Companion

 

         This new, very black comedy is written and directed by Drew Hancock. If you've seen the latest trailer (avoid the trailer if you can), you may know a significant plot point already but be prepared for plenty of other surprises.

          Mr. Hancock has fashioned the most twisted love story I've seen in years. The story is fresh, very original and extremely clever. What begins as a seemingly cute girl meets boy story eventually goes completely off the rails. As a warning, expect some violent moments.

          Sophie Thatcher stars as Iris and she is absolutely terrific. Her boyfriend is played by Jack Quaid (from Prime's "The Boys" and the voice of Boimler on "Star Trek Lower Decks"). The two are lots of fun together...until they're not.

          The film co-stars Lukas Gage as Patrick, Megan Suri as Kat, Harvey Guillen as Eli, and Rupert Friend as Sergey. Marc Manchaca has a cameo as Deputy Hendrix. 

          While I saw it on an IMAX screen, it's not necessarily the kind of film that's enhanced by that format. It will be just as gonzo in regular theaters as well. 

          

            

Presence

 

         This is a supernatural, haunted house story unlike any other. Written by David Koepp and directed by Steven Soderbergh, the entire film is presented from the point of view of the "presence". The POV is actually Mr. Soderbergh's camera as he moves throughout a beautiful home occupied by a family of four.

         The family is played by Lucy Liu as Rebecca, the mom and Chris Sullivan as Chris, the dad. Their older teenager son, Tyler is played by Eddy Maday and the younger teenage daughter Chloe, is played by Callina Liang. Chloe has been recently traumatized by the apparent overdose of her best friend. Tyler is a high school swimming champ but also has typical teen angst. Rebecca and Chris have cracks in the marriage that grow larger as the film goes on. The issues of the entire family are observed by the "presence" but only Chloe seems to sense it.  

         A friend of Tyler's, Ryan is introduced during the film and an unhealthy attraction develops between him and Chloe. Ryan is played by West Mulholland, and his real intentions are not revealed until the last act.

        When Tyler relates a cruel school prank to the family, they all become aware of the "presence" when it reacts to his story. They bring in a medium played by Natalie Woolams-Torres who feels the "presence" and offers a clue to its intentions, which Chloe insists are not menacing.

        Very little happens besides the "presence" roaming the house listening to the family's growing issues and occasionally moving objects and doors around, until the plot comes together in the final act.

       The entire film is just another interesting Soderbergh experiment in filmmaking. Interesting from a technical point of view but as an entertainment, it's far from scary and actually pretty boring.

Flight Risk

 

       This time of the year is reserved for a dumping ground of films that are just barely greenlit. This is one of them but it's a decent enough thrill ride for a mid-winter release.

       Typically Liam Neeson would be starring as the hero in a film like this but in a nice twist, one of my personal favorites, Michelle Dockery (very far from Downton Abby) is U.S. Marshall Harris transporting a key witness in an important trial. She catches up with the witness, Winston, played by Topher Grace in a remote Alaskan town and has to charter a small plane to reach Anchorage.  Mark Wahlberg is the pilot. Once in the air, things start to go wrong and there are some fun action scenes. 

       Almost quietly during the credits, we find out the film was directed by Mel Gibson. I guess the studio felt his name associated with the film might turn away a segment of its potential audience. Say what you will about his politics or religious beliefs, he knows how to direct an action film.

       This is a "check your brain" at the door, "popcorn" movie  and easy to enjoy. As a bonus,  the Alaskan scenery is beautiful on a theater screen.

                

Hard Truths

 

    Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin reunite (last seen together in "Secrets & Lies") as sisters in writer/director Mike Leigh's latest comic drama. As, sisters the two are complete opposites. Pansy (Ms. Jean Baptiste) is a depressed, anxiety ridden, angry woman who can barely function and Chantelle (Ms. Austin) is her happier sister who works as a hairdresser and has two adult employed daughters.

     Pansy lives with her sullen husband Curtley (played by David Webber) and her aimless adult son, Moses (played by Tuwaine Barrett). It's an unhappy marriage, an unhappy family and a meager co-existence. Whenever Pansy does manage to leave the house for chores or a doctor's visit, she takes her anger out on everyone around her. Many of these confrontations are humorous at first but ultimately sad as Pansy can't break her cycle.

     The same can be said for the film in general. What's funny at first is really heartbreaking as there is a total lack of communication and a loveless void within Pansy's family. Things begin to change ever so slightly when Chantelle takes Pansy to visit their mother's gravesite and then invites her, Curtly and Moses back to her house to "celebrate" Mother's Day.

      Ms. Jean Baptiste is absolutely wonderful in a very difficult part. Mr. Webber and Mr. Barrett move through the film in an almost catatonic state and it's a credit to their acting to successfully bring a sense of hard reality to their roles. 

     Mr. Leigh has created an intense character study of a woman with many difficult issues. It's not an easy watch but Ms. Jean Baptiste's performance is remarkable, and Mr. Leigh does offer a small glimmer of hope by the end of the film.

Wolf Man

 

      Co-written (with Corbett Tuck) and directed by Leigh Whannell, this is nothing like Lon Chaney Jr's original 1941 film, "The Wolf Man". Mr. Whannell seeks to add emotional depth by focusing on a single family's danger when the father starts to slowly transform into a wolf-like creature.

Blake (played by Christopher Abbott), his wife Charlotte (played by Julia Garner) and their daughter Ginger (played by Matilda Firth) return to the Oregon farm where he lived a a young boy with his father. The film opens with father and son hunting deer but have a brief encounter with something else. It then jumps 30 years later when Blake takes his family from New York to the Oregon farm to pack up his father's things after he learns of his father's death.

Clawed by a creature on the way to the farm, Blake spends the remainder of the movie transforming into the title character. The transformation is deliberately slow to wring out more emotion and anxiety as Blake struggles to maintain his humanity without harming his family.

Don't expect many traditional scares but there is plenty of tension especially as Blake's feral side starts to take over. There is an interesting lighting effect as we see certain scenes through Blake's "animal" night vision. The special effects are rather strange as Blake develops wolflike qualities but never actually looks like a wolf. Ultimately, we've seen films with families terrorized by various horrors before and this is no different.

Mr. Abbott has the daunting task of acting through layers of makeup and does a reasonable job. Always a reliable actress Ms. Garner's character doesn't have much to do here except attempt to save her daughter and Ms. Firth just wants her daddy to "get better".

There is a clever twist in the middle of the film that savvy viewers will probably see coming and it certainly has it's gory moments but I still prefer the 1941 classic.

I'm Still Here

 

        Directed by Walter Salles from a memoir by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, this new biographical drama takes place during the dictatorship regime in Brazil during the 1970's. 

         Rubens and Eunice Paiva have five children and live in a lovely house at the beach in Rio De Janeiro. Rubens is a retired congressman working in a civil engineering job. They are a tight knit family with obvious love for each other. Their house is often filled with friends and family. One day government men come and take Rubens away for "questioning". It is then up to Eunice to learn what happened to her husband while keeping her family together (even while she holds back her own anxiety and anger) in his absence.

        The film stars Fernanda Torres as Eunice and she has already won a well- deserved Golden Globe for her wonderful performance. Selton Mello plays Rubens. Their children are played by Guiherme Silveria as Marcelo (later, Antonio Saboia as an adult), Valentina Herszage as Vera (later, Maria Manoella as an adult), Luiza Kosovski as Eliana (later, Marjorie Estiano as an adult), Barbara Luz as Nalu (later, Gabriela Carneiro as an adult), and Cora Mora as Maria (later, Oliva Torres as an adult). Late in the film, Fernanda Montenegro (Ms. Torres real mother) plays an elderly Eunice, and even while suffering from Alzheimer's, she has one amazing moment of clarity.

       Mr. Salles actually knew the family and had spent time in their house as a young teenager. You can feel the warmth and love in his direction in every shot because of this relationship. His scenic designer faithfully recreates the house based on Mr. Paiva's memoir and Mr. Salles's memory. The house itself, becomes another character, brought to life as a sixth member of the family. The acting is so effortless, it's like watching a documentary rather than a scripted film.

       While the story may be tragic, Ms. Torres's love and resilience keep her family together and even in the face of despair, it is a profoundly moving film. 

The Six Triple Eight

 

     Written and directed by Tyler Perry, this untold, true story of World War Two tells the story of a a very different kind of battle. It is the true story of an all black women battalion, who's job was to sort and make sure, millions of pieces of correspondence were delivered to soldiers fighting all over Europe.

      A film about sorting and delivering mail doesn't sound very interesting but credit Mr. Perry for finding the emotional core of what was an almost impossible task for anyone, let alone a battalion of black women that white, bigoted officers were convinced would fail.

      The film stars Kerry Washington as Major Charity Adams and she gives a powerful performance. Her foil is the racist General Halt, played by a sneering Dean Norris. Milauna Jackson plays Captain Noel Campbell. Shanice Shantay plays Johnnie Mae Burton and Sarah Jeffery plays Dolores Washington. Sam Waterston, Oprah Winfrey, and Susan Sarandon all have cameos. The emotional center of the film, however, comes from Ebony Obsidian as Lena Derriecot, who enlists to "fight Hitler". We follow her struggle from bootcamp to the mail assignment and Ms. Obsidian is a young talent whose star is sure to rise after this film.

       It's actually a pretty exciting story as the women race the clock (they are given 90 days to sort millions of letters and parcels) to complete their assignment and given it's true nature, it's an incredibly inspiring story as well.

       This is a Netflix production that is currently streaming.

The Last Showgirl

 

    Written by Kate Gersten, based on her book and directed by Gia Coppola, this new drama is a revelation for it's lead actress, Pamela Anderson. Devoid of any makeup and acting on pure emotion, Ms. Anderson delivers one of the best performances of the year.

     Shelly (Ms. Anderson) has been a showgirl in Las Vegas for over 30 years. She is still going strong at fifty seven but when she learns that her iconic show will shortly be playing it's last performance, her world is turned upside down.

      The film co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis as Annette, Shelly's best friend and a former showgirl, now an aging cocktail waitress in a casino. Dave Bautista plays Eddie, the producer of Shelly's show and a former boyfriend. Brenda Song and Kiernan Shipka are showgirl colleagues. Billie Lourd plays Hannah, Shelly's estranged daughter Jason Schwartzman has a cameo as a nameless director auditioning dancers. Ms. Curtis is clearly having a great time and yet plays her role with an underlying sadness. It's refreshing to see Mr. Bautista in a straight dramatic role where he doesn't shoot or punch anyone.

       While all the acting is excellent, Ms. Anderson is simply amazing. It's unfortunate that the script is not stronger as the material doesn't hold up to the acting. While it's a thin story, it does make a tragically true point about the afterlife of aging showgirls.

       Ms. Coppola brings out the best in Ms. Anderson but her constant use of extreme closeups could have been dialed back a bit. That criticism aside, see it for Pamela Anderson's triumph. 

The Damned

 

       Directed by Thordur Palsson, who also wrote the story, this is a moderately creepy "horror" story perfect for a cold winter's night.

        Eva played by Odessa Young is a young widow running her husband's remote fishing post located on an isolated shoreline of some unnamed Artic or Icelandic region. It's the middle of a freezing winter and Eva and her six fishermen are at least three days away from any town.

        An impossible decision awaits Eva when they all watch a ship sink off shore. With barely enough food to survive themselves and only one small fishing boat, do they try to save any survivors or just let them all drown. The consequences of Eva's decision leads to superstition and madness as the group begin to believe they are being stalked by an evil presence, a "Draugur".

        The film co-stars Joe Cole, Siobhan Finneran, Lewis Gribben, Francis Magee, Rory McCann, Turlough Convery, Micheal Og Lane, and Andrean Sigurgeirsson. Kudos to the cast and crew for filming in what appears to be pretty harsh conditions.

        Mr. Palsson creates an atmosphere of rising tension in an eerie, unhospitable environment. Shadows and dark corners may or may not hide the Draugur. Death seems inevitable foretold by Eva's charwoman, Helga. Without any "hide your eyes" types of scares, the film still elicits goosebumps during moody and violent scenes. 

Nickel Boys

 

      Co-written (with Joslyn Barnes) and directed by RaMell Ross, this is a historical drama set in a fictional reform school in Florida. The "Nickel School" is based on the "Dozier School For Boys", which was a notorious institution where boys were routinely beaten, sexually abused and even killed.

      Mr. Ross has a bold vision for storytelling. He shoots the film with a first person POV (point of view) and in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. This creates an immersive experience for the viewer but it is can also be jarring and takes some getting used to. You never see the main characters on screen together (even though they may be in the same scene) as the camera switches the POV throughout the film. He also lingers the camera on various imagery which is visually poetic but can also be overwhelming. In addition, there are black and white clips that may or may not be actual footage from the Dozier school interspersed throughout the film. It all makes for a unique way of storytelling that focuses on Elwood and Turner, two boys at the school who become close friends.

      Ethan Herisse plays Elwood and Brandon Wilson plays Turner and they are both excellent. The film also co-stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Hattie, Elwood's grandmother, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Jimmie Fails, and Daveed Diggs.

      Mr. Ross also employs some flashforward scenes that may cause some confusion for the viewer at the end of the film unless you have read the book.

      This is an intense drama with many unsettling scenes but it is also an important story that, while fictional, exposes a very real injustice.

The Brutalist

 

           A stunning achievement by director and co-writer (with Mona Fastvold) Barry Corbett, this new drama tells the story of Laszlo Toth, a Hungarian-Jewish immigrant who arrives in New York two years after the end of World War Two. Laszlo is an architect struggling to achieve his American dream until fate introduces him to wealthy Harrison Lee Van Buren, who becomes his patron.

           Adrien Brody plays Toth and he is brilliant. He is the perfect "soulful" actor for the role. Guy Pierce plays Van Buren and it's his best role in years. The eccentric billionaire and the Jewish architect develop an unusual relationship when Van Buren commissions Toth to build a community center in honor of his late mother. The film co-stars  Felicity Jones, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Alessandro Nivola, and Emma Laird.

          Mr. Corbett has fashioned an emotional story of the immigrant experience. He also presents the film in an old fashioned Hollywood style. There is an Overture, then Act One, followed by an actual twenty minute intermission and then Act Two followed by an Epilogue. It's also filmed in Vistavison, providing a widescreen effect that blends beautifully with the camerawork.

          The film has stunning cinematography by Lol Crawley and superb art direction by Judy Becker. Combined with a wonderful score by Daniel Blumberg, costumes and sets, the film truly is a work of art.

          An epic story depicting the highs and lows of Laszlo's life (with an underlying theme of antisemitism running throughout), the film is mesmerizing, however, personally I felt the ending was too rushed and the epilogue left some unanswered questions. Even so, it is an intense experience best enjoyed on the large screen of a theater.