moviesmarkus

Passages

Posted on November 24, 2023 by moviesmarkus

One of more beautifully shot films of the year (one of those where every frame could be a painting), filmmaker Ira Sachs builds a story centered around a narcissistic filmmaker named Tomas (Franz Rodowski) who is married to Martin (Ben Whishaw) before impulsively sleeping with and then falling in love with a woman named Agathe (Adéle Exarchopoulos).

With a premise like this, Passages could’ve quickly turned into a film focusing all of its attention on the idea of sexual fluidity in a less than charitable way. But early on Sachs establishes his story as entirely a character study of a narcissistic individual and those he chooses as his partners. While there are many well filmed sex scenes, nothing in this is sensationalized or in poor taste in a way one may suspect from the premise. Sachs does well to establish every moment of every sex sequence as solely an extension of Tomas’ larger manipulation. Furthermore, the world established contains only brief mentions of labels such as gay, straight, bisexual, husband, girlfriend, etc. The idea behind this (coupled with an absolutely enchanting performance from Rodowski) appears as a deliberate way of devaluing established ideas about what constitutes a relationship, as well as continuing to keep the focus not on the sex itself, but on seducing one into spending ninety-six minutes with a curiously destructive man-child protagonist.

The issue with constructing a movie in this manner with a character this unlikable as the focus, may unfortunately mean that some will find Tomas so intolerable that they may not make it through the full runtime. While others may simply find disappointment in a film that is lacking a level of exploitation the premise may have alluded to.

Final Thought: Sachs knows how to present his unpleasant protagonist in a way that while we may never outwardly sympathize with him and may downright detest his abusive tactics, it is difficult not to find Tomas fascinating to the point of attractive. This balance is the most interesting thing Passages has to offer.

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Movie Review

When Evil Lurks

Posted on November 24, 2023November 25, 2023 by moviesmarkus

This Argentinian horror written and directed by Demián Rugna has been touted by some as one of the best horror movies of 2023, for reasons I don’t fully understand.

When Evil Lurks tells the story of two brothers living in a remote village who find themselves having to stop the spread of a demon who has possessed a local man. The man has been infected by said demon for so long his body is distended and morphed into a bloated mass of boils and puss. It is discovered that the demon spreads like a virus if shot (or killed improperly?). As the story moves forward, we find that at times both humans and animals can become contaminated by merely coming in contact with an infected person or someone who has been around an infected person. For example, at one point a dog becomes possessed by simply sniffing the clothing of someone who came in contact with a possessed person. Yeah, the rules here are a little murky, and because of this the rules are explained and reestablished throughout the movie up until the very end. And even then, I feel like I needed more time with these people in order to fully understand the lore behind a form of possession which was new to me, but that so many of the townsfolk seem to have extensive knowledge on.

The hysterical delivery/nature of this movie is confusing as well, as this is not a comedy. I caught myself laughing at scenes that in retrospect I don’t believe are played for laughs. This has something to do with the smattering of telenovela-level acting within the film, but also, I can only imagine how much better this movie could’ve been as a dark comedy. Rugna’s decision to play this entire thing straight allows for many visuals (specifically the vomit and snot eruption sequences) to come off as confusing.

That said, I have to believe the primary draw of this film are the kills and the scares, because all of that stuff is quite good. The setups may not be the greatest, but the actual point of impact is consistently gasp-inducing. As a horror film, there are things to admire here. It’s the in-between moments that only serve as a distraction from the director getting to show off.

Final Thought: Watch this for the visuals, I guess. Again, there are many superbly designed horror sequences, with some wonderful use of practical effects. If you are into horror visuals specifically, Rugna is as talented and creative as they come. It’s simply difficult not to become increasingly disinterested in a plot that becomes more cumbersome over time. And paired with its tonal issues, When Evil Lurks is an overall disappointment due to how intriguing the setup was.

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Movie Review

The Nun II

Posted on November 24, 2023 by moviesmarkus

In a continuation of the first movie, the demon nun is back and she has so many more dark hallways and corners to emerge from.

Unsurprisingly The Nun II (directed by Michael Chaves) isn’t scary as much as it is repetitive. The bulk of this movie we spend watching characters stand still in dimly lit areas, patiently waiting as the Nun performs long-winded reveals and loud bangy “scares”.

There are a couple of cool kills and the final thirty minutes is thankfully a bit bonkers, including the appearance of a devil-goat-demon thing who runs super-fast (clearly the best thing in the film). And if you can get to that point, it will be enough to carry you to the finish line, as the story itself doesn’t matter at all. But what did I expect from one of the weakest spin-offs in the Conjuring cinematic universe?

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Movie Review

Thanksgiving

Posted on November 24, 2023 by moviesmarkus

Known more for his torture porn aesthetic than for making traditional slasher films, I went in fingers crossed that filmmaker Eli Roth (Hostel, The Green Inferno) would present a movie of the latter and not containing as much of the former. And honestly, Thanksgiving isn’t as gory as I expected. It’s also shockingly underwhelming and simply not as fun as it needed to be.

Synopsis: A year after a Black Friday trampling incident/riot, the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts is terrorized by someone in a pilgrim mask, seeking revenge.

It’s technically a feature length version of a fictitious trailer Roth created for the 2007 movie “Grindhouse”. So, hoping for something full of over-the-top B-movie slasher camp shouldn’t have been out of the question. But Roth is simply the wrong director to make this work in any kind of memorable way. Sure, there are over-the-top kills, but Thanksgiving never leans into this aspect as much as it could’ve. Instead putting more emphasis on a story that had potential, but ends up being your standard “killer comes to town, bumps off citizens one by one until the mask comes off and the killer is revealed” movie you could watch at home.

Side Note: I do enjoy Rick Hoffman (Suits, Hostel) as an actor. He just gets nothing to do here. And nobody else gives a performance worth talking about, so let’s get back to the review.

Another thing Roth is known for is his clunky dialogue. And his constant attempts at humor. I laughed once. Lazily, most of the humor centers around the use of New England accents, which is funny for all of ten minutes. The lack of funny moments could’ve been forgiven if the movie was at all scary, or fun or held a semblance of anything that would allow the impact of Thanksgiving to be remembered after the credits rolled.

Final Thought: I’m in no way a Roth fan (if you couldn’t tell), but I know he can deliver a better product than this. On the other hand, who cares. Let’s focus on the violence. Is this the violent gorefest the trailers promise? Again, it’s not as gory as I expected, but what Roth does well he does well here. That is, every sequence of practical effects works in the way they were intended. Most of the kill sequences elicit a visceral response. Every time someone’s head explodes on impact or someone’s intestines lie hanging from their stomach, it’s engaging in a way Roth clearly understands. Unfortunately, there isn’t nearly enough of that stuff to make up for the one-note comedy, dull characters and a script which I liken to an unseasoned Thanksgiving feast.

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Movie Review

The Exorcist: Believer

Posted on October 10, 2023 by moviesmarkus

Going in knowing it would be a near impossibility for this to come close to the greatness of the 1973 original, all I needed from The Exorcist: Believer was for it to be slightly better than the most middle-of-the-road possession movie. And writer/director David Gordon Green (Halloween, Halloween Kills, Halloween Ends) couldn’t even give me that.

Among other things, this is a poorly directed film with few highlights to speak of. The story is essentially, two little girls walk into the woods and come out possessed. The first half sees a very basic horror setup inexplicably fumbled, as things happen that are neither scary or engaging. The idea of creating actual tension and/or scares seems to baffle Green this time around, as he repeatedly chooses to substitute loud noises for any and all scary moments. I don’t honestly remember one legitimate scare amidst the nearly two-hour runtime.

My hope was once Ellen Burstyn (reprising her role from the original film) entered the story around the halfway mark, the film would find its footing. But instead, the back-half is even worse. A sloppy incoherent mess, culminating in an exorcism sequence which can only be described as a scattershot of ideas which somebody forgot to edit down into something coherent.

Final Thought: The Exorcist: Believer inexplicably reeks of inexperience. Fluctuating between a very sloppy and very unsure attempt at horror. Was Green intimidated and overwhelmed by this project? It certainly looks so. But I’d rather have seen an exorcism film with Green taking huge risks and failing hard, than end up with a product which comes across as poorly conceived, uneventful and boring.

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Movie Review

Totally Killer

Posted on October 10, 2023 by moviesmarkus

In 1987 a serial killer by the name of the “Sweet Sixteen Killer” murders three teenage girls in a small town. Thirty-five years later (in that same town) the killer is back, murdering the mother of Jamie Hughes (Kiernan Shipka). Jamie then accidentally travels back to 1987 in an attempt to stop the killer.

Strongly implying that this is Scream meets Back to the Future makes the film sound better than it is. Sadly, Totally Killer is not well written enough to hit the high bar it’s set for itself.

It’s still a somewhat fun and passable horror/comedy, where some jokes work while others don’t. Directed by Nahnatchka Khan (Always Be My Maybe), the kills are well filmed and the story never drags. Khan also unsurprisingly and quite smartly leans heavily into the 1980’s visuals and pop culture references, which will certainly make this movie more entertaining for those who become instantly enchanted by anything 80’s related.

Final Thought: There are flashes of something a bit more elevated dispersed throughout, mostly in the idea of how time is dealt with in this particular world. But outside of that, this is an average and completely watchable October flick.

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Movie Review

A Million Miles Away

Posted on October 10, 2023 by moviesmarkus

The true story of José Hernandez (Michael Peña), a Mexican immigrant who grew up to become an engineer and eventually the first former migrant worker turned NASA astronaut.

Definitely full of heart and eager to showcase a specific Latino community/culture, director Alejandra Márquez Abella builds a world that feels warm and familiar. The vibe here is very much Latino biopic meets Disney live-action. If that sounds like your kind of movie, then A Million Miles Away will be a more than satisfying experience.

Before I get to my lone hangup, I do want to mention that there are things that I (as a Latino) really appreciate about this film. The fact that most of the familial dialogue is in Spanish, a soundtrack which perfectly drives home a particular nostalgic feel and the chemistry between actors Peña and Rosa Salazar (who plays Adela, the wife of Hernandez) all work to create a far better viewing experience than I’d initially anticipated. My only criticism of a film like this is that it is family friendly to a fault.

I dislike using “family friendly” as a pejorative. But when what we get is a story about a man who worked in the fields with his family, then worked in an office building where he was seemingly the only brown face, and then enters the space program against all odds, and the end result feels instantly watered down, the term “family friendly” in this instance will translate into an unnecessarily corny viewing experience for some. Every hardship Hernandez goes through is addressed with a PG rating in mind, and at times I felt like I was watching something more interested in driving home an inspirational message, rather than showcasing an authentic story. While I do appreciate that movies like these are made about important and often forgotten historical Latino figures, the subject matter here warranted more cinematic authenticity and grittiness.

Final Thought: There is a place for movies like these. A family movie night perhaps. It wouldn’t surprise me if a year from now A Million Miles Away was playing in elementary schools during Hispanic Heritage Month. Hell, I’m quite sure once my Mexican mother sees this movie, it will be her favorite film of the year. And there is nothing wrong with any of that. A movie made with good intentions, love for its characters and clearly engaging enough to disregard the telegraphed nature of the story beats, this is a film I’d feel good recommending. I simply want to praise this more than the film will allow.

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Movie Review

Past Lives

Posted on July 11, 2023 by moviesmarkus

Is there such a thing as a soulmate? Is there such a thing as fate? In writer/director Celine Song’s feature debut, she examines these notions when telling the story of two childhood sweethearts, Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), who are separated when Nora’s family leaves South Korea. They lose touch but not their connection, as throughout the years they correspond via the internet, holding on to their unwavering attraction. It isn’t until over twenty years later that they mutually agree to meet when Hae Sung decides to travel to New York, where Nora now lives with her husband Arthur (John Magaro).

More than just your average love triangle drama, Song creates a quiet masterpiece, which through her characters, her direction and some stellar performances, tells the story of the passage of time as it pertains to the fate of two individuals. It’s not until the second half of the movie that these two see each other as adults, but during every moment Nora and Hae Sung share the screen, Song constructs a space where the world falls away and her characters are allowed to live the purity of their bond, albeit knowing that at any moment the real world will come crashing down upon them as time moves forward.

Told from the perspective of a first-generation immigrant living in America, the love Nora has for both men (her husband and her first love) in her adult life should also be seen as the symbolic struggle of someone with one foot in two cultures. This is a movie which explores the ever-present love for one’s home (the culture one grew up immersed in) and a new land that one wishes to plant their roots. The idea of having two names (one being an “American” name). The idea of having two lives, where two different languages are spoken. It’s all examined here through some of the most beautiful cinematography and direction I’ve seen all year, capturing Song’s grander themes regarding how devastating life can be, not solely through character dialogue, but glances and body language, and how her characters are framed on-screen at any given moment.

Final Thought: Holding true to its thematic concepts of the allure of forbidden love, the idea of fate and our cultural connection between the past and present, “Past Lives” is both visually and tonally brilliant enough to be considered a theatrical cousin to a movie like “In the Mood for Love”. And that’s arguably the best praise I can give it, so I think I’ll stop there.

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Movie Review

The Blackening

Posted on July 5, 2023 by moviesmarkus

A huge reason “The Blackening” works as well as it does is simply because the humor within this horror/comedy written and directed by Black people, is made for Black people. This statement may seem obvious, but with it I only mean to say that this film has no real desire to commodify Blackness for a white audience, like so many mainstream Black comedies tend to do.

Synopsis: A group of Black friends (Antoinette Roberton, Dewayne Perkins, Siqua Walls, Grace Byers, Melvin Gregg, X Mayo and Jermaine Fowler) reunite in a cabin in the woods to celebrate Juneteenth. During their stay, they discover a board game that looks racist as hell called “The Blackening” (and hilariously referred to by the group as “Jim Crow Monopoly”). At that point they are forced by a mysterious masked killer to play said game, where the object is to determine who is the “Blackest” and therefore who should die first.

Admittedly, as a Black man I walked into this film with much trepidation. The trailers looked cringy and buffoonish. And the tagline which read, “we can’t all die first” referring to the horror stereotype of Black characters always dying first, seemed like the setup for a single-joke premise elongated by a smattering of low hanging fruit comedy, depicting Black people put on screen solely to be laughed at.

But fairly early on my expectations were subverted. After about ten minutes into the movie, with the introduction of actual three-dimensional Black characters and a slew of well written and very targeted jokes, “The Blackening” quickly establishes itself as a more than worthy horror/comedy with an engaging whodunit throughline. Not to say that there aren’t any cheap laughs, but not for one moment did I feel as though I was stuck in a theater watching an improv group.

Final Thought: For me this felt like “Scream” for the Black community. Yeah, I said it. Meaning, it’s a movie that could’ve been “just another slasher”, checking all of the boxes, but instead chose to do something more. To engage in some meta-cinema with a specific audience, never taking a moment to explain the bulk of the jokes or handhold the uninitiated; trusting that the material is strong enough to entertain everyone in the theater. “The Blackening” is a movie with familiar horror/comedy aspects, but unapologetically centers Black audiences. And it’s more than good enough to create its own distinct spot within the genre. That’s right, director Tim Story’s name can finally be attached to a good movie.

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Movie Review

The Little Mermaid

Posted on May 31, 2023May 31, 2023 by moviesmarkus

The story is pretty much the same as it’s animated source material. A curious teenage mermaid named Ariel (Halle Bailey) ventures to the surface world and falls for a prince. She then trades her voice to a sea witch in exchange for legs, all for some man.

These Disney live-action remakes have always been set up for box-office success, having a fanbase which miraculously doesn’t seem to care if these films are simply shot for shot remakes, as long as the songs are there and the vibes are right. And while “The Little Mermaid” is not a shot for shot remake whatsoever, all the most memorable visual aspects of this remake are the shots that keep true to the 1989 animated original.

For a remake which is almost an hour longer than the original, director Rob Marshall does a good job of keeping this two hour plus film moving at a pace which accounts for a child’s attention span. And his interpretations of some of the most beloved musical numbers in the Disney canon, will be received well by audiences.

To account for this extended runtime, we get new songs with music from Alan Menken and lyrics from Lin-Manuel Miranda. Some of which are catchier than others, but all fit the atmosphere of a more modern retelling of this classic tale. In addition to the new songs, more backstory is added to many of the characters in an attempt to give enhanced motivations. Truthfully, this aspect neither harms nor helps with actual story engagement.

Most importantly, the live-action CGI talking crab, fish and seagull are done well enough to not be a distraction. I’m being facetious, but also, I understand this is a worry which sits in the back of the minds of non-child viewers who become fixated on these very things. The only issue I have with the visuals is somewhat of a bad timing thing, as the underwater CGI is made underwhelming due to the recent release of “Avatar: The Way of Water” and the technical comparisons these scenes are sure to garner. I must restate that the direction here (while the weakest aspect of this film) is fine and will only be picked apart by critics. My criticism of Marshall’s vision is that he doesn’t seem to have one that wishes to step out of its predecessor’s shadow. This is not a sleepwalking directorial effort, as it’s all quite entertaining. It just doesn’t rock the boat in any capacity. Which isn’t a bad thing, if that is what you came to see.

All of that said, this version does stand out from the original due to the enjoyment many will get from these performances. Melissa McCarthy as Ursula and Javier Bardem as King Triton are great casting choices and very much filled the shoes of these supporting characters quite well. The same goes for Jonah Hauer-King who plays Prince Eric, very much giving dark-haired Ryan Gosling. Awkwafina is the voice of Scuttle the gannet (not seagull) and Daveed Diggs is the voice of Sebastian the crab, both doing much of the comedic heavy lifting, adding comedic touches which differ from the straight-forward whimsy of the original. The fact is, there are no bad performances. Jacob Trembley who voices Flounder is a complete afterthought, but even his voice work isn’t what I’d call “bad”. Anyway, Halle Bailey’s performance is the main reason to see this movie. She is such star quality, capturing the essence of her character (Ariel) better than any other character in any Disney live-action remake thus far.

Final Thought: The 1989 “The Little Mermaid” was my favorite animated film as a child and so I did go into this ready to enjoy myself, but also ready to be all sorts of unforgiving at the slightest hint of an attempt to ruin my childhood. Thankfully, this version of “The Little Mermaid” was an overall enjoyable watch. And due to the nostalgia evoking musical sequences and Bailey’s performance, “The Little Mermaid” is quite rewatchable.

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