Author: Wanggo Gallaga

MOVIE REVIEW: It’s Not Just a Fantasy: a review of ‘The Idea of You’

I’m surprised at how utterly relatable ‘The Idea of You’ was for me, and all the screaming gays and women in the cinema I was in when watching the Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine romantic drama/comedy about an older divorced mother of a teenager and her relationship with a 24-year-old pop star. I may not have children, but I do love my idol groups and as someone who has reached middle age and feeling the brunt of adulting in a very difficult and tedious world, the fantasy of getting swept off of my feet by a younger, handsome pop star is a fantasy I didn’t realise was a very real thing that was stirring inside.

And the direction by Michael Showalter and the screenplay by Showalter and Jennifer Westfeldt (based on the book by Robinne Lee) really plays into the fantasy of it. Everything within the set-up of this narrative to the way the element of the story plays out is all so fictional and so convenient for this sort of story. Hathaway plays Solene Marchand, who runs an art gallery in Silver Lake. She has a teenage daughter, Izzy (Ella Rubin) and her ex-husband has, of course, cheated on her with a younger workmate. Her ex-husband pays for VIP passes and a meet and greet with Izzy’s favorite band when she was in seventh grade, August Moon, in Coachella and gets Solene to take them there. At Coachella, she accidentally meets Hayes Campbell, a member of August Moon and he is smitten by her. Their love story begins.

Of course, Hayes loves art. The trust issues both have – Solene from her failed marriage while Hayes stems from his stardom and the pitfalls of money and fame – allows them to find some sort of peace and safety with each other. The fact that Solene had a baby at such a young age (it was mentioned that it was unplanned) meant that she never got to really experience the wild and crazy time that we are expected to have in our 20s. Hayes becomes an avenue for her to find out who she truly is as a person outside the choices that she made in her lost her youth.

Everything about the first hour and a half of this film plays so well to the fantasy of this dramatic situation. It’s passionate. It helps that both actors are so ridiculously good-looking and that they do an amazing job of really selling the love story. There’s this youthful longing that Galitzine dips into and throws at Hathaway and there’s a way that Hathaway takes this unbelievable character and makes her so real. It’s as if she understands and makes her character understand that this situation is crazy, and she still runs with it. She has a way to make each facial expression – whether she’s hurt or in the throes of joy or in a state of disbelief – seem so real and natural. Showalter also doesn’t hold back in making their relationship sexual and despite its frequency, it never feels gratuitous or obscene. It’s really rooted in Hayes’ youth and Solene’s desire to reclaim hers.

It’s the last half hour when the film pushes away from the fantasy to try and delve into the real-world issues that comes with the territory. It highlights the double standards that the world has on women dating younger men, and the ways by which the world and society boxes them into certain roles. Of course, there’s no way a global pop star can keep a relationship secret and it shows off how ugly it can all be.

And while the film manages to convey the hurt this “scandal” does to Solene but the film never tries to put judgement on all the delusional people on the internet who makes these sort of judgments to people they do not know, whose business they have no right to comment on or pass judgement. I know it’s not the film’s job to moralize against this, but I felt that it was in the right space to make some sort of statement about the public’s delusion that they have a right to say whatever they want on the lives of people they do not know – even if it’s a pop star who works in the public sphere.

The film feels young without trying too hard. It’s chock full of songs both new (to showcase August Moon with Nicholas Galitzine credited for singing all his parts) and some really nice, older songs like St Vincent and Fiona Apple. ‘The Idea of You’ is a wonderful little fantasy that comes alive on screen. It never really pretends to be serious or realistic, jumping certain narrative beats because it can, and because it does, it’s this lovely little escape that pulls down your guard so that it can explore some really important core issues before coming back and finishing it off in the tone and mood that it began with.

My Rating:

The Idea of You is now streaming on Prime Video, watch it here!

May 2, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Equal parts comedy, action film, and romance, ‘The Fall Guy’ offers everything and a lot more

With merely just the incredible chemistry of Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, ‘The Fall Guy’ is already an enjoyable movie to watch. The dynamic between these two Hollywood superstars is simply cinematic gold. But what elevates the film even further is that the movie offers a crazy, wild ride of a story that is never quite focused on being fully an action film, fully a comedy, or fully a romance. All three of its genres are playing off and grabbing screentime that it becomes so fun to watch. It’s never just one thing and never tries to be. The film (and the filmmakers) are having so much fun making this crazy love letter to stunt men and the art of movie stunts that it gets infectious and transfers to the audience.

‘The Fall Guy’ is not afraid to be silly. And that is exactly where Ryan Gosling excels in. He (and director David Leitch) are aware of how good-looking he is and how powerful his charisma is but they are not beholden to it. The fact that Gosling is unafraid to make fun of himself and of looking silly adds a layer to the film’s tone that allows it to go absolutely bonkers.

L to R: Ryan Gosling, David Leitch and Logan Holladay on the set of THE FALL GUY, directed by David Leitch

It’s the love story between Gosling’s Colt Seavers, a stunt man, who is dating a camera operator, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) when a stunt goes wrong, and he finds himself out of the industry for quite some time. He finally gets a call to get back to work for Jody’s directorial debut. Instead, he discovers that the lead star, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is missing, and he decides to try and find him to save Jody’s film from getting canceled.

Emily Blunt is Judy Moreno in THE FALL GUY, directed by David Leitch

L to R: Emily Blunt (as Judy Moreno) and Director David Leitch on the set of THE FALL GUY

But what he finds leads him to a dangerous world involving drugs and murder and he must use his stunt and fight training to get out of trouble and stop it from spreading around to everyone in the set, most especially Jody.

Ryan Gosling is Colt Seavers in THE FALL GUY, directed by David Leitch

The way by which the film escalates the violence, and the action sequences is really unrealistic but because the film had opened it up already with so much silliness, it gets away with it and you sit back and accept it all and have fun. Director David Leitch has said that this movie is his love letter to stunts and so the escalation allows him to go crazy with all the practical stunts that he does in this movie (including a huge scene that closed off the streets of Sydney for days and also, what I found on the internet, a report saying that they broke a Guinness World Record for the most cannon rolls performed in a car.). It’s explosive, it’s hard-hitting, fast-paced, and exciting.

L to R: Director David Leitch and Ryan Gosling (as Colt Seavers) on the set of THE FALL GUY, directed by David Leitch

L to R: Ryan Gosling, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ben Jenkin, Logan Holladay, Justin Eaton, and David Leitch on the set of THE FALL GUY, directed by David Leitch.

But it’s also a barrel of laughs and quite romantic, at some point. There are short montages and flashbacks that pepper that film when Colt recalls his relationship with Jody that is just inaudible, set to music, and Blunt and Gosling are just being sweet and funny to each other, and it looks so real. It’s just these short moments with no bigger context except two people falling in love and it works. It’s the kind of old-school cinematic magic that happens when you have two ridiculously good-looking and charming actors who manage to deliver incredible chemistry on set.

L to R: Emily Blunt is Judy Moreno and Ryan Gosling is Colt Seavers in THE FALL GUY, directed by David Leitch

So, while it’s hard to take the film seriously, and not that you should, there’s just so much to enjoy in this movie. The stunts get bigger and bigger. Narratively, it doesn’t make any sense but cinematically, you’re just screaming and cheering in enjoyment because it’s what good, mainstream fun in the cinema was meant to feel like.

Ryan Gosling is Colt Seavers in THE FALL GUY, directed by David Leitch

It’s not a perfect movie but it’s the perfect kind of film to bring a date or to watch with your friends and with all its movie references, unafraid to get silly and meta, and how genuine it is in its love for stunts and stunt performers, it really is a movie to watch in the cinema.

My Rating:

The Fall Guy is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

April 30, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Bloody and extremely violent, ‘Boy Kills World’ is a great showcase of Bill Skarsgard’s range and physicality

Set in an unnamed city surrounded by forests and with no recognizable culture or ethnicity, ‘Boy Kills World’ is a violent, action-packed (yet comedic) revenge story that comes off more like a video game at times. There is a commentary here about how authoritarian regimes breed the sort of violence that is at the heart of this story, but it gets muddled in all the graphic displays of it. There is a tender space in this narrative, but it can get overshadowed by all the blood and gore.

This city is ruled by the iron-first of the Van Der Koy dynasty. It’s matriarch, Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen), has put an annual event, a culling, where revolutionaries and “enemies of the state” are executed in public. Our protagonist, a child called Boy (Bill Skarsgard) manages to survive one culling where he lost both his mother and sister (and was rendered deaf and mute as well). He was taken in by a mysterious man called the Shaman (Yayan Ruhian), who trains him to be a weapon with the sole purpose of assasinating Hilda Van Der Koy. His internal world is narrated by a voice (H. Jon Benjamin) from an old arcade fighting game he used to play with his sister (Quinn Copeland).

Boy eventually gets his chance to take his revenge and sometimes guided, sometimes hindered by the hallucination of Nina, he enters in the lion’s den where he goes up against HIlda Van Der Koy, her army, and her family, played by Michelle Dockery, Brett Gelman, Sharlto Copley, and Jessica Rothe.

The film can be pretty straightforward. Boy trains and becomes a deadly human weapon and then, as he is older, he makes a go out of killing Hilda Van Der Koy. On the way, he meets up with the members of the resistance (Andrew Koji and Isaiah Mustafa) and manages to interact with the Van Der Koy family and we see a sort of deconstruction of what it probably feels like to be a part of despotic family.

‘Boy Kills World’ plays off like a video game. Everything is hyper-real. The acting is overt and pronounced. It’s not a place for subtlety (except for Skarsgard, which I’ll get to later). Everything is big and explosive. Everything is fast-paced, relentless, and merciless. There’s some fantastic fight choreography that never lets up. It’s hard-hitting and brutal. In fact, it is sometimes shaky and cut so fast that we sometimes don’t understand the sense of place and time. What we do see is when the punches land, when the knives cut, when the blood spurts out, and the bones break. There’s a lot of emphasis here on the brutality. At first it feels fun and thrilling and exciting. After the first hour, though, it feels senseless and overdone.

The commentary on this kind of revenge seems very one-sided but interesting to delve into. We are living in a world of despots and authoritarian regimes. They lord over the people with such power that they can kill indiscriminately, and it fosters the kind of rebellion that will want to pay back blood with blood. Boy, in his killing spree, is positioned as someone with a justification for his homicidal rage. HIs family was killed, and he was trained and almost brain-washed to be nothing but a killer. But as the film unfolds and the way he wreaks havoc upon the Van Der Koy’s and their army (there’s a vicious fight scene involving a cheese grater that is going to be unforgettable) starts to put into question how much joy are we to take from all this violence?

What keeps the film grounded is Bill Skarsgard fantastic performance. His physicality and his ability to embody the role of a human weapon is terrific. I believe him. And without a single bit of dialogue (his character is mute), he is able to portray a vast number of feelings that is narrated in a hilarious manner by H. Jon Benjamin. Benjamin’s lines were written with a sort of naivete since he’s the voice of Boy’s inner monologue. He never had a childhood, and he never grew up in a normal world. In a way, he is still a little boy who knows nothing but to kill and this is represented by his monologue. Skarsgard then translates this perfectly with his facial reactions and it completely humanizes. It’s an amazing work that is enjoyable to watch throughout this film.

While the fight scenes get more and more intense, especially those that involve the Shaman and Rothe’s character, strangely a woman called June 27 (and this is never explained). These two people and Boy have the best fight scenes and are saved up for last. It’s almost like a ballet except it’s brutal and deadly.While the film manages to find a tender heart by the end, it’s a lot of bloody, gory violence to get through. It never pretends to be anything deeper than a revenge film, though it does a pretty good 180 degree turn by its end that somehow softens the films hard edges but other than Bill Skarsgard’s portrayal of Boy.

My Rating:

Boy Kills World is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

April 27, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Disguised as a rom-com, ‘Elevator’ is a lovely little love letter to the hopes and dreams of migrant workers

While dressed up as a romantic comedy, ‘Elevator’ is actually a far more interesting movie than what it pretends to be. It has all the conventions of the genre: it has its meet-cute, the enemies-turned-to-love interest plot line, its ridiculously good-looking cast, and so much more; but the film hits harder as a love letter to migrant workers with hopes and dreams for making it big.

https://youtu.be/lOXbhWmqh-s?si=AdpxsduTIsm8LdR2

Director and writer Philip King manages to situate the majority of his film into the tiny world of elevator operator Jared (played by Paulo Avelino), who breaks protocol by trying to do a literal elevator pitch to all the VIP clients of the upscale hotel casino he works in. Jared has been working different jobs in different parts of the world and he’s come up with an app that would help migrant workers connect with potential employers. He has group of friends all working in the hotel and all from different countries and they are working together to help Jared score an investor.

What’s refreshing about ‘Elevator’ is that it presents a different side of overseas foreign workers. This isn’t a story of exploitation or desperation, which are important narratives, but we already have films like ‘Hello, Love, Goodbye,’ ‘Sunday Beauty Queens,’ and ‘Imbisibol’ to tell those stories. On the flip side, there are Filipinos with skill sets and potential, and they have hopes and dreams of making it big. It’s an aspirational story that showcases the hard work and street smarts (or as we call it: diskarte) that our countrymen have to employ to achieve their dreams. These dreams are personal and singular, which is a refreshing change from the usual narratives. It continues the trend started by films like ‘Hello, Love, Goodbye’ and ‘Never Not Love You,’ which explore the idea of going abroad and making money for oneself. It’s nice to see a movie that realizes what this dream would look like.

When Jared actually makes a connection with a rich businessman, Byron (Adrian Pang), he ends up having to work closely with Byron’s executive assistant Bettina (Kylie Versoza), who is also Filipino and is not easily swayed by Jared’s charm and passion. What starts off as a prickly relationship turns into something more friendly, warmer as Jared wins Bettina over and the two start to understand each other more. But things are complicated – Bettina is not single, and Jared is still trying to get Byron and Bettina to invest in his company – and the challenge helps form the foundation of the rom-com.

What makes this movie work is that Philip King is serious about his app. The conversations about the development of the business plan sounds legit (even if I know nothing about business or apps) but it helps create a believable world for these two characters to come together and fall in love. And in the discussion of the app, we see Jared as a good person who is passionate about all this. Coupled together with Paulo Avelino’s charm and conviction, it makes sense that Kylie Versoza’s Bettina would be swayed. This is Paulo Avelino’s best work in a long time; not bogged down by his superstar persona. He conjures up an everyman quality and it softens him and makes his Jared instantly likable. I have not seen this quality in him in a long time and it’s great to see it again.

Image Source: Viva Films FB

This is my fist time to see Kylie Versoza on screen and she’s so magnetic. I like her instantly and she infuses Bettina with intelligence and maturity. I feel, though, that there are times when she comes off as too stoic or cold because her make up can be so strong and she’s dressed up too much like a girl boss that it is hard for Versoza to play for Bettina’s softer, vulnerable side. She’s so gorgeous, with such strong, hard features that, with the styling that was put upon her, it was difficult for her to show off Bettina’s soul. She’s excellent when she’s playing it tough and cool, but she is fighting against the look that her character must reveal the other facets of her. There are moments when it happens, and it’s wonderful, but it’s something that she has get through.

The rest of the cast is incredible, though. Chai Fonacier, as one of Jared’s friends at the hotel is always enjoyable to see and she gives the film and warm heart and a sense of home for the film as much as his other friends (Shrey Bhargava, Shaun Lim Shi Yang, Shahid Nasheer, Rishi Vadrevu) give that sense of camaraderie that keeps the film from getting too small. Everyone is such a natural talent that it makes the friendship feel real. Adrian Pang, as Byron, is also excellent as he creates the necessary tension for Jared and Bettina.

What’s enjoyable about this film is its representation of a different set of Filipinos and writer and director Philip King never treats his film like some travelogue for Singapore. At the beginning, most of the scenes are trapped within the confines of Jared’s elevator. As his relationship with Bettina opens up, we see them in various parts of the hotel or in the city, but it never feels like a tourist video. It treats Singapore as a matter of fact, without highlighting it or its tourist spots, it situates Jared and Bettina as people of the world. It makes them fit in. And what a wonderful sight that is to see Filipinos fitting in wherever they go. What a wonderful way to represent us – as people of the world.

King also does some very interesting things, directorially. Like when he first introduces us to Bettina, he takes a male gaze shot of her. Versoza, dressed in a revealing outfit with a plunging neckline, is our first look at the character. Later, as one of Jared’s friends is keeping tabs of her whereabouts in the gym, he is looking at her from toe to head, emphasizing how good her body is. I thought that this sexualization of her was going to be rampant in the film. Interestingly enough, the moment Jared realizes she’s not a bad person (and thankfully, it’s early in the film) the camera stops objectifying her and puts her face as the focus rather than her body. The male gaze was only there when the characters objectified and then it stopped when they realized it was wrong.

While I’m a little bothered by the verbosity of the narration and the neat little way that the film forms its conclusion, but I was enjoying every bit of this film. It was charming and it was pleasant, and it was surprising me at every turn. I kept thinking it was going to be another predictable rom-com and instead I got a smart movie about Filipinos (and other migrant workers) working hard and trying to make it outside of their homes. Surprisingly, the love story is not the central theme to the piece but the bigger world of what the two characters learn about themselves and about their own value is what makes this movie so special. This was a very pleasant surprise for me.

My Rating:

Elevator is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

April 26, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Unpredictable and explosive, ‘Challengers’ is an irreverent love story like no other

You don’t need to know anything about the game tennis to enjoy the crazy ride that is ‘Challengers.’ This is not so much as a sports movie as it is a movie about three very passionate athletes whose complicated, intertwined relationships comes crashing into each other in the midst of a very integral challenger tennis match. I know nothing about tennis, and I didn’t need to. It’s merely the backdrop, and in some cases the filmmaking inspiration, for this sordid love triangle. Director Luca Guadagnino (with screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes) serves up some crazy, sensual character dynamics that turns love and friendship into a competition of a different kind.

What Guadagnino manages to do, as well, is to take the fast-paced, hard-hitting energy of the sport and suffused it into his craft. The film is in constant back-and-forth. The characters are constantly pushing each other, testing each other, goading each other. The camera work and the editing take on this approach as well. The narrative is constantly jumping from present day to the past, the flashbacks serving up the context to make the present-day competition even more tension-filled and ready to explode.

‘Challengers’ is about two friends, Patrick and Art (played by Josh O’ Connor and Mike Faist, respectively), who are both tennis players and have fallen for Zendaya’s Tashi Duncan, an emerging tennis superstar. At a tournament in their youth the three get close and a relationship is formed but things get complicated. When Tashi suffers a career-ending injury, she ends up with one of the friends and becomes his coach while the other is waiting on the wings, waiting for his turn to get into the spotlight.

C_05746_R2 Mike Faist stars as Art and Josh O’Connor as Patrick in director Luca Guadagnino’s CHALLENGERS An Amazon MGM Studios film Photo credit: Niko Tavernise © 2024 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

What makes ‘Challengers’ so enjoyable is how the love story of all three characters – because the friendship of Patrick and Art can get just as deep and just as messy as Tashi’s relationship with both men – are handled without any reverence to the concept of romance. Tashi is a cold, hard woman who has a clear-cut definition of what she wants out of life and out of her partner. Both men are constantly trying to win her over but are no match for Tashi’s strength. Instead, they take it out on each other and despite all her strength, Tashi can’t seem to shake off both of them from her orbit.

The trio are sizzling with such chemistry that any of their interactions with each other are just explosive and Guadagnino knows how to capture it on film. He sees them as fully fleshed-out characters and is quick to capture all their little nuances and facial tics as each one is pushing against the other – taunting, teasing, pleading, flirting – but Guadagnino also understands that they are sexual beings as well. There’s a lot of skin here, bodies covered in sweat and glistening under the sun. Desire is the film’s fulcrum, but the characters are not the best at articulating what it is they really want or need and so there is friction and that’s the fuel that drives the movie to its highs and lows.

(L to R) Mike Faist as Art, Zendaya as Tashi and Josh O’Connor as Patrick in CHALLENGERS, directed by Luca Guadagnino, a Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film. Credit: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures © 2023 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

It’s a love story but Guadagnino doesn’t film it like a romance story. It’s set in the world of tennis but it’s not a sports movie either. It’s sexy but it’s never gratuitous or obscene. ‘Challengers’ is a crazy, high-octane study on the complex relationship of three athletes who seem to be conflating their careers, their love, and their own lost dreams and hopes into this one match. Propelled forward by the relentless soundtrack of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, ‘Challengers’ is fun, irreverent, and completely bonkers because it’s a love story where everything is at stake, and no one seems to know how to love properly.

C_00654_R Zendaya stars as Tashi and Josh O’Connor as Patrick in director Luca Guadagnino’s CHALLENGERS An Amazon MGM Studios film Photo credit: Niko Tavernise © 2024 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Zendaya, O’ Connor, and Faist are so charismatic and magnetic that you cannot help but get involved in the crazy antics of the three leads as struggle to make sense out of what it is they are feeling for each other and of their own selves. These are mature and intelligent performances that is so fun to watch because they are so committed to the craziness of this story.

C_05803_R Mike Faist stars as Art and Zendaya as Tashi in director Luca Guadagnino’s CHALLENGERS An Amazon MGM Studios film Photo credit: Niko Tavernise © 2024 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

‘Challengers’ is so refreshing and unpredictable. It’s not cookie-cutter in any way and I hope that this is the trend for commercial films moving forward. It’s hard-hitting, smart, and risqué. It never feels safe and it’s just so enjoyable watching a movie that makes you laugh out loud and catches you off guard.

My Rating:

Challengers is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

April 24, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Guy Ritchie’s ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ is bombastic, all style and nothing more

While the movie states that the story is based on true events – taken off from the pages of Winston Churchill’s now-declassified papers and turned into a book by Damien Lewis called ‘Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII’ – Guy Ritchie’s ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ must be a heavily fictionalized retelling of these people’s endeavours (a quick search on the Internet reveals that these characters really did exist). Project Postmaster actually did exist, and it involved the secret taskforce that then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill had sent to the Spanish-controlled island of Fernando Po in South Africa to sink a tanker that supplied the Nazi U-Boats that kept the Americans from making it to Europe during World War II. Director and co-writer Guy Ritchie (alongside Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, and Arash Amel) keeps the story and characterizations thin, and leaves the film as merely the plot points of how the mission may have transpired and did some embellishments to really amplify the violence and action.

Ritchie has a definitive style-over-substance approach to filmmaking, preferring filmmaking techniques that amp up the energy of his films and ensures that things look cool. As stylistic and spectacle-driven his version of ‘Sherlock Holmes’ was or his ‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword,’ I’ve always found his approach to story as very thin and lightweight. Even his films that I do like ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ and ‘Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels,’ were cool and fun but there’s nothing about both films that I remember very much of and that sticks.

It’s on this level that ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ operates it. It’s a film with a lot of action, a lot of blood and gore and violence. It’s got big explosions and a whole lot of gun fire. But the film just goes through the motions of the mission. The team, led by Gus March-Phillipps (played by Henry Cavill), must rescue one of their ranks (Geoffrey Appleyard played by Alex Pettyfer) before heading to Fernando Po to sink the Nazi tanker. While they are on their rescue mission, two double agents (played by Eiza Gonzales and Babs Olusanmokun) must ensure the intelligence they received in Fernando Po is legitimate.

There’s no inner motivation here except that many of the team have a score to settle with the Nazis. There are no real personal goals. It’s all plot, no character development. The film, then, takes us through the mission – the things that go right and the things that go wrong – and tries to wow us with all the brutal fight sequences that have no real consequence for the audience because we have no real invested to the characters.

Sure, Cavill, Pettyfer, Gonzales, and Olusanmokun and the rest of the team that includes Alan Ritchson, Henry Golding, and Hero Fiennes Tiffin are all gorgeous and charming but if their characters are archetypes without anything personal attached to them as characters, it’s hard to create any sort of attachment that makes us want to root for them (aside from the fact that they want to kill Nazis).

And that’s where I find the film a little difficult to jump along with. Sure, there’s a lot of action since it is an action film but it’s the joy the film gets in all the wanton killing of Nazis. Since the characters don’t have arcs, the film’s only theme is to fight evil with evil. Sure, I’m against battling all forms of fascism and racism and imperialism at every turn but the film sort of takes joy in the killing of the Nazis. It reduces the enemy into a cartoon and thus makes them unreal.

And we are living in a world now where fascism has risen again in some form or another. I’m worried that the film telegraphs that the best way to deal with these fascists is to destroy them in a similar manner as well. Historically, Project Postmaster turned the tides of World War II to the Allies side (that’s not a spoiler unless you know nothing of World History) but its timing in this day and age, without the benefit of nuance can create an unsettling message.

By the end of the film, the characters are who they were when the film began. Without a character arc to hold on to, the fight scenes are explosive but hold no suspense or tension or danger. It’s pretty to look at but it carries no surprises or says nothing new to what we already know.

My Rating:

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

April 22, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Too Close and Too Familiar: a review of ‘Under Parallel Skies’

There’s a lot of misfiring happening in what should be a sure-fire success that is the international co-production ‘Under Parallel Skies’ with Thai superstar Metawin Opas-iamkajorn and Janella Salvador, under the direction of Sigrid Andrea Bernardo. By all means, this should be good. Shot in Hong Kong, Bernardo is quite adept at capturing love amidst the backdrop of a foreign lang. She did it is so capably in ‘Kita Kita,’ presenting us with the surprising kilig-worthy pairing of Alessandra de Rossi and Empoy with great success. But in ‘Under Parallel Skies,’ things are not coming together, and the movie feels disjointed and confused with what story it is trying to tell.

Metawin Opas-iamkajorn is playing Parin, a very wealthy Thai young businessman who heads to Hong Kong in search of his mother. There he runs into Iris, played by Janella Salvador. She’s working at the hotel he is staying in and as his wealthy father has left instructions for the staff to take care of him, Iris ends up working overtime to address all Parin’s needs, including helping him find his mother. In the process, they get close and discover that their feelings have grown from purely professional to something much more.

The first misfire in this film is its lack of a cohesive story. The first act revolves all around Parin’s search for his mom. While he employs the help of Iris, which lays the foundation for the love story to happen after, the goal and direction is finding the mom. Surprisingly, this is resolved faster than expected, switching the entire movie’s direction on the second act to the sudden twist of Parin and Iris dropping everything to start working together as business partners running a small cafe in a provincial, coastal area of Hong Kong while living together. But the third act is a completely different movie altogether that involves one of the character’s hidden secrets that is unconvincingly set up in act one but is never any visible motivating factor until it is revealed in the final act that turns the movie over its head again.

These multiple directions made the film feel like three different movies and never gave us any chance to really get to know the characters well or see their relationship grow into the love story that the second act wanted us to fall in love with. Bernardo fills the first act with Parin’s desperation to find his mother but also peppers the scenes with comedic moments of Iris and Parin verbally sparring or Iris taking care of a drunk Parin to set us up for the love story. Unfortunately, there’s no real chemistry happening between the two leads and the moment Parin meets his mom, the lessons he learns there holds no real learning for the character as it makes no real visible change to his life.

After an hour, as Parin and Iris start to build their little business together, I realise I didn’t know these characters at all. Parin left home to find his mom and it is implied that he ran a business in Thailand (and that it failed) and that he is the youngest son of a wealthy family, but we return to none of that. We do not know what he likes or what drives him and it’s the same with Iris. I don’t know what drives her either. She has a sister back home in the Philippines that she is estranged from, but we don’t know why. So, when the two suddenly realise they fell in love, we don’t see what connects them other than the time they have spent together. The love doesn’t come from any sense of connection other than shared time.

It doesn’t’ help that Bernardo’s directing choices are also quite puzzling. It felt like 90% of the film was shot in extreme close ups of the actor’s faces. It capitalizes a lot on the good looks and star power of its two leads. Except that it makes the film feel very small and confined and claustrophobic. There are barely any establishing shots. The hustle and bustle of Hong Kong is never emphasized and the grandeur of the backdrop of any of the locations end up carrying no consequence for the narrative. Adding to this is Bernardo’s choice to direct the dialogue scenes (of which there are too much of) as cut-to-cut. There are very few moments that Metawin and Janella speak to each other in the same shot. Parin says a line, cut to Iris, who says a line, cut, and then Parin says a line. The characters feel distant and never actually get close when the film should be putting them together.

Homestream images from 28 Squared Studios FB Page

And this is strange coming from Bernardo who manages to use the full backdrop of Sapporo in ‘Kita Kita’ to help amplify the growing love story between her two leads, or in ‘Untrue,’ where she situates her romance/drama-turned-suspense/thriller in the gorgeous Georgian landscape. Bernardo situates her characters in a vast world and knows how to use the location to amplify her themes and create stunning imagery that elevates the work. None of this skill set is at work in ‘Under Parallel Skies.’ Very little of Hong Kong is scene and it never really fully plays out in the story – it could have been set in Thailand or the Philippines and nothing essentially changes in the story.

There are a lot of cliches that fill up the rest of the film to help fill in the gaps of the underdeveloped characters or storylines. All the elements are presents for a hit – a strong writer/director with a great track record for producing groundbreaking work, two big stars from different countries and cultures, a popular genre, an exotic location – but none of these things come into alignment and the film is way too close for comfort (cinematographically) that it leaves no room to breathe or to gain scope while the story is so thin that it resorts to familiar cliches to fill in the gaps.

My Rating:

Under Parallel Skies is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

April 20, 2024
REVIEW: The first season of ‘Fallout’ is crazy good, with an emphasis on crazy

I know nothing about the video game ‘Fallout,’ which is the basis for the new 8-episode series on Amazon Prime with the same name, created by Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet. Not knowing the source material meant coming in completely blank and was very much pleasantly surprised at what I saw. ‘Fallout’ is a post-apocalyptic satire in a world driven mad by the destruction of the planet. Resources are limited, the powerful exercise authority by strength and fear, while those with available supplies keep it to themselves. The nuclear fallout (probably where the show gets its name) means that the world is irradiated; mutants abound, food is scarce, and no one can be trusted.

https://youtu.be/V-mugKDQDlg?si=4TgXarYYCERAPTgY

The show follows the lives of three main characters: Lucy (Ella Purnell), Maximus (Aaron Moten), and The Ghoul (Walton Goggins). Lucy comes from the vault, a portion of the human race who were able to escape the ravages of the nuclear war that has kept them safe and well fed in the huge underground bunkers prepared way before the war broke out. But the population is thinning and living in the bunker has kept them safe but naive and sheltered. Maximus lives above ground, a trainee who is training to be a squire for one of the knights of The Brotherhood. The knights wear powerful suits of armor and while they are poised to be a sort of protective authority they’ve devolved into bullies. The Ghoul is a bounty hunter, and due to the effects of radiation poisoning (and whatever else), he regenerates quickly and has lived over 200 years.

Brotherhood of Steel and Vertibirds in “Fallout”

Ella Purnell (Lucy) in “Fallout”

The three lead characters are all crazy in their own way and through their lens, we see how satire of ‘Fallout’ plays out in the ways it questions authority, kindness (in a soulless world), hope, and civilization when everything has been torn apart.

Ella Purnell (Lucy) in “Fallout”

Power Suit and Aaron Moten (Maximus) in “Fallout”

Walton Goggins (The Ghoul) in “Fallout”

The show is violent and gory, and it revels in that imagery. It is constantly reminding you that this idea of the world is an ugly one and a brutal one and it is not afraid to show it. Luckily, the film is scarce on gratuitous sex and nudity. When it has (and it’s very few) it used for its full effect and is never seen or felt as objectifying its characters. It’s a welcome change from other shows.

The satire comments on the way the world’s harshness and how one must act to survive in such a world is a mirror to the world we live in today. As the show’s reality is situated with the nuclear disaster happening in the 60s or 70s, it means the technology is from that time – clunky, heavy, analog – which creates interesting visual textures that helps highlight the overall conservative moral values of the people at The Vault (Lucy’s world) and how that counterpoints with the values of the tattered world above the ground. The old school vibe amplifies the way the world has gone bonkers and the low-tech, lo-fi way by which technology is presented gives us a feel that the world has never gone to a level of sophistication that can afford better values. In Maximus’ world, The Brotherhood have metal armor, high powered weapons, and futuristic helicopters, but everyone is aggressive and a bully. There are tradeoffs here and it helps show the rich world building of the show.

Power Armor Suits in “Fallout”

The plot is exciting and thrilling but it’s the world-building of ‘Fallout’ that really hooks you in. You want to see how this world deals with situations. It’s cynical and jadedness that when Lucy brings in her naivety and innocence to a predicament, it really shines bright and how it reflects and bounces off Maximus or The Ghoul. I’d like to see more of this should the show be greenlit for a second season.

Walton Goggins (The Ghoul) in “Fallout”

One of my only gripes is the show is over scored. It likes to violate every scene with a classic song from the 60s (maybe even older) and while it is charming in the first few episodes, by episode 5, it’s overdone. It can get annoying and distracting pretty quickly.

There’s a lot that this show can cover, and I love the twists and turns of this first season. Yes, it’s jaded and cynical, but it surprisingly offers a lot of hope too (as it reaches the finale of the first season). And it has an interesting enough cliff-hanger of an ending that makes me want to see more and more of this world. A world destroyed by nuclear war is nothing new so it may have to rehash certain situations that we may have seen in other platforms and media but the characters it has introduced are engaging and its subversive anti-corporation messages are read loud and clear.

I want a second season. I want to see how much crazier this show can get.

My Rating:

Fallout is now streaming on Prime Video, watch it here!

April 16, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Merely appealing to nostalgia, ‘Ghosbusters: Frozen Empire’ suffers from a weak story and a bloated cast

With a bloated cast and a hackneyed rebellious teen narrative at the center of it, ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ feels more like a by-the-numbers franchise movie than an actual standalone narrative with interesting, dynamic characters. Set three years after its predecessor, ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ the story follows the family of Callie Spengler (an underutilized Carrie Coon) as they have taken on the mantle of the Ghostbusters and are doing exactly that in the streets of New York. Funnily enough, I remember liking ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ but I remember nothing about the movie at all (except that Carrie Coon and Paul Rudd where in it). Coming into this movie, the film does nothing to try and bring back any affection for these characters. Callie’s kids – Trevor and Phoebe (played by Finn Wolfhard and McKenna Grace, respectively) – have typical teenage behaviour in these kinds of films and do not stand out at all in any way.

Trevor is constantly complaining about everything while Phoebe, a genius who seems to take after her grandfather, is at that precarious stage where she is angry about everything and is looking to start a fight. It’s the central relationship story at the center of ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ and it’s also the least interesting thing about the film.

Garraka in Columbia Pictures’ GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE.

Slimer in a trash pile in Columbia Pictures’ GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE.

In the usual hijinks of a Ghostbusters movie, a powerful spirit – this time, in the form of an elder god – is freed (due to the recklessness of Phoebe and her lashing out at the world) and the Ghostbusters – both new and old – must come together to stop it and save the world.

Sewer Dragon Ghost being chased through New York in Columbia Pictures’ GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE.

Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Mckenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard on the set of Columbia Pictures’ GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE.

Directed by Gil Kenan with a script by Kenan and Jason Reitman, the issue with the film is that there are too many characters at play to tell any sort of real cohesive story well. They try to give everyone something to do – from Coon to Rudd to Wolfhard and McKenna and including characters that also appeared in the last film, Logan Kim’s Podcast and Celeste O’Connor’s Lucky Domingo, and the old Ghostbusters, who must make an appearance like Dan Aykroyd’s Ray Stanz, Ernie Hudson’s Winston, Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman, and Annie Potts’ Janine Melnitz. But if that’s not enough, they’ve also added Kumail Nanjiani as Nadeen, a man whose heirloom holds the elder god, Emily Alyn Lind, a ghost who befriends Phoebe, James Acaster’s Lars, who is an engineer working for the Ghostbusters, and Patton Oswalt’s librarian.

Lucky (Celeste O’Connor), Nadeem Razmaadi (Kumail Nanjiani), Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Lars Pinfield (James Acaster) in Columbia Pictures’ GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE.

With all these characters, each one is given something to do that it takes away from the time that it needs to properly tell Phoebe’s story. So, without the scenes needed to flesh out her character, Phoebe ends up acting like a spoiled brat who unwittingly brings about the coming of a new ice age and endangers everyone in the process. It’s hilarious because she’s identified as a certifiable genius, capable of understanding quantum physics and the like. She is angry because she is removed from Ghostbusting because she’s actually just 15. It doesn’t help that she disrespects her mom and her mom’s boyfriend, Gary (Paul Rudd) and she thinks she is better than everyone. Early in the film, she causes massive property damage while trying to catch a ghost and doesn’t see why she is considered a danger and should not be fighting undead spirits.

Lucky (Celeste O’Connor), Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), Lars Pinfield (James Acaster), Podcast (Logan Kim) and Ray (Dan Aykroyd) in Columbia Pictures’ GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE.

This is a classic 80s and 90s storyline for family adventure films. One member of the family is young but brilliant and special, much like Phoebe is, and they lash out (as kids do) and caused problems, which they themselves end up having to fix and by the end of the film, they are forgiven for everything and they are reminded about how special they are.

There’s a moment in the film that it feels like it will go against this – Callie and Greg clash with the rebellious teen and even call her selfish at one point, which I applaud greatly. I felt that this storyline needed a modern update and that the entitlement that is at display here from Phoebe would be rectified. But to my disappointment, the film backtracks and returns to form.

Janine (Annie Potts), Peter (Bill Murray), Ray (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston (Ernie Hudson) in Columbia Pictures’ GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE.

As the central storyline in ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ it makes the film feel so old and outdated. There’s a hefty dose of nostalgia here, especially with the care they take to ensure that the senior Ghostbusters have a good amount of screentime (and some gags that call back to the original 1984 film) that the film feels redundant. I have to agree with my friends when he said that this film is inoffensively bland. It does nothing new to the franchise and checks all its boxes to ensure that it hits all the right notes for family-friendly, mass market affair.

The firehouse freezes over in New York City in Columbia Pictures’ GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE.

While I kept checking the time, to my surprise, the cinema around me was full of people enjoying themselves. They cheered when the old Ghostbusters showed up and they laughed when a gag comes through (especially if it somehow relates to the original group). The nostalgia is strong in this one but that’s what it seems to be. It’s a relic of a time when things were simpler, when stakes weren’t high, and life wasn’t so complicated. It’s a light-hearted movie with no real weight or substance. It does nothing new but appeals to nostalgia, which it does well. The people enjoyed it. But I’m not a sentimental person.

My Rating:

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

April 15, 2024
REVIEW: The first two eps of ‘Blood Free’ is off to a cool and suspenseful (yet cold) start

There is a cinematic quality to the way the narrative of ‘Blood Free,’ the new Korean science fiction/mystery Kdrama at Disney+ unfolds, and this is not necessarily a good thing. Director Park Cheol-Hwan can get a little indulgent with his use of big scenes and CGI and special effects. The new show is futuristic, set in a cosmopolitan 2025 with a slightly dreary edge as a biotech company markets its latest product of “blood free” food. Han Hyo Joo, of ‘Moving’ and ‘Happiness,’ plays Yun Jayu, the head of BF, which is the leader in cultured meat products that promises to end hunger in an ecologically friendly way.

But not everyone is happy with BF and their biotech. Yoon Ja-Yoo is constantly attacked at all sides as farmers and other groups seem hell-bent in taking her and her company down. Right after BF’s latest product launch, which branches the BF product line from beef and pork to seafood, another attempt at Yun Jayu’s life is made and hackers have put ransomware into their computer system.

Enter Woo Chae-won (Ju Ji Hoon of ‘Kingdom’ and ‘Jirisan’). Woo Chae-won is a former military man turned bodyguard who is given a mission to become Yun Jayu’s bodyguard and find out if she’s actually a terrorist hiding as a biotech corporation.

There’s a lot of plots moving in all directions in the first two episodes of ‘Blood Free.’ Coupled with director Park Cheol Hwan’s penchant for big dramatic scenes, it is a visual treat with a great emphasis on the show’s mystery/suspense tone but it leaves the audience quite cold because it fails to really take its time to get to know the characters on an intimate level.

Han Hyo Joo and Ju Ji Hoon are both incredible actors who have shown great range and dynamism in their previous roles. But in the first episode of ‘Blood Free,’ the show is more set towards its world building, Yun Jayu is stoic, betraying no emotions when another attack on her person is carried out or when a hack promises to ruin her company. By the time the show has started, she’s already used to it. She’s unperturbed and while it promises a strong, cool character to follow – it leaves us cold with how to feel about her. We don’t know what she’s passionate about or what drives her other than the need to make the world better.

Maybe we could get that from Ju Ji Hoon’s military man, but Woo Chae-Won seems more caught up in the trauma of past missions and is too much of a good soldier to do anything other than follow orders. He’s just as stoic, keeping his emotions really close to his chest that also makes him guarded and reserved.

Luckily, there are members of the supporting cast who are much livelier and energetic such as the lawyer and head of planning, Jeong Hae-deun (played by a mesmerizing Park Ji Yeon). She is a great counterpoint for Yun Jayu’s stillness. As of now, she’s the one I’m watching.

Outside of the fact that the show seems more interested in the conspiracies – who is hacking the BF group? Is there a traitor in their midst? Will Yun Jayu realise Woo Chae-Won has his own agenda? Is Yun Jayu a terrorist? – than building its characters and creating dynamic personalities for the actors to inhabit, there is also an interesting push the show is doing in presenting us a world where technology may solve one of the world’s biggest problems: hunger. But the whole idea of cultured meat, synthetic meat grown in a lab, is a truly profound concept to play with. The economic and ecological ramifications of such technology, if the show explores this and its effects on the people, then the show will definitely be a lot more profound than the first two episodes hint at.

By and far, the first two episodes of ‘Blood Free’ is all set up and while it promises big things, it doesn’t give us enough hooks yet to know if we want to go all-in or not, unlike a show like ‘Moving’ where the first episode is so strong already that you are onboard from the very start. If the themes presented are explored while enriching the characterizations of its two leads happen, then the show can be great. But until then, I’ll give it until episode 4, as one should do any show, before I go all in.

My Rating:

Blood Free is now streaming on Disney+. Watch it here.

April 14, 2024