Tag: penelope cruz

THE BRIDE! – Review

If you love classic movies, THE BRIDE! is pure delight, fun with a brain that is a treat deluxe for those who love both classic movies and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s original book “Frankenstein.” That description fits this writer and the novel is having a moment now, with Guillermo del Toro’s FRANKENSTEIN and now this film. But in this wild, smart and inventive film, director Maggie Gyllenhaal not only pays homage to the book, but the Frankenstein and particularly Bride of Frankenstein movies, along with a host of 1930s and 1940s films and genres, ranging from film noir to black-and-white musicals and gangster flicks, with a little more modern films like BONNIE AND CLYDE and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN tossed in. Even author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley herself, the brilliant teenager who wrote the original 1818 novel, appears as a character in the film.

All that plus a fabulous cast, led by Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley, featuring Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard and Penelope Cruz. The film sports a generous sprinkling of movie and even literary references, in dialog or visually, which adds a great deal of fun. And it is all done with an off-beat slight feminist twist that puts the spotlight on the The Bride.

Plus the ghost of author Mary Shelley possesses a gangster’s moll and a woman is the mad scientist in this tale. What more could you possibly want?

THE BRIDE is both clever and a very cinematic film. THE BRIDE! actually opens with the author Mary Shelley (played in a entertainingly crazy way by Jesse Buckley) speaking to us as a spirit from the grave. We see only Buckley’s face, in an oval and in black-and-white, like an antique photo in a locket, while the author spits rapid-fire vocabulary about her biography and literature. The author introduces our story, and then returns as occasional narrator or disruptive spirit. This begins when Shelley possesses, like a demon, a young blonde gangster’s moll named Ida (also Buckley) in 1930s Chicago. The possessed moll, when the author is in charge, spouts poetry and literary references, particularly mentioning Herman Melville’s character Bartleby, who sows chaos by refusing to do things, saying “I prefer not to,” a phrase that pops up continually.

After our (ultimately violent) intro to the woman who will become the Bride, we meet Frankenstein’s monster, played winningly by Christian Bale. A man in a hat pulled low to hide his face and with a scarf covering his lower face (a la Claude Rains in THE INVISIBLE MAN) shows up at a 1930s Chicago medical research facility, looking to speak to a particular scientist, a Dr. Euphronious. He’s turned away at first, but finally a woman comes out to talk to him. She reveals herself to be Dr. Euphronious (Annette Bening), as he removes his coverings and introduces himself as a Mr. Frankenstein (Bale). This lonely creation of a mad scientist (and an author) long ago asks the scientist for her help – to build a bride for him. She refuses at first but, good mad scientist that she is, Dr. Euphronious eventually agrees.

Thus launches the tale of the Bride and her Frankenstein, a far more complete story of the Bride than in James Whale’s classic film, including this Bride’s quest for a name, an identity, beyond just that one. The pair embark on an adventure and a journey that sends them out into the 1930s world, against the wishes of Dr. Euphonious, where they sample jazz clubs and movie houses, among other things, and then go on the run as outlaws, “Bonnie and Clyde”-style, after some people turn up dead.

Frank, as the Bride calls him, is movie-obsessed and particularly a fan of one dancing star (Jake Gyllenhaal) of movie musicals, which reveals that the “monster” is a bit of a romantic. When he’s feeling low, at trip to the movies to see his favorite star in one of his dance-filled musical romances or comedies lifts his spirits.

Their adventure is unpredictable, often violent and sometimes bloody, but it is also a monster of a love story. The Bride’s journey of self-discovery is a big part of this film but not the whole story. It is also a wild, entertaining ride, that also involved a pair of noir-ish detectives, played by Peter Sarsgaard and Penelope Cruz, on their trail, as well as gangster kingpins, corrupt officials, fancy parties with movie stars, and more. There is singing and dancing scenes, movie-going and movie houses, characters who find themselves in the movie (a la Buster Keaton), and a score that includes “Putting on the Ritz” (thank you, Mel Brooks) and Monster Mash.

The cast is great. Christian Bale is a marvelous Frankenstein, sweetly polite, even shy, but determined and endlessly resourceful. He is also a hopeless romantic when it comes to his Bride and to the movies he loves. Bale plays this movie-loving monster with such charm and grace, he is irresistible, and turns on extra magic in the dance sequences. Jessie Buckley is electrifying in her two-part role, as the wild, fast-talking and brainy author, who periodically possesses the Bride and as the sweet but confused newly-created Bride, who does not even know her name, much less who she is, or should be. The couple waver between love and her desire to be her own person. And along the way, her rule-breaking launches a social movement of women who want to break free of their restraints in this sexist time, women who show their colors by staining their mouths with ink, to look like hers.

Annette Bening is a charmer as well as the crusty, off-beat doctor, who we suspect has secrets and a history that goes unspoken. As the noir detectives, Peter Sarsgaard and Penelope Cruz also are wonderful, with Sarsgaard playing a world-weary soul with some hidden pain, and Cruz an ambitious detective who is the real brains of the team but who has to pose as her partner’s secretary rather than his protege due to the sexism of the era.

THE BRIDE! is entertaining, smart, thought-provoking, twisting, and a cleverly constructed creation of borrowed parts (much like Frankenstein) from countless classic films, film history, literature and even a little echo of the “Me Too” movement. THE BRIDE! is a wow of a piece of cinema, and certainly a must-see for any fan of either classic movies or Mary Shelley’s classic Gothic horror novel. Just great fun.

THE BRIDE! opens in theaters on Friday, Mar. 6, 2026.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

FERRARI – Review

And what’s that zooming toward the multiplex? Why, it’s yet another true-life sports film, and it’s comin’ in hot. Yes, it’s a whole lot faster than the rowing movie, as it is set in the world of auto racing. And unlike the other racing flick this year, GRAN TURISMO, there’s no video gaming involved as the bulk of it takes place over sixty-five years ago. Oh, and the director of this new film has been making some of the most interesting and stylish action epics over the last five decades. He’s focused on one year in a man’s life synonymous with the sport, so it could be considered a biography. Even after all this time that name resonates throughout the world in general. Sure it’s now a brand name, but behind all the iconic autos was the man named Enzo FERRARI.

This profile begins with newsreel-style footage of Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) churning up the dirt raceway in the 1920s. Flash forward to 1957, as he awakens and joins Lina (Shailene Woodley) for breakfast with their eight-year-old son Piero. He says goodbye but doesn’t go directly to his auto factory. Instead, he stops at the crypt of his late son Alfredo (‘Dino’) and the home he shares with his wife Laura (Penelope Cruz). Of course, she knows nothing of Enzo’s second family, perhaps owing to Italy’s ban on divorce in the day. Enzo’s arrival precedes a heated argument ending with her firing a pistol (later one would end with kitchen tabletop lovemaking). It’s a big day at Ferrari S.p.A, as a new racer, Alfonso De Portiago (Gabriel Leone) joins the company team before the next big road race. And much to Enzo’s chagrin, his movie starlet girlfriend Linda Christian (Sarah Gadon) steals some of the fanfare. He appears to have a complex relationship with the press. Enzo despises the “paparazzi” for trying to pry into his personal life, but uses them to plant rumors, like a possible merger with Ford Motors, in order to generate much-needed cash. Seems the company is teetering toward bankruptcy, which forces Enzo to make risky loans with banks and even barter with Laura over shares of the family company. Ah, but all will work out when his team wins the highly-touted race, Mille Miglia, which runs over several miles of public roads throughout Italy. But what would happen if disaster and death take the wheel?

In the title role, Driver (nice coincidence) is quite intimidating as the looming, passionate auto maven. he conveys a man completely focused on his profession, down to the smallest bit of machinery, while also juggling every penny of his company’s dwindling funds. But his best juggling is in his double life. With Lina and Piero he’s a warm nurturing patriarch, doting on his boy while frustrating his mother. But with Laura, he never quite knows what’s behind their home’s front entrance. Like the old fable, is it “the lady or the tiger”? As Laura, Cruz has a fierce bite along with her ultra-sharp claws, as she suspects that Enzo has “something on the side”, while she she to reign in his spending excesses. But Cruz also shows us that the wounds of losing a son have never healed as she lashed at him to unload her smothering grief. As the “other woman” Woodley shows us the defiant attitude that is tempered with a lingering affection for Enzo, paired with a sense of shame for having to exist “in the shadows”.As for team Ferrari, Leone oozes with machismo charm as the new “darling of the tabloids, while another charmer, Patrick Dempsey, conveys an easygoing demeanor as veteran “pedal man” Piero Taruffi.

Oh, the director mentioned above (who also serves as co-producer and “script doctor”) is the talented Michael Mann in his first sports biopic since ALI. He’s worked in many movie genres, but Mann may be best known for his action epic. That skill suits him well in this true tale, particularly in the “signature scene” that will leave audiences stunned. Some critics of auto racing believe it’s an excuse to witness a disaster, and since the film is based on real events, it happens here. Kudos to Mann for not “sugarcoating” the shocking horror of it all by “cutting away” or making it abstract or “dreamy”. The ‘blink of an eye” carnage and its aftermath will have viewers gasping and perhaps a bit shaken. Hopefully, the power of this sequence doesn’t detract from the strength of the quieter scenes like Enzo talking about racing skills with as son, or the haunting montage of the drivers preparing “goodbye letters’ for their loved ones on the night before the big race (and finding a spot for the envelopes to be discovered). The verbal sparring between Enzo and Laura verges on becoming a repetitive cycle, and we’re often not sure of Enzo’s intentions, especially in his relationship with Lina (despite the brawling there’s more heat with Laura). this is offset by the superb cinematography by Erik Messerschmidt, the expert period recreations (fashion, decor, and hairstyles), the gorgeous Italian locations, and some terrific insider info on the sport (I wasn’t aware of the two-man driving teams). Though it occasionally veers off the track, there is lots of super-charged power in the world of FERRARI.

3 out of 4

FERRARI opens in theatres everywhere on Christmas Day 2023

OFFICIAL COMPETITION – Review

Antonio Banderas as “Félix Rivero” and Penelope Cruz as “Lola Cuevas” in Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat’s OFFICIAL COMPETITION. Courtesy of Manolo Pavon. An IFC Films release.

In the satiric comedy OFFICIAL COMPETITION, Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas star as an auteur director and international action star, both with egos the size of Montana, who are hired by an aging wealthy businessman intent on financing a big, award-winning hit movie as a vanity project. The humor is pointed and wits are sharp, as wealth, egos, art and particularly movie-making come under the comic guns of Argentinian co-directors Gaston Duprat and Mariano Cohen in this hilarious Spanish-language satire.

As he turns 80, millionaire businessman Humberto Suarez (Jose Luis Gomez) decides he needs a monumentally big project to leave a lasting legacy. But what should be choose? A bridge designed by a famous architect bearing his name? A charitable foundation? No, a movie is more a sure thing – but a big, prestigious, award-winning one, one that is both a work of art and an enduring icon of cinema, helmed by a famous director and starring a famous movie star. Oh, sure, no problem with that.

The millionaire hires renowned auteur director Lola Cuevas (Penelope Cruz) to lead the project, and she casts international action movie megastar Félix Rivero (Antonio Banderas) along with the theater’s most revered stage actor Ivan Torres (Oscar Martinez), to play warring brothers in an adaptation of a international bestseller. The actors have never worked together, and in fact come from different worlds in acting schools of thought. They both bring big egos and wildly different ideas about acting to the project. Add in Cruz’s manipulative director, who eggs-on each and foments tensions, all to get the performance she wants, and clashes and comedy are guaranteed.

Penelope Cruz sports an impressively wild mane of frizzy red hair, hair that wears her more than the reverse, and lives in an aggressively modern glass-and-concrete mansion at the end of a long and winding road, both signals of the kind of ego we are dealing with here. The wealthy businessman financing this project only cares that the film is both prestigious and famous, and when the director shows him the book she wants to use for the film for his approval, the businessman confesses to not being much of a reader. After her meeting with the money, and having established she has free rein and a blank check, the director invites the two actors to her sparely-furnished mansion, to meet, to do cold readings and rehearse. That’s where the fun really begins.

Hollywood may love movies about movie-making but the Spanish- language comedy OFFICIAL COMPETITION is more a skewering and roast of the industry than a toast. This smart comedy actually focuses mostly on the pre-shoot preparation, as the director and actors explore the characters and rehearse, a period rarely depicted but rich in possibilities for conflict and comedy – with hilarious results. While the clash of acting theories and actors themselves gets special treatment, no aspect of the film industry really escapes OFFICIAL COMPETITION’s sly wit, as the skewering extends to the excesses of wealth, art pretensions, and battling big egos all around.

Of course, a movie about how actors act had to be catnip to the cast, and Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martinez deliver terrific performances while seeming to having a great time. Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas especially seems to have great fun with the banquet of material in this twisty, smart comedy. The film is full of hilarious scenery-chewing, out-of-control one-up-manship, and ridiculous behavior as well as sharp observations and satire, as the two very different actors, one an internationally famous action movie star and the other a revered theater legend and professor, try to top each other, and the manipulative director stirs the pot.

The film delves into real acting techniques, and real disputes between schools of acting, which actually makes it all the funnier and sharper. The techniques of the director to get the performance she wants from her actors may seem extreme, even outlandish, but may not by as far out there as one might think, if some tales about film-making trickery might be believed.

We get scene after scene of craziness and humor that ranges from broad comedy to sly satire. No one and nothing escapes the knife-sharp swipes and biting humor of Argentine co-directors Gaston Duprat and Mariano Cohen. The directors, who previously co-directed “The Man Next Door,” “The Distinguished Citizen,” “My Masterpiece,” and “4×4,” thought there already were plenty of films about what can go awry while shooting a film but none on the absurdities that can happen as actors work through how they are going to play their part. And they do indeed find comic gold in that vein, although having this splendid cast is part of their lucky strike.

OFFICIAL COMPETITION is a lot of fun, but especially so if you appreciate the art of acting in the movies or theater. Each of the characters has his/her own agenda, including securing their legacy. The action star wants to prove he has serious acting chops, the theatrical star wants wider fame and to prove his ideas about acting are better, the director wants to win awards and prestige, and all are ready to do nearly anything to get what they want. While there is a kind of showdown between the two acting styles, the two actors never directly confront each other, instead each trying outdo the other, conspiring with the director against the other, or undermining what the other actor is doing. Meanwhile, Cruz’s director listens, but discretely pulls the strings.

If you like satire and behind the scenes of movie-making, the hard-hitting, hilarious OFFICIAL COMPETITION is a winner.

OFFICIAL COMPETITION, in Spanish with English subtitles, opens in theaters on Friday, July 1.

RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars

PARALLEL MOTHERS – Review

Penélope Cruz as Janis and Milena Smit as Ana in PARALLEL MOTHERS.
Photo Credit: El Deseo D.A. S.L.U., photo by Iglesias Mas. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

Pedro Almodovar is famous for Oscar-winning dramas like TALK TO HER and ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER but the brilliant Spanish writer/director alternates those dramas with lighter fare, soapy melodramas, sometimes with a campy mystery/thriller side. In his latest, PARALLEL MOTHERS, Almodovar re-teams with favorite collaborator Penelope Cruz for a drama that combines these two film types running on parallel tracks, in which a drama about the devastating impact Spain’s political history on families serves as a kind of framing story for another one, a soapy mystery thriller about two mothers, although the two threads come together in the end.

It begins with two expectant mothers, one older and the other younger, sharing a room in a maternity hospital. Both are single and their pregnancies are accidental but while Janis (Penelope Cruz), a successful photographer approaching 40, is delighted by the prospect of motherhood, 17-year-old Ana (Milena Smit) is terrified. An unexpected bond forms between them, with the older one offering encouragement and support to the teen mother, who seems to get little of that from her narcissistic mother, Teresa (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon), an actress more focused on her career than her daughter. When the two new mothers part, each with a newborn daughter, they exchange phone numbers with promises to stay in touch.

Penelope Cruz gives one of her best performances as Janis, a photographer at a high-end women’s magazine run by her best friend Elena (frequent collaborator Rossy de Palma), played with de Palma’s usual bold flare. During a photo shoot, Janis meets a handsome forensic anthropologist and archaeologist, Arturo (Israel Elejalde). After the shoot, Janis asks him to exhume the mass grave where her great-grandfather, an early victim of Franco’s death squads, is buried, and he agrees to push for the project with the non-profit he works for, which is investigating the history of the mass killings under Francisco Franco’s fascist rule. The disappearance of her great-grandfather and others in the small village where she was raised by her grandmother has haunted both her and others in the village for decades and they want the right to recover and properly re-bury the bodies. Janis and Arturo also start an affair but when she becomes pregnant, she breaks it off, as he is married and his wife is battling cancer at the time.

The story about Janis’ missing great-grandfather and, more broadly, Spain’s legacy from Franco’s fascist regime, starts the film but then recedes as we focus on the story of the two mothers. That central story is both a soapy mystery/thriller and a drama exploring the challenges of motherhood, balancing work and family, and the connections between women. The more political framing story also explores family connections across generations, particularly between women, and the importance of history.

The soapy thriller starts after the two women leave the hospital. When Janis gets home, Arturo gets in touch with her, asking to see the new baby. She agrees but when he does see her, reacts to the baby’s swarthy appearance with questions. Although Janis quickly attributes the baby’s looks to the Venezuelan grandfather she never saw, and is offended by Arturo’s questioning, it still raises doubts in her mind, eventually leading to a shocking discovery.

Although Janis and Ana eventually lose touch, they reconnect when Janis spots Ana working at a nearby cafe. While Cruz is marvelous, young Milena Smit holds her own, with a finely crafted performance as Ana. One reason for the lack of connection between Smit’s Ana and her ambitious actress mother Teresa is that Ana has been living with her father, mother’s ex-husband, but he sent their daughter to her when she became pregnant. While Cruz’ character is emotional, confident and optimistic, Smit’s performance is more understated. Yet Smit masterfully takes the character from a frightened teen dependent on her emotionally-distant mother, to a more confident young woman, ready to face the world on her own.

While the central thriller story is soapy, it is never campy, handling the story’s twists and surprises as drama. Like all Almodovar films, strong color and design elements suffuse this film. Cruz often appears in red, signaling boldness, while quieter Ana is often in green or blue. The string-heavy music soundtrack, by composer Alberto Iglesias, frequently recalls Hitchcock films, particularly VERTIGO, as does the use of color in the central mystery story, The film also has one of the best uses of Janis Joplin’s “Summertime,” as Janis, who was named for the singer, describes her complicated family history, including the death of her hippy mother from an overdose at age 27, like Joplin.

While the mystery is not very hard to figure out, it does create a dilemma for Cruz’s Janis, a situation that is resolved in a pivotal scene in the second half of the film. However, that scene begins with Janis confronting Ana about Spain’s troubled history, after Ana, parroting her presumably-conservative father, says that the past does not matter, leading a fiery Janis to tell her to find out what her father did during that time. The scene is a crucial moment in the central story but also serves to tie the personal drama and the historical themes together by the film’s end.

Almodovar’s films are always about his unique, striking characters, which is true for this film as well. Almodovar’s ability to tell women’s stories is remarkable as always, and he puts that message right out there, on a tee-shirt Cruz wears in one scene, reading “we should all be feminists.” However, in PARALLEL MOTHERS, the director uncharacteristically dips a toe into the political, by focusing on the lingering pain of Francisco Franco’s fascist regime, during which 100,000 people went “missing,” a regime under which Almodovar grew up. But it is just a toe in the those troubled waters, raising the topic rather than exploring it deeply, and more focused on human rights than anything. Still, the film ends on a strong image of the opened mass grave, and a powerful quote on screen: “No history is mute. No matter how much they burn it, no matter how much they break it, no matter how much they lie about it, human history refuses to shut its mouth.”

This dual film, with serious and soapy sides, is usual for Almodovar but it is a strong, striking drama which might win the director both audience and award attention. In a funny way, it is DNA which ties both tracks of the film together, as a technology that makes discoveries like family connections possible and as the stuff of those family lines, as the past and the present come together in this fine drama.

PARALLEL MOTHERS, in Spanish with English subtitles, opens Friday, Jan. 28, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema and at other theaters nationally.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

THE 355 – Review

(from left) Graciela (Penélope Cruz), Mason “Mace” (Jessica Chastain), Khadijah (Lupita Nyong’o) and Marie (Diane Kruger) in The 355, co-written and directed by Simon Kinberg.

So who’s ready to start 2022 with a bang? Or rather several bangs, lotsa’ chases, mixed-martial arts “throw-downs”, and more than a few teeth-rattling explosions? Well, this action extravaganza may be just the ticket, at least that’s what the studios and multiplexes are hoping for. Perhaps this’ll be the “franchise-starter” that will make up for the recent “franchise-enders” like the sputtering Matrix and Kingsmen, though the ‘web-spinner will keep swinging past more box office records. Oh, I neglected to mention that this flick’s action stars are all women. No, it’s not another reboot of CHARLIE”S ANGELS or a follow-up to OCEAN’S EIGHT. Yes see, they’re not private-eyes or con-artists. These ladies are secret agents who form an elite “rogue squad” known as THE 355.

This globetrotting adventure begins in the palatial estate of a drug kingpin in Colombia. Ah, it seems that he’s wanting to “diversify” as he sets up a “buy” with an arms supplier to international terrorists. So, what’s the weapon being offered up? A” mega-bomb” or a laser cannon, perhaps? Nope, for want of a better name, let’s call it the “Destructo-Driver Device”, an item the size of a cell phone that can hook into the internet and shut down cities, blow-up planes, and cripple national economies. Luckily some soldiers intervene before the “hand-off”, with one man, Luis (Edgar Ramirez), scooping the DDD up for himself. A bit later, the CIA learns of the DDD and brokers a “sale”. The “exchange” will be the next “super-secret” mission for top agents, and old pals, Mace (Jessica Chastain) and Nick (Sebastian Stan). Unfortunately, a rival German agent, Marie (Diane Kruger) botches the deal at a cafe in Paris. A jittery Luis brings in some “back-up” from his homeland which includes DNI agent/psychologist Graciela (Penelope Cruz). As Mace tries to “regroup” in the wake of a tragedy, she enlists an old friend and colleague, MI-6 computer whiz Khadija (Lupita Nyoong’o). When the DDD is grabbed during a “retrieval” of Luis, an uneasy alliance is formed. The female quartet track down the DDD to Morocco to stop that original arms dealer from finally acquiring it. But the women soon discover that they are trapped in a power plot with double and triple-crossers who will eliminate them and their loved ones with no hesitation in order to seize the “prize”.

Talk about your diverse, “planet-scanning” cast! Heading up this “multi-country” crew is the talented Chastain, who displays her considerable leadership skills and physical prowess. She’s confident in the big action “set pieces”, never just doing spy “cosplay”, giving her dialogue the same gravitas as any of her many somber dramatic roles. Mace is a pro, but we see the painful toll being collected with every groan and shudder. Kruger makes a formidable counterpart, and often reluctant cohort. This “hyper-focused” loner is the story’s “wild card”. Marie often pounces like a just uncaged beast, as Kruger’s wild-eyed glare tells all to “back off”.The inverse may be Nyong’o’s “Khad” who is almost a sister to Mace, sharing a warm bond and a dangerous past. But Nyong’o gives her a hesitancy and frustration at having to get “back in the game” again. She insists it is the “last round”, but her tired eyes tell us that she’s not optimistic. But still, Khad’s a calming influence on “Grizzy” the “office civilian” suddenly thrust into combat. Cruz conveys her confused panic as the bullets whiz past while she attempts to crawl inside her purse (perhaps burying her head in the sand). By the tale’s midpoint, she’s taking more of a stand, but Grizzy finally agrees to join the fight in order to protect her family. Oh, around that time the foursome adds a member with the cool, sinewy Bingbing Fan as Lin, the mysterious, enigmatic Chinese agent Lin. As for the “token males”, Stan balances charm and ferocity as the energetic Nick, another old pal of Mace, though he wants much more than shared missions with her. And Ramirez brings great intensity to the somewhat small role of Luis, the main catalyst for the whole race against the clock.

Surprisingly this thriller’s not based on an existing property, as it seems to fit with many similar comic book flicks. Perhaps it’s due to its director, Simon Kinberg, who has scripted many of those “tentpoles” and directed the most dismal entry of a big comics series, X-MEN; DARK PHOENIX. Plus he also produced this and co-wrote it with Theresa Rebeck and Bek Smith, which is the start of this new original flick’s many problems. While striving to be different with its unique casting, the screenplay somehow uses so many tired “undercover agent” cliches that I was literally calling out the twists and even bit of dialogue with great frequency. This might have been “fresh” and “edgy” 30 years ago, but ATOMIC BLONDE and last year’s BLACK WIDOW really shook up the genre while truly making us care about the ladies behind the lethal kicks and quips. Each “operative” is reduced to a tired trope that regurgitates the same spiel too often. Khad is, as Pete’s pal Ned calls himself, “the guy (or lady) in the chair “pounding a keyboard until the “we’re in” scene ender. But it’s not as tiresome as Grizzy’s mantra of “I must get back to my babies!” while trying to push away an offered weapon. There are so many things “wrong” that we must wonder if the script was rushed through. Is a phone call being traced, today (“keep her on the line”)? Then there’s the scene in Morocco with everyone but Mace in headscarves. And what’s her attire? It looks to be one of Victor Lazlo’s suits (with massive fedora) from CASABLANCA. And though the film wants to show how the women are as tough as their male counterparts, they still have to go “in disguise” at a swanky party, sporting tight, cleavage-baring gowns (of no use in combat). Yes, a group of actresses can headline a big loud bombastic popcorn flick. And it can be just as tiring and devoid of wit or logic as the fellas. Oh, they and we deserve much much better. The talented quintet will be back for better films, but this is hopefully the last mission for THE 355.

1/2 Out of 4

THE 355 is now playing in theatres everywhere

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THE 355 opens in theaters January 7th.

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RATED PG-13.

(from left) Graciela (Penélope Cruz), Mason “Mace” Brown (Jessica Chastain), Marie (Diane Kruger) and Khadijah (Lupita Nyong’o) in The 355, co-written and directed by Simon Kinberg. Photo Credit: Robert Viglasky/Universal Pictures. Copyright © 2020 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

A dream team of formidable female stars come together in a hard-driving original approach to the globe-trotting espionage genre in The 355.

When a top-secret weapon falls into mercenary hands, wild card CIA agent Mason “Mace” Brown (Oscar®-nominated actress Jessica Chastain) will need to join forces with rival badass German agent Marie (Diane Kruger, In the Fade), former MI6 ally and cutting-edge computer specialist Khadijah (Oscar® winner Lupita Nyong’o), and skilled Colombian psychologist Graciela (Oscar® winner Penélope Cruz) on a lethal, breakneck mission to retrieve it, while also staying one-step ahead of a mysterious woman, Lin Mi Sheng (Bingbing Fan, X-Men: Days of Future Past), who is tracking their every move.

As the action rockets around the globe from the cafes of Paris to the markets of Morocco to the opulent auction houses of Shanghai, the quartet of women will forge a tenuous loyalty that could protect the world—or get them killed.

The film also stars Édgar Ramirez (The Girl on the Train) and Sebastian Stan (Avengers: Endgame).

The 355 is directed by genre-defying filmmaker SIMON KINBERG (writer-director-producer of Dark Phoenix, producer of Deadpool and The Martian and writer-producer of the X-Men films). The screenplay is by THERESA REBECK (NBC’s Smash, Trouble) and SIMON KINBERG from a story by THERESA REBECK. The 355, presented by Universal Pictures in association with FilmNation Entertainment, is produced by JESSICA CHASTAIN and KELLY CARMICHAEL for Chastain’s Freckle Films and by SIMON KINBERG for Kinberg Genre Films. The film is executive produced by RICHARD HEWITT (Bohemian Rhapsody).

The film’s director of photography is TIM MAURICE-JONES BSC (The Woman in Black), the production designer is SIMON ELLIOTT (The Book Thief), and the costume designer is STEPHANIE COLLIE (The Hitman’s Bodyguard). The 355 is edited by LEE SMITH A.C.E.(1917) and JOHN GILBERT A.C.E.(The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring); the composer is TOM HOLKENBORG (Mad Max: Fury Road).

Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger, Fan Bingbing, Sebastian Stan Star In First Trailer For THE 355

A dream team of formidable female stars come together in a hard-driving original approach to the globe-trotting espionage genre in The 355. 

In theaters January 15, check out the first trailer now.

https://www.the355movie.com/

When a top-secret weapon falls into mercenary hands, wild card CIA agent Mason “Mace” Brown (Oscar®-nominated actress Jessica Chastain) will need to join forces with rival badass German agent Marie (Diane Kruger, In the Fade), former MI6 ally and cutting-edge computer specialist Khadijah (Oscar® winner Lupita Nyong’o), and skilled Colombian psychologist Graciela (Oscar® winner Penélope Cruz) on a lethal, breakneck mission to retrieve it, while also staying one-step ahead of a mysterious woman, Lin Mi Sheng (Fan Bingbing, X-Men: Days of Future Past), who is tracking their every move.

As the action rockets around the globe from the cafes of Paris to the markets of Morocco to the wealth and glamour of Shanghai, the quartet of women will forge a tenuous loyalty that could protect the world—or get them killed.

The film also stars Sebastian Stan (Avengers: Endgame) and Edgar Ramírez (The Girl on the Train).

The 355 is directed by genre-defying filmmaker Simon Kinberg (writer-director-producer of Dark Phoenix, producer of Deadpool and The Martian and writer-producer of the X-Men films), from a script by Theresa Rebeck (NBC’s Smash, Trouble) and Kinberg, and is produced by Chastain and Kelly Carmichael for Chastain’s Freckle Films and by Kinberg for his Genre Films. The film is executive produced by Richard Hewitt (Bohemian Rhapsody).

PAIN AND GLORY – Review

Center: Antonio Banderas as Salvador
© El Deseo. Photo by Manolo Pavón. Courtesy Sony Pictures Classics.

Making a film about a movie maker is a tricky thing but thankfully, Pedro Almodovar gets it right in the Spanish-language drama PAIN AND GLORY. Get it wrong and you have a self-absorbed mess right but get it right and you have something luminous like 8 1/2. In PAIN AND GLORY, an aging Spanish film director, with a long, storied career, reflects on his past life, particularly a childhood in poverty, as he copes with the pain and physical ailments that keep him from continuing to do what he loves – make movies.

The Oscar-winning Spanish director/writer/producer Pedro Almodovar has had his own storied career, with films ranging across genres with dramas like Oscar winner ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, thrillers like THE SKIN I LIVE IN, and comedies like his breakout WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. Many Almodovar films have an element of drawing on the director’s own life but it is much more pronounced in this film about a director, of course.

Almodovar has made a number of great films, and can add one more with PAIN AND GLORY. For any great director, some films turn out better than others but PAIN AND GLORY is one of Almodovar’s successes. Almodovar frequently casts the same actors in lead roles in his films, particularly so with Javier Bardem, Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz, and favorites Banderas and Cruz return in this one.

Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas) is a Spanish film director who has had a lot of cinema glory in his career but now he lives in a world of pain. Unable to continue making films due to a host of physical ailments coupled with depression, the aging director lives a nearly reclusive life, spending time remembering his past life, particularly his childhood and his beloved mother. Penelope Cruz plays his mother Jacinta, who takes her son from her their rural village to a small town hoping for a better life, a village where Salvador’s father has gone seeking work. Rather than wait for him to send for them, his wife and small son arrive unannounced, and she is dismayed to find the appalling conditions in which her husband as living. Undeterred, she struggles to make life better and give her bright son a future.

In the present, the director’s manager Mercedes (Nora Navas) tries to draw him out of his hermit-like life, and finally persuades him to appear at a retrospective featuring one his old films. A chance meeting with an actress he had not seen in years sparks him to reconnect with the star of that now-classic film. The director and actor had parted ways over the actor’s portrayal of the main character but the director has reconsidered his reaction to the film on re-watching it these many years later. Meanwhile, the actor, Alberto (Asier Etxeandia), has fallen on hard times, in part due to his heroin addiction, and the high-profile retrospective offers a chance to revive his sagging career.

Like all Almodovar films, there are a lot of complicated, often edgy things going on around this plot and with these equally complicated, flawed people. As in most Almodovar films, the strong characters, the ones with will and focus, are the women. In this case, it is both the director’s mother, in his memories of her from his childhood and in her later years (where she is played by Julieta Serrano ), and his manager Mercedes who help Salvador find his way.

The script is more introspective and universal than one might expect. Although this particular character is a film director, his experiences and situation could be any person of a certain age, remembering the childhood that shaped them, remembering first loves, first heartbreaks, and re-evaluating one’s work with the perspective of time, and contemplating the later part of life, as Salvador.

But this film is not all seriousness, by any means. There are elements of humor, particularly in the scenes with the actor Alberto, played winningly by Asier Etxeandia. When Salvador waffles about inviting Alberto to speak along at the film retrospective, Alberto tries to persuade him, as if he is auditioning, and Salvador unconsciously slips into directing, telling him not to cry at the event, and commenting the “actors always want to cry,” with exasperation. The film also has moments of romance, sweetness and poignancy, as well as struggle, indecision and bad decisions, making it a warm and emotionally engaging experience.

The acting is superb, as it always is in Almodovar’s films. Antonio Banderas turns in one of his best performances, as a man in emotional and physical pain, trying to find his way in late life and reconciling the past while contemplating the future. Penelope Cruz glows as young Salvador’s mother, displaying iron determination, showering him with love while working tirelessly to build his future. Other supporting actors strengthen and deepen the narrative too. Leonardo Sbaraglia is warm as Frederico, a long-lost lover who reconnects with Salvador, and César Vicente is touching as Eduardo, an artistically-talented and handsome young man, who sparks the early stirrings of sexual attraction in young Salvador (Asier Flores).

The film is visually vibrant, filled with bright colors, sunlight, and bold graphic shapes, giving the images on screen energy. The attention to the beautiful composition and color in nearly every scene gives the feeling of being inside a painting, and in fact, paintings and artists are a motif running throughout the film. But everything is masterfully integrated in this film, the story, the imagery and performances, so that it draws into its world fully and involves us deeply in Salvador’s dilemma grappling with the aches and regrets of late life but resolving them to find a path to keep living.

PAIN AND GLORY is a impressive but of cinema but it is, more importantly, a rich film experience for thoughtful audiences, both warm, bittersweet and satisfying.

PAIN AND GLORY, in Spanish with English subtitles, opens Friday, Oct. 25, at the Plaza Frontenac and Tivoli theaters.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

EVERYBODY KNOWS – Review

Penélope Cruz stars as Laura and Javier Bardem as Paco in Asghar Farhadi’s EVERYBODY KNOWS, a Focus Features release. Photo credit: Teresa Isasi/Focus Features

Penelope Cruz plays a Spanish-born woman who returns with her two children to the rural Spanish village where she grew up for her younger sister’s wedding. Among those who greet her are her childhood friend Paco (Javier Bardem), now the owner of a successful vineyard and winery. But this joyful family event is disrupted by a crime that brings to the surface long-simmering resentments and suspicions, ripping away the pleasant veneer of the modern world to reveal old class divides, in the gripping psychological thriller EVERYBODY KNOWS.

While the Spanish thriller/drama EVERYBODY KNOWS (Todos lo Saben) was not nominated for an Oscar, it did win the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year. The film seems deeply Spanish, and it features two of Spain’s biggest stars, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. However, it actually was written and directed by Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, whose past films include the Oscar-winning films A SEPARATION and THE SALESMAN. Like those dramas, a family crisis is used to reveal deeper divisions and issues within that society and provide social commentary, as the drama also explores complexities of human relationships.

Penelope Cruz plays Laura, the woman returning to her family’s little village for her sister Ana’s (Inma Cuesta) wedding. Laura’s businessman husband Alejando (Ricardo Darin) is a model of globalized affluence who has donated generously to the restoration of the village’s historic church but he has not come on this trip, with Laura saying he needed to remain in Buenos Aires due to business. As Laura and her children, teenage daughter Irene (Carla Campra) and young son Diego (Ivan Chavero), arrive at the small inn owned by her older sister Mariana (Elvira Minguez) and her husband Fernando, they are also greeted by her childhood friend and former love Paco (Javier Bardem), now one of the town’s most prosperous citizens along with his wife Bea (Barbara Lennie). As they all celebrate the wedding into the night, a tragic event strikes, sending the family into a morass of secrets, long-hidden resentments and accusations as they struggle to rescue one of their own.

The crime is the kidnapping of Irene, and the kidnapper leave threatening clippings about an earlier kidnapping that ended badly when the family broke the instructions not to contact police. The instructions means the family must try to figure out on their own how to get her back alive.

Secrets are exposed and the past comes back to haunt everyone in the crime/psychological thriller EVERYBODY KNOWS. It is a big cast, which provides plenty of room for intrigue. The title suggests gossip, and that does play a role, as the accusations fly. Red herrings abound, as do secrets and shifting suspicions. The film seems a pot boiler with a dash of soap opera, at least on the surface.

This complex film works on several levels. On the surface, it is a crime thriller, a mystery to be solved. At times the twisty plot verges on soap opera, as family secrets and long-buried resentments boil up. But beneath that the drama explores the impact of old class divides, the resentments and lingering attitudes of privilege even as fortunes are reversed. Past romantic history emerges as well as cracks in veneers of prosperity. “Everybody knows” becomes a reoccurring refrain, as assumptions that “everybody knows” are exploded or nearly forgotten events of the past come to light.

At first, everything looks the idealized picture of a modern globalized world. When Laura returns to her family’s ancient estate home for the wedding, she is the picture of affluence from abroad, the success story in her once wealthy family. Her older sister and her husband are just getting by running a little inn in the rural village but the wine-growing region which is bustling. Laura’s childhood friend and youthful love Paco was the son of the family servant, but now owns a prosperous winery. When impulsive teenage Irene takes off with a cute local boy on a motorcycle, her mother is not overly worried, as everyone knows everyone in the village. The whole town seems to turn out for the wedding and the wine-fueled, dance-filled celebration that follows. As the celebration goes on into the night, the festivities take a dark turn, when Irene goes missing.

Forbidden by the kidnappers to contact police, the family is forced to figure out what to do on their own. Fernando secretly contacts an old friend, a retired policeman (Jose Angel Egido), who offers some advice but also unleashes secrets and suspicions.

The events of the film rip away the thin layer of modern social equality to reveal deep class divisions rooted in ancient aristocracy. Laura’s aging father (Ramon Barea), once the local patrone and major landholder, drunkenly rails that everyone in the village, claiming they owe him and implying he was swindled out of the land, although everyone knows he lost it gambling it away. While the family treats Paco almost like a member, the old patriarch lashes out to remind everyone it was not always so. In the end, it seems like Paco who pays to biggest price.

The plot is full of twists and with so many characters and switch backs it is easy to lose track. The director uses a familiar formula of doling out information in pieces, building suspense and doubt.

With all its twists and subtext, EVERYBODY KNOWS reaches a satisfying but poignant conclusion. Not everybody will like this very twisty thriller but fans of complicated psychological thrillers will be onboard for this wild ride. EVERYBODY KNOWS, in Spanish with English subtitles,opens Friday, February 22, at the Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

Penélope Cruz And Javier Bardem Star In Asghar Farhadi’s EVERYBODY KNOWS

Penélope Cruz stars as Laura and Javier Bardem as Paco in Asghar Farhadi’s EVERYBODY KNOWS, a Focus Features release.Credit: Teresa Isasi/Focus Features

Here’s a first look at director Asghar Farhadi (“The Salesman,” “A Separation”) upcoming film EVERYBODY KNOWS. The film had its opening-night premiere at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

The film follows Laura (Cruz) on her travels from Argentina to her small home town in Spain for her sister’s wedding, bringing her two children along for the occasion. Amid the joyful reunion and festivities, the eldest daughter is abducted. In the tense days that follow, various family and community tensions surface and deeply hidden secrets are revealed.

Did you know that Bardem and  Cruz have been married since 2010, and they’ve also been acting opposite one another, on and off, for 26 years—from Vicky Cristina Barcelona in 2008 and Loving Pablo. Read more HERE.

Focus Features will release in select theaters on February 8, 2019.

Visit the official site: focusfeatures.com/everybody-knows

Credit: Teresa Isasi/Focus Features