All Quiet On the Western Front (2022) **1/2

 

Comedian Marc Maron has a new comedy special called “From Bleak to Dark.” In it, he talks honestly about some heavy stuff, including the death of his girlfriend and his deep pessimism about the state of the world. You might not believe it, but Maron manages to make this stuff funny. One thing he does not talk about is the 2022, German-language adaptation of “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Maron didn't want to go THAT bleak and THAT dark.

Erich Maria Remarque's 1929 novel was a chilling commentary on the inhumanity and futility of WWI. The book was banned and burned under the Nazis, who wanted to re-glorify war and sacrifice-for-country. Nowadays, it is required reading in German schools. The story has already been adapted to screen a couple of times. The 1930 version won 2 Academy Awards, and there was a television version in 1979. This latest adaptation, from writer/director Edward Berger, is in German, and it has garnered its share of awards and nominations.

The story follows German youth Paul Baumer. With his friends from high school, Paul volunteers for the army during WWI. The boys are eager to prove their mettle, but the ugliness of the war quickly dispels their youthful illusions, as they are exposed to artillery, poison gas, and machine gun fire. They quickly learn that war is simply a very efficient machine for turning young men into corpses. As the meat grinder carries on its grim business, Paul struggles, not to cover himself in glory, but simply to survive. Meanwhile, in a story line not included in the novel, German officials meet with the French to negotiate an armistice, while an obsessed German general tries to pack in as much extra bloodshed as possible before peace is declared.

On its technical merits, “All Quiet On the Western Front” is outstanding. The German cast do a great job, and the cinematographer expertly blends shots of the French countryside with grim, gray battlefield imagery. The battle scenes are as gut-wrenching as those in “Saving Private Ryan.” As epic as those scenes are, it is the personal moments that really stick with you, like the scene where Paul reads a letter from home for his illiterate friend, or one where Paul apologizes to an Allied soldier he has just killed.

As well-made as the movie is, it is no fun to watch, and one has to ask if anyone today really needs to suffer through this 2 ½ hour treatise on the horrors of war. In its time, the story was a classic, and if more people had read it and taken it to heart, maybe we wouldn't have had WWII. Today, the need for an anti-war viewpoint is no less pressing, but we have moved on to different types of warfare and different types of horrors. Our age has its own cautionary tales about war, from “Apocalypse Now” to "Black Hawk Down." It is possible that “All Quiet on the Western Front” still has something to teach us, but the 2022 version, at least, takes 2 ½ long, dark, bleak hours to do it.

2 ½ stars out of 5

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017) ***1/2

 

If you have any doubts about Annette Bening's acting prowess, this movie should put them to rest. The prolific actress has sometimes felt a bit sharp-edged to me. I think it's a combination of her trademark short hair and the deeply unsympathetic character she played in the film “American Beauty.” All of that is forgotten, now. In “Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool” she gives a nuanced, heartbreaking performance that has completely won me over.

The film is based on the memoir of the same name, written by Peter Turner about his relationship with a much-older woman, the Oscar-winning actress Gloria Grahame, in her last years. Grahame was a talented actress, but, like many movie stars, a bit of a hot mess. She had 4 husbands, and her fourth, Tony Ray, happened to be the son of her second husband, film director Nicholas Ray. Nicholas alleged that Grahame's relationship with Tony started when Tony was just 13, back when she was married to Nicholas. That salacious accusation was never proven, but the scandal overshadowed her career. Between that and having been typecast as a film-noir vixen, Grahame eventually found the movie roles hard to come by. She never stopped working, however. She returned to the stage, doing small film and TV roles at times, and she worked up until she died at the age of 57.

“Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool” only hints at all that backstory. The film focuses on the last 2 years of Grahame's life, the period of her relationship with Turner, who was almost 30 years her junior. This doesn't come off nearly as creepy in the movie as you might think. Bening plays Grahame as a woman who was still very vibrant and sexy in her mid-50s. Bening's performance, in fact, is the entire reason to watch what is really a quiet, little film. Jamie Bell does a fine job as Peter Turner, and Julie Walters is charming as his mother Bella, but this is very much Annette Bening's movie. She commits fully to a portrayal of Gloria Grahame that will win your heart and then break it.

3.5 stars out of 5

Cyrano (2021) ****

 

I almost gave up on this film in the first few minutes. The acting was not great, the first song wasn't that good, and I figured I should cut my losses. But then Peter Dinklage showed up, and everything was all right. From that point on, he was in every scene, and the movie just got better and better. Even the other actors were better playing off of Dinklage. The film rests on his shoulders, and he is strong enough to carry it.

Most people are at least vaguely familiar with the source material, Edmond Rostand's 1897 play “Cyrano de Bergerac.” Cyrano (Dinklage) is a soldier and poet, renowned for his skill with blades and with words. As talented as he is, he is physically unattractive. In the play, he has a gigantic nose. In this film, he is a dwarf. Either way, his self-consciousness prevents him from revealing his love for a girl named Roxanne (Haley Bennett), preferring to stay safely in the friend-zone. Then Roxanne catches sight of Christian ( Kelvin Harrison, Jr.), a handsome, new soldier in Cyrano's army brigade, and the two immediately fall into mutual infatuation. Roxanne asks her friend Cyrano to arrange an introduction, but Christian is too shy and tongue-tied to talk to her. He winds up having Cyrano write beautiful love letters on his behalf, and the two woo Roxanne, Cyrano with his words and Christian with his looks.

Any way you cut it, “Cyrano de Bergerac” is one of the great stories. Even people who haven't seen the original play are likely familiar with the story. The play has many adaptations, including the outstanding 1987 film “Roxanne.” You could argue that there is not a lot to add to this story, and that making a musical version was a high-risk, low-reward proposition. Fortunately, director Joe Wright managed to put together something wonderful here. (Wright has experience adapting classical literature into film, including 2005's “Pride & Prejudice” and 2012's “Anna Karenina.”) The screenplay is by Erica Schmidt, who is married to Peter Dinklage, and it is based on her own 2018 stage musical, in which Dinklage starred. The score and songs are written by members of the band The National. Many of the songs are forgettable, but a couple stand out, including the villain-anthem “What I Deserve” (sung by Ben Mendelsohn) and the beautiful dirge “Wherever I Fall” (with an appearance by Glen Hansard, from “Once”). I was underwhelmed by Haley Bennett at first, but her performance grows as the movie progresses, and her voice really soars on the song “I Need More.”

Sadly, “Cyrano” was not a commercial success. On a $30 million budget, the film only grossed $6.4 million. I guess it's hard to sell anything these days that doesn't involve superheroes. Then, too, maybe people are getting a bit weary of period dramas. This is one you don't want to miss, however. It is currently streaming on HBOMax, and I highly recommend checking it out. It's a beautiful telling of a classic tale.

4 stars out of 5

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) ****

 

It's appropriate that this film has such an all-encompassing name. “Everything Everywhere All At Once” is many genres of film rolled into one. It's a fast-paced, Wong Kar-wai-style kung-fu movie. It's a head-trippy sci-fi story about the multi-verse. It's an immigrant story and family drama. Finally, and most importantly, it's a philosophical smack-down between nihilism and existentialism.

Michelle Yeoh plays Evelyn Wang, a stressed-out mother, daughter, and wife. The laundromat she owns with her husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) is being audited by the IRS. Her father (James Hong) is visiting from China, and Evelyn doesn't want him to learn that his granddaughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), is a lesbian. Meanwhile, Waymond is trying to work up the nerve to serve Evelyn with divorce papers. Into this scene of domestic bliss comes an alpha-male, kung-fu-fighting version of Waymond, who explains to Evelyn that he needs her help to stop her world and all the alternate universes from being destroyed. To do that, Evelyn must learn to verse-jump, accessing the abilities of alternate Evelyns to hold her family together, defeat a monstrous IRS agent (Jamie Lee Curtis), and save the multi-verse from a nihilistic baked good.

“Everything Everywhere All At Once” is a lot to take in, and it takes some time to develop this story, leading to a run time of 2h 19m. The movie does feel long at times, which is my sole criticism. Even the action sequences can go on a bit long. Fortunately, the film only drags in a few spots. For the most part, the outrageous action, absurdist humor, and amazing acting are enough to keep a person engaged, and there's enough food for thought here to keep you mentally chewing for days.

I think that what really sets this film apart is that it is a story about a middle-aged woman's problems, hopes, and dreams. Hell, at the beginning of the film, Evelyn doesn't even really have conscious hopes and dreams; she just has problems. Part of her journey here is to get back in touch with the version of herself that could hope and dream, when she is trying to deal with everything, everywhere, all at once.

4 stars out of 5

Four Rooms (1995) **

 

I was really excited to re-watch this movie. I saw it when it came out, and I remembered the basic premise: 4 mini-movies based in four different rooms of a hotel, each with a different writer/director. These directors were all hot in the mid-90's: Allison Anders (“Gas Food Lodging”), Alexandre Rockwell (“In the Soup”), Robert Rodriguez (“El Mariachi”), and last but not least, Quentin Tarantino (“Pulp Fiction”). What I forgot about this movie is that while everyone was excited to see it in 1995, we were all disappointed by it.

The stories are set in the Mon Signor Hotel. On his first night on the job, bellhop Ted (Tim Roth) has bizarre encounters in four different rooms of the hotel. In the Honeymoon Suite (“The Missing Ingredient” by Allison Anders), he is seduced by a beautiful witch. In room 404 (“The Wrong Man” by Alexandre Rockwell), he is drawn into a bizarre, violent love triangle. In yet another, he gets roped into a babysitting gig (“The Misbehavers” by Robert Rodriguez), and in the penthouse he is recruited to help act out an old Alfred Hitchcock Presents story-line (“The Man From Hollywood” by Quentin Tarantino).

This is a great setup for a cinephile's wet dream. You've got four great indy directors at the top of their game, teamed with a ridiculously talented cast, including Tim Roth, Ione Skye, Antonio Banderas, Lili Taylor, Bruce Willis, and Jennifer Beals. Problem is, everyone here is so excited to be in what was obviously going to be the coolest movie of the year that they just chew scenery like a T. Rex in a Kansas feedlot. Roth plays Ted with twitchy affectations that look like a cross between a swishy, gay man and a patient in the middle stages of Huntington's Disease. Tarantino was known for scenes that feel like real conversations, but the dialogue in his segment feels manic, strained, and not real at all. Anders had the good grace and good sense to have a couple of her actresses be topless for most of her vignette, but that is its only saving grace. Rodriguez's “The Misbehavers” is probably the best story here, but that isn't saying much. “Four Rooms” should be a wonderful, little time capsule of mid-90's art cinema. Instead, it's a weird mishmash, less than the sum of its parts, and not representative of any of the 4 directors' work.

2 stars out of 5