Sideral (2021) | Directed by Carlos Segundo

 3/5

Carlos Segundo’s Sideral is a decent short film – beautifully shot with some lovely performances and stunning imagery. At the heart of the film is the story of an overburdened mother looking for escape; it’s a compelling narrative with themes that will resonate for quite a few viewers. But as beautiful as the film looks and as compelling as the film’s themes, the film needed to provide at least a few more details about the protagonist’s situation and family life so that we could fully understand her decision and the consequences for the rest of her family by the end. There’s a lot of potential here, but it just needed a little more fleshing out.

Where to Watch

Anastasia (2022) | Directed by Sarah McCarthy

 3/5

Sarah McCarthy’s Anastasia is a solid, if disappointing short documentary that had the potential to be so much more than it was, even with its lovely moments. Anastasia’s mother is a delight, giving us the most candid and honest moments in a documentary that can at times feels too stage managed. The film barely scratches the surface of any of the subjects that it covers – Anastasia’s activism, the death of her daughter, her grief, her relationships with her surviving children, or her role as a dissident in Russia. This is a film that is trying to do too much, trying to cover too much, so every idea feels truncated. There are good and beautiful moments throughout, there’s just not enough depth to be as satisfying as it should.

Where to Watch

New Moon (2022) | Directed by Jérémie Balais, Raul Domingo, and Jeffig Le Bars

 4.5/5

Jérémie Balais, Raul Domingo, and Jeffig Le Bars’s New Moon is a lovely short film – beautifully animated and full of magic, vibrance, and wonder. Animation is a wonderful medium to use when adapting a one-person show and bringing it to life – it allows the performer to inhabit all of the characters in a slightly different manner than they would onstage or in a live-action film. While this might just be a short snippet, a short story, it is such a loving tribute to the performer’s (Coleman Domingo) mother and a wonderful reflection on opening yourself up to possibility.

Where to Watch

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022) | Directed by David Yates

 1.5/5

David Yates’s Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore was marginally better than the previous entry in the Fantastic Beasts series – mostly likely because a competent screenwriter was brought in to give it a semblance of a story. However, it still suffers from many of the same issues that have plagued this prequel series since its beginning. Once again, characters are reset back to their previous state, and any pretense of growth has been magically erased – this may be the greatest magic spell of all in the franchise. Once again, the CGI is sloppy, and the action sequences are chaotic and poorly constructed. And once again, we have more of the series’ sexism on prominent display here. The entire film feels like an attempt to play on the nostalgia viewers have for the original Harry Potter franchise – from the overuse of the theme music to the reliance on “saintly” Dumbledore to the many CGI shots of Hogwarts. That said, Mads Mikkelson is wonderful as the villain (taking over the role in this installment) and brings more to the table than he’s given to work with. Likewise, Jessica Williams understands the assignment she’s been given as a performer and is delightful as a screwball comedy-era witch. The two central settings for this film are rather distasteful – Germany during the rise of Nazism especially feels inappropriate given how unwilling the film is to engage with the gravity of this situation, just using it as fascistic window dressing. And the use of Bhutan as the location for the final scenes also carries an air of white, European filmmakers exploiting and exoticizing the locale and making it into a “magical paradise.” This is a franchise that continues devolve into tedium and self-importance.

Where to Watch

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) | Directed by David Yates

 1/5

David Yates’s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a dreary, nonsensical, plotless slog of a movie – one that is so stuck in the trivia and minutia of its own world-building and lore that it forgets to tell a story. Characters from the first film are reset to have the exact same issues, qualities, and personality quirks as they did in the previous installment with little regard for how they have changed and grown. Since characters have no arc, they also have no motivations for the choices they make, and while the villain makes compelling arguments for using magic to stop World War II and save the world from the evils of Nazism, the script can’t provide a compelling counterpoint to his arguments. The cinematography is muddy, covering lazy and sloppy visual effects that overwhelm rather than seamlessly integrate into the world. The entire narrative is incredibly low-stakes, and even the sacrifice at the end of the film comes out of nowhere and doesn’t appear to be particularly necessary when all is said and done. But maybe the obnoxious element of the film is the low-key sexism and misogyny running throughout – from women being pitted against one another in jealousy over a man, to women pining in unrequited love over a man, to women behaving irrationally because of a man… This is a series that places women in very narrow boxes – love interest, nurturer, someone who can go toe to toe with the men… It’s tiresome, much like this film.

Where to Watch

Spiderhead (2022) | Directed by Joseph Kosinski

 1.5/5

Joseph Kosinski’s Spiderhead is a film with a fantastic concept but executed in the most boring and pedestrian way imaginable. The movie is full of clunky dialogue, stilted performances, generic fight scenes, and bland sets. Chris Hemsworth, taking a villainous turn, is very fun to watch, embracing the strangeness of the concept and finding a depth that isn’t present in the script or the filmmaking. The mystery lying at the heart of the film is utterly predictable and boring. There were so many interesting possibilities that could have been explored within this concept, especially in the idea that it is potentially alluring for the inmates and research subjects to help make the world a better place as part of their journey to assuage feelings of guilt over past mistakes. While there are vague nods toward the characters’ guilt and a desire for redemption, it’s never explored in any meaningful way. The film ends with such an anti-climactic thud and lack of a denouement that it feels more like a fizzle than an actual ending. It’s a film with so much possibility, so much that it appears to be striving toward – but it never quite manages to make any of the pieces come together.

Where to Watch

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022) | Directed by Tom Gormican

 3/5

Is Tom Gormican’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent a great movie? Probably no. But it is fascinating to watch Nicolas Cage explore some of his potential fears and insecurities through this meta-fictional role – the fear of being a terrible father and not being there for his children, of working too much and being too desperate for each role that comes along, of working so much that he’s no longer a star, of being too self-absorbed to notice his family, of becoming irrelevant… The scenes in which Cage talks with himself are delightful throwbacks to his past work and provide moments of over-the-top reflection on the ways that artists – and especially actors – are in constant battle with their own egos. Pedro Pascal is wonderful and gives the film an emotional grounding that matches Cage’s (at times) manic energy. The meta-reflection on Hollywood, the kind of movies that are financed and seen right now, and the ways in which the story we watch unfolds to becomes fictionalized and wraps in on itself, is all a treat to watch. Perhaps less successful is the way the action-movie and spy plot take the weirdness and loveliness of the film’s concept and flattens it out, making it into something altogether more conventional and traditional than it could have been. Nevertheless, it’s still incredibly fun and has two actors who seem to enjoy the work of playing off of one another – but it had the potential to be so much more.

Where to Watch

Lot 36 (2022) | Directed by Guillermo Navarro

 3/5

Guillermo Navarro’s Lot 36 is a solid short horror film (part of Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities), telling the story of “a terrible person gets their comeuppance.” There’s something immensely satisfying in watching a racist and xenophobic opportunist face terror of his own making during the course of this short. There’s also something intriguing about setting the tale nearly 20 years ago – it’s easy for white liberals to believe that times have only gotten bad since Trump was elected, but stories like this remind us that the recent rise in white nationalism, racism, and grievance politics isn’t anything new. The way Tim Blake Nelson’s embittered racist ends up aligning himself with a very particular political group is especially pointed and has so many parallels to what is happening with white men today. While we’re never completely sure what kind of horror will be lurking within the titular storage unit, the short does telegraph all of the steps the characters will need to take to discover the horror, so there isn’t much in the way of genuine scares, suspense, or even surprise. Still, it has solid performances, decent atmosphere, and a recurring bit with the timed lights that’s incredibly effective.

Where to Watch

Copenhagen Cowboy (2023) | Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

 4.5/5

Nicolas Winding Ref’s Copenhagen Cowboy employs the filmmaker’s trademark visual and aesthetic style in a stunning and evocative manner, all while transplanting them into a serialized format. It’s a work that is more interested in creating mood and atmosphere; the plot becomes secondary in Refn’s desire to help us settle into a more contemplative headspace through the measured pacing, the time to breath and ruminate during conversations, and the rhythms of the score – paired with the shifting neon hues that draw us deeper into the atmosphere. Angela Bundalovic’s performance as Miu is outstanding, impassive and silent for so much of the series, yet conveying incredible emotion with the shift of her eyes or a turn of her head. Refn’s focus on mood is helped by the very slow reveal of his protagonist’s history, her abilities, and her eventual plans. And for those with patience enough to engage with the story that is being presented here, there’s something endlessly compelling about the way Miu attempts to protect and avenge those who are being exploited by the powerful in a system that provides few options to the undocumented, women, and immigrants. In a work that uses the exploitation of others as its inciting incident, it’s refreshing so see that Refn doesn’t shoot these scenes exploitively, or for the audience’s visual pleasure or gratification. At the same time, the skewering of male bravado and narcissism is sharp, pointed, and so accurate. This blending of the supernatural mystery and the crime thriller, alongside philosophical ruminations on exploitation, vengeance and justice, and the fragile egos of men is a unique and singular viewing experience.

Where to Watch

Criterion Channel Surfing, Episode 54: January 2023 New Releases

Criterion Channel Surfing is back from hiatus with its first episode of 2023! Friend-of-the-show Michael Hutchins joins our host, Josh Hornbeck, for a conversation about the Criterion Channel’s new additions for January 2023.