David R. Walker

Archive for June, 2023

The Flash

Director: Andy Muschietti

Cast: Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton, Ben Affleck, Michael Shannon, Sasha Calle, Jeremy Irons, Ron Livingston, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Kiersey Clemons, Gal Gadot, Maribel Verdu

Running Time: 2 hours and 24 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

Argentine director Andy Muschietti tackles the origin story of The Flash in Warner Brothers standalone film of the same title featuring the tremendously talented Ezra Miller as Barry Alan aka The Flash, whose best friend is Batman. Which is really cool.

The Flash has popped up as a secondary superhero character in numerous DC films including Justice League in 2017, Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad in 2016. The Flash gives Ezra Miller (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) a perfect chance to shine as an actor and he certainly does as he plays two versions of himself quite brilliantly with perfectly nuanced dexterity. He plays the current version of Barry Alan and a much younger more naïve version of the same character as they both battle to go back in time and reverse the crucial moment when their mother Noah Allan played by Spanish actress Maribel Verdu (Pan’s Labyrinth, Y Tu Mama Tambien) is murdered at home while their father Henry played by Ron Livingston is wrongly convicted of the crime.

Despite warnings from the rest of the Justice League including Batman and Wonder Woman, The Flash messes with the space time continuum and changes the past releasing multiple versions of Batman and General Zod, a Kryptonite after Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El played by Sasha Calle, commonly known as Supergirl.

The Flash loses his known version of Batman played by Oscar winner Ben Affleck (Argo, Good Will Hunting) and discovers an older, wiser version of Bruce Wayne played with panache by Oscar nominee Michael Keaton (Birdman) complete with a cavernous Bat Cave, possibly one of the coolest scenes in the film. Together they band up and rescue Supergirl and attempt to fight the mighty evil General Zod, perfectly played by Oscar nominee Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road, Nocturnal Animals).

While the first half of director Andy Muschietti’s superhero film is slightly shambolic, the second half is where the director finds his groove and he relies heavily on the screen presence of Ezra Miller who really is brilliant as The Flash. Let’s hope Warner Bros makes a sequel with Ezra Miller.

The screenwriters keep the narrative tight and the action constant, but always return to the pivotal moment of when Barry loses his mother, emphasizing that even superheroes have moms.

With high production values and a solid supporting cast, The Flash is a slightly gothic and very twisty addition to the DC Comics universe but a worthy attempt at establishing The Flash as a tangible superhero who should in time gain as much notoriety as Batman, Superman and the rest of the gang.

At 2 hours and24 minutes, The Flash is long, but Ezra Miller sustains the pace and this superhero action film, despite some repetitive visual effects, gets a film rating of 8 out of 10. Audiences should wait for the film’s final scene as there is a surprise cameo appearance of another Batman…

Asteroid City

Director: Wes Anderson

Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Bryan Cranston, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Steve Park, Hong Chau, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan, Jeff Goldblum, Grace Edwards, Sophia Lillis, Bob Balaban

Running Time: 1 hour and 44 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Celestial flirtations abound in director Wes Anderson’s latest fluorescent theatrical film, Asteroid City featuring a blossoming cast headlined by two excellent performances by Jason Schwartzman and Oscar nominee Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit, Marriage Story) as theatre actors Augie Steenbeck and the glamorous Midge Campbell who find themselves acting in the eccentric playwright Conrad Earp wonderfully played with deadpan flamboyance by Oscar nominee Edward Norton (Primal Fear, American History X, Birdman)’s new play Asteroid City set in a one horse town in Arizona in 1955 complete without a candy coloured diner and a nuclear testing site.

Asteroid City has a population of 69.

Visually and aesthetically, Asteroid City is beautiful to watch as a film, like a trippy popup book with fabulous colours and eccentric characters from singing cowboys and random socialites, from military personnel to perilous children who comprise the space cadets of the town.

At a random event celebrating the arrival of an asteroid in a desert, the entire town is gathered and listening to an articulate speech by General Grif Gibson played by Jeffrey Wright (No Time To Die) when out of nowhere a cheeky alien arrives in a garish green UFO and unexpectedly steals the asteroid while the town looks on in horror and curiosity.

Luckily Augie who is a reluctant father of four children, a son named Woodrow wonderfully played by Jake Ryan and triplet daughters known collectively by their grandfather as The Witches, managed to photograph the alien. Then the military step in and quarantine the town, a suitable jibe by screenwriter Wes Anderson at the weird lockdown restrictions imposed by Governments across the world during the Covid19 pandemic in 2020.

Despite the ensemble cast, it is really Jason Schwartzman and Scarlett Johansson’s film as they both shine in a complex self-reflexive narrative which takes inspiration from American playwright Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town. Jason Schwartzman who played King Louis XVI opposite Kirsten Dunst in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette and is soon to star in his uncle Francis Ford Coppola’s new film Megalopolis, really shines as a talented stage actor and part time homosexual Augie Steenbeck in a role which is equally quirky and subversive.

Asteroid City is a highly theatrical comically absurd film serving as a dazzling critique on the bizarre nature of events in 2020 and cleverly presents the concept of The West as a construct to be interchanged and taken down again, much like a cardboard city. Notable turns in the film go to Tom Hanks as Grandfather Stanley Zak, Oscar winner Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton) as Dr Hickenlooper and Oscar nominee Bryan Cranston (Trumbo) as The Host.

Take yourself on a journey and see the visually splendid Asteroid City, which is not perfect as a film, but it is enchanting in a celestial way and will find a cult following everywhere much like the Space Cadets that follow the Milky Way. With impressive set designs, Asteroid City should win an Oscar for Production Design in the 2024 Academy Awards.

Not as brilliant as The Grand Budapest Hotel, but Asteroid City gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10, a quirky self-reflexive play about a city that doesn’t exist and an alien that possibly does.

Wes Anderson outdoes himself with a script and a bizarre film which received a 6 minute standing ovation at the film’s glittering premiere at the 2023 Festival de Cannes.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Director: Steven Caple Jr

Cast: Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage, Peter Cullen, Dean Scott, Vazquez, Tobe Nwigwe, Ron Perlman, Liza Koshy, John DiMaggio, David Sobolov, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Pete Davidson, Colman Domingo, Cristo Fernández

Running Time: 2 hours and 7 minutes

Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10  

Creed II director Steven Caple Jr provides a fresh directorial vision for the new Transformers film, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts set in a pre-9/11 world in New York City in 1994 and in Cuzco in Peru.

Far removed from the days of Victoria Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley hanging helplessly off a glistening yet menacing Autobot in Transformers: Dark of the Moon back in 2011, Rise of The Beasts has a completely new vision with two new rising stars featuring Anthony Ramos (A Star is Born, In The Heights) as the hero Noah Diaz, a struggling young Latino man trying to find a job and look after his little brother Kris played by Dean Scott Vazques and Dominique Fishback (Judas and the Black Messiah) as museum researcher Elena Wallace.

Together Elena and Noah must team up with the Autobots as they have to prevent a new Galactic catastrophe as the evil Terrorcon Scourge wonderfully voiced by the Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage seeks to unlock a mysterious artefact to allow the ruthless Unicron voiced by Colman Domingo to devastate the Earth. Besides all this post-apocalyptic threat taking place ironically set before 9/11, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts has a really cool 1990’s vibe especially the scenes set in New York complete with hip music and a slightly retro production design.

For all Transformers fans, the really thrilling part of these films is watching the cars transform into robots and vice versa, but unfortunately in this version there isn’t enough of that. The script while interesting does go slightly off the reservation, actually way off as the action moves to Cuzco in Peru near the site of the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu in South America.

What is lacking in storyline or characterization in this version is definitely made up for in dazzling special effects which will help Transformers: Rise of the Beasts maintain its popularity throughout the 2023 American summer block buster season.

Noah has a better storyline in the film than Elena, although Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback do exceptionally well in a storyline in which 95% of the dialogue is with CGI robots.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts needed some more human intervention even some quirky characters to spice up a rather clunky storyline, nevertheless it is an entertaining film saved by superb visual effects which will be sure to attract audiences to this film.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts gets a film rating of 6.5 out of 10 and see it for the catchy music and imaginative visual effects.

Be kind to cinemas and watch Transformers: Rise of the Beasts on a Big Screen now.