THE VASSY KAPELOS SHOW: VASSY ASKS ME WHAT TO EXPECT FROM “THE ODYSSEY”
I join “The Vassy Kapelos Show” on the iHeartRadio network to talk about my reaction to Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated “The Odyssey.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
Posts Tagged ‘Charlize Theron’
THE ODYSSEY: 4 STARS. “when its great, which is often, it’s exhilarating filmmaking.”
SYNOPSIS: Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek epic “The Odyssey,” now playing in theatres, sees Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca, use cunning and courage to defeat mythical beasts on his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War. “After years of war, no one could stand between my men and home. Not even the gods.”
CAST: Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, Charlize Theron. Directed by Christopher Nolan.
REVIEW: Large in scale, but personal in nature, “The Odyssey” is an epic tale of what it means to be human. A study of survival, homecoming and family, it breathes the same air as old school Hollywood epics like “Ben-Hur” and “Spartacus” but feels undeniably modern, blending bravado filmmaking with dynamic, psychologically dense storytelling.
Director Christopher Nolan alters story elements from the original epic poem but keeps the core narrative and spirit of Homer’s 2,775-year-old original alive. That includes the ancient text’s nonlinear “in medias res” (starting in the middle of the action), style, flashbacks and parallel storylines. It’s familiar ground for Nolan, whose films “Memento,” “Inception,” “Dunkirk” and “Tenet” tinkered with time and works effectively here, helping to build suspense that pays off in the film’s final act.
The story begins after the fall of Troy. On his ten-year maritime journey home Greek hero King Odysseus (Matt Damon) encounters mythical monsters, like the one-eyed Cyclops, the alluring-but-deadly Sirens, and Circe, a sorceress who turns his men into swine.
He returns to find his kingdom in shambles, his palace overrun with mobs of suitors pressuring his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) into marriage while son Telemachus (Tom Holland) searches for his lost father. “You’re pining for a daddy you didn’t even know,” taunts Antinous (Robert Pattinson. “Like some sniveling bastard.”
Reclaiming his throne and family will test Odysseus’s cunning and courage in ways not even the gods could.
Among the first things you’ll notice about “The Odyssey” is a lack of antiquated language. Purists may rankle as Telemachus calls Odysseus “dad,” familiar, modern curse words are placed in the soldier’s mouths and Odysseus yells, “Let’s go,” instead of the Homeric “draw back” or “give way,” but the vernacular, in the style of Emily Wilson’s lauded modern translation, is accessible, without the theatrics of vintage sword and sandal epics.
It takes some getting used to, and for some will break the immersive historical effect of the larger-than-life IMAX images—this is the first feature film shot entirely on IMAX 70mm film cameras—but once the anachronistic language settles, it lends a naturalism to a story that features fantastical creatures like a Cyclops and witches. Although, it must be said that the second time Odysseus hollers, “Let’s go,” as a call to retreat, it borders on parody, as if the king and his men are racing away from a Scooby-Do villain and not giant, man-eating Laestrygonians.
The topline cast, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, and Tom Holland deliver topflight work, but Nolan is the film’s star.
He crams a lot into the film’s episodic, three hour run time. After a slow start, the action picks up with a heart-pounding scene, the first of two that can comfortably be described as horror.
In search for food Odysseus and his crew land on an island presided over by a 60-foot one-eyed giant shepherd (Bill Irwin). What begins as a hunt turns into a desperate attempt to survive as the Cyclops defends his flock after an ambush in a claustrophobic cave. Nolan stages the scene largely without the use of CGI, instead opting for a massive puppet with voice and movements provided by Irwin. Nolan is notoriously allergic to CGI, but here using practical effects is absolutely the right decision. It feels organic, and not like Damon and the other actors are staring at a tennis ball to get the right eyeline. It’s the Ray Harryhausen effect, the Cyclops’s tangible nature brings a sense of scale that adds to the terror of the scene.
The film’s most memorable moments reveal themselves in a tour de force body horror sequence. On another island, and still in search of food, Odysseus and his men encounter Circe (Samantha Morton), a witch and goddess who turns unwanted visitors to her home into animals. Once again, using practical effects, alongside clever camera placement by cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, the horror is vividly brought to life as Circe transforms them. Beautifully choreographed, it is as impressive as any of Nolan’s large-scale battle sequences.
A bonus is Morton’s detailed, humanizing work as Circe, a character generally played as a villain or seductress. Here she’s more emotionally complex, almost sympathetic.
And then there’s the claustrophobic dread of the Trojan Horse sequence that sees Odysseus and soldiers inside the wooden horse, placed on top of one another like Tetris pieces. The Trojan Horse is the most famous example of Odysseus’s cunning, but Nolan visualizes it in a way that shows the cramped reality of his plan.
Ultimately, “The Odyssey” is a bit of a Trojan Horse itself. It’s a big, flashy package stuffed with surprises. Nolan delivers on the spectacle you expect, but he is more concerned with what’s inside, the unexpected attack of thematic discussions on intergenerational trauma, obsession, grief and the psychological toll of war.
Nolan fans know what to expect. His trademark murky audio is in place, occasionally making the dialogue difficult to understand and, at 2 hours and 50 minutes, it’s a bladder bursting effort, but despite the knocks, when “The Odyssey” is great, which is often, it’s exhilarating filmmaking.
CTVNEWS.CA: ‘The Odyssey’ an epic tale of what it means to be human
I wrote about “The Odyssey” for CTVNews.ca:
“Large in scale, but personal in nature, “The Odyssey” is an epic tale of what it means to be human. A study of survival, homecoming and family, it breathes the same air as old-school Hollywood epics like “Ben-Hur” and “Spartacus” but feels undeniably modern, blending bravado filmmaking with dynamic, psychologically dense storytelling…” Read the whole thing HERE!
FAST X: 10 OUT OF 5 STARS FOR FANS, 2 ½ STARS FOR EVERYONE ELSE.
Everything about “Fast X,” the latest entry in the “Fast and Furious” franchise, is big. Really big.
The a-lister cast list is a laundry list, including returning stars Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson and Charlize Theron along with the addition of Marvel superheroes Jason Momoa and Brie Larson. The villain is faster and more furious than ever before and the action can only be described as bigly. There’s even a surprise cameo from one of the world’s biggest movie stars.
But is bigger always better?
A jumble of the usual mix of family, friends, fast cars and flashbacks, “Fast X” begins with relative calm in the world of former criminal and professional street racer Dominic Toretto (Diesel). The patriarch of the “F&F” gang, he has left the fast life behind, and retired with wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), and his son Brian. “We used to live our lives a quarter mile at a time,” he says. “But things change.”
Not so fast, there Dom.
Dom’s past comes back to haunt him in the form of flamboyant villain Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa), the sadistic, revenge fueled son of drug lord Hernan Reyes. “I’m Dante,” he says by way of introduction. “Enchanté.”
Way back in “Fast Five” Dom and Co. were responsible for the loss of the Reyes family fortune. “The great Dominic Toretto,” Dante snarls. “If you never would’ve gotten behind that wheel, I’d never be the man I am today. And now, I’m the man who’s going to break your family, piece by piece.”
Cue the set-up to the second part of the franchise’s three-part finale. It is, as they say on the movie poster, just the beginning of the end.
In the “Fast & Furious” world the word “ludicrous” is not just the name of prominent cast member Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, it’s also the name of the game. Since the franchise’s humble 2001 debut, the movies have grown bigger and sillier with each entry. “If it can violate the laws of God and gravity,” says Agent Aimes (Alan Ritchson) in “FX,” “they do it twice.”
The latest one redefines ridiculousness.
The out-of-control car stunts that crowd the screen have no touchstone in reality, other than the cars have four wheels and drive along streets when they aren’t bursting into flames or flying through the air. It’s as if the wild car chases were dreamed up by fourteen-year-olds playing with their Hot Wheels sets as images of canon cars danced in their heads. Anything goes, and no idea is too big or too ludicrous.
When the tires aren’t squealing, Dom is whinging on about the importance of family with a straight face and a serious tone that makes Leslie Nielsen’s “Naked Gun” deadpan look positively flamboyant. Only Momoa seems to understand how colossally silly the whole thing is, and has fun pulling faces, doing a Grand Jeté or two and peacocking around as he rolls a neutron bomb through the streets of Rome. It’s a ludicrous performance in a completely ludicrous movie and it fits.
The bombastic “Fast X” is overstuffed with characters—it seems like every actor in Hollywood has a cameo—plot and, if this is possible, it is overstuffed with excess. The very definition of “go big or go home,” it is for “F&F” fans who have been along for the ride for more than two decades everyone else may want to take a detour.
THE ADDAMS FAMILY 2: 2 ½ STARS. “it smooths out the story’s offbeat, macabre heart.”
The weird and wonderful Addams Family, Gomez (Oscar Isaac), Morticia (Charlize Theron), Wednesday (Chloë Grace Moretz), Pugsley (Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton) and their chrome domed Uncle Fester (Nick Kroll), are just like any other family. Sure, they live in a house of horrors and are “mysterious and spooky and all together ooky,” but underneath it all, they are a regular, loving family.
The latest instalment in their lengthy documentation of family life, the animated “The Addams Family 2,” now playing in theatres and premium VOD, sees Gomez and Morticia, like so many parents, concerned that their kids are growing up too fast.
The action begins at Wednesday’s high school science fair. When she only earns a participation award for her project—transferring octopus intelligence into her Uncle Fester—she becomes more withdrawn than usual. To bring the family back together, Gomez and Morticia plan a family road trip to—where else?—Death Valley.
Along the way complications arise, including Cyrus Strange (Wallace Shawn, son of editor William Shawn who ran the Addams Family cartoons for decades in the pages of the New Yorker), an evil scientist who convinces Wednesday she is not really part of the Addams Family.
“The Addams Family 2” has top flight voice work from Isaac, Theron and especially Moretz, who nails the detached but spirited tone of her death-obsessed character. Her empowerment—”I’m not a freak,” she says, “I’m a force of nature.”—will also likely strike a chord with anyone who has felt like an outsider.
What the film doesn’t nail, however, is that Addams Family X-factor, the sense of gleeful dread. This is mainstream family animation, padded with songs and dance numbers, that smooths out the offbeat, macabre heart and soul of the source material. It’s goofy, not ooky, with none of the eccentric charm of the 1960s TV show.
Directors Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon bring a light touch to the story, where none was needed.
FAST & FURIOUS 9: 3 ½ STARS. “a franchise that knows no speed limit.”
I wonder if the number in the titles of the “Fast & Furious” movies is a scale of how implausible the movie will be. Do the producers think, “Well, it’s the ninth movie so it has to be nine times wilder than the last one.” I mean, why simply have a Pontiac Fiero when you can have a Pontiac Fiero with a rocket engine strapped to the roof?
Trust me, I’m on to something here.
I was not a fan of the first batch of “F&F” films but as they’ve incrementally amped up the action, shifting into a higher gear each and every time, with no regard for sentient storytelling or the laws of gravity, I’ve developed a soft spot for Dom and the Gang.
The movies stopped making sense some time ago. How is it, exactly, that a group of gearheads became a highly trained squad of international warriors, equally at home with ignition coils and international intrigue? These movies redefine the word excessive, and yet the franchise’s commitment to auto anarchy and Vin Diesel’s raspy way with a catchphrase has caught me in its speed trap.
The latest entry, “F9,” now playing in theatres and Drive-Ins, is less a movie and more a spectacle. A loud-and-proud exercise in far-fetchery, cliches and twisted metal, it uses on the usual “F&F” staples —family, friends, fast cars and flashbacks—as a backdrop to the over-the-top action to tell a story of international espionage, an evil mastermind named Cipher (Charlize Theron) and the broken relationship between brothers Dom (Diesel) and Jakob (John Cena).
There’s more, but fans don’t go to these movies for the storytelling. They go because director Justin Lin has eliminated most of the boring bits—i.e. when the characters speak—to distill the movie down to its sweaty essence. When the characters do talk, they don’t converse exactly, they exchange clichés, and when they aren’t speaking in a low rumble, they yell.
The result is a Kabuki car show, the latest entry in a franchise that knows no speed limit.
THE OLD GUARD: 2 ½ STARS. “movie’s appeal is not as immortal as its characters.”
“The Old Guard,” a new superhero flick starring Charlize Theron on Netflix, has the earmarks of an action flick, but brings the genre kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century by focusing the story on not just one, but two female characters.
Theron channels the dark side that made her characters in “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Atomic Blonde” so compelling. She’s Andy, a tough-as-nails immortal mercenary with the power to heal herself, no matter how deep the wound. “She has devised more ways to kill than entire armies will ever know,” says unkillable sidekick, and former soldier for Napoleon, Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts). For centuries they have fought the good fight—depending on which side you take—along with Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli), sticking up for the maltreated and oppressed. “Through history, we’ve protected this world,” says Andy, “fighting in the shadows.”
In modern day they come across Nile (KiKi Layne), a Marine who shares their “extremely rare skillset.” “She stabbed me,” Andy says admiringly, “I think she has potential.”
Nile is the first of their kind they have come across since 1812 and soon they recruit her to join their ranks. “You haven’t figured this out yet?” Andy asks her. “You can’t die.” At the same time a mad-scientist big pharma type (Harry Melling) sets his sights on them as lab rats in his experiments to find a cure for death. “If we can unlock their genetic code, the entire world will be begging us for the key.”
“The Old Guard” is an action film, with carefully staged and exciting fight scenes, but first and foremost it’s a set-up for a franchise. Like an action-packed trailer for a movie it teases the possibility of the next film. The origin story is talky, illustrated by flashbacks, while the main plot is resolved quickly in a hail of bullets and a few swings of an axe. Then the set up begins, as they hint at further adventures. Trouble is, I’m not sure “The Old Guard’s” appeal is as immortal as its characters.
Theron and Layne are strong characters who deliver in the fist-to-the-face action department, but the movie doesn’t let them shine. As mentioned, the fight scenes are well staged but their relationship is never fully developed. Everyone, except for Melling who appears amped up on something he didn’t share with the rest of the cast, is on a slow simmer which gives the movie a laid-back vibe which doesn’t spark interest.
“The Old Guard” does a good thing by placing two women at the center of an action movie but the all-set-up all-the-time script doesn’t do the characters or the movie any favors.
BOMBSHELL: 4 STARS. “Good performances in a torn-from-the-headlines story.”
“Bombshell,” the new film starring Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and a cast of thousands, is set at a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth. The T-Rex in the room in this story is Roger Ailes (John Lithgow), the chairman and CEO of Fox News. Much of the action is set in 2016 but the attitudes on display are positively prehistoric.
Ailes died on May 18, 2017, aged 77, but when we first meet him, he reigns supreme. He helped elected presidents, walked the halls of power with confidence and, most importantly for the purposes of this story, created the conservative cable news juggernaut Fox News. Specializing in covering stories that, according to producer Jess Carr (Kate McKinnon), “will scare your grandmother and piss off your grandfather,” Fox became Ailes’s mouthpiece to counter “liberal” CNN.
Ailes altered how Americans consumed the news, making stars out of Greta Van Susteren, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and the two women at the heart of “Bombshell’s” story, Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) and Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron). Kelly is one of the network’s biggest stars, an outspoken lawyer engaged in a war of words with then candidate Donald Trump. The feud was good for ratings, so despite his pro-Trump stance, Ailes allowed it to continue. Not as good for the ratings was Carlson, a former prime time anchor demoted to midafternoons following disagreements with her boss.
Eventually fired, Carlson levelled accusations of sexual misconduct against her former boss, alleging she had been fired for rebuffing Ailes’ advances. When the expected support from other women inside Fox who had been auditioned by Ailes with the words, “stand up and give me a twirl,” or “lift your skirt up higher so I can see your legs,” Carlson fears her allegations will fall on deaf ears.
On the insider Kelly weighs her options. Despite a “Support Roger” campaign from colleague Jeanine Pirro (Alanna Ubach) she bides her time before opening up about her own experiences.
The title “Bombshells” is a double entendre, referring to Ailes’ objectification of his on-air talent and to the accusations leveled against him, which sent ripples throughout the male dominated corporate world of news.
“Bombshell” echoes the story recently told in the mini-series “The Loudest Voice.” Both tell of a toxic workplace where one man ruled by intimidation, sexual harassment and micromanagement. “We have two, three and four donut days,” says Ailes’ executive assistant (Holland Taylor). “These aren’t donuts he eats. They’re donuts he throws.” His, “if you want to play with the big boys you have to lay with the big boys,” credo is dramatized in his interactions with Kayla Pospisil, a composite of several Fox employees, played by Margot Robbie. It was the days before #MeToo and the film does a good job of showing the apprehension some of the abused women feel about revealing their lurid treatment by Ailes.
At the film’s helm is Theron, with the aid of an incredible make up job, disappears into the role of Megyn. She pierces the icy demeanor of Kelly’s on-air persona to reveal a heroine torn between loyalty to a man she knows has done terrible things and doing the right thing. It’s tremendous work that humanizes a character often portrayed in the real-life press as a divisive figure.
“Bombshell” is a torn-from-the-headlines story about the people behind the headlines that serves as a reminder of the importance of the #MeToo movement in shining a light on the kind of inappropriate behavior that placed women in peril in the workplace. Good performances, aided by makeup and prosthetics bring the story to vivid life.
Metro In Focus: Taboo humour keeps audiences laughing in Gringo.
We can all agree that serial killers, teenage suicide, alcoholism and unemployment are not laughing matters and yet films like Serial Mom, Heathers and Withnail & I mine those topics for giggles. They’re called dark comedies and unspool jokes about taboo subjects.
Slaughterhouse Five novelist Kurt Vonnegut, who knows a thing or two about finding the cheer in gloom, says dark comedy is about “small people being pushed this way and that way, enormous armies and plagues and so forth, and still hanging on in the face of hopelessness.”
To a certain extent his definition describes the plot of this weekend’s Gringo. David Oyelowo plays Harold, a hapless man who finds himself kidnapped, then on the run from everyone from drug lords to the DEA after a quick business trip to Mexico.
“I am somewhere in Mexico with a gun to my head!” Harold screams into the phone. “What a crybaby,” scoffs his hard-as-nails boss, played by Charlize Theron.
From slapstick to verbal humour, Gringo misses no opportunity to take a dire situation and wring out the laughs. It’s trickier than it seems. “Dark comedy is very difficult,” said Pierce Brosnan, who played up the gallows humour in the hitman farce The Matador. “You have to bring the audience in and push them away at the same time.”
You might imagine that audiences drawn to grim humour are very specific, that they’re angry or perhaps have negative attitudes — but a recent study from the Medical University of Vienna suggests otherwise. They found people who laughed at dark jokes scored highest on verbal and non-verbal IQ tests, were more educated, scored lower on aggression and had better moods.
If that sounds like you, here are some films that successfully navigate the light side of the dark side:
A Serious Man, involves two very bad weeks in the life of physics professor Larry Gopnick, played by Michael Stuhlbarg. In an escalating series of events, his life is turned upside down.
Though billed as a comedy, this may be the bleakest movie the Coen Brothers have ever made. And remember these are the guys who once stuffed someone in a wood chipper on film. The story of a man who thought he did everything right, only to be jabbed in the eye by the fickle finger of fate is a tragiomedy that shows how ruthless real life can be.
Delicatessen is a high-voltage variation on Sweeney Todd, set in post-apocalyptic France where there is very little food and no meat; when people will eat almost anything — or anyone. It’s a dark and moody world worthy of any serious science-fiction movie that stylistically owes more to music videos and animator Tex Avery’s feverishly wild Bugs Bunny cartoons than to other post apocalyptic films.
At the same time it’s filled with belly laughs — especially for vegetarians.
What could be funnier than world annihilation? Coming just a couple years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Stanley Kubrick’s comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb’s story of an almost nuclear holocaust works so well because it is an exaggerated look at something that could actually happen. It’s a masterwork of dark comedy featuring one of the best lines in movie history: “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”
