Week Ending 4/5/24
Back to the Matrix?
It’s always funny to see the reaction to news like a fifth MATRIX film being developed by Drew Goddard rather than the Wachowskis. A) Who knows if it will ever come to fruition. B) Lana is still attached to executive produce. C) Warner Bros. Discovery has made it VERY clear that they will milk their entire library as shamelessly as possible.
What’s most interesting, though, is that sequels didn’t always have to be directed by their original directors. TERMINATOR. ALIEN. Heck, even MCU films and horror franchises like SAW all find themselves passing the baton to different artists eventually. Yes, THE MATRIX will always be indelibly linked to the Wachowskis considering the personal nature of their stories as trans women, but this is a business and filmmakers rarely (if ever) have control once their last film is in the can.
But we love to gripe. We love to pretend history doesn’t exist when history refutes our very important and crucial opinions. And, honestly, screaming into the void about how sacrilegious it will be to have a MATRIX without Lana and Lily in the director’s chair is better than that one guy who decided to use this news as a platform to remind people that he didn’t only hate RESURRECTIONS, but that it was an objectively bad movie (it was very much not).
Anything for clicks, I guess.
What I Watched:
THE BEAST
[La bête]
(limited release)
The year is 2044 and Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) is relegated to a data entry position because she is otherwise too “emotional” to make the decisions necessary to fulfill an “intelligent” occupation. Artificial Intelligence makes it so that unemployment is over 60% with the only means of finding a satisfying job being a purification of your feelings. By going through the process of reliving your worst fears and greatest loves from this life and all others prior, you can be rid of them and become more like the “dolls” (Guslagie Malanda) that populate our new world. You can strip yourself of identity to win everything you could ever want or maintain your humanity and exist within a life unworthy of it.
It’s an intriguing concept that director Bertrand Bonello does well to bring to life alongside Guillaume Bréaud and Benjamin Charbit. Based on Henry James’ The Beast in the Jungle, THE BEAST seeks to take us back into Gabrielle’s subconscious to find what it is she must risk to have the life she wants. So, we watch her lying in a pool of black viscous liquid, memories she didn’t even know were hers flooding back yet not erasing for her to move forward. If anything, this journey is making her reconsider the whole process—especially once she runs into the man who has been inextricably bonded to her (George MacKay’s Louis) throughout time.
I really loved the first half of the film and its weird fourth wall break on an actress manifesting Gabrielle’s metaphorical fears into a literal scene of horror shot against a green screen. That’s actually how we meet her—Seydoux going through the motions despite nothing being there to truly provoke her emotional outburst. Not that it’s needed when she has lifetimes of the same nightmare imprinted upon her DNA. So, we go back in time to 19th century Paris as Louis and Gabrielle run into each other years after first igniting a love neither dared to pursue. Here she’s a pianist, also surrounded by dolls, and caught in a marriage with a robotic husband. It’s a compromise: art for security. It’s a life she enjoys despite knowing the excitement Louis could bring would prove so much better.
But maybe it’s not destined to be. Maybe the fear that pulls at Gabrielle is fate reminding her that the pure love she desires can never last. How that message comes through in the second half with a memory of 21st century Los Angeles as a housesitting actress didn’t work for me, though. I think I get the notion of wanting to mirror the happiness this connection between Gabrielle and Louis can bring with its equally destructive nature, but it renders the final hour a slog when I believe Bonello hoped for suspense. Because here Louis is an incel hellbent on murdering the next blonde woman he meets that he “knows” would never sleep with him. And despite Gabrielle giving him every sign to the contrary (unprovoked, mind you), tragedy will run its course anyway.
I simply didn’t care about them like I did at the beginning. Maybe it’s because the first hour was so romantic despite its own tragic end, but I really invested in those characters and the mystery of whether the sheer magnetism of their coupling could transcend time and finally reach its happy end in the present. If Bonello had crosscut all three eras at once for the duration, perhaps the shift to Louis the homicidal bore and Gabrielle the ever-exploited victim wouldn’t have felt so trite by comparison. Everything during the 21st century portion is so on the nose that it doesn’t just repeat motifs and dialogue, it replays them to make certain the obvious callbacks aren’t missed.
It’s a shame because I also really loved the final sequence and its dawning reality that love is so impossibly difficult to preserve and pursue in a world that wants us to become numb to its unavoidably prevalent horrors. What’s worse too is that I’ve seen people call THE BEAST “Lynchian” and I just know that they mean it in context with that second hour and its superficial choice to move through time and space and identity in a way that bastardizes what Lynch did in LOST HIGHWAY rather than truly homage or equal it. Seydoux is fantastic throughout, but even her performance can’t help that incel plotline feel as real or as dangerous as the others. It grinds momentum to a halt, rendering all authenticity into melodrama.
- 6/10
FOR ALL MANKIND: Season 4
(streaming on AppleTV+)
We are so back.
That’s not to say Season 3 of FOR ALL MANKIND was bad. It simply didn’t match the excellence of the first two. Whereas they really leaned into the ways in which politics, capitalism, and ego change the course of history, Season 3 decided to put everything on the shoulders of one man: Danny Stevens. And despite Casey W. Johnson playing this horrible character very effectively, Danny’s perpetual sabotage rendered the whole into soap opera melodrama. Yes, we got some fun discoveries and WTF moments, but his constant presence (and that of his brother on Earth) really ground momentum to a halt.
I won’t therefore lie and say I didn’t breathe a sigh of relief to discover Danny has passed away (the circumstances of which will be revealed in a later episode). A weight was definitely lifted—with another melting away courtesy of a quick mention of Jimmy (David Chandler) closing the Stevens family chapter for good. Finally, we can get back to the historical and political implications of the continuing space race and its unlikely M7 collaboration making it so the Soviets, Americans, and North Koreans all have a place at the table. The new mission: capturing an asteroid to mine its resources in space.
It’s a simple and plausible concept that possesses myriad opportunities for things to go wrong—especially when you add the fallibilities of those humans tasked to implement the mission. Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) is old now, saddled with a tremor that he’s hiding from everyone and a fear of returning home to die without purpose. Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall) is as diplomatic and level-headed as ever and once more thrown to the fire when asked to take command of Happy Valley and all the chaos that will soon transpire. And then there’s newcomer Miles Dale (Toby Kebbell) seeking a payday for his family only to discover conditions and compensation are nowhere near what he was promised.
So, assume something goes wrong because something always does. This show is at its best when it’s fixing problems as opposed to creating them (or, better yet, creating new problems by fixing old ones). If there’s no asteroid to mine, there’s no bonuses to be paid. The disgruntled engineers already treated as second class citizens compared to the astronauts are thus knocked further down the ladder. Enter black market economies. Talk of unions and strikes. Maybe even some espionage to hijack control from the politicians looking for nothing but stock increases and votes. We’re getting back to the push and pull between diplomacy and innovation. Who should really be making these decisions?
And we’re also going back to the question of war. Maybe the Soviets and Americans are buddy/buddy now, but will it last? Will either let North Korea have their presence without taking steps to counteract their own fears about what might be happening in the shadows? How many spies are already amongst this international crew, hiding in plain sight until their governments agree to activate them? The potential for an all-out revolution on Mars is palpable and allegiances will be formed from unlikely places. But, just as turning a blind eye can be a means to an end, so too can opening them wide. The question is whether the personal sacrifices that must be paid for the future are worth it.
Add a new NASA chief (Daniel Stern’s Eli Hobson), a new ROSCOSMOS chief (Svetlana Efremova’s Irina Morozova), and the heavy PTSD and nihilism stemming from what the returning pieces to the board experienced eight years ago (Coral Peña’s Aleida Rosales and Wrenn Schmidt’s Margo Madison). Lines will blur even further as Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi) is brought back into the fold with help from Kelly Baldwin (Cynthy Wu). And friendships will sever once truth and safety become compromised by hubris and vanity (Ed and Danielle going toe-to-toe a few times). It’s a powder keg ready to blow on Mars and Earth with money always driving the bus.
Along with the geopolitics, however, is also a fantastic late season plot line that transforms this early-Aughts speculative fiction arc into a heist film. And why not? If money is driving innovation rather than the other way around and those doing the legwork are being paid much less than those setting the rules, why not try and alter the playing field? If that asteroid is the key to everything, whoever controls it controls everything. Is the future therefore about sustaining colonies in space or merely exploiting resources? Is this amazing opportunity for mankind about solidifying nationalistic power or fostering the possibility for true peace and collaboration via a new world?
This is the crossroads between truly evolving as a species or reverting back to the insular, xenophobic mindsets that created the Cold War in the first place. That’s the drama we want out of FOR ALL MANKIND. Real stakes that put the notion of human extinction on the table. Season 3 let that breadth take a backseat to petty jealousies that simply couldn’t sustain the weight of an entire ten-episode arc. Season 4 rights the ship by shifting the dynamic back so the characters must once again react to the big issues thrust upon them instead of the other way around.
- 8/10
GIRLS STATE
(streaming on AppleTV+)
After the success of Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’s BOYS STATE, it truly was a no-brainer to go back to the well and document the other side of the room with GIRLS STATE. The question was therefore only whether the result would be the same movie. Yes, the gender divide would inherently change things—especially against the background of Roe v Wade being overturned. But would the experience be the same? The debates, elections, and schedule? The pressure, anxieties, and expectations? We shouldn’t be surprised to discover it’s not.
Whether it’s a nationwide problem or one specific to certain states like Missouri, the discrepancies between these programs is massive. So massive that the adults these girls speak to about them do everything they can to shut down the line of inquiry rather than provide acknowledgment let alone answers. The women have a dress code. They’re forced to have a “buddy” whenever they leave their designated indoor area. They must sing a song to start the day and constantly listen to declarations about supporting your fellow women in ways that make it seem the organizers are trying to foster a zero-conflict environment.
Anyone who saw BOYS STATE knows the opposite is true there with the cutthroat nature and partisan politics boldly on display. But those who are in it? How would they even begin to wonder about the comparison let alone prove it? Well, as one of the girls says on-screen, the American Legion sparks the conversation itself by making history and staging the boys and girls programs at the same venue at the same time. These young women can’t help but see the hypocrisies on display. They can’t help but understand that all the calls for justice and equality ring hollow when the hottest-button topic in life and on campus centers on the female body while the funding for “tomorrow’s legislators” works to ensure it will always be men deciding what to do.
That’s the major intrigue here. Yes, it’s fun to meet these teens and see how they interact behind the scenes of mock court cases and elections, but the real drama lies in the silences outside of those activities. There’s the atmosphere of complicity and not wanting to ruffle feathers. There’s the rubber-stamped instillment of fear to keep these girls malleable and at arm’s length from finding positions for real change and argument. Even though it is women led by women, the baked-in monetary and philosophical misogyny of the program is unavoidable. So, it’s no wonder that the loudest cheers come as a result of a candidate calling out Girls State’s failings as opposed to talking about American policies.
It puts the experience under a completely different light because, like the boys Emily Worthmore interviews for her article about the inequality of their programs say, there’s so much more down time on this end of the spectrum. Where the boys are constantly being worked and put through the ringer, the girls find themselves wondering when the actual event is going to begin. So, they look beyond the program itself. Beyond the mock nature of bringing American politics into the classroom. They have injustices to call out here, today. They have the room to question whether their supervisors are as committed to this as they are.
To have all that swirling and still be able to focus on a few personalities is a great success for McBaine and Moss because these girls aren’t going to stay silent about what’s happening. They let Tochi Ihekona question the rigor of the experience. They let Cecilia Bartin home in on their dissatisfaction and use it to rile up prospective voters. They let Worthmore traverse the minefield of wanting to be herself while not alienating others to the point where she allows herself to be forgettable at the polls before then becoming integral to exposing the issue at-hand. GIRLS STATE proves an enlightening exposé on just how much further we need to go to give women a level playing field and an equal voice.
Because don’t forget: while Worthmore might be the one uncovering the issues that prove men have a leg up, she doesn’t (or, at least, didn’t) believe women are at a disadvantage. She tells us at the start that this thinking is a fallacy because she was raised to never believe she couldn’t do anything a man could as though her “luck” in that realm meant the countless other women struggling were doing so through no fault but their own. It’s why so many women continue to vote against their own best interests. They’d rather take the victories men give them than fight to ensure their place in the room to help write the new rules.
- 8/10
KIM’S VIDEO
(limited release)
I’m not fully versed on the whole Tim League saga beyond the fact that I distinctly remember there being stories about his failures in leadership at Drafthouse, its subsidiaries, and his other business ventures (Neon, Mondo, etc.) in connection with the abuse scandals of two well-known critics. I had thought it all ended with him selling his stakes in those businesses and stepping away because I suddenly stopped hearing his name. But now Drafthouse Films is back from the dead. League is back in the news. And the studio’s latest documentary KIM’S VIDEO is very much a product of and for his continued entrepreneurship.
All that to say that anyone affected by League’s actions or those he lent a blind eye towards should probably know he does pop up at the end of this film. He must considering he now owns and operates the video collection at its center. I will say, however, that his role is small insofar as the full scope of directors David Redmon and Ashley Sabin’s journey. League is merely a facilitator to help put an end to what proves a crazy, impromptu amateur investigation turned “fictional” heist to get to the bottom of what happened when Yong-man Kim inexplicably decided to donate his NYC-based collection of 55,000+ titles to Salemi, Sicily.
I do remember that ordeal being widely talked about in cinema circles. Not just because Kim’s video stores closing saddened thousands of New Yorkers with eclectic tastes in curios and bootlegs, but also because he apparently had opportunities to donate his movies to American institutions too. The choice of Salemi was so outside-the-box that you had to believe there was more to the story. That Sicily agreeing to house the collection, digitize it, and make it available to Kim’s members was meant to be a boon to their economy while also keeping the legend alive. It just didn’t quite turn out as planned.
Credit Redmon for spending the time and money to follow this lark that began when he heard the films asking him to find them. We never see Redmon since he’s always behind the camera, but we imagine he’s a friendly fellow considering the trouble he gets into upon arriving in Salemi. He “breaks” into the collection after being told it’s closed to find it on the brink of complete destruction. He’s then chastised by the police chief and ultimately sent home with more questions than answers. That he keeps coming back, hunts down Kim, meets with former Salemi mayor Vittorio Sgarbi, and hatches a hair-brained extraction plan risking jail time in a foreign country forces us to assume Redmon is a bit insane.
Maybe that’s why we’re in his corner and why we laugh as he humorously partakes in very serious acts while law enforcement and mafiosos lie in close proximity. The story itself is crazy because of those connections (including a “mysterious” death) since this whole thing was supposed to be about preserving film history, but Redmon has a knack for making it even crazier by injecting himself into the subject as a heroic figure guided by the disembodied voices of filmmaking legends. The twists and turns are often jaw-dropping while the back-patting and glad-handing always proves a bit suspicious. It’s a joke gone too far mixed with an exorbitant amount of luck to correct a wrong few (if any) even remembered.
- 6/10
THE PEOPLE’S JOKER
(limited release)
It’s the autofiction, coming out transition tale told through the filter of DC Comics IP that took the festival scene by storm for not being shown to the public. Because even though Vera Drew’s THE PEOPLE’S JOKER was accepted into TIFF and included on its 2022 schedule to earn a world premiere—ready to go to the point where I had a screener in my inbox to review it once I got back from Toronto—Warner Bros. put the fear of God into everyone, forcing the festival to pull it. Not even that screener survived the rumored cease and desist (apparently it was a strongly worded, threatening letter to scare potential distributors). So, only those lucky few able to catch it before all that red tape were able to describe the experience. Until now.
With a lengthy disclaimer (so long I needed to pause the film to read it all) distancing itself from DC and Warner Bros. Discovery (before also thanking them in the end credits for the free publicity) and explaining the notion of fair use and the appropriation of existing characters to tell a personal, original story, THE PEOPLE’S JOKER delivers on its promise to both reinvent the mythology of these superheroes and inspire trans youth and non-conformists to take control of their identity and rise above the constraints of a close-minded society quick to blame one of its most marginalized communities for ills that they’ve conversely created themselves via their own insecurities.
Written by Drew and Bri LeRose, the film follows Joker the Harlequin (Drew) as she narrates the tale of her rebirth as a comedian, woman, and DC villain. You have the usual drama that comes from being closeted in a conservative midwest town like Smallville (where Mom, played by Lynn Downey, puts Joker on drugs to keep her “happy” and “normal” as Dad avoids ever being seen and thus risk being associated with homosexuality). Then there’s the gender dysphoria that gets exacerbated by a patriarchal society hellbent on archaic rules rendering the binary even more rigid than its existence alone (only men can be comedians while women simply dance in the background). And, most memorably, an authentic depiction of love wherein romance and abuse are allowed to coexist without negating the reality of one for the other.
That’s the real draw here. Yes, it’s a lot of fun to see what Drew and company (a mix of creatives lending animation and visual effects to turn her autobiography into an artistic smorgasbord of painted backgrounds, computer-rendered models, and great indie costuming and make-up) do to bring Gotham City to life with its mustachioed Batman, multiple Jokers (Kane Distler plays Joker the Harlequin’s toxic boyfriend Mr. J with obvious cribbing from Jared Leto’s rendition), and rogue’s gallery of comedy friends (Nathan Faustyn’s Penguin), rivals (Trevor Drinkwater’s Riddler), and heroes (David Liebe Hart’s Ra's al Ghul). But the film packs its punch via the unfiltered emotion of finding oneself through and despite the mirrors that are constantly blocking the path towards our individual truths.
Drew and LeRose skewer everything along the way from Alex Jones (Tim Heidecker’s animated Perry White), reality television, celebrity-focused politics, and the irony that the real problematic people in the comedy sphere are cishet men (it should be no surprise that every mention of someone like Louis CK, Woody Allen, or Bill Cosby is followed by a “before ‘x’ was revealed” since this whole project was largely inspired by the filmmakers reacting to Todd Phillips saying “comedy was dead” in our current “pc-culture”). Add a hilarious and inspiring Cameo from Robert Wuhl and it’s impossible not to get swept up in the creativity and sheer chutzpah necessary to get a film like this off the ground, let alone in theaters. No matter your opinion on the final result, it’s undeniably impressive.
I would argue that it works very well on a narrative level beyond that production insanity too, though. We get drawn into Joker the Harlequin’s story in much the same way we usually get drawn into that of a hero like Batman. We rejoice in her ability to reinvent herself. To stand-up to corruption and hypocrisy. To find herself cleared-eyed and intent to acknowledge her flaws provide a means to grow and evolve. Whether she really is the “chosen one” in this story’s prophecy or not shouldn’t have any bearing on the fact that she deserves to be the “chosen one” in her own life. It might not be an easy road to get there, but the destination is well worth the trouble.
- 8/10
WICKED LITTLE LETTERS
(in theaters)
Edward Swan (Timothy Spall) knew the end of the war would bring “bad seeds” from Ireland to their sleepy neighborhood of Littlehampton and, sure enough, Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley) moved right next door. The interesting part of the “truer than you’d think” WICKED LITTLE LETTERS, as written by Jonny Sweet and directed by Thea Sharrock, however, is that Edward’s eldest daughter Edith (Olivia Colman) rather likes this new stranger. And why not? Edith cares for her aging parents (Gemma Jones is mom Victoria) as though a slave with no life of her own. Seeing Rose’s independence is inspiring. Hearing her brashly put men like Edward in their place is exhilarating.
And then come the letters. Nineteen of them before the Swans finally get the police involved. Each proves more profane than the next—scandalizing Victoria, embarrassing Edward into fits of rage, and forcing Edith to embrace God’s good grace to help pull her through. Who could be so rude besides Rose, of course? Being known for speaking her mind doesn’t necessarily scream innocence, but her penchant for doing so to her victims’ faces doesn’t scream anonymous either. With no concrete evidence or any other suspects, however, the Constable places Rose under arrest pending trial while her daughter (Alisha Weir’s Nancy) wonders if she’ll ever come back home.
The trajectory of this case is hardly surprising once things get going, but it nevertheless entertains from start to finish. You have Edith’s friends questioning the validity of the accusation to clear Rose’s name. There’s “Woman Police Officer” Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) being silenced and punished by her superiors despite catching that the handwriting doesn’t match, forcing her to do her own private investigating. And there are the secret (and not so secret) histories of the two polar opposite women at the center. Rose’s mysterious husband who died in the war. Edith’s fear and compliance at the demands of her domineering father. Even when the truth does get discovered, the guilty party maintains our sympathy.
It’s a funny bit of sleuthing with a lively cast of familiar faces (those aforementioned friends are Eileen Atkins, Joanna Scanlan, and Lolly Adefope) that earns its dramatic moments as a result of some fantastic performances balancing the tone to perfection. The letters themselves are a hoot and actually prove more entertaining via the shock expressions and/or bile thrown by those who dare read them. And in the end its very much a journey of female empowerment wherein Moss refuses to be disregarded because of her gender or allow a group of bumbling, lazy men (Hugh Skinner) to persecute a woman who, despite being rough around the edges, deserves her fair shake.
- 7/10
Cinematic F-Bombs:
This weekend sees THE CREATOR (2023), ISHTAR (1987), LIKE FATHER LIKE SON (1987), TO GILLIAN ON HER 37TH BIRTHDAY (1996), and WHITE HOUSE DOWN (2013) getting added to the archive (cinematicfbombs.com on Sunday, Twitter on Monday).
New Releases This Week:
(Review links where applicable)
Opening Buffalo-area theaters 4/5/24 -
EPIC TAILS at Dipson Flix & Capitol
FAMILY STAR at Regal Elmwood, Galleria & Transit
THE FIRST OMEN at Dipson McKinley, Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Galleria, Transit & Quaker
IRAH at Regal Elmwood
JATT NUU CHUDAIL TAKRI at Regal Elmwood
MONKEY MAN at Dipson Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Galleria, Transit & Quaker
RAMENATION: THE END OF EVANGELION at North Park Theatre
SOMEONE LIKE YOU at AMC Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Galleria, Transit & Quaker
WICKED LITTLE LETTERS at Dipson Amherst, Flix & Capitol; Regal Elmwood, Galleria, Transit & Quaker
Thoughts are above.
Streaming from 4/5/24 -
GIRLS STATE – AppleTV+ on 4/5
Thoughts are above.
HOW TO DATE BILLY WALSH – Prime on 4/5
HOW TO HAVE SEX – MUBI on 4/5
“[The truth of what happens] should be clear as day simply by looking into Tara's eyes. At her body language. At her micro-expressions of revulsion and recoil. McKenna-Bruce delivers a performance that will break your heart.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
SCOOP – Netflix on 4/5
THE ANTISOCIAL NETWORK: MEMES TO MAYHEM – Netflix on 4/5
BRANDY HELLVILLE & THE CULT OF FAST FASHION – Max on 4/9
WHAT JENNIFER DID – Netflix on 4/10
Now on VOD/Digital HD -
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAGICAL NEGROES (4/2)
A PERFECT DAY FOR CARIBOU (4/2)
SKIN DEEP (4/2)
“So, no matter the actor on-screen (each is brilliant here with a mix of comedic relief and pathos depending on who they "are" at a given moment), Schaad really ensures that we're seeing beyond the surface. We're experiencing the characters.” – Full thoughts at The Film Stage.
SNACK SHACK (4/2)
“While SNACK SHACK has its moments of sentimentality and familiarity, it never falls prey to bringing its conventions to life conventionally.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
HOW TO HAVE SEX (4/5)
“[The truth of what happens] should be clear as day simply by looking into Tara's eyes. At her body language. At her micro-expressions of revulsion and recoil. McKenna-Bruce delivers a performance that will break your heart.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
MODEL HOUSE (4/5)
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL (4/5)