MID90s

Sunny Suljic     Lucas Hedges     Katherine Waterston     Na-Kel Smith

Gio Galicia     Olan Prenatt     Ryder McLaughlin

     Stevie (aptly played by Suljic) is a kid you immediately feel sorry for, and that’s often how the other characters in the film relate to him.  And he really needs it in order to escape a bully brother at home and to fit in with a rough group of street kids.  This quality gives him entry into the group in the beginning, but ultimately it’s his fearlessness that wins him respect.  He’s smaller than the other kids and desperately practices to ride a skateboard, the tie that holds the group together.  

     It’s a colorful group, most with nicknames, and it’s Ruben (Galicia) who first helps Stevie into the circle with unhelpful (wrong) advice and an order for Stevie to bring him $40 for a skateboard he wants to sell.  We soon meet the one calling himself Fuckshit (Prenatt)—or he got that name from saying the word repeatedly, followed by “That’s dope.”   There’s the one the group regards as rather dim, so he gets the nickname Fourth Grade (McLaughlin), but he does hope to make a film one day, so his camera is a steady companion.  The standout—and the only one with good sense and aspirations—is African-American Ray (Smith), who is working hard at becoming a pro skateboarder.  He can break up fights, show empathy and understanding, and serve as a role model, which largely passes over the others, but is a kind of salvation for Stevie.  

     Jonah Hill, the writer/director, wants to depict life in the 90’s in L.A. when he was growing up.  He captures this seemingly very well (it wasn’t my world, so I can’t really judge), and perhaps wrote the Stevie character from his own experience of making efforts to fit in with a group.  (I’m inferring this from his bio in which he contrasts himself with Brad Pitt.)  The composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross augment the 90’s feel with their music drawn from or based on that period, although I found it to be too heavy-handed at times, particularly when other sound effects were combined with the music.

     For me, Mid90s has an unfinished quality; the strains of each character are incompletely told.  We hear a bit about their home life and who they are, but not enough to get a firm picture.  For instance, we’re told about Ruben’s parents abusing him and his sister, and similar “one-shot” descriptions for others, but are told essentially nothing about Ray who, with Stevie, was the most potentially interesting.  The characters played by Lucas Hedges and Katherine Waterston are sadly lacking in description and in action.  Their roles should have been greatly expanded for us to understand their behaviors.  Both actors are greatly underutilized, which is a shame, considering their talent.

     I don’t know if Jonah Hill intended to paint such a bleak picture of kids in the ‘90s in L.A., but    I found this depiction very sad, with kids trying to make their way with little guidance from family or school.  When Stevie’s mother says, “We used to talk!”, wanting to know more about Stevie’s new-found friends, I could empathize completely. There is little here to inspire; what’s missing is any kind of moral or insight to bring the story home and give it meaning.

A boy without much of a family makes one with skateboarders on the street.

Grade:  C                                    By Donna R. Copeland

THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS

Jack Black     Cate Blanchett     Owen Vaccaro

Kyle MacLachlan     Renee Elise Goldsberry     Sunny Suljic

     In 1955, in an old mansion in New Zebedee, Michigan, strange and eerie things are going to happen.  Ten year-old Lewis (Vaccaro) is going to be moving in with his Uncle Jonathan (Black) after his parents were killed in a car accident, and he has no idea his uncle is a warlock. The house is sumptuous with a large bedroom for him—impressive!--But he will soon learn that things go bump—or something else—in the night.  He is alarmed at times, but he is a brave child, and even goes to investigate at times with his flashlight.  

     Then, Lewis is alarmed one night to see his uncle hacking into the wall with an axe, and even though his uncle’s strange neighbor Mrs. Zimmerman (Blanchett) urges Jonathan to reveal “secrets” to Lewis, that doesn’t happen.  It’s a bit strange anyway to hear Mrs. Z and Jonathan exchange insults (hilarious name-calling), but not in anger, and they immediately get back to solving problems.  Well, there is one big one that they have been wrestling with for ages.  

     Lewis is a bookish child (loves dictionaries and learning words like indomitable, which causes him to sound like an effete child) with silly goggles on his head, and even so while he comes across at school as a nerd, he is able to make a friend (at least temporarily).  But this bookishness turns out to be just what he needs to follow in his uncle’s footsteps, something he sorely wishes for after Jonathan’s demonstration of magic in the garden when it comes alive in the most delightful way.

     Reluctantly, Jonathan agrees to help Lewis become a warlock.  There is just one rule in the house, which is not to open a certain cabinet.  Lewis is an obedient child and he fully intends to comply, but neither he nor his uncle anticipate what might happen when Lewis invites his one friend, skeptical Tarby (Suljic), over to the house to impress him with what he’s learned about magic.  

     What follows is a major struggle that is exciting for children and adults to watch, and, gratifyingly for me, carrying positive messages.  They will see children and adults persisting in the face of adversity, staying on the side of good, and seeing that children need to be informed about what is going on in their lives and, moreover, including them in solutions.  Yes, children should be more respected.  

     Another positive piece of good modeling in the film is the egalitarian relationship between Jonathan and Mrs. Z.  He openly acknowledges her value to him and the impressiveness of her skills. She is portrayed as skillful, motherly, and a wise sage.  Jonathan is open both to her as a female and to Lewis as a child.  He models for men the value of listening to women and children, and then being willing to make changes.

     With the aid of screenwriter Eric Kripke, director Eli Roth has done a good job in adapting John Bellairs’ novel to the screen.  Music (Nathan Barr), cinematography (Rogier Stoffers), and production design (John Hutman) are of similar quality.  Jack Black nails every role he plays, as does Cate Blanchett, and their inclusion in any cast will elevate the film.  Young Owen Vaccara pulls for attention, although I have to confess I kept wanting to see Jacob Tremblay (Room) in that role.  Kyle MacLachlan and Renee Elise Goldsberry were wonderfully effective as villains.

     House with a Clock is a bit silly at times—which is not unusual for this type of film—but general audiences will enjoy it; there was applause for it afterwards at the screening I attended.  The special effects are good, but parents might note that it could be scary for young children who are afraid of the dark. 

A good choice for those who like a mixture of fantasy, comedy, and a bit of horror.

Grade:  C+                                    By Donna R. Copeland

THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER

Nicole Kidman     Colin Farrell     Raffey Cassidy     Sunny Suljic

Barry Keoghan     Alicia Silverstone     Bill Camp

    The Murphy family looks like a sea without a ripple in it.  It appears that everything is under control, with little friction, and ever-polite conversation about mundane matters making up the family’s conversations.  Even lovemaking has a ritualistic quality to it.  And yet, occasionally one of them will burst out with some extremely personal information.  Steven Murphy (Farrell) is a heart surgeon, and his wife Anna (Kidman) is an opthalmologist and head of a clinic.  Teenager Kim (Cassidy) is bright, with an interest in music, and younger Bobby (Suljic) is also very bright, but has yet to show particular talents.  They live in a large, orderly house with neatly tended gardens.  What could go wrong?

     For some reason—we initially don’t know why—Steven befriends one of his daughter’s classmates, Martin (Keoghan), who is the son of one of his patients who died some years back.  Knowing that Martin and his mother are struggling financially—or perhaps for some other reason we don’t know—Steven treats him to meals and gifts.  Gradually, Martin begins insinuating himself into Steven’s life, appearing at the hospital, calling him on the phone, and meeting him in the hospital cafeteria.  He even invites Steven to his house for dinner with his mother, which, curiously, Steven accepts.  However, while there, he encounters a situation that makes him leave abruptly.

     But Martin does not leave him alone; he has fantasies in the form of predictions that, when he voices them, are weird and shocking, but understandable psychologically from what we know of him.  What we don’t understand until the final scenes is the power he comes to have over this family.  And is it his power?  We are left to speculate on the events that transpire during the last half of the film, which have curious resonance with what Martin has predicted will happen to Steven and his family.  And these are dire predictions. 

     We’re given a clue about the film’s title by learning that Kim wrote an essay at school for which she received an A+.  It was about the Greek myth of Iphigenia, Agamemnon’s daughter who had to be sacrificed because of Agamemnon’s offense of killing a sacred deer that belonged to Artemis.  Without this sacrifice, Artemis would interfere with the winds Agamemnon needed to sail to Troy. 

     This is a successful truly horrific film that keeps the viewer engaged in trying to figure out what is going on.  The acting is superb, with Farrell and Kidman lockstep in their talents portraying people who are conventional on the outside and with deep recesses in their core personalities.  The “gossip” that surrounds them (and helpful “friends” are only too happy to inform them) raises suspicions, but we never know whether these are reality-based or not.  Barry Keoghan evokes the teenager you definitely don’t want your daughter to date; he portrays a threatening eeriness that you can’t quite put your finger on, and although what he says might be hogwash, a part of you will believe it.

     Director Lorgos Lanthimas and writer Efthymis Filippou have collaborated on previous films (The Lobster, Dogtooth, and Alps) that tend toward the mysterious and bizarre, and this is no different.  It will intrigue you and repel you at the same time.  Perhaps Lanthimas selected the music for the soundtrack, which is mostly classical and modern orchestral and choral music—dissonant, even screeching at times, to accompany the feelings of dread and eeriness of the script.  In addition, there are a couple of popular tunes sung by Kim.

     The Killing of a Sacred Deer will not be to everyone’s taste, but for those who value creativity and insight into the human condition, it will be a gratifying experience. 

Vulnerability to human weaknesses can help explain this drama.

Grade:  A                                    By Donna R. Copeland