Movies Extravaganza 21: THE FALL GUY, CHALLENGERS, CIVIL WAR, DEEP SKY, MONKEY MAN, Ghostbusters: FROZEN EMPIRE,

THE FALL GUY| Universal Pictures | Co-Writer/Director David Leitch | Co-Writer Drew Pearce | Based on Glen A. Larson’s 80’s TV Show

David Leitch cut his film-industry teeth as an acclaimed stuntman, and having evolved into one of the medium’s finest action directors, he now pays tribute to the art of taking a punch, rolling a car, and being set on fire with “The Fall Guy”, a loose adaptation of the Lee Majors-headlined 1980s TV series.

Starring Ryan Gosling as down-on-his-luck stunt maestro Colt Seavers, who gets a second shot at beat-’em-up glory when he’s hired to work on the debut feature of Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), the director he adores but foolishly spurned, Leitch’s summer spectacular blends comedy, romance, and mayhem to ideal popcorn-blockbuster effect. Featuring a steady stream of showstoppers, it’s a self-conscious love letter to the craftsmen who risk it all to make the movies magic … READ MORE by Nick Schager, thedailybeast.com

Did you feel pressure to up the ante with the film’s stunts?

David Leitch: I did. There was pressure. I think Chris O’Hara and myself felt the pressure from our stunt past and the stunt community. Because it’s such a beloved title and it’s a movie about a stuntman, we better do some old-school stunts, and we should do them in the most provocative way possible—get out there and do some really big stuff. Because otherwise, what are we honoring? We were feeling the pressure because you don’t want to let your brothers and sisters down. They are counting on this shining a light on what they do, so it better not be half-assed.

For us, it was the mandate—practical, practical, practical as much as possible, and visual effects second. And we did. There are so many great practical stunts in this movie, it’s insane, actually. READ MORE David Leitch Interview, thedailybeast.com

What Did I (LeAnne) Think?  Rating: 4 outta 5 – There’s not a lot to say other than it works! Gosling and Blunt as Colt and Jodie make for adorably goofy lovers who despite romantic challenges are complete champions of one another. Colt is willing to go through hell and back to insure Jodie’s directorial debut gets made and meets her vision. Jodi is quick to forgive Colt for past hurts knowing he’s not only the key to her movie, but also her heart. But in this much deserved love letter to the stunt industry, it’s the action that must take center stage both on and off set, and it’s pretty spectacular, maybe not Tom Cruise spectacular, but they fit a lot of super cool stunts in.  You’d think the movie was capitalizing off of #Barbenheimer but it was cast and in the works before those two blockbusters and features a Taylor Swift song before Eras Tour – Just good timing! Aaron Taylor-Johnson play a grade-A Hollywood douche, Winston Duke has some fun with a tomahawk and Hannah Waddingham chews the scenery with gusto.  Ya know, I never actually watched “The Fall Guy” TV show starring Lee Majors and Heather Thomas, yet when the theme song plays in the movie, I remembered every word.

CHALLENGERS| Warner Bros| Director Luca Guadagnino | Writer Justin Kuritzkes

The action jumps back and forth primarily between 2019 and 2006, with brief stops at various points along the way. At the start, Art Donaldson (Faist) is one of the world’s top tennis players, with a string of important international wins behind him though still chasing the U.S. Open to complete his career slam. But he’s slipped into a losing streak, so his wife and coach, Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), enters him in a “Challenger” event in New Rochelle, New York. She figures that a few wins in the lower-tier professional tournament will rebuild his confidence. What Tashi doesn’t factor on is the presence of Patrick Zweig (O’Connor). He and Art were best friends from the age of 12, when they met as roommates at a tennis academy and earned the nickname on the courts of “Fire and Ice.” But the two guys had a bitter falling out, during which Tashi switched her romantic attentions from Patrick to Art.  READ MORE by David Rooney, hollywoodreporter.com

All three lead actors carry themselves like movie stars. Guadagnino and his game-for-anything cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (who shot two other Guadagnino films as well as several by Apichatpong Weerasethakul) shoot the performers as if they’re legends of both the court and the big screen that they’re very lucky to have in the cast. It’s a treat to see three young, contemporary actors nailing the understated flirty gravitas that the stars of films for grownups used to exhibit in earlier eras, but that almost nobody knows how to do at this comparatively sexless moment in 21st century cinema. READ MORE by Matt Zoller Seitz, rogerebert.com

What Did I (LeAnne) Think?  Rating: 4 outta 5 – I really would have preferred the story be told in a linear narrative. Jumping around in time works for many movies like “Pulp Fiction” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Oppenheimer” just to name a few, but this movie would have been all the more engrossing told beginning to end. Starting with the guys Patrick (Josh O’Connor) & Art (Mike Faist) stalking Tashi Duncan (Awesome character name) (Zendaya) at the event – to the much already thirsted over Ménage à trois make-out session in the hotel room. And on from there. It would have been more satisfying to see the characters develop from fresh faced kids with no ill feelings towards their sport or each other, to the serious adults with complicated feelings and actions on both accounts; without your mind needing to shift gears every scene.

Zendaya has one of THE most expressive faces. She is one of those people the camera adores. And she can pull on and off glamour and sex appeal with the skill of Marilyn Monroe, who could blend in and then “become her”. I’d never heard the term “Normcore” before, it describes a unisex, unpretentious fashion trend, which I’ve come to understand fashion designer Jonathan Anderson, costume designer for “Challengers” is known for; yet I would say there’s nothing normcore about the crisp blue and white cotton dress Tashi wears in the final match scene – it’s ideal on its own, in the scene, and of course adorning Zendaya. Have you seen the articles which feature what she’s worn everyday throughout the press tour? And kudos to Zendaya’s assistant Darnell Appling, who plays the umpire with a backhand of tude.

Challengers is the most campy film of Guadagnino’s career thus far, but it also serves up a relationship drama with a quality return.

 

CIVIL WAR| A24| Writer/Director Alex Garland

Despite its intentionally unspecified origin story, the civil war in the film can be traced to a lost thread around the very idea of America — the disintegration of a nation once bound by common history and a shared set of principles. “What kind of American are you?” asks an unnamed soldier, played by Jesse Plemons, in arguably the film’s most memorable and distressing scene. It’s a question that confronts our most divisive instincts, but it’s also one that everyone, on both sides of the war, is at a loss to answer.

Wagner Moura who plays journalist Joel – “Being non-American, the racism in that scene is so strong,
and the hate, and [Plemons] being the amazing natural that he is, made things even harder,” Moura says. “It’s very brutal, and it was very physical, to be spending an entire day doing that scene. When the day was about to end, after repeating that thing — begging for my life and for my friends’ lives, and seeing the manifestation of racism in Jesse’s performance, I remember that I lay down on the grass and cried. I was crying for half
an hour after the scene. It was very intense.”

The movie takes place in a near-future America that has split into multiple factions embroiled in a civil war. The Western Forces, an armed alliance of states rebelling against the federal government, is days away from pushing the capitol to a surrender. In the hopes of getting a final interview with the president (Nick Offerman), Lee (Kirsten Dunst), a calloused combat photographer who’s captured atrocities and destabilization across the globe, travels to the White House with a small caravan of journalists, including a young, aspiring photographer named Jessie (Cailee Spaeny  “Priscilla”) who she reluctantly comes to mentor. As they travel across the country, the film, in some ways as much a road movie as it is a war film, offers an alternate reality that, with increasing disquiet, reveals itself to be the kind of warning flare Lee has sent out her entire life.

Garland began writing Civil War in 2020, months after the pandemic had begun, as the possible futures that seemed certain were blown apart and we were launched into a very different reality. The fears that spurred him to write the film at the time have, in the intervening years, only metastasized. “I wrote it out of a mixture of anger and anxiety, and then you go about the long process of making the film,” Garland says. “Whatever sense of frustration I had while originally writing the script, it did not diminish. It grew.” – A24 Civil War Production Notes

What Did I (LeAnne) Think?  Rating: 4.5 outta 5  – Chilling and horrifying in its predicted accuracy. There’s not a scene that doesn’t ring true to how things may actually go down now that Trump is on the ballot again, whether he wins or loses.  I recently saw a play with similar themes called “The Last Yiddish Speaker” by playwright. Deborah Zoe Laufer.   And I’m certain we will continue to see this “what if scenario” of civil war played out as we sink deeper and deeper into the divide. It seems we’ll need a miracle to heal this chasm.  The key to that miracle of course is in us not engaging in the Us vs Them point of view.  But how do we do that?  From my point of view,  I see the reality that many Americans have moved into the 21st Century accepting that everyone is a human first and a race/ethnicity/faith or sexual identity second. That everyone has a right to quality of life and agency over one’s body. A basic live and let live, as long as it does no harm outlook on society.  But there are just as many American stuck in a time where only those of the white race mattered.  Everyone else just used as cogs in the wheels of their lives, and they don’t want to let that go.  They speak about Freedoms, but in actuality they thrive on not just controlling others, but being controlled. They only feel good and safe when everyone see everything the same way they do without any deviation.   We see this gap growing every day in the news, in laws being upended and voters rights being undermined.   These things are really happening, so what’s to stop this impending Civil War !?!  

In terms of the movie, Alex Garland‘s Ex-Machina and Annihilation are two movies I much admired. MEN is visually remarkable and sets a good eerie tone, but not high on my list.  Civil War doesn’t feel like any of these movies which use high concept scifi or horror premises. Civil War is not a dystopian future – yes, some technologies are starting to fail and some places look like a war zone, but the country is still heavily populated, the roads look normal, green grass, tall trees, some sections of the country are able to bury their heads and pretend the war is not happening. The journalist on their road trip to the nation’s capital stop in a quaint little town that has the feel of Media, PA., where the stores are open and children are playing in the streets. Our protagonists take a much needed respite to try on clothes and browse, but before leaving, see militia patrolling the town up on a rooftop, signaling not all is as untouched by war as these town folk would like to believe.

DEEP SKY| IMAX| Filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn

Deep Sky follows the high-stakes global mission to build JWST and to launch it into orbit one-million miles from Earth, in an attempt to answer questions that have haunted us since the beginning of time. Deep Sky reveals the universe as we have never seen it before; immersing audiences in the stunning pictures beamed back to earth by NASA’s new telescope — and capturing their vast beauty at a scale that can only be experienced on the giant IMAX screen. TRAILER

What Did I (LeAnne) Think?  – Michelle Williams has a nice voice for narration. I wouldn’t have thought about her for this talent. She may give Morgan Freeman a run for the money. “Deep Sky” (an IMAX Original Documentary) gives us an insight into a project probably only NASA junkies knew about. The James Webb Space Telescope – 20 years in the making and I believe they said 10 Billion dollars poured into it! It’s 20x more powerful than the Hubble Telescope we’re all familiar with. The JWST is more on the Orson Welles scale of space exploration; it has the job of going back in time to the time when time began, the explosion of The Big Bang! In fact, now that I think about it, the show “The Big Bang Theory” definitely refers to this telescope, in an episode or two.

Directed by Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn, the doc explains in layman’s terms what we hope to gain from this telescope – Where did we come from? How did the universe begin? Are we alone?

Questions still without answers, although NASA was happy that JWST made it outside of our solar system and all the panels designed to conduct infrared astronomy, actually opened. If not, it would have become the most expensive, time consuming space junk imaginable. Think of the despair; there are some whose entire careers have only been about building and launching this mission.

What we do get are an unbelievably cinematic, celestial, radiant spectacle of images sent back by JWST, which is why it’s best to see this film at an IMAX Theater. The images look like pure science fiction fan art made up of stars: new, dying, post debris, along with planets and dust, solar systems, moons, suns and more… It inspired me to rewatch Christopher Nolan‘s INTERSTELLAR.

JWST is also able to detect gases and elements in the atmospheres of these other planets. Scientists are forever saying planets with water are a sign life forms could exist. But we don’t know what other life forms there maybe. What if there’s a species like The Wicked Witch of the West who would melt if they got anywhere near water?

I often wonder if the Earth was exiled a couple trillion years ago by a United Solar System of planets and beings. That they somehow banished our planet to the Milky Way galaxy and shrouded us from ever being able to find the populated universe again. Or until we learn some much needed lessons, which obviously we’ve still yet to grasp after all this time. It would explain why we’re so obsessed with aliens and space travel, Star Wars, Star Trek, because something in our souls still remembers when we were a part of more than just our world.

If this is the case, the costly James Webb Space Telescope can send back all the stunning images it wants, but we’ll still be alone in the vastness of space and time.

MONKEY MAN| Universal Pictures| Writer/Director Dev Patel

Patel stars as Kid, an orphaned boy from the Indian countryside who’s grown up to become a professional punching bag in the fictional city of Yatana. Every night, Kid gets into the ring at an underground fight club run by the greedy Tiger (Sharlito Copley) and lets himself get beaten bloody for cash while wearing a monkey mask. It’s a masochistic existence fueled by desperation, but it’s also a way of biding his time until he can find Rana (Sikandar Kher), the police chief who murdered Kid’s mother and burned his village to the ground… READ MORE by Katie Rife, Indiewire.com

Monkey Man’s visuals often completely derails its narrative. Patel’s insistence on giving a simple revenge story an ambitious socio-political context — the Sovereign Party’s spiritual wing is lead by the guru Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande), whose xenophobia inspires the violence Kid seeks to avenge — muddles dramatic efforts that would have been better spent imbuing his characters with more texture… READ MORE by Rob DiCristino, Fthismovie.net

What Did I (LeAnne) Think?  Rating: 4 outta 5 – I think it’s a gorgeously gritty directorial debut. You feel Dev Patel‘s passion, blood, sweat and tears literally and figuratively throughout. From interviews it seems this movie represents Patel’s mind/body/spirit in so many ways; yet it also sounds like a tough shoot, being lead actor/writer/director/producer/at times cinematographer, all while doing an action movie with a broken hand, foot, shoulder injury and only eating sweet potatoes and fish. I’d say that’s suffering for your art, and I do see the art in Monkey Man. I’m not a huge fan of the revenge genre, as I’ve only ever seen the original John Wick (not in the theater). I understand the appeal, but not enough to have been drawn to the others of the franchise. And I’ll probably never watch Monkey Man again either, but I do think the movie creates a genuine, sordid feel and texture for this underground world. Blending the material with overtones of social ills and religion, both fanatical and radical.

The little mid-level “Let’s boogie” manager, Alphonso (Pitobsh Tripathi) is an effective sidekick and adds the much needed levity. Yet on the whole, it’s not strong on narrative. I don’t think it’s intended to be. It’s definitely a film looking to convey a feeling more than a story, while paying homage to other films of the genre. The opening introduction to the tales of Hanuman, reminds me of the first scene in “Problemista” where Julio Torres‘ character is also shown as a young boy living in a pristine village in the forest, being told a fairy tale by his beloved mother. Totally different cultures, but definitely similar origins.

Giving Monkey Man 4 stars not because it’s up my alley, but because I admire the end product just the same.

GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE| Sony Pictures Releasing |
Writer/Director Gil Kenan | Co-writer Jason Reitman

If you had never seen Ghostbusters (1984), what would you make of the random moments when people in the audience started clapping? Why are they cheering the appearance of this elderly librarian? Why are they clapping for this Mayor Peck fellow, he seems like he is the villain? Why are they laughing at the people being sprayed with pink slime in an underground laboratory? Why are they hooting for this disgusting green ball of ooze stuffing its face with Cheetos?

(You know the word “clapter”? Tina Fey credits the portmanteau to Seth Meyers; basically, it means “a joke that doesn’t make someone laugh but does make them clap because they agree with it.” Think: Jon Stewart during the Bush years. We need a word for nostalgia-based clapter: a reference that makes those familiar with a previous entry in a series cheer with delight. “Cheer-stalgia,” maybe… READ MORE by Sonny Bunch, thebulwark.com

What Did I (LeAnne) Think? 3 outta 5 – Feels like we’re back to the Ghostbusters franchise and less like a “Stranger Things” knockoff. Adding Kumail Nanjiani is pure comedic “brass” 😉. The Stay Puft Minis are still ridiculously demented. Yup, we see a lot more of the originals which is nice fan service, no problem with that. Although, Bill Murray looks older than the ancient Garraka. All Bill needed was some horns. Emily Alyn Lind who plays the young ghost, with the pansexual vibe, has that star in the making appeal. Would love to see a movie featuring her and Dominic Sessa from The Holdovers.

Frozen Empire is fun enough, I suppose, nothing to complain or shout about.

Check out 2022 Review – GHOSTBUSTERS AFTERLIFE | Sony Pictures Releasing | Writer/Director Jason Reitman | co-writer Gil Kenan | Producer Ivan Reitman