'Antlers' A Review

Antlers is a horror movie about a small town in Oregon where a malevolent spirit escapes a mine and posses a father of two young boys. One of the boys Lucas(Jeremy T. Thomas) attempts to keep his father and brother safe and confined but his teacher Julia(Keri Russell) notices something as amiss while she attempts to reconnect with her estranged brother Paul(Jesse Plemons).

Thomas gives an impressively grave performance for a kid but is set up by the script as the creepy child trope and isn't able to go much beyond that. Russell is a pro and always a pleasure to see onscreen by the material is too plodding, too predictable, too underbaked for her to do much with. Plemons is given even less and with an actor of his talent and oddness it seems a woeful oversight. Although there are some incredible character actors in the supporting cast- Graham Greene and Amy Madigan- they are given virtually nothing to do.

A wonderful idea, a beautiful landscape, and a solid cast fail to lift what seems to have been a great elevator pitch that never got fully flushed out. There are some questionable choices made, chief among that the story incorporates Indigenous myth while being centered around white people, as well as attempting to draw a metaphorical parallel from the horrific events to abuse. Both ideas are intriguing but are executed so poorly that it comes across as ignorant and offensive. All in all, a mess.

The 2020 book The Only Good Indians covers similar ground with seismically better results on all fronts. Comparatively its a real shame.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Don't See It.

'Army Of Thieves' A Review

Army Of Thieves is a heist action/comedy a supposed "prequel" to Army Of The Dead, but more accurately described as a standalone spin-off as the zombie outbreak is virtually irrelevant. The movie is in essence an origin story for safecracker Sebastian(Matthias Schweighöfer who also directed). Sebastian is a safecracking obsessive who has no practical experience as he is a nerdy homebody who works in a dead-end banking job. He's recruited by Gwen(Nathalie Emmanuel) an international thief and her crew as they set out to crack three uncrackable safes constructed by master locksmith Hans Wagner inspired by composer Wagner's famous Ring Cycle. 

Schweighöfer's character is just as contagiously charming and funny as he was in his initial appearance, even more so as the tone of the movie is much more playful and comedic than AOFD. Emmanuel isn't asked to stretch much in her role but she's competent and as magnetic as she's allowed to be in the servicable if somewhat underwritten part. Ruby O. Fee and Guz Khan as Korina and Rolph respectively are perfectly cast, but also not given enough to do. The one sour note is Stuart Martin as Brad Cage, the last member of the crew, whose performance is kinda DOA. All in all a solid cast who knows what movie their in and has a blast in it.

Visually competent with some flashes, particularly in the safecracking sequences, of real ingenuity. The movie is, for the most part, a straight-up old-school heist flick and on that basis it's quite entertaining bolstered significantly by Schweighöfer's odd indefatigable energy if not particularly surprising or unique it's got some electricity to it.

Fun throwback movie with a solid mostly unknown cast.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Rent It.

Sports

Never got into sports
not my kinda thing

but even as a child

I understood the appeal

going to White Sox games

Rockford Lightening games

watching Jordan's Bulls on the TV

with my old man

I understood the appeal

when its good, when its really good

there's a rhythm to it

a rightness to it

within the confines

of the court or field

where there are a fixed set of rules

and refs or umps 

that enforce those rules

everything makes sense

everything is simplified

refined, clear, crystal

within these certain set parameters

people can soar

you can get swept up in it

the job, the mortgage, the grind

can fall away

and your left exactly in the moment

the thrill of it, the excitement of it

the sweat of it, the force of it

the immediacy of it

Like I said, I understand the appeal

but I was always more into Zorro.

Darkness

At the camps I went to growing up one of the evening activities was a Night Hike and one of the Night Hike activities was a Solo Hike. You'd be out in the woods at night and at some point one of the two counselors would go down the trail alone for 5-10 minutes and wait. Then each of the campers, one at a time, would traverse that distance alone. Most of the time everyone had flashlights and the counselors would say you could use it or not, suggesting you didn't.

The first time I did it I was 8 and I used my flashlight. All I can remember is fear. That something would pop out of the dark, that someone was waiting to scare me, the night itself, the unknown. The fear was near overwhelming but I plowed ahead and finished. There was a tremendous sense of accomplishment. I had overcome.

The next year I used my flashlight again and it was anticlimactic. The fear had mostly gone, and using it seemed like a cheat, a slight, untrusting. The next year I didn't use my flashlight and that changed everything.

Without the tunnel of my light the night opened, as I slowly walked down the path my eyes adjusted, the moon and stars cast dappled shadows through the trees, it wasn't bright but I could see. The path stretching ahead of me like a washed out ribbon, the woods cornucopic shades of blue-to-black with only patches of true dark where the woods got dense. And it was alive. The leaves rustled, the insects hummed, and occasionally the scrambling of some small creature would bubble up. But nothing threatening, nothing amiss. It struck me, walking alone through the night, this is as it should be, this was right. It thrilled, this trusting of the dark, and I was rewarded.

It became the thing I looked forward to the most, as a camper and then later as a counselor, later still I would sneak into parks after dark with my friends and lead them only by the shadowed moon as we drank or smoked and sometimes tripped. I reveled in it, it was gloriously freeing, the dark.

Some campers hated it, too terrified of the night, too unaccustomed or discomforted with being truly alone however briefly, of the silent noise of the forest unbroken by any voice. But I knew solitude from an early age, had grown up with it, acquired a taste for its bitterness. I realized on that first hike without my light that the darkness wasn't bad, it was simply different. My fear was mostly, if not entirely, in my own mind, of my own creation. The woods, night or day, if paid the proper respect, was benign. And come evening, particularly, when the shadows closed and the world shrank, it was actually comforting, intimate. I became at home in the dark.

As you grow up you realize that darkness isn't always visual, beyond the monster under the bed or in the bushes there are scarier things, normal things that are just part of life. Death, heartbreak, grief. They can be difficult to deal with, overwhelming. And I have no monopoly on healthy processing or satisfying answers to any of life's mysterious cruelties but I do know the dark. Darkness has been a friend for a long time, and I know that it is not good or bad, it simply is. Day and night, life and death, there is a balance to things. It may not make it easier to handle challenges or weather tragedies but I accept them, I don't deny them, I am not surprised when they occur. They are as natural as the forest at night.

'Dune' A Review

Dune (Part One) is a scifi epic based on the 1965 novel of the same name. In the far distant future Duke Leto(Oscar Issac) is assigned a new fief, sand planet Arrakis(the titular Dune), by the Empower taking over for rival Baron Harkonnen(Stellan Skarsgård), but the arrangement is not as straightforward as it seems. Leto's partner Lady Jessica(Rebecca Ferguson) a Bene Gesserit(space nun), fears the change particularly as it puts her son Paul(Timothée Chalamet), who is manifesting hidden powers of his own, into the cosmic political arena.

Chalamet is the defacto lead, although the film is in essence an ensemble, and he's servicable, he doesn't display any of his "charming" man-child quirks which is a relief but ultimately he doesn't quite have the presence to make the reserved introspection of the character particularly pop. It doesn't really matter as Dune is not a character study but a transportive visual and narrative experience. But aside from Chalamet the cast is near pitch perfect. Issac as the brooding duke, Ferguson as the powerful space nun yet vulnerable mother, Skarsgard as the repulsive rumbling heavy, Javier Bardem as a Freman leader Stilgar(particularly excellent), and on and on. A literally stem-to-stern stacked cast of solid character actors. The cast though is second to the setting and the plot in "Part One" as this is mostly set up, mostly context, mostly mood.

Not surprising coming from director/co-writer Denis Villeneuve the visuals are absolutely stunning and much care is taken with combining practical and CG effects so that the world(s) feel real, have not only visual appeal but are tactile. This is extended/bolstered by the superb costuming and the haunting extraterrestrial score.

Although, essentially, set up the film stands firmly on its own and at two and half hours never falters in its engagement. It's patient, methodical, and takes care not only with the atmosphere, the mood and tone, but with the complicated world building which is vital for any adaptation of the scifi classic. But because of the pacing it doesn't come across that way, we get all the necessary information but in a way that feels organic and much is left for us to infer about the world(s) while simultaneously inexorably moving the story forward with enough action, character, and striking imagery to keep us hooked.

A sumptuous genre feast.

Currently in theaters and on HBO Max.

Don't Miss It.

Fix, Manage, And Control

When you grow up in chaos
in order to survive

you learn how to manage

people, places, and things

as best you can

to mitigate uncertainty

to minimize risk

to protect yourself

the problem is

as an adult

the world, life

cannot be controlled

yet that compulsion remains

having endured the chaos

having emerged from the crucible of dysfunction

the impulse remains

and it distorts

manifests as manipulation

righteous anger

guilt trips

narcissism

perpetuating the same behaviors

seeding the trauma for the next generation.

The cycle can be broken.

It takes work

but above all

a willingness to do the work.

'No Time To Die' A Review

No Time To Die is an action drama, the latest in the Bond franchise, the last to feature Daniel Craig as 007. After the events of Spectre Bond retires with Madeleine(Léa Seydoux) but the two become estranged after an ambush. Flash forward five years Bond is alone in the Caribbean and is brought back into the fold when a secret diabolical weapon is hijacked by a mysterious and scarred villain, Lyutsifer(Rami Malik). 

Craig is a compelling Bond but his tenure has overstayed it's welcome. In this installment they fumbling attempt to inject some pathos but comes across as melodrama. There is little action, which Craig is always competent with, because so much time is taken sewing  up and concluding mostly irrelevant plot threads from Craig's tenure in the franchise. Seydoux and Craig don't have great chemistry and she's mostly phoning it in as she doesn't have much to do on the page. Malik throws himself into the mustache twirling Bond villain mold but the character, backstory, and context are muddled and boring. Ana de Armas shows up as a CIA agent for a brief sequence in Cuba and she's a standout, as she seems to actually be having fun and her character isn't weighed down by ponderous backstory. Lashana Lynch as Nomi a new 00 agent is well cast but she's given virtually nothing to do.

Visually slick but in some ways woefully lacking personality in its kind of generic Hollywood globe trotting sheen, the production is solid but unfortunately the script is very much not. Craig's Bond differentiated itself but its darkness, its focus on action, his Bond more solider/assassin than spy which was pretty effective depending on which of his first three Bond movies you look at but starting with Spectre and continuing with No Time To Die they have drifted away from that attempting to inject some character dimension, emotional complexity, and humor and are roundly unsuccessful. Not to say they can't evolve the character but they didn't do it successfully. The jokes fall completely flat, the "emotional" moments are ineffective because the situations are either overly dramatic or have no stakes rendering it all moot. Craig's tenure began with a focus on "realism" but has since evolved into the same over-the-top world-ending preposterous for which the franchise is known, which is fine, but, the self-serious tone set by Craig's Bond doesn't mesh with that. If you're going to have a preposterously scarred mincing villain who is attempting to cull the world's population with genetically programed nanites there needs to be some awareness that tonally there should be some levity, that that premise is kind of silly.

Plodding, bloated, generic, and all around flat.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Don't See It.