Jungletime/Surviving The Life
My tardy thoughts on Anaconda, No Other Choice and Song Sung Blue
Considering the fact that 2025 has already seen the reboots of such genre favorites as I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Toxic Avenger and The Running Man, it is perhaps fitting that it should conclude with the likes of Anaconda, a new take on the 1997 cult favorite that saw Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube battling the giant titular creature in the middle of the Amazon and Jon Voight taking part in arguably the single weirdest scene in his long screen career. Unlike those other films, however, this one applies a meta comedic spin to the material that transforms it into something closer to a spoof than anything. In this one, a group of four childhood friends—failed actor Ronald (Paul Rudd), wedding videographer Doug (Jack Black), recent divorcee Claire (Thandwie Newton) and general mess Kenny (Steve Zahn)—have a chance to make their long-ago dreams of making movies into a reality when Ronald informs them that he has managed to acquire the rights to one of their favorite films, the one and only Anaconda, and proposed that they go down to the Amazon and shoot their own super-low-budget version. Once they arrive, they secure the services of a snake, along with weirdo handler Santiago (Selton Mello) and get on a boat piloted by Ana (Daniela Melchior), who is being pursued by a couple of mysterious figures, and get to work. Unfortunately for them, there just happens to be a genuine giant anaconda in the area where they have travelled and the gang soon finds themselves trapped in a real life version of the very film that they are attempting to make.
From a conceptual standpoint, the film shows a little more ambition than those other reboots that I cited, even if it does seem for the most part like a concept dreamed up one night under the influence of something slightly stronger than oregano. Unfortunately, like so many other seemingly brilliant ideas conceived under such circumstances, it hasn’t really been developed into much of anything. One of the key problems is that it is attempting to put an overtly comedic spin on material that already demonstrated a certain sly sense of humor the first time around and the results too often feels a bit forced—something akin to what usually happens whenever someone gets the bright idea to do a spoof of the James Bond franchise. As it goes on, however, a certain sense of smugness begins to dominate the proceedings and there is something slightly off-putting about a film that wants to be perceived as some kind of subversive goof on the current trend towards remakes/reboots but takes pains to remind us over and over again that there is apparently nothing as serious or sacred as Sony’s intellectual property rights, a notion that is invoked numerous times throughout. Anaconda isn’t a complete dud—there are a few laughs here and there (even though you will strain to remember any of them the day after seeing them) and Black, as usual, goes all-out in his attempt to seek the material on the strength of his considerable energy—but there just isn’t much to it when all is said and done. Stick with the original Anaconda—it is easily the better film of the two and it is the funnier one to boot
.No Other Choice, the eagerly-awaited new film from Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, opens with an idyllic image of a family enjoying a lovely late-summer afternoon in the backyard of their beautifully appointed home—the kind that makes you think that no force on earth could possibly disrupt it. That quickly proves to be untrue as the man of the house, You Man-su (Lee Byung-hun), is unceremoniously fired from the job at a paper mill that he has had for years when his position is made redundant after a purchase from an American concern. Over the next few months, he struggles to find another job in that specific industry before his severance pay runs out so as not to lose face with his wife Miri (Son Ye-jin) and their two kids, but finds it to be impossible. Unable to find a suitable job in his industry and unwilling to look for work in another field, he hits upon a seemingly brilliant idea to get ahead. He will a phony recruitment ad in an industry trade magazine and states that he will only accept applications sent on paper through the mail (to avoid leaving any digital trail) and use the information gleaned from the responses to murder the unwitting applicants, thereby simultaneously creating job vacancies and lessening the presumed pool of applicants for paper industry jobs. As he is trying to launch his plot, Man-su has other issues to wrestle with, ranging from his daughter’s musical ambitions to his step-son dabbling in petty crime to bring in some money to Miri going back to work as a dental hygienist for a dentist he suspects is trying to sleep with her to the deep-seeded psychological trauma that compels him to want to keep his lavish childhood home when it would seem logical to sell it and move into someplace cheaper.
Adapted from a 1997 novel by Donald Westlake, No Other Choice is a film that starts off as if it is going to be a brutal black comedy following Man-su as he goes about eliminating his competition and gradually expands into a meditation on subjects ranging from a crisis of masculinity to an indictment of the current business climate that favors purchasing businesses and eliminating thousands of jobs so that the rich owners can get slightly richer while the actual workers get nothing. Much of it is quite watchable, thanks to Park’s sleek cinematic style, the twists and turns of the plot and the standout central performance from Lee, who takes a character who is pretty much a selfish murderous monster and makes him into someone sympathetic while hitting both the dramatic and comedic bits beautifully. And yet, it didn’t quite stick with me in the way that many of Park’s other films, such as Oldboy, The Handmaiden and Decision to Leave, have done over the years. Perhaps the key problem is that its exploration of a family unit facing economic struggles due to forces outside of their grasp and the desperate moves they are reduced to making in order to survive cannot help but be compared to Bong Joo-ho’s international hit Parasite and cannot help but come up short in the end. That said, No Other Choice is still worth watching due to the strength of the performances, some very funny moments here and there and a finale that, while ostensibly happy in terms of the narrative, is arguably the most chilling sequence to hit movie screens this year
.Song Sung Blue is the kind of film where it is useful to know going in that it is indeed based on a true story—without that assurance, most viewers might otherwise end up think that the various twists and turns to come were simply too outlandish to be believed. Hugh Jackman stars as Mike Sardinia, a guy dealing with 20 years of sobriety, an untreated bum ticker and an all-consuming desire to perform that finds him working as a celebrity impersonator churning out the hits to small audiences at casinos and clubs in the Milwaukee area. One night, he meets fellow impersonator Claire (Kate Hudson) and the two forge an immediate connection that leads them to form a duo act, dubbed Lighting & Thunder, which would serve as a tribute to Mike’s favorite, performer, Neil Diamond. For a while, things work out well for the now-married couple—their act begins to build a following in the area that grows exponentially when no less of a fan than Eddie Vedder invites them to appear during a local Pearl Jam concert—and it seems as if they are on the verge of breaking through to something bigger when they suffer a number of unimaginable catastrophes that seem to have come straight out of a John Irving novel. The second half of the film depicts how these events threaten to destroy Mike and Claire both personally and professionally and their attempts to overcome them in order to not only get back to what they love but somehow achieve the happy ending that they have been struggling to reach.
The story of Mike and Claire Sardinia was previously recounted in a 2008 documentary, also called Song Sung Blue, which had the added benefit of recounting their story with the aid of a large archive of personal home videos. If you have seen that documentary—and since it has apparently been in a distribution limbo for a while, many of you probably haven’t—then watching this fictionalized take from writer-director Craig Brewer (whose previous narratives about people on the fringe hoping to make it in show business have included Hustle & Flow and Dolemite is My Name) may leave you with the kind of odd sensation that you might actually experience watching an impersonator doing their version of a well-known performer. On the one hand, this particular take doesn’t really bring anything new to the table to help us understand the Sardinas and while the film doesn’t fudge things too much in the translation, this take simply lacks the impact of the original documentary. (To be fair, if you have seen the original film, then you will inevitably be anticipating the more startling dramatic twists on display.) On the other hand, the performances from the two leads are so strong and enjoyable that you can’t help but get caught up in their energy—Jackman delivers one of his very best performances as Mike, selling both the musical and dramatic aspects of the character with pitch-perfect precision and though Hudson oversells her Wisconsin accent at times, she is equally impressive in what is easily her most focused and convincing work since her breakthrough turn in Almost Famous. Song Sung Blue is unapologetically striving to be the most overly emotional film experience of the season—it wants to jerk your tears, pluck your heartstrings and set your feet tapping, often at the same time, and, unless you are either a total cynic or really don’t care for the music of Neil Diamond, it mostly succeeds.