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: Shall We Dance? (2004)

A romantic comedy, Shall We Dance? is a gentle twirl through the turbulent waters of middle age.

In Chicago, John Clark (Richard Gere) is a well-established lawyer specializing in executing wills. Happily married to Beverly (Susan Sarandon) and the father of two teenagers, John is nevertheless hitting a full-fledged middle age emotional crisis, feeling empty inside after nearly 20 years of the same marriage and the same career. On his daily train commute he regularly spots a sad-looking Paulina (Jennifer Lopez) staring out of the window of Miss Mitzi's ballroom dance studio. On a whim John signs up for evening dance classes and keeps his new hobby a secret.

At the studio John meets fellow novice dancers Chic (Bobby Cannavale) and Vern (Omar Miller), and veteran resident dancer Bobbie (Lisa Ann Walter), who still dreams of competing to win. He also stumbles onto co-worker Link Peterson (Stanley Tucci), who leads a secret life of dancing. John learns that Paulina is recovering from a broken relationship, but she rebuffs his tentative advances. John is reinvigorated by the joy of dancing and new friendships, but Beverly starts to suspect that her husband is having an affair and hires a private detective (Richard Jenkins) to investigate.

Directed by Peter Chelsom, Shall We Dance? is a remake of a 1996 Japanese film. The Hollywood version settles down for a relaxed tone, sprinkling mild humour and melancholy in equal measures while avoiding extremes in any direction. The film is easy to like as it works its way to the predictable uplifting resolutions, but also stays at the shallow end of the pool.

Unusually for a relatively lightweight film about dance and angst, this is a male perspective. While Chelsom never quite explains why the first world problems in John Clark's privileged life are worth caring about, the numbness brought upon by a daily routine simultaneously drudgerous and frantic is familiar enough. Gere does a fine job as man quietly venturing outside his zone of comfort without knowing quite why and feeling deeply guilty about keeping any secrets.

The dance sequences are staged with a mixture of fun and flamboyance. None of the performances are meant to showcase expert dancers, and the film benefits from the self-deprecatory attitude conveyed by dance amateurs stepping out for personal reasons. Paulina is the exception, and Jennifer Lopez delivers a subdued performance as the temporarily fallen star licking her wounds as she gathers the courage to go again.

Mimicking the studio awkwardness, the relationship dynamics between the characters remain refreshingly clumsy, John never quite knowing how to say the right things to neither Beverly nor Paulina. And that may not be a bad thing. The loudmouthed Bobbie speaks her mind, causes carnage and may be the loneliest character in the film.

A simple message delivered in a fleeting package, Shall We Dance? is an invitation to refresh a stale psyche by embracing small risks.

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Movie Review: Danny Collins (2015)

A dramatic comedy with some music, Danny Collins is about better-late-than-never priority adjustments. The film succeeds by staying within itself despite falling into some melodramatic traps.

Danny Collins (Al Pacino) is a singer in the twilight of his career, milking his hit songs from decades past in front of an antiquated audience. He is frequently high on coke, and superficially enjoys the trappings of fame including a huge mansion and trophy girlfriend Sophie (Katarina Čas). When his long-time manager and friend Frank (Christopher Plummer) unearths a letter to Danny written by John Lennon in the early 1970s but never delivered, the performer is shaken out of his stupor.

Recognizing he may have wasted away a career, Danny abandons his latest tour, ditches Sophie, cleans up, and relocates to a modest Hilton in New Jersey to reach out to his long estranged son Tom (Bobby Cannavale). He finds Tom, his wife Samantha (Jennifer Garner) and daughter Hope living a modest middle class life. Danny also meets and try to woo the hotel's resistant manager Mary (Annette Bening). Although at first Tom wants nothing to do with his father, Hope's ADHD and a family sickness provide the now persistent Danny an opportunity to reset some relationships.

Written and directed by Dan Fogelman, Danny Collins is a low-key character study brought to life by an irrepressible Al Pacino performance. Despite his late career crisis, Collins is written to stay true to his rascal tendencies, allowing Pacino to ride the wave of a consummate entertainer intent on making some changes but never straying far from who he is. Even as he sets up in a nondescript New Jersey suburb, Danny enjoys his fame and fortune, is not hesitant to flaunt his wealth and influence, and is happy to dole out advice and pursue Mary with minimal subtlety.

The scenes with Danny getting to know Tom and his family benefit most from this focus on realistic human behaviour, with both father, son and daughter-in-law reacting with laudable maturity within the field of awkwardness. Danny is too old to worry about his own feelings, so he just niggles his way through the initial barriers to find the openings where he can make some amends to a life of neglect. Tom and Samantha are pragmatic enough to appreciate effort and good fortune when it smiles on them.

The film's weaknesses reside with the eye rolling introduction of a serious disease, layered on top of young Hope's ADHD. It almost makes Danny's restitution mission too easy, fast forwarding the familial bonding opportunities to tidily fit into the under two hours of running time. Danny's romantic pursuit of Mary fares better, her wariness of the celebrity at her modest hotel providing a sturdy defence against his frontal advances.

Danny Collins may lack boldness and any sort of cutting edge, but it's a well-rounded effort delivered with a veteran's sure touch.

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