David R. Walker

Archive for January, 2023

Babylon

Director: Damien Chazelle

Cast: Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Jean Smart, Diego Calva, Jovan Adepo, Lukas Haas, Tobey Maguire, Samara Weaving, Katherine Waterston, Eric Roberts, Max Minghella, Li Jun Li

Running Time: 3 hours and 9 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

Warning: This film is extremely explicit featuring graphic violence, nudity, drug use and scenes that will upset sensitive viewers.

Set between 1926 and 1932, as Hollywood was transitioning between the silent film era into talkies or films with sound, Whiplash and La La Land director Damien Chazelle makes his boldest, bravest film yet: Babylon.

The lavish Babylon is a Feliniesque epic set in Hollywood in the early days during this fascinating transition whereby Chazelle chooses to shock his audience with the absolutely debauched and decadent party scene in the opening sequence, introducing his three main characters, silent screen stars Jack Conrad, Nellie LaRoy and producer Manny Torres played respectively by Oscar winner Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Oscar nominee Margot Robbie (I, Tonya, Bombshell) and the impressive newcomer Mexican actor Diego Calva amidst a drunken orgy featuring elephants, dead starlets and absolute chaos.

The eye-catching opening of Babylon is followed by some amazing set pieces of directors and actors trying to make silent films including an expansive medieval battle sequence which goes horribly wrong. Massive crowd sequences are cleverly orchestrated to the brilliant jazzy musical score of Oscar winner and frequent collaborator Justin Hurwitz (La La Land) who should win again for his inventive score.

Behind the lavish parties and the crazy antics involving rattlesnakes in the desert is Damien Chazelle’s love and hate relationship with Hollywood in which he does not hold back in showing the extremely dark and violent underbelly of the City of Angels in a very bizarre scene featuring Tobey Maguire involving a dungeon, an alligator and some SM dwarves.

Despite all the debauchery, there are some superb scenes particularly between the frenetic, tough as nails Nellie LaRoy and the passionate Manny Torres and between the suave Jack Conrad and Hollywood gossip columnist Elinor St John played by Jean Smart.

There are repeated scenes of the main characters buying movie tickets and going into a packed cinema which is an allegory of how scriptwriter and director Chazelle feels about the next seismic shift in film entertainment, streaming which is threatening the viability of cinemas as a palace of enjoyment, as a collective experience of an audience watching their favourite stars onscreen.

Damien Chazelle wants the cinema ritual to continue even though he repels and delights his audience simultaneously in this shocking and brave allegorical epic about the changes in the entertainment industry brought about recently by streaming services.

Set almost 100 years ago, Babylon is a cinephile’s film, a tribute to cinema goers and film enthusiasts but unlike Steven Spielberg’s glossy The Fabelmans, Babylon is a Ken Russell inspired orgy of a film featuring brilliant performances by Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Diego Calva. There are lots of cinematic gems in this film, which you can look for in between the chaos, the predators and the debauchery.

The production and costume design is stunning and Babylon despite its length should get acknowledged for this effort.

This epic 1920’s film is a sensuous simulacrum of Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, Fellini’s Satyricon (1969) and Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby. Love it or loathe it, Babylon is an exceptionally daring homage to cinema and gets a film rating of 8 out of 10. See it for the visual spectacle.

Took Place on Tuesday 10th January 2023 in Los Angeles and hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association at the Beverly Hilton Hotel – Here are the 2023 Golden Globe Winners in the Film Categories:

Best Film Drama: The Fabelmans

Best Film Musical or Comedy: The Banshees of Inisherin

Best Director: Steven Spielberg – The Fabelmans

Best Actress Drama: Cate Blanchett – Tar

Best Actor Drama: Austin Butler – Elvis

Best Actress Musical or Comedy: Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Actor Musical or Comedy: Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin

Best Supporting Actress: Angela Bassett – Wakanda Forever

Best Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Foreign Language Film – Argentina 1985 directed by Santiago Mitre

Shotgun Wedding

Director: Jason Moore

Cast: Josh Duhamel, Jennifer Lopez, Lenny Kravitz, Jennifer Coolidge, Sonia Braga, Cheech Marin, Steve Coulter, Callie Hernandez, Desmin Borges

Running Time: 1 hour 40 minutes

Film Rating: 6 out of 10

This film is now showing in cinemas in South Africa and will be on Amazon Prime from 27th January 2023.

Pitch Perfect director Jason Moore returns to the big screen an action comedy with Shotgun Wedding, an appropriate title for a film about a wedding that gets attacked by pirates. Fortunately the two stars of Shotgun Wedding, Jennifer Lopez (Out of Sight, Marry Me, Hustlers) and Josh Duhamel (Transformers, Bandit) make this crazy and bizarre film work through their sizzling onscreen chemistry.

Shotgun Wedding is about Darcy Rivera played by Lopez and Tom Fowler played by Duhamel who have a destination wedding on a tropical island in the Philippines. Both the couple’s crazy parents are there: Renata and Robert Rivera played respectively by Brazilian actress Sonia Braga (Kiss of the Spiderwoman) and Cheech Marin (From Dusk till Dawn, Machete) as are Tom’s parents Carol Fowler wonderfully played by Jennifer Coolidge (Promising Young Woman, Legally Blonde, American Pie) and Larry Fowler played by Steve Coulter.  

Naturally with a destination wedding set in Paradise, everything is expected to go according to plan down to the last batch of glitteringly decorated pineapples. Except for Darcy and Tom’s wedding, despite the pre-wedding drama, a group of heavily armed Balinese pirates attack the wedding ceremony and put all the guests in the resort swimming pool demanding a multi-million dollar ransom otherwise they will start killing the guests.

Unfortunately for the pirates complete with crazy headgear, the bride and groom are nowhere to be found. Slowly despite their differences, Darcy and Tom work together to try and save themselves, their parents and friends from these pirates while trying to figure out who the real villain is.

Audiences should look out for singer and actor Lenny Kravitz (The Butler, The Hunger Games, Precious) as Darcy’s showy and jealous ex-boyfriend Sean Hawkins who arrives at the wedding via helicopter.

Director Jason Moore’s Shotgun Wedding is not serious entertainment but it is funny and enjoyable. Josh Duhamel and superstar singer turned actress Jennifer Lopez do brilliantly as the butt kicking couple ready to save their wedding. The best actors in the film are those playing the couple’s parents with a particular mention of the hilarious Jennifer Coolidge as mother of the groom. Coolidge kills the part, like literally.

If audiences enjoy some crazy entertainment, a film about paradise but with bullets then Shotgun Wedding is for you, complete with a tropical location, unbelievable stunts and a fantastic ensemble cast. Shotgun Wedding gets a film rating of 6 out of 10 and is recommended viewing for pure escapism.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Director: Edward Berger

Cast: Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Daniel Bruhl, Devid Striesow, Edin Hasanovic, Michael Witterborn, Sebastian Hulk, Anton von Lucke, Aaron Hilmer

Running time: 2 hours and 28 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

This film is only available on Netflix

Every year on the 11^th November at 11h00, England and some European countries mark Armistice Day which is when World War 1 ended but the significance of such an hour on such a day is clearly and brutally illustrated in director Edward Berger’s brilliant German anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front, a 2022 remake of the 1930 film which won a Best Picture Oscar then.

This film is based on the famous German novel of the same name written by German soldier and World War I survivor Erich Maria Remarque published in 1929. The 2022 version has been nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.

If viewers love a really brilliant war film, then All Quiet on the Western Front is highly recommended viewing, an epic film masterfully directed by Edward Berger and featuring an entirely German and Austrian cast including Felix Kammerer as the main character Paul Baumer, a young and idealistic German teenager who like his compatriots at school get pulled into the blind patriotism of German war fever as the German army is battling the French in the incredibly brutal trench warfare on the Western Front, the border between Germany and France. For complete authenticity watch this film in German with English subtitles.

To counterpoint all the violence, horror and utter bloodshed, the narrative also focuses on the diplomatic mission led by Germany to sue for peace with the French, a task given to diplomat Matthias Erzberger wonderfully played by Golden Globe nominee Daniel Bruhl (Rush). The more famous Daniel Bruhl (Inglourious Basterds, 7 Days in Entebbe, Woman in Gold) also served as executive producer of All Quiet on the Western Front and was instrumental on getting this 21^st century version of the film made and premiered at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival in September 2022.

As the hours approach for the ceasefire, a bloodthirsty general is determined to continue fighting the French right up until the last minute before the armistice takes effect, much to the detriment of the 78^th Infantry Reserve Regiment in which Paul Baumer is part of along with his fellow soldiers Kat played by Albrecht Schuch, Kropp played by Aaron Hilmer and Tjaden played by Bosnian actor Edin Hasanovic. Collectively they represent the Iron Youth of Germany.

All Quiet on the Western Front, like similar war films including Sam Mendes’s brilliant 1917 and Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan is a gritty, stark and bloody war film about the meaninglessness of trench warfare and the unnecessary deaths of over 3 million people, many of them young men.

Beautifully shot and extremely captivating, All Quiet on The Western Front gets a film rating of 8 out of 10 and is highly recommended viewing. It’s a fascinating anti-war film about the brutalities of close combat.

The Fabelmans

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Judd Hirsch, Gabriel LaBelle, Julia Butters, Mateo Zoryan, Julia Butters, Sam Rechner, Oakes Fegley

Running Time: 2 hours 31 minutes

Film Rating: 9 out of 10

Oscar winning director Steven Spielberg (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan) makes his most personal film by far, with the critically acclaimed film The Fabelmans which won the People’s Choice Award at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), a sure indicator of multi Oscar nominations.

The Fabelmans is a fictional account of Spielberg’s childhood and his idyllic love of cinema and focuses on a boy Sammy Fabelman brilliantly played respectively by Mateo Zoryan as a young boy and Gabriel LaBelle as the teenager and wisecracking Jewish kid who turns his hobby of filmmaking into a career choice.

With an excellent script by Tony Kushner (Munich, Lincoln), The Fabelmans focuses on a Jewish family in America in the 1950’s and 1960’s starting in New Jersey and moving across the country first to Arizona and then finally to California. Sammy’s parents Burt and Mitzi Fabelman are played by Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine, 12 Years a Slave, There will be Blood) and four time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain, Blue Valentine, My Week with Marilyn, Manchester by the Sea).

Michelle Williams finally deserves an Oscar for her complex portrayal of Mitzi Fabelman a slightly off kilter but talented mother who will do anything for Sammy and his three sisters but is willing to risk everything for true love.

Williams’s performance is mesmerizing in The Fabelmans and she creates the emotional centre for this film, particularly in the superbly acted scenes between Mitzi and her son Sammy as he negotiates adolescence and discovers a secret about his mother which will rip his family apart.

In between all the family drama, there is Sammy’s persistent love of cinema and his dedicated desire to film everything and in the end does capture every moment even the scenes that are not meant to be filmed. Even at high school besides being terrorized for being the only Jewish boy at a predominantly Christian school in Northern California he even films the Ditch Day at the Beach and makes one of his archenemies and school jock Logan Hall played by rising star Sam Rechner uncomfortable when he sees himself on screen.

Audiences should watch out for a superb cameo by veteran actor Judd Hirsch as Uncle Boris who influences young Sammy into following his dreams of becoming a film maker.

With superb cinematography by Spielberg regular and Oscar winner Janusz Kaminski (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan) and excellent ensemble acting, The Fabelmans is a love letter to traditional cinema, to the art of film making while effortlessly exploring serious issues including anti-Semitism, infidelity and mental health.

The Fabelmans is a top class film: elegant, nostalgic and perfectly acted. Highly recommended viewing, this excellent film gets a film rating of 9 out of 10 and signifies Spielberg’s undisputed persistence of vision as a top calibre film director.