Blood Work (2002)

Based on the novel of the same name by Michael Connelly, Blood Work is essentially Clint Eastwood's rough equivalent to the previous years Jack Nicholson film The Pledge. Instead of a cop, who on the day before his retirement promises a grieving mother he would find the man who killed her daughter, it's an FBI profiler, forced to retire do to a heart condition, who promises the sister of the woman whose heart he received as a transplant, that he would find the man who killed her. Both films involve the protagonist getting romantically involved with a much younger woman who is a raising a young child on her own. The cast here are basically unknowns, with a few notable exceptions (Eastwood, Jeff Daniels, and Anjelica Huston, the latter in a smallish part) which I think really helps the film seem more 'real'. The central mystery is fairly easy to figure out, I did about half way through, but its well acted, enjoyable, more a procedural mystery then thriller. A logical extension on Eastwood's earlier work, maturely handled. I seemed to have liked it better then most critics. ***1/2

Inferno (2016)

By far the weakest of the Ron Howard/ Tom Hanks, Robert Langdon films. Skipping The Lost Symbol and heading straight to the most recent book in the series, this time Langdon most prevent the release of a deadly plague designed to kill off half the people of the world as a quick remedy to overpopulation. Of course to do so Langdon must solve archaic riddles and wade through Renaissance trivium, as always in the company of an attractive, European, brunette woman (in this case Felicity Jones, an actress who I really want to like, but so far find myself a little underwhelmed by). Warmed over cinematic leftovers not even Ben Foster or Sidse Babett Knudsen can redeem. **

Dr. No (1962)

Dr. No was the first James Bond film, and that is what I liked most about it. Bond had been a successful book series, but it was not yet a proven quantity in film, though even then the odds looked promising. So this movie wasn't given the tremendous budget that would become standard for later outings, and many of the conventions that would come to define the franchise were still being formed. For example this is not a gadgetie film, there is no Q, or at least no character referred to by that name. There are Bond girls yes, three of them in fact, but Bond himself is not perfect, he even falls for a fairly obvious drugged beverage, which I liked because it made him seem more human and fallible then he typically does. Also later Bond films had this propensity to globe trot for no real reason beyond increasing the number of exotic locals in the picture, in this movie the case that Bond is sent to investigate is in Jamaica, so he goes to Jamaica, London to Jamaica, no where else, just Jamaica, that's it, kind of retroactively refreshing. Sean Connery is of course definitive in the role, and I look forward to see him reprise it many times as I attempt to make it through the theatrical Bond movies over the course of 2017. ****

Jackie (2016)

In Jackie actress Natalie Portman announces to the world that yes, she would indeed like a second Oscar. In many ways her choice to portray Jackie Kennedy seemed a little too on the noise, a little obvious, perhaps even a little lazy. Here is a glamorous, sympathetic historical figure, well known, classy, a made to order part for Ms. Portman. Despite this heads up Natalie doesn't glide through the role, she gives it her all in what must have been a very draining shoot.

The story of Jackie focuses primarily on the immediate aftermath of the JFK assassination up through the funeral, with a few flashbacks thrown in, and a framing story set a short while later, where the widowed Mrs. Kennedy is interviewed by political journalist and historian Theodore H. White (Billy Crudup, capturing just the right note). As a result Portman's Jackie is walking an emotional tight rope through pretty much the whole picture, and while she is inherently sympathetic, what makes the performance shine is the layers she brings to it. Jackie is flawed, wracked by internal conflict, unsure where to vent her anger and to channel her energies, and as a result she is erratic, but also too disciplined to ever go over the top.

That conflict between appearances and her true self is at the heart of the Jackie Kennedy story. The film does a good job of setting this up early in flashback sequences around the first lady's famed 1962 televised tour of the White House. She is jittery, a smart woman feeling obligated to play the dumbed down, and extremely deferential trophy wife. You can sense her internal self humiliation in these scenes, and this makes the forceful, assertive Jackie who emerges in the aftermath of her husbands death all the more compelling.

There is a good supporting cast here as well, with Peter Sargaard fitting as Robert Kennedy, the aforementioned Billy Crudup, and John Hurt as Jaqueline's priest confessor. Beth Grant and John Carroll Lynch are the Johnson's, and an actress I'm beginning to take note of, Greta Gerwig, is quite good as Jackie's friend and white house social secretary Nancy Tuckerman. Caspar Phillipson plays Jack, and while he has very few lines, he looks more creepily like the late president then anyone I've ever seen before. This in the end is not the kind of film one typically needs to see on the big screen for full visual effect, but I would still recommend doing so, given the nature of the story it just seems right to see it large. ****

Passengers (2016)

Intended (and mostly successful) sci-fi crowed pleaser stars Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence as passengers on an interstellar settlement ship bound for the colony world of Homestead II, only they awake from their suspended animation slumber 90 years too early, and their seems to be growing technical problems with the ship. You've kind of seen this movie before, there is some Wall-E here, some Silent Running, and Duncan Jones Moon. The plot is maybe a little thin, but it looks beautiful (love the design on that ship) and the leads are charismatic, including Michael Sheen as a wall mounted android bartender. That being said, and not to spoil too much because its worth it going in for the most part unawares, but its kind of a creepy movie, but not in the sense you may be anticipating. To the films credit they do deal with the gorilla in the room element of the film, how successfully they do so is up to the viewer to decide. I thought they did an okay job of handling it, but still... ***

A Most Violent Year (2014)

Writer/director J. C. Chandor is a relative newcomer on the film scene whose work I hadn't really been paying any attention to, and now I think I should. Winner of The National Board of Reviews best picture award for 2014, A Most Violent Year is a period crime drama that came about because of Chandor's interest in doing a film about violence, and it propensity to spread. Set in and around New York City in the year 1981, statistically the most violent year in the cities history, the movie chronicles the husband (Oscar Isaac) and wife (Jessica Chastain) owners of a growing heating oil business, as they attempt to extract it from its (implied to be mob related) past under the previous owner (Chastain's father), and see it grow, while simultaneously dealing with a series of a truck hijackings that seem to be targeting their business, and fending off the criminal investigation against them by an ambitious young ADA (David Oyelowo). Albert Brooks plays Isaac's lawyer and right hand man.

The movie which this film reminds me of the most is probably There Will Be Blood, not in terms of plot line or setting but in terms of its relentless building to what forebodes to be a violent conclusion. Isaac is trying his hardest to keep his head above water as the outside pressure keeps mounting, it's a heck of a performance, and Chastain keeps pace with him all the way. Evocative of seventies crime dramas, particularly The French Connection, this move has remarkable restraint and seriousness to it, it never seems overplayed. A real achievement of a film. ****

Keeping Up with the Jones (2016)

Zack Galifianakis works in HR for a large military contractor, his wife Isla Fisher is an interior decorator and homemaker, they consider themselves a boring couple; but the summer glamorous new neighbors the Jones (Jon Hamm, Gal Gadot) movie onto their cul-de-sac, well life doesn't stay boring for long. Despite its generally poor reviews I thought that Keeping Up with the Jones was a perfectly good comedy, in fact a better then average entry in the 'there is something odd about the new neighbors' subgenera. The cast is game, they're not breaking any new ground but they are giving the proceedings just the right amount of energy. Galifianakis even gets to play a relatively competent character for a change. The revel of the big bad guy at the end is the request gage, but it works, as does the whole film because it doesn't make the mistake of thinking itself any smarter or more clever then it actually is. ***

Rouge One (2016)

Rouge One, sometimes subtitled A Star Wars Story, is certainly a different type of Star Wars movie. Billed as a stand alone and not part of the three currently existing or in progress trilogies, Rouge One is a sort of prequel to the first Star Wars movie A New Hope, and in fact takes events up until just a matter of hours before the start of that movies narrative. The story here is about how the Rebel Alliance got the plans to The Death Star that Luke would exploit to great success at the end of Episode IV. The plot is in effect much like that of a World War II secret mission film, and in fact near the ending their is even the storming of a beach. Felicity Jones is pretty but disappointingly bland as the main protagonist of the story Jyn Erso, Alan Tudyk is the comic relief droid K-2SO. There are a goodly number of other characters of various degrees of interest, but what will probably always stick with me most is the almost photo real recreation of the late actor Peter Cushing, reprising as it were his role as Grand Moff Tarkin, super imposed over the actor Guy Henry.


The film does what it sets out to do, which is to tell a Star Wars story in a very different way then we've seen on a big screen before. Technically it is very competent, and I love the way the film invokes the 1970's look and production design of the original film, even down to imperial offices sporting 70's style mustaches and sideburns. While there are good action sequences here and the last third of the film is very well handled, this movie sure plays it safe, though not as much as The Force Awakens. This outing further drives home that the new Star Wars films are more focused on recapturing what made Episode IV work, then on taking risks, for good or for ill. ***

An Honest Liar (2014)

Bio-doc about James Randi, otherwise known as 'The Amazing Randi', a Canadian born magician and escape artist and hero of the skeptic movement. Born in 1928 Randi began his career as an escape artist and magician in 1946, and became something of a Television regular by the mid 1950's, he was a favorite guest and personal friend of Johnny Carson's, collaborated with Alice Cooper of all people, appeared as himself on an episode of Happy Days, and did a lot of children's television and talk shows. After more or less retiring from serious escape work, though he will still perform some of his magic tricks, Randi became a kind of investigative journalist in the debunking of fantastical claims. Randi wrote books and appeared on television in this capacity, and is noted for the debunking of then claimed psychic Uri Geller, and the faith healer Peter Popoff, among others. James Randi is also a homosexual, and kept this as something of an open secret until officially coming out of the closet in 2010. Randi married his long time partner the artist Jose Alvarez in 2013, and that relationship, well you need to watch the movie on that. A very strong production about a very interesting man, which will probably surprise you in ways you are not expecting. ***1/2

A Summer Place (1959)

Based on a book by Sloan Wilson, who had authorized the definitive 50's novel The Man in the Gray Flannel Suite, A Summer Place is a lesser Payton Place, a trashy, multi generational New England soap opera. The things these characters talk about, in public and mixed company, well they are not appropriate. Something is rather off about the dynamic between father Richard Egan and daughter Sandra Dee, why does she tell him these things? At least he doesn't make it more awkward but just brushes it aside, a parenting win for Egan. Troy Donahue and Dee ain't great decision makers as a couple, but then neither are Egan and Dorothy McGuire. Arthur Kennedy gets the best part in the film, scene chewing as a drunk son of fading aristocracy. This film will always be better remembered for its beautiful theme music then for its story. ***

Inside Job (2010)

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Inside Job tells the story of the late 2000's fiscal crises that in 2008 resulted in The Great Recession. Narrated by Matt Damon the film is well made and very informative, yet do to its inherently dry subject matter wears a bit and I wish it had been about 20 minutes shorter. Still this movie should be mandatory viewing for congress immediately before taking a vote to roll back what few, admittedly anemic and wanting fiscal reforms the Obama administration managed to get through. With the incoming administration we seem to be on track to replicate the circumstances that brought economic disaster upon us not even a decade ago. Sadly we don't seem to learn. ***

See also: The Big Short

This 1951 British film adaptation of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, simply titled Scrooge, contains the most Ebenezer backstory of an version I am familiar with. Now I had first seen this version more then 10 years ago, but watching it again I was reminded of just how strong its presentation truly is. Here you see how Ebenezer's life took the course it did based largely on fear and a recurring sense of personal rejection and abandonment. He made his money by very shrewdly divining changing economic conditions in early 19th century England, and in this version he and Marley help put Scrooge's good natured former employer Fizziwig out of business. Alastair Sim's performance as  Scrooge may well be my favorite, there is a subtlety here that is often lacking form the part. Scrooge's change doesn't happen all at once at the end, but rather you really do see it slowly building as the sprits words gradually work to convince him of the error of his ways, though it is the brute fear engendered by the Ghost of Christmas Futures warning that finally pushes him over the edge into acting on his new convictions. Also Sims does something with his eyes at the end that convey a penitence seldom if ever matched on screen. So this is all a long way of saying that if your looking for a version of the classic story you've probably never seen before, might be worth giving this one a view. ****

Watch it free and legal here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urdJOySUOzE

Mistress America (2015)

A quirky comedy about youth and directionlessness by Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale). 19 year old Columbia freshman Tracy Fishko (Lola Kirke) befriends 30 year old Manhattan gadfly Brooke Cardinas (Greta Gerwig) after their parents get engaged. Tracy is charmed by Brooke, and some hero worship results, yet one that is infused with a skepticism that later gives birth to a massive plot point. This is probably my favorite movie about Millennials, and one that does not spare in its criticism of the generation. Yet it's also an empathetic film, and with its dry-ish sense of humor, largely New York City setting, and being built around the Thanksgiving holiday, the movie it reminds me the most of is Pieces of April (2003), to which this flick can be considered a thematic cousin (even down to quirky apartment neighbors who can be imposed on at Thanksgiving). There is a protracted set of sequences in the later half of the film, set at the Connecticut home of Brooke's wealthy frienemie Mimi-Claire (Heather Lind), in which the film becomes essentially an 1930's screwball comedy with a contemporary setting. Also the parts about college freshman's mixing of a proto world wariness with naiveté I think really hit the mark. Plus this whole thing is just quite funny. ***

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

Tim Burton's answer to Harry Potter and The X-Men is based on the first of a series of novels by the author Ransom Riggs (great name). Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children tells a story about a group of "Peculiar's", a stand in for mutants or magical folk, housed in a school located on a small island off the coast of Wales. The story principally concerns the grandson (Asa Butterfield, Hugo and Ender's Game) of a alumni of the school (the ordinal General Zod, Terrance Stamp), who after his grandfathers death tries to figure out where the fantastic stories he was told as a child end, and where the truth begins, and sets off in search of granddads reportedly still living former headmistress Miss Peregrine (Eva Green at her warmest). A charming family adventure film this really won me over, the best Tim Burton film in a long, long time (maybe since Big Fish). Not to spoil too much this movie plays with time in a way I really liked, it's quite creative. A capable ensemble cast, including newish comer Ella Purnell, who I am confident we will be seeing much more of in the future. ***

Wonder Woman (2009)

Fairly straight forward presentation of the Wonder Woman origin story (which I don't think I had ever really heard before) from the Warner Brothers animation department. I suspect we will get a rather similar rendering of this tale in the upcoming DCU version due out next year. This telling is set largely in the present day and features the voice of Keri Russell as Wonder Woman and Nathan Fillion as the American pilot she falls for, and there is something oddly un-feminist about this plot element for such a feminist icon. On the whole pretty engaging, and I liked not knowing exactly where it was going. ***

Francofonia (2015)

The most obvious film to compare Francofonia with is The Russian Ark (2002, which Aleksandr Sokurov also directed) in that they are both films about a museum, The Russian Ark being a sort of film essay on The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, while Francofonia is along similar lines about the Lourve in Paris. Where The Russian Ark is a magnificent extended shot within The Hermitage, with a vast cast in various periods costume, Francofonia is more cut up in its collage, there are some nice shots of various pieces on display in the museum, as well as a slightly odd framing story about the documentary film maker having Skype conversations with an associate on a cargo ship loaded with art in danger of being lost in a massive storm. That framing story I suppose is meant to counter point the other narrative this film keeps going back to, namely the unlikely partnership between the then director of the Lourve and the Nazi officer put in charge of it during the occupation, and how they together managed to protect most of the artwork from being destroyed or removed from the country. I can't help but wonder how that story might have worked as a more traditional narrative film, but the telling here still manages to get the point across. Not like most films you'll ever see in its presentation, which at times seems surprisingly casual. ***1/2

The Battle of the Somme (1916)

Propaganda documentary film about the titular WWI battle released by the British government later that same year. I saw this at the International Cinema at BYU, liking the idea of seeing a 100 year old film on the big screen. While it was interesting to see this kind of footage writ large (some of which I had already seen) on the whole it was kind of a dull presentation. Do both to the desires of the British government who released it, and the technological constraints of filming in a war zone at the time, there's not really any battle footage here, save maybe one or two shots at a great distance, and people going over the trench or firing one of the big guns. Mostly its before and after footage of skirmishes, but even those are selected in a way meant to under play the carnage. Still interesting as a historically artifact, though it feels long at a little more then an hour running time. **1/2

America America (1963)

Director Elia Kazan's film tells the true story of how his uncle first came to America. The plot is essentially three hours of trying to get to this country from Ottoman era Turkey and all the obstacles Stavros Topouzoglou encountered in that quest. It's a strong film and a good reminder of the monumental efforts and sacrifices some will go through to be able to call this U.S. home. ***1/2

Best movies of 2006

15.Jesus Camp
14.United 93
13.Pans Labyrinth
12.Marie Antoinette
11.The Last King of Scotland
10.Apocalypto
9.Brick
8.Joyeux Noel
7.Little Children
6.Away From Her
5.The Queen
4.Letters From Iwo Jima/ Flags of Our Fathers
3.The Departed
2.Children of Men
1.The Lives of Others

Best movies of 2007

15.Stardust
14.Persepolis
13.Hot Fuzz
12. Death Proof
11.Amazing Grace
10.The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford
9.Enchanted
8.Lars and the Real Girl
7.Gone Baby Gone
6.Once
5.No Country for Old Men
4.Michael Clayton
3.Atonement
2.There Will Be Blood
1.Into The Wild

Best movies of 2008 (Probably the strongest movie year of recent memory)

15.The Visitor
14.Gran Torino
13.Happy -Go- Lucky
12.Revolutionary Road
11.The Reader
10.Let The Right One In
9.The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
8.Milk
7.Frozen River
6.Wall-E (probably my favorite Pixar)
5.Doubt
4.Dear Zachery
3.The Wrester
2.The Dark Knight (probably the best super hero movie ever)
1.Synecdoche, New York

Best movies of 2009

15.The Informant!
14.Funny People
13.Glorious 39
12.Up
11.Collapse

10.A Serious Man
9.The Cove
8.Brothers
7.Watchman
6.The White Ribbon
5.Inglorious Basterds
4.Up in the Air
3.The Road
2.An Education
1.The Hurt Locker

Best movies of 2010

Honorable mention

15.The Illusionist
14.The Kids Are All Right
13.She's Out of My League
12.The Town
11.127 Hours



10.The Cave of Forgotten Dreams
9.The Ghost Writer
8.Black Swan
7.The Social Network
6.Toy Story 3
5.True Grit
4.The Messenger
3.Another Year
2.Inception
1.The Kings Speech

Best movies of 2011

Honorable mention

15.Bernie
14.Young Adult
13. The Muppets
12. The Help
11.The Sunset Limited

10. The Debt
9. Another Earth
8.A Dangerous Method
7.Melancholia
6.Captain America
5.Mary Martha Marcy Marlene
4.Drive
3.Super 8
2.Tree of Life
1.The Descendants

Best Movies of 2012

Honorable Mention

14.Game Change
13.Looper
12.Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
11. Life of Pie

10.The Avengers
9.Django Unchained
8.Moonrise Kingdom
7.Argo
6.The Dark Knight Rises
5.The Place Beyond The Pines
4.Lincoln
3.The Master
2.Zero Dark Thirty
1.Silver Linings Playbook

Best Movies of 2013 (Kind of a weak year)

10.The Unknown Known
9.Begin Again
8.Frozen (I don't have kids, I only had to see it once)
7.White House Down (guilty pleasure)
6.Clear History (TV movie, but funniest movie of the year)
5.Gravity
4.Inside Llewyn Davis
3.American Hustle
2.12 Years A Slave
1.Nebraska

Best Movies of 2014

Honorable Mention

13.The Fault in Our Stars
12.Captain America: The Winter Solder
11.Fury

10. Noah
9.Inherent Vice
8.Guardians of the Galaxy
7.The Grand Budapest Hotel
6.American Sniper
5.Interstellar
4.Gone Girl
3.Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
2.The Imitation Game
1.Into The Woods

I've been movie blogging since 2005 but have a hard time putting together best of the year lists because I often don't see many of a given years most promising films until later. So I've decided to put together some belated best of lists.

Honorable Mention:

15.Tomorrowland
14.Sleeping With Other People
13.Hail Caesar!
12.Creed
11.The Witch: A New England Folktale

10.April and the Extraordinary World
9. Mad Max: Fury Road
8.Trumbo
7.The Walk
6.Steve Jobs
5.The Revenant
4.Brooklyn
3.The Measure of A Man
2.The Big Short
1.Spotlight

My Top 10 Favorite TV Shows of All Time (yep they are all hour long drama's)

10. Police Woman
9. Babylon 5
8. Boston Legal
7. Boardwalk Empire
6. The West Wing (seasons 1-4)
5. Marcus Welby M.D.
4. Mad Men
3. Six Feet Under
2. Twin Peaks
1. Homicide: Life on the Street

Rules Don't Apply (2016)

Rules Don't Apply is Warren Beatty's first film role since Town & Country in 2001, and the first feature film he's directed since Bulworth in 1998. Once one of Hollywood's biggest stars and a noted playboy, Beatty might now be principally noted for his left wing politics (and the fact that he's married to Annette Bening) but Rules Don't Apply isn't much of a political movie, instead it is to my reading the kind of movie you make when you want to make one last movie.

The prospect of playing Howard Hughes has got to have been something that had been percolating in Beatty's mind for some time, he co-wrote the story on which this movie is based and adapted it into a screenplay. Beatty seems to be having a ball playing the part which seems like a mixture of Joe Biden and Garry Shandling getting stoned. While Hughes is a major player in the story its not principally about him, instead its a rather old fashioned romance between Hughes employee Frank Forbes (Alden Ehrenreich) and young starlet Marla Mabrey (Lily Collins). The two meet when Forbes is assigned to be Mabrey's driver when she first comes to Hollywood in the late 1950's, right around the same time Beatty first came there in real life. The two leads have a surprisingly strong chemistry together, and while there is the request misunderstandings inherent to this type of picture, it's played with a nice old fashioned subtlety and class which is refreshing at the same time its being nostalgic.

Beatty loads the film with big names in small parts, including Matthew Broderick, Alec Baldwin, Candice Bergen, Dabney Coleman, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, Steve Coogan, Oliver Platt, Paul Sorvino, Martin Sheen and of course Annette Bening. The film is very lose with the real Howard Hughes time line, moving the whole Clifford Irving fake memories affair up about eight years and having him still signing starlets in 1959, two years after he started selling RKO for parts. This is a pleasurable eccentric meander of a film, the kind we don't get enough of and a vanity project in the best sense of the term. ***1/2

The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)

I did not know this story, and its quite gripping. Based on the 1985 best selling German book of the same name by Stefan Aust, The Baader Menhof Complex tells the true story of a far left West German terrorist group known as The Red Army Faction from 1967-1977 and its best known  members Andreas Baader and the former reporter Ulrike Meinhof. The group was responsible for a series of bombings at U.S. military installations and the bank robbery's they used to finance them. After the groups ringleaders were captured and put on trail a series of additional terrorist actions were undertaken by their followers with the intent to free this leadership. These actions including a plane hijacking with 86 people on board (sub-contracted to sympathetic middle-easterners), an attack on the German embassy in Stockholm, and the murder of the West German Attorney General. A story of maniacal obsession Meinhof started out as a reasonable enough person principally opposed to the American war in Vietnam who got seduced by evil, while Baader started off pretty much an asshole. Lots of twists in this made all the more intriguing by the fact that they really happened. The protest turned riot scene near the beginning of the film is by its self worth seeing. ****