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Saturday Night (2024)
Live from New York!
The only thing missing was more cocaine.
Saturday Night aims to recreate the chaotic, anxiety-riddled, drug-fueled, anything goes symphony that was the first episode of Saturday Night Live on October 11th, 1975. Not only does it work, but Saturday Night is one of the most enjoyable films I've seen this year. It is a heart-pounding, spellbinding 109 minutes. It could have gone through the motions as a useless dime-a-dozen biopic, but it doesn't. Jason Reitman understood the assignment. Get the time period right and sanitize nothing. You could smell the cigarette smoke off of this thing. I only wished it flowed in one continuous shot, ala Birdman, but honestly, who can hardly tell? I was at first skeptical about the casting, but boy, do these guys outdo themselves. Reitman really did find a cast that was identical to the younger versions of these iconic comedy legends. Cory Michael Smith is a dead ringer of Chevy Chase. I was gobsmacked at Nicholas Podany doing the world's greatest Billy Crystal impersonation. Matt Wood is practically possessed by the spirit of Belushi.
Biopics usually have one job: to tell the true story as accurately as you can and as entertaining as possible. The other job is to place you right in the thick of history. We are the proverbial flies-on-the-wall and this film is our time machine. Saturday Night, for all intents and purposes, makes it to air.
Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)
The Killing Joke
What you've heard is true. Joker: Folie à Deux is not good. But my reasons for not liking it, I think, are different from why most people don't like it. Let me be clear, I don't fault this movie for trying something new. I don't fault it for taking big risks. I don't fault it for directly challenging what made the first film so iconic. What frustrates me is how half-baked and half-assed everything is. For a film with such daring ideas, Todd Phillips clearly doesn't have the courage of his convictions to follow through with any of them. The passion that should drive this film is missing entirely. Lazy is the best word to describe it.
Arthur Fleck is in Arkham Asylum, awaiting trial. He's beaten and run ragged by a thuggish gang of prison guards. One day, he meets Harley Quinn during a session of "musical therapy" and Harley falls madly in love with him. As it turns out, she's attracted to the dangerous celebrity he's become. Think of the psychotic love notes that real-life serial killers get in prison, and you have what this film is sort of touching upon. Since they both love to sing, they sing... and they sing... and they never stop singing. Yes, it's a musical. A big jukebox musical, complete with choreographed dance numbers.
I reiterate, I'm not against the concept of making this a musical. But it's how they go about it here that's so disingenuous and cynical. If Arthur and Harley sang only to themselves, with no orchestra backing them up, it would've been akin to the behavior of real-life psychopaths. Think of the Charles Manson prison interviews from the 1980s. But instead, it's nothing more than an excuse to hear Lady Gaga belt out a few show tunes for the soundtrack.
Lady Gaga is a fine actress, and an even finer singer, but Todd Phillips creates a version of Harley Quinn that gives her absolutely nothing to work with. She does not match Arthur's mental illness in any way. She isn't convincing as a person who would realistically be locked away in an asylum. You genuinely feel how cheaply she's used to sell tickets here.
We're slogging along with this film for the greater part of two hours. But then, there's the last 20 minutes. This, in my view, is where the greatest concepts and risks of the film are realized. The first Joker movie thrived as a spectacle that held a mirror to a decimated American society, obsessed with lone-wolf killers and their pathetic, selfish reasons for committing their atrocious crimes. This film wants to take that and smash it into a thousand pieces. Todd Phillips may be telling us that he never wanted Joker to be such a controversial film in the first place. I get the sense that not only is he unhappy to have made a sequel, but he's pissed at how most of us interpreted it. Maybe it's because I had lost so much patience by the film's end, but I found the shocking conclusion to be cathartic and rewarding. As a microcosm of how we should view these horrible people as a society, it's even more satisfying.
I realize that everyone's take on this film will be vastly different. That's a great thing. Even bad films should get people talking. It's a shame that that bad film is a sequel to Joker.
Easy Rider (1969)
Born to be Wild
Easy Rider is a road movie and a hangout movie. But more than that, it was a portrait of the utterly broken state of America in 1968. Billy and Wyatt ride from California to New Orleans, exploring sections of the country they've never seen, selling drugs, picking up women, and sleeping off of the side of the road. In essence, they are free spirits, not unlike the many free spirits that began populating the American landscape at that time. But Easy Rider hints at something darker. Hippies, typically in their own words, express how free they are. Was it freedom? Or were they just lost? Lost in an America that no longer made any sense.
Easy Rider is a haunting journey into the abyss of the counterculture of the 1960s. All of the joys and all of the dangers. We ride with Billy and Wyatt and all of the friends they make on the way. If the film feels like it has nowhere to go, that's the point. Their journey is as pointless as it's made out to be. Why do they want to get to New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras? By the time they get there, even they don't know anymore.
Even if I never see this film again, I can pick two scenes that will forever stick with me. I think George Hansen's demise. How quick and brutal it is at the hands of angry southerners, looking for hippies to squash like cockroaches. The sequence located at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is a devastating depiction of an acid trip and one of the best stretches of film that you will ever watch. It's one thing for Easy Rider to have captured the embarrassingly vulnerable state the bikers and the girls were in; it was quite another to wonder how on earth they managed to film it all on site, defiling every one of those graves. If you told me that this was a documentary, maybe I'd believe it.
Mouse Hunt (1997)
Cheese Whiz
Despite being a hit in its time, Mouse Hunt has a mixed reputation. I think it was way ahead of its time. They marketed it as a kids film, and that's why it left such a baffled impression from a lot of people who grew up with it. It's not at all appropriate for kids, even if its slapstick antics were tailor made for box-office gold. From the standpoint of today, this is a really good dark comedy. So many scenes left me howling. Gore Verbinski wasn't afraid to experiment with so many wild ideas here. This film relishes in the absurd just as much as it does in its slapstick. The scenes with Christopher Walker brilliantly demonstrate that. If you haven't seen it in decades, give it a watch now.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
Ghost with the most
As far as sequels of beloved movies are concerned, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice could have been far worse. In fact, it's not a bad movie. I'd compare it to a rowdy family reunion. It's hilarious in parts, dazzling to look at, and ridiculously entertaining with an ensemble cast that brings their all to their respective rolls. However, its story and structure are sloppy and incoherent to a nearly unforgivable degree.
Three stories about love and mortality slam together here in an attempt to create another madcap adventure in the land of the dead. It's frustrating how little these stories come together. Will Beetlejuice reunite with his vengeful, undead ex-wife Delores? Will Astrid save her boyfriend's soul? Will Lydia settle for her freaky poseur television producer as her future husband? By the film's climax, you hardly care. Perhaps that is not the point; I get it. But remember, the first film told a story that was just as interesting as the cutting-edge special effects that amazed audiences 36 years ago.
What does work is how Beetlejuice Beetlejuice absolutely loses itself in its universe once more. Tim Burton proves that after so many decades, he can still come through as a whimsical master of the macabre. If you came to laugh, gasp, and shriek, this film absolutely delivers. It's grosser and gorier than the first, and I liked that it was! The practical effects are also so warmly welcomed here. You will be hard-pressed to find a shot with CGI. I especially got a kick out of how Delores pieces her body back together with a staple gun, all before sucking out the souls of the dead like a helium-filled ballon. The film closes out with a show-stopping musical number that tries to recapture the magic of the "Day-O" dinner scene but falls very short. Nobody will go home humming "MacArthur Park", but it makes for arguably the most bizarre and inspired moment of the entire film.
Trap (2024)
Twisting in the wind
Your enjoyment of Trap is entirely dependent on whether or not you find the mystery and suspense of the film interesting. I'm disappointed to say that whatever worked or was interesting about the film's concept from the beginning is totally abandoned by the film's end. Using a pop concert as entrapment to catch a serial killer is a great idea. At least initially, Shyamalan wants you to be on your toes and discuss with yourselves who is truly the target of the investigation and how the story will unravel from there. Were we expecting too much? I don't think so. Shyamalan is the king of movie twists. He has the psychological intrigue of Alfred Hitchcock with the joyful campiness of Stephen King. Even if his payoffs are ridiculous and borderline stupid, he at least has the courage to take those risks. He takes no risks in Trap. If you've seen any boring, bargain-bin psycho-thriller, you've seen this. There's no reward to staying with these characters and following their every move. It ends lamer and more predictable than you could have ever expected. I felt like I was fleeced as I walked out of the theater. Was the twist that there was no twist? Or perhaps it was the friends we made along the way?
Pearl (2022)
A Star is Born
So far this decade, you won't be able to find a better psycho-thriller than Pearl: the unexpected prequel to X. In the previous film, Pearl was the horny, octogenarian killer of porn stars. Here, she is one of the most frightening horror villains in recent memory. Pearl is truly, helplessly psychotic. She wants to be a big Hollywood star, so very, very badly. Get in her way and she'll chop you up into tiny bits. Ti West is a daring horror director and a true risk-taker. Pearl is so removed from X, in that it has a sweeping, startling vision for one of its main characters. West is fascinated by searching deep in the muck of his slasher of choice. Pearl has no reason to be this richly developed, but it's wonderful that she is. Mia Goth's performance here is what truly cemented her as one of the best and most exciting actors working right now. Arguably, she turns an even better portrayal of violent mental illness than Joaquin Phoenix's Joker. I'm not usually terrified of the actors who play their horror roles, but if I ran into Goth, I think I'd probably run the other way. The overly saturated colors properly capture the campiness of a 50s melodrama and oddly compliment the darkness of Pearl's story. In all, I couldn't keep my eyes off of it, and it will stick with me for a very long time.
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Pool Party
Deadpool & Wolverine are a buddy comedy match made in heaven. For his third outing, the court jester of Marvel brings his A-game to what is an explosive summer blockbuster. It has everything fans wanted and hoped for, and yet, I still wanted so much more. This is more of a satirical send-off to the 20th Century Fox, X-Men cinematic universe than it is gleeful middle-finger to Marvel studios. Every now and then, D&W targets Marvel in glorious fashion. But you'll notice how much was left off the table. But for all we know, they could be saving a lot of that for Deadpool 4, if and when we get one. What you do get doesn't disappoint. I love how these movies leave audiences roaring with laughter. I miss good studio comedies.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)
The Heat is Back.
As I watched Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, three words came to mind: Do no harm. This movie doesn't reinvent the franchise or take risks that could turn into really bad decisions. It knows what made the first three films work so well. Reboots, strained and tired as they are, should really take note of what is done here. It's funny, gritty, and action-packed. It toes the line on fan service pretty well. Eddie Murphy feels like an older, wiser Axel. When I say that this is the best movie to watch on a hot and relaxing July 4th weekend, I mean it. Now that I think of it, that makes its Netflix-only release even more fitting.
Unfrosted (2024)
Soggy.
Unfrosted had just about everything going for it. An all-star comedy cast, Jerry Seinfeld in his first creative project since Bee-Movie and breakfast IPs galore. If nothing else, Unfrosted is admirably ambitious and passionate about bringing the time period and the products within to life. But is it funny? Not really. That's the most shocking thing of all. Nearly anyone would have thought that letting Jerry Seinfeld loose in the cereal aisle would've brought back that Seinfeld magic that we haven't seen in 25 years. Unfrosted doesn't do that, neither does it bring anything else to the table. On the surface, it feels like Anchorman in the cereal trades. The energy is anarchic. Jokes are thrown at the wall like a baby eating Cheerios. The problem is, 70% of them are way too bizarre. For every one joke that gets a laugh, there are a dozen that will leave you scratching your head. I'm one of the biggest cheerleaders of absurdist comedy, and I even had trouble stomaching this. It could very well be the case that hours of better jokes and scenes were left on the cutting room floor. If it is, then Jerry needs to find a better editor. I'm saddened that I found this to be such a labored experience, when it really should have been a volcanic eruption of laughs and nostalgia.
Inside Out 2 (2024)
I Second That Emotion.
For the first time since the Toy Story franchise, Pixar has made a sequel with a story truly worth telling. Yes, Inside Out was a film so rich in its characters and ideas that you could easily and inevitably make so many more films to follow it. When we left Riley and her emotions, she was still a little kid. Now she's a teenager. For most teenagers, an entire new batch of emotions takes over. Inside Out 2 interprets this by having the original 5 displaced in a coup led by the well-meaning, but controlling Anxiety: who looks like Ickis from Aaahh! Real Monsters. This film is spilling out of its seams with inspiration. You really don't mind getting lost in the world of emotions. But most importantly, this film has retained its irresistible sweetness. Though it doesn't reach the emotional heights of the first film, Inside Out 2 lends a crucial voice to older children, especially those who feel strange about changing.
This is Disney/Pixar working at the top of their respective forms, and what a return to that form it is.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
On the road again.
Welcome back to the Wastelands. After 9 years of silence, George Miller takes us back to the loud, greasy and bloody world of Mad Max in a worthy prequel to Fury Road. Movie theaters still exist for movies like this. Even the loudest and brightest IMAX screen doesn't do Furiosa justice. George Miller has contributed 40 years of world building that has surely enriched the massive scope that Furiosa relishes in. Anya-Taylor Joy is incredible here. By the film's end, she becomes eerily inseparable to Charlize Theron's portrayal in Fury Road. Chris Hemsworth absolutely chews up the screen as the bombastic Dementus. Both are glorious to watch onscreen. It's true that Furiosa doesn't reinvent the wheel or bring anything new to the franchise, but honestly, did it need to? God no. It's just endless fun.
Landscape with Invisible Hand (2023)
Closed Encounters
This is a film with a great idea and plenty of fun exploring the post-alien apocalyptic world it creates. Finley excels with the amount of world-building he puts into this. The aliens are as charming and unnerving as they ought to be, and the human reaction to them is as awkward as it should be. But after all of that, the film has so much trouble closing out its story. To say that Landscape has an anti-climatic ending would be an understatement. There must be a point to the artist, his murals, and the aliens who want access to them. If there aren't, what exactly is the point? If the satire relies on the alien race acting identically to the wealthiest 1% of the world's economy, that's not enough to carry this film to its proper completion. I would say Landscape is not as bad as its worst detractors say, but its criticisms are pretty valid.
Wish (2023)
A kingdom without magic
Wish topped off 2023 for Disney. Arguably, it was the most dismal year for the company to date. When you realize it was their 100th anniversary year, that makes things even more tragic. A big part of why things went so badly was, well, Wish itself.
This has to be Disney's worst animated film. It is as much of a commercial for the company as Space Jam 2 was for Warner Bros. It's just a long string of Disney references and homages, strung along with a mediocre fairytale about the power of wishes. Is this the best Disney can do? No. Surely, it is not. Disney hasn't made it this far to turn in a film this lazy. If I was head of production, I would have begged for this movie to be shelved until it was reworked into something much better than this. Films like Coyote Vs. Acme are sitting in a basement somewhere with issues far less than the kind you'll see in Wish. I would say that Disney has no shame, but shameless isn't going to cut it going forward. The house of mouse has a legacy worth preserving and worth living up to. Do better!
X (2022)
Creep-Peep Show
X asks the question, what if Jason Vorhees was jealous of all the action he saw at Camp Crystal Lake? The exhausted horror trope of punishing promiscuous young people is mocked mercilessly here by having the film take place on a porn set. It's hard to believe X hasn't been made already, but it's come at the right place and at the right time. Audiences want to watch crazier, dirtier movies. Marvel-fatigue has brought filmmaking (especially independent film) back to the creative excesses of the 70s. Anything goes! Bring in a studio like A24, and we now have an entire industry of wild, adults-only films being cranked out one after the other. X is a great horror movie. It's nasty in all of the right ways. It wants to be just like the films of its era and it knows exactly what to do to accomplish that. Blood, guts, sexy naked people and sex scenes. Yeah, that's a good time at the movies in anyone's book.
Licorice Pizza (2021)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Many have stated, correctly, that Licorice Pizza is a return to form for Paul Thomas Anderson to the days of Boogie Nights and Punch-Drunk Love. He made his name telling crazy stories in the San Fernando Valley. But all that being said, Licorice Pizza doesn't feel like a retread of the past. Nobody wants to see a paint-by-numbers version of 90s PTA. If anything, this feels more like an epilogue for him in the same way that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was for Quentin Tarantino. It's a more personalized, emotional reflection on his upbringing and his early film career.
What's more is that Licorice Pizza is a film that could have only been made by Paul Thomas Anderson. Nobody else could have told this story and made this film properly, I am sure of it. There isn't a single character in here that is a good person. Gary Valentine is an opportunistic creep and poseur. He's a stupid kid, always trying to get something over on someone, whether it be money or sex. Alana Kane is a spectacularly immature 25 year-old who would rather further her own career than choose what is morally right. She willingly entertains Gary's advances. Gary is underage. This is wrong. She knows it's wrong, and she doesn't care. How in the world are we supposed to sympathize with these two characters? In the hands of any other filmmaker, Licorice Pizza would be a catastrophe. It's a masterpiece instead. I wish I could explain why.
Just as Martin Scorsese understands the underbelly of the Italian-American experience in New York, Paul Thomas Anderson understands the lawless hellscape that is show business in Los Angeles. Everyone is out for themselves. Our rules don't apply. This is a world where people are trying to get famous by any means necessary. The world that surrounds Gary and Alana is just as shameful and ruthless as their toxic relationship. There's slimy politicians, has-been old Hollywood actors, racist restaurateurs and Jon Peters, who needs no explanation. In context, everything about Licorice Pizza makes sense. That is remarkable.
Even more remarkable is how Paul Thomas Anderson brings this film to life. It doesn't take much to recognize his graceful touch. Through every unorthodox camera angle and every line unspoken, to just a simple facial expression that the camera lingers on, Paul Thomas Anderson's mastery of the visual language continues to exist on a spiritual level. Nobody in the modern era of cinema can capture human vulnerability in the ways that he can. Every emotion is properly distilled, from rage, to fear, to sadness and to pure joy. You can relate to his characters, no matter how profoundly different they are to you. Even these characters. In my view, he is our greatest living filmmaker.
Saltburn (2023)
Itchy
The chasm between people who love or hate this film is huge. I find myself in neither camp. I enjoyed the film's excesses. The lengths at which Oliver Quick devours the Catton family were... ahem... creative. Oliver Quick felt like a younger, working-class version of Patrick Bateman, and while we are on the subject, I can easily see Saltburn getting the same cult-classic following as American Psycho. But I was frustrated by how unfocused the film was on its ideas. Is this a critique of the billionaire class or people who idolize billionaires? Are people who want to leach off of their wealthy connections good or bad? A social satire like this can be delicious, but we need to know what exactly is being targeted. Saltburn is a film with so much momentum and potential. Regardless, I think its problems might be completely irrelevant in the end.
Maestro (2023)
A challenging symphony
Clearly, what we have here is a passion project by Bradley Cooper. Maestro reflects on Leonard Bernstein as a complicated man. For sure, Cooper recognizes and celebrates Bernstein's innate virtuoso genius, as well as his stunning ability to work a room without so much as lifting a baton. But the focus is on his flaws. That being, his undying love for his wife, Felicia, which is simultaneously challenged by his lusting unfaithfulness brought about by his repressed and unaddressed homosexuality. Cooper doesn't see Bernstein as a victim or a villain, but simply, a good man who must come to grips with the consequences of his own actions. The famed conductor, adored by millions, is just a human. A human who's flawed like so many. Bernstein's story proves that neither of these truths are mutually exclusive.
To highlight these two concepts, Maestro is separated into two parts and contains the most striking and devastating tonal shift of any movie in recent memory. The first 30 minutes of the film, in black-and-white, feel like a shot of adrenaline. You get a little bit of Billy Wilder and a dash of Howard Hawkes as we see Bernstein's rise to glory and his blissful love affair with Felicia. The world seems so optimistic and exciting. This is a man who can hustle and make things happen! Anything is possible. Then, in color, everything stops. All the exuberance and the hope of a bright shining future of a young talent washed away. Bernstein's marriage turns sour. His fame and acclaim begin to isolate him. Bernstein has turned into a bitter, selfish, older man, ungrateful and unsatisfied with the world around him. This was a stunning decision by Cooper. You can feel the weight of the world come crashing down on you as the film continues. Maestro is anything but one note as a biopic, and i can't tell you how unbelievably refreshing that is.
If only Maestro could've found a way to make this transition seem less abrupt. What I mean is that we know by the second half that everything went horribly wrong for the Bernstein family, but we aren't given any of the early warning signs. Perhaps the tragedy wouldn't have hit as hard as it does here if the transition was gradual, but at times, it feels as though this film wanted to have a chance to breathe, but couldn't. From a tainted marriage to a cancer diagnosis, we wonder whatever happened to the Lenny and Felicia of days past. Was it all a dream? Was the first half just the reality of our collective imaginations? Is the real Leonard Bernstein anywhere near his legendary status in music and theatre? Cooper asks these question, but I'm not sure that he fully comes to an answer.
The film's second half left me speechless. Cooper and Mulligan absolutely triumph in their respective roles here. The long takes that focus on the most painful moments of their later years assert a powerful cinematic dialogue we haven't seen from any other director since Paul Thomas Anderson. Cooper, insomuch as he has been a director these past several years, has matured greatly. This is a director who's really making some big moves. This is someone who clearly has a lot to say. But he's still got a lot of work to do.
I was particularly disappointed and almost dismayed by the film's ending. Whatever strides Cooper took before, he took a hundred steps backwards with an ending that felt cold and cynical. Bernstein is just a shell of what he was, with only Felicia's memory left to remind him of what he once had... AND? Is that truly all that's left to say? Is dancing with his new 80s boy-toy all that we're going to reduce this great conductor to? I would hope to see this decision dividing audiences as much as I believe it should. If it does, that could only be good news. Because that would mean that Maestro has got us talking. Any movie worth its salt should do just that.
May December (2023)
Jaw-Dropping
Going into this, you would be right to feel very weary of its subject. The question is whether May December is sober enough to deal with Gracie and Joe's relationship with the seriousness it requires. If it doesn't, does it make the horrific decision of normalizing their story?
As I watched, it became clear that Todd Haynes was telling a stone-cold, tragic story with no ulterior motives. Anytime Gracie and Joe appear onscreen, together or apart, you can feel your skin crawl. That's the point. Nothing about their relationship or their lives is normal or okay. If the film makes any comment at all, it's to mock the nature in which the tabloid media exploits stories like this. Haynes clearly sees the media in the same predatory light as he does with Gracie. Elizabeth, the actor, comes to study them in the shallowest of ways. She has ample time to witness their messed-up lives, but only sees them as a means to land a role she thinks will bring her more acclaim and attention. The film itself is scored with music straight out of a true crime docuseries from the 90s.
May December, challenging as it may be, is one of the best films of 2023. Todd Haynes, ever the master of provocative cinema, has made another stunningly bold film. Portman, Moore and Melton will take your breath away.
Poor Things (2023)
A Bizarre Masterpiece
If you've seen any Yorgos Lathimos film, Poor Things is everything you would have expected and hoped for. If you haven't seen any of his films, buckle up. That's all I'll say.
Poor Things is a thoroughly outrageous romp. It's trippy, disturbing and brutally funny. You could summarize this film as, essentially, a feminist spin on A Clockwork Orange. Both films/novels explore the concept of freewill in an oppressive society. But while Alex struggles with his repugnant urges for ultra-violence, Bella struggles with her normal primal urges of sexual liberation and independence. What women are expected to do in this dystopian universe, Bella does the opposite, and much to the chagrin of her male caretakers. Despite being created in a laboratory by a mad scientist and saddled with the brain of the infant child she was pregnant with, Bella forms an insatiable appetite for exploring and thriving.
Poor Things celebrates hedonism, but in a way that's both honest and humorous. Lathimos finds freewill to be as necessary as the air we breathe, and at times, that challenges so-called "polite society". Consider Bella an avatar for the id. Or, perhaps consider her a pioneer and a rebel. Whatever impression you make out of this, you will be blown away by Bella, who is truly the heart and soul of this entire movie. This is the defining role of Emma Stone's career. She captures a level of vulnerability and aching desire that we haven't seen from any actor in a long time.
Poor Things holds nothing back. There's a lot of sex. A lot of awkward, unsexy, sex. Perhaps it's the most realistic sex we've ever seen in a film! The special effects here are some of the strangest and most inspired of Lathimos's entire career. Mark Ruffalo's performance as Duncan is by far the year's best comedic performance.
If you're looking for a cinematic spectacle this holiday season, you've found it right here.
Leo (2023)
Being green has never been so easy!
Adam Sandler has, in particular, made two very smart decisions in his career. One was starring in Punch-Drunk Love and proving that he is secretly one of the finest actors of our time. The other was starring in Hotel Transylvania. By branching out into animation geared towards families, Sandler found a proper vehicle for his silliest abilities and doing so without alienating people with the kind of overly juvenile humor that plagued his comedy movies in the 2000's. He's back voicing an elderly and wise lizard in Leo. Folks, I mean this without a hint of irony when I say that Leo is very nearly the funniest movie of the year. I expected to like this movie, but I didn't expect to laugh as much as I did. Credit belongs to veteran SNL writer, Robert Smigel. Leo is filled to the brim with a Shrek 2-caliber of amazing sight gags. Plus, it has the funniest interpretation of kindergarteners that I've ever seen. As for Adam Sandler, he brings a level of warmth and goofiness to his character that felt like a loving tribute, both in style and tone, to the late, great, Gilbert Gottfried. No, this isn't a lame showcase of a new Sandler voice that will drive you mental by the 10-minute mark. Leo is a lovable protagonist. The cringey and forced musical numbers hold this thing back from being a pretty solid animated movie all around.
Dream Scenario (2023)
Dream a little dream of me.
Nicholas Cage is everything, everywhere, all at once. Well, at least in your dreams, he is. Dream Scenario is such a delightful film. It's so good that it's frustrating that it's not even better.
What I mean is that Dream Scenario has a concept so inspired and subversive, and a lead in Nicholas Cage that has all the markings of a cinematic icon. The sequences, especially in the dream realm, are as magical as they are frightening. This is filmmaking come completely alive. I couldn't tell what was coming next from scene to scene and I loved that.
But with all that said, I think the story closes out in a way that doesn't properly bring things all together. Unlike films like Groundhog Day or Being John Malkovich, it feels as though Dream Scenario struggles to come to a satisfying conclusion of Paul Matthew's bizarre predicament.
Paul Matthews never realizes that he has dominion over everyone else's dreams. He doesn't master his otherworldly craft. Instead, his newly found fame consumes him and destroys everything in his life. Meanwhile, The dreams that everyone has of him start as curious, then terrifying, and then they just stop happening all together. We are never given the reason why. Only at the behest of technological software given to him does he go back and tries to fix the life that his dreams ruined, but even then, it's too late. In the end, Paul Matthews is just a hapless victim of a phenomenon that comes and goes. Perhaps that's just how this kind of thing would go in real life. Maybe it would be just as tragic as this film makes it appear.
Flaws aside, this is the exact kind of movie that A24 does best. This is a freewheeling ride that doesn't stop being a good time. Kristoffer Borgli is a name I'll be keeping an eye on and you should be too. This is his first big feature in the USA, and it showcases just how fresh and talented of a storyteller he is.
The Holdovers (2023)
Holiday cheer!
The Holdovers is a Christmas classic in the making. Or, that's just way Alexander Payne wanted us to feel while watching it. Either way, this is the bittersweet comedy of the season and an absolute must see. The laughs really sting. Payne is at his very best with this material. You'll notice right away the 1970s pastiche, complete with a crackly, poppy celluloid sheen (even though this film was shot digitally), but that is not even close to what makes The Holdovers so special. It has, arguably, the richest screenplay written this year. The characters are developed beautifully, akin to a novel. Payne understands that when the story and characters shine the most brightly in a film, everything else is Thanksgiving gravy. Paul Giamatti is, once again, a treasure as Paul Hunham. Even in a film as good as this, Giamatti is the heart and soul.
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Bad Moon Rising
Killers of the Flower Moon has put me in one of the most delightful quandaries of my cinematic life. Let me be perfectly clear, Killers of the Flower Moon absolutely towers over thousands of movies you've seen this year. This is a thrilling, exhilarating, gorgeous and horrifying work of art from the master of cinema himself, Martin Scorsese. For 3 and 1/2 hours, you are glued to screen and completely untethered from reality. It tells both a grisly true crime story, more terrifying to witness than it is to read about and a heartbreaking tragedy of injustice and greed at its most grotesque. Both stories are absolutely worth your time in experiencing and I'd recommend seeing this film, in its behemoth-sized entirety, in a theater. But do both stories work as a complete, singular film? Is the whole greater than the sum of its parts? Or are the parts so good, they'd work better on their own? That is the question of the day.
The Osage Nation, in northern Oklahoma, are a tribe blessed by an unspeakable bounty of oil underneath their feet. The twenties come roaring in for them, as the Osage becomes the wealthiest tribe in all of North America. But white would-be robber barons come gushing by the trainloads, and they want in on all of that oil money. Enter, Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), a down-on-his-luck, simple-minded WWI vet and the nephew of influential cattle rancher William "King" Hale (Robert DeNiro). Hale takes his nephew under his wing and influences him to marry a Osage woman in order to take control of the family head-rights. Ernest finds that woman in Mollie (Lily Gladstone). Mollie falls for him, despite being seemingly aware of his intentions of which she clearly resents. All is hunky dory until, out of nowhere, a mysterious rash of brutal killings take hold of the Osage nation. Bodies start piling up, one by one. Incidentally, Mollie's immediate family is directly impacted by the murders. She loses her sister Anna, and then her sister Rita. Mollie knows that someone close to her is wiping out her family for the head-rights. What she doesn't realize is that William Hale is running a diabolical criminal enterprise in killing Osage men and women. Furthermore, Ernest is directly involved in the planning of these murders and is plotting to take out his own wife by lacing her insulin with alcohol. Does Ernest care? Not really. "I love money more than my own wife!" he exclaims to his crony friends. Mollie solicits the help of the federal government and soon enough, a budding, early stage FBI comes knocking on Ernest's door.
Ernest, Mollie and William are as richly developed and fascinating as any character we've seen in any Martin Scorsese picture. Ernest is guided merely by his primal desires for sex and greed. He has no depth, integrity or any self-respect. Like most of Scorsese's male protagonists, Ernest's lack of morals motivate every bad decision he makes and we the viewer watch in awe at how badly he debases himself in pursuits of his goals. William Hale, portrayed by Robert DeNiro, is one of the most evil screen villains I've seen in recent memory and easily the worst person DeNiro has ever played on screen. He's a master manipulator and a methodical psychopath, who befriends the Osage nation as a loyal benefactor and an ally, with every intention of wiping out their wealth, their land and their lives. This is a level of evil that most films never touch upon. The wolf in sheep's clothing. Lily Gladstone is absolutely mesmerizing as Mollie. She gives a profoundly beautiful performance as a woman utterly exhausted from the constant outrage and tragedy in her life. Her performance is a Best Actress Oscar contender for sure.
So what is the thing that's confusing me so much? Honestly, it's the constant tonal shifts. Its stark to say the very least. It's an amazing gangster movie and it's an amazing tragedy. Marty goes back and forth between the two. That didn't completely sit well with me. Scorsese admitted weeks ago that he originally wrote the film through the perspective of the FBI agents and nearly forgot about the perspectives of the Osage nation. He did a substantial rewrite. Watching the film, you can really see it. It explains the bloated run-time. Some have suggested that the film could've been near perfect with a proper edit. The problem is, functionally, you'd lose so much if you did. Could Killers have benefited from being separated into two parts (Ala the Godfather)? Or sliced up into 30 minute episodes for a miniseries? It's an interesting thought. We'll never know for sure.
Evil Dead II (1987)
Dead and Loving It!
Evil Dead 2 is, in so many ways, better than the first Evil Dead. First of all, the decision to turn the franchise into an all-out horror comedy, thank you a million times over. It's insane sense of humor makes this one of the funnest movies you will ever watch. The ridiculousness never relents. The demonic creatures get crazier and crazier with every new one that appears. The blood and guts fly, with every color of the rainbow. The camera zooms at hyper-speed in ways I'll never wrap my mind around. If all of that isn't enough, we are formally introduced to batshit crazy Bruce Campbell. A horror legend... scratch that.. a comedy legend is born. Ash is the coolest horror protagonist ever created. A macho cartoon character with a chainsaw for a hand. What else can I say but, groovy!