(Criterion/VOD) A character profile of a man suffering from schizophrenia by writer/director Lodge Kerrigan (also the co-creator of Starz’s adaptation of Soderbergh’s THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE). Immaculate sound design, a strained, soulful performance from Peter Greene (PULP FICTION’s Zed) and a dearth of dialogue really make this film shine but, despite all of that, I’ll never forget it because of one scene featuring fingernails.
Thriller
I CARE A LOT (2021)
(Netflix) I CARE A LOT is an overstuffed marvel; part huckster film, part heist film, part crime thriller, part courtroom drama, but all confidently shouldered by Rosamund Pike. Pike is Marla Grayson, a woman who preys on the elderly via an elaborate scheme in which she pays off a doctor to state in court that the elderly person is unable to take care of themselves and require a legal ward, then they suggest Marla. Marla then scuttles them off to a nursing home, sells off all of their belongings, milks their bank account until the person dies, then look for the next mark.
She’s a monster, and Pike revels in it. Just that premise alone could have carried the film but, it turns out that Pike and professional and personal partner Fran (Eiza González) end up abducting the mother of a crime boss, played with relish by Dianne Wiest (HANNAH AND HER SISTERS) and Peter Dinklage. Matters escalate, then culminate to what feels like a very unsatisfying Hays code-ish ending, but you can’t argue that you don’t see it coming.
While I could talk about the performances all day, director J Blakeson (THE 5TH WAVE) and cinematographer Doug Emmett (SORRY TO BOTHER YOU) also spend a refreshing amount of time with color theming, riffing off of Pike’s blond hair and ice blue eyes, to the point where there’s a shot where the color swatches are practically painted on someone’s tremendous heels. It’s a welcome change in this age of dull-sheen films.
HOTEL ARTEMIS (2018)
(hoopla/VOD) HOTEL ARTEMIS is about a hospital for criminals masquerading as a hotel. Sure, that may make you think about JOHN WICK. Doesn’t make me think about JOHN WICK, but I’ve only seen the first so far, and the design, style, and intent of HOTEL ARTEMIS seems completely different than JOHN WICK.
While it’s centered around a criminal-centric hospital, HOTEL ARTEMIS also takes place in the ‘not-too-distant future’ where folks are rioting about water allocation in LA and, well, really, the only way you can tell this is in the future is because all of the criminals have cool toys. The titular hotel is a gilded age throwback (inspired by LA’s Hotel Alexandria) featuring plenty of art deco flourishes and vintage wallpaper, resulting in an extremely attractive feat of production design, and again, the only way you can tell the hotel exists in the future is because of all of the cool toys The Nurse (Jodie Foster) has to help heal her patients.
I’d still recommend HOTEL ARTEMIS for the production design and all of its plot and character machinations, but they also wrangled a hell of a cast clearly loving their time at the hotel. Not only does the film have Foster adopting an awkward running gait (and donning surprisingly decent age makeup), Dave Bautista is the stern-but-kind-eyed orderly glue that holds the hotel — and the film — together, Sterling K. Brown is the sympathetic bank robber, Jeff Goldblum is a cheshire-grinning mobster, Sophia Boutella is the stylish assassin, and other surprises.
The ensemble, as well as the use of throwback needle drops, certainly gives off a whiff of Tarantino fetishism, but HOTEL ARTEMIS is more concerned with escalating tension, as opposed to luxuriating in its mood and dialogue.
The film doesn’t completely hold together — really, how many of the great heist films do? — and it ends on a whimper — how many of the great heist films don’t? — but the well-honed action, atmosphere, and charming performances made me forget those shortcomings.
“This is America. 85 percent of what I fix is bullet holes.”
AMERICAN PSYCHO II: ALL AMERICAN GIRL (2002)
(fubo/VOD) Yes, this is a direct-to-DVD sequel to the classic Mary Harron adaptation. Yes, it has little-to-nothing to do with the American excess/toxic masculinity of original film. Yes, it features pre-BLACK SWAN Mila Kunis as well as an unlikely William Shatner playing a teacher that students swoon over. Yes, it’s cheap, trashy — 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, just so you know what you’re getting into — and tries to have its cake and eat it too by toeing the line between earnest satirical genre work and self-aware camp. That doesn’t mean that it is not a whole lot of fun, especially the last third of the film.
RUN (2020)
(Hulu) A psychological thriller about an extremely ill young woman named Chloe (newcomer Kiera Allen) suffering from a litany of medical conditions — heart arrhythmia, hemochromatosis, asthma, diabetes, and paralysis from the waist down — and her overly protective mother Diane (Sarah Paulson). Due to these ailments, Diane opted to homeschool Chloe, but Chloe’s coming of age and can’t wait to go to college and expand her engineering knowledge, nervously waiting to receive an answer to her college application.
You can probably guess where this is going, and director Aneesh Chaganty (SEARCHING (2018) who co-wrote this with Sev Ohanian (who also co-wrote SEARCHING) are aware of that, and they cut to the quick rather than make you guess. The end result is a tense, clever little genre film shot with a self-assured hand, bolstered by strong performances — as you might suspect, Paulson makes a meal out of her role — and closes on a satisfying note.
BLOOD ON HER NAME (2020)
(hoopla/Prime/tubi/VOD) This is one hell of a neo-noir thriller. In the wrong hands, this story of mother accidentally murdering a man could have been Lifetime movie, but director/writer Matthew Pope, along with lead Bethany Anne Lind, shape it into a wickedly ruthless tale, then punctuate it with a gut-punch of an ending.
I’M YOUR WOMAN (2020)
(Prime) There’s a moment early on in Julia Hart’s (FAST COLOR) I’M YOUR WOMAN where Jean (THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL’s Rachel Brosnahan), while making breakfast for her husband as their baby cries, cracks an egg into a frying pan and you can see how her nail punctures the shell, resulting in a broken egg yolk. I noticed and muttered to myself: ‘I wonder how intentional that was.’
As you might suspect, it was very intentional and turned out to lack subtlety — hell, it’s in the trailer I failed to watch beforehand — but it’s a brisk character detail.
I’M YOUR WOMAN is a 70s period piece about Jean, a young wife who has a baby literally handed off to her by her charismatic, but criminally-minded, husband. Before she’s even had time to acclimate to the baby, one of her husband’s friends rings her doorbell, tells her she has to leave her home right now, and passes her off to Cal — played by Arinzé Kene (HOW TO BUILD A GIRL) who he says will watch over her. Matters spiral from there as Jean attempts to shine light on the underworld events that fractured her life.
The film moves quickly and swiftly establishes just enough about the characters involved to keep you wanting to know more, while managing to tease you through to the end without being needlessly frustrating. That said, at times certain events can be off-putting and needlessly bleak and, for such a character-centric movie, the supporting personalities often outshine Jean and her ‘newly independent’ arc.
I hadn’t planned on recommending it upon watching it a month ago, but its smaller moments have lingered in my mind. While it I’M YOUR WOMAN doesn’t always balance its character and genre work, it’s still a noteworthy attempt in a year full of similarly high-minded crime thrillers.
ROGUE (2020)
(Hulu/VOD) If you’re a big fan of Cinemax’s short-lived pulpy action programming — I, for one, am a big fan of one-season wonder QUARRY, based on Max Allan Collins’ gritty novels. — you’re probably familiar with M.J. Bassett, the writer/director of ROGUE *, and steadfast Cinemax action creative. (Bassett also helmed SOLOMAN KANE (2009) and SILENT HILL: REVELATIONS (2012).)
If you aren’t familiar with Cinemax’s action block, which includes STRIKE BACK and BANSHEE — the former of which Bassett contributed to — you know that you’re not watching for plot, but for jaw-dropping action set-pieces, stylish gunfights, and occasional bits of counterpointing character work. ROGUE is in the same mold: Megan Fox is a gun-for-hire, paid to form an extraordinarily well-armed troop to rescue the governor’s daughter (which governor? It doesn’t matter!) from a nefarious crime ring that traffics in guns, underage girls, and giant cats. (Before becoming a director, Barrett also was a nature photojournalist, so much of ROGUE feels like a big -fuck you- to the hurt that she’s witnessed.)
Shortly after Fox’s troop rescues the daughter and a few other girls from their cages, they find themselves stranded in the wilderness, pursued by the very angry crime ring and surrounded by the vengeful lions that they accidentally ended up freeing.
From there it dials into ‘survive until sunrise’ mode and, while the locked location could drag the material down, Bassett and the cast/crew elevate it into a thrilling romp. While Fox’s performance as an action hero is a bit hit-and-miss, the supporting cast — including Philip Winchester — insert their own quirky mannerisms and bring a bit of levity to what could otherwise be a mind-numbing array of bloody deaths. There are number of quaint little scripting details, such as one dude thanking another character for a hot grenade, during a massive firefight, that also ramp up the charm in a film that other filmmakers might not think to include.
* To be clear, this is unrelated to the giant croc film ROGUE (2007) that I recommended in October.
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (2020)
(Prime) A taut crime thriller about the women who run a small fishing town in New England, the secrets that they keep, and the two teen girls caught up in the middle after killing a man.
Writers/directors Bridget Savage Cole & Danielle Krudy (who recently co-directed two episodes of the latest THE STAND adaptation together) do wonders with their whip-smart script. They shape their words into some amazingly considered camerawork (often leaning on an array of close-ups for context instead of expository long shots), ruthless editing, and a prickly score that features a viola, piano, oddly punctuating percussion, and occasionally a few interjected shanties.
More importantly, it’s a film about community, and family, especially sisters, sisters that butt heads. It’s a raw tale and town that feels so lived in that it might as well be an re-enactment.
Oh, and the cast! Morgan Saylor (HOMELAND) plays the fuckup, closes-out-the-bar daughter Zee, while Sophie Lowe (THE RETURNED UK, ONCE UPON A TIME IN WONDERLAND) plays the responsible daughter trying to keep everything together. Classic character actor Annette O’Toole (CAT PEOPLE (1982), SMALLVILLE, HALT & CATCH FIRE) is a voice of reason, and Margo Martindale oversees matters, all while putting a slight twist on her matriarchal JUSTIFIED presence.
As small town crime genre work goes, it doesn’t get much better than this.
“Fucking coleslaw.”
THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY (2020)
(Starz/VOD) Adapted from detective fiction writer Charles Willeford’s novel, this film is oddly not much of a potboiler, and not terribly thrilling. It does, however, attempt to examine critic-as-artist and vice-versa, as well as the different masks one wears in order to operate in order to ingratiate yourself to others in society, which gives it the trappings of a prestige neo-noir.
To summarize: art critic James Figueras (Claes Bang) hooks up with an enigmatic woman named Berenice (Elizabeth Debicki) and the two of them go on a road trip to visit his friend/art dealer Joseph Cassidy (Mick Jagger — yes, Mick Jagger). James is handed the possibility to reinvigorate his career by scoring an interview with the reclusive ‘last great modern artist’ Jerome Debney (Donald Sutherland), who just happens to live on Joseph’s Italian estate. Plans misfire culminating with an end that you may or may not enjoy. (That said, the final realization is extremely satisfying and, I imagine, taken from the book.)
As this is a ‘prestige’ genre flick, director Giuseppe Capotondi takes it slow, giving you all the time in the world to revel in the fantastic backdrops and production design* while the characters talk circles around each other. It is a nice distraction because the mysteries and secrets aren’t terribly intriguing, and the characters are maddeningly paper thin. While the film is explicit about its themes of critic-as-artist/artist-as-critic/the many masks folks wear, the execution is rather facile, and rarely paid much more than lip service. For example: Debney bluntly states to Bernice that “It’s masks all the way down.”
It’s disappointing because novelist/screenwriter Scott B. Smith (A SIMPLE PLAN, THE RUINS) penned the adaptation, and he certainly has a tendency towards noir-like duplicity and the ramifications of distrust, but there is very little friction or underhandedness on display. It feels as if Smith couldn’t quite get a bead on how to approach the adaptation.
However! This film does scratch a certain itch for me and, despite the wasted potential of Bernice, Debecki wrings as much out of it as she can, and Jagger is a delightful surprising, turning in a restrained devilish performance that — as someone who has seen FREEJACK — didn’t think he had it in him. Worth a watch if your tastes are THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY-adjacent.
- See https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/creating-the-italian-neo-noir-style-of-the-burnt-orange-heresy if you’d like more info on the film’s production design.