February Films Part 2: Lisa Frankenstein, Drive-Away Dolls, Next Goal Wins, Bank of Dave, Nai Nai & Wai Po

This month has featured a real hodgepodge of films so here's an update on two films in theaters, and three you can catch on streaming if it's too cold to leave the house.

Lisa Frankenstein: I saw this film and I promptly forgot all about it until I sat down to write this review. So that is certainly not a ringing endorsement Directed by Zelda Williams and written by Diablo Cody, this film is a genre mash-up set in the 1980s, that tells the story of Lisa (Kathryn Newton), a teenage girl who suffered a personal trauma when her mother was murdered and now is having a hard time getting along with her father's new wife (played to catty perfection by Carla Gugino). Her new stepsister, Taffy (Liza Soberano), is very kind, but is also a very cheerful cheerleader, which doesn't quite gel with Lisa's whole silent gothic vibe. Of course, Lisa loves hanging out at the local cemetery, and one day, during a storm, a lightning strikes animates the corpse of a Victorian-era man who was buried there (played by Cole Sprouse). He shows up at Lisa's house and she must hide him away in her bedroom. What follows is a bit of a high school tale, a bit of a romcom, a bit of gothic horror, and a whole lot of 80's tropes. 

The story is quite the hodgepodge and is all a bit aimless and forgettable. Everything seems very comic until it all gets very murderous towards the end. The most notable thing about this film is the aesthetic - it's definitely an homage to Lisa Frank, and every frame is suffused in vibrant fun colors that make this film always a pleasure to look at, even if it isn't always a pleasure to watch. I wouldn't recommend watching it in theaters, but if you need a bit of a diversion, or if teen gothic comedy horror is your jam, your mileage may vary.

Drive-Away Dolls: Directed by Ethan Coen, who also co-wrote the screenplay with his wife Tricia Cooke, this movie is set in 1999 and stars the spectacular duo of Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan as two lesbians who unwittingly steal a valuable briefcase and are now on the run from all the unsavory folk who are trying to retrieve it. Many hijinks ensue, including various delightful cameos from award-winning actors.

This movie is exactly what you would expect from a Coen brother. It's a little raunchy, a little bloody, and a whole lot silly. You are not going to be able to predict what is in that suitcase and why. Ultimately, that's not even very important, because the point of this film is to watch these two women on a road trip, learning to navigate their different approaches to getting laid at lesbian bars, and teaming up to defeat some incompetent gangsters. This is such a spectacularly queer movie, and all it cares about is exploring how women fall in love and/or lust, while the men are just a bunch of buffoons causing unnecessary violence. It's a diverting and fun two hours at the movies and certainly is the most unique experience you can hope to have this month. Down with the patriarchy!

Next Goal Wins: Directed by Taika Waititi who also co-wrote the screenplay with Iain Morris, this movie is everything you may have expected from the trailer. It's an underdog sports story, based on the true story of the American Samoa football team, who were the worst football team in the world. They had never scored a goal in international competition, so the President of the country's Football Association, Tavita (played here by the incredible Oscar Kightley), decided to advertise for a coach from the US. He got Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender), a man who had coached several US MLS teams but was currently being banished to American Samoa for increasingly volatile behavior. So now we have a mean coach with a chip on his shoulder, and a team of lovable misfits who have never scored a single goal. Can you see where this is all going?

You're going to get training montages, heartbreak, inspirational monologues, disappointments, triumphs, and a lot of personal growth. There's a whole journey in the coach's relationship with Jaiyah Saelua (Kaimana), a non-binary fa'afafine member of the team, who ended up being the first trans player in international soccer. There's a lot of cultural adjustment that needs to happen and plenty of mockery of this white man and his preconceived notions of Samoans. This is not a surprising or revolutionary movie by any means, but it is certainly a fun treat if you love this particular film genre and need a great team of underdogs to root for.

Bank of Dave: Speaking of rooting for the underdog, here's another wonderful tale of a man who went up against unscrupulous British bankers after the 2008 global financial crisis. This movie tells the true-ish story (and that "ish" is doing a LOT of work here, because this movie is heavily fictionalized) of Dave Fishwick (Rory Kinnear), a successful businessman from Burnley who started lending money to friends and members of the local community when they were getting turned down for bank loans. He loaned out nearly a million pounds and every single person returned his money back to him. So he comes up with the idea of setting up a local bank that would serve the community and give all profits back to local charities. However, in order to set up a bank, you need a banking license, so he hires a lawyer named Hugh (Joel Fry) to help with all the paperwork. Together, the two of them embark on a real David vs Goliath quest against the London regulators, who haven't approved a new banking license in over 150 years.

Written by Piers Ashworth and directed by Chris Foggin, this is a great story about taking down the establishment, tearing down the banking boy's club, and arguing for more socialism and less late-stage capitalism. It has a lot of "eat the rich" energy, and as someone who works for a British bank, you know I enjoyed all the sections talking about capital requirements and compliance. But overall, this is just a sweet, fun, typically British film about fighting for what's right, and having a small town in the North go up against greedy rich men in London. It's charming, there's a romance subplot with Phoebe Dynevor from Bridgerton, and Hugh Bonneville gets to swan about as an evil villain called Sir Charles. I ate it up with a big ol' spoon - how could you not?!

Nai Nai and Wai Po: Don't have hours to spare to watch a movie? How about 17 minutes to watch a thoroughly charming Oscar-nominated short film? Directed by Sean Wang, this is a movie about his two grandmothers, who live together in a house in California. They may have started out as in-laws, but over the years, these two women have developed a deep and abiding friendship, and now they regard each other as sisters, even sleeping in the same bed. They are 83 and 94 years old, and they look out for each other, ensuring that they still feel cared for and loved in their old age. With their grandson at home, making this film, their silliest and wisest selves are unleashed, and over the course of 17 minutes, you will be treated to two old ladies who have really cracked the code of aging with grace and humor. You simply must watch this film. It will make you laugh, help you embrace your mortality, and give you a whole new idea of how to plan out your retirement.

Australian Binges: Fisk & Ms. Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries

The globalization of streaming means that I have suddenly found myself watching more TV from other countries than just my usual fare of British panel shows. Turns out Australians are making some pretty great TV, so it's time for you to indulge in some of their work.

Fisk: Created by Kitty Flanagan and Vincent Sheehan, this is a riotously funny show about a lawyer named Helen Tudor-Fisk (played by Flanagan) who needs to get a new job in Melbourne after both her love life and her work life fall apart in Sydney. She finds a temp gig at Gruber & Gruber, a firm run by the brother-and-sister team of Ray and Roz Gruber (Marty Sheargold and Julia Zemiro), who are in need of another pair of hands since Roz has just been struck off the register and can't practice law anymore. They specialize in probate law, so Helen suddenly finds herself inundated with clients who are contesting wills and getting into legacy disputes. All of which is bit hard on her as she is emphatically not a people person and is now having to deal with people when they are particularly emotional. 

The show is a hilarious workplace comedy that also has a giant beating heart. In just twelve episodes over two seasons, I fell hook, line, and sinker for the employees of this little law firm, as incompetent and zany as they may be, and the final scene truly brought a tear to my eye. These actors are absolute champions, and I desperately need to watch more seasons of this show ASAP because I am not ready to say goodbye to Melbourne. In the meantime, I'm going to be drafting up my will. If only I could get Fisk to help me.

Ms. Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries: I waxed poetic eleven years (!) ago on this blog about Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Well, I only recently discovered that creators Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger developed a spin-off in 2019. We now have a new heroine, Peregrine Fisher (Geraldine Hakewell), who is the niece of the now-dead Phryne Fisher from the original series. Peregrine never knew her aunt, but Phryne left her whole estate to her, so she moves to Melbourne, meets her aunt's friends at The Adventuresses' Club, and suddenly discovers that she might have shared Phryne's knack for solving murder mysteries. And of course, there's the hot police detective, James Steed (Joel Jackson), that she teams up with, whether he likes it or not.

The time period for this show is the 1960s so the production design is superbly psychedelic and Peregrine's wardrobe is a ravishing delight. The first season consists of four episodes that are each almost 90 minutes long, so you're essentially watching four compelling films. In the second series, we get eight 45-minute episodes, and let me promise you, there is a great story arc. I was a little surprised at how quickly the love story progressed in the first episode of that second season, but rest assured, these writers are consummate professionals, and they know how to turn things around. Each episode deals with a very unique and interesting case, and they also try to feature diverse storylines featuring people from all walks of life who ended up in Australia during this particular period of history. It's a fun, preposterous, engaging, and delicious show, and I wish there was more I could watch. Sadly, they pulled the plug after those two seasons, but if you have missed Phryne Fisher, I can assure you, Peregrine is a wonderful substitute.

February Films Part 1: Nyad, Rustin, The Zone of Interest

Yes, this is where you get reviews of all the Oscar-nominated films that were pending on my to-do list. I had a busy week getting caught up, and now you can read my reviews to see if you want to get caught up too.

Nyad: Written by Julia Cox and directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, this film tells the real-life story of Diana Nyad, a woman who completed a marathon swim from Cuba to Florida at the age of 64, a feat that she had previously failed as a young woman, and which no other swimmer had been able to complete in the intervening years. It's a remarkable story of perseverance and passion, and while I vaguely remember hearing about this story in the news, it was informative to spend two hours watching a movie about this woman and everything that needed to happen before she was able to accomplish this astonishing feat.

Annette Bening does an incredible job portraying Nyad, both in terms of the physicality of the role, but also conveying her slightly abrasive personality. It makes sense that in order to even think about such a feat, you need to have a slightly unhealthy level of self-confidence, and Diana can certainly be off-putting with her self-centeredness. As a counterbalance, therefore, we have Jodie Foster as her best friend and subsequently, coach, Bonnie Stoll, the stalwart right-hand woman who keeps the whole operation going and ensure that all Diana has to do is swim. 

While this movie is a little clunky and the special effects can sometimes look pretty obvious, I was incredibly moved by Bening and Foster's performances, and can see why they have been nominated for Oscars. The friendship portrayed between these two women is so touching, and accompanied by Alexandre Desplat's score, there were definitely moments that moved me to tears. I don't know why I expected this to be a story of how Nyad accomplished the swim on her first try; there were several attempts, and watching the plan evolve, and the lessons learned as she undergoes horrors like jellyfish swarms, sharks, unpredictable currents, etc. was thrilling. This is a great movie about what humans can accomplish when they put their mind to it, but also how they cannot accomplish these things alone. 

Rustin: Colman Domingo stars as Bayard Rustin, the gay civil rights leader who orchestrated 1963's March on Washington, the largest peaceful protest ever conducted to date. The movie briefly touches on earlier events in the 1950s when Rustin was a close collaborator of Martin Luther King's but was then forced to resign from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference after Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. threatened to leak rumors of a fake affair between Rustin and King. However, the movie then shifts to 1962 when Rustin gets the idea for this March and subsequently manages to use his powers of persuasion and organizational skills to accomplish this monumental feat of civil protest.

Written by Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black and directed by George C. Wolfe, this film highlights a Civil Rights pioneer that I had never heard of before. His sexual orientation played a big part in why he was relegated to roles behind-the-scenes, but the movie also points out how he truly believed in the cause and didn't mind taking a back seat as long as the work got done. This is a man who fought for what was right, didn't think any task was beneath him, and now rightfully deserves to be lauded for his phenomenal work that was instrumental in leading to the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

While the subject matter seems heavy, the film has a deft touch, with Domingo never portentously weighing down proceedings but ensuring we always see the energy and enthusiasm Rustin brought to this work. Are there horrific flashbacks to his past? Of course, the man is both Black and gay, his life was not easy. But this movie is a celebration of a man who did important, history-changing work, and you'll walk away from it with a sense of quiet wonder.

The Zone of Interest: Written and directed by Jonathan Glazer, who loosely based the story on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, this is a movie about Rudolf Hoss and his family. What's interesting about this family? Hoss was a Nazi and the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, and he and his family lived in an idyllic house right next door to the camp. So what follows is a film that occasionally seems to tell a tale of domestic peace and tranquility, and then will chillingly feature a line of dialogue or just a sound that makes it clear these people are absolute monsters.

The most notable aspect of this film is its sound design. You start to notice that while you might be able to hear some birds twittering in the background, you can also hear gunshots and screams and burning furnaces. It's the ultimate sign of human indifference - these people live next to a concentration camp and the sounds of genocide have merely become background noise to them. However, other aspects of this film were a little too artsy and incomprehensible for me and didn't work as well in keeping me engaged. And while I greatly appreciated the first half of the film that took place within the house and garden, the second half where Hoss is stationed in another location and is mostly dealing with other Nazi generals felt like a much less necessary film that had nothing new to say. 

Towards the end, there are some scenes where we see the modern-day Auschwitz Museum and the janitorial staff vacuuming the carpets and cleaning the windows of the exhibits. It is yet another chilling reminder of how the mundane business of living can be in such close proximity to such abject horror. This is a movie that has found a novel way to make you feel even more horrified by the Holocaust; while some of its ambitions far exceed its grasp, it still demands a viewing because it is so powerfully told.

2024 Plane Movies: Scrapper, Honor Society, Mafia Mamma

Anytime I take a vacation, I watch a bunch of movies on the plane. Sometimes they are not very good, but this time I got very lucky, with three rather surprisingly fun films that were filed under the category of "Movies Under Two Hours." I mean, what more could you want?

Scrapper: Written and directed by Charlotte Regan, this is a movie starring Lola Campbell as Georgie, a twelve-year-old girl who is living all by herself after her mother's death. Georgie has been lying to social services, claiming that she's living with her uncle, and no adults are aware of her current circumstances. Her best friend Ali (Alin Uzin) is well aware, but of course, hasn't told a soul, so the two of them have a grand time hanging out at her house and planning out their schemes to get rich by stealing bicycles and selling them for parts. Georgie is an extremely responsible child who is diligently paying the rent and cleaning the house, so there's no reason for anyone to suspect that anything's amiss, until her estranged father, Jason, comes home and discovers the current state of affairs.

Jason is played by the ubiquitous Harris Dickinson, who showed up in a bunch of films last year and is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors. Here he does a wonderful job as a bit of a wastrel who didn't stick around to take care of his partner or their daughter but must now find a way to reconcile with this young girl who is a stranger to him. The two of them have an uneasy truce, mostly because Georgie can't afford to have him rat her out to social services, but as the movie progresses, a fragile bond gradually develops between these two lonely people. It's a funny, sweet, and moving film, simply told, with heartfelt performances from its two lead actors. Lola Campbell is definitely a revelation and I look forward to seeing what she does next. Till then, just marvel at her work in this film.

Honor Society: Angourie Rice stars as Honor, a young woman who desperately wants to get out of her small town and decided early on that she could only achieve this goal by getting admitted to Harvard University. As such, her entire high school career has consisted of a series of careful calculations of academic excellence and extracurricular achievement. Now, in her senior year, she needs to get a coveted recommendation from her guidance counselor, who has a connection at Harvard. However, when she finds out that she is in competition with three other students to get this recommendation, she must come up with a plan to take down her competitors.

I know it all sounds a bit cutthroat, but trust me, this movie has a lot of heart. Honor's schemes initially exploit perceived weaknesses in her foes, but this woman isn't just some ruthless Tracy Flick, and there are some excellent twists and turns as her plans start to go awry. I saw some twists coming, but others were completely out of left field; this is a genuinely surprising and fun movie that I'm shocked I hadn't heard about until I got on a plane. Written by David A. Goodman and directed by Oran Zegman, this is a delightful high school comedy that is sure to brighten up your day.

Mafia Mamma: Written by Debbie Jhoon and Michael J. Feldman and directed by Catherine Hardwicke, this film kind of came and went at the theaters. But as I was watching it on the plane, my friend Laura kept leaning over and looking at my screen, finally going, "what are you watching, this movie looks really funny!" And yes, it is. Toni Colette stars as Kristin, a woman living in New Jersey who has just sent her only son off to college, discovered that her husband has been cheating on her, and is on thin ice with her bosses at her terrible job. Her life is a shambles, so when she gets a call from Italy informing her that her grandfather, who she never met, has died and appointed her executor of his will, she decides to fly off to Italy and have a grand vacation.

Unfortunately, her vacation plans don't quite come to fruition as she quickly discovers her grandfather was a mafia boss and she is now expected to take over the family business. What follows is a ridiculous comedy of a straight-laced American woman having to suddenly turn into an Italian mafia mamma. She is guided by her grandfather's consigliere, Bianca, played by the great and good Monica Bellucci, and is assisted by some henchmen, and each scene just keeps getting wilder, bloodier, and cruder as the movie progresses. This is a very R-rated comedy, and is well worth a viewing for its over-the-top histrionics. Is it the greatest movie ever made? Of course not. But is it shockingly entertaining? You bet.