Sisu

If Schadenfreude was a movie, it would be Sisu. Set in Finland circa 1944, as WWII comes to a close, Sisu follows a grizzled and solitary gold prospector and legendary ex-soldier who perseveres on shear unrelenting determination, as he brutally works his way through a group of Nazi raiders who have robbed him of his gold.

The story is virtually non-existent, with almost no dialogue (in fact, the lead only has one line in the entire film). Instead, Sisu takes full advantage of crisp and violent visuals and lead performer Jorma Tommila’s craggy weather-beaten face to carry what narrative there is to the end.

One might think that, because it’s a film about stealing a bag of gold it may be challenging for the audience to connect with the film on any level beyond the most primitive of bloodlust, however, there’s just enough of a B-plot to give it that half of a dimension more it needs to make the audience cheer.

Furthermore, the two main villains manage to be both evil and sadistic enough to root for their deaths and realistic enough to not laugh at. This gives us two very satisfying endings and one of the best villain deaths in recent cinema.

For a film that feels a lot like a really cool hour-and-a-half video game cut screen, Sisu is Worth it, if not perfect. A case could easily be made that the lead character should have died in every confrontation and that there was time to include a flashback or two in lieu of a paragraph of exposition, but Sisu is most definitely a case of style winning over substance.

It won’t win any awards for…anything, but Sisu is a very entertaining way to spend 90 minutes.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. No.

The post SISU first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

**UPDATE** Lionsgate, the production behind this film, has enlisted trans-activist and social media (unhinged) personality in a Paid Partnership to help promote this film. Here you can watch him in a vomit inducing interview with the book’s author, Judy Blume. We can no longer, in good conscience, recommend this film as Worth it.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret

The film, set in the 70s,  details the coming of age of a 12-year-old girl as she adjusts to the multitude of changes taking place in her life, most of which are out of her control. Her family suddenly and without warning uproots her from the only home that she’s ever known, an apartment in New York City, to the Jersey suburbs. There, she struggles with the uncomfortable reality of making new friends, all while going through the radical physical and emotional changes of puberty.

If that’s not enough, she is also trying to come to terms with the duality of her heretofore-ignored Jewish and Christian heritage in an attempt to find clarity, wisdom, and peace. Needless to say, it’s a lot to deal with all at once.

The plot has few twists and turns, instead, it mostly focuses on Margaret and her desire to start her period and grow her bosom, as the pressure of those in her circle of blossoming friends increases. Compounding her frustration is a lack of religious direction from her now-secularly Jewish father and Christian-raised mother, who have forsworn their respective religious upbringings. They are loving and caring parents but have left Margaret rudderless in this regard.

So, in an act of childishly innocent frustration, Margaret turns to a God whom she does not know, which is the catalyst for the film’s emotional throughline. Throughout the movie, Margaret turns to God for comfort and answers, and while it’s never directly stated, the subtext of the film is that she receives the comfort and answers that she is seeking…if not in her preferred timeline or way.

In a character-driven film starring children, the achievement of director Kelly Fremon Craig to get perfect and heartfelt performances from not just the lead, Abby Ryder Fortson, but from every child (of which there are many) cannot be overstated. There is never a solitary moment in which each and every child actor and actress is not natural and in the moment. Casting director Melissa Kostenbauder also deserves special recognition. She just may be the true star of the film.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is not a perfect film and struggles to balance the culmination of multiple storylines in its third act. However, thanks to experienced and talented performers like Kathy Bates, even the somewhat rushed resolution will likely leave its female viewers satisfied.

While I suspect that women will find the movie to be both touching and riotously funny, it will most likely make men miserable and uncomfortable. There are countless candid discussions about 11 to 12-year-old girls’ menstruations and busts, as well as several other moments in which, fathers of daughters like myself will find cringe-inducing. All in all though, Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret is a perfectly paced film with excellent and economical dialogue, superb performances, and a thoughtful if flawed view of God and religion. Even though I would never watch it again, or have watched it were it not my job, I feel comfortable marking it as Worth it (with the caveat that it’s Worth it for women).

WOKE ELEMENTS

Although the film ultimately misses the mark in relation to organized religion, it is a powerful example of the power of and comfort derived from prayer and communion with God.

• While religion is treated seriously and with respect in the film, the idea of parents not “pushing” religion onto their children, but instead letting them find their own path is treated as the superior option to thoughtful and earnest guidance. Fortunately for the lead character, her need to connect with the Creator of All Things is outweighed by her secular parents’ refusal to guide her (you know…like parents) in this most important aspect of life.
• The blond-haired blue-eyed rich white girl is a spoiled liar and her mother is equally self-absorbed. Likewise, the handsome white boy is an arrogant jerk.
• Conversely, the heavyset boy is interesting and the more diverse characters are kind, thoughtful, and inclusive.

The post Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre

Known for his punchy dialogue and signature energetic directing style, Guy Ritchie decided to go another way with the Jason Statham action vehicle, Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre. If I’m being honest, I didn’t know that this was a Guy Ritchie film until the closing credits. In fact, at one point during the first act, I remember thinking that this movie is like a Guy Ritchie film without the pizzazz or commitment.

There are moments when it’s entertaining. Those moments are usually when Statham is delivering a beating to someone. Say what you want about the man, but he knows how to sell a fight scene. However, it’s far from enough, especially since he himself never really gets hurt at all. With the exception of Hugh Grant’s Greg (more on him later), the rest of the characters are ill-defined and seem barely invested.

Simply put, there’s no sense of urgency to the film, and it doesn’t help that neither the protagonists nor the audience even knows what the good guys are trying to stop from happening until one hour and nine minutes into a one hour and fifty-nine-minute movie. We all know that it’s something bad, but not how bad. Furthermore, we don’t know who wants it, or for what exactly they want it until there are about thirty minutes left in the film…and we don’t care because the bad guys are ill-defined dumpy generic greedy rich white guys and the “weapon” is not something that immediately evokes fear in most people.

**SPOILERS** The “weapon” will crash the world markets which, don’t get me wrong, would cause the deaths of millions (perhaps billions) in a very short time, but the vast majority of American viewers have an average of $4,500 of savings. While it would certainly suck to lose that all at once, most of these folks are already living paycheck to paycheck. It takes a little bit of knowledge and thought to consider the true impact of the ensuing catastrophe, should the villains be successful. That’s not a good thing for a shoot’em-up action flick.

Also, the bad guys’ plan doesn’t actually make any sense. Ok so they are motivated by greed, and they’ve purchased tens of billions of dollars worth of gold. Their plan is to ruin the World’s economy so that the value of their gold soars, making them the wealthiest and most powerful men in the world. Here is the problem with that. Were the world economy to collapse overnight, bedlam would ensue across the planet, and the goods and services that these two numbnuts covet so much would cease to be. I’m old enough to remember how bare the shelves were when Joe Biden’s shipping crisis was in full swing, what luxury item or resort do they think that they will be enjoying when everything is burning and two-thirds of the population is dead?

So, good for them, they’ll be the richest and most powerful men in a world with no internet, no food to eat, no vacation destinations to visit, and emaciated women with no access to deodorant, razors, or toothpaste. That ought to make for fun Eyes Wide Shut parties.

**END SPOILERS**

The thing is that all of the above could be forgiven if there was an ounce of energy or style in the film. It’s as bland and generic an action flick as I’ve ever seen. Hugh Grant is the only bright spot. He is a ton of fun to watch as he chews up the scenery in every scene, and I hope that his character somehow makes it into another Guy Ritchie film (once Ritchie is off the Lunesta) so that we can see his true potential.

WOKE ELEMENTS

• The main antagonists are greedy self-described capitalists, even though no capitalist capable of earning tens of billions of dollars would ever come up with a plan as stupid as theirs.
• Aubrey Plaza’s character is perfect at everything. She’s also needlessly sarcastic to men who are doing a good job or even a superior job at something that they aren’t trained to do.
  • Before anyone starts comparing her character to Statham or the block of wood better known as Bugzy Malone, who plays JJ, Both Statham and Bugzy have fairly well-defined roles in the team and they stick to those roles. She on the other hand is a supergenius hacker, a tech wizard, and a flawless field agent who possess superhuman aim…for reasons.

P.S. Josh Hartnett is in the movie, and I nearly completely forgot because, in a film with bland and lifeless characters, his was the watercress of the bunch. It’s not even his fault, there was absolutely nothing for him to work with.

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John Wick Chapter 4

Unless you are a pretentious pr!@k, like many critics can be, reviewing John Wick movies can be a challenge because they are intentionally not particularly substantive. Put simply, they are some of the best examples of stylized violence in the business. If the audience isn’t saying “that’s awesome” after virtually every other scene, then the movie has failed.

John Wick 4 does not fail…completely…but it is showing signs that it might be time to retire the franchise. At 2h 49m, it’s about 49 minutes too long and tries too hard to world-build and expand the almost mythological quality of the universe, ostensibly in an effort to bolster the studio’s planned spin-off projects. As a result, we get too many unimportant and uninteresting tertiary characters added, which lessens the screen time for already established supporting characters, overlong fight scenes that can grow monotonous, and virtually the entire 3rd film is rendered meaningless.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fantasy nerd, and I actually love that John Wick is a modern-day dungeon crawl in revenge-porn clothing, but it’s obvious that JW4 was originally designed as the final film and someone at the studio said, “but wait, there’s so much more money to be made.” So, one hour into the movie John’s entire motivation suddenly changes from wanting to kill the entire Table (the ruling body of the assassin’s guild) to wanting to kill one man and thereby once again be made free of the organization.

The only explanation given is that someone tells him that he can’t accomplish his preferred task and must switch goals. Mind you, he’d been doing just fine so up to that point.

This being said, I concede the fact that no one, myself included, is going to a John Wick movie because we are looking for high art. We want to see pulse-pounding action, cool guns, and creative fight scenes. John Wick 4 mostly delivers, however, its need to world build does slow the dopamine hits to a drip during the second act, and the fight choreography is drawn-out and not as tight as in previous installments.

There’s a video on Youtube that destroys the team-up fight with Rey and Kylo against the Snoke’s Praetorian Guards in The Last Jedi. Among other things, it shows how the stuntmen will do completely unnatural things to look busy when they should be attacking their target.

I admit that I needed to first see this video before I noticed the problems myself, but in John Wick 4, there are some easily seen and just egregious errors on the part of the stunt coordinators.

There’s one particular moment in the film’s first really big battle when John is facing off against two men at once, and he knocks one of them down and turns his attention to the other. Well, while his back is turned from the one he’d knocked down, the baddie in question gets back to his feet, takes a step forward, and appears to be readying for an attack. However, it clearly would have been the end of John because his back was completely exposed and John’s attention is 100% on the other attacker. So, the once-felled bad guy stops the half-step that he already took toward John and is suddenly stunned and wavering until John once again turns his attention toward him.

It’s incredibly noticeable and it’s not the only time that a fight or chase didn’t have the same fit and finish as other installments. Furthermore, trigger discipline is virtually nonexistent in this entry, which is a total shame because these movies are tailor-made for gun nuts, and it’s really distractingly bad.

On a related note, John’s kevlar suit now apparently renders him virtually invulnerable. He can now withstand bone-crushing falls and being hit by multiple cars traveling at high speeds. It serves to make him a less interesting character. In fact, his newfound nigh invulnerability in conjunction with his jarring 180° and arbitrary shift in motivation serves to make Donnie Yen’s blind ninja (aka Chirrut Îmwe from Rogue One) the only interesting character in the film.

Please don’t get me wrong, there is still a lot to like in John Wick Chapter 4. There’s a scene that takes place on some stairs for which the stuntman deserves whatever their version of an Oscar is. Moreover, The Matrix may have invented Gun-Fu, and Equilibrium may have tried to codify it, but John Wick perfected it. This entry continues that tradition.

My final thoughts on John Wick Chapter 4 is that, although it is far too long and chock full of convenience, it’s still a fun diversion that is worth the price of admission if you’re already a fan, but it’s also time to call it quits before we end up with Superman: A Quest For Peace. Unfortunately, it’s not good enough for our Worth it section.

WOKE ELEMENTS

• There are some intersectional casting checkboxes being filled in.

The post John Wick Chapter 4 first appeared on Worth it or Woke.

Plane

Plane is a twin turboprop disguised as a commercial jetliner. It has all of the necessary parts to make it a thrilling action movie (some competent actors, a decent premise, and passable special effects) but it never quite reaches cruising altitude. The movie boasts some good actors who you haven’t seen in a while, like Tony Goldwyn (Ghost). Unfortunately, their roles aren’t much more than expositional tools or plot-fodder that gives the leads something to do between crashing and waiting for rescue. However, as mediocre and cliched as their characters and the writing are, these veteran actors treat the material like it’s worth a d@mn and seem happy to be there, and this helps to elevate the material far more than it deserves.

That’s not to say that it doesn’t have its fair share of not-so-great thespians. Haleigh Hekking, who plays Butler’s character’s daughter Daniela, is out of her depth and was carved out of wood, and she’s clearly edited around at every opportunity. Be that as it may, it is her first feature film and only her second credited role in anything, so perhaps she will improve as the years go on. The same can’t be said for Oliver Trevena, who plays Maxwell Carter and is known for nothing anyone has ever heard of, only he’s been in the business for at least 12 years. Trevena’s Carter is a one-dimensional douchebag with few lines but it’s still out of reach of Trevena who recites lines like Steve Martin is feeding them to him in Roxanne.

Butler (and his character) is the highlight of Plane. He gives a proficient turn as an everyman thrust into an extraordinary situation, and, in a near jaw-dropping deviation from most modern films, this white male actor is permitted to unironically portray a man as competent, caring, and as having a realistic code of conduct and sense of honor. But what really sets Butler’s pilot apart from other modern action leads is that he’s neither a bumbling idiot who requires a 90 lbs. snarky woman who is superior to him in every way to drag him along into incidental heroship, nor is he Rambo. Instead, he’s just a man with leadership skills, a will to act, and enough competency to be dangerous.

In what was my favorite scene, Butler’s character takes a moment after all is said and done to have a brief and sincere cry. Why was this my favorite part? Because he waited until he was alone, he wasn’t a weepy snotty mess, and it was economical. Here’s a man who has been through an ordeal that few have ever experienced. He took it upon himself to lead and save a group of people under his care and, against all odds, he was successful. His brief and very manly cry was one of relief at no longer being in danger as well as pride in his accomplishment, and when it was over he sucked it up and moved on. The fact that he was still trying to hold it in when he was alone made it supremely identifiable and was a terrific payoff.

That being said, Plane is a deeply flawed movie with amateurish writing and direction and severe pacing problems that somehow make certain sections of an already trim 1h 47m movie feel like I’m still watching them a day later. The plane doesn’t leave the tarmac until ten minutes into the movie and, instead of using that time to introduce the supporting characters in any meaningful way that would help us to identify with them and care about their safety and survival, the filmmakers use that time to give us all a first-hand look at all of the juicy preflight duties that a commercial flight crew goes through. We’re treated to things like the flight crew standing and talking about the flight to come, the flight crew sitting and talking about the flight to come, checklists, and passenger boarding. My nipples are hard just thinking about it. But wait, there’s more. **SPOILERS** The plane doesn’t land on the island until 20 minutes into the film, and the incredilbly generic antagonists aren’t introduced until nearly 40% of the movie is over. What’s more, they don’t interact with Butler or his passengers until almost 50% of the movie is done. This is supposed to be an action movie, right? **END SPOILERS**

The choices made by several of the secondary characters are another significant flaw in the film, though not as big as the pacing because these seriously flawed decisions are made by supporting characters who are mostly useless. However, they make decisions that people just wouldn’t and it’s not even always to further the plot but to artificially and needlessly manufacture tension in an already incredibly tense situation, or to make the protagonist’s rescue plan possible. **SPOILERS** There’s a scene in which the antagonists have already brutally executed one of the passengers and now have the rest of them and the flight crew locked in a room. Several of the women in this group are extremely attractive. One is even a real-life model.

It is beyond the ability of any human being to suspend their disbelief to the point that they would believe that each and everyone one of these ladies wasn’t being brutalized by a horde of their evil and despotic captures. **END SPOILERS** Nonetheless, the movie needed everyone to be in one easily accessible location and so they were.

Furthermore, Mike Colter (Luke Cage), who plays convicted convict Louis Gaspare, has a wonderful presence and is a very intense and natural actor, and he does more with his nothing character than most could, but he is absolutely wasted. He serves as little more than a McGuffin that allows Butler’s character to be written as an everyman by virtue of Gaspare having the training and experience to be actively deadly, instead of reactively deadly like Butler. One is forced to wonder how fleshed out and interesting any of these characters might be if half of the movie wasn’t wasted.

All and all, while Plane is rather plain (see what I did there?), it’s also a watchable action flick (especially the second half) if you’re a couple of cans deep and don’t have anything else to do. I’d almost mark it as Worth It just for its positive portrayal of a straight white male and for paring two competent men together without hinting at a burgeoning romance, but ultimately that isn’t quite enough.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Not a one.

The post Plane first appeared on Worth it or Woke.