New Movie Reviews (09.29.23)
I try to view new movies and make sure to write capsule reviews at least once a month. In lieu of a '5 Years' favorite post, here are thoughts on 5 recently released films
For the month of September…
Goodbye Petrushka (dir. Nicola Rose)
At one point in the film, Goodbye Petrushka, our lead character describes an object of affection as being a “human sunbeam.” It was around that moment when I realized that this charming indie romantic comedy has a lot of warm, glowing comfort of its own to convey to anyone lucky enough to come across this. Sometimes you simply just want an entertaining movie to make you feel good; this is a winning example of that.
Claire (a radiant Lizzie Kehoe) is a college student living in New York. She wants to combine a lifelong passion in puppetry with the art of moviemaking, a passion that no one including her wacky professor and unsupportive classmates seem to get behind. Thibault (Thomas Vieljeux) has a secret talent of his own that doesn’t embrace - figure-skating. He decides it’s time to grow up, let his dream go and move forward. The French tale of Petrushka has always been a favorite of Claire’s, so after a quick consultation with her quirky friend Julia (Casey Landman), she decides to move to Paris to become a nanny. Unlike another impulsive character like Frances in Frances Ha, Claire is determined to make it a go in France and not just stay for a short stint, especially since she’s fluent in the language and wants to fully embrace the culture there. And who wouldn’t!
As much as I enjoyed my time with Claire, part of me wished it had just been a more focused character study of someone struggling with personal identity in a whole new country while trying to maintain independence. That element is certainly a part of the story, but I prefer the more melancholic approach with something like Parker Posey’s work in the underrated Broken English. In fact, when that film veers more into familiar territory involving the eventual pursuit of chasing a guy, I wished it had focused less on the romance angle and she hadn’t made that rather expected decision. I get it though - love can cause us to do that at times. Goodbye Petrushka is more akin to the tone and vibrant sensibility of Gilmore Girls which definitely sits well with me since the comedic beats are well-timed, character-driven and often very funny. It helps that Lizzie Kehoe is a fearless performer with similar qualities to a favorite actress of mine, Caroline Dhavernas (of the short-lived Wonderfalls).
I was mostly charmed by Goodbye Petrushka even if I didn’t entirely connect with the romantic triangle here. Claire is torn a bit between a rather unlikable co-worker at one point as well as the aforementioned Thibault, but I was mostly interested in Claire’s journey to becoming an artist and finding herself. That seems to be the better, more personal angle that writer/director Nicola Rose is confidently portraying here. Looking for love in all the wrong places has been done quite a bit in films like these and for the most part, largely due in part to Kehoe and some witty banter between well-drawn supporting players, I was delighted and entertained by the film overall in the end. I have no doubt that fans of the rom-com genre will feel the same way.
Hannah Ha Ha (dirs. Joshua Pikovsky and Jordan Tetewsky)
Since I referenced Frances Ha in the last review, it only makes sense to jump to this film next that I’m so glad I stumbled upon Tubi since it’s definitely one of my top 20 favorites of the year so far. Hannah Ha Ha was directorial duo Joshua Pikovsky and Jordan Tetewsky’s contribution to the 2022 Slamdance Film Festival, an event that has championed low budget films since 1995. The movie is a succinct 75 minutes long and features a very small, remarkably talented cast. Not only that, but the filmmakers also capture a real small-town time and place encased in an overcast fogginess. The soft-focus cinematography was a bit distracting at first, but I warmed up to the entire film as it went along.
Were this to have come out in a different era a couple of decades ago, one could immediately lump this into Mumblecore land (Bujalski also comes to mind based on the title) but I was actually reminded of the work of Kelly Reichardt, particularly Wendy & Lucy. This time we center our attention on newcomer Hannah Lee Thompson in the titular role. Hannah is nearing her 26th birthday and still lives with her dad (Avram Tetewsky, the co-director’s real father) in a small town outside of Boston. This will remind you of small towns you have either known or visited.
She spends her days working the family farm, walking the neighbor’s dog, giving guitar lessons to kids, and any other odd job that might pop up or be beneficial to the community. Hannah is overweight and queer but seems fine with her life until her corporate-type older brother Paul (Roger Mancusi) begins urging her to get a “real job” with upward mobility and benefits. This leads to an awkward job interview in the city and a knock to Hannah’s self-esteem. Really, she wants to let life happen rather than push forward. Some people aspire to live a simpler, subdued life including the comfort and familiarity of being a caretaker to an aging parent.
There is not much plot or familiar conflict at play here and that’s a strength. Really, it’s about people you can relate to struggling to maintain what’s been in place that has made things manageable. It only becomes apparent near the end of the film that Hannah and her brother actually have a decent relationship, but just have two very different perspectives on what constitutes a good life. A real job could mean compromise to some degree. Hannah may never want that or at least, especially in her mid-20s, it’s okay to not work and simply just exist as is.
One night, when Hannah is very tired, her lonely (possibly unwell) father asks her to join him in watching a “Twilight Zone” marathon on TV. This ended up being the moment when I felt love for the film take over. Not only because I know what it’s like to just relax with a parent since it’s comfortable and familiar, but I also vividly recall moments in the past where things like career aspirations and relationship goals were not a part of my life. I too took a while to flourish and spent most of my 20s doing similar things as Hannah. So, in that regard, as a quaint slice-of-life portrait of twentysomething ennui, Hannah Ha Ha is a rousing success. There’s a real depth of feeling accompanied by a compassionate, naturalistic performance from Thompson. Contentment and solace can co-exist unexpectedly for some and that’s really what this film showcases so strongly. It’s a slow yet sublime low-key picture that hits home in many ways. We truly need more filmmakers and lead actors like the ones we are blessed with in a simple story like Hannah Ha Ha.
No One Will Save You (dir. Brian Duffield)
Here’s a film that I wanted to love more than I did but at the same time, I can absolutely respect what it sets out to do. I thoroughly enjoy a good old-fashioned home invasion alien mashup but perhaps I wanted more in the end. No One Will Save You follows the story of a woman named Brynn (played by Kaitlyn Dever) living inside her childhood home who struggles as she is “alienated” from her community. One day, she is woken by strange noises that turn out to be unearthly intruders. After a very intense opening confrontation, she fiercely defends herself and ends up causing far more trouble than expected. The title ends up saying it all - the townspeople are of no help. Brynn is entirely on her own.
Writer/director Brian Duffield does some fascinating world-building similar to that movie with his sound team. In terms of production and sound design, this is the genre film to beat this year. Brynn’s character doesn’t voice many words throughout the film, so he lets his composer and sound mixing team tell the story of this alien invasion that allows the tension to be kicked up a notch. No One Will Save You has some of the best sound work I’ve heard in many a moon. If only this had played in a theater around Halloween, I bet screams in unison would’ve been heard in every multiplex. Silence is such a strength here to where you move closer to the edge of your seat in ways that never feel grossly manipulative.
So, this film ends up being a bit like the climax of Signs meets A Quiet Place. I really found myself to be quite surprised by the lack of dialogue through the majority of the nearly silent film. Brynn never yells out “oh my God” for fear of drawing attention and even during interactions with others, she is barely able to speak. The performance is mostly all about facial expression, body language and learning how to adapt to challenging threats. But of course, the film can’t just be about alien invasion, it has to give us a backstory involving grief, regret and learning to let go. There’s a flashback moment that actually took me out of the film since I had a feeling they wanted to give Brynn a reason to confront her past so she can fight to save her own future.
Dever is tremendous as expected and the main reason to seek this out. She reacts accordingly and expresses a lot of terror and uncertainty about how to work through this entire ordeal. As mentioned, the score, the sound design and everything on a technical level is also exceptional. It would be best experienced in a crowded theater, but it still worked well on the small screen too. I just wish the screenplay had gone in a different direction or didn’t borrow elements from so many sci-fi films of the past. The score by Joseph Trapanese is especially worthy of praise, with shrill, stabbing violins and brooding synths that punctuate a soundscape of gasping breaths. The alien chips and chirps are also memorable. But again, it really let me down by a rather ho-hum ending that is neither triumphant nor shocking. I greatly preferred the setup and sadly, the payoff and revelation left a lot to be desired. The film at that point, could not be saved.
Flora & Son (dir. John Carney)
A movie about music as being an ultimate source of connection? Hmmm… not sure who to hire for that story! Could it be… John Carney? Who gave us Once, Begin Again and the best of the bunch… Sing Street? Not to mention the fact that they are all movies about the joy and power of creative expression with others. Plus they all more or less happen to be love stories. “Once again,” Carney plays us a tune and what a surprise, I was delighted by nearly every single moment.
He’s also got a star is born performance here with a remarkable rock ‘n’ roll pedigree in Eve Hewson, the daughter of U2 front man Bono. She anchors the film as Flora, a young Dublin mother yearning for more. In the beginning, Flora has no musical career aspirations – she simply finds a guitar in a dumpster and learns to play it after her teenage son Max (Oren Kinlan) turns it down. After combing through the internet for a suitable tutor, she lands on Jeff’s (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) page, and the two strike up an unlikely but friendly relationship. Hewson and Gordon-Levitt’s chemistry together works wonders for the film, in spite of them mostly speaking via Zoom (he lives in Los Angeles).
He’s more interested in teaching her the underlying psychology of music, and what makes it perfect for expressing oneself creatively. She’s more interested in his looks and charismatic ways. But it turns out Max also sees music as a way to kindle a romantic connection when he crushes on a girl that he sees dancing in a number of music videos outside their apartment, and some commonality between the two generations is found. Carney lets their closeness develop naturally, and it’s not always a smooth progression, as they occasionally let one another down. Kinlan and Hewson similarly feel effortlessly natural together, their banter feeling lived-in as they know what gets under one another’s skin, especially when it comes to Flora’s ex Ian (Jack Reynor).
Flora and Son doesn’t entirely stick the landing in the same way that his best film, Sing Street did. I wished this had ended on a high note but alas, there was a sense of disappointment. I didn’t feel a sense of awe and wonder with the final act and closing number in a way that the film seems to aim for. That being said, nearly everything leading up to it tugged at my heartstrings in all the right ways. Gordon-Levitt excels at playing a charming, defeated musician trying to help this mother from across the globe. As mentioned, this is easily a breakout role for Eve Hewson. We’ll continue to see great things from her. There’s wonderful chemistry on display throughout between our two leads. And they have the difficult task of accomplishing all that while spending most of his time in a Zoom call on a computer screen.
Carney is never afraid of genuine sincerity even if for many, it might in turn make their eyes roll since it can be perceived as oozing sentimentality. But for some reason, like the romantic comedy genre often manages to pull off, you really do get invested in what’s taking place even if it’s been done before. Some story structures work regardless of whether or not we’ve seen them a hundred times previously. Not to mention, it certainly helps that I’m a songwriter/musician so I always look forward to feeling a sense of intimate connection to movies like these. I wouldn’t say that this moved me quite as much as Carney’s previous work but it is absolutely one of the more relaxed, comforting films of 2023 so far.
The Creator (dir. Gareth Edwards)
Perhaps I should’ve ended on a higher “note” with Flora & Son but since I just caught up with The Creator, I’ll end with this one. I purposely avoided any plot details, trailers or even what the consensus has been on overall. My friend and colleague Collin Souter is the only one I heard from in regards to this and I couldn’t agree more: liked it, didn’t love it.
That probably just stems with something similar to Flora & Son - familiarity as well as being slightly disappointed by a story’s conclusion. The screenplay definitely takes a bit from a lot of sci-fi pictures of the past particularly Blade Runner and manages to turn them into a modern parable about AI taking control. The results are mixed but in general, there are a few things to appreciate about The Creator. Production-wise, it’s a success. Gareth Edwards is definitely an assured filmmaker but even with the mostly successful Rogue One, I never get fully caught up to get as involved as I hope to.
Ten years after artificially intelligent robots detonated a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles, former special forces soldier Joshua (John David Washington) is recruited to infiltrate a Southeast Asian laboratory and seize a new AI super-weapon. When the mission ends in failure, Joshua finds himself on the run through AI-friendly territory with the weapon in tow: robot child Alphie (Madeline Yuna Voyles).
Governments in the West respond with a complete ban on AI, while Eastern nations continue to develop the technology to the point where robots have become human-like and are embraced as equals. This sets into motion a war between the West and the East, America against Asia. Filmed in Thailand, the scenes of soldiers, both human and AI, fighting in the high grass and rice paddies reminded me of war movies - Rogue One is similar in both themes and overall execution.
While the look and feel of this film are quite dazzling, what lets it down is the story especially once we get to the rather rushed third act. It holds together for most of the film but becomes quite formulaic and even flimsy towards the end. You’ll be picking apart the plot holes on your way out the way I did. It’s billed as an insightful commentary on AI in our world which it does contain, but it’s hard to even know what conclusive opinion that is. Maybe that’s the point?
Finally, we have John David Washington - I wish I felt strongly about him as an actor. Thought he was decent in the excellent Spike Lee joint he starred in of course, but with this and Tenet, I simply can’t get on board with him as a leading protagonist. He is often too stoic and detached for its own good even if this is a story that may call for those qualities. I am rarely drawn to him while on the other hand, Madeline Yuna Voyles is really special here and becomes the beating heart of the film despite portraying someone inhuman.
While The Creator does have its flaws, if you’re a sci-fi genre enthusiast, you could do a lot worse even if this is essentially a story mashup. In the end, I had a similar response the way I did with No One Will Save You - despite its confidence and several key strengths, it is a bit undone by the script to really go above and beyond. This is certainly an engaging action film with tremendous visuals but becomes hindered by a weak third act. Take in the more thoughtful manner that Edwards insinuates, it sadly all falls to pieces despite the ambition.
STAY TUNED FOLKS, CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL + AWARDS SEASON COVERAGE WILL BE COMING SOON! CAN’T WAIT!
