2020 Capsule Reviews

Crazy Samurai Musashi

rating: *****

review: Wow! In recent years an increasing number of filmmakers have pursued the "single tracking shot" concept, from Birdman to 1917 to even One Shot, and as far as I'm concerned it's always on the face of it impressive on that level alone.  Musashi is much like One Shot insofar as it's a horribly obscure movie, but it's such a brilliant execution of the concept, one samurai facing off against an entire clan, just a constant stream of sword-fighting, but always staged with keeping the action interesting.  For me I fell instantly and hopelessly in love with the results.  I doubt this even received a theatrical release in the States.  As far as I can tell distribution was negligible, and I only even knew it existed when I saw the movie at Walmart (and since physical media is rapidly declining, the chances of finding something like this outside an equally lucky find at Dollar Tree have only further diminished), and reviews have been hopelessly dismissive.  So this won't even show up in streaming platforms, probably.  I don't care.  I discovered it.  It's now one of my favorite movies.

Waiting for the Barbarians

rating: *****

review: Hollywood, and the press, and critics, often collude in destroying careers, and there's not a reasonable argument against this.  Barbarians costars Johnny Depp, in the period where everyone still believed he was probably the bad guy in the Amber Heard situation.  Now, of course, there's far more wiggle room, but people don't really re-evaulate movies, especially ones that were instantly obscure.  But this is another work of genius.  No doubt in my mind.

True History of the Kelly Gang

rating: *****

review: For me, Russell Crowe was one of the big cinematic heroes of the early pandemic, between his small role here and one of the wide releases that dared open in 2020.  Another hopelessly obscure work of genius.  That's three.

Emma.

rating: *****

review: Anya Taylor-Joy in a joyously inventive revisioning of the classic.

WW84

rating: ****

review: Everyone went gaga over the first one, but I instantly preferred this one, which was a better overall showcase for Wonder Woman, and had a memorable villain or two besides.  The opening sequence alone is a classic, and I guess I'm a sucker for ones showcasing someone in a cathartic flying experience, since I loved that best about Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, too.

Tenet

rating: ****

review: Christopher Nolan was cinema's big champion that year, and he was widely criticized for it, but for me all I cared about was that Tenet was as close to matching the action scope of The Dark Knight as he'd attempted to that point.  I also love how it audaciously tackles the idea of combatting terrorism, which is basically the whole point of the movie.  Plus a lot of visual gimmicks to satisfy viewers who still think Inception was his best movie.

Bill & Ted Face the Music

rating: ****

review: One of the pandemic miracles, or so it seemed then, was the appearance of this late third entry in the series, thereby further solidifying Keanu Reeves as a modern master of franchises, if somehow anyone still doubted it.  Probably bolsters the reputation of the whole series.

The Gentlemen

rating: ****

review: Critics kind of fell all over themselves trying to explain why Guy Ritchie no longer had it (they're still trying to make the fatuous argument here in 2023), but at least this played out before the pandemic hit.  For me, a great cast, and a standout supporting role for my favorite actor, Colin Farrell.

Capone

rating: ****

review: I can think of very few actors who without the benefit of some scandal have garnered such undeserved scorn from critics as Tom Hardy.  For anyone else this would've been hailed as a genius showcase.

The Way Back

rating: ****

review: Gavin O'Connor has been one of my favorite directors of the past decade.  Ben Affleck has surprised a lot of people by how much they liked him in the same period.  Here they work together for an affecting sports drama that's heavy on the drama and light on the sports. A great combination.

Sonic the Hedgehog

rating: ****

review: The hedgehog is entertaining, but for me it's a hugely welcome spotlight and return to form for Jim Carrey after years of exile.

News of the World

rating: ****

review: For years I was uninterested in the movies Tom Hanks was making.  For me this was a comeback of interest.  Kind of a later spiritual sequel for Road to Perdition, but one that allows him to have a little fun, too.

Downhill

rating: ****

review: Wow, so Will Ferrell, I don't know if you've noticed, isn't as popular as he once was.  Downhill came and went I think without the pandemic affecting no one noticing.  But it's a great dramatic film for Ferrell, from filmmakers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, both still somehow highly underrated.

Greenland 

rating: ****

review: Gerard Butler can sometimes (okay, a lot of the time) seem as if he chooses projects without regard to quality, but this was an exception, a standout survival drama that feels like a blockbuster in the style of Independence Day, but keeping things at a strictly human scale.

Ava

rating: ****

review: I keep mentioning in these capsules how critics are inexplicably undervaluing major talent, and Jessica Chastain is a favorite victim of this.  Here she's combining her penchant for human drama with the needs of action films.  Another supporting spotlight for Colin Farrell.  He had a banger year for those.  I never have gotten around to seeing the Disney+ exclusive Artermis Fowl, in which Farrell is literally plugged into the movie post-production to try and save it.

Let Him Go

rating: ****

review: One of the benefits of starring in a critic-proof, stubbornly hugely successful TV series like Yellowstone seems to be Kevin Costner gets to once again revive his movie career, and this was well worth his time in doing so.

Unhinged

rating: ****

review: A critical darling for a few years, Russell Crowe fell from grace years ago, and it's only freed him to make increasingly interesting choices.  Here he's an unabashed villain.  Whatever publicity he gets now shamelessly mocks his weight gain, in an era that's supposed to be tolerant of such things.  So you kinda know how hollow such campaigns really are.

The Night Clerk

rating: ****

review: For me much of the early pandemic meant as releases thinned out there was at least a greater chance of minor films getting noticed, and many of them evoked classic Hollywood, and while all the attention of course instead went to streaming services (critics ended up being slavish in their new devotion, so that if awards are given out, they go to streaming releases almost exclusively), films like Night Clerk gave good material to stars like Tye Sheridan.

Bloodshot

rating: ****

review: An attempt at jumpstarting a new cinematic superhero universe for most viewers, even before the pandemic, was instead a nonstarter, with Guy Pearce gamely trying to rub off whatever remaining Memento magic he had on Vin Diesel.  But Vin Diesel never really has fans outside of the Fast & Furious movies, alas, even if he makes decent action movies out of the concepts driving them.

Birds of Prey and the Fabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

rating: ****

review: After the belated popular failure of Suicide Squad (one of those unpopular box office successes), even if Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn was an instant icon, it really didn't matter what she appeared in next.  But for the life of me I don't understand ignoring an obvious spotlight like this, and object lesson in proving that no matter what's happening around her, she still shines.

Bad Boys for Life

rating: ****

review: Will Smith and Martin Lawrence return for this belated sequel that revived interest in Smith's career, and wisely acted as if it was basically a Smith spotlight in the style of the bright '00s period of it.

The Burnt Orange Heresy

rating: ****

review: Like Night Clerk a bright throwback spotlight vehicle for a worthy aspirant, this time Elizabeth Debicki.

The Rhythm Section

rating: ***

review: Tagged with some of the worst reviews of the year (and before the pandemic!), this one stars Blake Lively and Jude Law, and it's a movie I'll need to revisit, since I remember liking it, but I have few specific memories of it.

The New Mutants

rating: ***

review: Holds the dubious distinction of being the last of the Fox productions of X-Men movies, with a troubled release date history that no doubt benefited from the pandemic for finally happening.  Not a bad movie by any means, but its existence in a vacuum is disappointing given how most of the other films in the franchise went out of their way to provide some tangible link to the rest of it, usually with a throwaway cameo or two.

The Last Full Measure

rating: ***

review: In a prior era this would've been a standard adult drama anyone would've known existed, but in this one it falls into instant obscurity.  Features the likes of Sebastian Stan, Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris, William Hurt, Peter Fonda...Worth assembling such talent.

Mulan

rating: ***

review: For me the original animated version was Mushu (as voiced by Eddie Murphy).  This live action version doesn't even have Mushu.  But I guess the greater point of the story still stands.

Archenemy

rating: ***

review: After The Man Who Killed Hitler and then the Big Foot, I kind of wanted another cult-sized experience.  Joe Manganiello, as great as he is, turns out to not quite be Sam Elliott, but the results are still worth a look.

Irresistible 

rating: ***

review: It turns out Jon Stewart reuniting with Steve Carell wasn't quite the second coming of The Daily Show for critics.  But it's still a biting political satire well worth checking out.

The Hunt

rating: ***

review: A totally different political satire!  But worth watching, too!

Jungleland

rating: ***

review: Not quite Warrior.  But worth a look.

The Tax Collector 

rating: ***

review: David Ayer's career plummeted after Suicide Squad.  But that doesn't mean he's any less interesting a filmmaker. If you still like End of Watch, you'll like this, too.

Infidel

rating: ***

review: Jim Caviezel still gamely pursuing the audience of The Passion of the Christ.

Emperor

rating: ***

review: It's a testament to how shallow the movie era is when one of the most famous and infamous figures in American history, John Brown, shows up as a supporting character in this and the results are completely ignored.

The Vanished

rating: ***

review: There was a time when Jason Patric's unusual career choices interested critics.  That time is long past.  But this is another of those, and it's worth a look.

Fatman

rating: **

review: Mel Gibson has been pumping out b-movies.  They're not all terrible.  In fact he's made some brilliant choices!  But this Santa Claus thriller ain't necessarily one of 'em.

Legion

rating: **

review: Mickey Rourke was another critical darling tossed to the scrapheap whenever the mood struck them, and this is another lean period.  It was suggested his turn here was an embarrassment.  It isn't, and it's also the best reason to watch.

Robert the Bruce

rating: **

review: Another very belated sequel!  This one sees Angus Macfadyen reprise his most famous role, from Braveheart.  This one's less rousing.

The Empty Man

rating: *

review: Very, very unfortunately, James Badge Dale cashed in all his chips from his small-scale career revival for this mainstream horror movie.  If I ever try watching it again, it'll again and this time emphatically be for Dale alone.

The Warrant

rating: *

review: I remain a big fan of Neal McDonough, who I first saw in Star Trek: First Contact and later starred in the brilliant but short-lived TV series Boomtown.  This is a low budget western.  Alas.

2019 Capsule Reviews

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

rating: *****

review: Terry Gilliam's much-delayed masterpiece probably works better than it would have originally infused with Adam Driver.  I don't suppose critics were disposed to adoring the results anyway, so forget their lukewarm reception.  Gilliam is always just this side of genius, and sometimes is firmly on it, and this is his best film.  Absolutely worth all the hassle to get it done, worth the wait, and all the needless later loopholes to actually see it.

Yesterday

rating: *****

review: Critics were equally dismissive of this one, since they couldn't wrap their heads around the Beatles being popular today, and maybe it's because I'm unabashedly a fan, but I put well aside my usual apathy for romantic movies for this, and eagerly so.  Between the Beatles themselves, Across the Universe, and now this, I've witnessed the same songs executed to perfection in widely different ways.

Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood

rating: *****

review: Quentin Tarantino returns to the laconic form of Jackie Brown to rewrite history in a story about two lives that really had nothing at all to do with the Manson murders, but comment on the nature of living the film life better than anything I've ever seen.

Joker

rating: *****

review: Opinions range from brilliant to apathy, depending on how invested the viewer is in the legacy of the character.  The stairway sequence alone makes the results iconic, and Joaquin Phoenix a worthy successor to Heath Ledger.

Knives Out

rating: *****

review: Daniel Craig powers an ensemble that redeems Rian Johnson's reputation after The Last Jedi.

Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

rating: ****

review: At this point you were either onboard with the sequels or had already dismissed them.  I found the conclusion of Rey's journey, her relationship with Kylo Ren, to be perfect, a response and the antithesis to how things played out in the original trilogy (and even the prequels), daring to believe in hope in a most cynical age.

Zombieland: Double Tap

rating: ****

review: An underrated gem of a series in the modern era, and a worthy follow-up to the original, both of which I've grown to appreciate more over time.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum

rating: ****

review: The bombastic third entry in this series turned it into a legitimate blockbuster, and knew exactly what it was doing, turning John's survival into a true epic experience.

Jojo Rabbit

rating: ****

review: Burned by my experience with Thor: Ragnarok, I was hesitant to follow Taika Waititi down this, heh, rabbit hole, but once I did, I fell in love with its unlikely magic.

Hotel Mumbai

rating: ****

review: The age of terrorism finds perhaps its perfect cinematic depiction in this unheralded ensemble drama.

Serenity

rating: ****

review: My appreciation for this one is possibly only beginning; where others were baffled by its twist, I thought it added to the movie's power, and all the same, became another great example of why Matthew McConaughey should never, ever be underestimated.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette

rating: ****

review: Actresses often find it hard to star in truly worthy vehicles for their talent, and Cate Blanchett has been no exception, but this is one of them.

1917

rating: ****

review: Presented as one long cut, a truly harrowing depiction of WWI trench warfare.

The Standoff at Sparrow Creek

rating: ****

review: James Badge Dale saw a resurgence of interest from filmmakers at this time, and this was the best result, a riveting look at the preppers phenomenon.

Terminator: Dark Fate

rating: ****

review: Ever since the second one, this franchise has been hellbent at sabotaging itself. Dark Fate was the rare instance of everyone sort of agreeing to trust the results. I've generally enjoyed every film, but this one was a cut above.

The Lighthouse

rating: ****

review: Robert Pattinson has been keen to find oddball projects, and this was perhaps his most successful at getting the mainstream to notice.  Personally I need to watch it a few more times, since I find his performance to be unusually showy, but I guess others didn't.

Detective Pikachu

rating: ****

review: A genius depiction of the Pokemon franchise, starring Ryan Reynolds in another perfect role.

The Hustle

rating: ****

review: Trashed or outright dismissed otherwise, I found the comedic pairing of Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson to be irresistible (between this and Serenity, as far as I'm concerned this was a career year for Hathaway).

Dumbo

rating: ****

review: I'm not overly attached to much of Disney's animated canon, so this particular live action edition landed well with me, which was certainly helped along by costarring Colin Farrell.

Glass

rating: ****

review: Putting the focus squarely on the franchise's best character helped achieve a solid hit for me from Shyamalan.

High Life

rating: ****

review: I actually like this Pattinson (performance) better, but the films in this de facto ranking are still probably accurate in terms of overall worth.

Ad Astra

rating: ****

review: Falling in the same basic range is the similar Brad Pitt experience, made before Hollywood realized Tarantino was revitalizing his career.

The Upside

rating: ****

review: The film that made me a fan of Kevin Hart.  I guess I could care less for him as a strictly comedic performer, but he plays dramatic roles surprisingly well.

The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot

rating: ****

review: The movie with the most ridiculous title ever is absolutely worth experiencing, especially the tense first half, which leads to getting to just spend time with Sam Elliott, since the actual climax isn't worth as much.

Ford v Ferrari

rating: ****

review: Christian Bale as a loose cannon racecar driver trying to prove Ford can make something good is worth Matt Damon not particularly clicking with the material, mistaking smugness for confidence.

Donnybrook

rating: ****

review: Another career seeing a bit of sunlight during this time was Frank Grillo, who unlike Dale carried the momentum further along.  Here he's stuck in a rut of being a thug, but it's still a far cry from not even knowing he was an actor in Warrior.

Under the Silver Lake

rating: ****

review: Basically the Andrew Garfield version of Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood.

Motherless Brooklyn

rating****:

review: Edward Norton made this one happen, otherwise he'd still be looking for another starring role. Also Bruce Willis' last shot at legitimate cinema.

Richard Jewell

rating: ****

review: I figure Clint Eastwood was being allegorical with this one.

Toy Story 4

rating: ****

review: For me the third one was needless rehash, but I figure there was actual new ground in this one, chiefly in the existential crisis of the toy that was made by a kid.  Although if there's another one they might validate the idea a little better.

Captain Marvel

rating: ***

review: Nothing wrong with it, except there's no way it can validate the hero's claim to icon status, which is the one thing it really needed to do.

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbes & Shaw

rating: ***

review: If Johnson & Statham had to be relegated to their own vehicle (heh), it could've been worse.  

Frozen II

rating: ***

review: I still don't know what my niece thinks of this one.  So I don't really know, either.

Fighting with My Family

rating: ***

review: Being familiar with the source material, these results are okay, but at least they depict in cinematic terms The Rock's persona.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

rating: ***

review: Can't really compete with the poignant twist at the end of the first one.

Men in Black: International

rating: ***

review: There's nothing wrong with this, except it doesn't have Will Smith.  Or Tommy Lee Jones.

Dark Phoenix 

rating: ***

review: Kind of ironic that the end of the Fox franchise proper circles back to the point everyone thought killed it in the first place.

Avengers: Endgame

rating: ***

review: I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the whole Thanos experience.  They just didn't know what to do with him, so fittingly, he's barely in this one.  This is the definition of the MCU's villain problem.

Alita: Battle Angel

rating: ***

review: Nothing wrong with this one except it feels like small potatoes compared to most of the other things from the year.

Shazam!

rating: ***

review: As it turns out, if people keep saying your movies are too grim, it's not the appropriate response to make a movie that features a kid in the body of an adult.  The results aren't bad, but keeping them disconnected from everything else is definitely the wrong move.

Gemini Man

rating: ***

review: I have a full review with a much different rating (I'm pretty sure), but this one's more accurate to relative results.  I guess I really would rather watch Men in Black without Will Smith than two Will Smiths.  This is '00s Smith rewarmed.  He'd already moved past this kind of material.

Spider-Man: Far From Home

rating: ***

review: I just wasn't a fan of the MCU Spider-Man, until he was joined by the other Spider-Men in No Way Home (which like Far needlessly belabored the title of the first one).

The Secret Life of Pets 2

rating: ***

review: I'll clue you in on a little secret: usually when I don't have strong memories of a movie I don't include it in these things.  This one was close, and I only saw it at all because of my niece, and isn't exactly something I'd go out of my way to watch again (unless I was still living with her and she insisted, which could just as easily turned its reputation around).  But I remember enough.  It was basically a decent experience.  Gruff Harrison Ford.  That's what I remember most.

Hellboy

rating: **

review: I was never the biggest fan of the original films.  This one is a marked step down from them.

Midsommer 

rating: **

review: Florence Pugh is the golden child of critics these days (she also starred in Fighting with My family, which is probably the only reason it was taken seriously by them).  And mostly, I just don't get it.  This was one of her breakout movies.  I found it needlessly impressionistic.  Because it's really just one of those weird movies that desparately wants to be profound but isn't.  The exact opposite of the movie at the top of this.

Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) Review

rating: ****

the story: The band gets back together.  Again!

review: The original Blues Brothers was so iconic, and so closely identified with John Belushi, it was always going to be a tall order to make another one without Belushi, who had been dead for years by the time production began.  Blues Brothers 2000 became, as a result, a poster child of unwanted sequels.  It does not deserve such a reputation.

Filling in for Belushi are John Goodman and Joe Morton, who are nothing like the brash Belushi, but who nonetheless step into the act with Dan Ackroyd in such fashion that you really have to be committed to hating the results to hate.  Morton, a reliable hand who has never gotten his due in general, has an actual plot behind his character, an arc that culminates in a tent revival scene that has one show-stealing (and for me, movie-defining) song, "John the Revelator," leaning heavily into the supernatural elements that allowed the original band to survive all manner of '80s mayhem without a second's thought.  Watching Ackroyd in all this is to reconcile Blue Brothers with Ghostbusters, a logical leap that should also not be so difficult to manage.

But the real charm of Blues Brothers 2000 is that it actually features blues music!  The music here isn't just memorable pop songs from days past, but blues acts getting to sink their teeth into their craft.  You have the likes of B.B. King, Bo Diddley, Dr. John, and even Eric Clapton putting on appearances, plus Erykah Badu immersing herself deep into a character role, and Blues Traveler!  One has the idea that the whole point of the movie is celebrating these and other acts, to give back after the first one, and this is a most worthy cause.  To watch this one is to experience the world the brothers celebrated in the first one.  Is that really so hard to love?  These are both movies that are elaborate excuses to enjoy some good music.  They happen to have different vantage points, even if on the surface they look exactly the same.

I think it's well worth revisiting.

Red Tails (2012) Review

rating: ****

the story: Tuskegee airmen perform heroics during WWII.

review: Until Top Gun: Maverick exploded at the box office last year, I was, like many other filmgoers, overlooking one of the original joys of Star Wars: the X-Wing run down the Death Star trench.  It's easy to forget the appeal of the sequence when the focus so often shifts to the world-building, the characters, the tension of the moment, but really, it's a holdover of the fighter pilot era best defined by WWII, and by the release of the original Top Gun, fast receding into the past.  Incredibly, George Lucas never featured that exact kind of storytelling again, until Red Tails, which he developed much earlier than its release date suggests, but kept getting turned down by studios (yes, even though it came from George Lucas), he contends, because it features an almost entirely black cast.

Lucas himself doesn't direct Tails, though by all accounts of his filmmaking career it's extremely difficult to imagine he stayed far behind during production (he's credited with direct involvement only during reshoots).  In effect this was his big goodbye to the world of film, before Disney kicked off the new Star Wars era without him.  The whole thing is basically one long excuse to immerse deeply into the dog-fighting Luke Skywalker experiences for just one moment in 1977, though its grounding in the all-black squadron history subsequently unearthed is probably far more personal to Lucas than it might be supposed, given his childhood memories of the black community around him and the black woman he married later in life.  Star Wars fans who always complained there wasn't enough black representation in the saga would have you believe otherwise, but Lucas himself never had a problem with black people.

The actors in Tails would be a highlight in any film, and by this point had been, including Cuba Gooding, Jr., whose breakthrough performance in Jerry Maguire was a tough act to follow, and basically he tried everything and never found traction.  He's joined by Terrence Howard, one of the modern era's great actors, frequently sabotaged by the reputation of being difficult to work with.  Howard appears in a very similar movie, Hart's War, which covers a sequence omitted in Tails of what happens to a black soldier in German captivity.  They're surrounded by an embarrassment of riches, including Leslie Odom, Jr. (later associated with Hamilton), Michael B. Jordan, Nate Parker (whose Birth of a Nation was crippled by allegations made against him), and David Oyelowo, whose least rewarding performance, to date, for me anyway, was MLK in Selma.  Otherwise, as Tails again proves, he's an overlooked treasure, easily the star just below Howard and Gooding of the movie.

The politics of what films gain recognition are so byzantine it's sometimes impossible to navigate, but something like Red Tails is worth the effort to discover.

The Prestige (2006) Review

rating: *****

the story: Rival magicians can't figure out that they have very different approaches to and goals for their craft.

review: I've reviewed The Prestige before, here, which you can read for yourself. It's one of those movies I'm constantly reevaluating, and it's absolutely worth the effort.  By this point, I'm perfectly willing to call it a classic.

Now, the whole reason I've struggled in this manner is that it's a film by Christopher Nolan, but unlike other film fans, this isn't the result of trying to keep up with Nolan's dizzying stories, but in comparing it to his other films themselves.  For a while, Memento was my favorite movie, having dislodged The Truman Show for that honor.  I value ambition and cleverness, but these are qualities that walk a dangerous line.  I used to view The Prestige as being the result of Nolan desperately trying to live up to the reputation of Memento.  I had a similar problem with Batman Begins, which I thought didn't chase that legacy enough.  The Dark Knight Returns was the point at which I began to realize Nolan himself wasn't that concerned with the need for some gimmick, but appreciating Nolan's abilities as mere storyteller took time.  By Tenet, I saw a director who was trying to make a point, and using all manner of tricks to achieve it.  I adore Interstellar, which hit me in a visceral way that had been absent from his other films.  Inception dazzled me most in its casting.  Dunkirk is a tour de force of tension without letting it ever get in the way, in all respects Nolan having learned his lesson from Memento.  Very early on I also went back and watched his first film, Following, which is all style.  Insomnia might have fallen into such a trap, but it's driven by two great performances, the first time Nolan allows his actors to leap ahead of him.

Integrating all his instincts is really Nolan's defining production technique.  Memento proved he could work with known actors, but it also trapped Guy Pearce into that role, and he's really never recovered since.  He's the Memento guy.  When The Prestige was released, it was most notable as starring Batman and Wolverine, so it was hardly going to suffer from known quantities.  And yet Hugh Jackman was himself in the early process of disentangling himself from one role, and hadn't yet accomplished it, so to view The Prestige, since Jackman is the lead actor, on its own terms, you need to not only separate it from Nolan, but from Wolverine, to let the story settle into itself.  For me, it was a process of letting its conclusions settle.  I always found it easiest to view the lead character as the most sympathetic, so Jackman's concluding thought ("It was the look on their faces.") that always stuck with me, and was the basis for which I would attempt to explain the movie to others, never mind myself.

It's a movie you have to understand in order to appreciate.  Bale's character doesn't have his story spelled out, not even by the ending.  Chronologically, we never really see a starting point.  We have to fill it in for ourselves.  Since the movie ends with Bale theoretically "winning," we are then to assume that maybe he was the good guy all along, and yet he really isn't.  He makes unfathomable sacrifices, and basically the whole point of the story is Jackman trying desperately to understand them, and he never can, even as he subsequently makes even more horrifying ones in order to do so.  In the end, it's because they have very different goals, and their approaches are defined by them.  For Bale, the act is its own reward, the knowledge of a trick well-performed.  For Jackman, the point is to entertain, and in order to derive any pleasure from pursuing such a craft, he needs to see his audience entertained.  It's a post-Gladiator world, folks.

Interpreting any of this through Nolan's need to live up to Memento is, in this context, absurd.  He knew very well what he was doing, and he was certainly not sending his audience any messages.  He was, if anything, telling us that how we interpret his films are as much our business as his in making them.  He knows what goes into them, and he certainly doesn't mind seeing how audiences react (he was to his detriment a proponent to reopening theaters during the pandemic), but regardless he's going to make movies the way he finds interesting, and he's now got a long career to show for it.  Studios might be willing to indulge him in scale, but if he really needed to, he could bring it back to intimate levels.  This is where his skill in casting comes in, his storytelling.  He doesn't need David Bowie (who this time I noticed actually sounds a lot like Pierce Brosnan), but it doesn't hurt to get him, either.  It doesn't hurt to include as subplot the perennially enigmatic Nicola Tesla, when anyone might have expected him to headline a Christopher Nolan film.  For Nolan, expect the unexpected, but don't expect that twist to be necessary.  That would be your mistake.

The result is a film only Nolan could have made (even if it's based on someone else's material).  The Prestige was released the same year as The Illusionist.  It used to be that I allowed this fact to distract from my enjoyment of it.  But I don't revisit Illusionist as obsessively as Prestige.  Sometimes having to work for it works in its favor.

Reign of Fire (2002) Review

rating: ****

the story: Dragons are accidentally awakened in the modern world, and subsequently are the subject of a desperate quest to eliminate as mankind struggles to survive.

review: This is the of film you're maybe not sure what to think of initially, if you're like me, but years later realize what an improbable phenomenon it really is.  Here I'm thinking of it in terms of Matthew McConaughey, whom I've grown to appreciate more and more over the years, and how even now he's never done anything even remotely close (unless you count Free State of Jones) to it since, and he's basically a supporting player to Christian Bale the whole time.  Bale has made a career of the unexpected, and since Reign has certainly covered genre material quite heavily (Batman, Terminator: Salvation), so it's not as difficult to reconcile with the rest of his career, but in hindsight it might be easier to view as a rare original role in one that with Batman and Salvation sought to myth-build so eagerly.

Besides that, it's another movie featuring Gerard Butler before 300, when he was still mostly anonymous.  For me, it was also one of the films from this period to feature Alexander Siddig, a standout from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, although he has few enough lines, and the original reason I sought Reign out in the first place.  The film is directed by another Star Trek veteran, Rob Bowman, whose next and most recent production, Elektra, ended up defining his Hollywood career.

Watching Bale and McConaughey grapple with the dragon problem, and each other, Bale's guilt for having unleashed them (in his mind) to begin with, also rings true with Bale's later career, also filled with such roles, and as such is essential viewing as to how it took shape.  The bald pate McConaughey sports doesn't really hide his essentially heroic nature, though as in his critical breakthrough role in True Detective, he's his rogue self trying to let the hero out when other people (Bale, in this instance) can't see it.

And it's a movies about dragons!  Since most of the action takes place at night, the film doesn't have to worry about the effects holding up, since they were designed to pop effortlessly, and so they certainly hold up to modern expectations.  Critics typically hate genre films that don't blunt their stories with comedy, but then they also hate comedy, which is to say, they don't like genre films, so Reign was always going to have a tough crowd.  Even in 2002, franchises were so important to success, but Reign concludes its epic in the one movie, so there was no hook other than the spectacle on display, and mostly the human drama generated by Bale and McConaughey, which should have been enough, and is, if you let it, and it shouldn't be that hard to manage.

It's a textbook definition of a lost gem.

Savage Salvation (2022) Review

rating: ****

the story: An ex-military ace seeks revenge on the system that allowed his wife to overdose.

review: Such are the times that star actors can see their movies swallowed into a void.  Robert De Niro costars in this, but his presence didn't prevent such a fate for Savage Salvation, which also features John Malkovich and stars Jack Huston.

Huston's the reason I made sure to watch.  The latest of a storied Hollywood family, he's struggled to find footing since Ben-Hur, which otherwise suggested to me a new talent worth following, but few enough starring roles to show for it.  Most of the story beats of Salvation are well-trodden material, so it's not something you watch for originality, but I've certainly never let it get in the way of spending time with quality actors.  De Niro is in subdued mode, and for him Salvation is No Country for Old Men, Hell or High Water territory.  You wait for Malkovich's part to amount to something, and on that score the end twist is telegraphed, as Huston discovers the system is all too happy to exploit individuals without much concern to the consequences.  Waiting for that to play out is more suspenseful than the revenge rampage Huston undertakes, or the withdrawal scenes he appears in.

With so little to show for his career to this point, Huston had a lot riding on whether or not he could carry Salvation, and to my mind he does, and for that reason watching him find a context in the rampage, how he carries himself is worth the experience.  The greater narrative around all of this, the eponymous concept, both when the body of his wife is baptized and when he himself sinks into the water at the end, it gives depth to the rampage that can sometimes be relegated only to the original impetus, since the reward tends to be reduced to mere memory, rather than consequences or some greater goal, which in this case is finding peace, from a community that both supports him (De Niro) and betrays him (Malkovich), as well as beyond it.

Where Huston goes from this point I'm as eager as ever to find out.

Angry Neighbors (2022) Review

rating: ****

the story: A writer seeking to lead a secluded life feels infringed upon by a neighbor's ongoing development project.

review: Not being overly involved in the streaming world (previously I was never overly involved in the cable world), I still participate in physical media, which is why I frequent Redbox kiosks, which is why I knew about the existence of Angry Neighbors, which exists well outside the mainstream despite starring Frank Langella.  Langella's career is been that way all along, of course, rarely appearing in movies people have actually seen, but otherwise being well-respected.  The closest he's come to a starring role with critical acclaim is probably Frost/Nixon.  I had recently seen him in the Jim Carrey TV series Kidding, and Angry Neighbors, on a superficial level, resembles those results closely enough where I would endorse it for that alone, a quirky production featuring Langella.  (The last time ones of his films got noticed was Robot & Frank, in which he stars opposite, obviously, a robot.)

The only chatter surrounding Neighbors stemmed from the original source material, which drew on the woes of other pampered residents of wealthy waterfront property, which was of interest mostly to them.  Everyone else was left to scratch their head over the title, which surely evoked Grumpy Old Men if anything, and yet Langella's antagonist doesn't show up until the end (it turns into a metaphor of lost youth, I think), and he instead plays off others caught up in his struggles, including Bobby Cannavale playing the foreman in charge of the worksite unhappily afflicting him.

There's also, of course, Langella's dog, who speaks to him in the voice of Cheech Marin, personifying his closed world.  If Langella and the narration and style of production weren't pitched enough, Marin's part cements the film's intentions.  I have no idea why Neighbors would drop straight into obscurity (except, perhaps, allegations against Langella, which is such an old Hollywood story one wonders why the studios still get away with it except for the existence of endlessly compliant press).  Spend some time in Langella's company.  Don't worry if anyone else is, or if his character would approve of your choices.  This would be an excellent one.

Amsterdam (2022) Review

rating: *****

the story: Three friends make a pact during WWI, and unexpectedly find themselves having to fulfill it during WWII.

the review: The movies one considers a classic are sometimes confused with personal favorites, especially when critics have decided to ignore, overlook, or downplay their worth for whatever reason.  I suspect this occurred with Amsterdam since director David O. Russell has had bad publicity in recent years stemming to his treatment of Amy Adams on the set of American Hustle, and he hasn't produced a wide success on the order of Silver Linings Playbook, despite high expectations for both Hustle and Joy after it.  I've been a fan of Russell since Three Kings, which remained my favorite of his efforts despite his critical reputation blowing up with Playbook, and while I loved what he did with Christian Bale in The Fighter (a showy supporting role, but one that took pressure off an actor who can sometimes get lost in his performances, and thus became a career highlight), I hadn't been wowed by one of his films again.  Russell is an idea guy in the vein of Orson Welles, and the way he achieves his results can lead to complicated productions, but the results speak for themselves.  George Clooney found his first great film in Kings, when he was often typecast as a rogue (Out of Sight being the exception that proved the rule) without a way forward.  Russell used the film to make a bigger point about the chaos of war, and how even the worst of intentions (stealing Iraqi gold) can lead to altruistic results (saving the innocent lives being ground up by the war).  That Russell shows up in Amsterdam, plus a cast I couldn't resist (and certainly Russell has developed a reputation for great casts, regardless of what he does with them) in Bale, John David Washington, and Margot Robbie.  So when I saw the results for myself, I found myself with an instant personal favorite, which for me turned out to be a classic waiting to be discovered.

The leading factor in my evaluation is Bale's performance.  I haven't seen all of his films (much less some of his more famous, or infamous, ones in American Psycho and The Machinist), but he's long been a favorite, so I have a decent idea of his range, and certainly his willingness to transform himself for a role.  One of the great joys of following a career is seeing an actor age, and what they do with that.  Amsterdam is the first time I've seen him lean into his aging as part of the performance, not merely because the film covers more than a decade of time, but that instead of gaining or losing weight to inform a character, he gets to showcase how his face has changed over the years.  This time it's very much the hair that helps shape the look, a period style that accentuates the effect of seeing Bale look older.  Besides that, he gives an atypically lively performance, a comedic one that gives the film its voice.  I've read critics suggest there's no memorable dialogue in Amsterdam, and even if that were the case (which it is not), the pleasure of Bale's phrasing keeps things moving along nicely.  Too often we take for granted the mere acting, unless it's filling out a greater message, which Bale's does not.  All he does is set the tone.  This film, as a result, is very easy to watch.  It's unlike anything Russell has done before.  Even Clooney didn't get into his Golden Age act until well after Kings.

Washington, who was a breakout star in both BlacKkKlansman and Tenet, has his first real chance to shine on his own merits.  Putting aside my reservations of his physical appearance (how Spike Lee designed the distracting afro) in the former, and Christopher Nolan's patented ambition in the latter, in Amsterdam Washington has a part that rises or falls on its own, how he plays against other actors.  He couldn't ask for better partners than Bale and Robbie, both of whom could very easily swallow him whole if he couldn't keep up with them, but he can.  He's not his father, who commands effortlessly any scene he's in, sometimes with very little dialogue at all.  He doesn't even particularly look like Denzel Washington.  Clean-faced, he almost looks anonymous, but Amsterdam soon gives him a look to match Bale's, and the result is more proof that the man pulls off a beard as well as anyone ever has.  The undercurrent of race relations that never plays out in conflict with Bale or Robbie, or any other character who carries weight in the movie, is instead moved to subtext, a complementary commentary to the reasons for the conspiracy the characters unite against as they attempt to solve a murder mystery.

Probably the critics poopooed the movie since they feared it went against their chosen narrative of the present, a conspiracy plotted against FDR and therefore the country itself that perhaps suggests too closely the Trump debacle.  Whether you choose to interpret it that way isn't mandatary; like any good story it's merely a cautionary tale, and that becomes its second key selling point, a story with an actual point, and one that doesn't lose its compelling lead characters in the process, but rather one that gives them their weight.

There is of course Robbie rounding out the leads, and Hollywood has found another way to explain her volatile charm, like I, Tonya a movie asking you to sympathize with her despite the insane circumstances around her, which her other big 2022 movie, Babylon, didn't quite pull off, leaving the viewer to be lost mesmerized by the spectacle she inevitably creates, in very much the Harley Quinn way.  This girl was determined not to be just a pretty face.  She's the Brad Pitt of actresses, and Amsterdam is ultimate proof.

Rounding out the cast are Robert De Niro, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldana, Rami Malek, and of all people Mike Myers (who previously appeared with Robbie in Terminal), a small but crucial role deftly walking the tightrope between comedic and dramatic, evoking his appearance in Inglourious Basterds.

If The Batman hadn't pulled off a miracle by once again redefining its title character and thus further developing one of the modern era's defining fictional creations, I wouldn't hesitate to call Amsterdam the best film of 2022.  It is a masterpiece, and by all rights should have swept all the awards ceremonies.  Hopefully it'll be rediscovered in time.