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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.