Pele: Birth of a Legend This is on netflix now and I found it to be a perfectly sappy, crappy movie. And I mean that in the best sense, actually. There's very little drama. Newsflash: we know how the 1958 World Cup turned out. Pele starts out, in the hood, playing street ball and his introduction to Santos and the Brazilian national team comes with coaches who berate his "ginga" style. Only, of course, Pele is too good to be kept down for long and his dazzling play electrifies Brazil, and the world, in 1958. Everybody is redeemed in this movie: the mother who wanted Pele to attend school of course ultimately relents when she witnesses Pele's love for the game. The Italian-Brazilian who wants to play European football and is Pele's boyhood heel is the one who finally tells Pele to play ginga. The Santos and Brazil coaches who ultimately tell Pele the same. Even the railroad toughs who want to rough up the boy Pele and his friends for stealing bags of peanuts put their animosity aside when a friend is stuck under a collapsing tree. And, of course, Pele, the real life media whore that he is, gets a cameo. I actually think the kid who plays Pele didn't know it was coming, because when he bumps into real-world Pele on screen, his eyes grow as big as saucers. Widely derided, this movie is a perfectly enjoyable 100 minute viewing for any soccer fan. I wouldn't have wanted to spend anything to see it in a movie theater, though.
Victor Crowley (2017) Dir. Adam Green Ten years after the events of the first movie, Adam Yong returns to Louisiana on his book tour, promoting his account of the massacre from which he was the only survivor. He is met with hostility and disbelief, with almost everyone not giving any credence to his story about Victor Crowley and some of the locals still blaming him for the murders. His publicist talks him into going back into the swamps as part of the promo tour and after she claims to have been offered a small fortune for his appearance, he reluctantly agrees. At the same moment that their private jet is flying over the swamps, a small film crew is in the process of shooting a fake trailer to their own Victor Crowley movie, in the hope of getting their movie produced. The fourth film in the "Hatchet" franchise. Surprisingly enjoyable. Still over the top and humorous, but with a few moments of surprising seriousness sprinkled throughout. If you liked the original trilogy, you'll like this movie too.
You were never really here (2017) Dir. Lynne Ramsay Joe, a clearly disturbed man, earns his money by tracking down trafficked girls to free them and return them to their families. He has earned a reputation for dishing out extreme violence in the process. He is also carrying a lot of trauma around, from his childhood but also from his days as a soldier and then later on as an F.B.I. agent. His domestic life consists of taking care of his infirm mother. During one job in his hometown of NYC, things go seemingly wrong, sending him on an existential last mission. This was an interesting genre exercise that at least partially tries to deconstruct the "violent man saves young girl" genre (e.g. "Man on fire", "The Nice Guys", "Logan" to a certain extent). Writer-director Lynne Ramsay does this by focusing on the psychology of the (anti-)hero. The film also has a slightly dream-like quality to it that makes it hard to decide if what we are seeing is really happening to Joe or if it is limited to his mind. This is especially true about the climax. Very well acted by Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role and Ekaterina Samsonov is something of a revelation as the girl he saves. Includes a lovely supporting part for veteran actress Judith Roberts as Joe's mother.
Candy Jar (2018) Dir. Ben Shelton Two overachieving high-school seniors who both have aspirations of getting into their favorite Ivy League school and who are fierce rivals in debate competitions are forced to work together as a team when they don't qualify for the state debate championships as individuals. They have to overcome their dislike for each other but grow to appreciate one another once they find out they have more in common than they might initially have suspected. This Netflix original was a bit meager on the writing front, but the two young leads are just about charming enough to keep this watchable, for the most part. Christina Hendricks has a supporting role as the single mother of the female lead.
A Quiet Place - this was pretty good. Nothing shocking or surprising, but well made...considering they only spent $17M.
Railroaded! (1947) Dir. Anthony Mann After a robbery on a bookie operation behind a beautician's shop goes awry, ending in the death of a cop who happens upon the scene, the mastermind behind the hold-up pressures his injured accomplice to finger an innocent man for the crime, in exchange for dropping him off at a doctor. The innocent man is further harmed by the fake testimony of one of the shopkeepers, who was the inside woman on the crime. The cop in charge of the case, a family acquaintance of the accused, is first convinced of the innocent man's guilt, but then there are little details about the case that bother him and he starts tracking down the real culprit. Decent little noir. Not my favorite Anthony Mann film, nor even my favorite Anthony Mann noir, but a good 70+ minutes of entertainment. John Ireland is pretty good as the psychopathic killer. Hugh Beaumont doesn't quite match him as the heroic cop. Sheila Ryan is a bit underused.
Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) Dir. Boris Ingster A reporter whose star is shining more brightly due to him being the key witness in a murder trial begins to have second thoughts about the fact that his testimony sends a man to death row, especially after his girlfriend confesses her misgivings about the case to him. Whilst he is going through this ordeal of inner turmoil, a man in his building is murdered, using the same modus operandi as the murder he testified for. Whilst he himself points the finger at a strange and suspicious looking man he saw leave his apartment building, the district attorney in charge of the new case starts to suspect the reporter of being guilty of both murders. It is left to his girlfriend to clear his name and save his life. An early film noir with a straight-forward plot that clocks in at a little over sixty minutes. A decent film, noteworthy for being one of the earliest film noirs and for being one of Peter Lorre's first post-Mr. Moto roles in Hollywood. I really like the fetching Margaret Tallichet's work in this film too. She would retire from acting one year and two movies later.
Les Maudits (1947) Dir. René Clément On April 19th, 1945, a German submarine leaves Oslo. Its destination, South-America. Its passengers, a collection of high-ranking Nazis and assorted European collaborators, all hoping to escape the inevitable backlash that will follow the fall of the Third Reich. When only a few days into their trip one of them is injured and requires a doctor, a small party makes land in liberated Rouen to kidnap a French physician, who becomes their hostage as he cares for his patient. Realizing that he is on borrowed time, he tries to extend his survival by finding new ways to make himself useful on board the submarine as the woman he initially was brought on board to treat makes a speedy recovery. In the process, he becomes a privileged witness to the growing paranoia on board, as news of the collapse of Nazi Germany trickles in through the radio and the growing distrust and discord among the passengers slowly turns into real violence. Atmospheric war drama with some thriller accents. The increasingly claustrophobic interior of the U-boat slowly turns the voyage of escape into each individual passenger's personal hell or purgatory. As such, the moral and metaphysical subtext of the story becomes increasingly apparent as we near the climax. With the suggestion that the protagonist himself isn't what he seems either, this is a film devoid of truly sympathetic characters. It's well acted, with Jo Dest (an unknown to me prior to this film) as the stand-out who plays an evil SS officer, the most pernicious character among a rotten bunch. Of personal interest to me was Anne Campion, a Belgian actress I had never heard of, likely because her screen credits are limited to fewer than ten films and she retired back in 1954. This is a technically very interesting film for its time, with some of the shots becoming a clear influence later on for films as varied as "Das Boot" (the long tracking shots inside of the submarine) and "Psycho" (the curtain-tearing scene). Warmly recommended.
Black Panther (2018) Dir. Ryan Coogler After Prince T'Challa assumes the throne of his home country of Wakanda and becomes King T'Challa following the death of his father in a bombing attack, he makes tracking down and apprehending an arms dealer who has caused his country a lot of trouble in the past his first priority. A failed attempt to capture this man brings another threat onto his radar (as well as Black Panther's), in the form of the product of the sins of his father, whom he had idealized until then. I'm pretty late to the party here. I enjoyed this, but I have some thoughts. It's perhaps the best or at the very least one of the best Marvel movies in terms of the characterization. A lot of time is devoted to making sure we understand who these people are and what their motives might be. It definitely succeeds in that regard. But compared to some other Marvel movies, I don't think there is a truly stand-out action sequence in there. This is not a knock on the movie, as there is no obligation for all Marvel films to focus on the same things and it is a very successful character piece, as stated before. In terms of its tone, it also stands out as having more of an atmosphere of an old-fashioned adventure film with some Bondian elements thrown in there (especially the South-Korean sequence in that regard). I really liked the cast, though I think it's a tiny bit of a problem when so many of the other performers sort of outshine Chadwick Boseman. Michael B. Jordan did, but also Winston Duke and Danai Gurira. I like how Martin Freeman obviously knew and understood his place as the token white guy amongst the good guys and actually leaned into it instead of running away from it. Unfortunately this also suffered a bit from the Marvel bloat. I think an equally good edit of this film that is fifteen minutes shorter would have worked just as well. I don't see why all of these things have to be over two hours long nowadays.
Game Night (2018) Dir. John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein Max and Annie, a couple of super-competitive over-achievers host a weekly game night for their best friends. The arrival one night of Max' older brother Brooks turns out to be stressful for him as his sibling's presence makes his inferiority complex rear its ugly head. After making himself the star of Max and Annie's game night, he in turns invites the couple and their friends to have a very special game night at his luxurious home the next week. Only things don't turn out quite as planned from almost the very beginning of the night. An uneven action-comedy that has tonal issues. It's hard to get the balance right in this genre, but in this movie it wavers too often to not be occasionally jarring. It is saved by the excellent cast. Jason Bateman has played these everyman characters who cannot hide their resentment and frustration before, Rachel McAdams is a lovely, charming presence in everything she does (unfortunately this is yet another role that cannot live up to her talent) but it's really Jesse Plemons as their weird, unadjusted cop neighbor that steals every scene he is in. Around 100 minutes of decent entertainment, but nothing more.
Thanks for the review; we've been looking forward to that one since it had not-terrible reviews upon release.
Cobra Kai - Season 1 (2018) We enter the lives of Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso 34 years after the events of "Karate Kid". The former is now a deadbeat loser with no real job prospects and an estranged ex-wife and son. The latter is a happily married man who owns and manages a successful chain of car dealerships. A chance encounter with some bullies and a defenseless kid from his apartment complex causes Johnny Lawrence to intervene and defend his young neighbor with the karate that made him a champion over three decades earlier. When the kid subsequently asks him to teach him how to fight, Johnny eventually agrees and in the process re-opens the Cobra Kai dojo, angering his former rival Daniel LaRusso in the process. When this was first announced, I thought it was possibly the worst idea among the many touted reboots and sequels on both the big screen and the little screen. I was thus quite a bit surprised to find out this is very enjoyable TV. It's not earth-shatteringly original, the writing can be pretty basic, but they did a few things really well. First and foremost among them was to not make this umpteenth Daniel LaRusso underdog story, but instead frame the season-long arc around Johnny Lawrence's (sort of) redemption story. This is sort of helped by the fact that seeing William Zabka reprise his Johnny Lawrence role in this is somewhat reminiscent of seeing Jean-Claude Van Damme in "JCVD", in that it has a certain meta quality to it that adds to the enjoyment. I also love Xolo Maridueña as the Daniel LaRusso stand-in. Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler This includes Miguel's eventual heel turn, which was a nice and unexpected touch. The second big thing it has working for it is the run-time, roughly 30 minutes per episode, which makes this a crisp and easy watch. They left enough open for a second season and the final scene of the last episode almost demands that we get one. I'll definitely be back for it if we do. Oh, and I loved the Hawk.
Witness for the Prosecution (1957) Dir. Billy Wilder An older defense barrister who is just back on the job after having suffered a heart attack is advised by his doctors not to take on any difficult cases, especially for capital crimes. Within moments of arriving at his office, he ignores this advice, feeling compelled to accept the case of a man accused of having murdered a widow he had befriended. Initially it appears that the man does not have an obvious motive for the crime, but when it is revealed that he is the sole beneficiary of the woman's rather sizable inheritance, he is arrested for murder. The barrister still believes his innocence, in spite of a decent amount of circumstantial evidence against his client as well as the fact that his client's entire alibi hinges upon the testimony of his wife, a German war bride whose behavior suggests she might not be the most sympathetic witness on behalf of her husband. Occasionally you come upon something wonderful enough to remind you why you fell in love with the medium in the first place and this is definitely another case of that. With the solid foundation of Agatha Christie's play, the three protagonists (played by Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power and Marlene Dietrich respectively) all shine under Billy Wilder's slightly Hitchcockian direction. Perhaps Charles Laughton's last truly great performance, if you don't count "Spartacus".
Never watched it when it was on. Not sure why, because it was pretty damn funny... 30 Rock: The Complete Series Interestingly, it had a prescient Harvey Weinstein joke... Also watched The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Season One The first episode features Kimmy and the other women kept in a bunker by a crazy cult leader (played by the hilarious John Hamm (I can't write "surprisingly funny" because I now know how funny he is because of 30 rock) being interviewed on the Today Show by Matt Lauer. Ouch. .
Red Sparrow (2018) Dir. Francis Lawrence After the prima ballerina at the Bolshoi theater gets seriously injured during a performance, it is the effective end of her dancing career. Her uncle, a Russian intelligence operative, approaches her with a way in which she can maintain her previous life style, which included the care her infirm mother requires to survive: train to become an intelligence agent specialized in honeytrap operations, a so-called Red Sparrow. With no real other options left, she agrees, but she soon finds out that the nature of her work and her uncle's manipulations mean she is always just one mistake away from being executed for treason herself. Thus she starts to work on finding a way that will give her a little bit of power and agency of her own. I thought this was decent but ultimately a bit underwhelming. Its biggest issue is that it's both too silly and lacking in smarts to be an intelligent spy thriller in the mold of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and just serious enough and lacking in (dumb) fun to be a more light-hearted, action-oriented spy thriller in the mold of "Atomic Blonde". So parts of it are a bit dull and the pay-off we get to the spy game is a bit of an anticlimax. I did like the cast. Jennifer Lawrence is a good lead, but it's especially the supporting cast that shines, with Matthias Schoenaerts, Joel Edgerton and Safina Jaffrey as the three stand-outs for me. Schoenaerts English-language work has been a tiny bit of a disappointment to me. His best work is still in Belgian and French movies, but this performance is a good second in Anglo-Saxon cinema after his work as Eric Deeds in "The Drop". I do feel like some of the issues in terms of the sections of this film that dragged a little could have been helped with a shorter edit. At a run-time of 140 minutes, this easily could have been half an hour shorter and still told basically the exact same story.
Revenge (2017) Dir. Coralie Fargeat A wealthy man brings his mistress along for a hunting trip in the desert. When his two friends arrive a day early to join him for the actual hunting portion of the trip, they descend upon the modernist villa that is their home base prior to his mistress departure. One of the two new arrivals is very attracted to the pretty young girl who has somewhat disrupted the usual dynamic of their boys' getaway and in her lover's absence the next morning, he makes a pass at her. When he is rebuffed, his violent reaction turns into sexual assault and rape. Upon her lover's return, he tries to buy his mistress' silence with money. When this fails, realizing that her going to the police will destroy his marriage and his life, he makes the impulsive decision to kill her. Only she survives the attempt and soon is turning the tables on her three predatory companions. This is Coralie's Fargeat's subverting of the rape-revenge genre (the origin point of which is mostly identified as "I spit on your Grave" AKA "Day of the Woman"). It's an entertaining movie, but I am dubious about it being heralded as a feminist take on the sub-genre. Fargeat spends a lot of time in the first act objectifying her lead actress (with many close-ups of her naked and half-naked body), so much so that it starts to border on the absurd. I realize that exaggerating genre tropes is one way to subvert a genre, but this also makes it harder to sell this as a feminist vision on the story archetype. I do think that Matilda Lutz' performance is very good, bordering on a tour de force considering that she is required to do a lot of dialogue-less, solo acting from the second act onward. The trippy sequence in the cave is especially impressive in that regard. Kevin Janssens is also very good as her psychopathic former lover. I think that the final fifteen minutes, with its explosion of fake blood, won't be everyone's cup of tea, but for me this movie stuck the landing. I'm curious to see what both Fargeat and Lutz will do next.
Thanks for the review, I'm interested in this one. I've seen the trailer, and I've got a random question. Do you happen to know what country it was filmed in?
The desert scenes were apparently all shot in Morocco. I think some of the villa interior scenes were shot in France on a sound stage, but I'm not 100% sure of that.
The Ritual (2017) Dir. David Bruckner After the sudden and tragic death of one of their group, the four surviving men take a hiking trip in Sweden because that had been the preferred destination of their deceased friend when they had been planning their lads' getaway prior to his death. For one of the four men, it is an especially painful journey as he feels guilty for the death of his friend, a sentiment that may be shared by some of his companions. When on the third day of their hike one of them gets an injury to the knee, they decide to take a shortcut back to their lodge, taking them through the forest. Once in there, they struggle to find their way and eventually have to come to the conclusion that they are being tracked by a supernatural entity. This was hyped a bit when it was originally dropped on Netflix. It's not bad, but it's fairly referential, with the two most obvious influences being "The Blair Witch Project" (minus the found footage gimmick) and "The Descent" (only with an all-male instead of an all-female group of adventurers). The first hour is an atmospheric horror film. I personally liked the climax just fine, but I think the section of the film after they arrive at the second cabin will be pretty divisive. Rafe Spall is an excellent lead in this.
Halfway through the 12 episode run of ... Home Fires a workmanlike British period piece about the wartime work of Women's Institutes around England in the early years of WWII. Apparently, it got cancelled and never properly wound up. We'll see.
Finished Series Two last night: a crippled plane trying to make it to the nearby RAF base crashes into the village, hitting a home where about a quarter of the characters are, and where a woman has just given birth. Over the sound of the flames, a baby is crying. Blackout. Theme song. Roll credits.