The Odyssey

 Does Christopher Nolan need an introduction at this point? His name is a brand, as Oppenheimer’s box-office and Oscar success illustrates. He knows what he’s doing, even if it takes a few viewings to learn what it is. 

And now, we have what I consider his most surprising film - his take on The Odyssey. I simply didn’t expect he’d take on one of antiquity’s most important narrative works. But this is the man who thoroughly examined Batman through three films. He’d probably find a way to examine Odysseus (Matt Damon).

He does. He does it well.

After ten years of fighting the Trojan War, Odysseus, King of Ithaca, wins it by way of the Trojan Horse. All it cost was a brave soldier, Sinon (Elliot Page), and Odysseus’s mortal soul. Having violated Xenia (“Zeus’s Law”) with the ruse, Odysseus and his men get divinely sidetracked on the way home. When the story opens, Odysseus is the lone survivor of his crew, trapped for seven years with the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron). He tries to remember everything that’s happened so far.

Meanwhile, back at Ithaca, Odysseus’s wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and their son, Telemachus (Tom Holland), host a whole bunch of her suitors who have long overstayed their welcome. When Telemachus leaves to learn about his father, the suitors’ ringleaders Antinous (Robert Pattinson) and Polybus (Corey Hawkins) decide to get rid of him on the road. Odysseus can save the day only if Calypso lets him leave…

About the only thing you might find odd about it is Xenia itself. How is the Trojan Horse supposed to be hospitable? Why didn’t Penelope just throw the bums out ages ago? In the case of the Trojan Horse, just remember that they said it was a peace offering, and you’ll be fine. The suitors, meanwhile, don’t look like the kind of guys who’d take it on the chin. Those things aside, this is probably Nolan’s most narratively straightforward film. You can understand most of it in one go.

Where do I even begin with this cast? What a bunch they are! Perhaps I can start by saying that Damon is great as Odysseus. I can say that he’s quite compelling as a shell-shocked veteran, an arrogant fool, a confident trickster, and a noble family man. Then, I can say that Hathaway does an excellent job conveying Penelope’s pent-up frustration with her situation. Next, I’d say that Holland’s pretty good as a young king coming into his own. Pattinson’s Antinous had me thinking the whole movie of Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus in Gladiator. He’s a perfectly detestable creep all the way through …

Oh wait, I’m doing that already!

Going down the cast list, Samantha Morton’s Circe is loathsome, oddly sympathetic, and downright disturbing all at once. All of this in technically one scene! Elliot Page’s Sinon is an excellent face of the human cost of war. Charlize Theron’s Calypso is surprisingly graceful when Odysseus breaks her lotus spell. Himesh Patel, as Odysseus’s second-in-command Eurylochus, is especially sympathetic when his loyalty sours.

The film’s most compelling performance belongs to John Leguizamo, whom I didn’t initially recognize at first as Eumaeus, Odysseus’s loyal swineherd. It’s so rewarding to see him, after years of getting abused by the suitors, join in on the final melee.

And finally, we have Lupita Nyong’o, double cast here as Helen of Troy and her twin sister, Clytemnestra. She doesn’t have a lot of screen time, as either character, but she’s undeniably a highlight. Despite Helen’s husband, King Menelaus (Jon Bernthal) insisting otherwise, their marriage post-Troy isn’t rosy. Her pent-up disdain for him is palpable, and justifiable. You’ll be with Clytemnestra when she kills her husband, Menelaus’s brother Agamemnon (Benny Safdie). Agamemnon, meanwhile, is repulsive, even as an otherwise pitiful shade.

This is one of Nolan’s best sound-mixed films. Sure, you can actually understand the cast amidst Ludwig Gorranson’s thundering score, but you won’t forget its sound effects. There’s the thundering roar of Polyphemus the Cyclops (Bill Irwin), an excellently realized digital monstrosity. A few arrow shots leave a mark. The aural highlight is Odysseus plucking his bow with an unearthly resonance just before the final melee. Jennifer Lame’s editing marvelously builds up the suspense before Odysseus attacks. 

The makeup and visual effects work is nothing less than extraordinary; they really come together when Circe molds the crew into pigs. The other monsters, like Scylla and the Laestrygonians, are marvelous. I don’t know how accurate Agamemnon’s Darth Vader armor is, but Hoyte van Hoytema filming him outside Troy like a demon is undeniably cool. Overall, the visuals are exquisite.

To make a long story short, check out The Odyssey. I think it does right as a psychological examination of Homer’s most famous work, just as much as The Dark Knight Trilogy did to Batman. If not, there are several other versions of this story. Just keep in mind that it’s a long film. 

Evil Dead Burn

 Once again, I’ll open up a review with Tolstoy’s opening to Anna Karenina: “happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Some fight over souffles, while others get gradually possessed by demons. Guess what kind of family is in Evil Dead Burn?

On the night of his brother, Joe’s (Hunter Doohan) birthday, Will Price (George Pullar) argues with his wife, Alice (Souheila Yacoub), and speeds off into the night. He literally runs into a Deadite, one of the titular Evil Dead, who supernaturally ensures his fiery demise. Will emerges as a Deadite - though he’s kept off-screen until the finale - at the crematorium and possesses his dad Edgar (Erroll Shand).

Meanwhile, Alice joins the family, which also include mom Susan (Tandi Wright), Grandma Polly (Maude Davey), and Joe’s girlfriend, Thya (Luciane Buchanan), at their Lakehouse. Susan and Edgar’s misdirected resentment towards Alice gets worse when Edgar goes fully Deadite. As the others gradually join Edgar, Joe and Alice search his grandpa’s possessions for the Kandarian Dagger, the one weapon that can easily kill the Deadites. Alice, though, will have to use it.

If you haven’t seen the previous film, Evil Dead Rise, or even Sam Raimi’s original trilogy, then you’re in luck. Grandpa Price’s (Michael Hurst) voiceover explains just enough about what everyone will face for the next 110-minutes. As long as you understand the Evil Book that summons evil dead, and the magic dagger they want to destroy, you can jump in and not miss much. You won’t be lost if you don’t know who the first Deadite is - it’s Jessica (Greta van den Brink, tagging in for Anna-Maree Thomas) from Rise. While the Deadites’ victims join them, the unlucky crematorium worker who meets Deadite Will doesn’t. That’s the only confusing part.

Remember how I said the dagger can easily kill the Deadites? Well, that’s because the violence here isn’t that easy. In fact, it gets sadistic as the humans and Deadites meet some over-the-top bloody deaths. Director Sébastien Vaniček (Infested) keeps the infamously “Video Nasty” style alive and well with each and every brutality and fatality. The impact is hardly diminished by any obvious CGI, especially during Deadite Will’s long-awaited appearance in the climax.

If sadistic violence isn’t your thing, then perhaps you might enjoy its dark comedy. Will’s funeral, for starters, is frequently interrupted by the sounds of an adjacent construction site. Afterwards, the senile Grandma Polly acts as the film’s comic relief, always ready with an out-of-place comment or two. Her obsessively accusing Thya as a thief even flummoxes her as a Deadite. It’s kind of disappointing that she goes Deadite, but she’s just as funny afterwards, especially with how Joe defeats her (sort of).

Other than Max (Dax) the dog, Polly is probably the nicest of the Prices by default. Will doesn’t endear himself to the audience in his short time alive, and we gradually see how bad he was by the time he debuts as a Deadite. Susan & Edgar are unpleasant folks who brush aside Will’s abusiveness, but even they have understandable excuses (traumatic family history; a Deadite). Joe, the decoy protagonist, is so milquetoast that he’d sorely disappoint the franchise’s most famous one, Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell, who has a quick photo cameo). Thya gets brutally shortchanged by the narrative, as she’s just there.

While Alice isn’t as quotable as Ash, she’s no less compelling a heroine. Even without the Deadites, her being stuck with her ex-husband’s generally unpleasant family is a horrific prospect. When she finally arms herself, she proves herself just as formidable as the repeatedly aforementioned Ash. It’s glorious, and even funny, as she goes to town on the Deadites. She suffers especially brutally when she fights Deadite Will, but her victory is all the more impressive. I just hope it won’t be for naught once the in-production Evil Dead Wrath finally releases.

Vaniček’s technical prowess is just as impressive as Raimi’s. Cinematographer Philip Lozano’s outstanding work is best exemplified when he follows Alice crawling from a chaotic battle around her. Polly going Deadite is dramatically powerful, even if it's slightly silly as she rises like a bedsheet ghost. Editor Maxime Caro keeps us glued during a particularly tense dinner, which ends with the most shocking fatality. As with the violence, a few smash cuts are anything but subtle. As for other visual aspects, the Lakehouse is believably rundown, while most of the Deadites are believably disturbing. The aural landscape is accentuated by a perfectly eerie sound-mix and score by the duo Double Danger. I think the results speak for themselves.

A film about domestic abuse and terrible in-laws is usually hardly appealing. But Evil Dead Rise is an exception, thanks to its compelling Final Girl and its wicked sense of humor. I think this might be an interesting, to say the least, film to watch this coming Thanksgiving, and all to follow. While I skipped Rise, Burn interested me enough in Wrath, whenever it comes out. I hope the interest lasts by then. 

If it's still not to your liking, then maybe the muses can sing in me a more appealing tale next time...

The Invite

 The Invite, Olivia Wilde’s third film as a director, is the fifth remake in six years of Cesc Gay’s motion picture, Sentimental (aka The People Upstairs), which was based on his stage play The Upstairs Neighbors. How does it fare this time? How does it fare at all?

Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Wilde) have a lot to talk about. He’s a former musician and current music professor, while she’s an art major and stay-at-home mom. With their daughter away at a sleepover, Angela sets up a dinner party with an upstairs couple, Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pina (Penelope Cruz), who have kept Joe up all night with their nightly activities. During the fateful dinner party, the other couple invite their neighbors to join in. It’s delightfully weird, until Joe & Angela’s marital troubles boil over. I think that’s it.

Oh man, Will McCormick & Rashida Jones’s screenplay is loquacious. It seems like barely a second goes by without the characters saying something. More often than not, all that crosstalk is as hilariously awkward as the evening’s events, which include a burnt souffle, which Angela casually throws away, and a wasted charcuterie. It barely lets up when it goes from farcical to psychological. While the film only credits Sentimental as its source, its wordiness, it only being set in Joe & Angela’s apartment, and its small cast give away its stage origins. Silence does speak a few notable times, including the ambiguous finale, but they’re still accompanied by Dev Hynes’s moody score.

Throughout the evening, your sympathies might shift a lot amongst Joe & Angela. Sometimes, you'll like Joe as he deals with his bad back and Angela's sudden dinner party (that she claimed she told him about months in advance). Later on, you'll also hate him after he makes a repulsively entitled outburst at Angela (and sympathize with her). Their negatives and positives balance each other out. By the end, even after they & Pina conclude that their marriage is unsalvageable, you'll still hope that they might. Pina is not only fun and energetic, but as a therapist, she is also the voice of reason Joe & Angela sorely needed. Hawk is a cool guy, despite him being unintentionally condescending, and you'll definitely feel for his sad backstory. They present themselves a perfect couple, but you'll eventually learn that's not the case. Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night.

When Hawk & Pina arrive, it's in the middle of an argument between their hosts. Hawk assures them, despite the awkward introduction, that "we love a contentious environment." Well, if you love an environment filled with the wittiest double couples' therapy since Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, take The Invite to your local cinema. It's quite worth it.

Yeah, it's a surprising conclusion, but between its dysfunctional couples and the dysfunctional family who features in my next review, you might enjoy the couples better.

Moana - Again

 Today, I get to review a remake of a film I’ve already reviewed!

I’m old.

Because Disney felt that it wasn’t enough for Moana to sail the CGI seas, they fast-tracked her a voyage across the CGI seas … in live-action form! Yeah, it’s kind of pointless this soon, which I already complained about, but it’s shockingly decent. Let’s see if I can explain why.

If you’ve seen the first film, then you’ve seen this one. All the songs, pretty much all the dialogue (with some additions here and there), and the twists are where they are. I’ll just link you my review from a decade ago; what can I say except you’re welcome?!

But seriously, the film doesn’t deviate exponentially from what Jared Bush and the numerous story writers charted out a decade ago. During its 115-minutes, eight minutes more than the 2016 original, its most original scene is a montage where demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson, in-person this time) re-accumulates with his magical fishhook. This gives space for a new song, Along the Way, by original songwriters Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foaʻi and Mark Mancina. I can at least say the music, new and old, all sounds great.

Catherine Laga’aia, who plays Moana herself, has particularly strong vocals for How Far I’ll Go, the first film’s Oscar-nominated “I Am” Song. She and Johnson are pretty good, even if their live characters are nowhere near as animated (ha ha) as their CGI counterparts. Grandma Tala (Rena Owen), on the other hand, is just as delightful as her animated counterpart. As with the first film, Tamatoa (Jemaine Clement, again reprising the role), the monster crab, provides a musical and action highlight with his song Shiny. For a photorealistic behemoth, he’s not as unnerving as Heihei the scatterbrained chicken.

Besides its movie bonus song, there’s also Production Designer John Myhre and Costume Designer Liz McGregor to consider. They visualize Moana’s home village of Motonui with a splendid attention to detail. It may not be as bright as its animated counterpart, but its own color palette’s still appealing. The wayfinding anthem, We Know the Way, and its finale reprise, do a splendid job obfuscating the differences between the practical and CGI canoes on-screen. The ocean is obviously CGI, but it’s still a stellar effect. The best effects, both sound and visual, belong to Te Ka the fire demon and her true identity, Te Fiti the creation goddess (statute of spoiler limitations is over).

As a remake, Moana’s story is more familiar than it was ten years ago. It could have used a bit more originality than that one scene for the new song. It wasn’t boring, and had fits of charm, so I can’t bring myself to hate it as much as others have. You can see it if you have nothing else to do; I mean, there is a dearth of family films between now and Paw Patrol next month. But if any possible Moana 2 textually adheres to its animated counterpart, I won't be amused. Just bemused.

Next up, a remake of a six-year-old Spanish film. Fun!

Minions and Monsters

 For their latest adventure, the Minions give us the Dungeons and Dragons campaign we never knew we needed. Oh wait, it’s actually their ode to Hollywood, followed by the Dungeon and Dragons campaign we never knew we needed. Let’s see if it’s the one we wanted.

Years before Gru, the Minions (all Pierre Coffin) search for their next Big Bad Boss. A tribe of Minions, whose rank and file include the artistic James, his best friends Henry & Ed, and their leader Dick, find themselves an outlaw to follow. It’s actually a western movie set in 1920s Hollywood. Studio Bosses Frank & Elwood Bright (Jeff Bridges) get the Minions under contract, under the direction of Max (Christoph Waltz). The Minions become the toast of Hollywood until the advent of sound debuts their gibberish.

While Dick and the Minions look for their next Despicable One, James and his friends decide to make their own movie. It will have Minions and Monsters, just like in this movie’s title, and Ed has a Spell Book that can help. They accidentally summon a mini-Cthulu named Goomi (Trey Parker), who leads them to several bigger monsters - Howard (Phil LaMarr), Phillips (Bobby Moynihan) and Eyereen. Too bad they actually want to destroy the world. It’s up to the Minions to save it.

All of this is related by a tour guide (Allison Janney) at a Movie History Museum (probably inspired by the Academy’s Museum). Or, maybe not, as the finale drops a weird surprise. It’s interesting enough, not enough to break my brain - do you know what does?

The setting. It’s most likely 1927, but the Oscars (established in 1929; the nickname wouldn’t be until a few years after that) are name-dropped. The Suffragette movement is still around, years after the 19th Amendment was passed. The sci-fi media of the day looks more like the 1950’s. And that’s not even getting into all the movie references, including Citizen Kane. Wait, what was that about the Suffragette movement?

Dick and the Minions eventually flock around Dort (Jesse Eisenberg), a sci-fi nerd dressed like Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still. Dort falls for Debbie (Zoey Deutch), a Suffragette, and they’re all sweet together. Her cause barely has anything to do, if at all, with the plot. Debbie’s positive influence on Dort, who claims to be an invader, gives her more relevance. Dort helps save the day, so perhaps there is truth to what are ostensibly his delusions of grandeur.

It’s still hard to tell the Minions apart, at times, but this installment has some of their best characterizations. James has a rather compelling arc as he follows his artistic dreams. It gets delightfully silly when he imagines winning an Oscar - a Banana-statue! Henry and James have a pretty good friendship, while Ed is just a fine fellow. Dick is also distinguishable by how detestable he is - even by Minions standards. Their relationship with Max, while initially rocky, surprisingly gets more compelling quickly. He's mostly gone by the second half, but his encouragement of James won't be forgotten. Where have these Minions been this whole franchise?

Now for some other stuff. Dort and the Minions' "invasion" has some surprisingly stunning cinematography. It may be a joke, but they were really that committed. For the opening, the Minions get Gumped into several ancient movies - George Melies and others ancient - and fool around. It's not only seamless, but delightfully silly. Goomi and his Monsters are cuddly enough, though they show up way too late for the narrative. John Powell, at least, illuminates Eyereen's threat rather well with his score. I think I said enough.

Anyone dreading Minions and Monsters can take comfort that it's short - around 89 minutes. They'll go by pretty quick as the Minions do their thing. Other than the Monsters and their delayed introduction, the narrative is well-paced. It doesn't have any lofty ambitions, no allegedly game-changing villains that fall flat, or anything like that. It's a fun matinee, first and foremost, and there's nothing wrong with that. 

Banana!