Zach’s Zany Movie Reviews: FIRST COW

FIRST COW is a good movie to be sure, a very slow burn that rewards the viewer’s patience in the second half, however I’m not so sure I’d go as far to say it’s Oscar worthy. It’s a solid film I’d likely watch a few more times, but I can’t see it’s name being called when the Best Picture winner is announced later next year. It’s not Oscar worthy to me because of a few complaints I’ll get to here in a minute, and I feel that maybe I watched the film after already being on board the over hype train the past couple of months. It was quickly taken out of theaters because of the pandemic and the studio was waiting to see if theaters would open up soon after so that they could just put it back in. Alas, it was not meant to be. The critics and others who saw it though praised it as the film that could “go all the way to gold this year.” A24 finally gave up and released it VOD back on July 10th. I finally got around to watching it yesterday. And yes, I enjoyed it. The acting is solid and so is the friendship between the two lead characters, but it felt like a couple of things were missing. Namely, this film does that thing that I absolutely hate: it shows a scene way way way in the future and then it goes back in time and tells the story to get to that place in time. Only movie off the top of my head that does this where I ended up forgiving it was Inception. To me, when you do that, it takes out the mystery of what might have happened to these characters, unless a twist is revealed showing that what you saw you didn’t really see (i.e. Inception). But this being a drama, there is no twist. It is what it is.

Per IMDB, its log line for First Cow is as follows: “A skilled cook has traveled west and joined a group of fur trappers in Oregon, though he only finds true connection with a Chinese immigrant also seeking his fortune. Soon the two collaborate on a successful business.” That successful business is basically stealing milk from the one and only cow in the area and charging up the wazoo for homemade buttermilk biscuits. The movie is such a slow burn though that it really doesn’t get to the story until about an hour into the lengthy two hour film. There are a lot of shots that seemingly go on for minutes and some of them go nowhere. For instance, there is a two to three minute shot of a boat on a river. This is at the beginning of the film. It’s an establishing shot, but it shouldn’t have gone as long as it did. The film does this several times within the first hour, but thankfully in the second half, even though the long shots continue, they seem to actually have a purpose. Again, that is the reward for the viewers that have stuck with the film this far. The friendship between the Chinese immigrant and the skilled cook is the best part about this film, however when the film splits them apart several times, which it really shouldn’t have done (mostly in the climax of the film too), the pacing seemed to be a bit off for me. Maybe though that could just say something about the movie in that it successfully got me invested in the characters, where I really didn’t want them to split up. So in the end, consider that critique of mine minor.

However, other than the beginning flash forward of the film, the story, while solidly told, is very predictable and doesn’t really go the lengths it needed to, in my opinion. The beginning of the film, should’ve really been placed at the end and it would’ve had a more emotional impact for me. When it cuts to black/end credits, I said out loud, “yeah I know that’s it, but it shouldn’t be.” Again, you could see the film much more differently than I and might end up thinking I’m out of my mind. I have not seen director Kelly Reichardt’s other films, but she does an excellent job here. She knows how to frame a scene to show the viewer and not just tell what is going on. She just did a little too much of a slow burn though. She co-wrote the screenplay with the novels author, and it’s a solidly structured product, albeit a little too predictable for my tastes. I was trying to come up with a curve ball the story could’ve thrown at the characters, and came up with quite a few, yet the story unfortunately never went there, it just traveled down a path I’ve walked along too many times before while watching movies. The chemistry between actors John Magaro and Orion Lee is undeniable and is definitely worth the price of admission. That is to say if it does get nominated for a bunch of things next year, I wouldn’t be totally against it. I just feel it’s being a little overpraised for what it is. But I’m glad I watched it and will be watching it again if it does get nominated early next year, to see if I missed anything I didn’t catch on my first viewing. It wouldn’t be a first if that happens.

Zach’s Zany Movie Reviews: UNDER THE SILVER LAKE (no spoilers)

WARNING: If you are a casual film goer, you are going to hate this movie. But if you look at the deeper meaning of things, and you love artistic movies that aren’t trying to be artsy fartsy for artsy fartsy sake, you might actually love it. If you are a constant reader of my blog or other opinions, you already know what side I am on. UNDER THE SILVER LAKE is an A24 property that, when it got mixed and polarizing reviews at a festival back in early 2018, kept getting delayed and delayed until it was finally quietly dumped on VOD back in April of this year. I hadn’t heard much about this movie beforehand, let alone had watched a trailer, all I knew was that it starred Andrew Garfield and was from writer/director David Robert Mitchell, whose first film back from 2014 I absolutely loved, It Follows. While that movie had a clear cut narrative, this 2 hr and 20 minute weird Hollywood epic has multiple plot threads (some that go places, some that don’t…or do they?) all with the same underlying message. It’s a very unique piece of work.

But whether you think that unique piece of work is brilliant or shitty is completely up to you. I’m not trying to tell you how to feel about this movie. If you watch this and don’t understand what the fuck I was talking about and thought it was boring and pointless, that’s fine, but you better be able to back it up on a film scholar level with me. This movie will require several viewings for some to fully understand it. I got it on the first try, but you know me. This film was a $3 blind buy for me on VUDU (having $3 credit on there made it basically free) and I was told to give it a chance by my favorite film reviewers Mike & Jay on http://www.redlettermedia.com. I watched the first part of their review before they got into spoilers (I recently watched the rest of it and they saw the film the same as I did). Boy, was that the best $3 credit purchase ever, because I kind of love this film. The best things about it is the underlying messages and theme of the movie, the AMAZING cinematography and the AMAZING score by Disasterpiece (who also had an amazing score with It Follows). Oh and uh, I don’t know what attracted Andrew Garfield to this project, but the dude gives it is all in his best performance since Hacksaw Ridge and The Social Network.

It’s going to be really hard to describe this film to you without giving any spoilers, but I’m going to do my best. Andrew Garfield is literally in almost every scene as a young man named Sam who, after a brief yet impactful encounter one night with a new neighbor, Sarah (Riley Keough), goes out and investigates her sudden disappearance, only to stumble upon hidden messages that may or may not lead him to an elusive and dangerous giant Hollywood conspiracy. And there happens to be a dog killer lurking about. Whew, I think I got the gist of it. Obviously there is so much more to what is going on that my statement pertaining to watching it multiple times to actually get it might come true to you. It is a very maze-like wicked tangled web of a film. So much subtext, so much allegory, so many layers. But that’s what I love about the film. It makes you think, where as 90% of the films that come out nowadays are just spoon feeding everything to you, where you can just sit there like a zombie and literally do nothing and these studios and filmmakers expect you to just get a kick out of it…

I think the reason why I probably like this film so much as well is that it comes off the heels of just seeing Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. I don’t know if Mr. Tarantino has seen Under The Silver Lake yet, but if he ever does, I wonder if he thinks both of these movies would go nicely in a whole afternoon long double feature. I sure did. Where as Mr. Tarantino’s film describes the last days of an old, innocent Hollywood system, Under The Silver Lake is inspired by the dirty, gross, seedy underbelly of the New Hollywood system, clearly coming more into light recently because of the #MeToo Movement. This film is more of a transition from old Hollywood to New Hollywood and I expect that there maybe somewhere down the line will be a third film only focused on New Hollywood that combined with these two will make some kind of unofficial trilogy. While representing more New Hollywood, this film shows the transition pretty well with a great musical score by Disasterpiece that is inspired by classic mystery/thriller films. Hitchcockian, if you will. While being set in the present day that old school essence is still there, with a lot of imagery and homages to classic movie industry actors and actresses. Hell, there are even nods to classic philosophers and astronomers in this film to tie everything together!

Some might leave this film wondering if it was sexist or misogynist, clearly missing the point of the entire message, and I feel bad for those that do so. It isn’t weird and elaborate just for the sake of being weird and elaborate. None of this film is just surface level shit and if you don’t want to use your brain to figure out different symbols, messages, and meanings in this, don’t bother ever trying to seek this out, because this film is clearly not for you. If 20 minutes you think the film is too slow, turn it off because you aren’t going to enjoy the rest of it. But if you want your cinematic experience to take you on a WTF journey of long and epic proportions, then I can’t recommend this enough. I have a feeling that in the future this film is going to be studied by film students, especially avante garde and/or expressionistic and experimental ones. Just like Midsommar, I can’t clearly see that and this as masterpieces yet, but I have I feeling on repeat viewings that it might take me in that direction. If you have the bravery to form your own opinion and actually pay attention when watching Under The Silver Lake, I really do hope you enjoy it.

Zach’s Zany Movie Reviews: THE FAREWELL (no spoilers)

If there is one thing to truly remember about this movie if it ever comes across the topic of conversation…well, two things, is that Awkwafina can truly act and isn’t just a one trick comedy pony, and the ending. If you don’t want the ending of THE FAREWELL spoiled for you, DO NOT go into the trivia section of IMDB or look this up on Wikipedia. The ending brings a whole new light to the entire story and makes you think about deeper meanings and messages of what it means to lie and keep something hidden from someone. It’s a pretty good little film, a dramedy that manages to avoid all the pit falls and cliches of other situational dramedies/comedies that HAVE to have those typical confrontational scenes at the end. But other than Awkwafina and the ending, I do feel that the movie ultimately is going to be pretty forgettable down the line.

The set up is simple, it’s based on an actual lie/actual true story and follows a Chinese family, who find out that their grandmother has only a short while left to live and decide not to tell her and instead use a cousin’s upcoming wedding as a front for a family gathering, so that everyone is together one last time before she dies. Awkwafina is front and center, playing the granddaughter Billie. At first the family doesn’t want her to go to the gathering as they think her emotions give her away, but Billie goes anyway and manages to keep the secret to herself. From then on, we get countless scenes before and during the wedding with Billie spending time with her grandmother and the entire family together, and then scenes without the grandmother where Billie is still debating whether they should really tell her or not. Even though the scenes discussing whether the lie is good for everyone or not get quite repetitive, the scenes adds natural and laugh out loud moment to balance the tide. Word of warning, while this is an American film, all the dialogue is really a 70-30 percent ratio of Chinese subtitles and actually spoken American dialogue, which doesn’t bother me at all, just warning you that you might be doing more reading throughout this film than what the trailer online makes you believe.

Like I said above, if there is any reason to watch the film, it’s Awkwafina’s performance, which I think could garner her a well deserved Oscar nomination come awards season (her real name is Nora Lum, which I actually really like and hope that eventually down the road she does a changing back of her name a la The Rock/Dwayne Johnson). Her performance is unlike anything you have ever seen her do before, playing an actual layered mutli-dimensional character, stripped away of all her over-the-top zanyiness you’ve come to recognize her from crazy roles in Ocean’s Eight and Crazy Rich Asians. She is really spectacular. In the acting department, every one does a good job, from all of the unknowns to Tzi Ma, who plays Billie’s father. The director, Lulu Wang, who mostly directs shorts and music videos, and has only done one other feature, is clearly an actor’s director, getting natural and realistic emotions from everyone involved. Stylistically though, it feels as though she watched one too many episodes of Mr. Robot, as all the shots have characters all to one side of the frame where there is too much space for blank walls and static boring backgrounds. The scenes between Billie and her grandmother are the best, giving the best emotional weight to the narrative.

However, there is one perfect scene in the film, no wasted space or filler, that I’d like to mention. When the cousin groom & his bride are getting pre-wedding pictures taken, Awkwafina and I believe her mother and/or aunt are having a meaningful conversation about “the lie” and the bride & groom taking weird pictures in the background that manages to elicit laughs from the audience but also just enough to not distract from the dialogue taking place. Very well done scene, and I wish there were more than that in there, as all the Mr. Robot cinematography felt kind of bland. I know you are looking for me to talk more about the ending, but since I said no spoilers in the title, all I will say is the ending makes you think even after you are on your way home and you’ll want to do some research on the film once you’ve gotten there. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good film, I just think down the line it will ultimately be pretty forgettable. If it gets Oscar nominations, I’d be fine with it as long as Awkwafina was included in the mix. This is the film that is going to make me take her seriously as an actress from now on (as you can tell, I know nothing about her rap career).