Weekend Screen Scene: Sinners

Experiencing Ryan Coogler's Sinners, ideally in IMAX, is the kind of cinematic experience that reminds any movie lover just why they love movies, and could well convince the skeptical that cinema can be a transcendent experience. 

Sinners is really three movies wrapped into one. It's a historical drama, set in 1932 Mississippi, where twin brothers Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan) have returned to town from adventures in underworld Chicago to open a juke joint. It's a musical, about Sammie (Miles Caton), a preacher's son, blues guitarist, and singer, who wants to pursue his musical passions, despite the objections of his father. And it's a horror movie, about monsters both real and supernatural.

How Coogler melds all of this together is masterful. There are only a few filmmakers I trust completely, meaning I can go into their films knowing that even if I don't end up loving the movie, I'm in the hands of a master who understands how to craft a movie. Coogler is becoming one of them. 

There's a sequence near the middle of the film, once the Smoke Stack brothers have opened their juke joint, Sammie begins to play, and the legend that music can "pierce the veil between life and death" begins to come to life. Past, present, and future start to share the screen, the camera glides around the dance floor, and all of these pieces that shouldn't work together come into harmony. It's the most electric bit of filmmaking I've seen in years.

Love and sex, violence and blood, all play a part in Sinners, but it's the music that's going to linger. Coogler has once again teamed with Ludwig Göransson for a score that, like the film itself, is a melding of genres that one would assume to be discordant, but just works. Filled with swampy blues, Irish folk songs, and a score that melds it all and more, the soundtrack deserves the same kind of fervor the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack garnered. 

I'm purposely avoiding saying much about the plot because I went into Sinners only knowing what was in the trailer, and that was even more than I wish I'd known (the trailer above is the most obtuse I could find). I was still happy to be surprised, and let the nuances of the characters and plot reveal themselves. One of the biggest sins of a horror movie is not giving you any reason to actually love the characters that are eventually put in danger. That's not the case here, as Coogler allows the characters to slowly reveal themselves, and their backstories. When it comes time for them to fight, you're cheering them on.

In the age of streaming it can be hard to convince people to fork over the dough for a movie theater experience. But I really can't stress enough that Sinners really should be seen in a theater. If you're in the Bay Area, see it at the Metreon in IMAX, which is one of the only true IMAX theaters in California. And if I can't convince you, I'll let Ryan Coogler try, with this bit of video where he nerds out explaining film formats and aspect ratios.

Weekend Screen Scene: Drop, Sacramento

First dates can be pretty harrowing experiences, but hopefully not as harrowing as the first date in Drop.

Violet (Meghann Fahy), the widowed survivor of an abusive relationship, has agreed to finally meet the man she's been texting with for months, leaving her young son with her sister as baby sitter. Her date is Henry (Brandon Sklenar, probably best known as the nice guy in another domestic violence tale called It Ends With Us), a photographer with the mayor's office. He's very polite, and very cute. All is going well until Violet starts to get some ominous "AirDrop" messages (here called "digiDrops") telling her unless she does what she's told, and does not tell her date what is happening, her son will die.

As tends to be the case with movies centered on technology, the tech in Drop is pretty preposterous, as is the notion that Henry would stick around for as long as he does once Violet starts acting completely insane, trying to keep what's happening to her secret. (She's constantly looking at her phone, leaving the table for various reasons, or asking to switch tables and then changing her mind.) But director Christopher Landon, who also directed the horror comedies Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2 U, knows how to keep the film fun and suspenseful, amping up visual tricks that keep you engaged, despite the action taking place in primarily one location.

Sacramento kept reminding me of a younger version of Sideways, but then I looked up the age Paul Giamatti was when he filmed Sideways, and turns out, he was 36! Which is the same age Michael Cera is! Mind blown! 

Now granted, I think Giamatti was actually supposed to be playing older in that movie, as Sideways is truly a middle aged crisis story, and Sacramento is closer to a quarter-life crisis story. Cera plays Glenn, who, with his wife Rosie (Kristen Stewart) are expecting their first child. He's doing his best to present a calm exterior about this impending life change, but Rosie knows better, and is clearly the more solid partner in this relationship.

When Glenn's old friend Rickey (Michael Angarano) shows up unexpectedly, Glenn is reluctant to have anything to do with him, but Rosie convinces him otherwise, thinking this reunion may help him out of his funk. Soon the two friends are on a road trip to Sacramento, ostensibly to scatter the ashes of Rickey's recently deceased father, a story that's not entirely true.

The best word to describe Sacramento is probably pleasant. It tells this story of two friends, both dealing with some heavy emotions they can't seem to express to each other, with a light touch, never getting too heavy, even when the subject matter can get a little dark. That owes a lot to the performances, which also includes a smaller role featuring Maya Erksine, and I'd gladly watch a spin-off or sequel that just focused on her entirely.

Weekend Screen Scene: Freaky Tales, The Luckiest Man In America

You don't have to be from the Bay Area to appreciate the Oakland-set Freaky Tales, but it probably helps one forgive some of the film's shortcomings. There's so much that will hit different for those from the Bay than for those who aren't, especially those who were here during 1987, the year the movie is set. 

Four interconnecting stories form Freaky Tales, all with some level of supernatural (or alien?) influence in the form of a strange green glow that seems to permeate the Town. The stories include punks vs skinheads at Gilman Street; a rap battle at Sweet Jimmie's between Too $hort (who actually narrates the movie, though he's played by DeMario Symba Driver in the battle) and the female rap duo Danger Zone; a hit-man (Pedro Pascal) on his last job, which starts at a video rental store with a familiar clerk; and a robbery at the home of Sleepy Floyd, the same legendary night he scored 29 points in the fourth quarter of game four of the playoffs against the Lakers. (For all the true details behind these stories, I recommend this piece from KQED.)

Written and directed by the team of Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, whose most recent film was the considerably bigger-budgeted Captain Marvel, the stories are obviously near and dear to the heart of Fleck, who grew up in Oakland and Berkeley. The era is nicely captured in the low-budget feel of the of the film, where such 80's cult classics as Repo-Man, Scanners, and The Last Dragon. are immediately brought to mind. This is a pulpy movie, with no shortage of gore and outrageous plot developments, perhaps sometimes too outrageous. But again, the love for Oakland that permeates the entire production makes it easy to shrug things like that off.

Freaky Tales would definitely benefit from a theatrical viewing, especially if you live in the Bay Area, so you can all laugh together as you recognize all the numerous cameos and locations, maybe even at the Grand Lake, which has a prominent cameo in two of the tales. Now that's a hella good time.

We're sticking in the 1980s for The Luckiest Man In America, the story of Michael Larson, who won over $100,000 on a single episode of Press Your Luck in 1984. First let me state that I don't think he did anything that should be considered cheating that day. The rest of the choices he made in life are a little sketchier, but winning on Press Your Luck was actually something that took a tremendous amount of skill, and it was impressive.

It's a story begging for a Hollywood telling, but The Luckiest Man In America chooses to fictionalize it in some weird ways that don't always work. Paul Walter Hauser is great as Larson, a stand out in an impressive cast that also includes David Strathairn, Walton Goggins, Pattie Harrison, and Maisie Williams. Johnny Knoxville also has a small role as a talk show host, but it's one of several moments in the movie that feels completely out of place; maybe even inexplicable.

The film works best when it is centered on the game show itself. The studio set is perfection, and brought to mind the equally impeccable retro set designs in the recent films Woman of the Hour and Late Night With the Devil. The game play is also pretty exciting, when the movie allows it to flow, which is not often enough. Watching it I just kept thinking there had to be a better way to open the story up than having the game constantly get interrupted for reasons that made sense (commercial breaks) and reasons that didn't (that aforementioned Johnny Knoxville scene.) Stick through the credits to get a glimpse of the actual Michael Larson on Press Your Luck, and if that and the film drive your curiosity enough, you can see most of the real episode on YouTube.

Weekend Screen Scene: Death of a Unicorn

I was a little apprehensive about seeing a movie called Death of a Unicorn because watching animals suffer on screen, even animals that don't actually exist in the real world (or do they??), is probably my Achilles's heel. I can't deal. And indeed, we do witness the death of a unicorn - several times! - and yes, it's hard to watch. And that definitely helps to turn what is supposed to be a very dark horror comedy into something veering into uncomfortably unfunny.

Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega star as Elliot and Ridley Kinter. They have a tense relationship; Ridley is a sullen teen, and they are both dealing with the death of her mother a year earlier. Hoping to both bond with his daughter and secure a solid financial future for her, Elliot takes her along on a work retreat to the home of his employers, the insanely rich Leopold family, who live a remote Canadian forest. Along the way, they hit a unicorn with their car, but that's not the last they see of it, or that unicorn's family.

The Leopold family are played by Richard E. Grant as the dying patriarch Odell; Téa Leoni as his wife Belinda; and Will Poulter as their asshole son Shepard. They all have their moments, but Poulter as Shephard probably gets the most laughs. He's just so good at playing contemptible characters.

But that's also part of the problem with Death of a Unicorn. All of the characters are some level of horrible, including Paul Rudd, who is not given nearly enough opportunities to be funny. Ortega has to shoulder the likability burden, but the story takes way too long to get to the point where you're really rooting for her, because Ridley is pretty annoying for a lot of it as well. (Anthony Carrigan, in a supporting role as the put-upon butler Griff, however, is hilarious, and the highlight of the movie.)

I'm all for an eat-the-rich story, and we seem to be getting a lot of them these last few years (hmmmm....wonder why?), and Death of a Unicorn does have a few satisfying moments of carnage. But its uneven tone, and a third act that drags ultimately sinks the film. The unicorns may have bite, but this satire does not.

Weekend Screen Scene: Snow White

Snow White, Disney's latest live-action update of a classic animated feature, was barely announced before the controversy surrounding it began. Some of the uproar was garbage, and some probably had some legitimacy. In either case, it resulted in a lot of negative buzz for the movie, ultimately even causing Disney to tone down its Hollywood premiere in an excess of caution.

When I say some of the uproar was garbage, I'm talking mainly about the screams of protest that erupted the second it was announced that Rachel Zegler, a Hispanic woman, was cast as Snow White. No matter that she does look the part, and has the voice needed for the musical role. And after seeing the movie, I can safely say, she's good! The movie's other efforts at inclusion could almost be called aggressive, and to that I also say, good. If this Snow White manages to piss off a bunch of racists, I do not have a single problem with that.

I'm less enthusiastic about the casting of Gal Gadot, and only some of that has to do with her stance on the Israel/Palestine conflict. I'm against her primarily because she cannot sing, and she brings nothing but her beauty to the role of the Wicked Queen, a character that deserves to be played with some level of camp and wicked joie de vivre.

Which brings us to the dwarves of it all. Frankly, I do not know how you can approach a story that features five dwarves who are primarily there for comedic relief and not have it be problematic. Feature them as fully animated characters, and you are depriving real actors from the LP community of acting roles. Cast real actors, and you are limiting their humanity to being the film's comic relief. It's a no win situation that Disney seems to have tried to rectify by casting one real LP to do one of the voices, and another as an entirely new character, who is not one of the dwarves.

To be fair, the word "dwarf" is never mentioned in this new Snow White (hence the truncated title), and since the "dwarves" are fully animated, and do not look much like the real LP who is also in the film, I believe we are to think of them as closer to gnomes, or purely fantastical beings. (They are, after all, said to be almost 250 years old).

The film's biggest sin is not in any of these controversies, but that it is simply not a lot of fun. Of course Snow White as a character had to be expanded, and given more agency. Having a heroine whose main character attributes are cleaning and falling in love with a man she's barely even met just would not fly today. And I can't argue with the film's chosen plotline that focuses on rising up against an evil leader who cares more about themself than those they lead, because, hello. But mixing in rebellion with peppy songs and cute (and I mean really, really cute) animals leaves us with a film that, while beautiful, in a Thomas Kincaide kind of way, is tonally all over the place, and only rarely captures the cinematic magic of the original classic.