tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16456824032988809762024-02-18T23:34:27.440-08:00We Love MoviesFrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.comBlogger130125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-6018293617069087942020-01-01T20:13:00.002-08:002020-01-03T09:01:04.591-08:00Top 10 Films of the 2010s<br />
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The 2010s were a good decade for film, and in
thinking them over, I am reminded that I have specific likes and dislikes just
like anyone. Despite this, I’m struck by how diverse my picks wound up. In the
2010s, there wasn’t really much danger for repeating myself, despite a penchant
toward specific filmmakers. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">When I review my yearly best of lists, I see a
clear affinity for directors like Quentin Tarantino (</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2013/02/anderson-and-tarantino-embrace-their.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Django
Unchained</span></span></i></a></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2016/06/tarantino-entertains-with-darkly-funny.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">The
Hateful Eight</span></span></i></a></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Once Upon a Time in Hollywood</i>), Denis
Villeneuve (</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2014/05/jake-gyllenhaal-shines-in-thought.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Prisoners</span></span></i></a></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Arrival</i>,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blade Runner 2049</i>), Steven Soderbergh
(</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2012/06/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Magic Mike</span></span></i></a></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2013/03/side-effects-offers-engagingly-pulpy.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Side
Effects</span></span></i></a></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">), David O. Russell (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Fighter</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Silver Linings Playbook</i>, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2013/12/david-orussell-once-again-spins.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">American
Hustle</span></span></i></a></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">) Martin Scorcese (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shutter Island</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hugo</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wolf of Wall Street</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Irishman</i>), Wes Anderson (</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2013/02/anderson-and-tarantino-embrace-their.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Moonrise
Kingdom</span></span></i></a></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2014/07/anderson-does-his-thing-and-does-it.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Grand Budapest Hote</span></i><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">l</span></span></a></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">) Richard Linklater (</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2014/02/linklater-deepens-cinemas-greatest.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Before
Midnigh</span></span></i></a></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><u><span style="color: #0563c1;">t</span></u></span></i><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2015/02/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Boyhood</span></span></i></a></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">) and The Coen Brothers (</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2019/12/although-all-of-their-films-are.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">The
Ballad of Buster Scruggs</span></span></i></a></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Inside Llewyn Davis</i>).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But this list? This list has none of those
guys. And that’s kind of cool. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">My next 10 would likely include some
combination of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Coco</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wind River</i>, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2014/02/polley-gets-personal-with-delightful.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Stories
We Tell</span></span></i></a></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, </span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2015/03/mcdonagh-and-gleeson-reteam-for-bleak.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Calvary</span></span></i></a></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, </span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2015/12/creed-recaptures-rousing-magic-of.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Creed</span></span></i></a></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, <a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2017/"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Moana</span></a></span></i><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2013/02/life-of-pi-proves-thought-provoking-and.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Life
of Pi</span></a></i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2013/01/skyfall-offers-excellent-meta-take-on.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Skyfall</span></a></i>,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2014/02/linklater-deepens-cinemas-greatest.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Before
Midnight</span></a>, </i>and<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>the three<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2019/12/mission-impossible-fallout.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Mission
Impossible</span></a></i> films. But here’s my top 10.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">10.
Blindspotting</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">It’s been almost exactly two years since I
wrote a fresh review on here, but I have been keeping tabs offline when I can.
I recently posted a few reviews I had banked from a 2018 excel sheet, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2019/12/blindspotting.html"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">including one for this
ambitious film</span></span></a></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, which tackles most
of the major social issues of our time, including </span><span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">police brutality, gentrification, white privilege,
cultural bias, our broken probation system, institutional racism, the gig economy,
and appropriation.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">9.
Moonlight</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The first thing many people think of when they
think of Moonlight is the whole controversy that played out when Warren Beatty
said the wrong name on Oscar night. And that’s a shame, because this gorgeously
shot and poetically realized film is the most deserving Best Picture winner of the
decade. Writer/director Barry Jenkins and co-writer Tarell Alvin McCraney
expertly adapt McCraney's play in this evocative look at three stages in the
life of a black gay man struggling with his identity. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">8.
Ex Machina</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2016/01/"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">My review says it all</span></span></a></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, but the film plays even better in the wake
of #MeToo and #TimesUp.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">7.
Moneyball</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I
get that some people take issue with the fact that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Moneyball</i> takes significant liberties with the truth, entirely
ignoring that the 2002 Oakland A's had three aces and the best left side of
the infield in baseball in favor of slamming home the underdog made good aspect
of their story. But as with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Social Network </i>and many other great films, adherence to facts isn’t as
important as emotional truth that gets at the heart of a particular issue. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Although
at times this film seems to erroneously imply Moneyball is just some mindless
adherence to OBP, the overall takeaway is about going against the grain to get
an edge. The idea of exploiting market inefficiencies wherever you can find
them, has come to define not just baseball, but sports (and many outside
businesses) entirely. And the fact that this film finds a way to dive into all
of that in a way that is both revealing and entertaining is a miracle. It’s over
simplistic at parts, but there’s no better intro to convincing an agnostic about
the value of advanced statistics than the simple explainer above this post. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I’ll
say it one more time: the fact that this movie mainstreamed sabermetrics in an
entertaining way is just bananas, but even more interesting is how the film’s
version of Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) still can’t help romanticizing the game at
times, despite his beliefs. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Ultimately
this film is tailor-made for me. It’s about behind-the-scenes baseball
maneuvering and a strong focus on the father-daughter bond at its heart. This
is a great character movie, like something from the 70’s or, more recently, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Michael Clayton</i>. Pitt has never
been better, and he was just flat out robbed of an Oscar. Jonah Hill is a great
sparring partner for him, but so is the rest of the cast, which is highlighted
by a murderer’s row of acting talent (Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Chris Pratt, Robin
Wright Penn) for Pitt to bounce off of. <span lang="EN" style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">There
are just so many scenes in this film I constantly go back to – <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtumWOsgFXc"><span style="color: #0563c1;">the “adapt or die” sequence</span></a>,
the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ-OpKJ5F58"><span style="color: #0563c1;">ending with the
daughter’s song on the car’s cd</span></a> player, etc. etc. It’s a perfect film.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: yellow; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: yellow; color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></b></span></b></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">6.
Get Out</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I'm not the biggest fan of horror, but Jordan Peele's
clever and chilling account of a black man dealing with a nightmare “guess who’s
coming to diner” scenario is everything you could want from the genre,
including pulse-pounding scares, livewire performances, searing wit, and keen
allegory (in this case, an exploration of the claustrophobia of liberal racism
and cultural appropriation in post-racial America). <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></b></span></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">5.
Edge of Tomorrow </span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 27pt 0pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">For the longest time, I loved how often Tom
Cruise would take challenging material with ace level filmmakers and willingly
play a schmuck. He’s doing less and less of that now in favor of making big
action films, and that’s regrettable, but it’s also hard to complain. In a
decade that featured a slew of great marvel films, a great Planet of the Apes
trilogy, and probably the best Bond film of all time, Cruise managed to log 4
of the 5 best action films. None of this decade’s Mission Impossible movies
made this top 10, but my love for them has been </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">documented
on this blog previously<span style="color: #202124;">. And then there is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Edge of Tomorrow</i>. </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2014/07/edge-of-tomorrow-provides-fun.html"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">More detailed thoughts can be
found in my review</span></span></a></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">,
but (excluding kids movies) I don’t think I’ve watched any film from the 2010s
as much as this movie. I just love it. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">4. Toy
Story 3</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 27pt 0pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This is pinnacle Pixar for me even if it's not
at the cutting edge as just another entry in long franchise. It somehow
improves upon the first two films, deepening the emotional power of the
franchise, while simultaneously trading in the kind of perfect caper plotting
that makes stuff like Ocean's 11 so fun. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 27pt 0pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This series (including 2019’s fourth entry) is
just great, energetic fun, and it’s also always seriously engaging with some
existential issue around weighty issues like abandonment, grief, and most
poignantly, the psychology of parenthood. Woody the cowboy is an all-time great
protagonist, and it’s amazing how they keep finding new ways to peel back
layers on the character. It’s hard to imagine three won’t be the zenith of the
series, and four ends things pretty definitively for Woody, but I’d be lying if
I said I wouldn’t sign up for a 5<sup>th</sup> entry in another 8-10 years. No
film franchise has anywhere near as high a batting average as Toy Story, and
this is very best of the series.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">3.
The Social Network</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 27pt 0pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The Social Network was well received when it
came out, and has only become more resonant with time. This is simultaneously a
thrilling procedural about the growth of Facebook, a human tragedy and, most
notably, a prescient indictment on what life in the social media age would
eventually become. Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher have never been better than
this, and, given everything that’s happened since with Facebook’s complicit
relationship to fake news, I’d love to see them and Jesse Eisenberg find a way
to crack a sequel. <span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_eFG5kXlTiU/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_eFG5kXlTiU?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 27pt 0pt 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">2. Short
Term 12</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 27pt 0pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Like The Rider’s Chloe Zhao, director Destin
Daniel Cretton is following in the footsteps of Ryan Coogler and Taika Waititi by
moving on from indie acclaim into the Marvel machine with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shang-Chi</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and the Legend of
the Ten Rings</i>. His first feature was this lovely little gem that focuses on
a few days at a group home for wayward kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 27pt 0pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Watching it now, the film plays like a who’s
who of actors that would go on to utterly blow up later in the decade. Brie
Larson (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Room</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Captain Marvel</i>) and Rami Malik (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bohemian
Rhapsody</i>) are Oscar winners, of course, but Lakeith Stanfield (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sorry to Bother You</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Get Out</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Atlanta</i>) and Kaitlyn Dever (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Booksmart</i>,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Justified</i>) continue to rise, and
Stephanie Beatriz (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brooklyn Nine-Nine</i>)
and John Gallagher Jr. (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">10 Cloverfield
Lane</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Newsroom</i>) haven’t
exactly been slouches.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 27pt 0pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Getting back to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Short Term 12</i> – despite its small scope, I constantly find myself thinking
back on it for its beating heart and powerful displays of humanity. What <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Junebug</i> was for my 2000s list, this is
for my 2010’s list. I just want to watch scenes from this film over and over,
which is easy enough to do give its wide availability of streaming services.
More on the film can be found in </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2014/07/short-term-12.html"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">my original review</span></span></a></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">1. Frances Ha<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></b></span></b><br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 27pt 0pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I rewatched <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frances Ha</i> recently just to make sure my opinion would still track
with the high esteem in my head, and I’d say I think the film is even better
than when I first saw it. Sometimes, I’ll read a review I wrote years ago and
realize I was off base on this or that element. Not so here. My thoughts in
2019 echo </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2013/12/gerwig-gets-magical-in-gen-y-critique.html"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0563c1;">what I wrote six years ago</span></span></a></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, although I’d clearly up my grade from an A
to an A+.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 27pt 0pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Bonus points for being the best film from Noah
Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, an off screen couple who managed to create much of
the best stuff from the 2010s, both separately (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ladybird</i> for her, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Marriage
Story </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Meyerowitz Stories </i>for
him) and together (this, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mistress America</i>).</span></div>
FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-91860773364939548932020-01-01T13:12:00.002-08:002020-01-01T13:12:50.497-08:00Sorry to Bother You<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQiYEdbTIcJleCTmlyRtAhfZSi1MT38ZQQo_qVZE8Y8-TfPjWV8TVG-EUB0fyRnOlAyT3wdZtSHzc3bW_oAWacVdZ2k0nUWThL27xmPVe7Gw-M3zsTwxA_HBRuHGlwUuN8NzjNyVWdHjrG/s1600/sorry_to_bother_you___still_1_37952712494_o.0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQiYEdbTIcJleCTmlyRtAhfZSi1MT38ZQQo_qVZE8Y8-TfPjWV8TVG-EUB0fyRnOlAyT3wdZtSHzc3bW_oAWacVdZ2k0nUWThL27xmPVe7Gw-M3zsTwxA_HBRuHGlwUuN8NzjNyVWdHjrG/s400/sorry_to_bother_you___still_1_37952712494_o.0.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<i>I'm Sorry to Bother You</i> starts as a hip indie, something like if you crossed <i>Dope</i> with <i>Thank You for Smoking</i>, but then becomes something else entirely in the third act.<br />
<br />
Initially we follow Cassius Green or Cash (the invaluable Lakeith Stanfield) rising up the ranks at a telemarketing firm called RegalView by using his white voice (David Cross) to sell junk to people.<br />
<br />
This all occurs in a weird alternate version of Oakland where the most popular TV show focuses on kicking the shit out of people, while an increasing number of people sign on to work for a company called WorryFree, signing over lifetime rights as a worker for free food, lodging and a life free or bills.<br />
<br />
The reason people are willing to do this is due mostly to rigged system that makes it a perferable life choice. In acknolwedgement of this, Cash's fellow telemarketers (organized by Walking Dead's Steven Yeun, who is really putting together an interesting career in his post Glen career) mount a workers strike, but Cash gets promoted and winds up crossing the picket lines a scab.<br />
<br />
In his new role, Cash basically sells slave labor, contracting out the WorryFree work force to other companies. He initially balks at the idea but then submits to when he sees dollar signs, something that eventually fractures his relationship with his girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson), who is secretly involved in a radical group of protesters known as "The Left Eye."<br />
<br />
The film takes a turn for the weirder with the arrival of a corporate baddie played by Armie Hammer (showing increasing shades as an actor). It's a big swing from writer/director Boots Riley that you have to see to believe. To say more would be ruin the experience, but this is a vital takedown of of the status quo that investigates class warfare, white gaze, racial hierarchy, and media failings in fresh and challenging ways.FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-71467375947974201322019-12-29T08:30:00.002-08:002019-12-29T08:31:05.480-08:00The Ballad of Buster Scruggs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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Although all of their films are identifiably Coen-esque, the Coen brothers have a large number of lanes they can work in -- they run the gamut from wacky, to serious, to comtemplative, to you get the idea. With it's omnibus approach, the Ballad of Buster Scruggs services all of their various proclivites.<br />
<br />
In each of the six vignettes in this anthology, the brothers take time-honored archetypes and twist them around to drive home a cental thesis -- the universe is relentlessly cruel and we are hapless participants in a rigged game. It's simultaneously a homage and a critque of Westerns.<br />
<br />
Some of the stories aren't as good as the others, but they are all distinct, masterfully realized and have an O. Henry vibe to them. My favorite is the first, which stars a never better Tim Blake Nelson as Buster Scruggs, an inverted Roy Rogers type that's secretly a nihilistic Bugs Bunny. He deserved a Supporting Oscar nomination, and maybe even a win. He's a force of nature. Of course, he got no recognition.<br />
<br />
It's also just a flat out beautiful film, marking the first (and probably only) experience the duo have on digital. It's grown in my estimation since I watched it, and it's nature as an anthology means it'll be super easy to revist. Any one of these stories could be a major contender for best short Oscar, but, at its current length, the film was shut out. Nevertheless, this is uppertier Coens, and that's saying something.FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-5309759202628552022019-12-29T08:20:00.000-08:002019-12-29T08:20:34.881-08:00Paddington 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is a sneaky good franchise. The first Paddington was an utter delight filled with great visual pinache reminscenct of Wes Anderson, a sense of madcap fun reminsicent of silent era stars, and, best of all, a large dose of heart. The casting was great and Paddington himself is an eminently winning creation, brought to life beautifully with crack VFX work.<br />
<br />
The sequel matches the first in almost all categories -- it equals the impressively designed doll house introduction to the Brown family with the magical use of a pop-up book to highlight the attactions of London, while surpassing it in others (Nicole Kidman was fun in the first, but didn't have as much to play with as Hugh Grant does here).<br />
<br />
Writer/director Paul King is doing something really great with this franchise. The Bafta's showed this movie some love last year, but there was no Oscar nominations, despite worthy work on set design, score, VFX and costuming. No matter. It's one of the best films of 2018.FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-28234678609434847992019-12-28T08:26:00.000-08:002019-12-28T08:26:53.287-08:00Avengers: Infinity War<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've been colder on Avengers movies than most. I've found them enjoyable, but rate them as mid-tier entries in the MCU. That changed with this film, which is the movie <i>Avengers</i> was always supposed to be. The mix-and-match character pairings all work like gangbusters, and the emotional stuff -- especially Iron Man/Spiderman and Thanos/Gamorra, really lands. It's incredibly impressive they pulled all of this together so well and in such a casually subversive way.<br />
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I am especially delighted the filmmakers and Josh Brolin made Thanos such a vivid and well-realized protagonist -- a crazy thing to write since he's the big villain. He's not as affective in the sequel, but here he's a near perfect movie villain, which marks a refreshing change of pace. Obviously, the characters who disappeared were always going to come back, but this one left me legit excited to see the payoffs in the follow-up anyway.FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-27857332279952005572019-12-28T08:16:00.000-08:002019-12-28T08:16:56.279-08:00Mission Impossible: Fallout<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I know it's the sixth film in an action franchise staring a grade-A jerk, but these movies are awesome generally, and this one is specifically top tier.<br />
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Mission Impossible: Fallout is the first film in the series to repeat with a director and it also serves as a direct sequel (the love interest and villian from <a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2015/08/cruise-leads-all-star-team-in-mission.html?m=1">Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation</a> return) as well. I was initially hesitant to much of thar, but the film is all the better for it given how great Tom Cruise's chemistry is with Rebecca Ferguson's Illsa Faust and uow insync Cruise is with Christopher McQuarrie.<br />
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I love how this one distinguishes itself by leaning into the neurosis of Ethan Hunt -- so much of what has become fun about watching Cruise in these is in his daring, physicality and reaction shots, but here they really build out the character as an anxiety timebomb, and I love that.<br />
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The helicopter chase scene is bananas, the Paris car chase scene is even better, and the bathroom fight scene is worthy of all the memes, but my favorite moment is how Cruise plays the realization that his ex (Michelle Monaghan) is in the same location as an armed nuclear bomb (the start of which is shown below). The way he says Julia crushes me every time. Cruise pulled a similar trick in showing vulerability in a key moment of <a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2014/07/edge-of-tomorrow-provides-fun.html?m=1">Edge of Tomorrow</a>, and these scenes encapsulate so well why Cruise is the best action movie star out there. Not only can he do his own stunts, but he can absolutely bring the acting chops.<br />
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My one critique is that the opening scene (and thus much of the plot) necessitates a level of stupidity on the part of these very smart operatives, but it's not enough to dim the wattage here. This is a great entry in a phenominal franchise.FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-21440841048435049772019-12-28T07:43:00.002-08:002019-12-28T07:44:02.495-08:00You Were Never Really Here<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's crazy how this Hollywood system consistently limits the access of female filmmakers, resulting in great female directors having massive gaps in their filmographies.<br />
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<i>Private Life</i> writer/director Tamara Jenkins has three films to her credit, and went 9 and then 11 years between them. Lynne Ramsay is another great example of this. She's had multiple movies taken away from her due to creative differences, and as a result she's only made 4 feature length films since her first 20 years ago.<br />
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<i>You Were Never Really Here</i> is typical of her work -- uncompromising, sparse dialouge, vivid imagery. It's an extremely lean (85 minutes) and lyrical film about Joe (Joaquin Pheonix), a hired gun who rescues traffiked girls via brutal methods. He is haunted by a traumatic past that clearly includes sexual abuse from his father, and more opaquely includes emotionally exhausting work in the FBI and the military (we literally only see short snapshot flashbacks with little to no explanation).<br />
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Joe spends most of his free time doting on his elderly mother, but when he gets involved with a conspiracy that goes all the way up to the Governor, his life is turned upsidedown. Plot is beside the point here, in a film that got none of the accolades of Joker, another Pheonix vehicle that mines similar territory.<br />
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Pheonix is front and center and he uses every ounce of his skill to fully inhabit Joe far beyond the limits of the minimal script. Ramsay shows off a bit with some choices, but my favorite aspect is her atypical approach. In one scene, Joe infiltrates a baddie compound, and we see static shot after static shot of the place, but each shot includes the aftermath of his actions (you can tell by the bodies on the ground).<br />
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In another, Joe lies on the ground next to a mortally wounded would be assassin and then the two begin to sing a song together. When the baddie reaches out to hold Joe's hand whole he dies, Joe allows him the kindness. The vulnerability of the scene (shown below) is overpowering. So to is this hypnotic gem of a film.<br />
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<br />FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-63001537705080652002019-12-28T07:29:00.000-08:002019-12-28T07:30:07.528-08:00Private Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti star as a couple trying to have a kid by any means (adoption, artificial insemination, etc) necessary. They decide to pursue an egg donor, and ultimately ask their step niece Sadie (Kayli Carter) to thr chagrin of her parents (the always welcome Molly Shannon and John Caroll Lynch).<br />
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The film feels raw and real, and Giamatti and Hahn have a great lived in tenderness with eachother. Hahn is the star here, but my favorite scene in the movie involves Giamatti discussing how he's almost relieved when the egg donation fails and they seemingly are out of options. He's just exhausted, and ready for the ride to end.<br />
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Still, the movie ends on a hopeful note; the couple gets a call about a potential adoption (we see flashbacks on a failed experience in this regard) and flies out to meet the mom for a meal. The credits roll and we never get the answer about what happens. But they're together, holding hands, and looking to the future. That's something.<br />
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Neither actor got awards traction, but they should have. Same goes writer/director Tamara Jenkins (<i>The Savages</i>), a true gift to film fans who does not work nearly enough.FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-85136577894375316092019-12-28T07:12:00.000-08:002019-12-28T07:17:16.789-08:00Blindspotting<div>
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Every once in a while, I'll watch a movie that just flat out floors me. <i>Blindspotting</i> is that type of movie. </div>
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This is basically an Oakland-set bromance between lifelong friends, Collin (Daveed Diggs) and Miles (Rafael Casal). Collin and Miles are black and white respectively, something that doesn't effect their relationship with eachother, except that it totally does. Collin struggles with the way people automatically decide to view a big black guy in Oakland, especially now that he has a rap sheet. He's serving out the final days of a year-long probation for assault, but that's really just one moment from his life, and he feels the pressure of being judged for it. </div>
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Meanwhile, the white Miles feels a constant need to prove he is not some street poser, because of the way he looks (like an outsider, not the old Oakland guard). This is ""blindspotting,"" a kind of bias that the film literally defines for us. When something can be interpreted in two ways, but you can only see one of the interpretations, because you have a blindspot.</div>
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Miles is a good guy, and a good friend, but he's a loose cannon, something that isn't great for him personally, but certainly isn't great for Collin, since, as a black man, he isn't likely to be given an inch by police, or by society. Somehow, this film insightfully critiques police brutality, gentrification, white priviledge, cultural bias, our broken probation system, institutional racism, the gig ecnonomy, and appropriation, while also being highly entertaining. </div>
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The film is sharply funny while always keeping a sense of impending dread. It's unique in it's approach, because the two leads constantly fall into spitting free-style rap verse, something that is introduced as something fun they do when passing the time or working for a moving company, but ultimately works as a soliloquoy of sorts. This tactic is used beautifully in the climax, in which Collin inexplicably ends up, gun in hand, in the house of a cop he saw shoot an unarmed black man. It is incredibly emotional and potent and perfect (see video below).</div>
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Diggs came to prominence for his award-winning work in Hamilton, and he brings all his rapping skills to this role, not to mention a plethora of heart and pathos. He's electric. But really everything about this movie is just a slam dunk, from the song choices to the editing, it's all just right. In most movies, one would expect Miles it be a constant irritant, but the script (cowritten by Diggs and Casal, long-time friends who also produce) makes him entirely three dimensional. I'm not doing the movie justice by writing about it. It needs to be seen.</div>
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FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-32406652429902720272017-01-05T02:20:00.000-08:002017-01-05T02:23:27.966-08:00Thoughts on a Slight Year in Movie Watching Allows "The Lobster" and "Moana" To Somehow Be Reviewed Together<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<em>The Lobster</em> will frustrate some and titillate others. </div>
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In years past, I'd usually be putting together a top 10 list for last year around this time. That was something that seemed worthwhile back when I saw north of 125-150 titles a year, but now, it doesn't make much sense. I’ve only seen about 30 movies released in 2016 – what kind of credibility could a top 10 list possibly have?
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That being said, I'm simply conditioned to do a year in review in my head around this time. And what's amazing is how consistent the make up at the top seems to be in terms of the types of films I rated highly. As with every year, I found myself intrigued by a few idiosyncratic independents that certainly won't be for everybody, but I also gravitated toward a few down-the-middle entertainments that just hit their notes so well that I fell really hard for them. In the past, movies like <em>Spring Breakers </em>(<a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2013/08/fearless-franco-delivers-in-subversive.html">reviewed here</a>), <em>Ex Machina</em> (<a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2016/01/artifical-intelligence-thriller-ex.html">reviewed here</a>) and <em>The One I Love </em>have represented the former, while undervalued mainstream stuff like <em>Gone Girl </em>(<a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2014/12/david-fincher-masters-multiple-tones-in.html">reviewed here</a>), <em>Dawn of the Planet of the Apes</em> (<a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2015/01/dawn-of-planet-of-apes-improves-upon.html">reviewed here</a>) and <em>Bridge of Spies</em> have represented the latter. This year, it’s the absurdist, dystopian black comedy <em>The Lobster</em> and Disney’s animated musical <em>Moana</em> representing the two extremes toward the top of the heap.
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Written and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, <strong><em>The Lobster</em> </strong>depicts a society in which newly single adults are rounded up and sequestered in a hotel where they have 45 days to find a new romantic partner. Those who succeed are permitted to move back to society and embrace coupledom; those that fail are turned into an animal of their choosing and released into the world.
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The film focuses on David (Colin Farrell, against type and fantastic), a schlub who arrives at the hotel with his brother (a dog) after his wife leaves him. If you think the premise sounds weird, I can tell you the execution is even stranger. The hotel has all kinds of odd rules, including a prohibition of masturbation despite a requirement for unfulfilled sexual stimulation by the service staff. There's also the fact that to be paired off with a mate, you must share a defining characteristic (an unsubtle critique of reductive online dating sites). David had previously connected with his wife over their nearsightedness. Meanwhile, an acquaintance with a limp laments how he can't couple up with a limping women because her limp will heal. In desperation, he periodically bashes his face so he can mimic her chronic nose bleeds. The couple struggles to make things work, and so naturally they are assigned a child to smooth over their relationship issues.
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Hotel guests are given an opportunity to extend their stay by hunting rogue singles out in the wilderness. David eventually escapes the hotel and falls in with this group of loners, and he even forms a connection with a nearsighted woman (Rachel Weisz). However, the loners have rules of their own, and romantic connections are forbidden.
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I don't want to give much more away here, but I will say that each time you think you know where the film is going, it pivots and does something else. I'm not entirely sure the film holds together the whole way through, as it's busy making so many different observations that it begins to meander and lose focus. However, the dry deadpan remains incredibly enjoyable throughout, and the whole thing is beautifully shot with ace acting from the principles, not to mention a great supporting cast that includes John C. Reilly, Léa Seydoux and Ben Whishaw. Besides, I'm convinced the lack of focus is part of the point. <em>The Lobster</em> serves as a thought-provoking satire of the superficial construct of courting, the societal pressure for coupledom and the insanity of love-induced sublimation, but it leaves plenty of room to poke at the potentially stifling nature of singledom as well. It's a Rorschach test about romantic relationships that's guaranteed to provoke a response, just not any sort of consistent one. </div>
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Look at how good the hair looks in <em>Moana</em>. And this is just a screen grab.</div>
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Along with this year’s <em>Zootopia</em>, <em><strong>Moana</strong></em> is the latest evidence that Disney Animation Studios has emerged from their early 2000s doldrums to stand alongside sister studio Pixar at the top of the animation heap. Both films will likely land Oscar nominations for Best Animated Feature, and <em>Zootopia’s</em> got the better chance to win because of its message about xenophobia and tolerance in this time of tremendous political uncertainty. It’s a great film, but for my money, the more traditionally structured <em>Moana</em> is even better.
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In many ways, <em>Moana</em> is Disney returning to their formulaic bread and butter. It’s a musical about a princess directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, the duo who brought the world <em>Aladdin</em>, <em>The Little Mermaid</em>, and The <em>Princess and the Frog</em>. It even features a catchy “I want song,” which is that song in which an unsatisfied Disney protagonist sings about what they want (think “Part of Your World,” “Someday My Prince Will Come,” or “When Will My Life Begin”). Well, actually Moana (Auli'i Cravalho) is quick to point out she’s not really a princess, but she does have “How Far I’ll Go,” which is as catchy and affirmative as an “I want song” gets. Plus, as the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) points out, “If you wear a dress and have an animal sidekick, you’re a princess.” </div>
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As <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2016/11/23/moana-has-something-insightful-to-say-about-the-whole-disney-princess-thing/?utm_term=.d47ea1901711">Kristen Page-Kirby with the Washington Post points out</a>, that statement is rooted in a legit critique of Disney’s Princess Industrial Complex, which has long used the term princess to describe all of its central females, even the non-princesses, who, to be fair, usually transcend to princessdom by the end credits via hooking up with a royal dude. Unfortunately, this has long been displayed as the crowning achievement a Disney heroine can achieve.<br />
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Disney has been subtly introducing more feminist friendly messages into its princess stories. Take <em>Frozen</em> for instance. I initially objected to bits of the film (<a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2014/07/processing-croods-frankweenie-and.html">reviewed here</a>), but having seen it a jillion times now (thanks, Cassie), I realize how deft it was in dealing with all of this stuff. Anna’s part of the story is largely focused on critiquing the ludicrously flimsy romances that typically define these tales, and Elsa (not a princess, but a queen) has way more pressing things to deal with than whether or not she can find a man.
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<em>Moana</em> takes things a step further, giving us not only a rare non-white heroine (she’s Pacific Islander), but also the first Disney princess story with absolutely no romantic interest (yes, I know, Merida from <em>Brave</em>, but that’s Pixar not Disney). Instead, Moana’s whole arc is more of a traditional hero’s journey (save the day by restoring some gem to its proper place), something that seems pretty old hat, until you consider how progressive it is to put a female in this type of story. Moana isn’t finding a man, getting saved by one, or serving his needs; she’s finding herself, fighting her own battles and serving her people. In that respect she’s following in the footsteps of Mulan (another non-white heroine, which is interesting) and, well, no one else (and even Mulan had a love interest, albeit not a prince).
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Like many of their recent films, Disney goes for the easy "aww" </div>
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with an early kid-centered prologue.</div>
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Like <em>Tangled</em>, this is basically a two-hander about a girl and the rapscallion who’s begrudgingly helping her, but Maui is more like a selfish version of <em>Aladdin’s</em> Genie than a love interest. It’s probably more accurate to call him a Jack Sparrow-type. He’s a fun and even complex character, and the film gets a lot of mileage out of a running tattoo gag that reminded me of a similar stylistic Greek chorus from Musker and Clements’ <em>Hercules</em>. Plus, Johnson really livens up the film when he’s around and even delivers with Maui’s big musical number “You Welcome” (which, more than any other song in this thing, even the one Lin-Manuel Miranda actually sings, makes crystal clear that the Hamilton mastermind concocted much of the soundtrack).
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The film isn’t perfect. At times, it feels like it takes too long to get where it’s going, but that time is well spent and results in making the leads feel more dimensional than typical Disney creations. Compare it to the tonally similar yet tighter <em>Brave</em> (<a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2013/02/brave-is-lower-tier-pixar-but-whats-so.html">reviewed here</a>), and it becomes evident how much that time adds narratively. Even if it is a bit overlong, the music is fantastic and the animation is outright dazzling. John Musker and Ron Clements are old hands at all of this, but this is their first go around with CGI, and it’s damn impressive how well they carried this thing off. Look at the way water or hair move in this thing. It’s transfixing.
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Plotwise, <em>Moana</em> is as formulaic as <em>The Lobster</em> is unconventional, but both films left strong impression on me. Once I get around to seeing more films from last year, both may not remain in my top 10, but they’ll remain close, because they represent truly worthwhile cinema from 2016.
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<em>
The Lobster</em> <strong>A-</strong>, <em>Moana </em><strong>A-</strong>
FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-20550094816994058722016-12-31T08:17:00.001-08:002016-12-31T08:17:13.933-08:00"Trolls" Offers a Zany and Colorful Sugar Fix<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ7srifNF4CCOmQ_hZU19bR3YajbJE28EA2AW-v07GS7Ly2oDTycNcTsna73mCwS4UT7db_ZFjSD8DM1hCLdv97Lc9M0v8JhtGmU6UIt6CoiXhaw3rkXXB7fzXuknDzePdqEaJ5sZsoZ3g/s1600/trolls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ7srifNF4CCOmQ_hZU19bR3YajbJE28EA2AW-v07GS7Ly2oDTycNcTsna73mCwS4UT7db_ZFjSD8DM1hCLdv97Lc9M0v8JhtGmU6UIt6CoiXhaw3rkXXB7fzXuknDzePdqEaJ5sZsoZ3g/s400/trolls.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake bring energy to <i>Trolls</i>.</td></tr>
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<i>Trolls</i> was my daughter Cassie's first movie-going experience, so I'll cop to being completely swayed by her reaction. We cuddled the whole time, and she loved it. Thus, I loved it.<br />
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But the reality is that this isn't a very good movie. <i>Trolls</i> is entirely targeted at children, and so it doesn't have the strongest sense of plotting, character development or humor. Sure, it's cute, colorful and catchy, but it's mostly a formulaic, derivative mishmash of energized cover songs and zany visualizations in which characters fart glitter and poop cupcakes.<br />
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Beyond that though, there is, I think, a troublesome message in here about force-fed happiness and conformity, one that is directly opposed to the more nuanced takes in superior works like <i>Inside Out</i> and <i>The Lego Movie</i> (<a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-lego-movie-is-awesome.html">reviewed here</a>). I'm not trying to be unfair. I like that the film ably gets the point across that it's important to look inward for happiness, and I challenge anyone who watches this thing not to be a little moved by the True Colors musical number. But I can't deny there's a disconnect here.<br />
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This is the high fructose corn syrup of the movie world. As with the real thing, it's a good idea not to overindulge on this type of treat, but it still offers a wallop of gratification for those looking for a sugar fix.<b>C+</b>FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-41101171114906162962016-09-16T12:02:00.003-07:002016-09-16T12:02:58.361-07:00Live-Action "The Jungle Book" Provides Fresh Take On Old Tale<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRWRqlXOXMp8BZnNBFnCp8nNrkdXbSmWvVp7Y_40iVpZSI_n-w-GPkaH0j1DU5YtMlCfMJ1lNGPkl7vlogSRqzpux3LAW5AyC6vZQFhaNz69nleGTU18TNtt__XO8cBAT-54SaTB1KnNy7/s1600/Airbnb_Treehouses16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRWRqlXOXMp8BZnNBFnCp8nNrkdXbSmWvVp7Y_40iVpZSI_n-w-GPkaH0j1DU5YtMlCfMJ1lNGPkl7vlogSRqzpux3LAW5AyC6vZQFhaNz69nleGTU18TNtt__XO8cBAT-54SaTB1KnNy7/s400/Airbnb_Treehouses16.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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Jon Favreau's take on <em>The Jungle Book</em> is pretty damn good.</div>
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In recent years, Disney has fully committed to remaking their animated films in live action. <em>Alice in Wonderland</em>, <em>Cinderella</em>, <em>Maleficent</em>,<em> Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass</em>, <em>The Jungle Book</em> and the recently released <em>Pete's Dragon</em> have already come out, and a slew of others, including the hotly-anticipated Emma Watson-led <em>Beauty and the Beast</em>, are in the pipeline. </div>
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The strategy makes sense. The six films Disney has already released have garnered upwards of $2.5 billion worldwide. Why attempt to create something new when that kind of lucrative layup is right there for the taking?
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I'm generally ambivalent about the concept of remakes, although I'll cop to preferring an artistically legit, non-monetary reason for making one. I prefer remakes that improve upon flawed films in some way (<em>Ocean's 11</em>), bring great stories to a larger audience (e.g. <em>Insomnia</em>, <em>The Departed</em>), or add some new wrinkle or point of view. For all its flaws, <em>Maleficent</em> accomplished that last point, while films like <em>Cinderella</em> and <em>Alice and Wonderland</em> felt like pure cash grabs through and through.
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Jon Favreau's<em> The Jungle Book</em> proves itself worthy. The fact that effects have advanced to the point that this world can be believably rendered in "live action" could justify a remake on its own, but the film seals the deal by taking a decidedly modern approach to a story that has long been stuck in antiquated and offensive concepts of racial superiority.
As originally conceived by Rudyard Kipling and then reiterated in the 1967 animated version, this story has historically advocated that we all need to be put in our proper place. It's imperialistic propaganda, a creed against social upheaval that simultaneously implies primitive cultures need to adopt Western advancements.
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Throughout the film, Mowgli (Neel Sethi) is chastised for utilizing ingenuity to accomplish tasks because "it's not the wolf way" to use such tricks. Seeing the inherent benefits of what Mowgli does, Baloo (Bill Murray) reacts by saying "who cares?" And that's definitely the viewpoint this version hammers home. It follows the "you do you" ideology, suggesting that differences are to be celebrated and that nobody has to fit into predetermined boxes.
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg_42Jfb7Fts16ObyjezzJitu8PIvUyBGRanqOJAg9fdEVAyjI1rjhSnosxVzndXHNm-hybfYPtb3TJ95CmIZzK26wbR2MmafYpGWyTBTwWpIYtCH1P3hcBEf4xccUctwTPH1zH9OG8xXp/s1600/louie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg_42Jfb7Fts16ObyjezzJitu8PIvUyBGRanqOJAg9fdEVAyjI1rjhSnosxVzndXHNm-hybfYPtb3TJ95CmIZzK26wbR2MmafYpGWyTBTwWpIYtCH1P3hcBEf4xccUctwTPH1zH9OG8xXp/s400/louie.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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It's crazy scary how much of Christopher Walken's actual face the mo-cap </div>
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people transferred to King Louie.</div>
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From a plot perspective, the most interesting thing this version does occurs at the end. In the original text, Mowgli uses fire to best Shere Khan, achieving supremacy over the animal kingdom by embracing civilization. This results in him being forced to leave the jungle and be with man where he never really fits in anyway. As a result, he becomes a being with no nation.
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That's far more tragic than the animated film many of us are most familiar with. In that version, the fire doesn't distance Mowgli from his friends, but he does make the decision to embrace humanity and civilization anyway, because it's what is best for him. In other words, he steps into the predetermined box he belongs in.
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Here, Mowgli definitely learns to appreciate his position as man, but, ever the noble savage, he avoids distancing himself from the animals by rejecting fire and avoiding the corruption that comes with civilization. As what is essentially a mouthpiece for Kipling's original vision, Shere Khan (Idris Elba) has spent the entire movie warning against that corruption, and, yet, when Mowgli throws man's red flower away and proves him wrong, he says it's the stupidest thing the mancub could've done. Neither Khan nor Kipling understand the outside the box thinking.
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There is so much going on here thematically, that it's hard to believe this is a kids movie. For instance, some could argue that Shere Khan functions as a stand-in for current isolationist politicians that prey on fears related to immigration and race. Others might see allusions to gun control or technology run amok in Mowgli's decision to reject fire and the power and adjoining distance that come with it.
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That being said, this isn't some heady experience. Like the animated film, this new version is a ton of fun, and it even offers it's own renditions of "Bear Necessities" and "I Wanna Be Like You." The vocal performances of both Murray (soulful conman) and Elba (seriously terrifying) are the undeniable highlights of the voice cast, but Ben Kingsley, Christopher Walken and Scarlett Johansson do strong work as Bagheera, King Louie, and Kaa. I particularly appreciate how Walken's interpretation of King Louie as a sort of mob heavy sidesteps the distracting racial controversy surrounding the animated version of the character.
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The effects in this thing are ridiculously good most of the time, and this is probably the best use of this technology since <em>Life of Pi</em> (<a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2013/02/life-of-pi-proves-thought-provoking-and.html">reviewed here</a>) or <em>Avatar</em>. However, there are moments where the cracks show, which are extra noticeable since the other moments around those moments have been so good. Fortunately, Sethi, the one real thing on screen, is up to the task of carrying the movie. His authenticity goes a long way toward selling this whole endeavor as a family experience fully worthy of your time. <strong>A</strong>-</div>
FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-58263029080053192622016-09-16T07:31:00.004-07:002016-09-16T07:45:26.919-07:00Fun In Parts, "Suicide Squad" Is Still Spoiled By the Same Old Wanky D/C Plotting and Characterization<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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Will Smith and Margot Robbie display good chemistry<span style="text-align: center;"> in </span><span style="text-align: center;">their</span><span style="text-align: center;"> second </span><br />
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Like several of its main characters, <em>Suicide Squad</em> suffers from some sort of personality disorder. At times, it feels fresh, vibrant, and kinetic, operating with the same type of tongue-in-cheek mania that defined <em>Deadpool</em>. But unlike that incredibly successful Marvel adaptation, this D/C Comics joint fouls up many of the basics of superhero 101. The main bad guy sucks of course (that’s usually the way it goes), and the climax involves the same tired race to stop some doohickey from destroying the world (ditto). But worse than the that, the fights aren’t very dynamic, the logic of the whole thing is a mess, and, the characterization is problematic at best. As a result, the film plays a lot like <em>The Losers</em>, another mediocre team-up film from D/C that basically nobody remembers.
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However, while <em>The Losers</em> was a totally innocuous property, <em>Suicide Squad</em> features small roles for Batman and Joker, two of the most popular comic book characters on the planet, and thus it can be sold as a major event to fans. As such, it simultaneously reaps the benefit of a built-in audience and gets crushed under the weight of expectations.<br />
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When I say small roles, I'm not kidding. Batman (Ben Affleck) and Flash (Ezra Miller) are inserted into short sequences solely to provide set-up for our antiheros. Joker (Jared Leto) has more to do, but not much -- he's really nothing more than tangential chaos on the margins of the main story. He's an interesting tertiary baddie, but he basically rates less on the importance scale than Yondu did in <em>Guardians of the Galaxy</em>.<br />
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Instead, the primary focus of the film is on the titular suicide squad, or rather it's supposed to be. The idea here is that ruthless government official Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) has implanted explosive devices into a gallery of gifted villains, with the aims of forcing them to do the nation's dirty work. It's a familiar concept, but also a good one. Unfortunately, only half the team gets any semblance of development, while the rest serve as little more than set-dressing. <br />
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This is comically evident during a finale in which the villain attempts to neutralize our heroes by promising to fulfill their deepest desires. Conflicted mercenary and expert marksman Deadshot (Will Smith), Joker's crazy mol Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), fire-wielding El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) and Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), the soldier in charge of all these wackos, all have visions of their desires, but the film doesn't even bother investing the time in the other members of the team, including Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), and martial arts expert Katana (Karen Fukuhara), a character so extraneous that she doesn't even get an introduction in the opening montage.
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Not that it would've meant much. In his introduction, Captain Boomerang is shown to be a shit-bag who turns on his accomplices at the first opportunity, and yet, with no development whatsoever, the script has him go all Han Solo/Jack Sparrow in the end. A similar moment occurs with El Diablo, who is far better realized but still doesn't earn his departing line about the team being his new family. Excepting the bonds Deadshot independently forms with Harley and Flag, none of this camaraderie is earned in even a kinda-sorta way. Consider how much less credible these people feel as a team than the characters of <em>Guardians </em>or <em>The Avengers</em> do.
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This all sounds super negative, but the film is a mostly enjoyable watch. It's stylish, has a lively soundtrack and some game performances. Smith and Kinnaman are fine anchors, and although he isn't given the room to deliver an iconic take like his forbearers, Leto is interesting as a thug Joker. Robbie and Davis are the standouts, suggesting distinct shades of villainy and vulnerability, which is a pretty cool thing to say when talking about such a dude-heavy movie and genre. As poorly as the film serves the rest of its cast, it serves these characters pretty well, which is a valuable thing since they are the five most important ones. Still, I wish the second tier characters had been afforded the same level of thought that Marvel affords the likes of Scarlett Witch, Vision or Falcon.
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But, of course they weren't, because this isn't Marvel, it's D/C. Like <em>Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice</em>, this feels like a cool concept sunk by poor characterization and screwy plotting. Of chief concern with that last point -- why the hell is Waller even bothering to utilize such potential security threats when she has access to information that could lead her to more heroic accomplices like Batman, Flash and Aquaman (Jason Mamoa)? I'm going to assume it has something to do with a sadistic impulse to control powerful beings, but, once again, that means the D/C Universe is lazily asking me to just assume character beats it's not actually developing (as they did with Lex in <em>Dawn of Justice</em>). Not exactly the kind of thing I'm thinking about when I hope for consistency in such a cinematic universe. <strong>C+</strong>
FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-68624842279450907912016-07-18T16:38:00.004-07:002016-07-18T19:40:00.753-07:00Far From Ruinous, "Ghostbusters" Is a Celebration of a Childhood of Busting Ghosts<br />
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Proof of my childhood obsession. I wore this </div>
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constantly, usually along with my proton pack.</div>
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People have been lobbing unjust grenades at the latest Ghostbusters movie since it was first announced, based partly on the fact that Sony was rebooting the property at all, but also simply because it was going to star women instead of men. The narrative: this film was ruining childhoods and PC culture had gone too far. It's a pretty hilarious fear when you consider this tweet from David Ehrlich, senior film critic at Indie Wire.
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<em>Ghostbusters (2016)</em> is finally out in theaters now, which means there's actually a product to judge, as opposed to blind speculation. The film is getting mostly good reviews, but it's hard to say if that's a knee jerk reaction from reviewers keen to knock nostalgia-huggers and misogynists down a peg, or a legitimate reaction to the film itself, which in the here and now isn't so much a movie as it is the locus of a warped culture war. <br />
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Based on the finished product, writer/director Paul Feig certainly has a sense of humor about all of it. Early in the film, after they post a video of an encounter with a ghost on the Internet, the leads read some of the comments, including "Ain't no bitches gonna hunt no ghosts." They brush aside the criticism, saying something about the pointlessness of putting stock in what Internet trolls type in the middle of the night (zing!).
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But the film also addresses what it's like to be a woman in a man's world in the way it consistently puts the leads up against obstructionist men who seek to delegitimize them. Every female in the film provides them with help in some way, whereas every male functions as hindrance or a road block. Reflecting on it now, it's hard not to consider the way our culture treats women and the victim-blaming that follows sexual assault.
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That's all in the subtext, but I don't want to overstep. Questioned credibility and presumed incompetence is an inherent part of a Ghostbusters outing, or really most paranormal-tinged movies in general. Believe me when I say this is a popcorn film first and foremost, and one of my favorite things about it is that the sex of the leads is largely irrelevant. By doing nothing more than modifying a few jokes, this film could easily star the likes of Jason Sudeikis, Will Forte, Bill Hader, and Craig Robinson instead of Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones. The fact that it doesn't isn't an indication of out of control political correctness, it's just the way it is.
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It really is amazing how nostalgia manifests itself. Sometimes, there's out-sized excitement when studios bring back beloved properties (e.g. <em>Fuller House</em>, <em>Jurassic World</em>), and other times there's this type of overblown negativity. I remember getting into a conversation with an angry fan just after the release of the first CGI <em>Alvin and the Chipmunks</em>. She was incensed that a movie studio was stomping on the sanctity of her childhood memories, taking something she had loved and denigrating it for monetary gain. I remember arguing that a cartoon about singing chipmunks wasn't exactly a beacon of artistic integrity, that it was always a mediocre property designed with a bottom line to make money and sell merchandise. It's basically processed junk food, but it has been all along - the quality is really no different, the perspective is.
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmBAKF1FDYtr5pprPAaNdEYtdFPn-6HvbYrpXTvo0ml1IFHnHOzyBZJQ2z9CnfdHailznqflt6ktUkboQXjtBTymwQKZGT_XTE-snjuLRzBCxy8kIkEjIz-d0EbxP0JWBVV7jTGGGc6loh/s1600/gif-ghostbusters-mckinnon-holtzman.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmBAKF1FDYtr5pprPAaNdEYtdFPn-6HvbYrpXTvo0ml1IFHnHOzyBZJQ2z9CnfdHailznqflt6ktUkboQXjtBTymwQKZGT_XTE-snjuLRzBCxy8kIkEjIz-d0EbxP0JWBVV7jTGGGc6loh/s400/gif-ghostbusters-mckinnon-holtzman.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="left">
Kate McKinnon is amazing.</div>
</td></tr>
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<em>Ghostbusters</em> is a bit different in that regard, because it has a deserved reputation as an outright classic. As such, someone could certainly make a legitimate argument that doing a follow up besmirches the original solely for the sake of commerce. At least they could have 30 years ago. The reality is that the franchise itself has already been diluted with oodles of lesser entries -- multiple cartoons, video games and a true sequel -- none of which can hold a candle to the original.
<br />
<br />
Unsurprisingly, this film<em> </em>doesn't either, but it's not a bad successor by any means. That's mostly because it's very funny, but there's also the refreshing fact that it's preoccupied with being its own thing. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of callbacks and cameos, but when it comes to tone, this one is very different. A laconic edge hangs over the original film, which is tons of fun no doubt, but also carries the same melancholy that defined every Bill Murray/Harold Ramis collaboration.
<br />
<br />
It's often said that Ramis grounded Dan Aykroyd's fantastical treatment for the first film, and while this one doesn't get as crazy as his original vision, it definitely leans more toward the Aykroyd vibe, which is unsurprising given his status as executive producer. It's still got an air of anarchic mischief (mostly due to the bemused live-wire that is McKinnon who's Holtzman feels like the greatest possible amalgamation of Peter, Egon and Ray), but it's more joyful than cynical, excitably spastic and consumed with an over abundance of technobabble and gadgetry. <br />
<br />
While the central players in the original had a blue collar, been-there-done-that vibe, these new characters are fresh-faced and beyond giddy. In terms of plotting, that makes sense (the original takes place over a far longer period of time), but it's more than that. Honestly, I lost count of how many times a character says something like "that was awesome" or "this is so cool," but we're talking multiple dozens. <br />
<br />
And it is cool. Whereas the original film played things pretty simple (proton pack to subdue ghosts, traps to capture them, and a resolution featuring one foe), the new one introduces an armory of gadgets, allows for ghosts to be vaporized, not just trapped, and ends with an action-packed slugfest between our heroes and an army of ghosts. Needless to say, the toy possibilities are endless. And that's kind of appropriate given that this film is less an ode to the original film as it is to <em>The Real Ghostbusters </em>cartoon and what it felt like to play Ghostbusters as a kid. <br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZcYlSI7o3CCYfb_ygQd-VsMDs03kA5flTq5JS0x5nemoN681Td0TL6wTuAZKHTY__qJjlZBuBGwupOj0rlLOq-SHF090lBOxY8cwtPXv5l0YkRSlXzSmdSIH-GkISbtqoP3Az-ki9Rl0m/s1600/action.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZcYlSI7o3CCYfb_ygQd-VsMDs03kA5flTq5JS0x5nemoN681Td0TL6wTuAZKHTY__qJjlZBuBGwupOj0rlLOq-SHF090lBOxY8cwtPXv5l0YkRSlXzSmdSIH-GkISbtqoP3Az-ki9Rl0m/s400/action.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="left">
The Times Square throw down is indicative of the different approach here.</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Getting more specific on the particulars of the film, I'll say that I'm a big fan of all these funny ladies bouncing off of each other, although I thought the script went over the top with all the scientific speak. I greatly enjoyed Chris Hemsworth's commitment to stupidity, and thought hanging the spine of the film on the fractured friendship between Wiig's Erin and McCarthy's Abby was a smart move, even if the resolution felt formulaic. I liked the way Slimmer and Stay Puft were used, but at the same time I was pretty underwhelmed by the film's inability to introduce new fun adversaries like them.
<br />
<br />
Speaking of adversaries, the big bad guy ultimately morphs into the ghostbusters logo (a nod <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pDZpNNLXlM">to the opening credits</a> of <em>The Real Ghostbusters</em>), but before that I found him to be the weakest part of the film. I guess they weren't exactly going to vilify the environmental protection agency in 2016, so an angry nerd makes sense, especially when you consider how well his arc plays off of the central one involving Erin embracing outsider status.
<br />
<br />
As far as science fiction antecedents with a debt to <em>Ghostbusters</em> are concerned, this doesn't quite measure up to <em>Men in Black</em> but it's a step above the likes of <em>Evolution</em>. It certainly doesn't trample all over any childhoods, and I say that as someone who's whole childhood was defined by Ghostbusters with a dash of Ninja Turtles, '60s era Batman and <em>Monster Squad</em> thrown in.
<br />
<br />
Some may not like that a group of women are leading the film, and they may even stoop to suggesting Ramis is rolling over in his grave (more on this in a <a href="http://splitsider.com/2016/07/on-my-dad-harold-ramis-and-passing-the-ghostbusters-torch-to-a-new-generation-of-fans/?utm_content=bufferf61de&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer">great essay by his daughter</a>), but screw 'em. This puppy brought back vivid memories of running around the school yard pretending to be ghostbusters with boys and girls, not to mention the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVd83QTO_1M&app=desktop">original badass girl ghostbuster, Janine</a>. The film is a celebration of what it meant to love Ghostbusters as a kid, and girls should get to play in that sandbox too. I stand by that claim, even though I acknowledge it is nudgingly muddied, at least on the symbolic level, by the image of four females literally shooting the Ghostbusters logo in the nuts at the end of the film (zing!). <strong>B</strong>FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-33932524848208142232016-06-24T12:37:00.002-07:002016-06-24T13:43:13.365-07:00"The Big Short" and "Spotlight" Tackle Uncomfortable Truths Enroute to Screenplay Oscars<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOj1zjW_9G5L_aoA9G1qJYMx9K3yfSHXNL9LIWdX2uqU7DShyCJ0sZlJgZmDFfFBoC82Pj_L9PcMA0_fNutVI9iBdY7m2O9P3gfPtjTV4fst73_rpZtv1ZbtRuCVLqnBz6lENs1rtpy41d/s1600/bigshort.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOj1zjW_9G5L_aoA9G1qJYMx9K3yfSHXNL9LIWdX2uqU7DShyCJ0sZlJgZmDFfFBoC82Pj_L9PcMA0_fNutVI9iBdY7m2O9P3gfPtjTV4fst73_rpZtv1ZbtRuCVLqnBz6lENs1rtpy41d/s400/bigshort.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="left">
<em>The Big Short</em> uses Jenga to explain the unsound structure of CDOs.</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Late in <i>The Big Short</i>,
Brad Pitt, who gets to play a voice of reason and anger in a landscape of sly
schmucks just as he did in <i>12 Years A Slave </i>and <i>Killing Me Softly</i>,
chastises his compatriots, saying, “</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">If we're right, people lose homes. People lose jobs. People lose
retirement savings. People lose pensions. You know what I hate about fucking
banking? It reduces people to numbers. Here's a number - every 1% unemployment
goes up, 40,000 people die, did you know that?” It’s a sobering moment, one
that is undercut by the character’s willingness to go along with the scheme
he's involved with, as well as his assurance that excitement is
ok as long as you “just don’t fucking dance.”</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">That scene perfectly highlights the fact that
while the featured players in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Big Short</i> pride themselves on being anti-Wall Street
crusaders, they're actually worse than all the amoral scum that
started the problem by banking on high risk subprime loans, because they know
better and still opt to short the investments. No matter how you slice it,
these are men who looked at a terrible situation and decided to profit off of
it instead of doing something about it, making the situation 10 times worse in
the process. They may have thought they were sticking it to the big banks for
screwing the American people, but by trying to profit in the offing,
they guaranteed the American people would be left holding the
bag. </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Big Short</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> doesn't shy away from the issue, even
while it's courting viewers to root for all these shifty characters. Michael
Burry (Christian Bale) opts to leave hedge funds behind because "business
kills the part of life that is essential," while the film's smug narrator
Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) cops to being a douche, saying “I can feel you
judging me. It’s palpable.” Vennett admits he's not the hero of this story, right
after which a quick cut to Mark Baum (Steve Carrell), the most incensed of our
protagonists, acts as movie code for "here's your hero."</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And he is... sort of. He's the lead of the film, the one with a
tragic back story that has filled him with anger and made him obsessed with
taking on the system. He's hubristically convinced he can hurt the big banks
where it counts, but in doing so he fails to account for just how sneaky they
can be. When he finally realizes that type of victory is impossible – when
he dines with a particularly vile piece of work and learns the
banks have responded to the short sales on their collateralized debt
obligations (CDOs) by shorting the shorts with synthetic
CDOs comprised of credit default swaps – he decides if you can't beat 'em,
join 'em. He tells his team to "short everything that man has
touched," further adding to the mounting crisis. Later, when he
finally opts to sell, the movie asks us to sympathize with Baum, because
the banks got bailed out and he rightly predicts that in a few years everyone
will just "be blaming immigrants and poor people.”</span> </span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">I don't know how to respond to that -- part of me loves that the
film coaxes us to root for these guys, making us complicit in their scheming,
only to have us come out the other end incensed and angry at everyone, these
characters included. But most of me just wants to take a bath. There’s an
ingrained desire in a film like this to have a character to gravitate toward,
someone who distances him or herself from all the hustlers and sort of condemns them for
what they've done, ala Bud Fox in <i>Wall Street</i>. But ultimately, I
think writer/director Adam McKay made the right call avoiding that type of
plotting, and that's specifically because it left me so much more outraged as a
result. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wolf of Wall Street</i>
before it, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Big Short</i> employs
a flippant dark-comic approach in its depiction of financial corruption,
even going so far as to break the fourth wall with multiple celebrity cameos to
make the financial terminology easier to understand. The tone works,
and so too does the disdainful and cynical mood that is
engendered by an ending note that warns CDOs have come back into the current
market as "bespoke tranche opportunities," not to mention the
ludicrous moment in which the leads are mentioned in the same breath
as Robert Redford in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All the
President's Men</i>.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimp7ieephyphenhyphenaOkz8BYFaA7tB6F97nXVCGu9DLmdyzgFSKXku6FjNNTjxt3MQCwY3jJ_0MNefa6V4O0KSpUMLmIFRaGS1z8B-JxD3NI9zUtvNAsj7bx4VMyxvkpSyYcovLYBR02p7ZXgEs5c/s1600/spotlight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimp7ieephyphenhyphenaOkz8BYFaA7tB6F97nXVCGu9DLmdyzgFSKXku6FjNNTjxt3MQCwY3jJ_0MNefa6V4O0KSpUMLmIFRaGS1z8B-JxD3NI9zUtvNAsj7bx4VMyxvkpSyYcovLYBR02p7ZXgEs5c/s400/spotlight.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="left">
Dogged investigative journalism unearths a major Church sex </div>
<div align="left">
scandal in <em>Spotlight</em>.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">That Redford comparison would be far more apt for the characters
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spotlight</i>, which takes a far more
serious approach to what is essentially a very similar story. Sure, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Big Short</i> takes aim at the
2008 financial crisis brought on by the U.S. housing bubble, while <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spotlight</i> tackles child molestation
cover-ups by the Catholic church, but both function as cinematic activism about
uncomfortable truths, or, put another way, as dramatized public service
announcements about renegades railing against
entrenched institutional villainy. The main characters in each film even
sit on their scandalous information for an extended period of time,
but while analysts in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Big Short</i>
do so to reap the financial benefits (and because the banks won't allow the
other shoe to drop until they distance themselves a bit from the fallout), the
reporters in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spotlight</i> do so to
ensure they write a strong story built on evidence so they can truly make a
difference and enact change (and because of delays related to the tragedy on
September 11).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>Spotlight</em> is a procedural set against the backdrop of a unique
time in journalism, right when the proliferation of Internet
content brought on a whole slew of cost-cutting measures and online poser
"journalists" that crippled the previously prestigious and
powerful print media. Long-term investigative journalism in which a reporter
(or in the case of the Boston Globe's Spotlight team, a whole team of
reporters) spent months breaking a huge story by rooting out actual nuggets of
verifiable information used to be common practice, but now there's barely
enough money to adequately staff breaking news coverage and even
less time to properly confirm sources. The Globe's Spotlight
team is still doing this type of work, but such opportunities are increasingly
few and far between. As such, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spotlight</i>
also serves as a love-song to a profession that has fallen on hard times, but
that, at its best, can expose corruption and righteously check institutional
injustice as the fourth estate. </span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">A</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">t the outset of the film, Martin Baron (Liev Schreiber), a new
editor from outside the city, is brought in to take over the Globe, and
immediately the newsroom is whispering about potential layoffs and apprehension
over his lack of Boston roots. His first order of business is to question the
staff about a column that mentioned 25 defendants have hired lawyer Mitchell
Garabedian (Stanley Tucci) to bring a civil lawsuit against a catholic priest
accused of sexually abusing more than 100 children. The records are sealed, and
unlike the rest of the Globe staff, many of whom have ties to the church,
Baron, a Jewish outsider unfamiliar with the power and influence the church
wields in the city, wonders why. And so he puts the four-man Spotlight crew on
the case, all of whom have a different reaction to the case, especially as the
number of potential victims continues to grow.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) is so shaken by the victims and
perpetrators she interviews that she stops going to mass and finds it difficult
to talk with her devout grandmother. Meanwhile, Matt Carroll (Brian d'Arcy
James) is alarmed that the church has a house for "retired" priests
right down the block from his family home, and Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo)
is angry, so angry that he wants to publish the information as soon as possible
to protect the public. Section editor Walter Robinson (Michael Keaton) wants to
wait, mostly to get the story right (he needs to convince a source he has a
personal relationship with to confirm information), but also partly
because of the shame he feels because he, and anyone who came across this
information in the past, deserves some blame for not exposing all of this a
long time ago. As Garabedian says, "If it takes a village to raise a
child, it takes a village to abuse one."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">In a story like this, process trumps character, but
writer/director Tom McCarthy (who shed light on the less attractive qualities
of modern journalism as an actor on season 5 of <i>The Wire</i>) peppers in a
series of effective character moments without ever tipping the scales into
heavy-handed melodrama. It helps to have such a phenomenal cast giving one
lived-in performance after another. Ruffalo and McAdams received nominations
for their work, but everyone is on point here, especially Keaton, Schreiber and
Tucci. They bring gravitas, authenticity, compassion, and a palpable
sense of tenacious professionalism. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">The Big Short</span></i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spotlight</i>
are two of 2015's tightly-structured films, and so it should surprise no
one that they walked away with the screenplay awards at this year's Oscars.
Both cover infuriating systemic treachery, albeit in completely different walks
of life and with completely different point of views. If I prefer Best Picture
winner Spotlight, it's mostly because it left me entirely satisfied by its
well-oiled machinery and the win for the good guys, especially compared to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Big Short</i>, which, by design, left me
unsettled and foaming at the mouth.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Big Short</i> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A-</b>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spotlight</i>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A</b></span></span></span></span></div>
FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-38602614081693624342016-06-16T09:00:00.002-07:002016-06-16T09:21:54.898-07:00"Captain America: Civil War" Does the Warring Super Hero Thing Better Than "Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4tFbhrp5KzRpe2jnU04cxgvGLKqj24-a0RgpERHrpwpN2XlmaDg3-HhaL0Pbiw7znOI6Sh_Yf4QhDFwTs0r3O45dsCvKXF8iFCuhlAeQsKygAH4Jm4nqaZDrHDW6j_9yOSVJjb5e5OPFt/s1600/POSTER.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4tFbhrp5KzRpe2jnU04cxgvGLKqj24-a0RgpERHrpwpN2XlmaDg3-HhaL0Pbiw7znOI6Sh_Yf4QhDFwTs0r3O45dsCvKXF8iFCuhlAeQsKygAH4Jm4nqaZDrHDW6j_9yOSVJjb5e5OPFt/s400/POSTER.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="left">
Both <em>Dawn of Justice</em> and <em>Civil War</em> promise super hero smack downs.</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It's pretty hard not to compare <em>Captain America: Civil War</em> and <em>Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice</em>. Not only did they come out within weeks of each other, but they both feature a super hero throw down built around a disagreement over civilian casualties during world saving battles. Furthermore, they both focus on normally squeaky clean, super-powered American icons acting as renegades while traditionally darker billionaires with major tech advancements try to stop them. The big difference is that <em>Civil War</em> features coherent conflict rooted in long-term character development, while <em>Dawn of Justice</em> is an uneven mish-mash of incomprehensible plot turns and motivations, with some nonsensical foreshadowing thrown in. <br />
<br />
Before going any further, I should probably list my reviewer baggage in the interest of transparency. Going into these films, I expected to like <em>Civil War</em> more than <em>Dawn of Justice</em>. That’s basically because I have long admired Marvel’s gutsy move to do a slow build with their cinematic universe, while I suspected D/C was rushing theirs in an effort to get to that big Avengers-type money as quickly as possible.
<br />
<br />
That doesn’t mean I hate D/C. I loved Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, liked <em>Man of Steel</em> quite a bit, love Ben Affleck, and appreciate the cinematic grandiosity director Zack Snyder is trying to bring to this whole thing. It also doesn’t mean I’m totally in the tank for all things Marvel. They rely far too heavily on macguffins, generally lack compelling villains and tend to prioritize synergistic plotting over artistic identity. Sure they gleefully embrace a lot of genres and develop good characters, but there’s a reason many of their directors have been culled from the television world. Unlike in traditional cinema where individualism and idiosyncrasy is praised, TV values a director’s ability to blend and make his or her episode(s) feel like one piece in a larger puzzle. So too does Marvel.
<br />
<br />
Given the length of this piece, I think it's best not to go over the plots of the films. If you need a plot refresher, head over to Wikipedia, because otherwise I'm just diving right in to analysis.
<br />
<br />
The biggest appeal of both these films is the fact that they’re packed with super heroes fighting against each other. You can tell that much simply by looking at the posters, which feature heroes on opposite sides staring at each other intently. And action-wise, both films are pretty great. The central fight of <em>Civil War</em> is amazingly fun, and while nothing in <em>Dawn of Justice</em> is quite up to that level, it totally owns the Batman (Affleck) fights, showcasing both the fluid choreography of the Nolan films and all those wonderful toys of the Tim Burton ones.
<br />
<br />
Promising a big melee like that is a fun, but dangerous proposition for a film, one that can lead to great action, but muddled narratives. Overcrowding in comic book movies rarely works because it requires too much juggling and doesn’t allow for enough development. <em>Spider-Man 3</em> and <em>Batman and Robin </em>are great examples, of this, and to an extent, so are the mostly good X-Men movies, which consistently marginalize huge chunks of the team in favor of Wolverine, Magneto and Xavier.
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS4E5vnYwGqwGfgK7bCDNgjfW7Y7H9xB7RBeeEPznnoR243h6c0zQAbndmzfZZJ_X6SsEKtu8ocRMY5bsdpo_7j-fPCgesYNeUoynEVQJ5gKQc-B-vtTg4Z_54vPi33mLhyphenhyphenGMQSo6AOG9X/s1600/civil+war.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS4E5vnYwGqwGfgK7bCDNgjfW7Y7H9xB7RBeeEPznnoR243h6c0zQAbndmzfZZJ_X6SsEKtu8ocRMY5bsdpo_7j-fPCgesYNeUoynEVQJ5gKQc-B-vtTg4Z_54vPi33mLhyphenhyphenGMQSo6AOG9X/s400/civil+war.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="left">
Cap's team operates as rouge agents once the Sarkovia accords are passed.</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There’s no doubt <em>Civil War</em> is far more crowded than <em>Dawn of Justice, </em>but while it has four times as many super heroes, it does a better job of servicing their stories. Spider-man (Tom Holland) and Ant-man (Paul Rudd) are ringers for each side (and provided the highlights of the blowout fight), but everybody else has strong motivations rooted in actual character development. Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson, the soul and stealth MVP of the MCU) get particularly strong material to play. The same can’t be said of <em>Dawn of Justice</em>, which relegates Superman (Henry Cavill) to a bit player in favor of doing what’s basically a Batman movie on drugs.
<br />
<br />
Discounting <em>Dawn of Justice’s</em> “blink and you’ll miss ‘em” cameos from Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Flash (Ezra Miller), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher), each film actually introduces two new super heroes, one of whom (Batman, Black Panther) is far more central to the story than the other (Spider-man, Wonder Woman).
<br />
<br />
Batman and Black Panther have similar revenge arcs, and both actors make strong impressions. However, although Batman is basically the main character of <em>Dawn of Justice</em>, he’s very one note, and structuring his about-face around the fact that both he and Superman have mothers named Martha is pretty goddamn stupid. Meanwhile, Black Panther isn’t asked to carry the load of his film, and yet he still feels more dimensional and his turnaround tracks better dramatically.
<br />
<br />
The inclusion of Spider-man and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) in these films is inorganic and reeks of corporate desire to sell toys and advance the universe engines at play. Wonder Woman is kept intentionally mysterious, so Spider-man ends up feeling like more of a character. He’s also a hell of a lot more fun, which helps mitigate issues surrounding his inclusion.
<br />
<br />
But really, inserting characters into these stories as setups for future films doesn’t bother me all that much. To some degree, these movies are always going to do that, so you just have to hope they can also stand on their own as well. Spider-man and Wonder Woman function fine, and the D/C cameos found in the videos Wonder Woman watches are appropriate teases.
<br />
<br />
However, sometimes these things go a bit too far, and I’d venture to say <em>Dawn of Justice</em> oversteps when it has Flash come from the future to warn Batman in a dream sequence. I assume Superman will become evil, maybe due to red kryptonite, and this message will tie in with <em>The</em> <em>Justice League</em> somehow, but, as a piece of this movie, it’s just confusing and feels like wasted minutes. In fact, all the Batman dreams feel that way. If all that time dedicated to dream sequences was spent on further developing characters, the film would’ve benefited greatly.
<br />
<br />
In stories like this, it’s a fait accompli that the main bad guy is going to be sidelined. That’s because narratively speaking, the main bad guy isn’t the main adversary; the other super hero serves that function until the third act at which time the super heroes basically hug and realize they need to join forces to stop the actual bad guy. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA7dfTg4muCxNC4u8GIR1qGbvShTO5hP07mvEKrHTxBXRSHy7ik54A1lBp7Bu5yDUd_Z9hrDsJeznefJyKgApXatevO8I5UuOBc0H6ncrMqkgZ_GMC2Xe-ChyXbPxxMycO9viS60DjJCy-/s1600/bat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA7dfTg4muCxNC4u8GIR1qGbvShTO5hP07mvEKrHTxBXRSHy7ik54A1lBp7Bu5yDUd_Z9hrDsJeznefJyKgApXatevO8I5UuOBc0H6ncrMqkgZ_GMC2Xe-ChyXbPxxMycO9viS60DjJCy-/s400/bat.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="left">
To it's credit, <em>Dawn of Justice</em> definitely looks cool.</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I fully expected this dynamic going into these movies, but, once again, it’s pretty surprising just how similar the set-ups are. Neither Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) nor Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl) are some side threat looking to take over the world; instead both are just interested in coercing super heroes into killing each other.
<br />
<br />
Their reasoning is what separates the two. Zemo was a Sarvokian special ops type whose family was killed during the events of <em>Avengers: Age of Ultron</em>. The movie implies he’s trying to gather a collection of super soldiers for a nefarious purpose, but that’s just a red herring. All he wants is to get revenge on the Avengers, and his whole plan is built around exposing the fact that Bucky Barnes killed Tony Stark’s parents to accomplish that task. The plotting’s not airtight – it’s left unclear how Zemo knew such information existed or how he knew Captain America would react the way he does, but it’s simple and it works.
<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Luthor’s motivations are far more complicated. He’s basically a megalomaniacal millionaire driven mad by a grab-bag of shit, including thirst for supremacy, the very existence of metahumans, and daddy issues. If I think hard enough about it, I’d guess his daddy issues caused him to become a cut-throat social climber/innovator, which brought about a sort of hot-shit god complex that was completely obliterated by the existence of meta-humans, chiefly Superman. But that requires a lot of work on my part, while asking very little of the screenplay.
<br />
<br />
Truth be told, that’s really not a bad arc, and could totally play if given the proper development. But when you’re fitting all your world-building into the margins, it just doesn’t work because it doesn’t have the time too. If you’re going to have a sidelined bad guy, better to have one with streamlined motivations, instead of ambitious overreaching that leads to a crazed Luthor inexplicably gaining access to the information within the Krytonian ship and, even more ridiculously transforming the corpse of Zod (Michael Shannon) into Doomsday.
<br />
<br />
But that's generally the whole deal with <em>Dawn of Justice</em>, which looks great and gets some things right, but continuously borders on ridiculousness. And it's so far beyond the Doomsday crap, the Martha thing (god, the Martha thing), and the Flash dream sequence. It's also the fact that Batman is gullible as hell, or that he nonsensically abandons his kryptonite spear, or that Superman's super hearing super sucks (not only can he not hone in on his kidnapped mother's location the way he does routinely with Lois (Amy Adams), but he can't even hear a bomb that's like 10 yards away from him).
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihxYWZi8JiSkGObABFruvhgP74KJBPYw_HpyjQbPmerWT2Is2gg2oqf6dDO-P_qSsYkGUUK2Mqod5sC34-sxuP7CrdDFmgOu2kyGD-qcaZvFG2sXgsXCEL_cUqTFcGshW_QeM4snI1K6lF/s1600/best+friends.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihxYWZi8JiSkGObABFruvhgP74KJBPYw_HpyjQbPmerWT2Is2gg2oqf6dDO-P_qSsYkGUUK2Mqod5sC34-sxuP7CrdDFmgOu2kyGD-qcaZvFG2sXgsXCEL_cUqTFcGshW_QeM4snI1K6lF/s400/best+friends.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="left">
This meme that references <em>Step Brothers</em> is the perfect takedown of</div>
<div align="left">
a major plot point in <em>Dawn of Justice</em>.</div>
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Many of <em>Dawn of Justice’s</em> problems are born of D/C’s insistence in taking short-cuts toward a team-up movie instead of laying the proper foundation over a series of films like Marvel did. I can imagine a world in which D/C Comics wasn’t taking short-cuts to <em>The Justice League</em>, but instead decided to make a legit <em>Man of Steel</em> sequel that took place during the 18 months skipped between the two movies, allowing for some development of the Clark and Lois dynamic, as well as the Luthor’s obsession and a hint about his search into metahumans (say for instance, a post-credit sequence indicating he found footage of Wonder Woman).
<br />
<br />
They could’ve then followed that up with their Wonder Woman movie, which could’ve ended with a post-credit sequence showing Wonder Woman discovering Luthor has her picture. This would’ve effectively laid the seeds for her whole story thread in <em>Dawn of Justice</em>, while also grounding her and Luthor as actual characters worth giving a shit about, not to mention lending further shading (and thus further shit giving) to Lois, Clark and they’re relationship. Then, you could let <em>Dawn of Justice </em>play out as a Batman introduction, while setting up <em>The</em> <em>Justice League</em>. <br />
<br />
But no. Instead they decided to bum rush Batman, Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor and metahuman concept into one movie all because they wanted their own Avengers without waiting through years of buildup. As a result, <em>Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice</em> is hit-and-miss entertainment, especially compared to the well-oiled, emotionally involving <em>Captain America: Civil War</em>.
<br />
<br />
<em>Captain America: Civil War</em> <strong>A-</strong>, <em>Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice</em>, <strong>B-</strong>
<br />
<br />
For added fun, here's my personal rankings
from all these franchises.<br />
<br />
<strong>Marvel Cinematic Universe
</strong><br />
<ol>
<li><em>Captain America: The First Avenger</em> <strong>A</strong> </li>
<li><em>Iron Man</em> <strong>A</strong></li>
<li><em>Guardians of the Galaxy</em> <strong>A-</strong> (<a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2014/08/irreverent-and-heart-warming-guardians.html">review</a>)</li>
<li><em>Captain America: Civil War</em> <strong>A-</strong> </li>
<li><em>The Avengers</em> <strong>B+</strong> (<a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2012/06/avengers-proves-itself-worthy-of.html">review</a>) </li>
<li><em>Captain America: The Winter Soldier</em> <strong>B+</strong> </li>
<li><em>Thor</em> <strong>B+</strong> </li>
<li><em>Ant-Man</em> <strong>B+</strong> (<a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2015/09/fun-inventive-ant-man-makes-compelling.html">review</a>)</li>
<li><em>Iron Man 3</em> <strong>B+</strong> (<a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2013/05/iron-man-3-proves-solid-entry-to.html">review</a>) </li>
<li><em>Avengers: Age of Ultron</em> <strong>B</strong> </li>
<li><em>Thor</em>: <em>The Dark Ages</em> <strong>B-</strong> </li>
<li><em>The Incredible Hulk</em> <strong>B-</strong> </li>
<li><em>Iron Man 2</em> <strong>C+</strong>
</li>
</ol>
<br />
<strong>Batman Films
</strong><br />
<ol>
<li><em>The Dark Knight</em> <strong>A+</strong> </li>
<li><em>Batman Begins</em> <strong>A</strong> </li>
<li><em>Batman Returns</em> <strong>A</strong> </li>
<li><em>The Dark Knight Rises</em> <strong>A-</strong> (<a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-dark-knight-rises-proves.html">review</a>)</li>
<li><em>Batman</em> <strong>B+</strong> </li>
<li><em>Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice</em> <strong>B-</strong></li>
<li><em>Batman Forever</em> <strong>C+</strong> </li>
<li><em>Batman and Robin</em> <strong>D+</strong>
</li>
</ol>
<br />
<strong>Superman Films
</strong><br />
<ol>
<li><em>Superman</em> <strong>A-</strong> </li>
<li><em>Superman II</em> <strong>B+</strong> </li>
<li><em>Man of Steel</em> <strong>B+</strong> (<a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2013/06/half-baked-man-of-steel-is-both-awesome.html">review</a>)</li>
<li><em>Superman Returns</em> <strong>B-</strong> </li>
<li><em>Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice</em> <strong>B-</strong> </li>
<li><em>Superman III</em> <strong>D</strong> </li>
<li><em>Superman IV: The Quest for Peace </em><strong>haven’t seen it</strong>
</li>
</ol>
FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-82788974029930857782016-06-07T07:59:00.001-07:002016-06-07T08:00:53.508-07:00Tarantino Entertains with Darkly Funny Western "The Hateful Eight" <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN0cHoCVcDo81HNEUhQEh7RydKdhLGmVG2HiEIpWXY0POtZTcwInaoN5oN_yeuS2MJIiFRIv_HKyFWA5snXe1YuRx2dGMM5RpK3gOQW6UJd9-zNV7cWlTkEmFQU4PUUWGyiRUt9Yi6w-Ze/s1600/jackson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN0cHoCVcDo81HNEUhQEh7RydKdhLGmVG2HiEIpWXY0POtZTcwInaoN5oN_yeuS2MJIiFRIv_HKyFWA5snXe1YuRx2dGMM5RpK3gOQW6UJd9-zNV7cWlTkEmFQU4PUUWGyiRUt9Yi6w-Ze/s400/jackson.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="left">
Samuel L. Jackson and Walton Goggins lead an amazing cast in </div>
<div align="left">
Quentin Tarantino's latest, <em>The Hateful Eight</em>.</div>
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And so the pattern repeats. <br />
<br />
Three years ago, I wrote a <a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2013/02/anderson-and-tarantino-embrace-their.html">review comparing Wes Anderson and Quentin Tarantino</a> that discussed how each director had plowed through mid-career criticisms by taking a hard left into the idiosyncratic approaches that were supposedly holding them back, only to emerge once again as critical darlings.
<br />
<br />
A year later, Anderson continued to <a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2014/07/anderson-does-his-thing-and-does-it.html">prove my point with <em>Grand Budapest Hotel</em></a>, and it seems Tarantino has followed suit with <em>The Hateful Eight</em>, a western that revolves around a collection of nasty sorts trapped together at a secluded stopover during a blizzard not long after the conclusion of the Civil War. <br />
<br />
Intoxicating in the way that only great Tarantino can be, <em>The Hateful Eight</em> is the quickest three hours I’ve ever spent in a theater. And that's the case even though I saw the film in its glorious 70mm Roadshow Exhibition, which ran with an introductory musical overture and an intermission between acts, while also providing wider, more detailed images... because, you know, Tarantino. <br />
<br />
Like many of the director’s films, <em>The Hateful Eight</em> is told in chapters, some of which are out of order, and built around a series of long, tense and often side-splitting conversations that eventually boil over into violence. For all the pomp and circumstance that came with the roadshow experience, the film is basically a talky chamber piece with the attitude and accoutrements of a mean-spirited western. <br />
<br />
More specifically, <em>The Hateful Eight</em> is a western-flavored dark comedy mash up of <em>And Then There Were</em> <em>None</em>, Tarantino’s own <em>Reservoir Dogs</em>, and any number of plays by Sartre or Pinter with the racial tensions of post Civil-War Americans hanging over every moment. It's thought-provoking, titillating and, above all, entertaining as hell.
<br />
<br />
Other than a win for the eerily foreboding score from the legendary Ennio Morricone and a nomination for Jennifer Jason Leigh's hilariously gnarly performance, the Oscars stayed away from <em>The Hateful Eight</em>, which makes quite a bit of sense given the content. However, this is a master class in acting, writing, directing, editing and costuming, with Goggins and the underrated Jackson (who easily could've been included in my <a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2016/03/exploring-oscarssowhite-controversy-by.html">piece on #OscarSoWhite</a>) providing standout work. <br />
<br />
Having said all of that, I have some issues with the film, all of which are built around character motivation and plotting. To talk about them, I kind of need to spoil the movie a bit, so, spoiler warning.
Enroute to Red Rock to deliver the fugitive Daisy Domergue (Leigh) for hanging, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) encounters Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a black bounty hunter and former Union solider in possession of three dead bounties, and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), a former Lost-Causer militiamen who now claims to be the new sheriff of Red Rock. Ruth allows both men aboard his stage coach, and they set out for Minnie's Habadashery to seek refuge from the storm. <br />
<br />
Upon arriving at the habadashery, they meet hangman Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), cowboy Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), former Confederate general Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern), and Bob (Demián Bichir), a Mexican watching over the place while Minnie visits her mother. Tensions escalate on multiple fronts. Suspicious that any of this lot could be in cahoots with Domergue, Ruth forcefully disarms all but Warren since they have met before and have agreed to protect one another's bounties. Meanwhile, Warren feuds with both Smithers and Mannix over race and doubts the legitimacy of Bob's standing as the operator of the habadashery, an establishment he has frequented many times.
<br />
<br />
A third act flashback reveals Mobray, Gage and Bob are all members of the Jody Domergue gang and that they, along with Jody (Channing Tatum), arrived at the habadashery ahead of Ruth’s party so that they could kill him and free Jody’s sister. They kill Minnie and all other inhabitants of the habadashery except Smithers (they reason another occupant will add to their cover), hide several guns around the place, and then Jody hides beneath the floor boards just before the rest of the lead characters arrive.
<br />
<br />
During an argument between Warren and Smithers in which Warren arms Smithers and then baits him to draw on him so Warren can kill the older man, Gage secretly poisons the coffee, ultimately leading to the very gruesome poisoning of Ruth and his driver OB. Ruth almost kills Daisy before he dies while her brother remains in hiding and the his conspirators simply watch instead recovering their hidden weapons and taking advantage of the fact that Warren and Mannix are completely distracted. This is particularly problematic for Gage. He may have acted on his own in poisoning the coffee and thus surprised his compatriots, but then why is he also so unprepared to react to the aftermath? <br />
<br />
Instead, they stand around like innocents allowing Warren to take control, arm Mannix and kill Bob. Only then does Jody fire upon Warren from below the floor boards, but once again he and his gang fail to act decisively (something made even more annoying by the later revelation that Mobray has already armed himself off screen) allowing Mannix and Warren to gather themselves and regroup. Although this development sets up a dynamic Mexican standoff and leads to a strong ending that unites Warren and Mannix against these outlaws, it also stretches credulity. What was the point of lying in wait and having a cover if you were just going to act like total fools at every opportunity? Sure they could’ve never anticipated that Warren and Mannix would show up with Ruth, and they absolutely never would’ve known about the dynamic between those men and Smithers, but those surprises still don’t explain their awful play here.<br />
<br />
I think it would be foolish to suggest I have a better idea how to craft a script than Tarintino, but I’ll give it a go anyhow. I think the whole sequence would’ve played a lot better if Gage wasn’t one of the Domergue gang, but rather just another inhabitant of the haberdashery like Smithers and another wrinkle in their plan. Maybe he shows up in between when Jody goes down below the floor and Ruth’s arrival or maybe they just opt to keep him alive too, but what if he was just a cowboy visiting his mom just like he says, one that made the isolated decision to poison Ruth, not because he wanted to free Daisy, but because he was enraged that Ruth took his gun. That would certainly explain why the gang wasn't prepared to take advantage of Ruth's poisoning, while adding an extra level of chaos to the proceedings.
Obviously, I’m just spit balling here, but I think something should’ve been done to diminish this narrative annoyance, which seems to be one of those "the plot required it" situations. <br />
<br />
Regardless, even though this element of the film bothered me, it’s really just a problem that keeps me from viewing the film as perfect, because otherwise that’s what it is. Like the best of Tarantino, the film is shot beautifully and populated with great actors cutting loose with a well-observed and irreverent script filled to the brim with long, tense moments that seem tailor-made for the stage. And the ending, oh boy that ending -- it's some kind of perfect.FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-24356500655417797852016-06-03T14:16:00.001-07:002016-06-03T14:31:20.894-07:00"Mockingjay: Part 2" Caps Off the Better-Than-Necessary "Hunger Games" Franchise with a Worse-Than-It-Could've-Been Finale<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKr3raIlfDaoki2hMBI5WB19AyijpP3wAGe0tVq92I9lDy_EFkylxjPv6p-p0E9Jn0OehyphenhyphenZm-KsNMiNJ7Dr-SvsMPxfqon-SAMuEWCd6Kbb1Y3UBD1CG7Tk2RWgh8P6XwFVCJTQN7ih2jv/s1600/mock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKr3raIlfDaoki2hMBI5WB19AyijpP3wAGe0tVq92I9lDy_EFkylxjPv6p-p0E9Jn0OehyphenhyphenZm-KsNMiNJ7Dr-SvsMPxfqon-SAMuEWCd6Kbb1Y3UBD1CG7Tk2RWgh8P6XwFVCJTQN7ih2jv/s400/mock.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="left">
Gale (Liam Hemsworth) is a sad panda. A sad, genocidal panda.</div>
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The first <em>Hunger Games</em> came out just after I started cataloging reviews on this site, and I realize now I've written quite a bit about this franchise over the last several years. Given that I reviewed each of the first three films, I've decided to review <em>Mockingjay: Part 2</em> to close off the loop. If I wasn’t a completest, I probably wouldn't be reviewing this film. There are a lot of other movies I'd rather spend my limited time dissecting, mainly because so much of <em>Mockingjay: Part 2</em> feels like pointless wheel spinning.<br />
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That's thematically the point, I get it, and, in fact, I like it. I really like it. The fact that this whole franchise and this final passage in particular, is basically a subversion of young adult genre tropes is pretty awesome in my book. I love that this isn't some heroic “chosen one” thing. I love that the romantic triangle is simultaneously treated as real and silly by these characters. I love the wary melancholy and the ruminations on perception over content, packaged violence and idealism turned rotten. And I love that the main character basically plays no part in the climactic battle, and that nearly everything she does in this film is pointless until the final 10 minutes or so.<br />
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At the same time, this really doesn't work as a movie, particularly because of that last point. Katniss is just a propaganda tool to the rebels, enslaved in many of the same ways she was by the Capitol. She's the inverse of Captain America, a hero who started as a bullshit rallying ploy but quickly became an assertive hero. She takes the opposite journey, and while that's a pretty awesome and downbeat concept for a blockbuster film to explore, it all plays so lifelessly here. Thank heavens for Jennifer Lawrence, who does so much heavy lifting here to make this thing play. It’s probably become cliché to adore her work, but goddamn she is amazing as Katniss Everdeen.<br />
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When I <a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-i.html">reviewed part 1</a>, I suggested it was an artistic mistake to split <em>Mockingjay</em> into two films, and part 2 confirms it. This whole thing would've been far more potent if it was culled down to one film. <em>Mockingjay: Part 1</em> was actually pretty effective on its own, because there were so many flavorful character moments to enjoy. Here, other than Katniss, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), Gale (Liam Hemsworth), Coin (Julianne Moore), and Snow (Donald Sutherland), nobody has anything to do, and even many of those players aren’t afforded much. If you're going to break this relatively short book into two films, I feel like I'm at least entitled to more worthwhile moments with this great cast. Sadly, in this form, it all feels like a giant misuse of talent.<br />
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There are other annoyances too. For instance, I think it was a questionable character decision to cake so much makeup on Katniss toward the end of the film. And, at this point, given the size and success of these films, I am bewildered by how consistently mediocre and tacky the effects have been in this series. This is a multi-billion dollar franchise, so why do the effects look like something out of a direct -to-video <em>Mimic </em>sequel?<br />
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Ultimately this is an honest and poignant end to a series that was way better and far more nuanced than it needed to be. Author Suzanne Collins made some really great decisions with her books, and this film doesn’t shy away from those in the interest of pleasing the plebs, and I really like that. The film makes some strong points about heroism, sacrifice, disillusionment, and bull-shit trafficking. I just think it could've been even better if the filmmakers would’ve tightened these two parts into one instead of opting to milk every last dollar out of the cash cow. <b>B
</b>FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-66123239639107744922016-03-23T22:19:00.002-07:002016-04-07T03:06:09.581-07:00Exploring the #OscarsSoWhite Controversy By Looking at Four Black Films<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<em>Creed </em>was one of the best movies of 2015, but barely got any </div>
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notice at the Oscars.</div>
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Earlier this year when absolutely no people of color were nominated for acting Oscars for the second year in a row, there was a justifiable backlash that was succinctly described by #OscarsSoWhite. <br />
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As with any racially charged issue about unequal treatment, there were a fair share of white people who blanched at this movement. And it wasn't just racist white people, but good-hearted and kind white people who simply seemed unwilling to acknowledge systemic racism because it's uncomfortable for them. Did you ever think, these people argued, that maybe there's no story here? That maybe the nominated actors just happened to give the best performances?
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My answer to that would be a resounding no. And I don't even need to bring people of color into the argument to prove my point. Ready? Here goes. There is absolutely no way in hell that the 40 acting performances the Academy nominated over the last two years were even the best 40 performances given exclusively by white people. The people who get nominated for these awards are almost never the best, and that holds water beyond the acting categories. So can we please just take that argument off the table?
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The reality is that people of color don't get as many opportunities, partly because stories featuring diversity are not being funded as much and partly because ethnic artists aren't being considered for choice gigs that should be race neutral. That's what makes the <a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-force-awakens-feels-like-classic.html">casting choices of Star Wars: The Force Awakens so damn awesome</a>.
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Somehow, this whole thing became a black and white issue that left other minorities out in the cold. And that's unfortunate, because the issue is even more dire for them. At least black films get distribution and black actors are occasionally cherry picked for choice roles. Most people with a clue about current pop culture can probably name at least two dozen black actors off the top of their head. But what about Hispanic, Indian or Asian actors? Hard to imagine most people could list 15 combined.
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Of course, that actually makes it easier to focus on the black community in this argument, because they do actually get some opportunities, meaning we are able to see how much they are getting screwed when they don't net nominations. In thinking about all of this, I bounced over the to the wiki page of the Black Reel Awards and realized I've seen most of this year's feature-length award winners with the exception of Spike Lee's <em>Chi-Raq</em> and the French film <em>Girlhood</em>. <br />
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<em>Straight Outta Compton</em> is a standard biopic with a topical hook.</div>
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Readers of this blog <a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2015/12/creed-recaptures-rousing-magic-of.html">already know how much I loved <em>Creed</em></a>. It was the big winner at the Black Reel Awards, and it deserved Oscar nominations for director, actor and screenplay at the very least, not to mention other categories where black artists weren't the ones getting hosed like Best Picture and Cinematography. It's not the first great movie to be mostly ignored by the Academy -- hell, 2015's best film, <a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2016/01/artifical-intelligence-thriller-ex.html"><em>Ex Machina,</em> was worthy in multiple categories </a>and only got one nomination as well. Then again, <em>Creed</em> wasn't the only black movie on the Oscar radar. The two most successful black movies of the year were <em>Creed</em> and <em>Straight Outta Compton</em>. Each received exactly one nomination (supporting actor and best original screenplay, respectively), and somehow both of these nominations honored white people. What the hell is that about?
Doesn't it seem strange?<br />
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Generally speaking, having an opinion on any of this is all just theoretical unless you've seen the movies. Well I have seen some of them, and since I'm trying to get combo reviews out here during my break from school, I thought I'd offer thoughts of some of the films that won awards at the Black Reel Awards but failed to gain traction with the Academy. <br />
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A lot of what I've been talking about here focuses around #OscarsSoWhite, but really the problem with the Oscars goes beyond that to include #OscarsSoVanilla. There's a certain type of movie that caters to the Academy, and this "Oscar bait" is typically a period piece or some other serious drama. Biographies, tragedies and war films historically do very well, as do films focused on disabilities. Comedies, especially those without dramatic weight, have little chance. Science fiction and especially horror face even longer odds. Better to be middle of the road than refreshingly off center or anything that isn't dramatic. <br />
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Because of all of this, I would've expected <em>Straight Outta Compton</em>, which revolves around the rise and fall of rap group N.W.A., to have a better chance to grab a Best Picture nomination. When black films hit all these quotas, they tend to do well, particularly when they have proper financial backing and powerful producers along the lines of Brad Pitt (<em>12 Years A Slave</em>) or Oprah Winfrey (<em>Precious</em>). <em>Straight Outta Compton</em> is a solid boilerplate biography with tragic elements, one that was received very warmly and had a lot of money and star power (Ice Cube and Dr. Dre) behind it. It's also an extremely topical film given the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the fact that N.W.A.'s biggest and most controversial hit was F**k the Police, an anthem they continued to play at arenas around the country despite pressure from government authorities. <br />
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Ultimately<em>, Straight Outta Compton</em> probably just missed being good enough to make the Best Picture cut, something it might have done with a little more narrative meat to chew on. That's really the problem here. The film is never boring and the cast is uniformly strong as one would expect from it's best ensemble award from the Black Reel Awards and it's nomination in the same category by the Screen Actor's Guild.
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However, it's all surface level stuff. As Easy E, Jason Mitchell navigates the only real arc of the film well, and O'Shea Jackson is particularly magnetic playing his father Ice Cube (kid's a dead ringer and really delivers in his musical performances), but the script never provides them enough material to get them into any sort of serious awards discussion. That may have to do with the real-life events not lending themselves to the same level of pathos found in something like <em>Ray </em>or <em>Walk the Line</em>, or it could be because the presence of Ice Cube and Dr. Dre as producers limits how close to the bone the film gets.
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<em>Dope</em> is one of the most fun films of 2015.</div>
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As I alluded to above, <em>Straight Outta Compton</em> did land a nomination this year for best original screenplay, an odd choice given how stock ordinary this one seems. It's not a bad script by any means, it's just hard to believe it's deserving of a nomination. Like the movie itself, the script is adequate bordering on good. I'd argue Rick Famuyiwa's script for <em>Dope</em> would've been a far more deserving option.
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A longtime director and writer of black focused cinema like <em>The Wood</em>, <em>Brown Sugar</em>, and <em>Talk to Me</em>, Famuyiwa hit one out of the park with <em>Dope</em>. It's a quirky coming-of-age crowd pleaser, sort of a mix between <em>Risky Business</em> and <em>Boys n the Hood</em>. On it's face, that doesn't sound like the kind of movie Oscar voters generally gravitate toward, even if you take race out of the picture. Then again, the script for <em>Boys n the Hood</em> landed a nomination, and the coming of age dramedy <em>Juno</em> took the top prize in this category as recently as 2007, so it wouldn't have been unprecedented if recognition had gone toward this vibrant, witty and well-observed script.
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<em>Dope</em> is chiefly concerned with identity, particularly what it means to be a young and black in a post-racial world. It revolves around Malcolm (Shameik Moore), an outcast in Inglewood due to his affection for 90's fashion and music, dedication to making good grades, and other geek proclivities. Like Joel in <em>Risky Business</em>, Malcolm is a prospective ivy league student who gets pulled into a seedy and illegal business opportunity (drugs instead of prostitution) only to come out the other side wiser, better off and equipped with a romantic interest. <br />
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It's an immense boon for the film that this is every bit the star making film for Moore that <em>Risky Business</em> was for Tom Cruise. The kid is funny, vulnerable and magnetic -- the real deal. Unfortunately, it is extremely rare for young upstarts of any color to get traction in the best actor category, especially for a movie like this, so he had no chance. If Michael B. Jordan didn't get in, Moore had no prayer.
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Also like <em>Risky Business</em>, <em>Dope</em> offers an irreverent yet insightful examination of the constricting weight of preconceptions and expectations. It's all very craftily done, with stylized editing and assured directing aiding Famuyiwa's fantastic script. My favorite part about the film is that it's not just Malcolm who proves more than what you'd expect on first glance. For instance, A$AP Rocky is both charming and terrifying as Dom, an articulate and quick-witted drug dealer who is bemused by Malcolm, probably because he reminds him of himself before outside influences and bad decisions led him too far down the wrong path. <br />
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Meanwhile, Kiersey Clemons busts stereotypes as Diggy, a lesbian tomboy who is adorable, loyal and confident, but still a nerd in transition, an outcast that will have no problems flourishing and getting girls when she comes into her own in college. In that way, she fits in perfectly with fellow outsiders Malcolm and Jib (Tony Revolori, great in a role that's quite a bit different than his turn as Zero in <em>The Grand Budapest Hotel</em>), her partners in BMX biking and all things '90s, not to mention fellow band mates in a punk band called Aweeroh (pronounced "Oreo"). These three are entirely believable as friends in a way many other teen comedy leads are not. Their also atypical representations of urban youth, and that's pretty damn dope. The movie is too, even if it was always slated to be an improbable Oscar nominee.
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<em>Tangerine</em> puts two real-life trans women front and center.</div>
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If <em>Dope </em>would've been an improbable nominee, the uncompromising <em>Tangerine</em> would've been an impossible one. That would've been the case even if the story starred white actors, because there is simply no way in hell that a movie shot on iPhones and focused on the sub culture of trans sex workers on the streets of LA would get that level of recognition. Like I said, #OscarsSoVanilla. <br />
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Starring transgender actresses Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor, Tangerine concerns a day-in-the-life of Sin-Dee Rella (Rodriguez), a trans sex worker who, upon being released from a four week prison sentence on Christmas Eve discovers that her pimp and boyfriend Chester (James Ransone from The Wire) has been cheating on her with a biological woman. With a flair for the dramatic, Sin-Dee goes off on a rampage to find Chester and set her rival straight. <br />
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Alexendra (Taylor), Sin-Dee's friend and fellow sex worker, reluctantly tags along when she's not handing out flyers for her musical performance later that evening or servicing clients like Razmik (Karren Karagulian), an Armenian cab driver with a wife and daughter at home. It's basically an episodic buddy adventure, one that is often funny and occasionally poignant but always fascinating. <br />
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Credit to director Sean Baker for getting such empathetic and powerful performances from Taylor and Rodriguez, two novices with real-life experience in this world, one most people are unaware of but that many in the transgender community are forced into due to hate, discrimination and a general lack of options. The shooting style was necessitated due to lack of funding, but it's inspired all the same, as it lends a vital intimacy to the proceedings. Best of all, <em>Tangerine</em> has a dynamite denouement that concludes a disappointing and embarrassing day, one in what is assuredly a long line of days characterized by struggle and hardship, with a moving gesture of graceful friendship and quiet empowerment.
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Idris Elba got robbed of a nomination. Was the snub race or </div>
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distribution platform based?</div>
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Up until this point, I've mostly highlighted avenues where the Academy could've gone with black artists but where they didn't make a glaring omission by neglecting to. However, that all changes when you consider <em>Beasts of No Nation</em>, the first of the films highlighted here not to be set in Los Angeles. Written, shot and directed by Cary Joji Fukanaga (<em>True Detective</em> season one), <em>Beasts of No Nation</em> tells the story of Agu (a phenomenal Abraham Attah), a young boy in Africa who is recruited into life as a ruthless soldier by a rebel Commandant (Idris Elba) after his family is killed during a dehumanizing and horrific civil war. <br />
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Throughout the film, Agu undergoes traumatic hardships and does some terrible things only to come out of the conflict wondering if he is now just a beast and looking to resume some semblance of childhood. Beautifully lensed and thematically reminiscent of the likes of <em>Platoon</em>, <em>Apocalypse Now</em>, and maybe even <em>City of God</em>, <em>Beasts of No Nation </em>is a visceral, sobering, disturbing, and yet ultimately hopeful examination of war and lost innocence.
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This is exactly the type of film you'd expect to do well at the Oscars, possibly in the best picture, directing, writing, and cinematography categories, and certainly in the acting categories. Nominations for Fukanaga would've meant recognition for a Japanese artist, and then there are the superlative performances from the black Attah and Elba. Attah never had a chance -- as I wrote earlier, young actors have a very difficult time in the Best Actor category -- but it's extremely hard to fathom how a beloved and respected actor like Elba did not get recognized for such searing, revealing and transformative work. It's particularly hard to figure out how Christian Bale edged him out. Bale is great fun in <em>The Big Short</em>, but Elba does something far trickier, offering a restrained and humanizing portrayal of a monster. <br />
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I'm inclined to believe the film and Elba in particular didn't garner nominations because the Academy refused to embrace a Netflix production out of some sort of high-minded fear of new distribution platforms. At the same time, it's totally fair to wonder if Elba's being black had something to do with it. Recent history leaves cause for doubting the Academy. Michael Keaton in <em>Birdman</em> aside, David Oyelowo's work in <em>Selma</em> <a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2015/06/selma-offers-captivating-story-and.html">was more impressive than all of the Best Actor nominees</a> last year and he still didn't get a nomination. This is true even though he had a role and film that screamed Oscar bait. <br />
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For what it's worth, the prize didn't even go to Keaton. Instead, it went to Eddie Redmayne for a totally fine turn in <em>The Theory of Everything</em>, a lesser film and performance in every respect, save perhaps it's Oscar bait-iness. #OscarsSoWhite and #OscarsSoVanilla indeed.
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<em>Straight Outta Compton</em> <strong>B-</strong>, <em>Dope</em> <strong>A-</strong>, <em>Tangerine </em><strong>B+</strong>, <em>Beasts of No Nation</em> <strong>B+</strong>FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-58399540073209559632016-03-14T20:51:00.001-07:002016-03-18T08:17:32.192-07:00"Mad Max: Fury Road" and "The Revenant" Display Technical Wizardry, But the Former Leaves a Better Impression<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<em>Mad Max: Fury Road</em> literally features a character who just plays a </div>
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flaming guitar to set the mood for Immortan Joe's men.</div>
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For all their differences, <em>Mad Max: Fury Road</em> and <em>The Revenant</em> strike a similar chord with me. Both feature actor Tom Hardy and both take a hard look at the violent nature of men, but the connection runs a bit deeper than that. They are certainly the most divisive films among the recent Best Picture nominees with each having been called a masterpiece by some and an overhyped piece of garbage by others. I’m somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. While I respect the undeniable craft, ambition and technical wizardry on display in each film, both feature parts that are greater than their collective wholes.
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<em>Fury Road</em> is the fourth Mad Max film, but you don’t need to have seen any of the Mel Gibson-led entries to watch it. Not at all, really. Writer/director George Miller has spoken about how the Road Warrior franchise isn’t meant to be some ongoing narrative with sensical continuity, but rather a pliable urban legend of the post-apocalyptic wasteland. These stories are whisper-down-the-lane lore told around camp fires, mythical tales about a man who takes on different shades depending on the orator.
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It is helpful to appreciating the film if you view it in that context, because the narrative is little more than a sparse allegory and Miller makes some big stylistic choices that are likely to turn off viewers looking for something a bit meatier and a lot less weird. <em>Fury Road</em> thrusts a haunted Max Rockatansky (Hardy, communicating mostly via his glances and grunts) into a feminine uprising against Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), a maniacal warlord with several of wives (i.e. sex slaves), throngs of devoted War Boys who view him as a god and even more oppressed plebs just hoping to get bit of the water Joe hoards from all but the select one-percenters. <br />
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The action starts when Imperator Furiosa (a dynamite Charlize Thernon), one of Joe’s top lieutenants, goes AWOL during a gasoline run in an attempt to liberate Joe’s five wives from captivity. It’s basically one long car chase from there, but really it’s a psychedelic music video for a feminine empowerment ditty that’s raging against overbearing masculinity and maybe a little against capitalistic over commodification as well. It’s all good zeitgeisty stuff that fits snuggly alongside the likes of <em>Ex Machina</em> (reviewed <a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2016/01/artifical-intelligence-thriller-ex.html">here</a>) and all the other media examining gender entitlement and rape culture. But, while I expect <em>Fury Road</em> to age well, I’m just not as gaga over the whole thing as its most ardent admirers. There's just some mysterious x-factor missing that prohibits me from connecting fully to the film, which probably says more about me than the movie itself. <br />
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Nevertheless, <em>Fury Road</em> is a sensory experience of the highest order. The Oscars it netted for editing, sound, costuming, makeup and production design are well deserved, and the film also would’ve been my choice for director and special effects due to its inventive lensing, energetic choreography and eye-popping stunt work. That doesn’t even cover the performances, which do their fair share in adding to the artistry of the visuals. Take, for instance, Nicholas Hoult, who is somehow batshit manic and introspectively still as Nux, one of the more nuanced takes on a homicidal zealot you’re likely to come across.
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Leonardo DiCaprio finally got his Oscar for <em>The Revenant</em>.</div>
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The <em>Revenant</em> delivers plenty on the sensory level as well, with stylistic flourishes wrapped around a traditional narrative that will sit just fine with people unaccustomed to tonal idiosyncrasies. The tale of a fur keeper (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is mauled by a bear and then left for dead by the cohorts left in charge of tending to his needs, it’s basically concerned with suffering and survival, although it does make some nods toward the all-consuming nature of vengeance. Much of that is hollow tokenism, especially compared to <em>Prisoners </em>(reviewed <a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2014/05/jake-gyllenhaal-shines-in-thought.html">here</a>) or even something lesser like <em>Death Sentence.</em><br />
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Packaging impressive long takes and unbelievable camera movements that trump what director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki previously achieved together with <em>Birdman</em>, <em>The Revenant</em> is as viscerally immersive in its best moments as any movie out there. Unfortunately, in between those moments the film is so emotionally static and faux meditative that it falls way beneath their previous collaboration.<br />
<br />
DiCaprio won the Academy Award for his work here, and while some would have you believe his victory was basically a lifetime attaboy along the lines of the Oscar Al Pacino received for <em>Scent of a Woman</em>, that would be untrue. DiCaprio gives a grounded and raw performance, and although this doesn’t even rank as one of his 10 best performances and I wouldn’t have even nominated him this year, his win is far from some embarrassing make-good. It’s just that there’s not a lot of meat on the bone. Hardy has more to work with as the chief antagonist, another brooding brute like Max, albeit inverted, rotten and way more talkative. A win for him would’ve made more sense to me, but I’m not in charge of awards. <br />
<br />
I prefer <em>Mad Max: Fury Road</em> to <em>The Revenant</em>, but they are both good films chiefly defined by the auteur touches of their directors. Neither is a top 10 film for me in 2015, but there’s always a few of those thrown in with the Best Picture crew, and I would way rather have those spots go to these masters of the form than some boilerplate prestige pic defined by middling competence.
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<em>Mad Max: Fury Road</em> <strong>B+</strong>, <em>The Revenant</em> <strong>B
</strong>FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-57326053089152000792016-01-12T00:44:00.002-08:002016-02-26T05:41:28.774-08:00Artifical Intelligence Thriller "Ex Machina" Examines Systemic Sexism<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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Alicia Vikander commands the screen as Ava.</div>
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Oscar Isaac and Dohmnall Gleeson play big roles in <i>Star Wars: The Force Awakens</i>, but the latest foray into a galaxy far, far away was only the second best 2015 science fiction the two made together. First prize goes to <i>Ex Machina</i>, a thought-provoking and engrossing sci-fi thriller that marks the directorial debut of writer Alex Garland (<i>28 Days Later…</i>, <i>Never Let Me Go</i>).<br />
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Gleeson stars as Caleb, a programmer for a Google-type software company who wins the opportunity to spend a week at the secluded estate of the company’s founder Nathan (Isaac, continuing to prove he's one of our best working actors). The only other person in the sleekly-designed compound is Kyoko (Sonya Mizuno), the house maid Nathan speaks down to and lashes out at when he’s not using her as a sex partner. And then there’s Ava (2015 breakout Alicia Vikander, totally killing it), a humanoid robot with artificial intelligence that Nathan has created.<br />
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During his stay, Caleb is tasked with being the human component of a Turing test, which gauges AI’s consciousness. During a series of sessions, Ava and Caleb seem to develop feelings for one another, and during sporadic power outages that interrupt Nathan’s camera feed, Ava tells Caleb that Nathan is a bad man who cannot be trusted. However, things are not as they seem, an atmosphere of unease persists and everyone’s motivations aren’t made clear until the finale.<br />
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That’s all I’ll say on the plot specifics of the film, which plays on the surface like a cautionary technology tale or a <i>Frankenstein</i> fable about the foibles of playing God. However, like last year’s <i>Under the Skin</i> or the Netflix show <i>Jessica Jones</i>, this is a pointed commentary on gender privilege and entitlement disguised in a genre traditionally targeted at the male demographic.<br />
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Nathan is the more-readily definable, self-absorbed, abusive bro, but Caleb, who for all intents and purposes is the good guy protagonist, also trades in stealth misogyny. In some ways we all do, men and women both, which is probably unsurprising seeing how we’ve been programmed in a world of systemic sexism, one where the main narrative of entertainment (books, movies, video games, whatever) features knights in shining armor winning the hearts (and bodies) of damsels in distress. Look no further than the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2--K85dTZxU">gag that punctuates <em>Kingsman: The Secret Service</em></a> for proof. The ending of <em>Ex Machina</em> is a direct comment on this programming in the way it engenders an almost unconscious response in the viewer, one akin to the famous example of someone watching <i>Do the Right Thing</i> and coming away angry that Mookie tossed a trash can through Sal’s window.<br />
<br />
It would be hard for me to recommend something more than I recommend <i>Ex Machina</i>. It’s a film with everything going for it – it’s thematically rich, all the tech aspects are top notch and the acting is sublime. I’d say it’s my favorite film of 2015, and besides maybe <i>Creed</i>, nothing else so far even comes close. <b>A</b>
FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-77444073233563552042016-01-05T06:50:00.001-08:002016-01-05T06:50:30.984-08:00"The Force Awakens" Feels Like Classic "Star Wars"<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Importantly, <i>Force Awakens</i> gets the new characters right.</td></tr>
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So I finally saw <i>Star Wars: The Force Awakens</i> and I have a lot of thoughts. Generally, I’ll admit I really enjoyed the movie. J.J. Abrams and the creative team delivered the film that fans have been clamoring for over the last three decades but that they were denied by the piss-poor prequels. This one is leaps and bounds above those films, and while it’s not really on par with the first trilogy, it’s tightly edited, expertly cast and entertaining as hell.<br />
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<i>The Force Awakens</i> basically follows the standard sequel escalation protocol – do what worked before, but go bigger. I mean that very literally. Once again, the bad guys have a planet-destroying base, causing one character to ask “So, it’s another Death Star?” I can’t remember the exact response, but it goes something like, “Sort of, but this one is like way, way bigger,” which is accompanied by a hologram showing the disparity and a lot of gulps from the people standing around. I’m not exactly sure why – since both the Death Star and this Starkiller Base do the exact same thing, you’d think the size would be pretty inconsequential. I guess one destroys worlds harder than the other.<br />
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Luckily Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is at this meeting, and he cuts past all the size mumbo jumbo, saying “How do we blow it up? There's always a way to do that.” And low-and-behold there is, and it’s basically the same exact vulnerability that brought down the empire in <i>A New Hope</i> and <i>Return of the Jedi</i>. So, everything’s bigger, but the same flaws persist.<br />
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The same could be said of the movie, which is basically a retread of <i>A New Hope</i>, with dashes of <i>Empire Strikes Back</i> and <i>Return of the Jedi</i> sprinkled throughout. As a general rule, that’s not necessarily a bad thing – I <a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2015/12/creed-recaptures-rousing-magic-of.html">recently wrote glowingly of <i>Creed</i></a>, a movie that does something very similar – but, while that film utilized a familiar construct to fully explore new themes and affecting character dynamics, <i>The Force Awakens </i>mostly trades in nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake.<br />
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I won’t lie – I love a great deal of the fanboy service, and I’ll happily revisit this world every year, especially if it feels this lived-in and emotionally resonant (more on that in a minute). But ultimately, I can’t help but feel the whole thing is pretty derivative. In a universe defined in the hearts of fans by its inventiveness and possibilities, we keep bouncing back to the same plot points about the same family in which everything paradoxically boils down to destiny. Rey (Daisy Ridley) may or may not have Skywalker blood running through her, but Kylo Ren definitely does, and it just makes the whole Star Wars universe seem so small. If Finn (John Boyega) winds up being the son of Lando Calrissian or a descendent of Mace Windu – basically the only other black characters in this series to date – it’s going to be hella annoying.<br />
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But setting aside these issues, I rather enjoyed <i>The Force Awakens</i>. I do think the film could’ve benefited from slowing down to breathe and allow some character moments, and that it was an emotionally dishonest misstep to have Leia (Carrie Fisher) hug Rey instead of Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) at the end. But, despite my moaning about the derivative nature of the story, I do appreciate some of the symmetry in play here – as with <i>A New Hope</i>, <i>The Force Awakens</i> contains a lovable droid with a secret message, a hero from a desert planet with mysterious parentage, and a mentor who is struck down by a villain he raised. This makes the movements of the film predictable, but not necessarily in an unenjoyable way.<br />
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Because, it needs to be said, when the film delivers, it really, really delivers. Abrams taps into the excitement that defined this world in the original trilogy, and even better, he replicates the feeling that the characters inhabiting it haven’t been created for this story, but instead have been living fully-realized lives. We’ve been plopped into this adventure in media res and there’s a strong feeling that, even though we’re mostly trading in stock archetypes with these characters, nearly all of them have distinct personalities, emotions, histories and motivations. That makes things a lot more refreshing and engrossing than the prequels where everyone was basically a plot-serving automaton.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Harrison Ford doesn't sleepwalk through the film.</td></tr>
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Rey and Finn are great characters to spin these movies around, not only because the fact that a woman and a black man are heading up a franchise like this is undeniably thrilling, but also because they are a lot of fun and the actors are unknowns that totally own their roles and have dynamite chemistry (I’ve long held that Abrams’ greatest strength as a filmmaker is his keen casting ability, and that’s extremely true here).<br />
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Rey is endearing, self-sufficient and resourceful and while nitpickers are arguing she’s a Mary Sue character (i.e. wish-fulfillment perfection), that’s just some horseshit, because nobody would be saying it if she was a man. Yes, she’s preternaturally good at everything she tries, from flying ships, to wielding light sabers, to controlling the force. She’s “the chosen one” archetype we’ve seen lead every film in this series, not to mention other popular films like <i>Harry Potter</i> and <i>The Matrix</i>, except this time she’s a girl. Have problems with that genre staple by all means, but it would be unfair to dwell on it here since the protagonist is a woman. I, for one, find it a refreshing change of pace.<br />
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Finn, meanwhile, is a Storm Trooper with a conscious, a self-interested antihero that initially isn’t so much about doing good as he is about not doing bad. Although he also seems preternaturally skilled with a light saber (although, to be fair, the film does show Rey expertly wielding a staff to subdue attackers early on and Storm Troopers fighting with light saber-like riot gear), he’s much less skilled than Rey, getting by mostly on luck and pluck. He’s basically a Han Solo type without the rapscallion nature and ace flying skills. Put a little more accurately, he’s basically a Ron Weasley type, or, depending on how things develop with his and Rey’s stories, maybe a Samwise Gamgee type.<br />
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I love that this role (and the role of Rey) could really be any sex or gender, but since Finn is played by a black guy, there is possibly something to his race on the thematic level. While I wouldn’t <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/dec/29/star-wars-the-force-awakens-black-lives-matters-first-science-fiction-film">go as far as this writer</a>, the fact is that the film gives us a black man rising up and fighting against the constructs placed upon him from birth. With the current state of racial relations and misunderstandings, that’s a noteworthy thing for a major blockbuster to do.<br />
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There are other great characters as well. BB-8 is perfectly adorable, and although he’s probably the most prequely character of the bunch since he’s just a stock good guy with no back story, the sheer force of charisma the great Oscar Issac brings to the table makes Poe Dameron far better than any hero we got into those entries. Meanwhile, Kylo Ren is basically what George Lucas wanted Anakin Skywalker to be in the prequels – petulant, whiny, flawed, corrupted and (here’s the difference) compelling. He has an undeniably interesting dynamic with every single one of the good guys besides Poe, which should be a landmine for drama in future installments.<br />
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And then, of course, there are the standbys from the first trilogy. Carrie Fisher and (especially) Mark Hamill are glorified cameos, but Harrison Ford brings a lot more energy than I would’ve expected. He carries the emotional weight of the film, forging powerful moments with each of the three main newbies before making his exit from the series.<br />
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So that’s my thoughts on <i>The Force Awakens</i>. It gets most of the important things right, and, excitingly, three of the four main roles moving forward are played by a woman, a black man, and a Latino man respectively, which I’m thinking has to be some sort of groundbreaking. While I would have preferred something a bit fresher, <i>The Force Awakens</i> is a strong start that has me excited for future outings, especially considering their being written and directed by a vibrant talent like Rian Johnson. <b>B+</b>FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-51430758019798301462015-12-16T17:44:00.001-08:002016-03-19T16:58:07.529-07:00“Creed” Recaptures the Rousing Magic of the Original “Rocky”<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Sylvester Stallone hands the franchise off to an up-and-comer in <i>Creed</i>.</td></tr>
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The <i>Rocky</i> and <i>Star Wars</i> franchises are very different beasts, but it's amazing how, nearly 40 years into their lifespans, they seem to be riding along the same trajectory. Both started as passion projects for their creators before emerging as undisputable cultural touchstones. And, after devolving into mediocrity, both series have reemerged here in 2015 with original cast members passing the baton to new stars. <i>Star Wars: The Force Awakens</i> and <i>Creed</i> are each the seventh film in their respective franchises, and yet, oddly enough, both films are the first in their series in which the driving force isn't the original creator but instead a total unabashed fanboy.<br />
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Expectations are sky high for J.J. Abrams' <i>Star Wars: The Force Awakens</i>, and the stakes are clearly a lot bigger for him than they were for Ryan Coogler, writer-director of <i>Creed</i>. But if <i>Force Awakens</i> can even sort of do for <i>Star Wars</i> what <i>Creed</i> does for <i>Rocky</i>, well, Abrams and most film fans on the planet will be tremendously happy.<br />
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Like Abrams' own <i>Star Trek</i> films or Noah Hawley's <i>Fargo</i> series, <i>Creed</i> is somehow both a loving piece or fan fiction and a great piece of entertainment in its own right. The plot intentionally mirrors that of the original Rocky -- a longshot underdog given an out-of-nowhere shot at the title based solely on his name is coached up by a reluctant old-timer and romances a local cutie -- while offering numerous nods to its increasingly bombastic sequels. A naysayer could say it's a mere retread mixed with elements of <i>The Color of Money</i>, but Coogler simultaneously embraces and subverts cliché, bringing a fresh feel to a familiar self-worth narrative.<br />
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Observe his clever spin on the training montage or the way he viscerally films each boxing sequence (one in a single take, another with multiple behind-the-head-shots that evoke a video game), and that becomes obvious. But it really helps that he's created a hell of a role for his <i>Fruitvale Station</i> star Michael B. Jordan, who undergoes a startling body transformation to portray boxing hopeful Adonis Johnson, the bastard son of Rocky nemesis-turned-friend Apollo Creed. Adonis is a rarity in a Hollywood film -- a young, complex black man. He's cocky and timid, charming and infuriating, weak and strong. It's the type of role that Tom Cruise played when he was younger and that almost nobody gets to play now, and it just really works within the Rocky construct.<br />
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Having never met his father -- he died in the ring before the boy was even born -- Adonis feels compelled to follow in his footsteps. This is despite the fact that he's an educated man with choices thanks to Apollo's widow Mary Ann (Phylicia Rashad), who plucked him out of the foster system after his mother died to raise him as her own. Mary Ann obviously doesn't condone his desire, and neither does the LA boxing community, forcing the self-taught Adonis to travel south of the border to engage in back-room bouts to get his fix. When that's no longer enough, he heads for Philly to track down Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stall<br />
one) and get some professional training.<br />
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From there, the movie feeds you a lot of what you'd expect from a Rocky movie -- training montages, heart-on-sleeve monologues, health scares, inspirational music -- but it also lands some unexpected haymakers. There's the affecting romance with Bianca (Tessa Thompson), a deaf musician who is refreshingly living her own, three-dimensional life beyond the life of her beau.<br />
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But the biggest one comes courtesy of humbly powerful performance from Stallone, an actor who was compared to Brando when he arrived in the original Rocky but is mostly, deservedly, a punch-line. His performance here ranks with the best he's ever given -- right alongside the original <i>Rocky</i> and <i>Cop Land</i> -- and the Oscar talk swirling around him is well-founded. Stallone has allowed his iconic presence to do most of the heavy lifting over the last few decades, but here, he and Coogler wield that status like a surgical knife, using it to elevate the performance while also layering in the kind of gravitas, feeling and honesty you can only bring to a role when it has bled so fully into your own life and vice versa.<br />
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<i>Creed</i> is formulaic and manipulative, but satisfyingly so. Like last year's <i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i>, <i>Creed</i> is the type of film that is just so enthusiastically hitting all the right notes, that none of that stuff registers as a detraction. Coogler deftly handles everything, getting us to care about these people, and then getting us to root for them. Anyone who knows good <i>Rocky </i>movies from mediocre <i>Rocky</i> movies knows how things will end, but it doesn't matter. In the final round, when Coogler follows the film's best dramatic moment by finally allowing a few bars of Bill Conti's famous theme to play, it's just utter perfection, the kind of movie magic that every film yearns for but so few achieve. <b>A</b>FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-72067644193010008302015-09-27T02:28:00.000-07:002015-09-27T02:32:42.695-07:00Fun, Inventive "Ant-Man" Makes A Compelling Case for Ant-Man<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas star as Ant-Man, past and present.</td></tr>
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In the past, Marvel Studios has found a way to get modern audiences to embrace possibly laughable scenarios involving warring Norse gods or gun-toting raccoons with alien tree sidekicks, but with <i>Ant-Man</i> they’ve managed something even trickier. They’ve found a way to make a seemingly lame super hero incredibly awesome. <br />
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For those unfamiliar, Ant-Man revolves around a super hero who can shrink down to the size of an ant and command ants to do his bidding. He may not be the lamest sounding super hero – Aquaman takes the cake there, as exemplified by shows as diverse as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDCUmDhABRg"><i>Family Guy</i></a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0P3YeLFotc"><i>Big Bang Theory</i></a> – but he's not far off. <br />
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However, via a series of inventive fight scenes, including a one-on-one battle with Falcon (Anthony Mackie), <i>Ant-Man</i> makes an excellent case for why Ant-Man deserves a place at the Avengers' table. It's exciting to imagine the havoc the little guy could wreck when playing alongside the big boys. <br />
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Like nearly every film Marvel Studios has made over the last seven years, <i>Ant-Man</i> struggles with a weak villain and repeats the same basic story about keeping a powerful McGuffin from falling into the wrong hands. And, although it was long-billed as a heist movie, the central heist of the film is underwhelmingly derivative. <br />
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Despite all that, the film is a blast. Structurally, it hits many of the same beats as <i>Iron Man</i> with a disgruntled second-in-command and a strong redemption angle to boot. The film offers an interesting retcon of the MCU thus far, positing that Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) was another player in the fight against Hydra, much like Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) and Howard Stark (John Slattery). <br />
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Some super impressive CGI is used to de-age Douglas for a flashback that establishes Pym developed a suit that allowed shrinking to the size of an ant via the use of Pym Particles. Although Pym used his tech to fight America's enemies as The Ant-Man, he refused to share his formula, fearful it would fall into untrustworthy hands (smart move given Hydra had infiltrated Shield by that point even if they remained hidden until the events of <i>Captain America: The Winter Soldier</i>). Years later we see him struggling with the notion that his former protégée Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) is on the precipice of cracking the formula and preparing to sell it to Hydra (who else?). <br />
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Enter Scott Lang (Rudd), a wronged-engineer who struck back at the fat cats as a Robin Hood-like cat-burglar and wound up in prison. At the outset of the film, he is released from jail, and we see the struggle he has getting his life back together so he can reconnect with his beloved daughter Cassie. Pym, who has a troubled relationship with his own daughter Hope (Evangeline Lily), targets Lang as the ideal candidate to use his suit in an effort to stop Cross. <br />
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This is the first post-<i>Avengers</i> film to really address why other heroes aren't lending a hand, and best of all, the reason is rooted in character. Immediately after hearing Pym's pitch, Lang says, "I think we should call the Avengers," and it's refreshing as hell to hear. But Pym had a strained relationship with Howard Stark, and so he refuses to seek the help of his son, whose Iron-Man suit he dismisses as "cute tech" when compared to the Ant-Man one. <br />
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Thematically, the film does a lot with fatherhood, exploring the notion of earning the adoration our children naturally give us. The film is borderline cloying at times, but the coupling of the off-center tone and a game cast keeps everything together. This is far-and-away the jokiest Marvel film to date, and all of it lands perfectly. The film gets a lot of mileage out of size-related humor and Douglas, Rudd and Lily charm in the lead roles. However, despite filling the second most generic major role in the film (first goes to Judy Greer's no-fun mom, a role she recently played in <i>Jurassic World</i>), Michael Pena practically walks away with the movie on the strength of his unfettered energy and a great running gag. <br />
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Few would argue Peyton Reed is as strong a filmmaker as Edgar Wright (who shepherded the project for years but then left right before production due the creative differences), but, as a big fan of the character, Reed was a good choice to take the project across the finish line. <i>Ant-Man</i> is a real winner for Marvel, and another testament to their ability to turn outlandish properties into four-quadrant entertainments. Jury’s out on if they can continue that trend with next year's <i>Dr. Strange</i>, but I wouldn’t bet against them. <b>B+<b></b></b></div>
FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645682403298880976.post-88315821916136692232015-08-23T08:28:00.002-07:002015-08-23T08:52:10.491-07:00Cruise Leads All Star Team In "Mission: Impossible -- Rouge Nation"<span id="goog_1077521833"></span><span id="goog_1077521834"></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rebecca Ferguson provides an excellent sparing partner for Tom Cruise.</td></tr>
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I’m going to go out on a limb and say it: Tom Cruise is the greatest action star of all time. </div>
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For some people, that statement is craziness, mostly because Cruise doesn’t have the physicality of Schawarzenegger or the innate toughness of Eastwood. </div>
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But just look at the films and tell me which other actor has a better body of work within the genre. I’d put the threesome of <i>Collateral</i>, <i>Minority Report</i> and <i>Edge of Tomorrow</i> (<a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2014/07/edge-of-tomorrow-provides-fun.html">my review here</a>) up against pretty much anything. Hell, even Cruise’s lower tier stuff – <i>Jack Reacher</i>, <i>Oblivion</i> (<a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2013/12/theres-some-pretty-remarkable-sets-in.html">my review here</a>), <i>Knight and Day</i> – would wipe the floor with the best many other action stars have to offer. And, I’ve said all of this without even including the trump card that would be the <i>Mission: Impossible</i> series, which recently became even more impressive with the release of the wonderful <i>Mission: Impossible – Rouge Nation</i>. <br />
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Right off the bat, <i>Rouge Nation</i> calls on Cruise’s greatest appeal as an action star – his reckless commitment. The focus of the film’s ad campaign has been the scene where Cruise hangs off of an Airbus A400M, and yet the stunt occurs minutes into the film, a little appetizer to jack up the audience. You could argue it's a superfluous scene, but really it's quite meaningful in how it sets up the film's meta narrative.<br />
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Just as <i>Skyfall</i> explored the <a href="http://we-lm.blogspot.com/2013/01/skyfall-offers-excellent-meta-take-on.html">relevance of James Bond and the MI6 in today's world</a>, <i>Rouge Nation</i> questions the need for Ethan Hunt and the IMF. Early in the film, Alec Baldwin's CIA director insists Hunt is a reckless gambler and that the IMF is an extravagant, outdated organization that should be dissolved, but eventually he gets on board, saying "Ethan Hunt is the living embodiment of destiny." </div>
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That all might as well be a commentary on Cruise, a big-money superstar who is largely a remnant of a bygone era when movie stars were sustainably bankable. It's a different world now, but Cruise is still chugging along, wowing us with the real-world peril he puts himself in to sell these confections to audiences. There's a few cracks here and there, but he's mostly an ageless marvel, and he carries it all off with such precision, dedication and good humor. <br />
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The plot has something to do with The Syndicate, a rouge spy organization pulled right from the old TV show, but the specifics are pretty irrelevant. Like all <i>Mission</i> flicks, <i>Rouge Nation</i> simply revolves around Cruise needing to get some item (usually a list, code, or both) that's impossible to get. Differentiation comes down to the director at the helm, the team of cohorts working alongside Cruise, and the set pieces that prop the film up.</div>
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Christopher McQuarrie isn't nearly as definitive as the other directors to take a turn on this series, but I like what he does here, combining Brad Bird's jaunty tone (<i>Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol</i>) with Brian DePalma's Hitchcockian tension (<i>Mission: Impossible</i>). Like it's immediate predecessor, <i>Rouge Nation</i> continues the hard-right turn into romp territory, and, I'll just say that it's amazing how much comedy these last two movies have gotten out of Cruise's minimalism. Guy does so much with a shrug or a glance. Meanwhile, The set pieces live up to the high bar set by previous entries in the series. I have an affinity for the staging of the tense opera sequence, but the water scene at the center of the film is a doozy, up there with the very best the series has done. </div>
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But <i>Rouge Nation</i> really excels when it comes to the team, a veritable who's who of the series' bests. After sitting most of the last entry out, long-time sidekick Luther Stickel (Ving Rhames) is back in action, along with Benji (Simon Pegg) and Brandt (Jermey Renner). Renner gets less to do this time out (he's mostly comic relief alongside Baldwin or Rhames), but Pegg shines here as he takes another step toward basically becoming a co-lead in the series. </div>
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Paula Patton is the only main player from <i>Ghost Protocol</i> who isn't back because, you know, sexism. Fortunately, the trade off means we get a large dose of Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust, an agent who may or may not be a loyal member of The Syndicate. Ferguson combines vulnerability and nerve into a fascinating package, giving the type of performance that makes you sit up and ask, "Who is this actor, and why aren't they in everything?" The relationship doesn't get full-on romantic (after that last scene in <i>Ghost Protocol</i>, it's still unclear where Hunt stands with his wife), but the actors have oodles of chemistry. At the film's end you're dying to see more of Ilsa, and I hope Cruise and his collaborators don't jettison Ferguson once they start breaking the story for the inevitable sixth entry in the series. </div>
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For what it's worth, <i>Rouge Nation</i> nestles right in at two on my list of favorite <i>Mission</i> flicks, right in between <i>Ghost Protocol</i> and the original. Honestly, it's hard for me to rank all but but the second film, which is decent enough, but definitely rates last. That's because these films are such finely-tuned entertainments. It's barely greenlit, and I'm already excited for the next one. <b>A-<b></b></b></div>
FrankVhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10621624445577015939noreply@blogger.com0