Rumours, 2024.

Written and Directed by Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, and Guy Maddin.
Starring Cate Blanchett, Roy Dupuis, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Charles Dance, Takehiro Hira, Denis Ménochet, Rolando Ravello, Zlatko Burić, and Alicia Vikander.

SYNOPSIS:

The leaders of seven wealthy democracies get lost in the woods while drafting a statement on a global crisis, facing danger as they attempt to find their way out.

Even those not well-versed in film or basic symbolism will get the point Rumours is making and be exhausted long before it’s over. That’s annoying enough, especially since the targets, world leaders getting together for a G7 meeting to collaborate on a statement regarding an unspecified global crisis, are already low-hanging fruit. Then writers/directors Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, and Guy Maddin go a step further, bordering on insulting the viewers, having these world leaders waxing philosophical about how they are less than human and more stand-ins for various beliefs across the political spectrum, much like we aren’t getting to know characters but more so stand-ins for whatever punchline the script wants to make about each country’s leader.

The numerous jokes quickly run their course. However, making matters worse is that these global leaders don’t actually do much, and not much happens in the film, which is the grand joke here. These influential individuals come together and either vent about their romantic relationships, get sexually involved with each other, rant about things they can’t do anymore, bicker, or generally get caught up in their self-absorbed lives. Roughly halfway in, they are interrupted by reanimated masturbating corpses from thousands of years ago, which is naturally intended to be more funny than frightening but also gets old fast, considering there is no real threat being posed. It’s wacky, irreverent, and inspired, but the point of everything is made so bluntly that the film becomes a frustrating, sluggish watch.

The impressive ensemble, which consists of Cate Blanchett as Germany’s Hilda Orlmann, Charles Dance’s US President Edison Wolcott, France’s Sylvain Broulez (Denis Ménochet), British Prime Minister Cardosa Dewindt (Nikki Amuka-Bird), and others admittedly find some humor in the material and bounce dialogue off of each other well enough, but that also doesn’t salvage a film that goes on forever making a rather obvious point about the effectiveness, honesty, and morals of such world leaders.

Denis Ménochet probably shines the most here, possibly because he gets to work with the strangest material; he first encounters one of the zombies, then is unable to walk due to an inexplicable “leg injury,” and then finds himself locked into a hypnotized writing groove while being pushed around a dark forest in a wheelbarrow. Takehiro Hira’s Japanese leader, Tatsuro Iwasaki, also has amusing exchanges with everyone he interacts with, mostly from some of the uneducated, stupid questions he finds himself answering (there’s a funny one about Japanese fans.) 

Speaking of that forest, there are cheesy fog machines and moody lighting, also playing into the idea that this isn’t meant to be scary and that these global leaders are just terrified cowards incapable of dealing with any major crisis.  There is certainly nothing wrong with the film’s aesthetics or visuals, including a giant brain in the middle of the forest that Alica Vikander’s European leader, Celestine Sproul, has a mysterious connection to, conversing using an unknown language. The unabashed weirdness is welcome, but again, it doesn’t necessarily offset how broad and stale the jokes are at the expense of each country’s leader and the more prominent point being made about their uselessness. Rumours is taking the cheap, easy route for what could have been a terrific and scathing timely satire.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist

“The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready,” Lorne Michaels, creator and producer of “Saturday Night Live,” once said. “It goes on because it’s 11:30.”

This same quote is also used to open director Jason Reitman’s new movie, “Saturday Night.” The film follows Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle), as he navigates the 90 minutes leading up to the first episode of “Saturday Night Live,” which aired Oct. 11, 1975.  

Throughout the film, the audience sees how things continuously go wrong for Michaels, as he deals with missing actors, sets falling apart and an overabundance of planned material sure to go past the show’s network-allotted time slot. 

John Papsideria, the film’s casting director, truly hit the nail on the head. Not only do the film’s cast members do a great job at portraying their real-life counterparts, but they physically resemble them as well, something often lost in biographical films.

This is best seen with Cory Michael Smith, who portrays comedian and actor Chevy Chase in the film. In fact, Smith portrays Chase so well it felt like it was really Chase on the big screen. 

Not only do the two actors look similar, but Smith executes Chase’s mannerisms perfectly. 

Chase is known for being a difficult actor to work with, especially regarding scandals involving racial slurs, physical altercations and aggressiveness — something “Saturday Night” touches on a bit. In a particular scene, Chase gets into a physical altercation with John Belushi (Matt Wood) over a hurtful comment Chase made about Belushi’s weight. 

Other familiar faces, including Rachel Sennott, Dylan O’Brien, J.K Simmons and Willem Dafoe, are also enjoyable to watch on the big screen. Each actor does a fantastic job at portraying the person they were tasked to play, depicting them in a light that contributes to the overall chaos of the story.

In the end, though, it’s LaBelle who truly steals the show. According to an article from Forbes, LaBelle spent considerable time preparing for his role as Michaels, and it shows.

“I watched the whole first season just to get an idea of the style of comedy, who the guest hosts were, and what would have been in their heads on that first night,” LaBelle said in the article. “I read a lot of books about how Lorne got to know everyone, formed the show, and what his earlier career was like to understand how these relationships developed.”

In the film, Michaels is conveyed as resilient, despite dealing with the chaos. However, the hectic atmosphere and disorganized situations are what make the film so fun to watch.

Another contributor to the movie’s immersiveness was its use of sound. For example, when tensions were rising in a scene, upbeat and rather unsettling music would play in the background of the scene.

In a particular scene, when Michaels’ cousin and assistant Neil Levy, portrayed by Andrew Barth Feldman, is stressed out about trying to find a missing actor, he is encouraged to take a hit of weed. As Levy continues walking around in search of the actor, the audience gets to see how the hit of this substance is affecting him. 

The audience begins to hear everything in slow motion, as if hearing Levy’s surroundings from his perspective. To top this stressful scene off, there is an uprising drumbeat playing in the background, adding to the buildup throughout the scene.

“Saturday Night” allows viewers to be completely enthralled with every event that happens throughout the movie, and with a cast of quirky personalities, the film leaves audiences wanting to see more of every character. Whether watching with friends or alone, it is impossible not to laugh out loud.

Rating: 4.5/5

Woman of the Hour, 2024.

Directed by Anna Kendrick.
Starring Anna Kendrick, Daniel Zovatto, Tony Hale, Nicolette Robinson, Autumn Best, Pete Holmes, Andy Thompson, David Beairsto, Tighe Gill, Kathryn Gallagher, Kelley Jakle, Matt Visser, Jedidiah Goodacre, Dylan Schmid, Rob Morgan, Denalda Williams, Jessie Fraser, Max Lloyd-Jones, Nancy Kerr, James Yi, Jessica Chaffin, Matthew Kevin Anderson, Darcy Laurie, and Taylor Hastings.

SYNOPSIS:

Sheryl Bradshaw, a single woman looking for a suitor on a hit 1970s TV show, chooses charming bachelor Rodney Alcala, unaware that, behind the man’s gentle facade, he hides a deadly secret.

Somewhere between serial killer thriller and dark comedy takedown of sexist showbusiness industry standards, Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut Woman of the Hour gets at some psychologically uncomfortable truths about surviving in such a misogynistic world (especially for the 1970s in which the story unfolds, separated into different years and character threads) and the deceptiveness of a highly intelligent sociopath (a chilling Daniel Zovatto.) More tantalizingly, the film presents the bulk of the narrative on the stage of a matchmaking game show for supreme thrills, sharply editing back and forth through time with clever transitions that, yes, leave one hanging and eager to return, but equally invested in the wraparound events connected to the general premise.

This story is also based on actual events, but Anna Kendrick is so confident, comfortable, and skilled in telling this story she knows she doesn’t have to drop that bombshell until the film is over. Working from a screenplay by Ian McDonald, one would be forgiven for assuming this was all a brilliant, fictional premise that places an aspiring actress on a cheesy dating show alongside a chauvinistic host (Tony Hale) who encourages the titular woman of the hour to dumb her intelligence down and play up physical beauty to make herself more appealing to the uneducated and slimy bachelors, with one of those three being a sly-tongued, manipulative, murderous maniac capable of masking that ugly side for just enough time to lure his prey into isolation and danger.

Anna Kendrick also plays that frustrated LA-based actress who has trouble booking gigs. As Sheryl, it also gives the well-known actress ample opportunity to seemingly inject a more personal connection into the character whenever venting about such notorious Hollywood sexism (whether it be individuals likely being blacklisted from roles for refusing nudity or the demeaning types of characters they are expected to play, even on a reality TV game show.) One can only assume this behavior was rampant more in the 70s and somewhat eliminated in modern times, but the point is still largely valid and effective.

Woman of the Hour is not single-minded, though. Jumping around before and after this portion of the narrative, the focus turns to Rodney, the previously mentioned serial killer who is undoubtedly strange and unkempt but with enough charm and photography skills to earn the trust of young women and men, typically promising them modeling fame and an opportunity to win some money. Other times, he is in a lucky position to help out an unassuming soul before conducting his disturbing kills, which occasionally switch to the victim’s perspective to make the scenes all the more unsettling.

A third perspective follows Nicolette Robinson’s Laura, an audience member watching the game show who instantly recognizes Rodney as the man who sexually assaulted and murdered her friend. This is the shakiest part of the narrative, as the film slightly tries too hard to make everyone from her initially reasonable boyfriend to front desk security guards play down her concerns and make her out to be crazy. As filled with urgency as Nicolette Robinson’s terrified and traumatized performance is, there is a disconnect between observing men being forced to behave uselessly to keep the mechanics of dramatized elements of this true story working and men’s more genuinely scummy personalities here.

That’s mostly nitpicking since Woman of the Hour is a suspenseful, heart-pounding exercise. It feels like it shouldn’t work, considering the narrative jumps backward and forwards, but it does, which is also a testament to the film making viewers deeply care about these characters, from the protagonist to the victims. Anna Kendrick has also clearly learned a lot over the years from acting, elevating tension through tense cinematography (working with Zach Kuperstein), such as a wide-angle tracking shot tapping into the heart-racing fear of being a woman walking alone at night. She also arguably delivers the best performance of her career, especially when her capacity to play by the host’s rules goes out the window, demonstrating her intelligence and putting the men in the hot seat with tough questions. Again, the scariest part is that the most dangerous, sadistic person in the room maliciously adapts to that, practically knowing what she wants to hear.

Where Woman of the Hour ultimately ends up is also thrilling and challenging, suggesting that, even if it is profoundly messed up, the greatest survival mechanism for women is outsmarting even the most calculated, despicable men. 

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist