The Brutalist: A Review

 

THE BRUTALIST

Architecture, in my view, peaked with Frank Lloyd Wright. Art Deco is the last great architectural movement to my mind. Everything past that is rather ugly. Le Corbusier and Philip Johnson are architectural satanists to me. As such, Brutalism is the nadir of construction, the cold, remote, soulless buildings hideous to my eyes. The Brutalist describes both the title character's architectural style and how his life is. The Brutalist is an apt description of this very long film: efficient but cold.

Divided into four parts: Overture, The Enigma of Arrival, The Hard Core of Beauty and Epilogue, we see the fictional story of Hungarian architect Laszlo Toth (Adrien Brody). Toth has survived the Holocaust and has found refuge in the United States, where he reunites with his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola) and his goyim wife Audrey (Emma Laird). Attila, who has assimilated to the point that he passes himself off as a Catholic named Miller, brings Laszlo into his furniture business. An unexpected bit of luck has come their way when business scion Harry Van Buren (Joe Alwyn) commissions them to rebuild a library for his father, Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pierce) as a surprise. Harrison comes unannounced home before the room is completed and is enraged by the remodeling and throws them all out.

Sometime later, however, Harrison has a change of heart when he learns of Toth's past. Now not only has he brought Laszlo back but commissions him to build a center in Harrison's late mother's memory. He also helps grease the wheels to bring Laszlo's wife and niece from Hungary. By this time, Laszlo and his right-hand man Gregory (Gordon De Bankole) are full-on heroin addicts, a way for Laszlo to dull the pain of his life. Once his wife Erzebet (Felicity Jones) and niece Zsofia (Raffey Cassidy) arrive in Pennsylvania, Laszlo continues pursuing his artistic vision, forever arguing with the money men and the Van Burens. Eventually, the project falls apart.

Now moving to New York, Zsofia and her husband opt to move to the new State of Israel while Erzebet continues her journalism career, and Laszlo works for an architectural firm. Harrison has invited Toth back to complete the project, and as part of that plan they go to Italy for marble. There, a shocking act by Harrison on Laszlo leads to a final break. Despite this, we learn that the project was completed but after a gap. An aged and silent Laszlo looks on at a Venice Biennale, recognized for his lifetime's work.

By the time we get to the fifteen-minute intermission an hour and forty-minutes in, I thought The Brutalist was too long. If I think on Mona Fastvold and director Brady Corbet's screenplay, I think much could have been cut or moved at a faster pace. The whole of Part 1 in most other films would have been done in about half an hour to forty-five minutes. Did we really need long sex scenes and a longer sojourn to Italy? 

I could not shake the idea that The Brutalist was inflated in its almost four-hour runtime. I also thought the acting was rather chilly and remote.

Much praise has been given to Adrien Brody as Laszlo Toth. It was efficient. It was effective. It was also calculated, mannered and dare I say, actory. It was as if I was watching someone act versus watching Laszlo Toth come to life. As we got to the end, and I saw Laszlo Toth, old, infirm and in a wheelchair, I thought he was overacting. It is a remarkable feat to think one can be overacting while sitting in a wheelchair. 

That sense of "BIG ACTING" from most of the cast permeated The Brutalist to my mind. Guy Pierce should be congratulated for having a strong American accent as the patrician Harrison Van Buren. He was good as the proud, powerful patron. Same for Jones as Elsebeth, crippled by the aftereffects of the Holocaust. I did think that Alwyn, whom I like as an actor, was a bit big as Harry, the son who starts well and ends morally blind. Nothing against Stacey Martin, but we could have cut Harrison's daughter Maggie for all the impact that she had in the film. Nivola and Laird too could have had their parts trimmed as Attila and his wife, who accuses Laszlo of making untoward advances towards Audrey.

The Brutalist does have some positives, in particular Daniel Blumberg's score. The music manages to blend jazz with classical quite well. 

Overall, though, I was left cold by The Brutalist. The film was well-made, but like the architectural style, The Brutalist does what it is supposed to do while not while not inspiring passion or joy.

DECISION: C+

The Last Showgirl: A Review

 

THE LAST SHOWGIRL

Even now, when people think of Las Vegas, one pictures glamourous showgirls with feathers and sparkling outfits. That imagery is kept alive in Las Vegas tourism advertisements and the Vegas Golden Knights hockey team, which features a group of beautiful women in sequins and elaborate Golden Knights-themed headgear. Despite these women being part of the Las Vegas image, there are remarkably few if any Las Vegas Strip shows that feature these kinds of entertainers. The Last Showgirl chronicles the story of the end of this world through a woman whose life was the facade of these figures of beauty.

Shelly (Pamela Anderson) has been the headliner for decades at Le Razzle Dazzle, an old-school Las Vegas topless revue. She enjoys the glitz and glamour of the show, even if at times she finds it hectic. Shelly has two fellow dancers with whom she has something of a bond with. There's Mary-Anne (Brenda Song), who sees Le Razzle Dazzle as a job and nothing more. The younger and less experienced Jodie (Kiernan Shipka) sees it as her first step in her dancing career. Shelly maintains a cool but affectionate relationship with Mary-Anne and Jodie and is closer to former Le Razzle Dazzle performer Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), who had long left the show and is now a cocktail waitress at the casino Le Razzle Dazzle is featured at.

Things seem to be going well until stage manager Eddie (Dave Bautista) arrives, somewhat invited, to a girl's night dinner. He tells them that owing to declining ticket sales and competition from another show at their casino, Dirty Circus, the casino will close Le Razzle Dazzle in two weeks. Naturally, the performers are devastated, but Shelly takes it especially hard. This is all she has ever done and ever wanted to do. She is disdainful of the new Las Vegas Strip shows such as Dirty Circus and Hedonist Paradise which Jodie auditioned for after the announced closure. Shelly finds them all vulgar and tasteless, offering nothing but sleaze and with none of the elegance of her revue.

Shelly now reevaluates her life, and that includes Hannah (Billie Lourd). Hannah is Shelly's daughter with whom she has a fraught relationship. They do love each other, but they also are so unfamiliar with each other. Shelly, facing the realities of her relationship with everyone she knows, wants to maintain her authentic self while navigating this strange new world. Will she find a place in the new Las Vegas? Will she mend all her relationships and the stage costume wings that she loves?

As I watched The Last Showgirl, I saw it as a paean to a fading if not faded world. Shelly is a relic, a throwback to not just a certain type of show, but a certain worldview. Her audition for a new show that bookends The Last Showgirl reveals a lot about the character: her struggles to adjust, her fears about moving away from the familiar but her determination to maintain those values that she holds dear. 

This is a go-for-broke performance from Pamela Anderson. I do not think that anyone considered Anderson a legitimate actress. Like Shelly is coldly told by the director she's auditioning for (Jason Schwartzman in a cameo), I think people hired Anderson during her Baywatch heyday for her physical beauty versus any talent she might have had. Now at 57, both Anderson and Shelly cannot rely on mere looks alone to move forward. 

Is it fair to say that Pamela Anderson is playing a version of herself in The Last Showgirl? I would say no. She is playing someone who has similar experiences that the character does, but Shelly is not Anderson. Shelly is someone who has not moved with the times, but not because she cannot. Instead, it is because the world she lives in is one she loves. We learn this throughout the film. She tells Hannah, Mary-Anne & Jodie as well as Eddie variations of how she does not regret giving her life to Le Razzle Dazzle. It might not have brought her fame or fortune, but it has brought her joy.

In Anderson's performance, we see a woman who struggles with her role as mother but who at heart is good. Her efforts to have a closer relationship with Hannah are effective on screen. However, she also shows her fears when she rejects Jodie when she arrives unannounced asking for a shoulder to cry on. At another point, she screams at Mary-Anne that she cannot be a mother figure to them because she already has a daughter. Later on, though, we see in a nonverbal scene Shelly comforting and even laughing with Mary-Anne and Jodie as they get closer to the show's closing.

Anderson has a thin, chirpy voice. However, that and the nervous energy that she shows works for the character. There are wonderful moments of acting from Anderson. One monologue has her expand on why she finds shows like Hedonist Paradise vulgar and tawdry. Another is when she and Eddie have a dinner date. Apart from a surprising secret being revealed, we see that Shelly is someone who will not be judged. As she berates the audition director, we may see both Shelly and Anderson commenting on themselves. 

Ultimately, I would say that Pamela Anderson gave a good performance as Shelly in The Last Showgirl. If people want to see it as Pamela Anderson playing a version of herself, I can see that. I also saw someone bringing her own life experiences into Kate Gertsen's screenplay. That, to me, is what actors can do to make their characters come alive.

In terms of directing performances, Gia Coppola did well. Both Song and Shipka were effective as Shelly's fellow dancers Mary-Anne and Jodie, making Mary-Anne's general cynicism and Jodie's more wide-eyed manner work. I think in her smaller role, Jamie Lee Curtis did excellent as Annette, somewhat self-destructive but doing her best to survive. As much as I may not like Dave Bautista overall, he did well as Eddie. He was strong in his overall quiet manner as the stage manager. It was the opposite of Anderson. She played to type as this bombshell who is seeing things end. He is never bombastic or loud. He's actually quite soft, even when Shelly makes a scene at the restaurant.

I thought Lourd could have been stronger as Hannah, the daughter who both loves and resents the woman who left her in the parking lot to do two shows. "It's a nudie show," Hannah tells her mother when she finally goes to see Le Razzle Dazzle. I think the part was a bit cliched, so I cut Lourd some slack.

If there is something that I strongly disliked in The Last Showgirl, it is the camera work. I got that Coppola was going for a more natural, almost documentary-like look in some scenes. I also got slightly dizzy with the moving camera and light flares. However, the closing scene of The Last Showgirl, where we hear Beautiful That Way as we get glimpses of both Le Razzle Dazzle and Shelly's imagined audience of Hannah and Eddie, is quite moving.

As a tribute to a type of spectacle fallen out of favor, with strong performances and an interesting story, The Last Showgirl works quite well. Like the Le Razzle Dazzle dancers, I think audiences will be entertained, and maybe even touched, by The Last Showgirl.

DECISION: B-

Jurassic Park III: A Review

JURASSIC PARK III

I suppose that after the success of The Lost World, we were going to get yet another Jurassic Park film. I thought The Lost World was terrible. I was, however, not prepared for how Jurassic Park III would be even worse. Dumb, unexciting and even insulting, Jurassic Park III is almost a desecration of the original film.

Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) makes it clear that he has absolutely no intention of talking about what happened to him on Isla Nublar or what happened in San Diego, which he helpfully reminds audiences that he was not part of. He also says that nothing will get him to Isla Sorna or Site B, which we learned about in the last film.

Famous last words, for Grant reluctantly agrees to merely fly over Isla Sorna in exchange for funding from wealthy couple Paul and Amanda Kirby (William H. Macy and Tea Leoni). Grant thinks that he is going to only point out the various creatures to the Kirbys. In reality, he is essentially kidnapped in order to help them find their son Eric (Trevor Morgan) and Amanda's boyfriend Ben (Mark Herelick), who disappeared while parasailing near the island. 

Amanda's boyfriend? Yes, for Grant and his assistant Billy (Alessandro Nivola) find out that they are actually divorced. Worse, they are not wealthy patrons of the sciences but upper middle class, Paul owning Kirby Paint and Tile Plus hardware store. Now it is on to find and hopefully save Eric once Ben's rotted corpse is found. The pilot and mercenaries that the Kirbys brought face dangers all around. Even after Eric is found, they still find themselves pursued. 

Billy has taken a pair of dinosaur eggs in a misguided effort to use them to gain more funding. Grant knows that the dinosaurs will keep after them to get the eggs back. From there, the survivors must find a way to reach shore. Will they be able to escape Site B? Will Grant's former love, Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) be able to help them despite being far away in her domestic bliss?

It is curious that Peter Buchman, Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne failed in their Jurassic Park III screenplay the same way that The Lost World failed in its screenplay. By now, we all should know that as soon as a character says that he/she will never go back to XYZ, they are definitely going back to XYZ. Even worse, director Joe Johnson and actor Sam Neill almost seem to openly mock this in how Johnson moved his camera closer to Neill when he overacted that bit of dialogue. It is as if they wanted to draw attention to how Grant was going back to where even Grant knew it beforehand.

As a side note, it is astonishing that Alexander Payne, who brought us the brilliant Election, Sideways, Nebraska and The Holdovers, had a hand in this debacle. 

Jurassic Park III is one of the laziest films that I have seen. It is probably the laziest film in the entire unfortunate franchise. One particularly ghastly moment is when they are trapped in a flooding river with a heavy rainstorm making things worse. As they battle for their lives, they grab onto a found satellite phone. When Grant picks up, he hears a robocall for a time-share offer. I figure those behind the camera thought that this would be a good gag. It just was both idiotic and cut what little tension Jurassic Park III was attempting to build.

Far from being tense and exciting, Jurassic Park III was dumb and laughable. I think Tea Leoni has been singled out for her performance, but as one to ridicule. She did not help herself when she got tangled up in Ben's cord, screaming and going into hysterics that came across as more comic than horrified. I want to say that she did the best that she could with such a badly written character, one who continued to call out Eric's name over a bullhorn despite being told not to by Grant and even Paul. There was little for Leoni to work with, but it does not absolve her from her at times laughable performance.

It is not as if everyone else covered themselves in glory. Neill got a nice paycheck out of this, but he looked totally unenthusiastic about being here. Yes, one can say that it reflected the character. However, in his scenes with Dern or when off the island, he looked as if he figured that it was in his best interest to devour the screen to give him something to do. I think Macy, like Leoni, did the best that he could. He did have that average man quality to Paul, but the scenes of the Kirby domestic drama in the midst of the mayhem did not help. 

To be fair, I did think well of Michael Jeter as Udesky, one of Kirby's mercenaries. It was a break from his usual roles of meek figures, and Jeter was effective as this more rugged figure facing off against these gruesome creatures. 

I genuinely wondered why Nivola's Billy could not have been the new lead, with Grant merely serving as mentor. He was fine, but not great, and for long stretches I genuinely wondered who he was. Morgan was nothing special, neither as clever or amusing as Joseph Mazzello's Tim or as courageous as Ariana Richards' Lex from the first film. How exactly he survived eight whole weeks on the island Lord of the Flies style the film won't say. 

Eight days I could believe. Two months managing to avoid getting eaten by the dinosaurs, scavenging food and water and with no one actually looking for him is a stretch.

As a side note, Jurassic Park III did a poor job of shoehorning Laura Dern.

These are some of the worse dinosaurs that I have seen. Grant at one point called the dinosaurs he encountered at Jurassic Park "genetically engineered theme park monsters", a strange turn from someone who initially had been impressed with the dinosaurs. Granted, he had a horrendous experience with them that might have soured his feelings. However, I found that the dinosaurs here looked like the auto-animatronic figures from a Disney ride. When we are supposed to see dinosaurs, I saw fake imagery.

Jurassic Park III did nothing with what had come before. It did not make the case for itself. I did not even get good dinosaurs or humans. The third time was most definitely not the charm. 

DECISION: F

JURASSIC PARK FILMS

Jurassic Park

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Jurassic World

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Jurassic World Dominion

Jurassic World Rebirth

The Lost World: Jurassic Park. A Review

THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK

The original Jurassic Park became one of the biggest hits of all time. With that, a sequel seemed almost preordained. Thus, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. In a case of "you can't go home again", The Lost World is itself lost in a boring story, poor performances and nothing to justify itself.

Four years after the events on Jurassic Park, scientist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) wants nothing to do with anything about the island. Billionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has other plans, despite having lost control of his company to his nephew Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard). Hammond wants Malcolm to go to the hereto unknown "Site B", where the Jurassic Park dinosaurs were created and now have free range over. Hammond wants to have Site B or Isla Sonra to be left alone. Peter wants to bring whatever creatures still there to another site in San Diego to compete with other animal parks like the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Chargers.

Malcolm wants nothing to do with anything with Site B, but he learns that his girlfriend Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) has eagerly gone to chronicle whatever is on Site B. Determined to rescue Sarah, Malcolm goes to Islan Sonra along with videographer Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn) and engineer Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff). Unbeknownst to them, there is a stowaway: Malcolm's daughter Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester). More unbeknownst to everyone, Ludlow also goes to the island, accompanied by white hunter Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite). Circumstances eventually force them to join together to stay alive when the dinosaurs inevitably go bonkers. Not everyone survives, but despite Malcolm's incessant warnings, Ludlow gets his creature.

Ludlow will not be denied his great discovery to showcase in San Diego. Inevitably things go awry as the dinosaur rampages through San Diego. Will Ian and Sarah be able to save the day?

I think that director Steven Spielberg had, for the longest time, resisted making sequels save for the Indiana Jones series (and I can make the argument that Temple of Doom is a prequel). He famously resisted making an E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial sequel despite pleas from viewers and studios. Jurassic Park, however, was too good to resist. There could have been a variety of things to take a follow-up to Jurassic Park. The ultimate decision from screenwriter David Koepp (freely adapting the Michael Crichton book) opted to make a film that is dull, lifeless and taking a fascinating premise and doing nothing with it.

There is something irritating about characters who say that they won't do XYZ when we know that they will. It would be nice, for once, if the character said either "Yes, I will go back to try and fix the mess you made" or "I'm not eager to go there, but I will". I think it is because we the audience know that the character will go back. Malcolm's motivation of going to rescue the damsel in distress is not interesting because we do not know who she is.   

Even worse is the character of Malcolm's daughter Kelly. This is the first time we got a mention of Kelly. I leave it to you to decide whether Malcolm's daughter being black needs explanation. It did not matter to me, but one is within their right to wonder. 

It does not help that Chester and Kelly are also awful. Kelly is a terrible character: annoying, whiny and quite dim. At one point, Kelly manages to help Sarah and Ian escape by doing a gymnastic routine to fight the rampaging dinosaurs. You would have to be unconscious to not be laughing uproariously at seeing this moment. I think Kelly had mentioned that she had been on the gymnastics team but if she had, I had pretty much forgotten about it.

Chester gave the worst performance in The Lost World. Robotic delivery and a blank expression throughout, Chester never conveyed any emotion apart from boredom. No one else, however, was all that much better. Goldblum looked equally bored in the film, never trying to do anything new. His expression never changed throughout The Lost World. How and why Julianne Moore is in this film one cannot fathom. Vaughn, I think, tried, but he appeared to overcompensate by being frenetic, at odds with the more sedate manner everyone else had. 

In retrospect, Howard may have been worse than Chester. Carrying a very bad British accent, Howard did not look bored like everyone else in the film. He looked confused. I do not think Howard changed his expression or vocal inflection, as if he was too busy concentrating on having a passable British accent to think about acting. Given how awful that British accent was, he should not have bothered even trying.

The Lost World did not make any sense. How exactly did Kelly manage to stowaway without anyone noticing? When the T. Rex starts rampaging into San Diego, which itself is already bad since the press conference takes place at night, it stomps across a customs office. We see the guards running in terror, but everyone at the customs office never notices this massive monster near them. For long periods of time, no one seems to notice what happened to some of the other characters. 

What sold the first Jurassic Park were the still breathtaking special effects. In The Lost World, they looked, frankly, fake. I was reminded of the Walt Disney World theme ride with the effects being on that level. The green screen looked bad and the animatronic figures equally so.  

As I finished The Lost World: Jurassic Park, I thought that no one had any enthusiasm for anything about it. Sluggish, dull and at times illogical, The Lost World should have remained lost.

DECISION: F

JURASSIC PARK FILMS

Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park III

Jurassic World

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Jurassic World Dominion

Jurassic World Rebirth

Better Man: A Review (Review #1925)

BETTER MAN

Frank Sinatra famously sang of New York, "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere". Conversely, British pop star Robbie Williams has made it everywhere except New York. To be fair, he might get recognized if he walked down the streets of the Big Apple; he probably though will get more respectable nods than screaming fans ripping his clothes off. If he came to my hometown, he could walk the streets in complete anonymity. Better Man, the biopic on the former Take That member, is not a bad film. It's reflective of Williams and his public persona: brash, outrageous, simultaneously attention-seeking and withdrawing. It also fails to make the case as to why anyone between New York and California should care who Robbie Williams is.

Working-class boy Robert Williams yearns to be someone. In particular, he yearns to be like the singers his father Peter (Steve Pemberton) so admires and imitates like Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin and his beloved Sinatra. Pete, however, also loves performing and eventually leaves the family to pursue his dreams of being a singer and master of ceremonies. Robert, no academic, has the support of his mother Janet (Kate Mulvaney) and beloved grandmother Betty (Alison Steadman), but also appears headed for nowhere.

He also struggles with deep insecurity and feelings of unworthiness which he masks through an outwardly cocky, downright cheeky personality. His efforts to gain fame come to fruition when he wins a spot in a new boy band created by music impresario Nigel Martin-Smith (Damon Harriman). The fifteen-year-old Williams now rechristened "Robbie" (Jonno Davies, with Williams narrating in voiceover), may not be the best singer in the quintet though arguably the best dancer. He is not the creative member of the group, as that role is filled by his frenemy Gary Barlow (Jake Simmance), who has been performing for decades, is a skilled songwriter but has no coordination. 

Robbie Williams becomes a breakout star in Take That, his mix of brashness and pretty looks irresistible to fans and the press. He also continues to struggle with his feelings of low-to-no self-worth, which he compensates for with copious amounts of cocaine, booze and outrageous public antics. Eventually pushed out of Take That, he now must rebuild both his life and solo career. He gets a bit of both through his romance with Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), a member of girl pop group All Saints. Despite his new love affair and a rising solo career, Williams is still tormented by immense self-doubt and increasing addictions. Will Robbie Williams find Angels to guide him back to a balance between being loved by millions and loving himself? Will he reconcile his past to his present and future?  

Better Man opts to use some tropes of a biopic on a musician while adding one new quirk. You have the biographical film subject's musical catalog to chronicle certain points in his life. You have the rise, fall and redemption arc (a point that Williams himself makes in a trailer). You hit the high and low points in the performer's career.

You also have the central character appear as a CGI chimpanzee. I imagine that there are reasons for this decision. Williams, by his own admission in Better Man (the title coming from one of his songs) is undeveloped. There is a British expression of someone being a "cheeky monkey", which Williams' persona certainly fits. It also is something that would make Better Man stand out from other jukebox musical biopics such as Rocketman. 

I also digress to wonder if such an outlandish element would please Williams' ego of standout out, of being so brash as to opt to make something in a jukebox musical biopic that would make it attention-grabbing.

I am not a fan of jukebox musical biopics where one takes the songs that the film's subject is about and using them to fit the narrative. I'm of the belief that songs should be written to fit the story rather than fit the songs into the story. The main difference between say a Rocketman and Better Man is that Elton John's songs are better known than Robbie Williams' songs. Say what you will about Rocketman using I'm Still Standing to sum up Sir Elton's life. At least that song is familiar to people outside the United Kingdom. How many people in America could sing along to She's the One?

How many people in America, moreover, would know who either Nicole Appleton or All Saints are? Oasis and the belligerent Gallagher Brothers who are Oasis' core, Liam (Leo Harvey-Elledge) and Noel (Chris Gun) would be more recognizable, but Nicole Appleton? Better Man wants to make the moment when she removes her mask at a party something that should make audiences gasp. I just was puzzled over why this seemingly random woman inspired Williams to sing this impassioned love song to her.

Same for when we meet the other members of Take That. To be fair, Williams' voiceover does give us at least their names and what he initially thought of them. However, like yet another musical biopic, the Take That members were so unimportant one did not even think they should have bothered. Just like both DJ Yella and MC Ren were pretty much irrelevant in Straight Outta Compton, the non-Gary Barlow members of Take That (Howard Donald, Mark Owen and Jason Orange) got a shout-out and save for the elaborate Rock DJ number were unimportant to things.

There are moments that did surprise me in Better Man. I was unaware that Take That was initially geared towards gay audiences. That does give Williams in his voiceover a chance to quip that he is not upset or distressed over stories that he has had sex with men. He's more upset that those stories say that he was lousy in bed. I was also surprised to see Williams' actual face appear once, when in seemingly archival footage of Take That merchandise, you see his pretty face on a group poster.

I will admit that rather than be moved or shocked when a coked-out-of-his-mind Williams took to the stage with the rest of Take That lying on the floor as they made their entrance, I actually started laughing. There was just something hilarious about this big monkey in an excessively large hat lying barely conscious on the floor as it rises to screaming thousand. I wondered why no one in the admittedly massive stadium audience seemed to notice that one of the performers looked as if he was dead.

Let me now touch on "the monkey thing". I did, eventually, get used to seeing Williams as a CGI chimp. It did not make it any more sensible, especially when he was a child. I thought that perhaps it would have been better if director/cowriter Michael Gracey (writing with Simon Gleason and Oliver Cole) had made the various negative images of Williams that Williams carries around into monkeys. By going all-in on "Robbie Williams is an ape man" deal, it ended up making his metaphorical battle with his past selves during his triumphant Knebworth concert look like something out of a Planet of the Apes film. It was not terrible, but it was odd.

Knebworth might capture why Better Man will not play well in the States. Williams seems obsessed with not just making it to Knebworth but being the main star at Knebworth. As he kept going on about "Knebworth", I kept asking, "Network? What is Network? Why is it so important that he be at Network?" Even for someone who is something of an Anglophile, "Knebworth" is something that I would not have heard of. Better Man, I think, is geared towards where his name is a marquee one, where Knebworth is a big thing. He might just as well have made it a goal of his to play the Neon Desert Music Festival.  

Despite Williams' near-total anonymity in the United States, I did not dislike Better Man. There were moments that did move me. His beloved grandmother's descent into dementia and death just when Williams was about to hit Top of the Pops (the British equivalent to American Bandstand, which itself is now obscure to those past Gen X). The montage of him, post-rehab, going to others to make amends and be at peace with himself is also affecting.

That, however, cannot fully make up for some awful and cliched lines and situations. It might be true that his best friend Nate (Frazer Hatfield) found Williams in a demolished home, using a device to suck the fat off his body. It still looks odd. When Peter Williams berates his son for saying he did not care about him, he yells "I have always been there for you, Robbie". Williams, lying on a pool, looks at him with his monkey eyes and says, "You've always been there for Robbie. Were you ever there for Robert?" or words to that effect.

Better Man, perhaps, is Robbie Williams' newest efforts to do something that, for whatever reason or reasons, he has been unable to do: become as big a star in the United States as he is in the United Kingdom. The film is interesting, though not great. Robbie Williams, working-class hero from Stoke-on-Trent, has achieved great things through a combination of luck, determination, talent and cheek. Better Man is not a bad film so it might be worth looking over. Try as he might though, Robbie Williams will never be his generation's Frank Sinatra.

Born 1974

DECISION: C+ 

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy: A Review

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY

I have seen the comedy duo of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello meet the Invisible Man. I have seen Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein. Now here I am, seeing them meet another Universal Monster. I have been open about my dislike of Abbott & Costello, the former doing nothing but beating up the latter, who is a childlike idiot. Despite this, I found Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy actually funny, something I could not say before. 

"Pete Patterson" (Abbott) and "Freddie Franklin" (Costello) are in Egypt trying to get some money to go back to the United States. Overhearing Professor Zommer (Kurt Katch) saying that he needs good strong men to move his recently discovered mummy, Bud and Lou arrive unannounced at his house. They are shocked to find Zommer has been murdered.

Worse, the mummy that he found, that of Klaris, is missing. Owing to circumstances from Bud and Lou, the police now think that Bud is a murdered. Desperate to clear their names and stay away from the police, Bud and Lou think their luck has turned when they find a medallion which they hope to hock for some cash.

That medallion is from Klaris, who is the guardian of Princess Ara's treasure-filled tomb. Unaware that two rival groups want to find the medallion, Bud and Lou once again find themselves hunted. One group, headed by Semu (Richard Deacon) is a cult of Klaris worshipers bent on protecting Princess Ara's tomb. The other, headed by Madame Rontru (Marie Windsor) want Ara's treasure. Dragging both Bud and Lou to where Ara's tomb is, Simu and Rontru try to deceive each other for their own aims. Will the mummy return to wreak havoc on everyone? Will Bud and Lou survive meeting a mummy?

I have been immune to the charms of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, finding nothing of great humor from them apart from their "Who's on First?" routine. Curiously in Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, they do a variation of this wordplay routine when they are ordered to literally dig their graves. When Lou tells Bud to "take your pick", Bud picks a pick instead of the shovel that Lou expected Bud to take. From there, we get about a few minutes routine about how Bud's pick is a pick and not a shovel. We get another bit of wordplay when Bud attempts to explain Zoomer's mummy to Lou. The latter is clearly confused over why Zoomer's mummy is still around, growing more confused when told that some mummies are men, and some are women.

Having encountered our dimwitted duo meet two other Universal Monsters, I was leery of them going for thirds. However, I admit that Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy made me laugh. The constant moving of Zoomer's body, with poor Lou always finding it in the oddest of circumstances, made me laugh. There is another funny bit when, after being told that the medallion will bring death to anyone holding it, Bud and Lou keep trying to switch it to the other. 

Even things that normally would have my eyes rolling had me chuckling instead. Bud, for example, is so dimwitted that when photographing Zoomer's body for evidence, he ends up making it look as if he caught Lou murdering the doctor. Lou using his flute to unwittingly both send Bud up in the air with a rope and summing cobras was also funny. 

I think an element in Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy that lifts it in my view is that everyone is basically in on the joke. While Bud Abbott and Lou Costello technically have character names, they keep referring to themselves by their names of "Bud Abbott" and "Lou Costello". At this point, I think even they knew that it was not worth the effort to pretend to be other people. 

Abbott here, I found, is not as abusive to Costello as he has been in other Abbott and Costello films. There are times when Lou gets the upper hand, and while few it is nice to see a little more balance in things. To be fair to Abbott, here Bud is right to be frustrated at Lou. He ended up framed for murder thanks to Lou's idiocy. However, for the most part Bud's physical and verbal abuse towards Lou was small. I can recall only one time, early in the film, when Bud was his usual bullying self. "How stupid can you get?", he snaps at Lou. In his childlike manner, Lou replies, "How stupid do you want me to be?".

The sense of everyone treating Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy as a lark extends to the cast. Marie Windsor, primarily known as a film noir femme fatale, plays a bit against type as the treasure hunter. She is still evil, but her efforts at seducing Lou will bring at least a smile to your face. Deacon plays it straight as Semu, cult leader. It is a laughable suggestion to think that he is Egyptian or some kind of occult priest, but Deacon never sends up the premise. Droll to the point of parody, Deacon does not bother pretending that this is anything serious.

Peggy King, primarily a singer but with some acting credits, appeared in a musical number that has no ties to anything in Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy. Despite having a short runtime of 79 minutes, it does seem to not fit anywhere in the goings-on. That, along with a club number that opens the film and an elaborate dance number at the cult's lair that looks more Thai than Egyptian, are a bit hit and miss but not dealbreakers.

I still do not think that I will be an Abbott & Costello fan. However, it would be false of me to say that I did not enjoy Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy. It is good to know that Bud and Lou love their mummy dearest.

DECISION: B-

Dead Ringers: A Review

DEAD RINGERS

Twins, it is believed, are able to communicate with each other almost telepathically. I do not know if this is true. I do not know if this is true or not. However, the twin characters in Dead Ringers probably would agree that they have a greater bond than other siblings. With an exceptionally strong central performance and a strange premise, Dead Ringers does wonderful work in its dark tale.

Since they were children, twin brothers Elliott and Jessica Mantel (Jeremy Irons) have shared everything. They have a gynecological practice and are seen as both experts and trailblazers in the field of female reproductive health. They also take advantage of the situation: Elliot or Ellie, the more sophisticated and aggressive one, routinely has affairs or one-night stands with the patients. Beverly or Bev, shyer, less confident and more bookish, picks them up when Ellie is through with them. Actress Claire Niveau (Genevieve Bujold) falls into that pattern. Unlike other times though, she suspects something is off about the man she was seduced by.

For his part, Beverly has fallen for Claire, making the revelation of the deception hard for the both of them, though not for Ellie. Despite the initial lie, Claire continues an on-off affair with Bev. He now begins to struggle with his feelings towards both Claire and Ellie, medicating himself with her pills. He also starts going bonkers, creating bizarre medical tools and becoming unhinged in the operating room. Ellie attempts to pull his brother together, but will the bizarre love triangle of Elliott, Beverly and Claire bring the twins doom, destruction and despair?

Perhaps I am reading too much into things, but Dead Ringers could be about the duality of individuals, the light and dark sides of a person trying to maintain a balance. I probably am, as this is a story about twins. Still, the appropriately named Mantel Brothers are polar opposites in terms of personality, Elliot the smoother, more charming but amoral one, Beverly the more hesitant and studious one. In their relationship, neither brother built up an independent life separate from the other. Their ties that bind become at times shocking but make for fascinating viewing.

We see this early on when you see them as children. Their efforts at asking a neighbor girl for sex is tied more to their idea of scientific study than pleasure. Here, we see their detachment to concepts like love, their fascination with biology, and the seeds of their eventually destructive lives.

Director David Cronenberg brings a very cold, remote element to Dead Ringers, excellently matching the brothers' overall manner. There is a lot of grey and muted tones in the film. That, however, makes the times that there is color, such as the curiously bright red operating room clothes that the brothers and their team wear all the more eye-catching. It is not done to make things pretty. It is done to have them pop out.

Dead Ringers has the major benefit of Jeremy Irons in those dual roles. One soon forgets that it is the same actor giving two separate performances. In his manner, body movements and facial reactions, Iron quickly convinces us that he is both brothers. Irons' luxurious voice only makes those moments when Beverly is falling apart all the more impactful. You are convinced that the arrogant and cruel Elliot and gentler Beverly truly are different people. 

Sometimes when an actor attempts to play two roles in the same film, it can look false visually or performance wise. Here, Cronenberg does something very clever. He has the brothers simultaneously in the same shot for a surprisingly small amount of time. There are more scenes of them separate from the other. There are also times when, if the brothers are together, Cronenberg will shoot one brother, then move the camera to see the other, and back and forth. This is not a distraction. It enhances both the film and Irons' performance.

In her role, Bujolds makes her sympathetic in her desires for a child, aware as the first woman to catch on their scheme, and tragic as the one who fell for Beverly. 

The adaptation of Bari Woods and Jack Geasland's novel Twins manages to keep things simple but rarely feel long or dragged out. At times, Dead Ringers has an almost dreamlike quality to it. Some of its visions and dream sequences are mesmerizing. Though its Howard Shore score is relatively small, it is elegant and effective when used.

Dead Ringers is a dark and creepy film, but in a good way. It has a standout performance from Jeremy Irons to where you are convinced that he is two different people. Our dual natures of good and evil get a good exploration in Dead Ringers, a film that should be better known.

DECISION: B-