As the summer truly begins to set in upon us, as the days grow long and the sun beckons us outdoors, there are still films to watch, things to feel, artists to explore, and a world waiting on the other side of the screen. This month, at the movies…
(500) Days of Summer
One of the films featured in last month’s paid subscriber newsletter, click here to read about expectations, reality, and the corruption of the romantic comedy in (500) Days of Summer.
Abigail
The directing/producing team known as Radio Silence have put out some of the best horror films of the last few years. Whether it’s reviving the Scream franchise with panache in both Scream V and Scream VI, or developing one of the most innovative and fun horrors in Ready or Not, the team have proven they can craft a gory, thrilling theatrical experience. With their 2024 effort Abigail they continue this trend, fashioning a spectacular, tightly scripted, and at times hilarious horror. If you have not seen the trailer or read anything about this film, I advise you stop reading now and go in blind, as this is a film that benefits greatly from knowing as little as possible going in.
If you’re still reading this, you are already well aware that this imaginative take on Dracula’s Daughter is a fun film that will at times leave you howling with laughter. Following a group of crooks as they get an unexpected surprise after kidnapping a rich man’s daughter, the film is equal parts gorefest and slapstick. Bolstered by a fantastic cast including Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, and standout Kevin Durand, the actors are able to sell every twist and turn the film takes (which is possibly one too many). Add in a great performance from Alisha Weir as the titular character and you’re left with a fun, not too frightening horror hit.
Bernie
A fun revisit of one of my favourite director’s more forgotten features, Richard Linklater’s Bernie tells the true story of a beloved assistant funeral director who ends up committing a heinous crime in small town Texas. Featuring a fantastic lead performance from Jack Black and great supporting turns from Matthew McConaughey and Shirley McClaine, the 2011 film acts as a commentary on our modern obsession with true crime narratives. The film starts by building up heroes and villains, only to have the truth muddy the waters and reveal that true life is rarely if ever so black and white.
Linklater’s usage of real townsfolk makes the film stand out from other retellings of true events. By blending the lines between documentary and fiction, Linklater comments on the proliferation of true crime content and the unhealthy obsession that has overtaken the medium, and he did so before it reached it’s current fever pitch. These are not characters to a story, but real people who had a horrible thing happen in their town. The film acts as entertainment while questioning the morality of that act. This plays perfectly into the narrative of the film and the crime, as the kindness of Bernie the man makes it near impossible to see the him for the murderer he is. A complicated yet still delightful look at true crime and the duplicity of man.
Big Fish
The last Tim Burton project to really work before his general decline in quality, Big Fish is a wonderful fable of a film. Telling the story of a man (Billy Crudup) confronting his boisterous, tall tale telling father (Albert Finney) as the father lies on his death bed. Balancing the story between the fanciful tales of the father in his youth n(played tremendously by Ewan McGregor) and the conflict between father and son in the present, Burton explores why we tell the stories that we do and what those stories, even not when about us, tell the world. Burton’s eye for the whimsical and far-fetched is used to extraordinary effect in the flashback sequences, making us believe in the stories he tells as much as he does.
The film does tend to languish a bit when it comes to the modern scenes. Crudup is fundamentally miscast, never earning our trust for his eventual redemption with his father, and plays the son as arrogant and one note. With that said, the final fifteen minutes of the film are pitch perfect, and will wrench your heart completely. McGregor is both charming and arrogant, perfectly matching Finney’s interpretation of the character. Combined with Burton’s flair for set design and this is a wonderful, heartfelt film that may not always work, but when it works it’s up there with the best.
Challengers
An explosive, erotic, thrilling sports film, Challengers follows three friends/lovers/enemies (depending on the day) as they pursue careers as professional tennis players. Framed around a singular match and jumping back and forth in time, the film unravels the complex relationships of our three leads over the course of over a decade as they rise and fall in each other and the audiences eyes. The film is propelled not just by the fantastic, at times unbearable sexual chemistry between our leads, but by it’s thrashing, pumping score, and thrilling camera work. Director Luca Guadagnino pulls fearless performances out of his cast, and the script from newcomer Justin Kuritzkes is an absolute blast.
While the steamy tension between our three leads is the standout, the film never takes itself too seriously, allowing for some hilarious moments between the stars as they navigate each other and their own sexuality. Josh O’Connor is a blast as the washed-up has-been, a rich playboy cosplaying as a struggling artist. Zendaya proves she has the talent, even if there are still times where you don’t complete buy into her tough girl persona. And Mike Faist is great as the one person who achieved all his dreams and still isn’t happy. The interplay between these three will be studied for years to come, and I can only hope that this film signals a resurgence of sexy on screen.
The Fall Guy
The blockbuster that was set to kickoff the 2024 summer season, The Fall Guy is a film that tries incredibly hard to be a light, fun fare. Following Ryan Gosling’s stuntman Colt Seavers as he tries to unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearance of megastar Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Ryder happens to be the lead of Jody Moreno’s (Emily Blunt) first film, a massive sci-fi blockbuster, and Moreno happens to be Seavers former fling. Throw in Hannah Waddingham as an over worked Hollywood producer, Winston Duke as Colt’s stunt friend, and Stephanie Hsu as Tom’s beleaguered assistant, and you have a recipe for a fun meta-film that isn’t afraid to take swings at the silliness that is moviemaking.
The problem is that this obvious send-up to the stunt people who make action films what they are doesn’t really have anything else going for it. The chemistry between Blunt and Gosling is great, and both try their best to wring comedy out of this limp and try hard script, but there is no substance to it. It’s a film built around vague set pieces, and the connecting threads aren’t interesting enough to keep you engaged. Director David Leitch is convinced he has a hit on his hands, but the tongue-in-cheek poking at movie feel tired instead of inspired, and the mystery is more obvious than an episode of Scooby-Doo. A dull blockbuster made to be forgotten.
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
Jim Jarmusch may be one of the only truly cool people in the world, let alone making films. His movies just ooze with charm and confidence, including his 1999 crime drama Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. Just look at that title! No one else could ever successfully pull off naming a film something so esoteric, yet it comes naturally for Jarmusch.
The film follows Ghost Dog (Forest Whitaker), a man who follows the bushido code while working as a hitman in present-day America. Under the employ of a local gangster Louie (John Tormey), Ghost Dog is forced to take down the mafia that Louie works for after a contract goes wrong. Mixing themes of cross-culturalism, violence, loyalty, and the death of the old ways, Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai somehow is both an imitation of Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 film Le Samurai and a wholly original work of art.
The ending of the Old America is one of the more fascinating aspects of the film. Ghost Dog and his allies are a melting pot of people, taking aspects from Japanese culture, the French language, black American culture, and more. Though Ghost Dog works alone, his friendships show his humanity and how his way of being penetrates borders. Alternately, the men he faces are a dying breed, over-the-hill men who have nothing to show for their cruelty and harm. They have provided nothing to the world, and when they die there will not even be a void to be filled. It’s a subtle and beautiful film, and one that quickly rises in my rankings of Jarmusch’s work the more I think about it.
Girl 6
The next film in my Spike Lee Appreciation, Girl 6 is an unexpected entry from the filmmaker. Following Judy (Theresa Randle) as she gets a job as Girl #6 on a phone sex line, the film is interested in exploring womanhood through the lens of sexuality and exploitation. Similar to his film She’s Gotta Have It, Lee isn’t here to moralize, instead showing a character who is having an awakening in the controlled setting of her phone line, but is still unable to control other aspects of her life. We’re introduced to Judy as a struggling actress, forced to expose herself to potentially get a role. As Girl #6 Judy is the one who is in control, until she takes things too far and her aspirations for the character of Girl #6 outgrows the capabilities of Judy.
A film with concerns about identity, sexuality, shame, and power dynamics, Randle does a wonderful job encompassing all the different aspects of this woman, especially when the majority of the film is ineffective. Lee is much more restrained with his camera in this film than he was in his last film Clockers, but it’s only when he let’s go that the film really embraces the sultry smut of it’s subject matter. No other character in the film feels realistic, instead bouncing between one dimensional sex workers and no dimensional johns. If not for the central performance, this film would fall apart completely. A film afraid of it’s own shadow for the majority of it’s run time.
Good Will Hunting
The film that blasted Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to international stardom, won them both Academy Awards for writing, and Robin Williams an Academy Award for acting, Good Will Hunting tells the story of a lower class Boston boy with genius level intellect, and the kind (if broken) therapist who allows him to harness his potential. The power of the film comes from this potential not relying on his mental proficiency but his humanity. Damon’s Will Hunting feels a tremendous burden from his gifts, one that makes him act out, committing crimes and lashing out at those who love him. It’s through the subtle, gentle love given to him by William’s Sean Maguire that he’s able to navigate his role in the world and decide what he needs, not what the world needs from him.
Williams and Damon are both brilliant in their roles and their interplay, trading barbs and gnashing teeth, the sharp words written by Damon and Affleck giving the characters depth. Director Gus Van Sant always captures such nuanced portraits of masculinity, dissecting toxic traits and allowing the characters to be both grand and believable. The supporting cast of Stellan Skarsgaard, Casey Affleck, Ben Affleck, and Minnie Driver fills the film out with different aspects of our two central figures, giving them further dynamics and dimensions that work to play out the central relationship. Even though the story is grandiose, the idea of this genius in the rough is grounded by our leads and made gentle and human by our director. A wonderful, gentle film that displays how beautiful masculinity can be when harnessed properly.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Returning to the world established with in 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes takes us 300 years into the future, into a world where apes have lost nearly all knowledge of the human race. Here we follow Noa (Owen Teague), a young ape about to go through a coming-of-age ritual, as he seeks revenge after his village is raided and his people taken by a mysterious and powerful group of gorillas. Along his journey he encounters a human survivor Nova (Freya Allan) and an orangutan Raka (Peter Macon), the last survivor of a priesthood who worship the teachings of our former protagonist Caesar. Here we can see the real appeal to this film; the worldbuilding is fantastic, with deeply interesting lore packed into every frame of the film. Later in the film, when the carefully crafted world gets sidelined for more traditional action fare, there is a downgrade in enjoyment, but this film holds strong all the way through.
Not is intellectually or spiritually fulfilling as the previous three films, this film feels a little too much like an introduction to a new world instead of a stand alone entry. We get fascinating touches, such as the two different interpretations of the teachings of Caesar, or the falconing rituals Noa’s tribe partakes in, but we only get glimmers instead of having these elements reenforce the narrative through subtext. But even if it is a step down from the greatness that was the Caesar trilogy, a step down from great is still good, and many of the things that worked so well in that trilogy work here. The special effects are groundbreaking and still take one’s breath away, the tension between the humans and apes is still well worth exploring, and the performances (with a special mention of Kevin Durand’s unhinged bad guy Proximus Caesar) are excellent. In the end, if the follow-up film is able to make the story as powerful as the worldbuilding, this film will be well worth visiting first.
The Last Stop in Yuma County
Sometimes you’re just really rooting for a film to figure itself out. That’s the case with The Last Stop in Yuma County, the tense thriller/comedy from first time writer-director Francis Galluppi. Taking his cues from Tarantino, Galluppi places us in an isolated diner with an eclectic group of travelers, all of whom are waiting for the gas truck so they can fill up and be on their way. When a pair of criminals who recently robbed a bank arrive, the diners are unknowingly thrown into a fight for their lives. With a cast featuring Jim Cummings as a hapless traveling knife salesman, Richard Brake as the sinister criminal, and Connor Paolo as a feckless deputy, the film is a pressure cooker just waiting for one person to make the wrong move before exploding,
Unfortunately, once blood is shed and deadly deals are made, the film almost completely runs out of steam. The script feels entirely unsure of itself, with a desperate want of keeping our characters mostly mysterious but not giving us enough to care. There’s comedy throughout the film that is meant to colour our characters a little, but mostly only rob the film of it’s urgency. Even before the bloodshed the film starts spinning it’s wheels, unable to move the story forward, instead having the same situation repeat over and over without much payoff. The final act has some great, dark ideas, but it still treats these too lightly, creating an uneven tone. All the actors do a great job, but they are let down by a director who wasn’t entirely sure if he wanted a tense thriller or a dark comedy, and this disconnect leaves one wanting more. While I will remain optimistic about the future of Galluppi’s career, there is still much to be learned.
Life of Pi
Ang Lee’s last film to receive across the board critical praise, Life of Pi is an adaptation of the modern classic of the same name by Yann Martel. Featuring a middle aged man (the always fantastic Irrfan Kahn) telling a younger writer the amazing tale of his survival on sea with a Bengal tiger, this is a story about the tales we tell ourselves. The fantastical elements to Pi’s story feed into the themes of the veracity of truth and the malleability of the human spirit. Lee’s amazing digital photography brings these fantastical elements to life, and the stunning visual effects makes us believe in the tiger that was Richard Parker.
The problem with the film comes in the adaptation, as many of the themes of the book are not given the proper breathing time to become impactful. Religion is touched on but is quickly put aside in favour of spectacle, despite being one of the most important aspects of the novel. And while film adaptations should not be compared to their book counterparts, for each medium has their own forms, you can feel the themes being sucked away from the film. You can feel this as an adaptation, as what is shown never feels complete. Additional to this, the unfortunate aspect of watching this film so long after it’s initial release is that the digital photography doesn’t carry near the impact it would on the big screen. This is a film meant to be seen in a theatre, and viewing it at home can not capture your heart in the same way. A well acted if ultimately flawed adaptation.
Limelight
A late career masterpiece from Charlie Chaplin, Limelight follows Chaplin as the washed-up comedian Calvero. One night Calvero saves the life of a young, distraught woman, and through healing her back to full health he’s able to recapture his dreams of art and success. When the woman (Claire Bloom) is able to move again, Calvero resparks her passion for dancing, all while his own career falls to it’s rock bottom. As her career soars, her love for Calvero is seemingly not enough for him, and his life begins to unravel, even when former benefactors take pity on the man and give him stage time.
An exploration on the importance of art and expression, and whether one is meant to perform for an audience or for themselves, Limelight is a masterful piece of story telling. Interjecting brief interludes of Calvero’s stage performances and contrasting the silence he reciews with the cheeers directed at Bloom’s Thereza Embrose, Chaplin wrestles with his own career decline and retreat from stardom. Following this film Chaplin continued working for the next decade but never came close to the success he did with this film, and so the film acts as a prophesy for Chaplin’s future. A heartbreaking, poetic film that stands as Chaplin’s final definitive statement on art.
Punch-Drunk Love
Paul Thomas Anderson’s much believed Adam Sandler redeemer, Punch-Drunk Love is a chaotic romantic comedy about two people who aren’t right for anyone maybe being right for each other. Starring Sandler is a neourotic and depressed plunger and novelties salesman Barry Egan, the film follows as he gets caught up in a phone sex call scam, gets harrassed by his seven over-bearing sisters, and falls head-over-heels for Lena Leonard (Emily Watson), a co-worker of one of his sisters. Anderson follows Barry closely, his camera intensely interested in what many would consider an uninteresting life. It’s the long takes and camera trickery that makes Barry’s life grand, and makes this shaggy dog into a touching love story of a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
While Sandler gives an excellent, restrained performance as Barry, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman is stellar as the slimy propietor of a New Jersey phone sex line, the film is never able to mesh all these incongruant aspects together. There’s little to grasp here, and Barry’s aloofness and general strange behavior makes him more of a frustrating character to follow than an interesting one. The love between Lena and Barry, while well performed by the actors, never comes across as believable because of an unformed script. It’s a film that lacks a coherent message, about love or loss or anger or anything concrete. An overall empty misfire from a great director.
The Punisher
A chop-shop classic from my teenage years, The Punisher stars Thomas Jane as the titular badass and John Travolta as the crime boss who will rue the day he crossed Frank Castle. A deeply silly movie, we follow Frank Castle as he is reborn as The Punisher following the assassination of his entire family. Seeking vengeance, he targets the criminal enterprise of Howard Saint, destroying everything and everyone Saint holds near. The film is a glossy mid-200s messy, with everything that made that era of superhero films both incredibly cheesy and glorious in their willingness to mess everything up.
The film wants to depict this gritty, tortured soul, while also desperately trying to remain PG-13, cutting out anything that could be even remotely controversial. Both Jane and Travolta chew the scenery so much that it’s surprising the budget could afford to replace the sets every day. The action is mostly lackluster and laughable (with the exception of the still excellent fight between Thomas Jane and Kevin Nash). The film both takes itself deeply seriously and wants to have a sense of humor, and the script is not good enough to support either attempt. This is far from a good film, but if you hold nostalgia for the era of the superhero film where nobody knew what they were doing, it is still a fun revisit. A bloodless, toothless slab of meat that can still deliver for a very slim percentage of the audience.
Say Anything…
I’m always a little nervous when visiting 1980s classics for the first time. It’s the first decade that nostalgia has a death grip on, and many films considered stalwarts of the era often fall flat for me (with apologies to The Goonies). But with Say Anything…, the directorial debut of Cameron Crowe, I found a much more nuanced and gentle film than I was anticipating. Reknowned mostly for it’s infamous boombox scene, the film follows teenage philospher Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) as he spends the summer dating valedictorian Diane Court (Ione Skye). While the relationship between Lloyd and Diane grows, the close relationship between Diane and her father (John Mahoney) begins to suffer. This film is funny and romantic, but the real surprise is how wonderful the father-daughter relationship is portrayed.
While it’s the romance that is the legacy of the film, and the romance is very well done, it’s this familuar relationship that takes Say Anything… to the next level. Skye and Mahoney are incredible natural with one another, whether it’s in breezy and fun conversations or more serious one’s that come up later in the film. There is a genuine affection between the actors that comes across, and the writing for their scenes is incredibly authentic and at times raw. With this relationship so grounded, it elevates the romantic relationship and makes the teenage romance all the better when there are high flying emotions and large displays that are often found with puppy dog love. A fantastically adult look on teenage love and coming-of-age.
Stranger Than Fiction
It’s always interesting what films you end up being nostalgic for. Stranger Than Fiction, a rather low-key magical realism film featuring a more serious Will Ferrel, is likely not a film many people have thought about recently. Following a dull IRS agent as a mysterious voice starts narrating his day-to-day life, he begins to realize there may be a difference between living and being alive. As he begins to expand his horizons, a quiet horror sets in when it’s discovered he terrible future awaits him whenever the voice authoring his story is done. Also featuring performances from Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah, and a fantastically sensual Maggie Gylenhaal, I credit this film as one of the first that made me fall in love with the art. And revistiing it almost two decades later I can still see clearly where that love stemmed from, even if my own horizons have been expanded since that initial love set in.
The concept is one that is too good for the film to completely fall flat, Ikiru by way of The Truman Show. Ferrel is stellar in the role of the mild-mannered man made to break out of his humdrum life. And the supporting cast are fun in their quirky little side lives. The chemistry between Gylenhaal and Ferrel is palpable, allowing us to completely by into their unlikely love story. And the ending is one that gets my heart racing every time, as Ferral’s Harold accepts not just his role in the novel being written about him, but his role in life. Could this film survive if it hadn’t been locked away in my heart so many years ago? Maybe not, but a gentle, well made romantic comedy is still something I think everyone needs sometimes.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
The main inspiration for Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a luscious 1964 musical by Jacques Demy. Following a young couple as they fall in love in the streets of Cherbourg, only for the realities of life to drive them apart, the film is a masterfully crafted drama. The colours on screen are enough to make this one of the best films to come out of France in the 1960s, but it’s the heart of the film that will leave you breatheless when the credits roll. There is an indeniable power to love on screen, even moreso young love, for it evokes memories in all audience members to the loves and losses of their own past. When our couple is forced apart by his conscription into the Algerian War, we feel their hearts being torn in two, for we remember the circumstances of our first heartbreaks.
The singing in the film is a lovely heightening of these emotions. Every line is sung, every moment is felt, and it’s in this rawness that Demy was able to craft his tale. Not every note is pitch perfect and not every line comes naturally, adding to the unpolished feeling that comes with living life, flying through the highs and lows and never being certain of the outcome. Our couple (Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo) plan for their entire future, only for it to be robbed from them in a single letter. With that they (and we) learn that the best laid plans are for lovers and fools, and that the best plan of all is to accept the love you currently have. There is hope in the future, but hope alone can’t always fill hearts. A stunning piece of cinema.
A Woman Under the Influence
John Cassavetes is considered a pioneer in the world of American independent cinema, and for my first delve into his work I chose what’s considered to be one of his more harrowing works, A Woman Under the Influence. The film shows us the marriage of Nick and Mabel Longhetti, a working class couple in Los Angeles. Nick works as a construction foreman while Mabel is a stay-at-home mom who’s mental health begins to take a drastic decline at the beginning of the film. So begins the trials and tribulations of the couple, as Mabel struggles to control her impulses and Nick struggles between balancing the love for his wife and the safety of their children. The powerful performances from leads Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk in the scenes of turmoil make this feel a difficult watch at times, but at others the performances and script betray the lack of knowledge on mental illness, and end up making the film into a farce.
Falk is the anchor to this film that makes the more outlandish moments work. His performance of a wrecked man, only wishing to have the woman he loves be herself and be safe, is the reason to seek this film out. Rowlands, on the other hand, is playing for the seats at the back of the theatre. While in the moments her character are completely spiralling are fantastic, her more everyday oddities are performative and forced, and come across as a poor parody of a troubled woman. These moments fall away the further into the film we get, and as the dark clouds of emotion come over the film the better the performances get as well, but these opening choices still leave a bitter taste. This is an American kitchen sink drama that is well worth a visit, even if it is something of a victim of it’s time.