A World of Kino 32 | The Witch, The Green Knight, Many Saints of Newark & more

Welcome to another episode of A World of Kino. I have much less films than the last episode lined up for you today, but thankfully none of the reviews are negative.

In a rare twist of fate, the first and worst film of the week is actually decent: 42nd Street.

A producer puts on what may be his last Broadway show, and at the last moment a chorus girl has to replace the star.

I detest musicals. I have no qualms with admiting that fact because I simply hate it when the characters break out into song, as it just completely pulls me out of the film (and more often than not, the songs are extremely annoying). But 42nd Street was actually alright. I probably only thought it was fine precisely because there was minimal singing – in fact, most of the musical is squashed into the final act – but the good acting and writing for most scenes made it surprisingly enjoyable. So while I’m definitely not a fan of this genre – and will hardly look back on this film with fond memories – I’m content with having recognised the merits in 42nd Street after all, when so many other musicals have utterly failed to endear themselves to me.

The first of several new releases, though I am a little late to the party with this one: Malignant:

Madison is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities.

Ok, I already knew the entire plot of this film because I watched the Red Letter Media review quite a while ago, but I felt like watching this anyway just to get it out of the way. And honestly, I don’t get why this was talked about so much, since it’s not like it twists horror in any uniquely crazy new direction (for better, or for worse). It’s pretty tame for the first half, and while I do like the twist, it’s just not as significant as it was played up to be. The dialogue is also utterly atrocious, though I suppose it did lend to making it rather funny to watch. The filmmaking on display is superb however – I will give it that – as the camera moves with such grace amidst the lavishly dark tones and bloody massacres. So while I don’t think it particularly works how this film intentionally plays into absurdism – from the dumb writing to the ridiculously big sets – I do have to give credit to James Wan for crafting something so competently stupid. 

A classic comedy movie now, with Rush Hour.

When Hong Kong Inspector Lee is summoned to Los Angeles to investigate a kidnapping, the FBI doesn’t want any outside help and assigns cocky LAPD Detective James Carter to distract Lee from the case. Not content to watch the action from the sidelines, Lee and Carter form an unlikely partnership and investigate the case themselves.

This was just as much fun as I was expecting! Now, embarrassing as it might be to admit this, I think this might be my first time watching Jackie Chan; or at least in full, as I’ve certainly seen clips of his Buster Keaton like antics. But with Rush Hour alone, I’m already a fan of how he brings so much creativity and kinetic energy to every single action scene. However, the real comedic charm of this film is hands down due to Chris Tucker, as he’s simply hilarious to watch every second he’s on screen. The two of them combined make for an excellent duo, masking some rather dumb plot writing by making each beat in the narrative and each line of dialogue immensely fun to watch.

This next horror film is one I’ve been meaning to watch for a long time now, as it’s the first film by new horror master Robert Eggers: The Witch.

In 1630s New England, William and Katherine lead a devout Christian life with five children, homesteading on the edge of an impassable wilderness, exiled from their settlement when William defies the local church. When their newborn son vanishes and crops mysteriously fail, the family turns on one another.

Right from the outset, the atmosphere is built up with such perfection! A dark and twisted visual style intertwining with the eery sound design and transfixing editing to craft a slow but haunting descent into death and madness. The performances from the entire fanatically superstitious family are superb in their amusingly archaic tongue, with Anya Taylor Joy naturally rising above the rest as the stand out performance. Unfortunately – as is the case with pretty much every horror movie – the final act takes the concept into too much of a silly tone, so that the very last note sadly doesn’t ring with the same quality as the rest of the gorgeous symphony up till then. But every filmmaking element comes together with such mesmerising fervour here, so this is an incredible piece of work regardless.

For the second shocking twist of the episode comes a gang movie that I actually really liked: The Many Saints of Newark.

Young Anthony Soprano is growing up in one of the most tumultuous eras in Newark history, becoming a man just as rival gangsters start to rise up and challenge the all-powerful DiMeo crime family. Caught up in the changing times is the uncle he idolizes, Dickie Moltisanti, whose influence over his nephew will help shape the impressionable teenager into the all-powerful mob boss, Tony Soprano.

So, I haven’t seen The Sopranos past like the first episode and random clips floating in the pop culture stratosphere, which did mean I probably missed out on a lot of tie ins with the main show. But this still works really well as a standalone film regardless, because even though the ending felt too open ended for my liking, the main narrative is absolutely gripping throughout. Michael Gandolfini as a young version of his dad is of course fantastic – as everybody else has already attested to – but it was Alessandro Nivola’s Dickie that formed the real beating heart of the film for me in all his torment and charisma. Ray Liotta, Vera Farmiga, Michela de Rossi, and really the entire cast from gang to family, were stellar, which is great because complex and entertaining characters are the bedrock of any successful drama. If I had to pick one highlight from the film, it would have to be the drowning scene, as it was so unexpectedly beautiful (in the way it’s shot of course, not the brutal murder). That wasn’t even the one scene where the cinematography was incredible however, as throughout I kept getting shot in the face with several interesting or downright gorgeous looking shots, which served to elevate the great screenplay with a visual style that had me fully transfixed in all that unfolded.

At last, after the nonsense decision to cancel its release in the UK, Amazon Prime is here to save the day. That’s right, I’m concluding this episode with The Green Knight.

An epic fantasy adventure based on the timeless Arthurian legend, The Green Knight tells the story of Sir Gawain, King Arthur’s reckless and headstrong nephew, who embarks on a daring quest to confront the eponymous Green Knight, a gigantic emerald-skinned stranger and tester of men.

Now, it might be weird to say this – since The Green Knight has been rated rather highly already – but I went into this with relatively low expectations, as I know a lot of people who were dissapointed. And I must say, I completely agree with all of the criticism for this film. It’s tonally all over the place: sometimes a grounded period drama, other times dabbling in silly magical stuff, sometimes a heroic journey of epic proportions, often times a vehicle to show the pathetic side of humanity, and all the time an almost dead silent panorama of nature. It’s not that it does these individual tones badly – in many respects each one is done exceedingly well – but be it the editing or the screenplay, they just don’t come together cohesively enough. Paired with dialogue that just seems utterly confused in what it’s trying to say, this causes The Green Knight to admittedly have exceedingly poor pacing, which sadly makes it hard to enjoy all the many precious things that are just barely shining past the murky exterior. 

With that said, Dev Patel as Gawain is, of course, superb, his distinct sense of humanity – in all that vulnerability and faux bravery – juxtaposing rather nicely against the more enigmatic performances that dominate the supernatural cast (although I can’t get over the fact that they jarringly call him “Gar-when” instead of “Gah-wayne”, since that confused me so much). Looking at the rest of the normal cast, I quite enjoyed Barry Keoghan here in a role just as psychopathic – yet even more energetic – as his character in Killing of a Sacred Deer; Alicia Vikander is also pretty good as both Essel and Lady Bertilak, with Sean Harris and Joel Edgerton playing rather amusing mirror images of each other. By no means is this a film with an outstanding ensemble, but its nice to see such weird dialogue being delivered with such assured confidence and competence. 

But while the film doesn’t exactly do the epic justice from a writing point of view, it’s presented so beautifully that it does override any lapses in a solid narrative structure. And I’m not even going to gush over the visual style purely because it looks pretty. I mean, it is – it’s absolutely gorgeous – but rather because it is so clearly entrenched in art history. Art Historians should have a field day dissecting all the rennaisance-like cinematography that craft this incredible tale, and while I’m no art historian myself, I could definitely distinguish Rembrandt, Vecchio and Goya as key inspirations for many of the mesmerising paintings that chronicle this story. Every frame is quite literally a painting in this film, which thankfully in this case is enough to make me look past its glaring flaws to simply enjoy it for what it is.

As a result of being unable to competently tell the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the film is sucked almost completely dry of all thematic and emotional weight for the vast majority of its runtime. But because of such a sophisticated visual style and the anchoring of Dev Patel’s fantastic performance, any doubts about the brilliance of the directing fall away in total awe to the ultimate majesty of this film, culminating in a final 30 minute sequence that is simply masterful filmmaking and hands down enough reason to suffer through this very bumpy journey.