Da 5 Bloods is about a quartet of men who return to Vietnam after having fought there together during the war. They and their leader, who died in the war, had previously buried a bunch of CIA gold found in the course of a mission, but after a napalm strike buried their landmarks, it has lain hidden all these years. A recent landslide has revealed one such marker, so they are back for their money, and also to find the remains of their buddy. The film follows this hunt, as well as flashbacks about their younger days (though mysteriously, no make-up to make them appear younger…), and also explores each of their’s relationships with others in their lives. There are also historical facts and dates interspersed throughout, in a documentary-like way, to educated us on important people and moments in black American culture. The only thing that comes to mind is, holy crap is this film pretentious. It is director Spike Lee saying, “Look how deep my movies are! Look how political it is!” in every take. Extreme over-acting, nonsensical dialogue that doesn’t fit the feel of the scene, and “rousing” music that is supposed to make certain moments feel profound but instead makes it feel cheap and like a bad “B” movie. The enemies have Stormtrooper syndrome in that they can’t hit the broad side of a barn. And What Is With Every Word Of The Subtitles Being Capitalized? Add in some really poor sound editing where actors off camera have their lines delivered in a loud voice-over way that makes it sound like an out-of-scene narrator, and the whole thing feels shoddy. I don’t get this film, and I don’t get the praise it is getting. I like several Spike Lee films (I liked his last quite a bit), but let’s not praise everything he makes because of his reputation alone. ★½
Shirley is a biopic about author Shirley Jackson, portrayed here by Elizabeth Moss. Shirley and her husband Stanley, a well respected local college professor, have taken in a young couple, Rose and Fred, while Fred is working for Stanley at the school. Shirley and Stanley have a very unhealthy relationship. He is domineering and mentally abusive, belittling Shirley to her face and calling her crazy to others, and openly running around on her (and flirting with Rose when Fred isn’t around). She treats him like shit (which is how Shirley treats everyone), yet in a codependent way, she craves his praise. Partly because of this treatment and partly from her own mental instability, Shirley suffers from depression, paranoid anxiety, and nearly debilitating agoraphobia. Shirley doesn’t get along with anyone, and resents Rose in the beginning too, as she puts off her own schooling to help around the house, since Shirley is unable or unwilling to do so herself. However, as Shirley starts dreaming up her latest horror novel, based on a local girl who went missing after a miscarried pregnancy, she enlists Rose to help her research. In Shirley’s head, she begins envisioning Rose as the missing girl (Rose is also pregnant) and over several months, Rose begins to act more and more like Shirley, taking on her mannerisms. This is one of those films where style takes precedent of substance. Not much happens, but it is fantastic nonetheless. The four lead actors (Moss, joined by Odessa Young, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Logan Lerman) are all great, with Moss and Young particularly arresting. ★★★½
I can maybe chalk this one up to low expectations, but I enjoyed The Call of the Wild a lot more than I would have guessed. A new version based on the classic Jack London book, and starring (and narrated by) Harrison Ford as the old man, the movie follows Buck, a large city dog who is dog-napped off to the Yukon to become a sled dog. There are obvious changes from the book, but overall, it is fairly faithful to the major themes. Buck has good masters, bad masters, but ultimately answers “the call” to go into the wild with wolves and become a leader among them. The film bombed at the theaters, with many calling out the distracting CGI. It actually didn’t bother me that much once I got into the flow of the picture, and enjoyed Ford’s narration and the feel-good story was nice. It’s not great cinema maybe, but I think it’s a good family picture that can be enjoyed by all ages. This is evidenced by a much higher audience score on Rotten Tomatoes than what the critics gave it. ★★★
Corpus Christi is a Polish film about Daniel, a young man serving time for murder in prison. While in jail, he’s found God and would like to be a priest when he gets out, but his criminal background is shoehorning him into a life of manual labor at a sawmill near a tiny town when his parole starts. Unwilling to go straight to the sawmill, he wanders into the local church, where a girl, Marta, correctly guesses he’s straight from juvie and headed to the sawmill. Daniel resents the assumption and says he’s in fact a priest. This little lie quickly grows out of control, when he is introduced to the parish’s vicar. That night, the vicar passes out drunk. The vicar admits he needs to go to rehab to get himself straightened out, and leaves the church in Daniel’s hands for the time being. With no training and a hard life in his past, Daniel has a way of talking to the people without pretense, and quickly becomes very popular. The town’s people are struggling with faith, hurting from a recent tragedy, a car accident that left 7 people dead; six were young adults in one car, and the other was a lone driver. Unable or unwilling to move on from this pain, the town has developed a mob mentality towards the lone driver’s widow, and Daniel takes it upon himself to bring the people together. The film is awfully blasphemous, so part of me had a hard time with the content, but the message of healing is a good one, and the acting by Bartosz Bielenia in the lead is very good. ★★★½
I was a bit disappointed by the Korean film Time to Hunt. It is marketed as a dystopian action thriller. Technically that’s correct, but the only dystopian element is that the market has completely collapsed, leaving the seedy underworld to be in charge. The film follows a group of three friends, one of whom is just out of jail for their last heist, as they plan a new one. Last time they robbed a jewelry store, but since the economic collapse, they decide instead to rob an illegal gambling house, which trades in the more valuable US dollar. They pull in a fourth friend who happens to work at the establishment, and the robbery goes off according to plan. Part of their getaway plan involved stealing the hard drives of the camera recordings, to help hide their identities, but unbeknownst to them, that data also has accounts numbers and identities to some of the gambling house’s high rollers, and that obviously cannot be allowed out there in the world. A hunt begins for our young quartet of robbers ensues, and this is the crux of the film. I was already a bit let down because I expected something else when I read “dystopian,” and the film didn’t help me out by getting a bit ridiculous in the final hour. Han, who is hunting the lead boys, is an almost comic book character, capturing them at times only to let them go for the joy of the hunt. And he has the superpowers of shutting off lights and making whole hospitals become deserted! It’s all a bit too much for me. ★½
Jons Movie Takes 