Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

THE WOMAN KING (2022)

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THE WOMAN KING (2022) was a delightful surprise for me. While following many script conventions, it didn’t pander on them, focusing on character, empowerment, and heart in a story that delivers action while being packed with integrity.

In the West African kingdom of Dahomey in 1823 (located in what is now Benin), Nawi (Thuso Mbedu) is dragged to the palace by her father and given to the king, as her independent nature made her a poor match for the men courting her. There, she is inducted into the Agojie, an all-female element of the king’s army now preparing for war against the neighboring Oyo Empire, which has been supplied weapons and horses by Portuguese and other slavers. Dahomey has a religion of a male god and a female god, creating a religious precedent for female warriors and at times a female co-king. Nawi discovers what she’s made of in training and in her new relationships with comrades and the commander, General Nanisca (the remarkable Viola Davis). War and the romantic interest of a Portuguese man will put her to the ultimate test, while General Nanisca will have to face her past to become the great leader she is destined to be.

Historically, it’s roughly accurate, as there was an Agojie in the Kingdom of Dahomey, but the Dahomey in the movie is portrayed as rejecting slavery, when in reality they’d become rich on the slave trade and were only forced to stop by the British. I didn’t have a problem with this any more than I had a problem with BRAVEHEART basically inventing Scottish history out of whole cloth. This is clearly an historical epic with a modern sensibility, which is common with movies like these.

I’d mentioned before that the movie otherwise packs a lot of integrity, and I’d like to explain that. Viewers will recognize many conventions of coming-of-age and historical adventure stories, but nothing is annoyingly contrived, and everything rolls out fairly realistically and true to character. The characters are terrific and while many of the character types and travails will feel familiar, they are far more than one note, and the major characters are well developed. This high level of integrity also goes for the film’s themes, as there’s a strong and obvious emphasis on female empowerment, and it’s handled perfectly. Me, I have no problem with a feminist message and in fact applaud it, but as a viewer I want to be shown instead of repeatedly told what to think to cover up for bad scriptwriting. THE WOMAN KING shows us and then trusts us to think for ourselves, which is, in fact, empowering in itself.

Then there’s the action, which is just incredible. A problem with some female (and male too) ass-kickers in action movies is the fight scenes often look highly choreographed with bumbling idiots stumbling into perfect kicks. In THE WOMAN KING, every Agojie even at a glance looks like she will stomp you, and when they’re unleashed in combat, it’s absolutely maniacal while also being believable, as the bad guys look like they’re trying their best. The movie handles that aspect perfectly. And then things all come together for a pretty touching finale that stays focused on the core characters and relationships without anything else forced in to try to satisfy or surprise us.

Overall, THE WOMAN KING is just a terrific, fun, disciplined film with plenty of action and heart. I recommend it.

VESPER (2022)

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In VESPER, civilization has collapsed due to environmental catastrophe, resulting in humans struggling to survive in a world filled with parasitic and poisonous flora. Despite the plotting being stretched to the breaking point, it’s a remarkable film for its fantastic world building and strong characters. I liked this one quite a bit.

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of an apocalypse caused by a radical ecological transformation resulting in humans no longer being at the top of the food chain. In VESPER, humanity resorted to using genetically engineered organisms in an attempt to save itself from climate disaster. Unfortunately, the organisms ran amok and displaced most of the flora while consuming all of the animals and most of the humans. In this depopulated world overrun with monstrous plants and insects, most of the survivors eke out a living in small communities, while a lucky privileged few live in advanced communities called Citadels, where they started genetically engineered themselves to live forever. Each year, the Citadels sell seeds to the people outside, which enables them to grow enough food to survive, but the seeds expire at the end of the growing season, keeping them dependent and selling their blood that is used for life extension.

It’s an utterly ruthless world where everything uses or outright consumes everything else, a status quo that seems impossible to change. That doesn’t stop 13-year-old Vesper from imagining something better. Though a child, she forages for food, pulls together power to keep a machine running that in turn keeps her father alive, craves the love of her missing mother, and does her own genetic engineering projects. When a mysterious stranger arrives, she believes she can get a better life. But the place the stranger came from and the local chief will fight her.

The trailer suggested the story would be about a journey, but that’s only a small part of it. Most of VESPER deals with the girl fighting to keep her hope alive, in particular against the local chief, who makes a fantastic villain. He doesn’t want things to change, as in the status quo, he is in control of the world as he understands it. He is what she will become if she surrenders hope that things can change for the better, which makes him such a great antagonist. He’s monstrous, but he came by it honestly, informed by a rational worldview.

The last act kind of breaks down in how far it made sense to me, but the ending is pretty clear in its intentions, and by then, I’d gotten so hooked on this fascinating, exotic, and harsh world that I was good with it. Overall, I liked this one a ton. It’s imaginative, affecting, and for its budget, it created an extraordinary world that felt both bizarre and real, lived in by characters who are the product of it and must make their way within its rules.

SKINAMARINK (2022)

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In SKINAMARINK, a young boy and girl wake up in the middle of the night to discover their father is missing and the house is changing. Written and directed by Kyle Edward Ball, the film relies on a highly distinct style to achieve its atmosphere of dread. I appreciated the concept and ambition far more than the overall result.

The year, we’re told, is 1995, and four-year-old Kevin fell down the stairs and hurt his head. His older sister Kaylee tells Dad that he was sleepwalking. The kids wake up again later to discover Dad is missing, and the windows and doors are disappearing. Something is in the house, and it is changing everything.

Shot at Ball’s childhood house in Edmonton, Alberta, the movie makes style choices that immediately set it apart from pretty much any other movie I’ve seen. The camera footage is grainy, usually only people’s feet are in frame, there are long shots of ceilings and inanimate objects, and sometimes the audio, often garbled and unintelligible, is subtitled and sometimes it isn’t. There is a narrative, but it’s sparse, with tiny bits of plot appearing like islands in a sea of mood and tension. Though the film clearly isn’t found footage, it has that voyeuristic, maybe-it’s-real feel to it. The overall effect is like being in a childhood nightmare.

At my house, I had a rule with my kids, which was when it came to new foods, you don’t have to eat it but you have to try it. I would recommend you do the same with SKINAMARINK, as I believe it’s the kind of thing you love or don’t but have to agree is remarkable for its ambition and style. Overall, it simply didn’t work for me. It was too hard for me to figure out what was going on without making me care enough to invest, the long sequences between morsels of plot tapped out my patience, and most critically, as a result, I sympathized with the children but didn’t empathize. In the end, I watched the film with my head but not my gut and heart. SKINAMARINK is a feeling more than anything else, and I didn’t have it.

But again, try it, you might like it. It’s certainly unique, and I can imagine if it does grab you, it’ll be quite an experience.

WHITE LOTUS, Season 1

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Jonesing for something to watch, I finally decided to give THE WHITE LOTUS a try. It didn’t seem like my thing, but I’d heard a lot of good things about it, so why not. I liked it, finding it an interesting drama about power–who has it, who doesn’t, and what that means–which gave it some nice darker overtones. That and the fact it starts with a dead body.

Welcome to the White Lotus, an upscale hotel in Hawaii built on lands taken from native Hawaiians, where they now work catering to predominantly rich whites coming from the mainland. At the hotel, we have Armond (the manager), Belinda (the spa manager), and various workers. On the guest side, we have a family complete with spoiled teens, midlife crisis dad, and workaholic mom; a needy, fragile woman come to dispose of her mother’s ashes; and a couple on their honeymoon. We follow them on their respective vacation experiences.

The show plays out like an episode of the old TV show FANTASY ISLAND stretched out over six hour-long episodes. A group of people show up wanting something, only to leave with what they need. Honestly, almost none of them are very likable, and we see many of them affected in some way by exploitation or a power dynamic from which they’re abused or the abuser, even if the person they’re battling is dead, a dangerous version of themselves, or some off-screen group. They all get what they need but not what they deserve, some of them having left considerable damage in their wake, particularly anyone who tried to change the present power dynamic to their advantage.

As for the acting, it has a terrific cast that includes Alexandra Daddario, Steve Zahn, and more, with Murray Bartlett, who plays Armond, really impressing me; the guy chewed every scene he was in. Another thing I’d like to point out about the show is the directing. It’s a beautiful show. The hotel setting, landscape, and music were all quite beautiful, which along with the darker tone and human ugliness elevated what was again a stretched-out FANTASY ISLAND.

Overall, I didn’t fall in love, but it was fun enough and I liked it–a good turn-off-the-brain kind of show–enough to start the second season.

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (2022)

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Part horror movie and part war movie, the first German adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s best-selling novel, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, is a devastating portrait of warfare in the Great War, in the process making a definitive antiwar statement.

The movie begins with an incredible sequence showing how the war has become a meat grinder, endlessly cycling young men through it. Back home, Paul, a student, hears the strident call to defend the fatherland from annihilation and eagerly signs up along with his friends. Soon, their romantic ideals about the war are shattered as they are forced to fight in muddy, rat-infested trenches and endless seesawing battles that employed new horrific weapons including tanks, howitzers, flamethrowers, and machine guns. As the war winds down, so does Paul’s circle, and we see him going from fighting to win to merely survive and then finally because there is nothing else, a hollowed-out man who lost faith he is ever going home.

The battle sequences are just incredible in this, more horror than war film. You can feel the hopeless resignation even before the whistles blow to charge, and then when things get going, it’s one horror after another until men are slashing each other hand to hand with trenching tools, showing a war in which industrialization stripped away the last vestiges of humanity in it, while also making it incredibly intimate–men killing each other looking into their eyes, feeling horror and remorse while they do it. This a war movie where the gore isn’t horrifying, it’s the meaning invested in it. How pointless it all was.

As an anti-war statement, it’s all here. The old goading the young into battle with romantic notions, the young losing their innocence in horror. The hubris of commanders who fail to see the soldiers as men but instead chess pieces exchanged for a final bit of national honor. The national humiliation at the end that some historians believe seeded the next war. The breakdown of hope and humanity to a level where the soldiers don’t feel like they will ever get home or will know how to go on living with themselves even if they do.

Overall, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT is a distinct, powerful, and utterly savage movie providing a fresh reminder that war is hell.

NOPE (2022)

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Jordan Peele’s latest horror film, NOPE (2022), tells a UFO story in a clever and engaging mashup of sci-fi, horror, and Western tropes. I’ve really grown to admire Peele’s contributions to the horror genre. The man has something to say, and he always explores new territory.

In this film, OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister Em (Keke Palmer) struggle to maintain their father’s ranch and business training and handling horses for film and TV productions. They make quite a pair, as OJ is taciturn and introverted while Em is flamboyant and outgoing. When they see signs of a strange flying object in the area, Em hatches a plan to capture it on film and make a financial killing. While this is going on, Jupe Park (the always delightful Steven Yeun), who grew up a child actor and was a survivor of a tragedy in which an ape goes on a rampage on set, going on to set up his own Wild West entertainment center, seems to know something about it. The object, however, is hungry and hunting, and it isn’t something to be trifled with.

What I liked: the general weirdness with odd touches of humor throughout, the ape losing it during a TV shoot, the landscapes at the ranch, and the fun characters, who when confronted by threat often say “nope” and go in the opposite direction. I liked seeing Keith David and Michael Winscott again, doing what they do best. The characters are all pretty likable, and there is a nice dynamic between OJ and Em. The climax is compelling. Immediately, you get the sense this is a Jordan Peele production, not your average horror film, and as usual he presents his material that is economical about taking itself seriously.

That being said, I felt like I would have cared a whole lot more about what happened and who it happened to if Jupe had been the main character. His backstory of the TV show that ended in tragedy is really compelling and offered a great deal of depth to a character who doesn’t have much of a role to play in this movie. Of all the characters, he had the closest thing to a character arc, only it went unfinished, and the main protagonists, who again are likable enough, don’t really have a character arc at all. If the story had been told from his point of view, I think NOPE would have been truly great.

Overall, I liked NOPE one as a polished horror film that offered something new to the genre and was a lot of fun to watch.