At the Cinema - March/April 2016

This is that time of the year when I’m distracted by festivals, disillusioned by politics, and dependent on television for screen entertainment.  Thus, you get two months of movie going and TV blog for the price of one.

Midnight Special – 9

There’s nothing wrong with a little genuine science fiction film making, and this one’s pretty cool.  It involves a religious cult trying to recapture a very gifted young boy who may or not be of this world.  This movie works as a thriller, a chase movie, and most importantly as a supernatural ride with a nifty final explanation. 

The chase takes place across Louisiana, so you know it’s going to be strange.

10 Cloverfield Lane – 8

There’s nothing wrong with a little end of the world science fiction, and this one’s very good too. 

John Goodman has built himself a neat little end of the world bunker, where else but in Louisiana, and he saves a young girl (or does he?) after she wrecks her car while fleeing the “war.”  It feels like a post apocalyptic "Room" and I just wish I hadn't spent most of the movie trying to figure out who the other actor in the bunker was.  (I knew him from The Newsroom.)

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot – 7

Tina Fey plays a war correspondent in Afghanistan in this not-much-comedy story.  She exerts her unusual charisma, and the main thing I got out of this movie was a burning desire to spend an hour with Tina Fey someday.  Her star power carries a less that nifty movie, although the presence of Margot Robbie doesn't hurt.  

Scanning the Satellite

Nothing Left Unsaid – 10

If I’ve ever seen a more engrossing documentary than this HBO story of Gloria Vanderbilt and her son Anderson Cooper, I can’t remember it.  I couldn’t have even told you a thing about Gloria Vanderbilt before I watched this, but talk about a full life - Her ups and downs are such pinnacles and devastations that it made me feel like I’ve been sleep walking through life.  What a story.  I never intended to watch this, but it caught me by surprise, and by the throat.

Vinyl – 9

This HBO miniseries is hard to watch because of the constant drug use, but a lot of fun because of the amazing actors they got to play a plethora of rock stars.  Whoever did the casting is the star of this show.  The music is fun.  The performances are wild.  

American Idol - 8

Gone for now, but just for fun I'd thought I'd do an approximate ranking of some of my all-time favorite contestants,  Feel free to give me yours:

Kelly Clarkson, whom I missed in that first season.   Having now watched all of her performances I wander if AI would have been as big without her.  What if there had been a lesser winner in season one?  

Jordan Sparks, the only winner I picked right out of the gate.

Haley Reinhardt

David Cook

Allison Iraheta, unfairly maligned by Simon Cowell.

Katherine McPhee

Casey Abrams

Pia Toscano

Chris Daughtery

Siobhan Magnus

Angie Miller

Joshua Ledet

Melinda Doolittle

The Good Wife - 10, 10, 10

Next Sunday is the final episode of another series I never expected to like.  Somehow we got caught up in this amazing drama.  Fantastic weekly scripts were the hallmark of this story of a law firm, Chicago politics, families, and love affairs.  This has been a masterpiece of story telling.

It now ranks, not that anyone cares, as my second favorite network drama of all time, behind the legendary Hill Street Blues. 

Billions – 10

This Showtime series is magical for one reason.  You’ve got the great Paul Giamatti as the Federal Prosecutor trying to pin crime and punishment on a flashy hedge fund manager played by Damian Lewis (Homeland) a Showtime Golden Boy.  Malin Ackerman is also terrific as Lewis’ equally gutsy wife.  But the magic here is in the performance of Maggie Siff who absolutely blows them off the screen as the wife/psychiatrist caught between the battling testosterone of the two male leads.  She is riveting and amazing and I don’t pick the Emmys, but if I did, the race would be over already.  She’s that good.  Just as Carrie Coon blew me away on The Leftovers, and has been justly rewarded, watch for Maggie to be.  

At The Cinema - September 2014

A Walk Among the Tombstones – 7

You’ll like this movie if you like atmosphere, murder, and Liam Neeson

Finally, the worst summer of movies I can remember brings an adult movie.  The Liam Neeson renaissance continues with this murky tale of two creepy killers who kidnap and dismember young women.  Neeson plays Matt Scudder, a retired NYPD cop who is still carrying and flashing his old badge as an unlicensed private investigator and doer of favors for questionable characters. 

The movie begins on the day in 1991 that the heavy drinking cop Scudder stops drinking because of a shootout he gets involved in while inebriated. 

The movie jumps to 1999 when Scudder is now a PI.  It’s an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that leads Scudder to a client.  He’s a drug dealer whose wife was kidnapped and when he couldn’t pay all the ransom, the kidnappers chop her body up and leave it in a trunk.  It seems their business plan is to pick on drug dealers, and it is a lucrative if risky one.  If you are going to execute such a plan it certainly helps to be completely psycho and this pair fits the bill. 

Scudder immediately realizes what he is dealing with and the action ramps up.  If you’ve missed good old fashioned detective movies, this one is a throwback.  But rest assured The Maltese Falcon had no blood and gore like this one dishes up.  These are gruesome sickos and the climax is predestined to be a wet one, even if they go a little bit overboard with alcoholism imagery.

This is Where I Leave You – 7

You’ll like this movie if you like dysfunctional family comedies.

This is a star-studded affair about a father who dies leaving a wife (an enthusiastically enhanced Jane Fonda) who breaks the news to her 4 children (Tina Fey, Corey Stoler, Jason Bateman, and Adam Dryer) that the father wants them to sit chiva after his death, even though the family is not Jewish.  So why?  It’s called a plot device, just like the affairs three of the kids will cram into the next week.  Seven days of family togetherness would test a family with no drama.  This is not that family.

This script is a hodge podgy mess.  The direction is incoherent.  But stars are stars for a reason.  They command your attention, and make you believe.  So the crew yanks the laughs out of the material and you almost believe it all.  It’s not all bad. 

Here’s the fun I have at a movie like this.  I recently started binge watching a TV show called Rectify and was taken with an actress named Abigail Spencer who steals every scene she’s in.  Cool show and very promising actress.  She’s in this movie as Jason Bateman’s cheating wife and she’s POW!  I love spotting someone I think is a future star.

So I can’t wait to see what she does next. 

Just like, I can’t wait to see Carrie Coon (The Leftovers on HBO) in Gone Girl.

I can’t wait to see Jessica Chastain again.

I can’t wait to see what Brit Marling does next.

I wish Kate Beckinsale would get a great script

I wish Emmy Rossum would make a musical (preferably with Anne Hathaway and Anna Kendrick)

I wish Rooney Mara would do another Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movie.

Scanning the Satellite

Parkland – 8

Parkland is the hospital in Dallas where both John F Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald were taken to try to save their lives.  This is a star studded docudrama that recounts those memorable 3 days in Dallas in 1963.  It’s a matter of fact re-telling and the details it reveals are fascinating.  Don't know why this movie was so under the radar.

And here's Abigail