"Fatale" Review: What Happened In Vegas, Didn't Stay There!

“Fatale” is the latest in the cheating husband who messed with the wrong woman genre. “Fatal Attraction” is the gold standard for husbands stepping out on their wives and reaping what they sow. Since the 1987 film there have been plenty that have tried to emulate it or deliver something similar. In fact, screenwriter David Loughery wrote 2009’s “Obsessed”, which had a similar theme. It seems he learned a few things with his latest screenplay for “Fatale” by side-stepping predictability but a couple flaws keep it from greatness.

Derrick (Michael Ealy) is a man who has it all on paper. He’s got the job, the luxurious house, and a beautiful wife. He and his wife have hit a rough patch and they seem to be on different pages. So when Derrick attends a bachelor party in Vegas with his business partner Rafe (Mike Colter), he has a one night stand with Val (Hilary Swank). It’s a mutual fling with both stating they are from out of town trying to blow off steam. 

The next morning, Derrick wakes up and is ready to bounce, having come to his senses, but Val wants more. Weeks later, Derrick has the fight of his life with a masked home invader. When the police arrive, the detective in charge of the case is Valerie Quinlan, his one night stand. From there, the game of cat and mouse begins with some surprising twists along the way. 

Swank has fun trying on a non-traditional character for her. She walks the tightrope of a scorned woman and an evil genius with just the right touch of humanity to create a three dimensional fatale. Ealy brings a certain relatability to his fish out of water character and does what he can with the script. Unfortunately, his character is written to continuously make poor decisions. That doesn’t stop him and Swank from having some juicy moments on screen. The subtext in their second encounter, right after the home invasion, is fun to watch. In fact, a lot of the delivery of Swank’s lines have a consistent weight to them that makes her character scary yet thrilling to watch because she’s so smooth with her hidden rage.

A lot of credit goes to director Deon Taylor. He’s shown tremendous growth in his storytelling since he dipped his toes in the thriller genre with "Traffik". He understands how to craft suspense (as evident in his last pairing with Ealy in "The Intruder") and uses his camera to speak where the script doesn’t. In one scene, after speaking with Derrick, Val backs out of the driveway with the camera locked down and watching from the back seat. As the car goes up the natural incline of the driveway and then levels out, Derrick disappears from the background of the frame due to the front of the car lifting up. We’re left to focus solely on Val’s face in the foreground. It’s a power shift that is told in pictures, not words. Taylor is certainly one to watch. 

Cinematographer Dante Spinotti shoots LA for the first time since “Heat”. It’s a gorgeous and sleek looking film that adds to the story that all that shimmers isn’t gold. This is the third collaboration of Taylor and Spinotti and each outing continues to build on their ability to tell story through film.

While the “Fatale” does a good job of subverting the stereotypical plot, it forgets to leave the dumb husband trope out of loop. By the time Derrick starts making good decisions, you’ve yelled at the screen enough to leave him to Val’s schemes. Nonetheless, it’s still an entertaining watch with some moments you won’t see coming.

Rating: B

"The Intruder" Review: Stellar Suspense, Dumb Decisions

Certain movies ask for you to just go with it in order for you to take the full ride. The Intruder is one of those types of films. If the lead characters did what we’d do in real life, the movie would be over in thirty minutes. So if you can check your brain at the door and go with it, this film may be the popcorn suspense thriller for your outing this weekend!

Scott (Michael Ealy) and Annie Russell (Meagan Good) are a young, successful couple living in San Fransisco looking to start a family. How does Annie want to do that? By buying a house in Napa! They find a beautiful property with lots of character that’s been in one family for generations. The current owner, Charlie Peck (Dennis Quaid), greets the couple by shooting a deer right in front of them the first time they visit the property. If that initial encounter isn’t “Get Out” enough for them, throughout the showing, Charlie has a way of stressing the “must keep” features of the house. 

After purchasing the property, Charlie finds ways to keep showing up at Scott and Annie’s new home. He mows the lawn and cites that “it was getting out of hand”. It probably doesn’t help that Annie keeps inviting him to functions, like Thanksgiving, even though Charlie is supposed to have moved to Florida to be near his daughter. The Russell’s friends Mike (Joseph Sikora) and Rachel (Alvina August) have mixed views on Charlie. Mike doesn’t trust him and thinks he’s a peeping Tom, while Rachel thinks he’s a hot old man. Regardless, a seed of suspicion is planted and grows into full blown awareness as the film moves forward. 

The trinity of actors in this film do a great job of playing their roles. Good plays the loving wife with a heart for the poor old man who lost his wife in their home. Her character is authentic and, while naive, earnest in her decisions. Ealy is the out of his element husband in his new country home digs who also shouldn’t be slept on just because he wears glasses and nice clothes. Quaid has the most fun as the possessive, rehearsed, good ‘ol country boy. In fact, Quaid is repulsive in this movie at some points. Once the sicko is unmasked, he goes all in with his character and it raises the stakes in the hair-raising, skin crawling, “get away from me old man” delivery.

As his follow up to 2018’s Traffik, director Deon Taylor is proving one thing, he understands how to build suspense and tension in a scene. In fact, that’s the biggest thing that this film has going for it. There are a lot of illogical plot contrivances that writer David Loughery has placed in the film. However, Taylor understands what’s creepy, what’s scary based in reality, and uses the camera, lighting and sound to highlight it. 

While the use of tension and suspense is fantastic in parts, it doesn’t make up for the whole of the film. There is a point in which an audience starts to yell at the screen in a film like this that’s fun, but there’s also a point in which the film becomes a comedy when it wasn’t written for that. The Intruder looks at that tipping point and walks over the edge. Had it been grounded in more realistic decisions it could be a film that you remember past next week. That said, the ending produced one of the most joyously, uproarious screams of satisfaction I’ve heard in a while.

Rating: C

"Us" Review: Be Prepared for Nightmares

A little over two years ago, Jordan Peele told us to Get Out.  This time he wants us to look at ourselves in his new movie Us. While this film doesn’t rise to the masterpiece heights of its predecessor, it sure proves that Peele understands cinema and he’s no one hit wonder. Usually I’d say the hype is real, but the truth is true this time around, and Us is the sci-fi/horror truth! 

As a young girl, Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o) wandered off from her parents at the Santa Cruz beach. The experience left her speechless and in therapy for years. So years later, when her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) decides that her and the kids should go to the same beach for vacation, she begrudgingly goes. They meet up with the Tyler family and Adelaide learns Kitty’s (Elizabeth Moss) secret to dealing with life is booze, while Gabe and Josh (Tim Heidecker) compare boat sizes. 

Once they finally get home and Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex) are tucked in, the lights go out and things get weird. A family stands at the edge of the drive way and won’t budge off the property. Once the Wilson family realizes the family is comprised of themselves (called the tethered), a story only Jordan Peele could unveil begins. 

Peele hits every note of suspense in setting up scenes that we as an audience are frightened by and using every element of cinema to capitalize on that fear in a way in which you feel like you are in the situation. He uses sound and the lack thereof to build those fight or flight moments that we experience in real life. He’s not afraid to let a moment breathe and build the tension in a scene like some directors in the genre back away from these days. His blocking of characters shows an understanding of a frame of film and how to use it. In a scene with Adelaide riding shotgun in the foreground on the way to the beach with a look of absolute nervousness and Gabe in the background obliviously happy, he allows the story to be told without a useless back and forth of camera shots. 

Lupita Nyong’o gives a stellar performance as both Adelaide and her tethered, Red. She plays a range of emotions as both characters and is stellar at it. Red’s presence is almost good enough to put her in the top lists of movie villains. The rest of the cast equally play their parts well in such a way that once the story comes together, you’ll have tons to talk about in the parking lot.

You better believe I’m talking around this film so you can go in as blank as possible. Us does have some story issues, but the setup and storytelling more than make up for those issues. See this film with as many black people as possible! It will only enhance your experience because this is definitely a film you may find yourself talking to the screen in throughout its second and third acts. If you don’t know how to do it, sit back and take notes because it might get hilarious in all the right ways. The best part is, the main characters don’t constantly make silly decisions. It’s old fashion horror and sci-fi with all the good twists and turns it seems we will come to expect from a Jordan Peele movie. With this film, it seems we’re on the verge of seeing a new auteur in the suspense thriller genre.

Rating: B+

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"The First Purge" Review: It's Just a Movie...But

They say that practice makes perfect. While the fourth installment in the Purge franchise is far from perfection, there is something to it that is undeniably breaking through to speak to real world issues. Yes, The First Purge is more refined and closer to B-movie, survive the night status like some of the classic John Carpenter films. However, the real  magic is in how much its’ premise feels a lot more tangible and believable in our present day political climate.

This film takes it back to the beginning when The Purge became The Purge. At this point, it’s called an experiment, created by Dr. Updale (Marisa Tomei). Rather than being nationwide, its’ first at bat is localized to Staten Island. In an effort to get members of the community to participate, the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) offers $5,000 for wearing contacts that double as cameras with bonuses for committing violence. Potential candidates that range from psychotic and mentally ill to people trying to feed their family are analyzed by NFFA staff.

The formula here is no different. We’re introduced to the main characters early. Dmitri (Y’lan Noel) is the drug king of the borough. Nya (Lex Scott Davis) and Isaiah (Joivan Wade) are siblings who have each other’s back in a world without parents. Nya is an activist who believes the experiment is not good, while Isaiah is caught in the middle ground, seeing an illegal way to provide for him and his sister he starts dealing on the corner. Dolores (Mugga) is their hilarious neighbor and aunt figure in their lives. 

In the midst of main character development, the NFFA is setting up cameras and surveillance around the island to broadcast to the world. Right before and once The Purge commences, so do the one-liners that strike a nerve. The Founding Father president states “We’re all Staten Islanders tonight”. Nya tells her old flame, Dmitri, “we have to make choices to heal or to hurt” after approaching him due to a setback Isaiah had on the street corner.  

Since there is little ruckus outside of people robbing and looting when things start,  Dr. Updale notes that in order for people to truly embrace The Purge “morality and religious dogma must be dropped”. It’s easy to gloss over that line, but it truly is the key to why The Purge works and why our current real life political climate is as it is. Even if you’re not religious, we all have a moral compass. Whether that compass has been pointed south by life, we all start out with the purity of knowing right from wrong. The statement is truly has Last Action Hero, off of the screen and into the real world impact.

With our morality in question, Arlo Sabien (Patch Darragh) the NFFA Chief of Staff, makes a call to spice things up. Simultaneously, director Gerard McMurray and writer James DeMonaco (who wrote all Purge films) do the same cinematically. Suddenly, white men wearing Ku Klux Klan hoods and throwback Nazi-like regalia show up on the island, forcing Dmitri and friends to fight back. There are particularly harrowing moments of racism and violence that come straight from our history’s headlines as klansmen shoot up a church with predominately black community members. One man is dragged through the street by his leg attached to a vehicle by chain. Tiki torches light the night. These images seem vaguely familiar. While the formula of the film calls for the main characters to get some payback on their oppressors, the joy that one feels for those kills is worth questioning. Sure, it’s just a movie, but why use Klan hoods as masks? That hadn’t been done before. It’s just a movie, but why are the clean cut white men in power positions to experiment in low-income neighborhoods that are comprised of people of color? It’s just a movie, but why does Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” close it out? The song is the rallying cry of this generation’s people of color. Again, see my opening statement, practice makes perfect and DeMonaco’s pen is getting closer to making powerful statements on the state of our union and lack their of.

Ultimately, the final act of the film is tense and suspenseful as Dmitri must “old school video game” his way up to the 14th floor of Nya’s project apartment building, taking out the bad guys along the way. McMurray’s direction is controlled and his frame is claustrophobic at times, allowing us to see what he wants us to see. He leads the audience to the end like a Carpenter throwback. 

Some of the performances in this film are worth noting. Mainly, Y’lan Noel, who has an enormous presence on screen and natural charisma that forces you to root for him, even when he’s murdering people. Mugga provides plenty of laugh out loud moments in the film. In one scene she tells Nya that she left the church to look for her, then got the bubble guts and had to purge another way! Joivan Wade truly portrays a scared teenager trying to do what he thinks will help his family. Perhaps one character that will be a fan favorite is Skeletor, played by Rotimi Paul. He’s a giant psycho who wants to Purge from the opening scene. Rather than playing crazy, Paul truly makes Skeletor feel like the neighborhood fiend who finally gets to reek havoc on the world that looks down on him.

The First Purge certainly shows us how everything started. It’s the right length, and an authentic installment in the thesis of what all Purge films rest on in answering the question “what if all crime was legal for 12 hours?”. However, it low key shows us ourselves as well. That’s worth a deeper conversation after the lights come up. 

Rating: B

"Traffik" Review

Refuse to become a victim. That’s the tagline of Deon Taylor’s new film Traffik. You ever feel like you’ve been okey doked? There’s a lot of weight in that tagline. It screams survival, defiance, fight. Yet, the film is the definition of a slow burn thriller. Once the film takes off, it’s a fun ride, but it takes far too long to get there.

Brea (Paula Patton) and John (Omar Epps) decide to get away for the weekend by going to John’s buddy Darren’s (Laz Alonso) vacation home in the secluded northern California mountains. On the way up, the couple has an unpleasant interaction with a racist biker gang when they stop at the local gas station. While John has a verbal and physical exchange with one of the bikers outside, Brea unbeknownst to her, receives a phone from Cara (Dawn Olivieri), a woman who appears to be in danger with her biker boyfriend, in the restroom. 

While the exchange in the restroom didn’t send off a red flag in Brea’s mind. It finally goes off once the phone starts ringing later that night. Now joined by Darren and his girlfriend Malia (Roselyn Sanchez) at the house, the foursome unlock the phone to discover a secret that could cost them their lives. Especially, when the bikers come looking for their phone.

The biggest issue with the film is that it takes almost half of its running time to get started. There is a lot of exposition in the beginning. Characters establish how wonderful another character is or isn’t through lengthy dialogue. Brea and John stop randomly on the ride up the mountain to make love in the car John built from the ground up as a birthday present for Brea. Brea debates and compares notes with Malia whether she wants to take the next step with a man who seems to be proving himself at every turn. It’s these random pit stops in the script’s attempt to verbally over-talk us into caring along the way to the big event that detract from the story.

However, once the biker gang comes to retrieve their phone, the film really takes off. Cinematographer Dante Spinotti paints the first half of the film with a glamorous hue, and switches to limited, natural lighting when it’s time for the characters to survive. Scenes are lit by headlights, or lamps in a home. The lighting really pulls you in to the intensity and solitude being exhibited in the film. Taylor has a way of building the suspense in the film visually by establishing the space of locations and then using the frame as a peak into what’s happening.

The performances in the film are serviceable but certainly not memorable. While the film’s title alludes to human trafficking, it touches on it, but feels more like it’s using it as a background plot device within the film. Which leads me to my opening point in that the film doesn’t really give what it’s selling.

I ultimately enjoyed the survival portion of the film. This is the type of film that you want to see with someone else so that you can yell at the screen and tell Brea and John what to do. It’s the type of film that you lean over to your spouse and say “make sure you shoot to kill if we’re ever in a situation like this.” It’s the type of film that will give you 96 minutes of escapism while viewing, and you’ll forget about it next week. Know what you’re getting into when you enter and you’ll have a good time at the movies.

Rating: C+

"Annihilation" Review: Subverting The Norm For The Win!

It’s been a while since I’ve watched a sci-fi thriller that used silence in such a way that I could hear the leather of my neighbor’s seat when they moved. Annihilation is one of those film’s that reminds us of what a big budget Hollywood machine can do if given the opportunity. It takes us to perhaps one of the scariest places, our own imagination, and asks us to probe the unknown along with its protagonists.

Lena (Natalie Portman) is a biologist and Army veteran whose husband just returned home after twelve months of radio silence. Army sergeant Kane (Oscar Isaac) was thought to be dead, but his presence brings up more questions than a joyful reunion. Lena finds out that he went on a mission inside what’s called the shimmer. It’s a growing bubble that looks and glistens just like the stuff we used to play with as kids but is far from something to be toyed with. All we know is that things go in, but don’t make it out.

With Kane deathly sick, Lena decides to join the next ragtag group of people going into the mysterious shimmer that only her husband has come back out of. She joins psychologist leading the team, Dr. Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Anya (Gina Rodriguez), a paramedic from Chicago, Sheppard (Tuva Novotny), an anthropologist, and Josie (Tessa Thompson), a physicist. The film unfolds over various points in time. It’s told in present day with Lena being investigated by a man in a hazmat suit, so we know one part of how the story ends, but through flashback, we’re able to fill in the gaps.

Director Alex Garland (Ex Machina) is in full control of his film as he cleverly parses out information at just the right pace. He allows us the film to push forward by constantly dangling a question before us. Whether it is what’s the shimmer? How has time passed within it? How has a shark and crocodile crossbred? Or something as simple as what’s that noise? We constantly question what’s happening on screen right along with the group of women who are trying to get the same answers. 

As the group slowly begins to unravel and questions themselves and each other, we too are pushed to stretch our minds as to what’s possible within the shimmer. The casting in this film is exquisite as each woman is playing a character that goes against type for what we’ve come to see them in. Sheppard says at one point in the film “we all are damaged”. The way that Portman, Leigh, Rodriguez, Novotny, and Thompson display that on the screen through nuanced performances is a joy to watch. Tessa Thompson certainly stands out as the shy physicist with her physicality and ability to make her character seem so small in compared to the larger than life personas we’ve seen her take on in past works.

Garland’s imagery of this world is beautiful. Yet, he drops clues to what the world is through mise-en-scene (things specifically placed before the camera) by shooting through a glass of water, or plants in the shape of humans. What Garland keeps off screen is equally important as what is on at times and shows his understanding of the power of suspense and mystery in a film like this. In a film like this, the third act is the difference between a downer or a memorable film. Annihilation certainly delivers on a trippy but suspenseful third act that will leave you questioning the future of its world.

While Annihilation may not be on par with Ex Machina, it is a solid addition to the sci-fi/fantasy genre. It’s reminiscent of The Thing in how it constantly makes us and its cast question what we know. The fact that its all women in the lead makes it that much more exciting as they handle the material in a beautiful way that’s subversive of the norms we expect! 

Rating: B+

"Jason Bourne": Older Damon, Old Formula

Matt Damon is back in arguably his career defining role as Jason Bourne. The new film, re-teams Damon and director Paul Greengrass (Bourne Supremacy, Bourne Ultimatum) and the formula still works. It’s the action and set pieces that make this spy thriller pop, while it tastes like bubble gum on it’s way out. You know, the kind that started out great but you’re getting a couple final chews out of it before you spit it out?

Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles), embedded in a hacktivist group, hacks into the CIA and finds information that’s just good enough to bring Jason (Damon) back on to the grid. Or maybe, it’s the fact that she in particular contacts him to meet. Whatever the case, the two meet in Athens, Greece amidst an uprising, bringing the agency to the party as well. Armed with new information about his past, a chain reaction kicks off for Bourne to follow the trail.

In this installment, we’re introduced to the new CIA Director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) and the head of the CIA’s cyber ops division, Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander). Lee is put on the case after using her skills to prove she can keep up with Bourne’s moves. Vincent Cassel is also introduced as the knew Asset from the program, who just may have a tie to Bourne’s past as well.

Greengrass knows how to build tension visually. He gives us the lay of the land in a wide and then twists our focus with mids and close-ups as to keep us on edge with the characters. He offers us two amazing chase sequences in Athens and on the Las Vegas strip! It’s the type that will have you hold your breath, and if you need a reminder that it’s just a movie, you have to salute the choreography of it all!

While the film is stacked with a talented cast, everyone seems to have either dialed in their performance, or been written into a stereotypical corner. Vikander’s Heather Lee is fresh off the cookie sheet of other driven, elite hackers who have risen to the top of the bad guy class. She’s cold, calculated, but bland personality wise. Which is sad because Vikander is such a talent as evidenced by her recent Oscar win. Tommy Lee Jones just got paid for this one. He picked up a check and paid bills. It’s in Damon and Cassel, the two characters who do the least talking, that we get the heartfelt performances.

Jason Bourne is a solid entry into the franchise as far as giving us another chance to see Matt Damon as Jason. The action sequences alone are reason to see it in theaters on the big screen. It’s unfortunate that the overall story and some of its characters don’t get the same care!

Rating: C+