Saving the Planet through “Rewilding”

Environmental docs tend to throw out a litany of ecological horrors that leave viewers feeling helpless. Escape from Extinction: Rewilding takes a different approach. Using case studies from around the globe, the film suggests that we have the power to improve our environment.

Narrated by Meryl Streep, Escape from Extinction follows a typical wildlife formula made up of nature footage, archival footage, and talking heads. The flow of voices and imagery is overwhelming at times, diluting the impact of the messages the filmmakers are trying to deliver.

Their warnings are dire: one million species will go extinct in the next year. Acid is destroying kelp forests off the California coast. Algae blooms threaten wildlife in Florida waters. The imagery is alarmist: wounded or killed animals, clear-cut forests, polluted waters.

Writers Alex Vincent Blumberg and Peter Meadows then turn to success stories, like Rwanda. The site of 1994’s tragedy in which 800,000 were killed within 100 days, the country has undergone a transformation.

Part of that is due to the government’s efforts to shore up ecotourism. Officials have enlarged the Akagera National Park after it has shrunk to one-third of its size. They have imported lions and black rhinos to restock the wildlife populations.

After corporate agriculture damaged farmland in Bolivia, institutions like Lor Parque have taken steps to revive ecosystems, protecting habitats for blue throated macaws, for example.

Scientists realized that healthy kelp forests rely on sea otters to survive. But sea otters were hunted almost to extinction. By reintroducing them to Pacific waters, scientists have raised their population to some 3000.

Seagrass in Florida, a vital source of food for manatees, has been erased by algae blooms. Volunteers now vacuum algae by hand from the sea floor, and plant eelgrass to help stabilize the ecosystem.

In her voiceover, Streep notes that “rewilding” also means dealing with invasive species. For example, rabbits and especially cane toads have wreaked havoc with Australian wildlife. Hippos who escaped from their shelters in Colombia have led to 500 human fatalities a year.

Escape from Extinction acknowledges conflicts among zoologists. Some didn’t want the extinct Asiatic cheetah in India replaced by African cheetahs. There are arguments over giraffes, wolves, and other wildlife species.

Confrontations with poachers and repressive governments have led to the deaths of over 2000 environmental activists.

But director Matthew R. Brady ends Escape from Extinction on positive notes, allowing scientists to point to potential solutions that can lead to positive results.

Brady’s technique raises questions. The use of archival footage can be confusing. The narration can be cagey. A statement that two-thirds of the land mass of Antarctica is “affected by human activity” is accompanied by shots of collapsed oil tanks, but without proper IDs, viewers can’t be sure of the connection.

Some shots driven by visual effects have misleading sounds attached to them, like chainsaws droning behind disappearing forests. Besides, some would argue that clear-cutting makes sense in certain situations. To be fair, many documentarians take similar approaches. Strict accuracy may be more difficult to achieve, but makes for stronger films.

The main argument against Escape from Extinction is that it feels like a PowerPoint presentation buttressed by talking heads. It’s hard to disagree with the messages here, but the way they are not always presented are in the most effective ways.

Credits

Director: Matthew R. Brady. Writers: Alex Vincent Blumberg and Peter Meadows. Voiceover: Meryl Streep.

In theaters now.

Photos courtesy MRB Productions. Top: baby hippo and mother. Middle: Filming in Akagera National Park. Bottom: Filming in Volcanoes National Park.

Posted in Documentary | Leave a comment

Wolfs review: The Cinema of Privilege

The conmen from Oceans Eleven have aged out of the rackets, lost their girlfriends, and have been forced into real jobs to make ends meet. That’s the basic premise of Wolfs, a lazy bromance that rests on the fading charms of its two leads.

At least since Pulp Fiction, the “cleaner” has become a fixture in the hit man genre. It’s a role George Clooney can play to perfection (cf. Michael Clayton).

Grizzled, stocky, nursing a bad back, Clooney’s Jack in Wolfs is reaching the end of his career. Although proud of his reputation, he’s started cutting corners and relying on tricks to get him through assignments.

Like helping politician Margaret (Amy Ryan), stuck with the body of a male prostitute in an expensive hotel suite. Jack is about to go into his routine when they are interrupted by Nick (Brad Pitt), a rival cleaner hired by the hotel’s security chief Pamela (voiced by Frances McDormand).

Turns out the incident was recorded on the hotel’s many video cameras. What’s more, Kid (Austin Abrams), the prostitute, was carrying a backpack filled with drugs. Jack and Nick have to return the drugs as well as dispose of Kid’s body.

Spoiler alert to anyone who hasn’t seen the trailer: Kid isn’t dead, just nearly comatose from a drug OD. When he springs back to life from the trunk of Jack’s car, Wolfs pretends it’s livening up too. There’s a prolonged chase through the streets of a snowy Chinatown Manhattan at night, allowing cinematographer Larkin Seiple many glistening compositions at the expense of momentum and plausibility.

Because if Jack and Nick don’t catch Kid, there’s no more movie. Not that much happens when they do. A stop at an illicit medical clinic. A visit to an ethnic wedding. Empty warehouses. Dark streets. In the meantime Jack and Nick share war stories, forming a grudging respect for each other.

The bantering between Clooney and Pitt is a retread of their Oceans schtick, minus the fabulous supporting cast and intricate enough plotting. Here they’re on automatic, Pitt in particular shambling through his part like he’s done for the past ten years, Clooney putting in just enough effort to keep our sympathy.

Face it, celebrities — no matter how big — teasing each other does not make a movie. Or at least not a good movie. Writer and director Jon Watts (behind the Spider-Man trilogy and a couple of episodes of The Old Man) leans on the meta by pretending that dialogue with “old,” “past his prime,” etc., refers to the leads’ movie careers. But meta doesn’t make a dull plot more interesting. When all else fails, Watts turns to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for plot twists.

Reviews like this don’t mean anything to the filmmakers; considering their past successes, they aren’t about to listen to criticism. That’s the cinema of privilege, the sense that filmmakers have earned the right to do whatever they want. Clooney’s by no means the worst example, and for the most part I applaud his choices. He’s capable of better work.

Credits Directed by Jon Watts. Written by Jon Watts. Produced by George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Dianne McGunigle, Jon Watts. Director of photography: Larkin Seiple. Edited by Andrew Weisblum. Music by Theodore Shapiro. Cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams, Poorna Jagannathan.

Streaming on Apple TV+ Photo Apple TV+

Posted in Action, Streaming | Leave a comment

Review: Protocol 7 says vaccines might be dangerous

Based on real-life events, Protocol 7 uses staged re-enactments to make the case that pharmaceutical giant Merck doctored test results to sell potentially dangerous mumps vaccine. Director and co-writer Andy Wakefield tackles an important story, but tells it with little finesse and less clarity.

During a business meeting in a corporate conference room, Dr. Errani (Eric Roberts) warns Stone (Alec Rayme) that if results for the company’s MMR mumps vaccine don’t improve, the FDA will not approve the drug. Stone in turn tells lab rat Kirk (Harrison Tipping) to do anything necessary to get better scores.

Schilling (Josh Murray), a former Merck employee, approaches disgraced Dr. Jay (Matthew Marsden) at an alternative health convention. Schilling hands over stolen lab records that prove Merck has been lying about its MMR vaccine. Jay overcomes his initial reluctance to compile a compelling case against Merck.

It takes lawyer Lexi Koprowski (Rachel Whittle) to bring the case to the next level. Unable to bear children herself, Lexi and her husband Josh (R. Brandon Johnson) adopt Ishal (Christopher Robert Scott), an at-risk child from Africa. A series of vaccine shots render Ishal autistic.

Searching for answers, Lexi learns about the Merck lab reports from Jay. It will take many setbacks and reversals until Lexi and her legal team confront Merck officials in a deposition.

Getting to that point requires swirling time and plotline shifts that make the story unnecessarily confusing. It doesn’t help that the screenwriters can’t name names due to sealed evidence in ongoing lawsuits. Merck is the only entity to come under fire. The characters are amalgams, not real people. The villains in particular are drawn with very broad strokes.

That said, Whittle makes a sympathetic protagonist, seemingly out of her depth until the final legal scenes. It’s during the depositions that Protocol 7 comes alive, with Eric Roberts giving a master class in obfuscation as an executive trying desperately not to be pinned down.

Until that scene, Protocol 7 is a series of disconnected glimpses of failing marriages, bad medical decisions, and montages of lab procedures. Viewers are never quite sure who the characters actually are or what they do. It’s not even clear where or when the story is taking place.

It’s easy to fault the fractured editing, the off-center photography, the poor performances, and the obscure screenwriting. However, there is a more fundamental flaw to Protocol 7.

Wakefield and his team skirt the issue of whether or not they are pro- or anti-vaccine. Like The China Syndrome, Protocol 7 wants to blame corporate corruption for a grave injustice instead of examining how that injustice came to be. Unfortunately, the tone of the film and the way its characters are portrayed are overwhelmingly anti-vaccine. At the same time, the filmmakers pretend they’re not anti-vaccine, just against the illegal, deadly ones. (Just like The China Syndrome wasn’t against nuclear power plants, only the ones that threatened to explode.) Hard-core anti-vaxxers can’t make that distinction.

Credits

Directed by Andy Wakefield. Written by Andy Wakefield, Terry Rossio. Produced by Joey Vasatka, Brian Wendel, Darren Lutz, Tina Lutz. Executive producers: Marcel Jahnke, Andy Wakefield. Cinematographer: Jordan Bogart. Production designer: Bill Swang. Original score by Will Taylor. Cast: Rachel Whittle, Matthew Marsden, Josh Murray, R. Brandon Johnson, Eric Roberts, Alec Rayme, Harrison Tipping, Christopher Robert Scott.

Distributed by Abramorama. Currently streaming. Photos courtesy Abramorama.

Posted in Drama | Leave a comment

Crescent City review: Murder in Little Rock

Powerful casting helps compensate for weak writing in Crescent City, a mean-spirited film noir set in Little Rock, Arkansas. Familiar faces like Terence Howard, Esai Morales, and an effective Alec Baldwin have no trouble navigating the twists and turns in Rich Ronat’s script. If only they had better material to work with.

Spoiler alert: I’m not sure director RJ Collins always shows a scene honestly, especially once flashbacks come into play. Alfred Hitchcock famously toyed with unreliable scenes in Stage Fright, but it’s a tough strategy to justify (and one he abandoned quickly).

So stipulated, Crescent City opens with the drugging and murder of a cheating husband, whose decapitated corpse is discovered by cops Brian Sutter (Terrence Howard) and Luke Carson (Esai Morales). It’s the third murder in the area, suggesting a serial killer. As a result, their boss, Captain Howell (Alec Baldwin), assigns them a new partner, Jaclyn Waters (Nicky Whelan), a blonde originally from Australia.

Waters is actually an Internal Affairs agent investigating a shooting in which a teenager was killed during a drug bust. Brian, clearly suffering from some form of PTSD, has debilitating fits about the incident. Luke is hiding his own secrets. In a bizarre scene, we watch him rape the hostess of a local bar in a bathroom.

Brian’s wife is upset that he refuses to go to counseling. She’d been even angrier if she knew that Brian and Jackie are having an affair. They meet near the spot of one of the murders, and as the story unfolds Brian realizes he is being set up as a fall guy for the killer.

The most interesting thing about Brian is that he isn’t very bright. (No one is in Crescent City, apart from Baldwin’s Howell, a profane but clever cop who figures out the plot before his cops do.) Brian presents himself as a father figure with strong religious ties, leading to emotional conflicts that affect his work.

He’s also not a very good cop, missing glaring clues and giving inept interrogations. Howard adopts a thick accent that makes Brian seem even less intelligent.

Give credit to the filmmakers for being willing to go darker than necessary. With its corrupt cops, sex clubs, and deserted alleys, Crescent City presents Little Rock as a sort of minor league New Orleans, minus the bayous, food, and music. The atmosphere is moody and decadent enough to satisfy noir fans, but the plot keeps veering into strange digressions.

The filmmakers introduce a sex website with connections to Brian’s church, but fail to do anything with it. Or with an abuse victim who commits suicide. Or a murder victim from a Sex Anonymous group. Instead we get a couple of reasonably steamy sex scenes, a lot of bickering between Brian and Luke, and more red flags than viewers really need.

Baldwin is quick and efficient, Morales adds welcome depravity to his character, and Whelan somehow manages to fit her Australian cop into a deep South milieu. And Maria Camila Giraldo shines in a thankless role as a cop who turns up at every Little Rock homicide. But Crescent City adds up to less than the sum of its parts.

Credits

Director: RJ Collins. Writer: Rich Ronat. Producers: Denise Loren, Eduard Osipov, Vince Jolivette, David Lipper, Robert A. Daly, Jr. Director of photography Alex Salahi. Edited by Eric Potter. Production designer: Julian Brown. Cast: Terrence Howard, Esai Morales, Nicky Whelan, Alec Baldwin, Michael Sirow, Weston Cage Coppola, Rose Lane Sanfilippo, Maria Camila Giraldo.

In theaters, on digital and on demand. Photos courtesy Lionsgate. Top: Howard, Whelan. Bottom: Howard, Giraldo, Morales.

Posted in Action, On demand | Leave a comment

Sound of Hope review: Choosing to make a difference

Set in East Texas in 1999, Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot shows how spiritual values helped persuade the people in a rural community to adopt 77 children languishing in the state foster system. Based on a true story, the movie tells its story with a compelling sense of honesty and realism.

Reverend W.C. Martin (Demetrius Gross) leads the Bennett Missionary Baptist church, a small but devoted parish, helped by his wife Donna (Nika King) and other congregants. At home the Martins struggle with bills while raising their children Ladonna (Kaysi J. Bradley) and Princeton (Taj Johnson).

The loss of her mother Murtha (Della Golden), who raised 18 children, brings Donna to the realization that she wants to adopt a child. W.C. worries they can’t afford the additional expenses, but Donna goes ahead after meeting Susan Ramsey (Elizabeth Mitchell), a liaison with the foster system.

The script by Joshua Weigel (who also directed) and Rebekah Weigel at times shifts to separate story lines. One involves Terri (Diaana Babnicova), a troubled orphan who has isolated herself in a dream world. Another follows young Mercedes (Aria Pulliam) and Tyler (Asher Clay), siblings who have been abused by their mother.

Over W.C.’s misgivings, Donna brings Mercedes and Tyler into her home. The experience, while not without problems, is so enriching that W.C. convinces his congregation that they should adopt as well. W.C. insists to Susan that he wants to take the foster system’s most difficult cases.

One of those is Terri, who disrupts the Martin family when she arrives. She throws tantrums, steals from her sister, and sneaks out of the house. Sessions with a therapist don’t seem to help. As incidents escalate, Donna finds herself questioning both her husband and her faith.

As director, Joshua Weigel takes a low-key approach to the story. Scenes are staged simply, but with respect for the characters and with honesty about their events. The subplots aren’t always crucial to the movie’s main messages, and supporting characters can sometimes feel shortchanged, shoehorned into a story that’s really about something else.

However, the heart of the movie — the conflicts between W.C. and his wife, between Terri and her new parents, between Susan and foster parents — feel genuine, not artificially pumped up. Moments of catharsis and bonding are similarly understated (apart from Sean Johnson’s occasionally pointed score).

The movie’s lessons may seem too obvious at times, but they are delivered with a disarming sincerity. The performances in particular help lift Sound of Hope up from mere preaching. Demetrius Gross is excellent as Reverend Martin, a strong, domineering presence who is still capable of sensitivity. Nika King as his wife Donna has the most demanding role, called upon to be jubilant or dismayed or bewildered about her children’s behavior.

Diaana Babnicova may be the real find here. Nothing in the script phases her, whether she’s asked to explode in a screaming rage or confront doubts about her sanity. Babnicova gives in to the role without judging Terri, earning viewers’ sympathy the hard way, without asking for it.

This is the latest release from Angel Studios, the Utah-based company that released the controversial Sound of Freedom and the unexpectedly solid biopic Cabrini. In addition, Angel partnered with The Daily Wire (co-founded by Ben Shapiro) to distribute the movie theatrically. That move caused executive producer Letitia Wright to announce that she has no affiliation with The Daily Wire.

It’s a shame that there’s even a hint of political controversy attached to Sound of Hope. This is a film that tries to take a positive approach to a stirring human interest story, neither exploiting its characters nor preaching to its audience.

Credits: Directed by: Joshua Weigel. Written by Joshua Weigel and Rebekah Weigel. Produced by Joshua Weigel and Rebekah Weigel, p.g.a. Executive producers: Letitia Wright, Joe Knittig, Nika King. Directors of photography: Benji Bakshi, Sean Patrick Kirby. Production designer: Debbi DeVilla. Editor: David Andalman. Music by Sean Johnson. Cast: Nika King, Demetrius Grosse, Elizabeth Mitchell, Diaana Babnicova, Elizabeth Mitchell, Kaysi J. Bradley, Taj Johnson, Della Golden.

Top: Demetrius Grosse, Diaana Babnicova, Nika King. Center: Nika King. Bottom: Diaana Babnicova. Photos courtesy Peachtree Productions.

Posted in Drama | Leave a comment

Tribeca documentary Made in Ethiopia: exposing capitalism

Shot over a four-year span, Made in Ethiopia uses a Chinese-backed industrial park in Ethiopia as a way to examine how economic policy operates at ground level.

The film opens with a wedding ceremony between a Chinese worker and his African bride, a sequence that has the appeal of the unknown while while simultaneously feeling too pointed a metaphor.

Directors Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan (who’s also the director of photography) then backtrack to fill in background details about Dukem, a dusty farming town transformed when Chinese businessmen built an industrial park in 2008.

The directors are present when a Chinese dignitary tours the plant in 2019. Guiding him is Motto Ma, deputy director of the Eastern Industry Park. A magnetic firebrand with a captivating spiel, Motto is relentlessly upbeat about her goal of putting together a huge expansion that promises 30,000 new jobs.

Following Motto on the phone, in her limo, at meetings, in offices, Made in Ethiopia exposes the contradictions between selling and executing. To expand the industrial park, Motto has to displace farmers who are not very successful but don’t want to give up their land.

Over time the farmers and villagers reveal they are stubbornly hanging on hoping for land and money promised to them by the government. A third plot line in the documentary focuses on individual workers who gradually realize they are being exploited by business owners.

As it did throughout the world, Covid disrupts everyone’s plans at Dukem. Employees are sequestered for weeks at a time. Orders fall off precipitously. Companies shutter. Workers go on strike.

A civil war that displaces millions is another major blow. Motto’s planned second phase of development is a casualty of the conflict.

In March, 2023, the filmmakers find Motto working at a new coffee export company. The farmers are still waiting for their promised land. Workers who sought better lives through instructional training are still stuck in entry-level positions.

For the most part Made in Ethiopia feels even-handed, as if the filmmakers were just presenting facts. The directors resort to titles, news clips, and voice-overs to fill out important details, such as half the population of Ethiopia is under the age of 20, or that typical factory workers in the Eastern Industrial Zone make $50 a month. Occasionally they’ll throw in a cheap shot, like a close-up of a ceramic cat on a manager’s desk.

But the documentary is not nearly as objective as it appears. That’s because no one addresses the central issues to the story: an economic system of winners and losers. The same inexorable search for profits that moved factories and warehouses from China to Africa will continue to reduce everyone and everything to the lowest common denominator.

The same underlying but unstated theme appears in other Tribeca docs this year, like Driver. Documentary filmmakers have to tackle the root causes of the issues they are covering, instead of hoping their cameras will capture something interesting.

Credits: Directed by Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan. Produced by Tamara Dawit, Xinyan Yu, Max Duncan. Executive producers: Anna Godas, Oli Harbottle, Susan Jakes, Mehret Mandefro, Roger Graef. Director of photography: Max Duncan. Editors: Biel Andrés, Jeppe Bødskov, Siyi Chen. Composer: Ali Helnwein.

Photos: Top — Chinese businesswoman Motto Ma speaking to members of an Ethiopian regional government delegation inside the Eastern Industry Park, Oromia region, Ethiopia. Bottom — Farmer Workinesh Chala and her daughter Rehoboth standing in the fields of Dibdibbe Village, looking out towards the Eastern Industry Park, Oromia region, Ethiopia. Photo credits: Max Duncan. Courtesy of Hard Truth Films.

Screening at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Posted in Documentary, Film Festivals | Leave a comment

Dancing Village: The Curse Begins—Horror from Indonesia

Unfolding like a folk tale that’s only dimly remembered, Dancing Village: The Curse Begins is a prequel to KKN Di Desa Penari, an Indonesian blockbuster released in 2022. This slow-burn thriller sends cousins and friends to a remote jungle village on Java. There they encounter ancient demons and curses.

Director Kimo Stamboel draws on Eli Roth and Ari Aster as much as Indonesian traditions. His movie fits comfortably into Western horror conventions. Dancing Village is paced so deliberately that most viewers will see the shocks coming a mile off.

That’s not to say Lele Laila’s script doesn’t build enough tension. The story exploits the contrast between its urban leads and their rural village counterparts while still finding ways to keep them on equal standing. Yes, it’s a different world in the jungle, but the people who live there have the same dreams and ambitions.

A long prologue set in 1955 depicts a ritual in which drugged or hypnotized girls dance until one survives for a ritual sacrifice. But a girl manages to steal the demon Badarawuhi’s snake bracelet, disrupting the spell. She races off into the jungle, leaving the shaman Buyut to deal with the consequences.

Twenty-five years later, Mila (Maudy Effrosina) brings her cousin Yuda (Jourdy Pranata) and their nerdy friend Jito (Moh. Iqbal Sulaiman) back to a nearby jungle village. A shaman has told her the only way to save her dying mother is to return the snake bracelet.

Villagers are friendly but unhelpful. Buyut, now the elder, is “away.” No one else will tell them where the dancing village is. Yuda persuades Ratih (Claresta Taufan) to stay in her house with her mother—who’s also mysteriously ill.

At night spirits glide by Yuda and Jito while they sleep on the porch of an abandoned house. Mila hears distant singing. Ratih’s mother spews blood from her mouth. When Mila and Ratih go to the women’s bath house, the demon approaches. Mila’s attacked by snakes, saved only when Ratih pulls her from the pool.

Other encounters include a food stall serving butchered monkeys, flashbacks to Mila’s mother suffering in her bedroom, and various narrative red herrings and stings. Spoiler: Mila must enter the afterlife to free her mother from the demon’s grasp.

What impresses most about Dancing Village is the superb cinematography by Patrick Tashadian. The camera glides through the village, swoops over houses, pulls viewers into intimate contact with the supernatural. Tashadian and Stamboel build incredible atmosphere with very little effort.

Aulia Sarah plays the demon about as well as anyone could expect, given that her motives are obscure and her powers unexplained. Effrosina manages to look worried throughout the film, a one-note turn that lacks nuance. Claresta Taufan gives the best performance in the movie as a daughter who must betray to save her mother.

Dancing Village was planned and shot as an IMAX production, a first for Southeast Asia. Unfortunately Lionsgate won’t be offering that version in the US.

Credits: Directed by: Kimo Stamboel. Screenplay: Lele Laila. Produced by Manoj Punjabi. Director of photography: Patrick Tashadian. Edited by: Fachrun Daud. Music by Ricky Leonard. Sound designer: Hiro Ishizaka. Cast: Aulia Sarah, Maudy Effrosina, Jourdy Pranata, Moh. Iqbal Sulaiman, Ardit Erwandha, Claresta Taufan, Diding Boneng, Aming Sugandhi, Dinda Kanyadewi, Pipien Putri, Maryam Supraba, Bimasena, Putri Permata, Baiq Vania Estiningtyas Sagita, Baiq Nathania Elvaretta.

Opening in theaters April 26, 2024.

Photos: Top—(L-R) Aulia Sarah, Claresta Taufan Kusumarina and Maudy Effrosina in DANCING VILLAGE: THE CURSE BEGINS (Credit: Lionsgate). Center—Aulia Sarah in DANCING VILLAGE: THE CURSE BEGINS (Credit: Lionsgate).

Posted in Asian, Horror | Leave a comment

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: dull WWII spy romp

Every now and then Guy Ritchie makes a film in a crisp, focused style that can be utterly beguiling. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is not one of them. Filled with snark, bombast, and empty violence, this WWII actioner is destined for cable filler.

Opening with an acoustic guitar behind melancholy whistling, Ministry evokes both Ennio Morricone’s soundtracks for Sergio Leone and the type of large-scale WWII blockbusters prevalent in the 1960s. We’re soon in a screening room with Winston Churchill (an unrecognizable Roy Kinnear) watching newsreel footage of Nazis winning the war.

Ignoring advice from his cabinet to appease Hitler, Churchill orders intelligence leader “M” (Cary Elwes) and his associate Ian Fleming (Freddie Fox) to assemble a team that will attack a crucial U-boat loading facility on Fernando Po, an island off the west coast of Africa.

Summoned first is Gus March-Phillipps (Henry Cavill), an imprisoned killer who refuses to obey the rules. He in turn gathers Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson), a Danish killer expert with knife and bow-and-arrow; frogman and explosives expert Freddy Alvarez (Henry Golding); Irish killer and expert sailor Henry Hayes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin); and killer Geoffrey Appleyard (Alex Pettyfer), a prisoner of the Nazis.

Ahead of them on Fernando Po: spy Marjorie Stewart (Eiza González) and bar owner Heron (Babs Olusanmokun), setting in place a plot to defeat local Nazi leader Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger). Believe it or not, Luhr is a sadist who likes to manacle women before having his way with them.

That’s a lot of exposition, supposedly based on the book The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill’s Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops by Damien Lewis, but in fact cribbed from The Dirty Dozen, Casablanca, The Guns of Navarone, and whatever Tarantino the filmmakers screened last.

Take the opening scene, with our heroes sailing in the Atlantic. Boarded by mean Nazis in navy whites, Gus and Lassen joke and tease the villains before killing them all in gory but curiously antiseptic ways. Then Freddy blows up the Nazi destroyer.

The jokes and carnage continue as the ungentlemen break into a Nazi prison, free Appleyard, and continue south. Scores of Nazis die while the heroes barely suffer a scratch. Jaunty jazz accompanies their killing sprees. Lassen has an apparently inexhaustible supply of arrows; his bow vanishes when he no longer needs it.

At least Ritchson (a solid Jack Reacher for two seasons on Amazon) displays some athleticism. He actually looks frenzied in one scene as he hacks at a Nazi with his knife. Cavill strolls through the movie without breaking a sweat, acting with his facial hair. For long passages I forgot Golding was even in the film.

As for González, she’s like Margot Robbie in Babylon, a thoroughly modern figure lost in a period outside her understanding. She sings a baffling “Mack the Knife” that’s as much Bobby Darin as Lotte Lenya. Maybe that’s why Schweiger’s Nazi is so angry with her.

I enjoyed Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant, a war movie made with conviction instead of frills. But Ministry harks back to the excruciating Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre. Both are lazy, self-satisfied, time-wasters.

Credits: Directed by: Guy Ritchie. Screenplay by Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson and Arash Amel & Guy Ritchie. Based The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill’s Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops by Damien Lewis. Produced by: Jerry Bruckheimer, p.g.a., Guy Ritchie, p.g.a., Chad Oman, p.g.a., Ivan Atkinson, John Friedberg. Director of photography: Ed Wild, BSC. Production designer: Martyn John. Edited by James Herbert. Music by Chris Benstead. Cast: Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, Henrique Zaga, Til Schweiger, with Henry Golding and Cary Elwes.

Photos courtesy Lionsgate. Opens in theaters April 19, 2024.

Posted in Action | Leave a comment

Life under a microscope: A Brief History of a Family

Classmates, one rich, one poor, are thrown together by accident. The poor one worms his way into the wealthy family, winning over the parents through deceit and subterfuge. An event changes the lives of all involved.

No, it’s not Saltburn, although Jia ting jian shi / A Brief History of a Family follows a surprisingly similar trajectory to Emerald Fennell’s 2023 film. Writer and director Lin Jianjie is even aiming for the same targets, although his story takes place in an urban Chinese setting. Brief History screened in the Panorama section of this year’s Berlinale.

When Shuo (Sun Xilun) suffers a playground accident, his classmate Wei (Lin Muran) helps him to the infirmary. Over the following days, Shuo, shy and deferential, gradually reveals an abusive home life. Wei invites him home.

Wei lives in an expensive high rise. His father (Zu Feng) is a microbiologist; his mother (Guo Keyu), a former flight attendant. They ask Shuo to dinner and later say he is welcome to come back when he wants.

Shuo does return, frequently, whether or not Wei is there. Shuo realizes that Wei is a disappointment to his parents. An indifferent student, he doesn’t study, doesn’t practice athletics, and seems content to play computer games all the time.

On the other hand, Shuo is an exemplary student, knows more about Wei’s sports than he does, and pays attention to Wei’s parents. He remembers what foods his mother likes, what records his father plays. When they go on a business trip, they invite Shuo along. Wei has to stay home to study for a test.

Lin, who also goes by the nickname JJ, is an advocate of the slow burn. Scenes unfold slowly, the camera a hesitant observer, often looking through doorways or over shoulders. The production design is icy cold in Wei’s apartment, neutral elsewhere.

The music leans Western, a conscious choice on the director’s part. In fact, Brief History of a Family looks and feels more like a European film than a Chinese one. The big difference is one of scale. Films like Saltburn show extravagant inequalities. Here not that much separates the haves and have-nots.

Lin studied bioinformatics in college before attending film school at NYU. This is his feature debut. Occasionally he will insert montages of microscopic organisms, suggesting that humans operate under similar biological impulses. There’s a detached, clinical feel to Brief History, almost a sense that Lin is experimenting with his characters.

The most interesting person in the movie is Wei’s mother, played with delicate precision by Guo Keyu. Speaking in whispery cadences, using soft gestures, she can’t completely hide her insecurity about her past as a glorified servant. Still, she hidden strengths. She blames her husband for his behavior during China’s one-child policy, and holds her trauma over him like a club.

Lou Yin, one of the producers, told me that Guo Keyu was China’s youngest best actress. “She won for Red Cherry when she was sixteen. That film appeared in the Berlin Panorama program in 1996. She’s returning here after 28 years.”

The psychology of the other characters isn’t nearly as interesting. Shuo is only trying to get ahead, using whatever means are available to him. Wei is alternately sluggish and resentful. His father is a workaholic. Since they are drawn so simply, their outcomes are evident early on.

At least Brief History avoids the histrionics that made Saltburn so annoying. But judging one film not as bad as another is faint praise indeed.

Credits: Written and directed by Lin Jianjie. Produced by Lou Ying, Zheng Yue, Wang Yiwen. Director of Photography: Zhang Jiahao. Production Designer: Xu Yao. Editor: Per K. Kirkegaard. Composer: Toke Brorson Odin. Cast: Zu Feng, Guo Keyo, Sun Xilun, Lin Muran.

Photos © First Light Films, Films du Milieu, Tambo films

Posted in Asian, Film Festivals | Leave a comment

The plight of test pilots in Born to Run

Released theatrically last year, Born to Fly follows pilots undergoing rigorous training in order to test mainland China’s experimental stealth fighter jet. Deeply patriotic and extremely silly, it’s propaganda devoid of suspense, humor, and credible characterizations.

The screenplay by Gui Gang and director Liu Xiaoshi follows the Top Gun: Maverick template pretty closely. Bookended by dogfights after incursions by foreign fighters into Chinese air space, the movie then introduces us to a military suffering from a raging inferiority complex.

“The first battle is the final battle,” an officer warns his students. Other countries help each other out, but “we are on our own.” Perfecting a stealth fighter jet is the only way China can protect itself from invaders.

To test the new “Taishan” engine, recruits take physical and psychological exercises designed to weed out the weak. Hero Lei Yu (Wang Yibo) competes against rival Deng Fang (Yu Shi) for the top spot, but is too individualistic to succeed.

Forced to fly with team leader Zhang Ting (Hu Jun), Lei becomes resentful. The movie also suggests he might be a bit of a coward when he ejects from a crippled jet. Another crash leads to Zhang’s death as he heroically steers his jet away from a populated area rather than saving himself.

Born to Fly milks this sequence for everything it can get. We see Zhang’s family before, during, and after the crash, his young son bursting into tears now that he can’t have noodles with his father. A long funeral service gives everyone else in the cast the chance to cry. (It’s actually the second visit to a vast cemetery for pilots.)

Lei Yu had quit the group earlier, only to return after learning his lesson by packing parachutes for the true heroes, pilots willing to give up their lives to help others. He’s badly injured in the Zhang crash, and is nursed back to health by Dr. Shen Tianran (Zhou Dongyu).

Now a functioning part of the unit, Lei Yu implements his innovation of attaching an anti-spin parachute to the jets. (It’s the spectacularly non-aerodynamic equivalent of a T-shirt cannon bolted to the back of the jet.) Another near-crash sequence mirrors the beats of a sequence in Top Gun: Maverick.

One more inconclusive dogfight, the hint of a chaste romance between Lei Yu and Shen, and Born to Fly ends with what seem to be recorded transcripts of actual pilots.

It’s a measure of Born to Fly‘s failure, its lack of imagination, that the filmmakers shoehorn Zhou Dongyu into the thankless role of lovestruck doctor. One of the best performers in cinema, she can’t do much with such a paper-thin, emotionally demeaning role.

A fixture in propaganda films, Hu Jun is appropriately stalwart as a veteran who leads by example. The other pilots are good-looking but essentially anonymous.

Credits: Directed by Liu Xiaoshi. Screenplay by Gui Gang and Liu Xiaoshi. Director of photography: Bai Yuxia. Director of lighting: Ma Qingyuan. Original music: Guo Sida. Visual effects producer: Jessica Yang. Visual effects supervisor: Wang Shaoshuai. Production designer: Qin Weili. Cast: Wang Yibo, Hu Jun, Yu Shi, Zhou Dongyu, Bu Yu, Zhai Yujia, Wang Zichen, Lu Xin, Qu Zheming.

Released on Digital and Blu-ray on March 26 by Well Go USA Entertainment. Photos courtesy Well Go USA Entertainment.

Posted in Action, Asian | Leave a comment