Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Review

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

Dir: Joachim Rønning

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Warwick Davis, and Michelle Pfeiffer

A group of men are walking through a dark and mystical forest carrying lanterns. They are entering a forbidden territory in hopes of stealing something magical for the human world. Before these trespassing men can accomplish their goal, they are confronted through the shadows by a horned creature with fiery eyes, massive wings, and glowing green supernatural powers. 

While this may sound like a perfect premise for a spooky Halloween movie, this introduction, the scariest moment of this otherwise overly tame fairytale, belongs to Disney’s sequel “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”. Angelina Jolie, returning as the re-envisioned villain who demonstrates more heart and sympathy than anger and vengeance, brings a calm yet intimidating demeanor to the iconic villain of the animated “Sleeping Beauty”. 

Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) and her goddaughter Aurora (Elle Fanning) have been living a peaceful existence. Aurora is the ruler of an enchanted land, a forest-like domain where fairies fly with water droplets and fields of glowing dandelions grow in majesty. Aurora becomes engaged to Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson) which disrupts the already complicated bound with Maleficent. The ensuing nuptials bring about the hope of peace between the human and fairy world, however, Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer) has other devious plans in mind for Maleficent and Aurora. 

Director Joachim Rønning, who last helmed 2017’s “Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Men Tell No Tales”, handles the difficult task of continuing the story, which seemingly didn’t need a sequel, of the Disney villainess. Though the cause for story continuation here is assisted by three extremely talented actors who are doing their absolute best to bring life to this familiar tale. 

The role of Maleficent seems tailored for Angelina Jolie, her grin is especially utilized with numerous emotions fluctuating throughout. Unfortunately, much of the character development in this film is a retread from themes from the first film, still, there are a few moments where Jolie is provided room to expand the character. Elle Fanning adds some much-needed character charm to the film with Aurora, the character becomes the vessel for peace between two worlds, the primary conflict of the film. Michelle Pfeiffer is a good choice to counter Jolie here, she plays evil with glee in almost every scene.

Unfortunately, all these great actors are stuck in a film without a strong narrative standpoint. While the film is aiming to display themes of accepting differences and embracing family in whatever form it may take, these components are often undercut by the need to adhere to the familiar fairytale, storybook steps. There are a few interesting moments involving the evolution of Maleficent, which allows the character to find the emotional conflict to bridge towards the finale. And whenever Maleficent is allowed to be vulnerable, which doesn’t happen enough, the film finds its stride in displaying its core theme of embracing difference and the dedication one has to family.  

“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” has a great cast who are stuck within a story that never allows them to grow into anything different from everything we already know them as.  This doesn’t help the journey this sequel is trying to promote but instead makes it seem somewhat one-note which is unfortunate when you have such a unique character like Maleficent, played by a dedicated Angelina Jolie, holding the frame.

Monte’s Rating

2.25 out of 5.00

The Neon Demon Review

The Neon Demon

Dir: Nicolas Winding Refn

Starring: Elle Fanning, Jena Malone, Keanu Reeves, Christina Hendricks, Karl Glusman, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, and Desmond Harrington

117 Minutes

Amazon Studios

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. This statement could not be truer for Nicolas Winding Refn’s new film “The Neon Demon”, a stylish, patient, perplexing, frustrating, arduous journey into the world of an aspiring 16-year-old model in Los Angeles. “The Neon Demon” is unlike any other film playing in the theater this summer, the fact that this film is getting a wide release is fantastic because it should be seen in the theatrical presentation but it’s also a little troublesome because this is NOT a film for the everyday film fan. I also don’t believe that it is a film for every Nicolas Winding Refn fan.

Mr. Refn’s last film “Only God Forgives” seems to have been a practice run for this film. And while both films offer some of the best photography and overall design seen in recent films, they are also equally experiments with varying degrees of success. And while I completely agree that pushing the boundaries and challenging the limits of the film form are the only ways to expand the art of filmmaking, this also comes with a heavy risk. What people connect with from a film like this, one that requires a fair amount of patience during extended/slow building scenes, one that portrays topics like cannibalism and necrophilia as metaphorical and melodramatic, one that shows you the grotesque side of beauty through the eyes of an underage teenager, these elements all compose diverse results as displayed by the screening audience that was a mix of walk-outs, angry Refn fans, confused cinephiles with equal amounts of positive and negative feedback. The beauty here is clearly found with the individual.

The story on the surface is very basic. A young girl named Jesse (Elle Fanning) arrives in Los Angeles, no detailed backstory or purpose is given, she just arrives in a big city with aspirations of becoming a model. Like an innocent sheep wandering alone in dangerous territory the wolves quickly sense her intrusion. Here the wolves are abundant in the form of an amused makeup artist (Jena Malone), two established models (Bella Heathcote and Abbey Lee), and an aggressive hotel manager (Keanu Reeves).

What is this movie about? The loss of innocence? The corruption of fame? The desire to be admired? The obsession with image and beauty? A coming-of-age film aimed at the peak of misguided influences for young woman? Yes, it's about all of that and more. What Mr. Refn does with "The Neon Demon" is more spectacle and less story, he looks at obsession through slow motion scenes that are drawn out to frustrating levels, he blatantly and viscously paints exploitive scenes of sex and violence influenced by Alejandro Jodoworsky, he dabbles with pacing and atmosphere in the ways David Lynch has perfected, he would much rather push the viewer towards annoyance than offer an easy answer for the style and contorted substance. It achieves moments that are grandiose and grotesque, playing with film techniques and genre applications with equal parts feeling influenced by a master of the craft and a student of the form. There were moments when I absolutely admired what I was watching and times when I strongly questioned why things were happening.

Elle Fanning transforms throughout the film in the lead role, her movement is at one moment timid and then suddenly assertive. Ms. Fanning’s performance, along with a confident Jena Malone, completely supports all the artistic paths ventured throughout the film.

“The Neon Demon” is an artistically absurd, stunningly rendered film that will find both high praise and harsh criticism from those that watch it. Regardless of the sentiments that it provokes, it is still a daring, bold, and clearly uncompromised film from a director pushing the limits of the film art form.

Monte’s Rating

3.25 out of 5.00