Maestro (2023) - Movie Review

Bradley Cooper is one of my favourite people working in Hollywood right now. As an actor, he just got done completing the heartbreaking character arc of a talking raccoon and solidifying him as one of the greatest modern superheroes with Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3. As a producer, he backed another whopper of a comic book flick with Joker, a film I still hold in rather high regard and am beyond curious to see what in the hell the sequel is going to shape into. And as a director, his debut with A Star Is Born was a monster hit when it came out, and one of my faves from that year. The man just keeps making power moves, and always with this unmistakable confidence that, no matter what direction he takes, it’s the right one for him.

It's the kind of quality that makes him helming a film like this (or, more specifically, why Steven Spielberg would emphatically insist that he helm it) make total sense, and something of a necessity in order to do it right. While I freely admit that I don’t know all that much about Leonard Bernstein, the legend around his name carries a lot of weight, and with the take that’s being attempted here, there’s a incredibly high degree of difficulty in making it work.

Tetris (2023) - Movie Review

I have pretty much given up trying to anticipate anything that Jon S. Baird does. With each new release, he not only creates something that stands out wholly from anything else that’s released next to it, but even from the previous production Baird worked on. He's gone from the psychological dark comedy of Filth to the vaudeville tragedy of Stan & Ollie… to a Cold War-era political thriller wearing the skin of a corporate biopic in Tetris.

Gran Turismo (2023) - Movie Review

Video game movies tend to come in two flavours. They’re either about video game characters in their separate video game world, or they’re about those characters making in their way into the ‘real world’. On both counts, studios have historically struggled with making such movies worthwhile, although with the recent successes of The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (I specify the sequel because the original is still pretty naff), that tide has definitely been turning of late.

Oppenheimer (2023) - Movie Review

The existential threat posed by the atomic bomb has always felt like an abstract concept to me. Being born after the bubbling conceptualising of it during WWII, and its position as the final safeguard during the Cold War, I haven’t really considered that kind of devastation as something real. Or, at least, beyond the perplexing optimism of the time that, should one of these bombs go off, the public would be perfectly fine if they just hid under a table with their arms over their heads. Part of my struggle with dealing with media in the context with which it was made (usually when dealing with anything made pre-1995) extends beyond just media and even for actual shit that has happened, and could very well happen again. And yet, for the longest time, I’ve always treated it as something historical, something academic, rather than anything concrete.

Watching this film changed that for me. Big time.

Thirteen Lives (2022) - Movie Review

I was initially planning to just skip this one entirely. After how badly Hillbilly Elegy turned out, I didn’t want to run the risk of Ron Howard screwing the pooch on a story that is far more important than the humble brag come-up of a venture capitalist. I even raised this same issue with fellow critic and top bloke Travis Johnson over at Celluloid & Whiskey, who understood my apprehension but suggested I still check it out. I’ve been to many a screening with this guy, and he knows his shit, so I figured it was worth giving a burl. And man, am I glad I did, because this is some of Howard’s best narrative work in ages.

Home Team (2022) - Movie Review

Yep, it’s a Happy Madison sports movie double feature today… because why not? Only, where Hustle was purely fiction, this is based on a true story involving NFL coach Sean Payton, while on suspension, coaching his son’s middle-school football team, the Liberty Christian Warriors (here called the Argyle Warriors). Unfortunately, that’s not the only major difference between the two, as the entertainment value here is much steeper.

Blonde (2022) - Movie Review

Even in a year that gave audiences the media hurricane of Don’t Worry Darling, this will likely go down as the most controversial film of 2022. Over the last few months, I’ve heard no shortage of horror stories about CGI fetuses and how exploitative its depiction of Marilyn Monroe’s life is. Since it is one of the bigger titles of the year, I knew I’d have to get to it eventually… but understandably, I’ve been a bit apprehensive about it. But hey, it’s got Ana de Armas continuing to spread her wings as a lead actress, and I quite liked the last film I saw from director Andrew Dominik in One More Time With Feeling (not to mention Nick Cave and Warren Ellis doing the soundtrack for this as well); maybe this will be another case where I find something good where others didn’t. Well… maybe I did? Even after I finished writing this, I’m still not sure.

She Said (2022) - Movie Review

No other event in recent memory has shaken the film industry as hard as the Harvey Weinstein scandal. It’s the kind of mass shift in public consciousness that warrants treating history in pre- and post- terms. And as someone who has made it their life’s passion to look at and examine the products of the film industry, it’s quite the thing to try and squeeze into my pre-established auteurist way of looking at films. Between feature films, short films, and television shows, Weinstein has his name attached to over 300 products; that’s a lot of influence. And in that time, he’s worked closely with a number of filmmakers I hold in quite high regard like Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, and Robert Rodriguez. Hell, my favourite film of all time is a Weinstein Company production… and also stars Rose McGowan. As with any industry that makes products for mass consumption, you can never unlearn how the sausage is made.

When looking at a film that dramatises the efforts of the journalists who first broke the story of Weinstein’s nightmare shitlord behaviour (and that’s me toning it down), naturally, stuff like this comes to mind… but it’s also something that’s part of this film’s production as well. She Said is a product of Plan B, a film studio co-founded by Brad Pitt. Pitt himself was told about Gwyneth Paltrow’s mistreatment by Harvey back in the ‘90s, and he apparently confronted the man directly… only to continue working with him for a conspicuous amount of time after that. That Paltrow herself is part of this film’s story, mentioned several times as one of the women who came forward, only makes this even more uncomfortable to contemplate. Even when creating art meant to point the finger at abusers, Hollywood continues to let them benefit from it.

Not that I’m going to hold that against this film as I do my usual thematic musings on it, though. Pitt’s involvement may muddy the waters as far as this film’s righteous cause, but I don’t see the good that would come out of disregarding the work of everyone else who created this film, just because of his involvement in it. In much the same way that disregarding the work of those who worked on films that Weinstein produced does little as a sweeping movement. Ignoring the efforts of women because of the actions of one douchebag, considering the story being told here, doesn’t feel right. I can understand it if the douchebag in question is the director or the lead actor (and I freely admit that I’ve dodged quite a few releases this year on that basis), but with how varied the role of producer can be as far as contact with the people working on the film directly, I’m not as direct with that.

I’m just putting this all out there because, out of respect for the work being highlighted in holding the bastards accountable, this felt like something worth keeping in context. Especially since what has been put together here is really damn good. (Yes, after all that waffle, I promise that we are actually going to discuss the movie now)

Elvis (2022) - Movie Review

Baz Luhrmann. The Aussie king of camp. The Man from Showy River.

I don’t like Baz Luhrmann’s films.

His woeful adaptation of The Great Gatsby marks the first time I ever left a cinema actually angry at having wasted my time and money on a particular film. Romeo + Juliet was the first time a specific adaptation choice (the whole ‘Sword-branded guns’ thing) actively annoyed me. Australia was the first time I discovered how much test screenings can interfere with the creative process in rather peculiar ways (i.e. The Drover was originally meant to die, but test audiences didn’t want to see that happen to Hugh Jackman, so… that changed).

Yeah, he’s responsible for a lot of personal milestones, and none of them positive. The man’s insistence on absolute bombast constantly gets between him and whatever the hell point he thinks he’s making in his films, and even as someone who enjoys the patently ridiculous, Baz keeps testing my patience in just how loud he plays every aspect of his films.

But even with all of that in mind, one thing I have always maintained, alongside my utter contempt for the bulk of the man’s filmography (Australia and The Great Gatsby are easily on the shortlist for worst films I’ve ever seen, period), is that he is talented. He knows how to put a film together, he’s a properly unique voice in Australian cinema, and for as much as I personally can’t stand his work, I can at least understand why others would. Hell, I’ll even give him credit for Strictly Ballroom, which is a genuinely good film and something of a mission statement for Baz’s entire career to follow: Play to the crowds, don’t worry about the committees. It’s just that, with everything since Strictly Ballroom, that talent has been squandered on increasingly misguided and frequently exasperating storytelling decisions.

Suffice to say, I wasn’t really looking forward to his latest release. I may be growing more and more comfortable with lengthier films, but considering how much I just can’t with this guy to begin with, sitting down for a near-three hour presentation is one of those moments when this job of mine actually feels like work. Or, at least, that’s what I was expecting. In what is raring to be the biggest surprise of 2022 (pleasant ones, at least), this is the first Baz Luhrmann film I’ve genuinely enjoyed since Strictly Ballroom.

Benedetta (2022) - Movie Review

I have been eagerly looking forward to seeing this movie and reviewing it. Hell, I’ve been itching for the chance to talk about its director for quite some time. Filmmaker Paul Verhoeven has one of the most fascinating, if not outright legendary, filmographies of any cinema creative I’ve come across. After some modest successes in his native Holland over the ‘70s and early ‘80s, Verhoeven moved to the United States and had one hell of a hot streak. RoboCop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Showgirls, Starship Troopers, and Hollow Man, all one right after the other over the course of thirteen years. This is why I love auteur theory: So many of the idiosyncrasies in those films suddenly make a bit more sense once you realise they’re from the same mind.

And after a brief return to the Netherlands for 2006’s Black Book, he has since settled down in France where he put together the immensely uncomfortable (and I say that as someone who sat through Una and The Nightingale) Ella. For as much as I can appreciate the characterisation in that film, it also shows a darker side to Verhoeven’s iconic lack of taste that is not easy to sit through, and not exactly for the best of reasons. As someone with a serious admiration for the man’s work at his peak (Showgirls isn’t a so-bad-it’s-good movie, it’s a legitimately great film, and I will die on that hill), I was truly hoping that his latest wouldn’t be more of the same unpleasantness. And indeed, this is quite a different beast from the likes of Ella.

Spencer (2022) - Movie Review

Well, this should be interesting. Another biopic drama from the director of Jackie, a star turn from Kristen Stewart that has gotten her legit Oscar buzz for the first time in her career (I’d wouldn’t normally bother mentioning such things, but with how long she spent as a critical punching bag, it’s more than deserved by this point), and it’s written by the mental giant behind one of last year’s worst films in Locked Down, and 2019’s Best Worst Film in Serenity.

Oh.

Well, two out of three ain’t bad. (RIP Meat Loaf)

King Richard (2022) - Movie Review

I was worried that they were going to balls this one up. A biopic about the Williams sisters, tennis players so famous that even I know who they are, told from the point-of-view of their father and coach. Not gonna lie, as soon as I saw that setup and the Will Smith-heavy marketing for the thing, I assumed we’d be in for another Dangal, where the attempt to be inspiring with the dramatisation of a real-life woman’s sporting story gets railroaded to give all the emphasis to a particular man in her life. And while that is definitely the perspective given, I’d argue that this works out much better than in Dangal’s case, as using that specific perspective affords the film many opportunities for resonating material, almost all of which are utilised.

Being The Ricardos (2021) - Movie Review

A little over a year after his previous feature, and Aaron Sorkin is already back at it with another directorial effort. Only this one is sticking much closer to his own background in television than his last two films, with a biopic on one of the greatest sitcom couples in American history in Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. I once again find myself needing to admit my lack of background knowledge, as I haven’t seen much from any of Lucille’s shows (save for that one conveyor belt gag, which is still one of the greatest sitcoms moments ever in my book), but then again, I didn’t know all that much about Steve Jobs, Molly Bloom, or Abbie Hoffman, and that didn’t stop me from liking Sorkin’s depictions of those people. But while this has Sorkin still doing what he does best, the effect is significantly dampened this time around.

House Of Gucci (2021) - Movie Review

This marks the second Universal screening I’ve been sent to outside of FilmInk this year, and unlike with the ticket for Cry Macho, I consider this more of a personal favour because I’ve been hyped to see this film since I saw The Last Duel. I really treasure when one of my favourite filmmakers has two features come out in the same year, and with how well Last Duel went, I was really hoping that he would go 2 for 2. And I am so relieved to report that Ridley Scott has done it once again, albeit in a distinctly different fashion (heh) than last time.

Dream Horse (2021) - Movie Review

Knowing how badly things turned out last time I highlighted a film about horse racing, scepticism feels like the right mood to enter this particular film with. Or I could expect basic sentimentality, given the median age of the cast here and the general pleasantness of the tone I got from the trailer (and, truth be told, the poster). But instead, I’m actually going into this with a certain amount of anticipation, and of course, it’s because I recognise a few of the names attached to this feature. We’ve got Toni Collette in a starring role, which is a start, but there’s also the director: Euros Lyn.

Now, depending on my reader’s familiarity with sci-fi television, that name might ring a bell, given his work on Russell T. Davies-era Doctor Who, Torchwood: Children Of Earth (low-key one of the greatest TV miniseries of the 21^st century, and possibly even further back), and the Black Mirror episode Fifteen Million Merits, the one with the exercise bikes and a version of Pop Idol that’s somehow even more depressing than the real thing. Most of his work up to this point has been in TV production, with this apparently being his first theatrical release. Well, if this is his first sprint on the big screen, it’s good knowing all that experience and skill can translate this effectively.

The United States Vs. Billie Holiday (2021) - Movie Review

I have a vivid memory of the first time I heard Strange Fruit. Well, first time I heard it in its entirety, as my first exposure to it at all was through Kanye West’s Yeezus… but let’s try and ignore that for the time being. I found myself curious about the sample choice from Blood On The Leaves, did some quick Googling, and found the Nina Simone version on YouTube. Specifically, this one, and the fact that I remember it being this one is down to how harrowing that experience was. The grotesque imagery in the lyrics, the pain and occasional sneer in Simone’s vocals, the photo montage of actual lynch victims; everyone else can argue about the phrase ‘white guilt’ all they damn well please, but I really have no other way to describe the rotting feeling in my stomach when all was sung and done.

I’m starting out with this because, upon first seeing the trailer for this film about the originator Billie Holiday, I felt tremors of that gut rot from years past. As such, the notion of a film about Holiday being targeted by the U.S. government over that song certainly grabbed my interest, and when Andra Day as Billie sings it herself, staring daggers directly at the camera… yeah, it’s still one of the most powerful pieces of music ever penned. Andra Day doing her own singing, with a solid resemblance to the real Billie’s jazzy affectations, adds to the effect, as does her acting chops in depicting the final decade in Billie’s storied life… kind of.

I Am Woman (2020) - Movie Review

Well, beyond anything else about I have to say about this movie, I certainly learned something from it: The singer of one of the most famous female empowerment anthems was an Aussie. And just from that framing, the film immediately got my attention, with Tilda Cobham-Hervey’s Helen arriving in New York, suitcase in one hand and her daughter’s hand in the other, ready to make her mark on the musical landscape. Something about her alongside journalist Lilian Roxon (Dumplin’s Danielle Macdonald, another woman I only just learned was from my neck of the woods), two women Against The World and carving their own places in music history, is quite gratifying in a hometown-pride kind of way.

Mank (2020) - Movie Review

Well, after the travesty I sat through for my last review, I think I’ve earned myself a break. I’ve spent the last few days chasing after Netflix features by filmmakers I had a presumption I could trust for quality to no avail, so I’m gonna hedge my bets on someone I don’t believe, but know, can deliver: David Fincher. Music video director turned auteur cynic extraordinaire, even if I’m not endlessly devoted to every one of his films, I can never deny that the man has a control of the medium that few others can lay claim to. Which is why his latest, a look into the writing process of what is widely considered the greatest film of all time, is also something that few others would be able to accomplish with this level of sheer brilliance.

The Trial Of The Chicago 7 (2020) - Movie Review

After several years as a writer, with a voice so distinctive that it bears his name in common parlance, Aaron Sorkin made his directorial debut with Molly’s Game a little while back. Now, while it showed him having ample ability at bringing his own words to the screen (basically the minimum required of writers-turned-directors), there’s something else about that feature that seems to have been overlooked. I got into it in my review proper, and even brought it up looking at Let Him Go a few days ago, but essentially, his first leap showed him as an astounding director of actors. He managed to squeeze a career-highlight performance out of Kevin Costner, and that kind of rapport isn’t something that just every Joe Bloggs with a camera can pull off. So when he’s handed an even bigger all-star cast for his follow-up, you better believe that effect is amplified.

Harriet (2020) - Movie Review

Religion is a neutral ideal. Over the lifetime of this blog, I have been finding myself leaning further and further away from the staunchly atheist views I held as a teenager; hell, for all intents and purpose, film is my religion, and my position as an ordained Dudeist, for me at least, is an extension of that mindset. Not that I’ve just stopped noticing religion wielded as a cudgel to serve its own ends; I’ve reviewed quite a few examples of that in action, and I wasn’t up for that shit then or now. What I mean with that first sentence is that I don’t inherently see people with religious ideals as a bad thing; it all comes down to the results aimed for and gained through those ideals, same as any other. And honestly, it’s through that lens that this film in particular interests me.