Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 08 January 2022

My first reaction after King Richard was one of surprise.  It wasn’t surprise about the film’s quality but rather, surprise that Venus and Serena Williams would sign-off, in their role as executive producers, on a movie which provides a not-always-glamorous look at their father.  There’s a lot which is left out (his previous marriage for example) but given professional sport is becoming increasing sanitised (negative press is tightly controlled to protect commercial revenues), it’s nice to see behind the curtain and be reminded what goes on behind the scenes.

You can look at this movie through several different lenses.  For example, you could come away and think Richard Williams (Smith) was an inspired genius.  He described himself as being in the “champion raising business” and, having written a 78-page plan to turn his kids into superstars, would devote countless hours each day to their training.

There was no shortage of motivation but money was a barrier.  Richard would fish old tennis balls out of bins, use run-down public tennis courts, and personally coach them himself based on his learnings from magazines and video tapes.  They couldn’t afford country club memberships or professional coaches.  If you love a great “rags to riches” tale, this is one to soak up and enjoy.

The real Venus and Serena Williams speak highly of their father (he sacrificed so much for them) but they’ve publicly acknowledged the ecosystem of their family wasn’t perfect.  The controlling, strong-willed Richard didn’t appreciate his views being challenged.  Rightly or wrongly, he’d argue with coaches, officials, potential sponsors, his kids and his wife, Brandy (Ellis).  When it came to “being humble”, he didn’t always practice what he preached.

Richard is the film’s focus but Brandy is the most intriguing character.  She’s the mediator of the family – sometimes required to bite her tongue while sometimes voicing her valid concerns.  An argument between Richard and Brandy (it takes place in a kitchen) is perhaps the film’s best scene and highlights why both Will Smith and Aunjanue Ellis are on track to earn Academy Award nominations in a few weeks.

It leans a little too much in one direction but King Richard also asks audiences to think about the relationship between parents and young kids when it comes to sport.  Some just want their kids to have fun and make friends whilst other push hard with hopes of making them high-paying professional athletes.  This tale has a happy ending but for every Venus and Serena Williams, there’s the story of a child pushed too hard who “burns out” and loses their love for both the sport and their family.  It’s a fine line.

The film is unnecessarily melodramatic in places.  A moment where a gun-wielding Richard is “saved” by a farcically convenient drive-by shooting is the best example.  Another scene where he prophetically tells a forlorn Serena that she’ll be “the greatest of all time” also feels over-the-top.  For the most part though, this a tight script from first-time writer Zach Baylin which features realistic dialogue and memorable one-on-one conversations between the characters.  The banter between Richard and a continually frustrated coach (humorously played by Jon Bernthal) provides a valuable injection of comedy.

I also like the narrow attention in terms of timeline.  We don’t go beyond Venus’s professional debut as a 14-year-old.  The Williams sisters won a combined 30 grand slam singles titles and it’s easy to find highlights and interviews related to those wins by looking on YouTube.  There’s no point recreating that in cinematic form.  Instead, King Richard opens our eyes to their upbringing (which we don’t know as much about) and the barriers which needed to be overcome.  Most should enjoy this.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 30 December 2021

At the Brisbane premiere of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a brief interview was played with director Jason Reitman (Up in the Air) where, in addition to asking people not to reveal spoilers, he spoke of it being about family above all else.  It’s an accurate statement.  In front of the camera, we see a story centred on a fractured household in search of fresh start.  Behind the camera, Reitman is following in the footsteps of his own father, Ivan, who directed and produced the two Ghostbusters movies from the 1980s.

This new film, which ignores the 2016 all-female reboot, takes place in a small, isolated town called Summerville, Oklahoma.  It’s best described as “the place that time forgot”.  Schools use video cassette recorders when delivering classes, residents go to a drive-in diner when looking for fast food, and one of the characters uses an instant camera to take photographs.  Even if you haven’t seen the earlier Ghostbusters flicks… there’s still plenty of nostalgia on offer.

Callie Spengler (Coon) and her two children, Trevor (Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Grace), don’t want to be there.  They have no choice though as they family is flat broke.  They were evicted from their previous apartment but thankfully/conveniently, they’ve inherited a farm in Summerville following the death of Callie’s estranged father.  The house is a filthy, run-down dump but at least it’s a place to live.  It also serves as an opportunity for Callie to “pick through the rubble” of her dad’s life and create a few final memories.

It’s the children who do most of the digging and that’s why the story is largely told from their perspective.  You could therefore describe it as a knock-off of Stranger Things (and I’m not just saying that because of the casting of Finn Wolfhard).  Trevor and Phoebe realise their grandfather was an original Ghostbuster, do some background research, learn about the funky ghost-busting equipment, and then get called into action when villainous ghosts pop up in town.  It’s up to the kids to save the world!

Ghostbusters: Afterlife was released in the United States back in November and pulled in over $120 million USD at the local box-office – decent figures for an industry suffering from the impacts of COVID-19.  It shows there’s still juice in this orange.  The original movies developed a cult-like following (there are Ghostbusters fan clubs all over the world) and existing devotees should enjoy this new tale and its many easter eggs.  Youngsters and other newcomers can have just as much fun with plenty of great one-liners on offer.  Paul Rudd (Ant-Man) gets the best of the jokes as a lazy school teacher.

It could have used more tension in places, especially during the big climax, but Ghostbusters: Afterlife pitches itself as wholesome family entertainment and delivers by offering something for all ages.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 05 January 2022

Writer-director Sean Baker has a knack for finding/creating interesting characters we won’t often see on screen.  Tangerine (2015) was about a transgender sex worker looking for love and friendship, and The Florida Project (2017) was the story of a poverty-stricken mother and daughter living in a rundown hotel next to Disney World in Florida.

Baker was tapping into another curious subject, drug-user activism, but that bigger project was canned in early 2020 when COVID-19 took hold.  Not content to sit at home in Los Angeles and “ride out” the pandemic, Baker was able to dust off an old idea and make a smaller-scale movie in Texas.  The budget was a measly $1 million USD and so it was shot with largely non-professional actors, a tiny crew, and no rehearsal time.  It’s title?  Red Rocket.

The film’s chatty, extroverted protagonist, Mike Saber (Rex), has gone from rags to riches to rags.  He grew up in a poor community on the outskirts of Houston, went to Hollywood and found fame as a porn star, and pissed all his money away.  We now pick up his story in 2016 where he’s returned to his childhood home for the first time in 17 years.  With no cash, no home and no job, he’s there solely out of desperation.

I think we all know someone like Mike.  I’m not talking about being acquainted with a successful porn star… but rather more generally about a person who has perfected the art of one-way friendships.  When they need you, they’ll reach out, be nice, and worm their way into your heart.  When you need them, they cannot be found.

Mike interacts with several supporting players in Red Rocket and it’s through these exchanges that we form a more complete view of who is really is.  When telling industry tales to his porn-loving neighbour (Darbone), Mike’s narcissistic tendencies are on fully display.  He deludedly sees himself as a “celebrity” and upon finally meeting someone who can feed that view, latches on and uses it for his own gain.

It’s different when Mike is around his estranged wife, Lexi (Elrod), because he doesn’t have the upper hand.  She takes convincing but lets him stay temporarily in her home provided rent be paid.  Like a skilled telemarketer, Mike is forever pleading his sob-story case but, as Lexi has known him for so long, she sees through most of his bullshit.  That’s not to say she doesn’t have moments of weakness which he is able to exploit.

The subplot likely to generate the most discussion is one where the 30-something-year-old Mike befriends Strawberry (Son), an 18-year-old girl from a local donut shop.  The pair form a close romantic connection before Mike raises the idea of taking her to Los Angeles and helping kick start her career in the porn industry.  Does he finally care for once?  Is he genuinely in love and doing this so she can escape her current dead-end life?  Or is just Mike being Mike and looking to use her as a stepping stone to reinvigorate his own sagging career?

It’s funny to think such a great movie wouldn’t have been made if not for the pandemic.  Red Rocket has earned much critical acclaim since its Cannes Film Festival premiere and star Simon Rex was recently awarded the best actor prize by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.  It’s hard to fault Rex’s performance and his convincing portrayal of an individual who is both intriguing and irritating.

Not pushing any profound messages or viewpoints, Red Rocket is an absorbing character study that asks us to look at Mike and then reflect on our own existence.  I like the approach.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 30 December 2021

With roughly 500 stores around the world and generating close to $10 billion Euro each year in revenue, Gucci is one of the world’s most recognisable fashion brands.  Its distinctive “double-G” monogram recognises the company’s founder, Guccio Gucci, and was developed by his son, Aldo, in 1933.  You’ll find it on most iconic Gucci items – from belts and shoes to handbags and scarves.

Director Ridley Scott (Gladiator), drawing on a screenplay from writers Becky Johnston (The Prince of Tides) and Roberto Bentivegna, covers a tumultuous period in the organisation’s history between 1978 and 1995.  The family business was now in its third generation and there were fights over control, strategic direction, designers, and money.

The film revolves around five characters.  Brothers Rodolfo and Aldo Gucci (Irons and Pacino) are co-owners of the firm founded by their father.  They each had a son would become part of the business – the flamboyant Paolo (Leto) who wants to bring his own style to Gucci’s brand, and the semi-reluctant Maurizio (Driver) who isn’t sure if he should take an active role.  Guiding Maurizio is his ambitious wife, Patrizia (Lady Gaga), a socialite with expensive taste.

Highlighting the pitfalls of family-run businesses, the problem with House of Gucci is its focus on the wrong people.  The bulk of screen time is devoted to Maurizio and Patrizia.  He’s a boring guy who goes through some quick-fire personality/love changes with little explanation.  Just because he’s rich and (arguably) successful, doesn’t make him interesting.  She’s a one-note, conniving “villain” looking to dominate all those around her.  Adam Driver (Marriage Story) and Lady Gaga (A Star is Born) are proven actors but I tired of the repetitive interplay between the pair.

The two most appealing characters are relegated to supporting status.  A deliberately over-the-top Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) has fun with his portrayal as Paolo while Al Pacino (Scent of a Woman) relishes the chance to play a chatty, melodramatic individual in telling Aldo’s story.  They liven things up but we don’t see them enough across the film’s lengthy 158-minute run time.

The reactions since the film’s release have generated a few laughs.  Heirs to the Gucci family, who were not consulted prior, described it as “an insult to the legacy on which the brand is built today.”  If anything, those comments will only add fuel to the public’s interest.  Once you’ve seen the movie, you’ll realise it was never intended to be a gritty, blow-by-blow documentary.  The filmmakers have taken real life events and turned them into something satirical and comedic for the entertainment of audiences.  I’m okay with that.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 05 January 2022

The change to the title is relatively minor.  Just a space and an apostrophe were required to go from Kingsman, used for the 2014 original and 2017 sequel, to The King’s Man, the name of this 2021 prequel.  The changes to the cast, tone and quality are much more significant.  I applaud the producers for taking a risk (most cash-grabbing follow-ups are as safe as Fort Knox) but the dull, weighty script doesn’t build into something meaningful.

In the same vein as Captain America: The First Avenger and Wonder Woman, writers Matthew Vaughn and Karl Gajdusek have created fictional heroes and placed them in a real war.  It’s a lengthy wait though if you’re hoping for action.  Much of this is a tired, cliché-laden family drama centred on a wealthy British duke, Orlando (Fiennes), and his naïve son, Conrad (Dickinson).

We’re shown a flashback from a decade earlier where Conrad’s mother is killed during the Boer War in South Africa while nobly working for the Red Cross.  In her final words, she asks Orlando to keep their son safe and “never let him see war again.”  Surprise, surprise, Conrad grows up and wants to enlist in the British army to fight the Germans in World War I.  Who didn’t see that coming?

Orlando, uncannily predicting it will be “not like any war we’ve ever seen”, tries to sabotage his son’s plans but alas, off to battle he goes.  We even get the obligatory scene where Conrad witnesses the horrors of the Western Front and acknowledges that his father was right all along.  It’s too rushed and cheesy to create any genuine emotional response.  Luckily, Conrad doesn’t have a girlfriend back home or else they’d have thrown in a scene of him looking at her photo before charging out of the trenches.

I should also mention that Orlando, who has taken a vow of pacificism since his wife’s death, now runs a secret “club” out of his basement with the help of his servants (hope they get a higher duties allowance).  They don’t get together to play cards or listen to the radio.  Rather, they are engaged in espionage and foreign interference because “some things are too important to be left to politicians”.  It’s curious that Orlando is so protective of his son’s safety and yet is happy to use him as part of the club’s dangerous missions in Bosnia and Russia.

The previous two Kingsman films were light-hearted romps which tried to offer something less serious than James Bond, Ethan Hunt and Jason Bourne.  That was part of their charm and they weren’t afraid to mock the genre.  The closest we get here is an amusing sequence where the heroes infiltrate a party hosted by Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin (played by Rhys Ifans in the film’s best performance).

Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is needlessly heavy.  Conrad has the personality of a wet sponge, Orlando wears everyone out with his living-in-the-past mentality, and the supporting club-members have very little to do (except arrive at timely moments to save the day and then slip back into the shadows).  A grand action finale atop a well-guarded mountain does nothing to get the adrenalin pumping or make you think anyone is in danger.

Keep your expectations low with this one.