Quick takes on F9 and other films

Kuessipan is a French Canadian film, following a high school senior named Mikuan. Mikuan is of the indigenous Innu people, living in Quebec on a reserve, and while many of her people live and die there, she dreams of something more. Her lifelong friend Shaniss is following the same life track that many in their poorer community do: she’s dropped out of high school, had a baby young, and is just scraping by with her boyfriend. Mikuan, however, wants to go to college, a goal she doesn’t dream of sharing with her family. Mikuan starts to fall for a white (non-Innu) boy at school named Francis, and some in her family see this as already going against the traditions of her people. It would be easy to make this film wrong, and show it as a girl trying to break out from old, shackled conventions and beliefs, but the filmmakers do a great job of showing both sides of the coin. Yes, Mikuan doesn’t want to stay on the Innu land forever, but the people aren’t shown as backwards, just proud of their heritage and tradition. It is up to Mikuan to balance those two points. Very well acted and moving film, from many first-time actors, and first-time director Myriam Verreault. ★★★½

Come True also follows a high school senior, this time Sarah Dunn (Julia Sarah Stone). Sarah is a runaway (never says why she left her mom) living at a friend’s house when she can, or in a sleeping bag on a playground when she can’t. To make matters worse, she’s having terrible nightmares, causing severe insomnia during the day. The film sets the tone early. We see these nightmares through Sarah’s eyes, as she slowly traverses through dark caverns or creepy hospitals, with dead bodies hanging from the walls or suspended in air, through doors, with always the same destination: a shadowy, menacing man who we can’t quite make out. These creepy dreams definitely got my heart thumping by the third trip, as they get progressively darker. In order to try to get some relief, Sarah joins a sleep study, and while her first couple nights go well and she finally feels rested, the nightmares return soon, and this gets the workers doing the study very excited. They’ve obviously got some motives here, and the crux of the study becomes known in the second half. To add to Sarah’s nightmares, she finds that one of the workers at the sleep study has been following her. As dreams and reality start to merge, the film takes you on a wild ride. The ending was a bit out of character, but I still enjoyed the journey. It’s a low budget horror film, so don’t expect all (or even most) questions to be answered, but it is a fun experience. ★★★½

Based on a true story, The Courier takes place in the early 1960s during the Cuban missile crisis. Decorated Soviet colonel Oleg Penkovsky is afraid for the future of the world with the temperamental Khrushchev leading Russia. He decides to go against his country and reach out to the USA to help deescalate tensions between the two countries. The CIA doesn’t have a foothold in USSR after recent missteps, so they in turn reach out to the UK and its espionage arm, MI6. Together, the CIA and MIA recruit Greville Wynne. Wynne is not a spy, in fact, he’s just a British businessman with some ties to Eastern Europe. This makes him the perfect helper, because if he’s caught, he can claim he knew nothing about the messages he is smuggling back and forth. Wynne goes to Moscow to start a business and meets Penkovsky, and the two start a friendship while Wynne gets his top secret papers out of the USSR and back to London, documents that show USSR’s missile activity and locations in Cuba. For Penkovsky, he just needs to know he and his family can defect when the time comes, because he knows that, while Wynne may be able to claim innocence, Penkovsky of course will not be able to make such claims. It’s high stakes espionage at its best, covering a time period when the mankind was closest to wiping itself out. The always magnificent Benedict Cumberbatch leads as Wynne, with great support from Merab Ninidze, Rachel Brosnahan, and Jessie Buckley (one of my recent favorites). ★★★★

Regular readers of my blog know I don’t watch a lot of comedies. I like a good laugh as much as anyone, but I don’t enjoy stupidity, which is sadly what too many comedies devolve to. Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar doesn’t just cross the line of stupidity, it cruises past and drives another couple miles. Needless to say, not my cup of tea. It stars Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo (who co-wrote this, as well as 2011’s Bridesmaids) as a couple of midlife women who’ve just lost their jobs and decide to take a vacation. There’s also some kind of subplot involving some evil villain (also played by Wiig) who has developed a mosquito that bites to kill. That’s all I know, because 20 or so minutes into this  foolishness, I gave up. Yes, 20 minutes doesn’t get you far, and maybe the movie turned around eventually, but I just couldn’t take anymore. It was like watching a bad episode of SNL where jokes were flying but nothing was hitting. Or maybe a bad Will Ferrell movie, where you can see the actors are enjoying themselves, even if the viewers aren’t. And you can tell that Wiig and Mumolo were just improvising their way along in nearly every scene. Would it be too hard to write some dialogue that would truly be funny and stick to it? ½

OK, I’m going to be hypocritical now. While I can’t stand outrageous over-the-top comedy, I can dig outrageous over-the-top action, especially when I know it’s coming. And that’s exactly what you know you’re going to get in the Fast and Furious franchise. The latest, F9, is even crazier than the last. There is a thin plot here, about Dom’s long-lost brother (who we’ve never heard of before) showing up to be the latest bad guy. Jacob Toretto (John Cena) is as muscle bound as his big brother, and he has a wealthy benefactor to help him take over the world, setting up a family crusade with Dom and his usual gang on one side, and Jacob and his thugs on the other. Lots of car crashes and bullets flying, as to be expected, but this time we even get to go to space! I don’t know how they can top this one with the announced 10th and 11th final movies, which are going to be filmed back to back. Maybe Dom and his team end up on Mars next? Whatever it is, I’m sure it will be mindless action again (but really good mindless action!). On a personal note, this was my first trick back the theaters since before COVID, and I can’t tell you how amazing that felt. ★★★½

• TV series currently watching: Gotham (season 4)
• Book currently reading: The Dark Tower by Stephen King