Week Ending 5/24/24
Happy Memorial Day
After a pretty quiet month as far as screener interest goes (only one this week leading to me catching up on a couple others via streaming), May finally delivers a flood of titles for the long weekend. With 4+ options and an extra day off to try and catch them all, I just might do it. Add NHL playoffs to the mix, however, and … I might not.
Hoping to have some TV time coming too as I’m excited to finally catch up on SHOGUN. That DARK MATTER on AppleTV+ intrigues as well. We’ll see how June shapes up and whether I’ll have time to fit both in soon. Right now, it’s looking pretty light as well.
What I Watched:
BABES
(in theaters)
Eden (Ilana Glazer) and Dawn (Michelle Buteau) are so ride-or-die that they think nothing of going to a very expensive restaurant while the latter is in labor, telling the server (Josh Rabinowitz, who co-writes with Glazer) not to worry about the amniotic fluid on the floor because “There’s more on the way.” That’s how these characters roll and how this film trends with its penchant for the natural gross-out comedy inherent to a pregnant woman’s body. Because while Pamela Adlon’s feature directorial debut BABES may start with Dawn having a baby, it ends with Eden following closely behind.
Both women have no shame when it comes to going wild in public or eating shrooms at home. They’ve been BFFs since childhood and carry the good (support system) and bad (co-dependency) baggage that goes along with the distinction. Even so, however, Dawn is the responsible one. Eden is the “child.” That’s why the former hedges her bets upon declaring that she’d support her friend no matter what decision she makes concerning an unplanned pregnancy post-one-night-stand. She knows Eden will get an abortion since Eden can barely take care of herself. But that’s not the decision. We all must grow up sometime.
What I really enjoyed about BABES is that it isn’t just about that journey for Eden. Yes, she’s the de facto lead considering it spans her child’s nine-month gestation, but the real intriguing drama lies with Dawn’s postpartum adjustment to work, marriage, a second child, and friendship. The more Eden leans on Dawn as a surrogate partner (being that she’s doing this as a single parent), the more frustrated Dawn becomes. Because she can’t be there every step of the way. She’s dealing with a baby, husband (Hasan Minhaj), regressing four-year-old, and now a “wife” on top? It’s too much. And it’s okay to admit it.
With some crazy moments (Adlon’s choice to go back and forth between the duo’s experience on shrooms and reality makes a funny situation even funnier), solid cameos (Stephan James and Oliver Platt are great in limited time with John Carroll Lynch’s Dr. Morris lending a necessary dose of firm yet caring boundaries), and an affecting central love between two women juggling pasts, presents, and futures (personally and societally), there’s a lot to like on-screen. Projects Glazer writes are hit-or-miss for me and some of the more pointed jokes here are delivered like they’re working towards a fourth wall-breaking stare that never arrives, but the whole overcomes its shakier parts.
A lot of that success is due to Buteau delivering an authentic and natural performance that’s as funny as it is resonant. There’s a refreshing honesty to the way she toes the line between supportive and realistic with Eden and a montage of her smile-masked fatigue at home and work is probably the most memorable moment of a movie that delivers projectile breast milk and descriptions of “babying on the poop.” It’s always the heart that shines brightest in work like this and Buteau brings it in full.
- 6/10
DUNE: PART TWO
(streaming on Max)
The problem with Messiah stories is that the stakes become obsolete. Yes, there’s a chance that the character everyone believes to be the Messiah won’t turn out to fulfill that role, but certain properties like Frank Herbert’s DUNE render that hope moot. We know Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) is who the fundamentalists think he is. Not because he was destined for the role. But precisely because they believe. And if those who need that faith to survive can help sway the non-believers to their side, prophecy is made whole through perception alone. The more times Paul succeeds, the more they believe … and allow themselves to be led.
It’s why Chani (Zendaya) is the most intriguing character of the whole of Denis Villeneuve’s DUNE: PART TWO. She’s the one who is being led by her own motives and desires—much like Paul in the first installment. Whereas that one excels because the most intriguing character exists at its center, this one fails to meet its potential by desperately trying to make us care about the one person we shouldn’t care about. Because no matter how believable the conflict might seem inside Paul’s heart (he doesn’t want to go south knowing he will lose himself), we know he must. So, our only hope is that he is made the secondary mirage he is.
The fact that he doesn’t leads to hollow artifice. Beautiful, but hollow. This beast is gorgeous to behold regardless of how little it says beyond the central tenet that power corrupts. That benevolent leadership is a fallacy because mankind doesn’t care about world peace, only peace and prosperity for itself. So, Paul and Gurney (Josh Brolin) can fight for revenge. Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) can too by twisting who she is and what she was made for into that entity’s demise. Stilgar (Javier Bardem) can lose himself to his religion and Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) can act on the impulses of his psychosis (what a waste of an unhinged performance on a one-dimensional cog). In the end, we know where they’ll once the credits roll. It’s only Chani that makes us wonder.
As such, PART TWO proves to be more expository than its predecessor. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised considering we never even meet the Emperor (Christopher Walken) or his daughter (Florence Pugh) in the first despite them being so crucial to David Lynch’s adaptation. By holding them back, Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, and Eric Roth were able to craft a captivating yarn for the fall of an empire. And now that Villeneuve and Spaihts must finally introduce them, they must also bog down momentum (if repetitive montages of Paul becoming “one with the desert” can possess momentum) with mythology. What’s funny, though, is that they get about ten total minutes of screentime anyway. They’re pawns, much like everyone else.
Is it worth a look? Yes. For the production value alone. Also, for anyone who enjoyed the first movie and still believes a third is in the offing (they’ve made too much money for Zaslav not to greenlight it). I too want to continue the story and see where this corruption of soul is heading and whether Chani’s love can change things for the better (or make things worse). We must therefore suffer through the doldrums of pure set-up to get there with DUNE: PART TWO proving that lull of a bridge episode pushing us forward with action scenes and betrayal so that the lines can be drawn in the sand for future drama (this is pretty much an over-long epilogue leading towards MESSIAH). I just expected a whole lot more considering the critical and audience acclaim.
- 6/10
LISA FRANKENSTEIN
(streaming on Peacock)
Lisa (Kathryn Newton) didn’t seek becoming the titular LISA FRANKENSTEIN at the center of Zelda Williams film (written by Diablo Cody). It just happens that she frequented the grave of the soon-to-be resurrected corpse (Cole Sprouse) and thus made it so she would be the person he’d most feel safe with amidst the chaos of an unfamiliar 1980s suburbia. That she’s unafraid of death having survived the home invasion that killed her mother makes befriending him an easy sell. And working as a seamstress after school becomes her “doctor’s license” for if (or when) they find an ear and hand to make his body whole (with the help of a faulty tanning bed).
That’s not to say their relationship is one-way either. His presence as a sounding board becomes a catalyst for Lisa to break free from the shell that trauma and change (her father quickly remarried, uprooting them to another town for her senior year) built. She knows he won’t judge her and that’s rare these days. Because even though her affection is genuine, half-sister Taffy (Liza Soberano) can’t help but project an air of wanting to help her conform rather than be herself (being the daughter of Carla Gugino’s Janet guarantees some level of self-interest). And when Sprouse’s corpse eventually “saves” Lisa, the two become inseparable.
This is very much a Diablo Cody script for better and worse. It’s highly stylized in its 80s trappings (with Williams lending an off-kilter, just-left-of-reality EDWARD SCISSORHANDS vibe to the town). Its characters epitomize stereotypical clichés in order to subvert them. And it’s never afraid to go to dark places for a laugh—if you’re willing to provide one. The pacing isn’t quite right and the whole drags in more than one section, but I really enjoyed the main cast and what they’re doing within that often-janky structure. Newton and Sprouse are great—cartoonish in their devilish actions yet honest in their emotions.
My favorite part, though, was Soberano. Whenever things start to go off-the-rails, her portrayal of unfettered positivity finds a way to ground things again with a warm sense of empathy that never feels forced. She’s a cheerleader at school, but also one in Lisa’s life—at a time when her father won’t even fill the role. Her Taffy is forced into some corners plot-wise so that the sex comedy promise of many jokes can be fulfilled with one last “surgery,” but Soberano plays it all straight so the stakes are never sacrificed by Lisa’s otherwise absurdly maniacal reactions to serious tragedies. Without her providing that contrast, the whole would fall apart.
- 6/10
Cinematic F-Bombs:
Added a couple new titles to bolster the 2024 selection on the site. DUNE: PART TWO (2024) delivers a bland, heat-of-the-moment f-bomb while THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAGICAL NEGROES uses its singular use of the word as a climactic showstopper.
Justice Smith delivers an f-bomb in THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAGICAL NEGROES.
New Releases This Week:
(Review links where applicable)
Opening Buffalo-area theaters 5/24/24 -
BABES at AMC Maple Ridge; Regal Elmwood, Galleria & Quaker
Thoughts are above.
FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA at Dipson Amherst, McKinley, Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
THE GARFIELD MOVIE at Dipson McKinley, Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
LOVE ME at Regal Elmwood
SIGHT at Dipson Capitol; AMC Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
STOP MAKING SENSE at North Park Theatre (select times)
TURBO at Regal Transit
Streaming from 5/24/24 -
ATLAS – Netflix on 5/24
MY ONI GIRL – Netflix on 5/24
THE BEACH BOYS – Disney+ on 5/24
FOR LOVE & LIFE: NO ORDINARY CAMPAIGN – Prime on 5/28
COLORS OF EVIL: RED – Netflix on 5/29
MOVIEPASS, MOVIECRASH – Max on 5/29
Now on VOD/Digital HD -
ABOUT DRY GRASSES (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.
CLUB ZERO (5/21)
DARKNESS OF MAN (5/21)
THE FALL GUY (5/21)
JEANNE DU BARRY (5/21)
LIMBO (5/21)
RELATIVE (5/21)
“While some instances feel more organic than others, none are completely out of place conceptually and all end up providing another springboard towards subdued yet entertaining levity by way of communion or juxtaposition.” – Full thoughts at The Film Stage.
ROAD HOUSE (5/21)
CIVIL WAR (5/24)
IN WATER (5/24)
QUEEN OF THE DEUCE (5/24)