#28DaysofBlack Review: "IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK"

[One of the emerging film talents of the last decade is writer-director Barry Jenkins.  His incredible adaptation of James Baldwin's 1974 novel, If Beale Street Could Talk, proves that Moonlight, which won the “Best Picture” Oscar, was and is not a fluke.]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 6 of 2021 (No. 1744) by Leroy Douresseaux

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

Running time:  119 minutes (1 hour, 59 minutes)

MPAA – R for language and some sexual content

DIRECTOR:  Barry Jenkins

WRITER:  Barry Jenkins (based on the novel by James Baldwin)

PRODUCERS:  Dede Gardner, Barry Jenkins, Jeremy Kleiner, Sara Murphy, and Adele Romanski

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  James Laxton

EDITORS:  Joi McMillon and Nat Sanders

COMPOSER:  Nicholas Britell

Academy Award winner

DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring:  KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Teyonah Parris, Colman Domingo, Ethan Barrett, Melanni Mines, Ebony Obsidian, Dominique Thorne, Michael Beach, Aunjanue Ellis, Diego Luna, Emily Rios, Ed Skrein, Finn Wittrock, Brian Tyree Henry, Dave Franco, and Kaden Byrd

If Beale Street Could Talk is a 2018 American drama and romance film written and directed by Barry Jenkins.  The film is based on James Baldwin's 1974 novel, If Beale Street Could Talk.  The film follows the efforts of a young woman and her family as they try to prove the innocence of her lover after he is charged with a serious crime.

If Beale Street Could Talk introduces “Tish” Rivers (KiKi Layne) and Alonzo “Fonny” Hunt (Stephan James).  They have been friends their entire lives, and begin a romantic relationship when Tish is 19 and Fonny is 22.  They struggle to find a place to live because it is the early 1970s, and most New York City landlords refuse to rent apartments to black people.  Fonny, a young artist and sculptor, is later arrested and accused of raping a woman in an unlikely scenario.

It is afterwards that Tish announces to her parents, Sharon (Regina King) and Joseph Rivers (Colman Domingo), and to her sister, Ernestine (Teyonah Parris), that she is pregnant.  Not everyone in Fonny's family, however, is happy about the impending birth of a grandchild.  As the months drag on, Tish, Sharon, and the rest of the family realize that they will have to give an all-out effort in order to help Fonny's lawyer, Hayward (Finn Wittrock), free Fonny from a criminal justice system that will do anything to keep him behind bars.

I love the beautiful cinematography in If Beale Street Could Talk.  I think it does so much to sell the exquisite love story at the heart of this film, and If Beale Street Could Talk is a romantic movie.  It imagines love in the ruins of a society shackled by white racism and white supremacy.  In that way, director Barry Jenkins' film can literally talk to his audience about racism and oppression of black people while telling a poetic and expressionistic story of two young black people in love.

If Beale Street Could Talk is shaped by a number of excellent performances, with Regina King's Sharon Rivers as the port-in-the-storm for the tossed and turned ships in her immediate family and circle.  King is the sun queen, and in her warmth, KiKi Layne and Stephan James can grow and build their characters and their characters' love story into something that is so strong that it overcomes everything working against it.

In his Oscar-winning Moonlight, Jenkins told the story of gay boy growing into a man by taking the ordinary coming-of-age story and making it something extraordinary for the ages.  In If Beale Street Could Talk, Jenkins' racial drama is told as a timeless love story.  Perhaps, making a film set in the 1970s be timeless is most important, as the racism and oppression of then are not only symptoms of that time, but rather are also the breaths that this nation takes.

In the end, I am amazed by Barry Jenkins.  His film is about love and shows us love and is love.  Love, love, love:  I am overwhelmed.  If Beale Street Could Talk holds to the truths that Dr. Martin Luther King spoke on love (love's transforming powers).  Normally, I would feel anger after seeing a film like this, but in the end, Jenkins' fascinating aesthetic of love and Black Consciousness wins out.  This is why I am still trying to figure out which is the best film of 2018 – BlacKkKlansman or If Beale Street Could Talk?

10 out of 10

Tuesday, February 2, 2021


2019 Academy Awards, USA”  1 win for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: (Regina King); 2 nominations: “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Score” (Nicholas Britell) and “Best Adapted Screenplay” (Barry Jenkins)

2019 Golden Globes, USA:  1 win for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Regina King); 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama” and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Barry Jenkins)

BAFTA Awards:  2 nominations: “Best Screenplay-Adapted” (Barry Jenkins) and “Original Music” (Nicholas Britell)

The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "The Girl With All the Gifts" is a Gift to Movie Audiences

 

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 22 (of 2020) by Leroy Douresseaux

 

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

The Girl with All the Gifts (2016)

Running time:  111 minutes (1 hour, 51 minutes)

MPAA – R for disturbing violence/bloody images, and for language

DIRECTOR:  Colm McCarthy

WRITER:  Mike Carey (based on his novel)

PRODUCER:  Camille Gatin and Angus Lamont

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Simon Dennis   

EDITOR:  Matthew Cannings

COMPOSER:  Cristobal Tapia de Veer

SCI-FI/HORROR/DRAMA

Starring:  Sennia Nanua, Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine, Fisayo Akinade, Anthony Welsh, Anamaria Marinca, Dominique Tipper, and Glenn Close

The Girl with All the Gifts is a 2016 British post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film from director Colm McCarthy.  Screenwriter Mike Carey adapted this film's screenplay from his 2014 novel, The Girl with All the Gifts.  The Girl with All the Gifts the movie is set in a dystopian future and follows the struggles of a scientist, a teacher, and two soldiers, and a special young girl who embark on a journey of survival.

The Girl with All the Gifts is set in the United Kingdom in a near future scenario.  Humanity has been ravaged by a mysterious disease that is caused by a parasitic fungus.  It is transmitted by bodily fluids, such as when an infected person bites an uninfected person.  The infected humans have turned into fast-moving, mindless zombies called “Hungries.”  Mankind's only hope is a small group of hybrid children, born with the fungus wrapped around their brains, making them part-human and part-Hungry.  These children crave living, human flesh, but they retain the ability to think and to learn.

On an army base, the scientist, Dr. Caroline Caldwell (Glenn Close), has been using a group of hybrid children in an attempt to develop a vaccine that would protect humans from becoming infected Hungries.  One of the children is a very special and exceptional girl named Melanie (Sennia Nanua), who has drawn the particular attention of Helen Justineau (Gemma Arterton), a young woman who is responsible for educating and for studying the children.

The hybrid children on the army base are essentially as held prisoners, guarded by a group of soldiers lead by Sergeant Eddie Parks (Paddy Considine).  When the base falls, Melanie, Justineau, Dr. Caldwell, Parks, and another soldier, Private Kieran Gallagher (Fisayo Akinade), head for London in the hope of finding help, but are they all in denial about the new order of things in a world of Hungries?

I have no trouble recommending The Girl with All the Gifts, a fantastic and truly unique film.  It is equally post-apocalyptic science fiction, zombie apocalypse horror, and road movie drama.  I could have watched another two hours of this stunning movie.  The Girl with All the Gifts is like a new take on the three films based on late author Richard Matheson's 1954 seminal post-apocalyptic novel, I Am Legend.  Those films are The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971), and I Am Legend (2007), to one extent or another.

What makes this film exceptional is both the performance by and the appearance of Sennia Nanua as the film's lead character, Melanie.  She gives a honest and vibrant performance as Melanie, a child referred to as “it,” but who grows from a child seeking attention and being... hungry to a child learning to a becoming the group's guide and protector and finally to evolving into a kind of “Eve.”  Also, it is simply great to see a young actress of color as the lead in a science fiction film, especially in a movie that is led primarily by female characters.

The performances in the film are mostly poignant and quiet.  Do I have to tell you that Glenn Close gives a muscular turn as Dr. Caldwell?  Should I have to tell you that?  Well, I will tell you again that The Girl With All the Gifts is one of this decade's best genre films and that I highly recommend and might even demand that you see it.

9 of 10
A+

Friday, October 16, 2020


NOTES:
BAFTA Awards 2017:  1 nomination: “Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer” (Mike Carey and Camille Gatin)

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Review: "Knives Out" a Fresh Cut of Murder Mystery

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 15 (of 2020) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Knives Out (2019)
Running time:  130 minutes (2 hours, 10 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for thematic elements including brief violence, some strong language, sexual references, and drug material
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Rian Johnson
PRODUCERS:  Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Steve Yedlin (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Bob Ducsay
COMPOSER:  Nathan Johnson
Academy Award nominee

MYSTERY/COMEDY

Starring:  Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, Christopher Plummer, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, Riki Lindhome, Edi Patterson, Frank Oz, K Callan, Noah Segan, M. Emmet Walsh, and Marlene Forte

Knives Out is a 2019 mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson.  The film is a modern whodunit and a murder mystery inspired by the works of the legendary mystery novelist, Agatha Christie.  Knives Out focuses on a master detective investigating an eccentric, combative family after the family's patriarch is found dead.

Knives Out introduces wealthy crime novelist, Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer).  He has invited his family to his Massachusetts mansion for his 85th birthday party.  The following morning, Harlan's housekeeper, Fran (Edi Patterson), finds Harlan dead, with his throat slit.  Local police Detective Lieutenant Elliott (LaKeith Stanfield) believes Harlan's death to be a suicide.  However, an anonymous party among the family has secretly paid private eye, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), to investigate Harlan's death as a homicide.  Blanc finds his suspects among the members of the family, and each one is either eccentric or combative.

Blanc learns that Harlan's relationships with his family were strained.  Blanc is keeping an eye on particular members of the family.  There is Harlan's eldest daughter, Linda Drysdale (Jamie Lee Curtis), a real estate mogul, and his youngest son, Walt Thrombey (Michael Shannon).  There is also Joni Thrombey (Toni Collette), Harlan's daughter-in-law and the widow of his late son, Neil, and his son-in-law, Richard Drysdale (Don Johnson), Linda's husband.  Even Harlan's nurse and close friend, Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas), is a suspect... or at least has knowledge that will answer important questions.  And where is Harlan's grandson, Ransom “Hugh” Drysdale (Chris Evans), the spoiled playboy son of Linda and Richard?

Whodunit... if it is true that someone did anything criminal?  Or is the truth more complicated and too obvious for even world-famous private investigator Benoit Blanc to discover?

Rian Johnson's Knives Out starts with an excellent screenplay, not necessarily in terms of the mystery's plot.  That is mostly just an exercise in genre elements and trappings – similar to the twists and terms found in the works of Agatha Christie and those stories inspired by Christie.  The best of Knives Out is in the characters, the kind that character actors can use to chew up movie scenery.

The cast of Knives Out is comprised of actors who have been at or near the top of their professions in film or television at some point in their careers.  They are not really known as character actors because they have been or still are headliners.  However, they are mostly veteran actors, and they can do what character actors do best, and that is deliver performances that create the kind of characters of which film audiences cannot get enough.

That is what Rian Johnson did with this film.  He composed a topnotch script, and then, he directed his actors to topnotch performances.  The result is a mystery film that grabs the viewers and holds them from start to finish.  I certainly felt as if I could not let stop watching Knives Out; it is truly a fun film to watch.  It is not perfect; there seems not to be enough screen time for some of the best characters, such as Jamie Lee Curtis' Linda Drysdale, Michael Shannon's Walt Thrombey, and Toni Collette's Joni Thrombey.  And Chris Evan's Ransom Drysdale seems misused...

Still, get yourself to Knives Out, dear reader.  It is one of the funniest and most enjoyable murder mystery films in quite some time.

8 of 10
A

Saturday, June 20, 2020


NOTES:
2019 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Original Screenplay” (Rian Johnson)

2019 BAFTA Awards:  1 nomination: “Best Screenplay” (Rian Johnson)

2019 Golden Globes, USA:  3 nominations:  “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy,” “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Ana de Armas), and “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Daniel Craig)


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" Goes All Out

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 13 (of 2020) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
Running time: 147 minutes; MPAA – PG-13 for violence and intense sequences of action, and for brief strong language
DIRECTOR:  Christopher McQuarrie
WRITERS:  Christopher McQuarrie (based upon the television series created by Bruce Geller)
PRODUCERS: Tom Cruise, J.J. Abrams, Christopher McQuarrie, and Jake Myers
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Rob Hardy (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Eddie Hamilton
COMPOSER: Lorne Balfe
BAFTA nominee

ACTION/ADVENTURE/SPY/THRILLER

Starring: Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Vanessa Kirby Michelle Monaghan, Wes Bentley, Angela Bassett, and Alec Baldwin

Mission: Impossible – Fallout is a 2018 action-thriller and espionage film directed by Christopher McQuarrie and starring Tom Cruise.  It is the sixth film in the Mission: Impossible (M:I) film franchise, which is based on the American television series, “Mission: Impossible” (CBS, 1966-73), that was created by Bruce Geller.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout is a direct sequel to 2015's Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.  Fallout finds the members of the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) racing against time after a mission to obtain plutonium goes wrong.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout opens two years after the events depicted in Rogue Nation, which saw Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team take down Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), the anarchist mastermind who was the leader of the international criminal consortium, the Syndicate.  Now, the remnants of the Syndicate have reformed into the terrorist organization known as “the Apostles.”

Hunt and his two longest serving IMF teammates, technical field agent, Benjamin “Benji” Dunn (Simon Pegg), and IMF agent Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), are in Berlin, Germany to buy three plutonium cores from Eastern European gangsters before the Apostles do.  The mission goes awry, which forces Hunt to track the cores to whomever or whatever organization now has them.  The person who may know the cores' whereabouts or have them is the mysterious Alanna Mitsopolis a.k.a. “the White Widow” (Vanessa Kirby).

Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett), the new Director of the CIA, is furious at Hunt and current Secretary of the IMF, Al Hunley (Alec Baldwin), for failing to secure the plutonium.  Director Sloane insists that one of her agents, August Walker (Henry Cavill), an assassin working for the CIA's Special Activities Division, accompany and Hunt and his IMF team to Paris to meet the Widow.  What Hunt doesn't know is that a recent ally, former MI6 agent, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), is also tracking Hunt, and her mission may or may not be a danger to Hunt's.

I divide the six Mission: Impossible movies into two trilogies.  Mission: Impossible (1996), Mission: Impossible II (2000), and Mission: Impossible III (2006) make up the first trilogy.  Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011),  Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015), and Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) form the second trilogy.  Each film in the first trilogy has a different director and a different tone or sensibility.  The second trilogy only has two different directors, Brad Bird for Ghost Protocol and Christopher McQuarrie for Rogue Nation and Fallout.  However, beginning with Ghost Protocol, the films depict IMF as being a team of outsiders fighting both to save the world and to justify its existence, if only for a moment of goodwill immediately after a successful mission.  Afterwards, the security state apparatus of the United States is back to mistrusting the motives of IMF or to being downright hostile to it.  This intensifies the recent films' sense of drama and also sets them apart from earlier M:I films.

The recent film, Fallout, is the best of this second trilogy or second lot of films.  It certainly lives up to both the words “mission” and “impossible” in its name.  Every thing upon which Ethan Hunt embarks is a mission; these can't be adventures or mere chases because every move has a purpose.  The “impossible” comes in because the missions always involve these impossible set pieces, and Fallout sets a new standard in M:I insane set pieces.

Tom Cruise may be Hollywood's most consistent action movie star and its most ambitious.  As of the release of Fallout, the M:I film franchise was 22-years-old, with the seventh and eighth installments already preparing for release in 2021 and 2022 respectively (as of this writing).  One can call M:I III a bit of a box office misstep (but not by much), but as of Ghost Protocol, the franchise has been bigger, better (in some ways) and tastier with each new film.  Fallout, to date, is Tom Cruise's most extravagant, deliriously fun film, blending mind-bending action set pieces with brutal, physical, man-to-man fights that are sometimes to the death.  Cruise is so hungry to blow our minds ever more with each film that he actually was hurt performing a crazy and dangerous stunt himself.

In Christopher McQuarrie, Cruise seems to have found the perfect director for his aspirations for this franchise.  McQuarrie began his Hollywood career as a screenwriter and won an Oscar for writing The Usual Suspects.  In the last decade, however, he has proved to be a director of imaginative and inventive macho films that balance high octane action and conspiratorial intrigue.  McQuarrie gives us meat-and-potatoes action films, but the meat is of a high quality and the potatoes are sustainable and artisanal.  It is no coincidence that this already-good franchise has found a way to improve since McQuarrie began directing it and writing its screenplays.

The supporting cast is also excellent, with Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg finding places to shine next to Cruise's supernova.  Angela Bassett chews up two of her scenes; it is easy to take this magnificent actress for granted.  Of course, you will regret it.  I have to admit Henry Cavill impressed me in a way he has never before, and I have to say that I loved every moment of Rebecca Ferguson.  And it is always good to see Alec Baldwin.

At the end of my review of Rogue Nation, I wrote, “Seriously, Tom Cruise is as glorious as ever as Ethan Hunt.”  That remains true, and Mission: Impossible is also as glorious as ever.  I love it so much that I will say even to people who are not fans of the franchise: see Mission: Impossible – Fallout.  For a moment while I was watching this film, I thought to myself, “M:I has replaced James Bond.”  Yikes!

9 of 10
A+

2019 BAFTA Awards:  1 nomination: “Best Sound” (Gilbert Lake, James Mather, Chris Munro, and Mike Prestwood Smith)

Saturday, May 30, 2020


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Get Out" is a Cinematic Revolution

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 11 (of 2018) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Get Out (2017)
Running time: 104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence, bloody images, and language including sexual references
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Jordan Peele
PRODUCERS:  Jason Blum, Edward H. Hamm Jr., Sean McKittrick, and Jordan Peele
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Toby Oliver (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Gregory Plotkin
COMPOSER: Michael Abels
Academy Award winner

HORROR/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring:  Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Marcus Henderson, Betty Gabriel, Lakeith Stanfield, Stephen Root, Richard Herd, Erika Alexander, Yasuhiko Oyama, and Lil Rey Howery

Get Out is a 2017 horror and mystery-thriller written and directed by Jordan Peele.  At the 90th Academy Awards, Peele became the first African-American to win the “Best Original Screenplay” Oscar.  Get Out follows a young African-American man who travels with his white girlfriend to her parents' rural estate and discovers weirdness and ultimately horror.

Get Out introduces Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya), a young Black man and a photographer.  He has reluctantly agreed to meet the family of his white girlfriend, Rose Armitage (Allison Williams). From the beginning of the trip, strange things occur.

Upon arriving, Chris discovers that Rose's parents, Dean Armitage (Bradley Whitford), a neurosurgeon, and Missy (Catherine Keener), a hypnotherapist, are nice, but make discomfiting comments about black people.  Rose's brother, Jeremy (Caleb Landry Jones), is especially inappropriate.  Chris finds that housekeeper, Georgina (Betty Gabriel), and groundskeeper, Walter (Marcus Henderson), black workers on the Armitages' estate, are the most troubling of all.  After experiencing a distressing event involving Missy, Chris feels himself being trapped into something both surreal and horrifying.

Get Out is one of the most unsettling films that I have ever seen.  As an African-American and as a Black Man, specifically, I find that so much of Get Out seems to strike at my deepest fears and even at my most annoying worries.  Proverbially, this film hits “close to home.”  Get Out is essentially an allegory for the African diaspora and for the slave trade that brought stolen and captured African men, women, and children from the African continent across the Atlantic to the Americas, where they became chattel slaves.

Yes, writer-director Jordan Peele (called “mixed race” because he has a both a black and a white parent) dresses up his allegories, metaphors, similes, and symbolism in the tropes of American dark fantasy and horror films (especially those of the 1970s).  Still, his film, like quick blows in a really short fight, lays bare the cold calculations of capturing and enslaving Black people.  This is the banality of evil communicated in practicalities and practical realities.

In the final analysis, Get Out is also a great horror movie, as scary as one in which the monster, killer, or adversary uses knives, machetes, crossbows, axes, hooks, meat cleavers, etc. to kill its victims.  Many people have commented that Get Out is a criticism of white liberals, and there is some truth to that, but not as much as people think.  The villains here are white people who make living in America unsafe for African-Americans, Black people, and people of color.

Jordan Peele and his fine cast, especially Daniel Kaluuya, who embodies much of the modern Black man's existential crisis, deliver a film that is richly entertaining and is too-damn-scary to be just another horror movie.  Most of all, Get Out's truths are so true that I wonder how Peele and his cast and crew got away not only with making it, but also with sharing it with the world, especially with the United States of America.

10 of 10

Tuesday, September 11, 2018


NOTES:
2018 Academy Awards:  1 win: “Best Original Screenplay” (Jordan Peele); 3 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Edward H. Hamm Jr., and Jordan Peele), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Daniel Kaluuya), and “Best Achievement in Directing” (Jordan Peele)

2018 Golden Globes, USA:  2 nominations: Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Daniel Kaluuya

2018 BAFTA Awards:  2 nominations: “Best Screenplay (Original)” (Jordan Peele) and “Best Leading Actor” (Daniel Kaluuya)


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" Earns Love, Draws Ire

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 3 (of 2018) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
Running time:  152 minutes (2 hours, 32 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for extended sequences of sci-fi action and violence
DIRECTOR:  Rian Johnson
WRITER:  Rian Johnson (based on characters created by George Lucas)
PRODUCERS:  Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Steve Yedlin (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Bob Ducsay
COMPOSER:  John Williams
Academy Award nominee

SCI-FI/FANTASY/ACTION/ADVENTURE/DRAMA

Starring:  Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern, Benicio del Toro, Frank Oz (voice), Billie Lourd, Joonas Suotamo, Amanda Lawrence, Jimmy Vee, and Justin Theroux

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a 2017 science fiction-fantasy action film written and directed by Rian Johnson.  It is the ninth movie in the Star Wars film franchise, which began with the 1977 Oscar-winning film, Star Wars, created by George Lucas.  The Last Jedi is also a direct sequel to Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and the eighth Star Wars “episode” film.  The Last Jedi focuses on a young woman who takes her first steps into the world of the Jedi and tries to unlock the mysteries of The Force and the secrets of the past.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi finds the wannabe galactic rulers, the First Order, and its Supreme Commander Snoke (Andy Serkis), ascendant.  The First Order moves to destroy the main base of its enemy, the Resistance.  General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) struggles to keep the Resistance one step ahead of the First Order.  Heroic Resistance pilot, Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac),  leads the charge that gives the Resistance vessels the time they need to jump into hyperspace to escape the First Order.  However, escaping the First Order will not be so easy, and now stormtropper turned Resistance fighter, Finn (John Boyega), and mechanic, Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran), must execute a dangerous mission to allow the Resistance to really escape the First Order.

Meanwhile, budding Jedi, Rey (Daisy Ridley), is on the planet, Ahch-To, where she has found the long-missing Jedi Knight legend, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).  However, Luke refuses to initiate Rey into the ways of the Force and also declares that the Jedi Order must end with him.  Frustrated, Rey also discovers that she has some kind of psychic connection to Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), Luke's former student who turned to the Dark Side and now serves Snoke and the Resistance.

I found Star Wars: The Last Jedi to be as entertaining and as well-made as Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  It is quite thrilling at times and kept my on the proverbial edge of my seat hoping our heroes could survive the overwhelming First Order odds against them.  The Last Jedi is not exactly a “non-stop thrill machine,” but it is thrilling.  But neither The Last Jedi nor The Force Awakens are as good as 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars film.

I thought about why I feel that way.  I thought about it, and I think that The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi both suffer because Star Wars creator George Lucas did not have direct hand in making them.

For all the criticism leveled against Lucas by critics and fans over the decades, especially because of the Lucas directed “prequel” films, (Star Wars: Episodes I to III), Lucas is a wildly imaginative and inventive filmmaker and storyteller.  Each prequel film had enough subplots, characters, settings, worlds, ideas, and creatures to power its own film trilogy.  Lucas' weakness (relatively speaking) seems to be in the execution of telling a  film story via screenplay and directing (especially in directing actors).  Visually, Lucas' films seem almost too big for even the biggest movie screens, but that size and scale comes at the cost of the narrative.

The Force Awakens (Episode VII) and The Last Jedi (Episode VIII) are disciplined and narrow in focus, in terms of plot.  The Last Jedi focuses on (1) the struggle of the Resistance to escape destruction at the hands of the First Order and (2) Rey's quest to discover the secrets of the Jedi and the Force.  The Last Jedi is so focused that it looses the sense of wonder that permeates the original Star Wars films.  Instead, The Last Jedi references and remakes scenes from Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of the Jedi (1983).  Some people complained that The Force Awakens was a kind of remake and reboot of the original Star Wars film, but The Last Jedi does not do that as much.  [Strangely, I find that Rogue One, which is a side story connected to Star Wars 1977, comes across as a fresh, new take on Star Wars, while being true to the work of George Lucas.]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a Star Wars movie, and I will likely always love all Star Wars movies, to one extent or another.  [Every time one is on TV, I try to watch at least some of it.]  So I love The Last Jedi and will give it a high grade.  However, this final trilogy (Episodes VII to IX) is starting to seem like fan fiction, created by writers and directors who cherry pick ideas from their childhood Star Wars favorite moments.  Maybe the current owner of Star Wars, The Walt Disney Company, and the filmmakers it hires to continue the “Star Wars saga” are really afraid of new ideas or too many new ideas.  Maybe, Disney got the message; the prequel trilogy looked too different from the original trilogy and audiences, at least the vocal part of it, were pissed.  Well, the Disney-produced Star Wars films will suffer for playing it safe.

Let me summarize my thoughts and feelings this way.  If Disney replaced the title, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, with something else, say Alien or Predator, I would give this film a rating of 5 or 6 out of 10 at most.  This 8 out of 10 is the kind of love you show family.

8 of 10
A

Sunday, December 17, 2017
Edited:  Thursday, March 15, 2018

NOTES:
2018 Academy Awards, USA:  4 nominations: “Best Achievement in Visual Effects” (Ben Morris, Michael Mulholland, Neal Scanlan, and Chris Corbould), “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Score” (John Williams), “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Matthew Wood and Ren Klyce), and” Best Achievement in Sound Mixing” (Michael Semanick, David Parker, Stuart Wilson, and Ren Klyce)

2018 BAFTA Awards:  2 nominations: “Best Sound” (Ren Klyce, Michael Semanick, Matthew Wood, David Parker, and Stuart Wilson) and “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects”


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Moonlight" Shines as Groundbreaking American Cinema

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 15 (of 2017) by Leroy Douresseaux

Moonlight (2016)
Running time:  151 minutes
MPAA – R for some sexuality, drug use, brief violence, and language throughout
DIRECTOR:  Barry Jenkins
WRITERS:  Barry Jenkins; from a story by Tarell Alvin McCraney
PRODUCERS:  Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Adele Romanski
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  James Laxton
EDITORS:  Joi McMillon and Nat Sanders
COMPOSER: Nicholas Britell
Academy Award winner including “Best Picture”

DRAMA/LGBTQ

Starring:  Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, Trevante Rhodes, Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Jaden Piner, Jharrel Jerome, Andre Holland, and Janelle Monae

Moonlight is a 2016 coming-of-age drama from director Barry Jenkins.  This won the “Best Picture of the Year” Oscar at the 89th Academy Awards (February 2017).  It was the first film with an all-Black/African-American cast and also the first LGBT film to win the best picture Oscar.  Moonlight looks at the difficulties of identity and sexuality faced by the main character, an African-American male, by examining three stages of his life:  childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood.

His name is Chiron (Alex Hibbert), but some call him by the nicknames, “Little” and “Black.”  In Liberty City, Miami, Juan (Mahershala Ali), a drug dealer originally form Cuba, finds Little in an abandoned crack house, hiding from a pack of bullies.  Juan and his girlfriend, Teresa (Janelle Monae), befriend Little, and Juan becomes a mentor, of sorts.  However, Little finds himself dealing with the word, “faggot,” and with the fact that his mother, Paula (Naomie Harris), is a customer of Juan's.

Later, teen Chiron (Ashton Sanders) is a high school student.  His mother's addiction is worse, and a bully named Terrel is constantly harassing him.  Chiron befriends another teenager, Kevin (Jharrel Jerome), who likes to call Chiron by the nickname “Black,” but their friendship will be complicated by high school politics.

Later, adult Chiron (Trevante Rhodes) deals drugs in Atlanta.  He tries to reconcile with his mother.  Also, after receiving a phone call from him, Chiron travels to Miami to reunite with an adult Kevin (André Holland) to explore what could have been.

In the moonlight, black Black boys look blue (or purple, as some people say).  I think what immediately makes Moonlight stand out is what a beautiful Black boy Alex Hibbert, who plays young Chiron, is.  His subtle and fiercely quiet performance gives life-blood to the early chapters of Moonlight.  Just his demeanor humanizes all young Black boys, putting them in a positive light, similar to the way other films make young White boys cute and precocious.  In this film, gay is a journey to discovery, and while that journey is difficult, it does not yield tragedy (as in Brokeback Mountain).  So Hibbert is the first leg of the relay race that carries Moonlight to Oscar gold.

When Mahershala Ali won the best supporting actor Oscar for his performance as Juan, he became the first Muslim to win an Oscar.  Although the role is small, Juan is a giant, and Ali establishes him with richness and grace.  In a way, Ali is the pillar that supports this film, and he turns Juan into the rocket that launches the story of the stages in the life of Chiron.

Naomie Harris is electric as Paula, in a role that some African-American actresses are reluctant to play.  A Black female crack addict as a fictional character is just as likely to be a melodramatic trope as it is likely to be multi-layered character.  The crack-head can be a treacherous role, but Harris picks her spots; in each scene in which Paula appears, Harris gives her another layer.  Thus, she creates a character that can engage us, rather than a caricature that annoys the audience.

In fact, all of the performances here are good and the actors have excellent characters, via the story and screenplay, with which to work.  Tarell Alvin McCraney's story is rich source material, and Barry Jenkins turns it into a screenplay for the ages, simply because it is like nothing else before it.  Moonlight is achingly and beautifully human.  Here, the Black person – straight, gay, addict, bully, etc. –  is a life, a precious life – a life that matters.  The focus is not on tragedy but on love, connectivity, and reconciliation.  This makes Moonlight the best American LGBT or gay-theme film to date.

10 of 10

Tuesday, August 15, 2017


NOTES:
2017 Academy Awards, USA:  3 wins: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Adele Romanski – Dede Gardner became the first woman to win Best Picture twice.), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Mahershala Ali), and “Best Adapted Screenplay” (Barry Jenkins-screenplay and Tarell Alvin McCraney-story); 5 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Naomie Harris), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Barry Jenkins), “Best Achievement in Cinematography” (James Laxton), “Best Achievement in Film Editing” (Joi McMillon and Nat Sanders – Joi McMillon became the first African American female to be nominated for Best Film Editing.), and “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)” (Nicholas Britell)

2017 Golden Globes, USA 2017:  1 win: “Best Motion Picture – Drama;” 5 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Mahershala Ali), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Naomie Harris), “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Barry Jenkins), “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Barry Jenkins), and “Best Original Score - Motion Picture: (Nicholas Britell)

2017 BAFTA Awards:  4 nominations: “Best Film” (Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Adele Romanski), “Best Supporting Actor” (Mahershala Ali), “Best Supporting Actress” (Naomie Harris), and “Best Screenplay (Original)” (Barry Jenkins)


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" is a Wonderful Story

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 7 (of 2017) by Leroy Douresseaux

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Running time:  134 minutes (2 hours, 14 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for extended sequences of sci-fi violence and action
DIRECTOR:  Gareth Edwards
WRITERS:  Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy; based on a story John Knoll and Gary Whitta (based on characters created by George Lucas)
PRODUCERS:  Kathleen Kennedy, Samuel Emanuel, and Allison Shearmur
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Greig Fraser (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  John Gilroy, Colin Goudie, and Jabez Olssen
COMPOSER:  Michael Giacchino
Academy Award nominee

SCI-FI/FANTASY/ACTION/ADVENTURE/DRAMA

Starring:  Felicty Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk (voice), Donnie Yen, Wen Jiang, Ben Mendelsohn, Forest Whitaker, Riz Ahmed, Mads Mikkelsen, Jimmy Smits, Genevieve O'Reilly, Alistair Petrie, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, and James Earl Jones

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a 2016 science fiction-fantasy and action film directed by Gareth Edwards.  It is the seventh film based on the characters, ideas, and situations first introduced in the 1977 film, Star Wars, written and directed by George Lucas.  In fact, Rogue One is set immediately before the events depicted in Star Wars and tells the story of a small band of rebels who embark on a mission to steal the plans for the Empire's planet-killing Death Star.

Rogue One is set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.  It opens upon a scene in which a young girl watches her father taken away by Imperial Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), an officer of the evil Galactic Empire.  A decade and a half later, that young girl is now the career criminal, Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones).  Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), an officer of the Rebel Alliance, the group that seeks to end the tyranny of the Empire, leads a group of rebels that frees Jyn from her current incarceration.

The Rebels need Jyn to help them find her father, Galen Erso (Mad Mikkelsen), a research scientist and engineer who is working on the Empire's rumored, planet-killing weapon, the Death Star.  They also need Jyn to act as an intermediary between them and an old friend of hers, the “extremist” and “terrorist,” Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), who rescued Jyn after the Empire took her parents.  Gerrera apparently has possession of Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), a defecting Imperial pilot, who has a holographic message from Galen Erso.  However, Jyn and Cassian are about to discover just how determined the Empire is to protect the secrets of the Death Star

Dear reader, I tried not to be too detailed about the plot of Rogue One, although I have summarized the first half-hour or so in great detail above.  I just saw the film night before last, and at this point, I think that it is the best Star Wars film since the original trilogy (Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi).  The first seven films are connected as part of a decades-running narrative, while this eighth movie, Rogue One, is a standalone film.  Still, it connects to the original trilogy better and more immediately than the “prequel films” (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith) or the recent sequel film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

I guess that I am saying that Rogue One is the best Star Wars film in over 30 years.  It is also the most convincing “war movie” of all the Star Wars films.  It is the most realistic looking because many of outside locations look like real places, probably because they were shot on-location.  I can safely say that this is the best-looking Star Wars film.  The blend of real, computer-generated, and special effects is seamless, with only a few exceptions.  It is almost perfect.  I only found the first hour or so to be a little clunky, but I understand the need to introduce so many characters, plot lines, and settings as early as possible in a film.

Also important:  Rogue One is a Star Wars film for our times – for now.  It features a multi-ethnic cast of engaging, likable characters, and the lead is a female character who is every bit as capable and as brave and bold as the best male characters.  Jyn Erso is a heroine in which we can believe, and even Krennic, the bad guy, is someone audiences can like or even love.

My mind bought into the idea that Rogue One takes place just before the original Star Wars.  Anyone who has ever seen at least one sequel to the Star Wars of 1977 owes it to themselves to see, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

8 of 10
A

Sunday, December 18, 2016
Edited:  Sunday, April 2, 2017

NOTES:
2017 Academy Awards, USA:  2 nominations:  “Best Achievement in Sound Mixing” (David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio, and Stuart Wilson) and “Best Achievement in Visual Effects” (John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal T. Hickel, and Neil Corbould)

2017 BAFTA Awards:  2 nominations:  “Best Make Up/Hair” (Amanda Knight, Neal Scanlan, and Lisa Tomblin) and “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (Neil Corbould, Hal T. Hickel, Mohen Leo, John Knoll, and Nigel Sumner)


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: Disney's Live-Action "Cinderella" is Good, But is not Disney Classic

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 5 (of 2017) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Cinderella (2015)
Running time:  105 minutes (1 hour 45 minutes)
Rating: MPAA – PG for mild thematic elements
DIRECTOR:  Kenneth Branagh
WRITER:  Chris Weitz
PRODUCED:  David Barron, Simon Kinberg, and Allison Shearmur
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Haris Zambarloukos (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Martin Walsh
COMPOSER:  Patrick Doyle
Academy Award nominee

FANTASY/ROMANCE

Starring:  Cate Blanchett, Lily James, Richard Madden, Helen Bonham Carter, Nonso Anozie, Stellan Skarsgard, Sophie McShera, Holliday Grainger, Derek Jacobi, Ben Chaplin, and Hayley Atwell

Cinderella is a 2015 fantasy and romance film from director Kenneth Branagh and writer Chris Weitz.  Released by Walt Disney Pictures, the film is based on Walt Disney's 1950 animated feature film, Cinderella, and the folk tale of the same name.  In this new version of the story, a young woman is at the mercy of her cruel stepmother, but her fortunes change after she meets a dashing young man.

In a peaceful kingdom there is a father (Ben Chaplin), a mother (Hayley Atwell), and their beautiful daughter, Ella (Lily James).  Ella's parents teach her courage and kindness, and her mother teaches her to believe in magic.  Some years after her mother dies, Ella's father marries the Lady Tremaine (Cate Blanchett), who has two loud, rude daughters, Anastasia (Holliday Grainger) and Drisella (Sophie McShera).

When Ella's father goes abroad for business, Lady Tremaine reveals her cruel and jealous nature.  After Ella's father dies, Lady Tremaine takes over the household and pushes Ella from her own bedroom and into the attic.  Anastasia and Drisella even give Ella a new name, Cinderella.  After one particularly cruel day, Ella rides off into the woods where she meets a young man who says his name is Kit (Richard Madden).  For both young people, this meeting is a turning point, but there are forces arrayed to keep them apart.

At the end of this movie, the Fairy Godmother (played by Helena Bonham Cater) describes the “forever-after” as being defined by “courage,” “kindess,” and “a little magic” (or something like that).  This live-action version of Cinderella is indeed about “just a little magic.”  Disney's classic, 1950 animated Cinderella is a fairy tale that is practically entirely infused with magic – from talking animals to an atmosphere of enchantment.  Cinderella is more like a fantasy-romance or a romantic fantasy than it is like a fairy tale.  With its lavish costumes and opulent sets, Cinderella plays like a period set piece set in a fictional kingdom in an indeterminate time.

But I can move past that.  2015 live-action Cinderella does not have to be 1950 animated Disney classic Cinderella.  This new Cinderella relies on its title character for the magic that a wand or a fairy godmother might provide.  As Cinderella, Lily James is quite good.  When she smiles or is happy, the movie lights up.  When she is sad, I felt sad, too.  In this film, James does not have the greatest range between happy and sad.  When Cinderella isn't happy or sad, James makes her look as if she is in a solid state of consternation.  Luckily, it is Cinderella's state of happiness or sadness that drives the movie, and that works.

I don't need to say that Cate Blanchett is really good as Lady Tremiane, “the Stepmother.”  Blanchett dominates her scenes, and the filmmakers were wise to limit her screen time; otherwise, Blanchett would have burned this movie down in a larger roll.  Everyone else is good enough to pretty good, although Stellan Skarsgård seems neutered as The Grand Duke.  Of course, there is not enough of Nonso Anozie as Captain of the Guards, but I am glad that this film's decision-makers were willing to cast him.

Cinderella is not for everyone.  It is sweet and cute, a feel-good movie that goes down like warm hot chocolate on a cold winter's night.  Cinderella is a good, but not great film, and director Kenneth Branagh does nothing to distinguish himself here.  But there is enough Disney magic here to entertain some of us.

6 of 10
B

Sunday, September 18, 2016


NOTES:
2016 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Costume Design” (Sandy Powell)

2016 BAFTA Awards:  1 nomination: “Best Costume Design” (Sandy Powell)


The text is copyright © 2016 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for reprint or syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Doctor Strange" Shows Potential for Future Strange Movies

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 3 (of 2017) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Doctor Strange (2016)
Running time:  115 minutes (1 hour, 55 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sci-fi violence and action throughout, and an intense crash sequence
DIRECTOR:  Scott Derrickson
WRITERS:  Jon Spaihts, Scott Derrickson, and C. Robert Cargill (based on the comic books created by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee)
PRODUCER:  Kevin Feige
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Ben David (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Sabrina Plisco and Wyatt Smith
COMPOSER:  Michael Giacchino
Academy Award nominee

SUPERHERO/FANTASY/ACTION

Starring:  Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Mads Mikkelsen, Tilda Swinton, Michael Stuhlbarg, Benjamin Bratt, Scott Adkins, and Stan Lee

Doctor Strange is a 2016 superhero and fantasy film directed by Scott Derrickson and produced by Marvel Studios.  The film focuses on the Marvel Comics character, Doctor Strange, who first appeared in Strange Tales #10 (cover dated: July 1963) and who was created by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee.  Doctor Strange the movie focuses on a former neurosurgeon whose journey of healing takes him into the fantastic world of the magic and mysticism.

Doctor Strange introduces Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), an acclaimed neurosurgeon and scientist and also an arrogant and conceited  person.  After being in a terrible car accident, Strange discovers that his hands are damaged and rendered useless in performing the delicate surgical procedures for which he is celebrated.  He obsessively searches for a surgery that will make his hands like they were before, but when he cannot, he turns bitter, even rejecting his co-worker and former lover, Dr. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams).

Strange learns of a place called “Kamar-Taj” in Kathmandu, Nepal, where he can be cured.  What he discovers is The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) and sorcerers like Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor).  They introduce him to other dimensions, to the astral plane, and to the mystic arts, but there is a darker side to this that Strange will be forced to confront.

The cast of Doctor Strange includes three actors with at least one Academy Award nomination and also one winner (Tilda Swinton).  Oscar-nominated Chiwetel Ejiofor appeared in the Oscar-winning “Best Picture,” 12 Years a Slave, and Oscar-nominated Rachel McAdams appeared in this previous year's “Best Picture” Oscar-winnner, Spotlight.  Mads Mikkelsen (who plays this film's villain, Kaecilius) has appeared in at least two films that were nominated for foreign-language film Academy Awards.

Doctor Strange needs that acting pedigree because its screenplay is soft and a little weak.  Cumberbatch and company go beyond merely making the best of the screenplay.  They create character drama, conflict, and tension where it is weak or where there is none in the story.  But we know what people are wondering about... the superhero action.

The filmmakers could have taken the material from Marvel Comics Doctor Strange comic books and made something crazy, and they did not play it safe and did indeed make something crazy.  Doctor Strange takes the visual effects of Christopher Nolan's 2010 film, Inception, with its shifting buildings and hallways and turns it into something far more nutty.

Every inch of floor, wall, street, bridge, building, structure – everything, y'all, is flipped, shifted, twisted, melted, divided, and sometimes broken.  The world of Doctor Strange is like Rubik's cube undergoing an earthquake; Salvador Dali on purple drank, and ice cream cone turned into ice cream dots.  Well, you have to see it for yourself, and you should see Doctor Strange.

Doctor Strange is Marvel's weirdest movie; it is the outsider making not only its own corner in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also its own shifting realities.  Director Scott Derrickson is known for making low-budget horror films like Insidious.  He proves that he can play in the bigger sandbox that is Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures.  Doctor Strange is not perfect, but it tries to be as “out there” as a Marvel movie can be and still be part of a universe that includes the Avengers, Iron Man, and Captain America movies.  There is so much going on in Doctor Strange that I need to see it again.

7 of 10
B+

Sunday, November 6, 2016

NOTES:
2017 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nominations: “Best Achievement in Visual Effects” (Stephane Ceretti, Richard Bluff, Vincent Cirelli, and Paul Corbould)

2017 BAFTA Awards:  3 nominations: “Best Production Design” (John Bush and Charles Wood), “Best Make Up/Hair” (Jeremy Woodhead), and “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (Richard Bluff, Stephane Ceretti, Paul Corbould, and Jonathan Fawkner)


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Nightcrawler" an L.A. Crime Classic

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 14 (of 2016) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Nightcrawler (2014)
Running time:  118 minutes (1 hour, 58 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence including graphic images, and for language
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Dan Gilroy
PRODUCERS:  Jennifer Fox, Tony Gilroy, Jake Gyllenhaal, David Lancaster, and Michel Litvak
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Robert Elswit
EDITOR:  John Gilroy
COMPOSER:  James Newton Howard
Academy Award nominee

CRIME/THRILLER/DRAMA

Starring:  Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed, Bill Paxton, Kevin Rahm, Ann Cusack, Michael Hyatt, and Price Carson

Nightcrawler is a 2014 neo-Noir drama and crime-thriller from writer-director Dan Gilroy.  Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, the film focuses on a Los Angeles man who enters the world of freelance video journalism and then begins to manipulate events in order to create more lurid stories.

Nightcrawler opens in Los Angeles.  It introduces Louis “Lou” Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), a thief always looking to convert his stolen merchandise into quick cash.  One night, Bloom is driving back to his apartment when he comes across the scene of a car crash.  He pulls over to witness the chaos, but most of his attention is taken by the “Stringers,” freelance cameramen who are filming live footage of the crash scene with the intent of selling that video footage to local television news stations.

Fascinated and inspired, Bloom buys his first camcorder and a police radio scanner and begins driving the streets of L.A. at night.  He looks for accidents, emergencies, and crime scenes that he can film.  He makes his first sale to KWLA, a bottom-rung television station, where he catches the notice of the station's morning news director, Nina Romina (Rene Russo).  As he muscles his way into the world of L.A. crime journalism, however, Bloom's dark side quickly emerges.

On the surface, Nightcrawler might seem like it is only a slick crime film, especially because of Robert Elswit's gorgeous cinematography.  What writer-director Dan Gilroy also offers, however, is a mean, edgy film that is classic L.A. crime story.  This film is high-quality neo-Noir that recaptures the classic, black and white L.A. Film-Noir, without being a prisoner to style and expectations.

Nightcrawler might not be the excellent film it is without Jake Gyllenhaal's marvelous performance as the sociopathic and murderously ambitious Lou Bloom.  It is now official; doubting that Gyllenhaal is a supremely talented and skilled actor is no longer okay.  I must also throw some cheer Rene Russo's way.  Hell, yeah, she's good, but Hollywood industry ageism now keeps her away from audiences.  She takes a throwaway character like Nina and makes her crucial to the execution of the narrative.  Also, I must not forget Riz Ahmed.  As Rick, Bloom's desperate-for-money assistant, Ahmed delivers a star-turn that just comes out of nowhere.

It might be easy to focus on Louis Bloom's sociopathic tendencies; one might call him an outright sociopath.  However, I think Nightcrawler speaks to the world that creates the Lou Blooms.  The world of L.A. local television news is little better than rogue capitalism.  The movie is rife with characters that are me-first and win-at-all-costs, to say nothing of the anal obsession with acknowledging achievement that comes from literally walking over dead bodies.

Nightcrawler is not perfect; some of it seems a bit far-fetched.  Louis Bloom gets away with things that stretch credulity, although I won't be specific in order to avoid spoilers.  Still, I was destined to like Nightcrawler because I like neo-Noir set in Los Angeles.  I think that what makes Nightcrawler so fascinating to watch are the things that sometimes make it hard to watch.  Dan Gilroy's gem is blunt about a morally bankrupt society in which class status is everything and in which society treats actual people as nothing more than commodities.

8 of 10
A

Saturday, February 6, 2016


NOTES:
2015 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Writing, Original Screenplay” (Dan Gilroy)

2015 BAFTA Awards:  4 nominations: “Best Leading Actor” (Jake Gyllenhaal), “Best Supporting Actress” (Rene Russo), “Best Editing” (John Gilroy), and “Best Original Screenplay” (Dan Gilroy)

2015 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Jake Gyllenhaal)


The text is copyright © 2016 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz Shine in "Big Eyes"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 25 (of 2015) by Leroy Douresseaux

Big Eyes (2014)
Running time:  106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for thematic elements and brief strong language
DIRECTOR:  Tim Burton
WRITERS:  Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
PRODUCERS:  Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, Tim Burton, and Lynette Howell
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Bruno Delbonnel
EDITOR:  JC Bond
COMPOSER:  Danny Elfman
Golden Globe winner

DRAMA/BIOPIC

Starring:  Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Krysten Ritter, Jason Schwartzman, Terence Stamp, Jon Polito, Delaney Raye, Madeleine Arthur, and James Saito

Big Eyes is a 2014 biographical drama from director Tim Burton.  The film is a dramatization of the complicated relationship between American pop-art painter, Margaret Keane, and her husband, Walter Keane.  Brothers Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein are executive producers on the film.

Margaret Keane is famous for her “big eyes” paintings, which are paintings featuring children as waifs with big doe eyes.  For a decade, Margaret's second husband, Walter Keane, took credit for the paintings because, as he told Margaret, people would take her paintings seriously if they were credited to a man.  Margaret's paintings became hugely popular in the 1960s and earned the couple a large fortune, but Walter became more domineering the more prominence “big eyes” art attained.

Big Eyes opens in 1958 in Northern California.  Margaret Ulbrich (Amy Adams), a painter, leaves her husband and takes her young daughter, Jane (Delaney Raye), with her.  Mother and child arrive in North Beach, San Francisco where Margaret's friend, DeAnn (Krysten Ritter), lives.  One day, Margaret in selling drawings in a local park when she catches the attention of Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz), a painter who is also selling his art in the park.

Margaret and Walter marry, and Walter begins to try to sell both their paintings.  People ignore Walter's paintings, but the “big eyes” paintings of his new wife, Margaret Keane (Amy Adams), soon become a sensation.  Walter lies when people ask him and claims to be the creator of the “big eyes” art, and Margaret goes along with him.  The “big eyes” become a sensation, but Margaret cannot truly find peace of mind.  Can she ever break away from Walter and take credit for her work?

When director Tim Burton's 2003 film, Big Fish, debuted, some critics said that Burton had finally made an adult film instead of his usual, a fantasy film.  Big Fish actually had its share of surrealism and eccentricity, like practically all Burton's work.  I think Burton's first adult film was the fanciful biopic, Ed Wood, which was more humorous than dramatic.

One might call Big Fish an adult film, but I found it dull and stiff.  Burton's 2014 movie, Big Eyes, is a drama, and it is similar to Ed Wood in that both movies focus on an outside or cult artist.  Big Eyes simply plays the biographical matter in a straighter fashion than Ed Wood.  In that movie, Ed Wood and his band of merry filmmakers were weirdos (and I'm not saying this in a pejorative manner).  Margaret Keane's art may be weird, but the screenwriters, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and even director Tim Burton take her life seriously.  Their movie is a fictional account of Keane's life that details the path she took to independence and to an awakening.

Since her coming-out-party in the indie film, Junebug, Amy Adams has been one of the best American actresses of the last decade.  As Margaret Keane, she gives one of her best performances, if not her best.  She embodies in herself and shows the struggle of a woman who is trying to break free of everything that holds her back – including herself.  In her face and in her emotions, Adams conveys the trials of the artist trying to claim her own work and of a woman living in an era when the wife must be “the little wifey” and little more.

It is a testament to Christoph Waltz's skill as an actor and a performer that he keeps Walter Keane from being burned in the radiance of Adams' performance.  Waltz makes it impossible to believe much of what Walter says, but he also keeps the fraudulent painter from becoming a caricature.  In his hands, Walter is a fully realized character, which I realized when I noticed that I was sympathetic to him (just a little) by the end of the film.

Big Eyes, which is essentially a low-budget independent film, is Tim Burton's first good movie in a few years.  With Ed Wood 20 years ago and with Big Eyes now, he shows that he sympathizes and identifies with artists who are off the beaten path, but who take their art as seriously as the “elite” artists.  Burton does indeed know how to let the best dramatic actors do some of their best work.  While I like a “serious” film (or Burton's version of it) such as Big Eyes, I do want more Tim Burton movies like Beetlejuice and Sleepy Hollow, which are both Oscar-winners, by the way.

8 of 10
A

Thursday, June 11, 2015


NOTES:
2015 Golden Globes, USA:  1 win: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical: (Amy Adams); 2 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” (Christoph Waltz) and “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (Lana Del Rey and Daniel Heath for "Big Eyes")

2015 BAFTA Awards:  2 nominations: “Best Leading Actress” (Amy Adams) and “Best Production Design” (Rick Heinrichs and Shane Vieau)

Review: "The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies" is a Fantastic Ending to a Joyous Trilogy

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 21 (of 2015) by Leroy Douresseaux (support on Patreon)

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies (2014)
Running time: 144 minutes (2 hours, 24 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for extended sequences of intense fantasy action violence, and frightening images
DIRECTOR: Peter Jackson
WRITERS: Frances Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, and Guillermo del Toro (from the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien)
PRODUCERS: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Carolynne Cunningham, and Zane Weiner
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Andrew Lesnie (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Jabez Olssen
COMPOSER: Howard Shore
Academy Award nominee

FANTASY/ACTION/ADVENTURE with elements of drama

Starring:  Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, Ken Stott, Luke Evans, Graham McTavish, William Kircher, James Nesbitt, Stephen Hunter, Dean O’Gorman, Aidan Turner, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, Jed Brophy, Mark Hadlow, Adam Brown, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee, Ian Holm, Sylvester McCoy, Ryan Gage, John Bell, Peggy Nesbitt, Mary Nesbitt, and Benedict Cumberbatch (also voice)

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies is a 2014 fantasy-adventure film from director Peter Jackson.  The film is the third of three movies which are based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1937 novel, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again (better known by its abbreviated title, The Hobbit).  Set sixty years before The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit is the story of a curious Hobbit who joins a company of 13 Dwarves on a mission to reclaim their homeland from a powerful dragon.  The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies centers on the struggle to control the Lonely Mountain.

As The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies begins, Smaug (voice of Benedict Cumberbatch), the dragon that ruled over the Lonely Mountain, attacks the human settlement, Lake-town.  Now, only Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans), who is practically an outcast among his fellow humans, knows how to stop the dragon, but can he actually do it?

The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), has helped the Company of Dwarves, at last, reclaim their homeland, Erebor.  Having rid themselves of Smaug, the Dwarves settle into their ancestral home.  However, their would-be king, Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), decides that he wants to keep the vast, uncountable treasure in Erebor for himself.  He seals off Erebor, even as the human survivors of Lake-town seek refuge in the nearby ruins of Dale.

Bilbo soon finds himself caught between different groups that want a share of the treasure of Erebor.  Bard, now the spokesman and ostensible leader of the humans, wants the share of the treasure Thorin promised to the humans if they helped him; now, Thorin refuses to honor that promise.  Meanwhile, the Wood-elves and their arrogant king, Thranduil (Lee Pace), have arrived in Dale, seeking the white diamonds that belong to the Elves.  While Dwarves, Elves, and humans squabble, the blood-thirsty Azog the Defiler and a war party of Orcs marches toward the Lonely Mountain like a rising tide of darkness, prepared to conquer and to kill.

When I heard that Tolkien's The Hobbit would be adapted into two films by Peter Jackson, the guiding force behind the Lord of the Rings films, I was quite pleased.  I have loved The Hobbit since I first saw the 1977 animated television film adaptation, and I have read Tolkien's original novel at least three or four times.  I was ambivalent when I heard that the two-film adaptation would become a three-film adaptation.  After seeing the second film, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, I was suddenly quite interested in the third film again.

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies did not disappoint me.  I do think that the word, “war,” is spoken too many times in this movie (for my taste).  Other than that, I love The Battle of Five Armies unconditionally.  The Hobbit reminds me of a grand adventure that a boy or a young man has with this friends.  Soon, the adventure is over, and he must say goodbye to his friends – some for only a short time, some for a long time, and others forever.

The filmmakers retained the sense of friendship throughout the trilogy.  The undertaking of an adventure that becomes a coming-of-age adventure also permeates The Hobbit film trilogy.  However, The Battle of Five Armies most personifies themes of friendship and obligation, and the sense of a bond between companions is strong in this movie, making it poignant as well as thrilling.

In the end, I thank Peter Jackson for his efforts.  I find it hard to think critically about this film individually or The Hobbit trilogy as a whole.  I felt The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies in my heart, and yes, I teared up quite a bit, especially during the goodbyes.  I wish there were another adventure to come, but I can always revisit this one.

9 of 10
A+

Monday, May 18, 2015


NOTES:
2015 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Brent Burge and Jason Canovas)

2015 BAFTA Awards:  1 nomination: “Best Special Visual Effects” (Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, and R. Christopher White)

The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: First Trip to "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" Was Quite Lovely

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 16 (of 2015) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
Running time:  124 minutes (2 hours, 4 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sexual content and language
DIRECTOR:  John Madden
WRITER:  Ol Parker (based on the novel, These Foolish Things, by Deborah Moggach)
PRODUCERS:  Graham Broadbent and Peter Czernin
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Ben Davis (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Chris Gill
COMPOSER:  Thomas Newman
Golden Globes nominee

COMEDY/DRAMA with elements of romance

Starring:  Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Maggie Smith, Ronald Pickup, Celia Imrie, Dev Patel, Tina Desai, Lillete Dubey, Paul Bhattacharjee, Neena Kulkarni, Rajendra Gupta, and Lucy Robinson

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a 2012 British comedy-drama from director John Madden.  The film is based on the 2004 novel, These Foolish Things, from English author Deborah Moggach.  The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel focuses on a group of British retirees who travel to India to take up residence in a newly restored hotel that is not quite ready for prime time.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel opens in present day Great Britain and introduces a group of British retirees and AARP types.  Recently widowed housewife, Evelyn Greenslade (Judi Dench), is forced to sell the home she shared with her late husband in order to cover the huge debts he left.  Jean and Douglas Ainslie (Penelope Wilton and Bill Nighy) are searching for a retirement they can afford; they lost most of their savings through investing in their daughter's Internet business.

Muriel Donnelly (Maggie Smith) is a retired housekeeper who is need of a hip replacement operation.  Her doctor informs her that she can have it done far more quickly and inexpensively in India than she can in the U.K., but Muriel hates Indians (as well as every other person of color).  Madge Hardcastle (Celia Imrie) is searching for another husband.  Aging lothario Norman Cousins (Ronald Pickup) still wants to have sex with young women, but now, he needs to find a new place to try and re-capture his youth.  These six people decide to spend their retirement at a hotel in India, based only on the pictures on the hotel's website.

Meanwhile, high-court judge, Graham Dashwood (Tom Wilkinson), spent the first eighteen years of his life in India; he suddenly decides to retire and return there.  When these Brits arrive at The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, they find it dilapidated.  The hotel's energetic young manager, Sunil Indrajit “Sonny” Kapoor (Dev Patel), promises that he will make the hotel look like what the website promises.  Now, everyone has to deal with the unexpected, and some are better at that than others.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is simply frothy feel-good entertainment – nothing more, nothing less.  The characters are interesting, but not especially well-developed.  There are so many of them that screenwriter Ol Parker cannot really develop them in the amount of the film's running time that actually involves storytelling, which is less than its stated 100 minutes running time.

But, boy, did I enjoy this movie anyway.  The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is sweet and charming, and its cast of veteran (some would say “senior citizen”) actors makes it a rare treat in a landscape of movies about children and 20-somethings saving the world.  Loving and wanting-to-be-loved are not exclusively the domain of lovelorn teens and the newly-turned middle-aged.  Yearning and striving for the good life:  well, old folks can want that, also.  That is why I am glad that this funny, heartwarming, and sometimes heartbreaking film is here to be enjoyed again and again.  The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a good place for movie lovers to visit or even to stay.

7 of 10
B+

Friday, March 27, 2015


NOTES:
2013 Golden Globes, USA:  2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” (Judi Dench)

2013 BAFTA Awards:  1 nomination: “Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film” (John Madden, Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin, and Ol Parker)

The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.