Movie Review Anatomy of a Fall

Anatomy of a Fall (2023) 

Directed by Justine Triet 

Written by Justine Triet, Arthur Harari 

Starring Sandra Huller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado Graner 

Release Date August 23rd, 2023 

Published December 11th, 2023 

A man is found dead in a pool of his own blood lying outside of his home. Tragically, the first person to find his body is his young son, a boy who was partially blinded in an accident several years earlier. He can see up close and it's not until he's up close to the body of his late father that the gravity of what he can see really hits him. Boy screams for his mother who comes running. The police are called and a grueling investigation is set to occur to determine how the man got from the attic of the home where he was installing insulation to being dead on the ground outside of his home. 

Suicide is the story that Sandra Voyter (Sandra Huller) is going with but there are questions about her account of what occurred. Sandra has lied about key details of what led to her husband's death. She lies about how close they were, she lies about having had a screaming argument with him. Caught in the midst of all of this is the boy, Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner) whose memory of that day will be the key to unlocking what happened that day. Did Sandra murder her husband after a particularly nasty argument? Did dad take his own life by throwing himself out of a third story window? That's the mystery that drives Anatomy of a Fall. 

Directed by Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall is a gripping courtroom thriller. Featuring an icy and fierce leading performance by Sandra Huller, Anatomy of a Fall separates itself from the legal drama genre by taking what is familiar and doing it better. It helps a great deal that we are in a French courtroom and not an American one. The French, according to this movie, my only reference point, follow a much more loose structure. Lawyers for the prosecution and defense are allowed to linger over theories and converse with people who are not currently on the witness stand. It's strange to watch if you've never seen a court room thriller in France and that raises the bar for this relatively creaky genre. 

I was captivated when the prosecuting attorney turned from the person who was testifying and began addressing Huller's Sandra directly to get her reaction in real time to what the witness had alleged. In an American courtroom this would be out of line and would like get a contempt citation. In France, this is normalized behavior and Sandra is forced to address the evidence presented as it is presented. The prosecutor can turn heel and speak to Sandra as if she were on the witness stand at all times. This does give Sandra a chance to respond to all of the evidence presented but it's also intentionally jarring as Sandra is given no chance to be ready when the spotlight falls on her. 

The court structure of Anatomy of a Fall is enough to create a gripping legal story but it takes a truly great lead performance to bring it all together and that is certainly what we get from Sandra Huller as author Sandra Voyter. Though she maintains her innocence throughout the movie, you can sense that she's holding things back, hiding things away, and that leads you to, at the very least, wonder whether or not she could have killed her husband. The film smartly lays out the case of how the murder could have happened while deftly avoided a deliberate recreation that might tip the hand of the movie. 

Triet doesn't want us to see Sandra as the killer, even in a dream scenario. Rather, she allows the court case to frame our feelings about Sandra and allows the room for Huller to reveal the character, her flaws, and the reasons that might make her appear guilty. The court scenes in Anatomy of a Fall are so well done that you need little more than hearing about what is happening, placing you in direct connection with Daniel, the only fully innocent character in the movie. Torn between believing his mother and hearing horrible things about his mother and how she has slept around during her marriage to his father, Daniel struggles with the adult task of deciding what is true and not true about his mother. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review It's A Wonderful Knife

It's a Wonderful Knife (2023) 

Directed by Tyler McIntyre 

Written by Michael Kennedy

Starring Jane Widdop, Jess McLeod, Joel McHale, Justin Long, Katherine Isabelle 

Release Date November 10th, 2023 

Published December 5th, 2023 

Do you ever see a movie character, most often a side character, whom you adopt as your own? This happened to me as I watched the new holiday horror movie, It's A Wonderful Knife. The introduction of the character Bernie, played by Jess McLeod, won me over immediately. The adorable, shy, sad, outcast that McLeod plays is called Weirdo by everyone she meets but her actual name is Bernie and she's wonderful. My mantras became, as It's a Wonderful Knife played out, became "Protect Bernie at All Cost" and "If Bernie Dies, the Movie is Over." McLeod is just that good at being lovely, sweet, and sympathetic. My heart rose and fell with Bernie. 

That's not to take anything away from the star of It's a Wonderful Knife, Jane Widdop's Winnie, she's also terrific. It's just that I identified far more with Bernie's struggle than anyone else's. Outcasts stick together. Once you have seen It's a Wonderful Knife you can begin to understand why my adopting Bernie as my favorite character made the movie a rollercoaster of jump scares and cathartic surprises as Bernie's role grows in the 3rd act in the most unexpected and wonderful ways. Ways that actually use her as a way to honor the beloved holiday classic that lends its premise to this holiday horror flick. 

It's a Wonderful Knife stars Jane Widdop as Winnie, a teenager from a happy family with a great brother, Jimmy (Aiden Howard) and two loving parents, David (Joel McHale) and Judy (Erin Boyes). It's Christmas Eve and the family is supposed to be together but David is called to go to work. His boss, Henry Waters (Justin Long), is the richest man in town and feels no guilt about separating David from his family on Christmas, especially when a shady deal needs to get done. Henry needs to demolish one historic home to get his massive mall project up and running and he needs David to help lean on the elderly homeowner, something David doesn't want to do. 

That same night, Winnie decides to attend a party with her boyfriend Pete and her best friend, Cara (Hana Huggins). It's a fateful choice as a serial murderer is suddenly on the loose. He's dressed all in white and he's murdered the old man whose house was coveted by Henry Waters. The killer then tagets Cara who happens to be the granddaughter of the old man. Cara was to inherit the house that Waters wants and so she ends up brutally stabbed to death along with her boyfriend. Winnie's brother, Jimmy is nearly killed after confronting the killer and keeping him from killing Winnie. Jimmy survives because Winnie uses jumper cables to murder the serial killer. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Eileen

Eileen (2023) 

Directed by William Oldroyd 

Written by William Oldroyd, Luke Goebel 

Starring Thomasin McKenzie, Anne Hathaway, Shea Whigham 

Release Date December 8th, 2023 

Published December 8th, 2023 

Someone is sitting in a car on the side of a lake with smoke filling the vehicle. Someone is apparently committing suicide by smoke inhalation. The scene shifts back in time, the owner of the car, whom you presume is the person committing suicide in the opening scene. We meet our main character, Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) as she's in this same car, sitting next to this same lake but this time she's surrounded by other cars. She's alone in her vehicle while watching other cars where people are making out. She starts to touch herself but thinks better of it. Opening her car door, Eileen grabs some dirty snow and stuffs it down the front of her dress, seeming to quell her burning loins. 

Sexual repression and inexperience has a big role to play, or so you assume, in Eileen as our mousy protagonist comes out of her shell when basking in the glow of an older and more worldly woman. Eileen works as an assistant secretary at a prison somewhere in Massachusetts. Her days are the same, working, going unnoticed, suffering from sexual frustration, and going home to her drunk bully of a father, a former cop named Jim (Shea Whigham). Having been retired or fired from being the chief of police, he now spends everyday getting drunk and waving his service revolver around. 

Only Eileen appears capable of calming him down though her means of doing that is to fetch him a fresh bottle. Eileen's life is altered forever when she meets to the prison psychiatrist, Rebecca (Anne Hathaway, in full Hitchcock blonde mode). Rebecca seems to adopt the mousy and shy Eileen as the only person close to her in age and attractiveness. Eileen seemingly seduces the inexperienced Eileen who realizes that she doesn't mind having an older woman attracted to her romantically. This doesn't go anywhere but, it does provide motivation for a third act twist that's intended to be shocking but feels more random, as if the story needed to create drama that just hadn't emerged to that point. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review The Boy and the Heron

The Boy and the Heron (2023) 

Directed by Hiyao Miyazaki 

Written by Hiyao Miyazaki 

Starring Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Aimyon, Yoshino Kimura 

Release Date December 8th, 2023 

Published December7th, 2023 

In 2013 it appeared that the gorgeous and utterly brilliant film, The Wind Rises, would be the last animated feature film from Hiyao Miyazaki. It appeared that at the age of 72, Miyazaki was ready to step away from his home studio, Studio Ghibli and spend his days curating the Studio Ghibli catalogue and museum presentations. Three years into his retirement however, Miyazaki got a story in his head and he could not shake it. In 2016, Miyazaki began working in secret on what would become The Boy and the Heron, another lovely, graceful, and gorgeous exploration of childhood grief, sadness, and recovery. No surprise, it's another work of genius from perhaps the finest director of animated features ever. 

The Boy and the Heron features the voice of Somo Santoki as Mahito, a boy who lost his mother in World War 2. The hospital where Mahito's mother worked was bombed and she was killed in the blast. Soon after, Mahito's father moves himself and his son out of Tokyo to a village on the outskirts where he has a factory. More importantly, this is where his wife's sister, Natsuko (Yoshino Kimura), is living and preparing to have a baby. Natsuko will provide a motherly presence for Mahito at a time when he needs such an influence. 

Of course, this won't be an easy transition. The relationship between Mahito and Natsuko is troubled early on, especially with Mahito's father spending most of his time at his factory where he is manufacturing parts for planes that will be going to war. As Mahito and Natsuko struggle to find common ground, Mahito's attention is captured by a Grey Heron (Masaki Sudo), who cryptically keeps showing up in the house and seemingly trying to capture Mahito's attention. The Grey Heron eventually speaks to Mahito and promises that he can take Mahito to a place where he can see and speak to his late mother. 

A strange tower on the family land leads to a mystical and often frightening realm somewhere in between life and death. Traveling into this mystical realm, Mahito will get a chance to see his mother again and interact with her. But, he's also drawn here because Natsuko has been drawn here as well and is being held captive. Mahito wants to save the woman who has become a new mother to him and is about to give birth to a child who will be Mahito's new little brother or sister. Assisting Mahito in this strange realm is Kiriko, one of Natsuko's elderly hand maidens who is returned to her youthful self in this world. Here she oversees the beginning of new life while protecting pre-born souls from from desperate pelicans somehow trapped in this realm. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Classic Movie Review Black Christmas

Black Christmas (1974) 

Directed by Bob Clark 

Written by A. Roy Moore 

Starring Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Andrea Martin, Lynne Griffin, Margot Kidder, John Saxon 

Release Date December 20th, 1974

Published December 4th, 1974 

A static shot of a home at night greets as our entry point to Black Christmas, Bob Clark's legendary holiday slasher movie. Clark holds the shot of the house throughout the credits, which include the title of the film in a lovely script known, according to find my font, as the Pamela Font created by Dieter Steffman, a German designer with a long history of creating unique fonts used by The Rolling Stones for their album covers, among many other iconic pop culture fonts. The font is not important but, it's a minor fascination for me and I love the idea that there are people in the world who are famous for creating fonts. 

Following the end of the credits we cut to the front door of the house. The Greek letters on the outside of the home and the fact that a young woman enters the front door, lead us to the correct assumption that this is a Sorority House, home to a number of young college aged women. After we've seen the woman enter and a camera pan to a nearby window communicates what appears to be a party underway, we cut back to the front door but things are different now. Instead of a steady camera pan or a static shot, we are now in a perspective shot. We are in the perspective of someone approaching the sorority. As Christmas music plays inside, the soundtrack is dominated by the heavy breathing of the person whose perspective we have assumed. 

The subtle shift in camera style is skillfully played by director Bob Clark and his cinematographer, Reginald H. Morris. Even someone who doesn't pay close attention to such things as the way the camera is used in a particular scene, will understand the shift from a standard series of shots establishing a place and a status quo, will recognize that the camera perspective has shifted from a passive to an active participant in the scene. The Christmas music falls away, replaced by a subtle, deep bass, slightly unnerving. The breath of this new character is underscored by a chilling wind sound effect, the cold underlining the chill you feel as this heavy breathing individually slowly makes their way to the door of the Sorority. 

Without a word spoken, Bob Clark has amped up the tension and placed you in the perspective of an unseen character who may or may not be a dangerous killer. If you know the movie you are watching is a horror film, the title Black Christmas, is pretty good lead in that direction, then you can infer that you, the audience, are the killer. Clark here is commenting on the horror movie in general. Placing the audience in the perspective of the killer is an indictment of an audience who comes to a horror movie to watch people die. In the span of less than 2 minutes, Clark has demonstrated a mastery of film form that will play out further as he introduces actual dialogue, characters, and incident into Black Christmas.

The scene then transitions as the unseen heavy breathing person steps forward and the camera returns to its previous status as an observer of events. The shadow of this unknown individual crowds the frame, seeming to move forward toward the windows of the Sorority House and as this person slowly approaches the house, the camera recedes until we jump inside the house and a Sorority member, we will come to know as Barb (Margot Kidder), descends the stairs. Inside the house, the front door is open, presumably having been opened by the unseen man but, he's still outside, the open door is a red herring of sorts, a distraction. We are thrust back into first person perspective soon after as the unseen character climbs a trellis to an open window in the attic. 

Find my full length review at Horror.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 All of Us Strangers

All of Us Strangers (2023) 

Directed by Andrew Haigh

Written by Andrew Haigh 

Starring Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, Claire Foy 

Release Date August 31st, 2023 

Published December 4th, 2023 

Imagine returning to your childhood home as an adult and finding members of your family who have long since died, living there. They see the adult you that they never knew but they still recognize you and welcome you inside. You share laughter and memories and tears and promises are made about more visits. That's where the movie, All of Us Strangers from writer-director Andrew Haigh, begins. Adam, played by Andrew Scott, lost his parents when he was quite young. The harm from this traumatic loss has lingered through his entire life. When he returns to his childhood home and is greeted by his parents as he remembered them from youth, the confusion, heartache, and catharsis are bubbling over. 

If that's where the story of All of Us Strangers begins, you can't begin to imagine how it ends but I won't spoil that here. Adam is a deeply sheltered and broken man. As an adult he lives in an eerily empty apartment building in London. The lonely hallways are underlined by a scene where a fire alarm goes off and Adam retreats from the building surrounded by no one else. As he glances up to the building, there are so few people around that he is able to lock eyes with a neighbor who blew off the alarm and remained in the building. Adam knows he and his neighbor are communicating because no one else is around. 

That neighbor is Harry (Paul Mescal) who took their unique meet-cute, Adam glancing up at the building, Harry smiling and waving to him, as an invitation to meet Adam at Adam's apartment. After Adam has returned to the building, Harry is at his apartment door. He has a special bottle of whiskey and offers to share it with his lonely neighbor. The implications here are not subtle, Harry is openly flirtatious and Adam reluctantly so. Despite Harry's charm, Adam sends him away. That's not the last we will see of Henry however, as eventually, Adam's interaction with his late parents, played by Jamie Bell and Claire Foy, to take a chance on his own potential happiness. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media