film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Category: REVIEWS

Here is where you would find our film reviews on BRWC.  We look at on trailers, shorts, indies and mainstream.  We love movies!

  • Greyhound: The BRWC Review

    Greyhound: The BRWC Review

    U.S. Navy Commander Ernest Krause (Tom Hanks) is assigned to lead an Allied convoy across the Atlantic during World War II. His convoy, however, is pursued by German U-boats. Although this is Krause’s first wartime mission, he finds himself embroiled in what would come to be known as the longest, largest, and most complex naval battle in history: The Battle of the Atlantic.

    Ever since I first saw the trailer for Aaron Schneider’s Greyhound as a coming attraction many months ago, back when the coronavirus didn’t take over the entire world and back when movie theatres were open and operating at full capacity, I thought that the film looked like quite the adventure. Something about it reminded me quite strongly of Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, an excellent war film that places you on the front lines with the soldiers in the midst of the deadly event.

    But besides the amazing trailer, one of the most exciting things about the release of Greyhound is the fact that it is written by its lead actor, the legendary Tom Hanks. We all love Hanks. He has been in so many terrific films over the years, and we all know him to be one of the nicest celebrities in the world. I, for one, was fully ready to see what a Tom Hanks-written film would feel like. Now that I have seen it, I can’t say that it lived up to the hype, but Greyhound is still a fast-paced and enjoyable war film that is entirely digestible to watch, almost to a fault.

    Without a doubt, the weakest aspect of this film sadly has to do with the characters. They essentially get nothing when it comes to development. The only one that gets even the smallest amount of an arc is that of Hanks’ character Ernest Krause, and even he feels underdeveloped. Everybody else on his ship feels even flatter. We don’t learn a single thing about them throughout the entire duration of the movie, and as a result, it makes it a little bit difficult for the audience to truly care about the team’s plight and their efforts.

    Although I greatly enjoyed the aforementioned Dunkirk, that was the exact same problem I had with that film too. It just didn’t have any character development. Both Dunkirk and Greyhound are far more interested in placing you, the viewer, in the middle of an intense battle and showing you how scary it would be to be in the middle of an event like this.

    After you get past the first thirty minutes of this film, which is unfortunately rather boring and uneventful, it moves at a much faster pace and the movie as a whole becomes much more enjoyable. It doesn’t show you the grittiness of war and the consequences that come with it and it doesn’t have the interesting and compelling characters as it should, but Greyhound still manages to be an entertaining war movie with plenty of ship-to-ship combat and action spectacles to keep viewers in their seats.

    Greyhound suffers from an immense lack of character development, but it’s nevertheless a well-paced and perfectly enjoyable war film with plenty of action set pieces.

  • The Old Guard: The BRWC Review

    The Old Guard: The BRWC Review

    Along with producing a bevy of binge-worthy shows and awards-caliber films, Netflix has dipped their toes into blockbuster filmmaking. The early results have been generally unimpressive, with efforts like Bright and 6 Underground failing to translate grandiose thrills to the small-screen. These missteps have not stopped the platform’s pursuit of tentpole projects, returning from the drawing board with The Old Guard, an adaptation of Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernandez’s graphic novel. I am thrilled to report that The Old Guard not only dwarfs its streaming contemporaries, it also emphatically raises the bar for the superhero genre with its surprisingly tender approach.

    The Old Guard follows Andy (Charlize Theron), an ageless warrior leading a group of immortal figures who look to stop worldwide atrocities (Matthias Schoenaerts as Booker, Marwan Kenzari as Joe, and Luca Marinelli as Nicky). After a newly-initiated immortal Nile (Kiki Layne) is discovered, the team must join together to battle an organization looking to harness and monetize their abilities.

    At the center of The Old Guard lies an equally capable and appealing ensemble cast. With her grizzled bravado and commanding presence, Charlize Theron continues to thrive as one of the best stars in the industry, as her adept ability allows the actor to render some much-needed humanity out of her struggles with mortality (or in this case, lack thereof). Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli are a joy to watch as a romantically entangled pair, creating a lived-in onscreen dynamic that never steps into stereotypical territory. Matthias Schoenarts, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Kiki Layne enhance their respective roles, with Layne breathing an effervescent life into her role as the team’s newcomer.

    Where most superhero ventures simply infuse their protagonist with abnormal abilities to create endless bloodshed, The Old Guard refreshingly peels at the veneer of these larger-than-life figures. Screenwriter Greg Rucka’s adaption keeps the work’s intimate design largely intact, constructively exploring the emotional complications that derive from a life of immortality. This uncontrollable inflection is by no means the gift, with the team being sentenced to a life of isolation devoid of the familial bonds and a sense of completion. It’s incredibly gratifying to watch a superhero film grapple with its premise’s deeper implications (the characters even question the nature of their violent vigilantism), allowing our heroes to be more than empty vessels of carnage.

    That’s not to say The Old Guard doesn’t offer the crowd-pleasing pleasures of the genre. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood delicately balances the insular character building with rousing setpieces, taking full advantage of the creative premise with some inventively designed stuntwork (seeing a character jump out of a skyscraper to then witnessing their bones reheal on impact is glorious to watch). Some may leave the film wanting more bone-crushing fights, but I believe the restraint is well-calibrated to ensure each setpiece has an actual impact on the narrative.

    There’s a lot to like about The Old Guard, but the final product still features its fair share of blemishes. Rucka’s narrative gives his characters room to breathe, but it also straddles them with the standard-issue action conventions. Whether its the mustache-twirling villains or over-eager pop tracks that fail to add much of a pulse, there are elements that could have been refined to generate a more original experience. Personally, I hope that a potential sequel steeps itself further into the film’s promising social implications, with the characters standing strong as agents for progressive concepts.

    Infusing its familiar superhero framework with a well-calibrated balance of thrills and humanity, The Old Guard excels as a promising first chapter in a new franchise.

  • Model Shop: Review

    Model Shop: Review

    Model Shop: Review. By Betty Widdicombe.

    Model Shop is a late sixties LA based film made by French Director Jacques Demy, centring around the penultimate 24hrs of a 26 year old unemployed architect George Matthews (Gary Lockwood), who’s got the debt collectors hot on his tail to repossess his car, and his hot live-in girlfriend Gloria (Alexandra Hay) an aspiring actress – tired of his non-committal and nonchalant lazy ass.

    Off on a mission to borrow a $100 to save the one thing he seems to care about, his car…(typical sixties male lead), he encounters a mysterious all white wearing Goddess called Lola (Anouk Aimee). Captivated, he stalks her and finds that she works in a seedy ‘model-shop’. For fans of Demy’s earlier work, and new fans alike, the Lola character is a reprisal from his earlier French speaking film ‘Lola’ made in 1961, also played by Aimee. 

    For the sake of this review and how it relates to the first of ‘Echo in the Canyon’, I will not focus on the relationships of the characters in the narrative, more on the creativity of the time, the laid-back attitude, social climate and the landscape.

    The camera follows George, either driving his car through the roads and valleys of LA, or on the sidewalks of the city, dropping in on Diners, friend’s offices and homes all to get his money. When he spots Lola in a carpark and follows her, we follow along to a view of the cascading beauty of the canyon; a mixture of city buildings, pylons, epic rolling hills and trees. This technique is heavily mirrored in Jakob Dylan’s driving scenes and aerial shots of Laurel Canyon in ‘Echo in the Valley’.

    When asked about the making of ‘Model Shop’ Demy said;

    “I learned the city by driving – from one end of the Sunset to the other, down Western all the way to Long Beach. LA has the perfect proportions for film. It fits the frame perfectly”. 

    This is very apparent and highlighted beautifully in a scene where George visits his musician friend, at his home in the Valley. From the interior, recording equipment and his discourse, we acknowledge that he’s successful. Learning George’s predicament he freely whips out the $100 note he is so desperate for, part of a much larger wad, kept so coolly in his trouser pocket. As he moves over to his keyboard, a huge poster of ‘The Beatles’ looms over like a religious painting of ‘Jesus and his disciples’ – blessing this alter of creation. At this point George interjects with something ‘funny’ that happened to him earlier….

    “…I stopped at this place that looks up over the city. It was fantastic. I suddenly felt exhilarated you know. I was really moved by the Geometry of the place. Its conception its Baroque harmony. It’s such a fabulous city. To think some people claim it’s an ugly city, when it’s really pure Poetry, it just kills me. I wanted to build something right then, create something…you know what I mean”?

    “Yeah I do, I understand”.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppg7w8XfYR4

    I feel it is here, the joining of an unemployed architect, a musician and the inspiration of music, city and dwellings that we get a real sense of the freedom and creativity at that period, and more of a genuine indication of why that place was such a melting pot.

    Music features heavily, with a Score by LA Rock Band ‘Spirit’ very much in the foreground. We are made very aware of its importance, sudden switching on of tunes, gives the action a sense of interruption/ accentuation of mood…George tuning in always when driving, and using one of his last nickels to put a record on the Jukebox in the Diner scene, and also the classic piano music when he is with Lola.

    There are so many more things I could go in to about this film, the looming war and being drafted, the seedier sides of LA, but as it was missed from the documentary, I have left it out. One thing that I think is worth mentioning  in this review comparison, is the dialogue from George to Lola’s roommate via the telephone in the last scene (WARNING: Plot spoiler) – after his girlfriend has left him, his car is being towed away in the background, and he no longer has to be drafted to Vietnam is when he discovers Lola has left for Paris;

    “I just wanted to tell her that I love her. I wanted her to know that I was going to begin again. It sounds stupid, I know. But a person can always try”!!

    On that note, both Documentary and Film are a love affair, both look into LA and its vast beauty. One succeeds in its depiction of a time, a style an emotion. The other just attempts…but at least like the final quote…”a person can always try”.

  • Olympia: Review

    Olympia: Review

    Harry Mavromichalis’ Olympia delivers a deeply personal and philosophical documentary, following Oscar-winning actress Olympia Dukakis over the course of several years.

    Beginning as Olympia turns 80, the film shows present day accolades and daily living, whilst interjecting stories and footage from her past. There is a heavy theme of Dukakis’ reflection on her origin and purpose, which although is not an original theme in documentary, is fresh coming from a woman of such quirkiness and eccentricity.

    As a viewer who is not so familiar with Dukakis’ career, what struck me about the documentary is how Mavromichalis has captured the peaks and troths of womanhood and how that fits within the entertainment industry. We see Dukakis receiving a star on the Hollywood walk of fame, a flash back to her Oscar win, but also raw performances taken from her illustrious stage career.

    It’s easy to see why he wanted to capture this woman’s career. The third act of film takes an unexpected turn, as Dukakis’ and the women of her family take a pilgrimage to the village in Greece where their relatives originated. There is a shift to theology and lineage which goes further than roots, to a mini-study on women in power and the role of woman in religion, history and mythology.

    It’s certainly a jolt in tone, yet it somewhat reflects the life of Dukakis. There is a scene where she watches a turtle being released back into the wild. She comments on how it pauses, before tasting more of the sea and going forward before another break, and how she feels like that turtle. This documentary is a bit like that turtle too.

    We watch, we pause, we try some more, eventually being released into the ‘wild’, or, the core of her self. 

  • Palm Springs: The BRWC Review

    Palm Springs: The BRWC Review

    Andy Samberg’s affable, goofball presence has infused mainstream comedy with some much-needed inventiveness. Whether he’s rapping about boating escapades with The Lonely Island or playing a vain stuntman in Hot Rod, the former SNL-funnyman has operated on his own wave-length with inordinate success. Teaming with How I Met Your Mother star Cristin Milloti in the new Sundance comedy Palm Springs (Hulu and Neon gave the film the biggest acquisition deal of all time), the two concoct an irresistible pair in a satisfying twist on its familiar set-up.

    Palm Springs follows Nyles (Andy Samberg), who embraces a nonchalant attitude as he’s stuck reliving the same day at a Palm Springs wedding. After he encounters reluctant maid of honor Sarah (Cristin Milloti), Sarah gets sucked into the bizarre time loop, with the two bonding as they attempt to escape their altered reality.

    Palm Springs is certainly not the first film to embrace the Groundhog Day set-up (Happy Death Day and Before I Fall utilized the premise well), yet Andy Siara’s self-aware presentation delivers a breath of fresh air to the concept. Along with crafting some colorfully over-the-top gags that take full advantage of the repetitive cycle, Siara works deftly to subvert comedic standards, often undercutting cliched plot beats with a wry sensibility. Director Max Barbakow implements a stylistic verve that matches the script seamlessly, depicting Palm Spring’s bright, sunkissed allure as a clever contrast to the character’s monotonous journey.

    Most of the film’s splendors derive from watching Samberg and Milioti share the screen. Samberg delivers one of his finest big-screen performances to date, tuning his comedic persona aptly while still unearthing Nyles’ long-standing misery. It’s refreshing to see Samberg tone down his cartoonish-energy in favor of a more emotionally vulnerable performance, handling the sensitive frames with assured ability. For Milioti, her effortless command of the screen makes for a breakout performance, displaying natural charisma while humanizing Sarah’s complicated history. Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons steals multiple frames with his distinctly sardonic energy, as the beloved character actor continues to flex his well-rounded skillset.

    Palm Spring’s rarely offers a dull moment in its tight 90-minute runtime, yet the end product can’t help feeling slightly inconsequential. Siara’s script offers some compelling ruminations on depression and the emptiness of a circular lifestyle, but the film’s dramatic portions can’t convey the full extent of these concepts. Refining the film’s substantive qualities would have elevated its cumbersome third-act set-up, properly allowing the character’s painful solace to render before the cathartic final frames.

    Encapsulating the refreshingly light feel of a summer movie, Palm Springs constructs an assured reinvention of its tried and true set-up.