Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (12.30.22)

 

              Rian Johnson is a guy who is on record as saying he loves to subvert expectations.

This filmmaking quirk resulted in mixed reactions when it came to his Star Wars outing, The Last Jedi, but when this same tactic was used in his original murder mystery Knives Out, the result was universally beloved. Turns out that people still love a good old-fashioned whodunit, and subverting basic story expectations is a great way to keep them fresh in our modern world. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is another wickedly good time that may be a tiny bit more straightforward than its predecessor but still manages to keep us guessing nearly every minute of its runtime.

High praise indeed, but as was often the case the first time I watched the original Knives Out, Glass Onion also occasionally bored and frustrated me when it was unclear what exactly the movie was supposed to be. This cinematic duo might just be the only two murder mysteries in existence that are more enjoyable on repeat viewings when you already know what is going on, but that’s not to say that Glass Onion still wasn’t mostly highly entertaining at first watch. It’s one of those movies that requires your full attention, especially when Daniel Craig is babbling away in that Foghorn Leghorn accent of his (I still can’t tell if his accent is bad or if it's just weird to hear it coming out of James Bond’s mouth). Save for Craig, the ensemble cast is all new and includes such talents as Edward Norton, Kathryn Hahn, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista, and once again the collection of interesting and dryly humorous characters that Johnson has whipped up is what keeps the Knives Out sequel engaging. Are they likeable? Mostly no, as was the case in the original, but you’ll have fun watching them.

If I have any complaints other than the few moments between twists that left the purpose of the movie in question, it would be that the ending was not at all satisfying. It left me feeling a bit depressed, despite the fact that it was clearly supposed to feel emotionally triumphant. In addition to this, there were some bizarre red herrings that went completely unexplained; misdirects are fine and expected in tales such as these, but I don’t like it when they don’t make sense in their own way or fit into the overall narrative. Also, did we need all the pandemic/lockdown stuff? It was a key part of our reality, sure, but it didn’t have any purpose in Glass Onion’s story and just left me feeling bummed out that such things weren’t even escapable in fiction. And why tie the narrative to such a specific time period when the story could have taken place any time in the early twenty-first century?

But these things pale in comparison to Glass Onion’s sharp writing, character work, and overall interesting plot. In this way Rian Johnson did not subvert expectations at all... he gave me exactly what I wanted. 

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is now available on Netflix.

 

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on December 30^th, 2022. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/

Avatar: The Way of Water (12.23.22)

 

The year was 2009, Avatar was a massive hit, and I had no idea why. How was this good-but-not-great Pocahontas riff doing so well, breaking box office records left and right? I didn’t have to ask this question too many times before I realized my mistake—I had seen James Cameron's sci-fi epic in 2D, when the spectacle of the 3D was half the experience. I didn’t love the story, but the story was not the point. This is a sentiment that also perfectly encapsulates the long-awaited sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, which has a serviceable enough plot that is greatly overshadowed by its technical achievements, stunning 3D, and gorgeous visuals.

Having learned my lesson, I coughed up the extra few dollars to see Way of Water in 3D, and I am very glad I did. The world of Pandora is stunning and vibrant, and this time we even get to go along with James Cameron to his happy place—the ocean. A lot of the self-indulgent “look how cool we can make stuff look!” moments could have been cut, true, and Way of Water might have had better pacing and a more reasonable run time because of it, but things just looked so cool that I really didn’t mind.

The story and characters themselves are by no means bad in and of themselves, of course. There is as nice message about family at the core of the proceedings, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t completely invested in Jake Sully and his blue kitty cat family by the time the exciting climax (which features the most badass space whale of all time) came along. The other messages are more of the same—humans are terrible to nature, nature always wins in the end, etc.—but that's fine. Once again, it is not the point. I’m just glad that Way of Water not once mentioned “Unobtanium,” because it turns out I can take the world of Pandora much more seriously without that silly word floating around in the back of my head.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also give a shout out to the excellent acting, particularly by Zoe Saldana and her ever-haunting and sorrowful wails and Sigourney Weaver, who plays a teenage Smurf so convincingly that I had no idea it was her until the end credits. The entire cast, both returning and new, help bring Pandora to life just as much as the special effects. I’m looking at you, badass space whale.

Avatar: The Way of Water is not so much a film as it is an experience. You would be doing yourself a disservice if you saw it in theaters in 2D, a disservice only dwarfed by waiting to see it on the small screen. If the inevitable third movie finally hits that sweet spot of having a plot equal to the visual feast, the Avatar franchise might just become unstoppable.

Avatar: The Way of Water is now available in theaters. 

 

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on December 23^rd, 2022. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/

On the Count of Three (12.16.22)

 

Black comedies can be quite difficult to do well when they’re about a subject that is normally off limits where joking is concerned. You make things too funny and things can be disrespectful; you make things too heavy and, well… that’s not a black comedy, that’s just a tragedy with an ice breaker here and there. There have been a few films that I have seen over the years that I was not even aware were considered black comedies until I looked them up on Wikipedia long after the fact, and I am never sure if this is because the ratio was off or if I just wasn’t dialed into the humor for whatever reason. On the Count of Three has a good deal of this unevenness, but it has even more moments where the balance is pretty darn good.  

First premiering at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and finally hitting Hulu in 2022 as a “Hulu Original,” On the Count of Three is a story of two very depressed friends who decide to commit suicide together, but not until after they have one last day unfettered by the promise of consequences to come. The directorial debut of comedian Jerrod Carmichael (who also stars as Val), On the Count of Three starts out grim. Going into this movie blind as I did, I had no idea that it was intended to be a black comedy for the first thirty minutes or so as Val and his best friend Kevin (played by Christopher Abbott) discuss very heavy subjects like suicidal depression, bullying, and broken homes, and any dark humor that was attempted had a tendency to make things more sad than anything else. I could see that this little indie film was going to be one of those rough but hopefully worth-it stories, but just when I thought I had figured out what On the Count of Three was, a scene came along that was genuinely funny in that dark kind of way. From then until the penultimate scene, the drama (which is very well done, by the way) hits that nice balance with the chuckles. Usually black comedy/drama films shoo out the clowns at the end of the film, but On the Count of Three makes the additional weird choice of not inviting the clowns in until we are halfway done already.  

Despite this unevenness of tone between halves, On the Count of Three works pretty well, mostly because it never treats mental illness, the idea of suicide, or the characters themselves as a joke. The acting is exceptional (especially in the case of the two leads), the direction and cinematography are very well done, and the soundtrack hits that sweet spot that only indie films are usually capable of hitting. On the Count of Three is a tragedy about what life and mental illness can do to people, but it also has a deeper message of friendship and putting others first that I greatly appreciated.  

On the Count of Three is now available on Hulu. 

 

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on December 16^th, 2022. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/

Disenchanted (12.09.22)

 

               Disney+ may have been operating for a few years now, but I must admit that I’m still not entirely sold on the overall value of the platform. With the exception of The Mandalorian and maybe a Marvel show or two, I still can’t shake the feeling that the service is just a place for Disney to dump the content deemed unworthy of a big screen release so they don’t have to write those productions off completely. Despite this suspicion, I still decided to give Disenchanted a shot because of how wonderful I found its precursor to be. I gotta say, if nothing else they nailed the title, because disenchanted is exactly how I feel after watching this drab and ennui-inducing sequel.

One thing I do appreciate about Disenchanted is that it at least tries to do something different rather than simply rehashing the story of Enchanted with slight variations. It does not attempt to do the fish-out-of-water thing that the first film did, but the charm of this idea was a big part of why Enchanted was such a success. Disenchanted doesn’t have anything in it that comes even close to replacing that charm. Amy Adams, who is back as the doe-eyed Giselle, gets to show a different side of her character that is fun to watch, and James Marsden is just as goofy and charming as he was in the first film in the (regrettably) few scenes that he is in, but any uniqueness and cleverness that was present in Enchanted is missing here and what we’re left with is a cliché-storm that, unlike Enchanted, is played straight without any irony, whether they’re fairytale cliches or bratty teenagers growing up cliches. The script is flat and the story is as thin as my patience to get to the end of this movie, but somehow it keeps dragging on and on regardless.

One of the biggest factors contributing to the excessive length is the sheer amount of musical numbers that Disenchanted has, none of which are memorable or enjoyable (well, the villain vs. villain song isn’t all bad). This is, frankly, shocking, as the legendary Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz are behind the soundtrack in what is undeniably their most lackluster effort to date. Instead of having three or four great songs like Enchanted did, Disenchanted just throws a whole bunch of trash at your ears hoping that something will stick, and not even the great Idina Menzel is spared from the bad songwriting (but at least she does get to sing... It’s still baffling to me that the people who created Enchanted somehow thought it was a good idea to cast her and then cut all of her songs). If you were to fast forward through all of the musical numbers you would not miss a thing, and what you’d be left with is a boring forty-odd minute story that would feel more at home on the Disney Channel than on a serious streaming service.

Skip Disenchanted and rewatch Enchanted instead. There’s no magic to be found here.

Disenchanted is now available on Disney+.

 

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on December 9^th, 2022. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/

Spirited (12.02.22)

 

If given the choice between being haunted by ghosts to fix my character defects and having the life of a Who child endangered for the same purpose, I’d pick endangering the Who child every time. Ghosts are scary, especially that Christmas Yet-to-Come guy with his accusatory pointing. The ghosts in Spirited aren’t that bad, though. In fact, they can be downright pleasant (including Christmas Yet-to-Come—Tracy Morgan's voice will do that). Downright pleasant is a good way to describe the entire Spirited film, in fact, even if the words “overlong” and “meandering” also apply.

People have been adapting Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol since Dickens himself tweaked the prose for public book readings, and I don’t think they’ll ever stop. It is, by every definition, a classic. So how does one keep the story fresh? By turning it into a musical starring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds, of course! Because guess what? It turns out that these two can actually sing and dance pretty decently, whether through the subtlest of auto tunes or just being unfairly gifted compared to the rest of us, and their comedic chemistry is just as fun to watch as you’d expect. The musical numbers in Spirited, written by the same team that created Dear Evan Hansen and The Greatest Showman, is where the film shines the brightest, from the clever lyrics and catchy tunes to the exceptional choreography. And keep in mind that Spirited is indeed a full-fledged musical-- we're not just talking a song here and there. I may be a Scrooge that welcomes Who children falling off mountains and generally avoids most musicals, but even I enjoyed Spirited in these moments.

When the actual plot really starts to get underway and the songs become slightly less frequent, this joy does dim a bit, however. The story of Spirited, which focuses on Ferrell’s Christmas Present character just as much as it does Reynold's miserly Scrooge stand-in, is a bit over-stuffed and meandering. There is a long stretch or two where things kind of stall and the film can’t decide who the main character should be any more than the actual characters can. At these points I almost forgot Spirited was a musical, up until another song came around and kicked the energy up into high gear once more. There is no reason for this film to be as long as it is or for the moral to become apparent so late in the game.

But when Spirited is good, it is very good. Both leads seem to have checked their comedic egos at the door, because neither one of them is overtly silly to the point of stealing the show and both of them allow nice moments to be nice and worthwhile lessons to land without the caveat of an unnecessary joke afterwards. Overall Spirited is a fantastic way to kick off this year’s Christmas season, and these particular ghosts are welcome at my place any day.

Spirited is now available on Apple TV+.

 

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on December 2nd, 2022. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (11.25.22)

 

The first time I ever truly felt old was the day I realized that I didn’t recognize any of the songs Weird Al Yankovic was parodying on his last album, 2014’s Mandatory Fun. Taking something serious and replacing it with something silly while treating it with the same amount of reverence is a staple of his work, and the master of parody has been doing it ever since I actually knew what was popular in the music scene (before I was born, really). With every artist getting a biopic film these days, it was only natural that the polka king would get his own and that it would follow this same formula. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is pure silly fun; although, it does occasionally have the drawn out feeling of a good joke that doesn’t quite know when to end.  

Continuing his trend of choosing odd and unexpected roles in his fascinating post-wizarding career, Daniel Radcliffe dons the iconic curly hair, mustache, and glasses of the man himself and knocks it out of the park. The only time I was reminded that I was not watching actual Al was when the man himself showed up in a hilariously meta way and when the actual singing commenced, as it was dubbed over and clashed rather noticeably with Radcliffe’s speaking voice. But this later observation is no fault of Radcliffe, who does a fantastic job and who, oddly enough, also often plays the straight man in a world just as weird if not weirder than Al himself is. Radcliffe is surrounded by some equally funny and talented people, such as Rainn Wilson as Dr. Demento and Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna, but I have to ask... if everyone is as weird as Al, isn't nobody weird?  

Deep questions like this aside, Weird is an undeniably good time for fans of Al and fans of parody in general, from its lurid teenage polka parties to its Rambo-esque action scenes in Pablo Escobar’s jungle complex (if you’re not prepared to get that silly and off-the-wall, you might want to stay away). As a film based on an internet skit, Weird does have a few drawn out “okay, I get the joke, let’s move on” moments that bored me a bit, which happens all too often with movies that are based on hilarious yet shallow ideas. This makes the just-under-two-hours film feel a bit longer than necessary at times; although, it never feels like a slog thanks to its clever writing and stellar performances.   

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is now available for free on the Roku Channel. If you have never heard of this streaming service, I do not blame you, but it turns out you don’t need a Roku device to stream it. Just download the app for free from the app store, or visit in any browser. You’ll have to sit through a commercial or two while you watch, but that’s a small price to pay for watching a weird movie about a weird man in an appropriately weird way.  

 

 

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on November 25, 2022 . Visit at http://keizertimes.com/

David "Bubba" Smith Obituary

Earlier this month, my maternal grandfather, David Elliot Smith, passed away after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer. This is the obituary I wrote for him.

On November 15, 1943, David Elliot Smith was born to Harry M. Smith and Jean H. Schumann in La Jolla, California. His parents and siblings, Steve and Karen, watched him grow up and earn his Eagle Scout award and later graduate from Carlmont High School, where he caught the eye of fellow high school band member Martha Hall. Dave was married and sealed to Martha on September 4, 1964, in the Los Angeles temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He would go on to earn his bachelor’s degree at San Jose State, a master’s degree in education at Brigham Young University, and finally his PhD at Oregon State University.  

            From then on, Dave would wear many hats— teacher in Western Samoa with Martha, professor of aviation at BYU Idaho, CEO of Harry M Smith & Associates (which allowed him to travel the world many times), and CEO of Geneva Gage—but it was his church service and family that he was always the most proud of. From 2013 to 2015, he and Martha served a mission for the LDS church in Arkansas, and up until the tail end of his life he served in the Portland LDS temple once a week. He also served as a prison chaplain, dedicating his time and energy to helping those who wanted to change their lives for the better after their incarceration.  

            David Elliot Smith passed away on November 6, 2022 at the age of 78 after a lengthy and well-fought battle with pancreatic cancer. He is survived by Martha, his wife of 58 years, his five children, Laura, Jennifer, Jordan, Tyler, and Robyn, and his thirteen grandchildren and three great-grandsons, to whom he was always known as “Bubba.” Dave enjoyed Red Vines, Top Gun: Maverick, the musicals Mama Mia, Cats and Chicago, Taco Tuesdays and Christmas karaoke with his family, and the music of ABBA. He will be missed, but his positive influence, legacy, and love will continue to be felt by every life he touched.   

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (11.18.22)

 

When Chadwick Boseman tragically passed away in 2020, his absence left Marvel Studios in an uncomfortable position. Black Panther, the 2018 cultural phenomenon that launched Boseman to international stardom, was their highest grossing non-Avengers film to date, and leaving money on the table by not producing a sequel was not something they were willing to do. So the choice was this: Should they recast their main character or move on without him? I must admit that I was skeptical that a Black Panther film without Black Panther would ever work, but I’m going to have to go ahead and eat those words because Black Panther: Wakanda Forever turned out to be one of the most ambitious, emotional, and mature Marvel films yet.  

The main theme of Wakanda Forever is grief, and it is one that is thoroughly examined in both the narrative sense with T'Challa and the meta sense with Boseman. The absence of both the main character and the actor who portrayed him looms large, and the space they leave is not so much filled by the one-time supporting cast as it is a main character in and of itself. For a good chunk of the movie there is no main character, and all of the actors involved manage this wonderfully, from the returning ones to the fresh faces that drive the main conflict of the film. This conflict is very comic book-y even by comic book movie standards, but the film never loses this melancholy heart. 

Also returning for Wakanda Forever are costume designer Ruth Carter, production designer Hannah Beachler, and composer Ludwig Goransson, each of whom won an Academy Award for their work on the original Black Panther. The look and sounds of Wakanda is what gave the fictional country its vibrant identity in the first film, and I would not be in the least bit surprised if each of these crew members have another Oscar in their future for a job well done on the second. Joining Wakanda in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s line up of lamentably fake tourist attractions is the underwater Aztec city of Talokan (standing in for the comics’ version of Atlantis), which has no less soul and beauty than its African counterpart. If nothing else, Wakanda Forever looks and sounds amazing.  

The film’s second half is not quite as good as its first half as the theme of grief (somewhat naturally) evolves into a theme of revenge, at which point cliche becomes abundant and the 2 hour 41 minute runtime becomes to feel a bit long (it never really drags, however, which is an impressive feat for Marvel’s second longest film to date). This coincides with Wakanda Forever finally cementing who it wants its main character to be, a decision that I did not find as interesting as the ensemble approach up to that point. But as complaints go these are very minor. Director Ryan Googler and company managing to make a movie this good with the tragic circumstances they were given is nothing short of a miracle.  

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now available in theaters.  

 

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on November 18^th, 2022. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 1 (11.04.22)

 

            The one time I have ever even remotely cared about the Academy Awards was in 2004, the year after The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was released. I always saw the Oscars as being exclusively reserved for hoity toity art films that I as a preteen would never see, meted out by a snobby board of elitists who arrogantly thought their opinions mattered more than those of the average movie goer. But The Lord of The Rings was awesome and deserved to win, and win it did. Eleven times, in fact. Director Peter Jackson had cracked the fantasy epic code, a code that has been followed by pretty much every fantasy film since to varying degrees of success. While Amazon Prime’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is not technically affiliated with Jackson’s trilogy, the same DNA is very much there, and while the show is not perfect it is still enjoyable if one views it as the fanfiction it essentially is.  

            Touted as the most expensive television show in history, Rings of Power looks and sounds downright gorgeous for the most part, with beautiful New Zealand once again standing in for Middle-Earth and a very Howard Shore-esque soundtrack backing the whole thing (Shore himself returns to Tolkien’s world via the main title theme). Less impressive are the costumes, which often look cheap and rubbery, as if the entire budget was blown on the cool sets and the crew had to do a quick run to a Spirit Halloween store with what was left. The beautiful sounds also extend to the dialogue itself, which is appropriately pretty for a world created by a man who was a linguist first and foremost, although sometimes the writers are a bit too self-indulgent: Occasionally a flowery line of dialogue will come along that sounds profound but is ultimately nonsense when one stops to think about it, as if the script was briefly taken over by people that write inspirational fridge magnets for a living.

            It is a good thing the dialogue is mostly lovely too, because there is a lot of it. Rings of Power’s story is a very slow burn with lots of characters and lots of plotlines going on at once and an entire episode can go by without much happening at all other than talking. This glacial pacing won’t be for everyone, but it is a long form of storytelling that I personally appreciate. As any fan of Middle-Earth can tell you, the story in question is also often suspect when compared to J.R.R. Tolkien’s actual canon, a fact that any fantasy nerds will have to get over if they are to enjoy what the show is trying to do. Rings of Power is, in a way, just very expensive fanfiction put to film, and if treated as such there is a lot to enjoy about it.

            The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 1 is now available in its entirety on Amazon Prime.

 

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on November 4^th, 2022. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/

3-Pack (Unpublished)

 

I tried something a bit different this week and The Keizertimes didn’t want to publish it. Wanted me to stick with the one movie or TV show, one review format, which is fair. I will be writing a full review for one of the below, but here is the 3-pack I initially submitted. Enjoy.

 

 

Because there are just so many darned things to watch these days, I thought I’d do something a little bit different this week and write three mini reviews for the price of one. Here are just a few things that I have been enjoying recently:

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (Disney+)- Marvel Studio's latest is a blend of courtroom shenanigans, comedy, and superhero action that unfortunately bores more often than not. Tatiana Maslany's charming performance as the jade giantess is not enough to disguise the mostly bland writing, thoroughly uninteresting side characters, and questionable CGI. There are funny moments, sure, but they happen far too infrequently, and it’s kind of sad that the show is at it’s best only when a guest character from another Marvel franchise shows up. If it weren’t for them I wouldn’t have felt much of a need to check in with the show week to week, which is a shame. Shulkie deserves better.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 1 (Amazon Prime)- Although it’s not technically affiliated with Peter Jackson's Middle-Earth films, Rings of Power obviously takes a lot of inspiration from them, from its majestic scenery to its soundtrack to its creature design. Less impressive are its costumes, which often look cheap despite the show's staggering budget, as well as its glacial pacing; there are so many storylines going on at once that barely anything happens each given episode. But the cast is great and the dialogue is appropriately pretty, even if the writers do occasionally overdue it a bit with flowery phrases that they apparently think are profound but don't really mean anything. Any Tolkein fan can tell you that the lore itself is quite questionable, but if you treat the show like the very expensive, non-canonical fan fiction that it is you just might like it. If you don’t mind a really slow burn, that is.

Black Adam (only in theaters)- I actually enjoyed this film a lot more than I thought I would, or at least the first two-thirds of it. A long brewing passion project of star/producer Dwayne Johnson, Black Adam is pretty fun until you realize that only an hour and a half has passed and the movie still has a long third act ahead of it. This act decides to throw out any hint of originality the film has had up until that point (which is, admittedly, not much… the pitch for the film apparently boiled down to the question “What if Shazam straight up murdered a bunch of people?”) in favor of every superhero movie cliché in the book, ending with, you guessed it, a sloppy CGI slugfest with a sky beam. The CGI in question isn’t that great either, nor are the plethora of supporting characters (with the exception of Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate… that dude’s awesome). But kudos to Johnson himself for a job well done. I still wouldn’t call what he’s doing here “acting,” but it’s certainly different than what The Rock is usually cooking.

Well that was fun. Happy watching!

 

This review was not published in The Keizertimes. You can still visit at http://keizertimes.com/ , though.

Rosaline (10.21.22)

 

We are all the main characters of our stories, a fact that has led to many overinflated egos and sociopathic tendencies. This illusion is further reinforced by the very nature of narrative itself, as individual histories and circumstances are eliminated inasmuch as they do not service the main plot. Who spent any time thinking of Hamlet’s childhood friends before Tom Stoppard wrote Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead? Who has time to think of the little guy? Much like Stoppard’s 1966 tragicomedy, Rosaline offers a fresh new perspective on a classic Shakespearean tragedy by shining the spotlight not on the much-explored titular characters of Romeo and Juliet, but on a character who was originally more plot device than person. The resulting romcom about Romeo’s ex-girlfriend Rosaline is a bubbly romp that offers plenty of laughs and sweet moments but is ultimately a bit short on plot.  

Much of the humor of Rosaline is derived from taking the tropes of modern-day romantic comedies and putting them in fair Verona, where we lay our scene, and it is surprising how much mileage the film gets out of this alone. Despite the classical setting, the soundtrack is full of modern songs, the language casual and iambic pentameter-free, and sass abounds but never becomes annoying.

Kaitlyn Dever plays Rosaline with charm to spare, proving to be a more-than-competent leading lady who shows command of both comedy and drama as her character tries to win back her man and instead ends up learning things about herself in the process. The supporting cast is equally as fun to watch, particularly Spencer Stevenson as Paris, here brilliantly reinterpreted as Rosaline’s sassy gay best friend who only asks Juliet to marry him to get his parents and society off his back. And don’t worry, even though this is a story based on one of the most famous tragedies of all time things still end on a bright note with everyone happy and in love and stuff.  

If all of this sounds a bit cliché to you, you would certainly not be wrong. For the most part the modern cliches are welcome, helping to illustrate just how timely and applicable the Bard’s tales can be to our day and age, just as 10 Things I Hate About You did with The Taming of the Shrew and She’s The Man did with Twelfth Night before it. The only problem I have is that the cliches also serve to make things overly predictable; the plot of Rosaline is a bit thin overall, and unless you’ve never seen a romcom in your life you can probably guess everything that happens long before it happens. Rosaline by no means sets out to reinvent the wheel, but it is a perfectly enjoyable time despite its sometimes stagnant story.  

So if you ever feel like a supporting character in someone else’s story, just remember that Rosaline was not even listed in the cast of Romeo and Juliet, let alone had any lines, and she still ended up getting a fun little movie made about her. Who’s to say the same won’t happen to you?  

Rosaline is now available on Hulu. 

 

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on October 21st, 2022. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/ 

The Sandman Season 1 (10.14.22)

 

Oh boy, was I looking forward to this one.   

Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman is not just my favorite comic book of all time, but may just be one of my favorite bits of fiction period. The story of Morpheus, the king and personification of dreams, deftly employs classic literature, mythology, and history in a way that transcends any one genre. It is a beautiful tale of change, and it is also one that is inherently difficult to translate into a visual medium thanks to its epic scale and inherently surreal subject matter. Some fans said that a film or television show based on Gaiman’s magnum opus would never work, and although the Netflix series does indeed lose some of the magic in the translation, it is pretty much the best adaptation possible. 

Tom Sturridge shines as Morpheus/Dream/The Sandman, taking on and nailing a challenging role that would intimidate any actor with a modicum of self-awareness. Morpheus is a character that is sometimes difficult to root for, but Sturridge deftly pulls it off by employing brilliantly subtle bits of emotion that are not necessarily true to the character but are nonetheless welcome in the move from page to screen. As anyone who has read the comic can tell you, The Sandman is as much the story of the mortals that get pulled into the dream lord’s orbit as it is about him, and the supporting cast here give performances that are just as realized as Sturridge’s. The plot itself is incredibly faithful to the source material, and the few changes that are made make sense and help streamline a story that has a tendency to bounce around a bit thanks to its huge cast of characters. The most jarring plot development happens halfway in the season as the story of the first comic volume is wrapped up and the very different story of the second is started almost immediately. This abrupt 180 makes The Sandman feel like two short seasons smooshed together into a single medium-sized one, but I’m not complaining; better to include two stories than stretch one beyond its breaking point, especially when you consider Netflix’s obnoxious history of cancelling good shows if they even slightly underperform.   

The only other criticisms I have are minor ones that naturally arise from the transition from the page to the screen. The dreamscape isn’t quite as fantastical as it is in the comic, which is understandable; that kind of thing is much, much easier to do with a pencil than it is with CGI. Certain concepts are also sometimes awkwardly explained by characters that have no reason to share this information, which also makes sense because the TV show does not have narration like the comic book does. These nitpicks will not be noticeable to most people, however, especially ones that have not read the source material. Overall, Netflix’s The Sandman is the best possible adaptation of one of the best comics of all time, and I couldn’t really ask for more than that. Except maybe a season 2.  

The Sandman season 1 is now available on Netflix. 

 

This review was first published in the Keizertimes on October 14th, 2022. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/ 

Pinocchio (09.23.22)

 

Why? That’s the one and only question that goes through my head whenever I sit down to watch the latest live-action Disney remake. Is it yet another cynical and calculated attempt to turn nostalgia into cold hard cash? Is it merely an expensive ploy to renew the copyright for the original animated film somehow? Or is it a genuine reimagining that actually has some artistic merit and something meaningful to say? Well, I don’t know what Pinocchio (2022) was, but it certainly wasn’t this last one.  

Directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks as Geppetto, there’s really no reason for Pinocchio to be as bland as it is. I won’t lie and say that the 1940 original is anywhere near my top 10 list of Disney animated features, but I will admit that it at least has its charms. The 2022 version, on the other hand, mostly involves watching Hanks mumble unintelligibly in a bad Italian accent at pockets of thin air that eventually had a puppet or a kitten painted over them in post-production. None of the new material feels necessary, and all of the familiar stuff simply makes you want to go watch the superior original instead. It’s a boring, overlong slog where stuff just kinda happens at a glacial pace that no child could possibly enjoy. Jiminy Cricket is mostly unnecessary, and Monstro is now a tentacled sea monster for some reason. The moral at the end is also completely different than in the original, opting for a lazy cliché about being yourself that doesn’t really fit with what we just watched.  

The only good things about this reimagining is the admirable job Joseph Gordon-Levitt does at voicing the iconic Jiminy Cricket (and Keegan-Michael Key as Honest John is pretty good, although he’s not around for long), and the fact that Pinocchio himself could have been infinitely more terrifying than he ended up being. This is accomplished by making him a bit more cartoony than his surroundings, which makes him less creepy but also makes him seem more… not really there. Not once could I trick myself into believing that Pinocchio was an actual denizen of the world that he was supposed to inhabit. Instead, all I constantly saw was a humanoid CGI creation that was superimposed onto a background. Better that than a semi-realistic Chucky-esque nightmare, I suppose. But just like the “live action” Lion King before it, any flimsy reasoning behind this film’s existence goes out the window when a scene rolls around that has the CGI characters and no one else. We’ve seen this movie already. It came out over eighty years ago. Another admittedly good thing about the film is that it made me chuckle a couple of times, but jokes that land are still pretty sparse.    

So let me ask again… Why? Why fix what ain't broken? At least this time the soulless rehash is free with a Disney+ subscription. But do you know what else is? The original. Skip this one and go watch that one again instead (or wait a few weeks for Guillermo del Toro's infinitely more interesting-looking reimagining of Pinocchio on Netflix). You won’t be missing much.  

 

This review was first published in the Keizertimes on September 23rd, 2022. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/ 

Not Okay (09.16.22)

  This film contains flashing lights, themes of trauma, and an unlikable female protagonist. Viewer discretion advised.”   

This is the disclaimer that appears at the very beginning of Not Okay, and it is one that turned out to be more literal than I originally anticipated. Surely this is a dig at those misogynistic souls out there that dislike female protagonists when they are “too strong” or “too independent,” right? Nope. As it turns out, the main character of Not Okay, Danni, is actually pretty dang unlikeable. This warning also turns out to be a good indicator of the film’s mixture of comedy and heavy themes, a concoction that often works quite well but occasionally left me wishing that some of the commentary offered was more than skin-deep.    

When our protagonist devises a relatively benign lie in order to score some easy internet points and be seen for once, things quickly spiral out of her control when that lie leads everyone to believe that she is a survivor of a terrorist attack. Happy with the attention that she receives from a social media-obsessed society, Danni goes along with it and plays the victim. Things turn out about as well as you’d expect. It’s an uncomfortably salient premise and one that is often hard to watch, although writer/director Quinn Shephard and star Zoey Deutch do an admirable job at making things bearable, if rarely pleasant. There are very few likeable people in Not Okay, but just enough humanity and humor pokes through to make the viewer at least invested in what happens to Danni, if not cause them to actually root for her at times before the reality of the horrible thing she is doing comes crashing down.   

And come crashing down it does. Not Okay pulls no punches when the truth inevitably comes out, and any comedy that has existed before then is quickly shooed out the door in favor of some hard-hitting and downright depressing consequences for everyone involved. There is a glimmer of hope at the end as Danni decides to do something solely for someone else’s benefit for a change, but ultimately Not Okay is a downer of massive proportions.    

The biggest issue I had with the film was that it didn’t commit to or explore some themes as much as it could have. We find out early on that Danni has some underlying mental health issues that help lead her to make the poor decisions that she does, but the film never really explores this. Similarly pushed to the side is Danni's friend and actual tragedy survivor, Rowan (played my Mia Isaac), who I wish we would have spent more time getting to know. And while Not Okay does a pretty good job of juggling the ideas of Danni as a victim and Danni as a villain who willingly does her part to perpetuate the toxicity of social media, it occasionally drops the ball and asks us to empathize too much or too little.    

Ultimately Not Okay does an admirable job at saying something important, even if the journey to get there is ultimately unpleasant. When it comes to snapshots of where we are as a society and where we need to go, you can do much worse.    

Not Okay is now available on Hulu.    

 

This review was first published in the Keizertimes on September 16th, 2022. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/