The Cloned Tyrone (08.25.23)

 

“Why has it taken so long for someone to make this kind of movie” is a question that may not seem like a compliment initially, but I usually do mean it to be whenever I ask it of myself. Because what is smarter than seeing something obvious that no one else has seen? In the case of They Cloned Tyrone, why did it take so long for someone to make a movie that combines blaxploitation comedy tropes with science fiction thriller? Because the combination is great, as it turns out, even if the novelty does wear a bit thin by the end of the film.

Directed by newcomer Juel Taylor, They Cloned Tyrone premiered at the American Black Film Festival in June before getting a limited theatrical release. It was then plopped onto Netflix and was advertised as an exclusive for the platform, a fact that didn’t bode well with me, seeing as how that particular streaming service is very hit-and-miss these days with its original content. But They Cloned Tyrone is actually really good, in no small part because of the intelligent script written by Tony Rettenmaier and Taylor himself that combines sharp humor with genuinely insightful social commentary that is reminiscent of the race-based horror explored in director Jordan Peele’s films. This mixture is further refined by science fiction-y ideas that are interesting but a bit unfocused, as they include concepts such as cloning, mind control, eugenics, and many more without giving too much attention to any of them. But the science fiction itself isn’t too important, really, as it’s mostly the laughs, mystery, and commentary that drive Tyrone. The script and story are brought to life by a wonderful cast of characters, and the chemistry between the main trio—drug dealer Fontaine (John Boyega, who pulls double duty as the dramatic focus and straight man), pimp Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx, our main source of laughs), and sex worker/Nancy Drew fan Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris, who gets to be both dramatic and hilarious depending on the situation)—is hard to top.

It’s also hard to deny the style that They Cloned Tyrone enjoys, from Juel Taylor’s impressive directing (there are some really cool shots in there) to the music (I watched it with subtitles and my favorite audio description was “scary funk music plays”) to the costuming (Slick Charles in particular was clearly a blast for the costume department to outfit). It is a good-looking film in addition to being an enjoyable one, at least until late in the last act, at which point things become your standard chrome-surfaced, sterile laboratory science-fictiony fare. By then the novelty of the premise had worn a bit thin for me and I started to get a bit bored, mostly because the film feels like it lost a lot of the creativity and uniqueness that made it stand out up until that point. But last act aside, They Cloned Tyrone is one of the better movies I’ve seen this year, and you should definitely check it out if you’re good for a chuckle or two.

They Cloned Tyrone is now available on Netflix. 

 

This review was first published in the Keizertimes on August 25^th, 2023. Visit at www.keizertimes.com/

Oppenheimer (08.18.23)

 

When I think of Christopher Nolan I think of four things: Giant scale, loud music, Michael Caine showing up for at least a little bit, and dense plots that sometimes border on the needlessly complicated. Until now the highly respected director has stuck to fiction, be it of the superhero, science, or cerebral thriller varieties, but it was only a matter of time before he applied at least a couple of these four calling cards to nonfiction. And while it is oddly lacking in Michael Caine, the other three are all there in Oppenheimer, a sprawling look at the Father of the Atomic Bomb that is dense and exhausting but also thoroughly impressive from a filmmaking standpoint, not to mention engaging and entertaining.

Clocking in at exactly three hours, Oppenheimer is sometimes a lot to take in. It is chock full of science talk and political maneuvering, a relentless and headache-inducing combination that often made me feel as if I was just barely understanding the bare basics of what was going on. Compounding this is a massive and somewhat bloated roster of characters played by what must have been half of the people currently working in Hollywood, as well as a non-linear style of storytelling that covered several different time periods simultaneously, because heaven forbid Christopher Nolan do anything simply. Sometimes I got bored. Once or twice I even got frustrated. But the fact of the matter remains: Oppenheimer is still a darn good movie, and it owes a lot of that success to its sheer ambition and scope.

Cillian Murphy is exceptional as J. Robert Oppenheimer, and I appreciate that neither he nor the scriptwriters pretend that the famous scientist was a shining hero that one must aspire to, instead presenting a flawed individual who may have done some good and certainly did a whole lot of bad. This nuance extends to all of the characters, all of which are portrayed equally as well as “Oppie” himself. Ludwig Göransson’s soundtrack is both bombastic and creative, underlining even the most mundane events with gravitas and meaning (I particularly enjoyed a track that utilized the clicking of a Geiger counter in its tune). Nolan’s habit of exclusively using IMAX cameras to film pays off handsomely in Oppenheimer as well, as the film looks breathtaking from start to finish.

It is a challenging film, but the challenge is integral to its success. The cast may be huge and it may be hard to keep everyone straight, but this just reinforces how monumental and important the creation of the first atomic bomb really was. It may be full of complicated science and intrigue, but this speaks to fact that history and the people who make it are messy. All of this would be meaningless if Oppenheimer wasn’t an engaging and entertaining film, but thankfully it is that as well thanks to its compelling character work, elegant script, and everything else that makes a film worth watching. And if I were to use any phrase to describe Oppenheimer it would be exactly that: Worth watching. 

Oppenheimer is now available in theaters. 

This article was first published in the Keizertimes on August 18th, 2023. Visit at www.keizertimes.com/ 

Haunted Mansion (08.04.23)

 

Pirates of the Caribbean-- a film franchise based on a theme park ride— seemed like such a novel idea in 2003 when the first entry knocked my socks off and immediately became one of my all-time favorite action-adventure movies. Disney, not a company to let good intellectual property go to waste, quickly followed up on this unexpected hit with the Eddie Murphy-led The Haunted Mansion, which by all accounts (I never saw it) not only failed to capture the spirit of the ride it was based on (pun intended), but just wasn’t good overall. Now, twenty years and one adaptation of Jungle Cruise later, the reboot rules tell us that the time is right to once again dig up the idea of bringing these 999 spooks to the big screen and try again for that old Pirates success; unfortunately, the result is much the same, as 2023’s Haunted Mansion is, simply put, not that great either.

As a big fan of the ride, most of the enjoyment I got out of the film was recognizing all of the little references to its source material that are sprinkled throughout, but that mild joy eventually fizzled out because the framework propping up these references turned out to be as rickety as the mansion itself. Haunted Mansion has a great cast full of funny people, but the script that they are beholden to is not particularly funny, nor are the frights that they are subject to particularly frightful. The characters themselves are weak, and only the lead, LaKeith Stanfield, has anything interesting to work with—the rest are boring stereotypes smashed together that claim to be a found family by the end of the film with absolutely no reason for us to believe that is true (and as much as I love Danny DeVito, did that character really need to be in this movie?) Overall Haunted Mansion is just plain boring, the lack of excitement and laughs that amount to anything more than a slight chuckle making the two-hour runtime feel like an interminable slog. By the time it was finally over I wasn’t even enjoying the easter eggs, instead wishing that I was at my own home watching something else without the loud family sitting next to me.

There are some good things about the film—as I said earlier, LaKeith Stanfield does a particularly good job as he does the vast majority of the heavy lifting as our sorrowful lead, and the themes of grief and acceptance in Haunted Mansion are actually done quite well. These give the film a nice emotional heart that it does not feel like it deserves given the state of the rest of the movie.

Maybe Disney will have something better to show in another twenty years. We may even finally have a great Haunted Mansion by the year 2063, if we’re not all permanent residents of the Mansion itself at that point. You should not lose any sleep if you skip this one, though.

Haunted Mansion is now available exclusively in theaters. 

 

This review was first published in the Keizertimes on August 4^th, 2023. Visit at www.keizertimes.com/.