'Aladdin' A Review

Aladdin is a family musical fantasy movie, a live-action adaptation of the 1992 Disney animated film. The story opens on a man telling his children the story of the Aladdin and the Lamp and serves as a narrator throughout. Aladdin(Mena Massoud) a thief in Agrabah chances on the Sultan's daughter Jasmine(Naomi Scott) in disguise as her own handmaiden and Aladdin helps her escape some trouble at the market. The two connect and sparks begin to kindle. When he infiltrates the palace to return a piece of jewelry the two flirt some more but Aladdin is captured on the way out by corrupt Grand Vizier Jafar(Marwan Kenzari) and forced into the Cave of Wonders to retrieve a lamp. He retrieves the lamp but the cave collapses, he rubs the lap and out pops Genie(Will Smith) who frees them from the cave-in and attempts to help Aladdin woe Jasmine posing as a prince.

Massoud and Scott are both decent but some charm is lost in translation, they both attempt to tow the line between emotional broadness and presentionalism and as a result they both land somewhere in the middle. They both clearly put forth considerable effort but the script, the direction, and the seeming fealty to the cartoon serve to make mediocrity almost inevitable. Kenzari is also serviceable but the character ultimately doesn't have much clarity, there is no fun mustache twirling but nor is there enough depth to turn the villain into a real character. Smith's performance suffers from the same confusion, much of it feels like a Robin Williams impression which is simply odd, when Smith allows his perspective and style to come through it works. Although a refreshingly and wonderfully diverse cast there are no real stand outs because the movie is caught inbetween with too much service being given to a 25 year old film and not enough to originality and personality.

Visually the movie is impressive, elaborate sets and sparkling CGI draw the eye but a lot of the spectacle is rendered meaningless by the meandering swampy narrative. It is nice to hear the Aladdin soundtrack again but the choice to autotune virtually every performance is bizarre, distracting, and renders any emotional impact close to nil.

Much like many of these virtually shot-for-shot live action remakes the prevailing feeling is simply to revisit the original cartoon.

Stream It.

Boundaries

I have no time for echoes
no interest in veneers
no debt to the fellows
who stayed silent years

Energy and effort
both given and received
without a balance sever
lest we are left aggrieved

'Booksmart' A Review

Booksmart is a coming-of-age comedy about two best friends Amy(Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly( Beanie Feldstein), seniors in high school on the eve of graduation, who decide after years of study and academic rigor they need a night to let loose.

Dever and Feldstein have great chemistry and each are given substantial independent arcs, along with their journey as friends, which allow them to soar and show their dynamism both as comedians and actors. Feldstein gives the bigger, bolder performance which compliments the more internal Dever. Both are given equal opportunity at slapstick as well as catharsis. The supporting cast is stacked with talent particularly Billie Lourd as the rich seemingly vapid but almost oracular Gigi and Mike O'Brien as Pat the Pizza Guy in an excellent cameo. Some of Amy and Molly's classmates are played broadly to the brink of stereotype but they are effective and are contrasted with more down-to-earth portrayals that surround them.

A killer soundtrack, decent cinematography with a couple inspired sequences, a funny and inspiring narrative with a message, Olivia Wilde's directorial debut is not only a success in and of itself but shows substantial promise. The only real drawback to the film is it's relative tone-deafness when it comes to class. The clear and present economic privilege of virtually every member of the high school as well as the somewhat murky and bizarre fact they all seem to be going to premier universities ostensibly on straight merit is unexplored and unexplained. Booksmart is an exciting fast-paced hard R comedy, the fact they don't grapple with socio-economic inequality is forgivable.

See It.

'John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum' A Review

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum is an action thriller, the third in the John Wick series, that picks up almost immediately following John Wick: Chapter 2 with the titular assassin in a one hour grace period before his excommunicado status which will unleash a $15 million bounty and hordes of killers on his trail. He runs all over New York City, escapes to Casablanca, then returns to NYC for the climatic conclusion.

Reeves, always a pleasing, wry, meditative presence on screen, gives increasingly impressive physical performances over the series with this installment particularly so however the emotional journey of the character started strong but has diminished to non-existence. The character motivation and dimension are what made the original unique and unfortunately that part of the story has been lost in the increasingly elaborate action sequences and borderline absurd world building. This installment introduces some interesting supporting characters- Mark Dacascos who plays at deliciously broad as Zero a killer and Wick superfan, Asia Kate Dillon as the reserved, polite, single-minded Adjudicator, Halle Berry as Sofia a former assassin friend of Wick's who has her own striking fight sequence accompanied by two attack dogs- among others. But no real time is spent with any of them, aside from John Wick trying to stay alive there is no real plot, no real weight to any of the action especially as the fight scenes get increasingly involved and graphic.

The production elements are impeccable- propulsive score, beautiful and inspired set design, elaborate and at times elegant and thrilling choreography- but there is no narrative to speak of. It could be summed up as John Wick fights and flees but gets no where. Character development is sacrificed for building out the underground-assassin world with debt markers, gold coins, high tables, and a camel-riding desert-bound monarch but those elements are sped through so quickly and are so underdeveloped they don't hold any particular weight. And the increasing stack of shells and bodies Wick leaves in his wake creates an increasing numbness rather than a thrill.

There is something intriguing and magnetic about Reeves as John Wick but the franchise seems to have misunderstood what that is. It's not the blood and the bullets, it's the grief and the rage.

Stream It.

Let Them Eat Cake

My dad tells this story
about visiting his grandma
Bertha
on the family farm
when he was seven or eight
and she asked him
what he wanted for breakfast
and he blurted "chocolate cake"
and the next morning there it was
from scratch
and oh how he feasted.

Grandma Bertha made it for him
on every subsequent visit
through adolescence into adulthood
until she went into the home,
he always ate it
not out of desire
as it quickly became a chore
but duty.

I always wondered
was it good hearted grandmotherly-spoiling
holding on to the youth of her grandson
as he aged-out of cake-for-breakfast
or
was it a years long lesson
about thinking before you speak
and reaping what you sow.

'Pokémon Detective Pikachu' A Review

Pokémon Detective Pikachu is an urban fantasy mystery movie set in the "Pokémon universe" ie a world where Pokémon co-exist with humans. The story opens on an ominous lab with a Pokémon being experimented on who escapes and appears to attack a car on its way out of town. Tim Goodman(Justice Smith)is a young insurance salesman who is called to Ryme City after the mysterious death(presumably in the previously mentioned attack) of his estranged father. There he connects with the titular Detective Pikachu(voiced by Ryan Reynolds) who was the partner of his father. The two investigate the crime and what they discover is corruption in Ryme City!

Smith as the lead gives a valiant effort but is simply overcome by not acting opposite of an actual human and a poor, meaninglessly convoluted script. He has talent, there's no question, but the ask is to big for him to overcome. Reynolds voice work is fine enough but taking his actual body the equation hamstrings one of his biggest assets as an actor- his affable contagious charm. Although the animation is excellent the Pikachu performance just comes across as underwhelming. The supporting cast has two real bright spots- Bill Nighy and Ken Watanabe- but neither are given more screen time or much to do when in the scenes they have.

The production design is sharp, exciting, and meticulously rendered by the story falls short it the visual pleasure of the movie is rendered almost meaningless. The script is the real culprit. In an attempt to name check a long list of Pokémon, provide a viable father-son arc, and a complicated twisting who-done-it the story ultimately becomes a boring confused mess. Too much is attempted and nearly none of it is achieved.

Fans, families, and the regular movie goer alike will find it difficult to find much enjoyable in this first attempt at a mainstream Pokémon flick.

Don't See It.

Yoga

Standing outside the studio
I wouldn't say I was terrified
but afraid certainly
a distinction perhaps
important only to me.

Fear not of physical activity
but of the unknown
having done yoga only once
13 years ago when drunk,
not a soothing point of reference.

I felt the tension, sat with it
but was not overcome,
did not flee like once I would
but entered with a friend
and participated, content, happy even.

A small victory perhaps,
but victory none the less.