Sully (2016)

Adrenaline pumping, knuckles whitening, eyes glued to the screen, tears welling (mine, anyway), we experienced powerful reenactments of the water landing of a commercial plane on the Hudson, which really happened in 2009. Tom Hanks is wonderful as the skilled yet humble veteran pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger (last blogged in A Hologram for the King). Disclosure: every time I saw this trailer, even watching it again now, I get choked up--partly because we fly so much and I can see myself and my loved ones on that plane, and mostly tears of joy because we know it had a happy ending. Oh, come on, if that's a spoiler you really need to get out more.

Hanks is joined by Aaron Eckhart (most recently in The Rum Diary) and Laura Linney (after I wrote about her in Hyde Park on Hudson, she starred in 40 well-done episodes of The Big C on Showtime) as his co-pilot and wife, as well as a huge cast of supporting actors under the direction of Clint Eastwood (last in these pages for American Sniper). Jack and I do not agree with his politics, but he's a fine filmmaker for the most part, and definitely here.

Todd Komarnicki adapted the memoir by Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow into this, his third produced screenplay. It's a little corny at times, but it works.

We're really glad we saw it last week in IMAX (the huge screen) to fully appreciate the amazing photography. Cinematographer Tom Stern (Oscar-nominated for Changeling) works with Eastwood often, and Aerial Director of Photography Hans Bjerno has 200 credits, including Titanic (1997), Con Air (1997), The Italian Job (2003), The Aviator (2004), The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Flight, Interstellar, Tomorrowland, Spectre, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, just to name a few. And then the huge special effects crew surely has much to do with it, too.

We laughed at all the Marriott hotel product placement. Apparently the real survivors were brought to a Marriott. But Stern's/Eastwood's camera lingers lovingly on quite a few establishing shots of Marriott hotels, at least five, by the count of this reviewer, who didn't think much of the movie. I do like his headline that Sully is Flight without the cocaine. Airplane rescue movies are exhilarating, and this one joins my other two favorites: Flight and Superman Returns (2006), where, in the opening sequence, our superhero carries a disabled passenger jet down gently into a baseball game to the cheering of fans.

Eastwood loves jazz, and for this soundtrack he chose jazz pianist Christian Jacobs (his website here) and Jacobs' frequent collaborators The Tierney Sutton Band (click the second tab on the above page). The music is good, and not all that jazzy. Only one track is available now, as the soundtrack, including an original song by Eastwood, is scheduled for a September 30 release. And here's an article with a a few paragraphs about this score.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics at 80% and audiences at 89 enjoyed this as much as we did. Best on the big screen unless it'll be too intense for you. Stay for the news footage during the credits.

Southside with You (2016)

Languid and talky but still enjoyable, this look into the day Michelle and Barack Obama went out for the first time in 1989 is a great date movie. Tika Sumpter and Parker Sawyers, as the couple, are both new to me, though they each have a few credits, and director/writer Richard Tanne makes his feature debut here.

I wanted to see this ten days ago after hearing Karen Grigsby Bates say, among other things, "You don't often see black love in dramatic film..." to Bob Mondello on NPR's Code Switch podcast of August 28.

Rule #13 of my 19 rules for movies and television is broken, as it's clear to me that Sawyers is really inhaling that smoke--we know the President was a smoker, and in this movie he's at it constantly.

Clips from Stephen James Taylor's score can be heard by clicking the play buttons on the right side of this page and you can read a list of the other tracks here.

This is one that Rotten Tomatoes' critics love, averaging 92% (audiences come in at 80). It's good, but you can wait for the small screen.

Snowden (2016)

Quite the thriller, this biopic of the whistleblower who exposed the NSA's wiretaps of random US citizens has high production values, a lot of information, and portrays Snowden as a patriot and a hero. But what would you expect from director/co-writer Oliver Stone (last blogged for Savages), a Vietnam vet turned anti-war activist?

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (most recently in The Walk) is masterful as the title character and Shailene Woodley (last in The Spectacular Now) is sweet as his love interest Lindsay. As usual with Stone's work, there are dozens of quality actors, including Rhys Ifans (The Amazing Spider-Man), Nicolas Cage (Kick-Ass), Melissa Leo (Prisoners), Zachary Quinto (Star Trek Into Darkness), Ben Schnetzer (Pride) as the guy who calls Snowden "Snow White," and Keith Stanfield AKA Lakeith Lee Stanfield (small parts in Selma, Dope, Straight Outta Compton, and Miles Ahead, and co-stars as comic relief Darius in the current FX series Atlanta).

This is the second feature for Stone's co-writer Kieran Fitzgerald after The Homesman. The script chugs along but we laypeople could have done with slightly less data and some minutes cut from the 2:14 running time. The aforementioned production values are due at least in part to the cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle (last in these pages for Trance).

I'm listening to tracks from the movie by Craig Armstrong and Adam Peters--I started on this link with autoplay on.

Stay in your seat during the credits for some news footage of the actual Ed Snowden. Critics do not love this two days after its wide release, averaging 58% on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences are fonder at 72. We thought it pretty good.

Note: This is going on my list of movies that can trigger motion picture motion sickness or MPMS. See the complete list here. It's not constant, but there are places, so sit in the last row.

Complete Unknown (2016)

Jack and I enjoyed this weird tale of a woman who frequently changes identities meeting an old boyfriend at a dinner party. It's no spoiler to tell you that the first few minutes of the movie are a montage of some of her personae. Rachel Weisz' (last blogged for The Lobster), as Lucinda put it, facial expressions are something to behold as her character, mostly called Alice, vamps and improvises in company with other people. Michael Shannon (most recently starring in Elvis & Nixon) is also wonderful as the now-married ex. The cameos by Kathy Bates (last in Tammy) and Danny Glover (Beyond the Lights) are sweet.

Director/co-writer Joshua Marston (won many awards for Maria Full of Grace (2004), directed one other feature and lots of TV, plus a segment of New York, I Love You) works from the script co-written, in his feature debut, by Julian Sheppard.

The music by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans (scored Martha Marcy May Marlene and three or four projects coming soon) is terrific but I can't find it online to hear it again or refer you to a link.

This is not a fast-paced film, and it hasn't been well reviewed--45% from critics and 42 from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes--but we liked its dreamy style.

Equity (2016)

Jack and I really liked this story of women working in the man's world of high finance--the sexism, the intrigue, the suspicion, and more. It's as if Skyler White moved from running the car wash to a job on Wall Street. Anna Gunn (who earned many credits before her 62 episodes of Breaking Bad as Ms. White) is a breath of fresh air, with the size 12 figure of a real human and the acting chops to carry off the confidence of the lead character Naomi. Sarah Megan Thomas (new to me) and Alysia Reiner (played the bitchy warden in Orange is the New Black and dozens of other roles including one in The Vicious Kind) not only shine as Naomi's nervous underling Erin and Naomi's former college buddy Sam, but the pair also co-wrote the story with screenwriter Amy Fox and share producing credit with eleven other women and six men, if the traditional first names are to be trusted. Yeah, there are some men in the cast, but who cares? Okay, okay, James Purefoy (four episodes of the Showtime series Episodes and lots of thing I didn't see) adds to the mix as Naomi's wily boyfriend and Nate Corddry (after I wrote about him in The Ugly Truth he has been busy, including on 34 episodes of Harry's Law, 33 of Mom, and St. Vincent) is cute and befuddled as usual.

Tautly directed by Meera Menon (her second feature), this is the first project of production company Broad Street Pictures, founded by Thomas. This is Fox's second screenplay in eleven years (the first was an adaptation of a play she also wrote). Kudos to Production Designer Diane Lederman, who coincidentally was set dresser on Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, and to costume designer Teresa Binder Westby who has a quite a few credits as assistant, including Silver Linings Playbook, and is now coming into her own as department head.

The composing team of Alexis Marsh and Samuel Jones AKA Alexis & Sam gives us a cool soundtrack, 6 ½ minutes of which can be streamed from their soundcloud page (scroll down).

Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average is 80% and its audiences' 73. It's probably leaving these parts Thursday night. Go see it.

Happy 8th anniversary to me

I began writing this blog eight years ago today. In that time I've seen 864 movies (and written about 884). 864 includes Equity, which we saw yesterday, about which I will write shortly that we both loved it. If you see us at the movies, we'll be in our seats until after the credits are finished!