The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

Director: Martin McDonagh. Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan. 114 min. Drama/Comedy.

• This is a very strange but piercing film. In a lovely re-pairing of Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson since 2008's In Bruges, one person, for reasons unknown to us, makes another person an innocent request - and accompanies it with a threat to harm his own self if the request is not followed. The other person does not understand the gravity of the situation, and does not follow the request. So what starts out as an uncomfortable comedy, gradually metamorphoses into a dark, disturbing drama, and then even to horror - because people who do not understand a perfectly clear picture with glaring warning signs staring them in the face, are very common. 
• Martin McDonagh has made a few good films (In Brudges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), but none of them have made me think as much about the seemingly simple but severe problems the characters of Banshees are facing. Watch this movie in a group - you'll see McDonagh is onto a very prevalent but lesser recognized dilemma. Any other word here would be spoiling your post-movie discussion.

MoGo's rating: 8/10

Your rating: Enter here!

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

Director: Rian Johnson. Cast: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Ethan Hawke, Hugh Grant, Stephen Sondheim, Natasha Lyonne, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Serena Williams, Yo-Yo Ma, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. 139 min. Crime/Mystery.

• Looks like the Knives Out films, inspired by Agatha Christie's style of whodunit mysteries, are going down the path of the two recent actual Christie's adaptations: Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile: great first movie, good but not as great second movie. When it came to Glass Onion, I was as engaged throughout as the first Knives Out, and the multitude of colorful characters, including Daniel Craig as sleuth Benoit Blanc with his Southern accent, and Edward Norton as a reckless Elon Musk type, make it a delicious murder mystery (like Nile, they even go to sea!); just that I didn't get the feeling of originality like the first Knives Out, and was able to predict a mid-movie twist (the one regarding a dead body on the stairs) - probably because I read too many Christie novels as a teenager.
• Fascinating cameo appearances. Just look at the list above, after Dave Bautista.
• Obsessions with glass on this one: the main setting of the story is a literal huge glass onion, there's a question of vodka glasses with poison being passed around, and a major climax with glass sculptures being smashed to pieces. Even a gong sound heard on the island is said in the movie to have been composed by famed composer Philip Glass. Very funny.
• Would I look forward to a third Knives Out movie? Of course I would. As long as Daniel Craig is there. And ... they bring back Ana de Armas from the first movie.
  

MoGo's rating: 7/10

Your rating: Enter here!

Holy Spider (2022)

Director: Ali Abbasi. Cast: Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, Mehdi Bajestani, Arash Ashtiani. 116 min. Crime/Thriller.

• Of course, on the heels of the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement in Iran, comes Holy Spider, based on the true story of a serial killer who in the '90s was targeting prostitutes in the holy city of Mashhad, and the female reporter who went to great lengths to expose him (I was in medical school at the time, when he was glamorized in the tabloids as the "Night Bat").
• While the Islamic Republic government of Iran is based in and thrives on misogyny, Holy Spider goes far deeper than that. It shows the struggles of merely being a woman in a theocracy, and how an act as simple as a lone female checking into a hotel is considered an act of defiance. How favorably a religious man is treated when he proves he's one of them ... but how even he cannot be sure of his fate when his acts ever so slightly undermine the system. How the simplest physical form of friendly affection (a kiss) is frowned upon, and how the act of sex becomes the direct antithesis of that other concept known as love. And surely, how the execution of violence by the self-righteous is supported, admired, and coveted by the religious community of a "holy" city, and that violence is passed onto next generations.
• Zar Amir-Ebrahimi won the Best Actress Award at this year's Cannes Film Festival, for her portrayal of the reporter. Amir-Ebrahimi, once an actress working in Iran, was banned from work and was forced to flee the country, after she was accused of appearing in a leaked sex tape (she denies the accusation). While at times difficult to keep your eyes on the screen during the protracted death scenes, watch this movie and come to believe her: she is a victim of the Holy Spider. 

MoGo's rating: 8/10

Your rating: Enter here!

Crimes of the Future (2022)

Director: David Cronenberg. Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart. 107 min. Sci-fi/Horror.

• Cronenberg is back to his 70s and 80s "body horror" origins, with all those gross, gooey, slimy body issues that are more grotesque than scary. This time it's in a future where physical pain no longer exists, and underground "mutated artist" groups put up shows of dissecting and harvesting newly created internal body organs ("artsy tumors"), either with an audience or live on camera. 
• While I was delighted to find Cronenberg back at his bizarre sense of horror (this time with some of the most attractive faces in the business), and while the main character's integration with machines to create new organs reminded of Cronenberg's own metal-fetish Crash (1996), or the recent Palm d'Or winner Titane (2021), the thought process behind repackaging and delivering his 80's style into our post-Covid times (when the concept of disease and "pain" could have far more connotations), was lost on me. Would've preferred to see Mortensen, Seydoux and Stewart in a plot as convoluted but less arthouse-like, in the able hands of David Cronenberg.

MoGo's rating: 6/10

Your rating: Enter here!

Tár (2022)

Director: Todd Field. Cast: Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Mark Strong. 158 min. Drama.

• You've most likely seen these people: elites who use their elitism as a shield, to say whatever they want and do whatever they want, and maybe even commit crimes, and then when confronted with their words or actions, intellectualize with some lengthy philosophical psychobabble that makes you wonder: What just happened?
• Cate Blanchette plays one of those elites. She's one of the greatest orchestra conductors of her time, and that shield has made her untouchable when to her own benefit, she abuses and ruins other people's lives. Don't want to spoil any further, but when you see her, you'll recognize: wow, she's so much like this or that highly-educated person I know - that person who looks very benign on the outside, but is a destructive force of nature; because of the smart ways they wiggle themselves out of the moral disgrace they advertise.
• The film has very long sequences of people sitting around talking, and that hurts the films pacing. But towards the end, you understand why the development of this character needed to be drawn out so much.

MoGo's rating: 7/10

Your rating: Enter here!

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Director: Ryan Coogler. Cast: Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira, Angela Bassett, Martin Freeman. 161 min. Fantasy/Action.

• Other than the small positive of having an interesting villain, the only major attribute I can assign this nth Marvel movie, is its beautiful send-off of its recently passed Black Panther role actor, Chadwick Bosman. And how do you make a sequel, when your main (beloved) actor is no longer with us? Simple: you respectfully don't include him, and as Persians might say, show how empty his spot is, because nothing can fill that spot. And that's exactly what Wakanda Forever perfectly does. Otherwise, no matter how hard Letitia Wright and Angela Bassett (as sister and mother of the deceased Black Panther) try, it's quite hard to keep this two and half hour plus movie (why are movies so long these days!!!) from getting boring. After all, the first time a superhero shows up, is almost almost two hours into the movie. Go figure.

MoGo's rating: 6/10

Your rating: Enter here!

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Director: James Cameron. Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, Edie Falco. 192 min. Rated PG-13. Fantasy/Action.

• You can say James Cameron's (first) sequel to his epic 2009 movie is too long, you can say it's a reiteration of the original film combined with a Titanic ending, and you can say the multitude of new characters makes this episode slightly confusing. But you cannot doubt one thing: James Cameron is the grandmaster of his craft. The movie is long, but you can sit there watching those stunning underwater scenes with their mind-blowing fantasy creativity ... forever. 
• One criticism I've had for George Lucas' fantasy worlds, is that in a battle between two alien species (in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, for instance), you don't care much about the casualties of the good guy aliens. Here, in a movie where almost all characters are non-human, you cry for the death of one of them. Show me a scene where Lucas has ever made you shed a tear for a space alien.
• To top it all, rarely does anybody choreograph action sequences as good as Cameron does (remember Terminator 2, or Aliens?). Your eyes are glued to the screen for the entire last hour of this movie. In the era of easy, boring computerized action movies, that is a grand achievement. 
• But it's not all just razzle dazzle. There are some hidden messages: the first movie was a Dances with Wolves in space (one of ours joining them to become one of them), this one touches on the hardships of immigration, and the resulting xenophobia. And the environment-friendly vibes exude throughout.
• Avatar: The Way of Water is the ultimate movie entertainment experience. I dare you name a movie as visually stimulating as this one. Watch it on as big a screen as possible.
• (And Jim, we love your movies, but can you do it a little shorter next time?)

MoGo's rating: 8/10

Your rating: Enter here!

X (2022), Pearl (2022)

X: Director: Ti West. Cast: Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow. 105 min. Rated R. Horror.

Pearl: Director: Ti West. Cast: Mia Goth, David Corenswet, Tandi Wright. 103 min. Rated R. Horror.

• X is one of those films where from the very first Searchers-inspired frame (a dark room doorway opening to the horizon of a porch - in this case a blood-splattered porch), you know you're dealing with a great movie. After this introduction to the aftermath of a bloodbath in the house, with the chilling words of a priest preaching the Lord on TV in the background, we flash back to how this all happened, in 1979 - that most fun year in America. A group of young filmmakers embark in a van, under the sun, on a trip to a big house, owned by a creepy old couple, in a field in the middle of nowhere, with broken down cars in the vicinity (all obvious references to that other horror masterpiece, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), to film à la 70s vibes ... a porn movie. Although we know beforehand these youngsters will start getting killed off one by one in violent ways (like they used to in Camp Crystal Lake in Friday the 13th), it's the attention the movie pays to that old couple, particularly the old lady, whose name we're hinted to be Pearl, who longs the days she was young and pretty like these spoiled kids, that separates and elevates this from the usual gruesome horror genre of those years. And did I mention there are some truly scary moments here? Director Ti West shows that he knows (and loves) the medium, because X is that once-in-a-decade incredibly well-made horror movie.
• With Pearl, premiered this year a mere 6 months after the first movie, and set in 1918, we've already been primed that this will be the origin story of the old lady in X, that her husband is still fighting in one of those wars he was mentioned in X to survive from, and that she is waiting for her turn at acting superstardom. While not as scary as the first movie, the prequel continues X's simple love affair with cinema, this time in the form of bright colorful cinematography (as opposed to the dark gloom of X), multiple homages to the Golden Age of Hollywood, and Pearl's introduction to the hypnotism of watching something forbidden - on the screen. Not much of a surprise that legendary film director, historian and restoration artist, Martin Scorsese, has praised the movie. The shining light here is Mia Goth's portrayal as Pearl, with her long disturbing monologue towards the end revealing her descent into murderous insanity, and a final end-credits continuous close-up on her face, projecting a succession of contradictory emotions from a fractured mind.
• The third film of the trilogy, MaXXXine, is currently under development, and follows the story of Maxine from the first movie (played again by Mia Goth) and her acting career in the 80s.  

MoGo's rating (X): 9/10

Your rating: Enter here!

MoGo's rating (Pearl): 8/10

Your rating: Enter here!

The Menu (2022)

Director: Mark Mylod. Cast: Stars Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, John Leguizamo, Janet McTeer. 107 min. Thriller/Horror.

• A group of well-to-do people journey to a unique restaurant on a remote island to enjoy an exemplary dinner, hosted by a legendary chef. Their isolation from civilization creates the perfect setting for a horror movie, about the "obnoxious elitism" so accepted in the real world and so intentionally ignorant to the filth happening around them in the movie, you occasionally want to cheer at how these poor souls have sealed their fate by taking this luxurious trip. Nevertheless, some moments were so tense, I almost audibly gasped. Add to that Ralph Fiennes' villainous prowess, Anya Taylor-Joy's everlasting charm, and a subtle comedic touch, and you have an extremely watchable movie on your hands - even if it isn't able to maintain the thrilling tension it creates all the way till the end.

MoGo's rating: 8/10

Your rating: Enter here!

The Fabelmans (2022), Armageddon Time (2022)

The Fabelmans: Director: Steven Spielberg. Cast: Gabriel LaBelle, Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogan, Judd Hirsch. 151 min. Biography/Drama.

Armageddon Time: Director: James Gray. Cast: Banks Repeta, Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Chastain. 114 min. Biography/Drama.

• We have two movies, screened within weeks: Spielberg telling his coming-of-age story in The Fabelmans, and James Gray telling his in Armageddon Time. Both show kids struggling in dysfunctional families, both show coming to grasp with a Jewish identity, both kids having an inspiring second degree family figure (Judd Hirsch as the uncle in the former, Anthony Hopkins as the grandfather in the latter), and both stories that are ... sloooow. The movies make you wonder: other than the fact that powerful directors have resources to make a highly stylish cinematic rendering of their childhoods with events as dramatic (or even less dramatic) as other kids and families, what's the reason to watch this? 
• Actually, while Michelle Williams does a tremendous job as Spielberg's conflicted mom, and The Fabelmans' best scene is the final moment with David Lynch as John Ford (it's truly a great scene), I'd consider Armageddon Time a better movie, because it carries a question of whether you'll have the courage to stand up for what you know deep inside is right - or just cower away into your hole.
• Watch The Fabelmans for multiple scenes showing the inspiration for some of Spielberg's best directed/produced movie moments, including E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Poltergeist, and Back to the Future.
• Watch for a short scene in Armageddon Time including Trump's father and sister (played by Jessica Chastain).

MoGo's rating (The Fabelmans): 7/10

Your rating: Enter here!

MoGo's rating (Armageddon Time): 7/10

Your rating: Enter here!

The Phantom of the Open (2021)

Director: Craig Roberts. Cast: Mark Rylance, Sally Hawkins, Rhys Ifans. 106 min. Biography/Sport.

• From Forrest Gump to Maurice Flitcroft, the real-life-based protagonist of this film, I've always had problems with movies glamorizing simpletons. Based on this narrative, Flitcroft actually escalated the game, and through methods that would normally be attributed to con men, advanced in the 70's from knowing nothing about golf, to participating in the British Open ... several times. He even instructs his sons to follow his way of living, mindlessly pursuing their passions without any long-term plan in sight. But no, let's make a movie with uber-talented stars such as Mark Rylance and Sally Hawkins in the leads, to show how cute, innocent and adorable the man was - let's make people feel good about their mediocrities, because hey, you can exude ineptitude and still change history (and considering some recent political figures, that's not far from the truth). The ironic part is that this World's Worst Golfer's endeavors were celebrated in the form of an annual prize, awarded to the year's worst golfer, in of all places ... somewhere in the U.S. Why am I not surprised. 

MoGo's rating: 6/10

Your rating: Enter here!