The Mighty Nein, on Prime Video

If you were an acholic goblin, you’d probably cuss a lot too. Swearing is big for the Critical Role franchise, almost as important as the epic fantasy elements. Arguably, they maybe overdid the former and somewhat neglected the latter with their first animated series, The Legend of Vox Machina. Their second stand-alone series returns to the land of Exandria, but the tonal mix is better in the 8-episode first season of showrunner Tasha Huo’s The Mighty Nein, which premieres today on Prime Video.

War was already brewing between the Kryn Dynasty of Xhorhas and the Dwendalian Empire, but it fully erupts when thieves steal “The Beacon,” a precious relic that holds the Xhorhas’s eternal souls. It is rather murky as to just who was behind the theft, but the Beacon soon falls into the hands of Trent Ikithon, the Machiavellian leader of the Empire’s Archmages. However, he has a secret accomplice from Xhorhas, whose motives are much more emotional.

Warrior-monastic Beauregard Lionnett is supposed to investigate the strange events surrounding the theft for Cobalt Soul, her scholarly order with decidedly Shaolin tendencies. However, she discovers her superior has been compromised by Ikithon’s Volstrucker warrior-wizards, who nearly kill her. Saved by the high-ranking Expositor, Lionetti is quietly reassigned to investigate corruption within Cobalt Soul and amongst the Kryn court.

Whether she likes it or not—and she most definitely does not like it—Lionett teams up with a motley band of fellow adventurers. She immediately clashes with Caleb Widogast, a formerly down-and-out, but still stinky wizard. However, Widogast is closely aligned with Nott the brave, a foul-mouthed drunkard goblin thief, who sees herself as his protector.

Weirdly, tiefling (a slightly devilish-looking race of D&D characters) healer Jester Lavorre feels similarly towards Fjord Stone, a half-orc sailor tormented by his captain’s death and the sudden source of his mysterious new powers. Frankly, they are all eccentric and annoying in their own ways, but tiefling fortune-teller Mollymauk Tealeaf might irritate his new companions the least. They bicker and fight amongst themselves, but, somehow, they come together as a team to pull off a series of fantastical capers.

Too often, the Vox Machina writers hoped the frequent use of the “F” word by traditional-looking fantasy characters would be sufficiently funny to keep viewers entertained. However, the first shared-world series often came across as too hip and too ironic for its own good. Nott drops plenty of F-bombs, but the fantasy premise is much more intriguing. Arguably, this time around, the use of profanity for comic effect feels much more earned.

There are also wizards all over the place, which is something the first six episodes of Vox Machina lacked. In fact, the characterization in general is much stronger. The relationship dynamics shared by both Widogast and Nott, as well as Lavorre and Strong, provide an intriguing foundation and payoff throughout the season. There is still plenty of kvetching, but it lands better.

Dead Shot, The IRA Running Amok in 1975 London

The IRA could pretend their members were motivated by their Marxist ideology, but they were usually moved by much more personal considerations, like religion, revenge, or the approval of an abusive father. For Michael O’Hara, it is all about revenge. He is determined to find and kill the soldier who accidentally shot his pregnant wife, but his quest for vengeance is disillusioning rather than radicalizing in Tom Guard & Charles Guard’s Dead Shot, which releases in theaters and on-demand this Friday.

O’Hara had retired into exile, but he returned to Northern Ireland for his pregnant wife Carol’s delivery. Unfortunately, Tempest’s unit had the drop on him, but during the heat of the moment, he sees movement in the backseat of O’Hara’s car and squeezes off three rounds right between Carol’s eyes. It is a propaganda disaster, but Holland, the mysterious deep-state scary guy, promises to protect Tempest from prosecution if he joins his new task force. They will be chasing IRA terrorists in London, using the weapons and tactics of the battlefield. They will need them, because Keenan, a highly placed IRA leader, plans to escalate violent attacks on British civilians.

Although presumed dead, O’Hara is itching to find Tempest. Keenan dangles intel on the reassigned soldier as bait, forcing him to reluctantly assist a campaign of terror increasing directed at civilian targets. It does not sit well with O’Hara or “Catherine the Courier,” who has particularly personal history with Keenan.

The poster for Dead Shot makes it look like a run-of-the-mill VOD action movie, but it rather more thoughtful than that. In many ways, it is a lot like the Dutch series The Spectacular, except it is set in London rather than the Benelux countries. It is a grim and gritty revenge thriller that critiques the ruthlessness of both Holland and Keenan, but the latter probably gets it somewhat worse than the MI-666 shark. Think what you will, but on some level, Holland is a professional, who makes decisions unclouded by emotions.

1917: Oscar Contender

Operation Alberich was a German retreat, but it was a strategic retreat. It was conducted about a month and a half before America entered WWI, so there was obviously a lot of fighting left to do. The war seems endless for two lance corporals, but time is decidedly short for the completion of their fateful mission in Sam Mendes’s Golden Globe-winning 1917, which opens nationwide this Friday.

Cpl. Tom Blake has been recruited to send a message from Gen. Erinmore to the Devonshire Regiment near the Hindenburg Line, for very personal reasons. His brother, Lt. Joseph Blake serves with the Devonshires and stands to die alongside his men unless he and his mate, Cpl. William Schofield, can reach them before they charge into a certain German ambush. The General has written orders canceling the doomed attack, but reaching them in time will be no easy feat. First, Blake and his mate Cpl. William Schofield must traverse No Man’s Land, the German front line, and several active battle sights.

Superficially, 1917 might sound similar to Saving Private Ryan, but Mendes and co-screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns quickly break the mold of the prior film and turn audience expectations on their ears. Once the film really shows its true colors, the only real kinship it shares with Spielberg’s film are the equally intense battle scenes. In fact, 1917’s incidents of warfighting are sometimes even more visceral, in ways that will have viewers seeking a tetanus shot afterward.

Frankly, 1917 is not easily pigeon-holed as an anti-war film or a celebration of patriotism. It is really just about two young kids trying to survive a war they do not fully comprehend. Mendes & Wilson-Cairns’ narrative, based on the reminiscences of the former’s grandfather Alfred Mendes, is a case of the epic becoming acutely personal. The tone is almost Homeric, but without any pretentious baggage.

Tribeca ’18: Stockholm

Ostensibly, it is a term used to condone questionable decisions, but the term “Stockholm Syndrome” definitely carries highly negative connotations. In general parlance, it implies the victim was either too weak or too stupid to resist the brainwashing or seduction of their captors. However, the circumstances of the historical incident that coined the term were considerably different. At least, that is how the somewhat fictionalized chronicle of the Normalmstorg Kreditbanken hostage crisis unfolds in Robert Budreau’s Stockholm, which screens during the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival.

He presents himself as an American singing cowboy, but the hostage-taker’s real identity will be the source of some controversy during the stand-off. Regardless, his love for Bob Dylan is genuine enough (the film opens with “New Morning,” a good one that isn’t over-played). Oddly enough, Kaj Hansson (as he is first assumed to be) is not so shocked when the alarm is tripped. In fact, it is a necessary precondition for him to start presenting his demands, which includes the release of his bank-robbing best pal Gunnar Sorensson.

It turns out Sorensson is rather surprised by the scheme, but he plays along—and maybe plays both sides against each other when the cops offer him a deal to act as a “mediator.” Bank officer Bianca Lind is more perceptive than Hansson (or whoever). She can tell he has more enthusiasm than brains. He is in over his head, but the increasingly infuriated cops are probably a greater threat to her safety. Together with the two other hostages, who also start to see things her way, Lind tries to help plot an exit strategy for Hansson and Sorensson.

For many viewers, the big surprise here is the portrayal of Lind (and to a lesser extent her two fellow hostages). Frankly, they are not victims at all (yes, they were menaced a bit during the initial hostage-taking, but they quickly get over it). There is no question Lind is the smartest person in the room—and she choses to help her serenading captor, making her own voluntary decision. As a result, this film is bound to be controversial, especially in Sweden, considering it portrays the sainted Olof Palme as a craven political beast.

The other happy revelation is just how good Noomi Rapace is as Lind. Let’s be honest, her post-Millennium Trilogy work has been iffy (we’re talking about films like Bright, Unlocked, and What Happened to Monday? here). Maybe going back to Sweden was healthy for her, because she is totally riveting as Lind, but in a way that is both cerebral and humane.

Rapace also develops some intriguingly ambiguous chemistry with Ethan Hawke as the nice guy hostage-taker. Arguably, Hawke is a tad old for the “impetuous kid” role (his historical analog was thirty-two at the time of the standoff), but he might be one of the few thesps working today who can credibly convey the character’s flamboyance and his naivete. Of course, Mark Strong is money in the bank as the intense, borderline sociopathic Sorensson. Terms like “heroes,” “villains,” and “anti-heroes” definitely get a little murky in a film like this, but Christopher Heyerdahl (a distant relation of the explorer) makes quite a memorably severe antagonist as police chief Mattsson.

“Stockholm Syndrome” is a term that gets haphazardly thrown around, but this film makes viewers question its usage, even starting in the first instance. It is a tight, energetic period thriller, helmed with a fair amount of flair by Budreau (who also directed Hawke in the hip Chet Baker bio-pic, Born to Be Blue). Highly recommended, Stockholm screens again this Monday (4/23) and the following Sunday (4/29), as part of this year’s Tribeca.

Sundance ’18: The Catcher was a Spy

According to Michael Frayn’s play Copenhagen, Werner Heisenberg’s commitment to Germany’s atomic bomb program was an ambiguous uncertainty that bedeviled the great Danish physicist Niels Bohr years after the war ended. An American OSS agent had to make that determination based on a few hours observation and a brief conversation. He was not a physicist, he was a professional baseball player. Nicholas Dawidoff’s bestselling chronicle of Morris “Moe” Berg’s WWII service is now dramatized in Ben Lewin’s The Catcher was a Spy, which screens during this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Berg was a member of the Boston Red Sox, but please do not hold that against him. He was a dependable but not spectacular journeyman player, who held roster spots on several teams. He spoke several languages, including German and Italian, and regularly read foreign policy journals. As a result, he had the foresight to film Tokyo harbor during a 1934 exhibition tour, well before Pearl Harbor. Once the war started, Berg’s talents and his 16mm film attracted the attention of “Wild Bill” Donovan and the OSS, the CIA’s predecessor agency.

Eager for field work, Berg gets his chance when Donovan orders him to prevent the retreating Germans from abducting or killing Italian scientist Edoardo Amaldi, with the help of Dutch physicist Samuel Goudsmit and Major Robert Furman, the Manhattan Project’s intelligence chief (who would later oversee construction of the Pentagon). However, their Italian mission will lead to a trickier assignment in Zurich. Berg is to meet with Heisenberg, assess the status of the German Atomic program, determine whether Heisenberg is trying to advance or hinder its progress, and if the former proves true, kill him.

Without question, Berg is one of the great, under-heralded figures of World War II history. Arguably, he is the sort of renaissance man you just do not find anymore. He was also a “confirmed bachelor,” which led to plenty of speculation that Robert Rodat’s screenplay continues to stoke. Be that as it may, the film also nicely captures the intriguing milieu of the Donovan-era OSS.

Paul Rudd is does some of his best work bringing out the personal contradictions of the deeply patriotic and borderline-savant-like Berg. He also develops some ambiguously potent chemistry with Sienna Miller in the otherwise under-written role of Berg’s lover, Estella Huni. Catcher is also packed with colorful and convincing supporting turns, including Paul Giamatti as the humanistic Goudsmit, Mark Strong as the evasive Heisenberg, and the great Tom Wilkinson as Paul Scherrer, the Swiss anti-Nazi physicist, who brokered the meeting between Berg and Heisenberg.

It is just tremendously refreshing to see a film that celebrates American intelligence operatives as heroes. It also thinks quite highly of scientists and soldiers. It is a fascinating true story and a well-crafted period production. Very highly recommended for fans of historical intrigue (like Bridge of Spies), The Catcher was a Spy screens again this morning (1/25) and Saturday (1/27) in Park City and Sunday (1/28) in Salt Lake, as part of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

6 Days: The Other Iranian Hostage Crisis

It was the other Iranian Hostage Crisis. While the prolonged captivity of American embassy personnel in Tehran made Jimmy Carter look weak and incompetent, the siege of the Iranian embassy in South Kensington, London made it clear to the world Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was a strong leader, who was not to be trifled with. However, the SAS (Special Air Service) commandos did not storm the embassy immediately. For five days, DCI Max Vernon did his best to keep the terrorists talking. The British response to the hostage-taking is dramatized day-by-day in Toa Fraser’s 6 Days (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

To this day, Western authorities are still rather baffled why Arabic-speaking Khuzestan separatists launched their operation on British soil. Although they maintained diplomatic relations, the UK and Iran were not on friendly terms. Yet, Arabistan Liberation gunmen expected the Brits to convince Iran to release their imprisoned comrades. They also demanded safe passage, which the Thatcher government refused to grant. That did not leave DCI Vernon much room to negotiate. However, he maintained a dialogue with his terrorist counterpart and even managed to secure a handful of hostage releases, as a sign of “good faith.”

While Vernon was talking, Rusty Firmin and the SAS were formulating attack plans. Glenn Standring’s screenplay does its best to suggest Thatcher placed undue restrictions on the operation, out of concern for how it would play in the media. However, it is hard to argue with the results. Despite some strongly worded statements, Thatcher’s decisiveness clearly made an impression on Iran.

The South Kensington hostage rescue is a fascinating and highly instructive episode in fairly recent history, whose significance has never really been fully appreciated on our shores. Fraser effectively shows the action from the perspectives of both the cops and the SAS, but attempts to include the standpoints of the media are far less compelling. After all, they are just along for the ride. 6 Days is a radical departure from Fraser’s last film, the very cool Maori martial arts fantasy, The Dead Lands, but his execution is lean and pacey. Throughout the film, he concretely establishes the military, political, and humanitarian stakes at play in the stand-off.

As Vernon, Mark Strong is as intense as always. Likewise, Jamie Bell looks young, but he has an appropriately steely presence as Firmin. Abbie Cornish doesn’t really bring much to the party, but to be fair, she is only playing journalist Kate Adie. One could also argue Tim Pigott-Smith is excessively pompous and high-handed as Home Secretary William Whitelaw, who was an unusually sure-footed politician throughout his long career in public service.

Any victory over terrorism is worth revisiting on film, for numerous reasons. Fraser breaks down the South Kensington rescue operation quite well, fully capitalizing on all the inherent drama and action. Recommended for fans of Argo and The Delta Force franchise, 6 Days opens this Friday (8/18) in New York, at the Cinema Village.

Approaching the Unknown: Mars Beckons

Captain William D. Stanaforth is going where no man has gone before—and he is going it alone. He was always meant to arrive on Mars first, but he might have to wait longer than he expected before anyone joins him. That assumes he will reach the Red Planet, but that is far from assured in Mark Elijah Rosenberg’s Approaching the Unknown (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in New York.

Stanaforth is the very model of a modern major astronaut. He is a crackerjack pilot, but he is also a first rate engineer. In fact, one of the primary reasons for his selection was the water harvester he invented. Unfortunately, the contraption worked just fine in the desert, but he cannot get it up and running in his module, which indirectly causes other technical issues. Captain Emily Maddox, who is piloting the mission directly following his, also has mechanical breakdowns. There is a good chance it will just be Stanaforth heading towards Mars, with his shaky sanity, failing life support systems, and the nagging transmissions from his pal Louis “Skinny” Skinner at Mission Control.

Yes sir, it is like Gravity for The Martian, with a bit of Europa Report thrown in for good measure. Nonetheless, it is hard to resent a bit of borrowing in a film that celebrates the daring sacrifice of space exploration. Approaching is also unusually cerebral film, relying far less on effects than the obvious big budget comparison films. Production designer Steven Brower and his team also make the module interior look spectacularly trashed when conditions start going south.

Yet, the key to the film is the ever-reliable but strangely under-heralded Mark Strong, who really is one of the best in the business. Frankly, he is probably too big to be an astronaut, but in all other respects, he is perfect for the tightly-wound, relentlessly driven Stanaforth. He pretty much carries the film single-handedly, which is fortunate, since his co-stars only appear boxed-up on Stanaforth’s monitor screens. However, Anders Danielsen Lie (from Oslo, August 31^st) and Charles Baker genuinely radiate bad karma as the two twitchy, stir crazy space station astronauts who are supposed to be Stanaforth last human contact for months (perhaps even years).

Viewers will probably have a good idea where Approaching is headed, but Rosenberg still lands his big, significant closing. In fact, it is rather refreshing to see an idealistic film that believes in the values of the Apollo missions and the original Star Trek. Recommended for those who support interplanetary exploration and intimate chamber drama, Approaching the Unknown opens tomorrow (6/3) in New York at the Cinema Village.

Closer to the Moon: Romania’s Crime of the Century

Irony was usually lost on Communist apparatchiks. It was especially so in this case. The socialist authorities were completely baffled why a small band of former Party members would stage a daring armored car robbery for a few million worthless Romanian leu, at a time when everyone was desperately seeking hard foreign currency. Yet, the absurdity is the whole point for the disillusioned resistance heroes in Nae Caranfil’s Closer to the Moon (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

All the major facts of Moon are historically accurate, but the why’s remain a bit murky. However, Caranfil’s speculations are more than persuasive. They clearly carry the spirit of the truth, even if they cannot be verified by the participants, for reasons one could easily guess. At, one time, police inspector Max Rosenthal and his comrades were ardent Communists and heroes of the resistance. They also happened to be Jewish. The post-war years would have been disheartening enough as the Communist Party proceeded to betray their ideals, but to make matters worse, the group of friends have all largely lost their positions thanks to the Stalin-mandated anti-Semitic purges. Only Rosenthal still maintains his post, entirely due to the fact he is married to the shrewish daughter of his superior. However, he is dead set on a divorce, regardless of the repercussions.

Sadly, Yorgu Ristea, the academic, Razvan Ordel, the journalist, and Dumitru Dorneanu, the research scientists have even worse seats in the same boat. The outlook is nearly as bad for Rosenthal’s old flame, Alice Bercovich, who had been sent abroad to study, but was recalled under ominous circumstances. Unlike the others, she has a son to protect. Yet, against her better judgement, she gets caught up in Rosenthal’s armored car scheme. Conceived as an existential protest, they hope to spur their countrymen to start questioning the claims of the Communist government. Of course, one of the central pillars of its propaganda is the supposed abolition of crime in Romania.

Both the scheme and the punishment are so crazy they have to be true. Rosenthal and his comrades really did perpetrate the heist under the guise of an action movie shoot (it would have been the first in Romania, had it been real). Likewise, the government really did force the condemned prisoners to re-stage the crime for a massively ill-conceived propaganda film. With nothing to lose, the prisoners largely take over the production (aided and abetted by Virgil, the fictionalized apprentice cameraman). Desperate to learn why they did it and who else might be involved, Holban the frazzled bureaucrat, indulges their demands for champagne and caviar, hoping the truth will come out during an unguarded moment. Yet, the truth is all around him, if he could only see it.

Obviously, this story holds tremendous cinematic potential, which Caranfil fully exploits, but he also gives it all a darkly wry comedic twist. At times, it feels like The Lives of Others rewritten by a less manic Alan Ayckbourne, but viewers are constantly reminded of the impending finality. Indeed, Caranfil nicely balances the absurdist humor with the tragic fatalism.

The mostly British cast is particularly well suited to the film’s matter-of-factly sardonic tone, especially Mark Strong, who personifies world-weary dignity as Rosenthal. Vera Farmiga gets to exercise both her drama queen and sultry femme fatale chops as Bercovich, making the most of each. Eventually, Christian McKay will break out for his witty, sophisticated performances, including his work here as the disenchanted Ristea. Game of Thrones’ Harry Lloyd is blandly forgettable as Virgil, but his job is mostly to observe. However, David de Keyser adds real heart and gravitas to the film as Moritz, the camera man’s VOA-listening landlord. British television regular Anton Lesser might also do his career best as the politically vulnerable insomniac, Holban.

Moon bears witness to the crimes of Communism in an unusually droll and humanistic way. It is a finely crafted period production, recreating the space exploration-obsessed late 1950s (hence the title) in detail, but Marius Panduru’s cinematography often looks a little too sunny given the events in question. Regardless, it is a fascinating story (already the subject of at least one worthy Romanian documentary) brought to life by a distinctive cast. It also represents a rare opportunity to see excerpts from the re-enactment film, which the Party immediately locked away in a vault, upon its completion. Highly recommended for fans of heist and con films as well as prestige historicals, Closer to the Moon opens this Friday (4/17) in New York, at the IFC Center.