A Quiet Place
Dir. John Krasinski
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Who knew Jim from The Office would deliver what might be the most unique monster movie of 2018? In A Quiet Place, John Krasinski writes, directs, and stars alongside his wife Emily Blunt in this horror film with a great hook: there are alien creatures who hunt using only sound, making it essential for Krasinski, Blunt, and their children to be as silent as possible. The result is a tense, well-executed film that ingeniously uses sound (and the lack thereof) to ratchet up the suspense.
By the year 2020, these echo-locating creatures have pretty much taken over, and the Abbott family has to resort to a life of scavenging and communicating through sign language. However, this latter step is easy for them, as their oldest daughter, Regan (Millicent Simmons - who also killed it in Wonderstruck), is deaf. All of this adds up to a kind of neo-silent film aesthetic where most of the sounds come from either tiny little movements or the music score alone - that is until the monsters hear them! Due to the nature of this film, every little sound from the audience is amplified (coughing, crunching, shuffling), so it's almost the opposite of a "popcorn" movie. It's imperative while watching it not to be surrounded by obnoxious assholes.
While at heart it's a simple, gimmicky creature feature, A Quiet Place works thanks to its great performances, purely visual storytelling, and terrifying set pieces. Its central theme about protecting your children from harm is laid on thick (you can easily tell Krasinski is using this movie to work out his own parental anxieties) and the characters don't always act in the most logical ways possible, but it's a great "oh no, don't go in there!" crowd-pleaser.
Final Verdict:
SEE IT!
Isle of Dogs
Dir. Wes Anderson
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Wes Anderson's films always show an extremely meticulous attention to detail, so it's no wonder his forays into stop-motion animation are some of his best work! His animated follow-up to Fantastic Mr. Fox is another animal-centered tale, Isle of Dogs. It's set in a dystopian Japanese dumping ground called "Trash Island," where the authoritarian, cat-loving mayor of Megasaki City banished all dogs after a breakout of dog flu. Among the dogs banished is Spots, whose owner, the 12-year-old Atari, sets off on a journey to find his lost dog with a ragtag group of mongrel friends - and in the process possibly throw a spanner in the works of the Japanese government.
Literally every frame of this movie is stunningly gorgeous and unbelievably dense with detail. Stop-motion animation takes a notoriously long time to complete even the simplest of movements, and I would imagine characters with fur makes it that much more difficult. Additionally, the voice cast here is amazingly assembled: Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Bob Balaban, Frances McDormand, Billy Murray, Harvey Keitel... the list goes on and on! There's a nice mix of languages as well, as the dogs speak English, but the Japanese speakers talk in their native language. However, there are no subtitles (probably because there's already so much text in the film as it is), so Anderson finds ways to visually tell the story or cleverly "translate" what they're saying.
With movies like Isle of Dogs and Anomalisa, I love seeing more adult-centered animated films being created. In addition to being a cute, fun adventure movie, Isle of Dogs is also a message against racism and political corruption (the idea of "sending off" the dogs a possible allusion to the US Japanese internment camps of WWII) and a loving ode to classic Japanese cinema. Wes Anderson was born for this medium, and I hope Isle of Dogs is not his last work in animation!
Final Verdict:
SEE IT!
Oh Lucy!
Dir. Atsuko Hirayanagi
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Based on her award-winning short film of the same name, the Japanese-American dramedy Oh Lucy! is the promising feature film debut of NYU graduate Atsuko Hirayangi. The story is about a lonely Tokyo office-worker, Setsuko (Shinobu Terajima), who falls in love with her American English teacher John (Josh Hartnett). He's one of the few people to show her a degree of warmth, and she's drawn to his quirky sense of "immersion" into American culture by giving her a blonde wig, re-naming her "Lucy," and giving big bear hugs at the start of each class. However, one day John abruptly leaves for California with Setsuko's much-younger neice Mika (Shiori Kutsuna), devastating Setsuko. She then recruits her estranged sister/Mika's mother to accompany her Stateside to find her daughter and - potentially - re-connect with John.
Oh Lucy! is a sweet film where you just can't help falling in love with the characters despite their flaws. It's obvious where things are headed, but you completely empathize with "Lucy" - Terajima is completely charming in the role, perfectly balancing a sad loneliness, a hopeless romanticism, and a bright quirkiness that will warm your heart. This is one of those nifty little low budget movies that will likely forever fade into obscurity, but I hope this isn't the last we've seen of Atsuko Hirayangi's work!
Final Verdict:
SEE IT!
The Death of Stalin
Dir. Armando Iannucci
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In 1940, over a year before the United States entered World War II, Charlie Chaplin made the political comedy The Great Dictator, satirizing Adolf Hitler and fascism at a time when we were at "peace" with Nazi Germany. That took major balls - but The Death of Stalin, applying a similar concept to the Soviet Union circa 1953, has the benefit of 50+ years of time in between. This farcical dark comedy film examines the chaotic power vacuum that occurred after the death of Joseph Stalin, with all his weaselly underlings vying for the job, including the dweebish Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor), the wily Nikita Khruschev (Steve Buscemi), and the unscrupulous Lavrenti Beria (Simon Russell Beale).
Comedy is possibly the most subjective genre there is in film. Although I recognize the satire going on here (as well as the unfortunate modern-day parallels), I simply didn't find The Death of Stalin very funny. Critics seem to really latch on to the work of director Armando Iannucci (Veep, In the Loop), but I've always found his work too stagey and wordy. His silly, faux-"witty" style simply doesn't strike my funny bone - and when the subject matter is this dark (people are literally being executed just off screen, as a kind of twisted sense of irony) it can be rough going without a laugh here or there.
While The Death of Stalin is an interesting comedic take on a historical period I knew little about, and reflects the lunacy of our current US bureaucracy, I just wish it had more of a comedic edge to go with its amazing premise!
Final Verdict:
WAIT FOR NETFLIX
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