Challengers

I've heard much about Luca Guadagnino's Challengers ever since it started production in 2022. It had to sit it out since last fall due to the Hollywood strikes, but it's now finally ready for showtime this weekend. What can you expect if you enter its court?

Well, much like a ball going back and forth in a tennis match, the film goes back and forth in time to tell us the tale of a love triangle. It all starts in 2006, when best friends and tennis players Art Donovan (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor) meet fellow player Tashi Duncan (Zendaya). While they maybe doubles partners, the guys become rivals for Tashi's affections, which Patrick initially wins. Patrick's ego drives away Tashi, who soon suffers a crippling knee injury in a match. Tashi soon becomes Art's tennis coach, and eventually, his wife. Patrick, meanwhile, lives out of his car.

Patrick and Art eventually square off at the final match of a 2019 Challenger event. The whole film is centered around this match, with the lead-up gradually unfolding with flashbacks. Everyone has a lot more to lose than just a nice check. Art is already a Tennis pro looking for his way out of the game. Patrick is just trying to survive. Tashi's vicarious tennis career with Art is threatened; meanwhile, she finds herself falling for Patrick again. That's a lot to think about.

This is a dynamic film on a technical level. The tennis matches are wonderfully shot and edited by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom and Marco Costa, respectively. They make even the most ordinary moments on the court look larger than life. Among the most impressive bits of camera work are the low-angle shots of bouncing balls. It's seemingly from the ground's POV, if that makes sense. The nonlinear story is easy to follow, though its gradual pace and overall runtime (131-minutes) need some getting used to. What's instantly easy to get used to is Reznor and Ross's latest exciting score. Their fast-paced music perfectly accentuates the fast-paced love triangle and tennis matches, but it also slows down for a few tender moments. The music cutting out for an "ordinary" match makes for great punctuation.

Its three stars play a great game, so to speak. They're compelling even at their most unlikable. Patrick, for instance, may seem like a cool dude, but his giant ego is so off-putting. Art nursing an old injury and growing resentment for the sport makes him easily the most sympathetic character. Tashi, meanwhile, effortlessly plays them against each other. She asks Patrick to throw the match, while she threatens to leave Art if he loses. Is she serious with the latter? Either way, there's never a dull moment with her around. 

Art and Patrick's relationship is just as strong as their romantic rivalry. Faist and O'Connor's chemistry is great whether they play Art and Patrick as friends, more than friends, or bitter rivals. The origins of their love triangle with Tashi, as well as them gradually renewing that triangle on the court, are captivating. I'm certain an early scene will be the film's most talked about moment. 

Challengers makes for a memorable choice for date night or afternoon matinee. A few critics have already complained about its runtime, but I think it's an appropriate runtime for its complicated love triangle. You'll barely notice it once the relationships fluctuate both on and off-court. As an MGM movie, it's only a matter of time before it hits Amazon, but it's worth hearing fellow moviegoers' reactions in-person. You'll truly understand how much it's worthy of the hype. 

That's it for now.

City Hunter

Hey Jethro, wha's this that came in the mail?

First off, Baxter, why'd you open my mail? Second ... "XYZ - Go to Netflix." 

What do they mean by that?

If I get the context, then someone wants me to review City Hunter on Netflix. It's the latest live-action film of Tsukasa Hojo's seminal eighties manga, but the first such adaptation from Japan. Hong Kong had one with Jackie Chan in 1993, while France had another in 2018 directed by and starring Phillipe Lacheau. I already had this film on my schedule, so let's play ...

(One movie later.)

Let's divulge what I thought.

Ryo Saeba (Ryohei Suzuki) is a private detective codenamed "City Hunter." He and his partner, Hideyuki Makimura (Masanobu Ando), will answer anyone who writes XYZ on a public message board in Shinjuku (hence my opening). Ryo can't resist a pretty face, to put it lightly, and one pretty face (Moemi Katayama) hires him to find her sister, Kurumi (Asuka Hanamura), a famous cosplayer. They find her being accosted by the Yakuza, but she doesn't want the "sweepers" (as the manga describes their line of work) to find her, either. She subsequently outruns and outjumps the duo in an extended chase scene. She even leaves behind two vials of a blue liquid.

Hideyuki heads off to join his younger adopted sister, Kaori (Misato Morita), for her birthday dinner. But a creepy guy literally crashes the party and kills Hideyuki. Ryo reluctantly partners with Kaori to track down the killers, and they even find Kurumi and take her in. It turns out that the blue liquid is the drug Angel Dust, a super-steroid that makes people stronger and aggressive before it kills them. It's manufactured by the evil Union Teope cartel and Kurumi is their first living test subject. The cartel wants her back to refine the drug. Ryo and Kaori won't let that happen.

(Now for the thoughts.)

I'm sure one's enjoyment of the film depends on their opinion of Ryo. His immaturity might rub people the wrong way, but I found it weirdly amusing. He still has standards, which is exemplified when he prevents some creepy photographers at a convention from getting too close to Kurumi with some goofy photobombing. That then leads him into blocking tranq. shots from Union agent Brown Bear (Yasushi Ami), and an on-stage fight with the aforementioned pretty face (codenamed Scorpion). He'll drop the immaturity the second he needs to, whether it's to console Kaori with tough love or when the bad guys get serious. Needless to say, he's a complicated character.

Kaori and Kurumi's stories are the centerpieces of the screenplay. Kaori initially blows her first meeting with Kurumi by running in blind, but after that, the two's quick friendship is fun to watch. There's some more weird fun when they team up to get Ryo to take their case. Kurumi even helps Kaori cosplay for the convention, where Kaori has some fun with her prop hammer (a nod to a running gag in the manga). Their friendship makes it all the more compelling when Kaori joins Ryo to save Kurumi at the end.

On a more serious note, Kurumi's initial evasiveness is understandable once we learn the extent of her plight. It's quite effective when she reveals that Scorpion, who introduced herself to Ryo as her sister, isn't. Kaori gets a few other great scenes; the first when she unloads to Ryo about her unresolved issues with Hideyuki and the second when she has Big Bad Kunio Konno (Takaya Sakoda) at gunpoint but can't bring herself to kill him. In the end, Kurumi gets a nice coda, while Kaori and Ryo get a funny last scene together.

The fight choreography, as mentioned earlier, is excellent. Besides the convention fights, Ryo shows off some astounding marksmanship against waves of goons, while the opening chase includes some impressive slapstick. The production design gives us an amazing laboratory for the Union. The costuming does enough to evoke the characters' manga selves without looking like cosplay, too. Still, the in-universe cosplay is quite alluring. The music by Otomo Yoshihide is nifty, but the end credits' remix of the anime's iconic closer, Get Wild, is easily the most memorable bit of music. There's not much wrong with the technicals, other than some obvious CGI, in this film.

City Hunter is newly available on Netflix as of yesterday. You might find its atypical hero annoying or entertaining, but the other two leads are undoubtedly endearing. At least you'll have some truly astounding fight scenes waiting for you once you press play. Its MacGuffin is also the plot device for the manga's latest anime film, City Hunter: Angel Dust, which debuted last September. There's supposed to be a theatrical release sometime this year, and I think I'll review it if and when it comes out. I'll be waiting.

Abigail

The "Dark Universe" may have been exorcised seven years ago, but Universal is still trying to bring back its legendary monsters to modern movie screens. One of its more obscure titles, 1936's Dracula's Daughter, is the starting point for Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillet's (part of the filmmaking team of Radio Silence) new feature Abigail. This isn't a remake of the early film, but a whole new creature feature. What can you expect?

Six crooks snatch aspiring ballet dancer Abigail (Alisha Weir) and take her to a secluded mansion. The crooks are tasked by the mysterious Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito) to watch her until her father (Matthew Goode) coughs up the $50 million ransom. Lambert assigns the crew code names inspired by the Rat Pack; they consist of space cadet driver Dean (Angus Cloud, who died not long into filming), stoic sniper Rickles (Will Catlett), dumb muscle Peter (Kevin Durand), bratty hacker Sammy (Kathryn Newton), crooked cop Frank (Dan Stevens), and central character Joey (Melissa Barrera), who is assigned to watch Abigail.

The crew eventually learn that Abigail's father is Kristof Lazar, an ominous and unforgiving mob boss. That's not even the worse news; it turns out Abigail is a vampire. The Rat Pack spend the rest of the movie trying to scurry their way out of the mansion before Abigail kills or vampirizes them. That's basically it.

Of course, you'd already know Abigail's secret if you've seen the trailer over these last few months. And it was trailered a lot. Her bonding with Joey is almost convincing; she seems like a scared little kid, and Joey is quite sympathetic, but we, the audience, already know what's what. It takes roughly half-way through the 109-minute film before she shows her fangs. That might test some folks, but I think it has an interesting cast to help ease its audience along. They try to find their way out as soon as they realize something's wrong. It doesn't help the first victims, but at least they're proactive.

Weir absolutely relishes playing Abigail as a gleeful little monster. She still tries the scared kid act after she reveals herself but will gladly drop it once her "captors" see right through her. Her attacking the Rat Pack as a feral monster is horrific, but her dancing Swan Lake with her first victim's headless corpse is lunacy. She especially hams it up once she turns a survivor into her vampiric puppet. She has some ethics, particularly when Daddy Dearest shows up, but they're somewhat overshadowed by her little monster persona.

What about the Rat Pack? They're a pretty good crew, for the most part, and their likability mostly doesn't diminish when Abigail divulges the survivors' real backstories. Dean's quite loopy, while Rickles is just fine. Peter is a big lug with much of the film's funniest lines. Sammy has the brightest personality of the pack, as well as the saddest fate. Frank is quite unlikable well before Abigail tells the crew about his real backstory. He gets much worst from there. Joey, as mentioned before, is sympathetic, complete with an equally sympathetic real backstory. It's quite compelling to watch her fight back against the forces of darkness. Outside of the pack, Esposito and Goode make the most of their limited screen times.

Now for the technicals. The vampiric effects, whether it's Abigail flying or vampires exploding, are pretty well done. I'm not sure whether there was CGI involved in the vampiric designs. But if there were, it's quite seamless, which makes Abigail transforming in-camera all the more impressive. The mansion created by production designer Susie Cullen personifies creepiness, while its swimming pool holds its most horrific surprise. Brian Tyler's magnificent rendition of the Swan Lake theme is accompanied by a wonderfully haunting score. How many more movies will it take before he gets an Oscar nod?

Anyway, Abigail is an impressive blend of horror and absurdity. It's not afraid to admit it's silly, but then it shows us how scary its little monster can be. It helps that it's a got a good cast of would-be victims to help its audience through the monster delay. Anyone looking for a gleeful horror film will find it here. See it soon to see what I mean. That's it for now.

Spy x Family Code: White

After two seasons of anime misadventures, The Forgers, the titular family of Tatsuya Endo's Spy x Family, are ready for the big screen. Spy x Family Code: White debuted in Japan just before Christmas and is now ready to take on the North American Box Office. Let's see how their first cinematic mission went.

As the nations of Westalis and Oostania - basically West and East Germany - fight the Cold War, Westalian Secret Agent Loid Forger (alias Twilight) is tasked to investigate Oostanian political firebrand Donovan Desmond. For this end, Loid puts together a fake family to get into Donovan's son Damien's private school. He's unaware that his fake wife, Yor Briar, is the professional assassin Thorn Princess, their fake daughter Anya is a psychic, or that their dog Bond is a precog. This fake family slowly but surely becomes a real family.

Anyway, Loid's superiors decide to reassign him, which would threaten the not-so-fake family. He decides to get in their good graces by helping Anya win an upcoming cooking contest with the Judge's favorite dessert. That involves taking a family trip to the snowy country of Frigis, where the dessert originates. On the way there, the Forgers stumble upon a plot by the evil Col. Snidel to heat up the Cold War. Anya accidentally eats a chocolate MacGuffin, and the Colonel will do anything to get the microfilm it was holding out of her. Mr. and Mrs. Forger won't let that happen.

If one edits down the cold open, then it would make a good sitcom opening ("He's a world class spy. She's a deadly killer..."). Loid makes his way through a masquerade ball with secret documents, while Yor dispatches some hapless goons (Who are they? Who cares.). They make it home for family time with Anya and Bond, where we see the latter two's powers. That's quite an efficient opening for a TV show or movie. The series is pretty much an action sitcom, and like many sitcoms, or anime show movies, don't expect the status quo to change. How so? The plot is rendered all for nothing by a series of hilarious contrivances. 

Anya is the show's most popular character, so let's start with her. Her childish perspective is pretty endearing as she approaches the MacGuffin like a kid playing detective. We're a bit on edge as she's cornered by two goons - fortunately the comic relief duo - before Yor shows up. We're on edge for real when Snidel ties her up, though her ingenuity wins the day and saves Loid from nerve gas. Her dream sequences - rendered in crayon - are both quite hilarious and weird (particularly the second one). Her comical antics are a good contrast to her real fake parents' professions. 

One subplot that's not rendered moot is Yor's subplot. She spends the movie worrying that Loid is preparing to leave her after she sees him with another woman (actually fellow spy Fiona "Nightfall" Frost). She's easily pitiable despite her insecurity being somewhat played for laughs. It's quite moving when she and Loid get to talk it out on a Ferris Wheel, an accidental slap notwithstanding. It's easily Loid's best moment too, and they affirm their commitment when they go after Snidel aboard his mega Zeppelin. She even gets to use an unexpected tool to defeat an unstoppable cyborg. Overall, even those unfamiliar with the show will feel the "fake" family's real dynamic. They might fret what might happen once the secrets come out.

Now for a few other characters. Col. Snidel goes from confiscating Anya's dessert for himself to ordering his men to kill her. He does seem affable when he challenges Loid to a taste test to win back the dessert. But that affability goes away well before he shoots a random goon. He later orders his men to fire upon Loid, not even aware of his true identity. It makes one wonder how he'd react if he knew his extreme lengths to extract the microfilm were pointless. The two goons, Luka and Dmitri, are decent comic relief, though they're better as punching bags. On the subject of series veterans, Nightfall's gushing over Loid with the flattest of expressions is pretty amusing. It's actually relieving that Yor doesn't relapse into jitters when she sees Nightfall and Loid again.

The animation is about what you'd expect from the show: quite good. A few highlights include a sweeping shot across the opening masquerade ball, Loid exposing a carnival hustler's rigged game with some ingenious sharpshooting, his later dogfight with Snidel's mega Zeppelin, and Yor's battle with the cyborg. Its production design for Frigis is splendid, while the mega Zeppelin (it has a name, but I'm blanking on it for some reason) is quite cool. The show's composers, the band (K)now Name, reprise their roles on this film's soundtrack. Their soundtrack here is as jazzy and exciting as their work on the show. It may not be as proficient as a Ghibli film, but production company Wit Studio gets it done well.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to see Spy x Family Code: White as soon as possible. It's a fun action comedy that will entertain the fans and unfamiliar alike. You'll love the fake family's real dynamic and thrill at their adventures. It's sure to satisfy anyone waiting for Season 3 and is another reason that may get me to fully reactivate my Crunchyroll account. As I said, see it soon, for it will be quite a while before it comes to home media. See it soon whenever and however you can. It's a great "ooting" to the movies.

The First Omen

The 2006 remake of The Omen was averagely forgettable, but it had two excellent teaser trailers. And yes, I saw both films that same year. I'll have little trouble forgetting this prequel, The First Omen, which sees the directorial debut of TV director Arkasha Stevenson. Let's see why you won't forget it either.

Margaret Daino (Nell Tiger Free) is a novitiate who heads off to Rome to take her vows. She's first assigned to an orphanage where she meets a few characters. She tries to connect with Carlita (Nicole Sorace), a troubled orphan who draws her own nightmares, against uptight Sister Silvia's (Sonia Braga) instructions. Her fellow novitiate Luz (Maria Caballero) takes her to a disco for their last night of freedom. Margaret meets a guy, Paolo (Andrea Arcangeli) and they hit it off. And...

Margaret begins hallucinating demonic sights. She's been troubled by hallucinations all her life, much like Carlita is now, but it's gotten much worse. She also contends with actual disturbances, including the suicide of another nun, Anjelica (Ishtar Currie-Wilson), and the concurrent Years of Lead. The ultimate disturbance comes when Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson, tagging in for Patrick Troughton from the original) tells her of a conspiracy to bring about the Antichrist. Carlita is at the center of that conspiracy ... or, is she?

I know what some of you might be thinking. "Didn't I see this movie recently?" I didn't, but some of you may have, seen the movie Immaculate, which came out just a few weeks ago. That means there are two movies that center on a conspiracy to bring about the antichrist. I almost thought I went into the wrong movie for the first few minutes (why? I don't know). My theatre doesn't label their auditoriums, so for all I know, it could have been playing in the next auditorium over. 

Anyway, its first few minutes have Father Brennan take confession from a semi-reluctant conspirator, Father Harris (Charles Dance). Harris's ensuing death is a nervously amusing homage to Brennan's eventual demise in The Omen. Paolo's death by truck is so obviously telegraphed I was thinking "look both ways, you idiot" before it happened. Still, Paolo's death comes with a surprisingly gruesome twist. Anjelica's suicide, another homage to The Omen, gets creepier when she shows up in Margaret's nightmares. Its most disturbing imagery, however, comes from its depictions of childbirth, and with good reason. I can't describe it in detail here. Let's just say the conspiracy makes those scenes much worse.

Margaret starts off quite likable as she tries to get used to living abroad. She turns compelling when she tries to circumnavigate, and later fight back, against the conspirators. She has a strong relationship with Carlita as she tries to get her out of her shell, and it spectacularly pays off at the end. By herself, Carlita is just a compelling a lead as Margaret is. The conspirators - including Sister Silvia and Bill Nighy's Cardinal Lawrence - have a loony rationale, but that doesn't stop them from being certifiably odious.  Father Brennan has his best moments when he outlines the conspiracy to Margaret. He really sells us on the danger the villains pose to the world. He and the young Father Gabriel (Tawfeek Barhom) turn out to be our heroines' only real friends here.

Its gruesomeness is excellently constructed by editors Mark Murawski and Amy E. Duddleston. One disturbing highlight has Anjelica slowly reveal herself out of the darkness in a nightmare. Another highlight is a pivotal flashback where we see glimpses of Satan himself - a demonic jackal portrayed by a perfectly gruesome animatronic. The gloomy production design and cinematography collaborate the best when we're in the conspirators' lair. The sound design does wonders in accentuating the squickiness of it all. Mark Korven's score, much like Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar-winning score from The Omen, is a good mix of booming terror and sweet serenity. Its most powerful moment comes when Ave Satani, The Omen's Oscar-nominated theme song, kicks in at the climax.

To say that The First Omen is disturbing is like saying water is wet. Of course it is. This happens to be a well-made disturbing film with a great lead and strong production values. I'm certain even the most avid horror fans might want to avert their eyes during a few scenes. It's a decently compelling prequel even if its script has a few inconsistencies with its originator. I'm a bit curious to see how a follow-up explains them away. But that's it for now.

Monkey Man

Monkey Man fought a long battle to get to the big screen. It was greenlit in 2018, had its production complicated by that pandemic in 2020, and was held up by Netflix (who paid $30 million for the rights) ever since. It was saved from oblivion by Jordan Peele, who got Universal to buy it for just $10 million. Let's finally see how it is.

This is essentially a showcase for Dev Patel, who makes his directorial debut from a script he co-wrote with Paul Angunawela and John Collee, and also stars as its nameless protagonist. Our hero, who is only called "Kid," fights at an underground fighting arena run by the unscrupulous Tiger (Sharlto Copley). He's a jobber who regularly gets beaten by all the "cool" fighters. His persona is "The Beast," a gorilla masked fighter inspired by the monkey deity Hanuman, a central figure in the Indian national epic, Ramayana. 

As a boy, his mother Neela (Adithi Kalkunte) and much of his village, were massacred by the corrupt police chief Rana Singh (Sikandar Kher), who acted under the orders of the also-corrupt guru Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande). He gets his chance for revenge when he's hired by crime boss and Madam Queenie (Ashwini Kalsekar) on the kitchen staff of her VIP club. Rana is one of her regulars, but it takes time before our hero gets close to him. His first chance for revenge goes south, so he needs unconventional help to get him ready for round two.

This is a heavily political film, which is partially why Netflix got cold feet. Its villains are allegories for the government of current Prime Minister Modi; Shakti, in particular, is aiming to win an election for his Nationalist Party. A lot of the political references may fly over a few heads - I spent a good portion just now researching them - but the villains are still crooked enough that a few themes still get through. Our hero's unconventional help is a Hijra (third-gender in Hindi culture) community led by Alpha (Vipin Sharma). They're quite interesting characters who train him quite well and even provide backup in the final battle.

Its relatively sparse plot is told over the course of 121 minutes. It takes quite a while before our hero makes it to Rana, during which, he becomes involved with Sita (Sobhita Dhulipala), an escort under Queenie's employ. It's a decent relationship which suffers from her relative lack of screentime. All the while, Kid's backstory is gradually given in flashbacks, with the pivotal moment saved for the second half. It's quite easy to sympathize with Kid during his hero's journey before then. His fury, whether visceral or tranquil, is impressive, and he shows his humanity when he feeds a stray puppy. There's another ally, Alphonso (Pitobash), who gives him an in with Queenie, but he doesn't have much screentime.

The film is naturally livened by its brutal fight scenes. We get a few good arena fights for Kid to show his jobber role. When he finally gets to Rana, it sets off a long brawl which sees him fight off several goons, escape from corrupt cops and fight more goons. It also leads to the funniest moment in the film when a window escape attempt doesn't go as planned. The film's slow pace is validated when Kid makes his comeback in the arena. He knocks his frequent rival out with one boot to the head and defeats the follow-up opponent - a giant - with relative ease. The final battle makes for another excellent brawl; wait till you see his firecracker gun!

Those fight scenes are excellently edited by David Jansco & Tim Murrell and accentuated by a soundtrack which includes some surprising oldies and a great score by Jed Kurzel. Sharone Meir's cinematography gives some excellent use of color (i.e., Kid bathed in red light in the finale), and a stunning shot travelling from above to Shakti down below. All in all, Monkey Man is a good action thriller even if its major themes require plenty of context. I don't know if there'll be a sequel - I'm not talking about its box office, for once - but I'm curious as to what Patel might direct next. Hopefully, it'll be something good.