Amy Wren Watched What? November 18-24

Wicked, Part One (2024) - Directed by John M. Chu

My exposure to Wicked was minimal going in to this. Let's see...about about five years ago I listened to the Original Cast Recording during an early morning drive around Naperville, Illinois. Oh, and I read the Wikipedia synopsis. I say this to establish that I did not have any real expectations going in. And you know what? I really liked it! Cynthia Erivo was excellent as Elphaba, and Galinda (Ariana Grande-Butera) grew on me as I watched the film. The musical numbers were all well done, not an easy thing for film versions of musicals to pull off. I dug Emerald City and its whole Disneyland meets Theosophy vibe. Congrats to John M. Chu, you did about as well as you could have and made a film that does what it set out to do really, really well. From what I understand, this was the easy part to pull off, so who knows if part two will hold up. Who knows what anything will be a year from now, right?

The Dead Zone (1983) - Directed by David Cronenberg

I just finished reading the Stephen King novel this film is based upon about a week or so ago. Weirdly, despite the fact I had seen the movie before, the Johnny Smith in my head was the one from the USA Network TV show starring Anthony Michael Hall. That's no knock on Christopher Walken, who does a great job of portraying the post coma Smith. It's just the way my brain works sometimes.

As for the movie, it takes a cleaver to the book and comes up with a very streamlined story, which mostly works to its favor. By focusing on three distinct parts of Johnny's story, it allows for each of those parts to tell their own story that then builds to the climax. Martin Sheen is also fun, playing the anti-Bartlet as the charismatic yet ominous Greg Stillson. Its interesting to compare his performance in this to Bartlet, the other New England politician Sheen is famous for playing. Though no one could ever accuse Jed Bartlet of being a populist outsider rabble rouser, the two performances have more similarities than you think. Sheen makes some subtle choices that make Stillson come off as vaguely sinister where Bartlet comes off as genuinely warm.

All in all, it's a pretty good adaptation of King's work, as well as being one of the least messed up films David Cronenberg has ever directed.

Women Talking (2022) Directed by Sarah Polley

I found this film to be incredibly frustrating. At times it hit me like a truck, articulating some things to me in a way I just could never find the language for. However, much of the time, it just felt like an overly contrived device to create a dialogue between the women who were, well, talking about what to do in an untenable situation.

Now contrivance is not inherently bad in a movie. To one degree or another every film is contrived. But there's a difference between crafting a film and the conversation and conflict developing organically, and just putting the characters into a situation as if they were pieces on a chess board you put into place. The moments the film felt the strongest was when the characters were just existing and living in the moments between everything. Talking with my wife, she brought up another good point, which was that the film never really deals with the details of how an entire colony of women, their children, and a few others would leave, if they chose to do so. It's not that the film needed a detailed plan, where the characters list everything off to the screen. But some dialogue that showed the characters had some ideas of what to do would have really helped it feel like a thing happening, and not just an exercise in conversation.

Mulholland Drive (2001) - Directed by David Lynch

The first David Lynch film that I ever saw is still my favorite. Right from the start, the film draws you in, and never lets go until that final, horrible, brilliant moment. It has a stunningly simple scene where two characters do exactly what the movie said they were going to do and what it said was going to happen happened, and yet it's still so riveting and terrifying and shocking in that moment. You know its something special when even notorious Lynch skeptic Roger Ebert liked this one.

Because you all read to the end of this review, here's Rebekah Del Rio singing "Llorando" from the film as a treat.

Other Films Watched
The Wizard of Oz (1939) - Directed by Victor Fleming
A classic.

Lianna (1983) - Directed by John Sayles
Would not have guessed the director of Eight Men Out and Matewan would have directed a compassionate and authentic feeling drama about a woman coming out as a lesbian, yet here we are.

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