The Creator (2023)

With a basic narrative that will feel very familiar to fans of popular media (a man has to ferry a child from A to B while trying to stop people from realising how important/powerful the child is), I can see why The Creator didn’t really make the impact that writer-director Gareth Edwards would have been hoping for. That’s a shame though, because The Creator is a visual feast that ends up being more than just the sum of its parts. 

John David Washington plays Joshua, a former soldier who is tasked with heading into enemy territory and taking ownership of a weapon that could turn the tide in an ongoing battle between humans and A.I. robots. The weapon doesn’t look like a weapon though. It looks like a child (Madeleine Yula Voyles), albeit a robo-child, and details are revealed that make the situation increasingly complicated for Joshua.

The cast is a big plus here, and Washington continues to deliver great performances in everything he’s attached to. Voyles is also very good, playing her innocent and powerful character with just the right amount of constant vulnerability. Gemma Chan doesn’t get much screentime, but she plays a pivotal role in the proceedings, and Allison Janney once again shows how effortlessly badass she can be, this time playing a badass military figure. Other familiar faces include Amar Chadha-Patel, Ralph Ineson, and Ken Watanabe, all being as reliable as our lead.

The other big plus, and the main selling point, is the gorgeousness of the full world that has been realised onscreen. Edwards knows how to stretch every dollar of a budget, and the spectacle he presents here rivals that of many movies that would have cost two or three times what this cost, if not more. Although it doesn’t take time to dwell on every detail, this is a film that feels as if a whole world keeps on turning just beyond the edges of the frame. The score from Hans Zimmer works in perfect harmony with the visuals, and sci-fi fans should find plenty to soak up and enjoy here.

The script is where things fall down. Working with Chris Weitz, Edwards is unable to craft any dialogue or set-pieces worthy of the world that the characters inhabit. There are very good moments here and there, and it’s still engaging thanks to the central characters, but things are dragged down by a mix of predictability and stretched plausibility. The backstory for Joshua doesn’t seem to fit pieces together as well as it’s supposed to, but maybe that’s just me being cynical.

Weakness be damned though. I loved The Creator. The strengths ultimately outweigh the weaknesses, and I am happy we have this kind of originality to savour, even if it’s as derivative and faltering as some other movies I might judge more harshly, depending on my mood and the timing.

8/10

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Amsterdam (2022)

Writer-director David O. Russell seems to be coasting along lately, to put it nicely. His films have become an excuse for an ensemble cast to put on some glad rags and have some fun together, but without saying anything of substance. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, not every film needs to be substantial, but it’s odd that they are still being presented as praiseworthy and interesting when they, sadly, are not. 

Maybe I am part of the problem, considering I gave American Hustle a pass and genuinely enjoyed Joy, neither of which were on a par with his better films. So this disappointment was probably inevitable, and I suspect many others will have felt the same way when they finally watched Amsterdam, a pretty, but ultimately hollow, distraction.

The plot is more convoluted than it needs to be, which is why I am not going to properly summarize it here. Let’s just say that a suspicious death alerts one or two people to the idea that certain individuals may be plotting to overthrow the US government. This puts the people (played by Christian Bale, John David Washington, and Margot Robbie) in a lot of potential danger.

This material could have been done any number of ways, from tense thriller to farce, from straightforward historical drama to action movie, but Russell, in all his wisdom, decides to do just what he’s done before. You get some humour, you get a lot of drama, and you get a cast allowed to indulge themselves as long as the director is also happy with their work.

As for the cast, it’s more of a mixed bag than you might think. Bale doesn’t feel enjoyable in his main role, his character defined by the false glass eye he wears, but both Washington and Robbie improve every scene they are in, both avoiding that sensation of just repeating tics and tricks from their own back catalogue that Bale conveys. Zoe Saldaña is good in her small role, Robert De Niro is fun without being funny, and Timothy Olyphant brings the added bonus of, well, being Timothy Olyphant. If there is ever a film in which I don’t welcome the appearance of Olyphant then I want to be slapped repeatedly around the face until I see sense again. There are also supporting turns from Rami Malek, Andrea Riseborough, Taylor Swift (just a cameo, really, but she’s decent), Alessandro Nivola, Matthias Schoenaerts, Anya Taylor-Joy, Michael Shannon, and Mike Myers.

The production design is very good, as are the wardrobe choices and the musical score, but this is a film that needed more than just the visual distractions and a couple of key performances to make it worthwhile. It needed a better-written, and better-performed, lead, and it needed a much better approach to the story, which is an interesting and intriguing tale. Instead, we get to once again look on as Russell and his cast appear to be enjoying some in-jokes that nobody else is privy to. To sum up . . . disappointing, but pretty.

4/10

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BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Based on an incredible true story, one of those truth is stranger than fiction deals, BlackKklansman tells the story of an officer named Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) who managed to become a well-regarded and respected member of the Ku Klux Klan, as part of a major undercover operation. That's not so strange in itself. The strange part is, as the title suggests, Stallworth being an African American. Having won people over with his telephone manner, Stallworth gets permission to work with his colleague, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), to create a composite Ron Stallworth. The man himself will continue to have the phone conversations, Zimmerman will act the part of Stallworth in person, at great personal risk. As things start to gather momentum, Stallworth finds out about a major plot being brewed up that might be even more dangerous than the Klan meetings and cross-burnings.

Directed by Spike Lee, who also helped to co-write the script along with three other writers (from the book written by Stallworth - a book I need to buy soon), BlackKklansman is a sensational piece of work. It's both a testament to some incredible, and brave, police work and a damning critique of the state of the world around us today, a world that has not moved on as far as we'd like to think, despite the best efforts of people like Stallworth and Zimmerman. The script has some great lines in almost every scene, and there's a lightness of tone throughout making it easier to enjoy everything in a fairly straightforward manner (more on that later), but it's really that incredible central idea that makes this a riveting watch from start to finish, helped by lively direction from Lee that seems to convey how energised he was while bringing this tale to the cinema screen.

The acting from all involved is super. Washington plays a sharp young man who is confident in himself, no matter how others want to pigeonhole him (be they fellow officers, racist assholes - who are also sometimes fellow officers, or fellow African Americans who view him as an enemy because he's a police officer). He's a hugely charismatic lead, and his mannerisms and ability to move between personas helps to sell the core of the story. Driver, as the other half of his fictional Stallworth creation, is equally brilliant. And, although not relevant to any other part of the film whatsoever, he does one of my favourite evr "slow, surprised, turns" here. There are times when his character seems a bit too smart and confident for the Klan, but that's what makes him a more appealing new member. Laura Harrier is a socially-conscious young woman named Patrice, and she plays her character with passion and wit. It's easy to see why Washington's character is drawn to her, and also why things won't go smoothly as truths eventually have to come out. Topher Grace gives a wonderful turn as David Duke, the (now former) Grand Wizard of the KKK. He's perfectly pleasant and charming and easy to laugh at, and evil in a form that is acceptable to those around him. I've supported Grace for many years, always been a fan of his work, but know that it takes just the right roles to bring out the best in him. This is one of those roles. Elsewhere, Ryan Eggold, Jasper Pääkkönen, and Paul Walter Hauser play the main KKK members who welcome Stallworth into their fold, and Ashlie Atkinson is the wife of Pääkkönen's character, welcoming people into her home with snacks, beverages, and cosy soundbites about how to maintain whites as the superior race. Robert John Burke, Ken Garito, Frederick Weller, and Michael Joseph Buscemi also do great work, portraying a variety of law enforcement officials who either help or hinder the investigation at various times.

But let's get back to that light tone I mentioned earlier. I admit that I was slightly uncomfortable at times while watching BlackKklansman, worried that Lee was minimising the threat, downplaying tension in many scenes that could have really started to have people on the edge of their seat. It was easy to laugh at Klan members, easy to view them as fools that no reasonable people would want to be stuck alongside. And that's another main point that Lee is making, emphasised by everything that happens in the third act. It IS easy to laugh at these people, it IS easy to dismiss them as ignorant idiots looking to blame the wrong people for situations they don't understand, and it IS easy to be bemused by meetings of racist assholes being catered by caring loved ones, discussions of potential acts of racial hatred right beside a full plate of biscuits and a nice cup of tea. We laugh, we ignore, we don't think that anyone else takes notice, and then others DO take notice, some get swept up in the hyperbole and the vitriol, many start to feel that if nobody is taking them to task (because a lot of us are just ignoring them) then they can become more emboldened in their words and deeds, and it builds and builds, until we have "tiki torch" marches in present-day America, we have a media gullibly seduced into thinking that showing a lack of bias also means giving platforms to those who spew their vile hatred whenever they are given the opportunity, and we have peaceful protests marred by violence and death, a fatal backlash from that endangered section of society known as the, ummmm, white male (typically).

BlackKklansman doesn't address every wrong that has, is, and will be perpetuated on black people around the world. Today, off the top of my head, you could look at reports on racial profiling, you could look at the links between various crimes and jail sentences, you could start to count the number of police shootings of African Americans in the USA, and you could go on and on and on. BlackKklansman addresses the complacency that allows all of those wrongs to continue, largely unchecked, and serves as a stark warning that you ignore idiots at your peril. Because idiots can end up being more dangerous than the smarter men who try to stir them up. Why? Because they're idiots. You will rarely convince a smart man to sacrifice himself in an attempt to strike a blow for a cause that is built on nothing more than insecurity, cowardice, and absolute ignorance.

8/10

Here is a link to the main Black Lives Matter page.
Here is a link to the NAACP page.

The disc can be bought here.
Americans can get it here.