Tag: movie review

Movie Review: Spaeny is exquisite in Sofia Coppola’s ‘Priscilla,’ a film that is more impressionist than a dramatic biopic

Sofia Coppola takes an impressionist approach to the biopic, as she adapts Priscilla Presley’s memoir ‘Elvis and Me’ in her latest film. Coppola is not out to sensationalize the couple and instead puts her razor-sharp focus on the coming-of-age story of a young woman who is suddenly thrust into the orbit of one of pop music’s biggest stars. ‘Priscilla,’ as a film, makes no concessions in its treatment of Elvis. It knows who he is, and it expects its audience to do so as well. So, all of the trappings and glamour of his popularity is left in the periphery. Images of his fame tries to creep into the frame, but Coppola keeps it away. She focuses her camera on young Priscilla Beaulieu (played with a pitch-perfect performance by Cailee Spaeny) as she meets Elvis Presley at the age of 14 and is swept off her feet by his charisma and stardom.

Coppola keeps her camera close and tight. She only lets it breathe to contextualize the immensity of some scenes – to fully impress upon the audience the isolation Priscilla must have felt being alone with Elvis’ family and entourage in Graceland – before bringing it really close to her and her intimate moments with the rock and roll giant (played by a magnetic Jacob Elordi). It is these intimate moments that is rife with meaning and evokes the uneven power dynamics within the couple.

Image Source: Creation Studios FB

Elordi stands a whole 5 inches taller than the real Elvis, while Cailee Spaeny is only 5’1 (as compared to Priscilla Presley’s actual height of 5’4). The height difference on film between Elordi and Spaeny really helps visualize that tension. It amplifies the fact that Elvis was 24 when he began seeing Priscilla at 14 (though, amazingly, Elordie and Spaeny are roughly the same age). The film, following events from the book, portrays Elvis as someone who waited for her to be of age before he married her and slept with her, but the intensity of their relationship is put into question.

Image Source: Creation Studios FB

At 16, Elvis flew her from Germany where they first met to live with him in Graceland away from her family. The implications of this are huge but wonderfully enough, Coppola never places judgement on it. Sure, some people question it, her parents made him work for it, but never does Coppola take any form of judgement in the filmmaking. To the characters – Elvis and Priscilla – they were in love. The writer and director never shy away from the fact that she’s underage and that she was probably just as starstruck as she may have been in love and despite all his flaws (of which the film shows many), Elvis may have truly loved her.

Never does the film dwell on any of the dramatic moments – the arguments they have, the sudden outbursts leading to violence that Elvis would sometimes show, the ways by which Priscilla’s life is consumed entirely by Elvis’ being – the film gives us snapshots of these but never fully explores them. The film is working on broad strokes. ‘Priscilla’ is not out to discuss or explore Elvis and the effect of his popularity on the world and on people but pushes to put Priscilla’s life in the spotlight and how her being in his orbit has affected who she is and the decisions that she ends up making as she gets older through the film.

The movie plays out like a highlight reel, only showing the greatest hits of her memory, so to speak, that leads to her powerful decision to come into her own by the end of the film. We know or have heard of Priscilla’s story and what the film does is to create an impressionist painting that tracks particular moments in time that leads up to her eventual growth.

Grounding the whole movie, outside of Coppola’s masterful direction is Spaeny and Elordi’s arresting performance. Spaeny is at the center of it, having to play the character from 14 to 28 in the span of almost two hours. She gets all the emotional cues right and delivers a genuine performance that you cannot take your eyes off of while Elordi never tries to mimic Elvis, but he encapsulates his charisma and appeal. Coppola chose Elordi because he shares that same magnetism that Elvis Presley had and all Elordi had to do was amp it up to its highest levels.Of the many talks about Oscar snubs in this particular season, I feel that Spaeny is another performance that could have made it to the nominees list for Best Actress while Coppola could have also been considered for direction. But that’s just me. ‘Priscilla’ is not a mainstream or commercial movie. It’s an arthouse, memory piece that serves to evoke feelings and create an impression of womanhood growing at such challenging, unprecedented circumstances rather than to create an in-depth character study. It’s a masterful work that deserves a bigger audience.

My Rating:

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

February 3, 2024
Movie Review: Campy to a Fault: a review of ‘Argylle’

Matthew Vaughn, director of films like ‘Kick-Ass’ and ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ and its sequel, infuses his crazy brand of bombastic action (with heavy inflections of comedy) on ‘Argylle,’ a spy film that is filled with narrative twists and CGI-infested action scenes. ‘Argylle’ has the same tonal quality of Vaughn’s earlier work like ‘Kick-Ass’ and The Kingsman films (‘Kingsman: The Secret Service,’ ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ and ‘The King’s Man’) but the director dials up the hyper-reality by a notch and pushes the “fun factor” of the movie to an uncomfortable level.

The story of this film centers around Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), a successful spy novelist and introvert, who is suddenly the target of a real covert organization because her books coincidentally align with real events in the world of spies. Coming to her rescue is a rogue agent, Aidan (Sam Rockwell) who, like every character in the film, is way more than he seems.

Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell in ARGYLLE, directed by Matthew Vaughn

The reason that I make the claim that ‘Argylle’ takes the “fun factor” of its filmmaking to an uncomfortable level is that the film, despite its crazy and unrealistic tone, lacks the same grounding elements that Vaughn’s earlier work has that allows us to feel a part of the world, or at least, interested in it. In ‘Kick-Ass’ and ‘Kingsman,’ the main characters there are presented as underdogs. In the first film, the crime-fighting Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a comic geek/nerd and unpopular guy in school who suddenly gains the courage to don a costume and fight crime after an accident gives him the capacity to not feel pain. In the latter film, Eggsy (Taron Egerton) is a diamond in the rough, a street-smart kid who society has forgotten and who manages to rise the ranks against elitist kids for a place amongst the Kingsmen. In these films, no matter how crazy or off-the-wall Vaughn gets, we are always grounded by the origin stories of its characters.

In ‘Argylle,’ it’s hard to connect with Howard’s Elly Conway. She’s a successful writer, who lives a reclusive life in a lake house in Colorado. Her house is huge and being an introvert and a recluse is not a thing to be pitied. As her whole life is upended by either being killed or kidnapped by this spy organization, she resists it and tries to escape it and I don’t feel sad or scared for her. In the hyper-real world of ‘Argylle,’ the reaction seems unbefitting for the tone of the film. In a point of comparison, Sandra Bullock played a similar character in a movie with a similar plot line in ‘The Lost City of Z.’ When her character is kidnapped so that an evil corporate boss can use her expertise in archeology to uncover a priceless jewel, Bullock’s character is unwilling but throws herself into the absurdity of the film’s plot.

Howard’s Conway seems antithesis to the genre and is acting in a way that seems befitting a film with a more grounded approach to its reality. In this movie, the world is so out-of-the-box and divorced from a grounded reality. The bullets are endless, the physicality of all the characters are such that they can survive the shockwave of explosions and other such hijinks and distortions of the laws of physics that are typical of films in the genre of an action/comedy.

In fact, even the acting of ‘Argylle’ feels disjointed and distant. Bryce Dallas Howard is an excellent actress (see her work in the ‘Black Mirror’ episode ‘Nose Dive’) and Sam Rockwell deservedly won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.’ These two actors have shown great range and understand tone. But in this movie, they seem to be just throwing themselves into the craziness of Matthew Vaughn’s world and it feels like they are having more fun than they are truly building a character.

Vaughn loves his CGI and huge set pieces to keep his film loud and big and excessive. There’s quite a lot of campiness to what he tries to do here in ‘Argylle’ and the essayist and cultural theorist Susan Sontag had said, in her classic essay ‘Notes on Camp’ that camp is best when it is unintentional. When one actively strives for camp, the results are never that satisfying. This feels exactly where ‘Argylle’ goes wrong. They aren’t serious enough about the craziness of this tonal exercise.

Unlike, say, ‘Kick-Ass’ or ‘Kingsman,’ where the actors were serious enough in the world that they belonged to make the characters at least feel genuine and true, Howard and Rockwell and the rest of the cast like Henry Cavill and Bryan Cranston did not really believe in the world that they created. They were actively striving for camp, winking, and nudging with the audience every step of the way and trying to look cool while having fun that it came at the expense of the film. Sure, there’s a lot that could put a smile on your face but it doesn’t help you really get into the story.

And since the film is heavily dependent on the effect all its twists have with its audience, it doesn’t hit as hard as it should when each new revelation starts popping out of the woodwork on each scene.

If you’re looking for something brainless and something light and fluffy, then ‘Argylle’ can be a fun time in the cinema. It has two wickedly large set pieces (one involving bright-colored smoke bombs and contemporary dance and another involving a lethal skating sequence) that are just a complete visual treat and so off-the-wall that you can’t help but smile. But other than that, the film doesn’t quite pack the punch it hopes to have. It’s having so much fun that they forgot to take themselves seriously enough so that we would too.

My Rating:

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

February 2, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: A Different Donny Pangilinan shines in ‘GG’

It’s a different Donny Pangilinan that I’m seeing in Prime Cruz’s ‘GG,’ a hodge-podge of a film that juggles a sports movie (with e-sports at the center of the narrative), a family drama, and a coming-of-age barkada film all rolled into one. I saw Pangilinan in ‘An Inconvenient Love’ back in 2022 and he was great when matched with Belle Mariano but didn’t seem entirely in the moment in his scenes without her. There were times when I felt he relied on cute than pushing forth with his character. But in ‘GG,’ Pangilinan seems to have shed off that idol-appeal, leans into the gritty, and presents a character that is difficult to like and makes him interesting enough for you to witness his transformation and character arc. It’s a committed performance and he keeps your interest despite a whole bunch of amazing supporting actors are threatening to steal the spotlight like Gold Aceron, Baron Geisler, and the-always-reliable Maricel Laxa.

In ‘GG’ (short for Good Game), Pangilinan plays Seth, a college student who is living with his grandmother and is heavily into playing games on his computer. He is part of a team called Tokwa’t Badboys and they play competitively in a multiplayer first-person shooter game called Requiem. When Seth’s grandmother passes away, Seth must now live with his very wealthy but estranged mother (Maricel Laxa) and her new family and transfer to a new, elite school.

But as the film opens, Seth isn’t a nice person. While he’s really very good in Requiem, he is positioned by the film as not being a team player. He’s good enough to make the Tokwa’t Badboys win games on his own skill alone and he’s not afraid to let his team know it. He’s withdrawn and guarded to his mother and her new family and keeps his distance and he has no friends or relationships outside of his gaming group.

With mounting pressure from his mom’s family to do something with himself and to do well in school, and when a member of his gaming group leaves the team (due to Seth’s difficult personality), Seth must figure out his life before the arrival of a huge national Requiem competition that can make or break the team and solidify his choice to put the game above all else.

By all means, ‘GG’ is a sports movie. The action comes primarily from when the team is playing Requiem versus other opponents. There are sequences that director Prime Cruz gets right: the training montage, the bonding that creates a stronger team (especially this one where the biggest issue is their teamwork), and how the film raises the stakes and making the national competition a make-or-break event for these character’s lives.

What Cruz doesn’t quite accomplish is to fully let the audience into the game itself. Requiem, according to press interviews the cast and crew did period to the film gave, is an actual first-person shooter game that they developed: the rules, the map, the game play, etc. They were actually playing the game for the movie. As a new game (and for non-gamers like me), I would have loved to have given a layout of how the game works, how the team operates, rather than to leave it all via dialogue from the members and the commentators when they get into competition. Any good sports movie explains the game and manages to incorporate a technique or skill into the story, to give the audience something to look forward to during the game. In ‘GG,’ the game Requiem has a special maneuver, named also after the game, that can turn the tide to a losing team. You know it’s going to be a plot point for the end but it’s never actually shown in the first two acts of the film so it doesn’t have the same impact as it would in a normal sports movie.

Also, the film’s first act is so focused on Seth that we don’t see the team’s dynamic established. The film starts and Seth is already acting arrogantly, and his team can’t stand him. Their history is suspect and it begs the question, how did this team form in the first place? The film also holds back the backstory of Seth and his mom, but this is executed better as Cruz manages to build on the family drama piece by piece so that he can throw in the dramatic stuff later on in a big reveal that actually kinda works.

Luckily, after the film’s premise is set, and as the film enters its second act, Seth learns the problem is him and he asks for forgiveness. It’s a scene that humanizes him and lays the groundwork for the barkada movie that is set to follow. All the questions I had during the first act is rendered pointless now and the film finds it heart. It’s a completely human moment that Pangilinan handles really well and is punctuated by Geisler, Aceron, and the rest of the cast that gets the film moving at the pace and rhythm it needed to be in.

While Pangilinan and Aceron do amazing jobs at making the sports movie part of the world enjoyable, it is Maricel Laxa who manages to take all her little moments, her quiet looks, her reactions to her son (both her son in the story and in real life, which I just discovered recently) as he struggles in school and in his new surroundings and gives the film its strongest heartfelt moments. ‘GG,’ with its gritty neon-laced visuals and its lack of any sort of romantic angle in its storytelling, or its confidence in telling this story without the use of its lead stars matinee appeal feels refreshing and different. With regards to how the film handles its sport-movie elements, I wish that the film made me more familiar with the game that I didn’t rely on the dialogue or commentary to understand what was happening during the third act competition, but I enjoyed the film and found a lot of pockets of truly human moments that made me attached to these characters and this world.

My Rating:

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

January 25, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: Studio Ghibli does it again: ‘The Boy and the Heron’ marvels and inspires with a personal tale of grief and loss

When watching a Studio Ghibli, you are somewhat assured of stunning visuals and a fantastical story filled with inherent symbolisms. Hayao Miyazaki, the renowned Japanese filmmaker is back after ten years with ‘The Boy and the Heron,’ a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story set in the era of the Pacific War. While the film is magical and mysterious, there is a heavy, pervasive sadness that grounds this movie, as the story keeps at its center the main’s character sense of loss and grief for their dead mother. It is the beating heart of this lusciously drawn animated feature.

‘The Boy and the Heron’ is the story of Mahito, who loses his mother during a fire in the middle of the Pacific War. He then moves to the countryside with his father and his new wife, Natsuko, the younger sister of Mahito’s mother. As the young boy copes with his new environment – a large home the size of a castle, bullies at school, a host of nosy, elderly women helping around the house – Mahito struggles resolving his feelings for Natsuko, who is pregnant with his soon-to-be-sibling, and the grief he still carries for his mother.

It is at his most vulnerable when Mahito discovers that the heron living near the grounds is inviting him to explore an abandoned, locked up tower in the woods. At first, the heron is mysterious and mystical, capable of speech and other fancy tricks. But later, it takes on a more sinister approach, and even revealing human teeth. When Mahito finally gives in to the lure, in efforts to find Natsuko, who has gone missing in the woods, he finds himself in a fantasy world where birds can take human form and speak, where the oceans are cursed, and beings who command fire exist.

There are quite a few parallelisms found in ‘The Boy and the Heron’ with Hayao Myazaki’s life – the loss of his mother, the point-of-view of a world filled with strife and conflict, amongst others – that there is a heaviness to the film that keeps the tone dark and melancholic, despite the sheer beauty of the film’s visuals. The film is not without its share of whimsy, including cute characters like a warawara, that can float into the sky by inhaling deeply. The film is also filled with birds of various breeds and when they flock around a character, that character is filled with bird poop. It has no real effect on the plot but it’s just a sense of visual whimsy that pulls against the sadness that anchors this film.

Because what is truly pushing the story forward is Mahito’s grief for his mother but also his determination to reconcile his emotions with Natsuko. More than his relationship with the heron, who becomes his guide in the fantasy world, it’s his relationship with both Natsuko and the fire being, Lady Himi, that sets the tender and beating heart of this film.

What is great about ‘The Boy and the Heron,’ aside from the sheer beauty of its design and art is how the story does not dawdle or feel like it needs to explain itself to the audience. There are things that happen in the film that are never justified nor picked apart and it is perfectly fine. The connection between the fantasy world and the real world is tenuous and unexplored but it is also not a necessity to know. There is a confidence in the world and world building of Hayao Miyazaki that allows you to just accept what is given narratively and you just take it because it makes sense.

Practically a legend, the renowned filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki still manages to dazzle and impress even in his latest outing. ‘The Boy and the Heron’ is a film that will leave you breathless with wonder and invites you to marvel at the power of creativity and dreams. The score by Joe Hisaishi is splendid and creates incredible melodies that can sometimes contrast a scene, creating a rich texture to the story as it unfolds. It is surprising at every turn and while it has an air of sadness and weight, it never wallows in it. It manages for whimsy and even humor while still delivering a lovely adventure that crosses time and space. Studio Ghibli has, since 1985, delivered gorgeous, animated movies that inspired and marveled audiences from around the globe and ‘The Boy and the Heron’ is just another continuation of that legacy. There are threats that this film may be Hayao Miyazaki’s last, and if it were, what a way to go.

My Rating:

The Boy and the Heron is now showing. Check screening times and buy tickets here.

January 15, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: What You Didn’t Know About Bees: a review of ‘The Beekeeper’

There’s an old-school, unseriousness that permeates throughout David Ayer’s ‘The Beekeeper.’ Even the premise feels like a tongue-in-cheek semi-parody of over-the-top action films of the past: a retired agent of a top-secret organization called The Beekeepers is now living a quiet life as an actual beekeeper, who decides to take revenge on the corporation that runs a phishing scam who terrorized his neighbor. After the neighbor commits suicide after losing all her money, Adam Clay, the aforementioned Beekeeper, goes on the hunt to “protect the hive,” as a metaphor for all of society.

The film is chock-full of dialogue that mentions bees, and even the police and FBI, who are chasing after Adam Clay through his explosive (he commits arson several times) path to vengeance, are reading about bees to understand their suspect, blurt out facts and trivia about the insect. Twenty minutes into the film and I’ve learned way more about bees than I have about Adam Clay, our film’s sort of protagonist.

I say “sort of protagonist” because while Adam Clay is the reason why we have a plot in the first place – it is his revenge-laden crusade that is driving this story – as played by Jason Statham, he is character with no real discernable character arc. He is just a force of nature in this film, capable of taking down any force that gets in his way, so much so, that it becomes comical in the ways that he is better than everyone in this movie. In fact, only one person offers up himself as a challenge to Clay and this person just shows up in the end (with no real backstory of his own).

So while Statham is the film’s central figure and the character the title of the film is based on, the one with any real actual story is the FBI agent who is chasing after him, Agent Verona Parker (Emmy Raver-Lampman), who is also the daughter of Adam Clay’s neighbor and the victim of the phishing scam. While she is after Clay to stop his relentless rampage, she is doing it half-heartedly because, in her mind, what he is doing is right – getting back at the people who hurt and steal from innocent people, whom the authorities can’t seem to catch. How she feels about Clay and his actions is the story’s real tension but, it never is really explored fully. This isn’t that kind of film.

It has extensive fight sequences (all showing how unstoppable a force Adam Clay is) and that’s its main selling point. It has big explosions and lots of gun fights and martial arts fights but not enough to cover its lack of any real story, which may not be the point of the film anyway.

What was fun to watch, though, was Josh Hutcherson’s committed turn as the ultra-wealthy owner of the company that handles the phishing group that Adam Clay has now targeted. Hutcherson’s Derek Danforth is heavily Gen-Z coded, with his use of the lingo, and his affinity to new age practices while keeping his business light and informal. It definitely has an air of parody, making fun of this archetype of young, Gen-Z bosses and Hutcherson leans so far into it that he’s obviously having so much fun playing the bad guy and it makes watching him so enjoyable.

The other character that contributes the story in the film is Danforth’s mother, played by Gemma Redgrave, who is shown in short bursts in the first act and at the start of the second act but it’s when the film reaches its zenith when her true position is revealed, that puts into play the high stakes the film was secretly holding close to its chest but also how crazy and over-the-top the film is willing to go for this story.For those who love no-brainer, big and explosive action sequences, then ‘The Beekeeper’ is for you. It’s a strange beast as there are some actors who take the film too seriously (Statham, Raver-Lampman) while others are just having fun and chewing up the scenery (Hutcherson and Jeremy Irons and Minnie Driver, who are also having lots of fun in their semi-villain roles) and so the effect is somewhat jarring. But it’s kind of silly and would have been more effective if everyone just went onboard with it.

My Rating:

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

January 13, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: A Problem with Prequels; how ‘Wonka’ plays it safe

There’s a trend in the Hollywood that has been going on for decades now; focusing on prequels of villains and attempting to give them nuance. There’s Angelina Jolie’s turn as ‘Maleficent,’ it reimagines the story as if it were told incorrectly. Or like Emma Stone’s turn as ‘Cruella,’ who does not shy away from her evil tendencies but paints her as an anti-hero to an even more nefarious enemy in that story. Just recently, ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ presents us with the origin story of President Snow, the main antagonist of ‘The Hunger Games’ trilogy. While it does not shy away from his deeds, it does try to paint him as a sympathetic character.

While Willy Wonka from Roald Dahl’s book ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ is not necessarily evil, there is a sinister flair to him. I’m more familiar with the 1971 movie ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ directed by Mel Stuart and starred Gene Wilder. Willy Wonka is an eccentric, to put it mildly. Children have been hurt or even perished in his factory on the day of the visit and he remains emotionally unaffected by these – as if the children’s weaknesses and moral failings made them deserving of such punishment.

© 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved

It’s this characterisation of the title character – which I was told, that sinister quality, is taken to the extreme in th 2005 movie adaptation by Tim Burton with Johnny Depp – that creates a disconnect with the newly released prequel ‘Wonka’ directed by Paul King and starring Timothee Chalamet. Whereas all previous materials on Willy Wonka creates a dark and mysterious character, Chalamet’s ‘Wonka’ is very light-hearted and friendly. There is a touch of whimsy on all versions but while the Wonka of ‘Wonka’ leans towards the cutesy and relatable, all other versions are shifting closer towards dark or sinister.

There is nothing about Willy Wonka in ‘Wonka’ that even closely hints at the person he will become in ‘Charlie and the Cholate Factory’ or any of its movie adaptations. And that becomes emblematic of this growing trend. In order to milk any franchise or IP of its monetary value, they will extend any character’s narrative, both for prequels and sequels with the hopes that the familiarity of the character would ensure box office success. Throw in a huge star into the mix and they are hoping for a healthy returns in ticket sales.

What this does, though, is that it removes the mystery from that of the audience. A lot of the magic of these narratives – especially from the dark, twisted minds of a children’s book author like Roald Dahl – comes from the stories that don’t make it to the books. What caused Willy Wonka to become the eccentric, anti-social chocolatier that he is, who doesn’t mind punishing children in severe ways for having the worst qualities of being a child.

It is the parts that are not shown and not talked about that activates the imagination, that allows us to wonder and dream. But an exercise like ‘Wonka’ or any of the other films I mentioned at the start of this critique is not interested in wonder or mystery. They want everything explained because it is what they think the audience wants, and so it will sell.

So ‘Wonka’ is about how Willy Wonka got his start in the chocolate business. From the onset, he’s already whimsical and flighty as a character. He already also has magic – though unexplained – and instead it becomes a story about how he beats a chocolate monopoly run by a cartel. It’s about breaking oppressive systems by being just as sneaky – bending the rules because those in power don’t play fair. It sets itself as an underdog story complete with an orphan girl, Noodle (played by Calah Lane) and ragtag of other people were cheated out of their freedom by a sinister proprietress of a bed and breakfast (played by Olivia Colman).

© 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved

Like any material based on a Roald Dahl book, the villains are dastardly and cruel, and they don’t play fair. But without any real struggle, Willy Wonka and his ragtag band of misfits go toe to toe with both Colman’s Mrs Scrubbs and the chocolate cartel. What adds to the disconnect of the whole story on Willy Wonka is that this is a musical with only one really good, proper song. There’s even a song that attempts to rhyme different words with chocolate and instead of coming off as charming, it sounds annoying instead; and other than that, the chocolate is not symbolic of anything other than that of childhood dreams. Wonka is dead set on making it big as a chocolatier because of that connection with his mom but the film fails to create any real connection with the symbol (chocolates and chocolate-making) with the people around him.

The chocolates themselves are just a means to an end. What the film manages to establish is his connection with his band in the same struggles that they share but it has nothing to do with the chocolate itself. For a film as magical and whimsical as this, it would be nice if the chocolate actually meant something other than a setting or any interchangeable McGuffin. ‘Wonka’ is big and loud and wears its heart on its sleeve. It is tailor-made as a movie made for the entire family. It has not set out to tell us anything new nor is it in any danger of upsetting anyone or offending anyone’s sensibilities and as such, it carries very little mystery or wonder or any real sense of magic.

My Rating:

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

December 8, 2023
MOVIE REVIEW: Dystopia, from the eyes of the Everyman: a review of ‘Concrete Utopia’

Headlined by Korean superstars Lee Byung-hun (‘Squid Game,’ ‘Mr. Sunshine’), Park Seo Jun (‘Itaewon Class,’ ‘Dream’), and Park Bo-Young (‘Strong Girl Bongsoon’), the dystopian science fiction film ‘Concrete Utopia’ is a hard-look at civilization at the cold-hard grip of a disaster. It is a 129-minute relentless character study of the human race on survival mode. It is unafraid to get scary, poignant, and surprisingly funny.

Without warning, a massive earthquake ravages the city of Seoul and, in the most fantastical way, only one apartment building has remained untouched after the devastation. This touch of magic elevates the film into the level of a dark fable or a cautionary tale. At the start, the residents of the apartment building has taken in outsiders looking for shelter but as thieving and violence begins to erupt, the residents decide to take control of the space and kick everyone else out. A governing body is then formed and a system is enacted to keep the peace and to ensure the resident’s survival.

We see this through three perspectives: Lee Byung-hun’s Yeong-tak, who becomes the defacto leader when he shows decisive decision-making skills when a fire erupts early on, Park Seo Jun’s Min-sung, a civil servant who feels overwhelmed by the current state of the world, and his wife Myeong-hwa, played by Park Bo-young, who is a nurse and who is desperately clinging on to her humanity as the world gets fiercer and meaner.

Lee Byung-hun is delivering a magnificent performance of an ordinary man who is thrust with so much power. We can literally see his character change as he starts to enjoy the power and adoration he gets from the leadership position he now holds. Lee shows off his magnificent range here and is able to convey his character’s darkest corners with physically transforming on screen when his character starts to get drunk with power.

On the flip-side, Park Bo Young serves as the moral compass of the film. She is witness to the discrimination and bullying that is happening within the system and as much as she wants to fight against it, she’s also feeling alone in a world that has become worse during survival mode.

But while Lee and Park are doing excellent portrayals of these typical characters in such events, it’s Park Seo Jun’s Min-sung that is the most textured and refreshing to see. We’ve seen Park Seo Jun from common and brusque as he was in ‘Midnight Runners’ and ‘Fight for My Way’ and we’ve also seen him in refined and elegant and powerful like in ‘What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim?’ and ‘She Was Beautiful.’ Min-sung is a whole new character for Park, who invokes a sense of the everyman in Min-sung. He is unambitious and unassuming. He wants to be just below the radar and while he is determined to protect his family – Myeong-Hwa – he also doesn’t want to rock the boat too much. It’s a layered performance that isn’t as flashy as Lee Byung-hun but it helps truly sell the film’s premise of a world succumbing to darkness and how people just give in to stay alive.

Boasting of fantastic special effects scenes of the destruction of Seoul, director Um Tae-hwa adeptly balances the larger, more spectacular aspects of his story with the more tender, most intimate moments of the narrative. He easily switches from comic – sometimes even campy – to the deadly serious as the story unfolds and it keeps the movie interesting. After the initial eviction of the non-residents, a scene that is immensely tension-filled and riveting, the film then cuts to a portion much like a corny, AVP that shows life in the apartment building. It’s funny but also scary, when you feel the contrast between the images and the tone of the moment. It’s aspects such a these that keeps the film from falling completely within Western mainstream Hollywood disaster films.

It’s also incredible to see Park Seo Jun, the superstar of so many top Kdramas and movies, play someone so passive, so easily corrupted. He is torn between the seductive pull of Yeong-tak’s credo of survival and the love of his kind-hearted wife Myeong-hwa. Min-sung then becomes the fulcrum by which the film has the most to say.

‘Concrete Utopia’ hits all the necessary narrative beats to stay enjoyable and riveting throughout its rather dark and disturbing look at humanity but it also manages to say what it has to say about our human capacity for caring for others. It’s not subtle at all but it’s well-executed that it’s worth every penny.

My Rating:

Concrete Utopia is now showing in sneak previews at your favorite cinemas on September 11 and 12, one week before the regular release on September 20. Get your tickets and screening times here.

September 12, 2023
Movie Review: Cinemalaya’s Opening Film ‘Marupok AF’ treads dangerous ground

As someone who was completely oblivious to the viral trend back in 2020 that became the basis for the story of ‘Marupok AF,’ I was taken for a wild ride as I watch the Quark Henares-directed film (with a screenplay by Henares and John Bedia). It’s a story of a horrifying catfish scheme directed primarily at transwomen and other members of the LGBTQIA+ community (at the end of the film, even one woman said she was victimized by the real-life perpetrator). It was recounted on Twitter and this formed the film that opened the 19th Cinemalaya Film Festival. ‘Marupok AF’ features much of Quark Henares’ refined, glossy, and hip filmmaking. It includes a terrific cast that includes EJ Jallorina, Maris Racal, Royce Cabrera, and a scene-stealing Gabby Padilla.

But with everything going for it, the film treads on very dangerous ground because while it shows the full range of hurt that can come from a catfish scenario, the film’s takes the tone of a comedy (and sometimes even the conventions of a heist movie) that ends up serving as a buffer to how despicable the act is. In fact, it turns the act of catfishing into a comic situation where the audience are laughing at the trans character, who is victimized by the situation and the young man who is being exploited by the catfisher.

It follows the story of Janzen (Jallorina) who meets Theo (Cabrera) via a dating app. It’s a powerful connection and Janzen finds herself falling in love except that it is quickly revealed that Theo is really Dennis, an aspiring industry professional who accepts the job of pretending to be Theo for Beanie (Maris Racal), who has a thing for catfishing transwomen like Janzen. Strangely enough, Beanie goes to the extreme with Janzen and this forms the crux of the story.

Told in a non-linear manner and through various perspectives, Janzen reveals her innermost thoughts through monologuing live on her social media, facing the camera and relating the story to her followers (the audience). Dennis ends up telling his story via an internet talk show, complete with a host. One of the many tricky areas is that Beanie gets to the talk to the audience directly. Completely unmediated, whether by social media or by a host, Beanie gets to directly talk to the audience and plead her case. In fact, her studio has a bar that she can lean on while talking and it gives her the image of a podium and she gets the most screen time. Racal is devilishly charming. She is so engaging that she takes over the three storylines and it feels like it becomes Beanie’s story.

Henares doesn’t shy away from showing us how Theo’s playing hot and cold is screwing with Janzen’s mind but while the movie does show us Janzen agonizing over it, we also get to see Beanie and her co-conspirator Dina (played deliciously by a scene-stealing Gabby Padilla) enjoying the fruits of their fiendishness. But the film plays it as a comedy and as the film feels more tilted to Beanie, it is Beanie’s triumph that feels highlighted and not Janzen’s pain.

And while this is going on, Dennis is caught between an opportunity (Beanie promised him that she’d help him be an actor and a director) and doing what he can see is a horrible thing to do. He is conflicted but he also needs the money that Beanie offers and the opportunity. So, Dennis is being exploited but he is also a butt of the jokes as his being of the common folk is also used for comedy.

Told in three different perspectives simultaneously, with varying degree of tones (though all are consistently comedic), ‘Marupok AF’ details the the inner workings of an elaborate catfish scheme but with the villain at the center. Rather than be disgusted, you find yourself amused by them (and Racal’s excellent portrayal of Beanie’s confusion as to why she might actually be so invested in taking Janzen down) and, in a way, Beanie is humanized whereas Janzen and Dennis are turned into punchlines.

It’s easy to put the camera on Beanie, she is an interesting character, especially when played by Racal, but to do so at the expense of Janzen and Dennis, both who are played so brilliantly by Jallorina and Cabrera, makes ‘Marupok AF’ a dangerous film. While I’m on my seat squirming and seething with anger at the horrors that Beanie and Dina are putting Janzen through, the crowd around me were laughing, courtesy of Henares’ slick filmmaking, witty dialogue, and hip music (composed by CRWN).

Fortunately, the film ends well (it is a comedy after all) and the final act is given to Jallorina’s Janzen but I feel like I could’ve gotten to know her better throughall of this. As the film tries to create a rally cry of understanding and compassion by its final act, it can feel like a last-minute realisation for having let Racal’s Beanie steal the movie.

With that being said, ‘Marupok AF’ is Quark Henares’ best film. It takes his strengths – directorial finesse and a pulse of what tickles the zeitgeist – and presents a story that is so rooted in the now. It’s best when it allows its characters to just be themselves (and it helps with a cast this good and working at this level) and when he puts the spotlight on Janzen and how society is so mean and cruel to transpeople (there’s a scene involving a bathroom and a vicious bathroom attendant that sends shivers down my spine). I wish the film was more of that than of Beanie.

My Rating:

August 10, 2023
Movie Review: Fantastic Plastic: a review of ‘Barbie’

Who would have thought that the director of such nuanced and meticulous films like ‘Lady Bird’ and ‘Little Women’ would be able to craft such a bombastic film that is fully committed to its absurdity as ‘Barbie.’ Director and screenwriter Greta Gerwig, (with co-screenwriter Noah Baumbach of ‘Marriage Story’) delivers a narrative that never takes itself too seriously, ever, and by doing so manage to break all the rules and expectations set upon as a movie and allows it to go to places both familiar, true, and biting without ever feeling like you are being preached to. Because the politics of the film is part of the joke.

People immediately ask if the film is political, and I find that question difficult to answer. Everything is political and, for sure, ‘Barbie’ gets political, but the film takes its time to set up the parameters of the discussion first and chooses the tone of whimsy and light-hearted comedy. It doesn’t go deep or hit hard until way after the film’s midpoint and you’ve been completely taken over by the absurdist events and hilarity that when the politics comes in, it feels like part of the joke. It doesn’t take away from the truth and the authenticity of it, but it gets to make its statements and they are powerful ones.

After all, the movie presents us with the idea of Barbie world – a place where all the Barbies ever produced (even the discontinued ones) live, living their lives in one perfect day over and over – as an actual place as much as it is an idea. It’s a world that can be left to go to the real world, “our world,” and it can also be visited by humans. When one particular Barbie begins to think of thoughts about death (as seen in the trailer), her perfect world and perfect day is disrupted and her arched feet goes flat.

In order to discover what went wrong, she must travel to the real world to discover the truth. By her side is Ken, who feels his whole life’s objective is to be in support of Barbie. He has no other function, otherwise.

But when they go to the real world, it’s not the world that they expected: not a world of empowered women. Instead, it is a difficult world where men are in power. And things start to change.

What’s great about ‘Barbie’ is that it’s an unhinged, absurdist comedy that is inherently satirical but manages to disguise its most biting commentaries in the form of silliness. It is so fully committed to its style and form that you never feel like the film is standing on a pulpit, though the film actually does go into political monologues. It’s just done in such a way that it is part of the humour and so deep into the film’s narrative that, by that time, you are completely unguarded and just willing to take whatever this film dishes out.

This is achieved by the film’s campy tone – everything is just absurdly colourful and outrageous in its visual style – it leans on the fictional mode that it even skirts the line between cheesy special effects and more sophisticated ones. What is equally incredible is how its stars – most notably Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling – fully commit to the style and aesthetic of this movie.

In fact, Robbie and Gosling provide incredibly textured and nuanced performances. They understand that they are both ideas and actual beings. Robbie works on the level of physicality, her face and body movements are fully in line with that of what a Barbie doll looks like but manages to convey her character’s every thought and feeling. It’s such delicate work that it’s impressive. It’s award-worthy, to be honest. But the one who steals the show is Ryan Gosling, who is so committed to the silliness of his character (and his character gets to do more silly stuff than Robbie’s, who delves into the more existential themes of the film) that it can take center stage sometimes.

But both are amazing and so are the rest of the cast, including such an earnest performance from American Ferrera, who gets the film’s most powerful monologue

For all of the films artifice and how much it leans into its fakeness (of concept, of aesthetic, of its filmmaking) it manages to hit some hard truths about some pressing issues. The film manages to tackle identity and purpose, the roles that are impressed upon us by society, feminism and patriarchy, commercialism, and the pitfalls of capitalism. It manages to poke fun of these things while still asking very serious questions in the process.

And as the film reaches its fever pitch in a huge musical number that is as crazy as it is silly, the film manages to enter a very existential, philosophical conclusion that is completely opposite of the rest of the film, but it feels fitting and honest. The film earns it anyway. It earns every laugh, and every hard-hitting truth that it manages to touch upon.

My Rating:

BARBIE is now showing in cinemas nationwide. Buy your tickets here.

July 20, 2023
Movie Review: ‘Oppenheimer’ is everything you’d expect from a Christopher Nolan film

As expected from any Christopher Nolan movie, ‘Oppenheimer’ is visually stunning and presents the story of the invention of the atomic bomb in an epic manner that captures the gravity of that discovery and manages to ponder on the consequences of such. Since his exploration on the concept of cinematic time in his film ‘Interstellar,’ (and even as far back as ‘Memento’) Nolan has been exploiting the way movies can bend and distort time to present the story of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer through the narrative framework of two important events of his life – forming the team of scientists and building the site that gave birth to the invention of the atom bomb and the subsequent attack upon him by the American government for his dealings with socialists and the far left – which unfolds in a non-linear manner to dazzling effect.

The narrative of ‘Oppenheimer’ unfolds from different time frames. They include his early life as a student of theoretical physics and moving to Germany to learn about the new theories of physics to his rise in the ranks of the American academe to his appointment as the head of the Manhattan Project where he lead the team that invented the atomic bomb all the way to the later parts of his life when he was questioned for his dealings with the far left. The past is presented in full color while the later periods are told in black and white and through the perspective of Lewis Strauss, who is nominated for a cabinet post in the White House and is being questioned for his engagement with Oppenheimer.

What the non-linear storytelling does is that it connects all facets of Oppenheimer’s life with each other in a visual tapestry that suggests causality: his engagement with socialism, communism, and left-wing ideology and how this entangled him into the world of politics as his brilliance in his field brings him to the attention of the powers that be. The nuclear race had begun, and World War II was at full-swing and he had the know-how to possibly end it with a weapon that was to end all wars. But as the film continues to jump back and forth in time, what the film does is shows humanity’s greed and hunger for power, in all shapes and sizes, whether it be individual or in the form of an institution or government.

‘Oppenheimer’ is focused on the bigger themes of morality – putting the narrative spotlight on the scientist’s thought and feelings about creating a bomb so powerful that it could risk destroying the world and glosses over the other aspects of his human frailty such as his infidelity (which has more implications on his politics) or his arrogance and self-importance (though the film underlines that he was deserving of this stance).

The back and forth of its narrative style brings a sort of energy into the piece, along with the relentless musical score of Ludwig Goransson, that makes the film feel epic, important, and urgent. It is constantly building momentum towards both the eventual test of the atomic bomb in New Mexico and the buildup of the closed-door inquiry of Oppenheimer’s leftist dealings as well as Strauss’ own inquiry for his cabinet post. All three events are interlinked that sets to amplify what the film seems to be pointing at: that man cannot be trusted with any power whatsoever. Even with Oppenheimer’s own reluctance and eventual submission to the call for harnessing the power of the atom, the government that requested for it took it from him the moment it was done and used it for their own ends.

As much as the film underscores that Oppenheimer wanted this to be the end of all wars, what the film also manages to highlight is how this was also the beginning of a sort of end for human civilization. It is a triumph in Nolan’s direction that he was able to use Oppenheimer’s story as a fulcrum of when things may have started to go bad for the world.

L to R: Robert Downey Jr is Lewis Strauss and Matthew Modine is Vannevar Bush in OPPENHEIMER, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.

Rami Malek is David Hill in OPPENHEIMER, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.

Nolan is always an interesting director who is able to push boundaries and whose visual style is just perfect for large scale storytelling. He can make a room full of scientists talking about theoretical physics the most interesting thing to watch on the big screen because he understands how to contextualise it through cinema – the scenes preceding it and the context as to why they are having this discussion. Nolan is a storyteller that can present such things in a captivating way.

And it helps that he’s got fantastic actors to help bring out the best of his work. Cillian Murphy is captivating as Oppenheimer, and he manages to do so in the large span of time that Nolan has chosen to tell his story. Murphy has to play him from as young as an eager student in Germany to him at his prime while working on the Manhattan Project and then later on in life as an accomplished man and watching the world pass him by. Emily Blunt also gives a powerful performance with what little she’s given to do (though she does have one moment where she steals the show from everybody). But if anyone manages to really steal everyone’s thunder, it is Robert Downey Jr as Lewis Strauss.

As Strauss, Downey is a fireball igniting every scene he is in. There is a huge range of emotions that is required of him, and he delivers each on a silver platter. It’s a more flashy role than Murphy’s so while Cillian Murphy serves to anchor the film to its main character, it’s the rest of the cast like Blunt, Matt Damon, and Downey Jr who pushes the sails and really helps this movie take flight.

While all of Nolan’s creative team from Cinematographer Hoyt van Hoytema to editor Jennifer Lame and production designer Ruth De Jong and Goransson’s impeccable score are working at peak levels, ‘Oppenheimer’ proves to be exactly what I was expecting from a Christopher Nolan movie about the famous physicist. Except for two nude scenes that felt out of place, and a little too much figurative use of Oppenheimer’s hallucinations on the effects of the nuclear destruction, the film does exactly what it sets out to do in Nolan’s style. It isn’t as surprising as say ‘Inception’ nor does it have that effect of the sublime that ‘Dunkirk’ manages to evoke.

While I appreciate the way ‘Oppenheimer’ highlights the vile practices of any government – in this case, America’s – and man’s own unfitting nature to regulate and safeguard such vital knowledge like how to harness the power of the atom and nuclear energy and what seems like such a nuance treatment of the man’s dealings with socialism and communism; the film is enjoyable for what it is. I don’t know why I was expecting more.

My Rating:

OPPENHEIMER is now showing in cinemas nationwide. Buy your tickets here.

July 20, 2023