Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

The Lighthouse

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I will start out by saying this is one of the most bizarre movies I have ever seen, and I’ve seen some strange ones.  I also can’t say that I enjoyed watching it and I really do not want to see it again.  Ever. That being said, this was an acting tour-de-force by both Robert Pattinson and Willem DaFoe.  The Lighthouse is a black and white atmospheric movie set around 1880 somewhere on a New England Island.  Dafoe plays  gruff, enigmatic Thomas; a wickie, or lighthouse keeper.  Pattinson is Ephraim, who takes on a contract job serving as an assistant for a month under the strange supervision of Thomas.  Thomas gives Ephraim increasingly difficult tasks, like cleaning out the cistern or scrubbing floors he just scrubbed.  The booming of the foghorn, the terrible isolation, menacing seagulls, and harsh environment create an atmosphere of foreboding and oppression.  Left by themselves in this dismal lighthouse station, both  men become increasingly unhinged.  When their supply ship doesn’t make it through a terrible storm, it gets even worse.  The men have only alcohol as a diversion, and their behavior starts to slip.  They run out of alcohol and resort to drinking a weird mix made from kerosene to sustain them.  Behavior starts slipping to insanity. They both get crazier and crazier until finally they snap with disastrous results.  The acting is first rate, but the rest of the movie is almost incomprehensible, and unbelievable.  I really can’t recommend this to anyone.  However, if you do decide to watch, you can find it on Netflix.  But really, there are way better and more enjoyable things to watch.  Why not check out ANY of them?

The Northman

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The Northman is about a young Viking heir, Prince Amieth, who witnesses the murder of his father, King Aurandil War-Raven at the hands of his brother, Fjolnir (a la the Lion King).  Ethan Hawke plays the ill-fated king who I honestly did not recognize – as was the case with other characters like Willem Dafoe as Heimir the Fool and Bjork as Seeress the blind prophetess.  Prince Amieth (Alexander Skarsgard) vows to avenge his father’s death and rescue his kidnapped mother played by Nicole Kidman.  Unfortunately for Fjolnir (Claes Bang), the kingdom he steals from his brother is stolen from him and he flees to Iceland with  Prince Amieth’s mother.  The Prince pretends to be a slave in order to get to Iceland for his revenge.  In the process, he meets a slave girl on his journey played by Ana Taylor-Joy and she becomes his love and his support in his quest.  But the road to vengeance is bumpy for them both.  There is a lot of fighting, torture, murder and pain. This is an extremely violent movie, but then Vikings were violent people.  A common Christian prayer at the time was “a furore normanorum, libera nos Domine! (from the fury of the Norsemen, deliver us O Lord). Animal lovers take care as there are two gruesome beheadings of horses.  I also did not enjoy the very realistic Viking funeral.  The Viking lore interspersed throughout the movie was fascinating to me and it appears they did a lot of research into the lifestyle.  The setting (especially when they get to Iceland) and cinematography were exquisite.  The plot has a few surprises, and I love it when I do not anticipate events in a movie.  All in all, if you like realistic violence, Viking mythology and breathtaking scenery, and people with unusual names ( Finnr the Nose-Stub, I’m talking about you) you just might enjoy the Northman.

Nightmare Alley

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“Nightmare Alley” is a gritty remake of a 1947 movie based on a book of the same name.  It is filmed in black and white which gives  the film a dark and evil look. It perfectly fits the plot.  This is a depressing movie about the sad lives of misfits working for a rather sad carnival in the 1940’s.  In bygone days, people could make a living by being freaks or having some pretty cliched acts, such as Ron Perlman who plays the world’s strongest man; or David Strathairn who has a mind reading act, when he isn’t drunk, with his wife played by Toni Collette.  One of the bigger draws of the carnival is the resident wild beast man/geek who readily and eagerly devours a live chicken for the entertainment of the masses.  How someone ends up being such a geek is  disgusting (and hopefully long gone relic of those bygone days).  The story starts with Stanton “Stan” Carlisle (Bradley Cooper), whom we see burning down his midwestern shack of a house after putting a body in a hole in the floor.  The reason for this inexplicable act will become clear by the end of the movie.  Fade to Stan wandering into a cheap carnival during a rainstorm, and being offered temporary employment as a sort of roustabout.  He makes himself very useful and is befriended by some of the carnival denizens and joins the company. At first he takes any job he can fill.  But eventually he develops his own clairvoyant act (which he may or may not have stolen from Strathairn’s character) and jazzes up a geek act for Molly (Rooney Mara). He manages to overcome her initial aloofness and gain her trust. He then decides to try his luck away from the carnival and lures sweet, innocent Molly (who he’s made  into an assistant, or accomplice!) into coming with him.  All is not as it seems though.   Of course, Stan’s act is nothing more than a con. Molly is a shill. After a few years, they are somewhat  successful, but a chance encounter with Dr. Ritter (Cate Blanchett)  changes their fortunes and ultimately their lives.  We’re talking big money here. Or are we? This is NOT a happy story and you will  probably be repulsed at points.  By the jars of preserved, grotesque, babies who died at birth, for example.  Even so, this is a top-notch thriller which also includes performances by Richard Jenkins (the victim of the ultimate scam, which brings everything tumbling down), Willem DaFoe, and Mary Steenburgen.  Romina Power, daughter of Tyrone Power – who played Stan in the original –  cameos as a viewer of Stanton’s show, but I didn’t know which person she was.  Maybe you will.  The set designs and settings are terrific! Guillermo del Toro directs a cinematographically scrumptious movie, but I can’t give it a golden apple for two reasons.  First of all, it was too long and kind of lagged in the middle.  Second, the ending was just too depressing (and you may figure the ending out before it arrives).  However, if you are a fan of film noir from the 40’s and 50’s, I think you will enjoy this psychological thriller.

The Card Counter

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I really like Oscar Isaac, but I did not care for this movie. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t seen the trailer. I felt that “The Card Counter” trailer is very deceptive. I knew it wasn’t going to be a comedy; but it left me with the impression that it would be a little mysterious, but light hearted, revenge motivated sort of story with some clever twists and surprises. Wow was I wrong! Oscar Isaac plays William Tell, an ex-convict who has been released from prison not too long ago. While in prison, he had taught himself how to count cards and he makes a moderate living by moving around the country, winning just enough money in various casinos to get by. He escapes notice, and a subsequent ban, by keeping his winnings low. His life gets complicated when he decides to play in a high stakes poker tournament in order to help an aimless young man (Tye Sheridan) out for revenge against a mutual acquaintance (Willem Dafoe) with a dark and cruel past. Even the addition of Tiffany Haddish as his contact and controller, La Linda, doesn’t help anything. If this had been the main theme of the movie, I might feel totally different. However, it’s interwoven with a subplot involving Tell’s involvement with the Dafoe character in torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib that is jarring and brutal. And the rest of the movie moves at a slow pace with little to really make it interesting or generate any involvement with the characters. Isaac does give a great performance, but not enough for me to recommend this one. You will not come out of this movie in a good mood. In fact, I found the whole thing down right depressing.

The Great Wall

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The Great Wall finds Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal as European mercenaries who come to China in search of black powder.  They discover that the Great Wall was built, not as a defense against other people, but to protect the country from nasty monsters who attack every sixty years.  The special effects were excellent, and the visuals were impressive, but I  found the whole movie a little silly.  My apologies to Matt Damon, who I like as Jason Bourne,  but I felt he seemed too nice to be a mercenary.  Willem Defoe is also featured.  The movie was directed by the great Chinese director Yimou Zhang and I understand that it was his first English-language production and the largest film shot entirely in China.  I would be willing to give Zhang another try because the scope and breadth of the scenery was pretty amazing.  I just hope that next time he has a better script and  a main character portrayed by a more credible actor for that sort of role.