Movie Review Dunkirk

Dunkirk (2017)

Directed by Christopher Nolan 

Written by Christopher Nolan 

Starring Fionn Whitehead, Kenneth Branagh, Jack Lowden, Barry Keoghan, Harry Styles, Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Cillian Murphy

Release Date July 21st, 2017

With The Dark Knight trilogy and Inception, director Christopher Nolan has ascended to that rarefied air of directors who can sell a movie with his name alone. Nolan now stands shoulder to shoulder with fellow relative newcomers J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon and the original superstar director, Steven Speilberg.

The proof comes with the release of Dunkirk, Nolan's latest film and one with a minimum of star-power, rough, non-commercial subject matter, and a World War II setting that has rarely been the home of four quadrant hits without the back up of major stars like Tom Hanks or John Wayne. If Dunkirk is to succeed it will be the director of Batman who makes it happen.

Read my full length review at Geeks.Media

Movie Review Bones and All

Bones and All (2022) 

Directed by Luca Guadagnino 

Written by David Kajganich 

Starring Taylor Russell, Timothee Chalamet, Mark Rylance, Michael Stuhlbarg 

Release Date November 18th, 2022 

Published November 28th, 2022 

Cannibalism, eating people. Bones and All follows a small subset of people who are cannibals but not by choice. Maren Yearly (Taylor Russell) was born a cannibal and, as we come to find out, she can't control this desire. Her father helped her manage it for a while and even kept her from realizing her true nature for a time. However, after she snacks on a friend from school, biting off her finger, Dad can't keep her hidden anymore and he's not sure that he should. After bundling her up and setting her up in a new home, he disappears. 

Left on her own, Maren has only a few dollars and a tape that her father made explaining the things that have happened that led to him leaving. He also pointed her in the direction of where her mother may be, somewhere in Minnesota. The film is set in the 1980s so no cellphones or internet, and this is a strong choice as a cellphone and internet access would undoubtedly undermine much of Bones and All. Maren's isolation and the few fellow cannibals she's able to meet in person would be less meaningful if she could join a supportive cannibal community on Facebook. 

The first cannibal that Maren meets is a true creep. Sully (Mark Rylance), upon meeting Maren, claims that he could smell her from more than a block away. The movie eventually explains that all cannibals are capable of smelling each other but it is an effectively creepy way to introduce Sully, who also talks about himself in the third person. Mark Rylance is an effective horror movie character. He suggests an art-house take on Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2's Chop Top. 

Maren does end up spending a night at a house that Sully has staked out. It happens to be the home of an elderly woman who is slowly dying on the floor of her upstairs bedroom while Sully is preparing game hens for dinner. He tells Maren that he feeds on people who he knows are dying, though that is an unsurprising lie. The two share a meal together, if you know what I mean, and then Maren runs off, frightened by Sully's creepy vibe. He's not gone though, unfortunately. 

At the next stop of her journey toward Minnesota and the mother she has never known, Maren meets Lee (Timothee Chalamet) after he disposes of a jerk at a store, and covers for her while she shoplifts. Maren uses her newfound sense of smell to determine that Lee is also a cannibal and since they are close in age, Maren feels comfortable getting to know him. This begins a tentative romance, though one troubled by their equal need to feed on human flesh. 

I am not sure I understand the point of Bones and All. The film has elements of a horror movie but it isn't scary. The film appears to be aimed as a teen romance but the romance is rather tepid. I can see the artfulness in the direction of Luca Guadagnino, he's a tremendous director. The production design, the evocation of the past without leaning too heavily on obvious signifiers, demonstrate his talent for time and place in his work. 

Click here for my full length review of Bones and All at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review: The Other Boleyn Girl

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) 

Directed by Justin Chadwick 

Written by Peter Morgan 

Starring Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana, Kristen Scott Thomas, Mark Rylance, David Morrissey 

Release date February 29th, 2008 

Published February 27th, 2008 

Where most period pieces rely on class and pomp and circumstance The Other Boleyn Girl, from director Justin Chadwick, and based on the bestseller by Phillippa Gregory, indulges modern soap opera crossed with crackling dialogue, dark humor and an all star cast. It works to create a devilishly entertaining period piece that may just reach beyond the typical fans of the period. In The Other Boleyn Girl Scarlett Johanssen, Natalie Portman and Eric Bana spice up period piece stuffiness with a sexy vibe that even overwhelms the constraints of the PG-13 rating.

King Henry the 8th (Eric Bana) needed a son to continue to project his power. Unfortunately, his wife Catherine of Eragon (Ana Torrent) has once again miscarried and will likely never bear children. This news leaks to the Duke of Norfolk (David Morrissey) who senses an opportunity for advancement. Visiting the family of his sister Lady Elizabeth Boleyn and her husband Thomas, Norfolk has a dangerous proposition. He will entice King Henry to visit the Boleyn home. While he is there the eldest Boleyn sister Anne (Natalie Portman) will find her way to his bed and become his mistress. If she is able to bear him a son, the Boleyn family will be set for life.

The plan goes awry however when the king fails to fall for Ann and instead falls for the slightly younger and recently married Mary Boleyn (Scarlett Johannson). Bringing the Boleyn's to the royal court, Henry makes Mary his mistress while banishing her husband (Benedict Cumberbatch) to the outer reaches of the kingdom. Unfortunately for Mary, the king's affections are fickle. Her crowning achievement, becoming pregnant, becomes a problem when the king's eye begins to wander. Now the family turns to Ann. Recently banished to France after a rash, unarranged wedding that the Duke has narrowly been able to cover up, Ann returns changed, more mature and ready to take the king for herself even as her task is to keep his attentions on Mary.

Ann's ambition and cunning beguiles the king and he is ready to tear the country to shreds just to satisfy her. As the king and Ann battle over her wish to be queen, there is still the matter of the current queen as well as Mary and her newborn son, now treated as a bastard and an outcast. And what of Ann's relationship with her brother George (Jim Sturgess) and his marriage to the busybody Jane Parker (Juno Temple).

A great deal of palace intrigue unfolds with all of the sexy twists and melodramatic turns of a great television soap opera writ large for the big screen. Director Justin Chadwick, working from a screenplay penned by the books author Phillipa Gregory, gives this material life by populating it with great actors, biting dialogue, and high stakes chicanery. The Boleyn men, exceptionally played by Mark Rylance and David Morrissey play a high stakes game with these two supposedly teenage girls. The risk is their heads on spikes, dealing with an oafish impetuous king who has already spiked his closest friend for reasons only he understood and called treason.

The future of the Boleyn family rides on these teenage girls ability to manipulate an impulsive, unpredictable and desperate king well played by Eric Bana. With subtle genius, Eric Bana brings about a King Henry the 8th who is both commanding in the presence of men and yet just naive enough to be taken in by the scheming Ann. We learn early on that his true turn on is subservience as he falls for the respectful and bowing Mary. However, he is drawn to Ann by the reflection of his own power. As she becomes the first to deny him anything, he cannot help but wish to conquer her. The plan backfires on all involved and precipitates great melodrama all around.

The Other Boleyn Girl is an exceptional example of the way great melodrama can win over an audience by at once indulging in bad behavior and then standing in judgement of it. The prudishness of Mary is exposed in her falling for the king and then punished when she is forced to watch her sister steal him away. Ann's abhorrent behavior in double-crossing her sister is devilishly fun to witness but just as fun is watching her get what she has coming to her. Portman is better than you might expect as a temptress while Johansson plays the virginal Mary with an edge of sultry sexuality that few actresses could wring from this role.

The Other Boleyn Girl is not a great movie but for pulpy modern soap opera Ala the best of Desperate Housewives, only much smarter, it is top notch entertainment.