Sorry Cary Joji Fukunaga, Maria Schrader beat you in the writing and directing departments this weekend. In fact, let me count the ways…
1. Sex appeal: though the lead character of “I’m Your Man” (Maria Schrader’s film) wears librarian fashions, there is an actual passionate sex scene. Whereas James Bond, with the emotional range of a Koala, simply has an implied sex scene.
2. Plot: there wasn’t one surprise for me in “No Time to Die” while I had no idea where “I’m Your Man” was going to go.
2A. Ethics and Morality: Ok, I know Bond isn’t known for ethics, but if you’re going to pass the torch from Craig to….who knows? then perhaps throw in a better platitude than, Rami’s ‘eye for an eye’ mentality. It’s ok that many cancel culture folks are running around like it’s still biblical times (or Scarlet Letter times-19th Century), but let’s let our fictional characters rise above the banal.
In I’m Your Man, Schrader calls a spade a spade and reveal that robots are sometimes more capable of intuitive caring and gray nuance than actual modern day humans…aka the main character Alma, is blind to her own pain, drinking and stuffing it away in anger, while her robot pal knows better than to have sex with a drunken angry woman just because she says she wants it.
3. Antagonist: Rami Malek should have signed what every great actor should: a pledge to never sink to playing stupid super hero type roles after they’ve nailed a higher caliber role, aka Freddie Mercury. I’ll name it the REFUSE TO SELL MYSELF OUT pledge. Meanwhile, in “I’m Your Man”, the antagonist is actually the main character who shows layered self-destructive elements with hope of evolution.
4. Acting: In fact, Dan Stevens shows more emotional range playing a robot than Rami shows playing a demented criminal. Maren Eggert glows with more inner beauty and soul than suped up Ana de Armas.
5. Music: Melina Fessmann’s (I’m Your Man) choice of unique piano scores as well as swanky Berlin’s Puttin on the Ritz added depth to an already deep movie. Meanwhile Hans Zimmer (No Time To Die)(I know he’s famous) didn’t do much for me (I could have used movement of some sort).
The only plus side ‘score’ No time To Die gets is:
1.Special effects: I loved the machine gun attack on the sports car where Lea Seydoux begs Daniel Craig to do something. Whereas, the special effects in “I’m Your Man” seemed half baked and clunky (when she can whimsically put her hand through holograms or the robot does an odd non-human backward stretch before bed).
But 5 to 1 means Germans (and women) win the day! No Time To Cry Amigos!
Germans and Women win the weekend film contest: No Time To Cry
