Film reviews

Nowhere Special Review

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Fatherhood is one of resemblance with a big heart in Nowhere Special. Written and directed by Uberto Pasolini, this one of the most heartbreaking and thorough depictions of reality hitting a harsh plateau. A film dealing with the issue of how health failures impact others. With an opening shot of a day-to-day setting around Northern Ireland, there is that subtle undertone of sorrowfulness. A father with a health condition that will change his world and daily life forever. Nowhere Special is about finding the right outlet for someone who is impacted after the day he dies.

The father with the fatal health problem is John (played by James Norton), and he is a window cleaner. He is a single father to his son Michael (played by Daniel Lamont). John shows enormous love for Michael, as he reads to him, cleans him up, and plays with him all the time he possibly can. John though, is at a point where he only has a brief time to live. He speaks with other families and uses social services to see what options there are for Michael once he dies. Michael’s mother left them both. With Michael already growing up without a mother, he does not want Michael to know much about the situation. Michael is too young to understand the sense of this unnerving matter.

The emphasis on John spending time with his son Michael exemplifies the fact that there may not be many happy days left—that is why John and Michael are quiet all the time. With John only having so little time to live, he is determined to find a home that is a good fit for Michael. The golden and cheerful moments with John and Michael deliver a sense of their last moments of happiness together.  John finds himself concerned about how Michael will feel mentally once he is able to understand the depressing and uncontrollable scenario. John works with Shona (played by Eileen O’Higgins), a social services worker with a case set up for John regarding what happens to Michael after he passes. The moving parts of the legalities and case structure are what also feeds the emotions in Nowhere Special. 

Each moment John and Michael share is like a chapter in Nowhere Special. A chapter in life of feeling fulfilled before the worst happens. The film is straightforward in forming layers where the present matters. The focus is on empathy and hope that a loved son will have a family once his father is gone. A surreal moment and realistic portrait of this aspect is when John and Michael are in the park. There is a scene where Michael finds a beetle under a tree, but the beetle is dead. The moment of Michael and the beetle is one where John sheds some light their own situation, as he tells him, “It’s just not there”. A moment of truth that Michael will come to understand at one point in his life. The portrayal of optimism is one of a light waiting to be found in the aftermath that will happen one day.

How much does John truly hurt? How will John be ready for the inevitable? Nowhere Special fuels the thinking for its audience audaciously. It leads them down a sad road. The life for Michael after John is gone remaining unclear is where Nowhere Specialhits its breaking point. John cannot die knowing his son does not have a safe and comforting place after his death. The legal status, the considerations, and John’s life having shorter and shorter days throw the film into a spiral. It is invigorating in the curiosity it develops to know what comes next.

Nowhere Special creates the road block of patience in the context of complexity. It is a sensitive portrait of purpose. My empathy for John brought up a lot mixed feelings for me—he has joyful days and sad days with Michael and all of them bring a certain pain with them. There is a box of memories that comes around in Nowhere Special…the symbolism of love and compassion touches hearts deeply.  Nowhere Special delivers a mark of empathy with disconnect, meaning John will always love Michael, but due to the unforeseen circumstances, he must let Michael go knowing someone will love him like his father did. Three-and-a-half out of four stars for Nowhere Special.

Film reviews

Challengers Review

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This is one of the most enticing films directed by Luca Guadagnino that I have ever seen. Challengers is a film whichtests tensions and favoritism to the absolute maximum. Tennis and relationships are explored hand in hand throughout the film.  The story centers around Zendaya, she is one of the main competitors. The film focuses on competition for both a tennis championship and the attention of Zendaya. Challengers does not only push itself in terms of its mental suspense, but it is also remains on point in having its audience think about the rules of tennis and what it takes to make it to the big leagues. With its two male stars, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor, the heat is truly on in Challengers.

The film begins in 2019. Art Donaldson (played by Faist) is a successful tennis player in a loving relationship with Tashi Donaldson (played by Zendaya). They live a life of success, commercialism, and many rankings in tennis championships. His competitor (also a long-term friend on odd terms) is Patrick Zweig (played by Josh O’Connor). Zweig is one who keeps hitting or missing in tennis competitions. He keeps finding himself in financial despair and frustration. They are all connected though, as the film jumps to the era before the hot mess began. Art and Patrick were good friends, and Tashi was one they were obsessed with. They all became very close to the point where they were all madly in love with each other. However, it is clear that the distraction and attention for Tashi also is the key to their performance on the court. Both have always had goals and ambitions to impress Tashi. With all of that, the lines get blurred for success on the court for Art and Patrick.

The film goes into a pattern where the younger days were ones of success and young love between all three individuals. As the film progresses, the competition of tennis only gets more complex and mentally challenging, because both Art and Patrick want to be great. On top of that, they all want to be in one fulfilling and loving relationship with Tashi. Tashi had gone pro but sustained an injury and has limitations. It fueled Art and Patrick to be competitive with each other in the rankings and wins throughout their tennis career. Guadagnino focuses in-depth on their clear aggravations, mentality, egos and persistence. Challengers is a daring sportsmanship experience that will stress its audience to the max with its adrenaline.

With all the turmoil and detrimental thinking among the three characters, carrying from their younger days to their current lives, they build a relationship of confusion where love, tennis, and lust lead to destruction. The film’s continuity and wicked suspense wraps around winning the love of Tashi. This element creates a layer of disconnect. Challengers draws a picture where growth has wins, losses, jealousy and halts in success–all enthralling key points in Challengers.

The relationships and thoughts of the individuals in the film made me start to think of Guadagnino’s masterpiece Call Me by Your Name. Although these are separate types of films when it comes to relationships, there is a layer of writing where his work shines brightly. His directing is one that conveys that his characters are irritated or upset, and it is keen on making surethat audiences know it. Guadagnino’s direction of leading his audience think about soul-searching in Challengers goes into many directions. Who has more faith? Who is a better man for Tashi? Why do these individuals tolerate each other’s nonsense so much?  Challengers has continuous elements of intense anddetrimental stress in its characterizations—the stressors do not stop and make the competitive nature of this film even more mesmerizing.

A boiling and athletic ride of anxiety, this film takes a deep dive into egotistical minds. Tashi is all that matters to Art and Patrick and infidelities that occur go down the path of benefiting one over the other on the tennis court. Challengers has tons of moving parts that will make its audience keep wanting to think thoroughly and precisely. It is a duel for a championship and much more. The question is who is the true champion and the one that loves Tashi the most? Is it Art or Patrick? Find out in Challengers. Four stars.

Film reviews

Sasquatch Sunset Review

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This film opens with vast mountain scenery that represents a form of surreal solitude—the presentation looks and feels peaceful and rejuvenating. Then the film jumps to a family that is obscure—a family of sasquatch creatures. The creativity of Sasquatch Sunset is unique and fearless—the film itself feels like uncharted territory. However, I felt sold on it for the first thirty minutes, and then later I felt there were multiple blurred lines in the continuation of the film itself. Directed by David and Nathan Zellner, their attempt to create a strong form of portraying a unique environment is almost accomplished, but the line of continuity just continues to be halting.

The film is about a family of sasquatches, and they have no names. The celebrities as the sasquatches are Jesse Eisenberg, Riley Keough, Chrisotpher Zajac-Denek, and Nathan Zellner. The focus is on the life of this sasquatch family in the forest over the many different seasons. Nature takes its course to a heavy extent. There is no dialogue though, only repeated grunts, gibbers, and all kinds of animal sound effects. All of which give a pretty clear understanding though, as one of the beginning moments is where two of the sasquatch creatures engage in having a sensual moment. That scene gives off the feeling that Sasquatch Sunset could be decent, neutral, or mediocre.

With all the nature vibing, the life of the sasquatch family in Sasquatch Sunset has no clear point to give the film continuity. I felt that it was like a lighthearted version of a Planet of the Apesflick…there are just no humans or spoken language whatsoever. Its scoring and use of music is what creates the euphoric and somewhat inspiring atmosphere. The sasquatch family gets hyperactive and enthusiastic with the resources of their forest—turtles, plants, and drenches are where their positivity thrives. They may not be able to speak, but their facial expressions are their key to understanding their forms of communication for the film’s audience. How does this bizarre family of creatures find their connection? What are its writers trying to accomplish? Is their home in the forest their center of massive conflict?

My mind kept swerving back and forth with Sasquatch Sunsetcreating a blur. I thought to myself that the territory is clearly one that is taken and making the sasquatch family feel violated. If that was the case, why does the film resort to so much grunting and crazy buffoonery. “Buffoonery” in terms of how they act when they are not pleased. A lot of which I do not intend to describe, as it is on the side of grotesque. However, if the audience likes what is twisted, then they will get their money’s worth of “gross” in Sasquatch Sunset. I will say that the many behaviors made me have a clear understanding of the reasons why this film had people walking out at the Sundance Film Festival this year. It is clear this was not everyone’s cup of tea. It may be for some, but not so much for me. I will say though, I give this one credit for its different idea even though it did not find the right path of execution.

There is a moment where the sasquatch family comes across a tree and that sets off curiosity—a major layer of “curiosity” because the sasquatch family just starts eating from the tree. Then there is another tree found, and one of the sasquatches despises the taste of that second tree—animal instincts are clear and descriptive of what the underlying turmoil can be in Sasquatch Sunset. After they eat from a bad tree, there is a bizarre eagerness, how an animal would react if they were overly-excited. They do not speak, but they grunt and cheer on a bonkers level.

This is a ninety-minute nature escape with suspense in the craziest matter and repulsive to the extreme. Its writing makes its viewers think of nature along with the creatures (who roam like animals). From this setup, I felt like there would be more surreal tones of connection and a unique-type feeling. I thought of films like Where the Wild Things Are, March of the Penguins, and Jumanji—films of creatures, animals, or humans finding a course of action in an unknown territory. There is that setup of trying to find peace for the odd sasquatch family in Sasquatch Sunset, yet its presentation is just scattered and quirky.

This habitat that is natural for the sasquatch family is not so much for the rest of its audience. The big question…where is nature going? Especially with a moment of the sasquatches coming across a boom box and going into a mental state of craziness. I was rattling my head thinking maybe it was haunted. The forms of the forest seem to be haunted by layers of normalcy…the building blocks of nature are not part of the clever process of the film’s continuity…it makes for a below average portrayal in Sasquatch Sunset. Is there a point? Is there a layer of importance I was missing? Where is the narrative or poetic vibe in this film? I had a hard time seeing it. I do credit the film for its heavy direction in unforgettable scenery though. Two out of four stars for Sasquatch Sunset.

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