"Widows" by Steve McQueen (2018)

Finally a clever thriller, designed for grown up audiences.

"Widows" was apparently a famous UK TV show from 1980s and the most interesting thing is that it has been planned as film adaptation for the longest time - somehow I actually remember the talk about it back in 1986. when magazines were mentioning that it might be made with Elizabeth Taylor, Faye Dunaway, Cher and Tina Turner - sounds like a dream team but nothing came out of it until now, several decades later when it finally hit the cinemas with completely different actresses. And the thing is - although it should be women's movie, it still needed a strong male cast to attract the suspicious audience who might not go for movie about women, no matter how talented they might be. That is why we have so many guys - Liam Neeson and all his gangster buddies - in the movie that is actually all about women who turn to crime out of necessity. 

The premise is that four gangsters die during some sort of robbery and their widows are now expected to come up with the $ 2 million for a nasty underworld mafioso (Brian Tyree Henry) who also has some serious political ambitions. Mafioso is helped by his sadistic brother (Daniel Kaluuya) and they are both working on intimidating the widows into previously had no knowledge about their husband's business (or chose to ignore it). Widows themselves are mobilised by excellent Viola Davis who is heart and soul of the movie, she basically carries the whole story on her shoulders and without her strong presence everything might have turned out completely different but she projects quiet strength that keeps everything together. Davis gives each woman a task and they manage to plan a robbery themselves, although previously they had no experience in such things whatsoever. One of the clever premises is that nobody suspects them, since women are not expected to do such things as robbery. 

Tons of various subjects here - first of all, some critics had mentioned casual way movie deals with biracial relationship between Davis and Neeson but I honestly didn't even think about it, obviously its not something I find surprising or unusual - it would be if the movie was set in 1950s but not in the present time. Much more interesting was brutally honest look at how police treats black civilians (later in the movie we find that their son was killed by police for no reason in a typical police arrest) and how thick skinned politicians work their connections between communities and underworld. Colin Farrell is a surprise in a unexpected nasty turn as ambitious politician who intends to follow in footsteps of his elderly father Robert Duvall - they are both evil and greedy, just different generations of same type of man. Perhaps the movie starts a bit slow and there might be just too much of everything in the final mix - relationships, crime, mafia, underworld, racial issues, women, etc - so our attention falters and its occasionally difficult to focus on what is really important here - robbery itself comes almost as a afterthought, where some other directors would make it main focus - but I did follow it with greatest interest, mainly because of Viola Davis who absolutely dominates everything. In fact, I am glad it took so long to make this movie because I don't think that 1986. cast would do such great job as current one. If they really made it back in 1986. it would be just diva turn and now it makes much more sense and it has far more gravity thanks to Davis. Another thing that I need to mention is that crime & robbery when done by guys is usually presented as fun, where this time its a necessity - if they don't come with money, women would be either killed or thrown out of their houses, so its quite a realistic, gritty movie. 

"Eraserhead" by David Lynch (1977)

Local cinema here just started a retrospective of work by David Lynch and I wanted to explore more of his work, absolutely unaware what am I getting myself into. Happy and naive, I took a seat in a cinema hall just to end up being intensely uncomfortable and squirming while this dark surrealistic masterpiece on the screen hypnotised the audience. It was very strange, probably the weirdest movie I have ever seen in my entire life - obviously influenced by 1920s German expressionistic movies but it pushed the envelope even further, so both visually and script-wise this was step into madness. For the start, visually it was pure David Lynch - people grinning at the bottom of the bed, strange dialogues (if any), nightmare visual effects and tattered old furniture just as later we came to expect from his work. Than there is a script - not so much script as series of disconnected scenes with main character Henry living obscure, empty life and somehow ending up having a dinner with girlfriend Mary X whose parents are freaky beyond words. They end up having a baby whose cries drive them crazy but the baby itself is also a nightmare because its not a baby but a monster - clearly, this is some kind of paranoia, fear from sex and parenthood - the baby/alien cries and cries while Henry (now alone, because Mary X has left him) tries to keep the baby alive and sinks into all sorts of visions that include absolutely weird Lady in the Radiator who dances on spermatozoids and many more too creepy to mention here. There is also a beautiful but equally creepy neighbour lady who wiggles herself into his bed (the following sex scene is dark, disturbing and repellent), some completely off-the-wall scenes that include Henry's head bouncing around and eventually the alien/monster/baby explodes and grows until the end of this unbelievably odd movie comes suddenly and unexpectedly, leaving me blinking in the dark. 

Strange as it was, it was also very powerful movie - Lynch will later eventually enter the mainstream and create movies with some resemblance of beginning and end, but here he was young and brave so he was clearly burning the screen with youthful energy and enthusiasm. With all my discomfort, I couldn't take my eyes of the screen and was struggling to see something in the dark shadows - usually I love black & white movies but this was genuinely difficult to see. Occasionally I tried to glance at the watch - no luck, cinema was too dark - I even found myself thinking "at least I will never have to go trough this again" - however the most interesting part happened after I left the cinema. Never before had I experienced such disorientation, where it took me good 30 minutes before I could function again - since I have just been subjected to David Lynch movie, everything around me looked creepy and spooky, the emptiness of the streets seriously unnerved me and even occasional cars and passersby freaked me out. So in that sense, "Eraserhead" was powerful but I wouldn't call it happy experience - mainly it felt like being submerged into some strange madness for two hours and I just couldn't wait to get out of the cinema. What a strange, unforgettable evening!

"The Wife" by Björn Runge (2017)

You know when important people get their important awards and step into stage to thank God, producer, hairdressers and technicians - they usually end thanking the most to their spouses as the most important people in their lives, somebody who supported them trough thick and thin. Something about this speech must have planted a seed of idea into writer Meg Wolitzer who played with the idea what if the spouse is really the most responsible for this public success? She wrote the novel that is now being filmed and glitters with almost perfect cast amongst the movies full of supersonic special effects, superheroes and animated gimmicks. As much as I love going to the cinema, its a bit disappointing to glance at sameness that prevails now and "The Wife" is literary the only drama made for adult audience - the lonely island that deserve every praise and strangely, this very old-fashioned setting might be example of endangered species - from what I see around, the cinema is moving towards fast & furious special effects spectacles and there is noticeably less and less real stories involving real people.

"The Wife" is about elderly writer who gets Nobel prise and now, in the autumn of his life is showered with attention, prises, recognitions and perhaps a bit too much protocols that have him confused and exhausted all over Stockholm. The stoic wife and surly son are also in tow, smiling for the cameras and living their private dramas behind closed doors. Exciting as it is to receive such high honour, its also clear that writer Joseph Castleman is just like his peers, a bit uncomfortable in the spotlight and instead of enjoying what must have been the highlight of his life, actually feels claustrophobic and uncomfortable with all this fussing around him. The wife accepts all of this with a patient smile, the son is sulking and argumentative, while nosey biographer (Christian Slater) tries to wiggle his way into couple's private life, although they clearly avoid his company and suspect he just wants to publish scandalous gossip. 

Without going too much into the story itself, I want to say it was tour de force as acting, script and atmosphere - rarely I have seen something like this in a modern cinema and loved every minute of it. In fact, it obviously takes director with European sensibility to create something like this. As Castleman, Jonathan Pryce is charismatic and magnetic - charming under spotlights, nightmare to be around in a private life. For Glenn Close this is probably a role of a lifetime - I have seen her zillion times and nothing so far matches intensity, subtlety and power of this particular character. Its all about chemistry and energy between a couple who have lifetime of living together - in the interesting flashbacks we see them as much younger people in 1950s and 1960s, played by excellent younger actors Harry Lloyd and Annie Starke. 

Excited as I was with (finally) a movie that presents adult people in interesting situations, I couldn't get another similar movie out of my head - back in 2009 "The Last Station" was about another elderly couple loving and hating each other but Christopher Plummer (as Tolstoy) and Helen Mirren (as his wife) loved, laughed and giggled all the way trough - one could tell they genuinely loved each other. Here, curiously, I find that I don't actually see love between Pryce and Close - theirs is more a master/servant relationship based on husband domination and wife's silent acceptance. That Close eventually emerges as far stronger of the two is not really a surprise because Close always had intensity about her, that this time have been kept in check for the sake of the role and it works wonderfully for her. However, I could also imagine several other elderly actresses doing wonders with this role (Judi Dench for example) its just a excellent part to play and it must have been very exciting to bite into such part.