Up today is a series of films directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich. I’ve seen a handful of Sternberg’s silent films and really liked them, but only even seen one Dietrich picture before. These are the ones that put her on the map, starting with her breakout, 1930’s The Blue Angel, filmed and released in her native Germany. It stars Emil Jannings as Dr Rath, a college professor. He learns that some of his boys have been frequenting a local cabaret called The Blue Angel, and in particular, ogling over its star, Lola Lola. Rath goes to ferret out his boys, but in doing so, becomes completely smitten by Lola (Dietrich), so much so that he spends the night with her, ruining his reputation and getting him fired from the college. Not one to admit defeat, Rath hits the road with Lola when her troupe is ready to move on. As the years go by though, he continually sinks to new lows, until 4 years later, when he has become the group’s stage clown, and Lola is entertaining new men. The film starts out slow with some dated, hokey comedy, but picks up speed and morphs into a serious drama before the end. Jannings, who won the first ever Best Actor Oscar for 1928’s The Last Command (also directed by von Sternberg) received top billing at its release, and he was hoping it would catapult his sound film pedigree, but Dietrich definitely steals the camera in every scene. Jannings would later star in several Nazi propaganda films, which ended his career after the war, but this would be Dietrich’s last film in Germany; she would find fortune and stardom in Hollywood. ★★★½

The Blue Angel had barely been released when Dietrich flew off to Hollywood to again team with von Sternberg for Morocco, a pre-Code film starring her and Gary Cooper. And pre-code it is: in the first 20 minutes we see Cooper’s character negotiating with a prostitute and Dietrich’s kissing a woman during a performance. It is the latter example that this film is most famous for. In the film, Tom Brown is a member of the French Foreign Legion and is new to the area, though he’s the type of soldier “with a lady in every port.” He becomes smitten by a new singer at the local club, Amy Jolly. Unfortunately for poor Tom, Amy has also caught the eye of wealthy French bachelor La Bessiere. Before Tom can pursue Amy though, he needs to get out of his current relationship, with his commander’s wife no less. This love quadrangle carries on for awhile, and honestly starts to drag the movie down, but the ending is just (barely) good enough. More than anything it was Dietrich’s coming out in Hollywood, and that one scene has left an iconic, lasting impression. I often see it in montages of old films. ★★½

Dishonored is the best of the bunch (so far). Released in 1931, it gives Dietrich a much different role than her previous pictures. Taking place in Austria in 1915, as the first world war is chugging, she plays Marie Kolverer, a down-on-her-luck woman of the night. She quips early in the film that she is afraid of neither life nor death, a remark that gains the ear of an Austrian Secret Serviceman called simply “Chief.” He decides Marie has the looks and temperament to serve her country as a spy. Designated as Agent X-27, Marie is sent out into the field to root out traitors to Austria who’ve been flipped by Russia. Her first target goes down easily, giving Marie a bit of self confidence, but she finds her second quarry much more challenging, and not only because she falls in love with him. When Austria does nab him, Marie can’t bring herself to see him at the end of a firing squad, and so she acts to set him free, a decision she’ll come to regret. Strong film with lots of mystery, suspense, and even some 30s thrills, and an explosive ending that stuck with me. ★★★★½

Dietrich returned to her cabaret roots in 1932’s Blonde Venus, but unfortunately not with a great result. By 1932, she was a bonafide star and received top billing on this film, but it is also known for introducing the world to a very young Cary Grant, in one of his first films (and also an uncredited Hattie McDaniel in one of her first movies too; shoutout to my mom and her love of Gone With the Wind). Dietrich portrays a Helen, a German singer/dancer who falls for American scientist Ned Faraday, marrying him and relocating to America. A decade later, Ned has come down with Radium poisoning from his work and, unless they can come up with enough money to pay for a radical new treatment in Europe, he’s given about a year to live. Helen decides to return to the stage, and her looks immediately land her a well-paying job. On her first night out, she catches the eye of rich bachelor Nick Townsend (Grant), who, after hearing her story, decides to pay for her husband’s treatments. His actions aren’t completely on the up-and-up though; with Ned off to Europe for his therapy, Nick convinces Helen to move into his place. Over the next year, the couple genuinely fall for each other, leaving Helen in a very tight predicament when Ned is coming back. Upon his return, he learns of the affair and demands Helen leave, but she can’t take their son with her. Refusing to lose her son, and with Nick gone (he had previously left, unable to bear to see Helen around town with her husband), Helen takes her boy and runs away. But as money dwindles and investigators on her tail, she won’t find a happy ending out in the wild. The movie is pretty run-of-the-mill, and while Dietrich is eye-arresting as always, the movie is kind of all over the place and a bit of a mess. ★★

Shanghai Express is another hit. It is so different from the above movies, and really stands out. The film begins at a busy train station in Peking (Beijing), China, as characters from all over the world are trying to get on board for a train headed to Shanghai. Security is tight, as China is in the middle of a civil war. We spend the first half hour getting to know all these varied people, and it is awhile until we even see Dietrich on camera. But when she comes, she arrives with a splash. There are hints among the passengers that Shanghai Lily, a famous courtesan, will be on board, and that’s who Dietrich turns out to be. Unfortunately for her, she knows someone also on the train: former lover Doc Harvey, a British captain. The two still harbor feelings for each other, but the breakup was a bad one and they don’t know how to act towards each now, many years later. As they are feeling each other out, the war comes to the train, but not in physical fighting. After soldiers stop the train to pull off a suspected rebel fighter, another guest on the train unmasks himself as a leader in the insurgency, and he will use all of his chess pieces at his disposal, namely, the other guests as possible hostages/trade bait to get his fighter back from the government. A tidy film at just 80 minutes, but a whole lot happens in that time. Maybe not the best acting (I’m starting to see Dietrich as sort of a one-trick pony at this point), but the story is engaging and the ending, while predictable, is a good one. ★★★★

The Scarlet Empress has Marlene Dietrich portraying one of the most famous women of all time, Catherine the Great, empress of Russia. Lots of films and shows have touched on Catherine in the last few years, so I’m kind of Catherine’ed out, but I have to say, this film is one of the most spectacular of the bunch, regardless of being 80 years old (though it may not be the most accurate…). The movie follows Catherine as a young girl in Prussia, her innocence dashed when she is promised to the Grand Duke (and future emperor) Peter of Russia and she finds him to be anything but a young, dashing, heroic leader of men. Instead, she falls in love with Count Alexei, a womanizer at court and one-time lover of Peter’s aunt Elizabeth. When Catherine realizes that Peter will only keep her around until Elizabeth is gone, and plans to replace her, she moves to make sure she is the one doing the replacing. High on melodrama, but also high on production value, with gorgeous sets and costumes, the film isn’t bad, but it has some glaring problems. Its almost complete disregard for historical facts being one, but even as a film on its own, the flow of the story is cut (often) by constant intertitles narrating goings-on at court and around Russia. It seemed like anytime the movie started to gain some traction, it would come to an abrupt halt with an intertitle explaining something to the viewer. ★★★

The Devil is a Woman was the last film made by this director/actress team, and the least well regarded at the time, though I liked it better than a couple of the above films. It begins with a young man newly arrived to Seville for a short stop before heading on to Paris. The man, Antonio, is smitten by a masked woman at the carnival. The woman, Concha, leaves him a note to meet that evening before disappearing, but before the rendezvous, Antonio runs into an old friend, Don Pasqual. When Antonio asks Don Pasqual if he knows this Concha, Don Pasquale relates an unbelievable-but-true story about the woman, who has given him (Pasquale) nothing but heartache. They first met many years ago, when Concha was just a poor factory worker, and over the years, he has lavished her with money and gifts to help her situation. In return, she would always disappear, for weeks, months, or years at a time, only to show up again when she was broke and in need of her sugar daddy. The last time Don Pasqual saw her, he gave her a small fortune to buy her out of a contract, and she promptly got into a carriage with another man and took off again. Antonio swears he’ll have nothing with the woman, now knowing all this, but he is just like every other man she has sank her teeth into, and it may lead to his ruin as well. It’s a fun little movie, with Dietrich openly playing the succubus that she so often hinted at in previous films. ★★★½

• TV series recently watched: Evil (season 3), Shantaram (series)
• Book currently reading: Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Tori and Lokita is the latest from the Dardenne brothers, a team I very much enjoy. This film didn’t quite hit the emotional highs of some of their other pictures, but it is still a good one. Tori and Lokita are a pair of African immigrants in Belgium. Though they met during their immigration, they pretend to be siblings, so as to stay together in the system. The two do shady business for a local restaurant owner, who pays them cash for deliveries, both food from the restaurant and drugs on the side, and the occasional sexual favor from Tori. Tori, just 16 years old, is trying to scrounge up enough money to apply for for a residence permit, so that she can get a more permanent job, while also needing to send money back to her family in Cameroon as well as pay back the group that smuggled her and Lokita into Belgium. 11-year-old Lokita isn’t just along for the ride, he will do anything to protect Tori, as he proves when she is forced into watching the restaurant owner’s drug farm for a couple weeks. It’s an emotional roller coaster of a film, about a duo who will do anything for each other, but loses plausibility a couple times. That’s the only reason I’m docking it a bit from the Dardenne’s usual excellence. ★★★½

I went into Gringa because it stars Steve Zahn who, while not necessarily known for his great performances, does have a penchant for showing up in decent low budget films that I enjoy. Unfortunately this is not one of those. The film’s main character is Marge, a teenager with self esteem issues, living with her single mom. When her mom is killed in a car accident, Marge is faced with the probability of going to live with her uncaring grandparents. Instead, Marge decides to head to Mexico to find her estranged father Jackson (Zahn). A failed soccer player, he’s been an alcoholic for all these years, but has recently started coaching a youth team down there and is trying to turn things around. He is amazed to find this daughter on his doorstep, a girl he had all-but forgotten. Marge can help him beat his demons, even as he does the same for her. Nice idea, but the execution is rough. The acting is not bad, even from relatively newcomer Jess Gabor as Marge, but the dialogue is pure cheese and the plot way too predictable, even for a film like this when you can see the ending a mile away. ★½

Gotta be honest, Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret wasn’t on my list to rush out and see. Obviously I’m not the targeted demographic, as a man with one adult child (a son), I have no experience relating to the subject matter. But I’m glad I ultimately watched it. Taking place in 1970 (when the original bestselling book by Judy Blume was written), it follows Margaret Simon, newly moved from the city to the suburbs, as many families were doing at that time. Margaret is 11 years old and comes from a sheltered school, and her eyes are opened to new friends who are in a rush to grow up. They are all at that age where they can’t wait to grow up, but are scared of the changes their bodies will be going through (though they each put on a brave face in front of their friends). Margaret and three others form a club, where they talk about boys, ways to increase their bust size, and promise to tell each other when they each finally get their period. As Margaret turns 12 and all her other friends are getting theirs, she’s feeling left behind. At the same time, Margaret is facing turmoil at home. Her parents, one Jewish and one Christian, raised her to let her choose her own religion when she gets old/mature enough to do so on her own, but Margaret’s grandparents aren’t so thoughtful, and fight over getting Margaret to join their faith. Narrated throughout by a girl talking to a God she’s not even sure she believes in, it is a poignant look at the fears, hopes, and perseverance of a girl “becoming a woman,” at that time in your life when every setback is perceived as a tragedy. A little hokey at times, but really nice film. ★★★½

Beau is Afraid is the latest from young horror filmmaker Ari Aster, whose explosive Midsommar earned acclaim in 2019. I was not a fan the first time I saw it, but it has grown on me in subsequent viewings, and if nothing else, it was the breakout vehicle for Florence Pugh, IMO one of the best in the business right now. Speaking of best, does it get any better than Joaquin Phoenix? He plays Beau, a man with a book full of neuroses, mostly as a result of his overbearing mother. But that was not unraveled early in this 3 hour film; first, we are getting to know Beau. He lives in an comically bad section of the city (to the point of silly, where corpses lay in the street, naked serial killers wander out in the open, and cops ignore it all to chat with local hookers) and fears even leaving his apartment. When a sequence of events gets him out, he is locked out of the building, and a stream of strangers lets themselves in, ransacking his place overnight. After sleeping on the street, Beau returns and calls his mother to let her know he’ll be late for his visit that day. A man answers the phone, claiming to be a UPS driver who just entered this house and picked up the ringing phone, but there’s a woman there who’s just been killed by a falling chandelier. Beau now has to rush there as fast as he can, to see if it was his mom who died, but events keep coming up to delay him. And not just any “events,” we’re talking getting hit by a car, finding himself in a crazy house with a weird family, taking in a “forest theater” production, and a host of other zany adventures. For the paranoid Beau who has anxiety even when stepping out his door, it’s all too much. Along the way, we also see flashbacks to what made Beau the man he is, and learn about his mom and the “one who got away.” As always, strong acting from Phoenix, but the movie has problems, its biggest being that nothing in the entirety of the film ever resolves (even at the end of the 3 hours). For awhile, this continual punishing of Beau drags you in, but after awhile it becomes very tiresome. The ending is so weird too. I can’t tell if writer/director Aster is intentionally leaving it open for interpretation, or just spitting in the face of the viewer. I can’t recall a film I liked so much that I had such little desire to see again. ★★★★

Acidman is a two-hander starring Dianna Agron and Thomas Haden Church as an estranger daughter and father. Maggie hasn’t heard from her father Lloyd in awhile, and hunts him down, only to find that he has become obsessed with UFO’s and making contact with extraterrestrials. That’s the whole movie in a nutshell. A lot of the film explores their clumsy attempts to communicate with each other, after years of burying their feelings, but unfortunately the whole thing is a bore. Agron has done a lot of these low budget indie films lately, but often to better results. In this one, you can watch the first 20 minutes, then skip ahead to the last 20, and really not miss anything. ★

• TV series recently watched: Fleishman is in Trouble (series), Walking Dead: Dead City (series), The Lazarus Project (season 1), See (season 3), Justified (season 2)
• Book currently reading: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

I finally got out to see Barbie, and see if it lived up to the hype. For the most part, it does. It’s exceedingly funny and does give a good story about women empowerment, and the challenges women still face in today’s society.

Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) is the original Barbie, living in Barbieland with all the other barbies (Doctor Barbie, Space Barbie, etc). Life is pretty perfect for the life-like dolls, but Barbie suddenly starts having problems. She starts worrying about death, her normally-arched feet go flat, and she finds cellulite on her legs (oh the shame!). For answers, Barbie visits Weird Barbie (the doll that gets played with a little too harshly by girls, and has the scars to show for it). Weird Barbie says that in the Real World, Barbie’s owner must be having some bad thoughts, which have worked their way into Barbieland. Barbie must go to the Real World and see if she can resolve those issues.

Barbie expects that she and her fellow barbies have empowered girls to become strong women who pursue their goals and always achieve success, but obviously Barbie finds a much different world than what she expected. Men rule the world, even at Barbie HQ Mattel, where not a single woman sits on the board. While she is discovering frustration for the first time, Ken, who tagged along, is finding power. In Barbieland, the kens are just an afterthought, but in the Real World, men seem to have the power. He takes those ideas back to Barbieland before Barbie herself gets back, so that when she returns, her world has been turned upside down, and men now rule the roost. Thankfully, Barbie has brought back a couple real people, who can help save the dolls from the kens.

There are plenty of laughs, poking fun at Barbie herself with all the stereotypes, as well as the “failed” barbies over the years that were discontinued. It is definitely deserving of its PG-13 rating, with some adult jokes that, while they may be over the heads of some kids, parents should know what they are taking their kids to. Really the only problem I had with the movie is, rather than try to create balance between Barbie and Ken, it suggests that the world can only survive if Barbie is at the head; her happiness is much more important than Ken’s. The movie did drag at times, but overall it is a lot of fun, and, for my tastes, one of those rare comedies that can be viewed multiple times and repeatedly enjoyed. ★★★½

Barbenheimer is here! An estimated 200,000 people saw both this weekend, and while I won’t get out to see Barbie until Tuesday, I did see Oppenheimer this weekend with some buddies from work (in IMAX, of course). Christopher Nolan has slowed down since his Batman days, releasing just 4 films in the last decade. While not always successful (2020’s Tenet lost a bunch, with its big budget), they are always talked about. This film will definitely continue that trend, and hopefully bounce back in the box office too. Initial estimates are certainly looking good, despite its R rating for some nudity and a sex scene.

The film is the story of J Robert Oppenheimer, “the father of the atomic bomb.” The movie bounces around a lot, following a timeline before the war (Oppenheimer in school at Cambridge and then Germany, and his first teaching gig at U of Cal-Berkeley), while also looking at his “trial” to lose his security clearance due to ties with Communists in the mid-1950s, and another timeline in the late 50s following politician Lewis Strauss, who played an integral part in Oppenheimer’s post-war career. Thankfully, Nolan easily differentiates these 3 storylines, so it is easy to follow.

Born in the USA of Jewish immigrants from Germany, Oppenheimer had a condescending attitude to others, due in no small part because of high sense of self, and while the film does show all of the important moments in his life that historians should know, especially his time leading the Los Alamos project and organizing the Manhattan Project, we also see his personal life with girlfriends, his wife and kids, and the many friends (and enemies) he makes before and during the war. The most exciting moments obviously come during the war effort. When news breaks that German physicists have successfully discovered nuclear fission, scientists in the USA immediately realize the potential for that breakthrough in a bomb. Though Germany has many brilliant minds in quantum physics, and they have at least a 12 month head start in their nuclear bomb program, Oppenheimer theorizes that the USA can catch up, due to the fact that many of Germany’s scientists are Jewish, and thus Hitler is less likely to give them his full backing. Oppenheimer immediately fights to get a team of the most brilliant people he can think of, and gets the government to pour money into his project (ultimately $2 billion worth, in 1940s money!).

In typical Nolan fashion, the movie is beautiful to watch and craves to be seen on the big screen. For those who worry about sitting through a 3 hour film: it is a “quick” 3 hours, always moving. I didn’t notice the length at all. I urge you to get out and see it, for an important moment in history, the ramifications of which we are still dealing with today. ★★★★½

Cadejo Blanco is a Spanish language film out of Guatemala. It is marketed as a thriller/drama, but is light on the thrills which I think turned some people off, as reviews are sort of middling. I really enjoyed this one though, with one caveat (more on that later). Sarita is a young woman who doesn’t enjoy the party scene—the exact opposite of her sister Bea. Bea begs Sarita to go to a club one night because she (Bea) is going to break up with her boyfriend and wants support. Apparently Bea’s boyfriend is involved in the local gang, though this is all news to Sarita, who’s never met the guy. Before the night is out, Bea and Sarita get in a fight and Sarita goes home alone. The only problem is Bea never returns. Sarita promises her grandmother that she’ll find Bea and return safely, but it seems the only way to accomplish this is to infiltrate the gang. Sarita has to prove herself, and she is willing to do anything to find her sister. She better be willing, because the gang will make her do it all before the end of the movie. So, the only problem I have with the movie is the very uneven acting. Karen Martinez (in her first leading role after a couple small parts) is fantastic as the lead, but everyone else… not so much. If you can get past the wooden acting, where it seems actors are literally reading their lines, the movie offers a strong story about the lengths Sarita will go to for her family. Also has an excellent feel of the seedy underbelly of criminal Guatemala, and offers gorgeous camera work. Three stars, but should have been four if they could have gotten any kind of supporting cast. I absolutely loved the ending, but here too, may not be everyone’s cup of tea. ★★★

All it takes for me to like a Guy Ritchie movie is for him to make a very un-Guy Ritchie like kind of movie. The Covenant is that; it’s a straight up war movie with none of the theatrics that seem to plague Ritchie’s oeuvre. The movie takes place in 2018 Afghanistan. Our soldiers have been fighting there since the towers went down in 2001, and the men are definitely giving off vibes that they are tired of the whole business; no one wants to be there anymore. Master Sergeant of this particular company is John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal). He and his team have been tasked to find who is making bombs for the Taliban, and they face danger everywhere they go. Aiding them (and other soldiers all around the country) are locals who have been hired as interpreters. For their cooperation, they’ve been promised VISA’s to take themselves and their families to the USA, as they’ll definitely be hunted by the Taliban. Helping Kinley’s team is Ahmed, a smart man who knows the lay of the land and has a good intuition for when people are lying. One mission goes sideways and Kinley’s team isn’t able to get out fast enough, being set upon by the Taliban. Kinley is wounded, and Ahmed saves his life. In and out of consciousness, Kinley is carried on a litter by Ahmed over 100 miles across open country, avoiding the roads and the Taliban, until they can get to an American base. When Kinley comes to, he is in a hospital in Los Angeles, and he realizes Ahmed has been left behind. The Taliban are furious that they let an American soldier out of their grasp, and have put a huge bounty on Ahmed’s head. Kinley is not about to leave a man behind, a man who saved his life. Unable to get the brass to help, Kinley returns to Afghanistan as a civilian, and will not leave until he gets Ahmed and his family to safety. High power action and thrills, with fantastic acting by our two leads, and thank God, Ritchie is able to let them do their thing without putting in (too many) laughs or zany camerawork. ★★★½

Unidentified Objects is a road film (nearly) like every other road film that has ever been done. I say nearly because we do have a new twist: not only are the two people strangers, and completely opposite people at that (in personality), but they are each individuals who are often ostracized by society. Winona is a sex worker, and Peter is a homosexual little person. Winona must get to a secluded area in Canada because she is convinced that aliens will meet her there to abduct her; she knows this because she claims to have been visited by them before. She has no car, so she pays her apartment neighbor, Peter, to drive her up there. Peter, with chronic health problems and the bills to match, agrees. Despite his small stature, he has a giant chip on his shoulder, so much of the humor is supplied by him in this little trip up north. The banter is good, and Matthew Jeffers is fantastic as Peter, a man who has built a wall around himself for protection from all those who would hurt him, but unfortunately the film can’t help but visit every road film trope that has been done before, and often better. It has its moments, especially when Peter and Winona finally begin to let each other in, but there’s not enough to make this movie stand out from the crowd. ★★½

When it comes to long movie titles, I can’t help myself; when I hear of one, I have to see it. Doesn’t get much longer than The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future. Unfortunately the title is about the best part of this movie. It starts out well though: on a riverbank littered with dead fish, a woman emerges from the water. Turns out it is Magdalena, who supposedly killed herself in the river 30+ years ago, though her body was never found. She hasn’t aged a day, but her 2 kids are now grown and her husband is an old man. Magdalena walks into town and is spotted by her husband, and he nearly has a heart attack. Fearing for his health, daughter Cecilia returns to town with her own kids (Magdalena’s grandchildren). They and Magdalena’s other child, a son, don’t think Dad actually saw his long-dead wife, but simply had a vision or a dream in his poor health. That is, until weird things start happening around the farm. Anywhere Magdalena goes, which is usually out of sight from the others, electrical gadgets go strange, or animals behave oddly, or if she starts to giggle, others nearby break out in uncontrollable laughter as well. Her presence does other things as well: Cecilia and her brother start talking about buried hurts between them and their father, and Cecilia’s son Tomás, who is transitioning to a woman despite Cecilia’s wishes, also finds peace. And then, in the midst of all this, the movie just ends. It happened so fast that I had to rewind and see if I missed something. Maybe the whole thing is just over my head, but I just didn’t get it at all. ★½

I just can’t catch a break here with these last couple movies, because it doesn’t get any better with Rise. A French film, the movie follows a classically trained ballet dancer named Élise, who is rattled at a performance when she sees her boyfriend making out with another girl backstage. During her dance routine, Élise falls and seriously injures her ankle. The doc tells her they’ll reevaluate in 3-4 months, but that she most likely will need surgery, and a 1-2 year rehab before she’s ready to dance again, and if it doesn’t heal right, she may never dance at a top level again. Élise obviously takes it hard, but before long, starts envisioning life without dance. She joins her friend and friend’s husband (an entrepreneurial chef) in their new business, as a food preparer at a hall out in the country. The place rents itself out for various functions, and one such new group is a contemporary dance troupe. Of course, being around them, Élise starts to feel the bug, and though she may no longer have the dexterity for ballet, she may be able to dance a new way. Will she succeed? You’ll have to tell me, if you ever watch it, because at this point, with 45 minutes to go, I gave up. The filmmakers chose to go with a real dancer in the lead role as Élise: Marion Barbeau, who is a première danseuse with the Paris Opéra Ballet. Great dancer, but she can’t act on camera, and it is rough to watch. Add to that lame humor, wooden dialogue, and a plot that goes nowhere fast, and I was bored to tears. ★

• TV series recently watched: Mayans MC (season 5), Bupkis (season 1), Its Always Sunny (season 16)
• Book currently reading: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Godland, from rising director Hlynur Pálmason (though I didn’t like his last film at all), received a lot of buzz over the last year in art film circles. Taking place in the 19th century, the film follows young and egotistical priest Lucas, as he leaves Denmark to build a church in Iceland. He goes in with all the self-importance of a man on a Godly mission, but is quickly humbled. He doesn’t speak the language, and early on his translator dies by drowning when Lucas insists on fording a river, despite his guide’s (Ranger’s) advice. Ragnar can’t stand this young hotshot; he can’t ride a horse, he can’t speak the language, and he refuses to listen to common sense. When they do reach their destination, Ragnar sticks around to help build the church building, but Lucas never gives him his due. Its a very austere movie, just like its setting in rural Iceland. The title can be taken many ways too; is it God’s land, Lucas’s land because of his drive, or is a land that God has forsaken? Despite the picturesque landscapes (pointed out by the priest, who, for awhile, keeps taking breaks to take pictures), tragedy befalls them at every turn. The movie shows the beautiful bleakness of the countryside, and that combined with its pacing definitely gives off Tarkovsky vibes, but I didn’t feel the emotional heft that his movies did. ★★½

What a stupid, meandering, meaningless movie. Montréal Girls is your typical “good boy turned bad” flick, but done with a budget of about $5 and terrible actors who seem to be just off the stage of their high school play. Ramy is new to Montreal, staying at his uncle’s house as he starts medicine school to become a doctor. He’s always stuck to the straight and narrow, but his cousin, who fronts a punk rock band, introduces him to some wild girls, and suddenly Ramy becomes a party boy, for seemingly the first time in his life. Pretty crazy that a couple pretty faces can derail a young man’s goals so easily, but I guess it wouldn’t be the first time. The story is so staid, and the acting and dialogue so wooden, that I had a hard time believing anything I was seeing. Should have quit after the first 15 minutes, but somehow made it about an hour in. With less than 30 minutes to go, I decided I had no desire to see how Ramy’s life turned out, and gave up. ½

The Quiet Girl, on the other hand, shows what can be done with a small team and small budget, but in the right hands. In his feature film debut, Colm Bairéad tells the story of nine-year-old Cáit, an Irish girl from a poor family. She’s the third or fourth youngest daughter, with another child younger than her, and another baby on the way. Her dad is an uncaring asshole, and treats Cáit as bad as a human being can treat another. She lives in fear of home and school alike, and has built up a wall around herself for her own protection. She gets a reprieve when, one summer, her dad has had enough with her getting in trouble in school, and sends Cáit to live with her aunt and uncle, a couple towns over. Eibhlin is immediately welcoming and, while her husband Séan is quiet and almost unapproachable at first (the reasons of which will come out later), he still shows much more compassion than Cáit is used to at home. For the first time in her life, Cáit is in a nurturing, caring environment, and she starts to blossom. Along the way, we find out why this awesome older couple doesn’t have children of their own. When they are sitting around the table having dinner one evening, and the advertisement on the radio talks about all the new school supplies in stock at the local store, you realize this idyllic vacation is coming to an end, and Cáit will have to return home to her hell. No one can face it, not even the viewer. A quiet but beautifully told film about the perseverance of the human spirit, and not just for Cáit. Despite the duds like Montréal Girls, gems like The Quiet Girl are why I keep coming back to these independent pictures. ★★★★½

I think I was expecting something different from what Chile ’76 is actually about. The quick blurb online made it sound like a thriller, and while it has its (light) moments of tension, it is anything but a thriller. Taking place in the eponymous country and time, Carmen is a well-to-do housewife of a doctor, living a comfortable life despite the country around her in turmoil. 3 years ago, a military coup overthrew the government and there’s now a dictator running things. In this current environment, the local priest brings Carmen a man to hide in her winter home. Elias has been shot, and the priest explains that the man was just stealing food to survive and is now in hiding. Carmen suspects something more, and eventually learns that Elias is tied up in the resistance movement. Inexplicably, Carmen decides to join the cause. Other than the fact that before she was rich, she was a nurse, and still enjoys helping others, the movie doesn’t do a good job explaining why she’d be willing to put herself and her family at risk by helping a cause she doesn’t seem to believe in. Carmen spends the rest of the movie passing codes to people around the city. If you find that suspenseful, then good for you, but I kept waiting for some big explosive event which never comes. ★★

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. Sisu is a ridiculous movie, but that doesn’t mean it’s not entertaining. Taking place in 1944 when Germany is in retreat on the eastern front, the movie follows an old man, former Finnish soldier Aatami Korpi, who made a reputation of slaughter and ruthlessness against the Russians in previous wars. He’s sworn off war though and has become a prospector. He strikes it rich, and while trying to get to a city that hasn’t been burned by Nazis, he is waylaid by them. They try to kill him and take his gold, but he initially gets away. Calling in to their superiors, they find out about Korpi’s legendary status among his enemies, and his nickname Koschei (the immortal), because he cannot be killed. Seeing dollar signs, the Nazi commander pursues him anyway, and eventually gets that gold, but do you think Korpi is going to let that go? Finding increasingly outlandish ways to kill Nazis is always a good time. Don’t expect any deep meaning or enlightenment, but it is a better-than-average action flick with plenty of gore to satisfy. ★★★

• TV series recently watched: Mrs Davis (miniseries), 1923 (season 1)
• Book currently reading: Dune House Harkonnen by Herbert & Anderson

Between the Top Gun sequel last year and, now, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One (I know, it’s a mouthful), Tom Cruise is certainly doing everything he can to save the theater industry. He didn’t disappoint last year, and he doesn’t again, proving that he may still be the most bankable action star around, even at the ripe (young) age of 61.

In this film, Ethan Hunt and his team may be up against an enemy that cannot be defeated. The premise, set up in the first 15 or so minutes is thus: Russia has built an artificial intelligence program for its military, and was in the middle of testing it in their latest high-tech submarine, when the program becomes self aware and kills everyone on board. Called the Entity, it has now gone online and has the potential to hack into any system in the world. There may be only one way to stop it: locating the two halves of a key that plugs into its original mainframe in the sub (now resting at the bottom of the sea), where the Entity’s source code still rests. The problem is, very few people know what the keys do, or where the sub’s location rests, only that those keys have the potential for great power. As such, governments around the world and power individuals (mostly of the bad-guy variety) would all love to get their hands on that key. Hunt knows that cannot be allowed to happen, and destroying the Entity is the only option.

Hunted by his own government, bad characters the globe over, and a villain from his past who has been promised riches untold by the Entity, Ethan sets out to get those key halves and discover what they unlock. He has his duo of friends (Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg), and comes across old allies and enemies along the way. We also get a new member of the team: Grace (Hayley Atwell), a thief who originally wanted the key to sell to the highest bidder, but who gets drawn in to Ethan’s quest to do what is right.

This movie is fantastic. It is an old school action flick; in a time when stunts are slathered up by CGI (often to mixed results), much of this film is done the old fashioned way, with Cruise doing the bulk of his own stunts. And it tells. There is a feeling of “realness” even in the most insane car chases and fight scenes that is often lacking in most movies these days. If I have any quibbles, it’s that the movie feels a little long (expected, as it runs at 2 hours 43 minutes), and that some of the dialogue/explanation takes awhile to get through, to make sure the audience is getting everything that is going on. But even so, the action of the movie more than makes up for it, and it is a movie that must be seen on the big screen. Can’t wait to see the finale next year! ★★★★★

Went into the new Indy film with excitement and trepidation. Excitement because I loved these movies growing up in the 80s, and trepidation because old Indy is now, well, old, with Harrison Ford turning 81 next week. Unlike many, I didn’t hate 2008’s The Crystal Skull; it was no Raiders or Last Crusade, but it was alright. Unfortunately that’s all I can say for The Dial of Destiny too.

The film begins with a (rather long) introduction in 1944, when Indiana Jones is battling his longtime nemesis, those pesky nazis. A German scientist named Voller (the always great Mads Mikkelsen) has found half of famous Greek Archimedes’ mythical Dial, but Indiana and his friend Shaw are able to wrest it away and make their escape. In present day (which is 1969 in the film), Voller has changed his identity and has recently helped the USA put a man on the moon, but he has not given up hope of finding the dial again. His ultimate goal is to use its power, supposedly to go through time, and go back and change the outcome of World War II.

Indiana is now a crotchety old man, struggling to make his students or archaeology excited about the past, when all they care about is the future. He is visited by Shaw’s daughter Helena, who wants to get her hands on the dial too, but only to sell it. She has not followed in her deceased father’s footsteps, and is basically a trumped up thief. She knows her father gave the dial to Indy before he died, so she wants it, and shows up just as Voller and his fellow nazi sympathizers zone in on Indiana Jones too. What follows is an adventure across the world, taking Indy and Helena to Tangier, Greece, and Sicily, combing through caves, ruins, and even to the bottom of the sea.

The film is ok, and by that, I mean just ok. For a film series that features the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail, this movie makes you check your credibility at the door. There are far too many wild chances that come to take place, too many scenes are a little too perfect, even for Hollywood. And Helena, God bless her, is not only one-sided, but annoying too. They try to paint her as a powerful woman who doesn’t need to be rescued like the women in past Indiana Jones movies, but it doesn’t work. The best scenes in the movie are when Indiana is putting together clues while on his hunt, which is still just as good as it’s ever been, but otherwise the movie feels long and, what’s worse, even boring at times. I think it is finally time to let this version of Indiana Jones rest. If they want to reboot it in the future with fresh ideas and a new young character (may be sacrilege to even think that, but maybe in a TV series?), that may yield better results. ★★½

John Wick: Chapter 4 continues the over-the-top action of the first three movies, and Keanu Reeves shows no signs of slowing down in his carnage (a quick google search will tell you that John Wick has killed 439 people so far in this film franchise). This film begins much like the last couple have: we meet a new villain (Bill Skarsgård as the Marquis, a High Table member and, thus, leader of the criminal underworld) who wants to finally take John Wick down. Using leverage, he hires one of Wick’s old friends, retired assassin Caine, to hunt Wick, and also sets out a high bounty on Wick’s head, drawing interested parties from all over the place, including skilled newcomer “Mr Nobody.” The first half of the film plays out in familiar territory, despite the non-stop action, but this film franchise always finds a way to one-up itself, so the second half finds John Wick fighting on an open street in Paris, as cars are zipping by left and right, and after that, having to fight his way up a long flight of stairs as bad guys keeping coming down. What are they going to do in the next movie, fight on the moon? And next one there will be: a fifth film is in development, as well as a spinoff movie (Ballerina, in which Keanu Reeves will appear), and a spinoff series (The Continental, a prequel about how character Winston Scott came to run the eponymous hotel in the film series). Somehow, the filmmakers have found a way to keep this train going while still feeling fresh and exciting. ★★★★

Was really looking forward to The Super Mario Bros Movie, as I am a child of the 80s and cut my teeth on the original Nintendo and Super Nintendo. The trailer showed this to be a big throwback, with all kinds of easter eggs and memorabilia for people who’ve played all those games growing up, and the movie does deliver on those counts, but outside of a lot of nostalgia, the movie was pretty ho-hum. Mario and Luigi are plumbers in Brooklyn when they are sucked into a pipe and find themselves in Mushroom Kingdom. Separated, Luigi is held captive in the Dark Lands, ruled by Bowser, while Mario meets Toad, gets introduced to Princess Peach, and joins her cause to beat Bowser and save the world (and rescue his brother in the process). Along the journey, they’ll tangle with Donkey King, kart it up on the Rainbow Road, and stomp plenty of koopas. The music was of my childhood, the power-ups and enemies of the games are all on display, so it was fun in that aspect, but nothing else really stood out. I think kids would enjoy it for sure, as it is plenty bright and colorful, but otherwise it is just a trip down memory lane for adults. As such, your mileage may vary. ★★½

Infinite Sea took me by surprise, was not expecting to like this one as much as I did. A sparse, low budget (though you would never tell based on how beautiful is its cinematography) Portuguese movie from a first time director, the film takes place in the near-future where life on Earth is coming to an end. Miguel spends his days roaming an empty city where the lights are on, but no one is home. The air heavy with smog and meat no longer available for consumption, anyone with money or connections has signed up to be shipped to a new world orbiting Proxima Centauri, the nearest star system to ours. Miguel was denied the trip due to a water phobia, which is problematic as people spend the trip in deep sleep hibernating in a water chamber. While asleep, the people are sharing a dream, which seems like a minor detail until you realize that maybe Miguel is already on the ship and is dreaming now. A little ways through the movie, we see Miguel on a desolate planet barely scraping by, working for the space agency. Is this the future on Proxima B (as the rumors say, that there is no hope in the stars?) or is it his real existence on a very terrible future Earth? Which is the dream and which is reality? Accompanying Miguel through both storylines is Eva, a woman he meets at the pool where is trying to become more comfortable in water, and the two develop a bond. This film isn’t for everyone: there’s more empty space than there is dialogue, and there’s a lot of foreboding music playing over tons of imagery. But for those with patience and a joy of movies that let the viewer write the story in a way, this one’s for you. ★★★★½

Linoleum is another film that, while maybe it didn’t surprise me like Infinite Sea (though the ending is definitely out of left field), it did end up being something entirely different than what I expected from the beginning. It starts by following its main protagonist, Cameron, who always wanted to be an astronaut but instead is a Bill Nye-like TV host of a kid’s science show, with no ratings as it airs at midnight when all the kids are asleep. His wife Erin is divorcing him, unbeknownst to their kids, and his work is threatened when the execs hire a new host, funnily enough Cameron’s new neighbor and doppelgänger, Kent Armstrong (Jim Gaffigan plays both parts). Cameron’s daughter Nora starts to hang out with Kent’s son Marc, and to make matters weirder, some kind of satellite has just crashed in their yard, forcing the family to move in with a friend while the government investigates. However, Cameron comes up with a cockamamy plan to rebuild the crashed satellite/rocket and make his triumphant trip to space. His wife Erin, who once shared and encouraged his dreams but gave them up for reality long ago, doesn’t know what to make of it. For a long time the film borders on the outrageous, but I couldn’t help but get caught up in Cameron’s real drive of trying to find success for once in his life. And just when I thought the movie was going to be a quirky indie comedy, in the end, it becomes something else entirely: a very heartfelt drama, with a twist as I mentioned. Gaffigan is known for his comedy obviously, but he is anchored here and supported by Better Call Saul’s Rhea Seehorn and The Walking Dead’s Katelyn Nacon, who really shines as daughter Nora. ★★★★½

A couple of the above movies surprised me, but I was expecting brilliance in Aftersun, which received huge praise from critics and won a boatload of awards on the film festival circuit this past season. It delivers, but only for those, again, who have the patience to allow it to unfold. The movie takes place in the 90s and follows a father, Calum, taking his 11-year-old daughter Sophie on vacation to Turkey. Calum and Sophie’s mother are recently separated, so this trip is just a father/daughter affair. Calum is encouraging, nurturing, and loving, everything that a budding teenager could hope for, and the movie plays (for a long time) as a seemingly plotless, meandering story. The two sight-see, lounge at the resort, and Sophie from time to time listens in on older teens as they talk sex, and she flirts harmlessly with a boy her age. For a solid hour, the movie tricks you into thinking nothing has really happened, when in reality, everything is happening right in front of you, and you don’t even know it. With forty minutes to go, I started seeing cracks in Calum’s veneer, and realized that he’s been hiding a lot of inner turmoil, doing what any good parent would do, so that Sophie can just be a child, completely unaware of the struggles her dad is going through. I will say no more than that, because the ending deserves to be experienced with as few clues as possible. Watch with patience, but definitely watch. You will not be disappointed. ★★★★★

• TV series recently watched: Justified (season 1), Evil (season 2), Poker Face (season 1)
• Book currently reading: Dune House Harkonnen by Herbert & Anderson

Honestly, was going to wait for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts to hit streaming, but a coworker urged me to see it in theaters, and glad I did. I liked Bumblebee a few years ago, but otherwise had grown stale on the whole Transformers franchise; I didn’t even bother seeing The Last Knight and only saw Bumblebee because of good word-of-mouth. But this new film continues down a good path, hopefully with a bright future for the Autobots.

The premise is thus: a planet-eating dark god named Unicron is after an item called the Transwarp Key, which will allow him to travel the galaxy devouring planets at will. Guarding the Key are the Maximals, transformers who change into beasts. They escape the planet with the Key and escape to Earth, thousands of years ago. The Key has been hidden there, until now. From here, the film takes place in 1994, so still a prequel of sorts to the rest of the movies.

In ’94, the key is found inside an ancient artifact, and once unearthed, throws out a signal that attracts Unicron’s forces, the Terrorcons. They come to Earth and start smashing things up, hunting for the key. To face off against them: good old Optimus Prime and a handful of Autobots, including the ever-popular Bumblebee, though Mirage takes a more central role in this film. Mirage becomes buddies with human Noah Diaz, a down-on-his-luck former soldier trying to scrape together money for his family. Noah gets swept up in the war trying to keep the Key out of the bad guys hands, so they can’t open a door to bring Unicron here to destroy Earth. At the same time, Optimus would love to use the Key to return to his home world of Cybertron.

There’s plenty of robot-on-robot action, but a strong human story too, with Noah’s story and his plight. Even putting the whole transformers thing aside, there’s still some pretty big leaps of faith to take here and there in the plot, but it’s still a good time, and I think the film franchise has at least found some solid footing again. ★★★½