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  • Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom: The BRWC Review

    Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom: The BRWC Review

    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 Panther left 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 LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special: Review

    The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special: Review

    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 entry Rise 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.

  • Run: Review

    Run: Review

    Run: Review – Chloe Sherman (Kiera Allen) was born very prematurely and because of that she has to live with multiple conditions that affect her everyday life including using a wheelchair. She lives with her mum, Diane (Sarah Paulson) and is home schooled, but as Chloe is turning Seventeen her thoughts turn to college and living independently. Although her mother is less than thrilled with the idea because she’s been with Chloe for every significant life event so far.

    Then one day Chloe discovers something that entirely changes everything she ever thought about her life. What’s worse, she starts to believe that the one person she thought she could trust, her own mother, may be deceiving her.

    Run is a horror movie co-written and directed by Aneesh Chaganty after the success of his directorial debut, Searching and coming exclusively to Hulu. It’s just unfortunate that Run doesn’t come across as anywhere near as exciting and inventive as Chaganty’s predecessor.

    Right from the start the audience is made aware that Chloe’s life is not what she thinks it may be, and that Diane’s trauma of having to raise a child who was so premature has taken its toll. So as much as the audience may want there to be something big that changes their perception of Diane, the movie plays out almost exactly as they may have expected as Chloe frantically searches for evidence against her own mother.

    Unfortunately, all of the evidence that Chloe needs is neatly dotted around her house and hometown making it feel rather contrived when she just happens to find exactly what she needs to forward the plot.

    Saying all that though and besides the predictable plot, both Paulson and newcomer Allen play well off each other with the latter seemingly able to match her on-screen mother toe to toe.

    Also, Paulson plays a good mixture of overwhelmingly caring and deeply menacing, perhaps channelling Annie Wilkes in Misery a little as her grip tightens around her daughter. A step down from the innovative Searching, but Run can entertain if you don’t try too hard to think about the plot.

  • The Walrus And The Whistleblower: Review

    The Walrus And The Whistleblower: Review

    The Walrus And The Whistleblower: Review. By Trent Neely.

    We live in an age of social change and activism. People are constantly looking to see how our understanding of the world and those in it can grow and evolve. One movement that seems to have gained a lot of attraction and attention in recent years is that of freeing animals from captivity. There have been numerous articles written and documentaries made on the issue such as the 2013 documentary Blackfish.

    Often these pieces seek to “pull back the curtain”on aquatic-based theme parks and show the audience the abusive and corrupt practices of some of these parks, as well as the legal and political powers that protect them, and the activists and others who seek to free the animals and hold these powers that be accountable. Nathalie Bibeau’s documentary The Whistleblower and The Walrus covers all of these facets but also focuses on a deeper issue. What happens to someone on the inside who decides to speak out?

    Bibeau’s film primarily follows Phil Demers, a former trainer for the theme park MarineLand located in Niagara Falls. Phil started working as a trainer for the park in his early twenties despite having very little training and quickly formed bonds with many of the park’s animals. Specifically, a walrus named Smooshi who imprinted on Phil, meaning she viewed him as a parental figure. While enjoying his work for the park initially, Phil began to question the ethicacy of the park’s training methods, some of which he himself conducted and participated in.

    These practices include withholding food and medicating the animals in order to improve their performance during shows. Finally, after an incident where the animals tanks became unsanitary and led to illness in some of the animals, and a lack of action from the higher-ups at MarineLand. Phil decided to quit and dedicate himself to freeing animals in captivity, particularly Smooshi due to their deep bond and his love for her.

    The remainder of the film concentrates on Phil’s work as an activist, posting updates on animal deaths and MarineLand practices on Twitter, attending protests with others activists, giving lectures, and urging Canadian legislators to pass laws banning animal captivity, all the while combating lawsuits from Marineland. Here is where Bibeau’s approach differs from other filmmakers on the subject. Where other documentaries on similar subjects focus on educating and revealing to audiences the existence of the abuse and serve as an expose. Bibeau instead shifts the focus on what Phil’s fight means to him and costs him personally.

    We see footage of him working multiple jobs while he talks to the filmmakers about the burden of debt brought on by lawsuits, we see and hear his exasperation when he converses with his lawyer about the reality of settlement as opposed to going to court and seeing judgement passed. We also hear about MarineLand’s efforts to lobby against any sort of legislative change and dissuade other former employees like Phil from speaking out using settlements, or simply the financial burden of never-ending litigation.

    With regards to the filmmaking on display, Bibeau and her crew do a lot to immerse the audience into this world and this story. At the start of the film most of Phil’s interviews take place mostly against a grey backdrop, in a semi-formal staging. As the film continues, we see and hear from Phil in his home, at his work, as he converses with friends, politicians, and others about what he saw and participated in at MarineLand. Not only does this speak to Bibeau and the crew’s ability to make the subjects comfortable, but it allows the audience to more personally invest in Phil’s journey.

    Bibeau, director of photography Christian Bielz and editor Vincent Guignard do an excellent job crafting montages of images with great audio. For instance at one point former training staff talk about an animal bleeding and thrashing while receiving an injection while footage of animals seemingly smiling while interacting with visitors at a park is played. The juxtaposition of image and audio really affords the testimony to have its full impact.

    If you are looking for a documentary that not only talks about corruption and abuse, and the impact on victims, but those who seek to speak out, watch this film if given the chance.       

  • The War With Grandpa: Review

    The War With Grandpa: Review

    Few subgenres manifest film critics with painstaking dread like slapstick family films. Whether they’re led by a high-profile star (John Cena’s Playing with 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.