Sin City (20th anniversary revisit)
Would you believe Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller’s SIN CITY had its twentieth anniversary last month? I mean yes it kinda seems like a long time ago, but 20 years ago? That’s a bunch of years. I’m against it.
(Here’s my review from the time.)
Let’s consider how times were different. Rodriguez was well into his career, having just completed his EL MARIACHI trilogy, with FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, THE FACULTY and three SPY KIDS movies snuggled in between them. He was still in his digital photography evangelist period, ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO having convinced him of how a movie like this could be made affordably at his Troublemaker Studios in Austin. Miramax (before being cancelled) were still surprisingly cool about letting Rodriguez (like Quentin Tarantino) do the type of movies they wanted without much interference. The Ain’t It Cool News (also before being cancelled) were still a player with their breathless reports from Hall H presentations and also sometimes some reviews.
Harry and Moriarty were (it seems to me) the loudest voices promoting the idea of “geek culture” and the potential for great comic book movies if they were made by people who really loved the source material and were faithful to it. Possibly even made for adults.
SIN CITY is the movie that took that idea the most literally. Rodriguez wanted not only Miller’s permission to adapt his interconnected anthology series of noir-inspired crime comics – he wanted him to co-direct it with him. The legendary cartoonist was skeptical, but Rodriguez got him to come shoot a test scene – the opening starring Josh Hartnett (HALLOWEEN H20) as a dreamy stranger who woos a heartbroken woman on the balcony at a party (Mary Shelton, WARRIORS OF VIRTUE) but turns out to be hired to kill her. Miller was hooked and they had footage to show other actors what it would look like. When all was said and done the DGA would only allow one of them to be credited since they weren’t an established team (huh?), so Rodriguez resigned from the guild. (read the rest of this shit…)
Would you believe Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller’s SIN CITY had its twentieth anniversary last month? I mean yes it kinda seems like a long time ago, but 20 years ago? That’s a bunch of years. I’m against it.
(Here’s my review from the time.)
Let’s consider how times were different. Rodriguez was well into his career, having just completed his EL MARIACHI trilogy, with FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, THE FACULTY and three SPY KIDS movies snuggled in between them. He was still in his digital photography evangelist period, ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO having convinced him of how a movie like this could be made affordably at his Troublemaker Studios in Austin. Miramax (before being cancelled) were still surprisingly cool about letting Rodriguez (like Quentin Tarantino) do the type of movies they wanted without much interference. The Ain’t It Cool News (also before being cancelled) were still a player with their breathless reports from Hall H presentations and also sometimes some reviews.
Harry and Moriarty were (it seems to me) the loudest voices promoting the idea of “geek culture” and the potential for great comic book movies if they were made by people who really loved the source material and were faithful to it. Possibly even made for adults.
SIN CITY is the movie that took that idea the most literally. Rodriguez wanted not only Miller’s permission to adapt his interconnected anthology series of noir-inspired crime comics – he wanted him to co-direct it with him. The legendary cartoonist was skeptical, but Rodriguez got him to come shoot a test scene – the opening starring Josh Hartnett (HALLOWEEN H20) as a dreamy stranger who woos a heartbroken woman on the balcony at a party (Mary Shelton, WARRIORS OF VIRTUE) but turns out to be hired to kill her. Miller was hooked and they had footage to show other actors what it would look like. When all was said and done the DGA would only allow one of them to be credited since they weren’t an established team (huh?), so Rodriguez resigned from the guild. (read the rest of this shit…)
Last Bullet
LAST BULLET is the third movie in the LOST BULLET (Balle Perdue) trilogy, the excellent French high-speed-car-chase-oriented action movie series produced for Netflix. The first one introduces actor/stuntman Alban Lenoir (“Gunman,” CASH TRUCK) as Lino, an genius mechanic and driver who goes to prison for ramming his car through the side of a jewelry store trying to get his brother out of debt. A cop named Charas (Ramazy Bedia) convinces his boss Moss (Pascale Arbillot) to let him recruit Lino to build cars for an elite “go-fast” task force chasing cross-border drug smugglers, but a corrupt member of the squad name Areski (Nicolas Duvauchelle, TROUBLE EVERY DAY) kills Charas and frames Lino for it. The title refers to the evidence that can clear Lino, which is lodged into the car he gets chased in. (That car makes a cameo appearance here, completely destroyed.)
LOST BULLET 2 is much more complicated, with Moss making an immunity deal with co-conspirator Marco (Sébastien Lalanne), Lino kidnapping him to exchange with Spanish cops, chased by cops including Yuri (Quentin D’Hainaut, “Heavy,” THE KILLER 2024) who work for corrupt chief of Narcotics Resz (Gérard Lanvin, MESRINE: PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1), as well as falling in love with Areski’s ex-wife Stella (Anne Serra) and going to Spanish prison when he takes the fall for his much cooler former colleague/girlfriend Julia (Stéfi Celma) accidentally killing Marco.
I confess I didn’t remember much of this, even after Netflix autoplayed a TV style “previously on” recap of the first two movies, so I went and read the Wikipedia summaries before starting the movie. If you were considering rewatching the first two before this one I’d say it’s a good idea, though I did okay. (read the rest of this shit…)
Thunderbolts*
Some are saying that THUNDERBOLTS* is a return to form for the troubled MCU (Marvel Comics UnendingMoviesandTVshows). That might be overstating things. I wouldn’t say it feels as exciting as the best Marvel movies have, it is not a drastically new twist on the series, it only really introduces one major new character to share the screen with a bunch of old ones, it’s clearly following a GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY underdog-found-family template without nearly the same level of visual imagination, it does not rank high in the standings of blockbuster action or comic book movies. It does, however, lean less than some of the recent ones on riffy bullshit and rushed green screen visuals, while scoring high in the constant Marvel strength of well-cast characters that are fun to hang out with, in particular the central one. And though I don’t think it excels as a story I do think it has a consistent theme behind it that’s moving in ways most MCU movies are not. So I liked it. (read the rest of this shit…)
Absolute Dominion
ABSOLUTE DOMINION is the new one from writer/director Lexi Alexander (GREEN STREET [HOOLIGANS], PUNISHER: WAR ZONE), her first feature film in 15 years (she’s been doing television). If you’re like me you’ve been interested in her since her PUNISHER movie, are very aware that she was a German kickboxing champion sponsored by Chuck Norris to immigrate to the U.S., where she portrayed Kitana on a Mortal Kombat live tour, and were excited to hear she was doing a martial arts movie. She’s also known for being fearlessly outspoken, particularly about Palestinian and Arab issues, so it was extra promising that this seemed to have an aspect of social commentary to it.
Well, the results are interesting, at least. The movie is primarily set in 2063 A.D., nineteen years after an era of devastating terrorist attacks by various factions of religious zealots. What changed? A live streamer named Fix Huntley (Patton Oswalt, BLADE: TRINITY) jokingly suggested that each religion should train a fighter to enter a tournament called “The Battle of Absolute Dominion” to decide which religion the world would follow. The idea immediately caught on, now Huntley oversees the tournament and I guess everyone just goes along with the results. World peace. Not bad. (read the rest of this shit…)
Gina
I knew the name Denys Arcand as a famous Canadian director. I remember the title JESUS OF MONTREAL as a movie that was advertised when I was a teenager, and later THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. I have not seen or really paid attention to these, but I did perk up a little when some of his early films were released on blu-ray by Canadian International Pictures, a Vinegar-Syndrome-affiliated label “devoted to resurrecting vital, distinctive, and overlooked triumphs of Canadian and Québécois cinema.” And I remembered that when Miguel Hombre recommended them (and Arcand in general) in a discussion of Canadian cinema in the comments to my COSMOPOLIS / MAPS TO THE STARS double feature review. Thank you Miguel.
CIP says their releases range “from arthouse to Canuxploitation,” and what makes GINA interesting is how it’s kind of both. By the end it’s fair to say it’s a rape-revenge movie, but before that it’s a socially conscious drama about labor, class and sexism. The titular Gina (Celine Lomez, THE SILENT PARTNER) is a stripper hired to dance at a cabaret in a small town. But much of the movie follows a group of nameless documentarians staying at the same hotel-motel while in town to interview workers at a textile factory that’s about to have massive layoffs. So there’s alot of screen time spent on just characters (and real people I think?) talking about strikes and unions and how workers are exploited and mistreated. (read the rest of this shit…)
Companion
COMPANION, which played in theaters a couple months ago and is now on disc and streaming, features certain genre elements that are strategically withheld for a while. For almost a third of its 97 minutes we can tell there’s something we’re missing about the main character because of some of the weird things people say to her, so we’re very intrigued. I don’t include myself in “we” though because I knew the premise of the movie, controversially (but understandably, I think) included in the second trailer and other promotions. There is good reason to go in blind, but I can confirm that the movie is still fun without being surprised by that part. And I’m not gonna write a review on eggshells, so I’m gonna get into it a couple paragraphs from now.
The movie is about a group of friends who go stay together at a rich guy’s fancy-ass lake house. Iris (Sophie Thatcher, MAXXXINE) is our narrator, these are friends of her boyfriend Josh (Jack Quaid, LOGAN LUCKY), and she’s worried she’s going to embarrass herself in front of them. Sure enough Kat (Megan Suri, IT LIVES INSIDE), who answers the door, barely acknowledges her presence. Poor Iris just stands there forcing a smile while a conversation goes on next to her. (read the rest of this shit…)
The Shrouds
I’ve enjoyed David Cronenberg’s movies for most of my life, and he’s been highly respected for as long as I can remember, especially in horror circles, but also elsewhere. I was still a kid when THE FLY came out, and yet I remember it being a phenomenon, a genuine blockbuster that everyone talked about, with an appreciation for its weird grossness.
These days he’s a bigger icon than ever, but I feel his work is being unintentionally diminished by the way he’s been short-handed as the “body horror” guy. I don’t think he’d still be going if that was all there was to him. In the most recent issue of Fangoria, Phil Nobile Jr. did a great interview where he asked about that. Cronenberg said he was proud to have Coralie Fargeat and Julia Ducournau as his “cinema daughters,” but “I still don’t know what ‘body horror’ means.” (read the rest of this shit…)
The Legend of Ochi
THE LEGEND OF OCHI is a beautiful and imaginative PG-rated fantasy from A24. Since the number of friends I recommended it to this week that had never heard of it is higher than the number of people at the Saturday matinee I went to, I’m thinking there are limits to that company’s marketing powers. But future adults who remember seeing it in a theater will know they had cool parents. This one is special.
It was filmed “on location in the remote mountain villages of Transylvania” and other parts of Romania, set on the fictional island of Carpathia. Apparently it’s the early ‘90s, though the time doesn’t matter that much. Maxim (Willem Dafoe, LIGHT SLEEPER), who lives in a small village on the north side of the island, is obsessed with fighting off furry, ape-like creatures called Ochi, who live in the nearby mountains. He trains the local adolescent boys in riflery and leads them into the woods on night time hunts. This is not a situation where he’s the lone true believer and everybody else thinks he’s crazy – Ochi are a fact of Carpathian life. In the opening scene the troop encounters a group of them, gets attacked, shoots some of them, but not fatally. (read the rest of this shit…)
Havoc
HAVOC is the long-anticipated, straight-to-Netflix fifth film of Gareth Evans, director of the 21st century classic THE RAID. It contains plenty of the brutal, incredible action you’d hope for from such an artist, but it’s a different type of movie, an atmospheric and stylized (but also ridiculously violent) noir about a deadbeat homicide detective whose claim to heroism is that he’s the one guy in a circle of corrupt cops who felty guilty after they executed an undercover cop during a robbery. Now he has no friends or family and he does dirty deeds for a powerful real estate mogul but if he performs this one difficult task he can be out from under his thumb forever. And in the process he might sort of do the right thing for once.
His name is Patrick Walker (Tom Hardy, THE DROP), and he’s introduced buying his daughter (Astrid Fox-Sahan, Young Wallander) last minute Christmas gifts at a mini-mart, then being annoyed that the clerk won’t wrap them for him. So we get it when his wife (Narges Rashidi, UNDER THE SHADOW) won’t let him come over. (I’m unclear if this starts on Christmas Eve, actual Christmas, or what.) (read the rest of this shit…)
The Accountant 2
In THE ACCOUNTANT2 – yes, that’s the onscreen title – Ben Affleck (DAREDEVIL) returns to his brilliantly ludicrous role of Christian “The Accountant” Wolff (Chris for short), autistic math genius raised in the martial arts who works as a forensic accountant for the mob and on the side helps people with their taxes or with things that require shooting people. In this one part 1 supporting character Ray King (J.K. Simmons, DARK SKIES) is nervously waiting at a bar to meet with a legendary assassin called Anaïs (Daniella Pineda, JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM/DOMINION) when unknown gunmen ambush them and kill him. If I had remembered that he was just a guy from the Treasury Department and not some underworld friend of Chris’ I would’ve gotten a kick out of how good of a fight he puts up. But the scene is kind of upsetting because there are so many bystanders running away screaming and it reminds me of a mass shooting.
Anyway he manages to write “FIND THE ACCOUNTANT” on his arm before he dies, so another part 1 character, Treasury agent Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson, COLOMBIANA), does just that while trying to figure out what her boss was working on and finish the case. One cool gimmick is that Ray’s landlords cleaned the apartment, pulling down his wall of photos, receipts and tax documents related to the case and dumping them in a box. She hangs them back up in an order that seems logical to her, then falls asleep and Chris completely rearranges them into what looks like a bizarre pattern, but of course he’s figured out what ever little piece of it means. (read the rest of this shit…)
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