Hit Man
Richard Linklater's latest film is a frothy delight and is (mostly) based on a true story. Leading man Glen Powell plays Gary Johnson, a mild-mannered philosophy professor who teaches at the University of New Orleans by day and does some tech work for the New Orleans Police Department in his spare time. When undercover cop Jasper (a wonderfully slimy Austin Amelio) gets put on probation, Gary is offered the opportunity to portray a hit man as part of a sting operation. He does surprisingly well and becomes the NOPD's go-to undercover guy while Jasper is out.
Hit Man takes that stereotype of "nerdy girl who transforms into a beauty queen when you remove her glasses" and applies it to handsome Glen Powell. Powell genuinely seems like a nerdy, plain man in his college professor clothes and dorky haircut, but he transforms into a believably macho (and sexy) hit man when given a leather jacket and a different hairstyle. And when he dresses the part, he also acts the part: confident, mysterious, with a hint of danger.
While playing the role of "Ron", a killer for hire, Gary meets Madison (Adria Arjona), an abused and scared woman looking for someone to take out her violent asshole of a husband. Feeling empathy for Madison (and not wanting to get her arrested), Gary (as "Ron") refuses her money and tells her to use it to leave his husband instead. The NOPD is pissed at him, but Gary feels that Madison is an exception to the typical lowlifes who want to hire him.
Later on, Gary runs into Madison (who has left her husband) and the two begin a very sexy romance...the only problem is that Madison only knows Gary as Ron and he's afraid that if he reveals the truth, she'll leave him. So he keeps up the charade and also keeps Madison at a distance, explaining that she can't know about his dangerous life as a hit man. You can probably guess that hijinks ensue.
Hit Man is based on a long-form journalism article written by Skip Hollandsworth for Texas Monthly. This is the second time Linklater has brought a Skip Hollandsworth article to the silver screen: his film Bernie, starring Jack Black, is also based on an unbelievable true story. While not quite as intriguing as Bernie (one of my favorite movies), Hit Man has a similar vibe. It's a very positive story despite some dark content. As I said above, it's "frothy". It's a mix of neo-noir and romantic comedy and the chemistry between Powell and Arjona is palpable. Hit Man, which is streaming on Netflix, is well worth the watch.
Grade: B+
***
Fallout (TV series)
I watched Fallout without having played the video games the show is based on, but I was still able to follow the plot pretty easily. It was good, though not as good as The Last of Us, the *other* post-apocalyptic show based on a video game. And I know that the two shows are very different, but one can't help but compare. Fallout is funny and I love the retrofuturism of it all. I'm not going to go into the plot because, well, it's a lot. I'll say that my biggest gripe is that pacing felt a little off and a TON of stuff happened in the last 30 minutes of the final episode (setting it up for another season, which is fine, but it came off as rushed).
The acting is all-around great. Ella Purnell, best known for her role as Jackie in Yellowjackets, is wonderful as the naive, yet brave and good-hearted Lucy, who leaves the safety of the underground bunker in which she grew up to save her dad, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan, perfect in this role), after he is kidnapped by raiders. Ella teams up with Maximus (Aaron Moten, a talented up-and-coming actor), a squire of the Brotherhood of Steel, to deliver an important piece of technology to the woman who kidnapped her dad. Walton Goggins rounds out the main cast as The Ghoul...and he is just his most Goggins-y self as a...well, part-cowboy, part-zombie.
I probably didn't appreciate Fallout as much as the folks who have played the games, but I enjoyed it. It was entertaining with a delightful cast of characters and some really fun worldbuilding.
Grade: B+
***
The First Omen
I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed Arkasha Stevenson's horror prequel The First Omen. Cinema is currently saturated with sequels, prequels, and reboots of horror franchises, many of them downright awful. I had no plans to see this movie until I started hearing some good things about it and found it streaming on Hulu.
Starring Nell Tiger Free (best known for her role as Leanne in the TV series Servant) as Margaret, a novitiate nun soon to take her vows in Italy in 1971, The First Omen reveals how Damien from The Omen came to be. And it is a wild story. I won't go into plot spoilers, but Margaret, with the help of priest Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson, perfect in this role), discovers a conspiracy in the Catholic Church. They rush to uncover the truth before it is too late.
The First Omen is genuinely good and scary. I mean, it's not going to win any awards, but I was captivated by the story and really creeped out during a few particularly unnerving scenes. Nell Tiger Free is a true "scream queen"--quite literally in one scene where she absolutely lets those primal screams rip, a la Isabelle Adjani in Possession. The acting really elevates what could have been a trashy religious horror film. Well, The First Omen is still a bit trashy, but in a fun way. One can't help compare it to Immaculate, the *other* Catholic pregnancy horror film of 2024, and while both movies are fun, I think The First Omen squeaks out as the better film.
Grade: B+
***
Infested
This French horror film, about venomous spiders that take over an apartment building, is not for those with arachnophobia. I really don't like spiders and I was cringing, flinching, and scratching at my skin the whole movie.
Theo Christine stars as Kaleb, a guy who buys high end sneakers and other merchandise on the black market and resells it. He also likes exotic insects. He buys a spider from his merchandise guy and, of course, it escapes in his shitty apartment building, lays eggs, and absolute chaos ensues.
Director Sebastien Vanicek wanted to make a statement about how certain people (people of color, those who live in poverty) are considered "vermin" in France. In Infested, the residents of the apartment building are literally trapped inside by the cops and left to die so as to avoid infecting anyone else. Kaleb, his sister, and their friends must find a way to escape before the rapidly reproducing spiders (who also grow frighteningly huge) overtake the building completely.
Infested isn't that great of a movie, but it's pretty effective at giving you the heebie jeebies. With action sequences where people have to walk through a dark hallway covered in cobwebs and filled with spiders, anyone who has even a hint of spider-phobia is going to be uncomfortable. Watch at your own risk!
Grade: B
***
Shadow of the Vampire
Directed by E. Elias Merhige (same guy who directed the arthouse film Begotten, for all you horror film nerds), Shadow of the Vampire blends reality with fiction. It's about the filming of the 1922 silent film Nosferatu. John Malkovich plays eccentric and exacting director F.W. Murnau, who hires the mysterious Max Shreck (Willem Dafoe) to play the role of Count Orlock (the "Nosferatu" character). Murnau explains that Shreck will only appear in makeup and they will work around his schedule, mostly doing night shoots. The rest of the cast and crew are annoyed, but comply. And then weird things start happening on set.
Shadow of the Vampire asks: what if the guy who played "Nosferatu" actually was a vampire?! I love this whole concept and this movie is FUN. Malkovich and Dafoe are known for playing eccentrics and seeing them go toe-to-toe here is wild. If you like vampire movies, especially the non-sparkly type of vampires, check out this under seen and under appreciated gem of a film.
Grade: B+
***
Remembering Gene Wilder
This documentary about the life of Gene Wilder is fine, but if you've already read his autobiography, Kiss Me Like a Stranger, there is not much new information here. In fact, the narration for the film is Gene Wilder reading his autobiography. There are interviews with Mel Brooks, Richard Pryor's daughter, Rain, and Wilder's widow, Karen Boyer, which provide fun anecdotes about the actor and his most famous roles.
If you like Gene Wilder and haven't read his autobiography, this doc is worth checking out. Otherwise, skip it and watch something like the next movie on my list...
Grade: B-
***
Young Frankenstein
So, I got on a Gene Wilder kick a few months ago when I watched Blazing Saddles for the first time and since then I've read his autobiography and rewatched some of his most famous films, including Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and The Producers. It's been a really, really long time since I first watched Young Frankenstein, which Wilder co-wrote with Mel Brooks. It's hard to find the movie online but lo and behold the library I work at has a DVD copy!
I mean, what can you say? Young Frankenstein is a classic. It's one of my dad's favorite movies (it's probably one of YOUR dad's favorite movies too!) and he would often quote (and act out) the "walk this way" scene. It's hilarious, but it's also surprisingly sweet. It's a rare film that can have a genuinely touching moment where Dr. Frankenstein holds his creation and tells him that he is a beautiful child of God and just needs love and understanding...and also end the film on a dick joke.
The supporting cast is excellent: Marty Feldman as Igor, Teri Garr as Inga, Madeline Kahn as Elizabeth, Cloris Leachman as Frau Blucher (*horse whinny*), and Peter Boyle as the Monster. Hell, even Gene Hackman has a cameo. The whole cast just comes together in a beautiful way and makes for an unforgettable comedy. If you haven't seen this comedic masterpiece, get on it!
Grade: A-
***
Legends of the Fall
Directed by Ed Zwick, Legends of the Fall was my motherfucking jam when I was 12 years old. The film follows the three Ludlow brothers--youngest Samuel (Henry Thomas), middle Tristan (Brad Pitt) and eldest Alfred (Aiden Quinn)--and their virulently anti-government father, Col. William Ludlow (Anthony Hopkins) from the early years of the 20th century through the 1920s.
The three brothers all fall in love with one woman, Susannah Fincannon (Julia Ormond). Henry brings Susannah home as his fiancee, but Tristan and Alfred also have an immediate attraction to her. When all three brothers enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary Force to fight in WWI, their father (a Colonel himself) is pissed. Samuel and Alfred enlist because their personal values insist upon it, but Tristan joins to protect Samuel.
While Brad Pitt as wild-child Tristan is the main character of this film, I was in love with Henry Thomas when I saw this movie as a pre-teen. Samuel is described as "the best of us" in the movie, and it's true. All of the other characters are, to greater or lesser extents, pretty horrible. Legends of the Fall is the film version of an old school romance novel: it has a muscular, rebellious, long-haired hero, hella toxic masculinity (as well as questionable portrayals of Native Americans), melodrama out the wazoo, and a tragic love story at the center. It's gorgeously filmed and the soundtrack is almost overwhelming at times. It's exactly the type of movie to be popular and win awards in the mid-1990s.
Overall, I gotta say I love it. I recognize that my nostalgia for the film plays a role in how I feel about it today, but damn if it doesn't leave an impression. If you're in the mood for a beautiful melodrama starring beautiful men, you could do worse than Legends of the Fall.
Grade: B+
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