Brief review of every 2015 film I've seen so far.
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
Alex Gibney's doc delves into the church of L. Ron Hubbard, shining a light on what many believe is clearly a sham religion. And yeah, that's pretty much what Gibney's light reveals. Lots of talking head interviews with ex-members (several of whom were fairly high-ranking) that thoroughly eviscerate the "religion". It's very one-sided, but that's kinda the way it has to be when dealing with Scientology.
The Salvation
A very old fashioned western about an immigrant (Mads Mikkelson, once again nailing the stoic hero role) whose wife (Oh Land!) and young son are murdered by a local big shot (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, having fun without going camp), and the quest for revenge/justice that follows. There are corrupt local politicians (Johnathan Pryce, because of course), citizens too scared to rise up, a helpful boy sidekick, and many of the other cliches of the genre. But The Salvation has 3 good things going for it: 1) as a Danish production filmed largely in South Africa, it has the same distanced view of America as some of the great 70's Italian westerns, which allows the film to be 2) almost relentlessly cynical and cruel in a way that even the grimmest of American productions never quite pull off, and 3) Eva Green, proving that even when playing an involuntary mute (her character's tongue was cut out prior to the events of the film), she has a classic screen charisma that cannot be contained. It's a good film, but it has absolutely no surprises to offer once you realize that the film is going to probably kill everyone who isn't top billed.
It Follows
A new horror classic. Gorgeously shot, well acted, great score, and enough twists of genre convention to please rabid fans. Fans of the lazy "BOO!"-style horror movies would be advised to skip it, so as to not infuriate actual cinephiles by potentially calling it "slow".
Jupiter Ascending
Another batshit sci-fi film from Andy & Lana Wachowski that marries a ridiculously convoluted plot with some of the best visuals of the year. As always, the labyrinthine plot seems to exist merely as a foundation on which to erect the glorious eye candy, so it's not strictly necessary for a viewer to actually know what's going on. Though in the middle of the film there is a wonderful and funny homage to Terry Gilliam's Brazil, culminating in a cameo by Gilliam himself.
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Entertaining and funny, but clunkier than its predecessor. The weight of the MCU really shows, with too many scenes meant to lay the foundation of what's to come instead of focusing on the plot at hand. The first Avengers felt like a destination, wheres Age of Ultron feels like a crossroads pointing to several other destinations instead of being a culmination of Marvel's Phase 2. And the editing is very, very apparent this time. It feels too little like Marvel's "Big Event" movie and too much like a middle chapter.
Blackhat
Michael Mann on autopilot. Which means there are still some inventive sequences, a great soundtrack, and top-notch shootouts. But the story is ridiculous, the romantic plot is cliched, and the Big Bad ends up being kind of a letdown, even though he's played by a character actor, Yorick van Wageningen, who knows how to play a loathsome human being (see: David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, where he's not even the main bad guy).
Kingsman: The Secret Service
A vulgar, violent action-comedy that at one point has none other than Colin Firth engaging in a fantastically choreographed murder-spree set to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird". Matthew Vaughn goes back to the Kick-Ass well for the tone, but brings with him his experience on X-Men: First Class to amp up all the action sequences. For those not easily offended, it is an absolute riot.
Ex Machina
Screenwriter Alex Garland's (28 Days Later, Sunshine) directorial debut is a heady science fiction film that's more interested in ideas than action. Oscar Isaac plays a bro-tastic tech billionaire who has created an artificially intelligent android (Alicia Vikander, in one Hell of a career-boosting role). He enlists employee Domhnall Gleeson to test the authenticity of the A.I., or so he claims. Obsessions are born, ulterior motives are exposed, and mental chess-playing is performed. While Garland has historically had issues with nailing down his third act (though I will defend Sunshine's polarizing ending until my death), here he finds an ending that's a logical conclusion to what has come before. It is a very good film.
Mad Max: Fury Road
Fury Road is about a woman named Imperator Furiosa and her quest to free a group of women who have been enslaved as "breeders" by the evil Immortan Joe, ruler of The Citadel, in a post-apocalypse Australia. Along the way she picks up the film's title character, who then rides shotgun for most of the film as Charlize Theron kicks all the ass. The film itself starts out fast, then just gets faster as it goes, amounting to what is essentially a feature-length chase sequence. It's very entertaining and inventive, and Theron definitely deserves all the hype she's getting, but it may be just a tad overrated. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty great, but it's not as life-changing as some critics are saying.
Hot Girls Wanted
A Rashida Jones-produced documentary of the "professional amateur (or ProAm)" porn industry in Miami, Florida which goes light on the lurid stuff and heavy on the lives of the girls involved. As an expose` of the porn industry it's very heavy-handed and one-sided, but as a character study of people involved in a fringe and stigmatized business it's pretty engaging.
Cobain: Montage of Heck
A fascinating look at Kurt Cobain, largely told in his own voice. Director Brett Morgan is a master of assembling archival material into a coherent storyline (his 30 for 30 entry is that series' high-water mark). Through audio recordings, notebook sketches, and home videos Cobain tells his own story of growing up, with only an occasional talking-head interview added to fill out details or offer some distanced perspective (notably absent is David Grohl, though apparently that was due to a scheduling issue). It gives an enlightening look into the life of someone who seemed to value his privacy to a fatal degree, yet who so thoroughly documented his own life.
Jurassic World
A fun action-adventure that pays homage to the original film, while falling short of matching it. It succeeds as popcorn entertainment, and is certainly better than the other sequels. But it has to be said that Jurassic World's gender politics are...uh...let's go with "throwback".
Ted 2
Like Seth MacFarlane's previous film A Million Ways to Die in the West, Ted 2 has a handful of really great jokes sprinkled across nearly two very unfunny hours. Not worth it.
Minions
Not bad, but not the equal of its parent franchise. Like most adults who will see it, I watched it because I have a small child. He seems to like it just fine.
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau
Worth the price of admission just for the insane stories about Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer, and the eccentric Stanley. It's no Jodorowsky's Dune, as Stanley (Hardware, Dust Devil) isn't half the auteur that Jodorowsky is, but it's a decent look at how a unique cinematic vision get eroded away by competing egos. It could have used more cast interviews (David Thewlis is never mentioned, despite being the film's ostensible lead, and Ron Perlman only shows up in archival footage), though Fairuza Balk compensates by having all the best stories.
Tig
A good but inessential look at the life of talented comedian Tig Notaro. If you like Tig's comedy, you'll enjoy spending 90 minutes watching her life.
What Happened, Miss Simone?
A surprisingly candid biography of Nina Simone that doesn't try to gloss over the ugly parts of the singer's life. From the beginning her musical talent is acknowledge as legendary and rarely paralleled, but is not offered as an excuse for some of her failings. Simone was a complicated person (some of it stemming from her bipolar disorder, which went diagnosed until late in her life). She brought light to important social issues while simultaneously preaching violent revolution. She was trapped in an abusive relationship while also visiting abuse on her own daughter. It's an illuminating film, and certainly not a hagiography. It also was never compelling enough to keep me completely hooked (I watched it in pieces over a couple of days).
The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened?
Apparently there is a new genre of documentaries that cover never-made films. This one concerns Tim Burton's would-be Superman movie starring Nicolas Cage. It's poorly shot, poorly edited, and has a pace that will lull most viewers to sleep. There are a handful of decent parts (some archival costume testing footage that reveal the Superman suit to look much cooler than that terrible JPG that's been floating around on the internet for a few years), and the filmmaker was able to coax an interview out of Tim Burton, who seems fairly game to talk about an aborted project that took away two years of his life. But overall it's not worth seeking out, even for cinephiles.
Terminator: Genesys
Mind-bogglingly terrible movie, and easily the worst in a franchise that already contained Terminator: Salvation. I'll just let the fine folks at io9 take it from here, in their spot-on FAQ of the film.
Ant-Man
A charming Marvel movie that spends more time on its characters than its action sequences. Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas are charming, and Corey Stall has fun as the film's villain. Unfortunately the film also shares Marvel's overall problem with female characters, and Evangeline Lily gets stuck with the most underdeveloped role. At this point Lily is a pro at adding depth to underwritten roles, so she does her best to make her character seem like more than just a plot point in the male characters' emotional arcs. The movie is fun, and despite a few small flaws (like really annoying, slap-sticky side characters) manages to be a worthwhile entry in the Marvel canon.
Fantastic Four
Ugh, what a slog. How can a movie that spends 80% of its running time on its characters still manage to be this one-dimensional? The tone is wrong, the changes to the source material are inexplicable, Kate Mara gets the worst neglect in any Marvel movie thus far (though Fox Marvel is different from Disney Marvel, they both share the same gender inequality issues), and it managed to somehow make me long for the old FF franchise (those films were wretched, but they at least had Chris Evans as a perfectly-cast Johnny Storm). This film was a failure through and through.
What We Do in the Shadows
Very funny mockumentary about a group of vampires sharing a house in New Zealand. It mines a lot of humor from the everyday minutia of being a vampire (dressing-up without being able to see one's reflection, trying not to get blood stains on the couches and furniture, cleaning huge piles of blood-stained dishes). The film does enough good character work to keep the premise from wearing out its welcome. The humor is rarely of the laugh-out-loud variety (though there are certainly those moments), but rather just an overall pleasantness that will have viewers smiling throughout. Imagine a Christopher Guest vampire film and you'll have a good idea of this film's tone.
Spy
Melissa McCarthy's loud, brassy shtick wore out its welcome for me about halfway through Bridesmaids, where everyone else seemed to fall in love with it. Subsequently I have not enjoyed her films, which seem to rely solely on that personality for their "laughs". So it came as a relief to me that Spy largely skips it, and lets McCarthy be naturally funny as a capable but under-utilized CIA employee. She's surrounded by a game cast of reliable comedy players (Rose Byrne, Alison Janney) and a scene-stealing, self-parodying Jason Statham. It isn't a great film, but it's a funny one.
Black Sea
A solid thriller that keeps tightening a vice on its characters and doesn't ever let up. Black Sea is a deep sea heist film that puts very little emphasis on the heist and much emphasis on xenophobia tearing a crew of seafaring mercenaries apart. Jude Law leads a cast of international character actors through nearly two very tense hours aboard an ancient, leaky submarine whose crew quickly segregates into two sides that hate each other, but have to rely on each other to run the submarine. A really good movie that got unfairly buried with a limited January release.
Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine
Alex Gibney admits up front that his Steve Jobs documentary is out for blood, and blood it finds. Gibney acknowledges that Jobs' genius is almost universally known, and instead focuses on the less glamorous aspects of the controversial icon's life. The end result could easily come across as a straight up attack on a man who is no longer alive to defend himself, but even the people the Apple co-founder screwed over end up admitting that Jobs' visions paid off in the long run. As such, Gibney's film ends up mainly being a tally of all the collateral damage that resulted from Jobs' march to greatness.
Turbo Kid
Turbo Kid winkingly adopts the look of bad 80's direct-to-VHS genre pictures, but manages to pay homage without becoming parody. There's cheesy synth music, hammy acting, BMX bikes, an android sidekick, buckets of blood, and Michael Ironside playing a villain named Zeus. It's nostalgic fun, but don't let the title "Turbo Kid" fool you: this is strictly adult fare.
Monday, September 28, 2015
Monday, November 10, 2014
36 More Things to Love About "A Life Less Ordinary"
Last week my friend Nick posted a wonderful blog entry highlighting elements from Danny Boyle's overlooked A Life Less Ordinary, a film that I also shamelessly adore. And because it is so criminally underseen (how can a movie this gorgeous from an Oscar-winning director still not have a Blu-ray release?!) I am going to rip Nick off and do my own post of things to love about this film without repeating any of his choices. That is how much there is to love about this movie!
The way the credits cling to the edges of the frame.
Dan Hedaya saying "Irreconcilable sexual disharmony!"
The stunning title card...
...which is immediately followed by this beautiful shot.
Also of note: the Sneaker Pimps' song "Velvet Divorce" that plays throughout this sequence.
The look Ian McNeice gives as he knowingly polishes that apple.
This perfect visual summation of an offscreen event.
"You're fired!"
Look at how her head is enclosed directly above "Employees Only" while Robert's side of the frame is wide open. He may be fired, but now he's free.
How Tony Shalhoub's bar owner Al wordlessly pours Robert a shot after witnessing Lily leaving.
"We can do this with or without violence, it's up to you. The client pays our medical bills but not yours. Well?"
Nick covered Holly Hunter's performance pretty well in his post, but I have to say her choice of weird vocal affectation whenever she's playing her role-within-role is awe-inspiring.
This camera angle.
The way the cleaning robot keeps repeating "Eleven" while this scene is happening.
Robert's face as his big moment has an anticlimax.
"He cut in on me!"
"Mirror, signal, maneuver."
I said I wouldn't repeat Nick, but Walt really is the greatest.
Reality starting to dawn on Robert while Walt goes about his helpful business (even if Walt does end up leaving one small streak behind).
A scenic hideaway.
Robert reading a bad romance novel while Celine chops firewood.
"He gasps..."
"Ow, fuck!"
"...in shock and delight."
The interplay of Robert's scenes with O'Reilly's voiceover is masterful.
"Yes, I've read the same thing; it's very hard to find suitable young men these days. Well I'm sure your daughter's very nice and in principle I've got no objections to meeting her..."
The entire scene in the phone booth is great, but his wrong number gets me every time.
Robert's utter confusion.
An impossibly baby-faced Timothy Olyphant.
Robert's cartwheel in the dust.
The sound the bag makes as it's pulled along the road.
"Aw, damn."
"Have you ever felt like you're not in control of events?"
"Yes!"
Elliot's head bandage.
"I'm sure you'll probably pass out as the pain gets worse."
Judith Ivey's five second cameo where she never faces the camera.
O'Reilly's back-slapping laughter at Jackson's terrible poem.
"The issue of whether or not she's your type is not one that you're likely to have to resolve in this world... or, indeed, the next, since she will be going to some Heaven for glamorous pussy, and you will be cleaning the floor of a diner in Hell."
This shot.
Celine's shock and delirious laughter when she's dealt a nearly impossible winning hand in Jackson's very one-sided blackjack game.
"This is Gabriel. Get me God."
That clear plastic phone alone should have won somebody in the props department an award.
The slow push in to Celine's face during this shot.
Breaking the fourth wall...or perhaps not.
Claymation epilogue, because why not.
Friday, November 07, 2014
2014 Movie Reviews, Speed Round 2
Below are the 2014 movies that I have seen so far (not including the ones previously reviewed in my earlier posts), reviewed in one paragraph or less. Movies are rated as Terrible, Mediocre, Average, Good or Great.
Cuban Fury
A pedestrian comedy about an overweight schlub (Nick Frost) who rediscovers his childhood love of salsa dancing in an effort to woo the new hottie at work (Rashida Jones). He is aided in his pursuit by his old dance instructor (Ian McShane), and is romantically rivaled by an office frenemy (Chris O'Dowd). All of these actors have fun with the material and the soundtrack is lively, but the story is formulaic, thin, and unworthy of the cast. It's not bad, but it's not worth making an effort to seek out.
Rating: Mediocre
Guardians of the Galaxy
A fun space romp that doesn't take itself as seriously as some of the other franchises in the Marvel Universe. Not the masterpiece that all the hype would imply, but certainly a fine piece of popcorn entertainment.
Rating: Good
Coherence
What seemingly starts as cliche indie drama quickly reveals itself to be a stealth science fiction story that utilizes ideas instead of special effects, a la Primer. While it has interesting ideas, a couple of fun twists, and a welcomely cynical ending, it also doesn't have a firm grasp on the way human beings act. The characters jump to conclusions so quickly it can give the audience whiplash, and the time it takes for one character to go from incredulous to violently paranoid feels like a reel went missing from the film. It's a puzzle movie that's intriguing enough to keep viewers watching until the end just to see where all the pieces fit, but probably not too concerned with the fate of any of the characters.
Rating: Average
Korengal
Less a sequel to 2010's Oscar-nominated war documentary Restrepo than a continuation (much of Korengal comes from the same massive amount of wartime footage from which Restrepo was culled), Korengal highlights stories not told in its cinematic forebearer, and features new interviews with many of the soldiers featured in the previous film. The interviews are what differentiates Korengal the most from Restrepo. The older film's interviews were taken shortly after the soldiers' experiences, when their emotions were still high and the trauma was fresh. Korengal finds the soldiers much more removed from the action, and with a sense of perspective that only time can bring. Their experiences are no less harrowing, but they are now much more aware of the dehumanizing effects that war had of them. The result is the equal of its predecessor, and one of the most affecting documentaries of the year.
Note: While Korengal ideally pares best with Restrepo, it is not essential to have seen the former. All of the crossover events and people who are featured in Restrepo are freshly reintroduced in Korengal.
Rating: Great
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Let's all agree right now: Bryan Singer is the only director who can pull off an X-Men movie properly. Brett Ratner (X-Men 3), Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and James Mangold (The Wolverine) did terrible jobs. Matthew Vaughn came really close to making a good one (X-Men: First Class), but landed on "good enough" instead. Singer's franchise record is flawless, however. Days of Future Past is the darkest entry in the franchise, and juggles multiple timelines and realities in a way that is easy for the audience to follow while also making us care about different versions of the same characters in ways that sometime intentionally conflict with each other. It is easily the second best X-Men movie (the almost perfect X-Men 2 is not just the top franchise entry, but one of the best superhero movies ever made).
Rating: Good
Godzilla
Much has been made about how little screentime Godzilla has in his own movie, but I actually liked that fact. Nothing against Godzilla, but I thought the way director Gareth Edwards constantly cut away from the monsters to see their battles being shown on small TV screens via the news was not just a great audience tease but also a way to show the ground-level experience of a giant monster attack. Most people would just be watching the action on a screen, up until their roof was suddenly torn off by the fight. Unfortunately Aaron Taylor-Johnson is the movie's main character, and he once again proves to be the most boring part of every film he's in. But other than him everyone else seems to be having fun earning their summer blockbuster paychecks. It's not great by a long shot, but it's certainly better than the last one.
Rating: Good
Rampage 2: Capital Punishment
That Uwe Boll is a terrible and shameless filmmaker in every way is an understanding that is so accepted by audiences and critics alike that it is nearly impossible to argue that he has, almost by accident, made a couple of good movies. 2009's Rampage was a strange anomaly in Boll's otherwise incompetent career. A naturally-paced violent drama about a man who puts on body armor, walks down the main street of his town, and shoots almost anything that moves. Sure, it's sadistic and dark. But it also found strange moments of profundity amid the chaos (there's an amazing scene in a bingo parlor that I consider to be essential viewing for any cinephile). Above all, it seemed nothing like an Uwe Boll film. If anything, the closest cinematic kinship it has is with Gus Van Sant's under-seen Elephant. Rampage 2 tightens the action somewhat (2/3 of the films takes place in the basement of a large corporate building), but still has the free-floating cinematography and almost improvisational looseness of the first film. It's equally sadistic, and is not an easy watch, but still just as fascinating. And while Boll the director doesn't misstep here either, the film's weakest element is Boll the actor. Boll cast himself as a television producer, and plays it as an over-the-top caricature of a Fox News executive in a movie otherwise filled with naturalistic performances. Fortunately he's a minor character, and doesn't get in the way very much.
Rating: Good
Noah
Well...this was not what I expected. It doesn't feel like a biblical epic, and it certainly doesn't feel like a Darren Aronofsky film. It just feels like a period action blockbuster the same as any other, but where the characters have names you hear a lot in church. Much like Ridley Scott's Robin Hood (which, like Noah, also starred Russell Crowe), the action onscreen shares so little with the well-known stories that serve as its inspiration that they could have just slapped another title on the film and saved themselves the inevitable backlash. Robin Hood wasn't a terrible film, it just wasn't a Robin Hood movie. Noah also isn't bad, it just plays less like a bible story than like something from J.R.R. Tolken's Middle-Earth. It's a generically competent blockbuster, and not one of the greatest stories ever told.
Rating: Average
Edge of Tomorrow
So, you were sick of sci-fi action blockbusters starring Tom Cruise? Well, you are why we can't have nice things. Edge of Tomorrow was the best blockbuster to come out this summer, and almost no one went to see it. It tanked at the box office despite glowing critical reviews, and has even been retitled as Live. Die. Repeat. for its home video and streaming release, presumably so audiences will think it's a different movie and actually give it a chance this time. It's exciting, funny, clever and pretty. Give it your money, already. Even if you can't stand Cruise (who is great in this, by the way), at least watch it for Emily Blunt (who I now nominate for the role of Lt. Ellen Ripley whenever Fox gets around to rebooting the Alien franchise).
Rating: Great
Kink
A James Franco-produced documentary about Kink.com, the web's foremost purveyor of BDSM porn, both hetero- and homosexual. The film is somewhat interesting in that it shows a taboo sector of a taboo industry as basically just another business. There are staff meetings, production issues, and a genuine work ethic the same as any other industry. What happens on camera may seem extreme to some people, but as is repeatedly stated by the interviewees in the film, no one is being forced to watch. I fault the film on two main points. It hits all its talking points early, then just repeats them over and over. It also completely ignores that Kink.com features a lot of transsexual porn, which would have been a great opportunity for the filmmakers to explore what it means to be a socially persecuted minority working in a stigmatized niche of a disreputable business. Instead, that niche is not even mentioned by the film, which feels especially shallow and disrespectful.
Rating: Average
The Rover
The Rover is is relentlessly bleak movie. Taking place somewhere in Australia ten years after an unspecified global disaster, what remains of human civilization is basically waiting around while the clock winds down. Eric (Guy Pearce) gets his car stolen while stopping for a drink, and spends the rest of the film tracking the thieves through a slow apocalypse. Aiding him is is Rey (Robert Pattinson), one of the thieves' dimwitted younger brother mistaken for dead and left behind. While Eric spends the first few minutes of the film seeming like a sympathetic protagonist, an unexpected action late in the first act reveals him to be nearly as cold as the world he inhabits. There are no good guys left in the world of The Rover, just those who stick to a personal code and those who don't. That the film still manages to find some touching moments amid the dreariness is almost a miracle. Pearce can play worn down and gritty in his sleep, and does a predictably admirable job here (he's given a heartbreaking monologue where he recounts his first murder, and the reason it affects him is not the reason you'd think). Pattinson is the scene-stealer though, giving Rey both a recklessness and naive innocence that make him the film's true heart. I liked The Rover a lot, but it's likely no one will feel happy when they're done watching it.
Rating: Good
7500
The director of The Grudge brings us 7500, which can alternately be called Ghosts on a Plane. It's terrible. Just really, really bad. None of the actors are trying, the scares are nonexistent, and the inevitable twist is predictable. There's a reason this film was sitting on the shelf since 2011 before finally being given a VOD release this year. The only credit I'll give the film is that it aims (unsuccessfully) for creepiness rather than resorting to cheap jump scares.
Rating: Terrible
How to Train Your Dragon 2
It's fine for a kid's movie, I guess. The first one had more heart and a better story. I missed twenty minutes in the middle of this movie when I left to go pick up a pizza. When I returned the movie was exactly were I had guessed it would probably be, and I had correctly intuited all of the plot developments that I had missed based on how formulaic the story was. It has its funny moments and a few pretty sequences, but is otherwise not essential viewing.
Rating: Average
Obvious Child
Jenny Slate should be a star, or at least be regarded as an equal to Kristen Wiig. She anchors a film that always feels like it could tip into cliche romantic comedy territory but stays grounded in genuine human behavior and emotions. Slate gets dumped by her boyfriend, has a drunken one night stand with nice guy Jake Lacy, gets pregnant as a result, decides to have an abortion, and struggles with how to break the news to her parents and to Lacy. There's no crazy slapstick or characters misconstruing events, just a naturally funny lady navigating through a personal crisis as best she can with the support of the people around her. Despite the heavy-sounding themes, the movie feels pretty light and charming. And Slate is amazing.
Rating: Good
Transformers: Age of Extinction
The fourth movie in this terrible franchise is the terrible-ist. The plot is bad, the acting is bad, and even the special effects are bad. How is it that a massive studio blockbuster franchise movie in 2014 has worse CGI than when the franchise started seven years ago? The only element in this film that isn't a complete waste is Stanley Tucci, who gives a gloriously hammy performance far more entertaining than the events happening around him. And I'm sorry, but the much-hyped dinobots were just plain bad.
Rating: Terrible
22 Jump Street
Almost as entertaining as 21 Jump Street, but not quite equal. It gets a lot of comedic mileage from outright mocking its own sequel redundancy and excess, but its plot feels like a complete afterthought to the hijinks. 21 Jump Street had hijinks, but also featured a solid throughline in its story. Still, it's more important for a comedy to be funny than compelling, and 22 Jump Street is definitely funny.
Rating: Good
Harmontown
Dan Harmon is the cult figure who created the much-loved but little-watched NBC sitcom Community. When he was infamously fired from his show, he decided to take his weekly podcast Harmontown on the road so he could salve his bruised ego by basking in the praise of his fans. Harmontown documents that tour, but is far from a hagiography. Sure, almost everyone interviewed claims Harmon is a genius storyteller. Because he is. He's also very controlling of his work, and resistant to outside input. He tends to alienate anyone who gets close to him or threatens to wrestle control away from him, including his longtime girlfriend Erin. The result is an intriguing portrait of a talented artist who is aware that he is his own worst enemy, but that seems powerless to stop himself.
Rating: Good
Cuban Fury
A pedestrian comedy about an overweight schlub (Nick Frost) who rediscovers his childhood love of salsa dancing in an effort to woo the new hottie at work (Rashida Jones). He is aided in his pursuit by his old dance instructor (Ian McShane), and is romantically rivaled by an office frenemy (Chris O'Dowd). All of these actors have fun with the material and the soundtrack is lively, but the story is formulaic, thin, and unworthy of the cast. It's not bad, but it's not worth making an effort to seek out.
Rating: Mediocre
Guardians of the Galaxy
A fun space romp that doesn't take itself as seriously as some of the other franchises in the Marvel Universe. Not the masterpiece that all the hype would imply, but certainly a fine piece of popcorn entertainment.
Rating: Good
Coherence
What seemingly starts as cliche indie drama quickly reveals itself to be a stealth science fiction story that utilizes ideas instead of special effects, a la Primer. While it has interesting ideas, a couple of fun twists, and a welcomely cynical ending, it also doesn't have a firm grasp on the way human beings act. The characters jump to conclusions so quickly it can give the audience whiplash, and the time it takes for one character to go from incredulous to violently paranoid feels like a reel went missing from the film. It's a puzzle movie that's intriguing enough to keep viewers watching until the end just to see where all the pieces fit, but probably not too concerned with the fate of any of the characters.
Rating: Average
Korengal
Less a sequel to 2010's Oscar-nominated war documentary Restrepo than a continuation (much of Korengal comes from the same massive amount of wartime footage from which Restrepo was culled), Korengal highlights stories not told in its cinematic forebearer, and features new interviews with many of the soldiers featured in the previous film. The interviews are what differentiates Korengal the most from Restrepo. The older film's interviews were taken shortly after the soldiers' experiences, when their emotions were still high and the trauma was fresh. Korengal finds the soldiers much more removed from the action, and with a sense of perspective that only time can bring. Their experiences are no less harrowing, but they are now much more aware of the dehumanizing effects that war had of them. The result is the equal of its predecessor, and one of the most affecting documentaries of the year.
Note: While Korengal ideally pares best with Restrepo, it is not essential to have seen the former. All of the crossover events and people who are featured in Restrepo are freshly reintroduced in Korengal.
Rating: Great
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Let's all agree right now: Bryan Singer is the only director who can pull off an X-Men movie properly. Brett Ratner (X-Men 3), Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and James Mangold (The Wolverine) did terrible jobs. Matthew Vaughn came really close to making a good one (X-Men: First Class), but landed on "good enough" instead. Singer's franchise record is flawless, however. Days of Future Past is the darkest entry in the franchise, and juggles multiple timelines and realities in a way that is easy for the audience to follow while also making us care about different versions of the same characters in ways that sometime intentionally conflict with each other. It is easily the second best X-Men movie (the almost perfect X-Men 2 is not just the top franchise entry, but one of the best superhero movies ever made).
Rating: Good
Godzilla
Much has been made about how little screentime Godzilla has in his own movie, but I actually liked that fact. Nothing against Godzilla, but I thought the way director Gareth Edwards constantly cut away from the monsters to see their battles being shown on small TV screens via the news was not just a great audience tease but also a way to show the ground-level experience of a giant monster attack. Most people would just be watching the action on a screen, up until their roof was suddenly torn off by the fight. Unfortunately Aaron Taylor-Johnson is the movie's main character, and he once again proves to be the most boring part of every film he's in. But other than him everyone else seems to be having fun earning their summer blockbuster paychecks. It's not great by a long shot, but it's certainly better than the last one.
Rating: Good
Rampage 2: Capital Punishment
That Uwe Boll is a terrible and shameless filmmaker in every way is an understanding that is so accepted by audiences and critics alike that it is nearly impossible to argue that he has, almost by accident, made a couple of good movies. 2009's Rampage was a strange anomaly in Boll's otherwise incompetent career. A naturally-paced violent drama about a man who puts on body armor, walks down the main street of his town, and shoots almost anything that moves. Sure, it's sadistic and dark. But it also found strange moments of profundity amid the chaos (there's an amazing scene in a bingo parlor that I consider to be essential viewing for any cinephile). Above all, it seemed nothing like an Uwe Boll film. If anything, the closest cinematic kinship it has is with Gus Van Sant's under-seen Elephant. Rampage 2 tightens the action somewhat (2/3 of the films takes place in the basement of a large corporate building), but still has the free-floating cinematography and almost improvisational looseness of the first film. It's equally sadistic, and is not an easy watch, but still just as fascinating. And while Boll the director doesn't misstep here either, the film's weakest element is Boll the actor. Boll cast himself as a television producer, and plays it as an over-the-top caricature of a Fox News executive in a movie otherwise filled with naturalistic performances. Fortunately he's a minor character, and doesn't get in the way very much.
Rating: Good
Noah
Well...this was not what I expected. It doesn't feel like a biblical epic, and it certainly doesn't feel like a Darren Aronofsky film. It just feels like a period action blockbuster the same as any other, but where the characters have names you hear a lot in church. Much like Ridley Scott's Robin Hood (which, like Noah, also starred Russell Crowe), the action onscreen shares so little with the well-known stories that serve as its inspiration that they could have just slapped another title on the film and saved themselves the inevitable backlash. Robin Hood wasn't a terrible film, it just wasn't a Robin Hood movie. Noah also isn't bad, it just plays less like a bible story than like something from J.R.R. Tolken's Middle-Earth. It's a generically competent blockbuster, and not one of the greatest stories ever told.
Rating: Average
Edge of Tomorrow
So, you were sick of sci-fi action blockbusters starring Tom Cruise? Well, you are why we can't have nice things. Edge of Tomorrow was the best blockbuster to come out this summer, and almost no one went to see it. It tanked at the box office despite glowing critical reviews, and has even been retitled as Live. Die. Repeat. for its home video and streaming release, presumably so audiences will think it's a different movie and actually give it a chance this time. It's exciting, funny, clever and pretty. Give it your money, already. Even if you can't stand Cruise (who is great in this, by the way), at least watch it for Emily Blunt (who I now nominate for the role of Lt. Ellen Ripley whenever Fox gets around to rebooting the Alien franchise).
Rating: Great
Kink
A James Franco-produced documentary about Kink.com, the web's foremost purveyor of BDSM porn, both hetero- and homosexual. The film is somewhat interesting in that it shows a taboo sector of a taboo industry as basically just another business. There are staff meetings, production issues, and a genuine work ethic the same as any other industry. What happens on camera may seem extreme to some people, but as is repeatedly stated by the interviewees in the film, no one is being forced to watch. I fault the film on two main points. It hits all its talking points early, then just repeats them over and over. It also completely ignores that Kink.com features a lot of transsexual porn, which would have been a great opportunity for the filmmakers to explore what it means to be a socially persecuted minority working in a stigmatized niche of a disreputable business. Instead, that niche is not even mentioned by the film, which feels especially shallow and disrespectful.
Rating: Average
The Rover
The Rover is is relentlessly bleak movie. Taking place somewhere in Australia ten years after an unspecified global disaster, what remains of human civilization is basically waiting around while the clock winds down. Eric (Guy Pearce) gets his car stolen while stopping for a drink, and spends the rest of the film tracking the thieves through a slow apocalypse. Aiding him is is Rey (Robert Pattinson), one of the thieves' dimwitted younger brother mistaken for dead and left behind. While Eric spends the first few minutes of the film seeming like a sympathetic protagonist, an unexpected action late in the first act reveals him to be nearly as cold as the world he inhabits. There are no good guys left in the world of The Rover, just those who stick to a personal code and those who don't. That the film still manages to find some touching moments amid the dreariness is almost a miracle. Pearce can play worn down and gritty in his sleep, and does a predictably admirable job here (he's given a heartbreaking monologue where he recounts his first murder, and the reason it affects him is not the reason you'd think). Pattinson is the scene-stealer though, giving Rey both a recklessness and naive innocence that make him the film's true heart. I liked The Rover a lot, but it's likely no one will feel happy when they're done watching it.
Rating: Good
7500
The director of The Grudge brings us 7500, which can alternately be called Ghosts on a Plane. It's terrible. Just really, really bad. None of the actors are trying, the scares are nonexistent, and the inevitable twist is predictable. There's a reason this film was sitting on the shelf since 2011 before finally being given a VOD release this year. The only credit I'll give the film is that it aims (unsuccessfully) for creepiness rather than resorting to cheap jump scares.
Rating: Terrible
How to Train Your Dragon 2
It's fine for a kid's movie, I guess. The first one had more heart and a better story. I missed twenty minutes in the middle of this movie when I left to go pick up a pizza. When I returned the movie was exactly were I had guessed it would probably be, and I had correctly intuited all of the plot developments that I had missed based on how formulaic the story was. It has its funny moments and a few pretty sequences, but is otherwise not essential viewing.
Rating: Average
Obvious Child
Jenny Slate should be a star, or at least be regarded as an equal to Kristen Wiig. She anchors a film that always feels like it could tip into cliche romantic comedy territory but stays grounded in genuine human behavior and emotions. Slate gets dumped by her boyfriend, has a drunken one night stand with nice guy Jake Lacy, gets pregnant as a result, decides to have an abortion, and struggles with how to break the news to her parents and to Lacy. There's no crazy slapstick or characters misconstruing events, just a naturally funny lady navigating through a personal crisis as best she can with the support of the people around her. Despite the heavy-sounding themes, the movie feels pretty light and charming. And Slate is amazing.
Rating: Good
Transformers: Age of Extinction
The fourth movie in this terrible franchise is the terrible-ist. The plot is bad, the acting is bad, and even the special effects are bad. How is it that a massive studio blockbuster franchise movie in 2014 has worse CGI than when the franchise started seven years ago? The only element in this film that isn't a complete waste is Stanley Tucci, who gives a gloriously hammy performance far more entertaining than the events happening around him. And I'm sorry, but the much-hyped dinobots were just plain bad.
Rating: Terrible
22 Jump Street
Almost as entertaining as 21 Jump Street, but not quite equal. It gets a lot of comedic mileage from outright mocking its own sequel redundancy and excess, but its plot feels like a complete afterthought to the hijinks. 21 Jump Street had hijinks, but also featured a solid throughline in its story. Still, it's more important for a comedy to be funny than compelling, and 22 Jump Street is definitely funny.
Rating: Good
Harmontown
Dan Harmon is the cult figure who created the much-loved but little-watched NBC sitcom Community. When he was infamously fired from his show, he decided to take his weekly podcast Harmontown on the road so he could salve his bruised ego by basking in the praise of his fans. Harmontown documents that tour, but is far from a hagiography. Sure, almost everyone interviewed claims Harmon is a genius storyteller. Because he is. He's also very controlling of his work, and resistant to outside input. He tends to alienate anyone who gets close to him or threatens to wrestle control away from him, including his longtime girlfriend Erin. The result is an intriguing portrait of a talented artist who is aware that he is his own worst enemy, but that seems powerless to stop himself.
Rating: Good
Thursday, September 04, 2014
Upcoming Fall Movies
These are the upcoming films that I am most looking forward to seeing.
So far I have been a fan of the films adapted from Dennis Lehane's novels. This one has a good cast and a promising trailer. I especially like the "Al Pacino in Donnie Brasco" vibe I'm getting from the late James Gandolfini's role.
Director Adam Wingard and frequent screenwriting collaborator Simon Barrett have a solid filmmaking history together (their previous film, You're Next, made my Top 10 list last year), and film festival buzz about this film has been mostly positive. Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens is getting a lot of praise for his equally charming and disturbing lead role.
While on the surface this looks like yet another in a long line of carbon copy Liam Neeson thrillers, this film has a lot more going on behind the scenes. It's based on a bestselling book series by acclaimed mystery novelist Lawrence Block, and has been written and directed by the very talented Scott Frank. This marks Frank's second foray into directing, following his entertaining The Lookout. Plus Frank wrote the screenplays for Get Shorty, Minority Report and Out of Sight. So yeah, he's good.
Kevin Smith's reputation has not fared well in the post-Jay & Silent Bob years. But his last film, the dark and underrated Red State, was a surprising tonal and stylistic departure from the sophomoric, raunchy comedies on which he built his name. And Tusk looks like a further step in this new, darker direction. Plus Michael Parks is never not great.
David Fincher directs, therefore I shall see it without thinking twice about it. Plus it looks like this might be a great pre-Batman opportunity to remind audiences that Ben Affleck is, indeed, a good dramatic actor when he's not picking his roles unscrupulously. My hope is that Affleck will soon benefit from the same acting career revival that Matthew McConaughey has recently been enjoying. If not, I guess he always has that Best Picture-winning writer/director career to fall back on.
Because it's Dan Harmon, the creator of TV's Community. That's all the reason I need.
Gregg Araki doesn't always make good movies, but he never makes uninteresting ones. Plus this looks like his highest-profile cast yet. And Eva Green likely continues her year of quietly dominating every project she's in. Sorry, Shailene Woodley, you're great and all, but Eva Green has screen charisma that will never be overtaken.
Writer/director Dan Gilroy is the brother of the esteemed Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton). From the trailer, it looks like filmmaking talent might run in the family.
The writing & directing debut of Jon Stewart. The film is based on a true story, and Stewart was inspired to make it after interviewing the subject both before and after his detention (of which Stewart's The Daily Show played an unexpected part). Like many people, I'm very curious to see what Stewart can do outside of political comedy.
This is the film I am most anticipating seeing. It's gotten rave reviews from every festival in which it's been featured, and is supposedly one of the more terrifying movies of the past few years. Finding a good horror movie is hard enough, but finding a great one is a truly rare occurrence. I hope it can survive its hype.
The Drop (September 12th)
So far I have been a fan of the films adapted from Dennis Lehane's novels. This one has a good cast and a promising trailer. I especially like the "Al Pacino in Donnie Brasco" vibe I'm getting from the late James Gandolfini's role.
The Guest (September 17th)
Director Adam Wingard and frequent screenwriting collaborator Simon Barrett have a solid filmmaking history together (their previous film, You're Next, made my Top 10 list last year), and film festival buzz about this film has been mostly positive. Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens is getting a lot of praise for his equally charming and disturbing lead role.
A Walk Among the Tombstones (September 19th)
While on the surface this looks like yet another in a long line of carbon copy Liam Neeson thrillers, this film has a lot more going on behind the scenes. It's based on a bestselling book series by acclaimed mystery novelist Lawrence Block, and has been written and directed by the very talented Scott Frank. This marks Frank's second foray into directing, following his entertaining The Lookout. Plus Frank wrote the screenplays for Get Shorty, Minority Report and Out of Sight. So yeah, he's good.
Tusk (September 19th)
Kevin Smith's reputation has not fared well in the post-Jay & Silent Bob years. But his last film, the dark and underrated Red State, was a surprising tonal and stylistic departure from the sophomoric, raunchy comedies on which he built his name. And Tusk looks like a further step in this new, darker direction. Plus Michael Parks is never not great.
Gone Girl (October 3rd)
David Fincher directs, therefore I shall see it without thinking twice about it. Plus it looks like this might be a great pre-Batman opportunity to remind audiences that Ben Affleck is, indeed, a good dramatic actor when he's not picking his roles unscrupulously. My hope is that Affleck will soon benefit from the same acting career revival that Matthew McConaughey has recently been enjoying. If not, I guess he always has that Best Picture-winning writer/director career to fall back on.
Harmontown (October 3rd)
Because it's Dan Harmon, the creator of TV's Community. That's all the reason I need.
White Bird in a Blizzard (October 24th)
Gregg Araki doesn't always make good movies, but he never makes uninteresting ones. Plus this looks like his highest-profile cast yet. And Eva Green likely continues her year of quietly dominating every project she's in. Sorry, Shailene Woodley, you're great and all, but Eva Green has screen charisma that will never be overtaken.
Nightcrawler (October 31st)
Writer/director Dan Gilroy is the brother of the esteemed Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton). From the trailer, it looks like filmmaking talent might run in the family.
Rosewater (November 7th)
The writing & directing debut of Jon Stewart. The film is based on a true story, and Stewart was inspired to make it after interviewing the subject both before and after his detention (of which Stewart's The Daily Show played an unexpected part). Like many people, I'm very curious to see what Stewart can do outside of political comedy.
The Babadook (November 28th)
This is the film I am most anticipating seeing. It's gotten rave reviews from every festival in which it's been featured, and is supposedly one of the more terrifying movies of the past few years. Finding a good horror movie is hard enough, but finding a great one is a truly rare occurrence. I hope it can survive its hype.
Inherent Vice (December 12th)
There's no trailer yet, and it hasn't screened at any festivals. But it's a P.T. Anderson film starring Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Benicio Del Toro, Jena Malone, Martin Short, and Michael K. Williams. So yeah, it's one to see.Friday, August 01, 2014
2014 Movie Reviews, Speed Round
Below are the 2014 movies that I have seen so far (not including the ones previously reviewed in my earlier post), reviewed in one paragraph or less (minus a couple tangents). Movies are rated as Terrible, Mediocre, Average, Good or Great.
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
The least essential of all the theatrical Jack Ryan films*, yet still an entertaining enough popcorn thriller that it's not a waste of time.
Rating: Average
*For the record, my ranking of the major Jack Ryan films, from best to worst, are The Hunt for Red October, Clear and Present Danger, The Sum of All Fears**, Patriot Games, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
**The Sum of All Fears is the most underrated of the franchise's films, and plays much better today than it did upon its original release. It had unforeseeably bad timing, coming out when audiences had become sick of seeing and hearing about Ben Affleck, and having a plot that's rooted in deep tensions between the U.S. and Russia less than a year after 9/11 when Americans didn't give a damn about Russia anymore. It's well worth a revisit.
Oculus
A clever horror movie that plays up its creepy atmosphere, distorts the characters' (and viewers') sense of time and place, and knows how to use jump-scares (usually the laziest of horror movie tactics) in a non-gratuitous way. I really liked it.
Rating: Good
A Million Ways to Die in the West
Has the same hit-to-miss joke ratio as all of Seth Macfarlane's projects. Though with this movie in particular, it seems like the intensity of the scale is higher. When the jokes hit they are really hilarious, and when they miss they are painfully unfunny. So it's a mixed bag.
Rating: Average
The Lego Movie
What could have been a giant toy commercial turns out to be a fun and poignant story about individuality. And the pseudo-stop-motion CGI is fantastic.
Rating: Good
Under the Skin
I liked it, but I can see why it alienates (no pun intended) a lot of viewers. Everything the viewer needs to understand the film is on the screen, but it requires a lot of inference and interpretation on the audience's part. And the scene with the family on the beach is probably the most harrowing I've seen so far this year.
Rating: Good
The Raid 2
In contrast to its critical consensus, I hated The Raid. So I was surprised to find The Raid 2 so enjoyable. The plot, filmmaking and action sequences have all improved dramatically from the first film.
Rating: Good
Beneath
I had hoped this film would amount to something more than a knock-off of The Descent. While it tosses out a few interesting ideas (including introducing the concept of the unreliable narrator near the start of its second act instead of the third, shading all subsequent events with doubt as to whether or not they're real), it's not enough to salvage the movie. The Descent did it better.
Rating: Mediocre
Jodorowsky's Dune
As a cinephile, it's fun to watch this documentary about an ambitious film project that never came to be (and the subsequent influence it came to have directly (Alien) and indirectly (Star Wars) on other now-classic science fiction films). As a realist, there's no way to take seriously all of the claims that the film would have been some kind of masterpiece. Jodorowsky's version of Dune was always too insane to live, but it's still fun to hear its tale being told by a bunch of people who are really good at telling tales.
Rating: Good
The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz
A tragically true story of a boy genius who rose to the top, rejected his position in order to pursue what he felt was right, and was then disproportionately punished as a warning to others, the stress of which eventually drove him to suicide. It's an infuriating story of what sometimes happens when good people try to do the right thing instead of falling in line.
Rating: Great
Sabotage
Writer/director David Ayer makes movies where the masculinity is cranked up to 150%, occasionally to the film's benefit (End of Watch), but usually to its detriment (Harsh Times). This film falls firmly into the latter category. An interesting vanity-less performance from the talented Mireille Enos and a standout action/suspense sequence that reveals itself to be playing out over a split timeline are not nearly enough to justify spending 110 minutes watching this movie.
Rating: Mediocre
I Know That Voice
A self-congratulating hagiography of voice actors, produced by a voice actor. It's kind of neat getting to see some really talented actors who usually go unseen, but the film tries to fit in so many different voice actors that it doesn't spend much time with any of them (save for the film's executive producer, John DiMaggio, aka Bender Bending Rodriguez). The documentary has no depth, and not much new is learned about the craft.
Rating: Mediocre
Whitey: United States Against James J. Bulger
Documentary virtuoso Joe Berlinger (the legendary Paradise Lost films) brings us another court case that goes deeper than it initially appears. Ruthless Boston crime boss "Whitey" Bulger* is on trial, and doesn't have any expectations that he'll be found innocent (as his defense lawyer admits early on, Whitey knows that his chosen court strategy will result in a guilty verdict). Instead, he wants to use the trial as a platform to salvage part of his reputation and expose corrupt elements within the F.B.I and U.S Justice Department. The film watches as three powerful forces try desperately to rewrite their own narratives, and the result is as fascinating as any of Berlinger's other works (except for the Paradise Lost films, which may never be topped simply due to their comprehensive and evolving nature).
Rating: Great
*: Bulger was the inspiration for Jack Nicholson's character in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning The Departed.
Life Itself
A kind but fair look at the life of Roger Ebert, a man who was arguably the single biggest influence on modern film criticism (sorry Janet Maslin, you were amazing, but you wrote for elitists instead of the common viewer). Ebert lived too full a life to squeeze into a single film, but Steve James (director of Hoop Dreams, a small film now regarded as one of the best documentaries ever made, which found an audience in large part due to Ebert's championing of the film on his show and in his written columns) does an admirable and loving job of hitting the highlights, both good and bad.
Rating: Good
The Battered Bastards of Baseball
Perhaps the most amazing thing about this crowd-pleasing documentary is that its subject has not yet been the basis for a major motion picture. It has an underdog baseball team founded by a showboating yet devoted owner (actor Bing Russell), a line-up of eccentric characters (including Bing's son Kurt Russell, a pitcher who would go on to invent Big League Chew, a disgraced former MLB great trying to make a comeback and restore his reputation, a bat boy who would eventually get a Best Picture Oscar nomination, and professional baseball's first female general manager), a championship run, and a climatic legal battle against The Man. It's exactly what you'd expect from a Hollywood sports movie, except authentic.
Rating: Good (and really, really fun)
The Signal
A slow-burn, suspenseful, well-acted, visually rich sci-fi drama that builds to an M. Night Shyamalan-level twist that kind of retroactively cheapens the proceedings. It's supposed to be a rug-pulling, blow-the-audience's-mind moment, but it mostly just makes you wonder "So...what was the point of this?" Still worth a look, and bound to develop a cult audience.
Rating: Good
Cold in July
A solid thriller that changes course with each act, so that the film ends up in a place (and genre) completely different from where it starts. Sam Shepard and Don Johnson give strong supporting performances as opposite ends of the Texan stereotype spectrum (Shepard quiet and steely, Johnson swaggering and garrulous), and lead Michal C. Hall does a serviceable job despite his character being mostly an audience cipher. Also, co-writer/director Jim Mickle accomplishes in one act what Joel Schumacher spent the entire runtime of 8mm not accomplishing.
Rating: Good
The Expendables 3
There's a roving dialogue scene between Sylvester Stallone and Kelsey Grammer, with the two actors finding an easy, natural rapport that suggests an old friendship. I've just described the single element of this film that isn't a complete mess.
Edit: I completely forgot about Wesley Snipes, who gives the kind of fun, energetic performance he used to give in the pre-Blade days. It was nice to see the old Snipes again, and I hope to see more of him in other, non-shitty movies. So I guess the movie has two good elements, which is still not nearly enough to redeem it.
Rating: Terrible
Draft Day
A decent sports backroom drama that takes way too long establishing the various interests and stakes and way too little time in the game. The actors are all in fine form, and Ivan Reitman's direction is snappier than it's been in nearly 30 years, but it just takes so long for the story to get anywhere.
Rating: Average
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Overhyped, but a nonetheless solid entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The story moves along briskly, there's a nice 70's espionage thriller vibe going on, and the film contains a lot more practical sfx than audiences are used to seeing from Marvel (watching a giant cgi Helicarrier crash into a tall building may be pretty, but seeing an actual truck barrel into an actual car will always have a more visceral affect on the audience). That said, there's some really clunky exposition scenes, and a couple seemingly-good characters are obvious as eventual villains from their very first appearance.
Rating: Good
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Any time that Jamie Foxx or Paul Giamatti are onscreen, the movie is terrible. And actually, it gets pretty bad when an unintentionally campy Green Goblin shows up, too. So really, as long as there are no villains in the scene, the movie is fine. I guess what I'm saying is that you should watch this blockbuster superhero movie for the dialogue and characterization. Wait...that can't be right, either. I did not hate this movie, but I'm having a really hard time remembering why.
Rating: Mediocre
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
The least essential of all the theatrical Jack Ryan films*, yet still an entertaining enough popcorn thriller that it's not a waste of time.
Rating: Average
*For the record, my ranking of the major Jack Ryan films, from best to worst, are The Hunt for Red October, Clear and Present Danger, The Sum of All Fears**, Patriot Games, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
**The Sum of All Fears is the most underrated of the franchise's films, and plays much better today than it did upon its original release. It had unforeseeably bad timing, coming out when audiences had become sick of seeing and hearing about Ben Affleck, and having a plot that's rooted in deep tensions between the U.S. and Russia less than a year after 9/11 when Americans didn't give a damn about Russia anymore. It's well worth a revisit.
Oculus
A clever horror movie that plays up its creepy atmosphere, distorts the characters' (and viewers') sense of time and place, and knows how to use jump-scares (usually the laziest of horror movie tactics) in a non-gratuitous way. I really liked it.
Rating: Good
A Million Ways to Die in the West
Has the same hit-to-miss joke ratio as all of Seth Macfarlane's projects. Though with this movie in particular, it seems like the intensity of the scale is higher. When the jokes hit they are really hilarious, and when they miss they are painfully unfunny. So it's a mixed bag.
Rating: Average
The Lego Movie
What could have been a giant toy commercial turns out to be a fun and poignant story about individuality. And the pseudo-stop-motion CGI is fantastic.
Rating: Good
Under the Skin
I liked it, but I can see why it alienates (no pun intended) a lot of viewers. Everything the viewer needs to understand the film is on the screen, but it requires a lot of inference and interpretation on the audience's part. And the scene with the family on the beach is probably the most harrowing I've seen so far this year.
Rating: Good
The Raid 2
In contrast to its critical consensus, I hated The Raid. So I was surprised to find The Raid 2 so enjoyable. The plot, filmmaking and action sequences have all improved dramatically from the first film.
Rating: Good
Beneath
I had hoped this film would amount to something more than a knock-off of The Descent. While it tosses out a few interesting ideas (including introducing the concept of the unreliable narrator near the start of its second act instead of the third, shading all subsequent events with doubt as to whether or not they're real), it's not enough to salvage the movie. The Descent did it better.
Rating: Mediocre
Jodorowsky's Dune
As a cinephile, it's fun to watch this documentary about an ambitious film project that never came to be (and the subsequent influence it came to have directly (Alien) and indirectly (Star Wars) on other now-classic science fiction films). As a realist, there's no way to take seriously all of the claims that the film would have been some kind of masterpiece. Jodorowsky's version of Dune was always too insane to live, but it's still fun to hear its tale being told by a bunch of people who are really good at telling tales.
Rating: Good
The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz
A tragically true story of a boy genius who rose to the top, rejected his position in order to pursue what he felt was right, and was then disproportionately punished as a warning to others, the stress of which eventually drove him to suicide. It's an infuriating story of what sometimes happens when good people try to do the right thing instead of falling in line.
Rating: Great
Sabotage
Writer/director David Ayer makes movies where the masculinity is cranked up to 150%, occasionally to the film's benefit (End of Watch), but usually to its detriment (Harsh Times). This film falls firmly into the latter category. An interesting vanity-less performance from the talented Mireille Enos and a standout action/suspense sequence that reveals itself to be playing out over a split timeline are not nearly enough to justify spending 110 minutes watching this movie.
Rating: Mediocre
I Know That Voice
A self-congratulating hagiography of voice actors, produced by a voice actor. It's kind of neat getting to see some really talented actors who usually go unseen, but the film tries to fit in so many different voice actors that it doesn't spend much time with any of them (save for the film's executive producer, John DiMaggio, aka Bender Bending Rodriguez). The documentary has no depth, and not much new is learned about the craft.
Rating: Mediocre
Whitey: United States Against James J. Bulger
Documentary virtuoso Joe Berlinger (the legendary Paradise Lost films) brings us another court case that goes deeper than it initially appears. Ruthless Boston crime boss "Whitey" Bulger* is on trial, and doesn't have any expectations that he'll be found innocent (as his defense lawyer admits early on, Whitey knows that his chosen court strategy will result in a guilty verdict). Instead, he wants to use the trial as a platform to salvage part of his reputation and expose corrupt elements within the F.B.I and U.S Justice Department. The film watches as three powerful forces try desperately to rewrite their own narratives, and the result is as fascinating as any of Berlinger's other works (except for the Paradise Lost films, which may never be topped simply due to their comprehensive and evolving nature).
Rating: Great
*: Bulger was the inspiration for Jack Nicholson's character in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning The Departed.
Life Itself
A kind but fair look at the life of Roger Ebert, a man who was arguably the single biggest influence on modern film criticism (sorry Janet Maslin, you were amazing, but you wrote for elitists instead of the common viewer). Ebert lived too full a life to squeeze into a single film, but Steve James (director of Hoop Dreams, a small film now regarded as one of the best documentaries ever made, which found an audience in large part due to Ebert's championing of the film on his show and in his written columns) does an admirable and loving job of hitting the highlights, both good and bad.
Rating: Good
The Battered Bastards of Baseball
Perhaps the most amazing thing about this crowd-pleasing documentary is that its subject has not yet been the basis for a major motion picture. It has an underdog baseball team founded by a showboating yet devoted owner (actor Bing Russell), a line-up of eccentric characters (including Bing's son Kurt Russell, a pitcher who would go on to invent Big League Chew, a disgraced former MLB great trying to make a comeback and restore his reputation, a bat boy who would eventually get a Best Picture Oscar nomination, and professional baseball's first female general manager), a championship run, and a climatic legal battle against The Man. It's exactly what you'd expect from a Hollywood sports movie, except authentic.
Rating: Good (and really, really fun)
The Signal
A slow-burn, suspenseful, well-acted, visually rich sci-fi drama that builds to an M. Night Shyamalan-level twist that kind of retroactively cheapens the proceedings. It's supposed to be a rug-pulling, blow-the-audience's-mind moment, but it mostly just makes you wonder "So...what was the point of this?" Still worth a look, and bound to develop a cult audience.
Rating: Good
Cold in July
A solid thriller that changes course with each act, so that the film ends up in a place (and genre) completely different from where it starts. Sam Shepard and Don Johnson give strong supporting performances as opposite ends of the Texan stereotype spectrum (Shepard quiet and steely, Johnson swaggering and garrulous), and lead Michal C. Hall does a serviceable job despite his character being mostly an audience cipher. Also, co-writer/director Jim Mickle accomplishes in one act what Joel Schumacher spent the entire runtime of 8mm not accomplishing.
Rating: Good
The Expendables 3
There's a roving dialogue scene between Sylvester Stallone and Kelsey Grammer, with the two actors finding an easy, natural rapport that suggests an old friendship. I've just described the single element of this film that isn't a complete mess.
Edit: I completely forgot about Wesley Snipes, who gives the kind of fun, energetic performance he used to give in the pre-Blade days. It was nice to see the old Snipes again, and I hope to see more of him in other, non-shitty movies. So I guess the movie has two good elements, which is still not nearly enough to redeem it.
Rating: Terrible
Draft Day
A decent sports backroom drama that takes way too long establishing the various interests and stakes and way too little time in the game. The actors are all in fine form, and Ivan Reitman's direction is snappier than it's been in nearly 30 years, but it just takes so long for the story to get anywhere.
Rating: Average
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Overhyped, but a nonetheless solid entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The story moves along briskly, there's a nice 70's espionage thriller vibe going on, and the film contains a lot more practical sfx than audiences are used to seeing from Marvel (watching a giant cgi Helicarrier crash into a tall building may be pretty, but seeing an actual truck barrel into an actual car will always have a more visceral affect on the audience). That said, there's some really clunky exposition scenes, and a couple seemingly-good characters are obvious as eventual villains from their very first appearance.
Rating: Good
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Any time that Jamie Foxx or Paul Giamatti are onscreen, the movie is terrible. And actually, it gets pretty bad when an unintentionally campy Green Goblin shows up, too. So really, as long as there are no villains in the scene, the movie is fine. I guess what I'm saying is that you should watch this blockbuster superhero movie for the dialogue and characterization. Wait...that can't be right, either. I did not hate this movie, but I'm having a really hard time remembering why.
Rating: Mediocre
Thursday, May 01, 2014
Upcoming Summer Films
These are 15 of my most anticipated upcoming summer films, presented in the order that I wrote them down in my notes when coming up with the list.
I haven't seen the director's highly-acclaimed previous film, Animal Kingdom, but the trailer has me very, very interested. It almost looks like a spiritual sequel to The Proposition, complete with a grizzled Guy Pearce as the lead. With any luck, this may also be the film that convinces people that Robert Pattinson is worth keeping around post-Twilight (he was good in Cosmopolis, but we need an Exhibit B to confirm that it wasn't just a fluke).
Word out of the festival circuit is a bit mixed on this one, though everyone seems to agree that the film picks up at the end and is beautiful throughout. The trailer is easily enough to convince me to give this one the benefit of the doubt.
Probably my most anticipated movie of the summer. Word from Sundance was overwhelmingly positive, and I've been a fan of director Jim Mickle for years. Maybe this will finally be the breakout film he always seems so close to having.
I'm tired of found-footage style movies. But I have yet to grow tired of director Ti West, and I'll likely never grow tired of the amazing Amy Seimetz and AJ Bowen. So I'm in.
This has so much potential to be a flop. But the trailers have all been solid, I loved director Gareth Edward's previous film (Monsters, a much smaller film about giant rampaging beasts), and the cast is stacked with talent. I really, really want this to be good. At the very least it has to be better than the 1998 one, right?
I like stories with time loops. It's that simple. Also Emily Blunt appears to kick all of the ass, which I am comfortable with.
With enough luck, this small comedy will generate enough positive word-of-mouth to become a sleeper hit like Bridesmaids, and provide a Kristen Wiig-like breakout for the very funny Jenny Slate (also a former SNL cast member). Festival buzz so far suggests that just might happen.
21 Jump Street was surprisingly good. The sequel has all the key players returning (stars, directors, writer), and the trailer suggests that they're taking the same meta-attitude that made the first one so endearing. Hopefully it will be the rare sequel that succeeds at justifying its existence as something other than a cash-in.
I'm excited every time that Joe Berlinger (the Paradise Lost films, My Brother's Keeper) releases a documentary. I don't even care what it's about, because I know that, by the end, Berlinger will have made me care.
Filmed over the course of 12 years by Richard Linklater, this film should play like a condensed version of Michael Apted's acclaimed Up series. Even if the drama falters, it should at least be worth watching to see the child actors literally grow up on camera.
Great documentary filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters) chronicles the life of a great man who I have admired for my whole life, Roger Ebert.
The Wachowski's may not always make good movies, but they always make interesting ones (say what you will about Cloud Atlas, but you can never say it wasn't unique). This film may not turn out to be good either, but I'm guessing it also won't be a waste of my time.
Given its premise and source material, this film may not be quite as bound to fall in line with the typical Marvel Universe film template as Marvel's other cinematic properties. Hiring James Gunn (Slither, Super) as director is an interesting choice, and I'm extremely curious to see what happens when a guy who came up through Troma Entertainment is given the task of kickstarting a blockbuster franchise about space criminals. Also Vin Diesel plays a tree.
Brendan Gleeson is a consistently underrated actor. Writer/director John Michael McDonagh is the brother of Martin McDonagh, who made the stellar In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths. This film has my interest in a big way.
For the first time in many years it looks like Luc Besson is actually directing something that looks like a Luc Besson film (I did a double-take when I saw his name on the credits for a piece of crap like The Family). Plus ScarJo is having a stellar year (I want to see Under the Skin soooooo badly), so hopefully this will be another winning notch on her 2014 Queen of Cinema championship belt.
The Rover
The Signal
Cold in July
The Sacrament
Godzilla
Edge of Tomorrow
Obvious Child
22 Jump Street
Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger
Boyhood
Life Itself
Jupiter Ascending
Guardians of the Galaxy
Calvary
Lucy
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Top 8 Films of 2014 (so far)
These are my Top 8 films for 2014 so far. Why Top 8? Because that's how many 2014 films I've seen. I'm still trying to catch up on all of the 2013 films I've missed*. Plus, quite frankly, not many of the 2014 films that have come out so far have looked like they were worth seeing.
*Of the 2013 films I've caught up on, only the The Punk Singer would probably end up on my Top 20 list if I were to revise it. It's an inciteful documentary on Kathleen Hanna, a feminist pop culture icon and lead singer of the bands Bikini Kill, Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin.
But everything else just seemed like a faint copy of the first movie, with returning actors Lena Heady and David Wenham giving particularly sleepy performances.
It is a deeply cynical movie, and it will try desperately to hurt you while watching it, but it's a unique filmgoing experience to be sure.
*Of the 2013 films I've caught up on, only the The Punk Singer would probably end up on my Top 20 list if I were to revise it. It's an inciteful documentary on Kathleen Hanna, a feminist pop culture icon and lead singer of the bands Bikini Kill, Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin.
8. 300: Rise of an Empire
Here's the thing: even the worst 2014 movie I've seen so far wasn't entirely bad. It is a largely unnecessary film, but it has its few merits. I enjoyed the gimmick of having the plot take place before, parallel, and then subsequent to the events in the original 300. And Eva Green is never not a welcome presence on screen. |
| This isn't what people mean when they say "use protection". |
7. Odd Thomas
Blockbuster director Stephen Sommers (G.I. Joe, The Mummy, Van Helsing) scales things down for this adaptation of a Dean Koontz novel about a young man (Odd, portrayed charmingly by Anton Yelchin) who can see dead people, and also demons (called Bodachs) that portend death. The movie is mostly more lighthearted than that description implies, though the film is not without its share of tension (in a brilliant plot stroke brought over from the book, Odd can see the Bodachs, but he can't acknowledge that he sees them or they will become aware of his gift and target him and those he cares about). But the movie also never feels like it has any stakes. The town where Odd lives feels ripped right out of a 50's TV comedy, where everything is Norman Rockwell-perfect and movie-y (his girlfriend works at an ice cream shop, and her name is Stormy Llewellyn for God's sake). A bold, gut-punch of a twist at the end can't fully overcome all of the apathy that the film engenders up to that point.6. Enemies Closer
Let's get this out of the way: Enemies Closer is a terrible movie, and it appears that everyone involved in making the film was aware of that fact. The result is a movie that plays so loose that it seems ready to fall apart at any moment, but is held together by the sheer sense of fun that everyone seems to be having. Jean Claude Van Damme has never been this much fun, giving a gleefully over-the-top performance as the ruthless-but-environmentally-conscious villain. It's ridiculous B-movie fluff that you expect to find on Showtime at 1:00 a.m. But it's also unexpectedly entertaining, if not necessarily satisfying.5. Knights of Badassdom
Knights of Badassdom has a complicated history. The plot and cast seem tailor-made to be an internet sensation and cult classic, but the film has been sitting on a variety of shelves for years. The eventual release was recut from the director's original without the director's input or permission, and the director has disowned it. What now exists is a tonally inconsistent film that tries to adhere to a mainstream plot, while containing way too much cult DNA for that plan to ever succeed. It's funny, then gory, then serious for a second, then patently ridiculous, and then funny again. It does still contain enough oddball characteristics to ensure a lasting cult status, but I also expect several years of online petitions demanding the release of the director's cut until the studio relents, at which point that will become the definitive edition of the film.4. Veronica Mars
The movie was never going to be as good as the series. All viewers could hope for was to spend 110 minutes with some characters that they thought they'd never see again. On that scale, the movie delivers. It offers some closure on a few lingering issues left open by the series, checks in briefly with all of the old gang, shoehorns in a murder/blackmail plot, and leaves things back at the status quo. As far as movie followups to cancelled TV series go, it wasn't Serenity, but thankfully it also wasn't X-Files: I Want to Believe.3. Robocop
Judged completely on its own merits, the new Robocop is actually pretty good. It smartly scraps all of the original's satire of 80's capitalism and instead refocuses on issues of free will, media misinformation, and drone warfare. And it inverses the journey of its title character. In the original film, Robocop had his humanity removed, then had to rediscover it as the film progressed. The new film leaves his humanity intact, then has it slowly stolen away from him as his creators seek to make him more efficient. There are a few scene cuts that come together rather jarringly, as though a transitional scene was removed at some point, so the film sometimes lunges forward noticeably too quickly. But otherwise this reboot has a lot of good ideas, and executes them as well as any PG-13 blockbuster studio film can. Most importantly, it does not try to copy the original, which has a tendency to piss of diehard fans (just ask Michael Mann, whose Miami Vice got scathing reviews when it was released because people wanted it to be like the shitty 80's TV show instead of the incredible dramatic film that it was).2. Snowpiercer
I'm not going to lie: this film will be hated by many who watch it. It is so batshit insane that it will alienate a lot of people who go into this film knowing only that it's a dystopian action thriller starring Captain America and that redheaded English lady who wins acting awards. But for those brave souls who watch it with an open mind, this is a film that has plenty to offer the senses. Plenty. Like, a LOT. It's pretty much just going to throw shit at your head until you just give up trying to make sense of it all and let the film drag you along on its literal journey through the class system (here's a hint: when Alison Pill shows up, it's best to just give in, because the movie will only get more surreal and erratic from this point onward). |
| This image is from the least-weird part of this scene. |
1. Blue Ruin
Blue Ruin takes the classic revenge tale and injects every moment of screentime with a sadness and regret that is usually relegated to a single 30-second scene in action-focused revenge movie (if it's included at all). Instead, the character at the heart of Blue Ruin is weak and borderline incompetent. He knows that by committing the act of revenge, he is starting an inevitable chain of events that will likely destroy him. And he does it anyway, seeming less like he's doing it because he wants to and more because it's the only thing he can do. The film carries an air of tragic inevitability throughout, of which the main character is fully aware. Blue Ruin beautifully and sorrowfully illustrates the way a single act can start to spiral outward. It also never implies that there was any other way for things to happen.
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