PeterMasberg Reviews

Sideways (2004)

Very touching

[8/10 · 7 October 2023]

Mid-life crisis can be portrayed in different ways. Most directors decide between drama and comedy, Payne does both. Two male losers around forty, the one seemingly more successful (but not really) go on a week-long trip to California's wine country before one of them marries. Emanating depression, regret and grief, Paul Giamatti plays Miles as a sad man who tries to be funny and happy but does not know how to do it. It is very touching. Thomas Haden Church's Jack is a man-child, looking for sex and fun to fill his loneliness. They meet two women, they make mistakes, they long for love, get some and lose it again. All this is presented in a most humane and delicate way. We shouldn't like these two narcissists as much as we do but Payne is no one for judging. Thus this tenderly funny film ends with hope against the odds.

The Last Bus (2021)

The director wasn't up to the job

[2/10 · 7 October 2023]

What a wasted opportunity! You get one of the greatest living English actors, Timothy Spall, and you have a fine idea: a widower travels from Scotland to Land's End to scatter his wife's ashes but uses only public buses (the reason is not explained). Thus he meets people from all walks of life and reminisces about his marriage and the happiness and grief in it. The movie begins promising: Spall is convincing, flashbacks and present time are mixed surrealisticly, the journey is told in random fragments and impressions, resembling real life. But the film ends with such jarring sentimentality that it spoils the whole thing. Plus there is an unnecessary and improbable bus accident and obtrusive symbolism in an otherwise very moving graveyard scene (the bunny!). One really wants to like this movie so much. So it is the more disappointing that the director just wasn't up to the job.

The French Dispatch (2021)

A beautiful, deeply humane and lovable movie

[8/10 · 7 October 2023]

In this increasingly digital times we didn't know we needed a Wes Anderson homage to journalism and print and other analogue pleasures like art, political theory and food but thank God here we are. In typical Wes Anderson-manner - symmetry, ensemble cast, absurdity, more innovative cinematic ideas per frame than most directors have in a lifespan - the film tells three different stories all connected to France and a New Yorker-like magazine covering the real important aspects of our existence (art, political theory, food) and thus celebrating life. The first story is the most interesting - and got Benicio Del Toro, Adrien Brody and Léa Seydoux! - which is not really good for the overall balance of the film but the middle story has Frances McDormand and the last story has Jeffrey Wright (the stand-out performance of the film) so all is good. A beautiful, deeply humane and lovable movie.

Reptile (2023)

Del Toro elevates the film

[6/10 · 6 October 2023]

If you believe American cinema almost every policeman (and -woman?) in the USA is corrupt - and there's always an upright officer to bring them down. Here it is Benicio del Toro who elevates every film he's in. Reptile is an okay crime thriller with some surprises and a lot of elements you know from numerous such movies. What makes this one stand out is the cool style, the slow pace, the convincing symbolism, some fine supporting performances and of course del Toro as the guilt-ridden policeman who wants to redeem himself. Jamie Foxx said of del Toro that he never seems to act but just is the character he's playing and this film proves it. Del Toro lets his face, his posture, his sadness do the acting. To watch his character doing the dangerous but good thing in this movie has a Zen-like quality which emits hope in humanity.

Mystic River (2003)

The screenwriter tried to be Shakespeare

[7/10 · 5 October 2023]

This film hasn't aged well. Twenty years ago I thought it a masterpiece but now I think it is a well-made film with a good ensemble cast but also a screenwriter who tried to be Shakespeare and a director who let him. There is histrionic and actually pretty ham-fisted dialogue galore (''We bury our sins here, we wash them clean'') and heavy-handedly used symbols (the cars, the vampires, the wolves and, yeah we've got it, the river). And all of this totally superfluous because the excellent actors would have carried the message of a dog-eat-dog world full of unnecessary violence passed down the generations easily without having to say unintentionally funny lines like ''Their daddy's a king. And a king knows what to do and does it''. That Laura Linney can deliver such lines and still owns the film at the end shows her as the acting genius she is.

The Batman (2022)

For a very rainy day

[4/10 · 5 October 2023]

Gotham City has a serious rain problem in this latest resurrection of the Batman franchise. It doesn't just rain here, it comes pouring down, but only at night - a heavy-handed symbol for the trouble the city is in, like the darkness, the gothic and industrial interiors, the black vigilante roaming its streets. If you like your superhero movies gritty and noir, you are welcome. Everyone else will ask her- and himself why we need such a monstrously long movie with a monstrously depressed hero who never smiles, always mumbles platitudes and takes a very long time to understand the Riddler's not that complex plan. But don't ask too many questions and ignore the plotholes, the hollow bombast and the missing chemistry between Catwoman and Batwoman and you can enjoin a stylishly shot superhero flick with a pretty good villain and a cool car chase. For a very rainy day.

Spy (2015)

As good a James Bond parody as you will get

[7/10 · 5 October 2023]

The best parodies are love-letters to the genre they spoof. Spy is as good a James Bond parody as you will get, the reason being the obvious care invested here in imitating the original. Most of the cast could actually appear in a Bond, most of all Jude Law. The idea to make an overweight woman the star of a parody of a genre obsessed with beauty and fitness is genius but would not have been worked without the comedic genius of Melissa McCarthy who easily owns the film. Not every joke works, the second half of the movie is weaker than the first and what's the deal with Feig's obsession with excretion? That said it is very obvious that everyone is having a great time which is infectious for the viewer. How on earth can Jason Statham go on taking his macho roles seriously after destroying them in this film?

Bird Box (2018)

Post-apocalyptic horror worth your while

[6/10 · 4 October 2023]

In A Quiet Place of the same year making noise was forbidden, here the thing to avoid is, ironic for a movie, seeing. Strange entities have invaded the earth, if you see them they lure you into a somewhalt blissful suicide. Yep, another dumb horror film premise but the movie uses it skilfully to create a tense atmosphere of menace and danger. Apart from a slightly sentimental ending, some gratuitous violence and John Malkovich playing his umpteenth repulsive creep the film presents a convincing portrait of people behaving in a global collapse. Sandra Bullock's mix of vulnerability, humour and toughness is just right for the material, and the film is intelligent enough to avoid showing the monsters. There are implausabilities, Sandra Bullock miraculously looks fantastic even after nearly drowing and the schmaltzy American praise of family can't be avoided but all in all this is post-apocalyptic horror worth your while.

Far from Heaven (2002)

A work of genius

[10/10 · 4 October 2023]

America is obsessed with perfection. You can tell American films from British ones by the way rooms look like: nice, clean, tidy - and when in squalor (think of teenagers' rooms in Spielberg movies) it's carefully arranged. No dirty dishes here. The Technicolor brilliance of the 50's Hollywood melodrama was a celebration of American perfection: the world bright and colourful, beautiful people suffering stylishly to a voluptous soundtrack. Far from Heaven destroys the melodrama from within: being a perfect melodrama itself with gorgeous people acting gorgeously in gorgeously shot scenery and interiors and being a deconstruction of this perfection at the same time. Racism, bigotry, homophobia, the utter loneliness at the heart of the American dream expressed in all-American splendour and to the deeply ironic full orchestra score of Elmer Bernstein: a work of genius. The actors are all pitch-perfect, the standout being Dennis Quaid as the tortured gay husband.

The Gentlemen (2019)

Deeply problematic movie

[1/10 · 4 October 2023]

Matthew McConaughey plays Michael in this film, one of the ultra-cool, ultra-ruthless gangsters we are invited to admire as much as the School of Tarantino do. Among other opponents Michael defeats Matthew, a Jewish billionaire, whose Jewishness is mentioned over and over again in this movie. Why becomes clear at the end: Michael not only wants hundreds of millions from Michael but also - echoing the Merchant of Venice - a pound of his flesh. Yep, you heard me right. The film's hero is openly antisemitic - and the film is okay with it. Now Tarantino and his disciples like to sell their films as slick, sharply written glimpses into the world of gangsterdom (albeit with the authenticity of a comic strip) and grant themselves the licence to treat violence as a joke. But to be openly antisemitic is beyond silly macho cinema. It is disgusting.

Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010)

Good horror-comedy

[6/10 · 3 October 2023]

There is a time for philosophizing about what the hell David Lynch tells us and there is a time for cinematic silliness. Like all good horror-comedies this film takes the horror (or better: the gore) seriously while downplaying any idea it transports profound socio-political analysis. The cabin-in-the-wood-genre is as ludicrous as the slasher genre in general, no matter how many clever-sounding hipster articles you write about it. So it is nice to have in this film a gory homage which does not deliver laughing-out-loud jokes but offers a nice absurd premise it never loses sight of: the stereotypical bunch of high school kids take the actually very sensitive hillbillies for serial killers, the hillbillies take the unluckily very clumsy teenagers for a suicide cult. It escalates nicely from here. Slasher fans get their gore and madness and at the same time an astoundingly heartfelt deconstruction of their genre of choice.

Traffic (2000)

An American crime movie without simplification

[10/10 · 3 October 2023]

Although the film ends on a (vaguely) optimistic note, this is an astoundingly complex and deeply disturbing portrait of two countries in the grip of the drug epidemic. The different colour schemes Soderbergh uses for the four interwoven stories he tells are symbolic for people living in different worlds, with little or no understanding of each other - at least at the beginning. The Mexican policeman tempted by corruption is worlds apart from the conservative US judge who has to win the war on drugs. But the colours merge more and more, and in the end the cartel boss's wife is similar in her zeal to maintain her lifestyle to the DEA officer determined to avenge his partner's death. Fantastic perfomances all around (with del Toro the stand-out act), in their restraint perfectly matching the documentary style. A rare feat: an American crime movie which does not rely on simplification.

A Quiet Place (2018)

Mediocre horror flick

[3/10 · 3 October 2023]

The film's premise is ridiculous (blind aliens with super-sharp hearing have invaded the Earth and killed most of the population) but interesting: the last survivors have to avoid noise. That is an interesting concept in a time where films get louder and louder. But apart from the absence of dialogue and sound this is a mediocre horror flick at best, full of stereotypes: brutal but dumb monsters, heroic parents, noble sacrifice, ever escalating and more and more improbable action. John Krasinski repeatedly interrupts building up tension for a schmaltzy celebration of the MacGyveresk farmer father and his bold wife who, in a terrible last frame, poses as a trigger-happy Tarantino heroine. The characters are flat, the conflicts never fully investigated, the solution outrageously simple: the creatures can be killed by sound feedbacks (and a good gunshot in the face). No one in the whole wide world had thought of that?

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Beautiful boredom

[5/10 · 3 October 2023]

Guillermo del Toro wanted to do a film noir but the result is not convincing. By ridiculously overstretching the film's runtime and drenching the story of every possible hint of comic relief but grotesquely accentuating the melodramatic instead he produced a film noir parody. It's a shame because the film is a feast for the eyes: the cinematography is breathtaking, the sets are stunning, the costumes are ravishing. And acting talent wherever you look. So what went wrong? The film begins fine enough with twenty minutes of fast action, little dialogue, convincing images. But then the plodding begins: dialogue, dialogue, dialogue, mostly written in tired cliches, delivered with as little emotion as possible, lacking motivation, presenting cardboard characters. Of course there are treasures here: Mary Steenburgen's moving cameo as a grief-stricken mother, Richard Jenkins turn as a monster with a conscience, the brilliant final scene. Apart from that: beautiful boredom.

Mulholland Drive (2001)

The best film about the reality of Hollywood

[9/10 · 3 October 2023]

It is very ironic that the best film about the reality of Hollywood behind its glamour is anything but realistic but a surrealist film noir inviting a multitude of differing interpretations since the year of its release. Quoting Wilder, Hitchcock and Bergman David Lynch shows Hollywood as hell (a flyer on a signpost explicitly says so!), especially for young naive women desperately wishing to break through to fame. Naomi Watts is brilliant as Betty (or Diane?), a young actress dreaming the dream without realizing you literally need a shortcut to the top of the Hollywood Hills and that accidents are bound to happen. It is a shame the symbols get quite heavy-handed at the end - up to this point this is a multi-layered, focused, empathetic and sensual meditation on the dangers of dreaming big in a business controlled by men who expect sex as entrance fee to the studios.

Battle of the Sexes (2017)

A typical American biopic

[4/10 · 3 October 2023]

Every biopic about a living and beloved celebrity is bound to be a celebration and thus somewhat (or extremely) bland and vanilla. This film is not an exception. Of course the real conflicts get glossed over, the main character becomes a role model for a noble cause instead of a complex human being, the end is triumphalistic with terrible music (and the score for this film is extra hideous). Thanks to the massive acting talent assembled the film offers glimpses at most characters' un-American loneliness. Especially Carell is wondrous in his feat to make a convincing case for Bobby Riggs's sadness behind the bravado. But all in all this is a typical American biopic which satisfied the US desire for heroism. That the heroine in case is a lesbian feminist is a sign of progress: when societal outsiders can be the topic of mainstream feel-good movies, something has been achieved.

American Hustle (2013)

A hugely entertaining film

[8/10 · 3 October 2023]

A razor-sharp satire about greed, loneliness, despair and dumb ambition, obviously in David O. Russell's eyes the driving forces of the America of the '70s and today. The conned conman is an old theatre trope but still effective because we will always love to see the arrogant fall and the overconfident tricked. Sometimes this film with its dialogues like boxing matches is a little too over the top but the hope and humanity at the heart of the film - the conviction that good can be done, even when done through shady methods - grounds it and makes the mostly despicable characters likeable. Perfect perfomances all around plus a menacing cameo by Robert DeNiro. All of this - the plot, the dialogues, the acting - plus the gung-ho costumes, sets and hairstyles that do the '70s justice and simultaneously show its utter crazyness and you have a hugely entertaining film.