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Skinamarink (2022)
Surreal departure from mainstream cinema is a muddled misfire
Much credit is due here, for this is about as far from a mainstream Hollywood film as I've ever seen. Even its existence can be seen as a sign that all is not lost in the lather-rinse-repeat cycle of American cinema. Which is not to say that I enjoyed the film. In fact, I honestly don't know what to make of it.
I really wanted to love this. Nevertheless, I was l left wondering if this unceasingly ambiguous film and its "cast" would have been better served had this been a 10-15 minute short. As it stands, it seems more like a film school assignment (e.g., "show a childhood memory as it might be seen in a dream") that needs some serious editing.
Or maybe the problem is that Skinamarink is being marketed as a horror movie. This is a strange/weird/surreal enigma of a film that, for this lifelong horror aficionado, produced no sense of dread whatsoever. Just confusion and occasional moments of, "Oh, that was sort of interesting."
There's a cool short film in there waiting to be fashioned from this footage. I'd be willing to give Kyle Edward Ball another shot with his next film. But this one just seems like an idea that spun out of control without anyone there to rein in his more indulgent instincts.
The Good Nurse (2022)
Dark Underbelly of Institutional Silence
"An employee is suspected of heinous crimes, yet his employers repeatedly look the other way, as they fear negative publicity. Thus, the employee is dismissed and simply relocates, while getting the same kind of job at a new place, with new people to victimize. This pattern repeats for many years. "
No, the above is not a summary of "Spotlight", but that's an excellent guess! In this well-made film, we learn that hospitals can be as bad as the Catholic Church when it comes to saving face at all costs. Great performances around the board make this a far better thriller than 99% of the schlock-fests on Netflix.
The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
Reverent Journey into Tony Soprano's Origins
Absolutely reverent look at the making of Tony Soprano. When making a prequel to one of the most important and critically acclaimed series in the history of television, so much could have gone wrong here, especially 14 years after the series ended.
In playing the young Tony, Michael Gandolfi certainly had the family resemblance down cold, reprising the role his Dad made world famous. But Michael also proved that he can really act. His Tony is vulnerable and needy, the result of being continually let down by the grown-ups in his life. His grotesquely cruel and narcissistic mother, Livia, who is even worse than the TV version. His amoral gangster of a father. And so on.
By the end, I felt pity for Tony, which I never would have expected. He had tremendous potential, but was done in by his own family, biological and otherwise.
This Is a Robbery: The World's Biggest Art Heist (2021)
Fascinating glimpse into the infamous theft
Lots of people of a certain age brag about the bands they saw back in the day, a practice which I fully support. (I have yet to meet anyone with a cooler first concert than mine: Queen in 1982 at the old Boston Garden.)
But even cooler than that, I was lucky enough to see all of these famous stolen paintings as part of an art history field trip to the Gardner Museum when I was at Berklee in 1987. Like it was yesterday, I can still remember standing in front of Rembrandt's Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee and A Lady and Gentleman in Black and Vermeer's The Concert. The Queen show was awesome, but not as awesome as seeing the Dutch masters' pieces that will probably never be seen again.
The Whale (2022)
Echos the Wrestler, Yet Veers Into Melodrama
Hard to miss the parallels between this and The Wrestler: A broken man desperately tries to reconnect with his daughter to atone for past sins, while simultaneously continuing to battle personal demons. Along the way, he engages in self-flagellation via the very thing that is probably killing him.
Unlike in his earlier film, one of the great pieces of 21st century cinema, Aronofsky fails to keep The Whale from veering into melodrama in several key moments. In particular, he would have been much better served had Sadie Sink toned it down by half. Her angsty, angry teen against Brendan Fraser's (mostly) beautifully underplayed and sensitive lead causes a dissonance that took me out of the movie on more than one occasion.
Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty (2022)
To date, the best of the Murdaugh documentaries
Saw the Netflix documentary first. But if you don't have the desire to sit through two documentaries on this topic, I would go with this one from HBO Max. Obviously, both of these were done before the trial, but for those interested in this case, there's plenty of information that was never uncovered during those five weeks of testimony.
Both this in the Netflix documentary include plenty of information about the death of Mallory Beach, Stephen Smith, and Gloria Satterfield, but this one goes into better detail about the financial crimes, and sheds some new light on the relationship of Alex and Maggie.
Yes, there is a lot of hearsay, conjecture, opinion, and rumor being put forth by the talking heads here (and in the Netflix documentary for that matter), so some of it must be taken with a grain of salt. But overall, Low Country gives a more complete picture of this heinous series of crimes, and the family that sits in the center of it all.
The Oak Room (2020)
Poorly written, poorly acted, and a payoff that never comes
I don't see a lot of films with such demonstrably stilted dialogue and wooden acting, especially by the two ostensible leads. Unrealistic banter is fine in a more stylized story. But this is a fairly straightforward series of conversations in a bar.
Add to that a payoff that never comes. Yes, this an example of false profundity: behold-my-depth-for-I-have-left-you-completely-hanging-despite-having-given-you-an-ostensible-clue-which-actually-isn't-and-does-nothing-to-resolve-anything.
This ended up like a Twilight Zone episode that omitted the all-important last scene. Or a Stephen King short story that had the last several pages torn out. When you set up a film to a have a payoff, you'd better follow through. Failure to do so doesn't just make the story less satisfying, it completely destroys it.
The Humans (2021)
Brilliant film; misleading reviews
NY Times review: "...film adaptation...acquires a supernatural sheen..." and mentions a "haunted house."
IMDB: "As darkness falls...mysterious things start to go bump in the night..."
Showtime: "Eerie things things go bump in the night..."
So sue me if I expected a...horror film! I've never seen such misleading reviews.
But...getting past that, this very small film is almost anti-supernatural, so realistic are the themes and performances. Very awkward moments of family dysfunction. Repression on steroids. And often, genuinely affecting.
One of the best films among the many I've seen this year and, sadly, not the kind we see much of anymore. Slow, minimalistic, artsy. Something to be thankful for indeed.
Soul (2020)
Not a movie about jazz! It's just fantasy nonsense.
This is a movie about jazz in the same way that The Bad New Bears was about the pool cleaning business. The first 8-9 minutes were promising as the film centered on music. But then, the whole fantasy drivel sinks what could have been a movie about jazz. So incredibly boring. There's a brief scene at the jazz club in the 3rd act, but too little way too late. My son and I are are jazz fanatics and were massively disappointed. Painful to sit through.
Oh yeah, and I should have known it would be jazz light as Jon Batiste was the pianist for the film Pixar's main consultant. The dude is NOT a jazz musician by any stretch. He only fakes it. Real jazz fans know the difference.
The Head (2020)
Reasonably entertaining, not essential
Great acting. And ather people have summed up the main points. My main issue: I wear the hood on my parka if it's in the teens (F) or below. Evidently, -80° and colder has a paradoxical effect on perceived temp? No hoods by anyone.
Also, Antarctica is a desert. It almost never snows. Wouldn't know it from The Head.
A Vigilante (2018)
Important topic but film is a major snoozefest
I really wanted to like this movie, but it is so boring. And this is a shame, because this is such an important topic. I was hoping that this movie would deal with domestic violence in a real and emotionally powerful way. Instead, I found myself looking at my watch every five minutes wondering when it would end. Olivia Wilde didn't have nearly enough to do.
The Haunting of Hill House (2018)
I wasted 10+ hours of my life. I feel duped.
This series started with such promise. The best episodes were so compelling and well-acted. (Although at least two were painfully dull.) But it DID seem to be moving toward a satisfyingly frightening conclusion. I was wrong. The finale was a disaster on many levels. I had to watch it in about 4 sittings because it was so incredibly boring. There were some fine performances throughout the series, especially by Timothy Hutton and the children. But Carla Gugino's Olivia was so overwrought and annoying that I didn't CARE if she died. In fact, I kind of wanted her to do so. The more screen she had, the more I wanted to switch the show off.
What do all of the best horror films (The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby, The Shining, The Babadook, etc.) have in common? They have endings that leave you feeling no closure. No sense of happily-ever-after nonsense, which is how it should be. The dread in those films stays with you long after the final frame. THOHH decided to go with schmaltz. It was as if Steven Spielberg took over and hijacked film. By around episode 6, I was hoping there'd be multiple seasons of this show. The finale so betrayed horror fans that I will never waste my time on TV horror. The best episodes of this series rated a 9 or 10. The finale ruined everything.