Week Ending 1/31/25
Vic & Friends
I just finished a full rewatch of “The Shield” that did not disappoint. Considering most of the parts that “didn’t age well” come out of the mouths of bigoted and racist characters, it actually didn’t really age at all. The only things missing for it to be present-day are bodycams that the Strike Team keeps “forgetting” to turn on.
The first three seasons were great, but the real standouts are seasons four and five courtesy of introducing new, A-list blood. Glenn Close and Anthony Anderson level things up to an exhilarating level (plus you get Michael Peña in a recurring role) and then Forest Whittaker sustains it on his own the next year. Season six does its best to carry that energy over, but the end is so near that Shawn Ryan and friends become forced to progress the plot in ways that morph the show into something else.
It’s still top-notch, though, and I appreciate things coming to a concrete (and satisfying end), but I can’t deny it loses a bit when it shifts from the Strike Team against everyone to the Strike Team against itself (with the rest chasing behind).
Dutch Boy and Claudette (Jay Karnes and CCH Pounder) remain the highlight all these years later. Kenny Johnson’s Lem remains the heart. And I was surprised to find myself appreciating David Marciano’s Billings. A role I remembered as throwaway comic relief proved itself so much more this time around.
Next up: a rewatch of the “Defenders Saga” in preparation for “Daredevil Reborn.” I never finished it all and forgot the details of what I did. I was shocked to find how many episodes (191) there were. Netflix really kept spitting them out.
What I Watched:
ALIEN: ROMULUS
(streaming on Hulu)
Going from completing her mandatory labor quota in order to leave her planet and venture off to paradise to discovering said quota was doubled "due to lack of workers" (in a way that reveals no one is ever finished because the quota is merely a carrot to be chased for perpetuity), Rain (Cailee Spaeny) agrees to embark on a risky heist that will get her there anyway. Led by Tyler (Archie Renaux), his sister Kay (Isabela Merced), their cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and his girlfriend Navarro (Aileen Wu), the plan calls for Rain's "brother" (an "Andy" synthetic her father repurposed as her protector, played by David Jonsson) to infiltrate a decommissioned Weyland-Yutani spacecraft and steal its cryochambers.
While this sextet is unaware of what might await them in space, director Fede Alvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues ensure the audience has open eyes courtesy of an Alien franchise lore-filled prologue. We watch a rescue ship come up to the USCSS Nostromo and procure a giant rock-like structure from inside that they cut open to leave a xenomorph-shaped fossilized hole in the cross-section. Did the creature therefore get loose and kill everyone on-board before floating to Rain's colony? Did it leave its eggs of facehuggers for someone to find? Or are we a few more steps removed to discover something even more elaborate than an alien space-hopping from one craft to the next?
Alien: Romulus proves to be an "all of the above" amalgam that not only gives us facehuggers, xenomorphs, and synthetics, but also an eye-roll inducing level of visual and verbal callbacks to the entirety of the franchise. Alvarez has Frankensteined together an IP monster that seeks to satisfy the desires of any fan while also refusing to really provide much of anything new. In many ways it feels like a big budget fan film looking to homage and honor all the filmmakers that came before him. I just wish that a studio might one day allow someone to work within a world and not be forced to connect anything to previous installments. This whole cutesy, closed loop desire for a wink is growing tiresome.
So, I'm going to try and disconnect myself from the noise and judge this single movie on its own merits. Doing so doesn't make it great, but it also doesn't make it a try-hard pop culture pastiche either. It instead renders Romulus into a solid horror thriller that succeeds more when we're not forced to endure the narrative gymnastics. Because the relationship dynamic between human and synthetic does feel fresh when removed from the Ash, Bishop, and David of it all. Beyond the protocols and directives exists a form of love that motivates both Rain and Andy throughout this adventure. Yes, emotions generally cloud judgement to the point of creating disaster, but embracing them might be worth a horrible end.
What's the alternative? Utilitarian automatons? You might as well just wipe out humanity and let the androids rule the world in that case. It shouldn't be about synthetics teaching humans to be more pragmatic. It needs to be about humans teaching synthetics that some things are too precious to render collateral damage. That's not to say Andy's cutthroat decision-making isn't a direct factor towards keeping as many of his friends alive as possible, but that it's okay to sometimes want to take that one percent gamble to save everyone. Better to die trying than to live not knowing, right? Let's just say a lot of characters on-screen agree because their numbers dwindle fast and often.
They must in this genre. We're ultimately here to watch them die in brutal ways and to see if those deaths motivate the survivors to keep going. Mortality is the driving force—mankind's tenacity despite knowing it's fighting a battle it cannot win. It's why Alien: Covenant disappointed me: David can't be an intriguing enough lead because he's too perfect. We need a human like Rain and a fallible android like Andy. How do they overcome their limitations? How do they humble themselves to realize saving themselves will never bring happiness because they won't have the other by their side? That's what it means to protect humanity. Not ensuring humans evolve towards immortality, but that they will freely perish for each other.
As such, like with Prometheus, the "perfect synthetic" must be the villain. Sure, the xenomorphs are roaming around the ship (and there are a lot of them), but they are impediments rather than the goal. The real mission is preserving a serum that could turn humans into Gods—never a good thing when those hoping to do so are billion-dollar corporations led by greedy CEOs bleeding their resources (laborers) dry to secure their own future. That means needing a company man via Rook (Daniel Betts), an identical model to Alien's Ash (with permission from the Ian Holm estate) as well as an often off-the-reservation Andy. They're willing to sacrifice humanity to "save" humanity. Rain is willing to die to save her brother.
It's a great through line augmented by wonderful performances from both Spaeny and Jonsson. We care so much about these two that we almost forget the obvious threads to this film's predecessors that won't stop popping up. They're why I wish this was their own movie. Don't make Rook look like Ian Holm (it mostly looks bad, even after Alvarez asked Disney for additional money after release to make it better for home video). Don't keep trying to subvert the metaphor of humanity's monstrousness by always transforming humans into the monsters they fight (I'm unsure why so many people seemed shocked by an ending they should have seen coming a light year away). Stop strangling good ideas to expand your IP with the constraints of needless IP familiarity.
- 7/10
ARMAND
(in theaters 2/7/25; Norway’s International Oscar submission)
It's easy to get caught up in the story. Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel (Liv Ullman and Ingmar Bergman's grandson) has made it so we must ... at least at first. Because Elisabeth (Renate Reinsve) seems like your stereotypical absentee mother demanding attention and adoration from everyone she meets. So, of course she wouldn't know her son has been terrorizing classmates. Of course she wouldn't accept that her job as an actress taking her away for long stretches and the tragic recent death of her husband have impacted the boy in irreparable ways. It's why the school decides to use kid gloves. To break the news of what happened in person and figure out a way forward with as little publicity as possible.
Armand therefore begins by showing us details in a way that confirms these assumptions. Elisabeth speeding down the road while practically begging her son to reciprocate her "I love you" over the phone. The principal (Øystein Røger's Jarle) and head nurse (Vera Veljovic-Jovanovic's Ajsa) speaking in generalities while passing the buck to the boy's teacher (Thea Lambrechts Vaulen's Sunna) as far as dealing with breaking the news. And the accuser's parents (Ellen Dorrit Petersen's Sarah and Endre Hellestveit's Anders) calmly waiting for their apology because the case is open and shut to them considering their boy Jon would never lie about something as disturbing as what Armand did and threatened to do. Here comes the wake-up call for Elisabeth to realize she's a horrible mother.
Yet her complete ignorance to the situation seems genuine. Not only has no one told her about this latest incident, but talk of previous ones catches her off-guard to the point where we again presume she's just not paying attention. Except that her confusion has merit. If Jon was so afraid of Armand, why did he always end up coming over for dinner? Why did Sarah let him keep coming to dinner? Then you discover the boys are actually cousins (Sarah and Armand's late father were siblings). That they've been close practically since birth. That they're only six-years-old. Why then shouldn't Elisabeth believe her son when he claims innocence just like Sarah believes her own? Why should speculation about her life make it so her boy would be the one to know about adult words and acts rather than Jon?
The whole proves to be a tense affair as the implicit accusations covered by those kid gloves soon become more pointed. Things become so uncomfortably one-sided that Elisabeth cannot help but break out in laughter at the absurdity of it all. Maybe she's right. Maybe it is just a matter of boys playing and going too far. Maybe, if she was made aware of the situation earlier, she could have spoken to Armand and been more prepared for this meeting. Maybe if Jarle wasn't so interested in keeping things under wraps, Elisabeth would have understood the severity of that meeting before they sprung it on her with carefully chosen vocabulary meant to lessen the school's liability rather than protect the children. This whole ordeal is one botched misstep after another.
What we don't yet know, however, is that the assumptions and hearsay began well before these adults gathered in Sunna's classroom. There are the familial revelations. The circumstances surrounding Elisabeth's husband's death. Jarle's connection to Sarah and her brother having taught them decades prior. Additional allegations thrown in by Sarah in such a way that even Anders shows discomfort towards their validity. Sure, the school isn't an investigative service, but this desire for mediation without even a cursory attempt at gathering facts ensures the whole thing devolves into character assassination. And for what? This is supposed to be about the boys' safety. Why does it feel personal?
The answer is easy: everything has become personal. The flattening of our world via technology was supposed to provide us more empathy for others and yet, with the help of an increasingly tribalistic form of politics meant to divide the working class in ways that allow the wealthy to profit, we've only grown further apart. Jealousy and greed reign. Fear trumps compassion. Self-preservation by any means necessary renders truth obsolete. Armand is distilling mankind's penchant for baseless attacks and fear-mongering down into the interaction of three distinct entities in a familiarly simple scenario. There's the aggrieved dictating opinion, the accused attempting to gather facts, and the institution desperate to cover its own ass.
Where it goes may surprise you both in how it turns the tables and upends our prejudiced preconceptions and how it blurs the line between the physical and psychological. Because the emotional toll is heavy for all involved. Anders caught between loyalty and honesty. Sunna caught between rules and feelings. Elisabeth caught between image and self (Reinsve is fantastic). It leads to an extended dance sequence that will prove as powerfully evocative to some as it will silly and obtuse to others. There's also the addition of an external kangaroo court of public opinion revealing just how easy it is to flip the switch from love to hate. And it culminates in a silent, formally brilliant scene of release that proves the hate can dissolve just as easily too. Unfortunately, more often than not, the death of nuance rarely allows the latter process before it's too late.
- 7/10
QUICK HITS:
New Releases This Week:
(Review links where applicable)
Opening Buffalo-area theaters 1/31/25 -
COMPANION at Dipson Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
DEVA at Regal Elmwood
DOG MAN at Dipson Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
GREEN AND GOLD at Regal Transit & Quaker
LOVE ME at Regal Elmwood, Galleria & Quaker
MAJHAIL at Regal Elmwood
THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG at Regal Galleria
Brief thoughts at jaredmobarak.com.
VALIANT ONE at Dipson Flix & Capitol; AMC Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
Streaming from 1/31/25 -
DARK MATCH – Shudder on 1/31
GOODRICH – Max on 1/31
LUCCA’S WORLD – Netflix on 1/31
RIDE – Paramount+ with Showtime on 2/1
KILL – Hulu on 2/3
“Just let the rage unleash in whatever convenient way is necessary to get the blood flowing faster. What's good enough for JOHN WICK should be good enough for KILL, so wake the boogeyman up and let him loose.” – Full thoughts at The Film Stage.
IN THE SUMMERS – Hulu on 2/5
KINDA PREGNANT – Netflix on 2/5
DEATH WITHOUT MERCY – Paramount+ with Showtime on 2/6
Now on VOD/Digital HD -
BABYGIRL (1/28)
“There's an honesty to the sex positive nature of the whole, but also the empathy inherent in the love for another and the love for oneself. [Kidman delivers] an emotionally daring performance.” – Full thoughts at jaredmobarak.com.
DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA (1/28)
THE FIRE INSIDE (1/28)
“In the end, THE FIRE INSIDE is a sports biography with all the trappings you'd expect. It's a solid debut for Morrison and a star-making turn for Destiny with a message for girls and boys to know their worth and never settle.” – Full thoughts at The Film Stage.
GHOST CAT ANZU (1/28)
GRACE POINT (1/28)
MOANA 2 (1/28)
CLONE COPS (1/31)
LIKE FATHER LIKE SON (1/31)
NOT AN ARTIST (1/31)
SING SING (1/31)
“The film is never better than when [Maclin and Domingo] are together because you really get a sense of how fine the line separating us is. No matter our pasts or actions, a shared humanity remains.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.