At The Cinema - December 2020

Sound of Metal (Amazon) – 10

Unlike any movie I've ever seen, this is an enthralling exploration of sound and hearing.  It’s the story of a drummer for a heavy metal band, who suddenly loses his hearing.  Ruben Stone, played by Riz Ahmed is a musician and lover of music, so this realization hits him hard.  With a history of addiction, Ruben must navigate his new reality carefully, as his girlfriend convinces him to go to a camp for the hearing impaired.  Ruben doesn't want to be there.  He doesn't want to be deaf. Surely, this can be fixed, just like every other problem.  It is at the camp that he must come to terms with his condition, and his struggle is the core of the movie.

Director Darius Marder works magic with sound as he is able to portray what Ruben hears, before, during and after significant events.  He chooses to close caption the whole movie so that the viewer can see what everyone is saying, whether it is muffled, or inaudible, or being communicated in sign language.  Ahmed is perfect in the role and Paul Raci as Joe, the counselor at the camp is phenomenal as well.  This is a revealing story with an extraordinary execution.  I’ve never seen anything like it, and it will be a while before I get over it.  I can’t wait to see it again.  In fact it is a movie that demands a second viewing.  Those are rare.

Ma Rainey’s Bottom Blues (Netflix) - 9

Chadwick Boseman’s final role is a doozie as he portrays out of control trumpet player Levee in another film version of a August Wilson play, this one from 1984.   Viola Davis won an Oscar for her last performance in a Wilson adaptation, (Fences), and her portrayal of Ma Rainey is even showier.  Rainey was the mother of the blues, preceeding even Bessie Smith, and if she was as self aware as the script says she was, she was extraordinary.  The movie all takes place in a single Chicago recording session in 1927.  Because it is based on a play, not much takes place outside of that studio, and that confinement is a little taxing, but the charisma of the whole cast carries the film to great heights.
                                                                                                                           

Midnight Sky (Netflix) – 6

George Clooney directs and stars in this standard space opera.  The space scenes get more and more elaborate in this genre, but there’s still just so much you can do, and Clooney is confined to the two locales, the artic where his character, the ridiculously named Augustine Long… works.  He decides to stay at his post when it is evacuated, because he’s sick and dying anyway, and he can communicate with the spaceship coming back to earth from a visit to the planet he claims can sustain human life.  Oh, and coincidentally the earth has experienced some “event” which apparently is going to leave him as a lone survivor.  In fact, the movie is a conglomeration of coincidences, that along with a ridiculous and overdone trick at the end, makes it almost painful to watch.  Clooney the director lets Clooney the actor down by subverting any charisma the actor has, if he still has it.  Except for a couple of scenes on the space ship that are so drawn out you know they are going to end badly, this one is a snooze.

Tenet (PPV) – 9

This movie is either a masterpiece or a mess.  I can’t really decide.  It is one of Christopher Nolan’s signature time-benders, and there’s so much going on with people moving through time portals of some type, passing back and forth and even fighting themselves in the past (or the future), One thing is for sure.  It’s ambitious.  Nolan takes chances that no one else could possibly get a studio to agree to.  I wasn’t crazy about the cast, as I thought John David Washington, who plays the protagonist, fell a little short of what could have been delivered.  Chances are, if you are familiar with Nolan's movies, like Memento, Inception, The Dark Knight, and Dunkirk, you already know whether or not you will like this trip.  

I’m Your Woman (Amazon) – 8

Rachel Brosnahan is known by most as the comedy breakout star of the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel   Here she tries to stretch her acting muscles, playing Jean, a good girl married to a good guy whose profession is to be a bad guy,  but she doesn’t really know how bad a guy he is.  Apparently one night things go as badly as possible, and he ships her and their new baby off to safety, accompanied by his loyal minion, Cal. 

Cal is some protection, but it is inevitable that Jean is going to have to fend for herself and this is about her development into a badass.  The story is just different enough to be interesting, and it portrays the 1970’s with a level of accuracy that is pretty darn good.  A nice distraction.

 

Wonder Woman 1984 (HBO Max)– 2

Gal Gadot continues to shine as Wonder Woman in the sequel to the 2017 hit.  She’s got charisma.  She’s got star quality.  And she’s got a bad script.  The movie is as big a mess as Tenet, but with none of the ambition.  There is so much wrong here that as I watched the closing credits with hundreds of people listed I actually felt sorry for them and all the time they spent on this.

Problem one.  The story seems to have been built around finding a gimmick that would get Chris back in the sequel, after his character, Steve Patterson, bit the dust in the first movie. 

Problem two, is the unfortunate casting of Kristen Wiig in a key role.  It’s not that she’s bad in the role, it’s that she’s too well known as a comedian, so her action emergence is just not believable.  It would be like casting Roseanne Barr as a singer, or Donald Trump as a nice guy.  We just know better.

Problem three is the bag guy, named Maxwell Lord, get it?  He’s one of those con men who point at you and grin, like a TV preacher.  But the weak plot that puts him at the center of this thing is not his fault.  It made me kind of miss the bad God of the first movie, who was the weakest point of that film 

Lastly, there’s the ridiculous CGI, starting with the rope, that is layered into all the action scenes, catching bullets, missiles, and anything that can move.  The action scenes are as patently ridiculous as all the comic book movies.  I just couldn’t help thinking of the poor special effects guy who had to patch that rope into so many scenes. 

Most of these comic book movies are terrible, but this one is particularly turrible.