Going in Style (2017)

We enjoyed this geezer caper comedy, wherein three senior men decide to rob the bank that has cut off their pensions. Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Alan Arkin (the first two were last blogged for Now You See Me 2 and the latter for Million Dollar Arm and their ages are 84, almost 80, and 83 respectively) are supremely capable of updating the roles held by George Burns, Lee Strasberg, and Art Carney in the 1979 version, which I don't remember if I saw. Apparently the original had no love interest but this one does, in the form of Ann-Margret (Oscar nominated for Carnal Knowledge (1971) and Tommy (1975), I remember liking her in Bye Bye Birdie (1963), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Grumpy Old Men (1993), and Any Given Sunday (1999)), who at 76 is more age appropriate here than she was in Grumpy Old Men, when she was twenty years younger than Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.

The cast is big, including young Joey King (most recently in these pages for Oz the Great and Powerful) as Caine's granddaughter, character actor Josh Pais (always supporting, rarely a star) as the bank clerk, John Ortiz (after seeing him in Jack Goes Boating I also liked him in Silver Linings Playbook, 13 episodes of the now-cancelled Rake, and seven of Togetherness) as the robbery coach, and Matt Dillon (profiled in Girl Most Likely) as the detective.

This is the third feature directed by Zach Braff (I loved Garden State (2004) and didn't see the second one), who acted in Oz the Great and Powerful with King. The script is by Theodore Melfi (Oscar-nominated for co-writing Hidden Figures).

Composer Rob Simonsen (just did Gifted) provides music with urgency for the caper bits, and you can stream several tracks starting from this link, though there isn't a clear playlist so you'll have to go to the previous page each time.

We saw this about two weeks ago and it's doing pretty well at the box office, despite the Rotten Tomatoes critics' 45% and its audiences 62. Just a cute comedy to pass the time.

The Jerk (1979)

This is one of Jack's all time favorites and I hadn't seen it until three weeks ago when we rented it on Amazon. It's a hilarious slapstick story of a simple-minded man, played by Steve Martin, told in flashback from being "a poor black child," who travels the country, works at various jobs, and gains and loses a fortune, falling in love along the way.

Martin was last blogged as an actor for The Big Year, and here he does a good job moving from the ridiculous to the sublime. He and Bernadette Peters (some of my favorites of her non-stage work are the TV-movie Once Upon a Mattress (1972), Silent Movie (1972), Pennies from Heaven (1981 - also starring and co-written by Martin), Alice (1990), six episodes of Smash, and 26 of Mozart in the Jungle) were an item when this was shot, and it shows, especially in one of my favorite scenes in which they sing a duet by the fire, inexplicably by the ocean, since they're supposed to be in St. Louis. Watch for appearances by Bill Macy from the series Maude and borscht belt comedian Jackie Mason.

Director Carl Reiner (I've seen less of his directing work than I thought--he has acted and written more--but he directed Martin in three other movies including the excellent All of Me (1984) and Bette Midler and Dennis Farina in That Old Feeling (1997)) makes a cameo as "Carl Reiner the Celebrity.

Co-writer Martin was staff writer for several variety shows including The Smothers Brothers (1967-69) and Sonny & Cher (1971-73); co-wrote ¡Three Amigos! (1986) and Roxanne (1987); wrote solo L.A. Story (1991), A Simple Twist of Fate (1994), Shopgirl (2005), and Bowfinger (1999) the first movie I ever watched on DVD. The other co-writers are Michael Elias (a few episodes of Pat Paulsen, Bill Cosby, New Dick Van Dyke Show, co-wrote the screenplay for Serial (1980)) and Carl Gottlieb (also wrote for the Smothers Brothers, and co-wrote Jaws (1975) and its sequel (1978)), who is in the cast as Iron Balls McGinty.

The Jerk really holds up after all these years, rated 84 and 85% by critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Jack loves to quote lines from it, especially, "This is all I need! And this...and this..." Apparently that bit was improvised.

Their Finest (2016)

Jack and I loved this story of a woman who joins governmental filmmakers in 1940 London, during the Blitz, who are tasked to entertain, educate, and soothe their troubled audiences. It's hard to categorize, as it jumps from comedy to drama and back again in blinks of the eyes.

Gemma Arterton (last blogged for Unfinished Song) brings just the right combination of budding feminism, creativity, humor, and pathos to the leading lady Catrin (Welsh for Catherine) and spars wonderfully with fellow scriptwriter Buckley, played by Sam Claflin (new to me because I didn't see Snow White and the Huntsman, its sequel, any Hunger Gameses, nor any of his others). The reliable Bill Nighy (most recently in these pages for The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) is hilarious as the vain aging movie star Ambrose.

There are so many supporting roles I have to pick and choose. The talented Jack Huston (last blogged for Kill Your Darlings) is Catrin's frustrated husband Ellis, Richard E. Grant (was in Logan) is the War Ministry producer, Eddie Marsan (after Sherlock Holmes he was in its sequel and War Horse) Ambrose's patient agent Sammy, Helen McCrory (covered in Hugo) Sammy's no-nonsense sister, and Jake Lacy (profiled in Carol) the aw-shucks American. There's also a nice cameo by Jeremy Irons (last in Race).

Gaby Chiappe (writer on several British TV series) adapted Lissa Evans' 2009 novel Their Finest Hour and a Half into the sparkling script directed by Lone Scherfig (a woman), who most recently helmed One Day. Catrin's character is based on an actual Welsh screenwriter of that time.

Composer Rachel Portman's (scored Race) music can be streamed from this link but my favorite song, They Can't Black Out the Moon, a duet sung by two of the movie-within-a-movie actresses, is on this link instead. Portman plays piano on screen for that song and the following one, Will You Go, Lassie, Go, sung by Nighy (I learned yesterday that the Y in his name is silent).

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are averaging 87 and 81% respectively. Glad to know that this will be playing in our parts for at least another week so you'll have a chance to see it.

Gifted (2017)

As expected, Jack and I loved this story of a single man fighting his mother for custody of his prodigy niece. Tom Flynn's screenplay was on the 2014 Black List of the most liked unproduced scripts and is smart, tying up all loose ends. I hadn't heard of Flynn (he directed and wrote one theatrical movie in 1993 and a TV movie in 2002) until a mutual friend called him a "20 year overnight success."

The great cast propels the project, led by Chris Evans (last blogged in Avengers: Age of Ultron) and young McKenna Grace (with her 11th birthday approaching in June, she has 41 credits already) as uncle Frank and 7 year old niece Mary who have coped just fine, thank you, since her mother's death 6½ years before. Then, as seen in the trailer, which chokes me up every time, the grandmother, played by Lindsay Duncan (the scary critic in Birdman), swoops in to mess it all up. Kindly support is provided by Octavia Spencer (most recently in Hidden Figures) and Jenny Slate (last blogged for the voice of the assistant mayor in Zootopia) as a neighbor and teacher, respectively.

Director Marc Webb (last blogged for The Amazing Spider-Man and I forgot to mention that he directed its sequel) keeps it all moving. Fun fact: screenwriter Flynn and his wife have a one-eyed cat named Fred. But Fred in the movie is digitally altered.

Composer Rob Simonsen (after the score for Burnt we've enjoyed his soundtrack to the series Life in Pieces) gives us pretty tunes which can be streamed from this Spotify link. There are also ten songs, all listed on imdb, my favorite of which is Cat Stevens' 1971 I Listen to the Wind.

Note: sufferers of MPMS (Motion Picture Motion Sickness) should sit in the back for mild effects. The hand-held camera sequences are short and won't bother you much. See my complete MPMS list here.

Rotten Tomatoes' audiences, averaging 86%, are more in line with us than its critics, tepid at 65. Heed the audiences and see this.

The Zookeeper's Wife (2017)

This story, about the couple who saved hundreds Jews from the Nazis by hiding them in their Warsaw zoo after the invasion of Poland, is at first beautiful and then wrenching. The husband Jan does as much as the wife, but I suppose the filmmakers kept the title from the best-selling nonfiction book that Diane Ackerman (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan was her second produced screenplay and this is her third) adapted from Antonina Zabinski's diary. Jessica Chastian (last blogged for The Martian) is poignant as Antonina, affecting a Polish accent for the role. I'm not sure what kind of accent the wonderful Johan Heldenbergh (most recently in The Broken Circle Breakdown, for which he won several awards) is using, because he was born in Belgium. Some have taken issue with the manner of speaking used by both. Daniel Brühl (last in these pages for Burnt) is an actual German (apparently he taught Chastain German swear words between takes) so he sounds just right as the Nazi Heck. Iddo Goldberg (I saw some of his 31 episodes of Secret Diary of a Call Girl after I failed to mention him in Defiance) is Israeli, but that fits his character Fraenkel. Whatever accents they use, the acting is first rate for all.

Niki Caro (most recently helmed McFarland, USA) directs, keeping emotions high, and adding lovely visuals thanks to cinematographer Andrij Parekh (shot Half Nelson (2006), Sugar, Cold Souls, Blue Valentine, It's Kind of a Funny Story, and Dark Horse, to name a few).

Antonina's pretty dresses and stacked heel shoes that she wears to tend the animals (!) are credited to costume designer Bina Daigeler (worked on All About My Mother (1999), Volver (2006), Biutiful, Only Lovers Left Alive, and more).

The pretty music by Harry Gregson-Williams (last scored The Martian) can be streamed from this link.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are not fans, averaging 60% but its audiences are fonder at 79. Jack and I liked it.

Milestone alert! I have now summarized 950 movies (19 of them I saw before that date) on the blog since I began writing it on September 3, 2008. There is an alphabetized index (a link to it is on the right side of every page) so you can look up movies by title.

Song to Song (2017)

The good news: beautiful pictures, imaginative music, and lush locations grace this dreamy "story" of relationships at the South by Southwest Festival. The bad: the movie (at 2:09) is too long by 30 minutes, the "story" is non-linear, and it's hard to tell in what order things happen. Much of the dialogue is in voice-over and, in fact, Ryan Gosling (last blogged for La La Land) was quoted as saying there was no script. I suspect that was an exaggeration but not totally outrageous. Rooney Mara (most recently in Lion) is well cast as the moody girl around whom most of the movie revolves, in liaisons with the cheerful Gosling (he sings one song but I could barely hear him) and the intense Michael Fassbender (last in Steve Jobs), and the relationships widen to include Natalie Portman (most recently in Jackie) and Cate Blanchett (last in Carol, co-starring there with Mara) and so many more. Punk musician Patti Smith and Swedish singer/songwriter Lykke Li (LEE-kay LEE) appear several times as themselves, along with Iggy Pop and a host of others (check the complete cast list).

I knew Jack would want to see this because he used to visit Austin TX (where SXSW is held every year) regularly and we're both fans of indie music. What I forgot before making plans to see it was that its director/writer is Terrence Malick, whose Tree of Life we hated for some of the same reasons. In fact, I did not tell him nor Ann, who accompanied us Sunday, before the screening that it was the same filmmaker. I didn't need to. They liked it less than I--I didn't mind the non-linearity nearly as much. But we all appreciated the glorious cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki (won his third Oscar in three years for The Revenant), Birdman, and Gravity), the Texas and Mexico locations, and the magnificent luxury homes.

This movie will make you sick if you are, like I am, a sufferer of MPMS (Motion Picture Motion Sickness) (see the running list here, in which I made a snarky remark about Tree of Life). Sit in the very last row and medicate as well as you can.

Knowing that this is a music movie, I checked imdb for the soundtrack info before seeing it. Frequently the songs are not all listed or not listed at all on that site. This time there are 75 songs on the imdb page. Glad I didn't have to count them live! No composer is credited.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are more in line with Jack and Ann, averaging 46%, while its audiences are at 60. I was grateful I had the closed caption device because the sound mix is as idiosyncratic as the writing and directing. While Ann said she might see it again just for the music, I would suggest waiting for it on your home screen. Be patient; the release hasn't yet been announced. You'll need that patience when you see it.

T2 Trainspotting (2017)

Fans of the 1996 movie will love, as we did, meeting the four principal players 20 years later back in Edinburgh at various stages in their recovery from heroin and violence. If that doesn't scare you, you'll laugh a lot, as we did. It's possible that this would stand alone, although there are occasional clips from the first one.

I remember being scared by Robert Carlyle's (many credits after T1, including The Full Monty (1997), Angela's Ashes (1999), 28 Weeks Later (2007), and I saw maybe three of his 133 episodes of Once Upon a Time--he's scary as Rumplestiltskin in the latter, too) Begbie the first time around and his character is still the loosest of cannons. As before, Ewan McGregor's (last blogged for American Pastoral) Mark Renton has the lead, followed by Jonny Lee Miller (profiled in Dark Shadows) as Simon "Sick Boy" and Ewen Bremner (most recently in Snowpiercer) as Spud, but all four are thoroughly fleshed out. Kelly Macdonald (after I mentioned her in Brave she was terrific in 56 episodes of Boardwalk Empire) and Shirley Henderson (last blogged for Meek's Cutoff) make cameos as their original characters Diane and Gail.

Director Danny Boyle (most recently helmed Steve Jobs) and writer John Hodge (last in these pages for Trance which was directed by Boyle and Hodge was Oscar-nominated for T1) reunite to further explore the material in Irvine Welsh's novels Trainspotting (1993), Porno (2002), and Skagboys (2012). My favorite line is Renton's,"You're an addict. So be addicted. Just be addicted to something else." which is in the trailer, but I also like the updated version of "Choose Life," from the first movie (here's the earlier version--spoiler alert and the current version--same warning). Anthony Dod Mantle (Snowden) returns to camera duty.

Just as in the 1996 version, there is no composer credited. The last soundtrack was remarkable (here's the list of 22) and so is this one (list of 34), including this outrageous tune Dad's Best Friend (Sick Boy is watching this exact video in one scene). You can listen to some of the 34 by clicking through on this page.

Audiences will self-select for this--anyone who is freaked out by violence should stay away. Rotten Tomatoes' critics average 77 and its audiences 85%.

Wilson (2016)

Despite its vilification by critics Jack and I liked this cringe-fest with Woody Harrelson as the title character, a misanthrope with no filter who decides to find his daughter, given up for adoption by his ex 17 years ago. Harrelson (last blogged for The Edge of Seventeen, in which his character was sane) is brilliant as insane. Laura Dern (after writing about her in The Founder I've been enjoying her in the mini-series Big Little Lies) is also wonderful as the ex. Isabella Amara (played the teenage Melissa McCarthy in The Boss) is good as the angry, goth, biological daughter. Judy Greer (most recently in Grandma) provides warmth as the empathetic and totally sane dog sitter. Margo Martindale (last in these pages for The Hollars) and David Warshofsky (always a co-star, in dozens of projects, including Personal velocity (2002), The Future, Now You See Me, and its sequel) each have a noteworthy scene with Harrelson. We're never told whether Wilson is his first name or last.

Director Craig Johnson's The Skeleton Twins, his second feature of three, was so good that we were lured to see this, as well as by its being an adaptation of a graphic novel by Daniel Clowes, who wrote the original graphic novels for the fine Ghost World (2001) (for which he was Oscar-nominated) and Art School Confidential (2006), and this time Clowes' wrote the screenplay himself--his first.

I love the music by Jon Brion (mentioned in Trainwreck, linked in This Is 40) and, after streaming the clips from its amazon page several times while writing this, I decided to invest 99¢ in the track Titles, which was my favorite while watching the movie, too. I counted nine songs in the credits but none are listed anywhere nor are whole tracks available for streaming.

Shot entirely in the twin cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul, it was welcomed by the locals, as discussed in this article.

We're glad we ignored Rotten Tomatoes' 37% from critics and 47 from audiences for this memorable movie.