'Aftersun' A Review

Aftersun is a drama about a father/daughter vacation, Sophie(Frankie Corio) and Calum(Paul Mescal) through the lens of the adult daughter's reflection. The bulk of the film takes place during the vacation itself, with brief cutaways to the adult Sophie watching camcorder footage from the vacation, as well as dream-like sequences in a strobing dance club where the adult Sophie pursues her un-aged father Calum.

Corio and Mescal give grounded, realistic performances however frequently their Scottish accents are so thick it is impossible to make out what is being said(outside of the UK subtitles should have been provided). But ultimately they don't do too much because of the pervasive vagueness of the script and it's disinterest in imparting any specifics narrative or emotional.

Normally beautifully shot but also intercut with grainy, shaky, barely legible camcorder footage as well as the lack of intent in the dream and adult Sophie sequences, visually it's uneven. The score is relentlessly ominous preparing the audience for a tragedy that never arrives which renders it ineffective and inappropriate. The soundmix, presumably intentionally, is one of the most bizarre choices in recent cinema memory because it jacks up the volume of the score, music, and ambient noise way above the vocal track. So not only does the audience have to contend with the thick accents but also the disproportionately cacophonous back ground noise to attempt to discern what is being said.

Narratively the film seems to have little point to it and offers no insight. What is actually wrong with Calum, is it mental health, cancer, AIDS? What does adult Sophie think of this vacation, why is it important? What we see is kid Sophie, seemingly having a pretty nice vaca, so why all the telegraphing of tragedy? Are we to presume Calum commits suicide after this? If so there is so little there in the way of dimension for either character that implication has little to no impact.

It appears what we are left with is some graduate level mediation on existentialism and classic post-modern rejection of narrative. Which, OK, but the result is so reserved it says nothing, so inert it is boring.

Perhaps appealing for those yet to contend with an absentee father.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Don't See It.

Out Of The Past

As if
from a college town in 2004

outside of an Umphree's concert
this scraggly, lost man-child
replete with pathetic patchy beard

and distressed army/navy surplus jacket

puts himself in my way

in 2022 

on the northside of Chicago

with a dispensary 

no more than 4 blocks away

and says

"you got any weed?"

I laugh in his face

overcome 

by the anachronism

and the audacity

'Decision To Leave' A Review

Decision To Leave is a mystery/drama about insomniac detective Hae-Jun(Park Hae-il) working in Busan and only spending the weekends with his wife in Ipo. An immigration officer dies under mysterious circumstances and he becomes obsessed with his widow who is the prime suspect Seo-Rae(Tang Wei).

The film is strictly demarcated at the 75 minute mark, after which there is a time jump and the tone, editing and narrative drastically shift. The performances obviously are influenced by this. Hae-il and Wei, at the start, give wonderful, layered, odd performances and have great chemistry. It builds in this complicated way and comes to a satisfying conclusion. Then the film continues for another hour and a half in which the portrayals become somewhat farcical as the tone goes full on melodrama and the characters behave illogically. Not a fault of the actors but still a bizarre and ineffective drastic turn.

The production is uneven, visually(at the beginning) crisp with some very effective and evocative editing choices. Scenes bleeding into one another, characters observing other characters or imagining what other characters are doing appearing in those scenes as observers, a character making audio notes serving as narration for the scene we're seeing. It's all very lyrical and transportive and is present throughout the first portion of the film. Bafflingly this technique is abandoned after the time jump. At the start the tone is a weird mix - mystery, romance, procedural, drama- but it works. This delicate dance of genre is jettisoned for daytime TV melodrama halfway through and it becomes plodding, convoluted, and so illogical as to be, not to put to fine a point on it, dumb.

Incredible promise and intrigue deflated to the mundane.

Currently available on VOD.

Stream It(in it's entirety).

See It(stopping at the 75 minute mark).

Generational Gaming

Playing Mario Kart with my niece
my nephew contentedly
in my lap
I am grateful for my Nintendo 64
for its stalwart diversions

its simple adventures

its sturdy construction

for this shared moment

in quiet communion

even if 

after fifteen minutes

she proclaimed it 'too hard'

and went back to playing Barbie

'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery' A Review

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is a vacation mystery, a somewhat sequel to 2019's Knives Out, carrying over the detective Benoit Blanc(Daniel Craig) but nothing else. A group of friends who have a vague involvement in lead friend Miles'(Edward Norton) tech/media company get together for their yearly vacation/adventure hosted by Miles. Andi(Janelle Monáe), one of the group, recently completed a failed suit against the company and was estranged from the group but attends anyway. Blanc is mysteriously/erroneously invited.

The star-studded cast all have wonderful outfits and clearly are having a great time on their Grecian island shoot but all are thin, grating characterizations(if not outright caricature), even Craig so wonderful in the first film here is predictable, boring, and less sophisticated than his previous iteration. There is attempt at class commentary which is way off base and particularly ironic coming from a cast and a filmmaker who are themselves rich, part of the strata in which they attempt(and miserably fail) to send up. There is a cavalcade of cameos which are cool I guess, but serve ultimately no purpose and function only to overstuff an already bloated runtime.

Visually a bit glaringly glitzy, full of pastels and over-saturated coloring, the costuming absolutely incredible, the soundtrack/score mostly forgettable. The production, overall, inconsistent. The script is baffling. The turns and reveals in the mystery are telegraphed, predictable and frequently illogical. Even if the mystery element of it were engaging the characters are so two dimensional, so unlikable, there is ultimately no stakes, we don't actually care about anyone, they could all be killed with no emotional effect. 

One of the reasons the first film was successful was because Ana De Armas was the center, a good person caught in an impossible situation, and Craig was a supporting character and as such allowed to go big. Here Craig functions kind of as the main with Monáe somewhat sharing the spotlight as the movie progresses and as such the chemistry doesn't work. Not to mention Monáe is simply out of her depth, in recent years she has failed to make good on the promise she showed in Hidden Figures and this is no exception.

Plodding, uninspired, self-satisfied.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Don't See It.

'Avatar: The Way Of Water' A Review

Avatar: The Way Of Water is a scifi movie, a sequel to 2009's Avatar. The Navi are again threatened by corporate/military humanity, this time the desired resource is anti-aging whale gland extract.

There is not much to say about the performances because the characters or so thinly drawn and the plot so convoluted there is little in the way of performance to be found. The returning characters frequently act in ways counter to what the first movie set up and the new characters frequently act illogically clearly only to further the uncompelling, contrived, ill-conceived plot.

Visually indistinguishable from its predecessor(other than the inclusion of awful and extremely jarring motion-smoothing in a couple sequences) it begs the question what took so long given the technology employed seems not to have evolved. The water and reef sequences, the ecosystem that is "new" in this installment is only featured for a fraction of the runtime. Additionally the script is so bloated, derivative, and regressive(even in regards to it's predecessor) it seems it was written in a rush upon the initial box office returns in 2009 and never revised, again begging the question what took 13 years.

The original, even if narratively simplistic and trading in problematic tropes, was at least fun and felt visually fresh. This is a three hour plus trudge, immediately forgettable upon it's conclusion.

Perhaps it's time for writer/director James Cameron to retire or at least take on some collaborators who can provide some perspective outside of the boomer billionaire niche.

Currently in theaters.

Don't See It.

Winter Solstice

I welcome the Winter
its difficulty
its capriciousness

in its return

am I reminded

of life's certain

changeability

in its intrinsic

discomforts

am I yearly tempered

enlivened

by cold and darkness

'White Noise' A Review

White Noise is an absurd dramedy, an adaptation of the 1985 novel of the same name. In a nameless suburban college town in 1984 a family encounters various untoward events.

After a string of lesser offerings Adam Driver is back in form. In this odd mishmash of tones and genres he is absolutely electric, almost balletic in how he weaves and flows through scenes. It's as if he is in the preferable zone throughout the entire film. No moment or gesture or line is wasted, there is no moment in which he is not present, he knows when and exactly how to modulate his performance to guide is through the ever shifting comedy-drama-scifi-thriller-romance. It is almost the opposite of his other career highlight Paterson where he channeled a kind stillness, here it is all momentum, all verbosity, but still with an unshakable compelling humanity. Gerwig is overshadowed, has less to do, and doesn't seem as comfortable with tone, she isn't bad but(especially comparatively) it is not particularly inspired. Their kids all give good turns, especially Raffey Cassidy as the eldest daughter, but it is unarguably Driver's film. Cheadle, in a supporting turn that matches Driver, plays his friend and co-worker and defacto narrator. He is also stupendous, letting the rich dialog flow through him with a melodious assuredy. 

Impeccable, immersive production design reminiscent of a less fastidious Wes Anderson elevate this beyond much of writer/director Noah Baumbach recent movies of upper class Manhattanite ennui to something actually interesting(as does the story itself). Forgoing his recent penchant for 'realism' the film is a delightful smorgasbord of tone, stylized overlapping dialogue, and plenty of metaphor and social commentary to boot. It doesn't always work, it doesn't always make sense, but it reflects a wonderful, thrilling ambition. In adapting "unfilmable" popular period novels this puts Inherent Vice to shame.

A bizarre, challenging film, that still entertains and ultimately remains unflinchingly optimistic.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to Netflix.

See It.

'The Fire Within' A Review

The Fire Within is a documentary about volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft. Compromised almost exclusively of footage and images shot by the Krafft's themselves, their work speaks for itself with minmial narration by director Werner Herzog in his signature style.

It is impossible not to compare this to 2022's other documentary about the Krafft's comprised mostly of their own footage(one has to assume an archive of their work was just recently made available) Fire Of Love. Where Fire Of Love seems to attempt to do a Herzog impression and, ill advisedly, attempts to make the story a romantic one Herzog, no surprise, is better at doing what he does. He let's the incredible images the Krafft's captured speak for themselves. The majority of the film is simply flowing, undulating lava, and expansive volcanic clouds. He doesn't focus on their relationship, he doesn't focus on science, he focuses on the couple as filmmakers and venerates them as such through the images they captured. Even though it is clear the two filmmakers had access to the same footage Herzog has a keener eye, not only for the majesty of nature, but for the small intimate human moments. He functions here almost exclusively as an editor, selecting the images and sequences that he finds the most compelling, the most interesting, and he, as ever, is insightful. His eye is not on how to package it but on how to convey his ecstatic truth, which he achieves.

In his narration he calls our attention to certain things but he doesn't lead us, he maintains his dry humor and sage-like observations, and tells us some simple conclusions he's drawn about the images we are seeing and the people that made them but leaves us to take from it what we will.

A majestic and compassionate documentary about volcanos and two people that were drawn to them. Herzog, at 80, remains singular.

Currently available for rent on Amazon.

See It.

CTA Soundtrack

the boombox
has become
the bluetooth speaker

renegades

who have seemingly

never conceived of headphones

inflicting 

their playlist

on involuntary passengers

pulsing, pumping

beats, lyrics

intrusive cacophony

and yet

the melody

echos the churning train

reflects the pulse in the bodies within

better this noise

than tourist's bleating

or the bluster of the trader bros.

'Violent Night' A Review

Violent Night is a Christmas-action-comedy where Santa(David Harbour) gets trapped at a large estate during a home invasion. 

Harbour is a great drunken Santa with an edge. He's able to balance the comedy and the gory action with a believable level of heart. John Leguizamo as the heavy is having a blast and is equally comfortable with the humor and the gruesomeness. The supporting cast are all fun and effective- Beverly D'Angelo as the matriarch of the rich family that's being robbed, Edi Patterson as Ava her daughter, Cam Gigandet as Ava's husband etc.- all solid and serve to achieve the odd tone. Leah Brady as Trudy is probably the most committed(and oddest) as the kid-with-a-heart-of-gold who still believes in Santa and gives him the inspiration he needs...to kick ass!

Although mostly contained in one location the production design is crisp and festive, the gore comically gory, the fight choreography sometimes inspired, sometimes typical shaky-cam but in aggregate mostly thrilling. It's an odd mix of tone part campy horror, part action, part genuinely(but still R rated) sentimental holiday movie and the alchemy mostly works. 

Exciting, effective, adult holiday offering, good counter programing to the glut of underproduced Christmas romcoms.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Rent It.

'Love, Charlie' A Review

Love, Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter is a documentary about the life and career of Chicago-based celebrity chef Charlie Trotter. From talking-head interviews, archival footage, stills, and letters written by the subject his life, work, and legacy are explored.

An intriguing if somewhat limited portrait of the influential chef. His privilege is only casually referred to(he came from money, his father funded his restaurant, and it is safe to assume that his years of world traveling and eating prior to that were also parentally funded) which is disappointing. He pioneered/popularized tasting menus, vegetarianism, the chef's table but there is overall a lack of context for what his place in the culinary world was/would become. His kitchen was notoriously cutthroat and volatile and he himself was described by many as the worst boss they'd ever had, while this is acknowledged it's simply kind of accepted as part of his personality, not interrogated other than to say he was a "perfectionist". His substance abuse is also only kind of acknowledged and not delved into(it was common knowledge in Chicago in the last years of his life). Of the interview subjects only Grant Achatz offers much in the way of insight or dimensionality. The other subjects are loyal friends who provide a number of interesting anecdotes but fail to draw a full portrait of the man.

Not quite a fluff piece but certainly not a full depiction of the man or his impact. Interesting, but thin in content and middling in form.

Currently available to rent on most VOD platforms.

Stream It.

'Spirted' A Review

Spirted is a modern musical adaptation/sequel of A Christmas Carol. The movie opens on a modern day 'client' who is getting the 'Christmas Carol' treatment in order to change, Scrooge(Will Farrell) has played the part of the Ghost of Christmas Present for two hundred years and is looking for a challenge. He along with the team of spirits who redeem a human once a year in the CC tradition select select an 'unredeemable' PR exec Clint(Ryan Reynolds) as their next target. He is not an easy mark and maybe Scrooge has something more to learn!

The cast are all serviceable but none are particularly inspired. Farrell is more comfortable than Reynolds with the song-and-dance aspect of the movie but neither really has much affinity with either discipline so the result is relatively lackluster. Why Farrell and Reynolds rather than Nathan Lane and Sean Hayes? Octavia Spencer, delightful as always, has the most powerful voice in the cast but isn't given much chance to use it. Sunita Mani and Lily Sullivan pop in for some nice comedic moments but are underutilized.

Despite it's star power and obvious budget there is a flatness about the movie, doesn't have the edginess of Scrooged, the emotional payoff of a straight forward CC riff, or the laughs of The Muppet Christmas Carol. For all the trimmings it registers more in-line with Netflix's glut of mediocre holiday content(passively watchable) rather than something of actual quality or uniqueness.

Currently streaming on Apple+.

Stream It.

ISU

Every new higher education attendee
has to grapple with disappointment
or at least a level of cognitive dissonance

squaring the reality

with the collegiate utopias portrayed in media

I was no different

it was a harsh adjustment

the biggest culture shock

the most horrifying surprise

was being in an environment

with kids who came from money

their entitlement

their obtuseness

their unwarranted confidence

was alien, off-putting in the extreme

and in fact these people, despite their privilege

were less interesting, less talented, less knowledgeable

than anyone I went to high school with

I learned more about race, class, and culture

more about actually living in my hometown

than I did at this institution purported to be the gateway to adulthood

not to say Rockford was some egalitarian paradise

but I went to school with white, black, and brown kids of all kinds

Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and a few obligatory wannabe Wiccans

poor, working, and middle class, but no actual rich kids

there simply weren't that many in the community and those few that were

surprising no one, didn't send their kids to public school

and this exposure had opened up my perspective to certain realities

back to college

the theatre department of which I was a part, in particular

had this air of casual affluence that I found not only incomprehensible

but enraging

it was clear I did not belong and I did not want to

I struggled

but even though I would describe my collegiate experience as negative

this crucible fostered and solidified in me a distrust for the wealthy

codified my perception and understanding of socio-economic disparity

and on which part of the divide I stood and intended to remain

so perhaps

it did prepare me, shape me, teach me, come to define me

even if the method

was the stick not the carrot

even if the lessons

had nothing to do with academics

in hindsight

I'm grateful for it.

'The Fabelmans' A Review

The Fabelmans is an autobiographical drama from Stephen Spielberg. The film opens in New Jersey with Sammy(the Spielberg stand-in) going to his first movie, The Greatest Show On Earth, with his parents Mitzi(Michelle Williams) and Burt(Paul Dano). He becomes obsessed with the train crash sequence and, after getting a train set over Hanukkah, begins to recreate it and film it launching his interest in making movies. Burt gets a new job and the family movies to Arizona and Sam's movie-making broadens. The story then splits focus alternating between Sam's burgeoning artistic ambition and his parents marital issues.

Gabriel LaBelle who plays the older Sammy(the bulk of the runtime)brings a gracious, open, naturalism to his performance. He grounds and centers the film, no small feet for the younger actor. Although his totally unnecessary and bafflingly obvious colored contacts are supremely distracting. Michelle Williams gives an odd, broad, caricature-like performance that strains credulity almost immediately. She is the film's defacto co-lead and that focus is bizarre from the standpoint of the script as well as her performance. It's reminiscent of her over-the-top relatively thin turn as Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn. Whether it is the script, direction, or her conception of the character it doesn't work and it is grating to watch. A mid-Atlantic mentally unstable wannabe starlet is what comes across. Dano doesn't have much to do and his performance is so reserved it doesn't have much of an impact. There are some great supporting cast members- Judd Hirsch(who functions exclusively to provide exposition and make some subtext text), Seth Rogan(who doesn't have much to do), Julia Butters(Sammy's sister, doesn't have enough to do), Sam Rechner(a conflicted bully), and Chloe East(Sammy's Jesus freak girlfriend)- but the story itself lacks focus and the supporting characters come and go seemingly with little purpose.

The film looks and sounds great, there is no argument that Spielberg is a master craftsman the big issue is it's too long and lacks focus. There seems to be a lack of understanding from Spielberg about what his story is actually about. Is it about movies(the first act is), is it about his mother's undiagnosed mental illness/his parents divorce/family dysfunction/emotional abuse(the second act), or antisemitism(kind of the third act?). Thematically it's scatter shot and various aspects of it don't really come together, it plays more as a series of loosely connected vignettes rather than a narrative which may be realistic as to what actually happened but it fails to get at what Herzog calls the ecstatic truth. For example Mitzi is clearly suffering from some form of mental illness and we see her repeatedly being emotionally abusive to Sammy, once physically abusive, and yet there seems to be no awareness on the part of the filmmaking that this is what is happening, there is such a lack of point of view it implies this behavior is normal and begs the question does Spielberg even know what his parents were doing, has he ever been to therapy, does he even understand the effect of the memories he's recreating. The result is that we are simply watching sequences of trauma with little awareness and no insight.

Perhaps this will have some appeal in the 55 and over demographic, but although well made and mostly well acted, for all the effort The Fabelmans simply relays events but lacks perspective on those events.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Stream It.

'Sr.' A Review

 

Sr. is a documentary about avant garde filmmaker Robert Downey Sr. made by his son Robert Downey Jr. Part profile, part retrospective, part art project, part therapy the black and white film unfolds in a series of vignette's with Junior interviewing senior on the phone and in person, clips from Senior's filmography, and Senior shooting and editing various sequences of his own as part of/counter to his son's project.

It becomes clear very quickly Senior is uninterested in and barely willing to reflect, although he is the most loquacious about providing detail about his various films(which are all very intriguing and eclectic). Junior does get some basic information and asks some direct, if never accusatory, questions particularly about Senior's period of drug addiction, while as always being forethcoming about his own, which Senior does answer at least in part. As the film progresses it becomes clear there is culpability here but it's clear Junior does not judge his father and accepts him and its also clear at some point(before Junior himself) Senior turned his life around and it's clear Senior takes some responsibility for Junior's destructive period. It's nuanced and moving and complicated but it takes its time and it's able to, because of it's patience and subtlety, access a greater truth.

The other element clearly focused on and celebrated is Senior's particular creativity. Not only is there extensive footage of his films but him working with the production crew filming his own sections are delightful. Senior's curiosity, humor, and  unique perspective are conveyed with a casualness and an attention that are really moving.

The black and white cinematography, the score, the composition can come across, initially, as pretentious but it very quickly settles in and grabs the viewer, it's a documentary about a man and his son who are life long moviemakers who are not only the subjects but their influence can been seen in the construction of the film itself. It is not concerned with mythologizing Senior but with allowing him the space, dignity, and attention in the time that he has left. The only fault is that it can't be seen on the big screen.

Deep and simple. A meditation on family, death, and the art of making movies.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

See It.

Seasonal Activities

We dressed a skeleton
in a Santa's suit
a new tradition
perhaps