National Screening Room

Last Night (1998)

Written, directed and staring "Toronto New Wave" (yes that's a thing) filmmaker Don McKeller, Last Night follows around a dozen or so characters during the last six hours of life on this planet. While the impending cause of the planets doom is never made explicate, we know that it is some kind of stellar phenomena because while the movie covers 6pm to midnight (Toronto time) it never gets dark and one character mentions that he misses "night time". So it's a comet or star or something that has given sufficient notice that everyone knows that the end is defiantly coming, and that there is no way to stop it. While there is some looting and violence for the most part the characters in this film handle impending oblivion in a suitably polite, restrained, Canadian manner, though all must grapple with existential dread in their own ways.

On character Duncan (played by horror director David Cronenberg) an employee of the municipal gas company spends most of his day calling customers and leaving them voicemails, thanking them for using the gas company. The handsome Craig Zwiller (Callum Keith Rennie) has been spending the months leading up to Armageddon working his way through a bucket list of sexual conquests, including his high school French teacher  Mme Carlton (Geneviève Bujold). A Mrs. Wheeler (Robert Maxwell) is intent on holding one last Christmas for her grown children, even though it isn't the holiday season. Patrick Wheeler (McKellar) just wants to die alone, but is interrupted by Sandra (Sandra Oh) a woman whose car was wrecked by vandals and is just trying to get back to her husband before the end.

This movie tackles much of the same territory as the later film Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, so much so that the latter movie could be considered a loose remake. The original film however is defiantly more of an ensemble piece, though Patrick and Sandra's story form the hub from which the other narratives grow. This movie is even more somber then Seeking a Friend, it's melancholy is of greater subtlety. It is also rougher and less polished, feels truer, and is I think is the better movie, even a great picture, though I still rather liked the Steve Carell film. Before seeing this film I heard someone say "well everybody likes Last Night" and took it is a bit of challenge, an "I won't be so easy to win over" but I was, this movie really works, at first its not entirely clear what its trying to be, that gets clearer with time and there is a joy in making connections between these characters and piecing together backstory. It's really an achievement, a beautiful film. ****

Mary Queen of Scots (2018)

The new film version of Mary Queen of Scots tales the story of the 16th century Scottish monarch more clearly then the film version of her life I had previously seen, the 1936 John Ford production staring Katharine Hepburn. In part this is because Mary's life didn't meet MPPA standards of morality, and in part because this version is better written and better acted. While promotion for this movie makes it look something like a cat fight between Scotland's Mary (Saorise Ronan) and England's Elizabeth I (Margot Robbie) (both actresses are very good here) it's really not, though their rivalry is a central through line this is Mary's story not the pairs, Ms. Ronan gets the heft of the screen time with Margot appearing as needed. It's a fine film, though I never really got to feel that emotionally invested in the proceedings, these characters are not that likable.

As is increasingly common with period pieces non Caucasian actors are sprinkled throughout the film, despite the fact that 16th century Britain was almost exclusively white, there were no African lords and Asian ladies in waiting in the islands royal courts. I am of mixed mind on this trend, I'm not necessarily opposed, especially when the film is done in a rather stylized manner, however with the degree of period verisimilitude this movie was generally going for, racial diversity in casting did take me out of the moment and felt a little distracting. Also Mary seemed unusually understanding of alternative life styles for a 16th century Catholic. I feel like I should be giving Mary Queen of Scots ***1/2, it was really well done, however watching the thing it really did feel more like a ***.

The Balled of Buster Scruggs (2018)

The Balled of Buster Scruggs asks the question, what if Roy Rodgers were incredibly violent? Or rather that is what it's first segment, also titled "The Balled of Buster Scruggs" asks as this newest Coen Brothers film is as an anthology of short western stories. So this is a retro genera picture done in a retro format, perfect for the Coen's. The brothers enjoy playing amongst the western conventions and types, giving them their own signature twists. The tone, and to a lesser extend the quality is varied, ranging from the Loony Toons craziness of Tim Blake Nelson's Buster Scruggs, to "Meal Ticket", which goes rather dark and features Liam Neeson as a traveling impresario and Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley from the Harry Potter films) as a limbless artist who can recite Shakespeare, The Bible, and Lincoln by hart. Tom Waits is a wonderfully grizzled old prospector in "All Gold Canyon", "The Mortal Remains" boasts a great small cast and some very enjoyable dialogue, while James Franco in "Near Algodones" anchors the films weakest segment, which still features an enjoyable turn by Stephen Root as an isolated banker. By far my favorite of the six vignettes is "The Gal Who Got Rattled" featuring Zoe Kazan, it is so old fashioned and sweet it could almost have been done as an episode of the vintage TV series Wagon Train, which was also a western anthology program. This is really one of the best films of the year, every once in a while a movie comes around that scratches an itch you didn't know needed scratching until you've seen it. I really hope that the films producer NetFlix gets to do more anthology work with the Coen's, I'd love to get something like this every few years from them. **** 

Swimming (2000)

This film is very indie, and very early 2000's. It's funny how the presence of cell phones in movies used to be what you'd notice, now it's there absence that draws attention. The movie star's Lauren Ambrose, just before the start of Six Feet Under (my third favorite TV show of all time). Frankie Wheeler (Ambrose) is a year or so out of high school and working for her brother at the family restaurant on Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. There is ennui and a bisexual love triangle. Ambrose and the films refreshing tone, like a slow summers day makes this movie work. I enjoyed it more then I though I would. ***

Vox Lux (2018)

In Latin Vox Lux translates roughly as "voice of light", this is an ironic title. The films full title Vox Lux: A 21st Century Portrait captures things better, though one could easily substitute the word "tragedy" for  "portrait" because that is what this movie is, a tragedy in the almost Shakespearian sense, if Shakespeare were to write a play about Brittney Spears.

***Some Spoilers***

This is the story of Statin Island native Celeste Montgomery, who as a 13 year old returns to her eight grade class after the holiday break in January of 2000 and is caught in a Columbine like school shooting. To save lives Celeste begs the troubled Cullen Active to let her classmates go and she will stay with him, when Cullen asks what they will do when the others go Celeste replies that they will pray, upon hearing this Cullen opens fire. Celeste is hit in the neck but survives, weeks later she and her sister perform a song of mourning they wrote at a memorial service, this song strikes a national nerve and by September 11th of the following year she has a full album under her belt and is on course for pop stardom.

The movie then flashes forward to 2017, there is another tragedy, a shooting at a beach resort in Croatia, the terrorists dawning masks like those featured in a music video from Celeste's first album, she handles this event with far less grace. In the succeeding years Celeste has become a mess, having a child as teenager, a troubled marriage that ended in divorce, a pattern of substance abuse, at one point resulting in a serious hit and run with an innocent pedestrian. Knowing she can no longer be a fit parent her daughter goes to live with Celeste's older sister Eleanor (Stacy Martin, nicely understated) who has her own resentments, but keeps them better contained.

Celeste is no longer the sweet innocent she once was, she is in fact something of a monster, for while the school shooting did not destroy her, celebrity may have. A powerful story, so attuned to our times. Natalie Portman gives an excellent performance, expect an Oscar nod for this, she's delusional, acts out, shifts emotions rapidly, and always feels she must be performing, even to those long tired of her act. As great as Ms. Portman's work is one should defiantly keep an eye on Raffey Cassidy who plays the young Celeste, here performance is not as "big" as Natalie's, but it's subtle and in some ways more powerful. Writer/director Brady Corbet really gives us something different in this, and there's a number of little compositional and editing flourishes to the thing that I really enjoyed. Quite a movie, you'll keep thinking about it after it's over. ****

The Train Robbers (1973)

John Wayne leads some civil war veterans, a reformed thief, and a couple of hired guns in pursuit of some lost gold, with Ann-Margret as the widow woman who knows the way to the treasure. For the most part a very standard, unexceptional western, only the ending elicited from me an audible "Boo". *1/2

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

Early press for this second Fantastic Beasts film was not particularly kind, so I went in with lowered expectations, which ironically paid off because this was better then I had thought it would be. For the first two quarters of the film I was "nah", the 3rd quarter "well maybe", and the final "didn't see that coming". Not as enjoyable over all as the first film (which I wish I had watched again shortly before seeing this to bring me back up to speed), this movie defiantly grew one me though it was only at the end that I could appreciate the surprisingly subtle set up of its close. ***

The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)

The notorious Star Wars Holiday Special, well for its 40th anniversary this year I finally watched it. One can understand on an intellectual level from its reputation that this is bad, but you can never know just how bad until you watch it. Surprisingly long non subtitled stretches of Wookie speak, Harvey Korman in drag, Bea Arthur singing, it's all there, including the three leads of the original film just trying to get the dang thing over with. Most remarkable of all is that having seen it, CBS still elected to put it on in prime time. If you like Star Wars, or if you like 1970's variety television, you will still probably not like The Star Wars Holiday Special. * 1/2 (the half star being for the shear ludicrous novelty of it.)

Slap Shot (1977)

A take on the inspiring sports movie, or more exactly a twisted, and rather entertaining satire on it. Slap Shot stars Paul Newman as Reggie 'Reg' Dunlop aging coach/ player on the Charlestown Chiefs, a losing rust belt minor league hockey team. When the local mill announces that it is closing 'Reg' decides he must do whatever it takes to up the Chiefs win record in the hopes that its mysterious owner will sell them rather then fold it. 'Reg' misleads his players, taunts other teams into misbehaver, and gets his side to engage in a lot of fighting and unethical play, and it turns out the worse they behave the better they do. In the end they do not so much inspire their hard luck town, as they give it an outlet for its rage. Funny, and very profane for its time, so much so I would be curious about watching a TV edit of this to see how it works. "The Hansen Brothers" are a unique contribution to film. Directed quite capably by the great George Roy Hill, who also helmed some of Newman's biggest hits like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting. Interestingly the ruckus male centered screenplay was written by a woman, Nancy Dowd. ***1/2

Eddie the Eagle (2016)

A sort of companion peace to Cool Running's which tells another quirky underdog story from the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Michael "Eddie" Edwards was not the most natural of athletes, but he was persistent, and through shear effort, and the exploitation of holes in the British rules, became the first person in the UK to compete in Olympic ski jumping since 1928. Taron Egerton plays Eddie as a likable odd duck, and Hugh Jackman plays his coach, and that performance is fictionalized so much that the film makers don't feel comfortable using the mans real name. This movie has most of the bench marks of an inspiring family sports film, though I couldn't help but notice an unusual amount of sex humor, but rendered vague enough that younger viewers shouldn't pick up on it. ***

The Canon podcast

Club MST3k

Creed II (2018)

In Creed II aka Rocky VIII Adonis Creed goes up against Viktor Drago, son of Ivan Drago who killed Creed's pops in Rocky IV. You'd think we'd be well beyond the saturation point on these movies by now but dang it the formula still works, our hero must battles his demons outside the ring to win within it, and it feels good when he does. I really like Tessa Thompson, she is one of the most welcome new faces on film in the last five years. Sylvester Stallone can also still bring on the charm. All that being said I don't think there is any pressing need for a Creed III, I feel Adonis' arc is mostly closed, but maybe wait a decade and there might be more to say. ***

A Quiet Place (2018)

A Quiet Place, along with Heredity holds the distinction of being one of 2018's "smart horror movies". While I have not seen Heredity and can not speak to its merits first hand, I would say that A Quiet Place holds less in common with 2017's much praised "smart horror movie" Get Out, then it does with the work M. Night Shymalan, particularly Signs and The Happening. John Krasinski directed the film, co-wrote the screenplay, and stars opposite his real life wife Emily Blunt, as parents trying to keep their children safe after the world is invaded by vicious sightless monsters (probably aliens but this is never made explicit) who track their pray by sound. One of the reason's Krasinski's clan the Abbotts manage to survive is likely because their oldest child Regan (Millicent Simmonds, a young deaf actress who is quite good, and I hope she can continue to find parts in the future) can not hear and the family can communicate easily by sign language.

Hold up in a well appointed farm in what is apparently upstate New York, 400 something days after the start of the invasion, the family awaits the birth of their fourth child, the third child having been killed in the opening minutes of the movie. Babies cry, cry's attract the monsters, so various elaborate precautions are being taken to deal with that reality. There is also some strain in the family, principally on the part of Regan who blames herself for her siblings death. Arguably not much happens in this movie until rather late in its running time, the film is largely about mood, largely about the absence of sound. I of course saw this at home so my experience did not benefit from seeing it with an audience, and I am sure that in early crowded showings the tension in the theater was palpable. Unfortunately that tension did not quite translate into a home viewing, but this is still a strong film, its variations on apocalyptic scenarios sufficiently satisfying for its 90 minute length. I also want to congratulate Krasinski for making a film that can not be followed by only half watching and playing on ones phone, a big movie watching pet peeve of mine. ***1/2

Four Christmases (2008)

Four Christmases turns ten this year and there is a reason that it hasn't become a Christmas classic, it's not very good. The story of a couple (Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon) who for years have meticulously avoided spending Christmas with their four divorced parents, but weather conditions cancel their flight to Fiji so they might as well get the ritual over with. This movie maybe could have been fun, but for the most part it is not. A couple of Vince Vaughn's line readings made me laugh, but over all the humor is surprisingly gross and unfunny. This film starts with Vaughn and Witherspoon engaged in pre intercourse role play, which has to be a first for a Christmas movie outside of porn. Also these characters and their families are all supposed to live in and around San Francisco, but most of them are very much 'red state' people and do not fit with their supposed surroundings. *1/2

Christopher Robin (2018)

Considering Disney's recent propensity for live action adaptations of its animated properties, and given the historic success of the Winnie the Pooh franchise for the company, a film like Christopher Robin was perhaps inevitable. They had a clever enough spin to explore as well by featuring a grown up Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor, giving the part a reasonable go) and taking the classic characters out of The Hundred Acer Wood and into mid century London.

The film starts with a young Christopher's "going away party" with his animal friends before heading off to boarding school at around the age of 10 or so. This farewell is followed by a well done montage of the ensuing years in Christopher's life. Shortly after going off to boarding school his father dies, he continues school, then presumably college, starts a career, meets a girl (Hayley Atwell), marries her, must leave his pregnant wife to serve in World War II, comes home to his wife and a four year old daughter he's never meet, and then resumes his career.

The main body of the story picks up around 1952, his daughter (who we see turning three in 1944) is now around 11 and played by Bronte Carmichael. Christopher is working as an efficiency expert at a luggage manufacturer in London, he is under a lot of stress and is trying to find ways to cut cost sufficiently to save that company at a time when luggage sales have apparently fallen off. His task is important, he is trying to save peoples jobs, but this also means missing a weekend at his childhood home with his wife and daughter to stay in the city and work. This perhaps is what triggers his breakdown.

Christopher is visited by Pooh in a park outside his townhouse, debates his own sanity for a bit, and then must take the silly old bear back to Sussex and The Wood to find his missing friends. After reuniting his childhood gang and saving them from the imagined menace of heffalumps and woozles, Christopher then must rush back to London, only without his knowledge Tigger had mislaid some important papers, so then its up to Pooh, the gang, and daughter Madeline to speed them back to London and save the day.

This is that standard story of 'father works too much and must remember what its like to be a kid again' a favored Disney trope the most prominent example of which is probably Mary Poppins. Though the tale is rendered with some ambiguity and childlike sense of wonder, it is also the story of a man who experiences a psychotic break, and takes his family with him down the rabbit hole, in more ways then one. Or at least that's one explanation, otherwise I suppose Christopher could have spent his formative years with 6 mobile talking stuffed animals and similarly communicative, and apparently ageless, rabbit and owl. Or you could save yourself the trouble and not think about it too hard.

It's a sweet enough film, watchable, and very devoted to its source material. Thankfully things never get too manic, Pooh and company should maintain a certain English decorum associated with the time and place of their creation, and not be making pop culture references, I don't think I could have stood that. I didn't like this movie as much as I'd wanted to, but I could appreciate it, restrained, good hearted, forgivably simplistic. Also on some level Brad Garrett's voicing of Eeyore feels like what his entire life has been building towards. **1/2

The Front Runner (2018)

Director Jason Reitman's new movie The Front Runner is adapted from political journalist Matt Bai's 2014 book All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid. While it would be difficult to say precisely when American journalism "went tabloid" the week of May 3rd 1987 is as good a date as any and better then most. That was the week that the Miami Herald published a story that the then democratic front runner for president, former Colorado senator Gary Hart was having an extra material affair. The vary next day the name of the alleged mistress (to this day both parities contend that there was no affair) was then 29 year old pharmaceutical rep, model and sometimes actress (screen credits include episodes of Miami Vice and One Life to Live) Donna Rice. In short order Hart's campaign folded and he dropped out of the race.

There are a lot of interesting ideas and issues raised by this story worth exploring, however Reitman's film never feels much beyond surficial in its treatment. I don't feel like I learned much of anything new from this movie, or that it prompted any thoughts I hadn't had before, save maybe one. A point is made in the film that initial poll results after the scandal broke indicated that around 60% of Americans didn't think a politicians extra material escapades had any real bearing on their fitness for office. This seems a fairly consistent number, a majority of Americans don't seem to care much about presidential level adultery, and that has held for both Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, an odd bipartisan consensus.

A reasonably educated understanding of history will bear out that presidential infidelity seems to have little effect on job performance. Mostly forgotten presidents like Warren Harding and James Garfield were known adulterers, while Franklin Roosevelt was essentially a practicing polygamist while successfully prosecuting the second world war. The positives and negatives of any given president aside, I don't know quite what to make of American tolerance of executive level fornication, when you hold that next to this nations famed puritanical streak. While The Front Runner lionizes Hart too much, he did seem to have the makings of a potentially very talented president, that road not taken is intriguing to think about. While Hugh Jackman gives a fine performance in the lead, too much of this film felt procedural, ritualistic, in form spot on, but in substance, shallow, lacking in insight and so arguably in purpose. The same might be said for the whole Hart affair. **1/2

A New Leaf (1971)

I don't recall having ever heard of this movie before, but when a source I trust recommend it as one of the funniest movies they'd seen in the last year I gave it a go. After watching A New Leaf I couldn't help but wonder why isn't this movie better known. A critical darling at the time it came out, Gene Siskel had it at #2 on his list of best movies that year, A New Leaf did mediocre business then, but has become something of a cult classic, though a lesser know one, with time.

The film stars Walter Matthau as Henry Graham, a trust fund baby now around 40, who is shocked to find that he has mishandled his inheritance and spent all his money. Lacking skills and terrified of loaming poverty, he embarks on a quest to find a bride upon whose money he can live. He finds one in Henrietta Lowell, played by Elaine May, who also wrote the screenplay and directed the film, very unusual for the time. Henrietta is a botany professor specializing in ferns, and herself the lone inheritor of her family fortune. Henrietta is shy, awkward, and extremely clumsy, and Henry thinks her a perfect mark for his plans, and she is, but he doesn't anticipate the complications that are to follow.

A very dry comedy Walter Matthau is perfect in this, cast against type as a high born eastern seaboard elite, he develops a character that is both very funny and very different from anything else I've seen him do. If all you watched of this movie was Matthau's facial expressions throughout, you'd be thoroughly entertained. May does a great job in her various roles in front and behind the camera, and the supporting cast is suitably off kilter. In many ways this feels like the sort of film that Hal Ashby would make, though a little cleaner. I may have to get my own copy of this one. ****

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

Back in 2002 there was a little film that put an ethnic spin on the romantic comedy genera and road that to record breaking success at the box office ($368.7 million gross world wide on a $5 million dollar budget). That film of course was My Big Fat Greek Wedding, it's not so secret ingredient, Greeks. More then a decade and a half later another film has road genera ethnic novelty to great box office heights, so far $237.9 million on a $30 million budget. This film of course is Crazy Rich Asians, and its hook is being a fantasy-fulfillment- romantic-comedy about Asians, principally of the crazy rich variety.

Based on the novel of the same name by Kevin Kwan, Crazy Rich Asians is the story of Asian-American economics professor Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) who travels to Singapore with her boyfriend Nick Young (Henry Golding) to attend his best friends wedding and meet his family. To her, but not the audiences, surprise Nick's family is crazy rich, to the point where Nick is a celebrity in Asia of the most eligible bachelor verity, fortunately he turns out to a real nice and shockingly grounded guy. Now one must put aside the fact that a smart women like Rachel would doubtless have at least googled her boyfriend in the year she is said to have been with him, because the conceit of the film demands it and again this is a wish fulfillment movie. A 'what if the person I legitimately love was secretly super rich as well, therefore I can get to enjoy a lavish lifestyle without having to deal with a sense of guilt that I might only be with this person because of their money' fantasy.

The chemistry between the two leads work, there is a nice arc to the piece, beautiful, lavish sets and locations, a workable secondary story, and a large supporting cast full of likable characters, including recent pop culture arrival Awkwafina as comic relief. I left the film feeling, for the most part, that I really enjoyed these people and I'd like to see them again, and their is legitimate talk of sequel so that's certainly a possibility. It's shocking to think that this is the first major Hollywood film with a majority Asian cast and a contemporary setting since The Joy Luck Club, and that was literally 25 years ago. So this is more novel then it should be and it would be nice to see more of an Asian American cinema in the 21st century. Crazy Rich Asians is a very enjoyable movie, it's smart, funny, well made, heart felt, first rate stuff, and refreshingly different, this will almost certainly by on my top ten list at the end of the year. ****

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

I was curious about Bohemian Rhapsody, I thought at the very least the music was sure to be good, but a lot of the early reviews for the films were fairly middling. Subsequently everyone I knew who had actually seen it was pretty enthusiastic about it, so I went. Other then his music I knew very little about Freddie  Mercury before the film came out, I knew he was gay, he died of AIDS, and really liked cats. I did not know that he had been (common law) married, I did not know his ethnic background nor that he was a Zoroastrian, this in interesting information.

The movie is kind of cookie cutter, it follows the 'tortured genius' tropes so common to musical biopics, because they are apparently so common to our 'musical geniuses'. However the stakes don't feel overstated, you go to a movie like this because you want to see the musician you like go through their redemptive journey and hear their music. Rami Malek gives a strong performance as Freddie, with logically the real Freddie being dubbed in for the singing. The supporting cast is good, including Malek's real life girlfriend Lucy Boynton (adorable) as Freddie's long time girlfriend and "love of his life" Mary Austin. There is even a cameo role for Mike Meyers as a skeptical record executive who doesn't think that "Bohemian Rhapsody" will ever be the kind of song people bang their heads to in the car.

What the film benefits most from is having a terrific and very logical ending point, Queens performance at Live Aid in 1985, meticulously recreated down to the placement of the Pepsi cups on Mercury's piano. That whole sequence, which must go on around 20 minutes, is what makes the movie worth seeing on a big screen. Bohemian Rhapsody is not innovative like the song from which it takes its name, but it is a satisfying film watching experience. ***

A Knight's Tale (2001)

During the opening credit's sequence of A Knight's Tale, medieval jousting spectators stomp in tune to music from the band Queen, thus establishing right off what kind of movie this going to be, a fun one. With a pop/rock sound track and decidedly modern character types, A Knight's Tale stars Heath Ledger as a low born squire who takes up impersonating a knight (a position restricted to nobility) when the one he had been serving passes away. He does so as a meal ticket for him and his mates (Mark Addy, Alan Tudyk), but also because he had always dreamed of competing in tournaments, and turns out he's really good at it. Along the way Ledger's William Thatcher, adds to his pose (Laura Fraser), falls for a beautiful median (Shannyn Sossamon), meets historical figures such as Edward the Black Prince (James Purefoy) and Geoffrey Chaucer (Paul Bettany) and becomes mortal enemies with Count Adhamar (Rufus Sewell). It's an enjoyable, good time movie, perfect summer fair from the dawn of the Millennium. ***

Jaws: The Revenge (1987)

Jaws: The Revenge is the film that killed its franchise. Notorious for being bad I actually found large portions of this film surprisingly watchable, not good really, but not the trudge I was expecting. Where the film really falls apart is in failing to bring its desperate, under developed themes and subplots together in a satisfying way. I can even forgive the ridicules premise of the shark seeking out various Brody's for revenge, though that begs the questions which shark? All the villainous sharks in the previous movies were killed in their respective films, so is this some relative seeking out revenge for its kin? The final confrontation is jarringly fast and unimpressive, and (spoiler, as if they matter here) when Mario Van Peebles survives at the end, that is ridicules that shark definitely killed him. The lack of stakes in this film, even given the death of a major character early on, shows how far the franchise had fallen, the feeling of real stakes is what made the first Jaws so powerful, and the lack of which is what makes Jaws 4 look even worse then the admittedly crappy movie it is. *1/2

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, is a British movie that I don't think was ever released in theaters in the United States, it just went straight to streaming services. I knew of the book on which it was based from a while back, and thought I had a pretty good hang on what it was about. 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' was a society on the English isle of Guernsey during Nazi occupation, I thought that maybe it met secretly, possibly in part to sabotage the Germans. I was expecting a pretty straight forward story about the societies activates during the occupation, this is a fictional story by the way, I knew that, but I was not expecting the framing story.

The framing story concerns an author in search of something to write (Lily James) who by happenstance makes contact with one of the societies members about a year or so after the end of the war. She goes to visit the society, and stumbles onto a mystery, which makes for a more structurally interesting why of conveying the war time plot. It's a romance with a rich sense of place and diverse and likable characters. The anglophile nerd in me wishes I could be as well versed in English lit as some of the characters in this story, and have passionately held opinions about which of the Bronte sisters was the better writer. Alas, unless I'm hard up for entertainment under a prolonged occupation that is likely never to be. This is a likable flick however, very English, very Mike Newell doing the Merchant and Ivory thing. Even if you think you might be better then it, it will pull you in. ***1/2

Venom (2018)

The Marvel character Venom is an alien symbiote, a creature that can only survive in the Earth's atmosphere by bonding to another host organism. Interestingly the movie Venom is also a symbiote of sorts (so it can survive in the box office atmosphere?), it is a standard, rather uninspired science fiction genera piece, married to a bizarre one person buddy comedy. Tom Hardy plays Eddie Brock, a down on his luck reporter who in the course of perusing a story ends up bonded to the alien life form known as Venom. Venom gives Brock special powers, takes control of his body at times, and speaks to him in his mind in a voice that is not unlike that of Cookie Monster, which is appropriate because Venom is often hungry.

The plot concerns an Evil billionaire named Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), who sounds and acts like a rejected Bond villain, and is trying to get Venom back to study. There is a story line involving Brock's ex fiancé Anne Wying (Michelle Williams) and his as yet unsuccessful efforts to get her back from nice guy doctor Dan Lewis (Reid Scott), I suppose they are saving that reunion for the sequel, and there will be a sequel. I was under the impression that the film hadn't done that well but its already made over $780 million at the world wide box office. I was also under the impression from the trailer that this film was going to be very bleak, instead its very dryly funny. I was not expecting much out of this film, but its enjoyably weird. **1/2

J. Edgar (2011)

Though I haven't seen all the films of Clint Eastwood's directorial cannon, I've seen quite a few of them, and of those I've seen J. Edgar might be the least impressive. Now before if you had asked me what is the worst of Clint Eastwood's films as director I would have said Hereafter. There are a handful of really good moments in Hereafter, particularly the tsunami sequence, but as a whole I don't think that movie worked, however at least it was trying for something (in its case a more or less serious examination of psychic phenomena and near death experiences). J. Edgar on the other hand isn't trying for anything new, its trying to be the same kind of epic, life spanning bio-pic you've seen many times before.

Leonardo DiCaprio's performance as long time FBI director J. Edgar Hoover is fine. In fact if he had made this film instead of the Aviator back in 2004 I would have really liked his performance, but here it doesn't feel like he's challenging himself. The movie works less as a movie then it does as a collection of scenes, which are generally fine by themselves, but don't add up to a satisfying whole. One of the reasons for this is that Mr. Hoover's career in criminal justice was so long, more then half a century, that its a story much better suited for a mini-series, or even a multi season television series, then it is for a movie. It just seems far too condensed and bunched up here, more of a highlights reel then a well developed story. Ironically American International Films did a similar life-spanning, name dropping, greatest hits bio-pic of Hoover in the late 1970's, only I liked that film more, despite committing many of the same "sins" as this movie because it was low-budget, knew it was ridiculous , and hence enjoyably bad. While J. Edgar half wants to be great, but I don't think it could be in large part because of its format. Some of the most intriguing moments in the film revolve around the kidnapping of the Lindberg baby and how Hoover exploited that to build up the FBI, if Eastwood had instead made a movie about the Lindberg kidnapping with Hoover as a character, I think it would have been a better film. **

Memphis Belle (1990)

Memphis Belle is based on the true story of the "Memphis Belle", one the first B-17's to complete its 25 bombing mission quota during the 2nd World War, thus enabling the crew to be retried and return home with honors. This is a fictionalized version of that story, the true story had been told in film before as a period documentary by multi Oscar winning filmmaker William Wyler, that film is called Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944). This film was produced by Wyler's daughter Catherine. Unlike a lot of World War II bomber movies this film is about only one mission, the Belle's 25th, and the day immediately proceeding it. The film boasts an impressive cast of then rising stars, such as Matthew Modine, Sean Astin, Reed Diamond, Billie Zane, and Harry Connick Jr., and successfully emphasizes just how young the crews on those plains were.

There is nicely effectively scene midway through the film were an Army PR man (played by John Lithgow), anxious to use the crew of the Memphis Belle for propaganda purposes and to sell war bonds, reads through letters sent from family members of dead flyers to the CO of the bombing base in England (David Strathairn, in a good role for him). That scene brings a wonderful context to the proceedings and uses real war footage to tell the tale of lives lost. The special effects in this film contain not quite convincing process shots, which I think actually adds to the film by imparting a surreal air to the proceedings. I found the movie quite effective, and came to realize that I had actually seen the end of this before, probably some time around 1992, it had stuck in my mind since then but I couldn't place where it was from. This is the kind of movie that could serve as a nice introduction to the 2nd World War for younger viewers. ***1/2

A Simple Favor (2018)

Set in contemporary suburban Connecticut, A Simple Favor features Anna Kendrick as Stephanie Smothers, a widow and mommy vlogger who befriends the mother of her sons best friend, a glamorous PR director for a New York fashion company named Emily Nelson, played by Blake Lively. Despite being seemingly very different from each other the two become good friends, so Stephanie thinks nothing of picking up Emily's son from school when she calls saying she is delayed because of an emergency at work. Only it turns out that there is no work emergency, and Emily simply disappears. Stephanie sets out to figure out what became of her best friend, while at the same time becoming perhaps to close to the grieving husband. Early on in the film you get the sense that there is something off about each of these lead characters, and you get to spend the bulk of the film discovering just what that is. I found the movie fascinating and unusual, an off kilter 'cozy mystery', refreshingly different from the work we associate with its director Paul Feig, who is mainly known for his Melissa McCarthy comedies. I was very impressed with the originality of the piece, it is hard to find a film to liken this to, the closet I can come up with is that it's kind of like Gone Girl, but with a dry sense of humor. This will almost certainly be on my top 10 list at the end of the year. ****

Mr. Brooks (2007)

There is so much going on in Mr. Brooks, so much plot, that I assumed that it must come from a book, most likely one in a series of books, and not necessarily the first one in that series. I was wrong, Mr. Brooks was written directly for the screen, though it was originally intended as the first in a trilogy, so the sense that what I was seeing was part of a larger story is legit. The story is of a self reflective serial killer (Kevin Costner) who communicates with an apparition of a middle man (William Hurt) who only he see, so this can't help but remind one of Dexter, which first came out about a year before this movie. Given that point of reference Mr. Brooks doesn't really do anything that new, but it does what it does well enough to be engaging, and again there is so much going on that you really don't have time to get bored.

There are subplots about Brook's daughter (a 19 year old Danielle Panabaker), the police detective trying to hunt him down (Demi Moore) who is also hunting for another serial killer, plus Dane Cook as a wood-be acolyte, blackmailing Mr. Brooks with incrementing photos in order to get a thrill out of watching him work. There are also sub plots on subplots, like Demi Moore's pending divorce. There is so much going on, yet somehow they can hardly find anything for poor Marg Helgenberger to do, perhaps they were saving that for the sequels. While the movie did well enough, making back around 2 1/2 times its budget, for some reasons a sequel just did not come together, and now enough time has passed that it probably wouldn't work to revive as franchise. Still I'd be curious to know where they planed to take this, though I suspect that Dexter probably ended up going there, that show ran too long and had a good amount of filler. Right now I'd give Mr. Brooks ***, though I have my doubts if this would hold up well on repeat viewing.

The Fall of the Ottoman Empire (2015)

The Fall of the Ottoman Empire is not really a movie, but rather a two part French language documentary that they showed on the big screen at the WWI marathon at the BYUIC. This was very informative I'm glad a saw it, it cleared up a number of things for me, including why the Ottomans allied with the Germans in The Great War, and why there was that railroad line in the desert that gets attacked in Lawrence of Arabia (it had been build to carry pilgrims to Mecca). Not exceptional as a film, but for me very much worth seeing. ***

Wooden Crosses (1932)

In conjunction with the 100 anniversary of the Armistice the BYU International Cinema had a marathon of World War I movies last week, I went on Saturday and caught a couple. Wooden Crosses is a French film that follows a group of solders through The Great War, almost all of the characters we follow in the film die. It's a very nicely made film, however I could just never really bond with any of the characters. I think All Quite on the Western Front is a better movie that is going for basically the same kind of thing that the French are in this. The visual composition here is really quite sophisticated for an early sound film, in fact it is more reminiscent of late silent films in its look then it is of the "talkie" American counterparts of its time.

There are two shots that I want to make brief reference to as they are memorable. One opens on a Catholic mass in a beautiful old church sanctuary, the audience at first are not sure why they are seeing this and then the camera pans over to a barrier constructed on the side of the chapel, basically a fence, and then over the barrier to show an amputee ward making use of space in the church. The other is of French solders parading through a town after a battle, the men are shouting about how they "won the village" and in the sky behind them is superimposed another line of solders marching heaven word, they too one the village. There are certainly things in this film to recommend it, I just wish I'd been able to like it more. ***

In This Corner of the World (2016)

Based on the Japanese manga of the same name the animated film In This Corner of the World shows us something American audiences seldom if ever get to see, a depiction of daily civilian life in World War II era Japan. It is the story of Suzu, a young woman growing in Hiroshima in the 30's and 40's, so we know at the outset what all of this is building to. Suzu is a very sincere and sympathetic lead character, it's hard not to love her, and the supporting characters are a nice patch work portrait of her time and place. Beautifully and simply animated, at times very moving, In This Corner of the World shows what can be done with dramatic animated storytelling, something that seems to be done better overseas then in the states, sees also Persepolis and Mary and Max.  This film is so impressive that I watched it two nights in a row, something I almost never do. ****

 

The Old Man and the Gun (2018)

Based on true story the new film The Old Man and the Gun is set (mostly) in the year 1981, and it plays like a move from 1981, which is one of its chief pleasures. The movie is not rushed, it plays slower and is less interested in action then it is in character study, even the film stock has a dated look to it. If this movie had been made in 1981 Burt Lancaster would have played bank robber Forrest Tucker, and Ava Gardner the widow farm lady he falls for. Today we have Robert Redford as Tucker and Sissy Spacek as his love interest Jewel, it's nice to see them. Casey Affleck is John Hunt, the Texas cop who is leading the investigation into the series of bank robberies committed by a group of old men dubbed by the media "The Over-the-Hill Gang". Who would have played detective Hunt in the 1981 version of this story? Well Robert Redford would have been a good candidate. ***

The Patriot (2000)

There is a scene fairly early in the movie The Patriot where British officers are trying to dragoon some of the black men on Mel Gibson's plantation into military service by promising them their freedom. One of the black men informs the British that they are already free and just work for Mr. Gibson's character. At that moment the movie had lost me, you just know some Hollywood suit was like "If the audience knows Gibson's character owns slave, it won't be as fun to root for him so let's make the blacks on the plantation free". I'm sorry Mel is playing a plantation owner in 1770's South Carolina, that man would own slaves, there is no getting around it. A short time later there is a scene, were needing to rescue his oldest son Heath Ledger, Gibson instructs his younger sons to start shooting the officers and work their way down. At that moment the movie won me back.

The Patriot is not an exercise in historical authenticity, rather it is rousing adventure tell to pump American audiences up and make then feel extra good about our revolutionary war. Their are two principle British villains in this, Tom Wilkinson as a slightly buffoonish Charles Cornwallis, all ego and fancy duds, while Jason Isaacs is Colonel William Tavington, who is basically Lucius Malfoy. They are fun to watch, Gibson is fun to watch, as is Ledger, Rene' Auberjonois and the others. This is the kind of spectacle Gibson did well at the height of prowess, box office and social acceptability. A fun movie, expertly handled, probably Roland Emmerich's best directorial work.***1/2

Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966)

This strange, low budget western/horror hybrid was the final film helmed by the prolific William Beaudine, a man who has 372 listed directing credits on his IMDb page, some dating back to the silent era. Double billed with the similarly themed Billy the Kid Versus Dracula, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter was filmed fast and cheap at the Corrigan Ranch, a well known shooting location for B- westerns. The plot is about what you'd expect only it isn't actually Frankenstein's daughter that Jesse James meets, rather it is his granddaughter, carrying on the family tradition of experiments in a Spanish mission style villa. This film is bad, while only 83 minutes long it might have been near unwatchable were it not for the entertaining audio commentary from TV's Joe Bob Briggs. Estelita Rodriquez, who plays the love interest for John Lupton's Jessie James, died from the flu the same year this movie was released, she was only 37. ** (rating pumped up some do to the commentary).

Scream 4 (2011)

Nearly a dozen years after the end of the original Scream trilogy they made Scream 4, to comment on reboots and changes in 21st century horror films, but mostly to make money. A lot of attractive 20- something's and up and comers in this, and most of them die. Better then Scream 3. **1/2

Trouble with the Curve (2012)

A likable enough flick, The Trouble with the Curve is a father/daughter bonding movie by way of way of sports film, he (Clint Eastwood) is an aging pro-baseball scout, she (Amy Adams) is a young lawyer on the verge of being made partner. The two travel around the Carolinas together and eventually work through their old emotional baggage. Justin Timberlake plays Ms. Adams love interest, he was born in 1981 and she in 1974, having the woman be the older partner in a cinematic relationship is rare enough that it might be the most unusual thing in this conventional, but likable film. **1/2

First Man (2018)

Two things about the very existence of this film struck me as odd before I even saw it. 1) First Man is director Damien Chazelle's follow up to La La Land, and other then the presence of Ryan Gosling as the male lead these movies are nothing like each other. 2) Why hasn't there been a major Hollywood film about Neil Armstrong before? I mean he was the first man to set foot on the moon, that's an inherently cinematic story. Also its been nearly 50 years, why did it take so long for him to get his own movie? Well I think I found the answer to that latter question, the reason there hasn't been a Neil Armstrong film up till now is likely because he was a very boring man. Now he's an interesting man in what he did, I mean not only did he go to the moon, but he survived a lot of things he probably shouldn't have survived before then because he so damned competent. However Armstrong was very much a man of his time, a mid-century, mid-westerner who kept his feelings to himself, and this movie does a good job of dealing with that dynamic of its central character, Gosling does a fine job inhabiting him in a nicely understated performance. Still a dullish central character lends a bit of dullishness to the proceedings. Buzz Aldrin on the other hand, as essayed by Corey Stoll, is an amusing blunt fellow.

Claire Foy, who seems very much the "It" actress right now does a great job as Neil's first wife Janet. I knew basically nothing about Mrs. Armstrong going into the film, but Ms. Foy gives a fine performance and makes her feel real and rounded out. This movie fires on all cylinders technically, and while a lot of the NASA stuff we've in seen in film going back at least to Apollo 13 in 1995, it's the portions on the Moon that really adds something fresh. We don't see the surface of the moon in films often, and the quality of the footage from that first lunar landing is so visually poor and hard to make out, it was nice to see this event depicted in HD. I had not made out previously the little pulley system that was attached to the astronauts belts as they disembarked, and how that worked. You see how the camera that took  the moon landing footage folded out from the side of the lander, and how desolate, quite, and beautiful the surface of the moon must have appeared. As a human story First Man felt constrained, but as depiction of one of the most impressive things human kind has every done, its worthwhile.

On the controversy over this film not depicting the planting of the American flag on the surface of the moon, before seeing the film that did appear to be a glaring oversight, having seen it now a depiction of that moment would have really messed with the flow of the piece. Very little time in this movie is actually spent on the moons surface, I don't know if that counts as a spoiler or not. Anyway I did not get the feeling that any slight was intended by the omission of that moment. ***1/2

Phantoms (1998)

Phantoms is based on a novel of the same name by Dean Koontz, and watching it I couldn't help but think that this same basic story would have been better if Stephen King had wrote it (not that King is without his bombs, see, or rather don't see, Graveyard Shift, The Dark Tower). An ancient evil wipes out a small Colorado town leaving only a small handful of survivors, and leaving them for a reason, but what? Weinstein produced film plays like something made for TV. The film features Ben Affleck on the verge of his stardom, Rose McGowan, Live Schreiber, and somewhat bafflingly Peter O'Toole. It's pretty bad, but still watchable once. *1/2

The Faculty (1998)

The Faculty is a 1990's high school variant on Invasion of the Body Snatchers. My sister is a big fan of this movie so I'd seen parts of this before but this was the first time I'd watched it straight through, better then I thought it was going be. Good cast. ***

The Changling (1980)

Not to be confused with the 2008 Angelia Jolie vehicle Changeling, which is based on real events, The Changeling is a haunted house movie filmed in 1979 and staring George C. Scott and his real life wife Trish Van Devere, one of several films the couple made together. I saw this in a revival showing at The Tower theater in Salt Lake, immediately after seeing the 1932 film The Old Dark House, interestingly both movies feature Melvin Douglas. This movie helped me coin a phrase for a certain type of film which I'm calling 'a big grin movie'. 'A big grin movie' is a film in which something I'm not expecting to happen happens, and I'm so happy about it that I wear a big grin on my face. The 'big grin moment' in this movie happens about half way through and I so didn't see it coming, and it so changed the character of the film for me that I just fell in love with it. I owned a copy of this movie within an hour of finishing it in the theater. If your looking for something you likely haven't seen this Halloween id'd recommend. ****

This would probably have been a *** or ***1/2 star movie but the Big Grin moments pushed it up a notch.

The Old Dark House (1932)

The Old Dark House is a 'old dark house movie', five travelers get standard at an isolated mansion one dark and stormy night, and the proprietors of said property, well they be hiding something, but what? A real good cast including Boris Karloff, Melvin Douglas, Gloria Stuart, Raymond Massey and Charles Laughton in his screen debut. Directed by James Whale this is his follow up horror feature to the tremendously successful Frankenstein, The Old Dark House however was a disappointment at that US box office but did well in the directors native England where the story is set. Whale's good friend Ernest Thesiger has a part in this film as one of the odd residents of the titular old dark house, Thesiger would later appear as Dr. Pretorius in Whale's The Bride of Frankenstein, by far the theater actors best known screen role. The story of The Old Dark House is based on the 1927 novel Benighted by J. B. Priestley, that novel apparently has a lot to do with post World War One disillusionment, there are some remaining vestiges of that plot element in the Melvin Douglas characters backstory, but for the most part that is left out of this screen version, makes me curious about it though. This is an extremely satisfying movie, it has everything you could want from the premise, and packs a lot into a lean 72 minutes, which is good because I think this film benefits from a short running time, you wouldn't want to stretch this material out unduly. I was lucky enough to see this movie in an old theater that dates back to the era when this film first came out, that definitely added to the experience but I'd say it is well worth seeing at home. ****

Winter's Bone (2010)

This is the movie that really launched Jennifer Lawrence's career, and she certainly deserved the attention and credit she got, it is a true breakout performance. Winter's Bone is based on a novel of the same name by Daniel Woodrell and is directed by Debra Granik, who has a very small cinematic canon of only three features, but I should probably check those other two movies out because this was an excellent film. Set among the rural poor of the Missouri Ozarks this film reminded me a lot of my mission, when I spent a good amount of time among the rural poor of the Appalachian south. This is a film about the quest for survival, Jennifer Lawrence's Ree Dolly, who is only 17, must search for her missing father, a sometimes meth maker, when his not making a court appearance could cost the family their home, where she lives with her two younger siblings and her disabled mother. The search is not easy, and there is a scene in this film, and you know it if you've seen it, that is horrifying in a way that I have never been horrified by a film before. Lawrence was Oscar nominated for this at 20, and John Hawkes, who players her uncle in the film, was also nominated, both deservingly so. Calling a film unforgettable is probably an overused phrase, but this movie would be hard to forget. ****

Silverado (1985)

A local theater here has been showing older movies for less then two dollars a ticket so I've gone to see an number of them, mostly movies I'd seen before like the 1938 Robin Hood, An American in Paris, The African Queen and Field of Dreams. I don't know if I had ever even heard of Silverado before, so I came into the film knowing very little about it, beyond that it was a western, who was in it and who made it. So my expectations were practically non existent, and this film really won me over. It's got about everything you could want in a western except for Indians, there is a wagon train, settlers in trouble, a corrupt cattle baron, gamblers, saloon girls, gun slingers of both the crazy and crazy good variety. The cast is also excellent, Kevin Kline gives a great character performance, and a unique one too, I've never seen quite this guy on film before. Also there is Scott Glenn, Kevin Costner, Danny Glover, Brian Dennehy, Rosanna Arquette, John Cleese, Jeff Goldblum and Linda Hunt. Lawrence Kasdan directed and co-scripted, he is responsible for some of the best  Star Wars and a master of constructing a mythic narrative. This film should be much better remembered then it is. ****

Jane and Emma (2018)

A very different kind of Mormon movie, oh darn, am I suppose to write the Church's full long name out each time now? Jane and Emma tells the story of Jane Manning, a free back convert to the LDS faith, and Emma Smith, wife of the prophet Joseph, as they spend a long night guarding the recently martyred body of the latters husband at the Mansion House in Nauvoo in 1844 (there are also a lot of flashbacks). The details of this night are fictional, there is no evidence it ever took place, but rather this long night of the soul serves as a dramatic device to have these two real, historical characters express a lot of feelings. We tend not to see Church history movies like this, told from the point of view of women, told in a manner respectful of faith, but not glossing over historical unpleasantness. A decade or so ago a movie came out called Emma Smith: My Story, which told the story of the prophets wife in a manner fit for a Relief Society classroom, there was only one mention of polygamy in it, and all Emma said was 'I don't like to talk about it'. In Jane and Emma polygamy gets more then one mention, and you see not just Emma's disappointment with the practice, but her downright resentment of it, this feels both understandable and true to me, to our knowledge it is also quite historically accurate. None the less Emma still really loved her husband.

Jane is the kind of the figure who is getting a second look in Church circles. The history of race in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a complicated one, Jane embodies this, she was very much a believer and loyal church member, but she had every reason not to be and that should make her story all the more inspiring to the faithful. There has been a shift, in large part necessitated by easer access to historical materials and previously non mainstream information, wherein the church and its members have had to confront, and gotten more comfortable in confronting, ambiguities and uncertainties in its history. Jane and Emma is in many ways a perfect encapsulation of this, this movie could not have been made by the faithful of 20 years ago, it represents a maturing that should be applauded. It is also a compelling movie, with fascinating central characters and strong performances by leads Danielle Deadwyler and Emily Goss. A worthy and successful experiment. ***1/2

Scream 3 (2000)

This one has a 'once to many times to the well' quality to it, thought at the same time has been very much constructed as a capstone to trilogy, and I appreciate that the creative powers decided not to milk this franchise indefinitely, that would have defeated its purpose. I liked some things about this film, but for the most part it felt very repetitive, and touches on an 'uncanny valley of self awareness'. I really didn't like the ending. My favorite cameo of this film (which actually has quite a few them) is B movie impresario Roger Corman as a studio executive. Also I think this was Emily Mortimer's first or second role in an American movie. **

Scream 2 (1997)

I would say that Scream 2 is the best of at least the original trilogy (Scream 3 review forthcoming, Scream 4 on my 'to watch' list). While with the first film the series was still figuring out what it was, by the sequel it knows, and given that this horror franchise is a knowing tribute to horror franchises its appropriate and meta that Scream would do well  with a sequel (it came out only a year later as well, so this was rushed). The film is marginally better then the original, it finds a way to effectively twist on the villains, given they had already been unmasked in the original, or had they? I liked that this film was set on a college campus, there is a lot of fan service here, arguably too much in the way of homages to the first one, but it kind of had to be like that, its in the nature of this beast, it would be wrong if it wasn't so self referential. My stand out cameo in the first film was 'The Fonz' Henry Winkler as kind of a tight ass high school principal, in 2 the stand was David Warner, who had played Jack the Ripper in Time After Time, as a college drama teacher. ***

Scream (1996)

The Scream franchise is a piece of 90's pop culture that I only glimpsed at a distance at the time, I was not watching R rated movies back then. Watching it now Scream tells me that I might almost be ready to embrace some real 1990's nostalgia, in contrast to my present preference for the 1970's.

Scream was considered very inventive at the time of its release, and at the that time it honestly was rather innovative. It was a meta- horror  movie, credited as the first horror film in which the characters in the film had seen other horror films (that's not entirely true, off the top of my head I can site Return of the Living Dead as an example of this from about a decade earlier). The film takes horror movie conventions and lightly satirizes them, while at the same time still working as an example of the genera at which it takes these knowing glances. Interestingly this a Wes Craven film, and Craven of course helped shape many of the horror movie clichés this film and its sequels have fun with. Though Craven had apparently first done this meta sort of thing  in one of his later Nightmare on Elm Street movies, the Scream franchise is where this really took off.

I liked Neve Campbell in this, she's a good actress, and in fact having an actresses of her caliber in these films is itself a meta commentary on earlier slasher and franchise horror films, which of course are known for using lesser caliber actors. Scream has some pretty good 90's names in it, with Courtney Cox, Matthew Lillard, and David Arquette being the best remembered. Of course Drew Barrymore has a memorable cameo role at the beginning of the film, a sequence that really got a lot of pop culture attention at the time and starts the film off strong. The ending of this movie, an even longer extended sequence is also quite good, its the middle that feels a little stretched out and doesn't have all that much to offer. On the whole though certainly this was something of an achievement, it plays well now but seeing it at the time of its initial release you know it packed more of a wallop. ***

Black Christmas (1974)

Canadian produced early slasher film from A Christmas Story director Bob Clark. This is the movie were the genera cliché line "he's calling from inside the house, the killer is inside the house" comes from. The house in this case is a sorority house, the movie begins at the start of Christmas break, and among the sorority girls are Olivia Hussy and Margot Kidder, both seem a little to old for their roles. It keeps things interesting with the killer, who spoiler..... we never learn who he is. The sequences with the community being organized to search for a missing girl, I really liked that, it felt real, their was a civic sense there you don't often associate with horror movies. Smarter then what this genera would become, I recommend it. *** 

St. Vincent (2014)

It's one of the most Joseph Campbellian of all stories, the young man and his mentor, and that's why we keep coming back to it, it's iconic, it's mythic, it's true. In this case the story is of the extremely polite but social awkward son of a recently divorced mother and his crotchety neighbor turned babysitter. You get more of a performance then your used to out of Bill Murray in this, he's not just playing a version of himself like usual, Vincent is more evolved, an actual character. In fact that is the thing I loved most about this movie, the characters, and how they interact with each other. I loved Murray and Jaeden Lieberher together, I loved Naomi Watts Russian prostitute, Chris O'Dowd's ironist priest, and Melissa McCarthy's decent, hard working, conflicted mother. I haven't enjoyed a comedy on a character level so much since maybe She's Out of My League. A treasure this one is. ***1/2

The Creeping Terror (1964)

Widely regarded as one of the worst movies of all time The Creeping Terror is about an alien space craft that crashes in rural California and unleashes a genetically engineered monster upon the populace, a monster that looks like a giant slug by way of Chinese new years dragon, but made out of old rugs. The story of the films creation is more interesting then the film itself, directed, produced, and staring first time filmmaker Vic Savage, the script was by Robert Silliphant, the brother of the popular television writer Stirling Silliphant, who had co-created such hit series as Route 66, and The Naked City. Filmed off and on over the course of about two years Savage sold bit parts in the film to locals in exchange for their investment in it, which is why the monster attacks start to get so repetitive, he is trying to squeeze everybody into the film by having the monster attack him. Savage filmed portions of the film without sound, necessitating a cheesy, after action report narration to hold the movie together and to cover for the audio gaps. As the film neared completion Savage become subject to multiple lawsuits, so he literally just disappeared, apparently dying of liver failure under an assumed name in 1971. Savage's story is the subject of the 2009 book A Hollywood Con Man by Lois A. Wiseman. For those who are curious but don't think they can stand to watch the whole thing unaided, the series Mystery Science Theater 3000 did an episode on the film that would probably make watching it easier. *

The Children Act (2018)

Ian McEwan adapted his own 2014 novel of the same name for this nicely understated film about a serious subject. The Children Act in The Children Act is an actual British law passed in 1989 to guide government agencies, the courts etc. in looking after children's best interests in legal matters. Emma Thompson plays the Honourable Mrs Justice Maye DBE a respected, high profile family court Judge in London. As her long, generally happy, but childless marriage to her husband Jack (Stanley Tucci) is entering a crises, centered on his desire to have an affair due to her lack of sexual interest in him, Justice Fiona May gets assigned a life changing case. Fionn Whitehead is Adam Henry, a devout Jehovah's Witness boy three months shy of his 18th birthday, suffering from Leukemia he is destined to die if he does receive a medical treatment involving blood transfusion, something that is forbidden by his faiths doctrine. Justice May must make a decision that is literally life or death for Adam, and in the end must deal with the consequences of that decision, which are not going to be what she is expecting. It's really an interesting dilemma, the answer might seems obvious at first, but there are implications that go beyond law, or even right and wrong, but to the very core of someone's identity. A really good part for Ms. Thompson and good supporting performances all around. It will make you think. ***1/2

Tombstone (1993)

Text conversation I had with a friend about this movie:

Me: "I'm really surprised how much I'm hating Tombstone."

Friend: "Really?!? I'm surprised by that."

Me: " I just can't get into it, it's very blah. Great cast wasted."

Friend: "Your not into Doc Holliday? I thought it was a lock that you'd like that movie."

Me: "I was expecting to like it to. It is one of those movies that keeps making me think of better movies. Even Open Range is a better movie. I'm about halfway through maybe it will grow on me. Val Kilmer's Doc isn't doing anything for me, though I kind of like Powers Booth's Lee Marvin impression."

*1/2

Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018)

With Fahrenheit 11/9 Michael Moore is asking you to find him relevant again. From its very title, a play on Moore's 2004 box office busting documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, and the date on which Donald J. Trump's victory in 2016 election was announced, you already know what you think about this movie. Moore is nothing if not consistent, this movie contains rehashes of his signature bits, such as Moore going to a public place to confront a nemesis, in this case Michigan's state capital building to perform a citizens arrest on it's Republican governor Rick Snyder, invasions of personal space, here spraying polluted water from the city of Flint on the same governors lawn, commiserating with poor people, criticizing powerful people, gallivanting around the country, exhausting his editor, and otherwise preaching to the choir. Fan service in this movie includes Hitler parallels, a digression on Trumps sometimes creepy relationship with his oldest daughter, and playing the theme from the movie The Omen over footage of  Trumps 2016 election night victory party.

Moore can hardly be accused of breaking new ground, both in style and in the movies signature observation, that much of America today is politically broken. Other then Trump, both as problem and symptom of problem, the film seems to lack a central focus and skips around from topic to topic and story to story, poisoned water in Flint, teachers strikes in West Virginia, gun violence in Florida. This movie is a collage, and perhaps of most value long term as a time capsule. Fifty years from now students will be using this movie to cram from their poli-sci test on Trump era America.

For some the most surprising aspect of this movie will be the degree to which Moore goes after Democrats. Institutional bias against Bernie Sanders candidacy during the primaries is explored, the calcified leadership is criticized, even a particularly jarring and poorly executed PR stunt by Barack Obama, involving a glass of water in Flint, is righteously called out. The movie is a call to arms, but not particularly clear on what that in tells, other then that new blood is needed. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is interviewed, as are other defiantly leftist insurgent candidates across the country, largely women and people of color.

There is a certain schizophrenic element to Moore's political approach in this movie, which I actually think many people share as regards their reaction to the 2016 election. He bemoans Hillary's loss, while at the same time implicitly bemoaning Hillary. Moore is one of those Ralph Nader supporters who can never quite forgive himself for Florida in 2000, and while he would love radical change, he will gladly prop up a lackluster establishment to keep the barbarians at bay.

Mr. Moore is still a very capable filmmaker, he brings a 99 year old former Nuremburg prosecutor on screen and you want to weep for the mans service, he shows you a montage of Hawaiians reacting to what ultimately turned out to be a false incoming missile warning and you ask yourself, why have I never seen this presented so well and kinetically before? Moore has a habit of imposing himself too strongly on his material, self regardingly preening in a way that you will seldom see a man that schlubinly do. Fahrenheit 11/9 doesn't climb any new mountains, its not great, but through talent and an interesting array of subject matter it does slide into being a good, and occasionally (for some at least) even thought provoking movie. So I suppose he's a little relevant. ***

State of Play (2009)

State of Play is the Americanized film adaptation and condensation of the British television mini-series of the same title. While capably executed throughout at first I couldn't help but dwell on how the film embodied existing and well worn genera conventions, Russell Crowe plays a grizzled reporter straight out of the 1970's, while Ben Affleck plays the golden boy, rising star politician with a secret, almost a pre-request for this kind of film. There are also the House of Cards parallels, the political mistress pushed in front of a DC subway train, and the presence of Robin Wright in the cast (and yes I am aware that series came out after this). About halfway through the movie however the story folds over on top of itself, complicates, and explores some interesting and ambiguous dimensions. The reporters friendship with the politician and his wife makes him far from an impartial broker, even if he gets at the truth, because he is the one that did it's tainted. The film also explorers the persistence of character flaws throughout of our political/media system, how everyone is compromised, a hero in one context can easily be a villain in another. I quite liked that. If anything this movie is too star heavy, and three actors in this movie whose names I would not have recognized when this film first came out, today are all established TV and movie regulars. State of Play manages to peak just above the merely good, so I give it ***1/2

Under the Skin (2013)

Some Spoilers

I had not realized until researching the movie to write to this review that Under the Skin is based on a novel of the same name by Michel Faber which came out in 2000. I suppose that makes sense because even though this movie is very visual the film that it reminds me of the most, likewise a very visual work, is also based on a novel, namely Arthur C. Clark's 2001: A Space Odyssey. There are certain visual cues in this film which evoke the earlier movie but don't copy it, a solid white, and later a solid black featureless chamber, the construction of a human type eye in the opening scene, and whatever it is that is happening to the men collected by our protagonist. Our protagonist is played by Scarlett Johansson, she is an alien given human form and her assignment is to collect human males, though for what purpose exactly is never made clear, it seems they are being taken as samples.

Because this nameless alien looks like Scarlett Johansson she doesn't have a lot of trouble luring unsuspecting men back to her dilapidated house, which is possibly her ship in disguise, possibly some kind of portal, and is located somewhere between Glasgow and Edinburgh Scotland. Scarlett is not used to being in human form, she is not used to being around people, or the sensory stimulation, sounds, smells, and such of the Earth environment in which she finds herself. While at first very single minded in her mission, driving around Scotland in a van, pulling over to the side of the road to ask some man for directions, sizing up her pray, flirting, and doing whatever ever it is she thinks she needs to do to get the man in the van with her, in time this changes. Something inside her snaps, she seems to develop sympathy, or at lest overwhelming curiosity about the humans, goes off script, goes rouge, and wanders about Scotland, pursued by her helper, an alien in male form who drives a motorcycle.

Johansson gives a great performance, a character of few words she really feels alien. That performance, as well as the direction of Johnathan Glazer, primarily a commercial and music video director, takes a premise that could easily be exploitive sci-fi and deepens it, makes it contemplative, at time stunning, and unlike most anything I've seen. A kind of art house Starman for lack of a better comparison. Beautiful locations, a few of which I had actually been to on my trip to Scotland about a year before this movie was filmed. Under the Skin really wowed me, I was not expecting this. Sometimes graphic, and sometimes slowly paced, I found it consistently fascinating, but it is certainly not for all tastes. ****

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

Some spoilers

Jurassic Park 5. I came into this movie suspicious, first off the very premise, Isla Nublar is going to erupt and its going to kill all the dinosaurs unless they're evacuated. Look we all know John Hammond, John Hammond spared no expense, he did not put his dinosaur park on a geologically active island, they try to cover for that by saying the island only recently became reactive, that's a lazy cover for lazy writing. Speaking of lazy writing, Hammond had an estranged business partner who has never been mentioned until now, and in overly obvious casting he is played by James Cromwell. This whole movie is just trying to get dinosaurs onto the North American mainland, I get that, they are trying to move this franchise into Planet of the Apes territory, but they could have tried harder, and don't even get me started on the villains. All that being said the climax at Benjamin Lockwood's California estate is fun to watch, and there is a little twist there that expands the scope of the franchises concerns above simply dinosaurs, but to other kinds of mucking with genetics and nature. The exploration of this hubris could go in interesting directions in the future, however if this film is any indication it probably won't. Please prove me wrong, various Spielberg affiliated production companies. **

Pottersville (2017)

Pottersville is like a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie that has been drinking moonshine. I say 'drinking moonshine' because that is what Michael Shannon's character Maynard Grieger does after the mild mannered small town shop keeper catches his wife (Christina Hendricks) having an affair with the sheriff (Ron Perlman). What makes the whole thing worse, or at least weirder, is the couple were snuggling in Furry costumes when he caught them. A drunk Maynard improvises a Furry costume of his own and runs through town at night where he is mistaken for bigfoot. The bigfoot sightings bring curious tourists who bring money to the town, hard hit after the closing of the local mill. So Maynard keeps going out at night in his bigfoot costume, eventually attracting the attention of a cable TV monster hunter (Thomas Lennon) who teams up with a famed local hunter (Ian McShane) to try and capture bigfoot, putting Maynard's strange but good natured scheme, and possibly his very life, in danger.

Pottersville is delightfully weird for its first third or so, but the filmmakers aren't able to sustain the concept, more strange twists were needed I think to keep the film sharp and surreal, instead it loses steam and becomes a more conventional comedy/ redemption tale. Shannon plays his character straight, which is really the right choice here. Judy Greer is charming as Maynard's loyal assistant at the general story, and the only person in town who truly seems to appreciate what a good and charitable guy he is. The supporting cast is an interesting mix, they give it a good go, Ian McShane probably being the standout, but again the stories payoff just can't live up to its inspired set up. **

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is the second film in director John Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy" after Fort Apache (1948) which I have not seen, and Rio Grande (1950) which I have. The film covers about a week and is principally concerned with the final mission of Captain Nathan Brittles before retirement. Set in the American south west in the summer of 1876 Brittles, played by John Wayne in some old age makeup (Wayne was in his early 40's when this movie was made but is playing a man closer to 60) is charged with leading his troop to investigate possible Indian agitation in the aftermath of The Battle of the Little Big Horn. This mission is made more complicated because he is also tasked with escorting his CO's wife and niece to meet what may be the last stagecoach to visit the area for some time.

The film is beautifully shot, principally in Ford's beloved Monument Valley, but there is some stage work, even one purported exterior which is surprisingly effective in a stylized way. Brittles is a man who has given his whole life to the army, and lost his wife and daughter, presumably to Indian attack, about a decade or so prior to the action of the film. Brittles is not sure what he is going to do with himself after retirement, and there is a valedictory melancholy to the proceedings, with Wayne giving one of his better, more nuanced performances. The supporting cast is effective, though they are really playing more types then rounded characters this works for the film. There is also a bar fight with Victor McLaglen which is somehow both perfunctory and very involved at the same time.

I loved this movie, its everything you want out of a John Ford western. It's beautifully shot, its iconic, it's earnest and reflective but also lite and funny, It's got action, some fine character actors and its got a poetic soul. This would easily be a top 10 western for me, and I'm very grateful that I got to see it on a big screen, that helped the effect enormously, its really how Ford is meant to be seen. ****

Horror High (1973)

From bottom of the barrel Crown International Pictures comes Horror High. Horror High features child actor Pat Cardi in his final onscreen role, though he is still around and directing. Cardi is Vernon Potts, he's a science nerd and almost everyone at his high school, including some of the teachers, are horrible to him. One of the people who isn't horrible to him is Robin Jones, a comely lass who looks like a red-headed Jane Curtin and is played by Rosie Holotik, whose like 28 but playing 16. Vernon invents a 'Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde' formula and after the mean old janitor kills his guinea pig 'Mr. Mumps' its revenge time, and Vernon goes on to kill four people in as many days. Austin Stoker plays Lieutenant Bozeman, he's the lead detective on the case and he's black which is progressive for the early 70's, and while I liked him he should have locked down that dang school and brought more then two officers with him. This movie was filmed on a shoestring which strains credulity of the story a little bit (as if the secret formula doesn't already) because this school should have been a media circus, but they didn't have the money for sufficient extras. However this is a fun bad movie with an unexpected hokey charm amid the murders. **1/2

Skyscraper (2018)

The Towering Inferno meets Die Hard. This movie is made up almost entirely of parts of other movies, yet while watching it this did not make me angry, on reflection though... This was close to a neutral viewing experience in some ways, the likability of Dwayne Johnson carried the thing, and there are a few moments on the giant crane where the sense of height is so effectively conveyed that I actually felt a little uncomfortable. While competently handled, this is also and extremely disposable movie. **

Les Misérables (2012)

This Les Misérables is the long belated film version of the long running 1980 Broadway musical based on the 1862 novel by Victor Hugo. Growing up in the 1980's you just absorbed some of this music from cultural osmosis, it could hardly be avoided. I never read the novel and had only the vaguest grasp of the story until I saw the 1998 film version with Liam Neeson in about 2003. I was blown away by that thing, very powerful, I had not realized previously that it was all an extended metaphor about grace and mercy and the Christian concept of atonement. Still I had not returned to this story until just last week and this music version brought it all back, and I'd forgotten a lot of it, what an amazing story and impressive movie. I hadn't expected the extent of the scale of the piece, its surprisingly effects heavy and I wonder if this much money has ever been spent on a Hollywood musical. The one real flaw of the thing is that while Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe are matched as actors, they are not matched as singers, I wish they'd brought in someone with stronger pipes to play Javert. Anne Hathaway made me cry and I'd like to see more of Samantha Barks. A 158 minute investment, but worth it. ****

Monuments Men (2014)

My viewing of the movie The Monuments Men, particularly its first half, was hampered by two conflicting desires of what it should be. 1) I was aware of the Robert M. Edsel book which inspired it, the story of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program, an Allied effort during World War II to preserve the architectural and artistic treasures of Europe from destruction or theft by the Nazi's, I wanted to hear that story. 2) The story of the Monuments Men reminded me of the 1964 John Frankenheimer film The Train, which is about the efforts of the French resistance to stop a Nazi train filled with stolen art treasures from making it Germany as the Allies descended on Paris, I wanted this movie to be that. Both as 'true history' and as the kind of all star World War II adventure film this country loved to make mid-century, The Monuments Men is kind of wanting, which is not to say it is without its charms.

As history The Monuments Men is very condensed and simplified, historian Nigel Pollard of Swansea University in Wales gave the film 2 out of 5 stars for historical accuracy saying: "There’s a kernel of history there, but The Monuments Men plays fast and loose with it in ways that are probably necessary to make the story work as a film, but the viewer ends up with a fairly confused notion of what the organization Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (MFAA) was, and what it achieved. The real organisation was never a big one (a few dozen officers at most), but the film reduces it to just seven men to personalise the hunt for the looted art."
(https://www.historyextra.com/period/historian-at-the-movies-the-monuments-men-reviewed/). Historical inaccuracies aside the story is at least intriguing enough that I want to read the book to get the full take and learn how much of the events on screen are true and how much is not.

As World War II film epic the movie certainly channels tropes of that genera, with the team being put together at the beginning, and seeing recognizable stars from Matt Damon to Bob Balaban assembled in period uniform. I liked seeing these people together, and then the film immediately sets them apart, splitting them up into small groups to cover more historical ground, before reteaming them again at the end. While I know this was more historically accurate, on a cinematic level it was somehow less satisfying, their individual adventures were uneven, when they are together it is more fun. There are a number of moments in the film that really work, even if sometimes cloyingly, like the Christmas eve sequence with Bill Murray. There are also a couple of first rate telling off a Nazi sequences, and who doesn't like those? Okay more people then I would have assumed four years ago.

The nostalgic aspects of the movie, not just the period setting but a good deal of the films construction, along with the fact that it is about 'regular' people, who are not action heroes, doing something for the greater good, it's refreshing. Despite its faults, The Monuments Men grew on me, though it should be approached as a starting point, to both real history and some truly great movies, and not as the destination. ***

Blackbeard's Ghost (1968)

I don't' usually do reviews of movies which I had previously seen before on this blog, but for Blackbeard's Ghost I will make an exception as its been more then 30 years. Growing up it was not unusual in the last day or two of the elementary school year for the students to be taken to the gym to watch a projected movie, this is in part so the teachers can use the time to clean out their classrooms. For my Kindergarten year that movie was Blackbeard's Ghost, a 1968 Disney live action comedy staring the studios all purpose leading man Dan Jones. I loved this movie and I think I had my parents rent it for me a short time later, but after that it wasn't until last week that I saw it again. It held up remarkable well, yes there are some pretty major plot holes, and the sense of the passing of time in the film is unclearly, even badly handled, but otherwise I really liked, perhaps too much.

I can totally see what would have appealed to me as a young kid about the movie. First off Peter Ustinov really goes for it, he ain't phoning in Blackbeard, he's having a blast with the part. The old pirate's ghost was accidently summoned by Jones, the newly hired track coach at a small college, I think somewhere in the Carolina's. Blackbeard can be released from the limbo he's been in for the last 250 years if he does a good deed, and he has decided that deed will be to help a bunch of old women (descendants of his crew mates) keep the old inn built on what had once been pirates hideout. You see a group of gangsters have bought the mortgage on the place and are calling it do, the plan is to force the old ladies out because the jurisdictional status of the island on which it is located is ill-defined, so that mob plan to build a fancy casino there. To raise the needed funds Blackbeard decides to cheat at gambling, which means making Dean's loser track team win, by using his supernatural powers to throw long jumpers higher, turn runners around and replace batons with hotdogs and soda bottles. Blackbeard is invisible to everyone but Jones so there are charming special effects of him moving objects around, driving a motorcycle ect. This is precisely the kind of thing a 5 or 6 year old me would just love, only later in life would I recognize the charms of the love interest, Suzanne Pleshette. Anyway Blackbeard's Ghost is great, I heartily recommend, and I think even contemporary children, of the right age, will really enjoy this film. ***

Mazes and Monsters (1982)

Tom Hanks feature film debut was this CBS television movie based on the 1981 Rona Jaffe novel of the same title. Mazes and Monsters was of a species of cautionary tale born from urban legend, public unfamiliarity with the new phenomena of rolling playing games (such as Dungeons & Dragons) and in this case the tragic short life of James Dallas Egbert III. Egbert was a child prodigy who in 1979 as a 16 year old student at the University of Michigan mysteriously disappeared, this was initially attributed to his involvement with the game Dungeons & Dragons, but later came to be seen as the result of severe depression and stress. Egbert was recovered alive in Louisiana about a month after his disappearance, he would take his own life about a year later.

While a character named Jay Jay seemingly based on Egbert appears in the film (played by My Bodyguard star Chris Makepeace) he is not the character around whom the film revolves. That role goes to Hanks, and thankfully so because he is by far the best actor among the D & D (or rather M & M, because of intellectual property rights and libel laws) group with whom he principally associates. A troubled young man Hanks Robbie Wheeling is a recent transfer to the fictional New York area Grant College, who despite getting in trouble at his last school for excessive involvement in the fantasy game, quickly gets back into it at his new campus. Robbie and Jay Jay's group of four is rounded out by art student Daniel (David Wallace) and a girl Kate (Wendy Crewson, Tim Allen's Ex-wife in the Santa Claus movies) with whom Robbie becomes romantically involved.

Robbie eventually spurns Kate however, when he starts hallucinating and hearing voices after the group engages in some LARPing in the forbidden caverns near campus. Robbie decides he most go celibate to concentrate on the purity of his Cleric character, and a short time later up and disappears, leaving behind an elaborate homemade fantasy map. The lead detective on the case (Murray Hamilton, who played the mayor in Jaws), can't figure out what happened to Robbie, but his friends eventually determine that he's gone to New York City and go there to find him. Could the 'Two Towers' on Robbies map possibly in fact be the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center? Of course they are, but I won't spoil the ending.

 Mazes and Monsters is a rather odd film, especially for a TV movie. The central characters are suppose to be college kids, but they don't act much like you'd expect college kids to act. The film takes its subject matter seriously and for the most part really plays it straight, which given the silly nature of a good chunk of the material makes for an interesting tonal dichotomy. Robbie has had a difficult home life and appears to be suffering form some kind of schizophrenia so mental health not D & D should really be where the focus is on this story. The film also has some original songs about love and friendship which felt odd for a prime time TV production, rather then an after school special. The movie is quite watchable and an interesting curiosity of its time, it's not good, but could still be worth seeing. **

Somewhere (2010)

Some might accuse director Sofia Coppla's 2010 film Somewhere of being portentous, and some might be right. I generally like Ms. Coppla's directorial work, but this film is easily the most off putting example of it that I have seen. In lieu of style Coppala holds shots for longer then you normally would, or lets scenes play out longer then seems necessary. Not a lot happens, and there's not a lot of character development. Stephen Dorff is the lead, he plays an action movie star who is essentially dead inside, which makes me want to make an unflattering joke about Stephen Dorff, but Dorff can't really be that dull, can he? The most likable character in the thing is Dorff's daughter played by an 11 year old Elle Fanning, who is obviously Coppla's surrogate as this film is about the behind the scenes Hollywood she grew up in. I have no doubt that the film is observant, and their are some intriguing areas plumbed here and some potentially memorable scenes, such as Dorff going to an Italian awards show and having no idea what's going on. However this film is not fun to watch and the story would likely have worked better as a novella. I don't often tell people not to see movies, but don't see this movie, if I thought it was blah, you'll likely hate it. *1/2

The Martian (2015)

I put off seeing the film version of The Martian until after I had finished Andy Weir's novel, which is the story of a marooned astronaut and the efforts to save him. The book is kind of amazing, a combination of wry humor, scientific literacy and mood that is really engaging. I listened to a good portion of the audio book while on a recent trip, usually I alternate between music and a book, but Weir's story was so good that it was all I listened to for the last four or so hours of the drive. While the film version isn't as good as the source material, its still pretty darn good. I was concerned they wouldn't be able to fit everything into the movie, there is so much martial, but there was really only one major plot point they largely skipped over, namely difficulties with the solar cells on the final rover trip. While the movie can not convey the full sense of both monotony and peril that you get in the novel, it does a reasonably good job. Matt Damon is good in the lead, and the supporting cast crams a lot of recognizable actors into the proceedings, especially for a story that doesn't have all the many developed characters in it. The coda at the end which resolves various character arcs isn't in the novel, but I think the movie needed it. This is a story of human ingenuity, and of the human capacity for good, and its smartly written, there are simply not enough movies like this, it is appreciated. ***1/2