Some More 2018

I’m still trying to get more 2018 flicks through my eyeballs and ear holes, especially now that they’re all becoming available at home, but it’s been slow-going.  In the meantime…

Hotel Artemis: So, here’s the deal with Hotel Artemis– its visual storytelling is really great.  It adeptly sets up its near-future world in a violence-torn Los Angeles where criminals can pay to join exclusive secret clubs that discreetly cater to their emergency medical needs through the use of advanced medicine and future-modern triage technology.  The cinematography, sets, costumes, sound design, editing, etc., all converge to give you a real feel for this place and the high stakes involved in keeping things running as smoothly as possible.

But then people start opening their mouths and half of what they talk about is everything we already know thanks to all the aforementioned filmmaking departments.  And that is seriously frustrating.  This isn’t the kind of movie that needs its dialogue to be tweaked for the cheap seats.  IT’S ALL RIGHT THERE ON THE SCREEN.

Anyway, it’s an impressive cast- Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, Sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum, Charlie Day, Jenny Slate, Bautista, Zach Quinto… and they all bring their A-Game (for better or for worse.  Jodie Foster is acting so hard I think it’s causing her pain.  I know it caused me pain a couple of times), even if what they were given was sometimes a waste of talent.  Example: Goldblum shows up in the third act, says something mean to his son (Quinto) that we’re supposed to feel something about, despite a lack of any previous interaction between the two, and spends the rest of his screen time semi-sedated.  Another example: Jenny Slate exists solely for the plot to clunkily flesh out Jodie Foster’s mysterious backstory, which was doing fine on its own thanks to that whole visual storytelling thing I mentioned above, then leaves the movie, having had absolutely no effect on the narrative.  Is she great?  Well, sure.  But is her character relevant?  Not in the least.

Again, frustrating.  I really wish the filmmakers had trusted that keeping it simple would have made it so much more complex.

Still, I wouldn’t say it’s a waste of your time.  Check it out- you’ll get a good movie… with a side of some real nitpicking.

Upgrade: Tom Hardy plays Eddie Brock- an oddly-accented guy with a sentient being attached to him that only he can hear.  The two struggle for control of Eddie’s body, and in moments of extreme stress, the sentient being has the ability to amplify Eddie’s strength and dexterity.  This symbiotic relationship ultimately proves beneficial in Grey’s quest to find the people who have wronged him…

…wait, wait… someone just called him “Grey” instead of “Eddie.”  That’s weird.  Did they change it from the comics?  Huh?  That’s not Tom Hardy?  He looks like Tom Hardy…  Oh. Wait.  This isn’t Venom?  Wait…

Hereditary: An awkward, freaky masterpiece about the ravages of grief.  A story that walks the thin line between family and cultism.  A flick that borrows unsettling themes, disorienting visuals, and slow-burn pacing from gothic horror classics like The Shining and Rosemary’s Baby to more contemporary works like The Witch and The Autopsy of Jane Doe.  With a definite Exorcist III presence thrown in there for good measure.  This movie makes you feel all kinds of wrong from the get-go, and by the end, every skewed angle and closeup will have you tensing up, ready to be frightened out of your mind.  But no, closing your eyes won’t help- the sound design is every bit as nerve-wracking as the camera work.

See this movie.  It’s a rarity- an honest-to-god scary horror flick with no masked boogeymen, shambling zombies, or pointy-toothed nuns in sight.  See it.

Incredibles 2: I didn’t love Incredibles 2.  Yes, it’s another great looking Pixar flick with some awesome action sequences, fun characters, and messages about family and responsibility, etc., etc., etc., but this one just felt like “oh, another Incredibles movie.”  Which is a thing that’s not supposed to happen until the third one or beyond, right?  I mean, literally every Pixar sequel to date has been met with a resounding, “why?” when initially announced, and then, in most cases, after seeing them, an, “oh, THAT’s why.”  Toy Story 2 & 3, Cars 2, Monsters University, Finding Dory… all films that ended up being pretty great.  For me, it was Cars 3 that first dipped its toe into the land of “should have been a straight-to-video title” (your, er… mileage on Cars 2 may vary, but in my book it’s a winner), and I think Incredibles 2 might just be there with it.

That’s not to say it’s as flatlined and vapid as Cars 3.  FAR from it.  But for a story with so much potential after fourteen years of fan anticipation, I was expecting a little more than generic parenting role-reversal and an obvious bait-and-switch whodunit plot centering around the discrediting and elimination of super-powered humans by a “wronged” person with an axe to grind.  Again.

Still, the aforementioned action sequences are worth your time… even if they remind you that what made the first movie so great is how, at the time, its action sequences were some of the best we had seen from any superhero flick.  But this is the age of Marvel, so Pixar really needed to one-up itself here.  Instead they went with more of a lateral move.  In this viewer’s eyes, anyway.

That Jack-Jack baby character, though?  Steals the movie.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout: It’s great.  But like its predecessor, I’m not as enamored of it as everyone else seems to be.  For me, the series peaked at the fourth entry.  That’s not to say these last two films have disappointed, just… there’s something about the gritty, boots-on-the-ground, right there in the nonstop action Christopher McQuarrie aesthetic that, for me, doesn’t work as well as the polished visual beauty of Brad Bird’s Ghost Protocol.  Or even the colorful, skewed angles and shifting foci of JJ Abrams’ seriously uncomfortable MI:III.  For me, especially with Fallout, I’m getting just a tad too much of a Paul Greengrass feel.  Which I guess is a weird thing to complain about, because there’s nothing wrong with Mr. Greengrass… and I’m really not sure how to qualify that statement, beyond mentioning that while watching the thing I kept thinking it felt more like a Bourne flick than a Mission: Impossible one.

I dunno.

I think another thing here is that I’m seeing how much hard work McQuarrie puts into his pacing and action sequences, which isn’t something I want to think about while I’m watching a movie.  And I want it to have more of a sense of fun.  I know a lot is said about Tom Cruise and his insistence on doing most of his own stunts in these flicks, and it IS seriously impressive that that’s a thing, but if you’re working that hard to impress me then you’re going to lose my attention from time to time while I’m considering it.

Ugh.  I’m making it sound like I didn’t like this movie.  But I did.  A lot.  And I can’t wait to see it again.  But I also can’t wait for someone else to step in and direct the next entry.  The best thing about this series is how they’ve made it feel like a big book in which each chapter is being read out loud by a different person, each with their own elocution, accent, and inflections.  And now it’s time for a new voice (and that voice should be… Danny Boyle?  Drew Goddard?  Neil Marshall?  Edgar Wright?  Joss Whedon?).

The Meg: No.  No, this was not good.  No, this was not “stupid fun.”  No, this was not impressive.  No, this was not well-acted.  No, this movie did not not suck.  No, this movie is not worth your time, so, no, you shouldn’t bother.

The Predator:

Venom: It’s 2018 and all bets are off.  Celebrities are cloning their dead pets, kids are eating laundry detergent, there’s a weather thing called a “bomb cyclone,” the US is being run by a reality TV star… and Sony has actually made a good movie about Venom.

Yeah, Tom Hardy’s voice is questionable.  Yeah, you can see (and hear) the studio’s 11th hour tinkering to make this thing more “for general consumption.”  Yeah, Venom as a character is still kind of dumb.  But none of that matters now because there exists, in our fragile world, a movie about a loser of a man who co-exists with a loser of a slimy alien that has a giant, drippy, prehensile tongue, eats the heads right off of bad guys, and calls people “pussies.”  And it’s pretty great.

Yeah, it’s technically Marvel, but I’m not sure if I’d go so far as to say this thing should try to ooze its way into the MCU proper.  But that’s actually not because of quality, it’s because this character feels so much better on the fringe.  Sort of like what the Netflix Marvel shows (RIP) did.  I mean, I guess having Spider-Man 3.0 show up briefly in Venom’s world wouldn’t be completely bad, but I’m much more down with the latter’s guy-in-the-shadows status.  Maybe Feige & Co. can throw them a bone and let them show, in the inevitable sequel (because, DAMN did it make a ton more bank than anyone expected), news footage of the Avengers on a screen in a store window, or something.  Let these two worlds co-exist, but keep their distance.  That feels right.

Uh… anyway, having said all that while at the same time saying almost nothing about the actual movie… uh… check it out? Yeah, check it out.  It’s pretty cool.

Also, since we’re back on the subject, I should mention that I also really dug Upgrade.  It was a blast.

Burn After Pulp Psycho Fiction Bad Times At The El Royale: Yeah, good stuff.  Very Tarantino.  Very Coen.  Very Hitchcock.  Maybe exceedingly so at times, but that’s OK.  The runtime is a bit much- there’s some scenes of dialogue that could have used a more shrewd eye in the editing room, but those scenes are still pretty engaging.  I guess the only real complaint I have is that although this is a film designed to subvert your expectations at every turn, and it is perfectly adept at doing just that, the most interesting and intriguing stuff (involving a secret hotel surveillance plot) unfolds in the first 40 minutes, or so, but then gets completely back-seated in favor of a hostage-style climax involving a hot 60s cult leader, his number one gal, and a bunch of guns.  But I guess that’s the Hitchcock taking over for the Coens before getting manhandled by the Tarantino.  A perfectly good trio of influences that, together, were maybe a little too big for the room.

But I digress.  Bad Times is well worth your time. The performances are all top-notch (Chris Hemsworth as Jim Morrison as Charles Manson walks the silly line, but I’ll allow it), the cinematography is outstanding, the music is awesome, and despite the fact that I did immediately notice its cinematic influences, I’d still say the story is pretty damned refreshingly original.

Halloween: “…very serviceable pseudo-nostalgic murder porn.”

WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?

The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs: Oh, the Coen Brothers want to tell me six short stories about the Old West?  Well, let me see if I can squeeze that in to my busy schYES, I THINK I HAVE TIME FOR THAT, THANK YOU.

Some thoughts:
-Tim Blake Nelson is a national treasure.
-Stephen Root is a hoot. And a national treasure.
-Liam Neeson is a(n Irish) national treasure and needs a lead role in a future Coen movie.
-The world could use a little more Tom Waits these days.  Because he’s a national treasure.
-I know nothing about Bill Heck or Zoe Kazan, but now I want a full-length Western love story starring them.  Because they’re both national treasures.
-Tyne Daly (national treasure) is kind of awesome, isn’t she?

You should watch this movie.  It’s on Netflix.  It’s a national treasure.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald: Focus, people.  You need to focus.  I’m talking to you, David Yates, JK Rowling, and anyone else over at WB in charge of these Potterverse flicks.  I dig this world.  Truly.  And these period piece prequels have an amazing sense of style, scope, and spirit, from the costume and set design to the cinematography to the acting.

But what the fuck happened with the actual storytelling?

For a good two-thirds of the runtime I was seeing many charming scenes, scary bits, interesting action… but I had no idea what this thing was about.  Yeah, there’s a creepy badguy guy trying to be a big bad badguy and a nebbish heroguy and a brave herogal trying to find and save a downandoutguy, with a normalguy tagging along as comicreliefguy looking for his ladylovegal… and stuff… but it wasn’t until somewhere in the third act that this movie finally got its shit together and remembered that just sewing a bunch of interesting scenes to each other doesn’t mean you’re MAKING ANY SENSE.  You’ve got to have a goddamn through line from minute one.  I mean, it’s OK to trust your viewers to fill in the cracks in the pavement, but your sidewalk has to be walkable in the first place.

Er… no, no I’m keeping that analogy, thanks.  Moving on…

Like I said, the movie found its footing, eventually.  Better late than never, I guess.  And despite the muted sense of bewilderment I felt when leaving the theater, I’m actually looking forward to the next installment in this series.  But if they don’t at least start the next one at the level of coherence that the last 30 minutes of Grindelwald mercifully settled into then I think I can safely abandon anything from the Cinematic Wizarding World that doesn’t come with the name Potter attached to it.

Uh… stay tuned?