We’re barreling towards the end of the year, and it seems to have come particularly quick this time around, so I’ll be trying to knock out a bunch of reviews before the end of year roundups, which means some odd pairings in my double-features as you can obviously tell from this one. Then again, both of them are based on books, so I guess we can go with that as a connecting theme? Yeah, that works. So then! Looking at recent blockbusters from critically acclaimed directors that couldn’t be further apart from one another, do they show the best of their respective talents, or are they phoning it in for easy paychecks? Let’s find out!!
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The Running Man
The Running Man is owned by Paramount Pictures
Directed by Edgar Wright
In a dystopian future where politics is entertainment and entertainment is the only game in town, Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is desperate to get his family out of the poorest area in the country and will go to any lengths to do so; including a reality TV show where every day citizens are obliged to kill the titular Running Man within thirty days as the doomed sad-sack slowly accrues money for how long he can go without getting popped in the head. With an angry populace looking to take their frustrations out on whomever the TV says to, can Ben hope to survive long enough to save his family from the such a cruel world, or has the system ensured that he never had a chance to begin with?
The Running Man is one of those movies I can say with the utmost of confidence that I have seen before. Anything beyond that, well, I know Schwarzenegger is in it, but anytime I try to think of a scene from the movie, I realize I’m just remembering Total Recall, so no luck there. Still, I guess that makes it better fodder than most for a modern remake as I doubt any diehard fans of the original will be rending their garments in futile rage over every single change to the original, and the premise is definitely one that can be updated and adapted for any era; especially since it was already a modern take on The Most Dangerous Game. Now I don’t know if Edgar Wright had a burning desire to throw his name behind yet another of the hundred-billion remakes of eighties’ movies that are out there, but it’s clear he was given quite a bit of latitude to tell the story his way, and it was ultimately for the better even if audiences, once again, didn’t show up to one of his films. It’s certainly not as good as his original works, or even his adaptation of Scott Pilgrim, but a lesser filmmaker would have simply pumped up the action, dulled the social commentary, or both. In the hands of a skilled director, albeit one who really seems to be doing this for the paycheck, it manages to have a genuine spark of creativity with its well-executed premise and another killer performances from Glenn Powell. Making this movie a travelogue instead of a battleground was a masterstroke, and the sheer scope of the movie is darn near breathtaking; not because it has CGI vistas and otherworldly set pieces, but because it feels like it takes place in a big world that still has a connection with what we see in our own lives. It’s what the best sci-fi does; fits a speculative premise into something recognizably real and seeing how the premise twists our understanding of everything. When the action does kick in, it’s put together with interesting ideas rather than overblown execution, and while the budget feels a little high for what we get on screen, it ends up feeling as big as it needs to which allows the moments of explosive violence to actually have meaning and not just bleed into each other until it’s all just unengaging white noise. Where the film falters is in its tone, as it never quite finds the balance between its goofy social commentary and the more serious character moments. Some scenes are undercut by the comedy while other scenes are hard to take as seriously as they want us to, and this isn’t helped by some clunky character writing that leaves the supporting cast feeling rather flat. Thankfully, Glenn Powell picks up the slack with a great performance. He understands the fine line the movie is trying to balance on better than anyone else in front of, or even behind the camera, and it’s clear that this guy has a sharp eye for good material; even in otherwise conventional Hollywood Pablum. I suppose the best endorsement this movie could hope for is that it exceeded whatever expectations there were for a Running Man remake, which is, simultaneously, the least we should expect from an Edgar Wright movie.
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Hamnet
Hamnet is owned by Focus Features and Universal Pictures
Directed by Chloé Zhao
In a time before our own, there was a man named Will (Paul Mescal) who fell in love with a woman from a good family but with a mysterious backstory of her own. Being the daughter of a woman thought to be a witch, Agnes (Jessie Buckley) spends much of her time exploring the woods, tending to her pet hawk, and having visions of her life to be, with some visions being more foreboding than others. Still, she falls in love with Will and the two marry soon after. With three kids and a husband with a budding career in the faraway city of London as a playwright, Agnes is left to care for the family, deal with the challenges of everyday life, and brace herself for whatever her visions have hinted at, though perhaps there’s no way for anyone to prepare for what seems to be coming for them soon.
This is going to be a tough one, and not just because I am once again on the contrarian side of things. Whereas a lot of times I can explain my opposite-land opinion in a way that feels justifiable or at least offers an interesting perspective, this one just kind of bored me in a way that feels like a totally played out cliché. I’ll fully admit that I have no formal training or education in this space, and while I’ve seen a lot of movies from various genres, eras, and countries, I don’t exactly have the most well-rounded viewing habits as my tastes lean hard into joyfulness and humor. I’ve certainly noted before that movies about tragedy, sadness, and especially cruelty, have to justify themselves to me much more than goofy comedies or run-of-the-mill action flicks, but even that criteria feels somewhat tested here as I’m not especially distraught or offended by what I saw here. It’s a fine enough story with a fair bit of tragedy to sit through, and it’s made with a skill that would put any other filmmaker to shame, but plain and simple, I didn’t connect with the characters enough for its strongest emotional moments to impact me the way that the film has for many others. There are scenes in this movie, particularly ones in the second half, which did take my breath away with a raw emotionality that was utterly uncomfortable without feeling gratuitous, and you’ve got to give Chloé Zhao a lot of credit here as her filmmaking finds a way to be understated without losing an ounce of its impact. Still, these are the highlights in a movie that spends most of its runtime, the connective tissue that binds everything together, on the day-to-day lives of this family which, for the most part, is rather boring and uneventful. It’s not without symbolism and meaning as the movie is far from subtle about every scene having some amount of resonance to the ideas of loss, mourning, and emotional distancing, but at the end of the day I wasn’t all that interested in watching the mundanities of family life and was hoping we’d get to the Shakespeare stuff already. This turned out to be a monkey’s paw of sorts, as the third act indulges in a fair bit of Shakespearian fan service that, at least to me, read as more comical than anything else. I suppose that means I did find something to genuinely smile at in this movie, but taken with the po-faced seriousness of everything that came before, the references to famous lines and winks to the audience create a humorous juxtaposition that I don’t think was intentional. No critic can be right about everything or have an interesting take on every movie they see, so for what it’s worth, I do see why everyone else is in love with this movie, even if I’d personally rather watch the silly Edgar Wright action movie again.
The Reviewers Unite 