Movies, Films & Flix

Quick Thoughts:

1. Jennifer Lawrence must’ve trusted Lynne Ramsay with her life, because she throws herself into the performance (and several glass doors)

2. I always look forward to a Lynne Ramsay film

3. Between Causeway and Die My love Lawrence has had good luck with swimming pools

4. Ramsay calls it a “bonkers, crazy love story,” and I agree. 

5.. The 1.33:1 aspect ratio used by McGarvey succeeds in making the wide open expanses of Montana (or Calgary, Alberta) seem claustrophobic. 

6. It’s not surprising, but the sound design by Tim Burns and Paul Davis is excellent. It incorporates barking dogs, crying babies, and random songs that would drive any new parent crazy. 

7. It makes me happy that Martin Scorsese read Ariana Harwicz’s  2012 book Die, My Love, and sent it to Jennifer Lawrence. 

When it comes to films directed by Lynne Ramsay, you don’t just watch them – you feel them. Ratcatcher, Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin, You Were Never Really Here, and Die, My Love, are sensory-blasting experiences that test your eyes and ears. I still remember feeling the weight of Joaquin Phoenix’s hammer in You Were Never Really Here, and the usage of negative space in We Need to Talk About Kevin has lingered in my memory for years. I have a feeling that I’ll be thinking about Jennifer Lawrence’s kamikaze performance for a long time. 

Ramsay only had four weeks of prep before shooting, so she had writers/playwrights Alice Birch and Enda Walsh work on the adaptation of Ariana Harwicz’s 2012 novel. What’s interesting is that Ramsay admitted to being not totally “sure of the book,” which tells its story from a first-person perspective. Her solution was to create a boatload of moodboards and pitch decks, and then allow Pattinson and Lawrence to throw themselves into their roles with reckless abandon.

You never learn much about the central couple or what they do. Jackson (Pattinson) has a job that requires him to travel, and we’re told that Grace (Lawrence) is/was/wants to be a novelist. They’ve moved back to Montana from New York City (it’s mentioned briefly) to live in a family home that’s near Jackson’s mom and dad (Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte). Grace is an unpredictable force of nature whose flirting resembles what happens in a mosh pit during a dive bar punk show. She’s aggressive, cat-like, and occasionally leaves large knives near her infant child. Jackson is a bit of an egg who loves his wife (and cheap beer), but has no idea how to handle or help her. Together, they’ve formed a couple who love each other and their kid, but are on different wavelengths, which makes communication impossible. 

Ramsay has said that both actors had to “trust” her, and they definitely did. The roles are very physical, impromptu and require copious amounts of nudity. Which isn’t a problem for either actor as they’ve gone all-in before in movies like mother!, No Hard Feelings, The Lighthouse, and Good Time. The main draw of Die My Love is watching two A-list talents crawl through grass, throw themselves through glass windows, and dance like maniacs. 

Lawrence’s performance in particular is pure physicality – and it must’ve been exhausting because she was four months pregnant during the production. She made the film because she believed in Ramsay (who wouldn’t?), so she pushed through the discomfort to deliver another excellent performance. One of the best things about Lawrence is that she’s one of the most versatile working actors, as she can pull off beach fights (No Hard Feelings), dance competitions (The Silver Linings Playbook), quiet poolside conversations (Causeway) or wrestling with CGI sewer monsters (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2). Lawrence rolls deep, and Ramsay is a perfect dance partner.

Since it’s a Lynne Ramsay film, it was shot on 35mm film stock with a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Director of photography Seamus McGarvery chose to shoot day for night to create a blue-tinted look that doesn’t feel out of place in the film. The end result is a visually interesting film that looks like Terrence Malick teamed up with Harmony Korine and Lynn Ramsay to make a darkly comedic romance.

Final Thoughts – Jennifer Lawrence is great, and you should watch Die My Love because she goes for it.

Quick Thoughts:

1. Michael Shannon is always good.
2. I like watching Russell Crowe and Rami Malek yell at each other
3. Director/writer James Vanderbilt packs an incredible amount of story into the 148-minute film. I wish he would’ve scaled back a bit and focused on fewer characters.
4. Between Nuremberg, Land of Bad, and The Pope’s Exorcist, I really like watching 2020’s Russell Crowe.
5. It’s worth watching as a reminder of the importance of the trials.

Synopsis – Nuremberg tells the story of the Nuremberg Trials which took place between 1945 and 1946. Instead of focusing on the entirety of the year-long trial, writer/director James Vanderbilt puts most of the focus on psychiatrist Douglas M. Kelley (Rami Malek), who was assigned to make sure the Nazi war criminals were suitable for trial. While in Nuremberg, he meets Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe), and the two engage in a battle of wits that will hopefully help Kelley define evil so he can land a lucrative book deal (and prevent future genocide). 

When looking at Writer/director James Vanderbilt’s IMDb page, it’s clear that he’s been working towards Nuremberg for his entire career. The films he’s written trend toward investigations (Zodiac, Basic), murder mysteries (Murder Mystery, Scream (2022), and investigative reporting (Truth), and it was fun learning that he’s been working on the Nuremberg screenplay for 13 years (including a year of research) so he could condense the trials into a 148-minute movie. Inspired by his grandfathers, who fought in World War II. Vanderbilt dutifully studied court documents, video footage, and the 2014 book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Göring, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WWII, to create a film that highlights the importance of the tribunal. 

Like most historical biographical films that condense mass quantities of history into a two-hour narrative, Nuremberg smashes a year’s worth of story into 148 minutes. The large cast and multiple storylines make sense considering the immense scale of the trial, but it would’ve been nice if he allowed Crowe and Malek to interact more. The idea of a psychiatrist being brought in to meet with Nazi leaders is interesting, and a great way to tackle such a sweeping court case. However, one of the major benefits of working on a script for 13 years is that Vanderbilt became wildly knowledgeable about the proceedings, which might’ve prevented him from narrowing the scope of his film.  It also doesn’t help that Rami Malek, Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, John Slattery, Colin Hanks, Leo Woodall, Richard E. Grant, Wrenn Schmidt, and Lotte Verbeek joined the cast, because they are all excellent actors and needed something to do. The end result is a solid film that is loaded with memorable monologues, solid performances, and more monologues.

Nuremberg centers around a psychiatrist named David M. Kelley (Rami Malek – clearly loving the role), traveling to Nuremberg so he can examine high-ranking Nazi prisoners to ensure they’re trial ready.  The leather jacket-wearing Kelley is a bit of a wildcard as he’s using the assignment to gain fortune (book sales!) and make a name for himself as the man who “psychologically defined evil.” He’s given the assignment by the no-nonsense Colonel Burton C. Andrus (John Slattery), and he immediately starts diving into the assignment with his translator Howie Triest (Leo Woodall). His most challenging and charismatic subject is Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe), who between 1933 and 1945 became one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party.

While many people around the world thought the prisoners should be executed without a trial, Supreme Court justice Robert H. Jackson (Michael Shannon) doesn’t want them to become martyrs. His plan is to put them on trial to shed light on the mass genocide committed by Hitler’s army. To do this, he needed help from Kelley. It’s an interesting tale, and knowing that Kelley would later commit suicide via potassium cynandie (like Göring) makes the story more interesting. The problem is that the audience never really gets into the headspace of Kelley, or Göring, because there’s just too many characters. Courtrooms dramas typically feature ensemble casts (A Few Good Men, Juror #2, 12 Angry Men, Judgment at Nuremberg), but they focus on a specific case or moment in time. Nuremberg has to capture the essence of one of the biggest trials of all time, while helping the audience understand why evil men do what they do. It’s a lot.

On the technical front, Dariusz Wolski was the perfect cinematographer to hire because he’s familiar with arguing actors (Crimson Tide), god complexes (Prometheus, Napoleon) and duels (The Last Duel). Most of the film takes place in concrete-walled prison cells, courtrooms, and other bland interiors, yet he manages to make the film look visually interesting. Most importantly, he understood that Crowe, Shannon and Malek can hold the screen so he kept things simple and let them work. The production design by Eve Stewart (The King’s Speech, Les Misérables, The First Omen) is expectedly top-notch with the highlight being the courtroom where the legal battle occurred.

Final thoughts – It’s worth a watch because of the interesting history and solid performances from Russell Crowe, Michale Shannon and Rami Malek

Quick Thoughts:

• It’s an unabashedly fun action film.
• It starts a bit rough (VFX Yautja), but quickly finds its footing when the Yautja lands on the death planet.
• Elle Fanning is great.
• Best 2025 spitting and headbutts.
• Amazing final line.
• I want director Dan Trachtenberg to keep making Predator movies. Prey (2022) and Predator: Badlands (2025) rule.

Predator: Badlands is really fun because it isn’t weighed down by seriousness, lore, or decades of story. Director Dan Trachtenberg and writers Patrick Aison and Brian Duffield (Underwater, Love and Monsters, No One Will Save You) made sure to create a standalone Predator movie about an undersized Yautja warrior attempting to kill a mythically hard-to-kill monster. 

Predator: Badlands focuses on the adventures of a young Yautja named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), who is the runt of his Yautja clan. His brother Kwei (Mike Homik) does his best to mold him into an ultimate badass, but it’s in vain as their father Njohrr (Yautja kids have terrible parents too!) wants Dek dead to prevent any perceived weakness in his clan. After a battle on their home planet of Yautja Prime, Dek’s brother is killed by Njohrr, and Dek escapes to a death planet named Genna, where he plans on killing a creature called the Kalisk so he can reclaim his spot in the clan and avenge his brother’s death. 

After a rough start that sees Dek almost eaten or mortally mutilated by flying monsters, death spores, hungry tree branches and razor-blade grass, he comes across a damaged android named Thia (Elle Fanning – the MVP of the movie) who promises to help him kill the Kalisk, if he helps her get her legs back (the Kalisk ripped them off). Together, the two navigate the death planet, meet unlikely allies, and run away from poison-dart-shooting death snakes. I don’t want to spoil anything else because Predator: Badlands is loaded with fun surprises and moments. If you’ve watched the trailer, you’ll know about the surprises, but I didn’t know much about the film, and it made the experience much more enjoyable. 

At its core, the Predator franchise thrives on simplicity because the high-concept films revolve around one thing: tough people being hunted by something tougher than they are. That’s why Predator, Predator 2, Predators, and Prey work so well, because they keep things simple. What’s nice about Predator: Badlands is that it isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, and instead feels like a 1990’s action film that wants to entertain audiences. The opening 15 minutes are a bit worrying because of the over-reliance on VFX work that doesn’t look nearly as good as Stan Winston’s creatures in Predator and Predator 2. However, as the film progressed, I got used to Dek’s look and wasn’t bothered by his VFX face. 

This may seem like an odd comparison, but Predator: Badlands feels like a rewatchable action film that you discovered on the shelf of a Blockbuster Video. It’s wildly unpretentious and isn’t afraid to lean into humor or absurd shots in which Dek stands in front of an explosion and poses like an action hero. Of all the Predator films, it’s easily the funniest, and that’s because Trachenberg wasn’t interested in “retreading and remaking the same thing over and over.” I’m certain that certain Predator purists will dislike the buddy comedy elements and PG-13 rating, but it will open up the world for new viewers. Trachtenberg was inspired by Terminator 2: Judgement Day, in that entire families could watch the film and find something to like. In regard to the PG-13 rating, since most of the violence happens to aliens, monsters and androids, there isn’t a plethora of red blood spilling all over the place, which means there wasn’t a need for an R-rating. Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of exploding bodies and spine rips. 

The New Zealand locations are gorgeous  and are expertly filmed by cinematographer Jeff Cutter (Prey, 10 Cloverfield Lane), who understood what he was shooting (a fun action film). The costume design by Oscar winner Ngila Dickson (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) is excellent as well, with the highlight being Thia’s jacket that will most certainly be seen on many comic con floors in years to come.

Final Thoughts – Predator: Badlands put a massive smile on my face and I can’t wait to watch it again.

Quick Thoughts:

1. Christy Martin has lived an incredible life, and it makes me happy that her story has been made into a movie. 
2. Sydney Sweeney, Ben Foster, Ethan Embry, Chad L. Coleman and Katy O’Brian are all good, but their performances are hurt by the fact that the film packs 20 years worth of story into 135 minutes.
3. In the press notes, director David Michôd defines the film as “a wild underdog sports movie that morphs into a kind of very real horror story.” He’s not wrong.
4. At certain points, the film resembles Walk Hard (the title Punch Hard comes to mind) because it adheres to biopic tropes (terrible parent, time jumps)
5. It’s worth watching because Christy Martin has been through so much. 
6. Watch the 2021 documentary Untold: Deal with the Devil on Netflix after watching the movie.

It’s easy to understand why director (Animal Kingdom, The Rover) and producer/star Sydney Sweeney wanted to make a biographical sports film about the life of Christy Martin. Martin is an all-time boxer whose story is perfect for a big-screen adaptation. Martin was plucked from “toughwoman” boxing tournaments by trainer Jim Martin (Ben Foster) and became a boxing champion who appeared on Sports Illustrated and was signed by Don King. On top of surviving thousands of punches to the head, Martin dealt with an abusive husband, a controlling mother (who hated that Christy was gay), drug abuse, sexual abuse, and she even survived a murder attempt from her husband/trainer, Jim Martin. I’ve been familiar with Martin for a long time, and when I heard Sweeney was making a biopic about her life, I became very excited because her story should be known. 

However, sport biopics are gonna be sport biopics, and there are moments when Christy starts to resemble Walk Hard (the title Punch Hard comes to mind). The film sticks closely to biopic conventions (it’s more of a collection of scenes than a complete narrative), and the constant time jumps (the film covers 20 years) halt any narrative momentum. That being said, the performances from Sweeney, Ethan Embry, Katy O’Brian, Tony Cavalero, Ben Foster, Merritt Wever, and Chad L. Coleman are solid, and the movie gives them moments to shine.

Sweeney, who has a background in mixed martial arts, trained like a maniac for the film, and her physicality and willingness to film the fight scenes add a nice level of realism to the boxing matches. To prepare for the role, Sweeny gained 30 pounds,  trained with weight trainer Grant Roberts (who trained Hilary Swank for Million Dollar Baby) and spent months practicing her footwork, fighting techniques and weight training. The hard work paid off because she and fight/stunt coordinator Walter Garcia (Spy, I, Tonya, Grudge Match) crafted a few excellent scraps that captured Martin’s in-ring style (close-range power puncher who swarmed opponents). 

Christy works perfectly alongside the 2021 Netflix documentary Untold: Deal With the Devil. The Laura Brownson-directed doc inspired David Michôd to tackle Martin’s story, and it’s fun watching Martin explain her life in her own words. 

Final Thoughts – Christy Martin has an incredible story, and I recommend watching the movie to learn more about her life.

Quick thoughts:

1. After bringing monsters to life for 30+ years, it’s nice knowing that director Guillermo del Toro finally (he’s wanted to make this movie for decades) got the chance to bring his Frankenstein movie to life. 
2. Del Toro uses every cent of the $120 million budget (thank you, Netflix) to create a gorgeous world.
3. It’s another Frankenstein movie….
4. Jacob Elordi is excellent.
5. Yes, humans are the bad guys. I love how GdT added in elements that made humans even worse than in the novel

After Cronos, The Devil’s Backbone, Mimic, Blade 2, Hellboy 1 & 2, Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, The Shape of Water, Crimson Peak, Nightmare Alley, and Pinocchio, director Guillermo del Toro has proven to the world multiple times that he loves monsters. The 61-year-old Oscar-winning director has always loved movie monsters and he’s spent the last 50 years thinking about Frankenstein and his monstrous creation. In addition to dreaming about the creature for decades, he’s spent the last 25 years attempting to get his adaptation of the Mary Shelley-penned Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus made. I’m sure he would’ve directed it back in 2000, but the good thing to come from the multiple delays is that he’s built up so much industry goodwill that Netflix gave him $120 million to craft his visual feast. After 25 years of script refinement and detailed drawings/storyboards, it’s a good investment because they knew del Toro would dedicate every fiber of his being to the project. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio won Netflix the Best Animated Feature Film award at the 2023 Academy Awards, so with Frankenstein, they’re hoping to add to their Oscars tally. 

Since it’s a Guillermo del Toro film, don’t expect the monster to be monstrous; instead, be ready for another “humans are bad” narrative that appears in most of his films (it’s not a bad thing; all directors have familiar themes). In this adaptation, del Toro invents new storylines to make Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Issac) seem like more of a jerk, and he eschews most of the horror elements so he could focus on “the lineage of familial pain.” If you’re looking for a Pacific Rim-esque tale of Frankenstein’s monster smashing things, you’ll be disappointed. 

In GdT’s version, we learn how and why a “rock star genius” like Victor Frankenstein became an abusive parent to a hulking monster. The answer is Charles Dance (the ultimate TV/movie bad dad), who plays the stern and abusive Baron Leopold Frankenstein. As soon as Dance appears on screen, it is obvious he’s going to mess up Victor’s life. When Baron Leopold isn’t hitting Victor with wooden sticks, he’s failing to keep his wife Claire (Mia Goth) alive during an early pregnancy. After his mom dies, Victor becomes obsessed with evading death via science, and his experiments put him in the crosshairs of Henrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz), a wealthy arms dealer who works with Victor’s brother William (Lars Mikkelsen). Funded by Harlander, Victor builds a massive laboratory, cobbles together various body parts, and creates an impossible-to-kill creature (Jacob Elordi) that he promptly tries to kill because having a kid is a lot of work. 

At its core, the tale of Victor Frankenstein creating life has always been about how hard it is to raise a child, so it makes sense that del Toro would dedicate a large chunk of the film to explaining why Victor is such a bad dad. The brilliant and handsome Victor wasn’t equipped to be a parent, and that’s why he abandons his creation. The problem is that instead of abandoning a newborn baby, he leaves behind a monster who is impossible to kill and can push giant boats through ice (he could probably be an Avenger). This causes problems for Victor as he’s hunted by his creation with tragic results. Much like Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (which focuses on a magical child being separated from his dad), Frankenstein is gorgeous to look at and feels very much like a Guillermo del Toro monster movie. 

Oscar Issac is perfect as a “Byronian rock star” who never buttons up his shirt all the way and looks like he’s about to play a show in front of 75,000 people (Isaac studied Prince’s 2007 Super Bowl show for added swagger). Isaac is simultaneously cocky, intelligent, insecure, and a little bit like his creator character from Ex-Machina. Jacob Elordi steals the show as “the creature.” His physicality, emotive eyes, and tall frame make the creature’s journey from “trusting fawn to rageful beast” feel 100% believable. It’s impressive that he was able to find the creature’s humanity underneath hours of makeup. As always, Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz deliver solid performances, but the true hero of the story is del Toro. 

Del Toro’s love of the project must’ve been infectious because the cinematography, production design, costume design and musical score are beautiful. One of the benefits of having a well-prepared director is that all the major crew members had time to craft expansive sets and memorable costumes.

Final Thoughts – It makes me very happy that del Toro got to climb his personal Mount Everest,