Predator: Badlands

I am just a casual fan of the Predator franchise (the first movie scared the crap out of me when I watched it for the first time on cable while babysitting my sisters) but I was excited for Predator: Badlands because a movie from the perspective of the predator was very intriguing to me.  My nephew and I went to an early access screening last night and I really liked it!  Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is the weakest member of his Yautja warrior clan and, even though his father ordered him to be culled from the tribe, his brother Kwei sacrifices himself so that Dek can have the opportunity to prove himself in battle.  He is sent to the inhospitable planet of Genna to hunt the unkillable apex predator Kalisk but struggles to survive against the deadly native plants and animals he encounters.  He is aided by Thia (Elle Fanning), a damaged synth from Weyland-Yutani Corporation who has her own reasons for hunting the Kalisk, and they eventually join together with a native creature Thia names Bud.  When they finally encounter the Kalisk, they realize that they must fight an even greater threat.  What I loved most about this movie is the relationship that develops between Dek and Thia (Fanning is great in the role).  They initially join forces because they need each other to survive (and this provides for some highly amusing interactions) but, as they go on a journey to find the Kalisk, they also go on a journey of discovery in which both of them defy what they have been taught to make different choices (somehow an alien and an android discover their humanity).  I also really loved the world-building on Genna because the plants and animals are so unique (and so deadly) and I enjoyed seeing Dek learn about this environment in order to use it to his advantage in battle.  Finally, the action sequences are tense and exciting even if some of the gore has been toned down for a PG-13 rating.  Purists may miss the brutality of the original predators but I like the direction this installment takes the franchise and look forward to a possible sequel.  This is a lot of fun and I highly recommend it!

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway with my nephew last night was If I Had Legs I'd Kick You.  I was really excited for this because it got a lot of buzz at Sundance this year but I found it absolutely exhausting to watch.  Linda (Rose Byrne) is a therapist dealing with her daughter's mysterious illness, which requires the use of a feeding tube, and the collapse of the ceiling in her apartment, caused by a broken water pipe (both of which are symbolized by a tunnel through which she travels during hallucinations).  Her husband Charles (Christian Slater) is away on a two-month work trip and, not only does he provide very little support, he chastises her for her inability to cope with their daughter and the repairs in their apartment.  Her therapist (Conan O'Brien) is very cold and distant and becomes exasperated with her escalating erratic behavior.  Her daughter's doctor (Mary Bronstein) takes great pains to reassure her that she is not to blame for her daughter's condition but is extremely judgmental about her daughter's lack of progress.  Her client (Danielle Macdonald), who is suffering from postpartum depression, abandons her baby in her office and this mirrors her own anxieties about being a mother.  She finds release with a neighbor (A$AP Rocky) who enables her drug use but eventually seeks another form of release.  This has a very important message about the unrealistic expectations placed on mothers and the lack of support available to them when things become overwhelming but it is definitely difficult to sit through because the camera work and sound design mimic what it feels like to experience a full psychotic breakdown.  I also had very mixed emotions because the audience is clearly meant to sympathize with Linda but I found her to be a very unsympathetic character (this is probably the point).  Byrne gives a bravura performance (she won the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at the Berlin Film Festival this year) and I was also impressed with O'Brien in a more dramatic role.  This is the kind of movie that I think I should like more than I actually do but I wouldn't recommend it.

Bugonia

I am a huge fan of Yorgos Lanthimos so I have been eagerly anticipating his latest movie, Bugonia, for what seems like forever.  My nephew and I saw it last night at the Broadway (with a huge crowd) as the first in a double feature and we both loved it!  Conspiracy theorist Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) has become convinced that an alien species, known as the Andromedans, has infiltrated the Earth and is actively destroying the environment, especially the honeybees, and forcing the population into subservience.  He coerces his intellectually disabled cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) into helping him with his plan to kidnap Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), the CEO of the pharmaceutical company Auxolith who Teddy believes is an Andromedan, so that she can negotiate a meeting between him and the Emperor during the upcoming lunar eclipse.  They immobilize her (in a hilarious sequence), shave her head and cover her skin with an antihistamine cream to prevent her from sending a distress signal to other Andromedans, and then imprison her in their basement.  When she wakes up, Michelle denies being an alien, demands to be released, and then bargains with her captors.  However, in the course of their negotiations, it is revealed that Teddy works for Auxolith and that his mother Sandy (an unrecognizable Alicia Silverstone) was a test subject for one of Auxolith's experimental drugs and is now in a coma.  Absolute mayhem ensues with a bonkers third act that had me questioning everything that came before!  Both Plemons and Stone give phenomenal performances.  It is implied that Teddy has been the victim of trauma all of his life and has been desperately searching for something or someone to blame for all of his losses.  Plemons imbues him with a sadness that makes him sympathetic despite that fact that what he is doing is wrong.  Stone is cold and arrogant as an unethical CEO who is only concerned with the bottom line but yet you also sympathize with her because of her mistreatment.  The movie is at its best when the two of them interact, especially their conversation about bees, because they are both absolutely convinced that their version of the truth is correct in an age when it has become increasingly difficult to ascertain the truth (it is sometimes uncomfortable to watch).  There are many other thought-provoking themes to unpack (most notably environmentalism, capitalism, and trauma) but I think the message about misinformation is the most powerful.  This movie is definitely a wild ride (with all of the black comedy you have come to expect from Lanthimos) but I will be thinking about it for a long time to come and I highly recommend it.

It Was Just An Accident

I saw It Was Just An Accident, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year, as the second movie in my double feature at the Broadway yesterday and it is brilliant!  After a man wearing a prosthetic leg hits and kills a dog while driving late at night, he brings his damaged car to a factory where Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) is working to ask for help.  Vahid hears the distinct squeaking sound of the man's leg as he walks and immediately recognizes him as Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), the sadistic guard who tormented him in an Iranian prison.  The next day he follows him in a borrowed van, kidnaps him, and attempts to bury him alive in the desert but he isn't certain that he has the right man because he was blindfolded the whole time he was in prison.  In order to make a correct identification, he locates other former prisoners, including Shiva (Mariam Afshari), a photographer, Golrokh (Hadis Pakbaten), a bride having her wedding portraits taken with her fiance Ali (Majid Panahi), and Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr), Shiva's volatile former partner, for confirmation.  Hamid eventually identifies him but chaos ensues (which provides a bit of comic relief in this tension-filled drama) as they argue over what to do.  Hamid advocates for killing him immediately, Shiva does not want to become like him by resorting to violence, Vahid wants him to confess and be judged before they take action, and Goli is too traumatized by seeing him again to make a rational decision.  This ultimately leads to a powerful confrontation between Eghbal and his captors with an ending that gave me chills.  Writer/Director Jafar Panahi was himself once a political prisoner who was mistreated by his captors and you can definitely feel the weight of his own moral dilemma about justice and revenge in the disparate reactions of his characters.  I found it to be incredibly thought-provoking and moving but also really funny as their journey to retribution becomes increasingly more absurd (which is an interesting commentary on taking matters of this nature into your own hands).  All of the performances, from a largely unknown cast, are riveting but I was particularly struck by Afshari's portrayal of Shiva's character arc as a woman who simply wants to move on with her life but finds that she can't (her rage-filled monologue gave me goosebumps).  This is one of the best movies I've seen this year and I highly recommend it.

Nouvelle Vague

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon at the Broadway watching two movies with subtitles and it was definitely a great way to spend the day!  I started with Nouvelle Vague which is an amusing look at the making of Breathless, one of the most influential examples of the French New Wave movement in cinema, and I really enjoyed it. It is 1959 and Jean-Luc Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) is the only film critic at the Cahiers du Cinema magazine who hasn't made his own film.  He convinces a reluctant Georges de Beauregard (Bruno Dreyfurst) to produce his debut based on a treatment written by Francois Truffaut (Adrien Rouyard) after the latter's success with The 400 Blows at Cannes, coerces his friend Jean-Paul Belmondo (Aubry Dullin) to star as the gangster, enlists Francois Moreuil (Paolo Luka Noe) to help him get his wife, Hollywood actress Jean Seberg (Zoey Deutch), to star as the American student, and hires war photographer Raoul Coutard (Matthieu Penchinat) to shoot it.  Godard wants the film to be as spontaneous and naturalistic as he can make it so he is rarely prepared with a completed script and only shoots when he is feeling inspired.  He insists on hand-held camera work and finds unusual ways to film scenes from different perspectives (this includes putting Coutard inside a mail cart).  He also forms an adversarial relationship with his actors to get the performances he wants.  As a result, the shoot is fraught with tension.  Beauregard is exasperated with all of the delays, Belmondo is worried that he will never work again, and Seberg is furious with her husband for convincing her to take the role and threatens to quit every day.  Everyone involved is certain that it will be the worst film of the year after a private screening but an epilogue describes its lasting impact on the French New Wave and subsequent cinematic movements.  What I enjoyed most is how Richard Linklater replicates Godard's style with grainy black and white film, a 4:3 aspect ratio, hand-held camera work, and multiple jump cuts.  I also loved the use of static shots with names listed below to introduce all of the notable players in the French New Wave (some of whom only appear for a few minutes) because it is almost as if Linklater is giving the audience a primer in film history.  All of the actors have an eerie resemblance to the real-life characters they play and I was especially impressed with the performances from Deutch (I loved her pixie cut) and Marbeck (he looks so cool in Godard's signature sunglasses).  There are lots of fun film references (at one point I was giggling out loud) and I highly recommend this to cinephiles.

Note:  Strangely enough, I became a fan of the French New Wave after seeing Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  I was fascinated by the character Claude Lacombe (I don't know why) and, when my dad told me that he was played by the famous director Francois Truffault, I immediately conspired to see The 400 Blows.