Movie Review: ‘Shazam!’ is a Blast of Kinetic and Frequently Disturbing Superhero Fun

April 3, 2019

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CREDIT: Warner Bros.

Starring: Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Djimon Hounsou, Grace Fulton, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand, Faithe Herman, Cooper Andrews, Marta Milans

Director: David F. Sandberg

Running Time: 132 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Surprisingly Intense, Decently Scary Superhero Violence

Release Date: April 5, 2019

Shazam! harkens back to an era when superhero flicks, and the action-adventure genre generally, were legitimately scary. This is a movie in which a fair amount of people disintegrate, or get eaten by gargoyle-esque monsters, or get thrown out of windows hundreds of stories up. Seriously, this might set a record for most defenestrations in a PG-13 movie. I don’t mean to imply that the ostensibly family-friendly segment of the superhero genre has become otherwise toothless. The injuries and collateral damage are acknowledged in the likes of The Avengers (and overly fetishized in the likes of Man of Steel), but they are rarely this tangibly visceral. It’s been a while since the Penguin bit off someone’s nose in Batman Returns, but Shazam! has plenty of moments that are shocking on the same level, and that is mostly a good thing.

Those violent, sudden deaths hit as hard as they do because Shazam! is at first glance the height of boundless fun and bright colors. Its wish-fulfillment premise is that teenage boy Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is given the superpowers of an ancient wizard, which he accesses by shouting the title exclamation. This turns him into Zachary Levi in full-on beefcake form dressed in the most vibrant red and yellow with a lighting bolt on the front of his ensemble. Like most kids his age, Billy is nowhere near responsible enough to handle the weight of superherodom, which lends his adventures a “With great power comes great responsibility” vibe, but it’s a lot messier than the template set by Spider-Man. In his quest to exploit his powers for fame and fortune, Billy nearly kills a busful of people and panics so much in response that it is genuinely unclear if he can manage to fix his mistake and save them.

Lending a layer of tragedy to Shazam! is the fact that Billy and his main nemesis are both driven by an origin story of familial rejection. Billy was accidentally separated at a young age from his mother at a carnival, and he has spent the ensuing years running away from foster homes in an attempt to reunite with her. Meanwhile, Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong) grew up an emotionally abused outcast in his wealthy family. He was once considered a candidate to receive the Shazam powers, and he has spent decades attempting to rediscover the wizardly realm, primarily so that he can exact some extremely disproportionate revenge. It’s not too hard to imagine that in a parallel universe, Billy could grow up to be as terrifying as Thaddeus, but luckily he has the strength of his newest foster family to help carry him along. Amidst all the very real danger, Shazam! would very much like us to recognize the importance of a loving support system no matter what our level of superpowers.

Shazam! is Recommended If You Like: Spider-Man, Batman Returns, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Finger Lightning Bolts

Movie Review: ‘Peterloo’ Tracks the Unfolding of a Deadly Historical Domestic English Tragedy

April 3, 2019

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CREDIT: Simon Mein/Amazon Studios

Starring: Rory Kinnear, Maxine Peake, Pearce Quigley

Director: Mike Leigh

Running Time: 154 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for A Chaotic Deadly Scene Shot Fairly Tastefully

Release Date: April 5, 2019 (Limited)

I have two big takeaways from Peterloo:

  1. The working class has been fighting for its rights for hundreds of years and will probably continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
  2. The suffix “-loo” was the “-gate” of its time.

Neither of those conclusions really speak to whether or not Peterloo, the latest from English director Mike Leigh, is a good movie, so on that score, let me say the following. Rory Kinnear is a riveting speaker. The running time is about a two and a half hours, and it certainly covers a lot of territory, but it also somehow manages to end abruptly. And it manages to treat its title massacre tastefully without shying around from the bloody awfulness.

For those, like myself, who are not experts of nineteenth century British history, you may not be familiar with the Peterloo massacre and you may thus be surprised to discover just how deadly it was. In August 2019, a crowd of about 60,000-80,000 had gathered in Manchester to protest parliamentary reform. To handle the crowd, a cavalry was sent in, which led to eighteen deaths and hundreds of injuries. The film is mostly build up leading to the main event, and thus most scenes consist of people hashing out what direction this country’s society should be headed in, and how much they are willing to risk to make it happen. The working classes sound frustrated, but also perfectly reasonable. Really, they only want what everyone deserves. Meanwhile, the lords grumble, stoking unfounded fears of spreading “tyrannism.” Quite frankly, they sound awfully silly with their pomp and arrogance. I certainly agree with the points that Leigh is presenting. I hope most people do. Ultimately though, as a cinematic experience, Peterloo is adequate, but it could have been more rousing.

Peterloo is Recommended If You Like: The rights of the working class, 19th Century English society in all its variety

Grade: 3 out of 5 Rousing Speeches

SNL Love It/Keep It/Leave It: Sandra Oh/Tame Impala

March 31, 2019

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CREDIT: Megan Krause/NBC

Jeffrey Malone watches every new episode of Saturday Night Live and then organizes the sketches into the following categories: “Love It” (potentially Best of the Season-worthy), “Keep It” (perfectly adequate), or “Leave It” (in need of a rewrite, to say the least). Then he concludes with assessments of the host and musical guest.

Love It

Discover Card – There’s a current ad campaign about people reaching their doubles at customer service, and there’s a current hit horror movie about people being targeted by their doubles. Somebody at SNL made the connection and astutely decided, “Let’s mash ’em up!” And lo and behold, we have this hilarious commercial parody in which it turns out that the you’s of Discover Card are actually the Tethered of Us, and Ego Nwodim finally gets a showcase performance.

It’s good to know that everyone can be so wonderfully, specifically overwrought in the Test Prep sketch.

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This Is a Movie Review: Gloria Bell

March 29, 2019

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CREDIT: Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/A24

The message of Gloria Bell seems to be that you’re never too old to be emotionally immature. The Julianne Moore-portrayed title character might be a divorced grandmother, but she is obviously still deserving of love, and writer-director Sebastián Lelio is clearly more than happy to give her the space to go dancing and spread her wings. And the age-appropriate guys in her orbit know that she is quite a catch. The one that she spends most of her time with, John Turturro’s Arnold, is good company, but he also cannot handle the fact that she had love before him and that it is still a part of her life. Whenever he enters into emotionally challenging territory, he whines and moans and hides. Gloria makes an effort to cut him out of her life when he gets to be way too extra, but she has a chronic case of just-can’t-quit-you-itis. In a way, this movie is about Gloria learning to say yes by saying no, and on that score, it earns the exhilaration of playing Laura Branigan over the end credits.

I give Gloria Bell A Few Eye Rolls, a Thumbs Up, and a Bunch of Hugs.

Entertainment To-Do List: Week of 3/29/19

March 29, 2019

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CREDIT: NEON and VICE Films

Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.

Movies
–The Beach Bum (Theatrically Semi-Wide)
–Dumbo (Theatrically Nationwide)

TV
–Abby’s Series Premiere (March 28 on NBC) – I forgot to include this last week!
–Barry Season 2 Premiere (March 31 on HBO)
–The Twilight Zone Reboot Series Premiere (April 1 on CBS All Access) – Jordan Peele is at it again!
–The Last O.G. Season 2 Premiere (April 2 on TBS)

Movie Review: The Fly-on-the-Wall Documentary ‘The Brink’ Gets Up Close and Personal With the Dangerous and Anti-Entertaining Steve Bannon

March 28, 2019

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CREDIT: Magnolia Pictures

Starring: Steve Bannon

Director: Alison Klayman

Running Time: 90 Minutes

Rating: Unrated

Release Date: March 29, 2019 (Limited)

Steve Bannon is eminently convinced about the righteousness of his crusade. I make that conclusion based on how he generally carries himself and on how much access he gave to a documentarian who clearly does not believe in his cause. That open-door approach is a double-edged sword for Alison Klayman’s The Brink, though, as it allows for plenty of (potentially) illuminating footage, while also underscoring how unpleasant it is to spend an hour and a half with Bannon. While he does have his fans, he is objectively not an engaging personality.

The Brink follows Bannon’s efforts to spread his gospel of nationalism and economic populism throughout the United States and around the globe. What is most striking in this portrait, at least to me, is how much his supporters get excited when they are in his presence. It isn’t that I disagree with these people’s politics (although I definitely do), but rather, I am confounded by how much they do not know (or don’t believe) that Bannon is not known for his charm. Klayman’s fly-on-the-wall approach does not change this perception, although I will concede that if you spend enough time with Bannon, you can detect a sort of demented folksiness. The point of The Brink is to tease out the xenophobia inherent in his crusade, and it conveys that thesis effectively enough, but it is locked in a soulless yin-yang with its black hole of a subject that drains away much of the potential for audience catharsis.

The Brink is Recommended If You Like: Spending an hour and a half with an unmagnetic personality with dangerous ideas

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Torchbearers

Movie Review: ‘Dumbo’ Takes Flight on the Strength of Some Truly Captivating CGI

March 27, 2019

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CREDIT: Disney Enterprises

Starring: Colin Farrell, Danny DeVito, Nico Parker, Finley Hobbins, Michael Keaton, Eva Green, Alan Arkin

Director: Tim Burton

Running Time: 112 Minutes

Rating: PG for Steampunk-Style Circus-Based Peril and Implied PTSD

Release Date: March 29, 2019

CGI has become so commonplace in modern big-budget filmmaking that it is hard to be impressed anymore, even when there is clearly hundreds of millions of dollars worth of coding and manpower up on the screen. Correspondingly, the possibility of feeling a genuine connection with a computer-generated character often feels generally impossible. I would not expect that hurdle to be cleared by Disney’s live-action remake factory or late-era Tim Burton. But incredibly, the title baby pachyderm in Dumbo is one of the best CGI creations in a while. Ever, even. It usually seems that practical effects are necessary to create a spirit-filled non-human character, but this is something unique that could really only be achieved with digital technology. And it is amazingly quite soulful.

From the moment that Dumbo emerged from a pile of hay and looked up at everyone around him with his wonder-filled baby blues, I was enthralled. The magical floppy ears are just a bonus. But oh, what a bonus they are. Every single time that Dumbo took flight rendered me immediately choked up and awestruck. But as joyous as those moments are, I would have been won over by this little guy even he couldn’t fly. I loved seeing his eyes light up at the circus amusements (it’s the same thrill I get from watching YouTube videos of dogs who think that they’re people), especially the homage to the originals “Pink Elephants on Parade” done entirely through bubble form.

As for the human characters, and there are plenty of them, they mostly fill their roles admirably, but none are as unforgettable as Dumbo. Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins are delightful as a young brother-sister pair who have the closest connection to the beast, while Colin Farrell reliably pulls off the right emotional beats as their widowed father who lost an arm in World War I. Danny DeVito is right in his wheelhouse as a small-time circus ringmaster and owner who finds his full fatherly-protector spirit once he starts drawing in crowds like he’s never seen. He matches ambitions with Michael Keaton’s rival showman who wants to exploit Dumbo for his full wealth-generating potential. The message about the dehumanizing effects of capitalism is clear and welcome, though there could have been more room to explore a more complicated take on that theme. But ultimately, you can get away with a few minor disappointments if the main attraction is undeniably flying high.

Dumbo is Recommended If You Like: The original Dumbo, Cute animal videos, Batman Returns, A cameo from Michael Buffer (the “Let’s get ready to rumble!” guy)

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Feathers

Entertainment To-Do List: Week of 3/22/19

March 22, 2019

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CREDIT: John P. Johnson/FX Networks

Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.

Movies
–Us (Theatrically Nationwide)

TV
–Happy! Season 2 Premiere (March 27 on SyFy)
–Jane the Virgin Season 5 Premiere (March 27 on The CW) – Final season of one of TV’s best shows!
–What We Do in the Shadows Series Premiere (March 27 on FX)

Movie Review: Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’ is a Landmark Achievement in Doppelgänger-Based Horror

March 21, 2019

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CREDIT: Claudette Barius/Universal Pictures

Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Evan Alex, Shahadi Wright, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Anna Diop

Director: Jordan Peele

Running Time: 116 Minutes

Rating: R for Scissor-Based Bloody Violence and Semi-Euphemistic Drug Talk

Release Date: March 22, 2019

The appeal of Get Out, Jordan Peele’s first film, had a lot to do with its underlying social message, which declared: this is the horror of what it’s like to be a black person in America. Now his follow-up Us is luring crowds primarily on the promise of its scare tactics, which are based on the fundamentally unnerving premise of a family terrorized by a group of people who look exactly like them. There is another social metaphor wrapped up in this package, and there is a good chance that you will figure it out by the end, or that someone will point it out to you. It’s clear enough, without being thuddingly obvious. Other reviews might reveal that subtext, but I’ll leave it unsaid, because there is satisfaction to be had in going in cold and having it click for you.

While Peele’s films are driven by an urge to convince people to look deeper at the world around them, they also work confidently on a surface level. Us is a striking triumph of the marriage of craft and performance. It would have to be for us to accept a world in which a group of doppelgängers, known as “the Tethered,” speak in a mixture of indefinably accented English, clicks, and blood-curdling screams. Occasionally, there is a chaotic mix of horror and comedy butting up against each other not exactly comfortably, with the tension breaking perhaps one too many times. But Peele is working in such unprecedented territory that I am inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. The acting is impressive across the board, especially in terms of a risk-taking appetite. A great deal is asked of Lupita Nyong’o, as the mother of the main family and the leader of the Tethered. She gives the sort of performance that is some unholy mix of ridiculous and brilliant – it might be a great folly, or the best of the year, or both.

CREDIT: Claudette Barius/Universal Pictures

The conclusion explains the rise of the Tethered with a twist that at first struck me as nonsensical. My instinct was to scramble back and fill in some extra-textual details that would fix what seemed like a glaring mistake. But now that I have had time to reflect, I am choosing to embrace the absurdity. It fits with a world in which people are often irrational and not fully paying attention to all that is around them. There are so many opportunities for reflection within Us, and you may be surprised, and perhaps invigorated, by what you see.

Us is Recommended If You Like: Get Out, Funny Games, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Grade: 4 out of 5 Scissors

Movie Review: ‘Hotel Mumbai’ Dramatizes a Massive Tragedy Unflinchingly But With Only Fleeting Insight

March 20, 2019

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CREDIT: Mark Rogers/Bleecker Street

Starring: Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, Anupam Kher, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Jason Isaacs, Amandeep Singh

Director: Anthony Maras

Running Time: 125 Minutes

Rating: R for Constant Deadly Gunfire and Plenty of Profanity

Release Date: March 22, 2019 (Limited)

A lot of real-life historical tragedies have been dramatized on screen, but rarely has it felt as exploitative as it does in Hotel Mumbai. Part of that is due to the deadly nature of the attacks, in which hundreds of people were killed or injured by explosives and gunfire, often at close range. It is also attributable to director Anthony Maras’ decision to show so many of the deaths in graphic, bloody detail. The 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks that culminated at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel were indeed quite terrifying, but what does this dramatization illuminate besides reminding us that tragedies like this one have happened and that they are often fueled by religious extremism?

If there is to be anything valuable on offer here, it would presumably be about forging some sort of connection with the characters. And on that score, there are people that I care about and are rooting to make it out alive, but their stories are not especially unique. Among those with the most fully fleshed-out arcs, there is the guest (Armie Hammer) who is trying to protect his family, the hotel employee (Dev Patel) who is trying to make it home to his family, and the head chef (Anupam Kher) who rises up as a leader and comforter. These roles are well-acted, and some (if not all) are surely based on real people, but their stories do not say much beyond, “This is how certain people react to trauma.” But among the perpetrators (all young men who look to be in their early twenties) there is Imran (Amandeep Singh), who starts to question what he is fighting for as the mission drags on. That is where the real, complicated story is at, but alas, his personal crisis only gets a handful of moments, leaving Hotel Mumbai an endurance test without much to mentally grapple with after making it through.

Hotel Mumbai is Recommended If You Like: Witnessing trauma

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Casualties

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