Despite frigid reviews, a group of us enjoyed this dramedy about a damaged marriage further fracturing during an alpine ski trip. No doubt that most viewers expected a raucous comedy, given the star power of Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell in the leads, and may have been disappointed that the laughs are awkward, cringey, and not always close together. Watching a couple unable to communicate can be difficult for some and impossible for others, but this pair does it beautifully and Jack, Nancy, Dennis, and I found a lot to like.
This is the third screenplay and second time directing for the team of Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (both are also comedic actors but do not have cameos in this one). They apparently based the script on the Swedish movie Force Majeure (2014) which we didn't see. All the synopses I've read, as well as the filmmakers themselves in an interview, point to a particular inciting incident that breaks this couple. Jack and I think they are already in deep trouble in the very first scene.
The combination of the cinematography by Danny Cohen, the stunt skiing, and special effects make for glorious sequences on the slopes (shot in Austria), enhanced by Volker Bertelmann's score. I'm enjoying his soundtrack on Apple Music, featuring wonderful wordless vocals, as I write. It's also available on Spotify and more. I know there were plenty of songs as well, but I can't recall them at the moment.
Louis-Dreyfus was last blogged for Enough Said (before her multi-Emmy winning seasons in Veep), Ferrell for The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, Faxon and Rash for The Way Way Back, Cohen for Disobedience, and Bertelmann for The Current War.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average is a chilly 39% and its audiences' are colder at 13. We disagree.
Sunday, February 23, 2020
The Assistant (2019)
This important story of a movie producer's junior assistant, who slowly realizes her workplace is uglier than she thought, is growing on me. Its pace is languid, as the assistant fulfills mundane tasks but is alert to her surroundings in the course of a very long and tedious work day.
Julia Garner is in pretty much every scene and second-billed Matthew Macfadyen is in just one. Pay close attention and/or use the closed captions, because there's a lot of dialogue on the other end of a phone.
This is the feature fiction debut for director/writer Kitty Green (she's made three documentaries, one of which was a short, before this). Apparently she was inspired to make a #MeToo movie that didn't concentrate so much on the perpetrators, and we soon realize that we will not see the executive nor hear his name.
I cannot find the score by Tamar-Kali online anywhere, other than this Spotify playlist, which I'm pretty sure is from the imagination of a random Spotify user.
Garner was blogged in Grandma (which came before her Emmy-winning turn in Ozark--season three premiering in March) and Tamar-kali for Mudbound. Macfadyen plays one of the scumbags in the HBO series Succession, as well as dozens of other credits here and in his native England.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 89%, are enthusiastic, while its audiences are hating at 22. Sometimes it's hard to be patient.
Julia Garner is in pretty much every scene and second-billed Matthew Macfadyen is in just one. Pay close attention and/or use the closed captions, because there's a lot of dialogue on the other end of a phone.
This is the feature fiction debut for director/writer Kitty Green (she's made three documentaries, one of which was a short, before this). Apparently she was inspired to make a #MeToo movie that didn't concentrate so much on the perpetrators, and we soon realize that we will not see the executive nor hear his name.
I cannot find the score by Tamar-Kali online anywhere, other than this Spotify playlist, which I'm pretty sure is from the imagination of a random Spotify user.
Garner was blogged in Grandma (which came before her Emmy-winning turn in Ozark--season three premiering in March) and Tamar-kali for Mudbound. Macfadyen plays one of the scumbags in the HBO series Succession, as well as dozens of other credits here and in his native England.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 89%, are enthusiastic, while its audiences are hating at 22. Sometimes it's hard to be patient.
Buffaloed (2019)
Jack and I truly loved this comedy about a whip-smart, hyper, amoral young woman who gets into the debt-collecting business to achieve her life goal of getting rich. Zoey Deutch (Lea Thompson's daughter) is transcendent as manic Peg. She's supported by Judy Greer as her patient mother, Noah Reid as her trusting brother, and Jermaine Fowler as the federal attorney who can't resist her.
Director Tanya Wexler works from a whip-smart script by Brian Sacca, making his feature debut. It takes place in Buffalo NY but was shot in Toronto.
I can't find online, and frankly don't remember, the soundtrack by Matthew Margeson. Someone posted a Spotify playlist but it has too many lyrics for me to stream it while trying to compose coherent sentences.
Deutch was last blogged for Zombieland: Double Tap before we saw her eight episodes of The Politician; after writing about Greer in Wilson I saw her eight episodes of Casual, three of I'm Sorry, the first season of Kidding (second is apparently on deck for 2020) and more; Wexler was blogged for Hysteria (which I called flawless in 2012); and Margeson for Kingsmen: The Secret Service. Reid is best known to me as David's partner Patrick in Schitt's Creek and Fowler is familiar, probably for his parts in Sorry to Bother You and more.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average of 79% doesn't convey how much fun we had with this movie, though its audience's average of 86 is closer.
We saw it on February 18 but it's already available to rent on most of the regular outlets. We highly recommend it.
Director Tanya Wexler works from a whip-smart script by Brian Sacca, making his feature debut. It takes place in Buffalo NY but was shot in Toronto.
I can't find online, and frankly don't remember, the soundtrack by Matthew Margeson. Someone posted a Spotify playlist but it has too many lyrics for me to stream it while trying to compose coherent sentences.
Deutch was last blogged for Zombieland: Double Tap before we saw her eight episodes of The Politician; after writing about Greer in Wilson I saw her eight episodes of Casual, three of I'm Sorry, the first season of Kidding (second is apparently on deck for 2020) and more; Wexler was blogged for Hysteria (which I called flawless in 2012); and Margeson for Kingsmen: The Secret Service. Reid is best known to me as David's partner Patrick in Schitt's Creek and Fowler is familiar, probably for his parts in Sorry to Bother You and more.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average of 79% doesn't convey how much fun we had with this movie, though its audience's average of 86 is closer.
We saw it on February 18 but it's already available to rent on most of the regular outlets. We highly recommend it.
The Lighthouse (2019)
This psychological thriller about two lighthouse keepers in the 1890s is weird but beautiful, much lauded for its cinematography as well as its other features.
Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe are the leads, going crazy in isolation in Nova Scotia in awful weather (apparently the weather was indeed awful during the shoot).
Director Robert Eggers co-wrote the script with his brother Max Eggers and is said to have described the plot the same way in every interview: "Nothing good can happen when two men are trapped alone in a giant phallus."
The director of photography Jarin Blaschke's work not only earned him an Oscar nomination, but he also won the Spotlight award from his peers in the American Society of Cinematographers, among many kudos. The filming technique was too complex to explain here and the end result is high contrast black and white with an aspect ratio of 1.19:1 (for the mathematicians among us, that's almost square) in order to give an added layer of claustrophobia. For comparison's sake, old fashioned television was 4:3 and current TVs are 16:9.
I'm streaming the eerie score by Mark Korven on Apple Music and I see it's available on Spotify and other outlets.
Pattinson was last in these pages for Cosmopolis and Dafoe for At Eternity's Gate. I haven't seen work by the others.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average is 90% and its audiences' 72. We wouldn't go that far but the photography buffs among you might want to stream it, as it's available now (we saw it January 21). You'll need the room as dark as possible but there are some hints of the Eggers brothers' history with horror productions so don't watch it right before you're trying to sleep!
Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe are the leads, going crazy in isolation in Nova Scotia in awful weather (apparently the weather was indeed awful during the shoot).
Director Robert Eggers co-wrote the script with his brother Max Eggers and is said to have described the plot the same way in every interview: "Nothing good can happen when two men are trapped alone in a giant phallus."
The director of photography Jarin Blaschke's work not only earned him an Oscar nomination, but he also won the Spotlight award from his peers in the American Society of Cinematographers, among many kudos. The filming technique was too complex to explain here and the end result is high contrast black and white with an aspect ratio of 1.19:1 (for the mathematicians among us, that's almost square) in order to give an added layer of claustrophobia. For comparison's sake, old fashioned television was 4:3 and current TVs are 16:9.
I'm streaming the eerie score by Mark Korven on Apple Music and I see it's available on Spotify and other outlets.
Pattinson was last in these pages for Cosmopolis and Dafoe for At Eternity's Gate. I haven't seen work by the others.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average is 90% and its audiences' 72. We wouldn't go that far but the photography buffs among you might want to stream it, as it's available now (we saw it January 21). You'll need the room as dark as possible but there are some hints of the Eggers brothers' history with horror productions so don't watch it right before you're trying to sleep!
Just Mercy (2019)
This powerful movie is based on the true story of a lawyer fighting to save an innocent man from death row in Alabama. Jamie Foxx is terrific as the felon Walter McMillan. Michael B. Jordan plays the earnest lawyer Bryan Stevenson and Brie Larson is an activist. As I recall, though, it's overly long at 2:17.
Director Destin Daniel Cretton co-wrote the screenplay with Andrew Lanham, adapted from the 2014 memoir Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by the real Bryan Stevenson.
I'm listening to the nice music by Joel P. West on Apple Music and I see that it's also available on Spotify.
Foxx was last blogged for White House Down, a 2013 movie which I published out of order, after his 2017 appearance in Baby Driver; Jordan for Black Panther; and Larson, Cretton, Lanham, and West for The Glass Castle.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are liking it with an average of 83% and its audiences are loving with a near-perfect 99. We saw it January 19 and its streaming debut is set for March 10, 2020.
Director Destin Daniel Cretton co-wrote the screenplay with Andrew Lanham, adapted from the 2014 memoir Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by the real Bryan Stevenson.
I'm listening to the nice music by Joel P. West on Apple Music and I see that it's also available on Spotify.
Foxx was last blogged for White House Down, a 2013 movie which I published out of order, after his 2017 appearance in Baby Driver; Jordan for Black Panther; and Larson, Cretton, Lanham, and West for The Glass Castle.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are liking it with an average of 83% and its audiences are loving with a near-perfect 99. We saw it January 19 and its streaming debut is set for March 10, 2020.
Richard Jewell (2019)
Based on the true story of the security guard who found a bomb at the 1996 Olympics, this movie is good. The huge cast, led by Paul Walter Hauser as the hapless Jewell, Kathy Bates as his mother (Oscar-nominated for that role), and Sam Rockwell as a sympathetic lawyer, has got it going on.
Clint Eastwood (turning 90 this year!) directs from a script by Billy Ray, which is based the 2019 book by Kent Alexander and Kevin Salwen The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle, which is in turn based on a 1997 Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner.
You won't see the five rings of the Olympics, since the International Olympic Committee wouldn't permit the use, but Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park was the location of the incident and the filming.
With Eastwood being a major jazz fan, it's no surprise that he chose Cuban jazz trumpeter and Obama Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree Arturo Sandoval to write the soundtrack. I am surprised, however, that the score cannot be found online for our pleasure. There's a short list of songs on imdb.
Hauser was last blogged for BlacKKKlansman, Bates for On the Basis of Sex, Rockwell for Jojo Rabbit, Eastwood for Sully, and Ray for Captain Phillips.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics didn't like it very much, averaging a cool 76%, but its audiences are coming in strong at 96. We saw it the 3rd of January and it's supposed to begin streaming March 3, 2020.
Clint Eastwood (turning 90 this year!) directs from a script by Billy Ray, which is based the 2019 book by Kent Alexander and Kevin Salwen The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle, which is in turn based on a 1997 Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner.
You won't see the five rings of the Olympics, since the International Olympic Committee wouldn't permit the use, but Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park was the location of the incident and the filming.
With Eastwood being a major jazz fan, it's no surprise that he chose Cuban jazz trumpeter and Obama Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree Arturo Sandoval to write the soundtrack. I am surprised, however, that the score cannot be found online for our pleasure. There's a short list of songs on imdb.
Hauser was last blogged for BlacKKKlansman, Bates for On the Basis of Sex, Rockwell for Jojo Rabbit, Eastwood for Sully, and Ray for Captain Phillips.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics didn't like it very much, averaging a cool 76%, but its audiences are coming in strong at 96. We saw it the 3rd of January and it's supposed to begin streaming March 3, 2020.
Uncut Gems (2019)
This tour de force for Adam Sandler, as a desperate New York diamond district hustler, is tense, fast-paced, and earned piles of awards and nominations for him and the movie. Here's Sandler's speech after winning the Best Actor Film Independent Spirit Award for playing Howard Ratner. Idina Menzel makes a few appearances as Mrs. Ratner and model/clothing designer Julia Fox makes her acting debut as Ratner's mistress and jewelry shop employee. Lakeith Stanfield is in a few scenes as one of the underworld characters and basketball star Kevin Garnett plays himself.
The directing team of brothers Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie co-wrote the script with Ronald Bronstein and the action really never lets up. Warning--it's quite violent. Trivia: the Safdies wanted someone Jewish in the leading role, and Sacha Baron Cohen and Jonah Hill and others were considered as well as Sandler.
Cinematographer Darius Khondji does well with the darkness, figuratively and literally.
I'm streaming Daniel Lopatin's exciting soundtrack on Apple Music right now as I type and the score is available on Spotify and more. Track 13, Windows, (here it is on youtube) is particularly good.
Sandler was last blogged for The Meyerowitz Stories, Menzel for Frozen, Stanfield for Sorry to Bother You, and Khondji for Okja. I haven't seen other Safdie brothers movies.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are agreeing with those who award the awards, averaging 92%, but its audiences are less happy, coming in at 52.
Jack and I saw this on the big screen January 2 with Nancy, Dennis, Lynn, and Clay. It's expected to be available for streaming this Tuesday, February 25, 2020.
The directing team of brothers Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie co-wrote the script with Ronald Bronstein and the action really never lets up. Warning--it's quite violent. Trivia: the Safdies wanted someone Jewish in the leading role, and Sacha Baron Cohen and Jonah Hill and others were considered as well as Sandler.
Cinematographer Darius Khondji does well with the darkness, figuratively and literally.
I'm streaming Daniel Lopatin's exciting soundtrack on Apple Music right now as I type and the score is available on Spotify and more. Track 13, Windows, (here it is on youtube) is particularly good.
Sandler was last blogged for The Meyerowitz Stories, Menzel for Frozen, Stanfield for Sorry to Bother You, and Khondji for Okja. I haven't seen other Safdie brothers movies.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are agreeing with those who award the awards, averaging 92%, but its audiences are less happy, coming in at 52.
Jack and I saw this on the big screen January 2 with Nancy, Dennis, Lynn, and Clay. It's expected to be available for streaming this Tuesday, February 25, 2020.
Sunday, February 9, 2020
The Two Popes (2019)
This interesting story shows what it would have been like if Pope Benedict and the future Pope Francis had met before Benedict set precedent by resigning and Francis took his place in 2013. A little long, it nonetheless features Oscar-nominated performances by Jonathan Pryce as Francis (his physical resemblance to Francis is striking) and Anthony Hopkins as Benedict (not bad either). It's also nominated for Anthony McCarten's script, based on his stage play The Pope (Hopkins' agent asked him to change the name). I didn't think it would win any last night, and I was right.
Here's a spoiler-filled Vanity Fair article proving that the entire movie is fiction, despite its being "inspired by true events."
Fernando Meirelles, a native of Brazil, brings us plenty of colorful scenes in Francis' native Argentina as well as in Rome and environs, with the help of cinematographer César Charlone.
The music by Bryce Dessner, evoking both countries, can be streamed on Apple Music and Spotify. The entire movie can be streamed on Netflix, as we did ten days ago.
Pryce was last blogged for The Wife, Hopkins mentioned in Thor: The Dark World after Red 2, McCarten was blogged for Bohemian Rhapsody, and Meirelles and Charlone for Blindness (before we saw Meirelles' chapter in Rio, I Love You).
Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are tied at 89%, slightly higher than Jack and I would rate it.
Here's a spoiler-filled Vanity Fair article proving that the entire movie is fiction, despite its being "inspired by true events."
Fernando Meirelles, a native of Brazil, brings us plenty of colorful scenes in Francis' native Argentina as well as in Rome and environs, with the help of cinematographer César Charlone.
The music by Bryce Dessner, evoking both countries, can be streamed on Apple Music and Spotify. The entire movie can be streamed on Netflix, as we did ten days ago.
Pryce was last blogged for The Wife, Hopkins mentioned in Thor: The Dark World after Red 2, McCarten was blogged for Bohemian Rhapsody, and Meirelles and Charlone for Blindness (before we saw Meirelles' chapter in Rio, I Love You).
American Factory (2019)
This terrific documentary about a Chinese-run glass factory near Dayton OH won a Spirit Award last night and may well win an Oscar tonight, though we haven't seen the other nominees this year, so can't make an informed prediction. The filmmakers Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert, and Jeff Reichert, also won the Directors Guild Award last month.
I found some of the culture clash amusing at the beginning, but the workers' situations aren't funny and are depicted with empathy.
In 2009, Bognar and Julia Reichert made a documentary short The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant in the same building. They returned to Ohio in 2015 to document the new factory, with beautiful cinematography by them, her nephew Jeff (who also co-produced), and more. Included among the producers are some Chinese nationals who greatly helped the Americans and Chinese working together.
Not listed among the producers are Michelle and Barack Obama, whose production company Higher Ground makes its debut with this movie. U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (OH) makes an appearance.
Julia Reichert and Bognar were on Fresh Air recently and she announced she has terminal cancer and this is her last film. She has been photographed at the award shows proudly sporting a bald head.
Chad Cannon's lovely soundtrack can be streamed on Apple Music and Spotify.
We're with the critics, averaging 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, as opposed to audiences at 79. You can see the movie on Netflix, as we did last week.
If you sometimes suffer from MPMS (Motion Picture Motion Sickness), this is a bad one, with lots of hand-held camera operators walking. We have a nice home theatre but I had to move to a chair farther back in the room, despite my usual preventative measures. I have a running list that I began in 2008, with a few entries that predate the blog.
I found some of the culture clash amusing at the beginning, but the workers' situations aren't funny and are depicted with empathy.
In 2009, Bognar and Julia Reichert made a documentary short The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant in the same building. They returned to Ohio in 2015 to document the new factory, with beautiful cinematography by them, her nephew Jeff (who also co-produced), and more. Included among the producers are some Chinese nationals who greatly helped the Americans and Chinese working together.
Not listed among the producers are Michelle and Barack Obama, whose production company Higher Ground makes its debut with this movie. U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (OH) makes an appearance.
Julia Reichert and Bognar were on Fresh Air recently and she announced she has terminal cancer and this is her last film. She has been photographed at the award shows proudly sporting a bald head.
Chad Cannon's lovely soundtrack can be streamed on Apple Music and Spotify.
We're with the critics, averaging 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, as opposed to audiences at 79. You can see the movie on Netflix, as we did last week.
If you sometimes suffer from MPMS (Motion Picture Motion Sickness), this is a bad one, with lots of hand-held camera operators walking. We have a nice home theatre but I had to move to a chair farther back in the room, despite my usual preventative measures. I have a running list that I began in 2008, with a few entries that predate the blog.
Sunday, February 2, 2020
Marriage Story (2019)
This wonderful movie starts with love and moves to confusion and contention, which most of us divorced folk have experienced on some level. Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, and Laura Dern's terrific performances have earned them Oscar nominations for Leading Actress, Actor, and Supporting Actress, respectively. Dern has, as of this writing, won the Golden Globe and SAG awards, to name two.
Among many other accolades, director Noah Baumbach has two Oscar nominations here, for Best Picture and Screenplay, and Randy Newman one for the score. Newman's lilting melodies (about 25 minutes' worth) can be streamed on Apple Music, Spotify, and more.
Johansson was last blogged for Jojo Rabbit, Driver for The Dead Don't Die, Dern for Little Women, Baumbach for The Meyerowitz Stories (also produced for, and streaming on Netflix), and Newman for Toy Story 4, whose soundtrack isn't that far off from this one.
Jack and I aren't the only ones who liked it. Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging 95% and its audiences not too far behind at 84. We watched it at home on December 26.
Among many other accolades, director Noah Baumbach has two Oscar nominations here, for Best Picture and Screenplay, and Randy Newman one for the score. Newman's lilting melodies (about 25 minutes' worth) can be streamed on Apple Music, Spotify, and more.
Johansson was last blogged for Jojo Rabbit, Driver for The Dead Don't Die, Dern for Little Women, Baumbach for The Meyerowitz Stories (also produced for, and streaming on Netflix), and Newman for Toy Story 4, whose soundtrack isn't that far off from this one.
Jack and I aren't the only ones who liked it. Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging 95% and its audiences not too far behind at 84. We watched it at home on December 26.
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