#Movie #Review #Babylon is Plotless, Vulgar and Long

Director Damien Chazelle brings to the screen a three-hour and nine minute film depicting a pivotal and interesting time in movie history: the difficult transition from silent films to "talkies." 

The problem is that, despite a star studded cast, the film puts vulgar sensationalism above all else, including a complete lack of plot structure and emotional resonance. In what is clearly meant to be both a love letter and expose of 1920s Hollywood instead comes across as a vulgar, plotless jumble of scenes that don't fit together very well.

Brad Pitt is the fitional Jack Conrad, a wildly successful silent film actor whose career is in rapid decline. He takes a young Mexican man, Manny Torres, played well by Diego Calva, under his wing, and he moves quickly into the film industry, which is in its infancy in the early 1920s.

Conrad and Torres first meet at a wild, debauched Hollywood party in the mid 1920s. There, they both meet Nellie La Roy, played by Margot Robbie, who is a wanna-be actress who crashes the party and also quickly crashes into the movie industry. 

The party sets the tone for the film, featuring sexual debauchery and drug use. I always notice incongruities in period pieces, and the entire crowd at the party wiggling freestyle, like it's 2020, seemed completely out of place. Even the music seems like 1940s jazz, not music from the 1920s. Not once did a character dance the Charleston or the foxtrot. Instead Robbie's character performed over-sexualized dances that wouldn't be seen on dance floors for another 60 or 70 years. 

Later, when she miraculously is inserted into a movie set, she is told to dance, and does the same thing, causing one of the male actors in the scene to have an erection in full view of the director.

I had to stop myself at that point and think about the time period of the film, and she may be on more solid ground than I first realized, because this was before the Motion Picture Production code came into effect in 1934. 

Late 1920s films were quite a bit more sexualized and violent than later time periods, and the movie industry, fearing government regulation was on the way, implemented a voluntary code of conduct that govern the film industry into the late 1960s.

None of this, of course, is explained in this film, but it does touch on the terrible working conditions for extras, the rauchous parties (though it's hard to believe that what the director portrays here actually occurred) and the racism of early Hollywood faced by minorites. Though a Hispanic man, an Asian woman, and a black man seem to have easily entered the Hollywood system in this film. Perhaps too easily.

A good chunk of the film attempts to tell the story of the difficult transition from silent films to films with sound. Some actors, like Conrad and La Roy (whose thick New Jersey accent pegs her as "low class") don't make the transition. 

Jean Smart plays a savvy Hollywood gossip reporter who breaks the news to Conrad that his career is ending. Her soliloquy about Hollywood and the fact that those existing on film will live forever is one of the high points of the film. and succeeds in1 giving it some heart. 

But such high points have to compete with the raunchy humor of an elephant pooping on a man's head, Robbie's character barfing on a man's expensive rug, and a man being urinated on during the opening party scene. 

A scene in which Conrad and a colleague are ushed into an underground club of sorts by a gangster played by Tobey Maguire, features a would-be actor biting a rat in half could have been easily cut.

Because the director is trying to tell 10 stories at once, we hear about Sidney, a black jazz musician played by Jovan Adepo, whom Torres put in a movie of his own, but is quickly alienated by Hollywood when he, a somewhat light-skinned man, is told to put on black face in order to blend in with the other black musicians. This, like several other tales here, is only briefly mentioned as if they are SNL sketches.

Another character that flies into the film and quickly out again without much exposition is Lady Fay Zhu, played by Li Jun Li, a dialogue card designer for the silent films, who also checks the 2020s diversity box as a sultry lesbian caberet singer.

Chazelle wraps up this epically long film with a bizarre and oddly hurried ending that attempts to show the demise of the actors after Hollywood's transition to talkies. 

No spoilers here, but there are a few tragic ends in the film, just as there were tragedies in old Hollywood. 

The entirely predictable death of an actor, the death of a movie extra at the hands of another extra wielding actual weapons during a battle scene, an actor who overdoses at the opening party, and a sound technician on an early sound stage are all quickly touched on but aren't significant to the plot, because there basically is no plot here, to speak of.

The entire film could have been shortened by 45 minutes and still been understood, especially if the director had narrowed his focus to a single plot. Instead, he was so enamored with shocking his audience that he forgot to include one.

#Movie #Review #ViolentNight Is Cartoonishly Violent Fun

A few weeks ago now, I saw Violent Night, a rather cartoonishly violent Christmas themed movie by director Tommy Wirkola.

It tells the unlikely tale of an elite team of mercenaries who break into a family compound on Christmas Eve, taking the wealthy family hostage inside. However, they aren't prepared for a surprise visitor: Santa Claus is on the grounds, and he's about to whip out the naughty list on the bad guys.

• David Harbour plays a respectable and oddly believable Santa, who says he has been in the role of the jolly old elf apparently since the time of the Vikings, when he wielded a hammer, not a bag of toys. And he has a long memory when it comes to violence.
• Actor/comedian John Leguizamo portays Scrooge, the leader of a violent gang attacking a wealthy family on Christmas Eve. And he does it with credibility. This film really is violent,  but it's not nasty. 
• Beverly D'Angelo is well cast as Gertrude Lightstone, the family's matriarch, whom her children and grandchildren are desperate to impress, because they believe their inheritance relies on it. And it does. 

She is rude and mean to staff and family alike, and early on, we are not impressed with her attitude towards others. So when her basement vault is threatened by the invaders, who clearly have had an insider feeding them information, we are not sympathetic to her. Nor are we meant to have any sympathy for this wealthy family.

But her son's little girl, who believes in Santa, is very frightened by what's going on in the house on Christmas Eve, is a sympathetic character, and her hope that her two separated parents reunite as a couple after Christmas seems  delightfully naive, but offers a hopeful note. 

It should be mentioned, however that the "Violent" in "Violent Night" is not inaccurate, and this is not a film for little children, although clearly scenes battling the intruders were inspired by the '90s film Home Alone, and characters reference the film by name. The violence is all very over the top and cartoonish. But also some of it is quite graphic.

Once Santa and the little girl get together, they hatch a plan to attack the bad guys, who are confronted by Santa and are informed that they are, and have in the past, been on the "naughty list."

This leads to the interesting conclusion that the bad guys all come to believe that this is actually Santa Claus. But somehow, they don't turn over a new leaf with this epiphany.

This is overall and interesting little movie, but is not quite a replacement for It's A Wonderful Life. It's got violent, fantasy, and sweet elements,  not quite sure which kind of film this is,  but it all kind of works.

#Movie #Review #TriangleOfSadness

SOME SPOILERS

A film named "Triangle of Sadness" sounds like it would be a dreary affair, but it's often uproariously funny, thought provoking, and sometimes even gross and sickening. That's a lot for one movie, but director Ruben Ōstlund, delivers all of this in what's more like a three-act play, telling three distinct stories.

The first act consists of a couple, both runway models, Yaya, played by Charlbi Dean Kriek and Carl, played by Harris Dickinson, who are on a dinner date.  Kriek was a South African model who died before the film's release. She was 32. The cause of her death was not released. Dickinson is a 26-year-old English actor. 

I mention thier ages because neither one of them is "old" or even middle aged. And they are not wearing makeup in the film to make them look old.

But in a flashback, we see that Dickinson's character's career is in a downward spiral. He is told, foolishly, it seems, that he needs Botox in the space above his nose between his eyes, the supposed "triangle of sadness" because it's a bit wrinkly. 

While his career is already waning, her's is on the rise, and at dinner, there is an extended discussion over who will pick up the tab.The fact that her career is going well, and his is not, plays into the discussion, suggesting that she should probably pick up the tab. But, she reminds him that he promised he would pick up the tab "the next time" at a previous dinner date. 

If it sounds tedious, the director does not makes it quite engaging. One critic even suggested that the entire film should have been focused on their relationship. And, while both of them are featured in all three acts of the film, it moves along to other topics.

The next act consists of a cruise on a multi-million dollar yacht, populated by multi-millionaires, investors, and the two models we met in the first act. Yaya wanted to go on the cruise to pose as an influencer on social media, and build her credibility as one. He apparently went along as arm candy and to snap photos.

The interactions between the yacht's upper deck crew and the passengers are both interesting and thought-provoking. The director is clearly making a statement about wealth, power, and the service class. We do get glimpses of the lower deck crew, who are never allowed on upper decks and likely do not get a cut of the huge tips that the upper deck crew gets from passengers.

Some of the wealthy are portrayed positively, such as when a passenger insists that a crew member take a dip with her in the pool as her equal. When the egalitarian captain of the vessel (a Marxist, we learn later, played by a scruffy Woody Harrelson) hears of the passenger's request, he makes it mandatory that all upper deck crew members take the day off and jump in the pool.

The Captain's decision to hold the big dinner of the cruise the same day a huge storm is known to be headed their way proves to be a bad one when passengers are thrown to and fro on the boat, and become sick on the slimy dishes that are on the menu that evening. The scenes of passengers getting sick in the dining room, the hallways, and on the toilet, are both disgusting and humorous. Mostly disgusting, though.

The storm seems to bring out the inner Marxist of the drunk Captain, who, along with a former East European passenger who has since become a strong capitalist, take to the intercom system of the now sinking ship to have a hilarious debate about Marxism and read quotes from Marx and leading Capitalists.

The storm results in the ship being destroyed with only a few survivors reaching shore on an apparently deserted island, where the third and final act "The Island," takes place. The handful of survivors find their leader in the head of the janitorial staff on the yacht, a strong middle-aged woman, Abigail, played by Filipina actress Dolly de Leon. 

Abigail became the undisputed leader of the group because, she argues, she alone can hunt, fish, and start the fires needed to cook fish and other wildlife she catches, although Carl and a German millionaire passenger kill a wild donkey later on. Carl and Yaya have both survived, and Carl quickly takes Abigail as as an unlikely lover, joining her in the evenings in a large lifeboat that resembles a dumpster.

When Abigail goes on a walk across the island in search of water and other supplies, she finds something that ends the film. She takes Yaya with her, at the latter's insistence, and she plots to kill Yaya and take her out of contention, because she seems jealous of the relationship that Abigail and Carl have developed on the island.

The ending is ambiguous and is bound to be controversial, but what they find on the other side of the island is truly interesting, and changes their predicament, entirely.

Triangle of Sadness had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival on May 5, where it received an eight-minute standing ovation and won the prestigious Palme d'Or "Gold Palm."

#Movie #Review: #Elvis

Elvis (2022) stars Austin Butler in the leading role of Presley, Oscar winner Tom Hanks as his mysterious, scheming manager, Colonel Tom Parker, and Australian actress Olivia DeJonge as wife Priscilla Presley. 

The film follows his rise to fame in the mid 1950s to his tragic end in 1977, but largely focuses on the tense and often explosive and complicated relationship between the king of rock 'n roll and his manager.

Told ostensibly from Parker's point of view in old age, the film by director Baz Luhrmann paints Parker as the villain, following the narrative of several books written about him since his death in 1997, exposing his financial abuse of the rock star - sadly, only the first of many such stories in the entertainment  industry.

The film makes quick work of the childhood of Elvis, shorthanding his twin influences of black jazz and religion by showing the boy eavesdropping on a carnival tent and then running to a Pentecostal religious revival tent, all on the same day on the same fairgrounds.

He's shown in later scenes as an adult hanging with well-known jazz musicians, including B.B.King, a major influence on his music.

Parker is portrayed as a carnival dweller who hears of Elvis's singing talents before he even knows he is a white singer, and not an African-American as he sounded to many.  Parker is shown witnessing the hypnotic effect Elvis had on women in his audience, even very early on in his performing career.

Which makes it curious that he would later demand that Elvis stop wiggling his hips during performances, ostensibly under blackmail from those who knew his sordid past (he had illegally emigrated to the United States from the Netherlands at the age of 20.) Hanks affects a Dutch accent throughout the film, in an Oscar-worthy performance by the veteran actor, who should get a best supporting actor nomination.

The entire "New Elvis" portion of the film is the least plausible. It seems to me that a promoter like Parker would surely understand what was causing the women to scream and shout and not try to squelch that magic, despite the real societal objections to the entertainer's hip gyrations, objections that were certainly historical.

The costumes and sets are lavish here, and costumes by Prada for both Elvis and Priscilla Presley add to the colorful atmosphere of the mid- '50s through the 1970s, including his somewhat tasteless and brash Vegas years.

Those Vegas years are among the most heart-wrenching of the entire film, because it's painfully aware to viewers where his career and life are headed. It is here where Parker looks the worst, selling out Elvis for unlimited poker chips to a casino.

The director's use of a few minutes of actual footage of Elvis at the end of his career and a historical verbal tribute from Pres. Jimmy Carter upon the star's death were moving, unexpected, and unique in film history.

Both Butler (who had a minor role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Hanks both deserve Oscars for their performances, with Butler channeling the King's accent and mannerisms and even recreating Elvis's songs beautifully and Hanks performing his role as the shady Parker in a "fat suit" throughout the film (Butler only showing prosthetic-induced weight gain for a scene portraying the superstar's last performance in Vegas, just before his death.)

This film is well worth seeing in theaters, where the full impact of the music and costumes can be felt.

#Movie Review: Doctor Strange and The Multiverse of Madness Is A Horror Film!

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Benedict Cumberbatch returns as Dr. Stephen Strange in Marvel’s “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness,’ the long-awaited sequel to 2016’s “Dr. Strange.”

Strange is visited by a young woman, America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) and a version of himself, both from another universe, being chased by a demon. Strange’s double dies, but the young woman tells him there is chaos in the multiverse and she is being hunted.

He is not entirely surprised by this, because he has seen her in his dreams, and he (and Marvel audiences) knew of the Multiverse concept from the previous Spider-Man film, in which Strange tampered with time and space to make everyone forget Spider-Man’s identity, thus unleashing the chaos.

America can travel in the Multiverse (with limited control, however) which makes for a great plot device, but it’s not used as much as it could be, with them only travelling to one major alternate universe – one in which Strange has died. Much more could have been done and more fun could have been had with the concept. This is shown by the alternate Earth’s crosswalk lights and alternatives to the Avengers (there called “The Illuminati”) – including a surprise member or two from other franchises.

Instead of more of these fun surprises, though, things turn dark as they both battle Wanda Maximoff, who has become The Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen, reprising the role from Wandavision) whom Strange hoped would team up with them. 

She declined, because she has her own reasons to travel into the multiverse and tamper with it. While her reasons are pure, her use of dark magic is ultimately destructive.

Before they go into the other universe, the two have to battle an interdimensional octopus, a demon who is out to get America. An unintentionally funny part of this fight scene is the unnamed Extra shown running past Strange with a briefcase. Due to an editing error, he runs past Strange six or seven times, each time looking back at the monster as papers fall out of his briefcase. 

Benedict Wong plays Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme in our universe, whose character plays a pivotal role in the fight later in the film, and Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Karl Mordo, the Sorcerer Supreme in the alternate universe, who may or may not be an ally.

As the plot unfolds, Strange finds a way to confront Maximoff in another alternate universe but does so in a rather gruesome way that has... consequences. 

The film has some serious horror elements at times and this may be far too scary for young children.

While there are some missed opportunities here to explore the multiverse in a fun and more complete way (last year's Spider-Man: No Way Home explored the concept better, as did 2018's animated Into The Spiderverse) I'm sure the concept will be explored in future Marvel films, and this is definitely a watchable installment of the MCU. But be warned of its intense horror elements, which will turn off some viewers and is likely too intense for the youngest Marvel fans.

Note that there are two post credit scenes, one at the extreme end of all the credits that is quite funny but not a preview of coming attractions.

#Movie #Review "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once"

The filmmaking duo Daniel "Dan" Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as "Daniels,” have brought a unique film to the screen, “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.”

To use the words “unique” and film in the same sentence these days seems almost impossible, since Hollywood loves to imitate rather than innovate. 

But this is no derivative sequel, it’s utterly unique and different. 

The elements it brings together, however, aren’t. In the same month that Marvel brought “Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness” to the screens, and previously a cartoon version of Spider-Man, the concept of a multiverse has had some high-profile exposure to the public. 

The concept here shares some elements with those other films. Through an unknown force,  people are able to travel to other universes, created by choices they made in the past. Each path, every choice, creates a new universe. In this film, the lead character, Evelyn Wang (played by Michelle Yeoh) must rise to the challenge and defeat a super being (inhabiting her daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu) who has a secret that those in another universe fear. 

That other universe contacts Evelyn, who with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan - who played "Short Round" in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom") owns a laundromat, and is in trouble with the IRS. They contact her through a psychic link with her husband, who informs her that she can contact other universes to acquire skills (like martial arts) that will help her in her fight. 

The cast is rounded out by 93-year-old James Hong as Gong Gong, Evelyn’s father, who famously played Hannibal Chew, the eyeball-creating geneticist in Blade Runner and voiced Chi-Fu in "Mulan," and a stunning performance by Jamie Lee Curtis as Deirdre Beaubeirdra, the long-suffering IRS agent who transform into a vicious kung fu fighter - after hilarious interactions with Evelyn as she audits her messy laundry business records.

Despite its sci-fi elements, the film has some strong fantasy sequences, especially when the secret that Joy is working on is revealed. It’s very reminiscent of “Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy” in many respects, and if you enjoy absurdist humor (Joy’s bagel, the "talking rocks" universe, the multiple uses of Deirdre’s awards, and “Raccaccoonie”) you’ll love those parts of the film.

But it also strives to be more profound than all this. Hoping to transcend it’s sillier elements, it seeks, in the end, to make a serious statement about life and relationships.

I’m not sure its succeeds in that but it’s a very fun ride to take, and the effects in this admittedly low budget film (compared to Marvel’s films, anyway) are well done, and some are “practical effects,” done without green screens or computers, with only a handful of people.

The film clearly wants to be an international sensation. Parts of the early scenes are in Chinese, with English subtitles. Clearly, the Nearly all-Asian cast will play well in China – a significant market for films today – but some elements, like Joy’s girlfriend Becky, the raunchy sexual humor, and the history of Evelyn’s father rejecting her, in part because she’s female, will go against the grain of traditional Chinese values. 

Still, this is well worth seeing in the theaters. 

Madeleine Albright Never Paid For Her War Crime

Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has died. She was 84 years old.

When, during the ill-fated 1999 Kosovo War, she threatened Serbia with a bombing campaign if they refused to sign a treaty which effectively gave up their sovereignty (which they eventually were forced to do) she broke international law, specifically, The 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.

"These are not conventional negotiations. The threat of NATO air strikes remains real." said Albright, on Feb. 14, 1999, to Serbs in Rambouillet, France during treaty negotiations.

However, The Convention on the Law of Treaties, (Article 51) reads:

"A treaty is void if its conclusion has been procured by the threat or use of force in violation of the principles of international law embodied in the Charter of the United Nations." 

And she surely knew this when she made that statement. Yet, she survived until her old age without facing a war crimes tribunal. Sad.

Incidentally, I documented all of this in real time back in 1999 as founder of the Kosovo Fact Project, which actively opposed the NATO intervention in the Balkans on behalf of the Albanian terror group KLA.