Amy, Jack, and I loved this musical, based on the life and career of circus creator P.T. Barnum in 1800s New York with the theme of yearning for acceptance. Hugh Jackman has been wanting to make this for years and he's spectacular in the lead (he was last blogged for Logan), dancing and singing new, 21st century style songs written for the movie by the lyricists from La La Land. Michelle Williams (most recently in Wonderstruck) is sweet as Barnum's patient wife Charity--she can sing, too, but if you saw My Week with Marilyn you would know that. We already knew that Zac Efron (last blogged for The Paperboy) and Zendaya (at 21 years old she's been recording since her debut on Kidz Bop in 2010) can sing--they play Phillip and Anne. But did you know that she did all her own trapeze stunts and he did many of his? Here she is talking about it with Jimmy Fallon. Rebecca Ferguson (most recently in Florence Foster Jenkins) studied music, but the songs she sings in the role of Jenny Lind (known as the greatest singer of the time) are dubbed by Loren Allred (a contestant on The Voice). Props to the pipes of Keala Seattle (played Sharon in Ricki and the Flash) as Lettie, the bearded lady. And all of the above can act up a storm as well. The cast has nearly 200 people.
Michael Gracey, a visual effects supervisor, makes his directorial debut, working from a story by Jenny Bicks and co-written by her (she wrote 16 episodes of Sex and the City, ten of The Big C, and was series creator of Men in Trees) and Bill Condon (Oscar winner for adapting Gods and Monsters (1998) which he directed, nominated for adapting Chicago (2002) which he didn't; he also wrote Kinsey (2004) and Dreamgirls (2006), both of which he directed).
The sparkling cinematography by Seamus McGarvey (last blogged for Anna Karenina) is supplemented by the work of many special effects companies.
I was curious about the choreography, with many numbers punctuated by Jackman et al throwing their arms triumphantly out to the sides. La La Land had one choreographer and two assistants. This has Matthieu Leopold (three Dancing with the Stars final episodes to his name, two of which had the word "aerialist" in them), buried in the Stunts list. The early sequence with Jackman and Williams dancing on the rooftop with her skirt twirling is but one of many marvelous routines.
The songs are terrific and you can stream a playlist on youtube (until it gets taken down for copyright reasons). Before writing the lyrics to La La Land, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote a few songs for the TV series Smash, which I loved. Two of my favorites from this one are This Is Me (nominated for Critics Choice and Golden Globe awards so far), which is about unapologetically being yourself, and Rewrite the Stars, which is about taking control of your destiny regardless of society. Both final versions are included in the playlist above, but here's tape of a stirring studio rehearsal of This Is Me featuring Seattle. John Debney (who scored Home Again) and Joseph Trapanese (who wrote the non-N.W.A. music in Straight Outta Compton) provide some background music but you're unlikely to remember it. I don't.
The last Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus shows were in May 2017.
I think Broadway would do well to make this into a live stage show. Get Julie Taymor or someone to do the elephants! Perhaps the Rotten Tomatoes critics' average of 55 will be a deterrent. Broadway producers and you should pay attention instead to the audience average of 90%. The Hollywood Foreign Press has also nominated this for a Best Picture Musical or Comedy Golden Globe.
We saw this on Christmas day, the twelfth time the three of us have seen a movie on December 25. You know how I like lists, so here's our history: 2006 Dreamgirls, 2007 Walk Hard, 2008 Cadillac Records, 2009 Nine, 2010 The Fighter, 2011 We Bought a Zoo, 2012 Django Unchained, 2013 The World's End (streamed at home; our first choice American Hustle was sold out and that's the last Christmas we showed up without buying advance tickets), 2014 Into the Woods, 2015 Joy, and 2016 La La Land.
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Saturday, December 30, 2017
Downsizing (2017)
I was eager to see this story of humans who shrink themselves to live in a community more sustainable than our current society but its mad mood swings from comedy to drama are a bit hard to take. Matt Damon (last blogged for Suburbicon) does his darndest as our hero Paul and Christoph Waltz (most recently in The Legend of Tarzan) is pretty funny as the hedonistic Dusan (DUE-shan). The first trailer we saw for this featured Kristen Wiig (last in Ghostbusters) as Paul's wife Audrey but we guessed, even before the second trailer confirmed it, that she wouldn't "downsize" with Paul. Hong Chau (no newcomer, she's been in several projects, including Inherent Vice and all but one episode of Big Little Lies season 1) has been nominated for three Best Supporting Actress awards already (here's the running list), but, frankly, her character of Ngoc Lan bugged me--shrill, bossy, and no fun. Fun fact, the voice on the phone who says "Do you think moss is pretty?" is Mary Kay Place.
Director/co-writer Alexander Payne was Oscar-nominated for directing his last movie Nebraska, very clearly a dramedy (he's had three other Oscar nominations and two wins), so we expected more. There's a lot there but it lacks cohesion. Nor can we solely blame co-writer Jim Taylor, who shared one win (for Sideways (2004) and two of the nominations (for co-writing Election (1999) and producing The Descendants), and also co-wrote Citizen Ruth (1996), About Schmidt (2002), and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007), all with Payne, among Taylor's credits.
The original music by Rolfe Kent (scored Labor Day) can be streamed on spotify. That link doesn't include the 40 some songs played throughout the movie. One song egregiously missing from the final cut is Talking Heads' Once in a Lifetime, so humorously placed in all trailers.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are lukewarm at best, averaging 51%, while its audiences, averaging 25%, were represented by the folks at our screening last week, who were antsy and talkative every time the laughs died down.
Another milestone! In early November I celebrated the 1000th movie posted on the blog. That number included posts summarizing nineteen movies that I saw before I began writing on September 3, 2008. This movie, which we saw on December 23, 2017, marks 1000 movies actually seen in about 485 weeks (3393 days, but who's counting?). I keep track of the numbers on my alphabetical index. Thanks for reading!
Director/co-writer Alexander Payne was Oscar-nominated for directing his last movie Nebraska, very clearly a dramedy (he's had three other Oscar nominations and two wins), so we expected more. There's a lot there but it lacks cohesion. Nor can we solely blame co-writer Jim Taylor, who shared one win (for Sideways (2004) and two of the nominations (for co-writing Election (1999) and producing The Descendants), and also co-wrote Citizen Ruth (1996), About Schmidt (2002), and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007), all with Payne, among Taylor's credits.
The original music by Rolfe Kent (scored Labor Day) can be streamed on spotify. That link doesn't include the 40 some songs played throughout the movie. One song egregiously missing from the final cut is Talking Heads' Once in a Lifetime, so humorously placed in all trailers.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are lukewarm at best, averaging 51%, while its audiences, averaging 25%, were represented by the folks at our screening last week, who were antsy and talkative every time the laughs died down.
Another milestone! In early November I celebrated the 1000th movie posted on the blog. That number included posts summarizing nineteen movies that I saw before I began writing on September 3, 2008. This movie, which we saw on December 23, 2017, marks 1000 movies actually seen in about 485 weeks (3393 days, but who's counting?). I keep track of the numbers on my alphabetical index. Thanks for reading!
Friday, December 29, 2017
Wonder Wheel (2017)
Despite its glorious Vittorio Storaro cinematography and a stalwart job by Kate Winslet as a neurotic waitress in 1950s Coney Island, Woody Allen's pacing dragged at times. Jack and I are predisposed to like his work, while not celebrating him as a human being. More on that in a moment.
Winslet (last blogged for The Dressmaker) as Ginny, in her first Allen outing, nails the fast-talking unhinged heroine we've come to expect from the director/writer, and Jim Belushi (his many credits include 33 episodes of Saturday Night Live (1983-1985), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), About Last Night... (1986), cameo in The Ghost Writer, and six episodes of Good Girls Revolt as national editor Wick McFadden) does the same as her schlemiel of a husband, nicknamed Humpty. Weaker links are Justin Timberlake (most recently in Inside Llewyn Davis) as handsome lifeguard Mickey and Juno Temple (covered in Killer Joe) as Humpty's daughter Carolina.
As I said, we have both tended to like Allen's work. He makes a new movie every year--2016's was Café Society. Hollywood's society is in upheaval now, as people of both genders are accusing sexual transgressors, causing careers to crumble. And this current climate has inspired me to look a little more deeply into Allen, who is, as Jack quipped, an early adopter of sexual misconduct. Allen's adopted daughter Dylan Farrow's essay accusing him of molesting her in 1993 when she was 7 was published by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nicholas Kristof in his blog on 2/1/14. To be honest, I did hear in the 1990s about Mia Farrow's bringing a custody suit against him on that basis, but I wasn't convinced he was guilty and did not boycott his movies, which I had always loved (my regular readers may remember that I have grudgingly praised the work of Mel Gibson even though he's been definitively outed as an anti-Semite and accused of partner assault). This week I read a rebuttal Allen wrote for the New York Times opinion section on 2/7/14, as well as Maureen Orth's Vanity Fair article, also published on 2/7/14. And then I read an article from last year by Dylan's brother, journalist Ronan Farrow, who is Allen's biological son, originally named Satchel Ronan O'Sullivan Farrow for baseball great Satchel Paige and Mia's mother Maureen O'Sullivan. I am most definitely a feminist and fully understand how difficult it is for victims to come forward. All that being said, I am also a lover of the art of filmmaking and don't do much boycotting. It should be noted that I commented in 2010, in a post about You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, that I didn't approve of Allen's incestuous choice of mate (his stepdaughter and current wife Soon-Yi Previn, 35 years his junior).
On to lighter topics. Storaro (covered in Café Society) bathes Winslet's dyed-orange hair in orange light to wonderful effect (here are examples one and two) and, along with production designer Santo Loquasto, could be eligible for an award or two if Allen's notoriety doesn't get in the way.
Winslet (last blogged for The Dressmaker) as Ginny, in her first Allen outing, nails the fast-talking unhinged heroine we've come to expect from the director/writer, and Jim Belushi (his many credits include 33 episodes of Saturday Night Live (1983-1985), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), About Last Night... (1986), cameo in The Ghost Writer, and six episodes of Good Girls Revolt as national editor Wick McFadden) does the same as her schlemiel of a husband, nicknamed Humpty. Weaker links are Justin Timberlake (most recently in Inside Llewyn Davis) as handsome lifeguard Mickey and Juno Temple (covered in Killer Joe) as Humpty's daughter Carolina.
As I said, we have both tended to like Allen's work. He makes a new movie every year--2016's was Café Society. Hollywood's society is in upheaval now, as people of both genders are accusing sexual transgressors, causing careers to crumble. And this current climate has inspired me to look a little more deeply into Allen, who is, as Jack quipped, an early adopter of sexual misconduct. Allen's adopted daughter Dylan Farrow's essay accusing him of molesting her in 1993 when she was 7 was published by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nicholas Kristof in his blog on 2/1/14. To be honest, I did hear in the 1990s about Mia Farrow's bringing a custody suit against him on that basis, but I wasn't convinced he was guilty and did not boycott his movies, which I had always loved (my regular readers may remember that I have grudgingly praised the work of Mel Gibson even though he's been definitively outed as an anti-Semite and accused of partner assault). This week I read a rebuttal Allen wrote for the New York Times opinion section on 2/7/14, as well as Maureen Orth's Vanity Fair article, also published on 2/7/14. And then I read an article from last year by Dylan's brother, journalist Ronan Farrow, who is Allen's biological son, originally named Satchel Ronan O'Sullivan Farrow for baseball great Satchel Paige and Mia's mother Maureen O'Sullivan. I am most definitely a feminist and fully understand how difficult it is for victims to come forward. All that being said, I am also a lover of the art of filmmaking and don't do much boycotting. It should be noted that I commented in 2010, in a post about You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, that I didn't approve of Allen's incestuous choice of mate (his stepdaughter and current wife Soon-Yi Previn, 35 years his junior).
On to lighter topics. Storaro (covered in Café Society) bathes Winslet's dyed-orange hair in orange light to wonderful effect (here are examples one and two) and, along with production designer Santo Loquasto, could be eligible for an award or two if Allen's notoriety doesn't get in the way.
No composer, just songs, as usual. Most sites mention Jo Stafford's You Belong to Me from 1952 as the theme song here but to my mind it's The Mills Brothers' Coney Island Washboard Roundelay that I'm still singing to myself.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences have excoriated this picture, averaging 30 and 48%, respectively. Don't confuse this with three other "wonder" movies from this fall: Wonder, Wonderstruck, Wonder Woman, and Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. Wait to see it on free cable and look at the beautiful images.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences have excoriated this picture, averaging 30 and 48%, respectively. Don't confuse this with three other "wonder" movies from this fall: Wonder, Wonderstruck, Wonder Woman, and Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. Wait to see it on free cable and look at the beautiful images.
Thursday, December 21, 2017
The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)
We didn't hate this lushly produced story of Charles Dickens' struggle with writers' block and fear of debt in order to come up with A Christmas Carol in six weeks in 1843. Dan Stevens (last blogged for Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer), as Dickens, plays many scenes for laughs, though his awareness of the less fortunate and his own past are quite serious. Christopher Plummer (most recently in these pages for Danny Collins) is implacable as Dickens' imaginary Scrooge. Pivotal to the plot is Dickens' father John, played with abandon by the reliable Jonathan Pryce (profiled in Dough), and a few choice scenes feature Simon Callow (last in Victoria & Abdul) as illustrator Mr. Leech and the venerable, petite Miriam Margolyes (over 150 credits, including The Age of Innocence (1993), Sunshine (1999), Being Julia (2004), The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), three Harry Potters as Professor Sprout, and The Guilt Trip) as Mrs. Fisk.
Director Bharat Nalluri (helmed the excellent HBO mini-series Tsunami: The Aftermath (2006) and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, among others) works from a script by Susan Coyne (some TV including two episodes of Mozart in the Jungle) who adapted Les Standiford's 2011 novel.
The cinematography is quite pretty, shot in Ireland by Ben Smithard, just blogged for Goodbye Christopher Robin.
The music is good, too, by Mychael Danna (most recently in these pages for scoring Life of Pi, but it's been a challenge to stream it from youtube while writing this because there are ads every few tracks. Here's one playlist (I keep the youtube stream open in its own window so I can click "skip ad" each time).
Unusually so, Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are more enthusiastic than Jack and I are, averaging 80 and 82%, respectively. Its last screening in this area was today. and it's expected to be available for streaming and buying in February. Maybe next holiday season you can watch it for free somewhere.
Director Bharat Nalluri (helmed the excellent HBO mini-series Tsunami: The Aftermath (2006) and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, among others) works from a script by Susan Coyne (some TV including two episodes of Mozart in the Jungle) who adapted Les Standiford's 2011 novel.
The cinematography is quite pretty, shot in Ireland by Ben Smithard, just blogged for Goodbye Christopher Robin.
The music is good, too, by Mychael Danna (most recently in these pages for scoring Life of Pi, but it's been a challenge to stream it from youtube while writing this because there are ads every few tracks. Here's one playlist (I keep the youtube stream open in its own window so I can click "skip ad" each time).
Unusually so, Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are more enthusiastic than Jack and I are, averaging 80 and 82%, respectively. Its last screening in this area was today. and it's expected to be available for streaming and buying in February. Maybe next holiday season you can watch it for free somewhere.
Sunday, December 17, 2017
The Shape of Water (2017)
This story of a mute woman falling in love with a fish-man, held captive in the 1960s US government facility where she's a janitor, combines romance and fantasy with splashes of violence. It's a gorgeous example of cinema and a darling of critics for good reason. It's racking up awards and nominations so far, and I expect more from the Oscars when the announcements are made next month.
Sally Hawkins, who could be nominated for both this and Maudie this year, studied silent film stars to prepare for this role of romantic Elisa, written expressly for her. Michael Shannon (last blogged for Nocturnal Animals) was also director/writer Guillermo del Toro's first choice for angry federal agent Strickland. Great supporting strength (and more nominations) come from Michael Stuhlberg (after his mention in these pages for Arrival he co-starred in the third season of Fargo) as scientist Dr. Hoffstetler, Richard Jenkins (last in The Hollars) as Elisa's neighbor Giles (his role was actually written for Ian McKellan--I don't know what happened), and Octavia Spencer (most recently in Gifted) as her co-worker and mouthpiece Zelda. In one scene Strickland complains that he's talking with "the help." Of course, Spencer won her Oscar for the movie The Help. As the creature, Doug Jones (new to me, though he has dozens of credits, including playing the Silver Surfer) uses his mime training to wordlessly express emotion, even under three hours worth of makeup.
Del Toro's screenplay for Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno - 2006) was nominated for an Oscar (he directed it as well). I saw it but found the sadistic violence disturbing, though the images were magnificent (it won Oscars for cinematography, art direction, and makeup, including the transformation of Jones, who played the title creature under even more cosmetics). Therefore I was prepared to put my hands in front of the screen at this movie from time to time to shield my delicate sensibilities from the gore, and did so. This one was less gruesome than I feared, however, perhaps due to co-writer Vanessa Taylor, who co-wrote one other project after her debut in Hope Springs.
Director of photography Dan Laustsen (new to me, he has dozens of credit in his native Denmark and elsewhere) provides beautiful images. Placing Elisa's and Giles's apartments above a movie theatre adds a wonderful depth and art to the setting.
The music by Alexandre Desplat (last blogged for Suburbicon) segues from lilting to urgent and can be streamed from this youtube playlist. He performs the whistling in a few songs, chosen by del Toro to counterpoint the underwater scenes.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics average 94% today, less than two full days after its wide opening. I guess it's too soon for an audience average. But on my babetteflix list of nominees and winners for this year, this movie has the most as of now. Unless you absolutely can't stand any bloodshed, you should see this one.
Sally Hawkins, who could be nominated for both this and Maudie this year, studied silent film stars to prepare for this role of romantic Elisa, written expressly for her. Michael Shannon (last blogged for Nocturnal Animals) was also director/writer Guillermo del Toro's first choice for angry federal agent Strickland. Great supporting strength (and more nominations) come from Michael Stuhlberg (after his mention in these pages for Arrival he co-starred in the third season of Fargo) as scientist Dr. Hoffstetler, Richard Jenkins (last in The Hollars) as Elisa's neighbor Giles (his role was actually written for Ian McKellan--I don't know what happened), and Octavia Spencer (most recently in Gifted) as her co-worker and mouthpiece Zelda. In one scene Strickland complains that he's talking with "the help." Of course, Spencer won her Oscar for the movie The Help. As the creature, Doug Jones (new to me, though he has dozens of credits, including playing the Silver Surfer) uses his mime training to wordlessly express emotion, even under three hours worth of makeup.
Del Toro's screenplay for Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno - 2006) was nominated for an Oscar (he directed it as well). I saw it but found the sadistic violence disturbing, though the images were magnificent (it won Oscars for cinematography, art direction, and makeup, including the transformation of Jones, who played the title creature under even more cosmetics). Therefore I was prepared to put my hands in front of the screen at this movie from time to time to shield my delicate sensibilities from the gore, and did so. This one was less gruesome than I feared, however, perhaps due to co-writer Vanessa Taylor, who co-wrote one other project after her debut in Hope Springs.
Director of photography Dan Laustsen (new to me, he has dozens of credit in his native Denmark and elsewhere) provides beautiful images. Placing Elisa's and Giles's apartments above a movie theatre adds a wonderful depth and art to the setting.
The music by Alexandre Desplat (last blogged for Suburbicon) segues from lilting to urgent and can be streamed from this youtube playlist. He performs the whistling in a few songs, chosen by del Toro to counterpoint the underwater scenes.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics average 94% today, less than two full days after its wide opening. I guess it's too soon for an audience average. But on my babetteflix list of nominees and winners for this year, this movie has the most as of now. Unless you absolutely can't stand any bloodshed, you should see this one.
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017)
I quite liked this cringe-inducing story of a dysfunctional family, focusing on three adult children and their narcissistic father. Made for Netflix, it's available to stream anytime, and I chose it last weekend because it has a few wins and nominations already.
Adam Sandler (after Men, Women & Children I mentioned his cameo in Top Five) is terrific playing it straight as befuddled Danny, the elder son. In this current climate, it's hard to enjoy the work of accused sexual harasser Dustin Hoffman (last blogged for Chef) but I didn't doubt for one minute his self-absorption and arrogance as father Harold. Always good in a cringey movie, Ben Stiller (most recently in Brad's Status) is reliable as younger son Matthew. And Elizabeth Marvel (played 40 year old Mattie in True Grit, Constance Heck in five episodes of the first season of Fargo, Heather Dunbar in 23 of House of Cards, and Elizabeth Keane in 24 of Homeland) is marvelous as awkward sister Jean. Emma Thompson (last voiced Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast) is delightful as Harold's boozy, hippie third wife Maureen. Support comes from Grace Van Patten (Timothy's daughter) as Eliza Meyerowitz, Danny's daughter; Candice Bergen (most recently in Home Again) as Harold's second wife Julia; and Judd Hirsch (114 episodes of Taxi 1978-83, 114 of Numb3rs, five of Maron, he's on the dumb sitcom Superior Donuts right now, known for movies Teachers (1984), Independence Day (1996), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Oscar-nominated for Ordinary People (1980), and was in Tower Heist) as Harold's artistic competitor L.J.
Director/writer Noah Baumbach's last picture While We're Young featured, among others, Stiller and Adam Driver, who has a cameo in this picture. I haven't seen every one of Baumbach's pictures but I'm a big fan. By the way, the O in Meyerowitz is silent--it's three syllables.
Randy Newman's (won two Oscars for songs, one of which was in Toy Story 3, he's been nominated seven times for score plus scored 17 other features with Toy Story 4 now filming) soundtrack of solo piano can be streamed from this short youtube playlist. Plus, here's a list of songs.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the critics' average of 93% is far from the audiences' of 73, probably because Baumbach's work can be hard to take. If it's your cup of tea (see also The Squid and the Whale (2005), Greenberg, and Frances Ha), fire up the Netflix and watch (they may not inspire "chilling" afterwards).
Adam Sandler (after Men, Women & Children I mentioned his cameo in Top Five) is terrific playing it straight as befuddled Danny, the elder son. In this current climate, it's hard to enjoy the work of accused sexual harasser Dustin Hoffman (last blogged for Chef) but I didn't doubt for one minute his self-absorption and arrogance as father Harold. Always good in a cringey movie, Ben Stiller (most recently in Brad's Status) is reliable as younger son Matthew. And Elizabeth Marvel (played 40 year old Mattie in True Grit, Constance Heck in five episodes of the first season of Fargo, Heather Dunbar in 23 of House of Cards, and Elizabeth Keane in 24 of Homeland) is marvelous as awkward sister Jean. Emma Thompson (last voiced Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast) is delightful as Harold's boozy, hippie third wife Maureen. Support comes from Grace Van Patten (Timothy's daughter) as Eliza Meyerowitz, Danny's daughter; Candice Bergen (most recently in Home Again) as Harold's second wife Julia; and Judd Hirsch (114 episodes of Taxi 1978-83, 114 of Numb3rs, five of Maron, he's on the dumb sitcom Superior Donuts right now, known for movies Teachers (1984), Independence Day (1996), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Oscar-nominated for Ordinary People (1980), and was in Tower Heist) as Harold's artistic competitor L.J.
Director/writer Noah Baumbach's last picture While We're Young featured, among others, Stiller and Adam Driver, who has a cameo in this picture. I haven't seen every one of Baumbach's pictures but I'm a big fan. By the way, the O in Meyerowitz is silent--it's three syllables.
Randy Newman's (won two Oscars for songs, one of which was in Toy Story 3, he's been nominated seven times for score plus scored 17 other features with Toy Story 4 now filming) soundtrack of solo piano can be streamed from this short youtube playlist. Plus, here's a list of songs.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the critics' average of 93% is far from the audiences' of 73, probably because Baumbach's work can be hard to take. If it's your cup of tea (see also The Squid and the Whale (2005), Greenberg, and Frances Ha), fire up the Netflix and watch (they may not inspire "chilling" afterwards).
Saturday, December 9, 2017
Mudbound (2017)
This dark and brutal story about bad luck and racism in 1940s Mississippi when a white family and an African-American one live close by as tensions build and World War II takes place in Europe. It's hard to watch but I persisted, in three sessions on Netflix, because it's getting some awards already.
The white McAllan family includes Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Garrett Hedlund (last blogged for Suffragette, Zero Dark Thirty, and On the Road, respectively) and Jonathan Banks (he has a long resume but is best known for playing Mike Ehrmantraut on 28 episodes of Breaking Bad and 31 of Better Call Saul). The African-American Jackson family is headed up by Rob Morgan (eleven episodes of Stranger Things as Officer Powell and much more) and singer Mary J. Blige (she has a quick mention in Rock of Ages and is the most lauded in the acting group so far), with Jason Mitchell (most recently in Detroit) as the eldest son. All seven won a special Gotham Jury Award for ensemble performance.
Director/co-writer Dee Rees (Pariah) adapted Hillary Jordan's 2008 novel with Virgil Williams (his feature debut after writing many and producing more TV episodes).
When I say "dark," I mean literally as well as figuratively. The sun was shining one of the days I watched and it was difficult to block it enough to see everything on the screen.
Composer Tamar-kali also makes her feature debut (after contributing some songs to Pariah) and you can stream the 51 minute soundtrack, beginning with a Blige song, from this link.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are swooning at 97% and its audiences aren't too far behind with 87. Don't watch it right before bed for fear of nightmares.
The white McAllan family includes Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Garrett Hedlund (last blogged for Suffragette, Zero Dark Thirty, and On the Road, respectively) and Jonathan Banks (he has a long resume but is best known for playing Mike Ehrmantraut on 28 episodes of Breaking Bad and 31 of Better Call Saul). The African-American Jackson family is headed up by Rob Morgan (eleven episodes of Stranger Things as Officer Powell and much more) and singer Mary J. Blige (she has a quick mention in Rock of Ages and is the most lauded in the acting group so far), with Jason Mitchell (most recently in Detroit) as the eldest son. All seven won a special Gotham Jury Award for ensemble performance.
Director/co-writer Dee Rees (Pariah) adapted Hillary Jordan's 2008 novel with Virgil Williams (his feature debut after writing many and producing more TV episodes).
When I say "dark," I mean literally as well as figuratively. The sun was shining one of the days I watched and it was difficult to block it enough to see everything on the screen.
Composer Tamar-kali also makes her feature debut (after contributing some songs to Pariah) and you can stream the 51 minute soundtrack, beginning with a Blige song, from this link.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are swooning at 97% and its audiences aren't too far behind with 87. Don't watch it right before bed for fear of nightmares.
Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017)
Denzel Washington gives a great performance in this drama about an idiosyncratic Los Angeles lawyer, possibly with Asperger's, trying to adapt to huge changes in his life. Washington (last blogged for Fences) sports a shaggy Afro, shabby clothes, and a space between his teeth that is, off-screen, normally covered with dental work. In great contrast, Colin Farrell (most recently in The Beguiled) is convincing as a slick, tailored, lawyer in a high rise downtown building. Carmen Ejogo (last in Born To Be Blue) supports as the kindly Maya.
Director/writer Dan Gilroy is no stranger to intense characters, as evidenced by his last picture, Nightcrawler, in which he did the same jobs and was Oscar-nominated for the script. His son Sam Gilroy plays a young lawyer at the firm.
You may not remember James Newton Howard's (most recently scored Detroit) compositions (stream 38 minutes of soundtrack here) because of all the great songs, many of which are listed on imdb and can be streamed from this page.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are not too enthusiastic, averaging 50 and 67%. You can probably wait for the DVD but Denzel and Colin are awfully good.
Director/writer Dan Gilroy is no stranger to intense characters, as evidenced by his last picture, Nightcrawler, in which he did the same jobs and was Oscar-nominated for the script. His son Sam Gilroy plays a young lawyer at the firm.
You may not remember James Newton Howard's (most recently scored Detroit) compositions (stream 38 minutes of soundtrack here) because of all the great songs, many of which are listed on imdb and can be streamed from this page.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are not too enthusiastic, averaging 50 and 67%. You can probably wait for the DVD but Denzel and Colin are awfully good.
Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
We didn't hate this lushly produced mystery, taking place on a luxury train across the Eur-Asian continent, based on the 1934 Agatha Christie novel. The cinematography, costumes, and locations are spectacular. Sir Kenneth Branagh directs and stars as Belgian detective Hercule Poirot with a silly accent and an enormous double handlebar mustache. He was last blogged for acting for Dunkirk. The ensemble includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Johnny Depp, Judi Dench, Daisy Ridley, Willem Dafoe, Penelope Cruz, Derek Jacobi (most recently in these pages for The Family, Into the Woods, Victoria & Abdul, The Eagle Huntress, The Florida Project, The Brothers Grimsby, Hereafter, respectively) and, in his first film role since the original Broadway cast of Hamilton, Leslie Odom Jr.
Because I usually add a guttural sound to the end of his name, Jack researched the correct pronunciation of Branagh's (last blogged for directing for Cinderella) name. It's BRAN-uh. The screenplay, adapted by Michael Green (co-wrote Blade Runner 2049), has lots of goofs, including continuity, pronunciation/accents, anachronistic Godiva Chocolate product placement, and a plot hole or two.
But the pictures! Cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos (shot, among others, Enduring Love (2004), Sleuth (2007), Thor, Cinderella, Denial--the middle three were directed by Branagh) gives us magnificent photography including scenes in Valle d'Aosta, Italy (for the snow exteriors); Istanbul; Malta; and New Zealand.
The Costume Designers Guild nominations haven't been announced yet but Alexandra Byrne (won an Oscar for Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), nominated for three others, including Elizabeth (1998) (both Elizabeths played by Cate Blanchett) and Finding Neverland (2004)) has been nominated for a Satellite Award and I expect she'll get more accolades as the season progresses. Jim Clay's (best known for The Crying Game (1992), Match Point (2005), Children of Men (2006) and Woman in Gold) Production Design team has so far been noted with a Critics Choice nomination so far.
Patrick Doyle's (last scored A United Kingdom) mysterious soundtrack can be streamed from this YouTube playlist, including, as track 23, his song Never Forget with lyrics by Branagh, sung by Pfeiffer.
The end of this movie sets up for the sequel, Death on the Nile, an undated release to be directed by Branagh with Green adapting another of Christie's novels.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are understandable tepid on this, averaging 58 and 59%. The images are its most redeeming values.
Because I usually add a guttural sound to the end of his name, Jack researched the correct pronunciation of Branagh's (last blogged for directing for Cinderella) name. It's BRAN-uh. The screenplay, adapted by Michael Green (co-wrote Blade Runner 2049), has lots of goofs, including continuity, pronunciation/accents, anachronistic Godiva Chocolate product placement, and a plot hole or two.
But the pictures! Cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos (shot, among others, Enduring Love (2004), Sleuth (2007), Thor, Cinderella, Denial--the middle three were directed by Branagh) gives us magnificent photography including scenes in Valle d'Aosta, Italy (for the snow exteriors); Istanbul; Malta; and New Zealand.
The Costume Designers Guild nominations haven't been announced yet but Alexandra Byrne (won an Oscar for Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), nominated for three others, including Elizabeth (1998) (both Elizabeths played by Cate Blanchett) and Finding Neverland (2004)) has been nominated for a Satellite Award and I expect she'll get more accolades as the season progresses. Jim Clay's (best known for The Crying Game (1992), Match Point (2005), Children of Men (2006) and Woman in Gold) Production Design team has so far been noted with a Critics Choice nomination so far.
Patrick Doyle's (last scored A United Kingdom) mysterious soundtrack can be streamed from this YouTube playlist, including, as track 23, his song Never Forget with lyrics by Branagh, sung by Pfeiffer.
The end of this movie sets up for the sequel, Death on the Nile, an undated release to be directed by Branagh with Green adapting another of Christie's novels.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are understandable tepid on this, averaging 58 and 59%. The images are its most redeeming values.
The Disaster Artist (2017)
Jack and I loved this story of the friendship that led to the making of "The Citizen Kane of bad movies." James Franco is spectacular as enigmatic, possibly insane, auteur Tommy Wiseau and Dave Franco is also terrific as Greg Sestero, with whom Wiseau made The Room (2003). The brothers act together for the first time in this picture. James was last blogged for Why Him? and Dave for The Little Hours, which also featured his wife Alison Brie, who plays his girlfriend Amber in this picture.
Neither of us has seen the original The Room, though Jack watched some clips on youtube. Here it is if you want, or, better yet, see it late one Saturday night in a theatre with an audience who will participate in celebrating the cult classic (apparently plastic spoons and footballs are a thing).
Frequent James Franco collaborator Seth Rogen (most recently in Steve Jobs) plays it somewhat straight as frustrated script supervisor Sandy who has to do much of the directing while Wiseau is in front of the camera. By binge-watching the Showtime series I'm Dying Up Here, I've become a fan of Ari Graynor (she was also the title character in the TV adaptation of Bad Teacher) so was happy to see her as the actress who plays the main love interest in the movie-within-a-movie. The cast is enormous, credited and not. I particularly enjoyed cameos by Melanie Griffith as an acting teacher, Sharon Stone as an agent, and Judd Apatow as a Hollywood producer trying to have a quiet dinner. The real Sestero appears as a casting agent and Wiseau has a full scene with James Franco after the credits so do not leave the room while the credits are rolling!
As Wiseau did in The Room, James Franco directs and stars. Franco has directed thirteen other features (plus some documentaries and shorts) but I haven't seen one. Screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (last blogged for The Spectacular Now) adapted the 2013 book The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made by Sestero and Tom Bissell.
I can't even begin to guess the psychological diagnoses a professional would assign to Wiseau, but it's interesting that someone so thin-skinned, at least according to this movie and the research I've done, would approve of this adaptation. I'm glad he did, though.
The Room premiered at Laemmle's Fairfax Theatre in 2003. It has since closed. In The Disaster Artist, the Crest Theatre in Westwood, a few miles west, is a gorgeous substitution.
The original score is by Dave Porter (62 episodes of Breaking Bad, 30 of Better Call Saul, and more) and you can stream his tunes by starting with this YouTube link and turning on autoplay. Imdb lists thirteen songs and spotify has fifteen.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are with us this time, averaging 94 and 91% before its opening weekend is over. I do suggest, however, making allowances for MPMS (sit far back if Motion-Picture-Motion-Sickness is a problem for you--here's my running list) and getting a closed caption device if your theatre offers it. James Franco's weird accent can be quite difficult to understand.
Neither of us has seen the original The Room, though Jack watched some clips on youtube. Here it is if you want, or, better yet, see it late one Saturday night in a theatre with an audience who will participate in celebrating the cult classic (apparently plastic spoons and footballs are a thing).
Frequent James Franco collaborator Seth Rogen (most recently in Steve Jobs) plays it somewhat straight as frustrated script supervisor Sandy who has to do much of the directing while Wiseau is in front of the camera. By binge-watching the Showtime series I'm Dying Up Here, I've become a fan of Ari Graynor (she was also the title character in the TV adaptation of Bad Teacher) so was happy to see her as the actress who plays the main love interest in the movie-within-a-movie. The cast is enormous, credited and not. I particularly enjoyed cameos by Melanie Griffith as an acting teacher, Sharon Stone as an agent, and Judd Apatow as a Hollywood producer trying to have a quiet dinner. The real Sestero appears as a casting agent and Wiseau has a full scene with James Franco after the credits so do not leave the room while the credits are rolling!
As Wiseau did in The Room, James Franco directs and stars. Franco has directed thirteen other features (plus some documentaries and shorts) but I haven't seen one. Screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (last blogged for The Spectacular Now) adapted the 2013 book The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made by Sestero and Tom Bissell.
I can't even begin to guess the psychological diagnoses a professional would assign to Wiseau, but it's interesting that someone so thin-skinned, at least according to this movie and the research I've done, would approve of this adaptation. I'm glad he did, though.
The Room premiered at Laemmle's Fairfax Theatre in 2003. It has since closed. In The Disaster Artist, the Crest Theatre in Westwood, a few miles west, is a gorgeous substitution.
Saturday, November 25, 2017
Loving Vincent (2017)
This cinematic tour de force, about a postman enlisting his son to find Theo Van Gogh in 1891 and deliver Vincent's last letter to his brother, is the first 100% painted animated feature film, based on famous works of Vincent Van Gogh and executed by a team of 100+ artists over the course of five years. In addition to the marvelous images, it's a pretty good detective story as well.
The voice actors are somewhat recognizable in their painted versions, including Chris O'Dowd (last blogged for St. Vincent) as the Postman, Douglas Booth (first in these pages for Noah) as his son, Helen McCrory (in, but not blogged for, Their Finest) as the church-going Mme. Chevalier, Eleanor Tomlinson (covered in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging) as the perpetually smiling Adeline, Saoirse Ronan (just seen in Lady Bird) as Marguerite Gachet at the piano, and Robert Gulaczyk (it's his second feature and I didn't see the first) as the tortured Vincent, among others. The dialogue is (almost entirely, as I recall three weeks after seeing it) in English with strong British or Irish accents though most of it takes place in France.
It was directed and written by Dorota Kobiela (directing her second feature, writing her first) and former puppeteer Hugh Welchman (wrote one feature, directed nothing before this) and co-written by Jack Dehnel (his first anything). Kobiela and Dehnel are Polish and Welchman is English. You can learn more at the movie's website.
Clint Mansell (last scored Noah) brings suspenseful, dark, and light music which can be streamed from this playlist. Over the end credits we hear Liane La Havas' cover of Starry Night, which Don McLean wrote about Vincent Van Gogh.
Playing on one screen once or twice a day in these parts, its DVD and blu-ray release is set for January 16, 2018. I'd like to see it again, just to freeze frame some of the paintings. Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are averaging 80 and 89%.
The voice actors are somewhat recognizable in their painted versions, including Chris O'Dowd (last blogged for St. Vincent) as the Postman, Douglas Booth (first in these pages for Noah) as his son, Helen McCrory (in, but not blogged for, Their Finest) as the church-going Mme. Chevalier, Eleanor Tomlinson (covered in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging) as the perpetually smiling Adeline, Saoirse Ronan (just seen in Lady Bird) as Marguerite Gachet at the piano, and Robert Gulaczyk (it's his second feature and I didn't see the first) as the tortured Vincent, among others. The dialogue is (almost entirely, as I recall three weeks after seeing it) in English with strong British or Irish accents though most of it takes place in France.
It was directed and written by Dorota Kobiela (directing her second feature, writing her first) and former puppeteer Hugh Welchman (wrote one feature, directed nothing before this) and co-written by Jack Dehnel (his first anything). Kobiela and Dehnel are Polish and Welchman is English. You can learn more at the movie's website.
Clint Mansell (last scored Noah) brings suspenseful, dark, and light music which can be streamed from this playlist. Over the end credits we hear Liane La Havas' cover of Starry Night, which Don McLean wrote about Vincent Van Gogh.
Playing on one screen once or twice a day in these parts, its DVD and blu-ray release is set for January 16, 2018. I'd like to see it again, just to freeze frame some of the paintings. Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are averaging 80 and 89%.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Another fabulous movie this season, the story of a grieving mother trying to get justice for her murdered daughter is a lot funnier than it sounds, yet it's moving and boasts much character development. Francis McDormand is magnificent as the filter-free Mildred in a role written for her (she was last blogged for Hail, Caesar!). Woody Harrelson (most recently in The Glass Castle) is great as the kind but foul-mouthed police chief--in fact, almost everyone is foul-mouthed in this dark tale. Sam Rockwell (last in Laggies) brings humor as the dumb cop Dixon, until we realize what a menace he is. Caleb Landry Jones (just seen in The Florida Project) has a nice turn as advertising manager Red, as do Abbie Cornish (most recently in Robocop) as the chief's wife, Lucas Hedges (just seen in Lady Bird) as Mildred's son Robbie, and Peter Dinklage (last blogged for The Boss) as James (who is resigned to the yokels calling him a cruel and outdated word for a little person), among many. Darrell Britt-Gibson (best known to me as a character actually named Shitstain in 17 episodes of You're the Worst, he was also in six episodes of Californication and Keanu) makes a nice appearance as one of the billboard installers and Kathryn Newton (profiled in Lady Bird) shows up in flashback as the dead daughter Angela.
This is the third feature directed and written by Martin McDonagh (covered in these pages for Seven Psychopaths, which also starred Harrelson, Rockwell, and Cornish, among others; he is also a lauded author and playwright) and he is talented at pivoting from the ridiculous to the sublime. Following many nominations and wins for In Bruges (2008), he's starting to rack them up for this one, too.
Despite the picture's title, the glorious scenery was actually shot in Sylva, North Carolina, by Ben Davis (Avengers: Age of Ultron). McDonagh is an Englishman, by the way, and I haven't unearthed any reason he decided to set it in the fictional town of Ebbing, Missouri.
Lovely music by the prolific Carter Burwell (last scored Wonderstruck) can be streamed from this link, including The Last Rose of Summer by Renée Fleming, Jeffrey Tate & The English Chamber Orchestra and nearly the whole Joan Baez rendition of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.
Ann, Jack, and I loved this movie and Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences averages are 94 and 91%, respectively. Jack thinks McDormand may get an Oscar nomination and I'd be pleased if that happens.
This is the third feature directed and written by Martin McDonagh (covered in these pages for Seven Psychopaths, which also starred Harrelson, Rockwell, and Cornish, among others; he is also a lauded author and playwright) and he is talented at pivoting from the ridiculous to the sublime. Following many nominations and wins for In Bruges (2008), he's starting to rack them up for this one, too.
Despite the picture's title, the glorious scenery was actually shot in Sylva, North Carolina, by Ben Davis (Avengers: Age of Ultron). McDonagh is an Englishman, by the way, and I haven't unearthed any reason he decided to set it in the fictional town of Ebbing, Missouri.
Lovely music by the prolific Carter Burwell (last scored Wonderstruck) can be streamed from this link, including The Last Rose of Summer by Renée Fleming, Jeffrey Tate & The English Chamber Orchestra and nearly the whole Joan Baez rendition of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.
Ann, Jack, and I loved this movie and Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences averages are 94 and 91%, respectively. Jack thinks McDormand may get an Oscar nomination and I'd be pleased if that happens.
Lady Bird (2017)
Jack and I loved this tale of a rebellious Sacramento Catholic-high-school senior bickering with her mother and figuring out her life. Saoirse (SEER-sha) Ronan is transcendent as Christine "Lady Bird" and we don't doubt for a minute that she's 17 or 18 (it begins in September 2002), though she's now 23 and, in her Oscar-nominated performance in Brooklyn she played 23 and older as time passed. As Lady Bird's mother Marion, Laurie Metcalf (best known for 221 episodes of Roseanne as Roseanne's sister, she's done a ton of work on screens both small and big) is also getting some awards buzz and the scenes between them go from funny to wrenching. Tracy Letts (last blogged for The Lovers) is the befuddled father/husband caught in the middle. Many of the supporting actors are terrific, including high school classmates Beanie Feldstein (new to me, she is Jonah Hill's sister) as Julie, Lucas Hedges (Oscar-nominated for Manchester by the Sea) as Lucas, and Timothée Chalamet (I've seen him in four episodes of Royal Pains, eight of Homeland, movies Men, Women & Children and Interstellar, and he's got another coming out momentarily) as Kyle. The lovely Kathryn Newton doesn't have many lines but, even in those tight blond braids, I recognize her from 36 episodes of Gary Unmarried, seven of Big Little Lies, ten of Halt and Catch Fire, and the movie Bad Teacher, and I mention her because of another movie I'll write about after this.
Greta Gerwig, making her debut as the sole director of a feature (she wrote Frances Ha and co-directed another feature which I missed), has admitted that this movie is semi-autobiographical. Her mother's name is Christine but I hope they were a bit nicer to each other when Greta was in high school.
The lilting folk-inflected score is thanks to Jon Brion (composed for Wilson) and 27 minutes of it can be streamed from this link. The pop songs include Alanis Morissette's Hand in My Pocket, Dave Matthews Band’s Crash into Me, Justin Timberlake’s Cry Me a River, and The Crossroads by Bone Thugs N Harmony.
You don't need our recommendation to run and see this: Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average is a perfect 100% and its audiences a respectable 89.
Greta Gerwig, making her debut as the sole director of a feature (she wrote Frances Ha and co-directed another feature which I missed), has admitted that this movie is semi-autobiographical. Her mother's name is Christine but I hope they were a bit nicer to each other when Greta was in high school.
The lilting folk-inflected score is thanks to Jon Brion (composed for Wilson) and 27 minutes of it can be streamed from this link. The pop songs include Alanis Morissette's Hand in My Pocket, Dave Matthews Band’s Crash into Me, Justin Timberlake’s Cry Me a River, and The Crossroads by Bone Thugs N Harmony.
You don't need our recommendation to run and see this: Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average is a perfect 100% and its audiences a respectable 89.
Thursday, November 16, 2017
The Florida Project (2017)
This enjoyable slice of low-life about the denizens of a shabby motel in Orlando, especially a six year old girl, her friends, her remarkably clueless mom, and the kind hotel manager, is languidly paced and getting Oscar buzz for Willem Dafoe as Bobby, the manager.
Dafoe (last blogged for A Most Wanted Man, he was born William but his high school friends in Wisconsin called him Willem), who usually plays scary roles, fully inhabits the guy who watches out for the unsupervised urchins on their summer break, as well as many living hand-to-mouth at his workplace. This LA Times article has all six critics predicting his Oscar nomination. The only other recognizable face is Caleb Landry Jones (he's been in X-Men: First Class, Get Out, and American Made, to name a few) in one scene as Bobby's son. Newcomers Brooklynn Prince as little Moonee, and Christopher Rivera and Valeria Cotto as her friends Scooty and Jancey keep it going with childlike ebullience that owes a lot, says director/co-writer Sean Baker, to the Little Rascals of 1930s America. Here are some videos if you have no idea who they were. Bria Vinaite, who plays the tattooed mom Halley, also has no acting experience. Baker literally picked her from her instagram page which has 52.8k followers. Yes, those are her own tattoos and piercings. Sandy Kane, AKA the Naked Cowgirl of Times Square, has a cameo as a sunbather in a funny scene.
Baker co-wrote the script with Chris Bergoch (they performed the same duties on Tangerine), drawing inspiration from people Bergoch saw en route to his mother's Orlando home. The Florida Project was an early name for Disney World.
The cinematography by Alexis Zabe (new to me) is a strong inducer of MPMS (motion-picture-motion-sickness). I pre-medicated and sat in the back row, but still had to look away from time to time. It's not as bad as Tangerine, which was shot entirely on iPhones, but in that ballpark. Here's the complete MPMS list. The last scene is shot on an iPhone, for reasons which will be obvious when you see it.
Dafoe (last blogged for A Most Wanted Man, he was born William but his high school friends in Wisconsin called him Willem), who usually plays scary roles, fully inhabits the guy who watches out for the unsupervised urchins on their summer break, as well as many living hand-to-mouth at his workplace. This LA Times article has all six critics predicting his Oscar nomination. The only other recognizable face is Caleb Landry Jones (he's been in X-Men: First Class, Get Out, and American Made, to name a few) in one scene as Bobby's son. Newcomers Brooklynn Prince as little Moonee, and Christopher Rivera and Valeria Cotto as her friends Scooty and Jancey keep it going with childlike ebullience that owes a lot, says director/co-writer Sean Baker, to the Little Rascals of 1930s America. Here are some videos if you have no idea who they were. Bria Vinaite, who plays the tattooed mom Halley, also has no acting experience. Baker literally picked her from her instagram page which has 52.8k followers. Yes, those are her own tattoos and piercings. Sandy Kane, AKA the Naked Cowgirl of Times Square, has a cameo as a sunbather in a funny scene.
Baker co-wrote the script with Chris Bergoch (they performed the same duties on Tangerine), drawing inspiration from people Bergoch saw en route to his mother's Orlando home. The Florida Project was an early name for Disney World.
The cinematography by Alexis Zabe (new to me) is a strong inducer of MPMS (motion-picture-motion-sickness). I pre-medicated and sat in the back row, but still had to look away from time to time. It's not as bad as Tangerine, which was shot entirely on iPhones, but in that ballpark. Here's the complete MPMS list. The last scene is shot on an iPhone, for reasons which will be obvious when you see it.
The movie opens with the song Celebration by Kool & the Gang and closes with an orchestral version of it by Lorne Balfe (most recently in these pages for scoring Dough). In between, there are dozens of songs, listed here.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are rhapsodic, averaging 95% and its audiences are a bit cooler at 77. You should probably see it.
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show (2017)
Jack and I loved this Hulu documentary about the 1996 sketch comedy show, canceled before all eight episodes aired. Featuring old clips and new interviews with Carvey, Stephen Colbert, and Steve Carell, among others, it made us wish we had seen the show. Colbert and Carell (last blogged for Battle of the Sexes) worked together before and on that show and it didn't seem to hurt their careers. Same with writer Robert Carlock (profiled in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot).
Director/writer Josh Greenbaum has a handful of credits, the only ones of which I've seen are for directing three episodes of New Girl. I have to mention, though, that his upcoming Hulu documentary about actor George Lazenby, Becoming Bond, has an eerily similar poster to Suburbicon's, which I finished covering minutes ago. Here are the Becoming Bond poster and the Suburbicon poster. See for yourself.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics (14 of them at this posting) are averaging 100% and its critics 94. Watch this at home sometime. You'll laugh.
Director/writer Josh Greenbaum has a handful of credits, the only ones of which I've seen are for directing three episodes of New Girl. I have to mention, though, that his upcoming Hulu documentary about actor George Lazenby, Becoming Bond, has an eerily similar poster to Suburbicon's, which I finished covering minutes ago. Here are the Becoming Bond poster and the Suburbicon poster. See for yourself.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics (14 of them at this posting) are averaging 100% and its critics 94. Watch this at home sometime. You'll laugh.
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Suburbicon (2017)
Unlike the critics, Jack and I didn't hate this absurd, funny, and disturbing story, beginning with the first African-American family moving in next door to the scene of a home invasion in a 1950s planned suburb. Matt Damon (last blogged for The Martian) is great as the unraveling man of the victimized house and Julianne Moore (just seen in Wonderstruck) adorable as his partner. Young Noah Jupe (new to me but with a handful of credits) is quite convincing as the terrorized young son and Oscar Isaac (most recently in these pages for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens) brings his usual intensity and some humor to a pivotal role in the second act.
You may wonder why I have mentioned only white actors. That's because the African-American family next door is given short shrift, even as things happen to them. Joel and Ethan Coen (last blogged for Hail, Caesar!) wrote and were to direct a movie ten years ago about a home invasion, with George Clooney in the Isaac role. The project fell through. Clooney was working on another project with his writing/producing partner Grant Heslov (together they wrote The Monuments Men and Clooney directed it), based on a racism incident in Philadelphia. Someone thought it would be a good idea to mash them together and Suburbicon was born, with Clooney as director and all four credited with the screenplay. Beware of spoilers in this article about the movie's origins. This is one of those times that too many cooks, er, writers, have spoiled...well, you know the rest.
For the record, the Mayers family next door is played by Karimah Westbrook as the mom, Leith M. Burke as the dad, and Tony Espinosa as the son (all new to me, though I have apparently seen some of the work of each).
The prolific and supremely talented Alexandre Desplat (last scored American Pastoral) brings us music alternately lilting, soothing, and intense which can be streamed from this link.
Splat! Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are averaging 26 and 24%, respectively. You can wait for cable but there are some pretty funny moments if you have patience.
You may wonder why I have mentioned only white actors. That's because the African-American family next door is given short shrift, even as things happen to them. Joel and Ethan Coen (last blogged for Hail, Caesar!) wrote and were to direct a movie ten years ago about a home invasion, with George Clooney in the Isaac role. The project fell through. Clooney was working on another project with his writing/producing partner Grant Heslov (together they wrote The Monuments Men and Clooney directed it), based on a racism incident in Philadelphia. Someone thought it would be a good idea to mash them together and Suburbicon was born, with Clooney as director and all four credited with the screenplay. Beware of spoilers in this article about the movie's origins. This is one of those times that too many cooks, er, writers, have spoiled...well, you know the rest.
For the record, the Mayers family next door is played by Karimah Westbrook as the mom, Leith M. Burke as the dad, and Tony Espinosa as the son (all new to me, though I have apparently seen some of the work of each).
The prolific and supremely talented Alexandre Desplat (last scored American Pastoral) brings us music alternately lilting, soothing, and intense which can be streamed from this link.
Splat! Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are averaging 26 and 24%, respectively. You can wait for cable but there are some pretty funny moments if you have patience.
Monday, November 13, 2017
Wonderstruck (2017)
This visual masterpiece gracefully weaves together stories of a grieving 1977 boy and a willful deaf 1927 girl, both 12 years old, both eventually enchanted with New York's Museum of Natural History. We loved it. Not having read the book, we didn't know that Ben's story was written in words, while Rose's was all in pictures, so that explains why the 1927 scenes are wordless (and black and white). Jack pointed out that the movie is not sensitive to visual impairments, with lots of dark photography, tight moving close-ups, and blurred shots that focus just before cutting away, if at all. I have very good vision and had to concentrate to catch it all.
The kids are wonderful actors. Oakes Fegley (he turned 13 on Saturday and has a handful of credits over the past six years, including This Is Where I Leave You and three episodes of Boardwalk Empire) gives us Ben's anxiety to a T and Millicent Simmonds (now 14, in her acting debut) is actually deaf and shows Rose's impatience and disregard for authority. Some of the adults are played by Julianne Moore (last blogged for Maggie's Plan), Michelle Williams (earned her fourth Oscar nomination for Manchester by the Sea), and James Urbaniak (he has over 100 credits but seldom stars--in American Splendor (2003) he played R. Crumb; I saw him in four episodes of The Starter Wife, one of Weeds, one of The Good Wife, two of Homeland, four of The Office, one of You're the Worst, and he's done much more. He did play two characters named Venture in 69 episodes of The Venture Bros. but we didn't see any).
The kids are wonderful actors. Oakes Fegley (he turned 13 on Saturday and has a handful of credits over the past six years, including This Is Where I Leave You and three episodes of Boardwalk Empire) gives us Ben's anxiety to a T and Millicent Simmonds (now 14, in her acting debut) is actually deaf and shows Rose's impatience and disregard for authority. Some of the adults are played by Julianne Moore (last blogged for Maggie's Plan), Michelle Williams (earned her fourth Oscar nomination for Manchester by the Sea), and James Urbaniak (he has over 100 credits but seldom stars--in American Splendor (2003) he played R. Crumb; I saw him in four episodes of The Starter Wife, one of Weeds, one of The Good Wife, two of Homeland, four of The Office, one of You're the Worst, and he's done much more. He did play two characters named Venture in 69 episodes of The Venture Bros. but we didn't see any).
Director Todd Haynes (most recently in these pages for helming Carol) works from a script by Brian Selznick (wrote the book which was adapted for Hugo), who adapted his own 2011 book (wrote and illustrated) in this case. Here's the book's official website. The aforementioned dark photography is from Edward Lachman (also shot Carol) and the detail in the shots as well as in the drawings seen onscreen is remarkable. The depictions of 1977 Times Square (when it was still filthy and dangerous) and other New York locations are just great.
Carter Burwell's (last blogged for scoring Goodbye Christopher Robin) lovely score is mostly played over Rose's scenes and can be streamed from this youtube link. Fifty years later we get pop tunes, especially David Bowie's Space Oddity and more, available to stream from here, with misspellings of Austin and Deodato. As a musician, I have a good ear, and the Langley Schools Music Project recording of Space Oddity, played over the closing credits, which you can stream from the pop tunes link, is jarring for its discordance, especially towards the end. This wiki page about the Project gives me an idea why.
Jack and I liked this better than Rotten Tomatoes' critics at 72% and its audiences at 68 and think it should be seen on a big screen. It will be difficult to watch on video at home unless you can get your living room very dark and can sit back from the TV if you are afflicted with MPMS or Motion-picture-motion-sickness. It's going on the list. We recommend it highly for middle schoolers and up.
Friday, November 10, 2017
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017)
We liked the acting and cinematography in this story about the love triangle of William Moulton Marston (creator of Wonder Woman comics), his wife Elizabeth, and their teaching assistant Olive at Harvard/Radcliffe in the 1920s. Luke Evans (last blogged for playing Gaston in the live action Beauty and the Beast) as William and Bella Heathcote (most recently in Dark Shadows) as Olive are great but can't hold a candle to the smoldering Rebecca Hall (after Everything Must Go she was in Iron Man 3 and The BFG) as Elizabeth. Connie Britton (last in Beatriz at Dinner) and Oliver Platt (after Chef he had a cameo in Rules Don't Apply) have pivotal supporting roles.
Director/writer Angela Robinson (one of the directors, writers and producers of the serieses The L Word, Hung, and True Blood) has made a very sexy movie, including some perhaps-too-long erotic sequences. Marston's actual granddaughter Christie has said the polyamory in the movie is fictitious. But wikipedia says Olive Byrne (1904-1990), niece of Margaret Sanger, was the "live-in mistress" of Marston (1893-1947), a psychology professor who developed the DISC (Dominance, Inducement, Submission, and Compliance) theory of human interaction. His wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston (1893-1993) did work with him and they were fascinated by, though perhaps did not actually invent, the polygraph, or lie detector. Olive did live with William and Elizabeth, and wikipedia says that each bore his children, and the women stayed together after his death for the rest of their lives. But Christie wrote an article for the Hollywood Reporter, debunking the "truth" of the movie, though she refused to see it. The article has an unsubtle promotion for another movie about her family, seemingly in development.
The beautiful pictures are shot by Bryce Fortner (we've seen some of his work in the first season of Flaked as well as Ingrid Goes West).
I read a lot of comic books as an adolescent, including Wonder Woman, but the 1940s ones shown in the movie are much racier than mine from years later.
The pretty music by Tom Howe (new to me despite dozens of credits) can be streamed from this link.
For a change, we're a little less enthusiastic than Rotten Tomatoes' critics who are averaging 87% to its audiences' 80. That said, Hall may get some kudos at year end for her formidable Elizabeth.
Director/writer Angela Robinson (one of the directors, writers and producers of the serieses The L Word, Hung, and True Blood) has made a very sexy movie, including some perhaps-too-long erotic sequences. Marston's actual granddaughter Christie has said the polyamory in the movie is fictitious. But wikipedia says Olive Byrne (1904-1990), niece of Margaret Sanger, was the "live-in mistress" of Marston (1893-1947), a psychology professor who developed the DISC (Dominance, Inducement, Submission, and Compliance) theory of human interaction. His wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston (1893-1993) did work with him and they were fascinated by, though perhaps did not actually invent, the polygraph, or lie detector. Olive did live with William and Elizabeth, and wikipedia says that each bore his children, and the women stayed together after his death for the rest of their lives. But Christie wrote an article for the Hollywood Reporter, debunking the "truth" of the movie, though she refused to see it. The article has an unsubtle promotion for another movie about her family, seemingly in development.
The beautiful pictures are shot by Bryce Fortner (we've seen some of his work in the first season of Flaked as well as Ingrid Goes West).
I read a lot of comic books as an adolescent, including Wonder Woman, but the 1940s ones shown in the movie are much racier than mine from years later.
The pretty music by Tom Howe (new to me despite dozens of credits) can be streamed from this link.
For a change, we're a little less enthusiastic than Rotten Tomatoes' critics who are averaging 87% to its audiences' 80. That said, Hall may get some kudos at year end for her formidable Elizabeth.
Thursday, November 9, 2017
Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017)
Jack and I loved this lushly produced story of writer A. A. Milne (creator of Winnie the Pooh) and his family, beginning with his PTSD following World War I and up to the early years of WWII when he got famous for his writing. The acting is just as good as the wardrobe and production design, and that’s saying a lot. Domhnall Gleeson (last blogged for American Made) really makes us feel Alan Milne's post-war despair (with the help of troubling flashbacks) and Margot Robbie (most recently in The Legend of Tarzan) is his fun-loving wife Daphne with exquisite taste in clothes and interior design (more on that in a moment). Kelly Macdonald (last blogged for T2 Trainspotting) is the loving nanny to Christopher AKA Billy, played at age 8 by Will Tilston, now 10, in a stunning acting debut (here's an article about his casting). Stephen Campbell Moore (was one of the teachers in The History Boys, both the 2004 original play and the 2006 movie, and Burnt, to name a few credits) is Milne's supportive war buddy, illustrator Ernest Shepard.
Simon Curtis (last helmed Woman in Gold) directs from a script by co-writers Frank Cottrell Boyce (adapted Hilary and Jackie (1998) and Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2005, under the pen name Martin Hardy) as well as writing the original screenplay for Millions (2004)) and Simon Vaughan (it's his first screenplay after a credit for the story of a 2004 TV movie A Bear Named Winnie). The struggles of love, family, war, and writer's block feel very real--there's a fair amount of sadness mixed in with the imagination and wonder and I don't recommend this for children.
I kind of want to see it again just to focus on Robbie's divine beaded dresses. Costume designer Odile Dicks-Mireaux has worked on, among others, Dirty Pretty Things (2002), The Constant Gardener (2005), An Education, One Day, Quartet, Brooklyn, Denial, and The Sense of an Ending. And the parlor/living room in the Milnes' London house is so magnificent I was delighted each time I got to see it again and notice something new (this is the first theatrical feature, after many TV movies and series, for production designer David Roger). The country estate in Sussex is also quite beautiful and beautifully shot by Ben Smithard (last blogged for Viceroy's House). Jack wanted me to mention the sweet animation, morphing Shepard's original drawings into real life and back again.
There is one delightful sequence that's a total anachronism, where 1928 Billy is enchanted by penguins in a part of the London Zoo that was actually built in 2011. But who cares? It's gorgeous. A later scene shot in the Zoo will remind present-day viewers of a recent tragedy but it's based on a real event, depicted in photos at the closing credits.
The movie means a lot to me because my mother read to me the poems of A.A. Milne when I was a child in the 1950s, and I have no doubt her mother read them to her. I reread some today, the day after seeing the movie, specifically Disobedience, which is foretold in the movie, and The King's Breakfast, a family favorite, both of which are in the collection When We Were Very Young, first published in 1924, when my mother was five years old.
Carter Burwell (most recently scored The Founder) provides lovely orchestral music, which can be streamed for over an hour (including a few pop songs of the 20s) from this youtube link.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics at 63% and its audiences at 77 aren't as warm as we are and we don't care. Go see it.
Simon Curtis (last helmed Woman in Gold) directs from a script by co-writers Frank Cottrell Boyce (adapted Hilary and Jackie (1998) and Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2005, under the pen name Martin Hardy) as well as writing the original screenplay for Millions (2004)) and Simon Vaughan (it's his first screenplay after a credit for the story of a 2004 TV movie A Bear Named Winnie). The struggles of love, family, war, and writer's block feel very real--there's a fair amount of sadness mixed in with the imagination and wonder and I don't recommend this for children.
I kind of want to see it again just to focus on Robbie's divine beaded dresses. Costume designer Odile Dicks-Mireaux has worked on, among others, Dirty Pretty Things (2002), The Constant Gardener (2005), An Education, One Day, Quartet, Brooklyn, Denial, and The Sense of an Ending. And the parlor/living room in the Milnes' London house is so magnificent I was delighted each time I got to see it again and notice something new (this is the first theatrical feature, after many TV movies and series, for production designer David Roger). The country estate in Sussex is also quite beautiful and beautifully shot by Ben Smithard (last blogged for Viceroy's House). Jack wanted me to mention the sweet animation, morphing Shepard's original drawings into real life and back again.
There is one delightful sequence that's a total anachronism, where 1928 Billy is enchanted by penguins in a part of the London Zoo that was actually built in 2011. But who cares? It's gorgeous. A later scene shot in the Zoo will remind present-day viewers of a recent tragedy but it's based on a real event, depicted in photos at the closing credits.
The movie means a lot to me because my mother read to me the poems of A.A. Milne when I was a child in the 1950s, and I have no doubt her mother read them to her. I reread some today, the day after seeing the movie, specifically Disobedience, which is foretold in the movie, and The King's Breakfast, a family favorite, both of which are in the collection When We Were Very Young, first published in 1924, when my mother was five years old.
Carter Burwell (most recently scored The Founder) provides lovely orchestral music, which can be streamed for over an hour (including a few pop songs of the 20s) from this youtube link.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics at 63% and its audiences at 77 aren't as warm as we are and we don't care. Go see it.
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
Marshall (2017)
Jack and I enjoyed this movie about an early case of Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court justice, when he was an NAACP lawyer in the 1940s. Chadwick Boseman, who played James Brown in Get On Up and Jackie Robinson in 42, gives a strong performance adding another important historical figure to his resume. Josh Gad (last blogged for Beauty and the Beast) shows some range in a perfectly serious role as Marshall's co-counsel Sam Friedman, defending chauffeur Joseph Spell (a terrific Sterling K. Brown, who was new to me before winning Emmys for playing Christopher Darden in the miniseries American Crime Story and Randall in 29 episodes and counting of This Is Us) from the rape accusation of his boss Eleanor Strubing (also a fine performance by Kate Hudson, whom we last saw in Rock the Kasbah) in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Director/producer Reginald Hudlin (directed Boomerang (1992) with Eddie Murphy and a ton of TV episodes and produced a few projects, including Django Unchained) brings the 40s to life from a script by Jacob Koskoff (co-wrote two others) and his father Michael Koskoff, 75, a Bridgeport lawyer who defended some of the Black Panthers in the 1970s. Here's an origin story of the screenplay.
Wonderful production design is credited to Richard Hoover (did the honors on 29 episodes of the original Twin Peaks (1990-91), Bob Roberts (1992), Dead Man Walking (1995), Girl, Interrupted (1999), North Country (2005), Temple Grandin, 42, and The Last Word, to name a few), though I'm not sure to whom I should credit the spectacular picture cars. We liked the historic court houses shot in Buffalo and Niagara Falls (NY) locations.
Composer Marcus Miller (a jazz musician, he scored Hudlin's other movies as well as I Think I Love My Wife (2007), Good Hair, and 88 episodes of Everybody Hates Chris for Chris Rock, among many fiction and music projects) delivers delightful tunes with Wynton Marsalis sitting in from time to time. You can stream the playlist on youtube as I'm doing right now.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics at 83% and its audiences at 88 join us in recommending this historical courtroom drama as Oscar season begins with many first rate options.
Director/producer Reginald Hudlin (directed Boomerang (1992) with Eddie Murphy and a ton of TV episodes and produced a few projects, including Django Unchained) brings the 40s to life from a script by Jacob Koskoff (co-wrote two others) and his father Michael Koskoff, 75, a Bridgeport lawyer who defended some of the Black Panthers in the 1970s. Here's an origin story of the screenplay.
Wonderful production design is credited to Richard Hoover (did the honors on 29 episodes of the original Twin Peaks (1990-91), Bob Roberts (1992), Dead Man Walking (1995), Girl, Interrupted (1999), North Country (2005), Temple Grandin, 42, and The Last Word, to name a few), though I'm not sure to whom I should credit the spectacular picture cars. We liked the historic court houses shot in Buffalo and Niagara Falls (NY) locations.
Composer Marcus Miller (a jazz musician, he scored Hudlin's other movies as well as I Think I Love My Wife (2007), Good Hair, and 88 episodes of Everybody Hates Chris for Chris Rock, among many fiction and music projects) delivers delightful tunes with Wynton Marsalis sitting in from time to time. You can stream the playlist on youtube as I'm doing right now.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics at 83% and its audiences at 88 join us in recommending this historical courtroom drama as Oscar season begins with many first rate options.
Saturday, November 4, 2017
American Made (2017)
Jack and I really liked this story of Barry Seal, a real pilot who worked for the CIA, the Contras, and others in the late 70s and early 80s. Tom Cruise is perfectly cast as the impulsive, audacious Seal, in an entertaining performance.
Cruise (last blogged for Edge of Tomorrow) makes us think of Top Gun and even Risky Business as his Seal has talent, charisma, and guts to get ahead. Domhnall Gleeson (rhymes with PHONE-ull, most recently in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens) has bravado of his own as "Schafer," Seal's CIA recruiter, and Sarah Wright (I can't be sure why she looks familiar, maybe her series arc on Parks & Recreation?) is great as Barry's devoted wife Lucy.
There are occasional historical film and still clips from the real events, including the disclosure that director Doug Liman's (helmed Edge of Tomorrow) father Arthur L. Liman was Chief Counsel to the Senate committee investigating the Reagan Administration's arms-for-hostages scheme known as the Iran-contra affair, which definitely involved our pilot, Barry Seal. The script by Gary Spinelli (his second) was on the 2014 Black List of most liked unproduced screenplays. We also appreciated the technical explanations of some of the aeronautics feats.
The cinematography by César Charlone (last blogged for Blindness) is terrific, and I must mention the magnificent aerial photography by Dylan Goss (here are the movies in this blog for which he's done that job: Up in the Air, Valentine's Day, Samsara, Rock of Ages, Now You See Me, Elysium, Million Dollar Arm, Annie, Sicario, Straight Outta Compton, Concussion, The Boss, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Blade Runner 2049. And that's not close to all of his aerial photography credits).
A warning to my fellow sufferers of MPMS, also known as Motion-Picture-Motion-Sickness: you will not do well watching this on the big screen without medication, so be prepared or wait for video. Here's my full list.
We boomers loved the period music from one of the periods we lived. Here's a playlist that includes pop tunes as well as some original music by Christophe Beck (last scored Sisters, another one full of recent period music). Imdb has a pretty complete list of the songs.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics at 87 and its audiences at 80 are flying high with this one and we agree.
There's a little bonus written at the end of the credits--geography buffs will enjoy it. And with 32 producers, this movie goes on my list for the producers plethora prize, though it's going to be hard to beat the current leader with 41. Here's my list of those.
This movie is a big milestone for babetteflix. It is number 1000--I have now written about one thousand movies on this blog since September 3, 2008 (a few weeks after my only child left for college). Inspired by Julie & Julia, wherein Julie Powell kept count in her blog of how many recipes she cooked, I began counting movies on my blog. Sometimes I forget to write about one and add a short summary later in honor of my obsessive-compulsive personality (not a disorder in my case, I guess). Another milestone will be coming up because the blog contains summaries of nineteen movies that I saw before the start date and OCP makes me want to know exactly how many distinct movies I have seen in that time period. Three drafts to write (as of today) and still counting! I have an alphabetical list where I update the numbers each time.
Cruise (last blogged for Edge of Tomorrow) makes us think of Top Gun and even Risky Business as his Seal has talent, charisma, and guts to get ahead. Domhnall Gleeson (rhymes with PHONE-ull, most recently in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens) has bravado of his own as "Schafer," Seal's CIA recruiter, and Sarah Wright (I can't be sure why she looks familiar, maybe her series arc on Parks & Recreation?) is great as Barry's devoted wife Lucy.
There are occasional historical film and still clips from the real events, including the disclosure that director Doug Liman's (helmed Edge of Tomorrow) father Arthur L. Liman was Chief Counsel to the Senate committee investigating the Reagan Administration's arms-for-hostages scheme known as the Iran-contra affair, which definitely involved our pilot, Barry Seal. The script by Gary Spinelli (his second) was on the 2014 Black List of most liked unproduced screenplays. We also appreciated the technical explanations of some of the aeronautics feats.
The cinematography by César Charlone (last blogged for Blindness) is terrific, and I must mention the magnificent aerial photography by Dylan Goss (here are the movies in this blog for which he's done that job: Up in the Air, Valentine's Day, Samsara, Rock of Ages, Now You See Me, Elysium, Million Dollar Arm, Annie, Sicario, Straight Outta Compton, Concussion, The Boss, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Blade Runner 2049. And that's not close to all of his aerial photography credits).
A warning to my fellow sufferers of MPMS, also known as Motion-Picture-Motion-Sickness: you will not do well watching this on the big screen without medication, so be prepared or wait for video. Here's my full list.
We boomers loved the period music from one of the periods we lived. Here's a playlist that includes pop tunes as well as some original music by Christophe Beck (last scored Sisters, another one full of recent period music). Imdb has a pretty complete list of the songs.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics at 87 and its audiences at 80 are flying high with this one and we agree.
There's a little bonus written at the end of the credits--geography buffs will enjoy it. And with 32 producers, this movie goes on my list for the producers plethora prize, though it's going to be hard to beat the current leader with 41. Here's my list of those.
This movie is a big milestone for babetteflix. It is number 1000--I have now written about one thousand movies on this blog since September 3, 2008 (a few weeks after my only child left for college). Inspired by Julie & Julia, wherein Julie Powell kept count in her blog of how many recipes she cooked, I began counting movies on my blog. Sometimes I forget to write about one and add a short summary later in honor of my obsessive-compulsive personality (not a disorder in my case, I guess). Another milestone will be coming up because the blog contains summaries of nineteen movies that I saw before the start date and OCP makes me want to know exactly how many distinct movies I have seen in that time period. Three drafts to write (as of today) and still counting! I have an alphabetical list where I update the numbers each time.
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Jack and I liked this sci-fi action story of the future interactions between humans and robotic/android beings known as replicants. A sequel to the 1982 hit, it features magnificent cinematography, production design, and special effects.
Ryan Gosling (last blogged for Song to Song) puts aside emotions to star as K, a youngish replicant who works for the Los Angeles Police Department hunting older replicants who might interfere with the new world order, as led by his human boss Robin Wright (most recently in Wonder Woman). Two comely replicants are played by actresses new to me: Ana de Armas as K's holographic girlfriend Joi and Sylvia Hoeks as Luv, assistant to corporate warlord Niander Wallace, played by Jared Leto (last blogged for his Oscar-winning performance in Dallas Buyer's Club), who despite being pictured on all posters, isn't in the movie much. Harrison Ford (most recently in these pages for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens), starred in the original movie and reprises his role of Deckard, making his first appearance after an hour and 45 minutes of the 2:44 running time has elapsed. It's nice to see Mackenzie Davis (after The Martian, we appreciated her starring role in the Emmy-winning episode of Black Mirror) and Carla Juri (played Inka, a nice German friend in Morris from America) as the immune deficient scientist.
Director Denis Villeneuve (Oscar-nominated for Arrival) works from a script by Hampton Fancher (he co-wrote the original and a couple of other movies) and Michael Green (co-writer of Logan).
The aforementioned photography is thanks to Roger Deakins (last in these pages for shooting Hail, Caesar!), and includes wide shots of sci-fi milieux, with a nod to production design Dennis Gassner (won an Oscar for Bugsy (1991), was nominated for Barton Fink (1991), Road to Perdition (2002), The Golden Compass (2007), and Into the Woods; and is also known for fine work on The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), The Truman Show (1998), Field of Dreams (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Big Fish (2003), Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall, to name a few) and his crew.
Benjamin Wallfisch and Hans Zimmer, who collaborated on the sweet score for Hidden Figures, give us a scary soundtrack that can be streamed for an hour and a half (including five short songs by others) from this youtube link.
I moved to LA and began film school in 1982. We saw the first Blade Runner in one of our screening rooms and I distinctly remember being depressed by the dark, foggy atmosphere shown in the future of Los Angeles, wondering what I had gotten myself into. It took place in 2019. This 2049 LA is even more depressing but I didn't take it personally when we saw it two weeks ago.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics at 88% and its audiences at 81 are liking this one a lot. Fan-kids should see it.
Ryan Gosling (last blogged for Song to Song) puts aside emotions to star as K, a youngish replicant who works for the Los Angeles Police Department hunting older replicants who might interfere with the new world order, as led by his human boss Robin Wright (most recently in Wonder Woman). Two comely replicants are played by actresses new to me: Ana de Armas as K's holographic girlfriend Joi and Sylvia Hoeks as Luv, assistant to corporate warlord Niander Wallace, played by Jared Leto (last blogged for his Oscar-winning performance in Dallas Buyer's Club), who despite being pictured on all posters, isn't in the movie much. Harrison Ford (most recently in these pages for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens), starred in the original movie and reprises his role of Deckard, making his first appearance after an hour and 45 minutes of the 2:44 running time has elapsed. It's nice to see Mackenzie Davis (after The Martian, we appreciated her starring role in the Emmy-winning episode of Black Mirror) and Carla Juri (played Inka, a nice German friend in Morris from America) as the immune deficient scientist.
Director Denis Villeneuve (Oscar-nominated for Arrival) works from a script by Hampton Fancher (he co-wrote the original and a couple of other movies) and Michael Green (co-writer of Logan).
The aforementioned photography is thanks to Roger Deakins (last in these pages for shooting Hail, Caesar!), and includes wide shots of sci-fi milieux, with a nod to production design Dennis Gassner (won an Oscar for Bugsy (1991), was nominated for Barton Fink (1991), Road to Perdition (2002), The Golden Compass (2007), and Into the Woods; and is also known for fine work on The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), The Truman Show (1998), Field of Dreams (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Big Fish (2003), Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall, to name a few) and his crew.
Benjamin Wallfisch and Hans Zimmer, who collaborated on the sweet score for Hidden Figures, give us a scary soundtrack that can be streamed for an hour and a half (including five short songs by others) from this youtube link.
I moved to LA and began film school in 1982. We saw the first Blade Runner in one of our screening rooms and I distinctly remember being depressed by the dark, foggy atmosphere shown in the future of Los Angeles, wondering what I had gotten myself into. It took place in 2019. This 2049 LA is even more depressing but I didn't take it personally when we saw it two weeks ago.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics at 88% and its audiences at 81 are liking this one a lot. Fan-kids should see it.
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Gotham award nominations for independent films
The nominations came out last week. The awards will be at the end of November. Some of these movies haven't been released anywhere yet, those that are in the blog are linked.
http://variety.com/2017/film/awards/gotham-awards-nominations-2017-1202594047/
Best Feature
Call Me by Your Name (Sony Pictures Classics)
The Florida Project (A24)
Get Out (Universal Pictures)
Good Time (A24)
I, Tonya (NEON/30WEST)
Best Documentary
Ex Libris – The New York Public Library (Zipporah Films)
Rat Film (MEMORY and Cinema Guild)
Strong Island (Netflix)
Whose Streets? (Magnolia Pictures)
The Work (The Orchard and First Look Media)
Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Maggie Betts for Novitiate (Sony Pictures Classics)
Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird (A24)
Kogonada for Columbus (Superlative Films/Depth of Field)
Jordan Peele for Get Out (Universal Pictures)
Joshua Z Weinstein for Menashe (A24)
Best Screenplay
The Big Sick, Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani (Amazon Studios)
Brad’s Status, Mike White (Amazon Studios)
Call Me by Your Name, James Ivory (Sony Pictures Classics)
Columbus, Kogonada (Superlative Films/Depth of Field)
Get Out, Jordan Peele (Universal Pictures)
Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig (A24)
Best Actor
*Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project (A24)
James Franco in The Disaster Artist (A24)
Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out (Universal Pictures)
Robert Pattinson in Good Time (A24)
Adam Sandler in The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (Netflix)
Harry Dean Stanton in Lucky (Magnolia Pictures)
Best Actress*
Melanie Lynskey in I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore (Netflix)
Haley Lu Richardson in Columbus (Superlative Films/Depth of Field)
Margot Robbie in I, Tonya (NEON/30WEST)
Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird (A24)
Lois Smith in Marjorie Prime (FilmRise)
Breakthrough Actor
Mary J. Blige in Mudbound (Netflix)
Timothée Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name (Sony Pictures Classics)
Harris Dickinson in Beach Rats (NEON)
Kelvin Harrison, Jr. in It Comes at Night (A24)
Brooklynn Prince in The Florida Project (A24)
* The 2017 Best Actor/Best Actress nominating committee also voted to award a special Gotham Jury Award for ensemble performance to Mudbound, The award will go to actors Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige, Rob Morgan, and Jonathan Banks.
http://variety.com/2017/film/awards/gotham-awards-nominations-2017-1202594047/
Best Feature
Call Me by Your Name (Sony Pictures Classics)
The Florida Project (A24)
Get Out (Universal Pictures)
Good Time (A24)
I, Tonya (NEON/30WEST)
Best Documentary
Ex Libris – The New York Public Library (Zipporah Films)
Rat Film (MEMORY and Cinema Guild)
Strong Island (Netflix)
Whose Streets? (Magnolia Pictures)
The Work (The Orchard and First Look Media)
Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award
Maggie Betts for Novitiate (Sony Pictures Classics)
Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird (A24)
Kogonada for Columbus (Superlative Films/Depth of Field)
Jordan Peele for Get Out (Universal Pictures)
Joshua Z Weinstein for Menashe (A24)
Best Screenplay
The Big Sick, Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani (Amazon Studios)
Brad’s Status, Mike White (Amazon Studios)
Call Me by Your Name, James Ivory (Sony Pictures Classics)
Columbus, Kogonada (Superlative Films/Depth of Field)
Get Out, Jordan Peele (Universal Pictures)
Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig (A24)
Best Actor
*Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project (A24)
James Franco in The Disaster Artist (A24)
Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out (Universal Pictures)
Robert Pattinson in Good Time (A24)
Adam Sandler in The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (Netflix)
Harry Dean Stanton in Lucky (Magnolia Pictures)
Best Actress*
Melanie Lynskey in I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore (Netflix)
Haley Lu Richardson in Columbus (Superlative Films/Depth of Field)
Margot Robbie in I, Tonya (NEON/30WEST)
Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird (A24)
Lois Smith in Marjorie Prime (FilmRise)
Breakthrough Actor
Mary J. Blige in Mudbound (Netflix)
Timothée Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name (Sony Pictures Classics)
Harris Dickinson in Beach Rats (NEON)
Kelvin Harrison, Jr. in It Comes at Night (A24)
Brooklynn Prince in The Florida Project (A24)
* The 2017 Best Actor/Best Actress nominating committee also voted to award a special Gotham Jury Award for ensemble performance to Mudbound, The award will go to actors Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige, Rob Morgan, and Jonathan Banks.
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Victoria & Abdul (2017)
Jack and I loved this story of the friendship between the elderly Queen of England and a young Muslim servant from India at the end of her life. Dame Judi Dench is spectacular in this "unofficial sequel" to Mrs. Brown (1997), which I highly recommend, too. More on that in a moment.
Dench (last blogged for The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) and Ali Fazal (new to me) have good chemistry in their platonic relationship. Many good laughs are provided by Adeel Akhtar (The Dictator, Kumail's brother in The Big Sick, lots of TV, more), who plays Abdul's countryman Mohammed. As for the Brits, Tim Pigott-Smith (over 100 credits, including the title role in the Masterpiece Theatre TV-movie King Charles III, about current Prince Charles ascending to the throne. Pigott-Smith died in April 2017 and his passing and that of production designer Alan MacDonald are observed in the credits) is notable as Sir Henry Ponsonby, the queen's private secretary, as is Eddie Izzard (a stand-up comedian, he's been good in Velvet Goldmine (1998), The Cat's Meow (2001) as Charlie Chaplin, Romance & Cigarettes, Ocean's Twelve and Thirteen (2004, '07), Valkyrie, and the wonderful series The Riches, among others) as "Bertie," Prince of Wales. Simon Callow (last in Viceroy's House) has a cameo as opera composer Giacomo Puccini, who, according to Jack, was a bad singer so Callow's performance is spot on.
Director Stephen Frears (last helmed Florence Foster Jenkins, about a notoriously bad singer) brings to life the screenplay by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot (2000) and War Horse) adapted from the 2011 book by Shrabani Basu.
Cinematographer Danny Cohen and late production designer Alan MacDonald both worked with Frears on Florence and the work is beautiful here as well.
The entire soundtrack by Thomas Newman (most recently scored Passengers) can be streamed from this link.
For back story, do check out the movie Mrs. Brown (stream the whole movie from this link or rent from amazon if the link fails) from 20 years ago, wherein Dench's Victoria (1819-1901) is mourning the 1861 death of her husband and in 1863 becomes close friends with John Brown, a Scottish servant, played by Scottish comedian Billy Connolly. Dench was Oscar-nominated for that role.
References are made to John Brown, especially one particularly clever line, in this movie which begins in 1887 with her Golden Jubilee (i.e. 50 years on the throne), four years after Brown's death. In both cases, the queen is lonely and disconsolate after losing her man and the new one cheers her up. For further youthful Vicky viewing, check out The Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt, and the PBS series Victoria (you have to be a certain level of donor to stream episodes from their official site), with season 2 coming in January.
Jack wanted me to check two things. As he suspected, the statue shown at the end of the movie isn't actually where the filmmakers show it. And, although, many have written about Queen Victoria's lust for food, her fast eating, the rule that others at the table must stop and have their plates removed when the Queen is finished with her course, and her 50 inch waist (there are some bloomers in a museum somewhere to prove it) on her 4'11" frame, I couldn't find any research proving that she ate with her fingers at royal banquets. It does make for a good scene.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are on the cool side for this, averaging 66 and 72% respectively. We think it's wonderful.
Dench (last blogged for The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) and Ali Fazal (new to me) have good chemistry in their platonic relationship. Many good laughs are provided by Adeel Akhtar (The Dictator, Kumail's brother in The Big Sick, lots of TV, more), who plays Abdul's countryman Mohammed. As for the Brits, Tim Pigott-Smith (over 100 credits, including the title role in the Masterpiece Theatre TV-movie King Charles III, about current Prince Charles ascending to the throne. Pigott-Smith died in April 2017 and his passing and that of production designer Alan MacDonald are observed in the credits) is notable as Sir Henry Ponsonby, the queen's private secretary, as is Eddie Izzard (a stand-up comedian, he's been good in Velvet Goldmine (1998), The Cat's Meow (2001) as Charlie Chaplin, Romance & Cigarettes, Ocean's Twelve and Thirteen (2004, '07), Valkyrie, and the wonderful series The Riches, among others) as "Bertie," Prince of Wales. Simon Callow (last in Viceroy's House) has a cameo as opera composer Giacomo Puccini, who, according to Jack, was a bad singer so Callow's performance is spot on.
Director Stephen Frears (last helmed Florence Foster Jenkins, about a notoriously bad singer) brings to life the screenplay by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot (2000) and War Horse) adapted from the 2011 book by Shrabani Basu.
Cinematographer Danny Cohen and late production designer Alan MacDonald both worked with Frears on Florence and the work is beautiful here as well.
The entire soundtrack by Thomas Newman (most recently scored Passengers) can be streamed from this link.
For back story, do check out the movie Mrs. Brown (stream the whole movie from this link or rent from amazon if the link fails) from 20 years ago, wherein Dench's Victoria (1819-1901) is mourning the 1861 death of her husband and in 1863 becomes close friends with John Brown, a Scottish servant, played by Scottish comedian Billy Connolly. Dench was Oscar-nominated for that role.
References are made to John Brown, especially one particularly clever line, in this movie which begins in 1887 with her Golden Jubilee (i.e. 50 years on the throne), four years after Brown's death. In both cases, the queen is lonely and disconsolate after losing her man and the new one cheers her up. For further youthful Vicky viewing, check out The Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt, and the PBS series Victoria (you have to be a certain level of donor to stream episodes from their official site), with season 2 coming in January.
Jack wanted me to check two things. As he suspected, the statue shown at the end of the movie isn't actually where the filmmakers show it. And, although, many have written about Queen Victoria's lust for food, her fast eating, the rule that others at the table must stop and have their plates removed when the Queen is finished with her course, and her 50 inch waist (there are some bloomers in a museum somewhere to prove it) on her 4'11" frame, I couldn't find any research proving that she ate with her fingers at royal banquets. It does make for a good scene.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are on the cool side for this, averaging 66 and 72% respectively. We think it's wonderful.
Sunday, October 22, 2017
Brad’s Status (2017)
Jack and I really liked this cringe-inducing comedy about a father, played by Ben Stiller, verging on a nervous breakdown while taking his son college visiting. If that doesn't make you want to run screaming from the room, you might like it too.
Stiller (after I wrote about him for While We're Young he had a cameo in Don't Think Twice) is a master at playing neurotic and narcissistic and this is no exception. Jenna Fischer's (best known for 188 episodes of the American version of The Office, she has dozens of other credits, including all ten episodes of You, Me and the Apocalypse and three of The Mysteries of Laura, to name just a few) Melanie is a nice foil to Brad's intensity as his easy-going optimistic wife, and Austin Abrams (at age 21 he's got a number of credits but I don't think I've seen any) is a strong, silent type as son Troy.
Brad's old college buddies, all wealthy, inspire much jealousy even though Brad has chosen to work in nonprofits. Michael Sheen, Jemaine Clement, and Luke Wilson (last blogged for Home Again, The BFG, and The Skeleton Twins, respectively) are great as those men.
Director/writer Mike White (covered in my blog post for Beatriz at Dinner, which he wrote) makes his feature directing debut here after six episodes of Enlightened and a TV movie and onscreen plays another now-wealthy college buddy.
We saw this over three weeks ago but I think we liked the music by Mark Mothersbaugh (scored Beatriz) but, like that soundtrack, none is available online. Here's a partial list of songs.
Clearly, most of Rotten Tomatoes' critics didn't want to run screaming from the room, averaging 81% instead of its audiences who were edging towards the exits at 59. As an Amazon production, it's likely to be found on some of your streaming devices soon.
Stiller (after I wrote about him for While We're Young he had a cameo in Don't Think Twice) is a master at playing neurotic and narcissistic and this is no exception. Jenna Fischer's (best known for 188 episodes of the American version of The Office, she has dozens of other credits, including all ten episodes of You, Me and the Apocalypse and three of The Mysteries of Laura, to name just a few) Melanie is a nice foil to Brad's intensity as his easy-going optimistic wife, and Austin Abrams (at age 21 he's got a number of credits but I don't think I've seen any) is a strong, silent type as son Troy.
Brad's old college buddies, all wealthy, inspire much jealousy even though Brad has chosen to work in nonprofits. Michael Sheen, Jemaine Clement, and Luke Wilson (last blogged for Home Again, The BFG, and The Skeleton Twins, respectively) are great as those men.
Director/writer Mike White (covered in my blog post for Beatriz at Dinner, which he wrote) makes his feature directing debut here after six episodes of Enlightened and a TV movie and onscreen plays another now-wealthy college buddy.
We saw this over three weeks ago but I think we liked the music by Mark Mothersbaugh (scored Beatriz) but, like that soundtrack, none is available online. Here's a partial list of songs.
Clearly, most of Rotten Tomatoes' critics didn't want to run screaming from the room, averaging 81% instead of its audiences who were edging towards the exits at 59. As an Amazon production, it's likely to be found on some of your streaming devices soon.
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