traversing the height of his career in real time. The film is playful, whimsical, at times petulant, but always searching, in essence a pretty good reflection of the man himself. There is tragedy in Kilmer's life but it is never closely investigated, shown or discussed briefly, then cut away from so there is a some emotions left undelved, even with all this access there is a remove from the man. Which is fine, he's still alive and actively patriating in the movie so has every right to hold whatever he wants back. But. Because of that, despite all the intriguing artistry on display, despite a semi-peek behind the Hollywood curtain, there is little to no insight to be gained.

A unique celeb bio-doc in form if not quite in content.

Currently in theaters, streaming 8/6 on Amazon.
 

Rent It.

It's All A Gift

All of it.

It's easy to relish a good meal

to be moved by taste to feel

hiking in a National Park

to be awed by Mother Nature's mark

to celebrate a triumph

new job, birthday, the ending of a diet

joy's are easy to be grateful for

because they, by nature, restore

but come pain and trial 

come toil and bile

it can be difficult to maintain grace

to not succumb to doom's embrace

but even hardship is a gift

life is fleeting, finite, mist

labor and adventure both

make up the path of growth.

'Pig' A Review

Pig is a drama about a truffle forager Rob(Nicolas Cage) who lives in the wilderness outside Portland with his truffle pig. The film opens on Rob and his pig living simply in a rustic cabin, gathering truffles, and quietly going about their day. Once a week Amir(Alex Wolff) brings supplies and comes to collect that week's haul. The evening after one of Amir's visits Rob is attacked and his pig stolen. Rob has to return to the Portland culinary scene, which he was once a luminary of but has since rejected, in order to track down his pig.

Cage gives one of his most subtle, quiet performances in years but still maintains his operatic "neo-shamanistic" style. It's very restrained but incredibly emotional, and he picks and chooses key moments to provide the character some kind of compassionate crescendos. His talent has never been in question but some of his role choices(many of which one has to assume have been financial) have been. But this is not only a return to form for Cage but a continuation of his vast, varied, and fascinating career. The film could have so easily become a rote, revenge drama, it's even being marketed as "John Wick with a pig" and it couldn't be further from that, it is distinctly it's own very compelling thing and Cage is a big reason for that. Wolff is decent as Cage's foil and has a couple nice moments but there is a sense that he is struggling to keep up with Cage's presence, Cage's confidence, which mostly works given their dynamic. The other stand out performance is Adam Arkin as Darius Amir's father, he's only in the film briefly but there is a climatic dinner scene towards the end where both Arkin and Cage give truly ecstatic performances.

Visually lush with intimate camera work the production is effective without being intrusive. The culinary aspect of it is considered and highlighted but falls far short of food porn, insuring that the performances and the story take center stage. There are a couple stunning set-piece scenes(a psuedo confrontation at a high end restaurant, the dinner referenced above, a bizarre underground fight ring) and a myriad of other smaller but equally effective scenes the serve so perfectly, so succinctly to show Rob's character and his journey. There is very little exposition, much is inferred through context and Cage's performance. It's a real minimalist film that serves big emotional payoffs.

One of the best film's of the year.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Don't Miss It.

'Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain' A Review

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain is a documentary about the life of chef, writer, and TV host Anthony Bourdain. Through extensive archival footage and talking head interviews his career and personal life is explored from the publishing of his bestselling memoir Kitchen Confidential through the end of his life.

The quality of the footage ranges from pixelated and personal to cutting edge, the content seems to be mostly b-roll from his long television career so the doc kind of plays like a longer, more personal episode of No Reservations/Parts Unknown. As such it is undoubtedly interesting and serves its purpose. But as far as an investigation of the man, conveying who he was, it falls short.

In his memoir and throughout his life Bourdain was not shy in discussing his heroin addiction and the film spends very little time on it given he had stopped using prior to the publishing of his first book. But once an addict, always an addict. An addict may stop using but a lot of the behaviors remain unless addressed, whether true or not the documentary makes it seem as if he did nothing to address it- no therapy, no 12 step program, no CBT, no medication. He replaced his obsession to use with his show, he was a fanatic about its production, described by many of the people that worked on it as a 'control freak'. It becomes clear too that he throws himself into various things, becomes obsessed, some examples in the film are Ju Jitsu and the MeToo Movement as well as each of his two romantic relationships depicted. It's clear his behavior is compulsive. He makes jokes about killing himself and depression frequently, he swings from elation to discontent. It's all very clear yet the film as a whole fails to put the puzzle pieces together and only two of the interview subjects address this directly David Chang and David Choe, who offer wonderful insight but are only in the film for seconds. The title itself is inspired by a quote from Choe in responding to Bourdain's suicide says something to the effect of "He was trying to outrun it. He ran for a long time." and the it here is his unaddressed addiction. For an addict the only outcome unless addressed is jail, intuitions, or death.

So as a film about the man it fails. It fails to reckon with a glaring fundamental fact of his nature. Perhaps this was deliberate, not wanting to define him as an addict, not wanting to classify him. Which, sure. He was a complex guy but it does him and addicts in general a disservice not to grapple with this. Bourdain's suicide, although tragic, is not unique or particularly surprising. Bodies are being put in the ground every day, every hour, by addiction. And there is a myriad of reasons for that but the negligence/romanticism of it in our culture plays it's part. I'm not suggesting the film should diminish his accomplishments or downplay his impact, I'm not suggesting they should blame him, he had a disease, but how he managed that disease(or didn't) was a choice. All the producers and crews he collaborated with clearly feel some guilt, one reflects that he wishes he would have said more to him during his final days when he was clearly upset. Again, sure. But the reality is they were all culpable, all to a greater or lessor degree co-dependent, enabling which was much more long standing and pervasive than the last month or year of Bourdain's life. And this doesn't diminish the tragedy of it or the world's loss of a great figure but it is simply much more complex than the film takes the time to explore and it doesn't seem particularly interested in doing so. 

A soft investigation of a man who had a cutting edge.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to HBO Max.

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Right Action

You cannot think your way into right action
Only act your way into right thinking.

What is right action?

Acting with purpose, acts of service.

What is right thought?

That which proceeds right action.

What is wrong thought?

That which moves but never stops

That which churns but never pops

That which tumbles but never drops.

What is wrong action?

Inaction.

'No Sudden Move' A Review

No Sudden Movie is a 50's Detroit set neo-noir. The story follows Curt(Don Cheadle) who has recently been released from prison, he gets a 'babysitting' job from Jones(Brendan Frasier) where he's partnered with Ronald(Benicio del Toro) to watch the wife and children of an accountant Matt(David Harbour) while a third contractor Charley(Kieran Culkin) escorts Matt to his office to steal an important document. Needless to say, nothing goes according to plan.

Cheadle is rapturous, with an incredible voice and a totally comfortable naturalness with Curt that conveys character worlds beyond the extremely lean script. del Toro equally as formidable an actor doesn't quite have the same success, doesn't seem as confident or locked in, he's still quite good but the plot is heavy on the twists and turns and exceedingly light on dimension. The remaining cast is totally stacked with talent, and there is some pleasure to be had in simply seeing this intriguing alchemy of actors, particularly Frasier and Ray Liotta who have fallen significantly from their 90's stardom. But aside from Cheadle none particularly stand out, through no fault of theirs, the film is simply not that interested in people.

Immaculate costumes, precise and evocative set design, amazing cars, a simple suspenseful score, and the occasional fish-eye shot all work together to create a really effective nostalgic noir, there is no doubt of director Steven Soderbergh impeccable craft. But ultimately for all its visual clarity after the dust settles on the machinations of the heist/crime/fallout it doesn't have much to offer. Racial issues, climate change, gentrification are all kind of indicated but never inspected. The characters mostly flow through the story but they too are never inspected, never studied, never focused on aside from how they progress or disrupt the puzzle like plotting. By the end none of them feel particularly real. It's a shame, especially given how electric Cheadle's Curt is.

An excellently made neo-noir too clinical to really land.

Currently streaming on HBO Max.

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'The Tomorrow War' A Review

The Tomorrow War is a scifi movie about a future war with an alien species, as the aliens gain ground and humanity dwindles the future soldiers time travel back to our present to conscript soldiers from the present.

The script has many glaring issues and Pratt does it no service by leveling a bafflingly inept portrayal, one part wide-eyed sincere obtuseness of his Parks And Rec character with one part terrible Harrison Ford impersonation. It seems his meteoric rise to stardom has now begat his inevitable decline into straight to streaming C-list action flicks. The supporting cast is almost unilaterally flat and fague, the actors doing their best but with hollow source material. Sam Richardson is the sole exception providing the only pulse of life in the entire movie as the comic relief. J.K. Simmons also gives a valiant effort but he is onscreen so briefly his presence is rendered virtually irrelevant.

The visuals are incredibly generic, the alien design intriguing if somewhat derivative, but it is the script that is the main offender. There are innumerable inconsistencies with the internal logic of the story vis a vis technology, time travel, and the aliens. The final act 'reveal' is a blatant rip off of Aliens. And overall it is simply lifeless, a clear uninspired corporate pastiche, a copy of a copy of a middling scifi narrative.

So bland it is offensive.

Currently streaming on Amazon.

Don't See It.

'Black Widow' A Review

Black Widow is a superhero movie, the latest installment in the sprawling MCU, centered on Avenger Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow(Scarlett Johansson), the events take place following Captain America: Civil War and serve as a defacto origin story. The movie opens in 1995 with Natasha as a kid in suburban Ohio with what appears to be a normal family. It's quickly revealed they are actually undercover Russian operatives and have to flee. Flashfoward and Natasha is in hiding when she's contacted by her sister Yelena(Florence Pugh) who she teams up with to take down the former KGB agent turned indepedent spymaster/tyrant Dreykov(Ray Winston) who has brainwashed an army of female assasins of which Natasha and Yelena use to be members. In order to track him down the sisters must reunite with their parents Alexei(David Harbour) and Melina(Rachel Weisz). 

It's great to see Johansson, finally, in her standalone Marvel movie and she, no surprise, is up for it. She's a pro and all the work and backstory she's weaved into the character in the multiple previous installments pays decent dividends here. But because of all the previous exposure of the character she is somewhat constrained and the other three members of her 'family' are able to do it a bit more, have a bit more fun, and provide a bit more depth. The movie really shines when it focuses on the family dynamic. Pugh, Harbour, and Weisz are all wonderfully refreshing for the MCU, with all the ass-kicking you could want but with emotion and humor and a certain dimension which has typically been one of the short falls of the franchise. The story has an unstoppable momentum and they're able to play into the family dynamic and explore character surprisingly well moving from one action set piece to the next, the film somewhat stumbles in the final act(as almost every single MCU movie does) with a huge CGI set piece. Which for Black Widow particularly rings a bit hollow as so much that went before focuses on practical effects and IRL fight choreography.

The movie has the polish and crispness of the MCU but this is significantly differentiated by the focus, which is Black Widow and her pseudo-family, it is almost a family-drama come action movie and actually the big bad played by an out-of-his-depth Winston and all that character's machinations are rendered almost irrelevant by the chemistry of the main four and the past which they unpack. 

A solidly entertaining and propulsive Marvel offering with a refreshing focus on women within this world lead by the most woefully underutilized Avenger.

Currently in theaters and on Disney+.

See It.

That Don't Cut Shit In Chicago

My father went to a small college in Minnesota
his classmates were mostly from in-state

but there was a small contingent from the greater Midwestern area

and when the natives would extol the urbanity of the Twin Cities

he and his friends would respond something to the effect of

"Yeah well that don't cut shit in Chicago"

being born and raised in Northern Illinois

and now a long time denizen of that City Of Broad Shoulders

the sentiment has stuck with me

and become a catch all

not only for the roiling, teeming humanity of my beloved city

not only for the cornucopic culture- art, culinary and otherwise

but for the Midwestern urban ethos

that reserved kindness, that quiet respect, that awareness

most citizens tend to adopt in order to live in this particular city

there is an anonymous belonging She offers that is utterly unique

we do not have the sprawling faux-wellness of LA

or the pretentious grit of NYC

what we have is a hushed, unflinching determination

a glorious momentum, an inevitability

so when people talk about Nashville, Milwaukee, Cleveland

about Albuquerque, St. Louis, Atlanta

they sound like nice places to visit

but if we must compare, I will always say

that don't cut shit in Chicago.

Best Movies Of The Year So Far

Top 10:

Bad Trip

Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar

Bo Burnham: Inside

Boss Level

The Dig

The Map Of Tiny Perfect Things

Thunder Force

Tina

Some Kind Of Heaven

Zola

Worst Of The Year Contenders:

Bliss

A Glitch In The Matrix
Voyagers

'F9: The Fast Saga' A Review

F9: The Fast Saga is an action movie, the latest installment of the Fast & Furious franchise. Dom(Vin Diesel) and Letty(Michelle Rodriguez) have retired with their son Brian to a remote homestead. As they itch for action they are drawn back into 'the life' when the team receives an SOS from Mr. Nobody's downed plan. They investigate and discover that Dom's estranged brother Jakob(John Cena) is working with an evil rich guy to steal a McGuffin to take over the world. As the story progresses there a flashbacks that show how Dom and Jakob fell out.

At this point the cast is exceedingly deep and for the most part all understand what kind of franchise they're in. Of all Diesel is the master, pairing a kind of unflappable reserve with an almost saccharine sincerity, it doesn't provide a space for much depth or nuance of character but it works. Cena is not so much outclassed as he is perhaps not aware of what kind of movie he's in. His angle seems to be bad ass stoicism which doesn't really read in the F&F universe, as the heavy he is pretty flat and boring, and he's not given any opportunity to deploy his comedic chops. 

Overlong with uneven pacing there are some great action set pieces and the flashbacks to young Dom and young Jakob are inspired, makes you wish they had their own movie, but the net result is a middling entry in the series and a just north of boring blockbuster. The movie has already grossed enough to warrant F10 but here's hoping they mix up the formula and shed some of the truly gargantuan backstory that has come to inhibit the cars-doing-crazy-stuff action sequences which made the series fun in the first place.

Currently in theaters.

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'Zola' A Review

Zola is a dark comedy thriller about Detroit server/dancer Zola's(Taylour Paige) weekend roadtrip to Florida with a new acquaintance Stefani(Riley Keough) that starts off ostensibly as a chance to make some money dancing but quickly turns into a bizarre and convoluted journey into power, danger, sex, and crime. Based on the 2015 viral twitter thread from the real life Zola.

Paige translates the character's power and reserve with an absolute electricity, she is onscreen nearly the entire runtime and you are captivated from the jump. She conveys a mountain of subtext and emotion with subtle facial expressions, body language, and oblique dialogue. Zola is a dancer and Paige's performance is very physical, in the dancing scenes there is a fluid sensuality, a graceful joy in the art, but when she's not dancing that translates into an impressive solidity, all her movements deliberate. Her dawning awareness as the character of what is happening pairs beautifully with the direct address and voice over she provides telling the story itself. It's a tightrope and Paige executes it perfectly. Keough as Steafni Zola's friend and foil is exuberant in the idiosyncrasies of her character, and the ensuing comedy from that pairs rapturously and brutally with her victimizing of Zola and her own by the hands of X played by Colman Domingo. Domingo and Nicholas Braun(who plays Derrek Stefani's boyfriend) operate on the same large, almost operatic, wavelength of Paige and Keough, all the performances have this eclectic goofiness, this relatable but exaggerated energy, that contrasts the stark circumstances the characters are in. It's a startling and odd tapestry of tone that works in it's explosion of contradictions.

Director/co-writer Janicza Bravo is masterful in many ways, adapting a Twitter thread into a feature she's able to translate the voice of the protagonist, focus on her perspective, while opening up the world to the beautiful and bleak landscape which the characters inhabit as well as inject this kind of social media momentum, this wry reserve that allows for humor but doesn't shy away from the darkness and real danger Zola was in. The tone is another great achievement, the characters seem to be operating in this upbeat pop comedy(at least for a time) but it doesn't detract from their emotional journeys, there's also a mystery element, unraveling what is actually happening and unspooling the various motives and ploys on display, and finally there's almost this documentary-style unflinching look at the grit, the reality of the what's happening. There are also numerous editing sequences and flourishes that convey this editorial kind of magical realism, with freeze frames and voiceover and one bravura sequence where the film pauses completely and Stefani's version of the story is told. Another stunning sequence is when Zola has helped Stefani with her sex work profile and there's a montage of her various johns that simultaneously honors sex work, shows the laughable grotesqueries of her customers(flappy dicks and all), and conveys the steep cost to Stefani and by proxy Zola(who is present throughout). The soundtrack/score is also impressive a melodic pairing of diegetic and non-diegetic songs, as well as simple diegetic sounds that at times serve as score. Bravo's success in every aspect of the production is kaleidoscopic.

A stunning, rapturous, at times difficult film that delivers the contagious exuberance of a folk tale cut with modern emotion and reality.

Currently in theaters.

Don't Miss It.