Author: Wanggo Gallaga

Only Two Episodes of the Bite-sized Disney Plus Animated Series ‘Zootopia+’ Actually Hits but It Hits Hard

As Disney+ finally opens its doors to the Philippines, there’s going to be a rush to catch up on all the movies and shows and specials that have not been available to us for years now. They have all types from Disney classics to their latest animated features, to the movies and tv series of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or if you are a fan of the Star Wars franchise, that will be made available to you too. They even have exclusive Kdramas on the platform like ‘Snowdrop,’ ‘Soundtrack #1,’ and the special ‘In the Soop: Friendcation.’

What might be missed in all this hustle and bustle is a bite-sized 6-episode animated limited series called ‘Zootopia+.’ Based on characters from the 2016 animated film ‘Zootopia,’ the short series (each episode runs only for 7 to 9 minutes long) is set during the events of the movie, showcasing the lives of the different characters – from the arctic shrews, to the weasel that the protagonist Judy catches in the film, to the famous sloth civil servant, and even Gazelle’s dancers – that sort of amplifies the world of ‘Zootopia’ and make it bigger.

It’s an interesting concept as the world of the movie is completely big and new and it could do with a little more exploration. Like many of Disney’s animated films, this series boasts of incredible animation and effects. The world of ‘Zootopia’ is filled with so much texture from the different kinds of animals and their fur and hide (or skin). It really depends on the animal. The amount of work that is put into each individual episode is quite incredible. Even at an average of 8 minutes per episode, it shows the kind of dedication they have to the material.

Unfortunately, not all of the six episodes reach a sort of satisfying conclusion that gives them any sort of weight that endears us to the world nor does it make any interesting dissection of society and culture that the movie does.

Photo from ‘Zootopia’ trailer

Four of the six episodes are centered on a single gimmick or novelty that they bleed dry for the entire short duration of the episode. The first is a frenetic, over-the-top chase sequence between Judy’s parents and one of Judy’s younger siblings who has gotten away from them. It has a cute way of highlighting a married couple who are so supportive of each other but other than that, it really does nothing to make the world feel bigger. In fact, the whole length of the short episode manages to make the world of ‘Zootopia’ feel smaller by how it dramatizes the distance between Judy’s hometown and the city of Zootopia.

There’s a story involving Gazelle and a talent contest that is looking for new back-up dancers and it is just a single punchline that you see coming from a mile away. Another episode is of the sloth, Flash, as a dinner guest in a restaurant and it’s the longest episode at 9 minutes and it goes exactly how you imagine it to. There’s a musical episode with Duke, the Weasel, but while it does touch upon the tempting world of petty crimes, it doesn’t say much and in fact makes light of how difficult it is to find redemption.

Photo from ‘Zootopia’ trailer

There are only two episodes that I felt actually made the world feel bigger, and both these episodes are working on two different frameworks altogether.

One episode features Fru Fru, the arctic shrew is part of a television show called ‘The Real Rodents of Rodentia.’ The show is done ala-’The Real Housewives’ and the whole episode parodies the shooting style, the testimonials and confessionals, and even the shallowness of the reality show. It’s a brilliant little gimmick that’s perfectly played out in 7 minutes but what makes it interesting is how it subverts the form – the reality show – and uses it to talk about something deeper and meaningful; something that relates to the themes found in the original movie. Aside from the gimmick, it’s able to add something to the world and to the lore.

Photo from ‘Zootopia’ trailer

On the other side of that coin, the episode involving Mr. Big, the shrew that acts like The Godfather. Taking its cues from the movie ‘The Godfather,’ it shows us a bit of Zootopia history, and of how Rodentia came to be. It’s a wonderful episode that talks about community and the struggles that the smaller animals in Zootopia face in a city filled with animals of different sizes. This episode makes the world of Zootopia bigger (ironically) by showing us the hierarchies of the city and how these are overcome by a spirit of community. It’s something that relates strongly to the movie but it also opens up the world in many interesting ways.

So, while most of the episodes are really light and forgettable one-joke narratives, the proof of the concept works wonderfully in two of the episodes. While the other four merely serve as distracting content, the two episodes that matter really serve as viable companion pieces that can continue to deepen the world of the 2016 movie.

My Rating:

.

—
Zootopia+ is now streaming on Disney+.

November 21, 2022
Exclusive: The Cast of the K-Drama ‘Curtain Call’ on Amazon Prime Video chat about their hit show

Premiering last October 31, the Korean drama ‘Curtain Call’ premiered on KBS2 to extremely high ratings (streamed in Asia exclusively through Amazon Prime Video). Boasting of a stellar cast that includes Kang Ha Neul (‘When the Camellia Blooms’ and ‘Insider’), Ha Ji Won (‘Empress Ki,’ ‘Secret Garden’), Go Doo Shim (‘Our Blues,’ ‘My Mister’), Jung Ji-So (‘Parasite,’ ‘Doom at Your Service’), and Noh Sang-hyun (‘Pachinko’), the drama has the sheen of a prestige television show with a grand scale and dramatic scope. Four episodes have aired so far but already it is highlighting the cast’s incredible performances and the sweeping vision of its director and writer, Yoon Sang-ho and Jo Sung-geol, respectively.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Prime Video PH (@primevideoph)

‘Curtain Call’ is the story of an aging matriarch, Ja Geum-soon (Go Doo Shim), who fled from North Korea and was separated from her husband and son. In South Korea, she started a new life and built a successful chain of hotels with a new family but now at the twilight of her years and terminally ill, she misses the family she was separated from during the Korean war. Her trusted aide, Jeong Sang-cheol (played by Sung Dong Il, of ‘Reply 1988’) tracks down her family in North Korea only to discover her last living relative in that side of the world is her grandson, Ri Moon-sung (Noh Sang-hyun), who may be a gangster.

To give Ja Geum-soon one last moment of happiness before she passes, he hires an unknown, struggling theater actor played by Kang Ha Neul to impersonate her grandson. It’s a story about a family torn apart by circumstance and how the presence of a lie can bring so much joy to Ja Geum-soon and her granddaughter Park Se-yeon (Ha Ji Won) but also may cause as much pain if discovered.

Ha Ji-Won and Kang Ha-Neul in ‘Curtain Call’

From the first episode alone, the drama takes a grand approach to the story, beginning with a flashback of the Korean War, when Ja Geum-soon is separated from her husband and baby. It’s a massive scene, an exodus of an entire town that feels reminiscent of ‘Dunkirk’ or even ‘Miss Saigon.’ And then, in the present day, everything about Hotel Nakwon, the hotel chain she built from scratch, is luxurious and elegant. Her grandchildren, though, feel very differently about the hotel and war between the siblings is brewing.

The show is character-driven as much as it is centered around the deception of Ja Geum-soon’s aide. Will they discover that Ri Moon-sung who visits them is really an actor? What about the real grandson? How will the grandchildren react at the discovery of the lie? The story is Shakespearean in its complexity and there’s even a melodramatic aspect to it that can lean towards the excessive and campy, if the show isn’t too careful. But the performances are great and the show is so well-executed that it is hitting all its marks.

To promote the show, four of their cast – Kang Ha Neul, Ha Ji Won, Noh Sang-hyun, and Jung Ji-so, who plays another actress pretending to be Kang Ha Neul’s wife – gathered together to answer questions online from the press from all over Southeast Asia. The four actors were comfortable with each other, laughing and throwing jokes back and forth.

Here is an excerpt of their interview with the press:

Question: After reading the script, what impressed you the most and made you decide to join this drama?

Kang Ha-neul: I think a lot of people will feel the same way. The theme was really unique, and the script was something you don’t come across often. How will things pan out? I thought, reading, but as I followed the script, I was able to understand its flow and was naturally drawn to the story.

Ha Ji-won: Myself as well, when I read the script I felt it was very refreshing, as well as how the story is structured. It also got me wondering about what I would do if the same thing happened to me. I felt like it would be very fun.

Is there any message that you would like to convey to the audiences from this series?

Ha Ji-won: So my character believes Jae-heon is the real Mun-seong, so she is happy to welcome her little brother into the family. They grow close together as if they were an actual family. At one point, however, she realizes that Jae-heon is not her real brother, and she meets her real brother. And that got me thinking about what is real and what is not real. What constitutes real love? Do you have to be related by blood to be called a family and offer familial love? I came to think that anyone can be family. In life, we are stuck with the binary mindset of real and fake, so this was a food for thought for me. It was really strange actually, we (pointing to Sang-hyun) shot the scene together recently, and even though he actually is Se-yeon’s real brother, I was intimidated.

Ha Ji-won

Noh Sang-hyun: Really? You laughed a lot.

Ha Ji-won: Me? No way! I was intimidated. He was staring straight at me as I entered the room. I called his name out, “Ri Mun-seong!” and he gave me an intimidating look, so I said nevermind.

Kang Ha-neul: That’s a good message. So, what is real and what is fake. Is that even a concept that exists?

Kang Ha-neul

One of the most interesting elements of Yoo Jae-heon’s character is the use of a North Korean accent. However, there is another layer of Jae-heon being a South Korean actor that pretends to be a North Korean person too. How does this affect the way you design and interpret the character’s accent and can you tell us more about the process?

Kang Ha-neul: I’ve never actually learned how to speak with a North Korean accent before. I had an instructor teach me who provided me with recordings of the lines. Sticking too strictly to an authentic North Korean accent in a way washed out the original meaning and intention of the script. So I talked with the director and the instructor to polish and finetune the accents to melt with the show and include words that are more familiar.

Noh Sang-hyun: I also got recordings of my lines read out with a North Korean accent. The instructor was on the set with us as well when we were shooting. It was the same process Ha-neul explained. Speaking with a very traditional North Korean accent interfered with expressing the emotions, so we did some editing and adjusting.

Noh Sang-Hyun

For Ha Ji Won, what is the biggest challenge in this role compared to your previous work?

Ha Ji-won: I wanted to show a more mature side. I wanted to portray my character as a person with a wise perspective to the viewers of this show. There are a lot of well-off and affluent TV show characters that we have seen already, so I wanted to show a different side to the generic “rich” character with added wisdom and maturity, so I talked about that with our writer and director as well to emphasize those points. My acting used to be centered around characters, but this time I’ve taken on a rather plain role, with a focus on maturity.

For Jung Ji-so, I’ve seen your work in Parasite and Doom at Your Service and you did wonderfully well in both performances. How do you manage to play two very different kinds of roles so effectively? What approach did you take for your character in Curtain Call?

Jung Ji-so: Every time I read different scripts, I feel different things, meaning that I put on a unique lens through which I want to portray my character. My interpretation, as I’m reading the script, allows me to discover a new character, so I want to portray that uniqueness in my performance too. I want to make sure that shows in my acting, which I think gives me my uniqueness.

Jung Ji-So

Curtain Call is a star-studded series, so we as a viewer expect a lot from this show. What do you think viewers should focus more on in this series?

Jung Ji-so: One thing that strikes my mind is, the viewers will have fun if they pay attention to the momentary thoughts that cross their mind as they are watching our show. There should be a lot of random thoughts that pop up in their head.

‘Curtain Call’ is available on streaming via Amazon Prime Video and airs every Monday and Tuesday.

November 21, 2022
The King is Gone, Long Live the Black Panther: A Review of ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’

‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ is a movie about loss and grieving. The loss of Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa feels, in the movie’s reality, like the loss of a certain sense of nobility and grace that lit up this corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Wakanda is grieving. This movie is grieving and it is ambitious in how it takes all that grief and turns it into this epic movie about moving forward from loss, a movie about leaders and rulers of superpowered nations during this dark and turbulent era of human civilization.

Make no mistake, ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ still continues its dialogue about imperialism and the threat of colonialism but this time pushes it forward about discussing the concept of retaliation.

Running at 161 minutes, almost three hours long, the film’s first two hours is an exploration of the fictional kingdom of Wakanda at a state of loss. T’Challa has passed and his mother Queen Ramonda (played with such a commanding presence by Angela Basset) has reclaimed the throne in the absence of a ruler. His sister Shuri (played by Letitia Wright) is dealing with her grief by turning towards her technology. As Queen, Ramonda must push back against other countries, who want access to Vibranium, the precious resource that has made Wakanda into the advanced nation that it is in that world. Shuri, on the other hand, must rationalize how all her intelligence and affinity to science were not able to save her brother’s life.

Photo: Marvel Studios

In the middle of all of this, the search for Vibranium outside of Wakanda goes into full swing and what it uncovers is another nation altogether with access to the precious mineral, one that is just beneath the surface and equal to (or maybe even more powerful) than Wakanda in strength. This is the nation of Talocan, under the rule of Namor (played with great duality by Tenoch Huerta) and he has kept his underwater nation secret for hundreds of years and this sudden global interest in Vibranium has forced Namor’s hand.

In 161 minutes, the film must deal with the state of Wakanda without a Black Panther and the pressure from other nations to gain access to Vibranium, but it also introduces us to the enigmatic Namor and the nation of Talocan and how they deal with Wakanda, the only country that shares their fears and anxieties. The film also has to introduce a new character, Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), a brilliant young scientist who is a parallel to Shuri’s story in every way, and Shuri’s own way of reconciling her loss.

Photo: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever trailer

What unfolds is an epic-scale story about rulers and superpowered nations and how the choices of one person can lead to the ruin of so many. As seen in the trailer, the film leads up to a battle (let me say this: it’s not just a battle, it’s a war) that shapes and molds the return of a new Black Panther and what it means to protect a powerful nation.

Pervading through every scene is a commentary on imperialist states like America and France, bringing to mind their imperialist history and the pressure that they (and other world leaders) are pressing on Ramonda, Wakanda, and inadvertently Talocan, the dialogue regarding colonialism returns. What are other nations to do in the face of such pressure?

Photo: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever trailer

This is not just a superhero movie. Just like the previous film before this sequel, this is an image of fighting back against colonial power (it’s no accident that Talocan, which was called Atlantis in the comics, was inspired and based on Meso-American culture; they speak the Mayan language and interpolate Meso-American design and culture) and it is also a character study. Shuri, Ramonda, M’Baku (Winston Duke, who does an amazing job of adding more layers into his character), Okoye (Danai Gurira, who is given enough screen time and narrative elements to add new dimensions to Okoye), and Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o, whose presence adds a profound depth to the story) all must deal with their grief and use the superhero narrative as a means to channel that anger somewhere.

It’s when the film reverts back to its comic book genre that it slows down and unravels. There is a mighty battle scene at the end that feels like it is a necessary item on a checklist for MCU movies that can undermine the heaviness of the themes of the film. It would have worked better had the film been PG-13 (or even R-13) so that the violence can be justified by how much stronger it could amplify the geopolitical ramifications of these two nations coming to war.

Photo: Marvel Studios

This is a dark film with dark themes and it could have really dug itself into that mold more (and there would have been an appropriate space for it) if it didn’t have to be so family-friendly.

Its ties to the MCU is what holds back Ryan Coogler’s vision and ambition of channeling the loss of such a figure like the fictional T’Challa (or the real-life Chadwick Boseman) into a commentary about how dark and greedy this world has become and how one moves forward from it.

Nevertheless, as MCU films go, ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ is another testimony that superhero films can, every now and then, feel important and relevant. It is proof that you can step out of the formula and still deliver something that is mainstream and enjoyable.

My Rating:

.

—
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now showing in cinemas nationwide. Buy your tickets here.

November 9, 2022
Whimsical and campy, ‘The School for Good and Evil’ subverts fairy tale narratives and ask you to question deeper

‘The School for Good and Evil’ presents itself as a fairy tale, complete with a narrator (by no less than Cate Blanchett), magic and mystical creatures, and an adventure centered on true love and friendship. It even goes as far as creating a world where fairy tales are true and that the stories are crafted in a mystical land where students are taught how to be good or evil so that they can create new stories to inspire the world.

While the film, directed by Paul Feig and co-written by Feig and David Magee (based on the book series of the same name by Soman Chainani), is filled to the brim with CGI-heavy moments of sword and sorcery and high fantasy, it also carries a tone that is whimsical, tongue-in-cheek even. It feels purposefully light-weight in its presentation, as if it doesn’t take itself too seriously, which may have been problematic if seen in the cinemas but watching it at home on Netflix gives it the right tonal atmosphere.

Photo: Netflix

After all, there’s never really any sense of danger to the film. The two protagonists, the best friends Sophie and Agatha (Sophia Anne Caruso and Sofia Wylie, respectively), live as outcasts in the village of Gavaldon. Touted as a witch, Agatha is almost attacked in an alleyway but is rescued by her best friend, who lives in a chaotic home with a stepmother who cares not for her and a father oblivious to her troubles. Reminiscent of other fairy tales like Cinderella for Sophie’s home environment or the fact that the two young girls like to frequent a bookshop that’s reminiscent of Belle in ‘Beauty and the Beast.’

When Sophie makes a wish to be a student in the School for Good and Evil, she and Agatha end up there and find themselves in quite a quandary: Sophie, who wishes to be a princess, is left at the School for Evil while Agatha, who didn’t want to go in the first place, is placed in the School for Good. The depictions of good and evil are very one-dimensional. They have uglification classes for the school of evil and, in the school for good, they have classes for beauty, which involves smiling and how to use it as a weapon.

Photo: Netflix

It is actually quite contrived if it weren’t for Agatha’s suspicion that something is amiss. Feig is not afraid to lay it all on thick, with big stars as the professors such as Charlize Theron as Lady Lesso, the dean of the School for Evil, and Kerry Washington as Professor Dovey, the dean of the School for Good. The two big stars, as well as Michelle Yeoh in a smaller role yet manages to pop in every scene she’s in, seem to understand the campy tone of the whole film. They are in on the joke and are having a lot of fun in the process and it amplifies the campy mood of ‘The School for Good and Evil’ but it also underscores Agatha’s complaints about the world.

Because as light and as frivolous as ‘The School for Good and Evil’ can be, it manages to question the morality of this world, the one-dimensional look into the binary of good and bad. In the process, it manages to serve as a sort of criticism against performative acts of goodness and questions deeper into how things are. It subverts the ideas of fairy tales and opens up doors to understanding the gray areas.

Photo: Netflix

While big stars like Theron, Washington, Yeoh, and Laurence Fishburne are having fun playing whimsical, it is Caruso and Wylie who are pushing the deeper thoughts of the story forward. Caruso is delightful as her portrayal of Sophie is one of utter belief in the ideology of the world of fairy tales while Wylie is the opposite, questioning everything and fighting against the facade of the things in front of her. Their chemistry grounds the film because it’s their friendship that is at the center of it all.

Yes, it’s light and easy and doesn’t take itself seriously. But that is what makes it enjoyable. It’s like a refreshing antithesis to the Harry Potter series and the seriousness of its later releases. It’s perfect for younger audiences and it’s not something I wouldn’t mind seeing more of in the future.

My Rating:

.

—

The School for Good and Evil is now streaming on Netflix.

ALSO READ
‘The School for Good and Evil’: Q&A with Stars Sofia Wylie and Sophia Anne Caruso

October 24, 2022
MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Black Adam’ and a case for the superhero antihero film

I’m very tired of the antihero storylines. With the current global crises and seeing the world the way it is now – with an ongoing war in the Ukraine and populist presidents winning elections in so many countries – I feel that the antihero narrative in commercial and mainstream movies needs to take a step back as we need to somehow revitalize our sense of idealism and optimism. I would prefer to leave my thoughts on nihilism and cynicism to independent films. In these very challenging times, I don’t want to cheer for antiheroes in a big-budget blockbuster superhero movie.

This is why I was very skeptical after seeing the trailer of Black Adam. To take one of the most charismatic superstars like Dwayne Johnson and dress him up as (from the little I know about the Shazam comics) the villain Black Adam made me very resistant to seeing this film.

To my utter surprise, there’s a whole lot in ‘Black Adam’ that I really enjoyed. There are camp moments in the film – take note of a wonderful, short homage to a Spaghetti Western and the over-the-top super-heroic battles across the fictional city of Kahndaq – that are really the highlights of this movie. When the film leans into its comic book genre, the film is so enjoyable. Director Jaume Collet-Serra makes full use of long shots that helps create a feeling of scale for the sheer, immense power that the character Black Adam possesses. He also uses freeze frames, extreme close-ups, and other heavy special effects moments that for some reason remind me of Zack Snyder’s ‘300’ but done better because he doesn’t take it too seriously.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

It’s this camp aesthetic that really works in this film because the power levels of Black Adam are just through the roof. So when it makes attempts at seriousness – the relationship between a teenager named Amon (Bodhi Sabongui) and his mother Adrianna (Sarah Shahi), who awakens Black Adam from his slumber and Amon and Black Adam himself – are the weakest moments of the film. It doesn’t help that Sabongui is not the best and most engaging of actors but the characterisation of Amon runs contrary to the other aspect of the film that I really enjoyed.

Amon (and consequently the way Sabongui portrays him) feels very Americanized despite coming from Kahndaq, a fictional city of what appears to be of middle eastern origins (though the comics has Black Adam being of Egyptian origin). The film depicts Kahndaq as a city taken over by a criminal gang called The Intergang. And while the visual imagery is that of a war-torn middle eastern city, the people of Kahndaq speak English (with an accent) and Amon is very Americanized (as seen when his bag opens and you can see he grew up reading comic books of Wonder Woman and Superman).

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

While Black Adam resurfaces and begins to wreak havoc in Kahndaq, he speaks the languageof Kahndaq, that I can’t decipher, maybe Egyptian at the start but then quickly speaks in English despite having been asleep for 5000 years. There’s an underlying story of colonization and liberty that is at the undercurrent of this film. As Black Adam appears to be a global threat because of his power, members of the Justice Society fly to Kahndaq to stop him. This creates a wonderful discussion on the ideals of moral authority. Adrianna defends Black Adam, who has begun to take out the Intergang while protecting Amon, and throws back at Hawkman and Dr. Fate of the Justice Society and asks them where were they when the Intergang took their city and enslaved their people.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

The politics of this situation – is Black Adam good or bad, are his methods right or wrong (he is from a different time afterall and his ideas of justice are shaped by that), and what right does the Justice Society have to fly into whatever situation they deem is a threat but ignore other global calamities such as the taking of Kahndaq – creates a gray area that the film sort of explores (that very few other superhero films ever get to do like ‘Captain America: Winter Soldier’ and ‘Captain America: Civil War’). For these discussions alone – and not painting the Justice Society immediately as the good guys – makes ‘Black Adam’ refreshing and different and new.

Yes, he is an antihero and while the methods and morality that he uses are questionable, it is contextualized by the individual situation of Kahndaq and Black Adam’s own history. I was not expecting this at all and it made the film quite enjoyable for me. It’s not afraid to stay in the gray areas and if it leaned in more into its campy side, I think it would have balanced everything out completely.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

But for a comic book movie, I got plenty of great superhero battles (the visualization of Dr. Fate and Cyclone is just wonderful and thrilling to see on IMAX) and I got to see Dwayne Johnson evoke his charm without relying too much on dialogue. He’s using a completely different skill set here.

Don’t be bogged down by the weakness of its extended opening exposition. When Black Adam makes his first appearance, it’s all uphill from there. Enjoy the excessiveness and indulgences of the film, which is the campy aesthetic I wish it leaned into more heavily. There’s a lot to enjoy here, and most especially the mid-credit end scene. It got the most cheers and with good reason.

My Rating:

.

—

Black Adam is now showing in cinemas nationwide. Buy your tickets here.

ALSO READ
Film Facts: 5 Things to Know About DC’s ‘Black Adam’ Movie

October 20, 2022
MOVIE REVIEW: More a manifesto than a movie, ‘Amsterdam’ struggles for cohesion despite its glorious cast

I was charmed by ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ and was totally floored by ‘American Hustle’ and so I’m very interested in David O. Russell’s work before I found out about his controversial working habits and problematic personal life. Despite what I know of David O. Russell behind the camera, when I saw the cast list for this latest film ‘Amsterdam,’ I was very much intrigued by the movie. I’d watch anything with Margot Robbie or Christian Bale and then you add Anna Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldana, and Robert De Niro to the list and it’s just too good to pass up.

The film opens with a tongue-in-cheek mention that the events of the movie “actually happened” and the story brings us to America in 1933 where we are introduced to Christian Bale’s one-eyed doctor and veteran of World War I Burt Berendsen and his best friend, lawyer and also WWI veteran Harold Woodsman, played by John David Washington. Burt lives in his clinic where he tends to the medical needs of war veterans and provides plastic surgery and prosthetics to cover their scars and wounds from battle. Burt meets with Harold to meet a client played by Taylor Swift. She wants Burt to perform an autopsy on her father, a retired general who is suspected of having been murdered instead of dying by natural causes as was reported.

Photo: 20th Century Studios

What unfolds is a grand conspiracy that touches upon fascism, racial discrimination, and big business. Kept light, at times almost dream-like, and an uneven touch of whimsy, ‘Amsterdam’ tries to draw out the mystery of the murder and the grandness of the conspiracy as much as it can while introducing an ever-expanding cast that includes Margot Robbie, as a French nurse that the two friends meet during WWI, Zoe Saldana, a forensic nurse, Rami Malek and Anna Taylor-Joy, who play a couple in high society that may help the two friends escape the trouble they have found themselves in, Andrea Riseborough, who plays Burt’s estranged wife, and Robert De Niro, who plays a retired general, whose connection to the deceased general may hold a clue to what is going on.

It’s actually hard to keep track of the film’s direction as, right at the midst of the premise opening up, we are then thrown into a flashback of WWI, the time when Burt is assigned to an all-black regiment of the US and meets Harold and then later, Margot Robbie’s Valerie. Broken by their injuries from the war, the three take a trip to Amsterdam where they live a life that is meant to evoke some idea of liberty – a place where they are not judged for how they live or love and are free from the ravages of war and the societal restrictions of 1918 America.

Photo: 20th Century Studios

And then it goes back into the present to continue on with the conspiracy while also juggling Burt’s own marital issues with his wife and her disapproving family and war veteran gala that Burt and Harold are very keen to stage and produce.

By keeping it humorous and odd, it gives all the star-studded cast so much room to really play and have fun with their roles – most especially for Robbie and Taylor-Joy, who seem to have a blast with their characters – but at the same time, none of the emotional beats of the film really end up landing where they should. The love story between Harold and Valerie doesn’t seem as intense or as inevitable as the story positions it, and the impending danger that the conspiracy is foreshadowing doesn’t provide any real sense of urgency.

Photo: 20th Century Studios

What happens is that we are flitting along to every scene and just watching the cast have a ball with their eccentric situations. When the elements of fascism start to play out, the idea of the Amsterdam scene becomes the counterpoint now to everything that fascism is against – that liberty and freedom to live and love the way you want – becomes the central theme of the film. By not taking any of it seriously, the film ends up not really saying much.

In fact, there’s a heavy use of narration from its three main cast and then a long-winded narration by Burt at the very end, there’s a feeling that ‘Amsterdam’ and its anti-fascist messages are more of the director’s manifesto than it is an actual movie with a grounded, solid story. And I use purposefully use the word “grounded” because after watching the movie, I did a little Google search and discovered from an article by the LA Times, that a journalist who did research and wrote a book about the events that are alluded to in the film said that “only 10% of what happens in this movie is based on fact.” He said everything else is fiction.

Photo: 20th Century Studios

While there are some really amusing moments in the movie, some that actually got me laughing out loud, and the spectacular performances from the star-studded cast, I ended up leaving the theater wondering what it was that I just saw and if there was anything deeper to this film than the monologue at the end that sort of spoon feeds the film’s message.

This is not the work of David O. Russell, who I have come to admire from the energy and urgency that he was able to infuse into ‘American Hustle.’ Sure, ‘Amsterdam’ is pretty to look at but that’s about it.

My Rating:

.

—

Amsterdam is now showing in cinemas nationwide.

ALSO READ
Film Facts: 5 Things to Know About the Star-Studded ‘Amsterdam’ Movie

October 13, 2022
MOVIE REVIEW: The Surprising Non-Western Position of ‘Ticket to Paradise’

‘Ticket to Paradise’ has all the narrative beats, tone, and vibe reminiscent of an early 2000s rom-com, an area with which one of the lead stars, Julia Roberts, is a master of. In fact, if this was made in the 90s, Julia Roberts would have played the daughter and not the mom and it would completely make sense. But it’s now 2022 and Julia Roberts is now playing the mom and there’s a sort of full circle that’s happening here. ‘Ticket to Paradise,’ afterall, is a classic family, generational romantic comedy about divorced parents who fly to Bali to sabotage their daughter’s wedding.

The first thirty or forty minutes of the film was a little difficult for me to get into: we know very little about the characters except that Julia Robert’s Georgia Cotton and George Clooney’s David Cotton are divorced and hate each other. They even choose to live in different parts of America just to ensure they don’t accidentally bump into each other but still do for their daughter Lily, played by Kaitlyn Dever. After her graduation from law school, Lily and her best friend Wren (played by Billie Lourd) take a trip to Bali and 37 days later, Georgia and David are rushing to Bali to stop Lily from marrying a man she met on the island.

Photo: Universal Pictures

Within the first ten minutes, the premise of the story as written above plays out and while Georgia and David’s relationship is firmly established, we know very little about Lily. We are immediately positioned, as the audience, to think that Georgia and David’s calls for a truce just to work together to sabotage their daughter’s wedding is cute or funny. Naturally, my instincts are also against the wedding because my natural inclination is to believe another white, western girl falls in love with a Balinese man (though Maxime Bouttier, who plays Gede, is very charming) and drops her privileged life for an exotic adventure in Asia. It also doesn’t help that the constant bickering of Georgia and David highlights toxic masculine behaviour – interrupting Georgia as she speaks, claiming ownership of ideas that Georgia just mentions, etc – that despite all of Clooney’s charms, it really irks me that his character is the typical toxic man.

Photo: Universal Pictures

Everything about the premise of the first thirty minutes just speaks of Western, imperialist attitudes that had me resisting the movie from the get-go. I didn’t like David nor did I have a good impression of Lily and I was so scared that they were going to make Bali feel exotic and fetishize it; turn the culture and their customs into a joke.

But the moment the movie is in full swing, as Georgia and David begin to put their plans of sabotaging the wedding into action, I started to notice something quite surprising and refreshing. The way ‘Ticket to Paradise’ frames the Balinese culture was done with so much love and respect. Never did they make a joke out of anything that represented Balinese. In fact, as the narrative unfolds, it positions the Balinese culture as sort of superior to western ideals as represented by both Georgia and David. The concept of the tight-knit Asian family is put in full display which perfectly contrasts the lack of communication between David, Georgia, and Lily. Lily’s own decision to live in Bali stems from a need to harmonize with herself and she can do this in the island with Gede and it reflects back on David and Georgia’s own failures in their relationship, which is saddled with the pressures of western ideas of success.

Photo: Universal Pictures

There’s even a subtle touch of the use of the Balinese language. Every time Georgia and David are in a scene and people speak in Indonesian, there are no subtitles. There’s only one scene where this happens but it is used narratively to underline David’s mistake. Another scene involves Gede and his parents having a discussion about the wedding but there are no Americans in the scene and what they talk about, once again, shows off the beautiful family relationship of this Balinese family.

Photo: Universal Pictures

Never in the movie do I feel that there is a joke being made at the expense of the Asians. In fact, the movie subversively puts forward the notion that Georgia and David are the villains of the film despite its tone and genre. The bait and switch occurs because Georgia and David are played by Julia Roberts and George Clooney, both huge global superstars. Of course, coming in you’d think they were the heroes of the story. That mere fact is why I was resisting the film at the start but the moment the true nature of the movie was revealed, I began to enjoy it.

It’s a classic family romantic comedy with a lot of important things to say – about marriage and parenting and life – and it surprised me at how it positions the Balinese culture as something ideal, if not more ideal, than those of western values.

My Rating:

.

—

Ticket to Paradise is now showing in cinemas nationwide. Buy your tickets here.

October 6, 2022
MOVIE REVIEW: ‘The Woman King’ and how it reimagines Africa’s past for a new global cinematic audience

As a person who grew up in the 80s and 90s watching Hollywood movies, there’s something magical and powerful about watching a film set in Africa, whose lead characters are African women, who command so much respect and admiration. Growing up, my idea of Africa had been shaped by the news and by Hollywood and it wasn’t until ‘Black Panther’ that I began to allow myself to think of Africa in a different light. The fact that it took producers Maria Bello, Cathy Schulman, and Viola Davis five years to get the movie greenlit by a major studio and only after the success of the MCU movie changed the way Hollywood would tell stories about Africa in a mainstream setting.

The story, about a general of an elite army of women warriors, is based on true accounts. The Agojie served as the inspiration for the women warriors the Dora Milaje of ‘Black Panther’ and were the elite forces of the king of the kingdom of Dahomey, which really existed for around 300 years. The fictional general, Nanisca (played by Viola Davis) must train a new generation of Agojie warriors while observing how the war between African kingdoms was fueled by the slave trade brought in by the Europeans. As Nanisca discusses geopolitics with her king, King Ghezo (a real-life figure and played with great charisma by John Boyega), Nawi (a new recruit and played with great depth and power by Thuso Mbedu) learns the ways of the Agojie.

Photo: Columbia Pictures

If anything, ‘The Woman King’ is a straight-up epic action film, which many critics have likened to films like ‘Gladiator’ or ‘The Last of the Mohicans’ except with black women. There is ample time spent to establish the setting of this story – West Africa in 1823 – and impressing upon us the complex relationships between Nanisca and King Ghezo and Nanisca and the Agojie, most notably her closest friend Amenza (played by Sheila Atim). Nawi befriends her other new recruits as well as the veteran warrior Izogie (played by a scene-stealing Lashana Lynch) as they prepare for war with the Oyo Empire, who has been capturing the Dahomey people to sell as slaves to the Europeans.

Photo: Columbia Pictures

There’s a good mix of story, action sequences, and just a general feast of the visual imagery of a prosperous African kingdom and a band of highly respected and feared warrior women. Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like it before on the big screen and I was just sitting in my seat in the movie theater transfixed to the screen and enjoying every minute of it.

The film never strays away from the issues of women – sexual assault, oppression, forced marriages – and it’s great to see the women fight back in such a ruthless and brutal manner that was so befitting of its time period. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood, who had directed ‘Old Guard,’ does an amazing job at balancing both the emotional elements of the story (that Davis, Mbedu, and Lynch have moments that can really pull at the heartstrings even if this is an action film through and through) and does splendid coverage of the battle sequences. You see the power and the speed of the movements. It’s beautiful in its ferocity.

Photo: Columbia Pictures

What it also manages to put into perspective is how the Europeans and the Americans have pit the African nations against each other by trading guns and wealth in exchange for African lives in the form of slaves. While there are historical inaccuracies depicted in the film regarding King Ghezo’s thoughts about slavery, what the film positions is that what has happened in the past was a travesty with unimaginable consequences. It resonates even until the present day as we see the sort of racial discrimination that is still happening in the US and for the mere fact that depictions of Africans like it has in the films ‘Black Panther’ and ‘The Woman King’ are very few and far between (and if there are, not as commercially available).

Photo: Columbia Pictures

Representation matters because what we see in the cinema (or on the news) really becomes our only window to imagine what the rest of the world would look like or feel like. Without films like this, we’d always think of Africa as a struggling continent that needs “the white man’s help” even though history has told us that the west came and turned the continent over its head for its resources. While ‘Black Panther’ can help us imagine what an Africa undisturbed by Western imperialism could look like, ‘The Woman King’ can help us imagine what Africa may have been like before France colonized the Dahomey kingdom in 1863.

There are no white saviours in this story. And while this is a story about slavery, it’s not finding entertainment in the victimization of the African people but celebrating their fight against it. This is Africa – and African women – put front and center and if this is the trend of the kind of movies we will have moving forward then I’m so excited to see what other films we will get to see after this.

My Rating:

.

—

The Woman King is now showing in cinemas nationwide. Buy your tickets here.

October 6, 2022
Surprising at every turn, ‘Decision to Leave’ masterfully merges the genres of the crime thriller and romance

The way that director Park Chan-wook plays around with genre conventions in his latest movie, ‘Decision to Leave’ shows off his mastery of the medium of film. The film is equal parts a crime thriller as it is also a stunning romantic drama but is also loaded with a certain dead-pan, dry sense of humour that is filled with irony and even cynicism. With great use of brisk and flashy editing techniques that makes the 138-minute running time fly by unnoticed, stunning cinematography that plays with your head with its unusual framing and gorgeous lighting, and a script never fails to twist and turn in surprising ways, Park Chan-wook delivers another mind-blowing experience at the cinema.

While other critics have said this is not on the same level as his previous works like ‘The Handmaiden’ or ‘Oldboy’ and while I can see where they are coming from, even his lesser work is better than most filmmakers at their best.

‘Decision to Leave’ is a crime thriller about a police detective who falls in love with the widow of a man who fell off a mountain while mountain climbing. As Hae-joon (Park Hae Il), the police detective, investigates the cause of death, he begins to obsess over Seo-rae (Tang Wei), the Chinese widow of the fallen mountain climber as he discovers that she was a victim of domestic abuse and her marriage to the victim may have been one of convenience. From widow to prime suspect, Hae-joon finds himself attracted to Seo-rae, even though he’s married.

Photo: Decision to Leave trailer

At every turn, the film jumps back and forth between a murder mystery and a dark love story. Director Park Chan-wook masterfully uses match cuts and jump cuts to play with time as Hae-joon’s affections for her builds up and gets stronger through the investigation. There’s a terrific scene where the detective is watching the widow with a pair of binoculars as she is working and in a sudden cut, he is in the room with her, unseen, and is close enough to touch. Through Park’s direction, Hae-joon is present in Seo-rae’s day-to-day affairs through his imagination, or maybe it’s Seo-rae who is present in all of Hae-joon’s thoughts.

What’s interesting about this film is that, while mixing the genre of crime thriller and romance, the film never attempts to pass judgment on its characters. Yes, Hae-joon is committing some level of infidelity, though they never consummate it. In fact, his wife Jung-an (Lee Jung-hyun) is aware that they are not in love but she’s committed to the marriage nonetheless.

Photo: Decision to Leave trailer

What it paints is a picture of a policeman who is only passionate about his work – he has a wall filled with photos of the cases he has yet to solve, which may be the cause of his insomnia – and maybe that’s also the reason why he seems infatuated with Seo-rae. She’s the job. Is she a killer or is she a victim herself? And what will happen now that Seo-rae seems very much open to the affections of the detective?

As the story unfolds, we become witnesses to a dark and dangerous aspect of love – of its capacity to blur the lines between what is right and wrong and to muddle our priorities and our own well-being – and that when framed within the context of crime and murder, love leaves no space for justice. Like this movie and story beats that push it forward, love is merciless in how it makes demands from us all.

Photo: Decision to Leave trailer

The film’s tone is dark and foreboding – there’s very little joy in this love story – but it is also oddly comedic when taken as a whole. The ending is ironic, which is the natural state of the world, according to screenwriting guru Robert McKee, and it’s why I find that there’s a dark humour to this film. The way with which Seo-rae (through the wonderfully layered and nuanced performance by Tang Wei) is so resolute in her choices, her total dedication to the decisions that she makes and the way by which Park Hae-il embodies the stoic Hae-joon, where he almost seems like an involuntary agent in this farce, that I couldn’t help but smile at the end of the film. I didn’t like these characters and it was such a sordid and strange situation to dramatize but I couldn’t stop watching. The acting was impeccable, the direction was so masterful, and by the end of it, I was just swept away by all these thoughts about how merciless and demanding love can be.

It’s not as explosive as ‘The Handmaiden’ nor is it as shocking as ‘Oldboy’ but ‘Decision to Leave’ will stay in my head for a very long time.

My Rating:

.

—

Decision to Leave is now in cinemas nationwide. Buy your tickets here.
Homestream image from the TIFF website.

September 29, 2022
Frightening by Overindulgence: a review of ‘Smile’

Everything scary about director Parker Finn’s ‘Smile’ is in excess: the camera work, the musical score, and sound design, the jump scares, the slow-burn exposition. Considering this is Finn’s directorial debut, he shows a lot of promise in his understanding of how to frame a sequence and how to create tension and to elicit dread and fear but what he now needs to learn is restraint.

‘Smile’ is about a psychiatrist, Dr. Rose Cotter, who meets a patient suffering from a paranoid delusion about a sinister entity that plays tricks on her mind and threatens her with her own death. During their first session, Rose witnesses the patient kill herself, and what she diagnosed as a paranoid delusion turns out to be very true and now this being is haunting her. In the midst of determining what’s real and what’s fantasy, Rose begins to unravel and her own past traumas return.

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

The film is long, running at almost two hours, and while there’s a lot of story to cover – Rose’s past traumas and how it has affected her present-day life, how the hauntings of this entity are affecting her relationships, the formulaic story point of her uncovering the history of this malevolent spirit – it still could have been shorter if the director, who also wrote the screenplay, didn’t draw out all the scary moments of the film.

Oftentimes, the point has been made but instead of moving further into the story, he’ll add another scary moment, as if he’s trying to reach a quota. It’s relentless and it gets exhausting at some point as it starts to feel repetitive.

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

And it’s a shame because there’s a lot of good filmmaking involved in ‘Smile.’ There’s a really good use of extreme close-ups on the face of Sosie Bacon, who plays Rose, and we get a very intimate view of her character’s unraveling. It creates a sense of claustrophobia, where, as the audience, you want the medium shot or a long shot just so that you can see the extent of the danger that she’s in. There’s a good interplay of silence and sudden loud noises, of a vibrant musical score that really amps up the tension of the scenes. If these elements were used sparingly, it would have a stronger effect on the movie as it paces us along with the narrative.

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Instead, as it keeps coming over and over again, we stop focusing on the story and just psych ourselves up for another scary moment.

Interestingly enough, the film uses trauma and mental health as the fulcrum by which the whole story operates on. While a lot of psychological thrillers or even psychological horror films used mental health as a reason for the death and destruction, in ‘Smile’ it becomes both a weapon and, maybe, a path to salvation. Discussions about mental health are always welcomed, especially when it’s done correctly, but to use it in this horror film, and in such a blatant way, somehow reduces the supernatural aspect of the film by quite a bit.

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

What makes the supernatural so scary is how mysterious and unscientific it is and can be, and by framing this creature’s motives and processes through mental health makes it feel less believable and more made up than it already is.

There are a lot of good things in the film – use of close-ups, use of crazy camera angles to show the growing deterioration of Rose’s mental health, excellent mix of quiet moments and loud scoring and sound design to amplify a mood – but all these individual elements don’t really add up to a strong horror film. It’s fun to watch with friends for a laugh but it’s not going to stay with you like other horror movies.

My Rating:

.

—

Smile is now in cinemas nationwide. Buy your tickets here.

September 28, 2022