"Accomplishments"At home: Natasha Lyonne is so damn cool, you know? Such swagger. Great to see her play Nadia again in Russian Doll's second season. Now I see how they're going to prolong this for three seasons (as pitched): The universe is broken again, but instead of a Groundhog Day situation, it's a train that takes you into the past, in fact inside your own forebears' bodies. Nadia has to navigate the subway system and her mother's messy life (as seeded in Season 1) to figure her stuff out, and depending on the rules of this reality, change things for the better or be impotent to do so. Alan also gets his turn, but his story seems an afterthought, much less connected to Nadia's than in the opening season. For her though, the title holds true. Each layer you peel off reveals another, and by the end, the show's gonna get surreal again. Time travel narrative as therapy, with an intriguing mystery at the heart of it. Still funny. Now what are they gonna do for the hat trick?
Because the formula is so well-worn, romcoms are not really to be enjoyed for their outcome, but for the twists they can impose on the formula, and for its stars. I Want You Back indeed does star people I like, and while Charlie Day is up to his level, it's mostly on Jenny Slate's shoulders as the more emotional, competent, and touching character. She even scores a subplot where she forms just about the healthiest relationship in the movie, a friendship with a 12-year-old. The main twist: They meet after each being dumped and decide to pull a Strangers on a Train and break their exes' new couples to - all together now - GET! THEM! BACK! Because the stars are so affable, and the way each mission goes, it never feels mean-spirited, just very ill-advised. Obviously, we know Charlie and Jenny are going to end up together, but the movie pretty deftly withholds this turn of events for as long as possible, initiating an unusual third act. I Want You Back is quite cute, even funny at times, and happily sticks to its guns in terms of what it wants to say about romance.
Uncle Buck has to be THE John Candy showcase. He's so great as the confirmed and irresponsible bachelor who must take care of his brother's kids during a family emergency (and thereby learn a lesson about growing up himself). He's funny, but generally not too broad. He's kind despite being a rascal. He's overwhelmed, but still manages to do some good parenting. And his immaturity and chaotic spirit make him surprisingly good at bonding with the smaller kids and fiercely protective of the cruel teenage daughter who acts as both villain and whatever the family version of the object of a romcom is called. Though you're aware at times that the film is padded with bad parent gags, Candy navigates the story with such charm, it doesn't much matter. Full props to the kids as well. Jean Louisa Kelly is one of those perfect John Hughes teens; Macaulay Culkin seems to be auditioning for Home Alone and getting the part; and the little girl is played by... Gaby Hoffman?! A star in the making! Laurie Metcalf as the awkward neighbor could have had a bigger part too, she's quite funny. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and call this the very best John Candy film.
The problem with Unknown, and the reason if so often fails to surprise despite the script really needing to, is its casting. Liam Neeson's presence in an action thriller makes us distrust his reality as a botanist. January Jones' cold readings also make her impossible to believe. Diane Kruger is just recognizable enough, especially in the atypical role of a random cab driver, that you expect her to play a bigger one. And when Frank Langella shows up as a third-act "friend", come on now, movie. Recast this with unknowns (ha!) or actors playing against type, and you might have something. Whether you're surprised or not, a mystery is still a mystery, and while your imagination gets you part of the way, the answers aren't written on the wall. That's not a Berlin joke, but setting the story there, when it could almost have happened anywhere, tries to tap into Cold War paranoia at a time when that's no longer an issue. One imagines a version of the script that indeed WAS a period piece, I don't know. Not as brain dead as a lot of Neeson's action flicks, but there are still a lot of plot holes. It at least PRESENTS as a little more thoughtful and intricate, like a Mission: Impossible TV episode seen at an angle.
I've seen many submarine movies, but it's always interesting to experience them from another nation's point of view. The Wolf's Call (Le chant du loup) is France's answer to Crimson Dawn, a tense nuclear thriller set in the current political climate. While we've seen the stuff about nuclear codes, etc. before, the film showcases a lot of advancements in submarine detection and warfare that feel fresh to me. At the heart of the drama is acoustics expert with the finest ears in the fleet and perhaps too tender a heart to be involved in these events. It also means you're on the edge of your sear just listening to underwater sounds, which makes it pretty exciting for a procedural. It is SUCH a procedural that the characters tend to speak in naval code and technicalese even in non-technical scenes, but I like that (pardon the pun) immersion. But procedurals do tend to be plot heavy and in this case, even the romance subplot is a means to an end and the woman is sort of forgotten in the car while the hero is detained overnight for his maverick ways. A minor problem as the detour doesn't take us too far from the suspense and action the movie otherwise delivers.
I'm not sure Jacques Deray's La piscine (The Swimming Pool) earns its weird, topsy-turvy opening credits with this slowest of burning sex thriller, its mood closer to lackadaisical summers by the pool, which is of course entirely appropriate. Remade as A Bigger Splash by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name), I could help but compare. Guadagnino's characters are much more fanciful and lively, but the abrupt turn to the thriller genre feels like an afterthought. Deray's characters are much more reserved, even opaque, but when the thriller element gets into gear (no faster than in A Bigger Splash), it feels like it were were always building to that moment. What makes Deray's original work is its characters' ambiguity - Alain Delon's minimalist acting, Romy Schneider as a coquette who fosters an enigmatic persona, and Jane Birkin such a drip that no one could see her as a femme fatale. Relationships toxified by characters who don't communicate properly. As audience, we keep filling in the gaps, trying to figure out the psychologies, which is what keeps us invested even when we fear nothing's ever going to happen. How deep does that pool go?
/2017: Uncle Buck meets Quantum Leap and another movie that would be a spoiler in China's Beautiful Accident (I'll probably watch the Korean original, Wonderful Nightmare, some day). Essentially, Gwei Lun-mei plays a lawyer laser-focused on her career who dies due to a clerical error. While minor functionaries scramble to change her fate, they send her into another recently deceased housewife's body to live a week in her shoes, and find out what she's been willfully missing. The character is initially unlikable, but that's because she's so guarded. As she drops that guard, she becomes more and more likable, even adorable. Some of the plot points are quite predictable - her last case of course has to rear its ugly head in the other life - but it's not necessarily all going where you think it will. Sometimes a bit broad, often a bit cheesy, but it's Asian cheesy, which has an earnestness I enjoy. And while I was a little ahead of the character in understanding the rules, the fact that the film doesn't over-explain anything makes it nonetheless pleasantly clever.
Also from that year: Coco, Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle, King Arthur Legend of the Sword
2018: Based on the manga based on the novel, Penguin Highway is certainly very weird, but it's probably not the strange appearance of penguins in a Japanese town, or the crazy anomalies that spring up later that makes its strangeness. Rather the protagonist, through which we follow the story, is an odd duck - a precocious elementary school student who has trouble processing emotions and displays uncommon intelligence (and arrogance), as well as a fascination with women's breasts. it's the last one that might be off-putting given that he's about... nine? There is still something interesting in that his scientific investigations all revolve around girls he's interested in, either consciously or unconsciously, a metaphor for those first stirrings of interest in the compatible sex. Even taken literally, the mysteries still intrigue. Relatively quiet until then, the third act is where the animation really explodes with crazy visuals and the pay-off is worth it.
Also from that year: Mary Poppins Returns, Christopher Robin, Tomb Raider
2019: Mati Diop's short, Atlantiques (with an "s"), dealt with a very interesting topic - the reactions of people left behind in economically-depressed Senegal after some young men brave the sea to seek fortune in Europe - but it had too much to say given the format. That's why we're extremely fortunate that she was able to make a feature-length film on the same subject. Atlantique (no "s", though in English sold as Atlantics) expands on the premise and gives us a touch of magic as the workers, lost at sea, seem to return demanding justice. Justice... or love, in the case of Ada's boyfriend Souleimane. She's the protagonist, experiencing this loss the most acutely, and perhaps almost wishing the supernatural into existence. Meanwhile, a police detective is trying to get to the bottom of this X-file, adding a lot of interest because, well, we're not used to African cop dramas. Though it needs to hold to its reality, Atlantiques lets the cinematography do a lot of the work. I especially like Diop's ocean, either bubbling silver mercury or a dark patchwork of hidden dangers, but the phantasmagorical tower, the club lights as special effect, etc. are all memorable.
Also from that year: The Kid Who Would Be King, Ride Your Wave, Frozen II
2020: If you know what the name means, you may foresee some of the strangeness in Undine, but not as much as you think it will. If the watery undine myth is in effect, it still proposes that the lead have a rebound romance before it takes hold. Merely odd at first, the fantastical elements mount up until they can't be denied, though some, like that last phone call, don't really make sense to me. What makes the film is its romantic pairing. Paula Beer as Undine (enigmatic, intense, passionate) and Franz Rogowski as the underwater diver Christoph (awkward, earnest, touching) are wonderful whether together or apart. We want them to have their happiness, though we come to expect tragedy. (Whether we get either is really a matter of opinion.) I worked hard to figure out what Undine's profession (historian) and many speeches about Berlin's architecture had to do with any of this, and came up relatively empty. I could make pronouncements about the old meeting the new, facades replacing progress, shifting centers, etc. and tie them into the relationship story, but I'm not sure I'd be convincing. Seeing as I could probably watch Paula Beer sit on a park bench for an hour, I guess it doesn't matter much. I somehow found her tour guide information interesting anyway. Like Christoph, we are taken with her in all her dimensions.
Also from that year: Soul, Monster Hunter
Role-playing: The second (and last) leg of our Shiftworld game to take place in GURPS Swashbucklers (Pirates of the Caribbean) was perhaps the most fun we've had since we brought the campaign back. There was a lot of creative improvisation on both sides of the table (my notes often went: This is the problem, let them figure it out), and I'm pretty sure no on expected an hour to be spent on a hairdressing con, but there you go. It was the first step in getting rid of a Black Spot curse before the players could learn the rules of the game and set off after a giant warship that had them outgunned, but not, as it turned out, outwitted. Don't trust Willy Jay with your flammable sails is all we're saying. Ace got to do a lot of fast-talking and his player was ON, spinning yarns with nary a breath. Didn't put much effort in the naval battle because it was largely about outpacing the big ship, so I ran GURPS' abstract combat system. It was okay, but I wouldn't use it again. It just didn't excite. On the return trip, reality shifts started happening in quick succession until their stagecoach arrived back in Paradise as it was before "Shiftworld" ever started. But no, I was being cruel. They didn't return to GURPS Old West ("It feels like home"), but rather in Deadlands: Weird West. We're headed for the finish line and nothing's easy!
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