Screening Room: I.S.S., Origin, All of Us Strangers, Founders Day, Cult Killer, Sunrise, Freud’s Last Session, Project Dorothy
Tag Archives: movies
Hiding in Plain Sight
Origin
by George Wolf
Origin is so loaded with theories, facts and history, you may wonder why writer/director Ava DuVernay didn’t just make the film a documentary. After all, 2016’s 13th showed DuVernay can certainly command the genre.
I’m guessing she gives us the answer with a telling line of dialog: “Real people, real things.”
The main character, Isabel Wilkerson, is a real, extraordinary person, and author of the source book, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent.” And the film works as well as it does because of how well DuVernay unveils both the results of Wilkerson’s work and the personal journey that made it possible.
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor’s tremendous turn as Wilkerson doesn’t hurt, either.
We first meet Wilkerson shortly after the news of Trayvon Martin’s murder first breaks. The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist is looking to take some time off to care for her elderly mother, but her colleagues (Blair Underwood, Vera Farmiga) are hoping she can address the issue in print.
Even Wilkerson’s husband Brett (a wonderful Jon Bernthal) thinks she’s happier working, but Isabel is hesitant.
“I don’t write questions, I write answers,” she explains. And Isabel finds many lingering questions in the Martin murder, the Charlottesville tragedy, and the increasing drumbeat of fascism in America. Her mind is restless, because while racism is a symptom, using it as “a primary language to understand everything isn’t sufficient.”
But as Isabel suffers heartache and loss in her personal life, she researches history in Germany, India, and America’s Deep South to find the connective tissue she sought – caste systems perpetuated through unending violence until they’re accepted as the natural order.
DuVernay utilizes Wilkerson’s classroom presentations, conversations with her cousin Marion (Niecy Nash, terrific) and fact-finding interviews as sufficiently organic vehicles for flashback. The history lessons are rife with discovery and heartbreak, and compelling enough to keep a firm grip on your attention.
There are flashbacks to Isabel’s personal history as well, including a look at her relationship with Brett that is tender, funny and poignant, buoyed by the sweet chemistry between Ellis-Taylor and Bernthal.
And though the third act can get especially lecture heavy, the material works as a narrative whole because DuVernay finds her own layer of tissue that connects us to both the real people and the real things.
The cycle of trauma -be it personal or systemic – can only be broken by confronting it. Origin confronts it with questions and answers, humanity and inhumanity, in ways compelling enough to change the very way we look at the world around us.
Honey Don’t
The Beekeeper
by George Wolf
About two-thirds of the way through The Beekeeper, director David Ayer and star Jason Statham hit us with the film’s highlight. It’s an elevator sequence that takes an unexpectedly gory turn, then adds a clever surprise for the finishing touch.
If only the rest of the film could be this interesting.
Statham is playing his usual one man killing machine, this time named Adam Clay. He’s living a quiet and reclusive life as a beekeeper in rural Massachsetts, until a cybercrime firm scams Clay’s only friend (Phylicia Rashad) so badly she kills herself.
Clay takes very explosive, very lethal revenge.
But the phishing firm’s CEO Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson in hipster douchebag mode) has friends is high places, including a former CIA director (Jeremy Irons, classing up the joint). Danforth wants Clay taken out, but he soon learns that will not be so easy.
See, Clay is more than a beekeeper, he’s a former beekeeper, an elite group of enforcers who are outside the chain of command and charged only with “protecting the hive when the system is out of balance.”
Bad news for anyone standing between Clay and the scale-tipping Danforth.
Screenwriter Kurt Wimmer (Expend4bles, the Point Break and Total Recall reboots) rolls out a script that feels like a discarded idea from Denzel’s first Equalizer film. Each step closer to “the head of the snake” gets more ridiculous, all presented with a bone dry seriousness from Ayer (Fury, Suicide Squad) and Statham that screams for a little self awareness.
Instead, The Beekeeper keeps pushing toward its own misguided goal of sermonizing about corruption while celebrating vigilante vengeance. Where it lands – elevator ride aside – is strictly in plug-and-play Statham territory, another ironic reminder of why his comedic turn in Spy was such a joyous bullseye.
Survive and Advance
Society of the Snow
by George Wolf
2012’s The Impossible proved director J.A. Bayona could recreate a real life disaster with heart-racing precision, and then mine the intimate aftermath to find a touching depth.
Since then, he’s had his big screen mind on monsters, with results both miraculous (A Monster Calls) and mixed (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom). Now, Netflix’s Society of the Snow finds Bayona back in the true adventure business.
And his business in Society of the Snow is heartbreakingly, thrillingly, unbelievably good.
It’s the latest account of the 1972 Andes flight disaster, a legendary ordeal that has been detailed in several books and films over the last five decades plus. Bayona read Pablo Vierci’s “La Sociedad de la Nieve” while researching The Impossible, bought the rights soon after, and now teams with co-writers Bernat Vilaplana and Jaime Marques for a harrowing and fittingly reverent treatment.
Following Vierci’s lead, Bayona makes sure we get to know many of the members of the ill-fated Uruguayan rugby team, who were on their way to a long weekend in Chili when their plane – carrying 40 passengers and 5 crew members – went down among the snowy peaks.
After an introduction that endears the young men to us via enthusiastic friendship and youthful naïveté, Bayona pulls us into the crash experience with a spectacular, terrifying set piece almost guaranteed to whiten your knuckles and quicken your pulse.
It’s a stunner, as it should be, because it anchors the film in a survival mode that will be tested beyond what most people could ever imagine.
The ensemble cast, filled mainly with newcomers, is deeply affecting. The survivors will be pushed to their physical, moral and spiritual breaking points, and these young actors make sure not one exhausting second of it feels false.
Bayona and cinematographer Pedro Lugue present the Andes as a beautiful monster in its own right, capable of majesty and menace in equal measure. The smaller you feel, the better, so experience this one on the biggest screen you can find.
Forget what you know. Even if you’re aware of what these people went through, Society of the Snow will reframe the tale with a deeper level of humanity and courage. And should this legend be new to you, resist the urge to research until after you’ve seen Bayona’s take.
It’s one unforgettable journey.
2023 COFCA Nominations
Nominees for the 22nd annual Columbus Film Critics Association awards
(Columbus, December 31, 2023) The Columbus Film Critics Association is pleased to announce the nominees for its 22nd annual awards. Winners will be announced on the evening of January 4th, 2024.
Founded in 2002, the Columbus Film Critics Association is comprised of film critics based in Columbus, Ohio and its surrounding areas. Its membership consists of 28 print, radio, television, and online critics. COFCA’s official website at www.cofca.org contains links to member reviews and past award winners.
The 2023 Columbus Film Critics Association awards nominees are:
Best Film
–American Fiction
–Barbie
–Godzilla Minus One (Gojira -1.0)
–The Holdovers
–The Iron Claw
–Killers of the Flower Moon
–May December
–Oppenheimer
–Past Lives
–Poor Things
–Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
–The Zone of Interest
Best Director
-Greta Gerwig, Barbie
-Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things
-Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
-Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
-Celine Song, Past Lives
Best Lead Performance
-Bradley Cooper, Maestro
-Leonardo DiCaprio, Killers of the Flower Moon
-Colman Domingo, Rustin
-Zac Efron, The Iron Claw
-Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
-Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
-Greta Lee, Past Lives
-Carey Mulligan, Maestro
-Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
-Margot Robbie, Barbie
-Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers
-Emma Stone, Poor Things
-Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
Best Supporting Performance
-Penélope Cruz, Ferrari
-Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon
-Robert Downey Jr. – Oppenheimer
-Jodie Foster, Nyad
-Ryan Gosling, Barbie
-Glenn Howerton, Blackberry
-Charles Melton, May December
-Julianne Moore, May December
-Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
-Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things
-Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers
Best Ensemble
–Asteroid City
–Barbie
–The Color Purple
–Killers of the Flower Moon
–Oppenheimer
–Poor Things
Actor of the Year (for an exemplary body of work)
-Willem Dafoe, Asteroid City, The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa dô ikiru ka), Inside, and Poor Things
-Matt Damon, Air and Oppenheimer
-Colman Domingo, The Color Purple, Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken, Rustin, and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
-Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d’une chute) and The Zone of Interest
-Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction, Asteroid City, and Rustin
Breakthrough Film Artist
-Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon – (for acting)
-Cord Jefferson, American Fiction – (for directing and screenwriting)
-Charles Melton, May December – (for acting)
-Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers – (for acting)
-Celine Song, Past Lives – (for directing and screenwriting)
Best Cinematography
-Matthew Libatique, Maestro
-Rodrigo Prieto, Barbie
-Rodrigo Prieto, Killers of the Flower Moon
-Robbie Ryan, Poor Things
-Hoyte Van Hoytema, Oppenheimer
Best Film Editing
-Michael Andrews, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
-Kirk Baxter, The Killer
-Nick Houy, Barbie
-Jennifer Lame, Oppenheimer
-Yorgos Mavropsaridis, Poor Things
-Thelma Schoonmaker, Killers of the Flower Moon
Best Adapted Screenplay
-Kelly Fremon Craig, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
-Cord Jefferson, American Fiction
-Tony McNamara, Poor Things
-Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
-Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
Best Original Screenplay
-Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola, Asteroid City
-Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik, May December
-Sean Durkin, The Iron Claw
-Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie
-David Hemingson, The Holdovers
-Celine Song, Past Lives
-Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d’une chute)
Best Score
-Jerskin Fendrix, Poor Things
-Ludwig Göransson, Oppenheimer
-Laura Karpman, American Fiction
-Robbie Robertson, Killers of the Flower Moon
-Naoki Satô, Godzilla Minus One (Gojira -1.0)
Best Documentary
–20 Days in Mariupol
–32 Sounds
–American Symphony
–Anselm (Anselm – Das Rauschen der Zeit)
–Kokomo City
–Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Best Foreign Language Film
–Afire (Roter Himmel)
–Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d’une chute)
–The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa dô ikiru ka)
–Godzilla Minus One (Gojira -1.0)
–Perfect Days
–The Zone of Interest
Best Animated Film
–The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa dô ikiru ka)
–Elemental
–Nimona
–Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
–Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Frank Gabrenya Award for Best Comedy
–American Fiction
–Asteroid City
–Barbie
–Bottoms
–The Holdovers
–No Hard Feelings
–You Hurt My Feelings
Best Overlooked Film
–Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
–Blackberry
–Rye Lane
–Showing Up
–Theater Camp
–You Hurt My Feelings
COFCA offers its congratulations to the nominees.
Previous Best Film winners:
2002: Punch-Drunk Love
2003: Lost in Translation
2004: Million Dollar Baby
2005: A History of Violence
2006: Children of Men
2007: No Country for Old Men
2008: WALL·E
2009: Up in the Air
2010: Inception
2011: Drive
2012: Moonrise Kingdom
2013: Gravity
2014: Selma
2015: Spotlight
2016: La La Land
2017: Lady Bird
2018: If Beale Street Could Talk
2019: Parasite (Gisaengchung)
2020: Promising Young Woman
2021: The Power of the Dog
2022: The Banshees of Inisherin
For more information about the Columbus Film Critics Association, please visit www.cofca.org or e-mail info@cofca.org.
The complete list of members and their affiliations:
Richard Ades (Columbus Free Press); Dwayne Bailey (Bailey’s Buzz); Adam Barney (The Film Coterie); Sam Brady (I Am Sam Reviews); Logan Burd (Cinema or Cine-meh?); Kevin Carr (www.FatGuysattheMovies.com, Westwood One); Michael Cavender (cinedump.com, pophorror.com); Bill Clark (www.fromthebalcony.com); Olie Coen (Archer Avenue, DVD Talk); John DeSando (90.5 WCBE); Johnny DiLoretto (90.5 WCBE, PencilStorm.com); Chris Feil (FilmMixTape.com, TheFilmExperience.net); Mark Jackson (MovieManJackson.com, ThatMomentIn.com); Brad Keefe (freelance); Kristin Dreyer Kramer (NightsAndWeekends.com, 90.5 WCBE); Adam Kuhn (Corndog Chats); Roger Legg (The Film Coterie, Faith and Film); Hope Madden (Columbus Underground, WTTE-TV, MaddWolf.com); Paul Markoff (Filmbound); Denny O’Leary (Columbus Free Press); Lori Pearson (Kids-in-Mind.com, critics.com); Mark Pfeiffer (Filmbound, Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema); Melissa Starker (Freelance); Brandon Thomas (MaddWolf.com); Rachel Willis (MaddWolf.com); George Wolf (Columbus Underground, WTTE-TV, MaddWolf.com); Jason Zingale (Bullz-Eye.com); Nathan Zoebl (NathanZoebl.com, Psycho Drive-In).
One Heart
The Color Purple
by George Wolf
No matter how familiar you are with Alice Walker’s original novel, or Spielberg’s 1985 film, director Blitz Bazawule’s adaptation of The Color Purple Broadway musical comes to the big screen as a heartfelt and joyous experience.
Yes, it is the same, often heartbreaking story. Young sisters Celie (Phylicia Pearl Mpasi) and Nettie (Halle Bailey) are separated in early 1900s Georgia, and adult Celie (an Oscar-worthy Fantasia Barrino, reprising her Broadway role) endures decades of heartache and abuse before proudly reclaiming her dignity.
Memorable characters and story beats surround Celie in the first two acts. Celie’s abusive husband Mister (Colman Domingo) pines for the famous singer Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson), while son Harpo (Corey Hawkins) opens a juke joint and Harpo’s proud and defiant wife Sofia (Danielle Brooks, reprising her role from the 2015 Broadway revival) suffers repercussions from standing up to a white mayor and his condescending wife.
Through all the engaging drama and jubilant musical set pieces, Miss Celie bides her time, slowly inching closer to when both character and star step into the stoplight.
And when that third act hits, it is a glorious exhibition of pride, music and love. With Fantasia’s show-stopping rendition of “I’m Here,” Miss Celie begins to stand on her own as a successful business woman, and the film delivers her some well-earned flowers.
Have those tissues handy, but rest assured they will all be tears of joy. Because as much suffering as Miss Celie and her family endure, that pain is not what drives this vision. Bazawule, Barrino and a top flight ensemble make this The Color Purple an uplifting celebration of heritage and family, and an exhilarating film experience.
Treading Water
The Boys in the Boat
by George Wolf
We last heard from director George Clooney two years ago, when a fine supporting turn from Ben Affleck was the only thing saving The Tender Bar. That film was so obvious and rote that any interest it inspired in the source novel was only to see what Clooney found so special about it.
He’s back behind the camera for The Boys in the Boat, and unfortunately, none of those boys is Ben Affleck. Because again, we get an inspiring true-life tale presented with none of the humanity, tension or freshness it needs to be inspirational.
It does look good, though.
Clooney leans on screenwriter Mark L. Smith (The Revenant, Clooney’s own The Midnight Sky) to adapt Daniel J Brown’s biography of The University of Washington’s 1936 rowing team. Leading up to that year’s Olympics in Berlin, the group of young rowers hoped to vanquish Hitler’s prized athletes in a contest we’re told is “more poetry than sport.”
Smith’s script tells us a lot of things, but Clooney never manages to make us feel much of anything.
Young Joe Rantz (Callum Turner, fairly lifeless) needs money for shoes, a roof and tuition, so he tries out for the rowing team when he learns team members get a job and a room. He endures coach Al Ulbrickson’s (Joel Edgerton) grueling boot camp to make the squad, and the victories start piling up, right alongside the cliches (hey, that old man tending the boats might have wisdom to share!)
Joe’s romance with the spunky Joyce (Hadley Robinson) comes just as easily, while Joe’s awkward reunion with his alcoholic father lands as a lazy attempt to rekindle memories of Hoosiers without the same investment in character development. Possible avenues for tension – such as a mysterious illness for one team member – are conjured up and then resolved with more regard for convenience than effect.
Remember, George Clooney is an Oscar-nominated director, and that 2005 nod for Good Night, and Good Luck was well-deserved. Since he’s stepped away from co-writing his projects (2012’s The Ides of March earned him a writing nom), though, the results have leaned more and more toward shallow formula.
Here, Clooney does prove adept with some gorgeous shot-making around the water, but even then you wish Martin Ruhe’s cinematography could linger just a beat or two longer each time.
The Boys in the Boat might already be a full two hours, but a few more seconds of beauty could help ease the sting of so much time spent showing us so little that’s truly interesting.
Band of Brothers
Immediate Family
by George Wolf
In the last couple decades, documentaries such as Standing in the Shadows of Motown and the Oscar-winning 20 Feet from Stardom have given just due to the unknown musicians and singers who have long backed up our idols.
Director Denny Tedesco may have been first with the idea, though his debut doc The Wrecking Crew! endured years of delays until its 2008 release. Tedesco is back with Immediate Family, and while he’s still looking behind the musical scenes, his second feature boasts some important distinctions.
To start, it’s much more contemporary. This one features a trove of interviews that are not only recent, but feature musicians that are still highly relevant, such as Stevie Nicks, Don Henley, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Keith Richards, Lyle Lovett and more.
And secondly, for serious music fans (and even casual fans of a certain age), the names Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel, Waddy Wachtel and Danny “Kooch” Kortchmar may already be plenty familiar. As the film points out, that’s largely thanks to producers Peter Asher and Lou Adler, who in the 1970s decided to start featuring the names and faces of these longtime sidemen in the liner notes of the many albums they played on.
But even if you recognize these players, it’s still a kick to hear the superstars go into detail about how valuable they are, and to watch their specific grooves morph into fully produced classics.
It all follows a formula very similar to the one that made The Wrecking Crew! so irresistible, but with greatly improved production values that increase the immediacy along with the timeline.
Immediate Family ends up feeling like the next logical step in Tedesco’s musical journey. We get more great tunes, witness more important stages in the evolution of popular music, and spend some quality time with four more unique talents that are well worth getting to know better.
She Seems Nice
Eileen
by George Wolf
You need an “easy on the eyes” vamp for your nourish thriller? Anne Hathaway’s on your short list, for sure.
Soft-spoken, sheltered waif with eyes that long for a new life? Get me Thomasin McKenzie!
The casting in Eileen may be no surprise, but there are big surprises in store. And the way the two leads slowly draw their characters toward a deadly intersection keeps William Oldroyd’s second feature engaging throughout.
McKenzie is the put-upon Eileen, who quietly spends her days fantasizing about sex and violence and stashing away all the money she makes doing secretarial work at a boys correction facility in early 1960s Massachusetts. Eileen is also the daughter of the town’s former police chief (Shea Whigham), currently a paranoid, drunk widower with a penchant for verbal abuse and gun waving.
Eileen’s world is rocked when the facility’s staff psychologist retires, and Rebecca (Anne Hathaway) shows up to replace her. Tall, Ivy League-schooled with a sarcastic wit and a smoldering sensuality, Rebecca stands out plenty in the little New England ‘burg.
They meet for a couple drinks at the local bar and hit the dance floor while Rebecca belittles the leering regulars. Eileen is transfixed.
So she jumps at the invitation to visit over the holiday break, where Rebecca (and screenwriter Luke Goebel, Causeway) have a big bomb to drop.
Adapted from Ottessa Mosfegh’s award-winning 2015 novel, the film is a slow boil that leans on mood and atmospherics to lull you, even as you feel the creep of dread.
Both Hathaway and McKenzie are perfection, consistently smoothing the bumps when Oldroyd (Lady Macbeth) seems a bit hesitant to fully embrace the story’s pulpy underbelly. He and Goebel also tweak the novel’s ending, leaving the resolution more open-ended and abstract.
Fans of the book may feel slighted, but Eileen lands on the big screen as its own slippery shape shifter, a simmering throwback with just enough thrills to satisfy.
Your Roots Are Showing
Godzilla Minus One
by George Wolf
“Get back to your roots.”
It’s an old adage, maybe even a cliche. But Godzilla Minus One reminds us it can also be a damn good idea.
Writer/director Takashi Yamazaki returns to themes he explored ten years ago in The Fighter Pilot, tips some unmistakable hats to both Jaws and Dunkirk, and emerges with a completely satisfying Kaiju adventure.
And though Yamazaki makes sure Godzilla wreaks his havoc early and often, Minus One is a film driven by characters with all-too-human complexities.
As Japan is struggling to recover from WWII, pilot Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is suffering from survivor’s guilt, and the taunts of townspeople who feel he is a coward for not “dying with honor.” He’s also suppressing memories of Godzilla, the whispered-about monster he witnessed wipe out an island military base near the end of the war.
Years pass, with Koichi scraping by in the small place he shares with Noriko (Minami Hamabe) and the orphan child she has taken in. In need of money, Koichi accepts a dangerous job clearing old mines from coastal waters. And once out on the boat, Koichi and his shipmates realize they’re going to need a bigger one.
Yamazaki – who’s also credited as the VFX supervisor – gives Godzilla a wonderfully classic look, with imposing and well-defined features like those spiky scales that turn blue when he’s about to spit that fire! Hell yeah!
But back to the roots.
By taking the setting back to post-war Japan, Yamazaki’s script not only revisits the original cautions of the atomic age, but adds some new layers of depth. The clever plan to defeat Godzilla may let Japan rewrite some history, but Yamazaki doesn’t let his homeland’s approach to war off that easy.
The morals are clearly marked, but this is a crowd pleasing and often thrilling adventure, with some well-chosen moments of humor woven into a pace that rarely bogs down, despite a bit of schmaltz and one or two unsurprising surprises that dot the landscape. Yamazaki deftly balances the destruction with the reflection, and Minus One raises up a welcome addition to Godzilla lore.
