Guy Ritchie had a good 2023 and deserved more attention for his silly yet fun “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” and his brilliant “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant”. He’s shown no signs of stopping in 2024 as evident by the fun and spirited new trailer for his upcoming film “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare”. This wild action-packed spy thriller is based Damien Lewis’ 2014 book “Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII”. Our first look at it leaves me genuinely excited.
“The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” is said to be based on the true story of a team of misfits who gave birth to our modern day black operations. The film stars Henry Cavill as the leader of the ragtag outfit sent on a top-secret undercover mission to neutralize German U-boats in the North Atlantic. “Hitler is not playing by the rules, so neither are we.” In addition to Cavill, the film also stars Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Henry Golding, Cary Elwes, Alex Pettyfer, Til Schweiger, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, and Henrique Zaga. Sign me up.
“The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” lands in theaters April 19th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.
Director Thea Hvistendahl weaves a creepy and captivating web with “Handling the Undead”, a Norwegian horror drama based on Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist’s 2005 novel of the same name. Aside from its genuinely intriguing premise, the feature film adaptation (which just showed at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival) stars Renate Reinsve who dazzled audiences with her performance in 2021’s critically acclaimed “The Worst Person in the World”.
The story of “Handling the Undead” (written for the screen by Hvistendahl and Lindqvist) is in many ways a metaphor-rich meditation dressed as a genre film. Yes, it’s a zombie movie but with an intensely human focus. Hvistendahl isn’t concerned with carnage and chaos. Instead she takes three unrelated families in Oslo, each in different stages of grief, and explores the raw emotions and internal conflict that might follow a loved one being reanimated from the dead. It’s an audacious and strikingly original approach that shatters expectations.
While the idea of the dead coming back to life is a central ingredient, it’s the cutting social realism intrinsic to Hvistendahl’s storytelling that sets the movie apart. It’s seen from the opening scene where we’re introduced to the first of the three families. A man named Mahler (Bjørn Richard Sundquist) bags up some food from his fridge and walks it over to an apartment building where his daughter Anne (Reinsve) is getting ready for work. The two barely speak – a lingering aftereffect following the recent death of Anne’s young son Elias.
Image Courtesy of NEON
Elsewhere an elderly woman named Tora (Bente Børsum) is the lone attendee at a funeral for her partner Elisabet (Olga Damani). She pays her last respects before a funeral director wheels away the casket holding the remains of her loved one to the back of the stylishly cold and echoey parlor. Tora then gets in a taxi and returns to her spacious and now heartbreakingly empty home.
Then there is a mostly stable family of four that includes a father David (Anders Danielsen Lie), a mother Eva (Bahar Pars), their teenage daughter Flora (Inesa Dauksta), and their younger son Kian (Kian Hansen). Aside from the occasional spat with the rebellious Flora, everything looks great until Eva is involved in a serious car accident that leaves her on life support. A devastated David has to break the news to their children while struggling to get any updates from the hospital.
Then out of the blue a shrill high-pitched sound pierces the air, setting off car alarms, knocking out radio signals, making traffic lights go haywire, and sending flocks of birds into a swirling panic. The chaos eventually ends with a brief blackout. And then a short time afterwards and without warning, the dead begin coming back to life.
The source of the disturbance is never revealed and what follows it is never explained. But those aren’t the kind of questions Hvistendahl or her characters are interested in. Instead David wants to know if his dying wife’s suddenly strong heartbeat means she’s on the mend. Tora is just happy that her crippling sorrow and loneliness is over following the sudden reappearance of Elisabet. Anne and Mahler are more concerned with the government taking Elias away if they find out he’s alive again. These are the kinds of deeply personal and viscerally human concerns that Hvistendahl surveys.
Again, it can’t be stressed enough that this isn’t a movie about some grisly apocalypse. Yes, it involves the reanimated dead. But rather than brain-munching terrors, Hvistendahl views the few zombies we see as shades of people once loved. Despite their gruesome appearances, Elias, Elisabet, and Eva are seen through the eyes of their loved one. It’s a painful perspective especially as we watch family members love on their recently resurrected only to get nothing in return. No acknowledgment; no response. It poses a number difficult questions.
Of course the zombie genre conventions are never too far out of mind and loom just enough to maintain a low-simmering sense of dread. They eventually surface in the final act but even then Hvistendahl handles things with remarkable restraint. That very same kind of control is seen all throughout “Handling the Undead”, making it a hauntingly unique movie and a penetrating first feature from an exciting new filmmaker.
Director Siddharth Anand (“War”, “Pathaan”) briefly steps away from the popular YRF Spy Universe to make “Fighter”, the first big-budget installment in a planned aerial action franchise. The Hindi blockbuster sees top stars Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone along with screen veteran Anil Kapoor playing aviators in the Indian Air Force who come together to face a potentially devastating threat. Isn’t that usually the case?
Even with that rather obvious setup, “Fighter” still delivers what many will be expecting. It has the unbridled flair, the good-looking stars, the steamy musical numbers, and of course the exhilarating action set pieces. Anand knows what wider audiences want and for the most part he gives it to them. Some will have a hard time with its out-of-fashion hyper-patriotism and comparisons to certain Tom Cruise fighter jet films are inevitable. But as far as big screen fun goes, “Fighter” offers the kind of escapist entertainment many will enjoy.
In the heavily disputed region of Kashmir, a hand-picked group of the Indian Air Force’s top aviators are summoned to Srinagar Air Force Base. There, under the leadership of their commanding officer Rakesh “Rocky” Jai Singh (Kapoor), they are to be turned into a highly trained quick response team. Among the aviators is the infinitely skilled and notoriously reckless flyboy Shamsher “Patty” Pathania (Roshan) and decorated helicopter pilot Minal “Minni” Rathore (Padukone). From the outset we know it’s only a matter of time before sparks fly.
A big chunk of the movie’s first half is spent developing the team’s chemistry and camaraderie. Anand and screenwriter Ramon Chibb do a good job solidifying the group through lighthearted scenes of spirited horseplay and more intense effects-driven training sequences. And of course there’s always time for an elaborate musical number.
As for the characters, Roshan and Padukone are (obviously) an attractive couple and together they have a simmering chemistry. Both of their characters are given emotionally weighty backstories which are hampered by some unnecessary dramatic twists and a schmaltzy narrative convenience or two. Yet Roshan and Padukone keep us attached. As does the solid supporting work from Kapoor, Karan Singh Grover, Akshay Oberoi, Baveen Singh, and Sanjeeda Sheikh.
And of course there’s also the story’s villain, a vaguely conceived terrorist named Azhar Akhtar (Rishabh Sawhney) with an even more vaguely conceived goal of decimating the Indian military. He starts with the horrific bombing of a convoy transporting Indian soldiers. He then sets his eyes on the Srinagar Air Force Base. Indian and Pakistani politics come into play as Akhtar manipulates and maneuvers both sides to his advantage. But neither his motivations or the regional tensions are detailed enough to register, despite Sawhney having the look and grit of a good baddie.
There’s an undeniable playfulness to “Fighter” that blends well with the slow-brewing romance and character-driven drama. But the fuel that flies the film is the action. It’s wild, often thrilling, and sometimes unashamedly over-the-top and reality-defying. This is especially true of the air combat sequences that generally look great, minus the occasionally obvious CGI.
Among the film’s other features or flaws (depending on how you look at them) is a robust score full of emotional cues, some speechifying that goes beyond hokey, and enough gratuitous slow-motion to put Zack Snyder to shame. These things, along with the derivative elements of the script, keep “Fighter” from truly soaring. Yet the film still flies thanks to the sheer star wattage of its outstanding cast and Anand’s go-for-broke style. “Fighter” is out now in select theaters.
Dev Patel has proven to be a fabulous actor, but his latest film “Monkey Man” promises a grit and intensity we’ve never seen from the 33-year-old Brit. Even more exciting, the film marks Patel’s directorial debut. Working from a story he conceived, “Monkey Man” looks to be a stylishly fierce action movie as evident by the kinetic first trailer.
In our first look we see Patel playing an anonymous young man known only as Kid who scrapes by working low-paying jobs and street fighting underground. But following the murder of his mother by big city elites, the Kid’s festering pent-up rage boils over, sending him on a John Wick-styled rampage of revenge. But this is no John Wick knockoff. The setting, the cultural inspiration, and the cinematic style give the movie an exhilarating original feel. I can’t wait.
“Monkey Man” hits theaters on April 5th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.
Director Gonzalo López-Gallego is perhaps best known for 2011’s “Apollo 18”, a creepy found-footage sci-fi horror film that never got the respect it deserved. After a few direct-to-video feature films and some work on television, López-Gallego returns with “American Star”, a captivating thriller led by its equally captivating star, Ian McShane.
Set in the Canary Islands, “American Star” tells the tried-and-true story of a hitman on what might be that one final assignment. But rather than going the more conventional action-packed route, López-Gallego and screenwriter Nacho Faerna give us something existential and melancholic. They give us a slow-burning character study that’s far more interested in exploring humanity than generating genre thrills.
Image Courtesy of IFC Films
What better actor to lead a movie like this than Ian McShane. The 81-year-old Englishman, more recently of John Wick fame, oozes sophistication and charm like few others. Here he plays Wilson, a contract killer who seems worn down by the life he has chosen. He’s quiet and somewhat cryptic; easygoing yet clearly burdened with emotion. McShane conveys it all through a brilliantly tempered performance that allows us to glean as much through sheer observation than anything we hear or are told.
We first meet Wilson as he arrives on the island of Fuerteventura. After renting a car, he drives out to a posh ultra-modern residence in the middle of nowhere only to discover his target isn’t home. So Wilson drives out to the coast and checks into a beachside hotel, intent on waiting for his target to return so he can carry out his job. But over the next couple of days he finds himself drawn to the cozy island and its community which prompts him to contemplate the life he has lived.
There are several things that spur Wilson’s self-reflection. Among them is his reoccurring encounters with a young woman named Gloria (Nora Arnezeder). She’s a bit of a free spirit who immediately takes a liking to him. There’s also a young boy named Max (Oscar Coleman) who’s staying in the same hotel. He’s vacationing with his parents and forms a sweet bond with Wilson. Then there’s his feelings of kinship to an old shipwreck on the other side of the island – a massive vessel called the American Star that has been grounded since the early 1990s.
But no matter how much he entertains these tastes of inner peace, Wilson is frequently reminded of who he is and what he’s there to do. His employer sends a younger fellow hitman named Ryan (Adam Nagaitis) to the island. The two colleagues know each other well and even share dinner. But the more Wilson keeps running into Ryan the more suspicious of his presence he becomes.
Image Courtesy of IFC Films
López-Gallego’s patience is one of the film’s greatest assets. His deliberate pacing allows the story to develop and unfold organically. And he wisely leans into McShane’s scene-carrying charisma and the gorgeous cinematography of José David Montero who artfully captures the many facets of the alluring island, often using his images to convey something much deeper than just pretty scenery.
I can almost sense specific criticisms “American Star” will face. Some may feel it meanders while others may say nothing happens. There may even be some who are hungry for more action. I get those critiques to a degree. But (respectfully) they almost seem rooted in a misunderstanding of what this film is going for. “American Star” is far less interested in intricate plotting or genre expectations. It’s a pensive yet slightly opaque character study that delves into the complexity of life via one man’s soulful reckoning. He just happens to be a hitman with a job to do. “American Star” releases January 26th in select theaters and on VOD.
Jade Halley Bartlett writes and directs “Miller’s Girl”, a wobbly new thriller backed by Seth Rogen’s Point Grey Pictures production company. It’s a film that tries hard to take a nuanced approach to the familiar story of a teacher-student relationship that crowds or crosses the line of appropriateness. But what we get is a movie full of potential that’s never realized.
“Miller’s Girl” teases us with some interesting and possibly complex ideas only to muddle them with its own cleverness. The script is the main culprit, oscillating between artfully provocative and downright silly in its attempt to be subversive and heady. What’s more of an issue is that we are never given a reason to care about any of the characters. There’s no emotional attachment or investment whatsoever, making the story hard to connect with beyond a few surface-level flashes of humanity.
Image Courtesy of Lionsgate
Martin Freeman plays Jonathan Miller, a frustrated middle-aged man reserved to being stuck in a rut both professionally and personally. Jonathan is a failed writer who now teaches high school literature. Meanwhile at home he gets no support from his wife Beatrice (Dagmara Dominczyk), an unsavory alcoholic who never passes up on a chance to emasculate her husband and take shots at his insecurities. There’s clearly more to their marriage story than what we’re given, but as with so much else in the story it’s merely glazed over.
But things take a turn at school with the arrival of a new student to his class, Cairo Sweet (Jenna Ortega). She’s an 18-year-old writing prodigy who has been left alone by her parents to live in their rural Tennessee mansion. As a character, Cairo comes across as smart and assured but ultimately impossible to read. Nothing she does makes much sense. This is especially true after she decides to seduce her teacher for reasons murkier than a glass of muddy water. Is it an act of naïveté from a young girl drawn to her teacher’s attention? Is it a devious use of her sexuality to get what she wants?
As for Jonathan, he’s instantly impressed by his promising new student who shows a surprising amount of interest in her assignments and in him. Their teacher-student relationship grows as Jonathan tries to encourage Cairo to push her creative boundaries. But one particular creative writing assignment pushes things too far, blurring the lines between mentorship and attraction.
Image Courtesy of Lionsgate
Bartlett steers her audience towards what she hopes is a multilayered examination of sexual politics and power dynamics. But the whole thing is paper-thin and comes across as little more than a half-baked erotic thriller. There are efforts to challenge our notions of complicity and make us question who’s to blame – the feckless attention-starved Jonathan or the overly cryptic and sexually charged Cairo. But too many details are missing, and too much time is wasted on side stories that go nowhere, such as the seductive cat-and-mouse game between Cairo’s notoriously flirtatious best friend Winnie (Gideon Adlon) and a coach (Bashir Salahuddin).
To their credit, Freeman and Ortega navigate the shaky material the best they can, almost convincing us to buy into their characters. But even they can’t add bite to a mostly toothless story that’s not nearly as prickly or as uncomfortable as it should be. Bartlett shows she has a knack with the camera and we get flashes of ambition that you don’t always see from first-time filmmakers. But her story and her characters need a more focused script – one that would give the time and attention necessary to make a movie like this have the impact it should. “Miller’s Girl” opens in theaters Friday, January 26th.
