Allied (2016)

This World War II espionage film by director Robert Zemeckis is good, but feels a little late, and a little safe. I can image myself loving this movie if it came out around 2002, but this nicely constructed film sadly feels like something I've seen before, no doubt in part because we've seen Brad Pitt in a couple of really good World War II movies already. Pitt is never really that interesting in this film, at least not until towards the end when faced with the prospect that this good solders wife, and mother of his child, may in fact be a Nazi spy. Marion Cotillard has the plumb part and gives by far the most impressive performance in the film, she's enticing, yet vague, and possibly dangerous, human gossamer.

The movie takes its lead from those really good British "question the identity of your loved ones" films from during The War, like Ministry of Fear, The Adventures of Tartu, or even Night Train to Munich. There is also some of The Small Back Room here, along with Five Graves to Cairo, and a good chunk of the film is actually set in Casablanca. Zemeckis always does well with his homage and period settings, though ironically this is one of his lest distinctly Zemeckian works, it feels like the kind of film most any competent director could make. I don't blame Zemeckis for trying, in fact I think he succeeds, and what director doesn't have espionage movie, and World War II film on their moving making bucket list. This is at heart still a good movie, and I found the ending effecting enough to bump it up a half star, but it's sadly not the masterpiece it makes motions of wanting to be. Still I'd say worth seeing. ***1/2

The World According to Garp (1982)

Early Robin Williams dramady in which he stars as T. S. Garp, the "bastard son" of feminist icon Jenny Fields (Glenn Close). The film is based on the book of the same title by novelist John Irving, whose work I'm not very familiar with, but to me this movie felt a lot like something John Updike might write. Off kilter humor combines with a few shockingly difficult moments, and a deep sense of empathy for human weakness resulting in some level of profundity. There is one plot twist here which is pretty amazing, something I don't know how you get past if it happens in your life. The film is very deftly handled by George Roy Hill, a director who was something of a specialist in adapting wide ranging novels into film (Slaughterhouse-Five, Hawaii). The cast is good all around and contains some very strong work from Close, John Lithgow (who plays a transvestite), and Mary Beth Hurt, who probably should be better known then she is. Williams ably demonstrates his promise, foreshadowing later and better known dramatic roles. This movie pretty well blew me away. ****

The Accountant (2016)

This film greatly exceeded the expectations I had for it. I had been a bit on the fence about going to see it in the theater or not, but I did and was very impressed. When the movie ended, the audience clapped, in a dollar theater. That says something. I won't say too much about the plot, it's a crime movie, a thriller, has a few good moments of wry humor. The big 'twist' isn't much of a twist, I figured it out fairly early on, but the twist wasn't the point, the movie gives you the clues, it's not really trying to trick you. There is some franchise potential here but in the end I don't really want them to make a sequel, this movie stands on its own too well and anything more isn't needed. Good cast all around, Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, John Lithgow. Bill Dubuque wrote it and now I'm interested in seeing his other work. I tried but I can't think of another film quite like it, for me probably the big movie surprise of 2016. ****

Island in the Sky (1953)

Very much a product of its time, this disappointingly dry and too often boring film by the very solid director William A. Wellman, is often overshadowed by the more emotionally accessible, and color filmed, 'airplane in trouble' film he made the following year The High and the Mighty. Island in the Sky tells the story of the civilian crew of a (supply?) plane that goes down in the north of Canada during World War II, the crews efforts to survive, and the efforts of others to rescue them. The movie features a large cast headed by John Wayne, and including Lloyd Nolan, James Arness (pre  Gunsmoke), Andy Devine, and Regis Toomey, there are almost no women in this movie, it is a story about noble, if too often boring, men. There are far more engaging movies built along similar lines, and the scenes featuring the characters involved in the rescue efforts are routinely more interesting then those involving the lost crew, who I never felt all that invested in. The film is perhaps most notable as the only movie that I can recall seeing where John Wayne convincingly conveys a sense of fear in his performance, when it starts to look like he is indeed going to die in the icy wilderness. Still probably not worth you time unless your a very committed Wayne junkie. This film has the form down pat, but its lacking in emotional core. **

Nocturnal Animals (2016)

The second film by fashion designer turned film director Tom Ford, Nocturnal Animals is adapted from the 1993 novel Tony and Susan by the late novelist, critic and literature professor Austin Wright. This movie is kind of tough going, not a lite or happy film. The opening sequence is of an 'art' exhibit featuring obese naked woman wearing marching band hats, a way I suppose of telegraphing that this is going to be a movie about ugly people, even if the actual cast is good looking. This is not surprisingly a very 'literary' movie, nicely structured and very well put together. There are two primary narratives, the 'framing' narrative focusing on Susan Morrow (Amy Adams), a rich art gallery owner living in Los Angeles whose marriage is gradually dying, and the second the narrative of a novel that Morrows first husband Edward Sheffield (Jake Gyllenhaal) has written, dedicated to her, and sent an advance copy before publication. The action switches between Susan and her life, the novel's narrative as she reads it in sections, and flashbacks through the rise and fall of her marriage  to Edward. We see how each of these narratives feeds into the others and tells us more about Susan and Edwards relationship and why it failed.

The narrative of Edward's novel is like something out of Cormac McCarthy or early Ian McEwan. It is set in Texas, where both Susan and Edward grew up, and concerns a man (Jake Gyllenhaal) who while traveling by night through a rural part of the state with his wife and daughter is forced off the road by some rough redneck local boys, and is left for dead in the middle of nowhere while his wife and child are rapped an murdered (to further push home that the wife in the novel is a stand in for Susan, red headed Amy Adams ins replaced by red headed Isla Fisher in these sequences). Gyllenhaal eventually makes it back to civilization and teams up with a local police detective played by Michael Shannon. in probably the most memorable characterization of the film, and over the course of years they work the case to bring the perpetrators to justice, and when it looks like one of them might get off, they start to discuses going outside of the law to see that justice is served, and that is where I will leave you with that story line.

The move is full awkward and tense scenes, particularly during the novels narrative, and none of those is more tense then the prolonged sequence on the side of a desert highway at night, in which those three roughens menace Edward and his family, it can be really hard to sit through because you know where this is ultimately heading. The movie is filled with great actors, often in little more then cameo parts, such as Laura Linney as Susan's mother, and Michael Sheen and Jena Malone as Susan's friends. Aaron Taylor-Johnson won the Golden Globe for best supporting actor as the ringleader of the gang that terrorizes Edward's family. This is a very dark, very fine film, a real achievement for all of those involved, yet I'd have to advise most people I know against seeing it. This is a rough one, but still ****

Captive (2015)

This is the story of that Georgia woman who got the escaped killer who had taken her hostage to give himself up to the police by reading to him from pastor Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life. In actuality its more complicated then that of course, both Brian Nichols and Ashley Smith were 'broken people' and that helped them to relate to each other enough to prevent the crises from getting worse and more people from dying. This is an interesting enough story in an off its self, but it is also interesting that it was made into a theatrical style movie, though I think it may have been released straight to video. I believe this story had also been previously done as a TV movie, which is what this movie feels like a slightly more polished version of. It's also ostensibly a Christian movie, which is why it at first felt a little weird to me that Kate Mara was cast as the lead, given my impression of her is of being a rather sensual actress. Mara is good in the part however, as is Daivd Oyelowo as Nichols, and Michael K. Williams as Detective John Chestnut. The movie is capably enough directed by Jerry Jameson, who has mostly done TV work along with a few disaster type movies such as Airport 77 and Raise the Titanic, so he was an appropriate choice for this. **1/2

Swiss Army Man (2016)

This is that movie where a haggard Paul Dano rides the farting corpse of Daniel Radcliffe across the ocean from the island on which they were marooned. Well its more complicated then that, but its still as weird as you'd expect, if not weirder. The movie did not take the cop out ending I was expecting it to, though its certainly not a straight forward resolution. This films odd humor mixes well with some poignancy for what at heart is a meditation on loneliness. Kind of a brave performance by Dano, and a very still performance by Radcliff. Film felt like a cross between the works of Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry. ***