“DUMBO, a major, major work. Yeah the perfect film, each sequence is totally self contained, totally complete and still pushes the picture forward.”

Sidney Lument, in conversation.

(3 / 5)

After rewatching the original DUMBO fairly recently I can attest to this statement. It is one of the most accessible and clear storytelling examples in cinema, every shot and emotion they intend to convey both from the characters and the scene rings perfectly clear.

So the question is “Why remake it?” The answer is, no real reason. really I guess I should end the review here but I should fully explain everything. A remake should take the ideas and feeling of the original but still make it it’s own thing or at least introduce some new elements and update it appropriately. But when you have something so timeless and so close to perfect your only real place to go is down.

So our story opens in 1919, and two children, Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins) they run through a circus which is their home and run by Max Medici (Danny DeVito) the ringleader and to the train station to their father Holt (Colin Farrell) who’s back from the war, it cost him his left arm but he’s happy to be home with his children, unfortunately his wife died while he was away. You shouldn’t really care, the movie and the characters don’t so let’s move on.

Medici has made an investment, he bought a big elephant by the name of JUMBO, who is expecting to give birth any day soon. One night she goes give birth and the little baby emerges from hiding within a stack of hey. However, it is not what they were expecting, because this baby has unusually large ears. They do their best to cover them up but during one performance the people see his ears and due to a rather clever accident with the sign he gets named DUMBO. However, the children then learn that, with the encouragement of a feather, his big ears can be used as wings, they have a flying elephant, that’ll attract paying customers.

Being that DUMBO is an elephant and this is not a talking animal movie he is entirely silent throughout the movie, conveying his thoughts and emotions through his big blue eyes (this is how it should be). But being that they can’t let too much time go by without dialogue so we have two children explaining things to the audience and guiding him on his journey. This isn’t really necessary and these children just aren’t very good actors, they are either overacting or just being stonefaced throughout as well as their poor dialogue that flat-out, directly tells the audience everything.

Being that Tim Burton is behind the camera I would expect one thing before anything else, a strong visual flair. He brings that here, he has made a career out of skeletons, clowns and theme parks. He sinks his visual teeth into these images creating elaborate, slightly frightening and elaborate images that make them seem like something more out of a fairytale than real life.

One of the movies greatest strengths is also one of it’s greatest weaknesses and that is Michael Keaton as the villain V.A. Vandeverer. Keaton made his name by working with Burton first in Beetlejuice then in his two Batman movies. His career has made a resurgence recently with Birdman and Spider-Man: Homecoming, where he flexes his theatrical and sinister muscles like a man that sells joyous wonder to the people while himself is only driven by greed and narcissism. This character is a clique and is given lines that would fit a forgettable villain during the nineties but even then he is able to take them and make them wonderful zingers. However, no matter how much Keaton elevates it, the question remains, why does DUMBO need a villain? It’s DUMBO, one of the simplest stories ever told and was devoid of a villain because it was not necessary, it was composed of the problem of separation, not all this greed and contract complexities. Plus some of his character’s decisions simply don’t make sense, in one point in the movie everyone (including him) is given a chance to get everything they want and he turns it down simply to be the villain. This doesn’t make any sense, making a decision against the characters needs is one thing but this would serve him too so whys would he do this? No real reason, besides poor writing.

This wouldn’t really be DUMBO without the inclusion of the Pink Elephant sequence. Well, to be sure they do make an appearance but in their own unique way that is quite stylized and fun (I’d be disappointed if it was mundane, especially with Tim Burton behind the camera).

This movie is distinguishable from the original which shows that there are thinking independently. So far out of these movies, I would say the laziest is Beauty & The Beast. This is not a terrible movie and children will most likely be entertained and probably everyone will think the elephant is cute. But still, I have yet to see one of the remakes where I would say they improved on…well anything. For this movie, it’s not a waste of time but a much better use of it is to see the original again.R

(4 / 5)

Horror at it’s best and most profound is when it takes deep lurking insecurity within nearly everyone and fully realizes it through its images, colors, sounds and scenarios. In 2017, Jordan Peele made one of the greatest cinematic debut with Get Out, confident in its theme, refined in its layout and masterful in execution. Now he comes with his follow-up Us, about another base fear and brings his unique and refined vision to the table. 

Our
tale opens years ago, in the eighties. A little girl named Adelaide is
on vacation with her parents, they are in Santa Cruz on the beach and
enjoying the boardwalk, she wanders around and looks at the people and
the rides, her mother goes to the bathroom and her father plays a
shooting game and doesn’t pay her much attention so she wanders off by
herself. She wanders through the boardwalk, to the beach and then into a
hall of mirrors, inside she wanders and realizes she’s lost, she goes
for the exit but it is a mirror, she wanders and wanders and then has
her back to a mirror, only it isn’t a mirror because it turns and faces
her. There is another girl, that looks just like her, but is not her. 

Cut
then to years later and, we are in the present day and Adelaide has
grown up and is married with children. Her husband Gabe (Winston Duke),
daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and son Jason (Evan Alex). They
are going on one of their family vacations, to the same beach from that
night long ago, whatever happened there has clearly caused her great
trauma and is none too interested in going back. They meet their
“friends” the Tylers, Kitty (Elizabeth Moss) and Josh (Tim Heidecker)
along with their twin girls. 

One night while she
recounts the night in the hall of mirrors to Gabe, Jason comes in and
says “There’s a family standing in our driveway.” They go to take a look
and sure enough, there is, holding hands and just standing. Husband
tries to go out and start a conversation then tries intimidating them
but Adeline has a gut feeling that they mean harm and indeed they do.
One forces his way through the door and the others scurry around back,
they all gather in the living room with the fireplace on and in the
light they can see the intruders, they are them.  

Yes,
they have doublegangers, that look just like them but some are slightly
different and wear red jumpsuits, have one gloved hand and all carry
their own pair of uniquely shaped scissors. What do they want? To kill
them and take their lives for their own. Not the most complex motivation
but certainly a scary one.

There is very little fat
in this script. Peele constructs his scripts meticulously and
efficiently, years working as the comedy duo Key & Peele definitely
gave him a talent for efficient and clear writing. Almost no element of
what is introduced or said goes to waste, if a character has a hobby or a
bad habit then it will come into play in some way later in the movie. 

This
movies biggest success and biggest accomplishment is Lupita Nyong’o and
her performance as Adelaide. All the actors have to portray one
character and their double which are all brilliantly competent at.
Playing a regular person but then playing that person again, but moving
and reacting in an off way, which is fantastical mime acting. But
Nyong’o is able to take all these intense and subtle emotions that her
characters to go through and unifies them into her character, as well as
that she plays a twisted, disturbing presence that will most likely be
imitated for year to come, which her disturbing way of speaking by
breathing in and wide eyes that stare and never seem to blink and her
all too efficient way of walking that screams “Not right!” It is a
performance that would be great with just one of these characters, by
playing both it is a triumph.

In a horror movie,
the characters need to be afraid and convey that. If the characters
aren’t talking something seriously then we won’t. In an action movie,
you can have the hero blast monsters and face dire circumstances with a
stern look on their face throughout, but if the characters are faced
with something unnerving and are unfazed by it then we won’t engage with
it. These people are afraid but more than that they portray many facets
of fear. However, even with that, these are not just people that are
afraid throughout the movie, there are also a few laughs to be had.

Peele reunites with conductor Michael Abels to create another deep, memorable, unnerving score. Like with the last one he uses voice to invoke a deep, almost spiritual feeling within the movie but they are also singers that sing high pitched and in unison, this adds to the theme of double and the high pitched matches the strings which are sharp and shrieking, reminding us of both a scream and stabbing. Adding to the tension he will sometimes have one note continue on for too long, like a whistling kettle, giving the feeling of high pressure. 

Throughout
this movie, I was feeling everything the filmmaker wanted me to feel
while watching it. While the family were bantering and was laughing when
there’s a tense moment I was watching attentively and was horrified and
stimulated when the moments of fright were playing out. The only weak
link is the ending which makes sense poetically, but not logically, I
usually wouldn’t hold that against the movie but this was the one time I
was thinking “Wait, that doesn’t make any sense.” 

Bad horror is a cray loud guy with a hatchet. Great horror is surgen with a scalpel, knowing exactly where to cut and doing so with precision. Jordan Peele is a surgeon that cuts deep, efficiently and leaves us bleeding long afterward.

(5 / 5)

Let’s be honest, we know wrestling is fake, or at least scripted. But people buy into it because of the drama, conflict, and flash. We get invested in the narrative and the showmanship. Much like any other dramatic performance, we become engaged through the sincerity and all the flash and color just make it more interesting.

Fighting with my Family is another family drama movie about the pursuit of a dream but with the unique twist of populating it with characters that aren’t weird, but unconventional and rather rough around the edges. We open with a little boy watching wrestling on the TV, his sister changes the channel so she can watch Charmed, for this he puts her in a headlock, Dad (Nick Frost) walks in and does not break them up but instructs the boy on how to properly put her into a headlock, then Mother (Lena Headey) enters telling her to get out of it by herself. Both mum and dad are wrestlers and are heads of a local wrestling company, very low scale and just about getting by though they aren’t above doing some dodgy things to bring in some extra cash. Tonight they need an opening act so they get the kids to fight, she doesn’t want to but after they promise she’ll like it and it’s something for the family she does. While in the ring, and they are playing their parts and she hears the crowd cheer, she does indeed embrace the act of wrestling. Cut to years later and she has truly fallen in love with wrestling and is a screaming beast while in the ring.

Her name is Saraya
Knight (Florence Pugh) and she along with her brother Zak (Jack Lowden)
perform their family act in their local community center or gym,
wherever they can, and get by with what they have but dream of the big
time. They get others involved, Zak goes out into the town and brings in
the local kids the be a part of wrestling, it focuses them, builds up
their teamwork skills and keeps them away from drugs and other shady
activities. He even gets the boy from the neighborhood who’s blind into
the ring.

One night they get a call back from the
WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) that they have reviewed the tapes
they’ve sent of Saraya and Zak in the ring and they’ve been called in to
audition and that could lead to training in California. 

Making
two very announced appearances in the movie is Dwayne ‘The Rock’
Johnson. Small independent movies have a tough time getting made so they
probably needed some kind of big name behind to get the financing.
Being that he is also the producer why not give him a place in the
story? As has been proved with his career in the ring and in front of
the movie camera he is a force of charisma, when he is on-screen it is a
delight. Both times he appears is for a crucial element of the plot so
it is not simply inserting an iconic celebrity to simply make the
audience that’s for fans gush but of structural importance to the
narrative. 

During the audition they are assisted by
Hutch Morgan (Vince Vaughn) that is strict, to the point and easily
throws around a few cutting remarks, but if they can’t handle this one
mans remarks how will they stand to have thousands of people screaming
obscenities and booing them? In the end, Saraya and only she goes
through the next round. So she has to go to California alone, but she
perseveres because this is for her family. 

Wrestling
training doesn’t just consist of getting toned, they need to learn how
to communicate between each other, what moves the other is doing and how
to appropriately roll with the punches and get in the right position to
take a fall or catch the other. If they don’t then one could break the
other’s nose or even cripple them. Also how to start the match by
talking smack to the other wrestler to get the crowd fired up and build
tension between their two characters, also how to deal with hecklers. 

Taking
on writing and directing duties is Stephen Merchant, most famous for
being Ricky Gervais writing partner on The Office, Extras and other
movies. He goes out on his own to make a movie purely that is his.
Writing is definitely is the strongest ability, being able to structure a
plot and infuse the characters with their unique voice and have one
scene start as a comedy and then into a serious moment. He is able to
make great use of visuals with the wide space of the stadium and some
nice visual gags.

This is a comedy, mostly. There
are some very funny moments in it but it also has deep cutting drama.
You get to know these people and how they’ve come together through
wrestling, how it’s redeemed then and they’ve hung their entire hopes
and dreams on hitting the big time and to be denied it is one of the
biggest blows they can ever face.

When the big fight came for the climax of the movie (which of course was gonna be the climax of this movie) I found that I was truly engaged in it. I knew that the characters themselves were in no real risk, these were professionals, but I cared about how hard it was for them to get to this point and what victory would mean to them. I was able to understand that it was performers but able to connect with the emotional journey happening and isn’t that what movies themselves are?!