The Ace Black Movie Blog

Showing posts with label Mahershala Ali. Show all posts

Saturday, 9 December 2023

Movie Review: Leave The World Behind (2023)

Genre: Survival Drama

Director: Sam Esmail

Starring: Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Kevin Bacon

Running Time: 141 minutes

Synopsis: Stressed out New Jersey couple Amanda and Clay (Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke) book a family weekend getaway at a secluded Long Island house-for-rent. A day at the beach with their kids Rose and Archie is interrupted by an out-of-control oil tanker, then the internet and television signals mysteriously fail. In the middle of the night, the tuxedoed G.H. (George) Scott (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha'la) knock at the door, with George claiming to be the home owner, as evidence mounts of strange events occurring at a large scale.

What Works Well: The adaptation of Rumaan Alam's book (and a good companion piece to 2015's Into The Forest) slowly but surely builds sinister momentum at personal and global levels. From the racial tension of two unknown blacks intruding late at night onto a white family's perceived sanctuary, to broader societal cracks giving way under external pressure, director and writer Sam Esmail constructs a portrait of psychological and physical fragility. A tick, a drone, a vague but persistent emergency signal, and a piercing sonic assault are joined by larger catastrophes - beware the driverless Teslas! - to signal the end and the beginning. Esmail's directing is full of top-down flourish, and while Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali never need to stretch, they do add the necessary intellectual and psychological touches.

What Does Not Work As Well: Without demystifying the premise, the long running time should have accommodated sharper event interpretations. The metaphysical involvement of animals (primarily deer and flamingos) is only tangentially resolved, and some character actions (a kid setting off alone into a strange house) and event resolutions (just take those blue pills for a seemingly horrifying ailment) stretch credibility.

Conclusion: Weekend getaways may just be gateways to much heightened anxiety.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Saturday, 24 November 2018

Movie Review: Green Book (2018)

A road trip buddy movie, Green Book travels through wide open America where the terrain is beautiful and expansive, but many minds remain captive to deep-seated prejudice.

It's the early 1960s in New York City, and Tony "Lip" Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) supports his Brooklyn-based family, including loving wife Dolores (Linda Cardellini), by working as a bouncer at the Copacabana nightclub. When the club closes for renovations, Tony lands a job as the driver for celebrated black pianist Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), who is embarking on a tour of the midwest and deep south.

As the long road trip starts, the blue collar rough and tumble Tony and the suave and educated Shirley find little in common, and the brusque bouncer also develops a distaste for the cellist and bassist who make up the rest of the trio. But gradually, Tony and Shirley warm up to each other, with Tony gaining an appreciation for a black man gathering up the courage to tour the south, and "Doc" helping Tony with his letters back to Dolores. A friendship develops, as both men learn how misleading first impressions can be.

Inspired by real events, Green Book is co-written by actor Nick Vallelonga, the son of the real-life Tony Lip. Directed by Peter Farrelly, this is a classic road trip movie and a warm hearted story of an unlikely friendship blossoming against a backdrop of racial tension. The film softly mixes plenty of humour with wit, heartache and genuine human affection

Inside the car, Green Book is about two men forced to spend long hours together and slowly bonding over topics as mundane as fried chicken, diction, and littering. Shirley's sophisticated mannerisms are an eye-opener for Tony, while the bouncer's big-hearted embrace of life's every moment breaks through the pianist's iciness.

Gradually, the two men find commonalities. Tony's lower-middle class experience, confined to a single neighbourhood, scraping by on odd jobs and with few prospects for advancement, is not dissimilar to the broader black experience in America. And Shirley's quiet courage in insisting on penetrating the deep south to demonstrate what a black man is capable of in front of hypocritical white audiences is no less brave than Tony's daily dealings with dressed-up scum at the club.

The film's title refers to a traveller's guide directing Negroes to welcoming establishments in the south. Dr. Shirley quietly accepts all the racist indignities hurled his way, as his is a greater mission to rise above and for a couple of hours every evening, command the stage with a virtuoso performance. His fight against social injustice runs through upscale concert halls, toney country clubs, and fashionable hotel banquet rooms, although before and after his concerts he is confined to rundown motels and broom closets thinly disguised as dressing rooms.

Regardless, Shirley's public life as a celebrated and wealthy pianist places him outside the common experience of his own black culture, and through the road trip Tony discovers how a life of privilege can disguise a sense of severe displacement and loneliness.

Viggo Mortensen transforms into an overweight, larger-than-life yet honest and resourceful family man. His performance fills the screen, Mortensen portraying Tony as a blunt instrument ready to be chiseled through exposure to a broader America. Mahershala Ali provides a counterpoint of refinement hiding deep personal agonies, and the two actors create a compelling on-screen duo.

Green Book seeks the delicate yet profound thread of personal and societal transformations, and finds all the elegant notes.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Saturday, 9 June 2018

Movie Review: Moonlight (2016)

A coming-of-age drama, Moonlight is an unblinking look at growing up poor and black in America. The film delivers its message without lecturing, but loses its impact in a drawn-out second half.

The story of Chiron is told in three chapters. The first installment is set in Miami, where young boy Chiron (Alex Hibbert), known as Little, escapes bullying and his drug addicted prostitute mother Paula (Naomie Harris) by hiding in a derelict building. He is found by small-time drug dealer Juan (Mahershala Ali), who provides a father-figure presence despite Paula's protestations, while Juan's girlfriend Teresa (Janelle Monáe) offers a welcoming home environment.

In the second chapter Chiron (Ashton Sanders) is a youth attending high school and subjected to continuous bullying as he becomes increasingly aware he is gay. His friend Kevin (Jharrel Jerome) initiates a first sexual experience, but school bully Terrel (Patrick Decile) gets in the way of happiness.

The third episode starts in Atlanta, where the adult Chiron (Trevante Rhodes) has now adopted the nickname Black and Juan's lifestyle, but has to reassess his life when he hears again from Kevin (André Holland).

Directed and written by Barry Jenkins, Moonlight is a rough equivalent of Boyhood, but from the black, gay and underprivileged perspective. The film delivers a powerful message by saying little, allowing events on the screen to flow in a logical river of the abnormal normality defining Chiron's life. Jenkins effortlessly yet sensitively conveys what it means to grow up deprived of functional parents and in a ghastly neighbourhood.

The film is low key, slow and moody, the aesthetic dominated by the dark blues of night and grim greys of day, nothing in Chiron's landscape from child to adult hinting at any prospects for a lush, bright or positive life. The measured pace serves to highlight the pointed depictions of drug abuse and bullying.

But unfortunately the three chapters are sequentially and noticeably weaker. The film starts strong, Chiron's encounters with Juan carrying a genuine surrogate father-child resonance. The middle is middling, the routine high-school-life-is-hell theme offset by Chiron's burgeoning sexual awareness.

The third chapter is by far the weakest. The film slows to a meandering crawl, Jenkins wrapping up his story as an underwritten snoozefest where long silences are deployed, stretching the running time well past the story's capabilities. Plenty of mumbled, almost incomprehensible dialogue betrays the film's low budget and rushed 25-day production schedule.

Despite being only partially successful as a viewing experience, Moonlight is heartfelt and quietly sad, an essential story that should not need to be told.