At the Cinema - January 2018

I, Tonya – 10
Out of nowhere comes the best movie of the year.  Don’t you dare.  Don’t you dare ever think of Margot Robbie as just another beautiful face.  She is simply sensational as Tonya Harding in this biography.  Yet she has to fight off 2 scene stealers.  First there’s Allison Janney, who plays the vicious ice rink mother to the hilt, and is rightfully hitting the rewards jackpot for her work.  But my favorite portrayal in the movie may be by an unknown actor named Paul Walter Hauser who becomes the goober bodyguard Shawn, who is the mastermind behind one of the most heinous sport crimes of all time.  I can’t wait to watch this again to get a full appreciation of the acting by these three. 

Truth is stranger, gaudier, and more absorbing than fiction and this retelling of the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan rivalry is not for the faint of heart, as it is peppered with domestic violence and psychotic relationships.  My mouth was wide open for most of this movie.  The sports recreations are amazing.  I have no idea how they did this, but I’ll be researching it.  It’s incredibly well done.

If you like sports, see this movie.  If you like biographies, see this movie.  If you like great acting, see this movie.  This is that rare movie that delivers more than it promises, and it may be the best casting of a movie since Gone With The Wind.  How's that for hyperbole?

Molly’s Game – 9

Rat-a-tat-tat goes Aaron Sorkin’s first directorial effort.  The Oscar-winning screenwriter who has penned so much classic material tackles the task of telling people how to say his snap crackle pop dialogue and he has produced a fun night at the movies.

The first and best step he made was casting the great Jessica Chastain as Molly Bloom, the true life character who runs celebrity poker games first in Los Angeles, then New York.  When Russian Mobsters intrude into her New York game, the Feds get interested, and Molly is going down, unless her lawyer played by Idris Elba, can save her.

It’s a great true story – you couldn’t make this up – and of course it’s told in a non-linear manner while Sorkin pulls out all the visual stops, including graphics to explain the poker action.  The always terrific Jessica Chastain gives my second favorite performance of the year.  I'm beginning to think of her as the Katherine Hepburn of today.  She can do anything.

I think there have been two classics in Hollywood that have changed the game in my lifetime.  The Sixth Sense with its surprise ending in 1999 put pressure on filmmakers to come up with shocking endings. 

Annie Hall in 1976 freed the filmmakers from having to tell the story in a linear fashion and also threw in the use of subtitles, cartoons, and graphics.  Some movies are ahead of their time, and some advance us to their time.  I’ve watched Annie 20 times if I’ve watched it once.  In many ways, although not a comedy, Molly’s Game, while by no means a classic, is a manifestation of where we are in film today.

Darkest Hour – 9

Earlier this year there was a movie called Dunkirk.  I didn’t particularly like it because it was an over-produced, overly loud muddled mess of a movie that was so non-linear in its time line that you had no idea when things were happening.  On first viewing, it appeared that the great director Christopher Nolan, whom I usually love, had gone too far.  It told the story of how the entire British Army of 300,000 was pinned against the English Channel in France by the German Army in World War II.

Darkest Hour is a masterpiece of a companion.  It tells the story of Winston Churchill during this darkest hour.  He is elected Prime Minister as Neville Chamberlain appears unable to cope with the war.  With a few politicians urging him to broker a piece with Hitler, he must decide where to take the British Empire. 

Churchill’s decision to fight “on the land, in the sea” is an amazing, and forgotten story made all the more amazing by Gary Oldham’s slam dunk performance as Churchill.  From what I’ve seen this year, there’s no other contender for the Best Actor Oscar.  He’s phenomenal and the story is phenomenal.  If you have the slightest bit of interest in history, don’t miss this movie.

The Shape of Water – 8
Beauty and the Beast Guillermo Del Toro style, with a mute woman falling for the Creature from the Black Lagoon.  That sums up this stylish, beautifully executed water journey.  I can’t say I ever had that complete suspension of disbelief that it asked for, but it’s a love story of sorts, so just go with it.  Sarah Hawkins is terrific as the mute woman, as is Richard Jenkins as her friend.  Don’t be surprised if the veteran Jenkins pulls an upset in the Best Supporting Actor Oscar race.  He’s long overdue.  This is a very wet visual feast.

The Post – 8

Another historical piece of the pie is America’s involvement in the Vietnam War.  Stephen Speilberg, Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks tackle a slice of that in The Post.  Turns out that in the early 70’s Katherine Graham (Streep) was the publisher of the Washington Post having inherited it from her late husband.  She is in the midst of taking the little paper public in an effort to fund a larger reach, when the New York Times breaks the story of the Pentagon Papers which reveals that the government, from Kennedy, to LBJ, to Nixon, has known all along that the Viet Nam war was an unwinnable quagmire. 

I’m not sure why Speilberg chose to tell this story from the vantage point of the Post rather than the Times, but both are under first amendment fire from the government and Graham must essentially decide between running a good newspaper and a good business. 

Tom Hanks, as legendary editor Ben Bradlee is properly earnest, but I have to admit I preferred the Jason Robard’s version of Ben in All the President’s Men, one of my favorite all time movies.  That one is about Woodward and Bernstein and their cracking of the Watergate break in.  It may be my favorite “history” movie.

In a way, this a companion piece.  It’s a valiant and engrossing effort in a time when freedom of the press is again under fire, which is undoubtedly why it was made.  It’s worthwhile because it adds to the legend of one of America’s most pivotal decades.  Viet Nam war protests, Civil Rights battles, Hippies, free love.  Billy Joel should write a song about it.

So now I’m ready for my awards for 2017 movies

The Ozzies go to:

Best Picture – I, Tonya

Best Actor – Gary Oldham for Darkest Hour

Best Actress – Margot Robbie for I, Tonya

Best Supporting Actor – Paul Walter Hauser in  I, Tonya

Best Supporting Actress – Allison Janney in I, Tonya
Best Director - Jordan Peele for Get Out

My Ranking of everything I saw this year:

I, Tonya - 10

Get Out - 9

Darkest Hour – 9

The Big Sick – 9

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – 9

Downsizing - 9

Marshall - 9

Molly’s Game - 8

The Battle of the Sexes – 8

The Post - 8

Wonder Woman - 8
The Shape of Water - 8

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 – 8

Blade Runner - 8

Kidnap - 8

John Wick, Chapter 2 – 8

Baby Driver – 8

Lady Bird – 7

Dunkirk - 6

The Mummy – 4

Star Wars – The Last Jedi - 1

An Honorable mention of sorts to Hacksaw Ridge, which was a 2016 movie that I didn’t see until February and it was easily better than most of the 2017 films.  Again – History,  Beats fiction every time.

Best Documentaries

Icarus - 10

Eight Days a Week – 9

Beach Boys:  The making of Pet Sounds – 9

The Lizzie’s for TV

Best Series – Billions

Best Actor – Paul Giamatti in Billions

Best Actress – Nicole Kidman for Big Little Lies

Best Supporting Actor – David Costable in Billions

Best Supporting Actress – Maggie Siff in Billions

Best Talk Show Host – Seth Meyers, whom we tape and watch every night.  I think he’s as good an interviewer as Johnny Carson was, and his writers are phenomenal.

But the award for most hours on our home screen for the 32^nd consecutive year goes to Alex Trebek.