Just a miscellany of recent films.

Eyimofe (This is My Desire) (2020), directed by Arie & Chuko Esiri. This film tells the story of two would be travelers who live in poverty in bustling and hustling Lagos. Mofe (Jude Akuwudike) is an electrician who wants to relocate to Spain, and Rosa (Temi Ami-Williams) is a hairdresser who moonlights in a bar and wants to relocate to Italy. We follow them in their struggles to survive and keep the hope of leaving Nigeria alive. The opening shot of a tangle of electic wires, red, yellow, green, and black, pretty much sums up the lives of these people and the tangle of desires that is Lagos. In this world a passport is sacred. Something to be sought, touched, and admired. The green of the Nigerian passport lends its hue to the overall look of the film. Both Rosa and Mofe are caregivers, Rosa looking after her pregnant younger sister, and Mofe looking after his siblings because his father is so stingy. As things transpire both of them find themselves tangled in the convoluted bureaucracy, and both of them find they constantly require lots of naira (Nigerian banknotes) to pay for this or that: rent, hospital fees, doctor’s fees, food, travel documents, and so on. The camera follows the two protagonists as they make their way through the crowded streets of the city and into intimate spaces, living places and work places. This is an impressive film that manages both to tell a specific story of a specific place and to show how this story has a wide application.

No Bears (2022), directed by Jafar Panahi. Jafar Panahi plays a version of himself in this Iranian film about borders, borders between fact and fiction, between rural and urban, between classes, and of course between countries. Some of these borders are less than firm, while others are as firm as can be. Panahi is living in a small isolated village near the border with Turkey, and from here he is trying to direct a film remotely, a film being shot just across the nearby border in Turkey. He has to communicate with the film’s actors and crew via the internet and the internet is very unreliable where is he. He is where he is for fear of being arrested in the city, and he cannot leave the country. We have, then, two stories, the story of Pahani’s exile and his interactions with the local villagers (he comes a cropper of the village traditions when he goes about taking pictures), and the story within a story in the film Panahi is trying to make. This film within a film is about two lovers who are trying to leave the country, but only one has a passport (illegally gained), and the one with the passport refuses to leave without her lover. The film within a film and the outer story of the exiled Panahi come together at the end in a rather blunt way. This film, like several of Panahi’s films, was made in secret. When it was released, Panhai was in Evin prison in Tehran. He was released in February 2023, just a year ago.

 

The Holdovers (2023), directed by Alexander Payne. Here’s another story about a late middle-aged teacher in a prestigious boys’ school who forges a relationship with one of the students, one who has been a troublemaker and tossed from a couple of schools prior to being enrolled at Barton. It is the Christmas break and a few of the boys have been left by their parents to spend the holidays at the school. One teacher has to be left to oversee these boys. This is Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), he of the lazy eye, jaded demeanor, and acidic quips from the ancients. The boy who eventually becomes Paul’s companion on a short trip to Boston is Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa). Also on this short excursion to Boston is the school’s cook, Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). The film follows the template of films like Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) and The Browning Version (951), and others. It does not break new ground. What distinguishes this film is the acting. All three of the main actors deliver exceptional performances. Also impressive is the mise en scene. Winter scenes about the school work to give us a warm blanket of snow to warm our hearts. We also have a wonky Christmas tree to underline how angled these characters are.

 

Run All Night (2015), directed by Jaume Collett-Serra. This is the third film that Neesom has made with Collett-Serra, and it is a rip-roaring thriller with a touch of noir. We have lots of dark streets, rain, cigarettes, careering cars, and shooting. The plot has two old friends and fellow gangsters, one a gang boss, the other an aging hitman, pitted against each other after the aging hitman, Jimmy Conlon (Neesom), kills the son of the gang boss, Shaun Maguire (Ed Harris). Maguire not only sends his minions to wipe out Jimmy’s son, Mike (Joel Kinnaman) and Jimmy, but he also hires ace assassin Andrew Price (Common) to make sure neither of these two, Jimmy and Mike, survive. We have lots of mayhem, so much so that the film teeters on the brink of the surreal. It may seek to conjure the gritty streets and dark vision of a corrupt society (including police force) of film noir, but its flamboyant camera and frenetic action and violence push it into overdrive. Both Neesom and Harris deliver world-weary performances that somehow add gravitas to an oft repeated plot of retribution and maybe even salvation. As an addition to the Liam Neesom-action thriller genre, Run All Night has its attractions – if you find mayhem, brouhaha, and a high body count attractive.

Renfield (2023), directed by Chris McKay. I was not expecting much from this turn to Dracula’s sidekick, Renfield (Nicholas Hoult). However, the first 15 or 20 minutes sold me. This beginning is sure to capture anyone who admires those early Universal horror films, especially the one directed by the inimitable Tod Browning. Even Browning’s lost film, London After Midnight (1927) manages an appearance here. Nicholas Cage’s Dracula finds opportunity to echo Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, and Christopher Lee, in a bravura performance. It is too bad the rest of the film does not maintain the parodic level of those opening 20 minutes or so. On the other hand, the rest of the film does have its moments, most glaringly moments in the vein the Raimi’s The Evil Dead films. I refer to the splashing of blood and viscera, decapitations and delimbing, and so on in giddy fashion. As for story, this involves young Renfield trying to extricate himself from a “toxic relationship,” and find a way to gain control over his life. He encounters a police officer, Rebecca Quincey (Awkwafina) – Quincey, get it? Together they manage to deal a blow to corruption in the police force and to his nibs, Count Dracula. This is all quite fun, if rather frenetic and bloody. Perhaps the nicest thing about the film is Cage’s ability to evoke another vampire, Donald Trump. Cage’s Dracula is a narcissistic thug who relishes the thought of world domination. The film, then, resonates for our times.

Destroyer (2018), directed by Karyn Kusama. Keith Uhlich in Slant Magazine refers to this film as “the torturously self-serious crime thriller Destroyer.” It is a star-turn for Nicole Kidman who appears in make-up that gives her, to put it mildly, a bedraggled look. She is a wreck of a human being who happens to be a Los Angeles police detective. As a detective, she is also a ruin. The film slips back and forth between the present and some 17 years previous when the Kidman character, Erin Bell, was beginning her career as a police officer and working under cover with a gang of bank robbers. Of course, things go wrong back then, and they continue to go wrong in the present. In the present, Erin is on the trail of the thug who was responsible for things going wrong in the past. This is Silas. Mostly, the film showcases Kidman’s acting chops, and not to much pleasurable viewing. This is a slog of a film. The viewer will feel at the end what Kidman communicates from the first frames of the film when she is wracked with a hangover and walks unsteadily to the crime scene that sets the action going. What can one conclude? The film has ambition, but…

The Bubble (2022), directed by Judd Apatow. I wanted to like this film. In the early days of the pandemic, a Jurassic Park film shut down production in England, as did other productions. The Bubble takes this event as its starting point. A group of film makers gather in a stately home in England in the early days of the pandemic to shoot the 6^th installment of Cliff Beasts. First, they must quarantine for two weeks before rehearsals and then shooting can begin. The idea allows Apatow to lampoon the film industry, celebrity culture, TikTok, and popular culture generally. As I say, I wanted to like this. The film, however, stumbles along and along and along for nearly 130 minutes, far too long for the story it has to tell, a story that consists of bits and pieces rather than a coherent narrative. A few funny bits help, especially in the first third of the film, but things grow tiresome before the midpoint. To spice things up, a few cameos serve as easter eggs: Beck, John Lithgow, John Cena, James McAvoy all make brief appearances. As comedies go, this one just misses the mark – at least for me. Scenes of filming with green screen and wires hold some interest, but not enough to sustain a film this long.

Budapest Noir (2017), directed by Eva Gardos. This Hungarian film follows the film noir script to a ‘t’. The only thing missing is the signature black and white photography. We have the bedraggled anti-hero (a reporter) in a trench coat who provides the voice-over narration. He also receives the requisite beatings by various thugs, and a visit from an alluring femme fatale. We have the dark offices and dark streets with, of course, rain. Finally, the action takes place in 1936 Budapest against the backdrop of events in next door Germany. The plot has our reporter doggedly investigating the murder of a beautiful lady of the night despite various attempts to make him cease and desist. His investigations lead him to some unsavoury, but powerful people. The murdered young woman happens to be Jewish, and the rising antipathy against the Jewish People serves as motivation for murder. The final scene perhaps says all that needs to be said. Our reporter, Zsigmond Gordon (Krisztián Kolovratnik), stops by a news stand after he has wrapped his investigation. The newsman, a friend of Gordon’s, has one arm and a cheerful demeanour, or at least he used to be cheerful. Now he tells Godron that he is closing the news stand and leaving. Some thugs have tossed a brick through his window. Gordon is dismissive of this and says the news man ought to stay. Now the news man tells Gordon that he is Jewish. Gordon says not to worry; what is happening in Germany (it is 1936 remember) won’t happen in Hungary. After all, he says as he walks away in the night, “This is Budapest.” The film masterly recreates the Budapest of 1936. It also recreates the sleezy atmosphere of the best noir films with its nightclub scenes and scenes in a photographer’s studio where the photographs are of the pornographic sort. This tale of corruption in high places is a worthy addition to the genre.

Dark Waters (2019), directed by Todd Haynes. What works best for me in this film about the evils of the Dupont chemical company and the lawyer who plays David to Dupont’s Goliath is the cinematography. Haynes and cinematographer Edward Lachman bring a sense of decay to the look of things, especially, but not exclusively, to the exteriors. Something sickly and even rotton settles on things here rendering the positive ending rather more ambiguous than at first blush it may seem. The system is, after all, rigged. Lawyer Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) may soldier on, but we recognize the insidious power of a huge corporation such as Dupont to poison not only the waters of a region, but also the minds of people who are adversely affected by these same waters. The film is in the vein of such films as The Insider (1999) and Erin Brockovich (2000), and like those films, it makes it point clearly. The scene in which Dupont CEO, Phil Donnelly (Victor Garber), tosses the word “hick” at Ron Bilott during an evening dinner event is powerful, as is the scene in which Bilott walks through a nearly empty underground parking garage to his car. Tension here is palpable. The domestic scenes and the scenes of human interaction are nicely handled, as always, by Haynes. He is a director who takes an interest in the subtleties of relationships. 

Gretel and Hansel (2020), directed by Oz Perkins. This take on the Grimm Brothers tale has Gretel taking the lead. This is her coming of age story. She comes to learn just how powerful she is and how independent. The story manages to stay pretty close to the Grimms’s version, and yet bring a fresh perspective. The visuals are striking, if perhaps not immune to certain aspects of cinematography that have become cliché these past several years: the obligatory aerial shot, the yellowish lighting, and the necessary dream sequences, for example. The atmosphere is suitably creepy, and there are touches of horror nicely played out and stimulating the viewer’s imagination. The back story of the girl in pink adds a faux fold dimension that does, I think, work and allows for a twist late in the film.  In short, this feminist version of the familiar tale is impressive. The ending gives way to intrigue; it is open in a compelling way. Just what lies ahead for these siblings, especially for Gretel? We have watched Gretel mature into young womanhood and dispatch the wicked witch/mother. Now what?

March has arrived. Here are a few action-packed movies.

The Heroic Trio and Executioners (both 1993), directed by Johnnie To (the second film also has Ching Siu-Tung as co-director). These two films combine wuxia with American-style comic book zaniness. This is my third viewing of The Heroic Trio, but my first of its sequel. The former holds up all right, although I confess my enthusiasm has waned just a bit. The trio are Chat (Maggie Cheung), Ching (Michelle Yeoh), and Tung (Anita Mui); they are also known as Thief Catcher, The Invisible Woman, and Wonder Woman respectively. Invisible, you ask. Well Ching’s ill-fated partner has developed an invisibility cloak. The plot has to do with a sinsister underground warlord, Evil Master (Shi-Kwan Yen) stealing babies because he is looking for the next Emperor of China. He believes China must have an Emperor, one he can control. He has a crazed henchman named Kau (Anthony Wong – this actor appeared in 18 movies in 1993 alone!) who eats his own severed finger. Speaking of eating body parts, I can also report that the film has a group of cannibal children who dine vigorously on various body parts. Chat blows them all up. So we have much flying through the air, either on invisible wires, or on visible wires or on flying barrels or on a motorcycle. As for the trio, stand aside Charlie’s Angels. These three work independently of men. We find them reunited in Executioners which takes place some years after the action in The Heroic Trio and after a nuclear event has pretty much destroyed everything. The plot here turns on a search for clean water, and we learn that the villain, another over-the-top comic book character Mr. Kim (Anthony Wong) wants to destroy the existing government and seize world domination. Once again, we have flying about and bombs and much mixing of action, humour, and sudden sadness when a good character (perhaps a child) dies. These films offer a dazzling foray into cultural history. We even have a nod to The Terminator (1984) at the end of The Heroic Trio. 

 

Master Z: the Ip Man Legacy (2018), directed by Woo-Ping Yuen. This is an entry in the Ip Man franchise, but it puts the brakes on the excesses of the other films in the series, and gives us a spare film (for such types of film!) that focuses on Cheung Tin-chi (Jin Zhang) after his defeat by Ip Man. Cheung has decided to give up martial arts and open a grocery store. He is living a quiet life with his young son, until one day he comes to the rescue of two young women, Julia (Liu Yan) and Nana (Chrissie Chau), and in doing so he attracts the ire of the lout Tso Sai Kit (Kevin Cheng). Life turns dangerous. Add to this mix, Kit’s sister, Tso Ngan Kwan (Michelle Yeoh), a gangster trying to go straight, Davidson (Dave Bautista), a hulking restauranteur who enjoys barbecuing steaks, and the laconic Sdai (Tony Jaa), and you have the ingredients for an agreeable exercise in mayhem in the martial arts mode. Woo-Ping keeps the action furious, intricate, and balletic. The sequence on the neon signs is eye-popping and reminds me of something similar in the Thai film, Chocolate (2008). The sets here remind me of those in Kung Fu Hustle (2004). Perhaps the niftiest scene here is the one in which Cheung and Tso Ngan deftly and fluidly slide a glass of whisky back and forth across a table. As these films go, this one is a winner.

 

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. Here is another contribution to the Marvel Universe on film. The conventions threaten to wear thin, but here the threat is averted by some dazzling special effects and a cast of appealing characters including Awkwafina as Katy, Tony Leung as Xu Wenwu, Michelle Yeoh as Ying Nan, Meng’er Zhang as Xialing, and Ben Kinsley as Trevor Slattery. The eponymous character is played by Simu Liu, who is best known for his part in Kim’s Convenience. Here he manages the fight sequences convincingly.  Of course, we have the requisite flying about, and fighting, and explosions, but all of this is delivered with a sense of humour. The wuxia fight scenes are, for the most part, done well, with the help of computers. The final overly long fight sequence devolves into something of a “destroy all monsters” set piece, with huge flying dragons duking it out in a magical land. The plot reminded us of Jet Li’s Twin Warriors (aka Tai-Chi Master, 1993), and there are several visual echoes of that film in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Once we arrive at the mid-credits sequence, the film reminds us of the larger Marvel Universe with the appearance of Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). Finally, I should mention that this film has its endearing creature in the faceless, winged, furry wombat-like creature, Morris (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker). It also has quite effective creatures that remind us of Chinese dancers with their lion-like trailing costumes. In short, the film does not stint on spectacle. The final end-credits sequence is nicely feminist. There are, however, many credits to scroll past before we have this scene. Patience, dear viewer.

The Flying Swordsman (2022 – aka The Hidden Fox), directed by Lei Qiao. This wuxia outing is fine to look at, but difficult to follow. The narrative here not only has too any moving parts, but it also unfolds with returns to past action at various times and to various times. In short, what we have is convoluted. Having noted this, I return to the visuals. There is much to admire in the camera work, special effects, costumes, colour, and wuxia action. There is a lot of action. The story has something to do with the search by eight villains for a hidden fortress and treasure hidden there, the plot for vengeance by one of the group whose father, a master sword-maker, had been murdered by these guys years ago – 10 years methinks. Throw in another character, a female, also set on revenge, and you have the group who fly about swirling their swords and slashing things here and there, hither and yon. Then we have the secret power that each of these villains has, each power different from the powers of the others. For example, one of the villains carries a small container with what are supposed to be leeches, but look like centipedes. These insects can bring the villain back from death. Wow. Another villain, a woman in red, can accomplish amazing things with thread. Anyway, as wuxia films go, this one is middling. 

Come Drink With Me (1966), directed by King Hu. As we would expect from Hu, this film is colourful and graceful in its action sequences. Golden Swallow (Cheng Pei Pei) moves like a dancer (indeed Cheng Pei Pei was trained as a dancer) as she takes on large groups of bad guys. As in The Fate of Lee Khan (1973), much of the action takes place in an inn. The plot has Golden Swallow arriving at the inn to meet the leaders of a band of rebels in order to negotiate the release of her brother whom the rebels have taken prisoner. Unlike some of these films, this one has a simple straight forward plot. After some furious fighting, Golden Swallow is hit with a poison dart and rescued by a beggar/drunkard named Drunken Cat (Yueh Hua), who is often accompanied by a group of children. These children, along with Drunken Cat, are prone to bursting into song; I mentioned dance earlier, and the film has touches of a musical. Anyway, Golden Swallow and Drunken Cat forge an uneasy relationship and then work to defeat the rebels and rescue Golden Swallow’s brother. What distinguished Hu’s martial arts films is not the fight sequences, but rather the characters and the colours and the locations and the fluidity of everything from camera movement to the movement of bodies. Apparently, this film influenced Ang Lee when he made Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). There may not be a dragon here, but there is a “Smiling Tiger”! As wuxia films go, this one is impressive and sets the standard for films that follow.

 

The Fate of Lee Khan (1973), directed by King Hu. Perhaps not as impressive as Hu’s Touch of Zen (1971), this film nevertheless manages to entertain with its female protagonists, its flying fight scenes (most especially at the end), its fluid camera work, its sets and outdoor locations, and its bright colours. Set in the 14^th century, the action mostly takes place in a country Inn run by Wan Jen-mi (Li Hua Li). Wan has four perky females serving customers, and these servers draw customers away from a rival nearby inn. The plot has rebels arriving at the inn to wait for the titular Lee Khan, a warlord who has a map of the rebels’ battle plans. The rebels want to retrieve this map. The first half of the film teases us with various characters who may or may not be rebels. The second half deals with the conflict between the rebels and Lee Khan and his entourage. The martial arts action is not particularly well staged, but the characters run the usual gamut from silly to serious. All in all, this is a pleasant example of the genre.