Tag: review

Movie review: Parallel Mothers

two Oscar nominationsm

Parallel MothersParallel Mothers is the new movie by director/writer Pedro Almodóvar. Janis (Penélope Cruz) and Ana (Milena Smit) are two single women sharing a hospital room where they are each going to give birth. Though both pregnancies were unintended, the 40ish Janis is excited. Ana, a teenager, conversely, is terrified and feels uncertain.

They bond, and, after a time, end up keeping in touch. Each has a complicating person in her life. For Ana, it’s her actress-mother Teresa (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón). She is torn between her daughter and her irregular career.

Janis is negotiating with Arturo (Israel Elejalde), who is helping her with historical family trauma, unearthing the remains of her great-grandfather, who was “disappeared” by rebels affiliated with Franco. Oh, and he’s the father of her child.

Janis is a successful photographer for a magazine. But as a new mom, she has to juggle work and motherhood. At one point, a certain important plot point became obvious to me. I guessed how the storyline would then play out, but I was very wrong.

The reign in Spain

How does Almodóvar deal with the complications in both women’s lives? Deftly, in an almost Solomonic manner, I think. More than one reviewer has pointed to the director’s “delirious use of color, his ecstatic aesthetic and a sense of the theatrical.” Parallel Mothers is all about truth (and the suppression of same) and passion and what family means and dealing with history v. living in the present.

Cruz and Almodóvar have collaborated in seven films. I know I’ve seen at least two others, All About My Mother and Volver. This one is the most fully realized, IMO.

Penélope Cruz is, as most critics  noted, luminescent. One of them coveted Janis’ red sweater. Ms. Cruz has rightly been nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. Milena Smit, a movie newcomer, performs amazingly well.

The movie is also nominated for an Academy Award for Alberto Iglesias in the category Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score). Recommended. Oh, yeah, the film is subtitled. Here is the trailer.

My wife and I saw this on a date night at Landmark’s Spectrum Theatre in Albany, alas, in its final week.

Movie review -Spider-Man: No Way Home

multiverse

Is there a point in reviewing a film that has already grossed over a billion dollars worldwide, and in only 12 days? Who knows? Still, I need to discuss the movie Spider-Man: No Way Home.

It has to do with my great affection for Spider-Man, and even more for Peter Parker. I even edited an issue of a magazine about the web-slinger.

In the past few years, I had scurried to see all of the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I haven’t, to date, seen any of the ones in this current crop: Black Widow, Shang-Chi, or The Eternals, though I probably will eventually.

It’s not necessary to have seen all of the earlier Spider-Man films to appreciate the new one. Still, in 2020, I watched four I had not viewed before. I do think it enhanced my enjoyment, especially the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

For you non-comics fans, the broad idea of a multiverse is that there are a lot of Spider-Man stories that exist over nearly 60 years. Invariably internal inconsistencies arise. So some stories are about Spider-Man in OTHER universes. If you get that, you can appreciate No Way Home just fine.

Peter Parker is Spider-Man!

The secret of our Peter (Tom Holland) is out, as we learned at the very end of the previous film, Spider-Man: Far From Home. Daily Bugle blowhard J. Jonah Jamison (J.K. Simmons) accuses him of a heinous crime. This puts the people he cares about, girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), best pal Ned (Jacob Batalon), and Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), in danger. Can Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) cast a spell to erase people knowing that Peter is Spidey? But wait, not everyone…

We end up with villains engaging with Spider-Man. But he’s not THEIR Peter Parker. They can be sent back to their own universes. But don’t they deserve a shot of redemption? If by chance you haven’t seen it, just about everything I could say further would be a spoiler. If you HAVE seen the movie, read how it was shaped by its casting.

I can report that I loved this movie. There’s a scene, reminiscent of a part of another film but with a different outcome that made me a little teary-eyed. (It’s the storyline from Amazing Spider-Man #121, the second issue of the comic I ever purchased.) By the end, the reset button has been hit for our friendly, neighborhood hero, and that is a good thing. And, maybe because it was the season, elements of It’s A Wonderful Life came to mind.

Does it have too much insider humor? A negative review notes: “There’s no attempt to hide that the film is pure fan service, a greatest-hits mashup of Spider-Man’s cinematic legacy.” If it’s a fan service project – and the writers are clearly fans -then it succeeded wildly. But I think the non-initiated can enjoy it too.

I saw No Way Home at Spectrum 8 in Albany, a Landmark Theatre, in the last week of 2021. That was before I realized, per an SNL cold open, that  Joe Biden blamed ‘Spider-Man’ for all of the nation’s problems.

Movie review: West Side Story

There’s a place for us

West Side StoryOf course, my wife my daughter, and I HAD to go see the new movie West Side Story. Not only have we all seen the original film a number of times, but we’ve all attended at least three stage productions of the musical.

First, we loved the physical setup of the opening. The signage suggests the future location of Lincoln Center. It makes sense. “April 21, 1955: The Mayor’s Slum Clearance Committee chaired by Robert Moses is approved by the New York City Board of Estimate to designate Lincoln Square for urban renewal.” Nine years later, buildings began opening. The rubble in the new film was more believable.

Thus, this iteration is in keeping with the timeframe of the original musical (1957) and movie (1961). Of course, the vintage cars would tip one off as well.

This Tony (Ansel Elgort) has a rap sheet, less the dewy-eyed kid from film #1. So his Something’s Coming is less a certainty than a need. But he has the support of Valentina (executive producer Rita Moreno), who is the widow of Doc, who had run the store in the first movie. Valentina is a more substantial character and gets the most affecting song late in the story.

Fancy colors

My daughter noted the color schemes of the Jets (blues, greys) and Sharks (reds, browns). Though I wasn’t consciously aware of this, I must have subliminally picked up on the motif.

This Anita (Ariana DeBose) is at least as feisty as her predecessor, as Bernardo (David Alvarez) finds out. The “eyes lock across the room” between Tony and Maria (Rachel Zegler) isn’t as dramatically corny as in the first film.

What I loved about Tony singing the song Maria afterward is that other people notice, some with admiration, others with disdain, which was occasionally funny.

America was enhanced by dancing in the streets, with passersby occasionally getting a line. Gee, Officer Krupke really works in the new setting, with the ultimate musical payoff. One Hand, One Heart is lovely.

I always found Cool to be the weakest song in the show. In the musical, it’s before The Rumble, but afterward in the original film. It’s before here, but serving a very different purpose, showing a rift between Tony and Riff (Mike Faist).

The Tonight Quintet is the piece that first made me fall in love with West Side Story. The set of The Rumble, with the long shadows, worked well. So did the Gimbels, an old competitor of Macy’s in the day, for I Feel Pretty.

Opera?

My nutritionist said that WSS is an opera. No more so than A Boy Like That/I Have A Love. The scene at Doc’s with Anita and the Jets was stronger this time.

It seems that from where Chino (Josh Andrés Rivera) shoots Tony, he could have also wounded Maria as well. This Chino was better developed. So was Anybodys (Iris Menas). This is a very talented cast.

If not every note feels as it did when I saw the original nearly six decades ago, it’s OK. Some folks complained that there was some dialogue in Spanish that was not translated. Given the fact that people throughout – the cops, and even Bernardo – were insisting people “speak English”, it was no big deal to me. But I will allow there was occasionally a bit too much talking altogether, IMO.

Still, we’re glad we saw the new film. The critics mostly agree. The box office was rather anemic. Did that have anything to do with allegations against Elgort?

A more fundamental question is whether there should be a remake at all. Did we NEED another version of A Star Is Born a couple of years ago? I dunno, but I don’t spend much time thinking about it.

I’m glad that WSS lyricist Stephen Sondheim got to see this film before he died. He said that he loved it. My family saw it at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany on December 30.

Movie review: The French Dispatch

Liberty, Kansas

French DispatchSince I have enjoyed many of Wes Anderson’s films, I went to see a matinee of The French Dispatch. For a time, I was the ONLY person in the Spectrum 8 theater, but during the previews, a couple came in.

I was fond of the conceit of the movie, that a newspaper in Liberty, Kansas, for reasons of nepotism, had an outpost in Ennui, France. And I did appreciate the “love letter to journalists.”

The framing story is that when Arthur Howitzer, Jr. (Bill Murray ) dies, so does the Dispatch. After a brief piece of a guy on a bicycle (Owen Wilson) picking some bizarre highlights of the city, there are three main stories.

The first major piece involves Moses Rosenthal (Benicio Del Toro), a murderer in prison, who takes up art to keep his sanity, perhaps. His muse is prison guard Simone (Léa Seydoux). An art dealer (Julian Brody) tries to convince his uncles (Bob Babalan, Henry Winkler) to invest in the prison artist. This segment is reported by J.K.L. Berensen (Tilda Swinton). I liked the absurdity of the manufactured art market.

Freedom!

The second section was about student rebellion, led by Zeffirelli (Timothée Chalamet) and Juliette (Lyna Khoudri). Can Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand) keep her journalistic objectivity? This section left me flat.

The last substantial part involves The Commissaire (Mathieu Amalric) inviting Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright) to a dinner prepared by the great chef Nescaffier (Stephen Park). But then a crime is committed, and Wright is caught in the middle of the pursuit of the criminals. Wright retells the story to a talk show host (Liev Schreiber).

This may be the most absurd of the three – not necessarily a bad thing. So much so that a bit of the chase is rendered in animation. It may also be my favorite, largely on the strength of Wright’s performance.

Very Wes Anderson

Leonard Maltin noted: “This is not the first time Anderson has devoted too much time to minutiae and too little to actual storytelling. Even devotees of his work may find this an exercise in frustration-albeit an exceptionally handsome one.” I wasn’t frustrated, but I certainly understand where he was coming from. 74% of the critics and 76% of the audience liked The French Dispatch.

If you admire Wes Anderson’s quirky and occasionally indulgent work, you may appreciate this one. I have enjoyed Isle of Dogs (2018), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014 – my favorite), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), and  Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009). But I hated The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). I never saw The Darjeeling Limited (2007), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), Rushmore (1998), or Bottle Rocket (1996).

Movie review: Belfast [Branaugh]

a breakthrough performance

In the summer of 1969, the stable life in the capital of Northern Ireland was suddenly disrupted by the Troubles. The father of one family has to go out of town to find work. Will the folks get caught up in the sectarian violence?

All of this is shown in the movie Belfast. And yet, the description misses the utter joy one feels after watching the film. It’s also about familial love in the face of adversity, a first crush, and the joy of cinema. One detail I read explains that the actors who sit in the movie theater are actually seeing that flick segment for the first as they are being recorded.

Kenneth Branaugh, the writer and director, was born on December 10, 1960, in that city. Check out this video. Much of the narrative of the film is seen in the eyes of Buddy, who is clearly Branaugh’s stand-in. Jude Hill, in his film debut, was very relatable. I believe the film works as well as it does because, in a child’s mind, the little things in life are just as important as the big issues.

The critics weigh in

In fact, the British Independent Film Awards for 2021 dubbed the youth’s work the Breakthrough Performance of the year. Other awards were presented to Caitriona Balfe, who played Ma, as Best Actress; Ciarán Hinds (Pa) as Best Supporting Actor; and Judi Dench (Granny) Best Supporting Actress. Also, the Best Editing went to Úna Ní Dhonghaíle.

Among the other nominees was Van Morrison, who was born in Belfast in 1945. His songs almost always fit the movie perfectly. My FAVORITE song in the movie was not his, however, but in the best scene, near the end of the film.

The Rotten Tomatoes score was 87% positive from the critics, 92% positive from the audiences. The negative reviews use terms such as inert, inorganic, cloying, over-directed, and contrived. I would disagree. Branaugh, I think, found the right balance between tension and joy.

The film won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival. Even the critical takes acknowledge that the film is beautifully shot in black and white.

My wife and I saw it at the Spectrum 8, a Landmark Theatre, in late November, the first we’d seen in the cinema in four months. And after the film, much of the audience milled around the aisles, clearly greeting old friends they had not seen in a while.

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