'The Mastermind' A Review

The Mastermind is a period drama about a listless Boston suburbanite father in 1970 J.B.(Josh O'Connor) who plots to steal paintings from a local museum as he's disinterested in working, his wife, and his kids.

O'Connor may be a decent actor with potential but he is not a leading man(at least not here), he absolutely crumbles under the weight of carrying this film. The character is on screen pretty much the entire run time and has very little dialogue, O'Connor basically does nothing, projects passivity and blankness aside from a moment or two where he tilts his head and gives a half grin, the only specific gesture he uses and one he does repeatedly. You get no interiority from him, no sense of depth, no understanding of what's going on with this character or why we should care about him. It's honestly baffling. He is, from minute one, profoundly boring. Since his meteoric rise in Challengers he's joined the underserving ranks of Austin Butler, Jacob Elordi, Glenn Powell, Timothée Chalamet, Paul Mescal etc. as Hollywood continues to try to force a new leading man on us(as opposed to letting talent and the box office speak for itself). The supporting cast(other than Alana Haim who, similarly seems to be cast because of industry hype rather than ability) is all great but they are all barely in the movie. It's extremely telling that, pretty much, the only compelling scene in the movie is when J.B. goes to lay low with his friends played by Gaby Hoffmann and John Magaro and the movie, finally, comes alive and it's because of Hoffman and Magaro.

Visually the film has writer/director Kelly Reichardt's patented understated meticulousness, the production design transportive, and the free-wheeling, chaotic, jazz score soars. Reichardt's craft has never been better but the story really begs the question why make this and why should an audience care.

A portrait of an uninteresting man being selfish and self-diluted.

Currently in theaters.

Don't See It.

'Freakier Friday' A Review

 Freakier Friday is a body-swap comedy, a sequel to 2003's Freaky Friday based on the novel. 22 years after the events of the first movie Anna(Lindsay Lohan) is a music producer and single mother with the help of her psychologist mother Tess(Jamie Lee Curtis). Anna strikes up a romance with Eric(Manny Jacinto) but their daughters Harper(Julia Butters) and Lily(Sophia Hammons) are vehemently opposed to the match, thus initiates the body-swap between Anna, Tess, Harper, and Lily.

Lohan and Curtis are clearly delighted to be back and go even bigger and have even more fun than the original. Butters and Hammons are good but are featured less and without the history there part of the narrative isn't quite as engaging. The supporting cast is stacked with talent, not only Jacinto but Vanessa Bayer, X Mayo, Chloe Fineman as well as a lot of returning cast from the original. All in all it's just fun, funny, and has heart and the entire cast is locked in tonally.

Visually somewhat reserved but with a lot of physical comedy and sight gags to give it a thrum of energy. The soundtrack is catchy and the costume design is delicious. It's an object lesson in how to do one of these legacy sequels, probably the most successful of it's type to-date, the biggest key is letting it actually be a sequel i.e. Lohan and Curtis are the undisputed stars but there's enough freshness, enough new elements, but at the same time still feels of-a-piece.

Playful, effective, family fun.

Currently streaming on Disney+.

Rent It.

The Gravity of Autumn

The leaves cascade down

to blanket sidewalks

streets and cars

frost creeps

The chill descends

storm windows sealed

dusty coats

come out of stasis

Quiet falls

it is a slow time

a planning time

a time of endings 

'Materialists' A Review

Materialists is a rom-dram, the sophomore feature from Celine Song after her breakout debut Past Lives, about NYC matchmaker Lucy(Dakota Johnson) and the tension between her actual feelings towards working class John(Chris Evans) and the magnetism of wealth from Harry(Pedro Pascal). What's a girl to do?

Johnson struggles to create a believable human, part of that is she's never displayed a particularly wide range but also, as written, Lucy and more broadly the whole narrative, has little basis in reality or interest. Johnson delivers all of her lines like she's reciting a memorized monologue but to her credit, that's how a lot of the dialogue comes across, like a socio-economics paper, not subtext, all text, all this kind of shotgun-blast punishing(and dated) argument about the intertwining of marriage and capital. Evans and Pascal are both decent, both charming, but they also struggle because their characters aren't particularly believable or compelling and said characters inhabit an absurd narrative. Give them an actual honest-to-goodness romcom and that's something that'd put butts in seats. The supporting cast is small and mostly forgettable. More broadly, why would a general movie goer care about the romantic travails of terrible, racist, shallow people complaining about making a quarter of a million dollars a year.

Visually Song continues to impress, the film looks incredible, every shot like a piece of art, the colors and textures rich and evocative. The score is consistently good but inconsistent with the tone, is this a rom-com, a rom-dram, a straight up drama, or an erotic thriller? The movie is confused and so the score, at times, doesn't really make any sense.

The big issue is the script. The themes and ideas are muddled and ultimately kind of repugnant. The movie feints at playing with rom-com tropes, postures at satirizing modern dating and marriage, but ultimately the message is this dated, regressive, quite frankly disgusting embrace of this purely capitalist kind of Girl Boss/Lean In perspective i.e. you can have it all as long as you make enough money. Which is, one, simply not true(Scrooge anyone?) and two especially offensive given what's happening in the US this year/right now, the economics they are discussing are not within reach of 95% of the population.

Blatant(seemingly unknowing) propaganda for the patriarchal capitalist machine.

Currently streaming on HBO Max.

Don't See It.

'Predator: Badlands' A Review

Predator: Badlands is a scifi action movie, a standalone in the Predator franchise and the ninth in the series. Dek(Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a Yautja(Predator) runt, strives to prove himself to his clan by going to Genna, the 'death planet', and hunting the unkillable Kalisk. After crashing he teams up with Thia(Elle Fanning) a damaged synthetic and the two strike up an unlikely partnership.

Schuster-Koloamatangi gives a great performance, expressive and alien, conveying an understandable but distinctly different species. He has a lot of room to play, which he does, mostly utilizing physicality and brings the Predator, here-to-for mostly unknowable, into a fully flushed out character. Fanning is a great foil, fast-talking and funny and the two have great chemistry. The supporting cast is pretty limited but equally effective. There is a Grogu-esk sidekick that kind of rides the line of fun and cute occasionally dipping over to on-the-nose but still mostly just fun.

Visually the film is rich, imaginative, and exciting. The landscape, the flora and fauna, the creature design. It's all very specific and very evocative. Director Dan Trachtenberg continues his resurgent efforts for the franchise, expanding the world in interesting way and telling diverting standalone stories. The score is thrumming and contagious, the costuming, the props, all are clearly meticulously thought out and serve the transportive worldbuilding. It marks somewhat of a tonal shift for the franchise, this is definitely a PG-13 action flick, reminiscent of the kind of thing you'd have seen in the late 90's with humor, heart, and exciting fights and that's one of the things that make it feel so fresh and exciting. 

A thrilling, immersive adventure. A throwback style popcorn flick Hollywood seems to have forgotten how to make- fun.

Currently in theaters.

Don't Miss It.

A Lament For The Present Time

It needn't be this hard.

'Black Phone 2' A Review

Black Phone 2 is a horror movie, a sequel to 2021's The Black Phone. Four years after the events of the first film Finney(Mason Thames) is traumatized and violent, fighting kids at school and smoking weed at night to numb out. His sister Gwen(Madeleine McGraw) has also struggled with being an outcast while her promotions and psychic insights have gotten stronger. In a vision she sees her mother as a teen at a camp in the mountains. As a result Finney, Gwen, and their friend Ernesto(Miguel Mora) go to investigate.

Both Thames and McGraw, great in the first film, are even better here and are asked(and excel at) playing even more complicated emotions incorporating the damage and the fallout of the first film into their characters behavior and development in the second. The supporting cast is all great- Mora, Demián Bichir, Jeremy Davies, Arianna Rivas, and of course Ethan Hawke who reprises his role as the Grabber but this time as a malevolent ghost rather than a flesh-and-blood serial killer and the adjustment he makes in the performance, making it more expressionistic, having more fun, is really a treat.

Visually the film is rich and goes even further than the original with extended sequences taking place in an alternate dream reality with a Super 8 style graininess. The soundtrack is incredibly effective, the sound mix really potent, just all the way around great, inspired, risky(in a good way) production design. The only fault is that there's a scene or two at the camp which is clearly green-screened but even then the performances are so good, the tension so expertly ratcheted it doesn't really matter.

A solid piece of emotionally complex horror that thrills as well as inspires. An object lesson in what small and mid-budget flicks can do when there's a solid story and a clear vision.

Currently in theaters.

See It.