Emilia Pérez

Emilia Pérez, representing France, is the current frontrunner for the International Feature Oscar. It is also one of this year's weirdest movie musicals; it's not the weirdest because we have Better Man to look forward to. What can you expect if you check it out on Netflix?

Jacques Audiard expanded a side character from Boris Razon's novel Écoute (Listen) into this film's central character. Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) starts the movie as "Manitas" Del Monte, a notorious Mexican cartel kingpin. Secretly undergoing hormone replacement therapy, the gruff Manitas hires Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldaña), an attorney stuck defending abusive men, to help complete the gender transition. Rita will get a good payday if she finds a good surgeon and relocates Manitas's sons and wife, Jessi (Selena Gomez), to Switzerland. Rita does that, and Emilia Pérez takes the stage.

A few years later, Emilia reunites with Rita and hires her to bring her former family back to Mexico City. Since Manitas faked "his" death, Emilia introduces herself as her own cousin. Emilia becomes a philanthropist who enlists contrite sicarios to help locate victims of the drug war. She also begins a relationship with the widow of one such victim, Epifanía Flores (Adriana Paz); however, she also becomes quite jealous when Jessi reunites with an old flame, Gustavo (Édgar Ramírez). Rita, meanwhile, is stuck in the middle of it all.

What makes it weird is the mood whiplash. Imagine if Sicario turned into Rent every few minutes, and you might get this film. There's not only a climactic shootout and a fiery car crash, but a Busby Berkley number where a Thai surgeon runs down the various gender transition surgeries. It's a fantastical movie - musicals are fantasies, by their very nature - that partially deals with the aftermath of actual gang violence. That makes for an interesting, yet disorienting mix. 

You'd almost think the gruff Manitas and the stunning Emilia are played by two different people. But you'd be wrong; as the credits show, both of them are Gascón. The makeup work that renders her into the manliest of men is nothing short of impressive. Her emotional transformation from brutal kingpin to loving aunt is mostly compelling; it's quite scary when her jealousy boils over near the end. Has she truly redeemed herself? The climax begins when Jessi and Gustavo team-up to abduct Emilia, and the film doesn't tell us how they did it. 

Saldaña has the film's most entertaining number, El Mal, where Rita dances around a charity dinner and rants at how rotten its guests are. That and her earlier number, El alegato, perfectly convey her disgust with how rotten the world is. Her hesitancy to deal with her unusual job is understandable, especially when that involves getting snatched from the street by Manitas's goons. She's quite formidable when she mediates between Jessi and Emilia when their relationship deteriorates. She even organizes Emilia's rescue, which sadly doesn't end well.

The other leading ladies, who shared the Cannes Best Actress Award with Gascón and Saldaña, are also pretty good. Gomez, as Jessi, perfectly vocalizes her bottled-up grief in the showy Bienvenida number. Her anger towards Emilia is perfectly understandable, as is her shock once she finally realizes who she is. Paz makes the most of her fairly limited screentime as Epifanía. Her best scene is her introduction when she comes into Emilia's office to learn her husband's fate. Her fear turns into relief when she learns the news; her husband wasn't a nice man, at all. Her relationship with Emilia is pretty nice, even if it doesn't have much screentime.

El Mal is not only the highlight of the soundtrack, which was composed by Clément Ducol and Camille, but it's also the film's technical highlight. Cinematographer Paul Guilhaume rapidly dances around Rita as she dances around the dinner guests, while editor Juliette Welfing gives the sequence a great tempo. Not only that, but the sounds of shuffling dancers give the song some great punctuation. All these elements add up to a weirdly memorable musical sequence. In fact, most of the other songs and their choreography are pretty good, even if they're also pretty weird. The best of the slower numbers is when Jessi and Emilia officially reunite.

Emilia Pérez is a baffling film, but it's also undeniably unforgettable. Its acting and its technicals will dance in your memories long after its 132 minutes are over. I wonder what other films might accompany it on the International Feature Oscar ballot. Whatever they may be, I'll try to get to as many as I can. In the meantime, check out Emilia Pérez if you want a unique movie musical. I can recommend a few other movie musicals if its tonal mixture isn't appealing. I might review a few more before the year is out.

That's it for now.

Gladiator II

Is it daunting to make a sequel to one of this century's first action epics? Or is it more daunting to make a sequel to the first film this century to win the Oscar for Best Picture? You'll have to do both when you make a sequel to Gladiator. Fortunately, Gladiator II has enough spectacle to entertain you if singing witches aren't your thing. Now, on to the arena.

Ridley Scott returns to direct this instalment, which begins when the Roman Legions of General Acacius (Pedro Pascal) invade Numidia. Hanno (Paul Mescal) and his wife, Arishat (Yuval Gonen), defend Numidia as part of its army; however, she is killed, and he is enslaved with his comrades. In Rome, Hanno's ferocity against an army of feral baboons gets the attention of power broker Macrinus (Denzel Washington), who buys him as a gladiator. Hanno decides to play the games of the mad emperors Geta & Caracella (Joseph Quinn & Fred Hechinger) if it means getting the chance to kill Acacius.

Eventually, much like Maximus (Russell Crowe in the first film), Hanno becomes a star of the Colosseum. Moreover, Acacius's wife Lucilla (Connie Nielsen, one of the few returning stars) recognizes him as her long-lost son Lucius, and reveals his father was Maximus himself. At the same time, Lucilla, Acacius and several Roman Senators (including the other returning star, Derek Jacobi, as Gracchus) plot to depose the emperors. Macrinus, however, has his own scheme to takeover Rome and exact revenge for his enslavement by the Empire. Lucius, who grows to believe his father's "Dream of Rome," forgives Acacius and rises up against Macrinus. As you can tell, there's a lot that happens in this movie.

I'm not really going to waste time nitpicking about the historical inaccuracies, as a few people already have. However, it's kind of interesting that Lucilla's conspiracy is strikingly similar to the one the real Lucilla plotted against her brother, Emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix in the first film). As for other inaccuracies, like Lucius fighting a gladiator riding a rhinoceros and a later naumachia with sharks, are supposed to be cool. I was admittedly entertained by the spectacle; that doesn't mean I lack any of my own nitpicks. 

Lucius makes for a decent swords-and-sandals variant of King Arthur. Yes, his character arc is recognizably Campbellian, but he has a few strong moments of his own. Those moments include his contemptuous reciting of Virgil to the Emperors and his ultimate forgiveness of Acacius. We barely see him with Arishat, but his nightmare of seeing her in the afterlife is memorably haunting. Acacius, meanwhile, is a bit more compelling as we see how weary he is of conquest after the Numidia campaign. Lucilla is quite sympathetic as she tries to reconnect with Lucius, but Gracchus barely does much in the film. A few other memorable actors include Matt Lucas as the Colosseum MC; Alexander Karim as gladiator-turned-doctor Ravi; and Peter Mensah as Jugurtha, the Numidia chieftain.

This leaves me with the villains. Geta is much saner than his brother, Caracella, who is practically Caligula. Despite their shared villainy, Geta is quite sympathetic when Macrinus manipulates Caracella into killing him. Caracella's eventual death by Macrinus himself is as unnerving as his own villainy. Speaking of Macrinus, he is another memorably charismatic villain in Washington's resume. If Washington's going to win his third Oscar, as so many critics think he will, then I think Macrinus's tranquil fury as he tells Lucilla his past will seal the deal. That tranquil fury perfectly explodes in his final, memorable battle with Lucius.

Scott brings back plenty of his usual collaborators, many of whom were either nominated for or won Oscars for the first film. Those include Janty Yates (costume designer; this time with David Crossman), Arthur Max (production designer), Neil Corbould (visual effects supervisor) and John Mathieson (cinematographer). We get plenty of marvelous battles, both within and outside the Colosseum, while the digitally assisted restoration of Ancient Rome is flawless. I can't say the same about the baboons, who were rendered with painfully obvious CGI, but at least they were still unnerving. Its use of royal purple was striking, as are the ghoulish appearances of the mad emperors. The sound mix is wonderful, while the score by Harry Gregson-Williams is pretty good, even if I prefer some of Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard's compositions from the first film. Maybe it will grow on me.

Don't expect historical accuracy in Gladiator II and you'll do fine. It's a blockbuster, not a documentary, and it's a pretty good blockbuster. It's a lot more tonally consistent than Scott's last few films, and at 148 minutes, it only feels slightly overlong. I'm sure there's a good documentary somewhere if you want some historical accuracy. But if you want entertainment, particularly outside the Land of Oz, then I think this movie will do nicely, in this life and the next. That's it for now.

Red One

Do you want to show your kids the ultimate Christmas action movie? Wait a few years and show them Die Hard. Do you want to show them a Christmas action movie that's actually appropriate for them? I guess there's no harm in showing them Red One. Let's get going.

Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson) is Santa's (JK Simmons) top ELF (Enforcement Logistics and Fortification) agent. Callum isn't happy that the naughty list keeps getting bigger and bigger every year. So, as much as it pains him, he decides to retire after this Christmas. But wouldn't you know it? A commando strike team takes Santa right on Christmas Eve.

It seems Santa's location was compromised by Jack O'Malley (Chris Evans), a hacker and a long time Santa-denier. He had no idea he was tracking Red One himself, so Callum takes him to find his anonymous benefactor. It turns out to be some guy in Bermuda, who himself has his own benefactor. That would be Grýla the Christmas Witch (Kiernan Shipka), who has an extreme idea to enforce the naughty list. They don't have much time to save Christmas. But they will.

The screenplay by Chris Morgan is a bit of a mixed bag. A few performers, like Johnson and Lucy Liu (as the Nick Furyish Zoe), take their often-silly dialogue pretty seriously. It's a funny contrast, that's for sure. Jack, meanwhile, starts off so cartoonishly mean that he takes candy from a baby! Eventually, we learn he hates himself for being an absent dad to his son, Dylan (Wesley Kimmel), but that doesn't gel well with his intro. In fact, it's hard to care whenever the film legitimately tries to be serious. Those efforts are fine, but they aren't that compelling, save one. That's when Callum regains his Christmas Spirit in the finale when he watches Jack and Dylan reconcile. That was actually nice.

The film's technical highlight comes when Jack and Callum visit Santa's estranged brother, Krampus (Kristofer Hivju). Krampus, along with his demonic guests, are all rendered with fantastic prosthetic makeup supervised by Joel Harlow. You won't forget the tengu, that's for sure! It also helps that Krampus is the film's most entertaining character, especially when he later saves the day. The chanting gargoyles that adorn his castle are an excellent addition to the sound design. Let's not forget his castle, in general, as it's a great feat of production design.

What else does it have? The film's idea of trolls is quite amusing in how they climb the uncanny valley. The portal network of toy store supply closets is a neat gag. Gryla is a decent villain, but I don't buy into her attempt at being a well-intentioned extremist. Her unambiguous villainy exponentially dulls her points. Her final form is a somewhat unimpressive CGI monster, but her brutish snowmen are a bit better. Callum's toy upsizer is a nifty gadget, while we see plenty more when Santa makes his climactic Christmas run. It's especially amusing when we see Santa go to lightspeed. There's also a decent score by Henry Jackman along with a good selection of classic Christmas songs. I think that sums it up.

Red One was produced for Amazon Prime, and it's only a matter of time before it unwraps there. In the meantime, it is worth checking out for its earnest absurdity, even if that gets in the way of actual earnestness. There's no harm in going to Red One if you just want an easy matinee. If you want a new holiday classic, I highly recommend you seek out The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. At least, if you can find it. 

That's it for now.

Wicked

 It’s finally happened people.

After years of false starts, Wicked, the celebrated musical based on Gregory Maguire’s novel, is finally half a movie!

Wait, what?

Yeah, the creators didn’t want to cut anything, so they split it into two movies. Wicked, which actually corresponds to the musical’s entire first act, runs 160 minutes, slightly longer than the average stage production. Did director Jon M. Chu and the writers make the most of it? Let’s find out.

Ding dong, the Witch is Dead! All of Oz is celebrating now that the Wicked Witch of the West has been liquidated. Glinda the Good (Ariana Grande) tells a crowd of Munchkins how she knew her Wickedness. Back then, she was known as Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo), daughter of the Munchkin Governor. She was supposed to see off her sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode), at the prestigious Shiz University. But Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), the Dean of Sorcery, notices her magical prowess and invites her to attend.

Elphaba is assigned Glinda, then known as Galinda, as a roommate, which doesn’t please either of them. But soon, this loathing becomes friendship, albeit with some rivalry for the dashingly dim Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey). The Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) notices Elphaba and summons her to the Emerald City. Glinda tags along too, but their one short day changes their lives forever.

Thus, ends Act One.

The writers, specifically original librettist Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, pad out a few musical numbers, intensify a few scenes and provide some more exposition here. It's a miracle that only some of this adaptation expansion is a bit superfluous.  The expansion is especially noticeable in the finale, the show's signature song Defying Gravity. The musical momentum is frequently disrupted by the Wizard's guards, but Elphaba asserting herself as the Wicked Witch of the West makes it all pay off. If anything, some of the other changes help the libretto flow as a screenplay.

Any doubts about the leads will cease once you see them. Erivo is quite believable as the initially timid Elphaba, who just wants her father's approval. She's quite compelling as she asserts herself, partially with Glinda's help. We empathize with her all the way at her highest and lowest moments. Speaking of Glinda, Grande is quite funny when she plays her as a vapid mean girl. Her moments of legitimate kindness, such as joining Elphaba at a dance, are quite moving. She still gets a few funny lines afterwards, though, a lot of them during another of the show's popular songs ... Popular. Reportedly, much of the film was sung live-on set, and it shows with Grande and Erivo's buoyant chemistry in their numbers.

Let's get on with the supporting cast. Bailey as Fiyero is memorably vapid, but he jumps to help Elphaba free the future Cowardly Lion. He's a more likable Gaston, and you'll like him even if you don't know his eventual fate. Ethan Slater is quite nice as Boq, a munchkin who will also be relevant in part two. What we see of Madame Morrible and the Wizard cements them as decent-enough villains. The best supporting player is Peter Dinklage, who voices the talking goat Professor Dillamond, whose ostracization factors into Elphaba's descent into "villainy." A close second is Sharon D. Clarke, who voices Elphaba's sympathetic bear nanny Dulcibear.

Naturally, as an Oz film, you can expect plenty of good-looking visuals. The crowning achievement of Nathan Crowley's production design is the Shiz Library, which has rotating bookshelves. A close second is the Wizard's diorama of Oz, where Glinda and Elphaba come up with the Yellow Brick Road. Neither of these sets are CGI. The talking animals, however, are all pretty good CGI creatures. It's downright scary when Elphaba is tricked into turning the Wizard's monkey guards into the Flying Monkeys. It's even scarier when they literally fly in a rage and attack Elphaba soon after. On a lighter note, we have some splendorous costume designs by Paul Tazewell, most of which are on full display at the Emerald City during the number One Short Day.

Speaking of that number, composer Stephen Schwartz, along with Broadway stars Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, all have amusing cameos there. Schwartz's score was adapted, expanded, and supplemented by John Powell quite nicely. Elphaba's power bursts are accentuated with some impressively forceful sound effects. I can go on about its technical goodness, but I won't.

So instead, I'll leave it to you to check out Wicked for yourself. It may be half a story, but it's still an entertaining half. Its opening minutes are awe-inspiring, whether they've seen the show or not. I don't think next year's Part Two needs to be as long as this one. But whatever the length, I'm ready for it, and judging by my audience's applauses, they are too. I'm sure you'll be ready for it once you get on the Yellow Brick Road this year. I think it's worth the excursion.

Well, are you coming?

A Real Pain

 Unlike some other films on this year’s Oscar docket, A Real Pain doesn’t waste a lot of time. It’s only ninety-minutes long, which is about as long as Wicked’s first act on stage. Let’s see what Jesse Eisenberg, in his second film as writer and director, does with his time.

Benji (Kieran Culkin) and David Kaplan (Eisenberg) are cousins on a guided tour of Poland. Their beloved Grandma Dory, a Holocaust survivor, recently died, so the two take the trip to see her homeland. They used to be pretty close, but their personalities got in the way. Benji, the outgoing one, makes friends with the tour group, while criticizing their tour guide James (Will Sharpe). David, the quiet one, envies Benji’s outgoingness while struggling with his manic behavior. They'll eventually reconcile.

Also on the tour group are Marcia (Jennifer Grey), a divorcee, and Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan), a survivor of the Rwandan Genocide, and elderly couple Mark & Diane (Daniel Oreskes & Liza Sadovy). They’re all quite interesting as we learn about their reasons for joining the tour. It's pretty endearing, even if initially awkward, as Benji bonds with Marcia and Eloge. He is less than thrilled with James's detached tour guide style, which finally boils over when they visit a cemetery. His outburst is ultimately constructive criticism for James' and the film's benefit. It's quite fascinating to watch him introduce the Jewish custom of leaving stones on gravestones, which pops up again in the end.

It doesn’t have time for flashbacks, which leaves David and Benji to convey their pasts with acting alone. David, in particular, recounts Benji’s recent suicide attempt during dinner, and he comes very close to breaking down. Benji, meanwhile, recounts how a dinnertime argument with Dory - who doesn’t even appear as a picture - set him straight. The acting by Eisenberg and Culkin sells us on their shared history, especially in those scenes alone. You will feel their pain even if you can’t see all of it. You’ll also feel pretty good when they ultimately reconcile

David spends the opening incessantly calling Benji, leaving voice mail after voice mail praying that he won't miss the flight. He's unaware - like we are - that Benji is not only at the airport but is quite content there. Both of them, as we find out, are no more or less composed than the other. Benji's aforementioned suicide attempt does nothing to calm David's pre-existing anxiety. It's naturally quite tense when Benji disappears one night, only to pop up chipper the next morning. The worse that happens to either of them is missing their train stop at one point. A bag of weed helps them reconcile in the climax; it's not as silly as it sounds.

What do we have for technicals? There's a good selection of Chopin music on the soundtrack. The editing by Robert Nassau is quite nice, especially during the opening. The best technical work belongs to cinematographer Michal Dymek, who gives us a great travelogue of Poland. His best work comes when the tour group visits the Majdanek Concentration Camp, where we see lingering evidence of the Holocaust. James's commentary of the camp is quite ironic if you have The Zone of Interest in recent memory. I'll leave it to you to hear it for yourself.

A Real Pain may have an easy runtime, but it’s not that easy a movie. You should still take this cinematic trip to see the chemistry between its two leads. It's a welcome addition to this year's Oscar lineup, especially for Culkin's performance. But get on board now if you want to see it in theatres now. It's about to get really crowded this holiday season. It just so happens that my next review is for one of those big movies. It's coming soon, and hopefully, tonight.

Anora

 I previously said that The Substance was the sensation of this year's Cannes Film Festival. Although it received a standing ovation lasting thirteen-minutes at most, it did not win the prestigious Palme d'Or award. Sean Baker's Anora did. Let's finally meet her.

Anora "Ani" Mikheeva (Mikey Madison) is an exotic dancer and escort at a Manhattan night club. One night, her boss introduces her to Ivan Zakharov (Mark Eidelstein), the spoiled son of a Russian oligarch. Ivan, aka "Vanya," soon offers her $15,000 to be his girlfriend for the week. That special week involves a Vegas Vacation, complete with a quickie wedding!  

Unfortunately, Vanya's parents don't take the wedding well and decide to fly over to force an annulment. In the meantime, Vanya's godfather Toros (Karren Karagulian) and his goons, Igor (Yura Borisov) and Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), are dispatched to detain the couple. But Vanya runs out, so Ani and the guys drive around Manhattan looking for him. It's not that easy. 

It may sound like a quick film, but at 139-minutes, it’s actually the opposite. An extensive scene involves Toros and his goons invading Ani and Vanya's mansion, which gradually goes from nightmarish to farcical. She panics, not helped by Vanya fleeing earlier, and fights off the goons, trashing the living room in the process. Toros can only watch in disbelief as the situation spirals out of control. After the even lengthier drive through Manhattan, they strongarm a judge into a quickie annulment hearing only - surprise! - they're in the wrong state! And they get a ticket! It's a lengthy second act, but it's still pretty funny.

You won't forget Ani once it's all done. She only gets a few scenes, at most, in her humble Brighton Beach house, which she shares with her sister. One can sense that her desire for more helped attract her to Vanya. It also helps that Vanya's nice guy act is convincing enough you'll want their marriage to succeed. She, especially, wants her marriage to succeed. But you'll understand Toros's protestations once Vanya's manchild behavior becomes impossible to ignore. The third act brutally cuts down her Cinderella Dream, but at least she gets some brutal parting words for her temporary mother-in-law, the icy Galina Zakharova (Darya Ekamasova), which even amuses temporary father-in-law Nikolai (Aleksei Serebryakov). You'll especially feel for her during her last scene, which leaves her an uncertain future.

Now for the villains, for lack of a better word. One of their worst acts is Igor trashing a candy store on Toros's orders, but that is punctuated by the owner's bewildered reaction. They're pretty much sympathetic punch-clock villains who are just trying to clean-up Vanya's messes. Toros shows some sympathy for Ani's predicament, even if he later disregards her as a gold-digger. Garnick ought to be the more threatening goon, but he gets beaten around too much to be a threat. You'll even feel sorry for him when he gets carsick! Igor, however, spends most of the movie building a rapport with Ani. When it's all done, you'll feel that they were the better match all along. 

The cinematography by Drew Daniels is splendid, complemented by the equally impressive production design of Stephen Phelps. These aspects go great together in Las Vegas, which the poster showcases, and are quite spectacular when we see Ani and Vanya's private suite. In New York, we get to see Ani and Vanya's mansion, a spectacular house which is owned in real life by oligarch Vasily Anisimov. Its less glamorous locations are still impressive, while a blizzard accentuates the melancholic finale rather well. There's a score by Joseph Capalbo, but some of the most significant scenes lack score of any kind. 

I don't know if Anora will win Best Picture at the Oscars, as some critics are saying. It's a bit long, and it puts the bitter in bittersweet. But it's still a good movie about a woman standing up for herself in a dismissive world. It helps having some great comic relief with its alleged villains. There's quite a bit I'm leaving out of this review, and I'll leave it to you to see them when you meet Anora at your nearest theatre. That's it for now.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Now this is a holiday surprise.

I didn't go plan to review The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, the film version of Barbara Robinson's 1972 novel, when the year began. But the trailer looked funny, and so I went, further incentivized by a free ticket I got after my disastrous first attempt to see Piece by Piece. It was as funny as advertised, but it was also a bit more. Let's see what I mean.

The town of Emmanuel prides itself in its annual Christmas Pageant, which is about to celebrate its 75th iteration. Mrs. Armstrong (Mariam Bernstein), the Pageant's long-time director, prides herself in keeping it exactly the same during her whole tenure. When Mrs. Armstrong breaks her legs, Grace Bradley (Judy Greer) steps up to take her place. Grace, who isn't exactly popular with the town's snobby moms, sets out to deliver The Best Christmas Pageant Ever with Mrs. Armstrong's rigid specifications. But then a spanner is thrown into the works. 

Six of them, to be exact.

The Herdmans, the town hellions, barge into church expecting free food. They strongarm their way through the casting process, with eldest siblings Imogene & Ralph (Beatrice Schneider & Mason D. Nelligan) as Mary & Joseph, brothers Claude, Leroy & Ollie (Matthew Lamb, Ewan Wood & Esek Moore) as the Wise Men, and sister Gladys (Kynlee Heiman) as the Angel of the Lord. Nobody wants them around, but nobody also wants to tell them off, either. Surprisingly, the Herdmans, whose antics earned them the monicker "The Worst Kids in the World," become invested in the Christmas Story. Maybe the pageant will work, after all.

It's quite easy to dislike the Herdmans for their often-criminal misdeeds, including arson and keeping dangerous animals. They ironically did good by burning down their neighbor's unwanted toolshed. As the narrator (Lauren Graham) tells us, they wouldn't have done it if they knew it was a good thing. As they spend the movie poking holes into the Nativity Story, you'll often agree with their criticisms of the story's harshest aspects. In fact, their outrage towards King Herod's impunity lets us know they aren't that bad. They're also quite grateful when Mr. Bradley (Pete Holmes) donates them a Christmas Ham. The film considers it miraculous when its epilogue states that only one of the Herdmans spent time in prison.

Imogene, the ringleader, has the best character development of her siblings. She earns her fearsome reputation when she threatens the young narrator - Grace's daughter, Beth (Molly Bella-Wright) - over her necklace. She's quite aware of her reputation, but as we learn, she doesn't know how to be anything else but that. Her parents are practically non-existent, which is perhaps why she and her siblings identify with Mary & Joseph's difficult situation.  It might have been amusing to see the Herdmans turn the pageant into a light-hearted parody, but it's quite impactful when they take their parts seriously. Gladys, the youngest and loudest of her siblings, actually proves a good choice for the Angel of the Lord. Imogene fully earns her redemption when she hands back the necklace at the end.

There's a good ensemble surrounding the Herdmans. The snobbish adults, including Mrs. Armstrong and Mrs. Wendelken (Danielle Hoetmer) are too funny to be detestable. In fact, it's quite humorous to see them treat the same-old pageant as serious business. The kids, particularly Beth's brother Charlie (Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez) and Alice Wendelken (Lorelei Olivia Mote), are as funny as the adults. Charlie, in particular, instigates the plot by lying about the free food. Alice, the town's constant Mary, is nearly cast when it seems the Herdmans will quit; she's almost pitiable when she instead sulks on-stage as an angel. The adult Beth gets the best lines, while young Beth and her parents are quite likable. Mrs. Armstrong quotes Stanislavski's "there are no small parts" philosophy, which the film clearly believes. Everyone did fine here.

In the wrong hands, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever could have been a holier-than-thou mess. But director Dallas Jenkins (The Chosen) and his screenwriters have instead created an outrageously funny, and sincerely heartwarming, family film. It's a film that shows that just about everyone, even "the worst kids in the world," has a chance at happiness. It's hard not to feel something when the pageant audience break out the candles and sing Silent Night. The novel actually has two sequels, The Best Halloween Ever and The Best School Year Ever, but this entry ends well-enough on its own. See it soon before all the big films crowd it out. You won't regret it.

Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom

The word of the day is Isekai.

In Japanese, it means "Another World," and it also refers to a media genre where characters find themselves transported to those other worlds. Yes, that would include The Wizard of Oz. Yes, that would include numerous novel and anime franchises that rose to popularity in the last decade. Yes, I actually reviewed a few of those franchises' movies already. And yes, here is another.

Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom actually takes place during the anime's fourth season, which aired a few years ago. A text crawl spins us the tale of Satoru Suzuki, who finds himself the last player standing in the MMORPG YGGDRASSIL when its servers shut down for good. When they finally shut down, Satoru finds himself in the game as his avatar, the skull-headed "Sorcerer King" Momonga. He takes the name of his old guild, Ainz Ooal Gown, and sets out to conquer the game world as a sort of benevolent dictator. 

This time, Ainz is visited by the Paladins of the neighboring Sacred Kingdom, which has been conquered by the evil Jaldabaoth and his army of monsters. The Paladins request Momon, Ainz's strongest warrior, to fight Jaldabaoth, but Ainz decides to join them instead. Of course, it turns out the entire siege on the Sacred Kingdom is part of Ainz's "benevolent" conquest. But neither Neia Baraja, the squire enthralled with Ainz, nor Remedios Custodio, the skeptical veteran Paladin, find out about it. Oh well, maybe next time.

Those already familiar with Kugane Maruyama's lore will get the most mileage here. Those who haven't will have a lot to deal with during the course of 135-minutes. Barely anyone in Ainz's entourage, barring Jaldabaoth, better known as Demiurge, and the sniper-maid CZ, who becomes Neia's best friend, get much character time. A few pivotal scenes, such as Neia talking out of turn in Ainz's presence, happen off-screen. It's quite easy to mentally checkout during a few exposition scenes. Its biggest hindrance, however, is something that I will highlight below.

It's kind of hard to care about the plot once Ainz's machinations are revealed. Sure, the opening crawl may have hinted at Ainz's campaigning, but we believe his benevolence when the Paladins meet him. There are a few characters who show up just to die during the opening siege. But we care about them enough that we want Ainz to deal unholy vengeance on Jaldabaoth. That pivotal flashback reminds us that he is the villain of his own story, and those victims are just pawns to him. Remedios was right to distrust him, even if that distrust is somewhat overboard. It's perhaps comforting, then, that several other villains in the series are not only unaffiliated with him but are much worse.

It's also comforting that Ainz is an easily flustered dork. Surprising, but true. He's quite awkward around Neia, which leaves his stationary mouth agape, and we briefly hear Satoru's thoughts in an inner monologue. Those humanizing scenes make that pivotal flashback harder to swallow. We get a nice friendship between Neia and CZ; individually, Neia is a decent viewpoint character, while CZ's monotone personality is instantly endearing. There's a surprisingly hilarious scene where a horrific monster general stops the fight to gush over Neia's new bow, a gift from Ainz himself. The end of that fight leads to a surprising punchline.

What else can I recommend about it? The animation is quite impressive, especially in the fight scenes, although some conclude rather abruptly. You'll feel it when things get gruesome, particularly with the fate of the Sacred Kingdom's Princess. There are some great monster designs, especially with Jaldabaoth's alleged monster form and the aforementioned general. Those who don't care for the gruesomeness will find the scenery pretty enjoyable. The production design is stelar, while what we see of the magic system - such as a microphone crystal - is nifty. The score by Shuji Katayama is fine; it fits with the dark gothic aesthetics, but it isn't too memorable. The overall sound presentation is wonderful, particularly with its impactful magic spells and immersive crowd scenes.

Ainz's machinations will make a lot of sense if you've watched the series beforehand. I was barely familiar with the series, but his ultimate scheme was a lot to take in as I watched the movie. Now, with more context, they make some dark sense. In a way, it's a good case study on how good people are swayed by obviously evil individuals. That's what Neia's story arc is all about. If it gets you curious on her later role in the story, then its thesis has done its job. It's quite relevant, that's for sure.

Here

Do you want to go there for Here? 

I admit that joke is pretty clunky. But this film, which Robert Zemeckis and Eric Roth adapted from Richard McGuire's comic strip, and eventual graphic novel, is easy to describe. Let me prove it Here.

So, the gimmick Here is that we see time go by at a fixed vantage point. We see time progress - or regress - within pop-up comic book panels which are soon joined by the rest of the scene. At one point, we see a character in one panel fade-in to join a conversation already in progress. It's surprisingly good how these disconnected events blend together, especially when we see beyond the living room where most of the movie is set. 

What do we have Here? During the movie, we see the dinosaurs go extinct and the Ice Age, a Native American couple living their lives, and the estate of Benjamin Franklin's son, William (Daniel Betts). The main house is first owned by John & Pauline Harter (Gwilym Lee & Michelle Dockery), and then by Leo Beekman (David Fynn), the inventor of the La-Z Boy chair. For most of the movie, it is owned by two generations of the Young family, beginning with WWII vet Al (Paul Bettany) and his wife, Rose (Kelly Reilly). 

Their son, Richard (Tom Hanks), stays Here when his high-school sweetheart, Margaret (Robin Wright), gets pregnant. He's forced to give up his artistic dreams and follow Al as an insurance salesman. He promises Margaret a new house, even drawing up sketches and blueprints, but his financial worries squash those promises. This eventually drives them apart. Eventually.

Besides the pop-up panels, the film looks pretty good, overall. Hanks and Wright are aged throughout the film by a surprisingly convincing digital makeup job. It ought to be distracting, especially since the high-school aged Richard and Margaret don't look like high-schoolers. But it took me a short bit to see them as people, rather than visual effects. The same treatment might have been done to Bettany and Reilly, but that hasn't been publicized as much as the leads' digital makeup. The actual makeup used to age the stars past their actual ages is also well done. All the living room's arrangements, as visualized by production designer Ashley Lamont, are also appealing. 

Who do we have Here? Leo and his wife, Stella (Ophelia Lovibond), are quite fun to watch. By contrast, Al was initially hard to like due to his irritability; he even gets annoyed at his granddaughter at one point. It's still kind of funny when he can't comprehend how to work a camera beyond its plug. Thankfully, he mellows out with age and is quite sympathetic when he is eventually widowed. It's quite easy to sympathize with Richard and Margaret's troubles as they gradually grow apart. Before them, the Harters have their own issues, thanks to John's flyboy attitude, but his death - by the flu - is still tragic. 

I'll devote this paragraph to a few other names. The Native American couple (Joel Oulette & Dannie McCallum) live their lives without subtitles, but it's still easy to get invested in them. After the Youngs comes the Harris family - Devon, Helen and their son Justin (Nicholas Pinnock, Nikki Amuka-Bird & Cache Vanderpuye). They're pretty good people, but their housekeeper, Raquel (Anya Marco Harris), is barely there before she dies off-screen. Ted & Virginia (Tony Way & Jemima Rooper) get less screentime before he has a fatal heart attack in the living room. At least he dies laughing at a very funny morbid joke. Richard's siblings, meanwhile, are completely lost in the shuffle. 

It's a movie that will make you think about the course of your own life. As such, it can get emotionally overwhelming as you see all the stuff that happens Here. It's hard to keep it together when Alan Silvestri's melodramatic score accentuates the deaths, medical & marriage crises, births, and more. It's especially strong in the ending, where cinematographer Don Burgess finally lets the camera move. I'll leave it to you to see the circumstances of that ending for yourself. I won't blame you if you seek something lighter immediately after you watch it. I wonder if the graphic novel is any less overwhelming. 

Hellboy: The Crooked Man

Let's begin the month with Hellboy: The Crooked Man, the latest movie starring Mike Mignola's signature superhero. I fully intended to get this review out on Halloween, when it was thematically appropriate to do so. But a circuit breaker tripped at an unfortunate time, and by the time it was fixed, there wasn't time to do much else. Let's get to it now.

It's 1959. This time, Hellboy (now played by Jack Kesy) and his latest partner with the B.P.R.D., Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph), are escorting a dangerous demonic spider by railway. When they reach the Appalachians, something wakes up the sedated spider, and in the ensuing struggle, our heroes are literally derailed. Surprisingly, the locals are welcoming to the literal hell spawn in their midst. Maybe it's because they have bigger supernatural problems to deal with.

Those problems mostly come from The Crooked Man (Martin Bassindale), an undead war profiteer from the Revolutionary War who now collects souls for the Devil. Tom Ferrell (Jefferson White), a local boy, was nearly led to The Crooked Man by the bad witch Effie Kolb (Leah McNamara), but he escaped. Our heroes meet him when he returns home to face his sins. What begins as a diversion ends personally for Hellboy when The Crooked Man taunts him with visions of his mother, another witch. 

Mignola, along with Christopher Golden and director Brian Taylor, adapted a three-issue story arc into the screenplay. It wastes little time as we immediately get the title card as soon as we get the movie proper. It then spends a lot of time building up atmosphere in the Appalachian woods, which were actually filmed in Bulgaria. Fortunately, cinematographer Ivan Vatsov shows us some fantastic scenery in those woods. It's not as excessively gruesome as the last Hellboy, but unlike that film, its gruesomeness rarely loses its luster. Its only real problem is that a few set pieces near the end are hard to follow, both in terms of their storyline and their editing.

Let's get to the villains. The Crooked Man, in his last moments, taunts Hellboy as a demon trying to be a man. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! His demonic appearance, visualized with excellent makeup work, magnifies the malice in his every word. His hateful demeanor is further exemplified with a few creepy flashbacks. It's utterly cathartic when Hellboy finally blasts him in the end. Effie, meanwhile, is similarly over-the-top as she relishes her own evil. Her final fate, however, may seem a bit confusing at first.

This Hellboy is noticeably more subdued than his big lug forerunners. Nevertheless, his brand of sarcastic humor is still entertaining, while his self-loathing makes him pretty sympathetic. It's quite refreshing to see him tolerated by the Appalachians, while previous films kept him hidden from view. Bobbie Jo, a new character created for the film, spends the film learning magic, which makes for a mostly good character arc. Tom is fine, though he gets his best moment when he helps Hellboy defeat The Crooked Man. Cora Fisher (Hannah Margetson), another witch whom Tom once dated, is pretty decent, but she gets taken out early. The best supporting hero is Rev. Watts (Joseph Marcell), a blind preacher with some funny one-liners. It's quite compelling to see him resist The Crooked Man's temptation.

Overall, the other technicals are decent. The sound effects are perfectly disturbing, especially when they accentuate The Crooked Man's signature head-tilting. The demonic snake that kills Cora, as well as her death scene in general, are especially disturbing. The train crash and demonic spider are visualized with blatantly obvious CGI. The nightmare dimension where Hellboy meets his mother, Sarah (Carola Columbo), is visualized much better. The Crooked Man has a particularly creative death, but I won't spoil it here. What I will spoil is the opening, which hilariously juxtaposes an oldie with the spider's escape. The soundtrack is further complemented by Sven Faulconer's moody score.

It sometimes feels longer than 99-minutes, but it is certainly better than the last film. If you're looking for a spooktacular home matinee, then Hellboy: The Crooked Man is there and affordable. This isn't elaborate as the earlier films, not surprising since this cost $20 million, but it's got some creative scares for you. You can also find something else, too, but few films have a character this iconic. I think that this version of Hellboy stands just fine with his predecessors. See it soon if you want to disagree with me. It's time to get on with this month.