#28DaysofBlack Review: Denzel and Viola Tear it Up in "FENCES"

[Over a decade after his death, August Wilson's acclaimed stage play, Fences, finally made it to the big screen, three decades after word came that it was to be adapted into film.  Every time I think that Denzel Washington:  the film's star, director, and one of its producers, can no longer amaze me, he amazes us all.  It turns out that America's greatest male actor is also a really fine director.]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 12 of 2021 (No. 1750) by Leroy Douresseaux

Fences (2016)
Running time: 139 minutes (2 hours, 19 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for thematic elements, language and some suggestive references
DIRECTOR:  Denzel Washington
WRITER:  August Wilson (based upon his play, Fences)
PRODUCERS:  Todd Black, Scott Rudin, and Denzel Washington
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Charlotte Bruus Christensen (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Hughes Winborne
COMPOSER:  Marcelo Zarvos
Academy Award winner

DRAMA

Starring:  Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby, Mykelti Williamson, and Saniyya Sidney

Fences is a 2016 period drama film directed by Denzel Washington.  It is based on playwright, August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Fences (1985).  Wilson also wrote the film adaptation's screenplay before he died in 2005 at the age of 60.  Fences focuses on a working-class African-American father in the 1950s who tries to come to terms with the events of his troubled life.

Fences opens in 1950s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and introduces 53-year-old Troy Maxson (Denzel Washington).  Troy lives with his wife, Rose Lee Maxson (Viola Davis), and their son, Cory (Jovan Adepo).  Troy works as a garbage collector alongside his best friend, Jim Bono (Stephen McKinley Henderson).  Troy has a younger brother, Gabriel (Mykelti Williamson), who sustained a head injury in World War II that left him mentally impaired.  Gabriel received a $3,000 government payout that Troy subsequently used as a down payment on a home for his family.  Troy sometimes wonders if he has done right by Gabriel, who now lives at “Miss Pearl's house.”

Troy also has an adult son from a previous relationship, Lyons Maxson (Russell Hornsby), an apparently talented musician who visits Troy on payday when he wants to borrow money.  Troy's relationship with Lyons is strained, as are his relationships with just about everyone else.  Troy is especially bitter about his professional baseball career.  He played professionally in the Negro Leagues, but never played Major League Baseball, which had a “color barrier” until 1947 that prohibited Black players from joining the majors.  Now, Troy refuses to give permission for Cory to play football because he does not want the teen to fail in sports as he did … he says.  This decision, his general contrarian ways, and his rancor about his life is pushing his family and friends away from him.

Fences is the sixth play in August Wilson's ten-part, “Pittsburgh Cycle,” of plays.  Like all the plays in the cycle, Fences explores the evolving African-American experience and examines race relations, among other themes.  Back in the late 1980s, actor Eddie Murphy had the film rights to Fences, but his planned film never came about.  Wilson and Murphy clashed over Wilson's insistence that the film adaptation of Fences be directed by an African-American because, more or less, only a black man could understand Troy Maxson's life.  At least, that is how I remember the behind-the-scenes happenings concerning Murphy's planed Fences film.

Watching Denzel Washington play Troy Maxson made me realize how universal Fences action and especially its themes are.  Washington is one of the film's producers as well as being the director, so he could make the film he wanted, and he filmed Fences in the city of Pittsburgh, where it is set.  It seems to me that Washington made Fences in its original setting, but played Troy Maxson and presented his world as a story in which audiences, practically from around the world and most certainly in the United States, could recognize and even identify.

Troy isn't just bitter about not being a Major League Baseball player; he is also always yearning.  Troy knows what he's got, but surpassing that is the desire to have more.  It is as if he is constantly thinking, “I have a good wife, son, home, and job, but …”  I have never seen Fences the play or read its text, so I am assuming that Fences the film is true to its source.  However, I interpret Fences the film as revealing that Troy's biggest obstacle isn't race, but is him always believing that what he has now will no longer make him happy, if it ever did.  He always believes that if he gets this “next thing” he will be happy or, at least, happier than he is at the present.

Washington's performance as Troy Maxson in his film, Fences, is a performance for the ages.  If this isn't his best acting, it is his best since The Hurricane.  And what do you know, Washington was nominated for the “Best Actor” Oscar for his performances in both Fences and The Hurricane, and he lost to actors who gave good but inferior performances to Washington's.

At least, Viola Davis finally won an Oscar – for “Best Supporting Actress” – for her performance in Fences.  She was long overdue, and in Fences, as Rose Maxson, she grounds the story and keeps Washington and Troy Maxson from dominating the entire story.  Some thought that Davis should have been nominated in the lead actress category, but Rose Maxson is a supporting character in this film.  Fences the film needs Viola Davis and Rose Maxson's support.

Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby, and Mykelti Williamson give some of the best performances of their careers.  I have no doubt that Henderson would have been nominated in the “Best Supporting Actor” category if he were a white actor...

That's okay.  All these black folks make Fences a major cinematic accomplishment.  They make it an African-American experience writ large, and anyone who can comprehend a movie, regardless of ethnic background, can take into Fences into his or her soul.

10 of 10

Wednesday, February 10, 2021


NOTES:
2017 Academy Awards, USA:  1 winner: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Viola Davis); 3 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Todd Black, Scott Rudin, and Denzel Washington), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Denzel Washington), and “Best Adapted Screenplay” (August Wilson-Posthumously)

2017 Golden Globes, USA:  1 winner: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Viola Davis) and “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Denzel Washington)

2017 BAFTA Awards:  1 winner: “Best Supporting Actress” (Viola Davis)

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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#28DaysofBlack Review: "BlacKkKlansman" is Bold and Brilliant

[Spike Lee finally earned his long-sought after competitive Academy Award, having won an “Honorary Academy Award” in 2015 at the age of 58, the youngest ever to achieve that award.  BlacKkKlansman is not so much a biopic as it is a black comedy, police procedural, crime comedy, and semi-espionage film.  Yet, this film retains Lee's fierce cinematic voice with its trademark campaign against American white supremacy/racism/privilege.  Thank the Lord.]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 9 of 2021 (No. 1747) by Leroy Douresseaux

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Running time: 135 minutes (2 hours, 15 minutes)

MPAA – R for language throughout, including racial epithets, and for disturbing/violent material and some sexual references

DIRECTOR:  Spike Lee
WRITERS:  Spike Lee and Kevin Willmott and Charlie Wachtel and David Rabinowitz (based on the book, Black Klansman, by Ron Stallworth)
PRODUCER:  Spike Lee, Jason Blum, Raymond Mansfield, Sean McKittrick, Jordan Peele, and Shaun Redick
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Chayse Irvin (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Barry Alexander Brown
COMPOSER:  Terence Blanchard
Academy Award winner

DRAMA with some elements of comedy

Starring:  John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Topher Grace, Jasper Pääkkönen, Ryan Eggold, Paul Walter Hauser, Ashlie Atkinson, Corey Hawkins, Michael Buscemi, Ken Garito, Robert John Burke, Fred Weller, Nicholas Turturro, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Damaris Lewis, and Alec Baldwin and Harry Belafonte

BlacKkKlansman is 2018 historical film drama and black comedy from director Spike Lee.  The film is based on the 2014 memoir, Black Klansman, by Ron Stallworth.  The film focuses on an African American police officer who successfully manages to infiltrate the local Ku Klux Klan branch with the help of a Jewish surrogate.

BlacKkKlansman opens in 1972.  Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is hired as the first black officer in the Colorado Springs Police Department.  Although he starts in the record room, he soon works his way into the position of undercover cop.  His superior, Chief Bridges (Robert John Burke), assigns him to infiltrate a local rally where national civil rights leader, Kwame Ture (Corey Hawkins), formerly known as Stokely Carmichael, is giving a speech.  At the rally, Stallworth meets Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier), president of the Black Student Union at Colorado College, and he becomes attracted to her.

After being reassigned to the intelligence division under Sergeant Trapp (Ken Garito), Ron discovers the local division of the Ku Klux Klan in a newspaper ad.  Taking the initiative, Ron, posing as a white man, calls the division and speaks to Walter Breachway (Ryan Eggold), the president of the Colorado Springs, Colorado chapter.   Since he mistakenly used his real name during the call, Ron realizes that he needs help after Walter invites him to a Klan meet-and-greet.

Sgt. Trapp brings Ron together with two detectives, Jimmy Creek (Michael Buscemi) and Phillip “Flip” Zimmerman (Adam Driver), who is Jewish.  Ron continues to talk to the Klan on the phone, but Flip pretends to be Ron, acting as Ron's surrogate when he actually has to meet up with the Klan members.  Flip gradually begins to infiltrate deeper into the local Klan organization, but some members grow suspicious of him.  The stakes grow higher after Ron starts a phone relationship with infamous Klan leader, David Duke (Topher Grace), who is coming to meet the Colorado Klan.

BlacKkKlansman is a police procedural, a racial drama, a historical film, a period drama, a biographical film, and a true crime story, or at least, a true story.  However, there is one thing that BlacKkKlansman certainly is, and that is a Spike Lee movie.

Lee's collaborators and actors certainly do some of their best work.  Chayse Irvin's cinematography is beautiful, and Barry Alexander Brown's editing creates a hypnotic rhythm that drew me ever deeper into the film so that by the midpoint, I believed that I was part of the story.  In fact, Irvin and Brown shine as a duo in the sequence that depicts Kwame Ture's speech in a sweeping interval of Black faces that captures the broad spectrum of Blackness in America.  Everything sways and flows to Terence Blanchard's (of course) outstanding, Oscar-nominated score.

I can see how Adam Driver's performance as Flip captured the attention of Oscar voters.  I also get why John David Washington and Laura Harrier's strong and beguiling performances did not capture the same attention from Academy Award voters.  All the performances are good, as the actors took character types and did something different with them.  Two short but important speaker roles, Corey Hawkins' Kwame Ture and Harry Belafonte's Jerome Turner, are the heartbeat of BlacKkKlansman.

But, as I said, this is Spike Lee's film; this is a Spike Lee film.  Spike is a visionary, a contrary cinematic artist stubbornly making his films his own and making other people's stories his own.  Spike has never been shy about putting the racism of white people on display.  He condemns white racism and white supremacy, revealing its brutal violence, banal evil, and systematic oppression in stark and often blunt cinematic language – regardless of what of criticisms that may come his way because of the way he tells stories.

BlacKkKlansman is Lee's most savage take and rigorous excavation of white racism and white supremacy in America since his seminal classic, Do The Right Thing (1989).  BlacKkKlansman is Lee's best film since Do The Right Thing, and it earned him his long overdue Oscar (for “Best Adapted Screenplay” that he shared with three other writers).  [No, I'm not overlooking Chi-Raq.]

Do The Right Thing was a bomb that angered more white people than it impressed, but BlacKkKlansman is the work of a veteran filmmaker, a mature artist, so to speak.  This time, Spike Lee acknowledged Black people's prejudices and bigotries, and many of the White characters in this film are sympathetic, are allies, and are even heroes.  Still, BlacKkKlansman makes clear that whatever Black racism that exists, it is White racism that has wielded the power in American.

With allusions and outright references to the present struggle for equality and civil rights, BlacKkKlansman makes it clear that we still have to fight the power and the White devil.  Three decades later, however, Spike Lee is willing to portray White allies, but he can still get under … honky skin.  That is why so many Oscar voters chose Green Book's sentimentality over BlacKkKlansman's black-is-beautiful power in the “Best Picture” Oscar race … when BlacKkKlansman may be the best American film of 2018.

10 of 10

Saturday, February 6, 2021


NOTES:
2019 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win for “Best Adapted Screenplay” (Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, and Spike Lee); 5 nominations: “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Score” (Terence Blanchard), “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Raymond Mansfield, Jordan Peele, and Spike Lee), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Spike Lee), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Adam Driver), and “Best Achievement in Film Editing” (Barry Alexander Brown)

2019 BAFTA Awards:  1 win for “Best Screenplay-Adapted” (Spike Lee, David Rabinowitz, Charlie Wachtel, and Kevin Willmott); 4 nominations: “Best Supporting Actor” (Adam Driver), “Best Film” (Jason Blum, Spike Lee, Raymond Mansfield, Sean McKittrick, and Jordan Peele), “Original Music” (Terence Blanchard), and “David Lean Award for Direction” (Spike Lee)

2019 Golden Globes, USA:  4 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama,” “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Spike Lee), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (John David Washington), and “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Adam Driver)

2019 Black Reel Awards:  11 nominations: “Outstanding Motion Picture,” “Outstanding Actor” (John David Washington), “Outstanding Director” (Spike Lee), “Outstanding Screenplay” (Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, and Spike Lee), “Outstanding Ensemble,” “Outstanding Score” (Terence Blanchard), “Outstanding Breakthrough Performance, Male” (John David Washington), “Outstanding Breakthrough Performance, Female” (Laura Harrier), “Outstanding Cinematography” (Chayse Irvin), “Outstanding Costume Design” (Marci Rodgers), and “Outstanding Production Design” (Curt Beech)

2019 Image Awards:  5 nominations:  “Outstanding Independent Motion Picture,” “Outstanding Motion Picture,” “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (John David Washington), “Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture-Film” (Spike Lee), and “Outstanding Breakthrough Role in a Motion Picture” (John David Washington)

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

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#28DaysofBlack Review: "SUICIDE SQUAD" Kills Itself

[It is a testament to Will Smith's status as an international box office star that even after some misfires Warner Bros. looked to him to be the face of their superhero/anti-hero film, Suicide Squad.  The film is actually terrible.  However, five non-white actors play costumed characters in this film, and, at least another five have speaking roles, including the great Viola Davis.  So, no, Suicide Squad is not a “Black film,” but prior to Disney/Marvel Studios' Black Panther, few comic book films were blacker.]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 8 of 2021 (No. 1746) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Suicide Squad (2016)
Running time:  123 minutes (2 hours, 3 minutes)
MPAA – PG - 13 for sequences of violence and action throughout, disturbing behavior, suggestive content and language
DIRECTOR:  David Ayer
WRITER:  David Ayer (based on characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics)
PRODUCERS:  Charles Roven and Richard Suckle
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Roman Vasyanov (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  John Gilroy
COMPOSER:  Steven Price
Academy Award winner

SUPERHERO/FANTASY/ACTION/DRAMA

Starring:  Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Karen Fukuhara, Care Delevingne, Shailyn Pierre-Dixon, Ike Barinholtz, Common, Alain Chanoine, Adam Beach, Scott Eastwood, and Viola Davis with Ben Affleck

Suicide Squad is a 2016 superhero film from writer-director David Ayer.  The film is based on the DC Comics team of antiheroes, Suicide Squad, and also features characters associated with DC Comics' Batman franchise.  Suicide Squad the movie focuses on a team of incarcerated supervillains forced together to save the world from a supernatural apocalypse.

Suicide Squad opens some time after the death of Superman (in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice).  Intelligence officer Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) believes that the United States government must prepare for the day when the next Superman is not so friendly.  She believes that the U.S. government should have its own arsenal of metahumans (beings with extraordinary powers and abilities) to respond to extraordinary threats.  Thus, Waller assembles what she calls “Task Force X,” a team composed of dangerous criminals who also possess super-powers.

She finds that kind of criminal at Belle Reve Prison, a federal penitentiary for metahumans.  The first two recruits are the elite hit man, Deadshot (Will Smith), and former psychiatrist, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), who also happens to be the love interest of Batman's archenemy, The Joker (Jared Leto).  The next recruits include the pyrokinetic (fire-starter) and ex-gang banger, El Diablo (Jay Hernandez); the boomerang-wielding thief, Captain Boomerang (Jay Courtney); the genetic mutation, Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), and the mercenary, Slipknot (Adam Beach).

This group, called “Suicide Squad” by Deadshot, are placed under the command of Army Special Forces Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) to be used as disposable assets in high-risk missions for the United States government.  Their first mission takes them to Midway City where an apocalypse is brewing, created by a mystical creature familiar to Colonel Flag.

Suicide Squad is a genuinely terrible movie, and dear readers, I don't think that it is worth going into too much detail about all that is bad.  It is also a genuinely disappointing movie, as there are elements in the story that could have been developed to make this a good movie.  The opening sequences, two vignettes about Deadshot and Harley Quinn are... cool.  They made me think that Suicide Squad was going to surprise me and be a good movie...  The scenes between Deadshot/Floyd Lawton and his daughter, Zoe (Shailyn Pierre-Dixon), are also among the too few nice moments of drama in this film.

I would also be remiss if I did not comment on Jared Leto's depiction/version of The Joker.  Following the late Heath Ledger's stunning portrayal of the Joker in 2008's The Dark Knight (for which he posthumously received a best supporting actor Oscar), Leto was in a no-win situation.  Actually, Leto and Suicide Squad writer-director David Ayer do come up with a version of the Joker that is almost a good follow-up to Ledger's legendary turn.  Why do I say “almost?”  Well, it is as if Leto and Ayer got the character right and then, did not have the smarts or had too much ego to stop.  What could have been a truly frightening and terrifyingly creepy Joker often becomes an over-the-top character that causes goosebumps and eye-rolling in equal measure.

Well, I have to give Warner Bros. credit; it has produced three mediocre or bad films based on DC Comics characters, and these movies have all been box office blockbusters.  Suicide Squad was a blockbuster waste of my time.  It is clunky and weird, and does not know if it wants to be a superhero film, a movie about antiheroes, a special forces movie, or a supernatural-fantasy-action movie.  It is like a messy soup with all the wrong ingredients from four or five different recipes.

3 of 10
D+

Saturday, June 10, 2017


NOTES:
2017 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling” (Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini, and Christopher Allen Nelson)


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

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#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 Hateful Eight" is Certainly Great

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 14 (of 2020) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

The Hateful Eight (2015)
Running time:  188 minutes (3 hours, 8 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong bloody violence, a scene of violent sexual content, language and some graphic nudity
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Quentin Tarantino
PRODUCERS:  Richard N. Gladstein, Shannon McIntosh, and Stacey Sher
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Robert Richardson
EDITOR:  Fred Raskin
COMPOSER:  Ennio Morricone
Academy Award winner

WESTERN/CRIME/DRAMA/MYSTERY

Starring:  Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demian Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, James Parks, Dana Gourrier, Zoe Bell, Lee Horsley, Gene Jones, Keith Jefferson, Craig Strark, Belinda Owino, and Channing Tatum

The Hateful Eight is the 8th film from writer-director Quentin Tarantino.  A Western and mystery-thriller, The Hateful Eight focuses on two bounty hunters, a prisoner, and a new local sheriff who find themselves stranded in a cabin with a collection of nefarious strangers.  At least one of those strangers may be connected to the prisoner.

The Hateful Eight opens in the dead of a Wyoming winter some years after the Civil War.  O.B. Jackson (James Parks) drives a stagecoach through the snow-covered landscape.  Aboard his stagecoach is bounty hunter, John Ruth the Hangman (Kurt Russell), and his prisoner, Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh).  Ruth is taking Domergue to Red Rock, Wyoming where she is to be tried and hanged for her crimes.

The stagecoach comes across a second bounty hunter, Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), who was transporting three dead bounties to Red Rock when his horse died.  It takes some convincing, but Ruth allows Warren to board the stagecoach.  Shortly afterwards, former Confederate, Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), who claims to be heading to Red Rock to assume the job of sheriff, hails the stagecoach.  It takes some talking, but Ruth also lets him aboard.

A sudden blizzard forces this quintet to seek shelter at the stagecoach stopover, Minnie's Haberdashery, but Minnie (Dana Gourrier) is nowhere to be found.  Instead, they are met by Bob (Demián Bichir), a Mexican who says that Minnie is visiting her mother and has left him in charge; Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth) who claims to be Red Rock's hangman; Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), a quiet cowboy; and General Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern), a former Confederate officer.  John Ruth and Marquis Warren believe that at least one of the men they have found at Minnie's is in league with Daisy Domergue, but which one and when will he strike?

Although The Hateful Eight displays Quentin Tarantino's signature blend of wisecracking social commentary, action, humor, and over-the-top violence, this film is not like Tarantino's more popular films:  Pulp Fiction (1994), Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012).  These three films received best picture Oscar nominations, while The Hateful Eight did not.  The Hateful Eight is a parlor-room drama, but the parlor room is set up like a stage for live theater.

The other three films were wide-ranging epics full of hyper-kinetic violence.  They are flashy examples of Tarantino's bravura film making, while The Hateful Eight is quiet and edgy and brimming with malice, menace, and venom.  More than half the characters in The Hateful Eight really are fucking hateful, and that is a ratio that can be off-putting for the audience.

But not for me.  I would put The Hateful Eight in the top half of Tarantino's filmography.  This isn't Tarantino's best dialogue or screenplay for that matter, but his execution is impeccable, as usual.  The Hateful Eight is a riveting piece of work, three hours of glorious film narrative, and I enjoyed every minute of it.  I wanted more.

Besides Tarantino's stellar work, there are a number of good performances in this film.  Samuel L. Jackson, a Tarantino regular, gives his best performance in a lead role in years.  He gives the sly Marquis Warren layers, from vengeful former slave to death-dealing former P.O.W., but Jackson suggests that there is so much more to this man that it would take at least two movies to discover what is inside him.

Jennifer Jason Leigh also turns Daisy Domergue into so much more than what she seems.  Her performances is built on subtle changes in note; it is a bouquet of scents meant to keep the viewers on their heels when it comes to what her motivations are.  Joined at the hip with Kurt Russell, who also gives a spry, spicy turn, they make a good pair.  Walton Goggins also surprises, especially since his career, thus far, has been filled with oddballs who are odd for the sake of being an oddity in a film.

Ennio Morricone's score and the film's soundtrack offer a nice backdrop, heightening the sinister mood of the story.  The Hateful Eight might not be a Tarantino audience favorite; it is too slow for the kick-ass crowd.  However, I think that it is a masterpiece, a great modern Western that stands with the very few great Westerns of the previous four decades.

9 of 10
A+

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Revised:  Thursday, July 16, 2020

NOTES:
2016 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score” (Ennio Morricone); 2 nominations:  “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and “Best Achievement in Cinematography” (Robert Richardson)

2016 Golden Globes, USA:  1 win: “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Ennio Morricone); 2 nomination:  “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Quentin Tarantino)

2016 BAFTA Awards:  1 win: “Best Original Music” (Ennio Morricone); 2 nominations: “Best Supporting Actress” (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and “Best Original Screenplay” (Quentin Tarantino)


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

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Review: "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" is a Sparkling Fairy Tale

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 10 (of 2020) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)
Running time:  161 minutes (2 hours, 41 minutes)
MPAA – R for language throughout, some strong graphic violence, drug use, and sexual references
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Quentin Tarantino
PRODUCERS:  Shannon McIntosh, David Heyman, and Quentin Tarantino
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Robert Richardson (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Fred Raskin
Academy Award winner

COMEDY/DRAMA/HISTORICAL

Starring:  Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley, Timothy Olyphant, Julia Butters, Austin Butler, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, Mike Moh, Luke Perry, Al Pacino, Nicholas Hammond, Samantha Robinson, Rafal Zawierucha, Lorenza Izzo, Costa Ronin, Damon Herriman, Lena Dunham, Zoe Bell, and Kurt Russell

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood is a 2019 comedy-drama and historical film from writer-director Quentin Tarantino.  The ninth film from Tarantino, it focuses on a faded television actor striving to maintain fame and success in the film industry during the final years of Hollywood's “Golden Age” in Los Angeles of 1969, with his TV stunt double at his side.

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood opens in February 1969.  Veteran Hollywood television actor, Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), fears that his career is rapidly fading to nothing.  Dalton was the star of the 1950s Western television series, NBC and Screen Gems' “Bounty Law” (a fictional show).  He believes that he has now been reduced to appearing as a guest star on TV series featuring new star actors, usually playing the villain.  Casting agent Marvin Schwarz (Al Pacino) recommends that Dalton move to Italy to make “Spaghetti Westerns,” which Dalton feels are beneath him.

At Dalton's side is his best friend and stunt double, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), a World War II veteran who is a stuntman that is highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat.  Booth lives out in the boonies in a tiny trailer with his pit bull, “Brandy,” and he drives Dalton around Los Angeles because Dalton's driver's license has been suspended due to a DUI.  Booth is also currently struggling to find stunt work in Hollywood because of rumors that he murdered his wife.

Meanwhile, hot young actress, Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), and her husband, one of the hottest young directors in Hollywood, Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha), have moved next door to Dalton.  Dalton dreams of befriending the couple in a bid to help revive his declining acting career.  Months later, late in the evening of August 8th and in the very early moments of August 9th, 1969, both Dalton and Booth will have a chance to change their own fates and that of Tate and her friends.

Quentin Tarantino's Oscar-winning, 2009 film, Inglourious Basterds, is a bracing, gripping, hugely entertaining, and brilliantly-made film.  However, I am always put-off by its alternate-history last act, which has some splendid moments and a genius final scene, but also has that kill Hitler thing.

Tarantino's Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood is not bracing or gripping for most of first two hours of storytelling.  Rather than being a brilliantly-made film, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood has genius level productions values:  cinematography, production design and art direction, costumes, soundtrack, editing, etc.

However, there are two segments towards the end of the film that make Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood a truly great film and one of 2019's very best.  First, there is Cliff Booth's visit to the “Spahn Ranch,” a sequence that is scarier than most entire horror movies and has more tension than most crime thriller films have in their entire story.  The second great segment is the film's final half-hour, which is the kind of film-making that only a genius filmmaker can create.  Without spoiling the film, I can say that this finale, which alters history and which is largely driven by graphic violence, had me cheering and screaming like a madman as I was watching it shortly after one o'clock in the morning.  This last half-hour was the catharsis that I did not realize that I had needed for decades.

Now, that I have praised Tarantino and his artistic and technical collaborators, I need to praise the acting.  Most all of the small performances are quite good.  The three performances that drive Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood are given by Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton, Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth, and, in a somewhat smaller part, Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate.

DiCaprio fashions a fading TV star in Dalton that is so convincing that I had to convince myself that Dalton is a fictional character and not a real-world actor.  Pitt finally received the acting Oscar he has been long overdue for creating in Booth, a rich character filled charm, pathos, and soul.  Robbie plays Sharon Tate as a happy spirit, embracing her craft and profession with innocence that is not naive and with a joy that dispels at least some of the darkness that was closing in on the last days of the 1960s and on “old Hollywood.”  Robbie gives Tate a love of people that provides this fairy tale of a film with the smattering a fairy dust that it needs.

And that is what Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood really is.  It is a fairy tale, complete with a lurking darkness and edginess, that is an ode to the world in and around a Los Angeles and a Hollywood that existed more in perception than in reality.  And once again, I can say that in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, Tarantino has made a movie that no one else could ever make.

A+
9 out of 10

Friday, May 1, 2020


NOTES:
Academy Awards, USA 2020:  2 wins: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Brad Pitt) and “Best Achievement in Production Design” (Barbara Ling and Nancy Haigh); 8 nominations:  “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh, and Quentin Tarantino), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Quentin Tarantino), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Leonardo DiCaprio), “Best Original Screenplay” (Quentin Tarantino), “Best Achievement in Cinematography” (Robert Richardson), “Best Achievement in Costume Design” (Arianne Phillips), “Best Achievement in Sound Mixing” (Michael Minkler, Christian P. Minkler, and Mark Ulano), and “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Wylie Stateman)

Golden Globes, USA 2020:  3 wins: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy,” “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Brad Pitt) and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Quentin Tarantino); 2 nominations:  “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Leonardo DiCaprio) and “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Quentin Tarantino)

BAFTA Awards 2020:  1 win: “Best Supporting Actor” (Brad Pitt); 9 nominations:  “Best Film” (David Heyman and Shannon McIntosh), “Best Screenplay-Original” (Quentin Tarantino), “Best Leading Actor” (Leonardo DiCaprio), “Best Supporting Actress” (Margot Robbie), “Best Director” (Quentin Tarantino), “Best Editing” (Fred Raskin), “Best Production Design” (Barbara Ling and Nancy Haigh), “Best Costume Design” (Arianne Phillips), and “Best Casting” (Victoria Thomas)


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Review: "Joker" Ain't No Joke

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 1 (of 2020) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Joker (2019)
Running time: 121 minutes (2 hours, 1 minute)
Rating: MPAA – R for strong bloody violence, disturbing behavior, language and brief sexual images
DIRECTOR:  Todd Phillips
WRITERS:  Todd Phillips and Scott Silver
PRODUCERS:  Todd Phillips, Bradley Cooper, and Emma Tillinger Koskoff
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Lawrence Sher
EDITOR:  Jeff Groth
COMPOSER:  Hildur Guðnadóttir

CRIME/DRAMA

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Shea Whigham, Bill Camp, Glenn Fleshler, Leigh Gill, Douglas Hodge, Carrie Louise Putrello, Sharon Washington, Brian Tyree Henry, and Dante Pereira-Olson

Joker is a 2019 crime drama from director Todd Phillips.  The movie offers a gritty character study and new origin story of The Joker, the classic Batman villain who first appeared in Batman #1 (cover dated: Spring 1940).

The film opens sometime in the early 1980s.  Gotham City is in a state of chaos because of political and social turmoil and also because of class conflict between the extremely wealthy and powerful and the ordinary citizens.  Gotham is also in the middle of a mayoral election and a strike by the sanitation workers, which means that no one is picking up the garbage.  Trash bags and refuse line the streets, and this has created a rodent problem so bad that people are talking about “super rats.”

One of Gotham's beleaguered citizens is Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a man with a history of mental illness, including a stint in a mental institution.  Fleck works as a “party clown,” but he aspires to be a stand-up comedian.  He lives with his ailing, aging mother, Penny Fleck (Frances Conroy), who also has a history of mental illness.

Living in poverty and being mostly a loner, Arthur Fleck feels he has been disregarded by society.  All his life, it seemed to him that no one even noticed that he existed, so he always wondered if he really existed.  Now, two unexpected incidents in a single day will change his life.  One is an accident and mistake that costs Arthur his job.  The other is a violent act of self-defense that will leave an already shocked city aghast.  But not everyone is appalled by the man who will become “Joker.”

After all the controversy and worry that it would inspire lonely, young men (particularly “incels,” the “involuntarily celibate”) to violence, Todd Phillips' Joker, the comic book movie that is not a comic book movie, turns out to be a somewhat more personal film and, on the part of Joaquin Phoenix, a more intimate performance than one would expect from all the hullabaloo.  Joker portrays the descent (or ascent?) of a man from mentally-ill invisible man to psychopathic murder and celebrated figure.

I don't know if Joker is Phoenix's best performance, because as good as the Oscar-nominated actor is here, this millennium has seen him deliver tour-de-force performances in varied roles across a variety of films.  If he deserves to be nominated for an Oscar or even win one for his performance in Joker, this performance is just the latest example of actor-as-artist who has been in full bloom for quite awhile.  Phoenix's performance as Arthur fleck is both gut-wrenching and utterly entertaining.  He manages to be both dark and light, pitiful and deadly in a role and performance that is too complex to describe in a paragraph or two.  I can say that in the annals of films based on comic books, Phoenix as Arthur Fleck is an immortal work of art.

Director Todd Phillips and his co-screenwriter, Scott Silver, have created a movie that is an evolution in the comic book film genre.  However, most comic book movies are meant to be popcorn entertainment, even when they are deeply thoughtful, poignant, and/or dramatic.  I believe that Joker is not meant to change the direction of such films coming from Marvel Studios' Marvel Cinematic Universe (the MCU) or from Warner Bros. line of DC Comics-inspired films.  Like Christopher Nolan did with his film, The Dark Knight (2008), Phillips points towards a different direction for comic book films with Joker.  I think that The Dark Knight partly inspired Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), so, in the next five years, I expect to see at least one great comic book movie following in the inspired dance steps of Joaquin Phoenix's Joker.

The film has good supporting performances; for me, Robert De Niro as television talk show host, Murray Franklin, and Zazie Beetz as “love interest,” Sophie Dumond, who makes the most of her relatively small role, are standouts.  The crazy, ominous, gorgeous film score by Hildur Guðnadóttir is also one of the film's most special elements.

In Joker, Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Phillips have created something scary, beautiful, fantastic, exhilarating, funny, and dazzling.  I will admit that sometimes it scared me and made me uncomfortable, but I love it all the more because of that.  Joker is a bravura act of cinema.

9 of 10
A+

Saturday, October 5, 2019


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "SPIDER-MAN: Into the Spider-Verse" is One of the Greatest Superhero Films

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 2 (of 2019) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Running time:  117 minutes (1 hour, 57 minutes)
MPAA – PG for frenetic sequences of animated action violence, thematic elements, and mild language
DIRECTORS:  Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman
WRITERS:  Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman; from a story by Phil Lord (based upon the Spider-Man character created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and the Mile Morales character created by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli)
PRODUCERS:  Avi Arad, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Amy Pascal, and Christina Steinberg
EDITOR:  Robert Fisher Jr.
COMPOSER:  Daniel Pemberton
Academy Award winner

ANIMATION/SUPERHERO/ACTION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY

Starring:  (voices) Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Bryan Tyree Hill, Lily Tomlin, Luna Lauren Velez, Zoe Kravitz, John Mulaney, Kumiko Glenn, Nicolas Cage, Kathryn Hahn, Liev Schreiber, Chris Pine, Natalie Morales, and Stan Lee

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a 2018 computer-animated superhero film from Sony Pictures.  It was developed by the filmmaking duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the writer-directors of the animated films, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and The Lego Movie (2014), and the live-action films, 21 Jump Street (2012) and the sequel, 22 Jump Street (2014).

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse focuses on the Marvel Comics' character, Miles Morales, an Afro-Latino teenager.  Miles takes on the Spider-Man identity when he gains spider-like powers after being bitten by a genetically-altered spider, similar to the way the original Spider-Man, Peter Parker, gained his special abilities and powers.  The film follows Miles as he becomes the Spider-Man of his reality and joins versions of Spider-Man (Spider-People) from other dimensions in order to stop a threat to all reality, the multiverse that is know as the “Spider-Verse.”

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse introduces Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), a teenager who is a fan of Spider-Man.  As the story begins, Miles is dealing with the fact that he must attend an elite boarding school, Brooklyn Visions Academy.  Although he would prefer to remain in public school, Miles must accept the decision of his parents, his mother Rio Morales (Luna Lauren Velez), a nurse, and his father, Jefferson Davis (Bryan Tyree Hill), a police officer.

Miles also has a shady uncle, his father's brother, Aaron Davis (Mahershala Ali), whom Miles visits for advice a curious girl he meets at his new school.  Aaron encourages Miles' passion for graffiti and takes him to an abandoned subway station where he can paint and draw.  It is there that a genetically-altered spider bites Miles, causing him to develop powers similar to his hero, Spider-Man.  Miles meets his hero and learns that Spider-Man is trying to stop Wilson Fisk a.k.a. “The Kingpin” (Liev Schreiber) from using a device that will give him access to parallel universes.  Now, Miles must join Spider-Man types from across the Spider-Verse to stop The Kingpin's activities from destroying all of reality.

I could talk all day about how great Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is, but I want to be more self-aware than The Kingpin is.  I will focus on two stand-out elements in this film.  First is Shameik Moore, who is great in his voice role, bringing to life a Miles Morales that is lovable and is as ground-breaking as he was in the comic books.  Moore's performance personifies the dominate theme of this film, that the novice hero grows into the role of being a mature hero, which is especially true in the case of Spider-Man.  Moore's performance also captures the one thing that has made Spider-Man popular worldwide, practically since he debut.  Because of the kind of superhero costume Spider-Man wears, anyone can be behind the mask, including an Afro-Latino teen and even a teen girl.  Moore and the filmmakers perfectly encapsulate the truth that Spider-Man is an every-man hero.

The second thing about this film I want to highlight is its fantastic animation, eye-popping visuals, and breath-taking graphic design.  The film combines the in-house computer animation of Sony Pictures Imageworks with traditional hand-drawn comic book techniques, much of it inspired by the work of Miles Morales's co-creator, artist Sara Pichelli (who created the character with writer Brian Michael Bendis) and artist Robbi Rodriguez, co-creator of Spider-Gwen/Spider-Woman.  Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse blends 3D computer animation with the 2D sensibilities of comic book graphics, graffiti, collage, mixed media, and street art to create the visual look for the film that is thoroughly modern, but also reflects the visuals and graphics of 1960s Marvel Comics titles, especially the quintessential Spider-comic, The Amazing Spider-Man.

Apparently, 2D artists took the renderings of 3D computer-animators and drew on top of those renderings various comic book drawing techniques, including line work, dots, and painting.  The combination of 2D and 3D makes much of the film look like a series of comic book panels, so there are times that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is like a comic book-in-motion.  It becomes a living, breathing comic book, pulsating with static-electric life.

Isn't it obvious that I love me some Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse?  It is the best Spider-Man film to date, and the second best comic book movie of the year, behind Black Panther.  I hope that adult audiences that generally avoid animated films don't avoid Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.  It is much better than the vast majority of comic book and action films that they have seen over the last decade.  Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a triumph, and it could be a game-changer.

A+
9 out of 10

Sunday, December 16, 2018; Edited:  Monday, February 25, 2019

NOTES:
2019 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best Animated Feature Film” (Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, Phil Lord, and Christopher Miller)

2019 Golden Globes, USA:  1 win: “Best Motion Picture – Animated”

2019 BAFTA Awards:  1 win: “Best Animated Featured Film” (Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, and Phil Lord)


The text is copyright © 2019 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: "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" is Beastly Good

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 24 (of 2017) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
Running time:  133 minutes (2 hours, 13 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some fantasy action violence
DIRECTOR:  David Yates
WRITER:  J.K. Rowling
PRODUCERS:  David Heyman, Steve Kloves, J.K. Rowling, and Lionel Wigram
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Philippe Rousselot (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Mark Day
COMPOSER:  James Newton Howard
Academy Award winner

FANTASY/DRAMA/FAMILY

Starring:  Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Colin Farrell, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Samantha Morton, Dan Fogler, Ezra Miller, Faith Wood-Blagrove, Jenn Murray, Carmen Ejogo, Jon Voight, Josh Cowdery, Ronan Rafferty, Ron Perlman, Zoe Kravitz, and Johnny Depp

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a 2016 fantasy film directed by David Yates.  This film is a continuation of the Harry Potter film series, and it is co-produced and written by J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books.  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (or simply Fantastic Beasts) is inspired by Rowling's 2001 book of the same name.  Set in J. K. Rowling's Wizarding World 70 years before Harry Potter's story, Fantastic Beasts follows the adventures of a British wizard after he arrives in New York City and clashes with its secret community of witches and wizards.

In 1926, British wizard and "magizoologist" Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) stops in New York City on his way to Arizona.  Scamander also carries with him a magical suitcase full of fantastic beasts, and one of them, a “Niffler,” escapes into the city.  During his quest to recapture the Niffler, Scamander meets a “No-Maj” (does not have magical powers) named Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), after they unwittingly swap suitcases.

This confusion brings Scamander into contact and conflict with Porpentina “Tina” Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), a demoted auror (hunter of dark wizards), who belongs to the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA).  Scamander also meets Tina's sister, Queenie (Alison Sudol), a flapper who has amazing powers of memory.  Now, the four of them are caught in a conspiracy involving one or more escaped beasts, with one of them being very dangerous.  Scamander has been searching for this creature, and to find it and protect it may cost him his life.

I did not expect much from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  It is not that I thought that it was a bad movie, but I guess I was comparing it unfavorably to the Harry Potter films – without having seen it...  However, I find that Fantastic Beasts compares quite favorably to the Potter films; in fact, Fantastic Beasts is a film set in the Wizarding World for us grown-ups.

Fantastic Beasts is an adult urban fantasy which presents a perilous world of magic where secrets must be kept, even unto penalty of death.  War between the world of wizards and witches and the world of the No-Maj slash humans without magical powers seems like a genuine threat in this narrative.  [In the Potter films, humans without magical powers are referred to as “muggles.”]

There is something on the line for the character; they have something to lose, and perhaps, some could lose everything, including their lives.  So the audience buys into this story.  Fantastic Beasts is not some mere, spin-off, sequel/prequel, event movie.  It is all in the writing of of J.K. Rowling's script; she makes the story matters, and once again, director David Yates understands the most important elements of Rowling's writing.  The bonds of family and friendship; the motivations of characters; the conflict central and peripheral; and good versus evil, and Yates and Rowling deliver strongly on these.

Fantastic Beasts also separates itself from the Potter films with a cast of characters that is far more eccentric than the characters Potter delivered (and there were oddballs in that lot).  Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne manages to make a introverted, strange little man into a strong lead and resilient lead character that the audience will follow, even when Redmayne makes it obvious that Scamander does not want anyone following him.

Katherine Waterston makes Tina worthy of her own film.  In her feature film debut, Alison Sudol is pitch perfect as Queenie, and Dan Fogler surprises as Jacob.  In fact, all of the cast is good – from Colin Farrell's perplexing Percival Graves to Ezra Miller's troubled Credence Barebone.  Fantastic Beasts delivers complex and engaging characters.

Yes, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them delivers and proves that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a universe that can exist beyond Harry.  Fantastic Beasts is a thoroughly enjoyable movie; it is so likable that I cannot really find fault with it.  I don't know if every Potter fan will like this movie, but for some of us, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is our part of the Wizarding World.

9 of 10
A+


NOTES:
2017 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best Achievement in Costume Design” (Colleen Atwood); 1 nominations: “Best Achievement in Production Design” (Stuart Craig-production design and Anna Pinnock-set decoration

2017 BAFTA Awards 2017:  1 win: “Best Production Design” (Stuart Craig and Anna Pinnock); 4 nominations: “Outstanding British Film of the Year” (David Yates, J.K. Rowling, David Heyman, Steve Kloves, and Lionel Wigram), “Best Costume Design” (Colleen Atwood), “Best Sound” (Niv Adiri, Glenn Freemantle, Simon Hayes, Andy Nelson, and Ian Tapp), “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (Tim Burke, Pablo Grillo, Christian Manz, and David Watkins)


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: "The Jungle Book" Goes Live with Spectacular Effects

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 23 (of 2017) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Jungle Book (2016)
Running time: 107 minutes
MPAA – PG for some sequences of scary action and peril
DIRECTOR:  Jon Favreau
WRITER:  Justin Marks (based on the books by Runyard Kipling)
PRODUCERS:  Jon Favreau and Brigham Taylor
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Bill Pope (D.o.P)
EDITORS:  Mark Livolsi with Adam Gerstel
COMPOSER: John Debney
Academy Award winner

FANTASY/ADVENTURE/DRAMA/FAMILY

Starring:  Neel Sethi and the voices of Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong'o, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito, Christopher Walken, Garry Shandling, Brighton Rose, Sam Raimi, Jon Favreau and Dee Bradley Baker

The Jungle Book is a 2016 fantasy adventure film directed by Jon Favreau and produced by Walt Disney Pictures.  The film is a live-action remake of Disney's classic animated film, The Jungle Book (1967), and both films are based on stories from The Jungle Book (1894), the collection of stories by Rudyard Kipling.  The Jungle Book 2016 focuses on a boy raised by wolves who makes a journey of self-discovery after a fearsome tiger threatens his life.

The Jungle Book focuses on Mowgli (Neel Sethi), a human who is raised by the wolf Raksha (Lupita Nyong'o) and her pack, led by her mate, Akela (Giancarlo Esposito).  Mowgli is called a “man-cub” and lives in harmony with the animals in a jungle in India.  However, Shere Khan (Idris Elba), a tiger with a scar on its face, catches Mowgli's scent; Khan hates man because it was a man that scarred his face.  Now, Khan has decided to kill Mowgli.

The black panther, Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), who rescued Mowgli when he was a baby and brought him to the wolves, decides that he must take the man-cub out of the jungle and get him to a nearby man village.  Shere Khan, however, is not content with Mowgli leaving the jungle; he wants to kill him.  Mowgli must prove to everyone, including Bagheera and his new friend, Baloo the sloth bear (Bill Murray), that the jungle is where he belongs.

The Jungle Book 2016 is not a great movie, but it is a pretty good movie.  The voice acting is good, but only Christopher Walken as King Louie the Gigantopithecus (an extinct genus of ape), and Idris Elba as Shere Khan bring real power, heat and menace to their voice acting.  As Mowgli, one of the few real or non-computer generated characters, Neel Sethi gives a performance that has both strong and weak moments, but overall is good.

The most impressive things about The Jungle Book 2016 are the visual effects.  The animal characters are some of the most realistic computer-generated animals that I have ever seen in a movie.  The sheer number and variety of animals make this the greatest cinematic achievement in terms of using computer software to create animals.  If there is better, I have not seen it yet, but I want to see that movie or movies.

The Jungle Book 2016 will not make you forget the 1967 film, which I do not consider to be among the best of Disney's animated films.  Still, it is a truly nice family movie that even some adults can find entertaining, and, of course, the visual effects achievements here make The Jungle Book a must-see for film fans.

6 of 10
B

Sunday, October 22, 2017

NOTES:
2017 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win “Best Achievement in Visual Effects” (Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones, and Dan Lemmon)

2017 BAFTA Awards 2017:  1 win: “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (Robert Legato, Dan Lemmon, Andrew R. Jones, and Adam Valdez)


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: "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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