The 2024 Oscar Shorts: (Some) good things in small packages

The 2024 Oscar Shorts (2023) • View trailer

3.5 stars (out of five). Not rated, but akin to PG-13 for subject matter and dramatic intensity

Available via: Movie theaters

By Derrick Bang

With the Academy Award nominations in hand — and predictions and second-guessing increasing by the day — it’s time for one of my favorite traditions: checking out the live-action and animated short subjects.

 

As always, this year’s nominees range between the good, the bad and the baffling. I’ve long been puzzled by the wildly divergent tastes of those who select these nominees; it’s intriguing that the folks who pick the obviously excellent stand-outs also (apparently) find something to admire in entries I wouldn’t consider for a second.

 

But as my father often said, That’s why we have horse races: divergent candidates for every taste.

 

Turning first to the live-action candidates, director Wes Anderson’s handling of Roald Dahl’s “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” is the obvious stand-out for bravura creativity. I cannot imagine a more perfect artistic collaboration, and blend of sensibilities, than Anderson and Dahl.

This droll tale stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the title character, a bored and self-centered aristocrat who, as a result of a book he steals, painstakingly develops the talent to see through objects. What he ultimately does with this gift proves unexpected.

 

Dahl, played by Ralph Fiennes, narrates much of this saga — “Henry Sugar” actually is three stories nested within each other — although Dev Patel’s Dr. Chatterjee occasionally takes over. The staging throughout is theatrical and exaggerated, with backdrops sliding back and forth, sometimes manipulated by visible tech hands. Occasional scenes rely upon vintage rear projection. The result is bravura filmmaking, and totally cool.

 

Danish writer/director Lasse Lyskjaer Noer eschews fancy bells and whistles in “Knight of Fortune,” a quietly poignant study of a recent widower, Karl (Leif Andrée), who is overwhelmed by having to bid his deceased wife farewell, while she lies in state in a morgue room. Seeking any sort of distraction, he agrees when Torben (Jens Jorn Spottag) requests company while paying the final visit to his wife.

Except that things aren’t quite what they seem. Noer’s little story takes an oddly quirky turn — the tone and atmosphere uniquely Scandinavian — en route to a sweet conclusion.

 

Ordinary Angels: Sweet and heavenly

Ordinary Angels (2024) • View trailer

3.5 stars (out of five). Rated PG, for dramatic intensity

Available via: Movie theaters

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 2.23.24

Given how polarized our country has become, it’s refreshing to see a story that involves community members selflessly coming together for a common purpose.

 

Faced with stacks of overdue notices, Sharon (Hilary Swank) helps Ed (Alan Ritchson)
separate them into three piles, from "it can wait" to "extremely urgent."

The fact that director Jon Gunn’s heartwarming film is based on actual events — astonishing actual events, at that — is icing on the cake.

Scripters Kelly Fremon Craig and Meg Tilly haven’t strayed far from what went down in Louisville, KY, in late 1993 and early ’94: a winter still remembered for a massive storm that dumped almost 16 inches of snow in a single night, killed at least five people, and left much of the city without power.

 

Ed Schmitt remembers it for an entirely different reason ... but that’s getting ahead of things.

 

Gunn opens his film on tragedy, as Ed (Alan Ritchson) loses his wife Theresa (Amy Acker, seen only fleetingly) to Wegener’s disease, a rare and horrific condition that leads to organ failure. He’s left to function as a single parent to young daughters Ashley (Skywalker Hughes) and Michelle (Emily Mitchell).

 

His wife’s loss isn’t the end of Ed’s anguish; Michelle was born with liver disease, which has worsened to the point that the little girl desperately needs a transplant. But that’s expensive, and dealing with Theresa’s illness and death left Ed with nothing but bills and overdue notices; he’s a blue-collar roofer with no means of quickly raising the necessary cash.

 

Elsewhere in the city, hard-living hairdresser Sharon Stevens (Hilary Swank) is on the fast track to alcoholic extinction. Her adult son wants nothing to do with her, and best friend Rose (Tamala Jones) can’t get her to acknowledge the drinking problem.

 

Then — proving anew that sometimes the best way to help yourself, is to help somebody else — Sharon spots a newspaper article that describes the Schmitt family’s plight, and appeals for help.

 

She impulsively decides to provide some.

 

But that’s an uphill sell, particularly after she crashes Theresa’s funeral service (a teeth-grindingly embarrassing sequence that’s almost impossible to endure, due to Swank’s performance). Even so, Sharon’s self-destructive tendencies are matched by an equally strong stubborn streak; she’s not one to take “no” for an answer.

 

She therefore turns into a ferociously persistent, one-woman public relations machine ... albeit after a rocky start. (Political campaign managers should be so doggedly tenacious.)

The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan — Energetic swash and buckle

The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan (2023) • View trailer

Four stars (out of five). Not rated, but akin to PG-13 for violence and brief nudity

Available via: Amazon Prime and other VOD outlets

By Derrick Bang

There’s plenty to enjoy in this sumptuous, old-school adaptation of Dumas’ 1844 novel.

 

That said, Dumas purists might get cranky, because scripters Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patelliére have taken serious liberties with the author’s book.

 

The musketeers — from left, Athos (Vincent Cassel), Aramis (Romain Duris) and
Porthos (Pio Marmaï) — are amused to discover that brash young D'Artagnan
(François Civil, back to camera) has arranged to duel all three of them ...
at hourly intervals.

I was surprised to discover that this rip-snortin’ saga hasn’t been filmed in its native country since a 1959 TV movie with Jean-Paul Belmondo, starring as D’Artagnan. During that time, Hollywood gave us no fewer than four big-screen versions, most notably director Richard Lester’s two-parter in 1973 and ’74 (which, it must be mentioned, followed Dumas’ novel very faithfully).

Director Martin Bourboulon and his writers mimicked that two-part template with their new Gallic adaptation; both halves debuted in France last year, and “Part 1” just hit video-on-demand in the States, with (I hope) the conclusion following soon.

 

The year is 1627, and France is a bitterly divided country. King Louis XIII (Louis Garrel) and his wife, Anne of Austria (Vicky Krieps), have yet to produce an heir, placing the monarchy in peril. Protestant separatists, supported by England, wish to establish their own state; this enrages the king’s Catholic advisors.

 

Louis is cautious, though, not wanting to provoke a civil war ... but his younger brother Gaston, Duke of Orléans (Julien Frison), believes they should attack the Protestant rebels at their stronghold in La Rochelle.

 

Waiting in the wings: Cardinal Richelieu (Èric Ruf), playing a nefarious long game with the expectation of seizing power himself. To that end, he has enlisted the aid of the villainous Milady de Winter (Eva Green, sublimely evil), to set a crafty plan in motion.

 

All of this is backdrop, as young D’Artagnan (François Civil) leaves his Gascony homeland in order to join the ranks of the King’s Musketeers in Paris. While en route, D’Artagnan unwittingly stumbles on an attempt by ruffians to kidnap a young noblewoman, Isabelle de Valcour (Charlotte Ranson). Alas, the kidnappers succeed, and D’Artagnan’s attempt at chivalry nearly proves fatal.

 

Standing nearby, Milady smiles in satisfaction.

 

Longtime fans will recognize what comes next. D’Artagnan arrives in Paris, garners an encouraging audience with Captain de Tréville (Marc Barbé), and then manages to insult — in quick succession — musketeers Athos (Vincent Cassel), Porthos (Pio Marmaï) and Aramis (Romain Duris). They demand satisfaction via duels in the nearby woods; D’Artagnan rashly books them at hourly intervals ... much to their amusement, when all three arrive together.

 

But Richelieu has outlawed dueling, and a sizeable regiment of his guards arrive, with the intention of arresting the quartet. What follows is the first of the film’s energetically choreographed, hell-for-leather skirmishes; it’s exhilarating, messy and rather brutal, which follows Bourboulon’s insistence on a period-accurate dark and gritty environment. (Clearly, these guys don’t bathe very often.)

 

Another nice touch: Civil’s D’Artagnan goes all-in during this fight, and — toward the end — looks and moves like a man at the verge of total exhaustion.

Madame Web: Hopelessly tangled

Madame Web (2024) • View trailer

One star (out of five). Rated PG-13, for action violence and profanity

Available via: Movie theaters

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 2.16.24

This is the worst — and wholly failed — attempt at a high-profile superhero movie I’ve ever had the displeasure of enduring.

 

Cassie (Dakota Johnson, rear) and her three new companions — from left, Mattie
(Celeste O'Connor), Anya (Isabela Merced) and Julia (Sydney Sweeney) — are
terrified to discover they're being pursued by a powerful, costumed assassin who can
scuttle along ceilings.

I cannot imagine what prompted Sony/Marvel to green-light this pathetic excuse for a script by five credited hands: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Claire Parker, Kerem Sanga and director S.J. Clarkson. Nothing — not the premise, plot, characters or dialogue — works, or feels even remotely like how real-world people would behave or talk.

This filmmaking team clearly wished to create a franchise that would give teenage girl heroes an entry into Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, and that’s a noble goal.

 

To have squandered that opportunity so egregiously, however, is deplorable.

 

Why these writers chose to re-invent such an obscure Marvel Comics character also is bewildering.

 

Cassandra Webb — aka Madame Webb — has occasionally scuttled around the fringes of Spider-Man comics since her debut back in November 1980. She’s a “precognitive clairvoyant” who gets unexpected flashes of near-future events, and therefore is able to change them, ideally for better outcomes.

 

But this numb-nuts script by Clarkson et al ignores most of that, instead setting this story’s events in an alternate universe that apparently lacks Spider-Man and all the other familiar Marvel superheroes.

 

Instead, a brief prologue introduces the very pregnant Constance Webb (Kerry Bishé), as she searches the Peruvian jungle for a rare spider, whose venom is reputed to have powerful healing and enhancement properties. She’s accompanied by bodyguard Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim), who may as well have the phrase “actually a murderous opportunist” tattooed on his forehead.

 

Rahim has done better work in other films, but Clarkson clearly couldn’t inspire him here.

 

Sure enough, Sims shows his true colors once Constance finds one of the spiders; she’s mortally wounded in the subsequent scuffle. Sims gets away, while Constance is scooped up by — I’m not making this up — a hitherto-only-rumored tribe of web-garbed individuals with superhuman strength and agility, courtesy of the multitude of those same spiders with whom they’re sympatico. 

 

These guys carry her off to an underground grotto, and successfully deliver her baby daughter; alas — despite a helpful bite by one of the spiders — Constance dies.

 

Honestly, it’s hard not to laugh. The webby costumes are just silly, and their tree- and vine-hopping swiftness is ridiculously overstated.

The Teachers' Lounge: An unsettling real-world parable

The Teachers' Lounge (2023) • View trailer

Four stars (out of five). Rated PG-13, for occasional profanity

Available via: Movie theaters

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 2.9.24

As director Ilker Çatak’s thoughtful drama reaffirms, the road to hell continues to be paved with good intentions.

 

Carla (Leonie Benesch) knows that Oskar (Leo Stettnisch) is one of her brightest students,
but he's also withdrawn; she wonders how best to reach and engage him.

Çatak and co-scripter Johannes Duncker intend their story’s middle school setting to be a microcosm of the outside world, with respect to defensiveness, unintentionally bruised feelings, political maneuvering, failure to communicate and outright lying.

At first blush, though, things seem reasonably comfortable.

 

The location is deliberately vague and ambiguous; this could be any school, in any city. Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) nurtures a positive, respectful and productive atmosphere in her seventh-grade classroom. Her students like her, but she doesn’t get similar “warm cozies” from much of the staff; Carla is new to the school, and many of the veteran teachers have long-established cliques in their lounge, between classes.

 

As the story begins, teachers have become concerned about an ongoing series of thefts: money and property, stolen from students and adults. For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, suspicion falls on somebody in Carla’s class. A meeting is set up by senior teachers Thomas Liebenwerda (Michael Klammer) and Milosz Dudek (Rafael Stachowiak); Carla’s unease rises as they become increasingly insistent with seventh-grade class representatives Jenny (Antonia Küpper) and Lucas (Oscar Zickur).

 

Carla is dismayed when Thomas finally manipulates an answer from the children ... but, given her newcomer status, she doesn’t feel comfortable enough to voice her concerns.

 

The following day’s classroom activities are highlighted by one of Carla’s brightest students, Oskar (Leo Stettnisch), who solves a complex math problem involving limits.

 

(Pre-calculus, in seventh grade? American kids better watch out, or they’ll be eaten for lunch.)

 

The happy moment is interrupted by the arrival of the principal, Dr. Bettina Böhm (Anne-Kathrin Gummich), along with Liebenwerda and Dudek. What follows is inappropriately heavy-handed; the outcome reveals that one student, Ali Yilmaz (Can Rodenbostel), has an “unacceptably large” amount of money in his wallet.

 

That’s the worst sort of circumstantial “evidence,” and easily swatted aside by Ali’s parents, when they show up. They indignantly suggest that racism was behind their son’s being accused: an allegation that neither Böhm, Dudek or Liebenwerda can refute.

 

Böhm lamely justifies the “process” as being required by the school’s “zero-tolerance policy” (a contemptible blanket excuse that continues to be responsible for all manner of real-world harassment, unjust accusation and punishment).

 

Orion and The Dark: Joyously illuminating

Orion and The Dark (2024) • View trailer

Four stars (out of five). Rated TV-Y7, and suitable for all ages

Available via: Netflix

By Derrick Bang

As he introduces himself, at the beginning of this delightful animated film, Orion claims to be “a kid just like you.”

 

But that isn’t quite true.

 

Orion is understandably apprehensive when his late-night bedroom is invaded by a
partially shapeless, ink-black apparition that introduces himself as Dark.

All kids fret about this or that, but Orion’s fears are on an entirely different level. To quote Charlie Brown, his anxieties have anxieties.

As Orion soon confesses, he worries about...

 

• Murderous gutter clowns;

 

• Cancer-causing cell phone waves;

 

• Mosquito bites getting infected, causing a limb to wither and drop off;

 

• Falling off a skyscraper;

 

• Being responsible for his team losing;

 

• Being rejected by Sally, the girl he worships from afar;

 

• School locker rooms, particularly when local bully Richie Panici is present; and

 

• Bees, dogs, the ocean, haircuts and monsters.

 

All of this is depicted in a colorful, crayon-style animated rush lifted from the artwork in Orion’s personal journal: a style distinct from the more traditional animation work in this DreamWorks charmer from director Sean Charmatz, making an impressive big-screen feature debut.

 

Most of all, though, Orion is afraid of the dark. He insists on sleeping with night lights, and his bedroom door open. His tolerant parents haven’t quite given up on him, but they’re running out of ideas; he blatantly rejects their insistence that much of what he professes to fear would be fun, if he simply yielded to the moment.

 

“Fun?” he retorts. “Fun is just a word people made up, to make danger sound more appealing!”

 

Orion and The Dark is adapted from British author Emma Yarlett’s captivating 2014 children’s picture book ... although “adapted” isn’t quite the right word. Her book actually is a jumping-off point for a pleasantly mind-boggling script by Charlie Kaufman, who previously perplexed our brains with Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (the latter earning him a well-deserved Academy Award).

 

Trust Kaufman to weave a singularly unique, existentialist storytelling style into a children’s fantasy, while smoothly blending this with Yarlett’s gentle wisdoms.

Argylle: Fails to knock our socks off

Argylle (2024) • View trailer

2.5 stars (out of five). Rated PG-13, and much too generously, for relentless strong violence and occasional profanity

Available via: Movie theaters

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 2.2.24

I’m not the slightest bit surprised to recall that scripter Jason Fuchs’ early résumé includes 2012’s Ice Age: Continental Drift.

 

Because, after a promising first act, this new spy comedy devolves into an increasingly insufferable — and boring — live-action cartoon.

 

Having discovered a secret stash in an otherwise abandoned London safe house, Aidan
(Sam Rockwell) is surprised to see that Elly (Bryce Dallas Howard) recognizes some
of the concealed tech.

Director Matthew Vaughn has long favored violent, over-the-top material, from 2010’s Kick-Ass to the Kingsman trilogy (with, so it seems, two more on the way). But even by his outré standards, this film’s third act spirals totally out of control.

And not in a way that can be excused as “dumb fun.”

 

This one’s just dumb.

 

A revved-up prologue opens as stylish spy Argylle (Henry Cavill) meets a femme most fatale, who unexpectedly turns the tables on him. A rambunctious chase sequence follows, the woman finally captured with the assistance of colleagues Wyatt (John Cena) and Keira (Ariana DeBose).

 

But the mission has ended badly, and our good guys now are isolated from their agency handlers.

 

At which point the curtain pulls back, and all this is revealed as the visualized final chapter of book five in the popular Argylle spy series, read aloud at a bookstore event by author Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard). Fans adore her and the series; one questioner wonders aloud how she’s able to so uncannily concoct stories that seem to anticipate real-world events.

 

Plenty of dull research Elly replies, with a modest smile.

 

Back at home with her beloved cat Alfie, Ellie has an intriguing “relationship” with her series character; when stuck for a bit of dialogue, or how to move the action along, she “becomes” him — Cavill obligingly reappears — long enough to find the right words. Indeed, she has just finished the sixth novel, which she cheekily intends to conclude on a cliffhanger.

 

(Oh, those merciless authors; they do love to torture us readers.)

 

But Elly’s No. 1 fan — her mother, Ruth (Catherine O’Hara) — having been sent a copy, can’t believe that her daughter would be so cruel. Let’s get together, Ruth proposes, and we’ll brainstorm a final chapter.

 

Bundling Alfie into the world’s cutest hard-shell bubble capsule pet carrier, Elly boards a train. (Flying terrifies her.) She winds up accosted by Aidan (Sam Rockwell), a scruffy fan who proves quite useful when everybody else in their train car suddenly tries to kill them both. 

 

Cue a lively fracas, which is well-staged by fight choreographer Guillermo Grispo.