First Glance: “Cruella”

February 19, 2021 by Keith Garlington

Full disclosure: I’m not the most knowledgeable individual when it comes to Cruella de Vil or the beloved Disney animated classic “One Hundred and One Dalmatians”. But even I know Cruella is an iconic Disney villain. She’s a greedy, vain and demented London heiress who kidnaps puppies in order to harvest their fur. See! Utterly reprehensible. She’s also getting her own movie and after seeing its first trailer it’s hard to figure out what Disney is going for.

Emma Stone plays the infamous Cruella in what looks like an origin story of sorts. Stone sports the signature black-and-white head of hair fitting for the punk-rock 1970’s setting. The tone is what’s hard to grasp. The film looks to going for a “Joker” or “Birds of Prey” vibe but I can’t imagine Disney would ever push it that far. And will this be another attempt at making a ruthless villain sympathetic? I hope not. Whatever it is, “Cruella” is a big wait-and-see for me. I like Stone but too much is still up in the air for me to get excited for this one yet.

“Cruella” opens in theaters May 28th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

REVIEW: “Blithe Spirit” (2021)

February 19, 2021 by Keith Garlington

The new period British comedy “Blithe Spirit” has both the concept and the cast for a fun and hearty romp. The film stars Dan Stevens, Leslie Mann, Isla Fisher, and Judy Dench. It’s built on a delightfully wacky premise that would fit right in with the screwball comedies of old. Director Edward Hall along with the writing trio of Nick Moorcroft, Meg Leonard, and Piers Ashworth deliver bursts of farcical mayhem and maintain a subtly deranged comic energy. Yet throughout I kept thinking something was missing.

“Blithe Spirit” is based on Noël Coward’s 1941 play of the same name. It was first adapted for the big screen in a 1945 film starring Rex Harrison. This brisk and lightly entertaining version rides on the backs of its charismatic cast who bring out the best in material that isn’t always certain of the kind of movie it wants to be. It leaves us with a film that has its funny moments and is easy to digest, but lacks the flavor to stick with you once the end credits have rolled.

Image Courtesy of IFC Films

The story is set in 1937 England and opens with an exasperated Charles Condomine (Stevens) staring at a blank page in his typewriter. Charles is an acclaimed crime novelist who has been hired to write the screenplay for an upcoming adaptation of one of his books. But a severe case of writer’s block has set in, something that his supportive yet quietly frustrated wife Ruth (Fisher) patiently puts up with. She gives him plenty of space in their lavish Art Deco estate to hammer out his words. She even tolerates him gazing at an old photo of his late wife Elvira in hopes that it might provide some kind of inspiration.

Finally Charles is struck with a new idea for a story, one inspired by a disastrous stage show he attends (and probably the amphetamines he’s been popping). He hires a medium and clairvoyant named Madame Arcati (Dench) to come to his home and conduct a private séance for the purpose of gathering material for his new story. Charles and Ruth along with their snobby upper-class chums George (Julian Rhind-Tutt) and Violet (Emilia Fox) snicker their way through Madame Arcati’s conjuring, brushing off the flickering lights and blown-open doors to a passing storm.

But once everyone is gone Charles finds out Madame Arcati has inadvertently summoned the spirit of Elvira (Leslie Mann) who we learn died seven years earlier in an equestrian accident. It turns out that only Charles can see and hear Elvira and she doesn’t take kindly to Ruth being in their house. It sets up a series of comic mischief and slapstick gags as two women on opposite sides of the astral plane battle for their husband’s affections. As for Charles, he wants to find a way to send Elvira back to wherever she came from. But he has second thoughts once his screenplay starts coming together with her help. The complications go without saying.

Hall keeps things pretty light, only teasing us with the devious black comedy that this could have been. There’s definitely the material for something equally wacky but more darkly funny. But those things are left for the what-could-have-been. Instead “Blithe Spirit” is content with a more playful approach, sneaking in some occasional innuendo and leaving the darker potential buried under the surface. It’s a shame really because even though what we get is breezy and easy to watch, the movie lacks an edge that it hints at but doesn’t embrace.

Image Courtesy of IFC Films

It’s the performances that end up carrying the audience through. Stevens has a real knack for playing offbeat and slightly neurotic men. Here he once again shows off his comic chops, skittishly fluttering about in various states of distress. Some of the film’s funniest moments lean on his wild-eyed physicality. Fisher brings a needed charm to an otherwise constrained character. Mann is entertaining and does the best she can with Elvira who is in desperate need of more depth. Together the trio have a fun chemistry and play off each other well. Dench ends up being the odd person out. She gives a terrific performance but unfortunately her character seems disconnected at times and operating at a completely different temperature. It’s not Dench’s fault. It’s simply how the Madame Arcati is written. It’s as if she belongs in a much different movie.

“Blithe Spirit” isn’t without its charms and their are some laugh-out-loud moments of sly dialogue and slapstick humor that really work. But there’s still the feeling that the movie misses an opportunity to be more. The characters need more work which leaves the story in a weird place. On one hand it’s a knowingly silly and diverting comedy. On the other it lacks the vigor and go-for-it spirit to make it something memorable. “Blithe Spirit” opens today in select theaters and on VOD.

VERDICT- 2.5 STARS

REVIEW: “Red Dot” (2021)

February 18, 2021 by Keith Garlington

There’s more than frigid weather and armed stalkers threatening a young couple in the tight and tense Swedish film “Red Dot” from director and co-writer Alain Darborg. Despite its familiar framing, “Red Dot” mixes ingredients from several genres to come up with its own unique flavor. It’s a run-for-your-life horror movie one minute and a gritty survival thriller the next. But when blended together the story has some heavy things to say about humanity and the world we live in.

The film is driven by two terrific lead performances. Nadja (Nanna Blondell) and David (Anastasios Soulis) are so in love when we first meet them. He has just graduated from engineering school and they’re about to move to Stockholm where she will finish medical school. But before they go David pops the big question and asks Nadja to marry him. She enthusiastically accepts and the two are ready to spend the rest of their lives together. “It all begins here“, David lovingly pledges.

Image Courtesy of Netflix

Jump ahead eighteen months and things have changed. Now married in Stockholm, David has a great job but works long hours and does nothing but lounge when he’s home. A frustrated Nadja resents that she’s left with all the housework on top of her studies. She’s also hiding a secret from her husband that adds to her stress. After five tests to be certain Nadja has learned she is pregnant. Normally that’s exciting news, but considering the state of their marriage she’s terrified.

Realizing they desperately need to rekindle their fire, David surprises Nadja with a romantic weekend getaway to snowy Northern Sweden. There they can focus on each other, do a little skiing, and camp out under the beautiful Northern Lights. The trip starts by hitting a lot of familiar notes. For example this isn’t the first time we’ve seen city folks venturing into wilderness and having a run-in with some backwoods locals. For David and Nadja it begins with two creepy-acting brothers at a gas station. Then an uncomfortable encounter with oddballs at a lodge. But everything gets on track and after a fun day outdoors they retire to their tent underneath the famed aurora borealis.

Then their night is interrupted when a bright red laser dot (hence the title) appears on the canvas of their tent, moving around like a laser pointer. But as you can probably guess, it’s no laser pointer. Within minutes the two are indeed running for their lives into the ice-cold darkness with bullets zipping by their heads from a shooter they can’t see. At the same time this is where the movie’s survival elements really kick in with Darborg utilizing his snowy environment extremely well. There are a couple of times where the sensation of freezing from the cold is vivid and palpable.

Image Courtesy of Netflix

As things play out the movie does struggle with an issue that many of these films do – questionable and head-scratching decisions. Yes, you can chalk some of it up to the anxiety of the moment and not thinking clearly. But more than once I caught myself asking things like “Why didn’t you grab the gun?” or yelling “Go back and get the snowmobile!”. But the story makes up for it with a twist-filled and slightly subversive final act that does some spirited things with the themes of making shallow judgements and running from your past.

By the end of “Red Dot” I found myself surprised by what it had become. What started as a familiar concept with a routine setup turned into something with a lot more meat on its bones. It fully embraces elements of its genre influences, but the film is built on some heady ideas that are brought together well in a visceral second half that completely throws out any notion of black and white; good or bad. It looks at an ugly side of humanity and what we as people are capable of doing. And of course it looks at the consequences for those actions which we too often fail to consider. “Red Dot” is now streaming on Netflix.

VERDICT- 3.5 STARS

REVIEW: “I Care A Lot” (2021)

February 17, 2021 by Keith Garlington

Rosamund Pike once again taps into her dark side for her latest film “I Care A Lot”, a snidely titled drama written and directed by J Blakeson. The film had its world premiere at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival with its US distribution rights grabbed by Netflix. The film sees Pike stepping into the skin of a delightfully caustic character so unashamedly ruthless and vile that it makes her Amy character from “Gone Girl” look like a Girl Scout.

“I’ve been poor. It doesn’t agree with me.” That’s a telling introduction to Pike’s character Marla Grayson, but even it doesn’t come close to fully representing the depths of her depravity. Marla is a social racketeer who makes her living scamming elderly people out of their money. It works like this: She appears in court convincing naive judges to appoint her the ‘legal’ guardian of seniors who can no longer take care of themselves. She then shuts out potentially troublesome family members, takes control of the person’s finances, puts them in a nursing home, and then drains their bank accounts dry. To add another sickening layer, her court-sanctioned elder abuse comes with the help of unscrupulous doctors who point her towards vulnerable marks and crooked nursing home administrators who house her wards for profit.

Image Courtesy of Netflix

How’s that for detestable? And just think, she’s the movie’s protagonist! An impossible one to root for, but the protagonist nonetheless. She’s essentially a horrible person in a movie about horrible people. Still Marla is the toxic centerpiece, a ravenous predator with a devilish radiance who wields her blonde bob and illusive smile like a weapon. And what’s so unnerving is how unmoved she is by her actions; how she can sell her pack of lies to the court and never blink an eye. Pike’s Marla is cruel, perversely callous and with the help of her partner-in-crime and fellow leech Fran (Eiza Gonzalez), she manipulates her way through the system without a second of moral pause.

There are things about her hustle that doesn’t make sense, namely how she’s able to manage and pocket her victim’s assets once they’re put in a facility when in reality assets count against the patient and go towards their nursing home expenses until they run out. In real-life residents have to account for all of their assets from property to insurance policies with cash value before the state will pick up the cost. Then again maybe the movie is saying that in a system full of flaws who’s to say there aren’t holes big enough for snakes to crawl through?

Marla’s perfect scam is complicated when she hones in on a wealthy new target named Jennifer (played by a superb Dianne Wiest). She seems like the perfect score – nice house, never married, no family. What follows is one of the film’s best sequences as Blakeson shows Marla in action. She and Fran coldly and methodically execute their well-oiled racket, from scouting out their potential victim to broadsiding Jennifer with a court order. In a snap Jennifer goes from having tea and reading the newspaper in her dining room to being shown her new ‘home’ at a nearby senior facility as a “ward of the state”. Meanwhile Marla strips the house bare, sells off Jennifer’s possessions, and begins funneling the money into her own account.

But this time Marla missed a key detail in her pre-scheme investigation. It turns out Jennifer has a very unique connection to an underworld figure named Roman Lunyov (Peter Dinklage) and he doesn’t take kindly to Marla’s actions. First he tries to handle it the ‘clean’ way by sending his lawyer Dean Erickson (Chris Messina) to meet with Marla. In my favorite scene of the film the two cunningly spar over Jennifer’s release in a meeting full of insincere smiles and poorly veiled threats. Marla refuses to cave while demanding to know who Dean works for. Dean not-so-subtly warns her that not complying could have…”uncomfortable” consequences. It’s such a good scene.

I Care A Lot: Rosamund Pike as “Martha”. Photo Cr. Seacia Pavao / Netflix

Image Courtesy of Netflix

Blakeson introduces some good tension in the middle act as Marla tries to figure out who she’s up against while Roman begins utilizing his unsavory resources to free Jennifer. Unfortunately it all comes unglued in the final third where the story relies on a series of absurdities to get us to the finale. Wiest who is so good vanishes from the screen and Marla goes from a sinister manipulator of the system to a half-baked 00 Agent of sorts. In a flash I went from repulsed (in a good way) and utterly fascinated to laughing out loud at how unintentionally preposterous things had become. The very end has a satisfying kick, but the lead-up to it feels like it belongs in an entirely different movie.

“I Care A Lot” starts as a wickedly potent dive into elder abuse, unethical healthcare practices, and unfathomable greed all channeled through a character so morally bankrupt that you can’t help but be mesmerized by her every word and action. Pike’s brilliantly hellish lack of compassion is burned into every scene, at least in the film’s first half. But then it takes its turn into something far less interesting and much harder to buy. It unravels in a way that’s both baffling and frustrating, so much so that its solid ending can’t fully get the movie back on track. “I Care A Lot” premieres this Friday on Netflix.

VERDICT – 2.5 STARS

First Glance: “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”

February 16, 2021 by Keith Garlington

I think it goes without saying that 2017’s “Justice League” was not the Avengers type blockbuster the DCEU was hoping for. In fact the post-production was filled with turmoil and controversy. The architect behind the DCEU Zack Snyder stepped down from his directing duties following the tragic death of his daughter. Joss Whedon stepped in and the tales of his “abusive” treatment of both cast and crew have since been made public. There is also the subject of Whedon’s additions to the film which dramatically changed the story and tone. The film’s producers claim Whedon used as much as 80% of Snyder’s material. Snyder says it’s more like one-forth and cinematographer Fabian Wagner goes even lower, claiming roughly 10% of what he shot was used by Whedon.

Which leads us to “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”, a four-hour epic coming to HBO Max. The version constitutes Snyder’s full version of what “Justice League” was meant to be with numerous new scenes, important world-building, new characters, and backstory. It’s still built around the same basic story premise, but with much more meat on its bones. It’s also considered by other members of the DCEU (including directors Patty Jenkins and James Wan) to be the true canonical “Justice League” movie. Is all of that enough to get people to give the film another shot? I don’t know, but I’m excited for it. And hopefully this will give us the “Justice League” many of us hoped for originally.

“Zack Snyder’s Justice League” premieres March 18th on HBO Max. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

REVIEW: “Young Ahmed” (2020)

February 16, 2021 by Keith Garlington

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne remain among my favorite contemporary filmmakers and every new movie immediately finds itself high on my must-see list. The brothers are known for telling stories through an intensely realistic lens, often honing in on the disenfranchised working class and their everyday circumstances. The Dardennes have a restrained and observant style, reminiscent of the great French auteur Robert Bresson, but with slightly busier compositions and a considerably more fluid camera.

The Dardennes again bring their subdued, clear-eyed approach to their latest film “Young Ahmed”. A Cannes Film Festival winner for Best Director, “Young Ahmed” shares many of the same traits of their previous films, but they’ve never tackled subject matter quite like this. Their story centers on a 13-year-old Belgian boy named Ahmed (Idir Ben Addi), a young Muslim who has been radicalized by a local imam (Othmane Moumen). Right out of the gate you realize this a tricky and sensitive material. But it’s also a case where the Dardennes’ distinctly grounded style makes them more capable to tackle it than many of their filmmaking contemporaries.

Image Courtesy of Kino Lorber

By the time we meet Ahmed he has already committed himself to the imam’s teaching and is deeply devout when it comes to prayer and study. His strict interpretations can be seen in nearly every part of his daily life. From his refusal to shake the hand of his teacher Inès (Myriem Akheddiou) down to the precise way in which he washes his hands. It doesn’t take long to notice other concerning things about Ahmed, most notably that he’s a somber and serious boy who never cracks smile. He’s obviously impressionable and a dramatically different person than he once was. We also notice the wedge his religious zeal has put between him and his family, particularly his heartbroken single mother (Claire Bodson).

It all culminates in an ill-advised and utterly botched violent act that sees Ahmed arrested and sent to a youth detention and rehabilitation center. It’s here that the film takes an unexpected turn and begins to examine Ahmed from a different perspective. While in the facility his caseworker and staff engage in a strategically subtle form of intervention, allowing Ahmed to pray but involving him in activities that may help him reconnect with the kid he once was.

Image Courtesy of Kino Lorber

Storywise it sounds rudimentary, but throughout the film’s second half the Dardennes keep us wondering how far Ahmed has fallen down the rabbit hole. How deeply rooted are his convictions? Are the activities at the rehab center having any effect? We don’t know because Ahmed is such a hard book to read – never emotional and rarely interested in anything other than his prayer time. But we see cracks, especially when he meets a flirtatious young girl named Louise (Victoria Bluck). Still the Dardennes and their lead actor never tip their hand. It’s an especially impressive feat for Idir Ben Addi considering he’s in practically every scene.

“Young Ahmed” is yet another Dardenne brothers film that highlights their unique harmony of story and style. It’s a quietly affecting drama stripped of artifice and that fully embraces their naturalistic point-of-view. Interestingly it doesn’t always have the same intimacy as some of the brothers’ best films, but it still examines humanity through their uniquely personal lens. That makes “Young Ahmed” another great addition to their already fascinating catalog of movies.