Week Ending 9/27/24
Marigold v Durango
I think I ended up liking THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY a lot more than I expected. The first season is great. Definitely the highlight. Season Two is a bit of a slog in that it’s mostly set-up for a climax that arrives at the eleventh hour, but I liked the personal conflicts each character faced. Season Three is probably my second favorite because it finally dives into the mythology behind what the Hargreeves are while also presenting a satisfying challenge. And the final season … well. Maybe it wouldn’t have felt so convenient and rushed if it was ten episodes instead of only six.
The main cast was a joy with Aidan Gallagher stealing the show. I was glad Colm Feore got more to do in the last two seasons, but I missed the fun Cameron Britton and Mary J. Blige delivered in the first two. The soundtrack’s mix of covers and originals was always enjoyable—especially when backing a kinetic cold open montage. And I loved the production design in seasons three and four between Hotel Obsidian, the subway, and King Reg’s.
My only real quibble is with how much gets left to the imagination. So often new revelations arrive with crucial impact to the story, yet we learn nothing about their origins. Abigail. Durango. Jennifer. It’s like you could do an entire sister show from that parallel perspective and angle to fill in the deus ex machina blanks. Is it that none of those things were ever fleshed out or was there just not enough time? Maybe I’ll pick up the comics someday and see if the answer lies there.
Now it’s time to re-watch THE SHIELD for the first time since it aired.
What I Watched:
MY OLD ASS
(in theaters)
Elliott (Maisy Stella) doesn’t do well on drugs. While Ro (Kerrice Brooks) dances and Ruthie (Maddie Ziegler) goes catatonic on hallucinogenic mushrooms, she’s stuck wondering why the high hasn’t hit. Then a stranger (Aubrey Plaza) appears next to her as though nothing is amiss. Is she a threat? A spy working for her parents? A neighbor checking in? No. Just because Elliott doesn’t do well on drugs doesn’t mean they don’t still work. This woman is the trip. She’s her from twenty-one years into the future. A mirror to help guide her big city college-bound self during what might be the most complicated month of her life.
Don’t assume Megan Park’s MY OLD ASS is going to stick to the premise’s usual conventions, though. The Elliotts try to by asking for stock tips and warning what not to do respectively, but Park won’t let them off that easy. Older Elliott is too worried about ruining the surprises of life to let Young Elliott deviate as wildly as getting rich would guarantee. And Young Elliott isn’t being asked to spend more time with her mother (Maria Dizzia) and brothers (Seth Isaac Johnson’s Max and Carter Trozzolo’s Spencer)—sorry, Dad (Alain Goulem)—because they’re dying soon. Older Elliott simply knows how precious those relationships are and how many days she wasted before coming to that conclusion.
The film is therefore very life-affirming. Without any big revelations or asks, Older Elliott mostly just opens Younger Elliott’s eyes to the reality we’re all a bit late in discovering ourselves. She gets to know her siblings with an intentional desire to understand them. She gets to appreciate what the family’s cranberry farm provides despite wanting to leave it behind for a future in Toronto. And she gets to experiment in love with the woman of her dreams (Alexandria Rivera’s Chelsea) as well as the man Older Elliott told her to avoid (Percy Hynes White’s Chad). It’s not that telling her “No” makes him more alluring, though. Not telling her why simply prevents him from automatic dislike.
It’s a sentimental and hopeful journey whose only real drama lies in the impossible connection shared by these two versions of Elliott. While their initial contact was the result of drugs, the film is very clear on the fact that Older Elliott is not a figment of Younger Elliott’s mind. It doesn’t explain how, but it does prove it to be true once they start talking and texting over the phone while sober. So, when Older Elliott suddenly stops responding, we can’t help but think the worst. That maybe the lost time spent with family isn’t for Young Elliott’s benefit as much as it is to compensate for Older Elliott’s regret in knowing what’s to come.
That’s not quite what’s happening, but it is a nice bit of emotional conflict to chew on that distracts us from the truth while augmenting its inevitable arrival. That truth isn’t difficult to suss out considering Young Elliott doesn’t necessarily worry too much about the absence. It actually provides her the space to figure out if Chelsea might not be the one she wants after all due to an inability to stop thinking about Chad regardless of the warning. Older Elliott’s disappearance (Plaza is not in this film very much) is thus a catalyst for Younger Elliott to continue living unencumbered. Without that voice in her ear telling her “No,” she can take the plunge and worry about consequences later.
Why? Because MY OLD ASS isn’t just about Younger Elliott (Stella is great in her first film role) growing up as a result of Older Elliott’s advice. It’s also about Older Elliott remembering her own definition of love being a combination of safety and freedom. Park sprinkles in a lot of humorous dialogue that makes the future seem dystopian to let us realize why Older Elliott is so worried about the safety part that she forgot about the freedom. So, Younger Elliott is both experiencing that rush of joy from living in the now and smacking her older self awake to start doing the same. Because languishing in the past is just as bad as fearing the future. The only surefire way to avoid both is to enthusiastically embrace the present.
- 7/10
SLEEP
[Jam]
(limited release & VOD)
The film opens as Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi) wakes up in the middle of the night to find her husband’s (Lee Sun-kyun’s Hyun-su) pillow empty. Turning, she finds him sitting at the foot of the bed muttering “someone’s inside” before falling backwards to recommence his snoring. Were those words part of a dream? That’s the logical answer until Soo-jin hears a bang in the distance. Maybe it was a warning—that Hyun-su woke just long enough to register what was happening without actually regaining consciousness. She realizes she must investigate the noise herself upon discovering he won’t open his eyes.
It’s the dread born from her uncertainty that writer/director Jason Yu weaponizes throughout his feature debut SLEEP. Not knowing if someone broke in. Not knowing if Hyun-su is awake. Not knowing what he might do in his sleep once the danger inherent to his late-night excursions escalates. Not knowing if the man next to Soo-jin is still the man she married at all. Because there exists an illogical explanation for every logical one. Hyun-su might simply be suffering from a sleeping disorder. Or, as Soo-jin’s mother hypothesizes, he might have been possessed by a ghost hellbent on revenge.
Split into three chapters—before the birth of Soo-jin and Hyun-su’s child, after the birth, and the culmination of everything we’ve seen and heard thus far—Yu does well to amplify both possibilities. It’s science vs. mysticism. It’s the psychological strain of a palpable fatigue vs. that of supernatural malice. And because the couple is split down the middle (albeit in reverse of what you’d expect considering the believer is a business executive and the skeptic is an actor), nothing that either of them wants to try is fully embraced by the other. They cannot take the chance that putting all their eggs in the wrong basket may result in their baby’s death.
The result is a tense affair that never feels repetitive despite the continued cycle of fear. Yes, the action and suspense stems from Hyun-su going to bed and Soo-jin’s experience dealing with what occurs, but the circumstances and consequences are always different. Always worse. It gets to the point where they cannot trust their meticulous plans will work. Not when there are so many variables at play. So, when both of them are stretched the thinnest, the potential for tragedy rises to a fever pitch. Something must give. Their patience. Their marriage. Maybe even their sanity. What’s so great about this duality, though, is that the insane option might make more sense.
Lee and Jung deliver great performances with their composure and grace gradually devolving as they move closer towards a wild climax. It’s the type of ending I’ve admittedly wanted from a bunch of the films these past few months—one with a clear and worthy payoff. Too often filmmakers have straddled that line between realism and fantasy only to never pick a side (or, worse, seemingly choose only to stop before having to back it up). Yu understands that a potentially mentally unstable Soo-jin will match the violence of a potentially possessed Hyun-su. That's the true horror: that humanity can be just as terrifying as any malevolent spirit.
- 8/10
STRANGE HARVEST: OCCULT MURDER IN THE INLAND EMPIRE
(World Premiere at Fantastic Fest)
I will say this about Stuart Ortiz’s STRANGE HARVEST: OCCULT MURDER IN THE INLAND EMPIRE: it looks and feels like a real true crime documentary. The production value is high. The attention to detail and use of old recording devices (or filters to mimic them) is on point. And the actors portraying the talking head interviews are excellent—especially Peter Zizzo and Terri Apple as lead detectives Joe Kirby and Lexi Taylor. Ortiz concocted the Mr. Shiny killing spree as if it really happened and measured out the witnesses and case breaks necessary to maintain tension while also progressing towards a plausible conclusion.
As a technical exercise paying homage to the genre, it’s impeccable. Was that his sole point, though? To present a case that touches on the supernatural with a level of authenticity an otherwise fictional narrative couldn’t? I guess accomplishing that goal successfully is a good enough reason, but why bring in the supernatural at all if you’re only going to infer its presence? Ortiz is sacrificing his ability to go big and truly make this a cosmic horror so he can retain aesthetic verisimilitude. Doing so ultimately undercuts what makes its premise cool—that Mr. Shiny (Jessee J. Clarkson) really is communing with an evil entity.
That’s not to say there isn’t still ambiguity. This thing doesn’t work at all if we don’t at least believe some cosmic craziness is plausibly taking effect. Is it paramount that Kirby and Taylor remain skeptical to achieve that ambiguity? No. Having them pursue this case as though Mr. Shiny is deranged and acting out a dark fantasy they must stop before it gets further out of hand is only necessary for aesthetic purposes. If Ortiz wanted, he could have made them Mulder and Scully without losing deniability. This could have been an X-FILES-esque episode shot like a documentary where he wasn’t constrained by the limitations of reality. He chose those limitations.
As a result, the project inevitably ends with a whimper. Not because it isn’t effective, but because it promised so much more. Had this just been SEVEN in documentary, I’d be a lot more favorable because its progressions would be focused on solving the crime and catching their man. Introducing Kaliban and Azragor while also alluding to witchcraft and demonic rituals sets us up for an intense and otherworldly payoff that never arrives. Ortiz flirts with that result (and even goes far enough for audiences to speculate that he confirmed it) before pressing pause and stepping back into the realm of sanity. He teases the apocalypse, but only provides delusions of grandeur.
It’s still good. Remove the cosmic aspects and you do feel like you’re on this bloody ride of murder as captured by police cams, web cams, and surveillance cams (I love the absurd touch of censoring a dog carcass while presenting unedited homicides). It’s just impossible to do so when the film leans into its “Lovecraftian” appeal so hard that the marketing push uses it as a selling point. So, discovering it’s a bill of false goods can’t help but sting. I felt so cheated that I stayed through the end credits thinking Ortiz might make everything right by supplying the payoff there. Sadly, while an end credit scene does exist, it once again only touches upon its supernatural horror’s potential. Fool me twice and all that.
So, while I’d definitely recommend STRANGE HARVEST on its cinematic merits, you must go in knowing that it won’t capitalize on its promise of being more than a fake true crime documentary. Maybe the decision to hold back was budgetary in scope or maybe Ortiz thought the flavor augments the mystery without consuming it fully. All I can say is that he injected this serial killing spree with enough cosmic inklings to buckle me in for some THE VOID-like chaos that never manifests. I can only hope you knowing it’s all a smokescreen upon sitting down will make experiencing what the film actually is more enjoyable.
- 6/10
THE UNIVERSAL THEORY
[Die Theorie von Allem]
(limited release)
For some, hearing director Timm Kröger (who co-wrote with Roderick Warich) talk about THE UNIVERSAL THEORY as being “a dream” will only make them angry. They’ll leave the film with questions only to discover there aren’t any answers because those questions were the goal. Those same sentiments conversely provide me clarity. Not just because they mean I wasn’t too dumb to figure out the answers, but also because there’s something wonderful in that inability to ever know. It leaves the characters to exist ambiguously outside the plot. Because they aren’t riding tracks towards a concrete destination. They’re cutting their own path.
What we see on-screen is simultaneously reality and fiction to Johannes Leinert (Jan Bülow). Yes, he experienced that which plays out. But how much can he truly believe when he’s unable to explain how any of it was possible? That’s why his publisher refused to let his tale go out to the public in its original form: a doctoral thesis in quantum mechanics that speculates a multiverse. It’s instead billed as a novel. Science fiction. The fantastical noir adventure of a young physicist caught in a series of anomalous events that occurred in the Swiss Alps circa 1962. Like Johannes’ supervisor (Hanns Zischler’s Dr. Strathen) posits: “You cannot defend a thesis without evidence.”
So, we watch the events unfold ourselves. Johannes (via Kröger) puts us in the position of a first-hand observer to give his story credence while also understanding the reality that our corroboration won’t help sway a skeptic. Because what we see is impossible. So impossible that neither those passively letting it happen to them (Johannes) nor those actively causing it (Olivia Ross’s Karin Hönig, among others) are in control. The latter camp obviously has a better handle on the phenomenon than the former, but they nevertheless remain passengers. Its mysteries and conspiracies can’t combat our innate human desire for importance.
That’s where I really connected with THE UNIVERSAL THEORY. It looks and feels great with its homage to cinematic history’s noirs of old via black and white cinematography, embellished visual cues, and overt score, but it’s still yet another entry into the multiverse canon that’s seemingly taken over the medium of late. Whereas most examples focus on a single vantage with which to designate superiority (a “true” timeline), Kröger leans into the chaotic nature inherent to the collective ignorance of believing ourselves to be the protagonist. Just because Johannes is our lead doesn’t mean he matters most. He might be his own “true” Johannes, but he’s a “fake” to every other iteration.
This realization allows for the mysteries to compound as well as the possibility that he isn’t quite the genius some think. Or maybe he is and fate just happens to pull him out of his natural universe to suffer failure instead. Because it isn’t necessarily that people are moving between worlds here. It’s almost as if the world is being changed around them at such a high speed that it cannot quite keep up, leaving a body behind even as the next alteration allows that same person to live again. The MacGuffin isn’t as much a portal as it is a dice roll. A boy who lived through WWII to see Hitler prove victorious is suddenly told the Allies won. A child who died in the Holocaust is suddenly in her twenties having survived.
Every act has an infinite number of choices. Maybe Dr. Strathen likes Johannes’s thesis. Maybe Prof. Blumberg (Gottfried Breitfuss) steals it. Maybe a mother tells her son to run. Maybe a boy’s far-fetched tale isn’t dismissed sight unseen. We’re as much along for the ride as the characters on-screen and those who seem to “know” what’s happening are just as in the dark to what will happen as us. There’s a refreshing sense of uncertainty at play that allows a definitively narrated epilogue to divert from what we thought was a definitively presented prologue. But just as everything that occurs in-between is altered without cause to expose “truth” as a construct, that beginning and end are each one likelihood amongst many.
Because while we think we can change an outcome through our own actions, one purposeful decision is ultimately meaningless in the face of an infinite number of peripheral decisions purposefully made by an infinite number of others who are at any given time both alive and dead.
- 7/10
WOLFS
(streaming on AppleTV+)
The bus shelter posters and television commercials all tell us that the district attorney’s (Amy Ryan) re-election campaign slogan is “tough on crime.” So, it’s no surprise to meet her at the start of Jon Watts’ WOLFS dialing a number simply labeled as “[ ]” on her phone due to there being a dead co-ed laying naked on the floor of her hotel room. Do as I say, not as I do.
Who’s on the other end? A fixer (George Clooney). A man you can trust to ensure whatever incident he’s been called to take care of never actually happened (wink). There’s just one problem. Someone else called a different fixer (Brad Pitt) for the same job. Now these unknowing rivals are caught in a bit of a snafu. They can’t not finish the job considering their sterling reputations. But that same reputation also means they can’t be seen working together. So, they decide Clooney will do the job for his client and Pitt will make sure he does it correctly for his.
Except it’s not that easy once drugs are discovered, their best lead proves to be a scared and blitzed out kid (Austin Abrams) in way over his head, and the entire Balkan region is gearing up to kill whoever crosses their path. The only way out is to therefore pool their resources, become vulnerable enough to let some trade secrets out, and hope the other is as good as he thinks he is because their lives do depend on it. Will they become friends by the end? Will their bad backs survive all the heavy lifting, cardio, and bullets?
That’s pretty much the film in a nutshell. Saying more means going into details and those details are the fun part of watching. Yes, we’ve seen it before (unlikely partners who hate each other stuck working a job with an endearingly innocent hostage to help melt their cold hearts), but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still enjoyable. Clooney and Pitt could scowl less since its their charisma that made them movie stars, but their sarcasm and egos shine to keep the comedy going in even the direst of situations. And Watts is finally free from MCU servitude. That’s worth a smile in and of itself.
Anyone who says it’s a bust is a more self-serious buzzkill than these lead characters combined. WOLFS won’t be winning any Oscars, but it’s an entertaining lark with two game actors playing to their age despite their pedigree … not instead of it. Abrams is great. Ryan is the perfect entry point. And both Poorna Jagannathan and Zlatko Buric deliver memorable bit parts along the way. My only complaint would be that there wasn’t enough Richard Kind since everything else lives up to its promise of supplying a disposable laugh that hits the spot. Whether you ever think about it again afterwards doesn’t really matter.
- 6/10
Cinematic F-Bombs:
This week saw THE GOOD DOCTOR (2012), THE NAKED GUN 2½: THE SMELL OF FEAR (1991), and TORQUE (2004) added to the archive (cinematicfbombs.com).
Zsa Zsa Gabor dropping an f-bomb in THE NAKED GUN 2½: THE SMELL OF FEAR.
New Releases This Week:
(Review links where applicable)
Opening Buffalo-area theaters 9/27/24 -
AZRAEL at AMC Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
BAGMAN at Regal Transit & Quaker
DEVARA: PART 1 at Regal Elmwood, Transit & Galleria
FAITH OF ANGELS at Dipson Flix & Capitol
LEE at Dipson Amherst & Capitol; Regal Elmwood, Transit & Galleria
MEGALOPOLIS at Dipson Amherst; AMC Maple Ridge; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
MEIYAZHAGAN at Regal Elmwood
MERCHANT IVORY at North Park Theatre (select times)
MY OLD ASS at AMC Maple Ridge; Regal Transit, Galleria & Quaker
Thoughts are above.
SHUKRANA at Regal Elmwood
VINDICATING TRUMP at Regal Transit & Quaker
THE WILD ROBOT at Dipson, Flix, McKinley & Capitol; AMC Market Arcade & Maple Ridge; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
Streaming from 9/27/24 -
APARTMENT 7A – Paramount+ on 9/27
THE FALL [2006] – MUBI on 9/27
ODDITY – Shudder on 9/27
“How McCarthy exposes his truths is more effective than the plausibility and narrative soundness of them, but I'd rather that than the other way around.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
REZ BALL – Netflix on 9/27
SHE TAUGHT LOVE – Hulu on 9/27
WILL & HARPER – Netflix on 9/27
WOLFS – AppleTV+ on 9/27
Thoughts are above.
BABES – Hulu on 9/30
“A lot of [its] success is due to Buteau delivering an authentic and natural performance that’s as funny as it is resonant.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
HOLD YOUR BREATH – Hulu on 10/3
HOUSE OF SPOILS – Prime on 10/3
SALEM’S LOT – Max on 10/3
TROUBLE – Netflix on 10/3
Now on VOD/Digital HD -
THE BECOMERS (9/24)
“[Nothing] that's revealed is surprising considering Clark does well to keep clues out in the open, but a lot is shocking insofar as how wild he's willing to [go]. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but those on its frequency should have a whale of a time.” – Full thoughts at The Film Stage.
BETWEEN THE TEMPLES (9/24)
“You almost can't imagine how the rest of the film will match that prologue because it feels so meticulously constructed as a self-contained gag to introduce its tone and characters, but there's really zero drop-off afterwards.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
THE BOY IN THE WOODS (9/24)
THE FRONT ROOM (9/24)
IT ENDS WITH US (9/24)
KILL 'EM ALL 2 (9/24)
MOUNTAINS (9/24)
PARADOX EFFECT (9/24)
SUCCUBUS (9/24)
TENANTS (9/24)
THE THICKET (9/24)
AMBER ALERT (9/27)
AND MRS. (9/27)
BIBI (9/27)
HAUNTED HEART (9/27)
I’LL BE RIGHT THERE (9/27)
PLAN B (9/27)
SLEEP (9/27)
Thoughts are above.
WAR GAME (9/27)