The Kid Detective (2020)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Kid Detective (2020) – E. Morgan

As a big fan of the private detective genre, I love a film that knowingly tweaks genre conventions.  There are a lot of misfires out there but fortunately The Kid Detective is a winner. Even if, in the story, he’s actually a bit of a loser.  Adam Brody (who I did not know because I did not watch the O. C.) is all grown up, early 30s, but still living with the repercussions of his successful childhood role as a self-styled “kid detective” who solved crimes for the principal and other local adults, not to mention other kids.  However, he couldn’t solve the mystery of the abducted girl from his class – and this is where the movie proves to be a dark comedy.  Abe Applebaum (Brody) is giving it a go as a private detective, but in reality, he’s not very good and his life is sort of falling apart.  He’s haunted by the signs of his earlier and current failure.  So, when a teen girl shows up asking him to solve the murder of her boyfriend, an actual murder, he takes the case and is forced to go back to his high school (and his high school memories) to try to crack the case.  His methods prove unfortunate (including an arrest) but it is all played for comedy, but unsettling comedy (not for kids) even if you guffaw.  Remarkably, writer-director Evan Morgan (who hasn’t done anything since), manages to keep the story going and even drops hints that would allow you to solve the case (or not, but in retrospect, these are cool).  And there’s a pay-off at the end and some emotional release.  Not a masterpiece but a fun genre film (by someone who loves the form) with something extra for the fans.

 

Son of the South (2020)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

Son of the South (2020) – B. A. Brown

An important film, in that any film about the Civil Rights era and the courage of those who stood up for social justice is important, providing a valuable reminder and lesson for people today. However, I do wonder whether this message still needs to be carried via a white protagonist – shouldn’t a film about the black struggle for respect feature black actors in the central roles? That said, this is a story drawn from Bob Zellner’s autobiography and is specifically about his experience as a white southerner from Alabama who became an important ally for the cause, as a founding member of SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). And to the extent that white audiences still require a white identification figure, perhaps Bob (Lucas Till) can still help draw in some who wouldn’t otherwise watch a black film (I suspect though that those resistant to this message won’t be watching anyway). Brian Dennehy adds his star power (in one of his final roles) as Bob’s grandfather, a member of the KKK.  Potentially true to reality, Bob is portrayed as naïve but earnest, an observer of the bus boycott, freedom ride, and other key events that are really organised by Rosa Parks (Sharonne Lanier), John Lewis (Dexter Darden) and other black leaders played by Lex Scott Davis, Cedric the Entertainer, Chaka Forman, and Shamier Anderson. Much of the movie was filmed in Montgomery, Alabama, and notably my uncle Timothy Lennox has a small speaking part as a reporter interviewing freedom ride participants. The film is very watchable but I felt it had one false note near the end, when Bob wins another moral victory against a racist acquaintance from college (who I thought folded far too easily when challenged). Definitely worth seeing for its spotlight on this crucial period in American history (and lessons that sadly seem relevant even today).

 

Quiz (2020)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Quiz (2020) – S. Frears

I did not know – or had completely forgotten – that anyone had ever successfully cheated at “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” But it really happened in the UK in the early 2000s. Stephen Frears’ three-part mini-series dramatises this event beginning with the development of the game show concept for ITV by the original producers, then depicts the cheating scandal and how it unfolded, and then closes with the consequences – the trial of Charles and Diana Ingram. I picked this up from the library because of my natural interest in quizzes/game shows. The first two episodes were the most gripping, detailing the mechanics of the game and how the Ingrams and others tried to beat the system set up by the production company in order to get on the show (answering questions on the telephone) and then into the hot-seat (fastest fingers) and then to win. The background family drama about the Ingrams is interspersed a bit but it seems that Frears is not really particularly interested in them – and the film’s third segment suffers because it wants us to believe that the Ingrams might actually be innocent -- which seems somewhat unbelievable given all that has gone before (but perhaps not entirely impossible).  More interesting are the reactions of the producers to the possibility that they’ve been gamed and the psychological effects on them. All told, it was a fun watch but lost steam in its third act.

 

The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020) – M. Flanagan

I haven’t read The Turn of the Screw (Henry James, 1898) in a long time -- but I have watched Jack Clayton’s excellent film of it (The Innocents, 1961) many more times. This mini-series sequel to the 2019 mini-series The Haunting of Hill House (both developed by horror afficionado Mike Flanagan) takes the James story as its starting point (and includes many of the actors, playing different characters, from the first series).  Of course, it is hard not to compare this version to the earlier version – but soon it is clear that the ambiguity of the novella and the other film would be left in the dust. Here, the spirits are real.  But also not exactly scary.  Instead of the governess (or au pair; Victoria Pedretti) being more or less alone in her struggle against (imagined or real) ghosts, here we have an array of other characters living or working at the old manor. Together they discover the mystery of the children’s strange behaviour and together they wrestle with the implications.  I won’t say more other than that what at first seemed an expansion on the original story, bringing it up to modern times and embellishing the backstories of all the characters (and added characters), quickly turned into something else, something very convoluted, possibly a merger with other ghost stories by Henry James (which I have not read). Unfortunately, this caused the mini-series to tank.  Worse, the final two episodes seem disjointed from the rest, with explanations coming out of nowhere and loose ends being gathered together to try to give every character a final resting place (the framing story that winks at us in closing is simply awful). That said, some of the actors did manage to create people that felt real and charismatic.  But I would save your 9 hours for something else.

The Dry (2020)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

The Dry (2020) – R. Connolly

I don’t think it’s cultural cringe to say that even though it is great to see Australia and its issues up there on the screen, there’s something that still feels amateurish about some of our output, including The Dry. Eric Bana is the brooding Federal cop who returns home to regional Victoria from Melbourne when an old childhood friend dies in a murder-suicide. Soon, he can’t help himself from investigating the crime (to discover whether his friend really was the killer) and we learn through fleeting flashbacks and the angry reactions of long-time residents that Bana’s character was also a suspect in a possible murder years earlier. The interweaving of the past and present is expertly managed by director Robert Connolly but the plot soon descends into a standard whodunit with an array of suspects and red herrings from which to choose. I didn’t guess correctly myself, expecting that the synergies between past and present would play out as predicted, but the film takes a turn into much darker territory instead. A better film might have interrogated that darkness more but it’s good that The Dry is willing to broach the subject and a few additional problem areas as well. We need more films to do this.

 

Kubrick by Kubrick (2020)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Kubrick by Kubrick (2020) – G. Monro

This documentary is entirely based on archival audio recordings of Stanley Kubrick being interviewed by French critic Michel Ciment -- with some extra video footage from other sources (and clips from the films, of course) garnishing the central find. In between, we find ourselves in the 18^th century room at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey, where director Gregory Monro has added film posters or occasionally an old TV (showing the archival footage).  Each major film gets only 10 or so minutes of discussion, so expect at most some interesting trivia, if not some amazingly revelatory comments.  That said, there are still enough insights into Kubrick’s way of working and his philosophy about filmmaking to make this worth a look for the director’s fans.  For example, he speaks of the importance of his training in photography to his art. He discusses how difficult the work is, if you want to get it right (and others testify to his exacting perfectionist style, including Sterling Hayden, Jack Nicholson). He talks about the necessity of conflict for a screenplay as a reflection on why he made so many war films. Ciment concludes that Kubrick was more of an 18^th century artist, although I am still pondering on this.   

 

The Heist of the Century (2020)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

The Heist of the Century (2020) – A. Winograd

Commercial film-making Argentina-style – which is to say, not all that different from Hollywood film-making (or that’s clearly the goal).  Sure, this heist caper is based on a true story, the biggest bank robbery in Buenos Aires circa 2006 and it’s somewhat wacky – but not nearly enough – instead, the film follows the usual genre formula.  First, we see dope-smoking martial arts instructor Fernando (Diego Peretti) come up with his plan (to access Banco Rio’s safety deposit boxes via a tunnel dug upward from a storm drain).  Then, we see him get his team together – chiefly, professional thief Luis Mario (Guillermo Francella), who doesn’t want to put up with Fernando’s loopiness, and a few other guys with smaller speaking parts.  Most of the running time is taken up with the actual heist and it’s handled well by director Ariel Winograd.  Luis Mario keeps the hostage negotiator busy while the rest of the team executes the theft. Of course, there’s fallout after the robbery, but you expect that.  In fact, there’s nothing really unexpected about this film at all – but it’s perfectly acceptable as light entertainment.  

 

The Invisible Man (2020)

 ☆ ☆ ½

The Invisible Man (2020) – L. Whannell

I realise this is a horror film but does it have to be so grim and depressing? Yes, it’s topical and relevant with the villain (some powerful Silicon Valley start-up millionaire), a bona fide example of toxic masculinity, gaslighting and controlling poor Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss), even apparently from beyond the grave. Except we are pretty certain, given the film’s title, that he really has just found a way to fake his own death and turn invisible, so as to better stalk his ex (who we see trying to flee his abuse at the start of the film, pre-fake death).  So, the film is simply a bunch of stunts where havoc (and murder) is inflicted by someone not there – cue special effects (which probably wowed everyone in 1933 but are pretty ho-hum these days).  And I guess there is a twist but I wasn’t encouraged to care enough to be intrigued or surprised by it, especially when a lot of the characters here don’t seem to stay in character anyway (i.e. friends and family suddenly turn cold). To her credit, Moss holds the film together and could be considered an example of an empowered woman (by the end, if not for most of the running time where she is a stereotypical “woman in peril”).  To conclude:  I wanted to like it, but could not.

 

The Head (2020)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Head (2020) – D. Pastor & A. Pastor

Six-episode miniseries set in Antarctica that plays like a classic whodunit, although with a bit more visceral violence than in the Hollywood fare of the thirties or forties.  This is an international co-production, although mostly in English.  Basically, a group of 7 or 8 scientists seeking a cure for global warming (in the form of a bacterium that absorbs CO₂) are isolated down there during the long dark winter.  Their radio goes dead and so a search party arrives to find out what has gone wrong, including the leader of the summer team who is married to one of the scientists on the winter team.  There is one survivor, Maggie Mitchell (Katharine O’Donnelly) and all of the rest of the crew are dead or missing – she is suffering from T3 and traumatic shock but gradually remembers the details of what happened (which we see in flashback from start to finish across the episodes).  At all times, she is treated as a potentially unreliable narrator, particularly when another survivor materialises and offers a conflicting story.  It is all very suspenseful, although like the serials of yore, there is a bit of a formula leading to cliffhanger endings for each episode or at least momentous discoveries just before the credits roll.  At the end of the first episode, in flashback, we see the crew discover that one of their members has been killed and decapitated (hence the series title), for example.  The backstory has a little to do with the politics of research but it’s only a backstory and the real plot unfolds as we learn about each character and their possible motives for wanting others dead. But the central protagonist here is probably the hostile environment, which dominates everything and provides constraints for everyone’s actions.  It all comes together rather predictably in the final episode (of course) but there are still twists to reckon with (of course).  In the end, I did feel compelled to watch and the conclusion is mostly satisfying – but perhaps it’s not much more than solid genre fare, which is something I certainly need during these challenging times.