Movie Reviews of 5 December 2023 Movies
December
22-25 saw a wave of new movies enter theaters. It felt good, as theatrical
releases have been somewhat sparse since the pandemic. Even now, the first two
weeks of December saw Japanese imports Godzilla Minus Zero and The
Boy and the Heron outperforming American films at the box office in part
because American studios released barely any new movies. This is not meant as a
slight on either film and there's reason to be happy Americans are showing an
increased interest in foreign fare, but such a lack of domestic films after
Thanksgiving would've been unheard of before the pandemic.
However, that
drought changed on December 22 and there's a lot of quality in cinemas now for
moviegoers to enjoy. I did not get to the musical remake of The Color Purple,
the animated family film Migration, nor the latest superhero
extravaganza Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, but I saw five movies in a
week and even the weakest of the lot still had something to offer audiences.
Poor Things
***1/2 stars (out of four)
Following
their critically acclaimed partnership in 2018's excellent The Favourite,
Oscar-winning actress Emma Stone, director Yorgos Lanthimos, and screenwriter
Tony McNamara (who co-wrote Stone's delightful romp in Cruella) have
re-teamed for the darkly comic fantasy Poor Things with great results.
Based on the
novel of the same name by Alasdair Gray, Poor Things tells the story of
Bella Baxter (Stone). She's the experiment of a scientist (Willem Dafoe) who
found the dead body of a nine-months pregnant woman and replaced the dead
woman's brain with the baby's. It's a feminist take on Frankenstein as
Bella rapidly matures and discovers her own sexuality.
The film is
extremely R-rated and is for neither the squeamish nor the prudish. There's a
lot of sex in this and it's presented all in a very clinical, matter-of-fact
way (Basic Instinct, this is not). But it's also very funny. Stone has a
lot of witty lines to deliver as she leaves the scientist's home to discover
the world. She travels across a dreamworld version of European cities. The
title cards say London, Lisbon, Paris, etc. but the set design makes it seem
like all of those cities have been reimagined by Terry Gilliam.
Stone is almost
certainly going to receive a deserved Oscar nomination for her work in the
lead, but she is also well supported by Dafoe and by Mark Ruffalo as a caddish
lawyer who develops an unhealthy attachment to Bella. Jerskin Fendrix also
contributes a terrific score. Whether you love Poor Things or hate it,
you'll likely concede that it's an original film with genuine artistic
ambition.
The Iron Claw
*** stars (out of four
Good
movies can make you interested in topics that never much interested you in real
life. I have never been a pro wrestling fan, but I enjoyed writer-director Sean
Durkin's new film The Iron Claw.
Perhaps
"enjoyed" isn't the right word as it tells the harrowing true story of
wrestling's Von Erich family (reading their Wikipedia page is likely to widen
your eyes and drop your jaw). The family's patriarch was Fritz Von Erich (Hoyt
McAllany), a former pro wrestler whose career ambitions were thwarted and he
then transferred those ambitions to his sons Kevin (Zac Efron), Kerry (The
Bear's Jeremy Allen White), David (Harris Dickinson), and Mike (Stanley
Simons).
As Kevin
explains in an early scene with his girlfriend (Lily James), even though
professional wrestling is largely scripted, the goal of wrestlers is to make
enough of an impression as performers that the powers-that-be decide they
should be the world champions. This is a goal that seems to matter more to
Fritz than his sons, especially the musically inclined Mike, who at times seems
like he'd rather do anything but wrestle.
Durkin's script
conveys the fierce love the brothers feel for each other even as they sometimes
compete with one another to succeed in wrestling. It also gives viewers a real
sense of the beating professional wrestlers take (the outcomes may be scripted,
but the stunts are real) and why some resort to self-medication to deal with
the pain and injuries they sustain.
The Iron Claw
can be a tough watch as the Von Erich family's story is so chock full of
heartbreak that one gut-wrenching tragedy the real-life family endured is left
out of the film entirely. And trust me, at no point does this seem like a
sanitized version of a real story. The second hour is in some ways a gauntlet
of tragedies.
But that said,
Durkin manages to stage a climactic scene that still has hope and humanity
despite the pain that preceded it.
The Boys in the Boat
*** stars (out of four)
Rowing is
a sport that's been almost completely ignored by Hollywood, but director George
Clooney rectifies that with his new film The Boys in the Boat, which is about
the Depression-era rowing team from the University of Washington that competed
at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Nazi-run Berlin. The film's low-key charms
reminded me of 1981's Best Picture winner Chariots of Fire (a story of
Olympic runners).
Joe Rantz
(Callum Turner) is a college student in Washington about to be kicked out of
school for his inability to pay tuition. But the university offers tuition and
a room and board to students if they make the school's rowing team, which is
struggling to compete with more established rowing programs like the University
of California and the Ivy League schools. The team is coached by the gruff
Coach Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton).
The script by
Mark L. Smith emphasizes the class issues at play as Washington's working-class
students work to overcome the disadvantages they face in both real life and in
the sport as they face their better-funded rivals. There's of course some
personality clashes to be overcome on the team itself and Coach Ulbrickson must
convince university boosters that his new rowers are worth taking a chance on.
A naysayer might
describe The Boys in the Boat as conventional, but I would describe it
as traditional. Formulas exist for a reason and if executed well, they can
still entertain as well as they ever did before. The Boys in the Boat is
an old-school sports film.
Ferrari
*** stars (out of four)
Director
Michael Mann (Heat, The Last of the Mohicans) has been trying to tell
the story of auto legend Enzo Ferrari for over 20 years. The project has been
so long in gestation that the credited screenwriters for Ferrari on
IMDB, Troy Kennedy Martin and Brock Yates, died in 2009 and 2016, respectively.
While Mann's determination to see this tale to the screen did not result in a
masterpiece, it's still worthwhile viewing even for people like me who are not
into auto racing.
Thankfully, Ferrari
avoids an attempt to tell the entire story of Enzo Ferrari's life. Instead,
it focuses on the summer of 1957. The Ferrari company is teetering on the brink
of bankruptcy. Maserati has taken away an important racing record. Enzo (Adam
Driver) tries to rally his racing team to win the prestigious Mille Miglia,
which he believes will save the company. The race comes after one of his best
drivers was killed while practicing.
Ferrari is
a little slow to start but makes for compelling viewing once it gets
going. Driver turns in strong work as the lead, and so does Penelope Cruz as
his wife Laura. Laura maintains a significant amount of control of the company,
but their marriage has been in shambles for years as Enzo cheats on her with
Lina (Shailene Woodley), with whom he has fathered a son Laura is unaware of.
Driver and Cruz's scenes together are very good and Mann remains a top-notch
director of action scenes. Since I was unfamiliar with how the 1957 Mille
Miglia ended, the film's climax did elicit a genuine gasp from me, which is
rare for me in a theater.
Anyone But You
**1/2 stars (out of four)
The
romantic comedy, once one of the most popular cinematic genres, has faded in
the past decade. So it's nice to see any attempt to return to the genre. Easy
A director Will Gluck's Anyone But You is a hit-and-miss affair but
still has enough laughs and romance to please fans of the genre.
Ben (Top Gun:
Maverick's Glen Powell) and Bea (Euphoria's Sydney Sweeney) have a
first date that starts with intense bonding but ends in a misunderstanding that
leaves both parties feeling bitter and aggrieved. They eventually learn they
will be at the same wedding in Australia. Their exes will also be at this
wedding, so the two hatch a plan to pretend to be a couple to make their exes
jealous.
Powell and
Sweeney do have good chemistry together. There are some funny lines, and '80s
movie fans will be happy see Australian actor Bryan Brown (F/X, Breaker
Morant) back on screen. While I would give Anyone But You a mild
recommendation, a few too many attempts at physical comedy fizzle for me to
give it a more enthusiastic recommendation.
But the nice
thing about comedies, that endangered species of theatrical release, is that
even one that only succeeds some of the time will likely make you laugh and
smile more than you otherwise would have in those 90-120 minutes.
