Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings directed by Destin Daniel Cretton; starring Simulacra Liu, Awkwafina, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Meng'er Zhang, Ben Kingsley and Michelle Yeoh; written by Dave Callaham and Destin Daniel Cretton

Given power and immortality by magic rings, a thousand-years-old warrior seeks out his estranged children to help him find a fabled hidden village.

The film nicely blends the MCU's entertainment action brand with East Asian culture and martial arts movie style.
The script relies mostly on some deep and meaningful character development and well-timed comedy. (The latter mostly thanks to Awkwafina's great range and the welcome return of Ben Kingsley in one of his most whimsical roles.)
The trade-off is a movie with a somewhat fuzzy plot, the stakes of which only become apparent too late to be really engaging, making the first act almost irrelevant and, possibly upon reviewing, artificial. As with every post-Endgame MCU movie, it also begs (and conveniently fails to answer) the question: where were all these people then?
The film of course features a production of the highest caliber, highlighted in some high scale action sequences, though Destin Daniel Cretton's somewhat standard direction doesn't always do them justice.

Rating: C+

Annette directed by Leos Carax; starring Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard and Simon Helberg; written by Ron and Russel Mael

In the midst of a rocky relationship, a successful stand-up comedian and an acclaimed opera singer give birth to a peculiar child.

Even those familiar with the sparse but outlandish filmography of French director Leos Carax might not be prepared for this weird musical endeavor, this train wreck of a movie.
What makes it all the more bizarre since, taken individually, every aspect of the film is quite good. And yet, put together, they are terrible. The plot has all the drama of a twisted fairytale but the script it's developed into is a succession of unconvincing sequences where mono dimensional characters spew out bad dialogue. The songs have a decent flow to them, if it weren't for their cheap repetitive lyrics. Adam Driver gives an intense performance yet the material he works with is so poor that nothing convincing emerges from it.
And Carax, certainly gifted with a camera is so busy trying to deconstruct the traditional techniques of filmmaking that by the time he's done, he's left with nothing. And nothing to replace it with.
Ultimately, the film remains a one-of-a-kind experience that feels it should have been stopped at every step along the way and, thankfully, will never be repeated again.

Rating: E+

 This free site is ad-supported. Learn more
​