ASTEROID CITY - Review by Ewan Graf

Colorful, vast and sneakingly hilarious

Wes Anderson is back with a stacked cast and a story set in a desert town post-WWII at a convention for students and parents from all across the country that gets interrupted by world-changing events.

Quite an ominous logline for a film that tells you most of its story and mystery (maybe even its jokes) in the first few minutes of the movie.

Wes Anderson seems to be confident that this gigantic ensemble of very Wes Anderson-like characters will carry this movie enough to make it enjoyable. And for the most part, it is, even if there are quite a few Anderson stereotypes that I don´t particularly enjoy, like in insistence on an additional framing device for his stories.

Because Asteroid City could have cut its nameworthy cast in half, focused on the family dynamics a bit more, and made this one of his best films yet. Don´t get me wrong though, Asteroid City is very good. It's hilarious and had me laugh throughout the entire runtime. It started to lose me a bit more in the 2nd half after a very strong opening and Parts 1 and 2 but ultimately I believe that Wes Anderson fans are gonna be pleased. It's a definite step up from the mess in The French Dispatch, even if this film is still quite messy.

The cast is huge, with Jason Schwartzman and Scarlett Johansson as the most lead-like characters, followed by Schwartzman´s kid, played by Jake Ryan.

as for the rest of the cast, from Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Liev Schreiber, Maya Hawke to Margot Robbie. There's no real need for them at all in this story and ultimately makes the most dense cameo-fest I have ever seen. A lot of them feel like caricatures of Wes Anderson characters, which can be funny if there's one or two of them, but works a bit less when there are like a dozen.

Regardless, the humor and look are probably the film´s strongest virtues and I personally got a bit annoyed by the beep-like repetitive score. He's certainly one of the few filmmakers where I can tolerate that kind of soundscape.

Some of the back and forth between the frame device story of the film was actually really funny, Bryan Cranston nails that role, and the younger triplet sister pack was hilarious each time they were on strong

FALLEN LEAVES - Review by Ewan Graf

Fallen Leaves comes from Aki Kaurismäki, a frequent feature here in Cannes, and tells the story of Ansa - and I have to read straight from the synopsis here because it's great: Ansa, a supermarket shelf-stocker on a zero-hour contract, later a recyclable plastic sorter, and Holappa, a sandblaster, an alcoholic, later an ex-alcoholic, whose paths have accidentally crossed and who, despite adversity and misunderstandings, try to build some kind of relationship on the harsher side of the welfare state.

Intrigued? Well, you should be because Kaurismäki tells these small-scale beautiful stories about everyday people that end up feeling like fairy tales.

There’s a ton of compassion for every character on screen that oozes through the screen. Each setback or miscommunication feels frustrating in the sense that you want them to succeed. Which is Kaurismäki's strong suit to make a heartwarming, funny, and narratively simple film.

Additionally, this film gets the runner-up award for best dog in a Cannes film in 2023, although the main prize still going to Snoop from Anatomy of a Fall.

Both leads do a great job as well, and even if the camera is rather bland in it (which somehow feels like another Kaurismäki trade) the movie pulls you along even in the slower moments.

Charming, lots of laughs, and with a good heart at its core

THE ZONE OF INTEREST - Review by Ewan Graf

Eyes glued to the screen watching horrible people be horrible

The Zone of Interest is Jonathan Glazer´s first film in 9 years after 2013's, A24 distributed Under The Skin made big waves.

Instead of an Alien roaming the streets of Scotland, The Zone of Interest tells the story of Rudolf Höff, who was the commandant of Auschwitz, set on building a great life for his family right next to the camp.
He’s also determined to make Auschwitz the most efficient it can be, by working on a furnace that will be able to run 24/7.

The framing of this story never takes us into Auschwitz specifically, but through a haunting soundscape, it is always present throughout the entire film. A low hum, a piercing score, and incredible performances make this a stunning piece of art.

There’s a certain looming presence of dread that creeps its way into every crevice of the Höff household. Their ignorance toward the suffering they are causing is irritating and if you expect to get your hand held through this experience you’ll soon notice that you’ll be left all alone in the dark. These despicably evil characters have ambition and a drive to live their best lives in the midst of war and genocide, without even considering to second guess their decisions.

A general sense of distance from the atrocious violence runs throughout the whole film. Be it the chosen benevolent ignorance by the characters in the story or us as the audience through time and ultimately the framing of the movie that restrains itself from showing us that side.

The cinematography, blocking, and staging are all done masterfully. Most shots are static and locked off with the characters moving through the frame. As I previously mentioned, the sound design is incredible and might be one of the best I’ve heard in years. Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel are great and it’s hard to not call this movie one of the best of its decade already.

CLUB ZERO - Review by Ewan Graf

Didn't know they allowed student films to compete for the Palme d'Or

Club Zero comes from Austrian director Jessica Hausner and stars Mia Wasikowska as Miss Novak, a new addition to the staff of an international boarding school who teaches a ´conscious eating class´ that leads to the aforementioned Club Zero, in which eating less is the mantra above all else.

Now I really don’t want to waste more of your or my time with this movie and mention at the top of this review, that Club Zero is trash.

It fails on every level imaginable and certainly didn’t deserve to be a part of this year’s competition at Cannes. It resembles a regurgitated, thrown-up, abandoned Wes Anderson look-a-like project with stilted, over-the-top characters that never get anywhere even if the movie seems convinced of its own self-importance.

The performances are rough to watch, if this is intentional or not isn’t even relevant, but I couldn’t stand any of it. The repetition of similar story beats and sets got tiring and resembled a film student production.

Even if you cut this movie in half or make it a 30-minute short, you’d still have an abundance of problems at hand, but at least you’d have wasted less of your time for this story that ultimately never really gets anywhere interesting.

A premise like this can be quite captivating and thought-provoking, just look at the German film Die Welle, which captured this notion of indoctrinating teens with toxic and harmful ideologies masterfully.

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY - Review by Ewan Graf

Driving Miss Burkhart

Scorsese better live till 120 to make so more 'pictures'

Killers of the Flower Moon comes from legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese and is based on a 2017 nonfiction book of the same name. It stars familiar Scorsese collaborators Leonardo DiCaprio as a dimwitted ex-military cook that falls in love with Lily Gladstone’s Mollie. There’s also Robert De Niro and Jesse Plemons to round out the most notable supporting cast.

Having read the book this is based on there is quite a bit of difference between those two versions. The Novel was non-fiction, of course, so it mostly detailed the uncovering of the murders and framed Jesse Plemons’ FBI agent Tom White as a bigger player. Additionally, Gladstone’s Mollie is really not in this film that much. Which I don’t remember being the case in the book.

At the front end center - in very typical Scorsese fashion - is the rise and fall of some sort of crime collective that pulls a scheme. Additionally, the looming threat of greedy white businessmen hungry for black gold creates all sorts of troubles for the Osage people.
As more and more of them turn up dead, often in very suspicious circumstances, there is no one actually investigating these murders.

For the majority of the film, we get to see these horrible acts of violence being committed in the most casual, pragmatic way imaginable. 

There are some great supporting performances that especially shine in the comedic beats of the story - there’s actually way more of them than you’d expect. Because the dialogue is incredibly well put together and brought to life by the great talent in front of the camera.

DiCaprio gets A LOT to do here and he’s giving it his all, which sometimes felt a bit too much for his character, but I can’t go into that further without giving spoilers away. De Niro is great as a charismatic authority and Jesse Plemons is honestly not given many moments to shine by himself. There seems to be a very positive response to Lily Gladstone after the premiere here in Cannes, but I wasn’t really a fan of her performance.
There’s a Brendan Fraser cameo that is quite bad but ultimately there’s not a ton to complain about on that level.

AppleTV+ is known for its clean look and Killers of the Flower Moon is no exception here as well. The Production & Costume design is great as well paired with equally excellent editing that made this film seems shorter than it is. Which is almost 3.5 hours that, yes, you can feel but is ultimately worth the stay.

Scorsese recently said in an interview: “I’m Old. I Want to Tell Stories, But There’s No More Time” and I really hope this man gets to tell a couple more stories and make some pictures.
Because this film proves he still has got it just like he did 40 years ago.

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY - Review by Ewan Graf

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the fifth outing in the series led by Harrison Ford and doesn’t have Steven Spielberg in the directing chair for our grumpy adventurer, but instead got James Mangold, of Logan, Ford v Ferrari, Walk the Line and more.

Taking on a continuing or potentially ending franchise (which let’s be real is never gonna happen with a popular ‘property’ like this) is never an easy task for any director.
But Indiana Jones 5 fumbles the bag in many ways that are hard to wrap around your head.

Fundamentally, it does have a big screenplay problem that not even Phoebe Waller Bridge’s quippy Helena can save. Rather than giving us a story about these two or focusing on Ford as the elderly protagonist, the MacGuffin object everyone is chasing after takes over the film in a not-so-great way.
Often the movie seems it could care less if there’s no actual interesting conflict happening between the characters.
They escape in Scooby-Doo-like fashion and solve riddles without any process, solely waiting for the audience to clap for cheer-worthy moments and cameos.

The opening action scene with a de-aged Harrison Ford is probably the best sequence in the movie, even if it ends with a very unfortunate mistimed beat. There are a few issues with eyelines in some scenes but other than that it’s fairly solid and I guess not affected by the lackluster writing yet.

Mads Mikkelson’s is alright and Boyd Holbrook is quite one-noted.

It might be enough for popcorn entertainment but it is way closer to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull than the Original Trilogy.

OCCUPIED CITY - Review by Ewan Graf

Occupied City comes from British director Steve McQueen known for his films Shame, 12 Years a Slave, Widows, and more. He returns to Cannes after winning the Golden Camera for Hunger - an award for best 1st feature - with a 4hr long documentary about the Occupying forces of the Nazi regime in Amsterdam over the span of World War 2. As a 20+ year-long resident of the city himself, he manages to frame these morbid stories of WWII with present-day Amsterdam, literally all over the town.

The movie’s visuals consist of shots during the COVID lockdown in 2020 with a VO narrative detailing countless stories of terror during the Occupation.

Starting with a name, their story, and - in most cases - their death.

Closing each location is a short statement that lets you know if the building has since been ‘demolished’ and rebuilt or still standing. Regardless, McQueen makes a point that these stories a deeply a part of Amsterdam but the city has recovered, and rebuild. It’s become a home again.

Narratively, this is done in segments that focus on a location shown to us in the current day (roughly 2020-22) and is somewhat loosely connected to what the narrator says. More often than not, this is an effective contrast to the harsh and morbid nature of the ethnic cleansing Amsterdam was undergoing and the film is overall a very detailed history lesson that manages to give the victims a place to be remembered. In art. Which I admire, but I also believe works better in an Art gallery or museum setting. Hopefully, this film, broken down into dozens of smaller bits, and continually looped at an exhibition, will play out a bit better than its pretty rough 4hr+ runtime allows it for.

Without driving an overarching narrative across, the doc often feels like a stream lacking a flow. It has stunning individual sequences, a stand-out moment comes to mind where we zoom across the streets of Amsterdam as the camera rolls around and turns the world on its head. The sky blends into the water and reflects Amsterdam's nightscape of narrow houses.

The moments from the 2020s sometimes feel out of place, even if I get what McQueen goes for it doesn’t always come together

Ultimately, this is a very personal love letter addressed to the city of Amsterdam handwritten by the one and only Steve McQueen. I wouldn’t recommend a theatre watch, but break it apart into pieces over a few nights and you’ll be fine and hopefully not too bored with the very repetitive storytelling.

My rating for Occupied City is a 7/10, and a warm recommendation to visit Amsterdam yourself. It’s a great town that evidentially has a lot of history.

Demolished.

MONSTER - Review by Ewan Graf

Hirokazu Kore-eda might be my favorite filmmaker alive and after last year’s very enjoyable BROKER, which also played in Competition here in Cannes, he returns with MONSTER. A story told from different points of view, a mother, a teacher, and a child.

Monster brings some of his greatest strengths to the forefront. His directing and staging in addition to the performances that he brings out of everyone single actor is mesmerizing as always, even if the three-part perspective shift doesn’t work as holistically as I would want it to work. 

Perspective-shift stories are always tricky because they rely on bringing in enough new things to uncover and answer the questions you have left from the previous part. But ultimately it feels like Kore-eda ‘over-answers’ some parts of the story.

What fascinated me the most about the film is that it reeled me into to perspective of every character without manipulating me too obviously. So, I was always rooting for the main perspective I was given at the time and if you’ve seen any Kore-eda film before, then it’s no surprise that the answer to who is right and wrong is gonna be more complex and layered than you expect.

As always the typical awkward humor and overall theme of death and reincarnation run throughout this film as well.
Still, I find it frustrating that there was an odd need for closures and answers, even when there we no need for them.

Regardless, Monster is beautiful and had candid little light-hearted, and heartwarming moments that brought a few tears to my eyes.

It’s not gonna be at the top of my list from Kore-eda - which is a very high bar - but it’s very much worth seeing.

La Guerra Civil (2022) - Sundance

Full Review: spoti.fi/3rBtV4g
2022 Ranked: boxd.it/eWCVi

LA GUERRA CIVIL is a solid sports documentary that manages to both introduce a lesser sport-savant like myself to the history of a sport that discusses the nature of heritage, belonging, and collective identity through two guys punching each other. What a knockout. 

For Mexican and Mexican American communities, boxing is more than a sport. From ring walk-ins to trunks, opponents take full advantage of the theatrical spectacle, narrating their histories and the stories of their individual fanbases. In 1996, Oscar De La Hoya, the charismatic golden boy from East L.A, challenged Mexican-born boxing legend Julio César Chávez in what was billed as the “ultimate glory” fight. Mexicans on both sides of the border were forced to choose their favorite champ: the record-holding immigrant from humble beginnings, or the younger and more marketable Olympian born in the U.S. These rivals felt the pressure to prove their athletic superiority, while the fans’ choice of champion revealed the type of Mexican they aspired to be.

Eva Longoria starts her feature film debut with a boxing documentary that is more about the Mexican identity than the sport itself. With traditional interjected sit-down interviews with both the fighters and other ‘witnesses’ of the time, LA GUERRA CIVIL doesn’t change the paradigm of documentary filmmaking. Nonetheless, the story is engaging with a closer look at how one can be rejected by their own heritage and people as the parasitic US identity poisons the sense of belonging and self-identity.
This inner conflict within Oscar De La Hoya doesn’t really get explored much though and we practically get a quite basic retelling of events in a mostly linear timeline. Now, this was great for someone like me - a Swiss guy in his 20s with no real interest in boxing - this was all news to me, but in saying that I realize that this documentary lacks a bit of depth in its processing of the dichotomous ideal Mexican identity in Mexico and the US.
When addressed, all we get is: Chàvez was idealized as he represents all the good Mexican values and De La Hoya does not. And both of them just kinda go: It is what it is. 

As a quick, bit-sized historic catch-up, LA GUERRA CIVIL does its job well but I doubt that it will do much for those already familiar with Chavez and De La Hoya.
The elements of the time-old story of a new challenger De La Hoya arriving and challenging the champion Chavez are framed in an exciting way and make for an entertaining watch.

6/10

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Spider-Man No Way Home is like a thrilling theme park ride filled with references, action, and the one or other heartfelt moment that will resonate with not just MCU but just overall Marvel fans alike and sees Tom Holland fully come into his role in this third installment that somehow feels like an origin story.

Audio Review: spoti.fi/3sbEhdo
2021 Ranked

Welcome to this non-spoiler review of Spider-Man No Way Home. No worries, I will try my best to refrain from spoiling anything specific that happens in this film. However, everything that was shown in trailers already is fair game, so warning for those who really don’t wanna know anything before going in. But what are you doing listening to this review? Go see it! It’s literally out now. 

Anyways, this third or in some ways 8th installment in the Spider-Man saga comes from director Jon Watts who previously directed the first and second installment with Tom Holland as Peter Parker.

Taking place right after the end of Spider-Man Far From Home, which saw Peter being unmasked as Spider-Man by J. Jonah Jamerson, No Way Home wastes no time to get into its jam package adventure story. 
With an abundance of characters - new and old - to focus on, No Way Home can feel quite full at times, but it never runs into the issues that other overcrowded Spider-Man films like Spider-Man 3 or the Amazing Spider-Man 2. 

At its core, No Way Home is a huge fan service that packs an endless amount of references into 2 and a half-hour-long runtime, which makes for a very entertaining watch overall.
How you value and maybe appreciate these references and the all-too-familiar quippy comedic style of these MCU films is - as always - in the eye of the beholder. 
To me, although this is probably the first real Tom Holland, Peper Parker as Spider-Man centered story we get, when previously Tony Stark was quite a big preference in the first two - as an actual presence or in his legacy - it still felt like to me that we were slowly going down the list of things that needed to happen to this character.

This might be my own mistake for hoping to be presented with a movie that throws me for a few more loops and surprises than it actually did or maybe I’m just burned out from all the MCU and Marvel superhero content that I don’t care as much when Jamie Foxx’s Electro and Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin are standing in the same room.

Willem Dafoe - as always in whatever movie he’s in - steals the show with his performance and I was quite glad about his overall presence in the film. Apart from Tom Holland, he’s probably the person who manages to get the most depth out of their character, and with this story getting into the weeds of what it means to stand on your own two feet for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, there are numerous moments where Tom Holland gets to shine as well. 

MJ and Ned are also firmly implemented into the story overall and feel very involved in the over-arching story at large. The decision to focus so much on the high school lives of those characters and the attempt to ground them with their relatable and - in this world - smaller aspirations sometimes comes off a bit forced and unimaginative and lacks the scope of what I believe people would behave like in a world like this. Regardless, the dynamic of this trio is on point and even though I’m not a big fan of that quippy humor, they stick the landing more than not.

Another bigger character appearing in the film, Doc Ock, was heavily CGI-ed, not just in his physicality facially but also with his arms now being fully CGI instead of puppeteers like in Spider-Man 2. No Way Home has overall a bit of a gloss problem, where - I assume partly due to COVID restrictions but also just cause it’s easier now - practically every set feels very CGI. Even moments that are not action-heavy - which arguably aren’t that many, this movie is jam-packed with action - background feel weirdly fake and even some of the motion of characters in action scenes felt quite off. 

Another complaint I had was the frequent Deus Ex Machina way of solving hard problems, which are nit-picky in a sci-fi superhero universe, but still, a bit distracting from a narrative standpoint and are quite apparent ever since Tony Stark figured out time travel REAL FAST in Endgame.

I would love to get more into detail of moments that happen after the inciting incident, but those would definitely be spoilers but they are rather impactful for what’s to come in the near future of the MCU. If you want to hear my spoiler thoughts on No Way Home check out next week's episode on the Quiet On Set Podcast, where Lachlan and I will talk full of spoilers about the friendly neighborhood spiderman. 

Spider-Man No Way Home is like a thrilling theme park ride filled with references, action, and the one or other heartfelt moment that will resonate with not just MCU but just overall Marvel fans alike and sees Tom Holland fully come into his role in this third installment that somehow feels like an origin story.

7/10

The Unforgivable (2021)

The Unforgivable is a quite blatant attempt at using existing IP and notable, respected actors to push for the little golden boy. In that process, it fails to say or portray anything of substance.

Full Review: spoti.fi/3DGFVWd

2021 Ranked

The Unforgivable is a Netflix production from Nora Fingscheidt starring Sandra Bullock as Ruth Slater, who is released from prison into a society that won't forgive her past and she seeks redemption by searching for the sister she left behind. 
Also among that cast is Jon Bernthal and Viola Davis, in unfortunately underused roles within this rather dysfunctionally thrown-together mess of a film. 

The Unforgivable is clearly and quite transparently one of those productions that seek a nomination for its lead and maybe even some supporting players. Recently, Hillbilly Elegy comes to mind that puts amazing actors like Amy Adams and Glenn Close in a bad movie and gives them some ´acting´ moments to shine.
Bullock is no different in this, and I personally wouldn't consider her on the same level as Adams or Close, but more someone who I see chasing the little golden man ever since THE BLIND SIDE. 

Another factor is the story itself, a half-hearted attempt at telling a story of someone who is alienated by society because she murdered a sheriff. Now, this might be personal but I don't enjoy consuming media where policing is portrayed as this daily life and death job of high risk. Because that simply plays into the stereotypes of glorying police that we often get in movies. 
But even putting my own bias to the side, what we get is a melodramatic - but still - bland look at a person alienated by society.

At first, this film screams to be a ´based on true events´ type of film (which also plays nicely for the Academy - see Hillbilly Elegy) but it is rather an adaptation of a British 3 episode mini-series called Unforgiven from 2009. I have not seen that series, so I can't comment on how it compares to this 2021 film version.

What I can say though - and I´ve seen many other critics say the same thing - is that this clearly has the thematic depth of a mini-series that was now stuffed into a 2hr long film. 
Here, the issue of underused characters like Viola Davis´ Liz Ingram and Jon Bernthal´s Blake. 
Davis is probably hit the hardest from this, as she really hasn't got anything to do at all in the film apart from one scene where she gets loud. that's it. I won't be going into any spoilers in this review but even if I were - apart from her driving someone around - she really doesn't get anything to do.
Now Bernthal as Blake does get a bit more. He's introduced as a character whose intentions - apart from a romantic interest in Ruth - are somewhat unclear. Once we finally get around to getting something that could be potentially interesting through his backstory, he is completely shut out of the rest of the movie.

Instead, we focus on an idiotic, overdramatized, and a straight-up horrible third act that was set up - so incredibly obviously and without any sort of depth - by the two sons left behind from the dead cop. Their lines are just comical and feel like they were written by a kid doing a bit of quote-on-quote foreshadowing. It was laughably bad. 

But what do we actually get in The Unforgivable?
Although an attempt and showcasing the struggle to adjust to life after 20 years of imprisonment are tried, there´s close to no focus on Ruth´s struggle to find work - she actually finds two quite quickly - but instead, the narrative focuses more on her as this tragic character that has a lot of talents, like carpentry, which enables her to score a job. This sets up a theme of undercutting Ruth as a broken and flawed person and instead almost tries to redeem her and make her appear noble. 

Throughout the entire film, we are presented with flashes of flashbacks, setting this up to be a sort of thriller-like drama building towards a reveal. These scenes are also often realized in the simplest of ways by our characters remembering something in current them and a sort of flashback being provided. This gets stale and unimaginative very fast. It also grew more frustrating with me as Ruth in the current time wasn't really anything at all. She wasn't working on herself and simply had the mission to reunite with her sister. But apart from the shared tragic memory of the murder, there is not much more we get from those two characters as well. 

All in all, as you might have been able to guess, I wasn't big on Fingscheidt´s The Unforgivable. But to disregard the filmmaker entirely. Apparently her film from last year, Systemcrasher - which I have not seen yet but wanted to for quite some time - is quite great. 

The Unforgivable is a quite blatant attempt at using existing IP and notable, respected actors to push for the little golden boy and fails to say or portray anything of substance. 

3/10

The Humans (2021)

The Humans is a wonderfully captivating and devastating story of a Thanksgiving night filled with rich performances from every single actor in it. While not being conventionally shot and told, director Karem brings the best of his play onto the big screen or the slightly smaller screen to you at home.

Full Review: bit.ly/3dFaott

2021 Ranked

Transcript of audio review: 

Set inside a pre-war duplex in downtown Manhattan, The Humans follows the course of an evening in which the Blake family gathers to celebrate Thanksgiving. As darkness falls outside and eerie things start to go bump in the night, the group’s deepest fears are laid bare. 

THE HUMANS is a 2021 drama and adaptation of the play from Stephen Karam who also brings his play to the silver screen in his directorial debut.

Set among the cast are Richard Jenkins, Steven Yeun, Beanie Feldstein, Amy Schumer, Jayne Houdyshell, and June Squibb. And that's it. With its setting within a single two-story apartment in Manhattan Karam manages to make the blend between stage and screen seamlessly and often stages and shoots his scenes from a distance further away than other dramas would do. This might come off as alienating at first and refuses to make the process of caring for individual characters simple. But ultimately, that is all in service of the overall story, which is about a family gettogether and the underlying little notions of annoyance and disregard to deep feelings of empathy and love. Karam and cinematographer Crawling manage to pull the camera back further and create a captivating experience of constant perspective shift that emphasizes sound in particular.

As someone who doesn't mind the smaller scale that these stage adaptations inherently always have, The Humans doesn't let us escape from the duplex as well. We are stuck there like the characters, questioning ourselves and each other constantly and bringing the full baggage of rich family history. 

Although dramatic beats and resolutions are reached I never felt that it was all to serve a neatly constructed narrative and more to just observe this family gettogether forced upon them by the structure of traditions. 
This brings up another subject frequently brought up in the film, that being how to cope with life. and how unfair, lonely, and disheartening it can be. But instead of condemning any single character to be morally questionable, we get a full set of people all dealing with their own demons.

The Humans is a wonderfully captivating and devastating story of a Thanksgiving night filled with rich performances from every single actor in it. While not being conventionally shot and told, director Karem brings the best of his play onto the big screen or the slightly smaller screen to you at home.

My rating for The Humans is an 8/10 proved to be one of the strongest films of 2021. 

THE HUMANS is currently streaming on Showtime.

The Green Knight (2021) - Quiet On Set Podcast Review

The Green Knight tells the Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain, King Arthur's nephew who embarks on a venturesome quest to hold up his side of a bargain he made with The Green Knight.

Lowery takes us on a constantly morphing quest of Sir Gawain's self-actualization. When broken down the film is not much more than a long journey in which our hero has to face challenges to get to his destination. Now, what makes The Green Knight so captivating is that (minor spoilers incoming) at the end of his journey all that is waiting for him is death.

After reading up on the legend I realized that Lowery takes quite a few liberties to adapt this story to make it his own. What initially got me so interested in The Green Knight was the incredible looking cinematography. Especially in the first act of the story, which mainly takes place inside dimly candle-lit chambres in a castle, the screen is actually very dark. I can really appreciate a director's vision that does not shy away from creating a simultaneously authentic and stylized fictional world. Palmero, the cinematographer, manages to draw me in through the numerous still shots that last seemingly forever at times but work very well to support the theme of life as this agonizing force.

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Dev Patel as Sir Gawain

Further, colors are very purposefully used to support recurring motifs and themes. Most prominently green and red. Now with all the praise that I have given the film so far, I also have to mention that I often felt quite lost with what exactly was going on. On one side I am quite content having gone into this without knowing much of anything about the story of Sir Gawain, but at the same time, I felt lost a lot.

There were a lot of details I would love to pay more attention to on the inevitable rewatch, but for now, that is all I have to say about The Green Knight without going into spoiler and a full-on analysis.

I believe that much like The Lighthouse, A24 once again has a very polarizing film in its hands. Some people are going to adore it, others will hate it oh so deeply and passionately.

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Dev Patel as Sir Gawain

Dev Patel plays Gawain with a charming naivete as he tries to fit in and find his place in the world. All of the supporting cast from Vikander to Harris and Edgerton are phenomenal in their roles. I kinda quite put my finger on it but Ralph Ineson as the Green Knight is such an imposing force that cannot go unmentioned.

At the end of the day, The Green Knight was filled with riveting themes that have crept themselves back into my mind for the last two weeks. Nature vs. civilization, responsibility & integrity, and coming-of-age.

8/10

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Ralph Ineson as the Green Knight

Cherry (2021) - Avenger vs Opioids

CHERRY is the feature film adaption of Nico Walker’s 2018 novel of the same name. The drama about an Army medic turned drug addict and bank robber is brought to your AppleTV+ screen from the director duo behind the latest two Avengers films. Tom Holland stars as Cherry, a college dropout who impulsively joins the Army after his girlfriend breaks up with him. Cherry swiftly gets back together with his ex, but it’s already too late to back out of his commitment to the Army. He returns riddled with the traumatic experience of the war in Iraq and rapidly develops an addiction to opioids and struggles to keep afloat as a war vet in his mid-20s.

Joe and Anthony Russo return to a Non-MCU-film after seven years and four movies over at the big mouse. Backed with fewer dollars in the budget but stacked with notable star power as Tom Holland once again tries his hardest to drop his London accent for an American one. Holland’s performance is quite solid and from what I can tell - being Swiss - also on point with his American accent. Cherry also stars Ciara Bravo in her biggest role to date. Whereas Holland left an overall good impression Bravo missed more often than not, resulting in a moderate amount of unconvincing scenes. 

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Arguably, this is less on her and more on the overcrammed narrative that repeatedly falls short in selling rather abrupt character developments. At almost two and a half hours of runtime Cherry is certainly not a short film and quite honestly might have been better served in the form of a mini-series. However, the long run-time would probably be shortened by over 15 minutes if the overuse of slow-motion sequences were less frequent. The sudden shifts in aspect ratios and fourth wall break alongside the few and far between Wes Anderson-like staging and framing add up to an overall tonal mess that is structured into five chapters, which I assume was taken from the novel, for no apparent reason other than those cool red title cards.

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On the whole, Cherry tries to tell an engaging narrative whilst poking fun and highlighting some of the flawed systems in the US. Although the attempt is very much noted and respected, there is not enough substance to let the narrative flow fittingly. What we get is a Coming-of-Age love story, war drama, cheeky fourth-wall-breaking character study on PTSD and drug addiction in addition to a Scorsese-esce rise and fall of a bank robber. It's just a bit much.

Conclusively, Cherry tackles PTSD and opioid addiction from a narrow field of view and rests a bit too comfortably on its bankable lead and directors creating a ball bath of cinematic ideas for them to play in to leave more to be desired. Nonetheless, it’s a big win for Apple TV+. One that will hopefully bring some new subscribers to the streaming service.  

Cherry is entertaining, easy to look at and its sweeping camera movements and charismatic lead will probably be enough to please most audiences. It uses its lack of character depth in the form of a rather fast-paced plot. 

2.5/5

Cherry releases on Feb 26 in cinemas and will be available to stream on March 12 on Apple TV+

CODA (2021) - The Big Winner of the Sundance Film Festival 2021

Siân Heder’s CODA, an American remake of the French La Famille Bélier (2014) manages to exceed the mainly comedic approach of the original and tackles the story from a more grounded and authentic angle. Whereas the original didn’t make an effort to actually cast deaf actors in the respective roles, Siân Heder did for CODA. Emilia Jones’ Ruby is the only hearing member of her deaf family who makes ends meet with fishing. She helps out each morning before school and faces social isolation in school due to her family's disabilities. When she finally jumps over her own shadow and joins the choir to act on her lifelong passion for singing, she is encouraged by her teacher Bernardo (Eugenio Derbez), who insists on rolling the R’s in his name, to aim higher than keeping up the family fishing business and to consider going to music school.

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Emilia Jones as Ruby Rossi

CODA is the type of film you can recommend to pretty much anyone without risking that they won’t enjoy their time with it. It’s a crowd-pleasing movie with several great emotional pay-offs for multiple characters and overall it is just a great time to watch. However, apart from deaf performers in deaf roles, the movie isn’t anything groundbreaking or spectacular. At the end of the day, it is a very familiar story of a young adolescent who doesn’t believe in themselves (enough) until a third party, mostly some kind of mentor figure, comes in and teaches them to harness their true potential. It even packs the ‘don’t be held back by people around you in your small town’ trope into the mix and if I’m being totally honest, I don’t mind the storytelling clichés that CODA uses. Because the film shines especially in smaller moments of situational comedy and emotional payoffs between Ruby and her parents. 

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Amy Forsyth as Gertie, Daniel Durant as Leo Rossi, Marlee Matlin as Jackie Rossi, and Troy Kotsur as Frank Rossi (from left)

Although there are a number of knit-picks I have with the film, the overall story hinders me to not enjoy this heartfelt story to the fullest. Certain dramatic tensions feel rather forced and easily avoidable mostly through communication, but I guess ultimately that is one of the issues tackled in the narrative itself so I cannot fault it too much for that.

Siân Heder’s second feature won big at Sundance taking home the award for Directing, Ensemble Cast, and both the Audience and Grand Jury Prize for best Drama Feature. 

CODA was a worthy tick-off for the Sundance Film Festival and broke records by its $25Mio. acquisition by Apple for their streaming service AppleTV+, surpassing last year’s Palm Springs that was bought by Hulu for $17Mio & 69 Cents and can be expected to be released in the next few months on Apple’s streaming service.

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Eugenio Derbez as Bernardo Villalobos

CODA sets Ruby on a familiar journey of self-discovery and combines a Coming-of-Age story with authentic and respectful portrayals of a mostly deaf family. With a healthy dose of humor, drama, and music CODA will have something for everyone.

3.5/5

Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

Review on Quiet on Set Podcast HERE

Shaka King tackles the story of Fred Hampton, the deputy chairman of the Black Panther Party in this historic Drama-Thriller accurately titled JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH. The Warner Bros production hits theatres on February 12 (wherever they’re open) and will be available to stream for 30 days on HBO Max. Judas and the Black Messiah focuses mainly on Bill O’Neal, an informant who is forced to work with the FBI to escape from a decade-long prison sentence for impersonating an officer and lifting cars. He soon finds himself in the midst of the already exhausted Civil Rights Movement that suffered the loss of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. just a few years prior.

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Daniel Kaluuya (left) as Fred Hampton & Lakeith Stanfield (right) as Bill O’Neal

Lakeith Stanfield plays the conflicted and often helpless Bill O’Neal with phenomenal moral ambiguity as he climbs ranks in the Black Panther Party and thereby increasing his value to the federal agencies. Stanfield has a way of portraying his multilayered and complex character with his eyes alone which does a great deal in humanizing what many simply regard as a sell-out, betrayer, or a Judas. Daniel Kaluuya IS Fred Hampton. He absolutely nails this performance on a level that is on par with Denzel Washington in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X (1992). Hampton is young, driven, and selfless. A man on a mission. King doesn’t shy away from presenting the radical side of Hampton or the Panthers either.

It balances the ambiguity of characters’ intent and results quite effectively. As a result, whatever atrocities and injustices were committed, we have history to look back onto to judge who was right or wrong. Hoover, for instance, played by Martin Sheen, is simply a clear-cut villain from start to finish, which accurately displays this monster of a man. The far more interesting dynamic and dramatic tension comes from Fred and Bill as they grow a bit closer. To its own benefit, the film never falls into traps of sentimentality or overdramatizing events and allows this to be a thriller that has you tensed up even if you are aware of the ultimate devastating outcome of Hampton's way too short a story. Jesse Plemons as FBI agent Roy Mitchell, Bill O’Neal’s contact person, has his own smaller arc in the form reversed version of Bill’s journey.

In addition to a quite successful second feature directing effort, Shaka King furthermore delivers a fantastic original screenplay with Will Berson, Kenneth Lucas, and Keith Lucas as his collaborators. The frequent Steve McQueen collaborator Sean Bobbit (12 Years A Slave/Widows/Shame/Hunger) packs award-worthy shots into the tightly structured narrative and Sam Liscenco’s (Uncut Gems/Good Time/Eight Grade) Production Design reanimates late 60s Chicago in a stunning manner. 

Judas and the Black Messiah doesn’t take your hand along the way and avoids dumbing down characters based on real people for a simpler plot. There might not be a courtroom full of people clapping, seemingly creating a false sense of having overcome a complex and layered issue. (Trial of the Chicago 7). Judas and the Black Messiah, on the contrary, packs a devastating real ending after Fred’s already exasperating assassination that left me speechless and depleted.

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Daniel Kaluuya (top) as Fred Hampton & Lakeith Stanfield (center) as Bill O’Neal during a powerful speech

Shaka King’s Judas and the Black Messiah packs the best performances from both Stanfield and especially Kaluuya in addition to being a thrilling portrayal and humanization of an iconic figure from the Civil Rights movement. Additionally, it’s a dire reminder of the countless criminal and ruthless acts committed by the FBI.

4/5

Duel - 52 Years of 52 Weeks

Duel tells a story of a business commuter who is pursued and terrorized by the malevolent driver of a massive tractor-trailer. Or what I’d call a BIG ASS TRUCK! 

David Mann is driving out of LA on his way to a meeting to a location somewhere past the desert highways of the US. After he overtakes a dirty oil truck he suddenly finds himself pursued by the faceless driver in a deadly cat and mouse game filled with speedometer shots and overload of internal monologues seemingly recorded with the shotgun mic version of a blue yeti. Besides a repetitive story structure, Spielberg manages to never fully let go of the tension-filled gas pedal and does a test run of sorts for his later masterpiece JAWS. The controlled, limited perspective from mostly David’s POV helps to establish an unknown, and therefore terrifying danger behind a faceless 20 ton heavy truck on its mindless and fixated pursuit that takes road rage to the utmost extreme. 

DUEL is a great jumping-off point for Spielberg’s career and an adequate start for a Director Deep Dive as we already get the Spielberg characteristic sweeping, big camera moves, and general dynamic blocking of scenes. He also shows a great sense of direction in relation to the action that focuses on both spectacle and tension. Even though our hero isn’t faceless, he quite as well could be as we don’t get anything interesting from his character. Duel is much more an adrenaline rush whenever the pursuer closes in or our helpless little red Chrysler Valiant driver and we get to feel his anxiety creep upon us. 

The biggest issues I have with the movie mainly come from the cheesy and quite unnecessary internal monologues David keeps having. I wouldn’t call Dennis Weaver’s performance great by a long shot but it’s enough to convey most of the needed information without blatantly spouting all his thoughts every few scenes. The overall story of someone being chased has its limitations and is usually reserved for a third act climax and therefore restricted in how much variety can come from it. Especially if you don’t develop the relationship between the pursued and pursuer at all. Spielberg understood that already and made a film that was roughly 15 minutes shorter in its runtime. However, Universal wanted it to be 90 minutes in order to show the TV movie in theatres too. So after production had already wrapped, Spielberg had to go back and shot additional scenes like the railroad crossing, the school bus scene, as well as the phone call at the beginning with his wife and the opening of the POV, drive through the city. I’d argue that the first pitstop for gas felt quite a filler already, but we got one of the best moments with the shoe shot from it. I guess that that scene already partly existed and only the actual phone call was added, as the shoes became an integral part of the bar scene later on. 

Most apparent is this added time in the railroad crossing scene, which felt quite out of place to me especially because the following scenes didn’t match the energy at all with that altercation between the two drivers. 

I like the simplicity of a manic driver looking for victims on the road. Spielberg said that the multiple license plates that are attached at the front of the truck suggest that the truck driver is a serial killer who ran down other drivers in other states. 

That’s pretty much The Texas Chain Saw Massacre that gave birth to a whole new type of horror genre with antagonistic characters that we never get to fully understand. It is also what makes JAWS so great. Albeit through the technical limitations at the time, but that’s something that most film fans already know. But it is there that you have to make it work and create a sense of tension and Spielberg manages to do that quite masterfully. In 12 Days mind you. He shot this entire film in 12 days. Usually, productions take months to shoot an entire feature. But I also think that due to the time crunch we got those awful narration bits. 

Nonetheless, the standout scene and by far most memorable is the standoff after David believes to have outsmarted the truck driver. Just great cinema all around. And did I spot a Psycho reference there?

Duel is thrilling in many scenes and shot in an exciting, dynamic way. The voice-over narration is superfluous and brings dramatic tension to a halt. Duel might overstay its welcome by a few minutes, nonetheless, the cinematic roller-coast-like storytelling has its low lows but also high highs and overall packs a worthwhile Action Thriller from The King of Entertainment.

The Aristocats - 52 Years in 52 Weeks

The Aristocats (1970)

Welcome back to 52 Years in 52 Weeks. Each week in 2021 we’ll watch a film I’ve never seen before starting in 1969 moving one year forward every week.

This week, I watched The Aristocats from 1970. Wolfgang Reitherman directed this feline family adventure from Disney. Reitherman is also (at least partly) behind other Disney classics like 1961’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians, 1959’s Sleeping Beauty, and 1970’s The Rescuers, which I believed to be connected to The Aristocats because the mice looked similar in my mind. But I guess that just makes me the racist equivalent for rodents. But I’ll leave the racial stereotyping to the experts over at Disney. More on that later. Reitherman co-directed these films but he’s arguably best known for 1973s Robin Hood and 1967’s The Jungle Book. All the films mentioned are available for streaming on Disney+. What the service might lack in original new programming it inarguably makes up with its rather impressive backlog

Phil Harris, who voices Baloo and Little John in Jungle Book and Robin Hood respectively, does the voice for the most memorable character from the Aristocats. O’Malley. It’s impressive how creepy yet still charming Harris manages to be as the stray cat that helps The Duchess and her three kittens on her way back to their wealthy home.

The plot is fairly simple. When Adelaide Bonfamille leaves all her liquidities to her cats, her butler decides to get rid of them in an effort to inherit his employer's money that he believes to deserve. Funnily enough, Edgar is too dense to realize that he would still get all the money as cats...can’t...spend...money. I know. Mind. blown. But that rather simple world-view runs through the entire plot of The Aristocats. Intense over the top action chase scenes and the occasional song is all we get from the movie. It never tries to be more than a simple - ignore the partly intended terrible pun - cat and mouse game. 

I personally found most jokes to be more miss than hit. For example, the geese characters feel particularly random and unnecessary. Maybe it’s because I just can’t stand the upper-class way of talking from the 40s-70s. Particularly the Duchess is a great example of that. I just can’t stand the way she talks. Perhaps that’s just a ‘me thing’ but I find it distracting. In the context of the story, it makes sense to have an upper-class cat speak in an upper-class manner. It’s just so annoying. But honestly, Thomas O’Malley’s constant ‘baby’ is equally irritating and predatory, to be frank. 

The Aristocats is a movie that’s supposed to be light-hearted. With Thomas O’Malley strolling along the riverside taking the family on an adventure. I just don’t connect as well with movies that I feel like don’t have a purpose or reason to exist. This might be cynical but I dislike cookie-cutter versions of stories that are way too familiar without adding much to anything. You could argue that the purpose of a movie like this is simply to entertain and I’d have to agree. Lots of studio films exist purely for that reason and don’t need any themes on top of that. But I wasn’t even entertained by anything happening in the plot. As you’d expect from a family film, its conclusion is predictable and the moments in between, at least to me, are not charming or memorable enough to leave a good impression. 

And what’s worse than a truly bad movie? A mediocre, boring one. And that’s what The Aristocats is. 

Also giving a cat with Asian features chopsticks to play the piano is at most unexpected but not really funny. In the overall context, that scene simply serves as a colorful, musical pitstop halfway through the movie before they ultimately assimilate to the aristocratic lifestyle at the mercy of an old, white woman.

Maybe I’m reading into this too much but there is that disclaimer at the start of the film that Disney puts in front of some of their older releases deemed controversial. 

Ultimately The Aristocats is a rather weak entry in the long list of animated Disney classics. But at least it’s better than all of the recent ‘live-action’ remakes, but from the recent trend of Disney redoing literally their entire 90s golden age of films, it’s only a matter of time until they’ll produce the inevitable remake for this one.

Next week we’ll watch Spielberg’s feature-length debut Duel.

So I watched every movie in 2020...

I watched a ton of movies this year. Like SO many more than I usually do.
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Unhinged

Derrick Borte’s UNHINGED explores a What If story of road raging gone to the very extreme. The chronically-late Rachel (Caren Pistorius) is on her way to drop her son Kyle (Gabriel Bateman) off at school when she hooks at a car in front of her that is not driving despite the light turning green. Behind the wheel of the big, grey 4x4 is a driver (Russel Crowe) who gets enraged by Rachel’s refusal to apologize after he did just that to her. What follows is a non-stop chase fuelled by the Stranger’s wrath towards Rachel. Desperately set on teaching her a lesson, the stranger doesn’t just go after her, but everyone she loves.

In a cinematic world and story, there’s this term called Suspension of Disbelief, which is basically an acceptance and willing ignorance towards certain illogical or surreal events that the viewer believes in for the sake of the story. UNHINGED tries to set up a world in which a psychotic road-rager, like the one we see, as the result of “an increase of violence on the streets”. Within the first scene, we get to observe this bitter, psychotic, and broken man that does not back down from harming people who hurt him, as he kills his ex-wife and her new boyfriend. Immediately afterward, we get a drawn-out and overly long montage of news clips showcasing various acts of road rage that try to prime you into a connection between this maniac and people honking at each other. 

While I was most certainly entertained, thanks for asking, the dread of having a message that is not about mental health but more on how we don’t care about each other on the streets feels like an odd parallel to this movie’s release, which much like many people on the street is much more concerned about being first rather than getting there in a safe manner.

All that being said, there are some good ideas in UNHINGED. Especially how Russel Crowe has to be overweight to play this part. Right? Okay, now I’m done trashing it.

Crowe delivers a solid performance. He is certainly able to portray a mostly silent menace being a calm and collected killer that must have drawn some inspiration from Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh from NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. Although Crowe is lightyears away from a performance on par with Bardem.

I was caught off guard by the R-rated violence displayed in the film, albeit out of place for the characters, grounded this as a world with fatal consequences. Even though Crowe’s stranger was mostly driving next/into NPC’s that did not seem to react to whatever he was doing. Which I get, it was one of the points the story was trying to make. That no one cares in traffic, but come on… Do you really not realize someone rear-ending someone else's car next to you? Unfortunately, this resulted in more than a few unintentionally amusing moments that were supposed to be thrilling. 

The sound that design, on the contrary, was utterly fascinating. Although that might be a result of my almost five-month absence from cinemas.

UNHINGED is a mediocre action film that tries too hard to have some kind of message hidden in between the loud motors of its cars. It is like Harvey Dent’s two-face in that we deserve it, but we don’t need right now. They probably just really had to push for a release because the Fortnite references were already outdated in AVENGER’S ENDGAME, let alone mid-summer 2020.

★★⋆☆☆

Film Release (Switzerland): 30.07.20 - Film Release (USA): TBD

Film Data: Director: Derrick Borte - Writers: Carl Ellsworth - Cast: Russel Crowe, Gabriel Bateman, Caren Pistorius, Anna Leighton, Jimmi Simpson - 90’ - 2020 - USA - Solstice Production - Ascot Elite Switzerland

Photos: © 2020 Ascot Elite Entertainment AG

• Ewan Graf
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UNHINGED is like a dog that sticks his head out the window - it’s entertaining to look at for a while but ultimately cats are better.