Reviews

Directed by: Wes Anderson
Written by: Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola
Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Brian Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Scheiber
Released: August 10, 2023
Grade: B+

Asteroid City

I recently had a chance to visit the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City where the exhibits included an “auditory collage” blending sounds of Germany with sounds of Nigeria, a giant human hologram to help us imagine other bodies, and an “assemblage” where everyday objects are combined to create something different and symbolic.  It’s not for everyone and I can’t purport to understand the deeper significance… but I love modern art for its randomness, originality, and thought-provoking nature.

Writer-director Wes Anderson has been leaning into that mentality his entire career.  He’s established his own warped, weird, wacky style and, to put it bluntly, you either get it… or you don’t.  My personal favourite is The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou but it’s also hard to overlook films like The Royal Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and The Grand Budapest Hotel.  His trademarks include quirky narratives, big casts, colourful sets, and distinctive camera work.  They’re not massive box-office hits but in going against the grain of most Hollywood fare, he’ll always have a fan in me.

Asteroid City is his latest outing and it’s everything you’d expect from Anderson.  The story is about an eclectic group of people visited by a UFO in a tiny American township in 1955.  There’s also a story-outside-the-story centred on a playwright trying to develop a new work.  The cast includes a dozen Academy Award nominees including Scarlett Johansson as a high-profile actress, and Tom Hanks as a concerned grandfather.  The crew is headlined by past collaborators including composer Alexandre Desplat (who won an Oscar for The Grand Budapest Hotel), and cinematographer Robert Yeoman (who has now worked with Anderson nine times).

The screenplay lacks the emotional depth of some other Anderson flicks (can’t say I really cared about anyone here), but I enjoyed Asteroid City for its eccentricity and bizarre humour.  You’re never quite sure where it’s going, the criss-crossing between the two worlds is interesting, and the offbeat character interactions earn plenty of chuckles.  I’ve read a few online articles delving into the film’s meaning and symbolism but, just like the exhibits at MoMA, parts flew unknowingly over my head.

Asteroid City is a little unfulfilling but still a fun adventure.

Directed by: Ben Wheatley
Written by: Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, Dean Georgaris
Starring: Jason Statham, Wu Jing, Sophia Cai, Page Kennedy, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Cliff Curtis
Released: August 3, 2023
Grade: C+

Meg 2: The Trench

Released in 2018, The Meg was trashy and fun.  Those behind the production felt we’d had enough shark “thrillers” and so it was time for a Sharknado-style comedy to balance the ledger.  The idea paid off with the film making over $530 million USD at the worldwide box-office – more than three times the budget and enough to justify this 2023 sequel.  It too is based on a novel from sci-fi writer Steve Alten but there’s a new director this time around with Englishman Ben Wheatley (High-Rise) taking on responsibilities.

There’s an entertaining movie buried in here somewhere but for the most part, Meg 2: The Trench can’t fulfill its potential.  The opening hour is a complete write-off.  I’d almost suggest buying a ticket, having lunch/dinner, and then popping in at the half-way mark.  It’s centred on a group of scientists, headlined by Jason Statham leading character, who head 25,000 feet under the sea to map a previously unexplored section of the ocean.

They encounter trouble but (most of) our heroes are able to extricate themselves with the help of motivational speeches like “we’re a strong group… we can do this.”  They also have an ability to override the laws of physics, get extremely lucky when the time is right, and deal with villains and henchmen who are incredibly stupid.  The laughs are non-existent, and the focus is too much on the boring characters instead of the wacky, prehistoric sea creatures (feels weird saying that but it’s true).

Things improve towards the end of act two.  The characters return to the surface, visit a well-populated holiday island, and mayhem truly breaks out.  It finally reaches a point of over-the-top stupidity where you can laugh.  Bad folk meet a predictably humorous demise, even-bigger-than-last-time sharks are killed in creative fashion, and the scenarios become increasingly farcical with each passing minute.

Wheatley, with the help of Oscar nominated editor Jonathan Amos (Baby Driver), have struggled in pulling the material together.  We move too quickly between characters during the finale and some good one-liners are rushed.  I’ve no issue with the visual effects being deliberately goofy (at least I hope that’s what they intended) but the action scenes don’t flow – the editing it too chaotic and the camera locations are far from ideal.

It’s not easy making a good movie but Meg 2: The Trench also shows that it’s not easy making a good bad movie.

Directed by: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou
Written by: Danny Philippou, Bill Hinzman, Daley Pearson
Starring: Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Otis Dhanji, Miranda Otto, Zoe Terakes
Released: July 27, 2023
Grade: A-

Talk to Me

South Australian-born brothers Danny and Michael Philippou have been making movies since they were pre-teens and in 2013, they found fame after launching a YouTube channel specialising in comedy, horror, and wacky stunts.  The channel currently has over 6 million followers and the videos have a combined viewing total exceeding 1 billion.

Inspired by an idea from Bluey creator Daley Pearson (who gets a screenwriting credit), Talk to Me is their first feature film and marks their leap into the movie industry.  It’s a low-budget horror-thriller filmed in Australia with a local cast and crew… but it has the potential to reach a worldwide audience.  In the same vein as the 2014 sleeper hit The Babadook, a film where both brothers served as production runners and lighting assistants, Talk to Me received great buzz out of the Sundance Film Festival and is being released broadly across the United States and Canada (more than 2,000 screens!).

The story is quite cool.  A group of teenagers have come into possession of a mysterious embalmed hand.  When you touch it and say the words “talk to me”, you are mentally teleported into the afterlife and connected with a single deceased individual.  The kids treat is as a party trick.  They get together at someone’s house and take turns grabbing the hand while friends humorously/naively film the experience on their smartphones.  You need to be careful not to hold on to the hand too long or else…

This film gets a lot of the little things right.  It doesn’t muck around with a time-wasting introduction where the teenagers discover the hand and can’t believe its existence.  It’s as if we’re entering the narrative at the start of the second act (big thumbs up) and that helps keep the running time to a tight 95 minutes.  As the most notable member of the cast, Miranda Otto (The Lord of the Rings) plays a mother – a humorous, no-nonsense, terrifically written character who easily sees through her children’s sneaky white lies.

There are deeper subplots involving the “users” and the people they seek to contact in the afterlife but, in avoiding spoilers, I’ll allow audiences to discover those details for themselves.  From the make-up… to the casting… to the camera movements, the Philippou brothers have crafted a movie which is both interesting and scary.  It’s nice to see a character-driven horror flick which doesn’t rely largely on gimmicky jolts and frights.

I’ve a few qualms about the finale (the ending doesn’t quite stick) but Talk to Me deserves to find an audience.

Directed by: Thaddeus O’Sullivan
Written by: Jimmy Smallhorne, Timothy Prager, Joshua D. Maurer
Starring: Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, Maggie Smith, Stephen Rea, Agnes O’Casey, Mark O’Halloran
Released: August 3, 2023
Grade: B-

The Miracle Club

No matter how hard we try, it’s often difficult to escape the past.  It’s a theme which has been explored in countless movies and is again on display in The Miracle Club, a period piece directed by Irishman Thaddeus O’Sullivan (Ordinary Decent Criminal).  The three-person screenwriting team take us back to 1960s Ireland and a fictional tale centred on four women with long-held secrets they need unburdening from.

Chrissie (Linney) has travelled from Boston to her childhood home in Dublin following the death of her estranged, “saintly” mother.  Lily (Smith) is an elderly woman who has never fully come to grips with the death of her teenage son several decades ago.  Eileen (Bates) is a nosy gossip who has become a little weary of her husband (Rea) and broader family.  Dolly (O’Casey) is a struggling mum with a grown child who does not speak.

In the company of a kind-hearted priest (O’Halloran), this unusual quartet set out on a bus/ferry journey from Dublin to the famous Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in Southern France.  The reasons for the trip vary but there is a common thread – they’re looking for change in their lives, whether it be through a divine miracle or something more realistic and organic.

The Miracle Club is a compassionate flick with a contrived screenplay.  Characters allude to their guilt-laden secrets but then don’t spill the beans right away to help prolong the narrative.  There’s nothing wrong with that technique but it’s done so in a clunky manner which is far too obvious.  Subplots involving other characters, such as family members stuck in Dublin while the women are away, add a splash of comedy but not much else.

Elevating the material are the wonderful performances of the four leads – Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, Maggie Smith, and Agnes O’Casey.  They share some great conversations – from tough-love arguments laced with sharp barbs… to soothing, speak-from-the-heart moments which reminds us of the value of true friendship.  They’re all superb but it’s hard not to single out Smith who continues to make an indelible impression at the age of 88.

The Miracle Club is a corny, likeable, old-fashioned yarn.

Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Written by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett
Released: July 20, 2023
Grade: A

Oppenheimer

Over the past two decades, writer-director Christopher Nolan’s brand has been fast, loud, high-octane action-thrillers.  Rightly or wrongly, he’s become one of only filmmakers in the industry consistently entrusted with big budgets for non-franchise projects.  The critical and commercial success of The Dark Knight trilogy allowed him to make Inception, Interstellar and Tenet – three original, mind-twisting adventures that warrant multiple viewings.

Oppenheimer represents a slight pivot for Nolan.  He’s taking his well-established style (fast-paced editing, loud music score) and inserting it into an unexpected genre – the biopic.  The idea took shape while making Tenet (there’s even a line in that movie about the atom bomb), and it prompted Nolan to read American Prometheus, a 721-page Pulitzer Prize-winning biography authored by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.  That became the source material for this 180-minute epic.

47-year-old Cillian Murphy is an accomplished actor with many great credits under his belt (28 Days Later, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Peaky Blinders) but I’ll argue this is the best performance of his career.  In a cast which features almost every actor in Hollywood (you’ve got Oscar winners making 2-minute cameos), Murphy takes the lead role of J. Robert Oppenheimer, an American physicist who led the creation of the first atomic bomb during the early 1940s.

Mimicking the look and mannerisms of Oppenheimer with precision, Murphy expertly fleshes out the nuance of the incredibly complex character.  There is a fleeting moment of levity where a U.S. Army General (Damon) describes him as an unstable, theatrical, neurotic, womanizing dilettante – adjectives which Oppenheimer doesn’t disagree with.  On the flip side, we also see him as an intelligent, open, ethical, communicative, calculating, softly spoken scientist who often puts the consideration of others ahead of his own.  It’s rare for a biopic to capture so many competing angles of a single individual.

Nolan likes to play with time, and he does so again here with interwoven timelines.  The more significant focus is Oppenheimer’s early education and ultimate involvement in the atom bomb’s creation at a secret military site in New Mexico.  The other key narrative concerns Oppenheimer’s under-attack reputation in the aftermath of World War II, and his connection with an influential businessman (Downey Jr) who headed the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.

The production values are extraordinary.  Editor Jennifer Lane (Manchester by the Sea) establishes a frenetic pace and maintains it throughout (there’s hardly time for characters to take a breath).  Oscar winning composer Ludwig Göransson (Black Panther) has created an intense, bombastic music score which fits every emotional beat.  Not wanting to rely on special effects (there isn’t a single CGI shot in the whole movie), Nolan re-created the atom bomb test using a combination of gasoline, propane, aluminium powder, and magnesium (it’s one of the quietest scenes in the whole movie – very cool!)

Offering up an unforgettable, thought-provoking punchline, Oppenheimer will be spoken about for a long time.

Directed by: Jalmari Helander
Written by: Jalmari Helander
Starring: Jorma Tommila, Aksel Hennie, Jack Doolan, Mimosa Willamo, Onni Tommila
Released: July 27, 2023
Grade: B

Sisu

In the long-running Halloween franchise, the heroes tried every means possible to kill the villainous Michael Myers.  He was shot multiple times, blown up, tranquilised, beaten up, hanged, stabbed, electrocuted, hit by a truck, and burned.  Every time, he miraculously survived.  That same vibe is at play in Sisu, a Finnish action-comedy from writer-director Jalmari Helander (Big Game).

The protagonist here is Aatami (Tommila), a retired soldier who is fossicking for gold in a remote, uninhabited part of Finland.  The year is 1944 and this allows Helander to introduce stereotypical bad guys who are easy to dislike – a band of angry Nazis who were defeated in the Lapland War and are now retreating to Germany.

The plot is simple.  Aatami finds a huge, live-changing gold deposit which he is trying to transport by horseback back home.  He crosses paths with the Nazis enroute who aren’t too keen to let him live – partly because they want the gold for themselves and partly because they seek vengeance against the Finnish people.  It evolves into a bloodthirsty piece where dozens of soldiers try to slay Aatami but, despite a growing list of injuries, he seemingly cannot be defeated.

Inspired by Rambo, one of Helander’s favourite movies growing up, Sisu is an unrelenting action film which, like a great Quentin Tarantino flick, blends humour with gore.  Yes, it’s subtitled but that shouldn’t deter audiences given how little dialogue there is.  In the lead role, star Jorma Tommila barely says a word.  He’s a one-man band who keeps to himself and has no need to communicate with others.  On encountering the Nazis, his fists and weapons do most of the talking.

I’d have preferred more subplots.  It’s only 91 minutes but there’s an element of repetitiveness to the increasingly over-the-top action and the farcical way in which he keeps surviving.  You need to lean into the comedy as best you can.  Think of it as a Wile E. Coyote v. Road Runner scenario where the outcome is inevitable, but you still admire the determination and creativity shown by both sides.

It’s rare to see an action film emanating from Scandinavia so if you’re a fan of the genre, it’s worth checking out.