Movie Review

WWII film Shadow in the Cloud mixes genres with iffy results

Chloë Grace Moretz has had quite the career for someone who is just 23 years old. She started at age 7, doing a variety of voice and supporting roles before she broke out as Hit-Girl in 2010’s Kick-Ass. Since then, moviegoers have watched her grow up in films like Let Me In, Hugo, Carrie, Neighbors 2, and The Miseducation of Cameron Post. Now, instead of being a kid acting more mature than her years, she finally gets to play a proper adult in the WWII thriller/horror, Shadow in the Cloud.

Moretz plays Maude Garrett, a mysterious figure who talks her way onto a B-17 bomber flying out of New Zealand. She’s carrying a secret package and claims to be a pilot, much to the derision of the crew. With no other place to sit, she’s forced into the ball turret under the belly of the plane, a claustrophobic area for even experienced fliers.

As the plane continues on its cargo mission, Maude is in the unique position to notice enemy planes and, to her horror, what appears to be a monstrous creature on the wing of the plane. Her questionable credentials and the misogyny of most of the crew cause her warnings to be dismissed, leaving her to fight off attacks on her own.

Directed by Roseanne Liang and written by Liang and Max Landis, the film is as tense as they come during its first half. Liang keeps the camera in the ball turret with Maude, so the audience experiences every fear and frustration right along with her. The rest of the crew exists only as voices on the radio, and their lack of compassion and unwillingness to listen to her is maddening, greatly adding to the tension.

Unfortunately, the film’s second half moves the action outside of the confined space, causing the story to deteriorate. Twists can make or break a narrative, and the ones this film contains let all the air out of the film’s taut storyline. Liang essentially switches the genre of the film from war movie to horror, and that change is not for the best.

In fact, the action turns ridiculous out of nowhere, a neck-snapping shift that’s difficult to reconcile. Because they did such an effective job at setting up Maude’s character in the first half, it’s easier to go along with her actions, no matter how preposterous. However, you have to focus hard on her and the rest of the crew’s humanity to accept everything that happens in the second half.

No matter what, though, Moretz remains a compelling actor. She’s called upon to do everything from subtle face acting to action sequences, and she’s up to the challenge of all of it. The supporting cast includes just one other actor, Nick Robinson, who will be familiar to most viewers, but none of them rise above the clichés of their characters, making it Moretz’s film through-and-through.

There’s enough in the first half of Shadow in the Cloud to recommend it as a fun lark, but it’s disappointing that Liang decided to change things up so drastically in the second half. Thank goodness she had Moretz to save the day, both as an actor and character.

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Shadow in the Cloud is playing in select theaters and on premium video on demand starting January 1.

Chloë Grace Moretz in Shadow in the Cloud.

$Chlo\u00eb Grace Moretz in Shadow in the Cloud$

Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

Chloë Grace Moretz in Shadow in the Cloud.

Movie Review

Daniel Craig shines in Queer, an unapologetic tale of love and loss

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

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Queer is now playing in theaters.

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