Movie Review: The Farewell (2019)

Genre: Dramedy  

Director: Lulu Wang  

Starring: Awkwafina, Zhao Shu-zhen  

Running Time: 100 minutes  

Synopsis: In her early 30s, Billi (Awkwafina) lives in New York City where her parents settled, but maintains a warm bond with her grandmother Nai Nai (Zhao Shu-zhen) in Changchun, China. When Nai Nai is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, the bad news is kept from her and the family hurriedly contrives a wedding as an excuse to gather and bid her a surreptitious farewell. Billi is heartbroken about her grandma's impending demise and uneasy about the deception, but the trip is an opportunity to deepen her understanding of the family's culture.

What Works Well: Based on the actual experiences of writer and director Lulu Wang, a middle class family's bonds, stresses, and foibles create a loving cross-cultural tableau. Billi's parents immigrated to the US, her uncle's side of the family settled in Japan, and now they all gather in their homeland to participate in an underhanded farewell, Nai Nai the centre of attention but the only family member unaware that she is dying. Through this lens, awkwardness, joy within sadness, tears, laughter, frustration, and typical (but no less cutting) judgments between generations emerge. Subtle scenes tease out individuality, Billi the most obvious outsider/observer, but her mother and uncle also contributing unique perspectives. A playful music soundtrack adds texture to the affectionately messy gatherings.

What Does Not Work As Well: The clutter of characters often stuffed into small spaces reduces many of them to a peripheral presence. In general, the overriding emotions are stagnant, Billi's sadness and puzzlement held in place throughout the trip.

Key Quote:

Nai Nai: Life isn't just about what you do, it's more about how you do it.

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Movie Review: I Am Mother (2019)

Genre: Science Fiction  

Director: Grant Sputore  

Starring: Clara Rugaard, Hilary Swank, Rose Byrne  
Running Time: 113 minutes  

Synopsis: After a human extermination event, the droid "Mother" (voiced by Rose Byrne) oversees a technology-controlled bunker stocked with thousands of human embryos. Mother grows one embryo into a Daughter and raises her over the years. As a teenager, the lonely Daughter (Clara Rugaard) becomes increasingly restless, but Mother insists that the outside world is contaminated. Their living arrangements are disrupted when a Woman (Hilary Swank) from the outside pleads for entry into the bunker, and Daughter decides to let her in.

What Works Well: This Australian production starts with the solid opening premise of humanity's demise, and then deviously stretches the scope in unexpected directions. Writer Michael Lloyd Green is interested in themes of trust, responsibility, motherhood, species salvation, and the role of technology, but only gradually reveals the plot's specific intentions. The bunker's dark and mazy hallways accommodate survival essentials within the glistening aesthetic of a machine-controlled environment, and Clara Rugaard capably carries an acting load spanning from innocent wonderment to duty fulfillment.

What Does Not Work As Well: The pacing is slow, and the running time is 20 minutes longer than necessary. The clever resolutions still leave a few important plot holes unexplained.

Key Quote:

Mother: Humans can be wonderful.

Daughter: Then why did you only make one?

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Movie Review: Brightburn (2019)

Genre: Horror  

Director: David Yarovesky  

Starring: Elizabeth Banks, Jackson A. Dunn, David Denman  

Running Time: 90 minutes  

Synopsis: In rural Kansas, farmers Tori and Kyle Breyer (Elizabeth Banks and David Denman) are unable to conceive a child. An alien spacecraft crashes onto their farm, and they adopt the baby that they find within it. Twelve years later, their son Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn) starts to receive alien messages and exhibit strange behaviour, and then discovers super powers. Brandon learns his mission on Earth is evil, and unleashes horror on the community and anyone who attempts to stop him. 

What Works Well: The premise of a far-from-benevolent alien in child form is intriguing, and the no-matter-what bond between mother and son creates a sturdy foundation for parental disbelief. The special effects are impressive, and director David Yarovesky effectively deploys moments of shock and gore. Jackson A. Dunn is chilling as a subdued force of evil causing havoc in a well-drawn small-town milieu. The pacing is brisk enough to pack plenty of carnage into 90 minutes.

What Does Not Work As Well: Ambitions exceed the capacity to deliver, the narrative caught between global menace and local slasher. Brandon's strengths, once revealed, are supercharged, and yet unleashed according to traditional and toying stalk-and-terrify-before-the-kill victim-by-victim rhythms.

Key Quote:

Brandon: I've realized I'm special. Because my real parents aren't from a stupid place like here.



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Movie Review: The Last Duel (2021)

Genre: Medieval Historical Romance Drama  

Director: Ridley Scott  

Starring: Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Ben Affleck, Jodie Comer  

Running Time: 153 minutes  

Synopsis: In France of the late 1300's, Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) and Jacques le Gris (Adam Driver) are warriors serving the King through the powerful Count Pierre d'Alençon (Ben Affleck). After Jean saves Jacques' life in battle, their paths diverge and their friendship suffers. Desperate for an heir, Jean marries Marguerite (Jodie Comer), the daughter of a traitor, and continues to lead men into battle. The womanizing Jacques turns to politics and becomes Pierre's confidant, reaping land and title rewards at Jean's expense. Jacques than falls in love with Marguerite, setting up an epic duel to the death between the two men.

What Works Well: Based on actual events, the film is structured into three chapters recounting the same events from the perspective of Jean, then Jacques, then Marguerite. The he said, he said, she said sequencing gels into a powerful drama of personal rivalry culminating in a disputed rape. Themes of friendship, betrayal, honour, and gender roles provide an undercurrent to broader narratives of politics and war, director Ridley focusing more on people than strategy. The grey and muddy aesthetics capture a medieval France dominated by landlords, warriors, and imposing castles providing a backdrop for short but effective displays of battlefield brutality.

What Does Not Work As Well: The differences between the three versions are often subtle, and sometimes non-existent, resulting in tedious repetition and a bloated running time. While the performances are uniformly adequate, it is jarring to find Damon, Driver, and Affleck, all strongly associated with defining their current cinematic era, congregating in the medieval muck.

Key Quote:

Jean de Carrouges: God will not punish those who tell the truth.

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Movie Review: The Protégé (2021)

Genre: Action  

Director: Martin Campbell  

Starring: Maggie Q, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Patrick  

Running Time: 109 minutes  

Synopsis: In 1991, professional hitman Moody (Samuel L. Jackson) stumbles upon young orphan Anna in Vietnam and smuggles her out of the country. Thirty years later, London-based Anna (Maggie Q) and Moody are an assassination team ridding the world of mobsters. When they start searching for a reclusive target, they trigger the attention of the mysterious Michael Rembrandt (Michael Keaton). An attraction develops between Anna and Rembrandt, but she soon finds herself on her own, back in Vietnam, and up against a well-resourced foe who does not want to be exposed.

What Works Well: This proficient action thriller never sales unexpected heights, but also rarely disappoints. Writer Richard Wenk crafts a familiar story of assassins operating in the shadows with a veteran/protégé dynamic and an attempt at attraction-between-foes sizzle. Helped by a strong cast, the characters carry backstories and are interesting enough to develop and maintain momentum. The plot courts complexity, allowing Anna to encounter more than one surprising twist, while the judiciously deployed and decently edited action scenes provide the punctuation marks.

What Does Not Work As Well: Both Maggie Q and Michael Keaton do well, but their romantic chemistry is forced and not at all helped by a ridiculous 28 year age difference. The main antagonist is a poorly defined prominent public figure with a dark side.

Key Quote:

Moody: Our past is never where we left it, we all have scars. If you stare at them long enough you will remember how you got them.



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Movie Review: Black Bear (2020)

Genre: Drama  

Director: Lawrence Michael Levine  

Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Christopher Abbott, Sarah Gadon  

Running Time: 104 minutes  

Synopsis: Two separate stories unfold sequentially at the same isolated resort lake house. In the first, film director and former actress Allison (Aubrey Plaza) is struggling with writer's block, and arrives at the resort looking for inspiration. She is quickly caught in the bickering crossfire of the resort operators Gabe (Christopher Abbott) and his pregnant girlfriend Blair (Sarah Gadon). In the second part, Gabe is a film director directing his wife Allison in a domestic drama. He pretends to be having an affair with actress Blair to extract a searing performance out of Allison.

What Works Well: Some sizzle lurks in the spiky sparring of mismatched couple Gabe and Blair, where every word is scrutinized, challenged, and shredded. Aubrey Plaza's performance as the wronged actress and disrespected wife is scintillatingly raw, despite her character's over-dependence on mind-altering substances. 

What Does Not Work As Well: This experimental and independent drama does not lack ambition in drawing inspiration from Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf?, but the rough results best belong on a small theatre stage. The two-part structure exposes an unsuccessful search for a framework to nurture underdeveloped ideas about feminism, fidelity, and deceit, and both segments suffer from meanness expressed by overheated and infantile emotions. The second half is cluttered by the film-within-a-film crew, either ironically or methodically ticking off diversity boxes while still confining the secondary characters to interchangeable stereotypes. 

Key Quote:

Gabe (to Allison about Blair): She can't stand the fact that I have a single thought about this world.

Blair: No, it's not that I can't stand that you have the thoughts about the world. It's that I can't stand the thoughts about the world that you have.

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Movie Review: The Card Counter (2021)

Genre: Drama  

Director: Paul Schrader  

Starring: Oscar Isaac, Willem Dafoe, Tye Sheridan, Tiffany Haddish  

Running Time: 112 minutes  

Synopsis: Convicted for his role in the Abu Ghraib prison atrocities, former US Army soldier William Tell (Oscar Isaac) uses his time behind bars to learn blackjack card counting. Once released, he travels between casinos keeping a low profile and aiming for modest winnings. William is also a good poker player, and stable manager La Linda (Tiffany Haddish) offers to bankroll him. At a security convention, William meets Cirk (Tye Sheridan), a young man plotting revenge on retired Major John Gordo (Willem Dafoe), who was instrumental in teaching torture techniques during the Iraq War. William takes Cirk under his wing to keep him out of trouble, and turns to the poker circuit to raise a large amount of money in a hurry.

What Works Well: Stylish cinematography conveys a sense of resigned desperation in the seen-one-seen'em-all hotel casinos and poker rooms where gamblers go to work. A stone-faced Oscar Isaac hides behind shades and conveys a man-on-a-mission-to-disappear vibe, pausing only long enough to wrap motel room furniture in white sheets.

What Does Not Work As Well: Despite the involvement of producer Martin Scorsese, the cards are drawn from different decks and suffer from shiftless lethargy. The plot meanders from blackjack to poker, from gambling drama to the emotional scars of war, from low-key winnings to in-the-spotlight tournaments, and from a one-person character study to another person's not-even-half-baked revenge plot. Unsurprisingly, the internally inconsistent dramatic components falter like scattered chips in a mess of misguided bets. William's transformation from loner to father figure is unconvincing, Willem Dafoe barely features and need not have bothered, a crucial confrontation is omitted, an irritating poker foe is built-up and left hanging, and Tiffany Haddish's character adds nothing of value.

Key Quote:

Major Gordo: This is where all the good stuff happens.

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Movie Review: The Dry (2020)

Genre: Crime Drama  

Director: Robert Connolly  

Starring: Eric Bana, Genevieve O'Reilly  

Running Time: 117 minutes  

Synopsis: Melbourne-based federal agent Aaron Falk (Eric Bana) returns to his rural home town of Kiewarra to attend the funeral of his childhood friend Luke, who died along with his wife and son in an apparent murder-suicide. With the area suffering from extreme drought and all the farmers struggling financially, Luke's parents plead with Aaron to investigate the deaths. Flashbacks recall Aaron and Luke's carefree teenage years with friends Gretchen and Ellie, which end in a tragedy that drives Aaron away and under a dark cloud. In the present, he rekindles a relationship with Gretchen (Genevieve O'Reilly), and his sleuthing uncovers a web of possible motives surrounding the death of Luke and his family.

What Works Well: This Australian production adapts the Jane Harper novel into slow-burning but always engaging dual mysteries unfolding a generation apart. A sun-drenched environment starved for water creates a sweltering setting, director Robert Connolly and cinematographer Stefan Duscio capturing wide open but parched farmlands where the cracks in the soil hide secrets and resentments. Eric Bana is a stoic presence, holding back on engaging at the emotional level as he probes the locals, many of whom blame him for a community calamity from the past.

What Does Not Work As Well: Given all the investment in character, mood, and milieu, the third act revelations are rushed. Some weapon-and-ammunition details related to the family killings are bungled, suggesting a slipshod initial investigation. For all his circumspect care in questioning the locals, Aaron has an awkwardly contrived encounter with Gretchen seemingly designed to impose a boulder upon their path to romance.

Key Quote:

Gretchen (to Aaron): You of all people should be minding your own business.

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Movie Review: Last Night In Soho (2021)

Genre: Supernatural Psychological Horror Drama Mystery  

Director: Edgar Wright  

Starring: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Terence Stamp, Diana Rigg  

Running Time: 116 minutes  

Synopsis: Mild-mannered Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie) was raised by her grandmother to love 1960s music and culture, and now moves to London to pursue a fashion design education. She rents a room from the kindly Ms Collins (Diana Rigg) in the SoHo neighbourhood, and starts experiencing visions of the vivacious Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), who arrived in 1960s London seeking fame as a singer. Sandie is spotted by talent agent Jack (Matt Smith), who appears helpful but has vile intentions. Ellie is initially inspired and exhilarated by her visions, but when Sandie's story turns dark, Ellie's life becomes a nightmare.

What Works Well: In this mind-bending and genre-melding delight, director and co-writer Edgar Wright explores themes of loneliness and fitting-in while simultaneously saluting and persecuting the Swinging Sixties. After a careful introduction to Ellie's ambitions, character, and mental state, Sandie enters the picture with a bang, Anya Taylor-Joy luxuriating in a fearless role. London of the mid-1960s is recreated with loving affection boosted by a terrific soundtrack, inventive cinematography, and clever use of mirrors. But the defining fashions and nightclub pizzazz also hide an exploitive culture feeding on vulnerable young women. A devious across-the-decades crime mystery draws Ellie into danger beyond just nightmares triggered by the past.

What Does Not Work As Well: The horror sequences featuring ghost-like beings lean towards excess and diminish the more effective psychological suspense milieu.

Key Quote:

Ellie: Has a woman ever died in my room?

Ms Collins: This is London. Someone has died in every room in every building and on every street corner in the city.

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Movie Review: Midsommar (2019)

Genre: Horror  

Director: Ari Aster  

Starring: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Will Poulter  

Running Time: 147 minutes  

Synopsis: Dani (Florence Pugh) loses her parents and sister in shocking circumstances, straining her relationship with boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor). Nevertheless the couple accept an invitation from Christian's friend Pelle to visit his home community in rural Sweden in time for a midsummer festival. Upon arrival the tension between Dani and Christian intensifies as they dabble in hallucinogenics and witness the increasingly troubling rituals of an isolated pagan community.

What Works Well: The opening pre-credit sequence leading to the demise of Dani's family is excellent, drawing on Florence Pugh's full range as she navigates uncertainty, loss, grief, disorientation, and doubt. The scenes in Sweden benefit from occasionally interesting cinematography. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Languid pacing, shallow character definitions, minimal plot points, endless scenes of staring, chanting, dancing, and hollering, and the absence of suspense decimate momentum. Writer and director Ari Aster leans heavily on a couple of shocking moments and some gore, both quite insufficient to justify a bloated running time that is a good one hour longer than necessary.

Key Quote:

Pelle (to Dani, about Christian): He's my good friend and I like him, but... Dani, do you feel held by him? Does he feel like home to you?



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