Vanguard is Jackie Chan’s latest Chinese action blockbuster, re-teaming the kung-fu star with frequent collaborator Stanley Tong. Despite the duo’s illustrious track record (the Super Cop films are among Chan’s best work), their latest actioner feels like a wayward effort. Indulging in tired tropes and bombastic tendencies, Vanguard’s chaotic energy never reaches its campy aspirations.
Vanguard follows Tang Hauting (Jackie Chan), the leader of a covert security company. When an accountant becomes the target of a deadly mercenary organization, the Vanguard team is put to the test in a globe-trotting adventure.
For a film that is jam-packed with frenetic action sequences, Vanguard is rarely able to draw the audience’s interest. Tong’s typically lively hand as a director is noticeably missing, utilizing clumsy effects-driven sequences over the well-crafted stuntwork of his heyday (there’s a CGI lion here that looks like it’s from a PS2 game).
Colored with artificial backdrops and a frantic cluster of sped-up shots, every setpiece is presented with the same blandly-flavored aesthetics. They fail to muster a modicum of personality, poorly adapting concepts from far superior actioners. Some of these frames elicit a few cheeky fun moments (a flying jetpack trooper brings some much-needed chaos), but most of them feel too cheap and plain to register an impression. Eastern actioners often offer a fresh change of pace from Hollywood’s grandiose blockbuster, but Vanguard relishes in their worst traits. The dialogue often reads with a certain rigidness, straddling archetype characters with nothing interesting to say or do on screen (Chan seems half-asleep in his lifeless role).
There’s also a bevy of contrivances that feel woefully out of date. Every female character is treated as a mere object (the one “badass” female agent is later utilized as bait to lure a male advisory), while the film’s jingoistic politics leave a sour taste in audience’s mouth. It’s one thing to implement a patriotic verve, but the blatant reinforcement of China’s oppressive police state feels rather icky to endure.
Problematic politics aside, Vanguard is as disposable as a genre picture can get. If you’re a Chan film fan, just rent one of his superior older films instead.
Since swinging onto the big screen with the Jackie Robinson biopic 42, Chadwick Boseman exhibited a rare presence onscreen, utilizing his abilities to tell vital stories that still hold significance today (Black Pantherleft a sizable mark on the superhero genre). His final acting credit Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom highlights his commanding ability in full-force, often carrying a film that can’t quite live up to it’s potential.
Set in 1920’s Chicago (and based on an August Wilson play), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom follows a chaotic recording session of Ma Rainey’s band. As a forceful talent, Rainey (Viola Davis) looks to dictate music in her image, whereas her younger horn player Levee (Chadwick Boseman) wants to reinvent their old-timey sound. Tensions boil as the band comes face-to-face with their deep-seated discontentment towards the broken system they face.
There’s a considerable amount of Oscar buzz surrounding Boseman’s final performance, with his effort thankfully displaying the renowned actor’s best qualities. As Levee, Boseman grabs the screen with an alluring, smooth-talking disposition, a charming veneer that soon morphs into something far more sinister. Once the character’s frustration boils to a point of mania, Boseman utilizes his once affable energy to aptly represent an unhinged spiral. Levee’s troubling journey is thankfully balanced with an impactful empathetic streak that humanizes his descent. The character stands as a victim of unjust racial conditions, damaged by years of mistreatment and disillusioned by his dreams of success in an unfair playing field. It’s a heartbreaking turn from Boseman, with his role performing the heavy-lifting for the film’s thinly-developed thesis.
Ma Rainey operates at its best when basking in its source material’s free-flowing nature. Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s screenplay keeps Wilson’s text mostly intact, allowing the tight-knit narrative to be told through a balance of lively conversations and hard-hitting emotional beats. Director George C. Wolfe compliments the material’s strengths with his precise framing, employing a cinematic streak without overwhelming the film’s low-key approach. These elements make a great canvas for the well-rounded cast to shine, with Viola Davis, Colman Domingo, and Glynn Turman all offering strong performance work (Davis grabs the screen as the boisterous Ma Rainey).
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom boasts strong qualities, yet the film lacks a definitive center to ground its strengths. Santiago-Hudson’s screenplay brushes past the material’s meaty ruminations, briefly touching upon the commodification of black culture while opting for overly-simplistic sentiments. The film gets so caught up in its busy dialogue-driven sequences that the purpose behind them can often feel quite thin (the final shot is asked to do much of the heavy lifting). Wolfe’s direction also displays clear limitations. His traditionalist visceral form works serviceably, but the lack of auteurship feels apparent during the film’s marquee moments.
Does Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom convey the full extent of its material? Not quite, but the assured cast elevates this into a semi-compelling chamber piece.
The Star Wars Holiday Special stands as a forgotten relic, a TV event mainly regarded for its innate campiness over any positive qualities (if you want to witness the bizarre cringe-fest, it’s on YouTube). Considering its now-infamous history, few could imagine the possibility of Star Wars going back to the holiday well. That’s where Disney comes in, releasing a new The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special on their Disney+ platform. While it likely won’t become a holiday staple, this warmly nostalgic celebration of Star Wars lore makes for an amusing fan-service experience.
The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special follows Rey, who leaves her friends on Life Day to gain a deeper knowledge of the Force. At a mysterious temple, she is hurled into a cross-timeline adventure, with Rey acquainting herself with several of her Jedi forefathers. Will she make it back in time for Life Day?
Similar to the beloved video game series, The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special meshes the best elements of its iconic brands. The blocky animation style allows director Ken Cunningham to inject humorous pratfall gags at every turn, often twisting iconic story beats from the franchise with a clever slapstick glow. I was also surprised to see just how meta David Shayne’s screenplay gets, appealing more to diehard fans than its target younger audience through a countless array of self-referential moments (the Obi-Wan “hello there” jokes had me rolling with laughter). The loving fan service is crafted with enough brains to strike a sincere chord.
As shocking as this is to say, the Holiday Special presents a more cohesive narrative than last year’s feature entryRise of Skywalker (although that may be damning with faint praise). Shayne’s script ties together the universe’s massive cast of characters, giving most of them a moment or two to leave a strong impression onscreen. The narrative crux of Rey’s personal journey as a Jedi Master weaves in nicely with the busy narrative framework, with Shayne effectively tying her journey in with the franchise’s familiar themes of self-acceptance and empathy. Where Rise spun a web of threads that never truly got untangled, it’s refreshing to see this special’s assurance in creating a cohesive tale.
The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special rarely strikes a dull chord, but the quaint special has a relatively modest ceiling. While its good-willed messages are delivered in earnest, their skin-deep impact leaves a certain level of hollowness. This special lacks the kind of Yuletide emotive streak that makes specials like How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Charlie Brown’s Christmas holiday staples. I was also taken aback by the inconsistency of the voice acting. While some characters are well-portrayed (Kelly Marie Tran and Billy Dee Williams reprise their respective roles), others seem wildly off from their big-screen counterparts (it took me a while to realize Jake Green was voicing Poe Dameron).
Despite its limitations, The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special makes for an affectionate Christmas diversion. I would recommend this, particularly for diehard fans, as those less aquatinted with the brand might not appreciate the special’s humorous, self-aware streak.
Few subgenres manifest film critics with painstaking dread like slapstick family films. Whether they’re led by a high-profile star (John Cena’sPlayingwith Fire) or haphazardly following-up a so-so predecessor (Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul), these formulaic offerings often reek of cash-grab studio mandates. The latest entry in the much-maligned subgenre The War with Grandpa boasts an awards-caliber cast. However, this eclectic mix of talent spends most of their time mugging at cameras in another trite misfire.
Based on Robert Kimmel Smith’s children’s book, The War with Grandpa follows Ed (Robert DeNiro), a retired widow who is forced to move in with his daughter Sally (Uma Thurman) and her lively family. When Sally’s son Peter (Oakes Fegley) loses his room in the move, he rages an all-out war to get his turf back.
Films of this ilk have an easy target on their back, lacking the innovation or complexity to accomplish anything of note. That being said, I can’t say War with Grandpa is entirely terrible. Director Tim Hill crafts his film in the image of boisterous Saturday morning cartoons, pushing a relentlessly zany comedic energy with his gag-a-minute approach. There’s a shameless appeal to some of the hard-hitting pratfalls, especially when seeing Oscar nominees like Robert DeNiro, Christopher Walken, and Uma Thurman go through the wringer. Even when he’s operating on auto-pilot, DeNiro still has a magnetic presence on screen, while Walken continues to draw laughs from his eccentric persona (Rob Riggle also has a blast as Sally’s straight-laced husband).
While not entirely dreadful, there’s very little War with Grandpa thrives at. Hill’s admirable attempts to create an unhinged kineticism lack visual flair, relying upon over-saturated lighting and flat camera work that only permeates a cheap veneer (I knew I was in trouble once the blue clip art appeared in the opening credits). There are only so many times you can witness someone getting hit in the groin before it becomes tiresome, with Hill’s busyness eventually numbing his audience to the point of apathy.
War with Grandpa also boasts many of the subgenre’s tired cliches. Characters fighting over something that could be solved with a simple conversation? Check. Empty side characters that stand as mere vessels to the lead characters? Check. A forced sense of sentimentality that lacks any humanity or reliability? You guessed it! It’s a film that achieves the bare minimum while solely playing to the interest of its young audience.
Tolerable, yet rarely compelling, The War with Grandpa will likely serve as a forgettable bargain bin staple in the years to come.
With the awards and holiday seasons coming to a collision course, there is a bounty of new releases hitting theaters and VOD platforms. Don’t get me wrong, I love having a vast amount of content to sift through, especially given the relative dearth of content 2020 has brought on the big screen. However, this weekend’s sizable output gives me little time to cover each release, which is why I am embracing this abridged format to catch you up to speed. Let’s get to it!
Synopsis: 1840s England, acclaimed but overlooked fossil hunter Mary Anning and a young woman sent to convalesce by the sea develop an intense relationship, altering both of their lives forever.
Given all the turmoil going on in the film industry/world at large, there’s something oddly comforting about the latest awards-hopeful Ammonite. Even in a truncated year, studios are still here to greet audiences with flat, Oscar-bait offerings that can’t hide their simplistic intentions.
Ammonite’s middling results are befuddling considering the immense talent behind it. Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan are compelling as always, unearthing subdued dimensions from the character’s internal struggles. Their longing and displeasure simmer through each frame, with the two combating the societal standards that keep them an arms distance from personal freedoms.
While the two actresses are great as individuals, Ammonite never allows the duo to grow onscreen. There’s no spark to draw from their insular performances, with director Francis Lee struggling to generate emotion from his mannered craftsmanship. Even for a subdued effort like this, the lacking chemistry consistently keeps viewers away from the character’s painful (and exceedingly relevant) struggles. Ammonite rarely makes a major misstep, but the project never resonates the way it intends to.
Synopsis: Kit, a British Vietnamese man, returns to Saigon for the first time in over 30 years, after fleeing during the Vietnam-American War.
Have you ever returned to an old stomping ground only to be met with a lingering sense of melancholy? While you can revisit the sites you once traversed, those once-beloved locations now leave a foreboding malaise. That raw sentiment renders throughout Monsoon, a meditative drama that never loses its humanistic drive.
Don’t get me wrong, this is set-up has been portrayed in a countless array of festival films. Some of these efforts have thrived (TheFarewelland Garden State), while others have joined a long list of forgotten festival failures (The Only Living Boy in New York). Director Hong Khaou thankfully makes this premise his own though, favoring a quiet atmosphere that subverts the mawkish sentimentality that typically derives from films of this elk.
Khaou’s visceral craftsmanship registers poetic potency, with patiently-constructed long-takes allowing viewers to breathe in the setting alongside Kit. It also provides star Henry Golding ample opportunities to display his acting chops. The Last Christmas star possesses a natural gravitas onscreen, peeling at Kit’s protective layers through his effectively insular delivery. This film rests solely on Khaou and Golding’s abilities, but the well-matched duo certainly proves they are up for the task. Monsoon unearths its quaint observations with an equal measure of emotion and craft.
Monsoon is now available on VOD Platforms
DREAMLAND – Directed by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte
Synopsis: Amid the dust storms and economic depression of Dustbowl Era Oklahoma, Eugene Evans finds his family farm on the brink of foreclosure. His last bet to save the farm is the bounty on the head of fugitive bank robber Allison Wells. Once he stumbles upon Allison, Eugene begins to fall for her as he searches for a more profound life.
Dreamland’s set-up reads like a Bonnie and Clyde rip-off, a fact which director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte seems well-aware of. Along with his exquisite visual eye (he takes the empty Dusk Bowl setting and infuses it with a visceral poeticism), Joris-Peyrafitte approaches this familiar narrative ground with a reflective sensibility.
Dreamland operates at its best when uncorking the purpose behind its pulpy plot dynamics. Screenwriter Nicolaas Zwart uses his set-up to observe the respective allures of a grandiose lifestyle, with Eugene willingly embracing a deadly mission after years of being brainwashed by adventure stories. This conceit cleverly comments on our own relationship with high-stakes storytelling, a wistfulness that Zwart and Joris-Peyrafitte aptly juxtapose in the film’s melancholic final third. Credit to stars Margot Robbie and Finn Cole breathing assured performances from the character’s makeshift relationship.
The promising thematic conceits can only take Dreamland so far though. Zwart’s script utilizes a novel-esque approach that lands with an awkward thud, lacking the dramatic grace to completely reinvent its well-trudged devices. That being said, I do think Zwart and Joris-Peyrafitte craft a thoughtful film that lingers with audiences past its runtime.
