Bringing Out the Dead

 Year:  1999

Director:  Martin Scorsese

Screenplay:  Paul Schrader, based on the novel Bringing Out the Dead by Joe Connelly

Starring:  Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames, Tom Sizemore

Running Time:  121 minutes

Genre:  Drama

New York City, the early 1990s:  Burned-out paramedic Frank Pierce (Cage) works the night shift.  Depressed, unable to sleep, and wracked with guilt for those he has not been able to save, Frank begins to hallucinate the patients he has lost.  After responding to a call about a man suffering cardiac arrest, Frank forms a tentative friendship with the man's daughter Mary (Arquette).

On it's release in 1999, this bleak urban drama was seen as a follow-up to Taxi Driver (1976), another collaboration between director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader.  Both films tell the stories of nocturnal workers in a hellish urban environment, and have strong themes of guilt and redemption.  However, while Robert De Niro, as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, finds his salvation in violence, Frank Pierce is essentially a compassionate man, trying to do the right thing in a broken, fallen world.  The film take place over the course of a weekends Frank and his fellow paramedics make the rounds tending to the sick and wounded of night-time New York, and delivering them to the overcrowded, understaffed and under equipped hospital.  Nicolas Cage gives one of his best performances as the haunted Frank Pierce, deathly pale, with sunken red-rimmed eyes, he looks like someone who hasn't slept in weeks, his slow drawl fitting Frank's laconic narration, and even the scenes where Cage delivers some of his more trademark over the top moments, it fits with Frank's mania at that point in the film.  Patricia Arquette delivers a quietly powerful performance as compassionate drug addict Mary, who becomes Frank's angel of mercy.  Sharing Frank's season in hell are Larry (John Goodman), Frank's friend,  Marcus (Ving Rhames), an eccentric devoutly religious paramedic who enjoys flirting with the dispatcher and organises a prayer circle among clubbers while he and Frank try and save an overdose victim; and Tom (Tom Sizemore), a wild paramedic who enjoys beating people up when he's bored.  This is a violent, and dark film, which is sometimes hard to watch and often disturbing, but it is visually impressive, with the fast cutting between flashing ambulance lights, and the camera tearing down the streets of New York, it's also very funny, albeit with humour of the darkest variety, such as Frank begging his boss to fire him at the start ion every shift, and some surprisingly surreal imagery.  It is a tough watch, and failed at the box office when it was released, but it is one of Scorsese's most powerful and underrated works.

Nicolas Cage in Bringing Out the Dead
  

Everything Everywhere All at Once

 Year:  2022

Directors:  Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert

Screenplay: Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert

Starring:  Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr., James Hong, Jamie Lee Curtis

Running Time:  139 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction, action, comedy

Evelyn Wang (Yeoh) is having a very bad day.  The laundromat she runs with her husband, Waymond (Quan), is struggling; her elderly father Gong Gong (Hong) who has effectively disowned her has arrived from China to be cared for by Evelyn and her family; she has a difficult relationship with her daughter, Joy (Hsu); and Waymond is trying to serve her with divorce papers.  To make matters worse, they are being audited by the IRS and have an appointment with severe auditor Deirdre Beaubeirdra (Curtis).  The last thing Evelyn needs is to learn that she has to connect with multiple alternate versions of herself from parallel universes in order to defeat a powerful force which threatens to destroy all of the infinite realities.

This film is a wild, unpredictable mix of genres and styles, taking in family drama, science-fiction, martial arts action and surreal comedy.  The result is one of the most imaginative, vibrant, and funniest films to come along in a very long time.  The basic concept is that for every decision that is made, the alternative outcome is played out in a parallel universe.  Through a technique called "verse jumping" which involves a special portable headset and performing a completely improbable action an individual can connect to their counterpart in a particular parallel universe that has the skills or abilities that they want to access.  In this way Evelyn is treated to glimpses of her life if she had made different choices, such as ending up as a skilled martial artist, a famous film star, a chef and more bizarre realities including one where humans have hot dogs instead of fingers, and one where she ends up as a rock.  Michelle Yeoh is great in the lead role and convincingly depict Evelyn's change from stressed and unhappy wife, mother and business owner, to action hero; Ke Huy Quan, who is possibly best known as a child actor in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and The Goonies (1985), is affecting as Evelyn's gentle and goofy husband; Stephanie Hsu is good as Evelyn and Waymond's troubled daughter and Jamie Lee Curtis gives a great comic performance as the tough IRS investigator.  In all the film's wildness and goofiness it doesn't lose sight of the more serious issues such as Evelyn's inability to accept the fact that her daughter is gay and has a girlfriend, and the importance of accepting people as they are and not how we may want them to be. Evelyn is someone who has had endless dreams and hopes but has abandoned them thanks to cruel reality, and now seems to see life itself as something of a miserable chore, but when she opens herself to the limitless possibilities, the experience is both frightening but ultimately liberating for her. The film also examines themes of Chinese-American cultural identity and existential despair.  The film is surprisingly emotional, and by the end is genuinely moving.  While at times it can be overwhelming, even with the generous run time of two hours and twenty minutes it seems to shoot past at breakneck speed with little pause for breath, this is one of the best films that I have seen in a very long time.

Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once

 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

 Year:  2021

Director:  Jason Reitman

Screenplay:  Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman, based on Ghostbusters written by Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis

Starring:  Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Paul Rudd, Logan Kim, Celeste O'Connor, Annie Potts, Ernie Hudson

Running Time:  124 minutes

Genre:  Fantasy, comedy

Single mother Callie (Coon) and her two children, teenager Trevor (Wolfhard) and precocious 12 year old Phoebe (Grace), inherit a lonely farmhouse from Callie's estranged father.  After being evicted from their Chicago apartment, the family move in to the house, which Phoebe quickly realises is haunted.  As she investigates she realises that her grandfather, who she never met, was a Ghostbuster.  Soon the nearby town and the area around it become plagued with strange supernatural activity  and Phoebe and Trevor dust off and repair their grandfather's old equipment and, along with some of their new friends, set out to do some ghostbusting of their own.

The 1984 film Ghostbusters remains one of the most beloved films of the 1980s.  A sequel, Ghostbusters II, was released in 1989, and a controversial remake of the first film was released in 2016.  Ghostbusters: Afterlife follows on from the first two films, and has no connection to the 2016 Ghostbusters.  Despite the trappings of the present day, there is a character called Podcast, people watch YouTube videos and use Google etc. this could almost be a 1980s kids movie.  And for the most part, the film seems to be heading in it's own direction, albeit one heavily influence by the films of the 1980s.  This is emphasised by the casting of Finn Wolfhard (star of 1980s-set science-fiction show Stranger Things (2016- ))in a lead role.  Towards the end however it settles into a heavily sentimentalised  retread of the end of Ghostbusters.  However, for all the film's flaws, it has a real charm to it.  Personally, I sat down to it not expecting much, but by the end it had won me over.  Similar to Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), the film breathes life into the franchise with new characters and a new set-up, while still providing enough cameos and call-backs to the first film to satisfy anyone's nostalgia cravings.  Finn Wolfhard is good as the teenager trying to impress local girl Celeste O'Connor.  Logan Kim is funny as an aspiring podcaster, and Mckenna Grace is very good as the scientifically minded Phoebe.  Among the adults, Carrie Coon grounds the film as the struggling single mother, trying to deal with her long standing resentment of her father for abandoning the family, and Paul Rudd is funny as the nerdy geology teacher who shows the kids horror movies such as Cujo (1983) and Child's Play (1988) on VHS, and develops a crush on Callie.  Jason Reitman, son of Ivan Reitman who produced and directed the first Ghostbusters, directs with obvious affection for the material, and there is a sweet tribute to the late Harold Ramis, who co-wrote and starred in the first two films.  The film is tonally uneven, some of the humour is a little too broad and silly, and, of course, it lacks Bill Murray, although he does appear in a cameo.  Another thing is that some of the fan service, and references to the earlier films are pretty heavy handed.  For the most part, however, it is a very enjoyable, light-hearted family adventure, which should appeal both to children and nostalgic adults.    It's no masterpiece, but it is a good piece of entertainment.

Finn Wolfhard, McKenna Grace and Logan Kim in Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Clouds of Sils Maria

 Year:  2014

Director:  Olivier Assayas

Screenplay:  Olivier Assayas

Starring:  Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloë Grace Moretz, Johnny Flynn

Running Time:  123 minutes

Genre:  Drama

Maria Enders (Binoche) is an acclaimed, successful actress who is cast in a play called Maloja Snake about the relationship between an older and younger woman.  Twenty years previously Maria had starred as the younger woman, the part that made her name, and now she is cast as the older partner, opposite young American starlet Jo-Ann Ellis (Moretz).  In remote Sils Maria, high in the Alps, Maria and her assistant Valentine (Stewart) cloister themselves to rehearse and prepare the character.  As they prepare and delve deeper beneath the skin of the character, Maria, who was reluctant from the beginning to accept the part, becomes increasingly prey to her insecurities and professional jealousy, as the play begins to increasingly mirror her life.

This is a slow, meditative psychological drama.  For the most part, the film is a two hander between Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart as they rehearse and discuss the play, the psychology of Maria's part and the state of cinema, and walk in the spectacular Alpine scenery.  Juliette Binoche is very good in a part that was written specifically for her by writer/director Olivier Assayas, who incorporated elements from Binoche's real life into the script.  Kristen Stewart also gives a very strong performance as the loyal assistant, Valentine.  Despite prominent billing, Chloë Grace Moretz has comparatively little screen time, although she makes the most of it as the young starlet, who is never out of the tabloids or internet gossip sites for her boozing, drugs, fighting paparazzi and police officers, and her older, married boyfriend (Johnny Flynn).  The film is highly allusive, hinting at and referencing things that are never shown or explained, for example Maria often asks Valentine about her relationship with a photographer, but Valentine always evades the questions.  In one scene she returns to the house, apparently deeply upset, having seemingly split up with him, but we never learn what happened.   It is also hinted that Maria and Valentine's relationship may be more than strictly professional, but it is left ambiguous.  This is a film which seems simple on the surface, but is deceptively complex, where a lot is left up to the viewer to interpret in their own way.  Some may find this entrancing, others merely frustrating.  Some of the film is very funny, making fun of contemporary Hollywood cinema.  Maria is embarrassed that her biggest hit was an X-Men film, and she constantly gets offered roles in horror or science-fiction movies (a nun who turns out to be a werewolf and a mutant hybrid), which she is very contemptuous of.  In one of the film's funniest scenes, Maria and Valentine got to see Jo-Ann Ellis' latest movie, a science-fiction film where she is dressed in a red catsuit and matching wig in what looks like a particularly cheesy 1980s episode of Doctor Who.  When Valentine (wearing a Batman tee-shirt) tries to convince Maria that comic book and science-fiction films can be serious and artistic, dealing with complex, serious themes, Maria responds by laughing at her.  The film is beautifully made and stylishly photographed.  The film's title, and the title of the play within the film, refers to a weather phenomenon where the clouds hang low beneath the mountain peaks and move through the valleys giving the appearance of a large snake.

Kristen Stewart and Juliette Binoche in Clouds of Sils Maria

Slumdog Millionaire

 Year:  2008

Director:  Danny Boyle

Screenplay:  Simon Beaufoy, based on the novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup

Starring:  Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan

Running Time:  120 minutes

Genre:  Drama

Mumbai:  Eighteen year old orphan Jamal Malik (Patel) is one question away from winning the grand prize of 20 million rupees on the Indian version of TV game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, when he is arrested by the police on suspicion of cheating.  During his brutal interrogation, which includes torture,  it is revealed that each of his answers to the questions relate to some incident in his tough life, growing up in the Juhu slum.

This is a film which mixes hard-hitting drama and feel-good romanticism to create a vibrant, entertaining and ultimately uplifting fable.  The film moves between Jamal's police interrogation, his appearance on the game show, and flashbacks illustrating his life, triggered by each question.  Danny Boyle directs with a kinetic visual style making full use of his large repertoire of cinematic tricks, including fact motion, slow motion, over-saturated colours, superimpositions and more.  Mumbai itself makes for a colourful, lively setting, becoming more like a character in it's own right than just a backdrop, and in Boyle's heavy use of overly bright yellow, gold and orange colours in the daylight scenes, you can almost feel the heat radiating from the screen.  Dev Patel makes for an engaging lead, with some very good work from Frieda Pinto, in her film debut, as Latika, the girl that Jamal fell in love with when they were children, and has spent most of his life searching for.  Madhur Mittal gives an impressive, layered performance Salim, Jamal's volatile older brother.  Anil Kapoor plays the slick gameshow host and Irrfan Khan plays the Police Inspector leading the interrogation.  The film is sometimes uneven in it's tone, with the grim scenes of life on the streets of Mumbai, at odds with the more whimsical scenes, but by the end the film had won me over.  The film is also very funny in places, particularly a scene where a very young Jamal (Aysuh Mahesh Khedekar) goes to extreme lengths to get his favourite movie star's autograph, and a scene set in a call centre.

Dec Patel and Freida Pinto in Slumdog Millionaire

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

 Year:  2022

Director:  Sam Raimi

Screenplay:  Michael Waldron, based on characters appearing in Marvel Comics

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Michael Stuhlbarg, Rachel McAdams

Running Time:  126 minutes

Genre: Fantasy

New York City:  Doctor Stephen Strange (Cumberbatch), the former "Sorcerer Supreme", is attending the wedding of his ex-girlfriend, Christine (McAdams), when a giant one-eyed, octopus-like monster starts rampaging through the city.  The creature turns out to be hunting teenager America Chavez (Gomez), who has the power to travel between the various dimensions of the "multiverse".  With the help of the current Sorcerer Supreme, Wong (Wong), Strange tries to save America from the unstable, and extremely powerful, Wanda Maximoff (Olsen), the "Scarlet Witch", who wants to steal America's power, which would mean killing America, and endangering the entire multiverse.

This is the 28th film in the ever expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) built around characters and situations from Marvel comics.  A sequel to Doctor Strange (2016), this also follows on from the film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and the TV series WandaVision (2021) both of which are heavily referenced.  The film was originally to be directed by Scott Derrickson, who made the first Doctor Strange film, but he left the project due to "creative differences", to be replaced by Sam Raimi, who had directed the pre-MCU Spider-Man (2002) and it's two sequels.  Following the negative response to Spider-Man 3 (2007), Raimi had vowed never to make another superhero film, but being a fan of the Doctor Strange comic, and enjoying the first film, he decided to take up the reins.  While this film, in common with the Spider-Man trilogy, has a dangerous, but almost sympathetic antagonist, the film really harkens back to Raimi's debut feature The Evil Dead (1982), and it's sequels Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992).  There is a scene with a flying eyeball, a cursed book with devastating powers, Ray Harryhausen-esque stop-motion style monsters and Evil Dead star and Raimi regular Bruce Campbell battling his own possessed limbs.  If you are already a fan of the MCU films already, then this has more than enough action, quips, special effects and references to satisfy any cravings, if you are not a fan, however, then this is unlikely to convert you.  If you have never seen any of the MCU films, then this is not a good place to start, it's very much tied in to what has gone before and lays the ground work for what is to come.    When the film breaks free of it's franchising building duties and is able to tell it's own story, it is a lively, enjoyable film, which gets better as it goes along.  The cast do the best they can with clunky, exposition heavy dialogue, and Benedict Cumberbatch plays it all with his tongue firmly in his cheek, Rachel McAdams, as in the first Doctor Strange, is wasted in a role that requires her to do little except run or stand around.  Elizabeth Olsen is very good as the traumatised, corrupted Wanda.  The film also has a number of fan-pleasing cameos, which point the way towards more crossovers, sequels and spin-offs.  The idea of the multiverse, which are basically different parallel universes, has long been popular in both Marvel and DC comics as a way for writers to manage the continuity of decades with of characters and stories, as well as providing a convenient deus ex machina for example, if you want to bring back a dead character, you can just have their counterpart from another universe pop up.  As I said, this is an enjoyable film, which at time suffers from overly complicated plotting and the need to tie in to so many threads from the larger franchise, as well as an over reliance on humour.  It's also surprisingly gruesome for a Marvel film.  It's probably one of their most violent films.  At it's best, it is imaginative, smart and exciting, and often feels like a comic come to life. As always with an MCU movie, stay for the end credits, because there are two additional scenes, one midway through the credits and one at the very end.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Benedict Wong in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness

The Walker

 Year:  2007

Director:  Paul Schrader

Screenplay:  Paul Schrader

Starring:  Woody Harrelson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lauren Bacall, Ned Beatty, Moritz Bleibtreu, Mary Beth Hurt, Lily Tomlin, Willem Dafoe

Running Time:  107 minutes

Genre:  Thriller, drama

Washington, D. C.:  Carter Page III (Harrelson) is a "walker" - he is paid to accompany wealthy wives to events, and act as companion, confidante, and cards partner.  One of his clients, Lyn Lockner (Scott Thomas), who is married to a powerful United States Senator, is having an affair with a lobbyist, but when she discovers her lover's murdered body, Carter reports the crime in order to cover up her affair.  However, Carter almost immediately becomes the prime suspect in the enquiry.  As he attempts to uncover the truth and clear his name, he finds himself embroiled in a dangerous political conspiracy.

The character of the "gay best friend" has become almost a stereotype in any number of dramas and comedies.  Usually the character comforts and helps the female lead with bitchy remarks and sharp-tongues comments, adding some humour and park to the proceedings.  Woody Harrelson's Carter Page III is almost like a "gay best friend" for hire.  The last of a distinguished Southern family, we meet him at the card table in a luxury hotel suite with the three older women that he escorts, playing canasta and holding court with arch remarks and witticisms.  Immaculately dressed, urbane, debonair with a strong line in clever remarks, and an extensive knowledge of all the best things in life.  Carter, who is gay, acts as friend and companion, but doesn't sleep with his clients.  The character is still in the long tradition of Paul Schrader's troubled, lonely men.  He lives alone in an immaculate apartment, and spends much of his time, perfecting his appearance, including his wig, which he removes only once, briefly, and researching his topics of conversation.  Although he has a boyfriend, they never seem to be all that close, and no-one else appears to be allowed into Carter's golden kingdom.  In fact, Carter's whole life seems to be a succession of facades that he puts up for other people.  This is the problem with Schrader's film, despite a fantastic performance by Harrelson, there doesn't really appear to be anything behind Carter's genteel politeness, and immaculate suits, except the briefest flickers which we see when he is angered or upset.  The supporting cast is full of great performances, including Lauren Bacall as the Grand Dame of Washington, who rivals Carter in her command of waspish remarks.  Kristin Scott Thomas is very good as the unfaithful wife, terrified of discovery.  Ned Beatty is perfectly oily as a rich, nasty, old Senator.  Originally conceived as a sequel to Schrader's 1980 film American Gigolo, this is a cleverly written film, but it feels surprisingly bland and workmanlike for Schrader.  Despite being set in Washington, the film was mostly filmed in Britain and the Isle of Man, and despite the strong cast, it has the feel of a TV movie about it, and the references to the Iraq War seem shoehorned in to give the film some contemporary relevance.  However the film has a witty and intelligent script, and it is worth seeing for the performances.  

  Kristin Scott Thomas and Woody Harrelson in The Walker

Planet of the Apes

 Year:  1968

Director:  Franklin J. Schaffner

Screenplay:  Michael Wilson and Rod Serling, based on the novel Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle

Starring:  Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Maurice Evans, Kim Hunter, James Whitmore, James Daly, Linda Harrison

Running Time:  112 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction

Three astronauts crash-land on a seemingly desolate planet, in the far future.  As they explore, they discover, to their horror, that humans are mute, primitive creatures, and apes have become the dominant species, having developed language, technology and society.  

Based on the 1963 novel by French author Pierre Boulle, this has become one of the most influential science-fiction films ever made.   The film opens with the four astronauts in suspended animation, crashing into a lake.  Stewart, the only woman on the ship, has died due to a leak in her suspended animation capsule. The survivors: macho, cigar-chomping cynic Taylor (Charlton Heston), square-jawed, idealistic patriot Landon (Robert Gunnar) and ambitious scientist  Dodge (Jeff Burton), soon discover that 2978, two thousand years after they set out, and believe that they are on an alien planet.  As they explore they discover a tribe of humans, who are hunted by armed gorillas on horseback.  In the course of which, Dodge is killed, Landon knocked out and Taylor shot in the throat, rendering him temporarily unable to speak.  Taylor is locked in a kind of zoo, where he has to convince the chimpanzee scientists researching him that he is an intelligent being.  The film builds itself up quite slowly, the apes don't appear at all until quite well into the film, with a lot of time being spent on the bickering between the three astronauts.  Early in the film Taylor states that he joined the expedition because he wanted to find "something better than man".  The apes have an organised, fairly placid society (or so it seems), if very hierarchical:  Orang-utans are the leaders, judges, priests and teachers; Gorillas are the military and law enforcement and Chimpanzees are kind of the middle-class.  In the Pierre Boulle novel, the apes have a technologically advanced society, however the filmmakers deemed it easier, and cheaper to have the apes in a more primitive society.  The look of the ape village, and the costume designs are impressive.  However, it is fair that the ape make up (which won an honorary Academy Award for John Chambers for astounding make-up achievement) hasn't aged well and looks slightly comical today at times, and you might question why apes living in the 3978 would speak and write English.  The script was written by Michael Wilson, who worked on Bridge on the River Kwai, another Boulle adaptation, and Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling, and it was Serling who came up with the film's iconic conclusion, which is possibly one of the most famous movie endings of all time.  Heston is good at the heroics, snarling lines such as "Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!"  Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter as sympathetic chimpanzees Cornelius and Zira, and Maurice Evans as orange-utan Doctor Zaius do very well, acting under layers of heavy ape makeup.   The film has plenty of action, and there is some good humour (such as sulky teen chimp Lucius (Lou Wagner) moaning about the older generation, and three orang-utan judges doing the "Three Wise Monkeys", and Zira's reaction when Taylor moves to kiss her, telling him: "But your so ugly!"), however it is also an intelligent film depicting a world where the balance of power has reversed, and where humans are treated by apes, much the same as how humans have treated apes in our own world ("You lead me around on a leash!" Taylor snarls.  "We thought you were inferior" explains Zira).  Linda Harrison plays Nova, one of the mute humans, who the ape scientists want to mate with Taylor, and who eventually forms a mutual attachment with him.  However, she really doesn't have much at all to do.  The film ends with a shocking twist ending, and the final image packs a punch no matter how many times it has been parodied and references in the years since.

Chimpanzee that!:  Roddy McDowell, Kim Hunter and Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes