At the Cinema - April/May 2019

Rocketman – 7

Three things had me really looking forward to this movie.  First, the fact that I’ve been an Elton John fan as long as he’s been around.  Secondly the success of Bohemian Rhapsody, the movie it will be inevitably compared to, produced by the same filmakers and director.  Third, the rapturous reviews the movie has gotten.  My thinking was that they did so well with the music of Queen, wait until they get a hold of the much thicker Elton John songbook.

Not so fast Rocketman.  Don’t shoot me, (I’m only the piano player) but if you’re doing a movie of a group with 10 strong songs, it’s pretty easy.  When an artist has 30 classics, fans are going to be disappointed at what’s left out.  That problem is enhanced when you decide to shoot a musical My Fair Lady-style where the production numbers come out of nowhere and folks are breaking into song and dance, sometimes an extremely lengthy song and dance.  Let’s just say I was surprised to find myself on Broadway, and I love Broadway.

Some of these are some good “musical” moments, but much better are the performance numbers.  Elton sitting down at the piano and putting Bernie Taupin’s words to “Your Song” to music is a great scene.  The first American show at The Troubadour in LA is a knockout.  Singing “Rocketman” underwater?  Well, the pool floor should have been rocks to complete the message (rock bottom - get it?) 

The drama part of the movie is the usual rock and roll star descent into sex, drugs, and alcohol, and the sex in this case is of the fairly graphic gay variety.  Taron Egerton is beyond spectacular as Elton, and there’s been a lot of coverage of Elton’s involvement and support of Taron.  And that may just be the problem here.  Maybe Elton was too involved as the executive producer.  He doesn’t sanitize it, but the narrative structure (an AA meeting) is just irritating and unnecessary.  No, I didn’t want a concert film, but some of the songs like “Candle in the Wind” left out?  How do you leave that out of this story?  And changing a key word in “Rocketman?” Inexcusable.  They appeared to modify the costumes, but I never really cared about what Elton was wearing.  I cared about what he was singing.  That would have stood on its own pretty well. That perfect rock biography still hasn't been made.

Long Shot – 8

This is a good movie that could have been great.  All that was needed was a believable leading man.  Charlize Theron can do anything, including playing a woman running for President so well, that by the end of the movie you’ll wish that she actually was running.  Her comedic timing is flawless, her scenes are riveting, and she happens to be gorgeous, in case you hadn’t noticed.

Then there’s Seth Rogen who’s the most unlikely leading man in the history of the movies.  Charlize is at one end of the charisma scale, and he’s at the opposite end.  Even though he’s actually improved somewhat as an actor, there’s not a moment in this movie that anyone could believe that she would find him attractive.  It’s about as believable as Olivia Newton-John calling me.  Or Charlize.

The storyline parallels the election plot of this year’s “Billions” in that the man (Rogen, Giamatti) has committed sexual taboos that it would be better not to have to explain to an electorate.  It’s a great script, well directed, and could’ve been a classic, ‘cept for that one thing.  As a matter of fact it even shares that “beauty and the beast” aspect with Billions.  Believe it, or don’t.  I didn’t.

Booksmart – 6

Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut does not include me in its target market.  I knew that going in.  But, the reviews were laudatory, so I fell for them.  There were a few laughs, and the two lead actresses are breezy and competent, but the movie never engaged for me.  This was supposed to the next great high school comedy, but much like last year’s “Edge of Seventeen,” it was not close.  From the opening scenes of the last day of high school, which only seemed to lack John Belushi shouting out “food fight,” to the party scenes, this movie was just disheartening. Is this really high school today?

The saddest part was probably during the party when the two friends have an argument, and the bystanders whip out their cell phones to film the altercation.  That’s what we’ve come to.  The movie gets better as it moves along, but still just not worth the investment.  Blech.

John Wick 3 Parabellum – 1

The most ridiculous part of action movies that has always bugged me is that the hero, from James Bond to John Wick is always in a suit.  No matter how bad the fight gets, no one takes their coat off to rumble.  The tie stays in place.  By the end of this film, Keanu Reeves should have been dead from dehydration in a soaked black suit.

Yet that’s the least of this movie’s many problems.  This is violence porn (I’m sure it’s a great video game)  and we wonder why people are shooting up schools.  The high production values and studio return on investment just make it sicker. 

Studios don’t walk away from money-makers, they just recycle them.

I’ve always taken great pride in American industry, but if this movie is any indication, we’ve really lost our edge.  Our professional assassins are apparently horrible at their jobs.  It’s an indictment of the whole assassin industry, which is made up of incompetents.  The body count of these bozos mounts as Wick kills them all.  Not one can take him out.  There are many instances when they could shoot him from 10 feet away, but hand to hand combat would be more fun.  The body count is allegedly 94 in this movie, down from 124 in John Wick 2 – The Slaughter.  And all 94 are inept assassins.  The first 2 movies weren’t that bad.  They had a little style, and a little wit.  This one is too busy being ridiculous to enjoy.  It ends up being a two hour set up to the next installment, so the studio can make more bank.  Banking bucks, and bodies.  It’s a formula.

Scanning the Satellite

I didn’t write anything on movies in April because we never set foot in a theater, a rarity for us.  But that doesn’t mean entertainment was lacking as we binged away..

The OA – 10

While this Netflix series is definitely not for everyone, the rapture of it came and took me away.  As I write this a guy has gone over the 2 million dollar mark in winnings on Jeopardy, and his ability to recall facts so quickly, combined with his strategy, has captured the attention of America.  Why?  I can’t speak for all of the American viewing public, but the gap between me and him is huge, and I used to be decent at Jeopardy.  He’s really smart.

The OA is even smarter.  I haven’t been so amazed and annoyed at a tv series since I was trying to figure out who killed Laura Palmer.  This is not the first story about inter-dimensional travel (it was just done on “Counterpart”) but its never been as enthralling.  “What just happened” kept coming out of my mouth.  I watched the first two seasons that are now on Netflix, and also watched video after video interviews of the star and her director, Brit Marling and Zal Batalmanij, who co-wrote this story.  It took them 3 years to conceive of the complete story and pitch it to Netflix, a process that preceeded House of Cards.  It appears Game of Thrones (which I didn’t watch yet – but I will someday) ran out of story and scripts.  They didn’t know how to end it.  Marling and company have a complete 40 hour story to tell, and I hope they get to tell it all.  I've had way worse 40 hour work weeks.  

One of the identifiers of a great experience for me is “pace.”  When I go to a great restaurant, much of it comes down to pace – are the courses on schedule?  TV is like that to me as well.  My favorite TV show of the last several years was Sundance’s “Rectify” which had this wonderful Southern pace to it.  They took their sweet time to develop the stories, and the characters.  This year, True Detective told a story in a nicely paced manner.  Maybe it’s the 8 installment format that makes it work so well.

The OA is like that.  The many characters are slowly developed and fleshed out.  We get to know them all, and they begin to weave together like a fine tapestry.

So what’s the story?  Well, it starts like this.  A blind girl named Prairie Johnson (Marling) has been missing for 7 years.  She suddenly shows up in her Michigan hometown, and she’s not blind anymore.  Where has she been for 7 years?  We thought she was dead.  Was she held captive?  Well, maybe she was both.  How did she escape?  So many questions, and the answers are so far from standard that it is us that can be blinded, by the brilliance of the story.  If you have the patience, let it unfold like a luxurious blanket.  The endings of each season are equally stunning, but wildly different.  This is amazing story-telling.  Mind-blowing doesn’t even begin to describe it. 

Goliath (Season One) – 8

There just isn’t a better actor than Billy Bob Thornton in the “down and out” milieu.  He’s terrific as the lawyer taking on the Goliath law firm in this Amazon series.  And nobody does law television like producer David E. Kelly.  His resume includes The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, and Boston Common to name a few.  His stories are great, and this story is populated by great actors, old and new.

The problem here, and it’s a minor one, is that the story drags a little.  Found myself several times thinking, “let’s go, pick up the pace already.”  Well worth watching for the story telling, but it’s about 6 hour’s worth of story, spread over 8 hours.  Still, 8 hours of Billy Bob is nothing to sneeze at.

Knock Down the House – 9

Netflix got lucky.  They commissioned a documentary about four long-shot women candidates trying to “primary” incumbents in the 2018 elections.  Their luck was that one of them was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and this is a fascinating look behind the scenes of her campaign.  I know, I know, you hate her.  Don’t let that hold you back, because by the time this is over you will have learned a lot about how elections are won and lost.  AOC’s verbal brilliance and persistence on the campaign trail stunned even her supporters, who started by just wanting to shake up the establishment.  The other three candidates lose, but to everyone’s surprise, including hers, she catches fire and it reminded me of the Robert Redford movie “The Candidate” where he pulls off the upset, and then says “now what?”

Luther:  Season One – 9

I thought Idris Elba would always be Stringer Bell to me.  But if Season 1 of his BBC drama was any indication, that may change.  As detective John Luther, Elba is a brilliant detective, in and out of trouble, ending season one having to clear himself of a murder charge.  Maybe the British are unafraid of unhappiness, but this show pulls not a single push.  It is brutal but terrific.  I’m even coming around to Elba as the next James Bond.   

Killing Eve – 9

The second season just couldn’t recreate the stunnery (new word) of the first season, but the anchor of the series continues to be the mesmerizing Jodie Comer as the assassin Villanelle.  There are many potential great Emmy nominations coming soon, but it is Comer who will be the one I want to see rewarded for her work.

Fosse/Verdon – 9

If you are a “show person” don’t miss this FX series.  It is the behind the scenes story of the creative and domestic partnership of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon.  Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams are nothing but brilliant as the pair, and I can’t see anyone else as their Emmy competition.  Williams even nails the voice of Gwen Verdon, whom I met once at a performance of Damn Yankees in Pittsburgh, an encounter that the producers strangely omitted from the script.  It was the behind the scenes choreography sequences that were the most interesting.  Fosse’s infidelities were well documented by himself in his semi-autobiographical and brilliant movie “All That Jazz” which I can’t wait to watch again.