Since I am still seeing things and I have the opportunity to think and look back a little bit as I write, I've decided to have a MatM Power Rankings at the beginning of the week. Rankings in real time, if you will.
Yes, I know it is not "technically" the beginning of the week, but fear not--Aloha is still the shittiest movie of the year.
February 8th Week Power Rankings
#50 Aloha (even)
#49 Entourage (-1)
#48 Terminator Genisys (-2)
#47 Pitch Perfect 2 (even)
#46 The Kingsman: Secret Service(-1)
#45 Dope (-2)
#44 Ricki & The Flash (-2)
#43 Woman in Gold (+1)
#42 Jurassic World (+7)
#41 Minions (even)
Onto more!
#40 Vevé
When I was 13, maybe 14, my friends and I used to talk about a drug called "qat". We had to literally no idea what it was. Some people claimed it was made of battery acid. Typically, this was used in a derogatory fashion: "Damn dude, have you been smoking that qat again?"
As it would happen, 20 years later I watched a film in which qat (more commonly spelled khat), was the forefront of the conflict. Khat is sort of like chewing tobacco, or maybe a little bit more like chewing a couple cups of coffee, a weaker version of cocaine . In East Africa, and the other countries in which it's grown, it's an important drug for the working class and farmers. In Yemen, 40% of the country's irrigation is devoted to khat.
In East Africa, the slang for khat is "vevé". Throughout that region of the world, including the film's locale of Kenya, vevé is a major trade. And in a continent rife with political corruption and dirtiness, you can bet your ass vevé has made its way into the government game.
So posits this movie and its two leads: Amos, a parliament member looking to become governor by any means necessary; and Kenzo, an ex-con whose father was murdered by Amos' people. Amos and his right hand man, Sammy (reeling from his wife's recent death and his son's addiction to sniffing glue...I'm serious) make their move for a bigger stake in the game amidst election season, while a fuming Kenzo attempts to assassinate Amos during a town parade. Shortly after he fails, he catches wind of Amos' foray into the world of khat and, along with his right hand man Julius, they launch an attack on his business interests. Meanwhile, Amos is married to Esther (Kenyan superstar Lizz Njagah) but has been anything but interested, driving her, in a convoluted and random fashion, into the arms of would-be-assassin Kenzo. Huh?
Vevé, like Traffic and the early Iñarritú films before it, rides the it's-all-connected wave until its conclusion. In this case, the dots don't link up quite like they should (including an unnecessary, annoying 'documentary filmmaker from the Western world' character) and the clunky, partially farfetched ending left me wanting much more. I've been pretty obsessed with East Africa since my time in Tanzania four-plus years ago (old blog tie-in!) and so I really enjoyed seeing a whole lot of that landscape. The performances were solid and there were good uses of both action and tension. The narrative, though, fell victim to trying too hard to be other movies.
#39 Far From the Madding Crowd
Yes, I know it is not "technically" the beginning of the week, but fear not--Aloha is still the shittiest movie of the year.
February 8th Week Power Rankings
#50 Aloha (even)
#49 Entourage (-1)
#48 Terminator Genisys (-2)
#47 Pitch Perfect 2 (even)
#46 The Kingsman: Secret Service(-1)
#45 Dope (-2)
#44 Ricki & The Flash (-2)
#43 Woman in Gold (+1)
#42 Jurassic World (+7)
#41 Minions (even)
Onto more!
#40 Vevé
When I was 13, maybe 14, my friends and I used to talk about a drug called "qat". We had to literally no idea what it was. Some people claimed it was made of battery acid. Typically, this was used in a derogatory fashion: "Damn dude, have you been smoking that qat again?"
As it would happen, 20 years later I watched a film in which qat (more commonly spelled khat), was the forefront of the conflict. Khat is sort of like chewing tobacco, or maybe a little bit more like chewing a couple cups of coffee, a weaker version of cocaine . In East Africa, and the other countries in which it's grown, it's an important drug for the working class and farmers. In Yemen, 40% of the country's irrigation is devoted to khat.
In East Africa, the slang for khat is "vevé". Throughout that region of the world, including the film's locale of Kenya, vevé is a major trade. And in a continent rife with political corruption and dirtiness, you can bet your ass vevé has made its way into the government game.
So posits this movie and its two leads: Amos, a parliament member looking to become governor by any means necessary; and Kenzo, an ex-con whose father was murdered by Amos' people. Amos and his right hand man, Sammy (reeling from his wife's recent death and his son's addiction to sniffing glue...I'm serious) make their move for a bigger stake in the game amidst election season, while a fuming Kenzo attempts to assassinate Amos during a town parade. Shortly after he fails, he catches wind of Amos' foray into the world of khat and, along with his right hand man Julius, they launch an attack on his business interests. Meanwhile, Amos is married to Esther (Kenyan superstar Lizz Njagah) but has been anything but interested, driving her, in a convoluted and random fashion, into the arms of would-be-assassin Kenzo. Huh?
Vevé, like Traffic and the early Iñarritú films before it, rides the it's-all-connected wave until its conclusion. In this case, the dots don't link up quite like they should (including an unnecessary, annoying 'documentary filmmaker from the Western world' character) and the clunky, partially farfetched ending left me wanting much more. I've been pretty obsessed with East Africa since my time in Tanzania four-plus years ago (old blog tie-in!) and so I really enjoyed seeing a whole lot of that landscape. The performances were solid and there were good uses of both action and tension. The narrative, though, fell victim to trying too hard to be other movies.
#39 Far From the Madding Crowd
A certain someone I know and I have never quite agreed on period pieces. I am well aware that programs like Downton Abbey and Outlander are prestigious and award-winning for a reason. But I just can't, try as I might, get into the plot lines. I had heard good things about this one, though, and I actually thought it was pretty decent.
...For a period piece.
...For a period piece.
Carey "Mumford" Mulligan has become the go-to romantic interest for a number of thought-provoking films. She first broke onto the scene with An Education, a movie where she is wooed by an older man in a time where such a thing was unacceptable. She would go on to be the lead in the gut-wrenching Never Let Me Go, the sex-addict's attractive sister in Shame, Daisy in Gatsby and the quiet, mousy love interest of my favorite film of 2011, Drive. In other words, she tends not to pick B.S. for a paycheck.
What made the story controversial for its time is the bullishness and independence of its protagonist, Bathsheba Everdene (And yes, Suzanne Collins has stated on record that this was the basis of her Katniss's last name) in an era where women were expected to put up and shut up. She is courted over the course of the movie by three gentleman callers: Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenarts), a sheep farmer; Frank Troy (Tom Sturridge), an army sergeant; and William Boldwood (Michael Sheen), a wealthy bachelor. The outspoken Bathsheba rejects Gabriel Oak's proposal, but hires him on as a farmhand anyway. Later, she meets Boldwood and gets proposed to again, and again says no thanks. Eventually she goes for sergeant Troy (after rejecting him a number of times as well), who thinks he has just been left at the altar by Fanny (Juno Temple). In actuality, he went to the wrong church, like an idiot. It will come to light, after a series of strange and tragic events, that he still has feelings for Fanny, and Bathsheba is left to ponder, and consider acting upon, the what-ifs.
Madding Crowd was interesting enough to not be a complete snooze fest, and it was less predictable than most of the same ilk, with a couple of curveballs thrown in to stir the stew. If you like this style of film, it's definitely worth seeing, and it's nice to see a heroine who doesn't settle.
I'm off like Carey Mulligan on this here horse! Yah, Rusty! Yah! (kicks spurs, pulls on reins, etc.)
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