Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Crisp Criticism - "Da 5 Bloods", "Palm Springs", "Extraction", "Scoob!", "The Vast of Night", "Shirley", "The Lovebirds", "Body Cam", "Liberté", "Artemis Fowl"

by

Julien Faddoul






Da 5 Bloods ***

 

Four African American vets return to Vietnam seeking the remains of their fallen squad leader and the gold fortune he helped them hide.

Powerful, kinetic, frenzied and at times even exhausting examination of assorted social issues including American imperialism, parental astringency and international racial disinformation, with Lee calling on themes from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Apocalypse Now (1979) and Southern Comfort (1981). His method is almost Godardian in its sweep, with a haphazard yet decisive use of cutting, and an overpowering utilization of various kinds of cinematic techniques. It also gains immeasurably from a blazing, towering performance from Lindo as part wounded veteran, part madman.

 

d – Spike Lee

w – Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee

ph – Newton Thomas Sigel

pd – Wynn Thomas

m – Terence Blanchard

ed – Adam Gough

cos – Donna Berwick

 

p – Jon Kilik, Spike Lee, Beatriz Levin, Lloyd Levin

 

Cast: Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr, Chadwick Boseman, Mélanie Thierry, Paul Walter Hauser, Jasper Pääkkönen, Jean Reno, Johnny Trí Nguyễn, Lê Y Lan, Nguyen Ngoc Lâm, Sandy Huong Pham


















Palm Springs **

 

At a wedding in Palm Springs, the maid of honour discovers that one of the guests is stuck in a surreal time loop.

Funny, clever (if not particularly inventive) romantic comedy that scrutinizes themes of companionship and existential suffering without ever exploring anything too deeply but providing a great deal of fun along the way, especially from its appealing cast. It convinces for as long as it lasts.

 

d – Max Barbakow

w – Andy Siara

ph – Quyen Tran

pd – Jason Kisvarday

m – Matthew Compton

ed – Andrew Dickler Matt Friedman

cos – Colin Wilkes

 

p – Andy Samberg, Chris Parker, Akiva Schaffer, Dylan Sellers, Becky Sloviter, Jorma Taccone

 

Cast: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, JK Simmons, Peter Gallagher, Meredith Hagner, Camila Mendes, Tyler Hoechlin, Chris Pang, Jacqueline Obradors, June Squibb, Tongayi Chirisa, Dale Dickey

















Extraction

 

A mercenary who offers his services on the black market embarks on a dangerous mission when he is hired to rescue the kidnapped son of a Mumbai crime lord.

Such a slavish parade of action-movie cliches that no amount of directorial slickness can doctor. Also, it looks like garbage.

 

d – Sam Hargrave

w – Joe Russo, Ande Parks, Anthony Russo   (Based on the Graphic Novel by Ande Parks)

ph – Newton Thomas Sigel

pd – Philip Ivey

m – Alex Belcher, Henry Jackman

ed – Ruthie Aslan, Peter B. Ellis

cos – Bojana Nikitovic

 

p – Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Chris Hemsworth, Eric Gitter, Mike Larocca, Peter Schwerin

 

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Rudhraksh Jaiswal, Randeep Hooda, Golshifteh Farahani, Pankaj Tripathi, David Harbour





 












Scoob!

 

When Shaggy met Scooby...

Shrill, manic animated feature that takes the Hanna-Barbera franchise and assumes the form of a superhero origin story.

 

d – Tony Cervone

w – Adam Sztykiel, Jack C. Donaldson, Derek Elliott, Matt Lieberman, Eyal Podell, Jonathon E. Stewart   (Based on the Characters Created by William Hanna, Joseph Barbera)

pd – Michael Kurinsky

m – Tom Holkenborg

ed – Ryan Folsey, Vanara Taing

 

p – Allison Abbate, Pam Coats

 

Cast: Will Forte, Mark Wahlberg, Jason Isaacs, Gina Rodriguez, Zac Efron, Amanda Seyfried, Kiersey Clemons, Ken Jeong, Tracy Morgan, Frank Welker


















The Vast of Night ***

 

One night in New Mexico, in the late 1950s, a switchboard operator and radio DJ discover a strange audio frequency.

Remarkably assured attempt to concoct a piece of cinema out of very little – too little, ultimately, as both the film’s plot and rhythms become frustratingly calculable in the last act – unfolding like a radio play with rapid, Preston-Sturges-like dialogue. But the direction is consistently brilliant, with expert photography, mise-en-scène and performances. A delightful surprise, and I will unquestionably be first in line for whatever Mr Patterson does next.

 

d – Andrew Patterson

w – James Montague (Andrew Patterson), Craig W. Sanger

ph – Miguel Ioann Littin Menz

pd – Adam Dietrich

m – Erick Alexander, Jared Bulmer

ed – Junius Tully (Andrew Patterson)

cos – Jamie Reed

 

p – Adam Dietrich, Melissa Kirkendall, James Montague (Andrew Patterson)

 

Cast: Sierra McCormick, Jake Horowitz, Bruce Davis, Gail Cronauer
















Shirley *

 

A famous horror writer finds inspiration for her next book after she and her husband take in a young couple.

Expectedly self-conscious Decker piece that turns a dissection on the life and writings of Shirley Jackson into something like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966). Certainly of interest, but none of it really worked for me.

 

d – Josephine Decker

w – Sarah Gubbins   (Based on the Novel by Susan Scarf Merrell)

ph – Sturla Brandth Grøvlen

pd – Sue Chan

m – Tamar-kali 

ed – David Barker

cos – Amela Baksic

 

p – Christine Vachon, Elisabeth Moss, Simon Horsman, David Hinojosa, Jeffrey Soros, Sarah Gubbins, Sue Naegle

 

Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Odessa Young, Michael Stuhlbarg, Logan Lerman, Victoria Pedretti, Robert Wuhl

















The Lovebirds *

 

A couple experiences a defining moment in their relationship when they are unintentionally embroiled in a murder mystery.

Short, amusing but utterly predictable romantic farce which rests on the laurels of its two engaging lead performers.

 

d – Michael Showalter

w – Aaron Abrams, Brendan Gall, Martin Gero

ph – Brian Burgoyne

pd – Clayton Hartley

m – Michael Andrews

ed – Vince Filippone, Robert Nassau

cos – Megan Coates

 

p – Martin Gero, Tom Lassally, Jordana Mollick, Todd Schulman

 

Cast: Aaron Abrams, Brendan Gall, Martin Gero

















Body Cam

 

Cops involved with covering up a murder by getting rid of their body cam video footage find themselves haunted by an evil spirit.

A supernatural thriller centred around police brutality that stumbles at every opportunity, both as horror and politic, with a very weak central performance. 

 

d – Malik Vitthal

w – Nicholas McCarthy, Richmond Riedel

ph – Pedro Luque

pd – Elena Albanese

m – Joseph Bishara 

ed – Ken Blackwell

cos – Carol Cutshall

 

p – Matthew Kaplan

 

Cast: Mary J. Blige, Nat Wolff, David Zayas, Anika Noni Rose, David Warshofsky

















Liberté *

 

Madame de Dumeval, the Duke de Tesis and the Duke de Wand, libertines expelled from the court of Louis XVI, seek the support of the Duc de Walchen, German seducer and freethinker, lonely in a country where hypocrisy and false virtue reign.

Serra is predominately interesting as an aesthetic stylist, but his dissection here is fairly meaningless and this amounts to not much more than 2 hours of sadomasochistic sexual kinks – including watersports, bondage and various painful interpretations on sodomy – enacted by a very game cast. Tedious.

 

wd – Albert Serra

ph – Artur Tort

ed – Ariadna Ribas, Albert Serra, Artur Tort

cos – Rosa Tharrats

 

p – Pierre-Olivier Bardet, Albert Serra, Joaquim Sapinho, Montse Triola

 

Cast: Helmut Berger, Marc Susini, Laura Poulvet, Alexander García Düttmann, Lluís Serrat, Francesc Daranas, Montse Triola, Theodora Marcade

















Artemis Fowl

 

A 12-year-old genius and descendant of a long line of criminal masterminds finds himself in a battle against a race of powerful underground fairies who may be behind his father’s disappearance.

A 90-minute string of noises and images that are supposed to resemble what we once exclusively referred to as a “movie”. Pointedly, this is a pathetic, unqualified disaster with everyone concerned coming off either embarrassed or embarrassing. Shockingly cheap visuals, gross thematic melodrama and performances that are almost homicidal in their sheer awfulness. Please, stay the hell away.

 

d – Kenneth Branagh

w – Hamish McColl, Conor McPherson   (Based on the Novel by Eoin Colfer)

ph – Haris Zambarloukos

pd – Jim Clay

m – Patrick Doyle

ed – Matthew Tucker

cos – Sammy Sheldon Differ

 

p – Kenneth Branagh, Jody Hofflund

 

Cast: Ferdia Shaw, Colin Farrell, Lara McDonnell, Josh Gad, Tamara Smart, Nonso Anozie, Joshua McGuire, Judi Dench, Nikesh Patel, Adrian Scarborough, Michael Rouse
















Wednesday, December 16, 2020

The Films of 2020


208 Films

 

For all reviews click here

 

****

  

 

*** 

Da 5 Bloods

David Byrne's American Utopia

Dick Johnson is Dead

First Cow

Fourteen

I'm Thinking of Ending Things

I'm Your Woman

The Nest

Soul

Sound of Metal

The Vast of Night

Vitalina Varela

 

  

**

Alex Wheatle

The Assistant

Bacurau

Beanpole

The Booksellers

City Hall

Collective

The Father

The Forty-Year-Old Version

The Invisible Man

Let Them All Talk

Lovers Rock

Martin Eden

Minari

Mangrove

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

News of the World

On the Rocks

Onward

Palm Springs

Promising Young Woman

Red, White and Blue

Save Yourselves!

She Dies Tomorrow

The Whistlers

A White White Day

Wolfwalkers

Young Ahmed

  

 

*

Ammonite

And Then We Danced

Another Round

Bad Education

Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets

Blow the Man Down

Capone

Charm City Kings

Corpus Christi

The Craft: Legacy

Crip Camp

The Croods: A New Age

Driveways

Education

Emma.

Enola Holmes

Extra Ordinary

The Glorias

Greyhound

Happiest Season

Hope Gap

Judas and the Black Messiah

Liberté

The Lovebirds

Mank

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

The Mauritanian

Miss Americana

The Night Clerk

Nomadland

One Night in Miami

Ordinary Love

Over the Moon

The Photograph

Pieces of a Woman

The Plagiarists

Possessor

Radioactive

A Rainy Day in New York

The Secret Garden

Shirley

Sorry We Missed You

Swallow

Tenet

Tigertail

Time

The Trial of the Chicago 7

Troop Zero

Uncle Frank

Unpregnant

Wasp Network

The Way Back

The White Tiger

The Willoughbys

Zombi Child

  

 

NO STARS

All Day and a Night

An American Pickle

Antebellum

Artemis Fowl

Bad Boys for Life

The Banker

Big Time Adolescence

Birds of Prey

Bill & Ted Face the Music

Blumhouse's Fantasy Island

Body Cam

Brahms: The Boy II

Buffaloed

Burden

The Call of the Wild

The Christmas Chronicles 2

Clouds

Coffee and Kareem

Color Out of Space

Come Play

Come to Daddy

The Corrupted

The Dawn

The Devil All the Time

Dolittle

Dolphin Reef

Downhill

Dreamland

Elephant

Endings, Beginnings

EurovisionSong Contest

Extraction

A Fall From Grace

Fatale

Fatman

Freaky

Foxtrot Six

The Gentlemen

Go Back to China

Godmothered

Goldie

Greenland

Gretel & Hansel

The Grudge

The High Note

Hillbilly Elegy

Holidate

How to Build a Girl

Hubie Halloween

The Hunt

I Am Woman

Impossible Monsters

Inherit the Viper

Irresistible

I Still Believe

I Was at Home, But…

The Jesus Rolls

Judy & Punch

The Kindness of Strangers

The King of Staten Island

The Last Full Measure

The Last Thing He Wanted

The Lie

Like a Boss

The Little Things

The Lodge

Love, Guaranteed

Love, Weddings & Other Disasters

Love Wedding Repeat

The Midnight Sky

Military Wives

Mr Jones

Monster Hunter

Mortal

Mulan

My Spy

The New Mutants

Nocturne

The Old Guard

Olympic Dreams

The One and Only Ivan

The Platform

Pinocchio

Project Power

The Prom

The Quarry

Rebecca

The Rental

Resistance

The Rhythm Section

Scoob!

Seberg

Sonic the Hedgehog

Spenser Confidential

Stardust

Summerland

Superintelligence

The Tax Collector

Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made

Trolls World Tour

The True History of the Kelly Gang

The Turning

Underwater

Unhinged

The United States vs. Billie Holiday

Valley Girl

Waiting for Anya

The War with Grandpa

We Summon the Darkness

Wild Mountain Thyme

Wonder Woman 1984

The Wrong Missy

You Should Have Left