SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME: 4 STARS
At the beginning of 鈥淪pider-Man: No Way Home,鈥 the new two-and-a-half-hour-long superhero movie now playing in theatres, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) learns it鈥檚 hard to be a masked, crime fighter when everybody knows who you are under your red and black suit.
Exposed by supervillain Mysterio at the end of 鈥淪pider-Man: Far from Home,鈥 Parker鈥檚 life has been turned upside down. And not in a fun way, as in 2002's 鈥淪pider-Man鈥 when Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst shared an upside-down smooch in the rain.
That was harmless good fun.
These days, the friendly neighbourhood web-slinger鈥檚 newfound notoriety makes it impossible for him to balance his personal life and relationships with girlfriend M.J. (Zendaya), best pal Ned (Jacob Batalon), and Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), in addition to his role as a world saving crime fighter.
鈥淧eople looked up to this boy and called him a hero,鈥 squawks J. Jonah Jameson (J. K. Simmons), the conspiratorial host of TheDailyBugle.net. 鈥淲ell, I鈥檒l tell you what I call him, Public Enemy No. 1!鈥
Some think he鈥檚 a hero, others regard him as a vigilante. As his identities become blurred, Parker turns to caped neurosurgeon and master of the mystic arts Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), for help.
鈥淲hen Mysterio revealed my identity, my entire life got screwed up,鈥 Parker says to Strange. 鈥淚 was wondering if you could make it so it never did.鈥
Parker wants Dr. Strange to conjure up a spell to brainwash the world and make people forget he is Spider-Man.
It鈥檚 a big ask. 鈥淏e careful what you wish for,鈥 Strange says, warning Parker that casting such a spell will tamper with the stability of space and time.
Sure enough, the spell blows a hole in the multiverse -- the collection of parallel universes with alternate realities -- and unleashes 鈥渦niversal trespassers,鈥 the most terrifying foes Spider-Man has ever faced in this or any other realm.
There鈥檚 more. Lots more. Big emotional moments, lots of jokes, nostalgia and fan service, an orgy of CGI and Villains! Villains! Villains! The multiverse offers up a multitude of surprises, but there will be no spoilers here. Your eyeballs will dance and, depending on your level of fandom, maybe even well up from time to time.
The trippiness of the story鈥檚 interdimensional leaps, while entertaining, are secondary to the movie鈥檚 strongest feature: Spider-Man鈥檚 empathy. 鈥淪pider-Man: No Way Home鈥 is a movie about second chances. Peter Parker doesn鈥檛 want to simply vanquish his enemies, he wants to understand them, to know why they behave as they do. By the time the end credits roll, the baddies may not be able to wreak havoc anymore, but not for the reasons you might imagine.
In real life, the world is divided by ideology and opinion. 鈥淪pider-Man: No Way Home鈥 asks us to examine those differences, look for their roots and try to heal them. It does so with plenty of trademarked Marvel action and overstuffed bombast, but the core message of empathy and understanding for others is the engine that keeps the movie chugging forward.
鈥淪pider-Man: No Way Home鈥 is a mix of exhilaration and exhaustion. It is inconsistent in its storytelling, overblown at times and the finale is a drawn-out CGI fest, but when it focuses on the characters; the empathy and the chemistry between the actors, it soars like Spider-Man slinging webs and effortlessly zooms between skyscrapers.
NIGHTMARE ALLEY: 4 STARS
Don鈥檛 go to 鈥淣ightmare Alley,鈥 a remake of the 1947 Tyrone Power film noir, now playing in theatres, for the warm fuzzies. Guillermo Del Toro鈥檚 new movie is as cold and icy as the season in which it is being released. Any movie that begins with the burning of a corpse and ends, well, you鈥檒l have to buy a ticket to find out, isn鈥檛 exactly geared to make your season bright, but film fans should find this to be a gift.
Set in the days leading up to the Second World War, the story begins as drifter-with-a-dangerous-past Stan Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) takes a job at a travelling carnival. Paid a dollar a day plus a hot meal, he does grunt work, putting up the big top tent and doing physical labour.
His gift of the gab soon earns him a promotion, working as a barker for the theatrical mystic Zeena (Toni Collette) and her magician husband Pete (David Strathairn). Stan is a quick study, and becomes an expert on how to bilk folks out of their hard-earned cash.
Longing for something bigger, he takes his own mentalism act on the road with the help of assistant and love interest Molly (Rooney Mara). It鈥檚 all fake, the two communicate through a series of veiled verbal clues, but audiences eat it up. They are making money performing at upscale nightclubs, but the offer of doing private readings for prominent people comes with a price tag Stan can鈥檛 resist.
Del Toro is known for creating intricate worlds populated by amazing people and creatures, but don鈥檛 expect a replay of 鈥淧an鈥檚 Labyrinth鈥 or his Oscar winner 鈥淭he Shape of Water.鈥 There are no supernatural elements in 鈥淣ightmare Alley.鈥 The monster here is Stan鈥檚 cold, hard ambition.
Cooper is in slickster mode here, playing Stan as a smooth-talking manipulator whose bad deeds stack up like some sort of ethically challenged Jenga game. He is an enigma. Willing to do whatever it takes to survive. He is a flawed but coldly ambitious man whose eyes are always trained toward the future. It is his biggest asset and, ultimately, his downfall.
Cooper does a good job at exposing Stan鈥檚 layers. He鈥檚 a complicated character, an amoral seducer with a seemingly charming disposition, and Cooper only allows brief peaks at his desperation and brutality.
As good as Cooper is, it鈥檚 Cate Blanchett as the femme fatale psychiatrist Lilith Ritter who steals the show. From her overpainted red lips and seductive nature to her quick intelligence and vulnerability, she is the film鈥檚 most interesting and dangerous presence. Nice office too -- it鈥檚 an Art Deco lover鈥檚 paradise.
Above all though, 鈥淣ightmare Alley鈥 is Del Toro鈥檚 film. He doesn鈥檛 need one of his trademarked creatures like the Pale Man or The Asset to shock. Here he takes a methodical, detailed approach to the story, gradually building to some shocking violence and psychological horror. His interest here is the sinister, not the supernatural, and while the first hour gets bogged down with set-up and a major plot point is telegraphed (NO SPOILERS HERE!), his ability to create atmosphere is singular. Nobody casts a shroud of menace like Del Toro.
鈥淣ightmare Alley鈥 takes its time to set up its dark pleasures, but emerges as a memorable tribute to film noir with images that will stick in your mind long after the theatre鈥檚 lights are switched on.
RED ROCKET: 3 STARS
Director Sean Baker has made a career of chronicling life on the margins. His lo-fi, low-budget and naturalistic films 鈥淭angerine鈥 and 鈥淭he Florida Project鈥 are about outsiders but never look down on their subjects. His latest, 鈥淩ed Rocket,鈥 now playing in theatres, continues his trend of neither celebrating or condemning the choices made by his edgy characters.
In 鈥淩ed Rocket,鈥 former MTV DJ Simon Rex is Mikey Saber, a once-celebrated porn star whose career in front of the camera is over. Broke, he goes home to Texas City, a dustbowl town he said he鈥檇 never step foot in again, yet here he is, crashing at his estranged wife Lexi鈥檚 (Bree Elrod) house.
When his porn star past gets in the way of landing a straight job, like working at the local fast-food joints, he makes money selling dime bags. When he meets 17-year-old Strawberry (Suzanna Son), a clerk at the local doughnut shack, he thinks he鈥檚 found his Lolita, a ticket back to the porn biz.
鈥淪he鈥檚 smoking hot,鈥 he says. 鈥淪he made the first move. She has no dad, and here鈥檚 the kicker, she lets me sell weed to the hard hats at her work. Does it get any better than that?鈥
鈥淩ed Rocket鈥 is a story, loosely told, of the flipside of the American Dream. Saber is a con man, a hustler, all talk, no action (at least outside the sheets). A narcissistic loser, he has ideas but not the wherewithal to see them through and, unfortunately, he drags those around him down on his desperate climb up. Rex makes him compelling, bringing humour and pathos to a complete scumbag.
鈥淩ed Rocket鈥 doesn鈥檛 feel as tightly constructed as Baker鈥檚 other鈥檚 films. It shares the same Marlboro-stained soul, but this time around his examination of choices people make simply to survive flails almost as much as its characters.
FLEE: 4 STARS
鈥淔lee鈥 is a rarity, an animated documentary. A mix of personal and modern world history, it is a heartfelt look at the true, hidden story of the harrowing life journey of a gay refugee from Afghanistan.
The bedrock of this boundary-pushing doc are 20 taped conversations Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen had with his childhood friend Amin (a pseudonym). As an adult, Amin is about to marry his partner Kasper when he sits down to talk to Rasmussen about how his life brought him to this moment.
He recounts how his father disappeared and his brother was conscripted to join the army in 1979 after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. As a boy, he fled his war-torn country with his mother and siblings, to find a new, safe life. They landed in Russia on a tourist visa just after the Soviet Union had fallen, leaving the country corrupt and dangerous.
Time passes. As the Russian police track him as an undocumented resident, he embarks on the most dangerous journey yet. With the help of an older brother in Sweden, Amin puts himself in the hands of human traffickers for a traumatic, uncertain journey to Copenhagen.
Except for a few minutes here and there of archival news footage, 鈥淔lee鈥 uses animation to tell the story, but this ain鈥檛 the 鈥淟ooney Tunes.鈥 Rasmussen used the animation to protect Amin鈥檚 identity, but like other serious-minded animated films like 鈥淧ersepolis鈥 and 鈥淲altz with Bashir,鈥 the impressionistic presentation enhances the telling of the tale. The styles of Rasmussen鈥檚 animation change to reflect and effectively bring the various stages of Amin鈥檚 journey to vivid life. It is suspenseful, heartbreaking and often poetic.
But it is Amin鈥檚 heartfelt, urgent storytelling and Rasmussen鈥檚 prodding that make the story of resilience and survival so riveting. From the gruelling trek to a new land to guilelessly seeking out a cure for his homosexuality in Denmark, 鈥淔lee鈥 proves itself as a unique work of art based on a true, traumatic and far too common refugee experience.
