French filmmaker Julia Ducournau’s (Raw) wildly uneven yet highly ambitious Titane is a frenzied, are you able to suspend your belief, adrenalin-pumping film that is not for the faint of heart or those who don’t deal well with queasiness in their filmgoing experiences. With Rotten Tomatoes Scores of 89% (critics) and 85% (audiences), I find it ironic that I couldn’t identify ten people to whom I might recommend this film. Yet for the film purists who crave the originality that mainstream movies too often fail to deliver, you’ll find a bizarre take on humanity richly laced with stylistic metaphors in what originates as a slasher-flick before transitioning into something incredibly more intimate in its progression.
Category Archives: 2021
The Worst Person in the World (2021)
First things first. The Worst Person in the World is a terrible name for a movie, especially a slightly heavy drama that centers around the indecisiveness of a 30-year-old woman named Julie (Renate Reinsve) and those affected by her actions. The title of this movie suggested it would be some stupid comedy. It took 30 seconds of the trailer to realize that my initial perceptions were entirely wrong and that I had to see this film as quickly as possible. I ended up watching it the next day. It was a terrific decision. Ignore the movie’s dumb movie title. You should see this movie too.
Belfast (2021)
A coming-of-age story set in the middle of a civil war, Kenneth Branagh’s (Hamlet, Cinderella) Belfast tells the incredibly personal account of nine-year-old Buddy (newcomer Jude Hill) who, during the summer of 1969, witnesses the violent clash of his Protestant neighbors trying to eradicate his neighboring Catholic families in the middle of the streets in Belfast, Northern Ireland home.
Nightmare Alley (2021)
When you win an Academy Award for Best Directing, you can do pretty much anything you want regarding creative control as a director. Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Crimson Peak) has elevated himself to the point where his constraints have been lifted. Following his Best Director Academy Award (The Shape of Water), del Toro could have picked whatever project he wanted to do next, and he would have had swarms of A-list actors lined up to work with him. Ironically, with Nightmare Alley, he went about as mainstream as he’s ever gone before. This is not to say this 2021 Best Picture nominee isn’t without its share of the bizarre.
Being the Ricardos (2021)
Meh. There are many better movies to see this year than Aaron Sorkin’s (The Trial of the Chicago 7, Molly’s Game) Being the Ricardos. However, the 2021 Academy Award nominees seem more prominent regarding name recognition than in prior years. Movies that in previous years likely wouldn’t have sniffed a nomination are likely to get multiples this year. Being the Ricardos, with Sorkin and Academy favorites, four-time Oscar nominee Nicole Kidman (The Others, Lion) and three-time nominee Javier Bardem (Biutiful, No Country for Old Men) will receive recognition. Kidman will get a nomination for acting (though she has no chance of winning), but Bardem will not. The film could receive a best-picture nomination, making me cringe.