ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

Michael Bay

Ambulance: Sound the Alarm. Bay-hem has Returned!

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Like the siren announcing the arrival of an Ambulance, Michael Bay likes to make some noise.

Ambulance tells the story of brothers Will (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and Danny Sharp (Jake Gyllenhaal), two sons of an infamous bank robber. Following in his father’s legacy, Danny has become an expert in bank heists. At the same time, former Marine Will is a family man who loves his wife but struggles to find a job. When his wife falls ill, Will finds himself in desperate need of $200K in order to pay for the surgery. With no other options, Will begrudgingly decides to join Danny in his most ambitious bank heist yet. With the potential of a $32 million dollars haul, this duo’s robbery unexpectedly goes haywire and their plot becomes entangled with a dying cop and LA’s best paramedic as they plow through the streets in an ambulance.

Directed by Michael Bay, Ambulance is a fun ride (pun intended) around LA, spanning multiple areas and highways throughout the vast city. Without question, it’s Michael Bay at his most Michael Bay-ish. Featuring huge gun fights, cars rolling off of cliffs, loud explosions and rapid banter between characters, it’s got everything that you would want or expect from the director. (After all, there’s a reason they refer to his films as ‘Bay-hem’.) The implications of Will’s journey throughout the film also provide some commentary on how American soldiers risk their lives for a country that seemingly abandons them. With little support from healthcare and insurance companies, veterans continue to struggle yet no one seems to notice (or care). 

Danny and Will are complete contrasts to each other. Danny is rich, smug and egotistical while Will is a caring, selfless man. Although both men embark on this robbery together, they also participate in the heist for wildly different reasons that reveal their character in the process. Fueled by his desire to add even more luxury to add to his already massive fortune, Danny takes on the job by pure choice. Will, however, has to do so because of his circumstances, as he is unable to pay for his wife’s surgery or take care of his child. What’s more, throughout their high-speed pursuit through LA, Will actively attempts to mitigate Danny’s actions and reduce any causalities. For example, Will even gives blood to aid an injured cop and helps the paramedic perform surgery. (To be fair, there’s a surprising complexity to Danny’s character. Although he appears to be only an entitled rich person, he genuinely cares for his brother and actively tries to set himself apart from the violence of his father.)

By the end of Ambulance, the film suggests that “good karma” helps offset our actions. Similar to the age-old ethical question about whether stealing bread is justified to feed your family, Ambulance asks if you steal with good intentions, are you still considered a thief? Yes, you are still responsible for your actions. However, Ambulance also hopes that the quality of your heart will be a factor in determining your outcome. 

Overall, Ambulance offers all the action and insanity that you’d expect from a Michael Bay film. However, it also has some unexpected moral lessons and ethical questions through characters worth exploring. For that reason, it may be worth listening to the call of this Ambulance’s siren, especially for fans of pure Bay-hem.

Ambulance is available in theatres on Friday, April 8th, 2022.

Songbird: Love in Lockdown

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Alexandra Daddario stars in SONGBIRD

Set in the near future, Songbird tells a story that feels all too familiar. While a deadly pandemic lays waste to humanity’s way of life, everyone remains in complete lockdown out of fear for their lives. Only the brave few who are immune (called ‘Munies) are able to freely walk the streets, yet are forced to live lives of solitude and loneliness. One of these ‘Munies is Nico Price (KJ Apa), a local delivery boy who is involved in a passionate—yet, unfortunately, digital—relationship with his girlfriend, Sara Garcia (Sofia Carson). When May’s grandmother falls ill, Nico takes it upon himself to attempt to rescue the love of his life before she is dragged away to the quarantine zone.

Written and directed by Adam Mason, Songbird is a high-octane blast of fun that somehow still manages to tell an intimate story. Known for creating lower-tier horror movies, Songbird is Mason’s first attempt with a bigger budget and higher profile cast. Firing on all cylinders, the vast majority of the cast are energetic and solid in their performances, especially central couple Apa and Carson who have genuine chemistry though almost never together in the same physical space. Also notable is the ever engaging Bradley Whitford, who seems to have perfected the snarling villain role in recent years.

KJ Apa stars in SONGBIRD

Produced by Michael Bay, the Transformers director’s fingerprints on the visual style of the film are unmistakable. Neon filters and lens flares mixed with a pounding soundtrack fit very neatly into Bay’s canon of films. However, whereas Bay often loses himself in his own over-use of fiery special effects, Mason keeps the focus intently on the characters and their stories. In doing so, Mason manages to avoid the over-indulgent trappings of ‘Bay-hem’ and create a story that feels more personal, even amidst its stylization.

Though the film’s setting and premise could be considered exploitative (or even insensitive), it also comes across as a cathartic experience. Rather than tip-toe around the current pandemic with a virus that sounds like the one we’re currently battling, Mason leans into the reality of the situation and simply names his virus COVID-23. In doing so, Songbird becomes its own form of response to a disease that has laid waste to our own way of life. (Maybe that’s why the cast feel so invested in their characters as well?)

Sofia Carson stars in SONGBIRD

As the characters fight to survive, we feel like we can fight along with them.

What’s more, within this pseudo-prophetic vision of the future, the real value of Songbird lies in its passion for human connection. With the world in lockdown and a deadly virus lurking outside, the film highlights a human race desperate to reach out to one another. Whether it’s late night trysts that stem from an unhappy marriage, online chats with strangers or watching movies together over the phone, the film shows a disenfranchised people looking for ways to combat the loneliness that stems from eternal lockdown. 

To its credit, at a time when this vision of the future feels almost imminent in the real world, Songbird serves as a reminder of the necessity of human intimacy and love beyond our use of technology. When people are unable to touch one another except through glass, the very simple act of holding hands feels like the most intimate of moments but remains infinitely out of reach. In other words, the film recognizes that what humans ultimately desire more than anything else is neither sex nor another Zoom call.

KJ Apa stars in SONGBIRD

They want to be free to experience the tenderness of loving, human touch. 

Energetic and enthusiastic, Songbird is a ride that’s worth taking. Though there are those who will shy away from its pseudo-realistic storyline, in many ways Mason offers an emotional release to the tensions that we experience. While the pandemic has laid waste to the lives of his characters, Mason leans into the signs of hope that can be sparked in the midst of the darkness when love is set free. 

And, at a time when reality feels like fiction, there’s nothing more important than that.

KJ Apa stars in SONGBIRD

Songbird is available digitally and in Blu-ray and DVD.

Remi Adeleke Wants to Be a Hero

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When I first talked to Remi Adeleke, he was just days away from his first box office action film, Transformers: Last Knight. Having survived the Bronx as a young man, and the Navy Seals as a young adult, monstrous CGI robots were hardly enough to intimidate him. But to understand who Adeleke was, and to marvel at how far he’s come, consider his story as told through I am Second.

Catching up with Adeleke a month removed from his Transformers debut, the veteran and actor seems more at ease. He admits that the Michael Bay (whose film The Rock inspired his Navy Seals career) film has opened up doors that he never imagined, with two major film projects in development over the next year and a deal with CBS for some appearances. Even his first endorsement, Jockey, found that they received more than they bargained for as the ad has exceeded all expectations.

But Adeleke is quick to point out that this isn’t about him; it’s about the way God is using his story.

“God has developed my story, so the burden for who I become doesn’t fall on me. God allowed me to go through the things I did, like losing my father at a young age, to dealing drugs, to the Seals, to not knowing how we’d make ends meet, to use it all to bring glory to His name.”

While he now shares screen time with names like Mark Wahlberg and Anthony Hopkins, the Seal-turned-actor remembers when he was just a background filler – even in the first days of shooting on Last Knight. Watching his part gradually grow lends itself to his belief in always being prepared, and focusing on the basics, like “shoot, move, and communicate,” a lesson from his Seals days that applies to filming the story.

What stands out is Adeleke’s childhood memories of sitting in Michael Bay’s first film, Bad Boys, of realizing that Will Smith and Martin Lawrence were the first black actors he’d seen on the screen playing the good guys, not thugs or villains. And the desire to be like them some day. Now he can, even as he says that the tide is turning, as a focus on diversity in casting, or “reflecting the people of the world” grows in movies, from Black Panther to A Wrinkle in Time.

But the person Adeleke is exceeds one thing – he is Navy Seal veteran, model, actor, husband, father, Master’s graduate. And Christian. It’s that thing which comes up frequently, and flows seamlessly in his understanding of himself.

“You can tell people you’re a Christian all you want. But the first way you preach is in the way you live your life. You don’t have to preach, but your fruits show the kind of person you are.”

The young man from the Bronx is all grown up from those days wishing there’d be more African American leads, and wondering how things were going to work out. Now, he’s setting the standard, of culture, of acting, and of faith, one role, one step, one action at a time.

Project Almanac: Be Present Today

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PA_Poster

Project Almanac has the vibe of a Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield film. Most of the film is from the perspective of a handheld video camera, smart phone, or GoPro. This time, the sci-fi genre adds time travel to the mix.

David (Jonny Weston) is a smart, clean-cut high school student, complete with the Harry Potter-glasses. Achieving his goal of getting accepted to MIT, David, along with his friends and sister (Ginny Gardner) decide to conduct an experiment in film, hoping to win a scholarship. They discover some old documents from David’s deceased father, who was a scientist, along with an old, vintage camcorder . . . . from 2004.

The camcorder holds video of David’s seventh birthday party at his home. It’s the same day that his father dies in a car accident. David discovers that his current, seventeen-year-old self can be seen in a mirror. This sends David and his friends, Adam (Allen Evangelista) and Quinn (Sam Lerner), to the basement where they find instructions – Project Almanac – to build a time machine.

They build the time machine and after a series of failed trials, it works. What follows is a bit predictable. The teens use this new found ability to travel back and forth through time to score higher grades on assignments, win the lottery, and more.

First-time director Dean Israelite does a decent job, though the film would have been just as good, maybe better, without the found footage format. It is not choppy like other found footage films. It lacks full, first-person perspective. Not to mention that it is seemingly impossible that every aspect of this film was . . .filmed. Take when David travels through time by himself. It’s possible/believable that he is filming what he sees. But when the perspective shifts, for example, in the high school storage room right before he time jumps again, who is holding the camera then?

Project-Almanac-trailer-still

It doesn’t need the first-person, character camera-holding to make the film. The film stands alone without all that. Not to mention the touches most likely influenced by one of its producers – Michael Bay. Bay manages to add his own touch to the film as a producer. The only thing it lacked was an appearance by Megan Fox.

With all the time travel that the teens do, present day events end up changing. David goes from high school nerd to mad scientist. He travels through time on his own for purely selfish reasons, impacting his community and the world in ways he never imagined. They have to go back in time to fix the things they did so the present would not be affected.

David comes to realize that perhaps the time machine is not a gift. When in back in time, he tells his father they “shouldn’t play God.” David destroys the heart of the time machine to remove the temptation to change what was or what will be for selfish gain.

How often do we find ourselves clinging to the past or longing to go back in time? Perhaps things were simpler back then, calmer, less chaotic, and easier to deal with. Perhaps the past is where all the answers lie. Perhaps. But we are in the present. And the present is a gift from God.

We cannot go back in time, but we can be present in the present. I think H. G. Wells would approve.

Has Steven Spielberg Forgotten His First Love?

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What happens when creativity gets replaced by redundancy and reiterations? With the impending arrival of Jurassic World, following years of exec producing the terrible Michael Bay Transformers films, has Steven Spielberg finally given up on telling original stories that transport us to other worlds? Is he no longer interested in taking us there so he can turn us back to see ourselves without pretense here?

Before we come to any real conclusions, let us quickly (if possible) recap the forty-year career of one of the greatest cinematic minds of all time. Briefly.

Steven Spielberg has generated 8.5 billion dollars worldwide with the pursuit of his art, netting a solid 3 billion plus himself (per Forbes). The writer, director, and producer made a name for himself by directing Roy Schneider, Richard Dreyfuss, and a mechanical depiction of a shark around in Jaws (1975). He stormed out of the gate in the sci-fi department with an extended, remade version of his independent film, Firelight, remastered with Dreyfuss as the star in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).

close-encounters-of-the-third-kind-original11In 1981, Spielberg teamed up with his Star Wars buddy, George Lucas, and Lucas’ star, Harrison Ford, to direct Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). A year later, he returned to the science fiction with E.T. the Extraterrestrial (the same year he wrote and produced the original Poltergeist which he ‘technically’ didn’t direct).The two sequels to Raiders sandwiched his producer role on Back to the Future (and the sequel), a writing role on The Goonies, and directing The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, and Always. He delivered the Robin Williams-led fantasy, Hook (1991), and the first Jurassic Park (1993) to cement his place in the science fiction/fantasy Hall of Fame.

Schindlers-ListSoon, Spielberg was diving into more practical, realistic material like 1993’s Schindlers List that saw him win an Academy Award for Director. Amistad (1997) and Saving Private Ryan (another Academy Award in 1998) soon followed. Average human fair like Catch Me If You Can (2002), The Terminal (2004), and Munich (2005) consistently provided some degree of entertainment, but certainly at a lower level than what we’d come to expect from the bearded savant. Yes, Artificial Intelligence (2001), Minority Report (2002), and War of the Worlds (2005) broke up the realistic monotony, but the trend had turned. Following his failed attempt to meld Indy with his sci-fi love (the dreadful Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), he directed War Horse (2011) and Lincoln (2012) to critical acclaim (and produced The Hundred Foot Journey for good measure).

But Jurassic World, the film which looks to follow on the commercial (but not necessarily critical) success of the previous Jurassic Park films, looms on the horizon like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. It’s been a decade since Spielberg tackled a science fiction film (I refuse to count the absurd result of Indy’s latest adventure) even though I believe that sci-fi is the one, true love of Mr. Spielberg. The passion of the outsider included when their true value is revealed plays well in stories concerning artificial intelligence (A.I.) and aliens (Close Encounters, E.T.) Those stories resonate in the heart of a man who grew up as the bullied son of Orthodox Jews, who captured stories over and over again that remind us of the deeper things in life.

Jurassic WorldThere’s a freedom in science fiction that you can’t find when you’re telling a historical story. You can’t find it when you’re basing it in reality in the midst of the world the way it really is. It’s much easier to take those truths, those beliefs about the world in its best and worst, and wrap them up in an entertaining tale that takes the personal out of it and lets people consider them. Your audience no longer realizes you’re critiquing them, at least not until it’s too late.

In the long run, I think Spielberg is more sci-fi prophet than historian. I think he uses science fiction the way that Jesus used parables about an agrarian lifestyle. In the long run, I think that’s what makes Spielberg the consummate storyteller. It’s why others want him to executive producer their horribly botched, overloaded CGI insults of film. We want to know truth the way Spielberg sees it: to know with conviction that we’re not alone, that we’re not as bad as we sometimes think we are, that one day the world will be made right again when we recognize that we’re all in this together.

If we can survive the dinosaur attack.