#tonicollette

“It's heartening to see so many strange, new faces here today. I know my mom would be very touched, and probably a little suspicious.”

Seeing Stowaway on a small screen is a shame. Even at home, there’s a sequence that creates such intense vertigo it’ll make your legs wobble. In the cinema? It would've been amazing. This is a smart sci-fi movie that focuses on relevant ideas. It’ll have you wondering what you would do in the characters’ shoes.

After the launch of the MTS-42, commander Marina Barnett (Toni Collette), biologist David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim), and medical researcher Zoe Levenson (Anna Kendrick) discover an unconscious support engineer aboard. What is Michael Adams (Shamier Anderson) doing here? How will they manage the two-year voyage to Mars when there are only enough resources for three people?

At the film's core is a moral dilemma. There are four people. Only three can survive. What do you do? Scramble to find a solution? That costs resources, time, and energy. There's only so much to spare before a call must be made. Once every solution has been exhausted… then what? Draw straws? If only it were that simple. Firstly, why is Michael aboard? To sabotage the mission? Even if he isn’t, who’s to say he won’t freak out when he realizes he’s the expendable stowaway? Once the orders from Earth come in, which members of the MTS-42 will follow?

This conundrum would be easier to solve if the people were one-dimensional, but they’re well-written. You understand everyone’s point of view and the actors are charismatic (particularly Anna Kendrick, who you might not have bought as an astronaut but you do as a medical researcher traveling to space under a captain). Sometimes people make decisions that make you wince but only because it's cranked up the uncertainty. Stowaway is missing a little something to push it up to the next level where someone death would make you burst into tears but it’s solid overall.

The best scene concerns a desperate gambit to ensure everyone’s survival. It’s a blend of the Burj Khalifa scene from Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and Gravity. One false step and you’re falling into a literal bottomless pit. Losing your grip would mean a horrible, lonely death through oxygen deprivation. You might as well take off your helmet and make it quick. There’s so much riding on that scene you’ll be vibrating with anxiety and excitement. The longer it goes on, the more intense it gets because it’ll be harder for them to go back and the obstacles they notice keep adding up. Even if the movie were just ok, it would be worth seeing just for that.

Writers Ryan Morrison and Joe Penna (who also directs) have made all the right choices with this script. Stowaway resists making things easy by having villains or simple solutions. There's nothing simple about the moral dilemma explored here. Watch it on the biggest screen you can with all the lights turned off. Preferably, with someone else holding your hand so you can feel how tightly they squeeze it when it gets at its most intense. (May 6, 2021)

Well spooky season is over which means it’s time for my favorite season: AWARDS! I’m catching up on new releases and starting with a fairly spooky one: Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things. If you absolutely adore movies that completely gaslight you, the musical Oklahoma!, off-brand DQ blizzards IN a blizzard, actors from every season of Fargo in once place and of course: Toni Collette’s bewigged bangs, this movie is for you! I guess this review includes spoilers but even if you have already seen this movie, this may not spoil things for you?? Regardless: let’s discuss the wigs (and much more!)

Straight up: I love a good roadtrip movie and this one stars a couple played by Jesse Plemons and Jessie Buckley! Buckley-ed up: this is 2x the Jess(i)es! Also buckle up: this movie is absolutely not a roadtrip movie and defies all genres, reason, and narrative logic. We are first meant to believe that Jessie is meeting Jesse’s parents, but actually none of that is true and also I hope you like listening to poems recited in a car because that is basically the first hour of this movie. 

Finally, we make it to Jesse’s parents’ secluded farmhouse where we are first given a tour of barn atrocities and then have to watch a wet dog shake itself for a about three hours and wonder what is happening in the creepy basement before finally meeting: DAVID THEWLIS AND TONI COLLETTE! Whew! Does anyone remember simpler times only 3 years ago when we were living in a total David Thewlinnaisance due to his involvement in both Wonder Woman and Fargo season 3? Well hold on to your old man wigs because we are in a Second Wave Thewlinnaisance!!!! Also between Thewlis, Buckley, and Plemons, Fargos season 2-4 are completely represented here like some sort of Fargo: End Game which honestly makes a lot of sense in the context of this movie (I THINK). Toni Collette: you need to be in Fargo season 5 now.

So let’s talk about Toni Collette’s wigs, as they are the main wigs in this movie. As Jesse’s off-kilter mom, these wigs are very perfect farmhouse non-chic. We first see her in this banged shag and it is pretty good! It is also very good at helping me understand just what the hell is going on in this movie because moments later...

Toni has no bangs!! This bang shift was the first substantial clue for me in realizing that the full time-space continuum was off in this movie (also this movie makes its own Robert Zemekis joke because it knows it is fully Back to the Futuring some real timetravel nonsense as well!)  Anyway, this wig is also good! Straggly and terrible, but good for the purpose it serves: to tell us that nothing is as it seems. Jessie’s non-wigged hair also shifts, as does her clothing, career, and name, as does Thewlis’s wig until we realize that this movie is totally gaslighting the hell out of us. 

Time becomes a flat circle and past and present all become one. Toni is young again, and so is this ‘50s ‘do! Ok? It is ok! Before you can say Leave It To Beaver, Toni is old again, about to die....and maybe so are we? How long is this movie? Also this is not even the scariest Toni has been at a parental dinner if you have seen Hereditary. 

It should be noted that throughout this gaslit nightmare of a parental dinner, we get flashes of a random high school janitor who ends up being the key to all of this. As does the musical Oklahoma! which he sees being rehearsed time and time again.

Later, when the Jess(i)es finally leave the terrible, time-shifting parental dinner full of scary laundry basements and shifting wigs, they drive some more and recite Pauline Kael’s dissertations on A Woman Under the Influence, and find themselves at an off-brand Dairy Queen to get some off-brand blizzards in the middle of a blizzard that the girls who work there...were also in that high school production of Oklahoma! and are treating Jesse like he’s a weird janitor....I think we’re getting to the point of all this.

But first: how well do you know the musical Oklahoma??? I played Gertie in a community theater production in 1999 so allow me to school you. It is the first true American musical and is essentially all about a girl named Laurie trying to decide who to take to a dance. Yes, really. Her choices are cowboy Curly and farmhand weirdo Jud. Curly tries to help Laurie decide by going to Jud’s weird shack and trying to convince him through song to “end things” because only through suicide will anyone like him (yes this is an actual song called “Poor Jud is Dead”). And though Laurie’s choice seems obvious (?) she first has to take some smelling salts and think on it, which leads to the psychedelic narrative convention of the dream ballet - in which other actors play Curly, Jud, and Laurie and dance it OUT. Also the dream ballet (and the musical) end in murder and this musical is dark as hell. OK? OK. 

Back to this movie, Jessie and Jesse make their way back to the high school where the janitor works, make out in a car, and then Jesse gets weirded out that the janitor is watching them and decides to give him “a piece of his mind”....he gives him much more in that we soon discover that the Jess(i)es have all been part of the janitors mind this entire time and this whole goddamned movie is an elaborate dream ballet...that is ending with some dancers playing the Jess(i)es in an actual dream ballet. That ends in murder. Also Jessie’s character is a messed up version of Laurie (from Oklahoma!) but never actually Laurie. Her name shifts from Lucy, Louise, Louisa, Lucia....never quite the Laurie this janitor Jud wanted her to be. 

But we’re not actually done yet!! The old janitor leaves the school, trips the hell out in his truck and reenters the school naked and with off-brand DQ and dead pig animation (yes, really). Then Jesse in old wig/makeup become the old janitor in a Nobel Prize award ceremony on the set of Oklahoma! the musical with Toni in Aunt Eller drag and most of the audience (including Thewlis and Buckley) in the kind of old age makeup they do in high school productions where you just draw a bunch of lines on your face. Jesse delivers the Nobel acceptance speech from A Beautiful Mind and then goes into the set for Jud’s shack and sings Jud’s (often cut) song from Oklahoma!, “A Lonely Room”...and scene! Now aren’t you glad I told you about Oklahoma!???? 

Ultimately, this is the movie for the theater nerd who demanded that Jud hisself got his own damn dream ballet and also imagines Jud to be a modern-day janitor who thinks he’s smart and cultured and deserves a cool girlfriend and dabbles in landscape painting. But wig-wise...

VERDICT: WURQS!

Rian Johnson, despite being put through the Star Wars fandom ringer for his choices on The Force Awakens, is known for being a consistent creator of genre-bending and visually appealing stories.  With Brick, The Brothers Bloom and Looper under his belt, Johnson has proven his ability and range as a director, and he continues to add to his varied menagerie of films with his latest offering, the modern-day whodunit Knives Out. 

Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), a famous and wealthy crime novelist, is found dead by his housekeeper Fran (Edi Patterson) after a family party full of tough news.  With the death looking like a suicide on the onset, Detective Lieutenant Elliot (Lakeith Stanfield) and Trooper Wagner (Noah Segan) are assigned to investigate the case, and they bring Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) with them due to an anonymous request he received asking for his involvement.  The investigative group interviews the key members of the family in hopes of uncovering information : Linda Drysdale (Jamie Lee Curtis), eldest daughter, real estate mogul, husband to Richard Drysdale (Don Johnson) and mother to Ransom (Chris Evans); Walt Thrombey (Michael Shannon), the youngest son of Harlan, the CEO of Harlan’s publishing company, husband to Donna Thrombey (Riki Lindhome) and father to Jacob (Jaeden Martell); Joni Thrombey (Toni Collette), Harlan’s daughter-in-law, free-spirited influencer, and mother to Meg (Katherine Langford); and Wanetta (K Callan), Harlan’s aged mother.  Due to family in-fighting and possible deception, Blanc gravitates to Marta (Ana de Armas), Harlan’s Guatemalan nurse, caretaker and confidant with an odd quirk that forces her to vomit if she lies.  As the investigators learn more and more about the circumstances surrounding Harlan’s death in light of Harlan’s last minute decision to cut his family out of his will and pass his fortune on to Marta, everyone is on edge and stakes raise higher and higher until the entire situation comes crashing down.

Like many in the general and critical audience have stated, Knives Out is a modern update to a classic style, though more in pacing and slight tonal adjustment than an all-out alteration to the style.  The film adheres to the traditional style of seeding that leads to reveals, but with a Pulp Fiction-esque approach to exposition and the revelations of key bits of information that allows us to think we know more than we more, and trust whether we want to rely on our assumptions.  What appears to be misinformation at first is often revealed to be pertinent on several levels, and the way that much of it is shrouded in comedy works much to the benefit of Johnson’s directorial style and talented cast.  The heavily textured story is left with no loose threads due to these tenants, with a wonderfully solid balance between family madness and motives that ping-pongs you between the aforementioned exposition and the ever-present tension.

The real updates come in the way that the film is very self-aware of both story and style.  No real new ground is broken in terms of the plot, but the contrivances are skirted by old tropes being given new facelifts : Joni, though remaining hippie in name, is now an influencer rather than a traditional free spirit... the problematic son, in the form of Jacob, is now a troll that hides behind social media... even the fact that the head investigator is black has absolutely zero bearing to the story (in fact, the key protagonist is also a minority whose family is in the United States illegally, which is only played as leverage for blackmail).  In terms of style, the film is very self-aware of the classic and more modern tropes of the ‘whodunit’, with references to Clue, Murder She Wrote, Sherlock Holmes, Hallmark movies , CSI and even Baby Driver popping up.

If forced to compare this film to an earlier Rian Johnson film, I’d say this one falls in the realm of The Brothers Bloom with its whimsical deception that carries heavy consequences, and its cast of characters with standout personalities.  The set design of the maze-like home is a true sight to behold, with visual flare populating nearly every inch of the screen as the camera floats through the home... the home stands out even further when compared to the small handful of locations visited outside of it within the world of the film.  The humor is wonderful, going from plenty of political-based humor to screwball absurdist dialogue with surprising grace and fluidity... ‘I’m running on pure adrenaline, I fell like I swallowed bees’ is easily one of my favorite lines of the year.  I am sure that, upon repeat viewing, the film will unveil itself as host to many visual surprises not noticed during the first viewing.

Daniel Craig is given the comedic leeway he was given in Logan Lucky, where the force that he plays against type makes his character as hilarious as he is perceptive.  Ana de Armas holds her own against both Craig and Christopher Plummer, with her down to earth nature making her a great protagonist and audience surrogate in light of the gravitas the Plummer holds on-screen, and the way Craig demands the attention of the audience.  Chris Evans makes the most of his limited screen time, leaving a lasting impression despite demanding the least attention of the family that is cast.  Jamie Lee Curtis does a wonderful job playing a generational echo of Plummer, trying her best to bring dignity to a band of misfits.  Don Johnson’s wildness plays well against Michael Shannon’s uptight portrayal, and Toni Collette stirs the pot wonderfully with her suspicious nature blanketed by a show of free spirit.  Katherine Langford plays a good bridge between the family and Marta while still portraying the most tactless Thrombey traits, and her verbal sparring with Jaeden Martell works well.  Lakeith Stanfield and Noah Segan not only do a great job pushing the narrative forward, but their random colloquialisms and observational statements are great modernizing elements.  Edi Patterson, Riki Lindhome, Frank Oz, K Callan, M. Emmet Walsh and Marlene Forte also make memorable appearances.