At the Cinema - June 2020

The Old Guard – 10

It’s pretty rare that I get excited about an action movie these days.  They are so overblown with special effects, superpowers, ridiculous action sequences, and inept bad guys, that I may watch, but seldom am blown away.  They don’t impress me much.  Which makes me appreciate a good one.

Along comes Charlize Theron.  She has become quite the reliable star, in that, much like Tom Cruise, you can pretty much expect a quality movie.  She can do just about any role, comedy to drama to action, and her beauty is just the tip of the iceberg for the characters she has created.  She’s had a string of good to great movies in recent years.  Besides her Furiosa in Mad Max, there’s been Tully, Bombshell, Long Shot, Young Adult, and Dark Places, to name a few.  She is prolific and building a filmography that will someday be legendary.

She’s a producer on this made for Netflix movie and it is powerfully directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and they may have not gone into this project looking for a franchise, but sequels are in our future, and I can’t wait.

Charlize plays Andy, an immortal warrior who leads a group of 4, soon to be 5 in what they think are righteous causes over centuries.  They are great warriors, as all those conflicts have taught them how to fight, and they have only one superpower, they can’t die.  No matter what you do to them, they heal and come back for more.  Sounds simple, right? 

Well, they’ve been discovered, and in the current times they represent a profit opportunity for a pharmaceutical, if they can just be captured.  So, with that premise, we’re off and running, and it’s a great ride.  This is a Netflix home run.

Wild Tales – 10

In 2014 one of the best Foreign Picture Nominees for an Oscar was this odd little gem from Argentina.  It is the antidote for the streaming blahs.  If you are tired of bingeing shows that seem to go on forever, here’s a great dose of quick hitting, albeit sub-titled stories.  It consists of six sometimes violent vignettes built around the theme of revenge.  The stories range from good to great to masterpieces.  You’ll have to pay for this one, but it’s worth it.  In fact, I paid twice and watched it three times.  It is so compact and efficient in its delivery that you can’t get bored. 

This is the second Argentine film I’ve fallen in love with.  The first was 2009’s The Secret in Their Eyes, which nabbed a best foreign film Oscar.  When I googled it, there are 17 Argentine titles available on Netflix.  Maybe I need to explore more.


Vast of Night - 9

I got so aggravated with the mumbling of the leading man during the first 10 minutes of this movie (he has a cigarette dangling from his mouth) that I turned on the sub-titles.  Then I settled in to a rather enjoyable story of a possible UFO sighting in the late 1950's in New Mexico.  Given that UFO's seem attracted to New Mexico, this makes perfect sense to me, although the year and a half I lived in Albuquerque in the early 60's were not memorable for any flying objects  It was 1963 and I recall 2 things, the Kennedy assassination which would blaze my last name (not in spelling, but in pronunciation) into the history books, and the night my fever was so high I thought the mountains were coming in our back door. I have gotten to telling people lately in the conspiracy theory rich world we live in, that I've never seen a conspiracy theory pan out in the long run, and I really was rooting for that grassy knoll one, to maybe take a little pressure off the Oswald's and Osswald's of the world.

The whole town is about to be changed, way beyond the big game going on in the high school gym this night. This a fun movie on Amazon Prime.

On another personal note, I wrote a book report in the 8th grade (I think) on a book called The Interrupted Journey, about 2 hours on a flying saucer, and I must have done a good job, because every time I saw Mrs. Davis for the rest or her life, she wanted to talk about UFO's. 

Bushnick – 6

On the other end of the action spectrum, here’s a violent little piece set in New York City. Brittany Snow plays a graduate student coming home to her neighborhood and the grandmother who raised her only to find that war has broken out in her neighborhood.  Is it gangs, an alien invasion, a foreign army?  What the hell is going on?  She teams up with a former medic, played by Dave Bautista to try to navigate the few blocks from the subway stop she emerges from to her home.  The reveal of why they’re fighting is pretty cool, but beyond that, there’s not much to recommend this, and I wish one of those endless “what to watch” lists I receive hadn’t.

Hamilton – 10

Disney purchased the rights to the filming of the Broadway sensation just before some of the original cast exited.  Filming is something that is rarely done, because it’s a gamble to pull back the curtain when it could affect box office.  They needn’t worry.  I suspect if you watch this filmed play, you’ll want to go see it live. 

I can’t tell you how much I love musical theater and how much I don’t love rap music, so this was a challenge for me.  But, I shouldn’t have worried.  It’s easy to see why this is destined to be a Broadway legend.

What’s so great?  Well, first the music.  Yes there is some rap, but almost every style of music is used to tell the story of Alexander Hamilton.  Second, the choreography is stunning.  While there are some closeups that you wouldn’t get in a theater, it doesn’t come at the sacrifice of the amazing dancing going on throughout.  The performers are uniformly incredible.  But what makes this a masterpiece is the story.  The way Lin Manuel-Miranda, who also plays Hamilton, weaves this story between personal and political is simply stunning.  His creativity in crafting this whole thing is mind-boggling.  What an achievement.

Is it worth signing up for a month of Disney+ streaming just to watch this?  Yes.  That’s the bargain of the century.

The War Room – 9

Somehow I missed this acclaimed 1993 documentary about the Clinton Presidential run, as piloted by James Carville and George Stephanopoulos.  Suddenly, it’s available on HBO Max, so I finally got to see it.  Worth it to see the Ragin Cajun in action, and further enhanced by The Documentary Now spoof “The Bunker” where Bill Hader plays a Carville clone, and Fred Armison nails Stephanopoulos.  If nothing else this quarantine has allowed me to catch up on stuff I’ve always wanted to see but missed.  Oh, and campaigns sure have changed.

Seth Meyers – Lobby Baby – 9
Jim Jeffries – Intolerant – 8
John Mulaney – Kid Gorgeous – 8
Yes, I watch a lot of stand-up.  It’s hard to beat Seth’s retelling of how his wife gave birth in the lobby of his New York apartment building.  

David Foster:  Off the Record– 8

If you like music, don’t miss this chronicling of David Foster and the music he has helped craft over the years.  From Streisand to Chicago to Whitney Houston to Celine Dion to Michael Buble and beyond, the stories are fascinating, and getting to watch a hitmaker at work is terrific.  The list of artists he has discovered and nurtured to stardom is impressive.

Binge-report:

Breaking Bad – 10

I’m well into the fourth season of this, and “I can’t watch everything,” was my excuse for not watching this sooner, but Covid has made me do it, and it’s as good as all my friends said it was.  Superb story-telling, acting, and directing.  Not the easiest thing to watch at times, but spectacularly well done. 

Ozark – 9

We finished all three seasons of Ozark, and it’s as good as advertised, but exhausting.  When Netflix grabs a series like Breaking Bad and removes commercials it’s down to 45 minutes, but hour-long episodes of a series like Ozark to binge make it a marathon.  I’m used to the format because of HBO and Showtime, but those were once a week indulgences.  Ozark is coming back for a fourth and final season.  Take your time.  I need the rest.