Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Lightning Round: Controlled Release Corner


Pseudo-superheroes, Kaiju romance, and Charlie Hunnam? Sounds like a good week.


While Legendary Studios and Warner Bros. continue construction on their admirable Godzilla-centric “Monsterverse,” indie genre darling Nacho Vigalondo’s rom-com about the nature of power molding true worth through the activity of giant rampaging monsters might just trump every contribution to the Kaiju genre of the last 10 years.

Anne Hathaway plays Gloria, a washed up journalist in the midst of a bout with alcoholism that has recently cost her relationship with her boyfriend and left her returning to her hometown to pull herself back together, working in a bar owned by her childhood friend Oscar, played by Jason Sudekis.

When Gloria learns that a special field in her hometown grants her control of a Korean Monster when standing within it during the early hours of the morning, she struggles to tame her more irresponsible impulses for the good of the people threatened by her presence, while trying to get to the bottom of what’s causing the strange phenomenon and figure out whether or not she’s the only one that can control it.

Everything about “Colossal’s” concept oozes the sort of late Heisei/Millennium era kaiju flick that would have come and disappeared in the international box office while going on to develop a cult following and regardless of the film’s western origins and social norm, this may very well be its fate.

It’s only a pity that a gamble wasn’t taken on getting the movie to a wider release because no matter how weird its premise is, “Colossal” is easily the whole package and then some.

Hathaway perfectly straddles the line between that of a well meaning and loveably charismatic screw up in need of a reality call and a determined and admirable woman with a bizarre chance at redemption that you actually want to see live up to her potential.

You legitimately root for her to pull herself together through her highs and lows while the scenarios and relationships that she stumbles through not only reveal more about herself and the root of her problems but that not everything may necessarily be as it all seems.

Dan Stevens plays her estranged boyfriend who blows up over her behavior at the start of the movie in such a fashion that anybody in a toxic relationship would probably find fully relatable and sympathetic, if not somewhat cathartic, only for the tables to be turned later on if the viewer can catch just how off his reactions seem to be when the nature of their relationship changes.

Ditto goes for Jason Sudekis, whose connection to the plot through Hathaway takes an unexpected turn into dark territory that may not be sympathetic but isn’t necessarily unrecognizable for anybody familiar with self-loathing.

“Colossal” is a hard film to truly do justice via description, not simply because the oddness of its premise makes it challenging to articulate in a particularly attractive manner but because so much of its brilliance subtly bubbles to the surface assisted by the element of surprise as you watch it.

Regardless of whatever subtext that you can take away from it however, its heartfelt and plenty humorous enough to make for a great time on surface value alone and coming off of a year of billion dollar box-office bombing sequels and reboots that nobody asked for, its down right refreshing and easily my favorite film of the year thus far.


9 Kaiju Bitch Slaps out of 10




British explorer Percy Fawcett’s obsession with uncovering lost civilizations in South America led to a great deal of cartographical and archaeological accomplishments but ultimately played a role in his demise during the early 20th century.

Although such a tragedy sounds like a potential exploration of the psychological rabbit hole that ambitions can lead down, “The Lost City of Z” ultimately chooses to remember where the actual drive for Fawcett’s accomplishments came from and celebrate his work as it was intended to be; inspiring humanity to continue piecing together the anthropological puzzle that could hold answers valuable to both its past and its future.

To this end, Charlie Hunnam portrays the aforementioned explorer through his fascination with Amazonian civilization and disillusionment of British high society on the cusp of World War I, struggling to chase the philosophical questions that plague him while striving to do right by his family in a very old fashioned epic adventure film.

“The Lost City of Z” is well over 2 hours long and makes use of every second that it has, covering Fawcett’s progression from an off duty soldier after a good pay day and elevated societal status for the good of his wife and children to a man fighting to balance his responsibilities just as his own world view has been opened up in ways that he could never have conceived of.

The film covers the many adventurous aspects of Fawcett’s expeditions into Brazil as well as his fighting in the trenches of the Great War and through all of the film’s tension and unpredictability for those uninitiated to his achievements, Hunnam’s performance commands the screen and carries the film from start to finish so beautifully that I would have happily sat in my seat for an extra 20 minutes just to savor his journey a bit more.

That savoring is what the film is truly about. While “The Lost City of Z” is rather straight forward in its structure, its gripping set up, assembled by a masterful sense of direction and editing, and a stupendous supporting cast of talented character actors, including up and comer Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson giving the best performance of his career thus far, make it feel like the sort of authentically intimate and rewarding experience that directors like Franklin Schaffner and David Lean would have put together in their heyday.

Although it’s not without its minor technical hiccups here and there in the form of transitioning the story from differing points in Fawcett’s life, the film’s infectious feeling of vibrancy and audacity to chase truth even in the face of doubt from everything one knows and loves, is undeniable and earned.


8 River Rafting Expeditions out of 10




So with 2 glowing films back to back, there of course had to be an unfortunate counterbalance to the scales. And what an unfortunate counter it is.

“Sleight” is the kind of movie that I not only wanted to love but tried my absolute damndest to.

Following the life of a young street magician capable of more than he lets on and struggling to take care of his younger sister after the unfortunate death of their parents, the film plays with tenants of the superhero genre that I hold so dear to my heart and stars Jacob Latimore, an young upcomer that I’ve been championing for some time now in a low budget film with indie sensibilities that one would hope inspire some out of the box thinking.

I saw so much potential in it that I snubbed the opportunity to mock “The Circle’s” late arrival to the realization of internet privacy betrayal party. Unfortunately the final results are still less than stellar.

Assuming that the marketing for the film was handled under more or less false pretenses, its biggest problem is that its dramatically inert; the only real conflict with the film is Latimore’s character of Bo standing up to the drug dealer that he reluctantly works for in order to take more direct agency in his life, the need for which only comes about by the hour mark of the film’s meager 89 minute length.

When this happens, any tension is undercut by how little reason you have to care for him to carry out the obvious solution weaponizing his capabilities.

If even an iota of this truly was meant to dabble with the lighter side of superhero tropes however, the film falls apart on a fundamental understanding of its subject matter, something that even the creatively bankrupt playing field of triple A Hollywood seems to grasp more often than not.

Good superhero stories are NOT about people solving their problems with super powers. They’re about people working through personal issues, including superpowers.

For a better example of what this film was likely trying to do, see the 2012 film “Chronicle” in which gaining superpowers did not fix the protagonists problems but actually managed to succeed in exacerbating them to the point of developing a god complex while his aloof and care free cousin is forced to step into the role of mediator to save him from himself and the people that would become collateral.

The abilities and the situation that they become drawn to, draw out their true selves.

The cost of Bo’s abilities come at the expense of a certain level of study, dedication, and even self-inflicted mutilation but you could almost cut it entirely out of the plot and only need to rewrite and edit around less than a quarter of the overall film, which makes it feel like a giant tumor on the movie’s bare bones and predictable plot, complete with a best friend that only materializes at the convenience of the plot, a love interest that falls deeply into his life despite lacking any chemistry whatsoever, and a villain who starts off as surprisingly multifaceted and diplomatic before dive bombing into being cartoonish.

And the real shame about all of this is that with just the slightest bit of imagination, this film could have been a blast and a half to watch, with little in the way of extra budgetary needs required to come together well.


What “Sleight” ultimately becomes however, is yet another solid performance for Latimore’s resume in another string of less than satisfactory flicks.

5 Magic Hat Rabbits out of 10 

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