The Woman King

 

The Woman King

In Doubt Viola Davis was a tearful distraught mother pleading for help from a stone hearted mother superior played by Merial Streep; Davis was nominated for an Oscar. In The Help Davis plays a maid in the segregated 1950’s south; she won an Oscar. So, playing a Ajojie virgin amazon general is no stretch for her. This is a very muscular role. She was fierce and did not smile once in the film. The film is a historical epic based on a story written by Maria Bello. The Ajojie were all-female warriors who protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey (present day Benin) during the 17th to 19th centuries. 

The movie is action packed. Most of the combat is hand to hand fighting with swords and spears. I am not certain, but I hope Davis used a body double for the grueling battles. The film is more complex than a simple action movie, it has layers. A main theme is the slave trade. Benin was an incubator for deporting slaves. That is where the infamous Gates of No Return were located. In the film warring tribes supplied war captives as slaves. One epic battle was to free the slaves. Against her strong military discipline Davis forms a bond with a young recruit, Nawi. Nevertheless, training is brutal (there are no tears on Dahomey boot camp). There is also palace intrigue. Davis is at odds with king’s harem and a power play with the queen ensues.

Another subplot was a budding romantic entanglement with a Brazilian slaver and young Nawi. The slaver himself was part Brazilian and part Dahomey. He is conflicted about slavery and helps Nawi escape.

The supporting cast were wonderful. Theuso Mbedu plays Nawi the young recruit. She is fearless but does not follow orders. Davis has loyal lieutenants, Lashana Lynch and Shelia Atim  were outstanding. John Boyega plays a regal King Ghezo.

If you like action movies this one is unique. It also gives an historical depiction of the slave trade.

 

 

Blonde

 

Blonde (Netflix)

This movie is not what I expected. Marilyn Monroe was a tragic figure, but this film is sad and in some parts disturbing. Ana de Amras’ performance was hampered by the script and overwrought direction. Physically de Amras struck a good resemble to Monroe with a pouty face, her distinctive beauty mark and Monroe’s trademark hushed voice. Monroe was tormented by the tragic events of Norma Jean’s life, from the orphanage home to her absent father. Some life events of Monroe are well known, her marriage to Joe DiMaggio and to Arthur Miller and her affair with Kennedy. This is not a biography, but some scenes are bizarre and muddle the character.

Under the circumstances de Armas did the best she could. She played Monroe with fragility and damaged from an unstable mother and an absent father. I think some of the scenes must have been uncomfortable for her. Any depiction of Monroe focuses on her sexuality; it could be subtle or crude. The Kennedy scene was just prurient and in bad taste. Her miscarriage and abortions were unnecessarily graphic.

Bobby Cannavale as Joe DiMaggio and Adrian Brodie as Arthur Miller gave good performances. The script is faulty. With DiMaggio her marriage ends in divorce but with Miller he just disappears (they did divorce). Not mentioning her last performance in The Misfits neglects her growth to a maturing actress.

This film gives a one-sided depiction of Monroe as just a sex object. There are some hints of her intelligence when she quotes Chekhov and Dostoevsky or insightfully interprets one on Miller’s characters, but these are dismissed as out of character. No mention is made of her befriending Ella Fitzgerald when it was not acceptable to do so or that she founded her own production company Pacific Standard. There is too much ugly added and too much good left out of this film. The one redeeming feature the film is free on Netflix.

 

Bullet Train

 

Bullet Train

The film is disheveled. It is one long stream of fights, stabbing, gun shots and an occasional snake bite. The story in convoluted and a Wikipedia cheat sheet is advised. Characters get killed or you think they get killed. There are divergent story lines of different periods. Revenge is an undercurrent of the film. Flashbacks strain to give the movie coherence. Mayhem is the main ingredient.

The film is packed with stars, some long lived other not. Brad Pitt is Ladybug an unlucky mercenary. Brad Pitt is his usual cool self but a bit neurotic. His character wants be easy going but he is also constantly attacked and has to brutally kill a few people. The supporting cast are innumerable. There are feature actors and actors with brief appearances. Bad Bunny (for the Medicare crowd that is his stage name) a Mexican assassin with a stained white suit. Lemon and Tangerine are brothers from a different mother (one black the other white) who are Brad Pitt’s main nemesis. There are other nemesis. One is a faux schoolgirl, the Prince, played by Joey King who has more longevity than the other killers and lasts to the end. Then there are the quickies. Ryan Reynolds shows up for five seconds. Channon Tatum is a train passenger with three short scenes. Sandra Bullock is Pitt’s handler and before her brief appearance was the voice on his phone. Michael Shannon is White Death and hard to recognize wearing a mop of hair.

Some of the scenes are incredulous . You can not hang on to the outside of a speeding bullet train unless you have a big S on your chest. With train cars packed like sardines in Japan it is difficult to believe they found two empty cars. There was some levity in the movie but not enough to validate the advertisements. The script tried to mesh various story lines but it tied itself in a knot.

Nope

 

Nope

Not sure if Nope is a yup. Flying saucer (UFOs) movies have been around for decades from War of the Worlds (the original) to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Nope is more like the former, sinister. After an intriguing start the middle of the film loses steam and in later scenes the main action unfolds. The film is partitioned in different scenes. I though one scene involving a chimp was in left field and I didn’t get it. As opposed to Peele’s film, Get Out, Nope does not have brooding tension. The big reveal of seeing the flying saucer comes towards the end but getting there is a slow walk. Parts of the movie have to be inferred and their purpose is opaque. For example when the horses get spooked and run away what happens to them? The most original part of the movie is the flying saucer itself. It is like nothing before.

Danial Kaluuya gives a subdued performance as OJ a wrangler who provides horses for film and TV commercials. His hyperactive sister played by Keke Palmer is loud and funny. Angel ,played by Brandon Perea, is the electronic sales rep who is a UFO believer and sets up camera’s at OJ’s ranch. Steven Yuen is an entrepreneur who runs a side show. Yuen has an unfortunate close encounter.

UFO movies are either benevolent or malevolent; the either or takes away from the tension. The eventual encounter is the driving force. A clearer purpose of why a UFO would fly  billions of light years to earth would have sharpened the focus. Rotten Tomato gave the film an 82%. I am sure a bunch of you are younger than 70 so I encourage you to see the film and draw your own conclusion.

The Grey Man (Netflix)

 

The Grey Man (Netflix)

Electronic billboards in New York City displayed ads for the latest Netflix action/thriller movie, “The Grey Man.” After viewing the action movie, Netflix could be accused of false advertising. What an utter waste of talent. The cast includes Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Billy Bob Thornton, Ana de Armos, Rege-Jean Page, Alfe Woodard and others. To add insult to injury the film was directed and written by the Russo brothers who grossed more than $2.8b in worldwide box office from such films as “Captain America” and “Avengers: Endgame”. Their Midas touch fell short here.

The simple story is an excuse for mayhem including car crashes, a deluge of gun fire and uninspired dialogue. Chris Evans is a caricature of a bad guy with a thin mustache and snappy retorts. He tortures Billy Bob Thornton with a pair pliers ; how prosaic. He could have found more inspired instruments of torture on Amazon. The film is a dizzying travelogue jumping from on city to another. The film has flash backs and forward flashes. Flash backs should be used like salt in a stew, sparingly. The back story of Gosling’s character Sierra Six, a CIA black ops assassin, was shown towards the end of the film. It would have been better towards the beginning to humanize his character. The most eye catching element of the film is how buffed Gosling was. It almost looked fake, like using CG to put Gosling’s head on top of a body builder.

Making this film for $200m does not help Netflix’s current financial problems or subscription issues.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

 

Everything Everywhere All at Once (Amazon Prime)

If you have any drugs left over from the 70’s stashed in your sock draw this is the time to use them. The film is chaotic, the scenes are not sequential. It’s like a Chinese Matrix, but without the pretense. Characters shift  between different parallel universes, called the Alphaverse. In these realities there are alpha versions of themselves. This movie has a little bit of everything for everyone. There is a racoon sushi chef, people with hot dogs for fingers, kung fu, butt plugs (used offensively), google eyes, an everything bagel as a black hole and talking boulders.

The movie starts with Evelyn, played by Michelle Yeoh, and her husband Waymond, played by Ke Huy Quan (Quan played Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Data in The Goonies) at the IRS office audited by aggressive agent played by Jamie Lee Curtis. It is from here the characters start shifting between realities. Contributing to the turmoil, Evelyn’s demanding father, played by the prodigious James Hong (he has 650 film credits) arrived from Hong Kong and her daughter Joy, played by Stefanie Hsu, is trying to introduce her girlfriend to the family. Though out the movie these characters take on different personas. This film does not take itself seriously and some of the fight scenes are hilarious. Yeoh and Hsu give endearing performances and Jamie Lee Curtis in a fat suit and a platinum wig stolen from Andy Warhol’s closet is over the top.

Putting aside all the chaos this is a story about relationships and of what could have been. The alternate realities give expression to different paths. Relationships are with a mother accepting a daughter, dealing with an aging demanding father and a husband reluctantly serving divorce papers to his unsuspecting wife. This movie is different but worthwhile. At the reduced price of $5.99 how can you go wrong.

The Black Phone

 

The Black Phone

The Black Phone is described as a supernatural horror film. It is more like a gritty ghost story. The film  is about the Grabber abducting teenage boys. One boy, Finney, is trapped in the basement of the Grabber’s home. From the disconnected black phone on the wall he gets calls from other deceased missing boys.

The supernatural part is Finney’s interaction with ghosts, as for horror compared to other movies it was mild. Nothing  in the film makes you cover your eyes or jump out of your seat. As for tension it was more in the rubber band area. No matter how dire the situation you have a good notion of the outcome. The ending is muscular with Finney achieving new heights of bravery.

Mason Thames plays Finney. He delivers a convincing performance of a mild mannered kid transformed into a survivor. Ethan Hawke plays the Grabber. This is one of the most underutilized role of his talents. Aside for his sardonic voice, there only is a brief moment when you see his full face. For the entire film he wears a mask . He is creepy and malevolent; a great actor should be seen. It is never explained why he is grabbing these boys; we assume he is just a psychopathic killer (why not abduct girls). A back story would have made the character more interesting. An appealing character is Finney’s younger sister played by Madeline McGraw. She is clairvoyant and foul mouthed. She has a strained  relationship with Jesus.

The story was written by Joe Hill, son of Stephen King. Good to know the legacy continues. Rather than paying $16 for a movie ticket you may want to wait for a discounted streaming option.