Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue below [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the same name)
After nearly burning myself out (along with anyone who actually made the effort to read the review) with attending to Killers of the Flower Moon last week, I’m saving some energy this time with looking at 2 streamers (which have been in theaters) in a more abbreviated fashion, but if you want more on these plots just go to the movie’s titles on Wikipedia: The Killer and A Haunting in Venice.
SHORT TAKES
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
The Killer (David Fincher) rated R 119 min.
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
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Given my previous appreciation for the works of Fincher—Se7en (1995), Fight Club (1999), Zodiac (2007), The Social Network (2010), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Gone Girl (2013 [review in our October 9, 2014 posting]), Mank (2020 [review in our December 10, 2020 posting, both reviews at the 4-stars level]) among them—I was quite interested in seeing his latest, even though as a plot it’s just a string of murders, all tied to vengeance of some sort. In this go-round, a highly-successful assassin (Michael Fassbender)—simply called The Killer in the credits—is on assignment in Paris with his target (Endre Hulles) due to soon check into a hotel across the street where out hitman will shoot him through a window with a high-powered rifle; in the boring days he has to wait for the guy to show up we get lots of voice-over-narration from Killer about how he stays focused just on the particulars of his jobs, with no sense of connection to any sort of ideology. However, when time comes for the crucial shot, he somehow misses, killing instead his target’s female companion.
Our protagonist quickly divests himself of incriminating evidence, uses one of many fake I.D.s/credit cards to fly to his hidden home in the Dominican Republic, but when he arrives he finds Magdala (Sophie Charlotte), his lover, is hospitalized, attacked by 2 other killers seemingly in retribution for his failed Paris assignment. He first gets some info on who his antagonists were from a cab driver, Leo (Gabriel Polanco)—then shot dead—goes to New Orleans to confront his handler, Hodges (Charles Parnell), a lawyer. When our guy is done, both Hodges and his assistant, Dolores (Kerry O’Malley), are dead, but the names and addresses of the pair he seeks are now known. The first one’s a powerful thug, The Brute (Sala Baker), in St. Petersburg, FL who puts up a hell of a battle before being defeated with his home burned down for good measure (at least the guard dog was spared). Then comes The Expert (Tilda Swinton), an older woman in Beacon, NY (close to NYC) who’s dispatched after tense conversation in a restaurant where she’s sampling various whiskeys. ⇒Next step up the ladder is Chicago to sneak in on wealthy Claybourne, The Client (Arliss Howard), who ordered the Paris hit, then hired the Dominican Republic brutals through Hodges, in response to the lawyer’s suggestion to tie up loose ends with The Killer. He desperately pleads he didn’t know about the specifics of the Magdala hit, so he’s left alive with the warning to not interfere with Killer’s life again, after which he’s back in the D.R., lounging on the beach with well-recovered Magdala.⇐
Despite all these deaths, violence is relatively subdued as most victims are simply shot dead, with the most agonizing scenes being Hodges tortured with a nail gun until he dies sooner than expected and the lengthy hand-to-hand-combat between Killer and Brute. As I noted in the beginning of my retro-analysis of Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966 [review, September 14, 2023 posting]), as with Thomas the photographer (David Hemmings) in that 5-stars (in my arguable-opinion) classic, my film-loving-wife, Nina, wasn’t as interested in The Killer as she’d hoped to be due to lack of any character development, although in those long, opening VO shots prior to the attempted-Paris-hit Killer does say his disconnect from fellow humans makes his career much easier. (Also, there’s the possibility I’m just a cold-hearted bastard [well, I was born from an unwed-mother, seriously] who relates well to these anti-social-characters [damn, maybe Donald Trump's my mystery-father {yuck!}, but he’s only a couple of years older than me, still I wouldn’t put it past him somehow …]; in a bit of defense of my positions, though, Nina now admits she’s reflected more on Blow-Up, admires the overall impact of how it’s presented, but she’s still not all that thrilled by The Killer [a reasonable-response, as I enjoyed its tension and pacing more than any true interest in The Killer himself, whose only purpose here is to justify his horrid anger, so, readers, you might be better off listening to Nina than me on this movie {overall good advice indeed, based on my 36 fantastic years with her}]).
So, take that as a warning: most of what we get here is the introduction of a new person soon to be dead (with a tiny bit of comic relief as Killer’s fake-identity-names come from TV characters—Sam Malone’s the only one I can recall right now). The Killer opened for limited domestic (U.S.-Canada) release on October 27, 2023, but it’s almost gone from those venues (no reported box-office either except for a mere $362 thousand from a few international sites), so if you’re interested your best option is Netflix streaming if you’re a subscriber (or willing to invest for at least 1 month, with the lowest option being $6.99), which the CCAL generally encourages you to do with positive Rotten Tomatoes reviews at 86%, the Metacritic average score at 72%. I’ll wrap up with my usual trope of a Musical Metaphor, The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm”—a debated-choice because I’ve already used it 6 times, but maybe I just see too many stories about killers—(on their 1971 album L.A. Woman) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G2-FPlvY58, a song containing the right attitude for this movie throughout, with some lyrics very appropriate: “If you give this man a ride / Sweet family will die / Killer on the road.” Overall, a very disturbing song well-fit for a very disturbing movie.
Here’s the trailer:
Once again director-actor Branagh turns to Agatha Christie for adaptation-inspiration—following his previous movies based upon her novels, Murder on the Orient Express (2017 [I didn't review it for some forgotten reason]), Death on the Nile (2022 [review in our April 7, 2022 posting])—this time turning to her Hallowe’en Party (1969) for a tale set in 1947 (not long before I was born; maybe my mystery father was part of this plot) about famed Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Branagh) who’s retired in Venice, Italy with ex-cop Vitale Portfoglio (Riccardo Scamarcio) as his bodyguard. His serenity’s interrupted by a visit from long-time-acquaintance/somewhat-friend, successful mystery novelist Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), who wants his help in exposing Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) as a fake psychic (which Oliver hasn’t been able to do yet) by attending one of her séances late on Halloween night at the palazzo of noted opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly) who wants to contact her young-adult-daughter, Alicia Drake (Rowan Robinson), who died a year ago, seemingly by suicide (or was she pushed?) from jumping off a high balcony into a canal, after being heartbroken when her fiancé, chef Maxime Gerard (Kyle Allen), suddenly broke off the engagement.
During the séance Poirot finds Nicolas Holland (Aki Khan), half-brother of Joyce’s assistant, Desdemona Holland (Emma Laird), hiding in a chimney, producing some of the supposed-strange-goings-on, but then Joyce brings in new strangeness by speaking in Alicia’s voice, saying she was murdered by someone in this room. Poirot wants to question Joyce, but she rebuffs him, gets him to wear her robe and mask, but when he gets distracted by bobbing for apples he’s attacked from behind (by someone who mistakes him for Joyce), almost drowned; right after that, Joyce is found impaled on a statue in the courtyard. Poirot is immediately on the case (somewhat aided by Ariadne), confronting the usual collection of suspects who include Maxime, Rowena’s housekeeper Olga Seminoff (Camille Cottin), the Drake family doctor Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan)—who’d prefer to get romantic with Rowena—and, of course, the Holland siblings (about the only other character not seen as a potential murderer is the young, acerbic son of Dr. Ferrier, Leopold [Jude Hill]), but he’s spooky in his own way, claiming to be aware of the ghosts of children who supposedly haunt this domicile in revenge for their cruel deaths long ago. Despite disbelief in the supernatural, Poirot has visions of Alicia, witnesses other seemingly-impossible-phenomena; however, he also deduces that Vitale and Ariadne are in cahoots, with her wanting to use Poirot’s inability of explaining the supernatural as the plot of her next book, even as another murder, of troubled-doctor Leslie, occurs.
⇒Ultimately, Poirot establishes Rowena is the murderer of this seemingly-haunted-night because back when she feared her daughter would marry Maxime she began to feed Alicia small amounts of a poisonous, hallucinogenic honey made from rhododendrons to weaken her, keep her at home (Poirot also tasted this honey, leading to his supposed-metaphysical-experiences); one night when Rowena was out, Olga accidently gave Alicia a fatal dose so Rowena pushed her corpse off of the balcony to start the suicide assumption. Rowena was concerned Joyce and/or Leslie was aware of the truth so she killed them, but when confronted by Poirot on the roof she seems to be pulled off by Alicia’s ghost, then drowns. Poirot also finds little Leopold was blackmailing Rowena, having figured out what happened to Alicia, then stuffing the cash in his mattress so Poirot encourages Olga and the kid to share their wealth with the Hollands so they can fulfill their dream of settling in the U.S.⇐
A Haunting in Venice debuted in domestic theaters on September 15, 2023—made $42.4 million, $120.9 million worldwide—but it’s pretty much gone now so if you’re interested you’ll, of course, need to turn to streaming where you can see it for free if you’re a Hulu subscriber (or sign up for a free trial period), but if you want to pay for a subscription it costs $7.99 monthly if you can endure ads—I had 3 interruptions in roughly the first 40 min. when I watched, none after that—or $17.99 a month for no ads; I suppose if you’re really intrigued by this narrative you could consider the $19.99 purchase option on Apple TV+, Vudu, etc., although CCAL support most likely won’t encourage such as the RT positives are 75%, the MC average score is 63%. It’s certainly entertaining, gives you enough complexity so the final reveal is probably a surprise, the acting’s solid throughout, and—if nothing else—the marvelous cinematography of Venice is easily worth that $7.99 (unless you can get the 1 month free trial). Let’s close out with my Musical Metaphor, which, for some reason (somewhat like Poirot here) I can’t logically explain, I feel has to be Van Morrison’s “Days Like This” (1995 album named for the song) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UUWkr4FUlo because on the positive side, after all the mysteries have been solved (or have they?) the surviving characters can feel: “When it’s not always raining […] When you don’t need to worry […] When you don’t get betrayed […] When you don’t need an answer [etc.] There’ll be days like this.” Although, if Alicia had believed what “mama told me,” she’d had been shocked at what her days were actually going to be.
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
(1) Some theatrical releases now available to stream; (2) SAG-AFTRA Board approves ending strike; (3) Warner Bros. rejects Coyote vs. Acme movie; (4) Ideas on how to fix Marvel's MCU.
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