The Official Review Thread of 2021

[Franz Ferdinand]

It's not that these things are awful; they mostly achieve perfect mediocrity. But I'd say the lack of narrative imagination has slowly eroded their (young) audience's capacity for stories...to the point they can't cope with a film that doesn't slot them into such a comfortable "I recognize this plot" position.

I'm tending to find the opposite with my 8-year old; we have seen all these movies, and despite her easy access to them on Disney+, she is much more likely to fire up a Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli movie. I'm confident she's watched Spirited Away at least a dozen times by now and stuff like Howl's Moving Castle or Nausicaa gets frequent play recently. I ask if she wouldn't want to watch Encanto instead and she's not interested, almost as if there's nothing to really engage her in that empty movie.

[Okri]

My biggest issue with the Worst Person in the World is that I never quite bought that our two leads were from different generations/eras. Like, we're told he's too old for her from the start but I feel they miscast for that - Danielson Lie reads much younger than he is and Rensave reads her age. Both performers do have terrific chemistry so it goes a long way to making the film work and it's subject matter of figuring out who you are/where you want to go is always salient. The extended sequence between Aksel and Julie is exquisite work. Thought the ending was a bit of a whiff, though.

I don't think you're missing much, re Trier - I have seen all his features. They're not wastes of time (except maybe Louder than Bombs), but none are as good as Reprise or this one. That said, Sabin, I do hope you tackle more Farhadi films. The Past and The Salesman are really good movies.

[Mister Tee]

Because of a loan of a friend's Amazon Fire that had Disney+, coinciding with the nominations, I watched Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Raya and the Last Dragon, right after watching Encanto, and came to a quick (maybe obvious) conclusion: this sector of Hollywood is just making variations on the same movie. All three begin with some in-the-past family lore that created some big rift (generally while the narrator was a small child), then advance to the present, where that narrator has reached young adulthood and is ready to Fulfill His/Her Destiny by undoing the rift. The elements from there are inter-changeable -- two of these films have Awkwafina as comic relief; two have families (one human, one dragon) with individual magical powers (literally one in each controlling the weather); each has a character who either seems trustworthy but turns out not, or vice versa; and each has to battle an over-riding evil, that only our hero can stop.

It's not that these things are awful; they mostly achieve perfect mediocrity. But I'd say the lack of narrative imagination has slowly eroded their (young) audience's capacity for stories...to the point they can't cope with a film that doesn't slot them into such a comfortable "I recognize this plot" position.

Shang-Chi was of course only nominated for visual effects, and, sure...it's impressive enough in that area. If only one didn't have to plow through the movie to watch them.

[Sabin]

I didn't love The Worst Person in the World like I wanted to but it's a very nice, insightful movie about issues that I'm just a sucker for, like figuring out what your place in the world is. It's also (as has been pointed out on Letterboxd) one of the few truly modern romantic comedies to feature contemporary devices that didn't make me want to gag: a piece of writing going viral, screen addiction, etc. But it does these things in as low-concept a story as I've ever seen (a woman bounces between two men as she exits her twenties and enters her thirties) with storytelling devices as French as I've ever seen (12 chapters, a prologue, an epilogue, and voice-over). I was *GOING* to like this movie. Chapter Two is probably my favorite movie of the year, in which Julie and a then-stranger that she's flirting with at a wedding she's just crashed try to see how far they can go with each other without cheating. In many ways, it's the movie I've been waiting for Joachim Trier to make since Reprise (I've missed a few), but I do have a handful of reservations.

The biggest problem is I don't think Trier and his writing partner really figured Julie out. Renate Reinsve is outstanding but I don't think they figured much about her out besides "She's indecisive." She feels like a male gaze case study, which is made all the more clear by how much more specific Trier is in writing her two beaus. But what's worse is that they're never willing to really double-down on the one thing we know about her, which is that she is abrasively indecisive. This is something that can be quite funny at times. It's sad that a movie called The Worst Person in the World can't let her be... y'know. It's also a bit too long. More than a few scenes feel baggier than they should be and the late in the film pivot into a dramatic territory re: one of her beaus is fine in theory but it's too much of a tonal shift for too long a time. Frances Ha handled its heroine's coming-of-age in two-thirds the time but with twice the specificity. At it’s best, it’s a romantic comedy I’ve waited years for. At it’s worst, it’s a GAP ad. But do watch it. It’s well worth your time.

My sister flipped out though and couldn't have loved it more.

[Sabin]

A much better analysis of Encanto, Tee.

Mister Tee wrote
I think you could be right this'll win the Animated Feature prize...but that kind of depresses me. It's not like I adored The Mitchells vs. the Machines, but at least that's a bit different from the films the Disney gang have been tossing us in this category for two decades now. All the novelty of the Disney renaissance is gone for me (including most late PIXAR). I've come to dread the movies I need to watch for this category.

I haven't seen all the nominees but the last few years have been pretty dire (I enjoyed Spider-Verse). I'm certainly not excited for the Buzz Lightyear prequel-of-sorts due out this year.

The one development in feature animation that piques my interest is John Lasseter moving to Skydance Entertainment after being ousted by Disney (due to sexual misconduct charges). Lasseter was at the forefront of the PIXAR revolution and oversaw Disney's most recent renaissance with films like Frozen and Moana. Maybe he has another act in him. The animation marketplace is saturated but nothing is standing out as special.

[Mister Tee]

Encanto is an absolutely stunning film but it's just far too averse to conflict for my taste. The premise is fine. The Madrigals are a Columbian family at the center of a larger kingdom. They're notionally the royals. Each of them is given a gift of powers at a certain point, save for Maribel. There isn't really an opinion about the Maribels from the outsiders. Everyone is just generally pretty chill with them. One day, Maribel gets a vision of the Casita cracking and the powers going away, nobody listens to her, so she goes on a mission to save the magic. This mission basically is basically a journey bouncing her through the family album, with each family member getting a spotlight song, until the end where we learn a dark secret, everyone is closer, and the problem is resolved. It's very thin. There isn't really any conflict between Maribel and her sisters so the songs basically exist to bring them closer together. But they're all basically living on top of each other so that doesn't feel emotionally fulfilling. I understand why you don't want to showcase sisters fighting with each other in 2021 but by the end of the film I didn't feel like I had really seen a story. Nobody has any real problems or things they need to overcome. It's just a big, feature-length introduction to a family. It feels very personal, so I hate picking on it, but it didn't really work for me.

Really beautiful though. I think this is going to win the Oscar. I could see the olds in the Academy going for it.

I had a slightly different take -- agree there are narrative shortcomings, but didn't think they were obvious from the start. I thought they set a story in motion -- a story that was presumably going to eventually tell us what had happened with Bruno, and why Maribel (alone) was deprived of a Gift. I thought this plot was really going to kick in when Maribel and Bruno met; I assumed we were going to find out interesting things, that would unlock secrets of the family.

Instead, the film went splat in the final reel. We never really got very concrete (and certainly not interesting answers) to the Bruno/Maribel questions the movie'd been teasing us with for the first hour-plus. And the scenes after -- Maribel with the Perfect Sister, and the abuela -- were so bland and lightweight they made me feel I'd wasted my energy investing in the story. I don't disagree that the other family members were rather lightly drawn, but the big disappointment to me was the failure to come up with a third act that flowed from what had preceded. (For a brief moment, I entertained the notion the film might actually suggest Maribel was better getting away from a family that doesn't appreciate her, but of course I quickly remembered I was in Disney hands, and, instead, I'd get the usual pablum about family towering over everything.)

It's not all bad by any means. It looks quite good, and the tunes/numbers are mostly fine in the now-familiar Miranda way. I think you could be right this'll win the Animated Feature prize...but that kind of depresses me. It's not like I adored The Mitchells vs. the Machines, but at least that's a bit different from the films the Disney gang have been tossing us in this category for two decades now. All the novelty of the Disney renaissance is gone for me (including most late PIXAR). I've come to dread the movies I need to watch for this category.

[gunnar]

I haven't seen A Separation since 2011 but I still remember how I felt during the credits as the parents just waited. I knew I had seen the work of a master. I'm surprised to realize that he's released four films since and it's taken me ten years to watch another one of his films. I'm really sad about what that says about my priorities.

I plan to watch A Hero in the near future and expect to like it a lot. A Separation is still my favorite from Farhadi, but I liked About Elly and The Salesman almost as much. I plan to track down and watch The Past and some of his other works when I finish my current Oscar quest or maybe if I take a break from it.

[Sabin]

I haven't seen A Separation since 2011 but I still remember how I felt during the credits as the parents just waited. I knew I had seen the work of a master. I'm surprised to realize that he's released four films since and it's taken me ten years to watch another one of his films. I'm really sad about what that says about my priorities.

Anyway, A Hero is a good film but I was more impressed than moved by it. Rahim is a man temporarily released from a debtor's jail to settle his debt to his brother-in-law who becomes famous for a selfless act (returning a handbag of gold) while he is released. We know at the start that his action is not remotely selfless and merely an act of practicality that gets blown out of proportion, but what's so impressive about A Hero is how our sympathies towards Rahim rise and fall as we learn more about his past. It's Asghar Farhadi's take on a milkshake duck. It's a moving film about a little man who for a moment gets his moment to use a system that is largely indifferent towards his existence, and yet I can't pretend that I was more than impressed than moved by the film. I was never entirely sucked into the conflict. That said, the ending is perfectly done and very good.

It's a well-written film that I admire more than am enthusiastic about.

[Okri]

Okri wrote
Lol. Honestly, though, her understanding of children and childhood is pretty special. Even with some of her earlier works (Water Lillies, Tomboy), it's there.

I haven't seen her earlier films. I need to. I'm very impressed with her work thus far.

Did you like Petite Maman more than The Portrait of a Lady on Fire?

About the same, I think. If push came to shove, I'd choose the latter because I remember just how I felt in theatres seeing it - it makes a bigger impression on me. Clare Mathon's cinematography, the sound design and that ending packs a wallop.

[anonymous1980]

BELFAST
Cast: Jude Hill, Caitriona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench, Ciaran Hinds, Colin Morgan, Lewis McAskie.
Dir: Kenneth Branagh.

This is a semi-autobiographical film about a movie-loving young boy growing up in Belfast, Northern Ireland with his family during the late 1960's, when the Troubles was going on. This is a really good movie. Is it THE best movie of the year? No. Is it even one of the ten best movies of the year? Not really. It is well put-together, competently directed and extremely well-acted by a fine ensemble cast. It is sweet. It is warm. But not TOO sweet and warm. It is, again, a really good movie. I don't think it necessarily deserves awards (that said, there are worse films in the running for awards this year). It is a film I would watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon and be comforted by it. There are very nice moments here. But again, it is just a good movie. And sometimes being a good movie is enough.

Oscar Prospects: I personally wouldn't nominate this for anything but I think Caitriona Balfe is my favorite performance here.

Grade: B.

[Big Magilla]

HOUSE OF GUCCI
Cast: Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Salma Hayek, Jack Huston, Reeve Carney.
Dir: Ridley Scott.

Watchable but longer than it needed to be. Gaga is quite good, as are everyone else except Jared Leto who is just too painful for words.

Oscar Prospects: Gaga and whatever else they want to throw at it.

Grade: B

[anonymous1980]

THE TENDER BAR
Cast: Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan, Lily Rabe, Christopher Lloyd, Daniel Ranieri, Max Martini, Rhenzy Feliz, Brianna Middleton.
Dir: George Clooney.

Based on the memoir of writer JR Moehringer, this is about a young man who wants to become writer who comes of age under the guidance of his blue-collar uncle who works as a bartender. We have all seen this movie before. Dozens upon dozens of times. I don't know why there's a need to make this film. The film pretty much follows the same tropes we have seen from these types of films before. It borders on parody at this point. Yes, the performances are very nice. Ben Affleck is really good in this one but I don't think he's any more special than Lily Rabe who, at least in my opinion, is just as good. I wish they gave Christopher Lloyd more to do because it seemed like he would've given the film some life if given the chance. So it's not terrible but it's not great.

Oscar Prospects: Ben Affleck, I guess.

Grade: C+

THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
Cast: Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Bertie Carvel, Corey Hawkins, Alex Hassell, Brendan Gleeson, Kathryn Hunter, Harry Melling.
Dir: Joel Coen.

This is Joel (without Ethan) Coen's cinematic adaptation of the Scottish play by William Shakespeare about a warlord who with the encouragement of his wife, murders his way to the throne. This is my personal favorite of Shakespeare's works and I have seen practically every cinematic version out there and I know how this story goes. This manages to bring something fresh and new to the story. Bruno Delbonnel's beautiful cinematography and the minimalist production design gives it an otherworldly and yet also theatrical feel. Both Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand acquit themselves well in their roles but to me, the actors that stand out are Corey Hawkins as Macduff and especially Kathryn Hunter who is unforgettable as the Witches. Overall, a very good piece of work though not quite top-tier of the year for me.

Oscar Prospects: Denzel and the cinematography are sure to get in but I think Kathryn Hunter deserves a spot in Supporting Actress.

Grade: B+

[anonymous1980]

THE FRENCH DISPATCH
Cast: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Benicio Del Toro, Adrien Brody, Lea Seydoux, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Timothee Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, Stephen Park, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Christoph Waltz, Liev Schreiber, Saoirse Ronan, Elisabeth Moss, Jason Schwartzman, Fisher Stevens, Tony Revolori, Lois Smith, Bob Balaban, Henry Winkler, Hippolyte Girardot, Winston Ait Hellal, Anjelica Huston.
Dir: Wes Anderson.

This is the latest from writer-director Wes Anderson. It is an anthology film revolving around the French foreign bureau of a fictional American newspaper, the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun. The worst thing I can say about this film is that it's not as good as Wes Anderson's previous five films which, for me, are 5-star all-timers and 4 of them are in my blu-ray collection. But it's still a pretty darn great film. Yes, it's a very Wes Anderson-y film. If you do not like Wes Anderson or are growing tired of his style, this will definitely not change your mind but if you've been on board with him for most of his career, this is him doing what he does best. And for a Wes Anderson fan like me, very fun. It was funny but it has some surprising soul, depth and emotion to it. The large all-star ensemble cast are all game for his vision. Yep, sign me up for more of this. I'm not yet tired of it.

Oscar Prospects: It's too bad this isn't going to get more than Design nominations and Original Score.

Grade: A-

[Sabin]

Encanto is an absolutely stunning film but it's just far too averse to conflict for my taste. The premise is fine. The Madrigals are a Columbian family at the center of a larger kingdom. They're notionally the royals. Each of them is given a gift of powers at a certain point, save for Maribel. There isn't really an opinion about the Maribels from the outsiders. Everyone is just generally pretty chill with them. One day, Maribel gets a vision of the Casita cracking and the powers going away, nobody listens to her, so she goes on a mission to save the magic. This mission basically is basically a journey bouncing her through the family album, with each family member getting a spotlight song, until the end where we learn a dark secret, everyone is closer, and the problem is resolved. It's very thin. There isn't really any conflict between Maribel and her sisters so the songs basically exist to bring them closer together. But they're all basically living on top of each other so that doesn't feel emotionally fulfilling. I understand why you don't want to showcase sisters fighting with each other in 2021 but by the end of the film I didn't feel like I had really seen a story. Nobody has any real problems or things they need to overcome. It's just a big, feature-length introduction to a family. It feels very personal, so I hate picking on it, but it didn't really work for me.

Really beautiful though. I think this is going to win the Oscar. I could see the olds in the Academy going for it.

[Sabin]

Okri wrote
Lol. Honestly, though, her understanding of children and childhood is pretty special. Even with some of her earlier works (Water Lillies, Tomboy), it's there.

I haven't seen her earlier films. I need to. I'm very impressed with her work thus far.

Did you like Petite Maman more than The Portrait of a Lady on Fire?