The Wages of Fear (Le salaire de la peur) (1953)

Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot. Cast: Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Véra Clouzot. 149 min. Not Rated. France/Italy. Adventure/Thriller.

Another (long) gem I finally set time aside to watch, by the French master of suspense, Henri-Georges Clouzot. Four men are chosen to drive a cargo of nitroglycerin on an impossible road up into the South American mountains, and "fear" is what defines these men: though closeups of wheels, speedometers, and faces, we see how they are transformed into ruthless goal-oriented beasts, or crippled into walking corpses. The 1978 remake by William Friedkin is quite eloquent, but seems to miss Cluzot's mastery (e.g., we never know how some characters die here). Classics-avoiders, you don't know what you're missing.

Mo says:

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Pope Francis: A Man of His Word (2018)

Director: Wim Wenders. 96 min. Rated PG. Switzerland/Holy See (Vatican City State)/Italy/Germany/France. Documentary.

Coming from acclaimed director Wim Wenders, I was hoping to watch something beyond a 90-minute sermon by the Pope. What I almost received was ... a 90-minute sermon by the Pope. Yes, the documentary tells us about his Argentinian roots, and interjects with humanizing moments of interactions with regular people and his thoughts on a gamut of subjects from the definition of evil to the Church pedophilia crisis, but we also have numerous exclusive scenes with the Pope speaking directly into the camera, preaching to us. At the end we never know: why is this Pope so outspoken, and different?

Mo says:

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

Director(s): Ethan Coen, Joel Coen. Cast: Tim Blake Nelson, James Franco) Liam Neeson, Tom Waits, Zoe Kazan, Brendan Gleeson, Saul Rubinek, Tyne Daly. 132 min. Rated R. Western/Comedy.

The Coen Brothers' return to Westerns, an anthology of 6 short stories, works as an emotional sine wave: the first two stories (with TB Nelson and Franco) are decent, the third (with Liam Neeson) the most engaging/devastating, the fourth (Tom Waits) again decent. But then the movie takes a nosedive with the sluggish fifth (Zoe Kazan), and struggles to get back up with the last (Gleeson). This is odd, because anthologies usually save the best for last. All its surprises notwithstanding, I'm not sure I'd recommend this to everybody, even if to watch the perfect Neeson segment.

Mo says:

Outlaw King (2018)

Director: David Mackenzie. Cast: Chris Pine, Stephen Dillane, Rebecca Robin. 121 min. Rated R. 121 min. UK/USA. Biography/War.

Strange. This Robert Bruce biography doesn't avoid becoming a Braveheart sequel; it's actually dying to become one. It goes beyond beautiful swooping panoramas of the Scotland countryside for the story of a quiet man with fire in his eyes who's pushed over the edge ... to include a "Hoooold! Hoooold!"scene with horses impaled on sharpened poles (I kid you not). So if you're going down that route, Chris Pine is no Mel Gibson, and King Edward I here is not even a shadow of King Edward 'Longshanks' there. Sequels should attempt an identity of their own - not become a copy.

Mo says:

Sorry to Bother You (2018)

Director: Boots Riley. Cast: Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Terry Crews, Danny Glover, Steven Yeun, Armie Hammer, Patton Oswalt (voice), Lily James (voice), Forest Whitaker (voice), Rosario Dawson (voice). 111 min. Rated R. Comedy.

Telemarketers' plan to go on strike is the setting for a satire on African-American stereotypes, almost to a fault, as it elaborates on stereotypes I wasn't even aware of. But as soon as you think you've seen this all before ... the story suddenly flips on its head, the genre switches, and the entire event becomes very reminiscent of two groundbreaking movies from 2013 and 2017 (I'll avoid spoiling which two, and which genre). Characters fall into of a vicious cycle of simultaneously rebelling against and feeding the system, and one word comes to mind: "dystopia". Surprise yourself.

Mo says:

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

Director: Bryan Singer. Cast: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Aidan Gillen, Mike Myers. 134 min. Rated PG-13. UK/USA. Biography/Musical.

Yet another film making abundant use of an artist's music, making you wonder what would be left of the film if you excluded the music. In this long-awaited Freddie Mercury biopic, the immortal songs (and the story of their making) are undoubtedly exhilarating beyond entertainment. But there's not much drama between those songs. Silly dialogue obstruct us from understanding his inner feelings about parental rejection, his approach to the tabooism of bisexuality, or his closure with contracting AIDS. Don’t get me wrong - especially with Rami Malek's performance, this is a film to be seen. But this is no masterpiece.

Mo says:

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)

Director(s): Lasse Hallström, Joe Johnston. Cast: Mackenzie Foy, Keira Knightley, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren. 99 min. Rated PG. Fantasy/Family.

Two words: eye-candy, and Tchaikovsky. Glittering CGI imagery feasts the eyes, and charming classical music (with its inspired soundtrack) reminds you why the story still lives on through numerous renderings and remakes. But remove those (one of the two already made more than a century ago), and you have a movie with a boring nonsensical story, a group of professional actors led by a miscast Mackenzie Foy (from Interstellar) and supported by the miscast Mirren and Knightley, and god-awful direction of non-professionals by the master director of melodrama (Hallström), whose talents are ruined by the Hollywood system. Just stay away.

Mo says:

Burning (Boening) (2018)

Director: Chang-dong Lee. Cast: Ah-In Yoo, Steven Yeun, Jong-seo Jeon. 148 min. Not Rated. South Korea. Drama.

This movie is based on a Haruki Murakami short story. I've read Murakami novels. They're engaging, they're mysterious, and boy ... they're weird. You're never really sure whether things are truly happening, or are just a figment of the protagonist's imagination and desires. The film gets as close as possible to project that feeling - but this has been hailed by numerous accounts as the movie event of the year, with a surprise ending that makes the two and half hour wait worthwhile. It wasn't, or at least I didn't get the ending's significance. Because it was as weird as the rest.

Mo says:

A Star Is Born (2018)

Director: Bradley Cooper. Cast: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay, Dave Chappelle, Ron Rifkin, Alec Baldwin. 136 min. Rated R. Musical/Romance.

In preparation, I recently saw the Barbara Streisand version (the second remake). Bradley Cooper's boasts a better screenplay: the romance is better paced, the ending's logic much clearer. Meanwhile, both Cooper (posture and voice changes) and Gaga (deep gazes, powerful singing) revel in acting. What bothered me, was being cognizant of Cooper's insistence (as director) at keeping the camera, in long takes, in close-up, on himself. This self-aware movie kept waking me up from the dream. Cooper proves he knows the medium, and will someday become a great actor-director (Eastwood, Gibson, Allen). But first, he needs to find his place.

Mo says:

Halloween (2018)

Director: David Gordon Green. Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton. 106 min. Rated R. Horror.

When you hear Jamie Lee Curtis agreed to reprise her role, again, forty years after the original, you'd think: this must be huge. But aside from some present-day cinematography techniques, and a very encouraging opening sequence, this becomes anything but. Again we have the notion of Michael Myers as the personification of pure unstoppable evil, numerous slayings, and numerous homages to the original to keep fans happy. Not even Laurie Strode has made much of a Ripley-like transformation to wisdom and maturity in the past four decades - not even among the climactic grandmother-mother-granddaughter team. I preferred the Rob Zombie interpretation.

Mo says:

Galveston (2018)

Director: Mélanie Laurent. Cast: Ben Foster, Elle Fanning, Beau Bridges. 91 min. Not Rated. Crime/Drama.

Terminally-ill hitman is set up by his boss to be killed, and he picks up a runaway teenage hooker on his way back for revenge. This forms the oddest of odd couples in this noir crime movie, with a  result that is predictably heartbreaking. Both indie darlings Foster and Fanning again and again prove they're waiting for their huge upcoming break, and actress Mélanie Laurent (Shosanna from Inglourious Basterds) surprises with her directing skills (she's been directing for quite some time). The hard-to-look-away Galveston is one of those rare gems people like me run into by watching too many movies.

Mo says:

Operation Finale (2018)

Director: Chris Weitz. Cast: Oscar Isaac, Ben Kingsley, Mélanie Laurent, Greta Scacchi, Haley Lu Richardson. 122 min. Rated PG-13. History.

A companion piece to The Eichmann Show, which happens after the story of this movie: the plot to capture Adolf Eichmann, the engineer of "The Final Solution", in Argentina, and transfer him to Israel for prosecution. After one incredibly-edited opening credits scene, mostly credited to Alexander Desplat's music, the movie has only one slight advantage over the above-mentioned one: the company of more skilled and photogenic actors (Isaac, Kingsley, Laurent, Richardson). Otherwise, films like Argo have created such a bad taste of manipulating history (especially with another climactic airport escape scene here), you're not sure which thrill to believe anymore.

Mo says: