At the Cinema - December 2018

Red Sparrow – 9

December is hectic for the dedicated movie nut.  Allegedly, the studios hold back their best movies to the last month of the year, so that if they’re hits, they might carry their momentum through the holiday season and right up to the Oscar voting period.  I wish they didn’t do that, and this year it is essentially a bust.

How was I to know that if I just turned on HBO I’d catch a better 2018 movie than most of the year-enders? Red Sparrow was a movie I had no interest in seeing when it originally came out.  It got modest reviews, and it's slow and long, but that's ok when I'm home and can hit the pause button for a bathroom break. That's nothing in the binge world we operate in.  I’d underestimated Jennifer Lawrence.  She’s perfect as Dominika, a Russian operative known as a sparrow, trained in mind and body espionage.  This is an spy thriller in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock – simple, suspenseful, and twisty – but not too twisty.  I’m sure it’s not for everyone, but if you liked movies like Notorious – check it out.  And if you like Jennifer, and who doesn’t like Jennifer, you'll be suitably impressed.

On the Basis of Sex – 9

If you like the Notorious RBG, you’ll like this movie.  At the beginning of the year all I knew about Ruth Bader Ginsburg was that she was an aging Supreme Court Justice who usually ruled liberally and was thus a Democratic darling.  First came the documentary which told the story of her early legal challenges on gender discrimination.  Now comes a movie dedicated to her first case.

Despite her time as a standout at Harvard Law School, and eventual graduation at the top of the Columbia law school, she could not get hired by a law firm in New York, so she became a law professor.  Her beloved husband, a tax attorney, calls her attention to a case in which a man has been discriminated against for a tax break that only a woman is allowed.  She sees the opportunity to establish gender discrimination, and takes the case with her husband.  She will eventually argue several times before the Supreme Court, but this movie chronicles that first case, in a very low-key and sincere tone, which is not to say it isn’t riveting.  Felicity Jones is perfect as the gentle pit bull - No special effects, just a special American during a pivotal time in our history.

Creed II - 8

Michael B. Jordan is back as Adonis Creed and all the elements of a Rocky sequel are there, highlighted by great training sequences and great fights.  This time the battle is with the son of Ivan Drago, who figured so prominently in Rocky IV – the cold war version of Rocky.  Sylvester Stallone, who looked like he was on death’s door in the first Creed, wrote and acted in this one, and he continues to ride this wave.  How different life would have been if Rocky had flopped back in 1976.

I must say this.  All the Rocky’s have had good to great character development and this movie is up to that challenge.  The best part of this movie is actually Tess Thompson, who plays Creed’s pregnant love interest, who is a deaf singer.  She lights up the screen and is real and accessible.  I have never seen her in anything but the Creed movies.  I understand she has been a successful actress for a while, but let’s hope she gets to star in a movie soon.  I think she can carry one.

The Mule – 8

In what may be Clint Eastwood’s last directorial effort at 88, he puts together a movie that is so low-key and matter of fact it could be a documentary.  Basing this on a true story, I’m sure he took great glee in playing someone older.  Broke and estranged from his family, at 90, Earl Stone makes the desperation move of becoming a drug mule for the Mexican Cartel.  His spotless driving record, and the fact that he’s got nothing to lose has him not only enjoying the new cash flow, but trying to reconcile with his family.  His daughter, played by his real life daughter Allison is his biggest challenge. 

The cartel is not easy to work for, and their demands predictably increase.  Meanwhile DEA agent Bradley Cooper is on his trail.  Eastwood still has his on-screen charisma, and the movie has some real, but low-key suspense as it rolls along.

The best part of the movie though, is the soundtrack.  The highlighted song is one of my favorites, More Today than Yesterday by the Spiral Staircase.  It’s a road song staple for Earl in one form or another, and it permeates the soundtrack.  Good choice.  It's a song that's been around as long as Eastwood.

Vice - 7

Christian Bale is fantastic as Vice President Dick Cheney in this undoubtedly unauthorized biopic.  Amy Adams is terrific as his wife.  The cast does an incredible job.  Unfortunately, the script and the director are all over the place.  Adam McKay is trying to make a multimedia presentation out of a fairly straight forward narrative.  His point of view seems to bounce back and forth like a pinball.  We all know how it ends, but what he chooses to highlight versus what he leaves out is a little baffling. It's a story worth telling, and while I've liked director Adam McKay's other movies, this one is a runaway train.  I prefer the Oliver Stone "W."

 

The Favourite – 5

I’m predisposed to being opposed to royalty.  What goes on in England is beyond me.  The fascination with royalty in an era of democracy has always baffled me, and when the British Royalty questions start on Jeopardy, I know I’m in trouble.  Don’t know.  Don’t care.  Can’t figure out why the British cling to this.

So, when this movie started getting rave reviews, I had to really swallow my predisposition to check it out.  I shouldn’t have. 

This is the story of Queen Anne, whom of course I knew nothing about, but I was about to learn that she had 17 miscarriages or stillborn children with her husband, which would have been an interesting but gruesome story except for the fact that her husband never appears in the movie, but she has a lot of rabbits.  I’m sure that means something, but it went over my head like a high fastball.

The movie is a meandering (and I suppose somewhat fictional) chronicle of the Queen’s relationship with two women (played to the hilt by Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz) who vie for her attention, so that they may influence her.  Quite a rivalry.  Which will be the favorite?  Olivia Coleman is terrific as the obese and sickly Queen, and there’s some humor, as well as some interesting historical information, as Great Britain is at war with France, but mostly the movie just plods along until one of the most unsatisfying endings you will ever see.  I didn’t understand it, but that’s no surprise.  The group of ladies sitting behind us had obviously seen the movie several times and they cackled with great satisfaction throughout, so maybe I just missed it, but I’m not going to try and find it. 

Scanning the Satellite

Love Gilda – 8

Anyone who watched Saturday Night Live and the original Not-ready-for-prime-time players back in the 70’s owes it to themselves to check out this CNN documentary about the glorious Gilda Radnor.  Using diaries, audiotapes and video we get Gilda’s story, from her insecurities, to her struggles with success, and her uneven love life.  It takes us through her battle with cancer.  It’s a loving portrait of her and her lasting impression on our culture.  If you loved Gilda, you love her story.