Welcome to this month’s Cinema Snapshots! At the beginning of each month, I reflect on what I watched the prior month and provide a quick “snapshot” of my thoughts on those films. So without further ado, here are my Cinema Snapshots for August 2024.
Trap
A father and teen daughter attend a pop concert, where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.
M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film has his stylistic mark from start to finish. He still doesn’t write natural dialogue and it’s so frustrating watching these good actors say lines that are overly expositional and cringeworthy.
That (recurring) deficiency aside, Trap is an absolute blast. A surprisingly straightforward thriller given Shyamalan’s pension towards twists, but a film full of nonstop fun, suspense, and humor. The film’s tight editing results in incredibly satisfying rising and falling tension from scene to scene, all slowly building towards a climax that is both unexpected but also inevitable.
What Shyamalan lacks in writing he more than makes up for with his incredible eye for visual storytelling (split diopter! shots with color and contrast!). And Hartnett overacts the heck out of this (a c95ompliment, I promise).
As with most Shyamalan films, it’s easy to nitpick the world-building and the characters’ actions. But there’s a rich, thrilling, and enjoyable experience here for viewers that are willing to put nitpicks aside.
★★★★☆
The Instigators
Rory (Matt Damon) and Cobby (Casey Affleck) are reluctant partners: a desperate father and an ex-con thrown together to pull off a robbery of the ill-gained earnings of a corrupt politician. But when the heist goes wrong, the two find themselves engulfed in a whirlwind of chaos, pursued not only by police, but also backwards bureaucrats and vengeful crime bosses. Completely out of their depth, they convince Rory’s therapist (Hong Chau) to join their riotous getaway through the city, where they must put aside their differences and work together to evade capture — or worse.
The Instigators is a film with lot of flaws…but it’s also a film where talented actors do a fun heist. How can I completely hate that? I won’t spend much time on this largely forgettable straight-to-streaming film, but it’s an easy, entertaining watch, even if it’s not one I plan to revisit.
★★★☆☆
Cuckoo
Reluctantly, 17-year-old Gretchen leaves her American home to live with her father, who has just moved into a resort in the German Alps with his new family. Arriving at their future residence, they are greeted by Mr. König, her father's boss, who takes an inexplicable interest in Gretchen's mute half-sister Alma. Something doesn't seem right in this tranquil vacation paradise. Gretchen is plagued by strange noises and bloody visions until she discovers a shocking secret that also concerns her own family.
The editing in Cuckoo stands out as a masterclass in crafting effective horror, with purposefully disjointed cuts and repeated shots that evoke a haunting sense of déjà vu. However, despite this impressive technique, the film ultimately loses its grip, as the initially eerie atmosphere devolves into a series of unhinged—and often unintentionally absurd—story choices and filmmaking decisions.
A quick shoutout to Neon’s marketing team for giving out wooden recorders, just like the one Dan Stevens plays, at my Alamo Drafthouse screening. I’m a big fan of prop replicas and plan to display this one.
★★★☆☆
It Ends with Us
IT ENDS WITH US, the first Colleen Hoover novel adapted for the big screen, tells the compelling story of Lily Bloom (Blake Lively), a woman who overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life in Boston and chase a lifelong dream of opening her own business. A chance meeting with charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) sparks an intense connection, but as the two fall deeply in love, Lily begins to see sides of Ryle that remind her of her parents’ relationship. When Lily’s first love, Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), suddenly reenters her life, her relationship with Ryle is upended, and Lily realizes she must learn to rely on her own strength to make an impossible choice for her future.
A fine, but overall underwhelming experience, It Ends With Us suffers from a screenplay that over-explains what’s already apparent while skimming over scenes and topics that demand deeper exploration. The result is a film that plays like an extended montage—it checks all the boxes but fails to linger where it matters.
Justin Baldoni is perfect in the role as Ryle and delivers a standout performance (he’s not a bad director either!). However, Blake Lively feels miscast as Lily Bloom, a clear example of an actress molding a role to fit them rather than molding themselves to fit the role.
The film has the unmistakable feel of multiple creative visions clashing behind the scenes, leaving one to wonder if we’ll ever learn the full story of what really happened during production.
★★★☆☆
Alien: Romulus
While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonisers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
Alien: Romulus delivers a tense, gory, and riveting experience. Cailee Spaeny does well with the material given, stepping into the role of Rain (the latest “Ripley” stand-in), but it’s David Jonsson who truly shines as the conflicted synthetic, Andy.
Benjamin Wallfisch continues the franchise’s tradition of exceptional film scores with his work on this film. He masterfully interweaves a hauntingly beautiful recurring motif with atmospheric dread, rhythmic pulses, and even a few melodic callbacks to other films in the series.
Director Fede Álvarez fully embraces the franchise’s roots, crafting a sci-fi horror thriller that never has a dull moment. The lighting, coloring, set design, and camera movements are all deeply rooted in the world Ridley Scott created, making this film a remarkable example of a sequel that not only continues the story of its predecessors but also preserves the filmmaking language and aesthetic of the franchise.
However, the film’s reverence for the original is also its greatest weakness. Romulus is limited by its lack of ambition to be anything more than an homage. While Álvarez deftly plays the franchise’s greatest hits—arguably more effectively than Scott did in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant—he largely overlooks the thematic depth that Scott infused into both the original Alien and his later sequels. Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t shameless nostalgia. The film merely settles for being about escaping an alien, nothing more and nothing less. It makes for an exciting watch but perhaps not a thought-provoking one.
★★★☆☆
1992
In 1992, Mercer is desperately trying to rebuild his life and his relationship with his son amidst the turbulent Los Angeles uprising following the Rodney King verdict. Across town, another father and son put their own strained relationship to the test as they plot a dangerous heist to steal catalytic converters, which contain valuable platinum, from the factory where Mercer works. As tensions rise in Los Angeles and chaos erupts, both families reach their boiling points when their worlds collide.
1992 is a well-intentioned film, but its premise is rather baffling. Set against the backdrop of the L.A. Rodney King riots, the story centers on a fictional factory heist. This unusual combination leads to a film that attempts to address themes of race and racism but ends up feeling more like a Die Hard knockoff. A more compelling approach (one present in the film, but not its focus) might have been to focus on family legacies across generations.
The film’s issues extend beyond its premise though. It suffers from poor writing, with more cringeworthy dialogue than I could count, and the performances are generally stiff, with Tyrese Gibson being the notable exception. Even the editing fails to support the narrative, lacking the urgency and tension required to effectively tell this story.
On the positive side, the sound design is well done, and the score features some occasionally unique instrumentation. However, these elements are not enough to outweigh the film’s numerous shortcomings.
★★☆☆☆
Blink Twice
Blink Twice is an impressive directorial debut that had me on the edge of my seat every step of the way. Read my extended thoughts on the film and its themes of forgiveness and forgetting:
Blink Twice Won't Soon Be Forgotten
You never quite know what you’re going to get with first-time directors, especially those who make the jump from acting to directing. Is their first film in the driver’s seat the result of their skill, passion, and understanding of the craft? Or the result of relatively unbridled access to studio funds?
★★★★☆