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Mike Schulz talks with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about how spectacular A Haunting in Venice was to watch, Levora’s personal disdain for Kenneth Branagh notwithstanding. Directed by Branagh from Agatha Christie’s 1969 novel Hallowe’en Party, it is the only work of hers starring her Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (played by Branagh) that hasn’t been adapted for cinema. Part of what made this third outing enjoyable, in contrast to the first two, was that Branagh chose not to employ so many stars for every conceivable role, and thus he was free to scale down the production to something quieter, smarter, spookier, more suspenseful, and thus more effective a film.
This is not to say he’s gone for total unknowns for his actors: The cast includes Kyle Allen, Camille Cottin, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Jude Hill, Ali Khan, Emma Laird, Kelly Reilly, Riccardo Scamarcio, and Michelle Yeoh, and Branagh makes superb use of everyone. He also brought Poirot back down to size, given how the blockbuster status of 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express and 2022’s Death on the Nile made the cerebral Poirot into a fleeter-footed action hero, which was kind of ridiculous to behold. Pitra asked Schulz if this was on his list of the year’s best films, and Schulz gave an unqualified Maybe. The Inventor, Jim Capobianco’s stop-motion animated biographical film about Leonardo da Vinci, was a weirder experience, given the film was pitched toward pre-ads and the subject matter (the final years of da Vinci’s life, when he didn’t want to paint anymore and wanted to focus on inventions) assumes that the kids are as fascinated by Leonardo (and archeology and water-disposal design) as they are. Schulz said he didn’t care for it, “but at least it’s smart.” The film that took everyone by surprise was El Conde, Pablo Larraín’s black-comedy horror, which portrays the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as a 250-year-old vampire sinking self-annihilation. The film, which started streaming last Friday on Netflix, marks an abrupt turn in Larraín cinematic métier, as his previous biopics (2016’s Jackie, about Jacquelin Kennedy Onassis, and 2017’s Spencer, about Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales) didn’t involve vampires. Schulz calls El Conde “a political analogy like crazy, but it is funny as all get out.” Jaime Vadell portrays Pinochet as a vampire who faked his death in 2010 so he can continue to leach off the Chilean people — in this case, literally. Gloria Münchmeyer portrays Lucía Hiriart, his real-life wife, who was in many respects worse than her husband. Rounding out the cast is Alfredo Castro, Paula Luchsinger, Catalina Guerra, Marcial Tagle, Amparo Noguera, Diego Muñoz, Antonia Zegers, Clemente Rodriguez — and Stella Gonet as Find Out for Yourself. Before getting into the previews, Levora informs Schulz that more than half of Netflix’s content is now Netflix original programming, and that Meg 2: The Trench is, thus far, the highest-earning blockbuster film worldwide. Levora expected a reaction from Schulz on either of these points, but his pulse never got above 85. The former bit of news doesn’t impress one, though the latter certainly does; but Schulz explains that the film’s international cast (including a fair number of Chinese actors) and its “Jurassic Shark” story, cheesy though it may be, has proven to have a broader appeal overseas than Stateside. The preview of Expend4bles appears to continue the film’s ludicrous trend of not killing off its major characters, as they might be needed in some foreseeable Expendables sequel down the line (although the talent on hand this go-around — which includes Stallone and Jason Statham, to be sure, but also Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Megan Fox, Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Randy Couture, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran, and Andy García — suggests that the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford, and Mel Gibson have gotten as much out of the franchise as they hoped to get, and may require some jostling by Stallone in order to reconsider). Since the last Expendables was released in 2014, however, it seems that, with each interval, Father Time is thinning out their ranks on his own. (Had Bruce Willis not been struck with frontotemporal dementia, one could have seen him sacking up for this outing.) Schulz expressed excitement at the prospect of Dumb Money, directed by Craig Gillespie from the book The Antisocial Network by Ben Mezrich and starring Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Vincent D’Onofrio, America Ferrera, Nick Offerman, Anthony Ramos, Sebastian Stan, Shailene Woodley, and Seth Rogen. The story concerns the short-squeeze conducted by members of the Reddit page called r/WallStreetBets in 2021 of the stock of the American video-game retailer GameStop. This action had adverse effects among hedge funds and short-sellers, who were betting that GameStop stock would tank, but wound up having to buy more and more of the stock in order to cover their positions, and lost millions in the process. There’s also It Lives Inside, directed by Bishal Dutta and starring Megan Suri, Neeru Bajwa, Mohana Krishnan, Vik Sahay, Gage Marsh, Beatrice Kitsos, and Betty Gabriel. This involves Sam (Suri) a high-school student who wants to be like everyone else, but has to come to terms with her Indian heritage when a Pishach — a flesh-eating demon which figures heavily in Hindu and Buddhist mythologies — inhabits her former best friend. Sounds enchanting! Endearing, even! Can’t wait to see it!