At the Cinema - November and December 2017

It’s New Year’s Eve as I write this, and for the first time in recent memory I had no movie I really loved this year.  (No Arrival, No Mad Max:  Fury Road) Not yet, anyway.  I still have a few Christmas releases to see, but make no mistake the movie-going experience has changed.  Most theaters have switched over to lounge seating that is reserved, and with the reduced capacities, prices have gone up to match the exorbitant concession prices.  If you don’t line up a seat early, you may get one with a bad angle to the screen, the previews go on forever, and the diminished crowd size means less enthusiasm, less spark.  It ain’t what it used to be, and my home theater is officially ready for the day when we can stream first run movies. Watch for your invitation.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbings, Missouri – 9

Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell give two of the year’s rawest performances, spitting at each other for most of this strange but original movie.  “Still no Arrests” scream the billboards that Mildred (McDormand) rents in frustration about the lethargic pace of an investigation.  She lost her daughter to a rape/murder awhile back, and her anger with the local police chief (a terrific Woody Harrelson – as usual) leads her to take this desperate action which will divide her community.

Rarely is real anger depicted this well.  

Downsizing – 9

Matt Damon’s latest payday has him playing an average Joe named Paul Safranek.  His life is not going all that well so he decides the answer is to get shrunk (not crunk.)  The technology that may save the planet has some choosing to shrink their carbon footprint through miniaturizations.  Well, I guess that would work.  And so does the movie, surprisingly.  With engaging little plots, and engaging little characters, the movie prances along at an interesting pace, greatly enhanced by Damon’s eventual love interest, a Vietnamese refugee dissident who was shrunk against her will in a prison.  The “little people” domed city, called “Leisure Land ’ has evolved to mirror most America populations and Tran (an enchanting Hong Cha) lives in the not-often-seen barrio. 

Paul is on a journey to make his life worthwhile, and maybe Tran will help guide him.  Director Alexander Payne’s movie are never simple, easy, or predictable, and it’s a testament to his powers, that I fell for this movie hook, line, and sinker.

Lady Bird – 7

And yet I never bought the acclaimed Lady Bird for a minute.  Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf are rightfully earning raves for their portrayals of a mother and daughter at war over pretty much everything in Sacremento California set sometime before there were cell phones for teenagers to stare at.  Despite the accolades (highest rated tomato meter ever) it just never rang true for me.  While I applaud the originality and the effort, it just didn’t connect with me.  Can’t win them all. 

Star Wars: The Last Jedi - 1

It was 1977 and me and a few fraternity brothers made the 100 mile drive from Hattiesburg to New Orleans to gain entry to the theater at Lakeside Mall (yes they used to have a theater there) and see the movie everyone was talking about.  We left the theater with our pulses and engines racing, adrenalized to the point that we were driving rather stupidly.  We had just seen Star Wars and it was one of the great movie-going experiences of a lifetime of going to movies.  Yes, you remember that first time you saw it.  We had never seen anything like it.

It's sequel was The Empire Strikes Back, and it’s greatness was matched by a darkness rarely experienced in commercial movies.  The promise of a great serial of movies was on the horizon.  Then something happened.  We aged, and the Star Wars movies had to conquer new generations.  The suits retitled the first movie from a says-it-all “Star Wars” to a says-mo-money “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.”  The marketing of Star Wars, the movie and the toys, has been the real force that has been with us for 40 mostly enjoyable years.

I doubt that maintaining the interest of those original fans means much anymore, but we still have the right to weigh in.  So here’s my take.  With the latest episode – The Last Jedi, I must confess – they’ve lost me.  I despised this movie.

It is a mishmash of confusion and contradiction, chaos and more chaos.  The screen is filled with action that I couldn’t follow and the geographic disconnect is such that it was never clear to me where the players were. Constant motion must be needed to maintain the attention of the video gamers, and perhaps that’s it.  And yet the movie still grinds to a halt in some scenes, with great tedium.  Daisy Ridley, who was so engaging in the last installment, is Daisy one-note here.  She left her charisma on Proteous 7.  I had no idea what was going on for the first hour and a half, although the last hour was at least comprehensible.  But the actors seem to be in on the joke.  They act as if they know the whole thing is a joke, and they can’t believe their good fortune to be in this cinematic profiteering exercise.  

Stop, just stop.

But Disney, who has purchased the franchise,  won’t. 
They have a cash cow for now and many generations to come.  

Enjoy.  I’m out.

Saints Report #15 - December 24, 2017

A raucous crowd set up a Christmas Eve wall on the goal line in the Superdome on Sunday and the Falcons could only penetrate the wall late in the Saints 23-13 victory   The Saints defense turned away the Falcons without a point twice from the one yard line.   It was a signature performance by a depleted defense.  Mante Te’o played the game of his life as he filled in for AJ Klein, who was joined on injured reserve this week by Kenny Vaccaro.  Do the Saints have enough?

They did for the rivals who had stung them 17 days earlier.  The Saints running game has slowed a little in recent weeks, as NFL defensive coordinators adjust.  The slowing of the Saints offense would normally be a death knell.  But not this year with the defense doing its share.  And then there’s Drew Brees, whose rainbows to Michael Thomas are a thing of beauty.  Brees has always spread the ball around, but he can’t help but favor the Magical Michael, who snatches the ball out of the air like I snatch dinner rolls.   Brees is now behind Peyton Manning and Brett Favre in the 70,000 yard club.  He will pass them next year, and 80,000 seems within reach before the end of his incredible career. 

Defensive stalwart Cameron Jordan made his case for NFL defensive player of the year with a couple more sacks.  Jordan rarely comes off the field and has been the Saints most dominant defensive lineman in many years, as the Saints got the improvement from their defense that they needed to improve behind those three straight 7-9 seasons.

The Saints are in the playoffs, but will have to win the division outright during their trip to Tampa next week.  That would also guarantee them a home playoff game, something that hasn’t happened for 5 years.  Then, they will be 3 wins from the Super Bowl.  Didn’t see this coming. No, I didn't.

Saints Report #14 - December 17, 2017

On Sunday the Saints moved to 10 – 4 with a win over the visiting New York Jets.  The game was closer than the final score of 31 – 19 would indicate.  The Jets gave the Saints all they could handle. 

The Jets ran the ball pretty well all day and it looked like the Saints were wearing down.  For most of the game, the Saints could not run the ball, as the Jets were providing a blue print for the league to watch.  Mark Ingram had two impact plays, and Kamara had a touchdown catch, but Brandon Coleman fumbled twice deep in Jet territory, on consecutive catches no less.  Michael Thomas did much of the baling with one great catch after another, and the Saints defense turned back an inexperienced Quarterback when they needed to. 

This was not a playoff caliber performance, but the W goes in the record book, and that’s what counts..

The Saints deservedly had 6 players named to the Pro Bowl although oddly, no offensive lineman.  They had an amazing draft that may net them rookies of the year offensively and defensively.  Their defensive secondary is young, and light years ahead of what they usually have.

It's been a year of huge strides with great promise for the future.

And yet.....

They haven’t clinched the division title.

They haven’t clinched a playoff spot.

They haven’t clinched a home playoff game.

The Falcons and Panthers are both breathing down their necks, and the Saints could face one or both for a third time in the playoffs. 

They’ve lost AJ Klein for the year and he was Captain of the Defense and a key factor in beating his former team, the Panthers.

To get to the Super Bowl they will have to do something they’ve done only once in their history – win a road playoff game.

To win the Super Bowl they probably have to win two games in a row in Minneapolis.

All of this because they play in the super-competitive NFC South which is very likely to produce both wild card teams.  Falcons and Panthers.  Sean Payton probably dreams about them.

So the Saints must close the season with two wins – at home against the Falcons, then on the road at Tampa. 

Merry Christmas.  ‘Tis the season.