The Square

Movie Name: The Square
Year of Release: 2017
Director: Ruben Ostlund
Starring: Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West, Terry Notary, Christopher Laesso, Lise Stephenson Engstrom, Lilianne Mardon, Marina Schiptjenko, Annica Liljeblad, Elijandro Edouard, Daniel Hallberg, Martin Sooder
Genre: Drama, Satire
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 3
Watch it on Amazon

Synopsis and Review

Director Ruben Ostlund has been on a winning streak since "Force Majeure" premiered in 2014. His following picture "The Square" won the Palm D'Or in 2017, and his most recent endeavor, repeated the feat, "Triangle of Sadness" which premiered in 2022. "The Square" follows the story of Christian, a divorced father of two, who is the director and chief curator for the X-Royal art museum in Stockholm. He has a new art installation for a forthcoming exhibit placed in the museum area, by the name of "The Square" and has commissioned an agency with creating a campaign who will drive more people to the museum, but also more patrons and donors. Simultaneously he has been apparently burglarized on a street scheme, where his phone, wallet and cufflinks were taken. He and his assistant manage to uncover the location of the phone (using the "find my phone" feature"), and decide upon a plan to force the robber to surrender the items. They go ahead with their plan, but a few days later his wallet and phone reappear in a package left for him at a 7-Eleven. In the meantime he has had a sexual tryst with a journalist by the name of Anne, who is interested in moving the relationship beyond the casual, something that Christian is not so engaged upon. Turns out Christian and Michael's plan had some unexpected results, and a young Arab boy confronts firstly Michael and then Christian with the aftermath of their actions: he states his family believes him to be a thief, and that now he's in constant trouble. He wants them to repair what has happened. In the meantime, a promotional and highly controversial reel for the new exhibit premieres online, generating waves of incredulity and shock towards the museum, which has an immediate impact on Christian's career.

The term satire is used very often when lofty and weighty themes are addressed, in a manner that is not dramatic, but not ostensibly comedic either. It's become in my opinion, a "warehouse term", something that is brandished around, when all other categories fail, but something still needs to be categorized. What I would deem solid satire or even comedic goldmine, is the work of Billy Wilder in so many of his films, where he was able to tackle some themes with snark and an incisiveness that defied and to this day still defies rivalry. "The Square" tries to be many things, and positions itself as a very smart reflection on how we currently live, and does so from the perspective from a very privileged and cultured individual in a very powerful position. The script takes stabs at the pretentiousness of art, at those who live in its periphery, and how that becomes an excuse for nonsensical behavior (case in point, Terry Notary's entire sequence), even at the point of certain grotesqueness of those same behaviors. There's also observations on ego driven males, the inability of shaping mature relationships, and even the state of society and its inequalities, and how even these latter topics are fodder for poorly created marketing campaigns. It's a list of hefty topics, all of which come tumbling down and at times crash with each other, in the life of a central character that at the end of a two and half hour film, still feels as underdeveloped and unknown as he was when the narrative was set in motion. In reality most of the characters who inhabit this narrative feel like an abstract concept, as if they try to minimally represent a persona without truly moving beyond a rather limited description. The film fails to capitalize on the cast that it assembles, with Elisabeth Moss and Dominic West in particular feeling lost and underused, though Claes Bang does his best to make Christian appear both self-involved but also sufficiently humane to illustrate his arc and attitude shifting during the feature. It's a film with lofty ambitions, most of which are not sufficiently realized, one where the apparent intelligence that seems to fuel it, only reveals some of the shallowness of the reflection itself (and not of the topics). It's a film that aims to be something that it ultimately unfulfilled. 

As Above So Below

Movie Name: As Above So Below
Year of Release: 2014
Director: John Erick Dowdle
Starring: Perdita Weeks, Ben Feldman, Edwin Hodge, François Civil, Marion Lambert, Ali Marhyar, Cosme Castro, Hamid Djavadan
Genre: Mystery, Horror
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 4
Watch it on Amazon

Synopsis and Review

Following the exposure of his prior film, "Devil", which featured the involvement of writer/producer/director M. Night Shyamalan, writer/director John Erick Dowdle reunited with his brother once again to work on their follow up, which turned out to be "As Above So Below". Working with a modest budget, the film managed to eek out a good return on that investment, even if for the director he has mostly been working on TV shows since. The film follows the story of Scarlett Marlowe, who is a scholar/archeologist of sorts, who is following on the footsteps of her father, who was searching for the Philosopher's Stone (that stone can reputedly turn base metals into gold and also grant eternal life). While in Paris she uncovers what she thinks may be the location of the stone in the catacombs of Paris. She recruits her former boyfriend George, to help with possible translations, and Benji, to be a cameraman and record the entire journey. Along the way and due to their limited knowledge of the catacombs, they enlist the help of Papillon, his girlfriend Souxie, and their friend Zed, since they are quite familiar with that maze. As the group gets into the catacombs, Scarlett indicates they should take a certain route, something that Papillon advises against, since the people who take that particular route never reappear. While they decide to take a different direction, by sheer force of circumstances they find themselves right back at that juncture, and they're forced to go through anyway. As they progress they encounter La Taupe, one of Papillon's missing friends, who is acting quite differently, and eventually get to a tomb that features a preserved Templar Knight. They also uncover the stone, however when one of the group tries to take some of the treasure that is stored in the tomb, traps are set in motion. Everything gets progressively more dangerous as the group tries to get out of the catacombs. 

"As Above So Below" benefits from John Erick Dowdle's ability to effectively capture a claustrophobic environment from which the characters seem unable to escape. As they progress further down the rabbit hole of the catacombs, it does indeed seem like they are walking the different circles of Dante's Hell, something that is reinforced by the strategically supernatural elements that appear and disappear more frequently. Sadly this turns out to be when some of the lack of a strategy to the script starts to make it's cracks more visible. Firstly the characters are one-dimensional, which is something that is never properly addressed, with the addition that the supernatural elements are treated in the fashion of "blink and you missed it", and finally the mythology of what is being sought after, which brings to mind Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", is handled with far less context or for that matter, gravitas and therefore its pursuit always feels inconsequential. The director manages to introduces a sense of unease, but not one of impending doom, which is indeed what the film needed to create. At times the feature comes across as a cross-fit video gone wrong, and not exactly a film about obsessively pursuing something that is life-changing, or realizing the meaning of what is taking place. The lack of maturity of the characters is echoed in the lack of depth of the script itself. What is indeed left, is a film that has its moments of placing a series of characters in a fish out of water situation, that they somehow have to find the resources within themselves to vanquish (there's even faint echos of Peter Filardi's script from "Flatliners" here). The cast sadly isn't very memorable, though the production team is efficient in staging the environment, including Léo Hinstin's cinematography and Louise Marzaroli's production design. It's not a flat out terrible endeavor, but it is a film that could have gone much further. 

Time Cut

Movie Name: Time Cut
Year of Release: 2024
Director: Hannah Mcpherson
Starring: Madison Bailey, Antonia Gentry, Michael Shanks, Griffin Gluck, Megan Best, Samuel Braun, Sydney Sabiston, Kataem O'Connor, Rachael Crawford, David Lawrence Brown, Adam Hurtig, BJ Verot, Jordan Pettle, Graham Ashmore
Genre: Mystery
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 0
Watch it on Netflix

Synopsis and Review

Another "Netflix" exclusive release, "Time Cut" is Hannah Mcpherson's feature directorial debut, following considerable directorial work across a variety of TV shows, shorts and even an experiment of shooting a film leveraging Snapchat ("Sickhouse"). The film follows the story of Lucy Field, a high school student and amateur inventor, who lives in the shadow of her sister who was brutally murdered 20 years ago. On the day she and her parents celebrate the life of her sister, she notices flashes of light coming from a nearby barn, where she accidentally uncovers a time machine, and is sent back to 2003, two days before the killing of her sister. When she realizes what has happened, she locates her sister who is still alive, and her parents, who at this time have no idea of her existence, since she was born after the dramatic death of her older sister. Lucy goes to her high school, where she tops a vicious prank from occurring, with the target being Quinn, whom she befriends, and in whom she confides the truth about where she came from and why she needs to find a way to go back. She and Quinn are not able to save Val and Brian, who fall prey to the Slasher murders, but they do prevent the same fate from occurring to Emmy, another of Summer's friends. Lucy eventually tells the truth about all the killings to both Quinn and Summer, as the latter is the next victim, and they must do something to prevent the killing from occurring. 

If the subject matter for "Time Cut" feels eerily familiar, that's because Amazon Prime released "Totally Killer" from director Nahnatchka Khan in 2023, with a surprisingly similar premise. "Time Cut" is a somewhat inert film in many regards, and is devoid of much of the sense of humor and even charm that "Totally Killer" had. The biggest issues with the film are both its tone and character development. On one hand the director can't decide if this is a slasher film, with traces of the "Fear Street" trilogy or even "The Babysitter", but without any of its humor, or if this is supposed to be a light drama about a teenager trying to find her own place in life, when her parents don't pay that much attention, the same going for apparently everyone else in her life. Ultimately the film is slim in its offerings, failing to succeed in the slasher department, and also failing in the character development arena, since most characters are wooden and have no dimension to them (the parents for instance are generic plastic models with a pulse, with no relevant personality that can be traced). It's a film that tries to check many boxes (bullied teen, sexual orientation, distant parents, and the list goes on), but it feels amateurish in its illustration of the most banal scenes, and shorthanded in the depth of the characters that it depicts. The acting is subpar from the entire cast, and sadly the production team can't do much to elevate this material. This is probably one of the worst releases coming from Netflix's factory. Avoid.  

Maxxxine

Movie Name: Maxxxine
Year of Release: 2024
Director: Ti West
Starring: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Giancarlo Esposito, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Simon Prast, Kevin Bacon, Sophie Thatcher, Lily Collins, Moses Sumney, Halsey, Chloe Farnworth, Albert Kong, Taylor Kowalski, Pegah Rashti, Deborah Geffner
Genre: Crime, Horror
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6
Watch it on Amazon

Synopsis and Review

Following the critical success of "X" and "Pearl", writer/producer/director Ti West returns with what is supposedly the caper of this series of films. Following the events that took place in "X", Maxine Minx is now in Los Angeles where she has become a well known adult film actress. We first encounter her on a casting/audition where she's going for the lead role in celebrated director Elizabeth Bender's new film. She's trying to crossover to legitimate films, and she sees this is as her big break. In the meantime, Los Angeles is under fire with the cloak of the Night Stalker murders highjacking everyone's attention and frightening everyone. Maxine who also works at a live peep show, gets an invite from another performer to go to a party up on the Hollywood Hills. Amber and Tabby, both adult entertainers and friends of Maxine are killed, and two LAPD detectives, Williams and Torres, question her about her knowledge of where they were going and who were they interacting with. Maxine in the meantime is tracked by a private detective who mentions his knowledge of what happened a few years back when she and her friends tried to make an adult film, which resulted in multiple deaths and her being the sole survivor. Maxine decides to confide in her agent of what is happening, and he reassures her all she has to think about is her next big break, since he will take care of everything else. The private detective by the name of Labat, is the first one to be tackled. 

One of the most interesting things about "Maxxxine" is how Ti West manages to vividly bring to mind the artful environment of some of the most interesting (and B-movie inspired) films of the 80s, namely Brian De Palma's "Body Double" and William Friedkin's "To Live and Die in LA". The influences of these films are heavily felt, which has its positive aspects in terms of context and environment definition, but also steal "Maxxxine" itself from a personality of its own. The film is almost too referential, and too restrained for its own good (the film at times also brings to mind episodes of Anthony Yerkovich's "Miami Vice"), begging for some bursts of a point of view of its own, a bit like Nicolas Winding Refn has been doing with some of his feature films. The characters are not as vividly captured this time around, as they were on the prior films of this series. Maxxxine in particular comes across more one-note than previously, whereas the supporting characters don't have much nuance, aside from the private detective portrayed by Kevin Bacon, who feels at home here and even on any noir (even on Curtis Hanson's "LA Confidential"). The central character needs more of a jolt of energy, similar to what the wonderful Nancy Allen created in Brian De Palma's "Dressed to Kill". As it is, Mia Goth for all her talent creates a darker version of Maxine, that transpires into the whole energy of the film. The supporting cast is uniformly solid, with Elizabeth Debicki, Giancarlo Esposito, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, and the always fantastic Kevin Bacon, providing superb support and bringing the characters to as much as life as possible. The production team is solid, including Eliot Rockett's cinematography, Jason Kisvarday's production design, and Mari-An Ceo's costume design. It's an entertaining film and one worth watching, but not as indelible as the prior films in the series.