Weekend Screen Scene: Mogul Mowgli, We Need To Do Something, Cinderella

Riz Ahmed stars as a musician who must face an uncertain future when diagnosed with a debilitating illness. No, I'm not talking about last year's Sound of Metal. This time, Ahmed is a rapper, not a drummer, and the illness is an autoimmune disease and not deafness. (If he's not careful, he may find himself typecast.)

Mogul Mowgli is a smaller movie than last year's Sound of Metal, literally--it's filmed in the classic square academy ratio--but it's also a bigger one, addressing issues of immigrant identity and legacy. Ahmed plays Zed, a London native of Pakistani decent, who is just hitting it big with a hip hop career, landing an opening gig on a major tour. When illness hits, he's forced to rely on the help of his parents, who can barely comprehend his life and career choices.

Riz Ahmed received an Oscar nomination for Sound of Metal, but his performance here is even more impressive, perhaps because it hardly feels like a performance at all. Having a long second career in hip hop, Ahmed wrote all of his rhymes in the film and is a natural during the performance scenes; I wish there were more of them. Director Bassam Tariq likes to delve into fantastic and surreal realms at times, but the film succeeds most when it's grounded in reality.

Mogul Mowgli is currently playing in select theaters.

A family takes shelter in their home bathroom during a violent storm, and soon find themselves dealing with things much scarier than high winds in the claustrophobic horror movie We Need To Do Something. 

This is a family you would not want to be stuck in an elevator with for ten minutes (Pat Healy adds World's Worst Dad to his growing resume of horrible characters), so watching them suffer through days of entrapment is a bit of a slog, and what they must deal with gets repetitive, building up to an ending that, while effective, probably would have more impact in a short film, or in an episode of a horror anthology.

I will say this though, that bathroom is fabulous.

We Need To Do Something is currently playing in select theaters and is available to rent online.

Do we really need another version of Cinderella? Much less a jukebox musical version? I mean, didn't we just get a Disney reboot a few years ago?

No, we don't need another Cinderella, but at least this one attempts to modernize the more eye-rolling aspects of its classically thin story, giving Cinderella some goals bigger than getting married so she can get out of her stepmother's basement. It's also got a pretty good cast, including Idina Menzel as the stepmother, Billy Porter as the fairy godparent, and James Corden as a mouse-turned-footman. Camila Cabello is also suitably spunky as the heroine. 

But despite laughing a few times (Maddie Baillio and Charlotte Spencer as the stepsisters are probably the best things in the film), I couldn't get past the film's disjointed blend of modern (the majority of the songs in this jukebox musical are pop classics like Rhythm Nation and Material Girl), and classical (the story still takes place in some mythical "long ago" time). Also, the costumes are wretched, especially Cinderella's ballgown, which is probably the most disappointing wardrobe reveal since Molly Ringwald showed up to the prom in a butchered vintage dress in Pretty in Pink.

Cinderella is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

Weekend Screen Scene: Vacation Friends, Together, and Ma Belle, My Beauty

Marcus (Lil Rel Howery) and Emily (Yvonne Orj) travel to a Mexican resort for a romantic holiday and find it both ruined and saved by hedonistic couple Ron (John Cena) and Kyla (Meredith Hagner) in Vacation Friends.

It's a little weird watching this a couple of weeks after the finale of HBO's The White Lotus; I kept expecting Armond to pop up promising to make everything better. But Vacation Friends is much more of a straight up comedy, or at least tries to be, and it only partially succeeds, usually because of Cena and Howery,

It's also a little weird to watch two white people cause so much strife and destruction within the lives of a black couple, and yet never hear race brought up even once. But maybe we've reached a point where it doesn't need to be commented on, because of course it's a couple of white people who almost ruin the lives of a couple of black people.

Vacation Friends is now streaming on Hulu.

For almost a century the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic was forgotten history, as if the entire world preferred to forget it had ever happened, once the dying stopped. But entertainment centered on the Covid-19 pandemic seemingly started to pop up the moment we all entered lockdown, and as a result, a lot of it felt forced and unsatisfying; ultimately, just...too soon.

Together has the benefit of a little more time. Spanning a year of lockdown in London from March 2020 to March 2021, this chamber drama about a bickering couple stuck home together consistently breaks the fourth wall allowing stars James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan to speak directly to the audience, resulting in some staginess that may be off-putting to some. (I found it perfectly fitting after a year when so many of us have spent hours watching loved ones on screens talk to us.)

At first it feels very similar to Horgan's (excellent) Amazon series Catastrophe, which also dealt with a couple who seemed to hate each other more than they loved each other, but Together delves into much more serious terrain, and Horgan proves herself to be as fine a dramatic actress as she is a comedian; she's the primary reason the movie works at all.

This latest bit of Covid-centered entertainment may also feel too soon to some. But for me there was comfort to be had in seeing a well acted drama reflect and comment on the all too common pains and frustrations this past year (and counting) has brought.

 Together is playing in select theaters.

I originally screened Ma Belle, My Beauty as part of San Francisco's Frameline festival, where I found it a tad slight, but ultimately charming. If the love triangle between New Orleans jazz singer Bertie (Idella Johnson) who has married French musician Fred (Lucien Guignard) after the end of their polyamorous relationship with Lane (Hannah Pepper) isn't exactly riveting, there's enough lush French countryside, beautiful people, and jazzy musical performances to keep you watching.

Ma Belle, My Beauty is playing in select theaters.

'The Tomorrow War': Live For Today

Quick: Who's the boring one?

If you aren't an Amazon Prime subscriber and can't watch The Tomorrow War, don't worry that you're missing much; you've likely seen something very similar--and better--before. It's Terminator, but with thousands of Sarah Connors. It's Aliens, but on Earth. It's The Thing, without the body snatching paranoia. It's Starship Troopers, without the satire. And that's just naming half of the films it "borrows" from. That said, it's ripping off from the best, and because of that it can't help but be, some of the time, exciting and entertaining. It's just that the most of the time, it's also really, really dumb.

It's set on a fictional Earth that learns humanity is doomed to die off completely in 50 years, unless soldiers - and eventually, civilians - travel in time to that future to help kill the alien hoards that are ravaging the planet. I say a "fictional Earth" because it presumes our present planet would be willing to sacrifice anything, let alone its own lives, to save the future. (Though I suppose it is kind of believable since it involves massive firearms and not, like, sacrificing personal luxuries to help fight the looming disasters of climate change.)

Chris Pratt, who's entire appeal seems to be centered on his ability to be earnest, funny, and ripped, is definitely that first thing through the majority of the film, and he gets to show off that third thing early on. But he's very rarely that second thing, making for a surprisingly dull hero. His Dan Forester, an Iraq War veteran who's stuck being a biology teacher when hopes for a prestigious researcher job fall through, has no distinctive personality aside from Devoted Husband and Loving Father, and that makes certain revelations about his future self less surprising than completely inexplicable.

His relative void as a character does allow some of the supporting players to shine though. I was pleasantly surprised to see Mary Lynn Rajskub pop up as a terrified but formidable civilian draftee. J.K. Simmons is a sight as Dan's grizzled, estranged father. And just a week ago, after seeing Werewolves Within, I was wishing Sam Richardson would get cast as the lead in more movies; there's no doubt The Tomorrow War would be a more entertaining movie with his nervous talking Georgie Tech professor leading the troops.

Still, The Tomorrow War is not without its moments. The aliens, dubbed "White Spikes" because of their ghostly pallor and natural defenses, have the same look that all aliens/monsters seem to have these days (Hollywood loves a three-flapped mouth filled with teeth), but the fights against them are at times genuinely thrilling. Screenwriter Zach Dean also does some interesting things with the time travel conceit, especially around the notion of how to draft an expendable army, but, like most time travel stories, there are also some huge plot holes that are never satisfactorily filled. Amazon Prime subscribers could do worse on a Friday night at home. But The Tomorrow War is not worth filling Jeff Bezo's pockets with more money if you aren't already doing so.

Don't Be 'Cruella'

Dalmatians? Never heard of such a thing.

When the trailer for Cruella came out last year, the majority response seemed to be, "Do we really need yet another villain origin story, much less one that looks like Joker but with dresses?" That reaction was partly right. No, we don't need a Cruella de Vil origin story, but the one they've given us is not a nihilistic Joker-in a dress fable. Instead, it's a fun, fashion fueled fantasy that is ultimately weighed down by its connection to the Disney franchise.

Like many an origin story, it begins in school days, with a young raven-and-platinum-haired Estella (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland) ostracized by her classmates and her teachers. She doesn't take any of it laying down, releasing the inner fighter she dubs "Cruella" whenever she feels threatened or rebellious.

When tragedy strikes, Estella ends up alone on the streets of London, but quickly finds two literal partners in crime in Jasper and Horace, two ragamuffin brothers, and they grow up to be thick as thieves. Frankly, I was glad to see the childhood stuff end pretty quickly, as the parts with the now grown Estella (Emma Thompson) and Jasper and Horace (Joel Fry and Paul Walter Hauser) running scams and picking pockets on the streets of early 1970's London are pretty fun to watch.

Estella's dream is to be a fashion designer, which firmly sets this up as a prequel to the 1996 live action 101 Dalmatians starring Glenn Close as Cruella, and not the animated version released in 1961. Cruella's eventual obsession with dalmatian puppy pelts is given some explanation as well (although that explanation is so ridiculous I howled with laughter when it was revealed). 

Cruella's designing dreams put her in the path of the Baroness von Hellman (Emma Thompson), London's haute couture legend, who recognizes some talent in Estella, whom she initially dubs "Grubby Girl," and hires her for her fashion house.

What follows is closer to The Devil Wears Prada than 101 Dalmatians (in fact Prada and Cruella share a screenwriter), and that ultimtely got me wishing the whole film could have instead been a kind of hyper, Velvet Goldmine-type fantasized version of the Vivienne Westwood story (who is very clearly the inspiration behind Cruella's punk style), and not the story of a villain we're supposed to love but who we all know eventually grows up to be a PUPPY MURDERER.

The heart of the film, in which the Baroness and Cruella engage in fashion-based battles and one-upmanship, is a complete delight. Along with Jasper and Horance, Cruella's crew includes a one eyed chihuahua named Wink, and Artie (John McCrea), the flamboyantly glam rock owner of a vintage clothing shop. Emma Thompson clearly relishes her villainous role, while also underplaying it in unexpected ways. She's a boss from hell in every sense of the term, but manages to be utterly horrible without a bit of screaming. Also: her turban game is on point.

Emma Stone plays Cruella like a superhero who is discovering her dominion is the power of a show-stopping entrance. Her "rubbish gown" alone should garner costume designer Jenny Beaven an Oscar, though really the film is filled with more costume eye candy than can be caught in one viewing. All of the colorful visuals are backed by a killer soundtrack that, yes, includes some of the expected sounds of the era (the Stones; the Clash; Bowie), but I have to applaud the inclusion of Ike and Tina Turner's covers of Whole Lotta Love and Come Together. Truly inspired.

With a running time of 134 minutes Cruella is definitely too long, and is almost begging for an alternative cut that eliminates the majority of the franchise tie-ins, leaving behind a story of a punk rock princess who beats an evil queen, and lives happily ever after in her own fashion empire, with a couple of cute black and white dogs she has absolutely no desire to murder.

Cruella is available to stream on Disney+.

'The Djinn' Is A Horror Tonic

I'll skip that bedtime story tonight, thanks

Horror movies have a lot in common with fairy tales. In some of the best of both you will find storytelling conventions centered on morality, and how horrible things can happen to even those who set out with the best of intentions. And of course, some of the most popular fairy tales in their original forms are also the most horrifying.

At its heart, The Djinn is a fairy tale about a boy who makes a wish, and suffers the consequences. Watching it brought to mind such 1970's and '80's horror classics as Trilogy of Terror, The Evil Dead, Phantasm, and Poltergeist. Its late 1980's setting (which seems primarily picked so as to avoid the modern advantages that cell phones and computers would lend to the story) certainly has a lot to do with that, as does its synthy score. 

But I could also see the influence classic horror had on the writing and directing team of David Charbonier and Justin Powell, who insert plot elements centered on incantations read from a mysterious book (horror movie lesson number one: don't ever do that), and being trapped in a house with malevolent creatures that can sometimes look very human (horror movie lesson number two: they never are, so don't be fooled). 

The Djinn wouldn't work as well as it does without Ezra Dewey as Dylan, the kid at the center of the story. Dylan is recovering from several losses, including the loss of his own speaking voice. When he finds a mysterious book in the closet of his new house, a book that includes a spell that will make a wish come true, he knows just what to wish for.

Dewey is a captivating young actor and he handles being in every moment of the movie with the skill of a veteran. In fact, he's so compelling, it becomes a little tough to watch him suffer through some of the trauma he's put through in the course of the story. If I have any complaint about the movie, it's that Dylan's night of horror goes on just a tad too long. When horror wallows in the pain of its moralistic lessons, it can branch off into the realm of torture porn. Thankfully, The Djinn ultimately does show some restraint, landing back in the realm of fairy tales, though probably not the kind you'd want to tell your kid at bedtime.

The Djinn is now showing in select theaters, and can also be rented on most VOD platforms