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May 1, 2025

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TCM Film Festival 2025 (Day 1)

The first day of the TCM Film Festival varies depending upon what kind of pass you have purchased. We have gone for the Essentials pass for the past several years because that gives us access to the opening night film which this year was The Empire Strikes Back, celebrating the 45th anniversary of its release. 

We get a chance to walk the red carpet, have some free popcorn and soda, and sitting an audience for an introductory talk with the legendary George Lucas. Ben Mankiewicz did the best you could to draw the often reserved Lucas into a coherent conversation, but he frequently struggled because Lucas becomes focused on the way he wants to tell his story, and often seems unaware of the audience that’s listening. Eventually Lucas gets to the point of Mankowitz’s question, but it was a very roundabout approach.

Before the conversation began however, I had one of the many great experiences I look forward to each year when TCM comes around. One of the LAMBs that appear on the LAMBcast on a regular basis, was attending the opening night presentation as a media guest with his friend journalist Scott Mendelson. Aaron Neuwirth is one of the delightful regulars on the podcast, and I had hoped to entice him to attend the with the screening of Mothra that took place after the Empire Strikes Back premiere. He wasn’t planning on doing that but on the last minute, he was able to come to the Empire screening, and we connected briefly in the audience sharing a handshake and some jokes, and connecting in the real world not simply in the virtual.

The movie that was screened was in fact one of the revised Editions that Lucas put out with some additional visual elements. Fortunately, of the three original films that got the Lucas revisionism, Empire is the one that suffers the least from his intervention. One or two additional shots clarify a couple of early scenes, and added crowds and vehicle shots make the sequences on bespin a little more cinematic. There is nothing is egregious as editing Han Solo to the point where he shoots only after being shot at, so I didn’t object to this choice of version for the show. Many have said, and I would be hard pressed to disagree, that Empire is the best of the Star Wars films.

My own history with Empire Strikes Back is a little sweet and sour. The sweet consists of the memory I have of seeing the film with my fiancé, and my best friend, the night before his wedding. I don’t think his bride was very happy with him the next day because our screening kept us out until after midnight in June of 1980. The sour consists of the memory I have of my mentor Lee Garrison, who had gone to a screening of the film nearly a month earlier then it’s opening at Caltech where he was the debate coach at the time. He wouldn’t tell us anything about the film, trying not to spoil it for us, and saying only that it would be something that we would really enjoy. Boy he was sure right, the problem is I never got to talk about it with him after we saw it because he was killed in a car accident heading back to Texas just a week after this screening. Still I considered a good memory of my dear friend.

I mentioned that we were talking about seeing a screening of Mothra immediately after this, but we had flown into town the day before, and with the time change our sleep cycle was a little screwed up, and I didn’t good idea to stay until after midnight on the first night of the festival, when we were scheduled to watch films early the next day. We were not staying in Hollywood this year, but rather at my home in Glendora, which meant about an hour commute both ways. That influence our decision on several other films in the next couple of days as well.

So for day one of the festival, it was just the red carpet and the screening of Empire with that conversation with George Lucas and the chance to meet Aaron Neuwirth. I consider that a very successful first day. 

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April 23, 2025

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The Amateur (2025)

In the 7 years since he won the Academy Award for best actor Rami Malek is struggled to create a strong on-screen identity as a lead. His biggest part since Bohemian Rhapsody was as the antagonist in the last James Bond film no time to die. He’s made a couple of other films since then all of which are perfectly but none of reached the level of Excellence that I’m sure he hoped for and that his fans would like to see him rise to. This new entry into the Spy genre is an attempt to leverage himself back into serious movies, and I suspect potentially create a franchise.

If you’ve seen the trailers for this film you know that there is a Revenge plot at work here, is Malik’s CIA techno wizard seeks the people responsible for the murder of his wife. It should come as no surprise that is a spy film there’s also a conspiracy element to the movie, and it’s not as simple as it appears to be at first. I’m not sure the CIA has ever been depicted as the straight Heroes in any film where they were a featured part. Usually the CIA is engaged in some subterfuge or illegal activity that they’re trying to hide from the world but especially from their Congressional overseers. Even the mission impossible films have relied on internal cabals to generate plot points for the movies.

The idea of a techno geek going after hardened terrorists is an interesting idea but it does require that we swallow a big dose of reality suspension. Malik is effective in showing the Brilliance of his character as he tracks down using his technical tools, the terrorist team that took out his wife. We immediately become suspicious however when his CIA handlers attempt to muzzle and Corral him. It doesn’t take long to understand why. Their rationalizations are perfectly reasonable, but it is also clear that they are not too concerned with the collateral damage that is being wrecked upon the world. Malik’s character is not naive but he is bureaucratically pure up to a point. And then of course we get the traditional rogue agent.

For the most part this is a Slow Burn through the first half, with maybe one solid scene that builds some suspense and excitement. However halfway through his list of miscreants to eliminate the Mallet character picks up some collaborators, and the action gets more intense. The political intrigue is given cover by suggesting that these operations are occurring outside of the normal chain of command. They would certainly need to because many of the operations and Malik discovers are both illegal and deadly including to our allies.

Like most Revenge pictures we take the greatest satisfaction in those moments when our protagonist deals out Justice to the evildoers in some creative way. Our CIA operative sometimes seems hesitant to carry out the executions he himself is designed. Usually his hesitancy seems to be in Pursuit of additional information about the Spy gang. Regardless, the first two deaths that he creates are interesting, and there is a Twist or two along the way. We get a few red herrings along the way, but after a certain point we suspect that Rami’s character really is smarter than everybody else. Laurence Fishburne plays both an ally and an antagonist, and the one thing that feels wrong with this movie is the cheat that comes at the end. On the other hand John Bernthal was not in the movie Enough to generate the kind of support yet that a sequel would demand. He does however get a very good narrative sequence.

This is a pretty intelligent spy film, it relies on the old trope of an agent operating outside of official channels, and fighting those channels at the same time. It’s not quite as clever as black bag earlier this year, but it does sit up there near the top of my list of well-designed spy films, and for the year so far this one fits near the top of the list one of my favorite films. It’s still early but I would recommend the amateur to anybody who’s a fan of either Remy Malik or the Espionage genre.

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April 20, 2025

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The Last Picture Show (1971) Revisit

For a period of time in the 1970s, film directors were given free reign to create some of the most personal and well acted films to ever come out of Hollywood. In an era that was filled with personalities like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and the young Steven Spielberg, maybe the director who got a foothold on the zeitgeist of the era the best, was Peter bogdanovich. Has a director he had a string of successes from 1971 to 1975 that are incredibly impressive. The first of those truly great films is this 1971 requiem for bygone era.

The Last Picture Show is known for the huge cast of future stars that made appearances in the film. Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottoms, Randy Quaid, Cybil Shepherd, Eileen Brennan, and Ellen Burstyn are all getting ready to have huge careers in the next two decades. The film also gives parts to older veterans Cinema, or give it a chance with the Fantastic script to write a little silver in the sky and help us remember what film dialogue is all about. Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson want Academy Awards for supporting actor and actress, and they did it on the strength of a script that treated them like real people, who deserve dignity even in the most undignified circumstances.

I’m not sure I can think of a film that has sadness more clearly as its theme Than The Last Picture Show. The social relations between the members of the senior class, or sometimes harsh and thoughtless, and at other times heartbreaking. Cybil Shepard plays Jacy, the headstrong popular girl, who uses sex to gain status and learns that she is simply repeating the mistakes of the past. In the wake of her Reckless Behavior she leaves two best friends who become estranged, one because he is a rejected lover, and the other because he rejected his one opportunity of love in this small town.

Everything in this movie screams of being depressing. The diner is shabby and the waitress who works there, although wise and surprisingly friendly, is also beat down by her existence. The pool hall is the social center of the town, and it is a dust filled ramshackle Hangout for men too old to do much and for boys too young to be doing anything. Ben Johnson plays the older man with enough gravitas to actually earn the respect of the youngsters. Although life is dealt him a pretty crappy hand he is not embittered by his fate, simply nostalgic for the good things that have long passed him by. Sam the lion is a character that we can all admire and he gets a sequence where he narrates part of his life in such an eloquent way that Johnson brings him to life and earns the accolades that were heaped upon him that year. And of course there’s not a happy ending when it comes to Sam.

Ruth Popper is a woman who is aware that the best parts of her life are long in the past, and for whom every day is a struggle against depression and potential Health catastrophes. When she becomes the unlikely lover of one of the two young men who are close friends, it feels dangerous, absurd, and also the most hopeful thing in the movie. And of course it also doesn’t end well either. Cloris Leachman, clenches her hands, walks with the faltering step, and dry cries through many of her scenes. Her performance is one of physicality, where she conveys a world weariness Beyond her years, and a rejuvenation it is unexpected when she discovers what she thinks is a new love. The conclusion of this film includes the death of a much younger character, and it turns out that that is not the saddest thing in the story. The way in which this will Lonely woman, is mistreated and embittered his heart-wrenching. What is also sad is that even after standing up for herself, she has enough Humanity to offer a drop of console, despite it not being earned.

The town is full of people who will never leave and as a result will likely bleed on Happy lives, or their people who are anxious to get out, but afraid to because they know they’ll never be able to come back to things the way they were. The closing of the movie theater in a small town like this maybe the saddest symbol of filmgoer like me is likely to see. The black and white photography in this film makes everything feel dusty and forlorn,  but it also makes the people look either incredibly beautiful or sadly unpleasant. I guess that’s the way the world is, or more precisely… Was. 

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April 20, 2025

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Warfare (2025)

This is an unusual movie designed to put us in the field with the Warriors who defend us in Dark Places. It represents the memories of the men who went through the actual event, and is designed to replicate as closely as possible the firefight that these men participated in. I don’t see an agenda or political perspective in the way this film is being presented, the men who are performing their Duty are average Americans, who are well trained, but respond like human beings in the dangerous circumstances they find themselves in.

Although there are a couple of familiar faces in the cast, this is certainly not a star driven vehicle. At least two dozen characters appear on the screen and have lines, but you could not point to a single one of them and say they were the main focus of the story. It is the event that is the star of the film. A military Advanced team, probing an enemy territory, during the Iraq occupation, discovers that they are the target of an insurgent attack. The events unfold for the most part, in real time, and the threat of death exists in every frame of the last half of the movie. There are moves that are made by the Marines in this story, which in hindsight might seem problematic, but given the outcome, and the survival of some of their comrades, we should certainly be willing to forgive some Divergence from military bureaucracy.

Even though they’re under attack, the Marines Express every confidence in the situation that they are capable of responding appropriately. They have Superior Equipment and Superior training and they also have reinforcements that will system although it will take some time. To me the astonishing thing about the events depicted in the film are the nearly heroic actions taken to save the lives of the injured Marines when an IED explodes as they are preparing to withdraw. Injuries that we saw in Saving  Private Ryan, were horrifying but the story doesn’t linger over them and the agony that those soldiers went through. In this film the consequences of the injuries seems to be the main justification for telling the story. Both the injured Marines, and their teammates never really give up in spite of the pain and the fear that they must be going through. Some may have a moment’s hesitation, some are trying to cope with with shock and concussions and temporary deafness. They all however do their jobs.

I will warn you that the injuries depicted are brutal, and there are moments when the agony of the victims is hard to bear. The stalwart efforts platoon of Marines is admirable in and of itself regardless of the outcome of the battle. This is not a story where retribution is heaved upon the enemy in a dramatic moment of Revenge. The forces that are being used, often appearing to be overwhelming, are done for the purpose of saving the lives of their comrades in arms. We really have no idea what kind of damage was inflicted on the enemy at the end of the day. This is a war film that is not a drama about some narrative, rather it is a narrative about an event that took place and that these Warriors survived.

War is evil, but sometimes necessary. The Men Who engage in war are usually not evil, but simply doing their jobs, fulfilling the plans of someone else to make the world a better place. The struggle to accomplish that requires incredible fortitude. Warfare attempts to depict that fortitude and put the audience at the scene. It succeeds in its visual execution, by allowing us to see the chaos and confusion in this sort of combat operation, but also the professionalism and determination of well-trained men. Because the story is told from the perspective of the men who actually went through this, the dialogue is filled with technical terminology Battlefield jargon and a variety of military language. Nothing is done to make this film dumb enough for an audience to understand. It requires an audience that is smart enough to know that what they are seeing is something they never want to go through themselves. 

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April 14, 2025

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Ash (2025)

 Ash is a somewhat dystopian science fiction film set on another world that the human race is hoping to be able to terraform and relocate to. We get told all of that information about a quarter of the way into the story after the mystery of the horror has already begun. The way the Story begins is simple a young woman wakes up from a deep sleep and discovers that the ecosystem that she lives in is filled with dead bodies and signs of violence that she has basically no memory of.

The film is a hybrid version of Solaris, alien, and the thing. Ultimately there are about seven actors in the film but for 90% of the movie they’re only two that take up screen time. The woman named Reva, as flashbacks to some of the events, and begins to suspect that what happened might be her fault. File into her ruminations, another character shows up played by actor Aaron Paul, who clearly knows Reva, but was not at the station when whatever disaster befell it took place.

At First the movie looks fairly low budget. The sets are not much more complicated than a series of rooms that have been dolled up with some light fixtures and a few props to suggest something more futuristic. And the film is clearly something that was done on a budget. In the second half of the film though a few special effects show up that suggests that they were saving their money for a little bit more production value. A couple of models and some CGI add a little credibility to the situation. We also get a few special effects makeup sequences that are pretty good. 

The main problem with the film like this is that we are dealing with an unreliable narrator, and we all know why she’s unreliable. Also, nearly everything that we see at one point become suspect, and we wonder if we are looking at something that really happened or if it is just a projection of her consciousness. In the end it does turn out to be something of a monster movie, but it’s trying to do it in a way that is different and a little bit more cerebral. I think the ambitions outstrip the ability of the script to deliver this kind of story. The movie isn’t bad, but it isn’t very compelling either and by the time we get to the end it’s easy to feel detached from what’s going on. There is also attacked on conclusion that makes no sense but his design to create a sense of irony at the end of the story.

The director of the film is also responsible for the music, I get the impression that he is a music personality who is dabbling in the film world. It’s not that he’s on talented, but he’s not experienced enough to make this film more interesting than something to be consumed and almost immediately forgotten, in spite of the film’s ambitions. I suspect that this movie was largely made for streaming purposes, and it received a token release either because of the actors involved or to placate the director. Either way it turned out, it was a reasonable Monday evening, but again I’m not going to remember this very long.

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April 4, 2025

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Mulholland Drive (2001)

I am a David Lynch fan, but I am not a completist. The man directed over a hundred projects, including television episodes, shorts and music videos. His list of feature length films is relatively small, only 10 really. Of those ten I have seen eight, with “Mulholland Drive” being my most recent, and the one I have waited the longest to see. This is a film that came out 24 years ago, and up to last Saturday, I had not spent the time to watch it. If I had to venture a reason why, it might be that the plot sounded  a lot like “Lost Highway” with characters becoming completely different people in the course of the story. Lost Highway is the one movie my wife attended with me that she walked out on. I stayed and watched it to the end, but I know I was very confused and I have not returned to it. I think I also suffered from the misnomer that this was a Black and White film, and it would be murky. That set off hesitation and I never took the plunge. With the recent passing of Lynch, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Chain has been playing a number of retrospective films and I decided it was unfathomable for me to hold out any longer.

In the end, I think I made the right choice not trying to catch up with this on video, and seeing it for the first time in a theater. This movie is a masterpiece and probably sits in my top three Lynch films of all time. It does get typically murky and convoluted in the last twenty minutes, and I understand what is being attempted, but it really feels like a switch that was done for style more than story, which is a very David Lynch thing to do. I’m OK with the switch, but I wanted the mystery of the original story to keep playing out. Maybe the reason that I find this film so compelling is that it comes the closest in style and mood to the original first season of “Twin Peaks”. Every moment filled with portents, every scene visually unsettling, every music cue intriguing and confounding. This was originally a pilot for a TV series and I could easily see Lynch stringing out his mystery for several seasons if he could be freed from the demands that he solve it, like the demands that threw off the second season of “Twin Peaks”.  Although I guess there is a risk that it could turn out to be “”Lost”.

The sound design of the film is one of the main reasons that seeing this in a theater was the right thing to do. The music penetrates the brain and body differently in the ambience of a packed auditorium. When the singing sequences take place, their juxtaposition with the darker ambient sounds and haunting Angelo Badalamenti score are more powerful. There is a sense of danger when Justin Theroux’s character meets the Cowboy in a forgotten corral on Mulholland, the silence of the scene, the footsteps on the ground and the quiet voice that emanates from the ambiguous figure are all heightened by a theatrical presentation.  

This was the breakthrough role in Naomi Watts career and it is understandable. By the end of the film, she plays two distinct personalities and the range she shows is impressive. Like all Lynch films, the contrast between the world we dream about and the one we live in takes up a major portion of the themes in the film. The jubilant Betty, full of hope and promise is certainly appealing, and the way she absorbs the mystery of  Rita into her life is fascinating. When they cross paths with the missing actress Diane Selwyn,  the facade of hopefulness turns into fear and the twist of identity suddenly makes a little sense. Even if we don’t understand how it all happens and why we are able to observe it, it works.

There are a string of clues that lead to the resolution, if you can call it that, and they are woven into the story effectively, but we are left with a dangling set of story threads that don’t seem to pay off. If Rita is a complete invention in the mind of Diane, as a stand in for the lover who has jilted her, then I suppose it will just be that we came in the middle of someone else’s dream, and we can’t really expect any answers. This though would have been the flow line of the TV series that I now wish had been produced. The surreal plot twists at the end extricate Lynch from having to deal with these points, and they do so in a way that will make analyzing the film fun for eternity. 

As is usual, the ambiguity at the end will delight some and frustrate others. I can appreciate both points of view, and I am just a little surprised that I find myself late to the conversation. I hope all the good speculative discussion has room for one more chattering head. I’m in.  

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March 31, 2025

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Death of a Unicorn (2025)

So far my favorite horror film of the year is this entry starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega along with some other veterans, in a tale that mixes fantasy and science. The easiest way to summarize this film is that it is a cross between science gone wrong movies and creature features. Think of it as Jurassic Park only with unicorns instead of dinosaurs.

An estranged father and daughter are traveling to a remote luxury retreat for a weekend so that he can be evaluated as a potential executor of a will for a dying millionaire. He already works for the company at a high level, but hopes to be entrusted with managing the heirs when they take over the company after the death of the patriarch. Rudd’s character has brought his daughter, because he believes that the family that is about to lose its founder, values family above so many other things, that a demonstration of his own family values is necessary.

As usual I try to avoid giving away too much in the movie, if not entirely spoiler free, I certainly try to avoid things that make the movie distinct or valuable. Let’s say that through a confluence of events, the patriarch, his family, they’re small coterie of servants and the perspective executive are all soon threatened by some animals that are angry about the events taking place in the story. It is a little hard to warm up to most of these characters as they are either narcissistic or greedy and come off as entitled a holes, that or they are sniveling sycophants unable to take an action that they know is right but which might be perceived as weak by the others.

Richard Grant, Tea’ Leoni, and Will Pouter managed to make privilege one of the most unappealing characteristics shown on screen this year. Pouter’s character’s amazing superpower is the ability to rationalize any stupid decision that he wants to make. It’s fun listening to him talk and try to convince both the willing and the unwilling to accept his delusions. Leoni plays his mother, not as a nurturing parent but as an enabler willing to put up with his whining. Grant, as the dying patriarch, manages to create a transformation of selfishness so quickly that we are perfectly willing to let his character die, even though the Fates seem to be in his favor at times.

I can’t make it a secret that there are unicorns in the movie, there are. The creatures depicted here are a nightmares version of the traditional mythology of the Unicorn. That is at least to some degree, because it is the failure of the humans that produces eventual mythological creature. The movie has very funny moments but it never reduces itself to a slapstick or parody of more serious movies. If we can accept the fantasy premise in Jurassic Park, we should be able to accept the fantasy in this film, and treat the threat with the same degree of seriousness that we did the Rogue dinosaurs.

The story does take a few shortcuts, and there is one huge inferential leap that is required in order for us to understand the nature the unicorns. Once we passed that point however, I think the film plays it straight with the story that it is set up. There are a couple of ex machina moments near the end of the movie that might undermine the credibility of its premises, but let’s face it, we are talking about a movie about unicorns, let’s not get carried away with story verisimilitude.

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March 31, 2025

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Hell of a Summer (2025)

We got a chance to see this fun little horror film, a little early, as it was being presented in a promotional screening that included streaming Q&A from two of the Stars who also happen to be the writers and directors of the film. Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk, are our young actors who have come up with a script and somehow got the green light to make the movie. Wolfhard would be familiar to most of you as Mike from “Stranger Things”. The youngsters have been watching their ’80s horror movies and they have a pretty good grasp of the tropes that they want to take advantage of in their little concoction.

The movie is set at a summer camp, had a remote location, with the camp counselors arriving early in preparation for this season’s Camp session. One of the counselors is returning for the 6th time as a counselor, at the age of 24 is a little old be working this as a summer job, but it appears to be his dream, and he loves what he’s doing. The character is Jason, as if that is not a tribute to earlier horror films, and he is a nebbish but sincere guy who just wants to have the best summer ever. The younger counselors, come from a slightly different generation, and they have a hard time understanding Jason and his enthusiasm for outdoor activities.

The film is a comedy, but it takes the murders fairly seriously. The only time one of the deaths has a cartoon quality to it is in the opening scene, when a guitar is used as a grizzly marker for murder. Other than that tuneful moment, the deaths themselves, even as they pile up, are treated as real murders and not as the punchline to an elaborate joke where the death of a teenager is supposed to be laughed at. So the film is very much in keeping with the tone of the early Friday the 13th or Halloween movies.

Most of the humor occurs when the counselors panic about how to respond to all of the death, and they false the accused Jason of being the murderer. They’re attempted solution to the problem offers lots of opportunities for us to laugh at the callousness and the cluelessness of this new generation of campers. The two step brothers, who also happen to be the writers and directors of the film, also offer us a lot of humorous moments as they bicker like siblings might, over little things such as who gets to sit in the front seat of the car. They did a pretty good job letting us know something about the characters in the film, so that we care a bit about the outcome. There are one or two small Clues as to who is responsible for the killings, those come early on and if you are not paying attention it would be easy to miss them and have to wait for the reveal when it shows up. I’m perfectly willing to say that I miss them the first time around, but I appreciate it that the screenwriters made an effort to give us a chance to honestly solve the puzzle before they do.

In addition to the humor, the main draw of the film will be the Practical effects that are used to present the deaths. There is solid work done by the makeup team, but they don’t go overboard and try to make things so gross that we are reacting to just the physical image more than the concept of what’s been done to these poor kids. The character of Jason is also a rich source of humor in the film, since he wants to be at the camp at all, and eventually wants to take on the role of hero, in spite of being accused by and tied up by the other counselors.

Maybe it takes a while to get things started after we had those initial kills, but I just thought that that was good storytelling. I have no objection to a slow burn as long as it pays off, and I think hell of a summer paid off pretty well. It’s a solid first part of the Apple for the two aspiring filmmakers, and it should satisfy people who have a love for horror movies rooted in the 1980s.

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March 30, 2025

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Locked (2025)

Here’s a simple premise for a film that should be able to be shot on a budget with the exception of salaries for the two main stars. We have been on a bit of a Bill Skarsgård kick for the last year or so, and this film features him in every scene, and he doesn’t have to share the screen with anybody for any 80% of the movie. He does have a co-star, Sir Anthony Hopkins, who only appears by voice for the first two acts of the film, and shows up in the last third for an extended sequence with a more direct confrontation between antagonists.

Skarsgård’s character plays a petty Thief, who’s trying to get enough money together to pay for repairs to his van. He professes a desire to stick to the straight and narrow, in a job is a delivery driver. It is clear however from the cold shoulder he gets from former acquaintances, that he is used up any Goodwill and Trust he might have had, as they all refuse to assist him. He attempts a few minor crimes before encountering I’m unlocked luxury SUV. Thinking he’s hit the jackpot he jumps in and discovers that it is an elaborate trap by frequently vandalized and victimized wealthy doctor, who is decided to take some justice individuality form by imprisoning any car thief who deems to try and Rob him again.

We have to suspend our disbelief a little bit, because the technology involved here, well it is all possible, seems very complicated to utilize intervene plot like this. We do however discover that the doctor is motivated by Deep resentment against criminals who have taken the life of his daughter, a promising college student. Scarsgard finds himself locked in the car unable to escape and subject to tortures imposed by his invisible Captor. The actor manages to convey appropriate degrees of panic, resentment, and remorse. They’re also frequent outbursts of anger that give an actor the opportunity to stretch those skills that are so often prized by directors. Although at some point we are supposed to pity the thief, there is plenty such to suggest that what he’s getting up to a certain point is not undeserved.

The high point of the film occurs when Hopkins takes remote control of the vehicle and drives it to a location that he is found. He gets in and takes physical control not just virtual control of the situation. The film does suggest some political themes, most of which have been around for at least 50 years. Echoing the problems confronted by Dirty Harry or by Paul Kersey in the death wish films, Hopkins is enraged by a system that seems to tolerate criminal Behavior, and value the rights of repeat offenders over the need for justice for victims. Up to the point where he makes clear that he’s going to take skarsgard’s life, he has a very rational philosophy. When however he oversteps his bounds, Hopkins himself becomes a similar kind of monster, and we are left with rooting for one monster or the other. Because Skarsgård’s characters daughter is still alive, it becomes apparent that that is where our sympathy is supposed to lie.

The petty tortures and monologuing provided by Hopkins are the primary reasons that this film is interesting. Most of us would try to identify with the captured Thief and figure out how to survive for the circumstances we find ourselves in. The sense of powerlessness is overwhelming at times, especially when Skarsgård is tortured by lack of water or food. But of course that powerlessness is exactly what Hopkins character felt when nothing was done in regard to the murder of his daughter, or the multiple robberies of his vehicles.

So it is a one-man show for the most part, but when Hopkins shows up in person, it is clear he is having way too much fun playing another villain and savoring the chaos he’s imposing on his victim. The climax of the film does involve a lot more action than we’ve gotten in the previous 80 minutes, so the film is a Slow Burn but with a fairly satisfying conclusion. I can recommend it as an actor’s piece, and as a mediation on the injustice of our own justice system.

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March 15, 2025

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Mickey 17 (2025)

The obvious joke here is that “Mickey 17” is not as good as the original “Mickey” but better than “Mickey 16”. Obvious would be an appropriate way to go because that is what this movie does, make obvious every point of view that the director has. Bong Joon Ho has made a screed about the economic issues he sees as being wrong in the world, and he has populated it with a mix of cardboard cit out villains, environmental wonkiness and odd visual touches. The movie still looks like a big budget science fiction action film, but it is one of the most unengaging films I have seen in years.

Robert Pattinson, plays the titular character as a naïf, lost among a crowd of zealots who are slowly losing their patience with the circumstances they find themselves in.  It is only his innate ability as an actor, that allows the character to work as much as it does. The script really gives us no reason to care about Mickey, other than the fact that he is the central figure. There is a supposed romance as part of the story, but it happens so fast and seems so perfunctory, that when it is threatened, we really don’t care.  

The biggest problem I had was that the tone of the movie changes inconsistently. Certainly the comedic elements are important, but they are off, like a comic with good jokes but bad timing. The humor needs to hit a little bit more quickly at times, and then move on. Too often the comedy feels drawn out as if it is a sketch on SNL that would have worked as a three minute bit, but has been given an eight minute segment to fill. The parts that rely on Pattinson are the most effective, unfortunately, Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette keep showing up and spoiling what might have been amusing. Their cartoon characters are not funny, but obnoxiously irritating. Both Ruffalo and Collette are fine actors but they are being directed to over the top performances which are not funny. The strident parody of privilege is so on the nose and exaggerated that it cheapens the film. 

The opening act should give us more opportunities to see the lives that Mickey is burning through, instead we get a montage that illustrates the points and uses up all the humor from the premise in just a few minutes. Also, I know it may seem strange to look for a logical explanation for why something happens in a film like this, but suspending your disbelief can’t work if you are going to break your own rules. Mickey 18 either has a defect, which needs to be explained, or the script just doesn’t care about characters, only stereotypes. 

By the time we got to the third act conflict with an alien species and the maniacal cult leaders, I just did not care anymore, and that was with forty minutes at least left in the film. To say that this movie was a disappointment would be an understatement. I thought “Snowpiercer” was over praised but “Parasite” was deserving of the accolades that it got. This movie will probably develop a cult following of it’s own. All those people who are fans of bad movies like “Lifeforce” where you can see the potential but the execution leaves you scratching your head and asking “How did this get made?’ should enjoy watching this over the next twenty years, I just wish I enjoyed it the one time I’ve seen it.