November Highlights Part 3: Wish, Napoleon, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

The studios decided to release a slew of blockbusters for the Thanksgiving weekend and I have watched them all. What follows are reviews of three films, two of which are two and half hours long, and one of which is 90 minutes. No points for guessing which one gets my least tepid recommendation.

Wish: Written by Jennifer Lee and Allison Moore and directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn, this is Disney's latest effort in giving us a strong female character who isn't motivated by a love interest but is capable of getting shit done by herself (but also with the help of family, friends, a goat, and a star). Our heroine is 17-year-old Asha (voiced by Ariana DeBose) and she lives in the magical realm of Rosas that is ruled by a supposedly benevolent sorcerer named King Magnifico (deliciously voiced by Chris Pine). He is the protector of all the citizen's wishes - these are their most heartfelt desires, and at the age of eighteen, they hand their wish over to Magnifico to relieve themselves of the burden of carrying this wish in their hearts. In return, Magnifico will periodically hold a Wish Ceremony where he will grant one citizen's wish.

Asha applies to be the King's apprentice, but during the interview, she quickly realizes that maybe he isn't quite the benevolent ruler she believed him to be. When he refuses to grant the wish of her 100-year-old grandfather, she sets off a radical chain of events that leads to a lot of magic, revolution, and everyone in Rosas discovering the importance of having a life's purpose. It's a sweet film, the animation is quite lovely, and the cute side characters (including a goat voiced by Alan Tudyk and a very adorable wishing star) are peak Disney magic. I definitely did NOT like the songs though - the lyrics created a syncopated rhythm that rubbed me the wrong way, but maybe after repeated listening I'll get on board (that has already happened to me when it comes to the main song, just not the other ones). Overall, it's a solid effort, and Asha is a great addition to the stable of Disney princesses. So if you want some light holiday fare this weekend, this movie might fulfill your wish.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: Directed by Francis Lawrence, from a screenplay by Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt adapted from Suzanne Collins' novel, this is a prequel to The Hunger Games trilogy that gives us the background of Coriolanus Snow, the man who would eventually become the brutal President of Panem. In this story, Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) is an 18-year-old student at the Academy. He is a Capitol citizen, but his family has fallen on hard times after the death of his father, and they are barely scraping by. Coriolanus is determined to win the Plinth Prize scholarship to alleviate his family's financial woes, but in a twist, it turns out the Prize will be awarded to the student who serves as the best mentor in the 10th annual Hunger Games. Coriolanus's mentee is Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Ziegler) from District 12 and as he tries to gain her trust and help her survive in the Hunger Games, a dangerous love story unfolds.

Listen, you don't need me to spoil the rest of the story, you already know that Coriolanus turns out to be a ruthless tyrant. But this is his origin story, highlighting the many choices he could have made and how he finally succumbed to ruthless ambition instead of his heart. The movie is well done but could have done with more judicious editing. It also turns into a bit of a musical, because Lucy Gray is a singer and she sings way too much in this film (probably in a bid to replicate Jennifer Lawrence's success on music charts when she sang The Hanging Tree in the previous movies). The best character is the film, however, is Lucky Flickerman (played to perfection by Jason Schwartzman), the first TV host of the Hunger Games. The events of the Games are horrific, but his ability to recap them with a bizarrely comic insouciance is incredible. I still can't think of him referring to one of the contestants as "ill Dill" without giggling. So yes, if you're a fan of the franchise, this might be worth a trip to the theater. But if you've never watched The Hunger Games before, skip this one. It is definitely not a feel-good holiday film. 

Napoleon: Written by David Scarpa and directed by Ridley Scott, this is the story of Napoleon's ascent to power, his marriage to Josephine, and eventual descent. When I got out of this movie, all I had to say was, "This is making me question whether Ridley Scott ever made good movies - what with House of Gucci, and now this film, I don't know why we ever thought the man was a good filmmaker." So yeah, it's a pretty brutal two and a half hours at the movies. I nearly cheered when we were finally introduced to the Duke of Wellington because I knew that meant the Battle of Waterloo was imminent and Napoleon's fall from grace was nigh. But it still took another forty minutes for the movie to wrap up from there.

This is a movie with many battle set pieces that are beautifully choreographed but oh so repetitive after a while. After all, there's a limit to how many horses and men I need to see slaughtered by cannonball. Also, like with most Scott movies, there's a baffling lack of attention to accents that is so distracting - every actor gets to choose how they talk, so despite everyone purportedly being French, we have Joaquin Phoenix playing Napoleon with an American accent, while Josephine (Vanessa Kirby) and most of his advisors are British. The "love" story is dumb and useless, and basically what you expect when men are in charge of a film and want to throw a bunch of incoherent sex scenes into a film to liven up proceedings. Also, weirdly, the score from Pride & Prejudice would play when Josephine and Napoleon had scenes together, and that is the greatest indignity of all, because that music is sacred and reserved for Elizabeth and Darcy, goddammit! The entire movie's color scheme is dark and dingy and blue, and overall, it was less of a spectacle and more of a snooze. I had no sense of why Napoleon was doing anything, but all I wanted was for him to get exiled soon so I could leave. To quote Jared Leto from House of Gucci - Boof.