A World of Kino 43 | Licorice Pizza, Alien Franchise, Arcane & more

I have no 1 star films this week, but I do have a lot of 2s. Don’t worry though, because I have some new favourites right at the end also. I’ll be reviewing classics, new releases, an Alien marathon and an entire show, so join me this week for another world of kino.

Let’s begin with another Paul Thomas Anderson movie that has sadly failed to endear me to his style: Licorice Pizza.

Set in the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s, the film follows a high school student who is also a successful child actor.

At least it isn’t as obnoxious as Magnolia, since it does go for the more laid back, dreamy vibe that I adored in Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time In Hollywood – even if the two films are wildly different in all other aspects. But for this kind of plotless film to work for me, the characters have to be extremely likable, and Licorice Pizza simply doesn’t achieve that. Utterly detestable romance aside, these characters had me rolling my eyes far too frequently at their awful attitudes. Alana especially, whose spitefullness seriously got on my nerves (and her thinking being in politics made her cooler than Gary was just embarrassing). I liked Gary a bit more, though only because I find his business savviness so admirable, plus I can relate to his background somewhat. But as a whole, I did not enjoy spending two hours with these two in the slightest, so the film just doesn’t work for me on a fundamental level.

However, on a craft level, the film is admittedly well constructed. The constant blasting of music did make the 70s LA setting feel a little superficial, but directing wise you won’t find a fault. Even in the screenplay, which is weird and meandering, but definitely knows what it’s going for and doesn’t compromise to reach that vision. The sequence with Sean Penn and Tom Waits was by far the highlight, and the scenes with the Japanese restaurant owner were hilarious in a dumbfounded way. Nevertheless, the film is filled to the brim with events that happen for no rhyme or reason: from scenes with no narrative or thematic pay-off (the arrest), to characters behaving in the most pointlessly absurd manner (Bradley Cooper). I understand this only adds to the atmosphere for a lot of people, but is something that only managed to make me intensely dislike the whole affair. So while this is by no means a bad film, my advice is to not watch Licorice Pizza unless you already enjoy PTA’s other works.

Next is another film that I disliked from an otherwise renowned filmmaker: Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy.

A mild-mannered college professor discovers a look-alike actor and delves into the other man’s private affairs.

This film just doesn’t work on a fundamental level: why do all the characters freak out so badly? Yes, it would of course be weird to discover you have a doppelganger, but a normal person would just find that a point of laughter rather than existential dread. The overreactions are laughably stupid, superseded only by the dumb direction the narrative decides to take, which is chock-full of nonsense symbolism, boring pacing and a terrible ending. The only saving grace are the performances, especially Jake Gyllenhaal who effortlessly plays two characters only distinguishable by the most subtle differences. The supporting cast do a good job silently realising the peculiarities, which manages to make scenes of pretense that much more uncomfortable. But even in this regard, I’ve seen much better portrayals of one actor playing both twins, such as Nicholas Cage in Adaptation, or even Ewan McGregor in Fargo. So not even the selling point managed to impress me all that much, meaning I’m just left rather dissapointed Villeneuve made something of such mediocre quality.

This week, I decided to watch the Alien sequels that I haven’t bothered to watch until now. I’ve already seen Alien 1 and 2 (I give both 3 stars), so today I will review the rest of the sequels and prequels. First up, is Alien Cubed.

After escaping with Newt and Hicks from the alien planet, Ripley crash lands on Fiorina 161, a prison planet and host to a correctional facility. Unfortunately, although Newt and Hicks do not survive the crash, a more unwelcome visitor does. The prison does not allow weapons of any kind, and with aid being a long time away, the prisoners must simply survive in any way they can.

I watched the special edition, so I can’t begin to imagine how bad the theatrical must be. I’m not a fan of Alien, so I don’t much care if its unsatisfying killing off of prominent characters is controversial. All I cared about was being entertained, and if that should fail, then to at least be made to feel something, anything, that wasn’t boredom. But this is Fincher we’re talking about, whose very style is the epitome of competently dull. The script starts off dry but decent, but by the end it’s little more than generic shlock. The direction is also fairly uninspired, somehow looking much worse than its 13 year older original. The setting had a lot of potential for intriguing worldbuilding and tense horror, and the characters certainly do exhibit faint glimmers of interesting personalities. But the prison colony just isn’t explored in any meaningful depth, nor the characters fleshed out to become memorable – which definitely isn’t helped by how their lives are consistently cut short as soon as I begin to like them. I’d like to say I at least appreciate some of its bold story decisions… But the way it’s handled just comes across as incredibly lazy.

Alien Resurrection is the lowest rated Alien movie, which I truly don’t understand. Compared to the absolute bore of the third, it’s a miracle another sequel managed to get made with so much more spirit.

Two hundred years after Lt. Ripley died, a group of scientists clone her, hoping to breed the ultimate weapon. But the new Ripley is full of surprises … as are the new aliens. Ripley must team with a band of smugglers to keep the creatures from reaching Earth.

Instead of just sticking to some uninspired formula, Alien 4 actually takes the story in an interesting new direction, exploring it with levity and spunk – though never shying away from body horror – so that a minute never feels wasted. The film looks fantastic, with clever sci-fi inventions that make the world feel lived in, and perhaps the best renditions of the xenomorphs to date. It makes the action exciting and meaningful, utilising its environment with a creativity that I always adore experiencing. But most importantly, the characters feel so lively here, with such amusingly bold personalities – Ripley has somehow become an even better character than she was before. The actors clearly had an immense amount of fun delivering the brilliant comedy, which for all of its intentionally dumb humour, genuinely exhibits genius levels of writing. There are some moments that stand out as indicative of a rushed production, but I’m amazed by how well it’s all put together, and by how it actually has a reason for existing. As wild of an opinion this might be, Alien Resurrection may very well be the most enjoyable movie in this franchise, and my personal favourite.

I remember Prometheus being polarising when it came out, which I don’t really understand since I think it’s just fine. 

A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.

Prometheus is bold, which is exactly what I want out of these movies. Only problem is that it doesn’t execute its vision particularly well. I do appreciate its attempts to pursue some high concepts – and adore all of the filmic references – but I think it’s handled in a pretty sloppy and on the nose manner. I really liked Fassbender’s Lawrence of Arabia obsessed robot, but his somewhat sinister aura that made him so enticing (especially with all those 2001 allusions) kind of just gets forgotten about. The visuals are also incredible – they definitely peaked my interest from the get go – but they unfortunately end up being used for some rather cheesy purposes. This movie works best when it’s silent, since it does have a lot of great moments, but quickly falls apart when a character opens their mouth and rubbish falls out.

While I thought Prometheus was flawed, I appreciated how it tried to do something different. So Covenant feels like a step back in many ways, since just like with Alien 3, it’s basically just a boring rehash of the original. 

Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, the crew of the colony ship ‘Covenant’ discovers what is thought to be an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world—which has a sole inhabitant: the ‘synthetic’, David, survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.

The funny thing about the Alien franchise is that every movie is dumb (yes, that includes the sacred first two). These movies shine when they’re bold and inventive, but most of the time they take themselves far too damn seriously, which typically just makes for a mindless affair – probably why I like Resurrection so much, since it’s the only one to do the opposite. The irony that the levity of Resurrection allowed for the crafting of personalities with far more depth and memorability than the blank slates littering every other movie. Covenant is the worst offender of this, since it goes for gruesome slaughter in spite of every character making the most stupidly clichéd decisions imaginable, meaning it all feels so pointless to sit through. Its entire third act is literally just a rushed version of the first movie, that’s how awfully generic this film is.

If it wasn’t for Fassbender, I’d easily give this film 1 star. One Fassbender is more than this movie deserves, but the man somehow manages to give two brilliant performances at the exact same time, to the point where you can tell when one of his characters is pretending to be the other just through voice and mannerisms alone. I was definitely hasty to complain about David’s sinister aura being forgotten about towards the end of Prometheus, as Covenant doubles down on his god complex to make for hands down the best scenes of the film. He truly is too good for this movie, so it’s little surprise the rest is of such garbage quality.

Time for a classic movie now to wash away the meh test of Alien, and this week I’ve chosen Rain Man.

Selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt’s father left a fortune to his savant brother Raymond and a pittance to Charlie… so Charlie kidnaps his brother in an effort to regain his fair share.

Cruise and Hoffman are so good here. Cruise for just playing himself perfectly as always, and Hoffman for such an authentic portrayal of severe autism. It does start off a little annoying, but that’s naturally intentional, since it just manages to make Charlie’s growth that much more comforting. Both of them play off each other brilliantly, delivering equally captivating performances. Their relationship is a delight to watch develop on this long, tumultuous roadtrip, which sees gorgeous land, sky and city scapes rise and fall, all to the tune of excellent comedy and heartfelt drama. There’s nothing that blew me away, but that doesn’t matter since it’s such a solid and hard to dislike film.

Now for the first masterpiece of the week, I give you The Electrical Life of Louis Wain.

The extraordinary true story of eccentric British artist Louis Wain, whose playful, sometimes even psychedelic pictures helped to transform the public’s perception of cats forever.

This may very well be the most gorgeous looking film of the past year, because not only is the cinematography already sublime, but it becomes enhanced drastically as the picture is distorted to match Louis’s state of mind. From picturesque landscapes that blossom in the light of love, to the cutesy portraits of cats transforming into psychedelic nightmares, to the horrors and beauty of the world inducing such an irresistible feeling of awe. I’m always moved to tears when gazing at such sublime imagery, so paired with a heartfelt story that sees another standout performance from Cumberbatch, it’s little surprise I adored this as much as I did. The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain continues to show how a biopic should be made, and in turn has become one of my favourite films of 2021.

And now to close off the episode, I give you Arcane.

Amid the stark discord of twin cities Piltover and Zaun, two sisters fight on rival sides of a war between magic technologies and clashing convictions.

Arcane is a masterpiece! I’m not a savant of League of Legends’s expansive worldbuilding that fans quite rightly seem to love, because while I have tried playing a little bit of League, I didn’t enjoy it. I got much more into the card game called Legends of Runeterra, which gave me a few glimpses of its rich lore. But season 1 does an excellent job at easing the uninitiated into its world, as by taking place purely in Piltover & Zaun, the show can explore the city in its entirety without really worrying about what the rest of the world is up to (although Noxus does come into play a little towards the end).

P&Z is a city of extremes, where commerce and technological progression is triumphed in Topside, at the expense of abandoning the unfortunate to live in the drug-infested squallor of The Undercity. The political conflicts that arise from this central premise are captivating, leading the show in an unpredictable yet ever-satisfying direction. What’s most astonishing about this show is that there are no heroes and villains. Some people are certainly more sinister than others, but nobody feels evil. Everyone feels like a real person with genuine motivations and a desire to do good – it’s just that their vision of what good is follows different metrics, resulting in clashes of interests that had me conflicted on who to root for. It’s fascinating how complex these characters are, since they all make mistakes, but it’s always believable and in-character – a point of learning to catapult the narrative into wholly original territory. I only ever wanted to wish the best for each character, even though that was always an impossibility.

But where would I be without mentioning the animation? It’s being heralded as the peak of 3D animation, and rightly so. The aesthetic reminds me of Dishonoured (a fantastic game), only infused with an insane amount of energy, in both the exciting fights, but also in all of the drama. Faces are brought to life with such vigour, such a rare spirit, giving each character an irresistible personality. Colour is also used in such a beautiful way, with purple, blue and green the primary battle colours to tarnish the lavish whites of Piltover. The style is unlike anything else I’ve ever seen before, so I was awe-struck the entire way through. I heard only good things about Arcane when going in, but it still somehow managed to surprise me with just how good it truly was. This series is one of a kind, with a lot of potential to become even better in spite of already being masterful. Saying I’m excited for what’s to come is putting it mildly.