Movie Review: Minari (2020)

Genre: Drama  
Director: Lee Isaac Chung  

Starring: Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri, Will Patton  
Running Time: 115 minutes  

Synopsis: In the early 1980s, South Korean immigrant and expert chicken sexer Jacob (Steven Yuen) relocates his family from California to a mobile house on a large rural acreage in Arkansas. He has a dream to establish a farm, but his wife Monica (Han Ye-ri) is unconvinced. Their two young children David and Ann observe their parents fighting, and David is also suffering from a heart condition. The family dynamic changes when Monica's mother Soon-ja (Youn Yuh-jung) arrives to care for the children, while Jacob risks his health to get the farm going with help from local man Paul (Will Patton).

What Works Well: This is a semi-autobiographical nostalgic look back on childhood, based on the experiences of writer and director Lee Isaac Chung. The immigrant experience of hard work, determination, innovation, set-backs, and integration (here with the help of a church community) rings true, with the children experiencing a grand adventure filled with frustrations, uncertainty, and laughter. The rural Arkansas locations add laid-back and lyrical scenery. 

What Does Not Work As Well: After the premise is established and the family settles into their routines, the pace slows down to a grind and meaningful incidents become scarce and episodic. The thin material is unnecessarily stretched towards two hours, and the inconclusive ending just fades away rather than reaching for any meaningful resolutions.

Key Quote:

Jacob: They need to see me succeed at something for once.

Monica: For what? Isn't it more important for them to see us together?

Jacob: You go ahead and do what you want. Even if I fail, I have to finish what I started.

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Movie Review: No Way Out (1987)

Genre: Thriller  

Director: Roger Donaldson  

Starring: Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, Sean Young, Will Patton  

Running Time: 114 minutes  

Synopsis: In Washington DC, the US Navy's Lieutenant Commander Tom Farrell (Kevin Costner) is selected for an intelligence assignment by Secretary of Defense David Brice (Gene Hackman). Tom also starts an affair with socialite Susan Atwell (Sean Young), who happens to be Brice's mistress. In a fit of jealousy, Brice accidently kills Susan. His chief assistant Scott Pritchard (Will Patton) concocts a cover-up plan to blame Susan's death on non-existent Soviet spy Yuri. But Tom knows what really happened, and has to prove the truth before he himself gets implicated.

What Works Well: This is a slick thriller combining Cold War intrigue, inter-governmental political machinations, lust, romance, and scandal. Robert Garland's screenplay updates the 1946 novel The Big Clock (by Kenneth Fearing), and director Roger Donaldson keeps the pacing brisk and the tension at elevated levels, mixing cocktail parties for the Washington DC elites with backroom plotting and the occasional chase scene. In a star-making role, Kevin Costner oozes confident charisma as the Navy lieutenant sliding into unexpected convolutions at the Pentagon and in his personal life, while Sean Young adds allure. The final controversial twist demonstrates brain-scratching courage. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Starting with the hastily conceived distraction story to chase invisible spy Yuri, the second half plot holes start to consume all logic, culminating in ridiculous actions including defence officials planting evidence in computer systems and allowing a couple of unscreened civilians full access to every room in the Pentagon (the largest building in the world). The notable dip in quality coincides with Gene Hackman being sidelined into a bystander.

Conclusion: Sparkling with talent and enthusiasm, but perforated by sloppy conveniences.



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Movie Review: Copycat (1995)

Genre: Serial Killer Thriller

Director: Jon Amiel

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Holly Hunter, Dermot Mulroney, Harry Connick Jr., Will Patton

Running Time: 123 minutes

Synopsis: In San Francisco, criminal psychologist Dr. Helen Hudson (Sigourney Weaver) is suffering from agoraphobia a year after narrowly surviving a brutal assault by serial killer Daryll Lee Cullum (Harry Connick Jr.). With Callum now in prison, Inspector MJ Monahan (Holly Hunter) and her partner Inspector Reuben Goetz (Dermot Mulroney) seek Helen's help to capture a new serial killer preying on women. Hudson deduces the assailant is copying the methods of famous serial killers from the past, but there is also a more sinister motive behind the killings.

What Works Well: László Kovács' classy cinematography enhances slick production values, and director Jon Amiel keeps the action moving and never far away from the next thrill. The excellent duo of Sigourney Weaver (sophisticated but traumatized) and Holly Hunter (whipsmart but jaded) are complemented by a sinister and unhinged Harry Connick Jr. performance. Dr. Hudson's house is an architectural beauty and almost makes agoraphobia an attractive proposition. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Most of the plot details do not withstand retrospective scrutiny, the killer's identity is at first vague then irrelevant, and a side-plot involving MJ's ex-romantic interest Inspector Nicoletti (Will Patton) is only irritating. Given the narrative intentions, the psychotic Daryll Lee Callum deserved much more visible involvement.

Conclusion: Superficially attractive but substantively lacking a cutting edge.



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Movie Review: Halloween (2018)

A slasher horror movie, Halloween is a direct sequel to the classic original. Investing in a feisty grandmother as a protagonist is courageous, but the film is repeatedly stabbed by mundane cliches.

Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is still traumatized by the events of Halloween night 40 years ago, when as a teenager she barely survived a killing rampage by the indestructible, silent, and mask-wearing Michael Meyers. Laurie has dedicated her life to prepare for her next encounter with Michael, an obsession that has damaged her relationship with daughter Karen (Judy Greer), although teenaged granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) is more understanding.

Michael is in a prison hospital under the care of Dr. Sartain (Haluk Bilginer), who is intent on getting into the mind of a killer. Michael escapes by causing a prison transfer bus to crash, and starts a new killing spree on Halloween night. Sheriff's deputy Frank Hawkins (Will Patton) tries to stop the murderous rampage, but Michael is destined for another showdown with Laurie.

Properly aging the characters by 40 years and placing Jamie Lee Curtis' return as Laurie Strode at the heart of the action are welcome highlights. Curtis is by far the best thing at the disposal of director and co-writer David Gordon Green, but after a promising start she is unfortunately underused. Too much of Halloween is repetitive and derivative, Michael Meyers' never-explained superhuman strength ensuring he carves a routine path towards the predictable final confrontation.

Along the way plenty of potentially interesting characters and silly twists are introduced and summarily eliminated, including a couple of podcasters, a babysitter, her boyfriend, and a doctor far from worthy of the name. Other side-stories that go nowhere include Allyson's tiff with a boyfriend and a tangle with a dorky classmate, all the dead-ends superficially delivered with a distinct lack of conviction.

Grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter were always going to come together to battle evil, but it's a surprisingly inert climax, a long search-in-the-dark sequence killing momentum as a kitchen counter hiding a bunker endlessly swings open and closed. It's 40 years later, but this Halloween is all tired tricks and too few treats.



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Movie Review: The Mothman Prophecies (2002)

A supernatural horror movie, The Mothman Prophecies offers flashy execution of a hopelessly muddled premise.

Washington Post reporter John Klein (Richard Gere) loses his wife Mary (Debra Messing) after she succumbs to a brain tumour in the aftermath of a car crash. Before she dies, she scribbles demonic images of a winged creature. Two years later and while on a business road trip, the still-grieving John inexplicably finds himself in the small town of Point Pleasant at the border between West Virginia and Ohio. He tangles with the highly-strung Gordon (Will Patton), and meets sympathetic local police officer Connie (Laura Linney).

Connie explains the townsfolk are reporting unusual events. Gordon claims to be communicating with a supernatural presence predicting future disasters. Others report sightings of a demon-like creature. John starts receiving garbled phone messages, as well as contact from the dead Mary. He reaches out to paranormal expert Alexander Leek (Alan Bates), who warns of a dire disaster to come.

Author John Keel published his book The Mothman Prophecies in 1975, claiming to be an investigation of real events and featuring a hodgepodge of supernatural phenomena including a winged Mothman creature and UFOs. It all culminates in the real 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge across the Ohio River.

The book is brought to the screen by director Mark Pellington with a script by Richard Hatem, who tries but fails to make some sense of the book, and at least takes out the UFO elements. The movie is all over the place and no place at the same type, literally and figuratively, playing with inexplicable time and geographic jumps. Spooky graphics and creatures make brief appearances but never quite enter the story, and strange voices issue doomsday warnings over distorted phone messages.

With the material unraveling quickly due to abject incoherence, Pellington leans heavily on style. The Mothman Prophecies at least looks good, with the supernatural elements poking in and out with pizzazz and sharp camera movement. In terms of mood the film never quite descends to all out horror, and settles more in unnerving territory.

Richard Gere is engaged enough to maintain a basic level of interest. Laura Linney is given precious little to do as the local police, and indeed hands over the investigative work to Klein, a stranger in her town. Will Patton is suitably unhinged as Gordon, always one wrong twitch away from harming someone.

The Mothman Prophecies chooses to explain almost nothing, leaving multiple interpretations available. The most likely explanation is dubious source material playing fast and loose with fact and fiction.

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Movie Review: Meek's Cutoff (2010)

A ponderous Western, Meek's Cutoff recreates life on the trail, and mostly reveals how boring it must have been.

It's 1845, in Oregon. A small group of travelers, including couples Emily and Solomon Tetherow (Michelle Williams and Will Patton) and Thomas and Millie Gately (Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan), is crossing hostile, desert-like territory, led by renowned guide Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood). Despite the women being confined to a subservient role, Emily begins to voice her opinion that Meek is actually lost. With the group running low on water, the sense of unease increases as day after day they move slowly through arid terrain and a succession of nondescript ridges.

The group dynamics change when they capture a lone Indian (Rod Rondeaux) who had been stalking them. The Indian cannot speak English, but may offer them a way to water, or may lead them into an ambush. Meek favours killing him, but Emily insists that he live. The travelers carry on, this time following the native, unsure of their fate.

An independent production directed by Kelly Reichardt, Meek's Cutoff is inspired by real events, and fully invests in a sense of realism. This is a slow-moving journey that starts and ends on the trail, with limited character definition and an emphasis on the physical rigours of opening up the west by walking across uncharted lands. Filmed in an old-fashioned boxy 4:3 aspect ratio, there is little plot to speak of, the people remain mostly sketches, and on-screen events consist mostly of people moving slowly across barren terrain. The six bulls pulling the three wagons are given almost as much prominence as the humans.

While there is educational value in accurately portraying the ordeals of the frontier, as a cinematic viewing experience Meek's Cutoff lacks almost everything necessary for engagement. The travelers are barely distinguishable, the repetitive drudgery is grinding, many scenes of dialogue are intentionally inaudible, and a good one third of the film takes places at night in barely-lit scenes. It's almost as though Reichardt sets out to make the 104 minutes as tiresome as possible to elicit sympathy for her group of migrants.

An indicative sequence has Emily needing to fire two musket shots into the air as a signal. This being 1845, the musket requires an elaborate procedure to reload. Emily's entire cumbersome multi-step method to load the powder, ready the gun and fire the second shot is captured by Reichardt's static camera over what seems like an eternity to make the point that firing more than one shot was no easy matter. Informative, but hardly inspirational.

Meek's Cutoff offers a few points of interest, but insufficient redeeming features to ease the slow motion agony on both sides of the screen.

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