Tag: review

Movie review: In The Heights

Washington Heights, NYC

In The Heights
(Left Center-Right Center) ANTHONY RAMOS as Usnavi and MELISSA BARRERA as Vanessa in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “IN THE HEIGHTS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

My Father’s Day present was my wife taking herself, our daughter, and me to the new movie In The Heights. After church, someone had noted that it’s airing on HBO Max or whatever. Goodness, no thanks. I’ve seen too many films on the small screen in the past year.

We walked to the Madison Theatre. Not only is it our neighborhood cinema, but it had been closed for months because of the pandemic, though it did offer takeout food.

Will this be a private showing? We were the first three people in the theater. There was a party of four that came in during the many previews for films not in my queue, mong them Quiet Place II, F9, the Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, and the new Top Gun.

We all enjoyed the story of a bodega owner named Usnavi (Anthony Ramos from Hamilton) telling a tale about the folks in his Washington Heights, New York City neighborhood. Nina (Leslie Grace) is home for the summer after her first year at Stanford, the pride of the neighborhood, especially her father Kevin (Jimmy Smits). His cab company employes her old beau Benny (Corey Hawkins).

Usnavi is assisted at the store by his cousin Sonny (Gregory Diaz IV). The proprietor has ad a long-standing, but unstated crush on the artistic Vanessa (Melissa Barrera). Meanwhile, Abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz) is a cross between the mayor of Washington Heights and everyone’s mother.

There are lots of good tunes, most largely unfamiliar to me; the Abuela song was quite touching. Some impressive dancing is taking place, especially 96,000, in and around a swimming pool, which had to be a technological challenge

I’ll allow that at 2:24, it’s about 15 minutes too long, even with some of the songs from the  Tony-winning score left out. This is a regular sin of musicals, in my experience. Still, I was never bored.

Bust

This begs the question, then. Why has In The Heights been a commercial failure thus far? After a mediocre opening, the box office dropped some 67% in its second weekend. The reviews were good; on Rotten Tomatoes, the critics were 96% positive and were 95% of audiences.

Is it because some of it was in Spanish? I didn’t find it a barrier myself since most of the film is in English. But potential viewers may have worried nonetheless. Did the color controversy, mentioned by Ken Levine in paragraph seven, have anything to keep people not only home but off HBO Max? I don’t know.

I’m recommending In The Heights, in the theater, if you can see it there. Lots of funny Hamilton touches. Phone music featuring You’ll Be Back. Christopher Jackson (George Washington) as the ice cream truck driver competing with the ices seller (Lin-Manuel Miranda, who of course, co-wrote In the Heights and Hamilton.) And wait until the very end.

Review: The Man Who Sold His Skin

What is art?

the manwho sold his skinThe Man Who Sold His Skin is one of the Oscar nominees for Best International Feature Film. It was written and directed by Kaouther Ben Hania and represented Tunisia. It is mostly in Arabic, though some of the dialogue is in English and French, with subtitles.

Sam Ali (Yahya Mahayni) is a young Syrian, deeply in love with Abeer (Dea Liane). A misinterpreted utterance in a public venue gets him into trouble and he ends up as a refugee in Lebanon. He has a chance encounter with a hot, trendy artist Jeffrey Godefroi (Koen De Bouw), thanks to Godefroi’s aide Soraya (Monica Bellucci).

Jeffrey wants to tattoo Sam’s back and then tour with his “creation.”. Sam agrees because he would be able to travel to Europe and optimally find Abeer.

This is fascinating stuff. Who owns the artwork? How does one make a profit as an artist? And what consideration does the “art”, who is, after all, a human being, receive? Can you “sell” the art? How would THAT work? The conversations with the exhibition halls and the insurance agents are heady musings.

Can you DO that?

Moreover, is the relationship a form of exploitation, or even slavery, of a refugee or a rare opportunity? Is Sam even seen as a person or something less than?

The way art has been recently traded in cryptocurrencies makes the notion of this film far less absurd than it might have been only a few years earlier. And the ending, I swear, I’ve seen a variation of in recent months, but it works. And I won’t tell you where because I hate to provide spoilers.

I was most fond of The Man Who Sold His Skin. The Rotten Tomatoes critics were 94% positive, although the audiences were only 74% thumbs up. John Powers of NPR says, “It weaves together satire and humane political awareness to create an original fable about art, privilege, freedom, and identity.”

All of the Best International Feature Film nominees, except the winner, Another Round, were on Hulu.

Movie review: Quo Vadis, Aida?

Bosnian war

Quo Vadis AidaQuo Vadis, Aida? is a film nominated as the best in the International Feature Film category. It was the entry from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Jasmila Zbanic is the writer, director, and co-producer. The film is mostly in Serbo-Croatian and is subtitled.

The movie is based on true events in July 1995. We see the commander of the local United Nations brigade in Bosnia calling the chain of command. Where are the airstrikes to stem the invasion by the Serbian army? It becomes clear to all involved, including the local translator, Aida (Jasna Đuričić), that no air support is forthcoming.

The Serbian army takes over Srebrenica. Thousands of citizens are looking for shelter in the UN camp. Its capacity is maybe 4000, leaving a sea of 20,000 outside of its gates.

Negotiations take place among the Serbian army leaders, the UN peacekeepers (mostly Dutch), and a handful of local representatives. But the talks are, as it turns out, largely for show. Then we see the UN bureaucracy deal with the invading force, or try, violating its own rules.

Tense

Quo Vadis, the title of a 1951 film, means Where are you marching? And that is most applicable of Quo Vadis, Aida? Every one of the 54 reviews in Rotten Tomatoes was positive, as well as 88% of the general audience. It is a taut thriller, with Aida feeling frustrated that, even as an “insider,” she’s very limited in terms of what she can accomplish.

Anna Swanson of the Globe and Mail writes: “Refreshingly, this is a war drama that doesn’t hinge on indulgent or shameless violence. Instead, it focuses on the heart-wrenching devastation of more offhand cruelties.”

This is a few days during a war that took place in my lifetime that I know too little about. The fine acting, especially by Jasna Đuričić, and the excellent direction and editing make this an important, albeit sad, movie. I viewed this on Hulu.

Movie review: The Mole Agent

From Chile

Mole AgentThe Mole Agent is a film that was nominated for Best Documentary Feature in the most recent Oscar season. It lost to My Octopus Teacher, which I have not seen. Regardless, I found it a charming movie.

“A private investigator in Chile hires someone to work as a mole at a retirement home where a client of his suspects the caretakers of elder abuse.” One of the respondents is Sergio Chamy. He is one of a half dozen men responding to a newspaper ad looking for a healthy 80-89-year-old in fine health and with good technological skills.

It appears that NONE of the candidates are particularly tech-savvy. The job requires the spy to operate a pen that has a mini-camera, wear glasses with a camera inside, and use an iPhone. None of these are in his initial skill set.

Nevertheless, Romulo hires Sergio anyway. The mole, a recent widower, is one of only a small number of men in the retirement home; the women outnumber them by about ten to one. He attracts considerable attention from some of the female residents.

Reviews well

I suppose the movie, especially the beginning is “contrived and cutesy,” as one critic noted. Yet, more true, “Sounds depressing. Its big reveal was that it was often the exact opposite. Sweet, charming, and poignant, it was a meditation on growing old, loneliness and making a life when confined in an institution.”

That said, “the ‘documentary’ nature of this hybrid is very much in question. The filmmakers acknowledged at the Sundance Film Festival, that the lead protagonist was cast by them and that scenes were invented.” I don’t think it diminishes what’s on the screen.

The Mole Agent is in Spanish with subtitles. I saw it on Hulu when I forgot to cancel it after my free trial.

Spider-Verse: 4+ different Spideys

Good thing I don’t suffer from arachnophobia

spider-verseAs I’ve noted, Spider-Man was my favorite character in the Marvel universe. So I decided to watch, in one week in August, four different iterations of the web-slinger, none of which I had seen before. Essentially each is it own Spider-Verse.

Spider-Man 3 (2007): This is the third of the Sam Raimi films. I loved the first two, which I saw back in 2002 and 2004. I’m fond of the players – Tobey Maguire as Peter/Spidey, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane, and James Franco as Harry Osborn. Yet the film felt too overstuffed with villains. Sandman has a backstory that makes him rather sympathetic. Meanwhile, Eddie Brock is pretty unlikable from the beginning.

And Peter was pretty oblivious to the travails of his girlfriend. If she had left him for Harry, it would have been totally understandable. When this black goo appears on earth, why didn’t it trigger Peter’s Spidey sense?

It was about 1.4 good movies. In other words, too much. Yet I didn’t hate it as much as I had feared.

Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014): This is the second of the Marc Webb films, with Andrew Garfield as Peter and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy. But also overstuffed. I never cared that much about this Harry Osborn. The Elektro villain (Jamie Foxx) had a cringeworthy origin and was not terribly interesting. But this is what tipped me off that I didn’t care: the climax of the film I found oddly undramatic.

Swinging younger

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018): Now this was intriguing. Miles Morales is a nerdy teenager who becomes the Spider-Man of his universe. Is he ready? Heck, no. But he gets help from one Peter B. Parker. At this point, it’s a bit of a buddy pic, in a good sense.

Eventually, fellow web slingers also show up, and they’re wonderful in their own unique ways. The visuals are weird and wonderful, including an absurdly large Kingpin with a relatively tiny head. The movie works because of some fine voice actors, starting with Shameik Moore. I haven’t read the comic book in a quarter-century, yet I recognized this film as the love letter to Spider-Man it was intended to be.

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). Where I grew tired of the first two Spidey franchises, I’m actually warming up to the Tom Holland character. Part of it is him being totally weirded out when it appears his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) might be expressing romantic interest with each other.

Meanwhile, Peter is going on a class trip to Europe with his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), his major crush MJ (Zendaya), and the others. Peter ends up doing the superhero gig again, taking on some elementals. Fortunately, he is aided by an alien ally, Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal)! Or so it would seem. Very satisfying up through the closing credits. Then the OMG coda.

A franchise?

Rotten Tomatoes considers Spider-Man, in its various iterations, a franchise. And a successful one, at that.
Average Tomatometer Score/Rank: 81.25% (11th)
Average Audience Score/Rank: 77% (15th)
Average Domestic Box Office/Rank: $411,579,893.13 (7th)

Could the new Spider-Man movie bring all the Spider-Men together?

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