2019 Films: #11.The Hole in the Ground

A Netflix viewing on July 4th in Chicago, part two of a horror double header.

Lee Cronin writes and makes his feature directorial debut with this supernatural/creepy kid/parental distress film set in Ireland. Single mother Sarah (Seána Kerslake) and her young son Chris (James Quinn Markey) have recently moved to the Irish countryside to start a new life (it's implied that Chris's father may not have been a real joy to be with). One night, Chris gets out of the house and while looking for him in the woods (did I forget to mention that they live in a secluded house in the woods! They might as well have a sign on the front door that says "come chop us up!") Sarah comes across a rather large and dubious sinkhole. As she's on the phone to call for help, Chris show back up. Problem solved right? But Chris just doesn't see right after that night and Sarah slowly starts to succumb to fear and paranoia (the descent into madness begins!).

One day while driving home, Sarah and Chris come across a pajama clad crazy old lady in the street. Some time later, Sarah and Chris notice that the pajama clad crazy old lying is lying face down on the ground. It turns out that her head is buried. Sarah frantically digs her head up but she's dead. At the funeral, the old lady's husband has not been the same since the death of their son, who was about Chris' age when he died. He tells Sarah that she started to believe that her son was not really her son. Sarah now believes that this isn't the Chris she brought into the world. She confronts the alleged doppelganger, traps it in the cellar and heads off to the mysterious sinkhole.

This was probably the best creepy kid film I've seen since The Babadook. Markey plays the creepy kid really, really well and Kerslake really pulls of the paranoid parent and descent into madness. Cronin does a nice job with the pace and the tension. The film received a deserved 86% Rotten Tomatoes rating. My wife and I kept talking about the film over the weekend and that's a sing of an interesting film. You're still talking about later. This was a creepy film is is worth watching if one has a Netflix subscription. 

2019 Films: #10. The Perfection

A Netflix viewing on July 4th in Chicago.

Richard Shepard directs and gets a writing credit for this thriller starring Get Out's Allison Williams and Logan Browning as Charlotte and Lizzie, two students from a prestigious Boston private music academy.

Charlotte was a cello prodigy that had to leave the prestigious Bachoff academy to care for her terminally ill mother. After her mother death, she to decides to call her old instructor Anton (Steven Weber), and get back into the life. She travels to Shanghai to join them for a concert by Lizzie and a selection of a new student. Charlotte and her replacement, Lizzie become fast friends and go clubbing and spend the night together. The next morning, despite the Mount Rushmore of hangovers (of which Charlotte "helps" to to get over), Lizzie invites Charlotte to join her on a trip to rural China (after just meeting her the night before).

Lizzie's hangover is getting worse despite the fact that Charlotte is giving her "ibuprofen." It comes to a head during the bus ride when Lizzie starts barfing all over the place and quite frankly starts to lose it. She loses it enough to get kicked off the bus onto a deserted road in the middle of nowhere China. This is where things start to get really dark. Flash forward three weeks and Lizzie shows up back at the academy with only one hand. She blames Charlotte for cutting off her hand and is in a bad way. Anton, feels sympathy for Lizzie but doesn't really have a place for a disabled cellist and banishes her. Lizzie, justifiably still upset, travels to Minneapolis. kidnaps Charlotte and brings her back to Bachoff. When Anton sees this, he puts a plan in motion that's really creepy. There's a big reveal, a big showdown and a final creepy performance.

I tried not to give too much away because this was a good film. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 73% rating. The only big problem I had was the fact that Charlotte needed a lot of things to fall just right in order for her plan to work. There's a few cliched scenes as well but not too bad by any stretch. Shepard makes good use of flashbacks to give exposition into  Charlotte that doesn't give the plot away. We find that Bachoff has a very ugly side to it that it's prestige covers up (it's bad what Anton and his lackeys are up to). Really solid acting from the cast, Allison Williams is particularly chilling and Browning's descent into madness is unnerving. Paul Haslinger's score is really good. Shepard did a nice job with the pace and mounting the tension and of course there's a nice reveal at the end. 

If you're a Netflix subscriber and are into thriller/horror films, you will not be disappointed ny this picture. 

2019 Films: #12: Midsommar

July 6th in Chicago.

Ari Aster writes and directs his second feature about a group of american graduate students travelling to Sweden for a once every 90 year festival at a secluded commune. What could possibly go wrong?

The film opens with Dani (Florence Pugh) going through a crisis with her bipolar sister. This is putting a strain on her relationship with her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor). Christian decides to leave his pals; Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren), Josh (William Jackson Harper) and Mark (Will Poulter). Much to the chagrin of Mark who thinks he should break up with Dani. On his way over to Dani's, her sister kills herself and her parents. Dani understandably is an emotional wreck. 

While at a party later in the school year it comes out that Christian is going to a commune in Sweden where Pelle grew up with Pelle, Mark and Josh for a few weeks. Suffice to say he neglected to inform Dani of this. If you know anything about relationships, Dani is going to Sweden with the boys. When the gang arrives in Stockholm, they have a 5 hour drive to the isolated commune, so you know there's going to be trouble.

Upon arrival the gang starts taking drugs as it's a essentially a Swedish hippy commune. Between the drugs and the weird rituals, things start to breakdown. Dani slowly descends into madness; Christian and Josh are at odds and Mark is basically a putz. Things get weirder and weirder around the commune. Mark and Josh go missing along with an english couple brought by Pelle's brother Ingemar. Christian gets picked as a mate for a young girl and partakes in the sexual ritual with the female elders under the influence of psychedelics. Meanwhile Dani, also under the influence, wins the May Queen competition and catches Christian having sex. The film ends with a ritual sacrifice and Dani's grip on sanity loosening.

First and foremost, this film is weird. It keeps your attention but it is weird. Aster is one f*cked-up mofo with the things that are floating around in his head. The only major problem is the runtime. The film clocks in at 147 minutes. I was never looking at my watch but there are some scenes that could have been cut to make the film a bit more efficient at 105-120 minutes. There was a plot line about incest that never really panned out in my book. That could have been cut. Other than that the film was well acted and Aster really dialed up the tension. Beautiful cinematography. Creepy score.

The film received an 83% Rotten Tomatoes rating which is about right but I liked this film a bit more than Hereditary which received a higher rating. The thing that got me about the picture, the same happened with Hereditary, is the post film discussions my wife and I had two days after viewing it. We were debating about whether or not Pelle had planned to bring Dani or some of Ingemar's decisions. That's a sign of quality film, you're still talking about it days after you've seen it. Aster, much like Jordan Peele, is a filmmaker that needs to be followed. Aster is a bit more off the beaten path than Peele but both have weird sh*t in their heads. This film may not be for everyone and the runtime may turn people off but it's worth the time to see it. Check it out.

2019 Films: #9. Godzilla: King of the Monsters

June 7th in Chicago.

Michael Dougherty directs and gets a screenwriting credit to this sequel to the 2014 original. The crypto-zoological organization known as Monarch is back again keeping tabs on giant monsters they refer to as titans (because Kaiju is being used for another franchise and monsters is too cliche). 

The film focuses on the Russell Family; Emma (Vera Farmiga) a cryptobiologist, her daughter Madison (Eleven) and husband Mark (Kyle Chandler), an  animal behavior and communication specialist who used to work for Monarch with Emma. The Russells loss their youngest son in the 1st film and the loss caused Emma and Mark to divorce cliche. Emma perfected the Orca, a device that allows for communication with the titans. Also, Emma believes that humans and titans can co-exist and Mark does not. 

Emma is working on communicating with a cocooned Mothra when the facility is attacked by British eco-terrorist Twynn Lannister. Lannister and his goons kill all of the Monarch employees and "kidnap" Emma and Madison (what teenage Madison is doing in a highly classified secured facility is anyone's guess but that's what was in the script) and Mothra gets loose to pupate under a waterfall.

Monarch sends Dr. Ishirō Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Dr. Vivienne Graham to collect Mark to figure out Lannister's next move. That next move takes them to Antarctica where Lannister is attempting to awaken the dreaded Monster Zero!

Otherwise known as King Ghidorah.

When the good guys show up they walk into an ambush and Godzilla and Ghidorah start round one.  The terrorist flee Antarctica to Mexico to wake up Rodan. 

Rodan briefly battles Ghidorah but is quickly brushed aside when Godzilla ambushes Ghidorah. During their fight, Ghidorah loses a head and it's determined that the titans must go. The U.S. military sends a special weapon to destroy Godzilla and Ghidorah but surprise, surprise it doesn't work. Ghidorah flies off to regrow his head and summon all of the other titans. Godzilla goes off to is underwater lair to recuperate from his injuries. 

Monarch used their submarine (yep they have one), to track Godzilla to his lair. Dr. Serizawa is able to somehow determine that it will take years for Godzilla to mend so they need to speed it up. Using a specialized mini-sub and a nuclear device (which they just happen to have), Serizawa enters the lair (on a one way trip mind you), detonates the device therefor healing Godzilla. The final battle is now set. 

For some reason Boston will host the final battle. Mothra and Rodan fight, because Rodan is working for Ghidorah and Godzilla and Ghidorah get together for the last dances. Mothra beats Rodan but is defeated by Ghidorah. In her last act, Mortha is able to give her, let's call it life essence to Godzilla to give him the energy he needs to defeat Ghidorah once and for all. Which of course Godzilla does and with his victory, Rodan and the other titans that sat and watched bend the knee to the "Big G."

Apologies for the lengthy plot description but there's a lot going on. The aspect of Godzilla is simple; he battles other monsters. That's what we as the audience want to see. The scenes with real actors are sometimes ridiculous. In the five years in between the films, science has managed to become experts on titans. Science has been studying things for decades and has failed to come up with concrete answers!

The CGI and SFX are cool. The monster battles are cool as well but there's always something that clouds the battle. Whether it's clouds, a blizzard or water there is never a battle in ideal conditions. I get that the SFX cost a lot of bread and that's why they have to obscure the fights but the monster battles are why we pay for the ticket. 

The acting was ok but nothing spectacular. The main characters are pretty much cliches. In fact there are too many cliches too count at times. The most prevalent are the needless sacrifices. Between Dr. Serizawa and Emma at the end of the film saying "I'll be right behind you" when they're evacuating Boston, you know she's going to die. The main human bad guy, Twynn Lannister, is essentially a Bond villain. He used to be a British army colonel and an MI6 agent but has become insanely rich in trafficking titan DNA (in just five years btw) in order to fund his eco-terrorist organization. This organization has all of the up to date military equipment as well as a large army and they get to operate with impunity without law enforcement doing anything about them. 

Monarch also seems to have everything at their disposal ready to be summoned at a moments notice. Need a giant aircraft, like a helicarrier, to make an emergency landing? Done. Need a super sophisticated submarine to track Godzilla to an underwater lair? No problem. Need a mini sub to go into a special section of Godzilla's lair that just happens to have a breathable atmosphere? Got just the thing. Need a nuclear device to give out just the right amount of radiation to heal Godzilla? Not a problem. Where did this organization get their funding? 

Lastly there's the "Big G" himself. He has a safe place in an ancient submerged city that happens to have an air pocket in it so that humans can breathe if they want to pop in. The nuclear blast the accelerates his healing also increases his power to out of control levels. During the final battle in Boston, Monarch monitors his radiation levels and has to evacuate a wide radius because the blast will be huge. However, Godzilla can control the radiation by letting go pulses that he uses to defeat Ghidorah. After the battle, there's no mention of any possible devastation these controlled nuclear blasts may have caused. 

The picture received a 41% Rotten Tomatoes rating and rightfully so. It wasn't that great. It's hard to create tension when Godzilla vs. King Kong, being plugged since 2017, is set for a 2020 release. Just like the MCU, when you're trying to establish a big franchise, the main characters are not going to get killed off. The runtime is 132 minutes and I found myself hoping the climax would take place soon. There are some quality moments as I mentioned but it doesn't hold up. I saw this film because I invested a lot of time back as a kid watching the Toho Godzilla films and the 1997 piece of dreck. I will also go see the next installment as well. This film isn't for everyone. If you need to see it, be forewarned. 

2019 Films: #8 Avengers: Endgame

May 7th in Chicago. 

At the end of Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos had snapped his fingers and half of the universe ceases to exist.

But if there's one thing the comic world has taught me it's that death is never certain. If there's one thing the MCU has taught me is that you never kill off franchises that you can still drain a dollar from.

Tony Stark and Nebula are adrift in space. Captain America, Black Widow, Thor, Rocket and War Machine are left back on Earth after the Battle of Wakanda wondering, "what the hell just happened?" Enter Scott Lang who made it back from the quantum universe and has gone cross country to the Avengers HQ. Enter Captain Marvel who saves Stark and Nebula and brings them to Earth. From there the plan becomes to use the quantum realm to, you guessed it, time travel. By using time travel they can obtain the stones before Thanos combines them. It's decided that they need Hawkeye and Black Widow brings him back to reunite that original Avengers line-up. Oh by the way, Banner has managed to turn himself back to the Hulk but keep Banner's intelligence. Once Banner and Stark build the time machine, the plan is set in motion.

They break into teams and go off to the first Avengers film, the 1970s, Asgard and some Avengers: Infinity War locations. Each venue carries different levels of success. Stark then creates a new gauntlet but Thanos gets wind of the plan and sets his own plan in motion. With a new gauntlet our heroes bring everyone back (SURPRISE!) for a big final battle with Thanos and his goons.

Now the film ends with a few deaths that I do not want to spoil. Stark and Rogers get to get some level of satisfaction from the time travel: Tony gets to speak to his dad when in the 70s and Rogers get to hang out with Peggy Carter. That was nice to see. I feel that despite having a very convoluted plot, the film ended about as well as it could end. There are some lighthearted moments to keep things from being too dark and not all the heroes get a happy ending. The picture received a 94% RottenTomatoes rating which seems a bit high but I can live with it. The film had a budget of $356 million dollars and has gross nearly $2.8 billion worldwide.

Sold acting from the huge ensemble cast. The special effects were really good and there's a lot of action. Lots of action. Despite a 3 hour runtime, the film moves along very well. It never gets too slow and the action doesn't go on too long for it to get boring. As I have committed over 10 years to the MCU I was very pleased with the way they tied everything together. I am also mildly interested in MCU moving forward (Black Panther: Yes. Spider-Man: Not that much. Doctor Strange, Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy: Maybe). This was a fun film that brings Phase Three a nice conclusion.

2019 Films: #4. Us

Part 1 of a double header on March 23rd in Chicago. 

This is the much anticipated second feature from writer/director Jordan Peele. The film opens in 1986 with a young girl, Adelaide, hanging out at the beach in Santa Cruz. Addy wanders from her father as he's playing whack-a-mole and ends up in the house of mirrors. Lightning flashes and Addy leaves the house of mirrors and is visibly upset. Jump to present day and Addy, Lupita Nyong'o, is back vacationing in Santa Cruz with her family; husband Gabe (Winston Duke), teenage daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and son Jason (Evan Alex).

Addy is uneasy about the vacation and has flashbacks about the aftermath of her experience in the house of mirrors. Addy's husband Gabe convinces Addy to go to the beach despite her trepidations. At the beach Jason witnesses some weird and creepy sh*t prompting Addy to bring everyone back to the house. When darkness comes that's when things really start to go downhill. Jason spots a family in the driveway. Gabe goes out to try and scare the family away but it backfires. He manages to get back to the house and lock the doors but the family breaks in. The "family" are actually doppelgangers of the Wilsons. Creepy!

The Wilsons are separated and Addy's doppelganger, Red, gives us some much needed exposition. Red and the doppelgangers are known as the "tethered." They share a soul with their counterparts and their lives mirror their counterparts but in a much less nice way. Eventually the Wilsons escape the house and make their way to the Tylers place, the Wilsons are kind of in competition with they Tylers or at least Gabe is. But the Tylers have been killed by their doppelgangers and the Wilsons are back in the frying pan. The Wilsons manage to dispatch the Tyler doppelgangers and escape to the boardwalk.

After a confrontation with Jason's doppelganger, Red abducts Jason and takes him into the tethered catacombs under the boardwalk. Addy gives chase and has a final showdown with Red.  Addy rescues Jason and gets back to the surface. As the Wilson's drive away, Addy has a revelation that gives the audience a very interesting twist ending.

Although not quite as good as Get Out, Us was a very, very good picture. The film received a 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating and grossed over $254 million worldwide against a $20 million budget. This is a really creepy film with a cool ending. I don't believe that there is as much symbolism as Get Out but I have a tendency to focus on a film's mistakes more than symbolism, it usually has to be obvious for me. There are a lot of questions about the tethered. For instance, where did the rabbits come from for them to eat? How did they learn how to make and sew their red jumpsuits? How did they come about? Who monitored them? Things like that.

Peele himself said the film's central theme is about American privilege. Until I read that, I figured he just made a creepy film. With this follow-up, Peel continues to be a must see director until he runs into multiple hiccups and then we can reassess. Great acting from a solid cast, a lot of actors playing dual roles. Peele creates a lot of tension that keeps your eyes glued to the screen. There's some humorous moments to break the tension but the tension always comes back. There's good 80's pop culture references. Michael Abels creates a very creepy score that adds to the film's tension. A really well made film. A must see.

2019 Films: #7. Velvet Buzzsaw

A Netflix viewing on April 14th.

When I saw that Dan Gilroy wrote and directed this supernatural horror picture, I wanted to see it since I am a fan of Nightcrawler. Set in the contemporary art world of Los Angeles (therefore ensuring that some characters will be reviled for being uber-snooty) we get a an interesting group of characters:

• Morf (Jake Gyllenhaal): Art critic.
• Rhodora (Rene Russo): Snooty gallery owner.
• Josephina (Zawe Ashton): Rhodora's minion, who gets sh*t on by Rhodora.
• Gretchen (Toni Collette): Art Curator and rival to Rhodora.
• Coco (Natalia Dyer): Another minion for Rhodora who gets sh*t on a lot.
• Jon Dondon (Tom Sturridge): Art gallery owner and another Rhodora rival.

Josephina is stuck in a dead end job working for Rhodora. She's under appreciated until she discovers some paintings of a dead neighbor in her apartment complex, Vetril Dease. The paintings put the hook into Josephina and she shows the to Morf, whom she's now in a sexual relationship with, and Rhodora. Rhodora puts the Dease pieces on display and they're an instant hit. That's when weird sh*t starts to happen.

Rhodora sends some paintings into storage but her employee goes missing, he actually succumbs to a gruesome death. Morf starts to research Dease and discovers that his history is disturbing. Really disturbing. Rival owner Jon Dondon is also researching Dease in order to spoil Rhodora's new found success. Gretchen, a curator for the city gallery gets some Dease pieces to display. Morf also starts to descend into madness from the research into Dease's life. Morf tires to get everyone to destroy the paintings but because there's so much money involved now, no one listens. 

Basically everyone suffers a gruesome death at the hands of Dease's pieces except for Rhodora and Coco. Rhodora gets a special death from Dease courtesy of her Velvet Buzzsaw tattoo, a band she belonged to back in the 80's. Coco is the only survivor and she sees a homeless man selling Dease's works. 

Apparently I am not a big fan of supernatural artwork murdering people that I don't care for. I really wanted to like this movie but was disappointed. Perhaps I should have paid more attention to the summary. This was such a departure from Nightcrawler and it didn't work. It's unknown to me if this could have worked on any level. If Gilroy had eliminated the supernatural aspect, could it have been better? Granted I am a stalk and slash horror film guy as I grew up on Halloween and the Friday the 13th films, mainly 1-5. 

This should have been a better film. Gilroy is talented and there was a great ensemble cast. But it just didn't work for me. The film received a 63% Rotten Tomatoes rating and that seemed a bit high for me. Skip it.