2 Strange Films With Mixed Results

 

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Gillipedia Official Rating: A multiverse of… sadness and real emotions?

          If you haven’t heard of this film, the less you understand is better. It’s a bonkers film, yet it still feels contemporary. All I’ll really reveal is that it deals with multiverses and the characters playing multiple versions of themselves, so it has an MCU approach, but in a very self-aware way that remains surprisingly grounded because of its familial themes.

          Starring a terrific Michelle Yeoh, she plays a stressed out laundromat owner with a milquetoast husband who sounds like what I imagine—wait a minute… -Gill furiously types away on the internet- I was just about to make a comparison that the husband reminds me of what Short Round from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom would sound like if he grew up. AND IT IS SHORT ROUND! Oh man, I love this film now. Rest of the review doesn’t matter. Frikin Short Round had a starring role and I thought he looked like whenever Jackie Chan plays a nerdy character, and still I subconsciously recognized him. Excuse me while I have a moment of happiness

 

Two technical difficulties later…

 

          Michelle also has to take care of her aging father and deals with an emotional lesbian teenage daughter. They’re also dealing with financial issues and have a meeting with an IRS agent played by Jamie Lee Curtis. This is around the 15-20 minute mark and where the curtain starts peeling back. I’ll give the movie huge props for introducing us to the “normal” characters in an organic way without taking much time before the real plot rolls in, but remember: characters play themselves, there’s a multiverse, my lips are sealed beyond that.

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          It just happened again. I was just ready to talk about how you should understand what style of film to expect because this is an A24 film. I was then just about to follow up by saying the style of humor reminded me the most of the Danielle Radcliffe and Paul Dano film I previously reviewed called Swiss Army Man shamelessly plugging that 6-year-old review here… That’s a film by Daniels—the same two Daniels that also directed this film. Wow, it’s like I’m good at this movie thing or something.

          I think it’s fair to say that this film will fall into a category of either you’ll love it or hate it. I’m more in that former group. This movie was extremely funny. And the great thing about it is you could ask 5 different people what the funniest moment was and you will get 5 different answers. The way the multiverse comes into play is with “statistical anomalies.” The characters have to trigger these anomalies, so their characters act in bizarre ways, and there’s a solid 12-15 different methods used that are all unbelievably creative and usually downright hilarious in execution. But it is very strange and won’t necessarily be for everyone either, so just keep that in mind.

          I think the themes are executed well, but if I’m playing a devil’s advocate, I think they were also a bit predictable. But the fact that there is plenty of heart with the dynamic relationships spanning 3 generations of families is plenty enough for me to go along with the humor. The music is incredible, the cast is all-star, and this is one of the most unique films you can watch this year. There’s heart, humor, and lots of action. And they brought Short Round to me. You gotta love it.

 

Suspiria

Gillipedia Official Rating: This ballet studio is a little sus, not gonna lie

          This was not an enjoyable experience. Suspiria is a very moody, disturbing horror film with lots of metaphors, and it just didn’t come together for me. The Call Me by Your Name director followed that effort up with this film starring Dakota Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Tilda Swinton. Dakota travels to Berlin in hopes of attending Tilda’s prestigious dance company, but it doesn’t take long to realize there’s something darker and supernatural going on. For one thing it starts off with Moretz seeing a therapist with many strange claims about the company, and there are rumors of ballerinas disappearing.

          In the first act, there’s a particular scene where Dakota does a routine in front of the class, and it affects another dancer that had just previously quit the company, and she ends up doing some nasty contortionist stuff. That night Dakota has strange dreams that are truly disturbing. It isn’t a good time to be eating your dinner (cheese curds every night since I’ve moved to Wisconsin in case you were wondering), but it’s well-edited and crafted for me to be on board with the direction of the film.

          It’s also at this point that I was hoping it would continue to build the dread, sort of how Hereditary did. But it continues to get stranger and stranger without adding much lore or characterization. It’s a long film, and you feel the length. As I started losing focus, so did my sense of wonder and dread. I have nothing but good things to say about Dakota and Tilda’s performances, but the film’s script isn’t strong enough.

          The film could build its thrills and have a killer last scene like Hereditary, there’s potential for it to have gone in a more psychological direction like the other superb ballet film Black Swan, but I think it settles more in the realm of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. It has an absolutely bonkers final act, but I really can’t tell you much about what was going on beyond some satanic crap. It’s very strange and dark and I guess mythological? If the film was making a point or going off some story I’m supposed to be familiar with, it just didn’t land with me. It also doesn't help that in this ballet studio, they're practicing modern dance. I'm sorry, but despite the physicality needed to perform the moves, it's just not very entertaining to watch.

          The score is one of the worst in a film I’ve seen recently, it’s overly long, and whereas the prior film in this review combined real themes with its bizarreness, Suspiria couldn’t ever fully decide on what film it wanted to be, so its ludicrous climax was a true horror show—just not in the way I think it wanted to be. I've heard positive things about the original Suspiria that came out decades prior, but I haven't watched that yet to make an informed opinion. If you want a horror film that will make you feel terrible about yourself, Hereditary and Midsommar do so in incredibly effective ways with true craftsmanship, but Suspiria will leave you confused and a little icky too. Also don’t confuse it with Shia Labeouf’s Disturbia.

2 Films From The Wisconsin Film Festival: Nic Cage And A Star Wars Animator

 

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Gillipedia Official Rating: Finally a film I can relate to

          The only sentence you really need to know about this film is this: Nic Cage plays Nic Cage. That’s right, Francis Ford Coppola’s nephew himself plays the role he was born to play. We know him from National Treasure, for his long hair in Con Air, and arguably his most famous film alongside John Travolta in Face/Off. And there are references to all of these and more. Nicolas Cage is also highly decorated; he won an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas and was nominated for what I think was his best performance in Adaptation. And it’s the same absurd energy that writer Charlie Kaufman brings to all his scripts (think Being John Malkovich) that was brought to Adaptation. that is then carried over to this film. Because beyond the films, Cage has also had a very well documented personal life, and this movie is a celebration of it all. And it is glorious.

          We follow Cage around Hollywood as he is trying to land roles and find the comeback that he knows he’s destined for, and at the same time we see him place his career above his family and financial sensibilities. This leads to an offer from his agent (the great Neil Patrick Harris) to appear at a rich superfan’s birthday party for $1 million. The superfan is a suspected drug dealer, and naturally, Cage is recruited by the CIA to infiltrate the estate to find information on a kidnapped politician’s daughter.

          The best way to describe this film is if you ask the question, “Wouldn’t it be funny if Nic Cage…” and then however you finish that question, there’s a decent chance it happens. Holds conversations in his head with a younger version of himself (with some quality use of deep fakes)? Check. Does LSD? Of course. Not only are there really clever, funny situations the characters are constantly put in in this absurd world, but the real reason this film works so well comedically is the running gag aspect. Yes, it’s very meta and referential and wonderful for it, but from a technical perspective, we’re presented with funny situations, and then they are either given callbacks or built upon later on really effectively.

          The superfan and suspected drug kingpin is played by The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal. Where his character in Wonder Woman 1984 was too hokey, I would honestly describe Pascal’s performance as superb. He has this wonderful lightness to him that really makes you feel like every time he stares at Cage, he’s mesmerized by this celebrity. And even after the whole meta aspect of Cage, about halfway through the film, the two of them decide to write a movie together. A script that is character driven with an intimate relationship between the leads, only to give way to an action-packed third act that doesn’t make too much sense but gives the film a wider appeal. And yes, that’s exactly what we get out of this film and the whole plot dealing with the CIA. The film is very self-aware, but where the meta from The Matrix Resurrections felt contrived and forced, it fits in snugly in this absurdity of a film.

          Despite the CIA plot not meaning to be realistic by any measure, it’s still kind of stupid at parts. I enjoyed the whole direction of the film, but some might feel it wraps up a little too neatly at its conclusion. These are nitpicks of what amounts to a film where you can go in with little on your mind and leave very happy. It also inserts some heart into the film a bit too late in the game, but there is still heart and I really love the last shot of the film.

          When doing research for this review, it reminded me of just how extensive a career Cage has had in the industry. There’s the bizarre, the phoned in performances, the dramatic roles, and true classics that I hold in high regard. There are standout moments for better and worse from his career, but there’s also so much to truly celebrate as well. And since it is referential and I did watch this at a film festival, the audience response was really well received for many of the jokes; it might not play quite as well in a regular theater setting, but I’m confident it will still appeal widely to audiences. And besides, IT’S NICOLAS F*CKING CAGE BABY WOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

Mad God

Gillipedia Official Rating: It’s a movie about, um, well, some err—eh… It look pretty?

          Unlike the film above, Mad God does not have wide audience appeal. For starters this is a stop-motion film. There’s also not a single line of intelligible dialogue, and some of the images are quite disturbing and gross. “Gill, tell me more!” You scream as you read this review. I know, I know. Maybe this will catch your attention, and I mean it when I say: This is one of the most beautifully grotesque films I have ever seen.

          Mad God is the passion from the talented and creative mind of Phil Tippett who worked on the original Star Wars, RoboCop, and Jurassic Park as an animator. As Pixar has amped up to two films a year, Dreamworks is always putting stuff out, and Universal is milking the minions for as much as they can possibly squeeze, Mad God was a sporadic on-and-off again project over the course of 30 years—many being Saturdays of just a couple of people with a passion for the artform. And while Pixar has the Triple-A caliber and resources to be cutting-edge with technology, they still deal with budgets and serious time restraints. Every single frame of this film is carefully crafted with the upmost detail that can only be accomplished without the oversight of a timeline looming over you. Every. Single. Frame.

          The films that impress me the most are the ones where I truly have no idea how they could have possibly filmed that. I was in constant awe while watching this film. When I think of stop-motion, at best I think The Nightmare Before Christmas. But at worst, I think of the serious limitations in terms of camera placements, expressiveness, and framerate. And from the lighting to the reflection in lenses to the truly dynamic use of camerawork, I am speechless as to how this was possibly filmed. The sheer amount of work and preparation involved blows my mind. And to top it off, when you do have all the studio lights shining down on these stop-motion models, that’s when all the textures and details shine brightest. There’s always something to grab your attention, and even if your gaze isn’t in the vocal point of the shot, chances are something in the background is also happening that is equally as interesting. I can’t stress enough just how incredible the craftmanship is of every environment and creature.

          What came to mind for me while watching this is a videogame called Little Nightmares. Beautiful and frightening in design, this videogame also plays heavily with the associated shapes and sizes we know of objects and creatures and messes around with those in varying environments. Some of the more prominent characters in Mad God may seem regular, but they are giants over creatures and still tiny in comparison to others.

          I want to take this time to reiterate how disturbing this film can be. There’s some nasty stuff here. Be prepared to see some innards, some outtards, very brief life cycles of disposable creatures, lots of death, dismemberment, and things eating other things and stabbing more other things. It’s a lot. It will make most queasy, and I would venture the mast majority of people won’t enjoy this film.

          So what is it about? Well, um, that’s a great question. There’s not really a plot per say… And I do say. For a part of a film we follow this miner looking guy go down to the depths of some sort of Hell and watch the grotesque world around him. But there are a number of other strange creatures we follow, none of which with any real purpose or goal. Maybe there are some World War 2 themes going on? That’s honestly me thinking aloud, possibly completely wrong. You could really say just about anything and I’d be like yup, you got it—that’s what the movie is.

          So taking the very abstract concept of the plot into mind, this fits the definition to a T of an obscure arthouse film. I stand by my statement that this is some of the most beautiful animation I have ever seen. But it’s also hard to keep focus throughout the whole runtime when there really is so little to go off for a story. It’s many fragmented pieces in an overarching world, but it doesn’t come together, and there isn’t a real lesson to be taught by its conclusion.  From the very first shot with a sweeping structure and operatic music reminiscent of possibly Ben-Hur, the film has an incredible score and terrific use of sound effects. It’s nightmare fuel and not at all dinner and a date material. It’s artwork no matter how you slice it, but there’s simply not enough to grasp onto to rise above other animated films. For the sake of your sanity, I don’t recommend watching this. Unless maybe you’re Nic Cage on some LSD, then this movie for sure is a trip.

Morbius

 

Gillipedia Official Rating: I almost fell asleep at one point.

          When prompted by a friend on my thoughts after the credits rolled, the above rating was the first words out of my mouth. This isn’t an atrocious film, but as another friend remarked, it’s more like Snorebius. Ultimately, without character development and strong motivations, it’s hard to ever feel invested in this film. At least it’s under 2 hours.

          If you think of some of your top action films, what stands out to you? Some examples that spring to mind for me are the John Wick trilogy, Mad Max: Fury Road, and let’s throw the Mission: Impossible saga in there as well. John Wick was motivated by the loss of his dog from his late wife. Max develops a bond with Furiosa who is trying to save imprisoned women from the clutches of a diabolical warlord, and Tom Cruise is freaking Tom Cruise and saves the world and that’s enough for me. The point is that we are given these foundations, and through small moments of dialogue or looks the characters give, we become invested and have stakes in the game. And then the blood-pounding action provides thrills and genuine moments of suspense as we worry about if our heroes will come out on top. There’s not a single moment that made me feel that way in Morbius.

          I think Jared Leto is well cast as Dr. Michael Morbius; however, he’s committed to a monotone voice, so when he delivers the Marvel one-liners, the delivery is deadpan. There are some clever lines here, but in a packed theater, I didn’t hear a single laugh, and the root cause is the delivery. The sympathy we’re supposed to feel is from Morbius’ childhood where he is bed-ridden due to a rare blood disease, and he befriends a child in a similar situation, Milo who is played by Doctor Who’s Matt Smith when they grow up. Am I here to publicly say I don’t feel sympathy for these children with rare diseases that forces them to be on crutches for their entire lives? Of course not. But even the scenes where Milo is bullied and beat up by other kids feels stale and unoriginal. Morbius is presented as the gifted kid, so we flash forward to him researching away and saving lives with the invention of artificial blood that was somehow, and never really explained, funded by Milo.

          And if you’ve ever seen a movie, it won’t come as a surprise that after Morbius injects himself with his own antibody creation that is supposed to cure his disease (it’s bat DNA), he turns into the titular Morbius with an unquenchable thirst for babes and human blood—okay maybe only the latter. He kills and drains the blood of mindless mercenaries and realizes that he can keep things under control with artificial blood—but it’s only a matter of time before that wears off. He also is given superhuman strength and can sort of transport a bit Nightcrawler style. When Milo finds out, he ignores Morbius’ warning about how dangerous this is and how it’s really a curse, and Milo takes the injection as well. And from there they have the typical formula of bad guy basically has the same abilities as the hero, but here, Milo’s motivation is really lacking. Like it really feels like he’s just taking a night out on the town hunting down some juicy people liquids.

          Since The Batman is still fresh on the mind, I’ll also reference that. Throughout that film, we’re trying to figure out The Riddler’s clues right alongside Batman as the structure of Gotham’s democracy is crumbling. But Morbius has one scene where we wonder if Morbius was capable of killing a single mom nurse, and then after that, it’s just about ooOOoooo we’re running out of time better stop Milo. So the stakes and motivation never settled in.

          But with the 3 previous films I mentioned, I can distinctly remember plenty of insane action sequences or moments. Despite a subpar storyline, Morbius could still be saved by great action... But it doesn’t have that either. The first scene with the mercenaries is a discount version of Batman Begins where Batty stops that drug haul. In fact, a lot of this film is discount Batman Begins. There’s literally a moment in a cave where Morbius is on the ground and slowly rises as bats swarm around him to a score that is the discount Hans Zimmer. But I digress. The rest of the action scenes are all the same. There’s a cool particle effect they use where a blackish mist follows Morbius as he zooms from one place to the next, and it’s very frantic. If he’s fighting someone, occasionally it will go super slow-mo for us to see him do something lame like slap a dude’s face with his long fingernails. The scene with the nurse is the one attempt the film makes at horror, and even then it just felt impractical. And at the end when we get the killblow, it feels like, wait that was it? It’s a relatively short climax where Morbius and Milo hug each other for awhile while flying through the air. Basically.

          The effects are a mixed bag. Some aspects are pretty good, but it’s hard to get past Morbius’ face. They incave the cheekbones so much that all I could think of was Jim Carrey in The Mask. But when he uses his echolocation, there’s some cool, subtle stuff going on with his ears. That was a small detail that I have no idea how scientific it is, but it was cool.

          Despite my criticisms for a weak motivation, Matt Smith is easily the best part. It’s definitely by design, but him being the foil of deadpan Leto allows him to bring personality to the screen and go a little wild. Jared Harris plays the doctor that treated the two while they were growing up and is hence the father figure. I recently watched him in the superb Chernobyl mini-series, and he’s admirable here. Oh and spoiler, but Milo ends up killing him, and that still makes no sense to me except to show that oh hey, yeah Milo really is a bad guy here. We also have a female doctor that works with Morbius, and completely out of the blue, they’ll kiss near the end. There was zero build up to that. Tyrese Gibson is also here and takes his job too seriously as an agent.

          If you’ve heard that this movie really exists just to setup future films in this Sony-Marvel universe, you heard correctly. There’s a line from Gibson’s partner earlier on that references the events in San Francisco— aka Venom. And I’m going to save you some time here if you go watch. There are 2 end credit scenes, one after like the first 3 credits, and then another after the initial credits with the animations. They’re both related though, so I don’t know why they had to split it up. There is nothing after the long credits, so you can leave after the second scene that I’m guessing is referencing a possible Sinister Six. Actually, I’m going to save you some more time. Skip this movie, and just watch the end credit scenes online. There you go. You just got 1 ½ hours back. You’re welcome. Goodnight.

Will Smith's Oscar Winning Performance

 

Gillipedia Official Rating: We Will, we Will Rock you, sock you, polka dot you

          I feel like I owe my audience an introduction to this review. If you are active on social media, you’re more than aware of all the memes going around. I want to assure you that this review is purely academic. I have done the research. I have verified the sources. I have spoken to Will—we bonded 2 years back when he noticed that we shared a birthday. And that is why I dedicate this review to Sir Smith. After an Oscar nomination for the great The Pursuit of Happyness and then previously being snubbed of a win for Ali, Will won his Oscar. I am referring, of course, to After Earth.

          If you don’t remember, this was directed by Manoj N. Shyamalan back in 2013 and was his best film since directing that nature doc on Blue Man Group. People praised his restraint in not inserting himself into a pointless role, but that’s actually the one blemish I have for the film.

          After the riveting success of the previously mentioned The Pursuit of Happyness, Will begged Jada to let son Jaden star in another movie with him. She deferred judgement to Willow, and after a long negotiating battle among agents, lawyers, and aspiring DJs, After Earth was given the father/son greenlight.

          Story? Best Eva.

          CGI? Not as good as what I can personally do, but bearable.

          And the way the studio lights gleam off the green screens really create this organic look that simply can’t be replicated out in the wild. The way the camera goes one way, and then boom, zooms in—so cool. And trust me, I’m like a movie expert. Not by my own accord. Just ask around the community, y’know?

          But the real juicy substitute meat of this review is all in the performances. Will Smith was good. He was very good. But it wasn’t enough to put the Academy over the edge. For that, he had to rely on alleged son Jaden for help. Some people weren’t sure afterward if Jaden gave his character a lisp or was going for a British accent. I say it doesn’t matter because no matter which one you pick, he pulled it off perfectly.

          So the stage was set for a Jaden Oscar that we were all clamoring for. Only, he was ineligible. An anonymous source from The Academy let me know, and I quote, “Yeah, we don’t like Jaden.”

          You can interpret that however you want, but I like to look below, behind, and around the surface. The Smith family worked a deal out with the Academy to have Jaden’s performance nominated, but since he was ineligible, by the transferrable property, Will Smith ended up nominated for Best Actor for Jaden’s performance. And we all know what happened next.

          Penelope Cruz was the presenter of the Best Actor award having been recognized for her role last year playing Roger Federer’s mom. She made a joke about how she hoped this wouldn’t be another Moonlight situation—a joke 5 years too early for the audience—and held back tears as she announced Will Smith’s name.

          Absolute goosebumps.

          After thanking his local city council and his Jimmy John’s delivery guy for keeping it real, Smith accepted the award, nothing newsworthy happened, and this story was forgotten for 9 years. But I want to give it the recognition it deserves. It’s not much, but it sure feels good to do some honest work.