film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Matt Conway

  • The Redeem Team: The BRWC Review

    The Redeem Team: The BRWC Review

    The Redeem Team Synopsis: The U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball team traveled to the 2008 Beijing Olympics to embark on a quest for the coveted gold medal that eluded them four years prior and make history for the team.

    Following a disastrous finish in the 2004 Olympic games, the U.S. Men’s Basketball team’s legacy-defining run in 2008 takes center stage in the latest Netflix documentary, The Redeem Team. It’s an unofficial contractual obligation for me to review every sports film released, given my obsession with basketball and football. 

    Sports films themselves are sadly a dying breed theatrically. Fortunately for me and other sports fans, Netflix continues to give athletics a platform with a mixture of thought-provoking (the Untold: Malice in the Palace doc is a must for NBA fans) and lackluster documentaries (Tony Parker: The Final Shot might as well been a commercial for the Spurs point guard legend). 

    With The Redeem Team, director Jon Weinbach gathers several marquee figures, like LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony, the late Kobe Bryant, and Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski, to reflect on the U.S. Basketball team’s historic gold medal run. The results are an engaging yet slightly conventional trip down memory lane for a series of the sport’s most influential voices. 

    Weinbach mines potent moments from his sharp utilization of archival footage. Like Michael Jordan’s spell-binding doc The Last Dance, The Redeem Team offers intimate glimpses into the behind-the-scenes, day-to-day grind of the U.S. team looking to find themselves following soul-crushing disappointment in 2004. Weinbach’s incorporation of candid speeches, tireless practice sessions, and joyous blips of infectious camaraderie provide a personable lens that reflects the team’s undying commitment toward redemption.

    The interviews Weinbach hosts here also elicit impact. The Redeem Team is perhaps most impactful in analyzing the Olympic run as a stepping stone for James, Wade, Bosh, Anthony, and “Point God” Chris Paul – five NBA stars representing the sport’s bright future in 2008. Now in their late 30s, the quintet offers meaningful meditations on the collective odyssey they endured in their quest for eternal greatness. It’s also touching to see several of Bryant’s archival interviews featured here, with the star’s lingering resonance among the NBA community radiating in full force. 

    The Redeem Team is a succinct and engaging experience, but Weinbach’s work does stumble into some commonplace documentary pratfalls. A modern movement of celebrities cultivating their desired image via documentaries is a bit of a dual-edged sword. While receiving doses of raw reflection from a cast of figureheads is appealing, films like The Redeem Team often feel too regimented by PR protectiveness over celebrity brands. This phenomenon continues to make documentaries a less objective source than they used to be, and I think it’s hurting the genre in the long run. 

    I still dug The Redeem Team as a rabid NBA fan. Weinbach’s proficient feature should appeal to diehard fans and newcomers to the sport alike. 

    The Redeem Team is now playing on Netflix. 

  • Werewolf By Night: The BRWC Review

    Werewolf By Night: The BRWC Review

    Werewolf By Night Synopsis: On a dark and somber night, a secret cabal of monster hunters emerge from the shadows and gather at the foreboding Bloodstone Temple following the death of their leader. In a strange and macabre memorial to the leader’s life, the attendees are thrust into a mysterious and deadly competition for a powerful relic—a hunt that will ultimately bring them face to face with a dangerous monster.

    The homogenized Marvel brand takes a decidedly new turn in their new B-movie horror special, Werewolf By Night. Disney has discovered unprecedented success with its superhero-based cinematic universe, but the studio’s well-entrenched formula occasionally gets in the way of more innovative pursuits. I think the MCU continues to produce mostly solid, single-base films rather than taking grandiose home run swings creatively.

    Werewolf By Night delivers a decidedly different beast – a 40s/50s inspired B-movie cloaked in old-school aesthetics. The results offer a refreshing, albeit narratively uneventful, foray into monster movie filmmaking. 

    Composer extraordinaire Michael Giacchino is synonymous with a slew of vibrant movie scores (The Incredibles and The Batman). In directing his first feature project, Giacchino displays a similarly expressive voice behind the camera. His sincere embrace of B-movie mechanics creates an inspired hommage that possesses a keen understanding of its genre forefathers. 

    Atmospheric, black-and-white cinematography and refreshingly practical effects serve as expressive tools in Giacchino’s wheelhouse – techniques that dredge Werewolf By Night with alluring dashes of carnage (a few creative choices allow the film to display a surprising amount of grizzly bloodshed). 

    Disney’s most significant success here is allowing Werewolf to form its own identity. The 54-minute short eschews the conventional exposition-laded devices driving most MCU features. Instead, Giacchino and the screenwriting team center their focus on a straightforward yet compelling narrative embedded in macabre moodiness. Seeing a Marvel project operate without the genre’s typical life-or-death stakes or homogenized style is refreshing. I hope the superhero brand becomes more willing to take creative risks as they stretch into obscure crevices of comic book lore. 

    Werewolf by Night represents a promising step forward for Marvel, but the project still shows room for improvement. There are still shadings of MCU tropes embedded in the material, particularly in the film’s awkward inclusion of forced comedic banter. I also wish Giacchino had gone even further with his repurposing of old-school aesthetics. Viewers will likely pick up on some of the same digital tricks often used within the sanitized MCU visual sheen. 

    Still, Werewolf by Night delivers on the monster movie madness it sets out to achieve. I certainly won’t mind if horror specials like this become a new MCU tradition around Halloween time. 

    Werewolf By Night is now playing on Disney+.

  • Avatar: Returning Back To Pandora

    Avatar: Returning Back To Pandora

    Thirteen years ago, James Cameron’s long-awaited odyssey to Pandora ignited a cinematic milestone with the release of Avatar. Cameron endured years of negative speculation and bewilderment from media pundits who seemed puzzled by the Titanic auteur’s motion capture-driven epic. 

    Fortunately for Cameron, the results reached an unprecedented place amidst the zeitgeist. Avatar toppled all of the box office records that Titanic previously smashed, while the film’s boundary-pushing technology and captivating spectacle became the rare big-budget feature to attract substantial award attention (people forget now, but Avatar was the runner-up for the 2009 Best Picture Oscar). 

    The passage of time has embedded some fascinating impacts on Avatar. Critics and audiences’ praise quickly soured into an odd sense of apathy toward the project, with many fixating on the screenplay and its repurposing of age-old story dynamics. Years of insistent dunking then reverted back into warm appreciation for the film in the mainstream once audiences caught a glimpse of its sequel, The Way of Water. Funny how the internet works sometimes. 

    I always viewed Avatar as one of the Star Wars-esque event films of my childhood (2009 featured several of those films for me with Star Trek and District 9). I traveled to the theater four times during its initial theatrical run, and I was even one of the few who came back when it was needlessly re-released with extra footage in the summer of 2010. 

    Now returning to theaters with enhanced 4K visuals, Avatar still elicits much of the same wide-eyed wonderment I remember fondly basking in as a 12-year-old. It’s incredible how the passage of time has not aged Cameron’s CGI-created landscape inadequately. The world of Pandora and its wide array of expressive creatures, detailed environments, and eye-popping marvels still possess the same lively expressiveness onscreen. 

    Cameron’s visual components are not just stylistic marvels. Many detractors of the film highlight the film’s age-old premise of a colonizer slowly turning toward the side of the native tribe inhabiting the land. Other movies, like Dances with Wolves, have explored the dynamic, but Cameron realizes that concept’s timeless appeal. Avatar effectively ruminates on the commodification of the natural world by callous enterprises that set their sights strictly on profits. In a modern climate where global warming and warring nations remain foreboding forces, Avatar has only retained more relevance as the years pass. 

    I also love the sincerity Cameron imbues in his project. His embrace of worldly splendors and the Na’vi’s open-hearted spirituality allows audiences to get lost in the writer/director’s ambitious worldview. Avatar’s sturdy foundation should serve as an effective building block for Cameron to further descend into the Na’vi and their culture’s meaningful practices. 

    Still, I wouldn’t quite call Avatar a masterpiece. Cameron’s old-school screenwriting tendencies occasionally lead to a few stiff moments, including narration that often sleepily delivers information to viewers. Some actors provide enough dramatic agency and emotionality to elevate the proceedings (Zoe Saladna gives one of the best motion capture performances of all time as Neytiri). Others, like earnest leading man Sam Worthington, struggle to enrich material that’s lacking in terms of energy and authenticity. Nevertheless, I think Avatar’s sequels will be better off now that they can define their own presence amidst the extensive world-building Cameron accomplishes here. 

    The moments of imperfection do not mask the masterful achievement Cameron achieved here. Avatar holds up remarkably well as an enchanting and expertly crafted blockbuster. I can’t wait to return to Pandora with The Way of the Water. 

  • Meet Cute: The BRWC Review

    Meet Cute: The BRWC Review

    After discovering a time machine hidden amidst an unassuming salon, Shelia finds herself reliving a first date with an affable stranger in the romantic comedy Meet Cute. 

    For readers feeling a sense of deja vu, time travel has become a familiar narrative staple for projects looking to build upon the quirks of age-old classics like Back to the Future and Groundhog’s Day. Some vehicles utilized the pastiche for crowdpleasing entertainment (Happy Death Day and The Tomorrow War), while others aspired for more dramatic ambitions (Before I Fall and the highly-underrated Long Weekend). Like with any trend in Hollywood, the results showcase a mixed bag of inspired projects and thankless retreads. 

    Meet Cute attempts to thread both sensibilities with an intimate take on romantic comedy contrivances. Despite a few novel twists on the popularized time travel trend, the maudlin final product yields a flat and oddly dysfunctional embrace of dated notions.  

    The foundation for an endearing romance is there on paper. First-time screenwriter Noga Pnueli thankfully takes some liberties with her time travel devices, twisting her narrative threads into some unexpectedly complex places. I appreciate that Pnueli tries to wrestle with the allures and dark realities of Shelia’s choices while still inserting her distinctive comedic voice. 

    These choices allow Meet Cute to adopt more purpose than a traditional rom-com, fitting more into the indie, mumblecore sensibility that director Alex Lehmann knows quite well (Blue Jay and Paddleton). Lehmann and Cinematographer John Matysiak make for a suitable team as they capture their star-crossed lovers finding themselves amidst the glow of New York City nightlife.

    While noble on paper, Meet Cute ultimately succumbs to its faulty narrative foundation. Pnueli’s attempts to humanize her characters, including Shelia’s history with depression and suicidal ideations, often lack the dramatic weight needed for her concepts to marinate properly. Simplifying complex issues under the guise of rom-com whimsy and fortune cookie-level insights sends an insincere message to viewers. It also creates a romance ensnared by some severely problematic qualities. Pnueli’s lack of textures and bizarre narrative revelations conjure a dysfunctional relationship forged in the fires of co-dependency and constant manipulation. Even as the film acknowledges these developments as issues, it doesn’t present a very nuanced voice on the subject matter. 

    The floundering material straddles the film’s charismatic leads in unfortunate ways. Kaley Cuoco possesses sharp comedic timing and affectionate personability, but Shelia’s wayward characterization undermines the actresses’ strengths at every turn. Her character ultimately becomes a prototype of manic pixie dream girl stereotypes that desperately lacks genuine introspection. Pete Davidson is his usual awkwardly affable self here, although he and Cuoco do not form winning camaraderie as a pair.

    Meet Cute’s well-intended risks never quite payoff. Here’s one first date viewers will likely not want to relive over and over again. 

    Meet Cute is now playing on Peacock. 

  • The Woman King: The BRWC Review

    The Woman King: The BRWC Review

    The Woman King Synopsis: The Agojie, an all-female unit of warriors who protect the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s, and its leader General Nanisca (Viola Davis), must train the next generation of recruits for battle against an enemy determined to destroy their way of life.

    A fierce ensemble of female warriors led by their war-tested leader General Nanisca faces off in a battle over their kingdom’s prosperity in The Woman King. Histroical epics like this latest project from The Old Guard director Gina Prince-Bythewood are a rarity in today’s marketplace. Semi-fictional reimaginings of historical happenings, like Gladiator, Glory, and Braveheart, used to serve as uproarious crowdpleasers and highly-coveted award staples. Decades after those titles’ success, the genre is now reserved almost exclusively for TV programming or straight-to-streaming offerings due to its decreased marketability.

    With The Woman King, Prince-Bythewood and her creative team take a sincere exploration of a neglected chapter in world history. The results provide a thrilling blend of grand, old-school entertainment and impactful storytelling.

    Prince-Bythewood, the auteur behind soulful indie favorites like Love and Basketball, continues to assert herself as one of the industry’s premier voices. Like with Old Guard, the director imbues a vital sense of patience in her character-driven approach that’s sorely missing from other big-budget actioners. She never lets the guise of stimulating setpieces overwhelm the material’s strengths, dedicating a significant portion of screentime to insular struggles facing Nanisca and members of the Agojie army.

    Each dramatic frame balances restraint and expressive emotions to relay revelations with well-modulated tact. In a climate where several dramas strain themselves in pursuit of majestic moments of grandeur, Prince-Bythewood’s skilled touch allows viewers to connect with the film’s characters and ideas with impressive naturalism. She is also continuing to elevate her technical abilities in action filmmaking. Paired with cinematographer Polly Morgan’s kinetic framing, the duo expressively displays slashing swords and closely-contested combat while retaining much-needed gravitas and urgency.

    The patient build-up is an ideal canvas for The Woman King’s all-star cast. As the soft-spoken yet magnetic Nanisca, Viola Davis exhibits her transfixing talent in every frame. Davis expertly balances the character’s brawn while exploring the vulnerabilities that rest under her surface. No Time to Die standout Lashana Lynch and John Boyega imbue undeniable conviction and charisma in their respective roles. I also can’t forget to mention relative newcomer Thuso Mbedu, who, in several ways, becomes the film’s beating heart as a newcomer to the Agojie. Mbedu’s natural potency and radiance onscreen will likely make her a star to watch going forward.

    The Woman King may present itself to many as a war film, but there are ample ideas effectively ruminating under the surface. Dana Stevens’ astute screenplay wisely centers on the dual exploitation facing Agojie members and their Dahomey nation-state. Her dual-pronged observations offer meaningful personal and societal reflections alike. The several scenes dedicated to Nanisca and her army’s history of male objectification offer an all-too-relevant portrait of gender inequities. While their experiences showcase horrifying realities, the characters’ undying perseverance ultimately provides an inspiring story of strength in oneself and the community camaraderie fortifying that dynamic.

    Some viewers have taken issue with the film’s depiction of Dahomey as a collaborator in the African slave trade. Personally, I think the inclusion of the nation’s real-world history is an essential addition. The Dahomey’s dependence upon an unethical deal made with colonizing European powers acts as a much-needed mirroring of ill-treatment on a grander societal level. Just as the Agojie warriors discover identity through their heroic pursuits, Dahomey gradually forms a self-sufficient nation unburdened by the corrupt influence of callous partners.

    The Woman King does endure some hiccups – particularly in a few subplots that try too hard to spell out the film’s conceits (the arc of a sympathetic colonizer feels especially contrived). Still, the minor misgivings never mask Prince-Bythewood and her team’s remarkable achievement here. The Woman King shines as an uproarious crowdpleaser bolstered by its deeply-empathetic undercurrent. Don’t be surprised if the film becomes a recurring staple come award season.

    The Woman King is now playing in theaters.