A Walk in the Woods (2015)

Jack and I loved this wise-cracking, road-trip, buddy picture, with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte hiking the Appalachian Trail. It's based on Bill Bryson's memoir of the same name, but had to be adapted, since Redford and Nolte were in their 70s when this was shot and Bryson and his friend Steven Katz were 44 when they hiked. Paul Newman was supposed to co-star but he died in 2008.

Redford (last blogged for The Old Man & the Gun) and Nolte (most recently in these pages for The Company You Keep, which also starred Redford) are pretty funny as the determined writer Bryson and the out of shape Katz. Women making notable appearances are Emma Thompson (last blogged for The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected (2017) as Bryson's wife, Kristen Schaal (since Sleepwalk with Me, she was in eleven 30 Rock episodes, three of Wilfred, 66 of Last Man on Earth, and more) as a fellow hiker, and Mary Steenburgen (most recently in these pages for Book Club) as the proprietress of a motel along the trail.

Director Ken Kwapis (covered in He's Just Not That Into You) works from the screenplay adapted by Bill Holderman (co-wrote and directed Book Club, which I panned) and Michael Arndt (when I wrote about his work in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, I said I wanted to see his latest, A Walk in the Woods). Arndt is credited under the pseudonym Rick Kerb, which wikipedia says he uses for script revisions.

We stayed home for Tuesday movie day and watched this on Amazon Prime, in preparation for seeing author Bryson at an event this weekend. While watching, I complained that I wanted to follow along on a map and I wanted to know how old they were supposed to be. After reading the trivia background for this, I understand why those parts were omitted. Because of the actors' age disparity with the source material, they didn't want to talk about ages. And the filmmakers chose to show McAfee Knob in Virginia (wiki) out of order geographically. Also, some math in the middle determines the year the movie takes place as 2014 (and a character sings a 2013 song, Get Lucky), but something at the end says it's 2005.

McAfee Knob is spectacular, as is the Fontana Dam in North Carolina (wiki), and the photography by John Bailey (of his dozens of credits I appreciated his work in American Gigolo (1980), Ordinary People (1980), Continental Divide (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Silverado (1985), The Accidental Tourist (1988), Groundhog Day (1993), As Good As It Gets (1997), The Anniversary Party (2001), The Producers (2005), He's Just Not That Into You, The Way Way Back, and more) is magnificent, both from the air and on the ground. The filmmakers must have had so much fun shooting on location. We certainly enjoyed seeing those locations!

Nathan Larson is credited as composer (as he was on Juliet, Naked) and the band Lord Huron is "featured" for their five songs, all of which are on this spotify playlist, along with two from Larson.

Rotten Tomatoes has certified this rotten, with a critics' average of 46 and audiences' 48%. We thought it was a delightful way to spend a couple of hours on the couch.

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

Jack and I liked this noir, violent dramedy about strangers with secrets who meet in a 1969 (probably) motel on the California-Nevada state line. With a kick-ass soundtrack, a good cast, and terrific production design, it's quite entertaining for most of its 2:22 running time (but could have been shorter).

Jon Hamm (last blogged for Nostalgia) shows his comedy chops as the brash salesman and Cynthia Erivo (I love briefly seeing her athleticism in the trailer for her upcoming movie Widows; she won the 2016 Tony for originating the role of Celie in The Color Purple on Broadway) beautifully sings her own songs as her character Darlene rehearses in her room. Jeff Bridges (most recently in these pages for Hell or High Water) is convincing as the addled priest and Dakota Johnson (last blogged for A Bigger Splash) is radiant as the foul-mouthed hippie Emily. The hapless hotel clerk is Lewis Pullman (the son of Bill Pullman, he played Bobby Riggs' son in Battle of the Sexes) and the handsome and usually bare-chested cult leader is Chris Hemsworth (most recently in Avengers: Infinity War).

Director writer Drew Goddard (who adapted The Martian's screenplay from a novel) directs his second feature and writes his fifth. I read somewhere before we saw it last week that a big studio movie from an original screenplay is a rarity these days. It's been said that the year is 1969 because of a clip of President Nixon on a TV. The motel, with the state line running right down the middle, is inspired by the Cal Neva Resort at Lake Tahoe (here's the wiki article).

We can thank Martin Whist (art director on Down with Love (2004) and A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) and production designer on other movies I haven't seen) for the wonderful production design, including many loving shots (we loved it, anyway) of a Wurlitzer jukebox.

I found two links for the songs, tunefind and spotify, and they're lots of fun, especially for us folks of a certain age. You may not even notice the original score by Michael Giacchino (composed the soundtrack for Coco) but I'm enjoying streaming it from this link while I write.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences, averaging 73 and 76%, respectively, are somewhat cool on this. We think it's worth watching.

The Hate U Give (2018)

This powerful story about an African-American teenager who witnesses her black friend killed by a white cop should be required viewing for anyone with white privilege. As our heroine Starr, whose compartmentalizing of her poor black neighborhood and her wealthy white prep school is challenged by the tragedy, Amandla Stenberg (just turned 20 and has been acting for eight years) is fabulous, and so are Regina Hall and Russell Hornsby (last blogged for Girls Trip and Fences, respectively) as her parents Lisa and Maverick. Also putting in good performances are Anthony Mackie (most recently in these pages for Avengers: Infinity War) as a scary guy named King, comedian Issa Rae (I've liked all 24 episodes of Insecure) as an activist lawyer, and Common (after Selma I saw him in his three episodes of The Chi) as Uncle Carlos. Over 150 cast members are listed on imdb but that's all you're getting from me now.

Director George Tillman Jr. (helmed Notorious and some others I didn't see) works from a script by Audrey Wells (I really liked The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996), Under the Tuscan Sun (2003), and Shall We Dance (2004), all very different in tone from this project), who skillfully adapted Angie Thomas' 2017 young adult novel.

The original score by Dustin O'Halloran (last composed for Puzzle) can be streamed on spotify or on youtube with commercials (after the 20th track the youtube playlist moves to other topics). There are also plenty of songs, listed here.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are as rhapsodic as we are, averaging 97%, while its audiences, at 75, need to hate a little less.

First Man (2018)

Jack and I enjoyed this story of Neil Armstrong before and during his historic 1969 moonwalk, but it's too long at 2:21. The actors are compelling, especially Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy as Neil and Janet Armstrong (Gosling was last blogged for Blade Runner 2049 and Foy won awards for playing young Queen Elizabeth in twenty episodes of The Crown). Also featured in the enormous cast are Jason Clarke (most recently in these pages for Mudbound) as Ed White, Kyle Chandler (last blogged for Game Night) as Deke Slayton, Corey Stoll (most recently in The Seagull) as Buzz Aldrin, Shea Whigham (first time in the blog in Take Shelter) as Gus Grissom, and a grown-up Patrick Fugit (We Bought a Zoo) as Elliott See.

Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle (for La La Land) makes his first movie that's not about music and without writing the script himself, working instead from a screenplay by Josh Singer (co-writer of The Post), based on the Armstrong biography by Pulitzer Prize winning author James R. Hanson.

Here's my other problem with this movie. I sometimes wrote about Motion Picture Motion Sickness/MPMS, and I have a running list of movies that make some of us sensitive souls nauseated by the unchecked swinging of a camera. Every one of Chazelle's four features is on that list (70 before adding this one). This one is bad! Right off the bat we have Armstrong testing an aircraft and the camera is shaking intensely. Every time any of them takes off it had me looking away from the screen and waiting for the camera to return to the tripod. Usually I mention the MPMS towards the end of the post but this is egregious. For what it's worth, Jack does not share this sensitivity.

Justin Hurwitz (won two Oscars for La La Land) is Chazelle's only composer and you can stream his whole hour and five minute soundtrack on youtube. I haven't gotten all the way through it so I don't know how many songs, listed here, are on that video, but, at about a half hour in, you will hear musician Leon Bridges reciting the protest poem, Whitey on the Moon. This article about the poem and a video of its composer Gil-Scott Heron reciting it are interesting.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are much more enthusiastic, averaging 88%, than its audiences at 63. Some say Chazelle will get another Oscar nomination. I can't bet on it.

Milestone alert! I have now published posts about 1100 different movies on this blog since September 3, 2008. My alphabetical list includes the count.

Mid90s (2018)

Jack and I quite liked this story of a middle-school boy who escapes his unhappy home life by following around bigger boys at an LA skateboard park. At times leisurely, at times hectic, the movie features young Sunny Suljic (played one of the skateboarders in Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot) as Stevie and a trio of professional skateboarders. Na-Kel Smith, in his film debut, is wonderful as the cool-headed leader Ray, and Olan Prenatt, also his film debut, is also very good as the hothead known as Fuckshit. Ryder McLaughlin (was in one other feature, with Suljic, and some TV) is the awkward one known as Fourth Grade.

At home, Lucas Hedges (last blogged for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) is Stevie's violent brother and Katherine Waterston (most recently in these pages for Logan Lucky) his hapless mother.

Actor Jonah Hill makes his directing debut--he doesn't appear on screen--and it's his first script as well, though he's credited with "Story by" on a few projects, including Why Him? The movie is short, running only 1:24, yet there are a few slow auteur moments, with the camera lingering just a bit too lovingly on a reaction shot. We were swept along all the same. Apparently Hill got into skateboarding around the same age, but he's quick to say it's not autobiographical.

Hill handpicked all the songs--I counted about thirty on screen in the end credits. The soundtrack on spotify has thirty tracks, but some of them are Hill commenting on the making of the movie. Others are instrumentals by composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (last blogged for Gone Girl). Here's a short article on the music selection and here's a video of my favorite, Herbie Hancock's Watermelon Man.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging 78% and its audiences 88. This may give you a mild case of Motion Picture Motion Sickness/MPMS, if you are an occasional sufferer.

Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (1988)

Jack, Lucinda, and I loved this documentary about the seminal jazz pianist, one of the founders of be-bop. It was screened last month as part of our city's celebration of the Harlem Renaissance. Musicians and non-musicians alike in our theatre appreciated his unique technique.

Director Charlotte Zwerin (1931-2004) (I didn't see her other work) collected impressive live footage of Monk (1917-1982) and combined it with historical data and interviews to make a compelling 90 minute biography of one of my jazz idols.

Some of my other favorite musicians in the movie are saxophonists John Coltrane and Phil Woods, and pianist Tommy Flanagan. The original score is by Dick Hyman (his other work includes Zelig (1983), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), and Moonstruck (1987)). Here's a list of some of the songs in the movie.

I have on both vinyl and digitally Monk's album Underground, which you can stream in its entirety. Be sure to look at the wonderful album cover as well.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics average out at 83% and its audiences 89, thirty years after initial release. You can watch the whole thing, in five parts, beginning with this page. Or you can rent or buy it from iTunes.

Colette (2018)

Jack and I thoroughly enjoyed this bio-pic/coming of age story about the groundbreaking French author (1873-1954). Keira Knightley is terrific in the title role (she was last blogged for The Imitation Game) and Fiona Shaw (I loved My Left Foot (1989), The Butcher Boy (1997), Fracture (2007), and eight episodes of Killing Eve, among her many credits) wonderful as her mother Sido. I was a little confused about their relationship, since she called her parents by their first names. Just more aspects of the unconventionality of the character, whose full name was Gabrielle-Sidonie Colette before she decided to go by her surname. As Colette's opinionated and arrogant husband Willy (AKA Henri Gauthier-Villars), Dominic West (most recently in these pages for one of the 2018 Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts) is perfectly cast.

Those who have seen the trailer or read up on the subject know that Colette had flings with women. Two of them are in this movie: Eleanor Tomlinson (last blogged for Loving Vincent) as Georgie from America and Denise Gough (she was in '71 and Juliet, Naked, though I failed to say so) as Missy.

The story chugs along at a satisfying pace--I never once thought of places it needed trimming, thanks to the script by director Wash Westmoreland, Richard Glatzer, and Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Westmoreland and Glatzer co-directed and co-wrote Still Alice and Lenkiewicz co-wrote Disobedience). The story is credited to Glatzer, Westmoreland's husband, who died of ALS in 2015.

The early scenes in this movie of our teenage heroine and her older soon-to-be-husband did remind me of Colette's story of Gigi (I saw it on Broadway as well as the movie). Maybe that's why I thought Sido was not her mother, since Gigi lived with an older woman not her mother. Colette also wrote the books on which the movie Chéri was based.

Below-the-line kudos to costume designer Andrea Flesch (new to me), production designer Michael Carlin (Oscar-nominated for The Duchess, which also starred Knightley in the title role), and cinematographer Giles Nuttgens (last blogged for Hell or High Water) for the beautiful scenes shot in Budapest, Paris, and the United Kingdom.

The lovely classical score by opera composer Thomas Adès in his feature debut isn't available online, but you can read this list of songs or listen to some of his other work.

We're even more enthusiastic than Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences, who are averaging 86 and 74%, respectively, and we urge you to see this. The spoken words are all in English, though shots of her writing are in French.

A Star Is Born (2018)

Jack and I are not alone in liking this musical about a young talented singer rising to glory as her famous love interest falls to ruin with alcoholism and depression. It's the fourth movie by this name, after versions in 1937, 1954, and 1976, and some say the earliest one was based on What Price Hollywood (1932)--the ones in the 1930s were about actors and the following three about musicians.

Lady Gaga (in her film debut playing a part--she's done many videos and cameos as herself) shines as the star Ally, and she has top billing over co-star/director/co-writer Bradley Cooper (last blogged for Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2) who is wonderful as well as Jackson. It's a big cast, but my favorites include Sam Elliott (most recently as The Hero) as Jackson's brother/road manager, Andrew Dice Clay (last blogged for Blue Jasmine) as Ally's father, and Anthony Ramos (most recently in these pages for Patti Cake$--note, my corrections were accepted on imdb and he's now included as a cast member of that movie).

In his directorial debut, Cooper shows flair, with a script co-written by him, Eric Roth (last blogged for adapting Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close), and Will Fetters (new to me). Cooper gave his own dog Charlie a part, too.

Cinematographer Matthew Libatique (most recently shot Money Monster) and his crew shot some concert scenes at Coachella in Indio, California, last year. Beyoncé was supposed to headline that festival and, after she dropped out due to her pregnancy, not only did Gaga fill in, the production invited audience members to pay $10 to Gaga's Born This Way Foundation, dress in country attire, and be extras in the movie shoot. Their phones were locked in Yondr pouches, which Jack and I experienced when Chris Rock came here for standup not too long ago. Other concert footage was shot at a country music festival, also in Indio, with Cooper performing a ten minute set before Willie Nelson performed.

The movie has a close connection with Willie Nelson, because his son Lukas not only coached Cooper on guitar, but also his band Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real perform as Jackson's band in the movie. Cooper had several voice coaches as well, since Gaga convinced him it would be best if they performed live instead of lip-syncing. The music is good fun, ranging from blues-rock to country with some pop towards the end.

Before I started writing, I listened to the whole soundtrack on spotify, which, my regular readers have learned, I prefer to youtube because the commercials come in infrequent clumps instead of before every song. All the songs are singly featured on youtube so you can listen there if you want. Here's a list of all the songs, their composers, and performers.

As I said, most people like this, including 90% of critics and 85% of audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Definitely worth your time.

The Old Man & the Gun (2018)

Based on a true story of an elderly "gentleman bank robber," this delightful movie has laughs, action of a geriatric sort, no violence, and references to star Robert Redford's previous work here and there. Redford (last blogged for Truth) announced in August, after his 82nd birthday, that he'd retire after this movie.

Love interest Sissy Spacek (most recently in these pages for The Master) is charming and cohorts Danny Glover and Tom Waits (last blogged for Sorry to Bother You and Seven Psychopaths, respectively) are amusing and no spring chickens themselves. Casey Affleck reteams with his A Ghost Story director/writer David Lowery as the detective who wants to catch the robber in the 1980s. Lowery based the script on a 2003 New Yorker article by staff writer David Grann, who was able to interview the real robber, Forrest Tucker, before Tucker's 2004 death in prison (you can read the full article here).

The are fun photos of Redford as a younger man used to depict the robber earlier in his life.

I'm immensely enjoying streaming the light jazzy soundtrack by Daniel Hart (last in these pages for scoring A Ghost Story) on spotify, where the commercials come in occasional clumps instead of after every song on youtube.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics line up more with Jack and me, averaging 90%, than its audiences at 69. We recommend this pleasant diversion.