We're in The Endgame (of Awards Nominating Season)
Motherless Brooklyn
After a tragic set accident resulting in the death of a firefighter, Edward Norton's project passion that he's been dreaming of since the book it's adapted from was published in 1999 is now ready for its release.
The second film directed by Norton and the first one he's written, it'll be easy for critics to tell him he needs to stick with acting, but I think "Motherless Brooklyn", while cluttered and overflowing with needless characters and dialogue, there is a thought provoking film hidden underneath the trenchcoat and hat of our main character.
Set in 1957 New York City, Lionel Essrog (Edward Norton) is a Tourrette's and obsessive compulsive disordered afflicted detective working for his friend/mentor Frank Minna (Bruce Willis). When Minna is killed working on a case he has mostly kept from Lionel and his colleagues (Bobby Cannavale, Ethan Suplee and the John Ritter-esque Dallas Roberts), Lionel sets out to find out who killed Frank and why.
What he finds out drops him into a world of political corruption with land developer turned city commissioner Moses Randolph (Adam Baldwin) at the center and activist/lawyer Laura Rose (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who works to fight against the zoning out of the disenfranchised citizens in her borough.
To say Norton adapted the film from the novel is a misnomer. It's more that he used the framework of the novel to start anew such as setting the present day novel into the past and to create the entire plot of the novel to create a story very personal to Norton. Baldwin's Moses Randolph is the fictionalized version of real life NYC developer Robert Moses a man whose cronies and his own strong armed tactics led him to be appointed to twelve public offices at the same time so that he could bulldoze his way through NYC and get into the pockets of business owners. Norton's real life grandfather James Rouse was an urban planner (and developed a planned city: Columbia, Maryland) who went toe-to-toe with Moses in the battle for affordable housing - an issue Norton still fights for. One of my favorite lines in the film was one that Norton's grandfather would say, "To serve people you have to love people".
His passion and righteous anger on the topic of the powerful trouncing over the powerless drives the film, but still has a deep thread of humanity woven through showcased by Lionel's relationship with Laura.
I really liked it. The resolution really buoyed the preceeding bits that didn't work so well. The pair behind me decidedly didn't..not..at..all. But as a lover of archeology and history of cities, it was a great lesson about the development of the New York City as we know it and how you just can't always stop progress. As one character notes, "we had to kick out farmers to build Central Park."
The film also stars Michael K. Williams, Robert Wisdom, Fisher Stevens, Cherry Jones and Willem Dafoe.
Doctor Sleep
Stick a condom on your ear and fcuk what you heard negative about "Doctor Sleep". It's an excellent film that is a direct sequel to "The Shining" but creates a narrative that stands securely by itself.
Adapted from Stephen King's 2013 novel of the same name, "Doctor Sleep" shows us what has become of little Danny Torrance.
In the ensuing years after his father's descent into madness and murder, Danny "Dan" Torrance (Ewan McGregor) has learned to compartmentalize the things that terrify him - namely the spectres that his "shining" allows him to see. He's also descends into alcoholism much like his father Jack. Desiring to get sober, Dan moves to a small town where he's quickly embraced by fellow recovering alcoholic Billy Freeman (Cliff Curtis). For the first time in a long time, Dan is at peace...that is until he begins to receive psychic communications. Elsewhere, young Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran) has mastered her own shine.
When Abra mentally stumbles upon - Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson)
- a woman with her own abilities and realizes that Rose the Hat and her followers are seeking out those with The Shine in order to steal their essence, she calls on Dan for help to defeat them. Can Dan overcome his childhood fears in order to save Abra?
I've never seen "The Shining" but it's so steeped in pop culture that I was able to follow the numerous callbacks and references thanks to the 1994 "The Shining" parody in "The Simpsons" "Treehouse of Terror".
Wanting to focus on his character as he exists presently, or perhaps not wanting to endure fans/critics comparing the two; McGregor has repeatedly said that this film doesn't rely too much on "The Shining". That's not true at all. It stands by itself, yes; but the iconography is there in vivid recreation and with fine detail (the actress playing his mother with her ears sticking out of her jet black hair a'la Shelly Duvall, little Danny cycling through the hotel). But the film doesn't just exists to be a homage to "The Shining", the main story of Dan and Abra and how they are mirror images of each other is the main crux.
Unlike Dan who was afraid of his ability, Abra is at peace with it. Usually when there's a film with an adult paired with a kid, it's the adult who has to inspire the kid, instead Abra is the one urging Dan to act; to embrace the ability the power within him.
Next to James McAvoy, I can't think of many actors who can convey such vulnerability, inner strength and humanity than McGregor (well Cliff Curtis, too). Ferguson is the perfect villian as the beguiling and menacing Rose the Hat who views Abra as potentially the most coveted prize in her very, very long life.
The film also stars Carl Lumbly as Dick Hallorann (played by Scatman Crothers in the original), and Zahn McClarnon as Crow Daddy, Rose the Hat's lover and scout. Bruce Greenwood turns up briefly . This is Greenwood's second time in a Stephen King adaptation. He showcased his secret hot bod in "Gerald's Game".
“Doctor Sleep” touches on alcohol abuse, sobriety and parent-child relationships, something that made McGregor gravitate to the script. He's sober now, and while his relationship with his four daughters has hit a rough patch due to his affair and subsequent ditching of his wife for his “Fargo” costar, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, things are looking up. He brought daughter Jamyan to the premiere of the film.
The Laundromat
Based on Jake Bernstein's book "Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite", "The Laundromat", while a scant 95 minutes, is as voluminous as that title.
Directed by Steven Soderbergh from his a script from his frequent collaborator Scott Z. Burns (Contagion, Side Effects), "The Laundromat" is a punchy film that seems worn down after the first bell of its weighty topic.
When Ellen Martin's (Meryl Streep) husband (James Cromwell) dies in a tour boat accident, she and the other families of the 21 victims are assured of a payout from the boating company.
But it is revealed that the boating company's insurance was junk insurance - just one of the many holdings of a shell company. This revelation takes the viewers on an educational, narrated journey by Jürgen Mossack (Gary Oldman) and Ramón Fonseca (Antonio Banderas)
whose company Mossack/Fonseca is the origin of these dubiously legal shell companies and fronts. We see how everything is related through vignettes (starring Jeffrey Wright, Rosalind Chao, Matthias Schoenaerts and Nonso Anozie).
Adam Mackay's "The Big Short" succeeded in taking a dry financial subject like recession and utilized humor and the device of breaking the fourth wall to make it understandable and entertaining. But that was just sheer luck that it worked as Mackay used the same formula for his Dick Cheney film "Vice" and it didn't work and it doesn't work in "The Laundromat".
"The Big Short" didn't have to wrap everything up with a monologue from an actor breaking the fourth wall (not character, but actor) to explain why the events shown are wrong. But so unsure that the messaging that should come across, Burns' script has to have an actor sell its point of view. It's a movie that is as educational and emotionally lacking as a Wikipedia entry.
Parasite
Winner of 2019's Cannes Palme d'Or, "Parasite" is a terrific black comedy that will burrow under your skin.
The cast at Cannes
Director Bong Joon-ho (Snowpiercer, Oldboy) is at it again with an excellent macabre look at the human condition.
When Ki-woo's (Choi Woo-shik) friend realizes the depth of his friend's poverty, he does Ki-woo a solid by putting in a good word for the affluent Park family he tutors for so that Ki-woo can take over his duties as an English tutor for their teenaged daughter.
With fake credentials thanks to his streets smart sister Ki-jung (Park So-dam), he gets the job and becomes beloved by the family. Soon Ki-woo and his family work out a way to get themselves all employed by the Park family - manipulating people and situations along the way to do so.
How long will the Ki's be able to get away with their subterfuge?
Although it's arguably Choi Woo-shik's film, Song Kang-ho (who starred in Bong Joon Ho's "The Host" and "Snowpiercer", gives a layered performance that showcases both his wry comedic timing and his dramatic chops.
The Lighthouse
In yet another offensively unattractive weirdo role, Robert Pattinson shines (heh, lighthouse. Get it?), in this old-timey sea horror yarn that is as bewildering and overblown as Pattinson's career.
It's the late 1800s and work is scarce therefore newbie Ephraim Winslow (Pattinson) takes on a gig at a lighthouse alongside the older sea-salt Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe), a man who dominates every space he is in creating an immediate fissure between the two and instilling paranoia in Ephraim.
What follows is a descent into madness but is it Winslow's or Wake's?
I found the film weak sauce. So weak sauce that I'm not even bothering to come up with a better criticism than the weak "weak sauce". It's a film that a film student would get high praises for, but for a feature length film with this caliber of actors (even one so jaw droppingly unappealing as Robert Pattinson) I would think the script would have been better. It's a film that people will laud because to not do so would make it seem that you don't understand film theory and all the allusions and analogies Eggers' work is saying. The reality is it's just a jumbled artistic wank - a wank much like Pattinson takes several times in this film.
On the plus, there is some nice homoerotic moments between the two and it shouldn't be that alluring considering the actors, but I'm easy when it comes to men-on-men bits.
Jojo Rabbit
Using the framework of Christine Leunens' novel "Caging Skies", Taiki Waititi's "Jojo Rabbit" amps up the novel's humor and dials back its more unseemly characterizations, to make a serio-comedic look at the life of one Nazi youth.
10-year old Johannes "Jojo" Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis) is ready and raring to begin his Nazi youth training under the ertzwhile leadership of Captain Klezendorf (Sam Rockwell, in his third consecutive outing as an easy-going racist) thanks to his own sense of Aryan duty and from the constant cheerleading from his imaginary friend Adolf Hitler (Waititi).
But when Jojo injures himself on first day, it ruins his chance to become a soldier. Instead he works as an errand boy for Klezendorf and his team which includes instructor Fräulein Rahm (Rebel Wilson) and Klezendorf's second in command and obvious boytoy Finkel (Alfie Allen, Game of Thrones).
Jojo's duties leave him with ample time at home and it's on one of these days that he hears noises from his late sister's bedroom. There he discovers that his mother Rosie (Scarlett Johannson) has been hiding a Jewish girl, Elsa (Thomas Mackenzie, The King, Leave No Trace) in the walls.
When Elsa threatens Jojo to keep him from telling his mother that he knows about Elsa, as well as keeping him from alerting Klezndorf, Jojo tries to assert his dominance the only way he and imaginary!Hitler can think of - forcing Elsa to tell him all about Jewish people so that he could write a how-to book on how to defeat them.
Feeding him outrageous tall tales that Jojo's bigotry allows him to believe, the duo become dependent on each other for companionship and form an uneasy trust.
It took me some time to roll with the film. I feel that a) the Holocaust isn't something to be mined for laughs, b) that laughing at the jokes would be laughing with anti-Semitism instead of at it; c) that the film would treat Nazis too lightly. I became at ease with the film by embracing its satirical nature and the lambasting of the idiocy of the Nazis. It does treat Nazis too lightly - for all of Jojo becoming friends with Elsa I never got the sense that he,nor his best friend Yorki (the wonderfully weird Archie Yates) embraced how misguided their notions were.
But I think the film wanted to depict that gray area that some racists have where they create allowances from those who they have actually allowed themselves to see the humanity of those they hate as a whole, thus moving past their hatred and biases on an individual level. And it's better than Waititi did it this way. The film points out that even Jojo's mother couldn't sway him from embracing Nazism, so it would be unlikely that a virtual stranger could convince him to move away from his indoctrination. Also, the film is so lightweight that there is no way that this film as it is crafted could effectively tackled racism and the horror of the Holocaust, especially since this film is through Jojo's eyes and he is so wrapped up into his beliefs of his Aryan superiority.
Davis is a find. The places he has to go in this film would be impressive for an adult but for a kid it's just staggering. And McKenzie, who won raves for her role as Ben Foster's daughter in "Leave No Trace" gives a performance doubled that, as the brassy Elsa who delights in instilling paranoia into Jojo's head.
Everyone is a delight, but surprisingly one of the best performances is by Johansson who is able to take a mom role and give it dimension and heart.
Just Mercy
I had a hint of how harrowing a film "Just Mercy" would be when I entered the theater and saw someone I knew who related to me how a friend had seen the film a few days earlier and walked out because she found it too upsetting. Considering this was maybe two weeks after Dallas cop Amber Guyger got 10 years for murdering a man in his home and days after a woman was killed by a cop in her home, I could understand how this film about a lawyer fighting for a fair trial for a black prisoner could be too much to handle. But nonetheless, I persisted and so did the audience through their loud sniffles and, at times, audible crying.
"Just Mercy" (a film whose trailer does it a disservice by coming across as Oscar baity) is a powerful film that has much to say about the justice system, and how to keep your humanity in the face of an unfair system and unfair society.
Adapted from Bryan Stephenson's biography of the same name by Andrew Lanham and Destin Daniel Cretton (who also directed) Michael B. Jordan gives a very strong performance as Bryan Stephenson, a lawyer who realizes at the start of his career that he would rather uses his Harvard law education to not make money, but to service the disenfranchised.
From a small, under-served town himself, Stephenson moves to Alabama to start a non-profit to help prisoners who didn't receive a fair trial. Reviewing case files, Stephenson comes across one of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx) who is imprisoned for the murder of a white woman, nine years earlier. Despite it being the 1980s, Alabama is still a hot-bed of racism and Stephenson quickly sees the obvious bullying tactics, cover-ups and outright manipulation of facts that has kept McMillian from a fair trial.
With the help of his legal assistant Ava Ansley (Brie Larson), Stephenson endeavors to get a retrial for McMillan, a task made difficult by the mayor and his water-carrier District Attorney Tommy Chapman (my fave, Rafe Spall) who will do anything to keep a re-trial from happening.
We read/see the news - dirty cops, an unjust justice system isn't new, it's as American as the flag and apple pie. But seeing it in motion through these characters (a B plot centers on Stevenson's other client, Herbert (played sublimely by Rob Morgan); a Vietnam vet with PTSD on death row for the murder of his ex-girlfriend) it is frustrating, it's heartbreaking and scary that it the epitome of an uphill battle where you are scrambling to keep hold as the sands of justice keeps sliding through your fingers. There is the race component in the film, definitely. But it is also an overview of how the system disenfranchises those who can't afford good legal counsel, and the lawyers who take on cases to just take clients' money without going to bat for them whether from greed or because the lawyers themselves are just too broken down by how many obstacles you face to truly care.
Foxx is great as a man who has suffered too much defeat to feel hope in light of what he knows of the world and how black men fare in it; but it is Jordan's film through and through. Jordan's Stephenson is a strong force whose compassion and humanity emits like a beacon. There are no huge bench pounding scenes where Jordan delivers a fiery statement. No, "Just Mercy" isn't like other show legal dramas. It strives to show the reality of the situation and I think some people won't give Jordan the credit due because it is a non-showy role, but he's just so earnest and gives an emotionally authentic performance.
After the film the woman next to me turns to me and it's like she was shaking herself off. She said, "OMG, I was so anxious. I was just so nervous." She's bends over in her seat like you would during a cool-down and was trying to get herself together because it is that fraught a film.
The film also stars Tim Blake Nelson as Ralph Myers, a prisoner with insight on MacMillian's case; O'Shea Jackson Jr as Anthony, a fellow prisoner of MacMillian's; Karan Kendrick as MacMillian's wife Minnie who has been burned by lawyers before and is dubious about Stephenson's comittment to her husband's freedom.
There was a panel afterward with writer/director who had come straight from Australia and didn't sleep at all during the flight; Kendrick, as well as the costumer and producer. Director pointed out Darrell Britt-Gibson in the audience. Britt-Gibson (Three Billboards in Billings, Missouri) has a small, yet pivotal role in the film. After the panel was a reception so I wanted to say hello to Britt-Gibson because I do enjoy his work but also he was the red carpet boyfriend of Caleb Landry Jones when Three Billboards... was campaigning and that was just so joyous to me.
People were continuously coming up to speak to Darrell so I stayed near and his friend commented on how many people were coming over. I replied that I was sure he didn't have a chance to even eat and his friend said that he was eating enough for him. So we start talking to each about the film and how it correlates to current events so we're deep into it and Darrell comes over. His friend introduces us and tells Darrell how we were talking about the film and how it's relevant and Darrell said that his hope is that not just black people see it; that especially white people see it because for him personally, he's had to explain to his white friends about how the black community has a different perspective on the law and officers and he's now at a point where he tells them they have to educate themselves; that he can't be the one educating them because if they want to know all they have to do is read the news and gain that understanding - that if they don't get it, it's because they don't want to.
Harriet
Written by Gregory Allen Howard (Ali) and Kasi Lemmons and directed by Lemmons (Eve's Bayou, Talk to Me), this biopic about freedom fighter Harriet Tubman is a long time coming. Originally conceived to star Viola Davis, this film focuses on how Tubman's own quest for freedom led her to participate in a society of abolitionists that transports slaves to the North.
Harriet (Cynthia Erivo, Widows, Bad Times at the El Royale) is caught in limbo.
Owned from birth by the Brodess family she's married to a free man, John (Zackary Momoh, Seven Seconds) and has no hopes for her own freedom due to the Brodess family reneging on a deathside promise to free Harriet's mother, Rit (Vanessa Bell Calloway) and the rest of Harriet's siblings.
Knowing that she will never get freedom if it was up to the Brodess', she strikes out on her own to travel to Philadelphia to gain her freedom.
Achieving what was an impossible feat for a single person, let alone a woman, Harriet works with writer/abolitionist William Still (Leslie Odom Jr. (Murder on the Orient Express) and joins the abolitionist society The Underground Railroad in its mission to scurry slaves to freedom.
Her mission by nature is fraught with danger, but even more so when Gideon Brodess (Joe Alwyn joining the league of arguably attractive cinematic slave owners Alex Pettyfer, Armie Hammer, Michael Fassbender and Leonardo DiCaprio),
the son of her slave owner, join forces with slave catcher Bigger Long (Omar Dorsey, When They See Us) to return her back to their plantation.
A lot of the info was new to me. Harriet Tubman only existed in my mind as an icon and I didn't know her background (had no idea she was married or that her birth name was not Harriet or that she had visions), nor of what came of post-freedom so this film fleshes her out and gives her a humanity that is omitted from her legacy.
Erivo is a strong and compelling force. The film even manages to put the Tony award winning singer's vocals to use in a very meaningful way by using her singing to employ the techniques slaves actually used which was signal songs - songs with coded messages to convey to each other under the watchful eyes of the slave owners.
Not as tragic and wrought as "Twelve Years a Slave" and "Birth of a Nation", instead "Harriet" shows the fighting spirit of a slave instead of the mostly depicted beaten down, violated slave.
The film also stars Janelle Monae as Marie, a free inn owner who takes Harriet in; Clarke Peters as Harriet's father, a free man who is torn by the realities of his family still being in slavery, and Vondie Curtis-Hall (husband of Kasi Lemmons) as the Reverend Samuel Green, a man of the cloth who helps Harriet and others embark on their journey.
Dolemite is My Name
Putting all of their support behind Martin Scorcese's "The Irishman", Netflix has essentially left "Dolemite is my Name" to its own devices when it should be pushing it as this year's "The Disaster Artist".
Eddie Murphy could not have made a better or more fitting return to films than with this film. Written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski and directed by Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan), "Dolemite is My Name" is a Valentine to the legacy of Dolemite actor/comedian/singer Rudy Ray Moore and everyone who has chased their dreams.
A struggling comedian and failed singer, Rudy Ray Moore (Murphy) watches the stars of entertainers rise as he (barely) makes a living as a MC and a record store clerk.
After a fateful run in with a raconteur, Rudy cribs the man's manner of speech and his outlandish tales and uses it for comedy fodder.
When his persona becomes a hit, he takes it on the road and soon realizes that there's a bigger and better way to reach an audience - film.
Cobbling together a motley crew of old friends (Mike Epps, Tituss Burgess, Craig Robinson), a new friend - bawdy songstress Lady Reed (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) and actual professionals like playwright Jerry (Keegan-Michael Key) and actor D'Urville Martin (Wesley Snipes),
Rudy and his gang set out to make a movie for the times.
Murphy is engaging and funny in this. It made me remember what made him a star in the first place. Beyond the laughs he can ably plays a man yearning to reach his dreams which are just out of reach Each actor was perfectly cast and were great, but for all the talk about Murphy the film was practically stolen from him by Snipes. Snipes as Martin - an effete, serious thespian galled by the ineptitude of those around him manages to out-funny Murphy.
-Appearing at the Toronto Film Festival gave Murphy two reunions with former castmembers: Jamie Lee Curtis who was there for the upcoming comedy/mystery “Knives Out”
and Jasmin L. Reate who starred with him in “The Golden Child”. Reate is now the executive director of events for The Hollywood Reporter. She said that Murphy is still as sweet and kind as he was when she was a kid.
Terminator: Dark Fate
The plot of the film eradicates any "Terminator" film post "Terminator: Judgment Day (T2) from its cinematic timeline, but that's okay as "Terminator : Dark Fate" is superior to those other films like "Terminator Salvation" that was overshadowed by Christian Bale's hissy fit or "Terminator Genisys" that faded faster than humanities future in the face of Skynet.
Dani Ramos (Nathalia Reyes) is an unassuming woman going about her life in Mexico City when a Terminator from the future - a Rev 9 (Gabriel Luna, Marvel: Agents of SHIELD)
tries to kill her. Dani is saved by Grace (Mackenzie Davis, Tully) a cybernetically enhanced woman from the future who has traveled to the past to save Dani - the key to humanity's survival.
They get assistance in the form of Sarah Connors (Linda Hamilton), who was in Dani's place over 20 years earlier.
The Gang's Back Together Again
"Terminator: Dark Fate" isn't mining for anything new. Big, cool action pieces paired with timey-wimey-wibble wabble, and of course the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger, fulfilling his promise of "I'll be back".
I remember when T2 came out and the image emblazoned in the trailer of Linda Hamilton yoked up. Older, and not as muscular, she is every bit as forminable as she was all those years ago. The film opens with a scene from the first terminator and she was a power of nature. It makes sense that she becomes an action hero herself.
After quirky roles in "Tully" or staid roles in "Catch and Halt Fire", Davis is a surprisingly effective and compelling action star herself. The fight scenes between she and Luna are pretty great.
Maleficent:Mistress of Evil
The sexiest Disney movie ever just by nature of its cast. Angelina Jolie. Chiwetel Ejiofor. Ed Skrein. Miyavi. David Gyasi. I just wanted to see them all bang, quite frankly.
Five years after the events of "Maleficent", Maleficent's heart has not softened for humans who are not her beloved god-daughter Aurora (Elle Fanning). But Aurora wants all of that to change when she gets engaged to Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson, replacing Brenton Thwaites who has taken his swarthy looks and thick thighs to DC Universe's "Titans").
Prince Phillip's father, King John (Robert Lindsay), hopes that their union will broker peace amongst the humans and the woodland beings of The Moors. But King John's wife Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer) doesn't wish for peace. Ingrith's instigates a plot against Maleficent that instills distrust in her from Aurora. In danger from the Queen and alienated from Aurora, Maleficent is taken in by the community she didn't know she had - the Dark Feys who were run underground by the humans.
Knowing's Maleficent's relationship with Aurora, the leader of the Dark Faes Conall (Chiwetel Ejiofor) wants Maleficent to be bridge to their two worlds, whereas as their fellow fae warrior Borra (Ed Skrein, Deadpool) wants the faes to take back the kingdom.
By nature of it being a Sleeping Beauty story, "Maleficent" dealt more with Aurora. Now Aurora is where she needs to be in the backseat, letting my QUEEN ANGIE in the driver's seat.
More important than centering the film around Malificent and giving her backstory more depth, director Joachim Rønning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) made audiences remember that Angelina Jolie is SEX.PERSONIFIED. There is a scene where Maleficent is wrapped in a sheet, lithe legs exposed and she turns her head over her shoulder and I gasped aloud when presented with the full force of Angelina's sexiness.
She's spent years being a mom and a documentarian but hopefully now Angie will go back to being the sex goddess we need and deserve. I just wanted Maleficent to get off with all the men around her and there were so many scenes where Angie shared a screen with a guy but they had no dialogue with each other and the sexual chemistry was off the chart.
So far the movie is under-performing (though the hope is that China will bring it to a break-even point), and Angie only did this film because her ::ahem:: finances, post-divorce, weren't covering everything. No matter what, this film sets up a perfect future for Maleficient and love interest for herself.
All the Queen's Men
The film also stars returnes Sam Riley as Diaval, Maleficient's trust raven/man and Juno Temple, Imelda Staunton and Lesley Manville as the three fairies who watches over Aurora and Warwick Davis as the Queen's lackey Lickspittle, David Gyasi as the Queen's soldier, Angie's former "Unbroken" star Miyavi as Dark Fey Udo.
The King
Timothee Chalamet fans are hoping this film - an adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Henriad" plays that inspired the superior BBC dramas "The Hollow Crown" - will be Chalamet's chance at Oscar gold as he fell short with 2017's "Call Me By Your Name" and 2018's Beautiful Boy".
Well, I think they should start putting their coins on another horse because not only is Netflix putting all of their support behind Martin Scorcese's "The Irishman", but this film is pedestrian dross; a minor step up from other Netflix royalty drama "The Scottish King".
An ailing King King Henry IV (Ben Mendelsohn in an all too brief role) names his youngest son Thomas (Dean-Charles Chapman), his successor over his whorish, drunken song Hal (Timothee Chalamet), a man who doesn't want the title anyway, but would step in if it means to protect his brother from their father's enemies.
But the decision is made for Hal when his brother and father dies, leaving him King Henry V. As someone who has been absent from the court and his country as he's been exiled to Wales with his friend, the foolhardy Falstaff (Joel Edgerton), Hal takes counsel from his father's trusted confidante Gascoigne (Sean Harris) who feels that it's of import that Hal gain trust from his followers and instill fear in his enemies, namely the French.
I was dubious of Chalamet as a vicious king. I've been in the "Call Me By Your Name" fandom too long and I just look at him as a skinny, unassuming type. It's the same perception one of The Hollywood Reporter's Anonymous Ballot had of him, finding him too androgynous to ever be seen as a lead like Leonardo DiCaprio. I don't think Chalamet has DiCaprio's chops - there's still too much of himself in every character he takes on - but he does tackle the ferocity of the role in a believable way.
Co-written by Edgerton and director David Michod, "The King" is really, IMO, a vehicle for Edgerton and Sean Harris who are so sublime in their roles. Edgerton's Falstaff is the personification of a bastian that, trustworthy, stalwart type like Sean Bean portrayed in "Lord of the Rings" and "Game of Thrones", as well as being the charming oaf.
Harris, who is a chameleon, is tantalizing as Gascoigne. A chimera if there ever was.
But surprisingly, the best part of the film to me was my nemesis ugface Robert Pattinson.
Pattinson's Dauphin of France is so wildly different tonally than the rest of the film that one would think there projectionist switched movies. With a French accent that pushes back Franco-English relations 500 years, Pattinson's Dauphin is the epitome of every terrible French stereotype and though played for laughs ( I hope purposely so), there is a danger threaded through the performance that makes his character a real threat.
The film also stars Andrew Haville whose Archibiship of Canterbury sounds like Peter Cook's bishop in "The Princess Bride", Tom Glynn-Carney (Dunkirk) as Hal's cousin Hotspur and Chalamet's girlfriend, fellow half-Frenchie Lily-Ross Depp as Catherine.
Judy
The only thing I knew of Judy Garland was that she was in "The Wizard of Oz" and that she was the mother of Liza Minnelli and "Grease 2" star (thank you very much) Lorna Luft. I also knew of her as a punchline. The personification of Hollywood excess - a pill hound who died in an ignoble way like Elvis.
"Judy" is the film for people like me who have a limited and less than gracious view of Garland. It's a film that doesn't canonize her but gives context to how she fell and gives a portrait of a woman who never stopped trying.
Toggling back and forth from her time as a teen star (Darci Shaw) under the thumbs of Louis B. Mayer and her stage mom Ethel, and when the time when she was trying to crawl out of a career slump, we see Judy (Renee Zewellger" trying to book gigs in order to support her two kids Lorna (Bella Ramsay, Game of Thrones) and Joe (Lewin Lloyd) Evicted from the hotel they were staying in, Liza begrudgingly takes her kids to stay the night with ex-husband Sid Luft (Rufus Sewell) until she can find a place for them.
A gift from the entertainment gods falls out of the air when she is contacted by UK talent booker Rosalyn Wilder (Jessie Buckley, Wild Rose) who informs Judy that club owner
Bernard Delfont (Michael Gambon) wants her to do a five week tour at his clubs. Seeing this as a away to provide for her kids, who Sid now wants custody of, Judy goes to the UK.
But there she struggles with her stage fright and pill dependency which threatens her tour and her much-needed payday.
Zellweger melts away as Judy - the dark, short wig, makeup and body movements transforming her into Garland. A capable singer, Zellweger doesn't have the same play-to-the-rafters chops Garland but she definitely is impressive.
Garland's children didn't support the film and want nothing to do with it, and it's understandable as they are obviously protective of her legacy, but the film is a Valentine. It shows her as a fighter who did the best under the circumstances that befell her thanks to an industry that gave her the wrong tools.
And while there is still no one reason why the gay community adores her (the comments on some of these sites from gay men before this movie even came out shows how hard they ride for her to this day), the film gives a hat tip to that love affair through the characters of couple Dan (Andy Nyman, Hanna) and Stan (Daniel Cerqueira, The Spanish Princess), ardent fans of Judy who show her how much her talent means to people.
The film also stars Finn Wittrock (American Horror Story) as Mickey Deans.
The Report
I was unimpressed with "The Laundromat", but I was still keen on seeing Scott Z. Burns' (helming as well as writing, this time) "The Report", based on the true story of analyst Daniel Jones who was tasked by Senator Dianne Feinstein to compose a report on the goings on of detainees under U.S. custody after 9/11. The results of which became the infamous Senate Intelligence Committee report that revealed that the U.S supported torture in their prisons.
After 9/11 Daniel J. Jones (Adam Driver) wanted to commit to a career of service. After being advised by Denis McDonough (Jon Hamm) to pursue a background in intelligence, Jones climbs the ranks and is eventually tapped by Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Bening)
to set up a team of investigators for a Democrat and Republican backed study on the techniques the U.S. military against prisoners deemed terrorists after 9/11.
A study that was supposed to take a few years ends up taking a decade and in that time Jones struggles with everything he finds out about the so-called "enchanced interrogation techniques" the CIA employed. The findings and the reaction both parties, including Feinstein, has, makes Jones question if he should toe the line or expose them all.
The film doesn't go for showy narrative devices like Burns' "The Laundromat", instead it's a very straight-forward piece like "Spotlight". The film is slow going, but kicks up in the third act as Driver who has maintained a steady, even pace throughout is now filled with righteous anger.
Driver is the perfect choice for this film. He's precise and methodical and believably tackles the mouthy exposition. Other actors would have been broad and given a "Network" "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" performance, instead, he gives a quiet intensity, that is more powerful than outward rage.
The film also stars Tim Blake Nelson as an informant, Ted Levine, Michael C. Hall, Maura Tierney, Driver's wife Joanne Tucker (Billions) and several actors whose feet and armpits are meant for worship. Corey Stoll as the attorney who advises Daniel when he's set up as a traitor, Dominic Fumusa- who they made less sexy to turn him into George Tenet- but is still, remarkably, zaddy, and Jon Hamm and his Hammaconda.
- I had passes to see "The Report" earlier in the month and passed on it to see something else. When I did finally see it it wasn't planned. My friend had tickets to a screening and Q&A of "Little Women" with essentially the main cast on panel (Meryl Streep, Greta Gerwig, Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh and Timothee Chalamet). I got to the venue early (saw Taron Egerton exiting the theater as I waited. He pulled his hat low when he saw the line as if that made him disappear). He was late. By the time he arrived all the seats were taken because it was a cross-guild/Academy and press screening.
Luckily, my friend had earlier RSVP'd for "The Report" so when we didn't get in to "Little Women", we jetted across town for "The Report" getting there mere minutes before it was to start.
There was a Q&A afterwards with writer/director Scott Z. Burns, moderated by Norman Lear. The real Daniel J. Jones joined them on panel after someone in the audience asked a question about him and Burns invited him up. The Q&A semi turned into a Q&A of Lear as Burns kept asking him questions about his career and experiences. The still sharp as a tack, Lear nimbly kept turning the focus back to Burns and his film.
I had seen Burns' "The Laundromat" a few days earlier and wasn't impressed by it, but his responses during the Q&A made me at least admire where he's trying to come from in his art. After the panel I told him I had watched "The Laundromat" and he seemed delighted by that. I thanked him for using his work to bring topics to light.
Immediately afterwards was a reception which even in the quasi late hour of 11pm Lear was still at it. My friend wanted a picture with Burns and asked me to take it, so I did and Burns thanked me again for my comments inside.
We're hanging out and my friend asks me who is everyone taking pictures of? There was a woman a few feet away from us and people were clamoring around her. I told him that maybe it was the film's producer Jennifer Fox because Burns said she was there. As the night wore on I realized it was Celia Imrie. Told my friend so he wanted a picture. He introduces us to her, he asks for a picture. The man Imrie was with offered to take it, I said I'd take it. Imrie urges me to join. I use my handy excuse of "My hair is a mess" hoping that she would understand and leave it be. She tells me my hair looks fine, don't worry about it, waves me on. We take the picture.
I touched her so in essence I've touched Bill Nighy who played her husband in "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
We thank her and as we're bidding our goodbyes she stops me and tells me, "Your hair still looks great!".
Before we leave we chat with the woman who coordinated the reception. She is the wife of Deadline Hollywood's contributor Pete Hammond. She told us Deadline was using the space for a bit longer, then Netflix will come in for a few weeks with an installation for "Dolemite is My Name" featuring costumes by Ruth Carter (Black Panther) and sets. So at least Netflix is giving "Dolemite is My Name" some shine when their main focus is Scorcese's "The Irishman".
Joker
From the man who wrote and directed "The Hangover" is a film that is as unfunny as "Hangover 2" and "Hangover 3". Existing out of the current DC Comics Extended Universe (DCEU), "Joker" is a standalone...in DC Comics terms an Elseworlds tale which gives us the background of Arthur Fleck who - depending on your reading of the film - is The Joker or the inspiration for Batman's future nemesis.
It's 1981 and Gotham City hasn't descended into the complete dystopic nightmare it does when Bruce Wayne is motivated to put on the cowl. There is a distinct widening between the classes where the haves represented by Gotham's Favorite Son Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullum, who played a politician in "The Dark Knight Rises"), and the have-nots like Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) who always puts on a happy face despite his depressing background. Working as a clown, the only job a man who spent time in a mental hospital could get, and who has a brain injury that causes him to spastically laugh when he is anxious or upset, Arthur does the best he can as he takes care of his frail mother Penny (Frances Conroy),
and he aspires to be a stand-up comedian with dreams of appearing on the TV show of his hero Murray Franklin (Robert DeNiro).
But a turn of events and uncovered hidden truths lead benign Arthur to a descent into darkness. It's in this darkness, brightened by his love for neighbor Sophie (Zazie Beetz, Deadpool), Arthur truly finds himself.
I personally don't see how this film has made over 1 BILLION dollars (I'm thrilled for WB and its flagging DCEU, though).
Ryan Reynolds and Fox congratulating Joker/WB for usurping their highest R rated box office tally
While I didn't hate it I thought it was too morose and downplayed to resonate with audiences. But audiences have resonated with it and instead of feeling conflicted by Arthur/Joker, they feel an empathy with him. With any piece of art, audiences assign their own beliefs to the film and take from it what they may. I personally don't find it as deep as others have because I see the history of the Joker and Batman throughout. While people think there's hidden meaning behind the marquee showing "Mask of Zorro", I know it's an homage to the "Zorro" film the Waynes watched the night they were killed. People view the film as an indictment against the 1%, I just think it 's an allusion to the anarchy that Joker - whoever ultimately takes the moniker - creates.
I think Phoenix gave a grand performance, and as good as it is, it doesn't give the depth and heart as his performances in 2018's "You Were Never Really There" and "The Sisters Brothers".
Love Antosha
Riveting look at the life of actor Anton Yelchin (Star Trek, Simon Bartlett) who died in a freak accident at the age of 27. If there was someone who was born to be an actor it was Yelchin. Thanks to the home movies his parents kept you can see that he was an innately talented child who quickly got tired of commercials and embarked on a film career. Yelchin, was a true Renaissance man - he was an actor, filmmaker, photographer of the profane and profound world of LA sex culture (which surprised his parents (who only discovered this after he died) but delighted friends like Ben Foster and Simon Pegg) and musician. Thanks to his journals (read by Nicolas Cage), we get a deeper picture of Anton - Antosha to his Russian immigrant parents, former ice-skaters Viktor and Irina- who he called Mamoola and Papoola - an artist who was always striving for more and who had the respect of his colleagues (as displayed by the actors who appeared in the documentary like his Star Trek costars and director JJ Abram, but Martin Landau, Guillermo del Toro, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Jennifer Lawrence, and Kristen Stewart (who talks of being heartbroken because Anton didn't have feelings for her the way she did for him. Years later when he had his first heartbreak, he called her to apologize for not truly understanding her feelings), but didn't have much confidence in his own work.
The most surprising part of the documentary was that Yelchin was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as a child but his parents kept the diagnosis from him because they didn't want him to be afraid and get depressed. They told him his breathing treatments were to make him strong. They eventually told him in his teens as his symptoms got more pronounced. After his death, his parents discovered, through his journals , that Yelchin was planning on revealing his diagnosis to the public in order to show how one can live a successful life while having CF. They have started a CF Foundation in his name.
But the true testament to Yelchin's life was the relationship between he and his parents. They are blessed to have all his notes and emails and videos and pictures where he professed his love to them. It was such a portrait of pure love that in one part where Cage narrates Yelchin's apology to his mother for arguing with her about his health, there were gasps all over the room. You would never think they had one cross word to each other. His parents were on the panel for the Q&A and unsurprisingly they are still grieving. In the documentary his mother said that after he passed her husband told her that they should pretend that he was on a long film shoot, but she said that was impossible to pretend because he called her a "a million times a day" when he was on a shoot. Instead, they embrace the end of each day as it means they are one day closer to be reunited with Antosha.
A Marriage Story
I went in side-eyeing the film as I knew writer/director Noah Baumbach was using his divorce from Jennifer Jason Leigh as inspiration so I was sure he would make her stand-in, Scarlett Johansson, seem like an irrational monster. But I think Baumbach painted a fair picture of a divorce. Both characters don't always do the right things and sometimes both are very much seem like "the bad guy" but I think "Marriage Story" aims to show the destructive force of a divorce and how it's a battle to fight against the wave of hurt feelings in order to not do further damage as you rebuild your world.
Despite the marriage of theatre director Charlie Barber (Adam Driver) and his actress wife/collaborator Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) being on the rocks, with no amount of counseling helping, Charlie is still shocked when Nicole wants a divorce. Their plan to have an easy divorce via mediation goes disastrously awry when Nicole hires the brash lawyer Nora Fanshaw (Laura Dern) to sort out the custodial issue of their eight-year old son Henry (Azhy Robertson) who is torn between his now Los Angeles based mother and New York based father.
As Nicole is settling into a life that has been denied her, Charlie fumbles through trying to make sense of his new reality.
My friend who I saw it with had already seen it earlier in the week with a Q&A with Baumbach, Dern and Alan Alda (who is wonderful as Charlie's lawyer) and he warned me that it was "talky". Understatement of the year. Iat is wordy and indulgent as if Baumbach had so much in his head and his heart that he wanted to exorcise. It felt like a play at times. Thankfully the performances make the time worthwhile. While I enjoyed Driver in "The Report", this film gives him a wider palette to work with. He even performs a rousing rendition of Stephen Sondheim's "Being Alive" from "Company".
It was the closing night film of this year's AFI replacing AppleTV's "The Banker" which was pulled at the last minute when the half-sisters of the producer and film subject alleged that he molested them (allegations which he denied, of course).
What Netflix gave us for our troubles. I didn't need the tissues.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Less a film about Mr. (Fred) Rogers and more about his influence. Based on the true relationship between Mr. Rogers and Esquire features writer Tom Junod who wrote a piece on Rogers. Because Junod was unhappy with the dramatic license the script took, he asked that they not use his name. Instead the character is named Lloyd Vogel.
Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) is in the midst of a big life change. He and his wife Andrea (Susan Keletchi Watson, This is Us) are new parents with Andrea chomping at the bits to return to work despite how the new addition is already adding tension to their relationship and Lloyd's father, who abandoned their family, Jerry (Chris Cooper) has returned ready to make amends to an unbending Lloyd.
A cynic,a skeptic and overall jaded, Lloyd's boss thinks it would be a great idea to have Lloyd interview the most openhearted and jovial person on the planet: Mr. Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks). Lloyd takes on the gig in order to scratch beneath the surface of Mr. Rogers, hoping to find that if the real man matches the TV persona.
Curious storytelling techniques in the film with bits having more of an avant-garde feel. There are moments where it's presented that we're watching a show about Lloyd, almost in the vein of "The Truman Show". I think Michel Gondry's style as would have been perfect if they carried the device with all the way through. Hanks doesn't look or sound like Mr. Rogers, but he does convey the same gentleness and loving spirit in that when he speaks to characters it's almost as if he's blessing them. I think a better use of time would be watching the documentary, "Won't You Be My Neighbor" to get the man as he was.
The Irishman
I am a big proponent of the movie theater experience and to that end, I'm not a fan of Netflix for trying to play both sides of the fence by being a "disruptor" to the film experience, meanwhile wanting in on the benefits of it, namely Oscars and Cannes. There has also been a push by people so accustomed to Netflix that they now feel that films are too long. But this goes back to the movie theater experience - ticket prices have increased (in L.A the average is $17.50, more for Landmark and Arclight theaters and higher for theaters with special features like 4DX, dine-in and Dolby Prime) so if I'm paying top prices for a film I want it to be worth my money. "The Irishman" has tried to make a liar out of me. Clocking in at 3.5 hours, "The Irishman" is a film that needs to be seen in the theaters, even though it is too much movie. But kudos for Netflix for giving Martin Scorcese the money to make a throwback adult drama. Scorcese has long had final cut rights on his films (which is a rarity), so I can see why no other studio would front this film because it would be a battle to get Scorcese to whittle down this Iliad length gangster film.
Adapted from the book "I Heard You Paint Houses" by Charles Brandt about hitman Frank Sheeran, "The Irishman" follows Sheeran (Robert DeNiro) over 30 years of his life from his time as a WW2 soldier, to his days working as a hitman
for Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci), and fixer for Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino).
Like other Scorcese films, it covers the intricacies of the mob and the tricksters who trick and the snitches who gets ditches, but with the added history deep dive relating to the unions and corruption and cronyism. I don't know how long the book was but it's likely that Scorcese used every single bit of the book and then some (scenes that added nothing like a five minute scene where Pesci and his wife nag at each other over her smoking in the car) but in those added bits come the fun. DeNiro doesn't really come alive until the end because he gets to finally be his assured self, whereas earlier in the film he's young(ish due to uncanny valley de-aging techniques) and his default is to be hesitant in deference to the power of Hoffa and Bufalino. The real joy comes from watching Al Pacino and all his scene chewing glory, Joe Pesci who gives a quiet, yet stirring performance as a man who speaks softly while and have others with big sticks handle his opponents. And because I'm a fan, I thought scenes really came alive and buzzed with Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire, The Virtues) would be on-screen as mafioso Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano.
The made men: Pesci, Pacino, Scorcese, DeNiro and Harvey Keitel (who has a small role)
Queen and Slim
I really wish that the marketing for this film was better. It's easy to call it "The black Bonnie and Clyde" when it's 1) not and 2) a deeply profound story of connection and finding love in the unlikeliest moments.
Disillusioned after her client is sentenced to death, Angela (Jodie Turner Smith, Nightflyers) finally responds to the Tinder match she has been putting off. To say that her first date with Ernest (Daniel Kaluuya) doesn't go well is an understatement.
The very matter-of-fact and terse Angela and the warm, gospel loving Ernest have nothing in common and Angela expects (hopes) to never see him again. But their lives become intertwined when a routine traffic stop turns into manslaughter when a white officer nearly kills Angela and Ernest shots the cop in self defense.
Knowing where this will lead for Ernest, Angela urges him to go on the run with her to Cuba. As they journey along in hope of freedom, their story gains nationwide attention due to the cop's dashcam, making them the faces of social revolt against corrupt cops and the system that shields them, but also takes them on personal journey of connection as this trip forces Angela to confront her past pains and how it makes her relate to others.
Storywise I felt the plotting was too light. I think the writers Lena Waithe (Master of None) and lying a** liar James Frey (I am Number Four; A Million Little Pieces) boxed themselves in with some elements because I don't think they created a plausible rationale for Angela and Ernest to become folk heroes. The "enemy" wasn't well-defined.
But the real story is the relationship between Angela and Ernest and that is impeccable. Kaluuya and Turner-Smith have great chemistry
and it's beautiful seeing Angela's walls come down and Ernest opening up in a pure display of openness and trust.
Turner Smith with fiance Joshua Jackson
The film has great turns by a surprising array of people. Flea and Chloe Sevigny as a married couple who want to help Angela and Ernest, Bokeem Woodbine as Angela's uncle Earl (so good!), and Indya Moore (Pose) as one of Earl's women.
The Aeronauts
Like "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood", "The Aeronauts" is a true-ish account of real exploits (Felicity Jones' Amelia Wren is a composite character, blending various female aeronauts, but specifically Sophie Blanchard). Glaisher's actual partner was Henry Coxwell).
Based on the true story of early meteorologist, aeronaut James Glaisher, "The Aeronauts" takes the audience on a journey of discovery of the works of early meteorologists and their discoveries that has changed the world.
Aeronaut (hot-air balloon traveler) James Glaisher (Eddie Redmayne) wants to reach the literal heights of meteorology by studying the atmosphere at the highest recorded altitude. To achieve that he needs the help of a skilled pilot. Enter Amelia Wren (Felicity Jones) a fellow aeronaut who is now returning to the field after a tragic hot-air balloon accident.
Together the two battle the elements as they endure a tumultuous sky excursion.
Visually it's amazing, but it's a standard people vs. nature story and since it's confined to a hot air balloon, there is not really much to work with. It's a true two-hander between Jones and Redmayne (their second film after "The Theory of Everything") luckily, they work well together and create a compelling duo with this limited backdrop.
- Post is too large so "Knives Out" and "The Farewell" are aces. On the TV side Apple TV's "Dickinson" is great fun.