Crisp Criticism - "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", "Dora and the Lost City of Gold", "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw", "Midsommar"

by

Julien Faddoul

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood *

A faded television actor and his stunt double strive to achieve fame and success in the film industry during the final years of Hollywood’s Golden Age in 1969 Los Angeles.

Thin, indulgent and dull: Certainly the most masturbatory film by its distinguished director. He is mixing together two grand themes here: 1) The end of an auspicious period of Hollywood filmmaking and west-coast optimism and the has-beens that never made it through intact, and 2) The mass murders conducted by members of the Manson Family at 10050 Cielo Dr in August of 1969. Only the former inspires slight veneration and would have been even more interesting if the latter weren't impeding. The dioramic representation of both the facts and nonfacts of the tragedy in question – bestrewed with interminable amounts of visual taunting, as the inevitable is slowly baited for well over two hours – is then undercut by the last 30 minutes, in which a revised version of history is given. Is this approach morally questionable? Perhaps but probably the filmmaker’s intention. Is it artistically lazy? I have concluded that it is. Any historical tragedy could be given the same treatment with very little impactful difference and, in the end, he wants to have his cake and eat it too, which is something he just hasn’t earned. Furthermore, a 167 minute “hang-out” movie only works if the people the audience is hanging out with are dynamic enough to warrant their time, which, as they are presented here, is sadly not the case, especially the real-life figures like Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring and Tex Watson. I recognize what Mr Tarantino is trying to do here: He is using cinema, the most majestic art form, as the salvation for anyone who feels indignant about both the gruesome tragedy and the nostalgia for a bygone era, as he did with the Holocaust in 2009 and American Slavery in 2012. On that score, I commend him for endeavouring to expand upon the art form in an age where creative timidity and receipt revenue rule, but less portentousness and more focus would have been, frankly, an even greater achievement. Pitt and DiCaprio, however, are superb.

wd – Quentin Tarantino

ph – Robert Richardson

pd – Barbara Ling

ed – Fred Raskin

cos – Arianne Phillips

p – David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh, Quentin Tarantino

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Timothy Olyphant, Dakota Fanning, Luke Perry, Margaret Qualley, Damon Herriman, Mike Moh, Emile Hirsch, Damian Lewis, Robert Rafał Zawierucha, Bruce Dern, Lena Dunham, Nicholas Hammond, Lorenza Izzo, Marco Rodríguez, Michael Madsen

Dora and the Lost City of Gold

Dora, a teenage explorer, leads her friends on an adventure to save her parents and solve the mystery behind a lost city of gold.

Based on the widely popular children’s television series, the film depicts a thoroughly unenchanting little girl who finds herself in direly predictable situations.

d – James Bobin

w – Matthew Robinson, Nicholas Stoller, Tom Wheeler   (Based on the Series Created by Chris Gifford, Valerie Walsh, Eric Weiner)

ph – Javier Aguirresarobe

pd – Dan Hennah

m – John Debney, Germaine Franco

ed – Mark Everson

cos – Rahel Afiley

p – Kristin Burr

Cast: Isabela Moner, Danny Trejo, Jeffrey Wahlberg, Benicio del Toro, Eugenio Derbez, Temuera Morrison, Eva Longoria, Michael Peña, Nicholas Coombe, Madeleine Madden, Adriana Barraza, Q'orianka Kilcher, Pia Miller, Madelyn Miranda, Malachi Barton

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

A spinoff of The Fate of the Furious, focusing on Johnson’s US Diplomatic Security Agent Luke Hobbs forming an unlikely alliance with Statham’s Deckard Shaw.

So asinine in so many ways: Bad action, nonsensical plotting, crass jokes and two insufferably smug lead performances. 

d – David Leitch

w – Chris Morgan, Drew Pearce   (Based on the Characters Created by Gary Scott Thompson)

ph – Jonathan Sela

pd – David Scheunemann

m – Tyler Bates

ed – 

cos – Sarah Evelyn Bram

p – Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Chris Morgan, Hiram Garcia

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Eiza González, Eddie Marsan, Stephanie Vogt, David Mumeni, Axel Nu, Lampros Kalfuntzos, Leati Joseph Anoaʻi, Kevin Hart, Ryan Reynolds, Rob Delaney, Cliff Curtis, Helen Mirren, Eliana Su’a, Lori Pelenise Tuisano, Daniel Bernhardt

Midsommar *

A young couple travels to Sweden to visit their friend’s rural hometown and attend its mid-summer festival.

Creepy cult-centred film that is elegant enough I guess but far too reliant on abstract teasing to be at all successful as an emotional experience, despite its insistence that it has “Something to Say.” Notwithstanding a good cast, the whole thing is rather stupefying. 

wd – Ari Aster

ph – Pawel Pogorzelski

pd – Henrik Svensson

m – The Haxan Cloak 

ed – Lucian Johnston

cos – Andrea Flesch

p – Patrik Andersson, Lars Knudsen

Cast: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Vilhelm Blomgren, William Jackson Harper, Will Poulter, Ellora Torchia