Christian Gallichio
Underrated: “Unsane”
It sometimes seems that Steven Soderbergh has become so good at his job, that people forget how hard it is to direct a film (and direct it well). That Soderbergh released two interesting projects this year, HBO’s limited series “Mosaic” and his iPhone shot film “Unsane,” to little fanfare, despite relatively positive reviews, is indicative of how technically proficient he has become. He makes it look easy. His feature, “Unsane,” which tracks protagonist Sawyer’s (Claire Foy) involuntary commitment to a mental institution that may (or may not) have her stalker working there, is a great thriller that proves Soderbergh has been reinvigorated by working with genre material recently. A condemnation of the health insurance market, wrapped in a psychological thriller, Claire Foy is given her best role as the improbably named Sawyer Valentini in what has been a hectic year for her. Soderbergh’s decision to shoot on an iPhone, sacrificing visual clarity for intimacy, gets unexpectedly great performances from Juno Temple, Joshua Leonard, and, even more surprisingly, Jay Pharoah. While so much critical attention has been paid to Paul Feig’s “A Simple Plan,” as exemplifying the forgotten Hitchcockian thriller, “Unsane” is an even better embodiment of those throwback psychodramas, and is, I believe, one of the best films from 2018.
Overrated: “Game Night”
It took me a while to figure out what film I’d consider overrated, as this year, I think more than most, I tended to agree with critics and audiences. I still cannot fathom the love that John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s “Game Night” got (84% on Rotten Tomatoes, really?) which is not to say that I don’t mind the film, as it’s amusing enough. Perhaps, I can’t stand Jason Bateman as an actor (which is undoubtedly true), but it seemed like Daley and Goldstein wasted one of the best casts of the year on a relatively unfunny film, which uses a hyper-competitive game night, centered around a simulated kidnapping, that becomes an actual kidnapping. The fact that the players don’t know the life and death stakes becomes the inside joke for a lot of the film, which drains a lot of the humor for me. There are some bright stops, though. Jesse Plemons fully commits to his awkward police office character Gary, so much so that I wish the movie were more based around him. Rachel McAdams is, as always, excellent and reminds you that she should be in comedies more often. But the hapless people stuck in a crime story, of which they have no idea about, has been overplayed at this point, and perhaps it’s time to move on from this sub-genre of comedy. Also, if we are going to reunite Coach Taylor and Landry in a film, at least give them some screen time together.
Bradley Warren
Underrated: “Dovlatov” (and pour one out for all the good films buried by Netflix)
The nature of the Netflix beast means that only a handful of their voluminous acquisitions and original films and series gets up on the marquee, and even then, gets a week in the spotlight. Great movies get lost in the shuffle; case in point, Alexei German, Jr.’s beautiful “Dovlatov,” which disappeared from the festival circuit after a prize-winning showing at the Berlin Film Festival in February. Shockingly, “Dovlatov” isn’t even afforded the ‘auteur cinema’ label by the service’s notorious algorithms. Distinguished by its languid pacing and long, pensive takes, this biopic of the famous Soviet-era author is more suited to the discerning NYFF crowd than Netflix’s autoplay function. Anchored by a magnetizing lead performance on the part of future Euro-star Milan Marić, German, Jr.’s latest finds its protagonist, a burgeoning writer in the throes of discontent, having to choose between state-sponsored success and his own integrity. It’s a prescient theme that ought to resonate with far more viewers globally than “Dovlatov,” in theory, is afforded by its streaming platform. This particular gripe could apply to any number of Netflix’s foreign-language festival pick-ups—“Happy as Lazzaro,” “Illang: The Wolf Brigade,” “Girl”—but “Dovlatov” sticks out as the most undeserving victim of the streaming giant’s limited bandwidth.
Overrated: “Suspiria”
As soon as the ’in five acts’ title card appeared at the beginning of “Suspiria,” it was time to check the watch. Luca Guadagnino’s latest is indisputably a bloated affair, and its threadbare pleasures can’t hope to compensate for its butt-numbing duration. It never becomes clear why Guadagnino—by all accounts, an immensely talented and visually-accomplished filmmaker—chose to take on Dario Argento’s classic horror flick (admittedly, a sacred cow for this complainant). For a film that takes up (big breath) postwar Berlin, guerrilla activism, dance and movement, female friendships and conflict, gender-bending, and, of course, witches and horror as its many themes and preoccupations, it simply fails to make any of the above compelling or substantial.
Moreover, its set-pieces, like the interactions between the dancers, are grotesque and mean-spirited. The dingy production design, and Sayombhu Mukdeeprom’s cinematography, is startlingly flat and unsightly, all the more disappointing given the fruits of their collaboration on “Call Me By Your Name.” The less said about Tilda Swinton’s shallow dual roles, the better; the only interesting moment of the gimmick is the ‘naked drag’ at the climax of “Suspiria.” There are glimpses of beauty, like the “Volk” dance recital, which at best confirms someone on the production had good taste in choreographers. A curse on Guadagnino if he makes a sequel to this dreck.