The Mandalorian and Grogu (c) Walt Disney Studios
Film: The Mandalorian and Grogu
In Cinemas
Even though we haven’t gotten a theatrical Star Wars film in the cineplex since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker (a number of disgruntled fans said it indirectly caused the pandemic … it didn’t), I can still tell you the many rules director Jon Favreau eschews in his big screen continuation of the Disney+ series he helped create, The Mandalorian, this time adding the real star of the show: Grogu. Although the film does start with a title card (but not a scroll), it is the first “Star Wars” with Main Title credits (faint!), which is why I knew Amy Sedaris’ TV character would not be in the film, although I was prepared for Sigourney Weaver being a rebel badass, and Jeremy Allen White … as a Hutt? Of course, if you have White voicing a CGI creature, you can’t have him speak Huttese, so for some reason, all the Hutts in this film speak English. The film has the photogenic Pedro Pascal as the titular Mandalorian bounty hunter, and like the show, we rarely see his face. Most kids (okay, and me) will want to see the movie for Grogu (aka Baby Yoda, aka The Child), and the dang puppet sure does deliver, although the inclusion of those Babu Fricks (Anzellans, if I must) makes me think they needed to up the cute quotient a bit (and have them speak the words Grogu, at 50 years old, still hasn’t mastered yet). My problem with the series was that it wanted to legitimize and canonize the animated “Clone Wars” series of yore by Dave Filoni, but thankfully, except for a few instances, including Filoni himself returning as a rebel pilot, a lot of that messy soap opera are not here. In fact, the Force are barely referenced at all, and when it is, I could tell composer Ludwig Göransson wanted to quote John Williams so badly in his exciting and fantastic score. The Lucasfilm franchise this film most resembles is not Star Wars, but Indiana Jones, with Mando’s helmet being as important as Indy’s hat. As a treat for the start of the summer season, it’s a pretty good ride.
Tuner (c) Black Bear
Film: Tuner
In Cinemas
In actor Leo Woodall’s underrated and underseen Apple TV+ series, Prime Target, he played a socially awkward mathematical genius (hence the Prime) who is thrust into a spy plot (hence the action-thriller Target). In his latest film, Tuner, he is playing the similarly misanthrope Niki, a former musical prodigy who, after an accident, is struck with hyperacusis, which he describes as an allergy to loud noises. His only friend is his late father’s buddy, Harry (Dustin Hoffman), who hires Niki to be his apprentice as a piano tuner. Harry rarely actually tunes anything due to his gradual hearing loss. Just as he starts to emerge from under his shyness, flirting with a classical composer, Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), he also falls into the hands of some Israeli lowlifes who exploit Niki’s sharply attuned hearing to open locked safes. Of course, the two worlds do collide, and while I love Woodall’s chemistry with Liu (as well as with Hoffman and Toah Feldshuh as Harry’s wife), the heist plot overwhelms the second half of the film. Director Daniel Roher does a good job ramping up the tension and the cruelty. The film, though, belongs to Woodall, who has tried hard to shed his bad boy persona from the star-making, breakthrough role in The White Lotus by taking on the romantic hunk (One Day, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy) or the shy nice guy. Even with my reservations about the seedier side of the film, Tuner is still worth a trip for its sharps over the flats.
In the Grey (c) Black Bear
Film: In the Grey
In Cinemas
Process. Some films love to show all the nooks and crannies of how things get done. Director Guy Ritchie loves to show how crimes (or justice, you decide) are planned and executed. Similar to his recent films, like last year’s Fountain of Youth, a takeoff on the National Treasure franchise, there is a lot to enjoy in these types of hyperkinetic action films, even when they don’t work (like, sadly, Fountain of Youth). And while “In the Grey” is fun as we watch the process being handed to us like a how-to manual, the end result is just not that satisfying. The strength and the weakness of the film are the two major male characters: Sid (Henry Cavill from Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare) and Bronco (Jake Gyllenhaal from Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant). They are seen as mostly infallible in their plans to keep their boss Rachel (Eiza González) safe when she has to have a tête-à-tête with an international crime boss (Carlos Bardem, less menacing than his real-life brother Javier in a similar role in Skyfall). The first half of the film is Sid and Bronco staking out the crime boss’ private island, planning every single scenario that Rachel might find herself, and it just feels more like a YouTube tutorial than suspenseful action. But then there is also Cavill and Gyllenhaal upping up the queer sides of their characters with double and triple entendres with each other. The film doesn’t endorse (or acknowledge) that they are lovers, but they don’t not say it’s untrue either (the only flashback to their origin story is that they have always come as a pair). The two men play up this dynamic nicely and humorously and it’s what kept the film’s enjoyment level high, but it does make González’s role a bit perfunctory, although there is a nice queer mirroring in Rachel’s life that is clearly there on the screen, but never talked about. Ritchie likes to make manly men movies with a slight queer bent (his Sherlock Holmes films, for example). Maybe he should try a queer movie with a slightly manly man bent next time around.
Obsession (c) Focus Features
Film: Obsession
In Cinemas
I do not like horror movies. And when I hear that a particular film stands out from the glut of this genre, I do make myself go see it. Well, 85% of it, because like Weapons, Hereditary and Barbarian, I watched a lot of newcomer Curry Barker’s film, Obsession, through my fingers, and even then, I did accidently see some unexpected moments of gore (look out for a glass bottle). If this film was more true to life, the actor playing our lead, Bear, would have looked more like a guy who would fit that name, but instead we get Michael Johnston, a textbook Hollywood version of a geeky, shy guy, who has a crush on his best friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette). But why would such a hot girl ever find Bear attractive? Through a series of highly unlikely events, Bear buys a novelty item called One Wish Willow and mindlessly says out loud that he wants “Nikki to love him more than anyone in the world.” Come on, Bear, have you never seen Aladdin? Before he knows it, Nikki does, in fact, start to fall in love with him, which slowly slides into the obsession of the title. At one point, Nikki is displaying so many red flags that it’s crazy Bear doesn’t get the hint that there’s something rotten in Loveland. To say things get gory is a bit of an understatement, and Barker (with co-screenwriter Cooper Tomlinson, who also plays Bear’s best friend) never explains why nor how Nikki does the things she does (including the reddest of red flags, the thing with the door). Johnston and Navarrette are the standouts here, selling every part of this twisty and unsettling tale. Obsession is totally worth seeing if you love horror films. If you don’t, you can wait for the edited version, coming to an airplane screen near you.
Remarkably Bright Creatures (c) Netflix
Film: Remarkably Bright Creatures
Streaming on Netflix
As the film Remarkably Bright Creatures went along, I was consistently being taken out of the film as I kept wondering, “Who’s the voice of the octopus?” And if that question makes you do a doubletake, then you probably didn’t read the popular and buzzy Shelby Van Pelt novel the film is based on. I won’t ruin the surprise of the voice actor, but I will say it is not Ed O’Neill, who voiced an octopus in Pixar’s Finding Dory and goes through the same plot beats as Marcellus in this film. The older and wiser Marcellus is living his final years in a quaint seaside aquarium in Washington State. He mostly loathes the humans he encounters (snotty school kids tapping on his tank), but the one he loathes the least is Tova (Sally Field, very much in Steel Magnolias mode here), the elderly evening janitor who narrates her days to Marcellus, and he is actually listening. Tova is planning to retire soon, so the aquarium hires budding rock star Cameron (Lewis Pullman) to replace her. He has arrived in town to track down his deadbeat father, but now finds himself needing money. The trio do ultimately bond, despite some of the silliest plot machinations trying to keep them apart. And then there’s the big finale in which, somehow, Marcellus (who narrates the film but doesn’t actually talk) has to tell Tova and Cameron a big secret, and credit director Olivia Newman for somehow making it work. This is a sweet movie, mostly thanks to Field and Pullman (Field worked with Pullman’s father Bill on Broadway in The Goat). Given that the bulk of film’s budget probably went to the licensing songs from both Radiohead and Grateful Dead, the film does look lovely and has an talented but underused supporting cast, including Joan Chen and Colm Meany. As for the voice actor of Marcellus, he too has played an octopus before in his storied career, although not with this amount of “life is precious” saccharine dialogue, which the Tony Award-winning actor delivers flawlessly.
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