Review: Humor Makes First "SONIC THE HEDGEHOG" Film Pleasingly Pleasant

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 58 of 2024 (No. 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

Running time:  99 minutes (1 hour, 39 minutes)

MPA – PG for action, some violence, rude humor and brief mild language

DIRECTOR:  Jeff Fowler

WRITERS:  Pat Casey & Josh Miller (based on the Sega video game)

PRODUCERS:  Toby Ascher, Neal H. Moritz, Toru Nakahara, and Takeshi Ito

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Stephen F. Windon (D.o.P.)

EDITORS:  Debra Neil-Fisher and Stacy Schroeder

COMPOSER: Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL)

FANTASY/FAMILY and ACTION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY

Starring:  James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Natasha Rothwell, Adam Pally, Lee Majdoub, Neal McDonough, Tom Butler, Frank C. Turner, Melody Niemann, and Jim Carrey; and (voices) Ben Schwartz and Donna Jay Fulks

Sonic the Hedgehog is a 2020 action-adventure, fantasy and comedy film directed by Jeff Fowler.  The film is based on the Sega Corporation video game series and media franchise that began with the 1991 Sega Genesis game, Sonic the Hedgehog.  In Sonic the Hedgehog the movie, Sonic takes refuge on Earth, but when his speed accidentally knocks out power in part of the United States, he draws the attention of a mad scientist.

Sonic the Hedgehog introduces Sonic (voice of Ben Schwartz).  He is an anthropomorphic (which means he is an animal that can walk and talk like a human), blue hedgehog who has the ability to move at superhuman speed.  Ten years earlier, Sonic fled to Earth to escape his enemies with the aid of a golden ring that opened a portal to Earth.  He carried a bag of more such rings with him to Earth.

Currently, Sonic lives an enjoyable secret life in a cavern under the rural town of Green Hills, Montana.  He zooms around the area, and has become something of a local legend, “the blue devil.”  He longs to make friends and spies on local sheriff, Thomas Michael “Tom” Wachowski (James Marsden), whom Sonic calls the “Donut Lord,” and Tom's wife, Maddie (Tika Sumpter), whom Sonic calls “Pretzel Lady.”  What Sonic does not know is that Tom and Maddie are planning to relocate to San Francisco.

It is Sonic's loneliness which leads him to initiating an accident that causes a massive power outage across the Pacific Northwest.  Determined to discover the origin of this power outage, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff reluctantly enlists the services of eccentric roboticist and scientific genius, Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey).  Now, Sonic is forced to seek help from Tom Wachowski, but can this thrown-together duo escape the clutches of Robotnik and his drone army?

I had no intention of watching Sonic the Hedgehog from the first time I heard about the movie's production back in the 20-teens.  I also had no plans on seeing its 2022 sequel, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but when it was first released, my niece asked to me to take her to the theater to see it, as she did not want to wait for it to stream on Paramount+.  Because she rarely asks me to take her to the movies and because she usually turns down my offers to accompany me when I'm going, I (reluctantly) agreed to see Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with her.

Well, the third film, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, has been released, and my niece wants me to take her to see that one, too.  I found Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to be much better than I thought it would be, and I was able to follow it without having seen the first film.  However, I decided that it was past time to see the original, and I was able to because it is available via my Amazon Prime Video subscription.

I must say that I found the first film pleasingly pleasant.  Sonic the Hedgehog's visual effects (VFX) and humor drive the film's narrative and makes even the most raucous action and chases scenes sometimes breathtaking, sometimes funny, and sometimes both.  I think the film's director, Jeff Fowler, and his film editors get the most humor and energy that they can out of a lightweight script.  The result is an lighthearted and entertaining family film.

Voice actor Ben Schwartz brings Sonic to life as a fully developed film character.  Schwartz makes Sonic's doubts and dilemmas seem genuine, and his exuberant voice performances makes Sonic one of the most lovable CGI movie characters in recent memory.

The second standout performance comes from Jim Carrey.  With Carrey, audiences get the good, the bad, and ugly of the actor and former stand-up comedian's constant over-the-top mode.  However, in Sonic the Hedgehog, he gives a delightful comic performance.  His Robotnik is not so much over-the-top as he is the wackiest of wacky mad scientist; then, Carrey bumps that up a notch.  Carrey would actually steal this movie if Ben Schwartz was not pitch perfect as Sonic.

So it turns out that I like Sonic the Hedgehog as much as I liked Sonic the Hedgehog 2.  I highly recommend Sonic the Hedgehog for those looking for something that would be quite a treat for family movie night.

6 of 10

B

★★★ out of 4 stars

Friday, December 20, 2024

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Review: "BAD BOYS FOR LIFE" Takes a Bit to Come to Life

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 24 of 2024 (No. 1968) by Leroy Douresseaux

Bad Boys for Life (2020)

Running time:  124 minutes (2 hours, 4 minutes)

MPA – R for strong bloody violence, language throughout, sexual references and brief drug use

DIRECTORS:  Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah

WRITERS:  Chris Bremner, Peter Craig & Joe Carnahan; from a story by Peter Craig & Joe Carnahan (based on characters created by George Gallo)

PRODUCERS:  Doug Belgrad, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Will Smith

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Robrecht Heyvaert (D.o.P.)

EDITORS: Dan Lebental and Peter McNulty

COMPOSER:  Lorne Balfe

ACTION/CRIME/COMEDY

Starring:  Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Paola Núñez, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, Kate del Castillo, Nicky Jam, Joe Pantoliano, Jacob Scipio, and Theresa Randle

Bad Boys for Life is a 2020 American action, crime, and buddy cop film directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, better known as “Adil & Bilall.”  It is the third entry in the Bad Boys film series, which began with 1995's Bad Boys, and it is a sequel to Bad Boys II (2003).  In Bad Boys for Life, Detectives Lowrey and Burnett, the “Bad Boys,” face off against a mysterious killer whose campaign of revenge is centered on Lowrey.

Bad Boys for Life opens in Mexico at the Santa Maria Ixcotel Prison.  There, Isabel Aretas (Kate del Castillo) escapes with the help of her son, Armando (Jacob Scipio).  Isabel is the son of the late cartel kingpin, Benito Aretas, and she wants revenge against the men who helped take down her husband twenty-four years ago.  Armando, a highly-skilled criminal, savvy fighter, and vicious killer, is the instrument of her revenge.

One of those men is Detective Lt. Michael “Mike” Lowrey (Will Smith), and Armando comes close to killing him.  Mike is a hard man to keep down, and he wants payback.  His boss, Captain Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano), wants Mike to let a new, tech-driven police unit, called “AMMO” (Advance Miami Metro Operations), hunt the shooter.  Mike doesn't like that, especially as his former girlfriend, Lieutenant Rita Secada (Paolo Nunez), is head of AMMO.  Even worse, Mike's longtime partner, Det. Lt. Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence), has retired and wants to stay that way.  But when things get worse, will the Bad Boys be forced to unite for one last ride?

I still laugh at the fact that the film that became 1995's Bad Boys was originally written for actor-comedians, Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz.  Bad Boys would go on to become a signature entry in the filmographies of both eventual Oscar-winning actor, Will Smith (King Richard), and Martin Lawrence, who would go on to star in such films as Big Momma's House (2000) and Wild Hogs (2007).  The duo eventually reunited for 2003's Bad Boys II.  Because the fourth entry in the Bad Boys series, Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024), is about to be released, I decided to go back and watch and review the one film in the franchise that I had not seen in its entirety, Bad Boys for Life (2020).

A close friend told me that he thought Bad Boys for Life was bad.  I did find the first hour to be rather poorly developed.  After all, Lowrey and Burnett seem pretty slow in figuring out that the shootings of Lowrey and others are obviously related.  All these veteran cops and young, smart, new-school law enforcement are working on this case, and they are as clueless as can be.

However, in the film's second hour, directors Adil & Bilall make the most of their creative cohorts, especially their stunt coordinators, lighting department, and film editors in order to deliver a film that is fast-paced and slickly violent.  The filmmakers also bring out all of the colors and life in both the Miami and Mexican locations  Adil & Bilall do their best to summon the spirit of Michael Bay, the director of the first two films.  I wonder what he thought of the new directors' homage to his style.  I must say that Adil & Bilall eschew Bay's over-the-top theatrics for a slick visual, action style that is more focused on the characters than on sweeping shots and a deafening score and soundtrack.

In some ways, Bad Boys for Life is this series' best entry.  Yes, Martin Lawrence looks a little pudgy in the face, but his comic timing and humor eventual rev up.  Will Smith still looks lithesome and on the edge.  While it starts clunky, Bad Boys for Life doesn't show its age, but it does show that – surprisingly – there is still life in these cinematic bad boys.

7 of 10

B+

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Saturday, June 1, 2024

NOTES:

2021 Image Awards (NAACP):  1 win: “Outstanding Motion Picture” and 1 nomination: “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (Will Smith)

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Review: "TENET" May Have Been 2020's Best Film

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 39 of 2023 (No. 1928) by Leroy Douresseaux

Tenet (2020)

Running time:  150 minutes (2 hours, 30 minutes)

MPA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some suggestive references and brief strong language

WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Christopher Nolan

PRODUCERS:  Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Hoyte Van Hoytema (D.o.P.)

EDITOR:  Jennifer Lame

COMPOSER:  Ludwig Goransson

Academy Award winner

SCI-FI/ACTION/SPY

Starring:  John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Dimple Kapadia, Himesh Patel, Denzil Smith, Yuri Kolokolnikov, Clémency Poséy, Fiona Dourif, Laurie Shepherd, Martin Donovan, and Kenneth Branagh and Michael Caine

Tenet is a 2020 science fiction, secret agent, and action-thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan.  The film, Nolan's eleventh as a director, is a co-production between the United Kingdom and the United States.  Tenet focuses on a CIA operative on a mission to save the world, armed with only one word, “Tenet.”

Tenet introduces a CIA operative known only as "The Protagonist" (John David Washington).  The Protagonist leads a covert CIA extraction during a staged terrorist siege at the National Opera House in Kyiv., Ukraine.  After he is injured and the mission goes badly, the Protagonist is recruited by a secretive organization known only by the word, “Tenet.”  He is told that with a gesture, Tenet can “open the right doors and the wrong doors.”

He is briefed about bullets with “inverted” entropy that move backwards through time.  It seems that the man who possesses the technology to invert entropy is a Russian oligarch named Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh).  The technology has been given to Sator from mysterious forces in the future, and those forces are also sending Sator the pieces of something called the “Algorithm,” which is a threat to the present world.

Suddenly, the Protagonist finds himself surrounded by a menagerie of people he cannot quite trust or really know.  That includes the Mumbai-based arms dealer, Priya Singh (Dimple Kapadia), and Sator's estranged and abused wife, Katherine “Kat” Barton (Elizabeth Debicki).  Another is Ives (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a Tenet military commander.  Most mysterious of all is Neil (Robert Pattinson), who is supposed to be the Protagonist's “handler” from Tenet, and Neil seems to know the Protagonist in ways he does not know Neil.  Now, the Protagonist must uncover the secrets of inversion, the secrets of the Algorithm, and perhaps, even the secrets of himself.

Christopher Nolan gained many fans for his series of films starring DC Comics' Batman, known as “The Dark Knight Trilogy”: Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).  However, Tenet is closer to Nolan's films such as Memento (2000), Insomnia (2002), The Prestige (2006), and Inception (2010), which, like Tenet, have some combination of complex plots and character time lines, ambiguous elements, and cleverly hidden details that are open to many theories and interpretations.

Tenet freely plays with the themes of free will and determinism.  Do people really have free will, or is it better that people think that they have free will?  In the end, I think the narrative ultimately decides that free will and determinism are compatible, which is one of many reasons that I love this film.  Many secret agent and spy films offer the illusion that the hero (or the protagonist) is in control.  From the first movie in Eon Productions' “James Bond film series, Dr No (1962), the hero, James Bond, seems to have a measure of control or at least force of will to save the day or often, the world.  One can say the same of Universal Pictures' “Jason Bourne” film series.  It starts with The Bourne Identity (2002), and Matt Damon's Jason Bourne seems to exert free will all the more with each film, although his fate was determined and settled before the narrative of the first film begins.  In Tenet, free will is a work in progress, exercised within the settled plots of determinism.

I love Tenet's cast.  Either The Protagonist was tailor-made for actor John David Washington, or he was the perfect casting.  I feel the same way about Robert Pattison's Neil, and Kenneth Branagh is such a fine actor that he can make any role seem like a real person.  Elizabeth Debicki, honestly, is Oscar-worthy as Kat Barton, and Dimple Kapadia adds a delightful flavor as Priya Singh.  Aaron Taylor-Johnson is all fire, menace, and masculinity as Ives.

I had not seen a Christopher Nolan film since Inception, although I'd planned to see Tenet in a theater.  However, I was really wary of returning to movie theaters during the 2020 year of COVID-19 movie theater shutdowns, even after they reopened.  In a way, that worked out.  I got to savor Tenet on DVD as a way of prepping for eventually seeing his most recent film, Oppenheimer.

I like Tenet's trippy, surreal, time-shifting, inscrutable nature, and I like that Nolan is willing both to throw out a lot of ideas and to engage them.  For me, it is mysterious, a mystery worth losing myself in every chance I get.  As far as my opinion is concerned, Tenet is Christopher Nolan's best, most imaginative, and truly most inventive film.

10 of 10

Sunday, August 27, 2023

NOTES:

2021 Academy Awards, USA:   1 win: “Best Achievement in Visual Effects” (Andrew Jackson, David Lee, Andrew Lockley, and Scott R. Fisher); 1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Production Design”

{Nathan Crowley-production design and Kathy Lucas-set decoration)

2021 BAFTA Awards:  1 win: “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (Scott R. Fisher, Andrew Jackson, and Andrew Lockley)

2021 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Ludwig Göransson)

2021 Black Reel Awards:  2 nominations: “Outstanding Cinematography” (Hoyte Van Hoytema) and 1 nomination: “Outstanding Production Design” (Nathan Crowley)

The text is copyright © 2023 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "SYNCHRONIC" is a Fresh and Intriguing Take on Time Travel Movies

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 24 of 2022 (No. 1836) by Leroy Douresseaux

Synchronic (2020)
Running time:  102 minutes (1 hour, 42 minutes)
MPAA – R for drug content and language throughout, and for some violent/bloody images
DIRECTORS:  Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead
WRITER:  Justin Benson
PRODUCERS:  Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, David Lawson Jr., and Michael Mendelsohn
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Aaron Moorhead
EDITORS:  Justin Benson, Michael Felker, and Aaron Moorhead
COMPOSER:  Jimmy LaValle

SCI-FI/DRAMA

Starring:  Anthony Mackie, Jamie Dornan, Ally Ioannides, Katie Aselton, and Ramiz Monsef

Synchronic is a 2020 science fiction and drama film directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, also known as the team of Benson & Moorhead.  The film focuses on two paramedics who encounter a series of bizarre accidents and inexplicable deaths that are tied to a mysterious new designer drug, which has otherworldly side effects on its users.

Synchronic is set in New Orleans, Louisiana.  It introduces two paramedics, Steve Denube (Anthony Mackie) and Dennis Dannelly (Jamie Dornan), who are also longtime friends.  They begin to receive a series of emergency calls that turn out to be unusual or inexplicable.  In a hotel room, they find a young woman suffering from the bite of an Eastern diamondback rattlesnake, which is not native to Louisiana.  At a domestic abuse call, they find a man who has apparently been stabbed with something like a sword, and they later find an old sword embedded in the wall of another room.  At these emergency calls, Steve usually finds an empty package for a new designer drug known as “Synchronic.”

After being injured on the job, Steve, a sexually active ladies' man, has a routine blood test.  It reveals that he has a brain tumor near his pineal gland, which is unusually underdeveloped and non-calcified for a man his age.

Dennis is married to Tara (Kate Aselton) and has two children, including a now 18-year-old daughter, Brianna (Ally Ioannides).  Responding to an overdose call, Steve and Dennis find a dead boy and an intoxicated girl who tells them that Brianna was at their party.  Steve and Dennis can't find her, but Steve does find an empty Synchronic package near where Brianna was supposed to be sitting.  Investigating Synchronic, Steve learns that it alters the perception of time and can even allow some people to time travel.  Now, Steve begins the journey of a lifetime in hopes of finding Brianna somewhere in time before he runs out of time.

Synchronic is a modestly-budgeted independent film.  It is also a high-concept science fiction film based on the fantastic concept of a street drug that can allow humans – to one extent or another – experience time travel or time displacement.  I think the budget is what keeps this film from really flying with this concept.  Don't get me wrong, dear readers.  Benson & Moorhead take their audience to some interesting places in the past, and I imagine that they could do even more with this concept if it were a television/streaming series or miniseries.  I can say that they are definitely not shy about depicting how treacherous New Orleans was for a Black man in the past and even now.

To that end, Anthony Mackie gives a performance that is bigger than this film.  In fact, no element sells Synchronic's ideas and plots better than Mackie's performance.  The script kind of relegates Jamie Dornan to the sidelines, although Dennis Dannelly is surrounded by some intriguing family melodrama.  However, it is Mackie as Steve who does the heavy lifting and convinces the audience that Synchronic the drug and its amazing effects are an actual thing.

So this is my way of saying that Synchronic should not be lost to time.  Benson & Moorhead have created a concept that could be … dare I say it... timeless.  Honestly, I only decided to watch this film after learning that this duo was directing two episodes of the Disney+/Marvel Studios six-episode series, “Moon Knight.”  Now, I'm just glad I watched it, and I recommend it to film fans and movie lovers looking for offbeat, indie sci-film films.  And I hope for more in the world of Synchronic.

7 of 10
B+
★★★½ out of 4 stars

Thursday, April 21, 2022


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Review: "JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK: Apokolips War" - As Endings Go, This One is Good

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 8 of 2022 (No. 1820) by Leroy Douresseaux

Justice League Dark: Apokolips War – video (2020)
Running time:  90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)
MPAA – R for bloody violence, language, and some sexual references
DIRECTORS:  Matt Peters and Christina Sotter
WRITERS:  Ernie Altbacker and Mairghread Scott; from a story by Mairghread Scott (based on characters appearing in DC Comics)
PRODUCER:  Amy McKenna
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Sam Register and James Tucker
EDITOR:  Christopher D. Lozinski
COMPOSER:  Frederik Wiedmann
ANIMATION STUDIO:  Tiger Animation

ANIMATION/SUPERHERO/ACTION/FANTASY

Starring:  (voices) Matt Ryan, Camilla Luddington, Taissa Farmiga, Jerry O'Connell, Rebecca Romijn, Rosario Dawson, Jason O'Mara, Stuart Allen, Hynden Walch, Rainn Wilson, Liam McIntyre, Ray Chase, John DiMaggio, Roger Cross, Shemar Moore, Christopher Gorham, and Tony Todd

Justice League Dark: Apokolips War is a 2020 straight-to-video animated superhero film from Warner Bros. Animation.  It is the thirty-eighth film in Warner Home Video's line of “DC Universe Animated Original Movies.”  This film features the marquee DC Comics superhero teams:  Justice League, Teen Titans, and Suicide Squad.  The title of the movie references the supernatural-leaning version of the Justice League, the “Justice League Dark.”  In Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, the Earth's remaining superheroes engage in an epic battle to save what is left of Earth from Darkseid.

As Justice League Dark: Apokolips War opens, Superman (Jerry O'Connell) has devised a plan in which the Justice League will lead a first-strike attack on the all-powerful New God, Darkseid (Tony Todd), who has made two failed attempts at conquering Earth.  The plan is also for the Teen Titans to stay behind and protect the planet.  Unfortunately for the heroes of Earth, Darkseid has learned of their plans and overwhelms them with his “Paradooms,” a genetic hybrid creature made from combination of Darkseid's Parademons and Doomsday, the alien creature that once “killed” Superman.

Two years later, Earth is in ruins, and Darkseid has placed three devices, known as “Reapers,” on Earth to mine the planet's core of its magma.  Some superheroes, such as Cyborg (Shemar Moore), Wonder Woman (Rosario Dawson), and Batman (Jason O'Mara), are now Darkseid's slaves.  Many of the surviving heroes blame Clark Kent/Superman for leading them into failure, and worse, Superman has been forcibly de-powered after Darkseid tattooed his chest with liquid kryptonite.  Still, the Man of Steel has not given up on saving Earth.

Supeman and Lois Lane (Rebecca Romijn) have hatched a new plan to stop Darkseid.  Clark recruits the remaining Teen Titans, Damian Wayne/Robin (Stuart Allen) and Raven (Taissa Farmiga), who is struggling to maintain her father, Trigon's (John DiMaggio) imprisonment.  But everything may hinge on the troublesome con man and sorcerer, John Constantine (Matt Ryan).

Within the “DC Universe Animated Original Movies,” there is the “DC Animated Movie Universe.”  The line began in 2013 with the straight-to-video release of Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox and is comprised of 15 feature length films.  The point of the “DC Animated Movie Universe” was to make animated films that were loosely based on “The New 52.”  Started in 2011, “The New 52” was the publishing initiative in which DC Comics relaunched its entire line of superhero comic books.

Justice League Dark: Apokolips War is the last film in the “DC Animated Movie Universe.”  That factoid is second in importance to the fact that Justice League Dark: Apokolips War is a really good DC Comics animated film.  The film probably uses the “Justice League Dark” title rather than simply “Justice League” because of the tone of the story and because, in many ways, John Constantine, the star of 2017's Justice League Dark animated film, is the lynch pin of Apokolips War.

Justice League Dark: Apokolips War takes the viewers in some inventive and intriguing directions in regards to characters, relationships, and mythologies.  The film offers a surprising amount of emotionally fulfilling character drama and arcs, including the usual Lois Lane and Clark Kent relationship.  However, John Constantine and Zatanna (Camilla Luddington) offer a poignant pairing, but the most surprising is the romance between Damian Wayne and Raven.  They're good enough to be the stars of their own animated film.

The surprising turns and compelling directions in which this film travels are matched by some high quality animation, a strong script, and some surprisingly lean and mean directing.  Such a large cast and so many subplots could have dragged on Apokolips War.  Instead, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War is an exciting and riveting film, and it is a great way to end one universe in the DC Comics multiverse.

8 of 10
A

Wednesday, August 18, 2021


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Review: "SUPERMAN: Red Son" is an Entertaining Novelty Film

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 68 of 2021 (No. 1806) by Leroy Douresseaux

Superman: Red Son – video (2020)
Running time:  87 minutes (1 hour, 27 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for violent content, bloody images, suggestive material, language, thematic elements and some smoking.
DIRECTOR:  Sam Liu
WRITERS:  J.M. DeMatteis (based on characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics)
PRODUCERS:  Sam Liu and Amy McKenna
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Sam Register and Bruce Timm
EDITOR:  Christopher D. Lozinski
COMPOSER:  Frederik Wiedmann  
ANIMATION STUDIO:  Digital eMation, Inc.

ANIMATION/SUPERHERO/ACTION/FANTASY

Starring:  (voices) Jason Isaacs, Amy Acker, Diedrich Bader, Vanessa Marshall, Phil Morris, Paul Williams, Greg Chun, Phil LeMarr, Jim Meskimen, Sasha Roiz, William Salyers, Roger Craig Smith, Jason Spisak, Tara Strong, Anna Vocino, Jim Ward, Travis Willingham, and Winter Ave Zoli

Superman: Red Son is a 2020 straight-to-video animated superhero film from Warner Bros. Animation and director Sam Liu.  It is the thirty-seventh film in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series.  The film is based on the 2003, four-issue, comic book miniseries, Superman: Red Son, written by Mark Millar and drawn by Dave Johnson and Kilian Plunkett.

The traditional origin of Superman is as follows.  A rocket ship from the doomed planet, Krypton, carries baby Kal-El to Earth.  It lands in the United States, specifically in a field near the town of Smallville, Kansas.  Jonathan and Martha Kent find the rocket and Kal-El inside.  They adopt him and name him “Clark Kent,” and Clark grows up to be Superman.  The premise of Superman: Red Son is that the rocket ship landed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) a.k.a. the Soviet Union.

Superman: Red Son opens in the Soviet Union during the year 1946.  There, we meet a young boy who is being chased by a gang of bullies.  The boy's friend, a young girl named Svetlana, defends him by chasing the bullies away.  The boy reveals to Svetlana that he was not scared of the boys, but that he was instead scared for their safety.  The boy then reveals to Svetlana his superhuman strength and his ability to fly.

In the year 1955, the Soviet Union releases a propaganda film of an alien superhuman under the command of the nation's premiere, Joseph Stalin.  The American media dubs the alien, the “Soviet Superman” (Jason Isaacs).  In the United States, President Dwight D. Eisenhower (Jim Meskimen) tasks genius scientist, industrialist, and inventor, Lex Luthor (Diedrich Bader), to develop countermeasures against this Soviet Superman.

After the Soviet Superman prevents a satellite from crashing into the American city of Metropolis, Luthor's wife, Lois Lane Luthor (Amy Acker), secures an interview with him.  Lois uses the interview to reveal to him a top secret document that indicates the horrors Premiere Stalin perpetuates against some citizens of the Soviet Union behind Superman's back.  This leads to changes in the nature of Superman's relationship with the Soviet Union and also with the world at large.  Now, a Cold War between Superman and the United States begins, with Lex guiding the U.S. side.  Can the world survive Superman's goals and Lex Luthor's machinations?

The novelty of Superman: Red Son is that it offers alternate-reality versions of not only Superman, Lex Luthor, and Lois Lane, but also of Batman, the Green Lantern Corps, and Wonder Woman (Vanessa Marshall).  However, the novelty soon wears off, and Superman: Red Son's gimmick grow old and cold rather quickly.

Luckily, Superman, Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, and Wonder Woman are so well-written in terms of personality and character drama that I found myself fascinated by the inter-character relationships involving these four.  Beyond that, I was initially fascinated by the film, but felt less so after the first half hour.

I have never read Mark Millar's original comic book, Superman: Red Son, but I have been planning to for ages, although I keep putting it off.  I am a huge fan of the majority of Millar's comic book output.  Superman: Red Son has its moments, but after seeing it, now, I really need to read the comic book.

6 of 10
B

Wednesday, September 29, 2021


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Review: "Nomadland" is Frances McDormand's Land

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 64 of 2021 (No. 1802) by Leroy Douresseaux

Nomadland (2020)
Running time:  104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – R for some full nudity.
DIRECTOR:  Chloé Zhao
WRITER:  Chloé Zhao (based on the non-fiction book by Jessica Bruder)
PRODUCERS:  Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, and Chloé Zhao
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Joshua James Richards (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Chloé Zhao
COMPOSER:  Ludovico Einaudi
Academy Award winner including “Best Picture”

DRAMA

Starring:  Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Linda May, Charlene Swankie, and Bob Wells

Nomadland is a 2020 drama film directed by Chloé Zhao.  The film is an adaptation of the 2017 nonfiction book, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, by author Jessica Bruder.  Nomadland the film depicts the real-world phenom of “nomads” people who live as transients, traveling around the United States and living in motor vehicles (“vandwelling”).  The film portrays this through the eyes of a woman who leaves her hometown to live as a vandwelling working nomad.

Nomadland opens sometime in 2011.  Sixty-something Fern (Frances McDormand) recently lost her job after the “US Gypsum Corporation” plant in Empire, Nevada shut down.  Fern had worked there for years along with her husband, who recently died.  Empire, a company town of US Gypsum, basically becomes a ghost town as almost everyone leaves after the jobs disappear.

Fern decides to sell most of her belongings and purchases a van, which she names “Vanguard.”  It becomes her new home.  Fran travel the country searching for work, sometimes working at an Amazon fulfillment center.  When she isn't at Amazon, Fern embarks on a journey through the American West, a modern-day nomad, living in her van.  Is this her new life or is it just a temporary state?

It has been noted that a number of real-life nomads and vandwellers appear as themselves in Nomadland, especially of note, Bob Wells, one of the best known proponents of vandwelling.  However, Nomadland, despite its title, is not so much about nomads and vandwelling as it is about Fern's journey.  The film's writer-director Chloe Zhao chronicles Fern's evolution from someone who becomes a vandweller out of necessity into someone who seems to fully embrace the life of a nomad.

In that, I can see why McDormand would go on to win the Academy Award for “Best Actress” for her performance as Fern.  McDormand creates in Fern a character that seems so real that I found myself believing that Fern was a real person.  This certainly helps to sell the docudrama mode Zhao sometimes adopts to tell particular chapters of this film.  In a career filled with virtuoso performances, Nomadland presents one of McDormand's very best.  Although the film does have another professional actor, David Strathairn, playing a character named “Dave,” a nomad who falls in love with Fern.  However, Strathairn and his character seem like a sapling trying to stay rooted in the hurricane that is McDormand's performance.

Nomadland is poetic and poignant; sometimes, it is poignant to the point of being too sorrowful to watch.  The film captures the restlessness in Fern, and its director captures the precariousness of Fern's new lifestyle.  Nomadland is about Fern's journey and life in Nomadland.  The “nomadland” and its nomads, are there to serve the purpose of her story.  If the film's title were more honest, it would be entitled “Fern” or “Fern in Nomadland.”  Nomadland is like a series of vignettes about Fern more than it is an actual story about something.

Still, Nomadland is a powerful character study that is successful because it is in the hands of both a powerful actress, Frances McDormand, and highly-skilled film director, Chloe Zhao, who can create multiple layers within the story of a character.  Nomadland reminds me of director Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980).  People see it as a great film, while I see it as a good, but meandering film that has built a great reputation largely on a truly great, generational performance by by its leading man, Robert DeNiro (who also won the “Best Actor” Oscar for this role).  Nomadland is a really good, but meandering film that has built a great reputation on...

As a character study, Nomadland is an exceptional film, but it has no larger meaning beyond being an exceptionally well-made film.  Nomadland is one of those film's that will make some people ask, “What's the point of this?”  Art for art's sake? Oscar bait? – I couldn't really answer that question.  However, I will give Nomadland a higher grade than I gave Raging Bull.

8 of 10
A

Sunday, October 31, 2021


NOTES:
2021 Academy Awards, USA:  3 wins: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, and Chloé Zhao), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Frances McDormand), and “Best Achievement in Directing” (Chloé Zhao); 3 nominations: “Best Adapted Screenplay” (Chloé Zhao), “Best Achievement in Film Editing” (Chloé Zhao), and “Best Achievement in Cinematography” (Joshua James Richards)

2021 BAFTA Awards:  4 wins: “Best Film” (Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, and Chloé Zhao), “Best Leading Actress” (Frances McDormand), “Best Director” (Chloé Zhao), and “Best Cinematography” (Joshua James Richards); 3 nominations: “Best Screenplay-Adapted” (Chloé Zhao), “Best Sound” (Sergio Diaz, Zach Seivers, and Mike Wolf Snyder), and “Best Editing” Chloé Zhao)

2021 Golden Globes, USA:  2 wins: “Best Motion Picture – Drama” and “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Chloé Zhao); 2 nominations: “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Chloé Zhao) and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Frances McDormand)


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Review: "NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS" is Timely, Could Be Timeless

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 52 of 2021 (No. 1790) by Leroy Douresseaux

Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)
Running time: 91 minutes (1 hour, 31 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for disturbing/mature thematic content, language, some sexual references and teen drinking
WRITER-DIRECTOR:  Eliza Hittman
PRODUCERS:  Adele Romanski and Sara Murphy
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Hélène Louvart
EDITOR:  Scott Cummings
COMPOSER:  Julia Holter

DRAMA

Starring:  Sidney Flanigan, Talia Ryder, and Théodore Pellerin

[The Texas six-week abortion ban, SB8, went into effect today, as I write this (Wed., September 1, 2021), and that makes Eliza Hittman's acclaimed film, “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” timely 20 months after its debut at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.]

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a 2020 British-American drama from writer-director Eliza Hittman.  The film focuses on a rural Pennsylvania teenager who, seeking an abortion, embarks on a fraught journey to New York City in order to get one.  Oscar-winning filmmaker, Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), is one of the film's executive producers.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always introduces 17-year-old Autumn Callahan (Sidney Flanigan), who lives with her family in rural Ellensboro, Pennsylvania.  Autumn suspects that she is pregnant and goes to the Ellensboro Women's Clinic.  There, she takes a test that confirms that she is pregnant – 10 weeks pregnant according to a woman who works at the clinic.

After learning that she is unable to get an abortion in Pennsylvania without parental consent, Autumn confides in her cousin, Skylar (Talia Ryder), that she is pregnant.  Autumn and Skylar buy two bus tickets and travel to New York City where Autumn can have an abortion with parental consent.   The journey, however, is fraught with complications, including the fact that the girls have little cash and have no place to stay in the city.  And getting an abortion is not as easy, nor will it be as quick, as Autumn thought.

Roe v. Wade (1973) is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision.  The Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction, and, in the process, struck down many U.S. federal and state abortion laws.  However, beginning with Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989), the Supreme Court essentially began allowing states to impose restrictions and regulations on a woman's right to have an abortion.  In the ensuing four decades, some of the restrictions placed by states can rightly be called “excessive,” to one extent or another.

That is the context in which Never Rarely Sometimes Always exists.  Autumn and Skylar embark on a fraught journey from small town Pennsylvania to New York City, knowing no one, not having a place to stay, and lacking adequate money so that Autumn can have an abortion.  And Autumn must face having this serious medical procedure as a minor, unsure of what support that she would get from her mother and (apparent) stepfather.

What hangs over this powerful drama is that Autumn is exposing herself and Skylar to danger because the state in which she lives, Pennsylvania, can place multiple restrictions on what is supposed to be a Constitutionally guaranteed right.  In theory, Autumn should have relatively easy access to safe medical care in her home state, yet what she does have in her home town is access to medical care, in which the facility's agenda takes priority over her health and well being and her choices.

In Never Rarely Sometimes Always, writer-director Eliza Hittman is advocating for abortion rights and access, yet she does all her preaching in a film that essentially has two parts.  The first is the story of a teenage girl facing a crisis, and the second part is a kind of dark New York adventure in which the young heroes must, by hook or crook, stay safe in order to enjoy a triumph – even if they cannot really celebrate such a triumph – Autumn getting her abortion.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always takes its title from the multiple choice answers that Autumn can give to a series of questions about her sex life asked by an abortion counselor.  It is in that moment, when Autumn struggles to answer, that Hittman depicts the reality that there is complexity behind a woman or girl's decision to seek an abortion.  It isn't simply about having an “abortion-on-demand.”

Suddenly, Never Rarely Sometimes Always is not so much an argument between anti-choice and pro-choice, nor is it simply about the states and their varying degrees of access to a safe and legal abortion.  Never Rarely Sometimes Always is, at that moment, a story about a teenage girl who faces alone the trouble she did not create by herself.

9 of 10
A+

Wednesday, September 1, 2021


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Review: The Fabulous Lightfoot Brothers Carry "Onward"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 39 of 2021 (No. 1777) by Leroy Douresseaux

Onward (2020)
Running time:  102 minutes (1 hour, 42 minutes)
MPAA –  PG for action/peril and some mild thematic elements
DIRECTOR:  Dan Scanlon
WRITERS:  Dan Scanlon, Keith Bunin, and Jason Headley
PRODUCER:  Kori Rae
CINEMATOGRAPHERS:  Sharon Calahan (D.o.P.) and Adam Habib (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Catherine Apple
COMPOSERS: Jeff Danna and Mycheal Danna
Academy Award nominee

ANIMATION/FANTASY/ADVENTURE/COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring:  (voices) Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Octavia Spencer, Mel Rodriguez, Kyle Bornheimer, Lena Waithe, Ali Wong, Tracey Ullman, Wilmer Valderrama, George Psarras, and John Ratzenberger

Onward is a 2020 computer-animated, comedy-drama, and fantasy film from director Dan Scanlon and is produced by Pixar Animation Studios.  Onward focuses on two elf brothers who embark on a quest to bring their late father back to life for one day.

Onward is set in an urban fantasy world that is inhabited by mythic creatures such as elves, centaurs, and pixies, to name a few.  Once upon a time, magic was common place, but over several millennia, technological advances made magic obsolete and largely discarded.  The story opens on the sixteenth birthday of an elf boy named Ian Lightfoot (Tom Holland), who is shy and struggles with self-confidence.  He has an older brother, Barley (Chris Pratt), an enthusiastic role-playing gamer and fanatic about both the history of the world and about magic.  The boys live with their mother, Laurel Lightfoot (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a widow.

Laurel's late husband and the boys' father, Wilden Lightfoot (Kyle Bornheimer), died shortly before Ian was born.  For Ian's sixteenth birthday, Laurel gives both her boys a gift from Wilden.  The gift is a magical wizard staff, a rare Phoenix gem, and a letter describing a magical spell.  It is a “visitation spell” that can resurrect Wilden for a single day, and while Ian succeeds in casting the spell, he is unable to finish it.  As a result, Ian has summoned the lower half of Wilden's body.  Ian and Barley take their father (such as he is) and embark on a quest to complete the spell.  However, the brothers' quest is more dangerous than they know.  It will take Laurel; her boy friend, Colt Bronco the centaur (Mel Rodriguez); and a legendary figure, The Manticore (Octavia Spencer) to make sure that the brothers' quest to meet their deceased father does not end with them being deceased.

I don't want this review to spoil Onward if you have not yet seen it, dear readers.  I can say that one of the film's main themes is that people are often looking hard for something they already have.  Another theme is that sometimes we blame people for the mistakes we think they are making when it is really our lack of trust in them that leads to trouble.  And of course, the themes of relationships between brothers and of brotherly love dominate this film.

Ian and Barley carry this film, and Onward's off-beat, quest fantasy, role-playing game design and mood/mode keep the film from being just another tale of brotherly love.  In fact, the first forty minutes of the film are quite problematic, but once the film gets to the heart of the matter – Ian and Barley's quest and each brother's reason for the quest – Onward comes alive.  While Onward is not a Pixar classic, it does make strong use of the Pixar's formula of comedy, adventure, heartwarming relationship drama, and an emphasis on getting to the heart of the story.

I would never waste your time telling your that a Pixar film has magnificent animation, great colors, eye-popping environments, and striking graphics and visuals, in general.  I will say, as usual, that the voice performances are good.  I really like that Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Laurel and Octavia Spencer as “The Manticore” actually have important roles in both the drama and the action-adventure, and these two fine actress shine in their supporting roles.  Is it fate or magic that Tom Holland as Ian and Chris Pratt as Barley have … magical screen chemistry?

If not for the first half of the film, I would call Onward a Pixar classic.  As it is, it is still the kind of exceptional film that we expect of Pixar and, except for some missteps, they deliver.  And yes, I did find the world of Onward to be a bit odd, even weird, although Jeff Danna and Mycheal Danna's musical score is pitch perfect for this world.  Still, one of the highest compliments I can give a film is that by the end of it, I still wanted to watch more.  The way that the relationship between Ian and Barley plays out is something worth watching.  So I am recommending Onward.

8 of 10
A

Thursday, June 10, 2021


NOTES:
2021 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Animated Feature Film” (Dan Scanlon and Kori Rae)

2021 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Motion Picture - Animated”

2021 BAFTA Awards:  1 nomination: “Best Animated Feature Film” (Dan Scanlon and Kori Rae)


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Review: "WONDER WOMAN 1984" Means Well, But is Stupid

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 37 of 2021 (No. 1775) by Leroy Douresseaux

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
Running time:  151 minutes (2 hours, 31 minutes)
MPAA – PG - 13 for sequences of action and violence
DIRECTOR:  Patty Jenkins
WRITERS:  Patty Jenkins, Geoff Johns, and Dave Callahan; from a story by Patty Jenkins and Geoff Johns (based on characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics and created by William Moulton Marston)
PRODUCERS:  Charles Roven, Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder, Patty Jenkins, Gal Gadot, and Stephen Jones
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Matthew Jensen (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Richard Pearson
COMPOSER:  Hans Zimmer

SUPERHERO/FANTASY

Starring:  Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Connie Nielsen, Robin Wright, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Lucian Perez, Kristoffer Polaha, Natasha Rothwell, Ravi Patel, Oliver Cotton, Lilly Aspell, and Lynda Carter

Wonder Woman 1984 is a 2020 superhero fantasy film from director Patty Jenkins.  The film stars the DC Comics superhero, Wonder Woman, who first appeared in All Star Comics #8 (1941) and was created by writer William Moulton Marston (with artist Harry George Peter).  It is a direct sequel to 2017's Wonder Woman and is also the ninth film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) film series.  In Wonder Woman 1984, our titular hero must battle a colleague and a businessman whose desire to have everything they ever wanted and much more could destroy the world.

Wonder Woman 1984 opens on the island of Themyscira, the home of the Amazons.  There, young Diana (Lilly Aspell) is trying to be the most accomplished Amazon.  In an athletic event against older Amazons, young Diana must also learn an important lesson about getting what she wants.

The story moves to 1984.  Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) works cultural anthropology and archaeology at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.  Secretly, Diana is also the superhero known as “Wonder Woman.”  At work, Diana meets and eventually befriends a new museum employee, Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig), a shy woman whose professions are geology, gemology, and lithology, in addition to being a cryptozoologist.  Barbara is barely seen by her co-workers, and she comes to envy Diana, whose radiance draws people to her.

One day, the FBI asks the museum to identify some stolen antiquities, and among them is a mysterious item, a “citrine” that turns out to be called the “Dreamstone.”  Also interested in this item is a failing businessman, Maxwell “Max” Lord (Pedro Pascal), who believes that the stone has “wish-granting” powers that can both save his failing oil company, “the Black Gold Cooperative,” and make him the powerful man he has always wanted to be.  No one really understands how dangerous the Dreamstone can be, even Diana, who gets her deceased lover, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), back into her life.

I like that Wonder Woman 1984 deals with such themes as immediate gratification, getting things the easy way without working for it, cheating to get what you want, and the desire to have something before you are ready to have it.  However, it is the execution of these themes that is problematic.  For a film that beats viewers over the head with the idea that it is bad to get whatever you wish for, Wonder Woman 1984 is filled with magical thinking.  This film's story is illogical, nonsensical, silly, and full of pretty pictures while being largely empty and devoid of substance.

Having Steve Trevor's spirit possess the body of an actual living man and control it is a horrible idea.  Supposedly, co-writer/director Patty Jenkins says that the Trevor subplot is a reference to the body-switching trope found in films like Freaky Friday: The Movie (1976) and Big (1988).  If true, this explanation is lame.  Having Wonder Woman basically hold a man hostage so that she can use his body to play kissy-face with her dead lover's spirit does not seem like something Wonder Woman would actually do.  I won't go into the non-consensual element of this relationship...

However, that is just one element of the entire nonsense that is having Steve Trevor in this film.  In one sequence, it just happens to be the Fourth of July, which leads to Wonder Woman and Trevor stealing a conveniently located jet and flying through the clouds that are lit up by the holiday fireworks below.  Wonder Woman asks Trevor what makes flying as a pilot so special to him, and the dude says that it is because of the wind and the air...

I'm not even sure why this movie is called Wonder Woman 1984, as very little about that year really permeates this film.  1984 seems like nothing more than an arbitrary date, while calling this film “Wonder Woman: The Year of Schmaltz and Syrupy Sentiment” would seem more accurate.

Nothing epitomizes Wonder Woman 1984's nonsensical, trite, contrived nature than the “lead” villain, Max Lord.  Heaven knows that Pedro Pascal gives it his all in order to fill the vast emptiness that is Max, but even his acting skills can't save this bomb of a character.  Patty Jenkins and Geoff Johns' hackneyed script gives Max a child, Alistair (Lucian Perez), a pensive-faced waif who just loves his daddy no matter how much daddy ignores and minimizes him.  The presence of the child only emphasizes how lame Max Lord is.

The better villain is Kristen Wiig's Cheetah (who is not called that in the film), but the script relegates Barbara Minerva/Cheetah to side-piece status.  Minerva and Cheetah had the potential to be an excellent counter to Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, but no, the man-villain must be the center of attention.  Also, I'm pretty sure that Cheetah appears merely for licensing purposes – perhaps, as a hard-to-find, low-run, female action figure.

Just as she was the last time, Gal Gadot is gorgeous in this film, but whereas the Wonder Woman she played in the original film was so strong, independent, and fierce, the Wonder Woman of the sequel is a clueless broad who pines after the ghost of a long dead man.  Everything the heroine of this sequel does is either strange or thoughtless, and she puts herself and others in danger cause she's just gotta have her (dead) man!  Wonder Woman 1984 turns Gadot's Wonder Woman from historical in the first film to hysterical in the sequel.

The only reason that I am not giving Wonder Woman 1984 a grade of “D” or even of “F” is because I was so happy to see Lynda Carter, TV's Wonder Woman of the 1970s, in a mid end credits scene.  Yeah, that's a spoiler that I didn't warn you about, but hey, I am warning you about the rest of Wonder Woman 1984.  Now, dear readers, you can watch it while expecting much less of it than I did.

4 of 10
C

Thursday, April 8, 2021


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Review: Mads Mikkelsen is the Best Reason for "ANOTHER ROUND"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 35 of 2021 (No. 1773) by Leroy Douresseaux

Another Round (2020)
Original title: Druk (Denmark)
Running time:  117 minutes(1 hour, 57 minutes)
MPAA - not rated
DIRECTOR:  Thomas Vinterberg
WRITERS: Thomas Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm
PRODUCERS:  Kasper Dissing and Sisse Graum Jørgensen
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Sturla Brandth Grøvlen
EDITORS:  Janus Billeskov Jansen and Anne Østerud
Academy Award winner

DRAMA with elements of comedy

Starring:  Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang, Lars Ranthe, Maria Bonnevie, Magnus Sjørup, Silas Cornelius Van, and Susse Wold

Druk is a 2020 Danish drama film from director Thomas Vinterberg.  Druk is also known by its English title, Another Round, the title to which it will be referred in this review.  Although the film is an international co-production between Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden, Another Round won the “Best International Feature Film” Oscar at the recent 2021 / 93rd Academy Awards as a representative of Denmark.  Another Round focuses on four high school teachers who binge drink alcoholic beverages to see how it affects their lives and work.

Another Round opens in Denmark and introduces Martin (Mads Mikkelson), a middle-age high school teacher.  He is married to Anika (Maria Bonnevie), and they have two teenage sons, Jonas (Magnus Sjørup) and Kasper (Silas Cornelius Van).  Martin is a close friend of three of his colleagues:  Nikolaj (Magnus Millang), Peter (Lars Ranthe), and Tommy (Thomas Bo Larsen) at a gymnasium school in Copenhagen.  All four men struggle with unmotivated students, and each feels that his life has become boring and stale, especially Martin, who is the instructor for senior history.  In fact, his students and their parents are so concerned that he is not preparing them for their graduation exams that they meet with him.  Martin is also depressed because of troubles to his marriage to Anika.

At a dinner celebrating Nikolaj's 40th birthday, the four men begin to discuss Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skårderud (a real-life person).  The “Skårderud hypothesis” says that man is born with a deficit of 0.05% blood alcohol content (BAC).  A 0.05 BAC makes a person more creative and relaxed.  Thus, Nikolaj suggests that the four of them engage in an experiment to test the Skårderud hypothesis.  The experiment will involve the four of them consuming alcohol on a daily basis in order to make sure that their BAC should never be below 0.05.  The initial results are good, especially for Martin, but will flirting with alcoholism always yield good results?

If Danish actor Mads Mikkelson is not an international movie star, he should be.  He career includes appearances in several Danish Oscar-nominated foreign language films, besides Another Round, and those are After the Wedding (2006), A Royal Affair (2012), and The Hunt (2013).  He has also made appearances in some Hollywood big-budget event movies, including the James Bond movie, Casino Royale (2006); the remake, Clash of the Titans (2010); and Marvel Studios' Doctor Strange (2016), to name a few.

Mikkelson's Martin defines the themes of Another Round that deal with the midlife crisis, marital strife, family discord, and professional dissatisfaction.  His costars give good performances, but Mikkelson is the star here.  His nuanced and layered performance as a man in full midlife depression is radiant, and the story seems to lack quite a bit of energy whenever he is not on screen.

As films about midlife crises go, Another Round is enjoyable, and it is quaint compared to the lurid American Beauty (1999), a “Best Picture” Oscar winner that is as pretentious as it is salacious.  Truthfully, neither film really excites me, as I could give a crap about middle crises.  I can't see myself recommending Another Round except to Americans who enjoy “international films.”  Still, Another Round has Mikkelsen, and if it must be remembered, it should be remembered as an entry in his exceptional filmography.

7 of 10
B+

Tuesday, May 18, 2021


NOTES:
2021 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best International Feature Film” (Denmark) and 1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Directing” (Thomas Vinterberg)

2021 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination:  1 nomination: “Best Motion Picture - Foreign Language”

2021 BAFTA Awards:  1 win: “Best Film Not in the English Language” (Thomas Vinterberg, Sisse Graum Jørgensen, and Kasper Dissing); 3 nominations: “Best Leading Actor” (Mads Mikkelsen); “Best Screenplay-Original” (Tobias Lindholm and Thomas Vinterberg), and “Best Director” (Thomas Vinterberg)

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Review: "THE NEW MUTANTS" is the Final Stinker ... Finally

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 34 of 2021 (No. 1772) by Leroy Douresseaux

The New Mutants (2020)
Running time:  94 minutes (1 hour, 34 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for violent content, some disturbing/bloody images, some strong language, thematic elements and suggestive material
DIRECTOR:  Josh Boone
WRITERS:  Josh Boone and Knate Lee (based on the Marvel Comics characters)
PRODUCERS:  Simon Kinberg, Lauren Shuler Donner, and Karen Rosenfelt
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Peter Deming (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Andrew Buckland, Matthew Rundell, and Robb Sullivan
COMPOSER:  Mark Snow

SUPERHERO/HORROR/FANTASY/ACTION

Starring:  Blu Hunt, Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Henry Zaga, Alice Braga, Adam Beach, Thomas Kee, Colbi Gannett, and Happy Anderson

The New Mutants is a 2020 superhero movie from director Josh Boone.  It was 20th Century Fox’s thirteenth and final film film based on Marvel Comics’ X-Men comic book franchise.  The film uses comic book characters and stories created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Bob McLeod and Bill Sienkiewicz.  The New Mutants movie focuses on five young mutants held in a secret facility where they try to deal with their powers, pasts, and sins.

The New Mutants opens with Danielle “Dani” Moonstar (Blu Hunt), a young Cheyenne Native American, experiencing the devastation of her entire reservation by what seems to be an “F5” tornado.  After falling unconscious during the tornado, Dani awakens in an empty hospital room to find herself secured to a bed by restraining straps.

Dani soon meets Dr. Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga), who comforts Dani.  Dr. Reyes explains that Dani is not an ordinary human being, but is rather a “new mutant,” a mutant who is just awakening to her mutant abilities and powers.  Dr. Reyes also explains that Dani will be confined to this mysterious and unnamed medical facility until they discover what exactly Dani's mutant power is and also until Dani learns to control that power.

Dani is introduced to four other new mutants:  Sam (Charlie Heaton), Illyana (Anya Taylor-Joy), Roberto or “Bobby” (Henry Zaga), and Rahne Sinclair (Maisie Williams).  Rahne befriends Dani and the two set out to discover the secrets of both the facility and the identity of the mysterious entity (Essex Corporation) that controls it.  Dani discovers that she isn't the only one trying to escape the traumas of her past.  Will her mysterious power and her past, personified by a mythical creature called the “Demon Bear,” destroy not only Dani, but also the other new mutants.

Apparently, Josh Boone, the co-writer and director of The New Mutants,” described the film's same-sex love story and subplot between Dani and Rahne as “character-driven stuff.”  That pretty much describes the character drama and development in The New Mutants; it's all just stuff.  Dani and Rahne's gay-teen-puppy-love is actually sweet, and when The New Mutants focuses on that, the film is actually enjoyable.  All the other character-driven … stuff is the usual young adult tropes:  (lame) bullying; (lame) guilt, (lame) grief, and (lame) teen squabbling and conflict.  And the rotten cherry on top is Anya Taylor-Joy's awful, lazy, and deplorable Russian accent as Illyana.

I am a decades-long fan of The New Mutants, going back to the original Marvel Graphic Novel (written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Bob McLeod) in which the characters made their debut and to the first issue of their own comic book, The New Mutants #1 (cover dated: March 1983).  The screenplay for The New Mutants film is not so much an adaptation of any particular New Mutants comic books, but is rather a cherry-picking of a few elements from particular stories like “The Demon Bear Saga” (written by Claremont and drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz).

The New Mutants is an explosive concept, especially considering that it follows kids with traumatic pasts who have largely unknown and untested, dangerous extraordinary powers.  The New Mutants film is a misfire instead of an explosion.  It is not that this film's story is incoherent; it is simply an easy-to-follow, but boring story.  I wanted the characters to save themselves and to have a happy ending because I simply wanted this tiresome and uninspiring movie to end.

When I first heard that 20th Century Fox was making a horror movie set in the X-Men franchise, I thought that this film could be a disaster, but I secretly hoped that they could pull it off.  But my first instincts were right, and luckily Disney absorbed Fox and put an end to Fox's parade of trashy X-Men movies.  As bad as The New Mutants is (and it is awful), its ending also signals the end of a nightmare series of movies in a franchise that had a very promising start back in 2000 with the film simply entitled, X-Men.  I won't recommend The New Mutants to anyone, even to the fans that feel they have to watch every X-Men movie.

2 of 10
D

Wednesday, April 14, 2021


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Review: Takes a Bit, But Pixar's "Soul" Finds its Soul

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 30 of 2021 (No. 1768) by Leroy Douresseaux

Soul (2020)
Running time:  100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes0
MPAA –  PG for thematic elements and some language
DIRECTORS:  Pete Docter with Kemp Powers (co-director)
WRITERS:  Pete Docter, and Mike Jones, and Kemp Powers
PRODUCER:  Dana Murray
CINEMATOGRAPHERS:  Matt Aspbury (D.o.P.) and Ian Megibben (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Kevin Nolting
COMPOSERS: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross with Jon Batiste (jazz compositions and arrangements)
Academy Award winner

ANIMATION/FANTASY/COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring:  (voices) Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Phylicia Rashad, Donnell Rawlings, Ahmir-Khalib Thompson a.k.a. Questlove, Angela Bassett, Cora Champommier, Margo Hall, Daveed Diggs, Rhodessa Jones, Wes Studi, Sakina Jaffrey, Ochuwa Oghie, Jeannie Tirado, Dorian Lockett, and Marcus Shelby

Soul is a 2020 American computer-animated, comedy-drama, and fantasy film from director Pete Docter and co-director Kemp Powers and is produced by Pixar Animation Studios.  Soul is also the first Pixar film to feature an African-American protagonist.  Soul focuses on a jazz pianist who finds himself trapped in a strange place that exists between Earth and the afterlife.

Soul introduces Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), a pianist living in New York City and who dreams of playing jazz professionally.  He is also a middle school music teacher at M.S. 70, and the school's Principal Arroyo (Jeannie Tirado) has just offered to make him a full-time teacher.  Joe's mother, Libba, (Phylicia Rashad) insists that he make teaching a full time job, fearing for his financial security as a jazz musician chasing gigs and sessions.

One day, a former student, Lamont “Curley” Baker (Ahmir-Khalib Thompson a.k.a. Questlove), who is now a jazz drummer, tells Joe that there is an opening in the jazz group, “the Dorothea Williams Quartet,” and that auditions are being held at “The Half Note” jazz club.  Dorothea Williams is a legend, and playing in a jazz outfit like hers has been Joe's dream for years.

But an accident causes Joe's soul to be separated from his body, and Joe ends up trapped between “the Great Beyond” and “the Great Before.”  And perhaps the only thing that can save Joe is helping a wayward soul known as “22” (Tina Fey).

Soul may feature Pixar Animation Studios' first African-American lead, Jamie Foxx's Joe Gardner,, but it is not really a “black film.”  The film is not a celebration of ordinary black people, but it dares to imagine black people as ordinary folks who have the same ups and downs, successes and failures, and hopes and dreams as everyone else.  Also, Soul is the most adult film that Pixar has produced to date.  I think children could enjoy it, but Soul deals with the kind of existential questions that adults face.  In fact, I found that the film's story seemed to confront me about my life on more than a few occasions.  I also like that the film asks a lot of questions, but bluntly and stubbornly refuses to answer all of them.

I did find the first 50 minutes of Soul to be muddled in terms of the narrative.  Everything about it is technically proficient, but the story lacks … soul.  It is not until Joe and 22 reach Earth that Soul really begins to grapple with the struggle between living a life with a purpose as in goals and living a life in which once enjoys living.

Whenever I review a Pixar film, I really don't get into the quality of the animation.  From the standpoint of technology and art, Pixar has practically always been astounding and awesome.  For a long time now, Pixar's computer-animation (or 3D animation) has been so good and so beautifully rendered and colored that it makes me forget that I am watching an animated film.  Soul, in its dazzling colors, inventive characters, and imaginative settings (“the Great Beyond” and how it welcomes a soul), is about as strong as its predecessors

Soul's film score recently won an Oscar.  Jon Batiste's jazz compositions and arrangements are captivating, and made me feel like I was right there in the performance.  Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' score, especially when the story moves into the realms of the soul, is ethereal, magically, and futuristic, and sounds like music from another world.

I like the voice performances.  Jamie Foxx does not fully sound like Jamie Foxx, and, in that, he makes Joe Gardner feel like a genuine character.  What more can I say about Tina Fey?  As “22,” she shows, once again, that she has talent to burn.  Also, I think Phylicia Rashad makes the most of every line she has in the film; she makes Libba Gardner seem like a real mother.

Ultimately, Soul reminds me that I really need Pixar Animation Studios in my life.  Pixar's feature films find the best of humanity and emphasize the beauty in us all.  This time, Pixar gives us Soul to remind us to look up and notice the beauty in us and in the world around us.

8 of 10
A

Sunday, May 2, 2021


NOTES:
2021 Academy Awards, USA:  2 wins:  “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Score” (Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Jon Batiste) and “Best Animated Feature Film” (Pete Docter and Dana Murray); 1 nomination: “Best Sound” (Ren Klyce, Coya Elliott, and David Parker)

2021 Golden Globes, USA:  2 wins: “Best Motion Picture – Animated” and “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Jon Batiste)

2021 BAFTA Awards:  2 wins: “Best Animated Feature Film” (Pete Docter and Dana Murray) and “Original Score” (Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, and Atticus Ross); 1 nomination: “Best Sound” (Coya Elliott, Ren Klyce, and David Parker)


The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN" Rocked Me Like a Hurricane

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 29 of 2021 (No. 1767) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Promising Young Woman (2020)
Running time: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong violence including sexual assault, language throughout, some sexual material and drug use
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Emerald Fennell
PRODUCERS:  Tom Ackerley, Ben Browning, Emerald Fennell, Ashley Fox, Josey McNamara, and Margot Robbie
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Benjamin Cracun (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Frederic Thoraval
COMPOSER:  Anthony Willis
Academy Award winner

DRAMA/COMEDY/THRILLER

Starring:  Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox, Chris Lowell, Connie Britton, Adam Brody, Max Greenfield, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Sam Richardson, Alfred Molina, and Molly Shannon

Promising Young Woman is a 2020 black comedy and suspense thriller film from director Emerald Fennell.  The film focuses on a young woman who takes revenge for a traumatic event in her past on the unwary young men who cross her path.

Promising Young Woman introduces Cassandra “Cassie” Thomas (Carey Mulligan), a 30 year-old medical school dropout who lives with her parents, Susan (Jennifer Coolidge) and Stanley Thomas (Clancy Brown), in Ohio.  Seven years earlier, something terrible happened to Cassie's best friend, Nina Fisher, at a party, and it led to both Cassie and Nina leaving the medical school they attended, Forrest University.

Now, Cassie spends her nights feigning drunkenness in clubs, and allowing men to take her to their homes.  Then, she bluntly and forcefully reveals her sobriety when these men try to take advantage of her by having sexual relations with a woman who is too inebriated to give consent.  Things begin to change when Cassie is reunited with a former classmate, Dr. Ryan Cooper (Bo Burnham), a pediatrician.  When another classmate reveals a lurid secret, Cassie resumes her mission of revenge, but can she survive her own mission.

Of the many shocking things about Promising Young Woman, one of them is actress Carey Mulligan.  She completely buries herself in this role, and the waif-like persona she adopted in some of her early films disappears in the storm of the force of nature that is Cassie.  Mulligan's performance as Cassie recalls classic Clint Eastwood movie characters like “Dirty” Harry Callahan and “Preacher” (from 1985's Pale Rider).  I also have to give a shout out to Promising Young Woman's makeup department for its work in creating Cassie's look, which, spiritually, recalls the those vengeful dead girls in such Japanese horror films as Ringu (1998) and Ju-On: The Grudge (2002).

I can't help but be impressed by the debut directorial effort of writer-director Emerald Fennell.  Her film is straight to the point.  Fennell is not being allegorical, metaphorical, or symbolic.  Fennell delivers stunning entertainment that is both a timely message movie and a timeless cinematic film, a mainstream spin of the spirit of The Last House on the Left (1972) and I Spit on Your Grave (1978).  She may or may not be talking to you, sir, but there is no doubt about what Fennell is saying.

In a way, Promising Young Woman is the Get Out of 2020.  Like Jordan Peele's Oscar-winning film, Promising Young Woman is a game changer.  Whereas Peele's Get Out was a revelation in its message about white people's violence against African-American bodies, Fennell's Promising Young Woman is the clarion call to the reckoning for the way men objectify and enact sexual violence on the bodies of women.  Hopefully, Fennell's film is the cinematic earthquake that leads to a Hollywood tsunami.

And yes, Promising Young Woman is entertaining.  It simply manages to also blow your mind, chill your blood … and make some men reflexively cover their jewels.

9 of 10
A+

Monday, March 22, 2021


NOTES:
2021 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best Original Screenplay” (Emerald Fennell); 4 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell, and Josey McNamara), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Carey Mulligan), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Emerald Fennell), and “Best Achievement in Film Editing” (Frédéric Thoraval)

2021 Golden Globes, USA:  4 nominations: “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Emerald Fennell), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Carey Mulligan), “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Emerald Fennell), “Best Motion Picture - Drama”

2021 BAFTA Awards:  2 wins: “Best Screenplay-Original” (Emerald Fennell) and “Outstanding British Film of the Year” (Emerald Fennell, Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, and Josey McNamara); 4 nominations: “Best Film” (Ben Browning, Emerald Fennell, Ashley Fox, and Josey McNamara), “Best Editing” (Frédéric Thoraval), “Original Score” (Anthony Willis), and “Best Casting” (Lindsay Graham and Mary Vernieu)


The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Amazon wants me to inform you that the link below is a PAID AD, but I technically only get paid (eventually) if you click on the ad below AND buy something(s).