This Is a Movie Review: Joy

February 1, 2016

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Joy_SoapOpera

David O. Russell’s freewheeling directorial style is Joy’s biggest strength and its biggest weakness. This is the story inspired by the woman who invented the Miracle Mop. There is no obvious way to film her story, as it is an odd fit for the typical biopic structure, or anything else really. So Russell addresses that problem by throwing a bunch of random ideas together that play like bits of inspiration from throughout his career that he has not gotten around to yet. They are always interesting, even if they do not especially cohere as a unified whole. There are dream sequences that exist just for the hell of it, progressive ideas about ex-spouses, dynamic cinematographic coverage, a typical all-star Russell cast excitingly bouncing off of each other, Susan Lucci playing a soap opera star, Melissa Rivers playing her mother, and about a million other things. They make for a film that is almost as zesty as American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook, but also a lot more exhausting.

This Is a Movie Review: Room

February 1, 2016

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room_movie

An especially telling moment of Room is when Jack (Jacob Tremblay) meets a dog for the first time. The happy ending of this film’s premise – Jack and his Ma (Brie Larson) escape their captor – occurs less than halfway through, which leaves plenty of time for the ending to be not so happy as it could be. And it is and it isn’t. The canine introduction is one of those times when things are going well, but it feels a little foreboding. The dog might not be as friendly or as exciting as advertised (he’s great, don’t worry). These are the risks that come with living in the outside world after years spent locked away in a shed. Really, this is the risk of life itself when moving onto any new stage. Jack’s path to these moments is unusual, and they convey the power of discovery that is not always obvious to someone without a traumatic past. His story can open viewers’ eyes in a way that is both sobering and exhilarating.

This Is a Movie Review: Daddy’s Home

January 23, 2016

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DaddysHome

The problem with Daddy’s Home is one of pitch. It wants us to believe that Brad is a nice guy, and we believe it, because he is played by Will Ferrell in Family Man Mode. Sure, he might have the occasional overwrought meltdown, but he looks as fundamentally decent as his quality credit score implies. But that meltdown, prompted by his wife’s ex (Mark Wahlberg) ends up being so thorough that the film is more uncomfortable than it is prepared to be. It could work if the tone were to ramp up the boorish ridiculousness (as in Talladega Nights) or play more like a low-key dramedy (as in Everything Must Go). Instead, it is a middle-of-the-road breeze that ends in a dance battle. That conclusion itself is amusing, but it skirts over some major conflicts.

None of that really matters when considering the insane levels of product placement. Ferrell’s voiceover in an early scene includes praise for his Ford Flex, which is basically a verbatim recitation of the copy of a suburban car commercial. It is such a jarring pastiche that it initially plays as a devious goof. There appears to be some interest in satire about the reality behind cheery all-American ads. The film’s premise, as it traffics in the roles worn by adults, would lend itself well to that approach. But along the way, Daddy’s Home feels too beholden to a traditional narrative to really work as something stranger.

This Is a Movie Review: Concussion

January 17, 2016

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concussion

When tackling any real life story, a film must decide what not to include just as seriously as what it does include. In that vein, Concussion wisely focuses its investigation of the long-term ravages of football on the doctor who identified chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Bennet Omalu (played with the utmost nobility by Will Smith). On the other hand, when providing examples of former players who have succumbed to CTE, it does not know when to stop. The cautionary tale of Pittsburgh Steeler Mike Webster (David Morse), reduced from Steel City hero to homelessness, is powerful enough to establish the message for the whole movie. But then Concussion proceeds to show the same tragedy in the cases of Justin Strzelczyk, Andre Waters, and Dave Duerson, and the overall effect is more numbing than inflaming.

This is a shame, because otherwise the film actually manages to wring drama out of scenes dominated by examining medical slides. Omalu’s fight is so obviously right, and he is bolstered by esteemed colleagues (Albert Brooks, Alec Baldwin) and a supportive wife (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). His battle could be too virtuous to be dramatically interesting, except that it is very real and his opponent is so outrageously opposed to the truth. It may not be the zippiest of narratives, but it is certainly rousing in its conviction.

This Is a Movie Review: The Forest

January 9, 2016

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the-forest

Movies like The Forest make me upset that horror does not on the whole get the critical fair shake it deserves. It has a decent premise that it does not quite live up to, though it has plenty of interesting moments. For most genres, that translates to respectability and a Rotten Tomatoes score of approximately 60-75%, but for horror, it means dismissal and a Tomatometer as low as single digits. If the scares are not up to snuff, then neither is the praise.

The Forest is indeed not all that scary, but while it is disappointing, it has enough elements to make it worth watching. Suicidal thoughts, a disorienting location, repressed memories, paranoia, disturbing folklore, and ghosts exploiting all of the above make for a potent mix of anxiety. In a dual role as twin sisters, Natalie Dormer frequently adjusts her personalities, occasionally switching characteristics between the two. It is a tricky performance that requires the support of better editing and writing than is on display. Ultimately, The Forest does not know if it wants to be ambiguous or answer all its mysteries; it is too eager to be the former and too overstuffed to be the latter. Still, it manages to distinguish itself in a genre that usually settles for the same old tricks.

This Is a (Quickie) Movie Review: The Good Dinosaur

January 9, 2016

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gooddinosaur

The Good Dinosaur is the most uncomfortably close Pixar has gotten to the uncanny valley since Cars. “Dinosaurs with self-aware intelligence living alongside feral humans” is not on quite the same level as organic transportation devices, but it is still a freaky mix of weird and familiar. As disorienting as this premise may be, embracing this weirdness more completely may have actually been to The Good Dinosaur’s benefit, because otherwise, it is a fairly standard journey back home adventure film. What does stand out are the digressive bursts of personality. Specifically, there is the (too-short) acid trip caused by fermented berries and a triceratops with various critters adorning its horns. Other than that, Sam Elliott as a papa T. Rex rounds out the highlights.

This Is a (Quickie) Movie Review: The Hateful Eight

January 3, 2016

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Hateful-Eight

You’ve got to hand it Quentin Tarantino. He always knows exactly what he is doing. His latest – the Western mission movie-cum-locked room mystery The Hateful Eight – starts off about as deliberately paced as possible. Sure, the tension needs to be built up for the enmity promised in the title to be worth watching, but does it have to take an hour and a half? While that setup could be more economical, it makes damn sure that the cabin this mix of bounty hunters, criminals, and mystery men find themselves trapped in is a lit powder keg. A mix of flashbacks and narration threatens to explain too much, but that is acceptable when withholding information as confidently as The Hateful Eight does. Is the whole thing indulgent, excessive, and distasteful? Sure, but the master of the prestige B-movie proves once again that such a bloody stew can still make for quality cinema.

This Is a Movie Review: The Big Short

December 26, 2015

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BigShort

Have you ever seen a movie with an indelible moment and wondered, “How did I not hear about this before seeing it?” The Big Short is likely to leave you feeling this way, as nearly every feature fits this description, and most reviews are not just a list of everything that happens in the movie. You may have heard about the cameoing celebrities talking directly to the camera, but that is only the tip of the iceberg.

In its editing, production design, and sound composition, The Big Short is just sick (in all connotations of that word). Adam McKay has shown some flashes of narrative experimentation in his Will Ferrell comedies (the Applebee’s commercial in Talladega Nights, direct acknowledgement of the lack of consequences following the battle royale in Anchorman, the musical breaks in Step Brothers), but in those cases they did not overwhelm the whole movie and they fit more naturally. This time, he goes completely for broke.

As for the cast, Christian Bale sinks into another character, Ryan Gosling revels in the slime and eccentricity, and the rest of the ensemble sinks their teeth into the muck. But Steve Carell shines the brightest as a trader whose arc presents the most human moments of the narrative. The whole system tears him up internally as much as it tears up any semblance of financial integrity. When he and his team visit a Florida community decimated by evictions, it is a sobering reminder of how real this crisis is for a lot of people. The film would be excellent without this segment, but with it, it is at another level.

Other recent Wall Street-based films have portrayed this type of fraud just as well, but The Big Short takes it a step further by not taking it a step further. It betrays hardly any hope that it can actually make a difference. Free of that burden, the message is: we might be as fucked as we ever were, but at least we can still make an absolutely insane movie.

This Is a Movie Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

December 26, 2015

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ForceAwakens

-I cried from anticipation during the first spaceship shot after the crawl.
-Daisy Ridley’s facial expressions convey a constant state of surprise. It is terribly endearing.
-It is the rare Star Wars character who can say that his decision in a moral quandary is simply the right thing to do. John Boyega has the earnestness to pull that off as ex-stormtrooper Finn.
-There is a bit of a potential romantic spark between Rey and Finn. He is clearly smitten the moment he sees her warding off scavengers. True, she yells when he keeps grabbing her hand, but that is more about practicality. (Come on, Finn, it’s not faster for either of you to be holding hands while running.) Right now, they have an intense friendship borne out by surviving death-defying adventure together, and it can develop or not develop however should be most natural.
-Rey’s desert attire is perhaps the best outfit in Star Wars history. Dressing decisions ought to be made based on comfort, functionality, and style; these three elements all feed into each other in this case.
-Adam Driver as Kylo Ren gives the performance that Hayden Christensen was supposed to give in the prequels. His petulant manchildishness is also reminiscent of Spaceballs’ Dark Helmet (in a good way).
-As Resistance pilot Poe Dameron, Oscar Isaac is the least tortured he’s ever been. Interesting.
-BB-8 does not disappoint. “Droid, please.”
-All your favorites are back! Even more than you might expect. They mostly pick up right where they left off, R2-D2 more than anyone else. Harrison Ford looks the most comfortable he ever has been as Han.
-Wow, this is exactly the same movie as A New Hope. Thankfully, the characters are so great that it is just thrilling to watch them (sky)walk through the beats.
-A few dramatic moments may happen too quickly, but they play in a way that might make you think, “perhaps there is a way to do it differently than the precedent that has been set.”

This Is a (Quickie) Movie Review: Chi-Raq

December 21, 2015

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Chi-Raq

Father Mike Corridan’s (John Cusack) firebreathing homily sets the tone and thesis statement for Chi-Raq. Rattling off statistics about gun culture and poverty with the passion of the Holy Spirit, he sounds much more like a fiery Pentecostal minister than a stereotypically low-key Catholic priest. There is no universally accepted response to gun violence, but Spike Lee is absolutely damn sure that doing nothing is just about the worst idea possible. So he has created this modern-day update of Lysistrata, complete with both women refusing to give up their sex until the violence ends AND the poetic dialogue. Some of the actors flounder a bit with the unnatural cadences of verse, while pros like Angela Bassett, Sam Jackson, and even Wesley Snipes kill it. Chi-Raq recognizes the humanity of everyone in this narrative, a fact that is too often astoundingly ignored.

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