Cut Bank (2014)

Prairie noir set in the real world small town of Cut Bank, Montana. The movie feels like an entire season of Fargo condensed into about 90 minutes, and boy does this movie want to be Fargo, it wants to be Fargo way too much. Really good cast including Billy Bob Thorton, Oliver Platt, and Michael Stuhlbarg (all of which have filmed a season of Fargo) and Bruce Dern and John Malkovich who should do seasons of Fargo. In the end its like a dollar store version of Fargo. Has a few good ideas, none of which are adequately explored. **

See instead: Fargo

Creation (2009)

You remember that sequence in Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World where they are walking around the Galapagos Islands collecting biological samples? Well that sequence made it seem as though a feature film about Charles Darwin could actually be watchable, and to play it safe they cast the doctor from Master & Commander Paul Bettany as Darwin. Well the resulting film is an uneven one. Based on the novel Annie's Box by Darwin descendent Randal Keynes, which in turn is based on family lore, the movie explores how the devastating emotional affects of the loss of his oldest daughter Annie ultimately effected Charles decision to publish his groundbreaking book On the Origin of Species, one of the biggest paradigm shifting books in world history.

Things I liked about the movie include Paul Bettanys performance as Charles, the stuff about the Darwin family particularly his relationship with his religious wife Emma (played by Bettany's real life wife Jennifer Connelly), and the flash back story sequences about The Beagle expedition and Jenny the ape. I didn't like the device about Charles talking to his dead daughter, even though Martha West is good in the part (this is her only movie). Also this movie has a double decker, 'it was only a nightmare'/ waking up in shock sequence. What on Earth is that doing in a Charles Darwin biopic. Still even though its uneven I found it enlightening to learn more about Charles Darwin's personal life, a subject I knew next to nothing about before viewing this movie. **1/2

Oscar Predictions 2017

Mostly pretty safe this year:

Best Picture: La La Land
Best Actor: Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)
Best Actress: Natalie Portman (Jackie)
Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali (Moonlight), but would also be happy with

Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals)

Best Supporting Actress: Very tough one this year but I'm going to go with Naomie Harris (Moonlight)

Best Director: Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

Best Original Screenplay: Should be 20th Century Women or Manchester by the Sea, will be La La Land.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Moonlight

Best Animated Film: Zootopia

 

Select lesser categories:

 

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Star Trek Beyond

Best Visual Effects: Deepwater Horizon

Best Foreign Film: Toni Erdmann (Germany)

Best Original Score: La La Land

Best Original Song: "City of Stars" La La Land

Best Documentary Feature: O.J.: Made in America

Best Sound Editing (good year for this category): Arrival, would also be happy with Deepwater Horizon 

Best Costume Design: Jackie

Best Cinematography: La La Land

Best Production Design: La La Land

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Silence (2016)

Having at one point in his life hoped to be a Catholic priest Martin Scorsese is one of our more unconventionally religious filmmakers. He's made a number of religiously themed films before, such as Kundon, and most famous and controversially The Last Temptation of Christ. Scorsese first started working on turning Silence, a 1966 historical novel about Roman Catholic priests in 17th century Japan by the author Shūsaku Endō, into a film around 1990. As can often happen with an unconventional passion project the movie got pushed back. The finished feature is a tale of two Jesuit priests (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) who go to Japan in search of a lost colleague (Liam Neeson) who disappeared in an intense period of persecution years before, and are subsequently horribly tortured and forced to confront the limits of their faith. The film juxtaposes some of the worst of humanity with some its best, beautiful locations, horrible acts, humility and pride. It does all of this with a disagree of silence that can be somewhat disorienting. It is a meditative movie that even in the few instances when it can be said to force feed you interpretations of things, does so with enough ambiguity to keep you wondering. The film is unmistakably a work of art, I can admire it in a number of ways, though in its quietness it did not prompt the strong emotional reaction one might typically expect of a movie of this sort. Non the less it rates the full ****

House of Strangers (1949)

House of Strangers is a nourish adaptation of Jerome Weidmans' novel I'll Never Go There Any More, which has also been adapted as a western in 1954 (Broken Lance) and a film about German circus performers (The Big Show) in 1961. The core of the story seems to be about how an overbearing father can tear his family apart by choosing a favorite son (in this case Richard Conte) at the expense of the others, and endanger a family empire (in this case, banking). Edward G. Robinson won a best actor award for this at the 1949 Cannes Film Festival, though to its determent the performance now plays very strongly of its time. The plot is actually fairly complicated, though at the same time not a lot seems to happen. Still its an interesting enough film and contains several story and thematic parallels to the later Godfather Trilogy, not the least of which is Conte's presence. ***

The Lego Batman Movie (2016)

I must admit that I have never seen The Lego Movie, I want to, it's on my list, but I've yet to see the film. I was however well aware of Will Arnett's breakout vocal characterization of Batman in that film, gravelly, megalomaniacal and dry. Said portrayal carries the bulk of this spin off film, The Lego Batman Movie, with Arnett getting many great lines. Even though I have not seen the original Lego film I get the sense this movie must in many ways be a pale imitation of it, it has a safe message about the importance of families, most of the gages are safe, its full of pop culture cross reverences of everything from Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings to Jaws and Gremlins, as well as songs that are maybe not quite awesome. Enjoyable, but unless you have kids maybe don't pay full price. **1/2

The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936)

H.G. Wells helped expand and adapt his own short story of the same title The Man Who Could Work Miracles into this comedy fantasy picture for famed English producer Alexander Korda. As part of a bet between three God's, one of whom is played by a young George Sanders, an Essex haberdashers assistant (Roland Young) is granted nearly limitless super human powers, which he spends the whole movie dithering over how to use. Intriguing premise feels largely squandered, this movie aims for the fanciful but comes off dull and ineffectually preachy. I have a similar feeling about the work of George Bernard Shaw, and Well's earlier fiction is much better then this, maybe its a Fabian Society thing. *1/2