The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

INT. A STARRY CAST - NIGHT

Joel Coen is already a great established director with the combined work alongside his brother Ethan. But this is the first time Joel is dropping solo into the big bad battle royal world that we call ‘Cinema.’ Joel strikes gold with his retelling of Shakespeare’s beautiful story, fantastic cinematography, and, above all, a perfect cast.

I first want to prise the use of light in The Tragedy of Macbeth. Black and white films are renowned for shaping and folding light for different effects. But I think of more recent B&W films such as The Lighthouse, I see how simply this film uses its lighting. While I still believe that The Lighthouse has overall a better aesthetic than The Tragedy of Macbeth, the overall simplicity of this film shows how if you have a great story, you don’t need anything too flashy.

While everything is simple, there’s nothing simple about the cast. Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Brendan Gleeson, Alex Hassel, Cory Hawkins & Harry Melling. Each character feels perfectly cast (even if one of them is your wife) and they all perform the most confusing but beautiful dialogue of recent memory.

I don’t blame Denzel’s action fanboys for skipping this one. Joel and Ethan Coen are well known for that Coen brothers’ style and while it’s not present here, Joel tells a phenomenal story without anything too flamboyant–dramatic sure, but not over the top ridiculous like Buster Scruggs in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Let’s hope that it’s not Joel’s last solo adventure because more films like this would be great!

FADE OUT

#82 - The Tragedy of Macbeth & The Lost Daughter

Spoiler Review: 43:53

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.

Halloween Kills

INT. HALLOWEEN: MICHAEL STRIKES BACK - NIGHT

Michael Myers is back and he’s mad as all hell.  I’ll start off by saying, I’m not a horror guy. The list of my favorite horror films is a small one: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Alien, Midsommar. But for me, sequels that ‘bring the heat’ will always be rated higher. Halloween Kills is the Aliens in this rebooted trilogy. Spooky, tense, action-packed and it’s the sequel to a horror movie, after watching this movie you’ll see what I mean. Michael Myers is still the horror icon he has always been, but someone has been watching John Wick.

While Halloween (2018) might be the horror reboot, and the start of this trilogy. Halloween Kills, the ‘second act,’ as I’m calling it, shows us the terror/power Michael has, setting up the final battle between him and Laurie which we’ll hopefully see in Halloween Ends. Speaking of Laurie, she’s become the Sarah Connor of this universe, which we saw in the previous installment, but in this film, she’s the one on the sideline. Laurie is just spilling exposition, we often cut back to her telling another character how ‘Michael is “MORE THAN A MAN”, He’s transcending into something more’ speech. While many hardcore fans might be disappointed that she’s not going head-to-head with Michael again, I’m not, because this film isn’t about their epic battle. We learned what Laurie can do in Halloween (2018) and we learned what Michael can do in Halloween Kills. Setting up a massive conclusion for Halloween Ends. No pressure to the filmmakers.  

For those not enjoying this film, maybe not every ‘reboot’ should follow the same structure as the original (look at the latest Star Wars movies) Halloween Kills stands on its own two feet, it’s the action-horror it can and wants to be. Michael is terrifying, Laurie is a backbencher, Allyson takes the fight to Michael, legacy characters you’ll have to make your own opinion on, but I liked their inclusion.  If you want horror, it’s there, but go in wanting action and you’ll love it.  

Review on QOS Podcast: HERE
Halloween (1978): 46:42

Halloween (2018) / Halloween Kills

Non-Spoiler Review: 59:36 - Halloween Kills: 64:15

Spoiler Review: 67:38

Ratings: 83:49

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

Pig (2021)

INT. PORKCHOP – DAY

This film, like many others, has the potential to be a great movie, but it also has the characteristic of a flop. You have, first and foremost, Nicolas Cage. An actor who stereotypically doesn’t play tame, slow roles. You also have a very small budget with a very large-scale idea and, at least according to IMDB trivia, an untrained pig. If I told you these things without showing you a trailer or any screenshot of the film, imagine what that film would be.

That image in your head is from alternative universe because in this reality, it’s a fucking hit.

All the pieces are laid out and putting it all together seemed near impossible, there can be some pieces missing here and there however, the overall picture is clear.

Cage pulls out one of his best performances, one that doesn’t reach the same level as ‘Joe’ but comes very close. The smaller budget required excellent storytelling to be front and centre, and whilst originally having a runtime of two hours, cutting it down to the 90-minute runtime was again another very good move.

Cage is the glue to hang the picture on the wall. He captivates every scene he’s in, drawing me in with what mysteries he’s hiding. There were so many times I thought, this can’t be the same guy from, most recently, ‘Willy’s Wonderland’ (which I watched about 40 minutes of and had to turn off) or even ‘The Wicker Man.’ It is a brave performance, reminding me that we need to give this man another Oscar.

Alex Wolff holds his own too. Not his strongest performance to date, however I can see Alex rising over the next few years, after all every actor needs to have a fun role occasionally and Nic Cage has been doing fun roles for a very long time.

Finally, a word of warning, many of my friends who saw the trailer and read up about the film thought this would be a ‘Nic Cage – John Wick’ movie, and while yes, the trailer gives that vibe, it’s nothing like John Wick. So please, don’t go into this movie wanting that, you’ll come out disappointed. Go in expecting to see a well-crafted film and be surprised with the journey it takes you on.

Because honestly, if Nicolas Cage wanted his pig back, I wouldn't care who he is, I’m giving him his fucking pig back.

FADE OUT.