At the Cinema - July 2017

Dunkirk – 6

Director Christopher Nolan may as well be Nolan Ryan.  His latest epic is so brilliant in its construction that it whizzed past me like a Nolan Ryan fastball.  I appreciate it, but I stand no chance of hitting it.  Nolan tells the story of the evacuation after this early World War 2 battle in which 300,000 British soldiers are pushing to the sea, then must be transported across the English Channel.  The Germans are winning and it is about to be a slaughter.

Nolan cuts back and forth between several stories as if they are occurring simultaneously, but the trick is that they are not.  Much like Inception and Interstellar, Dunkirk plays with time, but here the result is confusion.  Coupled with the extreme volume, at least in the IMAX setting, your head is pounding after 107 minutes.  My basic reaction to the sensory overload was “what just happened?”

The Big Sick – 9

Here’s all you need to know about the state of film.  Nolan can tell the story of Dunkirk in 107 minutes, but it takes Judd Apatow and company 124 minutes to tell the story of a girl in a coma.

Like any Apatow production, this one could have used some scissors.  I can honestly say that he just doesn’t understand the business side of movies.  Theaters only make money selling outrageously sized and priced concessions, but I am learning rule number one.  Don’t take a large soft drink into one of his movies. You may burst.

Having voiced that “word of warning” let me say that The Big Sick may be the best romantic comedy of the year.  It’s the true story of star/writer Kumail Nanjiani (Dinesh of HBO’s Silicon Valley – a great comedy) and his cowriter/now wife Emily Gordon.   He’s a standup comedian of Pakistani heritage whose instant chemistry with a member of his audience turns into something deeper. There are a lot of missteps along the way, not the least of which is a painful breakup with Emily, followed by her falling into a coma,  He meets the parents, played brilliantly by Holly Hunter and Ray Romano, and decides he’s going to stay by her side. The story is both funny and touching.

In praise of Zoe – Zoe Kazan, who plays Emily.  She is simply brilliant, and the story hinges on her portrayal of Emily, because if we didn’t buy her feelings for Kumail, the movie collapses.  It’s not the kind of acting that wins Oscars, but in many ways she carries the film even when she is asleep.  She will be underappreciated, and that’s a shame, because I think she’s an Annie Hall.  I put her supporting performance up there with Ronee Blakely (Nashville – yes I watched it again to be sure), Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone), and Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinnie.)

Director Michael Showalter pulls it all together, and the best part of the movie is the last 10 minutes where he deviates from the standard way love stories have been told for 100 years on film.  I won’t give it away, but see if you catch it.