Final Account (2021) * * *

Directed by:  Luke Holland

Documentary filmmaker Luke Holland recorded interviews beginning in 2008 of surviving members of Hitler Youth who witnessed or partook in Nazi crimes against humanity.   Many have since changed their thought process about Hitler and the Nazi regime, while a few hold out in their deranged belief that what the Nazis did was justified.  

Interspersed with archive footage, Holland's Final Account records the testimony of the last living Germans who were there from Night of the Long Knives up to and including the Holocaust.   There is even a lyric from a song imploring Germans to "Sharpen the long knives...so they go better in the Jewish belly,"  No subtlety there.   Holland's aim is noble.   It is a race against time for Holland to film his subjects' statements before death silences them forever.  

For the most part, Final Account is an intriguing documentary of how time and age alter views of history and past actions.   There are occasional lulls because Final Account is essentially interview subjects talking, and some subjects aren't as compelling as others, but the underlying question enters our minds:  What would you do?  Most of the former Hitler Youth members (or Germans themselves) didn't speak up or take against action against the Nazis out of fear of repercussions, with the worst being a bullet to the head.    Many of these Germans chose self-preservation at the expense of others' lives.  Following the end of World War II, these men and women have to live with their choices every day for the next sixty-plus years.  Many of these people say they were only following orders, while others say they had no alternative but to follow orders because they didn't want to line up alongside the Jews who were being murdered.   

The question remains:  What would you do?  This by no means lets the subjects off the hook for their actions or inaction during the rise and rule of Nazi Germany.   They made their choice.   Let's hope others won't have to make the same choices.  

Dream Horse (2021) * *

Directed by:  Euros Lyn

Starring:  Toni Collette, Owen Teale, Damian Lewis

Movies about race horses tend to follow the same unwavering formula:  Down-on-his/her luck person buys the horse, the horse isn't fit for racing but the trainer "sees something in him" and trains the horse anyway, the horse has minimal success at first, but just as the horse begins to improve the poor animal suffers a life-threatening injury.   The horse then not only recovers but stuns doubters by being a better racer than before.   Horse wins the big race.   All is well.

Dream Horse follows the racehorse movie playbook step by step.   It is spirited and the people who entrust their life savings and faith in this horse are colorful, but let's face it:  We've seen this movie before.   There are no surprises and a modicum of suspense.   Dream Horse is as generic as its title.  Secretariat or Seabiscuit it ain't. 

Supermarket cashier and moonlighting bartender Jan (Collette) is bored with her humdrum life and her husband Brian (Teale).   She looks for something to look forward to every day, so she researches race horses after listening to bar patron Howard Davies (Lewis) tell his drinking buddies about the glory days of owning a race horse.   Howard, an accountant by day, nearly went bankrupt and lost his marriage when his last horse investment went belly-up, but he's willing to listen when Jan suggests members of the small Welsh town in which they reside pony up (no pun intended) the funds to buy a mare and breed her with a racehorse with pedigree.   Their horse, which they name Dream Alliance (a better name for the movie), is soon born and learns to race with help from a top breeder and trainer.

I did not exactly give away spoilers, since Dream Horse doesn't deviate from the racehorse movie formula one iota.   I suppose what sucks about horse racing is how the horse itself doesn't benefit from winning.   I'm sure the horse sees its owners jumping for joy when he wins, but he has no idea how he is carrying the burden of making his owners' lives meaningful and making them rich.   He can't figure out what the hubbub is about.   All he wants to do is run as fast as he can so the person riding him stops hitting him with a riding crop.   It doesn't sound like much of a life, even if he is fed extra hay or vegetables for winning the Kentucky Derby.  

Now, if a horse racing movie is ever made from the point of view of the horse, then maybe we might have something there.   

Wrath of Man (2021) * * * 1/2

Directed by: Guy Ritchie

Starring:  Jason Statham, Josh Hartnett, Andy Garcia, Holt McCallany, Eddie Marsan, Scott Eastwood, Jeffrey Donovan

Wrath of Man is Guy Ritchie's (and for that matter Jason Statham's) most assured crime drama.   It isn't merely a crowd-pleasing action film, but it transcends the genre into superior crime noir.   There may or may not be any "good guys" in the film, but there are people whose motives we care about and we are guessing every step of the way.   Who are these characters?   What drives a man like Patrick Hill (Statham) to join an armored truck company and nearly crack a smile when thieves attempt in vain to rob the truck he is assigned to protect?   Hill, nicknamed H, lays waste to the would-be robbers.   He is clearly not who he seems, and many of the people in Wrath of Man can lay claim to that distinction.

H has personal reasons to join Fortico, the armored truck company in question.   We witness an armored truck heist in the opening frames of Wrath of Man.  Two employees are killed and we later discover a third person unrelated to the crime is murdered in cold blood as well.   This person is connected to H, who is either a crime lord, a government agent, or both.   No matter what, Statham approaches the role with his usual repository of self-confidence and quiet anger.   But there is a bit more to H than meets the eye, which is one of the pleasures of not just H but Wrath of Man itself.

Gone is the over-stylized story telling and camera movement which had populated Ritchie's films as of late.  He tells a straight story here with timelines which reveal not just the story, but the motives of H and the thieves he is ultimately chasing for revenge.   The thieves have their reasons for wanting to knock over armored trucks, or at the reasons for most of the thieves.   One seems to like the action, while the others like the money.   Money doesn't seem to drive H in any of his endeavors.   Part of the lure of H and the Statham performance is the mystery surrounding him.  

Wrath of Man is among the most engrossing crime dramas in recent years.   It isn't just a Statham vehicle.  Ritchie takes great care to make it special by not just making the other characters future targets for H, but people with their own back stories who had the unfortunate luck to cross paths with hm.   The action scenes are not just silly shootouts which follow action movie cliches, but ones that are loud, suspenseful, and high human stakes.   Ritchie's past crime films had a soft, comic touch which were hit or miss.   Wrath of Man is all hit with a few nifty surprises thrown in not just for effect, but are actually plausible and quite masterfully done.  

The Woman in the Window (2021) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Joe Wright

Starring:  Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Julianne Moore, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Anthony Mackie, Tracy Letts, Fred Hechinger, Bryan Tyree Henry, Wyatt Russell

Anna Fox is an agoraphobic child psychologist with her own set of traumas to deal with in The Woman in the Window, a solid if not outstanding thriller in which Anna (Adams) swears she witnesses a murder in the home across the street.   However, Anna doesn't make a reliable witness because of the large quantity of medications she ingests and chases with alcohol.    

For reasons made clear later, and I will not overstep and reveal spoilers, Anna hasn't been out of the house in a long time.   She is now separated from her husband (Mackie) and daughter; only speaking to them via phone and she has a tenant living downstairs (Russell) who isn't around all that much.   The new neighbors include a seemingly abused teenager Ethan (Hechinger) whose father Alistair (Oldman) has a sketchy past and warns Anna to stay away from his family.   That doesn't stop Ethan's mother Jane (Moore) from dropping in one night and sharing drinks and laughs with Anna, which may have led to Jane being murdered.  But, when Anna calls 911 and reports the murder, Alistair shows up to the apartment with his wife Jane intact, only it isn't the Jane that Anna hung out with nights earlier.   This Jane looks more like Jennifer Jason Leigh than Julianne Moore.   So, is Anna crazy or is something afoot?

The detective assigned to the case (Henry) wants to believe Anna, but he knows she takes too many pills and drinks too much to be completely credible.   The house Anna never leaves must cost a fortune.  A bigger mystery than if Jane was murdered is how Anna manages to keep the mortgage paid on her gargantuan, three-story Gothic home despite seemingly having no patients and even with a tenant paying rent.   Since The Woman in the Window is a nod to Hitchcock, these aren't the questions we should be asking.   

The resolution of the murder itself is fairly uncomplicated in the grand scheme of things.   The Woman in the Window is front-loaded with A-list actors (including two recent Oscar winners in Oldman and Moore) whose performances are better than the material.    When all is said and done, The Woman in the Window is well-made and gives us moments of suspense, but not anything substantial or even particularly memorable.  

And perhaps Alistair and company should invest in curtains or blinds so neighbors won't see what they're up to.  

Sprial: From the Book of Saw (2021) * 1/2

Directed by:  Darren Lynn Bousman

Starring:  Chris Rock, Samuel L. Jackson, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols

The Saw series began with Saw (2004) in which an ingenious serial killer lures his victims into traps in which they must choose between death or permanent disfigurement.   I wasn't crazy about Saw, but at least it had a plot.   The ensuing movies in the series were little more than a series of gorefests in which the traps grew more elaborate and sickening.   Body parts are severed and blood spurts all over the screen.   They were depressing to watch.   I stopped after Saw 3.   I don't believe I missed much by not watching the other movies.  

Many years later comes Spiral, starring Chris Rock as a detective on the tail of a Jigsaw copycat killer who targets cops.   I went in knowing full well the victims will be secured in contraptions of agonizing complexity.  My first question is:  How much time, energy, patience, and resources does this killer have to keep setting up these booby traps?   He must buy chloroform and pig masks by the gross.  And how does he perform test runs of the traps?   The opening sequence features a dirty cop hung by his tongue while a subway train races towards him.   The killer sets up a small TV set which outlines the two possible outcomes to the would-be victim:  The cop can die when the train hits him or he can free himself from the contraption which will sever his tongue clean off.   The cop will live but have trouble eating and speaking for the rest of his life.   Fun times.

Not even the comic presences of Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson bring any levity to Spiral.   Rock's Zeke Banks is a department pariah for testifying against his former partner who coldly murdered someone.  He is put on the case when what is left of the cop is found splattered all over the subway tracks.   His dialogue to his new partner (Minghella) about marriage and divorce sounds like something out of his stand-up act.   Jackson appears in a few scenes as Zeke's dad, a former department captain also targeted by the killer in the pig mask, drops four and twelve-letter words and then disappears for a long stretch.  

Spiral leaves room open for yet another sequel, but it merely continues a wearying film series which is among the least fun you will ever witness.   There is nothing new in Spiral except upping the ante on gore, blood, and severed body parts.   

Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021) * 1/2

 

Directed by: Taylor Sheridan

Starring:  Angelina Jolie, Jon Bernthal, Nicholas Hoult, Aiden Gillen, Finn Little, Jake Weber, Medina Senghore

Those Who Wish Me Dead is about a Montana fire jumper who is Haunted By Her Past and soon has a chance to Make Amends by protecting a young boy from hired killers.   If Taylor Sheridan's film didn't introduce so many characters with their own issues that we forget at times its star is in the movie, maybe Those Who Wish Me Dead could have worked.  Instead, it is ultra bogged down long before it gets to the main event.

And boy is it Bogged Down.   Jolie's Hannah Faber drinks a lot and is relegated to manning a fire tower after she fails to save the lives of children in a forest fire.   She Blames Herself and is Haunted By Flash Backs.   We also meet:  Hannah's former boyfriend (Bernthal), the local sheriff's deputy with a pregnant wife (Senghore), a forensic accountant (Weber) who flees Florida with his son (Little) after two assassins kill a local district attorney.   The accountant and son flee to Montana in hopes no one will find them.   The killers search the accountant's home for five minutes before determining somehow that the dad and son have fled to Montana.   These hitmen aren't known for being conspicuous.   They set up the most laborious trap on a mountain road to kill the dad which results in collateral damage.   The son survives, lights out for the woods, and the would-be killers start a forest fire as a way of distracting the local townsfolk so they could kill the kid in peace.

The kid stumbles across Hannah, who helps guide the boy through a fast-moving inferno which sweeps up and down the countryside while avoiding the killers.   These killers are supposed to be seasoned pros, but are masters of using shotguns to kill mosquitoes.   The fire itself is kind enough to stop its spread long enough for Hannah's final showdown with the assassins.   By the time the movie ends, the fire is ridiculously out of control and then, poof, the heroes wake up the next morning with the flames completely put out.   I am no forest fire expert, but I would assume it would take days to contain such a rapid forest fire.   

Those Who Wish Me Dead strives to be Meaningful, but it is so ludicrous we can't take it seriously even though it desperately wants us to.   The characters are not established long enough for us to care about them.   The hired guns maliciously and coldly dispatch everyone in their path but yet are reluctant to kill Hannah and any of the more important characters without at least giving them a chance to save their own lives.   They act according to who has top billing on the movie poster.   Sheridan's Hell or High Water (2016) was frustrating but at least had its moments of power.   That was a near-miss.  Those Who Wish Me Dead never had a chance to hit.   

2021 Oscars: A Look Back

April 25, 2021 is the strangest Oscar telecast I've ever seen.   Its biggest issue was the producers' attempt to reinvent the wheel in their attempts to "simplify" or freshen up the ceremony.   Presenters were not only asked to present multiple categories, but were also forced to recite verbal diarrhea about the nominees or gush over them to the point of nausea.    Here is the most effective way to show the audience the power of a performance or to ratchet up suspense:   Show a clip of the acting nominees.  This produces suspense which in turn produces interest.   We see with our own eyes what made the performances special without a presenter telling us so.   

The acceptance speeches were encouraged to be long-winded and expansive, which many were.  The trade-off was the absence of clips and an In Memoriam segment in which the deceased's names and photos were shown so quickly the viewer could've sued for whiplash.    This is the first Oscars telecast in many a long day in which Best Picture wasn't presented last.   Nomadland won Best Picture with Best Actress and Best Actor still to go.   I understand the producers were anticipating closing the show with a poignant, emotional finale in which the late Chadwick Boseman was awarded the Best Actor Oscar.   It was not to be.   Anthony Hopkins snagged his second Best Actor Oscar for The Father.   He wasn't there to accept nor did he give his speech via satellite.  (Zoom acceptance speeches were not permitted).   The telecast ended with presenter Joaquin Phoenix announcing Hopkins as the winner and then accepting the award on his behalf.   End of show.   Peace out!

Here are the awards vs. my predictions.   Guess what?   I didn't fare well.

Best Picture:  Nomadland.   My prediction:  Nomadland

Best Actor:  Anthony Hopkins.   My prediction:  Chadwick Boseman (just like everyone else's prediction)

Best Actress:  Frances McDormand.  My prediction:  Carey Mulligan

Best Supporting Actor:  Daniel Kaluyya.  My prediction:  Daniel Kaluyya

Best Supporting Actress:  Youn Yuh-Jung.   My prediction:  Glenn Close (8th Oscar defeat)

Best Director:  Chloe Zhao.  My prediction:  Chloe Zhao

Best Original Screenplay:  Promising Young Woman.  My prediction:  Promising Young Woman

Best Adapted Screenplay:  The Father.  My prediction:  One Night in Miami

That's four out of eight in the major categories.   An underwhelming 50%.   

The telecast suffered a record low viewership.   Maybe there is no way to restore the Oscars to their glory.   By the time the Oscars bows, perhaps the viewing audience has had it with awards season.  Would nominating blockbusters help?   I would say no.   Would more people have a vested interest in seeing a smash hit film win vs. a smaller production?   They would still have to outlast a three-hour plus bloated ceremony in which the only thing that stays the same is the constant attempt to change the show.   Since this year's Oscars took place in Union Station in Los Angeles and was held in late April as opposed to February, it just felt odd all around.