Crisp Criticism - "Thor: Ragnarok", "The Snowman", "Columbus", "A Bad Moms Christmas"

by

Julien Faddoul

Thor: Ragnarok *

Thor is imprisoned on the other side of the universe and finds himself having to stop the destruction of his homeworld by his sister.

Colourful, pleasant enough stand-alone Marvel film but to what end? What are we accomplishing here? The onrush of fatigue as soon as these movies begin – with every beat falling into line at almost the exact same breaths-in-time as to whatever film preceded it – is now beyond exasperating. Waititi’s humour has been deep-fried in Whedonisms, most of the cast is flat and the constant beckoning to 1980’s culture is baffling.

d – Taika Waititi

w – Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle, Christopher L. Yost   (Based on the Comic Books by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby)

ph – Javier Aguirresarobe

pd – Dan Hennah, Ra Vincent

m – Mark Mothersbaugh

ed – Zene Baker, Joel Negron

cos – Mayes C. Rubeo

p – Kevin Feige

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins, Tadanobu Asano, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel House, Taika Waititi

The Snowman

Detective Harry Hole investigates the disappearance of a woman whose pink scarf is found wrapped around an ominous looking snowman.

Clearly, an unfinished film: A birdbrain mystery plot is hoisted upon an enormous amount of star-power, both in front of and behind the camera, with almost apathetic results. It’s too dull to be angry about.

d – Tomas Alfredson

w – Peter Straughan, Hossein Amini, Søren Sveistrup   (Based on the Novel by Jo Nesbø)

ph – Dion Beebe

pd – Maria Djurkovic

m – Marco Beltrami

ed – Thelma Schoonmaker, Claire Simpson

p – Tim Beaven, Eric Fellner

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Val Kilmer, JK Simmons, Toby Jones, David Dencik, Ronan Vibert, Chloë Sevigny, James D'Arcy, Jamie Clayton, Jakob Oftebro, Jonas Karlsson, Michael Yates, Alec Newman

Columbus ***

A Korean-born man finds himself stuck in Columbus, Indiana, where his architect father is in a coma. The man meets a young woman who wants to stay in Columbus with her mother, a recovering addict, instead of pursuing her own dreams.

Feature film debut of one of the most accomplished cinema video essayists, a fact evident within every frame. Kogonada boldly solicits the task of expressing the love of ethereal modernist architecture through both his characters and compositions, neither of which are particularly formative, but both of which are utterly stirring.

wd – Kogonada

ph – Elisha Christian

pd – Diana Rice

m – Hammock

ed – Kogonada

cos – Emily Moran

p – Danielle Renfrew Behrens, Aaron Boyd, Giulia Caruso, Ki Jin Kim, Andrew Miano, Chris Weitz

Cast: John Cho, Haley Lu Richardson, Parker Posey, Rory Culkin, Michelle Forbes

A Bad Moms Christmas

The mothers from Bad Moms must deal with their own mothers on Christmas.

Typical loud, lowbrow comedy of the kind that many seem to pardon simply because the principal characters are female, a departure that erudite liberals find progressive or something. Literally zero laughs.

wd – Jon Lucas, Scott Moore

ph – Mitchell Amundsen

pd – Marcia Hinds

m – Christopher Lennertz

ed – James Thomas

p – Suzanne Todd

Cast: Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, Susan Sarandon, Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines, Jay Hernandez, Peter Gallagher, Justin Hartley, David Walton, Wanda Sykes