Sofia Coppola seems to be fascinated with the way that isolation affects a person. Take for instance her debut feature, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES, a scathing look at the way that isolation affects the brains of a group of daughters and the people around them. The rest of her projects as a director can be consistently filtered through this lens, and THE BEGUILED is no different. The fascinating thing about the film is that its themes of isolation seem to work both ways, meaning that the women seem to be kept in by the events of the Civil War outside of them and that the Civil War seems to be kept from them. There’s a separation on both sides, like the women need to be kept safe from what is outside, but what is outside doesn’t know what it has coming to it from these women. It’s blazingly powerful, and amazing stuff, all guided with expected ease by master director Sofia Coppola. That paradigm that is described in the opening paragraph is only one of a few that are explored in the film, but it, along with the obvious feminist connotations are what makes THE BEGUILED so great. Other than the thematic connotations of the movie, this movie finds itself surprisingly sparse and very, very short. However, this often creates the perfect sense of detachment for her characters. There’s an emptiness to the lives of her characters that spreads into the film itself. THE BEGUILED has a school of women and girls during the Civil War, who are overall unaffected by the War until a wounded soldier shows up at their doorstep. All of those old enough seem to immediately become attracted to the man, and eventually this leads into a deadly (can’t tell you who) confrontation. The story itself isn’t really that important though, it’s the performances and the direction that Coppola pulls from her actors and herself that makes the movie such a lush and wonderful experience. Each performance allows for audience engagement because each makes you think about the internal thoughts of the characters. Nobody explains anything but the performance and thematic strength of the whole movie can’t help but make it interesting. Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Colin Farrell all headline a cast that know how to bring out the themes through just a look. There’s an ungodly amount of audience reading of the characters in THE BEGUILED, which to some might leave the film feeling empty, but to others will be like a rich feast. On the menu are visual motifs, such as smoke symbolizing the isolation barrier from the outside world, but also the constant reminder that the world outside would not accept them for what they were. There’s the constant framing of Farrel’s soldier in black clothing against the darkness, showing the audience the way that he almost fades out of existence, compared to the brightly lit, unified compositions of the women. The movie’s not subtle, at least visually, script wise subtlety would be too assuming of the film, in its depiction of the women’s dichotomy with the man. They are in charge and when the man himself attempts to take charge, it seems wrong. It seems ridiculous that he would assume that he is so much in charge of this situation. THE BEGUILED is a film of empty dialogue and rich themes, and it is great for that. Sofia Coppola is one of the best directors of all time and THE BEGUILED is one for the ages just like THE VIRGIN SUICIDES or LOST IN TRANSLATION. It’s a wonderful exercise in deflated style and actor performance. If you get a chance to see it, I recommend you do. I give THE BEGUILED a 9 out of 10. COUGH, COUGH, THE BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR SO FAR ARE 1. OKJA 2. BABY DRIVER 3. THE BEGUILED GO SEE THIS MOVIE!
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Baby Driver is a movie like Star Wars, Titanic, or any other film that you saw where the overall awesomeness of the film overrides any idea of what you think a good movie could be and to those who don’t like Titanic or Star Wars, keep it up, other opinions fuel a conversation, and plug in any movie that made you feel like you could fly but you could never figure out why? Baby Driver is the real deal, the type of blown out, beautiful action movie that pumps you up so much because it takes the time to not do so. What I mean by that is that the first act of Baby Driver, isn’t really a first act, it’s a first and a second act. The status quo stays the same so long that you don’t realize that the film is just sizzling in the pan. It might not be deep, but it effortlessly creates an entertaining status quo which puts up a facade enough so that the movie can shift from being a good to a GREAT! (yes it deserves that exclamation point) movie. There is such thing as an effortless movie. A movie that works it’s paces so well that you start to notice the facade behind all of it. Baby Driver feels a bit like that...until it’s not. I haven’t seen too many movies that have the gall to act like they’re a fun PG-13 romp just to get the audience into a comfortable cruising mode and then gun the accelerator into something totally new. There’s no real way to describe what it feels like whenever the film starts to really take off, but when it does Baby Driver becomes one of the best action movies of all time. It’s the seamless mixture of painful sadness, adrenaline-fueled awesomeness and the always helpful tool of earnestness bleeding all over the movie make this movie one of the most entertaining films you will ever see. Oh right, bleeding, Baby Driver doesn’t take advantage of it’s “R” rating until just the right time. The escalation of the violence matches the escalation of the action, and the story and eventually the violence starts to become a stakes raising part of the experience. This movie doesn’t feel just like an Edgar Wright movie (with apologies to Mr. Wright), this movie feels like it wants to convince you that it is an Edgar Wright movie before becoming a movie that represents the rampant abilities of cinema, high art and low. A transcendent experience, that blasts onto the screen with such confidence that you can only barely hold onto your seat. Baby Driver wrenches you, shoots you forward, throws you around and stops you dead, with its thrilling car chases, excellent characters, and gruesome violence. The film idling on a first act for the first 90 minutes and then just going nuts has the effect of a life changing shot of adrenaline. Each new, wonderful twist in each wonderful character invigorates the movie into one of cosmic greatness. There hasn’t been a movie that I’ve left feeling this good and this broken (analytically) in a while. You want me to describe why Baby Driver is good? That first act thing helps. You want me to describe why it’s REALLY GREAT! I couldn’t tell you. Edgar Wright has concocted a cocktail like nothing you’ve seen in theatres before. A new classic by every sense of the word and if you don’t go see Baby Driver, you are missing out on a movie that will be talked about like Star Wars or Titanic. You bet your ass it is that good. I give Baby Driver a 10 out of 10. “The DCEU has failed. There is no doubt about it now. Wonder Woman will fail. JUSTICE LEAGUE will fail. Warner Brothers will fail. If something this promising can crash this hard even while containing a truly well studied performance by Leto, two cool cameos for the fans, and a glimmer of hope then it’s all going to fail. RIP the DCEU.” That is what I wrote back in August after viewing David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, an inept disaster of a movie that brought my confidence in the already defunct DCEU to the ground. I put these comments at the beginning of the review to show the depths of my disparity toward the DCEU as a whole, and to contrast this with the fact that despite my predictions, that disparity has all but disappeared into thin air. Wonder Woman is a myth making near masterwork of superhero cinema, using the framework that is already so familiar to guide us the audience through a beautiful and empowering ride. Where the last three films got bogged down in their own failed abilities at philosophical gravitas or well Suicide Squad couldn’t even muster the ability to make its plot or characters make any type of sense much less be thrilling, Wonder Woman has actual pacing and characters and action and charm and happiness and best of all it is just fun to watch. For all the different analysis techniques that I could attempt to layer into this review (which we’ll get to), Wonder Woman just being a close to perfect superhero movie is enough. It’s enough to make me sit back and get disappointed in Justice League. For those who don’t want spoilers, stop now. Enjoy it DC fans, all your obnoxious bellyaching finally resulted in something good. Wonder Woman, is to the DCEU what Captain America: The First Avenger was to the Marvel Universe, a simple moment where the franchise drops all of the modern day stuff and throws itself a good old party in a time period that every kid in my generation wants to see a superhero in. Better yet, the fact is, in the context of both those Universes, the purpose of these films seems to be the creation of a baseline for the heroism of the following films. There’s an endearing quality to the time periods of both WWI and WWII that can act as idealistic frames for the heroism of later films. In the DCEU, the person who’s supposed to do that is Superman, but that just wasn’t the case here. Thankfully, Wonder Woman takes that spot, leading our titular heroine into the trenches of WWI, attempting to stop an evil general, an evil chemist, and the literal GOD OF WAR from burning the whole Earth. We get to see wonderful images of Wonder Woman’s home, Themyscira, London during the first World War, and the Front itself. While that sounds like a lot of places to go, Wonder Woman never feels badly paced or overstuffed the way that predecessors of the DCEU were. It’s a brisk film, that presents us with what are surprisingly nuanced action adventure sequences and even more nuanced relationship building. The film does falter by trying to throw in all of its pretentiousness (and there is a bit of that in there) at the ending of the movie but that doesn’t stick around long and does serve to set up some stakes for the heroine’s following realization. In a positive philosophical light, there’s also the fact that Patty Jenkins and her team have put together a very feminist film. It falters at times (as one might expect from a studio produced $149 million tentpole), but it still makes sure to take plenty of jabs at the conservative structures of the world around WWI, even going into outright explaining the ridiculousness of the patriarchy. Gal Gadot and Chris Pine shine in these scenes, both crafting comic timing that is helped by the banter being more than just banter. That’s some philosophy that the writers can handle and thank god the writer of this film didn’t go droning on about man’s relationship with God again. Patty Jenkins and her team have also crafted a fist pumping action picture. Wonder Woman as a movie and as a character kicks ass. Jenkins and her team employ some restraint to the bombastic stop and start action that has categorized the works of Zack Snyder (deepest condolences, what has happened is something nobody should have to experience). That restraint keeps the great action moments great. Gal Gadot as the titular character provides plenty of graceful physicality and Chris Pine is supernaturally compelling. Action charged up by both the heroic ideal of the first World War and optimistic and powerful sexuality of its characters makes Wonder Woman an action film for our age and for all ages. The DCEU hasn’t failed...completely. There is no doubt about it. Wonder Woman hasn’t failed. Justice League may not fail. Warner Brother may not fail. If something embodied by some of the worst action movies ever made can bounce back with this much confidence, then it might just succeed. The DCEU is not dead yet. I give Wonder Woman a 9 out of 10. |
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |