Some good stuff to watch at home this week. There’s one racing biopic that’s so much better than it has any right to be, and also two super weird flicks.
Ford v Ferrari
Greener Grass (DVD)
In Fabric (DVD)
I Don’t Want to Go Out – February 11
Tag Archives: Hope Madden
Screening Room: Birds of Prey and Oscar Predictions
Of a Feather
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
by Hope Madden and George Wolf
First on the Harley Quinn playlist: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
Harley (Margot Robbie, positively electric) tells us she and the Joker are done, and she didn’t take it well. What’s worse, Harley’s new relationship status means anyone in Gotham who’d like her dead (and there’s plenty) doesn’t have to worry about payback from “Mr. J.”
Shuffle: It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s Man’s World
At the top, there’s Roman Sionis aka Black Mask (Ewan McGregor, hamming it up to glorious effect) who likes the faces peeled off of his enemies. He wants a priceless diamond that’s been lifted by teenage pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), and Harley, forced to bargain for her life, promises to get it.
But Gotham has no shortage of talented women fed up with being kept down, and Harley tends to attract them. The vocally gifted Black Canary (June Smollett-Bell), the deadly mysterious Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, scene-stealingly deadpan) and the conveniently suspended Detective Montoya (Rosie Perez, nice to see you) all find themselves on the wrong end of a sizable bounty, and things get messy.
Shuffle: Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves
The badass girl power isn’t limited to the cast. Director Cathy Yan (Dead Pigs) serves up an irresistible cocktail of Scott Pilgrim visual flair and Tarantino continuity clash. Yan seems to relish the freedom of an R-rating (see “face-peeling” above), crafting memorable set pieces bursting with slick fight choreography, cartoonishly satisfying violence and wonderfully stylish pandemonium.
Shuffle: Respect
As Hope’s dad told the many Madden girls growing up: eyes, nose, throat, groin, knees are all equally vulnerable no matter the size of the attacker. Yan appears to be the sister we didn’t know about, but she certainly knows how to hurt a guy.
Writer Christina Hodson has become the go-to for ridiculous franchises that need more than we dare hope (she’s the one who wrote the only Transformers movie that didn’t suck). She teams well with Yan and her badasses, offering backstories and traumas that toe the line between superhero/supervillain legend and shit women deal with every day.
If you saw the stale trailer, noted the deadly release date, remembered the limp Suicide Squad and feared the worse, we hear ya. And maybe Birds of Prey benefits slightly from low expectations. But there’s no denying the raucous, foul mouthed, glitter-bomb fun.
Shuffle: Free Bird (live version).
Fearless Oscar Picks
by Hope Madden and George Wolf
It fills us with glee to look back on a year brimming with so many great movies. Original movies, even! Jojo Rabbit—that was unique. The Farewell, Marriage Story, Knives Out, The Lighthouse, Parasite, The Souvenir, Uncut Gems, Us, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, The Last Black Man in San Francisco—it’s a long list, and not all of the entries made it as far as an Oscar nomination (unfortunate!). But they did make for a fascinating year.
We have only a handful of complaints about this year’s batch of nominees, but we really want to point out how impressed we are with the animation nominees: two excellent blockbusters (Toy Story 4 and How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World) plus three outstanding and entirely underseen animated gems (Missing Link, I Lost My Body, Klaus). Whenever the Academy leads people to find great films they might have missed, they’re doing their job.
On the whole we expect the 2020 awards to be somewhat predictable. Luckily, on the whole, we also think the awards will go where they should.
Our picks for Oscar, 2020:
Best Adapted Screenplay
- Steven Zaillian, The Irishman
- Taika Waititi, Jojo Rabbit
- Todd Phillips, Joker
- Greta Gerwig, Little Women
- Anthony McCarten, The Two Popes
We begin with the one category that feels undecided. While we are semi-confident in our picks, we also think Jojo Rabbit could hop away with gold.
Should Win: Greta Gerwig, Little Women
Will Win: Greta Gerwig, Little Women
Best Original Screenplay
- Rian Johnson, Knives Out
- Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story
- Sam Mendes, 1917
- Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
- Bong Joon Ho, Parasite
Should Win: Bong Joon Ho, Parasite
Will Win: Bong Joon Ho, Parasite
Best Supporting Actress
- Kathy Bates, Richard Jewell
- Laura Dern, Marriage Story
- Scarlett Johansson, Jojo Rabbit
- Florence Pugh, Little Women
- Margot Robbie, Bombshell
Although it would not break our hearts to see Scarlett Johansson win this one for her tender, lovely turn as mom to the cutest little Nazi ever…
Should Win: Laura Dern, Marriage Story
Will Win: Laura Dern, Marriage Story
Best Supporting Actor
- Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
- Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes
- Al Pacino, The Irishman
- Joe Pesci, The Irishman
- Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Should Win: Joe Pesci, playing against type and delivering a quietly powerful turn that’s the heartbeat of Scorsese’s film.
Will Win: Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood. Good news – another top-notch acceptance speech!
Because we want to make you wait for it, and because you might need some help with other buckets in your poll…
Best Documentary
- American Factory, Julia Riechert & Steve Bognar
- The Cave, Feras Fayyad
- The Edge of Democracy, Petra Casta
- For Sama, Waad al-Kateab
- Honeyland, Ljubo Stevanov
Here’s a fantastic category. Make it your mission to see each one of these films.
Should Win: Honeyland
Will Win: In a rare split decision, Hope predicts Honeyland; George predicts American Factory.
Best International Feature
- Corpus Cristi (Poland)
- Honeyland (North Macedonia)
- Les Miserables (France)
- Pain and Glory (Spain)
- Parasite (South Korea)
Should Win: Parasite
Will Win: Parasite
Best Animated Feature
- How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
- I Lost My Body
- Klaus
- Missing Link
- Toy Story 4
Should Win: Toy Story 4
Will Win: Toy Story 4, but really, we all win with this group of movies. But Toy Story 4 better win.
Best Cinematography
- Rodrigo Prieto, The Irishman
- Lawrence Sher, Joker
- Jarin Blaschke, The Lighthouse
- Robert Richardson, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
- Roger Deakins, 1917
Should Win: Jarin Blaschke, The Lighthouse
Will Win: Roger Deakins, 1917
Best Original Song
- “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” (Toy Story 4) — Randy Newman
- “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” (Rocketman) — Elton John & Bernie Taupin
- “I’m Standing With You” (Breakthrough) — Diane Warren
- “Into the Unknown” (Frozen 2) — Robert Lopez & Kristen Anderson-Lopez
- “Stand Up” (Harriet) — Joshuah Brian Campbell & Cynthia Erivo
Should Win: Elton & Bernie
Will Win: John & Taupin
OK, on to what you’re here for.
Best Actress
- Cynthia Erivo, Harriet
- Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story
- Saoirse Ronan, Little Women
- Charlize Theron, Bombshell
- Renee Zellweger, Judy
Should Win: Renee Zellweger, Judy
Will Win: Renee Zellweger, Judy
Best Actor
- Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory
- Leonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
- Adam Driver, Marriage Story
- Joaquin Phoenix, Joker
- Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes
Should Win: We would not weep to see Adam Driver take this one home, but he won’t and we’re not that upset because Joaquin Phoenix was astonishing.
Will Win: Joaquin Phoenix
Best Director
- Martin Scorsese, The Irishman
- Todd Phillips, Joker
- Sam Mendes, 1917
- Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
- Bong Joon Ho, Parasite
Should Win: Bong Joon Ho makes a great case with his nearly perfect film.
Will Win: Sam Mendes, 1917
Best Picture
- Ford v Ferrari
- The Irishman
- Jojo Rabbit
- Joker
- Little Women
- Marriage Story
- 1917
- Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
- Parasite
Should: Parasite
Will: 1917
The 92 annual Academy Awards will be held this Sunday, February 9th, and aired live on ABC.
I Don’t Want to Go Out—Week of February 3
A lot of horror available this week, plus one indie drama that will leave you broken in side and one horrible Christmas movie – does that count?
Let us help you through the decision process. Click the film title to link to the full review.
Doctor Sleep
Waves
Last Christmas
The Nightingale (DVD)
The House that Jack Built (DVD)
Sister’s Grimm
Gretel & Hansel
by Hope Madden
It’s still early, but 2020 has not been great in terms of horror.
First came Nicolas Pesce’s pointless reboot of The Grudge.
Yikes. And I do not mean that in a good way.
And then last week we had Floria Sigismondi’s boldly wrong-headed reimagining, The Turning.
In keeping with a trend, this week Oz Perkins revisits an existing story. Gretel & Hansel pick on the bones of that old fairly-tale—the one that actually did scare the shit out of me as a kid. Two kids are turned out into the woods because their parents can’t feed them. Things go from bad to worse once they’re left to fend for themselves and soon cannibalism comes into play, as I assume it always does when you get lost in the woods.
Perkins, working from a script by Rob Hayes (East Meets Barry West), abandons much of the original bits (fewer breadcrumbs). His spookier imagination is more interested in Gretel’s burgeoning womanhood.
Sophia Lillis (IT) narrates and stars as Gretel, the center of this coming of age story—reasonable, given the change of billing suggested by the film’s title. The witch may still have a tasty meal on her mind, but this is less a cautionary tale than it is a metaphor for agency over obligation.
Alice Krige and her cheekbones strike the perfect mixture of menace and mentorship, while Sammy Leakey’s little Hansel manages to be both adorable and tiresome, as is required for the story to work.
Perkins continues to impress with his talent for visual storytelling and Galo Olivares’s cinematography heightens the film’s folkloric atmosphere.
It’s unfortunate, though, that Perkins doesn’t also write. The two films he both writes and directs, I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House and, in particular, The Blackcoat’s Daughter, sidestepped predictability while mining primal anxieties to produce excellent, memorable horror.
The writing here doesn’t quite reach the heights of the storyline told through imagery. Gretel & Hansel loses itself too often in a dreamscape horror without rectifying or clarifying, which leaves the metaphor foggy and the horror muted.
But there’s no escaping this spell. The whole affair feels like an intriguing dream.
Portrait of the Artist
Bliss
by Hope Madden
What does true art require of its maker? It’s an incredibly common theme in film (and books and sculpture and painting and any other kind of art) because, for an artist, it’s a common point of introspection. Why am I doing this, why aren’t I better than this, what would I give to be really great?
There’s such an underlying element of the diabolical and desperate in these questions that it’s only sensible so many horror flicks have sprung from this well. From Roger Corman’s A Bucket of Blood in ’59 to Sean Byrne’s Devil’s Candy in 2015, horror movies love to explore what we’re willing to become if only our art could be great.
Joe Begos returns to the concept with Bliss, an unrelenting attack on the senses that equates artistic obsession with addiction and monstrosity.
Frenetically paced and entirely reliant on Dora Madison’s impressive performance, Bliss works like a hypnotic pulse. Madison plays artist and malcontent Dezzy, who opens the film dodging her landlord, tooling LA in her convertible caddy and panicking. She can’t finish her latest piece, her agent wants to drop her, she’s about to lose her exhibit space.
Why isn’t her dealer answering the goddamn phone?
When she does catch up with him, he has something potent for her. She goes a little overboard and by the time she’s semi-conscious again, a house party is in full rage, the drugs, beat and sexy look from an old friend propelling Dezzy into a hypnotic night of excess and debauchery. But somewhere in the stew and slurry of the night, her painting starts to take shape.
It’s intriguing that the more minor the character, the more likable the performance. Begos seems not to want you to care about the lead or those closest to her, and that’s always an intriguing approach to a film.
The only real problem with Bliss is its lack of originality, but that’s a pretty big problem. Quick cuts and quicker tempo, nimble performances and concussive beat, like Gaspar Noe’s Climax, Bliss leaves you feeling worn out. But with little new to say, it mainly leaves you feeling more hung over than entertained.
I Don’t Want to Go Out—Week of January 27
Excellent week in lazybags theater. Stay inside and watch the best film of 2019, one hell of a performance, and an unreasonably underseen action flick in which Schwarzenegger gets off the funniest line of his career.
Do it.
Click the film title to link to the full review.
Parasite
Harriet
Terminator: Dark Fate
Screening Room: Gentlemen, Turning, Color Out of Space, Les Miserables, Clemency
The Dream I Dreamed
Les Miserables
by Hope Madden
“Remember this, my friends. There is no such thing as bad plants or bad men. There are only bad cultivators.”
Victor Hugo penned those words as he watched the suffering and oppression in the streets of Montfermeil.
Set in July 2018, when the World Cup victory made celebratory compatriots of everyone in France, at first blush, Ladj Ly’s film Les Miserables bears little resemblance to the saga of Jean Valjean and that tenacious Javert. But it doesn’t take long for the filmmaker to use the story of law enforcement and the population of modern day Montfermeil to show that little has changed since Hugo set quill to parchment 150 years ago.
Damien Bonnard (Staying Vertical) plays Stéphane. Ly taps Julien Poupard’s camera to follow Stephane on his first day in Paris as part of a three man unit tasked with keeping an eye on a mainly poor, primarily Muslim district.
Stéphane’s new partners, Chris (Alexis Manenti) and Gwada (Djibril Zonga), have been on the job long enough to have developed relationships and tensions in the neighborhood. Thanks to an almost absurd subplot involving a traveling circus—whose lion delivers an apt metaphor and a heartbreaking scene—Stephane’s first days on the force will be regrettable.
Ly was inspired to write the film by riots that broke out in his own apartment building and neighborhood in 2005. That authenticity lends the film both a visceral dread as well as a complicated compassion.
Like Hugo, Ly seems unwilling to abandon those in authority to the fate of villain any more than he’s willing to entirely forgive the actions of the oppressed. Rather, each side is implicated (one far more boldly than the other), but it’s the lack of tidy resolution that makes the fate of these characters compelling.
While every performance is impressive, young Issa Perica is the film’s beating heart, its undetermined destiny, and he’s more than up to the task. His lines are limited but his performance is heartbreaking, his character really the only one that matters.
A devastating social commentary masquerading quite convincingly as an intense cop drama, I’d say Les Miserables would do Hugo proud. The truth is, it would probably break his heart.
