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Home > Celestial Blood > Weekend film reviews: ‘Him,’ ‘A Big Bold Beautiful Journey’
Podcast: Celestial Blood
Episode:

Weekend film reviews: ‘Him,’ ‘A Big Bold Beautiful Journey’
Category: Arts
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2025-09-18 19:00:00
Description: The latest film releases include Him, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, Where to Land, and Happyend. Weighing in are Alonso Duralde and Dave White, film critics and co-hosts of the movie podcast Linoleum Knife. Him Tyriq Withers portrays a young college football star who trains at a remote compound owned by a legendary, football player near retirement (Marlon Wayans). White: “Young Mr. Withers encounters enormous physical and mental challenges, and the stakes grow higher, and then the line between reality and extremely violent hallucination is more or less obliterated. So this is from Justin Tipping … and he is taking on a lot of subjects in this film. There is the trajectory of young Black athletes and how they are exploited by the corporate nature of professional teams that are usually white-owned; the physically damaging legacy of American football itself; the expectations of performed masculine behavior and the psychological damage that that can create. And all of this is tangled up in a genre film package that has equal elements of body horror and psychological horror, and they are competing for their own dominance in the film. It is a big mess. … But it is a watchable mess, if you can handle the gore. And honestly, as overdone as the presentation is, the allegorical nature of these themes is something we do not see addressed in mainstream movies, especially in sports movies. And for those reasons alone, I think this is valuable and worth seeing.” Duralde: “They're also trying to wrap their arms around the idea of sports as religion in this country, but they do that by calling the team The Saviors, and by showing a family that has a literal shrine with candles on a table for the Marlon Wayans character. … I agree with everything this movie has to say about the destructive nature of professional sports, I just wish that it said it with a little more grace.” A Big Bold Beautiful Journey Two strangers (Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell) meet at a wedding, then travel in a rental car that takes them to mysterious doorways where they can relive important moments from their pasts. Duralde: “The movie is super stylized and operates in this little twee fantasy bubble. And that's a style of filmmaking that if you pull it off, if you're making a movie like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or The Worst Person in the World, you can wind up with a film that's really insightful about human behavior, and about the nature of love and life in a way that is maybe a little quirky. But if you don't do it right, you wind up with a big, sticky bowl of ‘live, laugh, love,’ and that's what we're stuck with here, which is a real shame, because I think both Robbie and Farrell have made smarter movies about this very subject. And it's a waste of them to put them through this hackneyed series of bromides about life and how to live it. … This is really sappy. If it works for you, it'll work for you like gangbusters, but it did not work for me.” White: “This film has a relationship with earnestness, where it just dives into the deep end of that and stylizes it with these very cute visual flourishes, and it becomes increasingly grating. They bring in movie musical posters that are images on a young Margot Robbie's wall, and those images are brought to life. There’s a nod to Umbrellas of Cherbourg. And it felt … that [director] Kogonada is just wringing my arm for a reaction. It is an insufferable midlife crisis Phantom Tollbooth.” Where to Land When a famous filmmaker wants to work at a cemetery, his loved ones think he is dying. Hal Hartley is the writer/director. Duralde: “Hal Hartley, when he first burst onto the scene in the late 80s, early 90s, he was immediately raised to the heights of indie directors, as somebody who had this … deadpan style, but was also not afraid to get into the deeper issues about … life and about love and about regrets and choices. … And he has not made a feature film in more than 10 years. So he is back. … The lead character is a filmmaker, and when his films are described by people, it is as though they are talking about the early works of Hal Hartley. … This is the riding-the-bike-again movie that he had to get out of his system. And maybe the upcoming ones will be even more sharply in the school of the films that made him famous.” White: “I felt like I was back in an art house in 1992, learning about the existence of this filmmaker. We don't get a lot of this style anymore. … It's very direct, it's very small scale, and his dialogue is delivered with a very dry affect. … They deliver lengthy, philosophical, and funny announcements about the nature of the self, and life, and the meaninglessness of existence. … It's not his best movie, but as an exercise in indie film nostalgia for this aging Gen Xer, I was very okay with it, and I want more from Hal Hartley, please. I have missed him.” Happyend In a dystopian near-future Japan, a senior prank triggers a surveillance crackdown at a high school. Neo Sora is the writer/director. White: “It's about a bunch of teenagers at a Japanese high school. They're all about to graduate, and they are coming to understand that the world around them, both outside and inside the school, is bending toward authoritarianism and fascism. Cameras have been installed in the hallways, tracking their every movement, and giving them these points-based demerits. They're all very savvy about the way their school is connected to the outside world. And they band together quite defiantly to fight injustice in small but clever ways. So I think everyone listening understands that we currently live in a world that is bending toward fascism itself, not just globally, but in the United States as well. And doomerism is taking hold among a lot of people. And what I love about this film is its insistence that we all refuse to give up. … The film is not going to let anybody get away with feeling defeated. And it is in very limited release. So take note of that. If you can't find it, find it later when it's streaming. It's very special.” Duralde: “This feels super relevant to right now. But I think what's most important about it … is this insistence that not only can we push back against authoritarianism, but we must push back against authoritarianism. And it provides that message in a sprightly, smart, sharp way. … This is a vital piece of cinema, and I can't recommend it highly enough.”
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