Spoiler Alert: Let's Talk About the Ending of Tar

Tar (2022) 

Directed by Todd Field 

Written by Todd Field 

Starring Cate Blanchett, Nina Hoss, Noemie Merlant, Mark Strong 

Release Date October 7th, 2022 

Published October 31st, 2022 

In Theaters Now... 

What is writer-director Todd Field trying to say in his new movie, Tar? There are a myriad of readings currently being debated online and each seems to have some merit. There is, in the end, no right answer. If we separate the art from the artist, then what Todd Field is trying to say doesn't matter as much as how we interpret what he is saying. My interpretation of Tar is a mixed bag of evocative and provocative ideas and low humor that only occasionally lands. 

Tar stars Cate Blanchett as Lydia Tar, a famed conductor. Lydia is about to achieve a lifelong dream, to have conducted recordings of the work of Conductor Gustav Mahler. Sitting at the head of the table at the Berlin Orchestra, Lydia believes that conducting Mahler's 5th Symphony will cement a legacy built over a life time crawl to the top in merciless pursuit of the comforts and adoration of fame. Lydia Tar has cut metaphorical throats to get where she is and yet she doesn't realize how tenuous her grasp on power truly is. 

In this article I am going to wander around within several ideas and presentations in Tar that struck me after watching it. I will be employing spoilers and since I am recommending that you see Tar, if you haven't seen it yet, I urge you to jump off and come back after you see it. Tar is not so much a movie that can be 'spoiled' in the traditional sense but I do believe the experience of Tar is one better served by not knowing where the story is going. 

Lydia Tar is a conductor of an orchestra, specifically, the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic. The role of Conductor is an interesting one, rich with meaning and teeming with questions. What exactly is the function of a conductor? Why is a conductor necessary? Why do conductors get so much credit for directing the performance of people doing the actual, physical work of the orchestra? Tar is not direct about answering these questions though they are explored a little when we see Lydia in her work environment. 

The conductor of an orchestra brings order to chaos. It's a fantasy of power with a group of exceptionally talented people at the top of their field all at the mercy and direction of a wand wielding egotist. The musician may have the talent to make transcendent music from their instrument but no matter their talent, they are at the mercy and whim of someone not playing an instrument. Naturally, Lydia Tarr conducts her life as she conducts her orchestra, furiously exerting control, rigidly demanding conformity to her will. This, of course, is her downfall. 

The things that Lydia Tarr cannot control or conduct to her will, she ignores. Out of sight, out of mind is the substance of her worldview, especially when it comes to the discordant troubles in her life. One such trouble is a former student with whom Lydia may or may not have had an affair with. Lydia abruptly cut ties with the student and in doing so, harmed the woman's career and education. The former student is spiraling into depression according to glimpses of emails to Lydia's assistant, played by Noemie Merlant. 

Lydia cannot control this situation so she ignores it until a tragedy occurs. Even then, Lydia is unrepentant, and continues to avoid the problem, a privilege often conferred upon the powerful, the ability to turn their back on their problems via their privilege. A theme presented throughout Tar is Lydia's growing sensitivity to noise. The clicking pen of her orchestra colleague, a metronome left ticking in a cupboard, and other such seemingly insignificant noises become a torture to Lydia's psyche. 

Click here for my full length article at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Spirited

Spirited (2022) 

Directed by Sean Anders 

Written by Sean Anders, John Morris 

Starring Will Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds, Octavia Spencer, Sunita Mani, Tracy Morgan 

Release Date November 11th, 2022 (Apple TV) 

Published November 11th, 2022

Imagine that the three ghosts that visit Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, are part of an elaborate business that specializes into scaring bad people into good people, all while singing very on the nose show tunes, and you have the movie Spirited starring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. This musical comedy posits that Ebenezer Scrooge (Will Ferrell) became the Ghost of Christmas Present after his life ended. Now, Scrooge along with his old pal Marley (Patrick Page), the Ghost of Christmas Past (Sunita Mani), and the Ghost of Christmas Future (Tracy Morgan), works to redeem those in needing redemption. 

For their latest case, the Ghosts and Marley are targeting a big fish, a so-called 'unredeemable' human being named Clint Briggs (Ryan Reynolds). Briggs is a bad guy. We meet him as he is making a presentation to owners of Christmas Tree Lots and he is encouraging them to demonize those that don't use real Christmas trees as hating Christmas. Briggs' job is all about creating chaos and division in order to sell narratives that protect brands and rich elite jerks. Marley is convinced that Briggs cannot be saved. Scrooge however, sees some of himself in Briggs and emotionally links his own redemption story to that of this awful jerk. 

From here we watch as Scrooge and company stage the life of Clint Briggs. They recreate his childhood home and bring his late sister to life. Clint has a lot of guilt and complicated feelings about his late sister, a saint who took care of him as a kid while their mom was a comical jerk. When the sister dies, Clint refused to take on her daughter, instead leaving the daughter to stay with his loving but bumbling younger brother, Owen (Joe Tippett). Naturally, Scrooge will use this moment to tug on Clint's heart strings but as happens throughout Spirited, Clint is not an easy nut to crack. 

For his part, Clint sets about sewing chaos in the meticulous plot to redeem him. He starts by seducing the Ghost of Christmas Past and then by twisting Ferrell's Ghost of Christmas Present/Scrooge into knots with endless questions about his past, why what he does is necessary and why Clint himself is happy to be seen as Unredeemable. Of course, we all know where this is headed. There is no surprise o be found in Spirited and thus the movie has to rely on gags, comical songs, and the strength of the cast to sell this overly complicated and yet predictable story. 

Spirited kind of works. This is undoubtedly Will Ferrell's best performance since 2010's The Other Guys, the last time he earned really big laughs on screen. In the last decade, Ferrell has made some of the worst movies going and thus I was happy to be able to laugh with him again. I've missed the Will Ferrell that wasn't a desperate, flailing, sweaty mess. His Scrooge is a strong combination of his Elf persona with his dramatic, adult performances in Stranger Than Fiction and Everything Must Go. The wistfulness and longing in this character give a genuine quality to his energetic, desperate for the joke side and that goes a long way toward making the performance tolerable and even entertaining. 

Ryan Reynolds sparks well with Ferrell as Scrooge. Reynolds' playful approach to being a massive jerk provides a strong arc for the character, even as it is a supremely predictable arc. Reynolds is funny, charming, angry, and rounds into genuine kindness in a real and enjoyable fashion. Strange as it seems for such a broad comedy, it's among the most genuine and enjoyable performances from Reynolds in some time. Somehow, getting to sing has enlivened Reynolds after several recent rather bored performances. 

Click here for my full length review at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Weird The Al Yankovic Story (2022) 

Directed by Eric Appel 

Written by Weird Al, Eric Appel 

Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood, Rainn Wilson, Toby Huss, Julianne Nicholson 

Release Date September 8th, 2022 (Roku Channel) 

Published November 11th, 2022 

As a connoisseur of one Weird Al Yankovic, the idea of a traditional Weird Al biopic had me perplexed. Why would anyone make an earnest biopic of one of the strangest, most ironic, and comic careers in history. I was genuinely confused with what the makers of the movie Weird were all about. Then I saw the trailer and it all began to make sense. Weird is a Weird Al biopic but it is, far more importantly, a send up of the various silly tropes of rock biopics. 

Biopics of rock stars seem to always go the same way. There is the rocket ride to stardom, struggling in the harsh light of fame, the inevitable fall from grace and then a rise once again or a death, one or the other. Biopics of rock stars do not tend to stray from this formula. Thus, the rock biopic genre is ripe for the kind of parody that Weird Al made famous with his music, an irreverent send up of the tropes combined with an over the top wackiness that is both hilarious and genuine. 

Weird kicks off in a universe where Polka is the equivalent of gangsta rap, a genre of ill-repute in the white washed Reagan era. Here we meet Al as he is berated by his working class father, Nick (Toby Huss) and coddled by his loving mother, Mary. Al's life is changed forever when a door to door salesman (Thomas Lennon) comes to Al's door selling accordions. While Al is taken with the instrument, his father will not have this filthy equipment in his home and sets about beating the salesman to death with his bare hands. 

In order to keep Nick out of jail for assault or attempted murder, Mary buys an accordion and gifts it to Al. This begins a life long love of the accordion and the start of his rocket rise to fame. Cut to college where Al is living with three friends and plays the accordion regularly. When challenged, Al invents a song on the spot, a parody of My Sharona called My Bologna. In an inspired sequence, Al is inspired for every single lyric by something he sees in the room around him. 

Biopics love to give every aspect of every rock star life an origin story. Thus, Al having an origin story for even the most mundane or outlandish lyric is a great bit. Big laughs are spun from this scene and the following scene where Al and his friends go to a local bus station bathroom to record My Bologna. That's a true story, Al really did record the song in a bathroom and took it to a record company meeting on the same day. They turned him down just as they do in this movie. 

Another inspired element comes when Al insists on writing original music only, only to then write his most famous songs, Eat It and Amish Paradise while calling them original songs. The meta of Michael Jackson calling Al for permission to write and perform Beat It, based on Al's Eat It, is another truly inspired gag. Throughout Weird, the movie finds wonderful little inventive ways to give Al a massive ego, something his fans know is certainly not a trait of Weird Al, arguably the most humble tunesmith in America. 

This being a Rock N' Roll biopic, a love interest must be involved, a woman of ill-repute who follows our star down to the depths of his despair. That woman in Weird is Madonna played by Evan Rachel Wood. Sexually voracious and wildly talented, Madonna sets her sights on Al because of the supposed Al Bump, a spike in sales following an artist being parodied by Weird Al and his band. Madonna wants the sales bump and will do anything she can to get it. 

Click here for my review of Weird at Geeks.media 

Movie Review Black Panther Wakanda Forever

Black Panther Wakanda Forever 

Directed by Ryan Coogler 

Written by Ryan Coogler

Starring Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Winston Duke, Lupita N'yongo 

Release Date November 11th, 2022 

Published November 11th2, 2022 

Black Panther Wakanda Forever begins jarringly without warning. We begin in the moment of the death of King T'Challa. His heart is still beating as his sister, the brilliant scientist, Shuri (Letitia Wright), forgoes being by her brother's side in favor of desperately trying to save him by perfecting a potion. T'Challa dies before Shuri can find the right combination of elements for her life saving potion, the same potion he'd taken when he'd become Black Panther, the masked protector of Wakanda.

Shuri is plagued by both guilt and grief as her mother, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett, as regal as ever), tries to comfort her. Jumping ahead by one year, Shuri remains consumed by guilt and since she doesn't believe in the elders or life after death, she refuses the comfort that such ideas can bring. Her guilt and sadness are slowly curdling inside her just as we find out that the leader of an underwater kingdom, Namor (Tenoch Huerta), is convinced that Wakanda has designs on attacking the kingdom of Atlantis. 

This is not the case. Rather, the Americans have created a machine that can locate Vibranium, the super powerful element that was once believed to only exist in Wakanda. The truth is that Vibranium also exists in Atlantis and the Americans want it. Namor's misguided belief that Wakanda is after the vibranium, sets off a chain of events that includes kidnapping Shuri, and the young American scientist Ri-Ri (Dominique Thorne), who created the incredible Vibranium locating machine. Namor believes that killing the scientiss will keep enemies from locating Atlantis. 

Naturally, Queen Ramonda sees this as an act of war against Wakanda and the two sides begin a slow roll toward war. Shuri is caught in the middle, wanting nothing more than to protect Wakanda while also understanding Namor as someone who has lost people and as someone simply trying to protect his people from the incursion of the outside world. King T'Challa's decision to share Wakanda with the world has had consequences and those consequences are directly confronted in Wakanda Forever. 

Director Ryan Coogler has an extraordinary command over the story he is telling in Black Panther Wakanda Forever. Keep in mind the tight rope walk Coogler is making in trying to honor his friend Chadwick Boseman and not exploiting his death for cheap emotion. He has to show love and respect for Boseman while also moving the Wakanda story into the future and provide comic book thrills along the way to satisfy mainstream audiences. 

Most directors in Coogler's place would have fallen back on easy, maudlin ploys for sympathy. Not Coogler, he smartly dispatches with performative grieving to the long term effect that the loss of a loved one can have on those loved ones. No one seems ready to move on from T'Challa but they are also always prepared to defend themselves as circumstances require. The vulnerability of Wakanda without the Black Panther, is a major subplot of Black Panther Wakanda Forever and it is remarkably well handled under the circumstances. 

That said, the key to making this plot work is Letitia Wright. Wright's Shuri has the impossible task of taking up the mantel as Wakanda's protector and she is not ready for it. She's not ready to let herself grieve fully for her brother and only the circumstance of Namor's arrival in Wakanda, exposing the Wakandan defenses in the process, thrusts Shuri out her longing and grief and into a place where she is driven by rage and revenge and her journey morphs from grieving to vengeance and on to maturity. 

Wright does a wonderful job throughout of giving Shuri an inner life, an intellectual and emotional life that feels real under these outsized circumstances. The script does take shortcuts to get Shuri to Black Panther but these shortcuts are typical of all Marvel adventures where the dictates of blockbuster cinema often requires a shortcut to keep the pace and action up while the emotional aspects of the story linger in the background. 

Read my complete Review at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review Paradise City

Paradise City (2022) 

Directed by Chuck Russell 

Written by Corey Large, Edward John Drake, Chuck Russell 

Starring John Travolta, Bruce Willis, Stephen Dorff, Blake Jenner 

Release Date November 11th, 2022 

Published November 9th, 2022 

The effort that Director Chuck Russell puts into not putting John Travolta and Bruce Willis on screen together, despite their being co-stars in the new movie Paradise City, might have been better used to make a good movie. But, that's just wishful thinking. No, instead of bothering to make a good movie, Russell spends loads of time creating scenarios that led to his stars never sharing the screen at the same time. Why? Who knows. I'm not familiar with whether or not there is some issue between Willis and Travolta. 

All I do know is that they have a scene in the movie Paradise City where Travolta and Willis's characters, a wanted international criminal who underwent serious facial reconstruction, and the world's greatest bounty hunter respectively, are supposed to be sitting in a restaurant together. It's a flashback to an important face to face showdown that is edited to have only given us a vague sense that perhaps the two stars had been in the same room at the same time. 

The... inelegant, to the be charitable, camera and editing gymnastics that keep Travolta and Willis from having to breathe the same air in the same room are the most notable thing about Paradise City. Like me, if you waste your time watching this Z-Grade thriller you will spend most of that time wondering why Travolta and Willis never share the screen, even when their characters are supposed to be in the same room having an important confrontation. 

The movie opens with Bruce Willis in a car racing along some Hawaiian roadway. He crashes and retrieves a hooded figure from the trunk. He drags this hooded figure to the beach and waits for the people chasing him to come along. He tries to reason with, what appear to be corrupt members of law enforcement, Willis' go-to late in career villains, before he's forced to release his hostage and is subsequently brought down in a hale of bullets. 

The hooded prisoner is Travolta but we only find that out later when we see the aftermath of the shooting, Willis's bounty hunter miraculously survives, and with Willis fully out of frame and dying in the ocean, the hood comes off to reveal Travolta. Again, I don't know if there is some kind of beef between Willis and Travolta, it's just this weird choice the movie made. Perhaps they could save money by shooting their most expensive cast members separately, that seems logical, but regardless, it's deeply distracting and with the remaining cast headed up by Blake Jenner and Dollar Store Christian Slater impersonator, Stephen Dorff, it's easy to get distracted. 

Click here for my full length review of Paradise City at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review: The Banshees of Inisheren

The Banshees of Inisheren (2022) 

Directed by Martin McDonough 

Written by Martin McDonough 

Starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan 

Release Date November 4th, 2022 

The Banshees of Inisherin stars Colin Farrell as a farmer named Padraic whose life is thrown into chaos when his closest friend, Colm (Brendan Gleeson), randomly decides that they are not friends anymore. Without explaining why, Colm refuses to answer the door when Padraic comes to call at the usual time to go to the pub. Later, Colm returns only to find Colm has left to go to the pub. He assumes this means they will meet for a pint but at the bar, Colm tells Padraic to leave him alone. 

Did Padraic get drunk and offend his friend? He doesn't think so but Colm won't say either way. Eventually, after prodding from Padraic's sister, Siobahn (Kerry Condon), and the local priest, during confession, Colm finally says what is going on. In a blunt conversation, Colm says Padraic is boring and conversations with him are a waste of time. Colm wants to spend what life he has left, however many years that is, building a legacy for himself by writing music and creating art and he can no longer afford to have Padraic wasting his time with nattering, inane conversations about farming. 

The story of The Banshees of Inisherin is set in 1923 on a fictional island off of the coast of Ireland. The tiny village is lined with rock walls and dirt walkways and roads. Everyone is in everyone else's business all the time. Gossip is trade on Inisherin and thus, the unexpected conflict between Colm and Padraic becomes a top conversation. As the story evolves and the sweet, naïve, and sensitive Padraic tries to reach out to his friend, things take a dark and darkly comic turn. I don't want to spoil any of the oddity of The Banshees of Inisherin, the strange and unexpected twists and turns, especially from Gleeson's Colm drive the second start of the third act of The Banshees of Inisherin. 

The Banshees of Inisherin is strange only because it's a story that isn't often told in movies, a story of male friendship and companionship. Director Martin McDonaugh is exploring the complex dynamic of masculinity and friendship in a sensitive and terrifically odd way. The character of Padraic is representative of a group of men who define themselves in their work, they keep their head down and they let the world happen around them. Colm, through his age and experience, is eager to be a man with a legacy, a man to be remembered. He wants to make things happen while Padraic just wants to have a pint with someone. 

The unique dynamic between these two men, one complicated and fraught, the other simple and resigned, is fascinating as much for the heart and soul that Gleeson and Farrell invest in these characters as it is for the unusual topic of complicated male friendships. I'm resisting assigning political metaphors to each character but that is certainly one reading. One man thinking of the future and a legacy, the other wanting the world to stay as it is. One man willing to go to extremes to push forward the other lost in despair at what is being lost. 

Read my complete review on Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Anatolian Leopard

Anatolian Leopard (2021) 

Directed by Emre Kayis 

Written by Emre Kayis 

Starring Ugar Polat, Ipek Turktan, Tansu Bicer 

Release Date November 4th, 2022 

An incredibly sad man visits his daughter as she prepares to play as part of a symphony concert. He's arrived with a gift to give her and ever so briefly we can see happiness in his eyes. He's greeted warmly by his daughter but the camera captures the scene at a distance as the pleasantries of father and daughter aren't all that important. The brief pleasantries are interrupted by the arrival of a woman about the age of the sad man. Context indicates that this is the mother of said daughter. 

Trailing immediately behind the mother who immediately has taken over the scene with excitement and photos and selfies, are another older man and a young boy. Again, just reading the context clues, the dialogue is entirely made up of pleasantries heard from a distance as the camera remains several feet away across a crowded room, we know that this is the mother's new husband and son. The age of the boy indicates that the sad man and the mother have not been together in a long time. 

There is also a slight indication that the marriage ended badly as the two don't share even a minor pleasantry, she pushes past him and in his sadness, the sad man recedes into the background. It's not just the movement of the actors, it's the contrast in the costumes. The sad man is dressed sadly, bland dark colors, rumpled, and indistinct. The mother is dressed in a bright white expensive fur coat and the husband and son, though not dressed in bright colors, they are dressed in shades brighter than the sad man that help to notably set them apart. 

The cherry on top of the scene is the mother handing her daughter a gift. She has purchased a home in London for her daughter who appears to be traveling there to further her career. The sad man decides not to give his far more modest gift, preferring to slink away and leave quietly after the daughter excuses herself to hurry to the stage. The aching sadness of the scenario, the staging, the costume, all of this remarkable detail in this scene from the much hailed Turkish film Anatolian Leopard is delivered in barely more than 2 minutes of screen time. 

I adore this. I am celebrating the remarkable work of director Emre Kayis in this moment. Far too many films lack the skill to deliver this much astonishing yet simple detail without reams of expository dialogue. No one in this scene introduces themselves, we are asked to read the room and color in the details of the moment in our mind. That might seem simple since, as movie goers, we are trained to absorb mundane details, but when you watch as many movies as I do you come to appreciate moments like this where film technique tells the story rather than ham-handed screenwriting. 

This quiet, seemingly unimportant moment provides the back story of our main character, that incredibly sad man we will come to know as Fikret, though everyone calls him The Director. He has a daughter though they aren't close. He's divorced, unhappily so, and his wife has moved on with great success. He's humble, sad, reserved and ashamed. This scene is the thesis statement on the motivation for the rest of the movie, for everything that will come after this scene. It's just over two minutes and a complete statement about the character and this movie is set in place. 

Fikret is The Director of a state run Zoo in his home country of Turkey. The zoo is set to be torn down and replaced by a tacky theme park and The Director's career, the one thing that has defined the past 22 years of his life, is being taken from him. Rather than be bitter, The Director is resigned and simply awaits his fate like a condemned man. His every action is like a last tribute to who he was and goodbye the people he has met along the way. 

The only thing standing in the way of Fikret's condemnation is the Anatolian Leopard, a rare and endangered species of big cat. The zoo cannot be closed and torn down until the Leopard is moved safely to another zoo. Until then, the status quo of the zoo remains in place. Fikret isn't actively keeping the Leopard from being moved but he isn't acting quickly to comply with his orders either. Then, something happens that changes the movie from a bleak character study to a dark comedy of manners and mild murder mystery. 

It's a shift so subtle and ingenious that you catch yourself being surprised by your own smiles and chuckles as the film progresses. All the while, Fikret only occasionally rises from his stupor. The brief and muted comedy and the murder mystery happen around him in the margins, even as he is the catalyst for it all through one big and surprising decision he makes. That decision briefly brings light to his life via his friendship with his assistant, Gamze (Ipek Turktan) who helps him unexpectedly. 

The rest of Anatolian Leopard I will leave you to discover for yourself. I know mainstream American audiences don't see many foreign films but I do hope you will give this film a chance. It's small and thoughtful and incredibly well constructed and it deserves an audience. The performances are lovely and sad, the slow burn story and the quietly developed themes are exceptionally captured by a very skilled and caring director in Emre Kayis. 

Find the rest of my review of Anatolian Leopard at Geeks.Media.