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‘The Menu’ Review: It’s Overdone

by Dano Nissen
written by Dano Nissen

A prefix menu builds from tantalizing appetizer through hearty main course to palate cleansing dessert. “The Menu” menu does not. 

What we want is a rich, propter hoc meal full of nuanced flavor. What we get is a serviceable but ultimately not so well done, well done hunk of meat.

Ralph Fiennes plays the impresario of a fine dining experience for the most elite of guests on a remote island. They call him Chef. His character has more in common with the sadistic SS Commandant he plays in “Schindler’s List” than with anyone you’ve seen on the Food Network.

The conceit is right there in the trailer. Rich people run around a violent rat trap set by a psychopath chef. It’s exactly the movie you expect. Subversions? Twists? Turns? No. The courses don’t build off one another. It’s the same class warfare moralizing tepid torture over and over. It’s your Rachel Ray-loving Grandma’s version of “Saw.”

It’s not terrifying enough to be an effective horror movie. Not funny enough for a comedy. And it’s not smart enough to be elevated in either genre.

Here are two scenes that instantiate the failure of the film as both a comedy and horror movie. Fiennes’s Chef curates a twisted eating experience to teach his patrician diners a lesson. Soliloquizing to his victims, as movie villains are wont to do, he quotes Martin Luther King. Ironic. Funny even, if left at that. A Black diner looks dumbfounded at the tone deafness. Ok, we get it. Another diner gives a “he really just quoted MLK.” Seriously, we GET it. Another diner follows suit. It’s a movie so committed to ruining its own jokes. Take a cue from the film’s subject: if you leave something in the oven too long it gets burnt.

On the horror front, we too get seared to oblivion. In what is supposed to be a shocking initiation into the violence and insanity of Chef’s game, a predictable dud kicks off the mayhem. Chef lays out white plastic sheets. He invites his sous chef out to present a dish called “the mess.” He berates the man, humiliating him by listing off his failures, intimating that his life is not worth living. I wonder what he induces the man to do to shock his audience given what has physically and emotionally been set up? We know the punchline as we wait for the buildup to get over with.

The comedy/horror mashup might have worked had this been a delightfully campy affair with guts and one-liners galore. This, however, is decidedly not that.

Fiennes and Anya Taylor Joy are always a treat to see light up the screen. The movie is competently directed by HBO mainstay Mark Mylod (“Succession,” “Game of Thrones”). But there’s no auteurship that brings “The Menu” beyond a watchable, yet forgettable episode of an anthology horror series you might see on TV.

It’s an easy to swallow movie — you won’t spit it out — but nothing to rave about on Yelp.

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‘Armageddon Time’ Exclusive Interview: Banks Repeta and Jaylin Webb Talk Friendship and Learning from Legendary Actors

by Dano Nissen
written by Dano Nissen

Banks Repeta and Jaylin Webb play friends in the family period drama “Armageddon Time.” Sometimes life imitates art: The young actors became friends behind the camera as well. 

The two hung out in New York City for the two week shoot. For Webb, it was his first time in the city. He visited the Empire State Building, The Oculus and rode the subway for the very first time. When not filming, the two sparred in ping pong. “We’re both now professional ping pong players,” said Repeta. When asked who was the better ping ponger, the boys pleaded the fifth. The matches were friendly apparently.

Both teenagers in the dawn of their careers, Repeta and Webb act alongside some of the most illustrious veterans in the industry — Anthony Hopkins, Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong. With experience comes wisdom, which was imparted on the boys.

“[Jeremy Strong] sent me a note that said that acting is like a game of imagination. It’s what you make of it,” said Repeta. “And Anthony taught me that you need to speak clearly because it matters.”

He shared that Hopkins taught him about the medieval Persian poet Rumi to inspire his acting. Repeta reciprocated with a much more contemporary medium — he taught the octogenarian Oscar winner a Tik Tok dance. Repeta proceeded to show his dance moves during the interview.

Webb said director James Gray gave him some lasting advice. “The camera can always see through you,” Webb said Gray told him.

Repeta plays Paul Graff, a fictionalized version of a young Gray. Even though much of the plot is based on the director’s childhood, Gray didn’t want to burden Repeta with details.

“He didn’t want me to know personal information,” said Repeta. “He wanted to see what I could do with Paul.”

“Armageddon Time” is currently in theaters.

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On the Scene: ‘The Good Nurse’ Cast Talk Real Life Hero Behind Movie at Premiere

by Dano Nissen
written by Dano Nissen

The putative most prolific serial killer in US history was taken down by kindness. 

“The Good Nurse” tells the true story of a night nurse who brought a colleague, and friend, to justice after she discovered he had been killing patients. She goes up against the hospital bureaucracy’s negligence and her conflicted feelings towards someone she considers a trusted friend. This is not a serial killer movie glorifying the twisted mind of a murderer. It’s a movie about a working single mom stopping evil with goodness.

The Knockturnal spoke with the cast, writer and director of the film at the Oct 18 premiere in Manhattan.

Jessica Chastain plays the eponymous nurse, the real life Amy Loughren. Chastain said she learned a lot from Laughren, who often visited the set. “She was so great with me because she taught me a lot about her compassion and her empathy and humanity,” said Chastain. “One of the very first conversations I had with her is I asked her why she worked as a night nurse and she said she wanted her girls to think they had a stay at home mom.”

She continued, “She worked all night long taking care of others working at the hospital. She’d come home and do the grocery shopping and the housework while her kids were at school and then take care of them when they were out of school. She really was at no moment taking care of herself And i learned a lot about that from actually talking to her.”

Eddie Redmayne plays the serial killer Charles Cullen. He, too, was able to speak to Loughren, who had a close friendship with Cullen until she learned of his crimes. “[It was] extraordinary talking about the intimacy of her friendship and the specifics of that and the real love that she had,” said Redmayne. “Also this man had a seemingly amazing humanity. But there was this other side that she met twice and it was a different human being.”

He continued, “Violence was ended through compassion and reminding this man who was doing horrific things of his humanity.”

Danish director Tobias Lindholm helmed the film as his first English language feature. He’s directed several episodes of David Fincher’s serial killer Netflix show “Mindhunter.” He’s also the writing partner of Thomas Vinterberg and collaborated on the scripts for “The Hunt” and 2021’s Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film “Another Round.” Lindholm and Vinterberg are adherents to the Scandinavian film movement Dogme 95, a set of rules which extol naturalism and vérité.

“I’m proudly on the shoulders of Dogme, but Dogme is always proudly on the shoulders of [John] Cassevetes,” said Lindholm. “So it’s a circle. I think I’m bringing some [Ingmar] Bergman to the table and some [David] Fincher and some 70s great movie making.”

Lindholm joined the chorus of praising the real life good nurse. “Without her insistence on human values, friendship and love there would be no story to tell,” he said.

“The Good Nurse” is in theaters and available for streaming on Netflix.

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On the Scene: ‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story’ Cast on the True, the Made-up and the Weird at NYC Premiere

by Dano Nissen
written by Dano Nissen

Divine inspiration captures a musician in a glorious moment. It’s fleeting. The rush is on. Right then and there, an impromptu recording session produces their hit song you know and love — in real time. But that only happens in movies. Right?

“I was watching the Michael Jackson ‘Bad’ video on TV, the world premiere,” Weird Al Yankovic told The Knockturnal. “And immediately thought — ‘fat’. They were walking through the turnstiles in the subway. What if this guy was like 900 pounds and couldn’t get through the turnstiles? And before the video was over I had a concept for the video.”

Weird Al’s “Fat” is to Michael Jackson’s “Bad” as “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” is to “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “The Doors” or “Sid and Nancy.” Biopics tend to take artistic liberties, not limited to the genesis of songs. It’s almost mandatory that at some point in one of these movies a band member will go, “wait a minute,” then commence jamming the riff to what will be their biggest hit. “Weird” tends to take artistic liberties with those well-trodden artistic liberties. 

In real life, no, Yankovic did not write most of his songs spontaneously, nor did he have a torrid love affair with Madonna nor did he make a mortal enemy of Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar — all of which happen in the movie.

“A lot of times when I write a song it’s a matter of me thinking about something for a long period of time,” said Yankokovic. “[‘Bad’ is] the exception to the rule. Usually it’s me thinking about what are the variations on the theme I can explore.”

The Knockturnal spoke to the cast, director and some of the real life people who inspired the not so true story at the New York premiere of “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” at Downtown Brooklyn’s Alamo Drafthouse on Nov 1. 

Daniel Radcliffe, standing on the carpet with Yankovic, is noticeably shorter. About eight inches. His vocabulary also differs. 

Radcliffe, beginning to speak about his favorite Weird Al song not included in the film called “Bob”, let out a reflexive “ah, fu-,” narrowly avoiding consummating the f-bomb. A cursus interruptus. “I didn’t even get through the whole word,” he said. “So it’s fine.”

Yankovic has not and has never, according to himself and all known documentation, sworn. “He doesn’t. It’s true. I do, unfortunately. I grew up on film sets so I swear like a sailor,” said Radcliffe. “And I’m English, so it’s like charming when I do it.”

Despite the disparities, Radcliffe pulled it off. After all, he didn’t have to play the teetotalling, clean-mouthed, sperm donor eligible (Yankovic’s a cool six foot) version of Al. Radcliffe plays Weird Al’s parody of Weird Al — international sex symbol, MMA-trained, binge boozing, libidinous rockstar Al. 

“Dude, it was one of the things that I loved getting to do in the film,” said Radcliffe. “Everyday I was getting to do a fight scene or a song and dance number or comedy with Rainn Wilson or Evan [Rachel Wood].”

One of those song and dance numbers is “I Love Rocky Road,” a parody of Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.” In the film, Radcliffe lip syncs the song in front of a rowdy crowd of bikers, punks and other hard-looking folks. Along with his performance in Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” parody “Like a Surgeon,” Radcliffe cited “Rocky Road” as his favorite to do. 

“I was never in a band growing up and I got to live out that fantasy during that sequence,” he said. “Al was on set everyday. He would come in with notes occasionally, mostly about musical stuff we were doing.”

While interacting on set, Radcliffe said he never urged the man he was spoofing to spoof himself and his most famous role — Harry Potter. Weird Al has taken on many big franchises like “Star Wars” (twice) and “Spider-Man,” but has never gone to Hogwarts. “I’m almost surprised it hasn’t happened anyway. Potter does feel like it’s pretty rich ground for parody,” said Radcliffe. 

During one of Yankovic’s days on sets, he had a rather famous friend and fan visit — and make a brief cameo in the film. “The making of this movie was a blur,” said Lin-Manuel Miranda. “I was there for a morning. I got to hug Al.”

Miranda has long admired the parody artist, gushing over him in numerous interviews. Now, he’s friends and coworkers with a larger than life figure to him. He said, “I feel like I’m friends with Santa Claus.”

His Saint Nick-esque persona notwithstanding, Yankovic is pretty approachable, according to the “Weird” director Eric Appel. Appel said he wanted Yankovic’s blessing to do the movie so he reached out to mutual friend Patton Oswalt to set up a meeting. 

In that very first meeting, Yankovic threw out some of the more outlandish components of the film, namely, Pablo Escobar’s appearance as a primary antagonist. “That came from the very first conversation I had with Al in 2019,” said Appel. ”I believe Al had just binge watched all of ‘Narcos.’ And Escobar was just right there on the tip of his brain. He was like, ‘I think it would be really funny if we had a sequence in the movie where I turned into John Wick and Escobar just makes sense as a 1980s super villain.”

Even the pitch meeting smacks of a parody of an off the walls Hollywood boardroom. “I saw someone’s tweet a while ago that said this movie feels like someone’s fake movie from ‘30 Rock,’” said Appel. He did an impression of Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy talking to Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon from the NBC show, “We got Harry Potter as Weird Al, Lemon.”

Yankovic didn’t just take the idea of Escobar from watching Netflix; he took one of the actors from streamer’s hit show to play the drug lord. Arturo Castro, who plays a prominent member of the Cali cartel in “Narcos” and Escobar in “Weird,” joked, “This is the only part that was a real fact. Al Yankovic got rid of Pablo Escobar.”

As for the surviving Escobars and their acolytes who might watch his repeated portrayal of Colombian cocaine czars, he said, “I really hope they have a sense of humor.”

Weird Al didn’t really face off with Escobar in the jungles outside Medellín. He didn’t do practically anything featured in the movie. But he wouldn’t have done any of this at all — the successful novelty music career, the fake biopic — without the mentorship of Dr. Demento. 

Early in his career. Yankovic came under the tutelage of Barry Hansen, better known as the Los Angeles comedic radio broadcaster Dr. Demento. 

As the movie goes, Weird Al submits a tape of “My Bologna,” a parody of The Knack’s “My Sharona” to Dr. Demento, played by Rainn Wilson, to instant acclaim and commercial success. Dr. Demento actually did receive that tape, recorded in a bathroom at Cal State San Luis Obispo, by a curly-haired college student. But it didn’t catapult Yankovic into overnight stardom. Hansen said it took about six years for Yankovic to cultivate his art and gain mainstream traction. 

“Every year it seemed like he learned to do something new, something better,” said Hansen of those first six years. “He started out making these homemade tapes and then he started being able to produce his own records. Then he started being able to produce his own videos. Now he’s co-producer of this movie.”

“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” is available for streaming on Roku. 

 

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On the Scene: ‘Mi Gente’ SNIPES Hispanic Heritage Exhibit

by Dano Nissen
written by Dano Nissen

Empanadas. Corn on the cob. Open bar with margaritas and mojitos. All surrounded by art and photography to the tunes of DJ’s from New York City. 

On Saturday Oct 15, SNIPES in partnership with Converse and Street Dreams put on the “Mi Gente” exhibit in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn.

The events celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month and the launch of the SNIPES x Converse “Mi Gente” sneaker collection, special color ways of the Chuck Taylor All-Start and the Chuck 670.

The spacious white walled room was packed with fashionable Brooklynites, many sporting chic streetwear and Converse. A dance floor, art gallery and photo booth practically all occupied the same space.

Works by Campos, Gabriella Gabriella, Joe Cavallini, Roger Castle and more lined the room as people danced, ate and mingled. Much of the photography and artwork featured everyday Latinos going about their lives. For example, there were photographs of little league teams and street vendors as well as portraits.

Live DJ sets were provided by Odalys, Dana Lu and Dada Cosmic. One of the performers, DJ Odalys, serves as the face of the campaign, starring in the campaign launch video.

In it, she visits where she grew up and talks about what her Hispanic roots mean to her. You can watch the video here.

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‘Decision to Leave’ Review: A Slight Sleight of Hand

by Dano Nissen
written by Dano Nissen

Park Chan Wook is a magician. 

With sleight of hand in every frame, he trains our eyes on what he wants us to see. The trickery goes down right in front of us. But we’re distracted.

His newest film “Decision to Leave” is billed by the director as a romantic comedy and detective drama. Even in describing its genre in that way, Park throws us for a loop. There’s so much Park wants us to see, expect and feel when something much different is going on.

The story goes: a detective investigates a man’s death from falling off a cliff. The wife is the prime suspect. She’s beautiful. She’s alluring. The detective can’t help but get emotionally involved with the woman he’s investigating.

It’s a classic noir set up that unravels in a not so classic way. It’s a movie that’s success relies on subverting what we’re accustomed to. We must be enraptured by Park’s magic.

“Decision to Leave” is not one of Park’s most magical films. Some of his misdirections are misdirected. Instead of sustaining the deception they snap us out of the illusion. There are long winded and downright goofy scenes.

It’s a fine film that any fan of noir or Park should enjoy. But after the six year wait from his last feature “The Handmaiden,” which is greatest work (arguable neck and neck with “Oldboy”), “Decision to Leave” is a bit of a let down. In the “The Handmaiden” we witnessed a totally engrossing performance from a master magician without a second diffusing the tension or withdrawing our intrigue at the mystery at hand. The same cannot be said for his latest effort.

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Östlund’s Avalanche: ‘Triangle of Sadness’ Review

by Dano Nissen
written by Dano Nissen

We’re Ruben Östlund’s guinea pigs. 

The genius of the Swedish director is that he doesn’t just display social commentary in “Triangle of Sadness”; he implicates his audience as part of a social experiment. His last two brilliant films before this, “Force Majeure” and “The Square” (a Cannes Film Festival Palme D’or winner along with his latest), did as much.

We’ll watch a social interaction. We’ll have our opinions. We’ll take sides. Then, he’ll put a similar social interaction in an entirely different context. We’re forced to see things differently, reevaluate previous scenes and are primed to watch future scenes in a certain way. He’s essentially forcing us to be bystanders in a European art house version of “What Would You Do?”.

In his breakthrough film “Force Majeure,” one scene encapsulates this all. On a family ski trip, a husband and father rushes away from his family as an avalanche approaches. The wife and mother stays put, protecting both children. As it happens, by the time the avalanche gets to them it’s an innocuous, cold mist. Everyone is safe. No big deal. But then it becomes one. The incident causes the family to view one another in a different light — they’ve seen how each one would act in a split second, life threatening event. That revelation is passed onto us, forcing us to scrutinize every subsequent social interaction.

”Triangle of Sadness” is told in three distinct parts, with different settings and social contexts. We have a veritable Smörgåsbord of characters: habitual selfie snapping models, a Marxist captain of a quarter-billion dollar yacht, an industrious and devious cleaning lady, a gluttonous Russian oligarch and more to pin up on the rogues gallery of social stratum. It’s about capitalist vs. communism. The nature of man. Gender politics. And it’s about shit. That much is obvious.

The concept of “Force Majeure” is that we look through the lens of the one incident to make sense of the rest of the film. “Östlund’s Avalanche” is every scene in “Triangle of Sadness.” It’s a rollercoaster of readjusting our vision, and at a certain point, for the faint of heart and stomach, turning our gaze away at one of the best gross out sequences ever committed to the screen.

“Triangle of Sadness” trails a smidge behind the director’s preceding film “The Square.” The former is more baroque and blunt. It is also more fun. The latter performs the better balancing act between subtlety and outrageousness. As you’ll see in his latest’s most memorable scene, a balancing act, quite literally, “Triangle of Sadness” is emphatically not. We can be suffocated, often with raucous laughter, by the nonstop avalanches in “Triangle,” buried under the weight of its heavy-handed musings on inequality in society.

Not as great as “The Square,” but grander, “The Triangle of Sadness” is another winner (and one of the best of the year) for the two-time Palme D’or decorated director.

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On the Scene: Noah Bambauch Talks Adapting ‘White Noise’ at NYFF Premiere

by Dano Nissen
written by Dano Nissen

Noah Bambauch the mumblecore king presides over new postmodern territory. 

Don DeLillo’s “unfilmable” gold standard pomo masterpiece “White Noise” has emerged from development hell to the hands of Noah Bambauch.

At first glance, he seems an unlikely steward to bring the classic book to life after its nearly 40 year gestation. He’s known for his slice of life narratives with realistic characters speaking naturalistically. In other words, the polar opposite of the DeLillo novel. DeLillo speaks the language of the absurd and parodic. Bambauch speaks the language of New York apartment hunting and divorce lawyer contracts — real life things as they happen in real life.

But the sensibilities of DeLillo and Bambauch share some threads, woven together for a faithful adaptation. To wit, “White Noise” is fundamentally a story about a family. And Bambauch knows a thing or two about depicting a family on the big screen, having directed “Marriage Story,” “The Squid and the Whale” and “The Meyerowitz Stories.”

Bambauch spoke to the Knockturnal at the film’s North American premiere kicking off the 60th New York Film Festival.

“It is about a family,” said Bambauch. “The gap between what we say and what we mean. What we say and what we feel. What we think about ourselves and who we really are. Those are things I’ve explored in a lot of my movies.”

“Family mythologies are in a lot of my movies too,” he continued. “Parents tell their children and children have to unlearn them later. In this case you have all of that. But then you also have family as a microcosm of the culture. You have that line: ‘Family is the cradle of the world’s misinformation.’ You have Essentially the kids shouting facts and saying things we don’t know if they’re real or not. After a while you lose track wishing yourselves and you create your own facts. That’s something that is both true of a family and something we see is also true of the American culture at large.”

White Noise hits theaters Nov 25 and will be available for streaming on Netflix Dec 30. The film stars Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig and Don Cheadle who were all in attendance for the premiere.

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On the Scene: Dîner en Blanc Celebrates 10th Anniversary

by Dano Nissen
written by Dano Nissen

Dîner en Blanc is a dinner party done the white way.

 Thousands dressed head to toe — and in some cases Venetian mask to roller skates — in all white, congregated in a secret location disclosed the day of the event. This year, marking its tenth anniversary, the dinner happened to return to its inaugural setting, outside the Brookfield Plaza on the Hudson River.

Dîner en Blanc-ers brought picnic baskets full of fine dining and headed over to the location from designated drop points in Manhattan to arrive around 7 pm. Some rocked ornate designs, while some kept it simple. But what remained constant — white, white, white.

The feast kicked off with a ceremonial wave of the napkin. Gazing upon the view of the Hudson River one could see a sea of fluttering white napkins. There was live music, dancing and performers in elaborate futuristic garb putting on a show for patrons. In the media lounge, celebrity guest chef Todd English prepared an array of delicacies, including babaganoush, lobster rolls with caviar and wagyu beef. Champagne Barons de Rothschild was the evening’s champagne sponsor and provided the alcoholic beverages in the lounge.

 

Coming off a two year Covid hiatus and commemorating the tenth anniversary made the night extra festive. For co-founder and president Sandy Safi, it made sense to bring the event back to whence it came. “We were looking for an iconic place in New York. And its the tenth anniversary,” she said. “New York is what started ever hitting globally. What better place to come back to come back to the place it all started. The first time we were here we were less than 1,000. Now we’re over 4,000. We’ve grown to 120 cities around the world. We built a global community of people who travel to city to city and love to do this.”

After taking two years off due to the pandemic Chef English was glad to come back for his fourth. “We realize we are gregarious animals and we need to go out and socialize,” he said of Diner en Blanc’s return. “I love Diner en Blanc, it’s a global organization that brings people of all walks of life and cultures together in a peaceful and celebratory manner, and exemplifies that food is our greatest democracy.”

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On the Scene: ‘RRR’ Q & A with Director SS Rajamouli

by Dano Nissen
written by Dano Nissen

R and R stands for rest and relaxation. RRR stands for anything but. 

RRR (Rise, Roar, Revolt) is a three hour Telegu language epic about India’s fight for independence against the British, replete with over the top gun battles, spontaneous dance-offs, CG rendered wild animal attacks and no shortage of gratuitous TNT explosions.

The film is a sensation, standing at the third highest grossing film in India ever. It’s also found quite a bit of success overseas.

Director S.S. Rajamouli sat down for a Q & A after a screening of his film at the IFC Center in lower Manhattan. On whether he expected the film to be such a success across the globe, the director said, “Absolutely not. I never thought I’d appeal to the sensibilities of the West.” But the universal themes clearly tap in to a broad audience. He said, “Any creator will agree: a good story is a good story across the globe for any race, any language, for any people.”

Rajamouli wrote the film with his father, V. Vijayendra Prasad, another commercially successful Tollywood director. Rajamouli cut his teeth in film by working as an assistant in the editing room on his father’s films. Rajamouli said that his father spurred him on to make his latest film. “Initially I was doing nothing,” he said. “He was constantly nagging me.”

After relenting to his dad’s nagging, the next step in the creative process was forming the film’s iconic images. The film is full of striking images: a tandem shoulder riding gunfight, a flurry of disparate wild animals escaping from a cage, a man draped in an Indian flag as he barrels through a raging fire to save a little boy.

“The iconic images come first even before the story,” he said. He had the basic idea for the film down at the beginning: “Let’s get these two freedom fighters together. Initially they would be against each other, then they would come together against a common enemy. That was the basic line. Then it would come into discussion with my father. Then I look for iconic images for scenes. I tried to figure out what iconic images would tell this story and build the scene towards it.”

RRR is in theaters and available for streaming on Netflix.

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