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.

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.

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH (2021)

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In JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH (20210), we are taken inside the Black Panther Party during its struggle with Chicago police and Hoover’s FBI, focusing on the betrayal of Illinois chapter leader Fred Hampton by FBI informant William O’Neal. The film offers solid drama and a powerful political history that remains relevant today. It’s awesome.

It’s 1968, and FBI director Herbert Hoover has essentially declared war on the Black Panther Party, fearing the rise of a “Black messiah” who could unite the communist, New Left, and antiwar movements. One man he specifically fears: Fred Hampton, the charismatic chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers. Hoover’s answer: his counterintelligence program, or COINTELPRO, which for years actively targeted various political groups with informants, provocateurs, trumped-up jail time, and possibly even targeted assassinations.

Enter William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield), a car thief given a choice of jail or informing by Agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons). O’Neil joins the local Black Panther Party and rises to become one of Hampton’s (Daniel Kaluuya) closest associates. Through his eyes, we see Hampton’s personal life, politics, and more. As the police apparatus shifts from surveillance to actively breaking the law and framing Black Panther leaders, O’Neal becomes increasingly torn and fearful about exactly what he’s doing and what it’s costing him.

The Black Panther Party formed in California in response to de facto segregation and police brutality. Citing open carry laws, they began arming themselves and shadowing police officers and otherwise patrolling neighborhoods. In response, the State of California and then Governor Ronald Reagan passed legislation to make open carry illegal, with support of the NRA. When Black Panthers showed up in Sacramento during debate on the bill with weapons to make a point, many people were amazed at their audacity, and a national then international movement was born. From the beginning, the Black Panthers held to a 10-point manifesto. They wanted economic opportunity, decent housing, education, jobs, freedom, a jury by their peers, the release of prisoners, exemption from the draft, and justice. They started child nutrition and other welfare programs in their communities. Their look–black leather jackets, sunglasses, berets, and a gun–influenced fashion, became a Black Power symbol, and helped drive the “Black is beautiful” movement. Despite the male urban guerilla image, the majority of members were women.

Fueled by terrific acting, direction, and incendiary history and politics, JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH is a powerful film. Overall, the story it tells feels hopeful. Hopeful in the energy and devotion Hampton gives to his ideals and what those ideals ultimately stand for, which are arguably things any American would support, though one may argue about methods and whether “revolution” as he saw it or gradual reform was the way to get it done. Overall, the story also feels very dark, as we see Roy Mitchell, who seems like a standup FBI agent, increasingly go along with the FBI’s police state methods to keep the Black race in its place. And we see O’Neal, who believes Hampton is a good man and starts to believe in the cause, always chooses himself over a higher ideal. In the end, the Black Panthers lose, and the ideals they fight for seem very far out of reach.

I loved JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH. It portrays the Black Panthers not as they are typically shown–as loud, radical, and over the top extremists–but as a real people with a cause that is entirely sympathetic, and ideals that remain absolutely relevant today.

THE GREAT, Season 1 (2020)

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Looking at the trailer, my first impression of THE GREAT, an Amazon Prime series that reimagines the rise of Catherine the Great who deposed her husband and ruled Russia in the 1700s, was it was frivolous fluff that culturally over-modernized history to make it cute and leaned too hard into a social message I basically agree with but didn’t need hitting my head like a hammer. I was very happy to be utterly wrong. It’s damned good.

In the first season, Catherine (Elle Fanning, who grew on me just as the show ended up doing until I admired both) is a maid living in Germany and is excited about her coming betrothal to Peter, Emperor of Russia (played with a weird mix of savage comedy and just enough sympathy by Nicholas Hoult). Arriving at the Russian court, she receives one shock after another as her naive fantasies about being an empress are shattered. Peter is a childish, spoiled buffoon; out of fear, his court is filled with fawning sycophants routinely engaging in depravity out of boredom; and Russia itself is a giant slave state oppressed by the aristocracy and the orthodox church.

Over the course of the season, Catherine hopes she can inspire reforms, only to be regularly frustrated, even as Peter grains a grudging respect for her beyond her being merely a vessel for his heirs. So she begins a plot to depose her husband and take his throne for herself.

The result is fairly light, compressed, even frivolous, a strong first impression that lasts. It could have gone all the way with that and served up a titillating (horny) court drama blending history with contemporary culture for laughs while hammering a feminist message. Instead, THE GREAT’s creators put the work in to make something that is witty, funny, charming, and engaging, a story whose overall message works because the viewer discovers it for themselves. The characters are terrifically drawn and complex, even though they could as easily have been phoned in as caricatures. The show is surprisingly meaty, an exception to my usual binge watching as each episode felt complete, like I’d watched a movie. The pacing is solid, the sets beautiful, and there’s just enough real history to keep it more or less honest in a meta sense. As I watched the first season, delightful surprise turned to grudging respect for the writers and directors and finally to outright admiration. By the end, I was a fan.

Overall, THE GREAT is not particularly demanding, but it is a lot of fun, a rare entertainment that feels light while delivering something far weightier and solid.

TATTOO ZOO by Paul Avallone

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Written by Paul Avallone, a veteran who spent more than three years in the Afghanistan War as a Green Beret and then as a civilian embedded journalist, TATTOO ZOO is one of the best if not the best war novel of the War on Terror era.

The novel begins with the Tattoo Zoo, a regular infantry platoon assigned to a combat outpost in a remote valley in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border, traveling in their gun trucks to a village in the Wajma Valley. Their mission is to escort two civilian contractors–a bright, lovable young woman and a sarcastic, experienced former Marine–who will interview the locals. As this is a counter-insurgency war for hearts and minds, these interviews produce intelligence about the battle space’s “human terrain”–the complex culture and tribal relationships that comprise local politics in Afghanistan.

When tragedy strikes, the Zoo finds itself accused of a horrific war crime and then in an even worse situation, trapped by circumstance by an experienced, numerically superior enemy force that is hell bent on their destruction. Can they win, or more to the point, will any of them survive what’s coming?

That’s pretty much the plot, though it hardly scratches the surface of this very long–no, don’t think long, think big–war novel. The first thing that drew me in was the voice, which is wry and playful but doesn’t pat itself on the back. From there, it just builds. We get to know a large cast of characters with some depth, showing the humanity of soldiers, and revealing the motivations and thought process of everybody from grunts in combat to the officers and NCOs who lead them to helo pilots defying orders to help people they don’t even know to the top brass trying to control the story. Not every character is likeable, but they all get their say, they’re all believable, and they all influence the story in some way like pieces that add up to a single chain of events that is really a mosaic of people and small events and decisions. I particularly enjoyed the way the soldiers aren’t cookie cutter heroes or victims or earnest hooah types but real people, some who fit the mold and some who don’t. Over time, Avallone leans on the humanity of his characters, offering a solid story that slowly reveals far more literary aspirations.

As a man who served in Afghanistan, the author has a point of view, though it’s not forced on the reader. Instead, he shows the folly of military counter-insurgency policy by offering up a worst-case scenario in which these policies are used against the Americans along with other tradeoffs. The enemy in this book knows what it’s doing, and it recognizes the battle space includes the American media and high command. Despite this point of view, Avallone gives the other side its full say about why these policies are in place. As a civilian, it made me wonder how the war could be won, with the military simultaneously being tasked with fighting an insurgency but with severe restraint to avoid civilian casualties, putting the soldiers at additional risk and with casualties being inevitable anyway in war, casualties that then prolonged the insurgency. Another theme I found engaging was the conflict between getting ahead in the military and doing the right thing.

Then there’s the action, which was riveting. I felt like I was watching OUTPOST, one of my favorite war movies, again. Avallone’s writing ensures you really care if these guys are going to survive this, and nobody is safe. As the siege wears on, there’s a lot of great shifts in the balance of power and use of tactics to push every edge. As a thriller alone, it’s topnotch stuff, though again it’s far more than that. Another thing I loved was you occasionally see a trope common in war films, like a dying comrade, but Avallone reinvents it by making it real, making it truly matter, and making you feel it.

In the end, yeah, I loved TATTOO ZOO. It really put me as a civilian into the boots of a soldier on the ground in the Forever War, it’s riveting as a thriller, and it goes much further to present a highly nuanced perspective on the war that respects its readers as adults. Highly recommended.

THE NORTHMAN (2022)

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Holy cow. That’s it, that’s the review. Okay, there’s more to say, but that’s the gist. We need more films like this.

Directed and co-written by Robert Eggers (THE WITCH, THE LIGHTHOUSE), THE NORTHMAN (2022) is an historical epic roughly based on the Scandinavian legend of Amleth, which would go on to inspire Shakespeare to write HAMLET, one of his best known plays. In this story–the basics of which are spelled out neatly in the trailer–a young prince’s father is murdered, the usurper takes his mother as a wife, the prince positions himself for revenge, and then he fights to take it. Along the way, Amleth learns the truth of his childhood and discovers the potential of love after a life built on hatred.

This is a beautifully rendered film steeped in the violence of its era, but with just enough fantasy to make it feel mythic and just enough subversion and modern sensibility to make it relatable to a contemporary audience. Amleth’s life as a viking is hardly sanitized. The vikings made a living through slaughter and theft, and none of it is romanticized other than the rules of honor and familial obligation taught to a young man, which would define his life. The storytelling is plot driven, which is fine as it emphasizes its mythic nature and as the major characters are something of archetypes. The direction is downright artistic, from the gritty world building to the amazing score to the fantasy elements to the use of framing shots to establish the major characters as larger than life figures. The fantasy elements are familiar Norse tropes beautifully portrayed and incorporated in just the right measure, giving Amleth’s quest for vengeance a degree of fate to restore the natural order; in fact, more than anything, this is a story about fate. The actors, hot stars and crusty veterans alike, bring their A game as every one of them chews the scenery. The film clocks at two hours and sixteen minutes but never lags or wavers in its pacing, consistently holding my interest with every scene advancing the plot.

It wasn’t all perfect, as films rarely are. The accents aren’t always convincing, and I wasn’t sure about the casting of Amleth as a young man. I sometimes had difficulty understanding the actors when they growled or whispered lines.

These are honestly quibbles, though. Overall, I loved THE NORTHMAN and recommend it for those okay with violent films. I hope it influences Hollywood to make historical action movies that incorporate but aren’t dominated by a modern sensibility, and make movies that put such an equal strong emphasis on pushing every aspect of production to the limit. It certainly catapulted Eggers from being good to a must-watch director for me.