She Said (2022)

It's always good to see a movie about investigative journalism, not least due to the fact that any such movie serves as a reminder that we still HAVE some investigative journalism. I cannot think of a time when the quest for truth and justice has been more noble, especially when juxtaposed against "news" that is simply made up of repurposed social media quotes, sensational headlines that are designed as clickbait, and opinion pieces placing the outlets in whatever "culture war" position they think will be most profitable for them. I enjoyed Spotlight from a few years ago, but She Said may just edge ahead of it as the better movie, perhaps because the story it is telling was picked up more eagerly by every major news outlet once the details were widely available.

Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan play Jodi Kanto and Megan Twohey, respectively, two investigative journalists who work for the New York Times. Their names may be familiar to you. They are the two people who pulled together various witness testimonies to build up a picture of sexual abuse, manipulation, and bullying that eventually landed Harvey Weinstein in prison. This film details how the story broke, and how it took the courage of victims to come forward and tell their truth, helping others to subsequently realise that they weren't alone, and that they could also come forward and do their bit to help make a criminal pay for his heinous crimes.

The talented Rebecca Lenkiewicz delivers another very good screenplay, helped by the book co-written by Kantor and Twohey, and Maria Schrader directs well, keeping her shot choice and framing interesting, without being distractingly overly stylised, and she knows to keep the focus on her cast delivering the pertinent points and evidence-backed facts.

Kazan is good, solid in her role, but Mulligan is given some better moments and is the better of the two leads (and it feels like a dry companion piece to her superb work in Promising Young Woman). Patricia Clarkson and Andre Braugher are both very good in supporting roles, playing the New York Times senior staff members who allow the story to be investigated, and ensure that everything complies with legal requirements, and you have Keilly McQuail delivering a fine impression of Rose McGowan over the phone, Samantha Morton being very effective in her one main scene, as Zelda Perkins, Jennifer Ehle portraying Laura Madden, a pivotal figure in the development of the story, and Ashley Judd as herself, a movie role that I suspect may have been very cathartic and satisfying for her to play.

She Said doesn't only show the hard work and sensitivity that was required in handling such a shocking exposé, it also shows how events and public figures seemed to create the darkest possible moment for women everywhere. Things aren't exactly sweetness and light now, of course, but it feels like 2016 - 2020 were years in which misogyny and abuse seemed at an all-time high. Assholes were emboldened by one of their own being elected President, and a general change in language and tone showed that what should have been a unifying movement, the #metoo campaign, was going to be used as another line in the sand for those individuals wanting to lash out at everyone as they tried to plant their "not all men" flag on a hill that really didn't need it.

There may not be anything flashy or too memorable here, not when it comes to the film-making itself, but this is an excellent film that serves as an essential snapshot. It's a snapshot of bravery, tenacity, and good grace held by those standing up to an abusive bully (who surely thought he was untouchable). It's a snapshot of a moment when the tide turned. It may have only been for a few brief seconds, but it turned. 

8/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Mubi Monday: Wildlife (2018)

Paul Dano is not just a good actor. He is a great actor. So great that I will always watch anything he is a part of. So I was looking forward to Wildlife, even if it didn’t feature him in front of the camera. This is his directorial debut, from a script co-written with Zoe Kazan, adapted from the book by Richard Ford, and it is certainly a film in line with other choices he has made throughout his career.

Ed Oxenbould is Joe, the son of Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Jeanette (Carey Mulligan). The family live in Montana, it is the 1950s, and there is a big wildfire raging nearby that Jerry decides to head off and help tackle once he finds himself out of work. This leaves Jeanette alone, which leads to her looking for employment. And occasional company.

With each scene shot in a very controlled and precise, and fairly muted, manner, Wildlife is a film that feels almost as if it could have been made in the time it is set. Although not as polite and repressed as a Douglas Sirk movie, and certainly not as vibrant with the colours, this is a familiar portrait of people trying to keep up appearances with everyone around them while emotions beneath the surface start to bubble up and threaten to explode in a spectacularly messy display.

The three leads help, despite the fact that Gyllenhaal ends up offscreen for most of the runtime. Oxenbould is fantastic, perfectly portraying his character as a teenager being protected by his parents while he starts to become more aware of their problems. He is wide-eyes at times, strong and determined at other times, depending on how he is moved to react to events unfolding around him. Mulligan gives the kind of performance that she has given so effectively before, that of a young woman trying to do what is seen as right while also allowing herself some moments of happiness, and she's a delight in her role, whether strained by her interactions with Gyllenhaal or drinking her way into the mentality she needs for an extra-marital close encounter that will give her something she cannot find at home.

Dano directs everything with a very delicate touch, not feeling a need to punctuate the proceedings with any major cataclysms. That's probably in line with the book, I would assume (although I haven't read it), but it also allows Dano to focus on doing his best by a cast that will deliver exactly what he wants from them. The barbs in the script, the moments of awkwardness, the compartmentalisation of people according to classist labels, these elements add up to something surprisingly compelling. Oxenbould is the observer, the person that viewers are often placed alongside, but neither Mulligan nor Gyllenhaal are painted as angels or demons. They're just human. And that is nicely highlighted by the very final scene in the film, which feels both honest and melancholic. 

7/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Netflix And Chill: The Monster (2016)

Part horror movie and part an effective study of a seriously damaged mother-daughter relationship, The Monster is yet another worthwhile horror that gets things right by ensuring that both of the main components are given the right amount of care and attention.

Zoe Kazan is Kathy, a mother driving her daughter, Lizzy (Ella Ballentine), to go and live with her father. There doesn't seem to be too much sadness about this, not from either party, and a lot of that has to do with the problems that Kathy has had with alcohol. The daughter has sometimes had to act like the parent, which has rarely been appreciated, especially when Kathy has been trying to hang on to some new asshole boyfriend. As they drive along a quiet road at night, they hit a wolf that runs out in front of them. But it seems that the wolf was running way from something. Something bigger, and much more dangerous.

Written and directed by Bryan Bertino, The Monster is so good that I'm even willing to forgive him for the awfulness of Mockingbird. It's a decent creature feature elevated by the portrait of a parent-child relationship that has already spent some time being put through the wringer, which leads to the strongest mix of love and hate that you can have in any damaged relationship.

Kazan is very good in her role, being allowed to give a performance that shows her at her worst, in a number of flashbacks were her selfish, and abusive, behaviour is shown, and also at her best. No matter how good she is, however, the star here is Ballentine, who has to consistently show a wider mix of emotions, and also a sharper mind, as the child so used to acting like the adult, with the resentment and the sadness, and maturity, that brings. There are some other characters who pop onscreen to be put in peril, but the main one is, Jesse, a roadside mechanic who has been called to the scene. Aaron Douglas gets to play this role, which is written in a slightly odd way. I'm not sure if Bertino wanted viewers to consider Jesse as a potential danger, or if he was just playing up the fact that being stuck in a broken-down car in an isolated road makes EVERYTHING seem like a potential danger, especially to a mother and young daughter. Whatever his reasons, Jesse is the one part that doesn't work as well, but that's no fault of Douglas, who does just fine.

There's not much to comment on elsewhere. The cinematography seems to have been kept slightly too dark in order to hide any flaws in the creature design (which isn't that bad, but would have been better if they had avoided showing it out in the open so often), and the music by tomandandy is far from their best work, although that is probably just my preference for some of their more bombastic numbers. The creature is interesting, imperfect in a way that still has you trying to take in some of the details, but there's really nothing else onscreen, visually, that makes a strong impression (with the exception of a very tender moment that shows Lizzy looking after her mother after some alcohol-induced illness).

Despite criticising the overall look of the film, The Monster is well worth your time. It's not a film that's wanting to give you beautiful frames and original imagery. It's a film exploring something painful and depressingly common. It's a film about parents who can act like monsters, and it just happens to also have another monster in it.

8/10

https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Mubi Monday: Meek's Cutoff (2010)

Bruce Greenwood is not Ethan Hawke. I wouldn't normally start a review by saying that, but I wouldn't normally watch a movie thinking that one character has been played by Ethan Hawke, only to find they were played by Bruce Greenwood. 

Greenwood plays Stephen Meek, a frontier guide who leads a wagon train through some arid countryside, taking everyone perilously close to a sticky end, due to the ongoing scarcity of food and water. Tensions grow when a Native American (Ron Rondeaux) is captured, with different members of the group trying different ways to get him to reveal information to them about the surrounding desert environment.

Directed by Kelly Reichardt, and written by her regular collaborator, Jonathan Raymond, Meek's Cutoff is an attempt to tell a very strange story from history in a way that allows for a different kind of Western. The end result is a mixed bag, a film that strives to avoid all of the moments that you’re used to seeing in the genre. That is no bad thing, not in and of itself, but the fact that it so defiantly gives viewers nothing recognisable also works against it. There’s no playfulness here, no major subversion, despite the exploration of the shifting power dynamic between Meek, the Native Smerican, and others in the group.

The cast all do good work, even if I thought Greenwood was Hawke (which is a compliment for this role, honest). Michelle Williams and Will Patton are the main couple who don’t immediately dance to the tune that Meek wants to play, which is probably well-advised as it becomes clear that he may not know as much as he claims to know. Shirley Henderson, Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, and everyone else in the group does solid work, and Rondeaux is superbly stoic and ambiguous in his way of interacting with the others.

Do seek this out if you don’t mind a slow-paced film that features some top-notch actors giving superb, but unshowy, performances. But it is worth warning people who decide to check this out if they are after a revisionist Western. You could label it that way, but it is more simply classed as a historical drama that happens to take place in a location more commonly seen in Western movies, with people who sometimes look to settle disagreements with their guns. Sort of like a Western.

7/10

https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

The Big Sick (2017)

Written by Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon (husband and wife), The Big Sick is a romantic comedy loosely based on how . . . Kumail Nanjiani met and fell in love with Emily V. Gordon. What could have seemed smug and self-indulgent ends up being something fully deserving of all the accolades it has received over the past few months. On the poster and Blu-ray cover you can see phrases like "easily one of the best rom-coms of the decade", "romantic and hilarious", and "sparkling and heartfelt", as well as a few five-star ratings to help sell it. And all of those statements and ratings, originating from sources as varied as the likes of Variety and Glamour, are absolutely correct.

Very much in line with the other films that have been helped into creation by producer Judd Apatow, this is a mix of comedy and drama that gives characters room to breath in a two-hour runtime. Unlike some of the other Apatow movies I could mention, however, this doesn't ever feel as if it is overstaying its welcome.

That is down to the main performances, and the fact that Nanjiani and Gordon have such a great story to spin into cinema gold. Director Michael Showalter doesn't concern himself too much with adding any bells or whistles, happy to rely on the characters and the dialogue, which is a smart decision on his part.

Although Nanjiani happily plays himself onscreen, his wife is portrayed by Zoe Kazan. Kazan is fine, although she spends a large portion of the movie offscreen, or visible on a hospital bed (hence the title, the plot is basically Kumail and Emily having a big fight and then Emily ending up hospitalised and placed in a medically induced coma, which can make it a bit awkward to kiss and make up). Holly Hunter and Ray Romano play Emily's worried parents, and they are both excellent, which is something I never thought I would say about Romano, considering I assumed Everybody Loves Raymond was a deliberately ironic sitcom about one of the most annoying men on the planet. Anupam Kher and Zenobia Shroff are both very good, playing Kumail's parents, and Adeel Akhtar is Kumail's brother, Naveed. Other comics are represented by Bo Burnham, Aidy Bryant, and Kurt Braunohler, and there's nobody in the supporting cast who drops the ball, including many not mentioned here.

There aren't any major set-pieces here, and few of the laughs aren't BIG laughs, but the laughs are surprisingly consistent, entwined nicely with the drama and the heart of the whole thing. This is from the script and the presentation of the material, but it would be remiss to undervalue just how much of the film succeeds thanks to the sheer likeability of Nanjiani. He has been putting in fun performances for a good few years now, often in material that isn't really deserving of his presence, and I hope we can now see him in some more lead roles.

9/10

The Big Sick is out now. Buy it here - The Big Sick at Amazon.co.uk