Tag: movie review

Movie Review — Hollow and Superficial, ‘Snow White’ Feels Undeserving of Rachel Zegler’s Star Power

From her film debut in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story to her bravura performance in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Rachel Zegler has the talent and screen presence to be a bona fide superstar. The young actress has range, spunk, and the vocal chops to deliver a classic Sondheim and Bernstein song splendidly. I have such respect for her that I find her underutilized in the overly busy live-action remake of Snow White. The movie is riddled with sentiments that have been played out in other films before and is overloaded with CGI that, at times, doesn’t look quite finished. For someone of Zegler’s talent, this feels beneath her—except when she sings one of the songs by Pasek and Paul.

All the narrative beats from the classic Disney cartoon are in this movie, but they have been expanded to include Snow White’s relationship with her parents and how she got her name in the first place. Her parents raised her to be a leader and to treat people with kindness, and it’s this upbringing that allows her stepmother to take over when Snow White’s father fails to return home after an investigation in the southern parts of their kingdom.

Rachel Zegler as Snow White in DISNEY’s live-action SNOW WHITE. Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2024 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Snow White is then left to do chores, and she and the rest of the kingdom gradually forget she even exists (as expressed in one of the expository songs). The Evil Queen allows her to live as long as the magical mirror proclaims her to be the fairest of them all, but the moment Snow White awakens to the world’s harsh realities, the mirror finally declares her as the fairest. This prompts the Evil Queen to attempt to take her life.

Gal Gadot as Evil Queen in Disney’s live-action SNOW WHITE. Photo by Giles Keyte. © 2024 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

One of the more clever additions here is the idea that Snow White isn’t considered beautiful until she has woken up to the realities of the world. It’s an interesting contemporary reimagining of the story: that beauty is a concept that goes deeper than the skin. It should play well with the film’s push for a more politically-charged retelling of the story but director Marc Webb and screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson can’t make this kingdom feel bigger than the tiny little town in the film’s opening. This world feels so small and spends more time trying to capture nostalgia rather than to amplify its new themes. It takes the most shallow and contrived examples of corruption and shows them at such a small scale that the urgency the film tries to push doesn’t seem quite true or authentic.

Rachel Zegler as Snow White in DISNEY’s live-action SNOW WHITE. Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2024 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

What makes it even harder to sink into is the balance of the magical elements. There’s a mystical wood right beside Snow White’s castle with the seven dwarves who mine for gems that would make the Evil Queen turn feral, but never do we see her greedy schemes ever come near the dwarves or their bounty. So, when the dwarves agree to help Snow White, it feels unjustified.

(L-R) Gal Gadot as Evil Queen and Rachel Zegler as Snow White in Disney’s live-action SNOW WHITE. Photo by Giles Keyte. © 2024 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Zegler, as Snow White, is fierce and a powerhouse. There’s a humanity in her that makes the character work, though she struggles when performing alongside a fully CGI-created cast. She fares much better when sharing scenes with other live actors—or even, for some reason, CGI-Dopey. Gal Gadot, as the Evil Queen, is giving it her all. What I find unfortunate is that she doesn’t bring anything interesting to the portrayal of the Queen. It’s such a literal performance that it feels uninspired. I’m surprised that she sings quite well. Andrew Burnap plays Jonathan, a bandit who fights in the name of the true king and is the new love interest for Snow White. It’s a fluffy character that’s written to be charming and to bring him (and by association Snow White) closer to the people, which would be fine if the film interrogated and explored the weakness of monarchial system. But it doesn’t. It still presents the fact that princesses and kings are okay despite all this talk about “being for the people.” There’s a disconnect to the socially charged themes and in the setting never questioning the viability of a system that passes down authority by bloodline or marriage. It’s not ideal. Look at what happened with the Evil Queen.

(L-R) Jonathan (Andrew Burnap) and Snow White (Rachel Zegler) in Disney’s live-action SNOW WHITE. Photo by Giles Keyte. © 2024 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

In an attempt to infuse the film with politically charged plots, the film ended up showing how superficial it was in its adoption of these new themes. And when you consider the reimagining of Snow White’s loss of her kingdom, the live-action remake of ‘Cinderella’ by Kenneth Branagh does it much better. It’s practically the same circumstances but done with more heart and a scale befitting the story. In ‘Snow White,’ everything is super-sized but it doesn’t take the time to match it in scale and so it feels hollow and empty.

(L-R): Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen and Rachel Zegler as Snow White in Disney’s live-action SNOW WHITE. Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2024 Disney Enterprises Inc. All Rights Reserved.

With the shoddy CGI – those dwarves are not enjoyable to watch at all – and the plot not giving us anything new, Zegler is working overtime in making the film worth watching. She is singing every song and trying to make every scene mean something more and while she’s doing great, everything around her is just falling short. Zegler deserves a better movie than this and the original cartoon should have just been left alone.

My Rating:

Snow White is now showing in cinemas! Ready for the magic? Catch it on the big screen—check showtimes and get your tickets here!

March 26, 2025
Movie Review — ‘Novocaine’ and the Trouble with the Trend of Extreme Comedic Violence

There’s a good amount of charm in the movie ‘Novocaine’ that helps soften the moral gray area that the film comfortably resides in. Directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen and written by Lars Jacobson, ‘Novocaine’ finds an everyman character with the condition to not feel any pain and turn him into a raging vigilante in hot pursuit of love. The film takes much joy in the way that it attacks and brutally damages the protagonist’s body and injects humor by showing how it doesn’t hurt him at all. When the lead reacts in kind, the bad guys feel it at full force. The film revels in the handing out of punishment and while it can be funny, 110 minutes of it can be a bit daunting.

The lead character in question, Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid of ‘The Boys’ and ‘Companion’) has a rare congenital condition that stops him from feeling pain. His whole life revolves around this condition, preventing him from solid foods and timing his excretory functions. It has kept him isolated and constantly cautious. But a new co-worker, Sherry (Amber Midthunder of ‘Prey’) catches his eye and she’s intrigued by his quiet and mysterious demeanor. Inspired to change things up by a client at the bank, Nathan takes Sherry’s offer for a date, and they hit it off that there’s a significant change in Nathan the very next morning. He’s about to ask her out again when a bank robbery occurs at their place of work and Sherry is taken as a hostage. With the cops disabled from the bank robber’s firepower, Nathan takes it upon himself to chase after them and to secure Sherry’s safety while the police are after them, thinking that Nathan might be an accomplice.

Amber Midthunder as “Sherry” and Jack Quaid as “Nate” in Novocaine from Paramount Pictures.

The film is extremely careful to portray Nathan as a good person so that when he starts to fight back, we feel justified in his actions. Especially since the film is dead set in making every battle as brutal and gruesome as ever. As seen on the trailer, Nathan puts his hands in a deep fryer, hot enough to turn his hand to mush. Trust the directors to do a close-up and to edit it quickly to Nathan’s face who is completely unaffected by what should be searing pain. On the other hand, the film ensures that everyone he fights, they are awful and evil and beyond redemption so that when they get their comeuppance, you can be rest assured that only the bad guys feel pain.

Jack Quaid as “Nate” in Novocaine from Paramount Pictures.

It feels like a trend that’s popping up these days where movies are being more and more emboldened to do the worst, they can on whoever they judge is deserving of these intense and extreme cases of violence. From abusive men in films like ‘Blink Twice’ and ‘Companion’ and then films like ‘Monkey Man’ and ‘Boy Kills World’ where the violence is directed to fascists and dictators. ‘Novocaine’ follows on the same trope wherein we are expected to be more forgiving because the bad people are getting “what they deserve” even if it’s not what is regarded as justice by our laws. These films are creating a justification for vigilante justice because we are all becoming more and more aware that the law and law enforcement isn’t doing what it is supposed to do.

Jacob Batalon as “Roscoe” in Novocaine from Paramount Pictures.

Through comedy, the film can take the most grotesque of fight scenes – it happened several times when someone got hurt in such a clever, unexpected way that I and everybody else in the cinema groaned really loud in empathy – and make it palatable because it’s happening to “the right people,” which in the politics in the film are criminals and nazis and fascists. And the film highlights Nathan’s priority which is the safety of a woman he just had one date with rather than the money that was stolen, which he gives away to people who need it. While admirable, it’s not his money to give.

Jack Quaid as “Nate” in Novocaine from Paramount Pictures.

And as romantic as it seems – the everyday man becoming a hero for the right girl – it supersedes rule of law and practicality. While the movie is fun and charming, I’m a little taken aback by the statements it makes about the world: a sudden romance is worth killing for and that is perfectly okay to be brutal to people who we deem deserve it. It’s a very thin line. Yes, it’s escapism. It’s a fantasy. But when enough films and series reinforce this fantasy, when do start thinking that it is right? And would I have this much worry if the film wasn’t so charming?

My Rating:

Novocaine is now showing in cinemas—ready to feel the thrill? Check showtimes and grab tickets here.

March 14, 2025
Movie Review — A Perfect Allegory: A Review of ‘Flow’

After seeing ‘Flow,’ it became very, very clear to me why it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature over the intelligent and heart-warming ‘Inside Out 2’ and the surprisingly charming ‘Wild Robot.’ The two latter films, while very well-made and will undoubtedly be classics, they do not have the sense of wonder and magic that ‘Flow’ has. The two mainstream animated features are very accommodating, and its narratives are written to ensure that everyone understands what it is they are trying to say. Not ‘Flow.’ The Academy Award winning movie gives us a sort of post-apocalyptic adventure with animals and not a single bit of dialogue. Nothing is explained and every scene, every image is given to us like a metaphor but without any indication of what they had intended it to be a symbol for.

In a way, ‘Flow’ acts as an allegory, but an allegory to what? They left that to us.

‘Flow’ is the story of a dark gray cat who is out in the woods. He lives in an empty house with cat sculptures set up in the lawn. No sign of the owner. Suddenly, out of the blue, a great flood strikes and submerges every bit of land under water. The cat finds a boat with a capybara and the two sail towards distant towers that jut out of the water. Along the way they meet other animals – a lemur, dogs, a secretarybird, and an odd-looking whale – and they journey towards the towers and try to survive as the water level keeps rising and there’s no land at all in sight but the towers.

Images from Flow Movie

Throughout the film’s runtime, the animals relatively behave like animals, and they don’t talk at all. So, it’s all about behaviour. The way a dog would react to a cat or to a lemur. The way the capybara seems to be friendly with almost every other animal as you can see from various posts on social media about the relative chill quality of the capybara. There are some actions that lean towards human-like, but they are so infrequent that it doesn’t break the spell.

So, while these animals have very little control over what’s happening, the film finds a way to create a thematic structure that gives us a story that we can hold on to and that carries from the story’s beginning to its end. It does this completely with vibrant imagery that we can make for ourselves what we feel this movie is a symbol of. The great flood that puts our characters in danger in the first place can be connected to a biblical flood, but you could also talk about climate change. The animal composition and how they got on that boat together could be a metaphor and it can be interpreted in so many ways.

In terms of profundity, it would be cheating but it’s not because it can also survive as just a story about a few animals trying to survive a fantastical flood. It doesn’t have to get any deeper than that. ‘Flow’ is just so excellently thought out and so wonderfully animated that it becomes second-nature for us to instill into it meaning.

Images from Flow Movie

There is no explanation for the flood or for any of the things that happen in the movie – and there are unexplainable – and while it makes us ask questions, it also adds a sense of wonder and mystery to the whole narrative that elevates it into something magical, mythical. Even the way they decided to imagine the whale brings us to a different world entirely. It’s not afraid to be not grounded in anything real but the fact that the animals, our main characters, are just animals and not some anthropomorphic metaphor for humans makes ‘Flow’ such an interesting work.

Images from Flow Movie

Everyone in the cinema that I was watching it in were reacting to every little thing. Some of the children seated behind me was filling out all the details out loud. They couldn’t help themselves. It’s such a magical story and how it was told that it made me want the film to last forever. Again, I am so happy that it won Best Animated Feature at the Oscars and that it is showing in the cinemas. Watch it in the biggest screen you can. It’s magical.

My Rating:

Flow is now showing in cinemas. Check showtimes and buy your tickets here.

March 10, 2025
Movie Review — ‘Mickey 17’ Explores the Humanity of What We Deem Expendable

There is a whimsy to Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Mickey 17’ that feels closer to ‘Okja’ than his Academy Award winning masterpiece ‘Parasite.’ While the latter film is funny, it’s way more grounded than ‘Okja’ and it’s ‘Okja’s’ outrageousness that serves as dominant mode of Bong Joon-ho’s latest film. It’s a science fiction black comedy that tackles exploitation and delves into existential themes while exposing the way the ruling class holds dominion over society in an autocratic and fascistic ways. The film is over-the-top and holds true to Bong Joon-ho’s non-traditional, non-Western filmmaking style and aesthetic that the film’s language may be in English and there are recognizable Hollywood stars in the cast; make no mistake, this is not your typical, straight-up Hollywood mainstream big budget sci-fi movie. It’s a film working on its own terms, and it’s so enjoyable when taken that way.

Set on Earth in 2054, Mickey Barnes (Robert Patttinson) and his friend Timo (Steven Yeun) find themselves in big trouble with a loan shark when their business fails. Unable to pay back the loan, they are threatened with death, which prompts the two to join a colony ship to a distant galaxy for the planet Nilfheim. But while the charming Timo easily finds himself a spot, Mickey is unfortunately not a very bright person. He’s actually on the naïve and dumb side. Without any credentials or recommendations, he applies as an expendable to secure his slot. In the future, expendable technology allows people’s memories and personalities uploaded unto a hard drive while their genetic structure is recorded so their bodies can be reprinted and memories uploaded should they die. As an expendable, Mickey is used as an experiment and is tasked with jobs that are surely fatal, but he can continue returning to continue working due to the expendable technology. Despite his lack of self-esteem, his innocence charms Nasha (Naomi Ackie), a security agent on board the ship and they fall in love and become a couple.

Upon the arrival on arctic planet of Nilfheim, Mickey 17 (he is now identified by how many times he’s died) discovers that the planet has a life form and is left for dead when he falls into a crevice covered by snow. He discovers something about the alien species and when he returns to the colony, he is surprised to find Mickey 18 in his bed.

They reprinted him thinking he had perished. In this time, the use of expendable technology is a moral battleground, but it was allowed for use outside of earth on the strictest grounds that no multiples should occur – multiples being several copies of the same being existing at one time – and now Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 are prime examples of multiples. The two must work together and figure out how to exist before they get caught are exterminated permanently.

In its 137-minute run time, ‘Mickey 17’ can feel like different movies all meshed. The first part allows us to understand the inner workings of that world, the colony ship, and who Mickey Barnes is. The second part is on the arrival on Nilfheim and the crisis of the multiples – Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 existing simultaneously – and the fact that Mickey 18 seems to be a tougher, meaner version and can be quite trigger happy. The third movie revolves around Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his wife Ylfa (Toni Collette), who run the colony ship without regard for ethics or sensitivities. While Bong Joon-ho has stated in an interview with the Korean Times that he had no intention of mirroring or reflecting any real-life people (or politicians) in this movie, there’s something about Ruffalo’s performances that seems reminiscent of the current US president, but Bong insists that the script was finished in 2021 and filming took place from August to December of 2022. Any resemblance to the theatricality and absurdity of Trump is, to Bong’s words, “a projection of our negative experiences” towards the character.

Like all Bong Joon-ho’s work, there is a strong exploration on social class dynamics and an examination on the act of exploitation; and in this case, the way by which the naive and not-so-bright Mickey Barnes would be so amenable to being exploited just to get out of sticky situation. The ramifications of that simple choice to become an expendable is the bulk of this movie but it also humanizes it in the way by which Nasha still sees him as a human being, even when nobody else doesn’t. The film operates like a satire, so the hyper-real world exaggerates the worst of humankind, which makes any moment of growth – whether it be from Mickey 17, Mickey 18, or Nasha – feel even more inspiring. And these moments flare up in a film that is loaded with gruesome, brutal scenes of death (mostly Mickey’s), a fascinating new alien species that is more than meets the eyes, and Ruffalo and Collette’s scenery-chewing performance that is so outrageous it sometimes steals the show entirely.

As enjoyable as it is, ‘Mickey 17’ is not the easiest of films to jump aboard as it meanders and takes it time to really make this world breathe and grow. It takes time to build Mickey Barnes and turn him in and out 17 times before Bong Joon-ho gets the story started. If you can let go of traditional Hollywood mainstream conventions of narrative, that this is going to be such a treat.

My Rating:

Mickey 17 is now showing in cinemas. Check showtimes and buy your tickets here.

March 5, 2025
Movie Review — Epic in Scale and Imagery, ‘The Brutalist’ Is a Wonder of Filmmaking, Though It Can Leave You Cold

From the musical score to the cinematography, director Brady Corbet’s ‘The Brutalist’ is a triumph of epic filmmaking. Running at three hours and thirty-five minutes (with a 15-minute intermission hard-coded into the film), it’s a sweeping story about the immigrant struggle during World War II in America. Writing with Mona Fastvold, Corbet creates a rough sketch of a Hungarian-Jewish man who fled Nazi occupied Germany to suffer the indignities of racism in America despite being an accomplished architect. From the opening overture of Daniel Blumberg’s lush score and then the striking imagery of Lol Crawley’s gorgeous cinematography, Corbet manages to build an immense story of a man’s struggle to build himself up again after losing everything.

In a way, it is both a testament and a condemnation of the American dream in equal measure.

Courtesy of A24

Laszlo Toth (Adrien Brody) arrives in America, having just fled the concentration camp of Buchenwald. He has been separated from his wife and niece. In America, he finds work and shelter with his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola) in his furniture shop. They are able to secure a job refurnishing and remodeling the study of the wealthy Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce) and turning it into a library.

Courtesy of A24

This is a surprise set up by Van Buren’s son, Harry (Joe Alwyn) but when the elder Van Buren arrives home earlier than expected, the surprise of seeing the remodeled study sends him on a rampage, fires Laszlo and Attila and Harry doesn’t pay the two. This event compounded with others forces Attila to break ties with Laszlo.

Courtesy of A24

Three years down the line, now a junkie and working in construction, Van Buren finds him after discovering who Laszlo really is and having enjoyed the genius of Laszlo’s design of the library, invites him to his home and pays him for the job. The two strike a friendship and Laszlo eventually is tasked to build a memorial building for Van Buren’s mother. Laszlo stays at the guest house in Van Buren’s sprawling mansion and is reunited with his wife, Erszebet (Felicity Jones) and their niece (Raffey Cassidy) through Van Buren’s connections and pull. But Laszlo’s design is met with resistance – from Harry, from the town to the rising cost, and other things – and it becomes clearer and clearer to Laszlo and Erszebet that while America was quick to take in refugees, they were never promised kindness or equality.

Courtesy of A24

Courtesy of A24

Spanning from 1947 to the 1980s, the film takes on an epic scale that centers around Laszlo Thot and his reconciliation of his life and genius after it was all stripped away from him after the Nazi’s sent him fleeing for another land. To add bigness to the story, the film transitions moments with old newsreels about marketing the state of Pennsylvania as a booming state of industry and progress. Juxtaposed with Laszlo’s own hardships and struggles while people like Van Buren just get to do what they want; it creates a disconnect which forms the central theme of the film: that the American dream is nothing more than marketing ploy. Not everyone gets a seat at the table.

Courtesy of A24

Adrien Brody’s Laszlo Thot is a broken man yet, someone who still has a lot of pride. It’s a delicate performance that he manages well. I recognize how good Brody is but there are shades of this brokenness from his performance in ‘The Pianist’ but the pride and the swagger, I’ve seen in his work in ‘Peaky Blinders’ or ‘King Kong,’ and even his obsessive doctor in ‘Splice.’ It’s a great performance but nothing I haven’t seen him do before. Felicity Jones is solid and steadfast but it’s Guy Pearce’s Van Buren that really propels this movie as he becomes representative of all the well-meaning American industrialist with their big dreams and reckless abandon; how quickly they can dismiss the people they help when things don’t go their way. The selfishness and unconscious greed are wrapped up in Pearce’s charming performance that makes it all so human. So that when Van Buren commits the ultimate act of jealousy and show of superiority in the shocking third act: it makes perfect sense despite it coming from absolutely nowhere.

Courtesy of A24

But for all its immensity and grandness – ‘The Brutalist’ is a gorgeous, well-crafted movie – I find that the film leaves me so cold and connecting very strongly with Felicity Jones’ Erszebet when she calls America a “disgusting, awful place.” The way the film rends America’s veneer of polish and shine is a little brutal, pun intended. The building that is at the center of all the conflicts in the second act is never ever given its visual moment in its entirety, like a promise that is never fulfilled. It’s shown in parts but never whole and it feels like a symbolism of what America must be like for the immigrant.

Courtesy of A24

It’s a magnificent movie; I cannot say that enough. I feel that the musical score should win the Oscar as it has already won the BAFTA and if the cinematography won, I wouldn’t mind as well. I also enjoyed that film really carved a 15-minute intermission which allowed us to really take in the whole epic-ness of the film. It’s worth it to see in the big screen.

My Rating:

The Brutalist is now showing in cinemas. Check showtimes and buy your tickets here.

March 5, 2025
Movie Review — The Sound of Change: A Review of ‘A Complete Unknown’

Early in the Bob Dylan biopic ‘A Complete Unknown,’ Pete Seeger (played by a charismatic Edward Norton) says that “a good song can change the world.” As I’m watching the film, it’s not just the world that changes. I cued in on the way this movie is about how Bob Dylan (played by Timothee Chalamet) and his music changes everyone around him and, at some point, even himself. The power of his music gives him fame and fortune and this changes him and pushes him to evolve and transform both musically and as a person. This leads up to a famous performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 wherein he is booed and jeered by his folk fans while bringing in a new, younger audience by changing his sound to include electric instruments.

Directed by James Mangold and written by Mangold and Jay Cocks (based on the book ‘Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald), ‘A Complete Unknown’ chronicles the time of Bob Dylan from 1961 to 1965. A young Bob Dylan travels to New Jersey to visit his idol, folk singer Woody Guthrie (Scott McNairy), at the hospital. There he meets Pete Seeger and when he plays a song for the two folk singers, he impresses them so much that Seeger offers him a place to stay and helps introduce him to the New York folk scene.

In the whirl of it all, he impresses studio executives from CBS Records who sign him up, catches the eye of folk singer Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), while dating Sylvie (Elle Fanning), a young artist who frequents the folk scene. His meteoric rise to fame finds him becoming pen pals with Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook), being recognized anywhere and everywhere, having affairs, and feeling trapped and imprisoned by his contract and his connection to the folk music scene. His need to evolve, to grow leads him to explore a larger, bigger sound, which threatens to turn away his most ardent fans who love his folk music.

Timothée Chalamet in A COMPLETE UNKNOWN. Photo by Macall Polay, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

Mangold keeps the story focused in keeping Dylan an enigmatic character and hints at a backstory that is far different from the persona he is trying to project. In fact, it’s a continuing reason for his and Sylvie’s strained relationship: the fact that he is an unknown entity to her. He shares nothing of his past – and in the film, never really does – and this adds to the tension to their relationship. The executives and fans only love him for his music and his success that they don’t care to ask the important questions and when he begins his affair with Baez, she too is attracted to the genius of his songwriter and his mysterious character. But her close proximity to Dylan gives her clarity and perspective, and she even rebukes him.

Elle Fanning and Timothée Chalamet in A COMPLETE UNKNOWN. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

No, the film does not try to humanize Dylan but turns him into a fable of any man or woman who has a dream of making it big in the music industry and discovering that fame and fortune can be a prison. The film is careful to show the political unrest of the era – the assassination of JFK and Martin Luther King are mentioned – and this backdrop of America in flux runs parallel to Dylan’s need to grow. His politically charged songs need larger breath and a bigger sound. But expectations are holding back and holding him down.

Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro in A COMPLETE UNKNOWN. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

Chalamet is wonderful, as always. I’m not the biggest fan of his off-camera persona but he always gets lost in a role and I’m not surprised he won the Screen Actors Guild Award for this performance. Not only is he inhabiting Bob Dylan’s persona but he’s playing his instruments live and singing the hell out of Bob Dylan’s songs.

His magnetic performance keeps you glued to the screen even as the film refuses to show us Dylan’s inner world. Chalamet does all of this with the flourishes behind his eyes. In fact, Chalamet, Barbaro, Norton, and Holbrook all perform their instruments and sing live and it captures a time I’m very familiar with because these are the songs of my father, and he played them all the time in his room. This is a world I knew quite a bit about from the stories of my dad and seeing it and the Chelsea Hotel and singing songs that were playing loudly when I was a kid takes me back.

Mangold doesn’t try to dazzle us with complex filmmaking. The camera is just there to capture the authenticity of the performances, allowing the script to do its job in showing us what change looks like: it’s rough and chaotic. Sometimes it strips down everything to rebuild upon the ashes. And as Bob Dylan sings (and as heard in the movie), “The times are a-Changin’.”

My Rating:

A Complete Unknown is now showing in cinemas. Check showtimes and buy your tickets here.

March 2, 2025
Movie Review — Balancing Horror and Whimsy, ‘Nosferatu’ Is a Stunning Work of Genius

A remake of the 1922 F. W. Murnau film ‘Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror,’ which is a loose adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel ‘Dracula,’ Robert Eggers ‘Nosferatu’ is a gorgeously filmed gothic horror that is exquisitely directed, balancing fear, sensuality, and whimsy in equal measure. With exceptional cinematography by Jarin Blaschke and delicate editing by Louise Ford, the film vacillates from beauty to horror seamlessly. As the original film is loosely based on Bram Stoker’s popular story, the narrative is very familiar but there are modern touches that creates a reflection of modern issues as well.

The film is set in the early 1800s in Germany, and a young woman, Ellen prays for some being to rid her of her loneliness. This call manages to awaken a dark, malevolent spirit who promises to be with her forever. We cut to much later, when Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) is now married to Thomas (Nicholas Hoult). They love each other very much, their first scene together shows them incapable of separating, even if he is late for work.

4193_D015_00007_RC Lily-Rose Depp stars as Ellen Hutter in director Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU, a Focus Features release. Credit: Aidan Monaghan / © 2024 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

NOSFERATU_FP_00238_R Nicholas Hoult stars as Thomas Hutter in director Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features / © 2024 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

Thomas ends up at his office and his boss, Herr Knock (Simon McBurney), offers him an unusual opportunity. He requests that Thomas acts as solicitor to Count Orlok of the Carpathians, a whole 6-week travel away. He is to broker the sale of an old, decrepit mansion in Wisburg, where they live. If Thomas makes the journey, he will be given a huge bonus and a promotion at work. Ellen is against this, though, as she has been having dreams, but Thomas is insistent. Ellen stays with her rich friend Anna (Emma Corrin) and her husband, Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) while Thomas makes the journey. But we all know that Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard) is a vampire, and he holds Thomas captive in his castle while he makes his way to Wisburg to be closer to Ellen. The closer he gets; the more Ellen suffers manic fits and hallucinations. She is then introduced to a brilliant but ostracized doctor, Doctor Von Franz (Willem Dafoe), who is connects her mania with a dark, sinister evil approaching Wisburg.

NOSFERATU_FP_00130_R A carriage approaches Orlok’s castle in director Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features / © 2024 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

Most of the plot points are very similar to that of ‘Dracula,’ so the story is nothing new. But what Eggers suffuses with his film is the highly erotic nature of Ellen’s connection to both Thomas and Count Orlok. The sound design of the film is exquisite, amplifying the hard intake and release of breaths that, in scenes where the characters are experiencing great stress, if you close your eyes, it could sound sexual in nature. Even when Count Orlok drains his victims of blood, he straddles over them, both writhing, that one cannot help but think of the erotic.

NOSFERATU_FP_00005_R Lily-Rose Depp stars as Ellen Hutter in director Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features / © 2024 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

In Eggers’ ‘Nosferatu,’ Ellen is a victim but not of Count Orlok but by her own innocent call for companionship. Unaware of her own power, she sends out a prayer to the angels but instead conjures up a demon. Her own power leads her to have fits and seizures, marking her as an outcast, someone different and strange. Regarded as an oddity, it feels connected to her call for help and has led her to vulnerable to such a being like Count Orlok. Count Orlok then uses great wealth and power to corrupt the people around him – Herr Knock, for example – to extend his reach and access the vulnerable.

4193_D039_00268_R Willem Dafoe stars as Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz in director Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU, a Focus Features release. Credit: Aidan Monaghan / © 2023 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

In other version of the Dracula story that I’ve seen, the emphasis had always been on the vampiric and supernatural nature of the demon. While Eggers is not above filling his film’s world with the supernatural and the occult, but the real-world metaphors rise to the surface and become painfully apparent. Count Orlok is a vampire in the movie, the metaphor stands of people in power who act as predators and gain access to the vulnerable by people who are eager to have a taste of that power and richness.

4193_D033_00258_R Nicholas Hoult stars as Thomas Hutter in director Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU, a Focus Features release. Credit: Aidan Monaghan / © 2024 FOCUS FEATURES LLC

And while the composition, editing, production and costume design is exceptional, I love how ‘Nosferatu’ is not afraid to lean into its silliness and how the whole cast is fully committed to this world and seamlessly allowing themselves to fully imbibe the gothic horror and the camp that can come with it. By never taking itself too seriously, we see the work for what it is and marvel at each well-executed part while still enjoying the whole, which is completely familiar to us as well.

Eggers has shown from this and his previous films – ‘The Witch’ and ‘The Lighthouse’ – that he is truly a master of tone, creating horror and dread through gorgeous imagery, while unafraid to being both literary and flighty in equal measure.

My Rating:

Nosferatu is now showing in cinemas. Check showtimes and buy your tickets here.

February 28, 2025
Movie Review — ‘The Monkey’ Will Scare You, but It Will Also Make You Laugh

Because it is based on a 1980 short story by Stephen King and directed and written by Osgood Perkins who gave us such frightening movies like ‘Longlegs,’ I was quite pleasantly surprised that ‘The Monkey’ is as hilarious as it is creepy. The film takes great joy in the irony and the gruesome nature of the deaths that happen in the story. It takes a comic approach to make large-scale set ups that maximizes brutal scenes of accidental murder. Unlike ‘Longlegs’ where Perkins disturbs us with a slow build-up of tension and dread, ‘The Monkey’ is in-you-face with the violence. You know it’s coming, and the outrageousness of its execution and the extremity of its bloody effects are what makes you laugh. The horror is the idea of how and why it is happening.

At the heart of the story is the relationship of twin brothers, Hal and Bill Shelburn. The two couldn’t be more opposite of each other. Bill is a horrible bully and takes pride in torturing his younger brother. Hal is kinder, softer, and does not know how to fight back. Their father is missing all their lives and their mother takes a more care-free, free-spirited approach to raising her two boys. The twins do enjoy going over their father’s stuff as he happens to have been a hoarder and a collector of an eclectic items from all over the world. This includes a toy monkey that never goes away and, if you wind it up, ends up killing someone randomly in the most horrible of ways possible.

Traumatized by the first accidental killing, Hal realises the monkey is to blame somehow. He then tries to use the monkey to kill Bill but the monkey “doesn’t take requests.” The death sends the twins into a tragedy that forces them to throw away the toy down a well and have been estranged ever since.

BTS THE MONKEY Osgood Perkins and Theo James Courtesy of NEON

Now grown-up, Hal trying to live a quiet, peaceful life. The trauma of his experience with the monkey has left him isolated and introverted and will only see his son once a year, for his son’s safety. But on their visit, he is told his aunt is dead and he must reclaim her things and one of them is the monkey. Suddenly, Hal’s old hometown is experiencing a slew of outrageous accidental deaths, and he knows the monkey is loose and someone is winding him up.

THE MONKEY Courtesy of NEON

Through the narration of Hal, the film takes on a cynical and jaded look at the world that gives a world view that everyone is essentially mean and cruel. It seems that Hal is the only person who is trying to protect people, and this even puts a wedge between him and his son, Petey. Despite how bad things get, and how awful people turn out to be, Hal is desperately trying to stay sane and good.

THE MONKEY Courtesy of NEON

It’s quite an interesting little dark fable that is a refreshing take on the demonic toy narrative. By leaning into its humor, it finds a new one to be enjoyable. It’s still creepy – just the design of the toy monkey is enough to send shivers down your spine – and the way Perkins shoots the toy creates enough horror to amplify the terrifying thought that the world is filled with bad people.

THE MONKEY Courtesy of NEON

I’ve never been a big fan of Theo James as an actor, but he fits so well playing the double role of Hal and Bill, the older versions. Both characters are so different from each other and James manages to create a texture for both that suits the tone of the film so well. Playing the younger version, Christian Convery does an excellent job playing Hal but doesn’t let his Bill because as scary and as sinister as he could be. It’s such a joy to see Tatiana Maslany on the big screen. I’m a huge fan of her because of her work in ‘Orphan Black’ and playing the role of the twins’ mother allows a special place for both warmth and recklessness. She’s a bitter woman who is trying her best to save whatever love she still has for her kids. It’s such a nuanced performance that it helps ground the film despite its strangeness.

‘The Monkey’ is a fun little twist that I could use a bit more of these days. It’s nice to see a horror film have a lot of fun with its audience and its own self.

My Rating:

The Monkey is now showing in cinemas. Check showtimes and buy your tickets here.

February 26, 2025
Movie Review — ‘Ex Ex Lovers’ Nails Its Ending and Shows That the Marvin and Jolina Tandem Is as Magnetic as Ever

There is an unmistakable pandering nature to JP Habac’s ‘Ex Ex Lovers,’ a film that reunites the classic love team of Marvin Agustin and Jolina Magdangal back in the big screen. The undeniable chemistry of the leads is the foundation that keeps the film afloat despite how the film seems to cater to revisiting the same energy they have established in previous films, almost two decades ago, like ‘Labs Kita… Okey Ka Lang?’ If nostalgia is all it was going for, I suppose that’s fine. It would be a fluffy film and that’s okay but underneath it all is a gorgeous film about marriage and accountability, and beyond its nostalgic temperament, Agustin and Magdangal showcase a maturity that is something completely refreshing and new and it’s a potential that is only reached in the final act of the film.

The story is about Joy (Magdangal), a single mother whose daughter, SC (Loisa Andalio), has just been proposed to by her boyfriend Joey (Juan Karlos Labajo). Wary of their young age, Joy tries to dissuade her daughter from marrying so young. After all, her husband, Ced (Agustin), is nowhere to be found and has left Joy with taking care and raising SC all by herself. When SC insists that her mom flies to Malta to fetch Ced so he can walk her down the aisle, Joy has to revisit all the pain and resentment brought upon by her marriage to Ced, while he still carries all of his love for her since then. Joy tries to get Ced to agree to delaying the wedding while Ced has his own agenda into getting back together with Joy.

It’s the perfect rom-com premise but the film’s set up can be quite cruel. Because Magdangal is charming and has that quality to draw you in, you’re on her side when she talks about the hardships, she’s faced having to raise SC alone because Ced just went up and left them. When she gets to Malta, she finds a hardworking man who is apologetic but still treats her as if time hadn’t passed and life hadn’t come and gone. Agustin lets lose all the old 90s energy, acting cute and ends up making Ced annoying and downright insensitive. It’s played for comedy – everything from the shots to the direction of the acting, to the music – but from the audience’s seat, it’s just an uncomfortable moment. All of Joy’s misgivings are valid but neither Ced nor SC seems to care.

Image from Project 8 Projects FB

So much so that when Joy acts up and treats Joey unkindly, she’s really meant to look like the bad guy despite how everybody is expecting Joy to just go along with everything that they want. At some point, I was getting very angry for Joy.

It’s the perfect rom-com premise but the film’s set up can be quite cruel. Because Magdangal is charming and has that quality to draw you in, you’re on her side when she talks about the hardships, she’s faced having to raise SC alone because Ced just went up and left them. When she gets to Malta, she finds a hardworking man who is apologetic but still treats her as if time hadn’t passed and life hadn’t come and gone. Agustin lets lose all the old 90s energy, acting cute and ends up making Ced annoying and downright insensitive. It’s played for comedy – everything from the shots to the direction of the acting, to the music – but from the audience’s seat, it’s just an uncomfortable moment. All of Joy’s misgivings are valid but neither Ced nor SC seems to care.

So much so that when Joy acts up and treats Joey unkindly, she’s really meant to look like the bad guy despite how everybody is expecting Joy to just go along with everything that they want. At some point, I was getting very angry for Joy.

Image from Project 8 Projects FB

Then the film turns in the 3rd act of the film, when screenwriters Antonette Jadaone and Kristine Gabriel switches things around and gives Joy a chance to speak up. The whole movie abruptly shifts tone, and Magdangal and Agustin step up to the plate to play the grown up and mature characters that feels more honest to who they are today, and the film ends up tackling bigger themes that it could have been wrestling with earlier. Maybe the shift of tone allows for a bigger impact in the third act? I don’t know. But it sure made it difficult to get hooked in until the film started to take Joy’s side of the matter.

Because Marvin and Jolina are just oozing with charisma and talent. There’s no question about that. But in the film’s attempt to harken to the nostalgia and old-school charms, it made them feel childish and silly, which made their characters and the struggles they faced seem trivial when it’s not. When the film allows the two to grow up and be adults, the humor is still present, the chemistry is still palpable, but they are able to accomplish so much more, including some very powerful statements about divorce.

I found the whole first two acts quite messy and chaotic. It’s appeal to nostalgia undermined a beautiful movie that still managed to find center stage at its final act. One thing is certain, though: and that the power of Marvin and Jolina is enduring and could really use another go.

My Rating:

Ex Ex Lovers is now showing in cinemas. Check showtimes and buy your tickets here.

February 21, 2025
Movie Review — Life and Death in Full Bloom: A Review of ‘The Room Next Door’

A poignant meditation on death and life, ‘The Room Next Door’ is a daunting film that tackles the idea of euthanasia head-on. It is not a bombastic film filled with histrionics and unnecessary drama (though there are some scenes that lean into the melodrama but more on that later), the Pedro Almadovar directed and written movie, based on a novel by Sigrid Nunez called ‘What Are You Going Through’, is just a series of moments, of conversations between its two protagonists. Their lives are unfurled until a request, almost halfway through the film, turns everything into an ongoing negotiation.

Ingrid (Julianne Moore) is a successful author, who has written about her fear of death in her books. During a book signing event, she bumps into an old friend who tells her that another friend of theirs, Martha (Tilda Swinton) is struggling with stage 3 cervical cancer. Not having seen each other in a long time, Ingrid takes time out to visit Martha and the two reconnect and Ingrid becomes her closer friend in these trying times. She’s there as Martha experiences her worst and her best days during treatment and it’s a bond that allows Martha to make a request: she wants Ingrid to be in the room next door when she decides to kill herself with a suicide pill (hence the title).

The first half of the film is just the two of them talking, reconnecting, with Martha sharing her strongest memories of her past and shares why she is estranged from her daughter. The film shifts to flashbacks of these moments and, strangely enough, guided by the intricate music composed by Alberto Iglesias, the film takes on many genres. When Martha shares her story of how she met her daughter’s father, Fred, the film shifts into a period teen romance but when she continues to tell us how he returned from the Vietnam war, it becomes a drama about PTSD and letting go. The film shifts genres occasionally, made seamless by a shift in the pervasive musical score that grounds the film.

It shifts and transforms because Ingrid is torn by Martha’s request. She loves her friend, but she finds death “so unnatural.” The movie is anchored by Swinton and Moore’s incredible performances. Moore is constantly at the brink, trying to understand but also trying to be supportive and this struggle is so clear in her looks, gesture, posture, delivery of lines. Swinton, on the other hand, is a powerhouse, considering her character is frail and at the brink of death. The make-up and lighting make her look gaunt and her physicality is riddled with pain yet there is a vibrant spirit behind her who is trying to reclaim any sense of dignity she can muster before cancer takes it all away.

And through their navigation of this choice, Almadovar creates a wonderful little film about the wonders of life and the inevitability of death.

It’s a quiet film that is not afraid to get silly (one scene details what happens to Fred that feels like a scene out of a Isabel Allende novel, complete with the melodrama aesthetic) even in the face of death. While the narrative structure is solid and tight, the dialogue can feel stunted and read like its scripted and unnatural. I’m not sure if Almadovar is a fluent speaker of English or if he had a translator involved but even with Moore and Swinton at the helm, the dialogue can sometimes fall under the level of being trite or contrived. Yes, both characters are very literate (Martha is a war correspondent and is very well-read, loves Faulkner and Fitzgerald) but there are instances when the dialogue can get too pretty that it feels off.

But the visuals are exquisite. Even if it’s just two women talking, at times, Almadovar brings his camera really close to their faces, their inner worlds just bubbling under their faces. He then brings the camera back out to capture the two in a lush backdrop of nature when Martha and Ingrid take a vacation in a summer home 2 hours from the city. Life in full bloom while Martha is at her last steps and Ingrid is hoping for a change of heart.

‘The Room Next Door’ does not have the urgency or the passion of Almadovar’s older works which I love – ‘Talk to Her’ and ‘All About My Mother’ – but it has a tender heart that truly manages to capture in no uncertain terms the breadth of a human life. It’s a relatively quiet film that will charm you if you let it.

My Rating:

The Room Next Door is now showing in cinemas. Check showtimes and buy your tickets here.

February 19, 2025