Hostiles, Scott Cooper’s new western, wants to be taken seriously. It wants to say important things, address essential themes, and say it all with unflinching intensity and beauty. To do that, especially in today’s market, takes not only talent, but courage and restraint. His success is mixed.
The film begins with a quote from D. H. Lawrence: “The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted”. The film itself sets a course to both illustrate this observation and to melt both the heart of the protagonist, Capt. Joe Blocker(Christian Bale) and the hearts of the audience.
Like other Post-Modern westerns (specifically, Unforgiven and Dances With Wolves) Hostiles uses the genre conventions to self consciously address the larger themes of violence and racism. The title itself carries this load, indicating both hostility and the notion of the Other. A timely film, it would seem, in this current age. But when done well, as in the case of the two older films, westerns have always been timely.
It’s an old saw that America defined itself through western expansion …. and westerns are soundtracked to the hum of old saws …. that in the West, America found its identity story.
But does America want westerns? And is Hostiles the kind of Western they want? Director Scott Cooper earnestly believes it’s the movie they need.
So, like so many contemporary filmmakers, he goes to the source western, the post Viet Nam thinking man’s western, John Ford’s The Searchers, for imagery and inspiration. Beginning with the Comanche attack on the settlers, through the framing of Christian Bales’ prejudiced and hateful Captain Blocker in the cabin’s doorway, through his path to healing and redemption, the fingerprint of Ford’s iconic film is everywhere.
The difference though is both dramatic and telling. Ford suggests and Cooper shows, if not tells.
Despite using the landscape, always a western’s greatest assess, effectively, letting its beauty and scope dwarf and counterpoint the characters, and despite strong internally driven performances by everyone, the film only sometimes hits its emotional mark.
Too often the characters say what they should show. These are truths that should be felt, not articulated. At times he trusts in the power of his silences to speak…and he wisely and admirably avoids comic relief….but as the film draws to its end, there are confessions and self reflections that deflate the emotional power of the scene. And power is exactly what Cooper is striving for, and he should be duly respected in these cynical franchise days for the attempt. Pushing Max Richter’s soundtrack to the front of the mix, assigning its rich synthesized and orchestrated chords to lead, Cooper is declaring his intent to address America’s burden of violence and heal its self-inflicted wounds.
For all the violence, this is not an exploitation film, it is not a shoot’em up. Cooper is aiming for a deadly seriousness and gravity that the themes demand. Christian Bale’s performance certainly is all in. He is like a still and broiling focus of Cooper’s ambition to say something profound, both timely and timeless. His character takes the mythic arc from lost to found, from damned to redeemed, but in order to make it fit the narrative it feels like stages are missing.
It’s as if in this PTSD parable, Cooper wants his hero to heal so badly that he’ll take a shortcut here and there to help him along. He begins the film as a hardened and hateful government sanctioned killer, an Army officer who has done awful things in the line of duty. But when he encounters, the vulnerability of the traumatized settler woman (Rosamund Pike), he becomes a compassionate and thoughtful man. Add the vulnerability (to say nothing of the nobility) of the Cheyenne chief (Wes Studi), then the Captain truly begins to change, and change rapidly, too rapidly.
The last shot of The Searchers is John Wayne, framed by a cabin door, having saved his niece and overcome his prejudice, returning alone to the wilderness. The door closes.
The last shot of Hostiles nods to this iconic ending, but vicariously invites the audience, for America, to enter and be healed. It is such a noble gesture, I wish it had been more earned. As it is, I wish Captain Blocker well, but I wish the film hadn’t got there so fast and, despite the many wounds and corpses, so easily.
His Three Daughters, Netflix’s emotional family drama, explores the strained relationships between three estranged sisters who are reunited by their father’s terminal illness. Set in a small, intimate family home, the film follows Katie, the eldest daughter and caretaker, Christina, the rebellious middle child, and Laura, the youngest, who carries the weight of family expectations. As they come together to care for their ailing father, old wounds resurface, leading to intense confrontations, moments of reconciliation, and ultimately, the rediscovery of familial bonds.
The narrative is a slow burn, focusing on the sisters’ personal journeys as they grapple with their father’s decline, unresolved issues from the past, and the impending loss of their patriarch. Director Azazel Jacobs captures these emotionally charged moments with precision, delivering a raw, honest portrayal of sibling dynamics, grief, and love. The performances are gripping, with each actress bringing depth and vulnerability to their roles, making the audience feel the weight of their complicated relationship.
The house, almost a character itself, is filled with memories, secrets, and tension. As the sisters sort through their father’s belongings, they also untangle their own emotional baggage, confronting their fears, regrets, and hopes for the future.
His Three Daughters is a powerful character-driven story that captures the complexities of family ties and the inevitability of loss. The film shines with its strong performances, subtle direction, and poignant dialogue. While its pacing may feel slow for some viewers, those who appreciate emotional depth and character development will find this drama deeply moving. The film’s realistic portrayal of sibling rivalry, grief, and reconciliation makes it relatable and impactful.
Rating: 4/5 – A deeply affecting family drama that hits all the right emotional notes.
Kingdom
What could be better than a beautifully realized Joseon-period K-Drama, starring the excellent actor Doona Bae, fresh off her grand success in Netflix’s ‘Sense8’? All of that, but with zombies!
Oh this is a great one ya’ll. Adapted from a webcomic known as The Kingdom of the Gods, the show addresses the huge gap between the high and low classes plaguing (sorry) our Kingdom and of course has several engaging mysteries running throughout, but also happens to be a monster mash in the fantastic new zombie way reminiscent of Train to Busan! The show got not one but two well deserved seasons and even spawned (very sorry) a Netflix special, Kingdom: Ashin of the North, that yes, spoilers, features a zombie tiger. And it is absolutely amazingly rendered too.
Kingdom on Netflix gives us a breathtakingly possible story from long ago, both lovely and terrifying in equal measure, that should get a view from everyone!
Goblin: The Lonely and Great God
Whatever other great supernatural romance KDrama you think is awesome, Goblin did it first. Also known as Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, the show graces us with outstanding performances from Gong Yoo as our Lead and Lee Dong-wook as the Grim Reaper, and is a romance with a supernatural twist for the ages. Like, literal ages. So Ji Eun-tak (Kim Go-eun), a bubbly high school student despite her tragic family history and her ability to see ghosts, who knows diddly about fate and the machinations of destiny, is skeptical in the beginning. But as the supernatural of the Goblin and the Grim Reapers and the search for a destined bride across space and time catches everyone in its clutches, love in all its messy, gloriously alive splendor may just save the souls of everyone involved!
Catch Goblin or Guardian whatever you want to call it, on Amazon Prime now!
Squid Game
This choice is obvious, though honestly it’s kind of sad at the same time. The main reason most of us enjoyed Squid Game quite that much, was because it was entirely possible, for pretty much all of it, to happen tomorrow. The show was so engaging in its many different portrayals of the lowest, pettiest, and darkest parts of humanity that were given to us by these actors like it was pulled out of their very souls and offered up to us the audience on a platter, and we ate, we consumed, with relish. Hell, we demanded a sequel series, which should be coming out soonish.
It says a fair bit about us as a species as we watch these poor, both literally and figuratively if you think about it, people participate in what are actual Games of Death. The show launched another wave of interest in large-stakes games, Korean culinary culture (ask me about the dalgona crack!), and became iconic with the jumpsuit and the blank mask with a shape on it. Have you seen the tinies who wear the jumpsuit and shape-mask to go trick-or-treating? They’re five years old. Did you let them watch the show?! Wow.
We all know Squid Game is a Netflix show, right? Right.
Tale of the 9 Tailed
Plenty has been said about the kitsune, the magical Japanese 9-tailed fox, while the Korean version is known as a gumiho, and is similar-ish in nature and magical powers. Like their other Asian counterparts, the gumiho is known to be otherworldly and long-lived, snarky and arrogant when it comes to humans, unless the prospective human love interest happens to come entangled in the threads of fate and destiny. … Well, guess what!
Celebrated lead Lee Dong-wook is our Korean fox main character Lee Yeon, former mountain spirit and guardian who now spends his earthly time carrying out missions from the Afterlife Immigrations Office while looking for the reincarnation of his former love, the exiled 7th daughter of the former King of Joseon, she who carries the fox bead, Yi Ah-eum, or Nam Ji-ah (Jo Bo-ah) as she’s known here in the modern era.
We’ve got Spirits of Darkness, shamans and Dragon Kings, shapeshifters and turning-humans-into-trees type curses, long-standing grudges and the binding if not choking ties of fate and destiny, all bound together with great love that spans lifetimes! Chase those nine tails of the gumiho on Netflix!
Bulgasal Immortal Souls
This is a hard one ya’ll – featuring pretty constant violent death-and-rebirth, a craptastic ton of guilt everywhere, actual physical and emotional abuse from trusted authority figures and family, no sexual abuse but it sure is strongly threatened and implied, and the equivalent of a vampire crossed with a demon for the supernatural element to tie it all together, Bulgasal Immortal Souls is not for the faint of heart, or stomach.
However, the show is a gorgeous read and wonderfully shot, finding beauty in the (eventual) redemption of its characters, but boy do they take awhile to get there. And the constant, if unintentional, betrayal can start to get on your nerves. And they do, the characters do manage to find their way across fate and lifetimes to be together for a few precious moments, which is great. Be warned though, Bulgasal believes in playing things out to the final, often very bitter but in theory deserved, very end. Treasure those few precious moments, the show says, they will be gone before you know it. Not only a great horror, the show also works as an anti-valentine’s day Bulgasal Immortal Souls on Netflix now!
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