Dear readers: I have been on a streaming binge for months. Not only did I blast through all of Fargo (3 seasons), Shrill season 2, the final season of Bojack Horseman, and a bunch of Broad City, I caught up on a number of films languishing in my Netflix/Hulu/Prime queues. I guess that's winter for you. Nothing to do but lie on the couch and wait for the sweet release of death (or at least the pizza delivery guy). I also saw the Harley Quinn movie!
So, for the sake of time, here are some quick reviews of every movie I've watched since my last blog entry:
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Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
So the best thing about watching this movie is that I know nothing of the DC multiverse or whatever the fuck, so I can come to this movie without all the baggage of "well, this character wouldn't ACTUALLY do this" and such hogwash. All I know is that Birds of Prey was a fun movie with badass babes kicking (male) ass. Margot Robbie's Quinn is like cotton candy with teeth: she's cute, "accidentally" violent, kind of terrible for you but also strangely alluring.
Birds of Prey is just plain fun. I saw it with a couple gal pals and we loved watching Harley Quinn sic her hyena, Bruce, on a rapist. It's that kind of movie. Similar to Deadpool in its irreverence. It's not going to win any Oscars, but it's just a fun chicks kicking ass movie that doesn't overly sexualize said chicks.
Grade: B
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The Poughkeepsie Tapes
The Poughkeepsie Tapes is a faux documentary/food footage horror films streaming on Amazon Prime. I don't recommend it to anyone but EXTREME horror aficionados. As a violent horror film, it works. It is TERRIFYING. There are scenes with imagery that will haunt me for life. I'd even go so far as to call it a good, quality movie. But it is sick and extreme. The story is about a serial killer who kidnaps a woman, Cheryl Dempsey. Years later, the killer's video tapes are discovered (as is Cheryl, alive, but a shell of a woman). The videos show the work of a twisted sadist who takes pleasure in scaring people, hurting them, and killing them. Depending on your perspective, The Poughkeepsie Tapes is an extremely well-made faux documentary or an exploitative piece of trash. I feel comfortable to sit with the fact that I "enjoyed" the film as a horror lover (it scared the hell out of me) and also felt grossed out by it as a feminist. Unless you have a stomach, mind, and heart of steel, just sit this one out.
Grade: B+
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Train to Busan
Ok, now here is a slightly more palatable horror movie. This Korean zombie film takes place mostly on a commuter train during an outbreak of a strange illness which turns people into, well, zombies. Businessman Seok-woo is tasked with taking his young daughter, Su-an, to visit her mom (his and Su-an's mother are divorced). Seok-woo is a classic business dad whose priorities are all fucked up: he puts work above family. Well, that's all going to change with a horde of motherfucking zombies trying to kill him and his baby girl. Hah!
Train to Busan was...ok. Not nearly as scary as some zombie movies I've seen. It also felt a bit melodramatic in parts--scenes with soaring music and lengthy camera takes that zoom in on someone's sad face, that sort of thing. I think that might be a convention of Korean films, though. Still, it was tonally a bit off. Overall, meh!
Grade: B-
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Marriage Story
The strength of Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story lies in its actors. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson play Charlie and Nicole Barber, a previously happy couple who realize they can't make it work and decide to divorce "amicably". Hah. Marriage Story reveals the dirty truth of divorce: that even with the best of intentions, when you factor in living arrangements, money, and children, separation often ends up nastier than couples intend. When Charlie and Nicole decide to separate they want to make it easy and straightforward. But after Nicole moves from New York to LA with their son, Henry, and starts working with a fierce (and fiercely competent) divorce lawyer (Laura Dern, a revelation) things start to go off the rails. An easy, gentle separation is no longer in the cards, especially since Charlie stubbornly insists that the Barbers are a "New York family" despite his wife and kid moving to LA.
There are no heroes or villains in Marriage Story, although your personal opinions on gender roles might factor into how you view the characters and storyline. Is Nicole a conniving shrew for taking her kid, moving to LA, and choosing a ruthless divorce lawyer? Is Charlie a narcissistic ass who never understood his wife's needs and now insists *he* is the one who has been wronged? Maybe it doesn't matter. Both parties are hurting. Both parties have fucked up and have been fucked over.
The lesson of Marriage Story is to 1) know what you want and 2) be honest with your partner early and often about what you want. If you don't know what you want or how to express it to someone else, you have no business joining your life with someone--let alone having children.
Grade: B+
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Luce
I was genuinely confused about the moral of the film Luce. Directed by Julius Onah, Luce is about a high achieving high school student (the excellent Kelvin Harrison Jr.) who writes a paper for his history class that seems to promote the idea that violence is necessary for social revolution. Luce's teacher, Harriet Wilson (Octavia Spencer), contacts his (adoptive) mother Amy (Naomi Watts) and expresses her concerns. But since Luce is a straight-A student and role model, Amy refuses to take Harriet's concerns seriously. The twist here is that Luce was a child soldier in Eritrea before being adopted by Amy and Peter Edgar (Watts and Tim Roth). So the unspoken question is: was this boy unduly influenced by his violent childhood? Does he really believe violence is a solution to social ills?
It seems like a pretty straightforward moral conundrum until you find out about how his teacher, presented as "the good guy", has a history of ratting out black students for infractions such as smoking pot and getting them into enough trouble to possibly affect their chances of getting into college. Is Harriet Wilson the good, innocent teacher she initially appears to be or does she play favorites among her students of color to the point where those she doesn't favor suffer unduly?
I was confused at what Luce wanted me to feel. And maybe that's the point. The audience is set up to mistrust Luce, but by the end, I thought Harriet Wilson was the least trustworthy person in the movie.
I found Luce to be boring and underwhelming. I think it had much more potential to explore racial issues and the idea of being a "model minority" and how people from within a racial group can encourage inherently racist stereotypes. For me, it didn't live up to that potential.
Grade: C
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Hell or High Water
Directed by Taylor Sheridan, Hell or High Water is a modern-day Western with an anti-capitalism message. Brothers Toby and Tanner Howard (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) are about to lose their ranch to a bank that provided them a reverse mortgage. They decide to rob the very bank they owe in order to pay off the debt before the bank forecloses on them. Unfortunately, what the more even-keeled Toby sees as a swift, harmless crime (they will rob the banks right when they open and are empty except for a few employees, and no one needs to get hurt), ex-convict Tanner sees as an excuse to go totally aggro and menace some terrified bank tellers. Tanner also doesn't want to stop at robbing Texas Midlands branches and rob a few additional banks just for funsies. Soon, Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges, being verrrrry un-Dude in this role) and Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham), a pair of bickering Texas Rangers, are on the Tanner brothers' tail.
Hell or High Water is a fun movie. Well, as fun as a movie with some needless, violent deaths can be. It has a "stick it to the Man" message, although the Howard brothers are hardly Robin Hood types. They're stealing from the hated banks to give to themselves in order to provide for their families (well, at least good brother Toby is), but really no one is a hero here.
I can't say I'll rewatch Hell or High Water. It's a bit forgettable. But it does have an excellent performance by Jeff Bridges doing what he does best: being cooler than anyone else in the movie.
Grade: B
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Bone Tomahawk
Speaking of Jeff Bridges, do you know who looks a lot like Jeff Bridges? Kurt Russell. Bone Tomahawk is a Western-horror-comedy that takes place in the 1890s in a small town called Bright Hope. After a drifter (David Arquette), a lady doctor (Lili Simmons), and a deputy (Evan Jonigkeit) are kidnapped by some (ok, bear with me here) "savages", Sheriff Franklin Hunt (Russell) gathers a small party to find them. Among the party is the doctor's husband who is suffering from a broken leg (Patrick Wilson), the bumbling and intellectual backup deputy (Richard Jenkins), and a local man who is a talented shot but very aggressive and arrogant (Matthew Fox).
I was very torn on Bone Tomahawk. It's a good movie--it's scary, funny, compelling, and even though it's a 2 hours plus film, it never feels slow for a minute. The banter between the characters is some of the best I've heard in a movie. However, the Big Bad is a group of Native Americans, which is...not cool. Granted, these Natives are not based on any real historical tribes in the United States and are portrayed as nearly supernatural in their violence and ability to capture and take down their victims. But given the gruesome way white people treated Native Americans, well, since we arrived on America's shore, it feels gross and disrespectful to even make up a fake tribe like the one in Bone Tomahawk.
I can't say I didn't enjoy the film--I did very much. But I only recommend watching it if 1) you can handle the image of a man literally being torn in two and 2) you understand and can come to terms with the fact that this film, though fictional, is not respectful of Native Americans and their history. As for the grade, I'd give it an A for the entertaining dialogue, but a C- for the racism, resulting in:
Grade: B-
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