There Are 'Women Talking,' And I'm Crying
#208: "Women Talking," "The Pale Blue Eye," "Signs," "The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari"
Edition 208:
Hey movie lovers!
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This week: Great female actors exchange monologues in Women Talking, Christian Bale stars in a new frosty noir, and I offer up an M. Night Shyamalan palate cleanser. For this week’s “Trailer Watch,” Ari Aster is coming for Jordan Peele’s social thriller throne!
Women Talking
The first thing to say about Women Talking is the most obvious, and I’m not the first to say it but right up front I’ll tell you — the title of this movie is quite literal. The plot is almost entirely a discussion between a group of women, set in a single location. You’d expect it to be based on a stage play, and in fact it has inspired a one-night-only theatrical production in New York City, but in fact it is based on a novel which is roughly inspired by true events that took place at a Mennonite colony in the mid-2000s.
Regardless, the filmmakers deserve an enormous round of applause for producing a drama at just 1hr44min, which in the context of the three-hour epics alongside it in theaters right now, felt no longer than a TV episode.
Because actors love nothing more than exchanging long monologues, especially female actors who have for too long had to play wives and girlfriends who nod along while men give the big speech, the cast is a who’s who of phenomenal talents: Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, Frances McDormand (barely), Judith Ivey and Ben Whishaw (a man…don’t ask). To say this is an acting showcase is the understatement of the year (so far). This is drama-class-in-college, weep-falling-out-of-your-chair, scream-it-to-the-rafters levels of commitment to the material, and the movie is much better for it.
Let the record show this is the first movie I cried in of 2023, during one particularly affecting monologue about a mother’s desire to protect her children from Foy, who to me outshines the rest of the cast as a true screen supernova and effectively steals the movie. Between this, First Man and Unsane, she might be one of my favorite actresses at the moment (and I haven’t even seen “The Crown” !!).
I don’t want to spoil what the particular discussion is about, both as a general newsletter rule and because I want you to go out and see this movie…it’s very good! But it’s fair to categorize this as one of those “think piece disguised as a movie” movies. And considering the setting of a Mennonite community and the female cast, you might be able to guess that feminism is at the heart of the film.
Yet unlike other think piece movies, it does not try to cram one “correct” opinion down the viewers throat, instead offering several points of view which flow like water circling down a drain. The arguments blend and adapt and coalesce in a way that feels incredibly human, and opened up my heart (and my tear ducts, apparently) to the dilemma facing the group.
As a counterpoint to the Avatar and Babylon epics of the world, this is a subtle reminder that great cinema can take many different shapes. It doesn’t challenge a viewer within the movie, as in it’s not difficult to follow or piece together what’s going on in the story, but it is certainly challenging on a human level. When I look back at the movies of the past couple of years, there are not many that can say the same.
Something New
The Pale Blue Eye (Netflix): When people ask me my favorite genre of movie, I sheepishly answer noir (then inevitably have to explain what noir is…but you all read this newsletter so you already know!). This movie would certainly qualify, with Christian Bale as the world-weary detective investigating grisly murders at 1830s West Point. The insertion of Henry Melling Edgar Allen Poe is a bit of a misdirect, other than the historical fact that he was a cadet there at that time, because his Poe-ness has little impact on the story being told.
The movie is instead adopted from a book written in 2003, and its plot is indeed quite novelistic, as is its pacing. On the backs of the performances of Bale and Melling the movie is watchable, but I can’t shake the feeling that it’s somehow second rate. The outlines of a cool movie are never quite colored in, and the mystery reveals rung a little hollow. Dare I say…the Netflix problems strike again?
Something Old
Signs (2002, HBO Max): Get ready for another round of the M. Night Shyamalan discourse, which I’ve already gone through with Old and Glass (the latter being one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen). He’s got Knock At The Cabin coming out the first weekend in February, and all the people out there who enjoy ridiculous premises and wooden dialogue are licking their chops.
Here’s one thing no one can deny — early career Shyamalan was fantastic. Ripping off The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs and The Village in a five year span is legendary stuff. This one takes the idea of crop circles created by aliens quite literally, with a pre-meltdown Mel Gibson playing our leading farmer and super-young Joaquin Phoenix and Abigail Breslin playing his kids. It’s claustrophobic, tense and nerve-racking in all the right ways, and the classic twist ending actually hits (unlike his later work). Before we put false hope in the king of twists once again, let’s cleanse our palate with something nice first.
Something to Stream
The Volcano: Rescue From Whakaari (Netflix): A recommendation from my family back in Oklahoma, it will be no surprise to anyone who checks out this disaster documentary to find out it was executive produced by Ron Howard, the king of disaster recovery movies (Apollo 13, In The Heart Of The Sea, and last year’s most underrated movie, Thirteen Lives).
There’s no real mystery to the plot, which centers on an active volcano in New Zealand that erupted in 2019 while several tour groups were on the island. But there’s something emotionally impactful about the impending doom, especially when we start to realize which characters in the story are being interviewed in present day, and which are not. Enough incredible day-of footage had been recovered from cell phones to put you in the dramatic moments as they unfold, making this documentary a simple yet gripping experience I’d recommend to any documentary fans out there.
Trailer Watch: Beau Is Afraid
Watch out Jordan Peele, Ari Aster might be coming for your corner. After earning a reputation for pure horror in Hereditary and then “elevated horror” in Midsommar, it seems Aster is trending toward the “social thriller” category Peele created a few years ago with Get Out.
If you think about it, Joaquin Phoenix is kind of his perfect avatar — willing and eager to get as weird as Aster is willing to push him. And based on this trippy trailer, it seems to be pretty darn far. If this movie is a hit, it’ll cement Aster as a major filmmaker for years to come.