Movie Review Dune 2

Dune 2 (2024) 

Directed by Denis Villeneuve 

Written by Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts 

Starring Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Austin Butler, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Dave Bautista

Release Date March 1st, 2024 

Published March 4th, 2024 

Dune 2 is the epic and awesome follow-up to the triumphant 2021 extravaganza that manages to top the spectacle of the first while never losing sight of the characters at the heart of both films. The scope, the scale, the spectacular action and special effects, all come together to make Dune 2 a film experience not to miss. Co-written and directed by Denis Villeneuve, Dune 2 demonstrates what can happen when a visionary filmmaker is given the resources and the time to explore their vision and realize that vision in full. It's a staggering work. 

Dune 2 picks up the story of the first Dune by fully revealing the conspiracy at hand. Not only was House Atreides attacked by House Harkonnen, the attack came at the best of the Emperor of the known universe, Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken). The Emperor believed that Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac, from Dune 1), was becoming a threat to his rule so he secretly supported and influenced House Harkonnen to take over the spice trade and destroy House Atreides. 

Unfortunately for the Emperor, the Harkonnen's failed to finish off House Atreides. Rumors are spreading fast regarding a leader having emerged among the Fremen, a warrior that many see as a possible messiah. The rumor goes further in stating that this supposed messiah is Paul Atreides, son of Leto and Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson). Having been taken in by the Fremen, Paul and Lady Jessica have become members of the Fremen people with Paul taking on the name Paul Muad'Dib, and Lady Jessica accepting the role of the Reverend Mother of the Fremen, a challenge to her Bene Gesserit elder, played in both films by Charlotte Rampling. 

As the story picks up, Paul's place among the Fremen is assured just as his romance with Chani (Zendaya) is taking hold. The relationship between Paul and Chani is at the heart of Dune 2 as the script sets up a natural and heartbreaking conflict between the two, Chani's defiance over the idea of Paul as this messiah like figure and Paul's having to accept the role of messiah if he is to gain revenge against the Harkonnen's and the Emperor while securing the safety of the Fremen amid the growing conflict. This conflict between the freedom of the soul versus the notion of God's will is a terrific conflict and Chalamet and Zendaya make you feel every inch of that conflict in their dueling performances. 

Read my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Wonka

Wonka (2023) 

Directed by Paul King 

Written by Simon Farnaby, Paul King 

Starring Timothee Chalamet, Sally Hawkins, Olivia Coleman, Hugh Grant, Keegan Michael Key, Calah Lane 

Release Date December 15th, 2023 

Published December 5th, 2023 

Wonka is a spectacular good time. This musical from director Paul King charts the origin of everyone's favorite chocolatier, Willy Wonka, played by Timothee Chalamet, from his time before he opened his magical chocolate factory. Pressing aside the Johnny Depp take on the character, Chalamet's Willy Wonka feels more like a spiritual predecessor to Gene Wilder's iconic take on the character. He's charming, he's funny, and he has just a slight hint of impish, prankish, bitterness to him. It's a wonderful performance from Chalamet who carries the film with the presence of a movie star. 

Willy Wonka's early life was tragic. He lost his beloved mother, portrayed by Sally Hawkins, when he was quite young. But, her adventurous spirit lives on in her son who undauntedly threw himself into the world to seek his fortune and make his mother proud. Willy, also a magician by trade, has traveled the globe on just his wits and guts, and discovered flavors of chocolate that no one has ever dreamed of. He's managed to pack it all away in a magical suitcase with which he can whip up a unique chocolatey concoction on a whim. 

Having arrived now in London for the first time, he's hoping to achieve the dream his mother always had, opening a Chocolate shop in the most famous chocolate market in the world. But first, Willy needs a place to stay. In a lovely opening song, Willy explains how much money he has before quickly parting with all of it as he helps out those in need. It's a lovely, graceful song that shows a generosity of spirit in Willy as he gives his last coin to young woman with a baby so that they can find a place to stay on this cold English night. 

As for Willy, he's planning to bed down on a chilly bench when he's approached by a man named Bleacher (Tom Davis). Bleacher is a big intimidating and threatening man who appears to reveal a softer side when he tells Willy about a place to stay... on credit. Mrs. Scrubbit (Olivia Coleman) operates a boarding house where she will allow Willy to stay on the promise that he will pay for his room the following day. This comes with a caveat however as Willy has to sign a contract for his room. The contract is page after page after page of fine print. A naive Willy decides to sign it anyway and that sets a portion of our plot in motion. 

Find 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: Beautiful Boy

Beautiful Boy (2018) 

Directed by Felix Van Groeningen

Written by Luke Davies, Felix Van Groeningen 

Starring Steve Carell, Timothee Chalamet, Maura Tierney, Amy Ryan 

Release Date October 12th, 2018 

Published October 9th, 2018 

Beautiful Boy stars Steve Carell as David Sheff, a very successful freelance reporter living in California. When we meet David he appears to be at a desperate moment. He is interviewing a doctor, played by Timothy Hutton, about addiction. The doctor assumes this is for an article but David informs him that this research is personal. David’s son, Nic (Timothee Chalamet), is addicted to Meth and David has turned to the only thing he can imagine to make sense of things, in-depth research of the kind he’s done as a reporter. 

Indeed, research is the one way in which David Sheff is able to deal with the futility of his son’s addiction. We watch as David takes this research to varying extremes from trying to talk with Nic, to interviewing a young addict over lunch, to interviewing the doctor. He even goes as far as trying methamphetamine himself to understand the appeal. He’s lucky that he didn’t begin his own addiction with that move. 

These interactions are all kinds of interesting but as presented in Beautiful Boy the observations of David, the outcome of his research, have an obtuse quality. We get a vague insight into David, he lives for research, and that’s pretty much the one insight about the character that isn’t vague or assumed. He’s sensitive and he’s compassionate toward his son, he’s loving, but these are qualities we assume of a well to do parent and we wait for the story to tell us something different and it never does. 

David is reminiscent of Donald Sutherland’s character from Ordinary People minus the straw man villain provided in that film by Mary Tyler Moore’s harridan mother-figure. Like Sutherland, Carell plays a saintly figure of suffering but without the Moore character to play off of, Carell doesn’t have many notes to play here. Carell is certainly not bad in this role which leaves me to wonder what anyone thought was particularly cinematic about what David goes through. What is David’s arc? Suffering some to not suffering as much? 

Nic’s arc is to go from child to addict to recovery. That’s not a bad arc but it is off-screen a lot in favor of David’s less engaging lack of an arc. What are we to take away from Nic’s journey? What is special about what Nic went through? His family is wealthy, are we supposed to take away that addiction can happen to anyone regardless of privilege? The film doesn’t appear to have any insight or perspective, nothing really drives the narrative other than drugs are bad, don’t do drugs. 

The main takeaway I had from the movie is that Timothee Chalamet is a very charismatic and intriguing actor who is underserved by a role that doesn’t have a strong narrative engine behind it. Everything is surface level in Beautiful Boy, starting with the beautiful sets and cinematography which are at odds with the agony of Nic’s addiction and the toll it is having on his family. I have joked in the past about characters in disease of the week dramas who have what I call ‘Pretty Cancer,’ that strange type of disease that allows you to remain movie star pretty despite being on deaths’ door. 

Nic appears to have a case of ‘Pretty Addiction.’ Despite the years of meth abuse and living on the streets, the story appears to take place over 5 or 6 years or maybe a decade, now that I think about it, the movie is vague on this point. Regardless of however long Nic’s addiction has gone on, he remains a beautiful young man. Drugs don’t appear to take a toll on him aside from making him rather skinny but Chalamet even makes lanky look handsome. 

There doesn’t appear to be a baseline reality to the story of Beautiful Boy despite the fact that it is based, loosely, on a true story. The film shies away from the uglier parts of Nic’s addiction. For instance, in his book, “Tweaked,” Nic is very open about his years of trading sexual favors with men for money to buy drugs. This doesn’t get mentioned once in the movie and Nic rarely looks worse for wear despite the drugs and what we can presume he did to get them. 

Why did Nic get into drugs in the first place? The film has a scene of father and son sharing a joint and Nic opens up a little about how smoking weed makes life easier to deal with. What was wrong with his life? We don’t really know and perhaps we don’t need to. Kids try drugs all the time, some get a quick high and move on and some take on an addiction that can’t be explained. Brain chemistry makes some people more or less susceptible to drug addiction. 

This is a very specific story about a specific kid who got into drugs, got addicted and stayed that way for a while. There is one thing that stands out that appears insightful and instructive. At one point, Nic talks about being ashamed of being on drugs and how drugs were the only way to stave off the shame. That’s a strong notion, a vivid insight into Nic’s mindset. Beautiful Boy could have used more thoughtful asides like that but the film is dramatically inert. 

Beautiful Boy isn’t notably bad. Timothee Chalamet is incredibly talented and that talent shines through the moribund story being told here. Steve Carell, Maura Tierney and Amy Ryan are quite good at earning our sympathy but the story they are in lacks a narrative engine. The story unfolds in fits and starts that cause the film to drag and feel pointless even as it clearly has one point, drugs are bad, don’t use drugs. 

I don’t want to completely warn you away from this movie as it is not terrible. Beautiful Boy just isn’t quite as good as it should be. The scenery is lovely but the story has no movement. Nic is moving toward not being an addict but the rest of the story sputters along hitting the same note, drugs are bad, don’t do drugs. This does not make for much compelling drama or insightful commentary.

See Beautiful Boy for the performance of Timothee Chalamet but keep your expectations for the movie low. This is not the Academy Award contender that some would like you to believe that it is. It’s a big budget Lifetime Movie of the week at best, with an Oscar-caliber performance from Chalamet that is undermined by the rest of the movie’s lack of ambition.