Movie Review: Eden (2024)

Genre: Historical Drama  

Director: Ron Howard  

Starring: Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Daniel Brühl, Sydney Sweeney, Vanessa Kirby  

Running Time: 130 minutes  

Synopsis: In 1921, Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) and his partner Dore (Vanessa Kirby) escape an increasingly Fascist Europe and settle on the uninhabited island of Floreana in the Galápagos Islands. Ritter wants to write a manifesto for a better world, while Dore hopes the climate will improve her health. Their solitude is disrupted by the arrival of fellow German couple Margret and Heinz Wittmer (Sydney Sweeney and Daniel Brühl) and their sick son. They are determined to start a new life, and Margret is soon pregnant. Tension escalates with the arrival of self-proclaimed Baroness Eloise (Ana de Armas) and her small entourage. She is a hypersexual manipulative narcissist, and plans to open a luxury hotel on the island.

What Works Well: Based on astonishing actual events, this drama is a condemnation of the base human condition. In an environment combining unspoiled paradise with harsh reality, it only takes a society of five people to bring out conflict, crime, self-interest, deception, and back-stabbing. Ron Howard directs with understated watchfulness, allowing rustic beauty to house an experiment of emotional disintegration. Only small acts of kindness break through the gloom, and then only begrudgingly, momentarily, and often for convenience. The central performances are grounded in gritty survivalism, Jude Law clacking a typewriter into madness, Sydney Sweeney uncovering animal instincts during a birth scene for the ages, and Ana de Armas excelling as the Baroness of wickedness.

What Does Not Work As Well: A slight trim to the running time would have improved the pacing.

Key Quote:

Baroness: Margret! You must tell us all about the birth. Was it fun?

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Movie Review: Blonde (2022)

Genre: Biographical Drama

Director: Andrew Dominik

Starring: Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Julianne Nicholson

Running Time: 166 minutes

Synopsis: In Los Angeles of the 1930s, a young Norma Jean Baker grows up without a father. She is raised by her unstable mother Gladys (Julianne Nicholson), who is eventually institutionalized. By the 1950s, Norma Jean is finding some success under the name Marilyn Monroe as a magazine model and in minor movie roles. Stunningly beautiful, she is soon elevated to a leading actress and becomes a sex symbol, and in her private life embarks on a polyamorous relationship. Fame, fortune, and a couple of high profile marriages follow, but Norma Jean is unprepared for the celebrity life, and is always haunted by her traumatic childhood.

What Works Well: The mélange of facts and imaginations does not hold back, writer and director Andrew Dominik (adapting the Joyce Carol Oates book) mixing oodles of style with an often harrowing story of loneliness, self-doubt, loss, and abuse. The mix of aspect ratios and colour/black and white cinematography achieves a hypnotic representation of a tumultuous life. Ana de Armas fully invests in the role, recreating some of Monroe's most famous celebrity moments for a lost-in-Hollywood portrait where screen personas consume reality.

What Does Not Work Well: Monroe's fixation on her missing father is allowed to dominate, and eventually becomes a tiresome device. The running time is inexcusably long, and despite the bloat, several characters emerge suddenly around Marilyn with neither an introduction nor context. Bobby Cannavale (as Joe DiMaggio) and Adrien Brody (as Arthur Miller) are reduced to stock representations, joining all other supporting characters in failing to leave a sustained imprint.

Conclusion: A suitably messy depiction of one fragile woman forced to deal with inhumane pressure unleashed by public lust.



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Movie Review: The Gray Man (2022)

An action chase thriller, The Gray Man is brimming with spectacular set-pieces at the expense of everything else.

In 2003, a convicted murderer known only as Six (Ryan Gosling) is recruited by the CIA's Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton) to join the Sierra shadow assassination program. By 2021 Fitzroy has been forced to retire and Carmichael (Regé-Jean Page) is taking over, intent on shutting down Sierra. He uses Six and agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) to kill Four in Bangkok, but Six secures secret files damaging to Carmichael and becomes the next target.

Carmichael and his subordinate Suzanne Brewer (Jessica Henwick) recruit ruthless independent assassin Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), and he in turn places an international contract on Six. As the chase progresses across Europe, Six can only trust Fitzroy and Miranda as he seeks to stay alive and expose Carmichael's dirty secrets.

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo (who also co-wrote the script), The Gray Man is a stunts-and-CGI show, with barely a plot to hang the action on. The quality of execution is stellar, with slick cinematography, vivid colours, and imaginative near misses as one town centre after another is reduced to rubble (Prague is particularly hard done by). Some of the lines of dialogue are razor sharp, both Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans having fun playing up sardonic twists.

But in the absence of any meaningful characterizations or just causes, the core is hollow. The digital files triggering all the violence are a sterile MacGuffin, and the yet-another-internal-CIA battle is an exhausted premise. The film settles into a boring rinse-and-repeat cycle of chases, fights, shoot-outs, explosions, and close quarters bone crunching battles, with a ludicrously high body count.

Six demonstrates a remarkable ability to survive a near death experience every six (ok, eight) minutes, and a more amazing ability to quickly recover from severe puncture wounds. An attempt to place a child (Fitzroy's niece) in danger never rises above the status of cheap ploy. Alfre Woodard does make a welcome contribution in her one scene as a retired British intelligence head. 

Six and Lloyd square off for the obligatory final mano-a-mano battle about two hours in. The can fight each other, but they cannot defeat the get-it-over-with-already gray haze.



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Movie Review: Deep Water (2022)

An erotic crime drama, Deep Water is a decent throwback to stories mixing sex, mystery, and malevolence. 

In Louisiana, wealthy and retired chip designer Vic Van Allen (Ben Affleck) is married to Melinda (Ana de Armas), and they have a young daughter Trixie. Although he loves his wife, Vic does not easily display his emotions. In contrast, Melinda is passionate, demands constant affection, and works overtime to make her husband jealous by publicly flirting with other men.

Vic hints darkly that he murdered one of Melinda's former lovers. Her current close friend Joel, a musician, senses the threat and leaves town. Melinda's next man-on-the-side is piano teacher Charlie. When he drowns in a swimming pool incident, suspicions swirl around Vic, and aspiring crime author Don Wilson (Tracy Letts) starts poking around Vic's life. But Melinda is not yet done with new liaisons, leading to more turmoil.

After a twenty year absence since Unfaithful, Adrian Lyne returns to directing duties. Deep Water is familiar terrain for a director always interested in the intersection - but not full overlap - of sex, jealousy, and love. Writers Zach Helm and Sam Levinson adapt the Patricia Highsmith novel with emphasis on churning emotions beneath a staid surface, and the film draws power from the slow reveal of a unique relationship surviving on dysfunctionality.

The film does spend plenty of time in the same emotional space, but is modestly enjoyable on its own terms, including accepting the fundamentals of the Van Allen marriage. His analytically cold demeanour collides with her over-expressive nymphomania, but these opposites do attract. They knowingly push the necessary buttons to generate sparks, whether through anger or arousal. Observing a relationship seeking balance on an unconventional edge is one of the narrative strengths.

The murder and mystery elements are handled with less elegance, and exist in a suspect world of limited scrutiny. Four men related to Vic and Melinda meet a foul end; only once does Lyne bother to show investigators doing their jobs. In one of the weaker elements, it is left to aspiring author Don Wilson to instigate ineffective amateur sleuthing.

Ben Affleck is a perfect fit for the bottled-up Vic, and that's just fine because Ana de Armas generates enough wanton lust for the both of them. In an unremarkable secondary cast, all her would-be lovers are too generic to register, and they appear in her life like men falling off an assembly plant conveyor belt.

Deep Water does not reinvent the erotic mystery thriller, but rather welcomes it back with a seductive massage.



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Movie Review: No Time To Die (2021)

The 25th chapter in the James Bond franchise, No Time To Die enhances a rich story with human emotions and plenty of action, but balloons to a staggering 163 minutes.

In a pre-prologue, Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek) avenges his family's murder by killing the wife of Spectre assassin Mr. White, but he spares the life of White's young daughter Madeleine. 

In the prologue, Spectre's leader Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) has been captured and is being held by MI6. Retired agent James Bond (Daniel Craig) is vacationing in Italy with his lover Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), now a psychotherapist. Bond barely survives an assassination attempt and suspects Madeleine may have betrayed him. He breaks off their relationship.

Five years later in London, Dr. Obruchev is kidnapped along with files and vials related to Project Heracles, a secret initiative funded by MI6's head M (Ralph Fiennes) to develop DNA-targeting weaponry. The CIA's Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) prods Bond out of retirement to find Obruchev in Cuba. He tangles with Nomi (Lashana Lynch), the new Agent 007, but is helped by the CIA's agent Paloma (Ana de Armas). Bond has to dodge another assassination attempt as he uncovers Safin's destructive plot, with Madeleine re-entering his life under unexpected circumstances.

Daniel Craig's fifth and final outing as James Bond is an engrossing adventure, infused with soulful reflection whenever the action pauses. This is Bond in retirement, seeking a graceful exit and the longshot promise of a lasting love, licking his emotional wounds and forced back into free-lance service. He appears detached and far removed from events back at MI6, where M, Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), and Q (Ben Whishaw) now have a new 007 to support.

But loyalty runs deep, and with M facing a mess of his own making, director Cary Joji Fukunaga taps into the close ties between Moneypenny, Q, and Bond for the ex-agent to receive needed logistical support. The plot is relatively straightforward if well beyond the bounds of logic, Blofeld still dangerous from his prison cell but Safin consigning Spectre to the sidelines as he expands his quest for maniacal revenge to global proportions.

In pursuit of yet another infiltrate-and-destroy-the-fort climax, the script (worked on by a combination of Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Fukunaga, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge) starts to mix-up science and technology with old fashioned and seemingly absurd men in hazmat suits mixing a witch's broth of poison in underground lakes. Safin's motivations become murkier by the minute, Rami Malek sinking so deep into the role that his own poisonous flowers start to bend away in confusion, and Bond survives numerous un-survivable moments to set up the final showdown.

The action scenes are well-staged, crisply edited, and keep on coming. None are necessarily original, but good quality supports the overwhelming quantity. Nothing justifies the mammoth running time, but to its credit, the film is also never boring. Bond, Paloma, and Nomi gatecrashing then escaping a convention of Spectre assassins stands as the most memorable highlight.

Amidst all the bullets, explosions, and roaring engines, No Time To Die also keeps an eye on the people. A rare undercurrent of poignancy flows through Bond's connections to Felix and Madeleine, while one monumental character-driven twist succeeds in deepening Bond's legacy. 

Now in his early fifties, Daniel Craig bows out at the right time. He is at his best in the more expressive scenes where a history of doling out death casts a long dark shadow. Bond may have no time to die, but he finally appreciates all the time in the world.



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Movie Review: The Informer (2019)

A gritty drama and thriller, The Informer maintains low key intensity but is hampered by loose plotting and some disinterested performances.

In New York City, ex-convict Pete Koslow (Joel Kinnaman) is working as a mole for FBI Agent Erica Wilcox (Rosamund Pike) to infiltrate the fentanyl empire of Polish mobster The General (Eugene Lipinski). Erica's boss Keith Montgomery (Clive Owen) gives the go-ahead for a sting operation to arrest The General, but it all goes wrong and undercover New York police detective Gomez is killed.

To clean up the mess, The General wants Pete to serve time and seize control of the drug trade from within the prison system. Erica and Keith pressure Pete into accepting the deal, and he is forced to leave his wife Sofia (Ana de Armas) and young daughter and head back behind bars. Meanwhile NYPD detective Grens (Common) is oblivious to the FBI operation and just wants to know who killed his partner Gomez. Pete is soon facing dangers and betrayals from all sides.

A thriller that dares to forgo routine car chases and shoot-outs, The Informer deserves credit for adopting a reticent approach to the conundrums of one man caught in the grey world between hardened criminals and heartless government agencies. But Italian director and co-writer Andrea Di Stefano can only take the material so far: the script is both short of depth and too happy to gloss over essentials, while all the supporting roles are underwritten and performed with bored blankness by actors who should know better.

In the lead role Joel Kinnaman as Pete Koslow is eminently watchable and fully invested, bringing plenty of intensity and humanity to the drama. But Rosamund Pike, Clive Owen and Common have much less to work with and go through the motions, their level of engagement scrambling towards television levels. Ana de Armas is only marginally better.

Regardless of performances, The Informer's fundamental weaknesses reside in a gap-filled and pacing-challenged script that barely sketches out what the General wants Pete to do in prison, much less how agents Wilcox and Montgomery co-opt that plan for their own purpose. Once behind bars Pete is sidetracked into a squished prison drama with all the usual cliches, including racially segregated cabals, corrupt guards, inmate-on-inmate violence, and bad guys doling out their brand of vengeance. Some drugs and scribbled lists change hands to usher in a much less than convincing climax.

Despite decent ambition, The Informer is an eager mole betrayed by substantive holes.



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Movie Review: Sergio (2020)

A biography and romance, Sergio has noble intentions but sinks into a quagmire of superficiality and sentimentality.

After the 2003 United States-led invasion of Iraq, a United Nations mission arrives in Baghdad under the leadership of highly respected Special Representative Sérgio de Mello (Wagner Moura) of Brazil. His team includes his lover, Argentinian economist Carolina Larriera (Ana de Armas), and his right-hand assistant Gil Loescher (Brían F. O'Byrne). Sergio insists on being perceived as independent of the invaders and clashes with Paul Bremer (Bradley Whitford), the chief American administrator in the country.

With the UN mission unveiling a country in chaos, their headquarters is destroyed by a massive truck bomb. Many UN staff members are killed, but Carolina survives while Sergio and Gil are trapped in the rubble, severely wounded and awaiting rescue. In flashbacks, Sergio recalls how he met and fell in love with Carolina, and their work together to help East Timor achieve independence.

Director Greg Barker also helmed a 2009 documentary about de Mello, and it is extremely doubtful this fictionalized drama adds anything useful. Sergio moves slowly, and awkwardly juxtaposes a story of survival with a career retrospective, eventually settling on a sappy romance. The tone floats somewhere between reverential and dreamy, with frequent and often unnecessary jumps in time adding another layer of choppiness.

But perhaps most disheartening is the weak treatment of de Mello's career achievements. Barker presents Sérgio as a rock star of the United Nations, a combination of miracle-worker and Mr. Fixit for countries emerging out of political turmoil. But while references to failures in Bosnia and Rwanda permeate, incidents of note and concrete progress in resolving global issues are notably absent. Indeed, a single sentence delivered to the President of Indonesia represents the entirety of his durable highlights.

Instead, Barker chooses to focus on the romance between Sérgio and Carolina, the equivalent of filming the blooming garden rose while the entire house is on fire. And when it's time to turn away from the interminable under-rubble ordeal, scenes of waves crashing against rocks on Brazilian beaches are a go-to refuge, Rio de Janeiro presented as a mythical utopia. Sergio boasts a potentially impressive protagonist, but gets disoriented at the wrong beach.



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Movie Review: The Night Clerk (2020)

A crime drama and character study, The Night Clerk tantalizes with some intriguing potential but after a bright start loses steam instead of building momentum. 

Bart Bromley (Tye Sheridan) is a socially awkward 23 year old with Asperger's syndrome, working as an overnight hotel clerk and living with his mother Ethel (Helen Hunt). He voyeuristically snoops on hotel guests through hidden miniature cameras, using mimicry to improve his conversational skills. Through his cameras Bart witnesses an escalating argument involving hotel guest Karen and an unknown man. He rushes to the scene but when the police arrive Karen is dead and Bart is a potential suspect. 

He hides the video evidence from Detective Espada (John Leguizamo), who does not have enough evidence to make an arrest despite pressure from Karen's husband Nick. Relocated to another hotel, Bart meets guest Andrea Rivera (Ana de Armas), who appears lonely and treats him kindly. Bart is love struck, but Andrea is hiding her own secrets.

An independent production written and directed by Michael Cristofer, the first act of The Night Clerk carries promising echoes of a small scale Rear Window. A disadvantaged man passes the time observing others, only to witness a crime and become embroiled in the dangerous affairs of strangers. But while the opening third is engaging, the middle sags and the ending is clumsy, Cristofer unable to sustain the early impetus despite a crisp running time of just 90 minutes.

The context-setting, characters introductions and premise of voyeurism as a learning tool are all sharply delivered. But after the murder is committed, the crime investigation elements are incongruously neutralized to allow Bart and Andrea to get to know each other. The tone transition defangs the drama and sucks energy out of the narrative. Cristofer eventually cycles back to the antagonists and the investigation, but the conclusion is both rushed and bungled, and arrives too late to reignite thrust. Some key character relationships apparently primed for surprise reveals are also easy to spot. 

In a committed performance Tye Sheridan captures quirky awkwardness within Asperger's mannerisms, and introduces measures of pathos as Bart experiences the full force of first infatuation. Ana de Armas enjoys a few complex scenes as Andrea questions her actions and motives, but the supporting cast remains stiff.

The Night Clerk stays awake, but it's an uneven shift.



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Movie Review: Knives Out (2019)

A whodunnit crime mystery spiced with humour, Knives Out features an ensemble cast having fun in a convoluted Clue-like milieu.

In Massachusetts, celebrated and wealthy crime mystery author Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead by apparent suicide, after the family had gathered at his mansion to celebrate his 85th birthday. Police detectives interrogate the family members, while private investigator Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is anonymously hired to investigate whether a murder was committed.

Potential motives for murder are soon revealed. Harlan was about to expose the extramarital affair of his son-in-law Richard Drysdale (Don Johnson), husband of Harlan's daughter Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis). He was also terminating financial support for daughter-in-law Joni (Toni Collette); cutting entitled grandson Ransom (Chris Evans) out of his will; and firing his son Walt (Michael Shannon) as head of his publishing company.

But Benoit takes greatest interest in Harlan's quiet nurse and close confidant Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas). The daughter of an illegal immigrant, she is well liked by all the family members and incapable of lying, and Benoit trusts her to help connect the dots.

A throwback to old-fashioned Agatha Christie-type mysteries, Knives Out presents a rich cast of characters, plenty of reasons to suspect everyone, layers of lying, and clever detective work. Writer and director Rian Johnson assembles the puzzle with a light touch, the film never taking itself too seriously. A few good pinches of well-placed humour help to keep the mood airy.

The first two thirds of the film, mostly confined to the mansion, are excellent. Johnson expeditiously introduces all the characters, gives most of them reasons to kill, and recreates snippets of the evening before the death when Harlan was clearly cleaning house and putting his affairs in order, threatening the economic future of many heirs in the process.

The final act unravels with the late introduction of Chris Evans' Ransom characters followed by an ill-advised and poorly executed blackmail sub-plot, the film hitting the road and losing its assured footing in the process.

Within the labyrinth of greed and backstabbing fueling the mystery, Johnson does include snide contemporary social commentary. Marta is an immigrant and the one seemingly pure soul, her work ethic placing her at the center of the family and yet outside it. Harlan's will upturns everyone's expectations, forcing a fundamental reassessment of the economic power dynamic.

With a star name is almost every role each performer gets the one scene to shine, and they are all adequate with a hint of theatricality. Daniel Craig works hard with limited success at an exotic accent to project a vaguely foreign detective. Ana de Armas delivers by far the film's best performance as the conscientious nurse Marta, combining sly panicked comic timing with an ability to say plenty by not saying anything at all. When everyone else is busy revealing sordid secrets, it's wise to listen more and talk less.

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The Movies Of Ana de Armas

All movies starring Ana de Armas and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

War Dogs (2016)

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Yesterday (2019, uncredited)

The Informer (2019)

Knives Out (2019)

Sergio (2020)

The Night Clerk (2020)

No Time To Die (2021)

Deep Water (2022)

The Gray Man (2022)

Blonde (2022)

Eden (2024)

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The Movie Star Index is here.