BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER, THE MENU, TRIANGLE OF SADNESS, WENDELL & WILD, THIRTEEN LIVES, LYLE, LYLE, CROCODILE

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER | Disney/Marvel Writer/Director Ryan Coogler |Co-writer Joe Robert Cole

This definitely is the most thoughtful and intentionally aware film of the MCU. Its writer/director Ryan Coogler had his hands full – first he had to allow for audiences as well as cast /crew and Marvel family, proper time to mourn the passing of Chadwick Boseman and his portrayal of Black Panther, within the film, centering things, without letting it take over.  He also had to take a vintage comicbook character, Namour (Sub-Mariner) (Tenoch Huerta) and his underworld domain, a form of Atlantis, and make it his own, give it cultural depth. In fact, the film is rich with a mix of cultures as there are 7 Languages spoken throughout the movie.  Then everyone said the women of “Black Panther” ruled the original movie; we were all so impressed with Shuri, (Letitia Wright) the Queen Mother Ramanda (Angela Bassett) Nakia, the spy (Lupita Nyong’o) The Dora Milaje, particularly General Okoye (Danai Gurira) but what happens when you actually have to base a movie around the female characters, does it hold up?  On top of all this, by naming the film Wakanda Forever, he had to make us remember how much we all were transported and transfixed with this amazing, self-sufficient, technologically advanced land, and bring back that sense of pride.   

Of course these concerns are in addition to the regular stuff – CGI, fight sequences, MCU cannon etc.. etc.. etc..  All I can say is Kudos to Coogler and his entire team. The looks, new character introductions, character motivations and trajectories, it’s all just damned impressive!  There’s a slight lull as we head into the 3^rd act, but that’s so minor considering everything we get!

The overall premise goes back to the importance of vibranium as a perfect power source. Every country on earth wants to get their hands on it, but Wakanda takes their protection of vibranium seriously and does not negotiate.  You can see it especially galls the other leaders that a country of black people would be the ones to control this rich resource.  They try to take it by force, but when this fails they find a scientist (Riri Williams/Ironheart Dominique Thorne) who’s created a machine that can detect vibranium elsewhere, that elsewhere turns out to be deep in the ocean. This gets the attention of Namor who presents Queen Ramanda and Shuri with a proposition.

What I love is when I’m sent the Production Notes for a movie.  Cause it’s always full of stuff I like to research anyway.  Here’s some quick tidbits:

Namor is among Marvel’s oldest characters, (Marvel Comics #1 in 1939) acting both as hero and villain in the years to follow., In this story, he represents Talokan, a hidden underwater civilization (based on Aztec traditions) The fictional world reflects how a real community might have changed and evolved over time, forced underwater and separated from the rest of their people and culture. The world of Talokan took nearly two years to develop. “We started at the very beginning,” says the production designer. “‘Where are they located? How did they get there? How did they survive?’

“Namor’s costumes reflect the tradition that he honors and the position he holds as king. We used a lot of kelp to make his headdress and his hand-woven cape. We added shells and beads—his look gives you a sense that he has traveled through time – Ruth Carter, Oscar Winning Costume Designer.   T&T rating: 5 outta 5

Visit T&T #MiniMovieReview for BLACK PANTHER (2018)

At the Red Carpet Premiere of WAKANDA FOREVER the cast got to reflect on the relationship each had with Chadwick Boseman – click image for video :

THE MENU | Searchlight Pictures | Director Mark Mylod |
Writers Seth Reiss & Will Tracy

In what feels like a former lifetime now, I once intended to be a chef.  Upon graduating high school, I was accepted into a chef’s apprenticeship program, of which I did one semester; where I was pretty badly burned, had to roll 500 chicken cordon bleu, and came to the conclusion I hate working weekends, all of which and more, promptly ended my culinary dreams. When I started Tinsel & Tine, I had intentions of going to a movie and a restaurant in the same night and reviewing both in the same post. If there were tie-ins great, if not, fine. I just liked the idea of marrying food with film.  I followed that format exactly once :/  Then I said I’d focus in on films which hone in on food/dining/cooking – if there are 10 foodie films covered on this site, I’d be surprised.  But had I done what I set out to do, this movie, THE MENU would have been the culmination of the meeting between food and film!

It is stupendously written by Seth Reiss (Late Night with Seth Meyers) and Will Tracy a writer on SUCCESSION (which I still have to watch) who must have given his boss, Mark Mylod, Director/Producer SUCCESSION, first dibs. Mylod admits to never having been a foodie, yet felt the script just nailed the concept.  

What I love is how immersive it is. This is extensive real-life world building at its best. You know this place, this experience exists. A remote island restaurant known for its storytelling, molecular gastronomy, overseen by a celebrated chef – Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes), who charges $1,250 a head, should you be lucky enough to get a reservation.

And you can imagine the type of guests it would attract:  A wealthy, older married couple (Reed Birney & Judith Light) who no longer really have anything to say to each other, but they’re both so used to being comfortable in every sense of the word, they’d never change their status quo.

A has-been celebrity with a bloated ego and need to be recognized (John Leguizamo). Dining with his personal assistant (Aimee Carrero) who detests and feels a sort of kinship with her employer.

An obnoxious food critic, so in love with her own pseudo-intelligence and power, she reeks of it (Janet McTeer) dining with her editor who falls over himself to please and stroke her ego (Paul Adelstein).

A table full of Wall Street Bros, insufferably entitled, assuming the rules don’t apply to them as minions to the Angel Investor of the restaurant (Arturo Castro, Mark St. Cyr and Rob Yang).

And the young couple, on the surface it seems that he’s so overly obsessed with his epicurean pastime that he’s oblivious to anything and everyone else, except Chef.  She just seems like a relatively new girlfriend along for the ride to be accommodating.  (Nicholas Hoult & Anya Taylor-Joy).

Truly, being on the beautifully barren island of indigenous foods, having each preposterously, highfalutin course displayed and described in detail, along with the character-driven conversations at each table, seemed like the movie to me – one I was enjoying. But then it kicks into high gear as a black comedy and you’re really in for some surprises. And yet the film retains a sense of believability. What really works are the scenes between Taylor-Joy and Fiennes. These two are a recipe of unexpected flavors.  

However, as original as The Menu feels, it also has a lot in common with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and Triangle of Sadness, all three taking place on an island and making commentary about the ostentatiously privileged.  It also reminds me of TÁR (review to come) another immersive, authentic feeling film. Both Lydia Tár and Julian Slowik are geniuses who have reached beyond the pinnacle of their careers, where there’s no place to go but down.

T&T rating 5 outta 5

Click above or here for THE MENU Virtual Press Conference with Mark Mylod and many of the cast members.

TRIANGLE OF SADNESS |Neon | Writer/Director Ruben Östlund |
Countries France, Germany, Sweden, UK & US

It’s impossible not to call this the projectile vomiting movie, although, there’s a lot more to it than that.  It’s a fun, social satire on class systems, gender-based assumptions and a reminder that money can’t solve every issue. But the sea sickness scenes are just priceless. A luxury yacht experiencing turbulent weather during the captain’s dinner has the passengers spewing from both ends.  My favorite, a middle-aged actress, Sunnyi Melles, being tossed around the bathroom floor of her estate room, hurling each time she swings back passed the toilet, had me crying.  I can’t remember when I’ve laughed so hard at something so disgusting 🤣

This is the Swedish writer/director Ruben Östlund’s first English-language film, which won him a second Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival, the first being THE SQUARE (2017) which I never got around to seeing, even though it features one of my girl crushes, Elisabeth Moss.  I did see his film FORCE MAJEURE (2014) which was my introduction to the filmmaker during The Philadelphia Film Festival that year.  It’s a shame the American remake DOWNHILL starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus & Will Ferrell (which I saw at Sundance 2020) didn’t employ the kind of subtleties and restraint of the original, but then if it did, I guess it wouldn’t be Americanized.

Triangle of Sadness is told in 3 parts.  Sometimes this framing works really well, other times you feel like it ruins the momentum of a film. In this case, it’s a little of both.  There’s a scene in the beginning of the movie that introduces us to two of the characters, as this ultimately becomes an ensemble film.  The couple is made up of two young models, the female, Yaya (Charlbi Dean) is also an influencer, getting paid the big bucks to pretend she’s enjoying stuff on Instagram. The male, Carl (Harris Dickinson) isn’t as successful, still needing to audition for work. Yet, Yaya expects him to pick up the check for all their expensive dining.  This turns into an interesting discussion/argument. Yet, it doesn’t really fit smoothly into the rest of the film; which is at least 20 minutes too long. 

Side note: How sad is it that the actress/model Charlbi Dean died in real-life before this movie could be released!  I keep trying to find out what a beautiful, healthy, young woman could have died of in such a short time, besides COVID, and if that was the case, it wouldn’t be a mystery. RIP 😥

Post Update: 10/14/22 from a follower on Letterboxd:

The 2nd part consists of the Luxury Yacht where we meet a cast of colorful 1%-ers ; some young, beautiful, all white crew – headed by (Vicki Berlin) a true Julie McCoy type (The Cruise Director on “The Love Boat” for any young readers); and the below deck crew, all non-white, mostly Latinx.  Then the 3^rd part takes place on an island where the tables get turned.

Q: Is that something that you’re generally interested in? Exploring how people react in extreme situations?

Ruben Östlund: Yeah, definitely. I’ve been inspired by Marx’s theories that our behavior is very dependent on which position we have in a socioeconomic hierarchy. READ MORE

All in All, this will definitely make my 2022 Nomination List for The Philadelphia Film Critics Circle Vote. “In Den Wolken!”

T&T rating: 4 outta 5

WENDELL & WILD | Netflix | Writer/Director Henry Selick |
Co-writer/Producer Jordan Peele

THIRTEEN LIVES |Amazon Studios | Director Ron Howard | Screenplay William Nicholson

LYLE, LYLE CROCODILE Sony Pictures | Directors Will Speck & Josh Gordon |Screenplay Will Davies | Original Songs Benj Pasek and Justin Paul |Based on Bernard Waber‘s 1965 children’s book

Will Speck: This was one of the hardest things in deciding how to execute this film. We wanted the tone of it and the feel of it to feel very grounded and very physically real, and so we made the choice early on to have an actor play Lyle on set so that the other actors could have somebody to react to, and the camera department could have somebody to frame for. It just makes everything feel more real. We hired a wonderful actor [stunt performer Thomas DuPont] to play him, and after several weeks of shooting in this way, everybody just sort of began to accept this as Lyle. I think it really helped to kind of ground everything.  Read More

The story starts with a has been magician, Hector P. Valenti (Javier Bardem) slipping in to audition for a show like “America’s Got Talent”. Bardem is having so much fun in this role. He’s completely infectious!  His character has pizazz and style despite not being very good at anything – magic, singing, dancing … He’s a bit shady, yet second to Lyle, he’s the heart of the movie for me.  Speaking of Lyle the Crocodile (Shawn Mendes), Hector finds him in a very suspect pet store.  He’s just a little baby crocodile, which Hector happens to catch singing along to the radio in the back of the store.  Hector of course believes this will be his ticket back to the big time, well, that is if he ever really had a “big time”.

Story B involves a married couple, Katie & Joseph Primm (Constance Wu & Scoot McNairy), who move to New York City and are provided housing in this incredible brownstone, which rivals The Huxtables. Too bad their young son Josh (13-year-old Winslow Fegley) is terrified of the dangers of urban living and doesn’t yet appreciate his surroundings. Joseph’s been hired to teach at a private school, where the kids are not very well behaved and he’s not feeling confident about handling these students.  Katie was a pretty successful cookbook author, but she’s taking a break and exploring healthy alternative recipes; but mainly, she just wants to be there to help her stepson Josh (only mother Josh remembers) get acclimated to a new school and city, only she feels he’s pushing her away. I won’t elaborate on how story A and B come together, but it’s Josh who finds Lyle living in their attic and his presence changes this family’s lives in big ways.

The script was originally developed as a straightforward movie, when suddenly Speck and Gordon felt it really needed to be a movie musical. Particularly since Lyle only communicates through song.  So, they brought on the award winning duo of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (The Greatest Showman, La La Land and Dear Evan Hansen).  The song Lyle and Katie sing in the kitchen as a get to know you number, I remember being catchy, but otherwise, none of the other songs were very memorable to me. However, by making it a musical, the movie is able to move character development and plot along swiftly through song and musical montages, which gives it lively pacing. I remember the artwork for “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” children’s books, so I must have read these stories when I was a kid, but I don’t remember any of the details. It would seem this movie is just based loosely on the books, particularly “The House on East 88th”.

I went in with low expectations, but Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile is surprisingly involving.  Granted, it’s not on the level of these – but if you like classics like ET or Gremlins, then those parents taking their kids to see the movie will find they’ve been entertained for their price of admission.

T&T rating: 4 outta 5