Quick Takes, July 2022

Charlie Hunnam and Mel Gibson in Last Looks

Sean Ellis' The Cursed is a handsome prestige horror film that suffers from blandness. A Romany matriarch lays a curse upon the family of a greedy aristocrat that produces fatal results and some rather silly Lupine monsters. Ellis who, as in Anthropoid, serves as his own cinematographer, offers a few beautiful images (a funeral, horsemen riding through the fog) that are worthy of Courbet. However, his scenario is so fixed on the social aspects of the tale that none of his characters emerge with a discernable psyche. Since we are not emotionally invested in the characters, the film becomes a mindless spectacle, much like the Hammer films it resembles.

Joseph Kosinski's Spiderhead, currently streaming on Netflix, tells the story of a penitentiary where the prisoners are guinea pigs in experiments funded by a pharmacological firm. Miles Teller plays a prisoner who begins to question the ethics and efficacy of the experiments. George Saunders short story seemingly provides a firm basis for dystopian Sci Fi, but Kosinski's direction is so flavorless that the film flounders. The film seeks to emulate Saunders' black comic tone, but the end results are toothless. Teller is fine, but the miscasting of Chris Hemsworth, in the part of the hubristic pharma titan, sinks the film. Hemsworth, who was a producer on the project, deserves a pat on the back for trying to extend his range, but any number of competent thesps, I'm thinking Chris Pine or Jon Hamm, could have nailed this role of a man of science playing God. 

Tim Kirkby's Last Looks is a shaggy dog noir that has its own funky appeal. Adapted by Howard Michael Gould from his novel, the film follows the adventures of an ex-cop (Charlie Hunnam) who is enlisted by an old flame to investigate the murder of the wife of an alcoholic film star. Mel Gibson, channeling the dilapidated charm of Peter O'Toole, plays the star with bravura, spouting Shakespeare when he is not guzzling vodka. Hunnam play the role of the shamus with ease and the varied supporting cast contains nice turns by Method Man, Morena Baccarin, Jacob Scipio, and Clancy Brown. The film seems inspired by the noir updates of the 70s, Hunnam even lives in a trailer like Jim Rockford. Noting earth shaking, but a pleasant and ingratiating film. 

Kenneth Branagh's Belfast is not the worst film about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, but it is the cutest.

Mark Donskoy's The Village Teacher, from 1947, is a Soviet Goodbye, Mrs. Chips. An idealistic schoolteacher survives thwarted love, narrow minded kulaks, the snobbery of the haute bourgeoisie and two world wars to bring Siberian children some good larning. Effective schmaltz, if you can stomach the paeans to Lenin and Stalin. Its chief asset is gorgeous photography by Sergey Urusevskjiy who also lensed The Cranes are Flying and I am Cuba.