The Christmas Chronicles 2 (2020)

Tags

Christmas, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Netflix

To all who would rather be elsewhere,
To all who are feeling alone,
To those who wish Christmases long past
Could somehow return when we’re grown,

To all who are missing a loved one,
To all who wish wishes were real,
To all who are hoping that Christmas
Can brighten a year so surreal,

I know well this plaintive nostalgia,
Yet bypassing cynics’ deaf ears,
I still wish you all Merry Christmas.
May smiles replace all your tears.
________________________

MPA rating:  PG

Two years ago, Netflix delivered The Christmas Chronicles, with one of the more fun incarnations of Santa Claus delivered by the incomparable Kurt Russell. In true commercial Christmas fashion, we now have a sequel to the family-friendly romp, but whereas the first film borrowed heavily from Adventures in Babysitting for its plot, the second film leans a bit more on Gremlins and The Santa Clause 3, with mixed but still enjoyable results.

Teenagers Teddy (Judah Lewis) and Kate Pierce (Darby Camp) are still True Believers two years after their previous adventures with Santa Claus (see first movie), but Kate is now depressed having to spend Christmas in Cancun with her mother’s new boyfriend (Tyrese Gibson) and his young son Jack (Jahzir Bruno). While Teddy was the one with the character arc in the last movie, he’s quickly sidelined in favor of Kate and Jack, who are suddenly whisked away to the North Pole by a mysterious ne’er-do-well (Julian Dennison of Hunt for the Wilderpeople) with designs on Santa’s Village.

The first film was a hodgepodge of admittedly likable ingredients from other movies, and its sequel is much the same, though there are still spurts of inspiration. We get to see more of the North Pole this time, a sprawling collection of specialized toy and candy shops populated by impish elves, which should capture any child’s imagination without the creepy qualities of, say, The Polar Express. And following the first film’s example, this one again includes an exuberant musical number of pure Christmas spirit (featuring Darlene Love) that is worth the price of admission.

It’s rather predictable and not quite as good as the first movie, feeling even more like a farrago of Christmas-themed elements that don’t always fit naturally. The antagonist Belsnickel is particularly meh for the most part, though Dennison does his best to channel cartoonish malice. I did enjoy the new cast members, such as wide-eyed Jahzir Bruno and the larger role for Goldie Hawn as Mrs. Clause, though it was weird seeing Tyrese Gibson as a family man compared with his swaggering ladies’ man role in the Fast and Furious films. I also liked how the story expanded on the series’ Santa mythos as well, even if it also tosses in time travel for a sweet yet contrived reason. The Christmas Chronicles 2 probably won’t become a holiday staple, though there are rumors of a third film in the works, but it’s a diverting watch to remind the world of what a great Santa Claus Kurt Russell is.

Rank:  Honorable Mention

© 2020 S.G. Liput
708 Followers and Counting

A very Merry Christmas to everyone!

What Happened to Monday (2017)

Tags

Action, Drama, Mystery, Netflix, Sci-fi, Thriller

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to write a poem about a letter of the alphabet, so I went through the week and compiled couplets for each day.)

The M in Monday dips and dives
And puts a strain on all our lives.

The T is Tuesday’s cruciform,
The closest shelter from the storm.

The W is Wednesday’s smile,
As crooked as a crocodile.

The T in Thursday spreads each arm
In peace, surrender, and alarm.

The F in Friday has buck teeth
That shield a smile underneath.

The S is Saturday’s great treble,
Quite the sinner, saint, and rebel.

The S in Sunday tries to swerve,
But hits Monday and hits a nerve.
__________________________

MPA rating: TV-MA (strong R)

Netflix films can be hit-or-miss, but when a good one comes along, its relegation to a single TV streaming service makes it feel perhaps more underrated than if it had received a theatrical release. Released to theaters in Europe and Asia but to Netflix elsewhere, What Happened to Monday falls somewhere between hit and miss, but it still feels underrated for the things it does well. The dystopian thriller takes a familiar dystopian threat like overpopulation and runs with it in a way not seen before.

Actors seem to enjoy the test of inhabiting multiple characters and playing off themselves, but Noomi Rapace snagged a special challenge here, playing seven identical sisters raised in secret to protect them from the government’s rigidly enforced one-child policy. Although siblings are simply put into cryostasis, the septet’s grandfather (Willem Dafoe) kept them off the books entirely and fashioned a singular identity of Karen Settman; each girl is named after a day of the week and takes turns going out as Karen Settman on the day of their name: Sunday on Sunday, Monday on Monday, etc. However, when Monday doesn’t return at the end of her day, the other sisters find themselves in danger and must figure out what happened to her and her ties to the politician who first advocated the one-child policy (Glenn Close).

It’s no secret that I love science fiction, and What Happened to Monday is the kind of unique genre tale I enjoy, usually more than the critics do. The plot zips along without a moment of boredom, and Rapace does wonders with a script that doesn’t quite manage to make each of the Settman sisters stand out. Some are easy to pick out (Saturday has blonde hair, Friday is mousy and wears a knit cap), while others don’t really distinguish themselves much (Tuesday and Wednesday). Nevertheless, Rapace breathes personality into the ones that matter most, and the effects allowing her to interact with her doubles are top-notch.

Many films on Netflix don’t seem to bother holding back on their TV-MA ratings, and sadly the same is true for What Happened to Monday, marred by several bloody deaths and a gratuitous sex scene. It’s really a shame because the film otherwise warrants repeat viewings. Some twists are hardly surprising to anyone familiar with the dystopian genre, but it still holds plenty of mystery and thrills to overcome the occasionally thin characterization. It even ends up with a surprisingly pro-life sentiment by the end. It’s far better than its mixed reviews indicate, and if you can overcome the R-rated content, it’s one more what-if example of why I love sci-fi.

Best line: (Sunday, quoting their father) “Seven minds are better than one.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
684 Followers and Counting

The Wandering Earth (2019)

Tags

Action, Drama, Foreign, Netflix, Sci-fi, Thriller

(Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt was to write about items gathered during a walk. In my house, I latched onto a nearby globe and decided to write about the planet at large, even though the film is more about disaster than discovery.)

What ancient cartographer could have imagined
A world as small as this?
Back then, the maps ended without a true edge
In blurry oblivion. One would allege
A brand new discovery, and they would wedge
The new land upon the abyss.

And now we know everything, satellite-view;
No land is left to miss.
But now we look upward and see a frontier,
More blurry oblivion. Scorning the fear,
We still must endeavor to find what’s not here.
We just can’t abide an abyss.
___________________________

MPA rating: TV-MA (it’s a PG-13-level movie, but the English subtitles have more F words than the original Chinese for some reason)

When you think of Chinese films, science fiction isn’t a genre that immediately comes to mind, but The Wandering Earth might change that. Based on a 2000 novella and released through Netflix outside of China, this big-budget blockbuster is like Asia’s answer to Michael Bay, a solar-system-spanning disaster flick that is just over-the-top enough to work.

Anyone remember the Spongebob episode with the Alaskan bull worm threatening the town, where Patrick says they should just take Bikini Bottom and push it someplace else? Well, that’s the brilliant idea the future world leaders in this film came up with to escape an expanding sun. Studding the earth’s surface with enormous rocket engines, they push the planet out of its orbit toward a safer system while most of the population retreats underground to escape the freezing surface. Years into the journey, the roaming planet gets caught in Jupiter’s gravity, forcing young adult Liu Qi (Chuxiao Qu), his sister, and their accomplices to fix one of the failing engines and save the world, while his father (Jing Wu) on a space station tries to do the same.

With tiny people causing planet-level effects, everything in The Wandering Earth is on such a humongous scale that even its semi-plausible elements seem utterly ridiculous, yet the earnestness of the characters and coolness of the visuals make the suspension of disbelief possible. In creating China’s first big sci-fi movie, the filmmakers certainly went all out with their emulation of similar Hollywood blockbusters: collapsing ice towers, a single-minded AI to fight, huge explosions, questions about saving the many vs. the few, last-minute heroics and touching sacrifices.

There’s a reason it made $700 million, making it the third highest-grossing non-English film ever. (Netflix has an English dub, but I’d only watch it if you absolutely can’t stand subtitles or want fewer obscenities.) I don’t know how the current pandemic will affect China’s film industry, but The Wandering Earth is proof that it can compete with Hollywood on special-effects extravaganzas. I wouldn’t say it’s better than films like Armageddon or Sunshine, but it’s certainly bigger.

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
679 Followers and Counting

The Irishman (2019)

Tags

Drama, History, Netflix

Some people rebel for as long as they can;
They buck every trend and defy every plan.
But others are quiet and willing and pleased
To do as they’re told, keep the masters appeased,
And these are the ones you must watch and beware,
The don’t-rock-the-boat-ers, who heed but don’t care,
For with the right orders behind such as they,
The renegades pale next to those who obey.
_____________________

MPAA rating: R

After over a week of delay, I’m finally getting to the last of 2019’s Best Picture nominees, which just so happens to be the last one I saw and the least good, in my opinion. I’ll freely admit that I have little love for the gangster genre or for Martin Scorsese’s films (honestly, Hugo is the only one I’ve cared to see), and The Irishman did nothing to remedy that opinion. There’s a fine film somewhere in it, but you’ll likely fall asleep before you get to it.

The three-and-a-half-hour plot plays out as a mob epic, spanning decades and following the life of ex-GI Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), an Irish meat delivery driver, who happens to meet Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) and from there becomes gradually introduced to the shady but profitable world of organized crime. Settling into a job of “painting houses” or murder for hire, Frank proves to be a talented hitman and eventually becomes the body guard and right-hand man of Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). Yet, as Hoffa’s interests begin to stray from those of the mob families, Frank feels his loyalties torn and must figure out how to live with his decision.

Based on the nonfiction book I Heard You Paint Houses, The Irishman feels detailed and comprehensive in its depiction of the Philadelphia underworld and certainly believable in showing how a nobody like Frank could rise through the ranks. The Oscar-nominated effects used to de-age the three main characters are also highly convincing, an illusion broken only by the knowledge of what they actually look like right now. And of course, it certainly has star power, further aided by the presence of Ray Romano, Harvey Keitel, and Bobby Cannavale, who all fit their unscrupulous characters to a T. It’s not quite as violent as I feared from Scorsese, but it feels like he’s definitely in his comfort zone.

Yet, for all of its seemingly lofty ambition, The Irishman, put simply, drags. Even watching on Netflix from home, you’d have to be truly fascinated by the gangster genre (or just feel obligated to get through it, in my case) to watch the whole thing in one sitting, and I can’t help but think it would have been better served as a miniseries. Just like with Peter Jackson and The Hobbit trilogy, there comes a time when a director becomes so enamored with his subject matter that he can’t bear to edit it properly. It’s a quality production from beginning to end; there’s just too much in between them.

In addition, while the acting was good overall and both Pacino and Pesci snagged Supporting Actor nominations, I can see why De Niro was not similarly honored. Beyond the oddness of an Italian actor playing an Irishman surrounded by Italians, the role of Frank Sheeran is fairly one-note until the very end, always doing what’s expected of him and letting himself be controlled by his bosses and his temper. De Niro gives a solid performance but doesn’t give Frank enough depth, just as The Irishman is a decent gangster movie but fails to distinguish itself among the rest of the genre. I liked aspects of the production, such as Frank’s narration and the labels thrown up to introduce certain characters and the usually violent ways they died, which strengthened the theme of the gangster life being ultimately hollow, but there’s little reason that I would watch The Irishman again, at least not all at once.

Best line: (Whispers DiTullio) “To tell you the truth, I’m a little concerned.”
(Frank Sheeran, narrating) “Whenever anybody says they’re a little concerned, they’re very concerned.”
(Whispers) “As a matter of fact, I’m really more than a little concerned. “
(Frank, narrating) “And when they say they’re more than a little concerned, they’re desperate.”

 

Rank: Dishonorable Mention

 

© 2020 S.G. Liput
669 Followers and Counting

 

Marriage Story (2019)

Tags

Drama, Netflix

Marriage is a second skin
That settles overtop the first,
And those who’ve worn it many years
Would hate it if reversed.

Yet many chafe beneath the weight
And wish their freedom to obtain,
And when their other half dissents,
The aftermath is pain.

To shed your skin, to slough it off,
Will sting regardless of rapport
And leave you feeling raw and naked,
Two-in-one no more.

When wholes made halves are commonplace,
Mere products of the great divorce,
We cannot help but be impressed
By those who stay the course.
________________________

MPAA rating: R (for much profanity)

It’s finally time to dive into the Oscar nominees for Best Picture! I plan to see most of them in the theater leading up to the ceremony on February 9, but luckily I was able to watch Marriage Story from the comfort of my couch. Thanks, Netflix! Marriage Story may be the most potent of films focusing on divorce, hard-hitting and honest about the strain it inflicts on two people who once loved each other and still may, if not for the divisiveness of the situation.

Writer-director Noah Baumbach does something brilliant right from the start: from the very first sequence, he gets the audience to like both Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie Barber (Adam Driver), thanks to a counseling exercise where they describe the best aspects of each other. They both feel like real, kind, hard-working people and good parents to their son Henry (Azhy Robertson). Naturally, it goes downhill from there, since the two are already in the midst of a separation, Nicole taking Henry to L.A. for a TV role she landed while Charlie must divide his time between visits to L.A. and managing his Broadway play in New York. The introduction of lawyers (Laura Dern, Ray Liotta), who personify the “it’s not personal, it’s just business” mindset, only deepens the couple’s divide, sharpening their wills while breaking their hearts.

Like Fences back in 2016, Marriage Story is a film that I marveled at simply by the power of its acting, further strengthened by the incisiveness of Baumbach’s dialogue. Driver and Johansson prove they’re both masters of their craft, and it astounds me that they’re not the frontrunners in their respective award categories because I would just hand them the Oscar personally. The good will engendered for their characters right from the beginning goes a long way, especially since they both stoop to being petty and vindictive at times. The script does well to not choose sides, blaming the situation rather than only one party. At certain points, I felt more deeply for Charlie, yet he was the one who had an affair that led to all this. It’s a well-played balancing act and a heartrending one at that.

I’ve never been through the pain of divorce, though the film made me think of when my parents had to live several states away from each other for a time and I’m grateful it didn’t lead to what Charlie and Nicole go through. Divorce is a messy business, and when neither side is a monster, it’s sad for everyone. Certain scenes are stand-outs, showcases for those eloquent emotional fireworks that earn Oscar buzz, including a surprising musical opportunity for Driver. The divorce themes also bring to mind 1979’s Kramer vs. Kramer, though with more focus on the adults rather than the father-son pair in that film. Marriage Story doesn’t offer much closure or a solution to its tale of relationship ruin, but it’s a candid, sometimes funny, often poignant story that many will find painfully relatable.

Best line: (Ted, a lawyer Charlie visits) “Criminal lawyers see bad people at their best. Divorce lawyers see good people at their worst.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy

 

© 2019 S.G. Liput
659 Followers and Counting

 

Klaus (2019)

Tags

Animation, Christmas, Comedy, Family, Netflix

The world’s getting louder and meaner and prouder,
Content to be less than the best it can be.
Our good angels shrivel when others aren’t civil,
And we follow suit with acute savagery.

The worst in a person can come out and worsen,
And wrong leads to wrong for as long as we let it.
Yet kindness courageous is also contagious.
The bar is as low or high, though, as we set it.

What good can be started by all the kindhearted
Can spread just as quickly as wickedness can.
Right actions and choices speak more than raised voices,
For goodness expressed frees the best part of man.
____________________

MPAA rating: PG

It might be too late for Christmas, but Netflix’s Klaus isn’t just a great Christmas movie; it’s a great movie. I wasn’t expecting much from Netflix’s first original animated film, but good word-of-mouth convinced me to give it a look-see, and now I’m happy to contribute to its positive buzz. Being nominated for a Best Animated Feature Oscar doesn’t hurt either.

Does anyone else recall a 2000 animated film called The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus? I remember it nostalgically as a sweet origin story for Santa, and Klaus is similar in that regard. Whereas the other film featured extensive magical elements, Klaus is far more down-to-earth, gradually developing the myths and trappings surrounding Santa in a way that could feasibly happen, albeit still with some cartoonish absurdity and a dark undercurrent.

However, the titular Klaus is not the main character. Instead, it is the vain and spoiled Jesper (Jason Schwartzman), whose father, exasperated by his son’s laziness, makes him the postman for the remote and desolate island village of Smeerensburg, where a family feud has raged for generations. In a town where no one is eager to send letters to each other, Jesper concocts a plan to get the children to send letters for toys, a plan that might eventually get him transferred back to his well-to-do life. Essential to the plan is Klaus (J.K. Simmons), a mysterious woodsman with a wealth of toys, and, while Jesper’s goals begin as self-serving, he eventually starts to see the good that can come from an act of kindness.

The most noteworthy aspect of Klaus is its unique animation. In an age where most of the 2D hand-drawn animation around originates in Japan, director Sergio Pablos (creator of the Despicable Me franchise and character designer for several Disney Renaissance films) and other former Disney animators wanted to show how 2D animation might have evolved if it hadn’t been abandoned by the industry in the West. The result is gorgeously rendered and looks somewhere in between 2D and 3D, thanks to meticulous attention to shadow and shading.

If Klaus had come out twenty years ago, I know it would have become a classic annual watch in my home, and I’d like to think it will be for this generation as well, despite its exclusivity to Netflix. The last decade has seen 2D animation flourish on the small screen, and Klaus gives me hope that it’s not dead for feature-length films as well. Despite some predictable elements, it’s filled with humor, sweetness, and a stellar voice cast (also including Rashida Jones, Norm MacDonald, and Joan Cusack) and carries the perfect heartwarming Christmas spirit that reminds us how much better it is when kindness guides our choices.

Best line: (Klaus) “A true selfless act always sparks another.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy

 

© 2019 S.G. Liput
659 Followers and Counting