Movie Review: The King (2019)

Genre: Medieval Historical Drama  

Director: David Michôd  

Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Joel Edgerton, Sean Harris, Robert Pattinson, Ben Mendelsohn  

Running Time: 140 minutes  

Synopsis: In the early 1400s, England's King Henry IV (Ben Mendelsohn) is in ill health and presiding over a fractured nation, including wars with Wales and Scotland. Once he expires, his estranged eldest son Prince Hal (Timothée Chalamet) ascends to the throne as Henry V, advised by Sir William Gascoigne (Sean Harris). Henry V strives to achieve peace, but repeated insults from the King of France prompt him to organize an invasion. He recruits his childhood mentor and renowned warrior Sir John Falstaff (Joel Edgerton) to the cause, and on the muddy planes near the French village of Agincourt, the English and French armies meet.

What Works Well: Inspired by actual events as filtered through Shakespeare's Henriad, this is a sombre mud-baked drama of palace intrigue and battlefield exploits. Henry V as a conflicted and flawed reluctant young leader, determined to exert his authority, seeking peace, but forced into war, ensures a rich character focus. He is surrounded by a large cast of palace occupants, most of them looking after their own interest, with only Sir John Falstaff providing trustworthy presence. When the time comes for armies to clash, director David Michôd forgoes glamour in favour of bone-crunching and suffocatingly chaotic brutality.

What Does Not Work As Well: The mood is unfailingly grim, as if the characters already knew they were living in medieval times devoid of joy. Given the long running length, Gascoigne, the French Dauphin (Robert Pattinson), and Catherine of Valois (Lily-Rose Depp) could have benefitted from more texture.

Key Quote:

Sir John Falstaff: I speak only when there's something to be said. Too often have I seen men of war invent work for themselves - work that leads to nothing but vainglory and slaughtered men. I'm not that man.

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Movie Review: Dune: Part Two (2024)

Genre: Epic Sci-Fi  

Director: Denis Villeneuve  

Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Christopher Walken, Javier Bardem, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling  

Running Time: 166 minutes  

Synopsis: Having survived the ambush that wiped out the House of Atreides and killed his father, Paul (Timothée Chalamet) embeds with the Fremen tribe, native to the desert-like Arrakis planet that harbours the much coveted spice. Fremen leader Stilgar (Javier Bardem) believes Paul is the saviour predicted by prophecies, and Paul's pregnant mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) is anointed Reverend Mother. Fremen warrior Chani (Zendaya) is a sceptic, but nevertheless develops a relationship with Paul. As the evil Harkonnen exploit the planet, Paul leads an effective resistance and is joined by his Atreides mentor Gurney (Josh Brolin). The Harkonnen respond by appointing the psychotic Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) to crush their fledgling enemies.

What Works Well: Remarkably, this sequel matches the original for scope, ambition, majestic visuals, and rich storytelling. Denis Villeneuve maintains control of a sprawling and imaginative narrative, this chapter focusing on a rebellion, the tension between folklore and pragmatism, and the consequences of individual actions, with no shortage of thrills, romance, and deception. Paul is certain that untold misery will be unleashed should he choose to step into leadership, and yet the current trajectory of annihilation and evil prevailing is also clear. Every faction has sub-factions and internal conflicts, every agenda has a counter-agenda, and the across-the-universe tapestry is tightly woven into epic duels for control of the future.

What Does Not Work As Well: At 2 hours and 45 minutes, this is another stamina test, made more stressful by a complex make-believe world that throws up obscure names and concepts last introduced hours ago.

Key Quote:

Paul: The visions are clear now. I see possible futures, all at once. Our enemies are all around us, and in so many futures they prevail. But I do see a way, there is a narrow way through.

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Movie Review: Love The Coopers (2015)

Also Known As: Christmas With The Coopers  

Genre: Dramedy  

Director: Jessie Nelson  

Starring: Diane Keaton, John Goodman, Marisa Tomei, Alan Arkin, Amanda Seyfried, Timothée Chalamet, Ed Helms, Jake Lacy, Anthony Mackie, June Squibb, Olivia Wilde  

Running Time: 107 minutes  

Synopsis: Christmas Eve is approaching, and four generations of the imperfect Cooper family are gathering for dinner. Sam and Charlotte (John Goodman and Diane Keaton) are hosting but also hiding their disintegrating marriage. Their black sheep daughter Eleanor (Olivia Wilde) meets a soldier (Jake Lacy) at the airport. The Cooper's divorced son (Ed Helms) is struggling with unemployment, while his teenaged son (Timothée Chalamet) is pursuing his first crush at the mall. Charlotte's sister (Marisa Tomei) is arrested for shoplifting and has an encounter with a police officer (Anthony Mackie), while Charlotte's father Bucky (Alan Arkin) has an argument with his regular diner server (Amanda Seyfried). 

What Works Well: With notable determination, this Christmas movie seeks a contrarian stance, avoiding feel-good vibes and zooming in on all that is wrong with the lives of the Coopers. Charlotte is doing her best to pretend and get on with the Christmas spirit, but all the family members are flailing as their character faults and life failures are revealed. The simple message of celebrating normal imperfection is straightforward and well-intentioned, and the opening two thirds offer the added enjoyment of guessing all the family connections. The quality cast and numerous mini-plots ensure the movie never dawdles in any one place for too long.

What Does Not Work As Well: After a lot of hard work to represent flawed characters, the resolutions run away from difficult outcomes and just surrender to traditional endings. With so many stories to tell, some of the more interesting secondary characters, notably Amanda Seyfried's diner server and Anthony Mackie's police officer, are shortchanged.

Key Quote:

Bucky: That feeling like you've landed in the wrong life. Everybody feels that way.

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Movie Review: Dune: Part One (2021)

A science fiction epic, Dune: Part One is a breathtakingly beautiful and eloquently crafted adaptation of a complex story.

In the year 10191, the desert planet Arrakis is the galaxy's only source of precious Spice, a material with special properties and essential for interstellar travel. The House of Harkonnen has been responsible for mining Spice for many years, but now the Emperor decrees the House of Arteides will have dominion over Arrakis. The Fremen are the local inhabitants of Arrakis, brutally mistreated by Harkonnen and sceptical anything will change under Arteides. The desert planet's other residents are brutal and massive subterranean worms.

The benevolent Duke Leto Arteides (Oscar Isaac) prepares his people for a new position of prominence. His partner Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) belongs to the Bene Gesserit, an exclusive ancient sisterhood possessing special powers. Their son Paul (Timothée Chalamet) is growing into adulthood: both Leto and Jessica have high hopes for him, but Paul is troubled by vivid visions featuring death on Arrakis. The Arteides military commanders include weapons master Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) and fierce warrior Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa).

The House of Arteides arrive at Arrakis and take control of mining operations. Leto and Paul offer better cooperation to Fremen leader Stilgar (Javier Mardem), and meet with Dr. Liet-Kynes (Sharon Duncan-Brewster), the Emperor-appointed planet handover judge. But all is not what is seems: the House of Harkonnen under Baron Vladimir (Stellan Skarsgård) has evil designs to reclaim control of Arrakis, and the Emperor is far from neutral.

Immediately eradicating bad memories of David's Lynch's 1984 atrocity, director Denis Villeneuve finally provides Frank Herbert's book with the screen treatment it deserves. Villeneuve co-wrote the script with Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth, and they wisely tackle just the first half the book. With a length of 156 minutes, Dune: Part One invests the necessary time to parse-out characters, motivations, and events into sequentially comprehensible increments.

Despite covering a partial story, this is a spectacular and ambitious achievement, filled with intersecting agendas and compelling arcs. Villeneuve demonstrates equal care for the visuals and the people, merging a deep narrative about destiny with stunning cinematography and special effects, all complemented by a brooding Hans Zimmer score. At the heart of the exhilarating sand-swept experience are eternal themes of human accountability, the ethics of resource exploitation, warmongering, superior powers, and battles for supremacy. Almost miraculously, all the threads remain intact and traceable.

A powerful and mysterious mother-son bond ties key events together, Lady Jessica quietly complicit in shaping her son's destiny, and by extension the galaxy's future. Her continued active participation in Paul's tumultuous mental and physical challenges provides a unique charge. Elsewhere the expansive action and combat scenes are well-staged and well-spaced within the political and personal intrigue. 

The actors take their roles seriously and hold their ground despite all the innovative costumes and imaginative set designs. Crucially, Timothée Chalamet finds the seam of uncertainty as a young man tentatively stepping into an elevated level of responsibility, and he is ably supported by Oscar Isaac and Rebecca Ferguson. Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa add macho presence, and only the Harkonnen cast members are allowed to slip into appropriately outlandish representations.

The final act is more ingrained with the Fremen, allowing Paul's visions to start translating into a purpose, and Zendaya finally appears outside the dream realm as Chani. Dune: Part One finds a deeply satisfying ending for the beginning, and is also honest in preparing for more to come.



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Movie Review: Hot Summer Nights (2017)

A coming-of-age drama and romance, Hot Summer Nights aims for a cool early 1990s vibe but despite stylish ambitions never finds the necessary emotional traction.

After the death of his father, introverted teenager Daniel Middleton (Timothée Chalamet) relocates to Cape Cod to live with his aunt for the summer of 1991. The community consists of year-round "townies" and vacationing "outsiders", but Daniel eventually befriends marijuana peddler Hunter Strawberry (Alex Roe), a brooding local legend with a reputation for violence. They become partners selling weed, working for supplier Dex (Emory Cohen).

Daniel is also infatuated with Hunter's sister McKayla (Maika Monroe), the most desired girl in the community. Hunter is not on speaking terms with his sister but nevertheless warns Daniel to stay away from her, a warning Daniel promptly ignores while Hunter also finds a girlfriend in Amy (Maia Mitchell). With Daniel and Hunter making more money than they could imagine, Daniel sets his sights even higher, but trouble will descend from all sides.

Obsessed with a drugs-and-parties culture, Hot Summer Nights forgets to care enough about key characters. Writer and director Elijah Bynum gets busy with interesting camera angles and a single-minded focus on teenagers acting with aloof detachment towards each other, leaving a parched emptiness instead of soul at the narrative core. Although the snarky narration adds an occasional spark, the narrator is an irrelevant and unseen kid, adding to the sense of misdirected emphasis.

With context and background barely sketched in, Daniel's transformation from a meek and withdrawn misfit to a risk-taking drug pusher is unimpressive. Hunter and McKayla start and end their arc at the same place, he's the rebel without a cause and she's the bombshell looking for a ticket out of town. McKayla hates her brother for being a drug dealer, but never pauses to question Daniel about all his cash or the hot new Corvette.

Elsewhere Hunter finds it wise to choose as his girlfriend the daughter of the town's only enforcement officer, confident Sergeant Frank Calhoun (Thomas Jane) is much better at spouting dark literary prose than apprehending drug dealers. William Fichtner gets the one scene as a cocaine supplier way too savvy to get into business with a snot-nosed kid like Daniel.

A lollipop scene somehow applies Sergio Leone trademarks to teenage flirtation, the soundtrack contains some good selections and the nighttime cinematography is crisp. Some details resonate, but overall Hot Summer Nights has all the lasting appeal of ice cream melting on a dirty sidewalk.



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Movie Review: Hostiles (2017)

A soulful western, Hostiles combines the traditions of the arduous journey with a lyrical exploration of troubled relations between whites and natives.

In 1892 at Fort Berringer in New Mexico, Captain Joseph Blocker (Christian Bale) is selected to escort ailing Cheyenne Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) to his ancestral lands in Montana. Blocker is close to retirement, and has built a fearsome reputation as a merciless fighter and killer of natives. He resents having to be civil to Yellow Hawk, who has a similar record of brutal killing, including scalping several of Blocker's colleagues.

Blocker recruits a few trusted soldiers for the mission, including long-term friends Sergeant Metz (Rory Cochrane), who is also nearing retirement, and Corporal Woodson (Jonathan Majors), as well as West Point graduate Lieutenant Kidder (Jesse Plemons) and raw recruit Private Dejardin (Timothée Chalamet). Yellow Hawk is accompanied by his son Black Hawk (Adam Beach), daughter, daughter-in-law and grand-daughter.

Soon after embarking on the trip they encounter settler Rosalee Quaid (Rosamund Pike) in shock having just lost her entire family, including three children, to a vicious raid by a Cherokee war party. Rosalee joins Blocker's group, with many dangers to come on the long trail to Montana.

With chapters of brutal violence committed by all sides, some shown on screen and others described in hushed tones, Hostiles stares at the blood-drenched legacy of the west. After each bout of blood-letting director and writer Scott Cooper takes the time to include reverent burials, settlers, soldiers, natives, adults and children laid to rest in mounting numbers, often in unmarked graves, the hard soil of a nation-in-progress nourished by death. 

At 133 minutes, the film is long but Cooper sustains the intensity. Having established the barbarous context, Hostiles searches for what may emerge after the visceral need to kill subsides. Men like Blocker, Metz and Yellow Hawk are retiring or dying and understand they are too damaged to evolve. The next generation, personified by Lieutenant Kidder and Black Hawk and his family, may be a lot less blood thirsty, with fewer scores to settle and more capacity to achieve reconciliation, but only if they survive to forge a better future.

And Cooper ensures the moral dilemmas leave no room for black and white resolutions, only gray choices. Some horrific killings are justified as part of the job, other rampages are denounced as murder and punished by hanging. Violence in the name of protecting land is either noble or ignominious, depending on who is making the claim, and when. On such vagaries men live, die and judge themselves and others.

Although some chapters stumble and hints of repetitiveness set in, the film weaves an always unsettling sombre mood. Max Richter's music score adds poignant tones, and often stunning Masanobu Takayanagi cinematography captures majestic landscapes of untamed and unforgiving terrain.

Christian Bale delivers a performance of sometimes frightening intensity and stoic masculinity, conveying with his eyes the horrors of a life spent killing etched firmly on his psyche. But Bale also captures the irresistible forces of change in his humane approach to helping Mrs. Quaid and a gradual willingness to understand Yellow Hawk's world. The rest of the cast is suitably detached, and includes Ben Foster as an army soldier turned prisoner and Scott Wilson as an uncompromising landowner.

Dark, humourless and thought-provoking, Hostiles confronts all enemies, especially those lurking within.



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Movie Review: Little Women (2019)

An adaptation of the classic Louisa May Alcott book, Little Women is a coming-of-age tale with a focus on women carving out identities while grappling with personal and societal expectations and economic realities.

The film unfolds non-linearly across multiple time zones and locations. In simplified form, the March sisters are from a relatively poor Concord, Massachusetts family and growing up in the shadow of the Civil War. Jo (Saoirse Ronan) is fiercely independent and an aspiring writer. Meg (Emma Watson) loves acting and is a romantic at heart. Amy (Florence Pugh) is a painter and wants to marry well. The youngest Beth (Eliza Scanlen) is a talented pianist. With their father (Bob Odenkirk) serving in the war, Marmee (Laura Dern) instills in the girls a strong sense of service and selflessness.

The Marchs are neighbours of the wealthy and kind Mr. Laurence (Chris Cooper), whose grandson Theodore (Timothée Chalamet) becomes friends with the sisters and falls in love with Jo. She sets out to seek her fortune as a writer in New York, where she meets publisher Mr. Dashwood (Tracy Letts) and clashes with academic Friedrich Bhaer (Louis Garrel). Amy heads to Paris for a cultural trip with Aunt March (Meryl Streep). Meg marries a struggling tutor and starts a family. But a sickness will pull the sisters back home to confront unexpected futures.

The sixth cinematic adaptation of Alcott's novel, the 2019 version is a sprawling and ambitious effort infused with a feminist edge. Clocking in at an overlong 135 minutes, writer and director Greta Gerwig takes her time to fully define the four sisters as rounded characters, and chases down their dreams, trials and tribulations on the path to womanhood. Along the way the sisters bicker, fight and support each other, all underpinned by warm foundations of familial love.

Gerwig structures the film as a dizzying jumping exercise, restlessly bouncing between various points of history in the lives of the four sisters. As a result Little Women rarely flows, some scenes spending a matter of seconds in one time and place before the next scene leaps to somewhere else with someone else at a different time.

But the fine work of the talented cast and the investment in characters does pay off in the final third, where the sometimes scattered narrative puzzle pieces start to come together. The film achieves poignant peaks of genuine emotion built on the discrete strengths and weaknesses of the March sisters, and Gerwig presents a satisfyingly wide array of personal achievements mixed with shades of disappointments, all built on honest passion.

While the emphasis on feminism is sometimes speechy and jarring, here it means the freedom to choose a future vision to pursue, and to defend that choice. And while no two dreams are alike, the sisters pragmatically understand their future, like their past, involves compromise and is not meant to be perfect. Gerwig also places admirable emphasis on economics as an essential part of future plans. Balancing the romantic pursuit of love, marriage's role as an economic benefit emerges as a theme.

Little Women enjoys stellar production design, the film recreating interiors and exteriors of the mid to late 1800s with an easy sense of place and time. This is a period piece unafraid to march into the open, as the March sisters stride into a post-war world with every intention to help define it.

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Movie Review: Beautiful Boy (2018)

A biographical drama, Beautiful Boy descends into the abyss of damage caused by drug addiction.

Writer David Sheff (Steve Carell) is investigating crystal meth, because his teenaged son Nic (Timothée Chalamet) is hopelessly addicted. In flashbacks, their history is revealed. David divorced Nic's mother Vicki (Amy Ryan) and remarried Karen (Maura Tierney), and as a young kid Nic was shuttled back and forth between parents. He also felt he never measured up to his father's expectations, despite David's attempts to be a loving and supportive parent.

Nevertheless Nic was a star student, a budding writer and had his pick of colleges, but his drug use starting with marijuana and graduating to harder drugs rendered him aimless. A stint in rehab did not help and was followed by an attempt at college life that only exposed Nic to more drug use. Vicki tries her hand at helping her son, and for a while his prospects improve but more trouble lies ahead for the exasperated father and damaged son.

Based on a true story, Beautiful Boy is directed by Felix Van Groeningen and adapted from the two books by David and Nic Sheff. The film is an unyielding journey into the agony of addiction, and while there is plenty of genuine and heart-warming affection on display between father and son, the overall mood is one of despair. Controlled by the iron grip of drugs, Nic pushes ever harder into self-destructive behaviour and David runs out of options on how to help, creating a bleak emotional trajectory.

Despite all the grief and desperation, the film remains non-judgemental in tone, recounting a family's trauma without lecturing. Nic's bad decisions receive a light touch and he is otherwise portrayed as a victim. David is never less than well meaning, his flashes of rage generated by frustration and disappointment, mostly directed at himself for being unable to come up with answers and solutions to his son's nightmare.

The film demands strong navigators through all the darkness, and the two lead performances deliver. Steve Carell is the entry point into the world of anguished parenthood, and he conveys the range of reactions from anger to despondency, passing through a willingness to try almost anything to help. Timothée Chalamet is heartbreaking as the teenager at the mercy of a brain craving ever higher doses of crystal meth, the interludes of normalcy adding poignancy to his next chapter of surrender to substance abuse.

The film is overlong at 120 minutes, and Nic's repetitive ups and downs threaten to meld into each other. As well, large parts Beautiful Boy unfold in flashback, and Van Groeningen overplays his hand in assembling the film's structure. Many stretches have successive scenes that jump all over the timeline from the present to various points in the past, as if intent on undermining cohesion and shaking off sustained interest.

Despite the choppiness, the strength of the material is undeniable. Beautiful Boy registers a forceful impact through a candid portrayal of a once promising life wasting away.

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Movie Review: Call Me By Your Name (2017)

A first-love romantic drama, Call Me By Your Name carries some emotion but is uneven, overlong and extremely slow.

It's the early 1980s, somewhere in northern Italy. Elio (Timothée Chalamet) is seventeen years old, preparing to while away the summer at the family villa. His academic father Mr. Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg), an archaeologist, hires graduate student Oliver (Armie Hammer) as his research assistant for six weeks.

A music lover, Elio is quiet and sensitive, and mildly resents giving up his bedroom for the confident, cocky and frequently dismissive Oliver. Both of them seek the company of girls, and Elio connects with Marzia (Esther Garrel). But gradually an undeniable attraction develops between Elio and Oliver, with the adolescent finally finding the encourage to instigate a relationship.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino with a screenplay by James Ivory, Call Me By Your Name takes two hours and twelve minutes to unfurl a simple and pretty basic love story between two men. This is a film all about the setting and the atmosphere, with endless near-static and lyrical images of fruit trees, scenic lakes, rural pathways and quaint villages. The film is often as enjoyable as flipping through postcards of the Italian landscape, and as cinematically exciting as watching paint dry.

When the actors are on the screen, Guadagnino still does not pick up the pace. It takes the best part of 90 minutes for the love between Elio and Oliver to finally emerge, and in that time the actors are occupied with many scenes of eating on the terrace, biking through the countryside, cavorting with local girls, playing the piano, reading weighty books and academic papers, and swimming. Call Me By Your Name is supposed to cover six weeks, but the film itself feels longer than that.

When the romance does finally blossom, it is noticeably unbalanced. It is clear why Elio would be enchanted by Oliver, and Timothée Chalamet's effective and expressive performance is by far the best thing about the film. But Oliver is much less believable, whether due to an underdrawn role that veers too far towards self-centred aloofness, or because Armie Hammer, at 31 years old, never comes to grips with the psyche of a graduate student falling for the seventeen year old son of his professor.

A late-in-the-day father-son talk resonates and finally injects the film with a much needed boost. But it arrives too little to make up for the preceding stultifying nothingness. Call Me By Your Name is a clumsily titled black hole, spinning slowly, killing energy and offering nothing in return.

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