Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Part#: Some High Number +4

[Spring in Fialta]

Muhammed Ali lived a full life. He won the Olympic gold medal, turned professional and won the championship belt at 22, engaged in a legal fight with the government in order to not fight in a war he does not believe it and lost his championship belt and his prime as a result, won the belt back once he got reinstated, fought all the top fighters in his era and had a number of memorable fights that will forever fall into boxing lore, and even after he retired, his subsequent diagnosis with Parkinson put a lot of attention on the disease. By all measures, his life is definitely made for the biopic treatment, and yet, somehow, Mann made one of the most uninteresting and boring biopics out there.

Honestly, Ali's life has so much material, that it would may have been better to make it two parts, or even a trilogy, but Mann and the studio made the choice to do it all in one movie. That means a lot of things, and maybe even important aspects in Ali's life, is take out, and even though the movie is two-and-a-half hours long, it still feels rushed in parts. Ali's best battles are probably his trilogy of fights with Joe Frazier, but the first fight is largely glossed over, while the second is pretty much ignored, and the last one, the famous Thrilla in Manila, never made it on screen. Meanwhile, the focus is on the Liston and Foreman fights, and while those were worthy and important fights in Ali's career, they accounted for at least 40% of the movie's runtime, and that might not have been the best use of time.

I am also not sure Will Smith is the best casting choice either. The movie wants to show the duality of the man, as there is an onscreen persona that is pompous and full of arrogance designed to be larger than life, and a sensitive and thoughtful personal side that wants to advocate for larger causes. Unfortunately, even though Smith is able to capture the outer life, he looks rather confused, and at times even disinterested, when he has to tackle the inner life. Those personal aspects takes up a lot of the screentime too, so the pace slows significantly as a result, which takes the audience out of the movie.

Perhaps it is to show how Ali is lost, and even powerless, in the tidal wave of giant upheaval during his lifetime, but Mann never makes it explicit. He just shows glimpses of how Ali is manipulated by unsavory figures, but those are never resolved at all. Thus, the movie feels very incomplete, and at times, I even question why there needs to biopic if the questions are left unanswered, and the narrative is so reticent.

There is no other way to put it, but Ali is such a waste of potential. Worst of all, the boxing scenes are filmed poorly too, as I hated the sudden change of camera to a Go Pro style in the middle of fights, so I cannot even say it is a good boxing movie. I would not say never to watch it, because the details are accurate enough, but it will not be a priority.

5/10

For all the respect that I have for Ali's struggles and defiance, what he did to Joe Frazier is such a disgusting blackmark that I'm ambivalent about the man himself. It was a disgrace especially in constrast to his fight against racial equality. He had no qualms with using racial tension to incite people against Frazier for his own benefit - a man who supported him financially when he couldn't box for political reasons.

 

[nameless1]

For all the respect that I have for Ali's struggles and defiance, what he did to Joe Frazier is such a disgusting blackmark that I'm ambivalent about the man himself. It was a disgrace especially in constrast to his fight against racial equality. He had no qualms with using racial tension to incite people against Frazier for his own benefit - a man who supported him financially when he couldn't box for political reasons.

Fair point. Perhaps that is why the movie glossed over his involvement and achievements. It even made it seem like Ali refused Frazier's offer of financial help, even though in real life, he took it.

Frazier is a great boxer in his own rights, and in terms of boxing ability he is on par with Ali, but people always see him as second tier mainly because of Ali's promos. Frazier pretty much wanted to kill Ali by the time their careers come to an end, and he would have beaten him up, if other boxers did not put a barrier around Ali.

 

[ORRFForever]

Fair point. Perhaps that is why the movie glossed over his involvement and achievements. It even made it seem like Ali refused Frazier's offer of financial help, even though in real life, he took it.

Frazier is a great boxer in his own rights, and in terms of boxing ability he is on par with Ali, but people always see him as second tier mainly because of Ali's promos. Frazier pretty much wanted to kill Ali by the time their careers come to an end, and he would have beaten him up, if other boxers did not put a barrier around Ali.

The way Ali treated Frazier outside the ring was shameful.

 

[nameless1]

The way Ali treated Frazier outside the ring was shameful.

No doubt. He has every reason to be bitter towards Ali.

 

[ORRFForever]

No doubt. He has every reason to be bitter towards Ali.

Yes he does.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Threads (1984 BBC film) - 8/10

Had to put up with Northern English accents when watching this (people from Sheffield only sound good when they sing) but it's worth it for this terrifying cold war film. Takes that 70s paranoia style and mixes it with a TV film quality to give it a truly bleak look at nuclear fallout, really high-stakes drama. I still think Fail-Safe is the best cold war film I've seen but this is easily the most horrifying.

The American (2010) - 6.5/10

George Clooney acts mature and reserverd as a hired assassin in this one. It's by the same guy who directed A Most Wanted Man, same restarined European setting with a meditative pace that doesn't quite suit what should really be a suspense flick. I need to rewatch Le Samourai someday.

 

[Osprey]

Dolls (1987) - 7/10 (Really liked it)

Before Annabelle, before Chucky, there were... dolls. I've been enjoying Stuart Gordon horror movies, so I decided to check out this somewhat forgotten one and ended up being very pleasantly surprised. Sure, it's highly formulaic and cliched. A bunch of people take refuge from a storm in an old couple's house that's filled with dolls and then disappear one by one. What's different is that the dolls aren't really presented as evil. It's the guests who are rotten and deserve what they get, so you kind of cheer for the dolls. There's a nice little moral that you don't usually get with horror movies. Also, it's more campy than scary. In fact, one of the main characters is a 7-year-old girl and never once do you feel that she's in danger (because, again, it's just the rotten adults that are). The dolls are kind of cute, as well, and though their stop motion animation looks awfully dated now, there's a certain charm to it. The tone is half creepy, half funny. I laughed quite a bit, especially because the funny parts often come during or just after the horror elements, when they're least expected. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought that I would. It's a fun little 80s 'B' movie that preceded and was overshadowed by the scarier Child's Play.

Dagon (2001) - 4/10 (Disliked it)

Sorry, Violenza, but this wasn't my cup of tea, probably because I'm not really an H.P. Lovecraft fan. I can see how fans of him might revere it for being one of the best adaptations, though. After all, you don't get much more Lovecraftian than fish people and tentacles. The atmosphere is great--I'll give Gordon that--but besides that and the faithfulness, it didn't strike me as a good movie. It wasn't horrifying enough, interesting enough or funny enough for this non-fan to get much out of, and I didn't like the main actor. I was actually going to give it a 3/10, but I had to bump it up just for the ending. That was something. I appreciate completely unexpected endings.

Spoiler

You think that he's going to save his girlfriend, escape with her and live happily ever after. Nope! She gets violated by a fish, then mutilated and killed, so he douses himself in kerosene, sets himself on fire, plunges into the water, sprouts gills and swims away to have fish sex with his mermaid step-sister. I'm not sure that it makes sense or is a "good" ending, but it's certainly original, and original earns points.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Dolls (1987) - 7/10 (Really liked it)

Before Annabelle, before Chucky, there were... dolls. I've been enjoying Stuart Gordon horror movies, so I decided to check out this somewhat forgotten one and ended up being very pleasantly surprised. Sure, it's highly formulaic and cliched. A bunch of people take refuge from a storm in an old couple's house that's filled with dolls and then disappear one by one. What's different is that the dolls aren't really presented as evil. It's the guests who are rotten and deserve what they get, so you kind of cheer for the dolls. There's a nice little moral that you don't usually get with horror movies. Also, it's more campy than scary. In fact, one of the main characters is a 7-year-old girl and never once do you feel that she's in danger (because, again, it's just the rotten adults that are). The dolls are kind of cute, as well, and though their stop motion animation looks awfully dated now, there's a certain charm to it. The tone is half creepy, half funny. I laughed quite a bit, especially because the funny parts often come during or just after the horror elements, when they're least expected. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought that I would. It's a fun little 80s 'B' movie that preceded and was overshadowed by the scarier Child's Play.

Dagon (2001) - 4/10 (Disliked it)

Sorry, Violenza, but this wasn't my cup of tea, probably because I'm not really an H.P. Lovecraft fan. I can see how fans of him might revere it for being one of the best adaptations, though. After all, you don't get much more Lovecraftian than fish people and tentacles. The atmosphere is great--I'll give Gordon that--but besides that and the faithfulness, it didn't strike me as a good movie. It wasn't horrifying enough, interesting enough or funny enough for this non-fan to get much out of, and I didn't like the main actor. I was actually going to give it a 3/10, but I had to bump it up just for the ending. That was something. I appreciate completely unexpected endings.

Spoiler

You think that he's going to save his girlfriend, escape with her and live happily ever after. Nope! She gets violated by a fish, then mutilated and killed, so he douses himself with kerosene, sets himself on fire, plunges into the water, sprouts gills and swims away to make love to his mermaid step-sister. I'm not sure that it makes sense, but it's certainly original.

I don't remember Dolls much, wasn't a fan at the time and I don't think I've seen it since. Did you pay for this one too? I don't think I've seen it available for free anywhere. As for Dagon, I don't think it's just the lovecraftian angle that does it for me (I'm not that much of a Lovecraft fan myself, but I do appreciate that he gets it kind of right this time), I think it's just a more mature Gordon horror film. But I have no real argument to strongly defend it so I can live with that rating! Now you're due for his "American trilogy" (no idea why it was called that), and they're all available for free

 

[Osprey]

I don't remember Dolls much, wasn't a fan at the time and I don't think I've seen it since. Did you pay for this one too? I don't think I've seen it for free anywhere. As for Dagon, I don't think it's just the lovecraftian angle that does it for me (I'm not that much of a Lovecraft fan myself, but I do appreciate that he gets it kind of right this time), I think it's just a more mature Gordon horror film. But I have no real argument to strongly defend it so I can live with that rating! Now you're due for his "American trilogy" (no idea why it was called that), and they're all available for free

It's free on Tubi:

Dolls (1985)
* It's technically a 1987 movie, but I read that it was actually filmed between Re-Animator and From Beyond, so it may've been completed in 1985

It's also on Vudu. I don't want to over-sell it. The average score on RT is less than I gave it, so it's not for everyone. I think that just having low expectations for a killer doll 'B' movie and liking 80s movies and horror comedies combined to make me more pleasantly surprised than most.

 

[Babe Ruth]

After Darkness (2018)

Story about a dysfunctional family facing the extinguishing of the sun. I thought it was boring, pretentious, & anti-climactic. It was similar to Twilight Zone storytelling, but just no charisma. Has Kyra Sedgwick & 'Joe' from the old Wings sitcom, playing the clichéd meme of repressed, strict wealthy parents.

 

[PK Cronin]

I recently watched 7500 with Joseph Gorden-Levitt. It was an enjoyable watch, but I can't help but feel it could've been so much better. The suspenseful moments were pretty predictable and it ultimately became a similar movie to Captain Phillips.

 

[kihei]

Mafioso (1962) Directed by Albert Lattuada 7A

Having become a success as a factory foreman for Fiat in Milan, Antonio (Alberto Sordi) travels back home to Sicily to show off his lovely family, his blond wife and two cute daughters. The locals have mixed feeling about his success, mixed feelings about anyone who leaves Sicily and comes home a big shot. But good natured Antonio, happy as a lark and seeing the best in everyone, doesn't let the somewhat cool reception to his return get him down in the least. He is a man of exuberant feelings and grand gestures. The first three-quarters of Mafioso play like a light farce as Antonio finds himself in one comic predicament after another. He blunders his way through, though, and nothing dampens his spirits even when his mother refuses to be nice to his wife.Then Antonio visits the local Mafia don, the man partly responsible for Antonio's position in Milan. The Don asks a little favour of Antonio, basically makes him an offer that he can't refuse. And soon Antonio is off on a very dark mission to a far away country where he might have to do an unconscionable thing. I don't think that I have ever seen a movie turn on a dime as unexpectedly as this one does. We go from light comedy to something dark and sinister in the blink of an eye. What has been a movie about the comic difficulties of returning home when one's life is somewhere else transforms itself into a film about the cruel ways in which the Sicilian Mafia sink their hooks into people and then won't let go. Mafioso is my kind of Mafia movie, and it has aged very well.

subtitles

available on Criterion Channel

 

[Unspecified]

Stuber - 5.5 - 6/10, it was not too bad of a movie TBH. I laughed quite a few times.

 

[ORRFForever]

I recently watched 7500 with Joseph Gorden-Levitt. It was an enjoyable watch, but I can't help but feel it could've been so much better. The suspenseful moments were pretty predictable and it ultimately became a similar movie to Captain Phillips.

Yup

My other concerns...

Spoiler

First, at one point there is an unconscious terrorist in the cockpit, so what does Tobias do? Well, I'd take the fire extinguisher and cave in the guy's skull so he won't come to and take over the plane. Instead, Tobias puts a seatbelt on the well built man. Yeah, that'll hold him !!!!

Second, there are 84 passengers being held captive by 4 guys with small knives and broken bottles. In a real life hijacking, especially after 9/11, the bad guys would be swarmed by dozens of people who aren't going down without a fight. For most of 7500, crickets.

Last, it takes a long time for our hero to use the plane to his advantage – wisely, he tells the passengers to buckle up before taking them on a bumpy ride. So, what took him so long and why does he stop? After all, it’s hard for terrorists to threaten people when turbulence has them hanging from the overhead compartment.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Calendar (Egoyan, 1993) – This short film (74 minutes only), made without much money or means, has an incredible crushing effect on its spectator: one can only feel very small facing such signifiance (in English, signifiance means importance, but in French linguistics, it means the emergence of meaning – both very apt here). You'd need a thesis to make it through the many paths in interpretation, the many readings available: it's about identity, it's about exile, it can be read as a political film (the negation of the representation of the war vs the prevalence of media in the film). Of most importance to me, it is about (mis)communication (lost in translation, you say?), and about mediation – or about communication vs mediation (or is it communion vs communication?). They're visiting places that are directly related to Egoyan's character's origins, but he is never part of the Armenian images, always cut from them, behind the cameras, but also always a disconnected spectator to what's in front of him (disconnected both from History and from the love story burgeoning between his wife and their driver). This disconnection is efficiently linked to his only means of relation to the world: cameras (photo and video), letters, phone, etc. It is proposed that he won't be able to connect to his relation with Armenia's historical sites and History other than through touch – but he refuses to get close to the monuments he takes pictures of (and this lack of communion affects the whole of his existence – up to his adopted daughter, only existing through letters and videos, on whom he puts a monthly cost). He is looking at what's been said between his wife and their driver to understand what happened and to find the moment he lost her – that moment is the first thing we see in the film: a flock of sheeps they drove by, partly blocking the street, an image that will come and go through the film, and come back at the end, when her ever-fading voice on his answering machine tells him that it's at that moment that, while he was recording images of the sheeps, the driver touched her. Egoyan's character is nothing more than a spectator of all of the Armenian scenes of the film, limited by his technical means, he misses what he was looking for. The spectator of the film is also put in an uncomfortable position that mirrors the character's estrangement: submitted to untranslated dialogues in many different languages, we are also limited to the character's means through our time in Armenia, and like him, we only see the sheeps. These images of the sheeps are also of utmost importance to me because they are the mirroring echo of a shot in Rossellini's Viaggio in Italia where the couple pass by a herd of bovines – the shots are the same, on opposite sides of the car. As in Egoyan's film, the husband is there strictly on business, as the wife tries to immerse herself in the culture... This short comment might get you to think that Calendar is a very hermetic and complex film (and really, I am only brushing its surface), but it remains a very simple story – it's just so rich once you dive into it that you might drown. Probably the most interesting love triangle ever told, and my favorite Canadian film. 10/10

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Other things I've watched:

Maniac Cop 2 (Lustig, 1990): The first one wasn't available, but you get to see the whole ending as part of this one. The copy on Prime looks like a VHS transfer, it adds to the nostalgia - if one can ever be nostalgic of such trash. Please, if you're trying to make a monster film, don't propose a monster who makes friends with mentally challenged serial rapists. 2.5/10

Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence (Lustig, 1992): This one looks a little better, but is quickly even more ridiculous. Hard to rate these films. They tried too hard to deserve 2s, and they're not funny enough to get the 1s (well, the whole chase scene while set on fire in this one was almost amazing enough). Too bad there was never a 4th entry, I completely forgot about "Maniac Kate". 2.5/10

Oh, and..... ahahahahhaahahha:

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Babylon. Interesting curio from 1980 England. Immigrants turning to music to rise above a gritty street life. Familiar story. This time its Jamaicans and reggae. Mostly unknowns (acting-wise at least) and a director that never did much of anything. But I dug this. I'm a sucker for a scene and a sense of place and authenticity and this has it. Strife and people pushed to a point where they boil over.

Shirley. This felt like small budget arthouse prestige cosplay, something that could almost be a fake serious movie in a parody. Elisabeth Moss as a deeply damaged woman! Michael Stuhlbarg is the aloof college professor! I hoped for better but this was dull. I was mildly drawn in by the first half which has an ominous almost horror movie vibe. Fitting since the subject is horror writer Shirley Jackson. It keeps spinning itself into new motivations and directions though and none of them ultimately worked. A bit of a muddle mess in the second half. Performances are good, if predictable.

Mausoleum. A couple of goofy, gory deaths. A character says "great googly moogly" which I've only ever heard in a Snickers commercial.

Lucy in the Sky. I have really enjoyed Noah Hawley's TV work. This cast is loaded with actors I love. ... This movie is straight trash. One of the worst I've seen in years. Portman's accent is horrendous. You can see the elements of an engaging movie (loosely based on the story of that nutter female astronaut who drove cross country in diapers to confront the astronaut lover who spurned her) but this ain't that. I don't mind an unlikable lead character but this one isn't even interesting enough to make up the difference. And dear god that TITLE. F this movie. Does it have a dreamy sequence with a Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds cover? You bet your ass it does!

Dragged Across Concrete. You ever end up liking something almost in spite of yourself? I went into this reluctantly. I have liked Craig Zahler's previous two movies. He's a talented filmmaker, though a deeply brutal and violent one. I was aware of enough advanced word on this to be leery. Mel Gibson alone is some loaded casting, but I knew some of the political POV might be something I push against. Having seen it though, I think some of the push back was a little exaggerated, maybe even unfair. Gibson and Vince Vaughn absolutely have some ... I'd say tough to reconcile ... views on people and crime. But the movie itself has an overarching morality and sense of justice that trumped any individual POVs. A gripping enough story executed well enough that even its ridiculous running time didn't even bother me that much. The dialogue is an odd mix of good jargony chatter and some weird little quirks that wore on me (anchovies!). There's a really good Vince Vaughn performance here as well. Zahler's turning into a bit of a modern day Peckinpah. Knows his way around a tense action sequence to boot.

Escape from LA. Look, I know it's not good. The FX in particular were bad then and have aged even worse, but I love John Carpenter and Kurt Russell dammit so I still like this. LEAVE ME ALONE.

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Sage Neither as funny as I wanted it to be nor as bad as it could have been. Dan Stevens is a highlight and continues to be an actor of interesting taste in projects. (Lucy in the Sky excluded).

The Naked Spur. One of many James Stewart-Anthony Mann westerns. Throws you right into the action with Stewart hunting Robert Ryan with a bounty on his head. He quickly and reluctantly picks up a rag-tag crew of hangers on including Janet Leigh and Ralph Meeker. Gotta get the man and move him from point A to B. It's a dusty-paged paperback of a movie and I was very much into that. I quibble with end (literally maybe the last two minutes of the movie), but otherwise it's a thumbs up. I particularly liked Meeker who both in thin-mustached look and cocksure-but-a-little-dim demeanor reminded me of a proto-Bill Paxton.

 

[PK Cronin]

Yup

My other concerns...

Spoiler

First, at one point there is an unconscious terrorist in the cockpit, so what does Tobias do? Well, I'd take the fire extinguisher and cave in the guy's skull so he won't come to and take over the plane. Instead, Tobias puts a seatbelt on the well built man. Yeah, that'll hold him !!!!

Second, there are 84 passengers being held captive by 4 guys with small knives and broken bottles. In a real life hijacking, especially after 9/11, the bad guys would be swarmed by dozens of people who aren't going down without a fight. For most of 7500, crickets.

Last, it takes a long time for our hero to use the plane to his advantage – wisely, he tells the passengers to buckle up before taking them on a bumpy ride. So, what took him so long and why does he stop? After all, it’s hard for terrorists to threaten people when turbulence has them hanging from the overhead compartment.

I had similar thoughts to the first.

Spoiler

The problem with the setting is that the terrorist has to stay alive in order for anything else to move forward, unless they wanted to go the route where Tobias opens up the cockpit.

The passenger thing was a little strange but I didn't mind it for a bit simply because we couldn't see what was happening. Once it became clear that the weapons they had were makeshift knives it becomes odd that the terrorists were unchallenged for so long.

I totally agree about the plane thing. Seems like a pilot would likely be trained to do that if the situation called for it. It's really hard to bash a door down if you can't even stand up.

The killing of the last terrorist was pretty bad. Does Captain Phillips not exist in this alternate reality? How does the kid not realize he's going to be shot in the head? Just seems a little odd and predictable.

Overall I thought Joseph Gordon-Levitt did a pretty nice job, it was an interesting idea to do the whole movie in the cockpit, and it was a decent movie if you're looking for something straightforward.

 

[Ben Grimm]

I wanna read @kihei 's review of Dancer in the Dark.

 

[Hockeyfrilla]

The Old Guard
6/10

 

[Langdon Alger]

Prognosis Negative

Thought it would be good, I was wrong. Complete waste of time.

2/10

 

[Osprey]

Greyhound (2020) - 7/10 (Really liked it)

A commander of a U.S. Navy destroyer (Tom Hanks) battles German U-boats and his own his self doubts as he attempts to lead a supply convoy across the North Atlantic during WWII. Hanks wrote the screenplay, himself, adapting C.S. Forester's 1955 novel The Good Shepherd. You might be expecting a bloated melodrama, but it's anything but. It's a streamlined, fast-paced, old-fashioned war movie that gets going very quickly and barely lets up through its short 90-minute runtime. It's very much an action-driven movie more so than a story-driven or character-driven one, though it is very centered on Hanks' character, who feels the burden of responsibility and the loss of lives that it was his job to protect. There's not a whole lot to the movie except Tom giving orders, looking tired and scanning the horizon in between shots of CGI ships, explosions and water, but I didn't mind because of how fast-paced it is and it's what you'd expect the subject matter to mostly consist of. Speaking of CGI, my main concern coming in was how unconvincing the visuals looked in the trailer, and the film does look like it was shot entirely on a green-screened stage, nowhere near any actual water, but, as the pace and intensity picked up, I noticed and was bothered by it less. Finally, there aren't any major surprises or turns when it comes to the story. Basically, the film does have weaknesses, but I didn't find them hard to excuse because it's not really trying to be more than just an action movie, and it delivers on that. I was pleasantly surprised by it and enjoyed it. Don't expect something epic or dramatic like Dunkirk or even Captain Phillips. It's just a very simple but solid war movie that should appeal to folks who like those or all things naval. It was supposed to be in theaters last month, but, with the pandemic, Apple bought the distribution rights and is offering it exclusively on Apple TV+ (which offers a free trial, FYI).

 

[kihei]

I wanna read @kihei 's review of Dancer in the Dark.

Okay, I can dig that up (from the book, slightly edited):

Dancer in the Dark (2000) Directed by Lars Von Trier 4B

Selma (Iceland’s alternative rocker Bjork), a young woman from Czechoslovakia, tries to make a life for herself and her son in the United States. Though she has only a low paying job in a factory, she is trying to save up enough money to insure that her son is spared from suffering from the same disease that afflicts her eyesight, a condition that will eventually cause her to go blind. Simple-minded and sweet tempered, she is looked after by her friends and neighbors who try to help her out whenever they can. But she loses her job and eventually not all of her friends are what they appear to be. Inevitably betrayal and tragedy follow in her path. Shot in a realistically gritty style, Dancer in the Dark is one of those movies where one just waits for bad things to happen. And they do. Strangely this depressing story is interrupted on several occasions by elaborate song and dance numbers. Though the songs reflect Selma’s way of coping with her life, their inclusion in this grim film seems a perverse move by any reasonable standards. At one point Selma says she likes musicals because nothing bad ever happens in them, a naïve notion that director Lars Von Trier seems to enjoy mocking. Various internet sites give the movie high audience approval ratings, but I found the film to be a mostly masochistic experience.

 

[kihei]

Sheherazade (2018) Directed by Jean-Bernard Marlin 7B

Part coming-of-age movie, part crime flick, part Romeo and Juliette romance, Sheherazade focuses on Zach (Dylan Robert, first performance) a 17-year-old with no future and not much present. Zach gets out of reform school only to find that even his mother doesn't want him. He stumbles around Marseille, reconnects with some old pals, and meets Sheherazade (Kenza Fortas, her debut), a young prostitute with whom he falls in love, sort of, but his emotions are all tangled up because she is a hooker. The pair find a novel solution to their problems when Sheherezade asks Zach to be her pimp. He acquires a stable of prostitutes and the money starts to flow in. But he's still confused about Sheherazade. Does he love or not? Enter his best friend from the old days who decides to seek revenge when Zach refuses letting him sleep with Sheherazade because she has not given her consent. Things turn ugly. Eventually Zach has to make a big decision about whether to snitch on his friend or not. Zach is a bad guy, but he is not a hardened bad guy yet. He has an easy smile, and he tries in his way to take the high road when he can. But Marseille has some very mean streets, and he may be over-matched. The amateur actors that populate most of the cast are terrific, especially the charismatic Robert who finds some subtle ways to communicate the tiny seed of humanity that rests within Zach. The ending is probably a bit better than Zach deserves, but it would take a colder heart than mine to begrudge him a little hope. Sheherazade is a much slower burn than City of God. but it is a kindred spirit in a way.

Sidenote: Right before the movie started shooting in Marseilles, Dylan Robert just got out of the same reform school that his character Zach does in the movie. Probably a first, I should think.

subtitles

available on Canada Netflix

 

[kihei]

The Old Guard (2020) Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood 4A

Four Immortals, led by Andy (Charlize Theron), centuries long do-gooders, are having something of a dry spell when a former CIA agent talks them into saving a bunch of abducted children in Afghanistan. Turns out, it's a set up. The Immortals find that while they are grooming a fledgling recruit, the first newcomer since 1812, they are also fighting off a mad scientist type who prefers making money over saving lives. Nothing wrong with the premise, but the execution is uninspired and listless. Mosst of the movie even looks gray. Andy suffers from ennui, and it seems to have rubbed off on the movie. We know from Mad Max: Fury Road and Atomic Blonde that Theron can convincingly portray kick-ass females, but she seems a little old to be starting a potential franchise. A solid cast that includes Matthias Schoenaerts and Chiwetel Ejiofor have nothing much to do despite more time given to character development than is usual in these things. The whole enterprise, including action, staging of fights, raising tension, just seems unaccountably a little on the flat side. If The Old Guard represent Phase Two of superhero movies, the new approach looks like it may have potential. But they need to do a lot better next time.

available on Netflix