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.

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%.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.