Tag: Movie Review

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Unlikely triumphs: Our critic picks his favorite films of 2017

Jordan Peele’s directorial debut Get Out is at the top of fans’ and critics’ lists for 2017. Courtesy Universal Pictures

In movies, as in life, it was quite a year of highs and lows. These are our favorite films of 2017.

Get Out

As social commentary, as a horror movie that connected with an incredible amount of people, as a directorial debut for Jordan Peele—any way you look at it, Get Out was a huge achievement for independent film and for intelligent, layered stories with societal messages. The world already loved Peele for his comedy; with Get Out, we discovered that we need him for his insight.

Colossal

This was a year of unlikely triumphs, of which Nacho Vigalondo’s Colossal is the most unexpected. A thoughtful, funny film about very serious psychological issues—alcoholism, depression, self-loathing, projecting one’s own failures onto anyone who happens to be nearby—framed in one of the most bizarre narratives of 2017 that plays the absurdity completely straight-faced. If you let this one slip by you, definitely check it out.

A Ghost Story

A Ghost Story made mocking headlines for an extended, unbroken shot in which Rooney Mara sits on the kitchen floor and eats an entire pie. There, we said it, yuck it up, now let’s talk about what a powerful meditation on life and its meaning (or lack of it) this is, and how phenomenal it is that writer-director David Lowery feels as at ease with a noncommercial passion project as he does with a big-budget Disney remake (Pete’s Dragon).

Menashe

By all accounts, Menashe shouldn’t exist. A Yiddish-language movie filmed in New York’s ultra Orthodox Jewish community featuring a cast of first-time actors, many of whom had never set foot in a movie theater until the premiere, combined with the fact that it’s this great, makes it even more stunning. Starring Menashe Lustig in a story partially inspired by his own life, Menashe follows its lead character as he works to prove his worthiness as a father to his son, a year after the death of his wife. Simple, elegant, heartwarming, and one of the year’s must-sees.

Lucky

The last film of the legendary Harry Dean Stanton would be notable no matter what, but the sort of astonishing match between actor and material on the level of Lucky is quite rare. Stanton stars as a man in a small desert town who lives day to day on almost exactly the same routine. As we get to know Lucky better and witness the events of the doom, we see how those patterns became so important to him as they begin to break, but never in a tragic way. A lovely film with one of the year’s best performances.

Dunkirk

Christopher Nolan delivers the most powerful film of his career with Dunkirk, the story of a military defeat by the British that resulted in an astonishing evacuation and in turn inspired a generation to persevere in the fight against fascism in the early days of World War II. The film is told as a triptych, three interlocking stories spanning different lengths that are stylistically and thematically linked. Dunkirk is a technically sophisticated film without an ounce of self-indulgent spectacle, dedicated to the bravery of the soldiers on that beach and those who risked their lives to rescue them.

First They Killed My Father

Angelina Jolie’s film about the rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia is a fascinating, humanizing. look at totalitarianism and the human cost when squabbling superpowers use innocent nations as proxies. Told from the point of view of a young girl at the very beginning of the regime, she experiences all of the horrors of war—forced labor and being enlisted as a child soldier—while being subjected to empty propaganda day and night. Though it can be difficult to watch, the intent is to truly understand this moment in history from a philosophical and humanistic point of view, including its roots in the Cold War and America’s disastrous Southeast Asian foreign policy.

Lady Bird

In a year of strong directorial debuts, Greta Gerwig’s coming-of-age tale stands out as one of the best and most sophisticated of the bunch. The title character, played by Saoirse Ronan, is in her senior year of high school and is in a hurry to let go of everything that has defined her: friends, interests, academic life, her name and especially her mother, played by Laurie Metcalf. Funny, poignant, brutally honest and boasting a career-high performance by Metcalf, Lady Bird should sit at the top of your watchlist.

Wind River

The power of Wind River comes in its clarity of mission and total understanding of every inch of its subject matter. Though narratively a procedural about the pursuit of the men who raped and murdered a young woman on the Wind River Indian Reservation, it is also an examination of the continued legacy of American colonialism on all parties affected. A tracker (Jeremy Renner) and an FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) join Tribal Police (Graham Greene) in the hunt. Refreshingly, all are great at their job; Olsen’s character is new to the region but she is an excellent agent, Greene does the best he can with the limitations his department faces, and Renner feels connected to the land despite being a perpetual outsider. A remarkable work in an already exceptional year.

John Wick: Chapter 2

Good filmmaking is good filmmaking, okay? There are some deep sociopolitical statements on this list, but in the end, movies are all about how well you can tell a story with the resources you have. In the case of John Wick: Chapter 2, those resources are some of the best technicians in the industry and the most committed and disciplined American movie star possibly in history. Much has been made of Keanu Reeves’ stiffness as an actor, but there is no question that this man belongs on the screen delivering remarkable physical performances. The stakes are ramped up from the previous installment as is the craftsmanship, turning what was a fun action flick into a franchise that could bring the best of Hong Kong genre cinema stateside.

Playing this week

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
377 Merchant Walk Sq., 326-5056

Ferdinand, The Greatest Showman, Pitch Perfect 3, The Shape of Water, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, The Violent Years 

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

All The Money In The World, Coco, Darkest Hour, Downsizing, Father Figures, Ferdinand, The Greatest Showman, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Pitch Perfect 3, Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

All The Money In The World, Darkest Hour, Downsizing, Father Figures, The Greatest Showman, Human Flow, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Pitch Perfect 3, The Shape of Water, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Three Billboards Ouside Ebbing, Missouri

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Arts

Movie review: The Shape of Water flows around distractions

In The Shape of Water, Sally Hawkins plays a janitor at a secret research laboratory who engages in an extraordinary romance with a man-fish creature. Photo courtesyTwentieth Century Fox

You can always tell the parts of a film that directors feel personally attached to by what hits the viewer on an emotional level—and what doesn’t make sense on any level. With The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro transports us to a world where love between two outcasts—a woman and a misunderstood amphibious man-fish creature—can heal, not only their own suffering and alienation, but the social ills and intolerance around them. The director also delivers a bloated, irrelevant narrative with obvious twists and on-the-nose societal commentary that’ll bore you to hell and make you wonder why you bothered with this movie until the fish-love comes back.

The Shape of Water
R, 132 minutes
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Violet Crown Cinema

The former boasts exceptional performances, inspired direction and wholly unique set pieces. The latter, well, boasts the opposite. The Shape of Water is both, and your mileage with it will vary depending on how powerful you find the main plot and how distracting you find everything else.

The Shape of Water takes place in 1960s Baltimore against the backdrop of the Cold War. Sally Hawkins stars as Elisa Esposito, a janitor at a top-secret research facility where everyone shouts about how top secret everything is with the doors wide open, and the custodians have sufficient clearance to spend their lunch breaks among all the top-secret stuff.

Elisa is mute, speaking in signs with her two closest friends: Giles (Richard Jenkins), a closeted man who works as a commercial artist, and her co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer). One day, Colonel Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon) arrives with a top-secret specimen (again, while making not such a big secret), which turns out to be our man-fish (Doug Jones). Their experiments border on torture, which angers scientist Robert Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg).

Elisa quickly bonds with the creature. It is kind to her and she to it. She teaches it occasional signs and brings extra hard boiled eggs for it during lunch. Gradually, their affection becomes unambiguously romantic; this ain’t Beauty and the Beast—the creature is not secretly a man and has no conflict about its appearance. That del Toro crafts such a fairy tale without sidestepping is to his credit; he does not avoid the sexual component of this relationship. The creature is not beastly, and though the initial stages of the romance are rushed (as is most of the plot), once it has been established, their love is completely believable, thanks to del Toro’s clear interest in how movie monsters reflect the truth of ourselves back at us.

All told, this portion of the movie takes up about one-third of the too-long runtime. The rest is filled with inspired but directionless sideplots (Giles’ flirtation with the waiter at a nearby diner), baffling Cold War commentary (the totally extraneous presence of Soviet spies, featuring the worst spoken Russian in a movie since The Boondock Saints), and insultingly thin supporting characters. Spencer and Shannon are both committed performers who have proven themselves time and time again—why are they constantly relegated to being the sassy friend or the authoritarian Bible thumper?

Everyone does their best with the script—Stuhlbarg and Jenkins in particular breathe life into their roles—but the star of the show is Hawkins, who shines at every single moment in a completely dialogue-free performance. Not a single glance or movement is wasted, and is performed without a trace of overacting, even in the elevated reality of the film’s universe.

It is clearly the film del Toro set out to make without an ounce of compromise, and for that it should be applauded. But whether or not you enjoy The Shape of Water will depend on how you balance the essential with the disposable.

Playing this week

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
377 Merchant Walk Sq., 326-5056

Ferdinand, The Greatest Showman,Pitch Perfect 3, Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

All The Money In The World, Coco, Darkest Hour, Downsizing, Father Figures, Ferdinand, The Greatest Showman, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Pitch Perfect 3, Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

All The Money In The World, Darkest Hour, Downsizing, Father Figures, The Greatest Showman, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Categories
Arts

Movie review: The Last Jedi is a force to be reckoned with

Daisy Ridley returns as Rey in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Courtesy Disney PIctures

Not only is Star Wars: The Last Jedi the best entry in the series since 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, it may well be the first to truly break new cinematic ground since the 1977 original. Writer-director Rian Johnson (Brick, Looper, the best episodes of “Breaking Bad”) employs the full arsenal of what a science fiction space opera can be without appearing stylistically or narratively held back by any of the previous films. Callbacks are at a minimum, the famous Lucas wipes between scenes are totally gone, and any instances of fanservice advance the story without pandering. Star Wars was rebooted two years ago, but now it’s back.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi
PG-13, 152 minutes
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX and Violet Crown Cinema

All of this trailblazing is fitting for a tale based on realizing that one’s destiny may be to bury the past and rebuild rather than to correct the failures of those who came before. At the end of The Force Awakens, we see Luke Skywalker living as a hermit on an isolated island on a planet in a remote corner of the galaxy. Rey (Daisy Ridley) hands him the light saber he used to accomplish feats that have become the stuff of legend, and the silent stare he gives speaks volumes. When we meet him in The Last Jedi, he promptly throws that cherished relic over his shoulder, having come to the conclusion that he is anything but a legend, that he must die in isolation and take the entire memory of the Jedi Order with him. Luke becomes a mentor to Rey, but not the same sort that Yoda was to him; despite Rey’s obvious talent and determination, Luke is attempting to show the truth of the Force, that it will continue to exist without the Jedi and their supposed failures, including his own that led Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) to fully embrace the dark side.

Meanwhile, the First Order is closing in on the last remnants of the Resistance. General Leia’s (Carrie Fisher) goal is to reach safety, when Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), against orders, turns what was a defensive maneuver into a full-on counter-strike, destroying an enemy dreadnought but suffering massive casualties in doing so. After fleeing, the forces led by General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) are somehow able to track the escaping ships through light speed, essentially rendering all further escape attempts useless. Leia is incapacitated by a subsequent strike, so it is up to Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo (Laura Dern) to bring them to safety while Finn (John Boyega) and maintenance worker Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) attempt a much riskier mission behind her back.

Even if you can predict what happens next, even if the film has been spoiled for you, it won’t matter because The Last Jedi delivers on every level. Johnson draws as much on Kurosawa as he does on Lucas and J.J. Abrams, breathing new life into what a battle involving blasters, light sabers and AT-AT walkers can be. Johnson juxtaposes nihilism with hope, and asks whether anyone can be truly free when they are locked in such an eternal battle, regardless of whether they’re on the “good” side. To accomplish this artistically, he fuses elements of Western films, 1960s science fiction, classic World War II movies and the best Samurai showdown since the 1970s, to make something new, just as Lucas synthesized his own vision from many influences decades ago. It looks marvelous, the occasional comedy is natural without a hint of self-deprecation, and every character is vital. I even liked the porgs.

Playing this week

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
377 Merchant Walk Sq., 326-5056

Coco, The Disaster Artist, Ferdinand, The Greatest Showman

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

Ferdinand, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

Coco, The Disaster Artist

Categories
Arts

Movie review: The Disaster Artist is a zany success

James Franco directs and stars in The Disaster Artist, a true story about a quirky fame-seeker who has made an unusual mark on Hollywood. Photo courtesy of A24

Not many people are able to fail their way to success, to turn what ought to have been their most humiliating defeat into fame and profit. Then again, Tommy Wiseau is not most people. A perplexing mix of sincerity and complete mystery, Wiseau gained notoriety as the writer, director, producer and star of what is widely considered the Citizen Kane of bad movies, The Room.

Released in 2003, The Room is a full-throated examination of betrayal committed by friends and loved ones against an unsuspecting man whose only sin was trusting too much—just executed with no understanding of what makes for good filmmaking or even a semi-logical narrative, with gargantuan plot holes, strange characters with stranger relationships to one another and baffling artistic decisions that would leave even the least savvy filmgoer scratching his head. To watch The Room is to marvel at a grown person of presumably sound mind making really bad decisions, while remaining confident and oblivious to how it’s going. It’s not just a beautiful trainwreck, it’s like watching an engineer who sees the same wreck approaching but somehow doesn’t know he is supposed to prevent it, and it’s that remarkable naiveté that separates it from other bad movies.

The Disaster Artist
R, 98 minutes
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX and Violet Crown Cinema

Naturally, the making of such a spectacle is an interesting story in its own right, as chronicled in James Franco’s The Disaster Artist, adapted from the memoir of the same name written by Wiseau’s friend and co-star in The Room, Greg Sestero. The film focuses on the friendship between Wiseau (James Franco) and Sestero (Dave Franco), which began in a San Francisco acting class. Timid yet driven, Sestero is drawn to Wiseau’s fearlessness in his performances (even if they’re never particularly good), and the two form a bond over their shared dream of becoming a Hollywood movie star. The pair move to Los Angeles to find their destiny, and eventually decide to make their own movie to spite Sestero’s unresponsive agents and Wiseau’s judgmental reception.

Along the way, we come to know Wiseau, or at least as much as he will let us. Clearly of Eastern European origin, he claims to be from New Orleans (which he can hardly even pronounce). He is cagey about his age, and though he barely seems to work, he is somehow a multimillionaire with apartments in both San Francisco and Los Angeles. He waltzes into directing, financially overprepared, having bought all his own equipment and hired experienced professionals with enough budget to film well past the original schedule, yet is logistically, artistically and emotionally out to sea at all times.

The Disaster Artist does an excellent job of humanizing a figure that could easily have been a target for nonstop mockery—as the real Wiseau was in screenings across the country. Wiseau did not suddenly emerge this way, his personality and quirks were forged over a life of what appears to be insecurity and real trauma. That would explain the unmotivated anguish of The Room; the raw nerve in him is real, even if he lacks the craft to express it. He is clearly jealous of the young, handsome, all-American Sestero, becoming embittered when he finds a girlfriend, threatening their life together as roommates. Wiseau even sabotages a real opportunity for Sestero because it would mean taking a day off of production.

As a director, Franco has examined Hollywood myths before, recreating the supposedly too-explicit footage edited from Cruising in Interior. Leather Bar. But as a filmmaker, he shows new maturity with The Disaster Artist by placing characters and emotional relationships first and jokes second. His performance is astonishingly committed, at times hilarious and hideous. It is at times distracting that Dave resembles his brother in a non-relative role, but the two work off of one another so well it eventually ceases to matter.

It will help if you’ve seen The Room before The Disaster Artist, but as long as you believe that this man and movie are real—difficult though it may be—you will find it’s an engaging and entertaining experience.

Playing this week

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
377 Merchant Walk Sq., 326-5056

Coco, Justice League, Lady Bird, Love Actually, Murder on the Orient Express, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Wonder

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

Coco, Daddy’s Home 2, Just Getting Started, Justice League, Lady Bird, LBJ, Murder on the Orient Express, My Friend Dahmer, Roman J. Israel, Esq., The Star, Thor: Ragnarok, Wonder

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

Coco, Justice League, Lady Bird, Murder on the Orient Express, The Man Who Invented Christmas, Novitiate, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Thor: Ragnarok, Wonder

Categories
Arts

Movie review: Frances McDormand is riveting in Three Billboards

In Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Frances McDormand plays a grief-stricken mother who will not be ignored. Expect the awards to pile up. Courtesy Fox Searchlight

Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri isn’t the only story about the blurred lines between doing the right thing and making a bad situation worse, but it’s the only one that matters. McDonagh has made a career of pitch-black satires that find the humor and humanity in characters who are experiencing genuine torment—the regret and shame of In Bruges, the addiction and mourning of Seven Psychopaths—and making Three Billboards is the next logical step thematically and stylistically. Featuring his finest writing to date, and brought to life by one of the best ensemble casts assembled this year, Three Billboards belongs on every cinephile’s awards season must-watch list.

The story follows Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand), a mother in the titular town who lost her daughter in a horrific crime less than a year ago. Mildred buys three long-forgotten billboards to remind the world and demand action. They read, in sequence, “Raped while dying,” “And still no arrests,” “How come, Chief Willoughby?”

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
R, 115 minutes
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and Violet Crown Cinema

The effects of the billboards are immediately felt in Ebbing—some desired, some less so, but as Mildred notes, there is more activity on the case now than when the crime occurred. Some question directly naming Willoughby, a pillar of the community and a trusted law enforcement official. Willoughby himself, played by Woody Harrelson, is initially troubled by this—it is a case with no leads and no actionable evidence—but he does believe Mildred has a right to justice and respects her personally a great deal. Officer Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell), however, doesn’t take kindly to Mildred’s gesture, which is fine, as most people don’t take too kindly to Dixon, an oaf still living under the roof and influence of his racist mother.

Like any satire that deals in heavy subject matter, nothing that the characters endure is the object of mockery or punchlines. McDonagh aims his wit directly at the manner in which people behave—good and bad—when pushed to their extremes. As we get to know Mildred, we learn exactly how the confrontational nature of the billboards is entirely in line with her character. She is a force of nature unto herself and always has been, and McDormand’s depiction shows her loving and loyal side without using it to dull the character’s edge, as might have happened in lesser films. When she curses out friends and foes alike, it is pure poetry in both McDonagh’s writing and McDormand’s delivery, and would have been worth the price of the ticket alone had the rest of the film not been as intelligent. This is the role of a lifetime in an already underrated career for McDormand, and any nomination slate this awards season that does not feature her name can be summarily ignored.

The presence of Harrelson and Rockwell is a terrific example of casting both into and against type. Willoughby is a frank yet caring officer, perfectly suited to Harrelson’s soothing cadence and graceful ability to find humor in tragedy and vice versa. Rockwell is a master as the clown who attempts to appear in control, so his selection for Dixon may seem like a no-brainer, but his character undergoes a fascinating yet unexpected transition that will make anyone who’s tracked his filmography take notice.

For any other aspect not mentioned—editing, cinematography, sound, supporting cast—consider the omission in this review as an endorsement of its quality. Front to back, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is one of the year’s best films.

Playing this week

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
377 Merchant Walk Sq., 326-5056

Coco, Die Hard, Justice League, Lady Bird, Murder on the Orient Express, Thor: Ragnarok, Wonder

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

A Bad Moms Christmas, Coco, Daddy’s Home 2, Justice League, Lady Bird, LBJ, Murder on the Orient Express, Roman J. Israel, Esq., The Star, Thor: Ragnarok, Wonder

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

Coco, God’s Own Country, Justice League, Lady Bird, Most Beautiful Island, Murder on the Orient Express, The Man Who Invented Christmas, Roman J. Israel, Esq., Thor: Ragnarok, Wonder

Categories
Arts

Movie review: Murder on the Orient Express arrives in style

Kenneth Branagh directs and stars in Murder on the Orient Express, in which he delivers a captivating performance as the formidable Inspector Hercule Poirot. Photo by 20th Century Fox

While attempting a brief vacation from being the world’s greatest detective, Inspector Hercule Poirot has been reading the hell out of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. With every page, he cackles in delight, a reaction likely based as much on the opportunity to let someone else tell the stories as on the book itself.

Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express should be enjoyed the same way. It’s no disservice to call the film a trifle, a steady genre exercise with gorgeous visuals, a terrific sense of style and memorable performances from reliable A-listers, plus star-making turns from lesser-known actors. It’s elegant, fun, full of good humor and totally disposable, as most good whodunits are.

Murder on the Orient Express
PG-13, 115 minutes
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX and Violet Crown Cinema

These may sound like negative criticisms, but a mystery story that places the emphasis on piecing it all together is always a self-contained endeavor, knocking down the dominoes intentionally placed by the author. Once you know the resolution, there’s not much point in repeating the experience. This to Hitchcock was the key difference between mystery and suspense; in suspense stories, we know the thief/murderer/etc. in advance, so the tension comes in the form of watching people outmaneuver one another. If you’re placing the focus on resolution rather than tension, you need to be comfortable with a single-serving narrative and make the diversion a fun one, which director Branagh does expertly.

The film, based on Agatha Christie’s most famous novel, follows Poirot (Branagh) as he works to solve the most vexing crime of his storied career. The eccentric Belgian finds himself on the titular train between cases, when a murder takes place in his car in the middle of the night. A sudden avalanche derails the train, so it is up to Poirot to solve the crime before the rescue crew arrives.

The victim, Ratchett (Johnny Depp) was certainly an unpleasant and even cruel man, but no single motive or alibi completely adds up, and the evidence found at the scene appears artificially placed to throw off the investigation. Even the act itself is unusual, as Ratchett was stabbed 12 times with no apparent pattern or consistency in handedness or strength.

Watching Poirot work in his usual manner is great fun, but Branagh’s performance truly shines when his character’s normal tactics fail, forcing him to improvise. We learn his personal philosophy, what it is that makes him a legend, and see the man behind the mustache. It’s a terrific take on a role that could have easily fallen into caricature.

The ensemble cast is also flawless—Judi Dench, Willem Dafoe, Daisy Ridley—and Michelle Pfeiffer continues her wonderful return to the spotlight. Josh Gad delivers his second great performance of the year (the first in Marshall), and Leslie Odom, Jr. will become a household name in due time.

If you’re familiar with either the source material or the adaptations, there won’t be any surprises, but the real reason to see it is the depth it brings to Poirot. For everyone else, just about the only bad thing there is to say is that though it looks gorgeous, people look insufficiently cold in what is supposed to be an exterior, interrupting the immersion momentarily. That’s it, the only drawback. See it, bring the family aged 13 and up so hopefully they’ll make one of the several sequels they tease.

Playing this week

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
377 Merchant Walk Sq., 326-5056

A Bad Moms Christmas, The Bodyguard, Daddy’s Home 2, The Florida Project, Thor: Ragnorok, Video Vortex: The Art of Dying

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

A Bad Moms Christmas, Blade Runner 2049, Boo 2!: A Madea Halloween, Daddy’s Home 2, Happy Death Day, Jigsaw, Thank You For Your Service, Thor: Ragnorok, Wonderstruck

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

A Bad Moms Christmas, Daddy’s Home 2, The Florida Project, Loving Vincent, Thor: Ragnorok, Victoria and Abdul

Categories
Arts

Movie review: The plotline grows hazy in Only the Brave

Only The Brave tells the personal story of Arizona’s Granite Mountain Hotshots, who battled a deadly wildfire in 2013. Columbia Pictures

In 2013, one of the deadliest wildfires in recent history claimed 25 lives, 19 of whom were members of an elite squad of firefighters known as the Granite Mountain Hotshots. All but one lost their lives while struggling to contain the blaze, which appeared routine until wind and other factors allowed it to spread beyond all expectation. Hotshots refers to a type of specialized fire control and suppression unit; rather than putting out the fire directly, they make clearings, dig ditches and start guiding fires, all to direct the fire away from populated areas and further kindling. It’s an unforgiving job that requires incredible fitness, complete situational awareness and pure bravery.

Only the Brave
PG-13, 134 minutes
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

Only the Brave tells the story of Granite Mountain’s municipal firefighting unit, its journey to becoming fully certified Hotshots and the members’ dynamic as a team and as individuals. The two men at the center of the story are Brendan “Donut” McDonough (Miles Teller) and Eric Marsh (Josh Brolin). Marsh is a veteran of wildfire control, with ambitions to lead his crew to the status he feels they deserve. His entire life is dedicated to this idea, which can cause friction between him and his wife, Amanda (Jennifer Connelly). Marsh’s drive is more pride in his team than ego, but his singular focus on becoming the leader of a Hotshot crew leads to a lack of desire to grow and change as a person. Brolin portrays Marsh as a gruff and heroic father figure with no biological children of his own, who knows he is capable of a greater task yet is forever bound by humility. His mannerisms can be repetitive, yet, as we discover, his personality and lifestyle were carefully constructed for very specific reasons to overcome obstacles in his earlier life.

McDonough, meanwhile, has just been kicked out of his mother’s home after she’s endured his addiction and arrests for too long. The mother of his newborn daughter wants nothing to do with him, nor does he have anything to offer. His rehab is joining Marsh’s team, reconditioning his body and mind to their potential and becoming part of something bigger than himself. His character arc is somewhat predictable, but Teller breathes life and sympathy into what could have been an entirely one-note characterization of the real McDonough.

The importance of teamwork and the balance of personal responsibility with civic duty is the core of what director Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy, Oblivion, the upcoming Top Gun sequel) brings to this fact-inspired story. The men bond and overcome differences, call each other with non-work-related crises and put their faith in one another. A surprising amount of screen time is dedicated to plot threads that are only tangentially related to fighting fires or the Hotshots.

However, despite Kosinski’s good intentions, these are the portions that are the least engaging, relevant or interesting. If a viewer did not know that this is a true story going in, that these men lost their lives, they would be bored and even repulsed by the casual misogyny and cockiness that goes unremarked upon. Worst of all, a key similarity between Marsh and McDonough is relegated to a third-act twist, and treating it this way cheapens what could have been one of the most powerful dynamics between two characters this year.

Many of the performances in Only the Brave are terrific, and the sequences that show this underrecognized firefighting technique in action are fascinating. Individual scenes carry tremendous emotional impact, including the buildup to where we learn the characters’ fate. But, the wives and girlfriends are little more than vessels to recognize the men’s bravery or worry about how brave they are. The men who lost their lives that day, and those who were impacted by that disaster, deserve a movie more committed to who they were and what made them special than how they partied.

Playing this week

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
377 Merchant Walk Sq., 326-5056

Blade Runner 2049, Happy Death Day, The Foreigner, Death Becomes Her, Geostorm, IT, My Little Pony: The Movie, The Snowman

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

American Made, Blade Runner 2049, Boo 2!: A Madea Halloween, The Foreigner, Geostorm, Happy Death Day, IT, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, The Lego Ninjago Movie, Marshall, The Mountain Between Us, Same Kind of Different As Me

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

Battle of the Sexes, Blade Runner 2049, Breathe, The Foreigner, IT, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, The Lego Ninjago Movie, Marshall, Professor Marston & The Wonder Women, The Snowman, Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton, Victoria and Abdul

Categories
Arts

Movie review: Marshall succeeds on multiple levels

Marshall stars Chadwick Boseman, who delivers a breakout performance as Thurgood Marshall in the early days of his career. Courtesy Open Road Films

A civil rights superhero movie? Why not? For a country so enamored with our national mythology, we are remarkably inconsistent when it comes to cinematic depictions of our historical figures. After all, many of our founding fathers owned slaves, and many more recent icons emerged at a time when personal shortcomings could not be as easily concealed. How can we be expected to rally behind a singular narrative when our own conception of history is considered divisive?

Director Reginald Hudlin provides the answer in Marshall, which sells itself as a biopic recounting an episode in the life of our country’s first black justice of the Supreme Court, but it can be more accurately described as a morality play on how to fight for truth and justice when doing so seems futile and may cost you your life or livelihood.

The story follows the Spell case, an actual event in which Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown) stands trial for the rape and attempted murder of his employer, Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson), in Connecticut. Too many of the facts do not add up, so Thurgood Marshall (Chadwick Boseman) arrives on behalf of the NAACP, his life dedicated to representing black defendants who are demonstrably facing accusations due to their race. Because Marshall is not a member of the Connecticut bar, he requires the endorsement of an in-state attorney. Sam Friedman (Josh Gad), a tax attorney, provides that support yet is reluctant to get involved in a criminal case. However, Friedman is forced to represent Spell when the judge (James Cromwell) refuses to allow Marshall to speak in court.

Marshall
PG-13, 118 minutes
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX

There is the gambit: Friedman and Marshall must prove that the accusation is racially motivated, even though their team has been crippled by not allowing the more experienced civil rights attorney to speak. They must face down rape accusations without attempting to assassinate the character of a respected woman, or imply that this is a thing women routinely do. And they must not settle for any deal that would require an innocent man to admit guilt, even if it means losing the case.

There are a few elements in the film that might seem slightly too convenient in another story, but Hudlin and his cast pay close attention to the areas that matter most. Every performance is excellent, from the walk-ons to the leads. Brown is a revelation, and his portrayal of Spell has the potential to elevate him from critic favorite to household name. Gad explores a character we are not used to seeing from him, always wearing Friedman’s past and current predicament in his face, movements and intonations. The fact that he is Jewish means he is tolerated, but the moment he stands up to authority, bigotry emerges with a vengeance. Boseman’s Marshall is always one step ahead, always knows how to get out of a situation and always holds the moral high ground. This might have been irritating and even arrogant in a lesser film with a lesser actor, but this man has dedicated his life to pushing good people to go beyond their comfort zone while boxing bad people into a corner. This is his manner because it must be, as we often need a hero to show us what we are capable of.

Amazingly, Marshall balances modern sensibilities with historical accuracy. In a moment where we are pushing the world to believe women when they accuse another of sexual abuse, the film recognizes that at the time, black men were charged with rape for consensual sex with white women as a pretense for lynching. The fact that the story is set in Connecticut is also fascinating for a man who had challenged the Klan, as the more concealed brand of Northern racism provides its own set of challenges but is no less toxic. Marshall is a terrific film, not only for what it does right but for how much it is able to accomplish in a well-worn genre.

Playing this week

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
377 Merchant Walk Sq., 326-5056

Battle of the Sexes, Blade Runner 2049, Happy Death Day, The Foreigner, IT, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Labyrinth, My Little Pony: The Movie

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

American Assassin, American Made, Blade Runner 2049, Flatliners, The Foreigner, Happy Death Day, IT, Kingsman: The Golden Circle,The Lego Ninjago Movie, The Mountain Between Us, My Little Pony: The Movie, Professor Marston & The Wonder Women

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

Battle of the Sexes, Blade Runner 2049, IT, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, The Mountain Between Us, Victoria and Abdul

Categories
Arts

Movie review: Victoria & Abdul chooses gags over substance

Judi Dench and Ali Fazal make an unlikely pair in Victoria & Abdul, a true story that suffers as a comedy. Courtesy Focus Features

The story of Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim—“the Munshi”—is one worth telling. Karim, a humble clerk in Agra, was invited to participate in a ceremony for the queen, which resulted in the initiation of a peculiar friendship that defied convention and stirred controversy among the Royal Court. All of the ingredients are there: class antagonism, racial divide, the relationship between rulers and their subjects, colonialism, you name it.

Why, then, did director Stephen Frears, a real talent and a solid intellect, make Victoria & Abdul a comedy? The massive failures in doing so are two-fold: First, there are no jokes, only reaction shots of snooty, scandalized aristocrats. If you’ve seen How High or Dunston Checks In, you already know these gags. The second is that all of the juicy storytelling bits that might have made this interesting are whittled away in favor of two-dimensional characters and unevenness in tone when Frears decides to get serious. Ultimately, it’s a pointless exercise in keeping talented performers employed between better projects.

Victoria & Abdul
PG-13, 112 minutes
Violet Crown Cinema

We meet Abdul (Ali Fazal) in Agra in 1887, where he works as a clerk in the local prison. There, he is invited to present a ceremonial coin to the queen (Judi Dench) as part of the Golden Jubilee festivities. He was chosen because he helped select carpets that were sent to the palace, and because he is tall and rather handsome. The other man sent with him, Mohammed (Adeel Akhtar), is shorter and stout, another thing that is meant to be funny. Upon arriving in England, they run through the ceremony: how to walk, how to bow, and under no circumstances are they to make direct eye contact. This being precisely the sort of movie that thinks doing something you’re told not to is unspeakably hilarious, Abdul and the queen lock eyes and the snobs are outraged. Victoria, on the other hand, is immediately fascinated by this striking presence, so she requests that he be her attendant for the duration of the jubilee.

Fazal and Dench have real chemistry, and it is easy to believe that their interest in one another is genuine, not simply one demanded by the script. Fazal is charming, optimistic, always light on his feet, and ought to appear in Western films more often. Dench delivers an airtight performance as usual, capturing the dignity of royalty against the indignity of being a monarch with no privacy and a continually shrinking role in government. The supporting cast is terrific as well, with Akhtar’s simmering anger toward the British Empire chief far underutilized. Eddie Izzard as Bertie—later known as King Edward, Victoria’s heir—cannot stand the insult of a commoner having a closer relationship with his mother than her own son. He is enjoyable, as always, in the role, but like anything else of quality in this film, the solid performance is reduced to one note.

The irony of Abdul leaving the employment of a prison to serve another who feels caged by her privilege is totally unexplored. Though Fazal is a joy to watch, his character has little depth beyond his optimism, and he’s strangely absent for what feels like half the film. Perhaps if we saw this from his perspective as often as hers, Victoria & Abdul might be something interesting. Instead, we are left with the same boring redundancy masquerading as sophistication that made the queen herself feel trapped.

Playing this week

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
377 Merchant Walk Sq., 326-5056

American Made, Battle of the Sexes, Blade Runner 2049, Ghostbusters, IT, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, The Lego Ninjago Movie, My Little Pony: The Movie

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

American Assassin, American Made, A Question of Faith, Blade Runner 2049, Flatliners, Friend Request, Home Again, IT, Kingsman: The Golden Circle,The Lego Ninjago Movie, The Mountain Between Us, My Little Pony: The Movie, Spider-man: Homecoming, Stronger

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

American Made, Battle of the Sexes, Blade Runner: 2049, The Fencer, IT, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, The Lego Ninjago Movie, The Mountain Between Us

Categories
Arts

Movie review: American Assassin can’t lose but does anyway

A lack of suspense kills all hope of intrigue in American Assassin starring Dylan O’Brien. Courtesy New Line Cinema

Could there possibly be anything more boring than a supposed spy thriller where the main character wins all the time and is immediately right with every hunch? That’s the experience of watching American Assassin’s Mitch Rapp (Dylan O’Brien), a character who is devoid of real personality so he can more fully embody the many contradictory shades of right-wing paranoia. Whenever he defies orders and endangers the lives of his team as well as his countrymen, it turns out he made the right call. Every time he suspects someone of not being totally forthright, particularly if that person is not white, they are actually bad. Even if you buy into the warped worldview from which Rapp was created—American foreign policy is only to stop bad guys and Iran’s only ambition is to nuke Israel—there has got to be a better proxy for your nationalist insecurity than this guy.

We meet Rapp while he is on an island getaway with his girlfriend. Moments after he proposes marriage and she accepts, terrorists strike, wounding him and killing her. Rapp then dedicates his life to hunting down the terrorist cell responsible for her death, but not before his dedication and talent catches the attention of the CIA, which recruits him to help stop Iran from acquiring the capabilities to weaponize its nukes so it can annihilate Israel.

American Assassin
R, 115 minutes
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Regal Stonefield 14 & IMAX, Violet Crown Cinema

Is this sort of thing exciting to anyone? If you really believe that the Iranian regime has no interest in self-preservation and would try such a move, you still deserve better movies than American Assassin, despite your ill-conceived views. Even on its own terms, American Assassin is astonishingly, impressively bad. It looks confused, the set pieces make no sense, and the plot cranks along so unevenly that it’s impossible to figure out why any given fight, confrontation or chase is happening. More than once, a shot is chosen where an extra actually stands out to the point that you think they’re part of the action. Yes, even the extras in this movie have no idea what they’re doing.

The cast is only part of the problem; O’Brien may be charismatic in other roles, but as a traumatized CIA operative he carries all the dramatic weight of a wet paper bag. Michael Keaton commits to the role of former Navy SEAL Stan Hurley, but as a character he’s basically limited to barking the same three platitudes about following orders over and over again. Taylor Kitsch shows surprising enthusiasm as the chief villain. Everyone not mentioned here is either forgettable or their talent is massively wasted (especially that of Sanaa Lathan).

Director Michael Cuesta has proven he is more than capable of thoughtful filmmaking with his debut, 2001’s L.I.E. But the spy genre is one that requires either intelligent intrigue or a flair for style, neither of which is on display.

American Assassin could have been partially saved with just the slightest hint of suspense. Even when a hero is a Jack Ryan figure—always morally upright, unflappably patriotic, recites the entire Pledge of Allegiance instead of saying “Bless you” when somebody sneezes—he still has to determine the best course of action after a series of disasters put him in a difficult position. His instincts are occasionally wrong, he trusts the wrong person, possibly even loses a few fistfights along the way. There is no such build here—it is just pure American wrath guiding Rapp. But as most movies with “American [noun]” in the title these days, it has no idea what it wants to say about either America or assassins.

Playing this week

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
377 Merchant Walk Sq., 326-5056

Home Again, IT, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Mother!, Mean Girls, Putney Swope

Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213

Annabelle: Creation, Despicable Me 3, Dunkirk, The Emoji Movie, Girls Trip, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Home Again, IT, Leap!, Logan Lucky, Mother!, Spider-man: Homecoming, Wind River

Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000

Apollo 13, The Big Sick, Home Again, IT, Mother!, The Trip to Spain, Wind River

Even on its own terms, American Assassin is astonishingly, impressively bad. It looks confused, the set pieces make no sense, and the plot cranks along so unevenly it’s impossible to figure out why any given fight, confrontation or chase is happening.