Category: Culture

The New Halloween is The Last Jedi of the Series – And That’s a Good Thing

The New Halloween is The Last Jedi of the Series – And That’s a Good Thing

Originally published October 21, 2018 at CBR.com.

From its opening scene, Halloween (2018) plays with the viewer’s expectations. Director David Gordon Green clearly knows what franchise die-hards expect, and has absolutely no intention of delivering on it, instead opting to take the movie in a new, exciting direction. His ability to breathe subversive life into a 40 year old franchise is one-of-a-kind in our nostalgia-focused culture of remakes, reboots and Legacy Sequels, save for one exception: Rian Johnson’s breathtaking Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

The new Halloween begins in a chess-like checkered courtyard, as two podcasters (it is 2018 after all) confront the imprisoned Michael Myers in a mental health institute. Though the continuity of the film ignores all entries in the series save the first, it expects you to know what happens next: The Shape will rise, murder the ones harassing him and escape.

Instead, Green and co-writers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley turn the script on its head and Michael does nothing. Try as hard as they can, even bringing out the infamous mask, the podcasters only end up disturbing the other prisoners, and the film’s intro is unceremoniously over.

This opening sequence, while full of Halloween’s trademark dread, proves massively unconventional for the series. By introducing a familiar situation but bucking the trend in its resolution, the scene creates far more questions than answers, and makes a clear statement: this is still Halloween, but not like you know.

In last December’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Johnson broke ground by weaponizing expectations in the same way, but for the George Lucas’ acclaimed sci-fi franchise. In The Last Jedi, Johnson sets up common Star Wars scenarios, like a rebel assault on an enemy base or a secret plan that will surely save the day, and perfectly subverts the way these typically pan out.

RELATED: Listen to the Halloween Reboot Soundtrack in its Entirety

Johnson, knowing that the rebels always get away and that poorly hatched schemes always work out, grounds his film with legitimate consequences. When Luke Skywalker barely considers snuffing out a padawan, he creates one of the greatest villains in the series. When Poe Dameron ignores orders, he destroys half the fleet of The Resistance.

Though the Star Wars franchise has had great moments in the last couple of decades, The Last Jedi brought back the propulsive energy of uncertainty the series lacked since Return of the Jedi.

The two films, released only 10 months apart, mark a huge step forward, not just in the history of the franchises, but in blockbuster filmmaking. Today, there is significant uproar about the idea of “nostalgia” as it affects the film industry. Studio executives vie for any property they can, because they know audiences will pay for the fuzzy feelings nostalgia can provide.

RELATED: Halloween Works Best When It’s About Female Empowerment

Ready Player One and Wreck It Ralph, for example, throw audiences back to their favorite “retro” experiences, but wrapped up in new stories; the idea of the ‘80s makes an appeal in Stranger Things and It (which doubles as a remake); and dozens of dormant franchises found revival both on TV and in theaters. For some reason, someone remade The Mummy. But the tendency to retread has grown old and worn, leading to art that feels stagnant and a wave of movies that are just “fine.”

But the brilliance of The Last Jedi, and now Halloween, lies in the practical path forward that they present. When a franchise shifts too far, audiences will reject it, like they did Halloween III: Season of the Witch, an entry which ditched Michael Myers altogether and failed miserably at the box office.

Though it still has a devoted group of fans, the left turn was too radical for the series, almost ending John Carpenter’s franchise in the process. But Johnson and Green introduce a new idea to reinvigorate their franchises: invest in recreating the atmosphere and basic story beats of the series, but use the crowd’s comfort to catch them off guard.

The last act of each film illustrates this perfectly, mirroring a specific series moment before unleashing all hell on the audience. Just as Kylo Ren betrays his master to join Rey, calling back to Darth Vader’s throne room turn in Return of the Jedi, Johnson reveals that it was out of selfish ambition rather than a selfless desire to save anyone else. Then, everything shifts and the story focuses on Luke’s helpless regret, and the small light of hope for the future.

On the flip side of that, with 30 minutes remaining in the new Halloween, it seems like Green is setting up a shameless re-do of the original’s last act. But as Allyson Strode follows in her grandmother’s footsteps, fleeing from Michael Myers to a neighbor’s doorbell, the neighbor actually answers the door and saves her life. Rather than take audiences back into a climactic cat-and-mouse showdown, the movie goes absolutely nuts.

RELATED: Rian Johnson Confirms His Star Wars Trilogy is Still Coming

The therapist, dubbed by Laurie as the “new Loomis,” adorns Michael’s mask and murders a police officer. Another officer’s head is used as a jack-o-lantern. In the end, the Strodes’ battle with Michael almost feels like a horrific version of Home Alone. The two movies go absolutely wild at their very ends, but not without first luring viewers into a false sense of security.

However, one thing that can’t go ignored is the fan response to these films. Time will tell how viewers respond to Halloween, but The Last Jedi had a very peculiar reception. The narrative a few months after release was that the film proved highly divisive among hardcore Star Wars fans, but recent studies have cast suspicion on that conclusion.

Apparently, many political figures (somehow including those from Russia) latched on to the progressive themes of the movie, leading an organized campaign to derail the film. Johnson’s film still made over a billion dollars worldwide, but it does have a very vocal minority of fans who cannot stand it. All you have to do is read the comments of any one of CBR’s own posts about Johnson or The Last Jedi to see they’re there.

Whether this is thanks to an aversion to the movie’s politics or a rejection of the way it changes what the series can be is a bit of a mystery, but it could potentially prevent this sort of radical push forward for franchises from coming again.

Hopefully the film industry will see the critical and box office success of these two movies and take note. As the creative sluggishness of nostalgia-mongering has held back so much of cinema in the past decade, these two huge breaths of fresh air have proven massively relieving. If we’re lucky, we might just be on the precipice of an amazing, fresh wave of blockbuster filmmaking.

REVIEW: Netflix’s Apostle Is Ambitious Horror That Falls Short in the End

REVIEW: Netflix’s Apostle Is Ambitious Horror That Falls Short in the End

Originally published at cbr.com.

Netflix’s Apostle has everything it should need to be one of the year’s best horror films. The cast, headlined by Dan Stevens and Michael Sheen, is stacked with underrated actors. The premise, about a man who goes undercover in a cult to save his sister, has intrigue but is open enough to go anywhere. The director, Gareth Evans, has two of the greatest action films of all time under his belt in The Raid and its sequel, and is returning to cult horror after an acclaimed segment in V/H/S 2. But it’s a shame the movie never quite comes together, giving each of its elements a chance to shine yet never quite working as a whole.

In The Raid and its sequel, Evans took a huge swing for the fences. The first is a claustrophobic masterclass in action cinema, and the second is a flawed but ambitious crime saga, punctuated by the director’s trademark eye for fight scenes. Apostle is every bit as ambitious as those first two efforts, but lacks the narrative cohesion to reach those highs. The action beats remain better than pretty much anything else attempted these days, but they’re strung together by a lackluster script. It feels as if the movie can’t decide whether it’s psychological horror, a gore showcase or an all-out action film, and is never able to mesh the three into something coherent.

RELATED: Gareth Evans’ Bloody Apostle Trailer Pits Dan Stevens Against a Cult

Stevens stars as Thomas Richardson, who in 1905 goes undercover on an island inhabited by a fanatical cult to rescue his sister, whom they’ve kidnapped. From there, the plot takes more twists and turns than one can count, and it’s best to go in as blind as possible; if you can avoid the trailers, do so at all costs. The opening hour or so, before it takes that darker turn, is a slow burn that feels closer to Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation than the wild action of The Raid. It’s this quiet, more deliberate segment where Apostle shines brightest, utilizing Evans’ proclivity for visual storytelling but never indulging in it. The film uses the freedom of having extra time to build an uneasy tone and establish the characters, while also planting seeds that there is something deeply wrong on the island.

The broad cast of characters is actually quite deep, from young lovers played by Bill Milner and Kristine Froseth to a disgruntled villager portrayed by the scene-stealing Ross O’Hennessy. The strongest of these supporting players are Sheen as the town prophet and Lucy Boynton as his daughter Andrea. Sheen is brilliant as the prophet, confident as he leads the village, but a crumbling, weak man when confronted with difficulty. He has the appearance of strong leadership in front of the cult members, but Sheen shows that he’s riddled with self-doubt, a shadow of the man who gives the sermons. Boynton is even better as his daughter, one of the village’s most compassionate members, sometimes disobeying leadership to show kindness. Her performance demonstrates just how earnest Andrea is, imbuing her every word with meaning, a refreshing change of pace from the rest of the manipulators in the cast.

Unfortunately, a great roster of underrated actors is not enough to carry a film, and in the end an inconsistent script lets them down. The superior first act sells a growing dread quite well, slowly building the tension and teasing the darkness to come. As Stevens creeps around the creepy village, he finds clues and begins to piece together the evil that lies beneath the charming veneer of the town.

In movies that slowly build to a tone shift, there is usually a moment where the director makes a clear statement to the audience: This is no longer the same film. In Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room, it switches from a tense thriller to a massive bloodbath within seconds, punctuated by a character’s arm taking a brutal chop from a machete. It’s this sort of moment that’s missing from Apostle, which leads to a really muddled transition. Based on the appeal of the trailers and marketing, Apostle was clearly leading to a gut-wrenching shower of gore from the start. Once it finally does reach this long-awaited payoff, it lands with a thud, killing off a primary character in a mean-spirited, offhanded way that doesn’t come off meaning anything.

RELATED: Overlord Is (Almost) Everything You Want From a Zombie Nazi Movie

From a technical perspective, every moment of Apostle is brilliantly crafted. Even the long stretch of brutality at the end, while unearned, is unmatched in modern filmmaking. Evans puts his action sensibilities to use and delivers one pulse-pounding barbarity after another. His kinetic, free-flowing camera keeps the stomach-churning bloodshed in clear view and forces you to watch, which is sure to have viewers at home screaming from their sofas. It’s just really disappointing that these scenes, while well-directed, don’t gel with the rest of the film, killing off the characters with glee as if they meant nothing to the story.

In Netflix’s Apostle, life is a never-ending hell. You can choose to believe in a God who demands living sacrifices or nothing at all, but you’ll probably meet an agonizing end anyway. The first hour or so builds to a nightmare of a conclusion, but it takes a far too convoluted path to get there. Fans of horror cinema with a heavy dose of nastiness, or those who are particularly attached to Evans’ unique brand of brutality, will surely find something to love. But after making two of the greatest genre films of the century, it’s disappointing to see the director brush with greatness yet fail to reach it.

Directed by Gareth Evans, Apostle stars Dan Stevens, Michael Sheen and Lucy Boynton. The film screened at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas ahead of its Oct. 12 release on Netflix.

Cast Shines, Not Much Else in Matthew McConaughey’s WHITE BOY RICK

Cast Shines, Not Much Else in Matthew McConaughey’s WHITE BOY RICK

Originally published at Cinapse.

Just ten years ago, Matthew McConaughey was unreliable at best. Generally, if he was in a movie, it was a safe bet he’d be the worst part of a mostly mediocre film. The early years of his career saw some success with films like Dazed and Confused and Contact, but that mid/late-2000s streak was *rough*. Failure to Launch? Fool’s Gold? Some movie called Surfer, Dude which is somehow a real flick about a surfer’s existential crisis? It looked down for the University of Texas graduate — and then The McConaissance struck. The exact start date is still up for debate, but around 2011 a switch struck, and within three years he had an Oscar and became one of Hollywood’s finest actors. With director Yann Demange’s biopic White Boy Rick, he’s completed his transformation, shining as the brightest part of a mostly mediocre film.

McConaughey plays Richard Wershe Sr., a supporting player to the film’s primary focus: Rick Wershe Jr. (newcomer Richie Merritt), his son and a prodigy drug dealer. Set in the mid ’80s, Wershe Jr. starts the movie selling guns for his ambitious father, but is slowly pulled into the world of drugs out of need for money and hereditary ambition. He is quickly recruited by the FBI and Detroit PD to be an informant, creating an interesting dichotomy for the character. This stretch of White Boy Rick is actually quite good, functioning as a knock-off brand Goodfellas with a dash of Scott Cooper’s Black Mass (remember that movie?!).

(Spoilers for a thirty-year-old true story, I guess) Obviously, things turn sour for the teenage kingpin, and so does the film. It’s a perfectly fine watch for 45 minutes or so, but unfortunately gets bogged down when it makes a turn for the serious. Now the film is never a comedy, but it’s an enjoyable watch as we see the character’s initial success. As he starts selling drugs for himself and the cops, Wershe Jr. earns the name White Boy Rick from his almost entirely black consumer base/new friend group. Merritt embodies this name change with his performance, slowly shifting the way he talks and even carries himself through the movie, a really impressive debut for a 17-year-old. But as it grows more grim, it almost feels like Demange loses touch with the film, delivering a lifeless, pretty boring final act.

For a film set in Detroit that opens at an NRA gun show, White Boy Rick doesn’t have a whole lot to say. Sure, it offhandedly addresses that white people caught with drugs will face a far shorter prison sentence, but it stops there. With so much else to discuss, it mostly just wants to talk about how badly the FBI screwed over this one kid. It is just sort of disappointing to sit through, watching Wershe Jr. absorb the speaking style and interests (and job, for that matter) of Detroit’s black community, but ending with passive-aggressive epilogue titles that are only angry at the FBI’s treatment of him. Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign simmers in the background of the film, but the ending comes off as tone-deaf, ignoring the executive office’s campaign that disproportionately affected the lives of countless people of color, just to focus on a white man.

Without question, the brightest part of White Boy Rick is the performances from the absolutely stacked cast. Obviously, McConaughey steals every scene, acting as an imposing force upon the film. He plays it with a vaguely southern style, which doesn’t really match with a man who has spent his whole life in Michigan, but it works in the role. He’s switches, sometimes simultaneously, from a larger-than entrepreneur to a weak, self-conscious father who just wants his children to love and respect him. Even when McConaughey isn’t on screen, his presence is felt, as Merritt brilliantly mimics bits of his fictional father’s mannerisms and speaking style.

The supporting players of White Boy Rick are also great, with one of the year’s deepest rosters of great small roles. RJ Cyler (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) and Jonathan Majors are also great, acting as Rick’s intro into Black society in Detroit. Cyler is particularly great, bringing a sense of life and fun to his scenes as Boo, Rick’s best friend. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rory Cochrane, and Atlanta’s Brian Tyree Henry excel as the law enforcement officers that work with Rick. Henry is particularly enjoyable, humorously playing his DPD officer as one who is constantly annoyed with everyone. On the other hand, JJL does her best Kyra Sedgwick impression, acting as a cold foil to Henry’s antics. And finally, in their few scenes, Bruce Dern and Piper Laurie knock it out of the park as Wershe Sr.’s parents. Though they kind of feel like they walked out of a different movie, the two are absolutely hilarious, bickering and griping with everyone in sight, providing plenty of welcome laughs.

Despite the overwhelming amount of great performances, spotty direction and a highly flawed script sink White Boy Rick. It’s certainly worth seeing for the wealth of amazing actors, but there’s a reason it was released a month before the heart of Oscars season.

White Boy Rick opened in theaters September 14, 2018.

REVIEW: Halloween Is a Breathtaking Throwback That Moves the Series Forward

REVIEW: Halloween Is a Breathtaking Throwback That Moves the Series Forward

Originally published at cbr.com.

David Gordon Green’s Halloween is something of a miracle. After all, the creative team, whose experience is exclusively in comedy, had to deliver legitimate scares while making sense of a franchise with 11 films’ worth of convoluted history, and simultaneously doing something new. The odds seemed stacked against it, but Green presents an astonishing work that dives into the consequences of the 1978 original while still moving into uncharted territory.

In this age of reboots, remakes and rehashes, Halloween utilizes arguably the most intriguing approach to resurrecting a dormant property: the legacy sequel, which typically take place in the same same universe as the original, and frequently feature returning cast members, but make use of the time gap to present the franchise to a new generation. J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek and Disney’s Tron: Legacy have found mild success in that arena, but the revived Star Wars saga holds the real blueprint for injecting life into these old stories. And while Halloween doesn’t reach the heights of Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, it certainly represents a high-water mark, respectful of the past but never restrained by it.

RELATED: Listen to John Carpenter’s Revamped Halloween Theme

Jamie Lee Curtis returns to the series for the first time in 20 years as the original final girl, Laurie Strode. Writers Green, Danny McBride (yep, that Danny McBride) and Jeff Fradley decided to ignore every entry in the series that came after the John Carpenter original, which permitted them to effectively start from scratch. It’s 40 years to the day after Michael Myers terrorized Laurie and killed her friends, and the trauma of that experience has taken over her life. She’s spent four decades preparing for Michael’s return, basically barricading herself in a fortress, surrounded by weapons. Excavating real-world consequences from a 40-year-old slasher film is an interesting turn for the series, reminiscent of how Creed found a way to explore a darker fallout from the goofy Rocky IV. Curtis plays the role perfectly, transforming into a seemingly hardened warrior, who nevertheless frequently cracks under the paranoia that comes from having faced evil himself.

Halloween 2018

The portrayal of Michael also works surprisingly well, fleshing out the horror icon while retaining a necessary sense of mystery. The audience is introduced to Old Man Michael in the opening minutes as he’s interrogated by true-crime podcasters. Intriguingly, he doesn’t wear his classic mask until about a third of the way through the film, and it’s exactly that kind of restraint that makes this new vision of Halloween so great. Green withholds the mask from the viewers, waiting to unleash it at just the right time. The decision pays off, as Michael Myers’ first real moment back in costume is one of the best horror scenes in years, a tracking shot that follows The Shape in a violent return to form

Michael’s impact on the story can be felt in every scene, even when he’s absent. Laurie’s fear of the killer has poisoned her relationship with her family. Daughter Karen (Judy Greer), who was raised to prepare for Michael’s return, resents her mother’s all-consuming fear, but as the story begins, granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) is desperate for her grandmother to play a role in her life.

RELATED: Halloween Early Reviews Call the Film the Best Since the Original

Among the most interesting parts of Halloween is how it uses the generational dynamic to investigate the lasting impacts of trauma. It’s odd to see such deep themes in a sequel to a 90-minute slasher, but it works surprisingly well. Laurie’s experience with Michael in 1978 could stand in for any harrowing experience, and Green’s point would remain: Allowing your life to become overwhelmed by fear is permitting evil to win. As the family starts to come together once again, it’s touching to see that dawn finally on Laurie.

When Halloween approaches its conclusion, it appears as if Green will take the easy way out, setting up a third act that goes for a recreation of the original’s. But just as you think you know how the rest of the film will play out, it takes an unexpected turn, and ends with a climax as surprising as it is thrilling. The final 45 minutes or so are wall-to-wall payoff — edge-of-your-seat filmmaking that’s both terrifying and electrifying.

With a creative team out of left field and the seemingly head-scratching decision to ignore 40 years of continuity, there weren’t many reasons to be optimistic about Halloween. But expectations be damned, the film is a blast from start to finish. The return of Laurie Strode, to say nothing of the mystery and brutality of Michael Myers, is welcome, but it’s the new additions that help to make Halloween a deeper, richer film than any the series has seen before. Respectful of the past but bold enough to push the series into the future, it’s among the best legacy sequels audiences could hope to see.

Directed by David Gordon Green, Halloween stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Virginia Gardner and Nick Castle. The film screened at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, ahead of its Oct. 19 theatrical release.

Oscar-nominated Chilean film ‘A Fantastic Woman’ puts a strong trans woman in the spotlight

Oscar-nominated Chilean film ‘A Fantastic Woman’ puts a strong trans woman in the spotlight

Originally published at The Daily Texan.

Watching “A Fantastic Woman,” I couldn’t help but think about the comments underneath a recent tweet by The Washington Times.

“Is Caitlyn Jenner a woman?,” the tweet reads. “A growing body of research says no.”

The replies contained a massive pool of insults, with some calling Jenner an “it,” others called her an “alien” and others called her a “monster.”

In this atmosphere, Chilean director Sebastián Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman” boldly follows transgender woman Marina Vidal (Daniela Vega), who fights every day for the right to be herself. As the film progresses, it reveals itself as both a poignant story of loss and a window into the life of an unrepresented community. Lelio, simply by showing the struggles faced by a trans woman, is making a statement film, pulling double duty and succeeding on both levels.

The story opens with Orlando (Francisco Reyes), a divorced, cisgender, heterosexual man in a relationship with Marina. The two have a seemingly normal, healthy partnership — he works a day job, she waits tables and sings at a club, they go out for drinks and then head home to have sex. Lelio does not objectify or make a big deal out of Orlando and Marina’s sexual relationship. It just feels like another part of living. Their life feels routine, but never unromantic.

Very early on in the story, Orlando dies of a sudden aneurysm, and Marina is left to pick up the pieces of his life. Though not the first movie of this kind, “A Fantastic Woman” is a new take on the grief film, made so much more impactful by the size of the hole Orlando leaves in Marina’s life.

Orlando is survived by a brother, son and ex-wife, each of whom has their own terrible way of relating to Marina. Every member of this family represents a different manner in which society treats trans individuals, starting with Orlando’s acceptance of Marina and slowly disintegrating from there. His brother sees Marina as who she is, but is afraid to stand up to anyone for her; Orlando’s ex-wife sees Marina as a perversion, hurling verbal and psychological abuse at her in every scene; and Orlando’s son is the worst offender, physically assaulting Marina for her own existence. It makes for a brutally difficult film to watch, but a challenging, brilliant work of art.

Vega gives one of the best performances in any film released in the past year, and it’s a shame the film is only nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Through a wide range of nuanced facial expressions and a towering screen presence, Vega dominates the movie. She largely plays Marina as a restrained, quiet individual, allowing glimpses of her grief through small facial tics and body posture. In the few moments where she’s allowed to let loose and show her emotion, Vega shows the tragic pain of a heartbroken, misunderstood human who just seeks acceptance. These moments where her pain surfaces act as punctuation marks on an already brilliant performance, proving Vega as a fully formed performer in only her second film.

It is groundbreaking that Vega is transgender herself, as Hollywood has a history of hiring cisgender men to play trans women, including Eddie Redmayne, Jared Leto and Jeffrey Tambor. But these actors generally tell the same story about a trans woman undergoing her transition, and Lelio has no interest in Hollywood’s vision of trans women. The picture he paints is of a woman undergoing a personal loss, a woman who faces an inordinate amount of obstacles, a woman who may be called “it,” “alien” and “monster,” but emerges fantastic.

“A Fantastic Woman”
Rating: R
Runtime: 104 minutes
Score: 4.5/5 stars

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Ava DuVernay’s empathy saves the groundbreaking ‘Wrinkle in Time’ from getting lost

Ava DuVernay’s empathy saves the groundbreaking ‘Wrinkle in Time’ from getting lost

Originally published at The Daily Texan.

There are 375 movies in history with a budget of over $100 million , but the first of these films directed by a woman of color arrives this Friday with “A Wrinkle in Time” from Ava DuVernay.

Much hype has followed “A Wrinkle In Time” since its announcement in 2016, and many have paired the film with last month’s “Black Panther” as milestones in Hollywood’s march toward progress. Although it doesn’t quite hit as hard as Ryan Coogler’s superhero masterpiece, DuVernay’s “Wrinkle” is a charming fantasy epic, a film that swings for the fences at every turn and hits more than it misses.

Young actress Storm Reid leads the film as Meg Murry, a brilliant 14-year-old student who has been emotionally distant ever since the disappearance of her father (Chris Pine) four years earlier. Meg’s parents are NASA scientists, but her mother (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) drifts away from the field after her husband’s disappearance. Early flashbacks and prologues show Meg and her parents working on experiments together, and it’s refreshing to see black women scientists, as opposed to bespectacled white dudes huddled around a table.

Just before Mr. Murry’s disappearance, the couple adopted a young son, Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe), who grows up with Meg. To get a sense of Meg and Charles Wallace’s life before the adventure begins, the film shows a normal day at school for the two of them, and it is incredibly painful to watch. Meg is bullied; Charles Wallace hears teachers gossip about their father; the principal gives Meg a lecture. It all feels ripped out of a lower-tier Disney Channel Original Movie. This series of events thankfully constitutes only the film’s first fifteen minutes, but it kicks off an epic fantasy adventure with a whimper.

It’s a great relief when Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey), Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon) and Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) finally enter the film, providing it with exactly the burst of energy and light it needs. They tell Meg that they need her to help them save her father, and then they whisk her, Charles Wallace and their friend Calvin (Levi Miller) away on a galaxy-hopping adventure.

Though the first act of “A Wrinkle in Time” is conventional and exposition-heavy, it all acts as a setup for DuVernay to absolutely let loose, and the film quickly goes from cringeworthy to crowd pleasing. It does not spend too much time bogged down in the hows and whys of the characters’ supernatural abilities or otherworldly looks — these things just are. Winfrey, Witherspoon and Kaling breathe humorous guiding light into the movie, but Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace have to figure out their own way through the universe to Meg’s father.

The extraterrestrial locales visited by the trio borrow heavily from other sources, including Dr. Seuss, “The Wizard of Oz,” “Avatar” and sometimes even Japanese video games, such as “Xenoblade Chronicles.” Some are whimsical, some are intimidating, but they are all engaging. Instead of focusing on the science of space travel and other planets, the film focuses on its characters, their relationships with one another and their relationships with themselves.

As the film goes on, DuVernay grows more confident, concluding the story with a trippy, mind-bending metaphor of a finale that one would expect from high-concept science fiction, not a Disney fantasy-adventure. Throughout the film, Meg grapples with herself and the person she feels pressured to be, rather than who she is. As she barrels toward this conclusion, it becomes clear that her journey is just as much about her own growth as it is about her father.

In spite of its flaws, “A Wrinkle in Time” is an earnest plea for how much better the world could be if we loved ourselves and loved one another. As corny as that sounds, the plea, like the movie, rings true.

“A Wrinkle in Time”

Rating: PG

Runtime: 109 minutes

Score: 3.5/5 stars

 

Comedy thriller ‘Game Night’ plays into genre tropes, fails to play up the laughs

Comedy thriller ‘Game Night’ plays into genre tropes, fails to play up the laughs

Originally published at The Daily Texan.

“Game Night” feels like a film conceived by two extraordinarily high filmmakers between tokes: What if David Fincher’s “The Game” met the Steve Carell/Tina Fey vehicle “Date Night,” and it was about people who liked having a game night?

The resulting story is a sloppy, half-baked franken-script of two infinitely better films, a movie which should’ve been left on the cutting-room floor. Surprisingly effective direction from John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the helmers of 2015’s “Vacation” remake, and a brilliant cast led by Jason Bateman try their hardest to save the film, but nothing can salvage the bad script packed with cheap jokes.

Bateman and Rachel McAdams lead as Max and Annie, a hyper-competitive married couple who host game night with their friends every week. When Max’s equally competitive brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) comes to town, he throws a wrench into their regular plans, asking to host a “very special” game night at his house.

Brooks’ idea of a game night involves hiring actors to come in and “kidnap” one of the party’s members, leading the rest in a race to find the missing individual. It’s an escape room meets The Game from “The Game,” a large-scale competition where no one knows what is real and what isn’t. From there, the plot borrows the structure and elements of “Date Night” as the group gets tied up in what seems to be real trouble, involving gangsters, drugs, a car chase and potentially real kidnapping.

While there’s nothing wrong with well-executed genre parody, films that specifically parody one other film never work, and “Game Night” is certainly the newest addition to that club. Though the film could easily have used its plot to make a broader parody of the action/thriller genre, all of its jokes fall into three categories: easy, implicit references to “The Game” (which is 20 years old), mindless references to any number of pop culture icons, and the seldom clever, well-earned joke. It leads to an exhausting time, one that moves at an extraordinarily brisk pace but is still somehow boring.

It’s a shame that writer Mark Perez drops the ball so hard, because everyone else attached to the movie puts in some of their best work. However, no one matches Jesse Plemons as creepy neighbor Gary. Plemons steals the show in only three or four scenes, each of which are the film’s only laugh-out-loud moments.

Daley and Goldstein miraculously show themselves as fully formed comedy directors, trying their hardest to work with the script they’re given. All of the establishing shots in “Game Night” are not the typical footage of exteriors, but of highly detailed dioramas, making the whole movie feel like it takes place on a game board. These little touches give the film its only semblance of personality.

However, none of these touches are as impactful as the comedic action centerpiece, a multi-minute single take that is some of the best physical comedy in any recent movie not featuring the small bear Paddington. The camera dances around a massive house, following the many characters and giving each a chance to stand out, not unlike the casino fight in last week’s “Black Panther.”

Brilliant direction and hilarious performances abound in the film, but it’s hard to love. Last year, “The Big Sick” and “Darkest Hour” proved strong scripts can overcome sloppy direction. If there’s anything “Game Night” proves, it’s that no amount of excellence can save a bad script.

“Game Night”

Rating: R

Runtime: 100 minutes

Score: 2.5/5 stars

Tat-Tuesday: Student share stories behind their ink

Originally published at The Daily Texan.

Yessenia Herrera

Between her personal love of both music and tattoos, radio-television-film junior Yessenia Herrera has a great appreciation for artistic expression.

Herrera said she dreams of a large network of tattoos adorning her body, but for now she settles for the single, minimalist design of an origami frog, inspired by the cover of the album Copacetic.

“I wanted to start small, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted,” Herrera said. “Then I got it off an album cover of a band I like, Knuckle Puck. Their lyrics are very personal to me.”

Though the idea of tattoos can have a somewhat negative connotation, Herrera loves the personal ability to express herself and show that to the public.

“They’re very much about claiming your body,” Herrera  said. “I feel like they’re about personalizing yourself, and I like the art and modification.”

 

Evan Stack

The album Letting Off the Happiness by Bright Eyes had a significant impact on speech pathology sophomore Evan Stack when he first heard it in middle school.

“When I first listened to it, it really changed my perspective on music in a drastic way,” Stack said. “I think about it daily. I still listen to the record, and I still love it the way I loved it.”

This January, Stack decided to take an unplanned trip to a tattoo shop and get a portion of the cover on his shoulder. But to him, these three fireworks mean more than just a beloved album.

“There’s a lot of lo-fi production techniques that are technically unimpressive but add a human quality to the record,” Stack said. “It symbolizes a DIY musical ideology, and it really struck me poignantly.”

 

Emily Gibson 

The tattoo of a black-eyed susan — Maryland’s state flower — that marks the leg of journalism senior Emily Gibson is only the first in a planned series of tattoos.

“I got it the summer after I moved here from Maryland,” Gibson said. “It’s where I grew up, and I have this plan that I’m gonna get a tattoo for everywhere I live that shapes me as a person.”

The experience of living in Texas and Maryland have been stark contrasts to one another, with both cultures valuing different sports, different foods and different attitudes. Moving to Texas uprooted her life, and the tattoo helps to commemorate the previous chapter.

“The places where you live inform who you are,” Gibson said. “You learn about who you are everywhere you go.”