Mini-Reviews: Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere / Bugonia / Frankenstein

Mini-reviews ended up going very well the last time, so I may end up sticking with this structure for a while! Straight and to-the-point reviews, all that jazz, no need to delay anything. So, let’s get started.

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Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

"Everyone knows his music. But no one knows the moment everything changed."

Director: Scott Cooper
Cast: Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Paul Walter Hauser, Stephen Graham, and Odessa Young
Synopsis: “Bruce Springsteen, a young musician on the cusp of global superstardom, struggles to reconcile the pressures of success with the ghosts of his past.”

This was one of my most anticipated of the year, given that Bruce Springsteen is one of my personal favorite artists ever, and for the most part, Deliver Me from Nowhere really ended up delivering for me. This is not like Bohemian Rhapsody, which was a greatest hits “womb-to-tomb” movie, and picking out a specific part of Springsteen’s life to focus on is what gives the Scott Cooper-directed film the upper hand. White does a very good job bringing Springsteen to life, especially with what his mind was like just before releasing Born in the USA and making Nebraska, which is my personal favorite album of his. That is the deciding factor for how you feel about Deliver Me from Nowhere to me. Nebraska is very stripped back, no glitz or glamor to it, and the movie is the same way. It’s a very low-key movie, and if that’s your thing, I think you’d like Springsteen.

Ryan’s Grade: B+


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Bugonia

"It all starts with something magnificent."

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, and Alicia Silverstone
Synopsis: “Two conspiracy obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.”

I actually got to see this as an “early” screening. I’m in the midwest, so early screening just means that I got to see it before its wide release where I am. Putting it bluntly, Bugonia is a dark movie. That’s not to say that it isn’t funny. It’s probably Yorgos Lanthimos’s funniest movie, but it’s also indescribably evil. Emma Stone is incredible here, just like Poor Things, but I think you already know that if you’re a fan of Lanthimos. The real, true standout here is Jesse Plemons, who is easily handing in the best performance of his career. If there’s any justice, the both of them should easily be nominated for Oscars. I’ve seen a lot of people compare this to Eddington from this past summer—mainly because of the political talk present in Bugonia—and while I can’t disagree, I also found a lot of this to be a sister movie to 10 Cloverfield Lane. A weird, wild trip this one is. One of the year’s best.

Ryan’s Grade: A


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Frankenstein

"Only monsters play God."

Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, David Bradley, Lars Mikkelsen, Christian Convery, Charles Dance, and Christoph Waltz
Synopsis: “Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist, brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.”

I’m very sad to say that I just didn’t land with this new adaptation of Frankenstein. Guillermo del Toro, the director, is in top form here, with all of the lavish costumes and production design. I also love the way this is shot, that floating camera trick that doesn’t work all the time. Dan Lausten also shot del Toro’s last movie, Nightmare Alley, so this is two-for-two here. Jacob Elordi also really blew me away as The Creature, he’s very quickly becoming an actor to watch for me. What really sank Frankenstein for me ended up being two things: Guillermo del Toro in writer-mode and all of the performances outside of Elordi. It hits you over the head with the meaning of the story so many times (“you are the monster, Victor”), and that’s just a personal pet peeve of mine. The tone of the movie just feels very… schmaltzy? It should work on paper, all of the pieces are there, but Frankenstein never really worked. Crazy to end it with a Lord Byron quote, though. That’s wild.

Ryan’s Grade: C-