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Review: ‘Midway’ Fails to Capture Anything Besides Mediocrity

History often makes for the best stories, giving us the true tales of human magnificence and maleficence alike. Unfortunately, Director Roland Emmerich and writer Wes Tooke’s Midway fails to capture any of the gravity of the pivotal real events. Aside from literally opening the film with text telling the viewer, “This is important,” the choppy pacing and weak script prevent anything from really being conveyed. Filled with unnecessary scenes and plots, it is a far cry from the fun days of Emmerich’s Stargate and Independence Day. Tooke’s inexperience on the silver screen is unfortunately apparent as well, having previously only written a few episodes of television, which could be pointed to as the culprit of the jarring pacing.

During my screening in a largely empty theater, there was one rather vocal woman and her husband sitting in the row behind me. While initially, I thought it would ruin my experience, I quickly realized she was the perfect bellwether for the average audience, perhaps unaware of the history behind the events. Her constant exclaiming of “what, why, and how?” made it clear to me it wasn’t just I who was taken aback by the direction. Midway plays like a children’s storybook, with loosely connected events with a few words and some pretty pictures.

Midway could be classified as an ensemble movie, although it’s unclear if that was the intent, with an all-star cast portraying all largely real individuals who took part in the battles depicted. The shame of it is that Midway takes real events and makes them feel completely fictionalized. With a group of Hollywood a-listers overacting a sub-par script, combined with the shockingly mediocre special effects, it feels like something from a Call of Duty game ten years ago. That being said, the movie is still somewhat competent, with some actors giving it their best for what they got. Ed Skrein and Patrick Wilson, in particular, are certainly likable delivering fine performances as what I would say are the two main leads. They portray ‘Dick Best’ and ‘Edwin Layton’ respectively, and as trope-filled and clichéd they may be, both are enjoyable enough to watch.

Part of Midway‘s problem lies in the sheer volume of characters, making it hard to become attached to any of them, especially when most of the time you can’t tell who is who. The giant computer-generated battle scenes, while enjoyable in the same way the Fast and Furious is, do not exactly lend themselves to differentiating the characters you’re seeing. Nick Jonas, for example, a recognizable face who received heavy advertising, has less than ten minutes of screen time. A character like that just seems like a waste to me, and he isn’t the only one. Woody Harrelson, Luke Evans, Dennis Quaid, Mandy Moore, Luke Kleintank, Aaron Eckhart, and the whole rest of the cast are relegated to twiddling their thumbs on the sidelines. Instead of focusing on a select few to lead us through a chain of events, you get a bevy of characters with little to nothing to do in various jumbled and disjointed scenarios.

On paper, the script deals with the historicity rather well, not comically depicting the Japanese as cartoonish villains or muddying the harsh realities of World War II. They also took the step to dedicate the movie to all those who served and died in the conflict, no matter the side, which is a rather positive gesture. However, when put on screen, it is rather obtuse, and while I can see the intent, it is entirely lost in translation.

2.5/5 STARS

Review: The Poignant and Bittersweet Self-Reflection of Almodóvar’s ‘Pain and Glory’

Legendary Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film — Dolor y Gloria — opens with the camera slowly encroaching upon a man floating at the bottom of a pool, motionless, seemingly relishing in the release of all physical tension for the few moments that his breathlessness will allow. The film then cuts to a group of women and a young boy on the side of a river, the women washing clothes by hand and singing harmoniously as the wind blows through the reeds and the sun shines warmly. Thus begins Almodóvar’s most personal story of his career, a very rich and moving narrative that interweaves history, memory, creativity, and desire into a deep reflection upon the man’s seven decades of life and four decades in film.

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Review: ‘Greener Grass’ is as Vapid as its Subjects

With the fifteen-minute short film of the same name written by directors Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe already feeling like it overstays its welcome, the feature-length adaptation really tests the patience of its audience. Its unhumorous nature is actually an acute commentary on the average American family. An absurdist satire of suburban upper-middle-class culture, Greener Grass ups the hideous aesthetic that plagues tract housing through a distinct oversaturation of colors in tandem with the dumbing down of banter between two friendly, but competitive, soccer moms. It attempts to poke fun at outlandish one-upmanship, but ultimately comes off just as self-serving and insipid as Jill (Deboer) and Lisa (Luebbe), whose names are so forgettable, I had to look up the cast to remember (although this could play into the idea of homogeneity to such a degree that everyone feels the same). Make no mistake though, for this “absurdist comedy satire” is neither some masterclass takedown of the culture of PTA meetings and “Gifted Program” math classes, nor possessive of any relative humor. Greener Grass tries to imbue the essence of a tornado ripping through Richmond Heights, but falls just as short as its contemporary absurd short films like Unedited Footage of a Bear and This House Has People in It.

The film opens at a soccer game, where children crowd around the ball in an unfiltered and lawless way. One child stands removed from the sport staring off into nothing until he is brushed past by another child, prompting him to fall to the ground; screaming in agony in a successful attempt for attention from his mother Jill, who’s talking to her “friend,” Lisa, about the recent murder of a yoga instructor. Laying out the primary structure for the rest of the film, this sequence in the film is about as good as it gets as it injects an absurd humor into what feels like the rudimentary chitchat you’d overhear at the waiting room of a children’s dentistry as one mother offers up her baby to the other in an attempt to appear selflessly and morally superior to her friend. This competition of who can appear better is what primarily drives the plot for the remaining 90 or so minutes (although it feels twice as long). Jill and Lisa work their way through child-swapping, narcissistic parenting, and contemplating divorce like it is a juice cleanse. But what the film focuses on primarily is their parenting, as their children seem to be extensions of their own egos. Jill is more embarrassed about her son wetting his pants than his mental stability, which is pretty questionable when it seems to take on a quasi-oedipal approach to this “mama’s boy” notion (although this is undercut by a gag equal parts outrageous and unfunny later in the film). Hints of thoughtful commentary are all too often undermined by an adherence to what one might call the “Adult Swim” approach to comedy, where everything is heightened to such an extent that the viewer grows bored of “look at how crazy this is” gags within the first five minutes.

Despite the poor execution, the most commendable aspect about Greener Grass is surprisingly, the dialogue. While the universal satirical criticism isn’t achieved, writer/directors Luebbe and DeBoer are able to contextualize absurd ideas into the mothers’ discourse while making it feel completely normal for two suburban mothers’ day-to-day babble. A particularly clever piece of dialogue comes up in the opening discussion of the murder of a yoga instructor. Both Jill and Lisa switch from disgust to vapid egoism in tandem as they make regards akin to “I’d always love to try out yoga” as they completely forget about the bleak nature of death and get caught up in their own desires. The ability to make the most farcical conversations feel mundane is handled incredibly well, and this is undoubtedly due to the fact that the actresses are also the writers of the film. But, as we all know, dialogue isn’t everything in a film. While the dialogue works, the rest of the writing falls flat on its face as the progression of events feels more like the writers think that an infinite crescendo of “craziness” works as opposed to developing a worthwhile, well-thought-out caricature of suburbanite vapidity. Thus, an interesting dichotomy comes into play with the fractured writing that triumphs and fails at the same time.

The odd thing about Greener Grass’s tone-deaf nature is that its execution is fairly standard. The film is well shot in regards to space and focus, and the production design aids the thesis of the film quite well. However, the visual presentation is held back by the colors that are blown out and utterly hideous. Despite that being an addition to the absurd nature of everything going on, it still isn’t a worthy contribution to its satirical nature. Terry Zwigoff takes aim at the same suburban mundanity in Ghost World through kitsch aesthetics and manages to triumph through production design akin to that of Greener Grass, but cinematographer Lowell A. Meyer manages to drown out the otherwise decent costume and production design in what feels like a cheap attempt at recreating Katy Perry music videos from the early 2010s. When there’s such a disconnect between the strengths of the production design and how it is presented on screen, it detracts substantially from one’s enjoyment of the film.

While I found the film to be quite repulsive, determining the quality something like this feels incredibly subjective. I don’t care for this or Sorry to Bother You, yet find Idiocracy and But I’m a Cheerleader to be quite comedic successes. Placing satire into a film makes any universal consensus incredibly contentious as the degree of its prevalence and its overall amplitude in the film plays a critical role in one’s enjoyment. With something like Greener Grass, unfortunately, the satire is too absurd and uninspired for me to enjoy it personally. Films may look awful but provide some interesting insight, but this film lacks both the appealing panache and thoughtful commentary for it to feel like it’s worthwhile in any sense. Ultimately, the film is a novel concept, but feels too underdeveloped to work well.

1.5/5 STARS

Review: ‘Doctor Sleep’ Doesn’t Bring Anything Particularly New to the Table

Doctor Sleep, the much awaited sequel to The Shining, is directed by Mike Flanagan, who’s known for Oculus (2013) and Gerald’s Game (2017). It follows adult Danny Torrence (Ewan McGregor) as he meets a young girl named Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran) who also has “The Shining,” a mysterious supernatural ability. Together, they must confront the origins of their powers and fight against those who would take advantage of it.

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Review: It’s Hard to Find Words to Describe ‘Synonyms’

“I am Yoav,” says the naked man lying in the bed, staring up at his strange saviors. “I have nothing anymore.” So begins the absurd, philosophical, individualist, fever dream narrative of Synonyms: with an Israeli immigrant, urgently escaped to Paris for mysterious purpose, stripped of all possessions by an unknown force, and rescued from certain death of cold by a bourgeoisie couple as foreign to him as he is to them. In his predicament, there is hopelessness and desolation. But in his eyes, one senses a free and confident spirit, born anew from ash and fire.

Yoav’s murky situation does not clear up with any real pace. He refuses to speak Hebrew, employing instead an intermediate command of the French language. He is reluctant to take aid in his plight of homelessness and lack of resources, accepting only a bare wardrobe and some essentials from his rescuers. His stories are uncoordinated and inspired, rather than informative. They say little as to the life he has left behind. He is anxious to explore the beautiful city in which he has arrived, and yet also seemingly unwilling to enjoy any of its beauty. All of this renders us, the audience, utterly confused. We cannot know Yoav. We can only tell that he is unabashedly alive, or another thing like it. Call it life, or urgency, or perhaps even just naive aspiration, it remains a core theme throughout the movie. “Die or conquer the mountain!” exclaims Yoav. He internalizes the fight for a free spirit, for individualism. He believes in a French ideal of bravery and initiative and walks the streets with it proudly emblazoned on his chest. He longs to assimilate into his new world.

This semi-biographical story that director Nadav Lapid tells is clearly close to the heart and imbued with emotion. It dances into existence on the screen with an energy reminiscent of the French New Wave. It begs one to think deeply about the conduct of life. It fills one with the crackling sensation of vivacity, then rends one to shreds with the monstrous teeth of despair. It is ever evolving and never constrained by plot or structure. Its characters love with insatiable passion and hate with burning fury. It quietly flirts with beautiful homoeroticism, then playfully jerks back the veil and makes no effort to hide it. And it all plays out with a soundtrack that is simultaneously nostalgic and hopeful, tragic and angelic.

There is not much to disappoint the viewer, save for a smattering of shots in the streets of Paris seemingly captured with primordial digital camcorders and a constant sense of confusion and ambiguity that does not necessarily put off, but nags and delights in frustrating the audience. There are unmotivated turns of plot and touches of surprising humor, but both seem to work in the film’s favor rather than against it. In many ways, Lapid has constructed a near-perfect existential piece, one that factors in looming anxiety about immigration and a masterfully delicate approach to sexuality and love. There’s very little not to love about Synonyms, as long as one seeks not to definitively define it.

4.5/5 STARS

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Review: ‘The King’ Has Questions About Strength, Yet Lacks the Will to Be Original

In the past couple years, Netflix has been trying really hard to establish itself as a premier movie production company. The King is part of this year’s Netflix bid for their elusive Oscar Best Picture win. Based on a series of Shakespeare plays, The King follows the life and story of King Henry the V in 1400s England.

One thing is clear about The King: it is a Netflix movie. This is far from anything supremely original or wildly captivating; it is the type of film to put on in the background while you work. However, while it’s riddled with problems, it does have a few redeeming qualities. For one, there is clearly talent behind the camera. The cinematography of the film manages to perform a high wire act as it balances beautiful shot lighting (most of which was impressively natural) with a subtlety that gives the film authenticity. Particularly during the battle scenes, it feels as if you are involved in the stakes, thanks in part to the camerawork. The costumes and locations also felt very authentic to the time, as opposed to Hollywood’s typical depiction.

The acting is adequate/solid for most of the film. Chalamet, playing the protagonist, King Henry V, did not reach the heights of some of his performances in previous works, but nonetheless played a very humble and dutiful character. Robert Pattinson also gives a decent performance and the Dauphin of France, but the performance that shines by far is that of Joel Edgerton. As Sir John Falstaff, an Englishman loyal to King Henry, Edgerton expertly adds comedy and depth to his character.

However, herein lies this film’s biggest flaw. The writing is simply not that good. Not in the sense of style and language, but in that it lacks structure and direction. For example, take the opening and closing of the film. Both, in my opinion, do not thrust or close the questions that the film asks. They are completed wasted moments that serve no purpose to the narrative. As a result, the pacing of this movie also suffers. For the first half, too much time is spent on Henry V before his ascension to the throne. This could’ve worked if not for the fact that the main philosophical question of this story revolves around his campaign for France. Though there are many small moments that were quite impressive, there is nothing that is inherently original with this film. The King relies far too much on history to be a good movie. It’s just another film that Netflix puts in its library to give curious viewers new options. Otherwise, it’s not worth the time.

3/5 STARS

Review: The Superpowers of ‘Harriet’ Tubman Displayed On Screen Are Not What You May Expect

Each year, around Oscar season, a new biopic emerges that is supposed to excite audiences. Last year, that was Bohemian Rhapsody and First Man. The year before, there was I. Tonya and Battle of the Sexes. Despite the consistency of the genre’s production, the quality never seems to match. Although films like First Man and I, Tonya do appear once in a while, a majority of films within the genre feel like nothing more than a glorified Wikipedia page. While Harriet introduces variables not found on a simple Wikipedia page, they are not for the better.

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Review: ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ is a Fresh Take on a Classic Franchise

With six films, a TV series, and countless video games, books, and comics under its belt, the Terminator franchise is one of the most prolific and recognizable action franchises in media. While the series has yet to have another entry as groundbreaking and universally loved as the first two films, that didn’t stop Deadpool director Tim Miller from trying.

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Review: ‘The Lighthouse’ is a 19th Century Maritime Masterpiece by Way of H.P. Lovecraft and Béla Tarr

In 2015, director Robert Eggers released his feature debut with The Witch (also known as The VVitch). A hyper-stylized period horror film about a family of isolated 17th century settlers in New England, the film went on to be a smash hit, snatching up over $40 million in box office revenue despite a relatively meager budget of $4 million. It garnered decent critical success upon its initial release, and since then, the film has only grown in stature, and is now recognized as one of the best horror films (if not of any genre) of the decade. It was as a result of this success that allowed Eggers to actualize a project he had in the works for years before the release of his feature debut The Lighthouse.

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Review: ‘Jojo Rabbit’ is an Emotional Roller Coaster

Taika Waititi is often regarded as the master of “Happy-Sad Cinema.” His movies are characterized by great storytelling, tragic and dramatic turns, and his unusual use of comedy to drive the story. Jojo Rabbit is no different. This movie follows the story of Jojo, a 10-year-old German boy in Nazi Germany, and Elsa, a Jewish girl who is hiding in his house with the help of his mother. What makes this a Waititi plot is that Jojo’s imaginary best friend is Der Fuhrer himself: Adolf Hitler.

Like most of Waititi’s other films, this is a character-driven story. After establishing all of the main characters in the first act of the movie, the plot moves smoothly according to the choices each character makes. On top of this, the cast gives an amazing set of performances. It is hard to believe that none of the main cast is German, because everyone’s accent is spot on (especially Scarlett Johansson’s). Unsurprisingly, Taika gives an excellent portrayal of a childish Hitler. Roman Davis (Jojo) and Thomasin McKenzie (Elsa Korr) beautifully play the contrasting leads of the story. Scarlett Johansson gives an excellent performances as Jojo’s mother, who Waititi describes as “a mother character that isn’t just a mother.” Archie Yates plays the loveable Yorki, Jojo’s friend, and though Stephen Merchant has only one major scene, he makes it a memorable one.

The cinematography is one of the most impressive aspects of this film. In every scene, one of the cameras is kept at a low angle to emulate Jojo’s point of view. We experience all the scenes from his perspective and it really helps us connect with him as a character. When put together with the stellar costume and set design, we really feel like we’re in Jojo’s shoes. The score, by Michael Giacchino, perfectly matches the themes and transitions. From The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to Giacchino’s “A World of the Wise,” the soundtrack expertly accompanies the movie as it progresses and changes tone.

All of the elements of a Waititi script are evident in this film. Even though the story deals with some serious issues and themes, Waititi uses humor to lighten the tone. He cleverly inserts a comedic beat or two in scenes with immense terror and strong emotions. What results is a heartfelt story of growth. As the story progresses, we get to see different sides of the same characters. All of the characters, especially Jojo, evolve throughout the film and experience changes in their relationship with others.

Although the major purpose of the Jojo’s imaginary Hitler is to provide comedic relief, He also gives an insight into Jojo’s mind, as he is a representation of the lies and propaganda spread by the Nazi government. Just like the rest of the Hitler Youth, Jojo is initially brainwashed into believing the lies propagated by the government. He has an unrealistic image of Jewish people and is led to believe that they are demons that he must take down. However, his mother combats this throughout the film as she tries to subtly convince Jojo to have a more compassionate view of the world. Because of this, we get to see the conflict that goes on inside Jojo’s mind. Jojo is it a constant struggle with himself as he is trying to figure out whether he is truly a Nazi or something else. His mother and imaginary Hilter represent the angel and devil on his shoulder. On one hand, he wants to be caring like his mother, but on the other hand, he wants to please Hitler by following Nazi ideals.

There are enough sudden turns and twists for the movie to be an emotional roller coaster. You could be laughing in one scene and crying the next. This movie is less of a story and more of an experience. It reaches both extremes of the emotional spectrum. Taika’s impression of the cartoonish Hitler is the icing on the cake that is this multi-layered film. Through this heartwarming, anti-hate, satirical comedy, Waititi wants to send a clear message: “It is definitely not a good time to be a Nazi.”

4.2/5 STARS