Eighth Grade (2018)

Directed by Bo Burnham
Country: USA

Bo Burnham’s feature debut, “Eighth Grade”, is probably the most spot-on coming-of-age drama made recently. To better limn an important slice of a teenager’s life, the 28-year-old American director employs an attractive soundtrack, pelts the narrative with wry tones, and observes the over-tech reality the world is immersed in without critical judgment.

Thirteen-year-old Kayla Day (Elsie Fisher) is a brilliant video maker - her motivational topics revolve around the self-confidence and image - but she is so cringingly shy at school that she was voted ‘the quietest student of the year’ in the annual academic polls. Online, she gives the impression of being super extrovert, but in fact, she’s very lonely and prone to panic attacks, regardless of the huge efforts to socialize and make friends. She lives with her responsive single dad, Mark (Josh Hamilton), who genuinely worries about his daughter. However, he has a weird timing to interact with her, creating humoresque if embarrassing situations.

Like many other kids of her age, Kayla hides her acne pimples behind a thick layer of makeup. She also has a crush on Aiden (Luke Prael), a popular schoolmate who casually asks her if she gives blowjobs after she had told him she was saving dirty photos for her upcoming boyfriend. Of course, smartphones are everywhere here, with all the anxiety it causes, anchoring the story in the present, but there are other curious factors and situations, like a class with a military man who explains the eighth-graders how they should react if a massive shooting occurs.

Kayla is unexpectedly invited to the birthday party of a disdainful classmate, Kennedy (Catherine Oliviere), and connects with the latter’s awkward and living-in-his-own-world cousin, Gabe (Jake Ryan), who compulsively dives in the pool while wearing a scuba mask. Still, nobody would believe they have something in common. In addition to this agreeable surprise, the first contact with high school is positive, even before the nightmarish eighth grade come to an end.

The script, smartly and carefully written by Burnham (a comedian and actor who played the title character of TV series “Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous”), carries all the sensibility to depict Millennials in a way that is simultaneously funny, unnerving, miserably heartbroken, and honest. It definitely rang true to me.

A Star Is Born (2018)

Directed by Bradley Cooper
Country: USA

Actor Bradley Cooper (“Silver Linings Playbook”, “American Hustle”) makes his directorial debut with “A Star is Born”, a 21st-century remake of the 1937 classic of the same name directed by William A. Wellman. He co-stars alongside pop star Lady Gaga in her first theatrical appearance. With a score composed by Gaga and Willie Nelson’s son, Lukas Nelson, Cooper attempts to successfully combine the power of music with the sharp cinematography of Matthew Libatique (Darren Aronofsky’s first choice), as well as the fluctuations of romance with the complications of personal/professional life.

Cooper is Jackson Maine, an alcoholic country-rock star who finds in nightclub-singer Ally (Gaga) a reliable partner in music and life, giving her the opportunity to make the leap to international fame and become a celebrity. However, his alcoholism doesn’t make things easy for her, becoming worse after she gets her first musical contract. From this point on, their relationship becomes arduous as Ally steps up toward stardom whereas Jackson keeps declining.

This romantic if tragic musical drama achieves its climax when Ally is publicly embarrassed by Jackson’s behavior at the Grammy awards.

Gaga’s last song brings some emotion, which could never compensate for the absence of it during the rest of the film. Her performance was solid enough, while Cooper’s bloodshot eyes and general look are natural from a heavy drinker. However, the film didn’t touch me in the heart, presenting more inept than satisfactory moments, both drama and music-wise.

Leave No Trace (2018)

Directed by Debra Granik
Country: USA

New York-based Debra Granik has been a highly regarded director and valuable voice in the contemporary cinema. “Leave No Trace” is another outstanding drama sprinkled with mystery, reinforcing a filmography already rich with not only impressive fictional works such as “Down to the Bone” and the Oscar-nominated “Winter’s Bone”, but also an amusing documentary, “Stray Dog”.

For this new work, Granik and her writing partner Anne Rossellini based themselves on the novel My Abandonment by Peter Rock, triumphing once again in the art of shaping characters with an honest pragmatism.

Will (Ben Foster) and Tom (Thomasin McKenzie) are father and daughter, respectively. They are homeless, living hidden from the ‘outside’ world in a small camp mounted in the woods of a public park in Portland, Oregon. He is an Iraq war vet with PTSD who is always on the run, making a living from the illegal sale of the pills he occasionally picks up in town for his disease. She is 13, has a very strong bond with her father and wishes she could remember her late mother. She doesn’t go to school and is hungry, for most of the time, since gas and food have to be spared. The tent in which they sleep is leaking and the general conditions are visibly precarious.

Will is as much obsessive as he is a master in becoming ‘invisible’. He's cautious at all times, but not Tom, who is spotted by a jogger, triggering a search operation by police officers and the social services. They are eventually caught, interrogated, subjected to tests, and then given a job and a proper if isolated accommodation. Tom is happy as she reintegrates herself in the society with relative ease, even forging a solid friendship with a farmer boy. However, her unaggressive yet notably restless father has one sole fixed idea in his tortuous mind: to flee again.

Inevitably, they head north, where the hard cold bites, escaping into the middle of a muddy, humid, and uncomfortable forest. Once there, fortuitous encounters and fretful episodes wait for them. We reflect about the girl’s unstable life and future, realizing how unfair for her is to accompany her distressed father in these atypical journeys. She is young and unhappy; hence, a choice is imminent.

In terms of ambiance and filmmaking style, you can think about a crossing between Ken Loach and the Dardenne brothers (some parts are pretty evocative of “Rosetta”). And it’s so easy to become involved in the dramatic situation of the family because it’s also easy to understand what is going on in their heads. The low-key temperament of the storytelling and the authenticity of the performances are strong elements of a subtle and intelligent film that captures our attention from the very first minute. It’s an emancipative, heartbreaking experience with humanity galore.

Mandy (2018)

Directed by Panos Cosmatos
Country: USA

I was curious to see Nicolas Cage impersonating a merciless avenger in the utterly violent film “Mandy”, a candidate for the darkest film of the year. Thus, if you are a fan of the actor who helped to create memorable cinematic treasures such as “Leaving Las Vegas”, “Bringing Out the Dead”, and “Adaptation”, this is a great opportunity to witness his momentary return to the limelight through a wild performance. And if you dig macabre, evil scenarios accompanied by brutality in its physical and psychological forms, all vigorously propelled by powerful heavy metal chords, then this is an extra reason for you to visit the sophomore feature from Italian-Canadian Panos Cosmatos (“Beyond the Black Rainbow”). The filmmaker's father, George P. Cosmatos, was also a film director, best known for “Rambo: First Blood Part II” and “Cobra”, both starred by Sylvester Stallone.

The story takes place in 1983, near the Californian Shadow Mountains where Red Miller (Cage) and his beloved girlfriend Mandy Bloom (Andrea Riseborough) find solace for their traumatic pasts in long, therapeutic conversations. They couldn’t imagine that evil would destroy their lives after Jeremiah Sands (Linus Roache), the delusional leader of the hippie sect Children of the New Dawn, has put his eyes on Mandy, coveting her with obsessive resolution. He orders his vassal, Brother Swan (Ned Dennehy), to kidnap her while Red is immobilized and tortured.

Despite drugged with mind-expanding eye drops and a bizarre dream-inducing sting from a huge insect, Mandy couldn’t help but laugh madly when Jeremiah exhibits his penis. It’s a psychedelically insane scene, and the only reason why the paranoid and frustrated Jeremiah ordered his freaky disciples to burn her alive. No need to say that Red is left alive and manages to escape, pursuing the evildoers like a mad dog.

Immersed in a phantasmagoric penumbra and occasionally painted with saturated red and blue colors, “Mandy” makes its way with an increased level of graphic violence that refuses any type of enlightenment. The sections that worked better for me were the hallucinogenic ones, but some viewers will also probably rejoice with the dark humor and gory blood spills in a one-by-one manhunt.

Even though it's all too gut-wrenching and sunless, kudos to a fast and furious Cage, who returns from the dead with an insatiable appetite for vindictiveness.

Life and Nothing More (2018)

Directed by Antonio Méndez Esparza
Country: USA / Spain

Starring non-professional actors, “Life and Nothing More” was shaped as a docudrama, telling the story of an African-American single mother who struggles to provide for their children and keep things together in northern Florida. Regina (Regina Williams), 30, works extremely hard in a diner but her income is still very low. She cannot stop worrying about her 14-year-old boy Andrew (Andrew Bleechington) whom she advises the best she can to prevent him from going to prison like his father. In fact, mother and son are in probation and their relationship is not always easy. Lonely and tired, this woman lives under a constant pressure, oscillating indefinitely between the strict and the protective when dealing with her delinquent son. When Robert (Robert Williams), her new partner and a stranger in town, somehow shakes the bond of the family with his strong temper, she doesn’t even hesitate to put him in the right place.

But the problem doesn’t drop out of sight since Andrew becomes more and more isolated and furious with life while considering to finally connect with his absent father. A curious and contradictory aspect regarding Regina is that she believes her son isn’t capable of doing anything harmful to other people despite saying recurrently that he is the son of his father.

In his second feature, Spanish writer/director Antonio Méndez Esparza emulates a credible portrait of African-American lives with a great dose of realism. Yet, if the story is thoughtful and promising, then the editing needed some polishing to avoid unconsidered cuts and precipitate image transitions contrasting clumsily with the sluggish development. It’s weirdly watchable but not necessarily satisfying in the end since it sinks its teeth in a horde of topics such as the judicial system, race, education, parental responsibility, parental absence, and social/economic inequality without making a fully satisfying portrait of the family. It’s like if the huge potential of the script had been consumed by a wobbly direction.

The ‘real’ people, here transformed into real actors, are the heart and soul of a painful drama whose creator, maybe too concerned about not diverting from the desired reality, forgot to exert a bit more emotional bite and set an adequate pace to fulfill its promise of going places.

Blindspotting (2018)

Directed by Carlos López Estrada
Country: USA

“Blindspotting” spawned a new up-and-coming star: the Oakland-born 36-year-old actor/writer/rapper Daveed Diggs, who co-wrote with Rafael Casal, a childhood friend in real life and also a promising actor. Carlos López Estrada’s feature debut is a convincing statement with its epicenter in the Californian city of Oakland.

In an unremitting quest for authenticity, the film follows three eventful days during the probation period conceded to African American Collin Hodgkins (Diggs). On his first day, he witnesses a white cop shooting a black man in the back, after a crazy night out in the company of his turbulent friend Miles (Casal).

Collin retrieves his former job in the moving company where he used to work, teaming up with Miles once again. This way, both become indirectly connected to the gentrification that keeps affecting Oakland at full force. The shooting scene remains vivid in his head and he soon finds out the identity of the civilian who was assassinated, leaving a three-year-old daughter. It’s haunting and uncomfortable. On the last day, he and Miles have a violent fight in a party, with the latter recklessly brandishing a gun in an uncontrolled act of fury. The following scenes are genuinely emotional.

Fear and disappointment dominate this section of the film, but more thrilling surprises are on the way. The writers tried to compensate the edginess of some situations with, unfortunately infrequent, hilarious moments. One of them occurs when the friends decide to make some extra money with the sale of hair straighteners, ending up being used as guinea pigs for the product they were advertising.

“Blindspotting”, a straightforward fusion between “8 Mile” and “Fruitvale Station”, is a powerful encounter of hip-hop music - somewhat displaced and too calculated here - and the racial complications that keep saddening America and the world.

A Gentle Creature (2018)

Directed by Sergey Loznitsa
Country: Russia / Lithuania / other

Ukrainian director Sergey Loznitsa is known for dejected dramas marked by a strong emotional aptitude and sharp sociopolitical commentary. In addition to valid fictional works such as “My Joy” and “In The Fog”, he dedicates great part of his career to documentaries, a category that includes “The Event” and “Maidan” as highlights.

His most recent work, “A Gentle Creature”, was aptly shot in Latvia and Lithuania and its story based on Fyodor Dostoievsky’s short story of the same name. It stars Vasilina Makovtseva, the perfect figure to personify this lonely Russian woman whose incarcerated husband suddenly is impeded to receive her monthly package containing clothes, canned food, condensed milk, and other essential goods. The package had never been refused by the prison or returned by the post office before, which rises suspicion about his whereabouts and health condition. He can even be dead, and this gentle if restless creature can’t live with that painful uncertainty. Hence, courageous and unhesitating, she sets off to the prison where he was sent to after being sentenced for an apparently shady murder case.

An uncomfortable and exhausting trip to a remote region of the country impregnated with oppressive atmospheres and gloomy characters who seem to enjoy telling her morbid stories. To get to see her husband, she is subjected to several humiliations - police corruption and abuse of power are systematic, and is drawn to unfriendly places where depression, debauchery, paranoia, and mistrust become nerve-wracking. Not to mention the endless bureaucracy and constant intimidation associated to the futile, totalitarian Russian authorities. This woman knows she cannot trust nobody, but she has no other option than accept the help of strangers. After all, she needs her piece of mind, which can only achieve when she finds out where her husband is. Once at the prison, she is told to contact the ‘proper authorities’, a vague statement that gets her as much confused as frustrated.

Loznitsa essayed a long, dense, and evil governmental machination, which culminates in unexpected places replete with familiar faces. The disturbing ending has the crepuscular cinematography by Oleg Mutu reinforcing the darkness of a tale whose occasional sarcastic humor won’t be enough to cheer you up. “A Gentle Creature” is an arduous watch indeed and will leave you a certain nausea that takes a while to go away. However, its mysterious ways, bolstered with a bit of psychedelic surrealism, makes it notable.

Mission Impossible - Fallout (2018)

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie
Country: USA

Under the direction of Christopher McQuarrie, “Mission Impossible - Fallout” is the follow up to “Rogue Nation”. The sixth installment of the MI franchise continues to incorporate Tom Cruise as IMF agent and team leader Ethan Hunt. For the present adventure he teams up with his loyal friend Luther (Ving Rhames), IMF field agent Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), former MI6 agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), and CIA assassin, August Walker (Henry Cavill), hired to control all his moves.

They all engage on a suicide mission in an attempt to dismantle The Apostles, a terrorist group that emerged from the extint The Syndicate, after the capture of its anarchic leader Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). The group is illegally dealing plutonium cores in Europe and Hunt is assigned to retrieve the hazardous material. However, the secret agents fail to accomplish the mission in Berlin when Ethan decides to put Luther’s life in first place, leaving the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Erica Sloane (Angela Bassett), in a pile of nerves.

With the agent’s double life featured through an encounter with his estranged wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan), the film advances at high speed, relying on the tension created by interminable and often overdone motorcycle/car chases that take us to inevitably packed crossroads and confined dead alleys. Besides this, we have supplementary manhunt mania in Kashmir, this time involving a plane and a helicopter; agile physical confrontations; advanced technology methods; and dangerous transactions with sudden ambushes.

Co-produced by McQuarrie, Cruise, JJ Abrams (“Super 8”; “Star Trek”; “Star Wars: The Force awakens”), and Jake Myers (“Dunkirk”, “The Revenant”, “Interstellar”), this blockbuster satisfies in its purpose but doesn’t earn the title of ‘impossible to miss’.

The Naturally Wanton Pleasure of Skin (2018)

Directed by Renée Beaulieu
Country: Canada

It’s widely known that every person’s skin reacts differently to touch, pressure, temperature, levels of stress, and several other external factors. But what the main character of “The Naturally Wanton Pleasure of Skin” tries to understand is how disparately the skin cells react to love and desire in a close linkage of dermatology and sexuality. For that, Marie-Claire (Brigitte Poupart), a down-to-earth, well-established scientist and university teacher, uses her own body and several male guinea pigs in what she calls ‘experiments’. These include sexual intercourse, which she practices without any preconception or guilt, despite being happily married and mother of two.

In truth, Marie-Claire is a pleasure-seeker, who uses her ongoing research as an excuse to feed intense carnal appetites. Soon, it became an addiction. So, it’s not uncommon to see her embarking on a wild sexual activity with a complete stranger; a fellow scientist, Alexandre (Normand D'Amour), head of her department; or even a literature doctorate, Emile (Pierre Kwenders), who is 20 years younger and makes sure to attend her classes. Men simply love her type: carefree, independent, unpossessive, wanton.

Adam (Vincent Leclerc), her husband, is often traveling and had agreed to an open relationship, but things go astray when she casually opens up about her secret life. Gradually, her fully open smile is swallowed by preoccupation, to which further contributes the delicate situation of her vulnerable 14-year-old daughter, Katou (Romane Denis). It’s not that Marie-Claire doesn’t care for her. She’s just tremendously inattentive, being too immersed in her thing. When the situation is barely out of hand, is her mother - another hedonist - and her volatile, depressed, and eternal unsatisfied best friend, Mathilde (Nathalie Cavezzali), who stand on her side.

The complexities rendered by Renée Beaulieu in her second feature drama do not always succeed, but, as a character study, the film poses some interesting points of view regarding family and happiness, love and desire, as well as men and women with their commonly associated roles of predators and victims, respectively.

The reappearance of mechanical procedures and an invariable tone in each human contact may difficult the viewer’s engagement, limiting the curiosity about this woman’s behavior. Nevertheless, things improve a bit in the second half, when the affective facet overcomes the libidinous.

One of the strongest aspects of the film, in addition to Poupart’s performance, is the score by David Thomas, whose mixture of ominous textures, expert beats, and occasional ethereal chants, compensate the prosaic sex scenes with sync commitment.

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

Directed by Jon M.Chu
Country: USA

One cannot deny the existence of a tireless vibrancy, flashy visuals, and versatile soundtrack in “Crazy Rich Asians”, a romantic Chinese-American adventure led by director Jon M.Chu (“G.I. Joe: Retaliation”; “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never”). However, these features weren’t enough to make the film stand out because, under the delusive, glossy surface, we find nothing consistent or memorable.

Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim co-wrote a shallow script based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Kevin Kwan. Basically, it comes jammed with clichés while maintaining that synthetic exuberance that usually serves to conceal the high predictability of a storytelling from the viewer.

Economics professor Rachel Wu (Constance Wu), a New Yorker of Chinese descent who is not afraid to pursue her passions, travels to Singapore with her boyfriend Nick Young (newcomer Henry Golding). The reason for the trip is related to Nick’s best friend’s wedding, but the occasion is also an opportunity for Rachel to meet her sweetheart’s family, the wealthiest in the country. Sad to say: Nick’s glacial mother, Eleanor (fantastic Michelle Yeoh), doesn’t approve the relationship, basing her judgment on the social class differences between the two families. A tough posture that gains further repercussion when she discovers Rachel’s inaccurate story about her deceased father.

In addition to flamboyant bachelor/bachelorette parties, fancy family gatherings in luxurious spaces, and stereotyped dramatic threats against a gorgeous couple in love, this somewhat cheesy crowd-pleaser offers a great deal of neurotic gossip addressed with annoying pomposity and superfluous multi-cultural fashion.

Heaven Without People (2018)

Directed by Lucien Bourjeily
Country: Lebanon

Who never experienced a heated discussion in those hypocrite family gatherings that tend to sour festive occasions? Lebanese writer/director/producer/editor Lucien Bourjeily imagines one of these scenarios in his feature debut “Heaven Without People”. He puts together a solid cast ensemble composed of unknown and amateur actors for this farcical representation of the Lebanese reality.

Despite struggling with inconsistencies in mood and an erratic pace, the film fires up some curious observations about the alienated state of the country, without ever reaching high levels of socio-political controversy.

Serge (Nadim Abou Samra) arrives late at his parents’ house, which was left without electricity for two days, for the long-awaited Easter celebration. He takes a new girlfriend with him: Leila (Laeticia Semaan), a Shiite who had to move to the Southern suburbs due to war. Seated at the table are Serge’s goodhearted mother, Joujou (Samira Sarkis), and self-satisfied father, Antoine (Wissam Boutros); his tense sister Rita (Farah Shaer) and her husband Rabih (Ghassan Chemali); his other sister: the submissive Christine (Nancy Karam) and her passive-aggressive husband, Elias (Jean Paul Hage); as well as his controlling aunt Noah (Jenny Gebara) and her teenage son, Sami (Toni Habib), a troublemaker.

The handheld camera keeps moving around the table at a medium distance, and the tedious introduction of the characters is done slowly and coupled with the vapid conversation, whose topics vary from religion - with incidence on the extremism among Catholics - to corrupt politics to personal observations about some demeanors of the present. It takes a while to contextualize everyone within the family, but once done, the story flows in a more effective manner.

The hypocrisy at lunch comes to an end when the matriarch finds that 12 grand, the equivalent to a one-year salary paid to her husband in advance as a bribe, is missing from her purse. Predictably, the modest Ethiopian maid, Zoufan (Etafar Aweke), who works in the house for several years and earns only $200, is the one to be blamed.

Racism, corruption, preconception, insincerity, violence, and resentment, are all predicaments this family has to deal with. Bourjeily, who gained a reputation as a theater director, chews things up for more than an hour, only to change the course of events from casual passivity to precipitous chaos in a couple of minutes. Can a brilliant ending save a film? Sure, but I strongly feel this one could have given much more if handled with a little more subtlety.

Night Comes On (2018)

Directed by Jordana Spiro
Country: USA

Jordana Spiro initially made me regain confidence in the indie style with the drama “Night Comes On”. However, she kind of disappointed me in the end. Spiro and her convincing stars, Dominique Fishback and Tatum Marilyn Hall, build a detailed, dramatic tension until the final minutes when the story ends abruptly in an unimaginative redemption.

Fishback and Hall play Angel and Abby Lamere, 17 and 10, respectively, two sisters who get together again after the former is freed from juvenile detention, where she spent 2 years for drug use, shoplifting, and unlawful possession of a handgun. She goes after their father, a former recluse who did time for murdering their mother. The only thing we learn about the case is that he grew meaner after losing his job. Angel, who used to dream of being a teacher, seems incapable to forgive him and conceals a gun with the intention to make him vanish for good from the face of the earth.

In spite of that, the beautiful complicity between Angel and Abby, who had been entrusted to foster care after the incident, and the tender moments they spent together on an eventful trip to Long Island Beach impels the story to make a turn from its initial direction.

Gladly, Spiro, who co-wrote the script with the founder of Instagram-based media company The Shade Room, Angelica Nwandu, is not an apologist of a static camera, making us search constantly and avidly for something more while reinforcing Angel’s loss of innocence and family trauma as well as Abby’s puberty-related changes.

There is nothing new or striking here, but rather emphatically emotional, in a film about decisions that never quite convinces in terms of a hypothetical revenge. Nevertheless, this is an auspicious directorial debut for Ms. Spiro, an actor turned director who gave the best instructions to her inspiring young muses.

Adrift (2018)

Directed by: Baltazar Kormakur
Country: USA / Iceland / Hong Kong

“Adrift” is an uneven survival drama co-produced and directed by a connoisseur in the genre, the Icelandic Baltasar Kormakur (“The Deep”, “Everest”). It was loosely based on the true events endured by a young couple caught by the category-four Hurricane Raymond while sailing from Tahiti to San Diego in 1983. Shailene Woodley (“The Fault in Our Stars”, “Divergent”) stars as Tami Oldham Ashcraft, a brave woman who, alone in the sea, manages to stay alive after massive waves have erupted from the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

Having been 27 hours unconscious due to a blow on her head, Tami wakes up just to realize that her fiancé, Richard (Sam Claflin), was gone, probably swallowed by the tempestuous sea. However, she started to believe in miracles in the minute she catches sight of him on a small rubber boat that keeps floating not so far from their ruined 44-foot yacht Hazana. Visibly disturbed, Richard has a leg shattered and some broken ribs, showing no reaction to her talking. How could this have been possible? Is Tami’s fertile imagination working in her favor or a miracle actually happened? The truth is that Tami survived 41 days adrift, eating canned fruit salad and sardines.

The inspiring reality was monotonically scripted by the Kandell twins (“Moana”) together with David Branson Smith (“Ingrid Goes West”), and wasn’t convincingly adapted to the screen, drowning fast in clumsy procedures and obtuse lines. Recurring to inevitable yet disruptive flashbacks to show us how the couple had met five years before, Kormakur creates tragic/romantic momentum without ever going too deep.

Consequently, the film shapes into an exhausting melodrama instead of the harrowing, devastating adventure that everybody was expecting. A punch-less attitude from the director, who makes us suspicious about what his next step is going to be. What saves “Adrift” from an instant wreckage is Woodley’s performance, but still, it’s preferable to read the facts than cope with its cinematic adaptation.

Who We Are Now (2018)

Directed by Matthew Newton
Country: USA

In Matthew Newton’s drama film, “Who We Are Now”, we learn about the dismal circumstances in the life of Beth (Julianne Nicholson – “I Tonya”), who struggles with social reintegration after ten years spent in jail. Although rehabilitated from drug addiction, the weight of a tumultuous past marked by manslaughter impedes her to get the custody of her son. The legal battle is against her own sister, Gabby (Jess Weixler) and her husband, who became the legal guardians of the child. The latter doesn’t even know that ‘aunt’ Beth, a complete stranger to him, is, in fact, his biological mother.

A dedicated public defender, Carl (Jimmy Smits), is sensitive to her cause, but can’t do much to help, especially after Gabby's legal action to prevent her from having any contact with her son. Too many unannounced visits and a public scene were motives for the decision. However, Carl’s ambitious protégé, junior litigator Jess (Emma Roberts), undertakes Beth’s litigation on her own. There is more than one reason to explain this rare act. One has to do with the sudden frustration that escalated in Jess after a juvenile inmate has committed suicide. Also, to avoid the daily torment of dealing with and listening to her manipulative, arrogant mother (Lea Thompson). Hence, on one hand, we have a mother anxiously waiting to get her son back, and on the other, we have a daughter underestimated by her mother.

Beth is working in a nail salon, which doesn't provide her enough income to live properly. So, there wasn't a hesitation when she offered sexual favors to get a decent job. It didn’t work though. The only thing that seems favorable in her life is a new romance with Pete (Zachary Quinto), a lonely soldier who went to Afghanistan for several missions and now suffers from PTSD.

There is nothing fanciful or odd in Newton’s story. The self-acceptance and courage of the two main characters make them admirable women. True fighters with opposite personalities and particular family backgrounds are united by an inexplicable bond that gets stronger as they open up more about their lives. If Roberts does an acceptable job by giving shape to a more rigid, conventional character, then Nicholson is fabulous as she transpires veracity in every scene she appears.

Although monochromatic in mood and driven by a neat filmmaking style, the film has Newton crafting terrific moments as well as a surprising finale centered in a tremendously unselfish act of love that will make you think for a long moment.

Tully (2018)

Directed by Jason Reitman
Country: USA

In Jason Reitman’s slow-burning “Tully”, Charlize Theron plays Marlo, an exhausted mother of three who goes through a middle-age crisis related to her most recent conception. Moreover, her quirky son Jonah needs a one-to-one aid but the school doesn’t pay for that service and the complaints about him seem to increase every day. Depressed and overwhelmed, her life changes for the better when her brother Craig (Mark Duplass) gets her an efficient if weird night nanny. Her name is Tully (Mackenzie Davis), an extravagant creature that soon forges an atypical bond with her employer, which can be either reparative or destructive. 

All of a sudden, Marlo is calmer, less stressed and confident. She even hangs out with Tully in her old neighborhood in Bushwick, Brooklyn; and weirder than that, she deviates her from the regular tasks to sexually stimulate her husband Drew (Ron Livingston), who has a fetish for women in 1950s diner waitress uniforms. 

The night they go out starts with an amusing drive at the sound of Cindy Lauper, but becomes severely toxic when they arrive at an underground club and the drunk Marlo jumps in sync with clangorous heavy-metal rhythms and then endures pain due to engorged breasts. However, that pain was infinitesimal when compared to the afflicting news that Tully is quitting. 

This time, Reitman’s first-call writer Diablo Cody, who successfully penned “Juno” and “Young Adult”, couldn't guarantee him a favorable outcome. Playing with the tricks of the mind, “Tully” feels more contrived than astute, having the skilled group of actors working hard to avoid further damage. 

Upgrade (2018)

Directed by Leigh Whannell
Country: Australia

The first interesting film by the Australian-born actor turned director Leigh Whannell is “Upgrade”, an effective dark blend of action, sci-fi, and horror that may be too moody for everyone’s taste.

The story revolves around Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green), a chip-controlled mechanic that seeks revenge in the sequence of a mugging that left him quadriplegic and killed his wife, Asha (Melanie Vallejo). After an unsuccessful attempt of suicide, Trace accepts the help of an opaque tech expert named Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson), who implants a highly-developed artificial intelligence chip in his spine. STEM, the chip, makes him physically active again but also controls his mind and talks to him (Simon Maiden’s voice) by sending sound waves directly to his eardrum. However, he needs the host’s permission to act as a brute force against those who destroyed his life.

Along the way, he gets rid of Detective Cortez (Betty Gabriel), a suspicious mind who doesn’t cease to stalk him; has Jamie (Kai Bradley), a savvy hacker, rebooting his dying system; and hunts down the evil upgrader Fisk (Benedict Hardie).

The well-told “Upgrade” maintains the dystopian vibrancy until the end, compensating the less vivid moments with a subtle dark humor that fits hand in glove.

With Marshall-Green in top form, expect violent scenes throughout and rip-roaring disclosures, strategically left for the final section.

Hostiles (2018)

Directed by Scott Cooper
Country: USA

Scott Cooper launched his directorial career with a powerful drama, “Crazy Heart”, but since then has gradually lost élan. If his crime thrillers: the fictional “Out of the Furnace” and the biographic “Black Mass”, still carry some sagacity, then he stumbles heavily with “Hostiles”, a sloppy Western based on a promising story by Donald E. Stewart that, cinematically speaking, barely stands on its feet.

Christian Bale spearheads a cast that also includes Rosamund Pike as a grievous widower whose soul burns with a deep rage after having lost her family in an Indian ambush. However, they were incapable to elevate the film above mediocrity.

Protracted, deficiently paced, and lugubrious, “Hostiles” eludes the viewer with limited action and redundant scenes that disclaim any favorable outcome of a well-intentioned cooperation between a merciless US Cavalry Captain (Bale) and a captive Cheyenne Chief  (Wes Studi, a Cherokee actor from Oklahoma) and his family. The enemies are the savage Comanches, whose sudden attacks become the only source of excitement. 

Unfortunately, and despite the strong appeal to tolerance between races, the insouciant, inept ways of Cooper make us despair throughout a journey into the West that, feeling as tiresome as it is shallow, could never be considered inviting.

Sollers Point (2018)

Directed by Matthew Porterfield
Country: USA

Matthew Porterfield’s “Sollers Point” depicts social reintegration in a problematic environment corroded by unemployment and racism.

Keith Cohoe (McCaul Lombardi) is a 24-year-old con who has been living under home arrest in suburban Baltimore for nine months due to drug dealing. Hot-tempered and fan of heavy metal music, Keith lives with his father, Carol (James Belushi), a retired employee of the long gone Bethlehem Steel Plant, with whom he maintains an uneasy relationship. Even allowed to leave the house now, he continues in probation, so he mustn’t leave the state, a move he would take for sure since the atmosphere in the city is not ideal for him to get back on his feet.

Love, consolation, and support come from his benevolent grandmother, who offers to pay for his studies. However, he just wants to work and lead a decent life, an enormous challenge in a city that lacks opportunities. Moreover, his former gang mates, all black haters, keep stalking him as they see his transformation as a rejection. Segregation is a sad reality and the conflict is inevitable, especially with Aaron (Tom Guiry), who has to be pushed back by Keith’s Afro-American friend Marquis (Brieyon Bell-El) and his little crowd.

Keith’s amorous life is also an issue. He continues deeply attached to his ex-girlfriend, Courtney (Zazie Beetz), also an African American, despite having an open relationship with Jessie (Everleigh Brenner), a local stripper. Lacking the financial resources that would allow him to have an independent life, Keith gets trapped in a series of perils that make him realize he might have no other option than reconnect with the gang of drug dealers. The inescapability of the milieu leads to inconsiderate actions and his initial plan dampens with gloominess.

After a slowly developed first section, the low-key indie drama gets some grittiness coming from the hostile relationships, leading us to an offbeat finale that, understandably, may be classified as pointless or unsatisfying by many viewers. 

Porterfield, who hails from Baltimore himself, extracts convincing emotions from the simplest scenes, pursuing the understated rather than the boisterous. The decreased intensity and long-suffering nature of the film are not obstructive since Keith’s frustration feels authentic and the backdrop/atmosphere painfully realistic.

The Rider (2018)

Directed by Chloé Zhao
Country: USA

The sophomore feature from Chinese writer-director Chloé Zhao ("Songs My Brothers Taught Me”), “The Rider”, is an impressive documentary-style drama film, whose soulfulness and elegance dazzle. Serving as a backdrop for this true story is the eroded arid region of South Dakota.

By employing non-professional actors, who actually play themselves in the film, Ms. Zhao manages to shape “The Rider” as an authentic emotional journey that is as much gripping as it is true to life. Brady Jandreau deserves credit for the formidable performance as Brady Blackburn, a Native American cowboy and local rodeo star who, after a severe accident, is forced to abandon what he likes the most: to ride and compete. As a consequence of a deep skull fracture, which caused brain damage, he struggles with motor difficulties in one hand and occasional seizures that will likely become worse if he doesn’t stop to ride completely. However, he barely can resist to that unbending impulse of mounting on a horse. 

His eyes reflect all the sadness and he only opens up a bit with his younger sister Lilly (Lilly Jandreau), a fifteen-year-old who has Asperger’s syndrome. He maintains a cold relationship with his father, Wayne (Tim Jandreau), an old-school horse expert and now a widower. Yet, despite Wayne's drinking and gambling problems, we can tell there’s love between them. It’s just a matter of letting it out.

There’s not much to do in the vast fields and Ray, besides accepting a few minor jobs as a horse trainer, starts working as a cashier in a supermarket in order to adjust the financial needs of his family. When hanging out with friends - drinking, smoking weed, and singing a mix of pop and country songs - he forgets the troubles for a little while. However, it’s becoming extremely burdensome for him to cope with his situation. This is exacerbated by his regular visits to a medical facility to see a friend, Lane Scott, who got paralyzed and became speechless after a rodeo accident. Ray will learn important things from him, including never giving up on his dreams. But can he just stop, let it go, and move on?

There is an infinite sadness involving Zhao’s “The Rider” but also an immeasurable humanity. What happened to Ray truly broke my heart, maybe because I value a lot the things I like to do. This powerful, quiet, and confessed drama with shades of Western will give you much more than what you are expecting. It’s a treasure and already a favorite of mine in the contemporary drama genre.

The Escape (2018)

Directed by Dominic Savage
Country: UK

The sophomore feature film from Dominic Savage, “The Escape”, shows that the British director has a penchant for depicting conflictive relationships with decent levels of maturity. The director had an interesting debut in 2005 with “Love+Hate” and since then has been dedicated to TV movies and series.

This subtly aching new drama is set in suburban London and follows a thirty-something housewife and mother of two, Tara (Gemma Arterton), who is extremely unhappy in her marriage, and whose life becomes more and more draining and pointless. Her daily routine includes taking care of the kids, do the housecleaning, make dinner, and be available for her unmindful husband Mark (Dominic Cooper), who assures a good financial stability but cannot see the lamentable emotional state she got into.

It’s sad to realize that this intelligent woman cries while forcing herself to please the sexual appetites of her selfish partner. There are no signs of pleasure or joy in her expression and their relationship gradually becomes poisoned by bitterness and resentment. Suffocated, she ends up taking her anger out on the innocent kids, showing that her emotional fortitude reached a very low level.

She seems not to have close friends and the only person with whom she talks to, from time to time, is her nonchalant mother, who states she’s just going through a phase. Suffocated and determined to do something more with her life, Tara flees from home and heads to Paris, where she has a romantic adventure with a local photographer, Phillipe (Jalil Lespert). The chemistry between the two is palpable, but is this the affair she needs?

Despite Arterton’s outstanding performance, the film weakens considerably in its last section. In a frustrating way, the drama stalls in terms of fluency after the main character’s self-imposed freedom. Hence, the solidly built oppression that comes from the household becomes the film's emotional peak. This undeniable decrescendo of enthrallment tells us that "The Escape" is a fair drama that could have been better.