THE WEEKEND WARRIOR Jan. 19, 2024
I.S.S., PASANG: IN THE SHADOW OF EVEREST, QUEEN ROCK MONTREAL, FOUNDERS DAY, MORE
Welcome back to the semi-sporadic whenever-Ed-has-time once-weekly now-not-so-weekly column that I like to call “The Weekend Warrior”... or more like “The Weekend Worrier,” as every time I try to get this going again, I worry that I might not be able to find the time to actually do the writing.
Thankfully (or not) this is a quieter weekend for new movies, although it’s kind of surprising that all three movies are actually pretty good considering what crap is often churned out in January… if you ask any other critic. I don’t subscribe to that thought process.
What I have been doing lately is listening a lot to my favorite review podcast “Roger and Me,” with Brett Arnold and Mark Dujsik, which has kind of been pushing me to write more reviews and do this column on a more regular basis. Still, it’s always about having the time, since as I’ve mentioned many times, The Weekend Warrior does nothing to help pay my rent or my bills. I just do it to hopefully draw attention to movies that need it.
At one point there were two wide releases this week, but now there’s only one, and that is…
I.S.S. (Bleecker Street)
This new outer space thriller is directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, best known for her doc Blackfish, which successfully convinced Seaworld to change its stance on using orcas for entertainment.
As the title suggests, this one takes place on the International Space Station, and it stars the terrific Oscar-winning Ariana DeBose as American scientist, Dr. Kira Foster, who arrives at the I.S.S. to work with colleagues Christian and Gordon (John Gallagher, Jr and Chris Messina), as well as three Russian scientists. Not long after she arrives, something happens on earth that looks like nuclear strikes, and suddenly, the American and Russian teams are at odd as they get directions from command to take the I.S.S. at any cost.
Despite taking place in space, I.S.S. is not science fiction, because the International Space Station is a real thing, and it does involve Americans and Russians working together, something that could have become dicey after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and their presumed involvement in getting Trump elected that does not make relations between the countries particularly friendly decades after the Cold War ended. This is the theoretical high concept behind seeing what happens when six people with different viewpoints on their reasons for being on the I.S.S. come into a conflict, mainly due to the confusion about what’s happening back on earth.
In this case, DeBose is generally the best of the American actors despite having done less films in this vein than the two guys, and the “Russian” cast is particularly fantastic. I particularly liked Masha Mashkova, whose character is in a secret relationship with one of the American astronauts, but the other two (Costa Ronin and Pilou Asbaek, actually Danish) brought a lot of depth to their characters, which is not something we might see in a movie where Russians are considered the “bad guys.” That isn’t necessarily the case here, since they have their own motivations and orders as the Americans.
In many ways, this film is as much a drama about the character dynamics and relations of these people trapped in such a claustrophobic setting, but one that turns into an outright thriller as people start dying, either accidentally or on purpose.
This was a nice surprise, since I liked the trailer quite a bit, and the actual movie delivers as Cowperthwaite shows that she has quite a bit of range as a filmmaker than I got out of her previous narratives. I was particularly impressed by the sound and the score by Anne Nikitin, because these are two critical elements to a thriller (or any other genre film) working, and the visual effects are also quite impressive, considering the movie’s presumably low cost.
I.S.S. might be a lower-key and lower-profile big-screen movie, but it’s a film that probably will play well in a theatrical setting, so hopefully, people will give it a chance, since I personally thought it was a stronger film than James Gray’s Ad Astra or other attempts at telling this kind of space story.
Rating: 7.5/10
You can read my interview with Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite over at Above the Line.
QUEEN ROCK MONTREAL (in IMAX)
I was able to see this concert film early in IMAX, and it is absolutely fantastic. As the title suggests, it’s an IMAX-only release of Queen’s 1981 show in Montreal during their “The Game” tour, so it’s pre-MTV, pre-Live Aid, though around the time of ”Flash Gordon” (which they don’t play) and “Under Pressure,” which they do. In fact, one of my favorite moments of the concert is when early in the show, Brian May plays the opening riff from “Under Pressure” and Freddy Mercury tells him to “fuck off.” But there are a lot of great moments as Mercury and May are at the top of their game. Bassist John Taylor is just kind of there, which made me laugh anytime the camera cuts to him due to the way he was portrayed in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. The real surprise of the movie is seeing how great a drummer Roger Taylor was that I really never knew it, since I never saw the band live, despite being a fan of their records around that time. The fact that Taylor can keep things down in terms of the rhythm with lots of suitable flashy fills, while also singing harmony with Mercury (and singing lead on “I’m In Love with My Car”) makes me think that he was one of the more underrated drummers of the ‘70s. I guess he was like the Taylor Hawkins (RIP) to Dave Grohl in the Foo Fighters, although Dave never had the vocal range or performance charisma as Freddy. It’s actually a little amusing to see all those young Montreal girls mooning over Freddy, probably not even realizing he was gay or bi or whatever you want to call it. I know that when I was 16, I was pretty clueless about homosexuality and certainly never realized Freddy was gay until much, much later.
Regardless, whether you were a fan of Bohemian Rhapsody (as I was) or not (like so many other critics, than getting to see the actual real deal on an IMAX screen is just a terrific experience that I highly recommend. It’s only playing in IMAX and only four night from Thursday (tonight) until Sunday, only two screenings per night that I’ve seen, so don’t miss out!
ORIGIN (NEON)
I’m not going to officially review Ava DuVernay’s new drama starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor playing journalist and author Isabel Wilkerson on her journey to write her best-seller “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” not because I didn’t like it or because DuVernay has had me blocked on X for many years. No, it’s mainly because I’ve read good reviews by a couple of my colleagues, and they clearly have a better angle on this movie than I ever could. I mean, the first time I sat down to watch it at TIFF, I only got through about half of it, because I didn’t understand what I was watching, having known nothing about Wilkerson or her book going in. I did go back and watch the rest of the movie, and it definitely gets better as it gets to its last act, and Wilkerson’s theory comes to fruition and things come together. Unfortunately, this is not going wide as it had been reported, ant is only opening in 130 theaters i.e. limited and then will expand into more theaters next weekend, probably depending on whether it gets any Oscar nominations next Tuesday. Although I don’t love this movie as much as others have, I feel that NEON really has botched the release of this one, but we’ll see how it does this weekend.
THE BOX OFFICE CHART
Probably going to be a pretty bland weekend, though Poor Things will re-expand into about 1,400 theaters while American Fiction should also go into more theaters, maybe enough to get into the top 10? We’ll have to see. (Update: Yes, American Fiction is going into 850 theaters and should get into the low-end of the Top 10, as should Poor Things.)
1. Mean Girls (Paramount) - $14.7 million -49%
2. The Beekeeper (MGM) - $8.7 million -46%
3. I.S.S. (Bleecker Street) - $5.2 million N/A
4. Wonka (Warner Bros.) - $4.7 million -45%
5. Anyone But You (Sony) - $4.5 million -36%
6. Queen Rock Montreal - $3.8 million N/A
7. Migration (Universal) - $3.7 million -40%
8. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (Warner Bros.) - $2.8 million -47%
9. Poor Things (Searchlight) - $2.5 million +32%
10. American Fiction (MGM Amazon) - $2.3 million +16%
As much as I loved the Queen concert film, this week’s “Chosen One” is…
PASANG: IN THE SHADOW OF EVEREST (Slice of Pie)
I knew as soon as I saw this trailer that I’d probably enjoy Nancy Svendsen’s doc about Pasang Lhaum Sherpa, the very first Nepali woman to summit Mt. Everest in 1993, and I was right! I guess I just love docs about mountain climbing, even if I’m not brave enough to do any climbing myself.
This is an amazing story that I’m not sure is known to many Westerners, but Pasang became a bit of a legend in Nepal, because she went against all the odds, including being a woman, to do something the few thought she could achieve. Her determination and enthusiasm to climbing is quite infectious, though I’m going to try to be a little careful with spoilers on this one – yes, a doc – but it’s terrific how Svendsen tells this story and brings this inspirational woman to the forefront, including interviews with her daughter and other Nepali Alpinists to really make clear why her efforts were so important to making changes in the male-dominated Nepali climbing hierarchy. This is a terrific doc that I’m worried more people won’t have a chance to see since it’s getting such a small release, but hopefully, it will make its way to a streamer.
It opens at the Cinema Village in New York City on Friday with director Nancy Svenden doing some QnAs all through the weekend and early next week.
And then there’s…
FOUNDERS DAY (Dark Sky Films)
Also being released moderately wide is this horror film from brothers Erik and Carson Bloomquist, which I saw as part of Regal’s Monday Mystery Movie on Jan. 1, and I can only hope this is the worst movie I see in 2024, because it was pretty fucking awful. I mean, it was so bad that I would have walked out of after 15 minutes if I didn’t immediately realize that I was watching what is likely to be one of the worst movies of the year. AND THIS WAS ON JANUARY 1!!!!! (But to include it on such a list, I had to watch the whole thing, so I wasn’t too thrilled about that.)
Since it’s been a few weeks since I’ve seen it, I’ll try to remember how much I hated it without breaking into hives, because this was exactly the kind of movie that Eli Roth was semi-spoofing with his far better Thanksgiving slasher, since that actually had characters you care about, gory kills that shock you, and all the things one expects from a good holiday-themed slashers, which Founders Day is most definitely not.
The movie takes place in a fictitious suburban town called Fairwood where they’re preparing for their tricentenial celebration while at the same time, there’s a mayoral election going on. When the daughter of one of the candidates is murdered by a rampant killer, it begins to get everyone in town suspicious about everyone else, especially with the close ties to the mayoral race.
That’s the premise, and if you’ve seen any other movies like this, you’ll be well ahead of everyone in the movie. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad if the writing was horrible and the cast of D-level actors just can’t do anything to elevate the weak material. There is one exception and that is the town’s cynical professor Mr. Jackson, played by William Russ, who seems to be giving a performance deserving of a much better movie – think of him like Donald Pleasance in the original Halloween. He’s that good. Unfortunately, everyone around him is just playing one idiotic clichéd stereotype or another, so you’re not rooting for them as much as you’re rooting for them to get killed.
But then, on top of that, the actual killer is a joke that’s hard to take very seriously, essentially a clown in a bad mask and judge’s wig, carrying (get this) a gavel hiding a knife. That’s how far this genre has fallen and how lame the ideas in this one get. It’s probably not intended for you to burst a gut laughing whenever the killer shows up, but that is the case in Founders Day.
If you’ve seen any of the better Scream movies, than you’ll already know to expect some twists once the movie finally reveals the killer’s true identity. It isn’t clever as much as it just allows you one final groan.
I am honestly shocked this movie has so many positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, though I think a lot of the positive reviews came from when it debuted at Popcorn Frights in Florida back in October. Fucking Florida. (I’m just kidding, David Jaffe, if by some chance you’re reading this, though I doubt you are.)
The point is that Founders Day is awful, and it’s exactly the type of schlocky slasher film that we should have long moved past. Slashers like Terrifier (or the far superior Terrifier 2) and Thanksgiving have shown that there’s still some life in the slasher horror sub-genre, and this is absolutely the worst example of a low-budget rip-off that thinks that it’s easy to entertain horror rubes. Maybe it is, but no serious bonafide horror movie enthusiast would allow a crapfest like this one to get by, so I won’t either. Avoid at all costs.
Rating: 3/10
THE KITCHEN (Netflix)
I haven’t had a chance to watch this yet but Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya makes his directorial debut, co-directing with Kibwe Tavares from a script he co-wrote, and oddly, he doesn’t appear in it. It takes place in a dystopian future version of London where Izi and Benji have to deal with the fact that social housing has been eliminated as member of The Kitchen, a community who refuses to abandon their own homes.
INSIDE THE YELLOW COCOON SHELL (Kino Lorber)
A late addition is this first film from Vietnamese filmmaker Pham Thien An, which won the Camera d’Or for best first film at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, and also played as part of the 61st New York Film Festival. It opens at Film at Lincon Center on Friday with QnAs scheduled. It stars Le Phong Vu as 30-year-old Thien, who loses his sister-in-law in a car accident, leaving her 5-year-old an orphan. He leaves Saigon for a trip back home where he reconnects with a former girlfriend, who now lives as a nun. This is actually gonna play at the Metrograph as part of an upcoming series in February, so I’m more likely to watch it then.
DOUBLE DOWN SOUTH (Level 33 Entertainment)
Tom Schulman’s thriller takes place in the world of illegal keno-pool gambling, starring Kim Coates as veteran ace Nick, who becomes enamored with the tough newcomer Diana (Lili Simmons), and decides to stake her, but she has to prove herself by winning a match against DuBinion (Justin Marcel McManus), putting both Nick and Diana in danger.
THE BREAKING ICE (Strand Releasing)
This new romantic drama from Anthony Chen takes place in the cold city of Yanji, where Shanghai native Li Haofeng (Haoran Liu) feels lost, but he goes on a tour with Nana (Dongyu Zhou), a tour guide who fascinates him and who introduces him to Han Xiao (Chuxiao Qu), a frustrated restaurant worker.
NYC REPERTORY
Francis Ford Coppola’s One from the Heart: Reprise (1981) is getting a 4k restoration theatrical re-release in an unknown number of theaters. I’ve never seen it, so don’t have a lot to say about it. This opens in New York at the IFC Center on Friday and in L.A. at the Laemmle Royal on Jan. 26.
More great stuff at my favorite local repertory theater as a number of cool series continue.
“Under the Skin: The Pleasure of Discomfort” will continue showing Yorgos Lanthimos’ early Greek film, Dogtooth (2009), and Michael Haneke’s 2001 The Piano Teacher through the weekend into next week, but they’re joined this weekend by Gaspar Noé’s trippy Enter the Void (also from 2009) and the 1970 film Baal.
I love sci-fi, so the current “The Future Looks Bright from Afar” series continues to have some great stuff, from George Lucas’ THX-1138 (last screening on Thursday evening!) to Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979) to Fritz Lang’s 1927 classic, Metropolis, and even Duncan Jones’ more recent Moon (2009).
Fun stuff in “Animal Farm: Snakes” this weekend include Werner Herzog’s Cobra Verde (1984) starring Klaus Kinski (who was also in Venom!) and 1997’s Anaconda, starring Ice Cube!
“Also Starring… James Coco” has also been a fun series, this weekend showing Otto Preminger’s Such Good Friends (1971), co-starring Dyan Cannon.
I’m finally going to see a movie in the “Jester in the Court: Jean-Pierre Léaud’s Finest Follies” series, since Aki Kaurismäki’s I Hired a Contract Killer (1990) is playing one more time Thursday afternoon. They’re also showing Jean-Luc Godard’s Made in the U.S.A. (1966) this weekend.
Thursday night’s screening of Wong Kar Wai’s Happy Together is already sold out, but you can also see Stanley Kwan’s Rouge as part of “Days of Being Wild: Leslie Cheung” this weekend.
Film Forum continues its “Baldwin” (as in James Baldwin) series, screening a 4k restoration of I Heard It Through the Grapevine (1982). There are more films in the series, including Raoul Peck’s excellent doc, I Am Not Your Negro, running through the weekend into next week. Carol Reed’s The Third Man is continuing to run in 35mm through Jan 25. This Sunday’s “Film Forum Jr.” is Martin Ritt’s Sounder from 1972.
The IFC Center’s midnight movies are back with “The Red Eye Winter-Spring 2024,” this week showing The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie from 2004 and Ken Russell’s Whore, starring Theresa Russell, from 1991. Another series going on is “Thrice as Nice: The Threequel,” this weekend showing Saw III (2006) and Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), not quite at midnight, but close.
Some good stuff this weekend including Michael Mann’s Collateral (2004) on Thursday night, and apparently, some movies starring the late, great Ryan O’Neal, including the Director’s Cut of Nickelodeon (1976) and Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (1975) on Friday and Sunday, as well as the truly awful Tough Guys Don’t Dance (1987), but then on Monday, they’re screening Love Story (1970) and The Driver (1978), both classics. Next Tuesday and Wednesday, they’re showing Cronenberg’s Crash, and then you can see some of the other movies next week.
Some cool sci-fi showing this weekend as part of “Welcome to the Machine,” including the original Tron (1982), Cronenberg’s eXistenZ (1999), and The Lawnmower Man (1992). Also showing Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984),
The chances of there being a Weekend Warrior column next week is not looking great considering there are no new wide release, but I’ll try to write something.