Raining Stones

Raining Stones; drama, UK, 1993; D: Ken Loach, S: Bruce Jones, Julie Brown, Ricky Tomlinson, Gemma Phoenix, Tom Hickey

Northern England. Bob, an unemployed man, and his friend Tommy steal a mutton on a meadow to try to sell it to a butcher, but he warns them that only sheep meat sells. Indeed, they earn little trying to sell  meat at a pub. Even worse, Tommy left the keys in Bob's van, which gets stolen. Bob, a devout Catholic, is desperate because he needs 105£ to buy a dress for his daughter Coleen's First Communion. His wife Anne tries to help by applying for a sewing job, but is fired. Bob tries a job as a bouncer at a night bar, but is fired. Bob borrows money from a loan shark, Tansey, who arrives one day at Bob's home and forces Anne to give him her wedding ring and other valuables to repay Bob's debt. When Bob returns back home and hears what happened, he becomes angry, takes a wrench and follows Tansey. Bob attacks Tansey at the parking garage. Tansey flees in panic in his car, hits a concrete pillar and dies. Bob confesses everything to a priest, but he advises Bob to not tell anyone and resume his life. Bob enjoys Coleen's First Communion.

Ken Loach's parable on people who take desperate measures to find a solution out of their desperate situation, "Raining Stones" is both emotional and 'rough', never allowing to present the working class in idealized fashion. Loach's often screenwriter Jim Allen shows a lot of sense for the mentality of these people, so much that the viewers can easily identify with them, whereas they both find a wonderful support in the main actor Bruce Jones in the role of Bob. The protagonist is presented as a flawed hero: he wants the best for his little daughter Coleen and her First Communion, but is too 'rustic', clumsy and heavy-handed in his choices. A lot of freshness arrives from the surprising humor, which livens up the rather grey mood—in one sequence, Tommy tells Bob this joke: "Did you hear about that kid from Liverpool in the bloody wheelchair they took to Lourdes? ... And when he came out of the water, they all had a look at his legs. And his legs were still twisted. But the wheelchair had two new tires on it!" In another sequence, while Bob wants to buy an old van, Tommy has this exchange with the seller: "How many owners has it had?" - "Owners! Only one!" - "Who was it, Ben-Hur?" Everything here is dirty, raw and difficult, to be as a close to the experience of reality as possible, whereas Loach never preaches nor falls into sentimentality—the advice and reaction of the priest in the finale, when Bob confesses what he did, is a true surprise of pragmatism. The structure of the storyline feels a bit episodic, random and aimless, some moments seem fake (for instance, the illogical sequence where the daughter just let's the loan shark into their house, who demands money from the mother, even though he never presents Bob's document with borrowed money), whereas some characters deserved better treatment, for instance the underwritten role of Bob's wife Anne. Still, even though Anne's presence is sparse, she has one of the most poignant, philosophical lines in the film that say a lot about people feeling trapped by determinism and rigid fate: "It's funny how we start off, ain't it, with all these big ideas. And then you realize that things aren't going to change. I'll live and die in that flat, and nobody will ever know."

Grade:+++

Sorry We Missed You

Sorry We Missed You; drama, UK / France / Belgium, 2019; D: Ken Loach, S: Kris Hitchen, Debbie Honeywood, Rhys Stone, Katie Proctor

Newcastle upon Tyne. Manual laborer Ricky decides to try out a new job as a delivery driver who delivers boxes with items that people ordered via internet. His boss Maloney tells him he is "self-employed", but that he must pay a 1,000£ for a van. Ricky thus works 14 hours a day, 6 days a week. His wife Abby had to sell her car to afford Ricky's van, so she now takes a bus to work as a home care nurse. Their teenage son Sebastian is a troublemaker who one day steals spray cans from a store, so Ricky takes away his mobile phone. When Ricky's van keys vanish, he assumes it was Sebastian and slaps him, but it turns out it was their 13-year old daughter Liza Jane. One day, Ricky is attacked by three thugs who steals his boxes. Since Maloney will not reimburse him for the lost barcode scanner nor pay for his recovery, an injured Ricky drives off the van to continue work.

Ken Loach's penultimate film, social drama "Sorry We Missed You" is almost a shock therapy to all those idealized Hollywood films showing middle class work as pleasant and comfortable. The protagonist Ricky assumes he will get an easy job as a delivery driver, but he suddenly faces sobering problems along his way: a customer says he didn't order anything; a parking enforcement officer threatens to write him a fine for parking with his van in the middle of the street; Ricky has to urinate in a bottle because he has nowhere to stop with his van; he works 14 hours a day, six days a week... Loach simply poses an uncomfortable question—is there any dignified type of work left for the ordinary middle class? The film is a bit didactic and too schematic, presenting everything a bit too rigid and standard, since Loach often avoids cinematic technique or some more creative style to focus on the sole story and present reality as grey as it is, without any "make up", but the insight it shows into work over-exploitation and lack of any social welfare or solidarity creates some strong messages that make you think. Loach luckily never preaches, and instead just let's the story take its flow. Some of the best bits are when the characters' personalities come across as more important than the theme: in the best moment of the film, parents Ricky and Abby are arguing in their bedroom during the night, while all of a sudden they hear the knock on their door—it's their daughter Liza Jane, who tells them: "Stop it! No fighting!"

Grade:++

The Impossible

The Impossible; disaster film, Spain, 2012; D: J. A. Bayona, S: Naomi Watts, Tom Holland, Ewan McGregor, Samuel Joslin, Oaklee Pendergast, Geraldine Chaplin

December 2 0 0 4. Maria Bennett travels with her husband Henry and three children Lucas, Simon and Thomas to Khao Lak, Thailand, for a vacation. They enjoy their stay at the hotel and spend the Christmas there. On 26 December, the Indian Ocean earthquake causes a tsunami which reaches the shore and sweeps away the hotel and the guests. Badly wounded, Maria is able to find Lucas and a boy, Daniel, and climb up a tree in case of another tsunami. Locals find them and transport them to a hospital. Henry finds that his mother's bed is taken over by another patient, and cannot find her, until the staff leads him to her, who has undergone surgery, but is stable. Henry, Simon and Thomas also survived, and manage to find and reunite with Maria and Lucas in the hospital. They are then evacuated to Singapore. 

One of the first film depictions of the catastrophic 2 0 0 4 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami which killed 228,000 people along the wider area of the Bay of Bengal, based on the real-life experiences of survivor Maria Belon, "The Impossible" is an intense, terrifying and strong blend of disaster and survival film. The director J. A. Bayona takes care of the authenticity, allowing for the story to contemplate about the notions of fragility of life under threat from random disasters of the harsh, cruel universe, whereas the leading actress Naomi Watts is excellent as Maria. The film does not waste time—the tsunami occurs already 14 minutes into the film, and this segment is its most impressive accomplishment: tourists are happily walking along the swimming pool, when all of a sudden Maria's paper is carried away by the wind and stops at a glass wall, as she and others turn around to randomly see palm trees falling down along the horizon. Cue to a random 12 ft tall wave of dirty, brown water which simply sweeps everything in sight, from tourists to the hotel building. It all just happens in 20 seconds, and they simply don't have time to react at all. Maria hangs on to a tree, and the water stream is all around her, she let's go to try to swim after her son Lucas, but she is pierced when she is carried by the water into a random tree branch. This whole sequence is incredible and one wonders how they managed to film it. The rest of the film is the aftermath segment, which encompasses the remaining 2/3 of "The Impossible's" running time, but it is of lesser intensity and falters a bit in interest. Having Maria and Lucas wait at the hospital is simply not that engaging, which is why the director even uses the cliche of father Henry almost not finding Maria in her hospital bed and is just about to leave in the truck when something happens, which is banal. The storyline clearly needed some better written dialogue or cinematic inspiration for support in this post-tsunami segment. Nonetheless, "The Impossible" is a valuable depiction of the disaster, showing how it looked like and what its effects were. If there is one villain here, then it is chaos; if there is one protagonist, then it is life trying to survive and live in peace and stability.

Grade:+++

21 Grams

21 Grams; drama, USA, 2003; D: Alejandro González Iñárritu, S: Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio del Toro, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Melissa Leo, Danny Houston

Jack, a former convict who now turned into a Christian preacher, accidentally hits a man and his two daughters on the street with his car. Jack panics and drives off, leaving the three there to die. The deceased man's wife, Cristina, is now both a widow and a mother who lost her two children. Her late husband's heart is transplanted into Paul, a mathematics professor. Paul finds out about the life of his donor and makes contact with Cristina, starting a relationship. This, however, means the end of Paul's relationship with Mary, who wanted to have a baby with him. Cristina persuades Paul to kill Jack, but he let's him go. Jack later enters into their apartment and demands to be shot, but in the chaos, Paul shoots himself and dies. Jack turns himself to the police, claiming he shot Paul, but is let go because the investigation finds out it is a lie.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's 2nd feature length film, and his first in the US, is a contemplative, ambitious and artistic achievement, but the problem is that it is basically a melodrama—just with better cinematography and presented in nonlinear narrative. The dialogue and plot points are bland and standard, thereby making the storyline limited, without much creativity. Another problem is that Inarritu already used this trick of disjointed narrative, with scenes being shown randomly out of order throughout the film, in his better debut "Amores perros"—and peculiarly, even in his next film, "Babel". The aesthetic images are thus applied as a "make up" to try to improve the routine story, and this works, actually. However, the main highlight are the three excellent lead actors who give outstanding performances, playing their roles with enthusiasm even in the most pale scenes. The standout among these three standout actors is Naomi Watts, who gives another stunning performance as Cristina, finding herself in a peculiar situation where she has a relationship with Paul, who has the transplanted heart of her late husband. The character of Jack (Benicio del Toro) is also fascinating: he was an ex-convict, reformed, became a Christian pastor who tries to convert juvenile delinquents (he is even ready to engage in a physical fight with one punk to convert him!) and implement religious teaching literally (when his son slaps his daughter, Jack forces her to "turn her other cheeck", i.e. allow her brother to slap her other hand), perpetrated a hit-and-run accident, and now lost his faith (and purpose in life) again. The vague ending feels incomplete and unfinished, leaving the whole point of "21 Grams" somewhat elusive, yet Inarritu shows his talent by making it more enlightened than expected.

Grade:++

Dinosaurus!

Dinosaurus!; science-fiction adventure, USA, 1960; D: Irvin Yeaworth, S: Ward Ramsey, Alan Roberts, Kristina Hanson, Gregg Martell

Engineer Bart and his team are triggering underwater explosions along the coast of a Caribbean island to clear the seafloor to build a harbor. Accidentally, they stumble upon a frozen Brontosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the sea and pull them out on the shore. Bad idea: a lightning bolt hits and awakens said dinosaurs, and they now roam the island. A Neanderthal is also awakened and becomes friends with kid Julio. The local 'island master' Hacker wants to kidnap the caveman and sell him to an exhibition. The Brontosaurus sinks in quicksand; the caveman dies by holding up the beam of a collapsing mine while Julio and Betty, Bart's girlfriend, escape. Bart uses an excavator to push the T. Rex into the sea.

"Dinosaurus!" once again proves that there are so few dinosaur movies, and even fewer of them that are good. A silly oddity, Irvin Yeaworth's film is a harmless 'guilty pleasure' that indulges the human fascination with giant monsters, but it aligns with one unwritten rule: in these kind of movies, human characters are often bland and boring, while only the scarcely shown dinosaurs are interesting. Indeed, already in the opening, the viewers sense that the main (human) protagonists are not only one-dimensional, but also wooden and stiff: engineer Bart and his team are launching underwater explosions off the coast, while Betty for some reason is heading with her boat right towards them, even though they are waving a red flag to not go near them. Didn't she hear all those explosions just a minute ago? Why didn't they close the coastline around them while they are blowing up the seafloor? When Bart arrives with his boat towards her, she suddenly starts taking her clothes off, revealing a swimsuit, saying: "I'm going down to Davy Jones' locker for my mother's portable icebox, in which I had stashed all sorts of goodies for you guys to eat, and which I intend to eat whether you're hungry or not." Whoever wrote this dialogue needs to have it read back to him. Would a woman really dive deep into the sea to get food from a sunk refrigerator on the seafloor? Is she that hungry? How about going to a supermarket? The rest of the movie is equally as strained and illogical, but the dinosaur sequences, created thanks to stop-motion animation, are a bit better. At 28 minutes into the film, there is an elegant camera pan from the head of a lying Brontosaurus up to his tale, which moves. The battle between the T. Rex and Bart operating the excavator is solid, a forerunner to Cameron's battle between the Alien Queen and an exoskeleton in "Aliens", whereas the comical moments involving the caveman are at least partially amusing: for instance, the caveman sees food on a table through the window, but is surprised that he cannot touch it because of glass, and when a woman with a wacky facial mask sees him, they are both scared from each other and run away. 

Grade:+

The Friend

The Friend; drama / comedy, USA, 2024; D: Scott McGehee, David Siegel, S: Naomi Watts, Bing, Sarah Pidgeon, Carla Gugino, Bill Murray, Noma Dumezweni

New York City. Iris, a writer, is surprised when she is informed that, following the suicide of her mentor and ex-lover Walter, she is assigned to take care of his giant Great Dane dog, Apollo. Iris is stressed because her superintendent doesn't allow dogs in her apartment, so she wants to get rid of him, but nobody is ready to adopt the dog. Walter's daughter Val helps her out. Iris decides to drive Apollo to Michigan dog shelter, but then changes her mind and decides to register it as an emotional support animal. Upon the advice of a psychologist, she writes a story where she confronts Walter about his suicide, scolding him for not talking it through with others. Iris stays at Walter's Long Island beach house for the summer with Apollo.

Based on the eponymous novel by Sigrid Nunez, "The Friend" is a peculiar film contemplation about suicide, accepting loss and processing emotional turmoil in the allegorical depiction of the heroine Iris taking care of a big dog. It has several jokes based on suicide, ranging from Samuel Beckett's quote: "The day you die is just like any other, only shorter", up to something a character who committed suicide, Walter (Bill Murray), said: "The more suicidal people there are, the less suicidal people there are." Nonetheless, except for that, "The Friend" is surprisingly measured, respectful and emotionally honest, showing the aftermath of friends of someone perpetrating suicide. Still, the film doesn't have that much of an inspiration, creative lift-offs or ingenuity to justify this complex concept. It is too light and thin, but it once again confirms that Naomi Watts is an excellent actress who is able to carry a film and make something more out of it: the highlight is definitely her emotional reaction in front of the psychologist in the finale, where she processes her own grief and makes her own closure by writing a story where she confronts the dead Walter about why he perpetrated suicide. It is not clear if she had a more romantic or formal admiration towards Walter, which leaves the writing lacking. Still, the dog, Bing, is amusing: he first starts out as a nuisance and troublemaker sleeping on her bed, but then she realizes he is also in grief, and thus becomes a comfort for her. 

Grade:++

Lone Wolf McQuade

Lone Wolf McQuade; action, USA, 1983; D: Steve Carver, S: Chuck Norris, Barbara Carrera, Robert Beltran, David Carradine, Dana Kimmell, L. Q. Jones, Daniel Frishman

Jim McQuade is a Texas Ranger in El Paso, nicknamed "Lone Wolf" because he lives alone in a hut in the wilderness with a pet wolf, ever since he divorced his wife. His boss assigns him a new partner, Hispanic officer Kayo, and McQuade starts a relationship with Lola. McQuade is shocked to hear that his daughter Sally was injured when her car was pushed off a cliff, and her boyfriend was shot because they witnessed Mexican mafia smuggling US Army weapons across the border during the night. McQuade investigates the dwarf mafia boss Falcon, discovers an arms depot in the desert, controlled by Wilkes who defies Falcon and kidnaps Sally. In the shootout, Lola is shot, so McQuade throws a grenade at Wilkes hiding in a depot, which explodes. Sally is saved.

One of Chuck Norris' best films, "Lone Wolf McQuade" is a surprisingly simple and effective action investigative film that defies clichés, and was so influential and genuine that it even inspired the TV show "Walker, Texas Ranger". The director Steve Carver refuses to show the title hero as a one-dimensional good guy: McQuade has flaws, is divorced, and even scorns his lover Lola for vacuum cleaning his home, throwing away his beer and replacing it with vitamins, but then apologizes. One slow-motion scene where they playfully embrace on the ground, with the water hose running, is even wonderfully romantic, whereas the opening sequence where McQuade is observing horse thieves with binoculars from a cliff, without any dialogue, is so expressionistic and sharply focused that not even S. Peckinpah would have been ashamed of it. Naturally, several cheesy 80s lines are amusing, staying true to the action genre they appeared from—when McQuade is observing the attractive Lola riding a horse, his friend cannot resist as to comment: "How would you like to bite that in the butt, develop lockjaw, and be dragged to death?" When one of the villains hits McQuade's partner Kayo, throwing him on the ground, he says: "Remember me?" Cue to Kayo taking his gun and shooting him while lying down, replying: "I never forget an asshole." Lola, played by Barbara Carrera, is a surprisingly energetic and three-dimensional character, who refuses to remain passive. In one sequence, while she is sitting with McQuade in a bar at a table for a date, a random punk approaches her and says: "How about a kiss, baby?" McQuade wants to react, but Lola just gives him a sign to remain seated, as she stands up—and slaps the punk herself! The finale loses ground to the typical martial arts fighting and the cliche of the villain shooting someone the hero loves to motivate him to fight even more, which is weaker than the rest of the film. Nonetheless, "Lone Wolf McQuade" shows that even seemingly ordinary stories can be executed in a few refreshing, extraordinary ways.

Grade:++

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie; computer-animated fantasy comedy, USA, 2026; D: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, S: Chris Pratt, Anya-Taylor Joy, Charlie Day, Benny Safdie, Jack Black, Brie Larson

Kid Koopa Bowser Jr. uses a spaceship to kidnap Princess Rosalina from her observatory, and use her magical powers to fuel his giant weapon. Princess Peach and Toad leave the Mushroom Kingdom to save Rosalina, while plumbers Mario and Luigi stay behind and find a green dinosaur named Yoshi. The shrunk Bowser Koopa grows back to his huge size and meets up with Bowser Jr. Peach, Toad, Mario, Luigi and Yoshi reunite and travel in a spaceship by Fox McCloud to Fossil Falls galaxy where they battle and defeat the Koopas, whereas Peach discovers Rosalina is her lost sister.

One of the more routine sequels of the decade, "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" divorces itself completely from its cinematic obligations and instead aims to be only a feature length promotion for video games. The result is thus tired: the frenetic pace is inversely proportional to its style and inspiration. It is just a fast, random collection of different lands every 5 minutes, characters falling, running, kicking or fighting, but without any essence to it. They are empty vessels in the wrong medium. It is a pity, because the 1st film had at least some effort and care to set-up jokes with a punchline, unlike here. This is an improvisation, not a movie. The authors needed better jokes, because simply empty rushing a hundred miles an hour to nowhere does not suffice. Some tiny bits are at least partially amusing (a Toad drops ice cream from his cone, so Mario uses his ice superpower to create him an even bigger snowball on said cone; Mario and Peach jumping over a bridge over lava near the castle, while Bowser Jr. watches them on the screen, where they look like video game characters; the Minions cameo...), whereas one moment is an unexpected expressionistic blast (Luigi uses Bowser Jr.'s paintbrush to draw a black silhouette, Mr. Watch & Game, who simply hits Bowser with an animated hammer on the head, Looney Tunes-style). The rest is below expectations. Yoshi is underused, but when you think about, all the characters are underused: they are nominally there, but their playful spirit and fun are absent. 

Grade:+

The Hunt for Red October

The Hunt for Red October; thriller, USA, 1990; D: John McTiernan, S: Alec Baldwin, Sean Connery, Sam Neill, Stellan Skarsgård, Scott Glenn, James Earl Jones, Tim Curry, Peter Firth

In 1 9 8 4, the Soviet Union dispatches a ballistic missile nuclear submarine Red October in the Atlantic Ocean, heading towards the US. Its commander is Lithuanian Marko Ramius. Soon afterwards, other Soviet combat submarines follow it. The US military staff in Washington, D.C. assume an attack on the American east coast is imminent, but CIA analyst Jack Ryan has a different theory: Ramius wants to deflect to the American side. The Soviet ambassador lies that Ramius has gone crazy and wants to strike, telling the US to sink their submarine. Ryan boards US submarine USS Dallas and sends signals to Ramius, who evacuates his staff from Red October feigning technical problems, and allows Ryan inside, seeking US asylum. A Soviet submarine fires a torpedo, but thanks to skillful maneuvering by Red October and USS Dallas, the torpedo is lured to strike the Soviet submarine and sink it. 

If you want to see Sean Connery playing a Lithuanian submarine commander who kills a Russian official named Putin, "The Hunt for Red October" is the right film for you, one of the last Cold War thrillers before the collapse of the Soviet Union. The competent director John McTiernan crafts a stylish, polished and suspenseful thriller thanks to aesthetic colors and a stunning, crystal-clear cinematography which make the film modern and fresh even today, whereas the charismatic Sean Connery is excellent in the role of Marko Ramius—in the first third, the movie keeps the viewers deliberately guessing, in uncertainty, as to what Ramius intentions really are: does he want to attack the US with ballistic missiles or just deflect to seek asylum? Alec Baldwin is also good as Jack Ryan, in his first film adaptation of a Tom Clancy novel, though there is not much of a character development or deeper psychological exploration than just that what is necessary for the bare minimum to keep the story going. Nonetheless, the story works at least for one engaging viewing, with some clever moments (the American submarine fires a torpedo at Red October, but then Greer (James Earl Jones), Deputy Director of CIA, presses a button and destroys said torpedo halfway, saying to a Navy official he was never there; the finale where the Red October and the USS Dallas maneuver to avoid a torpedo fired at them from a Soviet submarine, trying to destroy Red October so that its technology want fall into American hands, which reminds even a bit of the finale in "Star Trek VI"). A conventional, but effective and fluent thriller, so smooth that it will engage even viewers usually not that inclined towards these kind of films.

Grade:++

Toto the Hero

Toto le héros; tragicomedy, Belgium / Germany / France, 1991; D: Jaco Van Dormael, S: Michel Bouquet, Thomas Godet, Jo De Backer, Mireille Perrier, Gisela Uhlen, Sandrine Blancke

Thomas, now an old man in a retirement home, recounts his life: as a little kid, Thomas lives with his sister Alice and brother with a Down syndrome, while their father disappeared on a plane during bad weather. Thomas imagines that he was switched as an infant in the maternity ward with his neighbor boy, Alfred. Thomas is infatuated with Alice and jealous of her affections towards Alfred. Alice wants to prove her loyalty by burning Alfred's home with a gasoline canister, but due to an accident, she dies in the fire. As a grown up, Thomas meets Evelyne who looks remarkably like Alice, but she is Alfred's wife. In the present, Thomas wants to kill Alfred. While hiding in a shack, he overhears that a gangster will assassinate Alfred in his home that evening. Thomas thus locks up Alfred, takes on his clothes and appears in his house. The assassin shoots through the window and thus kills Thomas instead of Alfred. 

The feature length debut film of the Belgian cinematic hope of that time, Jaco Van Dormael's "Toto the Hero" is an unusual and creative film presented in a dispersed nonlinear narrative that flip-flops between the childhood, adulthood and old life of protagonist Thomas, but it still seems as if he "polished" and improved this concept more in his later film "Mr. Nobody". The episodes involving these three timelines in Thomas' life are interesting, though somewhat inconclusive in the end without a stronger point. The best bits are surreal comical scenes which, together with this storyline told out of chronological order, make this ordinary story more extraordinary and fresh (the mother is seen with blood dripping from beneath her hat in a grocery store, the people all gather around her and call the ambulance, but then the clerk takes her hat off—and it is revealed she was hiding a piece of raw meat on her head; when her dad's plane disappears, the 13-year old Alice goes inside a church and threatens a statue of Holy Mary (!) by saying: "We came to warn you! If our dad isn't found, you'll have to answer to me!"; the old Thomas attaches a lightbulb with a metal foil on a lamp, and when the security guard turns it on, it explodes, causing a short circuit in the retirement home, thereby allowing Thomas to escape). The "twist ending" isn't that well thought out (the viewers are led to believe one thing already in the opening scenes, only for Van Dormael to have this subverted) whereas a couple of 'autistic' ideas and situations make the film less comprehensible than it should have been, though the director has talent and skill, showing jealousy, confusion and disappointment in life from cradle to grave, never allowing to compromise and create a pleasant 'feelgood' film.   

Grade:++