Weekend Mullings - Mother Mary

I wouldn't argue with anyone who thinks Mother Mary isn't a very good movie. It probably isn't. But sometimes a film is about things so specific to things you love, you can look past "quality" and just appreciate all the ways it succeeds and fails.

Anne Hathaway plays "Mother Mary," a pop star who is staging a comeback after an accident that may or not have been an accident. But she's reached a breaking point, and is convinced the perfect dress will be her only salvation, and her only savior will be her former stylist Sam Anselm (Michaela Cole). But there was a fracture in their partnership and friendship that Sam hasn't come to peace with, so she's more than a little reluctant to take on the project, especially since Mary needs the dress in three days.

None of the dialogue these two women share in Sam's expansive studio (a converted barn on a country estate) is anything close to realistic. Their speech is filled with so much innuendo, vagueness, and symbolism that at one point Mary says "these metaphors are exhausting." But this dialogue - and I agree, it does become exhausting - fits the film's mood, which is gothic and ethereal, and includes a ghost. 

Horror movies centered on pop stars seem to be having a moment (Smile 2; Trap; hell, I'll even include KPop Demon Hunters here). Mother Mary takes a while to reveal its horror, but it's definitely there, if a little hard to define. Is that a real ghost? Or another exhausting metaphor?

There are two reasons Mother Mary doesn't fall into a black hole of pretension and that's Anne Hathaway and Michaela Cole. Hathaway makes a great pop star, singing very catchy songs by Charli xcx and Jack Antonoff. Writer and director David Lowery has said Taylor Swift was the primary influence for the character of Mother Mary, but Mary's way more goth, and reads much closer to Lady Gaga, at least aesthetically. Either way, the concert scenes are electric, and Hathaway's scenes in Sam's studio can often feel monotonous in comparison.

And I can't imagine any other actress being able to deliver a performance as haunted as Michaela Cole's. If you've seen her brilliant TV series I May Destroy You, you know she can balance moments of gut-busting comedy with gut-wrenching drama perfectly. She is able to do so much as Sam with just her amazing face alone, a face that definitely deserves to be seen on a big screen. I hope she gets a huge studio movie that allows her to be hilarious.

I'm not entirely sure what Mother Mary is ultimately trying to say about stardom, collaboration, friendship, or even ghosts. But I do know riveting performances, catchy music, beautiful gowns, and a gothic vibe can sometimes be enough to enrapture me.

Weekend Mullings - The Drama

Can you ever truly know someone? And would you ever really want to? That's one of the big questions at the center of the romantic anti-comedy The Drama, the new anti-romantic comedy from Norwegian writer and director Kristopher Borgli.

Zendaya and Robert Pattinson are Emma and Charlie, one of those couples that seem to populate countless romantic comedies. They meet cute at a coffee shop, have seemingly interesting, if vaguely defined jobs that pay them enough to live in a beautiful, two-story New York flat, and they're about a week away from their wedding day.

During a wine and entree tasting with their best friends Rachel and Mike (Alana Haim and Mamoudou Athie), Rachel suggests they all confess the most horrible thing they've ever done, since she and Mike both did the same prior to their wedding. This is, of course, a terrible idea, but being slightly drunk, they all do detail their terrible past deeds, and laugh them off - until they get to Emma, who confesses something so horrible no one is able to get past it.

I think it's probably possible to go into the movie knowing what that terrible thing is and still have it be an effective experience. But there's also some fun to be had in being surprised and possibly shocked by her confession, so I'll be vague and just point out that what she confesses is merely something she planned to do, whereas her fiance and friends very clearly did horrible things.

That no one points out this difference is a little frustrating. Emma's being Black is also never taken into consideration by her fiance, or friends, or really, the film itself, in how that might have played a part in Emma's past actions. 

Zendaya continues to impress in every role she takes on; she's so vulnerable and lovable as Emma, it becomes really painful to watch those around her just lose their shit after her confession. Alana Haim's turn as Rachel reaches almost Karen levels of hysteria; she's effective, if a little shrill. And Pattinson is quickly turning into a master when it comes to milquetoast partner roles.

Director Borgli's non-linear approach to the story line, with its many flashbacks, and flashes of fantasy projections, keeps the film moving at a clip, but can also be frustrating as it does not allow time for the characters of Emma and Charlie to fully develop. Still, I found myself completely engaged with this frustrating film. Conversations about it are likely to be more complex and insightful than anything the movie has to say about the controversial topic at its center. But maybe that's the point? 

Weekend Mullings - Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary is based on a book by Andy Weir, who also wrote the novel The Martian, which Ridley Scott adapted into a film in 2015. I liked The Martian a lot, and felt it owed a lot of its success to its lead, Matt Damon.

I read The Martian, and found it incredibly dull; just not my jam. I have not read Project Hail Mary, but I have a feeling the books are very similar, and directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller may have learned an important lesson from the movie version of The Martian: in order to make a story filled with a lot of science talk interesting, you need to cast someone very charismatic to deliver all that science talk. And Project Hail Mary works almost entirely because of Ryan Gosling's performance as reluctant astronaut Ryland Grace. 

The Earth is dying because something is draining the sun of its power. And not only the sun, but several other stars in the universe. Middle school teacher and molecular biologist Grace is approached by a government agency, led by Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller, giving a wonderfully dry performance) to help figure out just what is happening, since his previous work in molecular biology...is somehow related. 

Like I said, the detailed science stuff isn't my bag, and I'm not as entertaining as Ryan Gosling is in explaining it, but trust me that within the film, it does make sense. Grace is happy to help with the research, but draws the line at going into space. Of course, he does end up in space, and while there, pairs up with an unusual life form that is also trying to prevent the death of a star.

This pairing is both the comedic and emotional hearts of the film, and at times, the sentimentality is a little heavy handed, but Gosling prevents it from ever falling into maudlin territory. At a little over two hours and thirty minutes, Project Hail Mary is way, way too long, especially for a story that treads some well worn science fiction tropes. Also, for a movie filmed for IMAX and set in space, there weren't a lot of moments where I felt truly in awe of what I was seeing, even though I know that was the intent. Ultimately, this huge movie succeeds in smaller ways, and primarily because Ryan Gosling proves he can have chemistry with the unlikeliest of costars, even a rock.

Weekend Mullings - undertone

I have a feeling the new horror movie undertone may become a victim of its own pre-release hype. Any time a horror movie gets hyped up as the "scariest movie in years," it's bound to disappoint people. But that doesn't mean the movie is bad, it just means its marketing is.

And OK yeah, I am sure there are some people who are utterly terrified by slow camera pans to the left that reveal...nothing. I am not. But I am impressed when seeing, or more accurately, hearing things I've never heard in a horror movie before, and undertone is ultimately an aural horror movie experience. (If you're going to see it in a theater, see it in a Dolby theater. And if you're going to watch it at home, wear headphones.)

Storywise it centers on Evy (Nina Kiri) the co-host of the paranormal podcast The Undertone, in which she is essentially the Scully to her co-host Justin's Mulder. (He's played by Adam DiMarco, but is never seen.) Justin lives in London, while Evy is living back in her childhood home in the States, caring for her dying mother (Michèle Duquet). That home (which is the director Ian Tuason's actual childhood home) is filled with Catholic art and knickknacks, which are creepy enough during normal hours, but take on an even creepier tone at 3am, the hour Evy records the podcast, to better align with her co-host's working hours.

The episode Evy and Justin are recording focuses on a series of recordings Justin received in which a man essentially starts recording his partner so they can try and figure out what she has been saying when she talks in her sleep. Of course, what he ends up recording is much more than that. 

If it sounds like this movie is essentially just watching a woman listen to spooky recordings, you wouldn't be wrong. What makes it hit or miss is if you find those recordings spooky and compelling yourself. I felt the film did an excellent job of building up extreme tension purely through the use of sound and visual suggestion. But a buildup without a satisfying payoff can be damned disappointing, and that's how I felt coming out of undertone; to put it bluntly, it whiffs its ending. Not bad enough to negate the entire film, but enough to suggest you tamper the expectations set up by the film's marketing,

Weekend Mullings - The Bride | Hoppers

Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride! is one of the most disappointing movies I've ever seen, primarily because the concept, a bride of Frankenstein story set in 1930's Chicago, just seems tailor made to my interests. Unfortunately the end result is much more than that, and that's its biggest problem.

To start, Mary Shelley opens the film as a kind of narrator. Shot close up and in black and white, Mary is very angry. She's upset she was never able to write the story she wanted to tell, and sees that now is her chance. It's not entirely clear if the story she's telling is the movie we're watching, or if she's in fact possessing Ida, a gangster's moll in 1936 Chicago. Perhaps it's both, because both Ida and Mary are played by Jessie Buckley.

Ida is murdered and quickly dug up by Frankenstein (Christian Bale) - who identifies as Frankenstein, and not Frankenstein's monster, because, as he tells it, Frankenstein was his father's name. He's been wandering the world for over 100 years, and wants "an intercourse." Luckily local mad scientist Dr. Euphronious (Annette Benning) has the skills and lab necessary to fulfill just such a request.

And thus the "motherfucking Bride of Frankenstein!," to quote the ghost of Mary, is born, with a shock of platinum hair and a permanent black pout that bleeds into a splash across her cheek - the result of vomiting up whatever the concoction it is that has reanimated her.

From there the movie goes in many directions. Too many directions. Ida, who is soon re-christened Penelope, and "Frank," become outlaw lovers on the run, wanted for murder - some of it justified. They are pursued by both the mob, and a pair of detectives played by Peter Sarsgaard and Penelope Cruz. They hide out in more than one movie theater, watching Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal), Frank's favorite matinee idol, sing and dance on screen. They crash a party that turns into an elaborate musical number. They take to the rails. They steal a car. They have the kind of sex you'd expect two reanimated corpses to have. (Scars and fluids - not the usual kind - are involved.)

Granted, all of this sounds like it could be fun. But there is too much of it, and none of it ever meshes together. Scenes are repeated, and then go on too long. Buckley resorts to guttural screaming too often, and Bale, who has never passed up an opportunity to mumble through a role, mumbles like hell through this one. 

But perhaps its biggest sin is just how didactic and heavy handed Gyllenhaal's screenplay is. It's a story about women's autonomy, consent, and sexual violence, and she's going to make damn sure you don't forget it. And sure, perhaps subtlety isn't something you should expect from a movie featuring monsters boning. But there's got to be a more artful way to convey your message than to have the Bride actually scream "Me toooooo!!!!!!!" more than once.

 

Hoppers, Pixar's 30th film, may not hit the emotional punches of some of the studio's earlier classics, but neither have a lot of their recent offerings. It almost feels like with this film, they decided to not even try to wrench those ugly tears, and instead just focused on laughs. In that, they succeed.

Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda) is a 19-year-old college student and impassioned environmentalist and animal lover determined to save her beloved local forest glade from destruction due to the freeway the mayor (Jon Hamm) is intent on building. Canvasing for signatures proves fruitless, so when she discovers her college professor (Kathy Najimy) has developed a technology that allows humans to "hop" into lifelike animal robots, Mabel "hops" into a beaver and ventures into the forest in an attempt to convince the animals to return, en mass, to the glade they've been driven out of.

If Hoppers sounds like Avatar but with animals, you'd be right, and the movie even gets meta with that comparison when Mabel brings it up to the professor, who vehemently denies her experiment is anything like Avatar all. Of course cute talking animals are a staple of animated films, but some of the film's biggest laughs come from the communication gap between the animals and some of the humans they encounter. While Mabel is in robotic form, she can communicate with animals. But neither she, nor the animals, can communicate with humans, and hence you have what may become even more meme-able moments involving iPhones, Siri, and emojis.

Listen, I am a sucker for cute animals of any kind, and slapstick humor always makes me laugh, and Hoppers is filled with both. I still can't get over Meryl Streep's cameo as an insect queen who has one of the most memorable exists every given a character in a Pixar film. That audacious moment alone makes the film worth seeing.