arungeorge13

The mystique surrounding the Grabber is almost completely lost as this sequel to 2021's The Black Phone feels needless and perfunctory. The original film was a fairly tense, psychological thriller with an element of the supernatural -- in short, it had storytelling clarity. Part 2, however, messes it up by ingesting more derivative, campy lore from the Freddy Krueger films, and that seems to have been a deliberate move. There's a scene of the Grabber skating on ice with an axe in hand, but even that can't save the film from its mediocrity. Also, beyond Mason Thames' Finney and Madeleine McGraw's Gwen, the rest of the characters feel uni-dimensional. Even Finney takes a backseat to Gwen this time, because the story revolves around her psychic dreams. C. Robert Cargill is the co-writer once again with Scott Derrickson, yet Black Phone 2 somehow feels drawn out and pointless. Also, Gwen's lines definitely don't feel 1980s to me (..very Gen-Z coded).

The few things that did work include the grainy 8mm footage used to depict the dreams, sometimes intercutting with events in the present. The aesthetic choice used to light up the cabins is also interesting. Ethan Hawke's dialogue delivery still packs a punch, and is by now, the only reason for the Grabber to function as a main antagonist.. I really wanted him to TALK LESS and KILL MORE here. And when the film's occasionally violent, it's gnarly. The music department uses Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" in a really cool moment. Will Blumhouse make a Part 3 because this one ended up making money too? Ugh, money rules, bruh!

Take Out meets The Florida Project in a Shih-Ching Tsou & Sean Baker collaboration that's full of lively real-life energy and saturated colours. Tsou and Baker co-write, with the former directing and the latter editing, and extract the sweetest (and cutest) performance from Nina Ye, playing a young kid named I-Jing who's told (by her orthodox grandpa) that using the left hand leads to the devil's work. Her mom Shu-Fen (an excellent Janel Tsai) runs a noodle stand in the bustling Taipei night market, while her sister I-Ann (Shih-Yuan Ma) is an angsty teenager who works as a 'betel nut beauty.' Another key character here is Johnny (Brando Huang), a hawker whose shop is adjacent to the noodle shop, and gradually grows to be a spirited presence in the womens' lives.

Films shot on the iPhone (Boyle's 28 Years Later, Soderbergh's Unsane, Baker's own Tangerine, and recently Neil Burger's Inheritance) have a unique aesthetic to them. A big chunk of the film revolves around I-Jing's little antics with the camera zooming in on her adorably expressive face, and coupled with Taipei's beautifully lived-in settings, the film is a sight to behold, even on smaller screens. The candid beauty of East Asian (and South East Asian, for that matter) countries is just absorbing as hell. The more you've travelled to these places, the more you can relate.

Drama keeps brewing in the household between the three ladies, with money, integrity, and even the family tree being called into question. All three get well-etched characters and arcs. The climactic culmination even brings an unexpected reveal, but life keeps moving. The writing treats ACCEPTANCE as a true virtue, and sometimes in life, that's exactly how it is. The scene where I-Jing and I-Ann go back together to return I-Jing's stolen goods is SO SWEET.. might be my favourite scene in a film all year.

The Shadow's Edge is a Larry Yang directorial that mostly respects the audience's intelligence while also being a fun actioner plus surveillance thriller. Jackie Chan plays a retired surveillance expert who's brought back into the mix after a bunch of professional thieves execute a high profile robbery. Tony Leung Ka-fai plays the chief antagonist, setting the scene for two old-timers to give us the feisty showdown that we sat down for. The action blocks are, for the most part, neatly done, and given the age of the leading duo, it's wise to expect fast cuts.

But before we get to all that, there's also an elaborate plot and character development worth getting into. Chan's Wong and a rookie officer Qiuguo (Zhang Zifeng) have history, while the gang of thieves have an unsual relationship with their mastermind / godfather Fu Lung-sang (Leung). All of this plays well into the tracking, surveillance, and tech-driven screenplay. Since the writing and direction are generally solid, even some over-the-top elements that mostly unfurl towards the end can be forgiven.

Big credit where it's due -- this might be the most fun Jackie Chan flick in years. In the first act and sporadically throughout the rest, he and Leung take the back seat for the younger ones in the ensemble to shine. Zhang Zifeng, Ci Sha, and Jun are all fantastic in their respective roles, wooing us with both their screen presence and arcs. One or two late twists (including a post-credit scene) slightly dilute the overall package, however, there's no denying how enjoyable The Shadow's Edge is, even at 2h 21m. Yep, you get some end-credit bloopers too.