Munich — The Edge of War: Persuasive period espionage

Munich — The Edge of War (2021) • View trailer

Four stars (out of five). Rated PG-13, for profanity, dramatic intensity and brief violence

Available via: Netflix

By Derrick Bang

British journalist-turned-novelist Robert Harris has written numerous works of suspenseful historical fiction, several of which have been transformed into equally tension-laden films; 2001’s Enigma and 2010’s The Ghost Writer immediately come to mind.

 

British Prime Minister Neville Chamerlain (Jeremy Irons, seated) goes over newspaper
reports of German activities with his aide and translator, Hugh Legat (George MacKay).

Director Christian Schwochow and scripter Ben Power have done an equally fine job with their adaptation of Munich. Their handling of this World War II-based nail-biter, thanks in great part to the way cinematographer Frank Lamm frames many of his shots, has the retro atmosphere of classic 1960s Cold War thrillers such as The Spy Who Came In from the Cold and The Ipcress File.

The result so cunningly blurs the line between fact and fiction, that it’s often difficult to determine which is which.

 

This story also has extremely disturbing parallels to current real-world events, which evoke Spanish philosopher George Santayana’s timeless quote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

 

A brief prologue, set in 1932, introduces reserved Brit Hugh Legat (George MacKay) and passionate German Paul von Hartman (Jannis Niewöhner), who’ve bonded during their university years at Oxford. Both clearly love the impish Lenya (Liv Lisa Fries), although she’s probably too free-spirited for the buttoned-down Hugh.

 

Events shift to the autumn of 1938. Hugh has become a civil servant attached to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (Jeremy Irons), in offices also occupied by the latter’s principal private secretary, Sir Osmund Cleverly (Mark Lewis Jones); Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Sir Alexander Cadogan (Nicholas Farrell); and senior government official Sir Horace Wilson (Alex Jennings).

 

(All, with the exception of Legat, are key historical figures.)

 

Paul has become a German diplomat and clandestine anti-Nazi. He and Hugh haven’t spoken or seen each other during the past several years (for reasons revealed in a later flashback).

 

Tension is high, because Adolf Hitler has mobilized forces at the Czech border, with the intention of claiming the Sudetenland, a region with 3 million Germans. Should this take place, the British and French will be forced to unite and defend the Czechs, plunging Europe into war.

 

With the horrors of World War I still fresh in every British citizen’s mind, this is not a desirable outcome.

The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild: Dino slight

The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild (2022) • View trailer

3.5 stars (out of five). Rated PG, and needlessly, for action and mild language

Available via: Disney+

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 1.28.22

Madcap humor notwithstanding, the Ice Age series has been noteworthy for each film’s warm emphasis on family: a focus that I’m certain has maintained the franchise’s popularity.

 

Danger-addicted possums Crash and Eddie, left, return to the Lost World and renew
their acquaintance with one-eyed weasel Buck, while sparking a new friendship with
an impressively resourceful zorilla named Zee.

Humor always flows best from well-developed characters, and it was easy to fall in love with an unusual family unit originally comprising cynical woolly mammoth Manny, reformed sabre-toothed tiger Diego, and goofy, good-natured sloth Sid: each either abandoned by his own kind, or believing himself the last of his kind.

Over time, Manny lucked into meeting orphaned female woolly mammoth Ellie, who initially believed herself to be a possum, having been raised alongside possum “brothers” Crash and Eddie.

 

Sidebar hilarity — essentially mini-cartoons occasionally interrupting the core story — was provided by Scrat, a sabre-toothed squirrel forever on the pursuit of acorns (always with catastrophic results).

 

Despite the constant bickering between various members of this unlikely group, we never doubted their mutual devotion: repeatedly proved, over the course of subsequent adventures.

 

This newest entry, sixth in the series, messes with the formula. As can be assumed from the title, the focus is on Crash, Eddie and notably Buck, the sanity-challenged, one-eyed weasel introduced in 2009’s Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Manny, Ellie and the others are sidelined.

 

The result — in the hands of director John C. Donkin and writers Jim Hecht, Will Schifrin and Ray Delaurentis — is an entertaining, adventure-laden romp, but the inter-personal warmth is lacking. 

 

There’s also no sign of Scrat, which is absolutely unacceptable. An Ice Age film without Scrat is like a Despicable Me entry without Minions.

 

This difference in tone and approach, and particularly the absence of heart, can be explained by missing-in-action producer/director Chris Wedge, and the fact that the marvelous animation studio he co-founded — Blue Sky Studios, which created all the previous Ice Age films — was shut down in April 2021, following its 2019 acquisition by Disney. 

 

Ergo, this new film — for better or worse — is an Ice Age entry as “adjusted” by Disney. Fans familiar with the Blue Sky “look” will immediately notice that the animation here isn’t nearly as lush. 

A Hero: The elusive nature of truth

A Hero (2021) • View trailer

3.5 stars (out of five). Rated PG-13, and much too harshly, for dramatic intensity

Available via: Amazon Prime

By Derrick Bang

This would have made a terrific courtroom drama, with its story emerging via lengthy flashbacks.

 

Iranian writer/director Asghar Farhadi’s newest film is a thoughtful, increasingly puzzling character study: a twisty saga fueled by strong, relatable performances.

 

Rahim (Amir Jadidi, right) and his son Saivash (Saleh Karimai) do their best to find the
grateful woman whose property was restored, to no avail.

Farhadi likes to mess with viewer expectations. His everyday dramas begin simply enough, and seem to proceed in linear fashion … but that’s a trap. As events proceed, we — and the characters involved in the story — gradually realize that assumptions are misleading; subsequent bits of information emerge that topple what seemed to be solid details.

As I mentioned, in my review of Farhadi’s excellent 2011 film, A Separation, his characters (and we viewers) base their opinions, feelings and loyalties on what they’ve been told, and what they believe they know.

 

A Separation took that year’s Oscar for Best International Film, and Farhadi also garnered a well-earned writing nomination. A Hero took the Grand Prix at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for the exalted Palme d’Or; it’s easy to see why the judges were transfixed by this equally twisty story.

 

The setting is modern-day Shiraz. Events begin as Rahim (Amir Jadidi), in prison due to a debt he’s unable to repay, obtains a two-day leave in order to visit his family: sister Mali (Maryam Shahdaei) and brother-in-law Hossein (Alireza Jahandideh). They’ve been caring for Rahim’s son — Saivash (Saleh Karimai), a painfully shy boy with a severe stutter — following an unpleasant divorce.

 

On his way home, Rahim finds a purse with a broken strap; it contains 17 gold coins. Initially believing it a means of settling at least part of his debt to Bahram (Mohsen Tanabandeh), Rahim has second thoughts and — instead — puts up fliers, in an effort to reunite the purse with its actual owner. A young woman responds, accurately describes the purse and its varied contents, and is tearfully grateful when she gets it back intact.

 

Word of this good deed gets out; the usury prison officials — who’ve long regarded Rahim a model inmate, and also smell an opportunity for positive publicity — arrange for a television interview. The story of Rahim’s noble act, when so many others would have kept the coins for their own purposes, makes him a popular social media hero.

 

The soft-spoken Jadidi — rarely without his humble, deferential smile — blossoms like a spring flower, during the subsequent tsunami of respect: a man ignored for so long, often treated with contempt, suddenly lionized. He can’t begin to comprehend this new feeling.

The Tender Bar: Wisdom served wry

The Tender Bar (2021) • View trailer

Four stars (out of five). Rated R, for considerable profanity and some sexual candor

Available via: Amazon Prime

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 1.21.22

The best coming-of-age stories possess a carefully calculated blend of warmth and gentle humor, along with the beating heart of such sagas: the relationship between mentor and mentee.

 

J.R. (Daniel Ranieri, left) soon realizes that school books aren't the sole source of
education. Some of life's best lessons come in a bowling alley, particularly when the
wisdom is dispensed by the boy's doting Uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck).

Director George Clooney’s precise touch with The Tender Bar absolutely honors the tone of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist J.R. Moehringer’s best-selling memoir, with its rich cast of quirky characters. At times, this feels like a modern, true-life Charles Dickens story: not a surprise, since books — and particularly Dickens — play an important role.

I only wish William Monahan’s screenplay had done a better job with Moehringer’s book. Condensing a 384-page tome into a 106-minute film obviously requires compromise, but — due to an ill-advised narrative decision — viewers likely will be dissatisfied with the result.

 

The story begins in 1972, as 9-year-old J.R. (Daniel Ranieri) spends hours each day scanning radio channels for “The Voice,” as he calls the deadbeat DJ father who deserted him and his mother Dorothy (Lily Rabe) years earlier. Despite her best efforts, she can’t make ends meet; reluctantly, she packs J.R. and their meager possessions into a car and drives to Manhasset, Long Island, returning to the now-dilapidated house where she grew up.

 

The homecoming isn’t entirely welcoming. Her curmudgeonly and unapologetically blunt father (Christopher Lloyd) views this as a sign of failure; we get a sense that he never forgave Dorothy the mistake of having taken up with her ex-husband. Her mother (Sondra James) is more cordial; her brother Charlie (Ben Affleck), still living with his parents — also to his father’s disgust — is pragmatic and sympathetic.

 

To J.R. — who goes by those initials because he’s actually a junior, which he refuses to acknowledge — Charlie is Uncle Charlie: an attentive, doting purveyor of wisdom and sage advice. J.R. does not want for love; Dorothy is fiercely protective, and a great believer in his potential — she repeatedly insists that he’ll one day go to Yale — but she also battles chronic depression.

 

Laid-back Uncle Charlie takes the edge off. While his approach to “parenting” probably wouldn’t win the approval of Social Services, he’s just what J.R. needs.

 

Affleck’s performance is sublime. Charlie is a self-educated truth-seeker with a closet full of classic books — this fascinates J.R. — and he works as a bartender at a local pub called Dickens, where additional stacks of books vie for space with the colorful liquor bottles. Affleck’s bearing is charismatic; it’s no surprise that the bar regulars hang on his every word, just as J.R. does.

 

Affleck’s line deliveries invariably include a trace of New York sass or snark, stopping just short of smugness. Charlie is never condescending; he grants respect to all who deserve it. (J.R.’s estranged father, who drops in just often enough to disappoint the boy further, is one of the exceptions.) 

 

The Tragedy of Macbeth: Terrific style, flawed substance

The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) • View trailer

Three stars (out of five). Rated R, for violence

Available via: Apple TV+

By Derrick Bang

Shakespeare’s plays have been modified, mutated and mangled in all manner of wild, wonderful and wacky ways, on the stage and screen: modern settings, cross-gender casting, larkish animation and much, much more.

 

Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble: Macbeth (Denzel
Washington) is about to learn that an apparently promising prophecy carries
nasty consequences.

(It sometimes seems unusual when a faithful adaptation arrives, although 1996’s Twelfth Night and several sumptuous Kenneth Branagh entries come to mind.)

Even by the unusual standards of some that have come before, director/scripter Joel Coen’s Tragedy of Macbeth is quite outré.

 

The film’s look is simultaneously gorgeous and disorienting. Stefan Dechant’s eye-popping production design is an opulent blend of 1920s German Expressionism and imposing Gothic sensibilities, saturated with a 1950s film noir atmosphere courtesy of Bruno Delbonnel’s gorgeous monochrome cinematography. Buildings and individual rooms have impossibly distant ceilings, with quirkily geometric windows that cast striking lights and shadows.

 

The result is unsettling and even hallucinatory: quite apt, given the nature of this grim, blood-drenched story.

 

Carter Burwell’s moody, often ominous orchestral score similarly adds much to the film’s macabre tone.

 

Casting is intriguing; Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand are much too old for the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, although their advanced years do further emphasize their characters’ frustration over having failed to produce an heir.

 

There’s also the matter of Coen’s bold decision to considerably enhance the role of Ross, generally a minor supporting character, but — as superbly played here by Alex Hassell — transformed into a Satanic key player, trickster figure and master manipulator. He frankly blows Washington and McDormand off the screen.

 

The story begins as Scottish generals Macbeth, his good friend Banquo (Bertie Carvel) and their army have successfully defeated the allied forces of Ireland and Norway. En route to rejoining King Duncan (Brendan Gleeson), Macbeth and Banquo wander onto an ominous heath and encounter three witches.

 

All three of these supernatural beings do — or sometimes don’t — inhabit the single body of actress Kathryn Hunter, whose contortionist abilities and feral malevolence are extremely unsettling. She may be the creepiest witch ever brought to the screen, and her varying appearances are quite creative: most strikingly, a single body with two reflections in a pool of water, thus becoming three “selves.”

Parallel Mothers: Deeply moving character drama

Parallel Mothers (2021) • View trailer

4.5 stars (out of five). Rated R, and perhaps too harshly, for sexuality

Available via: Movie theaters

By Derrick Bang

Pedro Almodóvar’s films always are characterized by two things: strong, if sometimes psychologically damaged female characters, with men little more than sidebar distractions; and a socio-political subtext that deeply influences the relationship dynamics.

 

Ana (Milena Smitt, center) and Janis (Penélope Cruz), having met by chance in the
hospital delivery ward, are about to give birth on the same day.

Parallel Mothers is one of Almodóvar’s most deeply moving films, and it’s fueled by a powerhouse performance from his frequent amanuensis, Penélope Cruz: arguably her finest, most subtly shaded work yet. (This is their seventh collaboration, which began with 1997’s Live Flesh.) 

Although superficially described as a chance encounter — which leads to a deep friendship — between two women who give birth on the same day, at the same hospital, that barely scratches the surface of what eventually becomes a fascinating, at times painful emotional roller coaster.

 

Both pregnancies are unintended, both women becoming single parents.

 

Janis (Cruz), a middle-aged fashion photographer, is jubilant; she has experienced the joy of establishing a successful career, and now is prepared for the challenges of motherhood. She’s ready. 

 

The withdrawn, mousy Ana (Milena Smit), still adolescent, is repentant, traumatized and absolutely terrified. She gets no support from her self-absorbed mother, Teresa (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), who focuses solely on her own acting career. In contrast, Janis is visited by her best friend and agent, Elena (Rossy de Palma), a cheerful, effervescent force of nature who swoops into the hospital room like an ambulatory rainbow.

 

Janis notes the disparity. Later, after the visitors have left, she tries to compensate with kindness and encouraging words, while she and Ana slowly pace the hospital corridors, awaiting delivery like exhausted sleepwalkers.

 

The babies arrive; the two women part. But not for long.

 

Janis’ initial au pair proves hopeless, particularly when the new mother decides to revive her photography career. A chance encounter with Ana — now a bit more relaxed and self-assured — proves inspirational; Janis knows that she’d make an excellent au pair, and the younger woman gratefully accepts the offer.

 

But she does so, under a cloud.

 

That makes them an excellent match, because Janis has long struggled with her own ghosts.

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania — An enjoyable change of scenery

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (2022) • View trailer

3.5 stars (out of five). Rated PG-13, and rather harshly, for cartoon nudity and mild rude humor

Available via: Amazon Prime

By Derrick Bang

Goodness.

 

Bear with me, while I catch my breath.

 

If this isn’t the most frantically paced animated feature ever made, it’ll certainly do until I can recall a wilder one.

 

Nobody else shares Johnny's excitement at becoming a monster; sweetie-pie Mavis,
at his immediate left, is particularly horrified.

The Hotel Transylvania series has enjoyed an entertaining run during the past decade, with various writers successfully concocting fresh plots that cleverly riff these classic Hollywood monsters. This fourth entry is no different; scripters Amos Vernon, Nunzio Randazzo and Genndy Tartakovsky — the latter directed the previous three films — once again put Dracula and his cohorts in hilariously wacky peril.

That said, first-time feature directors Derek Drymon and Jennifer Kluska could have slowed things down a skosh; the sight gags and one-liners erupt with a fury reminiscent of Drymon’s work on Nickelodeon’s CatDog shorts. And it isn’t merely the gags; the characters here seem to be in a constant state of pell-mell anxiety.

 

It’s almost overwhelming. 

 

But, happily, not to the point of hampering our enjoyment.

 

We’ve moved beyond the first film’s crisis of Drac’s 118-year-old daughter Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez) falling in love with (gasp! shock!) the very human Johnny (Andy Samberg). In the third film, Drac became an item with the similarly human cruise ship captain Ericka (Katherine Hahn), despite the fact that she’s the great-granddaughter of his mortal enemy, Abraham Van Helsing (Jim Gaffigan).

 

Each of these core plotlines has included a warm subtext that focuses on families, and family dynamics … including highly unusual ones.

 

This fourth entry is no different. Events kick off as Drac (Brian Hull), weary of hotel management, contemplates retirement. Although far from a fait accompli, Mavis excitedly realizes that she and her human hubby Johnny will wind up in charge … which sends Drac into a tizzy.

 

Although he has learned to accept Johnny’s presence — recognizing that the excitable young fellow makes Mavis happy — Drac has never fully accepted him as family … or, more crucially, as a son. Ergo, Drac doesn’t want Johnny co-managing the hotel. Desperate for a way out, Drac invents a “rule” stating that all hotel personnel must be monsters.

 

Is Johnny majorly bummed? Absolutely. Does he give up? Absolutely not.

Scream: Typical slice 'n' dice

Scream (2022) • View trailer

2.5 stars (out of five). Rated R, for strong bloody violence, gore, relentless profanity and some sexual references

Available via: Movie theaters

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 1.14.22

Sigh. Everything old is new again.

 

The Halloween series has risen from the grave repeatedly; 1960’s Psycho was re-imagined as the TV series Bates Motel; and Netflix will debut a re-boot of Texas Chainsaw Massacre next month.

 

With varying levels of interest, skepticism and outright disbelief, the possible next victims
of the ongoing murder spree — from left, Wes (Dylan Minnette), Richie (Jack Quaid),
Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Dewey (David Arquette) — listen while the horrific
situation's "rules" are explained.

Ergo, why not similarly revive Scream?

The first film’s 1996 debut quickly spawned a trilogy that “concluded” four years later. 2011’s Scream 4 attempted — and failed — to breathe new life into the murder sprees occurring in small-town Woodsboro; a three-season television series, from 2015-19, had nothing to do with the franchise beyond borrowing its name.

 

Creator Kevin Williamson’s shrewd “gimmick” — he scripted the first, second and fourth films — is that these characters are well versed in horror films, and speak knowledgably about what one should (and shouldn’t) do, when confronted with a masked killer murder spree.

 

But more often than not, they ignore their own well-researched advice. With predictable results.

 

The movie-obsessed killers, as well, are required to act according to certain genre expectations. Finally, there are three well-established rules:

 

1) Never trust the love interest;

 

2) The killer’s motive always is connected to something in the past; and

 

3) The first victim always belongs to a “friend group” that the killer is part of.

 

As the series progressed, it became increasingly self-referential and meta, with each fresh set of characters (victims) debating the merits (or lack thereof) of a film series — Stab, Stab 2, etc. — that exploits these Woodsboro tragedies. This, in turn, spawns fresh killing sprees by new maniacs concealed behind the Ghostface mask, which prompts further Stab entries. Lather, rinse, repeat.

 

(Honestly, you’d think Woodsboro would have run out of residents by now.)

 

The question, then, is whether this 2022 entry has anything fresh to say. The answer: Slightly yes, mostly no.

The 355: Bad-ass women to the rescue!

The 355 (2022) • View trailer

3.5 stars (out of five). Rated PG-13, for strong violence, brief profanity and dramatic intensity

Available via: Movie theaters

By Derrick Bang

Not until very late in this film does a key character explain that “The 355” was the code name of a female spy — identity unknown — who was part of the Culper Ring, during the American Revolution.

 

Having completed their mission (or so they assum), the improvised espionage team —
from left, Graciela (Penélope Cruz), Mace (Jessica Chastain), Khadijah (Lupita Nyong'o)
and Marie (Diane Kruger) — report their results to Marks (John Douglas Thompson).

Which makes it a needlessly vague title for director Simon Kinberg’s fast-paced espionage thriller. (Honestly, I’m surprised Universal let the title slide; it’s utterly unmarketable.)

For starters, this story — by Kinberg, Theresa Beck and Bek Smith — concerns four (five?) “clandestine heroines who risk their lives in a fight for freedom against all odds.” (Ya gotta love studio publicity sheets.)

 

Kinberg’s globe-trotting romp is a well-crafted popcorn flick: an intriguing premise that’s short on logic, long on momentum, and highlighted by some inventively staged — and frequently ballsy — stunt work.

 

Events kick off in a palatial estate near Bogota, Colombia, where what appears to be a high-profile drug deal actually concerns a small external hard drive that contains a nasty program: one capable of wirelessly interfering with any computer — from navigational systems on a plane, to a phone in your pocket — anywhere in the world.

 

The deal goes awry, much to the dismay of The Unpleasant Man In Charge (Jason Flemyng). In the confusion, Luis (Edgar Ramírez) escapes with the drive.

 

Knowing it’s a hot commodity, Luis solicits bids from various international spy agencies, including the CIA; the case goes to impetuous agent Mason “Mace” Brown (Jessica Chastain) and her longtime partner/best friend, Nick Fowler (Sebastian Stan). The exchange, scheduled at a café in Paris, short-circuits when one of the valises is snatched by a bad-ass interloper (Diane Kruger).

 

Cue the first audacious scuffle/chase choreographed by stunt/fight coordinators James O’Donnell and James Embree, as Nick goes after Luis, and Mace follows the uninvited gate-crasher. The latter gets away, only to discover that she grabbed the valise with the CIA’s $3 million payoff.

 

On top of which, Luis’ valise — which should have contained the hard drive — has nothing but wadded-up paper: a double-cross. (The first of many, in this oblique story.)