A brief summary of some brilliant movies I’ve watched during the pandemic, including some 2020 highlights

 I haven’t been updating this blog as much as I should. I’ve seen some pretty great movies while sitting through the pandemic. Two were months ago, stuff I came across by sheer chance.

One was Bill (2015), which strictly speaking is not a theatrical feature (which is what this blog typically discusses), but a BBC production, a farcical, brilliant fictional account of Shakespeare’s formative development. Since I grew up adoring Monty Python, it’s always nice to see something that resembles the level of satirical insight of Holy Grail, which is exactly what Bill does, as The Death of Stalin did a few years later. Pythonesque is officially a film genre, I guess.

The other was Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011), a Japanese film (in case it weren’t obvious from the title) in which the ramifications of a feudal lord’s decision to force a supplicant to perform seppuku play out in unexpected ways. It’s a hugely affecting drama in all manners, that cuts well beyond the romance of samurai life we normally see (but still has an epic showdown).

Funny thing is, I also finally watched what will likely go down as the last Monty Python production, a little more recently, what has turned out to be the obscure Absolutely Anything (2015), directed by Terry Jones and featuring all surviving members in vocal performances, as squabbling aliens, as they decide what is to become of humanity based on... Simon Pegg’s ability to wield infinite power. Yes, Simon Pegg. You’d think we were screwed, right? But his dog, voiced by Robin Williams in one of his last roles (which is what made me interested in the movie in the first place, not Monty Python), has...other ideas. Williams is surprisingly committed to a specific scope for the role, so unlike...every other animated role he tackled he’s pretty subdued. And Kate Beckinsale is pretty in general, of course, and Pegg’s would-be girlfriend. The basic outline of the movie is similar to Bruce Almighty, but the results are ultimately very different. I think they’re well worth celebrating, at any measure.

I’ve finally watched The Wiz (1978), which is a bit ridiculous because I had been working on an Oz project earlier this year without having done so. Turns out Michael Jackson’s whole career pivoted around this thing, and watching him in it is a real treat.

For films to be considered 2020 releases, in a year that couldn’t possibly be more challenging, in every regard, if it tried, I’ve seen two that are now contenders for my favorite of the year.

The first is Waiting for the Barbarians (2020). Mark Rylance has sort of been a critical favorite, out of nowhere, in recent years. This is my first Rylance, and as far as this one’s concerned, he was absolutely worth the hype. Somewhat a pity he has such a worthy adversary in Johnny Depp, in another recent villainous role, as a government official auditing an imperial outpost and finding Rylance...entirely too sympathetic to the locals. Rylance’s deep convictions aren’t presented in a preachy fashion but a personal concern. He isn’t looking to convince anyone of anything, and yet he finds Depp’s attitude appalling. Robert Pattinson has a supporting role as Depp’s supercilious subordinate. It’s the kind of allegorical tale that’s both timely and timeless. Before I cracked the other film, I thought I’d found the best movie of the year.

The other one’s True History of the Kelly Gang (2020). This is the kind of movie that’s designed to be the exact opposite of everything you’d expect, so of course a lot of what I’ve read about it assumes it’s everything you’d expect it to be. It’s supposedly too violent, even though it doesn’t actually show most of the violence (or even young Ned Kelly saving another boy, perhaps the only time he’s unabashedly a hero). It’s a complicated study of gender, even though most of that is kind of incidental, merely a part of the intricate web of motivations that led to Ned’s infamy. George MacKay (1917, which I’ve also finally seen and absolutely loved) is Ned, and Charlie Hunnam, Nicholas Hoult, and especially Russell Crowe are the males in his life that only complicate it, to say nothing about his domineering mom. I had to keep trying to watch it to make it all the way through. But it was absolutely worth it. This is an unusual film that’s unusual in all the right ways, forcing you to consider Ned Kelly in a lot of different ways, if not sympathetically then certainly as a product of his experiences, which is also a hugely pertinent message for these times.

Watched lots of other movies, of course. I finally gave Jojo Rabbit (2019) the time of day, and, yeah, absolutely worth it. If I blogged here as much as I watched, it would be clearer how much I love movies. Yeah. It’s a great medium. In a different lifetime I would have loved to have pursued a career in it. Well, still time, I guess.

The New Mutants (2020) Review

 rating: ****

the story: Young mutants in a kind of rehab center.

review: The X-Men film series began in 2000 with a girl named Rogue who was trying to get over the traumatic way she discovered her mutant abilities. In a lot of ways, it ends on the very same note. That’s as appropriate as it gets.

The problem, if it can be said to be one, with that first film was that Rogue’s journey was completely stolen by other plot elements (and a breakthrough performance by the best-known X-Men actor; you know his name). By the time she makes her last appearance in the series (X-Men: Days of the Future Past), it was apparently possible to pretty much cut the part entirely but later release a different cut of the film with it, and actually market it that way. 

Anyway, New Mutants focuses squarely on the archetype Rogue established. Most of the cast is unknown, including the actress who plays lead character Dani Moonstar, Blu Hunt, who is unlikely to garner a bigger career from the role. Alice Braga is the authority figure running the center. Among the other young actors are Game of Thrones alum Maisie Williams and Anya Taylor-Joy, who turns out to be the highlight here, just as she’s been an emerging star in general (among other roles she starred in the Unbreakable sequels, Split and Glass).

It seems any time someone’s powers are a problem in these X-Men movies, it involves perception of reality. Several attempts were made to explore Jean Grey (including the nominal final X-Men, Dark Phoenix), and X2, originally received by fans as a standout superhero movie (since lapsed), as well as the Legion TV series. Dani’s of course part of that trend. No powers in the movie are especially unique, but they’re used effectively (as is a sock puppet, which is eventually...not a sock puppet), as extensions of character rather than the whole character (which can sometimes be a problem in superhero movies).

Bottom line here is that you don’t even need to be a fan of the series, or even superhero movies in general, to enjoy the results. You can follow the story as recovery and acceptance. As part of the series it’s a fitting final statement, and finally puts all distractions to the side and lets the audience dwell on the customary mutant (and Marvel in general) concept that powers usually cause equal amounts trauma as anything else. 

I’ve enjoyed the series all along, so it’s nice to enjoy the last one, too.

Tenet (2020) Review

 rating: ****

the story: In order to prevent the end of the world, a man must travel back in time.

the review: All of Christopher Nolan’s films are about cause and effect. Usually but not always it’s easy to tell which, um, comes first. Of course, he made his name with Memento, which plays out chronologically in reverse. Tenet is sort of like that, except this time it isn’t merely for storytelling effect but built into the plot.

So I’m a big fan of Nolan’s. His existence in a persistent blockbuster moviemaking state, the sheer scale of his ideas, has of course existed since The Dark Knight. The opening of Tenet is perhaps the first time he’s consciously sought the feel of that particular achievement, which for a fan of that particular film was a great way to kick things off.

From there we eventually reach the time travel element. It’s called “inverting” in the movie, but it’s time travel. The cleverness is in how it’s executed. Visually it looks like effects being played backward. It’s memorable in that regard to how Inception most obviously presented its conceit, with the cityscape folding in on itself.

The cleverness, however, is that “inverting” essentially means time travel in Tenet is “rewinding the tape.” It reminds me of Source Code, another high concept movie using a repeating time conceit that turns into a chance to actually prevent (not merely inhabit the circumstances, as is originally believed) a catastrophe from happening. 

Unusually, Nolan lets the concept sell itself more than rest on the star power of the actors (although he did this in his last movie, Dunkirk, too). Since Memento (which for the general public was in casting a mini-reunion of actors from The Matrix), Nolan has consistently gone for as well-known a cast as he could get. His star this time, however, is as close to an unknown as he’s gotten since his first movie, Following. John David Washington (son of Denzel Washington) has one prior lead role to his credit (BlacKkKlansman), in which, for me anyway, he sported a distractingly fake-looking afro. Chances are more people viewed that as a Spike Lee movie than a John David Washington one. As a known commodity, then his screen presence is minimal. That allows the audience to follow him along in the movie far more than linger on him alone (which is half the danger of the rabbit hole Leo DiCaprio leads us through in Inception).

Robert Pattinson, still popularly known for starring in the Twilight movies, costars. He’s been making a new name for himself in recent years by pursuing the kind of “interesting project, interesting role” career that Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp previously pursued as “pretty boy actors,” though they never really succeeded in avoiding the spotlight. But these are far different cinematic times. Now if you aren’t starring in obvious blockbuster material your career plays out in relative obscurity. Pattinson plays his part in Tenet with no desire to upstage anything, and in the process is perhaps inhabiting his first mature role (a knack for which Nolan should be well-known).

The rest of the cast is filled with highlights. Clémence Poésy (like Pattinson a veteran of Harry Potter, same entry and all! as well as In Bruges) and Michael Caine trade off early efforts to guide the audience along. Elizabeth Debicki, who was a standout in a cast of standouts in Widows, takes on the role that might have been the lead in a previous Nolan project, the woman whose life unravels and is the chief beneficiary from the opportunity to rewrite things. Her nefarious husband is played by Kenneth Branagh, perhaps the best strictly villainous figure Nolan has yet conjured, in yet another mid-careee standout performance. Himesh Patel, so appealing in Yesterday last year, has a fun supporting role (which itself is not normally a feature of Nolan movies), while Aaron Taylor-Johnson, so often robbed of his ability to be the movie star he deserves to be, is unrecognizable in a performance that seems to riff on Christian Bake (a familiar Nolan presence).

The whole affair is a trademark example of Nolan’s effortless ability to create sensational moviemaking magic. It plays out like James Bond (that’s how a lot of observers seem to be simplifying it) but is fueled by clever execution of yet another stylistic gimmick, which to my mind Nolan has so far failed to make anywhere close to a routine affair. Christopher Nolan is the opposite of routine. If nothing else Tenet is the latest example of this.

I hesitate to boost the results too far. It’s bravura but stops just short of wanting to be seen as much more than an exceptional action movie. If you can wrap your head around rewinding time travel, then you aren’t left with the ambiguity that made Inception so intoxicating. It really feels as if it’s Nolan saying he could do Dark Knight without Batman. Where that film examines the surveillance state that was then hotly debated, Tenet is essentially an argument for intelligence agencies, which most often end up viewed with suspicion and distrust. It’s a sensational depiction of such work being incredibly effective.

So it’s very interesting, sometimes in ways Nolan hasn’t really pursued before. In the years to come, depending on what he does next, Tenet might be viewed differently, as the movie that transformed Nolan’s already extraordinary career. We’ll see!