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Film Review: “X-Men: Apocalypse”

Starring: James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Fassbender
Directed by: Bryan Singer
Rated: PG 13
Running time: 2 hrs 24 mins
20th Century Fox
Our Score: 3 out of 5 stars

Review by Mike Smith

They’re back! I’d say “the X-men are back” but, thanks to the whims of Hollywood, that statement doesn’t clarify if it’s the old folks or the kids. Or, as Deadpool asked, “McAvoy or Stewart?” It’s McAvoy and the gang here.

Where better for a film series that dabbles with time lines to begin but ancient Egypt. Here we are witness to a ceremony in which an old ruler will receive a mystical transplant from a virile young man. However, a group of traitorous minions (soldiers, etc, not the guys from the Despicable Me films) betray their leader and, after some impressive special effects, he is sealed inside a giant pyramid for all eternity. Or until 1983.

It’s been ten years since the first Mutant was observed and the world still hasn’t accepted them. At his school for “the gifted” Dr. Charles Xavier (McAvoy) is going about his daily duties while over in Poland the formerly underground Magneto (Fassbender) has just been discovered by the local authorities. Two men with similar lives yet very different outlooks. Throw in the mysterious Mystique (Lawrence) and you have a movie. Kind of.

Full of amazing special effects and horrible destruction, X-men: Apocalypse is, presumably, the last film to feature the Future Past characters. And just in time. With a cast that includes three Oscar-nominees it seems like they may have gotten bored with their roles. All do good work here, but there almost seems to be a look of relief in their eyes that they’re done with the spandex for good. That being said, while the leads are serviceable, the supporting cast has fun with their roles. Among the new faces are Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler and a returning Evan Peters as Quicksilver. And kudos to Oscar Isaac, who makes Apocalypse one nasty mo-fo.

The other drawback is the amount of carnage depicted here. As the various mutants battle each other, the toll taken on the planet is amazingly over the top. The destruction here makes the carnage in Captain America: Civil War and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice look like a small dustup. There is also a particularly brutal scene featuring a familiar face making his eighth X-men appearance. The amount of blood spilled was actually quite disturbing and I can’t help but wonder if this scene was included to judge audience reaction as to how far is too far. It’s not Deadpool violent but it’s a little more mature than you might imagine.

X-Men: Apocalypse opens in the UK on May 18th & the US on May 27th

Film Review: “Captain America: Civil War”

Film Review by Jeremy Werner

Starring: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson
Directed By: Joe and Anthony Russo
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 146 minutes
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Our Score: 5 out of 5 Stars

Warner Bros. worst nightmare has come true. A much better comic book movie has been released with Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice still fresh in moviegoers minds. Actually, let me take that statement back. A near-perfect comic book movie has been released a month afterBatman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, further solidifying Zack Snyder’s cinematic attempt as the shiny turd it is. Warner Bros. executives listen up. Purchase a ticket to Captain America: Civil War and see how comic book movies are really done.

This doesn’t feel like a Captain America movie, but more like a prequel to the next Avengers movie, and that’s perfectly fine. The loss of life and human casualties has finally caught up to the Avengers as the Secretary of State and the United Nations demand authority over the team. Tony Stark/Iron Man (Downey) is soaked in guilt, feeling that he’s done more harm than good. He believes the Avengers need a leash before they gallivant around the world fighting evildoers.

On the flip side of the coin is Captain America (Evans). He believes politics, as well as the looming threat of Hydra’s infiltration, would inhibit their ability to save the world at the drop of a hat. Both sides have their merits, but Captain’s opinion is tossed out the window when Bucky, the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), commits a terroristic act at the U.N. killing dozens. Captain and Tony are at ends after this. Tony wants Bucky taken in and imprisoned, or killed, and Captain rightfully suspects something else is at work.

While Age of Ultron felt overwhelmed with over a dozen characters to juggle, Civil War seems to handle it with a calm demeanor. Even the introductions of Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and Spiderman (Tom Holland) are fluid, fun, and properly handled. The additions of a sleepy Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), a conflicted Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), a stoic Vision (Paul Bettany) and a handful others never overwhelms the viewer.

For Marvel fans who’ve watched every movie, and possibly every show, their fan service is paid off throughout. As for the villain; He appears to be a little lacking, but upon further inspect, the bad guy says a lot about the fabric of comradery between the Avengers and how easily it can rip. It seems like every Captain America is a game changer. The first prefaced the Avengers assembling. The second movie scrapped S.H.I.E.L.D. to its bare bones. Now Civil War rearranges the chess board after flipping it off the table.

I feel like I say this nearly every time a new Marvel movie is released, but Marvel has seriously outdone themselves once again. Civil War is a near-flawless cinematic experience that neatly packages one of the most pivotal story lines in comic book history. As for what Marvel has up its sleeve before 2018’s release of Avengers: Infinity Wars, is anyone’s guess. But I assure you it’s in good hands. The same directors and writers behind Civil War are piecing together the next Avengers and if this movie is any indication, it’s going to be fantastic, if not a satisfying conclusion to decades of story building. I wish I could tell you more about Civil War, but it’s something you’re just going to have to see for yourselves. Like, right now.

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Filed Under: Film Headlines, Film Reviews Tagged With: Captain America, Captain America: Civil War, Chris Evans, Civil War, film review, marvel, ...

TFF Film Review: “High-Rise”

Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Elisabeth Moss
Directed By: Ben Wheatley
Rated: R
Running Time: 119 minutes
Magnet

Our Score: 4 out of 5 Stars

Late in the chaos that engulfs Ben Wheatley’s new film High-Rise, Dr. Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston) welcomes a woman into his paint splattered flat exclaiming “I think I finally found the right tone!” Against all odds, he may as well be describing the film itself. An adaptation of JG Ballard’s 1975 novel that was long thought unfilmable (producer Jeremy Thomas tried 30 years ago), Wheatley and Co. have managed to create a wonderfully anarchic microcosm of a society breaking down as it builds upwards. If the social commentary–the hazards of worshiping material wealth, the “1%” literally living it up on the top floors–is simplistic, Wheatley’s production team offers it up in the most absurdly beautiful ways. From the brutalist production design to a stunning score by Clint Mansell (Requiem for a Dream), High-Rise is a darkly humorous, sexy, and oftentimes grotesque cinematic experience.

The film opens with a bearded, bedraggled Laing foraging for supplies in the corpse-strewn detritus of his high-rise apartment building. “For all its inconveniences,” a civilized sounding Hiddleston narrates, “Laing was satisfied with life in the high-rise.” Laing then rotisserie roasts a dog for supper. As one does. From here we go back to simpler times three months ago, when Laing was just moving into the shiny new development. At floor 25 out of 40, the good doctor quickly learns the strict class divide of the upper and lower residents between which he sits–or, nude sunbathes actually–nearly smack in the middle. Laing is welcomed into the upper echelons by Charlotte Melville (Miller) as she dallies with lower-leveled married man Richard Wilder (Evans). Laing’s even invited to the penthouse occupied by mysterious architect Royal (Jeremy Irons, regal in all white). Royal views what he has wrought, one tower in a series of five, as a “crucible for change” while brain surgeon Laing pleases Royal when he describes it more as a “diagram of an unconscious psychic event.” Royal is so impressed with Laing he attempts to invite him to a decadent fancy dress party thrown by his wife. Laing is roundly rejected by Royal’s peers and experiences the first of many power outages from within an elevator he’s been unceremoniously shoved into. The honeymoon is over.

These early sequences of life in the High-Rise had me enthralled. Laing’s exploration of the tower is paired perfectly with Clint Mansell’s driving orchestra music, which manages to capture the entrepreneurial spirit of the shiny all inclusive tower while suggesting the underlying tensions of the residents pulsing through the structure. One tiny inconvenience is enough to upset this flow and set everyone off into rage. To top it off, everyone is impeccably tailored. Meanwhile, from his place in the middle, Laing is able to interact with all levels of residents who can’t seem to grasp which ‘slot’ he is meant to fill.

Hiddleston’s Laing is a hard one to pin down and makes for a fascinating entry into the film’s madness. He initially tells Charlotte he doesn’t think he can change (he’s speaking of getting into a swimsuit but the line, like so many in Amy Jump’s script, is delivered with more weight than that) and for a while that’s true. Laing seems a neutral character, claiming he desires a blank slate in the wake of his sister’s death. When confronted with quarreling residents, he seeks to pacify the tensions between lower floor residents, the maintenance man and the architect who has accepted him. But the longer he’s in the building the more Laing’s crueler tendencies come to light. Mouthing off at a child, casually implying a deathly prognosis to a social rival–Laing’s mean streak is comparatively subtle in the shadow of Evans’s aptly named Wilder but Hiddleston is quietly menacing throughout. And his desperate need to keep his dress shirt and tie on is a nice touch.

As the tower devolves into darkness, murder and crammed garbage shoots, your enjoyment of the latter half of the film may depend upon whether you buy into the notion that the residents do not run screaming to the authorities. After all there is an outside world to this tower, this isn’t Snowpiercer. However Wheatley crams enough absurdist humor into these late stages that I, like the looney residents drolly contemplating lobotomizing their rivals, surrendered to a logic more powerful than reason. Or just damn stylish film making.

This film received its New York premiere at last week’s Tribeca Film Fest and is available to rent now onDemand, Amazon and iTunes–though for the best experience, hold out for its theatrical release May 13th!

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Filed Under: Film Headlines, Film Reviews Tagged With: Ben Wheatley, film review, High-Rise, jeremy irons, luke evans, sienna miller, ...

Tribeca Film Fest Review: “Holidays”

Starring: Seth Green, Clare Grant, Harley Quinn Smith
Directed by: Anthony Scott Burns, Nicholas McCarthy, Adam Egypt Mortimer, Gary Shore, Kevin Smith, Sarah Adina Smith, Scott Stewart, Kevin Kölsch, and Dennis Widmyer
Rated: R
Running Time: 144 mins
Vertical Entertainment

Our score: 1/2 star out of 5 stars

There’s no place like home for the holidays. As in stay in yours, do not flock to theaters to see the horror anthology dubbed simply Holidays which is out there today. The anthology film boasts a familiar roster of horror directors—though arguably the ‘biggest’ name, Kevin Smith, offers only Tusk on his horror resumé…so take that how you will— who gather here to tell short stories from Valentine’s Day to New Year’s Eve in chronological order. Horror anthologies thrive on bringing a lot of different things to the table. Shorts can be shocking, funny, twisted, even confusing, but if there’s one thing they shouldn’t be, it’s boring. And for seven out of eight of these, I was just plain bored.

When I called the entirety of what was going to happen in the opening short, “Valentine’s Day”, I immediately felt uneasy. Tethered to the order of the calendar year, it had to be their starting point, but it wasn’t a strong one. In short, a lovestruck-Carrie-looking outcast on a swim team is bullied by a blonde-haired Mean Girl. Commence the ten minute slog to her comeuppance. And this waiting occurs time and time again. Most egregiously in Father’s Day—a story, I admit I wholly forgot I sat through until I counted out the holidays and found I was short one. If it’s not waiting a full ten to fifteen minutes for a short’s singular predictable jump scare, it’s hitting the point of the story too fast and dragging it out. Kevin Smith’s “Halloween” is not only torturous to its main character—a Hollywood sleazebag getting what he deserves from a team of his webcam girls— but it brings the audience along with him.

The ‘scheduling’ of the holidays also hampers the flow of the film. I guess putting them in calendar order makes sense on paper but then Christmas and New Year’s wind up sharing the same murderous psycho-female trope. Neither really shocks but viewed back to back, it’s also redundant. Similarly there’s two tales revolving around pregnancy-as-horror. Really? You have all the folklore of all the holidays and twice you come up with fertility problems? It’s as if the directors didn’t realize they were making an anthology until after the fact.

Nicholas McCarthy’s “Easter”, the one in the eight that peaked my interest, offered a sick bit of creature humor in the form of the nocturnal Easter-Bunny-Jesus (complete with stigmata!) Unfortunately, we can’t follow that story down its rabbit hole and the inevitable holiday card blackout that cut off each story appeared to bring us back to the rest of the unpleasant lineup.

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Filed Under: Film Reviews, Movies Tagged With: Adam Egypt Mortimer, and Dennis Widmyer, Anthony Scott Burns, Clare Grant, film review, Gary Shore, ...

Film Review “The Boss”

Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell and Peter Dinklage
Directed by: Ben Falcone
Rated: R
Running time: 1 hr 39 mins
Universal
Our Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Ever since she broke out with an Oscar nominated performance in the film Bridesmaids, Melissa McCarthy’s film choices have been very hit or miss. She scored big in hits like The Heat and SPY. She missed terribly in Tammy, which she co-wrote with her husband, who also directed. This is their second project together and I’m happy to report it’s no Tammy 2!

When we first meet Michelle Darnell, she is a little girl living in an orphanage who is about to go home with her new family. Sadly, they return her. This happens a few times during her life until she swears that she won’t need a family to make it straight to the top.

Present day we find Michelle (McCarthy) addressing a crowd of 20,000 on her achievements, urging them to follow her lead to a life of wealth and opulence. A combination of Oprah and Susan Powter, Michelle is probably the most famous business-woman in the country, much to the chagrin of Renault (Dinklage), a business rival and former lover. A few calls later and she finds herself in prison, accused of insider trading. When she gets out, broke and destitute, she makes her way to her former assistant Claire’s (Bell) apartment and coerces her way into a place to stay.

Wanting to pull her own weight, Michelle takes Claire’s daughter, Rachel , to a local scout troop meeting and soon has the whole bunch selling brownies quicker than you can say Martha Stewart.

Very funny in certain parts, the film is a combination of McCarthy working with a great cast and a very funny script. Tammy was a collaboration between McCarthy and her husband, actor Ben Falcone. It had some funny moments but it wasn’t FUNNY. This time the couple have added long-time friend Steve Mallory to the list of writers and have found a film that is both funny and works to McCarthy’s strengths. It is a little over the top at times (and a little more “adult” than you might expect) but it’s definitely a film that will make you laugh out loud.

Film Review “I Saw the Light”

Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Olsen, Bradley Whitford, Cherry Jones
Directed by: Marc Abraham
Rated: R
123 minutes
Sony Picture Classics

Our score: 3 out of 5 stars

There was a big fuss made last fall by Shenton Hank Williams over the casting of classically trained English actor Tom Hiddleston as his grandfather Hank Sr. Hank3 asserted the country legend should be played by an American who had ‘soul’. It is therefore a smart move that I Saw The Light frees audiences’ doubtful minds about this casting in a gorgeous opening performance of his classic “Cold Cold Heart”. Bathed in a spotlight and shadows, Hiddleston’s Hank is backed by no instrumentals as he croons the classic with all the soul you could ask for. Unfortunately, from this smooth opening, writer-director Marc Abraham launches into a biopic whose rhythm is at times overly choppy. Still, as a showcase for the versatile Hiddleston and fiery Olsen, I Saw the Light impresses.

The structurally episodic film launches straight into Williams’s first marriage to fellow aspiring singer Audrey Mae (Elizabeth Olsen) at a gas station in 1944 before bouncing onto scenes at local dive bars and radio gigs. Abraham skips over Hank’s formative years and we see him with eyes already set on the Grand Ole Opry. That is when they’re not wandering to other women or to the bottom of a bottle. The briefly happy pairing of Audrey Mae and Hank is immediately threatened by Williams’s overbearing mother (Cherry Jones) and Audrey Mae’s desire to share in Hank’s career despite her own lackluster voice. Abraham piles on these personal problems that beset Williams early and heavily before he gradually works in the mentions of Williams’s spina bifida pain which further drove his drug addiction. The trouble with this onslaught of darkness in I Saw the Light is it makes Williams’s untimely passing at age 29 feel like a foregone conclusion with little relief found in his musical achievements.

Thank goodness then for Hiddleston. No stranger to darkness (fresh off of Crimson Peak and about to engage in tv spy thriller “The Night Manager”), he’s magnetic in scenes that require him to rein in his demons–or let them loose. Pity the New York reporter who tries to raise tabloid rumors with Hank or the Hollywood exec who wants him to remove his iconic cowboy hat. He’s particularly chill inducing when invoking Hank’s on stage alter ego “Luke the Drifter,” in a scary recitation to some confused picnic goers. More importantly though he can mine the joy to be found in performing Williams’s work. Yodeling and gyrating–for all intents and purposes flirting with the audience–his striking stage presence goes a long way to selling Williams’s enduring charm despite the emphasis Abraham’s script puts on many terrible relationship choices.

In this arena at least, for most of the film Hiddleston is ably matched by Olsen’s Audrey Mae. A divorcee herself already at the time of their marriage, Audrey Mae is wont to serve Hank the divorce papers when his screwing around becomes too much. Their heated arguments make for some of the most charged interactions in the film, each nailing their southern twangs. More importantly, their tender moments–Hank’s charming as hell plea for Audrey to come back to him, his finding out about impending fatherhood–are truly touching and give the film the heart it needs. As Hank and Audrey Mae drift apart, the chemistry with Olsen is sorely missed. Wrenn Schmidt as Williams’s friend-zoned fling Bobbie Jett briefly rekindles sparks later when Hank’s regretting being a “professional of making a mess of things.” Schmidt is as world weary as Hank in their shared scenes and brings a welcome sense of humor to the ever encroaching darkness of the latter stages of the film.

Said latter stages become riddled with odd choices from Abraham such as increasingly frequent black and white “interviews” or a sudden audio narration whose presence suggests a documentary format we haven’t been privy to for the majority of the film. It undermines the brilliant work of his actors. Here, Hiddleston’s rendition of “Your Cheatin’ Heart” will make you weep. He undoubtedly gets to the heart of Williams’s appeal even as I Saw The Light struggles to illuminate it properly.

I Saw the Light is now playing in New York, LA and Nashville, it expands nationally this Friday.

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Filed Under: Film Reviews, Movies Tagged With: Elizabeth Olsen, film review, Hank Williams, I Saw the Light, marc abraham, Tom Hiddleston, ...

Film Review “The Witch”

Directed by: Robert Eggers
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie
Rated: R
Running time: 1 hr 33 mins
A24
Our Score: 4 out of 5 stars

It’s the 1630’s in Puritan New England, and we’ve just watched a family leave the safe confines of their settlement to go out on their own. It’s unsettling. It’s unsafe. And it’s just the beginning.

The Witch, Robert Eggers’s first feature film premiered to much acclaim at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and after having seen the film, it’s no surprise. Eggers has managed to create a fresh film in an often-described, stale genre. We follow Thomasin, a teenage girl masterfully played by Anya Taylor-Joy, as her family leaves the community under the threat of church banishment to settle on their own in a remote patch of land. That just happens to be next to an imposingly dark, tall forest. When the family infant is stolen right from under Thomasin’s nose in the most terrifying game of peekaboo that you’ll ever see, we watch as a family based on faith and loyalty unravels. Possession, accusations, suspicions, and paranoia mount as things continue to go from bad to worse for the family. Oh, and did I mention there’s a witch in the woods?

Eggers got his start doing production design and that background influence is strong in the film. The color work is deliberate. Just as the lives of the characters are bleak and their faith restrictive, so too is the landscape Eggers has placed them in. It’s gray, dull, and repetitive; so much so that when we do encounter the witch, we are almost relieved, as she comes with color in her scenes. What at first feels like a breath of fresh air in the barren landscape soon encircles us with a feeling of dread. These vibrant colors do not belong in this world. This type of unease is helped along by the superbly discordant score, which both pulls us in and jars us away throughout the film. The actors do an expert job playing a family on the verge of destruction, walking that fine line between rationality and unsteadiness. The camera work keeps you on the edge of your seat- never have I been so terrified of a goat before.

Watching The Witch is a study in psychological stress. It’s slow-paced and deliberate, and it leaves you with the feeling that you’ve seen something that you weren’t supposed to. The fact that the film is largely based off of historically real accounts of events of that time period only adds to this overwhelming feeling of unrest. This is not the film to see if you are looking for a “jumpy” horror film, but if you are looking for something that will get under your skin and will still have you thinking about it days later, The Witch is for you.

The Witch opens on Friday February 19th

Film Review: “Where to Invade Next”

Review by Mike Smith
Starring: Michael Moore
Directed by: Michael Moore
Rated: R
Running time: 1 hr 59 mins
IMG Films
Our Score: 5 out of 5 stars

It’s been six years since Michael Moore released a documentary. He spent that time traveling the world on a mission. To make America the best country in the world. And he accomplishes this by “invading” other countries and, by planting the US flag, “claiming” their riches for America.

The film begins with a series of news clips from the past 40 years, highlighting our Commander’s in Chief talking about world issues. Moore overlaps those sound bites with current footage of things happening in the US. “What happened,” he asks? How can we make, with apologies to Donald Trump, America great again?

Moore begins his journey in Italy, where he learns that the average worker receives seven weeks vacation each year, along with another dozen federal holidays off. If you get married your employer gives you three weeks off – with pay – for your honeymoon. And if you’re too busy, don’t worry. Your vacation days roll over. He interviews one police officer who has 80 days “in the bank,” not including the current years seven weeks. The police man and his wife are horrified when they learn that American workers are guaranteed ZERO weeks vacation by law.

In France he visits a public school, where lunch is served on real plates and is usually a four course event. In Finland, he “claims” the education system; in Sweden, the prison system, where inmates sentenced to maximum security are greeted by a welcome video of the prison guards singing “We Are the World.”

As he continues his travels he comments on how things got away from us here in the states. What is amazing is that, when he asks the foreign leaders how they came up with their ideals, they cite that they are based on the same principles that the U.S. was based upon. Moore goes about the film with his usual sarcastic wit but the message isn’t lost. Also not lost is the message that almost 60% of our taxes goes to support our military. In Italy, a country with only two warships, it is 1%.

Fans of Moore will appreciate his ideas behind the film. Those who aren’t probably won’t. To them I suggest moving to Germany, where your local doctor can write you a prescription for a three-week stay at a posh spa to relieve the tension.

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Filed Under: Film Reviews, Movies Tagged With: documentary, film review, Michael Moore, Where to Invade Next

Film Review “Zoolander 2”

Review by Mike Smith
Starring: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and Will Ferrell
Directed by: Ben Stiller
Rated: PG 13
Running time: 1 hr 42 mins
Paramount
Our Score: 2.5 out of 5 stars

The film Zoolander is remembered for a couple of things. First, the awesome “pose” that is called Blue Steel. That is a good thing. It was also the first film to be released after September 11, 2001 in which images of the World Trade Center were digitally removed from the finished film. That’s a bad thing. Something tells me Zoolander 2 is going to be remembered for only one thing. And it ain’t good.

It’s been almost 15 years since we last saw Derek Zoolander. He had just finished building his school “for kids that can’t read good.” As we catch up to him now, he is a pariah, the school collapsing due to poor construction (Derek had the school built out of the same materials used to build the model – including popsicle sticks and rubber cement), killing his wife. He is soon found to be an unfit father and loses custody of his son. A mysterious designer has summoned Derek (Stiller) and Hansel (Wilson) to Rome to model a new line. Hoping it will resurrect their careers they jump at the chance. Sadly it doesn’t. They’d have been better off doing a sequel to a film that no one was asking for a sequel to.

No they wouldn’t.

I find it hard to believe that four people helped write this film. I’m thinking that three of them just wrote “put in awesome cameo here” on their pages. Unlike some films, like Anchorman, where the occasional cameo is not only expected but appreciated, this is like Anchorman 2, where there were so many cameos it took you out of the story. Zoolander 2 gives you, just off the top of my head, Keifer Sutherland, Susan Sarandon, Joe Jonas, Ariana Grande, Billy Zane and Benedict Cumberbatch as a model named “All.” Not that cameos are bad. But when they seem to be the one thing driving the plot – Justin Bieber, Susan Boyle, M.C. Hammer, Tommy Hilfiger and one of the Kardashian gals – it just becomes boring.

Stiller and Wilson give their all (it’s obvious that they enjoy working together), but it’s not enough to save this film. Their fans may like this film. I’d rather send them to the Derek Zoolander School for Actors Who Can’t Read Scripts Good.

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Filed Under: Film Headlines, Film Reviews, Movies Tagged With: Ben Stiller, film review, Owen wilson, Zoolander 2

Film Review “Deadpool

Review by Mike Smith
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Ed Skrein and Morena Baccarin
Directed by: Tim Miller
Rated: R
Running time: 1 hr 48 mins
20th Century Fox
Our Score: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Sometimes you know a few minutes into a film what the tone is going to be. Deadpool sets it almost immediately when, during the opening credits, the Producer is identified as: SOME ASSHAT! Thank you, Mr. AssHat, for making one hell of a film.

One of the lesser known (to me anyway) of the Marvel Comic characters (think Spider-man in red without the webs), Deadpool (Reynolds) is a foul-mouthed fool who enjoys his work a little too much. And when I say “foul-mouthed,” I’m talking filthy. He makes Hit Girl in Kick Ass look like Little Miss Sunshine. Known to his friends as Wade Wilson, he earns his money by taking down local bullies. Things are going well for Wade. He’s just found the perfect woman of his dreams (Baccarin) when he learns he has cancer. He is offered a chance for the cure if he becomes part of a mercenary team. Instead he is greatly disfigured by the treatments he receives and decides to just disappear from those that love him (“please don’t make the suit green or animated,” he tells his handlers, pointing fun at Reynold’s last attempt as a hero, “Green Lantern”). If smart-assed sarcasm is your cup of tea, then Deadpool will quench your thirst.

As a character, Deadpool is unlike any “hero” you’ve ever seen. He has no qualms with blowing a bad guys head off with his pair of nine-millimeter pistols or cutting them off with his twin katanas, he’s mixing it up with both the on-screen baddies and the audience. Between breaking the fourth wall and dropping little “inside” quips – when told he needs to go see Professor Charles Xavier he asks, “Stewart or McAvoy?” If I have to explain that comment to you, stop reading now. You don’t want to see this movie.

A superhero film is only as good as the actor playing him and, if ever an actor was meant to play Deadpool, it is Ryan Reynolds. Ever since “Van Wilder” he has spent his career trying to re-capture that “smart-ass” charm. He fits the bill here perfectly. He is surrounded by some strong co-stars, including Skrein as a fellow mercenary and Baccarin who is as tough as she is loving. And I’m sure Stan Lee will agree with me when I say this is his “best cameo EVER!” Throw in a couple of X-men and you’ve got a damn good escape for the weekend.

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Film Review “Carol”

Director: Todd Haynes
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kyle Chandler, Sarah Paulson, Jake Lacy
Running Time: 118mins.
The Weinstein Company
Our Score: 5 out of 5 stars

At the outset of Todd Haynes’s latest film Carol, two women meet up in a restaurant in 1950s New York City before they are interrupted by a good natured young man. He ultimately escorts the stylish younger lady off to a party and then we drift back in time. It’s a simple start to a beautifully crafted romantic drama which spends the rest of its runtime loading up this and many other minute interactions with infinite complexity. Working from Phyllis Nagy’s adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s groundbreaking novel The Price of Salt, director Haynes (of 2002’s lauded Far From Heaven) once again showcases the 1950s as the backdrop for simmering social tensions and stellar work by his lead actresses.

As with everything in Haynes’s gorgeous film, the beginning of Carol and Therese’s relationship is sold in loaded small talk. Carol Aird (Blanchett), looking every bit the glamorous fifties socialite, inquires after Christmas gift suggestions from shopgirl Therese (Mara, saddled with a management-enforced goofy Santa hat). Carol eventually settles on a train set, providing Therese with all her relevant contact info to ship her order. She then sashays away with a compliment to the Santa hat. To the outside shopper, this was just a cordial transaction between two ladies but the dialogue sold through Mara and Blanchett’s eyes screams of a mutual attraction. Not to mention the lingering shots of Carol’s perfectly manicured hands that hint at a world struggling photographer Therese can only aspire to be part of. Conveniently Carol forgets a pair of gloves at Therese’s counter, offering Therese an excuse with which to follow up with this intriguing customer. Under the guise of gratitude, Carol is enabled to take Therese to lunch and from there they’re off and running. Or rather roadtripping.

It’s fitting that a trainset and a roadtrip are at the crux of Therese and Carol’s encounters with

(L-R) CATE BLANCHETT and ROONEY MARA star in CAROL

one another because Haynes’s film is so much about these women in transitions. It’s unclear what exactly Carol sees in Therese at first except that Carol knows where her desires lie at this point in her life (a past girlfriend in the form of Sarah Paulson’s Abby remains Carol’s strongest bond besides her young daughter) and she will soon be officially divorced from her husband. Her world’s seemingly coming apart and she’s trying to grasp onto something new. Meanwhile Mara is simply heartbreaking as the younger Therese. Navigating this time period, Therese doesn’t even know how to articulate what she wants from Carol or why. A stunning Mara, who won Best Actress with this film at this year’s Cannes festival, is magnetic as her quiet turmoil eventually spills over into a teary outburst before Therese can reform into something stronger.

The leading ladies are capably supported by their would-be male counterparts who are at a loss as to what to do with these women. Kyle Chandler as Harge, Carol’s ex-husband-to-be, launches an attack of sorts on Carol’s ‘morality’ with his legal team in a move that smacks more of desperation than maliciousness. Meanwhile, Therese fends off the over eager advances of Richard (Jake Lacy) and her peers with indifference. To add to it all, Haynes is in his element with period production design along with costume designer Sandy Powell (coming off this year’s triumphant work on Cinderella) and the result is an all around marvelous drama to behold.

Carol was screened as a part of the 2015 New York Film Fest.
I got the chance to speak to Blanchett at Carol’s NY Press Conference, which you can read here.

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Filed Under: Film Reviews, Movies Tagged With: carol, cate blanchett, film review, Kyle Chandler, nyff, NYFF 2015, ...

New York Film Fest Review: “Steve Jobs”

Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Jeff Daniels, Seth Rogen, Michael Stuhlbarg
Running Time: 122mins.
Universal Pictures

Our Score: 4.5 out of 5 stars

No one removes a limb nor falls in a pit beneath an Indian outhouse in Danny Boyle’s new awards-season biopic Steve Jobs, but I do suspect many people will accuse it of dragging the late Apple CEO through the mud. Working from a fast-paced script by Aaron Sorkin (aren’t they always?), the film pulls no punches when it comes to Jobs’ pseudo-Machiavellian pursuit of his Mac computer. Unlike Sorkin’s previous computer-minded outing, The Social Network, Steve Jobs feels even harsher for the span of time in which we’re tuning in. We stay with Mr. Jobs’s and his collateral damage, the loved ones and colleagues frequently left floundering in his wake, over the course of fourteen years and three epic product launches. It pits Jobs’s minor launch glitches against far greater interpersonal struggles and the suspense lies in what will finally warrant his attention. The small acting ensemble revolving around Michael Fassbender’s fierce portrayal of Jobs–including Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels and Michael Stuhlberg–ensures that it’s a fair fight. In this highly focused fashion, Boyle has delivered not the complete biography of Jobs, but an energetic strong impression of the man behind the curtain. And the iPod.

The three ‘acts’ that occupy the real-time action of Boyle’s film see Jobs as he successfully launches Macintosh, then outside of Apple with the disastrous NeXTCube and as the prodigal son returning with 1998’s iMac. To see the launches go off without a hitch is Jobs’s goal but through Boyle and Sorkin’s film, Steve’s launch is like a juggling act where more balls keep getting thrown into play. The major crisis with the first Macintosh is that Andy Hertzfeld (Stuhlbarg) can’t get the demo computer to say ‘hello.’ And Steve is much scarier than Yoda in the “there is no try” department. Hovering on the sidelines of the epic hello struggle is Joanna Hoffman (Winslet), Apple marketing guru and the only person able to wrangle Steve’s attention for any quantifiable amount of time. She doesn’t see why the computer must say hello, oh and also Steve should do something about his daughter and her mother waiting for Steve in the wings. The daughter he’s so publicly denied fathering, and half blames for his losing Time Magazine’s Man of the Year title. Priorities. Meanwhile Steve Wozniak (a deeply touching Rogen) just wants Steve Jobs to say thank you to the Apple 2 guys, an earlier model that the company thrived on. And for good measure, a stoic Jeff Daniels as exec John Scully steps in to remind Steve of his own parental issues (he was adopted) at exactly the wrong times.

These basic components are tossed in and out of focus over the course of the launches, with Boyle slyly throwing in the occasional additional flashbacks in time to further flesh out Steve’s relationships–especially with Wozniak and Scully. As a fiery Fassbender plays young Jobs, it’s easy to see how he sold his team of people on going on these technological ventures under his leadership. Important for us to see considering present-Jobs can so often be despicable. Jobs’s chief struggle in most of his interactions, whether he admits it or not, is with common human decency. Long-suffering Wozniak seeks only acknowledgment while Joanna is frequently going to bat on behalf of Jobs’s daughter Lisa since her mother (Katherine Waterston in a small but effective part) is drifting further away. In this core struggle, Winslet emerges as the film’s heart when its protagonist doesn’t have time for his. In Joanna, Winslet is both fearless and vulnerable. She knows Steve the best, she’s knows she’s too valuable to his enterprise to be cast off and she uses this to stand her ground. If audiences find it hard to root for Steve as he is ruthlessly scripted by Sorkin, they will definitely side with Joanna who only wants Steve to be a better person. It’s clever and Winslet is no doubt as awards-worthy as Fassbender is in this film.

Boyle and Sorkin shy away from actually showing their version of one of Jobs’s epic announcements–we have youtube for that–but at every juncture the Mac masses are omnipresent. We see stamping feet and full theater lobbies of faceless groupies which only serve to amplify Steve’s power in these spaces. While other realms of Jobs’s life were out of his control, at least at these launches every minute detail could be dictated by him. To situate the whole story around these launches is to show Jobs at his most intense. The resulting film is a vibrant, unsympathetic portrait of a man whose work continues to evolve how humans connect with each other whether or not he ever mastered that skill in his own life.

I saw Steve Jobs at this year’s New York Film Fest, the film receives its nationwide release on October 23rd.

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Filed Under: Film Reviews Tagged With: Aaron Sorkin, Danny Boyle, film review, Kate Winslet, Michael Fassbender, nyff, ...

Film Review “Crimson Peak”

Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Charlie Hunnam, Jim Beaver
Running Time: 119 mins.
Legendary

Our Score: 4 out of 5 stars

If you’re looking for a getaway this Halloween season, you can probably do no better than the red oozing walls of Allerdale Hall. This ominous edifice nicknamed “Crimson Peak” for the bloody looking clay that stains the snowy terrain outside the mansion is the home of Guillermo Del Toro’s latest haunting tale. More beautiful than terrifying, Crimson Peak is a sumptuous Gothic romance that throws viewers neck deep into a storybook world from the unique director behind Pan’s Labyrinth. It takes a lot of time immersing us into his heroine’s world but our eyes are dazzled even as we wait for any real chills to kick in. Del Toro’s vision is suitably matched by his small cast of characters lead by a positively ferocious Jessica Chastain.

In 1901 Buffalo, New York, the young Edith Cushing (Wasikowska) is struggling with a misogynistic publisher to get her ghost story manuscript to print. He believes the lady needs a love story while she’s striving to be the next Mary Shelley. Edith herself is no stranger to real ghosts as her own cholera-stricken dead mother reappeared to her as a child. Into her bookish world sweeps the tall, dark and angsty Sir Thomas Sharpe from England (Hiddleston) seeking an investment from Edith’s father (Beaver). Apparently the ore deposits in the red clay of Crimson Peak are worth money if Thomas could just get investors to help him complete the machinery he needs to mine the place. Publicly humiliated by Edith’s father, Thomas turns his attentions on Edith herself, sweeping her off her feet with a waltz in front of all society and especially rankling her would-be suitor Allan (Hunnam). Conveniently Thomas’s are the only nearby arms Edith can run into when Edith’s father is mysteriously murdered soon after and it’s off to become Lady Sharpe she goes!

In England, Edith quickly realizes her father’s reservations regarding the Sharpes–Thomas shares his mansion only with severe sister Lucille (Chastain, back to her in a bit)–were not unfounded. Thomas is as terribly off as Mr.Cushing said, with a sinking house that would be optimistically listed as “a well ventilated fixer upper.” It’s got “character” in spades! Did I mention the walls bleed? Still Edith soldiers on because, well did I also mention tall, dark and angsty? Hiddleston wears that (and an array of Victorian era finery) well. Like, maybe-a-couple-ghosts-in-the-bathtub-isn’t-a-deal-breaker, well. The real delights in the move to Crimson Peak however are a tie between the cavernous home, with its creaky accompanying sound design and Lucille Sharpe.

As Lucille, in her restrictive gowns and with her deader than deadpan voice tone, Chastain sinks her teeth into the considerable scenery. Her grim presence looms over her brother and his bride in that fun Mrs. Danvers kind of way. Most of the best scenes are the ones with her and Thomas holding tense discussions in the shadows. Their formidable history simmers just below the surface and as in the best Gothic stories, reflects the decaying environment around them. She desperately clings to their status quo while he, with Edith now in the picture, seems to glimpse a change in the winds, but is it too late?

And that’s Crimson Peak’s best achievement really, the oppressive atmosphere that the very walls inflict on everyone. And fortunately for us, young Edith is so apt to explore. Her endless curiosity to seek out all the nooks and crannies of the home to learn their secrets go against all reasonable horror movie rules. She shouldn’t follow that noise, talk to the ghosts or poke that red goo with a stick and yet I too wanted to know everything about the place. The production design and costumes from Thomas E. Sanders and Kate Hawley, respectively, are simply to die for and go a long way in filling in the gaps that the story leaves out. For better or worse, I suspect the house itself warrants repeat viewings of Peak. As for the true horror moments, Del Toro certainly does not shy away from ghouls or gore, but set in Allerdale Hall, they’re more the norm than cause for shock. This is a classic Gothic romance being wholly embraced by everyone on screen.

Crimson Peak is now open and you can check out interview with Doug Jones, the actor behind many of Peak’s ghosts here.

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Filed Under: Film Reviews Tagged With: Charlie Hunnam, Crimson Peak, film, film review, Guillermo Del Toro, Jessica Chastain, ...

Film Review “Truth”

Director: James Vanderbilt
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, Dennis Quaid, Elisabeth Moss, Topher Grace
Running Time: 121mins.
Sony Pictures Classics

Our Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars

It sets a high standard to go ahead and give a politically charged film a title like Truth but that’s exactly what James Vanderbilt, making his directorial debut, has done. I expect the film will be targeted by leftover George W Bush supporters as its protagonist says, “for asking the question” once again of GW’s National Guard service time but the fact is he still won out in the 2004 election despite this scandal and that result is not the concern of this film. Instead Vanderbilt delves into the high stakes of questioning extremely powerful people and more than once the dangers of confirmation bias by even the most experienced of journalists. Whatever your politics, this is an often compelling film that is driven by another strong performance from Cate Blanchett.

Based on her own memoir, Truth and Duty, the film tells the story of Mary Mapes (Blanchett) an ex-producer for on CBS’s “60 Minutes” whose career, along with famous newsman Dan Rather (Redford), was ended when they dug into the dodgy military record of President George W. Bush and whether or not strings were pulled to not only keep him out of the Vietnam war, but to also cover for his being AWOL from even his National Guard duties. On the eve of the 2004 presidential election, the story was make or break material whose impact relied on the timeliness at which it could be delivered to the public.
Working from her own memoir, it’s hard for the film to be anything but sympathetic to Mapes and Rather’s side. I don’t think Rather can feel too badly about this chapter of his life being played out large again when Robert Redford is portraying him. That said, Vanderbilt still manages time and again to highlight the flaws in Mapes relentless fight to get this story out. In order to make her deadline to air, she naysays concerns raised by some of the experts her own team has assembled which eventually comes right back around the bite her later. Once the story blows up and is challenged by Bush’s right-wing supporters in the media, the film picks up. More and more tiny technicalities rip apart Mapes’s reporting if not the actual truth about Bush’s service. Vanderbilt even wrings stress out of the nuances of Microsoft Word fonts, quite a feat outside of resumé creation.

Along the way, Cate Blanchett is electric to watch. In the beginning she is secure and untouchable in light of her success in breaking the news of atrocities at Abu Gharib and her close partnership with the iconic Rather. In Blanchett’s Mapes you can see why a network would bow to her command despite some doubts. It’s a performance that only gets more layered as Mapes weathers her attacks. At first keeping her defenses up and then slowly you see her gears start to shift from denials to justification, despair, and eventually to remounting up her full defenses against a harsh inquisition lead by a surprisingly intimidating Dermot Mulroney. Blanchett is capably supported by the likes of Dennis Quaid and Elisabeth Moss (I could have done without Topher Grace shouting a speech in the film’s later acts), but her charisma is only truly matched in the relatively small role Redford plays. Redford avoids impersonation of Dan Rather, but exudes the stoicism of the long-serving anchorman well and serves as a needed calm counterpoint in Mapes’s political storm.

Perhaps what’s most interesting about Truth is to see an internet-powered scandal from over a decade ago and how even in just this short span of time, news has evolved (or devolved? Depends who you ask). Twitter, among other outlets, wasn’t around yet and by that standard, I began to wonder if this story would have died in the ever-shuffling 24 hour news cycle or if it would have simply come to the same end results in days rather than months. And whether Rather could have better ‘survived’ an even more sped up timeline. In a film all about raising questions, I was satisfied to come away with still more.

Truth is on limited release from October 16th and will expand to more theaters later this month.

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Filed Under: Film Headlines, Film Reviews Tagged With: cate blanchett, film review, james vanderbilt, robert redford, sony picture classics, truth, ...

Film Review “Bridge of Spies”

Starring: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance and Alan Alda
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Rated: PG 13
Running time: 2 hrs 21 mins
Touchstone Pictures

Our Score: 5 out of 5 stars

I was born in 1960. By the time I was old enough to understand the state of the world, President Kennedy had been assassinated and the Russians were the bad guys. I don’t think I ever had a genuine fear that one day my Cleveland neighborhood would just evaporate in a nuclear explosion but I do know that to the generation before me, the Cold War was very real.

1957. We are introduced to a man who spends the majority of his days painting. Occasionally he will journey to the local park, paints in hand, to take in the beauty of the day. He is also occasionally followed by various members of the United States government. This man is Rudolf Abel and he is a Russian spy.

The second collaboration between Steven Spielberg and Joel and Ethan Coen, who co-wrote the script with Matt Charman, “Bridge of Spies” jumps to the top of my “Best Film of the Year” list. Three-plus decades after “Bachelor Party,” Tom Hanks continues to add classic characters and performances to his resume’. Here he plays insurance litigator James Donovan, an attorney approached by the US government to represent Abel in his upcoming espionage trial. Donovan appreciates the fact that the US wants the trial to be transparent to the world…to show that Abel’s rights are not being violated. He doesn’t appreciate that he will soon be known as the guy defending the spy. Assured that things will be handled swiftly he remarks, “Great. Everyone will hate me, but at least I’ll lose.” Things get even more hectic when the U2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers is shot down over Russia and Powers is declared a spy.

Hanks’ performance is complimented by a star-making performance by Rylance, who in his native England is regarded as the greatest stage actor since Laurence Olivier. He is amazing here, his gentle manners and quiet demeanor lulling the audience into caring about him. The supporting cast is equally strong, from Alan Alda as Donovan’s boss at his law firm to Amy Ryan as Donovan’s supportive wife.

Visually the film is brilliant. Director Spielberg has recreated East Berlin in the early 1960s down to the razor wire on the wall. The mood is perfectly reflected in the screenplay by Charman and the Coens. Thomas Newman’s musical score also helps convey the feelings of the time. This is Spielberg’s 28th full length feature film since 1974. With the exception of “The Color Purple,” the previous 27 had been scored by John Williams. A short illness, and composing the score for the upcoming “Star Wars” film, prevented Williams from working on “Bridge of Spies.” Newman’s score is fine accompaniment to the story but I did, on occasion, catch myself wondering how Williams would have scored certain scenes.

As fall fades into the holiday season, “Bridge of Spies” has thrown down the first gauntlet in the season’s Oscar race.

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