Month: February 2022

Cyrano

Rated: MCyrano

Directed by: Joe Wright

Screenplay by: Erica Schmidt

Based on: The stage musical adapted and directed by Erica Schmidt, from ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ by Edmond Rostand, with music by Aaron & Bryce Dessner and lyrics by Matt Berninger & Carin Besser

Music by: Bryce Dessner & Aaron Dessner

Produced by: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Guy Heeley

Executive Produced by: Erica Schmidt, Sarah-Jane Robinson, Sherraz Shah, Lucas Webb, Matt Berninger, Carin Besser, Aaron Dessner

Starring: Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Ben Mendelsohn.

‘My sole purpose on this earth is to love Roxanne (Haley Bennett),’ laments Cyrano (Peter Dinklage).

He at least has the decency to be a little embarrassed of the words uttered to his friend, Le Bret (Bashir Salahuddin).

It’s not the flowery words that embarrass Cyrano, but that he has admitted his love for the unreachable.

He is a midget and she a great beauty to be worshiped.

Cyrano and Roxanne are friends.  Best friends.  If he told her of his true feelings, he would lose her forever.

Cyrano sighs as he states, ‘I am living proof that God has a sick sense of humour.’

Pursued by the Duke De Guiche (Ben Mendelsohn), Roxanne’s loved by many.

The Duke is rich, she’s poor. Her handmaiden (Monica Dolan) reminds her, ‘Children need love. Adults need money.’

Roxanne wants love more than anything. And thinks she’s found it when she sees the dashing soldier, Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) for the first time.

It’s love at first sight.

Christian is handsome but without a sharp wit. It’s up to Cyrano to write letters on Christian’s behalf, to write all the things he’s ever wanted to tell Roxanne.  Only to be signed by Christian.

Cyrano is a musical romance set at a time of puppet shows, lace and ribbons, duels and corsets.

Not my favourite flavour of film.

I promised myself to keep an open mind.

Expect singing from the outset.

And also some great lines from Cyrano like, ‘Would you defend this… sausage?!’  He describes an actor wearing a red frizzy wig and well past his used-by date.

I quote the dialogue often because there is just so much to quote; the words, the lyrics roll like waves throughout the film.

The love story does cloy with Roxanne’s demand of a handsome Christian filled with handsome words – with the expectation of nothing less.

It’s all very pretty and irritating with the ink on the paper of the first letter making her nervous.

But wow, there are some spectacular scenes of clever camera work of sword fighting and the audience back-and-forth in the theatre; the quiet of breathing.

And then the tears started.

It wasn’t the love story that got me, but the soldiers singing the words of their letter to be sent to their loved ones back home.  The lyrics here are beautiful in their lack of sentiment.  That’s what got to me: the clear-sighted expression of feeling.

The words and lyrics of the film are more like poetic truth than song.

Yes, there are irritating, long-winded moments but Peter Dinklage as Cyrano has a way of balancing the sweetness of the romance with a wry wit.

And once the tears started, the rest of the film built on that emotion.

So I admit, I got into a musical romance.

Marry Me

Rated: PGMarry Me

Directed by: Kat Coiro

Screenplay Written by: John Rogers & Tami Sagher, Harper Dill

Based on the Graphic Novel by: Bobby Crosby

Produced by: Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Jennifer Lopez, Benny Medina, John Rogers

Executive Produced by: Alex Brown, Willie Mercer, Pamela Thur, J. B. Roberts

Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Maluma, John Bradley and Sarah Silverman.

Married three times and about to marry for the forth, super star Kat Valdez (Jennifer Lopez) has written a song with her also-a-super-star fiancé, Bastian (Maluma): Marry Me.

They’re set to sing the song at their wedding recorded live to stream across all platforms to over 20 million people making them the two most famous people on the planet.

And in front of all those people, Kat’s world falls apart when Bastian is posted cheating with her assistant.  She sees the post just before rising onto the stage of her wedding.

Enter, Charlie (Owen Wilson).

Divorced and dad of Lou (Chloe Coleman), math teacher with no criminal record and holding up a sign: Marry Me.

They lock eyes.

OK.

So they get married.  But only for show.  It’s a meltdown, an impulsive moment.  It will pass.  The media frenzy will die down.  It’s just for show.

Until it’s not.

I didn’t think I’d get into this movie, the premise being more than a stretch…  Well, not so much these days?!

And I guess that’s of the point of the film, questioning the idea of getting married.  Falling in love with the idea of the person and not who the person really is but what you want them to be.

There’s some foundation to the idea of these superstar with Jennifer Lopez being a singer and dancer in real life (alongside Latin music star Maluma), so the characters had some cred.

I wasn’t one-hundred percent sold on the Charlie character but he had some good lines, ‘I was, I am a fun guy.’  Tongue in cheek.  He is a likeable guy.  It was more the lack of chemistry between the celebrity singer and normal guy Charlie.

This is a film about getting to know each other rather than a steamy romance.

He is a math teacher who goes to bed at 8pm to read a book.

So it’s more about the relationship and the magic of taking that leap of faith.  A romance that has some chuckles but is more about friendship.

It’s a little like, Notting Hill (1999) with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant where the superstar actress falls for the normal guy.  But stretch that to a massive audience and streamed live on social media.

The formula’s always the same: the unlikely match, to the relationship working, to an obstacle, to taking the leap and overcoming the doubt, to tear jerker moment to heart-warming ending.

I’m admit to some cynicism.

But I kinda got into it with the aging British Bulldog, Tank used well to provoke those warm and fuzzies that will encourage hand holding leading up to Valentine’s Day.

Go on, take that leap of faith.  Or don’t.

Either way, I agree with the sentiment, ‘If you want something different you have to do something different.’

 

Blacklight

Rated: MBlacklight

Directed by: Mark Williams

Written by: Nick May & Mark Williams

Produced by: Mark Williams, Paul Currie, Myles Nestel, Aleve Loh, Coco Ma

Starring: Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Taylor John Smith, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Andrew Shaw, Zac Lemons, Claire Van Der Boom, Gabriella Sengos, Tim Draxl, Yael Stone, Georgia Flood, Caroline Brazier, Melanie Jarnsen.

‘Have I been doing the right thing?’ wonders, off-the-books fixer, Travis Block (Liam Neeson).

He’s the one head of the FBI, Bill Robinson (Aidan Quinn) turns to when deep cover agents get lost or worse, found out.

So when fellow agent Dusty Crane (Taylor John Smith) is found in his car full of pills and booze, leaving in his wake four cops who try and fail to take him down… Block is called to bring him in.

But instead of bringing Dusty back to the Bureau, Block discovers Dusty was on his way to meet Mira (Emmy Raver-Lampman).  A journalist.  He has a story to tell.  A story that will force Block to question what he’s been doing with his life.

Blacklight opens to a protest led by politician, Sofia Flores (Melanie Jarnsen); her speech including emotive statements like:

Financial greed

Domestic terrorism

Equal pay for everyone

We have something say!

Cut to the background of American flags flying in the breeze.

I admit I was cringing with the dramatic build of drums and high-hat flourishes.

Then enters Block.  He taps his second finger: 1-2-3.  Waiting for things to explode.

Blacklight is a classic style action movie with double take camera shots to increase that feeling of adrenaline and then missing takes to show a fragmented mind.

Then there’s the drama of Block wanting out: ‘There is no out for you.’

He wants a second chance at life and to spend more time with his granddaughter.

But his hospital working daughter doesn’t think he’s up to it: ‘Natalie doesn’t need a fixer like you.’

He wants out, they won’t let him.  His family don’t trust him because of his past…  The formula is a familiar one.  Very familiar.

Which is not always a bad thing.

But those camera double takes started to cloy after the first half hour.  As did the statements like, ‘The American people need to know the truth.’

It wasn’t all bad.  There is… action.  And a few twists.

And Neeson brings it, as always, with his brutish sincerity.

It just feels like a movie I’ve seen a dozen times before.

Watchable, then forgettable.

Moonfall

Rated: MMoonfall

Directed by: Roland Emmerich

Screenplay Written by: Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser, Spenser Cohen

Produced by: Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser

Starring: Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, Donald Sutherland, Michael Peña.

‘We’re not prepared for this.’

Part disaster movie, part sci-fi, comedy and drama, Moonfall begins its journey in space.  Where an anomaly throws a routine repair mission into a tragedy.

Jocinda (Halle Berry), AKA space wife loses her memory.  And space hero Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson) loses everything.

After the tragedy is chalked up to human error, back on earth, Harper is now a fallen hero.

Fast forward ten years and something’s not right.

The moon is out of orbit and the first one to realise is megastructure conspiracist, K. C. Houseman (John Bradley).

But no one will listen.

‘Make them listen,’ says his mum.

So he does.

Being a Roland Emmerich film (think, Independence Day (1996), The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and 2012 (2012)), I expected a big budget disaster movie, and as already introduced, Moonfall is part disaster, part everything else.

Some notes hit, like the chuckles evoked from conspiracist, I-lost-two-mops, Houseman (you’ll recognise John Bradley as Sam in, Game of Thrones).  And some notes didn’t with the suspense lost in the drama of Jocinda and her ex, military man, Doug Davidson (Eme Ikwuakor) and bad-boy son, Sonny (Charlie Plummer).  And what I think was supposed to be an exchange student (?) Michelle (Kelly Yu).

I got a little lost down some rabbit holes.

But there’s a good foundation with a strong performance from Patrick Wilson and the movie’s saving grace, John Bradley.

And the effects on the big screen managed to distract from the sometimes forced, ‘I work for the American people and you’re keeping them in the dark,’ sentiment that made up about an eighth of the movie.

What was lacking in the emotional subtleties was glossed over with exploding cosmic rocks like fireworks and a looming, disintegrating moon pulling the ocean up and over high rise buildings.

Entertaining on the big screen and one of the better disaster movies with some attempt to dive into some interesting concepts.

What I enjoyed the most was the comedy.

So, a bit of an all-rounder.

I didn’t love it; didn’t hate it.

I had a giggle, liked the effects, made me wonder while some of the drama made me cringe.

India Sweets and Spices

Rated: MIndia Sweets and Spices

Directed and Written by: Geeta Malik

Produced by: John Penotti, Sidney Kimmel, Gigi Pritzker, Naomi Despres

Starring: Sophia Ali, Manisha Koirala, Rish Shah, Adil Hussain, Deepti Gupta, Anita Kalathara.

India Sweets and Spices presents a feast of Indian food and a glittering array of saris as the residents of Ruby Hill dress to the hilt for a weekly rotation of dinner parties during the holiday season. When Alia (Sophia Ali), the eldest daughter a successful heart surgeon (Adil Hussain), returns home from her first year away at university she is expected to play the role of demure Indian daughter looking to attract a suitable husband at these gatherings, but she has long ago outgrown her part. Now she cannot even pretend that she doesn’t find life in this bourgeois Indian enclave utterly stultifying. On the night before her departure she confides to a friend that it’s: ‘The place where brain cells go to die’.

During her time at UCLA, Alia has become heavily involved in social justice issues and takes it as her right that she is entitled to speak out and act upon what she believes in. Much to the horror of her mother. Sheila (Manisha Koirala) is not only a bored but devoted housewife and hostess extraordinaire, she is also the unofficial queen of the Ruby Hill social scene, and she is a woman with a past. It is a secret she has been keeping from her children and the community. In a community where everyone has a secret.

Once a haven for new arrivals looking to safely establish themselves in their adopted country, Ruby Hill has over time become a locked cage, where the corrosive tongues of ‘the aunties’ not only keep the residents in and in line but also keep new arrivals out. On the surface life is uncomplicated and easy in this enclave of backyard swimming pools, luxury vehicles and fantasy weddings where a groom might ride in on a tiger, but the entire community is being held hostage to the threat of exposure and embarrassment. It is a powerful deterrent, but the carefully manicured web of illusion this coterie has cultivated around themselves is impossible to maintain, even with the most watchful of blind eyes.

When Alia locks eyes with her new beau (Rish Shah) in the biscuit aisle of the local Indian grocery store and on impulse invites him and his family to a weekly dinner party, it will tug at a thread that will eventually unravel all of the secrets. Beginning with, possibly, the biggest secrets of all. The ones her own family have been keeping from her.

This feminist romantic comedy/ coming of age drama begins with a finely wrought script from Geeta Malik, with some precisely-calibrated lines for Alia to deploy against the ‘aunties’. Originally reading for the part of Alia’s best friend Neha (Anita Kalathara), Sophia Ali has been beautifully cast Alia Kapur as she tenaciously pursues the question, ‘What if we are who we are and then we don’t recognise ourselves anymore?’ It’s not only a question for Alia; the conundrum equally applies to Sheila and Ranjit when their secrets are finally revealed. As it is, perhaps, for many more in their circle.

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