Weekend Watch - Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week’s topic, as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers, is George Miller’s prequel to his critical hit Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) – Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The prequel stars Anya Taylor-Joy as the titular heroine, the younger version of Charlize Theron’s character from Fury Road. She is joined by Chris Hemsworth as her nemesis Dementus, Tom Burke as her mentor Praetorian Jack, Alyla Browne as the child version of Furiosa, George Shevstov as the History Man, and Lachy Hulme as Immortan Joe. It follows Furiosa from her childhood when she’s taken from her lush home and out into the wasteland through her adolescence and young adulthood pursuing vengeance against Dementus and a return to her lost home. The film opened to a solid critical response and strong audience reception this weekend. Let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: B+; it’s a far cry from living up to its predecessor in terms of pure energy, but the technique and worldbuilding are still there in spades.

Should you Watch This Film? If you enjoy the Mad Max films or just a solid postapocalyptic action thriller, this film is definitely worth the watch. It’s not quite as transcendent as Fury Road, though, so I don’t know that everyone has to see it.

Why?

                For starters, Furiosa takes on an entirely different scale than Fury Road did and, therefore, ends up with a slower pace, which bogs it down in exposition and uneven movement from beat to beat, weakening the overall story. It seeks to tell Furiosa’s full life story leading up to the events of the previous film, and as such, lives up to its name as a “saga”, which will probably result in some division in the audience. If you’re okay with a slower burn, but equally as brutal, character study/revenge thriller, Furiosa probably won’t feel like much of a fall off and will still make for a solid theatrical experience. If, however, you’re hoping for a repeat of the high-octane, nonstop car chase that was Fury Road, you’re going to come away with a definite sense of disappointment. Comparison aside, it’s a feat of filmmaking with gorgeous visuals, fun action sequences when they come, and a decent, if shallow, story to keep everything engaging.

                The performers all do admirable jobs with what they’re given, with Taylor-Joy shouldering the load of action heroine quite well even with her fabled twenty lines of dialogue – she masters the physicality and emotive performance that an action lead requires refreshingly well for an actress with her resumé. For me, though, it was Chris Hemsworth who kept the film worth watching. His Dementus shows up in each new chapter of the film as an evolved iteration of the villain, becoming more unhinged and more nihilistic at each turn, his devolution mirroring the evolution of Furiosa. It’s a weird but incredibly memorable performance that feels right at home in the postapocalyptic world that George Miller has created. Together, the two characters and the two actors make the film what it is, giving the audience that compelling revenge narrative of an unexpected underdog coming after the once great warlord. Its culmination is one of the best moments in the film, so I won’t spoil it, but I will say that the ending definitely makes Hemsworth’s performance, if not Taylor-Joy’s feel oh-so worth it.

                Technically, Miller is once again at the height of his form, giving us gorgeous visuals of this postapocalyptic landscape that draw you into all of the weirdness, violence, and off-putting beauty that his world has to offer. The score, sound, and cinematography all make for an excellent moviegoing experience, and they deserve to be witnessed in as epic a format as can be found. The technical aspects also go a long way in making up for some of the predictability and slowness that creeps into the film’s story. With so much of the story being told through the visual, rather than auditory, offerings of the film, it can feel overly expository at times, slowing down with each new chapter start to catch the audience up on what’s happened in the meantime with lots of establishing shots and broad landscapes. At the same time, all of that is great to look at and listen to, so I can’t complain too much about it.

                Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a solid, if imperfect, addition to the action/revenge genre, giving us two memorable leads, fun sequences of action, and excellent production design to overcome an unevenly paced and fairly formulaic story. It might not hit exactly the notes that everyone wants it to, given the more universal acclaim of the film that it follows, but it still does scratch that itch that can only be scratched by George Miller’s postapocalyptic automobile-themed wasteland. I’d say if you’re thinking about seeing it, you definitely should on the largest screen you can find.

Weekend Watch - The Super Mario Bros. Movie

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week’s topic, as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers, is The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the latest animated release from Illumination studios. The film is an adaptation of the Super Mario Bros. IP from Nintendo, featuring the voice talents of Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, and Fred Armisen as Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, Toad, Donkey Kong, and Cranky Kong respectively. The film hit theaters on Wednesday and is projected to hit nearly $200 million at the box office in its opening weekend, one of the biggest of the year. Let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: C-; the film provides excellent nostalgia and references to the IP, but that doesn’t mean that it’s free of any other flaws.

Should you Watch This Film? Maybe, if you’ve got kids, this is going to be a solid watch for them, particularly if they struggle with attention spans; if you don’t, I’m not sure that the nostalgia and references do enough for me to recommend it to you.

Why?

                The Super Mario Bros. Movie is one of those films that pours most of its effort into making references and keeping the action moving with very little story to speak of. The nostalgia factor is huge, and they have done a great job capturing the fun of Mario with creative platforming, a race down Rainbow Road, a fight with Donkey Kong, and plenty of musical cues to take you back to your days of playing the games yourself (they do play the “DK Rap”, and I might have ascended to heaven when it came on). Even the majority of the needle drops in the film work to enhance the scene they are part of without taking you out of it too much.

                The voice cast has done a solid job of capturing the characters they play, and no one really feels out of place. Are Mario and Luigi’s accents still of indeterminate Italian origin? Yes, but their less cartoonish nature allows the characters to go through their more emotional beats without feeling too out of place. Anya Taylor-Joy’s Peach is fine, leaning more into the recent iterations of a fully capable Peach who just gets captured due to obligations of her station rather than helplessness. Keegan-Michael Key lends a bit of fun to Toad, blending the memeable vocals with his own to make the character fit in with the story’s other heroes. Seth Rogen’s Donkey Kong is really just Seth Rogen in video game form, but that works for what he’s asked to do – be the goofy, overconfident side hero. The film’s true vocal highlight comes in the form of Jack Black’s Bowser, who really takes on the most complex form of the character that we’ve ever seen. Indeed, Black’s portrayal allows the character to be just as menacing as always while still having a sympathetic side that explains why they keep inviting him to things like races and parties for fun.

                Where the film’s entertainment value falters, though, is its story, or lack thereof. The characters are really just thrown from situation to situation, and the only character with any complex motivation is Bowser. Peach, Mario, and Luigi are all given moments of development, but most of those happen in the form of flashbacks or in the middle of fights when they hit that rock-and-a-hard-place moment that pushes them beyond their limits, more out of necessity than out of true growth. Even the film’s plot unfolds in the form of random location jumps and convenient devices that allow them to throw in another video game reference. To quote another review that I read, the film’s plot is “Paper Mario thin”, which is actually not the most accurate statement, since the Paper Mario games actually have some of the most complex plots of any Mario game. In response to defenses of the film’s lack of plot in the name of it being a kids’ movie or not having much to work with in the actual games, I have to point out that there are plenty of great films targeted at children that do have great stories to go along with them. Perhaps one of the best examples is The Lego Movie (2014), which has some of the best innovation of IP with little story to speak of while still being commercially successful and loved by adults and kids alike. I get that kids (and a lot of adults) don’t really ask much of their movies beyond simple entertainment value, but you can ask for more than this particular film gives in terms of story and still come in right around the hour and a half mark.

                The Super Mario Bros. Movie hits the mark with its referential material and its vocal cast but is heavily lacking in the story and message department, leaving it as a mixed bag for moviegoers. If you want to be part of the conversation this week or if you want to scratch that Mario movie itch, this is not the worst thing you could go see in theaters. Otherwise, I’d suggest waiting for it to hit streaming and calling for a better story in the next film (because a sequel is definitely coming).

Weekend Watch - The Menu

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week’s topic, as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers, is The Menu, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Fiennes, Nicolas Hoult, Hong Chau, and many others in an ensemble dark comedy. This social commentary set in the world of high-end restauranting hit theaters this weekend. The Mark Mylod directed film has been creating quite a buzz since it was first announced. Let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: A-; it’s the most fun I’ve had at the theater in a while, but there’s a few things to nitpick.

Should you Watch This Film? Absolutely! Unless you’re the third grader that came with his family to our screening who I don’t necessarily think was old enough to appreciate how good this film is.

Why?

                The Menu combines elements of a lot of different films to create a unique meal all of its own. From the eerily subtle horror elements of Midsommar to the intense kitchen shots of Chef or Burnt or Boiling Point and the on-the-nose social commentary of The Big Short or Succession, each piece of this film feels a bit drawn from elsewhere, but in the end, it is undoubtedly its own film, making something relatively new out of its old parts. Its thrilling elements play well with the darkly comedic releases of tension, keeping the audience in an ebb and flow of intensity and relief as we unravel what the evening has in store for the twelve dinner guests and their cooking hosts. At certain points, the film drifts a bit further toward the absurd than it might need to, creating discomfort with the film rather than with its characters, but it never goes so far afield as to be unable to reel its audience back in. By the time the meal’s story (and that of the film) has been told, the audience is left with a combined sense of disgust, satisfaction, and awe, just as Chef Slowik (or is it director Mark Mylod and writers Seth Reiss and Will Tracy) intended.

                Aiding in the film’s delivery of its assortment of film styles is its ensemble cast, mostly of faces you’ll recognize but can’t quite put names to and a few big hitters to supplement it all. Ralph Fiennes leads the kitchen as Chef Slowik, bringing all the menace of his Voldemort performance while maintaining a bit more humanity, keeping the audience sure that he’s not the one to root for but not convinced that he’s the one to root against. Anya Taylor-Joy brings mystery and intrigue to the evening as Margot, a last-minute fill-in as Nicolas Hoult’s Tyler’s date to the dinner. She shines as a burgeoning scream queen here (though not really screaming, more as the ideal “elevated horror” final girl), exploring the mysteries of the restaurant’s staff and consistently going against the grain of the rest of the guests in satisfying fashion. Hong Chau (who you might know from Downsizing or HBO’s Watchmen) brings a worthy combination of comedy and intensity to her role as the restaurant’s hostess, Elsa, a matter-of-fact second-in-command to Slowik whose character arc is just as mysterious and complicated as the leads. The rest of the guests, headlined by Nicolas Hoult as an annoying Instagram influencer and John Leguizamo as a washed-up actor looking to rebrand as a travel host, bring the rest of the flavor to this menu, each bringing his or her own brand of flawed wealth to the screen exactly as you’d want an ensemble to work, accentuating the film’s central themes with performances just memorable enough to be unique without overshadowing the film’s main characters.

                The Menu’s blend of thriller, dark comedy, and food, delivered by a satisfying ensemble cast, will leave audiences full and satisfied by the time the credits roll, even if not every bit of the meal lands perfectly. Watching it in a theater with plenty of other viewers certainly adds to the experience, and I recommend it if you are able to make it. If not, when this comes to streaming, it should definitely hit the top of your watchlist. Check it out when you can.