Jennifer's Body (2009) ***1/2

 

Way back in 2009, an independent movie called "Juno" made a splash. It was the first film written by Diablo Cody, who has gone on to write several more, including the excellent "Young Adult" and "Tully." I had never gotten around to seeing her second project, “Jennifer's Body,” but Amazon Prime started promoting it to me, with a picture of Megan Fox. Let's just say that Amazon knows what makes me tick.

Fox and Amanda Seyfried play high school BFFs, with Fox as hot cheerleader Jennifer, and Seyfried as cute nerd Needy. When Jennifer gets possessed by a demon that requires her to feed on blood once a month, it puts a strain on the friendship.

Neither Fox nor Seyfried is likely to be the next Meryl Streep, and, in fact, I would say the acting in “Jennifer's Body” is mediocre across the board. Even the usually-excellent J.K. Simmons seems to have trouble figuring out what tone to hit at times. Fortunately, the story is good enough to overcome that, exploring the dynamics of teen friendship, lesbian attraction, sexual politics, and even the plight of independent rock bands. (Also, the actresses are pretty easy on the eyes, especially Megan Fox, who is so good-looking, it's difficult to look directly at her. One caveat: Despite the stars looking great in lots of cute outfits, and despite all the gory violence, there is no nudity in the film.) Diablo Cody and director Karyn Kusama blend a little bit of horror with a lot of satire, with a result that is reminiscent of “Heathers,” and definitely better than the typical teen horror flick.

The film has a number of themes, and if you wanted to dig deeply, you could probably write a graduate thesis on the movie. Jennifer's monthly thirst for blood is obviously an allegory for menstruation. The movie also explores the limits of sexual power. Jennifer is a girl who has learned she can use her body, as many girls do, to get attention and to get what she wants. Being an object of desire turns out to be a pretty blunt tool, though. It's a weapon whose effects tend to spread beyond the intended target (including to Jennifer's best friend), and it doesn't really work out for Jennifer. It isn't just the demon; everyone wants to possess Jennifer's body.

3.5 stars out of 5

Antlers (2021) **1/2

 

Director Guillermo del Toro and actor Jesse Plemons (“Breaking Bad”) were busy last year. Del Toro released “Nightmare Alley,” and Plemons is in “The Power of the Dog,” and both films have garnered their share of Oscar nominations. “Antlers” represents a collaboration between the two, with del Toro producing the film, based on the short story “The Quiet Boy,” by TV writer Nick Antosca, and Plemons in a major role. While it's a reasonably entertaining horror film, I don't think it's going to be winning any Academy awards.

The story starts with a couple of meth-cookers, who discover something dangerous in an old mine. A few weeks later, we meet Julia (Keri Russell), a local teacher. Her student Lucas, the son of one of those meth cookers, is acting strangely and drawing horrifying illustrations. Julia and her brother, who is the sheriff (Jesse Plemons), discover that Lucas's family is harboring an ancient evil.

As a horror premise goes, it's a good start. Director Scott Cooper ("Crazy Heart") creates an appropriate sense of dread, with good cinematography that makes use of the gray, Oregon skies and dense, foreboding forests. He's working with a great cast here, including the excellent character actress Amy Madigan as the school principal. Even the child actors are good. The story, though, feels half-baked. I found it entertaining, but unsatisfying. Somewhere between a psychological drama and a creature feature, “Antlers” loses its way.

2.5 stars out of 5

Interview with the Vampire (1994) ****

 

Author Anne Rice died recently, so when I saw the movie adaptation of her first novel, “Interview with the Vampire,” on a streaming service, I figured it was time to re-watch it. I hadn't seen the film since it came out, when I was one of the pathetic, Rice-fan-boys picking the movie apart over how faithful it was to the book.

Brad Pitt plays Louis, a plantation owner lost in despair after losing his wife and daughter to illness. Louis spends his time drinking, gambling, and whoring, little caring what happens to him, and little knowing that he is being stalked by a vampire. When the vampire Lestat finally confronts Louis, he offers him the choice of a pleasant death or to join Lestat in dark immortality. Louis accepts the offer to become a vampire, a choice he quickly regrets. The hunger for blood, especially human blood, tortures Louis, who is too moral to sadistically hunt people the way Lestat does. With Louis's morality driving the pair apart, Lestat converts an 11-year-old girl into a vampire, to give Louis someone to care for, and to bind them all together as a warped, vampire family.

Lots of people in 1994, including Anne Rice, complained about the casting of the movie. A common refrain was that Tom Cruise has dark hair, while his character, Lestat, is described in the book as being blond. Wigs, people! It turns out that the casting was just perfect, Cruise's blond wig worked just fine, and director Neil Jordan (“The Crying Game”) does a masterful job capturing the spirit and the beauty of Rice's classic novel.

The themes are timeless. There is the Gothic family drama among Louis, Lestat, and Claudia. There's Lestat's struggle to survive immortality and adjust to a new era. There is Louis's moral misgivings over his blood hunger. Then, too, as terrible as the vampires' struggles are, every human who meets them begs them for the dark gift of vampirism. For humans, with our hearts pounding out our time for a limited number of beats, nothing, it seems, beats the dream of immortality.

4 stars out of 5

Reno 911! The Hunt for Qanon (2021) ***

 

Man, I used to love me some “Reno 911”! The “COPS” parody ran on Comedy Central from 2003 to 2009, and featured several actors from the old Mtv show, “The State.” The show was in a mockumentary style, with a camera crew following the incompetent officers of the fictitious Reno Sheriff's Department as they interacted with a variety of Reno, NV miscreants. They revived the show for the Quibi app in 2020, and now we have a new streaming movie.

2021 finds the team a little grayer and thicker, but still enforcing the law the only way they know how – badly. The department becomes interested in the activities of the conspiracy-theory-promoting website, Qanon. When Lt. Dangle (Thomas Lennon) learns of a booze cruise for Qanon enthusiasts, he wrangles funding to send himself and the deputies on the cruise to enjoy some free drinks and hopefully uncover the identity of the mysterious Q.

The movie is just as silly as the original TV show. Is it as delightful? I would say that the movie is in the same spirit as the show, but that this humor works better in small bites. I have no specific complaints, but I'll admit to getting a bit tired of the movie by the end of the hour and a half. Still, it's good fun, and if you are a fan of the TV show, it would be a crime to miss it!

3 stars out of 5

The November Man (2014) **1/2

 

Fans love to debate who was the best James Bond, despite the fact that there is clearly no question: it's Daniel Craig. I'll tell you who definitely wasn't the best: Pierce Brosnan. Maybe it was more the fault of bad writing than bad acting, but his Bond films were puerile and forgettable. I just watched a couple recently, and I can't remember a thing about them. This is all the more surprising because, before he started playing Bond, everyone agreed that he would be perfect for the role. Back when Brosnan was stuck in his “Remington Steele” contract and couldn't take the Bond role, everyone thought it was such a shame, because, really, the guy seemed like he was designed on a computer to play 007. Once he finally got the chance, the movies were just meh.

With “The November Man,” Brosnan takes another stab at a spy franchise. There are 14 novels in Bill Granger's spy series, published from 1979-1993, the first of which is titled The November Man. This film, however, is based on the 7^th book in the series, originally titled There Are No Spies. After the movie came out, they started printing the 7^th book with the title The November Man. I have no idea how they expect book buyers to keep all that straight. Anyway, the series features CIA agent Peter Devereaux, code-named “November Man,” because after he comes through, nothing is left alive.

The movie finds Devereaux retired, living a quiet, pleasant life, when his old CIA friend, Hanley, shows up to ask a favor. A Russian double agent is ready to defect, with a key piece of information on a Soviet politician who is in line to be their next president. The Russian agent was once Devereaux's lover, so he agrees to come out of retirement to help her cross over. The job goes sour (of course), and Devereaux finds himself trying to protect a gorgeous social worker (Olga Kurylenko) from a rogue CIA boss and a beautiful, Russian assassin. 

 

 

It would be faint praise to declare “The November Man” as good as any of Brosnan's Bond movies. In some ways, it is better. The movie doesn't have any of the one-liners or arched eyebrows that got so tiresome in the Bond series, and the older, grizzled Pierce Brosnan is way more interesting than the late-90's, pretty-boy Bond version. And then there's Olga Kurylenko, who played a Bond girl opposite Daniel Craig in "Quantum of Solace." The Ukrainian model/actress may not have the broadest acting range, but she is so damn gorgeous that it doesn't matter.

That's not to say that this is a great movie, or even a great spy movie. The supporting cast is weak, including the wooden Luke Bracey as Devereaux's protege and Bill Smitrovich, who hams up the Hanley character as if he were in a completely different movie from everyone else here. This is the kind of movie that you would be pretty disappointed in if you paid to see it in a cinema. For a Netflix movie to watch while working out, though, it's not bad.

2.5 stars out of 5

The Last Duel (2021) ****

 

Rape is a tricky subject. It is rightly considered one of the most heinous crimes, but our legal system struggles with it because it involves activity that can be perfectly legal between consenting adults. We seem to vacillate between the goals of treating victims with respect and belief on the one hand, and respecting due process for the accused on the other. We get it wrong a lot, and “The Last Duel” makes it clear that this is not a new phenomenon.

Matt Damon plays French knight Jean de Carrouges. While he is away from home, his wife, Marguerite (Jodie Comer), is raped by his former friend, Jacques le Gris. At least, that's what she says. Jacques contends it was a consensual affair, and since he has powerful friends, Marguerite finds herself disbelieved, her charge dismissed. Seeing that he will get no satisfaction from the traditional courts, Jean demands a trial by combat.

“The Last Duel” is mis-promoted as being about the last legal duel in France. It was certainly not the last duel, not even the last legal duel. It may have been the last judicial duel, in which a fight to the death determines the outcome of a trial. It's an important distinction in this story, because, if Jean loses, Jacques will be considered to have been acquitted, and Lady Marguerite will be burned at the stake for bearing false witness. High stakes, indeed!

The movie is based on true events, but they happened in 1386, so writers Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Nicole Holofcener had to use artistic license to fill in quite a few blanks. There are many details that now are not and cannot be known, including whether or not Le Gris was actually guilty. The writers approach this conundrum by breaking the film into 3 parts, each one relating the events according to one of the main characters. It's fascinating to see how their stories differ in small details, such as which man was first to reach out for a handshake, and how these small details shape each character's perception of himself. All three paint themselves as the hero or the victim, never as the villain, a reminder of what unreliable narrators of our own story we are.

More than anything, the tale is about sexual ignorance and as chauvinism masquerading as chivalry. We are reminded that, under French law at that time, the victim of any rape that occurred was not the woman, but her husband, whose property had been violated, which is still the case in many parts of the world. Marguerite faces ostracism and possible death for reporting her rape, just as women in India and the Middle East often face today. She also faces disbelief based on the fact that she may have been impregnated by Le Gris. Her judges assert that a woman can only become pregnant if she experiences pleasure. This was considered established science at the time, and it would be laughable if we did not, in the 21^st century, have leaders like Missouri Congressman Todd Akin, who explained his opposition to abortion in cases of rape this way: “If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

“The Last Duel” is about all these things, but is also, after all, about a duel, and when the duel comes, it is riveting action. Le Gris and Carrouges go at each other with lances, swords, daggers, and fists, and it is a brutal, realistic sequence that had my heart pounding! $8 gets you the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge!

4 stars out of 5

The Chase (1966) ***

 

Before he directed "Bonnie & Clyde," Arthur Penn made another film about life on the lamb. “The Chase” stars Robert Redford as Bubber Reeves, an escaped convict making his way back to his hometown. It's a fool's errand, as that is exactly where everyone will be looking for him, but his wife, Anna (Jane Fonda) is there. (If you had Jane Fonda waiting for you, you'd risk getting caught, too!) Marlon Brando plays Sheriff Calder, who waits to see if Bubber will turn up. Meanwhile the sheriff tries to keep a lid on the town, which is boiling over with infidelity, jealousy, and vigilante blood-thirst.

“The Chase” is not the classic that “Bonnie and Clyde” is. It's almost a sketch for that, superior film. There are moments of genius in it, though. On the one hand, you have Bubber, all alone, sneaking through the countryside. On the other, there's this town full of cheating spouses and crooked politicians. Bubber's escape lights a fire under that kettle. At times, the film feels like a John Updike novel, and at other times like an Italian New Wave movie. It's a potboiler that deserves a watch.

3 stars out of 5