December Movies: Emilia Perez, A Complete Unknown, The Piano Lesson, Nosferatu, Babygirl

New movies have been pouring into the theaters, and onto Netflix, so I’ve been desperately catching up, since many of them are also slated to get some love during awards season. As the year winds down, dive into these films as a last hurrah to 2024!

Emilia Perez: Written and directed by Jacques Audiard, based on his own opera libretto that was loosely based on the novel Ecoute by Boris Razon, this is a very bizarre but compelling movie about a trans Mexican cartel leader named Juan "Manitas" Del Monte (played by Karla Sofia Gascon), who needs to ensure her wife (played by Selena Gomez) and children are taken care of after she receives gender-affirming surgery and starts a new life. She hires/kidnaps Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldana), a lawyer who is brilliant but has never gotten the chance to exercise her brilliance in court. Rita is initially skeptical but then agrees to take on the work of helping Manitas find the right doctor and set all the wheels into motion so that she can live as her authentic self while ensuring her family is safe. Post-transition, Manitas is now Emilia, and while she thought she could just be happy on her own as a woman, she realizes she needs something more and asks Rita to help her once again. Oh also, this entire movie is a musical, with characters constantly breaking into song, in various languages. Tonally, it’s a wild ride, but the three main actresses are delivering outstanding performances, and the plot is so twisty and engaging that I was riveted throughout. It’s a movie that’s well worth streaming because it’s going to be unlike anything you’ve seen before. It’s weird, but it’s quite good, and isn’t that what we all aspire to be?

A Complete Unknown: Directed by James Mangold, off a script he wrote with Jay Cocks, based on the book Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald, this is a perfectly serviceable biopic that follows Bob Dylan (Timothee Chalamet) from the time he arrived in New York City in 1961 to the infamous Newport Folk Festival in 1965, when he shocked the world by playing with electric instruments. Along the way, we see the evolution of his relationship with his mentor Pete Seeger (played with a Mr. Rogers-esque kindness by Edward Norton), his romance with steadfast girlfriend Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning, playing Dylan's actual girlfriend Suze Rotolo, but Dylan requested the film not use her real name) and the tempestuous musical/romantic relationship with Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro, singing her beautiful heart out). It’s all very typical for a biopic, a genius man and his music, who has no time to be treating the women in his life well when he has all these songs to write. Blah blah. Chalamet’s performance is the truly extraordinary piece of this film, as he sings and plays guitar and harmonica, and does the world’s best Dylan impression. Give him the Oscar already. The film is 50% music, and not just Dylan’s, but a lot of Baez’s work too, which Monica Barbaro brilliantly performs and deserves her own Supporting Actor Oscar for. This movie is definitely worth it for the music and performances, but don’t go into it expecting any great revelations beyond the standard biopic fare.

The Piano Lesson: Directed by Malcolm Washington, who wrote the screenplay with Virgil Williams, adapting it from August Wilson’s play, this is the story of a piano that is sitting in the living room of a woman named Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler), and what happens when her brother, Boy Willie (John David Washington) travels up to her house to get this piano with the aim of selling it so he can buy the Mississippi farmland where their ancestors were previously enslaved. This piano has a lot of history, some of which is literally carved into its woodwork, and as the movie progresses, we slowly get the story of what this piano has been through, and also, what the members of this family have been through. Set in 1936, this is a classic tale of the African American experience on either side of the Mason-Dixon Line, and the poverty, racism, and fear, that keep impacting future generations of Black folk as they try to go about their lives. It’s also a ghost story, so be prepared for some fantastical elements you may not have necessarily expected. While Deadwyler delivers a great performance, I found it hard to really get into this film - given its play origins, it was ultimately too talky and not very cinematically compelling. I have yet to see John David Washington convince me that he’s a leading man, so again, I’d say this is a competent film, that continues Denzel Washington’s valiant plan to bring all of August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle plays to the screen for a wider audience. But this particular story did not grip me as much as Fences or Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, so maybe you're better off re-watching those films.

Nosferatu: Directed by Robert Eggers, who wrote the screenplay with inspiration from the 1922 silent film of the same name and Bram Stoker's Dracula, this is your standard vampire movie about a maniacal vampire who desires a woman (in this case, Ellen, played by Lily-Rose Depp), and must therefore wreak absolute havoc on a bunch of people is his diabolical quest to get laid. Can you tell I was not the target demographic? As always, Eggers is brilliant with his artistic vision, with breathtaking production design from Craig Lathrop, costumes by Linda Muir, and cinematography from Jarin Blaschke. And I legitimately had no idea Bill Skarsgard was the one playing Nosferatu, he is so creepy and vile throughout. Nicholas Hoult is great as Thomas, Ellen’s husband who is lured to do the vampire's bidding and then must fight him to try and save his wife. But ugh, I simply did not care. It all felt like a very elaborate plot that amounted to the same old, patriarchal nonsense where a woman must suffer so the rest of us can live, and everyone is being punished for being lusty, and yada yada yada. It’s all very well done, and if you love horror movies and vampires please run to the theater. But if you suspect this is not the kind of genre film that is your jam, then I am here to tell you, you are right, there is nothing novel here that will make it your jam.

Babygirl: Written and directed by Halina Reijn, this is a deeply weird but oddly compelling film, thanks to the central performance by Nicole Kidman. She plays Romy Mathis, a brilliant and successful CEO, who is married to a dashing theater director named Jacob (Antonio Banderas) and has two nice children. Her life is all perfect on the outside, but of course, all is not well on the inside. Because in 19 years of marriage, Romy has never had an orgasm with her husband and instead has to rely on porn to get off when he’s asleep. Well now, her company has hired a young intern named Samuel (Harris Dickinson), and Romy is irresistibly pulled into an erotic liaison with him, exploring the submissive power dynamic she has never been able to share with her husband. The theater I was in was filled with people who kept laughing at the sex scenes and outlandish bits of dialogue, so I suppose you could treat this as a comedy. But really, it’s just an erotic thriller, and Kidman delivers a knockout performance. The way she portrays Romy's vulnerability and constant need to hide herself and deny her urges is wondrous, and it’s equally wondrous to see her suffering behind the icy facade she has to put on for her family and colleagues outside of the bedroom. Harris Dickinson also continues to be eminently watchable on screen, being thoroughly creepy and hot and indecipherable all at once. And special shout-out to the score by Cristobal Tapia de Veer, which was truly one of the most engaging parts of the film. This movie is well worth a watch, even if it's hard to find it compelling these days to watch another rich white woman having a breakdown. In this case though, the breakdown is masterfully portrayed.