
She Said is the based-on-a-true story about the two New York Times reporters, Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) who were pivotal players in ushering in the #metoo movement. The film follows them as they research and build a case against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. Rumors have been rampant in the movie industry for decades about his behavior towards young women, but finally pieces start falling into place when Megan and Jodi start pulling at threads. If you followed the news about him, the movie won’t show anything really new, but the information is given in an emotionally charged way that will disgust you, as was the intent. Unfortunately there’s so much information to give that it bombards the viewer in an overwhelming way. The two reporters are constantly going to this or that person, making this or that phone call, in a breakneck speed, that little room is left for either actress to show her acting chops. I do think Kazan is a bit miscast, because I’ve always enjoyed her more in her quirky roles, and obviously there’s none of that here. There’s some emotional moments, as to be expected from the source material (an interview with Weinstein’s once-assistant Zelda Perkins, portrayed by Samantha Morton, will boil your blood; she’s amazing in everything she’s ever been in), but often the movie is just data/information overload. I don’t dispute the movie is important, and the result of the true-life revelations of these two reporters is paramount, but a movie is probably not the best way to do it (this film is based on a book, which I have not read, which is probably a better medium). ★★★

The extremely dark and morbid existence of the survivors in the post-apocalyptic world of Vesper is set with the opening title sequence: typography tells us that the world is living in a “new dark age.” In the far distant future and facing an ecological crisis, humans turned to genetic technology for its survival, but engineered viruses backfired, wiping out all edible plants and animals. Now, the elite few live in technologically advanced cities called citadels (which we never see), and the rest are scraping by as they can in the mud. The film’s main character is Vesper, a 13-year-old girl living alone with her paralyzed father. Her father is bed-ridden and can only communicate through a flying drone that follows Vesper around, which her father can talk through. Vesper, a brilliant young girl, has a lab where she is trying to break down the code in the wild (and often dangerous) plant life that now thrives in the world, hoping to make something edible again. Vesper’s mom left them a few years ago, to become a “pilgrim,” a mysterious group that salvages junk to build massive structures in a very cult-like way. The only other family around is Vesper’s uncle Jonas, who is the only person who can communicate with the citadels with his transceiver, and he trades his children’s blood for food with them (and wonders why they want young blood). However, the food he does get is very limited; food seeds given by the citadel have been engineered to only yield a single harvest, thus everyone is dependent on the citadel in perpetuity. Jonas is very much a bad guy, wanting Vesper to join his clan, as she is nearing fertility and he can use her to get more young to increase his riches. Into this volatile environment comes Camellia. She was traveling in a saucer from the citadel when it crashed, and Vesper, against her father’s wishes, nurses her back to health. Camellia has a secret though, one that will put them all in danger, and one that Jonas can use to further his ambition. This is a remarkable movie for its ideas and visual presentation, and while I thought it was really good, it could have been really great. Unfortunately it is one of those where its reach exceeds its grasp. It brings amazing, thought-provoking ideas to the table, but with a fairly thin plot, it doesn’t reach the awe-inspiring moments that it desperately wants. I feel like it could have been a genre-defining Matrix-like movie in the right hands, but it never gets there. ★★★½

The Menu is one of those quirky genre-bending films that is hard to define, with equal parts horror and dark, almost absurdist, comedy. The premise is simple: an elite chef, Chef Slowik, hosts the powerful and rich at his exclusive island restaurant, charging $1250 a person for the privilege of being served his premium cuisine. The cooks serving under Slowik are completely obedient and follow his strict regimen: they sleep together in a barracks, rise early to harvest the local fauna and edible flora for the evening’s meal, and begin meal prep. On this particular evening, the guests include the food critic who first discovered Slowik many years ago, a has-been actor still holding onto delusions of grandeur, a trio of privileged businessmen, an older couple who are regulars at Slowik’s island, and Tyler, a food lover and sycophant of Slowik’s. Tyler has brought his (seemingly) new girlfriend, Margot, who is just along for the ride. They all are in for a night they’ll never forget, if they survive it, because Slowik has a new “menu” prepared for these particular guests. Each of the guests, all expected by Slowik because of his reservation system, has a terrible secret or unfortunate event in their past, and Slowik will confront them tonight, with gruesome results. Each guest that is, except Margot, who replaced the woman Tyler was supposed to have brought. She is the one wrinkle in Slowik’s dastardly plans. The film is hilarious in its depiction of a high cuisine: when Slowik serves a bread-less bread plate for the second course (various sauces for bread dipping, with no bread), Tyler calls it a genius method of deconstructing the idea of bread as a meal, whereas others obviously think it is a joke. But the real joke on them comes when one of the cooks under Slowik kills himself in front of them, and his body is offered as a course. And even then, the night is still young. Never very scary but always very funny, this movie is engaging to the end, and you can’t help but laugh at the over-the-top machinations of Slowik and his team. Great cast too, including Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, John Lequizamo, Judith Light, among others. ★★★★

Till is one of those movies which is based on an important moment in history, but which doesn’t translate well to a full motion picture. The film follows Mamie Till, mother of 14-year-old Emmett Till, who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955. Raised in Chicago and unaccustomed to the way of life in the south, Emmett was visiting family in Mississippi when he whistled at a white woman one day. This led to a few men showing up at his uncle’s door one night, pulling Emmett out of bed, and driving away with him. Emmett’s body was found in the water a couple days later, bludgeoned beyond recognition and shot in the head. His body was sent back to Chicago, and to make the world aware of the persecutions of black people in the south, his mother Mamie held an open casket funeral, with pictures of Emmett’s disfigured face splashed across newspapers across the country. The film continues from there, with the trial of his murderers and aftermath regarding the civil rights movement. It was definitely a turning point in civil rights and Emmett’s story should be known and taught, but as much as it pains me to say, the movie was just ok. It’s more of a feature for Danielle Deadwyler’s considerable talents in the lead as Mamie, and she is remarkable, but the movie goes on a bit too long, and the climax comes halfway through rather than the end. Skip the movie, and instead, go do some research on Emmitt Till, Mamie Till-Mobley, and Medgar Evers. ★★½

Lighting Up the Stars is a lovely film out of China, and one of the quiet, unassuming kinds of films that often come out of that country, though it has a bit more humor than I was expecting, which was nice too. The film follows a young man named San, who is set to inherit the family business, a mortuary. He doesn’t care for the business, just as it seems he doesn’t care for his old and frail dad (there’s mutual animosity there, which will get explored as the movie goes along), but San does want to get the business so he can sell it and move on. Those plans are put on hold from his latest “client.” A woman dies in her sleep, leaving an orphan, her granddaughter Xiaowen. Little Xiaowen, no more than 5 or 6 years old, is supposed to go to her uncle, supposedly her only living relative, but the man’s wife (a bit of a shrew) initially refuses. Xiaowen chases down San, demanding to see her grandmother. The brusque San doesn’t handle Xiaowen well, but he’s her last tie to her grandmother, so she refuses to go away. San ends up taking her in, and the two develop a bond. San helps Xiaowen deal with her grief, even as the girl helps him in turn mend his relationship with his father. But will it all come apart when Xiaowen’s mother, long thought dead, turns up? At turns hilarious and heart breaking, this is a lovely film for families (if your kids can handle the subtitles) and one that will leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy. Having recently spent a whole lot of time with my granddaughter (babysitting, while her parents were in the hospital for a few days having my second grandchild), I laughed hard at her antics and cried when she was upset. I’m usually not a fan of child actors, but the tiny Yang Enyou is a revelation. ★★★★½
- TV series recently watched: The Boys (season 3), Reacher (season 1), Willow (season 1), Handmaid’s Tale (season 5), Hell on Wheels (season 1)
- Book currently reading: The Second Generation by Weis & Hickman