I FEEL PRETTY (2018) movie review

Leave a comment


From the overzealous caricature to the underdeveloped plot, this film seeks to validate the slightly overweight by suffocating them with overt Amy’s body-image messages. It plays like propaganda. Like the catchy but unfortunate “If you’re happy and you know it” tune that that one famous weight loss business reworded to say “If you’re lonely, eat your feelings, have a snack.” This too-long promo glazes over after the lingering pre-credits intro. Force-feeding an I’m-ok-you’re-okay-no-matter-what-we-look-like quickly turns to shaming as the hotter, mean girls tower in the hierarchy over less attractive smarter girls. This is the one way Amy balks the stereotype: her character is also not smart nor a good friend.Amy Schumer’s poster girl attempt falls short because she is not ugly enough to pull it off. She’s lovely. It’s her insecurity that’s the turn-off. She makes a 13-going-on-30 Zoltar-Tom-Hanks’-Big wish in a femme fountain, hits her head and wakes up Feeling Pretty. Unlike Gwyneth’s fat suit film (Shallow Hal 2001), we don’t see that alter-Amy. She just shifts to her super confident self with the low low aspirations of front desking for beauty products mean moguls.The bright spots are the co-stars when they get a word in – friends proposing group dates and the heart-of-gold tech nerd bf at Zumba.It’s another Devil Wears Prada without the smart story, snappy writing, likable mentor, or plot arc. It’s just every screen Amy, all of Amy, too much of Amy. It’s gratuitous Amy.In an era when Krasinskis are making smaller budget almost silent films with beauty and intrigue in every shot, movies like this feel so made-for-tv poor that holding the stub feels like an insult to art.

A QUIET PLACE (2018) movie review

Leave a comment


Shhh. Hold your breath. Don’t make a sound. Don’t scream or the monsters will eat you.A family fighting to survive creates a world signing in silence on a farm after carnivorous aliens with heightened hearing threaten to wipe out all life on earth.John Krasinski wrote, produced, starred in, and directed this his first full-length feature film. It’s both terrifying and oh so satisfying. Felt silence frames every scene. I’ve never been so aware of the audio work on a film.His wife in real life, Emily Blunt, read the script and asked for the role despite the harrowing ordeals she knew she’d undergo as the pregnant wife in this silent scary movie. Blunt delightfully becomes her roles, memorably, believably.The children also performed their parts surprisingly well, especially Noah Jupe who played the best friend in last year’s heartfelt hit Wonder.Krasinski also wisely chose to cast deaf actress Millicent Simmons in the role as the daughter. She offered her experience and expertise with ASL to the the cast so the sign language would look realistic and would convey the emotion in each unspoken word or phrase. Impressive for its lower budget, memorable without words, the Quiet Place is a worthy watch.

BATTLE OF THE SEXES (2017) movie review

Leave a comment

Steve Carell and Emma Stone go head to head in this film about conquering fears and pursuing obsessions. Both are praised for their wins, but both win at a cost.Stone plays Billie Jean King, pro tennis player who took on the known misogynist king of the courts Bobby Riggs, Carell.The centerpiece of this pastel tapestry of human experiences shows the dedication to a sport, body and soul. Then it outlines the match with glimpses at secret inner lives and choices that guide both down very different life paths.Billie Jean has an affair with her hairdresser and ends her marriage. Meanwhile, Bobby allows his gambling addiction to separate him from his wife and child – his sole place of refuge and sanity.Both players pursue what they admit to being temporary, unhealthy choices.Both, despite wins and losses, obsess and fight and decompress in ways they know they shouldn’t and find themselves wallowing in shame.Riggs’ loudmouth, public persona is nothing like his true man at home.

Fortunately for these characters, they are deeply loved by people who refuse to give up on them even when offered the loser’s role of 2nd place. This may be the truth of the film. It’s not about the win or a loss for feminism. It’s a sad two hour story, beautifully told, that offers hope for all even after bad choices, and redemption if unconditional love is accepted.

READY PLAYER ONE (2018) movie review

1 Comment

Strap in for a throwback bonanza via VR gateway.

It’s an 80’s lovers paradise from Atari and Iron Giant to Rubix cube (called fondly a Zemeckis cube) and the Delorean.

RPO is fast-paced but classic Spielberg. Fight glowing dinos, air dance through The Shining hotel, take a van ride ala inception, but don’t forget your crew.The message isn’t to log off, but to appreciate reality, at least in moderation.

ISLE OF DOGS (2018) movie review

Leave a comment

Wes Anderson rides again in his purest puppy parade to date.
While he famously kills a dog in each of his symmetrical dollhouse menagerie films, here in Isle of Dogs he attempts a mass rescue of dog-kind. Only one little hero pilot willingly risks his life to save his best pal Spot.Wes puts his diorama-prone filmmaking to the test in this puppeted art film including every ounce of classic Andersonism fans have come to expect, though the tone is perhaps even more dry and stoic and the narrative arc less pronounced than his usual fare. Immersing in Japanese culture, Anderson allows for half or more than half of this film’s dialogue to be in Japanese without subtitles. It’s an adjustment at first, but we’ve come to expect nothing less from Wes.And though he worked remotely on this project, he still filmed himself acting out the dog roles, controlled each element of visual story, and offered what can only be called his style to the production. He in his classic tweed suit lends even the mangey dogs living on “Trash Island” a level of posh austerity, a demure grace.

At times watching this felt like watching a Miyazaki film. Perhaps it’s the slower, continuous flow-through pacing or the neutral-toned setting. As it turns out, Miyazaki is just one of the artist influences that Anderson nods to. Also in the list are renowned filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and Charles Schultz of Peanuts cartoon fame.Edward Norton, Scarlett Johansson, Jeff Goldblume, Greta Gerwig, Bryan Cranston, Tilda Swinton, and of course Bill Murray are only a few of the voice talents behind the hand-painted hand-designed stop-motion characters.Each one took around 16 weeks to make, with around a thousand interchangeable faces to pinpoint specific expressions within each of the 12 frames per second. It took 670 artists years to create this hour & 41 minute long film. An excellent interview with some of the Isle of Dogs animators can be read here.Two scenes still stand out days later as potential for pop genius and eccentricity unmatched: the sushi scene in which audiences gain point of view from the eyes of a sushi chef as he slices and creates a box lunch, and the kidney transplant scene with a realistic overhead view within an operating room as a surgeon slices, removes, stiches up, and replaces a kidney. It’s surprising and yet fitting in the world as presented by Anderson.

A WRINKLE IN TIME (2018) movie review

1 Comment


I respect that Chris Pine brings his good game to a children’s film with as much resolve and intentionality as he does his more serious adult roles. There were moments of his Hell or High Water type performance even in Wrinkle. Pine’s face graces the screen enough to almost erase Mindy Kaling’s awkward line deliveries and boxy gowned running scenes over CG grassy knolls to meet Oprah and Reese Witherspoon, who both basically play themselves.The tone is playful, childlike. It’s like a Spy Kids mission to save the father who got lost in another dimension. 

The costumes are stunning, bold, and bright like a Project Runway finale.Storm Reid is the young actress who plays Meg. She is believable, vulnerable, lovely.This was my favorite novel growing up. I delighted over every one of Madeleine L’Engle’s paragraphs detailing the adventure with Meg the dreamer, meg the feeler, Meg the insecure but capable girl. School days felt odd and long then, and I longed for the stargazing rock where she would go to contemplate the universe and fixing its problems. Charles Wallace, precocious and kind, too often caught up in his own world, always supported his misfit sister. And Calvin the sad boy with a lion’s heart and more patience than most somehow joined in on the journey. In the book there is a flying horse – a pegasus, a stuttering witch woman or three (much like the Fates of Greek myth), a dog who understands, and a feverish fight against the It of darkness.Somehow sitting in the theater through this hour + music video with a plot felt like a counseling session as each character took a turn cupping Meg’s face to remind her, with tears in their eyes, to believe the truths about herself and to run from lies. You are special. You are valuable. You are wanted. You are smart. You are enough. You are loved.  That feels like time well spent.  

BLACK PANTHER (2018) movie review

2 Comments

Forget your fear that Marvel will take over movies as we know them. Never mind those haunting urges that attending might mean you’re supporting the “man” of the movie industry. That cash cow should not keep you from enjoying a night at the movies.Give Marvel’s new James Bond that sweet Panther suit, a sassy brainy sister with access to more tech-power than Iron Man can boast, an army of spear-wielding women, and a backstory littered with the weight of royalty, alien metal, and starlit Lion King nods, and you’ve got the action-packed two plus hours of Black Panther.The perfect cast pounces into action while Andy Serkis gives chase. You may have to overlook the piece-meal religious appropriations and some overly charged CGI, but this movie is everything you’ve come to expect: lively and exhilarating action in a stand-alone story that introduces a slew of new likable characters who jump battle-ready from scene to scene.The tribal traditions offer depth of culture to the every-hero-an-Island usual Marvel landscape. Here heroes are born, made, and continue to fight for place earning the respect of a nation with a secret that could change the world if shared.

HOME AGAIN (2017) movie review

Leave a comment


RomCom totality has been reached. Reese dawns mom jeans to prove that women her age can still get 20 year old boys.This film’s all-heart-no-regrets message leaves watchers with warm fuzzy muddied morals when sort-of-separated Mom of two has a fling on her 40th to ward off the sorrow of feeling less than okay.I am a big fan of birthdays, but this takes the goal a little too far.The morning after, three sweet, sensational, LA dreamers move in.No relationship, no background, just three super well-meaning 20 somethings who become instant uncles for the young girls of the house.  Reality is not usually the basis for a rom-com. I get it. And I too, got caught up in the syrupy sentiment.But I’m left pondering the truisms being presented in this film. I now recognize the fairytale farce for what it is and refuse to pass it all off as fine just because it’s a Reese-lovely rom com.

DARKEST HOUR (2017) movie review

2 Comments

Joe Wright has directed some of the most beautiful films I have been privileged to watch. In Pride and Prejudice, Anna Karenina, even Atonement (despite the story I wasn’t fond of), he captures moments and immortalizes them, choreographs whole sequences with the score, and creates large-scale spectacles.

My jaw dropped in this film when in a single scene we, the audience members, watch bird’s-eye from an aircraft the bombing of the French landscape as refugees flee, then that war-torn countryside somehow transposes becoming the face of a dead soldier. Unbelievable filmmaking. Sobering. Critical. Visually incomparable.

He never forgets his audience. He treats them to and allows them to witness intimate moments of curiosity, sorrow, grace. The Churchills as a couple, lunches with the King, arguments in the war room that changed the course of history, all of these plots offer a deeper understanding of the man in every frame.Churchill comes into power as England’s Prime Minister under duress. The country is already at war, and Parliament does not trust him. While they discuss whether or not they approve of Winston as a leader, he is leading a campaign against Hitler.This film frames his first days in office in which he leads Project Dynamo as a secret rescue mission to bring home the British army stranded at Dunkirk. He knows that his next move could mean the fate of England itself, possibly even the world.I thought that I could only love Lithgow as Churchill now, but Gary Oldman brought him back to life brilliantly. His Churchill is gruff and humble, curmudgeon friend. Winston Churchill, so brave and confident, fought two battles at once. He knew what was at stake, and he had the foresight to fill his war cabinet with people who could and would disagree with him. He needed to win the people’s trust, and he was willing to earn it. He also did not tread lightly into war against the Nazi super-force, as was. His brilliant speeches resonated through Parliament halls, on radio announcements, and in his meetings with King George himself.Churchill also drank copiously, smoked cigars constantly, and loved the sound of his own voice. He would have been a bear of a man to live with, yet his wife adored him. She is the quiet heroine of this film. She supports, empowers, teases, challenges, calms, calls out, and desperately loves Winston. Behind this human with the weight of the world on his shoulders is the one person who encourages him daily. She is his rock.Wright wisely places a seemingly inconsequential character, a typist played by the lovely Lily James, into the closest of quarters with Winston. From the bathroom to the war room, she takes dictation, and the world shifts in those few days.
Churchill has fascinated me for some time. A few years ago, I visited Blenheim Palace in England. Winston was born in the cloak room. He was not born into royal line or glamorous fame, but this vast estate now boasts his connection with the place. His childhood toy soldiers still stand in battle array under glass. I don’t understand it, but I cannot deny that he was a brilliant strategist. It seems that he was born envisioning war scenarios, playing Risk, knowing what it would mean to take on a threat like Hitler. It seems Churchill was perhaps born “for such a time as this.”

THE POST (2017) movie review

Leave a comment

I love Spielberg. I know that simply stating this will force some readers into the spin-cycle of anti-indie argumentation. I can’t help it. We know his war spectacles, his historical bio-pics, of which this is one. I thought I’d get tired of seeing him cast Tom Hanks yet again, but who was I kidding? I love Tom. Spielberg puts fire under pivotal historical moments, bringing them to light so we relive them. I respect those who retell our histories hoping we won’t remake the same mistakes.The Post used to be a smaller publication, fighting for its place, for representation, for a voice. The superpower New York Times took a risk and went to court over printing classified Vietnam war documents. If the Post had not followed suit with the Pentagon Papers, who knows what would have happened to our country during Watergate?Despite the tension and generally strained sentiment towards journalism at present, we do know that without free speech, free press, and our many inalienable rights, our country could author its own demise. These truths, self-evident, must be fought for.I am grateful for films like The Post as they don’t seem to seek to glamorize the institutions so much as the human choices amidst conflict that changed the world. In The Post, Spielberg offers intimate moments of truth from multiple forums: the powerful pressroom – minds racing and typewriters clacking, the factory floor – floor to ceiling printing presses whirring fast over steel typeset to build the hard copy news. You can almost smell the ink, feel the room shaking, squint in the flood light of illumination when people stand for truth and for what they know is right despite threats.
This director offers both power and intimacy in the same scenes. Here both are portrayed by favorite actors in memorable and slightly unique character roles. I love Hanks’ sharp sassy news Editor and Meryl Streep’s demure decision maker.She appears almost timid until she comes into her own. Her arc evident, she proves her prowess yet again. She is lovely on screen, unapologetic in her quirks and sentimentality. She is strong in her femininity, gracious in her leadership. I expected more heavy-handed agenda-pushing moments of Meryl on a soapbox standing for equality, but when she questions herself, it is in the most subtle of scenes: sitting in pajamas conversing with her daughter after gently tucking in grandkids. Here she ponders the implications of her past and present, and here she decides to risk all and change the world.