Starman (1984)

A variation on Spielbergian themes Starman is that rare John Carpenter movie where the alien is the good guy. Karen Allen plays a Wisconsin widow who escorts an alien anthropologist who has assumed the form of her late husband (Jeff Bridges) to Arizona to be picked up by his people, and along the way encounters varied humanity. Enjoyable, I'd seen just a few minutes of this before two decades ago so this movie was mostly new to me, yet at the same time it felt like I'd seen this before, movies of this rough sort were very popular in the 80's. Anyway should work as a good appetizer for Ready Play One. ***

Trainwreck (2015)

Amy Schumer gets the Judd Apatow treatment in this crudish comedy about relationships and growth. I really like Bill Hader in this, and there is a really perfect part for Colin Quinn here to, an SNL alum who really hasn't made much of a go of it in movies. Norman Lloyd was 99 years old when he filmed his small part, and there are a bunch of funny cameos from the sports world including LeBron James and Marv Albert which are some of the best things in this movie. Though his producing credits are much more uneven, it feels like Judd Apatow just hits it out of the park every time he is behind the camera. ***1/2

Charley Varrick (1973)

From action auteur Don Siegel comes Charlie Varrick. The story is about a group of small time hoods who rob a small town New Mexico bank and discover that instead of the modest score they were anticipating, they wound up with 3/4's of a million dollars. You see this bank was being used by the mob to launder money and they just happened to catch it on the right day. Now forces from the mob, the bank, and local law enforcement are after them and its up to their leader Walter Matthau to outsmart them. Though it has some slow stretches Charlie Varrick is a smart 70's crime film that it really is worth staying to the end for. ***1/2

Step Brothers (2008)

Co-written and directed by Will Ferrell's long time collaborator Adam McKay, Step Brothers is firmly rooted in the 'adults as adolescents' school of comedy and stars Ferrell and John C. Reilly as grown men who never left the nest and become the titular 'step brothers' after their parents marry. The two share a room, feud then become friends, then feud again before ultimately reconciling. Though it has a few funny moments and gets maybe a little better towards the end, for the most part it's not funny, not pleasant, and lazy. I saw the 'unrated' version but suspect the theatrical cut is just a slightly less vulgar version of the same. Everyone involved in this movie is capable of better. *1/2

King Kong (1976)

Dino De Laurentis produced remake of the classic Universal monster movies gives it a 1970's flavor, including environmental rhetoric, multiple references to 'the energy crises', and Kong climbing one of the newly completed Twin Towers of the World Trade Center at the climax of the movie. The film stars Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin and Jessica Lange in her first film role. This movie feels more restrained by the technical limitations of its time then the original 1933 version did. Though sometimes slow and more ambitious for special then it is able to pull off, the movies not as bad as its reputation might suggest, its just not very good either. **1/2

The Bronze (2015)

Melissa Rauch (Bernadette from The Big Bang Theory) co-wrote and stars in this comedy about an Olympic bronze medalist reluctantly dragooned into coaching a potentially superior young gymnast (Haley Lu Richardson) after their mutual coach dies. The comic conceit of the film is that Rauch's character Hope Ann Greggory is very foul mouthed, rude, and bitter about an ankle spraining at the 2004 games which she feels cost her the gold. If you can lean into the idea of this petit little woman being an asshole to most everyone around her, it's pretty fun, if you can't you probably won't enjoy it. There is of course something of a redemption narrative here, and I found that I liked this film more then I thought I would. Good supporting performances from Gary Cole, Thomas Middleditch, Sebastian Stan and Richardson. A guilty pleasure. **1/2

Hell or High Water (2016)

Hell or High Water was written, but not directed by Taylor Sheridan, who wrote and directed my favorite movie of 2017 Wind River. It is not as good as Wind River but is a solid contemporary western about two brothers (Chris Pine & Ben Foster) who rob from a predatory bank to pay back the money they owe it on the family ranch. Jeff Bridges is the Texas Ranger in charge of hunting the bank robbers down. A reflective piece, despite containing multiple shoot outs, it is also lightly topical as it tackles the economic decline of rural America. Well executed, but some times a little slow.  ***1/2

8mm (1999)

An elderly Pennsylvania millionaire passes away and his widow finds a reel of 8mm film hidden among his personal possessions. The reel contains what appears to be a 'snuff film' where a young woman is murdered for purposes of sexual gratification. The widow and her lawyer hire a PI played by Nicolas Cage to investigate the film and determine if it is authentic or not. The first 30 minutes or so of this movie is really interesting, but after Cage, having managed to identify the girl in the film travels to her last known whereabouts in California and starts investigating the underground porn scene there, it gets more and more difficult to watch. I respect that the film treats its story with some gravitas and not just as a throw away excuse for action. Cage's character, who is married and has a baby daughter, becomes so disturbed by what he encounters in the course of the case that he starts to come unglued emotionally. The film walks the fine line of exploitation pretty well, but perhaps unavoidable there are times you just feel dirty watching this. Joaquin Phoenix plays a musician and porn store employee who helps Cage with his investigation. **1/2

Snake Eyes (1998)

I remember seeing the theatrical trailer for this film 20 years ago and really wanting to see it, not so much for the Nicolas Cage but because I was a  big fan of Gary Sinise. Of course I didn't watch R rated films back then but I do now, and in this case I wasn't missing much. The story is the about the assassination of the Secretary of Defense at a heavyweight championship fight in Atlantic City and the subsequent investigation. The story is mostly pretty standard, uninspired stuff old school stuff, in fact it is easy to image Frank Sinatra staring in a movie like this back in the 50's or 60's. Some of the most memorable things about this movie are odd camera decisions by director Brain De Palma, like overhead "dollhouse" cut away shoots, or blurring the camera when we are seeing things from the eyes of Carla Gugion after she loses her glasses. Not horrible, but nothing to write home about. **

Call Me by Your Name (2017)

The most recent Oscar winner for best adapted screenplay Call Me By Your Name is based on the 2007 novel of the same name by André Aciman. The story concerns a 17 year old boy (Timothée Chalamet) who has a romantic relationship with his professor fathers 24 year old graduate assistant (Armie Hammer) in Italy over the summer of 1983. The movie is very well written and acted, it is owing to its subject matter and source material a very literary work, the action on the surface of things is minimal, what it is truly about is what is going on internally for its characters, and it does an unusually good job of conveying that.

In many ways Call Me By Your Name is first rate stuff, but it is also disturbing in its implication. In the context of the film I think that Hammer's character did Chalamet's character very little long term harm, and most of that is the kind of collateral damage that you can expect from a first love situation. However in the real world such a relationship would have been predatory, and had it happened in the States rather then Italy illegal because of statutory rape. The inherent creepiness of this is amplified by the fact that while Chalamet was 21 at the time and looked younger, Hammer was 31, 7 years older then the character he was supposed to be playing, and he looks it. This is the kind of film that middle America hates Hollywood for, and its understandable. Yet as cinemahile, even though I can't approve of all the actions in the movie, it was simply so impressively well done that I think it really does earn ****.  Sorry.

Rising Sun (1993)

After Jurassic Park this is by far the lesser of the two cinematic adaptions of Michael Crichton novels to come out in 1993. Rising Sun is of an era when Japan not China was the Asian economic powerhouse that most concerned Americans, and this movie reflects that anxiety. A woman is found dead at a party in a new Japanese owned high rise in Los Angeles and various employees of the Nakamoto Corporation seem to be involved. Wesley Snipes is the officer in charge of the investigation, Sean Connery is a former police captain and expert on Japanese affairs who is brought in to help him. The story follows the dramatic cadence of a paper back thriller where every so many beats there has to be a new 'surprise'. Duller and less insightful then I had expected. **

Phantom Thread (2017)

From Paul Thomas Anderson, one of our most hypnotic directors comes Phantom Thread, a cinematic slow burn of a movie, it's a period drama about a high strung fashion designer in early 1950's England (Daniel Day-Lewis) and the foreign born waitress (Vicky Krieps) with whom he develops a very complicated relationship. Beautiful music, cinematography and costuming, it's somehow both an understated work as well as lurid melodrama. The re-teaming of Anderson and Day-Lewis from There Will Be Blood was much anticipated, and while lacking the same intensity of the earlier movie, this has its fair share of subtle charms. Krieps admirably holds her own with her near legendary male lead. This movie lulled me into a false sense of security and then really surprised me. One of my favorites of 2017. ****

Some Quick Oscar Predictions

Best Picture: No particular stand out this year so I'm going with Lady Bird because of the cultural moment we are in right now, though Phantom Thread was my favorite of the best picture nominees.
Best Director: Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird
Best Actor: Gary Oldman for Darkest Hour
Best Actress Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Supporting Actor Willem Dafoe for The Florida Project
Best Supporting Actress Allison Janney for I, Tonya
Best Animated Film Coco
Cinematography Dunkirk
Costume Design The Phantom Thread
Film Editing Dunkrik
Adapted Screenplay Call Me By Your Name
Original Screenplay Get Out
Baby Driver should get one of the sound awards.

Black Panther (2018)

With an almost entirely black cast and a positive, afro-centric storyline Black Panther has become a very celebrated film amidst somewhat heightened racial tensions domestically in the U.S. (though when are racial tensions ever at a  'good' level in the U.S.). Chadwick Boseman reprises the Black Panther character first introduced to the MCU in Captain America: Civil War in 2016. A royal from the isolated African kingdom of Wakanda, a country that secretly possess advanced technology and wealth derived from Vibranium, a metal with near magical qualities queried from a meteor deposit that is also the source of Black Panthers kinda vague super powers, mostly super strength and healing. The movie picks up in the weeks after the events of Civil War and the chief villain of the piece, Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) is an unusually organic bad guy for a super hero movie, you can actually see and appreciate his point of view. Also of ironic interest for a movie called Black Panther, one of the good guys is a white CIA agent (the always welcome Martin Freeman). The supporting cast is good and the number of positive, strong black roles, especially for women, are quite impressive. This movie doesn't try to be like other superhero movies, its very much its own thing and its story structure is more akin to high fantasy or a national myth then typical superhero heroics. Also that mission Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) was on near the beginning, I'm pretty sure that was Boko Haram she was supposed to be fighting, that's awesome. ***1/2

Three Billboards Outisde Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

An Oscar bate film of this type, well put together, loaded with stars, at lest somewhat topical in subject matter, has to be trying to say something, has to have a thesis. Doesn't it? I don't know if there is a particularly deep underlying message to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, other then that the agenizing frustration of grief is just that, agenizing frustration, especially when there is so much you still don't know about why your loved one died.

Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) teenage daughter Angela (Kathryn Newton in flashbacks) was raped and murdered by the side of a country road and seven months later the local authorities are no closer to solving the crime then when it happened. Out of pain and frustration Mildred rents three derelict billboards near her home and has emblazoned on them "Raped While Dying", "And Still No Arrests?", "How Come, Chief Willoughby?" This provocative act ignites strong passions in her community, with locals dived in loyalties between the grieving but prickly mother, and the beloved local Sheriff (Woody Harrelson) who happens to be slowly dying of pancreatic cancer. Willoughby himself is frustrated by the situation, but with no suspects and the blood samples recovered matching no one on any accessible criminal database, the case has hit a dead end, and there is not much that he can do about it. Tempers flair, local prejudices and dirty laundry come to the surface, things escalate and there is plenty of pain, and also some healing.

An admirable film in some ways, its well acted with an interesting underlying conceit, but also feels like its trying to hard too telegraph its own importance. The mixture of drama and dark comedy feels about right and it's nice to see a film set in a place we don't see that much of, in this case the Missouri Ozarks. I think its likely Ms. McDormand gets her second Oscar for this. ***1/2