My Coffin of Oscar Disdain ⚰️

 

My Coffin of Oscar Disdain 

by Kristin Battestella

My piss-ant attitude toward Oscar pundits this messy awards season did not happen overnight. As I've mentioned on Blue Sky and in several Video and Podcast appearances alongside my previous Why I'm Disinterested in Awards Season op-ed; my disdain for the Academy Awards began early. Here then are the chronological nails in my coffin and why the head scratching, so often erroneous Oscars are not worth such out of control, vicarious obsession for everything but the films that are supposed to mean the most to us.

The 1980s Elitism

As a kid in the eighties I was aware of the Oscars purely as prestige. Awards were for art house, international, period piece epics and serious films that I often didn't get to see. Oscar winning films weren't for everyone, and that exclusivity remains largely true. Many popular films and blockbusters or genre hits of the decade have endured more than many of the obscure, out of touch eighties Best Picture nominees. Maybe I didn't understand the details then, but the Academy's unwelcoming, full of itself nature was already apparent.

The Searchers receiving no nominations

When we got our first VCR, I fell in love with what cinema should be upon seeing The Searchers. In consulting my ye olde film guides and Oscar books, however, I was completely baffled that The Searchers not only didn't win any of the big awards, but it wasn't even nominated for anything! This was a how sway before there was even how sway. I read more literature agreeing on the mastery of John Ford's seminal piece, and this lack of Academy acknowledgment remains flat out WRONG. Little me knew it then, and my disdain deepened upon reading of more fifties Oscars errors – like Rear Window going empty-handed.

Goodfellas losing Best Picture

Surely, historical Oscar mistakes were just a fluke of classic film to be studied, right? Alas no, as I saw the Academy screw up again in real time when Goodfellas did not win Best Picture. Everything I already thought about Oscar's elite attitudes was compounded by the white savior Dances with Wolves defeating the unmistakably Italian Goodfellas. This egregiousness made it personal.

Montgomery Clift's losses

Falling in love with the mid-century acting masterclass that is Montgomery Clift's unfortunately brief body of work is something every so-called classic connoisseur should do. Although nominated four times for The Search, A Place in The Sun, From Here to Eternity and Judgment at Nuremberg; Clift never won. A case can also be made that he deserved more nominations for The Heiress, Red River, I Confess, Suddenly Last Summer, Wild River, or The Misfits yet because he's not an Oscar winner, Clift is now considered somewhat second tier in the classic pantheon. My budding teen self was once again confounded how some of the best films and performances will always be on the outside looking in when it comes to Oscar.

The ignoring of Terence Stamp for The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Obviously I knew nothing of the drag scene in nineties Sydney, but I learned everything I needed to know about rainbow compassion from Priscilla. Famed as the villainous Zod in Superman, Stamp's middle-aged transsexual widow was a revelation transcending cinema. A tender, delicate performance that was a bold, daring statement speaking to post-AIDS attitudes that continues to resonate today. Naturally the fearful Academy dared not touch such superb insight – instead choosing the relative safety of only acknowledging Priscilla for costumes.

L.A. Confidential not winning Best Picture

Somewhere along the line I heard someone say that the Screenplay winners are actually the better movies than what wins Best Picture. Never has this been more true than the heaps of praise upon the blockbuster Titanic, which is not the better picture than the neo noir masterpiece that is L.A. Confidential. Here the eighties prestige swung the other way – choosing the popular film and box office success as increasingly necessary to win. Whether you are a complex, sophisticated piece that stands the test of time apparently has nothing to do with it.

No nomination for Guy Pearce for Memento

Too bad for everyone who's tired of hearing me say it, but this is my hill. Guy Pearce's lack of Academy acknowledgment for Memento highlights all of Oscar's problems. Playing it safe #oscarssowhite not properly awarding Denzel Washington for Malcolm X lead to his against type make up win alongside the nomination acclaiming offensive performances like I Am Sam. This slap in the face was enough to make me stop actively paying attention to awards season for the rest of the decade. When the Academy doesn't recognize someone like Pearce and Christopher Nolan as the future of twenty-first century cinema, what are they even doing?

A point for Christian Bale's win!

Believe it or not, I took one nail out of my Oscar coffin in 2011 when Christian Bale won for The Fighter. I even called my parents to tell them the kid from Newsies won an Oscar! Despite his previously being overlooked for more daring performances like American Psycho and The Machinist, this was a rare occasion where the Academy finally did something right.

Michael Fassbender's nominations for the wrong films

Of course, my return to active awards interest was not meant to be as the impressive Fassbender was ignored for excellent performances in Hunger and Fish Tank. He was on the outside looking in at no nomination for Shame with jokes all season instead, and Carey Mulligan was also unfairly lost in the shuffle. Of course, Fassbender was graced with a seemingly obligated nomination for 12 Years a Slave, and I laughed at his subsequent nod for the stereotypically baity Steve Jobs. Forcing one of our most daring actors into awards safety turned me away yet again.

Guy Pearce receiving no acknowledgment for The Rover

I casually knew Pearce was once again not in the awards conversation for The Rover, having long accepted that it's worth seeking out his edgy, raw films that standing pat Oscar would never touch. However after having to wait for and then finally see The Rover, I was once again angry at how the supposed bar of award excellence could ignore such haunting material. Even in absentia this reaffirmed my Oscar free attitude for the next decade.

The 24-25 Awards Season

So now I was lured into the awards circus once more thanks to the world's apparently waking up to Guy Pearce's being worthy of acclaim for The Brutalist. We're in the home stretch of what has been the messiest, nastiest, cutthroat, and ridiculous award season. Everything about why I hated awards has increased tenfold in the social media age with Oscar obsession totally out of touch on everything that's happening in this disastrous 2025. Euphoric pundits play along in a game of predictions, patterns, and if this than that algorithms that have nothing to do with any meaning found in the films and performances. When the wannabe experts admit that the best doesn't win, film goers are supposed to accept that falsehood instead of enjoy the movies that move them? I object the devotion to contrived Academy politics over quality cinema.

I don't expect Guy Pearce to win anything. Even if he did, this year is the tenth and final nail in my Coffin of Oscar Disdain. I've had one foot out the door with my back turned for most of this century, and I will never be drawn back into award punditry and patheticness over art ever again.

Oscar is dead to me. I don't know her. ⚰️

Neverending Watchlist James Bond Podcast Collab!

 

I was so excited to take part in The Neverending Watchlist Podcast and their James Bond project! You can listen to hear who I would cast as the next 007! 

A huge thank you to all collaborated on this episode, you're all legends and we owe you all a Vodka Martini, shaken not stirred. #JamesBond #NextJamesBond

Give em a follow😉@heatherjstewart@GelNerd@thereforereview@RevAlmanac@jaylan_88@JackedUpReview@rbritanniapod pic.twitter.com/6K90jIFNAk

— The Neverending Watchlist - Movie Podcast (@NeverendingWL) October 30, 2024

Thank you for having me and thanks for listening! You can keep track of my audio/visual guest appearances with our Podcast and Video labels or hear us regularly on the Women InSession Podcast at InSessionFilm.com. 

Read More on James Bond:

Revisiting Pierce Brosnan as James Bond

Sean Connery as 007

Daniel Craig's Tenure as Bond

Our Top Ten James Bond

Guy Pearce Re-Watch: Horror and Sci-Fi

 

Horror and Science Fiction Fare from the Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch! 😱

Those who follow my Twitter account @ThereforeReview know that I have spent these pandemic years perusing through a Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch. I retreated to this happy place because Pearce can always be depended upon to turn in a great performance in often exceptional films.

In interviews, Guy Pearce has claimed horror and genre films aren't his forte, yet over his career, Pearce has nonetheless provided audiences with several entertaining, polarizing, and thrilling genre bending performances. 

Please click through to previously written reviews and videos at I Think, Therefore I Review, InSession Film or with the Women InSession Podcast, and Keith Loves Movies for more in depth analysis along with these quick commentaries and countdowns.

Bad Bonus: The Seventh Day

8. Prometheus – Looking at this 2012 Alien prequel purely from a Guy Pearce standpoint can be somewhat depressing when you think of what his superior Ted Talks 2023 short as Peter Weyland promised compared to the not so secret old man holograms, arrogant foolishness, and god-complex folly the film gave us. We are ripe for a Weyland TV show right now, but the less said of Alien: Covenant, the better. I would have watched a movie with Michael Fassbender (Hunger) and Guy Pearce waxing existential in a white room instead of the movie we got.

7. Sunrise – Director Andrew Baird opens this 2024 horror drama with warnings of sacrificial appeasement to The Red Coat as a Chinese American family takes in a drifter asking for fresh blood. The horror keeps restarting amid reports of dead animals and rah rah racist speeches, and the narrative is crowded with multiple immigrant struggles and horror vengeance that each deserved more time. We inexplicably never really get to know the “you people” being terrorized by Guy Pearce's pulpit spewing hooligan, and viewers wonder whether this should have been a straightforward drama told in order rather than a piecemeal supernatural tale with flashbacks. Fortunately, Pearce embodies the bloody commentary with his perceived superiority – oozing demented slurs, vile insults, and deep seeded ease. Though uneven and not as cohesive as it could be, Pearce's despicably effortless characterization and the gory consequences are worth seeing. 

6. The Time Machine – This 2002 H.G. Wells remake starts great with groundbreaking visuals, Victorian charm, and a steampunk backstory for Pearce's Alexander Hartdegen. Our desperate traveler asks what if he could go back in time to save his late fiancee, but halfway thru the narrative, however, we're thrust into a contrived white savior action hero movie. The injured professor Alex is suddenly scaling towers and jungle cliffs for a new cause that has nothing to do with his original motivation. Though entertaining with choice moments from Pearce, that what if potential isn't fully achieved. (Just like writer John Logan's Catriona Hartdegen in Penny Dreadful – but that is separate ponderance.) 

5. Equals – Guy Pearce and Jackie Weaver (Animal Kingdom) aide forbidden young lovers Kristen Stewart (Underwater) and Nicholas Holt (X-Men: First Class) in director Drake Dormeus' 2015 dystopian, emotionless future. The austere architecture, nondescript clothing, anonymous SF conformity, and regimented jobs establish this tranquil world well. However we learn nothing about how or why this Collective came to be, and the slow, easy to zone out pacing and often chilly, arms length storytelling imitate the society herein perhaps too well with an overlong, numb mood. Simple names like “Switched-on Syndrome” that would have been cool in the nineties are too bland and derivative of the superior Equilibrium despite up close, intimate filming and improvised scenes. The stolen touches and secret trysts lead to a desire to escape, and the elder allies risk their own hidden emotional selves in a well done finale for fans of the cast – and there is a bonus David Selby (Dark Shadows)! 

4. Zone 414 – The superficial, first draft, rushed retreads in this 2021 SF thriller from director Andrew Baird (One Way) try to do too much and will disappoint viewers expecting a tighter sociological examination. Retro futuristic, gritty nineties tech jars with the modern surveillance camera splices; the supporting ensemble is underutilized and the missing girl mystery is a MacGuffin detracting from Matilda Lutz's (Revenge) emotional android Jane. Guy Pearce's detective with a shady past coldly shoots a pleading android and disassembles it's brain core, claiming he's above the Zone depravity but taking this case solely for the paycheck. Scheduling issues forced Pearce and Travis Fimmel (Vikings) to switch their original roles, and although I can see Pearce hamming it up as our megalomaniac robot creator, his David is older, jaded, and rolling his eyes. The best moments here are the existential one-on-ones between David and Jane debating who is the prisoner or the prison, and their introspective point of view should have been the film's focus. Fortunately, interesting possibilities on control, vice, and ubiquitous machines that see and hear our depraved secrets lead to disturbing culprits, blowtorches, and choice demented moments. Standard model female robots are recirculated to creeps who pay not to hurt them...much. Although the sci-fi potential feels incomplete unless you watch this more than once, I like the intriguing nuggets here. 

3. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark – Writer Guillermo Del Toro (Crimson Peak) provides a perfectly freaky old house with lots of spooky trappings and an ominous basement for snobby architect Guy Pearce alongside Katie Holmes (Batman Begins) and Bailee Madison (Good Witch) in this atmospheric 2011 remake. The obnoxious adults don't believe the depressed child's creepy encounters, leaving wise viewers with should have done, shout at the TV moments and obviously ignored evidence. There are some typical, tiresome horror clichés, and pat explanations, too; showing the malevolent tooth fairies completely too soon takes away from the monster mystery and otherwise finely done suspense, darkness, and fear. Fortunately, smart uses of shadow, flashlights, and good old fashioned if implausible Polaroids keep up the brooding scares and somber pace as the family dynamics fracture over the increasing horror violence. The very eerie little voices accent some disturbing child in peril scenes – leading to a bone cracking finale. 

2. Ravenous

1. Brimstone

Our 2023 at InSessionFilm!

 

Despite a tough 2023, it was important to me to keep up my moonlighting commitments at InSessionFilm, both with Long Form Movie Reviews and Top Ten Lists - not to mention the Women InSession Podcast! 

Here's a rundown of everything from Rachel Weisz to Vincent Price: 

The Underseen Rachel Weisz

The Banishing uses Shame as Commentary

Kick Ass Women's Comedies

Cool Eighties Comedies

She Will Addresses Women's Fears

Statement Making Seventies Science Fiction

Top Ten Michael Fassbender Essentials 

Top Ten Vincent Price Horrors

The Vincent Price, Roger Corman, Edgar Allan Poe Cycle

Great Bela Lugosi Horrors that aren't Dracula

I'm so grateful to have this film outlet to write, discuss, and share a variety of film thoughts past, present, or obscure! Here's a small sample of some of my favorite Women InSession Podcast episodes:

Robert Mitchum

Top 5 Worst Best Picture Nominees

Swashbuckler Movies

The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Tootsie and The Birdcage

Some Like it Hot

Underrated 1980s Movies

Memento

1939 in Film

Christopher Nolan and The Prestige

Wild Vampire Movies

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton

Brendan Fraser

Little Women vs Little Women

A Christmas Carol Adaptations 

I don't always get a lot of interaction on Film Twitter, such that X is, but it is a tremendous privilege to share my film discourse with you and thank you for tuning in here, there, everywhere! 🥰

New Videos at HorrorAddicts.net!

It's been a little quiet here at I Think, Therefore I Review proper during these pandemic times, but never fear! 

We've been hard at work both behind the scenes and with real life projects to present at HorrorAddicts.net. Our Frightening Flix and Kbatz Krafts columns have crossed over for our special Decorating Like Dark Shadows Video Series! 

Follow along with our First Entry at HorrorAddicts.net and look for more Kbatz Krafts as well as the Complete Reveal coming soon! 

(Showing you my collection shelfie!)

If you missed our Shakespeare and Horror conversation at the last HorrorAddicts.net Online Writers Conference, you can also catch up with the Bard meets Horror analysis from Macbeth to Macbeth and Coriolanus to Coriolanus and more in our latest Frightening Flix Video Review! 

Thank you for reading I Think, Therefore I Review and watching our Youtube Channel. For more videos on Poe, Dracula, or Gothic Romance, check out our Videos Page or use our handy Video Reviews label!  

Best of the Decade: 2000-2010!

It's the Best of the Decade: 2000-2010!

No. That's not a typo.

Is the old decade actually over and are we really in the new one yet? We know the aughts are in the books, so to avoid all the recent Y2K20 is it or isn't, let's instead look back at some of I Think, Therefore I Review's favorite films from 2000 to 2010...

Or should that be 1999-2009? It was actually kind of tough to find a worthy list for this, as many of the movies initially included from memory did turn out to be from 1998 or 99 and 2011 or 12. As it happens, we also didn't review a lot of the big hits and many good films are certainly missing, but here's a rundown of our memorable horror and indie analysis nonetheless along with a few television hits and actor bonuses. Because why not?

Our 2000-2010 Favorites in Chronological Order include:

The Lord of the Rings trilogy

Dog Soldiers

The Mother

Shaun of the Dead

Dear Frankie

300

Eden Lake

Hunger

Fish Tank

Black Death

Television Favorites from the Decade include: Enterprise, Merlin, The Tudors, and Wallander

Actor who Started the Decade Well but has Faltered since: Gerard Butler

Actor who Ended the Decade Well but has since Faltered: Michael Fassbender

Actor who Started the Decade Great and is Going Strong despite Numerous Onscreen Deaths: Sean Bean

Best Most Favoritistist Movie of 2000 Not Yet Reviewed: Memento, people, Memento.

Honorable Mentions from 2011: Coriolanus, The Deep Blue Sea, Hysteria, Jane Eyre, X-Men: First Class

I Think, Therefore I Review began as the blog home for previously published reviews and reprinted critiques by horror author Kristin Battestella. Naturally older articles linked here may be out of date and codes or formatting may be broken. Please excuse any errors and remember our Best Of Lists will generally only include films, shows, books, or music previously reviewed at I Think, Therefore I Review.

Alien: Covenant

Alien: Covenant is a Confusing Disappointment

by Kristin Battestella

Alien: Covenant – the latest film in the Alien franchise and the 2017 sequel to Prometheus – struggles with its franchise identity crisis, leaving the potentially interesting science fiction parables and body horror monsters wanting in the confusion.

When the colonization vessel Covenant is damaged by passing neutrino blasts, the android Walter (Michael Fassbender) must wake terraforming chief Daniels (Katherine Waterson) and the rest of the crew. After receiving a nearby signal from a mysterious, too good to be true planet much closer than their original vetted destination, leader Oram (Billy Crudup) decides to investigate. Unfortunately, inhaled alien toxins on the surface birth beastly parasites, and David (also Fassbender) – the android survivor of the lost research vessel Prometheus – has been living alone on the planet for the past ten years, studying the remaining Engineer evolution techniques and perfecting their monstrous designs with terrifying results...

Whether it's Prometheus 2 or Alien 5, Alien: Covenant is immediately frustrating. If this is really an Alien movie, then Prometheus never should have held anything back in hopes of a sequel and just told its tale in one movie. However, returning director Ridley Scott and screenplay writer John Logan (Penny Dreadful) play it both ways as Alien: Covenant opens with android quizzes on The Statue of David, Wagner gems, and Valhalla. Such meaning of meaninglessness threads from Prometheus will confuse viewers who didn't see it, and Alien: Covenant restarts with the titular colony vessel and its android custodian, Mother computer, and crew in stasis almost as if it's trying to reboot said predecessor. Fortunately, pod fatalities, charred bodies, memento mori, and offline systems build suspense while radio chatter, spacesuits, and rogue transmissions create science fiction atmosphere. Eerie forest destruction, Pompeii-like remains, and crashed ships add mood but drop ships and lost contact are similar to Aliens while inconveniently convenient planetary storms mirror Prometheus. An entire team trots off for an expedition – leaving only one person behind to make lander repairs – before separating further so a careless guy taking a leak can get infected by some spooky alien particles. Educated people ask obvious questions to which they should already know the answers, adding stilted dialogue on top of back and forth scenes deflating the body horror when not acting stupid for the plot to proceed by willfully scratching and sniffing mystery polyps and not reporting when they feel sick. Friends insist on taking the infected back to the ship, but there's no procedure amid the hectic radio calls and blood splatter. Women are on the mission just to whine – one tries to lock in another when both are equally contaminated and the visual hysterics don't let the viewer actually see the out of control. Cutting to what's happening elsewhere is a mistake when it leaves the bloody reveal a blink and you miss it special effect. It's scarier when people are trapped with a fast growing monster building claustrophobic fear toward fatal ship explosions. However, the paired off crew members react so over emotionally to death yet barely at all to the creature shocks, necropolis infrastructure, and the suspicious survivor found there. Flashbacks and exposition detailing the pathogens, crashes, and destruction post-Prometheus ten years prior is really where Alien: Covenant should have began, but we're watching a woman strip down to wash her open wound in what hopefully isn't contaminated water instead. After objecting to flying the colony ship down to the planet, minutes later the crew changes their minds once the route is more dangerous while fast action scenes, convoluted lingering, and rushed quality scenes contribute to the unevenness, hampering creepy encounters with new aliens, familiar eggs, and delicious facehugger revelations. From the prologue to the ship and the planet to the necropolis, rival androids, and onboard terrors; Alien: Covenant is an overlong and confusing two hours with cargo bay trucks, out the airlock solutions, and unnecessary sexy showers littering a nonsensical Aliens copycat finale. What should be wonderfully chilling – gagging up mini alien eggs for the incubator to the Ride of the Valkyries – treads tires because between all the Prometheus rewrites, the four credited writers here, and who knows what more behind the scenes meddling, nobody mapped out where this disappointing prequel plot goes.

There was a time when I was excited for whatever film Michael Fassbender did next. Unfortunately, somewhere around Macbeth or Steve Jobs, Fassbender sold out with all these non-starters and uninteresting flops. Despite this superb dual performance as the poetic, T.E. Lawrence obsessed android David and the clueless but loyal and supposedly inferior model Walter, it's difficult to look back at Hunger and believe this is the same actor who once so bled for his craft. It's totally obvious what David is going to do, and the entire homoerotic flute fingering sequence is the invisible car of Die Another Day franchise rock bottom. Surely, there was a better way to show Walter as a stunted childlike machine designed as lacking creativity expressly because David was so disturbingly human in his desires. It might even have been more interesting to not reveal Walter as an android until the xenomorph acid destroys his hand when he protects Daniels. Walter naively thinks he can gain the details from David regarding their creator Weyland and how the Prometheus survivor came to be on this planet. However, David waxes on Lord Byron and thinks himself Crusoe, admonishing Walter for serving the unworthy, dying humans. He preys on Walter's potential, saying it is love not duty he feels for Daniels, revealing himself as an abuser who already destroyed the life on this planet. David wants to communicate with the neomorphs and earn their respect while he experiments with the hybrids. Walter knows this is wrong, but David is pleased with himself for creating the perfect organism – and he's very disappointed in Walter for standing in his way. David has at last procreated, and it's chilling to see his views realized in several wild births, radical experiments, and violent assaults. Sadly, Alien: Covenant's clunky exposition and trite script ruin the intriguing android developments with ridiculous encounters and not so secret switcharoos leaving no resolution for Walter when both characters deserved more. Alien: Covenant may awe over David's ambition and chew on the possibilities, but there's so much happening the audience doesn't have any time to revoltingly enjoy the villainy.

Although Sam's daughter Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) is supposed to be the lead, Danny doesn't do a lot beyond wearing her deceased husband's iron nail around her neck in a messianic loose thread similar to Shaw's cross in Prometheus. She's made less pretty than the other women, and when she officially protests stopping at this perfect planet, she's presented as a moody bitch only sharing her emo grief misgivings because there's no point in a home now without her man. Naturally, all the men are allowed reckless manpain over their ladies while Danny easily discovers what David has done when the script bothers to have her look. By the final act she conveniently wants a 2,000 strong colony ship to rescue her just because the plot says it's time to let the xenomorph on board and make her a kick ass action hero. Billy Crudup's (Inventing the Abbotts) reluctantly in charge supposed man of faith Oram only decides on this planet to prove he's up to snuff and doesn't realize he messed up until it personally affects him. Tennessee cool pilot Danny McBride (Your Highness) recognizes John Denver music in the alien signal amid all his sexist jokes before risking the entire mission for his woman – whom viewers already know to be dead. Of course, shortly thereafter, he's laying the groundwork for his next hook up. A brief prologue appearance from Guy Pearce (Brimstone) returning as Peter Weyland should have come at the end of Alien: Covenant to fully accent David's twisted achievements, and Noomi Rapace's Elizabeth Shaw is unceremoniously written off post-Prometheus with only a few effigies. We're told she put David back together, he loved her for her kindness, and that's that. The movie should have started with the Prometheus characters on this unknown planet and then met the colony ship only upon their arrival. Alien: Covenant is from the wrong perspective and over crowded with far too many unnecessary characters – mostly screwing up husbands or similar looking wives raising the body count. Anonymous people being in relationships may make excuses for their behavior but it isn't character development and doesn't give viewers reason to care. Showing two guys with matching wedding bands as an attempt at gay inclusion is also embarrassingly homophobic when their only scene is one dying after ejaculating a neomorph from his mouth. Sneaky James Franco (Tristan & Isolde) moments are silly as well because... it's just James Franco in a promotional campaign for Alien: Covenant.

Thankfully, Covenant is a cool looking spaceship with solar sails, blue hues, green lighting, touch screens, and interface graphics along with red alarms, spooky chains, dangerous ladders, and perilous equipment. Unfortunately fiery damage leads to CGI spacewalks and noticeable animation intruding upon the interstellar fantastic. Crowded submarine style rooms and music motifs from Aliens are also apparent amid waterfalls and mountain vistas borrowed from Prometheus. It's also flat out dumb to waste time on a cool drop ship water landing when there is terra firma everywhere, and what's with all the dang hoodies? Blood, gore, and creative reverse alien births are appropriately disturbing, however the surrounding CGI is again weak. Dark scenes and hectic firefights also make it difficult to see all those potentially intriguing hybrid creatures, twisted deliveries, and scary designs. The contrasting advanced ship technology and stranded apothecary research are likewise nice touches that deserved more time – embryos and stasis versus dissections and bestiary drawings. Facehugger scares, acid effects, and freaky attacks are always fun to see, yet more than anything, these Alien homages cum knockoffs makes one miss the originality and practical design advancements from Aliens. The spaceship action is very messy in Alien: Covenant with pointless, drawn out action sequences littering the narrative, and it's not surprising to read interviews with the film's editor recounting the post-production struggle to balance these multiple storylines each playing at their own pace. Alien: Covenant needs to be re-watched for all its Alien movies pieces trying to bring together the creation theories from Prometheus via confusing Engineer goo, deacons, or xenomorphs yet this entire piece is also in dire need of a re-cut.

Instead of running with what was good from Prometheus, Alien: Covenant plays with its Prometheus connection the way Prometheus played with its Alien connection. Unfortunately, such inconsistent and contradictory carrots string along loyal franchise fans and won't gain viewers who haven't seen Alien. As with Prometheus and Alien 3 before, Alien: Covenant can't serve both its masters and ultimately provides little repeat value, which ironically can be said for Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection. Once again, we have no connection to LV-426 when all people ever wanted to know was how the Space Jockey got there in the first place. Frustration on such could haves or should haves being saved for yet more sequels compromises Alien: Covenant's potentially entertaining science fiction, religious warnings, and monstrous possibilities with ennui.

Macbeth (2015)

This Latest Macbeth is Unfortunately Disappointing

by Kristin Battestella

Director Justin Kurzel (Snowtown) helms this 2015 adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth starring Michael Fassbender as the titular Thane of Glamis and Marion Cotillard as his grieving wife. Bleak child funeral pyres and a misty atmosphere match our witches' prophetic rhymes, and opening scrolls recount the Scottish war. Calm face painting rituals escalate to war cries, shouting rage, brutal swords, and battle chaos while slow motion torches and an intercut sense of stillness add to the trickery and kingly feasting. At times, these two hours move fast by showing the usually off screen killings – bringing the Bard's suspense alongside symbolic rain for the washing of blood, tense confrontations over fatal discoveries, and one suspicious coronation. Cathedral echoes mirror the growing power, but our soldier turned king spirals downward with his wife at his leash. Macbeth's contemporary grief and traumatic stress are best when the court intrigue brews, letting the play's innate zing overcome the pretentious, too arty for the sake of it voiceovers. There's a somewhat surprising lack of dialogue for, you know, Shakespeare, yet subtitles are a must to discern all the mumbling and grumpy who is who. The modern issues aren't a bad addition, but the contemporary stylishness becomes counter intuitive to the original drama and period setting. Though it holds fast to the well done historical locales and the ensemble is capable of doing clear spoken, straight Bard; this Macbeth never chooses what it really wants to be, ought to be better than it is, and doesn't seem Shakespearean enough. Had there been updated dialogue for the recent themes or a present setting with the original text as in Ralph Fiennes' Coriolanus, Macbeth may have hit home the relevancy for Shakespeare today. Instead, what begins as a promising take becomes slow, tiring, subdued, and at arms length. This tale is not untouchable, but if you are going to deviate, run with it. 

 

Certainly, Michael Fassbender (Shame) looks the battle field bearded, painted, gruff, and game on as Macbeth. There's no doubt of his warrior skill, but he's confused by the cryptic coming to pass. Why should Glamis stop at becoming Thane of Cowdor when the witches also said he would be king? Macbeth loves his wife and listens to her ambitions, however, their strain is apparent on top of his battlefield stress and conflicted flashbacks. He's caught between what's said about him and told to him, what he wants from his wife, his hidden cowardice, and a whipped position at home. Macbeth's supposed to be king yet he's repeatedly proving his manliness as he descends into madness. The dark picture and voiceover asides, however, make it feel like we don't see Fassbender embodying the turmoil enough. The language seems unnatural when his accent waivers, but Macbeth's lack of scenes actually talking to people adds to the isolation over what he has done – only the camera comes close as he messes up the kills and leaves his wife to handle the weapons. Although, I almost would rather not see the king's killing onscreen, just the traditional daylight discovery and a shady Macbeth washing. The suspicious snips of the deadly action as he is crowned are a nicer accent to his sullen deed is done and fair is foul change as Macbeth festers over the scorpions in his mind. He's losing control he never had, and Macbeth's a man meant for the battlefield as his leader commands or the bedroom when his wife says – but not worthy to be king. Is that his own weakness or the puppeteer wife behind him? Maybe a bit of both. The unmerited interplay is better than the arty interference, and the narration in the final battle scene feels unfair. Use those words for some crazy desperate trash talk! The lack of a beheading is disappointing, too, an unsatisfactory end when this Macbeth is all about his unraveling headspace. Fassbender was filming Macbeth amid the awards flurry for 12 Years a Slave and some personal tabloid fodder – preoccupations that also perhaps show. I like the uniqueness of Frank and Slow West, but without the refreshing take from First Class, I'm disinterested in the latest X-Men films. The Counselor fell flat; I have no desire to see Steve Jobs, The Light Between the Oceans, Assassin's Creed, or Song to Song, and after years of waiting for Trespass Against Us, I'm in no rush now. Instead, I find myself increasingly enjoying films Fassbender left or lost, such as Only Lovers Left Alive or The Force Awakens. He seems to be at a career crossroads – an indie darling franchised with Alien: Covenant but unknown to the mainstream with precious little box office success. It's ridiculous he's against today's new, superior scene chewing television platforms, and had the upcoming The Snowman been a serial caper, I might be more intrigued. While newer viewers may have found Fassbender over some sort of heartthrob status, I'm more and more aware that I miss his prime acting and dislike his recent, disappointing movie making choices.

Of course, a dead baby adds to Marion Cotillard's (La Vie en Rose) warped Lady Macbeth as she waits at home in the dark to hear tell the news of victory. This Mrs. is vicariously pleased with her husband but angry, wishing to be unsexed with her milk taken. She's unhappy at home and stronger in the scheming department than her man – Lady Macbeth has had to sit back from the glory, but now she has the chance to take matters into her own hands. She's cruel with nothing else to do but aide her husband's rise to the top as her own, and the grief of an heir lost contributes to her twistedness. The childless angle is implied in the text, and its a relatable connection today. However, I kind of rather like not knowing why she is so poison bent. I can't see Natalie Portman for Lady Macbeth as originally cast either, but Cotillard has no problem with the language barrier as our wife admits her deceptions. She says she's done her marital job, using her sex to trap her husband into violence. She wears white for the coronation, almost appearing in an angelic disguise, putting the crown on Macbeth and egging him on when he doubts. He reminds her how her barrenness ruins their monarchy progeny, but the intercut table top panting and killer planning is an unnecessary sexual visual. There's enough reading between the lines to know Lady Macbeth manipulates him by not putting out and refusing his touch. She is in charge, not seeing them have any sexual intimacy is a better indication of his emasculation. Yet for all her behind the scenes power, Lady Macbeth is a fallen figure, an unwelcomed mother with no child save her corrupt ruthlessness. She faces her guilt in a tearful church soliloquy where the camera rightfully remains on her mea culpa realizations.

Sadly, Macbeth's supporting cast feels wasted, and we hardly see usual bad boy Sean Harris (The Borgias) as good guy Macduff. He's enraged over the king's death, throwing up and shouting. He's battle ready and on his game for the finale yet never really built up as a proper rival. Likewise, I feel like I didn't even see Paddy Considine (Hot Fuzz) as Banquo until he died. His ghost is hardly present in favor of other anonymous dead boys on the battlefield apparitions, leaving the internalized Macbeth with no real friendly reflection or sounding board. Is it even really Banquo's ghost at the feast or just a figment of Macbeth's madness? Elizabeth Debicki (The Night Manager) as Lady Macduff is also just sort of there, and though his delivery is fine, David Thewlis' (Harry Potter) King Duncan is made lax, a distant, inept king who should be deposed to make us relate to Macbeth as his sad, victorious stand-in. David Hayman (Trial & Retribution) is made irrelevant as Lennox, and the unique witch potential added to this Macbeth never fully embraces its surrealism, which is surprising amid a visual display that could have gone for the ultra bizarre seen in Julie Taymor's Titus and The Tempest. Ultimately, it feels as though the ensemble is here because they have to be – a guy to kill, a friend to betray, another usurper to fight. If Macbeth could have been done with just the unhappy couple, this version would have done so. Actually, now that I think about it, that would have been a two-hander tour de force update I'd like to have seen!

Fortunately, authentic filming locations, Scottish castles, and gritty leather costuming invoke the historical atmosphere alongside slicing sharp sword sounds and blustery winds. Basic wooden structures are fittingly small against snowscapes, mountains, and rustic waters, and the women's costumes are likewise drab, minimally adorned robes with simple braided hair styling. The blue nighttime schemes are realistically grim but also incredibly picturesque, and a lot of time in Macbeth is spent outdoors with orange battlefield heat. However, the vintage candlelit interiors and firelight designs can be tough to see – viewer eyes must continually adjust to the flickering flames with each surprisingly traditional crosscut edit – and the artistic scene transitions are pretty but unnecessary. Again, the phantoms in the mist and witches mirages contrast the historically accurate approach, adding a whiff of fantastic whilst remaining reluctant to totally embrace the surreal. Instead, our Wood that moves becomes molten fallout ash – a shrewd and unique but too contemporary rather than theatrical twist. Macbeth plays at the mentality of its characters in a modern cerebral bend, but the impressive look and internal circumspect disconnect more than accent each other. Why not have Macbeth's traumatizing soliloquies become side by side Smeagol and Gollum split screens, faces in the fire, or watery reflections? Despite the beautiful design, I wonder what the dailies covering each actor looked like. Did the production not really like Shakespeare, so they felt the need to ramp it up by dropping most of the text for awe-inspiring visuals?

All my complaints, yet Macbeth didn't deserve a blink festival tour and miss it cinema release with no award hopes – like Coriolanus, The Weinstein Company distributor strikes again in squashing Shakespearean competition. Maybe it was asking too much to be blown away, but this is not the best introduction to Macbeth thanks to too much artistic unevenness for the purist and a lacking straightforwardness for classroom. Macbeth is one of my top three Billy favorites – competing with Othello and Julius Caesar for number one. However, I wasn't looking forward to this version after it sequestered the long gestating Enemy of Man production from Vincent Regan and Sean Bean. The 2010 Patrick Stewart version also better retained the source material with complimentary fascist parallels. If you are going to add back story changes and stylish designs with such a fine cast, be an intimate multi part serial taking its time with the ensemble in this unique world and its titular head space. The gritty realism for today's audiences is too try hard, a dry, modern psychosis jarring to the play speech and historic setting. Polarizing at best, Macbeth tries to have its cake and eat it too but halves the retelling's own changes, remaining mumbly timid while unnecessarily treating Shakespeare as too stuffy and in need of meta trauma.