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Title Screen Film Genre(s), Title, Year, (Country), Length, Director, Description
All We Imagine as Light (2024, India), 118 minutes, D: Payal Kapadia
Introduced at the Cannes Film Festival in mid-2024, this internationally-co-produced Indian film (by female writer/director Payal Kapadia, her second feature film and first feature-length fiction film about friendship and sisterhood) won the Grand Prix award. She has also won other major film accolades including the Best International Feature Film (and Foreign Language Film) of the year. The contemporary romantic drama was set amongst working class individuals who had migrated to the modern city of Mumbai (Bombay), India - the "city of dreams." It focused mostly on two co-workers in one of the city's local hospitals: serious, respected middle-aged head nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and younger, recently-hired flighty nurse Anu (Divya Prabha), who also were roommates. A third major character who had also moved to Mumbai for better opportunities was the elderly and headstrong, struggling widowed hospital cook Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), but she faced sudden displacement and eviction from her slum residence (to be demolished for construction of luxury apartments). Prabha was in an arranged marriage with a husband who soon departed for Germany to find work, and she had lost contact for over a year. The conservative-minded Prabha was conflicted when receiving romantic attentions from an interested poetry-writing Dr. Manoj (Azees Nedumangad). The rebellious Anu - from a strict Hindu family, engaged in a forbidden romance with Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon), a Muslim man, with whom she shared text messages and wished for further secretive passion. Gossip was rampant about their relationship. The film's final third and turning point involved a lyrically-filmed, dreamlike seaside coastal-port village visit by all three women to Parvaty's hometown and birth-place, where she had decided to move back and relocate. The open-air, tranquility was a sharp contrast to the concrete claustrophobia of the city. There, Prabha performed CPR to save a drowning fisherman (Anand Sami) and established an emotional bond with him during his recovery, while Anu secretly met up with her boyfriend for sex. The film ended with a reconciliation between Prabha and Anu who had earlier become tensely estranged from each other, but now felt a sense of camaraderie and solidarity.
Anora (2024), 139 minutes, D: Sean Baker
Writer/director Sean Baker's romantic tragi-comedy-drama (an evisceration of the Cinderella or Pretty Woman story), with the tagline: "Love is a Hustle," won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in mid-2024, boosting its status as a front-runner in various film competitions. The title character Anora "Ani" Mikheeva (Mikey Madison) was a 23 year-old, Russian-speaking, high-class stripper/sex-worker at an upscale mid-town Manhattan strip club known as the HQ Gentlemen's Club. The streetwise female's residence was in the Russian-American neighborhood of Brighton Beach, a section of Brooklyn, in a dingy duplex that she shared with her older WASP-ish, passive-aggressive sister Vera (Ella Rubin). At her place of work, due to her background as a 3rd generation Russian immigrant, she was introduced to 21 year-old Ivan "Vanya" Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn), the spoiled, reckless, dissolute, and lazy son of wealthy Russian oligarch Nikolai Zakharov (Aleksei Serebryakov) and his domineering mother Galina Zakharova (Darya Ekamasova). She entertained him with a lap-dance and conversation. The charming, entitled and immature "Vanya" spent most of his time taking drugs and playing video-games in his modern NYC-area Zakharov mansion (in Mill Basin). An entourage of individuals was paid by his rich family to watch over the irresponsible "Vanya," including his Brooklyn-based Armenian godfather-fixer Toros (Karren Karagulian) and Toros' two rough henchmen: Russian Igor (Yura Borisov) and Armenian Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) - Toros' brother. After a few more encounters with Ani, the young and infatuated Vanya paid for her to be his exclusive sex-slave/girlfriend for a week for $15,000 dollars. During an impromptu, boozy, hedonistic drug-filled visit to Las Vegas, NV while staying in a penthouse suite, Vanya and Ani visited the Little White Chapel, one of Vegas' ubiquitous wedding chapels, where he impulsively proposed and the two were married. Vanya's ulterior motive was to establish US citizenship via the marriage, so he could obtain his green card and permanent residence in the US, and avoid deportation. In an effort to be Vanya's dutiful wife, Ani quit her stripping job and attempted to be devoted to him in his NY mansion. News of their marriage reached Vanya's enraged family in Russia, who ordered Toros to locate the couple, while the Zakharov family flew to the US to arrange an annulment of the marriage. Pressures came to bear on the reticent Ani to accept a $10,000 dollar bribe from Toros in exchange for an annulment, although it would mean a messy and extensive breakup. Meanwhile, runaway groom Vanya had fled and was found by Ani and Toros (and his two henchmen) drunkenly nightclub-hopping with one of Ani's rival strippers at her former strip-club. Once all of the principal characters met up in Las Vegas - the only place where an annulment was legally possible, the resilient Ani attempted to salvage her short-term marriage, but was finally persuaded to give up a divorce-annulment fight against the powerful family. The disgraced heroine dramatically gave in to the annulment, although she had harsh parting words for the dysfunctional Russian family. In the film's perfectly-acted conclusion, after Ani's gallant compatriot admirer Igor had helped her to pack up her belongings at the Zakharov mansion back in New York, there was a moment of intimacy and hope that she found in Igor's comforting arms in his car.
Blitz (2024), 120 minutes, D: Steve McQueen
Writer/director Steve McQueen's historically-based action-adventure film and war-time drama (from Apple Original Films) was a grim and harrowing tale of survival and racism during the Nazi's Blitzkrieg by its Luftwaffe - an 8-month period (September 1940 - May 1941) during which time the UK suffered massive nightly bombing raids on its industrial centers, port cities, and towns. The results were devastating for the people and property of the country, with the destruction of millions of homes, and tens of thousands of British civilians. The Nazi German goal was to strip the country of its food supplies, industrial production, munitions stockpiles, and dampen the morale of the people. In the film's plot, hard-working, doting single white British mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan), a weapons factory employee, lived in the East London (Stepney Green) home of her piano-playing father Gerald (Paul Weller), with her only child - biracial 9 year-old son George (Elliott Heffernan). Seen in a flashback, her husband Marcus (CJ Beckford) from Grenada had been arrested and deported years earlier for defending himself in a racist incident against thugs. At her place of work, with friends Tilda (Hayley Squires) and Doris (Erin Kellyman), Rita was selected to sing a song ("Winter Coat") on a visiting BBC radio show. With the help of a government-sponsored evacuation and foster-parent program, Rita reluctantly decided to have George evacuated via a train journey out of London to live with strangers in the country. The heartbroken Rita tearfully put George on a train - who coldly and angrily told her: "I hate you." During his train journey, George made the brave but risky decision to jump off, and return home on his own - back to reunite with his mother. He then jumped onto another freight train car and had a nasty altercation with three other stowaway brothers before they were all evicted. The journey of self-discovery, seen through his young POV, was difficult as he was now solely on his own. He attempted to navigate through the British countryside and the outer boroughs of London, and was forced to evade bombs, explosions, and flooding (in an underground train station). He also had to confront and experience several instances of racial prejudice. He was kidnapped by a group of heartless opportunistic looters, scavengers, and evil thieves (similar in parts to Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist), including Albert (Stephen Graham) and Beryl (Kathy Burke), who took particular advantage of the mass casualties after the bombing of a fancy nightclub full of rich patrons. George was also pressured into crawling into bombed-out jewelry stores to steal merchandise. Along the way, he was aided by dark-skinned, kindly Nigerian Air Raid Precautions (ARP) warden Ife (Benjamin Clementine). Meanwhile, Rita was notified that George went missing, and she became frantic. George was forced to grow up, learn about his own identity, and muster up courage and the will to persevere.
The Brutalist (2024, US/UK), 215 minutes, D: Brady Corbet
Actor-turned-director Brady Corbet's lengthy, audacious, monumental and historical epic-drama about the 'American Dream' and anti-Semitism, at 3 hours and 35 minutes (with a prologue, two major chapters interrupted by a 15 minute intermission, and an epilogue), told a lavish, biopic-like story that spanned three decades. It was presented in the 1950s widescreen format known as VistaVision, and shot on 70mm film stock. The film's visually-stunning cinematography by Laurie "Lol" Crawley, emphasized shadows and darkness, and production designer by Judy Becker was exceptional. The 'rags-to-riches' plot was actually a fictionalized account of emigrant Laszlo Toth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor, whose 1947 arrival in the US was ironically signaled by an upside-down view of the Statue of Liberty. Laszlo's wife Erzsebet Toth (Felicity Jones) had remained behind in Budapest, Hungary, communicating with her husband by letters (heard in voice-over), to protect her orphaned teenaged niece Zsofia (Raffey Cassidy as child). The newly-arrived immigrant Laszlo proceeded by Greyhound bus to Philadelphia to live and work with his immigrant-cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola), a furniture shop owner in Doylestown, PA, who was married to semi-xenophobic American wife Audrey (Emma Laird). (Attila had changed his name, and converted to Catholicism to fit in and assimilate.) Although living frugally and eating at soup kitchens, Laszlo was able to resurrect his architectural career when he and Attila began work on converting a study into a library for entitled, slimy son Harry Lee Van Buren (Joe Alwyn) who wished to surprise his wealthy, billionaire industrialist father Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr. (Guy Pearce). Although Laszlo thought he could rebuild his life via the project, his design (known as Brutalist) was vehemently rejected, and the enraged Van Buren refused to pay up. In the fall-out, Attila fired his cousin and threw him out of the house, forcing him into an impoverished state that meant living in a homeless shelter. Some time later, the library was showcased in a magazine, and the well-connected, wealthy elitist white Catholic Harrison attempted to repair his broken relationship with Laszlo. Harrison became Laszlo's benefactor, by letting him live in his home, inviting him to associate with various ruling-class members at gatherings, supporting him financially, and commissioning him to work on an extravagant and expensive project - to design a multi-purpose, prestigious community recreation center in Doylestown, PA, to honor his deceased mother. It was a promising and triumphant fulfillment of the "American Dream," and Laszlo made plans to have his wife Erzsebet join him for a family reunion, with a promise of work at a newspaper office. Upon the arrival of Laszlo's wife Erzsebet and Zsofia at a train station in 1953, Laszlo realized his wife was wheelchair-bound with osteoporosis, and Zsofia had temporarily become mute. The building project was ultimately undermined by Harrison's capitalist associates, increased costs, and disagreements over design changes. It was a major downfall for the Jewish working-class immigrant Laszlo after such an amazing comeback. Years later, Laszlo had domestically settled in NYC with his wife, and Zsofia had married a devout Jew and was expecting a child. She was unfulfilled and also proposing to move to Jerusalem in Israel. Laszlo was reassigned to Harrison's Recreation Center project that would ultimately take 10 years to complete. A traumatic incident of male rape brutally inflicted upon Laszlo by the domineering and sinister Harrison resulted in Laszlo's mental deterioration and unraveling. Meanwhile, Erzsebet (addicted to heroin as a pain medication) and extremely unhappy with life in America, took it upon herself to denounce the pompous Harrison in his home in front of his family as a rapist: ("Your father is an evil rapist"). Harry defended his father by violently attacking Erzsebet. In the film's concluding epilogue in the 1980s decade, Laszlo's work received a fitting tribute at La Biennale in Venice, where Zsofia (Ariane Labed as adult) spoke about her praise for her uncle's inspired visions, with the last line about his advice to her: "No matter what the others try and sell you, it is the destination, not the journey."
Challengers (2024), 131 minutes, D: Luca Guadagnino
The non-linear script (with flashbacks and flash-forwards) of director Luca Guadagnino's sports drama and romance film was written by Justin Kuritzkes, with a techno-score by Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor, and striking cinematography from Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. Delays due to the mid-2023 strike of the actors' union SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) led to the film's postponed release a year later. The film's major love triangle, a manipulative game of one-upmanship over a prolonged period of 13 years, existed between pretty ex-tennis prodigy and current coach Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), her accomplished Grand Slam ex-champion tennis-playing husband Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), and Tashi's amateur tennis-playing ex-boyfriend Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor). In the film's opening, set in the year 2006, 18 year-old high-school friends and doubles-partners Art and Patrick won the Junior Doubles title at the US Open. Newly-minted as Junior Doubles champs, the two males would go on to separate careers as pro tennis players. They met another rising tennis star Tashi Duncan at the event who won the women's singles contest, and their attraction to Tashi initiated a lengthy ongoing love-triangle, on and off the court. The two were both smitten and infatuated with the tennis-obsessed Tashi, transforming them from buddies to jealous adversaries with tense animosity growing between them. Beginning in 2007, both Tashi and Art attended prestigious Stanford University where they played on the college tennis team, although Tashi experienced a severe knee injury (ACL) during a match - a serious injury that curtailed her pro career. Meanwhile, Patrick was dating Tashi and was on track to also become a professional player. Within a few years after Tashi's injury, she had become Art's coach and serious girlfriend. Patrick happened to meet up with Tashi at the Atlanta Open in 2011, and the two had sex during a one-night stand. Within the next decade, Tashi and Art married, had a daughter, and she became Art's coach (as she vicariously lived her own curtailed career through his play). Tashi described how she viewed tennis as an intense and transcendent relationship or love connection: ("We understood each other completely. So did everyone watching. It's like we were in love. Or like we didn't exist. We went somewhere really beautiful together"). Art won 6 Grand Slam titles, and only needed to win the US Open to complete his career slam, but he was faltering and unsure of himself. The captivating film culminated with a lower-level match-up at an ATP Challenger tennis event in New Rochelle, NY. Tashi was interested in promoting Art's tennis career and personal confidence by entering him as a wild card in the Challenger tennis tournament - not knowing that lower-level, unknown player Patrick (broke and on the edge of poverty) had also entered the contest. The two ex-partners ended up as players on opposite sides of the net to compete in the finals. The night before the metaphorical matchup (for Tashi's affection), Tashi (who was clearly unhappy in her marriage, and her husband's decision to soon retire) secretly met up with Patrick. She bargained for him to play poorly and thus let Art win - she felt it would help boost Art's recent disillusionment and help strengthen her tennis-related bond to her husband. Patrick reluctantly agreed and had sex with Tashi in his car. In the film's concluding, crowd-pleasing sequence, the match between Patrick and Art was mostly evenly-matched. Late in the match, Patrick taunted Art about having had sex with Tashi (using a well-known bro code), and both had reasons to play as vigorously and furiously as possible. The match ended with a fair and well-fought seeming victory for Art - celebrated by both Patrick and Art (who embraced each other as newfound friends in a bromance while tangled in the court's net), with the elated Tashi also cheering and yelling "Come on" at courtside. The outcome of the match substantiated Tashi's belief that an intense connection had been formed between the two opposing players and herself.
A Complete Unknown (2024), 141 minutes, D: James Mangold
Director and co-scripter James Mangold's vibrant biographical musical-drama was co-written by Jay Cocks, based upon Elijah Wald's 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties. This competently-told, well-crafted, reverential, and straight-forward ensemble docu-drama (in comparison to Todd Haynes' I'm Not There (2007)) followed the early career of elusive folk singer Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet). The production design perfectly captured and immersed the viewer into the look and feel of an important time period in musical history. The entertaining film opened in January of 1961 when the 19 year-old guitar-playing musician relocated from Minnesota to NYC, always managing to keep his youthful past an enigmatic secret ("a complete unknown" - part of the lyrics in his song "Like a Rolling Stone"). During his quick rise to popularity and musical fame (in the film's four year time frame), the iconic, chain-smoking star crossed paths with revolutionary folk hero Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) - who was battling Huntington's disease in a Jersey hospital, and folk performer and left-wing rebel-activist Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), Guthrie's banjo player. Young Dylan serenaded both of them at Guthrie's bedside. Impressed by the singer and his creativity, Seeger helped to guide Dylan to perform in various gigs about town. The film highlighted many of Dylan's chart-topping songs, viewed in sequences of live performances in West Greenwich Village and other venues - aptly true to life with nasally, slurring lyrics. Two of his on-and-off again female partners included up-and-coming, emotive folk singer Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), and a more long-term relationship with painter-artist Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning). In the turbulent 1960s - a time of political unrest, upheaval and division, the tremendously-talented and defiant Dylan developed a mystique of his own, and became the voice of a free-spirited generation with his straight-forward and meaningful lyrics (i.e. "Blowin' in the Wind"). He transformed himself from an awkward, self-conscious prodigy into a real-life, chopper-riding, sunglasses-wearing musical star projecting cool apathy and non-chalance. At the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, he was involved in an infamous controversy over his transformative decision to shift away from the traditionalist folk style of music to the use of electrically amplified music - exemplified in his hit album Highway 61 Revisited. The sudden switch was met with divisiveness - both praises and derision.
Conclave (2024), 120 minutes, D: Edward Berger
In this dramatic mystery thriller by director Edward Berger, Peter Straughan's adapted script - based on Robert Harris' 2016 UK pulpy novel of the same name - consisted of a juicy potboiler and 'detective'-like procedural. It opened with the death of the current liberal Pope Gregory XVII and the subsequent election of his successor through a papal conclave. After the unexpected demise of the present Pope due to a heart attack, the powerful College of Cardinals (composed of 118 Cardinals from the worldwide Catholic Church) was commissioned to meet together in seclusion in a papal conclave at the Vatican to covertly select (by the casting of votes) the church's new leader. Low-key liberal Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) (UK), the Dean of the Cardinals, was dutifully responsible for the formidable task of leading the sequestered group and overseeing the process, even though he faced a personal crisis of faith. Following the Pope's funeral, four cardinals emerged as leading candidates, with a wide spectrum of opposing theologies: (1) Aldo Cardinal Bellini (US) (Stanley Tucci) - an extreme liberal, (2) Joshua Cardinal Adeyemi (Nigeria) (Lucian Msamati) - a social conservative, (3) Joseph Cardinal Tremblay (Canada) (John Lithgow) - a moderate conservative, and (4) Goffredo Cardinal Tedesco (Italy) (Sergio Castellitto) - a far-right bigoted reactionary. A surprise additional arrival to the Cardinal's conclave was Mexican missionary Vincent Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz) who had been ministering as the Archbishop of Kabul in Afghanistan. The most crucial scene in the film was Lawrence's delivery of a scriptural homily or sermon to the Cardinals, warning them against excessive certainty. He urged them to embrace doubt and uncertainty, or otherwise, there would be no doubt, or mystery in life, or the need for faith ("If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery. And therefore no need for faith"). Due to some of the candidates' extremist views or unpopularity, the two most logical choices to succeed the pope were Cardinal Lawrence and Cardinal Bellini, although both were not vying for the position. The first ballot resulted in no single candidate getting a 2/3rds majority of the votes, although liberal candidate Adeyemi was leading, and there were five votes for Lawrence. During the many rounds of voting, there were behind-the-scenes political maneuverings, jockeying for votes, and the formation of alliances to support either a liberal or a conservative candidate. Lawrence began to suspect a conspiracy in the making, although it was not his responsibility and actually a violation of policy to conduct outside research into ethical violations and wrongdoing. However, he uncomfortably went ahead and began to investigate and research the backgrounds of some of the opposing candidates, including using the computer of feisty, observant head nun Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini). As the campaigning for the papal position resumed, it was revealed that Cardinal Tremblay may have been asked to resign by the ex-pope due to a past scandal (although Tremblay denied the charge), and that Cardinal Adeyemi was a rampant homophobic. Also, it was revealed that years earlier, Adeyemi had impregnated Nigerian nun Sister Shanumi (Balkissa Maiga), and the baby was put up for adoption. The Sister had recently been reassigned to the Vatican for duty - possibly a set-up orchestrated by Tremblay to help his chances. During Lawrence's research, he illegally broke the sealed chambers of the dead Pope to search for information. He found documents that confirmed that Tremblay had bribed other Cardinals for votes, and deduced that Bellini had also accepted bribes. The revelation of Tremblay's corrupt activities caused him to be removed from consideration. Bellini switched his allegiance from Tremblay and put his support behind Lawrence, thereby placing the Dean into direct competition with the only other viable candidate - Tedesco. During the 6th voting ballot, an attack on Rome and the Vatican by a suicide bomber left considerable damage to the Sistine Chapel and loss of life. Tedesco's virulent placement of blame for the attack on the heathen Islamists and his zealous call for war shifted the votes in favor of the mysterious underdog candidate Benitez. He was elected Pope Innocent XIV on the 7th and final ballot. In the film's sensationalist and completely unpredictable twist ending, the new Pope explained to Lawrence that although assigned at birth to be a biological male, until recently, he was unaware that he was non-binary (or intersexual), with a uterus, ovaries, and penis. The former Pope had paid for a plane ticket for Benitez to submit to a surgical procedure in Switzerland known as a laparoscopic hysterectomy as part of his gender reassignment. However, Benitez had later cancelled the appointment and kept his internal female organs, although he knew that he would be forced to step down if his medical condition was revealed to the public. He claimed to Lawrence: "I am what God made me," and the selfless, unambitious Lawrence agreed to keep the new Pope's secret intact.
Dune: Part Two (2024), 166 minutes, D: Denis Villeneuve
Co-scriptwriter and director Denis Villeneuve's epic sci-fi film shared writing honors with Jon Spaihts, basing this sequel again on Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune. As the second part of the adaptation following Dune (2021), it was also set in the distant future on the harsh desert planet of Arrakis (known as Dune), where exiled Duke Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) of House Atreides (symbolized by a Red Hawk) had united with the native Fremen people, a mysterious desert-dwelling contingent of survivors and fierce fighters, to wage war (known as the War of Assassins) against the tyrannical and villanous House Harkonnen. The inhospitable Arrakis was the only source of the all-important and valuable spice melange found in the desert ("Power over spice is power over all"), that was dangerously harvested with the ever-present threat of giant sandworms. Melange was used as an addictive psychedelic drug, as a substance to prolong life and vitality, and as a means to facilitate interstellar travel. As the sequel opened, a coup and conquest of the House Atreides (and its stronghold at Arrakis) had been accomplished by Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård), with support from the treacherous Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV (Christopher Walken) and his military forces (Sardaukar troops). During the take-over, Paul's father Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) was killed. The despotic and fascistic Baron appointed his slightly-incompetent nephew Glossu 'Beast' Rabban (Dave Bautista) to temporarily rule over the planet Arrakis. With his pregnant mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), Paul - the heir to the House Atreides, was forced to flee and go into exile in Dune's desert during the overthrow. He joined up with the Fremen (where he was loyally supported by one of their chieftains named Naib Shilgar (Javier Bardem) who believed in Paul as the prophesied savior) to fulfill his late father Duke Leto Atreides' goal of ultimately seeking peace on the planet of Arrakis. Meanwhile, the Machiavellian Jessica had her own political motives as a member of the all-female group of spiritual advisors known as the Bene Gesserit. At first, Paul and Jessica were suspiciously regarded as spies by many, but then gradually accepted into the indigenous Freman community at Sietch Tabr, where the disgruntled Freman were convinced to back Paul's attempt to release Arrakis from Imperial rule and take control. A resistance movement was formed to ultimately attempt to depose the Emperor (often envisioned by Paul as a frightful, devastating, apocalyptic holy war). Fulfilling ancient prophecy, the skeptical Freman began to revere Paul as a means of Messianic liberation from oppression, and not as a threatening future ruler, although Paul was self-doubting and uncertain about his own supposed destiny. His mother also became the successor of the Fremans' dying Reverend Mother Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling). Young and rebellious Fremen warrioress Chani (Zendaya), who had previously been envisioned in Paul's dreams, became his legal concubine (love interest), training him in the language, martial arts and fighting techniques. Back on Arrakis, the Baron appointed his youngest nephew - cruel, power-hungry and sadistic Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), Rabban's ambitious younger brother, to rule the planet and become the Baron's heir to House Harkonnen. Feyd-Rautha unleashed a vicious attack on the northern Fremen, destroying Sietch Tabr, and forcing the northern survivors to move further south. Chani was compelled to save Paul from a deadly coma (a deep spice trance) after drinking from the Water of Life, after which his psychic powers of clairvoyance were enhanced. He realized that Jessica was the secret daughter of Baron Harkonnen himself, as part of the Baron's failed plan to unite the two warring Houses and produce a super-being known as the Kwisatz Haderach. By now, Paul had been recognized as the Fremens' off-world prophet and Messiah (he declared himself to be the Lisan al Gaib). During a confrontational meeting on Arrakis between Paul, Emperor Shaddam IV (with his eldest, politically-wise heiress daughter Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh)), and Shaddam's Sardaukar troops, Paul managed to force the Sardaukar to surrender, executed the Baron, and captured Shaddam IV. A separate assault of Fremen led by Paul's friend and mentor Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) eliminated Rabban. The defeat of the forces of House Harkonnen, and Paul's complete control of the spice trade gave him the power to depose Shaddam IV, protest the interference of an orbiting fleet composed of the politically-unified Houses (known as the Landsraad), and ascend to the throne. Princess Irulan also acquiesed to his request for a political marriage, while Paul's lover Chani was relegated to the position of concubine. However, the very cautionary Chani viewed Paul's rise to power as a betrayal. She resisted and refused to bow down to him - reticent and ambivalent about his rapid rise to ambitious political leadership.
Emilia Pérez (2024, Fr.), 132 minutes, D: Jacques Audiard
Audacious French director/co-scripter Jacques Audiard's unpredictable, thematically-confusing, genre-busting crime thriller-musical-melodrama (and more) - a strong contender for France's entry as the Best International Feature Film - was based on Audiard's own opera libretto. This daring and idiosyncratic film about misguided redemption and gender identity was also loosely adapted from a fictional character in Boris Razon’s 2018 novel Écoute. The Spanish-language film definitely qualified as a fragmented musical fantasy, featuring 16 original songs written by French singer Camille and with a musical score by composer Clément Ducol. The lead title character actress - transgendered Karla Sofía Gascón - was honored with the rest of the female ensemble cast with the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. Gascon had been living as a male star of telenovelas, but then transitioned in 2018 to a female with support from wife Marisa Gutiérrez and a teenage daughter. In the plot involving a complex web of motivations and desires, underappreciated and underpaid criminal defense lawyer Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldana) in Mexico City took on a high-profile murder case and won a well-publicized victory by successfully maneuvering and arguing in the trial that the death was a suicide (dubbed El Alegato). Afterwards, she was contacted by a mysterious and anonymous caller, infamous drug cartel lord Juan "Manitas" Del Monte (Gascon). In a clandestine meeting with the intimidating client (after being brought to him with a bag over her head), Rita learned of the mob boss' gender dysphoria and his unusual request. She was offered a lucrative offer in exchange for legal help - to secretly facilitate his goal of gender-affirming surgery and his transitioning process into a female with a new identity, while also relinquishing his ties to the cartel. Meetings were conducted in Bangkok, Thailand and Tel Aviv, Israel with potential surgeons, followed up by Israeli Dr. Wasserman's (Mark Ivanir) agreement to perform the operation. The drug kingpin became newly-named as Emilia Perez after staging his own death. His wife Jessi Del Monte (Selena Gomez) and two young sons, after learning of his 'death,' were protectively helped to relocate to Switzerland and begin a new life for themselves. Four years later during a chance meeting in London with Rita, Emilia expressed how she wanted to become reacquainted with her family. Rita agreed to help Jessi and the children return to Mexico City to reunite with Emilia (who was falsely introduced as one of Manitas' distant cousins). Jessi didn't recognize her former husband, and instead of consenting to live with an unknown stranger, she departed and instead reunited with ex-lover Gustavo Brun (Édgar Ramírez). At this point in her life, the guilt-ridden Emila began to be remorseful about her violent and dark criminal past, and decided (with Rita) to set up a non-profit organization (in part financed by corrupt underworld donors) to aid cartel victims and help identify lost or missing relatives. Emilia struck up and entered into a romantic relationship with Epifania Flores (Adriana Paz), one of her organization's beneficiaries. Meanwhile, Jessi and Gustavo were making plans to be married, and Jessi was hoping to have more children and raise them in her new home with him. After Emilia learned of Jessi's recent domestic plans, she became threatening and demanded that the children were hers and withdrew Jessi's allowance. Fearful of Emilia's aggressiveness and presumed lying, Jessi was prompted to flee with the children. Then, in retaliation, Jessi and Gustavo kidnapped Emilia and demanded a large ransom from Rita for her return. During a tense negotiation attempt (and a shootout), Emilia strove to prove her true identity to Jessi, with intimate details about their formerly-married life. Confused by everything, Jessi (with a gun) loaded Emilia into their car's trunk, and as they drove off and she struggled with Gustavo, the car veered off the road - tragically killing Jessi, Gustavo, and Emilia. In the film's epilogue, Rita took on the responsibilities of being the orphaned children's legal guardian. In the street, Epifanía sang Emilia's eulogy as she was joined by the non-profit's supporters.
Gladiator II (2024), 148 minutes, D: Ridley Scott
Director Ridley Scott's legendary and historical Roman epic saga, both a follow-up and remake of Gladiator (2000), continued the action-adventure sword & sandals tale, with a similar plotline to the original film with a 'rise-from-the-ashes' scenario. Screenwriter David Carpa based his script on the storyline he wrote with Peter Craig. The sequel opened 16 years after the death of Marcus Aurelius. [Note: Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) was the father of Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe) and Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) who would rule as Emperor. Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) was Aurelius' 2nd daughter, and Commodus' older sister.] At the present time, Rome was ruled by two corrupt, power-hungry, and tyrannical twin emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger). The story followed the odyssey of Lucius Veras II (Paul Mescal), as he fulfilled his father's legacy. [Spoiler: It was purported that Lucius was the offspring of Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) and his wife Roman empress Lucilla (Nielsen). At the time of young Lucius' birth, his 'father' co-ruled Rome with Commodus (Lucius' uncle). But actually, legendary gladiator Maximus was Lucius' father - during a heated love affair with Lucilla. In a finale-showdown in the Colosseum in the first film, Maximus killed Commodus in a death-match. In order to protect young Lucius (Alfie Tempest as boy), she sent him away for his own safety.] The now-adult Lucius (with a disguised name 'Hanno') was living with his wife Arishat (Yuval Gonen) in Numidia on the northern coast of Africa, when his home was invaded by an attacking ship carrying Romans led by Gen. Marcus Acacius. Although his wife was murdered. Lucius survived (although wounded) and was sold into slavery. Lucius's trajectory followed much of the same storyline arc as his father Maximus in the earlier film. He was transported to the port city of Ostia near Rome and immediately taken to the Colosseum to provide entertainment for the masses and the rulers to celebrate Acacius' victories. Lucius survived an assault by feral baboons, and was looked upon as a promising gladiator, to be trained and mentored by ex-slave and stable master Macrinus (Denzel Washington) (a "power broker" who also had aspirations to become Emperor himself). Lucius (or 'Hanno') was promised that he would be given an opportunity to seek revenge against Marcus Acacius. At a gathering of Romans after Lucius' survival in the Colosseum, he recited a verse from Virgil's Aeneid: ("The gates of hell are open night and day; smooth the descent, and easy is the way. But to return and view the cheerful skies, in this the task and mighty labor lies") (words etched on the palace wall), nearly giving himself away as being Roman-educated as a boy. Meanwhile, Acacius and Lucilla (who soon recognized that Lucius was her son) were conspiring to overthrow the two emperors, but from Lucius' point-of-view, he was disgusted that his mother Lucilla was married to his mortal enemy and wife-killer Acacius. When he met with his mother who attempted to reconnect, he rebuffed her for perceived betrayal. Later in the film, during the ongoing plot of Acacius and Lucilla to dethrone the two ruling emperors, they were arrested for treason, and Lucius was forced to face off against General Acacius in the arena. In an about-face, Lucius offered his repentent step-father Acacius mercy, but the Praetorian Guard was ordered by the emperors to shoot Acacius to death with arrows. Lucius whipped up fervor as he preached to the enraged crowd about the murder of their beloved General ("Is this how Rome treats its heroes?"), and how he envisioned that Rome could be a better place. In a plot to seize complete imperial power (and to seek revenge for his past enslavement under Marcus Aurelius), Macrinus took control of the Praetorian Guard and garnered support from the Roman Senate, and then conspired with the unhinged and unstable Caracella to murder Geta. Meanwhile, Lucius found reconciliation with his mother Lucilla, as they both began plotting to defeat Macrinus. To counter-act his opposition, Macrinus cruelly demanded that Lucilla was to be executed by the Praetorian Guard in the Colosseum, defended only by a single warrior - her son Lucius. As the film concluded, Lucius broke out of his gladiatorial cell, freed all the other enslaved gladiators, and in the Colosseum, he rallied all of them to come to the defense of Lucilla (and other Senators charged with conspiracy). In the stunning sequence, Macrinus stabbed Caracella through his ear, and then grabbed a bow and arrow and mortally-injured Lucilla as she was being freed by Lucius' gladiatorial warriors. A final showdown occurred in the outskirts of the city where Macrinus had fled and was pursued. A battle between Macrinus' Guard and General Acacius' legions was temporarily paused, to allow Lucius and Macrinus to duel each other. During the evenly-matched and hotly-challenged fight-to-the-death, Lucius was victorious and defeated his rival. He then declared his true heirship to the Emperorship (as the grandson of Marcus Aurelius) and urged both armes to unite with him and serve Rome. In the last scene, Lucius mourned his parents in the empty Colosseum ("Speak to me, Father").
I'm Still Here (2024, Braz.) (aka Ainda Estou Aqui), 136 minutes, D: Walter Salles
The script (by Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega) for Brazilian director Walter Salles' dramatic and gripping politically-infused biopic was based upon Marcelo Rubens Paiva's 2015 memoirs-book Ainda Estou Aqui (aka I'm Still Here in Portuguese), the son of the principal characters depicted. The fact-based, fictionally-restaged and patiently-told plot was mostly set in the early 1970s after a military junta dictatorship (from 1964-1985) had taken over control of Brazil's government, and began a reign of forced disappearances. In the cautionary tale, the loving, liberal, middle-class Paiva family (of five children, four daughters and a son) was happily living in Rio de Janiero in a rented, two-story beach home (after moving from Sao Paolo), with plans to build a new home. The family was led by dissident politician and civil engineer Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello) - an ex-Brazilian Labour Party congressman, who kept occupied by organizing safe houses and briefing foreign journalists. The parents became concerned about the family's activist eldest daughter Vera, aka Veroca (Valentina Herszage), who brought suspicions with her Super 8mm camera and pot-smoking friends. She also suffered rough treatment at a military checkpoint when returning home from viewing the movie Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966). In an atmosphere of increasing military presence, the parents decided to ensure her welfare by sending her with emigrating friends to London to study sociology. Newscasts were also reporting ominous developments - such as the kidnapping of the Swiss ambassador, and other suspicions were cast when Rubens received mysterious packages. In late January of 1971, the outspoken 41 year-old critic Rubens was apprehended in his home by state-sanctioned authorities, represented by a group of five grim-faced, armed and bearded men. He was told that he would be presenting a "deposition" during an interrogation. Three men remained stationed in the home until the next day. After his sudden disappearance, his fiercely-loyal and devoted wife Eunice Pavai (Fernanda Torres) wondered what would happen next. Then, more men arrived to take teenaged daughter (the second eldest child) - the highly-observant and news-conscious 15 year-old Eliana (Luiza Kosovski) and Eunice away for questioning. Although Eliana was returned within 24 hours, Eunice was held for 12 days in a dark cell and repeatedly interrogated. The detention center was dark and dirty, where the sounds of torture could be heard or sensed in the background. Upon Eunice's return home, due to money issues with her husband absent, she was forced to move from their beach house to be near the grandparents in Sao Paolo. Later, the government even denied Rubens' arrest and claimed that he fled the country ("He's gone"). Over many decades, the strong and resilient matriarch never gave up on her husband, and attempted to remain an activist for civil/political rights by studying for the law, becoming a professor, and advocating for indigenous rights in the Amazon. The film eventually flash-forwarded ahead to 26 years later (a false ending) and then 18 years further to its coda in 2014, when the grown-up family gathered together. In the final sequence, the elderly, silent, dementia-suffering, wheelchair-bound Eunice (Fernanda Torres' 94 year-old mother Fernanda Montenegro) was surrounded by family. She had finally succeeded in persuading the state to issue a death certificate for her husband, who was declared dead on January 29, 1996.
Inside Out 2 (2024), 96 minutes, D: Kelsey Mann
This family-friendly, computer-animated sequel, following Inside Out (2015) with a similar coming-of-age theme by Pixar/Disney Pictures (Pixar's 28th animated feature) - was the feature film directorial debut of Kelsey Mann. It was a phenomenal blockbuster film, becoming the highest-grossing animated film (both domestic and worldwide) of all-time, and the highest-grossing film of 2024 at $653 million (domestic) and $1.698 million (worldwide). In this second installment of the franchise-series, 13 year-old Riley Andersen (Kensington Tallman) had moved from Minnesota to San Francisco two years earlier, and was now entering puberty. Most of the film was "inside" the mind of the young girl, where her existing emotions (Joy - Yellow (Amy Poehler), Sadness - Blue (Phyllis Smith), Fear - Purple (Tony Hale), Disgust - Green (Liza Lapira), and Anger - Red (Lewis Black)) had created a "Sense of Self" - the foundation of beliefs that made up her personality. But now, her emotional self (in Headquarters) would be supplemented by a new batch of more complex feelings, due to the onset of puberty and adolescence. Four more personified, color-coded emotions included these newcomers: (Anxiety - Orange (Maya Hawke), Envy - Cyan (Ayo Edebiri), Embarrassment - Pink (Paul Walter Hauser), and Ennui - Indigo (Adèle Exarchopoulos). As the film opened, Riley was attending a sleepaway 3-day hockey camp with her best friends Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green) and Grace (Grace Lu), but worried about fitting in during her next year in school after learning her friends would be attending a different high school. Riley's main concern was to impress HS Coach Roberts (Yvette Nicole Brown) and to make her new high school's Fire Hawks team alongside her idol, Valentina "Val" Ortiz (Lilimar), who had become a popular hockey player during her freshman year. Riley over-reacted by becoming worried and anxious about being without friends in HS, and about not making the team. An unsettling emotional tug-of-war was being waged inside Riley, as she was moving from childhood innocence to the beginnings of independent adulthood, creating an unstable situation. She began to alienate her friends in favor of Val and her group. The four new emotions created a new Anxiety-dominated "Sense of Self" that had excluded the previous or old "Sense of Self" feelings that Riley had known, by relegating them or banishing them away to a memory vault. Her newest emotion - Anxiety - took over Riley's mind after she snuck into the Coach's office, and learned from notes that the Coach didn't consider her ready yet to be on the Fire Hawks team. Back during the final hockey tryout match, the self-doubting, self-hating, and self-conscious Riley (who felt "I'm not good enough") overplayed to impress others and was sent to the penalty box where she experienced a full-blown panic attack. This was an opportunity for the emotions of Joy and Anxiety to come together to teach Riley that all of her emotions were necessary, but had value at different times. They created a new third "Sense of Self" that incorporated both positive and negative emotions that could work in harmony together, to help her manage the extremes of her emotions. In the film's conclusion, Riley had begun attending Bay Area High School, where she ate lunch with Val and other Fire Hawks while also remaining friends with Grace and Bree. She received a text and after opening it, Riley smiled - had she been recruited to join the Fire Hawks team?
Juror #2 (2024), 114 minutes, D: Clint Eastwood
The original screenplay for 94 year-old director Clint Eastwood's complex, old-fashioned legal thriller (his 40th directed film), portraying themes of redemption, guilt, and justice, was written by American writer Jonathan Abrams (in his feature film debut). Unfortunately, the Warner Bros' film had only a very limited theatrical release in the US. It opened in October of 2021 in Savannah, GA (Chatham County) where recovering alcoholic and working journalist Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) for a regional lifestyle magazine lived with his very-pregnant wife Allison "Ally" Crewson (Zoey Deutch) - a schoolteacher. At this inopportune time, Justin received a summons to serve on a jury for a murder trial. In the high profile domestic violence case, murder suspect James Michael Sythe (Gabriel Basso), a known criminal and drug dealer (and domestic abuser), was accused of murdering his 26 year-old girlfriend Kendall Alice Carter (Francesca Eastwood). A year earlier, on October 21 in 2020, Kendall was involved in a public fight with the very drunk Sythe inside and outside the local Rowdy’s Hideaway. Shortly later, her dumped body was found on a steep incline near an overpass bridge - her death was ruled a homicide from blunt force trauma. Sythe's public defender was Eric Resnick (Chris Messina), while ADA Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette) was to prosecute the case during her run in a hotly-contested race for District Attorney. There was no clear evidence that connected Sythe to her murder - no witnesses, no footage, no weapon, etc., but he had no verifiable alibi either, and their vicious fight was viewed by many. He rejected a plea bargain deal, triggering a trial. Justin's excuse about his baby's imminent birth was rejected by Judge Thelma Hollub (Amy Aquino), and he was selected as Juror # 2. At the start of the proceedings when the details of the case were being presented, jury member Justin Kemp suddenly realized that he may have been responsible for the actual death of the victim. The rainy night of the drunken bar incident, the clean and sober Justin (at least for a few years) was in the bar himself after almost relapsing back into drinking (he ordered a drink, but didn't consume it), due to distress over his wife's recent miscarriage of twins. As he was driving home, he received a distracting phone call from Allison and accidentally hit an object on the side of the dimly lit, narrow Old Quarry Road. Unable to find the carcass of a supposed dead deer that went over the guardrail and into a densely-wooded area, he proceeded on. He faced a major moral dilemma - he was an alcoholic with previous DUI convictions, and grappled with revealing the truth. Justin sought advice from his AA sponsor and defense attorney friend Larry Lasker (Kiefer Sutherland), who cautioned that the jury would never believe he wasn't drunk, and would convict him and send him to prison for possibly 30 years if he confessed to the hit-and-run. Justin was uncertain about what to do - should he confess and save the innocent charged defendant, and risk becoming a suspect himself? The case was presented with testimony that was thoroughly and repeatedly examined and reinvestigated in flashbacks. A heated debate occurred in the jury room, where Justin was facing intense inner turmoil. He had to decide whether he would vote for a not-guilty verdict (that might lead to a hung-jury), or vote for a conviction (all the other jurors were fairly solid guilty votes for the open-and-shut case). He thought he would try and convince his fellow jurors of Sythe's innocence - fearing that he might not be able to live with convicting an innocent man. After much discussion and some illegal jury behavior (the collection of data about cars that may have been involved in accidents in body shops - including Justin's - if it was a hit-and-run case), the jury voted for conviction. Many issues were presented about the legal system - did any of the eyewitnesses or detectives have tunnel vision (or confirmation bias), or was the ambitious ADA just pushing for a conviction to help her election bid? Was the overworked and unskilled public defender Resnick up to the task of fairly defending Sythe? Could the jury provide a fair and balanced verdict without other pressures interfering, such as voting to convict to end the prolonged process? In the end, the accused killer Sythe was found guilty of 'malice murder' and sentenced to life without parole. Killebrew was elected DA and Justin sold his car to eliminate any connection he had to the crime, but was everything really resolved in the ambiguous, dialogue-less ending? When Killebrew visited Justin's home, had she come to the realization that Justin played a role, although accidental, in the death of the victim?
Nickel Boys (2024), 140 minutes, D: RaMell Ross
RaMell Ross' -directed compelling historical drama with mostly an African-American cast, was an adaptation of Colson Whitehead's 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece The Nickel Boys. The co-scriptwriters were director Ross and Joslyn Barnes. The storyline was inspired by the existence of the historical, real-life, state-operated, juvenile reform school in the panhandle town of Marianna, FL, known as the Florida School for Boys (aka the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys) that existed from 1900 to 2011. It was shut down in 2011 after revelations of decades of torture, rape, beatings, and abuse of its male students. Further issues arose with the discovery from 2016-2019 of almost 100 unmarked burial sites (and evidence of death from gunshot wounds or blunt force trauma). The film's time-frame set in the Jim Crow South was from the late 1950s to the year 2003, primarily at a segregated Florida reform school known as Nickel Academy. The main protagonist of the risk-taking, bold, and artistic film (told non-linearly and non-chronologically, with immersive first-person POV camera perspectives) was abandoned 16 year-old Elwood Curtis (as a child by Ethan Cole Sharp and as a teen by Ethan Herisse). The black teenaged male was being taken care of by his widowed grandmother Hattie or "Nana" (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) who worked as a hotel maid in the racially-segregated, black community neighborhood of Frenchtown, FL to the NW of Tallahassee. It was a time of the growing Civil Rights movement championed by MLK and other Freedom riders, but Hattie cautioned Elwood about being too outspoken. Elwood was a bright, gifted, curious, law-abiding, intelligent and academically-minded senior high-schooler, who had been recommended for a scholarship by his encouraging history teacher/mentor, black man Mr. Hill (Jimmie Fails) in Tallahassee. He applied for and was accepted for entry into an accelerated program that offered tuition-free education of AP courses at one of the black colleges - the (fictional) Melvin Griggs Technical School. After being accepted, while hitchhiking to the tech school, Elwood was picked up by a friendly, well-dressed black man driving a stolen vehicle (a 1961 emerald turquoise-colored Plymouth Fury), and due to the unfortunate circumstances and a racist cop, Elwood was arrested along with the driver and accused of being the driver's thieving accomplice. After a racially-slanted trial (off-screen), the under-aged juvenile Elwood was sent to a brutal reformatory school for boys known as the Nickel Academy. Although the school was tauted as a fair-minded institution, it was more like a prison. It was internally segregated and treatment for blacks by white authority figures was racist, controlling, abusive and harsh. All of the new enrollees in the Academy were told that they entered as low-level Grubs, and had to work their way up through various levels (Explorer, Pioneer, and Ace) in order to be considered for release. Elwood thought he could play by the rules, but black students were rarely released until the age of 18, and meanwhile were financially exploited for forced manual labor. They were also pressured to sell the Academy's supplies for extra profit, and to rig boxing matches. Elwood soon experienced evidence of child abuse, malnutrition, torture, bullying, punishment by solitary confinement, and beatings and whippings (in the notorious White House), administered by the sadistic and corrupt head of the school Spencer (Hamish Linklater) and his oppressive young assistant Harper (Fred Hechinger). When Elwood broke up a fight in a bathroom to prevent a bullying incident, he was the one to be beaten by a 3-foot strap with a wooden handle called Black Beauty. Efforts of his grandmother to release Elwood by hiring a lawyer (paid by both Hattie and his former boss Mr. Marconi (Peter Gabb)) failed when the lawyer absconded with the funds. The film's main story was about the development of a friendship between introverted loner and hopeful optimist Elwood, and the street-smart, more pragmatic and cynical Jack Turner (Brandon Wilson). To expose the wrongs and mistreatments of the Academy and to attempt to restore their sanity and dignity, Elwood wrote about the shocking school conditions. The expose was delivered by Turner to a government inspector, but the only result was retaliatory revenge against Elwood - punishment in a sweatbox, and possibly death "out back." Turner released Elwood from his cell for their escape, and although Turner was able to evade capture, tragically, Elwood was shot and killed by a blast from Harper's rifle. Turner brought news of Elwood's death to his grandmother in Tallahassee. In various flash-forwards, in tribute, Turner adopted Elwood's name, moved to NYC, established a moving business, and married. In the early 2000s, the middle-aged 'Elwood' (Daveed Diggs) experienced a frightening flashback to his awful experience at Nickel Academy after learning about the horrific discovery of bodies (mostly of black students) buried on the property. He volunteered to testify during Florida investigations about his own personal experience.
A Real Pain (2024), 90 minutes, D: Jesse Eisenberg
Writer/director/star Jesse Eisenberg's melancholy and poignant comedy-drama about grief told of the relationship between two mismatched, very contrasting and estranged cousins who had drifted apart after adult-lifestyle changes and personality differences. The two odd-couple American Jewish males had made arrangements to get together and visit their recently-deceased grandmother's ancestral and childhood home in Poland, where she had lived before surviving the Nazi-Germany Holocaust. The two middle-class characters in their early 40s who had grown up together almost as brothers, were father and husband David Kaplan (Jesse Eisenberg) - a nerdy, anxiety-prone, withdrawn and reserved digital ad sales executive in NYC who was married to Priya (Ellora Torchia) with one young son Abe (Banner Eisenberg), and Benji Kaplan (Kieran Culkin) - an eccentric, aimless, emotionally-manic, wild, difficult, free-wheeling, often job-seeking, dependent pot-smoking bachelor who lived in the upstate NY town of Binghamton and worked at odd-jobs to make a living. Their loving Jewish grandmother Dory Kaplan, the mother of their two fathers (who were brothers), suggested in her will that they use some of her inheritance to travel to Warsaw, Poland, to learn about her native land and her heritage where she grew up (before emigrating to the US). The trip would be both a tribute to her, and a way for the two cousins to reconnect with each other. The two met up at an unnamed NYC airport, to begin their trip to Poland, as part of a Holocaust and Jewish landmarks tour group led by very knowledgeable and intelligent British guide James (Will Sharpe). James mentioned how he was a Gentile, but that he had great respect for Jewish history, and had long been an admirer of Eastern European cultural as a scholar at Oxford University. The other members of the tour group to the Holocaust sites were Jewish, including divorced and lonely homemaker Marcia Kramer (Jennifer Grey) who had relocated back to NYC from LA, a married and retired Shaker Heights, OH couple named Mark and Diane Binder (Daniel Oreskes and Liza Sadovy), and a recently-converted Jew named Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan) from Winnipeg, Canada, originally a Rwandan immigrant/genocide survivor. During the trip, long-simmering differences between the two cousins (in their Jewish family's third generation) erupted in continual bickerings and duelings, due to outgoing Benji's often inappropriate and cruel conduct, argumentative outbursts and unfiltered passionate criticisms. Benji's emotional reactions, in part showing grief towards his grandmother's experiences of Jewish oppression and deprivation ("a real pain"), caused David great embarrassment, although he still felt familial love for his outspoken and often moody, bi-polar suffering relative. In particular, David was upset that Benji harshly criticized their tour guide James for being too intellectual and for focusing on historical facts and information while lacking emotional feeling. At one point in the film, David was able to apologize and explain to the other touring group members the reasons for his mixed emotions over his abrasive and irreverent cousin's spontaneous behavior. He revealed how he felt both displeasure and envy towards his colorful but broken cousin Benji (another "real pain"), and tremendous internal hurt that Benji was emotionally-troubled and had attempted suicide 6 months earlier in the year. It was surmised that the sensitive and vulnerable loner-bachelor Benji, from his POV, deeply regretted and resented David's settled, compartmentalized and happy domestic life, causing them to drift apart and creating strife between them now that the once-close cousins had little time to be together. David and Benji left the tour group a day to travel to the house where Dory lived in Poland. During the visit, it was clear that Benji had great respect for his grandmother Dory and a closer relationship with her than David. Upon their return home, Benji declined David's open invitation to have dinner in his home and then to return him back to Penn Station. David slapped Benji - a moment of catharis between the two cousins - but soon after they reconciled, they continued on their separate ways.
The Room Next Door (2024, Sp.), 107 minutes, D: Pedro Almodóvar
Spanish writer/director Pedro Almodóvar's feature-length English-language film debut (his 23rd feature film) was adapted from American writer Sigrid Nunez' 2020 novel What Are You Going Through. The intense, dialogue-rich, vibrantly-colorful, and thought-provoking drama about euthanasia, life, the ethics of suicide, the right to die, death with dignity and friendship was awarded the top prize - the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. The compelling story was about two women who had been close friends and acquaintances during earlier periods in their lives, but then years later, one of them was called upon to provide care for her terminally-ill friend suffering from cervical cancer. In the film's opening set in Manhattan, successful author-writer Ingrid (Julianne Moore) was introduced at the Rizzoli Bookstore during a book-signing where she was cheerfully signing autographs for fans, after deciding to remain for more than her allotted hour-long session. Her recent non-fiction book, "On Sudden Deaths," was about attitudes toward death - she advocated for living one's life to the fullest, while still sadly recognizing that death was frightening and inevitable. One of the individuals in line was Boston resident Stella (Sarah Demeestere) - a past acquaintance. Ingrid discovered through Stella that their retired mutual friend Martha (played by Tilda Swinton), who also lived in NYC, was afflicted with cancer. It had been many years since Ingrid and Martha had spoken, when they were co-workers (and lesbian lovers for a short while) during their 'party-girl' days in the 1980s at Paper magazine, before they lost contact, and Ingrid moved to live in Paris for several years. Wishing to reestablish contact, Ingrid visited Martha in the Manhattan Memorial Cancer Center where she was receiving medical chemotherapy treatments for Stage 3 cervical cancer. Martha was resigned to her condition but very pragmatic and matter-of-face about her upcoming demise, although she stated she fluctuated between depression and euphoria. During discussions and time spent together between the two women who reignited their friendship and caught up on their past, it was revealed that both had briefly dated well-known writer Damian Cunningham (John Turturro) at different times, who was still friends with Ingrid, but had turned despairing, cynical and disdainful of humanity. Through flashbacks and conversation, it was revealed that both women were unmarried, although the career-minded and volatile war journalist Martha (who served in Baghdad) had a daughter named Michelle (Esther McGregor as teen) - the result of a short-lived affair during her teen years with her first-love: schoolmate Fred (Alex Høgh Andersen). Michelle resented her mother for divorcing her father before she was born, and for never introducing him. After serving in the Vietnam War, Fred returned a "different man," suffering from severe mental problems. Soon after, he married another woman (Victoria Luengo) and tragically died in a house fire. The two women had distinct personality differences - Martha was more emotionally-closed off, absent-minded, narcissistic and sharp-voiced, while Ingrid was the more nurturing and down-to-earth of the two. The crux of the film was Martha's very secret plan that she shared with Ingrid, in order to request her companionship. They were to take a month-long vacation in a rented, luxury retreat house surrounded by nature in upstate New York, at the end of which Martha would say goodbye to life in her loyal and comforting friend Ingrid's presence, and ingest a euthanasia pill (bought on the black market of the dark web). Martha announced that she wanted to be in control: "Cancer can't get me if I get me first." (One striking revelation was Martha's admission that Ingrid wasn't the first one she had asked to help her.) Ingrid agreed and was complicit, hoping privately that she could persuade Martha to change her mind. The title of the profound film referred to their foreboding sleeping arrangements: Ingrid would sleep in the "room next door" to Martha's room (although she ended up staying in a larger downstairs room within shouting distance). The closure of Martha's dark-red door would be a signal that she had suicidally taken the pill on some random day, and that she had entered the metaphorical 'room of death'. As the film stressfully approached toward its uncomfortable ending, the panicking Ingrid became more and more emotionally-torn, since she was opposed to Martha's unlawful euthanasia scheme. She privately shared Martha's end-of-life plans with doomsday climate-change lecturer Damian during a lunch meeting, who suggested that Ingrid might be legally considered an accessory to Martha's death. As the film concluded, Martha rationally decided to end her life (with Ingrid absent), even though her suicide was illegal (in NY). Ingrid had been wisely advised by both Damian and Martha on how to avoid trouble from the authorities after her death. Ingrid was questioned by a hostile police officer about the particulars of the moments leading up to Martha's death - and implicity accused of committing euthanasia. She was saved by the arrival of Damian's lawyer (Melina Matthews) who successfully argued for Ingrid's release after accusing the policeman of being a "religious fanatic." After Ingrid returned to the house, Martha's estranged daughter Michelle (also portrayed by Swinton, a surprising plot twist!) - a younger carbon-copy image of Martha (with a different hairdo) - reached out to Ingrid and met up with her at the house. Her appearance symbolically signified Martha's reincarnation. Michelle listened intently to Ingrid's recounting (third-hand) of why Martha had not pursued any further relationship with her 'father' Fred when she was a teenager. Michelle finally received closure, understanding, and a sense of reconciliation with her mother.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024, Germ.), 168 minutes, D: Mohammad Rasoulof
Fearless writer/director Mohammad Rasoulof's courageous, political crime thriller and family drama that was presented in Persian with subtitles subsequently brought about his own personal exile. It was filmed in complete secrecy and then smuggled out of Iran. The story was mostly set in Iran's capital city of Tehran, featuring a Middle-Eastern cast of characters. In the film's backstory, it precipitated controversy when it was selected for the Cannes Film Festival. Director Rasoulof was condemned, and threatened with punishment and imprisonment by Iran's theocratic rulers for an earlier 2020 film before he fled from the country to Germany with a few of the film's actresses, while two of the actors remained in Iran and were banned from ever leaving. His criticisms of his country's current regime in the film would presumably prohibit him from ever making another film there. In the plot that told about the effects of nationwide political unrest and the authoritarian government's oppression upon a single family, it followed an Iranian family of four individuals. It was headed by the devout and honest civil servant and lawyer Iman (Missagh Zareh), who was married to devoted and matriarchal Najmeh (Soheila Golestani) and was the father to two rebellious and politically-idealistic daughters: the older and outspoken 17-18 year old Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and slighty younger and quieter Sana (Setareh Maleki). At the film's start, Iman was appointed and promoted in 2022 to a prestigious and well-rewarded position - to serve as an investigating judge in the Revolutionary Court of Tehran during the many 'trials' of the regime's political prisoners. He was presented with a service gun for his own protection, and his wife cautioned her two daughters to lead private and circumspect lives to avoid embarrassing their father. Iman was expected to anonymously rubber-stamp and sign un-examined death sentence warrants issued for thousands of imprisoned criminals of the state. The atmosphere of the time was volatile with widespread youth protests following the death of Masha Amini in the years 2022-2023 (seen in actual video footage). From the suppressive government's POV, the Iranian Kurdish woman Masha died of a heart attack following her arrest for not being properly garbed in her hijab. From the protestors' POV, she had died as a result of severe beatings. During one of the later revolutionary protests, countered by the violent authorities, Rezvan and Sana's close college friend Sadaf (Niousha Akhshi) was shot in the face, and the two daughters took her into their apartment (without their father's knowledge) and provided first aid, avoiding hospital care. Although they kept the incident a secret from their father, Sadaf was later arrested back at her college dormitory, and the two daughters closely (but illegally) continued to follow the protests on their cell phones. Political differences were exacerbated in the family by the contrast between the biased, propagandized state-TV press reports that were counter to many first-hand Instagram video accounts on social media viewed by the daughters. The sisters' generational and divergent views from their strict and domineering father caused immense friction within the family unit. The catalyst for the film's conflict and increasing divisions with the family occurred after Iman's gun went missing from his bedside drawer - an offense punishable by prison. It was a serious offense and caused Iman tremendous panic and paranoid anxiety, and he overreacted by becoming more loyal to the regime, by suspecting his family members, and by threatening to have them confess to the gun's theft. In retaliation, the morally-compromised Iman forced his family to be brought in for interrogation. Namjeh was directly questioned by Iman's colleague Alireza, while in a separate room, the two blindfolded daughters were also interrogated - and Sana realized to her dismay that her own father (identified by a black obsidian ring) was one of her questioners! Due to her father's distrust of them, Iman reasserted his control over them - even to the extreme prospect and thought of killing them. [Note: The film's title symbolically referred to a species of fig that could grow and literally strangle and overpower another plant. The sacred fig (Ficus religiosa) was an unsubtle, metaphoric representation of the country's political regime that was infecting and slowly destroying the country's policies and its citizens.] Things became even more intense when Iman's personal information was posted on social media. Iman forced his family to flee Tehran and drive to his abandoned childhood mountainous home, for added protection. During the trip, Iman was confronted after being recognized at a fuel pump, followed by a car chase in the Iranian desert. Sana made the startling confession to her sister that she had taken their father's gun, and had it in her possession. In his childhood home, Iman pressured family members - on camera - to confess to the gun theft. The film concluded with Iman's wife Najmeh falsely accepting blame for taking the gun - and having it recorded on a video-taped statement. Iman didn't believe his wife and began further probing of her, causing the exasperated Rezvan to protect her mother and sister by also falsely confessing to having the gun. Iman angrily locked up Rezvan and Najmeh in separate outhouse compartments after a search couldn't locate the gun. Later in the night, Sana was able to free them. However, Iman continued to aggressively pursue all of his own defiant family members. Sana was tempted to fire the stolen gun at her father - and did fire the weapon at his feet to stop his menacing approach. The gunshot weakened the floor beneath him and Iman fell to his death - his black-ringed finger was pointedly seen on his outstretched hand. The film's final images were composed of real-life video footage (on a mobile phone) of the proud protests of women against the bloody reprisals of the regime.
September 5 (2024), 95 minutes, D: Tim Fehlbaum
Swiss co-writer/director Tim Fehlbaum's timely, highly-taut,and significant historical docu-drama thriller authentically presented the real-life events of September 5, 1972 in Munich, Germany during the 1972 Summer Olympics (the XX Olympiad). The script was co-written by Moritz Binder and Alex David. It was notable for its intertwining of archival footage (of 'Wide World of Sports' anchor Jim McKay seen only in actual footage, and reporter Peter Jennings (Benjamin Walker)) with re-enactments of the behind-the-scenes narrative taking place among a key set of employees in the frenetic ABC control room in Munich, in a time of pre-digital TV production. The suspenseful film opened just before the attack signaled by gunshots, and then followed key events and decisions during the 20 hour ordeal, and ended with the tragic finale and McKay's chilling news to the audience: "They're all gone." [Note: After failed negotiations by West German police, followed by a botched ambush attempt at an Air Force NATO airbase, 9 hostages and 5 of the 8 attackers were killed. Two additional Israeli team members, a coach and weightlifter had been killed earlier in their lightly-guarded Olympic Village apartment.] It portrayed the incredible dilemma faced by ABC News-Sports staff members about how to cover the unfolding, live hostage-taking and murders of Israelis (on the Olympic team) by armed Palestinian terrorists (a militant group of the PLO who called themselves Black September). This film differed from director Steven Spielberg's earlier drama Munich (2005), by filming the tragic massacre from the POV perspectives of both ABC Sports staff and employees in the US control room, who proceeded to boldly broadcast the event during a live telecast via satellite to the world. As the film opened, ABC-Sports was sharing their telecast with CBS-Sports. Some of the film's mostly male characters were introduced: shrewd broadcasting executive Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) at ABC-Sports, ambitious ABC-Sports producer and untested live TV director Geoffrey "Geoff" Mason (John Magaro), cautious ABC-Sports Head of Operations Martin Bader (Ben Chaplin), and French-born TV executive Jacques Lesgardes (Zinedine Soualem) who was directing broadcast operations in Europe for ABC. In the opening sequence, the lone Jew Martin Bader expressed his uneasiness about being in Adolf Hitler's Germany with the very astute, ABC-hired German translator Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch) who was often treated in a sexist manner. A few moments later, the historic hostage-taking event began to occur. It was learned that eight armed "terrorists" inside the Olympic Village in the two-story residential building of the Israeli Olympic team had killed two individuals, and taken 9 other athletes hostage. It was quickly determined that the group of hostage-takers were identified as members of a militant Palestinian group calling themselves Black September. Roone Arledge decided to air the coverage credited to his own untrained sports network with an exclusive non-stop feed (rather than turn it over to a more sophisticated, rival journalistic news-team, at both CBS or ABC News after their official sports time-slot ended). He denied that his crew was "in way over your head" and made the firm pronouncement: "This is our story, and we're keeping it!" His decision made TV network history - they were the first to live-capture an act of terrorism and broadcast on air to the world. Arledge emphasized how he wanted to embellish the coverage with "personal stories" and emotional content concerning the kidnapping victims, primarily of Israeli wrestling team member David Berger (Rony Herman), an American-born athlete who had earlier been denied a place on the Team USA wrestling roster. There were many tense moments dramatized in the film about the ethical problems facing ABC, such as how to cover the major real-life traumatic event for the whole world, the possibility of whether to air someone being shot on live TV, and whether their reporting was being advantageously viewed by the terrorists themselves.
Sing Sing (2023/2024), 107 minutes, D: Greg Kwedar
Based on a true story, this feel-good and inspirational drama (and part documentary) from co-writer/director Greg Kwedar and co-writer Clint Bentley (and two others, including "Divine G") was about a group of Sing Sing Correctional Facility inmates (mostly African-Americans) in Ossining, NY. The actors rehearsed and performed in a theater-group rehabilitation program to transform, redeem and free their souls as a form of creative therapy. Except for the two lead actors (Domingo and Raci), most of the other cast members in the ensemble group were portrayed by 'real-life' persons who were graduated alumnae from Sing Sing's performing arts program RTA (Rehabilitation Through the Arts). The screenplay was adapted from a 2005 non-fiction Esquire article titled "The Sing Sing Follies" by John H. Richardson, and on the original play "Breakin' the Mummy's Code" by Brent Buell. The authentic plot told about the seeking of redemption through art by a group of incarcerated men in a very sanitized version of Sing Sing. It followed confident inmate John "Divine G" Whitfield (Colman Domingo), a prominent and commanding actor-leader of the prison's plays - plus he was a talented playwright and a book author (who had penned the book "Money Grip"). Throughout the film, he continually disputed the reason for his imprisonment, and professed that he was innocent. He claimed that he was wrongfully convicted in 1988 of 2nd-degree murder and illegal weapons possession, resulting in a sentence of 25 years to life for the murder charge. He was soon to be considered for a clemency board hearing and hoped to be granted parole. As the film opened, the theatrical RTA group had just performed a production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and already there was talk of plans to stage an original production for their next play (their schedule was to produce two plays each year). When there was no clear agreement on their next project, the white, long-haired theater director and acting coach Brent Buell (Paul Raci), who was guiding and mentoring the non-professional inmate-actors, proposed that they choose to perform his own recently-written, original production of "Breakin' the Mummy's Code" - a strange, free-wheeling eclectic play (with multiple genres) - a fantasy about time-travel and the search for an Egyptian mummy by an ancient prince featuring such odd elements as a pirate ship, cowboys, gladiators, and cameos by Shakespeare's Hamlet (delivering the famous soliloquy), Robin Hood, Captain Hook and Freddy Krueger. At the same time, the acting troupe was exploring recruiting new members before mounting their next upcoming production. Disruptions occurred when aggressive, mean, hostile and confrontational prison newcomer and drug-dealer "Divine Eye" (Clarence Maclin as Himself) questioned the validity of RTA's goals, and began to challenge the authority of rival "Divine G" over the group. Divine Eye argued for their next play to be a light-hearted comedy, while Divine G reacted: "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard," and insisted on another drama (his favorite genre, to further develop his own acting abilities). While all the inmates worked on perfecting their acting skills, including Divine Eye who soon found he was a powerful and emotional actor in his own right, the RTA received approval from the prison's board of executive to put on Buell's crazy play, with Divine Eye chosen for the lead role. With unfortunate timing, Divine G's closest friend and thoughtful next-door cellmate Miguel "Mike Mike" Gascon (Sean San José) passed away, and Divine suffered a period of grief. Also, during his parole hearing before the clemency board, Divine G passionately explained how acting had totally transformed him, but his parole was denied, presumably because at least one of the white interviewers may have thought that Divine G was insincere and just putting on an act. Tensions rose in the unsteady alliance between Divine G, who had lost some hope, especially when Divine Eye's parole was granted. Distance between them spilled over into rehearsals for the play's performance, resulting in an enraged and frustrated Divine G walking off from the theatrical group. He eventually returned and the two were reconciled and found greater respect for each other. A year later, Divine G's parole was also approved, and as he exited Sing Sing, he was picked up and reunited with his supportive "beloved" friend Divine Eye, and now was hopeful for his new future. The film's bookend was footage of the actual RTA shows (including "Breakin'; the Mummy's Code") with the cast of characters played by non-professional Sing Sing inmates - revealed under the closing credits.
The Substance (2024), 141 minutes, D: Coralie Fargeat
Writer/director Coralie Fargeat's provocative, cautionary dramatic sci-fi fantasy and body-horror film illustrated the limits to which some vain-struck individuals can push themselves to retain their youthful beauty with a miracle drug or treatment, to satisfy society's fixation on outward appearances. In the satirical film, there were subtle references to the Frankenstein myth, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), Gremlins (1984), director David Cronenberg's many "body horror" films, Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator (1985), and Death Becomes Her (1992). The bold, unsettling and risk-taking work, with impressive, bold and neon-colorful visuals by cinematographer Benjamin Kracun, depicted the toxic environment of the Los Angeles (Beverly Hills) area that led the self-loathing, aging female protagonist to seek drastic measures. In the opening sequence, a metaphor was depicted for the upcoming film - a bright yellow egg yolk was injected by a disembodied, black-gloved hand, causing the yolk to replicate itself. In the plot, unmarried and childless celebrity Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) headed a successful, long-running daytime aerobics exercise TV show titled "Sparkle Your Life." She had been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, although a montage demonstrated over time how her once-bright star was walked-over, spilled upon, cracked, and desecrated - similar to how she had faded into obscurity and had become a has-been. In a flashback, youthful looking Elisabeth - on her 50th birthday - was seen enthusiastically leading an aerobics workout class on her TV show. Afterwards, she retreated to the restroom (using the men's room since the women's room was out of order), and while in one of the stalls, she overheard her high-ranking, sleazy, heartless and misogynistic producer-boss Harvey (Dennis Quaid) degrading women in a private cell-phone conversation. He implied that older women - such as Elisabeth - had passed their expiration date. Predictably, Elisabeth was abruptly dismissed from her show due to ageism. Upset on her drive home, as she glanced at one of her huge billboards being dismantled, she became distracted and ended up in a major car crash with a truck. While in a hospital for minor injuries, a male nurse (Robin Greer) covertly suggested that Elisabeth was a good 'candidate' for some unspecified, mysterious therapeutic treatment. She was handed a USB flash-drive labeled "The Substance,"along with a phone number and a note: "It changed my life." After being released not long after, Elisabeth watched the video advertisement for "The Substance" that promoted the use of a single-injection use of the product to alter one's cellular DNA and produce a newer, better, younger, more beautiful and perfect version of oneself. An explanation was provided: "You are the matrix. Everything comes from you. Everything is you. This is simply a better version of yourself. You just have to share. One week for one and one week for the other. A perfect balance of seven days each. The one and only thing not to forget: You. Are. One. You can't escape from yourself." She ordered the product on the black market - and the package arrived with a key card identifying her as customer # 503, with a hypodermic needle and lime-green serum in a small bottle. An unidentified male voice on the customer-service line instructed Elisabeth that the "Substance" could only be activated once to create a younger version of oneself. The two symbiotic bodies had to switch roles in the real-world every seven days, or otherwise there would be major consequences. A nose-bleed signaled it was time for a body switch-over. The inactive, unconscious body had to disappear, while being fed intravenously with a weekly food supply and stabilizing agent. One major rule was that the two co-dependent bodies could never be seen in public together. After the naked Elisabeth injected herself, her body convulsed and her new sexier, younger self named Sue (Margaret Qualley) emerged (or was "birthed") from her backside. After Sue stitched up Elisabeth's spine area, Elisabeth's flip-side persona was revealed to be a very perky, quasi-doppelganger version, but not a duplicate clone. As a result of Sue's incarnation, for the next week she auditioned to replace Elisabeth's TV show and ended up hosting a new exercise show called "Pump It Up." Harvey also promoted her to host the network's prestigious New Year's Eve Show. Inevitably, the party-loving, hedonistic and greedy Sue became addicted to her popularity, and began to stretch out and prolong the end of her 7 day period by extracting additional stabilizer fluid to rejuvenate herself, causing the self-sabotage of her original body (Elisabeth). Elisabeth began to suffer premature, irreversible, and rapid aging (her right index finger was the first sign of wrinkling deterioration), and she had also become a self-loathing recluse, TV watcher and binge-eater - described by Sue as "gross, old, fat, disgusting!" Although they shared consciousness, the two saw themselves as distinct individuals - who hated each other. Eventually, the overly-ambitious, immoral and soulless Sue was determined to take over the decrepit Elisabeth's life and host the New Year's show - she stockpiled stabilizing fluid and refused to relinquish herself at the appointed switch-over time. The results were devastating for Elisabeth, who displayed many undignified signs of old age. Three months later just before the New Years' Eve telecast, Sue had run out of stabilizing fluid and was informed that she had to switch back in order to be resupplied. Once revived, Elisabeth was devastated to learn that over the previous few months, she had been transformed into an old hunchback. She was tempted to inject Sue with serum that would eliminate her, but relented, leaving both of them conscious. Sue retaliated against Elisabeth by attacking and killing her, but didn't realize that by destroying her original body, she had further sabotaged herself. Desperate, she attempted to rejuvenate herself with leftover activation Substance serum (that was intended for single-use only). Its misuse resulted in the creation of a monstrous and mutated, two-faced creature - a version of both of them known as "Monstro Elisasue." During Sue's chaotic and blood-soaked spectacle during the hosting of the New Years' Eve show, a completely over-the-top finale, as she cried out: "Don't be scared! It's still me!...I'm Elisabeth! I'm Sue!," she was decapitated and one of her arms was broken off before she imploded, and showered everyone on the stage and in the screaming audience with blood. In the film's grisly conclusion, Elisabeth's gooey face emerged from Sue's viscera as she struggled to crawl outside and onto her Hollywood Walk of Fame star. She smiled as she seemed to finally accept her true self. She envisioned glitter falling from the starry sky above and heard audience applause and adulation as a bright spotlight shined onto her. And then, she disintegrated and evaporated into a massive puddle of blood. The next morning from an overhead view, a maintenance man pushing a bright-yellow, three-brush street cleaning machine washed away the dried blood stains atop her embedded 5-pointed star in the sidewalk.
Wicked (2024), 160 minutes, D: Jon M. Chu
Director Jon Chu's lengthy, epic fantasy musical (Part 1 of two parts) was based upon Stephen Schwartz' Tony Award-winning Broadway musical play Wicked, with a screenplay by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox. Holzman also wrote the book for the "Wicked" Broadway musical. It was also sourced from Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Of course, these derivatives came as a result of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the classic film The Wizard of Oz (1939). Functioning as a prequel in the fictional land of Oz before and after the time of Dorothy's arrival, this origin story film presented the early days of the friendship and relationship between two contrasting witches. In the film's opening sequence set in Munchkinland in the land of Oz, Glinda (Ariana Grande) - the Good Witch of the North arrived in a pink bubble to announce the death of the emerald-green skinned Wicked Witch of the West (Cynthia Erivo). The town celebrated the news by burning a giant Wicked Witch statue made of tree branches. When asked about the origin and backstory of the Wicked Witch, Glinda obliged. A flashback revealed that the two witches (popular but self-centered and vain blonde Galinda Upland (also Grande) and emerald-green skinned Elphaba Thropp (also Erivo)) ended up being student roommates at Shiz University. Elphaba was the result of a secret affair between Melena Thropp (Courtney Mae-Briggs), the wife of Frexspar Thropp (Andy Nyman) - the governor of Oz, and another man (revealed later in Part 2). The Thropps were Elphaba's legal guardians who felt burdened during her troubled childhood (the vulnerable girl was frequently scorned, bullied and shunned) and also regarded Elphaba as strange due to her green-skin and her impulsive magical talents. Elphaba was primarily raised by the nurse maid Dulcibear (Sharon D. Clarke) - a talking bear. The Thropps also had a disabled, paraplegic, wheelchair-bound, normal-skinned daughter named Nessarose (Marissa Bode), who was protectively loved by her older step-sister Elphaba. When Elphaba delivered Nessarose to Shiz University, the University's Dean of Sorcery studies Madam Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) offered to be Elphaba's private tutor, to mentor her in the safe uses of her witchcraft powers, thereby facilitating Elphaba to become awkward roommates with outgoing, shallow, privileged and very popular first-year student Galinda. The two often clashed, and became competitive in a love triangle for romantic attention from a handsome but vain student named Fiyaro Tigelaar (Jonathan Bailey), a prince from Winkieland who began to date Galinda. Another love triangle developed when Munchkin Boq Woodsman (Ethan Slater) became infatuated with Galinda, although Nessarose was able to distract him and pair up with Boq. Meanwhile, Elphaba was befriended by Shiz' history professor Dr. Dillamond (voice of Peter Dinklage), a talking goat and animal rights activist who was being discriminated against. Prejudiced officials believed that there should be no more talking animals and that they should be caged. Elphaba also hoped one day to meet Oz's ruling Wizard (Jeff Goldblum), with the belief that he had the power to help the animals receive rights, and could also "de-greenify" her. Later in the film, Elphaba (accompanied by Glinda - her shortened name) was invited to travel by bullet train to Oz' capital (the Emerald City) to see the Wizard. Elphaba's meeting with the Wizard was revealed to be a ploy by the evil, nefarious and fraudulent ruler and his ally Madam Morrible to have Elphaba magically unlock the powers of a sacred Grimmerie spellbook, and allow the two conspirators to continue to subjugate the animals. As a result of Elphaba's recitation from the book, the Wizard's monkey guards grew wings, to serve their needs as spies. In the film's crowd-pleasing finale, Elphaba reacted to the deceptions of the corrupt Wizard by fleeing and escaping from the Emerald City on a levitated broom as she evaded the Wizard's monkeys, singing the show-stopping "Defying Gravity." After an announcement by Madam Morrible to the residents of Oz, Elphaba was now to be regarded as a "Wicked Witch." The Shiz campus was evacuated, and Governor Thropp back in Munchkinland suffered a heart attack when he heard the news about his step-daughter.
The Wild Robot (2024), 102 minutes, D: Chris Sanders
DreamWorks' appealing family-friendly animated film (the studio's 49th feature) - an epic sci-fi adventure and simple, environmentally-friendly coming-of-age fable about parenthood and lessons to be learned, was derived from a script written by director Chris Sanders. It was adapted from author Peter Brown's best-selling novel of the same name written in 2016. Two other books in the trilogy included The Wild Robot Escapes (2018) and The Wild Robot Protects (2023). The film resembled two earlier similar films -- The Iron Giant (1999) and WALL·E (2008). In the visually stunning film's opening set in a near-future world with elevated flood-level waters, a high-tech personal assistant robot (ROZZUM unit 7134), known colloquially as Roz (voice of Lupita Nyong'o), was the only robot of 5 ROZZUM robots that had survived the shipwreck of a Universal Dynamics (UD) cargo ship during a fierce storm. After the crash of the vessel, the large, gray-colored, smoothly-designed, spherically-shaped state-of-the-art robot found itself stranded on a remote and uninhabited island. Following its accidental activation by curious sea otters, the metallic, dutiful and rigid-minded Roz sprung to life, but found it difficult to adapt to her inhospitable surroundings and to survive, due to her technologically-programmed design and nature. At first, the untrusting, untamed wildlife feared Roz who appeared to them like a monstrous machine. And also, there were many language and communication issues due to Roz' literal interpretation of words. Roz was wired to seek out and perform helpful tasks for humans (and provide a QR code sticker for feedback), but not in a forest populated by animals. When frightened by a grizzly bear named Thorn (voice of Mark Hamill), Roz accidentally and lethally trampled a family of geese, leaving unscathed only one unhatched goose egg. Roz's instinct was to protect and rescue the egg from a thieving sly and hungry but well-meaning and lonely fox named Fink (voice of Pedro Pascal). Once the newly-hatched egg produced a runt male gosling, the young orphaned newborn imprinted on Roz, although the robot was unaware of how to properly 'mother' the childish bird-creature. The two met up with a young family of seven opossums led by wise Virginia mother Pinktail (voice of Catherine O'Hara) who had her own brood and was disinterested in adopting another young one - the gosling. She was engaged in trying to teach her babies to play dead to avoid being eaten by predators. After silently observing in order to learn from and understand the animals, Roz determined that there would be three tasks to prepare and teach the biologically-unrelated young male goose to become independent by the autumn months and readied for migration with its own community -- "Eat. Swim. Fly by fall." Due to a suggestion by Fink who was helping Roz with mothering duties (creating a family threesome), the young goose was named with a combination of two words: Brightbill (voice of Kit Connor), due to its shiny beak. As the growing young but runt-sized adult, Brightbill was bullied by other domineering geese and thought of as a wimpish and outcast creature. The first Canadian goose to treat Brightbill kindly and fairly was elderly migration flock leader Longneck (voice of Bill Nighy). Brightbill was dismayed to hear that Roz had killed his original family, but then reluctantly agreed to receive help from both Longneck and peregrine falcon Thunderbolt (voice of Ving Rhames) as flight instructors to learn to fly. Another eccentric character was neurotic and grumpy beaver Paddler (voice of Matt Berry) who was obsessed with bringing down a giant tree during a massive excavation project. Ultimately after much nurturing from Roz and others, Brightbill learned to fly and joined his species' great migration - a bittersweet moment. Now that Roz was experiencing an "empty nest," she reactivated her transponder signaler, but then after Universal Dynamics (UD) detected her exact location, Rox quickly shut down. Meanwhile, the migrating geese encountered a storm, forcing them to seek shelter in a UD greenhouse, where giant reconnaissance extraction robots (known as RECOs) attacked. Longneck sacrificed himself to save the flock and lead them safely away, helped by Brightbill's leadership. In the springtime after hibernation, Roz awakened and expectantly hoped to reunite with Brightbill returning from migration. However, their long-awaited reunion was interrupted by further efforts of Roz' AI manufacturer Universal Dynamics to extract and recall their wayward robot - who by this time had developed human emotions. Evil and ominous technology created by UD arrived - a tentacled, floating retrieval bot called Vontra (Virtual Observational Neutralizing Troublesome Retrieval Authority) (voice of Stephanie Hsu), accompanied by a group of laser-gun equipped RECOs that sought to recapture Roz and shut her down. UD was interested in determining how Roz had behaved contrary to her programming (to prevent it from happening again), and then wipe her memory banks clean. Although all of the wildlife (including Brightbill) sought to protect Roz and defend against her retrieval, Roz was captured in the midst of a raging forest fire (caused by Vontra's command to the RECO's to self-destruct), and was about to be taken away in a Universal Dynamics dropship. Brightbill was able to enter the ship and locate the decommissioned Roz. Brightbill's vow of love for Roz brought the robot back online and prevented a dreaded memory-wipe. The two were able to destroy Vontra and detonate the mothership, while Fink and Paddler extinguished the fire by flooding the area. In the film's ending, Roz visited UD headquarters to protect her animal family and prevent any future attacks, and she promised to return intact. She was found working in the UD greenhouse on the island by Brightbill (who detoured from flying overhead). Roz apparently had retained enough memories and emotions to embrace Brightbill and touch foreheads.
