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“The Suicide Squad” Is One Kind of Crazy Superhero Film -- Full of Irony and Bile

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 11 August 2021 14:29; Written by Brad Balfour

“The Suicide Squad”
Director: James Gunn
Cast: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Sylvester Stallone, Viola Davis, Daniela Melchior, Jai Courtney, Michael Rooker, Peter Capaldi

Superhero films generally are of two types: those whose creators assume that they exist in a world where the heroes are real and are a part of normal life and the other which presumes that they’re not. They’re really in a world that’s exaggerated, metaphoric or ironic.

In a classic superhero scenario — whether it’s a film or TV series like “Daredevil” — the story is meant to feel like it 's happening in the real world.The city is New York, the characters behave like humans behave and their lives exist beyond their “super-ness.” In these films, though we don’t necessarily see it happen on screen, they go to the toilet, have breakfast and see movies.

And then there’s the other approach. Take for example “The Suicide Squad” — the 2021 edition — the recent foray into imagining a world with meta-humans or super-beings. It’s not quite a direct sequel or a reboot but a standalone variation on “Suicide Squad” (the 2016 version). As the 10th film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), the Warner Bros execs decided they needed to have another go at setting their franchise in motion. They favored the nefarious character Harley Quinn (Joker’s former therapist and lover) but didn’t seem quite as happy with the course the team had taken.

suicide 1 Not that the first one, “Suicide Squad,” was bad in my eyes. It did a pretty good job at following the formula for a superhero/villains story despite the fans’ expectations of it being something more.
Now comes the new tale written and directed by Gunn. He drew inspiration from war films and John Ostrander's 1980s “Suicide Squad” comics, and decided to explore new characters in a story separate from the first film's narrative, though some cast members do return from the earlier “Suicide Squad.”

David Ayer was set to return as director for a “Suicide Squad” sequel by March 2016, but he chose to develop a Gotham City Sirens film instead. Warner Bros. considered several replacement directors but then hired Gunn to write and direct the film after temporarily being fired by Disney and Marvel Studios as the director of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (2023).

In the latest film, head intelligence officer Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) returns (from having been in the first film) to send two Task Force X teams comprised of inmates from super- villain proof Belle Reve penitentiary. They are led by Colonel Rick Flag and Bloodsport, to the South American island nation of Corto Maltese after its government is overthrown by an anti-American regime. Most of the first crew — which includes Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) and Brian Durlin/Savant (Michael Rooker) — are stupidly cut down with much blood-and-guts in full display.

The second team is played by an ensemble cast which includes Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Idris Elba (Bloodsport), John Cena (Peacemaker), David Dastmalchian (Abner Krill/Polka-Dot Man), Daniela Melchior (Cleo Caza/Ratcatcher 2), Joel Kinnaman (Colonel Rick Flag), Sylvester Stallone (King Shark) Viola Davis (Amanda Waller), and Peter Capaldi (Gaius Grieves/The Thinker). They enact most of the action.

In exchange for lighter sentences, the squads are tasked with destroying the Nazi-era laboratory Jötunheim, which holds a secretive experiment known as "Project Starfish.” In doing so, they are to destroy evidence of the giant alien Starro. It’s a creature brought to earth by American astronauts and secretly held on the island to hopefully weaponize it for American defense and profit.

As Gunn develops his narrative, he employs exaggerated B-film tropes throughout from the freaky love-making scene between Harley and the new dictator to the gore-engorged violent acts committed by either this team of meta-human villains or their adversaries. Gunn is out for bombast, laughs and some social commentary along the way. Once again the military-industrial power establishment is the secret master behind this intergalactic menace and mess. After 50 years of secret testing, they still don’t have a way to control the massive starfish, a mega-beast ala Godzilla which towers over the city spewing mini-starfish. Once these little creatures land on a person’s face, Starro takes control of them. It’s finally defeated by a massive swarm of rats that enter a wound in its eye and eat it from the inside out.

By the end of the film, three things are evident. The super-survivors are a black man (Bloodsport/Elba) and a woman (Quinn/Robbie). The government can’t help but double deal. Waller keeps the computer disc evidence secret by cutting a deal with the remnants of the Squad. And chaos is essential to make a superhero film like this work.

“The Forever Purge” Is A Futuristic New Film That’s More A Part of These Times Than Ever

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Monday, 09 August 2021 15:43; Written by Brad Balfour

The Forever Purge
Director: Everardo Gout
Cast: Ana de la Reguera, Tenoch Huerta, Josh Lucas, Cassidy Freeman, Leven Rambin, Alejandro Edda, Will Patton

The fifth in a cinematic series, “The Forever Purge” is the ultimate conclusion of an effort by The New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA), the ominous ruling party, to allow the masses a way to let off steam — and to control them. One night a year for 12 hours, anyone can commit any crime, even murder, without legal ramifications. That’s the Purge.

In the fictional near-future America of the NFFA, Trumper-like insurrectionists seize the day and decide the Purge should continue beyond its limits. They’re not only intoxicated by the violence and rage, they want to attack all those they hate — immigrants, people of color and liberals. This sect of lawless marauders — the Forever Purgers — decide that the annual Purge doesn’t stop at daybreak and that it should never end. As members of this underground movement, they decide to overtake America through unending mayhem and massacre. No one is safe and the NFFA’s rule is threatened.

Adela (Ana de la Reguera, Cowboys & Aliens) and her husband Juan (Tenoch Huerta, Days of Grace) live in Texas, where Juan works as a ranch hand for the wealthy Tucker family. Juan impresses the Tucker patriarch, Caleb (Will Patton, Halloween), but that fuels the jealous anger of Caleb’s son, Dylan (Josh Lucas, Ford v Ferrari).

On the morning after The Purge, a masked gang of killers attacks the Tuckers — including Dylan’s wife (Cassidy Freeman, HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones), and his sister Harper (Leven Rambin, The Hunger Games), forcing both families to join together and fight back as the United States begins to disintegrate around them and the country spirals into chaos.

forpur2 Though Lucas starts off seeming like he could be one of the Purgers, he actually hates them especially after a band of them kill his father. So he and the other Tuckers join with Adela and Juan, as well a crew of other immigrants, to escape to Mexico (which has allowed anyone — for a few hours — to cross the border to safety from the insurrectionists). Through the help of a local Native American tribe, they make it across — an obviously ironic plot point. Throughout the slaughter and bloodshed, there are other ironic moments that reflect the underlying political nature to the film. And, not so ironically, it all takes place in Texas.

When a recent New York Magazine ran its review of “The Forever Purge” it was in the same issue that featured a headlined cover investigating January 6th — “Insurrection Day.” And during the first inquiry made by Congress into what happened that day, four capitol police men recalled the crimes and violent assaults they endured from raging Trumpers — behavior not far removed from what is seen in “The Forever Purge.”

Vaulting from the record-shattering success of 2018’s “The First Purge,” producer Blumhouse’s infamous terror franchise hurtles into new territory. The Purge connection to contemporary events is clear. Once the series started, it evolved from being about the violent nature of America — its worship at the altar of retribution into being about bigger issues. The films shifted into stating strong political ideas and became both more relevant and terrifying than ever. So in the midst of our current political agitation, “The Forever Purge” was released. Though the plot follows a formula often seen in various apocalyptic films, it offers a look into a sci-fi future that seems all too possible — especially in the aftermath of Trump’s attempt to overturn an election.

The United States is in turmoil because half the population can’t acknowledge that the independence it supports was originally not for people of color — people who didn’t choose to be brought here and enslaved in the first place. Those disenfranchised people don’t deserve to be left out of America’s vision today. On the recent 4th of July weekend, the nation celebrated not only the creation of our country but the spirit of independence and equality that it stands for. Or so it seems. When the country was first established, such ideals only applied to some: white men, owners of property and those of European Christian origin.

The right has now developed a disinformation campaign about that history by creating a bugaboo about critical race theory. Ostensibly developed as a way of analyzing the impact of racial imbalances on our institutions, the right have made it appear as if public schools serving their children teach the idea that white people are essentially racist. So whether it’s in a fictional scenario like “The Forever Purge” or the reality of the attempted coup of January 6th, the mayhem that ensued was all for a Big Lie.

August '21 Digital Week I

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 04 August 2021 19:44; Written by Kevin Filipski

In-Theater/Streaming Release of the Week

Mandibles

(Magnet)

The latest from oddball French director Quentin Dupieux is quite bizarre, even by his outlandish standards: a pair of idiots discover a large fly in the trunk of their car and proceed, through a series of increasingly weird situations with a bunch of characters slightly less dumb than themselves, to try and train the insect for…something.

Ultimately as slight and forgettable as the rest of his output, Mandibles at least isn’t as willfully obnoxious: but any movie that allows such an acting treasure as Adele Exarchopoulos to simply scream her dialogue (the explanation is that her character was in a serious ski accident) isn’t to be taken seriously…or comically.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

I Wouldn’t Be in Your Shoes!

Step by Step

(Warner Archive)

Two obscure but compelling vintage B&W features begin with the fine film-noir …Shoes! (1948), which tracks a wife’s attempts to prove the innocence of her accused-killer husband who coincidentally tossed his shoe at an annoying cat as a murder was being committed.

In the equally watchable Step by Step (1946), a thrown-together couple find themselves embroiled in a Nazi spy plot whose implausibility is in tune with its era. Both films have splendid hi-def transfers and include extras comprising mystery short films and classic cartoons.

Pennyworth—Complete 2nd Season

(Warner Archive)

With England deep into a devastating civil war, Alfred Pennyworth continues his machinations to keep himself and his mother safe and to hatch plans to flee his homeland for safer ground—in the United States.

The 10 episodes of the entertaining second season dive deeper into what has become a terrifying but exciting situation for Pennyworth and his cohorts and, despite lapses in logic and coherence, the sheer physicality of the production keeps one glued to the screen even when the dramatics might flag. The series looks particularly enticing in hi-def.

La Piscine

(Criterion)

Back in 1969, Alain Delon and Romy Schneider were international film royalty and had just ended their own personal relationship; but in Jacques Deray’s flimsy psychological drama, the pair plays a couple whose relationship goes under the microscope after a friend arrives at their summer house in the South of France with his nubile 18-year-old daughter—and soon there’s a dead body floating in the swimming pool.

While Delon, Schenider, Maurice Ronet and a young Jane Birkin are certainly photogenic, especially when lounging near the pool in their effortlessly chic designer bathing suits, Deray doesn’t give them much to work with, as the plot mechanics work themselves out rather, well, mechanically. Criterion’s new releases features a decent if unexceptional hi-def transfer; extras are the English-language version of the film (all four leads were fluent in English), retrospective documentary Fifty Years Later, alternate ending, archival interviews with the cast and Deray, and new interview with scholar Nick Rees-Roberts.

Those Who Wish Me Dead

(Warner Brothers)

Similar to his series Yellowstone with Kevin Costner, writer-director Taylor Sheridan’s intense drama about a smokejumper who blames herself for the deaths of three kids in a previous fire gets to prove her meddle again when she must shield a young boy from a deadly fire and even deadlier killers who have already gotten rid of his father.

Short of nuance but long on thrills, the movie benefits from superbly hair-raising stunt work amid the flames as well as a clench-jawed Angelina Jolie as our flawed heroine. There’s a terrific hi-def transfer; lone extra is a making-of featurette.

CD Releases of the Week

American Quintets

(Chandos)

To most listeners of this disc of music by three American composers, only Samuel Barber (1910-81) would be familiar; but, although his Dover Beach (for medium voice and string quartet) is lovely, the other two composers’ works on this wonderful disc are more significant.

There’s a substantial piano quintet by Amy Beach (1867-1944), meaty and flavorful as it wears its Brahmsian heart on its sleeve; and a piano quintet by Florence Price (1887-1953)—receiving its first recording here—which is steeped in singularly American idioms like hymns and spirituals. It’s all beautifully performed by members of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective.

Nina Rota—Chamber Music

(Alpha Classics)

Best known for his brilliant film scores for many of the films of the great Italian director Federico Fellini, composer Nino Rota (1911-79) wrote music that was the epitome of joyfulness tinged with melancholy, perfectly complementing Fellini’s boisterousness. But Rota was also an accomplished classical composer, writing everything from operas and ballets to symphonies and concertos and much estimable chamber music, which this excellent recording demonstrates.

Rota’s immensely charming and tuneful works—the best of which on this disc are the sparkling Nonet and the enchanting trios for flute/violin/piano and clarinet/cello/piano—are performed with energy, wit and flair by an array of first-rate musicians led by flutist Emmanuel Pahud and pianist Eric Le Sage.

July '21 Digital Week II

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 28 July 2021 20:12; Written by Kevin Filipski

In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week

Roadrunner—A Film About Anthony Bourdain

(Focus Features)

When Anthony Bourdain committed suicide in 2016, it was a shock but not really a surprise—he was a man who always lived by his own rules, and although he had a gregarious appetite for knowledge, travel and food, there was also a dark side, as Morgan Neville's powerful documentary shows.

There are many clips of Bourdain filming his various TV shows, along with glimpses of him interacting with friends and colleagues, sometimes generously, other times petulantly. And some of those close to him point to his final relationship with actress Asia Argento as a kind of breaking point (especially after she supposedly, and brazenly, cheated on him)—but there's no denying that despite his zest for living and fatherhood, he left it all behind and left many people (his daughter, ex-wife, colleagues and friends like Josh Homme, Eric Ripert and Rod Lurie—and millions of fans around the world) bereft. Roadrunner might not explain why Bourdain killed himself, but it does explain him—to an extent.

Ailey

(Neon)

One of the most influential choreographers of the 20th century, Alvin Ailey was important in many ways: as the first Black American to found his own company, he and his legacy stretch far beyond modern dance.

Director Jamila Wignot shapes Ailey’s story (filled with innovation, originality, creativity, and also—almost inevitably—tragedy and sadness, since he died of AIDS in 1989 at age 58—through the prism of his singular achievements. But this is no hagiography: it’s an honest and accessible look at Ailey, the man and the artist. Including interviews with his colleagues, friends and admirers (in many cases, all three), Ailey leaves one feeling exhilarated.

Casanova, Last Love

(Cohen Media)

The life of the irascible seducer Casanova is perfect fodder for the movies, as directors like Federico Fellini and Lasse Hallstrom have told his story as either psychological fantasia or costume romp; now French director Benoit Jacquot enters the fray, with typically uneven results.

As usual with Jacquot, the film looks sumptuous, and Vincent Lindon is a perfect Casanova, a middle-aged libertine desperate to relive past glories with one final conquest, irresistibly played by the winning Stacy Martin. But Jacquot’s gaze is nearly always unsteady, and what might have been an incisive and even touching portrait of old age remains blurry, gauzy, distant.

Mama Weed

(Music Box Films)

Isabelle Huppert might be taken for granted since she always brings her A game, even to less original creations—which is not to say that Jean-Paul Salomé’s grittily involving comic policier about a police translator embroiled in an illegal drug trade right under the nose of her boyfriend the police chief is second-rate.

Huppert works hard and often hilariously to bring off this borderline implausible and densely plotted film, helped by Salomé’s assured and stylish direction, which hints at socioeconomic complexities that the inevitable American remake will most likely jettison.

Masquerade

(Shout! Factory)

I don’t remember the last time I saw a movie so disingenuous and cynical that it enraged me, but this forgettable piece of masochistic filmmaking displaying sheerly irrational behavior—no one in this movie is remotely believable, not even the teenage heroine—did it.

In only 80 minutes, writer-director Shane Dax Taylor is so intent on being brutally awful to the victims (even allowing the young daughter of the couple whose home is invaded by a trio of art thieves to be tortured) that it seems 80 hours long. Poor Bella Thorne once again gives a credible performance in a lousy movie.

4K/UHD Release of the Week

Spiral

(Lionsgate)

The latest entry in the Saw franchise starts with an intriguing premise—corrupt cops are being offed by a copycat killer—but instead of making a twisty and clever thriller, director Darren Lynn Bousman follows earlier Saw flicks by wallowing in risible, gory deaths-by-torture that include cut-off tongues and fingers, skinned bodies, suffocation by scalding wax and being slowly bled to death.

It’s too bad, for Chris Rock’s confident jokiness works well in this context and his interactions with Max Minghella (his new partner) and Samuel Jackson (his retired police chief dad) are entertaining. Bousman and writers Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger are more interested in the blood quotient than in credibility or originality. The film looks great on UHD; extras include commentaries and a making-of on the 4K disc and other featurettes on the Blu-ray.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

Mirror

(Criterion Collection)

In many ways, Andrei Tarkovsky's often inscrutable but always compelling 1974 memory piece is his most fully-realized film: rarely have the innocence of childhood and difficulties of aging been so powerfully evoked, especially in the Russian director's typically unbroken long takes and dream-like images.

The Criterion Collection's superb package comprises a first-rate hi-def transfer and a plethora of contextualizing extras that include Tarkovsky’s son Andrei A. Tarkovsky’s 2019 documentary, Andrei Tarkovsky: A Cinema Prayer; new documentary The Dream in the Mirror; 2007 documentary Islands: Georgy Rerberg, about Tarkovsky’s cinematographer; new interview with composer Eduard Artemyev; and archival interviews with Tarkovsky and screenwriter Alexander Misharin.

Objective Burma

(Warner Archive)

Although it takes liberties with the historical facts—like having U.S. armed forces as heroes instead of what was mainly a British and Indian force—this 1945 World War II film effectively dramatizes the dangerous heroics by soldiers stranded in Burma with the Japanese right behind them.

Led by a gritty Errol Flynn as their leader, the men are portrayed as realistically as possible given the fact that director Raoul Walsh made the film (shot in California, of all places, by the distinguished cinematographer James Wong Howe) very soon after the events it depicts happened. The B&W images look terrific on Blu-ray; extras are two vintage wartime shorts: 1941’s The Tanks Are Coming with Gig Young and 1943’s The Rear Gunner with Burgess Meredith.

Rolling Stones—A Bigger Bang Live on Copacabana Beach

(Mercury Studios)

As part of its over-the-top 2006 A Bigger Bang tour, the Rolling Stones played one of the most massive concerts of their decades-long career on the famed Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro to an audience of more than 1.5 million, by some accounts.

Mick and the boys are in fine fettle throughout the nearly two-hour performance, with highlights being a powerhouse "Wild Horses," a chugging "Miss You" and a stirring "You Can't Always Get What You Want." This set includes the entire concert on two CDs and one Blu-ray, with deluxe surround sound on the latter disc; both hi-def video and audio look and sound great.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

(Warner Archive)

Apparently, although this frothy 1949 musical comedy about turn of the century vaudevillians who moonlight as players on the world champion baseball team the Wolves was nominally directed by the legendary Busby Berkley, it really was helmed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly.

The latter also engagingly plays one of the stars alongside Frank Sinatra, who outsings Kelly but is outclassed in the dancing department. Rounding out the romantic foursome are Esther Williams and Betty Garrett, both game but sadly underused. The colorful musical looks bright on Blu; extras are two deleted musical numbers and a vintage cartoon.

Wrath of Man

(Warner Brothers)

Fast-paced—almost dizzyingly so—Guy Ritchie’s latest testosterone-fueled caper is filled with so many dead bodies that it may set some sort of record for shootings and amount of ammo used, which seems an obvious ruse to make viewers ignore the repetitious plot about armored vehicle thefts that are inside jobs which go spectacularly wrong.

Ritchie plays around with showing the events from various points-of-view, but to little avail; the main problem is Jason Stratham’s usual granite personality masquerading as nonchalance. There’s a fine hi-def transfer.

DVD Releases of the Week

Inside the Met

(PBS)

The year 2020 was supposed to be a banner one for New York’s jewel, the Metropolitan Museum of Art: it was its 150th birthday, after all, and director Ian Denyer’s cameras were welcomed inside the institution to record the celebrations and commemorations as well as to see what makes the Met tick.

Then COVID-19 hit and the Met was forced to shut its doors for months for the very first time, and this engrossing three-part documentary follows along as various strategies are put into place to deal with the initial shutdown and the gradual reopening. It might not have been a year worth celebrating, but 2020 became one of the most memorable in the Met’s storied history.

Unforgotten—Complete 4th Season

Professor T

(PBS)

The fourth season of the intelligent crime series Unforgotten follows investigators Cassie and Sunny as they attempt to break a 30-year-old murder case that involve four current police officers—including one about to be promoted; Nicola Walker (Cassie) and Sanjeev Bhaskar (Sunny) give persuasive portrayals of exasperated but laser-sharp detectives.

Professor T, while yet another series about a crime-solver with OCD, transcends its now-clichéd limitations in the character of Jasper Tempest, a Cambridge criminologist who solves cases in each episode, and played by Ben Miller with serious wit. Both discs include several making-of featurettes.

CD Releases of the Week

Lennox Berkeley—Nelson

(Lyrita)

British composer Lennox Berkeley’s 1954 opera about the great British naval hero, Admiral Lord Nelson, contains much lovely music but isn’t the “grand opera” audiences might expect from such a titanic historical subject—instead, Berkeley has composed something akin to a chamber opera, as Alan Pryce-Jones’ libretto concentrates on the married Nelson’s scandalous love affair with the married Lady Emma Hamilton.

This excellent 1983 BBC recording commendably spotlights the complicated relationships involved through subtle orchestral playing and notable vocal portrayals by tenor David Johnston as Nelson and soprano Eiddwen Harrhy as Emma.

George Gershwin—Porgy and Bess Highlights

(Pentatone)

Soprano Angel Blue has already shown she can meet—and exceed—the vocal and dramatic demands of playing Bess in the recent Metropolitan Opera production, and so it’s not surprising that her lovely voice is the highlight of this disc of excerpts from George Gershwin’s emotionally powerful opera. Not only does Blue own Bess’ classic songs but she also sings Clara’s “Summertime” and Serena’s “My Man’s Gone Now” with equal parts power and finesse and an ability to grab the listener from the get-go.

Lester Lynch’s Porgy and Chauncey Packer’s Sportin’ Life provide superb vocal support and Marin Alsop conducts an expertly-chosen group of excerpts, strongly performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Morgan State University Choir.

Reviews

“The Suicide Squad” Is One Kind of Crazy Superhero Film -- Full of Irony and Bile

“The Forever Purge” Is A Futuristic New Film That’s More A Part of These Times Than Ever

August '21 Digital Week I

July '21 Digital Week II

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