MOVIES
The Whale – 10
At first you will be grossed out by this movie, but as it wears on, you realize that director Darren Aronofsky and Brendan Frasier, who took home a best-acting Oscar for this, have crafted a compelling and heartbreaking portrait of a man who is essentially eating himself to death over the trauma of an ended relationship. I saw someone say Frasier gives the greatest performance in the history of movies, and while I wouldn’t go that far, or even close to that far, I will say that he total commits to a role that is built on an emotional roller coaster. I feel like I’m spouting off cliches here, but I don’t know how else to express my admiration.
It’s a complete movie. It’s hard to watch. It’s tough to absorb. You may not like it. But, it will be a while before you forget it.
The Fabelmans – 9
Steven Spielberg’s thinly veiled story of his childhood is a nice little story with some interesting scenes that would rate about a 6 without the phenomenal performance of Michelle Williams as the mother. Her complexity, and her pain as she breaks her family apart elevates this movie to rarified air. I’m going to confess that I’ve never made it through last year’s Best Picture Oscar Winner and its accompanying Best Actress Michelle Yeoh, but now I’m pissed. For Michelle Williams to get passed over is criminal. This is a stunning performance, and she picks up the whole movie and carries it on her shoulders. This is a master class in acting.
Plus One – 9
After watching a lot of disappointing romcoms this year, this one caught me by surprise.
Attending weddings with those boring speeches, watching the
evening deteriorate, the predictable dance play list, it’s all here, and you
just want to yell at the screen, “Yes, yes.”
So, what was the main reason I watched?
Well, it’s the lead Maya Erskine, who I saw in the pretty bad new Mr.
& Mrs. Smith series. She holds up
her end of the bargain in both, and I’m not going to say we have a new rom-com
Meg Ryan, but she’s expressive and winning and I like her. You either have the gift of comedy timing or
you don’t, and it looks like she’s got it.
Most importantly, I laughed a lot. It swung towards a more serious side, but it
never let go of its heart.
Time Trap – 8
Production values couldn’t be any lower, as 90% of the movie takes place in a
cave in this 2017 Sci-fi. There’s a time
tunnel and it’s kind of cool the way the calendar jumps around as they go up
and down in the cave. I like time travel
movies just enough to like this one. If
you like the hypotheticals of time travel, check this one out. It’s no “Time After Time” but still a fun
trip.
The Abyss – 7
First, let me say that this is one of the great trailers ever. They cherry picked the best sequence in the
movie, which is great as a preview, but not great when you’re watching the
movie. This is one of those hybrid
Netflix movies that seems to have been filmed with everyone speaking their
native language and the non-English speakers dubbed in. This is very distracting to me, and I’m not
sure why. This is based in Sweden, and a
town build on a mine. Or maybe they mined under the town. Either way, it's collapsing in a spectacular fashion.
There is a lot of family drama which telegraphs who is going
to survive and who isn’t. Other than the
other pretty compelling action sequences, not much here we haven’t seen before,
although I like the fact that the actors are unknown, which makes it seem
real. But in the end, it was just a nice
try.
This is the story of a murder for hire that gives itself away pretty early. There is some chemistry among the stars, Tina Fey, Jon Hamm, and Nick Mohammed (of Ted Lasso fame), as they try to figure our why two people with the same name would be murdered within a week of each other, but the movie is flat and uninteresting, and the script was so lacking of punch, I couldn’t help but wonder why, if you’ve cast Tina Fey, why wouldn’t you use her to punch up the script. To me, Tina Fey is an American Icon, and I have no idea why she is in this movie. Any of a million actresses could have played this role. I watch movies for entertainment, and I was not entertained. Not close. I’m a big fan of Tina and this is a puzzling misstep.
You Hurt My Feelings – 5
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is the other icon that underdelivers in a flat performance in a flat movie. She plays a female writer who overhears her husband say that he didn’t much care for her last book. That sends her spiraling toward a divorce. In my estimation, her husband is so uninspiring, I’m surprised it took her this long. But fear not, the plot goes exactly where you think it’s going, and nobody was harmed in the making of this movie. Only in the watching.
Knock at the Cabin – 7
M. Night Shyamalan is down to recapturing the magic about every 5th movie, and I’ll have to admit he got close here, but no cigar. This is one of those “cabin” movies where people rent a cabin and things go awry. Here the awry is a bunch of loonies who break in with the claim that only the 3 renters can prevent the Apocalypse, by executing each other. I don’t think I’d buy this, but maybe you would, if presented with the evidence the loonies carry, as well as their commitment to the cause.
I’d rather stay out of cabins. Give me Motel 6, with the light left on.
STREAMING/BINGING and what’s left of Network Television
Criminal Record – 10
This is one of those British mysteries, purchase by Apple+ that are unusually complex and well done, with a logical and believable payoff. Sure, we have a lot of hours to fill, and the story drags from time to time. but when the dominos start to fall, they do so with a clatter. Cush Jumbo (The Good Wife/Fight) is DS June Lenker who thinks she has discovered a wrongful conviction based on a bogus confession. The officer who pulled this off is DCI Daniel Hegarty played by Peter Capaldi, a capable and believable actor. They punch and counter punch for 8 episodes as June pushes toward the truth. Nicely done.
Resident Alien – 10 (so far)
The great Alan Tudyk, who is a no guts, no glory type of performer, anchors this rich and funny take on the “alien crashes on earth” theme. After his forced landing he assumes the identity of a retired doctor, who is soon called out of retirement. If you’re not a Tudyk fan since Firefly/Serentiy like I am, you can google his top ten performances. It will reveal a bunch of his really good performances. But, it’s what is not listed that is indicative of his fearlessness. Nobody wants to talk about his cringeworthy epitaphs as a manager opposite Jackie Robinson in "42." On any list of thankless roles this would be number one, but I can’t see many going for it like Tudyk does.
That “let it all hang out” is evident here, but what you won’t expect is the heart. It’s the chemistry of the whole cast as the residents of Patience, Colorado that I love here. A bunch of the characters, especially 5 or 6 young ladies, grew up in the town. They love and care for each other, while having a good time, and navigating their lives. It reminds me of some of my friends from my high school class, who started 1st grade together and still hanging around together into their 70’s. You can’t buy that, but somehow this cast captures it. Perfectly. I’m only half way through the second season, but it’s the camaraderie that’s got me. Come for the alien, stay for the affection.
Deadloch – 9 (so far)
Way better than True Detective, and in a wacky Australia kind of way, this is a murder mystery in an absurd town in Tasmania. Most of the women are lesbian and they bounce around like pinballs as the mystery unfolds. Believe me, it’s better than I made it sound.
My only beef with this one is that the episodes are so long,
and we aren’t even halfway yet, but it’s unfolding like a classic mystery and I
hope we will work our way to the end. My
score may go up or down later, but so far, I’m very impressed.
The Tourist – 8
After you get past one of the most ridiculous opening scenes in history, you just have to buy that the main character, played by Jamie Dornan, has lost his memory. Was he a good guy or a bad guy? Why are people chasing him? This was an Australian original that Netflix bought, then ordered a second season, which I understand opens today. Which means it was good enough for Netflix and if its good enough for them, its good enough for me. This was the precursor to a series I loved last year from down under called Black Snow. I’m not jumping up and down, but I’ll probably watch the 2nd season.
True Detective – 4
Nothing has been able to top that first season of True Detective 10 years ago,
and this one doesn’t come close. Again.
There are so many problems and things I disliked about this series, which never found any connective tissue. It was like slogging through the mud. Or the snow. It takes place in Alaska during the long night, but nobody ever looks particularly cold, until the last episode. I don’t get the point of a whodunit where you can’t even guess whodunit because the culprits (spoiler alert) never appear until the last show.
The fallen icon here is Jodie Foster, whom I’ve loved since her scene stealing appearances in 1975’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and 1976’s Taxi Driver, both early Martin Scorcese works. Now there’s two classics you should watch! Here her spin as a promiscuous, heterosexual, police deputy is just out of the bounds of believability for me.. At least she was much better in Nyad for which she got an Oscar Nomination this year. I just never really bought her character in this one.
For 6 long episodes, Liz Danvers (Foster) and her hesitant again-partner Evangeline Navaro (Kali Reis,) with who she has a complicated history, wander about stabbing at a couple of mysteries, the biggest one being why did a bunch of scientists walk out into the tundra and stay until they froze. The two aren’t so much looking for clues as they are just bouncing off scenery, other characters, and themselves. With 5 minutes to go in the next to last episode, there is a gun battle, to which I shouted, “finally, something happened.” Up to that point I felt I was stuck in a snowmobile that wouldn’t move. I’m a simple viewer. Not crazy about symbolism or symbols, nor faint call backs to the first phenomenal season. The final episode is good, not great, and they try to pay off some of the babble, but it’s too much for me. Maybe when Fleetwood Mac sang “Over My Head” they were singing about me.
Mr & Mrs Smith – 2 (so far, and this as far as I’m going)
It’s not the fault of Donald Glover and Maya Erskine who
play the title roles, that this is such a dismal call-back to a pretty dismal
movie. The original, which appears to be
when Brad Pitt and Angelina fell in love during the filming, is almost all
chemistry. They light up the screen,
which was a good thing, as there wasn’t much else to like. In real life their chemistry went south, and
here, it’s just no help. Maybe the
series gets better, but I watched 2 or 3 and I’m not going to pursue the Smith’s. If you choose to, let me know what you think. Maybe all the good spy stories have already been
written.
The 100 – no score yet
One of those series that may or may not gain traction after being lifted from
the CW to Netflix. The premise is
interesting. It’s about 100 kids who are
airlifted back to a dead earth many years after earth was ravaged. Will they survive? Not sure.
Will they dwindle in number? Very
Likely. I’ve watched 4 and been
impressed, but it could take me months to get through 7 years of episodes. I’ll let you know, but so far the production
values are the pleasant surprise.
DOCUMENTARIES
When Cary Grant Introduced Timothy Leary to LSD – 7
This is the strangest of creatures, about a 20 minute docudrama based on the rumor that Grant was an avid experimenter with LSD and he was sought out by Timothy Leary, who tried it, loved it, and told us to turn on, tune in, etc… Mildly interesting, and not very credible, but what do I know?
STAND-UP
Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man & the Pool – 8
Mike Birbiglia is so low key as a stand up comedian that I couldn’t help but think, “I could do this.” Except of course, I’m not funny. Mike is, as a gentle story teller in one of those well crafted Netflix comedy specials, that brings you around to where it started.
CLASSICS
The Terminal – 8
I didn’t think it was possible for a Steven Speilberg effort to fly under my radar, but this 2004 one did, and it stars Tom Hanks no less. What was I doing? Oh yea, the restaurant years. My only entertainment those years was 6 am episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But, I digress, and I have to admit Speilberg and Hanks (and Catherine Zeta-Jones) won me over, by conveying that compassion that they’ve made their hallmark.
Hanks plays Viktor Navorsky, from a fictional Russianesque country that goes into a civil war, and when he flies into a US airport, the US won’t let him in, so he takes up residence at JFK. It’s based, mildly, on the true story of an Iranian refugee who lived 18 years in an airport. Speilberg is sharp enough to truncate the story, wise enough to cast Hanks, and smart enough to let Hanks’ accent diminish rather quickly. Nice movie.
From Dusk to Dawn – 8
I’d never seen this Robert Rodriguez cult classic starring George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino, who also wrote it. For example, I never knew Q acted this much. As frenetically as he directs I might add. The two leads play brother bank robbers on the run who end up in a famous truck stop/strip club which is also a haven for, Vampires. It’s rather entertaining, but not enough for me to go to the television series that was later made from it. It apparently starred Eliza Gonzales, who is a knockout and appears in the opening scene of Mr & Mrs. Smith, I guess as the Angelina Jolie character. Charisma alert for the month, if nothing else.
Klute – 9
Jane Fonda won her first Oscar in 1971 right about the time she was the least
popular person in America for going over to Viet Nam and saying something stupid. She won her second Oscar in 1978 for “Coming
Home” along with Jon Voight (the father of Angelina Jolie – I swear I’m not
doing this on purpose,) about, you guessed it, the Viet Nam war. If I had one wish it would be to put Fonda
and Voight in a room together today, let’s say on Bill Maher, and hear them go
at it. Or maybe do the Jane Fonda Workout. All this is beside the
point. Klute is an excellent, but dated
movie and Fonda shows those Fonda acting chops as the hooker who knows
somebody, or something like that. It’s
great to see Donald Southerland, who is excellent, investigating and falling in
love with Jane. Glad I finally ticked
this one off.
In the Mood for Love – 5
Been reading about this “classic” for 20 years and it put me in the mood for sleep. It’s about two neighbors who finally figure out their spouses are having an affair and are kind of smitten with each other, and trying to figure out what to do with that attraction. Today, that wouldn’t be an issue, but I guess in 2001 it was different. This is a Chinese and French effort, dubbed and while the color pallet is interesting, not much else is. Sometimes the word “classic” is bandied about a little too loosely. They should consult me first.
Blow Up - 7
Michaelangelo Antonini’s first English speaking film was this 1966 thriller about a London photographer who may or may not have filmed a murder. At least this one held my attention even though it seems to take forever to get to whatever its point is. This is one I’d encourage you to watch, as the artistry and story are at least interesting. It might catch your fancy, even if it missed mine.
No comments:
Post a Comment