It was just two months ago, almost to the day, that I was, uhh, marveling at how Marvel Films’ blockbusters were mostly entertaining in the same ways. Watch enough of the movies, and they have a formula down for delivering a satisfying film experience. All that gets turned on its head with Eternals, the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The movie is filled with lush, gorgeous cinematography, and a rich and diverse cast. You shouldn’t expect less when dealing with the reigning Best Director, Chloe Zhao. It’s also weirdly somehow both too long and not long enough. Altogether, though, the movie is messy, unfocused, and a massive disappointment.
With a triumphant sequel, Joanna Hogg deepens the Souvenir expanded cinematic universe.
In a film landscape where every year’s box office charts are dominated by continuations, spin-offs, and reboots of existing intellectual properties, it shouldn’t be too surprising to see a sequel storm into the fall movie season to make a splash. Sure, there’s another big Marvel (by an Oscar-winning auteur no less) bombasting its way into multiplexes this weekend. That’s no shock. But the curious delight, however, is in A24’s clever counterprogramming: moving ahead the release date for Joanna Hogg’s sequel-of-sorts to her intricately-observed 2019 memoir, the Souvenir.
Shot and set in Seattle, misguided film In the Company of Women misses the mark
A local film shot and set in Seattle, In the Company of Women is an occasionally interesting if ultimately misguided story that never manages to find a compelling narrative groove.
The Beta Test is Jim Cummings at his most strange
The Beta Test is a chaotic and mysterious story of how one Hollywood agent receives a purple envelope containing a letter offering a sexual encounter with a stranger. The letter and the stranger soon become an obsession that will utterly consume his life. It is an all-encompassing piece of work, writer-director Jim Cummings’s most ambitious yet, a high compliment considering all that has already come before it.
Finch is a science fiction three stooges: Tom Hanks, his dog, and a robot
A breezy if basic science fiction journey, Finch follows Tom Hanks traveling across an apocalyptic America to San Francisco with his dog and a robot in tow.
MVFF: Paper and Glue
JR has been an incredible street arts for decades now, starting out as a graffiti artist and moving on to photography, large scale street art and so much more. In the same vein as Banksy, he has something to say and says it with his work. Now traveling the world to literally cover it with his images, he finds unique ways to unite and teach folks you’d never expect to see in one space together much less working together to create art. Spanning three very different projects (and many stories) this documentary shows intense, beautiful, and revelatory experiences affecting everyone involved.
Mass is a masterpiece of the unimaginable
It gives shape and form to the aftermath of violence in an attempt to uncover if we can heal.
The French Dispatch is a magazine in movie form
interlinked series of short stories set in the precious milieu of sometimes-indulgent longform journalism. At this point, you know who he is and who you are. If you’ve loved his previous films (as I do), but have wished that he could fit more stories, styles, and quirks into his filmmaking than you probably already have a lifetime subscription and will savor this elegiac visual magazine like a special holiday issue. If not, the thought of an overstuffed package that’s both adoring & gently skewering of the craft, might leave you refusing even a trial issue.
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, charming, eccentric and sad
An electric life indeed. Louis Wain (Benedict Cumberbatch) was a talented and prolific artist and even early in life, quite eccentric. After his father passed away he was the sole money-maker for his five sisters and ailing mother, but he never seemed fit for typical employment. Drawing portraits, illustrations and animals he made a meager wage that kept the family afloat. He fell in love with his sisters’ governess Emily (Claire Foy) who happened to be 10 years older, so it was quite a scandal. Not caring one iota what anyone else thought, he created a home for them both in the country. Taking in a small kitten as a pet, which wasn’t typical for the day, the three of them were a happy little family living in eccentric bliss together…
MVFF: Sami, Joe and I
Teenage strife is the same no matter where you grow up, and Sami, Joe and I digs deep into three such lives that have more than their faire share. While trio of young women have grown up in the same town, they have a diverse family life each with their own set of troubles.