The Official Review Thread of 2021

[anonymous1980]

BEING THE RICARDOS
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, JK Simmons, Nina Arianda, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jake Lacy.
Dir: Aaron Sorkin.

This is a biopic on Lucille Ball and her professional and personal relationship with Desi Arnaz chronicling their marriage through the week where Lucy was accused of being Communist during the height HUAC hearings. When I heard about this project and who got cast and who was working on it, I thought for sure it was gonna be a disaster. As it turns out, it's not! Yes, it's from Aaron Sorkin and it has all the Sorkin-y stuff that some people love and some people hate. But it still manages to be a very absorbing drama. It helps that I've actually never heard of this particular incident in the lives of Lucy and Desi so I was hooked. But it's the performances that make the movie. The cast, once derided in social media as poor choices when it was first announced, is actually quite stellar. Nicole Kidman is actually a great Lucille Ball and she's matched by Javier Bardem. But the supporting cast, particularly Tony Hale and Nina Arianda are great too. It won't be in my top 10 but it's a good movie.

Oscar Prospects: Acting only. But it's got a shot at Production and Costume Design.

Grade: B+

DON'T LOOK UP
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Jonah Hill, Rob Morgan, Mark Rylance, Timothee Chalamet, Tyler Perry, Ron Perlman, Himesh Patel, Melanie Lynskey, Ariana Grande, Scott Mescudi.
Dir: Adam McKay.

Two scientists try to warn the U.S. government of an impending extinction level comet headed towards Earth but their efforts to try and save the planet are undermined by fake news, stupid bureaucracy and self-serving billionaires. I wonder what writer-director Adam McKay is trying to say. Apparently, he doesn't think I, or anyone else, can get it so he spells it out for us with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. As I watch him, I can almost hear him patting himself on the back as he writes his script. There's very little nuance. It's all obvious low-hanging fruit. And this is coming from someone who agrees with his basic message. There are some sparks of interesting things here and there, a few laughs here and there and there are nice performance moments by the always game and stellar ensemble cast. But the script fails them. This one has more of everything I did not like about Adam McKay's two previous "serious" films.

Oscar Prospects: This should not get anything beyond music (Score and Song) or I'm gonna be pissed.

Grade: C-

[anonymous1980]

A BOY CALLED CHRISTMAS
Cast: Henry Lawfull, Toby Jones, Sally Hawkins, Kristen Wiig, Maggie Smith, Michiel Huisman, Zoe Colletti, Jim Broadbent, Joel Fry, voice of Stephen Merchant.
Dir: Gil Kenan.

A boy named Nikolas sometimes called "Christmas" journeys to find his father who is on a quest to find a legendary village where magical elves live. Yep, this is yet another Santa Claus origin story from Netflix. I decided to watch it since it is Christmas season and it got decent enough reviews. And it's pretty good. Even though it's not even the best film about the origin of Santa Claus that's available on Netflix (that would be Klaus), it is quite entertaining for not only kids. This is thanks to a surprisingly strong supporting A-list cast, a lot of whom are actually giving their all especially Sally Hawkins and Kristen Wiig. You could do far worse than turn this on Christmas morning with your kids.

Oscar Prospects: If eligible, an extreme long shot for Production and Costume Design.

Grade: B-

[Okri]

It's a really engrossing movie, though I don't recall it being too heavily into "climbing culture" as much as a tale of survival.

I saw it with a friend and the first portion of our post-film conversation was at which moment would we have given up.

[dws1982]

I actually haven't seen it, but I have access to it via one of my streamers so I may watch it tonight.

[Okri]

The Alpinist

Not sure if this will be on the Documentary shortlist or what the general reaction to it was, but a friend had mentioned it, and I recently resubscribed to Netflix to do some catch-up and this was on there, so I watched it. It turned out to be the 365th movie I watched this year, which is I think the first year I've logged that many. (I have some logs from 2008-11 somewhere but I've never counted.) Probably could've got there in early November at least, but my movie watching tailed off starting in August.

This movie never had a shot with me if I'm being honest, it's the exact kind of movie I hate, a nearly two-hour celebration of someone who I wouldn't want to spend five minutes with. It was the same thing that held me back with Free Solo (and Honnold makes an appearance as an interview subject here): it's not that it's a film about a culture (rock/mountain climbing) that I detest--and I genuinely hate climbing culture--it's that it never interrogates that culture, never pushes back against what I find to be genuinely gross and toxic about it, it consists of a lot of talking heads of people verbally high-fiving themselves or each other, hurtful things that the subject does are hand-waved as "he's a free spirit" when no, he's actually an asshole. Every climbing documentary I've seen is almost exactly the same in this respect, with one exception, one called The Summit about the 2008 K2 disaster. It's well shot like most climbing documentaries are, but it eventually reveals itself as something that probably should've been scrapped altogether (the reason why gets into spoiler territory), and honestly the subject would've been fine with that anyway.

I now need to know what you thought of Touching the Void.

[dws1982]

The Alpinist

Not sure if this will be on the Documentary shortlist or what the general reaction to it was, but a friend had mentioned it, and I recently resubscribed to Netflix to do some catch-up and this was on there, so I watched it. It turned out to be the 365th movie I watched this year, which is I think the first year I've logged that many. (I have some logs from 2008-11 somewhere but I've never counted.) Probably could've got there in early November at least, but my movie watching tailed off starting in August.

This movie never had a shot with me if I'm being honest, it's the exact kind of movie I hate, a nearly two-hour celebration of someone who I wouldn't want to spend five minutes with. It was the same thing that held me back with Free Solo (and Honnold makes an appearance as an interview subject here): it's not that it's a film about a culture (rock/mountain climbing) that I detest--and I genuinely hate climbing culture--it's that it never interrogates that culture, never pushes back against what I find to be genuinely gross and toxic about it, it consists of a lot of talking heads of people verbally high-fiving themselves or each other, hurtful things that the subject does are hand-waved as "he's a free spirit" when no, he's actually an asshole. Every climbing documentary I've seen is almost exactly the same in this respect, with one exception, one called The Summit about the 2008 K2 disaster. It's well shot like most climbing documentaries are, but it eventually reveals itself as something that probably should've been scrapped altogether (the reason why gets into spoiler territory), and honestly the subject would've been fine with that anyway.

[Reza]

but it also shouldn't be surprising that Gen Z-ers feel more of a connection to Tom Holland and Zendaya than Ansel Egort and Rachel Zegler.

I'm assuming you know exactly why that is so? Egort and Zegler are in the wrong movie. Make Egort wear a cape and a mask and have Zegler hang upside down from his toes while airborne and you will have every silly Gen Z-er buying popcorn and standing in line to watch them.

I'm taking my 14-year old nephew to watch Spiderman later today.

[Sabin]

Any other place on the internet would be flooded with posts about Spider-Man: No Way Home. It's already grossed more than any other movie of the year. It's a remarkable, almost unprecedented act of fan-service that in some ways has changed the industry, answering the question "Will audiences go to the movies during COVID?" Yes, for this. Yes, that's sad but it also shouldn't be surprising that Gen Z-ers feel more of a connection to Tom Holland and Zendaya than Ansel Egort and Rachel Zegler.

Anyway, I saw Spider-Man: No Way Home and... it's an MCU film. Which is to say it's basically television at this point. Each episode connects to the next one. If you're not on board at this point, don't bother. I mostly like Tom Holland's Spider-Man. My biggest issue with the films at this point has been the absence of a Power and Responsibility arc. Uncle Ben has been replaced by Uncle Tony [Stark]. But that's fixed in this one. On the other hand, it's up against impossible competition by Into the Spider-Verse. It has none of that film's soulfulness and singular identity. So, while I can't say that my expectations were high or low, I just sort of... watched it, had fun, and left.

I won't get into spoiler territory although I don't get the sense that anyone here on this board cares about this film. The quick summary is that Peter Parker's identity is out, he wants Doctor Strange to cast a spell to make everyone forget (for an un-selfish reason involving college admissions), everything goes flooey (because magic), and Spider-Man ends up fighting bad guys from the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield films. It's nice seeing Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus again. He was very good in that film, but it proved a double-edged sword because it made me reminisce about simpler times where a Spider-Man movie was just a fucking Spider-Man movie. At one moment, we learn there are no Avengers in their worlds and I thought "That must be nice." At this point, we are almost twenty years out from Bryan Singer's X-Men, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, and even Christopher Nolan's Batman, and those films clearly all play like a middle chapter between the first superhero films (Tim Burton's Batman, Richard Donner's Superman) and the franchise saturation we're in now. We were all on this board when those movies came out and mostly bemoaned them. I never thought I'd be nostalgic for them now. But watching this film, I kept thinking to myself about how lovely Spider-Man 2 was with Peter Parker in college, in love with Mary Jane but he can't tell her, and always late on rent... Fun stuff.

Anyway, Peter has to send all the bad guys back. BIG SPOILERS ensue. If you like Tom Holland Spider-Man films and the MCU, you'll like this. I watch too many of them to pretend like I don't. It's very competent fan service. We now have TWO competing Spider-Man Multiverse franchises. That's the kind of shit that honestly makes me wonder if I'm in a simulation.

[anonymous1980]

NO TIME TO DIE
Cast: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Lea Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, Jeffrey Wright, Lashana Lynch, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Christoph Waltz, Billy Magnussen, Ana de Armas, David Dencik, Lisa-Dorah Sonnet.
Dir: Cary Joji Fukunaga.

Daniel Craig's last outing as James Bond has him facing off against a villain planning to unleash a dangerous new weapon that could jeopardize humanity....again. This is a nice, fitting send-off for Daniel Craig's run as Bond...and if I'm not mistaken, I do believe he's the one Bond who actually has a continuous arc going on throughout his run and his adventures are not completely self-contained. I would rank this as a solid third best among the Craig Bonds and around the mid-tier among the franchise in general. There are some really good elements here. In her limited screen time, Ana de Armas has jumped to the near top of my list as among my favorite Bond girls. I'm not sure about Rami Malek's villain performance but it didn't ruin the film for me. I also wanna note Linus Sandgren's work here almost rivals Roger Deakins's. All in all, this is a solid action picture, solid Bond film entry.

Oscar Prospects: Sound, Visual Effects and Song.

Grade: B+

[flipp525]

I just watched CODA the other night and bawled my eyes out. I totally get all the love for Troy Kotsur now. He’s really great in it as is Marlee Marlin and Daniel Durant. Emilia Fox was fantastic too and should really be in the Best Actress conversation for that performance. And, wow, what a voice.

I can’t remember who mentioned it and where but someone asked why Simon Rex in Red Rocket wasn’t being taken more seriously. I had a dream recently that he would be nominated. I have a sixth sense (via dreams) and the last time I dreamt an Oscar outcome, it was Judi Dench’s win for Shakespeare in Love. So just putting that out there.

[danfrank]

Just watched Summer of Soul after seeing it lauded so much at year’s end. Once I found out what this documentary was about—long-buried footage from the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969—I knew I had to see it. It does not disappoint. In fact I was in heaven watching it. You may get less mileage if you’re not a particular fan of black music from this era. The concert footage is nicely integrated with commentary and other footage of what was going on in Harlem—and the Black community at large—at the time, both politically and culturally. The main attraction though is this incredible concert footage in which all these performers clearly feel they’re participating in something special. There’s also great footage of the crowd and it’s reactions, as well as great new material in which some of the performers view this footage for the first time in over 50 years. I could watch this over and over.

[danfrank]

Benedict Cumberbatch gives a career best performance as this brutal, possibly closeted, rancher.

[SPOILERS] Possibly? It’s definitive. In fact, the whole plot hinges on it. I agree with everything you said about it. It’s incredibly taut and beautifully crafted filmmaking, the kind of film that comes along so rarely. Its one (small) flaw is the plot point where the Kirsten Dunst character gives away the rawhides. It’s unclear how the kid’s scheme would have worked if that hadn’t occurred. Of course I still need to see a lot of this year’s films, but it’s difficult to imagine that there will be a better directed one this year. A Best Director Oscar for Jane Campion would be quite gratifying, and deserved.

[anonymous1980]

ETERNALS
Cast: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, Lia McHugh, Barry Keoghan, Lauren Ridloff, Don Lee, Kit Harington, Harish Patel, Bill Skarsgaard.
Dir: Chloe Zhao.

Immortal super beings called the Eternals arrive on Earth to protect the people from creatures called the Deviants. Now, the Deviants are back and the Eternals are called into action once again. You know what, I actually liked this one. I know it's been getting very mixed, to put it kindly, reviews from people. But this one, despite its quippy humor and references to Avengers and Thanos, seems very divorced from the MCU as a whole. It's also tackling themes that the other MCU films have yet to touch. This one is directed by Chloe Zhao and despite it being a rather more conventional narrative than her previous works and having CGI action scenes, manages to put her fingerprints on it, making it sometimes feel like a Terrence Malick film at times. Yes, I would still consider this mid-tier MCU but it's more interesting than a lot of people think it is.

Oscar Prospects: Visual Effects and Sound.

Grade: B+

THE POWER OF THE DOG
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Thomasin Mackenzie, Genevieve Lemon, Keith Carradine, Frances Conroy.
Dir: Jane Campion.

A ruthless rancher's life is turned upside down when his brother brings home a wife and her teenage son. He torments his new sister-in-law and develops an interesting relationship with his new nephew. Wow! Watching this film, I was pretty much at awe. This is from writer-director Jane Campion and I can tell this is a master filmmaker pretty much firing at all cylinders. Without giving away too much, this film is pretty much a critique on toxic masculinity and how it pretty much poisons everything it touches, as well as sexual repression. The cast is fantastic. Benedict Cumberbatch gives a career best performance as this brutal, possibly closeted, rancher. Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee all shine as well. The cinematography is breathtaking and Jonny Greenwood's score is fantastic as well. This is my favorite 2021 film so far, I have to say.

Oscar Prospects: Everything!

Grade: A

[Sabin]

CODA is a crowdpleaser that hits all the emotional beats. A bit too hard.

The material would tend to lend itself to a fairly satisfying emotional experience, if not a particularly revelatory one although one could hope. All the material is here: an unfamiliar character life, an unfamiliar setting, etc. All of this could work, and while bits and pieces work here and there, CODA doesn't work for me because of Sian Heder, the writer/director. Everything is written for the cheap seats (Save the Cat 101) except when it's not set up in a dramatically compelling way. Either way, everything is played for the cheap seats. I felt like I was watching the CW. I'm happy to credit the excellent directing choice to not subtitle the ASL as well as casting not hearing actors. IMO that is where the integrity stops. Let me give you an example. Emilia Jones plays Ruby, the only hearing daughter in a not hearing family. They fish and struggle to get by and Ruby has to interpret for them everywhere she goes. This is an unconventional family that plays by their own rules. We see a scene where she takes them to the doctor's office to diagnose why their crotches itch early on and she has to interpret things that a daughter shouldn't really have to hear. But that is her life. The best scene in the film is early on when the parents help her brother (who calls her "Saint Ruby") with Tinder at the table. If Heder wanted to make the choice to portray this household as overwhelming, exaggerated, and full of joie de vive, that would be a perfectly fine. One would think to contrast the scenes at home, the rest of the world might be played down a bit but that is not the case. The scenes are school are played like The CW and Eugenio Derbez as the music instructor gives a very broad performance as well. So, the whole movie just feels loud and broad. A byproduct of this choice is that I don't really get an opinion about what does it mean to live in a not hearing family. There are no human moments that desperately felt like human moments, just the drive of a script formula, which is a shame because it's such fertile ground for honest moments. We get a couple of good ones late in the film between Ruby's two parents and with Matlin and Jones that aren't subtitled.

I found CODA frustrating, but it's, y'know, fine. I find myself saying this more and more as I get older. One's sensitivity to Sundance plastic will determine one's enjoyment of the film. I didn't particularly care for CODA but I wouldn't have many qualms about recommending it to people with a few caveats. I suspect Oscar voters will enjoy it plenty depending on whether or not Apple gets their campaign going. I think the best way of knowing if CODA is connecting is how hard it connects with SAG. I could see that group going for it.

NOTE #1: There's a lot of singing at the end of the film. That's not really a spoiler. But there's something that Ruby does during one performance and not the other. It makes no sense why should do this at one performance and not the other.

NOTE #2: I just learned that Berkeley and Berklee are two different things.

[anonymous1980]

SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS
Cast: Simu Liu, Tony Leung, Awkwafina, Michelle Yeoh, Meng'er Zhang, Fala Chen, Ben Kingsley, Florian Munteneau, Benedict Wong.
Dir: Destin Daniel Crettin.

This is yet another entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe has Shang-Chi, a trained assassin who wants to leave that life, finds himself having to confront his father, the real "Mandarin." This pretty much follows the same time and audience tested formula that has been set up by Marvel but this time, it is given more of a martial arts and wuxia flavor to the proceedings. It is all very entertaining. I have to admit, I had a lot of fun. Simu Liu is serviceable as the lead. But I think the real stars are the great Tony Leung who gives this film his all enriching this popcorn fest with some much needed character and depth like what he does with his great Hong Kong films and Awkwafina who peppers her scenes with humor but also has a pretty good arc as well. I had no idea Ben Kingsley was in this and he was hilarious when he popped up. Overall, it's a midtier MCU flick, very enjoyable.

Oscar Prospects: Visual Effects and Sound.

Grade: B+

ENCANTO
Cast: Stephanie Beatriz, Maria Cecillia Botero, John Leguizamo, Mauro Castillo, Jessica Darrow, Angie Cepeda, Carolina Gaitan, Diane Guerrero, Wilmer Valderamma, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Ravi-Cabot Conyers, Maluma, Alan Tudyk (voices).
Dirs: Jared Bush and Byron Howard.

Disney's latest animated feature follows the Madrigal family, a family whose members each have special magical powers and abilities except for one, Mirabel. I was won over by the fantasy world building of this film from the start. There is a sense of wonder that comes with this world as well as some warmth, heart and humor. The film goes into rather surprising directions with its narrative in that, I don't know if this counts as a spoiler but it does not really have a conventional villain. It opts to explore theme of family relationships through the fantasy elements that actually works quite well. The voice cast is great and the songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda are catchy. Even though this is not my favorite animated feature of 2021, it's still a pretty great one.

Oscar Prospects: Animated Feature and Original Song.

Grade: B+