Movie Review: Nimona (2023)

Title: Nimona
Release Date: June 14, 2023
Director: Nick Bruno and Troy Quane
Production Company:  Annapurna Pictures
Summary/Review:

Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed) is a brooding knight framed for killing the Queen who is trying to clear his name.  Enter Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz), a shapeshifting chaos agent who appoints herself his sidekick.  Together they form a bond while having adventures at turns hilarious and poignant.  The cast also includes Eugene Lee Yang as Ambrosius Goldenloin, a fellow knight and Ballister’s lover, and Frances Conroy as The Director who coordinates the manhunt for Ballister.

The setting for this story is a futuristic society with the trappings of knighthood that I will call “medievalpunk.”  Thematically, the film deals metaphorically with the human fear of the unknown that cause us to discriminate against outsiders, particularly LGBTQ people.  The voicework, animation, and soundtrack are all excellent.  And Nimon is my new ADHD superhero.

Rating: ****

50 Years, 50 Movies (2018): Happy as Lazzaro

I will turn 50 in November of this year, so my project for 2023 will be to watch and review one movie from each year of my life.  The only qualification is that it has to be a movie I’ve not reviewed previously.

 

2018

Top Grossing Movies of 2018:

1. Avengers: Infinity War
2. Black Panther
3. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
4. The Incredibles 2
5. Aquaman

Best Picture Oscar Nominees and Winners of 2018:

• Green Book
• Black Panther
• BlacKkKlansman
• Bohemian Rhapsody
• The Favourite
• Roma
• A Star Is Born
• Vice

Other Movies I’ve Reviewed from 2018:

• Andhadhun
• Ant-Man and Wasp
• Blindspotting
• Christopher Robin
• Dawnland
• Eighth Grade
• Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
• The Hate U Give
• Hereditary
• Howard
• Isle of Dogs
• Liz and the Blue Bird
• The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
• Mary Poppins Returns
• Pandas
• A Quiet Place
• Rafiki
• Ralph Breaks the Internet
• Solo: A Star Wars Story
• Sorry to Bother You
• Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse
• This Magnificent Cake!
• Tumbbad
• The Wolf House
• Won’t You Be My Neighbor
• Zion
• Z-O-M-B-I-E-S

Title: Happy as Lazzaro
Release Date: 31 May 2018
Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Production Company: Tempesta | Rai Cinema | Amka Films Productions | Ad Vitam Production | KNM | Pola Pandora | RSI Radiotelevisione Svizzera | ARTE France Cinéma | ZDF/ARTE
Summary/Review:

Part Rip Van Winkle, part Karl Marx, and part Being There, Happy as Lazzaro is a film depicting poverty due to capitalism in two parts.  The first part is set in a remote rural region of Italy where 54 farmhands live in destitution as they are tricked into working as sharecroppers on a tobacco plantation, effectively in a state of slavery.  The second part of the film depicts many of the same characters several years later as they live in encampment by the railyards of a major city and scrape to survive.  Tying everything together is Lazarro (Adriano Tardiolo), the angelic-faced young man who doesn’t seem to age and is always willing to perform tasks for others while expecting nothing in return.

It is a heartbreaking depiction of exploitation, especially in Lazarro’s devotion to Tancredi (Luca Chikovani as a young man, Tommaso Ragno when older), the son of the woman who runs the tobacco estate.  Lazarro is lead to believe that they are brothers and Tancredi takes advantage of this faith.  I admit I don’t quite “get” this movie.  It is a critique of capitalism with undertones of religious and spiritual belief and I’m not sure what it’s trying to say, but I can say I am disturbed.

Rating: ****