Review by Camden Ferrell
Chris Appelhans has spent his career working on successful animated films, but now he is debuting as a writer and director with his newest film. Wish Dragon is a new animated film from Sony Pictures Animation who recently found success with their film The Mitchells vs. the Machines. While its premise is far too familiar and predictable, there’s ultimately a strong message at its core that young audiences will enjoy.
Din is a working-class student who has aspirations, but he lacks the financial means to do anything besides live in his mom’s small apartment where he grew up. However, he finds an old teapot which contains a spectacular dragon that can grant him wishes. Together, Din goes on an adventure to reconnect with his long-lost friend Li Na. Right off the bat, it’s obvious that this bears a lot of similarities to stories like Aladdin. This is especially obvious in the way the movie tackles social class and the differences between families with different means. It has a wise-cracking wish-maker who tries to help a young man connect with someone much richer than he is. This is a tried and tested formula, but this familiarity also proves to be one of the film’s biggest flaws. While Jimmy Wong gives a decent performance as Din, the best voice performance easily goes to John Cho who plays the dragon, Long. Cho has some good comedic timing, and while he doesn’t quite reach the caliber of Robin Williams in Aladdin, his performance is still enjoyably silly. Even though it should be commonplace, I will give the film credit for making it a point to cast actors of Chinese descent in order to enrich the movie further.
The film has some funny moments in its script, but the writing can feel painfully bland at times. There are some good physical gags and moments of comedy, but the dialogue doesn’t do anything particularly impressive. It’s not particularly funny, and it just exists to slow progress through the very derivative plot.
Even though it may not be original or consistently funny, there are some valuable lessons and messages for young audiences. The movie analyzes the importance of friendship, regret, greed, and what is worth fighting for. These are common concepts in films, but these are still important things for young audiences to learn, and the film succeeds in conveying these ideas. The movie also benefits from its Shanghai setting which creates a world immersed in Chinese culture. Regardless of how bland it can be, it’s refreshing to see mainstream animated films embrace different cultures to create unique experiences. Wish Dragon may not be the captivating spiritual successor to Aladdin as one might hope, but it does have some redeeming qualities. There are some funny moments and great lessons for young audiences, and it’s an option worth considering for family movie night even if adults may have a hard time connecting with it. Wish Dragon is available on Netflix June 11. Rating: 3/5
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Review by Dan Skip Allen
Awake is the latest physiological horror movie from Netflix. They have been doing a great job releasing these types of under-the-radar films over the past decade or so. It's been part of their modus operandi. They tend to get newer filmmakers and pair them with established stars, which results in mixed success. In Awake, the pairing of Gina Rodriguez and Mark Raso works.
Jill (Gina Rodriguez) is a former soldier, now a security guard. She's the mother of two children, Matilda (Ariana Goldblatt, In the Heights) and Noah. While she's picking them up a crazy electro pulse takes out all the electricity in the country. It causes everybody to have long-term insomnia. Her daughter may be the cure though to save the population of the country. Getting her to those who can help them is the key, though. Rodriguez has been getting some of these types of roles recently where she is in a position of strife. She's been getting this action stuff and she's good at it. Rodriguez is starting to feel at home in these roles. It's a far cry from Jane the Virgin. Besides her, there are some other notable actors in prominent roles. Finn Jones plays a man who might have the answers to why Matilda could be the cure to this crazy scenario. Barry Pepper plays a preacher who tries to get people to pray for an answer. Shamier Anderson plays a prisoner who escapes and helps Rodriguez and her family to the Hub, the location where the cure can be found.
Awake has an interesting premise and also quite a few action sequences in it. Rodriguez and her children go through a massive ordeal to get to the Hub. People are trying to kill them left and right. Insomnia keeps people from sleeping which in turn causes them to lose their judgment and do crazy things. They just can't think properly without a good amount of sleep. This is the tie that binds the plot together in the end.
The film has a pretty good look to it as well. The cinematography by Alan Poon is pretty good. I've said before that films need a lived-in look to capture the reality of the world the characters are living in. Awake has that in spades. It makes the film look real where this scenario could actually happen in real life. With technology the way it is, who knows, maybe some disgruntled country could figure out how to disable the country using an electric pulse. It's very plausible. Similar to Bird Box in a way, Awake has the main characters go on a mission to save humanity from itself. The film is set in a realistic world where this could happen and the reactions from the people in the film are on par with how you'd think people would act in a situation like this. If people go get all the toilet paper and bottled water when an oil pipeline shuts down, who knows what they're capable of in a scenario like this one. Awake hits Netflix on June 9. Rating: 3.5/5
Review by Camden Ferrell
The Florida Man has been a widely known meme for the better part of a decade. It usually pertains to an odd crime or circumstance involving somebody in Florida, and the feature film debut of writer/director Tyler Falbo captures this essence brilliantly. Postal is an absurd and fast-paced comedy that showcases a brand-new artistic talent despite its forgivable flaws.
This film is based on a true story that occurred in Jacksonville in 2017. Phillip Tress is a hopeless romantic who buys an engagement ring in order to propose to the girl of his dreams on his trip to Hawaii. However, the shipping company is unable to get him his package on time for his flight. Once he calls customer service for assistance, his life begins to unravel in increasingly berserk ways. This lesser-known Florida Man story is very interesting and serves as a fun premise for the film. Falbo’s screenplay is unhinged to a fault. While this style of writing is great for the frenzied story it’s telling, it can sometimes lose control and focus. However, this is a minor problem, and this dialogue-heavy screenplay manages to maintain interest and mystery over its runtime. It’s not particularly insightful, but it’s a fun and energetically written screenplay. Michael Shenefelt leads the film as Phillip, and he gives a fairly strong job as the unpredictably impulsive character. He understands the craziness of the premise, and he doubles down on that in his performance. It’s not perfect, but it’s promising, and show some great comedic chemistry with co-star Eric Vega who is a fun addition to the film.
To the film’s credit, Falbo does not waste a single second in his debut. Every scene and line of dialogue serves a purpose. It’s tightly constructed and doesn’t have any slow moments. He impressively maintains momentum throughout, and he manages to deliver a fairly somber ending. As much as we love to laugh and be shocked by these stories, there’s a melancholy human aspect that’s present, and Falbo managed to capture this without undermining the comedy in his movie.
There’s a lot of promising aspects in this film, but there are still some areas in which the film struggles. In certain scenes, it almost feels like there’s too much happening in terms of cinematography. While most of the framing and movement of the camera is necessary, there are moments where the camerawork is aggressive to a fault. In addition to this, even though its pacing is strong, there are a lot of edits and transitions that draw too much attention to themselves. It seems very much like techniques that are flashy but not quite essential. These are more stylistic details with which I took fault, but for better or worse, it certainly seems like Falbo executed his vision effectively. Postal is a fun and extremely promising debut that deserves some credit and attention. It takes a little known but still engaging Florida Man story and adapts it into 80 minutes of fast-paced physical comedy. It may not be for everyone, but it’s worth checking out. Postal is available on VOD June 8. Rating: 3.5/5
Review by Sean Boelman
Recent years have seen the lost films of master filmmakers being rediscovered: Orson Welles, Sydney Pollack, and more. The late George A. Romero can now be added to that list with The Amusement Park, a characteristically unnerving psychological horror picture despite its propagandized origins.
Commissioned as a public service announcement about elderly abuse and ageism but going unreleased for decades as a result of its disturbing nature, the movie follows an elderly man whose seemingly idyllic day at an amusement park soon turns into a waking nightmare. It’s probably the most intricate PSA ever made, but one would expect no less from Romero. As always, Romero does an amazing job of creating a sense of overwhelming dread within the film. From the first moments, the audience will be taken over by anxiety, not so much from what they see, but what they feel. This is definitely more of a mood and atmosphere piece than something based around visual scares, and it’s very effective as such. Admittedly, there isn’t much subtlety when it comes to the movie’s themes. Since this is a commissioned piece, it’s made clear from the beginning what the message of the film is. Introduction and epilogue speeches basically spell out to the audience the meaning of what they are about to watch or just witnessed, respectively, but that doesn’t make it any less horrifying in the moment.
The script by Wally Cook does some very interesting things with characterization, and even though they can’t all be fully explored in the movie’s mere fifty-two minute runtime, it leaves some intriguing questions to linger in the viewer’s mind. It definitely would have been nice to see these concepts explored in a longer form, but horror fans will be overjoyed to get the opportunity to see it in any state.
The cast is made up mostly of non-professional actors or actors who have limited experience at best, and yet the quality of performances is much greater than that of most modern horror flicks. Had this film been released as intended, lead actor Lincoln Maazel may have had a massive breakout, as his turn is absolutely brilliant and horrifying. Romero uses the amusement park setting to his advantage, creating some wonderful juxtaposition between the supposedly fun environment and the terror of what is happening. And of course, when Romero goes all-in on the surrealist aspects of the world, it creates a brilliant nightmare-like state. The Amusement Park is an absolute must-see for anyone who calls themselves a fan of the horror genre. Many likely thought that they would never get to experience another movie from the great filmmaker, and this is an excellent post script to his storied filmography. The Amusement Park streams on Shudder beginning June 8. Rating: 4/5
Review by Sean Boelman
The Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo brought with it a renewed interest in movies about extreme sports athletes, and Super Frenchie is the latest attempt to tap into that audience. The film has all the makings of a compelling story, but filmmaker Chase Ogden’s approach is a bit too conventional and shallow for it to resonate.
The movie follows BASE jumper Matthias Giraud as his dangerous passion begins to be fundamentally at odds with his obligations to his family. Copying from the book of Free Solo, this film is presented in a way that makes it much less about BASE jumping and more about the person who does it, with an emphasis on the portions of his story that are universally resonant. Since the movie is under an hour and twenty minutes in length, it feels as if everything in the story is being rushed. There is enough of a story here to be explored over the course of a documentary that is ten to twenty minutes longer. As is, it feels like Ogden included the bare minimum level of detail to make the film function. If Ogden does do one thing very well, it is capturing Giraud’s personality. Through interviews and footage of him jumping, Giraud’s charm really shines through. Admittedly, his arc of being torn between what he wants and what he needs is a common one and certain things that happen to it make it feel even more conventional.
However, one of the things that Ogden fails to do is raise the stakes effectively. Interviews with Giraud’s family make it clear what he has to lose, but the movie doesn’t stress how he is going to lose it. Even when tragedy strikes, it feels like just another obstacle for Giraud to overcome, not a looming sense of danger.
A lot of the emotional beats in the film also feel like they are aiming for low-hanging fruit. Of course the audience is going to sympathize with the pleas of a mother asking for the father of her child to stop putting himself at risk, but the movie doesn’t give us enough a reason to connect with the story beyond these basic appeals to our humanity. Since the film’s focus is more on the family-driven side of this story, there aren’t as many scenes of Giraud jumping as one would expect to see. However, when they are shown, these clips aren’t particularly exhilarating due to basic editing. At least the mountainous backgrounds are gorgeous to see. Super Frenchie is good enough as a documentary, but it too often feels like it was made just to meet that lowest level of expectation. Filmmakers need to stop trying to replicate the success of other documentaries and just tell their own story in a cinematic way. Super Frenchie is now in theaters and on VOD. Rating: 3/5
Review by Dan Skip Allen
It's always interesting to see films about discovering new lands throughout history. History is full of these types of stories. The people and places they discover are of some historical record. It makes sense that people would make films about men and women and the different places they discover. In the case of Edge of the World, it focuses on the discovery and colonization of Borneo, an island in the South Pacific completely covered by jungle.
James Brooke (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a soldier for the British Empire under the reign of Queen Victoria. He's also an adventurer. He goes around exploring far-off lands in the hope of colonizing them and bringing what indigenous life resides to the place he discovers under the rule of Queen Victoria. At this point in history, there weren't a whole lot of places that had not been discovered and colonized by the British Empire. Borneo had two warring factions that lived there already when Brooke landed on its shores. Brooke would go on to defy the British Empire and rule over this jungle. He would befriend the Rajah and fight against piracy, headhunting, and slavery. He even married one of the indigenous women. He struggled to make a home for himself but eventually became ruler over these third-world people in the 1840s. It wasn't an easy task but the natives eventually embraced him as their leader. Brooke is a famous literary character in his own right. He is inspired by the stories of Lord Jim starring Peter O'Toole and The Man Who Would Be King starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine. Edge of the World, though, is a more gritty take on his story in the vein of Apocalypse Now. The military officer becomes the ruler of a native people in a jungle.
Edge of the World is a fine retelling of Brooke's story it's just not great. It drags a lot. It just feels like this story takes too long to get to its conclusion. Dominic Monaghan is fine as Crookshanks. The rest of the supporting cast is pretty forgettable. This is Rhys Meyers's film as Brooke. He just seems to be a one-note character. He has one scene towards the end of the film where gets to flex his acting muscles. Other than that, he wasn't that entertaining in the film.
The plot was pretty basic as well. It never really gripped me on the plight of Brooke, his fellow travelers, or his new role as ruler of these people. The film had a little bit of light when it focused on the relationship between Brooke and his new wife. Other than that the film was pretty bland. Stories like these need to be big and loud and adventurous. This film and story is none of that. Edge of the World tried to make Jonathan Rhys Meyers a leading man and it fails in that regard. He's a one-note character that isn't that interesting. The relationship between him and his wife had potential, though. The film was just too long and too boring. There wasn't much adventure for a man who was an adventurer. This film failed on multiple levels and it's sad because it had the bones of something that could have been good. Edge of the World is now available on VOD. Rating: 1.5/5 A dreamy, plotless year in the life, Stop-Zemlia creates an otherworldly parallel reality of the end of adolescence, blending suspended fantasy of the teenage existence created by idealisation, and the near-documentary realism of its naturalistic structure, The Ukranian film is light on exposition, instead choosing a fluid approach to structure, blending past, present, and future in a thoroughly modern coming of age. Where the film falls short is not its lack of structure, but its lack of focus, flitting between a lot of serious mental health topics to the point it feels odd these are left unspoken. Masha (Maria Fedorchenko) is feeling every emotion all at once. She and her best friends Yana (Yana Isienko) and Senia (Arsenii Markov) often have sleepovers all sharing her bed, a natural closeness they don’t realize is going to leave their lives when they grow. Her attraction to Sasha (Oleksandr Ivanov), and a mysterious admirer on Instagram she often confesses to are both hard for her to define, and she is well aware of how messy feelings can be when young. While somewhat fiction, Stop-Zemlia more closely resembles Sébastien Lifshitz’s documentary Adolescentes than the early comparisons to Euphoria it has received. The non-professional actors lead these characters to be played just like teenagers living their lives, so the film feels documentarian as they’re hardly fiction. Of course, anything with teenagers, bisexuality, and pastel-llit parties tends to receive the latter analogue nowadays. Where the film falls short is that director Kateryna Gornostai has fallen in love with her characters deeper than we ever could. Though two hours is a short time to encapsulate a year of life, even at a time when growing up feels so hurried, this feels like nothing was cut from every idea for a scene that was thrown around. While some scenes — like a class of teenagers throwing bags and classroom things at one another, an exercise in waning childhood they only pretend is ironic — create atmosphere, other elements are remnants of an attachment to sequences we do not need.
The suspension of reality works best here to simulate what it feels like to be young, and to see yourself as a wild creature. The lights of a party strobe, bodies meld into each other, but this comes with an awareness that there is artifice in this indigo-dazed perfection. There is an idea that this is only some teenage dream, that their love can be so idealized, bodies never shallow but spouting poetics about kissing to the beat of the changing colors. What is present is that awareness that Stop-Zemlia is so often that fantasy you build of your teenage years, hormonal egos rushing to create that feeling of the mundane being on top of the world. It's refreshing how natural it feels, however, that the tougher parts of growing up are spoken of as jarringly casually as they are among peers. The films relaxed, ambiguous approach to queerness among girl friends is particularly well done as well. At one point, one of Masha’s classmates says “I just like feeling things, it’s better than feeling nothing,” which just about defines the everything at once scattershot approach and energy that Stop-Zemlia has. Stop-Zemlia is screening at the Berlinale Summer Special which runs June 9-20. Rating: 3/5
Review by Camden Ferrell
Theo Anthony’s second feature length documentary, All Light, Everywhere, is concerned with how humans see things. Premiering at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, this is a film with a lot of style and potential, but unfortunately, it can be too unfocused and abstract for its own sake.
This documentary explores the way humans have perceived things in the past, how we perceive things now, and our future with sight. He is especially concerned with recorded image, especially with the rise in prominence of police body cams. This is a rather interesting topic with a lot of promise for insightful exploration. Anthony’s approach to the topic is unique. Instead of addressing the issue head on, he prefers a more abstract method of analyzing sight, perception, and bias. Regardless of effect, it’s clear that this film is under the direction of a singular artistic vision for better or worse. It isn’t the most straightforward in the way it talks about its topic, and this is what makes it feel a little disjointed. I think that this topic is very relevant especially in terms of policing and the pursuit of justice. He examines how both the human and eye and the lens possess their own biases, but a more thorough exploration was warranted and what we were left with was fairly superficial. He could have doubled down more on the history of bias in policing and how it pertains to justice today, but the film tries to skirt around those topics.
Rather than tackling each of its subjects individually, Anthony attempts to crosscut them and explore all of them at once, and this leads to an unfocused film. Usually, crosscutting can create balance in the documentary, but this feels uneven and leads the film to feeling staggered as a whole.
Despite this, there are some really interesting aspects of the film. Part of the documentary focuses on the company who makes police body cams, and the logic and reasoning behind them is actually quite fascinating. We also get a first-hand look at officers being briefed on them, and it’s also quite engaging. I really enjoyed how it examined perception and bias over human history, but I think it could have been more comprehensive and thematically connected. Even though the film as already close to two hours, I think it could have added more information about the topic. It also could have benefited from some steadier pacing that could have been less of a distraction from its message. All Light, Everywhere may not take full advantage of its potential, but there are some interesting moments about human perception. It can be all over the place at times, but it has a clear artistic vision, even though some may be offput by the execution. All Light, Everywhere is in theaters June 4. Rating: 3/5
Review by Sean Boelman
Typically, a two-year gap between a film’s festival debut and its release is not a good sign, and while Gully can be given some slack for the COVID-19 pandemic, this still feels like it’s being dumped into release. Aggressively styled and lacking in subtlety, this movie is a waste of talent from all involved.
The film follows three troubled teens whose lives begin to spiral out of control as they commit crimes in the streets of Los Angeles. Marcus J. Guillory’s script is stuck somewhere between being a sprawling moden epic following Los Angelino youth and a gritty crime drama, the problem here is that the movie simply doesn’t know what it wants to be. It often feels like the film was cut to hell, as there are seemingly entire portions of the story omitted. We jump from one end of the story to another, and new plot elements are introduced as if the audience was supposed to know about them the whole time even though they are just suddenly being revealed. There are definitely some deeper themes in this movie that were worth exploring, but Guillory writes about them in a way that lacks insight and nuance. There are a lot of things to say about racial injustice in this country, but the empty poeticism that the film is filled with certainly isn’t the most effective way to get these points across.
The thing in the movie that is most lacking here is character development. For a film that is supposed to be about the real issues that youth face growing up in rough neighborhoods, the dynamic between the three leads isn’t believable. And when it comes to the supporting characters, they have basically no motivation.
Perhaps most distracting about the movie, though, is its style. Director Nabil Elderkin is previously known mostly for his work in music videos, and while that approach can often translate to film somewhat well, it doesn’t fit with a serious drama about these issues. And some of the effects look outright bad. The fact that the cast is so strong just adds insult to injury here. Charlie Plummer, Jacob Latimore, and Kelvin Harrison Jr. are all very talented, but they aren’t given a chance to impress here because the script is so bad it couldn’t possibly have been delivered well. The supporting cast is full of recognizable people as well, including Terrence Howard, John Corbett, and more, but their performances are even worse. Gully is a movie that sounds like it could be very interesting on paper, but in execution, it’s an absolute and total dud. If it weren’t for Music, this would easily be the most offensively bad movie of the year. Gully hits theaters on June 4 and VOD on June 8. Rating: 1/5
Review by Camden Ferrell
Undine is the newest film from acclaimed German director Christian Petzold. Premiering at the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival, this movie attempts to blend German mythology with a contemporary drama. Despite its unique premise and often pleasing cinematography, the film can often meander through its story.
Undine is a historian on Berlin’s urban development, and she is equal parts graceful and intelligent. However, when her lover leaves her, she sees her world come apart. She must kill him and return home to the water. This premise is based in German fantasy and myth, and it serves as a good basis for the film. The film has a lot of promise in the lore from which it’s drawing, but Petzold’s script can often be lackluster. There are a handful of good scenes of dialogue, but as a whole, it isn’t quite as captivating as its enigmatic lead deserves. It isn’t bad, but the writing doesn’t nearly develop its story as well as it could have. Led by Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski, the acting in this film is above average but not entirely memorable. Beer gives a strong performance as the titular character and captures her grace in an effective manner. Rogowski mostly plays off of Beer, but he does have some great chemistry with her throughout. Even though both give fairly strong performances, it simultaneously doesn’t feel particularly impressive.
While the film never explicitly tells us she’s a water nymph, it is very much implied through other means. I think Petzold’s decision to be subtle about its fairytale origins is strong, and it shows a certain level of trust in the audience’s intelligence. I think one of the strongest aspects of the film was the story it was able to tell without the need for excessive exposition.
The cinematography is also quite pretty as well. It captures scenes in visually pleasing manners without being flashy or drawing too much attention to itself. It is somber in how it tells the story of a woman whose life goes through drastic changes, and it helps elevate some of the more tepid scenes that are scattered throughout the movie. Even though it benefits from its premise, cinematography, and acting, the film feels too unevenly paced for its brief ninety minutes. Many of its scenes aren’t the most captivating, and there is an apparent discrepancy in the quality of scenes throughout. There is a lot working in this movie’s favor, but it unfortunately lacks narrative cohesion and execution. Undine may not be quite as endearing as the myth on which it’s based, but it may still be of interest to some. It features strong performances and captivating visuals, but it fails to fully indulge in the wonders of its premise. Undine is in select theaters and VOD on June 4. Rating: 3/5 |
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