Week Ending 4/19/24
Ripley, believe it or not
I still have three episodes left in Netflix and Steven Zaillian’s RIPLEY series, but I can’t say I’m clamoring to finish it. I don’t think it’s bad, per se. It’s just really boring.
I enjoyed the first couple of episodes a lot too. Andrew Scott is wonderful. I loved the combative relationship his Tom Ripley has with Dakota Fanning’s Marge (she’s fantastic). And Johnny Flynn playing Dickie with so much insecurity proves a great contrast to Jude Law’s über confidence.
But the whole “based on the Ripley novels by Patricia Highsmith” made me think we’d be branching out beyond the same plot Anthony Minghella’s film adapted. Because we definitely didn’t need eight hours to give us exactly what his two-and-a-half hours did. It’s all so drawn out here. So repetitive. Are they really going to have Tom freeze at the sight of police only to casually walk by with a wry smile every episode? Are we really going to spend twenty minutes watching him effortlessly clean up a murder scene with nothing more than a damp hand towel?
Sometimes I feel like Scott is playing Ripley in such a way that the show could have been an uproarious comedy. His reactions (the robe!), attitude, and actions all play with a sly humor that I wish Zaillian leaned into more. Because I often find myself wanting to laugh and stopping short because it’s all played so severely dramatic. It wants to be trashy while also chastising us for agreeing it should.
I don’t know. I’ll probably finish it this weekend and hope it wraps up well. But this is all I think I’m going to write about it—a few paragraphs of disappointment.
What I Watched:
DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS
(streaming on Peacock)
Look up “slapdash” in the dictionary and you’ll find the poster for DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS, a film that was first written in the early 2000s and feels like it.
Husband and wife duo Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke create a mix of lesbian road movie rom-com and political mystery thriller that does well with the former and poorly with the latter. I did actually find myself caring for the wildly independent Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and her buttoned-up friend Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) eventually falling for each other, but I couldn’t care less about the briefcase in the back of the car they’ve “rented” (looking to go to Tallahassee, they’ve agreed to drop-off the vehicle for Bill Camp’s Curlie).
Why didn’t I care? Because the film doesn’t. It pretends to with a comically over-the-top prologue featuring Pedro Pascal and a collection of sharp metallic objects, but the overall tone’s refusal to make us fear Colman Domingo’s Chief and his lackeys (Joey Slotnick and C.J. Wilson) ensures the subplot remains an afterthought. Yes, we know these parallel journeys will inevitably converge, but there’s no real danger. Not outside of the reality that Jamie and Marian could ruin their friendship by deciding to have sex.
When another scene of violence finally does arrive, it proves to be a gag. Coen and Cooke don’t even feel it necessary to care about the culprit since his purpose had been served with the focus moving onto someone else. This shouldn’t surprise anyone considering all the sharp cuts to innocuous vignettes that do nothing but remind us that other characters (who will play a role later) still exist. Add a bunch of psychedelic interludes featuring Miley Cyrus that go nowhere (until they do) and DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS proves a mess of half-funny skits and caricature supporting players surrounding a try-hard LGBTQ+ story that feels written by a cis married couple (despite Cooke being queer).
I think there was a reason it never got off the ground in the past two decades despite the many big names attached. And now that it finally has, the specific gendered raunchiness that might have helped it stand out in 2000 feels horribly outdated and quaint today.
- 5/10
HOUSEKEEPING FOR BEGINNERS
[Domakinstvo za Pocetnici]
(in theaters)
Set in a makeshift LGBTQ+ one-home commune, Goran Stolevski’s HOUSEKEEPING FOR BEGINNERS commences with an introduction and a goodbye. The former arrives courtesy of Ali (Samson Selim), a young Roma man who finds himself unable to leave after hooking up with one of the permanent residents in Toni (Vladimir Tintor). The latter concerns a terminal cancer diagnosis for Suada (Alina Serban), partner to the home’s owner Dita (Anamaria Marinca). So, there’s a joyous mood as Suada’s daughters (Mia Mustafi’s Vanesa and Dzada Selim’s Mia) and the other three women lodgers poke fun at Ali and a somber one once death inevitably comes.
The film then is about what happens next. Dita, a white social worker mostly dealing with Roma clients on welfare, never wanted to be a mother. That she fell in love with a woman who already had two children was fine because she could exist more on the fringes as the girls’ friend rather than disciplinarian. But now it’s on her. And more than just fulfilling a promise to care for them, the act itself comes with the challenge of having no real avenue towards legal guardianship. And while a forged birth certificate here and a “fake” marriage there might get the paperwork in order, Vanesa’s pain and frustration makes it so she’s one bad night away from calling the cops and saying she was kidnapped.
This isn’t therefore an easy road. How can it be when you have the white/Roma dynamic in a racist country and a house full of gay men and lesbians trying to bridge that gap while said country proves intolerant too. Dita’s life is thrown upside down insofar as stepping up to try and do right by Suada—thankfully with the help of Ali (who is great with little Mia) and the other women. Toni is forced to pretend he’s straight to keep up appearances, growing madder by the day in a sort of reversal of the usual toxic masculinity men lean into when “emasculated.” And Vanesa is struggling to find her place while grieving—is it with this white woman her mother loved or the Roma grandmother she barely knows or the boy who says he wants to marry her?
A real slice of life drama, HOUSEKEEPING FOR BEGINNERS proves a steady stream of unfortunate events caused by an escalating sense of being trapped despite their “prison” being the one place that actually gives them freedom. Everyone does and says things in the heat of the moment that they don’t mean, uncertain if the tenuous bonds holding them together will be broken at the slightest sign of trouble. Because that’s where Vanesa is ultimately coming from. She’s testing her boundaries. She’s steeling herself to the inevitable day when Dita kicks her and Mia to the curb regardless of there being zero evidence to support the assumption.
It’s a strong character study as a result with fantastic performances by all (special mention to Marinca and Mustafi doing the heavy lifting and Selim’s abundance of pure heart). And I really liked the subversion of what’s usually played for laughs (gay characters playing straight) being used for survival. They must put on these airs to keep the girls out of the system. Dita and Toni are fulfilling these roles even as the reason they’re doing it (Vanesa) becomes their greatest adversary via rebellious self-sabotage. The more we learn about this world and the contrast between Dita’s white life and the Roma in Shutka, however, the more that tension makes sense. Sometimes a good thing can be too good to be true, but it’s often your belief that you don’t deserve it that makes it that way.
- 8/10
SASQUATCH SUNSET
(in theaters)
It’s absolutely insane that David and Nathan Zellner’s latest film SASQUATCH SUNSET is opening wide across the country today. This is an 88-minute familial drama starring a quartet of sasquatch who communicate only in grunts. There are no subtitles. There are no human beings (although this family does eventually see and engage with remnants of a human presence). Everything we need to know comes from the actors’ actions, expression, and emotions.
What is their day-to-day during this year-long look into their habitat? Eating, wanting sex, letting curiosity lead them into danger, and futile attempts to find others like them. They move like chimps to maintain a semblance of humanity, but they react like dogs—putting anything that smells like it might be food into their mouths, repeating something fun over and over until it stops being fun, and letting their libido get the best of them when anxious and our unintentionally provoked. They do, however, learn their lessons quick … if they survive the lesson to learn it.
Jesse Eisenberg (Dad), Riley Keough (Mom), Christophe Zajac-Denek (Son), and Nathan Zellner (Grandpa?) are in full prosthetics and make-up for the duration. All the dirt and mud they come into contact with sticks to their hair. They urinate and defecate to mark their territory and scare away predators. Their faces become covered with fish guts and berry juice before being replaced by vomit if one or the other doesn’t sit well in their stomachs. They move on impulse. They accept their place when chastised into remembering where that place is.
And that’s about it. I can’t really talk about anything specific since the cause and effect of their actions is the plot. All I will tease is that the seasons are changing along with Mom’s evolving pregnancy. So, a baby looms as the four find themselves caught by danger both from nature and of their own making. Add some environmental themes (forest fire, marked trees for cutting, campers leaving candy out to flood the ecosystem with sugar, etc.) to project some relevancy on the narrative beyond the experiment of letting these actors tap into their primal selves and there is surely enough for some to call it important.
Me? I say it’s a mildly entertaining exercise with excellent performances and even better make-up. The Zellners know enough not to milk the runtime (88-minutes is probably pushing it anyway) and do a great job not repeating themselves to pad it either. This family’s experiences escalate and their mortality is never ignored. It’s a sad story as a result. One steeped in the existential nightmare of realizing you’re at once all alone and not alone at all.
- 6/10
SPY X FAMILY CODE: WHITE
[Gekijô-ban Supai Famirî Kôdo: Howaito]
(in theaters)
The family that spies together, vacations together. Especially when they don’t know they’re doing the former. Think MR. & MRS. SMITH but with a child.
SPY X FAMILY CODE: WHITE, directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi and written by Ichirô Ôkouchi (from Tatsuya Endo’s manga), stars undercover operative Loid (Takuya Eguchi) and assassin Yor Forger (Saori Hayami). Both have entered into this marriage as a cover, but neither knows the other’s identity. The only person who does is their young, adopted daughter Anya (Atsumi Tanezaki). Why? Because she has a secret of her own: telepathy. Add a rescue dog that can see the future courtesy of experimentations (his prophecies are extracted by Anya when she reads his mind) and the potential for the material is infinite.
Case in point: this feature film. What begins as one case (the reason Loid needed a daughter) soon transforms into another. The idea is that positioning Anya at a very exclusive school means he’ll have an opportunity to cross paths with his target (an integral cog to the institution’s past and present). To do so, however, the girl must win a cooking contest. Using his intel, Loid figures out exactly what dessert she needs to make for the judge (her principal) to choose her as the winner. That means traveling to Frigis to taste a unique meremere and unknowingly becoming embroiled in a military coup.
The result is a fun romp that culminates in an explosive finale with Loid taking on the army, Yor fighting an untested and seemingly indestructible soldier, and Anya meeting the Poop God. There are malicious characters, bumbling idiots, and yet another example of anime’s unfortunate desire to create women who live only to satisfy their male crush. Yor almost falls into the latter trap too considering she’s constantly worrying about Loid’s presumed infidelity in a way that makes her instantaneous shifts into cold-blooded killer mode more jarring than necessary. I know it’s a cultural thing, but it’s annoying when this bad-ass character chastises herself for not being a good enough “wife” (with the very overt connotation being sexual in nature).
Beyond that, though, SPY X FAMILY excels both in the familial comedy (Anya knowing the truth and how to help despite not wanting to divulge her own secret leads the trio into entertaining scenarios—especially because she acts her excitable age) and thrilling suspense. Whether it’s scouring the town for cherry liqueur or dodging missiles in the air, Loid and Yor are constantly pushed into life-or-death situations just outside of the other’s view so as to keep them ignorant to who they really are. The animation is excellent, the voice cast effective, and the fast-moving script as jam-packed as it is smoothly streamlined.
It definitely feels episodic in nature with a desire to make more installments, so don’t expect anything crazy in terms of narrative besides a nice mix of exposition and adventure. But the same could be said for comics in general. You read/watch because you enjoy the characters and want to see what craziness they get into next. The central lesson being that monogamy (fake or not) saves careers while infidelity ruins lives may seem oddly overt in an otherwise young-skewing project, but here we are. This is a “found” family learning to authentically love each other despite the mission. That’s a good enough message all on its own.
- 7/10
THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY
(streaming on Paramount+)
This was a lot better than I remembered. Not that I didn't like it the first time around. I think I just wasn't paying attention. Possibly just that I watched it with friends and thus wasn't quite dialed in.
Tom Ripley is such an intriguing character. He has the charm and charisma to really be someone these people can love; he just doesn't have the money or status necessary for them to realize he might be worth getting to know. Matt Damon effortlessly portrays the quiet pain of isolation bubbling below the surface with both his disarming smile and menacing grimace.
Anthony Minghella (and presumably Patricia Highsmith, unless he went far off-book with his adaptation) crafts an intricate plot of unfortunate events propelled by Ripley's penchant to lie in order to fit in. One lie to meet Dickie (Jude Law). Another to remain in Italy. Another to try beating a murder accusation of which he is definitely guilty. It's the truth that actually gets him into trouble by angering those he's tricked and forcing him to kill as a means of covering up a previous crime. The lies don't therefore just protect him. They protect them too.
And what a perfectly dark and tragic end. To force Ripley to choose between the life his lies have afforded him and the one person who could truly love him for who he is removed from all the artifice. Tom is a gay man using toxic masculinity as his password into a world filled with horrible people he longs to equal. And of whom he can so easily mimic—ultimately massaging their egos to become a member of their boy's club and thus a recipient of the protection its influence affords.
Ripley has tasted the spoils that being everything he's not supplies, and he finds it impossible to turn back. Even as the walls continue to close-in considering the world he's infiltrated is incestuous to the point of everyone knowing everyone who truly belongs, he survives knowing the power a name can possess and how confidence can make it his to use against his victims while they help him do it.
It's not therefore about Tom Ripley ever finding happiness. Tom Ripley is as much an alias now as any other. Everything is about the security and freedom to never go back.
- 8/10
Cinematic F-Bombs:
This weekend sees ARGYLLE (2024), DISTURBIA (2007), THE GREATEST HITS (2024), MÚSICA (2024), and SCOOP (2024) getting added to the archive (cinematicfbombs.com on Sunday, Twitter on Monday).
Rudy Mancuso and Maria Mancuso dropping f-bombs in MÚSICA.
New Releases This Week:
(Review links where applicable)
Opening Buffalo-area theaters 4/19/24 -
ABIGAIL at Dipson McKinley, Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
CAROL DODA TOPLESS AT THE CONDOR at North Park Theatre (select times)
DEEP SKY: THE IMAX 2D EXPERIENCE at Regal Transit
DO AUR DO PYAAR at Regal Elmwood
HARD MILES at Regal Transit
HOUSEKEEPING FOR BEGINNERS at North Park Theatre (select times)
Thoughts are above.
THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE at Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
RAJKUMAR at Regal Elmwood
SASQUATCH SUNSET at Regal Transit & Quaker
Thoughts are above.
SPY X FAMILY CODE: WHITE at Dipson Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
Thoughts are above.
A STAGE OF TWILIGHT at North Park Theatre (select times)
VILLAINS INCORPORATED at Regal Transit
Streaming from 4/19/24 -
MIGRATION – Peacock on 4/19
REBEL MOON – PART TWO: THE SCARGIVER – Netflix on 4/19
THE BEEKEEPER – MGM+ on 4/20
TIGER – Disney+ on 4/22
TIGER ON THE RISE – Disney+ on 4/22
TÓTEM – Criterion Channel on 4/23
CITY HUNTER – Netflix on 4/25
Now on VOD/Digital HD -
HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS (4/15)
“While this live-action LOONEY TUNES epic of silent-era slapstick nonsense is definitely too long, it proves itself to be a vast improvement over its predecessor by fully leaning into the madness until you can't help reveling in its charm.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
SWEET DREAMS (4/16)
IN THE LAND OF SAINTS AND SINNERS (4/16)
“The result is thus much quieter than you might have been told by the marketing. Don't therefore be surprised to find IN THE LAND OF SAINTS AND SINNERS at its best in its character-driven moments.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
IMMACULATE (4/16)
DUNE: PART TWO (4/16)
ASPHALT CITY (4/19)
BLOOD FOR DUST (4/19)
HANKY PANKY (4/19)
PROBLEMISTA (4/19)
THE THREE MUSKETEERS PART II: MILADY (4/19)