The awards season is upon us, which means every film from every studio is in full campaign mode. This means that screenings, releases, interviews, BTS clips etc are flooding the interwebs and marketing, making it nearly impossible to keep up with it all to review it properly. I would love to tell you that I have time to review each and every film individually, but the post TIFF catch up has been even more daunting than ever and I simply don’t have the bandwidth to cover everything the way I would want. Nevertheless, I can give some quick reviews on a number of films hot off the festival circuit that are either available now or coming to theaters very soon, so let’s get into the some films that are around the corner to check out!
“Hard Truths” – In Select Theaters Dec 6th, wide release Jan 10th 2025
A tried and true critics’ critic favorite, Mike Leigh returns to the big screen with “Hard Truths,” reuniting with his multi award nominated muse Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Leigh is acclaimed playwright and filmmaker, the kind that constantly wrestles with more nuanced human stories, and his latest film is no different. Premiering at TIFF, “Hard Truths” follow Pansy (Jean-Batptiste), an outspoken and angry woman who finds faults in everything and everyone and lets her displeasure be known regardless of the consequences. Armed and ready to berate her family, grocery store clerks, even her dentist, Pansy forces everyone to walk on eggshells around her so as not to draw any attention from the angry dragon. As she goes from one tirade to the next, the layers are peeled back to reveal a woman in deep depression, grief and regret, unable to properly process her emotions and sadness that manifest in anger. Through her rocky relationship with her sister, the true Pansy begins to take shape, and her life starts to come into focus even if it never finds resolution.
The problem with “Hard Truths” is that Jean-Batptiste is such a fire cracker on screen that everything else in her orbit feels like an afterthought. I’m all down for nuanced portrayals of humanity, but Leigh goes out of his way to convolute the rest of his cast and shroud everyone else in mystery. “Hard Truths” feels unfocused at times, and whenever we aren’t following Pansy the rest of the characters feel meandering and underdeveloped. Maybe Leigh just isn’t my speed or maybe I’m not smart enough to get the underlying purpose of his supporting cast, but I found “Hard Truths” to be wholly inaccessible and too somber to be enjoyed. Jean-Batptiste is an absolute powerhouse, delivering a dynamite performance that is worthy of all the awards talk and praise she is receiving. She is the crux and catalyst of all events, and is delivering a career best. In the end, “Hard Truths” keeps Leigh’s work and themes intact and is sure to be a critics favorite, but it simply didn’t resonate with me as much as I had hoped, and I don’t know that beyond a strong lead performance that general audiences will take to it all that much either.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Stars
“Nightbitch” – In Theaters Dec 6th
Another TIFF premiere, “Nightbitch” arrived with much controversy and curiosity. Perhaps the boldest title of the year, the trailer dulled anticipation due to its strange blend of humor and absurd premise. Trust in Marielle Heller and the redemption arc for Amy Adams prevailed, and many TIFF attendees left it on their schedule to see for themselves. The result is a better than the trailer but not as intriguing as its premise, with “Nightbitch” never going far enough into its own absurdity to push the boundaries of its basic commentary, which is that motherhood is hard. I’m by no means minimizing that statement. In fact, it’s by far and away the most interesting aspect of “Nightbitch.” The hook is she may or not be turning into a dog. The actual film is trying to get at themes that may be more common but are not necessarily less interesting. It leaves us with a film at odds against itself, wanting to be strange and different but obstensibly abandoning the weirder ideas for more conventional ones.
“Nightbitch” boils down to examining the difficulties of marriage, gender roles, and the trials and tribulations of motherhood. And not just “having children is the greatest joy” cliches. Heller invites us to go beyond the surface of raising a child and address the real horrors and struggles and sacrifices women make to bring children into this world. Both Heller and Adams are smart and capable enough to never let all these questions be an indictment of being a mother, but rather allow women to decry their true feelings without persecution. It is here where Adams’ really excels, diving into every wild aspect of a mother in decent, desperately trying to justify her role in life as the sole provider while longing for a life that is her own. In the end, everything in “Nightbitch” is about balance, a conclusion that doesn’t seem all that revolutionary but feels right for the film overall. It’s the absurdist subplots that don’t work, and “Nightbitch” would better served as a straight dramedy about marriage and motherhood instead of trying to pretend it’s about something else entirely.
Also, nothing is funnier than hearing NPR have to say “Nightbitch” on public radio.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
“The Order” – In theaters December 6th
It is apparently the year of Nicholas Hoult. Just this year alone his has starred in “Juror #2,” “Nosferatu” and now “The Order,” all three films helmed by prominant directors and all three characters vastly different from each other. Of the three, I’d argue his turn in “The Order” is his best, allowing him to range from quiet, stoic, leading man to terrifying yet charismatic villain, something he does with absolute ease here. The film itself is a rather standard, predictable cat and mouse crime thriller that unfolds exactly as you think but is elevated by a strong cast and bit more on its mind than its genre restrictions. It is harrowingly timely, something “The Order” probably didn’t intend to be but ends up being in this current cultural and political climate. Its premise is simple: hard boiled, aged out FBI agent gets assigned to a remote case of armed robberies in middle of nowhere PNW and discovers that there may be more to these serial crimes than assumed.
Directed by Justin Kurzel from a screenplay by Zach Baylin, “The Order” is magnificently filmed and excellently performed but falls short of being as engaging as its craft and talent begs you to find. “The Order” struggles to really dig into its characters outside of Hoult’s Bob Matthews, who is by far and away the most compelling component of the entire film. Though it captures gorgeous mountain scenery and some well crafted action set pieces, it largely feels distant and disengaged. “The Order” feels constricted by its genre boundaries rather than being something that breaks them. Characters like Joanne Carney (Jurnee Smollet) and Jamie Bowen (Ty Sheridan) might as well be stock photos, and add nothing to the overall story other than to check the box of a crime thriller outline. “The Order” succeeds the most when it is focused on Matthews and his manifesto, and when it inadvertently resonating with our current timeline despite its real events taking place some 30 years ago. “The Order” is good, but it could be great if it didn’t constantly hold itself back.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
“The End” – In Select Theaters Dec 6th, Wide Release Dec 13th
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: 2024 is the year of bold swings, and Joshua Oppenhmeier’s “The End” is no different. A post apocalyptic musical experiment, the film follows a wealthy family living in a bunker 20+ years after the end of humanity. It becomes pretty apparent that their wealth and actions directly contributed to the collapse of human existence, and a new unexpected stranger reignites the feelings of guilt and shame and reality of who they are and what they’ve done as they live out their bleak existence. “The End” features an absolute banger cast, including Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, George Mckay, Moses Ingram, Lennie James, and Tim McInnerny, all of which do their best to sing and dance as “The End” is a unequivocally a musical. You’d think that with on weak links in the talent that it would be able to match the ambition of Oppenheimer’s wild vision, but “The End” cant’ sustain its premise nor its execution, resulting it stale, monotonous and sadly unmemorable experience.
It’s not necessarily that “The End” is bad (though one could make the argument) in as much as it’s just a collection of decent ideas that the execution actively works against to realize. The cast is great and the production design is stellar, but Oppenheimer seems more concerned with filling the space with fluff than doing anything meaningful with what he has at his disposal. The pieces could work if he was actually trying to fit them together, but instead he squanders everything he can to try and be bold rather than letting the audience decide. Every song is unmemorable despite the cast trying their best, and each number screams “oh, and it’s ALSO a musical! Edgy, right” instead of hums with any melodic resonance. There’s a worse version of “The End” somewhere, and it’s a miracle this isn’t it despite the film not really being all that interesting in the end.
3 out of 5 Stars
“Unstoppable” – Select Theaters Dec 6th, Wide Release, Amazon Prime Jan 12th
I am constantly reminded of the famed Roger Ebert quote, “It’s not what the film is about, it’s how it goes about it.” Nothing embodies this statement more than “Unstoppable,” a run of the mill sports biopic and underdog story that checks all of the boxes of the genre but still manages to be compelling and riveting. That’s because famed editor William Goldenberg (“Argo,” “The Long Kiss Goodnight,” “Air“) makes his directorial debut with immeasurable experience of how a film should be put together and how it should make the audience feel. “Unstoppable” may follow every predicable sports drama beat without risk, but the longer it moves it becomes impossible not to be swept in the the triumpth and victory of overcoming obstacles and Anthony Robles‘ rise to the top. Turns out knowing how to edit your film translates well into how you direct it, creating immersive moments on the mat that feel visceral and grounded as it depicts wrestling it in truest form.
Jharrel Jerome delivers a solid portrayal of real life one legged wrestler Anthony Robles, who actually does all of his own wrestling stunts in tandem with Jerome. “Unstoppable” also stars Jennifer Lopez as Anthony’s supportive mother trapped in an abusive relationship with Bobby Cannavale (a perfectly hatable villain) and Michael Pena and Don Cheadle as two coaches who shape and support Anthony’s ambition to be a gold medalist wrestler. It’s a story you’ve seen a thousand times, but “Unstoppable” does it better than most. You are compelled to root for Anthony and his journey, and can’t help but cheer as his passion and drive pushes him past every no and setback that comes his way. Salvatore Totino’s cinematography captures hand fighting and wrist control vital to wrestling in thrilling ways, dumping the audience directly into every match and framing the one legged style in ways that never feel manipulative. “Unstoppable” may not break any new ground in the genre, but it is certainly one of the better sports dramas out there and one I would recommend to check out even if you already know everything about it.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
There are certainly more films in theaters right now, as Dec 6th weekend seems to be a rush to release for every studio imaginable. These are just the ones we missed at TIFF and managed to catch up on! What films did you check out this weekend?
