by George Wolf, MaddWolf.com
Look, we're all thinking it, so let's just get it out there.
Raiders of the Lost Bark.
Happy now? Okay, we can move on.
Truth is, there's plenty of bark in this latest adaptation of Jack London's classic novel, but not much bite to be found.
We're still introduced to Buck, the sturdy St. Bernard-Scotch Collie mix, as the spoiled pet of a wealthy California judge (Bradley Whitford) in the late 1800s. Stolen and sold as a sled dog to French-Canadian mail dispatchers, Buck adapts to the pack mentality and the harsh conditions of the Alaskan wilderness, eventually teaming up with the grizzled Thorton (Harrison Ford) for a journey into the Yukon.
It should come as no surprise that Ford is effortlessly affecting as a world weary mountain man. What is surprising is his endearing rapport with a CGI dog (motioned-captured by Terry Notary). Ford's narration is earnest enough to soften its heavy hands, drawing Thorton and Buck as two kindred spirits, both lost in their own wilderness.
While taking the actual wild out of The Call of the Wild seems sadly ironic, the computer-generated beasts come to fall perfectly in line with director Chris Sanders' family-ready vision for the enduring tale.
Stripped of any bloody carnage, cultural insensitivities or harsh realities, Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon, Lilo & Stitch, The Croods) and writer Michael Green (Logan, Blade Runner 2049) fill the gaps with obvious questions, easy answers, and a flesh and blood bad guy (Dan Stevens in full Snidley Whiplash mode) who manages to be the biggest cartoon in a film full of computer animation.
Buck himself - looking fine but landing a notch below the motion capture high water of the last Planet of the Apes trilogy - is often stuck between Lassie and Scooby, heroically loyal while seeming to instantly understand everything from English to drunkenness.
With the sharp edges ground down, this Call of the Wild becomes a pleasant metaphor for the simple life, and for finding your place in it. In short, it's a PG-rated primer, meant to hold a place until the kids are ready for the real thing.
https://youtu.be/5P8R2zAhEwg
by Hope Madden, MaddWolf.com
It’s Christmas, and regardless of a profound, almost insurmountable family tragedy, one irredeemably oblivious father (Richard Armitage) decides his kids (Jaeden Martell and Lia McHugh) should get to know the woman (Riley Keough) he left their mother for. A week in an isolated mountain cabin during a blizzard should do it.
Dad stays just long enough to make things really uncomfortable, then heads back to town for a few days to work. Surely everybody will be caroling and toasting marshmallows by the time he returns.
Though everything about The Lodge brings to mind A24 horror—for a number of reasons, Hereditary in particular—the film is actually a Hammer effort. No longer the corset-and-bloodletting studio, Hammer’s millennial output has been sparse but often quite good.
Choosing to back filmmakers Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz making their follow up to the supremely creepy Goodnight Mommy should be a solid risk to take. Here the pair does not shy away from the body of “white death” horror that came before The Lodge, with eerie and sometimes humorous nods to The Thing and The Shining, among others, haunting the piece.
The film also brings to mind A24’s It Comes at Night, another quiet film that saw Riley Keough trapped in an isolated abode with unsettling family dynamics. Keough is riding an impressive run of performances and her work here is slippery and wonderful. As the unwanted new member in the family, she’s sympathetic but also brittle.
Jaeden Martell, a kid who has yet to deliver a less than impressive turn, is the human heartbeat at the center of the mystery in the cabin. His tenderness gives the film a quiet, pleading tragedy. Whether he’s comforting his grieving little sister or begging Grace (Keough) to come in from the snow, his performance aches and you ache with him.
A healthy ability to suspend disbelief will aid in the experience The Lodge has to offer, but there’s no denying the mounting dread the filmmakers create, and the three central performances are uniquely effective. Thanks to the actors’ commitment and the filmmakers’ skill in atmospheric horror, the movie grips you, makes you cold and uncomfortable, and ends with a memorable slap.
https://youtu.be/XYUI97qAa_k
by Christie Robb, MaddWolf.com
One of the more depressing aspects of maturity is the realization that evil is somewhat banal. Rarely does the antagonist sport a handlebar mustache that he twirls while ogling the victim he’s tied to the railroad tracks. The heinous are more ubiquitous and their misdeeds are cliched. The soul is crushed, not under a train, but under the repetition of many predictable, everyday disappointments.
Kitty Green’s The Assistant is a day-long coming-of-age story. Jane (Julia Garner), the titular assistant, has held her job for five weeks. We follow her from her bleary pre-dawn commute till she shuffles away from the office hours after sunset. She’s entry level at a New York production company, one of many assistants to an entertainment bigwig with a well-used casting couch.
Her day is filled with mundane tasks: organizing travel, making copies, stocking the fridge with bottled water, cleaning cum stains off her boss’s furniture, taking messages, fielding phone calls, ordering lunch…
Concerned about a young and potentially vulnerable new-hire, Jane tries to alert folks at Human Resources. But there are no heroes at corporate.
Garner carries the film with a nuanced performance that illustrates the exhaustion of a woman who represses much of herself in order to navigate a culture that normalizes predatory behavior and rewards complicity.
Informed by Green’s research and interviews with women post-Weinstein at technology and engineering companies as well as those in entertainment, The Assistant explores the machinery involved that works to normalize toxic work environments, that exchanges tolerance of bad behavior for a modicum of opportunity.
Green’s background in documentary (Ukraine Is not a Brothel, Casting JonBenet) serves her well here. She’s got an eye for the tiny but not so insignificant details that give an office its character—whether people decide to talk or to stay silent when a co-worker enters the breakroom, who gets off the elevator first, the aggression not so subtly hinted at by sliding a box of tissues across a desk.
It’s a hard film to watch that explores what, besides our time and labor, we are trading in exchange for a paycheck.
https://youtu.be/6cLf0i-kYio
by Matt Weiner, MaddWolf.com
You have to admire the chutzpah when the first feature film ever to shoot on location at the Olympics has the star athlete’s event be over immediately after the opening ceremony.
But it’s an anticlimax that sets the tone for the rest of Olympic Dreams. Cross-country skier Penelope (real-life Olympian Alexi Pappas) is at a crossroads in her life. Young in years but already worn out in a world that measures time in all-consuming four-year spans, she spends the rest of her time at the Olympic Village wandering around, talking to fellow athletes and delaying the inevitable return to reality when she has to go back home.
She meets volunteer dentist Ezra (Nick Kroll, foreshadowing an effective mid-career transition to these reined in dramedy roles), an outgoing Olympics nerd who’s just happy to be there.
The two hit it off, united by a vague sense of longing for… well, something. It’s a movie with modest aims, which are often dwarfed by the impressive settings. The story (by Pappas and Kroll along with Jeremy Teicher, who also directs) feels like it came long after securing the PyeongChang Olympic Village as the setting.
There’s the barest of plots, a sort of fish-out-of-water romcom that plays like a mumblecore Lost In Translation. As endearing as the two leads are, there’s not a lot of scaffolding to help them out. The film relies less on subtle characterization and more on a safe bet that you’ve seen these particulars enough to fill in the blanks yourself.
It’s a shame because Kroll and Pappas excel in their elements. Between Kroll’s deadpan improv with the various athletes and Pappas’ sincere empathy for the sacrifice and emotional highs and lows constantly unfolding in the background, it’s a wonder the filmmakers didn’t play it straight as a documentary.
The film has plenty of warm moments, with Pappas especially managing to balance a range of heartbreak, uncertainty and charm in a way that doesn’t get to come through in the official behind-the-scenes featurettes during the Olympics.
There’s just not enough there to back her up. The film might take us to the finish line, but just barely.
https://youtu.be/_u1zOMk1rXM
by Hope Madden, MaddWolf.com
Wow. Who would have guessed that director William Brent Bell could drive his lackluster 2016 scary doll flick The Boy to a sequel? Not the half dozen or so of us who saw it.
But here you have it, Brahms: The Boy II is a real live movie.
Katie Holmes is in it. She plays Liza, concerned mum. She and her youngster Jude (Christopher Convery) survived a trauma and now they are recuperating, along with supportive dad Sean (Owain Yoeman), in an old English manner.
Jude finds this creepy doll buried outside, just his little white hand poking out from the ground. They take him inside and clean him up and keep him because they have never seen a horror movie.
If you have, you can definitely skip this one.
While there’s not a lot to like about Stacey Menear’s script, the problem here—as with his 2016 effort that began this whole killer plaything saga—feels more like poor direction. The story sets up a slight twist on a common horror theme: someone survives a traumatic experience only to find themselves in a potentially super natural circumstance. This begs the question, is this person insane, or is this super natural event really happening?
Scads and scads of horror films have wandered the psychological corridors of this premise. In this case, there are two possible crazies (both Liza and Jude). So, there is something here. We could twist throughout the film wondering, is this doll sentient evil? Is little Jude a budding maniac? Or is Liza suffering from PTSD and imagining it all?
We don’t wonder, though, because Bell clarifies the true culprit early and often. He’s so clear on the matter that the subsequent moments of Liza questioning her own sanity, or of Jude staring menacingly at his bully cousin, amount to an idiotic mishandling of material.
Ralph Ineson (The Witch) and his grizzled baritone make a quick appearance. There’s also a Google search or two—damn, horror movie Google searches deliver results, don’t they?! And how lucky to bump into that stranger in town who 1) asks where you live and, 2) happens to have all the info you’d ever need on the entire history of the home you’re renting. Too nutty!
But let’s be honest, do you even want to see this movie?
https://youtu.be/ECPfXUW0zt8
" ["post_title"]=> string(103) "Movie Reviews: "Call of the Wild," "The Lodge," "The Assistant," "Olympic Dreams," "Brahms: The Boy II"" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(54) "movie-reviews-call-of-the-wild-the-lodge-the-assistant" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2020-02-21 10:14:08" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-02-21 15:14:08" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(63) "https://wnnd-fm.sagacom.com/?post_type=saga_on_air&p=16415" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(11) "saga_on_air" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [1]=> object(WP_Post)#5125 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(16369) ["post_author"]=> string(2) "66" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2020-02-13 10:44:39" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-02-13 15:44:39" ["post_content"]=> string(10399) "by George Wolf, MaddWolf.com
If you're a pair of American filmmakers out to remake an exceptional foreign film from the last decade, you gotta pick a side.
Are you gonna put some bankable U.S. stars up front and just add your name to someone else's originality, or do you have a vision that can make the story your own?
To their credit, co-writers/directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash choose the latter path for Downhill, their take on Ruben Ostlund's 2014 stunner, Force Majeure (Turist). Faxon and Rash won an Oscar for their The Descendants screenplay - so the boys can write - but this makeover ultimately lands as a pleasant exercise stripped of the insightful bite.
The catalyst remains the same: a traumatic event changes the way a couple sees each other. Pete (Will Ferrell) and Billie Stanton (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) are on a lavish ski vacation in Austria with their two sons. Eating lunch on the resort's outdoor porch, the family is terrified when an avalanche appears to be heading right for them.
Bille clutches her children in fear, while Pete grabs his phone and runs.
Turns out it was a planned snow release and everyone's fine, but the Stanton marriage has been shaken to its core, no matter how hard Pete tries to revise history with another couple (Zach Woods and Zoe Chao).
Faxon and Rash do Americanize the story well, as Billie first looks to blame the resort ("I'm an attorney!"), and Pete, continually wallowing in the loss of his father eight months prior, becomes a personification of rationalized selfishness.
But while Ostlund used the secondary couple as a device to invite us into a near clinical deconstruction of societal assumptions, Faxon and Rash introduce a new "B" story involving an aggressive resort concierge (Amanda Otto) who lives on the wild side. It's an uneven trade of insight for zany, and can't move the film from an uneven headspace that's too serious for comedy but too light for drama.
Downhill does give us the chance to see Will and Julia go head to head, and that is no small treat. Ferrell is a natural as the big awkward goof trying to come to terms with himself, but make no mistake, Julia Louis-Dreyfus is the reason to see this movie.
Billie is confused, hurt and angry, and Louis-Dreyfus sells it all with total authenticity, often with little to no dialog. She finds real depth in terrain that's often shallow (such as Billie's flirtations with a younger ski instructor), ultimately offering more proof that, in case you've missed the last few decades, JLD is a flat-out treasure.
And much like Billy Ray's updated Secret in Their Eyes five years ago, Downhill has a humdinger of an ending to deal with. In the original film, Ostlund gave us an organic twist that managed to re-frame all that came before. Faxon and Rash's take feels a bit like hitting the Ohio slopes after a trip to Vermont.
There are similarities, but the thrill is gone.
If you've haven't seen Force Majeure, Downhill is a perfectly acceptable vehicle for two well-loved stars. If you have, well, see it again.
https://youtu.be/AY5SrKf_2ic
by George Wolf, MaddWolf.com
Even before the masses were recoiling in horror at the people/feline hybrids of Cats, the early look of Sonic the Hedgehog caused such a fan uproar that the little blue speedster got a full CGI makeover.
Well, he's here now for his (otherwise) live action debut, he looks fine, and while his film doesn't follow in Cats memorably bad paw prints, it never finds a way to be memorable at all.
Anyone who's followed the Sega video games of the 1990s will feel right at home, as the world-hopping Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) does battle with mad scientist Dr. Robotnik aka "Eggman" (Jim Carrey).
Sonic's been quite lonely during his uneventful time on Earth, but a helping hand from an aw-shucks small town sheriff (James Marsden) sends them both on a convoluted road trip. Sheriff Tom wants to prove himself a hero, while Sonic just wants a friend.
Cue the strings - no wait! Dr. Eggman and his robot drones are closing in! Muuuahahahaha!
Carrey sets his mugging level on stun, but really, with director Jeff Fowler keeping each actor exaggerated and a script-by-committee committed to over-explanation, it doesn't seem as comical as it should.
Still, Sonic is harmless enough to land somewhere near the top of the dung heap that is video game film adaptations. It's got a pop culture gag or two that lands, a mid-credits stinger that shows promise for the next chapter, and a pace that never becomes overly laborious.
So after its rough start with the fanboys, you might say Sonic avoids becoming a real.....CATS-tastrophy.
I won't, but you might.
https://youtu.be/szby7ZHLnkA
by Hope Madden, MaddWolf.com
'Tis the season, and as Valentine’s-aimed romantic dramedies go, the blandly titled The Photograph could be worse.
Issa Rae (Insecure) leads the cross-generational love story as Mae, NYC museum curator trying to process her grief and an incredibly long letter, both hers now because of her estranged mother Christina’s recent death.
Christina (a solid Chanté Adams), mainly unveiled via flashback, broke from her own difficult mother as well as the love of her life back in Louisiana years ago to follow a career as a photographer in New York.
As Mae learns some painfully obvious truths by way of Christina’s letter, writer/director Stella Meghie (Everything, Everything) weaves two romances together across time to look at the wages of a woman’s ambition and the ways we relive our parents’ mistakes.
There’s plenty to like here, and Meghie’s film certainly looks like a dreamy romance waiting to happen. Scenes are beautifully lit, gorgeously filmed and romantically scored. You can’t fault the casting, either.
LaKeith Stanfield (Sorry to Bother You) has an easy chemistry with Rae as the journalist interested in Christina’s life, and Meghie surrounds her leads with vibrant supporting characters. Lil Rel Howery, Courtney B. Vance and an underused Kelvin Harrison Jr. all round out the ensemble, adding much needed life.
Rob Morgan (Mudbound, Last Black Man in San Francisco, Just Mercy), wonderful as always, steals his few scenes with a restrained, mournful presence that enriches an insubstantial story. There’s a ragged weariness to his character, one that’s all the more poignant when offset by the buoyancy of Y’lan Noel’s turn as the younger version of the same character.
Meghie has assembled a fine cast, she just doesn’t give them enough to do. Neither love story gets enough room to grow and Mae’s arc feels forced and rushed. Because Christina is gone before the cameras role, Meghie handles Mae’s conflict with her mother exclusively through clunky dialog, and the usually reliable Rae has trouble conveying any convincing inner turmoil.
For a low stakes romance, The Photograph is a very pretty picture.
https://youtu.be/954b9vLAT6Y
" ["post_title"]=> string(64) "Movie Review: "Downhill," "Sonic the Hedgehog," "The Photograph"" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(21) "movie-review-downhill" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2020-02-14 10:29:55" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-02-14 15:29:55" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(63) "https://wnnd-fm.sagacom.com/?post_type=saga_on_air&p=16369" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(11) "saga_on_air" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [2]=> object(WP_Post)#5127 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(16341) ["post_author"]=> string(2) "66" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2020-02-07 10:22:12" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-02-07 15:22:12" ["post_content"]=> string(3736) "by Hope Madden and George Wolf, MaddWolf.com
First on the Harley Quinn playlist: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
Harley (Margot Robbie, positively electric) tells us she and the Joker are done, and she didn't take it well. What's worse, Harley's new relationship status means anyone in Gotham who'd like her dead (and there's plenty) doesn't have to worry about payback from "Mr. J."
Shuffle: It's a Man's Man's Man's Man's World
At the top, there's Roman Sionis aka Black Mask (Ewan McGregor, hamming it up to glorious effect) who likes the faces peeled off of his enemies. He wants a priceless diamond that's been lifted by teenage pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), and Harley, forced to bargain for her life, promises to get it.
But Gotham has no shortage of talented women fed up with being kept down, and Harley tends to attract them. The vocally gifted Black Canary (June Smollett-Bell), the deadly mysterious Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, scene-stealingly deadpan) and the conveniently suspended Detective Montoya (Rosie Perez, nice to see you) all find themselves on the wrong end of a sizable bounty, and things get messy.
Shuffle: Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves
The badass girl power isn't limited to the cast. Director Cathy Yan (Dead Pigs) serves up an irresistible cocktail of Scott Pilgrim visual flair and Tarantino continuity clash. Yan seems to relish the freedom of an R-rating (see "face-peeling" above), crafting memorable set pieces bursting with slick fight choreography, cartoonishly satisfying violence and wonderfully stylish pandemonium.
Shuffle: Respect
As Hope's dad told the many Madden girls growing up: eyes, nose, throat, groin, knees are all equally vulnerable no matter the size of the attacker. Yan appears to be the sister we didn't know about, but she certainly knows how to hurt a guy.
Writer Christina Hodson has become the go-to for ridiculous franchises that need more than we dare hope (she's the one who wrote the only Transformers movie that didn't suck). She teams well with Yan and her butt-kicking crew, offering backstories and traumas that toe the line between superhero/supervillain legend and crap women deal with every day.
If you saw the stale trailer, noted the deadly release date, remembered the limp Suicide Squad and feared the worse, we hear ya. And maybe Birds of Prey benefits slightly from low expectations. But there's no denying the raucous, foul mouthed, glitter-bomb fun.
Shuffle: Free Bird (live version).
https://youtu.be/kGM4uYZzfu0
" ["post_title"]=> string(29) "Movie Review: "Birds of Prey"" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(26) "movie-review-birds-of-prey" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2020-02-07 10:23:40" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-02-07 15:23:40" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(63) "https://wnnd-fm.sagacom.com/?post_type=saga_on_air&p=16341" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(11) "saga_on_air" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [3]=> object(WP_Post)#5131 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(16338) ["post_author"]=> string(2) "66" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2020-02-06 11:56:00" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-02-06 16:56:00" ["post_content"]=> string(6747) "by Hope Madden and George Wolf, MaddWolf.com It fills us with glee to look back on a year brimming with so many great movies. Original movies, even! Jojo Rabbit—that was unique. The Farewell, Marriage Story, Knives Out, The Lighthouse, Parasite, The Souvenir, Uncut Gems, Us, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, The Last Black Man in San Francisco—it’s a long list, and not all of the entries made it as far as an Oscar nomination (unfortunate!). But they did make for a fascinating year. We have only a handful of complaints about this year’s batch of nominees, but we really want to point out how impressed we are with the animation nominees: two excellent blockbusters (Toy Story 4 and How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World) plus three outstanding and entirely underseen animated gems (Missing Link, I Lost My Body, Klaus). Whenever the Academy leads people to find great films they might have missed, they’re doing their job. On the whole we expect the 2020 awards to be somewhat predictable. Luckily, on the whole, we also think the awards will go where they should. Our picks for Oscar, 2020: Best Supporting Actress Kathy Bates, Richard Jewell Laura Dern, Marriage Story Scarlett Johansson, Jojo Rabbit Florence Pugh, Little Women Margot Robbie, Bombshell Although it would not break our hearts to see Scarlett Johansson win this one for her tender, lovely turn as mom to the cutest little Nazi ever… Should Win: Laura Dern, Marriage Story Will Win: Dern SNUB J Lo, Hustlers Best Supporting Actor Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes Al Pacino, The Irishman Joe Pesci, The Irishman Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood Should Win: Joe Pesci, playing against type and delivering a quietly powerful turn that’s the heartbeat of Scorsese’s film. Will Win: Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood. Good news – another top-notch acceptance speech! SNUB Willem Dafoe, The Lighthouse Best Actress Cynthia Erivo, Harriet Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story Saoirse Ronan, Little Women Charlize Theron, Bombshell Renee Zellweger, Judy Should Win: Renee Zellweger, Judy Will Win: Zellweger SNUB Lupita Nyong’O Us She played two roles and was great in both...c'mon! Best Actor Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory Leonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood Adam Driver, Marriage Story Joaquin Phoenix, Joker Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes Should Win: We would not weep to see Adam Driver take this one home, but he won’t and we’re not that upset because Joaquin Phoenix was astonishing. Will Win: Joaquin Phoenix SNUBS Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems Robert DeNiro, The Irishman Best Director Martin Scorsese, The Irishman Todd Phillips, Joker Sam Mendes, 1917 Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood Bong Joon Ho, Parasite Should Win: Bong Joon Ho makes a great case with his nearly perfect film. Will Win: Sam Mendes, 1917 SNUB Greta Gerwig, Little Women Best Picture Ford v Ferrari The Irishman Jojo Rabbit Joker Little Women Marriage Story 1917 Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood Parasite Should: Parasite Will: 1917 WRITING/ADAPTED Steven Zaillian, The Irishman Taika Waititi, Jojo Rabbit MIGHT Todd Phillips, Joker Greta Gerwig, Little Women SHOULD/WILL Anthony McCarten, The Two Popes WRITING/ORIGINAL Rian Johnson, Knives Out Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story Sam Mendes, 1917 Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood Bong Joon Ho, Parasite SHOULD/WILL DOCUMENTARY American Factory, Julia Riechert & Steve Bognar LOBO: WILL The Cave, Feras Fayyad Edge of Democracy, Petra Casta For Sama, Waad al-Kateab Honeyland, Ljubo Stevanov* SHOULD HOPE: WILL SNUB (probably the most inexplicable snub this year) Apollo 11 FOREIGN LANGUAGE Corpus Cristi (Poland) Honeyland (North Macedonia) Les Miserables (France) Pain and Glory (Spain) Parasite (South Korea) WILL/SHOULD SNUB Portrait of a Lady on Fire ANIMATED How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World I Lost My Body Klaus Missing Link Toy Story 4 WILL/SHOULD CINEMATOGRAPHY Irishman Joker Lighthouse SHOULD Once Upon a Time….in Hollywood 1917 WILL SCORE Joker Little Women Marriage story 1917 WILL/SHOULD Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ORIGINAL SONG “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” (Toy Story 4) — Randy Newman “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” (Rocketman) — Elton John & Bernie Taupin WILL/SHOULD “I’m Standing With You” (Breakthrough) — Diane Warren “Into the Unknown” (Frozen 2) — Robert Lopez & Kristen Anderson-Lopez “Stand Up” (Harriet) — Joshuah Brian Campbell & Cynthia Erivo The 92 annual Academy Awards will be held this Sunday, February 9th, and aired live on ABC. " ["post_title"]=> string(26) "Fearless Oscar Picks 2020!" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(25) "fearless-oscar-picks-2020" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2020-02-06 11:56:00" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-02-06 16:56:00" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(63) "https://wnnd-fm.sagacom.com/?post_type=saga_on_air&p=16338" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(11) "saga_on_air" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [4]=> object(WP_Post)#5132 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(16308) ["post_author"]=> string(2) "66" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2020-01-31 10:23:52" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-01-31 15:23:52" ["post_content"]=> string(17754) "by George Wolf, MaddWolf.com
The sexy assassin. The beautiful killing machine.
The Rhythm Section plays a tune that's lately been as popular as Taylor Swift at the high school talent show. But hey, there's still a ways to go before it catches up to the macho men, so have at it ladies, the right arrangement can always find some swing in the mustiest of standards.
Blake Lively is Stephanie, a top student at Oxford who falls hard after losing her family to an airplane bomber. How hard? She's an addict and a prostitute, but her destructive spiral finds a new avenue when an investigative reporter seeks her out.
He's on the trail of the terrorist responsible for the bombing, and Stephanie's cooperation sets a chain of events in motion that quickly lead to an ex MI-6 operative (Jude Law) training her to be a killer.
And why would he do that, exactly?
Keep that question at bay and you'll find a serviceable thriller that hits plenty of familiar beats, but is always kept watchable through Lively's committed performance.
Screenwriter Mark Burnell adapts his own novel as a globe-trotting exercise in exorcising your demons. And while multiple character motivations can get murky, the relationship between Stephanie and her mysterious mentor is always engaging.
Director Reed Morano (I Think We're Alone Now, TV projects such as The Handmaid's Tale and Halt and Catch Fire) can stage a nifty fight scene and breathless car chase, but she too often seems desperately in search of a definitive style that never finds a groove.
While soundtrack choices and soft focus flashbacks feel forced, Morano's detached treatment of Lively's physical appearance may be the most original pillar in the film. Though her role is plenty physical and Lively never shrinks from it, even the obligatory "red sparrow" sequence offers an overdue counterpoint to the usual leering camera served up by Morano's male counterparts.
Expect the usual questions of "who can I trust" and the usual fine performance from Sterling K. Brown (that guy's busy), who shows up as an ex-CIA agent with valuable contacts.
But most of all, expect Lively to keep The Rhythm Section humming, even when it's set on repeat.
https://youtu.be/0Uq_5bYGYoY
by Hope Madden, MaddWolf.com
It’s still early, but 2020 has not been great in terms of horror.
First came Nicolas Pesce’s pointless reboot of The Grudge.
Yikes. And I do not mean that in a good way.
And then last week we had Floria Sigismondi’s boldly wrong-headed reimagining, The Turning.
In keeping with a trend, this week Oz Perkins revisits an existing story. Gretel & Hansel pick on the bones of that old fairly-tale—the one that actually did scare the shit out of me as a kid. Two kids are turned out into the woods because their parents can’t feed them. Things go from bad to worse once they’re left to fend for themselves and soon cannibalism comes into play, as I assume it always does when you get lost in the woods.
Perkins, working from a script by Rob Hayes (East Meets Barry West), abandons much of the original bits (fewer breadcrumbs). His spookier imagination is more interested in Gretel’s burgeoning womanhood.
Sophia Lillis (IT) narrates and stars as Gretel, the center of this coming of age story—reasonable, given the change of billing suggested by the film’s title. The witch may still have a tasty meal on her mind, but this is less a cautionary tale than it is a metaphor for agency over obligation.
Alice Krige and her cheekbones strike the perfect mixture of menace and mentorship, while Sammy Leakey’s little Hansel manages to be both adorable and tiresome, as is required for the story to work.
Perkins continues to impress with his talent for visual storytelling and Galo Olivares’s cinematography heightens the film’s folkloric atmosphere.
It’s unfortunate, though, that Perkins doesn’t also write. The two films he both writes and directs, I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House and, in particular, The Blackcoat’s Daughter, sidestepped predictability while mining primal anxieties to produce excellent, memorable horror.
The writing here doesn’t quite reach the heights of the storyline told through imagery. Gretel & Hansel loses itself too often in a dreamscape horror without rectifying or clarifying, which leaves the metaphor foggy and the horror muted.
The whole affair feels like an intriguing if unsatisfying dream.
https://youtu.be/QZblQLhKcZQ
by Hope Madden, MaddWolf.com
When filmmakers Steve Bognar and Julia Reichert documented the last days of Moraine, Ohio’s GM plant for their Oscar nominated 2008 doc The Last Truck, they probably did not foresee a second nomination coming nearly a decade later for what amounts to a sequel.
And yet, American Factory returns to the same scene, this time to provide a fly-on-the-wall peek at the Fuyayo Glass Factory, a Chinese/American experiment taking place inside those same walls.
The first film released by Michelle and Barak Obama’s Higher Ground Productions, American Factory is a case study in cross-cultural miscommunication and national personality clash.
After Moraine’s GM plant closed, the town sank into economic disaster—something Dayton’s own Bognar and Reichert certainly witnessed daily since the short film. Looking to expand their production in the States, China’s Fuayo Glass Industry Group purchased the old GM plant and instantly created quite a buzz.
What Reichert and Bognar capture is astonishing and unnervingly honest. Chinese workers in Ohio are given a crash course in what to expect from Americans, as management tutors them to expect blunt honesty and the Americans’ belief that they are somehow special no matter who they are. Meanwhile, American managers are treated to a company meeting in China where the orderliness and productiveness of the workers inspires awe, the propaganda-riddled pageantry alarms, and the sight of employees sifting through broken glass to find pieces worth salvaging horrifies.
The human struggle at the plant mostly comes down to an attempt to unionize, which Chinese management sees as an opportunity for lazy Americans to gut productivity while the American labor sees it as an opportunity to institute legal protections concerning safety, health code regulations, wages and benefits.
It truly is as if the parties speak different languages.
Bognar and Reichert strive to provide a balanced point of view. Any finger- wagging is directed at both sides of the argument, but even that’s somewhat limited. The filmmakers and their film are more interested in the human side of the exchange. The film sheds light on the loneliness of the Chinese workers biding their time until their families can be brought overseas. We’re also privy to the early optimism and then heartbreaking disappointments faced by the Ohioans hoping for another chance to make an honest living.
While the cultural wreckage offers a fascinating sociological experiment, the film ends far more ominously as automation proves to eliminate all concerns over wages, hours, productivity, quality, jingoism, racism and any other human frailty you can think of.
What the filmmakers encapsulate about humanity, culture and the future of labor is equal parts enthralling and frightening.
https://youtu.be/m36QeKOJ2Fc
by Hope Madden, MaddWolf.com
Be honest, when you saw the list of Oscar nominated animated films, did you wonder whether Klaus was somehow the international title for Frozen 2?
I have excellent news! It is not. Instead, it’s a clever, not-too-sentimental Hatfields v McCoys take on the legend of Santa Claus.
Co-directors Sergio Pablos and Carlos Martinez Lopez develop the story of a coddled would-be mailman named Jesper (Jason Schwartzman, perfect). His Postmaster General father tires of Jesper’s spoiled ways and sends him on a make-or-break assignment to the nether reaches of the north, Smeerensburg.
All Jesper has to do is collect and deliver 6000 parcels this year and he can go back to his warm, self-indulgent, cushy little home.
Naturally, there are obstacles. There’s a decades-long feud, for one. It’s so bad the school teacher has turned her school house into a fish market (parents won’t send their kids anywhere they might have to fraternize with the other clan). And then there’s that creepy, disproportionately large, old woodsman.
At times, the twisty tale threatens to collapse under its own weight, but it does not. Instead, it takes risks you don’t often see in family films and those risks mainly pay off. For a Christmas film, the movie manages to mainly avoid schmaltz. It offers clever explanations as to how many of the Santa Claus myths are born, affects just enough of a sense of wonder, and entertains from start to finish.
The vocal talent certainly helps. Flanking Schwartzman are the always welcome JK Simmons as the big guy himself, as well as Rashida Jones, Joan Cusack and Norm MacDonald as a smarmy boatman.
The animation itself is beautiful, but not especially showy. The images won’t disappoint, but they won’t make your jaw drop, either. Instead, Klaus relies on the perfect blend of sentimentality and wit to delight children and entertain their parents.
https://youtu.be/taE3PwurhYM
by George Wolf, MaddWolf.com
Documentaries can often be judged by how successful they are at showing us unfamiliar worlds.
But for the Oscar-nominated The Edge of Democracy, it is the familiarity of the story it tells that makes it so heartbreakingly urgent, as it wraps a personal memoir around a first hand account of Brazil's fragile hold on democracy.
Veteran documentarian Petra Costa (Omar & the Seagull, Undertow Eyes), whose own parents risked their lives protesting Brazil's military dictatorship, narrates the film with much personal insight, starting with her feeling that she and Brazilian democracy "have grown up together."
Taking power through a U.S.-backed coup in 1964, a succession of generals ruled Brazil until 1985, when the Workers Party began to take hold, thanks in large part to union leader Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva, who was finally elected president in 2002.
Costa, backed up by a string of working class Brazilians, speaks in glowing terms of the economic progress made under Lula, and we see no less than Barack Obama dub him "the most popular politician on Earth."
Indeed, Lula left office in 2010 with an 87 percent approval rating, when his hand-picked successor, former militant Dilma Rousseff, won the presidency. Three years later the economy stumbled, Dilma announced a crackdown on corruption, and the knives came out.
Even then, not many would have thought it possible for the democracy Brazilians long fought for to succumb so easily to primal populism, or for Jair Bolsonaro, a bigoted, hostile, "fake news" decrying candidate who began as a joke, to be elected president in 2018.
But here we are.
Costa's passion for her cause is weary but evident, and her earnest narration often asks us to assume much without pausing to consider any contrasting evaluations of what she dubs "the coup of 2016."
That's not to say Dilma's ouster doesn't stink to high Heaven - it does - but it also isn't hard to find accusations against the Workers Party that don't seem that flimsy, and while the one-sided approach is in line with the film's personal journey, it leaves the documentary side wanting.
But Costa's ultimate success comes from weaving her family's story into the political tumult of her homeland, and in turn mirroring a more global struggle. We get a stark illustration of the rising tides of authoritarianism, leaving the Edge of Democracy a film that should be pretty damn personal to all of us.
https://youtu.be/xLe24M_PB5E
" ["post_title"]=> string(112) "Movie Reviews: 'The Rhythm Section," "Gretel & Hansel," "American Factory," "Klaus," "The Edge of Democracy"" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(95) "movie-reviews-the-rhythm-section-gretel-and-hansel-american-factory-klaus-the-edge-of-democracy" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2020-01-31 10:23:52" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-01-31 15:23:52" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(63) "https://wnnd-fm.sagacom.com/?post_type=saga_on_air&p=16308" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(11) "saga_on_air" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [5]=> object(WP_Post)#5133 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(16136) ["post_author"]=> string(2) "66" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2020-01-26 10:04:54" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-01-26 15:04:54" ["post_content"]=> string(10306) "by Hope Madden and George Wolf, MaddWolf.com Any year as strong a 2019 is going to see its share of snubs in the Oscar race because there are just too many worthy films and performances. It’s a blessing, really. But we will complain anyway. First, though, we’ll celebrate Scarlet Johansson for finally getting a nomination, and then getting a second. She nabbed a nom in both lead and supporting categories this year. Antonio Banderas and Cynthia Erivo nab their first Oscar nominations—Banderas waited just a tad longer for the recognition, but both are well deserved. Also thrilled to see Parasite clean up, JoJo Rabbit and 1917 collecting so much love. But where was Uncut Gems? Not a peep for Adam Sandler’s career-turning performance or for the Safdie Brothers writing, direction or film. Same for Awkwafina and writer/director Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, both films that deserved a spot. The most obvious snubs belong to Jennifer Lopez, whose brilliant turn in Hustlers was forgotten, Frozen 2, which didn’t garner an animation nomination (although we’re OK with that), and Apollo 11, which somehow went unnoticed in the documentary category. Here’s what we did get. Best Film Ford v Ferrari The Irishman Jojo Rabbit Joker Little women Marriage story 1917 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Parasite Surprises Knives Out struck us as a clear contender for Best Picture. It would be great to fill the list out to its full capacity of 10, include Knives Out and either The Farewell or Uncut Gems. Best Director Martin Scorsese for The Irishman Todd Philips for Joker Sam Mendes for 1917 Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Bong Joon Ho for Parasite Surprises Greta Gerwig needed to be here for Little Women, not just because this is once again the All Male Olympics, but because she deserves to be here. We’d give her Phillips’s spot. Best Performance by a Lead Actress Cynthia Erivo for Harriet Scarlett Johansson for Marriage Story Saoirse Ronan for Little Women Charlize Theron for Bombshell Renee Zellweger for Judy Surprises Awkwafina, who won the Golden Globe and showed remarkable skill, vulnerability and range in The Farewell deserved a slot as did Lupita Nyong’o for Us. We’d have put them in over Theron and Erivo. It would not have made us unhappy to see Tessa Thompson or Elisabeth Moss make the list for Little Woods and Her Smell, respectively, but that would have been asking a lot. Best Performance by a Lead Actor Antonio Banderas for Pain and Glory Leonardo DiCaprio for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Adam Driver for Marriage Story Joaquin Phoenix for Joker Jonathan Pryce for The Two Popes Surprises Hooray for Antonio Banderas. It’s about time. I don’t know that we’re surprised the Academy voters didn’t go with Adam Sandler, but we’re definitely disappointed. It’s a tough, stacked year for lead actor, which is why glorious work by Robert Pattinson (The Lighthouse), Eddie Murphy (Dolemite Is My Name) and Kelvin Harrison, Jr. (Luce) went unnoticed. More surprising are snubs for DeNiro (The Irishman), Taron Edgerton (Rocketman) and Christian Bale (Ford v. Ferrari), but again, this category is loaded. Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Tom Hanks for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Anthony Hopkins for The Two Popes Al Pacino for The Irishman Joe Pesci for The Irishman Brad Pitt for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Surprises Who are those guys? Never heard of them (lol)! If we had our way, Song Kang Ho’s incandescent turn as patriarch in Parasite would have edged out Hopkins, but the biggest let down is Willem Dafoe, whose insane wickie in The Lighthouse deserved a spot. Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Kathy Bates in Richard Jewell Laura Dern in Marriage Story Scarlett Johansson in Jojo Rabbit Florence Pugh in Little Women Margot Robbie in Bombshell Surprises If you’d asked us ten years ago whether we would ever utter the line, “Jennifer Lopez deserves the Oscar nomination that went to Kathy Bates,” we would have assumed you were high. But there you have it. Or maybe Robbie took J Lo’s place, we don’t know. They were all good, but Lopez was better. Best Screenplay, Adapted The Irishman Jojo Rabbit Joker Little Women The Two Popes Surprises Not a lot, but that’s an exciting category. We’d definitely have given Uncut Gems attention over The Two Popes, though. Best Screenplay, Original Knives Out Marriage Story 1917 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Parasite Surprises Another great category, and one that’s hard to argue. The Farewell deserved a spot as did Uncut Gems, but we don’t know where we would have put them. Best Documentary American Factory The Cave The Edge of Democracy For Sama Honeyland Surprises No Apollo 11? We’d have given the actual Oscar to that breathtaking piece of history, and here it isn’t even nominated. It was a great year for docs, though, and here’s the proof. Best Animated Film How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World I Lost My Body Klaus Missing Link Toy Story 4 Surprises Lots. I Lost My Body might come as a surprise to a lot of people, but we thought it might crack the list. Heck, Missing Link might surprise some folks, even with the Golden Globe win. But Klaus is certainly a film that few expected to see named on this list. What did we expect? Frozen 2, although if we’re honest, we’re pleased as punch to see this list. (As long as TS4 wins.) Best International Feature Film Corpus Cristi Honeyland Les Miserables Pain and Glory Parasite Surprises Great to see the incandescent Honeyland draw noms in both International Picture and Documentary, but where is Portrait of a Lady on Fire? Best Cinematography The Irishman Joker The Lighthouse 1917 Once Upon a time in Hollywood Surprises All deserving. We are just grateful they recognized the glorious cinematography in The Lighthouse. Best Score Joker Little Women Marriage story 1917 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Surprises No Us? We’d put Michael Abels score in Skywalker’s place, but the rest sound fine to us. Best Original Song “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” (Toy Story 4) — Randy Newman ″(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” (Rocketman) — Elton John & Bernie Taupin “I’m Standing With You” (Breakthrough) — Diane Warren “Into the Unknown” (Frozen 2) — Robert Lopez & Kristen Anderson-Lopez “Stand Up” (Harriet) — Joshuah Brian Campbell & Cynthia Erivo Surprises “Glasgow” from Wild Rose would have been a nice inclusion, but everyone here is battling for second place after Rocketman. The 92 annual Academy Awards will be held February 9th, and aired live on ABC. " ["post_title"]=> string(36) "2020 Oscar Nominations: Let's Argue!" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(33) "2020-oscar-nominations-lets-argue" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2020-01-31 12:53:59" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-01-31 17:53:59" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(63) "https://wnnd-fm.sagacom.com/?post_type=saga_on_air&p=16136" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(11) "saga_on_air" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [6]=> object(WP_Post)#5134 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(16268) ["post_author"]=> string(2) "66" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2020-01-23 14:25:58" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-01-23 19:25:58" ["post_content"]=> string(14291) "by George Wolf, MaddWolf.com
If nothing else, Guy Ritchie and his Gentlemen are not lacking in self-confidence. This is a film, and a filmmaker, anxious to prove the old guys can still cut it, and that any young upstart who thinks otherwise has a painful lesson coming.
Ritchie returns to the testosterone-laden, subtitle-needin' bloody British gangster comedy terrain of Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - the early films that still define him - for a stylish ride through a violent jungle with a man who's not sure he still wants to be King.
Matthew McConaughey is Mickey Pearson, an American Rhodes Scholar who put his brains to work in the drug trade, utilizing a string of expansive British estates to build an underground network that controls the supply of "bush" aka "supercheese" aka weed.
But now it seems he's ready for a quiet life of leisure with wife Roz (Michelle Dockery), and offers to sell his entire operation to brilliant criminal nerd Matthew (Jeremy Strong) for a sizable sum.
As Matthew is mulling, Roz smells "f&%$ery afoot," and she smells wisely.
There's plenty, and a PI named Fletcher (Hugh Grant) thinks he has it all figured out, so much so that he visits Ray (Charlie Hunnam), Mickey's number two, with an offer to save Mickey's hide...in exchange for a hefty fee.
Ya follow? There's plenty more, and it's all spelled out via the screenplay Fletcher has conveniently written. As Fletcher joyously outlines the plot to Ray (and us) over scotches and steaks, Ritchie uses the device to play with possible threads, backtrack, and start again.
The Gentlemen is not just meta. As the double crosses and corpses mount, it becomes shamelessly meta, a sometimes engaging, other times tiresome romp buoyed by slick visual style and committed performances (especially Grant and Hunnam), but marred by self-satisfaction and stale humor that might have been less tone deaf a decade ago.
You get the feeling that after a marriage to Madonna and some big Hollywood franchise films (Sherlock Homes, Aladdin), Ritchie is out to prove he hasn't gone soft with a little raucous, chest-beating fun.
But while The Gentlemen does show Ritchie's way with a camera can still be impressive, its best parts only add up to a fraction of their promise.
https://youtu.be/KlXsguV9g0E
by Hope Madden, MaddWolf.com
Way back in 1961, Jack Clayton directed Deborah Kerr to an Oscar nomination with the atmospheric thriller, The Innocents, a nerve-jangling screen version of Henry James’s oft-adapted novel The Turn of the Screw.
Respectful of the book without being a slave to it, Clayton perfectly balanced that ever-important horror theme: is this woman insane or is something supernatural afoot? The novel’s been remade for TV and the big screen dozens of times in countries the world over. Given that, director Floria Sigismondi must have something new to say with her latest, The Turning.
She certainly has one heck of a cast.
Mackenzie Davis has impressed in every film she’s made, regardless of the fact that most of those films have gone utterly unnoticed by moviegoers. She quickly morphs into whatever is needed—badass, emotional wreck, whimsical youth, badass again—without losing an authentic human grounding. She’ll need that as Kate, the new live-in nanny.
Finn Wolfhard (It) and Broklynn Prince (The Florida Project) portray her charges, Miles and Flora. Both kids are amazing. Wolfhard masters the contemptuous sneer of the privileged but still convinces as a tender, protective older brother.
Prince, so entirely stunning in Florida Project, again owns the screen. Her timing is spot on and her sassiness magnificent. In a smaller role as prim housekeeper Mrs. Grose, British TV actor Barbara Marten delivers the perfect mix of brittle and caustic.
Not one of them manages a convincing argument as to why this film was made.
It’s been ten years since director Floria Sigismondi made a feature. A groundbreaking music video director, Sigismondi moved primarily to television after her impressive 2010 feature debut, The Runaways. For The Turning, her eye for setting and framing are clearly on display and, again, the performances are strong. There’s just not much she can do with this script.
Written by Carey W. and Chad Hayes (The Conjuring), The Turning suggests no solid reason for its existence. Every scene is rushed, every revelation unearned. Early red herrings prove pointless (cheats, even, as they make no narrative sense in retrospect).
Worse yet, Sigsimondi fails to develop any real tension or sense of dread and there’s not a single scare in the entire film.
I knew better than to get excited about a January release, but it’s hard not to hold out hope with this group of artists. Give yourself the gift of the Clayton version instead.
https://youtu.be/VqCpR19iBpc
by Hope Madden, MaddWolf.com
HP Lovecraft has influenced horror cinema in ways too varied and numerous to really articulate. But true Lovecraft is tough to bring to the screen for a number of reasons, chief among them that his madness tends to involve something indescribable: a color no one’s ever seen before, a sound entirely new to the human ear, a shape that defies all laws of geography and logic.
Alex Garland pulled inspiration from Lovecraft’s 1927 short Colour Out of Space for his brilliant 2018 mindbender, Annihilation. But for direct adaptations, Richard Stanley’s newest may be the best.
Naturally, the film’s success is due in large part to Nicolas Cage’s performance, because who descends into madness quite as entertainingly?
Cage plays Nathan Gardner. Nathan and his wife (Joely Richardson), their three kids and their squatter (Tommy Chong – nice!) live a quiet life in the New England forest not far from Arkham. A meteorite changes all that.
Cage basically strums a favorite old tune, landing somewhere on his “nice guy gone insane” spectrum just this side of Brent (Mom and Dad) and Red Miller (Mandy). In fact, the voice that begins emerging once the meteorite hits is gleefully reminiscent of Peter Lowe from Vampire’s Kiss (a call back I can get behind).
Is that the only reason to see the movie? No. Tommy Chong is a hoot, Richardson gets one especially creepy carrot chopping scene, and things go a little Cronenberg just when you want them to.
There’s a lot wrong with the film, too. Scenes are sloppily slapped together, one rarely leading to the next. The film’s budget is betrayed by its FX and supporting performances are not especially strong.
But Stanley’s long-awaited comeback (this is his first narrative feature since being fired from The Island of Dr. Moreau in 1996) infuses Lovecraft with a much needed dark streak of comedy and entrenches his tale of madness within a loving family dynamic, offering an emotional center to the story that the author rarely delivered.
The film lacks the vibrant subversiveness of Mom and Dad and comes nowhere near the insane vision of Mandy, so Cage fans might be only mildly impressed. Lovecraft fans, though, have reason to be excited.
https://youtu.be/agnpaFLo0to
by Hope Madden, MaddWolf.com
“Remember this, my friends. There is no such thing as bad plants or bad men. There are only bad cultivators.”
Victor Hugo penned those words as he watched the suffering and oppression in the streets of Montfermeil.
Set in July 2018, when the World Cup victory made celebratory compatriots of everyone in France, at first blush, Ladj Ly’s film Les Miserables bears little resemblance to the saga of Jean Valjean and that tenacious Javert. But it doesn’t take long for the filmmaker to use the story of law enforcement and the population of modern day Montfermeil to show that little has changed since Hugo set quill to parchment 150 years ago.
Damien Bonnard (Staying Vertical) plays Stéphane. Ly taps Julien Poupard’s camera to follow Stephane on his first day in Paris as part of a three man unit tasked with keeping an eye on a mainly poor, primarily Muslim district.
Stéphane’s new partners, Chris (Alexis Manenti) and Gwada (Djibril Zonga), have been on the job long enough to have developed relationships and tensions in the neighborhood. Thanks to an almost absurd subplot involving a traveling circus—whose lion delivers an apt metaphor and a heartbreaking scene—Stephane’s first days on the force will be regrettable.
Ly was inspired to write the film by riots that broke out in his own apartment building and neighborhood in 2005. That authenticity lends the film both a visceral dread as well as a complicated compassion.
Like Hugo, Ly seems unwilling to abandon those in authority to the fate of villain any more than he’s willing to entirely forgive the actions of the oppressed. Rather, each side is implicated (one far more boldly than the other), but it’s the lack of tidy resolution that makes the fate of these characters compelling.
While every performance is impressive, young Issa Perica is the film’s beating heart, its undetermined destiny, and he’s more than up to the task. His lines are limited but his performance is heartbreaking, his character really the only one that matters.
A devastating social commentary masquerading quite convincingly as an intense cop drama, I’d say Les Miserables would do Hugo proud. The truth is, it would probably break his heart.
https://youtu.be/wmCcus-XhRw
" ["post_title"]=> string(85) "Movie Reviews: "The Gentlemen," "The Turning," "Color Out of Space," "Les Miserables"" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(61) "movie-reviews-the-gentlemen-color-out-of-space-les-miserables" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2020-01-24 11:32:44" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-01-24 16:32:44" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(63) "https://wnnd-fm.sagacom.com/?post_type=saga_on_air&p=16268" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(11) "saga_on_air" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [7]=> object(WP_Post)#5135 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(16204) ["post_author"]=> string(2) "66" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2020-01-16 10:15:53" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-01-16 15:15:53" ["post_content"]=> string(16054) "by George Wolf, MaddWolf.com
Man, when I was a kid I wanted a Pushmi-Pullyu so bad.
I would try to get all the way through "If I Could Talk to the Animals" without messing up a lyric, and imagine how fun it would be to get one of those mythical Pushmis delivered in a crate, just like Rex Harrison in 1967's original Dr. Dolittle.
Over thirty years later, Eddie Murphy ditched the tunes for a more straightforward comedic approach in two franchise updates, and now Robert Downey, Jr. steps in to move the doctor a little closer to Indiana.
Jones, that is.
But's it's Indy by way of Victorian-era Britain, as Young Lady Rose (Carmel Laniado) calls on the famous animal-taking doctor with a dispatch from Buckingham Palace and an urgent plea to help the deathly ill Queen Victoria herself (Jessie Buckley).
As suspicions arise about Royal Dr. Mudfly (Michael Sheen) and the true nature of the Queen's ills, Dolittle and friends (some human, most not) set sail on a grand adventure to acquire the cure from King Rassouli (Antonio Banderas), who just happens to be the father of Dolittle's dear departed Lily (Kasia Smutniak).
Plus, there's a big dragon.
Director/co-writer Stephen Gaghan (Syriana) re-sets the backstory with an animated fairy tale, then ups the ante on action while letting Downey, Jr. and a menagerie of star voices try to squeeze out all the fun they can.
From Emma Thompson to John Cena, Octavia Spencer to Rami Malek, Tom Holland, Ralph Fiennes and Kumail Nanjiani to Selena Gomez and more, the CGI zoo juggles personalities, while Downey curiously chooses a whispered, husky delivery that sometimes makes his Do a little hard to understand.
But, of course, he still manages to craft an engaging character, even centering the Dr. with a grief just authentic enough for adults without bringing down the childlike wonder.
This is a Dr. Dolittle set on family adventure mode, with plenty of talking animal fun for the little ones and a few clever winks and nudges for the parents. But as the start of a possible franchise, it's more of a handshake than a high-five. It may not leave you with belly laughs or tunes stuck in your head, but it's eager to please manner doesn't hurt a bit.
https://youtu.be/FEf412bSPLs
by Hope Madden, MaddWolf.com
It’s been 17 years since we last checked in on Detective Mike Lowery (Will Smith) and his goofy partner Marcus (Martin Lawrence). One of them has intimacy issues. One of them always wants to retire. They drive recklessly around Miami and wreak general havoc.
In those 17 years, Generation X has gotten old.
Marcus has a grandbaby now and wants to retire again. Then Mike is almost killed, so now Marcus really wants to retire. That means frustrated Mike, desperate to reestablish his manhood by finding the guy who tried to kill him, must team up with Miami PD’s new superteam, AMMO.
That’s right, AMMO, which stands for literally the most attractive group of police officers in the history of crime. They’re tech-tactical. They have a drone and stuff, and no one would ever notice a drone flying into the abandoned warehouse while they do an arms deal.
But Mike don’t play that. He’s old school. And old. You know he’s old because he’s always wearing long sleeved shirts and jackets in Miami.
Is Bad Boys for Life ludicrous? Oh, my yes. Luckily its casual sexism and jingoism are offset by its refreshing pro-violence stance.
Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilail Fallah—whose Shakespearean take on Brussels gang violence, Black, is well worth finding—offer no such lyrical balance of carnage and emotion here. It’s actually hard to imagine a film franchise so single-mindedly opposite of their insightful gangster drama.
It's clear the marching orders were: get the bad boys back together, blow stuff up and trade quips! Fine, but who ordered all the forced ridiculousness and tonal whiplash?
Saddled with a breathtakingly by-the-numbers script by committee (Chris Bremner, Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan), the directing duo punctuates dramatic moments with comic relief while they distract from a weak story with nonsensical car chases and explosions, and when all else fails, fall back on daddy issues.
Don't look at the credits and you'd swear Michael Bay directed this movie. (Bonus: Bay has a cameo.)
The film broaches interesting themes as one partner turns to God while another turns to bloodthirsty vengeance in the face of death. But Lawrence, ever the sloppy sidekick, makes clear that spirituality and peace are only fodder for jokes and neither partner will regain his manhood until there’s a massive weapon between his legs and he’s shooting Mexicans out of the sky.
Will Mike learn to love? Will he whip his tech-savvy and law abiding new team into shape (that is, help them to embrace lethal and mainly illegal justice)?
And finally, can we expect more of this?
Maybe. Whatcha gonna do?
https://youtu.be/jKCj3XuPG8M
by Hope Madden, MaddWolf.com
For a population of 9 million, Mexico City keeps only 45 official ambulances. Private ambulances compete with each other to fill the need for additional resources. Midnight Family rides along with the Ochoas, one family making their living transporting the injured to government and private hospitals around the city.
Do they have training? The equipment they need to tend to a medical emergency?
Heck, they may not even have gas.
The nuance of the act of goodwill or commerce tightens the film’s emotional grip. As one member of the team worries over an infant while police question the father, clearly unable to pay for these services, it’s obvious that the Ochoa family takes its life saving mission seriously.
At the same time, every action is calculated: how to beat another ambulance to an accident, how to evaluate each situation to best secure payment, which hospital will be the most forthcoming with payment, which police are willing to alert them to accidents in return for a bribe.
It all sounds seedy until you realize what would happen to the injured without them.
And while you’re weighing the ghoulish balance between money and mercy, director Luke Lorentzen shows you just how a high speed chase should be filmed as 17-year-old Juan races and weaves his ambulance through traffic to beat another unit to the scene. (Honestly, you’d think a group of people this well-informed on the ills of Mexico City’s healthcare situation might be a little less daring!)
Juan is all business, a savvy worker with ambition and wisdom to share with his little brother Josue, who rides along at night instead of getting ready to go to school. In these moments, when family members cobble together enough cash for a dinner of tuna on saltines before going home to shower without hot water, the larger context and struggle takes shape.
An urgent portrait of a system in collapse, Midnight Family also uncovers one family's raft of hope amid an ocean of desperation.
https://youtu.be/AM5I9N1OzTc
by George Wolf, MaddWolf.com
A mother wails in agony over her dead son. A child, sick from a chemical attack, cries for his mother.
The bombs of the Syrian Civil War keep coming, bringing more dead and injured civilians, and inside a makeshift underground hospital known as The Cave, the attending physician wonders aloud if God is really watching over them.
Director Feras Fayyad returns to the Syrian battlegrounds for a film that is perhaps even more unsettling than his Oscar-nominated Last Men in Aleppo. And while it is not enjoyable to watch, its grip is only strengthened by the heartbreaking relief you feel when it ends and you're free to return to your life.
Fayyad's camera moves with frantic precision through the underground tunnels where Syrians have fled since 2013, when "the streets became battlefields."
With an unflinching, verite-style eye, Fayyad follows Dr. Amani Ballour much as he followed the "White Helmet" volunteers in Aleppo. But here, Dr. Amani's fight to save lives and foster change also encompasses the systemic sexism she's been fighting all her life.
Dr. Armani saw pediatrics as "a righteous outlet for her anger," and her experiences provide several juxtapositions Fayyad wields to great effect. Inside a world unfit for children and a religious doctrine used as a "tool for men," a subtle humanity is revealed, one that refuses to waver amid constant waves of inhumanity.
Oscar-nominated this year for Best Documentary Feature, The Cave is among the most rewarding kicks in the gut you're likely to experience.
https://youtu.be/TaZkwBWuN2A
by Brandon Thomas, MaddWolf.com
For a split second there in the early 2000s, Justin Long seem primed for stardom: Jeepers Creepers, Dodgeball, Drag Me to Hell and Live Free or Die Hard. His nervous charm mixed with casual handsomeness made him instantly relatable. The Wave might not be a major studio movie like the aforementioned, but Long brings his classic charisma with him to this trippy sci-fi comedy.
Long stars as Frank, an attorney for a large insurance company. He’s about to have the best day of his career after finding a way for the firm to avoid paying out a large policy. To celebrate, Frank and a co-worker (Scrubs’ Donald Faison) go out on the town where they eventually find their way to a house party. At this party, Frank is reluctantly introduced to a new drug that turns his world into a living hallucination. With his job, marriage and life on the line, Frank races around town attempting to undo the mess caused by the drug.
The Wave walks a fine line between various genres. For most of its running time, the film resembles many mainstream comedies from the last two decades. Long plays the kind of lovable chump that wouldn’t feel out of place in the latest Judd Apatow flick. He’s a dirtbag, but a pretty harmless dirtbag. For a time, avoiding the wrath of his overbearing wife seems like Frank’s biggest obstacle. But only for a time.
The movie switches gears fairly seamlessly into a more sci-fi realm as the severity of Frank’s situation becomes more apparent. Visual effects play a large part, but director Gille Klabin also gets a lot of bang for his buck with simple in-camera effects. Frank’s jumps through time are more often than not sold through basic edits. Not only does this help keep the “weird” more grounded, but it also keeps the audience in Frank’s shoes as these strange things continue to happen to him.
The film threatens to stall when it begins to veer into a message about fate, the decisions that people make and where that leads them. The theme is muddled and never does more than distract from the fun core sci-fi elements. Primer this ain’t, and rightly so.
The Wave has aspirations of telling a complex story about good people who make bad decisions. While that message never quite lands with much impact, the movie is still a moderately fun sci-fi romp.
https://youtu.be/yaljljNo6Wo
" ["post_title"]=> string(89) "Movie Reviews: "Dolittle," "Bad Boys For Life," "Midnight Family," "The Cave," "The Wave"" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(21) "movie-review-dolittle" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2020-01-16 15:17:51" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-01-16 20:17:51" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(63) "https://wnnd-fm.sagacom.com/?post_type=saga_on_air&p=16204" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(11) "saga_on_air" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [8]=> object(WP_Post)#5138 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(16110) ["post_author"]=> string(2) "66" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2020-01-09 09:12:59" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-01-09 14:12:59" ["post_content"]=> string(13217) "by George Wolf, MaddWolf.com
War. Maybe you've heard of it lately.
Taking inspiration from the past, director Sam Mendes has crafted an immaculate exercise in technical wonder, passionate vision and suddenly vital reminders.
The inherent gamble in crafting a film via one extended take – or the illusion of it – lies in the final cut existing as little more than a gimmick, spurring a ‘spot the edit’ challenge that eclipses the narrative.
1917 clears that hurdle in the first five minutes.
It is WWI, and British Corporals Blake and Schofield (Dean Charles-Chapman and George MacKay, both wonderful) are standing before their General (Colin Firth) amid the highest of stakes. Allied intelligence has revealed an imminent offensive will lead straight into a German ambush, and the corporals' success at traveling deep into enemy territory to deliver the order to abort is all that will keep thousands of soldiers - including Blake's own brother - from certain death.
Mendes dedicates the film to the stories told by his grandfather, and it stands thick with the humanity of bravery and sacrifice that ultimately prevailed through the most hellish of circumstances.
Blake and Schofield head out alone, enveloped by ballet-worthy camerawork and pristine cinematography (Roger Deakins, natch) that never blinks. The opportunities for edits may be evident at times, but the narrative experience is so immersive you'll hardly care. We're not merely following along on this mission, we're part of every heart-stopping minute.
Anyone who's seen the actual WW1 footage from Peter Jackson's recent doc They Shall Not Grow Old (an irresistible bookend to 1917) will recognize a certain sanitation to the production design, but the trade-off is a fresh majesty for familiar themes, one that's consistently grounded in stark intimacy. Mendes and Deakins (buoyed by a subtly evocative score from Thomas Newman) brush away any dangers of "first-person shooter" novelty with a near miraculous level of precise execution that succeeds in raising several bars.
1917 is absolutely one of the best films of the year, but it's more. It's an unforgettable and exhausting trip, immediately joining the ranks of the finest war movies ever made.
https://youtu.be/UcmZN0Mbl04
by George Wolf, MaddWolf.com
You may have noticed there's no shortage of films exposing the miscarriages of justice that have landed innocent people on Death Row.
Sadly, that's because there's no shortage of innocent people on Death Row.
So while the prevailing themes in Just Mercy are not new, the sadly ironic truth is their familiarity brings an added layer of inherent sympathy to the film, which helps offset the by-the-numbers approach taken by director/co-writer Destin Daniel Cretton.
Cretton and co-writer Andrew Lanham adapt the 2014 memoir by Bryan Stevenson, an attorney and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, that details Stevenson's years providing legal counsel to the poor and wrongly convicted in Alabama.
The film keeps its main focus on the case of Walter McMillan (Jamie Foxx), who, by the time Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) comes along, has long accepted his death sentence for the murder of an 18 year-old white woman. But by winning over Walter's extended family, Stevenson gains Walter's trust, along with plenty of threats from the Alabama good ol' boys once he starts exposing the outrageous violations during Walter's "fair trial."
It's clear that Cretton (Short Term 12, The Glass Castle) is firmly committed to respectful accuracy in his adaptation, which is commendable. The authenticity of the roadblocks, impassioned speeches or blood-boiling examples of bigotry are never in doubt, but it's only the ferocious talents of Jordan and Foxx that keep Just Mercy from collapsing under the weight its own unchecked righteousness.
As sympathetic as Walter's situation is, the script never quite sees him as a real person, painting only in shades of hero. Oscar winner Brie Larson, a Cretton favorite, is wasted as EJI co-founder Eva Ansley, who seems included more out of respect than for what the character ultimately adds to the narrative.
Jordan has the most to work with here, and - no surprise - he makes the most of it. Peripheral cases help Jordan give Stevenson the needed edges of a man who is equally driven by his failures, doggedly committed to helping those he identifies with so deeply, those who, as Walter puts it, are "guilty from the moment you're born."
Though it comes out swinging with heavy hands, Just Mercy steadies itself in time to become an effective portrait of systemic injustice. You will be moved, but with a force that is muted by simple convention.
https://youtu.be/GVQbeG5yW78
by Hope Madden, MaddWolf.com
Kristin Stewart has been stretching.
Yes, she will probably forever be first known as that girl from Twilight, unfortunately. But, in the same way her ex-vampire lover Robert Pattinson has relentlessly carved a stronger impression via challenging independent film roles, Stewart has been honing her craft and developing a reputation as a solid talent via varying roles in small budget films.
The few dozen or so of us who saw her versatility over the last few years in Personal Shopper, JT LeRoy, Lizzie, Certain Women, Still Alice and Clouds of Sils Maria no longer think first of Twilight’s Bella Swan.
But Ellen Ripley?
William Eubank’s deep sea horror Underwater sees Stewart as Nora, a no-nonsense, quick thinking, fast acting survivor—the kind who just might keep the remaining crew alive as they try to make their way from an irreversibly damaged deep sea drill rig to a nearby vessel that might have pods to float them to safety.
But what caused the damage in the first place and what is making that noise?
Eubank has assembled a surprisingly solid cast for his “Alien Under the Sea” flick. Joining Stewart as the rig’s humbly heroic captain is the always excellent Vincent Cassel, while John Gallagher Jr. plays the latest in his long line of effortlessly likeable good guys, Smith. Chubby comic relief is delivered by T.J. Miller.
If that sounds like your basic set of recognizable stereotypes assembled to be picked off one by one, you’ve detected the first major problem with Eubank’s film: a breathtaking lack of originality.
The script, penned by Brian Duffield (The Babysitter) and Adam Cozad (The Legend of Tarzan), offers nothing in the way of novelty and much of the dialog is stilted, and Nora’s third act reveal of the emotional damage she must overcome is false and forced.
Luckily, Eubanks somehow convinced a bunch of genuinely talented actors to deliver these lines, so they mainly come off fine. And while the director frustratingly and consistently undercuts the claustrophobic tension he’s begun building, his monsters are pretty cool looking.
Stewart gets to try on the action hero role, and she’s not too bad. For a 95 minute sea monster movie, neither is Underwater. It’s not too good, either, but at least there are no sparkly vampires.
https://youtu.be/jCFWEzIVILc
by George Wolf, MaddWolf.com
For years now, we've seen Rose Byrne and Tiffany Haddish each be plenty funny.
Three years ago, Salma Hayek and director Miguel Arteta teamed up for the delightful Beatriz at Dinner.
All four now come together for Like A Boss, and what sounds promising quickly becomes a painful 83-minute exercise in tired contrivance and weak sauce girl power struggling mightily to earn its label as a "comedy."
Haddish and Byrne are Mia and Mel, lifelong friends trying to keep their cosmetic company afloat when they're tossed a million-dollar lifeline by makeup tycoon Claire Luna (Hayek).
Luna's true aim is to break up the besties and steal their company (whaaat?), so our heroines must learn some sappy lessons about friendship before they can hatch their plan to turn the tables and show Luna who's really in charge.
The debut screenplay from Sam Pittman and Adam Cole-Kelly is barely ready for prime time, much less the big screen. What little laughter there is comes courtesy of the supporting cast (Billy Porter, Jennifer Coolidge) while the leads are put through a string of hot-pepper-eating, song-and-dance-routine nonsense.
Entirely forced and sadly wasteful of the talent at hand, this film is less like a boss and more like a mess the CEO tells someone else to clean up.
https://youtu.be/9ESkyRFEso4
" ["post_title"]=> string(64) "Movie Reviews: "1917," "Just Mercy," "Underwater," "Like a Boss"" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(29) "movie-reviews-1917-just-mercy" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2020-01-10 10:34:22" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-01-10 15:34:22" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(63) "https://wnnd-fm.sagacom.com/?post_type=saga_on_air&p=16110" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(11) "saga_on_air" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [9]=> object(WP_Post)#5161 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(16065) ["post_author"]=> string(2) "66" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2020-01-02 09:14:24" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-01-02 14:14:24" ["post_content"]=> string(5355) "by Hope Madden, George Wolf and Brandon Thomas, MaddWolf.com
2019 was an exceptional year in film. There were so many great movies to catch, undoubtedly some slipped by you. Here we offer a list of the best films we think you might not have seen this year in the hopes that you're able to remedy that situation stat.
Click the film title to link to the full review.
Happy New Year!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td0oBCWO_I4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmmHvnS0IKM&t=11s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLrDGALr5ao&t=71s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks_HSj1UqKI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGBe8xsWGlo&t=38s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMlHDNdLGU8&t=17s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B27ORUHlp6E&t=42s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biHUTtV4K40&t=45s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX2qohJ0BzA&t=71s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0FnJDhY9-0&t=30s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxefiCjQirw&t=19s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lwOwxMgWxo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsIE4x3xU0Y&t=42s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnu57WLP2u8&t=9s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzvCbck3s6c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=disclpVzoMQ&t=38s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Al2nC0vzY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyoE0mSJXO8&t=38s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5z3cr8AB5g&t=10s
https://youtu.be/WVZBNT0Ap-A
" ["post_title"]=> string(42) "Great Movies You Probably Missed From 2019" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(42) "great-movies-you-probably-missed-from-2019" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2020-01-06 10:59:54" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-01-06 15:59:54" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(63) "https://wnnd-fm.sagacom.com/?post_type=saga_on_air&p=16065" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(11) "saga_on_air" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } } ["post_count"]=> int(10) ["current_post"]=> int(-1) ["before_loop"]=> bool(true) ["in_the_loop"]=> bool(false) ["post"]=> object(WP_Post)#5140 (24) { ["ID"]=> int(16415) ["post_author"]=> string(2) "66" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2020-02-20 09:49:08" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2020-02-20 14:49:08" ["post_content"]=> string(16232) "by George Wolf, MaddWolf.com
Look, we're all thinking it, so let's just get it out there.
Raiders of the Lost Bark.
Happy now? Okay, we can move on.
Truth is, there's plenty of bark in this latest adaptation of Jack London's classic novel, but not much bite to be found.
We're still introduced to Buck, the sturdy St. Bernard-Scotch Collie mix, as the spoiled pet of a wealthy California judge (Bradley Whitford) in the late 1800s. Stolen and sold as a sled dog to French-Canadian mail dispatchers, Buck adapts to the pack mentality and the harsh conditions of the Alaskan wilderness, eventually teaming up with the grizzled Thorton (Harrison Ford) for a journey into the Yukon.
It should come as no surprise that Ford is effortlessly affecting as a world weary mountain man. What is surprising is his endearing rapport with a CGI dog (motioned-captured by Terry Notary). Ford's narration is earnest enough to soften its heavy hands, drawing Thorton and Buck as two kindred spirits, both lost in their own wilderness.
While taking the actual wild out of The Call of the Wild seems sadly ironic, the computer-generated beasts come to fall perfectly in line with director Chris Sanders' family-ready vision for the enduring tale.
Stripped of any bloody carnage, cultural insensitivities or harsh realities, Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon, Lilo & Stitch, The Croods) and writer Michael Green (Logan, Blade Runner 2049) fill the gaps with obvious questions, easy answers, and a flesh and blood bad guy (Dan Stevens in full Snidley Whiplash mode) who manages to be the biggest cartoon in a film full of computer animation.
Buck himself - looking fine but landing a notch below the motion capture high water of the last Planet of the Apes trilogy - is often stuck between Lassie and Scooby, heroically loyal while seeming to instantly understand everything from English to drunkenness.
With the sharp edges ground down, this Call of the Wild becomes a pleasant metaphor for the simple life, and for finding your place in it. In short, it's a PG-rated primer, meant to hold a place until the kids are ready for the real thing.
https://youtu.be/5P8R2zAhEwg
by Hope Madden, MaddWolf.com
It’s Christmas, and regardless of a profound, almost insurmountable family tragedy, one irredeemably oblivious father (Richard Armitage) decides his kids (Jaeden Martell and Lia McHugh) should get to know the woman (Riley Keough) he left their mother for. A week in an isolated mountain cabin during a blizzard should do it.
Dad stays just long enough to make things really uncomfortable, then heads back to town for a few days to work. Surely everybody will be caroling and toasting marshmallows by the time he returns.
Though everything about The Lodge brings to mind A24 horror—for a number of reasons, Hereditary in particular—the film is actually a Hammer effort. No longer the corset-and-bloodletting studio, Hammer’s millennial output has been sparse but often quite good.
Choosing to back filmmakers Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz making their follow up to the supremely creepy Goodnight Mommy should be a solid risk to take. Here the pair does not shy away from the body of “white death” horror that came before The Lodge, with eerie and sometimes humorous nods to The Thing and The Shining, among others, haunting the piece.
The film also brings to mind A24’s It Comes at Night, another quiet film that saw Riley Keough trapped in an isolated abode with unsettling family dynamics. Keough is riding an impressive run of performances and her work here is slippery and wonderful. As the unwanted new member in the family, she’s sympathetic but also brittle.
Jaeden Martell, a kid who has yet to deliver a less than impressive turn, is the human heartbeat at the center of the mystery in the cabin. His tenderness gives the film a quiet, pleading tragedy. Whether he’s comforting his grieving little sister or begging Grace (Keough) to come in from the snow, his performance aches and you ache with him.
A healthy ability to suspend disbelief will aid in the experience The Lodge has to offer, but there’s no denying the mounting dread the filmmakers create, and the three central performances are uniquely effective. Thanks to the actors’ commitment and the filmmakers’ skill in atmospheric horror, the movie grips you, makes you cold and uncomfortable, and ends with a memorable slap.
https://youtu.be/XYUI97qAa_k
by Christie Robb, MaddWolf.com
One of the more depressing aspects of maturity is the realization that evil is somewhat banal. Rarely does the antagonist sport a handlebar mustache that he twirls while ogling the victim he’s tied to the railroad tracks. The heinous are more ubiquitous and their misdeeds are cliched. The soul is crushed, not under a train, but under the repetition of many predictable, everyday disappointments.
Kitty Green’s The Assistant is a day-long coming-of-age story. Jane (Julia Garner), the titular assistant, has held her job for five weeks. We follow her from her bleary pre-dawn commute till she shuffles away from the office hours after sunset. She’s entry level at a New York production company, one of many assistants to an entertainment bigwig with a well-used casting couch.
Her day is filled with mundane tasks: organizing travel, making copies, stocking the fridge with bottled water, cleaning cum stains off her boss’s furniture, taking messages, fielding phone calls, ordering lunch…
Concerned about a young and potentially vulnerable new-hire, Jane tries to alert folks at Human Resources. But there are no heroes at corporate.
Garner carries the film with a nuanced performance that illustrates the exhaustion of a woman who represses much of herself in order to navigate a culture that normalizes predatory behavior and rewards complicity.
Informed by Green’s research and interviews with women post-Weinstein at technology and engineering companies as well as those in entertainment, The Assistant explores the machinery involved that works to normalize toxic work environments, that exchanges tolerance of bad behavior for a modicum of opportunity.
Green’s background in documentary (Ukraine Is not a Brothel, Casting JonBenet) serves her well here. She’s got an eye for the tiny but not so insignificant details that give an office its character—whether people decide to talk or to stay silent when a co-worker enters the breakroom, who gets off the elevator first, the aggression not so subtly hinted at by sliding a box of tissues across a desk.
It’s a hard film to watch that explores what, besides our time and labor, we are trading in exchange for a paycheck.
https://youtu.be/6cLf0i-kYio
by Matt Weiner, MaddWolf.com
You have to admire the chutzpah when the first feature film ever to shoot on location at the Olympics has the star athlete’s event be over immediately after the opening ceremony.
But it’s an anticlimax that sets the tone for the rest of Olympic Dreams. Cross-country skier Penelope (real-life Olympian Alexi Pappas) is at a crossroads in her life. Young in years but already worn out in a world that measures time in all-consuming four-year spans, she spends the rest of her time at the Olympic Village wandering around, talking to fellow athletes and delaying the inevitable return to reality when she has to go back home.
She meets volunteer dentist Ezra (Nick Kroll, foreshadowing an effective mid-career transition to these reined in dramedy roles), an outgoing Olympics nerd who’s just happy to be there.
The two hit it off, united by a vague sense of longing for… well, something. It’s a movie with modest aims, which are often dwarfed by the impressive settings. The story (by Pappas and Kroll along with Jeremy Teicher, who also directs) feels like it came long after securing the PyeongChang Olympic Village as the setting.
There’s the barest of plots, a sort of fish-out-of-water romcom that plays like a mumblecore Lost In Translation. As endearing as the two leads are, there’s not a lot of scaffolding to help them out. The film relies less on subtle characterization and more on a safe bet that you’ve seen these particulars enough to fill in the blanks yourself.
It’s a shame because Kroll and Pappas excel in their elements. Between Kroll’s deadpan improv with the various athletes and Pappas’ sincere empathy for the sacrifice and emotional highs and lows constantly unfolding in the background, it’s a wonder the filmmakers didn’t play it straight as a documentary.
The film has plenty of warm moments, with Pappas especially managing to balance a range of heartbreak, uncertainty and charm in a way that doesn’t get to come through in the official behind-the-scenes featurettes during the Olympics.
There’s just not enough there to back her up. The film might take us to the finish line, but just barely.
https://youtu.be/_u1zOMk1rXM
by Hope Madden, MaddWolf.com
Wow. Who would have guessed that director William Brent Bell could drive his lackluster 2016 scary doll flick The Boy to a sequel? Not the half dozen or so of us who saw it.
But here you have it, Brahms: The Boy II is a real live movie.
Katie Holmes is in it. She plays Liza, concerned mum. She and her youngster Jude (Christopher Convery) survived a trauma and now they are recuperating, along with supportive dad Sean (Owain Yoeman), in an old English manner.
Jude finds this creepy doll buried outside, just his little white hand poking out from the ground. They take him inside and clean him up and keep him because they have never seen a horror movie.
If you have, you can definitely skip this one.
While there’s not a lot to like about Stacey Menear’s script, the problem here—as with his 2016 effort that began this whole killer plaything saga—feels more like poor direction. The story sets up a slight twist on a common horror theme: someone survives a traumatic experience only to find themselves in a potentially super natural circumstance. This begs the question, is this person insane, or is this super natural event really happening?
Scads and scads of horror films have wandered the psychological corridors of this premise. In this case, there are two possible crazies (both Liza and Jude). So, there is something here. We could twist throughout the film wondering, is this doll sentient evil? Is little Jude a budding maniac? Or is Liza suffering from PTSD and imagining it all?
We don’t wonder, though, because Bell clarifies the true culprit early and often. He’s so clear on the matter that the subsequent moments of Liza questioning her own sanity, or of Jude staring menacingly at his bully cousin, amount to an idiotic mishandling of material.
Ralph Ineson (The Witch) and his grizzled baritone make a quick appearance. There’s also a Google search or two—damn, horror movie Google searches deliver results, don’t they?! And how lucky to bump into that stranger in town who 1) asks where you live and, 2) happens to have all the info you’d ever need on the entire history of the home you’re renting. Too nutty!
But let’s be honest, do you even want to see this movie?
https://youtu.be/ECPfXUW0zt8
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