His House [Netflix]

An excellent horror-house film with a strong political voice that smartly tied in the horrifying immigrant story (war-torn Sudan refugees in this case) with the supernatural tropes of fitting in with a new community. From a narrative point of view, writer/director Remi Weekes' debut had a refreshing take on the genre which kept the film from being stale. The horror elements were used to great effect both to heightened the sense of loss and isolation but also to provide scares. Although, it did kind of wear thin towards the end, but that could also have been the point. That said, the final climax would have made Guillermo del Toro proud. 

However, the strongest factors in Weekes' film were its lead actors. Both Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dirisu were phenomenal and really translated the immigrants' journey into a beautiful, visceral and heartwrenching story. Especially Mosaku, her third act was a powerful showcase in balancing nuance and excess. The emotional weight of her story was palpable and believable. No wonder she was nominated for a BAFTA Best Actress for this film. 

Dirisu was also no slob. He may have gotten the showier role (in a horror film) but he still imbued his character with a complexity not often seen in the genre. There was a heaviness within him as he wrestled with his past and guilt.

The epilogue was a nice touch if a bit clunky, re-enforcing Weekes' thesis that assimilation into a different (read: white) society can be tougher than facing than the horrors within your own house.

Master [Amazon Prime]

Regina Hall gave one of her best performances in a moody, atmospheric horror film that relied more on psychological terror and actual socio-political racial satire. The real evil, as writer/director Mariama Diallo kept drumming in, was America and its ever pervasive and insidious casual racism. The relentless onslaught of micro-aggressions, colourisms, and white privilege that our Black protagonists have to endure was honestly more shocking and bracing than the actual supernatural terror that may or may not just be in their head. 

Master may lack the satirical elegance of Jordan Peele's Get Out, but it did make up for it in its horror component with its reliance on Zoe Renee's unreliable narrator, New England's history of witchcraft and the winterscape. Charlotte Hornsby's cinematography was effectively used to punctuate the growing senses of dread and the juxtaposition of light and shadows as both a thematic and atmospheric choice.

At a brisk 90-plus minutes, the Master was not demanding but Diallo sure did have a lot to say and did try to say/crammed into it. The decision to partition the film into chapters allowed for the passage of time, but it also resulted in a slight interruption of the narrative flow especially with regard to the breaking psyche of those involved. The film could have been a little tighter, removed some of the less consequential subplots, and focused more on either Hall or Renee instead of trying to balance both their storylines simultaneously.

The third actress in this mix was theatre actress Amber Grey and her role was the lynchpin of the Third Act. Her performance was intentionally opaque and vague, but again, her story - and purpose - was too much weight on a small film to carry. 

Following her turn on Nine Perfect Strangers, Hall is finally getting the recognition she deserved and hopefully with this project, she will start getting more films and shows that allow for her to shine. As for Diallo, hopefully she gets a bigger budget for a tighter film because she definitely has a voice and something to say about America.

Turning Red [Disney+]

Like with all Pixar animations, a ranking of their latest within their canon is unavoidable (well, at least until they gets repetitive and boring and it becomes untenable), but Turning Red lands somewhere in the top half of their repertoire (of 25 films). I hesitate to put it in the top third, cause that means it will be at least in top 8/9,  which is kind of impossible. 

What Turning Red has going for it was relatability. Like all good Pixar films, the story was relatable not only for children but also for the adults watching it. Who cannot relate to the awkward pains of adolescent and puberty? The need to please your parents but yet rebel against them? The joy of hanging out with your friends? The chase /of teeny pop idols? The binging of soap operas? And of course, who does not love a big, fluffy, red panda? Coupled that with a healthy dose of humour and an all inclusive supporting cast, it was hard not to be charmed by this coming of age, fantastical story co-written and directed by Domee Shi. 

Then, of course, also undeniably, the Asian pull is strong in this, from the food, to the traditions, to the anime-like sequences (I see you Sailor Moon!). 

This was ultimately a story about family and the bond between parent and child, and specifically mother and daughter, and in that aspect, some might feel a slight disconnect. Menarche and menstruation (or even in a male context, wet dreams and masturbation) is not as universal as death, purpose in life, joy and depression.

However, what was crucial were the feelings associated with growing up and being a teenager. The frustrations between being your parents' child and being one with your friends. The blossoming feelings for someone else. he fantasies of being with a superstar. Who dares to say that these feelings are unrelatable? Shi chose to center the story on a teenage girl because that was what she and co-writer Julia Cho knows best, and that gave the story an authenticity that so many male-led, female protagonists-driven narratives lacked. 

But one thing that it did not succeed as well as the other top tier-ed Pixar films was its emotional heart. Sure, there were laughters throughout the film, but the emotional core was too well telegraphed. It was beat-by-beat and predictable, as were the feelings that ought to be felt. It kind of lacked that missing ingredient in really good Pixar films that just hit the gut and the mind at the same time. A minor quip, but one that truly kept Turning Red from being great - and possibly from winning next year's Oscars. 

Nonetheless kudos to the voice cast and especially Sandra Oh! She was an inspired choice. An amazing voice actress! She imbued her character with such rich emotional complexities that it was at times heartbreaking. And she just sounds like she was having a blast!

Of course we also needed to add Billie Ellish and Finneas O'Connor to the soundtrack to cash in on the GenZs. Let us be practical on that, but at least their boyband songs sounded appropriately 90s.

Turning Red as a little post-credits stinger, stay to the end! 

The Eyes of Tammy Faye [HBO Max]

Jessica Chastain was fantastic in this otherwise middling, unfocused and vague biographical drama of ex-televangelist, LGBTQ-icon, Tammy Faye Bakker. Not only was Chastain lost in the make-up and prosthetics, she was also fully immersed in her role, giving a full-bodied and unapologetic performance, embracing the voice, the idiosyncrasies, the mannerisms of one Tammy Faye. But if only the screenplay, by Abe Slyvia, managed to support her. 

Chastain and Andrew Garfield had great chemistry together, and Garfield on his own did good work in portraying Jim Bakker, but we never really got to deep dive into either Tammy Faye as a person or their marriage. Consequently, the movie always just felt that much more superficial and lacking in focus. It seemed more interested in painting the broad strokes of the Praise The Lord empire - and they were very broad strokes - than filling in the shades and hues of the people that created the PTL network. 

Regardless, Chastain was indeed very good, and in the footsteps of Charlize Theron in Monster and Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour, the Oscar will be hers to lose (and the SAG Awards and Critics Choice Awards have also kind of cemented that). But unfortunately, just like Renee Zellweger for Judy and Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady, the talented Chastain will get rewarded for a so-so film. 

In Tammy Faye, Chastain avoided the easy route of an all-out impression and mimicry, instead - in some of the film's finer (not finest) moments - Chastain allowed us to glimpse the fragility and naivety that still remained this louder-than-life personality. It is to her credit that Tammy Faye was not just a one-note, two-dimensional character. 

Cherry Jones, as Tammy Faye's mother, was the only other supporting actor that seemed to be able to hold onto her own, and their relationship, as brief as it was depicted in these 126 minutes, was actually a highlight. The evolution and the unspoken love was more so than anything between Tammy Faye and Jim. 

The Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling is almost guaranteed, and barring an upset, Chastain will finally get her first Oscar, ten years after her first nomination.

The Hand of God (È stata la mano di Dio) [Netflix]

 

Paolo Sorrentino's latest film is also one of his most personal. A semi-autobiographical, coming of age story mired by tragedy but punctuated with delightful humour, insightful truths and personal reflections. At times fable-like and at times surrealistic, Sorrentino's camera offered a voyeuristic look into this family and the protagonist - a stand-in for him - as we watch him navigate through this eventful phase of his life.

There is pain, but there was also love. The love amongst the family felt palpable and genuine. This was a small film that felt authentically intimate. It had not been shaped nor moulded to fit the masses, and I doubt it will gain the mass appeal of Sorrentino's other big hits. However, here we have a filmmaker telling a personal story and we should be so fortunate to be allowed a step into this personal space.

In Filippo Scotti, Sorrentino has discovered a star in the making. With his curls and waif-ish men-boy look, comparisons with Timothee Chalamet will be inevitable, but Scotti's Fabietto had more of an innocence to his eyes than Chalamet's Elio, and as the protagonist Scotti's wide-eyed view of the world allowed us - cynical folks - to be simultaneously detached from his experience but also empathetic to it. And that was the power of Sorrentino's storytelling.

The supporting cast were great, especially Teresa Saponagelo and Toni Servillo as the parents, Luisa Ranieri as the enigmatic, tortured Aunt Patrizia and Betti Pedrazzi as the mysterious and cantankerous but wise Baroness.

Diego Maradona's infamous comment of course gave the film its title, but Maradona himself played little role in the story itself except as a placement in time. 

With the Venice Film Festival Grand Jury prize under its belt (and the Marcello Mastrolianni Award for Scotti), it was no surprise then that The Hand of God is also now in the running for an Oscar. But it will be against stiff competition in the International Feature Film category with Drive My Car as the clear favourite.

Flee [Hulu]

 

This was cinema. It was no wonder that Flee became the first film to get simultaneously nominated for Best International Feature Film, Best Documentary Feature and Best Animated Feature.

The animation employed here was a tool to convey a harrowing, hearbreaking and poignantly timely story of escape and freedom. Animation allowed the story to be told but also allowed the film makers to hide Amin Nawabi's true identity - for reasons made clear in the documentary - and to tell an unrestricted and unflinching story. The animation also helped to recreate moments from his past and his memories, but these scenes were never indulgent nor exploitive. Just like a documentary, they were meant to convey and express. 

Flee was not only a story about Nawabi's flight away from politics, war, oppression, intolerance, bigotry, but also from the binds within himself. The guilt of escaping; the guilt of being alive; the guilt of being "different".  This was a documentarial masterclass in empathy. Nawabi's journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance also became our journey of reflection and learning. We are there with him through his childhood in Kabul, through the harrowing months in Moscow, through the arduous and terrifying escapes - yes, plural - to get asylum. 

And it was a brilliant choice to juxtapose the past with the present, which allowed us to see how much he has grown but yet had not. His future has not been set but we - like him - are trepidatious about how it will be. Will he give himself the chance to love, to settle, to be free? Or will he always be trapped by the fear?

Those final few moments of the film were brilliant. They brought tears, laughter, joy and - most importantly - hope. There is not a more timely film right now about our current world's situation. 

Peace.

The Mitchells vs the Machines [Netflix]

Now, my money is on this winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. It had everything, except songs, but then it had that one great sing-a-long momnent, so maybe, it did have everything! It had a great animation style - a brilliant mix of 2D, 3D, computer-animation and hand drawn - it was funny (seriously, a few good laugh out loud moments), emotional and heartwarming (parents and children, siblings, familial bonds), and most importantly it did not dumb down. The themes of being yourself, loving means letting go, acceptance are universal but they were never pandered to the lowest IQ-level. There was still a lot of heart in the story as irreverent, absurdist, fantastical as it was. 

The animation style was amazing. It was Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse but without the comic book vibes, instead it felt more organic to a "human" story. The 2D and hand drawn details just added another layer of familiarity and authenticity to the story.

Sure, the premise of the film was a sci-fi, robotic apocalypse that left only this one, dysfunctional family to save ALL OF HUMANITY from is kind of a trope, but the values it carried was beautifully laid out through the slightly long 114 minutes. Director and co-writer Mike Rianda never beat it into you and never lay it out point-blank. He slowly unfurled the knots within the Mitchells such that the climatic scene was well-earned and the epilogue a sweet, well-deserved ending.

It definitely also helped that Rianda and co-writer Jeff Rowe populated the story with interesting side characters to lighten the mood and bring the laughs. However, they have also sneakily imbued these minor side pieces with learning lessons of their own, e.g. social media envy, self-improvement, doing the right thing, acceptance.

And of course kudos to Rianda et all for having a LGBTQIA+ protagonist but never really making their sexuality a focus of the film. 

As for the voice cast, first of all, cast Olivia Colman as your evil AI overlord Every. Single. Time. She was a hoot and stole everything scene! Abbi Jacobson gave our protagonist Katie a real sense of teenage angst, growth and maturity, and Maya Rudoph continues to be an excellent voice actress following her Emmy-winning success on Big Mouth. And director Rianda seemed to be having lots of fun voicing Aaron and the Furbies.

O.M.G. The Furbies are still scary. Terrifying.

The only complaint I have of this film was that it could have been a little tighter in the middle act and perhaps lose about 10 to 15 minutes. That would have kept the story more streamlined and the pacing to the climax more urgent. Nonetheless, this is most likely another Sony upset for the Oscar.