Dogs Bark

Candide As A Girl - - Poor Things (2023, Ireland/UK/USA, Color and B/W, 141 min) - - 27 December 2023

Strongly recommended. Poor Things is the most effective of many recent surreal comedies . . . this probably because the story is linearly driven by the loony journey - - geographical and pedagogic - - of Bella, whose Frankensteinian brain develops from infanthood to maturity over the course of a year. Bella is played by the certain-to-be-Oscar-nomed Emma Stone (La La Land), and the appreciation is well-deserved. Director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite) sets Stone against some great performances by Willem Defoe (Platoon), the doctor who creates her, and Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight), the lawyer who deflowers her . . . plus a lovely cameo by Fassbinder-muse Hanna Schygulla (The Marriage of Maria Braun). Poor Things' Buñuel-esque qualities also include whimsical art direction (James Price, Judy, and photographer Shona Heath) and fantastical costuming (Holly Waddington, Lady Macbeth). One caution: If, in your opinion, seeing a naked Emma in ecstatic-to-indifferent sex is not fantastically whimsical, Poor Things is not your cup of tea.

 

Promise Tossed Off - - Saltburn (2023, US/UK, Color, 131 min) - - 16 December 2023

Not recommended - - Be it known, I like Emerald Fennell. I liked Promising Young Woman. I liked her in The Crown; however, I wish she’d finish a script. Like so many promising young people, she begins with an interesting idea . . . but it never goes anywhere. In Saltburn, Fennell seems to want to update Patricia Highsmith (bad idea), hires a splendid cast, and away she goes. Everyone, particularly Cary Mulligan (Promising Young Woman), Rosamund Pike (Pride And Prejudice), and Richard E. Grant (Gosford Park), initially sketch amusing upper-class twits, but they all go nowhere, particularly poor Cary. As for principal actor Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin), his character goes nowhere in multiple directions . . . suggesting then abandoning Tom Ripley’s complexity without any of his charm and much more grotesqueries. Three scenes will cause you to writhe in your seat  . . . and to no story-telling purpose. The ending provides a particularly implausible plot exposition.

Did I Say It's Loooooong? - - Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023, USA, Color, 206 min) - - 3 December 2023

Recommended. Martin Scorsese (Mean Streets) is a cinematic wunderkind and should never be ignored. Even if a film doesn't add up to a masterpiece, the pieces of that sum will be at the top of the moviemaking art. And so it is with Killers Of The Flower Moon. Despite the length, the characters played by Leonardo DiCaprio (The Aviator) and Robert De Niro (The Irishman) are underdeveloped, and we never get our arms around their motivation. Leo does better . . . suggesting a simple man who can't reconcile his conflicted soul (although he's so evil it's hard to sympathize with him). The real scene-stealer is Lily Gladstone (Certain Women), who plays DiCaprio's wife, Molly. Of Piegan Blackfeet ancestry, she beautifully shows a quiet, wise, Indian-female quality that is as endearing as it is somewhat clichéd. Despite all this, Marty's heart is in the right place and the movie is enjoyable . . . . but long.