MOVIE REVIEW: MADAME WEB

 

Cassandra Webb is a New York City paramedic who starts to show signs of clairvoyance. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she must protect three young women from a mysterious adversary who wants them dead.

Director: S.J. Clarkson

Cast: Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O'Connor, Isabela Merced, Tahar Rahim, Mike Epps, Emma Roberts, Adam Scott

Release Date: February 14, 2024 

Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Rated PG-13 for violence/action and language.

Runtime: 1h 54m

Review:

Madame Web arrives onscreen barely registering a pulse thanks to a bland script and a cast that's as disinterested as the audience.  S.J. Clarkson does her best to give this low rent version of Edge of Tomorrow some life early on but using inventive angles and shots during some of the action sequences.  There are small slivers of energy, especially early, but once the film goes into an endless cycle of repetition which kills any sense of momentum or entertainment.  Those hoping for some mindless superhero action will be sorely disappointed since the majority of that occurs in a flash forward which the film never occurs in the actual film, leaving this film as nothing more than set up for a future installment.  Instead, the film follows Dakota Johnson's Cassandra Webb kidnap/rescue the trio of Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O'Connor and Isabela Merced and chaperon them around before abandoning them for an impromptu day trip to Peru.  It’s all rather nonsensical and illogical which might be goofy if any of the cast put any sort of effort into their performances.  Johnson leads the cast with one of the more uninspired performances in a big budget film in recent memory.  Her consistently monotone line delivery makes it feel like we are watching rehearsal footage instead of the final cut.  That energy runs across her supporting cast  who are saddled with the most generic clichés of early 2000's teenage girls.  It’s so painfully bad that you wouldn't be surprised if they randomly started singing Spice Girls song just to drive the point home about the live action Brats dolls assembled.  Tahar Rahim doesn't fair much better as the film's sort of evil Spider-man from the dollar store with his stilted delivery that makes Johnson look inspired in comparison.  Madame Web is a mess of a film that commits a variety of sins which would be forgivable if it wasn't so incredibly boring.

D-

MOVIE REVIEW: LISA FRANKENSTEIN

 

A misunderstood teenager and a reanimated corpse embark on a murderous journey to find love, happiness and a few missing body parts.

Director: Zelda Williams

Cast: Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, Henry Eikenberry, Joe Chrest, Carla Gugino

Release Date: February 9, 2024 

Genre: Comedy, Horror, Romance

Rated PG-13 for violent content, bloody images, sexual material, language, sexual assault, teen drinking and drug content.

Runtime: 1h 41m 

Review:

Lisa Frankenstein is a fun, if uneven, mash up of a variety of sources that's carried by Kathryn Newton's energetic performance.  Zelda William's film is bright and bubbly the way most nostalgia porn recreates the 80s as a neon filled wonderland.  It’s kitschy and overblown but very much in tune with the rest of the film and story being told.  Diablo Cody penned the script, with plenty of moments showing off her ability to write sharply funny dialogue.  It doesn't have the same level of consistent energy and verve that some of her past work but it’s still funnier more often than not.  It’s a broader satire of all sorts of 80's teen comedy tropes with larger than life characters and ideas that the cast willingly embraces with impressive gusto.  Kathryn Newton carries the film from the opening sequence through its final frame with an effervescent, charming central turn.  Newton is consistently the most interesting performer on screen even during some of the film's weaker moments.  Her wide eyed enthusiasm shines through the layers of mascara, apple candy lipstick and ever expanding 80s hairdo.  Newton has shown some comedic talent in her previous turns like Freaky and Blockers, but this is by far her best showcase.  The supporting cast is solid with Cole Sprouse and Liza Soberano leaving the biggest impression.  Sprouse has fun chemistry with Newton which is impressive since he's required to rely on a psychical performance with his character being mute for the better part of the film.  Soberano is equally impressive as Lisa's incredibly supportive and sweet step sister by giving the character a believable sort of authenticity.  Carla Gugino vamps it up to an impressive degree as the stepmother but sadly the film doesn't take full advantage since the film could have benefited from more scenes between her and Newton.  Ultimately, Lisa Frankenstein is a wonderfully twisted spotlight that lets Kathryn Newton show off charismatic screen presence.

B

MOVIE REVIEW: ARGYLLE

 

Reclusive author Elly Conway writes best-selling espionage novels about a secret agent named Argylle who's on a mission to unravel a global spy syndicate. However, when the plots of her books start to mirror the covert actions of a real-life spy organization, the line between fiction and reality begin to blur.

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Cast: Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O'Hara, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, John Cena, Samuel L. Jackson

Release Date: February 2, 2024 

Genre: Action, Thriller

Rated PG-13 for strong violence and action and some strong language.

Runtime: 2h 19m

Review:

Argylle, the latest spy riff from Matthew Vaughn, is overstuffed to the point of exhaustion as it hurls a seemingly endless barrage of twists at the screen which would make even M. Night Shyamalan blush.  Initially, Vaughn's film has a breezy feel as it plays with a fun premises.  The early action sequences that pepper in bits of Henry Cavill doing his best Bond impression is energetic and engaging.  Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell have some fun chemistry with both making the best of their likeable onscreen charm.  Howard is appropriately nebbish early on as insanity plays out around her.  Rockwell seems to be having a blast playing the superspy guiding her and it all works fairly well in the film's opening act.  Bryan Cranston hams it up as the film's central villain but much like the movie's plot, his performance gets progressively more exaggerated and outsized especially as the first reveal which alone would have been a fun thread to chase.  Instead, that initial reveal is barely given anytime to breathe before another U Turn takes in another silly direction follow by another and another.  There are a few fun action sequences interspersed between it all, but those slower moments are noticeably slow especially as the film gets more aggressively silly, highlighted by a colorful bullet filled dance and skating sequence which makes it clear that it’s all intentionally stupid.  In a weird way, Vaughn and his cast end up delivering a modern day Naked Gun film which would have been fun if it weren't so incredibly overstuffed.  

C-

MOVIE REVIEW: THE ZONE OF INTEREST

 

The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife, Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.

Director: Jonathan Glazer

Cast: Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller, Ralph Herforth, Daniel Holzberg, Sascha Maaz, Freya Kreutzkam

Release Date: February 2, 2024

Genre: Drama, History, War

Rated PG-13 for thematic material, some suggestive material and smoking.

Runtime: 1h 45m

Review:

Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest is a fascinating study in subtle insinuation of horrific events juxtaposed against the seemingly mundane.  Glazer's distinctive style gives the film an almost clinical detachment from the central family and characters as the audience follows their day to day lives.  It’s unnervingly routine even as smatterings of screams and gunshots linger in the background as the family enjoys parties or birthday celebrations.  Small tidbits or comments from the family members as the film progresses exemplifies the level of causal complicity to horror show playing out over the walls.  Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller play the Höss couple with a lived in authenticity of a pair of people who have been together for a decent amount of time.  If not for the discussions about building a new crematorium or rifling through people's luxurious belongings from the camp, they'd feel like an average couple trying to raise their kids.  The film doesn't shy away from the fact that the evil seeps into the aforementioned children even if they don't have direct exposure to it.  The film is methodical in its approach which may not make it the most accessible experience for the causal movie goer since it doesn't hold your hand and its finale is sure to confounding its share of viewers.  The Zone of Interest isn't an easy film for a variety of reasons, but it is the kind of film that will linger in your mind long after you've watched it.

A-

MOVIE REVIEW: SOCIETY OF THE SNOW

In 1972, a Uruguayan flight crashes in the remote heart of the Andes, forcing survivors to become each other's best hope.

Director: J. A. Bayona

Cast: Enzo Vogrincic, Matías Recalt, Agustín Pardella, Tomas Wolf, Diego Vegezzi,  Esteban Kukuriczka, Francisco Romero, Rafael Federman, Felipe González Otaño 

Release Date: December 22, 2023

Genre: Adventure, Drama, History, Thriller

Rated R for violent/disturbing material and brief graphic nudity.

Runtime: 2h 24m

Review:

J. A. Bayona’s Society of the Snow is a harrowing retelling of the 1972 Uruguayan flight disaster which strips away the gloss of previous adaptations and replaces it with grim authenticity.  Bayona's film is a visceral experience on multiple levels as he places you in firmly in the life or death situation these people experienced.  He wastes very little time with quick introductions at the airport serving as the entryway into the film and moving on to jolting recreation of the crash.  Once on location, portions of the film were shot in the actual location, he uses the environment and elements to create a beautiful but unforgiving setting.  It’s a masterstroke that makes the mountains and elements an ethereal but ominous entity unto itself.  The ensemble cast each deliver strong committed performances throughout with each doing the most with their screen time.  Enzo Vogrincic's Numa Turcatti is the closest the film offers as a main character, with his voiceover giving the film a meditative approach to their struggle for survival and the legacy of those lost.  There's a tangible sense that Bayona intends to give the survivors and those that lost their life during the tragic events their due in respectful manner.  There's very little levity here as the story is focused on the most basic levels of survival, never shying away from the physical toll the experience took on the individuals with the cast going through a similar transformation.  It’s stark, impactful and makes the rescue land with an earn sense of veracity with the film's latter moments serving as a mournful rumination on the survivor's guilt.  Society of the Snow proves to be a raw, authentic examination of the survivor's will to live in the most impossible of situations.  

A

MOVIE REVIEW: ANYONE BUT YOU

 

Despite an amazing first date, Bea and Ben's initial attraction quickly turns sour. However, when they unexpectedly find themselves at a destination wedding in Australia, they pretend to be the perfect couple to keep up appearances.

Director: Will Gluck

Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell, Alexandra Shipp, GaTa, Hadley Robinson, Michelle Hurd, Dermot Mulroney, Darren Barnet, Bryan Brown, Rachel Griffiths

Release Date: December 22, 2023

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Rated R for language throughout, sexual content and brief graphic nudity.

Runtime: 1h 43m

Review:

Anyone but You is a fairly paint by the numbers rom-com that toys with being a raunchier romp before settling into the usual genre clichés that we've seen plenty of times before.  To his credit, Will Gluck delivers a slick looking, breezy film that unabashedly uses Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing as its basic template while occasionally lifting full lines of dialogue from the play.   It’s an interesting choice that never works since those moments are played off as a running joke with the characters stating they just made up the rather robust bit of dialogue lifted from the Bard.  It would have been an interesting approach if they'd leaned into it instead of just sporadically shoehorning it randomly with little pretext or payoff.  The film does something similar with its random forays into raunchy territory while never committing to it.  Paired with the random Shakespearean lines, the film never finds its own flow or rhythm since everything in between is overly familiar and broad.  Gluck has proven capable of making a memorable genre film like Emma Stone's Easy A but this film relies far too heavily on tired tropes.  It’s a shame since the cast seems up for pretty much anything especially the overly attractive onscreen couple.  Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell are clearly having fun with the material which makes the film an easy watch even if decidedly forgettable.  Sweeney and Powell have solid chemistry, but you never buy the fact that the characters supposedly have a certain level of disdain for each other which makes it readily apparent they'll end up together.  The supporting cast is made up of familiar faces like Dermot Mulroney, Rachel Griffiths, Michelle Hurd and Bryan Brown but the film doesn't take advantage of the talent instead being mostly satisfied with them delivering broad strokes of comedy.  It all leaves Anyone but You as a passable but forgettable rom-com that could have been far more memorable.

C