Sunday 25 February 2018

Review: Game Night

Game Night (2018) - John Francis Daly and Jonathon Goldstein

       High concept comedies are tough. Hell, regular comedies are tough.For a comedy to really work, follow with me, you don't need prat falls and fart jokes (not that I don't enjoy people getting injured and flatulence, because trust me, I do), you need characters you actually like, who are actually understandable, who you have an investment in, falling down and shitting their pants. Otherwise it's just bland and lazy. "Farts are funny, right? Well here's a THOUSAND OF THEM." Not so, Mr. and Ms. Movie people! I want there to be relatable stakes when someone farts or falls down. I know I sound crazy, but follow along here. The best comedies are based in character, regardless of plot (think Ghostbusters, or Superbad, or Mean Girls). High concept comedies are even tougher, because you have to funnel down all that character development and growth into one main, idea: One simple "concept" that drives the whole movie that is USUALLY outside the realm of reality (think Liar, Liar or Groundhog Day). A lot of normal comedies end up being terrible because they care about the shitty jokes than actual characters, and a lot of high concept movies end up being terrible because they lean too heavily into the one crazy conceit instead of actual characters. Game Night, however, smartly avoids failing on both levels, and actually creates an enjoyable, funny movie that also basically succeeds in its main general conceit as well. Game Night, honestly, surprised the hell out of me, and I quite liked it!
       So the plot, which is quite easily explainable in a short amount of words (because high concept!) is that married couple Max and Annie (Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams) are married and looove game night. Their friends all love game night, comprised of Ryan, Kevin, and Michelle (Billy Magnnussen, Lamorne Moriss, and Kylie Bunbury) and whoever Ryan happens to be dating this week (this week it's his less-Instagrammy-than normal coworker, the fantastic Sharon Horgan). Things go awry when Max's brother, Brooks (Kyle Chandler) comes into town and, as always, upstages his younger brother with the promise of a more exciting, thrilling game night, complete with a kidnapping mystery. But then, because of Brooks' secret criminal life, he really is kidnapped! Cue insanity! Cue hilarity!
       It would be easy for a movie with this plot to become very tiresome very quickly, but a large reason it doesn't is because the entire cast is funny and they're game. They definitely commit, and even the less sketched out characters (namely the middle school sweethearts arguing about a short lapse in their relationship, Kevin and Michelle), are still charming enough to watch, even if their story-line is pretty thin. Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman are pretty great as the main couple of the movie. Their relationship is sweet but believable, and they clearly support each other but aren't perfect. Yes, of course, he's ten years older than her in real life and sure that bothers me a little if I stop to think about it for too long, but they work and they play off each other well. The whole cast does. Everyone is funny, even if they end up a bit inconsequential.
       So yes, the comedy movie is funny. That is most of the battle, but if you're going to go high concept, you have to commit to the concept as well. And for this movie, the directors don't make it easy on themselves. Basically, the entire plot of the movie plays out like it's a mystery thriller, complete with David Fincher-esque title cards (that also cleverly look like game pieces, furthering the motif of the movie) and a Trent Reznor like score that actually make for convincing thrills. Usually when comedies blend genres, especially when it comes to action-comedies, which this movie essentially is, no matter how good the comedy is the action usually feels pretty shoe-horned, mostly because that's the world the filmmakers created and they have to stick to it (I love 21 Jump street, more than Game Night, even, but the action scenes of that movie don't amount to much for me). Game Night doesn't quite feel that way, partially because of the flow of information the characters get, partially because the cast is very funny, and partially because the action/thrilling set pieces are done really well.
       There's a particular scene where the entire group has to play hot potato with a fabrigee across an entire mansion that Daly and Goldstein created into one long shot. It twists and turns and keeps the audience on bated breath. It was fun, exciting, worked comedy into the actions, but also added up because of what we'd already learned from each character. It was a really awesome scene that had a technical proficiency most comedies don't really reach for.
       For me, the two standouts in the movie were the Magnussen/Horgan coupling, and Jesse Plemons. Magnussen (who is fantastic in everything I've seen him in, especially Ingrid Goes West) plays stupid without going annoying or too broad. And Sharon Horgan (Pulling, swoon, Catastrophe, SWOON), is reliably fantastic. He's young and gorgeous and she's slightly older (and gorgeous), and even though there's very little screentime dedicated to it, his asking her to the game night even though he wasn't initially attracted to her is endearing and leads to some nice character moments between the two of them. And ugh, Jesse Plemons. He's killing it you, guys. Between Fargo season 2, Black Mirror, and Bridge of Spies, he's one of Hollywood's best character actors today. He plays Gary, the creepy as fuck cop who was outed from game night after he got divorced from his still very beloved wife. Every scene with him is hilarious, creepy, and so slowly paced I bet the movie gained five minutes screen-time from his line reads alone.
       Yes, a few characters definitely get sidelined. Yes, the plot gets slightly too twisty-turny towards the end, but the movie has a strong basis of good character writing and just general good writing to keep its momentum throughout. It's also a very 2018 kind of movie. It feel fresh and relevant without pandering, and it's very referential without being annoying ("Well that's some real cute full-circle bullshit," a character explains during the climax). It's a smart, funny movie that knows it needs to be a smart, funny movie. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I was going to. However, some of that might be because of how often I saw the goddamn trailer (at least 20 times). This Moviepass, man, it's a blessing and a curse.

Score: Pass Go. Collect 200$. Do Not Go to Jail (GET IT? IT'S A GAME REFERENCE) *Fart noise?*

Friday 23 February 2018

Review: Annihilation

Annihilation (2018) - Alex Garland

       This is only Alex Garland's second directorial feature, but I feel he's already developed strong visual technique and, more importantly, a densely complicated narrative style. His movies are not exactly easy to parse through, and there are entire scenes that after they've finished you're left thinking, "Well what the hell am I supposed to do with that?" I can certainly see how that might turn some people off, but when it's done as thoughtfully as Alex Garland does it, with such a slow, intense build, by the time we get to the climax, even if I'm narratively unsure what's going to happen, I'm already transfixed, glued to the goddamn screen just hoping that Skeleton Bear doesn't come back to scare the hell out of me. Or maybe I did want it to come back. I don't know, everyone! This movie legitimately crazy as fuck.
       Garland's last movie, Ex Machina (which is fantastic go see it if you haven't and watch it again if you have), is a small, claustrophobic little movie about isolation. In Annihilation, Garland widens his scope, instead looking at an entire new kind of world, some kind of extraterrestrial/other-dimension/dreamscape/nightmare creation. But what keeps the movie so thrilling throughout is even with this bigger, more complex world, Garland keeps the movie and the action still feeling small, still claustrophobic, the movie focusing on only a single recon team of only five women. The plot is straightforward enough: After the mysterious disappearance and assumed death of her Army husband, John Hodgkin Biologist and former Army Scientist Lena (Natalie Portman) grieves. But after the even more mysterious return of her husband, Kane, (Oscar Isaac, acting all stoney-eyed and weird), she is, without choice, taken to Area X, that contains The Shimmer (Sci-fi movies are the best because sentences like that last one, which are objectively ridiculous, make perfect sense!). The Shimmer is an ever growing area of strange, refracting light that started when a meteorite from the unknown crashed into a Lighthouse three years ago. Dozens of teams and drones have been sent in, but nothing has come back until Kane.
       The movie really gets going once the team, led by Dr. Ventress (Holly Hunter) and including a physicist (Tessa Thompson), a geologist (Tuva Novotny), and a paramedic (Gina Rodriguez, who throughout the whole movie I never realized was Jane the Virgin (!)), enter the Shimmer to try and find the lighthouse and hopefully discover what is giving the Shimmer its power. A great deal of why the movie works so well is because of incredible visual style inside this new world. Nothing there exists in the realm of normal nature, and the results are breathlessly beautiful but also terrifying. Everything looks and feels strange inside, including time. The entire movie does a really good job of being viscerally disorienting, from time jumps to shots obfuscated by shimmering light or stained glass. The structure of the narrative is even jarring at times, skipping back and forth from the mission, flashbacks of Lena and Kane's marriage (which, wouldn't ya know, might not be so perfect?!), and a present day interrogation after Lena has apparently also left The Shimmer intact (possibly?). It simultaneously gives us information but also confuses other things we thought we knew.
       Before they go in, Jane the Virgin tells Lena that there were two theories as to why no one came back: Either something in there killed them, or they went crazy and killed each other. As one would guess going into a sci-fi action film such as this, there's a good chance it's both of those things. And that's where the bulk of the second act exists. It's slightly straightforward as far as these type stories happen (scary monsters, people going bonkers under the duress), but like I said before, it all works because of the movie's beautiful design and barely creeping speed, almost too slow for how insane the world around them has become. Even the mental deterioration of our characters is slight and happens slowly (until it doesn't). I think a lot of what will decide people's opinions of this movie is how you react to such a slow build of of intense dread. I can see some people finding it tedious at times, but not me. I loooove me a slow, creepy build up that only incrementally leads to a terrifying mind-fuck of a conclusion. It's basically how all my intimate relationships have gone.
       The performances are quiet but solid. Holly Hunter line reads like she just drank some Dramamine, but it works for the whole disorienting, just-not-quite reality the world creates. There are, however, some moments of clunky dialogue, giving exposition that wasn't really ever necessary. Something along the lines of, "Did she try to kill herself?" "Maybe, or maybe she was actually just trying to feel alive." Faaart noise. And the relationship between Portman and Isaac almost starts to get interesting but it gets a bit sidelined by the third act at the Lighthouse, where things go from very crazy to incredibly very crazy.
       But these are small complaints in another wise visionary sci-fi thriller that creates such mood and atmosphere, both visually and narratively. This movie has amazing, slow-burning dread, splashed with moments of intense terror, violence, and even occasionally emotional resonance. The climax is challenging and strange, and I still haven't made total sense of it. It's been almost 3 hours since the movie let out, and I'm not much closer to making heads or tails of it. And I like that. I like challenging movies. I like seeing things I haven't seen before. And Annihilation does all of those things.

Grade: 8 out or 10 Terrifying Skull Bears

Saturday 17 February 2018

Review: Black Panther

Black Panther (2018) - Ryan Coogler

       The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a behemoth of pop culture, film-making, marketing, and cross-over capitalism the likes of which Hollywood has never seen before. Eighteen movies in, it's honestly incredible that the products they're putting out are of the quality that they are, and Black Panther is no exception. It's a smartly made, well-acted, and successful film that sure, feels similar in story beats and protagonist woes to many of the other MCU pictures, but still accomplishes the particular emotional beats in a way that made me feel happy when I was watching it. In fact, regardless of the fact that it IS the 18th movie in this series, and it does have a lot of the exact same themes and plot points as other (possibly better, don't get mad at me *coughs* Thor 3 *coughs*) Marvel movies, it is one of the most disconnected movies from the entire movies catalog, and that's what makes it so good.
       For the most part I really enjoyed Black Panther. It was quick, fun, had some pretty great characters, and of course added diversity in both race and gender to the film's line-up, something everyone has known was lacking from the MCU since day one. Yes, T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) is the King and the main protagonist, but the rest of the movie is littered with badass women who show just as much (if not more) agency and ingenuity than the titular hero. It creates a fascinating world that I am only left wanting more of. Wakanda, the fictional African nation already introduced in Captain America 11, was blessed by (cursed? Eh? Eeeeh? Provocative?) an asteroid of Unobtanium--sorry--Vibranium (which let's face it, is the same thing) that blessed the nation with amazing technology, medicine, and most importantly, a way to shield its power from the outside world via some pretty cool Harry Potter magic. But since then, thousands of years ago, they have kept their technology a secret, other than Cap's shield, which is also made of Vibranium (It's the strongest metal in the world, you see). And here begins the plot of Black Panther.
       As we've already seen in Captain America 112, Wakanda's King, T'Chaka, has died, and his son, Chadwick, is about to take over. The movie is a mostly self-contained Wakandan adventure, spare a daliance or two in South Korea, and this works to the movie's benefit. The entire first act of the movie deals with Wakanda, its rules and ceremony, and how the people live together yet somewhat separately. I really can't stress enough how much I enjoyed the culture and world development of the nation, because it is truly the most important idea of the movie, more than T'Challa, more than his purple flower that makes him a hero. Director/screenwriter Ryan Coogler does a clever job to make sure the real hero isn't just T'Challa, but rather his whole nation and the people who make it a beautiful place to live.
       I want to take a moment to say that this movie is beautiful in a way most Marvel movies aren't. I think the most otherworldly Marvel movie are usually their best, a la GOTG or T3or, but Wakanda offers just enough otherness tethered to reality to really make an intriguing visual style that made me appreciate what I was seeing, even when the third act devolved to punchy-punch.
       I don't have a TON of criticism for this very enjoyable and well-made movie, but it absolutely suffers from a third act fart-fest, albeit in different ways than most Marvel movies do. The villain, who is played by Michael B. Jordan (Who I love so much) starts out as a blank slate of Stringer Bell coolness, (MILD SPOILERS, but it's a Marvel movie, so there's really not that much to spoil. We've already seen the trailers for Infinity War and have seen the entire cast from this movie in it) and is given a pretty solid backstory with an all-star father (Sterling K. Brown) to round out his emotional hardships, and yet, the movie still takes all his ideas and all his motives and all his history and condenses them into a paragraph, something for Bilbo to spout off quickly about how evil he is.
       Welp. Nah, bro. He somehow has a legitimate claim to the throne (which, for how advanced a race they are, they sure do resort to fighting to the death too often for how to decide a king. Seems kind of dumb. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's still 100% better than the Electoral College, but holy shit, this whole conflict could have easily avoided with at least one or two laws written down), and earns it legitimately. He is the forgotten member of a royal family with something to prove, and it's relatable. Not just because MBJ kicks so much ass, but because we've all felt passed over. But then once he gets what he wants he becomes almost exactly the same as the people he hates. He's all stabby-stabby shooty-shooty. It immediately loses its charm and becomes another punchy-punchy festival. It just could have been more nuanced. There is also a lot of simultaneous and very quick side switching and backstabbing, which seems slightly rushed and unbelievable, especially considering how great this nation is supposed to be.
       But hey, I ain't here to say the movie doesn't work, cause it does. It's a really well-made Marvel movie that should have happened a while ago. And one of the best things about this Marvel movie in particular is that there are absolutely no other Marvel heroes in it! No Captain America at the beginning, no Vision popping up in a video chat halfway through to remind us all that it's a Marvel movie, and that made me so happy. Did anybody else here love Spiderman: Homecoming but get immedaitely kind of tired when RDJ or John Favreau had to pop up and be funny? This movie actually felt like a contained story with a gorgeous world that only made me want to see more of it. Part of me is almost irritated that the MCU can keep sending out good movie after good movie, but I guess that's only because I am a terrible, petty man. Oh well! Enjoy the movie!
Movie Grade: 7 out of 10 Awesome Technology Genius Sisters (Letita Wright! She was in Black Mirror! Isn't that fun! She was possibly the best part of the whole movie!

Also I didn't write this joke, BUT: The only two main white Actors in the movie are Andy Serkis (who played Gollum) and Martin Freeman (who played young Bilbo). Soooo, I guess you could say they're the Tolkien white characters?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!