'Past Lives' A Review

Past Lives is a drama about two childhood friends Nora(Greta Lee) and Hae Sung(Teo Yoo) who drift apart and reconnect over three separate time periods in their lives. 

Lee is captivating in the lead role, its wonderful to see her get the full spotlight in a feature, she shines. She's grounded, fully lived in, and fascinating. She's got great chemistry with Yoo who's also perfectly cast. For all the distance and the cutting back and forth in time, the film ultimately comes down to the two of them and they are superburb in their roles. The supporting cast has significantly less to do and the only one that really has a role of any substance is John Magaro as Arthur Nora's husband. Magaro is miscast here paired with a script that doesn't do him any favors. He is profoundly irritating to watch and the script seems to involve him to tease out this love triangle for plot purposes but the emotional reality of Nora and Arthur's marriage and Nora's conflicting feelings about Hae Sung in the third act all the actors struggle to imbue with coherence let alone believability.

The film looks beautiful, the editing, the way it flows through time, is immaculate. The score is subtle and enhancing. The production design, all around, is a hit. The big problem is theme. Or more accurately themes. The film doesn't seem to know or want to clarify what it is actually about or what it is trying to say. This quality of thematic overload and themes of nostalgia/regret are very similar to last years Aftersun. Similarly this confusion/ambiguity makes the film worse. The intent is, perhaps, to put the burden of interpretation on the viewer, to make the film "layered" with meaning but the result is that the actual delivery of the narrative is hamstrung, unclear. Is it about culture, immigration, regret, nostalgia, love, adulthood? The film cannot decide, it is trying to be about them all and as a result not really about any of them in any potent way.

A beautiful looking film with two excellent leads fumbles the third crucial competent- story.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Rent It.

'STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie' A Review

STILL is a documentary about actor and activist Michael J. Fox. Through archival footage, reenactments, and a current interview with Fox as well as sequences from his life now, his career and life are explored.

Fox is an incredibly compelling presence, pre or post diagnosis that has always been true. His career and struggles are fascinating, there's no question. But like with many of these types of projects there is a level of restraint that prevents the movie from progressing beyond interesting/entertaining to profound/impactful. His work and his advocacy are inspiring, but much of his story we already know, as the movie and Fox himself relate, much of it played out on the public stage and in his work. So its not as if much of the content here is unknown or inaccessible. So what here is new, well we get to see Fox and here the story in his own words, that's really great. But the pacing, which hurtles through his career and challenges, never pauses long enough to allow much reflection or insight. This is indicative of Fox himself, always moving forward, not one for introspection, so I guess function follows form in this case, and yet its the job of the director to stop and investigate when needed which Davis Guggenheim does not do. Fox's substance abuse is barely addressed, the effect his diagnosis(and struggle with that diagnosis) had on his family or loved ones isn't really addressed, other than advocating for Parkinson's research and the Michael J. Fox Foundation(which is amazing don't get me wrong) there is a kind of breezing over of the emotional reality that this particular circumstance would have.

I'm not saying Fox is obligated to bare everything and give the public full access to his family or his inner life or his secrets. But because he doesn't this movie doesn't really break the surface of the ever-expanding sea of this particular genre of retrospective celebrity doc. There's, ultimately, not much here that you couldn't get from watching his movies and/or reading his memoir/wiki.

Pleasant and pleasingly nostalgic, if standard.

Currently streaming on Apple+.

Stream It.

Another Year

I am in the place of my becoming

tempered against circumstance

molded by mistakes

seasoned through successes

I am myself

more so than I have ever been

today, in this expansive moment

the glorious and immediate Now

which can be so difficult to exist in

but there is solace in the knowledge

with each day am I clarified. Distilled.

'BlackBerry' A Review

BlackBerry is a corporate biopic about the rise and fall of the titular cell phone.

Glenn Howerton as Jim Balsillie is the clear stand out performance, give this guy some noms, he plays Balsillie like a shark, dead-eyed and decisive, always moving. It is transcendent to watch. He absolutely owns the screen whenever he appears and is able to bring a shocking amount of nuance and depth to what could have been, on paper, a relatively 2D soulless corporate exec type character. Jay Baruchel as Mike Lazaridis gives the subtler performance, goes through the bigger transformation, and he may not be as compelling as Howerton he is still very compelling shouldering and conveying more of the moral conflicts involved in the narrative. The support cast are all solid, there are some fun cameo/casting decisions, but at the end of the day this is really a two hander from Howerton and Baruchel and they both let it rip.

The film has a drab earth-tone color pallet and the locations are very business-office clinical. This juxtaposed with the era-appropriate needle drop ridden soundtrack, the anxiety-ridden serio-comic tone, the gritty hand-held cinematography, and break-neck pacing come together to make something more surprising and engaging than the description would suggest.

A definitive counter point to Air's more milquetoast approach to the feature treatment of historic products.

Currently available for rent on most VOD platforms.

See It.

'Polite Society' A Review

Polite Society is a coming-of-age action/dramedy about London teen Ria(Priya Kansara) a martial artist and aspiring stuntwoman who becomes concerned about her sister Lena's(Ritu Arya) involvement with a new suitor Salim(Akshay Khanna), a rich geneticist with an overbearing mother Raheela(Nimra Bucha). Ria enlists her best friends Clara(Seraphina Beh) and Alba(Ella Bruccoleri) to break up the couple.

Kansara leads the film well, she nails the physicality perfectly, appearing to do most of her own stunts and a fair amount of broad, potent, physical comedy. The emotional arc she struggles a bit, its still effective, but the story and the tone are so big and full of so much energy, as the lead she's asked to do a lot and sometimes she can play it a bit narrowly. Arya is a delight, after her electric turn in Umbrella Academy her naturalism and ease on screen is much needed here and really serves to give the sisters' relationship depth. Khanna is a little flat but Bucha is deliciously Machiavellian, here's hoping she continues to appear more in Western media(she was recently the heavy in Ms. Marvel). Beh and Bruccoleri are also pitch perfect providing much of the comedy not only with straight up jokes but with their energy and patter. All in all an extremely solid ensemble that serves as a direct conduit for the contagious wild enthusiasm of the narrative.

Clearly shot on a budget it still has a refreshingly unique look and approach with some action scenes kind of effortlessly blending from actual to metaphorical by way of magical realism, but like really fun. The soundtrack is an absolute killer and the pacing just grabs you and hurtles you into the story. The production, all around, is clean, propulsive, and inspired.

Performance, script, and direction meld to create a piece of unique entertainment with heart.

Currently streaming on Peacock and available to rent on most VOD platforms.

Don't Miss It.

Summer Solstice

The Long Day
is a time to bask in the light

to take comfort 

in its heat and clarity

to elicit

Summer's bounty

and opportunity

to be affirmed,

propelled forward

if not with certainty

than with hope.

'The Flash' A Review

The Flash is a superhero movie, the long gestating last gasp of DC's abandoned Synderverse. Barry(Ezra Miller) aka the titular hero, is doing his crime fighting thing when he discovers he has the ability to time travel. He goes back to prevent his mother from being killed and as a result finds himself in an alternate reality. He teams up with his younger self and Batman(Michael Keaton returning to his iconic role) to untie the knot he's made.

Miller brings the same aw-shucks charm he has brought to the character before but he's not as funny as a main character(rather than the designated comedic relief) and its hard to buy-in as much given all of the actors public issues(at least for this viewer). It's great to see Keaton again but by the time he blandly repeats his third iconic line from the Burton films his inclusion goes from cool to clearly desperate. Sasha Calle as Supergirl is a delightful breath of fresh air but has too little screen time and given too little to do. There's easter eggs and cameos galore but while some hit, in total it feels like these additions are substituted for more general coherent screenwriting.

Visually the movie is a bit confused, it is part Synder doom and gloom, part bright and energetic, with the superspeed sequences mostly being pretty cool. And yet, those feel a bit too reminiscent(and not nearly as compelling) as the Quicksilver sequences in both X-Men: Days Of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse with the MCU version of the Flash played by Evan Peters to better effect. The Flash was in development for years and the final product clearly reflects that. It is clear there are too many hands involved, too many rewrites, too many reshoots. It's too complicated and overlong. The result is palatable but not really good.

Mildly diverting.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Stream It.

'Extraction 2' A Review

Extraction 2 is an action movie, a sequel to 2020's Extraction. Chris Hemsworth's Tyler Rake is brought back from the dead, retires from mercenary work, then returns to it with a mission to extract the wife and kids of an imprisoned Georgian drug lord. A large body count ensues.

Hemsworth doesn't do much acting here, is in full on Terminator mode, which is fine. He's clearly doing much of his own stunt work which enhances the action(after the first 15 minutes or so it is basically one prolonged sequence). There's some talent in the supporting cast- Idris Elba shows up, Golshifteh Farahani returns as Tyler's handler/partner- but there's not much to do. The plot is overly convoluted and at times utterly preposterous so regardless of how well or artfully the various action set pieces are put together they don't feel like they actually have stakes.

Shot with the modern eras standard drab grittiness masquerading as realism the look evokes a homogenized weariness rather than excitement. The score is droning and forgettable. The fight choreography and action sequences are really the only things the movie does well(or seems to be interested in) and clearly this is Netflix's attempt to birth their own John Wick franchise. And yet much of the action falls flat, there are no real characters that inhabit it and there is no question that Hemsworth's Rake is invincible. The 21-minute one take shot doesn't seem to have much of a purpose and there are moments within it that are clearly tightened up with CGI, its kind of impressive but doesn't have nearly the kind of visceral quality of the long-takes it is pulling from in True Detective or Children Of Men.

In the marketing for the movie they are really pounding the fact the Extraction, the predecessor, was the most watched movie on Netflix, of all time. Well, it was released in 2020 during the 5th week of lockdown, so, duh. It was bad but we all watched it because we had nothing else to do. Three years later the sequel seems to have passed from the collective viewer consciousness within 48 hours.

Lacking vision, heart, or much of a pulse.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Don't See It.

Iced Cucumber

the bodega man
I buy Juul pods from
surreptitiously says
"the last flavored ones in town"
and slides across to me

a pack of Bidi, a Juul knockoff, gratis

I don't do flavors

I'd still smoke 

if it hadn't hindered my wife quitting

but I appreciate the gesture

and quietly take it, saying thanks

at home I see that its iced cucumber

and the pods are large, the juice a murky syrup

I try it anyway

out of obligation for my bodega friend

and a sense of morbid curiosity

it does taste like hotel water steeped in sliced cucumber

but the sensation, even if as advertised, is repulsive

the reality bafflingly incongruous

another example of our reach exceeding our grasp

'Flamin' Hot' A Review

Flamin' Hot is a biopic about author and businessman Richard Montañez who went from janitor to executive at Frito-Lay by creating new flavors and pioneering the company's access to the Latinx market. The movie unfolds at a frenetic pace, relying heavily on narration from Montañez(Jesse Garcia), breezing through events and time culminating in his pitch to the executives and the success of Flamin' Hot Cheetos.

Jesse Garcia brings a lot of energy to the role which is commendable but tonally the performance(and the movie) are all over the place. At one moment it's overt-the-top slapstick comedy the next heart-felt grounded family drama. These scenes whip-lash into each other at such a rate and with such extreme modulation it fails to coalesce into much coherence. The supporting cast have talent and are having fun- Annie Gonzalez, Dennis Haysbert, Tony Shalhoub- but there's not much depth or inspiration to this rags-to-riches underdog story. Not because the story itself isn't compelling but because of how it's packaged. The result is more ADD Lifetime movie rather than dramedy biopic.

The visual style has the same kind of slick digital sameness one can expect with movies on a budget, it works but it doesn't pop. The editing is all over the place but there are some nice comedic turns, a cut-to with Montañez narrating theoretic discussions between the Frito-Lay execs, some of the montages, but overall it feels like the editors, Liza D. Espinas and Kayla Emter, are trying to will the movie together out of less than ideal components with the more-is-more approach.

It's great to see a Latinx story centerstage that feels more authentic and based in reality than something like In The Heights. Director Eva Longoria puts in a valiant effort but whether because of issues with the script or budgetary/time constraints isn't quite able to deliver the celebration of the people and culture that she clearly intended. There is also the question of how true this true story is, it appears Montañez's story is pretty much true accept the titular product itself, he invented flavors for the Latinx market and pitched them to the exces and worked his way up but it wasn't on the validity of Flamin' Hot but Chili Lime Fritos and other flavors. Does this matter? Not really, this is a movie, but unfortunately not a good enough one to put it above the fray for this kind of discussion to derail some of the promotional momentum.

Passionate but uneven, its reach exceeds its grasp.

Currently streaming on Hulu.

Stream It.

'The Boogeyman' A Review

The Boogeyman is a horror movie about the Harper family grieving the loss of their mother/wife when Will, the father a therapist, has a walk-in that brings with him a deadly supernatural creature. His two children Sadie and Sawyer bear the brunt of the entities attacks and are the defacto leads.

The cast is full of talent, it's great to see Sophie Thatcher get a bit more screen time than her breakout Yellowjackets and Vivien Lyra Blair show a lot more range in her follow up to her precocious turn in Obi-Wan Kenobi. And, as ever, it is great to see Chris Messina utilize his understated but unshakeable realism and David Dastmalchian with his innate otherworldlyism. Not to mention a brief appearance by excellent character actor Marin Ireland. And yet. The script and direction fall firmly in the by-the-numbers jump-scare flick camp that would be more at home in the Conjuring universe than something that is clearly trying to pull from The Babadook by tying grief and trauma to the titular monster.

The production design feels very workman like, there are scenes and sequences where light and shadow are played with but it at times defies narrative logic(ie every single lightbulb in the house is filament, no one ever seems to have their cellphones yet it is supposedly present day) and so is clearly contrived undercutting the impact. The logic of the creature is underbaked, the emotional journey of the characters takes a back-back seat so feels like abbreviation, again lessoning the stakes. A lot is sacrificed for budget(understandable) but also in order to manufacture momentum and jump scares(a glaring error). The result feels like something specifically engineered to be thrown away on a streaming service(it was originally set to go to Hulu but got a theatrical release after positive test screenings). It also contains one of the most excruciating and overused genre tropes- individuals involved with the supernatural denying the existence of such for the bulk of the narrative until(or even after) they are directly injured by it.

Slick-ish looking, rote plotting, an excellent cast come together to make something passable.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Stream It.

Take It As It Comes

It is easy to forget
there is only today

in all its finite glory

easy to succumb

to tomorrow

and its myriad concerns

the pressures of time

and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

unfolding into the abyss

but today

there are meals to eat

entertainments to enjoy

pets to pet

sunshine to bask in

fellows to love

and despite desire

tomorrow will not conform

will not organize, codify, regiment

will not come in line

it is tomorrow, smoke

but today

is now

and now is where we live.

'Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse' A Review

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse is an animated superhero movie the follow up to 2018's excellent Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The movie opens on Gwen in her reality(Earth-65) dealing with multiverse fallout and tensions with her father. She gets assistance from an organization of Spider-People who she then joins. Meanwhile in Earth-1610, Miles is lonely, searching, and still grieving his uncle. He faces off against a new villain The Spot created by the collider explosion in the last movie. Enter the Spider-League and things get exciting from there!

The returning voice cast are all excellent and newcomers Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Karan Soni, and Daniel Kaluuya(among others) are wonderful additions and, again, the comedy and emotion, the thrill and theme, are all woven through the performances and characters beautifully. The plot isn't as lucky, in the first film it was stuffed to bursting but never tipped over, here it reaches bloat pretty quickly and the extended Gwen-centered prologue doesn't help. Not that she's not a compelling character but this franchise is about Miles and it's distracting that we don't get to him for almost 1/4 of the runtime. This on top of the extended parade of Spider-People which is so large none of them are really able to differentiate themselves. Not to mention the conflict is split too many ways, the antagonists are The Spot as well as Spider-Man 2099(in a way) as well as substantial interpersonal issues that both Miles and Gwen are facing. The result is compelling but muddled.

Visually the movie attempts to one-up the first and the more-is-more approach, similar to the plotting, is successful but uneven. There are some stunning sequences but it at times is so much, so many colors and animation styles cycling so quickly, it at time becomes simply cacophonous. It's still an achievement, still unique, but falls short of capturing the magic of it's predecessor and ends abruptly with a "to be continued" as it is not apparent this, like Dune, is actually Part 1 of 2.

Entertaining, propulsive, but too expansive to land with significant narrative impact.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Rent It.

'You Hurt My Feelings' A Review

 

You Hurt My Feelings is a dramedy about upper-middle class Manhattanite middle-aged ennui. It follows married couple Beth(Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a writer and teacher, and Don(Tobias Menzies), a therapist, when Beth overhears that Don doesn't like her new novel even though he has said that he does.

The cast has talent but there is substantial tonal confusion with the performances and the script. It's unclear what and at which points we are supposed to be moved by and alternatively laugh at. The characters, setting, and circumstances are bloated with privilege and as a result it is very difficult to engage with the extremely low grade and maybe even petty emotional stakes and the absurdity of the whole central conflict isn't broad enough or pointed enough to get much, if any, comedic traction.

The production design is all very bland, homogenized, upper-crust idyllic Manhattan in a way that feels, especially now, woefully out of touch and irrelevant. This movie is very much "contemporary" Woody Allen in that it focuses on affluent neurotic white middle-aged folks in a narrative that hyper focuses on relationship. But the value of that kind of story and it's perceived cultural universality no longer exists. The demographic for this is narrow to the point of bafflement- 45-55 year old married city dwellers with young adult children who make at least six figures and want to feel better about their self-involvement.

Dated, trite, irritating.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Don't See It.