Film Review: "Blood & Gold" (2023).

From the director of Blood Red Sky comes Blood & Gold. This German action war film directed by Peter Thorwarth and written by Thorwarth and Stefan Barth. On his way to find his daughter, deserter Henrich is stopped by SS troops and hanged from a tree. Courageous farmer Elsa saves him just in time. United by their common enemy, the two fight for justice and for their families. A thrilling and bloody search for stolen gold treasure begins, revealing bitter secrets along the way.

The film stars Robert Maaser, Marie Hacke, Jördis Triebel, Alexander Scheer, Roy McCrerey, Florian Schmidtke, Simson Bubbel, and Stephan Grossmann. Perhaps surprisingly given the campy premise (and some genre staples, like the cry), the character drama keeps you attentive, particularly thanks to the performances by Maaser, Hacke, Scheer and Schmidtke.

It may draw from obvious influences, but it is its own movie, standing alone as a suspenseful, moving, and surprising film from start to finish. The film is a victim of its own pacing but it still delivers everything you're looking for in a good Nazi war movie (not to mention a good action movie). With a mediocre second half and a film running a little too long, and perhaps some predictability, the film still delivers an action-packed violent thrill ride in a WWII setting that creates an engaging action story. The film is a welcome bloody violent treat, a proper Nazi war story whose outrageous protagonists are more in line with the savage beasts of Inglourious Basterds than Schindler's List. With nail-biting tension and plenty of bloody violence, it practically writes itself. There's a good mix of genre favorites like Inglourious Basterds and Kelly's Heroes. There may not be much deeper thought going into the film, but this is a thrilling, nasty war movie, roaming the German countryside, causing havoc on a small German town. It delivers on its premise, so your enjoyment hinges on whether "Nazis searching for gold" sounds like great trash or irredeemable nonsense. Thorwarth splatters the screen with gore while tossing in surprises, delirious preposterousness and even a few touching moments. It's grand fun. As it is, the film is a perfectly fine action war film, bathed in blood and accentuated with explosions. It won't surprise you, but it'll keep you entertained for most of its runtime. It's an intriguing dilemma - one that a better film would have done more to contrast against the Nazis craven inhumanity - but the film fails to coagulate that conflict into action. One of the most original movies of the year comes with a premise that sounds too ridiculous to be good. Not quite as emotional as it would like, but still a lot of fun. The film is a European rollercoaster that blends action, excitement, and unexpected sweetness into what sounds like any Saturday night SYFY headliner but is so much more. It's the type of plot that screams action-war spectacle, yet this WWII thriller defies expectations from the start. A beating heart of humanity pumps through the veins of this intense action-thriller with a vicious take on Nazis.

Simon says Blood & Gold receives:

Also, see my review for Blood Red Sky.

Film Review: "Renfield" (2023).

"Evil doesn’t span eternity without a little help" in Renfield. This comedy horror film directed by Chris McKay, written by Ryan Ridley, and inspired by characters from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. In this modern monster tale of Dracula’s loyal servant, Renfield is the tortured aide to history’s most narcissistic boss, Dracula. Renfield is forced to procure his master’s prey and do his every bidding, no matter how debased. But now, after centuries of servitude, Renfield is ready to see if there’s a life outside the shadow of The Prince of Darkness. If only he can figure out how to end his codependency. 

In November 2019, Dexter Fletcher was originally hired to direct a film based on an original pitch by Robert Kirkman and penned by Ridley for Universal and Skybound Entertainment. The film was described as a comedic approach to the story of Count Dracula, in the vein of Taika Waititi's vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows (2014), that focuses on the character of Renfield. In April 2021, McKay entered negotiations to direct after Fletcher left to work on a reboot of The Saint for Paramount Pictures. McKay was hired because he reportedly gave a successful pitch combining the story's mix of humor and action. In March 2023, McKay described the film as a "quasi-sequel" to Dracula (1931), depicting the same characters of Dracula and Renfield ninety years on. By February 2022, Nicholas Hoult and Nicolas Cage were cast as Renfield and Dracula respectively, with Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Adrian Martinez, and Shohreh Aghdashloo rounding out the film's cast. An "enormous" fan of Dracula and the source material, Cage prepared for his role by observing the distinctive ways Dracula was portrayed on screen by Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Frank Langella, and Gary Oldman. Cage mentioned An American Werewolf in London (1981), Ring (1998), and Malignant (2021) as inspirations for the role. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in mid April. Filming took place in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The cast made the choice to treat this script as award-worthy material instead of the hilarious schlock it is, and the performances are gorgeously melodramatic. Both Hoult and Cage are sorely wasted, though they each try their best to enliven the lumbering script.

The film is refreshingly character-driven and has a sense of joy in its storytelling that makes this great-grandfather of the vampire genre seem fresh and alive. It's as if the film knows that you know that the film knows it can do better. Or something like that. Probably best not to think too hard about that. Hammier than a ham and pineapple pizza without the pesky fruit, the film fair rattles along as an epically daft but curiously enjoyable gothic horror. There is some spectacle here, but the story never achieves lift-off, and with Cage eventually over-doing the vampire stuff, it crashes and burns somewhere in predictably heat-swept New Orleans. Add the film to the seemingly endless list of failed attempts to reclaim the iconography of Universal Studios' classic monster movies.

Simon says Renfield receives:

Also, see my review for The Tomorrow War.

Film Review: "Hard Feelings" ("Hammerharte Jungs") (2023).

From Netflix and Germany comes Hard Feelings (Hammerharte Jungs). This German comedy film written and directed by Granz Henman. Two best friends go to school together and try to get through their school years. However, during that time they are confronted with embarrassing new urges and their extremely unpleasant feelings for each other.

The film stars Tobias Schäfer, Cosima Henman, Monika Oschek, Tom Beck, Samirah Breuer, Louis Jérôme Wagenbrenner, Vivien König, Lilly Joan Gutzeit, Nhung Hong, Maximilian Schneider, Leander Lesotho, Jasmin Shakeri, Merlin Sandmeyer, Doris Golpashin, Yuna Bennett, Kailas Mahadevan, Axel Stein, and Diana Amft. The whole thing would go down like a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich, were it not for the lively lead presence of Schäfer and Henman, two young talents who make the movie better than it deserves to be. However, the central characters are so mealy and formless that you hope they'll get hit by a truck or otherwise disappear, replaced by characters with whom you actually want to engage.

Though told in a somewhat cutesy, sock-hop style, the film works well as a film about character that entertains the tween/teen set without preaching at them. Has my heart grown so cold and battle-scarred that I can't allow myself to be completely won over by the film, or is the film such a load of flavorless mush that there's not enough charm for me to embrace? The importance of understanding varying perspectives is always worth communicating, and the film, despite its cloying approach, manages to deliver this idea with a decent amount of sincerity intact. If the feature doesn't latch on to the senses immediately with its sugared claws, it's a long, ugly one-hundred and three minutes of dreadful behavior to endure, waiting for an ending that never arrives. The film takes what could have been a charming coming-of-age story and buries it beneath layers of cinematic overkill that push you away from the film when they should be drawing you in. The latest from Henman is a well-meaning mess that wants to tap into universal experiences of childhood and first love but bogs down in squirm-inducing banalities. Henman was clearly sick the day they taught filmmaking at film school-you show, not tell the audience what's going on. What at first seems sort of clever quickly turns into an exercise in exasperating tedium. Charming little coming-of-age teen romance. It's a shame that a lovely movie that's truly suitable for all teenagers cannot find an audience in the current movie environment. What starts off as a beautifully innocent tale of two teens navigating confusing feelings for one another, is stomped all over by painfully overdone grownup nonsense. This is a slow, pretty, one-dimensional undertaking. The story is free of any real conflict or depth -- it's just kind of big and shiny, not unlike an expensive Hallmark greeting card. That the film isn't insufferably cute is a measure of its integrity. But it still strains to view the world through the eyes of teens without a filter of grown-up cynicism.

Simon says Hard Feelings (Hammerharte Jungs) receives:

Film Review: "Victim/Suspect" (2023).

From the director of Roll Red Roll comes Victim/Suspect. This documentary film directed by Nancy Schwartzman. The film chronicles journalist Rae de Leon’s investigation into a shocking nationwide pattern: Young women tell the police they’ve been sexually assaulted, but instead of finding justice, they’re charged with the crime of making a false report, arrested, and even imprisoned by the system they believed would protect them.

Prepare to be terrified and infuriated as the filmmakers detail how a draconian American justice system and corrupt police prey upon vulnerable young female victims to turn them from victims to suspects and wreck their lives. No extra fluff is added to the re-examination of this story, from security footage to the frank discussions each person involved has with the camera. Smart enough to ask its viewers why exactly they're finding so much enjoyment in watching this horror show unfold, this is true crime done right. Director Nancy Schwartzman did a good job of keeping things balanced and of illustrating the ways in which the American justice system is broken. The film constantly toys with the idea of viewer perception and pre-conceived notions, knowing that even the smallest glance or crack in one's voice can be interpreted to "prove" innocence or guilt -- depending on what you want to believe. For a viewer who chose to avoid the salacious, never-ending TV and tabloid coverage of its namesake, the film makes for succinct, involving viewing. An interesting introduction to (or reminder of) the stories of several young women being accused and/or convicted of filing false reports of sexual assaults, but it doesn't quite have the depth of other recent true-crime investigations. The film will provide enough for examination die-hards to go out and learn more about the stories after watching it, but this feature definitely won't turn as many heads as fellow Netflix crime documentaries. The point of the film is not only to determine whether or not the women were truly innocent, but also rather to analyse how American law enforcement and the American justice system is flawed in the first place. The film is put together like a sleek thriller - complete with a determined young journalist trying to get to the bottom of the story, and be found, obsessed, intruding on interviewees' homes, often with a laptop or phone copiously noting everything. As an indictment of a number of institutions than failed dismally in their mission to uncover the truth about the young women's convictions, the film is sharp, and frequently enraging. You don't have to remember the gutter headlines inspired by its namesake to find the true-crime documentary completely riveting. Different viewers will come to the same conclusions about the American justice system, and without doubt this strong documentary sheds a powerful light on this particular case while emphasizing the ultimate unknowability of absolute truth. What you end up with are portraits of individuals - people who are scared or angry or broken - all a part of a story that, from the start, ignored their humanity.

Simon says Victim/Suspect receives:

IFF Film Review: "Blow-Up" (1966).

"Sometimes, reality is the strangest fantasy of all" in Blow-Up. This mystery thriller film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, adapted by Antonioni and Tonino Guerra, and based on Las babas del diablo by Julio Cortázar. A successful London based photographer is living the life, he always wanted with beautiful models for easy sex, and some substance for the high of life.

The plot for the film was inspired by Cortázar's 1959 short story, collected in the book, End of the Game and Other Stories, in turn based on a story told to Cortázar by photographer Sergio Larraín. The life of Swinging London photographer David Bailey was also an influence. By early May 1966, David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle, Jane Birkin, Gillian Hills, and Tsai Chin were cast. Several people were offered the role of the protagonist, including Sean Connery, who declined when Antonioni refused to show him the script. Photographer David Bailey was even considered, along with Terence Stamp, who was replaced shortly before filming began after Antonioni found Hemmings in a stage production of Dylan Thomas's Adventures in the Skin Trade. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in August. Filming took place throughout London, England.

The film stars Hemmings, Redgrave, Miles, Castle, Birkin, Hills, and Chin.

Hemmings spend almost the entire film chasing a ghost, but in doing so are really uncovering the fragility of everything his complacent life had held so concrete.

The film doesn’t seek a conventional framework. It asks the audience the observe, think, and process. It is that type of engagement that makes Antonioni’s film a true classic. Antonioni's film has been bitterly dividing audiences for almost six decades now, and the same viewer doesnt always see it the same way twice. I thought it was pretentious hogwash, now I think it's a masterpiece. An original game changer, Antonioni spun cinema into a direction of new possibilities, down avenues well-traveled now by generations of filmmakers since. Antonioni's cool, beautifully photographed film isn't really a mystery and certainly not a thriller. Audiences over the years have delighted in deciding what it really is all about. The adventure was not merely sexual, however, but a radical rethink of film language: the characters' motivations were left opaque and unexplained, and the story never quite resolves itself -- rather like life. The film eschews conventional narrative drive or sophomoric emotional satisfaction in favour of gorgeous compositions, inimitable style and an acerbic sensibility. Antonioni's film rewrote the language of cinema, questioning its addiction to storytelling and opening up the possibility for other, more enigmatic and poetic forms of expression. There are certain things audiences have come to expect from the plots of motion pictures, and even in 2023, the film feels angry and fresh because it upends those expectations gleefully. Being anti-plot doesn't necessarily mean that its plotless. It's easy to bash Antonioni as passe. It's harder, I think, to explain the cinematic power of the way his camera watches, and waits, while the people on screen stave off a dreadful loneliness.

Simon says Blow-Up receives:

Also, see my IFF review for La Strada (The Road).

Film Review: "Hypnotic" (2023).

"Control is an illusion" in Hypnotic. This science fiction thriller film directed by Robert Rodriguez, and written by Rodriguez and Max Borenstein. Determined to find his missing daughter, Austin detective Danny Rourke instead finds himself spiraling down a rabbit hole while investigating a series of reality-bending bank robberies where he will ultimately call into question his most basic assumptions about everything and everyone in his world. Aided by Diana Cruz, an unnervingly gifted psychic, Rourke simultaneously pursues and is pursued by a lethal specter - the one man he believes holds the key to finding the missing girl - only to discover more than he ever bargained for.

In 2002, Rodriguez had written the initial screenplay for the film, calling it "one of my favorite stories". In November 2018, Rodriguez was confirmed to direct, with Borenstein rewriting the original script. By late September 2021, Ben Affleck, Alice Braga, J. D. Pardo, Dayo Okeniyi, Jeff Fahey, Jackie Earle Haley, William Fichtner, and Zane Holtz. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in late November. Filming took place in Austin, Texas. The film was originally scheduled to be filmed in Los Angeles and throughout California in 2020, all locations were scouted and sets were built at Santa Clarita Studios when the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown halted production and did not resume until the following year in Texas.

The film stars Affleck, Braga, Pardo, Okeniyi, Fahey, Haley, Fichtner, and Holtz. Affleck and the cast couldn't, however, make the movie into the good movie it might have been. That would have required a director more interested in ideas and less interested in things that go boom.

A rubbish script, terrible acting from all concerned -- including, I regret to say, Affleck -- and Rodriguez's action histrionics uneasily confined to science lab interiors, all conspire to produce a movie of utter redundancy. Most of it is very predictable and so obvious and instantly draws us away from the characters because everything here feels very artificial and very staged. Coming up short on just about everything - from the casting and dialog to the action sequences - Woo rides the high of a strong story into the ground. The one thing we cannot forgive in a would-be thriller is boredom. Even Rodriguez's trademarks, the crazy camera work and editing style, as well as the two-gun stand-off, feel perfunctory. Just add an underwritten love interest, a scruffy yet lovable sidekick, stir violently and overcook action sequences. Serves millions, but tastes bland. How appropriate that Rodriguez's awkward sci-fi nutty narrative is about hypnotism seeing as though this convoluted clunker is utterly forgettable. While the tautly paced film succeeds at keeping your attention, it offers nothing at all to think about or even remember once its two hours have run their course. From El Mariachi to We Can Be Heroes, only moments of Woo's pyrotechnic talent is evident, working in the corporate Hollywood world stifling the maestro's more go-for-broke tendencies.

Simon says Hypnotic receives:

Also, see my review for We Can Be Heroes.

IFF Film Review: "La Strada" ("The Road") (1954).

From the director of I vitelloni comes La Strada (The Road). This Italian drama film directed by Federico Fellini and written by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Flaiano. A care-free girl is sold to a traveling entertainer, consequently enduring physical and emotional pain along the way.

Fellini's creative process for the film began with vague feelings. These feelings evolved into certain images: snow silently falling on the ocean, various compositions of clouds, and a singing nightingale. At that point, Fellini sketched these images, a habitual tendency that he claimed he had learned early in his career when he had worked in provincial music halls and had to draw the characters and sets. Finally, he reported that the idea first "became real" to him when he drew a circle on a piece of paper to depict Gelsomina's head, and he decided to base the character on the actual character of Giulietta Masina, his wife of five years at the time. The idea for the character Zampanò came from Fellini's youth in the coastal town of Rimini. A pig castrator lived there who was known as a womanizer. Fellini wrote the script with Flaiano and Pinelli and brought it first to Luigi Rovere, Fellini's producer for The White Sheik (1952). When Rovere read the script for the film, he began to weep, raising Fellini's hopes, only to have them dashed when the producer announced that the screenplay was like great literature, but that "as a film this wouldn't make a lira. It's not cinema." By the time it was fully complete, Fellini's shooting script was nearly six-hundred pages long, with every shot and camera angle detailed and filled with notes reflecting intensive research. Producer Lorenzo Pegoraro was impressed enough to give Fellini a cash advance, but would not agree to Fellini's demand that Masina play Gelsomina. Fellini secured financing through the producers Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti, who wanted to cast Silvana Mangano (De Laurentiis' wife) as Gelsomina and Burt Lancaster as Zampanò, but Fellini refused these choices. Masina had been the inspiration for the entire project, so Fellini was determined never to accept an alternative to her. For Zampanò, Fellini had hoped to cast a nonprofessional and, to that end, he tested a number of circus strongmen, to no avail. He also had trouble finding the right person for the role of Il Matto. His first choice was the actor Moraldo Rossi, who was a member of Fellini's social circle and had the right type of personality and athletic physique, but Rossi wanted to be the assistant director, not a performer. Alberto Sordi, the star of Fellini's earlier films The White Sheik and I Vitelloni, was eager to take the role, and was bitterly disappointed when Fellini rejected him after a tryout in costume. Ultimately, Fellini drew his three leading players from people associated with the 1954 film Donne Proibite (Angels of Darkness), directed by Giuseppe Amato, in which Masina played the very different role of a madam. Anthony Quinn was also acting in the film, while Richard Basehart was often on the set visiting his wife, actress Valentina Cortese. When Masina introduced Quinn to her husband, the actor was disconcerted by Fellini's insistence that the director had found his Zampanò. Not long afterwards, Quinn spent the evening with Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman, and after dinner they watched Fellini's 1953 Italian comedy-drama I Vitelloni, Quinn realized with astonishment that the crazy Italian filmmaker who had been hounding him for days was a genius. Fellini was particularly taken with Basehart, who reminded the director of Charlie Chaplin. Upon being introduced to Basehart by Cortese, Fellini invited the actor to lunch, at which he was offered the role of Il Matto.

In October 1953, principal photography commenced but had to be halted within weeks when Masina dislocated her ankle during the convent scene with Quinn. With shooting suspended, De Laurentiis saw an opportunity to replace Masina, whom he had never wanted for the part and who had not yet been signed to a contract. This changed as soon as executives at Paramount viewed the rushes of the scene and lauded Masina's performance, resulting in De Laurentiis announcing that he had her on an exclusive and ordering her to sign a hastily prepared contract, at approximately a third of Quinn's salary. The delay caused the entire production schedule to be revised, and cinematographer Carlo Carlini, who had a prior commitment, had to be replaced by Otello Martelli, a long-time favorite of Fellini's. When filming resumed in February 1954, it was winter. The temperature had dropped to -5 °C, often resulting in no heat or hot water, necessitating more delays and forcing the cast and crew to sleep fully dressed and wear hats to keep warm. The new schedule caused a conflict for Anthony Quinn, who was signed to play the title role in Attila, a 1954 epic, also produced by De Laurentiis and directed by Pietro Francisci. At first, Quinn considered withdrawing from the film, but Fellini convinced him to work on both films simultaneously—shooting the film in the morning and Attila in the afternoon and evening. The film was shot in Bagnoregio, Viterbo, Lazio, and Ovindoli, L'Aquila, Abruzzo. On Sundays, Fellini and Basehart drove around the countryside, scouting locations and looking for places to eat, sometimes trying as many as six restaurants and venturing as far away as Rimini before Fellini found the desired ambiance and menu. Filming concluded in May 1954. As was the common practice for Italian films at the time, shooting was done without sound; dialogue was added later along with music and sound effects. The entire score for the film was written by Nino Rota after principal photography was completed.

The true power of Quinn's performance rests in his ability to worm his way into this lug's twisted psyche and air out his personal demons for all to see.

Like all great art, it looks a little different every time you encounter it. But what changes the least, fittingly, is the film’s resistance to those tin gods of Cinema: the personal arc and promise of redemption.

Simon says La Strada (The Road) receives:

Also, see my IFF review for Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell.

Film Review: "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" (2023).

"Once more with feeling". This is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. This superhero film written and directed by James Gunn, based on the Marvel Comics superhero team Guardians of the Galaxy created by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, and produced by Marvel Studios. It is the sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), and the 32nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Our beloved band of misfits are looking a bit different these days. Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him to defend the universe along with protecting one of their own. A mission that, if not completed successfully, could quite possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.

In November 2014, after the release of the first film, James Gunn confirmed that he had initial ideas for a third film in the series. In April 2017, a month before the release of Vol. 2, the film was announced with Gunn returning to write and direct. In July 2018, Disney fired him from the film following the resurfacing of controversial posts on Twitter, but the studio reversed course by that October and reinstated Gunn as director. In March 2019, Gunn's return was publicly revealed with production resuming after Gunn completed work on his film The Suicide Squad (2021) and the first season of its spin-off series Peacemaker (2022). By early November 2021, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Sean Gunn, Elizabeth Debicki, Maria Bakalova, and Sylvester Stallone were confirmed to reprise their roles with Chukwudi Iwuji and Will Poulter rounded out the films' cast as newcomers. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in early May 2022. Filming took place at Trilith Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, under the working title Hot Christmas. The visual effects were provided by Framestore, Weta FX, Sony Pictures ImageWorks, Industrial Light & Magic, Rodeo FX, Rise FX, Crafty Apes, BUF, Lola VFX, Perception, and Compuhire, with Stephane Ceretti as visual effects supervisor. In October 2021, Gunn revealed that John Murphy was hired to compose the film's score.

The film stars an ensemble cast featuring Pratt, Saldaña, Bautista, Gillan, Klementieff, Diesel, Cooper, Gunn, Iwuji, Poulter, Debicki, Bakalova, and Stallone. Attempts to make the characters more than incessant joke boxes pays off (for the most part), and despite the humor’s inconsistency, there are some truly funny moments thanks to the cast.

Like its predecessor, it stands on its own and might as well have ten sequels without having to flirt with other Marvel movies. Paradoxically, despite being the darkest film in the trilogy, it is, at the same time, the weakest. The film leans VERY heavily on the familial tropes, and you need to be able to cope with a lot of sentimentality to fully enjoy this film. Overall, the film still had elements of the original and even though it started off slow, it picked up steam to a supercharged, somewhat hokey ending.

Simon says Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 receives:

Also, see my reviews for The Suicide Squad and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.