2022 Capsule Reviews

The Batman

rating: *****

review: As unlikely as this is for me to believe, there are now two visionary depictions of Batman in the movies, The Dark Knight and The Batman.  By the final act, in which Batman realizes his idea of "being vengeance" ended up sending the wrong message, and instead choosing to rescue people in broad daylight, that's a quantum shift in the legacy of the character.  This is the kind of thing that matters when deciding to make yet another Batman movie.  Tim Burton's Batman made it okay to take the character seriously, and now Christopher Nolan and Matt Reeves have built on that, which to my mind makes it the most important film of the year.  The idea of the superhero has been one of the leading concepts of the past hundred years of pop culture.  Still done best with this one.

Amsterdam

rating: *****

review: The idea of the adult drama has suffered in recent decades as a popular phenomenon, but this David O. Russell all star ensemble is an excellent reminder of just how important it is to the art of film.  I would stack it up with anyone's idea of Hollywood classics.

The Banshees of Inisherin

rating: *****

review: Colin Farrell got another legitimate classic out of this reteaming with Martin McDonagh and Brendan Gleeson (after In Bruges saved his Hollywood reputation), though it's far darker and less kind to fingers in general.

Everything Everywhere All At Once

rating: *****

review: That this somehow actually won the Best Picture at the Oscars is a kind of miracle, but it's such an interesting and insightful movie, hopefully more people actually watch it as a result.

Three Thousand Years of Longing

rating: *****

review: Another miracle, though it's disappointing that hardly anyone seems to know it happened, even while George Miller, Tilda Swinton, and Idris Elba fired on all cylinders to make it.

Elvis

rating: *****

review: For decades, if Elvis made it into biopics at all they were either on TV or some minor productions, on the whole, they might as well not have happened.  This was a necessary thing, then, that nailed it.  Also, Tom Hanks in one of his character roles.  Not the first.  Probably the one most fans will point to in later years.

Nope

rating: *****

review: Jordan Peele earned himself the title of auteur with Get Out, but owns it with this ambitious meditation on strange phenomena (and other matters).

Top Gun: Maverick

rating: *****

review: Probably the single most telling success story of the year, one very view would have seen coming just a few years earlier, when it seemed Tom Cruise's popular career was over.  Instead he turns in a true classic sequel to one of his earliest and biggest hits.  This is how you know the death of cinema was greatly exaggerated.

Bullet Train

rating: *****

review: In college, at least when I went, there was an obsession with obtaining posters to plaster dorm walls, and one of the themes from the selections would be cult cinema.  I can't imagine Bullet Train not obtaining that status.  Brad Pitt had a whole renaissance year in 2022, and this was its peak.

Where the Crawdads Sing

rating: *****

review: The wide success of the popular novel in the early century led to an explosion of bookclubs to keep it going, which eventually led to the book on which this was based.  Eventually I was smart enough to read that book, and made the even better decision to watch the movie that resulted.  The emphasis on David Straitharn's supporting character, to my mind, makes it a classic.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

rating: ****

review: At this point it's a known fact that this series ended with Secrets, and it's really hard to believe that the studio didn't know it was going to make that call right at the start of production.  There was a hard pivot at just about every juncture, except most of the main characters returning and receiving a kind of closure, with an even bigger emphasis on Dumbledore than the last one.  As a fan of the series and franchise, I think it accomplished what it needed to, though it's still rough to think what might have been.

Avatar: The Way of Water

rating: ****

review: I don't think enough has been made of just how grand these films are as cinematic spectacles.  I mean, it's pretty much the whole point.  With the first one, after a while, people started to wonder why they cared so much, why it made so much money, and so they doubted the much-belated second one would be any kind of success.  But of course it was anyway.  And was just as astounding.  In storytelling, it's not overly special.  But it's pure movie magic.

After Yang

rating: ****

review: A much more quiet but still critical success for Colin Farrell.  There's a neat moment near the beginning where the family dances.  I like that bit.

The Outfit

rating: ****

review: After Waiting for the Barbarians, I became a fan of Mark Rylance, who pulls off another success with this unexpected suspense drama.

Breaking

rating: ****

review: Holy cow, what a spotlight for John Boyega!  In other decades he would've been showered with acting awards.  Somehow not in this one.

Marry Me

rating: ****

review: Jennifer Lopez hit a another popular peak in recent years, and this throwback to her biggest movie successes works, for me, as it happens to costar Owen Wilson, who's been a lowkey favorite of mine for years.

Uncharted

rating: ****

review: Made me actually like the pipsqueak who plays the modern Spider-Man.  A solid riff on what will forever be known as the Indiana Jones archetype.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

rating: ****

review: Jim Carrey declared he was done with acting after this.  If he really is, it's not a bad way to go.

Black Adam

rating: ****

review: People with nothing better to do have been having a field day with the box office failure of this one, saying it's the final nail in the coffin of Dwayne Johnson's popular career.  Most of them have barely any notion of what Johnson's career has actually looked like.  Well, anyway, I loved it.  I think it's an astonishing miracle it got made like this at all, much less the fact that it got made only because Johnson took the role.  

The Bad Guys

rating: ****

review: On Twitter (or whatever you'd like to call it these days), I have one of the creators of the cartoon strip Over the Hedge in my feed.  I bring this up because he's always trying to drum up support for a sequel to the animated film that resulted from it.  I figure The Bad Guys is destined for that kind of fate, a classic of a movie that maybe will never get the respect it's due, much less a sequel.  But it could play out differently!

Ambulance

rating: ****

review: It's kind of hard to believe now, but there was a time when Michael Bay was taken seriously as a filmmaker.  The Criterion Collection even added Armageddon to its highly selective catalog of mostly European cinema and American auteurs.  I haven't always overly interested in his career myself (still have yet to see Armageddon, even!), but I figured if anyone was capable of helping define the cinematic surge that was 2022, it was Bay.  I was right.  Good stuff.

The Contractor

rating: ****

review: A fine spotlight for Chris Pine, an action as well as character drama that allows him to showcase his strengths in both.

The Menu 

rating: ****

review: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, crazy social commentary...Whate else do you want served?

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

rating: ****

review: Unlike his last solo outing, Puss's belated second adventure leans back into his Shrek origins with more shenanigans and spoof characters.

Crimes of the Future

rating: ****

review: David Cronenberg showing up in a recurring role for Star Trek: Discovery was enough to convince me to have a look at Crimes, which was overly sensationalized (the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie received similar treatment) by sensitive viewers, when it's really a quiet drama about outsiders.

Don't Worry Darling

rating: ****

review: I am not remotely part of the critical cult of Florence Pugh, but this compelling cautionary tale from Olivia Wilde (now I get why Salman Rushdie was so interested in her; y'know, other than the obvious), which also gives Chris Pine a higher profile gig, a nice spotlight.  Harry Styles got the opposite of the Pugh treatment for no discernible reason.

The Lost City

rating: ***

review: This all star ensemble (Sandra Bullock! Channing Tatum! Daniel Radcliffe! even Brad Pitt in a supporting role!) is a fun ride.  I would've tweaked some things here and there.  Still kind of upset Pitt didn't have a bigger role.  Kind of stole the movie for me.  Fun fact!  Bullock and Tatum also both show up in Bullet Train.  Very weird.  Fairly certain they were completely different studios.

Ticket to Paradise

rating: ***

review: Nice to see George Clooney show up in something visible again (and it was also a minor hit!).  Not to par with his best movies, but certainly worth watching.  His costar Julia Roberts, she's worth noting probably, too.  Old school Hollywood definitely felt like asserting itself in 2022.

Moonfall

rating: ***

review: Another callback to the '90s!  It was like Independence Day all over again!

Death on the Nile

rating: ***

review: I read the book before watching the movie.  Usually I call hogwash the notion that the book is always better than the movie.  But I had a hard time forgetting how enjoyable the book was.  I adore Kenneth Branagh making these movies, though.  

Babylon

rating: ***

review: Here's Pitt again.  But it's really mostly just Margot Robbie doing her crazy routine in the most thoroughly old school Hollywood possible.  

Father Stu

rating: ***

review: I was surprised when I heard my dad say he enjoyed this one, since I thought it leaned a little heavily on Father Stu's pre-Catholic days.

Thor: Love and Thunder

rating: ***

review: For me a huge step up from Ragnorak, which everyone who saw it loved, and loathed this one.  You never can tell how these things will play out.  Best Thor movie, and very easily so for me.

The Forgiven

rating: ***

review: I wasn't actually much of a fan of Ralph Fiennes' prior career as a generally mopy movie star, and yet this is a callback to that, with the added bonus of Jessica Chastain joining along for the ride.

The Northman

rating: ***

review: Cult-like success convinced me to watch.  Generally worth it.

Clerks III

rating: ***

review: Haven't technically seen the other two.  Kevin Smith growing nostalgic works on its own.

The 355

rating: ***

review: An all-womens all star ensemble led by Jessica Chastain is probably well worth another look down the line despite being savagely dismissed on original release.

Beast

rating: ***

review: Idris Elba in a family drama highlighted by a vicious fight scene at the end with the eponymous lion.

Morbius

rating: ***

review: People have no idea how often they're manipulated by studios.  Disney is a terrible offender in this.  They hype up their product, and spread bad vibes for any and all competitors.  This isn't conspiracy.  It doesn't always work, too, especially when no one is really going to see a wide success coming.  But you get things like the constant mindless negativity for Sony's Morbius, which is admittedly already an improbable vehicle.  Better than any of the Blade movies ever were, anyway.  Once the machine gears up, people assume their poor opinions of something were self-generated.  Don't know what to tell ya.  Most of you don't work that hard to generate a reaction.  You agree with the consensus, even when it was somehow there before a movie like this was even released.  That's how it works.

Minions: The Rise of Gru

rating: ***

review: This sort of thing will work really well for kids, but for adults the charms of the original (Despicable Me, in case you forgot) suffer diminishing returns the more the series forgets that the whole point was to, y'know, redeem Gru...

Memory

rating: ***

review: A minor though interesting variation in the later Liam Neeson action canon, allowing the reality of his aging to inform some of the drama.

The Fabelmans

rating: ***

review: For me, Spielberg's career becomes increasingly sad as he desperately pleads for the approval of the Hollywood establishment.  This is the guy who redefined the establishment forty years ago.  He has no business worrying about such things.  And yet he does.

Jurassic World: Dominion

rating: ***

review: This is a whole franchise (going all the way back to Jurassic Park itself) that I've never really been overly invested in, and yet they keep making new movies, and so I have a look every now and then, and it's okay.  

Medieval 

rating: **

review: Gosh, I wish Ben Foster had held out for something a little better.

DC League of Superpets

rating: **

review: Will certainly be worth revisiting, but immediately seems to have been worth the trailer, which was really good, and not a whole lot more.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

rating: **

review: I think probably after it lost its original meta plot of Nicolas Cage appearing in a Quentin Tarantino film, I lost most of my actual interest.  But it's still nice that Cage clawed his way back into movie theaters thanks to whatever you want to call the finished results.

The King's Daughter

rating: **

review: Live action Disney that isn't Disney nor adapting any known Disney material.  So it's probably definitely something you can show the whole family and enjoy.  But not remember very clearly later.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

rating: *

review: To me, the definition of insulting is bothering to bring in a collection of cameo characters that you mindlessly slaughter to drive up the threat of the character who isn't even, in the final analysis, the main threat of the movie.  What a truly embarrassing statement on the current state of the MCU.  Astute readers will note I haven't seen all of the recent additions.  I really don't see the point.  Now they're just making it the same as the actual comics.  Which for me have also been widely skippable.  In order to prove their further relevance, they're becoming either further irreverent or mindlessly obsessed with counterfeit legacies.  What joy.

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.

2022 Box Office Top Ten

As of 4/9/23, according to Box Office Mojo, here’re the top grossing movies of 2022, both nationally and internationally:

US Box Office:

1. Top Gun: Maverick ($718 million) By far the biggest surprise of the year, Tom Cruise’s biggest blockbuster ever and his first unconnected to the Mission: Impossible films in years. Clearly audiences were ready to revisit the previous film. Strong X-Wing/ Star Wars vibes certainly don’t hurt.
2. Avatar: The Way of Water ($682 million) They say never bet against James Cameron, except every time he comes out with a new film that’s exactly what everyone does, and he still comes out with a blockbuster. The last one was a phenomenon more than a decade ago. 
3. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ($453 million) After the huge success of the previous entry in this franchise, this was a disappointment by comparison. Still the biggest superhero success of the year, at least nationally.
4. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($411 million) After the huge success of the last Spider-Man movie, audiences were primed for another superhero flick with surprise appearances, which this one had with a few (basically) throwaway cameos.
5. Jurassic World: Dominion ($376 million) The dinosaurs remained a huge draw in this franchise, wrapping up the sprawling saga.
6. Minions: The Rise of Gru ($369.6 million) The biggest family hit of the year was another prequel in the series begun with Despicable Me.
7. The Batman ($369.3 million) Technically the first “original” (not a sequel) hit on the list.
8. Thor: Love and Thunder ($343 million) Superhero fatigue started to settle in officially with this one, leaning into the same comedic formula of its cult favorite predecessor, failed to find a happy audience.
9. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 ($190 million) If you believe him, this is Jim Carrey’s last movie.
10. Black Adam ($168 million) Dwayne Johnson took years to get around to making this one. Thought it would be embraced as a game-changer for DC movies. The studio changed the game on him instead.

International Box Office:

1. Avatar: The Way of Water ($2.3 billion) The clear winner here was a little different.
2. Top Gun: Maverick ($1.4 billion) 
3. Jurassic World: Dominion ($1 billion)
4. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($955 million)
5. Minions: The Rise of Gru ($934 million)
6. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ($859 million)
7. The Batman ($770 million)
8. Thor: Love and Thunder ($760 million)
9. Water Gate Bridge ($626 million) Here’s China’s contribution.
10. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish ($480 million) The biggest gain on this list was the late entry in the Shrek franchise.

2022 Movies Viewed/ Ranked

Viewed/Ranked

1. The Batman
2. The Banshees of Inisherin
3. Everything Everywhere all at Once
4. Three Thousand Years of Longing
5. Elvis
6. Nope
7. Top Gun: Maverick
8. Bullet Train
9. Where the Crawdads Sing
10. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore 
11. Avatar: The Way of Water
12. After Yang
13. The Outfit
14. Breaking
15. Marry Me
16. Uncharted
17. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
18. Black Adam
19. The Bad Guys
20. Ambulance 
21. The Contractor 
22. Crimes of the Future
23. Don’t Worry Darling
24. The Lost City
25. Ticket to Paradise 
26. Moonfall
27. Death on the Nile
28. Father Stu
29. Thor: Love and Thunder
30. The Forgiven
31. The Northman
32. Clerks III
33. The 355
34. Morbius
35. Minions: The Rise of Gru
36. Medieval 
37. Memory
38. DC League of Superpets
39. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent 
40. The King’s Daughter
41. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 

Other Notable Releases

• Amsterdam 
• Armageddon Time
• Babylon 
• Beast
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
• The Black Phone
• Dog
• Empire of Light
• The Fabelmans
• Glass Onion
• Jurassic World: Dominion
• Lightyear
• Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
• The Menu
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
• Scream
• See How They Run
• Spoiler Alert
• Tár
• Till
• Vengeance
• The Whale
• The Woman King

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022) Review

rating: ****

the story: Grindelwald tries to trick his way to political power, with Dumbledore standing in the way.

review: I've been struggling with how to view this one since its theatrical release earlier this year.  I continued to struggle after reading the screenplay published last month.  A large part of this is that Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore was caught up in the continuing scandals surrounding J.K. Rowling, Ezra Miller, and Johnny Depp, which dampened interest in its predecessor, The Crimes of Grindelwald (which is otherwise my favorite movie in the Wizarding World cinematic saga, barring Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire).  Depp's legal hassles continued into production of Secrets, as so he was replaced as Grindelwald by Mads Mikkelsen, and Rowling, previously lone scripter of the Fantastic Beasts films, was joined by Harry Potter veteran screenwriter Steve Kloves.  After being unabashedly wowed by Crimes, I knew I wasn't with Secrets on first viewing, and second viewing didn't change that, and reading the screenplay didn't, and I began to wonder, were my reservations justified?  Or was this simply a different movie experience?

I kept trying.  Eventually my conclusion was that this is perhaps the first film in the saga where the human drama is more important than the wizarding drama.  I understood this on one level.  It's the first time the material has acknowledged what had previously only existed in Rowling's tweets, that Dumbledore is gay, and his relationship with Grindelwald is complicated by that, and by extension, his ability to fight him.

The film opens with a quiet conversation between them, in which Dumbledore explains that he has moved past their youthful ideas, and this offends Grindelwald, because of course he hasn't, and has become a notorious figure in the wizarding community as he presses on with them.  The conversation, and the film, and the series (this is Dumbledore's second appearance in them, after Crimes), still ignores how Dumbledore could ever have shared them, except by extension through the complicated nature of his sister Ariana, and her death, which ties into the character of Credence Barebone, whose story began in the first film, and whose true lineage was revealed in Crimes, but explained here in Secrets: he's Aberforth Dumbledore's son.  Dumbledore is his uncle.

Grindelwald has been manipulating Credence, as we saw him operating throughout Crimes.  He trades on fear in order to achieve his goals.  He also won Queenie Goldstein to his side last film, shattering a relationship with muggle baker Jacob Kowalski.  Dumbledore maneuvers against Grindelwald as best he can throughout Secrets.  He recruits Jacob, an unlikely ally as ever, as well as the Scamander brothers, Newt and Theseus, as well as others.

Newt was ostensibly the star of these films, certainly in the first one, until Dumbledore appeared in Crimes and then dominated Secrets.  And it might seem as if Newt indeed takes a definitive backseat, here, especially with the near absence of Tina Goldstein, the American wizard he fell in love with previously (some reports are that Katherine Waterston's participation was diminished, this time, due to her stance against Rowling).

And yet his unabashed enthusiasm for the title beasts, and his otherwise bashful demeanor, remain the heart of these films, as he gets to spend time with his brother as an actual colleague for the first time, which along with Jacob and Queenie and learning the truth of Credence's existence moves original stories from the first film along nicely.  Newt and Theseus have the best sequence of the film as they enact another of Newt's trademark beast-centric performances, this time scuttling like a crab.

Eddie Redmayne's star has dimmed in recent years.  I'm hard-pressed to think of his work outside these films, and yet the films themselves remain clearly affectionate of his unique charms.  Callum Turner, as Theseus, has become a more distinguished actor (for me, anyway, as I discovered in Emma.), so it's nice to see him in an expanded role.  Alison Sudol has been a standout as Queenie from the start, and I doubt anyone could've been more quintessentially American for the time period than Dan Fogler's Jacob, who has threatened to steal all of the movies.

But is there any real doubt that Jude Law's Dumbledore is the center of Secrets?  He had better be, getting his name in the title!  By the time Dumbledore and Grindelwald duel, we've seen Dumbledore do everything possible to avoid that moment.  When it's suggested he become the new leader of the wizarding community, the moment becomes the heart of how to interpret the movie around it.  No attention is called to Dumbledore, until he's pulled from a crowd as it happens, and he talks his way out of it, the way Harry Potter once convinced the Sorting Hat to place him in Gryffindor, and the moment passes.  No one argues the point.  No one draws attention to him at all.  It happens.  And the story moves on.

How to interpret it, and the whole film, rests on how comfortable you are with the rapid ascent of Grindelwald, and his just as rapid descent.  As viewers we're privy to nearly every beat of how this is accomplished, so relentlessly, throughout the movie.  The opening scene of Crimes was said to be distractedly dizzying, when Grindelwald breaks out of prison, and yet this is a whole movie in which, to accomplish what it needs to, the viewer has to accept two hours of logic that makes internal sense, and yet also feels as if, in a different reality, would have played out over several films.  Possibly.  The studio has been expressing doubt for years.  I follow a website that breathlessly reported every negative aspect of production, cheering on the possibility of failure.  Was this what it was always supposed to be?

And perhaps so.  This is what we never got to see with Voldemort, after all.  The other arcs feel so natural, this must always have been in the cards, surely?  Crimes ends dramatically with Grindelwald having split the wizarding community in half.  Secrets suggests winning the right allies makes even the impossible possible (from criminal to candidate, which even the Star Wars prequels didn't dare attempt; Palpatine appears the innocent even after his drastic transformation).

And...the more I live with this, the more comfortable.  At no point does the film dwell on Grindelwald as a real threat, except as Dumbledore's opposite number.  This is all supposed to build (like the Star Wars prequels) to a legendary duel, against which the one that happens in Secrets is mere prelude.  In some respects, there are notes in Secrets that feel like a possible concluding note (Jacob and Queenie marrying), should the studio decide to end the series early.  And yet Dumbledore acknowledges Newt as a valuable ally, even as Grindelwald has lost his (Credence, whose arc concludes here, too), which ought to sound...ominous.  The fight isn't over.  Grindelwald only becomes more dangerous, once more on the loose, nothing left to lose, and he has already endlessly proven his inventive resilience.  

The conclusion, for me, of how to view Secrets of Dumbledore is as a quiet success, in much the character of Newt himself, watching as all the drama around him boils down to Dumbledore and Grindelwald, as they're forced to confront the reality that they will one day have to fight each other.  Forget everyone else, every thing else.  This really does hinge on that conversation, at the start of the film.  And that's actually refreshing.

The Contractor (2022) Review

rating: ****

the story: A Green Beret is drummed out of the service, but ends up right back in the thick of it anyway.

review: Quite unexpectedly, a spiritual sequel to Hell or High Water.  Chris Pine stars as the Green Beret, who ends up drafted into a black ops outfit, although the results are less military maneuvering and more a spy game, in which Pine discovers he can't trust the outfit that recruited him.  Along the way, he's got to figure out if he can trust a colleague played by Ben Foster, his costar in High Water, which ought to be considered one of the key selling points of The Contractor.

Pine's charisma was a little long in coming to be recognized by filmmakers, but eventually, with his casting as Kirk in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot, he at last became a movie star, and yet it ended up becoming a recurring problem: directors still had a hard time figuring out what to do with him.  Hell or High Water found a perfect fit, the rare antihero (a bank robber) who was actually sympathetic, a response to the Great Recession that cast the whole idea back to the feel of the Great Depression, or even Robin Hood.  Foster was the unambiguously less sympathetic cohort then, and he is again here, although he has a better shot at redeeming himself this time around.  Less so Kiefer Sutherland, in a rare bid to reclaim some of the shine he himself earned somewhat belatedly in the TV series 24, cast squarely as the villain.  Eddie Marsan, whose career often veers between such roles, has one of his welcome turns among the angels, although it's an unfortunately brief one, while Gillian Jacobs has a similarly thankless nod as Pine's wife.

But the compromise is worth it, as The Contractor works best as an atmospheric tour of Pine's troubles, spending little time worrying about things like dialogue, as he struggles along the labyrinth of doubt, accented frequently by the bum knee he needs to periodically inject just to keep functioning.  This is an aging action hero, after all, forced to control uncomfortable realities at every turn.

I think, given time, the results will garner greater interest, if only as a companion to Pine and Foster's previous work together.  At the moment it needs struggle against a shifting market, between a box office that is increasingly geared almost exclusively to big budget blockbusters and streaming services either desperately competing for the same aesthetic or proudly boasting the opposite, with everything else in between being ignored, such as the notion that movie stars exist and can carry their own material, same as they ever did.  

And Chris Pine, despite every adversity, is still standing, thank you.