The Better Angels (2014)

Visually beautiful but generally quite boring film about a young Abraham Lincoln, from about ages 8 to 12 or so. Nice deep focus black and white cinematography, lovely wooded setting, one gets a sense of both the simplicity and the monotony that must have defined Lincolns boyhood years, and you can understand why a smarter then average boy would have been so driven to leave that world behind, he really came from nothing. If your curious about seeing it you might just want to view the last half hour or so, there's some good moments there, especially after young Abe finally gets to go to school. Brit Marling and Diane Kruger both good as Abraham's angel mother and step mother respectively. Jason Clarke nicely underplays Lincolns distant father, and Wes Bentley is intriguing as his teacher. This movie struck me as perhaps more suited to run in a continues loop at an art museum then something to sit down and watch on your couch. It wants so badly to be a Terrence Malick film. **

American Pastroral (2016)

I made a point of finally reading the novel that won Philip Roth his Pulitzer before this films release date last fall, ironically it never came to a theater here in the Salt Lake area, which combined with the films generally poor reviews kind of scared me a little, I've been burned by Roth adaptations before. However upon seeing this film I almost wonder if critics saw the same movie I did. I though it was wonderful, a good distillation of the novel if not quite on its level, which of course shouldn't be surprising with any adaptation. I though Ewan McGregor did a fine job of directing his first time out, and this wasn't a vanity exercise on his part either, he had wanted to play the lead role of Seymour "Swede" Levov for some time, but the films directors kept falling through so he took on the extra job primarily so that he could play that part, which he is also quite good in. Strong supporting performances from Jennifer Connelly and Dakota Fanning, David Strathairn is great as Nathan Zuckerman and should really record some Roth audio books. Most of the film was true to the source material and I didn't even mind that they somewhat changed the ending to make it work better on film. I was impressed. ***1/2

My Cousian Vinny (1992)

This movie just turned 25 years old, seemed like a good enough reason to finally scratch it off my 'want to see' list. The first half of the film or so is more amusing then laugh out loud funny, but after Joe Pesci's Vinny Gambini starts arguing in front of the court the movie really gets going and all the build up more then pays off. Marisa Tomei of course won her best supporting actress Oscar for this, and its really what launched her career, hard to believe now that she was third billed behind Ralph Macchio here. Also Fred Gwynne is great as always, here playing the courtly southern judge in what would prove to be his last film role. This movie has a great charm to it and was very capably directed by Englishman Jonathan Lynn, who also created two of my favorite britcoms Yes Minister, and Yes, Prime Minister. Also I'm just kind of partial to early 90's comedies. Loved this, they couldn't have done it better. ****

Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016)

I actually liked this sequel to the raunchy 2014 comedy Neighbors slightly better then the original (which this movie largely repeats in format),owing in large part to how much I have grown to rather like the lead characters. Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne are of course good, and Chloë Grace Moretz works better then I thought she would, but Zac Effron's Teddy Sanders is the dominate force here, I really enjoy this character, even enough to be open to a Neighbors 3. ***

Logan (2017)

Intended as actor Hugh Jackman's swan song performance as Wolverine, the character he built his career on, Logan is easily the grittiest, most violent, and yet most reflective 'X-Men' movie yet. Based, apparently quite loosely, on 'the old man Logan' story line from the comic books, Logan is set in the year 2029, with mutants on the brink of extension owing to an as yet unexplained 100% drop off in their birthrates. Logan is living in northern Mexico where he is hiding a ninety-something year old Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who appears to be in the early stages of dementia. Leaving Charles in the care of and albino mutant named Caliban (unusual but effective casting of Stephen Merchant), Logan is working as a limo driver across the boarder in El Paso, hoping to raise enough money to buy a yacht so he and Charles can live safely out at sea.

Wanting above all not to be noticed Logan is annoyed when a desperate Mexican woman and her mysterious 'daughter' come to him for help, followed shortly thereafter by cyborg security personal from a multinational corporation in pursuit of the two. The 'daughter' turns out to be a young (12ish) mutant, and before long, Logan, Charles, and the girl are being persued across country and headed for reported sanctuary at the Canadian boarder. The bulk of the film is an unusual 'on the lamb'/ 'on the road' movie, though thematically its pretty much a western, something its director James Mangold is pretty upfront about, at one point Charles and the girl (new comer Dafne Keen, impressive) are shown watching the 1953 classic Shane.

This movie is quite different from earlier X-Men fair, with the exception of Mangold's pervious film in the franchise The Wolverine (2013), which this movie seems to combine tonally with Mangold's 2007 remake of 3:10 to Yuma. There is a rough, weather-beaten feel to the whole proceeding, from Jackman's slightly aged look, to the near future society in slow decline depicted around the characters. This is to Marvel what the Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan Batman films were to DC. A satisfying benediction on Jackman's 17 years of playing Wolverine, a character who is much more interesting for having been played by him. ***1/2

Not for kids.

Resident Evil (2002)

Resident Evil is the first of a now six film series based on the Capcom survival horror video game franchise of the same name. A small group of corporate sponsored security personal, including of course at least one double agent, must infiltrate a secret underground genetic testing facility to determine what caused its sentient computer system to kill everyone inside. Well the short answer to that is zombie virus, so at this point you should know if this movie would be something you'd be at all interested in our not. A small band of characters having its membership picked off one by one is certainly a reliable cinematic formula, if a lazy one. I disliked this movie at lot at first, but it grew on me enough that I'd be interested in seeing where the series goes from her. I have never paid much attention to Milla Jovovich before, but she is really beautiful. **

The A-Team (2010)

Big screen adaption of the 1980's action television series, The A-Team is cinematic empty calories. Competently executed, with some well done action sequences, the plot feels inconsequential and so do the characters. A relatively early entry in Liam Neeson's rebranding of himself as primarily an action star, while Bradly Cooper takes to his role as "Face" as if it was his by right of birth. Still more watchable then I had expected. **

A Man Called Ove (2015)

Swedish film based on the international best selling novel of the same name, A Man Called Ove tells of the emotional reawaking of a 59 year old, widowed pensioner, after a mixed raced couple move into the house across the street. Ove starts as the stereotypical grumpy old man, and from the outset of the film there is little doubt as to the conventional general direction the movie will take. What surprised is how well handled the getting there was, and how much you truly love this man by the end of the film. Ove's backstory is imparted principally through a series of flash backs that trace his life from the childhood death of his mother to the death of his beloved wife. The flash backs are trigged by multiple failed suicide attempts, efforts in which he is regularly interrupted by neighbors at the door, or the sounds of local commotion he feels obliged to investigate. Despite that dark shading, this is a Swedish film after all, this is ultimately a life affirming, and upbeat film which puts forward the heartening thought that there is a more to the people around you then there might at first appear. Rolf Lassgard as the old Ove and Filip Berg as the young Ove the films standout performances. and  I loved this movie. ****

Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)

A rather writerly film. Very finally constructed. Though not based on one it concerns and is reminiscent of a play, the action is even divided into two acts with a lengthy epilogue. The story centers on Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) a respected Swiss actress of about 50 years of age, who after the unexpected passing of her dear friend and playwright Wilhelm Melchior, agrees to appear in a London stage revival of the play that launched her career, Maloja Snake. While 30 years ago she had played the scene stealing young ingénue role, now Maria is to play the part of the fading older woman, something of a pathetic character so desperate to cling to what she can no longer hold onto. Ms. Enders is having trouble coping with this change to her self identity both on screen and in real life, and its not long before plot elements of the play start bleeding over and repeating into her reality. This is most present in Maria's relationship to her young personal assistant Valentine (Kristen Stewart) but also intrudes into her interactions with the troubled Hollywood starlet brought in to play her old role (Chloë Grace Moretz). There is some good show business specific critique here, but the themes of aging and psychological displacement of course work broader then that. Though Clouds of Sils Maria is a very different film then Berberian Sound Studio, it does manages the kind of smart, working payoff to its building unease which the latter film never accomplished. Three rather different, but all very fine, female performances in this ****

Berberian Sound Studio (2012)

Toby Jones stars as a mild mannered English sound engineer named Gilderoy, who travels to Italy to do the audio effects for a film called The Equestrian Vortex. Gildeory, who has spent most of his career doing sound work for documentaries and children's television goes into the project thinking this to be just a movie about horses, but instead it turns out to be a grizzly horror film. Working long hours, in a confided place, in a foreign country, simulating the sounds of torture for a group of difficult show people exerts a lot of strain on this simple man who lives at home with his mother and whose big hobby is ornithology. It's a great set up for a film, the problem is there is no real pay off, the movie  feels like it should be building to something but instead it just kind of ends. Gildeory slowly loses his grip on reality, he starts seeing bits of his life on screen, a letter his mother wrote him ends up in the dialogue of the script, and then suddenly he's speaking fluent Italian, his words now showing as subtitles at the bottom of the screen. However this is mostly just existential crises, there is not much real danger here, annoyingly little actually happens in this film, and Gildeory's character doesn't change much at all. While I thought the device of not actually seeing the horror film on screen worked for awhile, by the end of the movie I kind of wished they'd show us some of that film just for a change of pace. **

Flight (2012)

Inspired by 'The Miracle on the Hudson' in a very lose, Law & Order 'ripped from the headlines' type way, Flight is actually a pretty strong entry in the 'battle with substance abuse' subgenera of film, I'd say right up there with The Lost Weekend and Days of Wine and Roses. The plot concerns a commercial airline pilot who miraculously saves the lives of 96 of the 102 passengers and crew aboard his plan in a 'miracle landing' after a major mechanical issue with the aircraft. Denzel Washington plays the pilot William "Whip" Whitaker, he's a hero after what he accomplished, but he stays isolated, knowing what the post crash tox screening will prove, and wrestling with his demons. It's a strong performance by Washington. The supporting cast is uniformly good, including Bruce Greenwood, Don Cheadle, and John Goodman. I also liked Kelly Reilly in this, she is a kind of English Jessica Chastain, here playing a recovering heroin user that Whitaker gets involved with. One thing that took me by surprise, and that I didn't even think to check for, is there is a fair amount of nudity in this, though all concentrated within the first 15 minutes or so of the film. I don't think I have ever seen nudity in a Robert Zemeckis film before, so be advised. ***1/2

Live by Night (2016)

Ben Affleck directed and stars in Live by Night, a $65 million gangster epic based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. This movie really was not advertised well and consequently did disappointing business at the box office, as of this writing its grossed less then a third of its budget. There is A LOT of plot to this movie, I don't really want to begin summarizing beyond that fact that the story concerns prohibition and depression era gangsters, and the movie covers a lot of ground, a lot of years, and a lot of characters. Again given the mass of plot this movie conveys it does so with remarkable efficiency, I can't think of any story point or character that I thought was distractingly underdeveloped. The movie went in a number of directions I wasn't expecting, the production was very well mounted, the cast strong, with Chris Cooper and Elle Fanning as standouts, and there is some serious substance here. Not as good as L.A. Confidential, which was also based on a Dennis Lehane novel, but I think Live by Night is an underappreciated film who reputation I hope grows with time. ****