ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Hollywood is breathing a sigh of relief after "Wicked" plus the "Gladiator" and "Moana" sequels have finally brought audiences back to cinemas. Now the trick will be to keep the momentum going, as critic Bob Mondello explains in his year-end movie preview.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: When in doubt, go with what works. Conflict seems to be working at the moment between green and pink witches, between gladiators and emperors. So how about between fathers and sons...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KRAVEN THE HUNTER")
AARON TAYLOR-JOHNSON: (As Sergei Kravinoff) My father puts evil into the world.
MONDELLO: ...In Marvel's "Kraven The Hunter"?
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KRAVEN THE HUNTER")
TAYLOR-JOHNSON: (As Sergei Kravinoff) I take it out.
MONDELLO: Kraven's a supervillain who you underestimate at your peril.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KRAVEN THE HUNTER")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) There's six of us and only one of you.
TAYLOR-JOHNSON: (As Sergei Kravinoff) There's six of you now.
MONDELLO: Unlike the Marvel comic's Kraven, the Marvel movie Kraven gets his powers through tainted blood, a notion with a long history in movies - a notion that started, in fact, with the legend visionary director Robert Eggers will be revisiting for the holidays.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "NOSFERATU")
LILY-ROSE DEPP: (As Ellen Hutter) He is coming.
WILLEM DAFOE: (As Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz) Who's coming to you, my child?
DEPP: (As Ellen Hutter, screaming).
DAFOE: (As Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz) We are here encountering the vampire, Nosferatu.
MONDELLO: Meanwhile, in Middle Earth, there's a story set a century before "The Lord Of The Rings" stories we know.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM")
BRIAN COX: (As Helm Hammerhand) Riders of the Mark, brothers of Rohan, arise.
MONDELLO: Peter Jackson's involved but only as a producer in the animated "Lord Of The Rings: War Of The Rohirrim." For a tale of the Trojan War, there's "The Return."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE RETURN")
RALPH FIENNES: (As Odysseus) What will the people say when they see I have returned alone, but I led all their men to their deaths?
MONDELLO: Ralph Fiennes is Greek warrior Odysseus - Juliette Binoche, Penelope, the wife he left behind.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE RETURN")
JULIETTE BINOCHE: (As Penelope) How can men find a war, but not find their way home?
FIENNES: (As Odysseus) For some, war becomes home.
MONDELLO: And for some, war becomes a reason to leave home. In "Oh, Canada," Richard Gere plays a man trying to recall on camera how he avoided serving in Vietnam. The problem? He has Alzheimer's.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "OH, CANADA")
MICHAEL IMPERIOLI: (As Malcolm) He's mixing things together - memories, films, fantasies, other people's stories.
RICHARD GERE: (As Leo Fife) You're talking about me like I'm not in the room. I can hear you.
MONDELLO: Then there are wars to come, the one depicted in "The Order"...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE ORDER")
TYE SHERIDAN: (As Jamie Bowen) White Separatists, raging a race war against the United States government.
MONDELLO: ...And two post-war apocalypses...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HOMESTEAD")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Los Angeles has been struck by a bomb.
MONDELLO: ..."Homestead"...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HOMESTEAD")
BAILEY CHASE: (As Jeff Eriksson) This might be the most prepared location in the Rockies. Everyone's going to want in. And I mean everyone.
MONDELLO: ...And "The End," which has much the same premise but deals with it musically.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE END")
MOSES INGRAM: (As Girl, singing) When I close my eyes...
GEORGE MACKAY: (As Son) When I was little, people came.
MICHAEL SHANNON: Sometimes they seemed nice. But it always ended in the same way - they'd try and kill us every time.
INGRAM: (As Girl, singing) Forever.
MONDELLO: Is that maybe too much on-screen warfare when there's so much conflict in real life? Well, there are certainly films without fighting, a couple of intriguing musician biopics...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "A COMPLETE UNKNOWN")
TIMOTHEE CHALAMET: (As Bob Dylan) They say no wants to hear what a kid wrote last month.
ELLE FANNING: (As Sylvie Russo) Well, I like your songs.
MONDELLO: ..."A Complete Unknown" with Timothee Chalamet acting and singing as folk singer Bob Dylan.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "A COMPLETE UNKNOWN")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) Who wrote this?
DAN FOGLER: (As Albert Grossman) He did.
CHALAMET: (As Bob Dylan, singing) If you go when snowflakes storm...
MONDELLO: The boy bander biopic, "Better Man," is less conventional.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BETTER MAN")
ROBBIE WILLIAMS: (As Robbie Williams) I know what you're thinking. What's with the monkey?
MONDELLO: The director of "The Greatest Showman" has used computer graphics to picture his leading man...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BETTER MAN")
WILLIAMS: (As Robbie Williams) I'm Robbie Williams.
MONDELLO: ...As a chimpanzee.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BETTER MAN")
WILLIAMS: (As Robbie Williams) I'm one of the biggest pop stars in the world, but I've always seen myself a little less evolved.
MONDELLO: Give the man his concept. The musical numbers still pop, and the chimp has Robbie Williams' eyes, so there's emotion - also true of some other real-life dramas, including "Los Frikis," about Cuban punk rock musicians who did something almost unfathomable in the 1990s. Looking for musical independence and a way out of poverty, they deliberately infected themselves with HIV.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LOS FRIKIS")
EROS DE LA PUENTE: (As Gustavo, non-English language spoken).
MONDELLO: That got them admitted to an isolated, government-run sanatorium, where for a time, they formed their own utopian community.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LOS FRIKIS")
HECTOR MEDINA: (As Paco, non-English language spoken).
MONDELLO: Less extreme and considerably more inspiring are two sagas centering sports icons - "Unstoppable" about NCWA wrestler Anthony Robles, who was born with just one leg...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "UNSTOPPABLE")
JHARREL JEROME: (As Anthony Robles) When people look at me, the first thing they see is what's missing. If I win...
JENNIFER LOPEZ: (As Judy Robles) They don't see someone who's missing a leg. They see someone who is unstoppable.
MONDELLO: ...Also, "The Fire Inside" about Flint, Michigan's Olympic and then professional boxer, Claressa "T-Rex" Shields.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE FIRE INSIDE")
SARAH ALLEN: USA Boxing hasn't won a gold medal since 2004.
BRIAN TYREE HENRY: (As Jason Crutchfield) Yeah, well none of them boxers was Claressa, was they?
MONDELLO: Another story based in real life is "The Six Triple Eight."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT")
KERRY WASHINGTON: (As Major Charity Adams) Soldiers, you must be perfect. You do not have the luxury to be good. You have the burden to be better.
MONDELLO: "The Six Triple Eight" is about the only all-woman unit of color to serve overseas in World War II.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT")
WASHINGTON: (As Major Charity Adams) We have the most to prove.
MONDELLO: Real-life stories aren't the only ones dealing with prejudice. An adaptation of the Pulitzer-winning novel "Nickel Boys" brings stunning visuals and varying perspectives to the tale of Black teens savagely abused by a Florida reformatory.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "NICKEL BOYS")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) You really don't remember.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) I don't know what more you want me to remember.
MONDELLO: "Nickel Boys" is considered an Oscar frontrunner, as is "The Brutalist" about a Jewish architect who finds both opportunity and antisemitism after World War II.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BRUTALIST")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As character) Welcome to America.
MONDELLO: A few decades later in Munich, at the 1972 Olympics, an ABC sports team finds itself chronicling a terrorist attack in the thriller "September 5."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SEPTEMBER 5")
BEN CHAPLIN: There's a hostage situation going on right now in the Olympic Village.
SOLOMON MOUSLEY: (As Roone's Assistant) ABC wants news to take over.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #7: (As character) You're sports. You're in way over your head.
PETER SARSGAARD: (As Roone Arledge) We are the only people capable of following it live. This is our story, and we're keeping it.
MONDELLO: Other possible awards contenders include both actresses in Pedro Almodovar's first feature film in English. "The Room Next Door" has Tilda Swinton's terminal cancer patient asking a final favor of friend Julianne Moore.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE ROOM NEXT DOOR")
TILDA SWINTON: (As Martha) I will not go out in mortifying anguish.
JULIANNE MOORE: (As Ingrid) I don't know what to say.
SWINTON: (As Martha) I'm hoping you'll say yes.
MOORE: (As Ingrid) Yes to what?
MONDELLO: And in the erotic thriller, "Babygirl," Nicole Kidman plays a high-powered executive who's thrown off stride by an intern.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BABYGIRL")
NICOLE KIDMAN: (As Romy) Hey. How'd you get that dog to calm down?
HARRIS DICKINSON: (As Samuel) I gave it a cookie.
KIDMAN: (As Romy) You always have cookies on you?
DICKINSON: (As Samuel) Why? Do you want one?
MONDELLO: He keeps pushing buttons she didn't know she had, and she likes it. Then there's the story of Pansy who doesn't like anything...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HARD TRUTHS")
MARIANNE JEAN-BAPTISTE: (As Pansy) People - can't stand them.
MONDELLO: ...In Mike Leigh's "Hard Truths." She's depressed and feels powerless, so she's forever lashing out.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HARD TRUTHS")
JEAN-BAPTISTE: (As Pansy) Oh, over there with that fat baby - not dressed for the weather, nah. With pockets - what's the baby got pockets for? What's it going to keep in its pocket?
MONDELLO: If all this seems kind of dark, rest assured there will be comedies to compensate - from a misguided romance called "Young Werther"...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "YOUNG WERTHER")
DOUGLAS BOOTH: (As Werther) I met the girl I want to spend the rest of my life with, so there is no way I'm just going to leave town and let her stupid fiancé have her.
MONDELLO: ...To the feminist body horror comedy with a title I'm not allowed to say on the air, in which Amy Adams gets in touch with her canine instincts.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "NIGHTB****")
AMY ADAMS: (As Mother) Look at my teeth. See how sharp they are?
SCOOT MCNAIRY: (As Husband) This is a little bit weird.
JESSICA HARPER: (As Norma) Motherhood can connect you to some primal urges.
ADAMS: (As Mother) I'm pretty sure I'm turning into a dog.
MONDELLO: Is that enough of a hint about the title? And remember when folks thought all the world's computers would have trouble shifting from the year 1999 to 2000? Well, in the movie, "Y2K," they do.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "Y2K")
BILL CLINTON: (As self) We will experience no major national breakdown - breakdown, breakdown, breakdown, breakdown...
MONDELLO: And, of course, family films are sunny, even when they don't sound that way - "Sonic The Hedgehog 3," for instance.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3")
BEN SCHWARTZ: (As Sonic) We got a rogue alien on the loose. How do we find it?
COLLEEN O'SHAUGHNESSEY: (As Tails) Start with the giant fireball?
SCHWARTZ: (As Sonic) I love it. Let's start with the giant fireball.
MONDELLO: A fireball that leads them directly to Keanu Reeves.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3")
KEANU REEVES: (As Shadow) You're a colorful bunch.
SCHWARTZ: (As Sonic) We don't want to fight you.
IDRIS ELBA: (As Knuckles) Actually, Sonic, I would like to fight.
MONDELLO: And then there's the prequel you didn't know you wanted.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MUFASA: THE LION KING")
JOHN KANI: (As Rafiki) Long before they became legends, Mufasa and the prince who would come to be known as Scar became brothers.
THANDIWE NEWTON: (As Eshe) Now, both of you go. Find your place in the circle of life.
MONDELLO: While all of us go find our place at our local cinema. I'm Bob Mondello. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
