"B" Movies: Barbarian, Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva, Breaking

Yes, I have now watched so many films that I'm starting to categorize them alphabetically. What follows is some horror, Bollywood, and drama, all catering to a variety of tastes and demographics. Wade on in to see if you find something you like. 

Barbarian: I had zero interest in watching this movie - I saw the trailer in front of a lot of movies all summer long and it seemed like a straight-up horror movie about strangers who get terrorized by something lurking in the basement of their Airbnb. But then the reviews said this movie had other elements that weren't captured by the trailer. Most crucially...it was funny. Well then. You know that the only horror I'm into is funny horror, so I headed out to see what all the fuss was about.

Written and directed by Zach Cregger, this is a film that is told in three acts, and while the smash cuts are abrupt and give you a bit of whiplash, all three parts coalesce to a wonderful whole about how white men are the scourge of this earth. Or at least, that's my feminist interpretation. The movie opens with Tess (Georgina Campbell) and Keith (Bill Skarsgard) who are strangers sharing an Airbnb after a booking mishap. When Tess discovers a creepy hidden room in the basement, she naturally wants to run far away. Keith, as a typical white man, thinks she is being hysterical and goes down to investigate. Which is when things go very wrong. I won't provide further details about what happens after that, but let me just say it involves more white men doing dumb/evil things, and it all escalates in fine fashion. 

There are some laugh-out-loud moments in the second act of this film involving an unexpected actor. And the third act is very gory and dramatic, but all lends itself to this film's central premise - when all is said and done, who is truly the Barbarian in this movie? 

Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva (God that's a lot of punctuation): Again, I had zero interest in watching this movie, Bollywood's attempt to create an "Astraverse," which is like a Marvel Cinematic Universe but based on a ramshackle ode to Hindu mythology. However, my boyfriend dragged me to the theatre and what followed was a three-hour extravaganza that was pretty dumb, but made me laugh a lot at how dumb it was, so that was a win.

My main takeaway is that Bollywood has finally learned how to do special effects. I couldn't fault the CGI in this film; it was all very well done and I didn't cringe at any of the effects-laden action scenes. But oh boy did I cringe at the dialogue. The central romance between Shiva (Ranbir Kapoor) and Isha (Alia Bhatt) involves barely any communication beyond randomly saying "I love you" to each other at stark intervals, and the rest of the movie is just exposition upon exposition to explain the convoluted jimjams and McGuffins that make up this universe. There's so much world-building required here, and writer-director Ayan Mukerji is very into Tell, not Show. 

So yeah. Expect this movie to be dumb. But you can revel in its dumbness and have a great time. There's not enough music and dancing, so if that's your main draw for a Bollywood movie, you will be disappointed, but if you just want Amitabh Bachchan fighting mythological warriors with a flaming sword, you might be sated.

Breaking: Finally, a movie that I did want to see. And it certainly did not disappoint. Deftly directed by Abi Damaris Corbin, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Kwame Kwei-Armah, this film is based on the true story of Brian Brown-Easley, a Marine Corps veteran who walked into a bank and took two managers hostage in order to gain attention about how unfairly he is being treated by the Veterans Administration.

John Boyega plays Brian, while Nicole Beharie and Selenis Leyva are Estel and Rosa, the two bank managers trying to stay calm while dealing with this man who is strangely polite and considerate but also claims to have a bomb in his bag that will blow the bank up. And I was surprised and moved to realize that this movie also stars Michael K. Williams in his final film role as Eli Bernard, the negotiator tasked with talking to Brian and ensuring that this situation doesn't continue to escalate. Connie Britton also plays a pivotal role as Lisa Larson, a local TV news producer who Brian contacts to get some publicity. As she calmly talks to him to get the whole story, she is definitely channeling Tammy Taylor from Friday Night Lights.

This is a sad but also enraging story that picks at many of the scabs of American society - the lack of an adequate safety net, the shoddy way we treat our veterans, how easy it is to slide into financial ruin, and of course, the extreme danger of being a Black man in America. Throughout the film, Brian knows he's on thin ice because he is a Black man committing a crime, and the two bank managers, who are both women of color, whilst terrified, also have such empathy for his plight. But as much as these characters are trying to help each other, the system is going to get in the way. It's a taut, moving film, with a tour de force central performance from Boyega. It's not a feel-good watch, but it certainly feels like a necessary one.