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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 13 December 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

BLOODY AXE WOUND (USA 2024) **
Directed by Matthew John Lawrence

 

If you like your horror films bloody with gore and violence then BLOODY AXE WOUND should satisfy, even if it provides not much more.  The axe comes down several times on victims, suspecting or not, with crunching sounds as the victims drop to their deaths.  The film is supposed to be a horror comedy though the ones only laughing appear to be the film's characters.  Perhaps the film could be described as a comedy as what transpires looks quite unbelievable, and a bit comical.  The film has a strong female slant with a gay slant insetted as well.

Abbie Bladecut (Sari Aranbulo) is a teenager torn between the macabre traditions of her family’s bloody trade and the tender stirrings of her first crush - another female called Sam (Molly Brown).  In the small town of Clover Falls, Abbie’s father, Roger Bladecut (Billy Burke), has built an infamous legacy by capturing real-life killings on tape and selling them to eager customers. Still, as Abbie delves deeper into the grisly family business, she begins to wonder if it’s time to take the family tradition in a new direction.  The father has his face all cut up and scarred,  looking like a surreal monster, though the look is never really explained.

The film contains several chases and runarounds.  The premise of the family’s failing video store needing to have new horror videos for rent or purchase to survive financially also makes little sense.  The victims who are picked one-on-one from the local school’s yearbook also make no sense.  The cops are baffled, which is strange as the killing has gone around so often that there should have been clues left and the murders solved already.  Abbie finally goes against her father and one wonders the reason it took her so long to do so.

BLOODY AXE WOUND besides providing a few boldly axe killings provides nothing much more in terms of comedy or suspense.  The film opens from Shudder RLJE films in theatres on December 27th.

Trailer: 

THE BRUTALIST (UK 2024) ****
Directed by Brady Corbet

 

THE BRUTALIST is about the life and work of  László Tóth   This is not László Tóth, the infamous Hungarian geologist who infamously vandalized Michelangelo’s Pietà statue in 1972, was hospitalized, and then sent home to Australia but an Eastern European architect.  A fictitious one.  (if one is to look up the name in Wikipedia only the vandal’s credentials will show up.)  But the fictional Toth is so meticulously created and one can hardly believe that this person never existed.

Director Brady Corbet returns with another bold vision — an American epic, starring Adrien Brody as a Jewish Hungarian architect who flees Europe at the end of the Second World War to rebuild his life in an unfamiliar land.

László Toth (Brody) arrives in America with barely anything to his name, eagerly hoping to soon be joined by his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones). Settling in Philadelphia, he has a not-so-gracious run-in with Harrison Lee Van Buren (a hardly recognizable Guy Pearce), a wealthy businessman, after he becomes an unwitting client for a home renovation scheme. This serendipitous encounter leads to a more complex undertaking, as Van Buren and his son (Joe Alwyn) enlist László’s brilliance for a monumental new project.  It is a dream that he never thought he could relive, but it comes with a dark cost, as László sacrifices more and more of himself to complete his exacting vision.

The film is told in 3 parts including an epilogue.  The first part is titled ‘The Enigma of Arrival’ and the second is ‘The hard core of Beauty’.  It is an epic story of an individual from his arrival to America to his eventual success though not without sacrifice and extreme hardship.  The film feels like a biopic and with all the eats in the film it is surprising to learn that the Toth character is made up.  Adrien Brody who has already won an Oscar delivers another powerful performance as the troubled architect.

Just like a biopic. the film traces the rise and fall and rise again of an individual.  The film also shows that the American Dream is almost always distorted by the efforts to achieve it.

Though long, THE BRUTALIST is eloquent storytelling, the over 3-hour running time unfelt for the most time.  Credit too should be given to the location scout and details in the architecture seen in the film.

The film premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2024, where Corbet was awarded the Silver Lion for Best Direction.   It received critical acclaim and was named one of the top ten films of 2024 by the American Film Institute.[7] It received seven nominations at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards, including nominations for Brody, Jones and Pearce in the acting categories and Best Motion Picture - Drama. It is scheduled to be released in the United States by A24 on December 20, 2024, and in the United Kingdom by Universal Pictures and Focus Features on January 24, 2025.

THE BRUTALIST will be presented in 70mm (at select screenings).  This includes the Advance Screening on December 16. at the TIFF LIGHTBOX.  The film opens on Christmas Day.  Note that the film has a 215-minute runtime that includes a 15-minute intermission.  (Brutal - but worth it.)

THE BRUTALIST is the runner-up for the Toronto Film Critics Association Best Picture of the Year.

Trailer: 

CHASING CHASING AMY (USA 2024) **
Directed by Sam Rodgrs

 

In CHASING CHASING AMY, filmmaker Sav Rodgers takes a journey of self-discovery while making a documentary about Kevin Smith's' ‘Chasing Amy’' and its polarizing reputation among LGBTQ+ people. Smith’s “Chasing Amy” chronicles the impact on the long-term friendship of two New Jersey comic book artists when they are joined by a third artist, who turns out to be lesbian. The fallout includes heartbreak and jealousy. It starred Ben Affleck, Jason Lee and Joey Lauren Adams. It remains controversial among LGBTQ+ people.

CHASING CHASING AMY begins with the introduction of the film CHASING AMY< a cult hit but for the sake of those who have not heard or seen it or have forgotten much about it.  It then shows clips from various critics including Roger Ebert praising the film for its writing and performances, a film that went on to win Golden Globes for those categories.  It is without doubt that movies change people’s lives.  Myself, the love for cinema led me to immigrate to Canada from Singapore, a place of cinema-art emptiness.  CHASING CHASI ]NG AMY aims to do the same,  CHASING CHAINS AMY is a documentary.

“Can you give me the Genesis of CHASING AMY?” asks Sav to Kevin Smith at one point in the movie.  The doc is a thorough, from Sav’s point of view examination of how the film has affected her, and how she brings the obsession to fruition in the doc.  It is Sav’s personal journey, and though, might not be of interest to everyone, is a genuine personal odyssey, which makes it an earnest film that one might want to sit through.  Sav and his girlfriend, Rile revisit the places where Kevin Smith has shot CHASING AMY to re-enact certain scenes.  Less amusing can it come across, are these clips really necessary to emphasize Sav’s obsession with the film?  At best, the doc beats the correctness of C HAIDSNG AMY even though at the time, many LGBT+ audiences accepted the facts.  These days, the depiction of gays is more critical, an example being the trans community protesting how a trans subject is portrayed in Jacques Audiard’s EMILIA PEREZ.

The film contains lots of clips from CHASING AMY. One need not have to see the film recently to watch the doc as the doc provides clips whenever a reference is made,  One annoyance of the doc is the way Sav and her girlfriend Riley speak, as most teens do these days.  The word ‘like’ is used in every sentence and one wonders the reason these people do not (or at least the filmmakers as well) try to correct and remove the word from all the conversations.

CHASING CHASING AMY explores the transformational impact of the ‘90s cult classic on a 12-year-old queer kid from Kansas, coming of age and to terms with his identity. For young Sav Rodgers, the Kevin Smith cult classic became a life raft. As Rodgers examines the film and its making as a cornerstone of LGBTQ+ cinema, he finds himself at a complicated crossroads.

CHASING CHASING AMY exclusively On Demand 12/17!

 

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN (USA 2024) ***½

Directed by James Mangold

 

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN is a 2024 American biographical drama film directed by James Mangold, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jay Cocks. Based on the 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald, the film revolves around the controversy over the use of electric instruments by Bob Dylan, though the controversy is only shown during the climax and end of the film.

The film follows the life and career of musician Bob Dylan from January 1961, when he moved from Minnesota to New York City, to his 1965 concert at the Newport Folk Festival, resulting in controversy over the use of electric.  The concert a year earlier at the Newport Folk Festival is also shown.

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN is a movie about Dylan who is still living.  The big question is whether Boy Dylan approves of the movie.  Dylan took to social media (X) with his comment:  "There's a movie about me opening soon called A Complete Unknown (what a title!),"  Dylan wrote about the movie that opens Christmas Day.  “Timothee Chalamet is starring in the lead role," Dylan continued. "Timmy's a brilliant actor so I'm sure he's going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me.”  Naturally, the message "floored" Chalamet.

The film can hardly be described as a biopic as it only shows a portion of Bob Dylan's life.  His childhood and school days are all omitted in the film.

Dylan’s praise for the film is understandable.  The film shows Dylan in a positive light from start ti finish.  Dylan can do no wrong in the film.  Every song, new or old that he sings is perfect and everyone loves them.  Even when he switches to electric guitar at the fateful concert in which diehard fans are upset, the film shows those fans to be in the wrong and that Dylan’s electric guitar performance is excellent and should be accepted by all.  Though the film is based on the 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald, the film is one-sided in that Dylan is not seen with any faults.  Even his tumultuous relationship with Joan Baez is seen to be her fault in the film, even though Dylan wakes her up in the middle of the morning while she is sleeping with his songwriting.

Timothee Chalamet who also produced the film is nothing short of marvellous in the role of Bob Dylan.  He eases in the role of the singer-songwriter with the greatest of ease.  Hi acting does not look  false or forced unlike performances like Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein or the more recent Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas in MARIA

Other famous singer-songwriters in Dylan’s day are also featured in the movie.  Thenaudicne sees Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), JohnnyCash (Boyd Holbrook) and Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy).

Director James Mangold has a fine film, he has done biographies before like the 2005 film WALK THE LINE.  Mangold has done everything from COP LAND with Sylvester Stallone as an aging sheriff to WOLVERINE to the western 3:10 TO YUMA.

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN opens Christmas Day in theatres.

Trailer: 

FERRY 2 ( Belgium/Netherlands 2024) ***
Directed by Wannes Destoop

 

In FERRY the movie in 2021, Ruthless Ferry Bouman is sent to his native region of Brabant by his boss Brink to avenge an attack on their gang. When he meets lovely Danielle and old family feuds resurface, Brabant starts to pierce his steel armour.

After the series UNDERCOVER and the movie FERRY, this series in 2023 is the third series/movie Netflix dedicates to the gangster Ferry (of course the series Undercover was not entirely centred around him) taking place between the first two.  In the series, before "Undercover's" Ferry Bouman the series traces how he becomes a notorious drug lord, he had to rise from obscurity by ascending the ranks of Brabant's criminal underbelly.

In FERRY 2, a sequel that brings back the character of Ferry Bouman, portrayed by Frank Lammers. Directed by Wannes Destoop, this film continues the story of a former drug lord who thought he had left his criminal past behind. After losing everything, Ferry retired for a life below the radar, far away from Brabant. On the surface, he seems to be doing well, surrounded by superficial contacts. But deep down, his inner voice haunts him, preventing true happiness. Ferry's past is filled with violence, lies, and a trail of betrayal. He battles with his conscience while trying to keep a low profile. Why would our tough yet charming drug lord come out of retirement for one last trick..?

After the 2021 film THE FERRY followed by a series THE FERRY, FERRY 2 the Dutch/Belgium film is pretty much the same anti-hero in a slightly different scenario.  Forgettable action entertainment though not a boring watch on Netflix.

FERRY 2 opens for streaming on Netflix this week Friday.

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HER BODY (Jeji Telo) (Slovakia/Czech Republic 2023) ***

Directed by Natálie Císařovská

 

 

The film HER BODY is inspired by the life of Andrea Absolonova.  At the film's start, the audience sees Andrea (Natalia Germani) competing and winning the title of the new Champion of the Czech Republic.  Andrea Absolonová (26 December 1976 – 9 December 2004), better known by the pseudonym Lea De Mae, was a Czech diver and a member of the Czech high diving national team, later an adult model and pornographic actress. She died from brain cancer on 9 December 2004, at the age of 27.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Absolonová became a member of the Czech high diving national team, along with her younger sister Lucie (born 5 March 1979). She injured her spine when she was 20 years old in an accident when training for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, diving from the 10m platform.  She recovered from her injury but did not qualify for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Her problems persisted, so she retired from professional sports.  Absolonová was later persuaded by a photographer to pose nude and eventually to participate in the adult film industry.  As Lea De Mae, she appeared in over 80 adult films. She first appeared on American screens in a series of features for Private Media Group. She eventually returned to Europe, shooting more films, but after a short time returned to the United States.

The film is divided into 3 parts that make up the three parts of her life.  Through the audience already knows what has happened to Andrea finally, director Císařovská

does her best to keep the story interest going by injecting family drama and her relationship with her so-called boyfriend who introduced her into the adult movie industry.  The first part shows the lost unbearable rigour of professional diving training.  Andrea has no time for herself and has to keep to the strict regiment necessary to compete professionally,  When she succumbs to her spine injury during her one dive, the real cause is omitted.  All the audience is shown is the injury after the dive.  Director Císařovská eases her into the adult movie industry with lots of erotic shots of the swimmer including lots of sexual acts as is usual in pornography, though no genitals or actual intercourse are shown.  Going through the motions is good enough to get the message through.  ‘What does your family think of this?”  Andrea is asked by a reporter.  Her answer: "We have a great relationship.” comes the answer.  The lie is revealed with family disapproval, especially from their father and younger sister Lucie.  her mother seems to take everything in stride.

HER BODY displays the hopes and resilience of Andrea and hence of any strong-willed human being, despite being given an awful slice of life.  Andrea experiences an accident and then cancer - a really sad story.  The film captures the atmosphere and sad state of Andrea’s life effectively.

HER BODY was nominated for Best Film in the Critic’s Picks Competition at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, and Denisa Baresová was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 2024 Czech Lions.

HER BODY makes its North American premiere on December 20, 2024 via VOD Digital and the streaming service Film Movement Plus.

Trailer: 

MUFASA: THE LION KING (USA 2024) ***1/2
Directed by Barry Jenkins

 

MUFASA: THE LION KING is the prequel to THE LION KING.  It comes with the accolades of star director Barry Jenkins making his animation debut.  Has the LION KING franchise been hacked to death?  Close!  The addition of Barry Jenkins breathes new light into the franchise, aided by Disney’s impressive animation, something expected from the Magical Kingdom.

In the Pride Lands of Tanzania after the events of THE LION KING (2019), Rafiki the mandrill tells the origin story of two lions, Mufasa and Taka, to Kiara—the granddaughter of Mufasa and daughter of Simba and Nala. The story follows the orphan Mufasa, who is befriended by the young prince Taka and adopted by Taka's family; the pair become as close as brothers. Timon the meerkat and Pumbaa the warthog add colour commentary.

The film feels a bit clumsy moving towards and backwards in time from the present when Rafiki tells the story to the story of Mufasa itself.  Mufasa is the grandfather of Kiara.  The humour provided by Timon and Pumbaa is also distracting.  Seth Rogen who voices Pumbaa delivers his two cents worth in terms of gross humour including one involving wiping his behind after doing a number 2.  One could have done away with the toilet humour but young lids should delight in it, while the adults frown upon it.

Animation-wise, the film is magical and inspirational.  From the opening scene in which he camera swoops down on herds of animals like zebras and giraffes to the birds of the air, the animation is an absolute delight.  The resolution is very clear from the furry hair of a bee pollinating the flowers to the stampede of elephants.

MUFASA has a fairytale quality to it.  There is a King and his Kingdom, the fight for a new king, how brothers become enemies and the search for a magical Kingdom, in this case, a Utopia called Melelie (pardon the spelling) which means ‘Forever’.

The voice talent includes Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison Jr., who lead the voice talent as the younger versions of Mufasa and Scar, respectively. Other new voices include Blue Ivy Carter as Kiara, daughter of Simba (Donald Glover) and Nala (Beyoncé Knowles-Carter); Tiffany Boone as Sarabi; Kagiso Lediga as Young Rafiki; Preston Nyman as Zazu; Mads Mikkelsen as Kiros, a formidable lion with big plans for his pride; Thandiwe Newton as Taka’s mother, Eshe; Lennie James as Taka’s father, Obasi; Anika Noni Rose as Mufasa’s mother, Afia; and Keith David as Mufasa’s father, Masego. Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, John Kani and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter reprise their roles from the “The Lion King” remake.  The film is dedicated to late actor James Earl Jones who had voiced THE LION KING in the past.

2024 has seen a flurry of excellent animated features such as MEMOIR OF A SNAIL, painstaking stop-animation from Australia, excellent animation from Latvia FLOW, THE LORD OF THE RINGS animated feature THE WAR OF ROHIRRIM and of course this one - MUFASA: THE LION KING, not to mention many others like DESPICABLE ME 4,  SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3.  MUFASA is right up there and should be a shoo-in for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

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NOSFERATU (USA 2024) ****
Directed by Robert Eggers

 

The film’s opening scene has Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) and his young wife, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) in a room speaking of love things before Thomas says he has something very urgent to attend.  He dons a top hat and coat and he ventures into the streets of 1938 Germany.  But what is immediately noticeable is the excellent wardrobe and production sets which are also present throughout the film, which are shot in both black and white and grey colours.  It is not surprising that director and writer Robert Eggers had his film experience in production design before his breakthrough film THE WITCH.  NOSFERATU was supposed to be his second film but was delayed, now being his fourth film.  But a worthy wait.

The plot of Nosferatu is set in Germany in 1838 and follows the story of Thomas Hutter and his wife Ellen. Hutter is sent on business to the mountains of Transylvania, in the Carpathian Mountains. There he is to do business with Count Orlok (an unrecognizable Bill Skarsgard), an ailing nobleman who is looking to buy a new house in Hutter's neighbourhood, the Grunewald Manor estate. Thomas makes the journey, leaving Ellen with her pregnant best friend Anna Harding, her husband Friedrich, and their two young daughters.

After a complicated and sinister journey filled with chilling experiences, Thomas stops at a tavern, where the locals warn him to abandon his journey. During the night he dreams, or thinks he dreams, of witnessing a vampire hunt in the woods, but not even the mud on his boots stops him from walking the last few miles to his destination, and he finally manages to get a ride in Orlok's ghostly carriage.  Hutter, after being welcomed by the host Orlok, is tricked into a contract in a foreign language and is locked away in the empty, ruined castle, while Count Orlok sets sail for Germany to meet Ellen.

The film takes a strong female slant, something that has been missing in all previous Dracula and Nosferatu films.  It is Ellen that the film centres on and her that is instrumental in the destruction of the monster.  This strange magnetism between Ellen and Count Orlok is the central axis of the film.  Director Egges based his adapted screenplay (nominated for a Golden Globe) on the 1922 film and Bram Stoker’s DRACULA.

Many NOSFERATU films centre on the voyage on the ship where the crew members learn of the deadly cargo and perish as a result.  The ill-fated voyage is given less screen time but still kales an unforgettable impact on the film.

Director Eggers proves himself in total control of his movie. seeing the scares taut and the characters believable and important enough for the audience to care for.

Most of the gist of the 2022 Murnau German silent film remains intact, the main difference between the shift in the importance of the characters.  (The film is a remake of the 1922 German film, which was in turn based on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula. The film opens in theatres on Christmas Day.

Trailer: 

 

THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT (2024) ***
Directed by Tyler Perry

 

` It is clear that America needs women soldiers who know how to struggle.  And Negro women at that.  Director Tyler Perry makes it clear at the start of the film what is wanted of the Negro women soldiers in the welcome speech of the recruits that is delivered by Major Charity Adams (Kerry Washington)   But the training shown is not as tough as depicted in Stanley Kubrick’s FULL METAL JACKET. If one can recall, the training was so tough that it resulted in a recruit suicide in that film.

Director Perry’s film is one of his more serious outings, he is now taking on a deadly serious subject.  There is no goofing around here.  There is not Tyler Perry dressing up in drag as Medea slapping kids who need to be slapped to be put in place.  But one surely misses Perry’s humour and fun entertainment, but there is a time and place for everything.  As stated in the tiles at the start of the film, the film is based on a true story of real people during World War II.

The film at the time of writing received mixed reviews from critics.  This news is not surprising as Tyler Perry films never have good reviews.  So THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT appears to be liked more by critics than most of his other films.  THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT shows Tyler Perry in a more serious mode, tackling black historical stories that need to be told, and he succeeds in an entertaining and not too-controversial way.  Kerry Washington is also excellent as the major fighting for her troops.

One actress who stands out is Shanice Shantay who plays the rebellious recruit Johnnie Mae.  Mae joins the corps to meet men.  She is known for her performance as Dorothy in the televised live performance of NBC's The Wiz Live! in December 2015. 

The film however, is either too black or white.  The characters in the story are either all for or all out against black women. 

Though the enemy of WWII is Hitler, the enemy in this story is the white man, the prejudiced white man, particularly General Halt played by Dean Norris

THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT had a limited opening at the TIFF Lightbox last week and opens for streaming on Netflix this week.  The review was unable to be written prior to the theatrical release as the film was only sent to critics for review two days before it streams on Netflix this Friday the 20th of December.

Trailer: 

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 (USA2024) ****
Directed by Jeff Fowler

 

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 is a 2024 action-adventure comedy film based on the video game series published by Sega. It was directed by Jeff Fowler and written by Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington, based on a story by Casey and Miller.  Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Natasha Rothwell, Shemar Moore, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, and Idris Elba reprise their roles, with Krysten Ritter and Keanu Reeves joining the cast. In the film, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles ally with Dr. Robotnik to defeat a new enemy, Shadow the Hedgehog.

The question is whether the world needs another sequel of SONIC?  The world may not be ready but this one is the best of the franchise with Jim Carrey at his looniest out of control with his unsolicited expositions, in the character’s won words - whatever they mean.  Carrey’s antics are spot on and as fast and furious as his motor-mouthed banter

Doctor Gerald Robotnik, the long-lost grandfather of Dr. Ivo Robotnik, frees Shadow the Hedgehog from a secret G.U.N. prison off the coast of Japan by hacking its systems. Elsewhere, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are celebrating the anniversary of Sonic's arrival on Earth with their adoptive parents Tom and Maddie Wachowski. G.U.N. director Rockwell arrives and recruits the three to stop Shadow, who is causing chaos in Tokyo.

Shadow easily overpowers the three in a fight before escaping. A group of Ivo Robotnik's drones arrive and fatally wound G.U.N. Commander Walters. Before he dies, Walters gives Sonic a digital keycard and warns him to keep it safe. Feeling they no longer know who they can trust, Sonic, Knuckles and Tails vow to find Shadow without G.U.N.'s help. Ivo Robotnik's assistant, Agent Stone, reveals to the three that Robotnik is still alive and didn't send the drones; they form an uneasy alliance with Ivo and track the drones and Shadow to an abandoned G.U.N. base.

During the second half of the movie, the plot gets a bit more consulted with a second key card and if one just stops to ponder - one can realize that one can be tally lost interns of what is going on,  And then one realizes that it does not matter about what the plot is or what the villain intends to do  It is all madcap, super looniness that is such an entertaining thane does not want this film to end - though it does in less than two hours,

Jim Carrey plays the dual role of the mad scientist Dr. Ivo Robotnik and his grandfather Gerald Robotic.  Who else could play a mad scientist with such inspired craziness than Jim Carrey?  He is not only innermost in every scene but twice in every scene with the dual role.  The film contains many best lines, one of those being said when Dr. Ivo comments on how weird it is to meet his grandfather.  “It is as if I am in a movie where an actor is playing dual roles.”  The film had the audience cheering at the promo screening I attended - and the screaming came from the adults, not the kids.  It is reported that Carey did not want to do this sequel unless he was given a golden script.  So they sent Carrey the script written in 15K gold ink.

A major surprise and total Christmas delight, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 arrives on December 20th.  Forget MUFASA!  The hedgehog rules!

Trailer: 

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Details

Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 09 December 2024

FILM REVIEWS: 

 

CARRY-ON (USA 2024) ***½

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra 

 

CARRY-ON is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, a Spanish-American film director and producer.  He has directed the excellent suspenseful and critically acclaimed horror films House of Wax (2005), Orphan (2009), and The Shallows (2016).  This is a director who knows how to build up suspense and then executes the action sequences with confidence and verve.

The lead role of the reluctant hero is played by Taron Egerton, a Welsh actor.  He puts his mark at the start of the film when he mentions that at Christmas the Brits wish Happy Christmas and not Merry Christmas, which is a true fact that many North Americans do not realize.  Egerton gained recognition for his starring role as a spy in the action comedy films Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) and Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017).  Egerton is an excellent versatile actor who has won a Golden Globe for Best Actor as Elton John in the film ROCKETMAN.

CARRY-ON holds a very simple premise but makes it good as a solid Christmas suspense action thriller for the reason of attention to detail, solid performances and well-delivered build-up of suspense.   A mysterious traveler (Jason Bateman) blackmails Ethan Kopek (Egerton), a young TSA (The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has authority over the security of transportation systems within and connecting to the United States. It was created as a response to the September 11 attacks to improve airport security procedures and consolidate air travel security under a combined federal law enforcement and regulatory agency) officer, to let a dangerous package slip through security and onto a Christmas Day flight.  The package is a carry-on and hence the film title.  Kopek learns that the parcel contains nerve chemicals used for Russian warfare and decides to stop the parcel.  A mild-mannered TSA Office now becomes a reluctant hero, but not of his choosing.

The film stands out from its production values and realistic setting.  Set in the airport terminal where bag checks are carried out, the film captures the plight of the TSA staff as well as the often impatient airline passengers, especially during Christmas Eve, the evening when the action takes place.  When there is a scurry alert and random passengers need to be checked and the system slows down, the angry passengers begin hurling verbal abuse at the TSA staff, something all travelers can relate to.

From Dreamworks Pictures with a hefty budget of $47 million, the film obviously has excellent production values.  (Amblin Partners signed a deal with Netflix to produce multiple films per year for the streaming service.  CARRY-ON was originally planned to be the first film to come from the deal.)

CARRY-ON with its Christmas setting and relatively violent-free suspenseful action fare makes it an ideal Christmas streaming film to watch during the festive holidays.

CARRY ON opens for streaming on Netflix on Friday, December 13th.

Trailer: 

ELTON JOHN: NEVER TOO LATE (USA 2024) ***½

Directed by R.J. Cutler and David Furnish

 

 It is never too late to make or watch Elton John's new documentary about the world-renowned artist, Elton John, who was the most famous rock musician in the world in the 70s.  Forget the Elton John movie made some years back in 2019 - though it was not bad.  ROCKETMAN  is a 2019 biographical jukebox musical drama film based on the life, music, and career of British musician Elton John.  The film focused on the story of John in his early days in England as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music through his musical partnership with Bernie Taupin. The story is told through his music and is titled after John's 1972 song "Rocket Man". Directed by Dexter Fletcher and written by Lee Hall, the film starred Taron Egerton as John, with Jamie Bell as Taupin.

The documentary is the real thing with real stage performances by Elton John.  It follows Elton John at present as he looks back on his life in the 1970s and the astonishing early days of his 50-year career in this emotionally charged, intimate and uplifting full-circle journey. As he prepares for his final concert in North America at Dodger Stadium, Elton takes us back in time and recounts the extraordinary highs and heartbreaking lows of his early years and how he overcame adversity, abuse and addiction to become the icon he is today.

The doc feels a bit disjointed as it moves back and forth from the present to the 70s, several times before culminating at his final performance that makes the film’s climax.  Unlike ROCKETMAN, the doc enables the audience to know what Elton John has to say in person, rather than an actor echoing his words.  In the doc, the real people in Elton’s life are also on display from Bernie Taupin to his final married husband David and his two children.  The doc also delves into the drugs, sex and almost near-death experience of Elton.  Elton also relates how he cherishes a solid relationship and how lonely it gets to be at the top of his trade.  His past abusive relationship is also on display as he also mentions the abuse of his parents in which beatings were the norm.  He also relates how he used to hide in his room from his angry father and how he was beaten till he bled by his mother with a wire brush.  But he finally finds his true love.  It is a very touching moment when at the end of the doc he introduces his family to his crowd of spectators claiming that it is for them, his family that he is now living it all up to sound the rest of his life with them.

ELTON JOHN: NEVER TOO LATE premiered on September 6, 2024, at the Toronto International Film Festival, and hade a limited theatrical release in the United States and United Kingdom on November 15, 2024.  It streams on Disney+ on December 13, 2024.

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THE END (Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, United Kingdom, Sweden 2024) **
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer

It is the end of the world though the dystopia is not the focus of the film, which is neither explained nor elaborated in detail.  George MacKay plays the naive young man who was born in this bunker. In his 20 years of life, he has only heard stories of the outside world. He spends his days working on a dubious book with his father (Michael Shannon), a former energy tycoon, while his mother (Tilda Swinton) frets over the upkeep of the many priceless paintings and artworks adorning their walls. It’s the semblance of a normal (albeit affluent) life. But when a woman (Moses Ingram) from the outside arrives at their doorstep seeking refuge, the family’s delicate dynamic begins to crumble. There exists sufficient and gourmet food, again unexplained where these come from.  Director Oppenheimer’s (the acclaimed ART OF KILLING which I never liked) film is a long, tedious and occasionally unwatchable epic, which is as cold as its central character, Swinton.  The film is also all over the place, with a few odd musical and dance numbers that seem out of place.  A cold film on a cold topic in a film that lasts too long at 2 and ¾ hours.

KRAVEN THE HUNTER (USA 2024) ***
Directed by J.C. Chandor

 

“I am Kraven.  I hunt people!” and so says Kraven (Aaron Taykor0-Johnson) at one point in the movie.

3 stars out of 5?  At the point of writing, the film had scored 14% on Rotten Tomatoes.  With the bar that low, the film can only look better than expected.  And the film, despite many flaws, contains enough pleasures and quirkiness for it to be watchable.  The one performance to watch is that of Russell Crowe, playing an over-the-top abusive father and villain that suits his real-life personality, judging from reports of how crazy this actor can be on set.  The outrageous plot, cheesy special effects, corny dialogue, and ridiculous twists in the ending all add to the entertainment.

Kraven has a complex relationship with his father which sets him on a path of vengeance and motivates him to become the greatest and most feared hunter.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays the lead, Sergei Kravinoff / Kraven:
A big-game hunter.  Taylor-Johnson is all muscle now with solid abs to show off.  The most ridiculous role is that played by Ariana DeBose as Calypso Ezili: A voodoo priestess and Kraven's love interest. The costume designer who did her out-of-place gold-laced gowns should’ve been hunted down.  Relative newcomer Fred Hechinger plays Dmitri Smerdyakov / Chameleon: Kraven's estranged half-brother who is a master of disguise.   Christopher Abbott is the Foreigner: A mercenary and assassin, looking out of place as a foreigner in any country.

Trailer: 

LISTEN CAREFULLY (USA 2024) **
Directed by Ryan Barton-Grimley

 

Filmmaker Ryan Barton-Grimley (REV: VAMPIRE SLAYERS and HAWK) returns to the screen with his latest psychological horror thriller LISTEN CAREFULLY about a goofy father, Andy (played by the director himself) trying to save his kidnapped baby.  It is a poorer version of TAKEN about a father saving his daughter, and this one is a crying tot.

The film begins with a nightmare of the father escaping or trying to escape several masked perpetrators, for no explained reason.  The film then moves to Andy’s office, where it is at least that he has been promoted to assistant bank manager, and with it comes several new opportunities, like being in charge of more unwanted jobs at the bank.  The film shifts to Andy’s house where Andy is given care of another responsibility.  He has to look after the baby while his wife has a night out with the girls.  Andy listens to the baby monitor and goers to the baby if he hears her crying.  Lo and behold, she is kidnapped.  Andy tries to keep the kidnapping from his wife, Allie.  The kidnapper appears to know a bit about Andy and his shady past, Andy.

When troubled assistant bank manager Andy McNeary's baby daughter goes missing, he must follow the instructions of a mysterious voice on the other end of a baby monitor to save her before she disappears forever.  Andy has to LISTEN CAREFULLY,

The film follows Andy following instructions given through the baby monitor, in the shape of an oil. This leads him to draw money from various ATMs in order to satisfy the kidnapper’s needs.  But when he delivers the final sum to the designated place, no baby is found, only more baby monitors.  The masked perpetrator from Andy’s dream also appears.

At its worst, the film and story make little sense.  Andy wakes up from a dream several times when things get too absurd.  Andy is a goofball father that one can only be slightly sympathetic to, which makes yet another of the film’s flaws.

The horror nightmare is mildly amusing at best, with most of the entertainment deriving from the protagonist’s misadventures.  The ending and explanation for all the mystery are far from satisfactory.

LISTEN CAREFULLY had its “World Premiere" at FANTASPOA! "North American Premiere" at DANCES WITH FILMS! "Latin America Premiere" at MACABRO! "European Premiere" at FANGOFEST AMPOSTA!  The film LISTEN CAREFULLY Festival Favourite launches on Streaming Coming to Worldwide Digital HD on December 16th.

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THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM (USA/Japan 2024) ***
Directed by Kenji Kamiyama

 

Many blockbuster franchises have been hacked to death with too many sequels and spin-offs, and now if lucky, the films exist as the studio’s Cash Cows.  Examples are the STAR WARS and SPIDER-MAN franchises not to mention the numerous Marvel Cinematic Universe films.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM  (pronounced war of the Rohan) is a 2024 anime fantasy film directed by Kenji Kamiyama from a screenplay by Jeffrey Addiss & Will Matthews and Phoebe Gittins & Arty Papageorgiou, based on characters created by J. R. R. Tolkien.

But Kudos to the Studios marketing Department.  Being animated, the budget is lower at a cost of only $30 million.  The film has grossed only $10 million since the opening weekend, and ranked number 5 in box office for the opening weekend.  The film will make money on its modest production costs and has the feel of a fairy tale with violence.

The story is set 183 years before the events of the War of the Rings, the voice of Éowyn narrates the story and tells how the story of Héra, a would-be shieldmaiden of Rohan and the king's daughter, will not be remembered in great tales or songs.  Freca, a Dunlending lord, comes to King Helm's hall with his son Wulf, Héra's childhood friend. Freca is disturbed that Héra is to be married to a lord of Gondor and tries to force a marriage between Wulf and Héra, in order to usurp Rohan's throne. Wulf wishes to marry Héra, but she is uninterested in marriage. Helm and Freca begin a fistfight outside the hall, during which Helm unintentionally kills Freca with a single blow, earning Helm the nickname "Hammerhand". Wulf, devastated, vows revenge.

At best, the film tells a tragic story about the "wreckage of war", and examines ideas of honour, revenge, family, and resilience - and of course how villains come to be.

The film runs like a fairytale - princesses and kings, thrones and swords and magic.  The stouter has some but not much reference to the Rings trilogy and the story can stand up much on its own.

The decision to hire Japanese director  Kenji Kamiyama pays off.  He has had a myriad of animation experiences, working on films like GHOST IN THE SHELL, AKIRA and Ghibli Studios KIKI’s DELIVERY SERVICE.  He brings a fresh look to the J. R.R. Tolkien fantasy world.

Of all the voices, Shakespearean actor Brian Cox brings dignity to the character of Helm Hammerhand, a king of Rohan.

Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings films have been thrashed to death and who really needs a before-everything animation feature?  Despite all the effort and some impressive animation, the feature fails to generate much excitement.  At the time of writing, the film received 51% approval from Rotten Tomatoes.  But not for want of trying.  Still, by anime standards, the animation is quite good, especially in the second half.  The film has tough competition with other animated features and will be up against films like MEMOIR OF A SMAIL, MUFASA: THE LIONS KING and FLOW for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Trailer: 

 

QUEER (Italy/USA 2024) **
Directed by Luca Guadagnino

 

Director Guadagnino's (CHALLENGERS) latest entry is based on William Buurrough’s novel, which in itself is a boring odyssey of a drug addict’s quest for an elusive drug in the Amazon jungles.  Lee (Daniel Craig) mingles with the expatriate set in postwar Mexico City, wandering its streets, frequenting its gay bars, and ingesting whatever illicit substances are available. He is a consummate raconteur who has no trouble finding an audience, but he is also a desperately lonely, middle-aged addict with an alarming fondness for guns.  Early in the film, Lee sets his sights on a journey to the Amazon in search of the potentially telepathic ayahuasca — and he wants handsome young bi-curious Oklahoman Allerton (Drew Starkey) to accompany him. Their travels will yield a string of unexpected encounters and provide Lee with sobering lessons in what Burroughs dubbed “the algebra of need.”  The cinematography is stunning, and the camera work is admirable but the whole piece still ends up boring with nothing happening in the film’s lengthy over two hours running time.  Craig is showing his age and he portrays a decaying gay man who suffers from diarrhea, fever, and sweats had the time during his travels.

SEPTEMBER 5 (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Tim Fehlbaum

 

The Munich 1972 Olympic Games were largely overshadowed by what has come to be known as the "Munich massacre".  This occurred on September 5th, 1972 and hence the title of this new movie, the movie that examines, the extent of these awful circumstances.  Just before dawn on 5 September, a group of eight members of the Palestinian Black September militant organization broke into the Olympic Village and took eleven Israeli athletes, coaches and officials hostage in their apartments. Two of the hostages who resisted were killed in the first moments of the break-in; the subsequent standoff in the Olympic Village lasted for almost 18 hours.

SEPTEMBER 5 is a historical drama film directed by Tim Fehlbaum, focusing on the 1972 Munich Olympic hostage crisis from the perspective of the ABC Sports crew. The film highlights their transition from covering the Olympics to reporting on the hostage situation involving Israeli athletes. It showcases the intense and emotional experience of live broadcasting during a global tragedy.

Late in the evening of 5 September that same day, the terrorists and their nine remaining hostages were transferred by helicopter to the military airport of Fürstenfeldbruck, ostensibly to board a plane bound for an undetermined Arab country. The German authorities planned to ambush them there but underestimated the numbers of their opposition and were thus undermanned. During a botched rescue attempt, all of the Israeli hostages were killed. Four of them were shot and then incinerated when one of the terrorists detonated a grenade inside the helicopter in which the hostages were sitting. The 5 remaining hostages were then shot and killed with a machine gun.

SEPTEMBER 5 covers all the events of the Munich massacre described above but with a difference.  The events are looked upon from a reporter newsreel’s point of view.  It is a neat difference in outlook and it works to a point.  Unlike Kevin Macdonald’s 1999 Academy Award Winning Documentary, entitled ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER, which was exciting and thrilling, the thrill derived from this new movie from the Swiss director takes a completely different outlook.  It attempts two lots from a nonpolitical standpoint, understandably as the director is Swiss.  His film discusses issues like whether the sports network should cover nonessential sports news that is current and urgent.  At one point, the newscast is terminated.  At another point, the newsreel people realize that what is seen on TV newsreel is what the terrorists are seeing as well.  Unfortunately, this intriguing concept is not dealt with any further,  The question is whether the audience really cares about the newsreel people rather than what is happening in reality with the Israeli athletes and terrorists.    The statement “All the athletes are killed: is uttered in the film, which dismisses all the events leading to this situation.

Director Fehlbaum has created a time bomb-ticking film with crucial events happening in seconds, but only from the point of view of the newsreel staff, totally dismissing the key issue of the terrorist attack on Israeli athletes.  The film ends up lacking in the excitement generated of how the situation can be solved as in Kevin MacDonald’s ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER documentary.  Still, SEPTEMBER 5 is a well-made film that achieves its goals making it a worthwhile intriguing watch,

SEPTEMBER  5 opens in theatres on December 13.  The studios are hoping this film becomes a big hot for the holiday season.

 Trailer:

 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 08 November 2024

Lots of new animated features this week, even one from Netflix.  And MEMOIRE OF A SNAIL which opened a few weeks back, he best of the lot is still playing.

FILM REVIEWS:

FLOW (Belgium/France/:Latvia 2024) ****
Directed by Gints Zilbalodis

 

FLOW begins with a creature with no name but is a common animal which is a cat.  Cat is shown in all its curiosity, initially stealing a fish caught by a dog before the pack gives chase which she barely escapes.

But can Cat escape a flood that overruns the land?

The world seems to be coming to an end, teeming with the vestiges of a human presence. Cat is a solitary animal, but as its home is devastated by a great flood, he (assuming Cat is a male) finds refuge on a boat populated by various species and will have to team up with them despite their differences. In the lonesome boat sailing through mystical overflowed landscapes, they navigate the challenges and dangers of adapting to this new world.

A black cat wanders through a forest when a pack of dogs arrives by the river to catch fish. When two of the dogs fight over a fish, the cat takes the fish and is immediately chased by the dogs. The cat loses the dogs but notices a deer stampede before it is caught by a massive tidal wave. The cat and the dogs manage to survive the flood by reaching higher ground. A yellow Labrador Retriever follows the cat to an abandoned house decorated with wooden cat sculptures before they both notice the water level rising rapidly and the Labrador joins the other dogs on a boat. With the house consumed by the flood, the cat climbs atop a giant cat statue until the waters reach the top of the statue's head. Before the statue is completely submerged, the cat jumps into an approaching sailboat with a capybara aboard.

The next morning, as the boat sails across a forest filled with stone pillars, the cat goes overboard while trying to avoid a white secretarybird, but it begins to sink underwater. A whale saves it from drowning, but the secretarybird grabs the cat before it frees itself and lands back on the boat. As the water level continues to rise, the capybara invites a ring-tailed lemur to hop aboard with its basket of junk. Later that day, the three animals land on shore and are joined by the Labrador. They encounter a flock of secretarybirds that show hostility towards them, causing the cat to run away before the flock corners it. The secretarybird that first encountered the cat pleads with the leader to spare its life, only to lose in a duel and have its wing broken before the flock abandons it. Having lost its ability to fly, the secretarybird joins the other animals aboard the boat.

The animation is nothing short of amazing.  In the past animating water was almost impossible.  Disney’s FANTASIA featuring Mickey Mouse as THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE did wonders with the animation of water and FLOW (the low of water) makes THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE look amateurish.  Though the film may remind one of Disney from the drawing of the animal characters, the film does well to do away with playing with too much cuteness of the creatures, unlike the ICE AGE franchise which makes those films look like a copycats.  The creatures are adorable though,

There is not much narrative and hardly any dialogue in FLOW, which makes the film universal to any English or non-English-speaking country,  But the lack of a strong narrative and story does have a toll on this otherwise, magnificent animated feature.  FLOW has to rely completely on the animation to tell its story of CAT and his antics.

FLOW though would appeal more to adults, especially to those who appreciate good solid animation.

Trailer: 

HEAVIER TRIP (Finland/Germany/Norway/Lithuania 2024) **
Directed by Jukka Vidgren & Juuso Laatio 

 

The film features a heavy metal band that calls itself Impaled Rectum.  What does the name mean?  (Don’t even go there.)  Apparently HEAVIER TRIP is the sequel to their first 2018 film.  Impaled Rectum is a Finnish band and the film plays like and suffers from the same problems as Aki’s Kaurimaki’s Finnish band films LENINGRAD COWBOYS GO AMERICA and its sequel LENINGRAD COWBOYS MEET MOSES.  It is one one joke movie,  that outplays its welcome.  While Kaurimaki’s LENINGRAD COWBOYS GO AMERICA was really dead-pan funny and the concept worked the sequel turned out to be a bore.  The Leningrad Cowboys are a talented band and can play anything including polka and it is entertaining listening to them while watching their hilarious antics.  Unfortunately, HEAVIER TRIP’s heavy metal will have fewer followers.  Their punk rock could be entertaining if one likes that sort of thing.

The first film HEAVY TRIP follows Turo who is stuck in a small village and the best thing in his life is being the lead vocalist for the amateur metal band Impaled Rektum.  He and his bandmates have practiced for 12 years without playing a single gig. The guys get a surprise visitor from Norway -- the promoter for a huge heavy metal music festival -- and decide it's now or never. They steal a van, a corpse, and even a new drummer to make their dreams a reality.  The original had more plot and as stronger narrative.

HEAVIER METAL opens with the band Impaled Rectum in a prison.  The reason they got there is not really explained.  Shackled by fate and locked up in a Norwegian prison, the band discovers their lead guitarist’s family's reindeer slaughterhouse faces a financial storm.  The four members, Turo, Lotvonen, Xytraxm and Oula hatch a daring escape plan to help.  Desperate for the money, and the chance to perform at the ultimate battleground for metal warriors, Impaled Rektum takes a journey through northern Europe to the legendary Wacken music festival.  But hot on their trail is a vengeful prison guard, a female one who appears to love dressing in uniform and using torture tools, thirsting for revenge, and a sketchy record label executive, weaving lies that could shatter their dreams and worse, compromise the integrity of the band.  Amidst the chaos, the band must forge a bond stronger than the darkest riffs - forging alliances with the most unexpected compatriots, including an epic cameo from the Japanese Kawaii-metal band, Baby Metal.   Only the raw power of metal can determine their fate!

The film aims at being a relentless odyssey of sound, fury, and the unbreakable spirit of true heavy metal in this sequel to cult classic HEAVY TRIP.   But the film is an acquired taste.  To others, the film, which is no Aki Kaurimaki’s LENINGRAD COWBOYS GO AMERICA is a boring one-joke film that fails to impress or entertain, while managing just a few laughs.

HEAVIER TRIP opens in theatres and on VOD on November 29th, 2024.

Trailer: 

MOANA 2 (USA 2024) ***
Directed by David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller

 

The story of MOANA 2, the sequel  is simpler and much more straight forwards than the first MOANA made in 2016.  It features the voices of the two leads again - Chloe Auliʻi Cravalho as Moana and Dwayne Johnson as Maui.

Three years after the events of the first film, Moana receives an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors and forms her own crew, reuniting with her friend, the demigod Maui. As they journey to the far seas of Oceania to break the god Nalo's curse on the hidden island of Motufetu, which once connected the people of the ocean, they confront old and new foes, including the Kakamora and underworld goddess Matangi.

The animation of MOANA 2 is astounding especially in the animation of the water and wind.  Animation has come a long way and it is hard to beat.  MOANA 2 will be in competition with the European animated feature FLOW also due to open that matches its animation techniques.

MOANA 2 has a few uplifting songs, the feature being part musical, like the original.   Mark Mancina and Opetaia Foa'i, the composers and co-songwriters of the first film, returns to score and write the songs, while Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear replace Lin-Manuel Miranda as additional songwriters.  The soundtrack is also available for sale.

MOANA 2 is totally formulaic as are most of the Disney movies, not that it is a bad thing as it serves no purpose of changing a formula that makes money.  But there is nothing really fresh or exciting in this feature though MOANA 2 is entertaining enough *good voice characterizations, excellent animation, a few catchy songs and a fairly tale-like mystical story) that it should not disappoint families that go for Disney entertainment.

Stay for the last of the closing credits as there is a surprise uncredited voice characterization.  No spoiler in this review, but the voice is immediately recognizable.

MOANA 2 opens Wednesday, November 27th for the American Thanksgiving holidays.

Trailer: 

MONONOKE THE MOVIE: PHANTOM IN THE RAIN (Japan 2024) ***
Directed by Kenji Nakamura

 

MONONOKE THE MOVIE: PHANTOM IN THE RAIN, is the first part of a trilogy of a 2024 Japanese animated supernatural psychological horror film directed by Kenji Nakamura based on the Mononoke anime television series (2007).  The film stars Hiroshi Kamiya as the voice of the Medicine Seller, alongside Tomoyo Kurosawa, Aoi Yūki, Mami Koyama, Kana Hanazawa, Haruka Tomatsu, Yoko Hikasa, Yūko Kaida, Yukana, Yuki Kaji, Jun Fukuyama, Daisuke Hosomi, Miyu Irino and Kenjiro Tsuda. Phantom in the Rain was released in Japan on July 26, 2024.

MONONOKE THE MOVIE: PHANTOM IN THE RAIN is an excellent Japanese animation, a mix of animated manga and what would be seen in the Ghibli  Studio films.  The word ‘kaleidoscope’ would be the best one to be used to describe the experience from the film’s animation.  There are whirling colours that blend in and out, totally suited to the freaky psychedelic atmosphere of the period fantasy.  Though the story is a little plain, there is enough mystery to keep the audience satisfied.

Mononoke are vengeful spirits (onryō), dead spirits (shiryō), live spirits (ikiryō), or spirits in Japanese classical literature and folk religion that were said to do things like possess individuals and make them suffer, cause disease, or even cause death.   It is also a word sometimes used to refer to yōkai or henge ("changed beings").

The film has a strong female slant with two female protagonists, both set up to serve female royalty.  A girl named Asa is trying to advance her career, while another named Kame is seeking her dream to participate in the carnal workings of the Inner Chambers. The Inner Chambers are where the esteemed and selected female servants reside and serve the Japanese royalty.  But there is trouble in paradise.  As the elderly Utayama does her best to conceal its secrets, the mysterious Medicine Seller arrives and begins to unravel the horrifying and painful truth at the heart of the Inner Chambers.

MONONOKE THE MOVIE: PHANTOM IN THE RAIN is an original Netflix feature that opens for streaming this week and premieres in Canada.  .  Netflix bought the rights to the movie that already opened earlier this year in Japan.

Trailer: 

OUR LITTLE SECRET (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Stephen Harek

 

Lindsay Lohan (Disney star and star of MEAN GIRLS) is back for her second Netflix Christmas (her third Netflix) movie with this entry the actress plays Avery, who is over at her boyfriend’s house for the holidays, but she didn’t count on her ex being there.  Avery wishes to keep their past relationship secret from the family, especially from her ex’s mother, Erica.  Why rock the boat during Christmas?  It does not take a genius to guess that Avery will get back with her ex at the end of the film.  This is a Christmas rom-com with Lohan, and is actually not bad, despite how it sounds.  Of course, Lohan’s bar is quite low and not difficult to beat.

Lohan became a fixture in the tabloid press for her frequent legal issues, court appearances, and stints in rehabilitation facilities. This period saw her lose several roles, adversely affecting her career and public image.  She is surely but slowly making her comeback in terms of acting and in her reputation.(Ian Harding playing g Logan)

Lohan has had drug problems in the past.  She is brave enough to parody her drug use with her character Erica’s chocolate cookies, which she blames on the dog to quite hilarious results.

To the script’s credit, the comedy works as there are quite a few hilarious comedic set pieces.  One is the dog’s supposedly eating the chocolate cookies and the pet is rushed to the vet to have the pet’s stomach pumped.  Avery bribes the vet.  Also very funny is the future mother-in-law’s character, Erica.  Erica, the film’s funniest character is played by Kristin Chenoweth who us is an American stage, screen and television actress, though, depending on who you ask.  Chenoweth fans may disagree on what her most famous roles are. Since Chenoweth began her career, she has been credited with roles in musicals and plays on and off-Broadway, on various television shows and can be seen in movies on television and the big screen. She has also lent her recognizable voice numerous times to animated features.  Erica in the film, is always looking young in all her photos hung in the house a running joke in the film, much to the consternation to Avery.  Erica is like a demon to Avery, glaring at her with her good looks from all the hung portraits in the house.  She is also quite the bitch to Avery always making snide remarks about Avery - from her clothes and behaviour.

A movie is often as funny as the film director’s sense of humour.  A funny film demands good timing in the film, provided by the director in the comedic setups.  Director Stephen Harek proves his mettle in comedy here, he already proving himself in the 2019 BILL AND TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE.  Credit also should be given to scriptwriter Hailey DeDominicis.

At the end of the movie Avery’s ex, now her new beau remakes nohow incredible a woman Avery had become.  In real life, the once troublesome Lindsay Lohan has also turned over a new leaf, becoming quite the rom-com queen, perhaps a slightly naughtier version of Doris Day.

OUR LITTLE SECRET opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

Trailer: 

REINAS (QUEENS) (Peru/Switzerland/Spain 2024) ***½

Directed by Klaudia Reynicke 

 

The film opens with an announcement of the increase in the prices of essential items such as the baguette which would more than double its price the next day.  The county faces runaway inflation.  Directed by Klaudia Reynicke from a screenplay she co-wrote with Diego Vegas, REINAS is a coming-of-age story among other stories set during Peru’s tumultuous political times of the 1990s.

There are three stories in the script.  The first is the coming-of-age story of the elder daughter.  The second is the story of the absent father who is trying to make good with his daughters, who he calls queens and thirdly it is the story of the mother who wants a better life for herself and two daughters, regardless of what the daughter wants.  She wants to move her daughters away from Peru for a better life.  She needs the signature of the father for the travel documents but the elder daughter does not want to leave Peru and her friends.

The film is set during the reign of Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto.  A Peruvian politician, professor, and engineer he served as the 54th president of Peru from 1990 to 2000.  His government was characterized by its use of propaganda, widespread political corruption, and human rights violations.  There are lots of protests shown in the film, which explains the family in the film, a separated mother and her two daughters wishing to leave Peru for good.  However, the daughters need a signature from their absent father for the travel visa in order to leave.

The two sisters are about to leave their country when they unexpectedly reconnect with an absent father. This relationship will both amplify and ease their pain of change.  The father, Carlos wishes very much for his daughters, who he refers to as ‘reinas’ or queens, to love him.  But Carlos is a loser, which explains the reason his wife left him.  Carlos is poor, and drives a ramshackle car as a taxi and deals the occasional drugs, which in one scene is shown to be payment for a friend's fish dinner with his two daughters at the beach.

Complications ensue when the elder sister Aurora is late in her period indicating a pregnancy.  She tells the younger one the secret.  They take a sister's oath.  “Better to die than to betray a Peruvian.”

Besides the trouble in Peru, director Klaudia Reynicke shows a fondness for her country.  In one scene the girls (Aurora’s friends) discuss how boring it would be to leave Peru.  The segment where Carlos brings his two daughters to the beach shows the beauty of the local countryside.  A drive follows the segment in a car on the dunes, the largest here in Peru in South America.  The dunes look grander than Europe’s largest dunes of Pilar, near Bordeaux in France.

REINAS is a culture rich film with three intermingled stories wonderfully told within the country’s political unrest.

REINAS is the Swiss entry for this year’s Academy Awards for Best International Feature. The film opens at the TIFF Lightbox on November 29th.

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THE SNOW SISTER (Snøsøsteren)(Norway/USA 2024) ***
Directed by Cecilie A. Mosli

 

Everyone loves a good tear-jerker once in a while.  Somehow humans feel good when they have a good cry,  The new Norwegian Christmas movie THE SNOW SISTER based on a best-selling novel, belongs to that genre of film.  It has all the elements of an endearing, sad and depressing film while also with uplifting moments  -  a Christmas joyous setting with a lot of sentimental music, love and loss and family values. Christmas classics like IT’S A WONDErFUL LIFE, MIRACLE AT 34TH STREET and A CHRISTMAS CAROL arrive on Christmas television without fail every year.

In the SNOW SISTER, Christmas is cancelled for young Julian.

Christmas Eve is approaching. It is also the day Julian turns eleven years old. Usually, it is the best day of the year, filled with the fantastic aroma of gingersnaps and tangerines, the sound of a crackling fire, the decorated Christmas tree, and the flickering candlelight.  All the things that make up Christmas.  But this year nothing is as usual. Julian and his family have a sadness over them, and Christian feels that Christmas has just been canceled.  Then, one day, Julian meets the happy and Christmas-loving Hedvig and begins to believe that there will be Christmas after all.  But there's something strange about Hedvig's house, and who is the old man who is lurking around the house all the time?

THE SNOW SISTER (Snøsøsteren) is an original Netflix Norwegian film that opens for streaming this week.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 05 November 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT (India/France/Lux/Neth 2024) ***½

Directed by Payal Kapadia

 

A female film all the way directed by also by a female,  The hit at this year’s Cannes is a hazily lit, dreamy and idyllic-looking feature bringing together three women, each of whom have their own problems.  Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha) are roommates and nurses at a Mumbai hospital. Prabha is married, but her husband went abroad to work many years ago. Now drifting into middle age, she focuses on her job. Anu, by contrast, is young and full of dreams for her future, which she hopes will include the handsome Muslim boy she’s secretly seeing. Prabha initially regards the potentially scandalous affair as an annoyance, but she comes to sympathize with Anu’s passion, perhaps because she, too, feels the tug of frustrated ardour, thanks to the attentions of a poetry-writing doctor.  When Prabha’s friend Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) is evicted from her home by heartless developers, she decides to return to the coastal village of her youth. Prabha and Anu tag along for a holiday. Far from the city’s perpetual clamour, the women’s feelings and sense of life’s possibilities are given free rein.  The film celebrates womanhood, showing how each needs to support another in the face of male-related problems.  In unity, females can face the world with strength and resilience—great shots of Dubai life and the beautiful Indian beach areas.

 

THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE (Pigen med nålen)(Denmark/Sweden/Poland 2024) ****


Directed by Magnus von Horn

Premiering at Cannes this year followed by screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival, THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE is an excellent historical drama though a very depressing one.  The film is shot in black and white with a setting in post-WWII Denmark, which is made even more depressing by the story in which bleakness piles upon bleakness.  If one can stomach the bleakness, a superbly crafted film is in for the taking, though definitely not of a feel-good nature.  The film is based on true life events - that of a baby killer, one of Denmark’s most infamous killers.  A woman pretends to take in babies from mothers who seek a better life for their babies, but the woman kills babies instead using several methods.

The protagonist is Karoline, a young woman trying to survive after the war.  Vic Carmen Sonne is remarkable in her portrayal of  Karoline, a young seamstress trying to survive on her own since her husband was declared missing in action.  Fortune smiles upon her when she develops a connection with Jørgen (Joachim Fjelstrup), the owner of the factory where she works. Yet a cascade of misfortunes soon reminds her of how little protection she enjoys. As the film progresses, one can only pity Katroline as things get from worse to worse..  Can things improve even a little?  Firstly when the film begins, Karoline is evicted from her squalor apartment.  She finds lodging in an even more horrid room with no running water and a window that cannot be opened.  She is warned not to have any visitors though one can only imagine who would want to visit such a place.  

Her woes improve a bit as the events set her on the path toward Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm), a shop owner she works for as a seamstress, who offers a particular service to women in need.  The dynamic they form will have major repercussions for them both.  They fall in love and she is impregnated by him.  Just as one can think the film is leading towards the kindness of human beings, Dagmar’s mother stops the romance between her son and her and tosses her out on the street.   She takes a needle to a public bath and tries to abort the unborn child, hence the title of the film THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE.  There she meets the baby killer and things do NOT get any better.  Karolyn and the baby killer strike up a camaraderie, even when Karolyn discovers the truth.  More of the darkness is included with the reappearance of Karolyn’s supposedly husband missing in war with a disfigured face.  Why he has not responded to her letters is not really explained in the film.  The ugliness of his facial injury is not hidden from the audience.
For all its bleakness and depression, THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE is a compelling film with strong performances, stunning cinematography, and production values. I ranked it one of my Top 10 films of 2024.

THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE, the Danish entry for Best International Feature for the upcoming Academy Awards opens in theatres on Nov 27th, 2024.

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GLADIATOR 2 (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Ridley Scott

 

GLADIATOR 2 opens with the fall of an African city as the hero, the gladiator of the title is taken in as a slave of Rome

Sixteen years after Marcus Aurelius's death, Rome is ruled by the corrupt twin emperors Geta and Caracalla. In Numidia, Roman refugee Lucius Verus lives under the alias "Hanno". General Marcus Acacius's Roman army invade and conquer the city, enslaving Lucius and killing his wife Arishat. To advertise the slaves as potential gladiators, the Romans pit them against feral baboons. Lucius savagely kills a baboon, impressing stablemaster Macrinus. Although Lucius does not want to be a gladiator, Macrinus promises him an opportunity to kill Acacius if he wins enough fights in Rome.

Acacius is welcomed back to Rome as a war hero. Geta and Caracalla arrange gladiatorial games in the Colosseum to celebrate Acacius's victory. Disillusioned with war, Acacius requests a vacation with his wife, Lucilla, but the emperors refuse and plot to conquer Persia and India. Senator Thraex throws a party for the emperors and arranges a gladiatorial duel as entertainment. After Lucius wins, Geta asks where he is from. Lucius contemptuously recites Virgil's poetry, revealing his Roman education. Ravi, the gladiators' doctor, treats Lucius's injuries and befriends him.

GLADIATOR 2 works best when it combines camp with blood and gore.  The two emperors of Rome that dictate the citizens are campy in their makeup and their mannerisms,  They eventually get their comeuppance towards the end.  The thing that does not work that is glaring in its flaw is the d=gladiator segment in which Lucious fights the feel baboons, large creatures that look like aliens from outer space rather than ferocious animals.  The film takes an unrealistic sci-fi ALIENS look instead of being grounded in historical authenticity,

Paul Mescal replaces Russel Crowe as the action hero gladiator.  Mescal performs well and has been seen in almost everything these days ever since he became famous after being in AFTERLIFE.  Of the cast, Academy Award Winner Denzel Washington stands out as a rare gay role for the actor while also playing a villain.  Matt Lucas from Little Britain plays the Master of Ceremonies.  Sir Derek Jacobi as Senator Gracchus: A member of the Roman Senate who opposes the growing corruption of the Imperial Court. Jacobi reprises his role from the original film.

It took a while before this sequel went to the screens.  GLADIATOR 2 is a gore-violent blood fest with lots of action set pieces in which heads and upper torso are dismembered.  Story-wise, the film is a disappointment with a predictable plot and cliched characters.  At a running time of 2 hours and 20 minutes, the film moves fast, but not without flaws including a few out-of-step sequences.

GLADIATOR 2 and WICKED both open this week on November 22.  The new nickname coming into play is the word  GLICKED.  Which film will be victorious at the box office?  Good marketing targets two highly different film genre groups.

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GT MAX (France/Belgium 2024) ***
Directed by Olivier Scneider

 

GT Max in the film is a band of motorbikes of quality below Yamaha.  In reality, it is a well-known motorbike accessories company established in the state of Selangor, West Malaysia.   Following the trend of high-speed vehicle heist movies that were popular in the60s and 70s like Peter Collinson’s THE ITALIAN JOB with Michael Cain e and Henry Verneuil’s THE BURGLARS with Jean-Paul Belmondo and more recently in French films like TAXI and even more recent in THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS, GT MAX is another addition to the genre.  There is nothing really excitingly new in terms of plot, in fact, the storytelling is predictable though well stretched out with many characters, the film is a solid fast time waster that should appeal to both dirt motorbike speed fans as well to new converts.  The film is fast and furious and the chase scenes, particularly around Paris, with immediately recognizable street and walkaways by the Seine is what makes the movie especially engaging.

Soélie, a young motocross prodigy, sees her dreams of success shattered by an accident.  The reason for the accident is not explained till the middle of the film.  Not that one cannot guess the reason, but despite her stating that even riding un vello would also give her the jitters, she is suddenly riding a motorbike at top speed as if nothing had happened and she is perfectly normal for no reason.  Till then, she had devoted herself to training her brother, Michael.  When he is recruited by TMAX scooter racers for a high-profile heist in Paris, Soélie must overcome her fears to save him.  To make the story more intriguing, more characters are drawn to the story like an over-obsessive cop, Lucas who is intent on catching the motorbike gang in their next caper.   The mastermind behind the heist is Elyas, who has no claims of killing off any in the way.  Of course, there needs to be a little romance.  Soelie and Theo get a romance going,  Solely and Michael’s father also come into the story, with his company going for broke, doing 150 thousand euros.  The kids have to do the heist to make ends meet.  All the story details are cliched, but the exciting bike chases that ensue is the reason MTMAX rises above the average action movie.

The relatively unknown cast delivers credible performances despite the predictable story and cliched characters.

GT  MAX is director Olivier Schneider’s directorial debut.  Schneider began his career as a stuntman on more than a hundred films before becoming a fight choreographer and Stunt Coordinator. In 2007 he signed the fights of the film  TAKEN with Liam Neeson in the lead role.  There is a climactic fight between Elyas and Lucas at the film’s climax.

GT MAX is an original Netflix French action movie, and is open for streaming g on Netflix this week.  Totally watchable movie with time flying as fast as the speed of the motorbikes.     

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JOY (UK 2024) ***1/2
Directed by Ben Taylor

 

JOY (not to be confused with the David O. Russell Jennifer Lawrence film, is about 3 trailblazers: a young nurse, a visionary scientist, and an innovative surgeon who face opposition from the church, state, media, and medical establishment in their pursuit of the world's first 'test tube baby,' Louise Joy Brown.  IVF.  On 10 November 1977, Lesley Brown underwent a procedure, later known as in vitro fertilization (IVF), developed by Patrick Steptoe, Robert Edwards, and Jean Purdy. Purdy was the first to see Brown's embryonic cells dividing.  The process is called IVF.  Natural Cycle in Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is an assisted reproductive technique designed to mimic a woman's natural menstrual cycle closely. In traditional IVF, a woman's ovaries are stimulated with fertility medications to produce multiple eggs, which are then retrieved and fertilized outside the body. On the other hand, a natural cycle IVF works with the woman's natural hormonal fluctuations and ovulation cycle.    Edwards, as the only surviving partner, was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Medicine for this work.   In March 2022, a plaque was installed at Royal Oldham Hospital to record the importance of Sister Muriel Harris and Jean Purdy to the work.

Dr. Edwards is portrayed by award-winning British actor Bill Nighy, who rose to fame after his role in LOVE ACTUALLY. Nighy brings dignity to the role of the doctor who had to fight to make his discoveries heard.

The film is a touching story of medical history that is given a human touch making it emotional and moving. The film is told from the point of view of Jean Purdy, marvelously portrayed by New Zealand actress, Thomasin McKenzie. The film’s most moving part is Nighy as Dr. Edwards plays the piano with his wife seated beside him. She says she was looking forward to a retirement with wine and holidays to which he retorts: “So am I. But this is something that matters, at which he continues playing the piano. Director Taylor is to be commended for the way he keeps the momentum of the film’s interest from start to finish.

Director Ben Taylor is a TV episodes (SEX EDUCATION, THE AVENGERS) director making his first feature film directorial debut in a film written by Rachel Mason, Jack Thorne,

Emma Gordon and Shaun Topp.  A period piece, the budget pic contains authentic and believable production sets that convey the times and atmosphere of the story,

JOY is a touching British biopic of the test tube baby (Louise Brown) that is open for streaming on Netflix this week.

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MARIA  (Italy/Germany/Chile/United States 2024) ***

Directed by Pablo Larrain

 

MARIA is the third film in Larraín's trilogy of 20th-century iconic women, preceded by SPENCER (2021) and JACKIE (2017).   

MARIA, the film about Maria Callas, is set during Her final years in Paris in the 1970s. It is not a Callas biopic, as neither were the two other Lorain films, JACKIE and SPENCER, about Jacqueline Kennedy and Lady Diana Spencer.

Angelina Jolie portrays the diva, the diva that she is.  She is proud and pompous like a peacock who does not care for anyone else except for the wealthy and famous in her social circle.  Vanity project or Oscar bait?  Could very well be both.  It is noted that Bradley Cooper’s MAESTRO on Leonard Bernstein did not win him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.  But to give credit where credit is due,  it should be noted that to prepare for her role, Jolie spent seven months training to sing opera. In the scenes set during Callas' heyday, an estimated 90 to 95 percent of Callas' original recordings were used, with Jolie lip-synching along to these songs. However, Jolie's singing comes to the fore during the film's final act.  It is reported that the film received an eight-minute standing ovation at the Sala Grande Theatre during its world premiere, reducing Angelina Jolie to tears.

When the film opens, Callas is suffering from ill health, often taking too much medication.  She has lost her ability to sing and perform, but her reputation still precedes her.  One would wish more information be given on how she lost her goal abilities.  Still, she is headstrong aided by no less, her personal butler and housekeeper.  She often asks her housekeep how she sing, noting that the housekeeper has no operatic experience.  Yet she trusts her judgment.  Her two employees obey her at her every request, and the butler supports her and beats up a reporter who is hounding her and threatening her that her audience no longer respects her.  The reporter is pushed severely by the by=tler, and he clerkly deserves what he got.

The film celebrates an Italian cast, though Callas was an American-born Greek soprano.  Angelina Papadopoulou plays young Maria Callas, while Pierfrancesco Favino as Ferruccio and Alba Rohrwacher as Bruna plays the Callas’s Italian household.

Callas loves her pets dogs - two of them, often seen following her around her residence.  “It is 99% about food and 1% about love,” she remarks, which is very true for all dogs.

The best thing about the film is the images of the real Maria Callas, which include her aging during the closing credits.  The audience gets to see the real person in her glamour with it fading during her latter years.

MARIA is pretty much the same as Larrain’s other two films of his trilogy JACKIE and SPENCER, with elaborate and meticulously orchestrated production set pieces but empty vehicles on the whole where the sum of the parts do not really add up to a strong narrative or purpose.

Despite the chaotic often unrelated segments and often glorified scenes of Callas, the film is still magnificent to look at, and does Callas justice that is due to her.

MARIA opens in select theatres on November 27th and streams on MUBI from December 11, 2024.

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MAYBE BABY 2 (Bytte Bytte Barn)(Denmark 2024) **
En film af Barbara Topsøe-Rothenborg

 

We meet the two couples again: Cecilie and Andreas, and their son Leo, and Liv and Malte, and their daughter Sille.   The first MAYBE BABY (not to be confused with the British comedy about a couple trying to have a baby) is nothing much to write home about and this sequel is a tedious and unfunny monotonous attempt at trying to be smart and funny, 

Both children are now 2 years old, and the families still keep in touch but live very different lives. During a medical examination, it is revealed that the two babies were never swapped. After the shock subsides, the two families decide to move in together in a collective at Andreas and Cecilie's place, so both sets of parents can be with both children every day. There is some attempt at humour aimed at the subject of commune living, again nothing that would register a laugh mark on the laughter scale,  However, soon the couples' very different views on lifestyle, decor, eating habits, and parenting methods become apparent, and the two families struggle to live under the same roof.  There is not much insight or keen observations on this subject either.  Cecilie feels much more attached to her biological daughter Sille than to Leo, and she decides to pursue custody of Sille behind the backs of the other three parents.  This twist in the storyline that begins roughly the halfway mark attempts to up the story up a notch.  Cecilie realizes she has acted wrongly, but it is too late, and her selfish project is exposed. The collective falls apart, (surprise, surprise!) Liv and Malte move away with Sille, and Cecilie must fight to be forgiven and find a solution everyone can live with.

The film tackles a few motherly issues such as balancing work and bringing up a baby and how to rear a child that is either too active or a bit too smart for its age.  The film gets a bit sentimental at the end and it is clear the filmmakers are trying a bit too hard to make the family comedy work,

Maybe BABY 2 is an original Danish Netflix film that is open for streaming this week on Netflix.

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NEVER LOOK AWAY (USA 2024) ***½

Directed by Lucy Lawless

 

 

The doc NEVER LOOK AWAY celebrates Margaret Moth, warts and all.

Born in Gisborne, New Zealand, as Margaret Wilson, she got her first camera at age 8.

She was the first news camerawoman in New Zealand, originally for the local DNTV2 station in the South Island before working for the national TVNZ channel.  She changed her name to Margaret Gipsy Moth reportedly because of her love for parachuting from Tiger Moth airplanes and her desire to have her "own" name.

The doc initiates the audience to the woman with her first fling with a 17-year-old while she was 30.  The doc then follows Moth as she moved to the United States and worked for KHOU in Houston, Texas, for about seven years before moving to CNN in 1990.  Moth covered the Persian Gulf War, the rioting that followed Indira Gandhi's assassination, the civil war in Tbilisi, Georgia, and the Bosnian War. She had been described by colleagues as quirky, tough, fearless, and funny.

The doc works avoids being a biopic by omitting Margaret’s past.  When the first boyfriend (the17 17-year-old), Jeff Russi asks Margaret about her past, her reply is that she had forgotten.  So, no mention of her childhood is found in the doc.

Risks come with a price.  No one is invincible - Margaret Moth included,  In July 1992, Moth was shot and severely wounded while filming in Sniper Alley in Sarajevo.   Because of this injury, considerable damage was done to her body, and her speech became slurred. Despite her injuries, she returned to work in Sarajevo six months later, joking that she was going back to look for her missing teeth.

War is the ultimate drug.  Better than rugs like LCD and heroin that CNN photojournalist Margaret Moth partakes.  CNN camerawoman Margaret Moth made the wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Lebanon, and Operation Desert Storm in Iraq, real for North American television audiences. While her fellow journalists took cover, Moth ran towards danger, camera in hand, to get the shots. Colleagues including Christiane Amanpour attest to her bravery but it is Moth’s friends and lovers who reveal the self-destructive nature of the artist behind the lens. Innovative reconstructions of her near-lethal assignment in Sarajevo’s Sniper Alley, which turned Moth into headline news, are paired with unsettling interviews with witnesses to her daredevilry, forming the grit of this unconventional portrait. In her directorial debut, actor Lucy Lawless reveals the fearlessness of a fellow Kiwi woman  The document ends with Moth being diagnosed with colon cancer and dying in the arms of an old friend fellow CNN cameraman

at the age of 59.  The film’s ending minutes are spent concluding on the courage of the woman and the large impact her journalism had on stopping wars.

Director Lawless also goes personal, trying to understand the woman who faces danger and dismisses family life.  What is behind her anger?  Why is her background leading to this state?

If the name of the director Lucy Lawless sounds foamier, she is a famous New Zealand actress. She is best known for her roles as Xena in the television series Xena: Warrior Princess, as D'Anna Biers in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series, and as Lucretia in the television series Spartacus: Blood and Sand and associated series. Since 2019, she has starred as Alexa in the television series My Life Is Murder. NEVER LOOK BACK is her directorial debut.

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THE SHADE (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Tyler Chipman

 

THE SHADE begins with a car driving into a graveyard.  A man and his son exit the car to enter the graveyard.  The man begins to set fire to a tombstone.  The boy witnesses the grave being set afire together with his father burnt to death. an indeed traumatic experience for the boy.  The film time cuts to the future where the boy, Ryan now a teen of 20, wakes up from the nightmare, suffering mental trauma and taking medication for it while seeing a therapist routinely.

A grieving young man struggles to protect his family from an unspeakable darkness.

Ryan Beckman (Chris Galust), a 20-year-old college student from a declining town in the northeast, struggles with a debilitating anxiety disorder following his father's death. His older brother, Jason, returns home unexpectedly while battling his own demons. Together with his younger brother James, Ryan struggles to break the destructive cycle threatening their family as ancient darkness closes in on them.

THE SHADE, directed by Tyler Chipman and co-written by the director and David Purdy covers several genres and can best be described as a drama, thriller, psychological thriller, and horror.  It runs a lengthy 2 hours, a bit long for a typical 90-minute horror feature, but the extra time allows the film both character and plot development.  The excellent blend of psychological horror and family relationship drama makes THE SHADE stand out as a compelling film.

The film spends its first hour introducing the family unit, with its problems and Ryan’s troubled relationship with his mother and his returning older brother Jason.  One night, he enters his brother’s room to confront him with the extra loud music blaring only to vaguely see a woman there before Jason punches on him.  More agony to the family arises when Jason is found dead in’s room.  Ryan tries to protect the youngest brother who seems to cope quite well.  At the same time, pressure mounts because of Ryan’s horrid low-paying pizza job.  His buddies include a motor-mouthed Latino, who provides some comic relief to an otherwise serious future and his girlfriend who seems supportive until Ryan becomes a bit too much to handle, explaining her disappearance from the story for a while.

The film rests on young actor Chris Galust who does a solid job as the troubled 20-year-old.  Tony Award winner Laura Benanti also deserves mentioned as Ryan’s troubled mother, who is at a loss for how to deal with her three sons.  Also of notice is the cinematography which is also excellent right from the beginning of the burning graveyard scene.  A lot of scenes take place in the night, allowing the d.p. to show off the talent.

THE SHADE is an impressive directorial debut that has won multiple accolades during film festivals.  Among the noted ones are:

WINNER Best Special Effects – Days of the Dead Film Festival

WINNER Best Directing – Days of the Dead Film Festival

WINNER Best First Time Filmmaker – Days of the Dead Film Festival

WINNER Jury Award Best Feature Film – Snowdance Independent Film Festival

THE SHADE is available Video On Demand on November 22nd.

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WICKED (entitled onscreen as WICKED PART 1) (USA 2024) ***½
Directed by John M. Chu

 

Wicked is one of the most successful Broadway musicals and the film adaptation was originally set for as way back as 2021.  Unforeseen circumstances like scheduling and the Pandemic resulted in delays and even a director change from Stephen Daldry (BILLY ELLIOT), but the end result is worth the wait.  Musical and theatre fans are in for a real treat with musical numbers combined with special effects, animation and romance.

WICKED is a 2024 American epic musical fantasy film directed by Jon M. Chu from a screenplay by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox. It is the first of a two-part film adaptation of the stage musical of the same name by Stephen Schwartz and Holzman, which in turn was loosely based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire.  The film stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, with Brit actor Jonathan Bailey as Prince Charming, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Peter Dinklage (voicing the donkey professor), Michelle Yeoh, (as Madame Morrible and Jeff Goldblum (as the Wizard of Oz) in supporting roles.  The eclectic cast gives the film political correctness with an African American Erivo, an Asdia Yang, a Malaysian Chinese Yeoh and even a Brit who plays Prince Charming.  The film is also too obvious in its message on minorities.  Here, the animals are the minorities that are caged and eventually lose their ability to speak.  There is also an invaliding wheelchair who is portrayed by an actress in the same boat.

WICKED is directed by Chinese American John M. Chu.  The films that he has directed often include musical elements, including the dance films STEP UP 2: THE STREETS (2008) and STEP UP 3D (2010), musicals JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS (2015) and IINTHE HEIGHTS (2021), and the live concert films Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011) and Justin Bieber's Believe (2013).  It is as if all these films prime Chu for the big budget $145 million over-the-top musical extravaganza.

WICKED is a musical extravaganza all the way,  The film is lengthy with a running time of 2 hours and 40 minutes, and this is only for part 1.  The phrase ‘to be continued’ appears proudly on the screen at the end of the movie,.  For Broadway, theatre and musical fans, I would give the film 4 stars and three stars for others, as the musical and choreographed numbers can be a bit too much, less overbearing.  For example, the first 10 minutes of the choreography do not add anything to the film but add to its production costs.

Because of the scope of the musical and the intent of including all the songs in the musical as well as the addition of new ones, the filmmakers have decided to split WICKED into two parts.  Though WICKED is just touted as WICKED, the opening credits say WICKED PART 1.  Part 2 arrives next year in November and is also directed by Chu.

WICKED opens in theatres on November 22nd.

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WITCHES (UK 2024) ***½

Directed by Elizabeth Sankey

 

The new British documentary from MUBI that took the London International Film Festival by storm is a compulsive eerie, creepy and understandably creepy piece of work for the reason that what transpires on screen seems so real and close to home.  The titles at the start of the film inform and insist that what is seen on the screen is based on true events with actual people.  The woman featured in the film is the film’s director herself, sharing her own horrid experiences.  WITCHES has so far received two nominations at the British Independent Film Awards 2024, for the Raindance Maverick Award and Best Feature Documentary.

The film is a profound exploration of the unexpected yet compelling connections between postpartum mental health and the history and portrayal of witches in Western society and popular culture.

Following on from her critically acclaimed feature ROMANTIC COMEDY, also released by MUBI in 2019, director Sankey now uses her trademark video essay style to turn the camera inward, focusing on her own experiences with postpartum anxiety and depression.

Using her own experience of being admitted to a psychiatric ward after the birth of her son, Sankey intertwines her personal narrative with historical and cinematic footage.  It is this woven cinematic footage that creates an eeriness and makes the film so compelling.  With the words spoken by the doc’s subjects, relevant footage from horror classics, the serious ones not the camp horror slasher flicks like Roman Polanski’s ROSEMARY’S BABY, George Miller’s THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK Robert Egger’s THE WITCH, Jane Campion’s ANGEL AT MY TABLE as well as oldies like Rene Clair’s I MARRIED A WITCH, all immediately recognizable because of the film’s famous faces. The film also features interviews with medical professionals, historians, and fellow sufferers, offering a multifaceted perspective on how women with mental health issues have been stigmatized and misunderstood over time while creating her own coven of women to reclaim their stories.

The doc at its most scary shows a mother and a baby isolated together.  Many mothers post-birth have fears of harming their babies.  Being alone with their babies is often the greatest fear these mothers may have.  On the other hand, for other mothers, the bond between mother and child is healing.  The doc shows that post-birth mental illness is not a rare disease and one that many have the fear of bringing out out into the open.

The scariest moments are the segments where past inmates talk about their mental anguish.  One cannot recognize herself in the mirror.   One has to lay out things like her spectacles and other items so that she knows how to proceed daily in life.  And in the institution, they are watched daily, anoint and day by the staff who look like witches.  The inmates are prisoners who are locked in with no way out.

WITCHES is arguably the scariest film of the year because it is a doc featuring interviewees who experience real horrors of potential mental psychosis and nonfiction is more real than fiction.

WITCHES had its world premiere at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and its U.K. premiere at the London International Film Festival and is available exclusively on MUBI from November 22nd, 2024.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

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Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 04 November 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

 

LEAD AND COPPER (USA 2024) ***
Directed by William Hart

 

The documentary LEAD AND COPPER is about the Flint water crisis - a public health crisis that started in 2014 after the drinking water for the city of Flint, Michigan, was contaminated with lead and possibly Legionella bacteria.  In April 2014, during a financial crisis, state-appointed emergency manager Darnell Earley changed Flint's water source from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (sourced from Lake Huron and the Detroit River) to the Flint River.  Residents complained about the taste, smell, and appearance of the water.  Officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors to the water, which resulted in lead from aging pipes leaching into the water supply, exposing around 100,000 residents to elevated lead levels.   A pair of scientific studies confirmed that lead contamination was present in the water supply.  It is all-out saving money at the expense of human beings, least of all minority black people.

How did we not see this coming?  How could we let this happen?  Two questions were asked in the voiceover at the start of the doc when the voiceover says that the company deliberately falsified documents and polluted the waters.  The answer is quite clear as the two questions are also asked in many docs whistleblowing bad companies that are run by guilty and conscienceless executives.  The culprits here are different and do not include the CEO and top management but the government and governing bodies.  This a prime example that no one can be trusted least of all the Government. Flint isn't America's first major lead crisis, and it will not be the last.  The closing credits indicate all the counties that face the lead poisoning problem.

The Flint water crisis has a lot of grounds to cover, and director Hart has to decide what information to keep and what to omit.  Hart concentrates on personal cases, especially the one involving a Flint resident who took up upon herself to collect water samples and raise a stink about the lead poisoning,

On April 24th, 2014, Flint, Michigan switched water sources to the Flint River, a cost-saving measure enacted by former Governor Rick Snyder and his appointed Emergency Manager. This decision poisoned a city that had already been neglected for decades.

Over 8 years, through interviews of members of Congress, local officials, environmental and engineering scientists, former EPA employees, and the families affected by lead poisoning, LEAD & COPPER investigates how city, state, and federal policies contributed to environmental crises like those experienced in Flint, Newark, and Washington, D.C.

State and city officials lie to the population of Flint, Michigan about the safety of their water, leading to thousands of people being diagnosed with lead poisoning. Lead & Copper exposes the dominoes that fell that led to one of America's worst public health disasters.

The film contains interviews by important sources that lend their hand in making the doc real.  The interviewed include Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley, Former Flint Mayor Dayne Walling, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Congressman Elijah Cummings, Dr. Marc Edwards, Dr. Riché Barnes, and Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff.

LEAD AND COPPER belongs to the category of documentary that will enrage its audience.  And with reason!

LEAD AND COPPER is available on Digital/VOD from Tuesday, November 19th, 2024.

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THE LOST CHILDREN (Colombia 2024) ***½

Directed by Jorge DuranLali with co-directors  Houghton and Orlando von Einsiedel

 

THE LOST CHILDREN are four Indigenous Colombian children aged 11, 9 and 5 months and an 11-month baby, lost in the Amazon in Colombia after their small plane crashed.

The film is directed by Jorge DuranLali,  Houghton and Orlando von Einsiedel

  and one can detect their no-nonsense attitude toward making this truthful compelling true story transition to the screen.  The words at the start of the film inform that the footage seen is all taken by volunteer rescuers or the military or archive newsreel that certain names had to be changed for military security and that a few re-enactments were created.  This is a good sign as one naturally dislikes docs where reenactments are done to fool the audience that what is seen on screen is the real thing.  Here, the audience is told beforehand of the reenactments,

The doc then goes to show a swarm of termites, a hissing snake, spiders, other bugs and nasty insects of the jungle to emphasize the unwelcomeness of the Amazon.  The jungle is not a friendly place.

On 9 June 2023, four children were rescued from the Amazon rainforest, in Colombia after they survived a plane crash on 1 May.  The Cessna 206 plane was carrying seven people which included a woman and her four children.  All three adults were killed, leaving the children to fend for themselves in the forest.  The children's mother and two pilots were killed when their light aircraft crashed in the jungle on 1 May.  It seems that what has happened in real life is a perfect story to be filmed and to be told.  However, all four children—aged 13, 9, 4 and an 11-month-old toddler— survived in the jungle for nearly 40 days.  40 days is a long time, more than a month,  It is good to remember that these are children and not adults.   According to the rescuers, the children were malnourished and had many insect bites, but no major health issues. According to the media, the children belong to an indigenous community, living in or near the jungle.  The 13-year-old also seems to have been used to guarding the other children, when their mother was at work.  The film ends with her account of how they survived.

The plane crashed in a region of the rainforest that is difficult to access. When it was discovered there were survivors, a large-scale rescue operation was ordered by the authorities.

The doc also examines the difficulties arising from the rescue. 

President Gustavo Petro said finding the group was a "magical day", adding: "They were alone, they themselves achieved an example of total survival which will remain in history."

A moving moment includes a video shared by Colombia's Ministry of Defence showing the children being lifted into a helicopter in the dark above the tall trees of the jungle. They have been flown to the nation's capital Bogota, where ambulances have taken them to hospital for further medical treatment.

THE LOST CHILDREN is one of two original Netflix documentaries to open for streaming this week, the other one is called RETURN OF THE KING, a biopic of Elvis Presley.  These two docs are worthy of mention and provide compelling viewing and insight into their subject matter. 

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MEMOIR OF A SNAIL (Australia 2024) ***** Top 10

Directed by Adam Elliot

 

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL is done in the painstaking lengthy stop-motion animation process.  The film was developed over eight years. Don’t let the animation category discourage you, as this is an adult film with adult themes and a tale told in a rare and beautiful medium.  (In the US, the film was rated R "for sexual content, nudity and some violent content" by the Motion Picture Association.)  Among the voices are those of well-known stars like Kodi Smit-McPhee, Eric Bana, Dominique Pinon, Tony Armstrong, Nick Cave, and Jacki Weaver.  The film's plot, which is loosely inspired by Elliot's own life, follows the trials and tribulations in the life of lonely misfit Grace Pudel (Sarah Snook), from childhood to adulthood.

The snail in the title comes from Grace’s obsession with the mollusk.  She collects and keeps everything that bears a resemblance to a snail.  Grace sinks into loneliness, becoming a hoarder, collecting snails (real and otherwise), even wearing a “snail” hat that her father had knit.  One of her favourite pet snails was Sylvia, named after author Sylvia Plath.  But a lesson can be learned from this quaint creature.  Though it moves slowly, it always moves forward and never retracts its path.

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL has the feel of Charles Dickens classics like OLIVER TWIST and GREAT EXPECTATIONS with the protagonist surviving as a poor orphan and with young children meeting up with old folks who determine their future lives.  Like Dickens's stories, there is a happy ending for the long-suffering.  The director’s love for stop-motion animation is also evident in the film’s protagonist, Grace finally living a stable life, while pursuing her dream of being a stop-motion animator.

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL has quite a few best moments.  The best of these is the wisp of mist disappearing in the sky before forming the curled-up shape of the shell of an escargot.

The film is also charming in its presentation of sympathy for old people and gay relationships.  It is the classic fable of hope triumphing over life's despair with humanity.  There is the surprise kiss of the two step-brothers, their love that almost causes the death of one of them.  The old man in the park is treated with respect like many other old characters in the story.

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL premiered at the Annecy Animation Film Festival this year (it won the Cristal Award for Best Feature Film) which I covered remotely.  I requested a screener for MEMOIR OF A SNAIL but could not get one.  Thankfully, this excellent piece of animation got picked up and is being released in North America.  This film should have no problem receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature and is on my list for Best Animated Feature this year.

MEMOIR OF SNAIL opens November 15 in Toronto (TIFF Lightbox) and Montreal!

The film opens on November 22 in Vancouver and throughout the fall in other cities. 

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LA PALISIADA (Ukraine 2023) ***½

Directed by Philip Sotnychenko

 

LA PALISIADA is as strange and intriguing as any film that has opened this year.  Nothing much is explained and the film requires much intense concentration to comprehend and appreciate, and needless to say, the effort is worth the rewards.  LA PALISIADA (which perhaps means Police Story, not explained) is a neo-noir policier complete with criminals targeted in a corrupt police environment.  Two murders in fact, both with gunshots, with the common thread of the investigator.

  The film is a tale of two gunshots and several deaths – literal and metaphorical – told in a unique Eastern European neo-noir style, LA PALISIADA examines the wide-ranging ramifications of the murder of a police officer in Ukraine in 1996.  Not only was this a few months before the country signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights banning the death penalty, but having become independent in 1991 ( a suspect is in the film interrogated as to when Ukraine gained independence) Ukraine was at that time still languishing in a kind of stagnant post-Soviet continuum; a state of affairs that casts a long shadow throughout the film, and beyond.

  The plot revolves around forensic psychiatrist Oleksandr and his friend, detective Ilhar Sabitov, who battle their own complex relationships with one another and with the widow of the murdered police officer, as well as post-Soviet bureaucracy, politics, and demons from the past. In so doing, they unwittingly sow the seeds of new problems for the future – our present.

  What makes this film stand out too is the film’s unique visual style was created using a range of celluloid and digital techniques, including a retro video camera, the last surviving cassettes for which were ordered from various places around the world. Its non-linear narrative structure pulls us into the murky, complex world of post-Soviet Ukraine – a world that now has renewed urgency and relevance.

Director Sotnychenko demonstrates his sense of humour too, in one deadpan hilarious scene in which musical wares are sold flea market style in a stall set up on a railway track.  The stall has to be moved when a train comes along.  The salesman’s sales pitch is also nothing short of hilarious, showing a slice of Ukraine life.

LA PALISIADA is Ukraine’s entry for the upcoming Academy Award for Best International Feature.  The submission is shortlisted and then shortened to the 5 nominees.  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film since 1956. The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films.  Ukraine has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film since 1997.  Of all the films submitted, only last year’s 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL made the shortlist.  The question is whether LA PALISIADA will be able to achieve the same, as difficult and strange as this film may seem.

LA PALISIADA makes its North American I(including Canadian) premiere on the SVOD platform  FILM MOVEMENT PLUS on November 15, 2024.  Worth a look, for sure!  The film is in Ukrainian with English Subtitles.

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RETURN OF THE KING: THE FALL AND RISE OF ELVIS PRESLEY (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Jason Hehir

 

Elvis Presley aka The King aka Elvis the Pelvis has an an extensive career with many ups and downs, so it is understandably difficult  to tie viewers a comprehensive lot and the rock and roll date.  RETURN OF THE KING: THE FALL AND RISE OF ELVIS PRESLEY arrives just 2 years after the non-documentary ELVIS in 2022  directed by Australian Baz Luhrmann, who also serves as one of the talking heads giving his two cents worth about Presley.

RETURN OF THE KING: THE FALL AND RISE OF ELVIS PRESLEY charts Presley's life from his childhood poverty to his 1968 Comeback TV special, in which he had one chance to show the world he was still the King of Rock 'n' Roll and to discover the story behind Elvis Presley's triumphant '68 comeback special.

Many Elvis experts lend their hand to talk about him.  Among them are Bruce Springsteen, Billy Corgan, Elvis’s first wife Priscilla Presley, Conan O’Brian and the before-mentioned Lurhman.  They offer much insight into the material of the doc.

Lurhmann’s ELVIS dramatizes most of what is seen in this doc.  In ELVIS, what is emphasized is the influence of Elvis’s manager Colonel Tom Parker over Elvi’s show-business career, putting Elins in what might be termed a personal prison to the relationship between Elvis and Priscilla.  The doc, on the other hand, de-glamourizes the material and provides the same material in more documents in a more moderate one.  The doc shows Elvis’s performances, particularly the comeback shoe, but keeps the other earlier performances to a minimum.  There is more material on Elvis’s movies, including one embarrassing segment of him singing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” in one of his movies.  The influence of Colonel Tom Parker (played by Tom Hanks in the Luhrmann film) is mentioned in both films but highlighted a little less in the doc.

The doc omitted the period of Elvis’s life after the Comeback Special, especially the notable years from 1973 to 1977 when Elvis died.  1973–1977 are the years of his health deterioration and death.  To quote journalist Tony Scherman wrote that, by early 1977, "Presley had become a grotesque caricature of his sleek, energetic former self. Grossly overweight, his mind dulled by the pharmacopeia he daily ingested, he was barely able to pull himself through his abbreviated concerts.”

The doc can hardly be faulted for omitting the awful last years of Elvis because as the title of the doc indicates, the purpose is to show his fall and rise and not his fall again.  The doc therefore ends Elvis’s biopic on a high note, during his rise back to fame with his 68 comeback special.  Many fans would remember Elvis the King this way.

` RETURN OF THE KING: THE FALL AND RISE OF ELVIS PRESLEY and THE LOST CHILDREN are two must-watch original Netflix documentaries that should be seen for their relevant content.  Both films open for streaming on Netflix this week.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 02 November 2024

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 26 October 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

ABSOLUTION (USA 2024) ***

Directed by Hans Petter Moland

ABSOLUTION shows Liam Neeson once again in tough thug mode in a role with a character with no name (remember the Clint Eastwood man with no name spaghetti westerns?) but assigned the term ‘thug’ in the credits.  This is another variation of Neeson’s TAKEN action flicks, but this time he is on the other side of the law, but still a good guy, but suffering from memory loss as he is diagnosed with an advanced case of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.  People with CTE may experience executive function disorder, which is related to an inability to pay attention or focus. They might find it hard to remember instructions or manage multiple projects.  This seems to be the case for Thug after he gets himself checked at a medical centre,

Thug was a championship boxer in his younger days, thus providing a cause for chronic traumatic encephalopathy.  When one experiences a blow to the head, the brain bounces off the back of the skull, which essentially rotates the brain.  People may not experience any symptoms or notice any potential signs of CTE until years later.  Neeson previously portrayed a thug with amnesia in the 2022 film MEMORY.  The memorable line in that movie: “Never mind what you were before (he was a hitman) but what you are from now.”

So the film is about a thug who can still beat up his attackers, but with more vulnerability.  His daughter wants nothing to do with him.  Thug had been in prison as he confessed to his grandson who shows interest in football and boxing.  Oddly, Thug does not advise him against it because of his ailment.  The only advice he gives him besides boxing lessons is: "Learn to walk away. That is how I landed in prison.”

The film seems to be mediocre in concept but as in a poster seen at a doctor’s office: ‘Don’t forget to notice the details’.  The film covers all the odds and ends of the story i.e. the details, so there are at least no loose ends in the story.  Details include observation of the footwork of the boxers,  But before one can toss the film as another forgettable action flick, it should be remembered that the director of ABSOLUTION is Norwegian Hans Petter Moland who worked with Neeson in the 1999 film COLD PURSUIT, a mediocre remake of his original Norwegian thriller IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE with Stellan Skarsgard.  IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE was one of the Best 10 films of that year, unforgettable because of the details in the story.  The best segment and one that was not reproduced in the remake COLD PURSUIT was the segment in which the drug lord (who keeps claiming how much effort is required in work) had his ex-wife storm into his home to look for their son’s gym bag.

Though  ABSOLUTION never reaches the heights reached in IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE, ABSOLUTION is still a gripping thriller as director Moland knows how to grab the attention of his audience.

ABSOLUTION arrives in theatres Friday, November the 1st without much fanfare.  But if one admires Director Moland, ABSOLUTION would be of interest.

DAHOMEY (Senegal/France/Benin 2024) ***
Directed by Mati Diop

 

The Golden Bear winner at this year’s Berlinale, Mati Diop’s DAHOMEY traces the historic repatriation of 26 royal treasures from France to Benin, simultaneously forging a speculative and political reflection on cultural heritage, collective memory, and the implications of restitution.  Diop directed the recent ATLANTICS which received rave reviews when screened at Cannes and at TIFF.

Benin, a French-speaking West African nation, is the birthplace of the vodun (or “voodoo”) religion and home to the former Dahomey Kingdom from circa 1600–1900. In Abomey, Dahomey's former capital, the Historical Museum occupies two royal palaces with bas-reliefs recounting the kingdom’s past and a throne mounted on human skulls. To the north, Pendjari National Park offers safaris with elephants, hippos and lions.

For centuries, the Kingdom of Dahomey, within the borders of modern-day Benin, was a central cultural meeting point in West Africa, a site of European colonial conquest and the transatlantic slave trade. In 1892, the French invaded and looted hundreds of treasures from the royal palace, alongside thousands of other works. Following years of appeals and reports, in 2021 an agreement was made for several of these artworks to be returned from France to Benin.

The doc, at the beginning, takes the view of one of the artifacts that calls itself number 26.  It talks in voiceover (speaking in Don), of what it experiences while being stolen and then returned back to Benin.  The star speaks in poetic prose, giving the doc an artistic feel.

A few artifacts are shown and described in detail.  One of them is a statue of King Ghezo, one of the country’s rulers in the past.  It is slightly damaged but was made of painted wood and steel fibre and still looks magnificent.

A large portion of the doc involves debates among the Beninese - University students.  The debates open one’s eyes to the thoughts and demise of the people.  Firstly, they main issue of concern is the return of only 26 figures out of a total of 7000.  The important question is the reason for their return.  There is a debate of whether the move is politically cultural.  One person says that Francois Mitterrand just wants to improve his brand by allowing the run of the 26 figures.  Another argues that there are two kinds of heritage - material and nonmaterial.  The artifacts are the material ones that have been taken away from the people and the other like the dances, colour and music that stay in the country and conniver be taken away from the people.  The point is also brought out of when the rest of the 7000 will be returned, if ever.

Other issues rain, making the problem more complex.  Who will be responsible for looking after and preserving the artifacts?  An elderly claims that he is too old and it is up to the younger generation to take responsibility.   The returned figures now reside in the Palais and how can children in remote villages get a chance to view the history? 

The doc also emphasizes the importance of history and the loss of the people’s native language due to colonization.  The debaters in the doc all speak French and cannot communicate or speak in their native tongue.

Trailer: 

DAHOMEY won this year’s Golden Bear at the Berlinale, was screened at the last Toronto International Film Festival, and opens at the TIFF Lightbox on October 18th.

HERE (USA 2024) **
Directed by Robert Zemeckis

 

The new film HERE puts the director Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks together, having had immense success from the past collaboration FORREST GUMP.  But director Zemeckis has had misses too, and HERE, a high concept film is unfortunately one of them, but not for what of trying.  HERE also demonstrates the worst of Zemeckis, sentimentality made worse with lots of segments set during the Christmas yuletide season.

HERE is a 2024 American drama film produced and directed by Robert Zemeckis, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth, based on the 2014 graphic novel by Richard McGuire.  It stars heavyweights Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, and Kelly Reilly.

The story covers the events of a single spot of land and its inhabitants, spanning from the past to well into the future.  The film is best described as a generational story about families and the special place they inhabit, sharing in love, loss, laughter, and life, but with distractions.

HERE is a concept movie and credit should be given to Zemeckis for trying something fresh and innovative.  The concept is a piece of land that constitutes the term HERE and the film shows HERE from the time, it was just land that natives inhabited to the time when a house was built from colonial times to the present.  There is also a frame on the screen that characters move in and out from.  The film shifts forwards and backward in time, showcasing many families but concentrating on the couple Richard and Margaret played by Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, who sadly, separate because of the house.

There is also a black couple that is briefly considered in the story but then disappears.  The film should have concentrated more on Margaret and Richard’s parents rather than showing the past inhabitants of the land, which tends to be distracting though one can admire director Zemeckis's ambition for a grander movie.

It is noticeable that instead of closeups of the actors, the actors move close to the camera. The cameras are placed like someone watching a play which in this case is the lace called HERE.

The question that arises is what will dominate.  Would it be the story of the family of Richard and Margaret or the film concept?  The answer is unclear as director Zemickis wishes both to succeed.

The story of Margaret and Richard is a complex but real relationship issue.  They live in Richard’s dad’s house as they do not earn enough to live on their own.  Richard promises to have their own place for their family but fate does not allow it.  The result is their eventual separation.  Margaret also suffers from dementia due to old age but their love survives.  It is a stormy love story, but the shifts of this story in time and with other elements undermine the dramatics.

Hanks, Wright, and Bettany are nothing short of excellent in their roles.  Production values are also excellent.

HERE opens in theatres on November 1st.

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JUROR #2 (USA 2024) ****
Directed by Clint Eastwood

JUROR #2 is director Clint Eastwood's latest drama with a few mysterious bits thrown in.  It is an excellent film all the way, proving Eastwood to be in fine form.

Young journalist Justin Kemp is called to serve as a juror for the case of the Kendall Carter murder, where all clues and evidence indicate that James, her boyfriend, killed her. However, the verdict becomes stalled when Justin believes James could be innocent, as he may have accidentally killed her by hitting her with his car on Old Quarry Road the same night the couple fought in a bar. Justin keeps this a secret to protect himself and his pregnant wife, Allison. But doubts of James's guilt start to grow among the jury members due to inquiries from one of them, the old ex-homicide inspector Harold—doubts that even lead the tough prosecutor Faith Killebrew to question James's guilt. As the truth comes out little by little, only Justin can make the right choice: to save his family or to save the life of an innocent man.

At best, the story blurs the fine line between good and evil while tipping the balance of the scales with justice and truth.  Here, the audience sees a bad man who is innocent of the crime he is convicted of sent to jail while a good man who is guilty of the accidental killing of Kendall Carter goes free.  Director Eastwood pans the camera to a statue outside the courthouse showing the scales of justice to emphasize the point, though one might argue he might be overstating the point.

 

The film is aided by some superb performances that include Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette, both non-Americans sporting a western accent.  Not to be missed out is actor Chris Messina who plays the defendant's lawyer, he again playing a suave lawyer that he did in I CARE A LOT.  J.K. Simmons also has an outstanding supporting role as another juror.

The film also reminds one of last year's excellent courtroom mystery drama, Justine Triet's ANATOMY OF A FALL.  Both films involve a victim falling to death and the reconstruction of the fall to great detail by the investigators.

After his last flop CRY MACHO (made $16 million at a cost of $32 million), director Clint Eastwood at the age of 94. proves that he still has what it takes in a meticulously assembled part-courtroom drama that debates the balance of truth vs justice in a cautionary tale where a husband and father’s personal principle is at stake.

Warner Bros is releasing the film in limited theatres after Eastwood's last flop, fearing it will fail at the box office.  Judging from how well Eastwood has succeeded in this film, let's hope that he will be given more projects in the future.

JUROR #2 opens in theatres this Friday.

LET GO (SLAPP TAGET) (Sweden 2024) ***½

Directed by Josephine Bornebusch

 

Written and directed by Josephine Bornebusch, the Swedish family relationship drama centres on a wife and mother Stella trying to keep her family together.  Or perhaps, she should take the alternative and LET GO,

Stella juggles the demands of a young son, a moody teen daughter, and a distant husband. Chaos ensues until a message prompts a family trip where she must overcome challenges to reunite them.

A few fresh takes on the daily drama.  In a message film, the message normally comes at the end. Still, in LET GO, the film gets preachy at the start with a voiceover touting the benefits of communication and the importance of sharing sorrow and joy, particularly joy with someone.  If not, it is just as if someone is not there.  The lack of communication is observed in Stella’s family - between her and her husband, her and her daughter and her husband and his mother.

When Stella finds out that her daughter has forged her signature in order to enter a dance competition (involving a pole), Stella confronts her daughter, who in retaliation accuses the mother of going through her things,  At the same time, the young son does not want to eat his pasta.  After all that, the husband, Gustav tells Stella he wants a divorce.  It is revealed that Gustav is having an affair and intends to leave his family to be with his new lady.  Stella refuses and only agrees to discuss the matter after a family trip - one taken to Skane where the daughter competes.

Skane is a southern county in Sweden, historic and has a population of more than a million, a nice area to view for Norther Americans.

This is not a “Are we there yet?” kind of comedy.  LET GO is a sincere family drama about keeping a family together, and is Stella’s aim.  The question of whether it would be better if she, instead,  LET GO is not an option for a brave lady.  LET GO is a female film all the way, with a female director and a female protagonist and with family foremost at its importance.  The film once again proves that females are more prominent in films today.  Gustav’s new girl is non-white, thus making the film more diverse and politically correct.   Though LET GO will not make the top 10 list of the year, LET GO is still an entertaining insightful little film that should have the audience rooting for the female protagonist trying to keep her family as one.

LET GO turns out, an excellent feel-good film about both patching up relationships and keeping a family going, avoiding all the cliches, while tugging too, on the heartstrings.  It also ends up being one of the most touching and moving films about family sen in a while.  If Hollywood sees the film, it would not be surprising that they would want to attempt an American remake.  A meticulously crafted top-notch film all the way!

LET GO is a Netflix original film in Swedish and opens Friday for streaming.

 

MARTHA (USA 2024) ***
Directed by R.J. Cutler

 

MARTHA is Martha Stewart, the perfectionist homemaker who is a household name.  MARTHA is a documentary that traces the rise and fall of Martha Stewart as it examines some details while keeping the entertainment value intact. It is a somewhat insightful cautionary tale of fame and fortune.

The documentary begins with a lively introduction of Martha Stewart as a perfectionist celebrity. The question is not whether one can be perfect (or not) but at what cost. The intro is also quick to point out that Martha was arrested, with the details to be revealed in the later part of the documentary.

The film plays like a biopic while concentrating on her downfall and revealing her comeback. Martha Stewart is an American (of Polish origin) retail businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, focusing on home and hospitality, she gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, merchandising, and e-commerce. In 2004, Stewart was convicted of felony charges related to the ImClone stock trading case; she served five months in federal prison for fraud and was released in March 2005. There was speculation that the incident would effectively end her media empire,[ but in 2005 Stewart began a comeback campaign, and her company returned to profitability in 2006.  Stewart rejoined the board of directors of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in 2011 and became chairwoman of her namesake company again in 2012.  The company was acquired by Sequential Brands in 2015.  Sequential Brands Group agreed in April 2019 to sell Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, including the Emeril brand, to Marquee Brands for $175 million with benchmarked additional payments.[

The film contains several revealing scenes that show the true Martha.  One is her chiding one helper in the kitchen who used a small knife to cut an orange.  Martha tells her how much easier it is to use a big knife to cut the orange.  

The magic question then should come to mind is that if Martha Stewart was sent to prison after being indicted and sentenced as a felon, why is not Donald Trump, who has committed more horrendous crimes not in prison?  And still running for the Presidency? 

On seeing the documentary, Steward has expressed some displeasure.  She does not like the doc’s ending in which she is portrayed as a frail hunched aged woman.  (She is currently 84).  But she confessed that she liked the first part of the film.  She also wanted a rap soundtrack though the filmmakers refused and put in a classic soundtrack instead.  For all that it is worth, the doc takes Martha Stewart’s side and the audience should sympathize with this lady who did not more wrong than the average American.  

MARTHA is an interesting documentary that is detailed enough to show the life and rise and fall of a celebrity while keeping up the entertaining values.  MARTHA is a Netflix original documentary and is available for streaming this week

OUR DAD, DANIELLE (USA 2024) ***

Directed by S.E. King

The doc is the story of a larger-than-life IP lawyer in Sugar Land, Texas, who at 57, came out as a trans woman and is now navigating LGBTQ+ issues while fighting for trans rights, as she and her family challenge the idea of what modern love looks like.  The story concept was originally conceived as a comedy series but that did not work.  This doc is the result,

The subject of the film is Danielle, a trans who has transitioned.  In order to understand more about Danielle, the term transgender should be understood.

A transgender person (often shortened to trans person) is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Often, transgender people desire medical assistance to medically transition from one sex to another; those who do may identify as transsexual.  Transgender does not have a universally accepted definition, including among researchers; it can function as an umbrella term.

At the start of the film, the audience is introduced to Danielle.  He first mentioned to another human being that he was trans when he was at the age of 44.  As a kid, he had a mace or rather, female cave where he could wear women’s clothing insert.  Trans people make the best CIA or FBI agents, Danielle claims, as they are very good at hiding.

Danielle speaks a lot to the camera and the film contains a lot of footage of her.  Quite a bit of insight is also provided from interviews with Danielle’s wife, Becky, and her best friend, Anita.  Becky talks about their first comical first date, and how they fell in love.  If I had lost my wife and my kids, I would not have transitioned, says Danielle at one point in the film, showing how stronger her love for family is.  Anita talks about Danielle at work and how supportive and fun she is as a best friend.  These episodes show Danielle as a human being with love and compassion and as a freak of nature.  Danielle is currently a little overweight after transitioning and walks with the aid of canes.

It takes a tremendous amount of energy to live a life not of oneself.  Danielle was exceptionally good at hiding other family and she would not do anything to hurt the family.

Starting in 2018, OUR DAD, DANIELLE follows 4 years of Danielle’s life as she faces the unexpected adventures of transitioning alongside her wife and kids who undergo their own transition: adjusting to a new name, pronouns, and social fallout.  At best, the doc shows, as do many previous docs on the subject of trans, that a trans cannot live otherwise and that transitioning is the only option.  Danielle is shown as a success, but not without many trials and tribulations.

Over time, as the political landscape evolves and Danielle's world expands, she integrates into the LGBTQ+ community, using her legal prowess to help fight for the rights of her trans and queer brothers, sisters, and siblings.

OUR DAD, DANIELLE opens on Digital and VOD on Friday, November 01, 2024

Trailer: 

SPIRIT IN THE BLOOD (Canada/Germany 2024) **
Directed by Carly May Borgstrom

Young 15-year-old teen Emerson Grimm (Summer H. Howell) has just moved, to her disdain to the country with her family.  She hates the place and on the first day of school, is made fun of, as the new girl on the block.  At the same time, a young girl is found dead in a secluded religious mountain community.  What follows is Emerson, befriending an outcast in school, Delilah Soleil (Sarah-Maxine Racicot). The two lead a pack of teenage girls who decide to fight against the evil spirits they believe killed her by embracing their own dark nature.  They ignite the spirit in their blood, for bravery to encounter the monster in the woods that had killed the young girl

Director Carly May Borgstrom’s film is unfortunately all over the place, touching but never going deeper into the many issues it brings up like growing up pains, teen isolation, bullying, religious cults, and family relationships.  It is all difficult to identify or feel for any of the characters, all of them exhibiting bad behaviour.  Emerson’s father is rash and angry, and, at one point, he ditches his daughter out of the car in the country.  The daughter, Emerson also is no well behaved daughter, often angry and rebellious.  Her best friend Delilah is also a rebellious teen, smoking and having underage sex with the local boys.  The pastor leader figure in the  town is also overzealous and not sympathetic to the younger youth,

The story also contains a lot of plot loopholes.  The monster that is responsible for the killings suddenly appears at the end attacking both Emerson and Delilah.  Where did this mountain man come from?   The film that contains unsympathetic characters, for the most part, fails to interest for the most part of the film.  The film does pick up in intensity during the last third of the film, even though it defies logic.
A co-production between Canada and Germany and shot in Canada, SPIRIT IN THE BLOOD is an ultimate failure though not for want of trying.  SPIRIT IN THE BLOOD.  SPIRIT IN THE BLOOD is in theatres on November 1.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 25 October 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

10 DAYS OF A CURIOUS MAN (Turkey 2024) *
Directed by Uluç Bayraktar

10 DAYS OF A CURIOUS MAN is the third in a trilogy of Turkish films written and directed by the same people.  The first two 10 DAYS OF A GOOD MAN and 10 DAYS OF A BAD MAN were both made in 2023 and should be available on Netflix.  I have not seen these two and will likely not, judging from how awful 10 DAYS OF A CURIOUS MAN is.

Directed by Uluç Bayraktar and written by Mehmet Eroglu and Damla Serim, 10 DAYS OF A CURIOUS MAN (as are the other two) is a Turkish investigative crime drama that aims to be as stylish as the Philip Marlowe detective noirs but fails miserably primarily for the reason that the plot is so convoluted and difficult to follow while leaving lots of loose ends.  It does not help that all the characters have Turkish names that are impossible to remember and that the hero of the piece is a loser who gets beaten up ever so often and given the run-around.  Not that anything matters.

The film begins with a robbery that looks too silly to be credible.  A bag of money is taken from a car in the middle of the night with the thief, shown then to be a female laughing in the victim’s face.  the story shifts to Sadik Adil Ojal, a lawyer turned private investigator and now a fiction writer who is back again to ruin your week, month, and year because of his curiosity.  The film unfolds in the period of 10 days, beginning g with Day 1.  Sadik takes up the case of a camgirl and adult social media influencer, Mutena “Muti,”, the supposed thief ninth film’s first scene.  Muti lived in Sadik’s new neighbourhood and used to feed the stray kids every morning, but one day she disappeared without a trace. Out of curiosity, Sadik decided to solve the case and lead the audience in a wild goose chase before anything of value was revealed.

Apparently the first two films of he 10 DAYS franchise are much better, but no one would be checking those two out after this one.  10 DAYS OF A CURIOUS MAN is a Netflix original Turkish movie and opens for streaming this week.

Trailer: 

100 YARDS (China 2023) ***
Directed by Xu Haofeng and Xu Junfeng

 

100 YARDS can best be described as a China version of JOHN WICK4. Like JOHN WICK4, 100 YARDS excels in the action fight scenes, in this case, Martial-arts Wushu brand, with minimal emphasis on plot or story. If JOHN WICKS4 is your type of film, then 100 YARSD will do you justice.

The plot can be summarized as such: Two bitter rivals (Jacky Heung and Andy On) duel for stewardship of a wushu academy, in this martial arts caper from Xu Haofeng (The Sword Identity, The Final Master).

Xu Haofeng is a martial arts expert, writer, director, and choreographer (not to mention a celebrated novelist and Taoist scholar) in a class all his own. The film is written and directed in collaboration with Xu Junfeng.

100 YARDS, the martial saga is set in 1920s Tianjin, China. Upon the death of a well-respected martial arts master, two students become bitter rivals as they vie for ownership of his academy.  The 100 YARDS of the title refer to the radius at which the academy protects the people in the circle from bandits and thugs.   The beginning of the film has the death of the master of the academy propagating the chain of events of the story..  One is the master’s top apprentice, Qi (Andy On), the expected heir to the school.  His challenger is the master’s son, Shen (Jacky Heung), whose future was meant to be outside the martial arts circle, were it not for his obstinate passion to pursue his father’s practice.  Shen is destined to work in a bank.  Their dispute is to be settled in combat, but its outcome stirs only malcontent and, as the challenges between the two fighters multiply, customs become stretched and broken to the scandalized shock of their wushu comm

There is some romance added with girls attached to each of the two rivals.

The action sequences involve fights with short sabres, poles and slingshots, as well as bare fists.  The fifth choreography is nothing short of stunning but the lacks a strong narrative, one which is sometimes all over the place, jumping in time tied to test one's patience in watching the film.

100 YARDS had its international premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and opens in theatres on November 15th.

Trailer: 

BIRD (UK 2024) ***
Directed by Andrea Arnold

 

Director Arnold makes excellent gritty movies involving females who stand up for what they believe is right.  In her latest BIRD, surrealism is added to the real and gritty, which does not really work as it undermines the credibility and emotions of the story that has already been carefully built up.   Twelve-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) lives with her father Bug (a devoted but emotionally chaotic Barry Keoghan) in a graffiti-strewn tenement. When Bug informs her that he’ll be marrying his new girlfriend soon, Bailey is furious and hurt, for what will become of her? Her mother lives with a violent, cruel man, and while Bug sports a ferocious love for his daughter, he can be oblivious to the needs of a fledgling teenage girl.  As she often does, Bailey retreats to the open fields on the outskirts of her hometown to seek comfort. It is here she is most herself, with an uncanny ability to communicate with animals and experience nature in a profound way. It is on one of these walks that Bailey has a mysterious, yet deeply meaningful, encounter that helps her when she must force a confrontation with her mother’s vicious partner.  Oscar nominee Keoghan and newcomer Adams both deliver outstanding performances that elevate the film.

 

BLITZ (UK/USA 2024) ****
Directed by Steve McQueen

 

BLITZ is the new Steve McQueen historical drama film that follows a defiant young boy, George (Elliot Hefferman), on an adventure in London during World War II. He finds himself in immense peril amidst the Blitz while his distraught mother, Rita (Saoirse Ronan), searches for him.

Being set in London and being about Londoners, non-Brits could be awash at some of the terms used in the film, though it will not likely affect understanding of the storyline.  The public is refused shelter in the subway where the trains run so the women protest:  “Open the Underground.”  The Brits refer to the subway as the Underground, a term not used outside London.  When George is sent away, the mother is told: “Think of the boy being sent to Blackpool, only better.”  Again, Blackpool is a seaside holiday resort frequented by middle and lower-middle-class Brits, not an esteemed but tacky holiday vacation spot.  And George is given advice by his grandad: “All mouth and no trousers”,  a frequent English saying seldom used in North America.  But director McQueen keeps his film typically very British and there is the British spirit about the film which makes it quaint and attractive.

Director McQueen splashes his film with songs of the period (like Ain’t Misbehavin’), creating a nostalgic period look of the 40s, similar to what the late Terence Davies used to do in films like his minor-masterpiece THE LONG DAY CLOSES, also about a boy growing up in London.

Though not really a coming-of-age of George, the film follows George’s various adventures.  The most pleasant one is his meeting up with three brothers on a train, also running away from their new lodging in the country.  Another adventure that seems borrowed from Dickens’s Oliver Twist, involves George being forced to steal jewelry in bombed destroyed shops by a mentally disturbed man called Johnny.  Johnny is calmed down a few times after getting too aggressively crazy by Beryl, played by one of my favourite British actresses, Kathy Burke who can play anything from drama (NIL BY MOUTH) to comedy (she played Perry in the Brit TV sitcom Kevin and Perry).  The black woman who entices George into the group of thieves can be likened to Nancy and Johnny to Bill Sykes.

Director McQueen also sneaks many key issues into the story.  A white Bris is chided and shamed for creating a barrier in his space in the shelter between him and a Sikh.  Women’s rights are championed and their work in the factory making artillery is appreciated.

A McQueen film is always a pleasure to watch, his artistry always comes across as masterful and stunning.  From disturbing topics like HUNGER to 12 YEARS A SLAVE to BLITZ, cinema audiences can be guaranteed a visual treat.  McQueen creates a wonderfully nostalgic look at the Blitz in 1940s London while sparing the blood, guts and violence, and showing the psychological effects of the tolls of war on the general population.  McQueen emphasizes effectively the need to destroy bigotry, hate and prejudice, which makes the film even more current now that Trump has won the Presidency.

BLITZ is an Apple+ TV original that will open this week for a limited run at the TIFF Lightbox before moving to the streaming service.

Trailer: 

HEATHER (USA 2022) **
Directed by Anthony Repinsky

 

HEATHER the film comes with the tag: “Be careful who you bully.”  One of the bullied transitioned, so, she would not be recognized by the bully years later.

A philanderer is lured into a kinky encounter by a provocative woman, only to discover she has undergone gender reassignment and was once the boy he terrorized in high school.

 `This transgendered-themed thriller is loosely inspired by a story told to Writer/Director Anthony Repinski by a friend who was bullied in high school.  She later transitioned and then was reunited with her bully, who ended up becoming her lover.  Though the film follows the incident quite closely, it is no guarantee that the film will be credible or intriguing.  The film’s most shocking scene, just as in Neil Jordan’s THE CRYING GAME, is when the trans woman pulls out his penis.

The second bullied man appears halfway through the film, the film then changes mode to more of a slasher film.  It is all the point that the trans realizes that she has gone too far and has feelings for the bully.

The bully played by Nick Matthews is a sufficiently despised character and Trans actor Pooya Mphseni tries to look like the prettier thing on the planet as the trans woman, HEATHER.

HEATHER comes across as an exploitative horror schtick rather than a sympathetic look at the trans community,  It also fails as a horror thriller lacking any real suspense or suspenseful set-pieces.

The film has a running time of 75 minutes and will not be rated by the MPAA. Buffalo 8 will release the film on digital platforms on November 8.

Trailer: 

HERETIC (USA 2024) **
Directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods

 

Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) cheerfully go about their mission to spread good news about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Working down a list of doors to knock on, they arrive at the quiet suburban house of Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), who seems not only polite and hospitable but also genuinely fascinated by the history and teachings of Mormonism.  Mr. Reed is nothing that he might seem on the outside, and not turn out to have a hidden agenda, that is very sinister.  The sisters find themselves trapped and unable to escape in this chamber horror piece that stretches a bit too long with a plot stretched far too thin.  Despite Hugh Grant stealing the show, injecting humour amidst the horror, HERETIC just almost succeeds.

INFIDELITY (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Rob Maargolies

A married New York couple finds themselves in a love triangle with their rock star neighbour after exploring an open relationship, further complicated by their rebellious daughter and flirtatious confidante.

Infidelity (an act of) having sex with someone who is not your husband, wife, or regular sexual partner.  Consent does not come into the equation.  In this scenario, consent is sort of, accepted.

Thirty years into a loving, committed marriage, Lyle (Chris Parnell) and Holly (Cara Buono) begin to wonder if all this time they played things too safe in their lives after Holly is jolted by alarming medical news.  As they both grapple with the fact that Holly has never been romantically involved with anyone other than her husband, the two decide to test the boundaries of their relationship.  An unconventional love triangle forms after a flirtation arises between Holly and their charismatic, rockstar neighbour Hoyt (Dennis Haysbert). It soon attracts Holly's hilariously zany and flirtatious friend, Ethel (Douglas), and has surprising ramifications for the married couple's rebellious Gen-Z daughter, Greta (Willow Shields). As they all navigate this uncharted romantic scenario, boundaries are blurred as love is put to the ultimate test.

One of the film’s flaws is the existence of the daughter’s toxic behaviour.  She always argues with her mother, though her mother is doting on her, paying her rent and expenses.  Greta is also flirty and not afraid to take off her clothes in public, as in a concert she attends with her father, who is more liberal to her, but with limits.  Where does this toxic nature come from?  Especially when the two parents are a loving couple who treat her right all the time.  The film's funniest and best segment is the one dinner table scene where Greta brings her older wealthy new boyfriend to meet the parents.  If only more segments could match this one, as the film contains quite many bland segments.

Performances from an otherwise unknown cast deliver credible performances.

INFIDELITY is a film about infidelity with the audience kept at bay whether the husband and wife, both making an almost perfectly loving couple will indulge in the act.  Don’t worry - no spoilers in this review.  They both wonder what it would be like for themselves and the other spouse what it would be like with another sexual partner.  Living one’s entire life with just one partner arouses one's curiosity.  Indeed in the old ages, one partner is the norm, but in these current days, a rarity - whether for good or for worse.  The film at best, debates the fact, even though not in detail.  The film is touted as a dramedy and indeed it is one, light on both aspects of comedy and drama and not too heavy on either.  INFIDELITY is a low-budget likable film, sincere in its delivery, forming light entertainment at best, though not without minor flaws.

INFIDELITY is available on Digital and VOD on Tuesday, November 5th.

Trailer: 

THE PIANO LESSON (USA 2024) **
Directed by Malcolm Washington

 

The Piano Lesson is a 1987 play by American playwright August Wilson. This is the second adaptation, the first being a television film in 1995.  It is the fourth play in Wilson's The Pittsburgh Cycle. Wilson began writing this play by playing with the various answers regarding the possibility of “acquiring a sense of self-worth by denying one's past". The Piano Lesson received the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

THE PIANO LESSON is set in 1936 Pittsburgh during the aftermath of the Great Depression.  It follows the lives of the Charles family in the Doaker Charles household and an heirloom, the family piano, which is decorated with designs carved by an enslaved ancestor. The play focuses on the arguments between a brother (John David Washington) and a sister (Danielle Deadwyler) who have different ideas on what to do with the piano. The brother, Boy Willie, is a sharecropper who wants to sell the piano to buy the land (Sutter's land) where his ancestors toiled as slaves. The sister, Berniece, remains emphatic about keeping the piano, which shows the carved faces of their great-grandfather's wife and son during the days of their enslavement.

The film centres on the siblings’ quarrel about what to do with the piano. Their uncle (Samuel L. Jackson) tries to mediate, but even he can’t hold back the ghosts of the past.

There are 2 climaxes in the film.  One is the entrance of Michael Potts as Wining Boy Charles, drunk from too much whiskey.  He then plunks an exceptionally Blues song on the piano crooning the lyrics at the same time, lifting the film from what is a over heavy laden tone,  The other is the appearance of a spirit that apparently has come from the ancestors carved on the piano that rocks the house and send several meters thudding on the floor and walls.  This last segment looks like a possession piece right out of an EXORCIT film and feels totally out of place with reference to the rest of the film.  There is also a preacher sprinkling of holy water and quoting of the Bible trying to exorcist the spirits.

The film is a Washington family affair with Denzel producing and his two sons, Malcolm directing and John acting.

To the director’s and cinematographer Mike Gioulakis’ credit, the opening sequence set on a night in 1911 and other segments are well filmed.  The above sequence is shot in alternative red and colour as the piano is taken from a house.  The film is often stunning to look at, but the film suffers outstanding flaws including continuity and its staginess as it is based on a play and often feels like one.  Performances are top notch and the music by Alexandre Desalt is exceptional.  But good intentions aside, the film is a mixed mess.

THE PIANO LESSON premiered at this year’s TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL opening at the TIFF Lightbox on November 8th and on the streaming g strive Netflix on November 22nd.

Trailer: 

 

STARRING JERRY AS HIMSELF (USA 2023) **
Directed by Law Chen

 

Award-winning director Law Chen presents the remarkable true story of a retired immigrant caught in an international conspiracy, and the family determined to uncover the truth!

The doc concentrates on Chinese money scams.  The Chinese public has already been warned in the news of such scams.  Here is an excerpt from Vancouver, Canada City News about a similar scam Jerry in the film. The quote: “Vancouver police are warning the community about different types of scams that are specifically targeting those in the Chinese community.

The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) says since the beginning of this year, nearly six million dollars have been lost as a result of these scams.  ‘The first scam tricks the victim into thinking that’s police officer is calling them, and that they need to send money to not be in trouble. Of course, this is bogus, it’s fake. But the victim ends up sending money to a bank in Hong Kong,”

“A similar scam was also reported by the Richmond RCMP last month where a victim lost $1.5 million.”

This is a story about our producer’s father Jerry. Jerry is a retired Taiwanese immigrant living in Orlando.  One day, he gets an urgent call from the Chinese police. They informed him that he was the prime suspect in an international money laundering investigation where $1.28mm was illegally moved through his Florida bank account.  Under threat of arrest and extradition to China, the police force Jerry to cooperate and be an undercover agent in their case. Over the next few weeks, Jerry helps the police investigate an international money laundering case by taking surveillance photos of his bank, making top secret transfers, and even wearing a wire to spy on bank tellers.

After months of keeping the investigation a secret, Jerry finally reveals everything to his family. His three sons decide to document his ordeal and discover the truth about what really happened and how it changed Jerry's life forever.

The doc can be best described as a humorous cinema rewrite takeoff a true crime drama.  The beginning of the doc with its home videos that introduce Jerry and his three sons and ex-wife is entertaining enough before it goes into the more serious stuff.  The trouble with all this is that the audience already knows that Jerry is being scammed and there is hardly any element of surprise left for the majority of the doc.  The doc is also extremely manipulative in its delivery with lots of re-enactments attempting to convince the audience that all the events are happening in real time.  It is as if the filmmakers are scamming the audience the same way Jerry is being scammed,

Though credit should be given to director Law Chen, who also edited the film for taking a different approach in revealing the money scam, one can hardly forgive him for using all his manipulative tactics.

STARRING JERRY AS HIMSELF will stream with a VOD release on November 8, 2024, on HULU, APPLE, AMAZON and everywhere you buy/rent movies.

Trailer: 

UMJOLO: THE GONE GIRL (South Africa 2024) ***
Directed by Fikile ‘Mr Fiks’ Mogodi

 

UMJOLO: THE GONE GIRL is the first of four anthology HAPPINESS films following Happiness is a 4 Letter Word and Happiness Ever After.  This one is directed by Fikile ‘Mr Fiks’ Mogodi in his debut feature.  The films revolve around a group of friends.  It is produced by Lesedi Siswana through Blingola Media, with Bongiwe Selane serving as creative and executive producer.

UMJOLO: THE GONE GIRL tells the story of a young woman, Lethu who is on top of the world when she gets engaged to her perfect boyfriend until a doctor’s appointment changes everything.  Lethu has STD and could have only gotten it from her fiance, LuckyTwho would have got it from sex with another sexual partner,  The film is touted as a romantic comedy but coming from South Africa, it is radically different with lots of nudity, loud and groaning sex and colourful costumes and dances, making this romantic comedy stand out ninth romantic comedy genre, despite the rather familiar storyline.  The film is narrated by a plump guy who speaks directly to the camera, about relationship and their importance, with marriage at the top of the hierarchy of happiness.  This guys appears at various points in the film, giving the voiceover.  He could be a street stall vendor selling fruit and vegetables or a cook I'm[n the kitchen  One can never tell when or where he will show up,

The funniest couple is Thembu, a cheating husband who is always trying to make out with another woman, though he is always in the watchful eye of his angry wife.  Thembu still manages to sweet-talk her out of her anger.  The other couples are the run-of-the-mill who more than not, constantly declare their love for each other.  And have sex.

UMJOLO: THE GONE GIRL opens for streaming on Netflix Friday, November 8th, 2024.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 22 October 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

COLETTE AND JUSTINE (France/Belgium 2022) ***

Directed by Alain Kassada

COLETTE AND JUSTINE are the grandparents of the doc’s director, Alain Kassanda.

Born in Kinshasa and living in Paris, Kassanda embodies the classic immigrant dual identity: in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he is seen as French, while in France he is seen as Congolese.  Determined to understand the colonial legacy from which he comes, Kassanda convinces his grandparents— Colette and Justin— to sit for a series of interviews.  Together, they watch old news footage, remember a visit from the Belgian king, and recall what life was like as part of the nascent Black bourgeoisie who served the colonial administration.  Colette and Justin begin with one man’s search to understand himself and his roots.  But ultimately it is an evocative, poetic and thoughtful meditation on the intersection of political and family history and the multi-generational destructive reach of colonialism.

Alain Kassanda's debut film begins as a self-examination. How well does he know his grandparents? What does he know about his native Congo, which was partly imposed on his identity by colonizer Belgium? And what does he know about himself with that? In Colette et Justin, he travels through time and his personal family history, and he also beautifully brings the history of postcolonial Congo to life. He lets his grandparents look back on their lives, from their youth and first meeting to a complex political period. The Congo's first independent years pass by as a layered history, in which good and evil intertwine and Justin is assigned an important role.

Mixed with interviews with the grandparents, old photos and a few archive footage, director Kassanda creates a fascinating document of the history of a Kingdom seldom seen and hardly known that is both educational, informative and entertaining.

A segment is spent showing archive footage of the King of Belgium, visiting the town where the grandmother lives.  The King is celebrated, and everyone cheers him on in his car.  The grandmother says on camera that it was a grand occasion and she brought his mother, small as she was, to see the King.

Besides this happier segment, there are a few disturbing ones, including one where a black child is locked in an animal cage as observed by two other white children.

As in most colonizations, the colonized respect the colonists despite any abuse. The white man is often seen as superior and the master, probably because of the wealth and privilege that the poorer folk can see.

The doc plays like a history lesson, but a history lesson of a foreign land, which in this case is the Congo.  Though one might argue that life at present and in the past has nothing of interest to the present in North America, it can be argued that many keen observations can be studied, for example in the root of racism and prejudice.  Besides, the doc is also a very interesting one, as there is much that can be learned and observed from the past of the Congo.

For one, many are unfamiliar with the Congo.  The Democratic Republic of the Congo, also known as the DR Congo, the DRC, or Congo-Kinshasa, is a country in Central Africa. By land area, the Congo is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 109 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous Francophone country in the world. The national capital and largest city are Kinshasa, which is also the economic centre.

COLETTE AND JUSTINE arrives on DVD, Amazon Prime Video, and Vimeo On Demand on October 22, 2024. The DVD release includes director Alain Kassanda's earlier short film Trouble Sleep.

Trailer: 

CONCLAVE (UK/USA 2024) ***** Top 10

Directed by Edward Berger

 

Director Berger delivers another stunning and compelling drama CONCLAVE after his much-heralded Oscar Winner ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT.  The CONCLAVE is the process where a new Pontiff is elected by the cardinals after one dies.  It is an elaborate process as Berger illustrates.  Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) oversees the proceedings, assuming that the contest will come down to a battle between the reactionary, openly racist Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) and the liberal progressive Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci). And matters soon turn complicated as rumours circulate, secrets emerge, and acts of sabotage are undertaken. 

 Adapted by Peter Straughan (GOLDFINCH) from the Robert Harris much-acclaimed novel, and shot by cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine (the Vatican is displayed in all its grandeur and unwelcomeness), the film is a masterwork of drama and irrelevance.  The ultimate choice of the new Pope comes as an unexpected twist at the end.  Performances are top-notch all the way around.    The musical score by Volker Bertlemann is necessarily intense, to the point of almost overdoing it.  One of the Top 10 Films at TIFF.

 Trailer: 

HANGDOG (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Matt Cascella

 

The term hangdog is an adjective that means shamefaced, guilty, browbeaten, defeated, or intimidated.  It can be used to describe the protagonist, Walt in the film,  a person who is having a hangdog expression or looking including characteristics of contrite, sheepish, ashamed, crestfallen, and wretched.  Assured and confident, Walt is not.  From the film’s opening scene in which a couple wakes up in bed with their cuddly pooch, the dialogue that follows indicates a slight comedy and a couple’s relationship.  And with a dog involved.  The scene follows when Wendy proposes marriage to Walt while he is naked in the shower just to get things off her chest, as he says.  There is trouble in paradise and perhaps the relationship should once more be examined.  This is the core of the story behind HANGDOG.

The catalyst of the story is the dog Walt is looking after, which gets stolen while Walt ties him up at a pole.  He is distraught and unable to tell his girl what has happened.  As she is retiring soon, there is the race of the time to recover the pooch.  He finds the culprit and takes action.

The story is set in Portland, few films do, so it is good to learn a bit about Portland as well.  Portland, Oregon’s largest city, sits on the Columbia and Willamette rivers, in the shadow of snow-capped Mount Hood. It’s known for its parks, bridges and bicycle paths, as well as for its eco-friendliness and its microbreweries and coffeehouses. Iconic Washington Park encompasses sites from the formal Japanese Garden to the Oregon Zoo and its railway. The city hosts thriving art, theatre and music scenes.  The script uses the most out of the setting.   There are scenes with the dog walking by the beach.  Walt also has dreams of being an artist and perhaps owning his own studio in his garage.  The film also shows various sights around Portland,

Walt is a fish out of water in his own skin. He’s now also a fish out of water in Portland, Maine, having recently moved with his girlfriend, Wendy (Kelly O’Sullivan, GHOSTLIGHT, SAINT FRANCIS), to be closer to her parents.  Without a job or a plan, and with a new dog competing for Wendy’s affection, Walt has reached peak anxiety.

In their debut narrative feature, husband-and-wife creative team Matt Cascella (Director and Editor) and Jen Cordery (Writer) capture the idiosyncrasies of the ‘little’ people of the city.  There is the nosy neighbour that would invite a neighbour over for a beer and the mother-and-son family of thieves among others.

Desmin Borges is quite the delight in the title role of the hapless hero who has fate against him too many times.  He is not too handsome and can be considered attractive in a goofy way.  He carries the entire film on his shoulders with his girl playing secondary.

HANGDOG is a charming bittersweet relationship comedy about two imperfect beings who work at what they have to make things work.

HANGDOG  opens on Digital Nationwide on October 25 and is also available to rent/purchase across all major platforms.

Trailer: 

 

HIJACK ’93 (Nigerian 2024) ***
Directed by Robert Peters

 

HIJACK ’93 is based on a true-life incident that took place some 30 years ago in 1993.  A hijack!  In an effort to dismantle their military-backed government, four men hijack an airplane, leveraging passengers on board in the name of social change.

HIJACK ’93 is a Nollywood film, complete with Nigerian actors speaking Nigerian or pidgin English.  Nollywood, a portmanteau of Nigeria and Hollywood, is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry.  The origin of the term goes back to the early 2000s, as traced in an article in The New York Times.  Though the Nigerian Film Industry is substantial.  Netflix provides viewers with a taste of Hollywood cinema.  HIJACK ’93 is an entertaining enough film, mixing true crime with some thrills, and tongue-in-cheek humour, in a Nigerian setting.

The tongue-in-cheek humour:

“You will take control of the plane and force the pilot to land in Frankfurt.  That is where your new lives begin.”  these are the instructions given to the 4 young ‘volunteered’ hijackers by the one in command.  The group is for the advance of Democracy and the demand is to reinstate the democratic leader that according to the group, belongs to power.  And what if it does go according to plan?  The answer: Sometimes it takes great risk and great effort.

There is also melodrama in the style of the original AIRPORT movie.  Like the pilot played by Dean Martin having an affair with flight attendant Jacqueline Bisset, the pilot of the Nigerian plane is about to be wed to a flight attendant.  There are a variety of screams on the plane as well, all this likely added to the film for ‘artistic’ entertainment.

HIJACK’93 is available for streaming on Netflix beginning Friday, October 25th, 2024.

Trailer: 

LOUPS-GAROUS (Family Pack) (France 2024) **

Directed by Francois Ozan

 

Directed by Francois Ozan, not to be confused with Francois Ozon, the Netflix original adventure fantasy family film is based on the card game The Werewolves of Millers Hollow (French: Les Loups-garous de Thiercelieux) created by the French authors Philippe des Pallières and Hervé Marly that can be played with 8 to 47 players.  The game is based on the Russian game Mafia.  It was nominated for the 2003 Spiel des Jahres award and a trendy game in France.

The film centres on a family, grafter Gilbert (Jean Reno) and the father and mother played Franck Dubosc as Jérôme and Suzanne Clément as Marie with assorted children.    Gilbert, who is slowly losing his memory due to old age has found the game in the attic and has been playing the game making up the rules as time goes along.  The family sits down to play the game.  Whilst playing this mysterious board game the family is transported to a medieval land beset by werewolves.

A few credibility problems in the story.  The reason the family is transported to medieval times is largely omitted asa well as returning back to current times.

In the board game, before the game starts, a person will be designated as the game master. That person then randomly gives each player a card, after which each player secretly discovers their identity by looking at the card.  All players are divided into two teams: the townsfolk (some of them having special roles) and the werewolves. The townsfolk's aim is to uncover and eliminate all werewolves, while the werewolves' aim is to stay undiscovered and eliminate all townspeople.

In the film which steals the basic concept of the game, the village where the family is time transported to experience a problem.  At night werewolves attack the village and kill innocent victims.  The villagers are thus fearful of strangers.  When the Jerome family suddenly appears in different attire, they are immediately suspected of sorcery.  But they do hold superhuman peers, as the players in the game also hold, the powers not immediately known or made known to each.  At the same time, the neighbours are holding a medieval carnival and everyone dresses up for the occasion.  So when the family is transported to the past, they initially think that they are in the carnival, until the first beheading in which the blood is discovered to be real.  This is the only violent part in the family film, though the beheading is shown off-screen.

For a family film, director Ozan’s is strong on messages, though too strong and obvious for one’s liking.  The one on the strength of women and how women should stand up when being abused is preached loud and clear in the movie.  The women in the old times expect to be beaten, as part of the marriage,   The other is the strength of the family.

The film suffers from being quite bland which is expected for a family movie.  The special effects are satisfactory at best, though the costumes and set pieces are well done.

LOUPS-GAROUS (Family Pack) opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

Trailer: 

VENOM: THE LAST DANCE (USA 2024) **

Directed by Kelly Marcel

 

Venom is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is a sentient alien symbiote with an amorphous, liquid-like form, who survives by bonding with a host, usually human. This dual-life form receives enhanced powers and usually refers to itself as "Venom". The Venom symbiote's first human host was Spider-Man himself, who eventually discovered its true nefarious nature and separated himself from the creature.  The character was portrayed by Tobey Maguire and Topher Grace in Spider-Man 3 (2007), with Tom Hardy primarily portraying the character in Sony's Spider-Man Universe films Venom (2018) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) and once again in this latest film VENOM: TBE LAST DANCE.

VENOM: THE LAST DANCE features the Marvel Comics character and is a sequel to Venom (2018) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), the fifth film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU), and the third and final installment of the Venom trilogy.  It was written and directed by Kelly Marcel. Tom Hardy stars as Eddie Brock and Venom alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Stephen Graham, Peggy Lu, Clark Backo and Alanna Ubach. In the film, Eddie and Venom are on the run from both of their worlds.  The story is by both Marcel and Tom Hardy, and it is quite simplistic, involving the world and even the Universe about to be destroyed and nothing much else.  After all, the simple plot is helped by the fact that Eddie Brock is alone with no family or girlfriend.

The super action hero flick suffers from a weak narrative, leading the film towards relying on special effects and action set pieces, though not too bad while tending to get boring after a while.  Tom Hardy as Brock with his wisecracking humour is the best thing in the film which thankfully lasts less than 2 hours.

The highlight of the film is the impromptu dance between Eddie Brock and Mrs. Chen.  Out of the blue, Brock sees Mrs. Chen playing in a Las Vegas casino.  They go into an elaborate dance in an inspired crazy sequence that can be watched more than once.  But also accompanying this are a few over-the-tip ridiculous scenes like the beginning where the villain monster growls and groans about taking vengeance on his offspring and destroying the Universe.

VENOM: THE LAST DANCE opens in theatres on October 25th,  Given the record of the last two VENOM films and the lack of a blockbuster in the recent few weeks.s the film should make a killing at the box office.

Trailer: 

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