MaXXXine

Director: Ti West
Starring: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, Kevin Bacon, Simon Prast, Chloe Farnworth, Sophie Thatcher, Toby Huss
Running Time: 104 min.
Rating: R

★★★ (out of ★★★★)   

After much anticipation, the third and possibly final installment of Ti West's X trilogy, MaXXXine arrives to deliver exactly what the the trailers and teasers hinted it would. If X paid homage to 70's grindhouse slashers like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Pearl drew inspiration from golden era Technicolor classics like The Wizard of Oz, this is pure 80's VHS sleaze with a nod to Giallo horror. And while it's strangely the most conventional of the three in terms of plot, it still diverges enough from those to terrorize.

Even when it's easy to telegraph where the story's headed, from purely an aesthetic standpoint, West's neon-infused interpretation of this down and dirty era is worth the price of admission alone. Of course, the obsessively ambitious title character's goal was always to be a huge star, and after escaping X's bloodbath, nothing could stand in her way. If there's a thematic through line, it's Maxine's desire to attain the life she knows she deserves, instilled in her by a televangelist father at an early age and reinforced with the chilling black-and-white home movie footage that opens this picture.

It's 1985 Los Angeles and six years after Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) survived the slaughter of her friends on that Texas farm, she's searching for stardom under the bright lights of Hollywood. With the Night Stalker murders all over the news, Maxine has been making a splash in low budget adult films while working at a dingy strip club. But her big break comes when she lands the lead role in cold, no-nonsense British auteur Elizabeth Bender's (Elizabeth Debicki) horror sequel, The Puritan II. 

Soon after sharing the good news with her loyal agent Teddy Knight (Giancarlo Esposito), colleagues Amber (Chloe Farnworth) and Tabby (Halsey) and friend Leon (Moses Sumney), Maxine receives a VHS tape of the ill-fated porn filmed at the farm house in 1979, along with a visit from bombastic private investigator John Labat (Kevin Bacon). Hired by a mysterious man responsible for Maxine's friends now turning up dead in Night Stalker inspired slayings, Labat demands she meet with his boss or have her criminal past exposed. But just as LAPD detectives Williams (Michele Monaghan) and Torres ( Bobby Cannavale) close in on these murders, Maxine decides to take matters into her own hands.

West exploits the period setting to maximum effect, using the seedy early 80's L.A. atmosphere to make a bold, visually stylish statement about how Hollywood swallows its young starlets whole. And in doing so this joins a long list of noir mysteries made in a similar vein, such as Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia. But if West's interested in exploring the dark underbelly of Tinseltown as a natural next chapter for fame hungry Maxine, he's also committed to giving us another moody retro slasher that also carries faint echoes of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. 

Better paced and structured than X but lacking the dramatic flair of Pearl, this lands squarely in the middle, subverting expectations that it would be the most shocking and outrageous of the three. In doing a lot of small, simple things extremely well, the plot itself often taking a deserved backseat to the performances and visuals. The grungy sights and sounds of L.A. function as the story's mirror, and while it's cliché to call the city another character, the depiction would have definitely earned a mention in that great 2004 documentary Los Angles Plays Itself. It may not be the West Coast equal to what countless 70's films did for New York, but what West pulls off is still pretty impressive.

When the opening titles roll and we see Maxine driving her white convertible to this audition as ZZ Top's "Gimme Me All Your Lovin'" blasts over the soundtrack, the countdown to carnage may as well begin. But it's officially underway when she gets an unexpected visit from Bacon's wacky detective. Clearly underestimating her, Labat has no idea what he's gotten into, regardless of the anonymous leather gloved killer giving him his marching orders.

The term "Scream Queen" gets thrown around a lot, but Goth is the only contemporary actress who can legitimately lay claim to that crown, even if it oversimplifies just how much she's raised the bar for this genre. And it's a testament to Goth's grasp on the material that even her subtlest, straightforward performance in the trilogy still feels out of left field amidst these new surroundings. Sporting a Louisiana drawl, Bacon's a comedic highlight, as is Esposito, who shines as the shady talent agent that's more Saul Goodman than Gus Fring. 

Certain moments leave big impressions, like a beatdown featuring John Parr's "St. Elmos Fire (Man in Motion)" and a chase through the Psycho house. Or really anything related to the filming of The Puritan II, especially Maxine's interactions with Debicki's classy, controlling director and the original's star Molly Bennett (Lily Collins), who has some words of wisdom for her replacement. The former casts a strong presence, dishing out a blunt, icy mix of sarcastic cruelty while attempting to keep Maxine on the straight and narrow.

The killer's identity isn't exactly the best kept secret, nor is it necessarily intended to be. But anything the plot lacks in surprise it makes up for when Maxine finally comes face-to-face with this monster, culminating in a finale cleverly set against the most famous of landmarks. Strangely enough, with all its religious underpinnings, the West project this most resembles might be his 2013 found footage film, The Sacrament, based on the 1978 Jonestown Massacre. 

Unlike that, this isn't exactly about a cult, but it does share key elements, including another real life crime case that helped define an era. Given the trilogy's lofty reputation, it would be easy to take MaXXXine for granted, but Goth still carries the load as she did the others. And for fans already willing to follow this character to the ends of the earth, a depraved dive through Hollywood's so called "dream factory" proves too enticing a proposition to pass up.                     

Tenet

Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh, Himesh Patel, Clémence Poésy, Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Running Time: 150 min.
Rating: PG-13

★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)
 
Pending its heavily discussed arrival into theaters, Christopher Nolan's Tenet was promised to "save movies," which is a silly expectation to thrust upon any major release regardless of quality, but one Nolan can at least partially put on himself. Instead, it ended up being the equivalent of a tree falling in the forest, with the few who did risk venturing out to see it leaving perplexed and frustrated by its complicated plot, among other perceived issues. But those who loved it really did, touting it as a visionary accomplishment that's staggeringly original even by the director's highest standards. So here we are, and if two completely conflicting viewpoints could ever both be true, it's now.

What hits the screen is ultimately matters most, and as confusing as certain sections of this are, its strengths and weaknesses are plainly obvious, laid bare for everyone to judge. Technically, it may be the most ambitious picture Nolan's made, while still justifiably earning its label as his most inaccessible. Following the more conventional Dunkirk, it returns him to the cerebral mind mash that's become his trademark, both for better and worse. That inescapable feeling he's become a parody of himself in the public consciousness has always been mitigated by his sheer talent, the full scope of which is given an incredible platform here, despite any of the film's perceived faults.

When a CIA agent known simply as the "Protagonist" (John David Washington) has his life saved during an extraction operation at a Kyiv opera house, he ends up captured and tortured by unknown mercenaries. With the rest of his team dead, he's recruited by this covert organization called "Tenet," which is experimenting with time manipulation technology, such as bullets that can move backward through time. These inverted objects are believed to have come from the future, as The Protagonist is aided by his mysterious contact Neil (Robbert Pattinson) in tracing them to Priya (Dimple Kapadia), an arms trafficker who reveals they were purchased by ruthless Russian oligarch Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh). 

After approaching Sator's estranged art appraiser wife, Kat (Elizabeth Debicki), The Protagonist soon discovers the bitter, volatile nature of their relationship, which hinges on blackmail stemming from a falsely authenticated drawing. As he and Neil close in on Sator's catastrophic plan involving the inverted technology, they realize its capabilities are far more dangerous than initially feared, resulting in not only the entropy of objects, but people as well. With Sator holding all the cards, The Protagonist will have to depend on Neil and Kat to help stop him before it's too late. For everyone. 

It's odd resisting the temptation to describe Tenet as a time travel film because in many ways that's exactly what it is, and also isn't. When characters come face-to-face with past versions of themselves the general rule is that it qualifies as such, even if part of this confusion stems from the fact that nothing in the narrative is spoon fed to us.You can't help but feel the audience is being placed in much the same way as The Protagonist in that there's a certain disorientation that defines the first thirty to forty minutes where you literally have no idea what's happening or why. We're given some information, then a little more as he gets closer, before the film really kicks into high octane mode and everything somehow comes together as it goes.

A highway heist sequence and a gripping airport-set fight with a character moving backwards through time form the mostly solid foundation of a plot that's very Bond-like in presentation, aside from the script's complex, impenetrable ideas that required an almost inhuman level of attention from viewers. Most of it does make sense upon retrospection, but you're so absorbed in the breakneck action sequences and undeniably cool aesthetic that even its admittedly overlong two and a half hour running time feels less like a chore than a mission. And that's actually more of a compliment than it seems when you're talking about considerably harder science fiction than either Nolan's own Inception or Interstellar. This aims higher, unconcerned with the touchy feely component many thought bogged down that latter effort in the end. Clinical and cold as ice, this doesn't come without a cost, as its plot is packed with expository dialogue that gives up frustratingly little. 

Having disregarded most previous complaints about sound in Nolan's films, issues are unmistakenly noticeable this time, even on a home viewing. At the risk of joining a chorus of dissenters, it's called for here since there is a legitimate challenge hearing and understanding some the dialogue due to background noise or Luwig Göransson's score drowning it out. While he's probably the single best composer working today and this is a top tier effort from him, there's hardly a minute in the film where there isn't music, occasionally detracting from verbal exchanges that relay key information. It's to Nolan's credit that every spoken line is that important, but he just saved Oscar viewers the trouble of having to distinguish between sound mixing and editing this year since it won't be nominated for either. If he was going to so boldly demand this get the widest theatrical release at the worst possible time, it would have benefited him, and us, to fix that. 

Washington is the ideal fit for the unnamed Protagonist, subverting what could have easily been a standard issue superhero by conveying a fearful everyman quality that's masked by his cool and competent professionalism in the face of insurmountable danger. Branagh is barbaric in the best way possible as Sator, legitimately chilling and sadistic every moment he's on screen. If Pattinson has the least to do as Neil, he does it better and more agreeably than just about anyone else would, radiating a brooding inteligence that gives glimpses into why his run at (The) Batman is likely to work. 

The movie really belongs to Elizabeth Debicki as Kat, a physically and psychologically abused spouse desperate to get out. But here's the kicker. While that's exactly what it is, everything about that just seems like so much more in her hands. Unmistakably distinct and captivating in how she speaks, looks and carries herself, she brings an intellectual curiosity to the proceedings that would have been glaringly absent otherwise. The actress has been quietly on the upswing in various roles, but this feels next level, representing the best kind of supporting performance in that it's almost invisibly indispensible. Of all the crazy, inexplicable events that occur, it's actually her scenes opposite Branagh that strike the hardest, giving the film that emotional core we previously assumed was lacking. 

Tenet is something we've never seen before, and while it may take many more viewings and the use of subtitles to completely sort out, it's also unforgettable, looking and feeling like a groundbreaker the more you back away from it. Having finally made his own Bond film, this plays better than most of them, while containing a concept you'd believe gestated for over a decade and uniformly excellent performances from an intriguing, eclectic cast. Having already gone through the inevitable phase of parsing through it all, it's both more and less complicated than it appears. But as polarizing as it is, you'd have a harder time writing it off as insignificant, signaling that Nolan hasn't lost his touch, consistently confounding us as we bang our heads against the wall. 

The Great Gatsby

Director: Baz Luhrmann
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, Elizabeth Debicki, Amitabh Bachchan, Jack Thompson, Adelaide Clemens
Running Time: 142 min.
Rating: PG-13

★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

The pressure and expectations that accompany adapting a classic novel for the big screen can be overwhelming. Unless, of course, it was already poorly adapted. Such is the case with F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, which already spawned a 1974 version starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow lifeless enough to double as an insomnia cure. One thing you can't call Baz Luhrmann's 2013 take is "lifeless," but considering he's the director of Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge, we could have easily guessed that going in. My reasoning for including it in the runners-up section of the year's most anticipated films had less to do with the fact that I suspected it would be any good (though the potential was there) and more to do with it's potential as an entertaining train wreck with some memorable performances. He specializes in those, each resulting in varying degrees of creative success.

The big surprise is that this is far from a train wreck. It isn't crazy. It's a faithful, respectful re-telling of the original story that fulfills most of the expectations associated with our idea of the quintessential adaptation. In fact, the craziest thing about it is the title character, or rather the mesmerizing, off-kilter, over-the-top performance given by the actor playing him. And yet it feels right in this context. Not only does the movie look tremendous, but the story is absorbing and heartbreaking, working in tandem with the visuals to create a surprisingly rich and rewarding movie experience. Audiences loved it while critics were more mixed, but I'm siding with the former. There's an uncertain first hour, and a bit too much narration for my taste, but the payoff is sensational. Simply put, it's a great film that deserves a spot in the upper echelon of recent cinematic literary adaptations.

In just about the only change from the novel, Yale University grad, World War I vet and failed writer Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) pens his story in a sanatorium where he's being treated for alcoholism. It was the summer of 1922 when he moved from the Mid West to New York to take a job selling bonds and taking up residence in West Egg, Long Island. His neighbor is the elusive, enigmatic Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), a mysterious millionaire who throws lavish parties at his extravagant mansion. Confused by his recent invitation to one and taken aback by Gatsby's sudden interest in him, it soon becomes clear to Nick that his true interest is really in his cousin, Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan), with whom he had a love affair five years prior. He's only thrown these parties with the hope she'd one day show up. Nick reconnects them, with the only problem being that she's married to philandering, brutish polo champion Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton). He's determined to unravel the mystery of Gatsby before it's too late and he loses his wife for good.

The biggest fear I had approaching this was that Luhrmann would use Fitzgerald's novel as a launching pad for a feature length music video or a rough outline for contemporizing it without having to face the backlash of actually contemporizing it. I fully expected this would primarily be a visual feast, with characters served up as appetizers to sell soundtracks. As it turns out, neither comes to pass. While the parties are a crazy visual spectacle employing elaborate use of CGI, over-the-top sets, quick cuts, and contemporary music, it's not a distraction and dovetails surprisingly well with the time period and story. If anything, it's more restrained than we were led to believe from the trailers, and while Jay-Z provides the score and Lana Del Ray an original song, nothing necessarily calls attention to that or takes us out of the period setting. Those concerns are only further squashed when we meet Gatsby, the buildup of which is given the satisfying mystery it deserves, proving that the story does really come first here. The slow, steady introduction of the mysterious Gatsby amongst rumors he's a spy and other far out rumors regarding his past, is the film's ace in the hole. And it's a credit to the script and DiCaprio's charismatic performance that those mysteries never feel fully disclosed even when they eventually are.

The film doesn't really begin until Gatby shows up and he knows how to make an entrance. DiCaprio just owns this from his very first scene, using the character's playboy persona to mask his massive insecurity. The brilliance in his portrayal comes when he subtly gives signs that he may not necessarily be in love with Daisy as much as he's obsessed with holding on to her and the past. That he's been throwing these lavish parties for years with only the hope she'll eventually show is almost proof enough. And when Gatsby eventually starts to crack, we still side with him because he remains so likable and relatable despite the extravagant lifestyle he leads. DiCaprio makes it easy for us to understand how, given his background and personality, the character would behave like this.

At first, Gatsby's using Nick to get to Daisy but the irony ends up being that the bond that forms between the two men might be the only real connection that's forged in the story. Nick's using him too, realizing his cousin is his free pass into a privileged world he may not have otherwise had access to. But because both are so honest and upfront about their intentions a true friendship is eventually formed and it's only toward the end, when all the leaches sucking off Gatsby's wealth have abandoned him, that we realize it's likely Nick was the only friend he's ever had.

Maguire makes for the perfect Nick Carraway since the actor's biggest selling qualities have always been his naivete and wide-eyed amazement at what's happening around him. He's the ideal vessel for the audience in that he's the rare reliable narrator who actually does seem reliable. We believe every word he's saying, even if one of the script's few flaws is that he's probably given too many of them, as the characters' actions are more than suitable in carrying the load. It had to help that DiCaprio and Maguire are in reality very good friends, and it's a credit to them that viewers would probably be able to guess that watching them interact on screen together.

Those expecting Carey Mulligan to make for an unforgettable Daisy should probably consider that the character has always been kind of a cipher or blank slate for Gatsby to project all of his obsessions onto. Even in the book that seemed to be her very specific function so there's really only so much an actress can do with that and Mulligan delivers exactly what's asked of her, but little more. Daisy isn't exactly a woman of agency but it's easy to imagine other rumored candidates for the role like Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson having a much rougher time with it than Mulligan, who possesses a certain type of innocence onscreen that they rarely convey.

Stealing most scenes is newcomer Elizabeth Debicki, who as golf pro and potential Nick love interest, Jordan Baker, nails the period look, manner and way of speaking to the extent that she not only draws attention to herself, but shines the spotlight on her castmates as well. Joel Edgerton gains a surprising amount of empathy for the brutish Tom Buchanan, as his third act verbal showdown with DiCaprio ends up being one of the film's strongest sequences. Rounding out the cast is Isla Fisher as Tom's mistress Myrtle and Jason Clarke as husband George, whose residence in the industrial "valley of ashes," is sensationally visualized by Luhrmann, even incorporating the novel's iconic paperback cover within the setting in an inventive touch.

We shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth as this is as good an adaptation of the source material as we're going to get, or was even possible. It's almost mind boggling that the reaction has been so divisive when Luhrmann stayed so relatively true to the original text. If anything, he could have taken more creative liberties since this is almost restrained for him. But this was the right approach. How he brings it home at the end with a surprisingly emotional wallop should be proof enough that there's a lot more going on here than the impressive production and costume design and cinematography, which will still likely figure in huge during awards time. This was hard to do but Luhrmann nailed it, proving that sometimes it isn't always best to leave well enough alone. By putting a new polish on a familiar story he's succeeded in making it more accessible, while not abandoning any of the original elements that made it work.