Paddington in Peru

Breaking News: Seven Years is Too Long for a Sequel.

That's especially true with Paddington Bear, whose delightful whimsy has been missed during his hibernation. His hibernation ends with Paddington in Peru, in which Dougal Wilson takes up the director's chair previously inhabited by Paul King (who was most likely preoccupied with Wonka at the time).

This time, Paddington (Ben Whishaw) and his human family, the Browns, are summoned to his native Peru when his Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton) seems down in the doldrums. By the time they get to her retirement home, Lucy has disappeared into the Amazon, so Paddington decides to lead a rescue mission. Their only clue is a spot called Rumi Rock, which is supposedly connected to the fabled city of El Dorado. They hire Capt. Hunter Cabot (Antonio Banderas) to take them up-river to Rumi Rock.

Cabot, afflicted with a hereditary case of Gold Fever, semi-accidentally strands the Browns in the jungle. Paddington tries to echo-locate Aunt Lucy with his roaring, while the Browns look for him with the help of Cabot's daughter, Gina (Carla Tous). Meanwhile, the Browns' housekeeper Mrs. Bird (Julie Walters) discovers that the Retirement Home's kindly Mother Superior (Olivia Colman) is more than meets the eye. That's basically it.

Once the plot gets going, which it does quickly, it asserts itself as a goofy adventure film with some of its predecessors' charming whimsy. During their mission, the Browns contend with a driverless boat, ants, a purple spider and plane trouble, among other things. Cabot is haunted by the ghosts of his ancestors, all of whom died morbidly silly deaths in their pursuit of El Dorado. Paddington gets into a few silly perils, complete with a Buster Keaton homage. It even has time for a weird The Sound of Music parody for the Browns' travel montage. It's all good, even if I preferred its predecessors' deadpan jokes. The plot also teases Paddington's origins, but there's nothing much substantial until the finale teases us with Paddington staying behind. I thought they were serious!

Looking back at my previous Paddington film reviews, I realized I talked more about the visual effects that visualized him than Paddington himself. His personal visual effects are still good here, while Paddington himself is still that ursine model of goodness from the last few films. He only gets mean when he delivers a "hard stare" to Cabot, but he immediately turns polite right afterwards. It's hard to imagine any voice other than Whishaw's soft-spoken voice would fit this version of Michael Bond's most famous bear.

Once again, we have Henry Brown (Hugh Bonneville) learn not to be overly cautious. It’s a bit too familiar, but him parachuting from his new boss, Madison’s (Hayley Atwell) office is unique. His wife, Mary (Emily Mortimer, tagging in for Sally Hawkins), has a decent new subplot as she frets about being an empty nester. Mrs. Bird, however, gets the best subplot as she investigates the Mother Superior with some entertaining subterfuge.

Colman’s Mother Superior is the film’s surprise villain, a secret that not even she is good at hiding (she admits as much to Mrs. Bird). Her evil acts would make her detestable if not for her hamming it up. Indeed, her ultimate fate is both goofy and satisfying. Banderas, meanwhile, delightfully hams it up as Cabot and all of his ghostly ancestors, especially a nagging conquistador. The effects for Banderas’s singular double-act are impressive.

Finally, let’s acknowledge a major nitpick. Aunt Lucy is a nice old bear, but the film doesn’t acknowledge Paddington’s Uncle Pastuzo, save for a brief mention at the end. He’s not even shown in flashbacks when Lucy adopts Paddington. Did they not even want him voiceless after Michael Gambon’s death? That just makes Pastuzo’s absence all the more glaring, but I digress. If I nitpick any further, I'd be as old and bitter as Mr. Curry, who's also absent but not that missed.

Paddington's latest adventure may place him into new territory, but Paddington in Peru is still a fun time for all. Those too young or squeamish for even Raiders of the Lost Ark will certainly get their share of family-friendly thrills during its 106 minutes. Its ending would make a great finale for the series, except that there's a fourth film already in the works. Hopefully, that one will maintain its predecessors' charming optimism, even if it doesn't surpass them. That optimism is needed more than ever these days.

That's it for now.

Captain America: Brave New World

 The Star-Spangled Man with a Plan is back with an asterisk ...

Instead of Chris Evans's Steve Rogers, Captain America: Brave New World brings back Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson, previously The Falcon, who took up the mantle during The Falcon and Winter Soldier Disney Plus series. I never really followed the series - then again, I rarely follow TV shows anymore - so let's see if I can distill the plot of what is essentially its sequel.

It's also a sequel to Eternals, which ended when they narrowly stopped the gigantic Celestial Tiamut from waking up. A new element - none other than adamantium - has been discovered in Tiamut's fossilized corpse. The newly elected President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford, tagging in for the late William Hurt) wants to secure a treaty with the Japanese Government for "Celestial Island." He decides to announce this in a White House summit with Sam, his best friend Lt. Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) and Super soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) in attendance. 

Unfortunately, Isaiah and a few others try to assassinate Ross during the event, with the Fleetwoods' Mr. Blue being the trigger. While Ross tries to salvage the prospective treaty, Sam and Joaquin (the new Falcon) look for the mastermind. Said mastermind is Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), a character not seen since 2008's The Incredible Hulk. While Sterns' evil scheme involves several sleeper agents, the biggest of them all is Ross himself, and he hopes nobody will like Ross when he gets angry. I think I got the gist of it.

This is a plot that requires a lot of homework. Besides plot threads from the aforementioned MCU instalments, the film also throws in SERPENT, a mercenary group with snake codenames (i.e. Giancarlo Esposito as commander Sidewinder). They're a collective case of "remember the new guy?" syndrome and are essentially irrelevant when Sterns enters the fray. It's mostly easy to understand the rest of the plot, even if its plot-threads would hit the hardest if you did that homework. A few examples include Isaiah's backstory as a mistreated Korean War vet and even its mentions of Gamma Radiation (the latter makes sense once you remember Stan Lee's cameo in The Incredible Hulk). Thankfully, the film helps bring viewers up to speed, even with a quick newscast, so new viewers won't be completely lost.

Another major subplot involves Ross tapping Sam to revive The Avengers. While some may question Sam going along with that, considering Ross's previous animosity with The Avengers, it's actually quite compelling to see Sam begrudgingly go along with it. He still believes in protecting the American Dream even if he seriously doubts Ross's change of heart. He proves his worthiness to Steve's legacy not only with his perseverance in battle, but just by advocating for Isaiah's innocence. It also helps that he and Joaquin have great chemistry together; even if you haven't seen The Falcon and Winter Soldier, you'll still feel it when Sam tries to help Joaquin when the latter is shot down during a dogfight.

Its strongest performance, by far, is Ford as President Ross. It's astounding how much his performance will make you sympathize with a character who, in previous instalments, was odiously belligerent. Previously, his boiling anger would symptomize his unlikability, but in this film, it's a tragic flaw that he desperately tries to manage. Not even the film's late twist that he and Sterns were in cahoots is enough to dampen that sympathy. His much-anticipated transformation into the Red Hulk is, however, dampened by some blatantly obvious effects for his initial transformation. Still, the final battle with him and Sam is pretty good, overall.

What else can I say about it? There's some pretty good makeup work for Sterns, better known as The Leader in the comics. I'm sure some might find it a rubbish look, but I thought it was decently creepy. He later proves himself more than an ugly face after he escapes his holding cell. Lumbly, meanwhile, has the second-best performance as Isaiah, who's quite sympathetic as he's swept up into The Leader's evil plot. Shira Haas makes a pretty good impression as Ruth Bat-Seraph, a former Black Widow and Ross's security advisor, who later helps Sam and Joaquin in their investigation. Besides the final battle, the film's standout set piece is the Battle of Celestial Island, where Sam and Joaquin save the US and Japanese fleets from destroying each other. 

Captain America: Brave New World apparently needed a ton of reshoots, which is evident with its five credited writers, including director Julius Onah. It's still a pretty coherent film even with its multitude of plot threads. Its political intrigue and set pieces help kept my interest during its 119 minutes, and it might help keep yours, too. If not, at least you'll have a few more Marvel films to look forward to. After a year starved of super heroics, those projects will give us more to look forward to, while this film is a good way to keep you busy until then. Well, that's what I thought of it anyway.

That's it for now.

The Six Triple Eight

For today's assignment, I'm to look at The Six Triple Eight, Tyler Perry's historical drama about the eponymous World War II battalion comprised entirely of black women. A documentary with a similar title (The SixTripleEight, notice the lack of spaces) came out in 2019, so how will you know the difference? Easy: Perry's movie is only on Netflix.

Perry's screenplay, which he adapted from Kevin M. Hymel's article Fighting a Two-Front War, formally begins in Philadelphia. There, childhood sweethearts Lena Derriecott (Ebony Obsidian) and Abram David (Gregg Sulkin) live as best as they can. Abram is deployed overseas, but he is eventually shot down. In fact, the film opens on Abram's last battle, and although his squad mates are too late to save him, they do save a letter in his pocket, now soaked with blood. 

That MacGuffin soon becomes lost in an ever-growing backlog of mail. With morale declining on both fronts, civil rights activist Mary Mcleod Bethune (Oprah Winfrey) suggests to the Roosevelts (Sam Waterston & Susan Sarandon) to dispatch the 6888 to help sort it out. A few racist officers agree, albeit with an impossible deadline of just six months to get the mail going.

Meanwhile, Lena enlists after Abram's death and is stationed with the 6888. Her commanding officer, eventual Maj. Charity Adams (Kerry Washington) isn't impressed with her lack of the right stuff. When they're shipped out, Lena tries to gain some closure, while Adams struggles to prove herself to the racist high command. They'll eventually come to an understanding as they complete their task. That's mostly it.

As you might guess from this summary, Lena and Adams get the most focus in the screenplay. Actually, Adams is pretty much the main character as she has the biggest stakes. When we first meet her, Adams is so strict that she chastises Lena for not giving her all at jumping-jacks. She starts showing her depths when she defends her troops from racist privates at a cinema. It's quite easy to sympathize with her when the high command unfairly admonishes them for slowness (multiple letters were partially eaten by rats!). Her standout scene has her stand up to the battalion's odious commanding officer General Halt (Dean Norris). It's made especially rewarding when the 6888's efforts finally bear fruit.

Meanwhile, what we see of Lena and Abram's relationship is pretty likable. He teaches her to outwit a racist bully (Sarah Helbringer), gives her the ride of her life in his car and even sings a love song off-key. It's easy to get behind Lena when she decides to enlist, and it's easier to sympathize when she struggles under her assignments. She ends up "putting a face" on the mission when she breaks down in the sorting room, which leads to a nice reconciliation with Adams. She has a decent relationship with Hugh Bell (Jay Reeves), her eventual husband, but her fellow privates are mostly lost in the shuffle. The standout among them is the rough Johnnie Mae Burton (Shanice Shantay), who takes a long while to befriend Lena.

What else can I say about it? Despite what I said earlier, it's still tense when two of the privates inadvertently drive onto an unexploded bomb and sacrifice themselves to save their two passengers.  Chaplain Clemens (Nick Harris) makes for another excellently odious villain. There's some pretty good production design for the dilapidated school the 6888 are stationed in - both before and after they renovate it - as well as for the opening battle (which is almost comparable to All Quiet on the Western Front). You'll instantly recognize the blood-soaked letter as the MacGuffin, but you'll still be decently moved by its contents. In fact, the 6888 saluting Adams, and later they themselves getting saluted, is quite emotional.

Here's where I get into a few nitpicks. Throughout the film, we're reminded of a few major stakes but rarely see anything come of it. In an early scene, they travel in what are said to be U-Boat infested waters, but after one scene of turbulent waters, they're at port in Glasglow. When Adams dresses down Halt, she realizes she bought herself a court-martial, but it's literally too late in the film to dwell on that. We do learn about the methods the 6888 use to sort the mail but rarely see most of them in action. What gives?

 My biggest nitpicks are for the epilogue, which is set to Dianne Warren's latest Oscar-nominated ballad, The Journey. The song itself is pretty good, but it's not good when the real Lena narrates about the 6888's relevance and her post-war life, only for the following text to repeat most of her bullet points! A fellow battalion member, Romay Davis, is listed as alive when she actually passed away last June (Lena herself passed away a few months earlier in January 2024). This came out on Netflix in December, so what happened?

You can probably learn a lot about The Six Triple Eight if you watch the documentary. This film, however, is a decent historical drama that's capably lead by two great protagonists. I may have some nitpicks, but it's still interesting enough to learn about the actual battalion once it ended. Give it a chance and you might be interested too. It's waiting on Netflix for your decision. And nowhere else!

That's it for now.

Flow

 I'm sure a few people complained when the Academy Award for "Best Foreign Language Film" was retitled "Best International Feature Film." I wasn't one of them. I was like, "that's fine" and I went on with my day.

Methinks the Academy's decision was warranted, for Flow, Latvia's entry into this year's race, has no spoken language of any kind. At least, none of the human variety.

A black cat lives alone in the woods. Suddenly, the world floods and the little kitty is left looking for high ground. Fortunately, the kitty meets a capybara on a boat, and they set sail together. They're soon joined by a lemur, a secretarybird, and a pack of dogs the kitty encountered just before the world ended. All they have to do is survive until they find high ground, or the flood waters recede. That's pretty much it.

It's hard to feel unmoved by the kitty's plight even if you are a dog person, like me. Before the flood, we follow the kitty as it lives a solitary life afraid of everything. Indeed, it's quite harrowing when it's caught up in the flood and not even a giant cat statue proves to be the highest ground. After it comes aboard the SS Capybara, the kitty improves thanks to the influence of its crewmates. The reluctant hero drops its reluctance, which culminates in it leading a climactic rescue when the capybara faces certain doom. All in all, it's quite compelling to watch this poor kitty grow up during the apocalypse.

What can we surmise about the crew? The capybara is basically the captain, instructing the cat how to fish and swim, mediates between the crew and lounges around the rest of the time. The lemur provides much needed comic relief, much of which comes from its fascination with a discarded mirror. The dog pack is a decent bunch, but the ceaselessly friendly Labrador Retriever who joins the crew first is easily the best boy. The secretarybird is ostracized from its flock for standing up for the crew, so it reluctantly joins them. It only shows animosity when it refuses to let the lab's fellows aboard until the others persuade it. You'll be invested in this crew even without words; it helps that they're instead vocalized by some effective sound effects.

You're probably wondering what happened to all the humans. Well, the film doesn't answer that question, and as far as we know, the animals don't dwell on it. A few signs of intelligent life exist, namely the cottage the kitty lived in until the flood, but that's all we get. Maybe they were raptured, which pretty much happens to a member of the crew late into the film (it's pretty surreal). I got to admit, when I first heard of this film, I thought it was set during the Biblical Flood, but what we see of civilization is too modern for that. Still, its lack of answers won't be enough to disengage you from its visible story.

Gints Zibalodis, in addition to being the film's director, also co-wrote, co-produced, edited, cinematographed and even co-composed the score. The painted art style, which he visualized with the open-source software Blender, is positively stunning. It accentuates the animals with exquisite body language and places them in some incredible scenery. Sometimes, the animals are the scenery, as is the case with a magnificent whale who pops up a few times, with its last scene being the most tragic. There are a few great long shots, with perhaps the highlight depicting the tumultuous first encounter with the secretarybird. Zibalodis and co-composer Rihards Zalupe perfectly accentuate this phlegmatic film with their score. It's probably the best score this year that didn't make it onto the Oscar shortlist.

While I'm not sure this can defeat Emilia Perez for the International Feature Film Oscar, Flow stands neck-and-neck with The Wild Robot in the race for Best Animated Feature. Either one of those films would make good winners; it helps that there's plenty of thematic overlap here. Flow's unverbose minimal cast is as unforgettable as the wide vocal ensemble in The Wild Robot. All they need to move you is just a purr, a hiss, a squawk or even a bark. I would have liked to have seen it in a theater, but it only played ways away from me. Fortunately, it makes for a great home matinee even on a relatively small TV. All you have to do is to sit back and watch as 86-minutes float away. It's just that good.

Next up, something more verbose.

Sing Sing

 Howdy, Baxter, what's up?

Jethro! Sing Sing came out in July! Why on earth haven't you reviewed it yet?

Because it came out in only ten theaters, nationwide, and not one of them was a theater near me?! It didn't even come out on streaming until just last week, for which I had to pay a pretty penny (or a few thousand) to watch. 

Okay, fair enough.

Primarily based on the titular article in the book, The Sing Sing Follies, by John H. Richardson, director Greg Kwedar introduces us to the Rehabilitation through the Arts program, which helps rehabilitate New York State prisoners through the creative arts. It's based in the titular prison, which is where we find John "Divine G" Whitfield (Colman Domingo) and his troupe (almost all of whom play themselves). Tired of doing Shakespeare and other seriousness, the guys pitch a comedy to director Brent Buell (Paul Raci), who distills their disparate ideas into a time-traveling farce called Breakin' the Mummy's Code, the screenplay's other source material.

Divine G, a Shakespearean devotee, is annoyed when fellow inmate Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin gets the pivotal part of Hamlet. Divine Eye has a chip on his shoulder, and he struggles with the whole acting thing. But Divine G soon helps Divine Eye refine his dramatic skills, and they eventually become friends. During the rehearsal stage, both Divines are up for parole, but it seems only Divine Eye is successful. What will become of their silly stage show with gladiators, pirates, the aforementioned Hamlet and even Freddy Krueger?

In other reviews, I commended actors' performances if their character was more natural than mere acting. This is an instance where most of the cast are actually their characters, with some liberties. The RTA alumni are a likable bunch, even if whatever crimes they committed were serious. It’s quite fascinating to watch them open up to each other during the rehearsal process. These scenes get better once you realize they improvised their lines. They effortlessly prove themselves as natural movie stars as their established co-stars. A few highlights include the elderly Camillo Lovacco and Jon-Adrian “JJ” Hernandez, the latter of whom was recently exonerated.

But it's Maclin who serves as the RTA's MVP. His fictionalized self doesn't endear himself to Divine G when he wins the role of Hamlet. But he endears himself to the audience as he opens up about his broken dreams. In a pivotal scene, Divine Eye's dramatic inexperience nearly results in a brawl during rehearsals, until Divine G helps him translate his animosity into stage presence. Later on, when Divine G has lost all hope, it's Divine Eye who helps him regain that hope. I'll reiterate on that when I discuss Domingo's performance in the next paragraph.

Domingo, as the fictional Divine G, plays a man who also struggles to connect with others. He's a better Lysander from A Midsummer Night's Dream than he is a team-player. Cases in Point: he's annoyed when the others reject his latest serious play and is devastated when Divine Eye upstages him. He's quite sympathetic when his only other friend, Mike Mike (Sean San Jose), suddenly dies, and when his parole is declined. That's when his brave face crumbles to pieces. At least he has Divine Eye to help him when he needs it most. It's quite compelling to watch the Divines become friends throughout the film, which culminates in a moving coda for them.

What else do we have here? Paul Raci is quite likable as Buell, whose real counterpart has a cameo, along with the real Divine G. The titular prison, as rendered by cinematographer Pat Scola, is rather cold and desolate. The RTA's performances, meanwhile, are perfectly vibrant; the end credits show us clips of the actual performance of Breakin' the Mummy's Code, and they're as funny as the film's version. While Bryce Dessner's melancholic score is quite memorable, Abraham Alexander & Adrian Quesada's Oscar-nominated end song Like a Bird is quite joyous to listen to. 

Don't be surprised if Sing Sing gets you interested in watching Breakin' the Mummy's Code live. It's both a moving prison docudrama, and an interesting insight into the theatrical process. Its ensemble is unforgettable, whether they're playing characters or themselves. Their stories are worth listening to. It's worth just about whatever you need to pay for it, especially if you want to see it before the Oscars. It won't come out on Blu-Ray until next month, well after the festivities are done. I'll leave it to you to decide when to see it.

Next up, something cheaper, but no less moving.

Dog Man

Although I have several Oscar-nominated films left to watch, I still have time for a few new releases. Last weekend, I made time for Dog Man, a spin-off of the Captain Underpants books by Dav Pilkey. In his books, Dog Man is another creation of Captain Underpants' creators, George and Harold. In his movie, Dog Man fetches us 89-minutes of, to quote his parent series, "Action! Thrills! Laffs!" for everyone.

But mainly kids.

It doesn't dwell too long on his origin story. Officer Knight and his K-9, Greg the Dog, regularly match wits with the evil Petey the Cat (Pete Davidson). One day, Petey decides to blow up an empty warehouse because he's that evil. Knight and Greg try to defuse Petey's bomb, but Knight goofs up and they get blown up. The doctors replace Knight's head with Greg's, and thus, Dog Man is born! 

Over a montage, Dog Man repeatedly arrests Petey, while Petey repeatedly breaks out of "Cat Jail." After a while, the Mayor (Cheri Oteri) breathes down the Police Chief's (Lil Rel Howery) neck and threatens to throw Dog Man off the force. Meanwhile, Petey invests in a cloning machine, but all it gives him is a sweet kitten named Li'l Petey (Lucas Hopkins Calderon). Li'l Petey is soon adopted by Dog Man. Meanwhile, a dead cyborg fish named Flippy (Ricky Gervais) comes back to life and decides to take over the city. Yes, it's that kind of movie.

The film is written and directed by Peter Hastings, who also voices Dog Man and his components. The story bombards its viewers with numerous visual gags and other bits of silliness in its short runtime. For a small taste, we get a “Box of Bs” - not Bees, Bs - thrown around in the opening chase. That visual bombardment can sometimes overwhelm whatever passes for a serious storyline in this film. So, what happens can we understand it?

For starters, we have Dog Man’s origin story. In live action, it would sound like a horror film, but in animation, it’s perfectly silly. I think it helps that we don’t see his creation process. Dog Man only makes dog sounds, but his cheerful personality will win you over in no time. You'll feel for him when he finds out his girlfriend has already moved on, much like in a similar scene in Robocop. It's still moving when the film milks some of its pathos for a few more gags.

Whatever dramatic weight the film has is given mainly to Petey. When he starts out, Petey is a delightfully evil cat who repeatedly pays his sole employee, Butler (Poppy Liu) with anything but money. When Li'l Petey shows up, Petey is frustrated by the kitten's sunny personality. His reluctant parenting is contrasted with the negligent parenting by his even more irredeemable dad (Stephen Root), whom Li'l Petey forcibly locates. It's rather nice seeing Petey become a better cat thanks to his clone son, which culminates in him becoming a hero. It's just as nice seeing Li'l Petey bond with Dog Man. 

What else do we have here? The art style, at times, feels like a CGI approximation of stop-motion, which takes some time getting used to. Once you do that, you'll be charmed by the appealingly simplistic character designs. Flippy, for a final boss, is even more hilariously evil than Petey. His monster buildings are delightfully goofy, while the final battle with them is pretty entertaining. Chief is amusing, though his romantic subplot with reporter Sarah Hatoff (Isla Fisher) is practically background stuff.

 All in all, Dog Man is a fun distraction from the doldrums of the world. It's not as cohesive as Captain Underpants, but it's still a delightfully fun family movie whose gags may take repeated viewings to get. I'm ready to give it a go once it's available on streaming just to see what I missed. It's better than the current news cycle, that's for sure. 

The fun begins with a short starring The Bad Guys, Little Lies and Alibis, which can best be summed up as "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Parole Board." It's an exciting appetizer for The Bad Guys 2, which comes out in August. Believe me, August can't come soon enough. 

And remember, it's Dog Man, not Dogman.

The Brutalist

We now go to the biggest film of this Oscar season, bar none.

Nearly everything about The Brutalist, Brady Corbet's third feature, is gigantic. It's a movie about grand architecture - made especially obvious if you see it in IMAX (which I did) - set over several decades and it comes with an astronomical runtime of 215 minutes (15 of which are an intermission). The only thing small about it is its budget of just under $10 million. So, let's break ground on this review, shall we?

In the film's overture, we see László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian-Jewish refugee, make his way through a tight crowd to get his first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. This momentous occasion is visualized by Lol Crawley's claustrophobic cinematography and accentuated with Daniel Blumberg's mammoth score, which reaches its crescendo once we finally see Her. The looming Lady Liberty is displayed on the film's posters, and it's especially memorably once we see Her in context.

A renowned architect in Europe, László gets a job at his cousin, Attila's (Alessandro Nivola) furniture store in Philadelphia. One day, a rich guy named Harry Lee Van Buren (Joe Alwyn) hires them to renovate his father's personal library. But that goes haywire when Harrison Sr. (Guy Pearce) shows up and throughs them out in a rage, which leads to Harry Jr. stiffing them for the bill and Atilla throwing out László. Eventually, Harrison warms up to the library after it brings him good press, and he commissions László to build a new community center named for his late mother.

Over the next few years, László lives on the Van Buren estate as he supervises the construction. A few architectural busybodies get in his way, while a devastating train accident nearly literally derails the whole thing. He's soon joined by his wife, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), whom we hear in voiceover during Act One, and their niece, Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy). His life seems to turn around, but his American Dream starts to crumble when he realizes how rotten his patron is.

Sure, Harrison seems legitimately charming when he apologizes to László for his earlier outburst. He shows nothing but respect for László's architectural skills, even if it's only because of the good press. He seems quite selfless when he gets his lawyer, Michael Hoffman (Peter Polycapou), to hasten Erzsebet and Zsofia's emigration. During act two, his friendliness devolves into condescending compassion until a single act turns him downright monstrous. By the end, he proves himself a bit cowardly too. All in all, it's an impressive villain performance by Pearce, and his Oscar nomination is as deserved as everyone else here who got one, too.

You won't forget the star of the show. Even as the minutes pile up, Brody's compelling performance as László will help keep your eyes on the screen. When we first see him, the claustrophobia is so tight that we don't know where he is; for all we know, he could be fleeing bombs. But once he, and we, see Lady Liberty, the joy is palpable. He has great chemistry with Atilla and his wife, Audrey (Emma Laird), and you'll be devastated when the good times end. His most egotistical moments, such as his fight with an aforementioned busybody, Jim Simpson (Michael Epp), are quite understandable. You'll feel for him as his American Dream turns sour, and wonder, despite the last words, if the destination or journey was worth it.

Now for a few other characters. Jones is pretty good as Erzsébet, but she's downright excellent when she publicly confronts Harrison for his abuse of László. Harry, meanwhile, proves himself as ultimately detestable as his old man; his sister Maggie (Stacy Martin), meanwhile, proves herself the nicest person in her family by far. Isaach de Bankolé is quite likable as Gordon, whom László befriends on a breadline and subsequently hires on his crew. Among Van Buren's crew, the most memorable is Jonathan Hyde as the builder Leslie Woodrow.

This is the first film in over sixty-years to use the VistaVision process for its cinematography. After the claustrophobic opening, the film uses that process to show us the depths of Judy Becker's magnificent production design. Every locale, from a diner to the inside of the community center, is beyond appealing. A few establishing shots are unbelievably pristine and are especially great in IMAX. Crowley's long takes, such as Erzsébet's confrontation with Harrison, are exquisite. When László insults Simpson, you can feel Simpson's rage rise for a good while before he throws down. Kudos to editor Dávid Jancsó for letting Epp's acting speak for itself. 

The Brutalist's gigantic scale on such a low budget befits the architectural style that gives it its name. Yes, it's a hard film to sit through, both with its often-dark turns and its length, but that intermission is a great help. Still, it was rarely boring, and that was mostly due to its central performance and its grand architecture. I'd still advise that you see it as early as you can, even if it's not in IMAX, for it is such a commitment. But I think it's a commitment worth taking at least once.

That's it for now.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

How about we start this year's sprint to the Oscars with something fun?

Who better than Wallace and Gromit, the signature duo of Aardman Animations? All but two of their previous cinematic adventures have won Oscars, so it was no surprise their second feature film, Vengeance Most Fowl, would pop up in the Best Animated Feature lineup. Here's what to expect when you play it on Netflix.

This is actually a sequel to their first Oscar-winning short, The Wrong Trousers, which ended with cheese-loving inventor Wallace (Ben Whitehead) and his dog Gromit (eternally silent) nabbing the evil penguin mastermind Feathers McGraw (also eternally silent). Now serving a life sentence at the zoo, Feathers bides his time plotting to reclaim the Blue Diamond, the MacGuffin from the previous short. After that, he'll get his vengeance most fowl.

Meanwhile, Wallace invents Norbot (Reece Shearsmith), a robot garden gnome who's too good at his job. They start a gardening business together, while Gromit feels left out by Wallace's tech-dependence (he even has a gizmo for head pats!). Gromit accidentally allows Feathers to hack into Norbot and create an army of evil Norbots to wreck Wallace's good name. With Wallace's inventing future at stake, it's up to Gromit to shutdown Feathers' latest scheme. That's mostly it.

It doesn't take much to get acquainted, or reacquainted, with the series' gentle silliness, which is personified by Wallace and Gromit's morning routine. It's delightfully funny as Gromit works Wallace's overly complicated inventions to help him do the simplest tasks. It's less funny when Wallace unveils the "pat-o-matic," the aforementioned head patting gizmo, which does little for Gromit's interpersonal needs. However, you'll never forget that Wallace, despite his ignorance, still cares for Gromit. That much is affirmed in the climax, an action set-piece with speeding (for lack of a better word) narrowboats. The resolution also gives us a nice reversal of Wallace's tech-dependence.

Also in the cast are Chief Inspector Mackintosh (Peter Kay), who returns from the feature Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and his new PC, Mukherjee (Lauren Patel). Mackintosh is too presumptuous of Wallace's guilt, but his buffoonish personality makes it hard to hate him. Mukherjee is slightly better in that she actually gives Wallace the benefit of the doubt; not even her doubting him for a bit is enough to dislike her. Even the aptly named reporter Onya Doorstep (Diane Morgan) is quite funny, as is anchor Anton Deck (Muzz Khan).

The Norbots are delightfully silly even if they're supposed to be annoying. I think it has to do with their chipper personality, even as they overly cultivate many a garden. Their charging routine, which involves them moaning an interminable time just to reach one-percent charge, is hilarious. Gromit's attempt to relocate Norbot Prime during his routine ends up kickstarting the plot. The Norbots also have an overly chirpy song that makes for a surprising earworm. Conversely, the deadeyes of the evil Norbots are appropriately disturbing. You'll just have to see how Wallace and Gromit literally reboot them, or how they save the day in the climax.

Gromit and Feathers may be bereft of dialogue, but that's compensated by Aardman's trademark plasticine animation. Feathers' blank face is unnerving, especially when he briefly parodies Max Cady from Cape Fear, but even he has bits of silliness. He's quite flummoxed by Wallace's cyber-security measures, at first. But he figures it out with an obvious clue. It's quite goofy, rather than idiotic, how nobody sees through Feathers' paper-thin disguises (like his trademark chicken disguise). Gromit is a lot more vocal, as he speaks with just the raise of an eyebrow. We laugh as he plays the straight man, and we feel for him when he bemoans Wallace's tech-dependence. He proves an awesome dog when he leads the final battle against Feathers and the evil Norbots. 

 This is the first main instalment in which Whitehead voices Wallace, who was voiced by Peter Sallis until his retirement in 2010, and I must say his voice is almost indistinguishable. All the better, as Wallace still feels as delightfully chipper as ever. Julian Notts' signature march is enough to ease you into the proceeding 79-minutes. Its grand, yet gentle tune will get you feeling good even if you haven't seen a Wallace and Gromit entry in years. The same goes for Nott and co-composer Lorne Balfe's overall score, even when it gets intense. Its numerous gags and puns are delightful; Feathers' stint behind bars is called "doing bird," Gromit partakes in a Virgina Woof novel, and the Norbots do a Flintstones maneuver with Wallace's van. You'll just have to see the film for more. 

What else can I say about it? Vengeance Most Fowl would make for a grand day out at the movies. At home, it makes for a fun time on Netflix, and it's not even a close shave. Once again, Aardman have proven themselves able to entertain kids and adults alike with their plasticine characters. It'll make for a great home matinee well-beyond this year's Oscars; seek out their previous shorts while you're at it. As for me, I'm going to look for a few more contenders.

Wolf Man

The Oscar nominations are only a day away, but I'm not sure about Maria's chances this year. 

Sure, just because Angelina Jolie missed a few critical nominations, that doesn't mean her chances are over. Just ask Kristen Stewart, whose nomination for Spencer was much miraculous given some similar circumstances. That lack of attention doesn't bode well for the shortlisted makeup team, though.

Fortunately, Arjen Tuiten, who aged Jolie in Maria, has a better chance at recognition next year. That chance is Wolf Man, Leigh Whannell's take on the famous Universal Monster. Sure, the critical reception has been mixed, but Rick Baker won his seventh Oscar for Best Makeup for 2010's The Wolfman, which had an even worse reception. You won't forget the depths of Blake Lovell's (Christopher Abbott) transformation here even if you forget most of the story.

Anyway, as a young boy (Zac Chandler) in 1995 Oregon, Blake was raised by his survivalist dad, Grady (Sam Jaeger). After a traumatic hunting trip, we jump to this year to find Blake living in San Francisco with his journalist wife, Charlotte (Julia Garner), and their daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth). His home life is good, though he still tries to mind his pent-up anger. One day, Grady, who went missing years ago, is declared dead, and Blake has to settle his estate. He takes the family up to his old Oregon home to do just that.

On the way there, the Lovells get into a weird truck crash with a local werewolf. The monster chases them to Grady's old cabin, where the family decides to hold up for the night. While the werewolf tries to break in, Blake, who was scratched in the initial attack, slowly transforms into another werewolf. It's up to Blake to defend his family from the monster at the door before he becomes the monster within. I think that's mostly it.

As far as exposition goes, Whannell and co-writer/wife Corbett Tuck only devote some opening text, where we learn of a local disease called "Face of the Wolf," to explain the origins of this Wolf Man. It's rarely brought back up in the story, which leaves us to surmise the mechanics. For one thing, there's no full moon involved, so Blake transforms throughout the night. Cinematographer Stefan Duscio and the sound team frequently bring us into his perspective as his senses change, which makes for neat technical storytelling. The stages of Blake's physical transformation are well-visualized by Tuiten and his team. It's pretty saddening, though, as the transformation is framed as a terminal disease, much like in David Cronenberg's The Fly, and the end results are as pitiable as they are scary.

Early on, Blake scolds Ginger for walking on street cones, and later tenses up when Charlotte refuses to take a phone call to another room. That's mostly it for anger issues until he gets werewolved. Still, Abbott does a pretty good job playing Blake as a guy struggling to contain his demons. That gets more apparent when he starts going Wolf Man. Blake and Ginger, that incident aside, have an endearing relationship, which further amplifies the tragedy of his terminal transformation. Charlotte, meanwhile, gradually gets more compelling when she is forced to fend off Wolf Man Blake. 

Let's talk a bit about the supporting cast. Grady, from what we see of him, means well, but is overly harsh. On the one hand, he's only his scariest when he scolds Blake for running off during their hunting trip. On the other hand, he could have been more upfront about the viral hominid roaming the woods. Ben Prenderghast is quite scary as the other Wolf Man, though his secret is probably too easy to guess. Benedict Hardie is quite likable as Derek, an old acquaintance of Blake's whom the Lovells pick up on their journey. He would have been a great Mr. Exposition if the film hadn't made him the Red Shirt, instead. 

Why did I say the truck crash was weird? Well, the Lovells are driving along when they see the other Wolf Man. They swerve, and suddenly, they're on the treetops. It's not exactly great editing or effects, there. We get our best looks at the other Wolf Man when he and Blake duke it out. It's too quickly edited, but we still comprehend what the monster is, being as a sickly variation of the design codified by Jack Pierce over 80 years ago. I wasn't exactly impressed when I first saw the design months ago, but I must say it looks pretty good with the right lighting.

Meanwhile, Duscio's location shooting in the New Zealand countryside, which stands in for Oregon, is breathtaking. A pivotal shot has Blake and Grady overlook the valley and is later revisited by Ginger & Charlotte. The majesty of those moments is accentuated by Benjamin Wallfisch's intense score. Its opening shot, in which a yellowjacket is besieged by ants, is as disturbing as the monster madness that follows. The Lovells' long night is dark, in more ways than one, and the aforementioned sound team maintains the dread as it reminds us of the other Wolf Man. It's not exactly fun, but it's still effectively scary.

I think that last sentence sums up this Wolf Man. Anybody who wants a movie with a few good scares and sustained dread will get their money's worth. Anybody who just wants a fun monster movie needs to look elsewhere. I know that Whannell's The Invisible Man isn't that too fun either, but there is relief in seeing Cecilia fight back and kill her abusive invisible stalker. A few decent family moments give us quite a bit of relief from the oncoming horror. Without them, the whole film would be unbearable. Now that I've seen it, I'm tempted to watch The Fly for comparison. See it soon and you might get the same urge ... or not.

Better Man

I admit that I was skeptical about Better Man before it ever came out. It mostly had to do with its central premise: it's a jukebox musical biopic of Robbie Williams where he's played by a CGI chimpanzee. Its gimmick made sense, however, once I realized why it took that approach. Let me try to explain.

Jonno Davies dons a mo-cap suit to portray and voice Robbie the Chimp. Meanwhile, Williams himself narrates the film, while he and Adam Tucker sing his songs (I can't tell them apart). According to Robbie the Narrator, he always saw himself as "less evolved" than everyone else, which explains this gimmick. That's enough to get you going. And it's hardly the reason why its Visual Effects Team is guaranteed an Oscar slot in less than a week!

Anyway, we're formally introduced to Robbie as a lad (Asmara Feik doing mo-cap, Carter J. Murphy doing vocals) in 1982 Stoke-on-Trent. He's not popular with his peers, but his "nan" Betty (Allison Steadman) and mom Janet (Kate Mulvaney) think he's special. His dad, Peter (Steve Pemberton), leaves the family to try to become the next Sinatra, which damages Robbie's self-esteem. Years later, Robbie becomes a superstar when he earns a spot on the pop group Take That. 

A few years later, Robbie is addicted to fame and drugs, which gets him kicked out of the band. He soon falls for Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno) of fellow pop group All Saints, but his ego gets in the way. His addictions also exasperate his crippled self-esteem, which manifests with some creepy hallucinations. How creepy? He sees himself - multiple versions of himself - in the audience, taunting him. He soon commits to becoming a better man after a particularly disturbing concert.

Director Michael Gracey, in his first film since The Greatest Showman, co-wrote the film with Simon Gleeson and Oliver Cole. It doesn't take much to get used to its oft-kilter gimmick because Robbie the Chimp feels that real. Early on, young Robbie recovers from a blunder during a school production of The Pirates of Penzance with gusto, only to get brought back down when he realizes Peter isn't there. It's just a preview of the emotional highs and lows you'll experience over 135 minutes. Later on, Robbie the Narrator sums up his feelings towards his former manager, Nigel Martin-Smith (Damon Herriman), in a hilarious bait-and-switch. The best acted - and best written - moment comes when Betty inadvertently reveals her being diagnosed with dementia.

What else does the film have besides an impressively rendered ape? An exciting soundtrack, of course! The biggest highlight is easily Rock DJ, in which Robbie and his Take That bandmates dance around Regent Street in a long take complete with multiple costume changes! The choreography, cinematography, arrangement, and editing for that sequence is nothing less than outstanding. If you need one reason for its Oscar nomination, then this is it right here. It could have gotten another Oscar nomination for its original end credit song, Forbidden Road, which makes for a nice listen. Unfortunately, it's been disqualified because The Academy thought it sounded too similar to I Got a Name. I can see their point, for a bit.

It's not afraid to show the downsides of Robbie being a "cheeky monkey." When Robbie and Nicole fall in love, it's during an endearing sequence set to a duet, She's The One. But when Robbie's ego runs wild, she understandably breaks up with him. He also pushes away several potential collaborators, particularly Take That bandmate Gary Barlow (Jake Simmance) and Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher (Leo Harvey-Elledge). As a superstar, his bad boy kayfabe is entertaining; as a person, it's insufferable. He even realizes as much with his depression, which culminates in him fighting his demons at Knebworth. It's quite nice to see him eventually reconcile with his acquaintances, even if it was hard to keep track of a few of them.

And what about his family? To start with, Betty and Janet are both delightful. You can especially sympathize with Janet when Robbie's crowding fans become too much for her. Betty, meanwhile, makes for a warm presence even after she eventually dies. Even Robbie watching TV at her grave is quite endearing. Steve, meanwhile, supports Robbie the superstar to the point that he forgets Robbie, his son. He does it when Robbie is a boy, and when Robbie is a man, this contributes to Robbie's unnerving breakdown at Knebworth. Robbie calling out Steve for his neglect is well-done, while their ultimate reconciliation is kind of nice. 

Robbie Williams apparently doesn't have much of a fanbase in America, which is partially why Better Man is sinking at the box-office. Don't let the unusual gimmick further deter you. Just step right in and you'll be entertained by its great soundtrack and compelling life story. You'll be amazed as its bug becomes a feature and then forget there was even a gimmick in the first place. I guarantee you won't forget Rock DJ anytime soon. But it might not be long before it's forced to Rock (DJ!) out of theatres. So, see it soon.

That's it for now.

Blitz

This past weekend, Apple offered its account holders free access to Apple TV+. Since I still have the Apple account I created from my past Apple TV subscription, I knew I had to watch something. In fact, I already knew what it was.

That would be Blitz, Steve McQueen's World War II drama that premiered theatrically and on Apple TV+ a few months ago. I've heard it hyped for quite a bit, so let's finally see how it is.

In 1940, young George Hanway (Elliot Heffernan), who is biracial, lives happily in London with his mom, Rita (Saorise Ronan) and Granddad Gerald (Paul Weller). When The Blitz starts that September, George is among the thousands of kids evacuated to the English countryside. George refuses to acknowledge his mother when she says goodbye at the station, and we're left with his long and resentful blank stare as the scene fades away.

A short time later, George gets homesick, so he jumps off the train and gets going back to London. He meets a few interesting characters, including a sinister couple, Albert (Stephen Graham) and Beryl (Kathy Burke), who get George to help them steal from bombed-out buildings. Meanwhile, Rita does her patriotic duty as a munitionette and a shelter volunteer. All the while, the Nazi war machine continues to rain down on Great Britain. Will there be a happy ending?

This is basically a Dickensian story set during World War II, only without a massive length. George spends the movie meeting one new character - or a set of them - then moves on to the next. Before the aforementioned Fagin-esque crooks, George first meets a trio of young train-hopping brothers. They're all likable lads, who initially tease George with some light nursery rhyming. Indeed, it's a shocking swerve when the oldest brother is abruptly run over by a train. That's followed by him meeting Ife (Benjamin Clementine), a Nigerian MP who helps George accept his racial identity. He's a pretty good guy, but he's also too good to last to the end.

We don't see anyone get blown up, but we do feel the dread in the air. There's an extended party scene at a nightclub, all but stated to be the Cafe de Paris, just before everyone hears a bomb falling. In the next scene, George is scavenging the bombed-out nightclub with Albert's gang. A few other scenes see sheltering Londoners listen to The Blitz, with each bomb threatening their Underground shelter. It's this sense of constant dread that got its sound designers a spot on the Oscar-shortlist, and perhaps a nomination. Its opening act, which shows the chaos during the first attack, would be a great scene to show the Sound Branch.

That same dread accentuates George's journey rather well. His jumping off the train is quite reckless, but we also understand why he did it. His first scavenging mission is at a jewelry shop that sounds like it might completely collapse any second. While I said we don't see anyone blown up, George flees as bombs explode around him during an attack and is later caught up in the Balham Tube Flood. Besides The Blitz, he also deals with the frighteningly loathsome and unstable Albert and his cronies. Heffernan's compelling performance keeps us invested in George's odyssey during the two-hour runtime. 

What about the adults? Well, Rita is just as compelling as her son, especially when she tells off some government bigwigs for letting George escape and does the same to her stingy boss. We only see George's dad, a Grenadian immigrant named Marcus (CJ Beckford) for one long flashback, before he's unfairly taken away from the movie. He still makes an impression as a likable guy. A few more sympathetic characters include Jess (Mica Ricketts), and oddly enough, Ruby (Heather Craney). Jess, who is basically Albert's talent scout, recruits George in the gang, and clearly hates doing so. Ruby, meanwhile, nurses George back to health after the Tube Flood and reports him to the authorities. I'd like to hope she was obliviously acting on the best of intentions.

What else can I say about it? I had little trouble with Ife & shelter supervisor Mickey Davies's (Leigh Gill) "we're all in this together" speeches, other than that they were a bit blunt. There are a few random scene transitions, including a field of flowers that lack context, while the balancing act between George and Rita's storylines is a bit off. I mean, it takes over an hour before we see Rita learn of George's escape. Rita's also an aspiring singer, but that barely goes anywhere, other than her getting to sing the admittedly nice and Oscar-shortlisted Winter Coat for the BBC. While McQueen wrote the song with Nicholas Britell & Taura Stinson, the also-shortlisted Hans Zimmer provides the intense score.

Blitz was clearly made with the best of intentions. Fortunately, these intentions give us a pretty good war drama. Its story of survival is compelling, while its scattershot and bluntest elements are barely a detriment. And yes, to answer the earlier question, there is a happy ending, but I won't spoil how it plays out. The only way for you to know is if you check it out on Apple TV+ yourself. As I said last year, I might get back to it if I'm feeling secure about my finances. All that said, I think I might check out the movie again if I get back on the service. I think it's worth some of the hype. 

Now, to the next review.

Maria

 For the third of his “accidental trilogy” of 20th-century women, Pablo Larrain presents us Maria, his biopic of the opera soprano Maria Callas. Let's open the curtains and see what we learn.

The film begins with her death on September 16, 1977. It then works through Maria’s (Angelina Jolie) last week as she reminisces about her life with Mr. Mandrax (Kodi Smit-Mcphee), a journalist and the personification of her favorite medication. Yes, really. 

By this point, a lifetime of substance abuse and a diagnosis of dermatomyotosis (which isn’t named in the film) have sidelined Maria. Mandrax follows Maria as she trains with conductor Jeffrey Tate (Stephen Ashfield) for a stage comeback. Mandrax doesn’t like her odds, though; he actually tells her his new documentary is called “La Callas: The Last Days.” Hopefully, she can sing again even if it’s the last thing she does.

Throughout the film, we see glimpses of Maria’s roles in such operas as Madame Butterfly and Anna Bolena. These performances showcase not just the scores of those operas, but the elaborate costumes and sets designed by Massimo Cantini Parrini and Guy Hendrix Dyas. The cinematographer, Edward Lachman, sells us on the magnificence of these performances, though I wasn’t keen on him shooting from the back row a few times. One such case is her first scene at Tate’s stage; I had a hard time figuring out where she was when she came in. I’ll highlight the sound portion later on.

Her most significant flashbacks involve her affair with Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer). Bilginer portrays Onassis as a charming scoundrel with emphasis on scoundrel. We get some nice scenes of them together, including a well-acted bit where she sees him on his death bed. In the present, her butler Ferrucio (Pierfrancesco Favino) and housekeeper Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher) enliven the film with their devotion not just to her, but to each other. Maria herself even points that out.

And now, “La Callas” herself. As played by Jolie, Maria doesn't need much to show off her strong personality. Early on, she politely, and sternly, declines Mandrax's inquiry on why she burned her costumes one time. He backs down, but she alludes to an answer anyway. She frequently denies her friends and doctor's (Vincent Macaigne) advice, but deep down, she might already know she needs help. She hallucinates, among other things, a crowd singing the Anvil Chorus from IL Trovatore at her. What is surely her dying dream has her breaking down while finally giving her comeback performance at her apartment. It takes quite a while for Jolie's performance to resonate, but I think it will. The only thing stopping her from an Oscar nomination is her huge competition.

The film has Jolie lip-synching to Callas's recordings, with occasionally herself singing, though it's sometimes hard to tell which is which. The recordings sound great, but there are some obvious discrepancies between sound and visuals that pop up. At one point, Maria and Onassis attend Marilyn Monroe's famous birthday serenade of JFK (once again, Caspar Phillipson), which also has her actress lip-synch to a recording. We hear the crowd cheer before we see them do it. Oops. Again, the shoot from the back row strategy doesn't do some of these performances any favors.

I saw the movie on January 2nd, and it took me until now to type up this review. On my first watch, Maria was so dour that the only thing that moved me was the sound of her poodles whimpering over her corpse. But underneath the dour ending, there's a compelling arc of Maria regaining her former self before it's too late. I wonder if I'm the only one who realizes it. If you just want a great opera highlight reel, you won't be disappointed when you Netflix and chill with this biopic. It doesn't need fancy sound systems to sound great, that's for sure.

 Next up, a review produced under interesting circumstances.

A Complete Unknown

We need to talk about the Man in the Long Black Coat.

Johnny Cash?

No, that's the Man in Black. But he is a character in A Complete Unknown, which is what I'm about to review. That's where you'll get acquainted with the actual Man in the Long Black Coat, Bob Dylan.

I think this is a clunky joke.

You're right, Bo.

We meet Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) as he hitches a ride to New York in 1961. He wants to meet his idol, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), who is being hospitalized with Huntington's Disease. He happens upon Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) the day he visits and impresses them both with his literal Song to Woody. Seeger gives Bob his big break in the folk music scene, where he becomes the voice of his generation. But Bob wants to expand his horizons beyond the folk music industry. That leads him to using electric instruments at the Newport Music Festival, which is the climax of the movie.

Spoilers, Jethro!

I know, but you'd know it already if you read Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald, the book that director James Mangold and Jay Cocks used for their screenplay. It's a lot more conventional than I'm Not There, the 2007 biopic that had Bob played by six different characters and actors, including Cate Blanchett (weird movie, I know). Let's focus a bit on the Newport climax. Either I'm missing something, or Bob's decision to go electric suddenly comes up in conversation amongst the festival committee. While the electric numbers are showstoppers, the acoustic finale seems depressing with how defeated Bob looks the whole time (is it just me?). 

Bob's decision to go electric wasn't popular in real life, but the musical performances are exactly that. Chalamet's musicality renders each song delightfully fresh; you might feel the urge to sing along yourself when Bob whips out The Times They Are A-Changin. He's not the only musical star here, as we still have Johnny Cash. Cash (Boyd Holbrook) is quite likable as a musical bad boy and prospective mentor, particularly when he drunkenly encourages Bob to go electric at Newport. Holbrook's musicality is just as dynamic as Joaquin Phoenix's turn as the Man in Black in Walk the Line (also directed by Mangold!). 

Off-stage, we sympathize with Bob as he's trapped by his own image. He doesn't want to be stuck singing covers, or his greatest hits, over-and-over again for all eternity. That's quite understandable. He has some good chemistry with his two love interests, Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) and Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) - the latter of whom is a renamed Suze Rotolo - even as he gets unlikable. He frustrates Sylvie with his aloofness and mysterious, if not embellished, past. He aggravates Joan with his ego, but at least he admits that she's right when she calls him out for it. Both of Bob's leading ladies are compelling, though Sylvie nearly storming out of Newport in heartbreak gives her a slight edge. 

Norton never drops his folksy attitude as Seeger. That's what makes him likable, even sympathetic, when he reluctantly tries to get the Newport sound guys to cut off Bob. His wife, Toshi (Eriko Hatsune), has her time to shine at Newport when she wordlessly gets him to back off. He has some great chemistry with Guthrie, who by this point, is rendered mute by Huntington's and would eventually die from it in 1967. McNairy, then, does a great job acting with just body language. A few other actors are surprisingly unrecognizable in their roles; it took me until now to realize that it's Norbert Leo Butz as Alan Lomax, the founder of the Newport festival and the most antagonistic towards Bob's electric plans.

Let's highlight the technical stars, starting with the Oscar-shortlisted sound designers. Besides the excellent musical performances, they show off their prowess when they build up New York's hustle and bustle. One standout scene has Bob spend the night with Joan just as the Cuban Missile Crisis starts. There's chaos in the streets as everyone tries to go anywhere else; the next morning, the crisis is over, and all is calm. Great contrast, even if it makes the crisis a lot shorter than it actually was. 

That aforementioned scene is also a standout moment for editors Andrew Buckland & Scott Morris. Another highlight is the Newport Climax, and not just for electrifying Bob's electric numbers. They build up the crowd's resulting animosity so much that you'd think they'd riot. A few fights happen, though no riot, but the tension is still great. Meanwhile, the opening shot by cinematographer Phedon Papamichael, where Bob rides across a bridge, is alluring in its serenity. I can go on, but I can't.

At 142 minutes, A Complete Unknown feels quite long, but those musical numbers make their waits worth it. It's not only a good introduction to Bob Dylan's life, but an excellent introduction to most of the other musical acts featured here. There is not a single sour note amongst any of its musical performances. You'll get plenty of musical goodness when you check out A Complete Unknown at your nearest theater. I think that it might be a memorable way to start the New Year. 

Here's hoping that 2025 won't be that bad, after all.

The Concierge

I need something quick and easy for family viewing. 

Well, then sir, may I recommend The Concierge? 

What's that?

This anime film, based on Tsuchika Nishimura's manga The Concierge at Hokkyoku Department Store, premiered last year, was screened theatrically for just one night in September and recently premiered on Crunchyroll. Its content is more than suited for family viewing. It also has a convenient runtime at just 70 minutes.

And it was in movie theaters? Well, I'll be. Tell me more.

Akino (Natsumi Kawaida) is the newest concierge at the gigantic Hokkyoku Department Store. The staff are humans, but the clientele are animals, even extinct animals like Japanese Wolves and Barbary Lions. Dubbed V.I.A., the extinct clients are given special treatment by the upper management. Over a few months, Akino learns how to meet the needs of her unique customers. That's the basic premise.

Is that really it? What else is there?

Eruru the Great Auk (Takeo Ohtsuka), the president of Hokkyoku, exposits that the store was founded to let animals partake in consumerism. That just highlights a few questions the film isn't interested in answering. One of the more obvious, for example, is "why are there extinct animals around?" If I had my own answer, it would be "that's just how the world works, so roll with it." Said world, visualized by director Yoshimi Itazu, writer Satomi Ooshima, and the staff at Production IG, is a delightfully quirky one. The animation & character designs are bright & appealing, while Hokkyoku looks like a great place to get lost in (just wait until the ending shows you its full size!).

It's pretty episodic as we follow Akino and her senior concierges, Mori & Iwase (Megumi Han & Natsumi Fujiwara), manage the daily operations at Hokkyoku. Early on, Akino sprints ragged as she helps a superstar sea mink (Minako Kotobuki) and her dad (Hiroshi Yanaka) - neither know that the other is there - shop for each other. Later on, she lets an overdemanding Carribean monk seal (Kyoko Hikami) walk over her. I'm sure anyone who's been in the customer service business will relate to Akino's daily hilarity. Its gentle sense of humor appeals to everybody, young and old. 

A few animals provide some plot threads. Akino and company try to manage the world's most affectionate Peafowls (Hiroki Nanami & Marika Kono). A Barbary Lion cub (Ayumu Murase) hunts for a specific perfume that might no longer exist. A Japanese wolf (Miyu Irino) wants to propose to his girlfriend (Kana Hanazawa) at the fancy restaurant. Mr. Woolly (Kenjiro Tsuda), a famous ice-sculptor, prepares his latest exhibit. You'll feel warm and fuzzy as most of these plot threads play out. You'll feel especially happy as Akino and a few recurring customers team up to fulfill a Christmas wish for a sick parrot.

It's hard to dislike anybody in the cast. Mr. Tokiwa (Yuichi Nakamura), the vice-president (?), threatens Akino's job over the seal incident, but he stands down after a meaningful talk with Eruru. Akino's clumsiness is as endearing as her diligence, while Mori & Iwase make for a fun pair of co-workers. Todo (Nobuo Tobita), their floor manager, is perhaps the funniest character in the whole movie for his ability to appear anywhere (even in a pot of stew!). Eruru's sly personality is quite enjoyable, especially when we first meet him. Really, the only truly dislikable character is the seal, though she apparently redeems herself off-screen.

Wow, Mister, you've said a lot about a short movie.

I know. There's actually quite a bit I haven't spoiled here, and I'll leave it to you to check them out as you watch The Concierge. I guarantee that you'll feel warm and fuzzy just thinking about it afterwards. It's just that great a movie. 

In that case, I'll give it a go. I'm sold.

Nosferatu

Do you Nosferatu?

When F.W. Murnau adapted Dracula into Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, he did so without the permission of the Stoker estate. As such, the estate tried to sue the film out of existence, and they almost succeeded. A few copies survived, and thus, movie fans can still watch it to this day. 

Now, anybody can make Dracula movies thanks to the public domain. They can even remake Nosferatu, which is what Robert Eggers did with his fourth feature film. Let's see what this Nosferatu is all about, shall we?

It’s 1838 in Wisborg, Germany. Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) has been haunted by nightmares ever since the night she prayed for a soulmate. These nightmares persist even after she married her husband, Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), an up-and-coming solicitor. One day, Thomas’s employer, Herr Knock (Simon McBurney), sends him to Transylvania to close a real-estate purchase by the reclusive Count Orlok. Ellen doesn’t want him to go, but he does, and that’s when things go wrong.

Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), of course, is a vampire; some folks call them Nosferatu. Anyway, Orlok ships off to Wisborg after he sees Ellen’s picture in Thomas’s locket. His impending arrival drives Ellen and Knock insane, which attracts the attention of Dr. Sievers (Ralph Ineson) and his eccentric mentor, Prof. Von Franz (Willem Dafoe). Meanwhile, Thomas races back to Wisborg to thwart the undead villain. But it’s Ellen who has to thwart Orlok with the ultimate sacrifice.

You’ll hear Orlok long before you see him, and already, you’ll be intimidated by his booming, unearthly voice. Trust me, nothing he does will assuage your nerves. You’ll have a hard time believing that it is Skarsgård once you hear Orlok, and you’ll have a harder time believing it once you see him. Imagine a zombified Rasputin, rather than the rat-like ghoul immortalized by Max Schreck a century ago, and you get this Count Orlok. He is indeed played by the same actor who previously played Pennywise. The Oscar-shortlisted makeup team deserves all the praise coming their way. The same goes for Linda Muir, the costume designer, for his impressive attire.

Dafoe, who previously played Schreck in Shadow of the Vampire, goes all out as the eccentric Van Franz, especially when he burns Orlok’s crypt in the finale. We still listen when he calmly warns the others of the undead dangers they face. McBurney plays Herr Knock as perhaps the most unnerving variant of Renfield to date. Hoult, who actually played Renfield last year, is a compelling hero as Thomas. We’re on edge with him when he’s kept prisoner in Castle Orlok, and later, when he barely escapes with his life. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin are also pretty good as Friedrich and Anna Harding, the Hutters’ best friends and eventual victims of Orlok. Friedrich is even pitiable when he becomes a massive jerk at the end.

But I’m sure all eyes will be on Depp. Ellen frequently convulses under Orlok’s influence; one particularly disturbing instance is during a heated argument with Thomas. It’s equally disturbing to see her vividly describe one such nightmare to Thomas early on. That nightmare, in which she happily marries the Grim Reaper, perfectly encapsulates her relationship with Orlok. She gets some moments of happiness with Thomas, their cat, and the Harding family, so it’s not all doom and gloom. It’s both satisfying and tragic when she makes her ultimate sacrifice.

This is a technically outstanding horror film. The editor, Louise Ford, gives us plenty of scares and strangeness. At one point, Thomas visits a village full of wary villagers who later have a late-night staking. The next morning, they’re all gone. The driver-less carriage that takes him to Castle Orlok is perfectly eerie. In fact, all the sets designed by Craig Lathrop are all spectacularly creepy. The scenery itself, as photographed by Jarin Blaschke, is exquisite. As far as visual effects are concerned, none are more instantly iconic than the shadow of Orlok’s hand reaching over Wisborg. There’s also some excellent sound design, along with an also Oscar-shortlisted score by Robin Coralan that perfectly mixes melancholy with dread. 

So, as the days grow colder and darker, what better way to pass the time with a good horror movie? Submitted for your approval, this unforgettably gruesome remake of Nosferatu. The little changes Eggers makes to the template it borrowed from Murnau and Stoker help to make this a masterful adaptation. I am also told Eggers' films are historically faithful to their time periods, so I imagine historians will get a kick out of this one, too. Dare you enter Transylvania once again? If not, I can recommend a few family-friendlier films. I'll let you decide ...

And remember, Keep Circulating the Tapes.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

 Merry After Christmas!

To celebrate, let’s check up on the world’s fastest hedgehog. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 promises two hedgehogs going fast, with the blue blur (Ben Schwartz) fighting longtime fan-favorite anti-hero Shadow the Hedgehog (Keanu Reeves). I’m sure you want to know why.

In the last movie, Shadow was discovered in stasis at the literal Prison Island. This movie opens with Shadow waking up and breaking out. He causes trouble in Tokyo, so GUN recruits Sonic and his funny animal friends, Tails & Knuckles (Coleen O’Shaughnessy & Idris Elba), to stop him. This new hedgehog proves too much for our heroes, so they seek help from a villain, namely a somehow still alive Dr. Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey).

That alliance ends when Ivo meets his grandpa, Gerald (also Carrey), who happens to be Shadow’s old friend. Gerald and Shadow seek to use the Eclipse Cannon, a doomsday weapon, for their master plan. They need a few keycards to boot it up, and it’s up to Team Sonic to stop them. That’s pretty much it.

The film has too much fun with Carrey’s double-act. The Robotniks’ first scene together even points out that it’s a double act; it’s made funny by their synchronized aside glance. There’s plenty of fun as the Robotniks have a synchronized dance scene in a laser room (long story) and eventually brawl inside the Eclipse Cannon. The visual effects team that helped this double act happen should be commended, as should the makeup team.

But it’s not all fun and games. In his backstory, Shadow was friends with Gerald’s granddaughter, Maria (Alyla Browne), who died decades ago. Naturally, Shadow and Gerald’s master plan is to seek revenge for her death. Gerald’s angry villain speech is perfectly unnerving after all of his antics with Ivo. Meanwhile, Shadow acts like there’s nothing funny about him, even as he spouts some incredibly silly dialogue. But he’s pretty scary when he’s unambiguously serious. On the bright side, he has some enjoyable flashbacks with Maria, while his change of heart is decently moving. 

But what about Team Sonic? Well, once again, Sonic is still the same fun guy after all these movies. Still, we feel it when he drops the jokes after his adopted human Tom (James Marsden) is accidentally injured by Shadow. He even nearly comes to blows with Knuckles when he decides to grab the last film’s Master Emerald. Tails is still a delightful sidekick, while Knuckles’s own brand of comic seriousness is still hilarious. What more do I have to say?

Well, once again, the visual effects for Sonic and his pals are pretty good. The speed effects are still great, as are the Robotniks’ machines; special mention goes to a device the Robotniks’ use to blend with nearby paintings. The location shooting in Tokyo is splendid, while Tom Holkenborg once again gives us an entertaining score. As for the supporting characters, Lee Majdoub (as Agent Stone) and Tom Butler (as Maj. Walters) were the highlights. GUN Director Rockwell (Krysten Ritter) is supposed to be another antagonist, but her character is a bit lackluster. Adam Pally, as Tom’s Deputy Wade, made more of an impression in his one scene than Rockwell in more. I think I’ve said enough.

The only real things wrong with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 are a few minor quibbles (like, how did Ivo survive the last film? I don’t think it explains that). Otherwise, it’s still an entertaining movie, and not even its mood whiplashes are enough to detract from it. I’m actually intrigued for the next film, which promises two new characters in its dynamic mid-credit scene. It’s supposed to come out in 2027, and it can’t come fast enough.

Next up, something that’s not for kids.

Mufasa: The Lion King

Let's get to the "mane" event of Disney's Christmas season.

Mufasa: The Lion King is the sequel and prequel to Disney's "live-action" remake of The Lion King. Jon Favreau, who directed the previous film, is swapped out with Barry Jenkins, who retains Jeff Nathanson as the screenwriter. Let's see what they did.

As King Simba & Queen Nala (Donald Glover & Beyoncé Knowles-Carter) head off elsewhere, their cub Kiara (Beyoncé's actual daughter, Blue Ivy) stays at Pride Rock with Uncles Timon & Pumba (Billy Eichner & Seth Rogen). Rafiki (John Kani) shows up to tell Kiara the origin story of her Grandpa Mufasa.

As a cub, Mufasa (voiced as an adult by Aaron Pierre) got swept up by a flood. He's adopted into a royal pride at the insistence of Prince Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and the reluctance of King Obasi (Lennie James). Unfortunately, the good times end when an evil pride of white lions, led by Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen), show up. 

Mufasa and Taka, the only survivors of their pride, head off to Milele, a paradise spoken of by Mufasa's parents, Masego & Afia (Keith David & Anika Noni Rose). They're joined by the lioness Sarabi (Tiffany Boone), the hornbill Zazu (Preston Nyman) and the younger Rafiki (Kagiso Lediga). During their journey, Mufasa tries to help Taka confess to Sarabi, but she's into Mufasa, and he eventually falls for her too. That drives Taka to team up with Kiros and eventually take on the moniker Scar. That's basically it.

The change in directors is immediately obvious with the wildlife. The CGI animals are as impressively rendered as those in the previous film. Unlike the previous film, the animals not only look like animals, but they emote like characters. I think Favreau tried too hard in the previous film to make his talking animals realistic; I think Jenkins found the right balance. It’s thus easier to get invested in their dramatic moments, particularly when they’re expressed in song form by Lin-Manuel Miranda. A few memorable numbers include Kiros's villain song (Bye Bye), Mufasa & Taka's song (I Always Wanted a Brother), and Mufasa & Sarabi's love song (The currently Oscar shortlisted Tell Me It's You). 

But it's not exactly perfect. Be Prepared to sit through a rather slow plot which unfolds over nearly two-hours. A lot of it is spent walking as the good guys outwalk the bad guys. Kiros hates Mufasa because Mufasa killed his son during the white lions' first attack. That son doesn't even speak, at all, so that revelation comes as an odd surprise. That Taka turns evil because of a love triangle is a bit underwhelming, though the call-forwards to his eventual regicide of Mufasa are impactful. I thought my ears were deceiving me as Mufasa seemed to have two different voice actors as a cub. Actually, I wasn't, for siblings Braelyn & Brielle Rankins voiced cub Mufasa, and I'm sure you'll notice the differences too.

So, why isn't Taka's Face-Heel Turn completely underwhelming? It goes back to Tell Me It's You; after the love song, we get a dark reprise where he sings of his dejection. He's such a lovable dork when he tries talking with Sarabi, so to see him go bad is perfectly tragic. What makes it underwhelming is how quick he goes bad, even if we see some personality seeds planted by Obasi. When Taka saves the day, you already won't want him to go bad even if he has to because "prequel." Obasi, meanwhile, fluctuates between "not so bad" and "still bad" at the end of his screentime. As Kiros, Mikkelsen is just as good voicing villains as he is physically playing them; to put it bluntly, his villain song rocks

Now for a few others. Mufasa is compelling throughout his life, particularly with his brotherhood with Taka. Their camaraderie as cubs is delightful, while their ultimate fallout is as devastating as it is inevitable. Pierre's commanding cadence as Mufasa is as memorable as the recently deceased James Earl Jones, who gets a quick dedication at the start. Timon & Pumba have the best lines, even if some of them are a bit implausible (they've seen the Broadway musical!). Meanwhile, Zazu and Taka's lazy uncle Chigaru (Abdul Salis) have the best lines among the flashback cast. Chigaru, at least, is more likable than Obasi by a mile.

Although its story could have used some work, Mufasa: The Lion King is still more interesting than its predecessor. Its explanations for a few bits of lore - like the shape of Pride Rock - are pretty decent. Its improved visual effects and buoyant soundtrack are pretty good reasons to see it. Otherwise, there's another talking animal film that might appeal to your kids a bit more. Conveniently enough, I have time for both these films this holiday season; that review is next!

Kraven the Hunter

Was it a noble experiment doomed to failure? Or was it a waste of everyone’s time to make Spider-Man movies without Spider-Man?

The Venom movies did pretty good for Sony, but Morbius and Madame Web were embarrassing failures. That didn’t bode well for Kraven the Hunter, the long-delayed cinematic debut of one of Spidey’s earliest foes. J.C. Chandor makes for a welcome choice as director in this installment of "Sony's Spider-Man Universe." It's one of the better films in the "franchise," even if it has a few glaring flaws.

Sergei Kravinoff (Levi Miller) and his half-brother, Dmitri (Billy Barratt) are the sons of a big Russian Mobster, Nikolai (Russell Crowe). The boys head on an impromptu safari after the death of Sergei’s mom. There, Sergei is mauled by a lion but is saved by the world’s best Good Samaritan and her magic potion. Sergei ends up with animalistic abilities, cuts ties with Nikolai and travels the world looking for bad guys to kill. All in that order.

Sergei, now Kraven (now Aaron Taylor-Johnson), opens the film by killing a bad guy in prison. He reunites with Nikolai and Dmitri (Fred Hechinger) in London just in time for the plot. Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola), an aspiring bad guy, wants to move into Nikolai’s territory. For that end, he abducts Dmitri and sends “The Foreigner” (Christopher Abbott) after Kraven. Kraven reunites with his Good Samaritan, a lawyer named Calypso Ezili (Ariana DeBose), to help him track down the bad guys. His hunt is further complicated by Aleksei’s ability to become a rhino-man. That’s pretty much it.

Let me tell you about a few quibbles. We're told that Nikolai, as a big crime boss, puts evil into the world, but we rarely see his line of work. Now, if he had been just a big game hunter and an abusive dad, which we see him as, then we'd be going somewhere good. Aleksei's rise to power is mostly handled off-screen, perhaps helped by the frequently referred to Dr. Miles Warren (better known as The Jackal, a significant Spidey villain). It would have helped if we saw how he went from aspiring lackey to big bad. The Foreigner actually has a grudge against Kraven, but it's exposited in an off-hand newspaper way. The film's finale, where Aleksei goes full Rhino, is so abruptly edited together it's hard to follow.

So, why did I say that it's one of the better films? Well, part of the reason is Kraven himself. He stalks his prey with darkly amusing casualness before he brutally dispatches them. That's especially highlighted when he tracks one poacher to his London office. He's humanized by his sympathetic backstory, his affinity for animals, and especially by his relationship with Dmitri. All of which contribute to his palpable animosity with his dad, and the cold way he dispatches him in the end. You'll just have to see it for yourself, if you want to see it at all.

Which brings me to the villains. Nikolai, as I said, won't win father of the year anytime soon. He's particularly heartless over his wife's death, but we do see some depth later on about that. Keyword: some. Aleksei has a decent enough motive in that he wants to be the top crime boss; it's not much, but it is a motive. His partial rhino transformation is pretty creepy, while his full Rhino form is a decent CGI-aided approximation of his comic book counterpart. The Foreigner, with better expansion, would have been an excellent Big Bad. He's still creepy when he utilizes his super speed on his own prey. 

The animals here are mostly obviously CGI wildlife. Surprisingly, a few moments, like young Sergei listening to a dying gazelle's heartbeat, and later staring down a buffalo stampede, feel real. The lion attack is sufficiently brutal, even if it doesn't match something like the bear attack in The Revenant. Dmitri, with some excellent sound editors, can mimic other peoples' voices. His comic book counterpart is The Chameleon, Spidey's very first supervillain, but the reveal of this power is still a great surprise. He can later shapeshift, which he uses to great effect in the end, even if his new base form looks too cartoony. 

A few other highlights include Eve Stewart's production design, which gives us a neat lair for Kraven. His various outfits designed by Sammy Sheldon are sufficient approximations of his comic book counterpart. That's before he gets his actual superhero look, which is saved for the last scene. The score by Benjamin Wallfisch and the Galperine Brothers (Evgueni & Sacha) is pretty good, but the most memorable track is Basil Poledouris's opening theme from The Hunt for Red October. That's the very first thing we hear in the movie!

This is apparently supposed to be the last film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe; either that, or it's the last one that doesn't involve Spidey himself. In either case, Kraven the Hunter makes for a decently bloody superhero matinee. The screenplay could have been a lot better, but it still has a pretty good anti-hero, is tonally consistent, and has a committed bad guy. Spider-Man's next MCU adventure is supposed to be in a few years, but I'm still waiting for Beyond the Spider-Verse. You can spend some time before then watching this film, or not. I'll leave it to you.

Onwards to my next packed weekend!

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

 It’s time to see Middle-Earth like you’ve never seen it before.

Actually, not really. I’ll explain.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, renders a few pages of Tolkien's famous appendices into an epic anime movie. This technically isn’t the first anime based on the material; the Rankin-Bass TV movies of The Hobbit and The Return of the King were animated by Topcraft, the studio that was eventually re-branded as Studio Ghibli.  Let’s see how this new effort fares.

Several centuries before The Lord of the Rings, Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox) ruled over the Kingdom of Rohan with his sons Hama (Yazdan Qafouri) and Haleth (Benjamin Wainwright) by his side. Helm’s favorite child, however, is his “wild and free” daughter, Héra (Gaia Wise), who’d rather prefer equestrian pursuits than marital ones. When Freca (Shaun Dooley), King of the neighboring Dunlendings, proposes marriage between his son Wulf (Luke Pasqualino) and Héra, Helm recognizes it as a power-grab and challenges Freca to fisticuffs. Helm knocks out Freca with a single, fatal hammerhand. Afterwards, Wulf swears revenge.

It takes a while, but the Dundelings set forth to take revenge on Helm and his line. Wulf, a childhood friend of Héra, wants to take revenge on her specifically for rejecting him. The people of Rohan's capital, Edoras, evacuate to the stronghold of Hornburg - the eventual Helm's Deep- with Wulf in pursuit. It eventually falls to Héra to not only lead her people to safety, but to ward off the invaders with whatever help she can get. 

All of this is narrated by Miranda Otto, reprising her role as Eowyn from the original trilogy. She tells us that Héra's story was never passed down "in the tales of song," perhaps nodding to how she isn't even named in the appendices. I'm not complaining about these liberties, given how Arwen was expanded upon in the original films. Héra is given a decent hero's journey by original trilogy co-writer Phillipa Boyens and several others. Héra is a typical, yet likable, tomboy princess, and her hesitation to marry anyone - not just Wulf - is understandable. It has a stunning opening scene, where Héra meets a giant eagle, who becomes relevant in the climax. The climax also gives us a good final battle between her and Wulf.

Wulf, by contrast, isn't as sympathetic as the film thinks he is. He exposits how he was looked down upon for his mixed heritage, but we barely get anything to back it up. We get just one flashback between him and Héra as kids, literally the only time we see them as kids. He goes straight into evil territory once he formally begins the war. He even blows off Héra's one offer to marry him because of his massive ego. Wulf's only sympathetic moment is when he finally realizes he's lost (his last-ditch effort to kill Héra notwithstanding). His General, Targg (Michael Wildman), is far more sympathetic as he at least realizes how pointless the war is. 

His name is Helm Hammerhand, but he's surprised when he instantly kills Freca. Is this the moment that he earned his Hammerhand name? The film doesn't explain that; neither does Tolkien for that matter. It's a bit flummoxing, but he puts those Hammerhands to good use as a "wraith." You won't forget the ominous horn that announces his presence, that's for sure. His last stand against Wulf's army at the Gates of Hornburg sits nicely alongside the biggest moments of the original trilogy. Outside of battle, his moments of fatherly affection for Héra are nice. This is a man who respects how his daughter isn't like the other ladies. In fact, the whole royal family gets some nice moments together. One of the best moments involves the fate of Hama's harp.

Director Kenji Kamiyama (Star Wars: Visions; screenwriter of Blood: The Last Vampire) gives us an appealing animated approximation of Peter Jackson's Middle-Earth. Its locations are just as one remembered them from the original trilogy, while its vibrant color palette is nothing short of outstanding. A few great set pieces include a rampaging Mumak, its death by a Watcher in the Water, and the climactic cavalry. Héra's aunt, Olwyn (Lorraine Ashburne), and squire Lief (Bilal Hasna), are not only likable supporting characters, but look very much like updated Rankin-Bass designs. That's nifty. The CGI animation is pretty noticeable against the 2D characters, but that rarely bothered me for some reason. And yes, the rumors are true, Christopher Lee gets a posthumous line in as Saruman with an old piece of audio.

Some have questioned why The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim had to be an anime. I'm fine with it as it means another anime movie gets to be on the big screen. It helps its case with plenty of great action scenes, many of which I've already mentioned. Still, it could have been shorter than its 134-minutes; it's particularly noticeable late during the second half. In any case, it's still better than stretching a thin novel into a nearly eight-hour film trilogy. I think it's fine taking this journey to Middle-Earth, even once, just to see the new direction. If not, there's always the original trilogy.

Solo Leveling: ReAwakening

 Solo Leveling, a South Korean web novel and comic by Chugong, was a pretty big deal long before it was adapted into an anime early this year. And now, with the second season fast approaching, its fans can get a taste of the action in Solo Leveling: ReAwakening. What can new fans expect?

In this two-hour movie, the audience will get a 75-minute Viewer's Digest of the anime's first season, followed by a nearly seamless edit of the second season's first two episodes. I'll explain later what I mean about "nearly seamless" while I get into the actual content of this movie.

In the backstory, portals to fantastical "dungeons" keep popping up around Earth. Meanwhile, a few people get superpowers, and it's up to these "Hunters" to fight off the monsters on the other side. Otherwise, the monsters will inevitably invade Earth. A Hunter's Power Level is stagnant, which is a problem for series protagonist Sung Jinwoo, since he is literally called the World's Weakest Hunter. One day, "The System" takes pity on him and "ReAwakens" him with the ability to Level-Up just like an RPG Character. After a while, anyone expecting an easy target will get a nasty surprise. It's even nastier when Jinwoo ascends to become a Necromancer.

During one of his Dungeon Raids, Jinwoo and his new friend, Yoo Jinho, are left to die by their guild at the fangs of a Spider Boss. Jinwoo kills the Spider, and later, the treacherous guild members. Their leader, Hwang Dongsuk, has a brutish brother named Dongsoo, who arrives to take vengeance during part two. By that point, Jinwoo - Jinho was already hushed out of the story - and his new guild are fighting Ice Monsters in a snowy dungeon. Jinwoo takes down the monster Polar Bears, but the Ice Elves are a different story. 

The film works as an appetizer for the series as a whole. There are plenty of impressive battles between the hunters and various monsters. The villains, whether they be humans or monsters, are quite monstrous, and their ghoulish smiles will etch into your memories. It just makes it cathartic when Jinwoo gets down to business and deals with them. Them taunting Jinwoo over his "weakling" status makes for great dramatic irony. The concepts of the system were intriguing enough to get me to check out a bit of the show on Crunchyroll when it was done. Maybe it will get you interested, too.

Let's talk about a few supporting players. Jinho's screentime is relatively short, but his chipper personality and heroic determinism will win you over in no time. Dongsuk's nice guy act is legitimately convincing, which makes it all the scarier when he drops it. A few other highlights include Jinwoo's sister Jin-Ah and aspiring hunter Han Song-Yi, both of whom help humanize Jinwoo. Another hunter, Kim Cheol, is legitimately scary when his sanity cracks during part two. But when he's killed and resurrected into one of Jinwoo's Shadow Warriors, Iron, he becomes surprisingly and legitimately goofy. One of the most memorable antagonists is Igris, a Red Knight who becomes Jinwoo's number one Shadow Warrior after a long and brutal fight. 

Where it doesn't work is that it loses some details in its Viewer's Digest form. The film rushes Jinwoo from world's weakest to world's strongest so fast that his character growth barely registers. We barely know Jinwoo's raid party during "The Double Dungeon Event," a name barely explained here, which makes two of them being murdered by the psychotic hunter Kang Taeshik not that impactful. Jinwoo's sick mother is alluded to, but she also barely registers in the plot. Ironically, these lost details aren't enough to leave new viewers stranded at sea. They can understand, for example, the concept of ReAwakening even if it's also barely explained. 

Now, what did I mean about "almost seamlessly" earlier? During part two, there's a repeated shot of Cheol charging at Jinwoo during his battle with the Boss Ice Elf. It's either where the show comes out of a commercial break, or part of the last time segment at the start of an episode. I'm thinking it's the latter. Otherwise, the two episodes really do flow together.

We have another month before Solo Leveling's second season - subtitled Arise from the Shadow - comes out. Solo Leveling: ReAwakening won't have much time before it's crowded out of theaters by a whole slew of other films. So, if you want a taste of things to come, you have to get to theatres now. If not, the whole first season is there on Crunchyroll. I think it's worth a try either way. That's it for now.

Moana 2

 It's not even been a decade since Moana came out, and already, Disney is giving it a live-action remake. Come to think of it, by the time it comes out, it will have been a decade. But it's still too short to give it a remake.

In the meantime, we have an actual sequel, aptly named Moana 2. This was supposed to have been a Disney + series until the big mice promoted it to feature status. It's a fine sequel, but I don't think it's a new modern masterpiece. You can disagree once you read on.

This time, Moana (Auliʻi Cravalho) learns about the lost island of Motufetu, the lost island that was once the center of the oceanic world. The evil god Nalo sunk it beneath a nasty tempest, and unless Moana can find it, her people will eventually face extinction. Moana sets sail with her pig and rooster, Pua and Heihei, along with a few villagers - Loto the shipwright (Rose Matafeo), Moni the historian (Hualālai Chung) and Kele the farmer (David Fane) - to find the island. Their quest gets slightly easier when they locate Maui (Dwayne Johnson), the demigod apt at pulling islands from the ocean.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Besides from Nalo, our heroes tangle with Matangi (Awihimi Fraser), a literally batty witch who keeps Maui tangled up. When Moana eventually reunites with Maui, he warns her that Matangi is bad news. When Moana finally meets Matangi, we find out that she's not so bad, but we're left expecting some kind of double-cross. Keep expecting that, because she flies off after her big musical number, Get Lost. She only shows up again in the mid-credits, which is where we finally see Nalo in-person, where he's voiced by comedian Tofiga Fepulea'i. I wonder if the feature promotion left some of her big scenes on the cutting room floor. 

The new human crewmates all embody a collective case of "remember the new guy?" syndrome. From the first number onward, they're set up like they've always been part of Moana's community, and not characters created for this movie/series. At least Moana's new sister, Simea (Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda), was born during the three-year gap between movies. These three are already there. They're all likable thanks to their amusing, if somewhat surface level, quirks. Kele's grumpiness made him the best of the new crewmates. Meanwhile, Simea, who doesn't join the voyage, has some of the best lines in the film.

Maui, meanwhile, has not only the absolute best lines in the film, but has the best number, Can I Get a Chee Hoo?, which is part of a pretty good training montage. Moana's new song, the rousing Beyond, isn't as instantly impactful as the first film's How Far I'll Go, but it's still pretty good. There's not much new of them, personality wise. For most of the film, Maui hangs around the stomach of a giant clam, while Moana joins him about halfway through. The late reunion eventually pays off when things get exceptionally dark during the climax. You'll need to see what I mean, but you can already guess things will turn all right. It's still powerful when the happy ending kicks in.

With Lin-Manuel Miranda off doing this month's Mufasa: The Lion King, the songwriting duties fell to Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear (The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical). All of the songs are decently entertaining, especially with the pattering in Can I Get a Chee Hoo? and What Could Be Better Than This? The songs are paired with a rousing score by returning composer Mark Mancina. The accompanying animation is still impressive, whether it's for the ocean itself, the insides of that giant clam or the storm around Motufetu. In fact, the animation and music collaborate the best when Maui finally raises Motufetu.

Don't expect a deep story if you go into Moana 2. It's just a family matinee movie, and it's certainly not the worst movie of its kind. It still has a few good songs, a good sense of humor, a great climax and a welcome presentation of Polynesian culture. It would have been slightly better if the villains had a lot more presence. Ironically, I'm slightly interested now in a Moana 3, just to see if they'll figure into the story a lot better. I'm more interested in that than the Moana remake, though maybe it might surprise me in a few years. Until then, I have to sail off to my next reviews.