Quick takes on The Banshees of Inisherin and other films

The Woman King is a fictional film based on the real-life warriors known as the Agojie, an all-female fighting group of the West African kingdom of Dahomey. Taking place in the 1820’s, it follows a girl named Nawi (Thuso Mbedu) who is turned over to the palace by her father after she refuses to marry. On the king’s grounds, Nawi is trained to be an Agojie, an elite fighter, whose current leader is General Nanisca (Viola Davis). Nanisca is a brutal fighter who demands perfection from her fellow combatants, as the kingdom of Dahomey is facing threats on all sides. Its king, Ghezo (John Boyega) is starting to openly rebel against the Oyo Empire in the area, much to the consternation of the European slave traders. Nawi has to do some quick growing up in this tough environment, and she’ll learn a lot about herself and the cruel world on the way. It’s a tough film to watch at times, as life in that time and place was not easy, but the acting by Davis and the others is superb, and the action/battles are fantastic. The movie isn’t entirely accurate, as while the real King Ghezo did outlaw selling Dahomey residents as slaves, he still profited greatly from selling captured enemies as slaves, something that all African Kings did in the day, which obviously wasn’t shown in the movie (they make sure we want to root for Dahomey as “the good guys”). But it is a stirring and emotionally exciting picture, and one with a high re-watchability factor. ★★★★

When the amazing trailers first hit for Amsterdam, showing the laundry list of A-list stars in it, I was all ready to get my tickets for opening night at the theater. Then the preview reviews hit, and I hesitated. Then viewer reviews hit, and I dropped it until I could watch it for free. Glad I didn’t spend money on this mess. It starts well enough: two war buddies (from WWI) come together in 1933 after their platoon sergeant dies suddenly. The dead man’s daughter wants one of the men, a doctor, to perform a fast autopsy, as she suspects foul play. They open the man up, and sure enough, find liquids in his stomach that would suggest poisoning. The group goes to meet the daughter afterwards, but suddenly she doesn’t want to be near them, stating that she’s in fear for her life. This comes just before she is pushed by a hitman in front of an oncoming truck, killing her instantly. Now the war buddies are suspected of her murder, on the run from the police, while they need to find out what greater conspiracy is going on. However, just when it should be getting good, the story is interrupted by a flashback, and the tone changes from serious to silly (even though it takes place in World War I). The movie nose dives from there. Absolutely inane dialogue, silly offshoot plots (and even the main plot is so convoluted that you’d need a map to keep track of it all), and a ton of characters I just didn’t care about. How far director David O Russell has fallen; it’s been 10 years since his back-to-back triumphs of Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. It’s easy to see that the stars are having a great time making the movie (maybe he’s put his “yelling” days behind him), I just wish the viewer was in on the fun. Twenty minutes into this film, Christian Bale’s character laughs, “I don’t know what is happening!” I’m right there with you. ★

Nanny is a decent drama/quasi-horror film about a woman from Senegal, Aisha (Anna Diop), who is here illegally, chasing the American dream. Her ultimate goal is save enough money to bring her 7-year-old son over too. To that end, she’s landed a cash-only job as a nanny for a wealthy New York couple and their young daughter. It seems like an awesome opportunity for Aisha, but things turn south pretty quickly. The mother, Amy (Michelle Monaghan), always keeps Aisha later than agreed, and never pays her the proper agreed-upon wages. Amy’s husband Adam (Morgan Spector) is often away for business, and while he is often kind to Aisha’s face, you definitely get that “good cop” vibe from him, that he doesn’t necessarily care much one way or the other. The only person that really loves Aisha is the daughter, but she obviously doesn’t have a say in matters. As time goes on, Aisha starts to have troubling visions, first in her dreams, and later in her waking moments. Some of these visions begin to interfere with and disrupt Aisha’s life, putting her job and even her life in jeopardy. I really loved the tense feeling of the family life in the high rise New York apartment, but I could have done without the increasingly esoteric visions/nightmares that Aisha goes through as the movie reaches its conclusion. ★★★

The Banshees of Inisherin is, in my opinion, one of the best movies of 2022 (though there are a handful of Oscar favorites I’ve yet to see). From director Martin McDonagh, whose last film (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) also rocked, this is a dark tragedy with strokes of laugh-out-loud comedy. It takes place on the tiny fictional Irish island of Inisherin in 1923, as mainland Ireland is tearing itself apart in civil war. In fact, the gunshots and explosions can be heard just across the bay. On Inisherin though, life is going along as it always has, with the tiny community all knowing everyone else’s business. Pádraic (Colin Farrell) is a simple, happy-go-lucky man, who enjoys having a beer with his best friend Colm (Brendan Gleeson) every day at 2pm. But one day, when Pádraic visits Colm’s house, Colm refuses to go to the pub with him. Shortly afterward, Colm announces he no longer wants to be friends with Pádraic, giving the somewhat lame excuse that he’s tired of just hanging out and drinking every day and never doing anything. Colm, a fiddler, wants to write a tune that will be remembered long after he’s dead, and condescendingly tells Pádraic that no one will remember him, no matter how nice he is. When Pádraic won’t leave him alone, Colm states that he will cut off his own fingers every time Pádraic talks to him, a threat he later follows through on. Pádraic, not exactly an intelligent man (at least not “book smarts”), doesn’t get Colm’s change of personality, and Pádraic’s sister, a very intelligent woman named Siobhán (Kerry Condon), who only stays on the island because a better opportunity has never presented itself, has a hard time making him understand. Viewers find it easy to root for Pádraic, a nice guy without a mean bone in his body (until Colm’s repeated rebuffs change him), but you have to also look at the other side of the coin and see that Colm just wants to leave something of a legacy when he is gone. As dark as the movie gets, there’s so much humor that you never get lost in the gloom. If you want to delve into symbolism, there’s plenty of that too, with comparisons between these 2 former friends and the civil war being fought just across the bay. Outstanding performances by the three mentioned actors as well as Barry Keoghan as a young man on the island who faces his own demons. One of those rare films that, when I finished it, I immediately wanted to watch it again. I feel there is meaning in every action and every spoken word. ★★★★★

Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon is one of those movies which, to the right viewer, probably really hits it out of the park. Unfortunately that viewer isn’t me. It’s about a young woman of Korean descent who’s been locked in an asylum for 10 years in a near-vegetative state. One day she just wakes up though, and uses mental superpowers to overwhelm the nurses and guards and escapes. Mona Lisa Lee is able to nonverbally command people to do her bidding, as long as she makes eye contact. Fortunately for her (or maybe unfortunately, as it turns out), she comes across a stripper named Bonnie Belle (Kate Hudson), who puts Mona Lisa’s powers to her own nefarious uses, such as getting men at the strip club to hand over all their money, or coming up to people at an ATM and making them withdraw huge amounts of cash for them. The whole time, Mona Lisa is being pursued by a cop (Craig Robinson) who was forced by her to shoot himself in the knee when he first attempted to apprehend her. It’s a silly caper with some thrilling elements, and the only thing that really sets it apart is an ultra-cool soundtrack of electronic dance music, which creates a unique vibe throughout the film. Parts of the film I really dug, but as a whole, it’s just not my cup of tea. A little too much a B-movie feel, and that’s not my game. But I definitely see others really getting into it. ★½

• TV series currently watching: Yellowstone (season 5)
• Book currently reading: Test of the Twins by Weis & Hickman