Ford v. Ferrari – 9
Sometimes Hollywood gets it right and just provides a
rocking good time at the multiplex. Here
they are helped along by two great actors.
Matt Damon plays legendary car designer Carroll Shelby and Christian
Bale is his hall of fame driver, Ken Miles.
Together they pledge to Henry Ford II that they will design and race a
car that will win the “24 hours of LeMans” and break the Ferrari stranglehold
on that famed race. This is a crowd
pleaser with a lot of great racing footage (although it does go on about 15 minutes too long.)
Just sit back and enjoy.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood - 9
Not quite as innocent as you would expect, this is a
thoroughly enjoyable movie with Tom Hanks as the famed Mr. Rogers. Mr. Rogers is the subject of an Esquire
article written by reporter Lloyd Vogel, played by Matthew Rhys. This is a true story, although the reporter’s
name has been changed from Tom Junold, and the story of the movie is a rather routine
one about Vogel’s horrible relationship with his father and how his
relationship with Rogers is the guiding light in Vogel’s efforts to reconcile with
his dad, played by Chris Cooper, who is sliding toward
death.
Although Hanks doesn’t appear as much as you would think, his performance is extraordinary and anchors the movie. It’s hard to portray someone everyone knows, and somehow Hanks captures the kindness and sweetness of a man whose spirit would be of great use in today’s world.
Although Hanks doesn’t appear as much as you would think, his performance is extraordinary and anchors the movie. It’s hard to portray someone everyone knows, and somehow Hanks captures the kindness and sweetness of a man whose spirit would be of great use in today’s world.
This is a great companion piece to last year’s award-winning
documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” Both movies bring to life Mr. Rogers’ everlasting
legacy. Few people have had such
impact.
The Irishman – 7
Director Martin Scorcese is the master of dark criminal violence. With classics like Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, and The Departed on his resume, I’m sure he intended this to be his epic – his masterpiece. At almost 3 ½ hours it’s marathon length could boast that as one of its qualifiers. Unfortunately, it takes more than length to join the likes of Gone with The Wind (3:58), Lawrence of Arabia (3:48) and The Sound of Music (2:55). He also may have mined the vein once too often. The vibe of freneticism that makes Goodfellas so rewatchable, and now a classic, is missing here.
Director Martin Scorcese is the master of dark criminal violence. With classics like Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, and The Departed on his resume, I’m sure he intended this to be his epic – his masterpiece. At almost 3 ½ hours it’s marathon length could boast that as one of its qualifiers. Unfortunately, it takes more than length to join the likes of Gone with The Wind (3:58), Lawrence of Arabia (3:48) and The Sound of Music (2:55). He also may have mined the vein once too often. The vibe of freneticism that makes Goodfellas so rewatchable, and now a classic, is missing here.
Don’t get me wrong.
The material is here. The
Irishman is Frank Sheeran, a Teamster
official who rubbed elbows with many mobsters when he wasn’t rubbing them
out. His friendship with Jimmy Hoffa (Al
Pacino) and his work for the Ruffalino crime family of Pennsylvania is the crux of the movie. He does jobs for Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci)
who is his mentor. Add Harvey Keitel and
Bobby Canavale and you’ve got an all-star cast, and they are all terrific.
There are some brilliant scenes, and as you would expect in
a movie this long, some dead ones. There
is a long connective back story of Sheeran and Ruffalino on a car trip and it
is tedious and drawn out. As you would
expect in a movie like this, there are time jumps, and that brings us to the
main problem here. While the acting is
great, the stars are de-aged by computer, rather than having young actors play
the parts. So, while DeNiro and Friends may be able to
pull off the emotion, they can’t match the energy of being young. Could you?
Could you bounce around like you did 30 years ago? Me Neither.
The film never gets boring, but it just pales in comparison to movies like The
Godfather, for example. And I’m not a
big Godfather fan. I guess I came away
with one overwhelming thought. This would
have been a great mini-series, with young actors to start the story. There’s no shortage of mob material here, and
a lot of great characters. I just got
the feeling that the movie was dragging for the sake of the actors, rather than
providing the crisp pace that has been so well established in the classic mob
movies.
Scanning the Satellite
The Soundtrack of our Life – Clive Davis – 10
Some documentaries just unfold themselves and all they have to do is tell the story in a straightforward manner. That is certainly the case with Clive Davis. Just cover his span of production, from Janis Joplin to Whitney Houston, to Kelly Clarkson. His incredible career is reviewed, and never has a documentary been more appropriately titled.
Some documentaries just unfold themselves and all they have to do is tell the story in a straightforward manner. That is certainly the case with Clive Davis. Just cover his span of production, from Janis Joplin to Whitney Houston, to Kelly Clarkson. His incredible career is reviewed, and never has a documentary been more appropriately titled.
Now that I’ve been binge watching for a couple of years and
you might be looking for something to watch I thought I’d give you a ranking of
my recent favorites. My criteria is that these generally
consist of seasons of 8 Episodes or less.
- Rectify – 4 seasons: The best portrait of the South I’ve ever seen
- Fargo – Season 1: Billy Bob Thornton’s best work, and that’s saying something
- The OA – 2 seasons: Totally Unique and largely indescribable
- Catastrophe – 4 seasons: the very definition of romantic chemistry
- The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Truly amazing period recreation
- True Detective – Seasons 1 & 3 – Woody Harrellson and Matthew McConahey astound
- The Sinner – Season 1 – quite the shocker
- The Newsroom – Aaron Sorkin’s crackling news drama
- Veep – measured by the number of laughs, the funniest thing I’ve ever seen
- Billions – Season 2 – a masterpiece of a season, but the others are great as well.
- Curb Your Enthusiasm – brilliant, one-of-a-kind comedy
- Homeland – wildly inconsistent, but the best seasons are unparalleled.
- Unbelievable – Terrific crime drama
- Killing Eve – 2 seasons: Villanelle (Jodie Comer) the villain makes it all worth while
- Mindhunter – 2 seasons: Riveting
There is much, much more that I’m sure I’ve forgotten, but
these will get you started..
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