Short Reviews of 2021 films

Eyes of Tammy Faye-Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Cherry Jones, Vincent D’Onofrio, Gabriel Olds-The true story of a televangelist’s (Andrew Garfield) wife (Jessica Chastain) who wasn’t as bad as you might expect. With the exception of a few unnecessary flashbacks, the film successfully strays away from the sort of beat-by-beat biopic formula. It’s a meaty story.

Ride the Eagle-Jake Johnson, Susan Sarandon, D’arcy Carden, JK Simmons-Most famous for being shot during quarantine with the actors largely alone, this is more than just an experiment in monologue-based storytelling. It’s a touching (a word that critics try to stay away from, but there I said it!) story of a guy crossing off his late mom’s bucket list to get his inheritance of her house.  There’s a very sweet and natural-sounding courtship between two old exes as well as a fine exploration of an adult coming to grips with mommy issues.

Tomorrow War-Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahinski, Sam Richardson, Edwin Hodges, JK Simmons, Betty Gilpin-Sci-fi films about how we’re very, very doomed as a species can understandably be a bit more depressing than the genre was meant for. Personally, I like sci-fi when it’s thought-provoking and there’s a little of that, but it’s a lot more blood and guts. Also, the shrieking sounds of these alien abominations as they are being slaughtered is not a feast for the ears.

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain-Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy, Andrea Risborough, Tobey Jones, Olivia Colman, Adeel Akhtar-Maybe I’m burned out of British period pieces but this film is unremarkable in its premise, and, at times, laughably off in that execution.

The film is told with the whimsy of a Tim Burton film (Olivia Colman does narrative duties) but it’s jarringly dark. Also, worth noting that the protagonist isn’t really that much of an oddity. Played by Benedict Cumberbatch, Louis Wain (whom I presume became famous on account of they based a movie on him) possesses a few of the aesperger-like traits of Cumberbatch’s “The Imitation Game” character (Alan Turing) and is romantically inexperienced, but that’s about it. When he’s told by his employer (Tobey Jones) very often that he’s eccentric, it’s just plain bizarre.

There’s a nice love story with Claire Foy and the economic reality of a man who has to support five sisters but the movie only touches on those things rather than makes them the focus of the story.  In the second half, the film turns into a psychological tale of a man gone mad and manages to salvage an ending that thematically ties things together but there’s a lot of fatigue to get to that point.

The French Dispatch-Bill Murray, Benicio del Toro, Adrian Brody, Lois Smith, Lea Seydoux, Timothee Chalemet, Frances McDormand, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schreiber,  Mattheiu Almaric, Lyna Khoudri -The French Dispatch shows that even great directors can have an off day. Anderson’s trademarks of ornate mise-en-scenes and people succeeding in finding belonging is present,  but his penchant for saturating the cast reaches its tipping point here. The film’s main story is about a beloved literary editor (Bill Murray) passing away but we hardly get to see that story because the film diverges into three vignettes that takes away from the film's main emotional arc. The end result is a feeling of cold remoteness that's a thin line between what Anderson delivers on and what he can be seen as at his most indulgent.

The Courier-Benedict Cumberbatch, Merab Ninidze, Jessie Buckley, Rachel Brosnahan, Angus T Jones-Contrary to what Jason Bourne and James Bond would have you think, spies aren't one-man armies or charismatic seducers. They're people in the shadows like Greville Wynne who go about the same routine over and over in hopes of gleaming a trace of information that could make a difference in history. His story here is told at what I like to call the speed of history. While that's a different type of film than a spy thriller, the stakes are no less enormous and the intellectual and enormous weight of the costs are no less effectively portrayed.

Last Night in Soho-Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor Joy, Dianna Rigg, Max Smith, Ruth Tushingham-Thomasin McKenzie stars as a fashion student, Lola, with a bizarrely ambiguous disorder: She sees ghosts but only through the mirror and only one at a time and --- never mind, let's not think too hard about it. Things start to escalate for Lola when she moves into a creepy apartment with a strict landlord played a swan song performance by Diana Rigg) and starts to get intense visions of a 60s dancer (Anya Taylor Joy) that become sensually delighting, unnerving, and emotionally exhausting all at once. She becomes completely consumed while we, as an audience, are increasingly left to pick up disparate parts in what amounts to a combination thriller-mystery with sleek period visuals and masterful editing (something Edgar Wright's films rarely lack). For someone who has made a name for himself in hybrid comedy (comedy apocalypse, comedy horror, etc.), Edgar Wright deserves a lot of credit for his ambitions in making a film that's not comedic at all, though the film goes a bit heavy on tired horror tropes.