Doctor Strange
Dir. Scott Derrickson
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The fourteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Strange is in many ways one of the most formulaic origin stories we've seen in the series so far - BUT it's also one of the most visually inventive, with mind-blowing special effects that will cause the heads of viewers on LSD to explode like that guy from Scanners. Paralleling Tony Stark's character arc from the first Iron Man, Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is also positioned as an arrogant genius who becomes humbled through his superhero journey - and coincidentally rocks the same goatee. In this case, Strange is a world-famous surgeon whose hands become damaged after a brutal car accident. In the aftermath, he seeks healing from a faraway Eastern secret society that practices the "mystic arts" under the tutelage of the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton). It's there that Strange's scientific mind learns about worlds and dimensions he never thought possible. Replace Iron Man's technology with trippy-dippy Inception-inspired reality-manipulation and you've got Doctor Strange: a routine, but mind-meltingly cool looking Marvel movie.
Not only is Doctor Strange one of the most visually compelling films in the Marvel canon, but it's one of the most visually inventive action films I've ever seen. Every single subsequent action set piece in this movie adds a new power or dynamic to the fight - characters use a combination of portals, kung-fu, colorful spells, crazy kaleidoscopic reality-bending, extra-dimensional traveling, astral projection, and even a magical kick-ass (literally) cape that works almost like Aladdin's magic carpet with the personality of a UFC fighter. I saw this film in legit IMAX 3D, and "dazzling" is the only word to describe it. It NEEDS to be seen on the biggest screen possible.
Although its visual effects deserve all the Oscars and I would consider Doctor Strange a can't-miss cinematic experience, overall the story was just "OK." The characters here are nowhere near as strong as other corners of the Marvel Universe. Strange himself is portrayed as perhaps a little too arrogant to be likable, and although I think Cumberbatch worked his best with what he had, Robert Downey Jr. is much better at playing the "lovable prick" archetype. When Strange makes hurtful, snide comments to others, it just wasn't charming. Also, his total 180 from being a skeptical douchebag to a master of the mystical arts was even more extreme and rushed in my mind than Rey's commonly derided quick mastery of Jedi powers in The Force Awakens.
Side characters don't fare much better. Rachel McAdams plays Strange's completely perfunctory love interest whose plot function was so egregiously tied to "her man" she somehow had even less agency here than Natalie Portman in the first two Thor flicks. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Mordo, one of the Ancient One's top pupils who's overshadowed by Strange almost immediately, even though he's been training for years. Ejiofor really sort of plays the "best friend" character, along with Benedict Wong as the stone-faced librarian, who doesn't have much to do besides have potential for a sequel (why else hire an Academy-Award nominated actor in such a small role?). Also, Marvel's always had a problem finding interesting villains for their heroes (sort of the reverse of DC), and Mads Mikkelsen is yet another stock baddie, looking to end the world in exchange for eternal life (you know he's evil because his eyes are blackened).
Another major complaint lobbed against this movie from its inception was its depiction of Eastern culture. Doctor Strange is based on a comic book created in the 1960s, when interracial relations were less politically correct - so the movie has a difficult time tiptoeing around the idea of a white man coming to an Asian country and almost immediately mastering its culture. Another point of contention surrounding this film was the casting of Tilda Swinton - a white woman - in the role of the Ancient One, who in the comics is portrayed as a stereotypical "wise old" Asian man. Director Scott Derrickson had to make a difficult decision in re-casting, and while it could be seen as "white washing," I don't think it's as egregious as, say, Shyamalan's predominantly white cast for The Last Airbender. Here, all controversy is swayed by casting Swinton, who manages to take a potentially insensitive "stock" character and breathe new life into it, making the Ancient One an androgynous, almost playful mystical being.
It's easy to nitpick a movie like Doctor Strange, which was just by its nature forced to reckon with so many difficult production decisions (which powers should be translated from the comics, how best to handle The Ancient One, how to keep the origin story format fresh, etc). While it's not without its problems, Doctor Strange is hugely entertaining nonetheless, and it's another incredible achievement on Marvel's end that they were able to take a risk with such "out there" ideas. The manner in which Strange defeats his enemy at the end of the film is ballsy and unlike anything you've seen in a superhero movie, and the film is filled with some of the most eye-popping effects and action you can find anywhere.
Rating: B+
Hacksaw Ridge
Dir. Mel Gibson
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For a movie about a pacifist, Hacksaw Ridge has some of the most brutal, violent scenes of war I've ever seen in a film. Mel Gibson returns to the directors chair ten years after dropping a masterpiece on us - Apocalypto - and then stepping out of the limelight for a while, taking on small projects in the aftermath of his damning drunken tirades that were released to the public. Regardless of what you think of the kooky Gibson in real life, the man can direct the hell out of a movie, and Hacksaw Ridge is an incredible true story to make a directorial comeback. The film is about Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), a religious WWII medic who was the first conscientious objector to win the Medal of Honor. Without firing a bullet, Doss saved many lives during a grisly battle in the Pacific theatre, and essentially Gibson frames Doss similarly to Jesus in Passion of the Christ - his redemption and heroism comes paired with a whole lot of suffering.
Hacksaw Ridge introduces us to Doss in a Forrest Gump-ian Southern melodrama fashion that's a little too schmaltzy for its own good. Garfield, despite the begging of his alcoholic father (a fantastic Hugo Weaving), wants to do his duty and join the war effort. He's smiley and naive before the war, falling in love with a nurse (Teresa Palmer) who's just as smiley and naive as he is, and he even maintains his innocence during boot camp. Vince Vaughan is uncharacteristically intimidating as his drill sergeant (channeling his inner R. Lee Ermey), and he along with just about everyone else working for the military thinks Doss's decision to walk gun-less into battle is idiotic and dangerous. But after a brief stint in military prison for disobeying orders and a subsequent court hearing, Doss is permitted to go to war unarmed.
Once we get to the actual Battle of Okinawa, the film becomes an unending, visceral experience of what it must have felt like to be in the middle of hell on earth. While it doesn't quite reach the heights of Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, Hacksaw Ridge does not shy away from the horrors of war, and Gibson's war scenes are incredibly intense and gory. My biggest problem with the film during these battle sequences, however, is that despite depicting Doss as an almost holy figure of pacifism, the film totally glorifies violence, and aside from one teeny-tiny moment where Doss decides to bandage up an incapacitated enemy soldier, the Japanese are "othered" in a way that felt very un-Jesus like to me. The characters are simplified to a fault, and complex ideas about violence and "why we fight" are not really explored (Weaving's character and his anti-war sentiments are more or less forgotten by the end). Under Gibson's lens, Doss's pacifism feels less like a philosophy to be explored than an excuse to get to the bloody battlefield.
Rating: B-
Moonlight
Dir. Barry Jenkins
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SPOILERS: I don't give away specifics, but the main idea of Moonlight is not apparent in the trailer and reveals itself throughout the film; I couldn't avoid mentioning it in the review so if you want to go into this movie totally fresh, check in after watching!
Moonlight is basically like Richard Linklater's Boyhood, only instead of an aimless suburban white boy, it's a gay black kid from the 'hood. The film follows a young man named Chiron, living in a dysfunctional home in Miami during the "War on Drugs" era. It's split into three sections (ages 10, 16, and 30-something), each representing different significant points in Chiron's life as he grapples with his relationship with his drug-addicted mother (Naomie Harris), the feelings he has for his best friend Kevin, and the impression others have of him. Moonlight is a very introspective, sympathetic portrait of a character with no easy answers, and somehow manages to feel intimate and grand at the same time (I give a lot of the credit to cinematographer James Laxton).
Every actor here is fantastic; Chiron and Kevin are played by three different actors at each age, and even though they don't really look alike, they all somehow convey the same essential "essence." Chiron at 10 is played by Alex R. Hibbert in his film debut, and says everything with nothing - literally, his Chiron has totally withdrawn into himself, the subject of bullies and a dysfunctional home life, and only finds solace in the company of a drug dealing father figure named Juan (House of Cards' Mahershala Ali). Chiron at 16 (the also relatively "new" face Ashton Sanders) is lanky, still the subject of ridicule, and unable to come to terms with his sexuality in the extremely masculine culture he's immersed in at school and elsewhere. Here Chiron reaches the tipping point: he either has to fight back or become a victim. Chiron at 30-something looks like a prototypical "gangster," with gold grills and huge muscles. Yet we as the audience know this is a front for an incredibly insecure man.
When I watched the trailers for the film before watching it, I saw a creepy dude wearing grills driving a car and I assumed it was our clean cut "hero" that was in the passenger seat. I didn't think this movie would be primarily following the intimidating driver. But seeing how Chiron naturally made certain decisions based on the way life presented itself, and being there with him along the way, Moonlight surprised me and made me sympathize with a character who on face value seems like a degenerate drug dealer - the kind who'd normally be a "background" character in an action movie. I apologize if this makes me look ignorant, but I think it's a testament to how well this film captures a certain kind of experience that's probably all too true-to-life.
There were some aspects of the film that didn't work as well for me; one of the things I loved about Boyhood was that the flow of time seemed very natural and unobtrusive, whereas Moonlight is very segmented, so we miss much of what happens between the years depicted. The pace is very languid as well, definitely giving off a poetic tone that wants to immerse you in this world rather than tell a succinct story.
Nitpicks aside, Moonlight is a beautifully shot, wonderfully acted, socially conscious piece of drama that I hope isn't overlooked come Oscar season.
Rating: B
The Handmaiden
Dir. Park Chan-wook
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Park Chan-wook is one of the most acclaimed directors from South Korea, after his drama Joint Security Area in 2000 became the highest-grossing Korean film in history. Since then he's earned a name for himself on the international stage for his typically violent revenge thrillers that unfold in odd ways, like Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy. The Handmaiden fits right alongside those other pictures, presenting a completely confident filmmaker at the height of his game delivering a slickly-made, purposely disjointed narrative that feels like a Hitchcock thriller without story structure.
The Handmaiden is set in Korea in the 1930s and follows a con man (Ha Jung-woo) who hires a pickpocket (Kim Tae-ri) to become the maid of a wealthy, mysterious heiress (Kim Min-hee) in an elaborate attempt to steal her fortune. However - what they didn't anticipate was that the maid and the heiress would develop feelings for each other and eventually enact the most graphic lesbian porn in a movie since Blue is the Warmest Color! The Handmaiden feels very much inspired by the unseen subtext of Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, and the movie has fun with revealing all kinds of twists and turns along the way (and since it's Park Chan-wook, you know most of them don't end with everyone joining hands and singing under a rainbow).
While I generally appreciate Park Chan-wook's work, I can't say I've ever been a huge fan (which I understand is blasphemy in many film circles). His sense of narrative always seems unnecessarily complicated to me and takes away from my enjoyment of the film. The Handmaiden is the same way; it will definitely take a few viewings to understand all of the moving parts at play here. As opposed to the Agatha Christie-style mid-movie twist in Tarantino's Hateful Eight, the "reveals" here happen very quickly and take some mental backtracking to understand what's going on. This isn't a knock against the film so much as a knock against my own brain. I'd love to see this same film re-edited to make more sense, but as it is, The Handmaiden is a simple, fun, steamy, disturbing, violent mystery thriller...with its scenes thrown in a blender.
Rating: B-
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