Sunday, February 24, 2019

In the Picture - The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part and Velvet Buzzsaw

movie reviews

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part struggles to match the inventiveness that made the original so enjoyable; Velvet Buzzsaw takes an interesting concept but pairs it with an underwhelming treatment

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

Starring: Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Tiffany Haddish, Stephanie Beatriz, Charlie Day, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, and Maya Rudolph
Directed by: Mike Mitchell
Tagline: They come in pieces.

With the bar set very high by its’ delightfully zany, wildly creative predecessor, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part attempts to recapture the 2014 adventure’s joyful silliness and witty magic but struggles to match the inventiveness that made the original so enjoyable.

The movie continues the tale of our animated heroes Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt), Lucy (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett) and their many friends. But as we return to their world, we quickly realize that everything is no longer awesome in the Lego universe. Bricksburg has become Apocalypseburg, no thanks to infantile intruders that have wreaked havoc – a reflection of the toys’ real world owners, Finn (portrayed by Jadon Sand) and his younger sister Bianca (Brooklynn Prince), failing to get along while playing with the Lego set, with the latter adding her own set of Duplo bricks to the game.

When Lucy, Benny (Charlie Day), MetalBeard (Nick Offerman), Unikitty (Alison Brie), and Batman are kidnapped by the invading forces of the shapeshifting Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi (Tiffany Haddish) of the Systar System who intends to marry the Caped Crusader, the sunny-dispositioned Emmet is forced to harden his attitude as he undertakes the quest to rescue his friends.

But things don’t unfold with quite the same level of excitement and amusement that wowed us the first time around. There is still a constant barrage of self-referential wit and pop culture riffing, but The Second Part leaves you feeling like writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller – the masterminds behind the first instalment – are now bombarding us with frantic action and wit in order to try and distract us from the fact that they don’t really have a solid plot or an essential story to tell.

With a rambling storyline, the movie struggles to find its footing. Even its salient thematic elements – toys scared of being relegated to storage; the message of getting along – feel like they’ve already been delivered by better animated films.

That said, there is still quite a bit of fun to be had in the Legoverse, and the meta humour, colourful animation, and lively performances by the voice cast make sure that things remain pleasant from start to finish. Plus there is a lot more music in The Second Part. It may not match the splendour of the first film’s irresistible earworm ‘Everything Is Awesome’ (revisited here in the form of ‘Everything’s Not Awesome’), but much of it is still of the self-aware catchy pop variety; there is even a ditty that’s practically designed to “get stuck inside your head”, which it probably will for younger viewers.

All in all, The Lego Movie 2 tries too hard to capture its predecessor’s awesomeness but often lands merely on passable. Still, while it may not be as charming as the original, it does offer enough fun to ensure that its audience remains fairly entertained.

Rating: 3 out of 5

*****

Velvet Buzzsaw

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Toni Collette, Zawe Ashton, Tom Sturridge, Natalia Dyer, Daveed Diggs, Billy Magnussen, and John Malkovich
Directed by: Dan Gilroy
Tagline: All art is dangerous.

After the success of their 2014 film Nightcrawler, director Dan Gilroy and actor Jake Gyllenhaal team up once again for Velvet Buzzsaw, a satire of the contemporary art world that incongruously doubles as a slasher thriller.

Gyllenhaal plays influential art critic Morf Vandewalt who becomes embroiled in a shady project after his friend Josephina (Zawe Ashton) – who works for powerful gallery owner Rhodora Haze (Rene Russo, also a Nightcrawler alum) – steals the paintings made by a dead man, Vetril Dease, who wished for his art to be destroyed. 

As everyone starts profiteering off Dease’s work, a supernatural element creeps into the tale. The artworks start exacting revenge against those who are exploiting the paintings.

Velvet Buzzsaw takes an interesting concept but pairs it with an underwhelming treatment. There are moments when it hits the mark – Morf’s self-important pretentiousness; the aftermath of a death being inadvertently viewed as an art installation; the awesomely ridiculous character names – plus the cast is stellar. Along with Gyllenhall – who easily steals the show as a pompous art snob – and Russo, the roster also includes the terrific Toni Collette (in a memorable blonde bob wig) as an art curator and John Malkovich as an artist past his prime.

There is so much potential here for an amusing, intriguing romp. But all too often, the movie ends up struggling with its pacing and tone. Its takedown of the art world feels shallow, and while there are some inventive demises in the film, there isn’t much suspense here, mostly because it is fairly obvious which direction things are going in. (Also, the film’s trailer pretty much summarizes the entire movie, reveals nearly all the important scenes – including deaths – and completely spoils the film, so it might be wise to not see the trailer before watching Velvet Buzzsaw itself. Alternately, if you don’t think you want to see the movie at all, then just watch the three minute trailer and save nearly two hours of your life; you won’t be missing much.)

The satire is too tepid and the horror far from scary. Things might have fared better had Gilroy chosen to either push both the satire and horror further, or focused on just one of the two aspects by either offering a sharp, scathing parody of the hollow, greedy art world or fully embracing the campy slasher concept.

Velvet Buzzsaw’s dry wit provides a handful of amusing one-liners and its cast delivers some impressive performances, but overall the film leaves you with the impression that it could have been so much more thrilling and/or incisive.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

- By Sameen Amer

Instep, The News on Sunday - 24th February, 2019 *

Sunday, February 10, 2019

In the Picture - How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

movie reviews

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is sweet and charming; the Coens offer Western vignettes in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Starring (voices): Jay Baruchel, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Kit Harington, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Justin Rupple, Kristen Wiig, and F. Murray Abraham
Directed by: Dean DeBlois
Tagline: Fly on your own. Find your way home.

Hiccup and Toothless return for another big screen adventure in How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, the third (and supposedly final) instalment in DreamWorks’ beloved animated series.

The movie arrives nearly a decade after the film that started the franchise, and its characters have come a long way since we first met them in 2010. Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) is now the leader of his tribe, and has helped build the world’s first dragon-Viking utopia by rescuing dragons with his fellow dragon riders and bringing them back to Berk.

But when an infamous dragon hunter, Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham), sets out to capture the protagonist’s beloved alpha Night Fury, Toothless, Hiccup decides to search for the “hidden world” – the ancestral home of all dragons, tucked away somewhere beyond the edge of the world – that his late father (Gerard Butler) told him about, in the hopes of moving both the dragons and the Vikings to safety.

The villain – always menacing but never layered enough to be interesting – sends a female Light Fury dragon to lure Toothless, and things slow down towards the middle as a love-struck Toothless chases his potential mate in what is probably not the most riveting arc of the film. We are led to a predictable climax and an ending that is warm but doesn’t quite deliver the emotional punch that it aims for.

Graced with some striking visual sequences, The Hidden World is a heart-warming chapter that is clearly targeted towards the younger audience, particularly those already invested in the tale of its young hero. The more jaded viewer will notice the film’s pacing issues and will see its inevitable conclusion coming from a distance. 

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is a sweet, engaging instalment that rather charmingly delivers the messages of self-belief, love, and letting go, but the movie doesn’t quite possess the excitement or inventiveness that could have made it exceptional. Still, the filmmakers do manage to create an amicable tale and the voice cast continues to get the job done. The film ultimately leaves us with a tender finale that fans of the franchise are very likely to enjoy.

Rating: 3 out of 5

*****

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Starring: Tim Blake Nelson, Liam Neeson, James Franco, Brendan Gleeson, Zoe Kazan, Tyne Daly, Harry Melling, and Tom Waits
Written and directed by: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Tagline: Stories live forever. People don’t.

Ruminations on death linger over the new Coen brothers film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, a Western anthology featuring tales of violence and mortality in the Old West.

Six separate vignettes make up the over two hours long project, putting together song, dark wit, bleak drama, and an unforgiving backdrop for some offbeat storytelling.

A singing gunslinger (Tim Blake Nelson) merrily shoots his way through the musical ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’. A bank robber (James Franco) meets his comeuppance in ‘Near Algodones’. An aging impresario (Liam Neeson) and his limbless artist (Harry Melling) try to make a living as they travel from town to town in ‘Meal Ticket’. An elderly prospector (Tom Waits) looks for a pocket of gold on a hillside in ‘All Gold Canyon’. A young woman (Zoe Kazan) travels in a wagon train across the prairie in ‘The Gal Who Got Rattled’. And five very different people ride in a stagecoach in ‘The Mortal Remains’.

Happy endings are in scant supply and the destination is often bleak, but each journey is still worth taking in its own way. Some shorts may be more enjoyable than others, but each leaves its mark. The most impactful, perhaps, is ‘Meal Ticket’, which stands out with its brutal twist and the terrific acting of Liam Neeson and especially Harry Melling whose haunting performance stays with you long after the segment is over. Equally memorable is Tom Waits as a gold prospector; an old man conversing with a hillside has never been more fascinating. And Tim Blake Nelson is so amusing in the titular chapter that it would be hard to complain if the San Saba Songbird were to sing and shoot his way through a full-length movie.

The inspired moments in Buster Scruggs and the thought provoking arcs in the proceedings are testament to the Coen brothers’ filmmaking talent. But there are also parts of the film that feel overlong. Plus these six stories of life and death in the Old West put together start to feel a bit too morbid. And while the Coens give you a thematic connection between the tales in the final instalment, they retain the loose episodic structure till the end; the vignettes don’t ever converge and the viewers don’t get the satisfaction of watching the individual strings cleverly tying together for a comprehensive finale.

Still, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs makes for an intriguing viewing experience, thanks to the Coens’ astute storytelling as well as the film’s dark wit, stunning visuals, and unusual structure, and the remarkable performances by the cast.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

By Sameen Amer

Instep, The News on Sunday - 10th February, 2019 *