Netflix first timers

From the quarantine zone, it’s time to look at three Netflix films from first time directors that represent the streaming giant’s broad and admirable cinematic ambitions, while also demonstrating it’s often limited stylistic boundaries.

Tigertail

This intimate feature from Alan Yang tells the mostly autobiographical story of his parent’s migration from Taiwan to America. It looks great at times but is often let down by some stiff blocking and editing. This is a kind of story that isn’t often explored with much depth in American films despite the immigrant experience being a keystone of the country’s identity and I appreciate how honest and specific Yang is in depicting the conflicting desires and soul crushing sacrifices of Grover, the man whom life constantly denies human connection as he tries to make a better life for himself. Unfortunately his daughter Angela is oddly underdeveloped which leads to the films emotional climax, which she is a crucial part of, feeling muted. One of the very few films I could have used a bit more of.   

   

Extraction

The set-up of Man on Fire meets the comically high body count of John Wick in a film that lacks the style of either. Written by the Russo’s (Avengers alums) and directed by Sam Hargrave (a stuntman) we follow mercenary Chris Hemsworth (allowed to use his Australian accent for once, hooray!) as he recues the son of a gang leader from another gang leader and tries to get him to safety by mowing down every living thing in sight. Just about everything here is completely perfunctory except the violence, and I wish the film had more fun around the edges instead of pretending to have a thoughtful message or moral backbone.   

While the action scenes are engaging enough to recommend I have to confess that I’m no longer impressed by the faux-one-take Steadicam business that plagues the genre at the moment. There were YouTubers more than five years ago who could execute an extended one-take fistfight or shootout, and I’d rather feature filmmakers get more creative with their shot choice and storytelling instead of falling back on the same trick time and again.

Sergio

This is the first foray into fiction (kind of) films for veteran documentarian Greg Barker, who is sort of adapting his own 2009 documentary about UN diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello into something a bit more sexy. Enter Wagner Moura and Ana de Armas, who spend a lot of the film doing nothing at all interesting, but looking great doing it. Unlike Extraction this film definitely has a point to make, but gets so lost in its own time-hopping narrative that it never lands a hefty enough dramatic blow to make it.

Even more than the other two films, this feels constrained by the populist demands of the Netflix algorithm. Some on-the-nose dialogue and a strange lack of any language that isn’t English (It’s there, but only a word or two at a time) make this feel like its catering to an audience that’s probably just going to re-watch Spencer confidential anyway.  

Spencer confidential by the way, is absolutely fucking terrible.