By Horacio Monterrosas / September 11, 2023
Whether streaming from the comfort of your own home or screening at your local theater, films are a part of most people’s everyday lives. Studios know that audiences want what’s new and rely on you to see their latest productions while supplies last, given the ongoing strikes in Hollywood.
In August, NCSSM students may have had the chance to see a movie in the ETC lecture hall or courtyard. But given our busy schedules and the cost of catching every new release with friends or family in theaters, a significant share of the student body chooses streaming to stay updated on what’s new. This past month, studios released a wide range of genre films on streaming, from an economical indie thriller, a cheap horror movie, an acclaimed romance, and a fun animated flick.
The Passenger (B+)
Kyle Gallner will become one of the greats. People just don’t know it yet. You may have noticed him as Bradley Cooper’s comrade in “American Sniper,” the bigot in “Dear White People,” and the detective in last year’s “Smile.” Lately, Gallner has found a niche playing tough characters in independent films (often people with a turbulent nature). In August alone, three of his movies were released back-to-back.
Among them, “The Passenger” has his most intricate portrayal as a disgruntled fast-food worker who abducts his timorous associate, aiming to “fix” him by driving him to confront his troubled past while going on a violent killing spree. This thriller is a gateway for Gallner, whose character recognizes his control over his passenger, to show off his range, shifting from quietly forbidding to aggressively demanding without missing a beat or sacrificing the story’s tone. With thematic undertones regarding shared trauma, “The Passenger” is a suffocating thriller with brief spurts of realistic violence and an outstanding lead performance.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (C–)
The movie opens in 1897 when the police find a merchant ship, the Demeter, washed ashore with no signs of life on board. After cutting back in time, the story’s reliance on this detail to generate tension (that is, that the passengers are doomed the moment they embark) wears out quickly. The film’s second misstep is its dependence on CGI for any type of spectacle, be it a fire, storm, or demonic beast. In doing so, it traps itself in a corner, as having too much of it correlates with making it low-quality, forcing the visual artists to obscure that CGI with a dark fog that makes it difficult to see any action.
As a result, this simplistic story becomes a redundant creature feature stretched into two long hours with hammy performances and arbitrary, ineffective jump scares. The story shoots itself in the foot from the start, for the lazy, inert writing will drain your energy more than a vampire ever could and induce an eye-roll when it tries to set up a sequel.
Past Lives (B)
“Past Lives” is a heartfelt “what could have been” romance that savors each passing second with a tranquilizing score and a desolate atmosphere, using lengthy takes of silent contemplation to explore the relationship between two childhood friends, one of whom is married, who reunite after decades apart. But the inner distance between the two extends past the scenery’s cold blues and lonely grays to the script itself. We are passive observers, seeing none of the two characters’ lives during their separation and learning little else to expand their personalities beyond the “one who stayed” and the “one who went away.”
Greta Lee and Teo Yoo are exceptional in their roles, as is John Magaro as the husband whose honesty in feeling uneasy feels like a breath of fresh air in a genre that commonly has that archetype conceal their emotions. The film’s highlight is a scene at a bar illuminated by a warm orange light, where the three individuals, each with their own train of thought, attempt to have a conversation. “Past Lives” is a movie about people with a lot on their minds but not enough time to say it. Lee, Yoo, and Magaro turn the thin script into delicate art full of compassion, even if the story feels incomplete, considering its unhurried pace.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (A)
The new “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie is the year’s funniest film, merging the energy and scope of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” character designs reminiscent of films like “Coraline,” an energetic soundtrack full of old-school and contemporary hip-hop, the action from recent blockbusters like “The Batman,” and a top-tier voice cast that injects the story with the goofiness it needs to encapsulate what it means to be a teenager today.
In this film, the mutant ninja turtles team up with a high school reject and set out to defeat a supervillain to become heroes and be accepted by the human world. Meanwhile, their mutant rat father, Splinter, learns to be less strict. This premise of non-human characters wishing to interact with humans may sound familiar to animation fans. But the story surpasses this trope with its endless humor, which produces the authentic banter of a group of teenage boys while incorporating the slang of Generation Z (everything from “rizz” to “sus”) without being cringe. This film has dozens of quotable lines and memorable bits, from Splinter being voiced by Jackie Chan and watching Jackie Chan movies, a character’s embarrassing reason for being an outcast, the villain’s team introducing themselves, and the ninja turtles constantly distracting themselves from their task to do something silly, such as real-life “Fruit Ninja” or light-hearted impressions.
Like a snowball hurdling down a snowy mountain, each joke multiplies and is followed by another until you cannot stop laughing. This movie is a delightfully heartfelt romp with stunning action and uproarious wit, destined to become a time capsule for this generation’s style of humor.