Recent films - 2022

 SPOILER ALERT! The plots will be discussed.

Here are some thoughts on films recently released.

BELFAST

Written and directed by Kenneth Branagh, the story has its basis on Branagh’s childhood in the Irish city in 1969 during the turbulent confrontation between Protestants and Catholics. By centering on the upending of the world of a Protestant child and his family, the events the movie depicts gain power by personalizing the chaos and violence occurring. We sympathize with how the young boy, Buddy (Jude Hill), is shocked by the violence perpetrated by the Protestant majority on the nurturing neighbors on the street where he lives, where Catholics and Protestants were living in harmony. Buddy’s father (Jamie Dornan) is caught in the middle between the Protestants, the police, and the Catholics, and Protestant criminal/revolutionary Billy Clanton (Colin Morgan) who is trying to recruit Buddy’s Pa through intimidation. Pa works in England, and the family eventually must leave their beloved country to escape the violence tearing their city apart.

The film, shot in black and white with shades of color, has numerous camera angles at ground level to immerse the audience in the action, but also to provide the viewpoint of a child. The cinematography is beautifully done as it evokes a gritty beauty on the streets of Belfast. Branagh adds numerous pop culture elements to recreate the time and place of this period in history, and the songs by Irishman Van Morrison provide texture to the tale. The movie is a stunning accomplishment.

DON’T LOOK UP

Writer/director Adam McKay gives us an apocalyptic story that, although containing some sharp satire, tries to hit too many targets. What results is an unfocused movie. He did better in his previous outings (The Big Short, Vice) because they were based on actual events, the economic meltdown of 2008 and the political clout of Dick Cheyney, which made the satire in those films upsetting because they were real. Here he takes a hypothetical event, the planet destroying approach of an asteroid, and shows how even such a catastrophic event becomes politicized given the current divisiveness in the United States. (Of course, McKay is referencing films such as Armageddon, and Deep Impact). People want to do something to avert the disaster, others say the reaction to the threat is out of proportion, and some deny the problem exists. Climate change and also COVID come to mind. The film most likely is arguing that climate change is similar to the approach of the asteroid, but the impact of the lethal heavenly body is more immediate.

That chunk of space matter is discovered by Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), and she and her mentoring professor, Dr. Randal Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio), go on a quest to warn the world of the cataclysm that approaches. They encounter President Orlean (Meryl Streep) who only cares about how to spin facts that will increase her popularity. Her son, Jason Orlean (Jonah Hill), is her shallow Chief of Staff. He says at one point that his mother is hot and suggests that he would make a play for her if he wasn’t her son. His comment is an obvious reference to Donald Trump’s incestuous remarks about his daughter, Ivanka. As IMDb points out, when they try to get the citizens to ignore the coming crisis as a type of “fake news” they get everyone to chant “don’t look up,” which sounds like a reference to Trump’s chant of “lock her up,” referring to Hillary Clinton.

Mark Rylance’s Peter Isherwell is a nerdy tech CEO who has zero social skills and is an egomaniac. His character is a shot at Mark Zuckerberg. But the spaceships that Isherwell wants to use to harvest mineral riches from the asteroid look like Jeff Bezos’s penis-shaped rocket, linking billionaires’ arrogance with male sexual preoccupation. There is also a car pictured in space which reminds us of Elon Musk’s launching of his Tesla car, which again stresses how the ultrarich believe they are like the gods in the heavens. The worship of wealth is referenced by Jason, who says a prayer even at the imminent destruction of everything as he mourns the loss of “stuff.” IMDb points out that during the closing credits the Wall Street bull floats in space, a reference to the biblical warning about worshipping “false gods.”

There is also a jab at the public’s preoccupation with fame and celebrities as reported by TV hosts played by Tyler Perry and Cate Blanchett. Mindy has an affair with the latter, and is seduced by becoming the center of attention on TV as the spokesman for the end of times. Don’t Look Up is an interesting film, but again, it’s all over the place.

THE POWER OF THE DOG

This film, written and directed by Jane Campion, takes place in Montana in 1925. The setting is important since we are dealing with a macho-cowboy-oriented story at a place and time when being gay was condemned. Given that context, the story explores repressed homosexuality in the person of Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch, in a riveting performance).

Phil is ranch partners with his brother, George (Jesse Plemons). The two couldn’t be more different. George is softspoken, and neat, always wearing a bowtie. Phil is loud and sarcastic, and always looks like he climbed out of the mud. In fact, he prides himself in the fact that he smells. For him, that odor emanates manhood. But, appearances are deceiving in this movie. Phil has not married, and it is his brother that weds Rose (Kirsten Dunst). Rose has a tall, thin son named Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who looks as if the wind could blow him over. He creates paper flower arrangements, which to the cowboys is an effeminate activity. Phil is nasty as he says to Peter, “Ain’t them purrdy? I wonder what little lady made them?”

Phil is hostile to Rose, and can’t abide being in the next room when he hears lovemaking sounds coming from his brother’s bedroom. The hostility eventually drives Rose to becoming an alcoholic. Phil had a mentor named Broncho Henry, who he often references as being a great cowboy. He starts to teach Peter about the skills that he believes a man should know. Peter learns how to ride a horse and Phil is impressed that the youth can look at a hill and see the shape of a dog that other cowboys have not been able to discern.

Even though he may appear weak, Peter is studying to be a doctor, and is not squeamish about dissecting animals as he learns about diseases. When he and Phil are mending a post, they come across a lame rabbit, and Peter has no problem breaking the animal’s neck to put it out of its misery. The turning point in the plot is when Phil masturbates while holding Broncho Henry’s handkerchief, and Peter discovers magazines of nude men in Phil’s hiding place that have Broncho Henry’s name on them. Phil tells Peter a story about how Broncho Henry saved him from the cold by using their body heat to keep warm. Peter asks if they were naked, but Phil just smirks and says nothing. It appears as if it is an admission of his gay nature, and the two then intimately share a cigarette.

Peter, out alone, uses a scalpel to cut some hide off a steer that died due to disease. He gives that cowhide to Phil to finish a lasso he was making for the boy. Phil had cut himself earlier while skinning a rabbit, and does not wear gloves while finishing the lasso. He becomes sick from an infection and later dies. We see Peter, wearing gloves, pushing the lasso under his bed, and he sees a revitalized Rose with George outside his window. The implication is that Peter infected Phil with anthrax so that his mother would no longer be threatened by the toxic Phil.

The title comes from the Book of Psalms, which reads, “Save my soul from the sword, and my darling from the power of the dog.” The dog is considered a tormentor to King David. Perhaps the rock formation that Peter recognized as a “dog” may represent the danger in succumbing to the overcompensating masculine mentality that drove the self-denying Phil.

BEING THE RICARDOS

Writer/director Aaron Sorkin zeroes in on one episode of the hit 1950’s TV show I Love Lucy, but then does some time jumping to give us a sense of what Lucille Ball and husband Desi Arnaz were like behind the cameras. The story focuses on the adversity that Lucy encountered when she was accused of being a Communist during the McCarthy witch hunt era, and how the couple lied by saying Lucy just filled in the wrong block on a questionnaire. The truth was that she cared and respected a relative who belonged to the Communist Party. She did not want to be deceptive about what really happened. Lucy (Nicole Kidman) was a tough, shrewd woman before it was inspirational to be such a person. She is also a perfectionist when it comes to the show’s episodes. Despite the series depicting farcical situations, she argues against any illogical elements in the scripts, and adds funny material. The couple fights back at not being able to say the word “pregnant,” and the two not sharing a bed, despite their characters and themselves being married. Desi (Javier Bardem) is very supportive and respectful of his wife when it comes to the work, but Lucy does discover that he has been frequenting prostitutes on the side. The two come off as witty and intelligent members of the show business community.

Sorkin’s script is sharp, as usual, and the performances of Kidman and Bardem are very good, as are those of J. K. Simmons as the abrasive although well-meaning father figure, William Frawley, and Nina Arianda as Vivian Vance, who is close to Lucy, but who sometimes feels she must appear unattractive so as not to upstage the star.

SWAN SONG

This movie has a sci-fi context, but it is mostly an idea and character driven story. Cameron (Mahershala Ali) has a terminal illness. In this future time period, there is an innovative way to basically replace oneself with a duplicate. It is not cloning since the scientists, headed by Dr. Jo Scott (Glenn Close), upload all of one’s memories and feelings onto the double, and can make small physical variations to tell the original from the copy. Ali also plays his duplicate, Jack. Cameron agonizes over the course of the story as to whether he should go through with this action. The catch is that the family and everybody else must not know of the illness so as not to raise suspicion that the duplicate has been substituted. The purpose of this deception is to allow Jack to easily slide into Cameron’s life. If Cameron goes through with the procedure, he will live out the rest of his time at the medical facility where the swap is taking place.

The story deals with identity in a way that writer Philip K. Dick did in several stories. Questions rise as to what defines an individual, and what makes each individual unique. Another great performance by the Oscar-winning Ali.

The next film is Roman J. Israel, Esq.