Hyped for Dune Part Two and Godzilla Minus One, and more from the week in film
A quick recap of The A.V. Club's top movie reviews and features from the week of February 19
Dune: Part Two review: Visually ravishing storytelling from Denis Villeneuve
The biggest gotcha of 2021’s Dune—a movie full of spectacle and visual wonder—was that it was not a complete story. Most audience members were surprised by the ending, which set up a continuation of the story. And quite literally at that, with the final line being Zendaya’s Chani saying “This is a new beginning.” Now almost two and half years later the story finally gets its bigger and bolder sequel. Dune: Part Two picks up exactly where its predecessor left off, as in the next scene. From then on it manages to have the same rhythm, look and feel as the first one, for better or worse, as neither movie can stand alone. They should be taken together as one long five-hour adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel. Read More
Tenet is the ultimate rebuttal to the idea that Christopher Nolan is a “no fun” filmmaker
Christopher Nolan was an acclaimed filmmaker before he made Batman Begins, but it was certainly his gritty, hard-edged superhero movies that made him one of the definitive blockbuster directors of all time. Partially because of his Dark Knight trilogy, and the way those movies took Batman “seriously,” Nolan has developed a reputation for making Serious Movies. Inception and its elevated tone could also be seen as an attempt to class up action movies, and Interstellar really wants you to think it’s a hard sci-fi movie about real science stuff until that stops being true. Then there’s Oppenheimer, a mega-budget crowd-pleaser about a broken man reckoning with the fact that he may have ruined the world. But while his Serious Movies reputation isn’t totally unearned, it’s also an overly reductive interpretation of Nolan’s filmography. You only need to look at one movie, Tenet, to see that. Read More
Drive-Away Dolls review: A forgettable pastiche of better road movies
In his first foray into narrative film without his brother and collaborator Joel Coen, Ethan Coen keeps it in the family. His partner in Drive-Away Dolls is his wife Tricia Cooke. He produced, wrote, and directed and she produced, wrote, and edited the new film. Or so they are credited, but perhaps like his work with his brother, this is a true collaborative partnership and credit and critique should go to both for all filmmaking aspects. In style and substance, Drive-Away Dolls harkens back to early Coen brothers movies like Raising Arizona or Blood Simple. The humor is outlandish, the characters either eccentric or stupid, and mostly on the wrong side of the law. Read More
Eli Roth invites us to Borderlands in first trailer
Who knew Cate Blanchett would follow up her TÁR Oscar run with a blockbuster video game adaptation? Well, those who have been following the long road to the Borderlands adaptation knew; Blanchett has been attached to star since May 2020, not long after her The House With A Clock In Its Walls director Eli Roth signed on to direct. She was eventually joined by an eclectic group of stars: Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Edgar Ramírez, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Gina Gershon, and Jamie Lee Curtis (also fresh off an Oscar run). Now, the long-awaited movie finally has a trailer ahead of its release date on August 9. Read More