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SIFF ‘24 Capsule Review:  ‘EVIL DOES NOT EXIST’ Ponders Divide Between Man and Nature

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s follow-up to Drive My Car, the meditative nature drama Evil Does Not Exist, is anti-commercial in every conceivable way, its slow-moving narrative primed to test the patience of viewers used to films with more assertive pacing. Though it takes a while to get off the ground and reveal what it’s actually about, this Japanese-language tone poem is quietly spellbinding in its exploration of the dissidence between the natural world and the onslaught of commercial enterprise, as witnessed through the lens of a glamping company’s impending occupation of a small town. Arguably more striking as a filmic thesis than a film, Hamaguchi’s ponderous philosophical journey through wooded strolls and town hall meetings will likely bore general audiences to tears but will deservedly find its share of devotees who appreciate Hamaguchi’s nimble, unhurried art form. Eiko Ishibashi’s somber score does a lot of dramatic heavy lifting. (B-)
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Apes Strong in Another Technical Marvel for Resilient Franchise with ‘KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES’

That rare franchise that continues to find new ways to engage its IP by heading in exciting and interesting directions, The Planet of the Apes has flexed its simian strength once more. Coming off a terrific rebooted trilogy (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and War for the Planet of the Apes) that earned its crown as one of the best – if not in conversation for the best – post-modern movie trilogies, director Wes Ball had some significant expectations to contend with. Thankfully, Ball has risen to the occasion, ushering in a new dawn of this saga, and gone to war for the kind of emotionally-driven, intellectually-satisfying narrative that Apes has carved out for itself in an increasingly anti-intellectual blockbuster market.  Read More

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Gosling And Blunt Bring Undeniable Charm to Middling BTS Action-Comedy ‘THE FALL GUY’  

When stuntman Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) breaks his back performing a dangerous movie stunt, he withdraws from both his career and the steamy crush he and camera operator/aspiring director Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt) have been kindling. Eighteen months later, an offer to work on an absurd space western, Metalstorm, filming in Australia, lures him back into the high-wire world of tentpole moviemaking. The film’s overeager producer, Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham), insists on his participation and draws him out of retirement. Her insistence, however, hides ulterior motives. Upon his arrival, Colt realizes that while he’s been brought under the guise of being Tom Ryder’s (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) body double, he’s actually there to help locate the missing high-profile, hot-tempered star. To make matters worse, he finds his now-ex Jody in charge of the production, who greets his unexpected arrival with cool disdain. Read More

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‘BOY KILLS WORLD’ A Graphic Overkill That Tires Quickly

Boy Kills World plunges viewers into a frenetic, hyper-stylized dystopia reminiscent of a violent graphic novel, drenched in buckets of expertly-extracted gore. It’s a stylish mélange of the warped battle royale fantasia of The Hunger Games with Schumacher’s colorful and daffy 90s Batman movie entries, spiced with a dash of the meta, self-aware hyper-violence of the popular TV series The Boys. A decidedly over-the-top action genre entry by first-time filmmaker Moritz Mohr, Boy Kills World swings for the fences, though it occasionally whiffs due to its extreme, maximalist approach. Read More

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Guy Ritchie’s Plucky WWII Men on a Mission Caper ’THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE’ Revels in Nazi Slaughter

Gus March-Phillips is putting together a team. His collection of ex-military undesirables are a rag-tag team of muscle-bound rapscallions, culled from the ranks of the British and other E.U. Armed Forces Units for their insubordination, trigger-happy nature, and general rancor. Their mission: to carry out a top-secret plot to disrupt the Nazi U-boat supply chain, thereby freeing the Atlantic from their reign of underwater terror and allowing for reinforcements from their eager American allies. The execution of said mission is workmanlike and slapdash, both as carried out by the involved parties and by director Guy Ritchie. Read More

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‘CHALLENGERS’ Volleys Passion and Obsession in Steamy Love Triangle

“You think you know what tennis is about but you don’t,” Zendaya’s tennis wunderkind Tashi Duncan scolds best friends Art and Patrick. Tennis, she says, is about a relationship. The beauty of the sport isn’t its winning – despite that being the thing that separates champions from wash-outs – it’s about the magic of two people hitting a ball with a racket in complete synchronicity. There the rest of the world falls away, leaving behind a chorus of grunts and pools of sweat, and physical artistry. So too is Challengers about tennis and a relationship. Though the relationship at the center of Luca Guadagnino’s steamy sports drama is neither a traditional doubles or singles match, as the two young men, bunkmates-turned-teammates-turned-rivals, find themselves sparring for the affections of one woman in an awkward, decades-spanning love triangle. Read More

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‘SASQUATCH SUNSET’ Jettisons Dialogue for Naturalistic Study of Being

A bewildering little cryptid curio from David Zellner and Nathan Zellner, a.k.a. the Zellner Brothers (Kumiko the Treasure Hunter, Damsel), Sasquatch Sunset is entirely its own vibe. Wholly free of dialogue and featuring a family of four Sasquatchs living their feral lives somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, their film is an arthouse experiment with form that weasels its way under the skin to draw out questions of man’s impact on the natural world. Including the fictional Yeti living in their forests. Despite featuring plenty of Sasquatch defecation, Sasquatch genitals, and Sasquatch fornication, the Zellners’ latest film, as if made for those who thought the opening shot of 2001: A Space Odyssey could have sustained an entire creature feature, is oddly affecting, couching an environmental plea inside an otherwise obscene portrait of untamed existence.   Read More

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‘CIVIL WAR’ Evokes the Nightmare of a Truly Divided Nation, Sans Commentary

Non-American filmmakers tend to produce the most unflinching movies about American sociopolitical horror. 12 Years a Slave, from British filmmaker Steve McQueen, is a powerful example that confronts America’s great shame with startling sobriety; as is Canadian director Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, a gritty, though stunningly-mounted, look at American law enforcement on the Southern border. Even Nomadland, from Chinese-born auteur Chloé Zhao, provided one of the better modern-day examples of American economic unraveling in the gig economy era. With Civil War, English writer-director Alex Garland tries to enter the conversation to mixed results. His film is at once a potent reckoning with the United States’ overheated national temperature that measures tense war movie thrills with the artistry of an A24 film, but with an oddly apolitical shape. His film, more a tribute to the bravado of war journalists than an actual attempt to remark on contemporary American division, seems to lack any discerning political leaning or astute observation to justify its American setting beyond showcasing how truly horrifying a civil war unfolding on home turf would be. 

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Dev Patel’s ‘MONKEY MAN’ is Franchisable Action Fare in Inequitable India

Written, directed, and starring Dev Patel, Monkey Man is Patel’s action movie passion project. Written as a means of rejuvenating the formulaic genre by infusing it with “real pain”, “real trauma”, and a dash of cultural intrigue, Monkey Man is nonetheless pretty standard revenge-driven action fare, though Patel’s passion in front of and behind the camera is undeniable. A furious fisticuff beat-em-up, Patel’s movie interweaves elements from Indian mythology—drawing heavily on the legend of the invincible deity Hanuman for its hero’s backstory—with a narrative set against the backdrop of societal inequity and upheaval reminiscent of current politics under a Modi-esque ruler.  Read More

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Monstrously Dumb ‘GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE’ As Empty As Hollow Earth

More a proper Kong movie with some Godzilla spice sprinkled on top than the titan buddy movie that the marketing materials insists this film is, Adam Wingard’s cartoonish Godzilla x Kong: New Empire is loud, brash, and dumb, with its wee share of monster fun. Will it be enough to satisfy audiences hungry for more large-scale monster mashing? Probably – but for a franchise that consistently undervalues things like character, stakes, and scale, and still manages decent box office returns and mild reviews, that’s not particularly hard to achieve. This fifth edition in Warner Brother’s MonsterVerse picks up after the events of Godzilla vs. Kong where, as the title implies, the two titans threw down in a tedious battle that overshadowed any semblance of human subplot. Read More