Finding ‘Ohana – released January 29th, 2021
Directed by Jude Weng [Black-ish (2017-2022)]. Written by Christina Strain [Shadow and Bone (2021)]. Starring newcomers Kea Peahu as Pili and Lindsey Watson as Hana, Alex Aiono as Ioane [Doogie Kamealoha (2021)] and Owen Vaccaro as Casper [Daddy’s Home (2015)]. Withing supporting actors Kelly Hu as Leilani [Young Justice (2011-2021)], and the iconic Branscombe Richmond as Kimo.
“A summer in rural O‘ahu takes an exciting turn for two Brooklyn-raised siblings when a journal pointing to long-lost treasure sets them on an epic adventure with new friends and leads them to reconnect with their Hawaiian heritage.” [IMDb]
In my opinion, this movie is seriously underrated. Why aren’t more people talking about this movie?? It reminds me of older Disney children’s adventure movies but with more cultural significance and without active colonization, lol. This movie has a similar spirit to Spy Kids (2001) or Nanny McPhee (2005). The kids in it are daring, cunning, but in need of a good lesson. It offers a heartfelt message about the sacred lands of Hawaii and their significance to their people. The story pulls the characters back to their culture and roots which, naturally, pulls their family back together.
I think Kea Peahu is one to watch, considering she must have only have been 13/14 years old when filming, her performance is key to this story’s touching moments. Peahu and Alex Aiono created convincing sibling chemistry that was a pleasure to watch. With Jude Weng’s extensive directing resume, including family sit-com Black-ish, Weng has again nailed directing teens with heartwarming, comedic, and emotional performance intelligence. I will gladly take another movie directed by Jude Weng and written by Christina Strain because this pairing has clearly hit a sweet spot.
@Zola – released June 30th, 2021 (Canada)
Directed by Janicza Bravo [Lemon (2017)]. Written by Bravo, and Jeremy O. Harris [The Amateur (2014)]. Based on tweets by A’Ziah King. Starring Taylour Paige as Zola [Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020)], Riley Keough as Stefani [Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)], and Nicholas Braun as Derrek [Succession (2018-2021)].
“A stripper named Zola embarks on a wild road trip to Florida.” [IMDb]
I remember an ongoing conversation on Twitter back in 2015 about the Twitter thread by A’Ziah “Zola” King about her wild experience with a girl named Stefani. She then was featured in a Rolling Stone article called “Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted” by David Kushner. The IP was acquired in 2016 with James Franco signed on to direct. That choice put the project on hold until 2018 due to sexual allegations against Franco, he was then replaced by Janicza Bravo, and A24 was named the distributer. Thank you all-mighty powers of the universe that Franco did not turn this into another rendition of Spring Breakers (2012).
This film features incredible performances from the whole cast. It’s dark, comical, realistic, yet artistically executed. The film features some narration from the two leads offering alternative narratives. The attention to detail with character development was astounding. The scene that stands out to me takes place in the bathroom on their road trip to Miami, where Stephani shows no grievances to the unhygienic stall, and Zola takes all precautions, also highlighted here is the difference in the colour of their pee.
Riley Keough’s performance adds nuance to the film when her character Stephani gets emotional and suddenly breaks from the overt Black-cent she sports for the rest of the film. I also liked the artistic touches to include Twitter notification sounds occasionally pinging throughout the story beats and the narration that is ether directly pulled from the tweets and written in the voice of the original Zola. It very much reads like walking into the hazy tweet by tweet thread Twitter users obsessed over in 2015.
Black Widow – released July 9th, 2021
Directed by Cate Shortland [Lore (2012)]. Written by Eric Pearson [Thor: Ragnarök (2017)]. Starring Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff, and Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova.
“Natasha Romanoff confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises.” [IMDb]
A lot was leading up to this movie coming out, for that reason, it really matters to me. It is not a work of significantly great storytelling… but it is an epic peace offering from Marvel to the Black Widow fans devasted by her death in Avengers: Endgame (2019). Amongst the hot-headed male characters centring in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) for so long, Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff), despite all her poorly written character arcs, will always have a special place in my heart.
I appreciate that it was directed by a woman, but I am also a little peeved that it was written by a man. Considering that one of the “Story by” credits is a woman, Jac Schaeffer, and the director is a woman, I find it very hard to believe that the movie needed to be written by a man. Like, why?
The story follows the same formula as all other MCU movies; which was a disservice. Natasha Romanoff is a spy, not a superhero; she doesn’t have superpowers, she has a specific skill set that would have been entirely better memorialized by an espionage/spy movie than the big boom-boom movie MCU insists on making repeatedly.
However, I did fall in love with Florence Pugh all over again while watching this film because her performance is by far the best, from her comedic timing to empathetic little sister emotional moments she had me.
Regardless of the movie’s downfalls, we stan this new generation of Black Widows, including Florence’s part in the recent Disney+ series Hawkeye (2021) and the sly (suspected) appearance of many more widows in the post-credit scene of Shang Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings (2021).
Gunpowder Milkshake – released July 14th, 2021
Directed by Navot Papushado. Written by Papushado and Ehud Lavski. With an all-star cast: Karen Gilan as Sam, Lena Headey as Scarlet, Carla Gugino as Madeleine, Michelle Yeoh as Florence, and Angela Basset as Anna May.
“Three generations of women fight back against those who could take everything from them.” [IMDb]
Despite being written by two men. Despite being directed by one of those men. I really, really liked this movie. It’s giving Japanese manga and anime-inspired with the set design and fight choreography. The colour palettes are bright, playful, and highly contradictive to the significant bloodshed.
I’m tired of gender-swapping old action/adventure male led hero flicks. I think women deserve new storytelling and character work in action and this movie really delivers. I think it deserves more attention and at least two sequels.
The performances are incredible. We know that Karen Gilan is an action star from her work in the MCU as Nebula and in the Jumanji franchise as Ruby and Martha. I’ve enjoyed her style since her stint on BBC’s Doctor Who. Gilan’s performance in this movie is expert, she’s nailed emotionally stunted assassin. You can never go wrong when hiring the rest of these highly sought-after ladies. Lena Headey plays a hardened mother (her speciality), Carla Gugino is warm with her twinkling eyes, Michelle Yeoh is… is… I mean, she’s fucking incredible in everything, and the same goes for Angela Basset. Gugino, Basset and Yeoh are really supporting characters not leads but they’re so talented and compelling they steal every scene they enter. When they killed off Gugino, it broke my heart, I knew they were going to kill one of them, that much was obvious in a scene preluding the epic battle in the library, but it hurt, all the same, to see her twinkling eyes fade.
Last Night in Soho – released October 22nd, 2021
Directed by Edgar Wright [Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (2010), Baby Driver (2017)]. Written by Krysty Wilson-Cairns [1917 (2019)]. Starring Anya Taylor-Joy [Emma (2020)] as Sandie, and Thomasin McKenzie [JoJo Rabbit (2019)] as Eloise.
“An aspiring fashion designer is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer. But the glamour is not all it appears to be and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something darker.” [IMDb]
I had the pleasure of watching this in a theatre and I think the large screen and booming sound system did wonders for its stylized thrilling plot. Edgar Wright has a history of using colour palettes to help tell a story or elevate the drama which he does here once again. The performances from leads Taylor-Joy and McKenzie are extremely compelling. The expertly written unravelling of story and character becomes all the more impactful when hit by the twist ending.
Eloise, the present-day protagonist, actually being possessed by the Landlady’s (Ms Collins played by Diana Rigg) past self, Sandie, had me ~shook~. I really thought Sandie was going to be a murder victim, not the serial killer herself. I thought this twist was an incredibly well thought out critique, it both condemns the behaviour of the men who groomed and abused her while also breaking the black and white moulds of sexual violence victims popularized by the media, i.e., the Saint or the Whore. Ms Collins/Sandie became someone I both felt for and feared. She was a mix of the stereotypes being both the innocent victim and the femme fatale.
While the big reveal is entirely linked to the past, the ever-present Eloise by the end of the film can accept her whole self. She’s learned to embrace her gift positively, she honours the memory of the woman who showed her the truth of her fantasies and has embraced her support system which grounds her in reality.
The French Dispatch – released October 22nd, 2021
Directed by Wes Anderson. Written by Anderson, story by Roman Coppola, and Hugo Guinness. With an all-star cast: Benicio Del Toro as Moses Rosenthaler, Adrien Brody as Julian Cadazio, Tilda Swinton as J.K.L. Berensen, Lea Seydoux as Simone, Frances McDormand as Lucinda Krementz, Timothee Chalamet as Zeffirelli, Jerfferey Wright as Roebuck Wright, Mathieu Amalric as The Commissaire, Bill Murray as Arthur Howitzer Jr., Owen Wilson as Herbsaint Sazerac, Tony Revolori, Bob Balaban, Henry Winkler, and more.
“A love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional twentieth-century French city that brings to life a collection of stories published in “The French Dispatch Magazine”.” [IMDb]
I love Wes Anderson’s style of directing and writing. There’s something about the way he styles his projects that brings me joy, no matter the subject matter. He’s made a solid name for himself as quirky queen, in my eye at least. The French Dispatch is a well-rounded collection of short stories brought together by their publication.
Timothee Chalamet’s part is much smaller than I feel I was led to believe by the press coverage of this film, but I liked his role and performance as always. The story’s format puts all of the major, star-studded cast into small roles. Almost as if the film is a festival of short plays narrated by the author. The switching between aspect ratio and colour to black and white was very stylistic and served some areas of storytelling but – in my opinion – did not add further meaning.
The film is quite fragmented, filled with small character studies of the varying writers who work for the publication “The French Dispatch”. The overall story is of the last publication following the death of the Editor in Chief played by Bill Murrey; We start with the reading of his obituary, and we end with the writers beginning to write the obituary. Which feels like a loose connecting arch for the stories in-between. I still enjoyed the movie, but it lacked an overall narrative – for me.
The Harder They Fall – released November 3rd, 2021
Directed by Jeymes Samuel [They Die by Dawn (2013)]. Written by Samuel and Boaz Yakin [Now You See Me (2013)]. With an all-star cast: Jonathan Majors as Nat Love, Zazie Beets as Mary Fields, LaKeith Stanfield as Cherokee Bill, Regina King as Trudy Smith, and Idris Elba as Rufus Black.
“When an outlaw discovers his enemy is being released from prison, he reunites his gang to seek revenge in this Western.” [IMDb]
I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Clearly, Jeymes Samuel knows how to do a fucking Western. From the dialogue to the set to the music to the use of colour, the absence of colour, damn. I’m a fan of action, I enjoy a bit of physical conflict, but I’m not without my limits when it comes to gory violence. I thought that the use of violence in this film felt extremely purposeful; behind every blow was the intent, character development/reveal, and even guilt and internal conflict. There was depth to the violence that I can now see as missing in most other action films I’ve seen.
Throughout the story, you’re patiently waiting for the showdown between these two outlaw groups. Jim Beckwourth’s (RJ Cyler) biggest dream is to be known as the fastest shooter, a spot held by Cherokee Bill. Their shootout is over in seconds as Cherokee Bill is the kind of man to shoot another in the back, a gruesome character flaw that can only be revealed by violence. It’s his greatest desire to survive, I suppose, he’ll stop at nothing to stay alive even if it means throwing the only chivalrous laws of the Wild West to the waste side.
With Rufus Black and Nat Love’s showdown, the whole time you’re wondering who will prove to outwit the other. In the end, your head spins with a brother reveal. I mean, come on! Sure, you’re wondering the whole time why Rufus Black was so cruel to a God-loving family minding their own business but his reputation is so carefully bolstered throughout the film, it’s just as easy to chock it up to a violent personality with some childhood trauma. Of course, some of that’s very accurate but the personal intent is so raw: the great revenge is finally taken only in the aims to keep the cycle spinning. Nat Love finally takes his revenge on Rufus with great emotional turmoil, and as their crew rides off into the sands, we see Trudy Smith watching, plotting her own, a true continuation of the cycle.
I really loved the women Samuel and Yakin have written. You’ve got two entrepreneurs with Mary Fields, and Trudy Smith. They own the west with their thriving saloons. I guess it’s only fitting that these business rivals have their own showdown, but I am a little disappointed that these two dress-wearing women’s big showdown is with each other. It’s common in a lot of action films written by men who want to include women but don’t realize that it’s okay to let your bruting male characters fight the female characters to just pin them against each other. It’s easier. I understand with the way they’ve written each character that it doesn’t feel at all thrown together as a fight scene, there’s still intent, history and emotion in each blow… but still.
My favourite character is Cuffee (Danielle DeadWyler). Are they trans before there was transitioning? Is she a drag-king? Or is it simply a means of protecting herself in an unruly place for lone women. I don’t know because we don’t get enough from this tight-lipped marvel of a character who gets Cherokee Bill in the end, beating him at his own game in revenge for her fallen friends.
I honestly think I’ve found one of my new all-time favourite action movies.
Encanto – released November 24th, 2021
Directed by Jared Bush [Moana (2016)], Byron Howard [Tangled (2010)], co-directed by Charise Castro Smith [The Haunting of Hill House (2018)]. Written by Smith, and Bush, story by Howard. Another all-star cast: Stephanie Beatriz as Maribel, Maria Cecilia Botero as Abuela Alma, John Leguizamo as Bruno, Diane Guerrero as Isabela, Jessica Darrow as Luisa, Angie Cepeda as Julieta, Carolina Gaitan as Pepa, Wilmer Valerrama as Agustin, Ravi Cabot-Conyers as Antonio, Rhenzy Feliz as Camilo, TK. Newcomers Mauro Castillo as Felix, Adassa as Dolores, tk.
“A young Colombian girl has to face the frustration of being the only member of her family without magical powers.” [IMDb]
This story is incredibly moving. It establishes a great parallel to migrant families, and refugees dealing with intergenerational trauma stemming from their need to move their homelands. The idea of each offspring being granted a magic power is akin to the pressure put on 2nd and 3rd generations of migrant families who wish for a better life, that these generations must contribute in their own way to the elevation of the family’s situation.
When Maribel does not receive her miracle power, she is now the outcast, the pushed aside who can not conform to the family’s way of living. Her mere existence cracks the foundation of the family’s functioning, yet not so functioning, system. If anything, Maribel being without a magical power only shed light on the issues that other family members have been feeling for some time.
Every song comes with its own tear-jerking moment or cheering triumph. Every character felt fleshed out, despite spending limited time with some. The family felt like a real family, each character being quite unique with their own history and struggles. I genuinely loved, loved, loved this movie!