Antebellum

 Antebellum (2020)

Starring Janelle Monáe, Eric Lange, Jena Malone, Jack Huston, Kiersey Clemons, and Gabourey Sidibe

Directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz

Written by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - White Bird in a Blizzard

White Bird in a Blizzard (2014)

Starring Shailene Woodley, Eva Green, Christopher Meloni, Shiloh Fernandez, Gabourey Sidibe, Thomas Jane, and Angela Bassett 

Directed by Gregg Araki

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

I don't quite know if White Bird in a Blizzard was attempting to be an awful film on purpose, but director Gregg Araki certainly has crafted a film in which every character inhabiting it feels as if they are fake.  Actors are seemingly instructed to play their roles in an oddly one-note fashion, almost as if we're watching some crappy high school play unfold before our very eyes.  If you're angry, be really angry.  If you're sad, be really sad.  If you're sexually aroused, be really turned on.  By playing every emotion to the nth degree, no emotion rings true and White Bird in a Blizzard falls apart nearly from its first moments.

When Kat Conners (Shailene Woodley) is in her final year of high school, her mother Eve (Eva Green) goes missing.  Her father Brock (Christopher Meloni) is devastated, but Kat feels oddly unemotional about the whole disappearance.  Instead, she finds herself becoming more sexually awakened in the absence of her overbearing mother.  Jump to the spring of her first year in college and Kat returns home on spring break and she uncovers a few secrets regarding her family that maybe should never have been uncovered.

I've read two novels by Laura Kasischke whose book this film is based upon and I find her works oddly pulpy and somewhat silly in their mysteries.  White Bird in a Blizzard follows this same line and although she didn't write the screenplay, her tone runs throughout.  However, Mr. Araki who directed and also wrote the screenplay decides to embrace the pulp, but unlike film noirs in the past where the pulpy, seedy nature of their stories elevated the actors, Araki doesn't find that success here.

Shailene Woodley perhaps comes off best as her character is at least given a scale of emotions to play off of, but even she is playing things to extremes.  Worst by far is Eva Green.  Quite frankly, I'm not quite sure who to blame here.  Ms. Green has never been someone who I've looked at as a talented actress, but she's just laughably bad here.  That said, Araki writes her mother character as so oddly un-human with nary a recognizable characteristic that I wonder if Araki is truly the one at fault here.  Either way, this central character whom the whole story revolves around is an unmitigated disaster and sinks the movie.

The RyMickey Rating:  D-

Movie Review - Seven Psychopaths

Seven Psychopaths (2012)

Starring Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, Woody Harrelson, and Christopher Walken

Directed by Martin McDonagh

I'm not quite sure why Seven Psyhopaths took me two sittings nearly a week apart to make it through, but something in the opening forty minutes didn't reel me in and didn't lure me back to complete it after I had to stop watching.  Oddly enough, the same thing happened with director-writer Martin McDonagh's first film In Bruges.  I started that one, stopped after about twenty minutes, and then never went back (I know, I know, people love that one).  Admittedly, maybe I do need to give In Bruges another chance because once I finished up Seven Psychopaths, I found the whole thing a bit refreshing and, while a bit derivative of other films at the beginning, surprisingly original in how its story plays out.

Having recently seen Mr. McDonagh's work onstage in The Cripple of Inishmaan, the Irish writer certainly has an ear for witty dark humor and Seven Psychopaths certainly fits into that category.  Marty (Colin Farrell) is a struggling screenwriter toiling away at his latest endeavor about a movie containing a tale of seven psychopathic murderers (scenes of which we often see in blips as the flick progresses).  Marty's good buddy Billy (Sam Rockwell) is quite the off-the-wall wackadoo who has partnered up with Hans (Christopher Walken) to establish a dog-stealing business in which they kidnap dogs only to return them for the inevitable reward money their owners put up.  However, when Billy and Hans kidnap the dog of Los Angeles gangster Charlie (Woody Harrelson), Marty soon finds himself tangled up in the criminal underworld.

Most intriguing about Seven Psychopaths is the "meta" aspect of the whole thing that kicks in during the second half and elevates the film more than I could have imagined at the outset.  As Marty's script comes alive around him, McDonagh shifts from what was simply a "been there-done that" darkly comedic modern "gangster" film into something with a bit more depth whose twists and turns become much more interesting and plausible despite their inherent implausibility.  McDonagh jokingly (and referentially) points out his script's "flaws" creating a more elevated comedy than we're used to experiencing in a nationwide Hollywood release.

Across the board, the actors are all game with Sam Rockwell standing out mainly because his character is such a live wire that the actor is given a bit more to do.  As McDonagh's self-referential script mentions, the females here are essentially tossed aside and it makes me wonder why Abbie Cornish, former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko, and Gabourey Sidibe's roles were even written into the script in the first place.  While it's true that McDonagh recognizes this fault, I can't help but think we actually would have had a slightly stronger film here without the ladies being included.

Seven Psychopaths didn't really come alive for me until the film's second half when the "meta" aspects came front and center.  Prior to that, it felt like a rehash of other dark comedies we've seen before, but by the end I realize that this was likely McDonagh's point.  By creating something so typical, his final acts the way they are writtern are able to branch away and revel in their absurdity.  I wonder if watching it again, I might appreciate things a bit more.  Maybe I need to try to watch In Bruges again...

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" By Sapphire (2009)

Starring Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, and Mariah Carey
Directed by Lee Daniels

Let me just get this out of the way right now. Hand Mo'Nique the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress right now. I find it hard to believe that someone will come along in the next two months or so worth of 2009 movie-watching that will deliver such a tour de force performance. First, I was amazed that it was comedienne Mo'Nique bringing this hideous character she portrays to life. But, even looking past the fact that she "stepped out of her comfort zone" (because I wholeheartedly do not believe that's a reason to give someone an Oscar), she was an incredibly powerful presence and really truly moved me in her final scenes.

All right. Now that that's been discussed, Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire (one of the most unnecessarily long and ungainly titles of all time) tells the tale of sixteen year old Precious (played by newcomer Gabourey Sidibe), an overweight black girl in Harlem in 1987. When bad things happen to her (and, boy, do they ever) she escapes into her imagination where she's a movie star, an R & B singer, or a model -- realms that are as far away from her reality as possible. As the movie opens, Precious is pregnant with her second child, both of whom are fathered by her own father. At home, her mother Mary (the aforementioned Mo'Nique) abuses her with tirades of both the verbal and physical kind. Mary harbors terrible jealousy that her boyfriend "left her" to sexually abuse her daughter, and she refuses to let Precious forget that fact.

Although she's sixteen, Precious is still in middle school, but the school principal sends her to an alternative school to try to assist in her education. While there, Precious is befriended by her teacher, Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), who sees promise in the battered Precious. Also trying to help the teen is social worker, Mrs. Weiss (Mariah Carey), who desperately tries to get Precious to open up about her abusive home life.

Across the board, the acting ensemble is top notch. In addition to the amazing Mo'Nique, Paula Patton is quite moving as Ms. Rain, injecting sincerity into the role. Mariah Carey also steps up to the plate and delivers an honest performance that, while not showy, is quite touching. Gabourey Sidibe is forced to play the complete opposite of the loud, boisterous Mo'Nique, and Sidibe brings a quiet, understated demeanor to this rather depressed teenager. This young gal did not seem like she was acting in the slightest. In fact, no one in this film did...everyone embodied their roles to a tee.

Unfortunately, bringing the film down a notch is director Lee Daniels who relies much too heavily on camera trickery and an overuse of fade ins and outs. While at times I thought Daniels' techniques were ingenious, at other moments I was rolling my eyes. I completely understand the need to get inside the mind of young Precious and be able to visualize her inner thoughts, but sometimes it seemed like he went a few shots too far. Then again, Daniels certainly knows when to hold back the gimmicks and let his actresses become the focus, including a scene towards the end in which Mary begins to realize her faults -- it is simply one of the most emotionally draining and stunning moments I've seen in theaters this year. Just a "wow" moment.

Precious is often an uncomfortable experience, but it's a truly a riveting film -- one that really shouldn't be missed.

The RyMickey Rating: B+