Annihilation (2018)

Director: Alex Garland. Cast: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Oscar Isaac, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, Benedict Wong. 115 min. Rated R. UK/USA. Sci-fi.

The toughest task reviewing Annihilation is to pinpoint exactly which social concept it's about, because it borrows both structurally and conceptually from so many pioneers (the designs of Aliens, the notions of Solaris) to form one perfect sci-fi monument, and then add some. The many directions it takes puts you in a trance, and makes interpretations quite subjective - the most prominent: how there is no "me", how we are constituted of our surrounding physical and mental elements, and whether an alien entity that influences everything is necessarily bad, or good, or just ... inevitable? Assimilation would've been a better title.

Mo says:

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The Breadwinner (2017)

Director: Nora Twomey. Voices: Saara Chaudry, Soma Chhaya, Noorin Gulamgaus. 94 min. Rated PG-13. Ireland/Canada/Luxembourg. Animation.

No matter how you wrap it, no matter how enchanting the imagery, an animation about life under the Taliban is not something you 'enjoy' watching. This works like a Khaled Hosseini novel: nothing positive ever happens, and characters spiral down into the bowels of the hell on Earth called Afghanistan. I'm curious why Twomey, the director/co-creator of wondrous animated Irish tales such as The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea (sad tales, nonetheless), became interested in a Middle-East country to picture tyranny, grief and death in a child's world. Hardly a method to increase awareness.

Mo says:

Early Man (2018)

Director: Nick Park. Voices: Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, Timothy Spall. 89 min. Rated PG. Animation.

It's not about Nick Park, the Wallace and Gromit creator, who again presents smart British humor through brilliant claymation. It's about watching this in America, where they mistakenly call football ... soccer. Check out the trailer. The entire film is about the crucial match that will decide the fate of stone age traditionalists against bronze age technocrats (all that in the same sentence), but there's barely a mention of the game in the trailer, and it is solely referred to as "football" in the movie. With the gradual downfall of 'American football', we may soon see it replaced by real football.

Mo says:

Black Panther (2018)

Director: Ryan Coogler. Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, Andy Serkis. 134 min. Rated PG-13. Action/Sci-fi.

There's no doubt the new Marvel superhero has elements that entirely separates it from others - my favorite being how it imagines those weird looking African tribes we used to see as kids in National Geographic were actually high-tech civilizations of dizzying magnitude in disguise, hiding their powers from the world. And while story-wise, it's independent from other Marvel movies, independent per se it is not: the style copies from James Bond (there's even a "Q weapon introduction" scene), and the African story follows, nonetheless, The Lion King (evil outcast relative taking the throne). Summarily, it's over-hyped, but still good.

Mo says:

Last Men in Aleppo (2017)

Director: Feras Fayyad. 104 min. Denmark/Syria. Documentary.

An extremely difficult film to watch. We hear of a city like Aleppo, and think it's entirely demolished with no soul living there. But no. People are living their lives, dealing with day-to-day wartime shortages, while the small group of White Helmets wait for the next Russia or Assad-delivered bomb to fall, to head out and pull live and dead children from under the rubble ... just like a regular job. Superheroes do exist, because you'll see a few of them here. I feel embarrassed that the only way I can recommend such a sad movie, is with a smiley face.

PS: Also nominated for a Best Documentary Feature Oscar, also available on Netflix.

Mo says:

On Body and Soul (2017)

Director: Ildikó Enyedi. Cast: Géza Morcsányi, Alexandra Borbély, Zoltán Schneider. 116 min. Hungary. Drama/Romance.

Probably the weirdest romance movie you'll ever see. Two very different people, an ex-womanizing loner and an autistic genius, meet at work, and wake up to their attraction for each other through the very coincidental realization that they're seeing the same dreams. This is a movie where one of the characters is committing suicide, and as the suicide is in progress, it suddenly becomes ... funny. Yeah, that weird. And the miracle is, it never misses a beat, and offers thought-provoking statements on the meaning of soul-mates, the consequences of marriage, and the feasibility of that thing called love.

PS: Nominated this year for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, available on Netflix.

Mo says:

Hostiles (2017)

Director: Scott Cooper. Cast: Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi, Jesse Plemons, Rory Cochrane, Bill Camp, Timothée Chalamet, Peter Mullan, Ben Foster. 134 min. Rated R. Western.

An appropriately long, slow-paced Western, that allows the introductory D.H. Lawrence quote sink in: "The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted." You think the Indians in the opening scene are brutal - just watch how the American invaders act over the two hours after that. Among them is Christian Bale in one of his greatest career performances, as the rough, ruthless Indian-killer, who's appointed to none other than escorting a murderous Cheyenne chief to freedom, and who astonishingly has a heart. Why this isn't nominated for an Academy Award, is beyond me.

PS: Here's the eulogy for the Oscar snub.

PPS: Check out the director's amazing profile so far: only 4 features (Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace, Black Mass, and this), each more captivating than the other.

Mo says: