The Curse (2023) * * 1/2 (airing on Showtime)

 

Starring:  Emma Stone, Nathan Fielder, Benny Safdie, Corbin Bernsen, Barkhad Abdi

The Curse is uneven and at times a slog, but then there are also enough good aspects to warrant continued viewing.  It's a frustrating show with stops and starts in its rhythm, with protagonists who appear to be hanging on by a thread hosting a reality show in which they flip houses in the obscure town of Espanola, New Mexico.  The local Native American tribe wants to exert influence over the proceedings by forcing prospective buyers to support the local tribe unequivocally and sign a document stating so.  What does this mean?  Who knows, but it isn't promising.   It's painful listening to co-host Whitney Siegel (Stone) try to sell this document to buyers ready to close who will eventually back out because they've never heard anything so ludicrous.  

The Siegels encounter myriad issues in the first five episodes, including husband Asher's (Fielder) small penis which causes the couple to find creative ways to satisfy Whitney, the troubled past of the show's producer Doug (Safdie), who has a history of DUI, Whitney's unscrupulous real estate mogul parents from whom she tries to distance herself, and the question of whether their house-flipping show will even be picked up for a season.   Asher, who could play Ray Romano if a biopic was ever made about him, is awkward in almost every facet of his being.  Words tumble out of his mouth, while Whitney is far more direct and eloquent.  

Oh, and there is the business of The Curse, which is placed on Asher by a young homeless child after he gives her a $100 bill on camera and then tries to take it back when the camera shuts off.   It is just another of Asher's endless attempts to help the show which goes horribly wrong.  Is there a curse?  The child, her sister, and their father (Abdi-from Captain Phillips) are soon squatting in one of the properties the Siegels wish to flip, and Asher sees this as a way to have the curse lifted, if there is one.   

There is plenty going on, but the pacing is off.  Most of the characters, if not all, are amoral and shady.  Whitney soon becomes full of unearned, insufferable virtue as she looks for "the right people" to buy their houses.  Asher tries to make things better to no avail.  Doug sinks further into depression while trying to keep the show, his only reason for living, afloat.  Stone is able to inject even soggy material with life, and she is forced to do so a lot in The Curse.  Fielder is effectively off-putting and put-upon while he struggles to articulate his anger.  The performances work, the show only partly so, but like Michael Corleone states, "Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in,"  

Eileen (2023) * * 1/2

Directed by:  William Oldroyd

Starring:  Thomasin McKenzie, Anne Hathaway, Shea Whigham, Shioban Fallon Hogan, Marin Ireland, Sam Nivola

The title character of Eileen is dead inside as the movie opens.  She is spying on a couple making out in a car and stuffs yellow snow down her skirt as her version of a cold shower.  Yuck,  Then, she travels to her dead-end job as a secretary in a youth prison where she fantasizes one of the guards would just hump her already.  Even these brief escapes are fleeting.   Her father Jim (Whigham) is an alcoholic former police chief who despises her and wishes his other daughter would come and visit him.  Eileen doesn't bother with makeup or even necessarily bathing.  She just moves through her harsh existence in a cold, snowy Massachusetts town circa 1964.

One morning in the prison parking lot, Eileen sees a vision emerge from her car in the form of the new prison psychiatrist Rebecca St. John (Hathaway).  Rebecca stirs Eileen's passions immediately, forcing her to straighten up so Rebecca would notice her.   The glamorous doctor, with her blonde hair and quasi-Mid-Atlantic accent, seems as if she arrived from the set of a movie.  She seems out of place dealing with teenage patients in a remote prison, but she notices Eileen and takes a liking to her.   Rebecca asks Eileen out for a drink and Eileen goes home to shave her legs for perhaps the first time in a while and even wear makeup.  

Rebecca and Eileen drink, then dance, then Rebecca leaves the bar with Eileen clearly wishing they could kiss goodnight.   Color Eileen seduced, but then on Christmas night, Rebecca invites Eileen over to her home and this is where we think their romance will commence.   It is not so.  I won't reveal what happens, but the movie takes an unexpected turn from which it never recovers.  Until the plot twist, Eileen was atmospheric and intriguing as we see two women feel each other out and approach a relationship.  

But the love which dare not speak its name doesn't materialize, and instead the movie ends with unseemly haste as the first hour or so minutes dissolve into memory.  We are left with no true payoff and I think we are supposed to be happy for Eileen in the end, or is the room being left open for a sequel?  The three leads take complex characters and perform them superbly.  They come from places in particular and we are interested in them, but then poof, whatever tightly held magic weaved from the buildup evaporates into...what the hell was that?   

World Trade Center (2006) * * *

 

Directed by:  Oliver Stone

Starring:  Nicolas Cage, Michael Pena, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Jon Bernthal, Maria Bello, Jay Hernandez

World Trade Center was released the same year as Paul Greengrass' United 93.  There was debate over whether it was too soon for a movie about 9/11.  Five years was sufficient.  These are stories that were needed to be told to a wide audience.  We saw heroic actions from those who didn't ask to be heroes.  Both United 93 and World Trade Center exist in the moment without larger context, although United 93 is told with more ruthless precision than World Trade Center, which introduces a former Marine (Shannon) who answers a higher calling to leave his job and travel to Ground Zero to assist and his story distracts from the realism temporarily.  

The journey of the Marine is almost hagiography, and he comes across as more of a symbol than a human being.  However, this subplot does not derail World Trade Center's power.   The bulk of the movie centers on two Port Authority police officers trapped in the rubble of one of the collapsed towers.   John McLoughlin (Cage) and Will Jimeno (Pena) are two men who went into the tower trying to rescue people.  The building collapses and miraculously they survive the initial collapse although they are pinned down by rubble with explosions occurring all around them.   Will help arrive?  Their radios do not work and although they are several feet apart, they try to keep each other's spirits up in an unprecedented situation. Neither wants to lose hope, because that is all they have, since there is no water, food, medicine, and the pain of crushed limbs is agonizing. 

John and Will's families are at home anxiously awaiting any news of their fates.  These scenes also generate sympathy and inspire empathy.  These are just two of thousands of families who only want answers when none are forthcoming.  World Trade Center starts out with Tuesday September 11, 2001 as a quiet, normal day.  How could anyone, except the terrorists who hijacked the planes, possibly foresee the horror that would arrive in a few short hours?  What occurred next was surreal even to those thousands of miles away.  A plane deliberately hits the first tower, then another one the second?  

Director Oliver Stone captures the mood and atmosphere of this dark day plus the terrifying, claustrophobic danger of John and Will's dilemma.   So many things had to happen (plus a few like starvation, dehydration, illness, blood loss, shock, etc. which didn't happen) to allow for their rescue.  The scroll before the end credits shows us how these two were in the minority as far as surviving through this ordeal.  They went through countless medical procedures in order to be able to leave the hospital, and in 2006, the long-term effects of breathing in the glass, dust, dirt, and foreign particles were still not known.  But I'm sure they were happy to take that over the fate which befell nearly 3,000 people that day in New York. 

Dream Scenario (2023) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Kristoffer Borgli

Starring:  Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson, Dylan Baker, Tim Meadows, Michael Cera, Dylan Gelula, Lily Byrd, Jessica Clement, James Alexander Warren

I missed satire and with Dream Scenario, it has returned with a vengeance.  It is also great to see Nicolas Cage in a project worthy of his talent and give his best performance in many a moon.   Cage's gift is always to seem enthusiastic even when the material is subpar.  In Dream Scenario, he is enjoying himself with reason and purpose.   I hope people don't stay away from it because they think it's "yet another Nicolas Cage movie".  It isn't.  It is smart, perceptive, and most of all, a funny satire covering cancel culture to "feeling unsafe". 

Paul Matthews (Cage) is an unassuming, nerdy college professor who epitomizes ordinariness.  His students aren't engaged in his class in which topics such as zebra mating are covered, and he has yet to be published while his colleagues are publishing articles based on his ideas.  His family life is more or less happy and he has a nice house in the suburbs.   Then, Paul is informed by numerous people including his daughter that he appeared in her dream as an inert bystander.   Paul soon becomes a social media sensation faster than you can say "viral", although he is puzzled to understand how and why he shows up randomly in dreams of people he hasn't even met, and also why is suddenly famous for it.

Paul's fame strains his marriage to his wife Janet (Nicholson), who finds her professional life improving, but also weirdos breaking into their house threatening to kill the family.   His fame also comes with publishers trying to talk him into making ads featuring Barack Obama and Sprite.  But just at the zenith of his fame comes the inevitable backlash in the form of people suddenly dreaming Paul is attacking or trying to kill them.  

Paul is inexplicably ostracized by family, faculty, students, friends, and even the agents who were so keen on having him do Sprite commercials.  He didn't actually do anything wrong, nor did he do anything period.  That doesn't stop him from becoming persona non grata and effectively cancelled.  It is here when Dream Scenario moves into a satirical, unexpected direction which had me smiling.  Sure, Paul's situation is exaggerated and ridiculous, but people have been inexplicably shunned or "cancelled" for a lot less.  The movie doesn't take political sides, although both liberals and conservatives want a piece of Paul when it suits their needs.  

If anything else, Dream Scenario is a funny look at a world in which "feeling unsafe" trumps everything else, including reason, logic, and sanity.  Cage gives us a sympathetic protagonist who has this crazy dilemma thrust at him and handles it with aplomb.  Dream Scenario could have been a movie in which the hero figures out what's happening and tries to fix it.  No explanation is given as to why Paul is appearing in strangers' dreams and we don't need to know because it isn't the point.  Writer-director Kristoffer Borgli instead gives us something we didn't realize could still be made today:  A pointed look at today's climate and an unexpected treat. 

Napoleon (2023) * *

Directed by:  Ridley Scott

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Tahir Rahim, Ludivine Sagnier

Ridley Scott's bloated Napoleon boasts lengthy battle scenes shot in either the dark or under gray skies which makes the action indiscernible and an unconvincing love story in between the fighting.  Joaquin Phoenix tries his damndest to humanize Napoleon Bonaparte, but the movie never convinces us why yet another epic about the French emperor needed to be made.  

Napoleon begins in 1789 at the start of the French Revolution.  Marie Antoinette and other royalty are guillotined and young Napoleon graduates to rank of brigadier general after recapturing a port from the British in a night battle where he can't see what's happening, except for Napoleon's horse being hit with a cannonball.   Soon after Napoleon gains fame as a military genius, he notices Josephine (Kirby), a widowed mother of two, and is enraptured.  Despite her past in which she took on many lovers, Napoleon wishes to marry her.   The two children, however, soon conspicuously disappear from the scene shortly after Napoleon marries Josephine.   

When Napoleon travels with his army to Egypt to liberate the nation from the British, Josephine takes on a lover.  The news travels to Egypt, and the humiliated Napoleon abandons his army to go home and deal with his unfaithful wife.  Napoleon is furious, but also loves Josephine and can't bring himself to leave her.  They soon enter into a quasi-BDSM relationship in which Josephine is at times dominant over the French general who soon declares himself emperor after a series of political moves which weren't exactly explained.  Napoleon soon grows more and more disturbed at his inability to produce an heir with Josephine.  He is soon able to use a surrogate to carry his child, another child who vanishes from the scene until much later in the film. 

Napoleon plods along as the emperor attempts to invade Russia and Austria while setting his sights on England.   There isn't much intrigue here and the relationship with Josephine doesn't establish itself as anything we should care about.   We aren't even a witness to tragedy even when Napoleon is exiled to Elba and later to St. Helena following his defeat at Waterloo.   He receives a nice island to live on and a stipend, so he shouldn't complain much.   Sure Josephine is not with him, but her passing occurs off-screen, not that we miss her.   The entire movie is a clumsy epic of nearly three hours which doesn't invite us into Napoleon's story in any insightful way.  

Silent Night (2023) * *

Directed by:  John Woo

Starring:  Joel Kinnaman, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Harold Torres, Scott Mescudi

John Woo's Silent Night is John Wick without dialogue, which is both repetitive and distracting.  The John Wick series has exhausted all of the fresh ways you can witness someone being shot to death.  Like Wick, I ask myself how much spare ammo the hero has to carry and doesn't it get heavy to lug it around?  Even with a backpack? 

Silent Night has a heart at its core, and there is poignancy in the scenes in which grieving father Brian (Kinnaman) remembers his late son who was killed by a stray bullet during an L.A. gang gunfight.  He attempts to chase down the killers, but is soon shot in the throat and left for dead by gang leader Playa (Torres).   This explains why Brian cannot speak, but the rest of the movie follows suit.  The only character with any substantial dialogue is a radio DJ who helpfully announces what holiday is coming up to mark the passage of time.   The approach grows distracting and gimmicky.  Watching the movie contrive ways to avoid having its characters speak reminded me of the all the methods Sex and the City used to keep Mr. Big's real name a secret. 

Brian is inconsolable as he drinks his days away.  His wife Saya (Moreno) tries to move on and encourage her husband to do the same, but soon leaves him as his depression worsens.   The only way Brian can snap out of his funk is to plot his revenge, which plays like a Rocky montage in which he lifts weights, drives fast, and sharpens his aim at the gun range.   He plans December 24, the one-year anniversary of his son's death, to exact vengeance.   He writes on his calendar, "Kill them all,"  Brian attempts to seek the help of a detective (Mescudi), but finds he'd rather wipe out the gangs himself.  

There is no indication that Brian had military training or any previous firearms experience, but I suppose he idolized Call of Duty and John Wick because he kills nameless gang members with the best of them.   These are the only types of movies in which two or three bullets in the chest from point-blank range only serves to stun the baddies and force the hero to kick or punch the man he just shot with his hand cannon.  We've seen this movie before.   John Wick wanted to avenge his dog.  Brian wants to avenge his son.  This movie carries more emotional heft, but the results are the same.  No matter how creatively Woo tries to dress Silent Night up, it feels like same old, same old. 

All the Light We Cannot See (2023) * * (streaming on Netflix)

 

Directed by: Shawn Levy

Starring:  Aria Mia Loberti, Louis Hofmann, Felix Kammerer, Hugh Laurie, Mark Ruffalo, Lars Eidinger, Marion Bailey

Marie Leblanc (Loberti) is a blind teenager transmitting illegal radio broadcasts in the waning days of the Nazi occupation of France in 1944.  She calls out for her missing father Daniel (Ruffalo) and Uncle Etienne (Laurie), both members of the French resistance, speaking in secret codes to the Allies hidden in her reading of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  Her broadcasts are picked up by German teenager Werner Pfennig (Hofmann), who has been listening on this frequency since his days in an orphanage, but the person speaking back then was a mysterious professor whose words gave him hope.  Werner, due to his genius working with radios, is soon scooped up into the Nazi war machine.  

There is nothing Werner displays which shows us that it takes an expert to do what he does.  Germany apparently had a whole curriculum dedicated to taking apart and putting together radios.  An average electrician could fix wires and find frequencies.  Werner is enthralled with Marie's voice, while Reinhold (Eidinger), a poor man's Hans Landa who tracks people for the Gestapo, searches for Marie because he believes a precious stone which would cure his fatal illness and grant him eternal life is in her possession.  

Daniel is missing, while Etienne works out of the back of a bakery in the port town of Saint Malo, France, which is where the bulk of All the Light We Cannot See takes place.  Most of the battle scenes in the series are clearly phony CGI, while the dramatic scenes are jumbles of words faking some sort of profundity.  The professor speaks of "the light we cannot see", which sounds deep, but what does it actually mean?   The series lasts four episodes, which is three more than it needs.  The human stakes are awfully low for a World War II drama with Nazi villains and moral, decent heroes.  All the Light We Cannot See, based on a Pulitzer-prize winning novel, might have come more alive on the page than it does in this mini-series.  After the final scene, I asked myself, is there all there is?