Wonderstruck (2017)

Based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Brian Selznick, Wonderstruck is a kind of art house kid's movie. Two storylines, one about a 12 year old girl (deaf actress Millicent Simmonds of A Quite Place fame) in 1927 New Jersey who runs away to New York City and ends at the Natural History Museum, and the other about a 12 year old boy (Oaks Fegley, Pete in the Pete's Dragon remake of a couple of years back) in 1977 Minnesota who runs away to New York City and also ends up at the Natural History Museum, of course these storylines will eventually converge. I really liked, even loved the look of this film, both cinematography and set design, I wish I'd seen this movie on the big screen it just looks fantastic. I also liked most of the performances, however I thought the story was rather lite and a little stretched out, sadly there were times when I was kind of bored, and that really should not have happened in a movie otherwise so vibrant. Still an impressive achievement, and perhaps the only family friendly Todd Haynes film. ***1/2

God's Not Dead 2 (2016)

God's Not Dead 2 is both appropriately and logically the sequel to the original God's Not Dead. In God's Not Dead an atheist philosophy professor played by Kevin Sorbo requires his students to write the words "God is dead" on a piece of paper as a significant portion of their grade in a Freshman philosophy class. In so doing professor Sorbo crossed a line, and in retaliation for this God has him hit by a car and killed, which I think also crosses a line. So God's Not Dead 2 is very much in the spirit of the original film, and also crosses some lines.

Now there were many subplots in the original God's Not Dead film and the sequel continues some of them, the Chinese student who becomes a Christian, the atheist blogger who becomes a Christian, and the likable Christian pastor who I don't think we ever see preach played by David A. R. White. However the main plot of this movie leaves the college campus for a nearby high school where a popular history teacher with the hit you over the head name of Grace Wesley (Melissa Joan Hart) answers a students (Hayley Orrantia from The Goldbergs) question comparing the teachings of Jesus to those of Martian Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi who the class has been studying. Ms. Wesley's answer to the question is safe and logical and hard to argue with and wouldn't seem the kind of thing that would upset reasonable people, but this is a God's Not Dead movie so it does.

Ms.Whitney is put on trail for "preaching in the classroom" where her plucky local lawyer played by Jesse Metcalfe must do battle against a smirking ACLU lawyer who is basically the devil, in fact he is played by an actor who has played the devil on T.V., the always entertaining Ray Wise. I don't think it would really be spoiling the movie to say that plucky lawyer and nice Christian lady win the case, though the way they do makes very little sense, and would take too long to get into here.

Like the original film there are a number of straw man atheist characters, principally Hayley Orrantia's parent's, whose son recently died and who don't appear to be grieving much as they are evil atheists. There are also various subplots about put upon Christian's, including pastor White who refuses to turn the transcripts of his sermons over to the government for review. Now this subplot is inspired very loosely by something that happened in Houston a few years ago where some local pastors where required to turn over transcripts to the government for review. Now unlike in the movie there is a reason (other then presumed anti-Christian bigotry) why the Houston pastors were required to turn over these sermons, it was part of discovery on a case charging that some local pastors had violated restrictions on using their tax exempt pulpits to advocate for political matters regarding an anti-discrimination ordnance in the city. Basically that they were telling their parishioners how to vote, which could be a legal problem and something that should be open to investigation. So in short God's Not Dead 2 is not so much a film about how Christians are treated in contemporary America, as it is a film about how many conservative Christians feel they are treated in contemporary America. This disconnect is obviously a problem well beyond the movie, and I don't know how or even if it can be "solved". I do know that God's Not Dead 2  is a not a good movie, poorly done in a number of respects and intentionally inflammatory, though not quite as mean spirited as it's immediate predecessor. Still fascinating as peak into the thinking of a large segment of the American public. *1/2

Madea Goes to Jail (2009)

I made it one of my movie watching goals for the year to finally see a Tyler Perry movie. Now I have seen movies with Tyler Perry in them before, like Gone Girl, or Vice in which he plays Colin Powell, but I had never seen a "Tyler Perry movie". Mr. Perry has had tremendous success as a kind of nitch market media figure catering to black audiences. In addition to being an actor and playwright he has his own studio in Atlanta, and has produced shows for television both sitcoms and dramas. However he is best known for dressing in drag as his character Madea a tough, strong willed elderly black woman. I thought Madea Goes to Jail sounded like a good entry point for that work, anticipating something akin to Ernest Goes to Jail, which is not what I got.

I am glad that I watched the other Perry movie trailers first on the DVD (I saw this movie through DVD.com, aka old school Netflix). I am glad because they prepped me somewhat for just being deposited in the sprawling interconnected world of the Madeaverse. From the previews I learned that there are movies about the Browns, Madea's daughter Cora married into that family, and apparently at the end of the last "Browns" movie Madea was in a high speed car chase for which she has been arrested at the start of this movie. Eventually in the course of this movie Madea does land in jail, but not for the car chase, she gets off on that do to a legal technicality. In fact her being in this story almost seems like a technicality, because Madea being in jail is really the secondary storyline in Madea Goes to Jail. The primary storyline concerns a young lawyer in the DA's office (Derek Luke) trying to save a childhood friend (The Cosby Show's Keshia Knight Pulliam) from a life in prostitution. It gets fairly dark and heavy, and the contrast to Madea's antics in the same film is so tonally odd and unexpected that I found it kind of fascinating. I am going to have see at least one more of these Madea films to see how common that is.

Going in I was frankly suspecting I would probably hate this film, I didn't hate it, it was watchable, I just didn't understand it. I don't understand how a market for a black based hybrid comedy/ Lifetime movie composite exists. I must learn more, I will have to revisit it's universe, because this market obviously does exist because Madea Goes to Jail made $90.5 million at the box office off of a $17.5 million budget. Something of a puzzler, but surprisingly watchable, I was never really board, and what should have been tonal whiplash didn't feel it, at lest not that bad, the transitions were surprisingly smooth. I am curious to see more. **

Shazam! (2019)

Shazam! is a very straight forward film, I don't have a lot to say about it. The movie has been rightly praised a s superhero film that returns to the childhood wish fulfillment aspect of the genera. This movie actually feels like it was meant for kids, and most superhero movies don't these days. That being said there were a few surprisingly intense moments, I'm thinking principally of that woman melting into dust, and the board room scene, but the spirit of the thing is childhood friendly. ***

The Public (2018)

The Public was inspired by a 2007 article by retiring Salt Lake City Public Library deputy director Chip Ward. Ward wrote about how public libraries have become a defacto daytime homeless shelter in many American cities and the trials and rewards of working with homeless clientele. Emilo Estevez read that article and out of it grew his new film which explores Ward's themes by way of a fictional narrative.

Written, directed and staring Estevez, Emilio plays Stuart Goodson, a senior librarian at the main branch of Cincinnati's public library. Stuart is on good terms with the homeless people who frequent the library, and when a serious cold spell and limited shelter space starts to result in a rash of dying homeless people, Stuart pleads with his superiors to turn the library into an emergency night time shelter. When this request is turned down Stuart aggress to join and serve as spokesperson for a group of homeless people who forcibly occupy part of the buildings third floor.

The Public is a good people can make a difference film, positive in outlook even when dealing with a relatively dark storyline. It's a feel good movie, sometimes a little hokey, but also thought provoking. A nice cast including Alec Baldwin, Christian Slater, Gabrielle Union, Taylor Schilling and Jena Malone. The last half or so of the movie is a variation on "the hostage picture" and I really like that kind of movie so this really worked for me, I think more then it might for a lot of people. Also what a unique subject matter for a major motion picture, yes homelessness is occasional addressed in other films, but I can't think of a single other movie about a library. ***

The Guest (2014)

It's probable that I may have heard of this film before but I didn't really become 'aware' of what it was until I saw an interview with its writer Simon Barrett on Red Letter Media's YouTube channel. I watch a lot of movie related discussion on YouTube, but seldom does it prompt me to go out of my way to see a movie, especially a movie that I was essentially a blank on until I saw said video. The Guest is a kind of suspense/thriller/action film, it's also sort of a horror movie, and maybe sci-fi depending on how you interpret some things in it. Interestingly the film starts kind of like one of those overly earnest Iraq War fatigue films of the George W. Bush era, but this movie switches up its apparent genera a number of times, yet remains coherent while doing so, which can be a tough thing to pull off. The Guest is a throw back in a number of ways, lite homage to early John Carpenter in its slow build and use of Carpenters preferred fount for the title.

The plot concerns David Collins (Dan Stevens), a army vet who travels to small town New Mexico to visit the family of an army buddy who died, apparently in combat but the particulars aren't really made clear. The Peterson family is won over by David pretty quick, and he agrees to stay with them for a few days, during which time his behavior gets increasingly odd and its very apparent that he's hiding something, but what? I won't say much more about the story because it should be fun to be taken by surprise, and this film has a few of those. Solid, enjoyable, unique, for me at least this will warrant a repeat viewing. The cast is principally lesser known, and while the movie was made for only around $5 million, it does a good job of stretching that money. I didn't really know who Dan Stevens was going into this but since I saw the movie last week it seems like he's just jumped up in everything, I keep seeing him and reading his name, he's pretty good, and not yet type cast. The Guest can at times be a little intense so its not for all audiences, but if your comfortable with violence and an R rating I'd recommend. ***

The Holy Mountian (1973)

It's hard to even know where to being with this movie, The Holy Mountain is so odd, and I've seen a good number of odd movies. I might even go so far as to say The Holy Mountain is the strangest movie I've ever seen. I had seen its director Alejandro Jodorowsky's other famous movie before, El Topo, and while extremely strange that movie had something resembling a conventional plot, The Holy Mountain does not. Now many weird films will introduce their distinctive and unusual elements early on and you'll have a chance to get used to it, while The Holy Mountain keeps upping its game throughout, introduces more and more odd ideas over the course of the film so you can never quite get a handle on the proceedings. Some of the promotional material for the film heralds it as beyond our traditional concepts of film criticism and I'd have to agree, I don't know how to approach it or how to rank or rate it. It is at times unpleasant, at times fascinating, calling the movie 'good' or 'bad' wouldn't really seem to do it justice. I may have to revisit this one some time down the road but for now on a 4 star scale I'd have to give a ?

The Holy Mountian (1926)

The Holy Mountain is probably the best know of the German 'mountain film genera' which flourished in the late silent, early talkie years and acted as a sort of national myth, similar to the 'western films' of the United States or the 'samurai' films of the Japanese. There is not that much to the plot of The Holy Mountain, though I thought its resolution was a little unexpected, it's basically a love triangle between a dancer and two mountaineers who meet at a resort. The movie is beautiful to look at however, some really impressive shots, filmed up in the cold mountains, with the snow and everything, and this was a silent film, these cameras were not easy to move around and there is some really intricate work here, particularly in the night shoots. On a big screen I suspect this movie would really be something to see, but if you see at home I would recommend playing the audio commentary while you do, because again the plot is pretty basic and it helps to have something else to concentrate on for the sequences where the visuals are less interesting. This film is of course best know because of its female lead, a young dancer named Leni Riefenstahl, who would go to become a propaganda filmmaker for the Nazi's, before reinventing herself yet again as a photographer and dying in 2003 at the age of 101. Riefenstahl reported that her first time behind a camera was helping out with some background shots in this movie. ***

The Lady and the Highwayman (1989)

Produced for British television but with near theatrical quality production values, it probably helps that they had easy access to great old houses and castles. The Lady and the Highwayman is based on Cupid Rides Pillion a novel by the super prolific Barbara Cartland (723 novels starting in 1925 but with some not published until after her death in 2000 at the age of 98). Set during the reign of English King Charles II (mid to late 17th Century) this has everything you want in a swashbuckling romance, including duels, revenge, a trail, a royal mistress, pledged loyalties, forbidden love, etc etc. The presence of a young Hugh Grant as the male lead is probably what this movie is best known for but the film is stuffed with great old English faces, Oliver Reed, John Mills, and Bernard Miles and Robert Morley near the end of their lives. Michael York and Emma Samms are here too. Lysette Anthony plays The Lady to Gran'ts Highwayman. Really nothing that special but I rather enjoyed it, it's been a while since I've watched something like this. **1/2

Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party (2016)

A spiritual sequel to conservative pundit Dinesh D'Souza's 2012 "documentary" 2016: Obama's America, Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party is a similar call to arms against that years Democratic presidential nominee, in this case Hillary Clinton. Not as successful finically as the previous film, Hillary's America grossed $13 million at the box office against a $5 million budget, compared to the Obama films $33.4 million box office on a $2.5 million dollar budget. Hillary's America was still the top grossing documentary of 2016, and while it won multiple "Razzies" including worst film, Hillary didn't become president, so there's that.

Like the Obama film while the Democratic nominee is the apparent subject, D'Souza is the star. The beginning of the film recounts Dinesh's 2014 convection and subsequent sentence for violating campaign finance law. While a case can be made that Dinesh's crime may well have been overstated, and his sentence perhaps comparatively harsh, it is not as harsh as he makes it out to be in this movie. D'Souza spent 8 months in a halfway house, was fined $30,000 (his illegal campaign contribution to New York Senate candidate Wendy Long was $20,000), and sentenced to five years probation. D'Souza also lost the right to vote, which I agree was too sever, but he got that back when President Trump pardoned him in 2018, he then released an overtly pro Trump film (Death of a Nation: Can We Save America a Second Time? ) four months later. The movie seems intentionally gauzy about his sentence, making it look like he was in a more traditional prison during reenactment sequences in which Dinish stars, these set the pattern for other "off" seeming reenactments throughout the film. D'Souza also claims that his trial and convection was "revenge" by the Obama's over the success of his earlier movie, I remain unconvinced of the validity of this accusation.

While Hillary is the title character in this movie Dinesh takes his time in getting to her. The films subtitle "The Secret History of the Democratic Party" takes the bulk of the run time. D'Souza uses an unconvincing narrative arc of his "prison" experience prompting him to look into the supposedly "secret history" of the Democratic party. The problem with this assertion is that the history explored here is hardly secret, I learned many of these things in public schools, and as a professional political analyst, none of the this stuff would have been really new to Dinish. I have been surprised however how damning much of this films target audience takes this "secret history" to be. Said audience of course is primed to view the Democrats as negatively as possible, so the filmmakers had a running start.

The core of this criticism is the history of racism, especially anti-black racism, in the Democratic party. 19th Century Democrats supported slavery, and many in the 20th century supported Jim Crow. That is all true, but what is ignored is that things can change over time, that is what history is, change over time. Yet there are many out there who think this troubling history on the part of the donky party is a "gotcha" "death blow" to the Democrats, and reflects what is truly in their collective dark hart. Never mind that in 2016 the candidate whose rallies were most popular with neo-confederates wasn't Hillary's. Former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke endorsed a presidential candidate in 2016, but it wasn't Hillary. Also, there was a black Democratic president of the United States in office for 8 years, you might have heard of him, he was the guy before Trump. True believers however tend to care little for facts.

The movie does finally get to Hillary, it rehashes old favorites of her detractors, some of them fair some of them not. Amongst the not far are those related to Hillary's legal defense of an accused rapist in 1975. No Hillary did not volunteer to defend the man Thomas Alfred Taylor, a then 41-year-old accused of raping a 12-year-old girl, but rather Hillary was assigned the case by Arkansas Judge Maupin Cummings. No Hillary did not get Taylor "off" for the crime, he was plea bargained to a reduced sentence after questions were raised about the validity of some of the physical evidence against him. No Hillary did not laugh about this in a recording of a 1980's interview with Arkansas reported Roy Reed, or rather she did laugh, but not in the context her critics imply. Rather she laughed in regards not to the crime, but some of the things that came up while working the defense. One example is when Hillary is talking about a lie detector test the defendent took: "Of course he claimed he didn’t. All this stuff. He took a lie detector test. I had him take a polygraph, which he passed, which forever destroyed my faith in polygraphs. [laughs]" While criticism's of Hillary casting herself as a champion of a woman's right to be heard, that we should "believe all women" when they recount stories of sexual abuse, while she was a merciless critic of those who creditably accused her husband of sexual harassment and assault, those criticisms are absolutely fair.

What you have at the end of Hillary's America is what it is throughout, what it was intended to be, an exercise is preaching to the choir, rallying up the base. If your not in said base D'Souza's more legitimate  points are hampered by his many more less legitimate ones. While this film cost twice what Obama's America cost, it often looks cheaper. The historical reenactment scenes are hokey, unconvincing, and sport bad make up and costumes, how did John C. Calhoun's whig not end up on the editing room floor? The most obvious big uses of money in the film are the fake DNC lobby, designed to make it look like the Democrats are just vomiting out money on themselves, and the rental of an orchestra and men's chorus for a rendition of God Bless America at the end of the film. This movie can be hard to watch on many levels, quality of the acting, and the production design, and the content, but mostly the boredom of how watered down and unduly drawn out the whole thing is. The four percent Rotten Tomatoes score is deserved, only rarely is this movie so bad that it is entertaining, mostly it is just so bad. *

Also this movie has some anti-Russia stuff in it, D'Souza apparently hadn't yet gotten that memo yet.

The Young Karl Marx (2017)

The Young Karl Marx is a German, French, Belgian co-production in English, French and German that tells (appropriately given its title) the story of a young Karl Marx, and his friendship with Friedrich Engels over the years 1843 to 1848. Marx and Engels had apparently meet once before the action this movie depicts started, and they didn't get along at first, but became fast friends thereafter, history could have been really different if they hadn't. The film starts around the birth of that friendship and ends in one of the most foreboding scenes in cinema with the two gaining control of the Christian communist organization The League of the Just switching its name to The Communist League and replacing its motto "All men are brothers" with "Workers of all Nations unite".

Well Marxism is "in" right now, and I thought this movie was going to be more pro, but it really wasn't. The film is neither laudatory or particularly harsh (because to be honest how much responsibility does Karl really have in what people did with his writings 30 plus years after his death, he might have been horrified) but just presents the things he did pretty objectively. He is of course humanized, because you see him with his wife and daughters and friends, but he's not apologized for, more then one character in the film refers to Marx as being a very difficult person, because he undoubtedly was. It is interesting to see these stories, of which I was only vaguely familiar acted out, though you could doubtless get more of events by reading biographies or histories of the movement. More satisfying as a collection of scenes then as a movie, I still felt some accomplishment for having watched the whole thing. You can actually watch it, and legally even, through YouTube, the true opiate of the masses. *** Also Luxembourgish actress Vicky Krieps, from my favorite movie of 2017 The Phantom Thread is in this as Mrs. Marx.

Aquaman (2018)

Aquaman is a big dumb movie, it was more then halfway through before I could even begin to care. The best sequences are those on the isle of Sicily when Mere first begins to gel with surface dwellers and there is a neat duel chase by badies across tile rooftops, with the camera swinging back and forth between our lead characters, and then Mara uses telekinesis to kill two dudes with shards from wine bottles, which is when the movie lost me again. Jason Momoa is likable here, certainly more so then he was in Justice League, and Amber Heard, well she's not unlikable. File this away under movie trivia as the film in which Willem Dafoe sports a man bun, and Dolph Lundgren looks more like Kris Kristofferson then Dolph Lundgren. **