Three Mini-Reviews

Hey, everybody!

 

I know I’ve been gone for a little bit, but I’m back with three new mini-reviews of films that I felt were noteworthy but not necessarily worth a whole article, so sit back and enjoy.

 

Starting with…

 

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

 

Let me say upfront that I may have been a little too hard on the first Venom film when it came out. Don’t get me wrong; it’s still not very good, but after rewatching it last year, I saw some glimpses of a gonzo superhero flick we don’t usually see these days. Let There Be Carnage somewhat solves this problem by leaning into more of what worked the first time around – i.e., the bromance between Venom and Eddie, Tom Hardy engaging in Nicolas Cage levels of insanity, and the wacky slapstick comedy. However, I still can’t help but feel like it’s holding back to be more palatable to a mass audience. Case in point: Cletus Cassidy/Carnage, played by Woody Harrelson. Despite the fact that Harrelson is clearly enjoying himself in this role and Carnage’s first scene is appropriately frightening, he isn’t really in enough of the movie to leave a lasting impression, and when he does get to show up as Carnage, he doesn’t really do anything that frightening, thanks to the restrictions of the film’s PG-13 rating. Also, once again, the story just kind of meanders without any real direction, Naomie Harris’s Screech is kinda superfluous, and Anne and her new fiancé barely feature into the film until the very end.

 

However, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy this film because of all the factors that work in it, like Eddie and Venom’s relationship and the goofy slapstick comedy. This is where I think the film is at its strongest, and if it just allowed itself to get a bit dirtier and nastier with its violence, we could have had something very special here. But as is, it’s very entertaining, provided you can ignore how much better it could have been.

 

And yes, the mid-credits scene is worth sticking around for and kinda makes me giddy for the future of this franchise.

Lamb

 

Lamb is the directorial debut of Icelandic filmmaker Valdimar Johansson and tells the story of Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snær Guðnason as two farmers whose sheep gives birth to a human/lamb hybrid named Ada.

 

And that’s pretty much the plot of the movie; two people trying to raise this young child/sheep while an unknown entity stalks them.

 

Yeah, this is definitely an A24 film, with all the elements that descriptor implies: unsettling atmosphere, long establishing shots, creepy atmospheric music, and bona-fide WTF horror…and it ends at the exact wrong moment. No seriously, just when things are about to get more interesting, the film just ends, or rather stops.

 

Now, don’t get me wrong, the film itself is pretty good. It’s unusual but heartfelt in that sort of Edward Scissorhands way, but there are only so many times I can watch the same routine of “Long Establishing Shot; Camera Pushing in on Animal who Runs Away; Farmer Couple Trying to Raise Ada” before I start to want something more. And just when it looked like the film was gonna give me something more, it’s over. But then again, I guess I can’t expect every A24 film to be like The Lighthouse or Midsommar.

 

But I’ll tell you one thing; it does make me more excited for The Northman, seeing as Lamb’s co-screenwriter Sjon is also penning that script. And when a gonzo imagination like Sjon’s is paired up with that of Robert Egger’s (The Lighthouse, The VVitch) …hoo, boy! That’ll be something to witness, won’t it?

The Last Duel

 

Well, look at that! Ridley Scott’s still got it!

 

In The Last Duel, we see Scott treading similar ground he did with The Kingdom of Heaven and Robin Hood; a historical drama set during medieval times. Here we have the story of Jodie Comer as Marguerite de Carrouges, wife of knight Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon), who is raped by Carrouges’s best friend, squire Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) while Jean is away on business. However, because Le Gris is protected from guilty charges by powerful friends in high places – particularly Count Pierre d’Alcenon (Ben Affleck) who is total bros with Le Gris and hates Jean’s guts – it is decided that the truth of Marguerite’s claim will be determined in a trial by combat between Jean and Le Gris, the last one in French history (hence the title). The stakes are high; if Jean wins, he and Marguerite will go free, but if he loses, Marguerite will be burned at the stake as punishment for bearing false witness.

 

The most unique aspect of this film is its attempt to emulate the type of story structure we’ve seen in films like Kurosawa’s Rashomon or Kubrick’s The Killing, i.e., telling a story from the perspectives of multiple characters. And screenwriters Affleck and Damon (writing together again for the first time since Good Will Hunting) along with co-screenwriter Nicole Holofcener pull it off well, allowing us as the viewer to see the story through multiple characters. Not only does this present a world where nobody is completely innocent and everyone is morally compromised to some degree or another, but it also serves as a nice bit of metatextual commentary, seeing as the events of this situation are still hotly debated among the historical community (even though the film itself takes a pretty clear stance on who’s telling the truth).

 

All the performances are great; Matt Damon and Adam Driver do great as the honorable yet still obviously compromised Carrouges and Le Gris respectively, Ben Affleck works incredibly well as Count Pierre, playing it as the libidinous French medieval equivalent of a college frat boy, and Comer is the real standout here, demonstrating the bravery but also fear that one can expect from a woman standing up against sexual assault in a time where such stances weren’t usually taken.

 

Definitely give this one a watch, particularly if you’re a history fan or a Game of Thrones fan!