NOSFERATU Review

Throughout Robert Eggers' interpretation of the Dracula mythos we hear the word "providence" uttered multiple times, most frequently by Simon McBurney’s servant figure Knock (I wonder if he and Nicholas Hoult consulted with one another). Naturally, one would assume the context of such comments would be regarding the protective care of God in a film about a plague-inducing demon, but providence can also be defined as timely preparation for future eventualities. This latter meaning is in fact the outline for what composes much of 2024’s Nosferatu. As much of an impression as Bill Skarsgård’s titular character makes throughout the course of the film it is he who is largely orchestrating said timely preparations (which are sometimes a little too timely) whereas it is Lily-Rose Depp’s Ellen who is the focal point of both the vampire and Eggers’ fascinations. The future eventualities of this particular situation are the unlocking of this young woman’s shame (or sin, as she sees it) in order to find salvation – whether that be her own, the monster’s, or mankind’s is up to the viewer. Initially, Ellen believes she has found such salvation in Thomas Hutter (the aforementioned Hoult), a young man whom she’s recently wed, who she is eager to start a life with, and with whom she believes she can remedy her darkness. We learn, of course, that when Count Orlok, Nosferatu, the vampyr, is stirred from his grave by the afflictions of others, he cannot be sated – satisfied - without fully consuming them which, ironically, feels more like an absolute than the possibility promised by “providence”.

There is undoubtedly an unlimited number of allegorical meanings one could graph onto Ellen’s function, but most interesting about Eggers film is this idea that this central character embodies the facade of the thing she believes she should be yet is seemingly afraid to embrace her instinctual tendencies while Eggers ensures the film itself is the inverse of as much; following his innate, natural inclinations so far past their conclusions that what we’re delivered is not necessarily what we expect from Dracula (outside of maybe the costumes and language), but moreover it authentically amps up and delivers upon the startling terror of what made (and makes) this long-looming figure of the genre so horrifying over a century after his creation. He, Nosferatu, is more than just the presence of a monster but the enigma that fills us with conflict and dread.

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN Review

As with Johnny Cash prior to James Mangold's 2005 film, Walk the Line, I had no close affiliation with or personal connection to Bob Dylan prior to seeing Mangold's latest musical biopic, A Complete Unknown. After seeing Walk the Line I wanted to not only consume as much of Cash's music as I could but learn as much about he and June Carter's life and the time around which the movie was based as well as what happened after. All of this to say, the question of whether A Complete Unknown would be successful or not was then going to naturally rest upon how invested I became in the life and music of Dylan post-screening. Maybe it’s because I had more time on my hands as an eighteen-year-old in 2005, but while I certainly enjoyed Mangold’s adaptation of Elijah Wald’s “Dylan Goes Electric!” book - admire it even for many of its choices - I don’t know that I feel as compelled to go down the long and winding road that is both Dylan’s biography and discography. Or maybe it is simply that Cash had a more charismatic personality and was therefore easier to be drawn to as is exemplified by a scene-stealing Boyd Holbrook in this film. Dylan is of course a more enigmatic figure, and Mangold seems to have understood this and that his approach to the respective films made about each of these men would need to be as wildly different as the men themselves.

It is notable in this genre that A Complete Unknown features neither of Dylan’s parents in any capacity - roles typically utilized in the first act to not only propel our aspiring protagonist out of their comfort zone, but who continue to serve as motivation to remain as disconnected from the life they knew as a child and on becoming as famous as they need to be in order to have earned themselves their own biopic. There is no such device in A Complete Unknown, the first sign Mangold is breaking from a tradition he helped instate and the first indicator he is catering his storytelling to his subject even as his filmmaking remains the handsome, sturdy, and reliable type that looks to modestly enlighten and wholly entertain while offending only those who've already claimed I'm Not There as the only necessary Dylan feature. It is the understanding of this objective that helps define Mangold's successes (and some of his shortcomings) here, as his job is not to necessarily demystify but capture the essence of this mysterious and often difficult individual so that a new generation might come to understand why Dylan became so important to the young, noisy activists of the sixties as well as to remind that same generation that "there was a time when the old songs were new."

SEFCA ANNOUNCES 2024 WINNERS

Southeastern Film Critics Association Names Anora as the Best Film of 2024. Writer-director Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning tale also snagged awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress for Mickey Madison’s breakout performance as a sex worker looking for a meaningful relationship in a world where love and sex often feel like nothing more than a transaction. 

Monday, December 16, 2024 – The Southeastern Film Critics Association (SEFCA) has named Sean Baker’s Anora as the Best Picture of the Year. SEFCA’s eighty-nine members located across nine Southeastern states also recognized Baker for Best Original Screenplay and the film’s star Mikey Madison for Best Actress. 

While Anora won Best Film of 2024, The Brutalist, writer-director Brady Corbet’s epic of artistic obsession, carried home the most SEFCA awards. The film finished second to Anora for Best Film of the Year and was also honored with prizes for Best Actor (Adrian Brody), Best Supporting Actor (Guy Pearce) and Best Director for Corbet. 

The single closest race was for Best Documentary. With only two ballots remaining to be tabulated, there was a three-way tie between Will & Harper, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story and Sugarcane. Ultimately, Sugarcane, a horrific tale that chronicles the disappearances of Native American children from a “residential school” near the Sugarcane Reservation, carried home the award. 

“Every year we hear from the naysaying sectors of the industry that it wasn’t a very good year for film,” said Scott Phillips, President of SEFCA and writer for Forbes.com. “This slate of winners easily disproves that statement for 2024. Between theatrical distribution and streaming, releases can be a bit scattered and hard to find, but if you take the time to find the better films of 2024, they form a potent lineup. We hope that film fans out there can use our Top 10 list to catch up on some of the best that 2024 had to offer.” 

Read SEFCA’s full list of winners below. Visit SEFCA on the web at SEFCA.net to learn more about its members as well as past winners. You can also follow SEFCA on Twitter at @SEFilmCritics.

HERETIC Review

I remember reading an interview with David Fincher when he was doing press for Gone Girl where, in talking about adapting the book, he stated, "You have to choose which aspect you want to make a movie from." The idea that adapting didn't simply mean to alter the material so that it fit a new medium but adjusting, modifying even - so that said material was not only suited to this new medium but complimentary of it, stuck with me. Heretic was not adapted from a book and doesn't *really* take Fincher's advice when it comes to picking a single aspect from the topic it's covering to focus on. In fact, Heretic operates more in the "go big or go home" line of thought as it attempts to be a mind game, a mind fuck, as well as a critical reading of organized religions that ring “as hollow and as capitalistic” as board games like Monopoly with all its "zany spinoffs".

I bring up this Fincher quote because it helped me narrow my thoughts in response to Heretic for, despite the sprawling breadth of the subject matter and epic monologue deliveries via a charming-as-ever Hugh Grant, what I really zeroed in on was this idea of "iterations" and how the film presents this idea that these amalgamations of fantastical stories meant to serve as moral channels have ultimately presented us diluted and obscured worldviews. Views that people have died in the name of, views that have created rifts between entire civilizations and have fostered countless forms of violence throughout history despite being perceived as a major contributor to a peaceful society. That isn't to say this is any single religion's fault - people will find anything to argue about - but that it has become the basis for such negative repercussions says a lot about how organized religions have imported their ideas to their followers and how that shapes how those followers then choose to experience the world.

JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX Review

They say the art of originality is knowing how to hide your sources but if you saw the first Joker film you know writer/director Todd Phillips has no qualms about sharing his sources. Interestingly enough, it would seem the basis of Phillips' foray into the world of his titular character was not only to make something in the vein of some of his own inspirations but also to tell a story of inspiration itself while somehow crafting a film that doesn't feel the least bit inspiring. "They" AKA Shakespeare also stated that “all the world's a stage” and it is this divide within the psyche of our main character who so badly desires to be the center of attention - the main character of his own story if not others as well - yet is unable to necessarily stand out without doing something drastic that hangs over Phillips' follow-up. It is this coming to terms with his actual mediocrity that pains Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck to the extent he doesn't know which side of himself to turn to in the aftermath of killing five people (actually six) - one of which was live on national television. As lost as Fleck seems to be it would appear the same could be said for Joker: Folie à Deux, the sequel to the billion-dollar-earning and Oscar-winning 2019 film, at least over the course of its first hour. 

On the one hand, Phillips is keen on making a film that so subverts expectations that it doesn't allow itself to fall into any trappings audiences might expect from a typical sequel. The desire to subvert going so far as to cause the filmmaker to claim this is a musical, but this is true only in so far as the characters sometimes burst into sing-songs that further highlight their emotions in ways intended to deepen our understanding of these aforementioned psyches yet these moments never transcend the reality or develop into full-on musical numbers. The splitting of hairs between avoiding the obvious path of a Joker sequel and committing to being something else entirely give the result an unbalanced feeling; as if the ambition and desire are present but the passion to execute is not. Somehow, this identity crisis becomes the main text of the film which is an interesting idea yet in addition to feeling unbalanced the film also becomes something of a tedious experience where the overarching intent is never quite clear. The film even going so far as to acknowledge how much the Arthur character wanted to do what the audience expected him to do, for him to give them the Joker they're begging for, but instead simply admits he could no longer carry on the facade, essentially coming clean about his state of mind during the murders and how desperate he is to begin anew - conveying to the audience and more specifically, the fanbase, that they may want to do the same. Admirable, bold even, but not always entertaining.