“A Complete Unknown” (Drama/Music: 2 hours, 21 minutes)

Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro

Director: James Mangold

Rated: R (Strong language and violence)

Movie Review:

“A Complete Unknown” is a completely absorbing movie. It thrives on the good performance of Timothée Chalamet under the direction of James Mangold (“Walk the Line” (2005). Timothée Chalamet gives us one of the best performances portraying an actual person. This is commendable, considering Bob Dylan is still working, crafting his art.

Audiences see a young Bob Dylan beginning his career in a “A Complete Unknown.” It captures just a slice of Bob Dylan’s life during the 1960s, but this part of his life is a significantly well-done screenplay, written by James Mangold and Jay Cocks. It is an adaptation based on Elijah Wald’s “Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties.”

Again, Chalamet‘s performance is masterful and award worthy. The actor takes you to another place and makes you believe he is the man he is portraying. He does not try to imitate Dylan or make this a caricature of the famous singer and songwriter, yet he is earnestly Dylan. Chalamet, like others of this cast, sings and plays musical instruments, making his betrayal even more believable.

Mangold is a superb director. His range as a director for diverse movies is superior moviemaking. The noteworthy are movies such as the superhero movie “Logan” (2017), the period drama “Girl, Interrupted” (1999) and the western “3:10 to Yuma” (2007). He knows how to get the best out of his cast. Here, he keeps his focus on Timothée Chalamet’s Dylan. Mangold uses Dylan’s acquaintances and professional collaborations to explore Dylan as a person and what motivates him.

“A Complete Unknown” does not focus on just Dylan’s music and lyrics like many celebrity singers and musicians’ biopics. The movie dives deeper. Writers Mangold and Cocks want audiences to observe Dylan’s genius. They achieve their goal.

Grade: B+ (A completely acknowledgeable movie.)

 

“The Fire Inside” (Sports, Drama: 1 hour, 49 minutes)

Starring: Ryan Destiny, Brian Tyree Henry and De’Adre Aziza

Director: Rachel Morrison

Rated: PG-13 (Strong language, thematic elements, violence and suggestive material)

Movie Review:

“The Fire Inside” is a motivational movie that inspires one to cheer for the protagonist, the Olympic boxer Claressa ‘T-Rex’ Shields, played nicely by Ryan Destiny. The movie follows Shields’ life as a teen pursuing the sport of boxing. Her love of the sport and her skills inside the ring eventually lead her to boxing at the 2012 London Olympics at the age of 17.

This movie deserves points because it inspires by showing the bad side of stardom for some athletes. After becoming a gold medal Olympian, her life home in Flint, Mich., did not change. This movie spends a lot of time showcasing how she remained poor and received no endorsements, despite the help of boxing coach and life mentor Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry from “Transformers One).  While Shields inspired the people of her hometown she was still struggling as a 17-year-old to help her mother pay bills and find endorsements.

Shields quickly learns just because you have accomplished something momentous that the meritorious action does not always lead to a guaranteed, successful future. She learns this is especially true for a young minority woman coming from a poor urban area in a very masculine sport.

As portrayed by Ryan Destiny, Shields’ tenacity keeps this movie progressing forward. Young actress Destiny scenes with Henry are some of this screenplay’s best. They have a father-daughter relationship, and one wants to see it blossom.

Cinematographer Rachel Morrison (“Mudbound,” 2017; “Black Panther,” 2018) makes her feature film directorial debut after helming teleplays such as “The Mandalorian” and “American Crime Story.” She keeps this screenplay by writer-director Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight,” 2016; “If Beale Street Could Talk,” 2018) screenplay tightly focused, showing Shields’ life outside the ring more than inside. “The Fire Inside” is a keen urban drama because of this.

Shields won consecutive gold medals in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. “The Fire Inside” will probably not win medals during the award season, but it is a quaint, golden movie.

Grade: B (The heat is on.)

 

“Babygirl” (Drama/Thriller: 1 hour, 55 minutes)

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson and Antonio Banderas

Director: Halina Reijn

Rated: R (Strong sexual content, strong language, violence and nudity)

Movie Review:

“Babygirl” plays as if a modern feminist, fatal attraction movie, yet it is not neither. It is one woman’s self-exploration through sex. “Babygirl” engagingly plays with the emotion of audiences as its characters provide indulgent, fantasy foreplay for the cinematic screen.

Roma, played by the exceptional and beautiful Nicole Kidman, is a successful corporate executive. She has it all: a beautiful loving family with husband Jacob (Banderas), wealth, and the respect of her colleagues and junior associates. Despite her accomplished life, she longs for more regarding physical and psychological intimacy. Enter Smauel (Dickson), a young 20 something year-old intern at Roma’s corporation. Samuel offers her a chance to explore the numerous fantasies she desires. Despite their age differences, she becomes his baby girl in a sizzling affair.

This movie is a psychological romance of sorts, but it is not a life of wine and roses. Directed by Helena region, this movie at times appears to be the opposite of a feminist me to move in America. This movie is about an older woman giving up some of her control to have the sanction wants with a younger man, yet she really remains in control because she is getting wet she wants.

Nicole Kidman and Antonio, Banderas, and Dickson offer engaging roles. Their performances are grand. Their characters are not always easy to relate to because the nature in which Nicole Kidman‘s Roma and Dickson’s Samuel interact. Some scenes are disturbing in nature, and director-writer Halina Reijn (“Bodies Bodies Bodies,” 2022) does not pull punches. She creates a very adult movie with an intriguing message throughout the last quarter of this movie.

Reijn’s style is part of the charm of this movie. She explores the sexual relationship of people, the good, the bad and the sometimes ridiculously profane. It is the proverbial train wreck, except you are on the train. Only you must decide from which station you want to deboard.

Grade: B (Good girl, most of the time.)

 

“Nosferatu” (Horror: 2 hours, 12 minutes)

Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp and Bill Skarsgård

Director: Robert Eggers

Rated: R (Bloody violent content, graphic nudity and some sexual content)

Movie Review:

“Nosferatu” is the latest movie by Robert Eggers. He is the director and writer who gave us “The Lighthouse: (2019) and “The Witch” (2015). He’s one of the best of cinema’s modern story tellers. Here is massive for here in the classic style of movie making combining the first vampire film “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror” (Director F.W. Murnau, 1922) with Bram Stoker’s 1897 gothic novel “Dracula.”

A young estate agent, Thomas Hutter (Hoult) is sent to the far corners of Transylvania to complete a real estate contract for a substantial promotion at his workplace. There, he discovers Count Orlock (Skarsgård). Soon, the young man realizes as he is in the presence of danger, Nosferatu, an ancient vampire. Meanwhile, Thomas’ young wife Ellen (Depp) has been warning everyone about an evil presence in her dreams since childhood. Now, that evil presence looms, nearer now that Thomas is away.

“Nosferatu” feels like the monster movies made during the 1940s and 50s. That part of Robert Eggers charm as a director and writer. His style is similar to a movie historian. Here, he uses old techniques, including the inclusion a deus ex machinacharacter. This person explains the occurrences experienced to expedite the plot. The explanation also serves as a conclusive summarization of the plot technique near the end.

“Nosferatu” is beautifully rendered. The style of cinematography uses a filter to give the rich appearance of black-and-white photography shot in color to convey a sense of yesterday year. It works. Eggers knows the best way to tell a story. He and his team brilliantly use words with visual aspects that enhance the story, even if emotive elements are inert.

The one negative is William Defoe. He is an impeccable actor, but his character arrives as too quickly as a type of convenient character of knowledge. Defoe’s erudite Prof. Albin Eberhart von Franz is there to explain and help the story advance. The famed actor appears out of place in that in a manner not in sync with other characters.

Still, “Nosferatu” is engaging movie. It is a visual treat and a nice homage to the 1922 film and Bram Stoker’s writings. It takes audiences back to a more traditional vampire screenplay.

Grade: B+ (Masterful filmmaking, it still delivers vampires as seductive beings of horror.)