Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Director: Sam Raimi. Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Rachel McAdams, Hayley Atwell, Charlize Theron, Bruce Campbell, John Krasinski, Patrick Stewart. 126 min. Fantasy/Action.

• Yes, this may be considered "just another Marvel movie". But there are some points making it worthwhile:
• Directed by Sam Raimi, who directed the original Spider-man trilogy. So it's a well-made film with numerous well-coordinated subplots (which provide infinite possibilities for future Marvel films). And like every Sam Raimi film, there's a Bruce Campbell cameo role, here as a hot-dog vendor.
• Opening on Mother's Day weekend, with the entire plot revolving on the concept of motherhood: Scarlet Witch continues her delusional uber-destructive villainous role from the WandaVision TV show, very much reminiscent of Jean Grey from the X-Men movies (down to her ultimate "interaction" with Professor Xavier).
• Surprise presence of John Krasinski as Mr. Fantastic of the "Fantastic 4", a role he's been working towards forever - but here in another parallel universe. Again, opening possibilities for future films. 
• Hayley Atwell as Captain Carter/Captain America - an extension from another Disney TV show, What If ...? This means every episode of that show can prompt a series of movies on its own. Dizzying.
• There's a fight scene between Doctor Strange and his evil counterpart in another universe using ... musical notes as weapons. Creative concept.  
• Is there a story? Yes. A decent one. 

MoGo's rating: 7/10

Your rating: Enter here!

Pig (2021)

Director: Michael Sarnoski. Cast: Nicolas Cage, Alex Wolff, Adam Arkin. 92 min. Drama/Mystery.

• The movie's poster for some unknown reason advertises this as a horror movie, but it's anything but: a hermit living in the forest has trained his pig to find buried underground truffles (a food delicacy), someone steals the pig, and he goes on a quest to find his beloved pig. The surprises that ensue about who this person is and what his past is about, makes the movie one of the most engaging of 2021. Can't spoil - watch for yourself.
• What would you do, when you realize everything is fake?

MoGo's rating: 8/10

Your rating: Enter here!

Lamb (2021), Titane (2021)

Lamb (2021). Director: Valdimar Jóhannsson. Cast: Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson. 106 min. Drama/Fantasy.

Titane (2021). Director Julia Ducournau. Cast: Agathe Rousselle, Vincent Lindon. 108 min. Horror/Sci-fi.

• Strangely, I saw these two bizarre movies, back-to-back in two days. Both are about a shocking offspring - Lamb happening in some desolate Scandinavian plain, and if you've seen the trailer (or ... read the movie's title), you have a good idea "what" the child is; Titane (last year's Palm d'Or winner) is in urban modern day France, but the surprise about what the offspring is is left till the very end (something to do with titanium?).  Especially with its nonchalant approach towards the more riveting moments, such as when we discover the nature of the child, or a final piercing image of a mysterious killer, I found Lamb more visually striking and lasting, but with a tepid or even failed message - on to what extremes people will go to have a child; while Titane, even with its more gruesome imagery, was much more palpable - possibly about the dangers of how we as humans are becoming "combined" with our machinery/smartphones, and losing all communicative skills (the heroine literally not verbalizing anything during the second half of the movie). Although Titane engaged me throughout, if I was to recommend between the two, I would go with Lamb - because aren't we hungry for great images?  

MoGo's rating (Lamb): 8/10

Your rating: Enter here!

MoGo's rating (Titane): 7/10

Your rating: Enter here!

Morbius (2022)

Director: Daniel Espinosa. Cast: Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Jared Harris, Tyrese Gibson, Michael Keaton. 104 min. Fantasy/Action.

• The 16% score on RottenTomatoes notwithstanding, I went into this hoping for some kind of Marvel superhero-Vampire horror merger. Not only was I disappointed on that front, I was disappointed on all fronts: there's nothing in this movie to make it memorable from the deluge of other superhero movies out there. 
• Michael Morbius is just another scientist (like Bruce Banner/Hulk, Tony Stark/Iron Man, Hank Pym/Ant-Man, Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, Curt Conners/Lizard, Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, etc) who's poisoned by his own science and his ego to become a better/stronger/healthier creature, and ends up an anti-hero who finds a nemesis in another who's used the same poison (like Venom vs. Carnage, Black Widow vs. her sister, Wolverine vs. his brother, Hulk vs. Abomination, ...), leaving us with an ambivalent protagonist with all kinds of interesting story possibilities. But you can't ignore he's still more of the same.
• What mainly interested me was what I saw in the trailer: Michael Keaton's return as the Vulture, and a Spider-Man painting on a street wall. The former showed up only at the end of the movie; the latter didn't show up at all.

MoGo's rating: 5/10

Your rating: Enter here!

My Top 10 Movies of 2021

Here it goes, somewhat in order of most favorite on top:

• No Time to Die
• Dune
• Spider-man: No Way Home
• The Worst Person in the World
• C'mon C'mon
• The Beatles: Get Back
• Flee
• Licorice Pizza
• The Hand of God
• Swan Song

Worst movie of the year: The Matrix Resurrections 

The Worst Person in the World (Verdens verste menneske) (2021)

Director: Joachim Trier. Cast: Stars Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum. 128 min. Drama.

• Through a prologue, twelve chapters, and an epilogue, we are shown the life and lifetime situations of a 30-year-old female (who could be from any country), and watch her in her complex and extremely familiar position: she cannot and does not want to live up to what is expected of her (what job to choose, whom to marry, when to have kids, etc), mainly because she’s not sure what she should do in these situations (and are any of us ever?). So she either gives in and follows the mainstream to (in her own words) become a "supporting character in her own life", or … goes against the flow, the feeling of guilt making her the worst person of the world. Tell me how this movie will not resonate with any individual who possesses even the smallest amount of self-reflection. Nominated for both Best International Feature and Best Screenplay Oscars, this is one of the best movies of the year.  
• Movie highlight: the heroine imagines herself spending 24 hours with the person she thinks she should've ended up with, while the entire world comes to a standstill. No one around to judge her.
• Spoiler Alert: I have a theory, that the protagonist’s relationship with one of the supporting characters (the one who's shown to have a family at the end) is predominantly happening in her own imagination. Just a theory.

MoGo's rating: 8/10

Your rating: Enter here!

Flee (Flugt) (2021)

Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen. 89 min. Documentary/Animation.

• Nominated for a unique combination of Oscars (Best International Feature, and simultaneously, Best Documentary and Best Animation), this animated film with recorded interview voiceovers interspersed with actual documentary footage, told in 5 languages (Danish, English, Dari/Afghani, Russian, and Swedish), is based on the true story of an Afghan who fled his country via Russia to Europe. Maybe such an eccentric approach is what it takes for one to so closely sympathize with a refugee, no matter from which country. The animation-documentary combo technique had previously been used in another powerful film, Waltz with Bashir (2008), but not to this extent. Watch this movie: you will never again judge a person who flees their homeland in search of shelter, and will forever laugh at the infinite impotency of social media "like"s and "heart"s and emojis and forwards, when it comes to helping people.

MoGo's rating: 8/10

Your rating: Enter here!

The Batman (2022)

Director: Matt Reeves. Cast: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano, John Turturro, Andy Serkis,  Peter Sarsgaard. 176 min. Action/Crime.

• An entirely different superhero movie from any other superhero movie experience you've had … ever: 
• Except for Batman himself, all the other larger than life comic book characters (Penguin, Catwoman, Riddler) look like regular people. 
• Except for its jet propulsion, the Bat-mobile looks just like any other cool-looking car. 
• The film is a detective/crime story, a toned down version of the movie Se7en - with Paul Dano beautifully recreating the Kevin Spacey character in this one. 
• The movie is 3 hours long, and shot almost entirely in night or very dark settings (go in with an empty bladder to avoid bathroom breaks and missing the mesmerizing dark cinematography). 
• Even the usual superhero movie post-credits scene is different ... in that it's definitely not worth waiting for.
• See what I mean? Different movie. Both in terms of mood and character development, this would've been a great tie-in to the 2019 Joker, similar to how Marvel constructed an Avengers universe. But hints at the end suggest this will not be the case. 
• Nevertheless, the pandemic era postponement of good movies has 2022 starting out with one of the best films of the year.

MoGo's rating: 8/10

Your rating: Enter here!

Parallel Mothers (Madres paralelas) (2021)

Director: Pedro Almodóvar. Cast: Penélope Cruz, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde. 123 min. Drama.

• The usual Almodóvar themes of mistaken/switched identities (or occasionally genders), with his usual colorful costumes and backgrounds (prominently red and orange), and his usual ultra-photogenic muse Penelope Cruz in the starring role - but this time with a more political slant.
• The storyline is predictable, even by the movie's title: two mothers deliver their babies at the same time, and if you've seen some Almodóvar, you know the babies will get switched by mistake, and the drama about the mothers grappling with the aftermaths. But there's an underlying subplot, with Cruz looking to exhume from a mass grave the bodies of her ancestors who were murdered during the Franco regime. And thereby the director is asking us a question: should we go back to correct intentional or unintentional mistakes of the past … or let go and live with what we have?  
• Since I was accustomed to the style, I was planning on giving this a 6 out of 10. Then suddenly, the very beautiful and surreal last shot, involving "people we know" lying in a mass grave, elevated it to a 7.

MoGo's rating: 7/10

Your rating: Enter here!

Death on the Nile (2022)

Director Kenneth Branagh. Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Emma Mackey, Annette Bening, Letitia Wright, Russell Brand, Sophie Okonedo. 127 min. Mystery/Crime.

• Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express and his performance as Hercules Poirot made the movie one of my top 10 of 2017, and his recent movie Belfast proves that regardless of a few misses in his directing profile, the man has recently been on a role - because Death on the Nile, Branagh’s second attempt at an Agatha Christie novel revival, is another highlight in his career.
• While Orient Express was more fun to watch and supplemented with a significantly deeper ending, considering the first murder in this one happens halfway into the movie, Nile is still able to engage the viewer considerably. The tone is (intentionally?) darker, sprinkled with a few moments of contemplative silence throughout, and again, we have a stellar cast of actors making a colorful Christie mystery even more colorful. The pitfall is that Branagh comes up short of the kind of thought-provoking content he delivered in Orient Express.  
• Nevertheless, I hope Kenneth Branagh keeps on making Poirot movies. The first one happened on a train, the second on a ship at sea. So the third one: on an airplane? I mean, Agatha Christie does have a Poirot mystery, “Death in the Clouds” …

MoGo's rating: 7/10

Your rating: Enter here!

Cyrano (2021)

Director Joe Wright. Cast: Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Ben Mendelsohn. 123 min. Romance/Musical.

• A curiously effective trick at work here: the original 1897 "Cyrano de Bergerac" play (the most memorable movie version of which had Gerard Depardieu in the lead) was about the escapades of a man with a large nose, and how that nose, despite all his other capabilities, puts him at a disadvantage in love life. This remake casts that superb actor, Peter Dinklage, in the same role - this time around a short stature being the hero's shortcoming. And Dinklage portrays the updated character so well, I dare say … you don’t even notice he’s short; which is what makes other creative choices (casting a Black actor for an originally White supporting role), commonplace. Some songs and attractive set designs make for a pleasing movie to watch, but at the end, this is political correctness done right.

MoGo's rating: 6/10

Your rating: Enter here!