Weekly Roundup: Hamnet, Eephus, Jay Kelley
Thank you so much to everyone who reached out to share excitement and encouragement for this project!
This week I saw:
- Hamnet (very good!) which got me thinking about Train Dreams (even better!),
- Eephus, a charming ode to the sport of baseball,
- George Clooney play a fictionalized version of himself in Jay Kelley, which explores the isolation and heartache that comes with movie stardom,
- and I rewatched the first two Knives Out movies in preparation for Wake Up Dead Man coming to streaming later this week.
If, like me, you had no idea that William Shakespeare had a child named Hamnet and are surprised that it never once came up in school while reading Hamlet, I should warn you that this review contains spoilers for the basic premise of the film.
Hamnet is the latest film from Chloé Zhao (Nomadland, Marvel's the Eternals). It's a film about the loss of a child and the kind of grief that threatens to undo a person at their core. But more than that, it's a film about the power of stories to act as vessels and conduits for that grief.
It's a beautiful film with soulful performances by Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley. For the last 20 minutes of it multiple people in the rows behind me were audibly crying.
There are parts of Hamnet that fully didn't work for me. There are references throughout to Shakespeare's works that are mostly cute: specific turns of phrase, mistaken identities, the kids play acting as Macbeth's witches. But Mescal's dramatic recitation of a certain famous monologue at the climax of his dramatic arc felt so forced that it almost brought the whole picture down for me.
Honestly, I wasn't sold on Hamnet until the final scene, which I won't say anything about for fear of spoiling the effect. I'm a sucker for films about the value of art and this one moved me. If you want to shed some good, cathartic tears like I did, I recommend it.
While I'm talking about films that made me cry, can I put in a brief plug for Train Dreams?
I caught Train Dreams last month during its brief theatrical run before being dumped on Netflix. I love this movie so much and it pains me that most people will only get to watch this gorgeous, meditative film from their living room couch, with all the distractions that entails.
Like Hamnet, Train Dreams is about life, love, and loss, but it's also about the passage of time. It's about learning to live with the kind of pain that doesn't always lessen with time. It's about the world passing by and changing while you stay in one place.
As someone who's started to notice that every year seems to pass faster than the last and is terrified of living a life of regret, it hit hard.
It's one of my favorite films of the year and I can't recommend it highly enough.
Eephus is a movie for the weirdos like me who love baseball more for the vibes, aesthetics, and storytelling than the actual competitive sportsmanship.
It follows the final game of the season between two rec league teams in New England. We're told that the historic field they play on is scheduled for demolition. Even if it wasn't, you get the sense that most of the players don't have many years left in them. There's a sense of quiet finality that hangs over the film. A nostalgia for something that isn't actually over yet, but everyone knows it's about to be.
This is the debut feature film for director Carson Lund, who is primarily a film writer (nice to have something to aspire to), and features a cast of largely unknown actors from the New England theater scene.
Eephus is paced and structured like a baseball game. You just kind of let it wash over you. Things happen. Sometimes those things are exciting or profound. Often they're not. You enjoy the time spent regardless.
A few months ago, while visiting the Academy of Motion Pictures Museum in LA, I saw Brad Pitt, for real. He walked right by, encircled by an entourage of more than a dozen, as we in the crowd exchanged surprised whispers and tried to take pictures. I thought about what a strange life that must be, where you can't even walk down a hallway without a gaggle of retainers and everywhere you go you leave a sense of awe in your wake.
Jay Kelley would like you to know that it is indeed strange and also horribly isolating!
The film has George Clooney playing himself in a role that allows him to both show incredible vulnerability while never actually letting down the shield of the movie star persona. Actually, the film questions if there even is anything behind the constructed star personality that is Kelley/Clooney.
It's an interesting meta-conversation about stardom that manages to keep a surprisingly light tone despite the heavy subject matter. Adam Sandler turns in another great dramatic performance as does Riley Keough.
Hey! Have you watched the Knives Out movies recently?
If not, you should. These movies rule. Okay, sure, Glass Onion tries to do a little too much and doesn't fully work, but they're so much fun. I love pictures like this when you can tell that everyone involved was just having a great time.
The third film in the series, Wake Up Dead Man, starring Josh O'Connor (and an ensemble too long to list here) is coming to Netflix this week. I caught it in theaters the other week and it too rules. It manages to keep the core formula while also being a sincere look at the power and role of earnest faith in modern society.
Thanks for reading and please consider coming to an upcoming showtime!
Tyler Haas