Pitt brings his patented movie star charm and ease and it works well if not pitch perfect like his turn in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Idris struggles a bit to carve out a full character but he's still compelling and a decent foil for Pitt. Condon is wonderful(if woefully age inappropriate as Pitt's love interest), it's great to see her in a blockbuster as she's mostly been turning in great performances in indie fair the last decade or so. The rest of the supporting cast bolster the leads and fill out the movie well, there's not a lot of nuance or depth but this isn't that kind of movie, it's a spectacle blockbuster.
Visually the movie is thrilling, the multiple races all shot with an evocative POV where you real feel like you're there, it's more transportive and exciting than actually watching Formula One racing. The score is simple and effective, the runtime is a bit overlong but it's easy not to begrudge director Joseph Kosinski given how much action there is and similar to his last summer movie success Top Gun: Maverick it is extremely potent at what it is trying to be- a popcorn movie with broad appeal.
Not particularly complicated, a transparent commercial for Formula One, yet a solid, effective, exciting piece of entertainment.
Currently in theaters.
See It.
The editing is near incessant and absolutely relentless and Pavement's indie rock droning underscores the entire movie and actual information about the band, some of which is true some of which is not, is scant. This is definitely an artsy vibe film and probably only accessible for people who are or were fans of the band. As someone who knew none of their music and nothing about the band it struck me as incredibly pretentious, off-putting, insular, and grating. With some actual context maybe it's a very accurate and moving celebration of the band, I wouldn't know!
It's very ambitious and there is a lot going on both from a filmmaking perspective and thematically. There's a mile-long streak of post-modern irony but also, seemingly, actual sincerity from famous people talking about how much the band means to them(one of whom is Tim Heidecker so maybe this too is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek). With no prior knowledge of the band it's impossible to tell.
With a lot of fandom going mainstream this seems like a reaction to that, a movie only for the fans of this underground band, made specifically impenetrable and fair enough but it doesn't translate as a film for people to enjoy outside of that and as such a cinematic failure.
For Pavement fans only.
Currently in theaters.
Don't See It.
Krasinski, gods love him, has never and will never escape Jim from The Office. Much like Seinfeld he got rich and famous from playing a character close to himself and the reality is, beyond that, he has no real range or ability. Here he is miscast and his attempts at wise-cracking adventurer come across like a walking sexual harassment lawsuit. Portman is the better, more well-rounded actor, but she struggles as well trying to make her paper thin baffling character make any kind of believable sense. The script obviously sucks and reads like an AI was prompted "DaVinci Code with assault weapons" but most of the supporting cast is better able to, at least, have fun and be watchable- Gleeson, Laz Alonso, and Carmen Ejogo are all solid but underused.
The budget was huge so it looks pretty good with some on location shooting and a fair amount of practical stunt work and minimal CGI. The soundtrack is pretty Gen X cringe and the costumes are, across the board, pretty laughable. All-in-all an extremely odd, derivative, catastrophic waste of money and continues director Guy Richie's wildly inconsistent later career.
Perhaps containing some perverse pleasure in the schadenfreude arena but unequivocally a bad movie.
Currently streaming on Apple+.
Don't See It.
Through talking head interviews, archival news footage, and footage shot during OceanGate's operations this modern day retelling of Icarus is told. Themes of pride, naivete, single-mindedness, inflexibility, wealth, capitalism, abuse of power and position are explored.
What is, in essence, a relatively paint-by-numbers doc hits surprisingly hard as the story, the whys, are unspooled. Similar to the interest in Luigi Mangione the Titan implosion grabbed national and international interest as class inequity rises and class awareness comes further to the front in popular culture. At a two hour runtime there isn't a ton of analysis but there is a ton of information. Because of the sensational nature of the incident we are privy to the garish privations of the rich, their insatiable ego, the stupidity of certainty fostered by privilege. And ultimately there is tragedy but perhaps also justice at least in the case of Rush. The real disaster is that no one could or would stop him.
A fascinating if not particularly complex look at modern day hubris.
Currently streaming on Netflix.
See It.
Hiddleston is nominally the face of the movie even though he doesn't get much more screentime than any of the other ensemble and he, unfortunately, is the only one kinda miscast. He's a name which presumably helped the film get made(so kuddos on that front) but dramatically he's a little wooden, a little stiff, and doesn't project the kind of everyman gravitas that the role requires(that say narrator Nick Offerman definitely does). It works OK and the biggest sequence in the movie, the dance, is impressive, his performance in general leaves a bit to be desired. The rest of the cast however are all pretty much pitch-perfect with many of writer/director Mike Flanagan reparatory players making appearances- Mark Hamill, Hamish Linklater, Kate Siegel, Samantha Sloyan, Carl Lumbly- to name a few as well as A-listers Chiwetel Ejiofor and Karen Gillan. The list goes on and they are all great, unified under one vision of empathy, compassion, and the theme of the film which is that human life has value and meaning regardless of it's scope.
Like a lot of Flanagan's work there are some stand out sequences, overall decent visuals, but there is a kind of saturated color pallet that can evoke a TV movie cheapness that is a bit distracting. The score is subtle and effective, the locations(shot in Alabama) are pretty bland and uninspired but functional, and there's minimal effects(in the first sequence) which is welcome. The source material is unconventional and this relatively faithful adaptation is as well and as a result it's not always coherent, what comes together in the imagination when reading isn't as easily tied together when made explicit onscreen, the tone management is a bit uneven. There are some really powerful emotional moments but others that veer maudlin or saccharine, sections of Offerman's VO really work others come across ham-fisted. But overall the earnestness of the message is what comes through and that message is potent and needed during our current divisive times.
An imperfect, stirring, celebration of humanity. Perhaps overly complicated structurally and overly simple thematically.
Currently in theaters.
Rent It.
