Quickies to Catch Up (pt 1): The Conjuring 3, A Quiet Place 2, Barb & Star 1
Friday, June 25, 2021 at 9:00AM It's been difficult to get back into the swing of things, especially since we're short on funds given how last season went with Hollywood shut down. That said, we're feeling a swing of summer energy coming so... watch out? stay tuned? cross fingers? Though we reviewed quite a few indies, docs, and festival entries, we've given mainstream stuff short shrift other than the beautifully made but maddeningly soft Cruella, the wondrously exuberant In the Heights, and the utterly lame Thunder Force. We'll be shocked if a worse movie arrives this year than the latter, which is sad since it's so easy to root for both of its leading actresses in a general career sense.
Without further ado let's get started on the catch-up (and fill out that review page) with four movies you probably saw that we didn't talk about. Let's fix that in the comment section...
BARB & STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR (Josh Greenbaum)
At 107 minutes Barb and Star comes close to understanding how fast comedies should be. Close but not quite. How can we get modern comedy directors to pick up the pace? Otherwise all the elements are here for a keeper. It's supremely silly, the actors are having a great time, and a few of the bits are inspired. My favourite elements were the brutally regimented non-sequitors of the "discussion" club, the evil scientist opening scene, the guffaw worthy stacked-up post-coital shot, and any time Barb (Annie Mumolo) and Star (Kristen Wiig) would kind of forget everyone and everything else was around (and by extension the movie) with their endlessly verbal best friendship. Kristen Wiig is a quadruple threat here as producer/co-writer/and double-dipped in acting (hero & villain) and continues to be a national treasure. (Technically speaking this was eligible for last season's Oscars but for us it's a 2021 film. But, you know, it's a purposely very silly comedy which is Oscar's least favourite kind of movie; they even like horror movies more!) B+/B
THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT (Michael Chaves)
While naysayers are correct that this isn't as good as the first two Conjuring films, that doesn't mean it is without good moments. The prologue is in media res tense with two inspired visual beats: those invisible claw marks in real time and the showerhead fingers. I shuddered typing both just now. The morgue scene later in the movie was just as intense with a snappy scare line "it works both directions", uttered with genre finesse by Vera Farmiga. As for the raison d'etre of the series, the happy working marriage of Lorraine (Farmiga) and Ed (Patrick Wilson) is shorthand at this point which is both for better (reliable!) and worse (too easy to coast on). Three films in though we still get a kick out of Vera's stuffy ultra-modest wardrobe with high collars. Pity that the climax isn't as scary as the opening since the movie feels frontloaded as a result. C+
A QUIET PLACE PART 2 (John Krasinski)
Despite the fact that the first film ended on a cliff-hanger it was an incongruously complete viewing experience. In other words we would have been satisfied had no sequel followed. Despite its superfluous nature, the sequel is happily just as well acted and viscerally compelling as the original, never wasting time on exposition (the bane of so many genre movies). Krasinski's decision to begin with a flashback, not to where we left off but before the events of the first film, is smart. You're immediately thrown off balance while it's also providing you exactly what you came to see: People running from scary aliens on the rampage! You're reminded of all this family lost and how resilient they always were during a pulse-pounding action sequence. He's really quite a good action/thriller director.
The narrative weight in the sequel has shifted from the parents to the deaf daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds, now 18) who is a freshly compelling protagonist. Cillian Murphy, who would have been the hero if this were made in earlier decades, is her dour but capable muscle on the side, a former neighbor they run into by chance while running away from certain death. It's all very swift (97 minutes!) and engaging. There's one sound-to-visual cut, which kicks off the finale, that is genuinely chilling/thrilling and the stuff mainstream movie blockbusters are made of. Still, two flaws are hard to look. First, Noah Jupe's character is saddled with some terribly unmotivated stupidity in order to provoke half of the two simultaneous climaxes. Second, the fate of Djimon Hounsou in the other half is problematic to say the least, given horror tropes. But all in all this is a very fun popcorn-devouring good time. B+
RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON (Don Hall, Carlos Lopez Estrada, Paul Briggs)
Have you ever had the feeling while watching a movie that something was missing but you couldn't place what? It's not a common feeling for me since usually I can place it but this all washed over me as Raya and the Last Dragon wrapped. Technically speaking it is another fine example of Disney craftsmanship. The motivations and agendas of the warring characters were nicely complex which is rare for an animated feature. Awkwafina does quite funny if anachronistically contemporary voice work as the dragon. Yet something about it felt soulless. Is it just that the mainstream animated adventure film has too many pre-programmed beats? Am I just tired of CG animation and its plasticy blend of photorealism with cartoon faces? Was it just that like Hunchback of Notre Dame (on the brain since we just discussed it) it has some tonal whiplash in trying to appeal to adults with dramatic complexity but also wanting to make little kids giggle with cute simple hijinks? Any help figuring this out in the comments is appreciated! Or perhaps you feel differently and everything worked for you. If so do shout it out as I really wanted to love this. B-
Reader Comments (9)
RAYA worked for me, but it was more the experience of seeing "my" people on screen than anything. Plus the whole "found family/group of different people coming together" always gets me. I did think it was slightly boiler-plate, but again at least it was boiler-plate featuring different kinds of characters! One thing I was weirdly ignorant about was... this didn't have songs? I was expecting a musical! So I guess in that case, there WAS something missing for me as well. Really needed to hear Raya's heart (hee!) song esp. since Kelly Marie Tran CAN sing (everyone Google her Broadway Backwards performance this year).
A QUIET PLACE 2 defended its existence well by foregrounding Regan. She is SO compelling and not just because of her being deaf. She's shown as capable, but also impulsive (like many action heroes) and it just WORKS. I wish we got more Blunt in action-hero mode though.
BARB & STAR was a perfectly lovely evening screening. Would've been AMAZING in a movie theater with friends after a boozy brunch. Jamie Dornan in this movie is the hottest he's ever been to me.
I love when you do these capsule reviews, Nathaniel. That said, while The Quiet Place movies are entertaining and all, I find them ultimately to be pretty weak sauce. When Part 2 ended I literally turned to my husband and said, "That's It?"At best they are efficient thrlll machines but I'm still left wanting some more meat on the saga's bones. (I also thought The Conjuring 3 was quite lame - just another potpourri of tired, un-scary possession cliches). Meanwhile, you've convinced me that I **really** want to see Barb & Star—it just sounds so delightful! I'm def going to stream it this weekend. Thanks!
I have to fight with my husband who now says every week “let’s watch barb & star again!” just to prevent ruining it by over watching it (although we laughed loudest at our last (3rd) viewing).
Oh I’m in a big pickle little crab
Blunt needs to be singled out more for grounding this series in reality and heartfelt tenderness and the lioness of a mother.
Barb & Star.... WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? Honestly, I've seen some fucked up movies in my entire life. I've seen films by Bunuel, Jodorowsky, John Waters but... WHAT THE FUCK?!!!!!
This was fucking bonkers from start to finish and I had no idea what was happening during that entire movie but I was enthralled by it. Please, have Jamie Dornan do more comedies. I think when he's doing drama, he often comes across as stilted as if someone shoved a stick in his tight-ass but in this film. It seemed like he pulled it out and out came this gazelle.
How could you not mention Jamie Dornan's song/music video sequence in BARB & STAR?!
I loooooved Raya -- then again, I'm Southeast Asian.
BARB AND STAR was such a welcome throwback to the kind of fluffball stuff I grew up on: BACK TO SCHOOL, CLUB PARADISE, etc. I wish we had more of those these days. Nothing great, but lovely.
Barn and Star B+ ??? You must of been on Shrooms when you watched it!!