Tag: Ethan Hawke

film

Review: The Northman

Posted on by spacecortez

Written by the Icelandic Poet Sjón and Robert Eggers, and directed by Eggers, “The Northman” is a Viking Epic adapted from the tale that directly inspired William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. If you’re familiar with Hamlet, or “The Lion King” for that matter, you’ll recognize the story structure well enough, but the way Eggers realizes those familiar elements is efficiently brutal and unjudgmental of the past’s morality. Set roughly around the year 900, we begin the tale with the return of King Aurvandil War-Raven (Ethan Hawke) to his home in Northern Ireland after a successful military campaign. Aurvandil’s brother Fjölnir (Claes Bang) is slow to join the festivities with the family and fellow villagers, but he does after awhile, bringing a brooding demeanor to the gathering. After some time establishing Prince Amleth’s (Alexander Skarsgård) life before the inevitable tragedy, we’re introduced to his Mother, Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman) and King Aurvandil’s Fool, Heimir (Willem Dafoe) before The King and Heimir indoctrinate young Amleth into Manhood through some strange and trippy long-held traditions. Afterwards Fjölnir and his men turn heel and betray the king, killing him in front of Amleth as he quickly scrambles towards freedom. While rowing away from the shores of his home, Amleth recites the mantra that will fuel him for the rest of the film, “I Will Avenge You, Father. I Will Save You, Mother. I Will Kill You, Fjölnir.” Now that’s character motivation!

Fast forward into Prince Amleth’s adulthood and we’re met by the hulking beast of a man that the scared boy has transformed into. Amleth and a band of similarly gargantuan Viking berserkers then attack a village with ruthless abandon, ironically orphaning many more children in the long wake of Amleth’s own tragedy. Violence begets violence after all. However, putting our own lens of modern morality aside, Amleth is the hero of this tale, so we get no whitewashing or “prettying up” of the story at hand, and for that I am thankful. Letting the story breath and evolve on it’s own merits without bringing all of our baggage to the tale heavily imbues the film with an air of authority on it’s own world, on the traditions of the characters we see, and with the mythmaking at hand. Eventually our Viking Wolf-Bear (There’s a lot of growling, snarling, and involved roleplaying with the Vikings) hears word that his uncle Fjölnir, now titled “The Brotherless”, has lost his throne to another Warlord and is now living on a small farmstead in Iceland with Amleth’s mother and a small troupe of slaves to tend to the land. With that news fresh in his mind, Amleth sneaks into Iceland under the guise as one of the slaves being transported to Fjölnir’s land. While there he’s quickly found out by Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy) who decides to help him in his quest for vengeance. Eventually they make a plan and slowly begin to turn the farmstead against themselves in occasionally hyper-violent fashion.

While “The Lighthouse” may still be Eggers’ best efforts so far in his career, “The Northman” still delivers us an epic worth telling. The score, cinematography, and performances all converge on Eggers’ style which is becoming more recognizable with each new film. Like a sculptor, or Ernest Hemingway’s literary style; as I see it, Eggers’ removes the unnecessary and strips down the story and performances to their core attributes without over embellishing. The story is simple, revenge. The way it’s handled here though is perfectly realized mythmaking. In this world, mystics and magic exist, though they’re similarly muted like the depiction of magic in “The Lord of The Rings” to some extent. Valkyries and the undead alike serve their mythmaking purposes to great effect, there’s even a mythical sword called the Nightblade that can only be drawn at night, or at the Gates of Hel. Once Amleth begins to unravel the sanctity, and sanity, of Fjölnir’s Icelandic peace, the film revels in it’s horrific imagery as well as it’s commitment to savagery through heroism.

If you’re looking for original films that aren’t a superhero sequel or solely as a vehicle for big name stars, this film should sate those who seek something different. In fact, there are several films in theaters right now that I highly encourage you to check out. There’s the increasingly popular “Everything Everywhere All at Once” by the Daniels in perhaps the most thoroughly satisfying Multiverse-oriented film this year, with apologies to Sam Raimi. Michael Bay also has a great new film in “Ambulance” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Not to mention Nic Cage’s Action-Buddy film with Pedro Pascal in “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” where Nicolas Cage plays an exaggerated version of himself. If any of those premises caught your interest I have full reviews of all those films over at Films Fatale and the links to each are listed below. You might want to catch them before Dr. Strange annihilates the Box Office this Friday, oh and check out my review of that Multiverse Madness over at Films Fatale over the weekend as well!

Final Score: 1 Hungry Nightblade

*I’ve also been writing film reviews over at Films Fatale, check them out here:

https://www.filmsfatale.com/blog/2022/4/11/ambulance?rq=Geiser

https://www.filmsfatale.com/blog/2022/4/14/everything-everywhere-all-at-once?rq=Geiser

https://www.filmsfatale.com/blog/2022/4/28/the-unbearable-weight-of-massive-talent

0
film

Review: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Posted on by spacecortez

Written and directed by Luc Besson, “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” is an ambitious adaption of the French science fiction comic series “Valerian and Laureline”. Cited as one of the many inspirations for “Star Wars”, “Valerian and Laureline” adds another dimension to the complexity of adventuring through space-they often police the timeline as well. However here in this adaption we only get traditional sci-fi flair. Which in itself is fine, a script could easily get over complicated by adding time travel in the mix. Anyways, this film almost entirely takes place in Alpha, a gigantic space station initially built by humans then added onto over time by the inclusion of other alien species tech and starship capabilities. Fast forward roughly five hundred years into our future and you have a massive sprawling structure floating through space. Alpha contains each species contributions to this effort and because of this it contains many different kinds of environments and species thriving there.

That is what is best about this movie adaption, the spectacle of it all. The world that Valerian and Laureline live in and move through is fascinating, and the pace at which we are introduced and sped through it all is akin to a stellar theme park ride. However if you’re not the kind to be wowed at visually creative sci-fi ideas, costumes, alien designs etc etc-you may not find much to enjoy here. While I personally enjoyed this film for the all the visual treats, there is not much there when it comes to the characters or plot.

Let’s get to the elephant in the room; Dane DeHaan is a good actor, I’ve seen him perform quite competently in other films, but he is grossly miscast as Valerian-the atypical classical hero that gallivants the universe conquering evil while also adding a litany of names upon his wall of sexual conquests. Dane, I’m sorry, but I don’t believe you. Maybe in five or ten years once he grows out of his wiry build, maybe then-but not now. Cara Delevingne fairs better, she is more believable in her performance and she has vastly improved from her last role in the slogfest that was “Suicide Squad”. However, there is simply no chemistry between Laureline and Valerian. Maybe there is a different relationship between the two in the comics, but here the nonexistent chemistry is hard to ignore as the film wants you to believe in the love these two characters share, even while both of them vie for the role of charming rogue.

In the end this was a fairly enjoyable, if a bit predictable, sci-fi romp even amidst the visible issues at hand. It’s a solid film that may not receive sequels- but I hope it does, there’s room to improve so I would welcome another effort.

Final Score: Three Doghan Daguis

 

2
film

Review: The Magnificent Seven or “Welcome back Cowboy”

Posted on by spacecortez

This autumn’s western “The Magnificent Seven” is a remake of the 1960 title of the same name, which just so happens to be a reimagining of Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” in 1954. Whew, that’s a lot to live up to. So, does our modern reimagining of this story live up to the lofty heights of its predecessors? Not quite, but it is a damn fun western movie in a time when the genre is receding out of the collective memory.

This film has an overall basic plot that allows the style choices of the creative team, and the actors, to shine through. Antoine Fuqua knew this and wisely focused on the characters and action sequences in play. Don’t get me wrong, this film won’t be an award winner by any means, but that doesn’t matter here, what matters in my opinion is that the film is competently made and good escapist fun. The movie succeeds in those merits in spades. We don’t get an even amount of focus on all of the seven titular characters, but this is expected in a one off title with such a large main cast. Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt get the most screentime, with Ethan Hawke and Vincent D’Onofrio capturing enough character moments spread throughout while Lee Byung-hun, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and Martin Sensmeier get introductions and solid action sequences, but the least amount of character development, but enough is done with them to earn them merit within the gunslinger tale.

The story is that of a small valley town out west overtaken by a mining mogul with violent tendencies. After the town is met with an ultimatum with grisly implications from Bartholomew Bogue one freshly widowed woman, Haley Bennett’s Emma Cullen, rounds up a gang of skilled fighters to help defend the town from the mogul’s wrath. From there the film follows the gathering of the seven titular warriors and the build up to the final showdown between Bogue’s army and the seven, with help from the townsfolk and freed miners. The final showdown is worth the buildup with excellently directed and shot cinematography that gives you the action satisfaction, and justice, that the film initiates for the audience from the beginning. As a plus the film’s score does a lot to encourage the emotions required of the story throughtout, truly great stuff as this was the final score partially created by Oscar Winner James Horner. If you want great escapist fun at the movie theater, you’ll find it within The Magnificent Seven.

Final Score: 3.5/5

0