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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 05 July 2021

When it comes to music biopics and documentaries, the tendency is to focus on well-known artists.  It’s a lot easier to sell tickets and make money when you’re pitching it to the millions of existing fans who adore the likes of Johnny Cash, Freddie Mercury, Elton John, Ray Charles, Amy Winehouse and Aretha Franklin. 

On top of that, it’s also advisable to pick musicians with massive highs and massive lows.  If you want to create something theatrical and dramatic, it helps when the subject matter has battled drug addictions, marital difficulties and/or financial woes.  Audiences like to see their “heroes” rise to the top, fall down, learn from their mistakes, and then overcome adversity to rise again.

The Sparks Brothers bucks that trend.  It’s a documentary that chronicles the livelihood of two brothers from California, Ron and Russell Mael, who formed a music duo known as Sparks in 1967.  They’ve released 25 albums across more than five decades (which you’d describe as a solid, steady career) but none of their songs ever made it to #1 in a major market.  If interviewing people on the street, I’d bet a sizeable portion of the population have never heard of them before (myself included).

From what we learn in the film, Sparks have developed a cult-like following with many in the music industry.  I like the tagline used on the poster in that they’re “your favourite band’s favourite band”.  It highlights that whilst they never achieved award-winning, millionaire-type fame, their music has shaped and influenced so many other artists that did.

The film follows the natural, chronological order of events – beginning with their first album release in the 1960s and following their career through to the current day.  It’s the creation of director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) and it’s hard to believe how many people he got to speak on screen about their admiration and interaction with Sparks over the years.

Wright first met the brothers 6 years ago and he was inspired by how they could keep reinventing themselves and changing their music again and again over half a century.  It’s easy to see the attraction.  I too was immensely entertained listening to Ron and Russell open up – they’re fun, likeable, self-deprecating guys with a great sense of humour.  The same applies to Wright who infuses the documentary with his own off-beat comedy (such as creative subtitling).

The film will appeal to Sparks fans but it’ll be just as enjoyable for others.  It’s nice going into the cinema and not having any preconceived views about the subject (which might not be the case for a Freddie Mercury or Elton John biopic where you know how it will pan out).  It may sound like a stretch at 140 minutes but The Sparks Brothers is one of the year’s best documentaries and will engage you from start to finish.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 31 May 2021

When creating science-fiction movies about robots, the trend is to give them human-like qualities and follow one of two distinct paths.  You can make them friendly and loveable as illustrated by films such as WALL-E, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Iron Giant, Real Steel, Short Circuit, or you can make them villainous and world destroying as shown in The Terminator, Ex Machina, Transformers and The Matrix.

The reality is not quite so glamorous and action-packed.  Robots are changing our existence every single day but, instead of having to worry about being chased by a machine-gun wielding terminator, we are more likely to be affected economically through shifts in wealth distribution.  There are many jobs that will be taken over, if they haven’t already, by robots and artificial intelligence.

It raises an interesting theoretical question that I’ve often posed of friends – if our world reaches a point where almost every job on the planet is performed by a robot, what becomes of employment?  How can people earn a wage if there is no work for humans to perform?  Is there some kind of government welfare and if so, how is it funded and how is it disseminated?  Would it be subject to corruption and manipulation?

Writer-director Noah Hutton taps into these ideas with Lapsis.  It marks his feature-film debut (his background is in documentaries) and it earned him a nomination for best first screenplay at the recent Independent Spirit Awards (Andy Siara’s Palm Springs won the category).  Hutton describes it as science-fiction set in the “parallel present”.  It’s similar to the world we know today but with a few small differences to highlight thought-provoking themes.

The film’s protagonist is Ray (Imperial), a man in need of a well-paying job to help pay the pricey medical bills of his fatigued half-brother, Jamie (Howard).  Tipped off by a questionable friend, Ray becomes a contractor for a major global company that is laying high-speed network cables across the country.  It works in a similar manner to Uber.  Ray accepts contracts on his phone and once he’s hiked through forests and laid the cables, the company transfers money into his bank account.  There’s a catch though.  Robots are also performing the work and if they can do it faster, Ray doesn’t get a cent.

Lapsis has a lot to say about the gig economy, the diminution of unionisation, and the growing power of companies over individuals.  Hutton drew on his own experiences having worked himself as an independent contractor for the past decade and having to buy his own equipment and pay for his own health insurance.  What we see in the film may be over-exaggerated for comedic effect but it gets you thinking about the real world. 

Hutton frames the story as a dark comedy.  For example, there’s a great moment where Ray teams up with a more experienced contractor to slow the movement of a cable-laying robot that is on their tail.  You could look at this scene through a humorous lens and have a simple laugh about humans outsmarting robots.  However, on thinking about it deeper, you realise the only thing keeping Ray in a job is robot-sabotage and it won’t be long until he’s the one being outsmarted.

Lapsis is both strange and stimulating.  A great combination!

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 21 June 2021

The uber-successful stage musical Hamilton made creator Lin-Manuel Miranda a household name but it was In the Heights that launched his career.  He was just a 19-year-old studying theatre at an arts college in Connecticut in 1999 when he came up with the idea of a musical set in Washington Heights, a Latino based community in Upper Manhattan close to where he grew up.  He still lives in the area today.

Having worked on the music for several years, the show finally debuted off-Broadway in 2007 before moving to the lucrative Richard Rodgers Theatre on West 46^th Street (the same theatre later used for Hamilton) one year later.  There’s no questioning its critical and commercial success.  It won four Tony Awards, including best new musical and best original score, and ran for on Broadway for close to three years.

In the same vein as other profitable musicals, In the Heights has now been transformed into a big-screen movie for a wider audience to enjoy.  Quiara Alegría Hudes, who wrote the book for the original musical, has modernised the plot to make it a closer reflection of current day times in Washington Heights.  The director reins were handed to Jon M. Chu who is quickly building a strong resume on the back of Now You See Me 2 and Crazy Rich Asians.

There are many themes explored in the movie but for me, the ones resonating most strongly deal with home, family and community.  Usnavi (Ramos) is a 20-something-year-old from the Dominican Republic who, not long after his birth, immigrated to the United States with his parents.  His folks passed away when he was young and, having been raising by a feisty surrogate grandmother (Merediz), he now runs a small, shabby corner store in “The Heights”.

Usnavi finds himself torn between two worlds.  Part of him wants to stay in New York with his good friends, his cheeky cousin, and the woman he’s had eyes on for years, Vanessa (Barrera).  The other part of him wants to return to the Dominican Republic, follow his family roots, and revive a rundown beachside bar once owned by his late father.  Where is “home” and what does he want to do with the rest of his life?

There’s no shortage of subplots to keep the large ensemble busy.  There’s a young woman studying at Stanford, a father running a taxi company, a group of gossiping women in a hair salon, a budding fashion designer, a lovestruck man working in car dispatch, a struggling uncle, and a mobile food vendor specialising in piraguas.  It’s a lot to take in but if you can follow the fast-paced lyrics in the opening 8-minute musical number, you’ll learn the background of each character.

The narrative is a touch “light” in that there are no real villains (the closest we get is someone overcharging for dry cleaning) and not much in the way of suspense.  I’d also argue it’s a formulaic love story lacking originality.  All of that said, I enjoyed the cast, the locations, the songs and the themes.  It has a wonderful, infectious energy with a splash of emotion in the final act.  Everyone will have a personal favourite when it comes to performances but it’s hard to go past Olga Merediz as the loving matriarch.

If a fan of musicals, In the Heights is one you’re likely to watch again and again.

You can read my chat with director Jon M. Chu by clicking here.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 20 May 2021

Released in 2018, A Quiet Place was easily one of the top 10 movies of that year.  It’ll be compulsory viewing to fully understand this follow-up.  If looking for an abridged summary, it was set in a world which had been attacked by alien grasshopper-like creatures who kill anything that makes a sound.  A four-person family had taken refuge in a small country home where every part of their routine had been altered so as to make as little noise as possible.  It was a fascinating premise which asked the question - could you go the rest of your life without making a single sound if your survival depended on it?

A Quiet Place: Part II picks up where the last film left off.  The Abbott family home has been destroyed and they’ve set off to find somewhere equally safe.  Their travels take them to a dilapidated factory which is home to Emmett (Murphy), an old family friend who has also spent the last year of his life hiding away in a well-fortified basement.  He’s now there alone given his wife recently passed away due to illness.

In the same vein as the original, director John Krasinski builds suspense through the lack of dialogue, sound effects and music.  There’s a scene where the family are hiking along a forest path and they must carefully consider each step to avoid the sound of crackling leaves and snapped branches.  It’s an intense sequence where cinematographer Polly Morgan (Lucy in the Sky) zooms in on their bare feet and lets the images do the talking.  It reiterates that silence is one of the most effective tools in making audiences feel uncomfortable.  

The film’s second half borrows from a well-used formula and splits the characters up to create more subplots and more tension.  A few parts are predictable but it still works.  Krasinski weaves the stories together, increases the tempo, and gives us a fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat thriller that will take your breath away.  The special effects and sound crews deserve similar praise in creating some of the creepiest aliens we’ve ever seen on the big screen.  Their hideous faces and piercing shrieks will not be easily forgotten.

Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada) won a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance in the first film and, once again, she’s terrific as the resilient mother who will stop at nothing to protect her family.  The two likeable youngsters, Millicent Simmonds (Wonderstruck) and Noah Jupe (Ford v Ferrari), have more to do this time around and it’s cool to see their inquisitive/courageous characters develop into quasi-action heroes.

I’m normally sceptical of a sequel that relies on the same hooks and tricks as the original and while yes, that’s partially the case here, A Quiet Place: Part II is still exceedingly better than other action-thrillers coming out of Hollywood.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 07 June 2021

Given how much division and negativity exists in the world, there are times when a feel-good movie is just what you need to warm the heart, sooth the soul and lift the spirit.  That’s clearly the strategy behind Dream Horse, a British drama that draws from a true story and then milks it for all its worth.  So compelling is this underdog tale, it was previously the subject of a 2015 documentary that won an audience award at the Sundance Film Festival.

We begin by being introduced to Janet Vokes (Collette), a woman from a small, not-so-wealthy community in Wales who works by day as a supermarket checkout operator and by night as a bartender.  You can tell from her facial experiences that this isn’t the life she envisioned. Janet is tired of the same day-after-day routines and she’s looking for something to spice things up.

Her inspiration arrives in the form of a local accountant, Howard Davies (Lewis), who pops into the pub one night and talks about horse racing syndicates.  Janet decides to start one of her own and is able to convince an eclectic group of townsfolk, none of whom have owned a horse before, to chip in 10 pounds per week to cover the costs.  She raises the horse in a makeshift stable on her own property before transferring him into the hands of an experienced trainer to help prepare him for the track.  It’s not long until the prize money starts trickling in…

Dream Horse is so stuffed full of sentimentality that it’s almost impossible to consume.  It is as if writer Neil McKay (Mo, Appropriate Adult) is too scared to include conflict so as not to upset the audience.  When there’s a debate over the horse’s name, it’s resolved in 30 seconds.  When there’s an argument within the syndicate about whether to sell the horse, it’s quickly dispelled and everyone keeps on smiling.  When Howard’s wife validly probes his obvious gambling problem, it’s glossed over because he’s a nice guy and the horse is a success (his family even accompany him to the racetrack to help wrap up that plot point).

I’m not saying this shouldn’t be a feel-good movie.  The problem is that it’s trying a little too hard to be one.  It’s difficult to believe such a diverse group could be part of a syndicate for close to a decade and not have more issues than what is depicted in the film.  Other non-racing subplots, such as Janet’s frosty relationship with her introverted father, also feel like they’re given short shrift for similar reasons.

Despite the limitations of the screenplay, the film is still watchable thanks to the performances of the cast.  Toni Collette (Muriel’s Wedding) gives it everything as the passionate syndicate manager trying to give her life more meaning and purpose.  You’ve got to cheer for her.  The funniest scenes involve Janet and her fellow investees attending race meetings and making the most of their “owner” privileges (much to the chagrin of racing toffs).

If you’re someone who likes uncomplicated true stories and likes seeing good things happen to good people, Dream Horse should do enough to satisfy.