Week Ending 5/17/24
Coppola v Miller on the Croisette
Most of the people who’ve seen George Miller’s FURIOSA did so at press screenings stateside (albeit with some controversy since many big markets weren’t included on that original press run), but it has now played at Cannes alongside Francis Ford Coppola’s MEGALOPOLIS too. The former is getting raves. The latter earned its fair share as well … along with a healthy amount of pans.
Both are must-sees as a result. To witness the greatness of Miller’s latest MAD MAX chapter and to decide for yourself about where Coppola’s passion project actually stands. Every artwork should strive for wide praise or divisiveness (and, to a lesser extent, loathing) because the real failures are those that audiences would rather not talk about at all. Passion > indifference.
What I Watched:
AISHA
(VOD/Digital HD)
Despite seeming as though it’s building to a grand emotional finale where Aisha Osagie (Letitia Wright) lays everything bare with a long-awaited account of what happened to her the night her father and brother were murdered in Nigeria, Frank Berry’s AISHA never really diverts from its otherwise quietly somber cadence. Extensively researched to approximate Ireland’s asylum experience, the film chooses to use this character as a means of uncovering the frustratingly bureaucratic thinking most governments adopt on the subject. Rather than a mouthpiece for political explosion, Aisha is a tragic amalgamation of hopes dashed.
That’s not to say the subject matter would be better served by leaning into the theatrics of a soapbox scream. Just that it seems Berry is moving in that direction with how his script keeps holding Aisha’s truth back via silence and tears. He teases the reveal in a way that guarantees our expectation of an Oscar-bait-y moment that does not come. Wright doesn’t need that showcase to put her hat in the ring considering her nuanced and heartbreaking turn is great, nonetheless. I must only question why Berry continuously puts us in a mindset for fireworks (“Put us in the room.” “You can tell me anything.” “You need to give more details”) only to have Aisha succinctly tell us what we already knew sans elaboration.
Perhaps that’s the point. That he’s explaining how European institutions demand gruesomely harrowing details before offering the decency to treat refugees as human beings rather than statistics. He probably could have done so without manipulating his audience’s anticipation too, though. Because the story succeeds on its own. It shows us the arduous process men and women like Aisha must endure to even get a chance for a visa—the time spent, abuses suffered, and the prison-like exploitation on behalf of opportunistic profiteers. It exposes how the system is built to use these refugees as cheap labor and a means for subsidies instead of saving their lives.
You have tribunals and solicitors doing all they can to prove why someone in mortal danger back home shouldn’t be afraid—people of wealth and status judging those without as a way to maintain their own place atop the food chain. And then you have someone like Conor Healy (Josh O'Connor)—an ex-con, former drug addict, security guard living with his mother—allowing for the space to see what’s happening because they too have been let down by systems meant to insulate the upper class from the lower. The comparison might be convenient and reductive, but it’s not wrong. The “other” is treated like a criminal until proven useful to those who will never treat them as an equal anyway.
We watch all the ways those with the ability to save Aisha let her down while those in as dire straits as her lend a hand. There are the real bad guys using their positions to willfully harm those in their care, the ones doing their best to assist only to find their hands tied when circumstances spiral out-of-control, and the ones with nothing to lose or gain sticking around to show Aisha that she isn’t alone even if it feels like it. Every choice in front of her (deportation, voluntary return, and even suicide) is broached and the futility of fighting is constantly weighed against the necessity to survive. It seems circuitous because it is. What matters is whether its merry-go-round consumes Aisha’s spirit or makes her stronger.
- 6/10
NIGHTWATCH
[Nattevagten]
(streaming on Shudder)
Just turned twenty-four and trying to pay his law school tuition without asking his parents for help, Martin (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) decides to take a job as the night watchman at The Department of Forensic Medicine in Copenhagen. It’s supposed to be a cakewalk. Do his rounds. Study at his desk. Try to wake up in time for class. Sure, the person he’s replacing—a cryptic Gyrd Løfquist teasing that there’s an interesting reason he quit without ever explaining—makes it seem scarier than it probably is, but that doesn’t mean it’s not also scary. Dead bodies, unlikely alarms, and an infestation of moths keep Martin on edge.
A cult classic from 1994, Ole Bornedal’s NIGHTWATCH earned a Hollywood remake three years later starring Ewan McGregor that Bornedal also directed. And now, thirty years later, it’s inexplicably been given a sequel too (subtitled DEMONS ARE FOREVER). It’s not a surprise that audiences enjoyed this horror thriller with its twists and turns en route to uncovering the identity of a serial killer. Besides the mystery itself—could the killer be Martin’s best friend Jens (Kim Bodnia) or, perhaps, Martin himself in a fugue state where fantasy bleeds into reality—is a healthy dose of humor courtesy of a central game of dare.
The rules: Don’t say “No.” Jens dares Martin with the game itself by promising a wild, no-holds-barred adventure wherein neither can decline a challenge. And since law school already has their money, the prize is “freedom.” If Martin neglects to fulfill a challenge, he must marry Kalinka (Sofie Gråbøl). If Jens fails, he must propose to Lotte (Lotte Andersen). What begins as macho attempts to stand-up to bullies at a bar (despite knowing they wouldn’t win a fight) moves to the realm of sex (cheating on their would-be fiancées with Rikke Louise Andersson’s teenage prostitute Joyce) and, soon, personal actions intentionally meant to risk their respective relationships.
Why do we suspect Jens is the killer? Because he takes the game a little too seriously. He sneaks into the hospital to frighten Martin, starts harassing Joyce (the murder victims are all sex workers), and makes it difficult to give him the benefit of the doubt. Why Martin? Because his paranoia starts to get the better of him—making an enemy of the head doctor. Thankfully, the lead detective on the case (Ulf Pilgaard) thinks he’s harmless … not that that thinking does Jens any favors once evidence starts to look damning. Maybe these two idiots have simply gotten too close and thus set themselves up to be framed by the real criminal.
While mostly vibes at the start, there’s definitely an escalation in gore as the plot progresses to provide details about the killings. Eventually we must see the aftermath of one of these “scalpings” for ourselves before witnessing a murder first-hand too. It’s still the 90s, though, with a modest budget at that. Bornedal does well to save his funds for a final act that starts to piece together the truth (it’s all pretty much in the open for you to guess) and pit heroes against villains for a showdown that risks a surprisingly heavy body count. And you get to see Coster-Waldau and Bodnia having fun decades before GAME OF THRONES and KILLING EVE.
- 7/10
NIGHTWATCH: DEMONS ARE FOREVER
[Nattevagten - Dæmoner går i arv]
(streaming on Shudder)
How do you make a sequel to a cult film thirty years later despite it having as concrete an ending as you could imagine? You open it back up. After all, gunshots aren’t always fatal. Maybe Peter Wörmer (Ulf Pilgaard) didn’t die. Maybe he was simply incapacitated and sent to a psychiatric hospital instead, left to fade away from the public consciousness until death finally took him too.
His presence would keep looming large over the minds of his victims. Because despite Martin (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Kalinka (Sofie Gråbøl) shielding their daughter Emma (Fanny Leander Bornedal, the director’s own daughter) from the whole ordeal, they couldn’t escape it themselves. So, it was only a matter of time before she also discovered the truth while rummaging through her late mother’s personal effects as Dad numbed himself with pills. Only a matter of time before Emma decided to discover what happened on her own.
Credit Ole Bornedal for crafting a solid way back into these characters lives and breathing new life into their story. It helps that NIGHTWATCH: DEMONS ARE FOREVER was able to coax most of the original cast back too—even if only for a few minutes where some are concerned. Bornedal needs a few red herrings and victims to keep things moving forward, so why not have them arrive in the form of familiar faces? And since this go is much more serious in tone, having Kim Bodnia’s Jens appearing midway through proves a necessary balm of humor.
Who then is the perpetrator now that Wörmer is unable to continue his own work? A copycat (Casper Kjær Jensen’s Bent)? A child of his own? Maybe Dr. Berthelsen’s (Niels Anders Thorn) frustration has boiled over after babysitting Martin way back then and teaching his daughter now? The hope is that the psychiatrist (Sonja Richter’s Gunver) and detective (Paprika Steen’s Kramer) assigned to the case once Emma unintentionally kicks the hornet’s nest to spill new blood will figure it out before it’s too late.
As such, the parallels to the original (Emma takes the nightwatchman job while trying to learn everything her father refuses to say) are merely an entry point. This isn’t the “re-quel” it might initially risk becoming. There are still some scares in the forensic hospital, but mostly as a means to set the board for a climactic finale where past and present collide. And despite the reunion (with a wonderful bit of emotion shared by Coster-Waldau and Bodnia), this is very much Leander Bornedal’s film. Her Emma is the catalyst, target, and, ultimately, potential hero to close the physical and psychological wounds on-screen.
It’s personal. It’s about revenge both for her and Wörmer insofar as him falling under the textbook definition of “victim” if not the moral one. The “Demons are forever” part of the title has some duality too in the idea of a so-called “It” driving the bus of these evil deeds (think a supernatural entity a la “Bob” in TWIN PEAKS) and the lasting invisible scars of trauma refusing to disappear. The film therefore works best as a character study of burden and entitlement while the mystery (Who is the murderer?) becomes a secondary concern—a good thing since it’s not too difficult to figure out.
Will the result have as lasting an impact as the original? No. I think a lot of that one’s charm came from its comedy—even if most of it aged poorly. Bornedal tries to inject some via Emma’s med-school classmates (Nina Terese Rask’s Maria, Alex Høgh Andersen’s Frederik, and Sonny Lindberg’s Sofus), but it’s too tangential in scope. Emma and Martin’s relationship, Emma’s infiltration into Wörmer’s life, and the killer’s actions are way too severe to let that stuff be more than a brief respite. And that’s fine. It merely renders the whole much more conventional than its predecessor. Thankfully, it proves effective, nonetheless.
- 7/10
Cinematic F-Bombs:
I’m up to 124 titles updated with new layout and videos. Focusing mostly on PG-13 first, going backwards from newest to oldest—but also reworking some of my earliest ones too for variety (lengthening them, adding punctuation, etc.). Here’s one of my favorites … even though they censored it for release. cinematicfbombs.com
Sigourney Weaver dropping a (dubbed over) f-bomb in GALAXY QUEST.
New Releases This Week:
(Review links where applicable)
Opening Buffalo-area theaters 5/17/24 -
BACK TO BLACK at North Park Theatre; Dipson Amherst, Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
THE BLUE ANGELS at Regal Transit
GURUVAYOOR AMBALANADAYIL at Regal Elmwood
I SAW THE TV GLOW at AMC Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood & Galleria
IF at Dipson McKinley, Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 at Dipson McKinley, Flix & Capitol; AMC Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
WILDCAT at Regal Transit
“[Hawke is] using the art as a means to understand the artist [delivering] an intriguing dance between "fact" and fiction that plays with the idea that each influences the other in myriad ways.” Full thoughts at HHYS.
Streaming from 5/17/24 -
MOURNING IN LOD – Paramount+ on 5/17
NIGHTWATCH: DEMONS ARE FOREVER – Shudder on 5/17
Thoughts are above.
POWER – Netflix on 5/17
THELMA THE UNICORN – Netflix on 5/17
GOLDEN KAMUY – Netflix on 5/19
ABOUT DRY GRASSES – Criterion Channel on 5/21
“Does [Samet] learn his lesson? No. Because he doesn't need to learn within a patriarchal society that rewards a lack of curiosity and conviction. All he must do is lick his wounds and bide his time before beginning fresh elsewhere.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
DUNE: PART TWO – Max on 5/21
THE BLUE ANGELS – Prime on 5/23
ILLUSIONS FOR SALE: THE RISE AND FALL OF GENERATION ZOE – Netflix on 5/23
IN GOOD HANDS 2 – Netflix on 5/23
Now on VOD/Digital HD -
GODZILLA x KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE (5/14)
SASQUATCH SUNSET (5/14)
“A mildly entertaining exercise with excellent performances and even better make-up. Steeped in the existential nightmare of realizing you're at once all alone and not alone at all.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
STING (5/14)
THE TIGER’S APPRENTICE (5/14)
ADAM THE FIRST (5/15)
THE AMERICAN (5/17)
CAROL DODA: TOPLESS AT THE CONDOR (5/17)
THE END OF THE ROPE (5/17)
PITCH PEOPLE (5/17)
YOU CAN’T RUN FOREVER (5/17)