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Posts Tagged ‘Lily James’

SHORT TAKES: “Superman,” “Swiped”

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »

“SUPERMAN” *My rating: C+ (HBO Max)

129 minutes | MPAA: PG-13

Well, it’s an improvement over the dour Zack Snyder’Henry Cavill adaptations, but James Gunn’s “Superman” mostly made me appreciate the insanely clever balancing act of the first Christopher Reeve “Superman” (1978).

No origin story here. It begins with Clark Kent (David Corenswet) already co-habiting with fellow reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), who is well aware of his  powers. Evil mastermind Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult, strangely uncompelling) wants to bring down our hero.

Superman’s alien origins are at the heart of the yarn.  Our man comes to believe (mistakenly, it turns out), that he was sent to Earth not to serve its people but to rule them.  This leads to a crisis of conscience.  Meanwhile Luthor picks up that idea and runs with it to justify his persecution of the Man of Steel.

Corenswet makes for a likable if not particularly dynamic Superman.  But he’s got no chemistry with Brosnahan.  Far more engaging is Superman’s apparently untrainable dog Krypto, a computer-animated mutt who combines puppy-like misbehavior with insane strength and speed.

Gunn’s “Superman” has been accused of woke-ness, apparently because it presents its hero as an illegal immigrant and because a subplot — about one country’s invasion of its impoverished neighbor — strikes some viewers as a commentary on the war in Gaza. Maybe. Maybe not.

“Superman” isn’t bad. Nor is it particularly good.

Lily James

“SWIPED” My rating: B (Hu;u)

110 minutes | No MPAA rating

Save your Coke bottles, ladies.  Men are shit.

That’s the unstated but inescapable message percolating through “Swiped,” a tale of female empowerment (and frustration) based on the career of Whitney Wolfe Herd, who was instrumental in creating the dating app Tinder.

Rachel Lee Goldenberg’s film (she co-wrote with Bill Parker and Kim Caramele) follows Herd (Lily James) as she navigates the treacherous waters of the social media industry in the 2000 teens.

Geeks will appreciate the tech history laid out here, but the film’s real concern is the hellish mistreatment Herd was subjected to.  If you thought the computer  world was enlightened and egalitarian compared to old school business…well, no.  Her male co-workers take credit for her innovative ideas.  And when she dares complain, she finds herself the object of corporate slut shaming.

On the personal side, the co-worker she falls in love with turns out, after a period of charming behavior, to be a sexist sleaze ball.  Herd  goes solo to develop her own app, using funds provided by a Russian tech magnate (Dan Stevens) who seems too good to be true. He is; the dude’s got Epstein-level baggage.

Ultimately Herd found true love (with someone well outside her business circles) and founded the wildly successful female-oriented dating app Bumble. She is now rich and powerful.

“Swiped” is inspirational, sure.  It’s also unsettlingly cautionary. 

| Robert W. Butler

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SHORT TAKES: “The Iron Claw,” “Past Lives”

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on December 24, 2023| 1 Comment »

“THE IRON CLAW” My rating: B+ (In theaters)

132 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Less a wrestling movie than a Greek tragedy in Spandex, “The Iron Claw” is based on the real story of the Von Erich brothers, a family of professional grapplers who came to prominence in the 1980s.

Writer/director Sean Durkin is way less interested in the ring action (although there’s plenty of it nicely staged) than in presenting a portrait of family dysfunction so complete that the first thing we hear in the voiceover narration is that the clan is cursed.

Literally.

Our main  protagonist is Kevin Von Erlich (Zac Efron, pumped almost beyond recognition), who like his three brothers has been raised by their father, Fritz (Holt McCallany),  to excel at the family tradition.

Back in the day Fritz was on his way to a wrestling title, but claims it was denied him by the “bastards” who run the business. Now he’s determined that one — or better still, all — of his boys wear the big belt. (Along with ambition the boys have inherited from Dad the “iron claw,” a skull-squeezing wrestling move.)

Initially the Von Erichs’ life on a ranch outside Dallas seems semi-idyllic.  There’s farm work, endless hours pumping iron in the home gym, big family dinners and church on Sunday.

The boys — Kevin, Kerry (Jeremy Allen White), David (Harris Dickinson) and Mike (Stanley Simons) — revere their father and want nothing more than to please him.

Over the course of a decade their dedication will prove itself more than dangerous.  It’s deadly.

The film has been superbly acted (other cast members include Maura Tierney as the uber-religious mother and Lily James as the veterinary student who falls hard for Kevin) and despite the raucous acrobatics of the fight scenes the overwhelming mood is one of ever-tightening desperation and sadness.

Not a happy story, but beautifully done.

Teo Yoo, Greta Lee

“PAST LIVES” My rating: B (For rent on Prime, Apple+, etc.)

105 minutes | PG-13

Astonishingly delicate and quivering with emotional possibilities, Celine Song’s “Past Lives” wonders what would happen in childhood sweethearts met up many years later.

In the film’s opening scenes, set in South Korea, we are introduced to Nora and Hae Sung, 12-year-olds whose platonic friendship might over time become something more.

But Nora’s parents emigrate to Canada. Twenty years later the grown Nora (Greta Lee) lives in NYC with her husband Arthur (John Magaro). Their lives are settled and largely uneventful.

And then word arrives that Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) will be visiting the Big Apple and would like to reconnect.

It’s a setup rife with erotic possibilities, most of which writer/director Song keeps on the back burner. “Past Lives” is much more about its characters’ emotional interiors than physical betrayal.

Off the bat it’s obvious that while Nora has achieved a level of mature sophistication, Hae Sung is stymied in a sort of sad adolescence. He still lives with his parents and is indifferent when it comes to a career. 

Apparently he’s lived two decades in “what could have been” mode.

The film is mostly conversations between the two old friends as they walk around the city.

Arthur, meanwhile, is trying to stifle his anxiety that he might lose his wife…his alienation is heightened by his inability to participate in their intimate conversations in Korean.

“Past Lives” is one of those films in which nothing seems to happen, while emotionally all sorts of stuff is going on. The performances are really terrific, with Teo Yoo creating a portrait of sweet longing so heartbreaking you want to give him a hug.

| Robert W. Butler

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“THE DIG”: Spadework

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on February 1, 2021| 1 Comment »

At top:  Carey Mulligan, Archie Barnes; below: Ralph Fiennes

“THE DIG” My rating: B- (Netflix)

112 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

“The Dig” may be little more than motion picture comfort food…but right now comfort food is what we want.

Though inspired by real events — the discovery in 1939 of the Sutton Hoo site, a 6th-century Anglo-Saxon boat and priceless burial artifacts found  in an English pasture — this Masterpiece-ish effort from director Simon Stone and screenwriter Moira Buffini gets most of its momentum from the  melodrama (much of it made up) surrounding the enterprise.

I mean, excavating ancient treasures one tiny trowel scoop at a time isn’t exactly scintillating cinema. Bring on the heavy breathing.

Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) is a self-taught “excavator” (he wouldn’t presume to call himself an archaeologist) whose nose for buried wonders has been proven on various sites around his native Suffolk.  He’s crusty and cranky — in large part because his efforts are undervalued by the hoity-toity academic types with whom he must often work. (This was an era when archaeologists wore neckties and tweed jackets to dig.)

Now he’s been invited to the estate of widow Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan); she has an ancient mound out in the north forty she’d like to excavate. Basil would actually get to be the boss of the dig.

Along the way the childless fellow will become a father figure to Edith’s young son Robert (Archie Barnes) and befriend Edith’s cousin Rory (Johnny Flynn), who is brought in to help with some of the heavy lifting.  All this warm fuzzy stuff later will become important when it’s revealed that Edith has major health issues.

(more…)

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“YESTERDAY”: Troubles here to stay

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on June 27, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Himash Patel

“YESTERDAY” My rating: B-

116 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

As gimmicks go, “Yesterday” has a killer.

A struggling Brit musician gets creamed in a roadway accident and wakes up to a world where no one has ever heard of the Beatles. He starts performing all those great songs (like the rest of us, he’s committed them to memory) and is hailed as a pop music genius. Only problem is the guilt he feels for getting rich and famous off the talents of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who apparently never existed.

The big question here is whether “Yesterday” has anything to offer beyond its clever premise and its collection of gobsmackingly great Beatles tunes.

Kinda.

As written by Richard Curtis (“Love Actually,” “Pirate Radio”) and directed by Danny Boyle (possibly the most diversified filmmaker working today), “Yesterday” is an affable romantic comedy/fantasy with a nice star turn by  Himash Patel (a British TV actor making his big-screen debut). Patel not only embodies an in-over-his-head innocent but has the pipes to deliver in the musical sequences.

We meet our hero, warehouse worker Jack Malik (Patel), on the verge of giving up his dream of ever becoming a successful musician. He has a manager — actually, it’s his childhood friend Ellie (Lily James) — but the only gigs coming his way are kiddie parties and open mic nights at various seedy pubs. He does get to play in a regional tent at a big rock festival, but most of his audience consists of a handful of friends who come to all his shows.

No sooner has he told Ellie that he’s packing it in than the lights go out all over the world for about 12 seconds.  That’s enough time for the bicycle-riding Jack to collide with a bus.

In the accident’s aftermath, though, weird things happen.  He drops references to the Beatles (one of the film’s cleverer aspects is that it shows how many phrases from the Fab Four’s lyrics have become common parlance…sort of like quotes from Shakespeare) and is bewildered when nobody seems to know what he’s talking about.

When he plays “Yesterday” for some pals they are blown away and want to know why he’s been hiding such a great tune.

A trip to Google confirms Jack’s worst fears.  A search for “The Beatles” turns up only entomological websites. (One of the film’s running gags is that over time Jack discovers that other aspects of his old reality have vanished.  For instance, there is no Coca-Cola, only Pepsi, and nobody has ever heard of cigarettes; one assumes that public health has improved immeasurably.)

The film’s strongest moments come early on as Jack discovers his situation and finds himself being propelled into worldwide notoriety. He tours with Ed Sheeran (playing himself quite effectively) and even “debuts” “Back in the U.S.S.R.” at a Moscow concert.

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“LITTLE WOODS”: Desperate times

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 25, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Lily James, Tessa Thompson

“LITTLE WOODS” My rating: B-

105 minutes | MPAA rating: R

“Little Woods,” writer/director Nia DaCosta’s feature debut, unfolds in the barren wastes of North Dakota, where the dull landscape feels like a reflection of its inhabitant’s desperate lives.

Ollie (Tessa Thompson) is living in the house where her mother recently died. On probation after being caught crossing the Canadian border with a backpack full of oxy, she now scratches out a living selling coffee and sandwiches to oil drilling crews.  She also takes in laundry.

Her empathetic probation officer (Lance Reddick) is encouraging (“You’re so close…please stay out of trouble”) but Ollie finds herself being pulled back into the drug trade.

The problem is her adopted sister Deb (Lillie James), a former exotic dancer who lives in an RV with her son Johnny (Charlie Ray Reid).  Deb excels at making dumb choices.

Johnny’s dad, Ian (James Badge Dale), is a well-meaning loser who lives in a sparse motel room.  He can’t support his wife and son; even worse, he’s gotten Deb pregnant again.

Now the bank has come calling to repossess their late mother’s house. Ollie has a week to come up with a $3,000 payment and the only way to do that is to dig up the cache of drugs she buried in the woods and start selling.

The downbeat tale, enhanced immeasurably by Thompson’s thoughtful/heartfelt performance, finds Ollie sucked into yet another mission into Canada planned by her former drug-running boss (Joe Stevens).  She’s to pick up a load of drugs from a Canuck pharmacy and walk them through the woods back to the U.S.

She also brings along Deb and Johnny so that her sister can buy a forged medical card and get an abortion.

(more…)

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“DARKEST HOUR”: Blood, sweat and latex

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 14, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill

“DARKEST HOUR”  My rating: B

A confession.

I’ve often found Gary Oldman  a shameless scenery chewer. Villainous roles were especially problematic; you could actually see Oldman twirling his mustache, metaphorically speaking.

2011’s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” gave us a more settled, thoughtful Goldman, who portrayed John LeCarre’s good gray spookmaster George Smiley with an admirable degree of restraint.

Now, in  “Darkest Hour,” Goldman tackles the iconic role of Winston Churchill, and it’s a match made in heaven.  Sir Winston was, after all, no slouch at scenery chewing; yet Oldman’s performance here is subtle and balanced, a deft blend of  bombast and inner activity.

It’s a performance of such insight and power — abetted by David Malinowski’s spectacularly effective makeup design — that it immediately propels Goldman into the front ranks of this year’s Oscar contenders.

Joe Wright’s film centers on one month, May of 1940, when the long-out-of-favor Churchill was elected Prime Minister after the collapse of Neville Chamberlain’s ineffectual government.

The P.M. is faced with seemingly insurmountable problems. The Nazis have taken over much of Europe and are pounding the British army at Dunkirk. If those 300,000 or so soldiers are captured or killed, it will leave Great Britain defenseless.

Voices within his own party are urging Churchill to sue Hitler for peace. It’s the only way to escape a bloodbath and an armed invasion.

Churchill doubts that Der Fuhrer is in any mood to grant concessions. If only he can save the troops waiting on the French coast, galvanize public opinion, and overnight turn his country’s prevailing ethos from dovish to hawkish. (more…)

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“THE EXCEPTION”: The good German

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on June 22, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Jai Courtney, Lily James

“THE EXCEPTION” My rating: B-  

107 minutes | MPAA rating: R

At 88 years of age, Christopher Plummer just keeps getting better.

In “The Exception” he portrays an historic figure — Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany — and pretty much mops up the floor with actors half his age.

The premise of David Leveaux’s directing debut finds a young German officer — Capt. Stefan Brandt (Jai Courtney) — assigned to the thankless task of heading the household guard for Wilhelm II (Plummer), who has lived in exile in the Netherlands since abdicating the German throne two decades earlier after losing World War I.

Though the Nazi hierarchy has little use for the old man, Wilhelm still is regarded by some members of the German public as a beloved figurehead.  It would be a p.r. black eye should he be lost to an assassin or kidnapped by the Allies and spirited off to England. Brandt’s presence is meant to prevent that.

For the young officer — who was wounded in the invasion of Poland — the assignment is a bit of an insult. Wilhelm and his wife, Princess Hermine (Janet McTeer), live as high as they can on the cash Hitler’s henchmen provide, all the while dreaming of restoring the monarchy and once again wearing the crown.  Brandt is expected to tolerate their pretensions without encouraging them.

There’s one bright spot in this assignment. The Kaiser has a new housemaid, Mieke (Lily James), who catches the Captain’s eye.  Before long they are having a grand old time despite Hermine’s rule against copulation among members of the staff.

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“CINDERELLA”: The power of fairy tales

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on March 12, 2015| 1 Comment »

cinderella“CINDERELLA”  My rating: B

112 minutes | MPAA rating: PG

Don’t go to Disney’s new live-action version of “Cinderella” expecting post-modern irony, a feminist perspective, or even psychological realism.

The makers of this movie take their fairy tales straight up and undiluted by any such intellectual folderol.

In last year’s “Maleficent” the Disney Studio reinterpreted its 1959 “Sleeping Beauty” from the evil fairy’s point of view.

But “Cinderella” director Kenneth Branagh and screenwriter Chris Weitz have no use for such revisionism. The fairy tale is enough for them. They aim for the heart, not the head.

Darned if they don’t pull it off.

This isn’t precisely a remake of Disney’s acclaimed 1950 animated version, but fans of the original will see plenty of references, from the evil stepmother’s pampered cat Lucifer to the fat mouse Gus.

(Now if only they’d had Helena Bonham Carter’s Fairy Godmother sing “Bippity Boppity Boo”…well, can’t have everything.)

(more…)

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