This week’s new releases in the screening room: Predator: Badlands, Christy, Die My Love, Train Dreams, Lost & Found in Cleveland, Nuremberg, and Down to the Felt.
Tag Archives: Hope Madden
Makes the Dream Work
Predator: Badlands
by Hope Madden
Whenever anybody ranks the Predator films—or the Alien films, for that matter—most episodes hold up moderately to well, except for those crossovers. Well, it appears filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg, who’s asked us to rethink so much about the Predator franchise, wants us to revisit that as well.
And why not? In 2022, the co-writer/director of Prey brought new life to a fun action thriller series that seemed to have worn itself out. And then, as we all waited patiently for his next sequel, he dazzled us with the bloody fun animated anthology, Predator: Killer of Killers.
Now Trachtenberg betrays a love of this franchise and a seemingly endless inspiration for its universe as he takes us on a trajectory begun when Paul W. S. Anderson first pitted the two most badass alien lifeforms against each other in 2004’s AVP: Alien vs. Predator. Because it was in this installment, weak as it was, that the rogue hunter learned the value of teamwork.
Predator: Badlands introduces Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), runt of his Yautja clan, banished unless he can return with his trophy: the Kalisk of Genna. But do you remember when Tom Hiddleston and his band of misfits landed on Skull Island in search of Kong, only to find out that everything on the island wanted to eat them? Genna is like that, and Dek is so full of rage, daddy issues, and insecurity that all he can think to do is beat his chest and lash out.
Luckily, what’s left of a synthetic being named Thia (Elle Fanning) knows the lay of the land and can help Dek survive the planet and find his trophy, so long as he carries her back to her legs.
Thia’s a bit of a Chatty Cathy, a personality tic that allows Trachtenberg and his co-writers, Patrick Aison and Jim Thomas, to clue viewers in on the planet, its creatures, and her own backstory as the budding frenemy relationship develops the film’s themes.
It’s fun. Fanning’s charmingly garrulous sidekick brings more lightheartedness to this installment than we’ve seen in previous episodes, but the action is fun and frequent. Expect plenty of bloodshed regardless of the PG-13 rating (it’s mostly beasties, some of them green blooded).
The film is often frustratingly dark, limiting the enjoyment of many set pieces, but the score is amazing and the depth of character is an unexpected pleasure. Predator: Badlands is not the best of the franchise, nor is it as ground breaking as Prey, but it’s a ton of fun.
Mystery Girl
Die My Love
by Hope Madden
Earlier this year, filmmaker Michael Shanks and real-life marrieds Alison Brie and Dave Franco examined man’s fear of losing his identity to couplehood in the weirdly romantic horror, Together.
Lynne Ramsay’s latest, Die My Love, looks at it from a slightly more skewed perspective.
For Grace (Jennifer Lawrence), the horror seems to be gradual disappearance, a total loss of who you were with no new version to take its place. A new home—well, old home inherited by boyfriend Jackson (Robert Pattinson)—in a new and isolated spot, and a new baby all seem to leech from Grace whatever it was that had held her together. Her attempts to contend with this vanishing, this mundane nonexistence, are a volcanic, often hilarious and just as often terrifying wonder from a phenomenal talent in top form.
The inimitable Ramsay, along with Enda Walsh and Alice Birch, adapts Ariana Harwicz’s novel. The loosely constructed narrative presents atmosphere and context more than plot. Grace and Jackson move into the now-vacated Montana home. It’s perhaps not ideal, but who cares? It’s theirs, it’s free, and Grace can write all day.
But she doesn’t, nor does she fit in (or try) with Jackson’s family. Boredom, new motherhood, sexual frustration, a negligent husband, and isolation all weigh on Grace, and in every instance, her reaction startles and fascinates.
Lawrence is fearless— that’s nothing new—but here she is alive, on fire. Funny and heartbreaking, fierce and merciless, aching but rarely vulnerable, Lawrence’s command of this film is breathtaking.
An impressive ensemble—Pattinson, Sissy Spacek, Nick Nolte, LaKeith Stanfield—exist more to offer opportunities for Lawrence to react than to craft full characters. But few directors can craft an individual scene, or string together scene after scene after scene, as transfixing as those conjured by Ramsay.
And her dreamlike creations seem always to nurture an unparallelled performance from some of the greatest actors working: We Need to Talk About Kevin’s Tilda Swinton, You Were Never Really Here’s Joaquin Phoenix, and now, Die My Love’s Lawrence, whose raw sensuality, anger, and sadness command attention.
The film’s lack of cohesion, of clear path or plot, weaken the effort. Die My Love is more character study than story, but Grace is a character that can’t be known. This is her burden and her glory, but an unknowable character makes for a tough study.
But, though you may walk away from Die My Love wondering what it is you just watched, you’ll not likely forget what you saw.
Everything Else Is Cleveland
Lost & Found in Cleveland
by Hope Madden
Tennessee Williams once said, “America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everything else is Cleveland.”
The indie charmer Lost & Found in Cleveland wisely opens with that text on the screen, both signaling the film’s deeply midwestern sense of self-deprecating humor, and the universality of its set of small stories.
Filmmakers Keith Gerchak and Marisa Guterman spin intersecting tales of a handful of Clevelanders whose paths cross when the Antiques Road Show inspired program Lost & Found comes to town.
Nine-year-old Charlie (Benjamin Steinhauser), struggling to come to terms with his dad’s death and his mom’s new boyfriend, is desperate to authenticate a hand-written letter from President William McKinley. Mr. and Mrs. Sokolowski (Stacy Keach and June Squibb) have some plates to appraise. Mail carrier Marty (Dennis Haysbert) collects vases and longs to open a high-end restaurant in remembrance of his mother. Nouveau riche Sophie Mathers (Liza Weil) cannot wait until her newly acquired piece, an enormous sculpture of the goddess Juno, is belle of the Lost & Found ball. And Gary (Santino Fontana) needs to come to terms with the enormous and mortifying Aunt Jemima collection his Nana Noni left him.
Tennessee Williams may not have thought much of it, but Gerchak and Guterman clearly love Cleveland. You’ll recognize some landmarks from Superman, but this film isn’t pretending The Arcade or the Hope Memorial Bridge belong anywhere other than The Land. With equal parts humility and humor, the film glories in everything that makes the town so very Cleveland.
This roots the tales in authenticity, while performances and storylines allow each a bit of zaniness. Sometimes the writing crosses the line to sit-com simplicity, and not every performance convinces. And one dance sequence is a real head scratcher.
But with talent like Squibb, Keach and Haysbert, plus supporting comedic gold from Dot-Marie Jones, it’s tough to hang on to any hard feelings. Somehow the amateurish moments feel right. Accepting them is like accepting every burning river, horrendous sports season, missed opportunity and freak snowstorm. Anything more polished just wouldn’t be Cleveland.
Tear the Fascists Down
Nuremberg
by Hope Madden
There were many reasons to be hopeful for James Vanderbilt’s Nuremberg, chief among them its modern-day resonance and the satisfaction of watching Nazis suffer the consequences of their actions.
Vanderbilt’s impressive ensemble tells the true story of the global court case trying the Nazi high command for crimes against humanity. Russell Crowe delivers an almost fanciful turn as Hermann Göring, sparring with army doctor Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek), assigned to help the prosecution get inside the mind of the monster.
Vanderbilt adapts Jack El-Hai’s book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, developing the relationship between these two characters as the film’s primary plot. A parallel storyline following Justice Robert Jackson (Michael Shannon) grounds the film in the importance of the trial and its single desired result: to annihilate pro-Nazi sentiment and the white supremacist authoritarianism that fueled it.
Richard E. Grant, John Slattery, Colin Hanks, and Mark O’Brien deliver solid performances, though the film would not have suffered by streamlining both O’Brien and Hanks entirely out of the movie.
Nuremberg‘s problem is not so much its length as its cumbersome scripting. To add the full (and imperative) B-story, the events and characters that orbit the psychiatrist and the Nazi should have been pruned.
Vanderbilt chooses showy direction throughout, cutting from one scene to the next with gimmicks that call to mind classic screwball comedies—a wild, almost horrific mismatch with the material.
There’s such obviousness to the telling of the tale, and not because we know the outcome of the trial but because the character points we shouldn’t know are telegraphed.
Now and again one brilliant line of dialog bursts through, which is almost as frustrating as the otherwise ostentatious script because there’s something here. Something worth telling, in need of telling.
But Vanderbilt buries it under forced emotion (when certainly none needs to be forced) and flamboyant staging. Hard as Nuremberg tries to connect the dots from past to present, it offers no insight. And that’s what’s most frustrating.
Killer Pictures
Maybe you know about Hope’s latest novel, Killer Pictures (get yourself an autographed copy right here in our store!)
It tells the story of Dez, who should go to bed, but instead, she keeps watching horror movies for the Mayhem & Madness Film Festival. She sees a new one pop up in her to-review queue: Adam. That’s a funny title, she thinks, since there’s another judge named Adam. But instead of watching, she goes to bed, and by the time she wakes up, the judge named Adam has killed his wife and himself, and the film Adam has disappeared from the judging queue.
In its place is a film called Grant — the name of another judge. Is Grant doomed to Adam’s fate? Will Dez see her own name as a film title? If she does, will she dare watch it?
Welcome to the Mayhem & Madness film festival, where the judges are committed and the pictures are killer.
Intrigued? Well, treat yourself to our new short film, Killer Pictures, to watch as Dez falls into a mystery that may end her life.
Behind the Scenes!
Screening Room: Bugonia, Stitch Head, Ballad of a Small Player & More
New in the screening room this week: Bugonia, Stitch Head, Ballad of a Small Player, It Was Just an Accident, Anniversary, and Indera.
The Bees Knees
Bugonia
by Hope Madden
Humanity can be, individually and collectively, disappointing. No one picks that scab quite like Yorgos Lanthimos.
The filmmaker followed up his 2023 Oscar winner Poor Things, arguably his most hopeful and certainly his most mainstream film, with the blistering 3 hour anthology skewering the human condition, Kinds of Kindness.
Bugonia, his latest, reins in some of the excesses of Kindness, but the filmmaker’s observational insights on wasted, wounded humanity are as sharp as ever.
Emma Stone is Michelle Fuller, a pharmaceutical company CEO hailed on Forbes and Time and dozens of other framed magazine covers for her leadership and innovation. Jesse Plemmons is Teddy, the broken, broke, bumbling conspiracy theorist convinced she’s an alien. Teddy kidnaps the CEO/alien and drags Michelle back to the lonesome home where he grew up. The goal is not ransom, but to convince her to take him to the mother ship where he’ll persuade the aliens—responsible, as they are, for the obvious crumbling of human society—to leave earth in peace.
The script from Will Tracy and Jang Joon-hwan offers Lanthimos and his small but savvy cast fertile ground for the bleak absurdism the filmmaker does so well. Bugonia treads tonal shifts magnificently, slipping from comedy to thriller to horror and back with precision. Lanthimos’s control over audience emotion has never been tighter.
The same can be said for both Stone and Plemmons, who manage the absolutely impossible with these two characters. Their chemistry is without peer, each wrestling the audience’s sympathies from the other, both always horrifying and vulnerable.
Stone is the picture of leadership qualities. Even shorn and chained in a filthy basement, Michelle acts from a reserve of superiority and calm. Stone is utterly convincing as a survivor and fearless negotiator.
Plemmons’s range is breathtaking and Lanthimos takes advantage. Sad sack Teddy contains multitudes. He’s pathetic, terrifying, cruel, tender, manipulative, loving—all of it seamlessly integrated into a single character. Plemmons should be remembered come awards season.
The film’s final act is brazenly bizarre, but also startlingly emotional. It’s an about face that wouldn’t have worked in most films. But most films are not Yorgos Lanthimos films.
For Better, for Worse
Anniversary
by Hope Madden
Jan Komasa’s political thriller Anniversary certainly boasts an impressive cast. Diane Lane leads the film as Ellen Taylor, a Georgetown professor celebrating her 25th wedding anniversary to renowned DC chef, Paul (Kyle Chandler).
Their four children will be there: high schooler Birdie (Mckenna Grace), famous comic Anna (Madeline Brewer), environmental lawyer Cynthia (Zoey Deutch) and her husband (Daryl McCormack), and beloved son who never made much of himself, Josh (Dylan O’Brien). Plus, Josh brought new girlfriend, Liz (Phoebe Dynevor). That one can’t be trusted.
Komasa crafts a “they have it all” opening to prepare us for the inevitable downfall. Ellen and Paul truly love each other, and their bickering kids love them and each other as well. But there’s an invasive species at their garden party, and no matter how strong Ellen believes her family to be, bad stuff is coming.
To the film’s credit, Lori Rosene-Gambino’s script is no pulpy thriller about a vixen corrupting a family. True to the filmmaker’s previous output (Corpus Cristi, Suicide Room), Anniversary dives into the large scale and intimate damage one persuasive but errant prophet can do.
Liz has a belief system encapsulated in her new book, “The Change.” It advocates that the people, passionate and unified, step beyond this broken democracy and create a single party that will redefine the country’s future. What transpires between Ellen and Paul’s 25th and 30th anniversary parties is a debilitatingly likely image of America’s near future.
The ensemble works wonders with slightly written characters. Komasa and Rosene-Gambino outline the insidious evolution with clarity, but the tale is too superficial to mean much. It’s a very talky script, yet very few questions are answered. Anniversary is entirely vague on the actual philosophy of “The Change”, making it tough know what people cling to and what the Taylors reject.
Worse, character arcs exist exclusively to further the plot. Deutch bears the worst of this, but everything in the film—especially the character development—is tell, don’t show. Aside from O’Brien’s, no arc is character driven. Each is plot driven and some are absurd.
Dynevor fares best, carving out a memorable, broken antagonist, a delicate survivor not to be trusted. She and Lane are formidable as antagonist and protagonist, but Anniversary doesn’t know exactly what to do with them.
If I Cannot Inspire Love, I Will Cause Fear
Stitch Head
by Hope Madden
Is there anything more delightful than an animated tale suitable for Halloween? A Nightmare Before Christmas, ParaNorman, Frankenweenie, The Corpse Bride, Wendell & Wild, Coraline, Mad Monster Party—each one is a fun way to get spooky, with the kids or without.
Steve Hudson extends that list with Stitch Head, a delightful, animated story about embracing your inner and outer monster.
Stitch Head (Asa Butterfield) was the first of the Mad Scientist’s creations. But the creator’s ADHD gets the better of him pretty quickly, and Castle Grotteskew is soon full to brimming with monsters. These include today’s beast, Creature (Joel Fry). Stitch Head’s taken on the eldest child duties around the castle, which includes helping each new beastie adjust their monstrous natures to avoid upsetting the townsfolk below. Don’t draw attention to yourself and you can avoid the angry mob.
“Welcome to almost life,” Stitch Head tells each new monster. “Patent pending.”
The film, especially Nick Urata’s music, certainly conjures Tim Burton. The songs Are You Ready for Monsters and Make ‘em Scream are both dancy fun, but neither are Elfman level memorable. Stitch Head lacks that macabre flavor of a Burton. Castle Grotteskew’s residents feel more akin to the working stiffs of Monsters, Inc. They’re nothing to be afraid of, they’re just different. Which is the point.
There’s also a bit of Pinocchio as Stitch Head, seeking the love he’s not receiving from his negligent parent, leaves the castle in favor of the circus, and finds—as we all must—that capitalism blows.
Butterfield’s delivery and Hudson’s animation create a tender central figure you root for. Fry’s big-hearted performance—plus Creature’s zany design—balance the delicate, tightly wound Stitch Head to create a sweetly peculiar odd couple.
Based on Pete Williamson and Guy Bass’s series of kids’ books, written for the screen by Hudson, Stitch Head delivers fun, eccentric characters, a warm adventure, and genuine lessons about the joys—even the necessity—of nonconformity.
“Just be whoever you’d be if you weren’t afraid.”
