"Accomplishments"
In theaters: Two weeks after Superman, the more emotional Fantastic Four: First Steps ALSO nails its refresher on a long-mishandled comic book franchise, and dare I say it, cinematic franchise altogether. One of the best thing this FF movie does is to forego all the cross-continuity hullabaloo that has stricken the MCU, creating its own very cool, lived in, retro-future world, efficiently filling us in on what has gone before, with no head-scratching appearances by characters from TV series, etc. (It's really too bad, they'll connect to the MCU after this.) After that whirlwind opening montage, I found myself entirely invested in Marvel's First Family thanks to unashamed comics accuracy and great casting and portrayals - Reed as a man who can do anything and therefore feels great guilt about not doing EVERYthing, Sue correctly portrayed as the leader AND the most powerful member of the team, the Torch being smarter than he's ever given credit for, and the Thing... well, let me tell you about the Thing. If the movie verklempt me as often as it did, it's that it was essentially this giant love letter to Jack Kirby (this, despite the world's essential design not being overly Kirbyesque). Stan and Jack have a cameo as "Timely Employees", but that's not what I'm talking about. Rather, it's that Ben Grimm, one of the King's most crucial self-inserts, is most definitely portrayed as a Kirby persona. The film's final epigram confirms it, but who is Rachel Rozman, if not a similar stand-in for Roz Kirby? I was moved by the homage, by the family dynamic (a universal theme well-realized), and hell, by one of my favorite comics series done right, for a change. I was afraid the Surfer would be too reflective (as in Rise), but they made her more gunmetal gray and fixed it for me (great surfing sequences, too). I've read many Galactus stories, and they still managed to surprise me, not going for a straight adaptation of any of his comics appearances. Big Phase I vibes, and I, for one, think it was fantastic.
At home: Fully expected from the director of Slow West, John Maclean, Tornado is a revenge film that takes its time getting to the revenges. And it's an unusual chambara film set in 18th-Century Scotland. The title character (engagingly played by Kōki) is on the run from violent thugs led by Tim Roth for having hidden their stolen treasure, and revenge for her father/mentor's death - an invoked manifestation of the story they told together in a puppet show - seems far away indeed. At least until their greed, especially Roth's son's, starts to pick at their unity. In the first act, we discover that not everything is as it seems, and in the last, I think we're satisfied with who pays what toll. So while this is a film set to simmer, it's not without incident. It mostly wins on mood and an intriguing setting.
Atom Egoyan and Amanda Seyfried (Chloe) are reuinited for Seven Veils, a complex film (when aren't they, in Egoyan's world?) where Seyfried plays a theater director remounting an opera - Salome - first staged by her mentor. She's asked to make it personal, and essentially works through her trauma - some of which is attached to the production - to make controversial changes. And so her rich and strange backstory is revealed, little by little. Did her father touch her wrong? Is her husband doing the same to their daughter? Did her mentor abuse her trust? Is the lead singer a serial abuser? The latter strand is a subplot that follows the theater's prop master, also asked to make things personal, but it seems there are always political limits on that term. It's used as part of the greater tapestry, which examines abuse in the theatrical world - where it is normalized (I know it is from my close adjacency to it), where it is justified as inspiration, where it is something one "willingly" subjects themselves to, where it might be used to get ahead yet remain abuse), in particular to see if things have changed since the #MeToo movement. Egoyan isn't just making a film, he's also staging a very striking opera, and pulling the curtain back to let us see how directing works. His best in years.
A lot of action heroes try to move to the country to get a taste of the quiet life, but violence always seems to follow them there. In Homefront, it's Jason Statham's turn. A DEA agent whose last undercover job went wrong, he moves to the backs of Louisiana with his young daughter to protect her from what might come of it, but they quickly draw attention to themselves and a local meth cooker (James Franco) tries to scare them out of town. But this is Statham, and the bullies are going to get wrecked. Escalation ensues, but I think his character is early on painted as disliking unnecessary bloodshed, so it avoids a lot of the sadism similar films fall into. Despite the Sylvester Stallone screenplay (based on a book), I'm unlikely to remember many of the details a week later (they can't all be Rocky), but Statham and the daughter have a strong dynamic, and the action is satisfying enough for a low-level recommendation.
One of many, many similar thrillers in which a trusted new friend turns out to be a psycho, Unlawful Entry had casting on its side, but failed to grab me. After a break-in at their new house, Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe make friends with one of the cops responding to the call - Ray Liotta - who is immediately smitten by her (understandable) and starts inveigling himself into their lives, eventually against their wills, and rebuffed, uses the full power of his position to make life hell for them and delusionally "win the girl" (NOT understandable). And I mean that. Though the movie spends some time with Liotta's character to build a psychology for him, I simply don't buy his turn from cop on the edge/hurt foul to complete psychopath. We empathize with Russell's frustrations, but Stowe is the more interesting character and deserved a bit more agency. I really don't see how the various released genies can be put back into the bottle after this, so the ending doesn't really hit the note they think it does. Unlawful Entry does some things well - intriguing minor characters and subtle backstory elements - but it just can't get away from the genre's clichés.
Paolo Sorrentino was to become the voice of the male mid-life crisis, and it's all there already in (only!) his second feature, The Consequences of Love. I'd say the only difference with such films as The Great Beauty and Youth is that he feels obligated to "sell" it with crime genre elements. Frequent collaborator Tony Servillo is a placid, mysterious man who lives alone in a hotel room and follows a strict routine. The revelations pile up almost to the level of parody, as things are not what they seem. Enter (has already entered) Olivia Magnani, the hotel bartender, who provokes a relationship with this quiet patron, and the title's meaning starts to take shape. Sorrentino shoots Magnani like one of those Italian screen beauties from the '60s and we're intrigued and entrances by her from the first shot, when she might have only proven to be a background performer. She's as beautiful as the director's Switzerland - Sorrentino's films are always look gorgeous, and in this case, it sounds great too, loved the soundtrack - though this all seems to contrast with the ugliness of the Servillo's actual life. Does loving this woman make him a better man? Is THAT the consequence? It certainly makes him more brazen and more prone to mistakes. Whether that's a better version of himself is a question for the audience.
[Malawi] There's not question of where things are going with a title like The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (spoilers!), but Chiwetel Ejiofor's first directorial effort is a well made African drama showing how famine is triggered, and how easily it could be fixed if only there were even an ounce of political will. He plays the father of our protagonist, a boy with great mechanical aptitude who initially wants to build a dynamo so he can power lights and study at night, but must eventually turn his talents to the problems of drought and poverty striking his village. If they'll let him. Maxwell Simba is strong in the title role, and is well supported by his cast. Only in the third act do I think the film stumbles, with one conflict too many (true or not) and the usual schmaltzy "true story" epilogue material that have become a cliché for this kind of "inspirational" true story. I otherwise felt very invested in young William and his community.
[Somalia] The Conch starts out looking like 90s video without the pop music, as an artists finds a sea shell from which comes the voice of the past, telling of the community that once breathed life into this beach, but is now gone. Very lyrical, but I wouldn't have minded more dialog to make the story a little easier to follow.
[Western Sahara] The refugee/radicalization experience through the eyes of children, Battalion to My Beat uses stark landscapes and stark realities well, but it's all in aid of what? I'm afraid the answer might be military recruitment.
[Niger] The somewhat crude animated frogs of Bon voyage, Sim expose the pointless and costly pageantry of colonialism. Why frogs? The French, presumably.
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