A scene from SAMURAI FURY. Courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment
The year is 1461 (for the movie, SAMURAI FURY, not us, though many think we’re regressing globally). Japan is in a state of chaos. The country is ravaged by plague, with 82,000 deaths, and counting; the peasants who haven’t succumbed are starving and besieged by different groups of debt collectors, using the most despicable tactics; a slew of ronin (samurai with no master to serve) are roaming the country without purpose; the Shogun ain’t doin’ diddly-squat to help anyone or stem the violence from the monks and warlords. In the midst of this, one ronin, Hasuda Hyoe (Ôizumi Yô) emerges as a good guy, who might just make a difference. That may require butting heads with his longtime friend Honekawa Doken (Shin’ichi Tsutsumi), who is in charge of forces defending the ruling class.
Hyoe picks up a spirited apprentice he calls “Frog” (Yuya Eendo) among the cringing masses and sends him off to an old sensei for a year of training. Then he gradually assembles a rag-tag army of other ronin and willing villagers to storm the capital in Kyoto. Their main goal is to destroy all the loan papers the monks holding them have been wielding to brutalize debtors and their families during this time of extreme hardship. His plans are intricate, building slowly to what will, ideally, become the Big Day.
Standard stuff, so far, as this sort of theme is quite common in East Asian martial arts and action period fare. Since it’s set in an era before guns, swords, spears, staffs and arrows are the non-anatomical weapons of the day, with occasional explosions. That calls for top-notch stunt choreography, and the film delivers superbly on that front, with relatively little wire work, thereby maximizing its grittiness.
Genre fans have seen the de rigeur training sequences in the majority of these films. Frog’s regimen for mastering the pole (the weapon, not the stripper support) is unique, and much more interesting than most, both visually and in content. The climactic battle sequences are huge in scale, bloody in execution and fascinatingly intricate. Kudos to writer/director Yu Irie for elevating the level of writing and action above the norm, and for crafting so many elaborate sets for the long course of events. Frog’s character arc is particularly satisfying, as well as the frenemy situation that unfolds between Hyoe and Doken.
The 135-minute running time is just fine for the material presented. It seemed shorter, which is among the highest compliments I ever give.
SAMURAI FURY, in Japanese with English subtitles, is available from WellGo USA in digital format beginning Oct. 7, and in 4K and Blu-ray formats starting Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025.
Paramount Pictures’ “SEPTEMBER 5,” the film that unveils the decisive moment that forever changed media coverage and continues to impact live news today, set during the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics. the film that unveils the decisive moment that forever changed media coverage and continues to impact live news today, set during the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics. Courtesy of Paramount
The tragic events at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, when Palestinian terrorists attacked Israeli athletes and took some hostage, has been to subject of other movies, including Stephen Spielberg’s MUNICH, but SEPTEMBER 5 tells that story from a unique viewpoint, that of the new media on site to cover that sporting event, and now thrust into a very different role. SEPTEMBER 5 is a taut historic drama specifically takes the perspective of the ABC Sports TV crew that was on-site when the attacks took place. As well as a shocking event that shattered the since of international cooperation and peace that had surrounded the Olympics, the event was a watershed in how TV media cover unfolding, breaking news events like that crisis.
When the terrorists took the Israelis hostage, the ABC TV Sports news team was suddenly thrust into the responsibility of covering a breaking news events, something that had never boon done and which had a profound effect on news reporting going forward.
Actually, Roone Arledge, the head of sports for the TV network, fought for his on-location team to remain in control of the coverage instead of turning it over to news reporters working remotely, as the Olympic village was locked-down by the crisis. The drama has the intensity of a thriller but also looks at both the technical innovations the team created on the spot and the ethics of reporting a crisis when lives were at stake.
Director Tim Fehlbaum co-wrote the script with Moritz Binder based on the real events, focusing on the TV news team as they race to cover the terrorist attack. The suspenseful film unfolds like a nail-biting thriller, as the journalists scramble to keep the world informed of unpredictable events with lives in the balance, and make ethical journalistic decisions, good or bad, on the fly.
Peter Sarsgaard plays ABC Sports executive Roone Arledge, the man in charge, but much of this taut drama focuses on a young Jewish-American producer, Geoff Mason (John Magaro), and his mentor Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin). As Bader’s protege, Mason is given what is assumed to be an easy first-time assignment, to run the ABC Sports news room in the quiet hours of the night, while most of the TV crew rests up for the Olympics coverage the next day. No one expects much to happen.
Yet, during the night, everything changes, as Arab terrorists gain access to the Olympic village where the Israeli athletes are housed and take them hostage. The TV sports news crew suddenly finds themselves the only TV operation with cameras on-site to cover the breaking news of the hostage crisis.
The film focuses events from the viewpoint of the ABC sports news crew, so we see only what they see and know what they know about evolving events. Those wanting a closer look at what the hostages experienced would get a better view of that with Spielberg’s film.
Roone Arledge fought his bosses at ABC to keep the sports TV crew in place, instead of turning things over to a hard-news crew. The technicians, camera men and the rest of the TV production crew are forced to innovate and adapt to a very different kind of coverage, as events shift, creating solutions on the fly to keep the camera on events and the world informed. Some of what they did to adapt, including early moving camera and live broadcast work with equipment that now looks very primitive, has had a lasting impact on TV news and media, but their actions and choices in how they reported the crisis with hostages also raised questions of journalists ethics and moral judgments too.
Peter Sarsgaard’s Roone Arledge is the voice for aggressive efforts to keep the cameras on the terrorists and evolving events to deliver the news to the world in real-time, while Ben Chaplin’s Marvin Bader represents the voice for ethical restraint and human considerations of what is happening under the camera’s eye.
The true-story based SEPTEMBER 5, which has received critical praise and awards nominations since it’s debut at the Venice and Telluride film festivals, is fast-paced and edge-of-the seat suspenseful, with the cast delivering strong ensemble performances working with a well-crafted script. The film has been singled out for those performances, as well as the editing and script.
John Magaro is excellent as the young producer who is forced to make some difficult decisions and solve knotty technical problems under pressure from unfolding events and conflicting pressures from boss Roone Arledge, played forcefully by Peter Sarsgaard and the emotional human and ethical concerns of his mentor Marvin Bader, well-played by Ben Chaplin. A standout supporting role, Marianne Gebhard, is played by German actress Leonie Benesch, who was so good in THE TEACHER’S LOUNGE, where she played the lead role of the beleaguered teacher. Her character Marianne Gebhard is one of few women in this 1970s news room, and when she is pressed into service in the essential role of translator, she winds up adding a layer of rawer human emotional response to what is happening to the hostages, which Benesch does in a moving performance.
SEPTEMBER 5 is a tense historical drama well-worth seeing for its well-crafted, well-acted and suspense-filled telling of the 1972 Munich Olympics tragedy, and how TV coverage of it changed how breaking news is covered.
SEPTEMBER 5 opens Friday, Jan. 24, at multiple area theaters, with two preview showings at Plaza Frontenac Cinema on Thursday, Jan. 16, which include a post-screening, pre-recorded Q&A with the cast and director.
A scene from the German TV historical series “Babylon Berlin” Season 2. Courtesy of MHz Choice
As promised in last month’s review of the German historical thriller “Babylon Berlin: Season One” (https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2024/04/babylon-berlin-season-one-review/), May bestows upon us the bounty of Seasons Two and Three, in which Germany’s political and economic upheavals deepen. These two seasons remain in 1929, bringing us up to the global you-know-what that led to the Great Depression. The train with its mysterious, hazardous contents remains in play among several factions with assorted motives.
Both seasons are longer – 10 and 12 episodes, respectively – which may not have been a plus. The pace seems slower than before, with less overt action per hour. The suspense and looming aura of menace, however, are ramped up and broadened, with more characters bringing more subplots and social issues into the picture. Rath is still our beleaguered hero; Charlotte’s role is significantly increased as she works her way into the police force despite overwhelming sexism within and beyond the department. She may be the smartest person in most rooms but none of the guys other than Rath can even recognize that, much less appreciate it. One downside is that the Mata Hari-esque “Countess” (Severija Janusauskaite), who lit up the screen with her vamping villainess in Season One has very little face-time in these rounds. More steak; less sizzle.
Political maneuvering and corruption are emphasized much more, which would be fascinating in a totally fictional setting, but feel more disturbing since we all know which way the historical winds are about to blow. References to Hitler and “The Party” increase, and the repugnant tactics of those dark forces seem likely similar to the reality. Gottfried Wendt (Benno Furmann) smugly exudes Machiavellian evil as Rath’s new boss. The deranged son of a wealthy industrialist, Alfred Nyssen (Lars Eidinger), tries to earn his nasty mother’s respect with his foresight about the 1929 stockmarket crash to come, but nobody’s listening, since he’s never contributed anything useful up to that point.
Helga (Hannah Herzsprung), the widow of Rath’s brother and his secret inamorata, who was barely involved before, becomes a major figure in these seasons, not only complicating Rath’s life, but winding up in the middle of other plot-lines. A string of murders impeding production on a movie financed by a couple of gangsters is central to all the proceedings, with political, social and financial implications swelling the ranks of the suspect pool.
Production values and performances remain first-rate all around. Season Three ends with plenty of unfinished business but Season Four is slated to stream here next month. As a caveat, I’m not sure how far into the 1930s the series will run. But as it progresses, the current rise of right-wing parties around the globe might make this less entertaining and more alarming than it would have seemed a decade ago. Adjust your viewing decisions accordingly.
“Babylon Berlin: Seasons 2 & 3,” mostly in German with subtitles, stream on MHzChoice starting May 28.
Anthony Hopkins as Nicholas Winton in ONE LIFE. Courtesy of Bleecker Street
The moving ONE LIFE throws a spotlight on a British man, Nicholas Winton, who has been called the “British Schindler,” saved far more than one life in the early days of WWII. Anthony Hopkins plays the older Nicholas Winton, who in 1938 had organized a kindertransport, an effort to get hundreds of children, mostly Jewish, out of Prague ahead of the Nazis, but whose heroic efforts were not widely known or recognized until 1988, when he appeared on a popular British TV talk show.
The children and their families had fled to Prague after Hitler seized the Sudetenland, a German-speaking area in the north of the then Czechoslovakia, in 1938, the beginning of Hitler’s plan for conquest. In the infamous appeasement of Hitler, European countries, including Britain, had agreed to Hitler’s demands and ceded the Sudetenland to Germany, with a false promise of peace. ONE LIFE tells the remarkable story of Winton’s heroic efforts to rescue these refugee children but it also depicts the late-in-life recognition for his seemingly-impossible effort that saved hundreds of children.
The idea that the rescue was impossible was the first obstacle Nicholas Winton faced in saving those children. Johnny Flynn plays the younger Nicky Winton who we meet in flashback sequences, along with Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Nicky’s feisty, determined mother Babette (nicknamed Babi), who was among the many people who helped save those young lives. The cast also includes Jonathan Pryce, as the older version of one of Nicky’s friends who helped with the rescue, and Lena Olin as the older Nicky’s wife Grete.
Based on the book “If It’s Not Impossible…: The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton” by Nicholas Winton’s daughter, Barbara Winton, ONE LIFE is an emotional film, an uplifting survivors story, with dramatic scenes in both the pre-war rescue portion and the later 1988 portion, when the world – and in some cases the now-grown rescued children – finally learned what the modest Winton done in 1938. In 1988, the modest, reserved retired banker Nicholas Winton was an unlikely guest on the pop-culture British TV show “That’s Life!” and the world finally learned of his remarkable deeds. The historic drama is directed by BAFTA-nominated James Hawes.
Of course, Winton was not the only person who made the rescue possible but he was the last one left alive in 1988 when the heroic deeds finally came to light. And it was Winton who put in motion the rescue that others told him was impossible, although significant roles were played by Trevor Chadwick (Alex Sharp) and Doreen Warriner (Romola Garai) of the British Committee for Refugees in Czechoslovakia, who helped to rescue hundreds of predominantly Jewish children before Nazi occupation closed the borders.
ONE LIFE opens with retired banker Nicholas Winton (Hopkins) living a quiet, comfortable life in rural England. As they await the birth of their first grandchild, his wife Grete (Lena Olin) encourages Nicky to finally clear out all the clutter and old files in his overstuffed home office, to make a little more room in the house. The contents of one worn, old briefcase is something she knows will be hard for husband Nicky to part with – perhaps to a library or research center.
We learn that the briefcase has a “scrapbook” that is a record of what Winton did during WWII, when he decides to tackle the long-delayed task while his wife is on an out-of-town trip. Nicky thinks the scrapbook is important and should be preserved but he doesn’t want it stashed away in a library. Instead, he wants it to be somewhere people can access it and learn from it, especially charitable groups facing other near-impossible tasks.
In flashbacks to 1938, we meet young Nicky Winton (Flynn), a low-level accountant with a London investment banking firm, who has a strong commitment to doing good works, as his mother Babi Winton (Bonham Carter) raised him to do. Nicky has taken time off work to travel to Prague to help with refugees who fled there when the Nazis took over the Sudetenland, despite the rising danger of Nazi invasion.. As soon as he arrives, Doreen Warriner (Garai) and Trevor Chadwick (Sharp) put Nicky to work organizing the files of their organization, the British Committee for Refugees in Czechoslovakia, with Nicky cracking that he’s “good at desk.”
A visit to the squalid, crowded neighborhood where the refugees are living changes everything for Nicky, when he meets some children suffering there. Moved, he wants to do something to help. When he asks Warriner how the children will survive the coming winter, she grimly replies “They won’t.”
Although Warriner tells Nicky that saving them is practically impossible, Nicky is determined to try to get them out of the country. “If something is not impossible, then there must be a way to do it,” Winton says.
The first problem they encounter is getting lists of refugee children. There are several organizations helping the refugees and they fear of lists of the children will fall into Nazi hands and so they won’t share them. Frustrated, Nicky eventually meets with the leader of one group, Rabbi Hertz (Samuel Finzi). The rabbi is wary of trusting Winton, who was raised in the Church of England, but when Winton reveals that he had Jewish grandparents on both sides, the rabbi decides to trust Winton. That opens the door for others to also cooperate.
With things underway Prague, Nicky calls on his resourceful mother Babi back in London to help with getting permits and finding foster families for the children.
The film moves back and forth in time between wartime 1938 and the film’s present in 1988, when what Winton did during the war finally comes to light. Both portions are moving and have emotional moments, but the ending of the 1988 portion makes the film particularly uplifting.
Anthony Hopkins is splendid as the modest, kindly Nicholas Winton, who assumes that the documents he has preserved are important but does not see himself or what he did that way. The scrapbook records in detail the people and actions of the kindertransport, and even photos, but Nicky thinks it is mostly of interest to other charitable organizations. Always quick to credit the efforts of others, Nicky doesn’t see what he did as heroic but instead is wracked with remorse about the children he couldn’t save when the Nazis suddenly shut down the border.
Hopkins does a lovely job portraying Winton’s quiet determination and appealing modesty, as well as his sweet fondness for children. The rest of the cast is also excellent, including Johnny Flynn as young Nicky. Helen Bonham Carter is particularly delightful as Nicky’s strong-willed, sharp-tongued mother Babi, and her performance adds a needed bit of humor. The scenes with Hopkins as the very serious Winton appearing on the light-weight, pop culture talk show “That’s Life” also offer a touch of comic relief, although it leads to a three-hankie but perfect ending.
The photography is lovely, and the attention to period details in both time periods makes immersion in the story easy. The colors are warm but muted, and the scenes in the refugee settlement with the ragged children, some with pleading eyes and others with irrepressible childish energy, are Dickensian, touching and heartbreaking.
ONE LIFE is a polished, moving period drama featuring a fine cast, highlighting an inspiring story that should be better known, about a man who deserves recognition for saving hundreds of children, simply because he refused to believe it was impossible.
Miao Xie as Cheng in EYE FOR AN EYE: BLIND SWORDSMAN (MU ZHONG WU REN). Courtesy of WellGoUSA
Chinese martial arts films have a long tradition of including quite an array of masterful fighters with significant disabilities. Many of them feature a hero who is blind, deaf, missing an arm, etc. yet still able to defeat whatever evil being or force must be eliminated for the common good. That usually yields a bunch of intricately choreographed battles – one-on-ones with the worst, often preceded by dispatching hordes of underlings and anonymous minions.
EYE FOR AN EYE: BLIND SWORDSMAN (MU ZHONG WU REN) follows the pattern in a relatively low-key production set in the distant (pre-firearms) past. Cheng (Miao Xie) has the unlikely job of itinerant bounty hunter for the government. He’s very good at it, of course, despite his lack of sight. The film opens in a gambling den. We soon learn he’s been hunting the region’s bad guys down for a decade. Remaining skills are evident when he doesn’t need vision to tell that they’re cheating, leading to action that establishes his credentials for both integrity and mad skills. Cheng is quiet, humble and all business.
Unfortunately, he stops for a drink at what will become the sight of a massacre by an evil warlord, including the rape of a lovely woman (Wieman Gao) who was about to be married. When the local authorities, obviously feeling the perps are too powerful for them to handle, decline, Cheng takes up her cause of seeking justice. That comprises the rest of the running time which includes a couple of important non-combat roles for women in the plot. As the genre goes, this one plays out more sedately than many, even venturing into the CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON realm of lyricism in a few picturesque scenes. The final battle will remind fans of the sequence in KILL BILL: VOL. 1 between The Bride (Uma Thurman) and O Ren Rishii (Lucy Liu).
Those seeking a sword-fest of splatter will find this to be on the tame side. Writer/director Bingjia Yang pulls a lot of punches, cutting away early in scenes of mass sword fights, returning only to show the number of prone henchmen killed or wounded while our eyes were diverted to something else. The fights he displays are diverse and well-choreographed, relatively free of wire work and other special effects that turn fiction into fantasy. One exception is a cloaked baddie with almost supernatural agility and speed. Cool scenes with him in motion.
There’s nothing particularly memorable about the production for those who devour Asian action fare from the 1970s to the present. But it’s non-gory enough to embrace those preferring character and story arcs to blood lust, while having a fair amount of mayhem for the adrenaline junkies.
EYE FOR AN EYE: BLIND SWORDSMAN (MU ZHONG WU REN), in Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles, debuts Friday, Nov. 28, streaming on demand and on DVD and Blu-Ray.
The end-of-the-year awards contenders naturally include several biographical films, usually, they’re intimate tales of triumph and tragedy, such as NYAD and the upcoming MAESTRO. This holiday offering has that crossed with another genre, namely that it’s also a big sweeping historical epic. Fitting, since its subject made a huge impact on the entire world two centuries ago. In the director’s chair is a filmmaker known for such big, broad sagas, though he’s done several smaller dramas. And he’s comfortable setting his films in the far distant past and the far distant future. Here he’s flexing his considerable skills as he reunites with a former acting collaborator to tell the spectacular story of NAPOLEON.
It doesn’t begin with the title subject’s childhood, instead taking us right into France’s “Reign of Terror”, just in time for a royal appointment with “the blade”. Soon after, Lucien Bonaparte (Matthew Needham) encourages brother Napoleon (Joaquin Phoenix) to take command of the military forces and protect those now in power from the gathering angry mobs of citizens. From Paris, Napoleon, now artillery commander, is sent far away to end the British blockade of the ports at Toulon. After that violent battle, he returns to France where the son of a naval officer killed in the Revolution pleads for the return of the family sword. Breaking protocol, Napoleon personally returned the weapon to the lad’s home where he becomes enamored of the widowed mother Josephine (Vanessa Kirby), Napoleon courts and weds her while gaining more political and military power as he leads the forces of France in victories across the globe, even triumphing in Egypt. Eventually, he takes over the reins of royalty in his homeland, crowning himself Emporer of France with Josephine as his queen. Their marriage proves to be quite turbulent as she cannot bear him a male heir. This leads to a divorce, a remarriage to a much younger foreign royal, and a disastrous campaign in wintery Russia. Soon Napoleon is banished to the island of Elba, but homesickness prompts a return home and an effort to resume his conquests after earning the loyalty of his army. But this all may be dashed by the plans of the Duke of Wellington (Rupert Everett) as he makes a final stand at Waterloo.
Bringing his off-beat acting stylings to the title role, Phoenix makes several unexpected performance choices. This makes for an odd juxtaposition with the grand spectacles of the historical recreations. Perhaps this is an effort to make the story more contemporary for multiplex audiences, but it serves to distance us from the iconic military mastermind. With his hesitant line reading and guttural grumblings, Phoenix feels more suited to recent roles like JOKER and BEAU IS AFRAID than this leader who somehow inspires troops to rejoin him after exile. Perhaps his performance is meant to comment on the recent resurgence of arrogant thugs in positions of power, but we never get inside his head. Unfortunately, one of the screen’s most interesting actresses is given little to do, other than react to his cruelty. Ms. Kirby has given us superb performances in both “indies” and blockbusters, but here she was left to be “lady in waiting” and relegated to “broken breeder”, usually with a dead-eyed grimace as “her king” goes about his “business”. One of the film’s unexpected pleasures is the return of Everett as the haughty but determined Duke who barks out commands with a sneer as though having to “put down” the French “mongell” were a distasteful chore.
Oh, the previously mentioned filmmaker is none other than the esteemed Ridley Scott, who seems to be almost “returning to his roots” with this story’s setting harkening back to his first feature from 1977 THE DUELLISTS. Perhaps that’s why the sweeping battle scenes have so much energy, plunging us dangerously close to the warriors as they dodge bullets and cannonballs (the early equine carnage may haunt you). Those bloody battlefields are effectively grim and grimy, as the cavalry attempts to dodge the cadavers that litter the countryside. And there’s an effective use of extreme locations, from the sands of Egypt to Russia’s frozen tundra (an ill-timed December surge). But then there are the long stretches between campaigns as we must bear witness to the convoluted political chaos (there are some needed ID titles for the principals) and the bickering Bonapartes which devolves into one of the most ridiculous sequences at a fancy state banquet. Napoleon’s loud public complaints over Josephine’s infertility dengerates into a clumsy “food fight”.There’s never a sense of passion between them aside from his jealousy over his “possession”. It’s not helped when major historical incidents are glossed over and even discarded. Josephine’s matchmaker son vanishes, and we never hear the fate of Napoleon’s son by his second marriage. Perhaps they’ll be seen in Scott’s proposed four-hour-plus “cut” for AppleTV+. After slogging through this 158 minute mishmash of a film that’s so uneven, it’s tough to be interested in a chance of more clunky palace verbal sparring. It seems that the biggest battle is between Scott and the “all over the place” script that proves to be the true Waterloo for NAPOLEON.
Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” premiering in theaters around the world on October 20, 2023. Courtesy of AppleTV+
In the 1920s, the people of the Osage Nation became the richest people on earth after oil was discovered under their supposedly worthless land. The money drew ambitious white men and not long after, Osage began to die in a series of suspicious deaths, some of which were clearly murder. Based on journalist David Grann’s bestselling non-fiction book “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” Martin Scorsese’s KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON turns that non-fiction book into drama that combines elements of romance, mystery, and the history of the 1920s Osage murders, in an epic Western thriller starring Leo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone.
Grann’s non-fiction book details these killings and suspicious deaths, which occurred as fortune-hunting white men found that marrying Osage women was a way to access the Osage Nation’s wealth. Their arrival was followed by a series of brutal, mysterious deaths, first noticed in 1921, but continuing for a long time with little investigation by the local authorities charged with overseeing law enforcement on tribal lands.
Scorsese turns this horrendous bit of history into an epic tale of evil, greed and deceit set in a sweeping Western landscape with one of unexpected love, in a visually lush, moving, tragic film. The film was a hit a Cannes, where it debuted out of competition. The film has resonated with both critics and audiences, but the most positive responses seem to come from those who read the bestselling non-fiction book. There is no need to have read the book to follow the story but it seems that having done so might deepen understanding of the Osage Nation’s plight. Scorsese’s film focuses primarily on this one story, while the non-fiction book takes a broader view.
Scorsese’ movie follows the deaths in one particular Osage family, of which Mollie Kyle is one daughter of the ailing matriarch, played by legendary Native actresses Tantoo Cardinal. Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) returns from World War I with a war injury that limits the kind of physical work he can do, and comes to stay with his uncle William Hale (Robert DeNiro), known as King, hoping to find work. The uncle has a prosperous ranch within the Osage reservation but his land has no oil. Having lived there so long, King Hale has established friendly ties with the Osage Nation, and even speaks the language, but he is also a powerful man some fear. King sees an opportunity with his handsome but not-too-bright young nephew, and before long he is hinting that his nephew might want to marry one of the Osage women, and even offers some advice when speaking to them.
Ernest listens politely but doesn’t entirely buy his uncle’s idea. Still, in addition to doing odd jobs for his uncle while living in his mansion, Ernest also drives an informal taxi service since most of the Osage don’t drive. While richer Osage have chauffeurs but others just hire taxis like Ernest’s. Waiting for potential fares, he spots and taken by one pretty young Osage woman, Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone). She coolly rebuffs his offer, and his flirtatious advances. Yet, later when she does need a ride and he again badgers her to let him drive her, she begrudgingly gives in.
She remains stand-offish during the ride but over the next days, his persistence and good humor start to amuse her, and she softens. “He’s dumb but he’s handsome,” she tells her sister, shortly before she invites him to dinner at her home, a mansion she shares with her aging mother Lizzie Q (Tantoo Cardinal).
Ernest is truly smitten almost from the start and Mollie eventually falls for him too. The love match certainly is convenient for the uncle who has his own plan for his nephew’s new wife and her family.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro are excellent, essentially playing against type with DiCaprio’s dimwitted Ernest manipulated by DeNiro’s Machiavellian uncle. But the big revelation is Lily Gladstone, in what may be a star-making performance. Scorsese cast Native actors in several roles as Osage, including Lily Gladstone, who is of Piegan Blackfeet and Nez Perce heritage and grew up on the Blackfeet reservation, but she is also a cousin of British former prime minister William Gladstone. She gave standout performances in small roles in two Kelly Reichert films, CERTAIN WOMEN and FIRST COW, but this larger starring part gives her a chance to really shine. And shine she does, nearly stealing the movie from her more famous costars.
Robert DeNiro’s uncle King is all sweetness and solicitousness when dealing with the Osage, and even his nephew Ernest, most of the time, but he can forcefully, frighteningly pivot if he doesn’t get his way. Even in his smiling mode, DeNiro’s King has an underlying current of menace. The Osage deal with him as a friend in public but when just among themselves, there is fear and growing suspicion. Ernest isn’t the only white man to marry into Mollie’s family, and the family trait of diabetes means that Mollie, her mother and one sister are often sickly, in this pre-insulin era. DiCaprio’s Ernest gives mixed messages about who he is and his true motives, seeming to truly waver between good and bad, although we are never certain, and perhaps Ernest isn’t either.
But as people start to turn up dead, even in Mollie’s family, in freak accidents and even clear murdered but with no suspect found, things grow tense and then frantic. The Osage leaders know the community is under attack but are powerless to stop it.
Several messages and messengers are sent to the federal government back east, alerting them to the murders, with little effect. Finally a representative of the newly-formed FBI appears, in the form of seemingly mild-manner official, played well by Jesse Plemons.
Epic is the right word to describe this drama, as this film runs about three and a half hours. However, the film is so well structured, so involving and gripping, and so perfectly paced, that one does not feel the running time.
The photography is stunning, as are the costumes and careful attention to period details, making the film both an immersive experience and visually pleasing. In an opening scene, oil gushes from the ground, spewing over some Osage men transversing the windswept plain, symbolicly covering them. In another moment, a huge fire fills the screen in a nighttime scene, creating a horrifying image that mirrors the growing panic of the Osage people under attack by the hidden foe. Eventually tTension is so thick as the drama unfolds that both the characters and the audience are on edge.
Scorsese also skillfully uses a number of period-appropriate techniques to give us a strong sense of time and place for this moving drama. These include written text in a form that resembles title cards in silent movies of the era, newspaper headlines and newsreel footage in movie theaters referencing the Tulsa Massacre, which overlapped these events, and period appropriate jazz, blues and old-time country music. Towards the end, Scorsese uses a radio drama format in a thrillingly effective scene.
One does not have to have read the excellent non-fiction book to follow this tale of love, betrayal and murder, but having read the book deepens one’s understanding of the history it depicts. The film only lightly touches on details such as that Osage were among the peoples relocated to what would become Oklahoma in the Trail of Tears tragedy. Like the Cherokee, the Osage had made a decision to partly assimilate while retaining parts of their culture, in their own fashion, trading with the white economy and adopting some of white culture such as a written language. The hope was to avoid the annihilation happening to other Native peoples, by becoming “civilized” and working in partnership with whites.
The drama unfolds in stages, smoothly shifting at each step, first a romance and family drama, then a crime drama and mystery, then a courtroom drama. At each pivot point, the characters develop and transform, revealing more of their true nature or being changed by events. The end is both heart breaking and exactly as it should be. It all adds up to a stunning piece of cinema on a unjustly forgotten moment of in the long history of injustices toward Native peoples. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON is a masterpiece movie by a master filmmaker, which seems a likely Oscar winner.
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON opens in theaters on Friday, Oct. 20.
A scene from YOUNG IP MAN: CRISIS TIME. Courtesy of WellGoUSA
I’ve enjoyed many of the films based on Ip Man, the eponymous actual Chinese martial arts hero of the last century – especially the batch starring Donnie Yen. YOUNG IP MAN: CRISIS TIME is set in 1917, when Ip Man came to Hong Kong as a teenager to further his education. Unfortunately, his upper-crust school is targeted by a big time criminal who’d just escaped from prison to occupy the whole place, holding the entire student body for ransom, aided by a small army of hench-persons.
Ip Man, of course, is compelled to rise to the occasion despite overwhelming odds, diminutive stature and a couple of other personal complications. In structure, this one more closely resembles a Bruce Willis DIE HARD ordeal than most traditional martial movies. I wanted to like this film more than I could. The production is lavish enough, and there are some satisfying action sequences but two factors blocked the path to a higher rating.
First, although claiming to be set in 1917, they seemingly borrowed sets, costumes and props from a recently-wrapped period piece occurring in the 1930s to ‘40s. I’m all for recycling, but this bit of economizing created a huge distraction from the story for any of the diminishing audience base that can still distinguish between eras. At least no one used a cell phone.
Second, Pantheras Freedman may not have been the best choice for the lead here. Though 26 at the time of filming, he did look like a fresh-faced teenager. But after so many other heroic productions – some of which had included Ip Man’s early years – Freedman lacked the gravitas associated with that legendary figure. The dialog was fine. He said all the principled words meant to establish the requisite integrity and courage for honoring the man, but they sounded more like rote than conviction.
In 1992, after the Indiana Jones films had been such a phenomenal success, George Lucas whipped up a TV prequel series, THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES, with Sean Patrick Flanery as the youth that would become the Harrison Ford character. Although it only lasted 28 episodes, production values were quite exceptional for the medium, and Flanery captured just enough of Indy’s panache to make the show worthy of 10 Emmys, and a slew of other nominations. Pretty much what one would expect from Lucas, irrespective of screen size. This one falls well short of that mark.
Had this been the same movie, except with Freedman playing a fictional kid forced to rise to an occasion, they could have matched the dates with the accoutrements, and not been pressed to live up to all that rich historic and cinematic past. If you’re unfamiliar with the Ip Man background (which includes the fact that his most famous student was Bruce Lee), your chances of enjoying the excitement this does contain should be significantly greater.
YOUNG IP MA: CRISIS TIME, mostly in Mandarin with English subtitles, streams on Hi-YAH! starting Apr. 28, and will be available on Blu-Ray and DVD as of May 16.
Du Yuhang in THE GRANDMASTER OF KUNG FU. Courtesy of WellGo USA
For fans of Chinese martial arts movies, THE GRANDMASTER OF KUNG FU offers a variation on a very familiar theme. Set in the early 20th century while Japan is occupying much of China, national pride for both seems to hinge on whether kung fu is superior to karate, and the question will be determined in a winner-take-all match.
The invaders strive and scheme to assert dominance by demoralizing the local fighters and, consequently, the populace. The Chinese must win to keep their martial arts schools open to maintain its cultural identity despite the occupation. This premise has been recycled a zillion times ever since the Hong Kong action boom of the 1970s, often incorporating historic heroes like Ip Man or Wong Fei Hung. Western viewers will primarily associate Donnie Yen with the former, and Jet Li with the latter. This member of that vaunted fraternity of oft-filmed icons is Huo Yuanjia, who was also played by Jet Li in FEARLESS (2006).
So why spend your time on yet another iteration of a plot and premise you’ve likely seen before? Several reasons. Du Yuhang, who replaced Yen in the latest extensions of the IP MAN franchise, does a fine job here as the modest hero, reluctantly rising to defend the honor of his fighting style and country. He resembles Yen not only in looks, but in conveying that essential aura of quiet dignity and integrity between and during his fights – like Gary Cooper in most of his Westerns.
Since the star was an actual Wushu champion before his acting career, action sequences are artfully choreographed and more natural in scale than many others. Very little wire work; no exotic weapons; the slow-mo insertions accentuating highlight moves are deployed to good advantage. Lighting and camera angles are above average, allowing viewers to follow what‘s happening more clearly than is often the case. Fights are also more reasonable in duration, unlike many others in which the protagonists suffer absurdly prolonged beatings before prevailing, as we always knew they would
Perhaps the best facet is that director Cheng Si-Yu knew he was telling an oft-told tale, and pared this incarnation to a tight package running under 80 minutes. Also, as one who has endured subpar audio and visual elements (often including horrid English dubs) in dozens of streamed vintage chopsocky flicks from the Shaw Brothers and other studios of the 1970s-80s, it’s a pleasure to watch the new generation of these films with excellent production quality. Japanese viewers will likely feel otherwise, since, as always, those invading characters are portrayed as mostly devious and excessively brutal, with only the occasional warrior of honor among them. But the country that makes the movie gets to write the script the way it wants.
THE GRANDMASTER OF KUNG FU, in Mandarin with English subtitles, is streaming now on Hi-YAH!, and available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital formats as of Jan. 31.
(L-R): Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and John David Washington in 20th Century Studios’ AMSTERDAM. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Director/writer David O. Russell’s AMSTERDAM features a dazzling cast in a period mystery/adventure tale in which three friends, bound by a pact made during World War I, embark on a wild adventure set in 1930s New York, to solve a mystery involving murder, a secret organization, and a possible plot against America.
There really was such a plot, which is among the many historical tidbits woven into this adventure tale, that has big doses of humor and romance as well. AMSTERDAM’s story brings to mind the classic Hollywood mystery adventure tales of the 1930s or 1940s, like CASABLANCA, or early Alfred Hitchcock or maybe a spy-thriller starring Humphrey Bogart. Even though this film is not in black and white, in another sense, it kind of is. Not only is a Black man one of the main characters but the story deals with those marginalized in early 20th century America, including Black Americans and the forgotten disabled veterans of the Great War (as WWI was first known), both of which must battle an entrenched power structure of the white, wealthy and well-connected.
But, at the heart of it, AMSTERDAM is really a film about friendship – the kind of deep enduring friendship we all hope to have, a friendship forged between the trio at the center of this tale by the horrors of WWI and idyllic post-war days in Amsterdam. Most of the story takes place in 1930s New York, during the Great Depression, but there is an extended flashback to post-WWI Amsterdam, with the rising prosperity and creative freedom of the 1920s and free from the Jim Crow attitudes back in America. After the war, many real Black Americans stayed behind in Europe to enjoy that freedom.
There are three friends at the center of this tale but mostly the story is told by one of them, Dr. Burt Berendsen, a slightly offbeat character played with wonderful appeal by Christian Bale.
The three met during WWI, although we don’t know that until a flashback a bit into the film. Christian Bale plays Burt Berendsen, a compassionate half-Jewish doctor in New York who tries to help forgotten, disfigured veterans of WWI, some of whom lost a eye as he did or grapple with pain and morphine addiction as he has. Dr. Berendsen works with his closest friend and lawyer, Harold Woodman (John David Washington), a soft-spoken, well-dressed Black graduate of Columbia Law School who is committed to helping the powerless. The two share a commitment to doing good in their work and a pact they made in WWI to always have each others backs, as well as sad romantic histories. Berendsen is separated from the wife he still loves, Beatrice (Andrea Riseborough), the daughter of a prominent 5th Avenue doctor Augustus Vandenheuvel (Casey Biggs). Woodman pines for his lost love, the unconventional nurse/artist Valerie (Margot Robbie) who cared for the wounded soldier pair in a French hospital and escaped with them to an idyll in Amsterdam. The now-vanished Valerie was the third member of their friendship loyalty pact.
David O. Russell has delighted audiences with films like AMERICAN HUSTLE and SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, films that mix humor with drama or thriller plots, but AMSTERDAM may be his most ambitious yet. Those who saw the trailer for this new film might expect something a little more fast-paced action film than AMSTERDAM actually is (and that 1971 song in that trailer isn’t in this film, although maybe it could have been). AMSTERDAM is more a mystery thriller with a delicious humorous streak and an unexpected underlying warmth. It is funnier and more inspiring than might be expected.
Classic movie fans will notice that AMSTERDAM has strong parallels to the kind of thriller anti-fascist adventure mysteries of the 1930s and early 1940s – the kind with colorful characters, secrets and international plots. The kind of film made during the time period in which most of this film is set, although it starts during WWI, the Great War. You know, the War to End All Wars. And, of course, some of this really happened, as the film tells us at the start.
Actually, there is a surprising amount of real history woven into this fictional story. Saying how much is true might risk spoilers but there really was a fascist plot in the U.S. that was thwarted, and there really was a courageous American general who was part of that. The film’s version of that general is played by Robert De Niro in fine, military ramrod straight, morally-upright style, but the general isn’t the main character. The three main characters, a trio of friends, at the center of this adventure are played by Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and John David Washington, with supporting roles played by Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Taylor Swift, Zoe Saldaña, Rami Malek, Andrea Riseborough, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alessandro Nivola, Timothy Olyphant, Michael Shannon and Mike Myers. Besides the historical mystery at the center of the plot, AMSTERDAM is full of other true-history tidbits in a story ranging from the Great War through the middle of the Great Depression of the 1930s, in a rollicking tale told with humor and humanity.
For those who love movies and mysteries of the ’30s era this film is set in, and even more so if you know those films well, AMSTERDAM has special delights. The immensely charming AMSTERDAM does evoke that kind of feeling of friendships forged in hardship you see in those old movies, but it does so with David O. Russell’s signature sly humor and a bit craziness that is a bit more screwball comedy with moments of Marx Brothers, as well as nods to the present. While it is not as fast-paced as the trailer leads you to expect, it is far funnier and fun, far crazier and surprising, and with more warmth than expected, as well as all those real history references and a wonderful kind of friendship. That latter side is largely thanks to the three leads played so well and with deep feeling by Christian Bale, John David Washington and Margot Robbie.
This film is a classic Hollywood movie buffs’ delight. There is a fair dose of CASABLANCA in AMSTERDAM, including the city name in its title, but in this case, Amsterdam is more like the idyllic memories of Paris in that classic. In other ways, AMSTERDAM is like the early Hitchcock thriller THE 39 STEPS or any number of mid ’30s or early ’40s thrillers, where the hero has to beat a ticking clock to uncover a plot by “5th columnists,” a term for foreign spies with generally fascist plans. This is classic movie stuff, and the more you know about movies of that period, the more references you will get and enjoy.
Besides the many historical and period movie references, AMSTERDAM is filled with gorgeous period sets and details. AMSTERDAM also has fabulous cinematography by the great Emmanuel Lubezki, who effectively evokes the time period and sets the right emotional tones. There is an impressive bit of special effects fairly early on, thanks to visual effects supervisor Allen Maris, which jump-starts the action.
Set in mid-30s New York, we get a taste of the poor and forgotten (as this is still the Great Depression) but like the movies of that time, we spend more time visiting in the world of the wealthy untouched by those hardships. Berendsen’s wife Beatrice and her parents are part of that well-dressed set living in beautiful houses, But when are heroes’ quest takes them to the estate of millionaire Tom Voze (Rami Malik) and his stylish wife Libby (Anya Taylor-Joy), they really find the lap of luxury. They also find a surprise, one of the tale’s many plot twists.
There are plenty of those twists, humor that is either dark or farcical, and one extended flashback which gives us the essential backstory that makes it all work. The large cast come and go in dizzying fashion, with characters who reappear periodically. Among those are Michael Shannon and Mike Myers who play Henry Norcross and Paul Canterbury, a couple of spies who who are also avid birders, even if they tend to cross ethical lines, who have a penchant for speaking in riddles and metaphors – something scriptwriter/director Russell and star Christian Bale have some fun with. Other memorable turns come from Chris Rock, as attorney Woodman’s assistant, who says out loud the kind of things other Black characters might be thinking, about pervasive racism. Another is Zoe Saldana, who is wonderful as an efficient, down-to-earth autopsy nurse, Irma St. Clair, who sparks long-buried feelings in Berendsen. Matthias Schoenaerts plays a police detective, another veteran, while his clumsy, hot-headed non-veteran partner Detective Hiltz (Alessandro Nivola) rails against mocking by the veterans.
There is so much to enjoy in this entertaining, inspiring, heart-warming, history-themed adventure. AMSTERDAM packs so much in, that it may be too much for some audiences members who may become overwhelmed or even bit confused. History buffs and classic movie fans will most enjoy this big-hearted adventure, but anyone can if they are open to its message of friendship and loyalty. There is a bit of AMERICAN HUSTLE in this film, with its mix of true story facts and a personal story, but this one is bigger and better, and with a more wholesome, inspiring, patriotic and human message, even a freedom-loving, small-d democratic one.
