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Tag Archives: Film Reviews
Black Widow Keeps It in the Family for Natasha’s Last Ride
We’re at a point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where when a film is set matters as much as where. Past MCU outings have planted flags in 1942, 1995, 2023, and everywhere in between. More to the point, who’s alive (not to mention who’s on speaking terms) varies with each jump across the timeline. So when an adventure is set can tell the audience plenty before the story’s even started.
Black Widow, then, is set very deliberately after the events of Captain America: Civil War (or most of them, anyway). The story seizes on a time when Natasha Romanoff had just witnessed the break-up of one found family, as the Avengers split over the Sokovia accords. Their divide makes it even harder for her to process the break-up of another — a group of undercover Russian spies she lived with as a child a la The Americans.
Nomadland: A Film Out of Time, For Our Times
Nomadland is an unassuming period piece. Its key events take place roughly a decade prior to its release date. You wouldn’t know that, though, beyond a few stray mentions of certain dates and the presence of a few old cell phones. The film centers on the voyages of its titular nomads, who seem removed in time and space from the rest of the world. They get by on parking lot largesse, desert campgrounds, and the other wide spots in the countryside. And the places they inhabit feel weathered and distant enough to seem both ancient and timeless.
And yet, it’s hard to imagine a film more salient for the present moment. Palpable in the very premise of Nomadland is a sense of the things left behind by a society without enough care for the least of us. The parade of precious possessions, pets, and even people cast aside, because there’s no one there to look after them anymore, runs throughout the film. It is, in its way, a blistering indictment of any community that would prompt its citizens to resort to such desperate (if resourceful) measures, for want of other options.
Posted in Prestige Pictures
Tagged Chloe Zhao, Film Reviews, Frances McDormand, Oscars 2020
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The Two Halves of Inside Out, and Ourselves, that Make a Greater Whole
The best compliment I can give Inside Out is that it would still be a great movie if you lopped half of it off. There’s a worthwhile story to be told about an eleven-year-old girl moving halfway across the country and struggling to adjust to her new environment. The emotional beats of Riley’s story — feeling the need to put on a happy face for the good of her parents, buckling under the pressure, and deciding to run away — are compelling and poignant all on their own.
Likewise, if Inside Out were just a wild romp through the mind of a child, it would still be uproarious and inventive from beginning to end. The movie works just as well as a buddy comedy, with Joy and Sadness traipsing through a colorful labyrinth, leaping over hurdles both literal and metaphorical, and eventually finding common ground. As I discussed on the We Love to Watch Podcast, you could take either of these tales, make it the whole movie, and still create something wonderful and stirring.
Posted in Animated Films, Movies
Tagged Amy Poehler, Film Reviews, Inside Out, Pete Docter, Pixar
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The Evil Dead Remains Sam Raimi’s Scariest Bloodiest DIY Triumph
The most striking thing about The Evil Dead is that, after all this time, it’s still scary as hell. Maybe that should be no great achievement: Horror movies ought to, in theory at least, still manage a few scares even on repeat viewings. But the amount of fright-inducing spectacle that writer-director Sam Raimi and company pack into eighty-five blood-soaked minutes is still remarkable for so many reasons.
Posted in Classic Films, Movies
Tagged 1980s Movies, Bruce Campbell, Film Reviews, Horror Movies, Sam Raimi
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Robocop: A Fable of Humanity Corrupted, Commoditized, and Restored
Robocop is a tale of corruption and dehumanization. The film examines what it means to suck the humanity out of something, replace it with a mix of technology and greed, and witness the grim results when what’s left takes hold. It is an action-packed polemic against prioritizing private profits above the public good, escalation above restraint, and lead and steel above flesh and blood.
But as I discussed on The Serial Fanaticist Podcast, it’s also a paean to the resilience of the human soul, unquenched and undeterred by whatever self-serving, nest-feathering malevolence may have been permeating corporate boardrooms in the 1980s. OCP, an evil company that wants to replace regular cops with robotic enforcers, tries to erase the identity of the man who has become its latest product, so that he‘ll be a better tool and a better soldier. And yet, the man’s connections, to his partner and his family, reawaken and sustain him despite the company’s concerted efforts to stamp both out.
Posted in Classic Films, Movies, Sci-Fi Movies
Tagged 1980s Movies, Action Movies, Film Reviews, Paul Verhoeven, Peter Weller, Robocop
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Dark City Offers a Solid Rendition of the Usual Green Grime Tropes
Note: This review pertains to the director’s cut of Dark City and contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the film.
What is it about the 1990s that gave us so many films like this one? Whether it’s Dark City, or City of Lost Children, or even The Matrix (which I bet had the word “city” in the title at first), the decade was awash in reality-questioning, green-tinted stories about chosen one saviors breaking through confusing and oppressive systems. As I discussed on The Serial Fanaticist podcast, each of these movies offers the same sense of grime-ridden trippiness, the same sort of heady themes wrapped in a quasi-blockbuster package, and the same type of dreamlike, steampunk-meets-futurism aesthetic.
Posted in Movies, Sci-Fi Movies
Tagged 1990s films, Dark City, Film Reviews, Noir, Rufus Sewell, Science Fiction
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Parasite Exposes the Real Suckers in a Class-Conscious Thriller
Caution: This review contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Parasite
Parasite wears its themes on its sleeve. Director Bong Joon-ho chronicles the divide between rich and poor, between the class that has to scrape and scrap to make ends meet and the one that lives in careless largesse. He makes the gulf between them massive and eventually deadly. Within the confines of his feature, the wealthy enjoy the privilege of remaining oblivious to that divide and its attendant struggles, while the underclass must fake and fink and fight one another for a small cut of what their social superiors thoughtlessly squander.
Posted in Movies, Prestige Pictures
Tagged Bong Joon-ho, Film Reviews, International Films, Oscars 2019
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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Is Both Too Much and Not Enough
[CAUTION: This review contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker]
The Rise of Skywalker never stops. From minute one, it is utterly relentless, bringing back major characters, leaping across time and space, and blowing through plot point after plot point at breakneck speed. Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy recently speculated that if director J.J. Abrams had known he would be spearheading this final installment back when he originally signed on for The Force Awakens, he would have saddled up and directed the whole damn trilogy. The Rise of Skywalker bears that out, if only because it feels like Abrams tried to cram two movies into one here.
Attack of the Clones Is Like its Protagonist: Rife with Potential But Deeply Flawed
The strange thing about Attack of the Clones is that there’s the ghost of a better movie within it. Its script is atrocious, and the visuals all but sink the film as its scenes grow progressively uglier. But buried within that mess is a noble effort to cultivate the root causes of Anakin’s turn, a solid mystery adventure for “Obi Wan Kenobi: Space Detective”, and even a minor bit of political intrigue. Its weaknesses far outnumber its strengths, but the best thing you can say about Episode II is that in different hands, or under different circumstances, it could have been great.
The Simplicity of Predator Is a Blessing and a Curse
There’s a refreshing simplicity to the plot of Predator. You can boil it down to “Alien hunter picks off mercenaries in the jungle.” Technically, there’s a little more to it than that, with the mildest of ruses and a minor mission misdirect to contend with, but the gist of the film fits into an eight-word description. That seems remarkable right now in an age where every blockbuster and explosion-fest needs to have some convoluted conspiracy, twist upon twist, and a grand mystery to keep the audience interested. Predator, by contrast, banks on the basics of its premise to carry the day.
That’s a good thing, because there ain’t much of a story otherwise. As I discussed on The Serial Fanaticist Podcast, Predator offers the wisp of a theme about the military-industrial complex seeing its soldiers as interchangeable parts, while the men themselves view one another as human beings. It gradually parcels out the inevitable deaths of everyone besides its major star (and its token female character) to fill the gaps between explosions and alien encounters. And it teases the appearance of the titular antagonist nigh-perfectly, letting the audience get glimpses of the creature and his work bit by bit before he fully emerges.
Posted in Movies, Sci-Fi Movies
Tagged 1980s Movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Film Reviews, John McTiernan, Predator
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