Lean on Pete (2018)

Only a film maker with the talent of Andrew Haigh could make me care about a boy-and-his-horse movie. Let me correct that, it would take the expertise of a film maker working at the top of his game to get me to love a boy-and-his-horse movie. Lean on Pete, the awkwardly named and subject-challenged story of a young man finding purpose through caring for a horse movie, is a remarkable surprise in just how much it took a hold of me and didn't let go.

Haigh, with his loving attention to detail, his sense of beautiful tragedy, and his lush approach to visuals, has crafted a wonderful film which will break your heart without pulling at it. Haigh finds a way to take a story which should be manipulative and find the truth in it.

Charlie Plummer, who I first noticed in Ridley Scott's All the Money in the World, gives one of those performances which shows us he's going to be a force to be reckoned with. He never makes Charley overly expressive but gives him all the emotions his character feels through everything. He plays opposite the horse and pulls this off like a veteran.

Don't misunderstand. This isn't an inspiring tale about the love between a human and an animal. In the end Lean on Pete isn't about a boy-and-his-horse. It's about a boy who is left behind and struggles to find connection and meaning in a world that doesn't care. Haigh and Plummer paint a beautiful portrait of this boy that is heartbreaking and a movie that will haunt you long after it finishes.

Lean on Pete
Starring: Charlie Plummer, Steve Buscemi, Chloe Sevigny, Steve Zahn, Travis Fimmel
Writer/Director: Andrew Haigh

Vice (2018)

Writer/director Adam McKay is making a bit of a niche for himself as a new Oliver Stone. His clever and creative means of story telling paired with his sharp deconstruction of politics make his recent films unique. Leaving behind his Anchorman and Talladega Nights behind him he has created some of the smartest and sharpest social commentary in Hollywood.

Vice reminded me of Stone's JFK in how McKay bends the medium to his purpose so as best tell his story. As he did with his remarkable The Big Short he finds ways to breakdown very complicated systems of power into understandable and digestible moments and make it all part of a compelling and engrossing story. Vice tells you right off the bat this isn't what you would normally get from a historical biopic. This is going to rock your world a bit. And it does.

Vice systematically and methodically breaks down the ways Republican power has been constructed and used to circumvent the constitution and American Democracy. McKay makes it easy to grasp despite not sugarcoating it or dumbing it down. He has a unique talent for such deconstruction and he manages to make it all very watchable at the same time. Vice is both the smartest movie of the year, and one of the most engaging.

People will focus on Christian Bale's chameleon like transformation into Dick Chaney. Yes the make up department and Bale himself deserve awards for how well the nail the look and tenor of the former Vice President. But the real strength comes in more than that. Bale captures a complicated portrait of the man as well, a man whose tone makes him quite hard to play as anything more than a cameo in an SNL skit. He shows us his humanity in the way he relates to his family, especially his daughters. Which makes his ultimate betrayal of his daughter at the end of the film such a heartbreaking tragedy. He chooses power and party over the love of his child. It is a remarkably complicated portrait of evil.

Amy Adams also deserves credit as her complicated and powerful portrayal of Lynne Chaney making her both human and vile at the same time. She has as much agency as anyone in this film and is as responsible. Adams unfairly is seen with a certain "type" and here is just another example from her catalogue which challenges that notion.

And that is a big part of what I appreciated about Vice. McKay never dumbs it down. Sometimes he chooses to be on the nose (the final scene of his heart being taken out is quite obvious) but McKay has constructed a film which balances the obtuse with the more subtle. Some may critique the way he allows his film to get right up in our faces but I think that is a big part of the point of Vice. I can see why some would see his choice of narrator as audacious. I thought it was perfect. Vice is in many ways a blacklight on American history of the past 40 years and the way we have stood by and watched while we allowed evil to percolate and take over.

His powerful choice to indict us all at the end with Chaney addressing us defiantly like he's Frank Underwood (and perhaps he is) throws it back at us. McKay asks us to take our own responsibility for all that he has shown us, from the back room dealings to the graphic images of death and profit from that death that he has exposed us to. Vice pulls no punches. 

And it shouldn't.

Vice
Starring: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Alison Pill, Lily Rabe, Tyler Perry, Jesse Plemons, Justin Kirk
Writer/Director: Adam McKay

Bird Box (2018)

Fascinating premise. Strong cast. Promising director. But it never gels, never comes together. Its different parts feel disjointed and in-cohesive. Bird Box is one of those films where one imagines it could have been so much more. 

There are the brutal and fairly beautiful "present day" scenes. They are difficult as director Susanne Bier films them with uncompromising apocalyptic fervor. She embraces the darkness of the premise and its frightening. But it's also gorgeous. Set in a natural setting, Bier films it lushly, lit beautifully. The contrast between how the film looks and the story it is telling is vividly powerful.

But it is interspersed with the "history," how we got from regular world to this terrifying future. And this part of the film has a more basic pedantic approach. I don't know if this is Bier's stylistic choice but it regardless it didn't work for me. Its overly simplistic, fairly formulaic take weakened the rest of it for me. The film tries to deal with is "reasons" the explanation for what's going on a little too on the nose. I think I would have appreciated a more symbolic story telling technique.

And then the end has a bit of an anti-climactic feeling. It doesn't resolve anything, and not in a lingering pessimistic way but in a tacked on way like they didn't know how to end it.  It is one of those stories that we get to the end and don't feel like we got much out of it.

The films isn't completely a misfire. There are scary moments and Bullock along with most of the cast are quite strong. But Bird Box remains a little bit "meh." Yet it certainly had moments where you felt like it was going to offer something more.

Bird Box
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovitch, Danielle Macdonald, Jacki Weaver, Rosa Salazar, Sarah Paulson, Lil Ray Howery, BD Wong, Tom Hollander
Director: Susanne Bier
Writer: Eric Heisserer

Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

I know it appears sophisticated to downplay anything new while venerating the "classics." "It's not as good as the book." people love to say. Or "the original was so much better." Pish posh. Sometimes, and actually quite often, things can be improved, or at least capture the spirit and mojo of what has come before. The new Mary Poppins is one of those sequels which does make you quite feel as magical as the original film. But still remains practically perfect in every way.

I think this is Rob Marshall's best work since his remarkable (and unfairly maligned) Chicago. His film is structured to both inspire the feelings and story of the first film, while offering us much new. And once he gets it going it is the sort of film one watches with a big smile on one's face.

A big part of that magic is the cast. Emily Blunt captures the character so wonderfully. It is in no way a slight to Julie Andrews to observe how perfectly Blunt becomes Mary and how much joy and sass she brings to the part. And Lin-Manuel Miranda oozes old fashioned star quality. He sings and dances and lights up the screen (literally and figuratively). But it's not just the stars. Ben Wishaw and Emily Mortimer, along with the kids, are all delightful as are the cameos featuring Dick Van Dyke, Meryl Streep and more. When Angela Lansbury comes on screen to bring the film to its joyous climax, she sets just the right sense of magic to an already magical film.

Marc Shaiman's songs also perfectly reach the impossible heights of the Sherman Brothers' work on the original film. Certainly nothing will top the legacy of songs like those from Mary Poppins' soundtrack, but Shaiman certainly pays fitting tribute. While I personally loved A Cover Is Not The Book, I acknowledge Trip a Little Light Fantastic is a show stopping, completely hummable number which will go down as a classic. And Marshall is at his best when finding cinematic ways to stage these numbers. As in Chicago the film comes alive during the musical numbers. You'll want to stand up and cheer.

May Poppins truly does return to challenge common sense, put it in its place, and inspire us all to be better. The film feels like an event and it lives up to its legacy and blows away expectations. It is joyous.

Mary Poppins Returns
Starring: Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Wishaw, Emily Mortimer, Pixie Davis, Nathanial Saleh, Joel Dawson, Julie Waters, Colin Firth,  Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury, Dyke Van Dyke
Director: Rob Marshall
Writer: David Magee

The Favourite (2018)

I went into The Favourite a bit skeptical. Despite how delicious the trailer looked I have not enjoyed any of director Yorgos Lanthimos' films in the past. Yet everything about how The Favourite looked made me feel like I might finally connect to his work this time. And I did. The Favourite is insightful, hilarious, and desperately tragic. Screenwriters Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara have written a sharp, fascinating script and the top notch cast play out their roles with a relish that is palpable. But I have to give credit to Lanthimos whose disconcerting style and jagged technique fit the story so perfectly, making it irresistible.

The Favourite is the funniest movie I've seen all year. The humour comes both embedded in the situations, deeply under cover of the plot and characters, and lobbed at us frenetically often taking us by surprise. I rarely laugh out loud this often. Again a credit to the writing, delivery of the jokes, and the way they are presented. A big part of what gets us invested in this story of political gameswomanship is just how smartly funny it is.

But the cast perhaps is the thing about the film that I enjoyed the most. Sure the sets and costumes are gorgeous and Lanthimos finds a way to shoot it all so that you are intoxicated by it. But it is how incredibly everyone inhabits their roles. Clearly they are enjoying the work. The Favourite feels like a labour of love.  Yes Olivia Coleman is a standout at the centre of this, giving us both a comedic tour de force, but also a role filled with tragedy, showing us all the weight of that. And yes Stone and Weisz are both at the top of their game as well. But the rest of the cast is also remarkable.

The Favourite is a delightful, if dark and somewhat bleak, treat. I smiled and laughed all the way through. And it is the sort of entertaining rich film which will offer more depth on repeat viewings.

The Favourite
Starring: Elizabeth Coleman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone, Nicholas Hoult, Joe Alwyn
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writers: Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara

Ben is Back (2018)

The second high profile film in 2018 to focus on a parent struggling with the reality that they cannot help their addicted child (after Beautiful Boy), much of Ben is Back follows similar themes. Unlike that film this one is fiction and takes place over the course of one day. Like that film it features a movie star and a rising star both making powerful performances.

Julia Roberts seems interested in just making these sorts of pictures now. She certainly doesn't have anything to prove and instead she can just pick the roles that interest her. In Ben is Back she finds a meaty role right up her alley and she delivers, being the everymom at the end of her rope, slowly coming to the realization that there is nothing she can do, but doing it anyway.

Lucas Hedges is making a strong name for himself by taking on these difficult roles and doing a great, understated job. Here as the conflicted addict he gets us to see just how much he wants to both return to his life of drugs and wants to erase it. Directed by his father opposite one of the world's biggest stars, he holds his own and gives another quality role.

I liked how the film focused on just one day, one moment in what is a perilous and devastating journey. It is just a moment for these two survivors and it doesn't give us the hopeful ending we would want, it gives us no catharsis, not even the tragic kind. Instead it gives us a very honest day in the life.

Ben is Back
Starring: Julia Roberts, Lucas Hedges, Courtney B. Vance, Katherine Newton
Writer/Director: Peter Hedges

Bumblebee (2018)

As I watched Bumblebee I kept asking myself why? Why couldn't this have been the Transformers movie that started it all? Why did we have to suffer through all those awful Michael Bay movies that turned this series into such a joke? When this move seems so simple, so obvious, so clearly the way to go? Why did we have to wait all these years to finally get a decent live action Transformers movie?

Bumblebee is pure childhood fun. It isn't logical but then no one has found a way to make a movie about robots that transform into cars believable. But this one seems to have figured out how to make it watchable. Bumblebee follows the mold of 80s kid-meets-alien/robot/mysticalcreature formula. If you've seen a movie like Short Circuit or Flight of the Navigator or The Iron Giant, you've seen Bumblebee. It is appropriate it's set in the 80s. It's not reinventing the wheel. It's just finally making a Transformers movie that doesn't hurt the eyes.

This one is really for the kids (or the kid in each of us) and is very family friendly. It also appears to deviate from previous Transformers films. I've read some people try to connect them but this movie shows the titular hero leaving Cybertron and arriving on Earth apparently for the first time despite The Last Knight showing him being here much earlier in history. It also appears the Autobots are hiding here as a way of avoiding Decepticons but in the first film it's established that Megatron is frozen here as well. Also humans appear to know about the robots now while previous movies set up another first reveal. Sure the film tries to origin story the yellow hero by showing us why he looses his voice, gets his name, and likes teenagers but the rest of it doesn't sync up. I am hoping that all these anachronisms means Bumblebee provides a bit of a reboot and we can forget (thankfully) all the previous movies.

Whatever, in my mind I can now pretend no other Transformers movies exist and this one can just be a light fun popcorn flick to enjoy with the kids.

Bumblebee
Starring: Hailee Steinfeld John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr.
Director: Travis Knight
Writer: Christina Hodson

Aquaman (2018)

Hell yeah.

This shouldn't have worked. Aquaman wasn't supposed to be an awesome movie. The common wisdom was wrong as usual. Director James Wan has made the kind of movie that has entertained generations of movie goers, a rollicking adventure that transports us. Aquaman is big screen magic.

There are going to be those who just can't wrap their heads around it. Wan embraces everything about what is supposed to make Aquaman not work. He talks to fish. He rides seahorses. He talks underwater. And it's all amazing. Wan embraces the B-movie, comic book elements, imbuing them all with a sense of grandeur, legend, legitimacy. When he signed on for this film he said he wanted to make an old school swashbuckling adventure. Clearly he knew what he was talking about. Aquaman most resembles the Saturday Serials of the 40s with their larger than life plots and fantasy scenarios. Wan doesn't shy away from any of it. Instead he grabs it all by the tentacles and rides it to a stunning conclusion which had the audience I saw it with cheering.

Aquaman is a big screen film. This is what 3D was made for. They use 3D for everything but originally it was this sort of popcorn fun that used it exclusively. And watching Aquaman you feel like you're underwater. Wan's world immerses you.

Mamoa has star quality written all over him. It's hard not to be endeared to him and he also embraces all of the roll. It is mostly his full dedication to the character that makes it work as well as it does. Also great are his villains, both Wilson as the scenery chewing old school villain and Abdul-Mateen as the more post-modern baddy with a beef present strong counterpoints to Mamoa's outright heroism.

While the film doesn't try to get too deep (pun intended) its message is still one that is easy to get behind. Mamoa's outsider, denigrated character defying all odds and offering the culture what it needs to transform itself into something greater is the hero we need. Sure the story isn't a developed as previous installments of this franchise, it focuses in a more straightforward direction taking a more classic approach. And the script does fall into the trap many superhero films do of throwing awkward jokes in occasionally, not as much as a typical Marvel movie, but still enough to take me out of the film a few time. But even that fits with the film's pulpy roots and helps its connect to that simpler time.

I never thought I'd be cheering on an Aquaman movie but Wan and Mamoa and the rest of the team proved us all wrong.

Aquaman
Starring: Jason Mamoa, Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Willem Dafoe, Nicole Kidman, Dolph Lundgren, Temuera Morrison, Djimon Hounsou, and yes... Julie Andrews
Director: James Wan
Writers: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, Will Beall

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

I understand when Lee Israel published her confessional memoir about her forging letters by famous writers there was some controversy, the same sort that comes up whenever someone convicted of a crime has a chance to make money off of those crimes by telling their story. Sure this is nothing like a murder writing about their murders and profiting off it. And as a writer I understand she was very talented and her retelling of the events was very enjoyable. I am also aware of the difficulty in trusting someone writing a "true story" when it is their version of events they want out there. But all in all, this story of a down on her luck writer and her scheme to sell forged letters by famous writers, ends up being very enjoyable with just enough self-deprication to make you tolerant of her attempt to tell her version of events.

But the story really only goes so far. What makes the film work as much as it does is Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant both giving wonderfully entertaining but minimized performances. Neither chews scenery or goes over the top. They imbue a true sense of humanity to their characters and are just a delight to watch. In many ways this film might be rather forgettable without them.

Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, Jane Curtin, Dolly Wells, Ben Falcone
Director: Marielle Heller
Writers: Nicole Holofcener, Jeff Whitty

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018)

Watching the first half of Mowgli, one would be hard pressed to understand why the film makers bothered making a film which is so close to another film, Disney's "live action" Jungle Book. The first part of Mowgli hits many of the same beats,only differentiating itself by being "darker" if you count being slightly more violent and having less songs being "darker." I understand this wasn't set out to be a remake of that film, that both were developing at the same time and the other just happened to get out first. Being second does bring on what may be unfair comparisons. But regardless the first half of this film doesn't offer anything new.

But once you get to the second half you begin to see what may have been motivating director Andy Serkis to take on this very familiar story. I would argue both Disney's attempts to adapt the Mowgli stories are valid interpretations and very entertaining. But as the film finds it groove Serkis does find something else interesting to say about this narrative.

All interpretations use Mowgli's status as outsider and his humaness as his strengths. Serkis' take gives Mowgli new struggles as he wrestles with what it means to be a person  in light of both the good and bad that people exhibit. In Mowgli we get to see the good and bad in all his aspects, as a member of the jungle community and as an emerging human. Serkis' Mowgli becomes a hero through embracing it all and striving for the best of all of it.

So perhaps this second take does offer us something interesting

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
Starring: Rohan Chand, Christian Bale, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andy Serkis, Kate Blanchett, Naomi Harris, Frida Pinto
Director: Andy Serkis
Writer: Callie Kloves

Roma (2018)

As a film lover one of the things that I appreciate most about films I love is beauty. Film is a visual medium and a narrative one. When the film maker is able to make something beautiful, both visually and in its story, I fall in love with it. Director Alfonso Cuaron is a master of this. I remember falling head over heals for his A Little Princess adaptation for the sheer gorgeousness of it. He has topped himself in all ways with his masterful Roma.

Roma is a personal story for Cuaron and one can feel that as you watch it. There is a great sense of love emanating from each frame. Cuaron pays attention to small details, immerses us in the world of his story, and engages us in a way that only a story teller with this amount of enthusiasm for their subject can do. Roma is one of those films that one feels fortunate to have been able to share in once you have watched it.

Roma is the sort of film which reminds us why it is called the "silver screen." Cuaron's use of the silver screen (black and white photography) is masterful. I was enraptured with each scene just by the sheer beauty of it. He creates a world that feels hyper realistic through his use of unreal colour tones. He makes the ordinary extraordinary with each shot. Roma is an absolutely gorgeous film to watch.

But the beauty of Roma doesn't end there. Again, likely fueled by his personal attachment to this story, Cuaron weaves a story that in itself is truly beautiful. The narrative of a domestic worker and her relationship to the family she works for set against political turmoil, shifting values, economic inequality, sexism, and all the melange of societal ills in the western world finds the very humanity of people in a way that is so powerful, meaningful, so... beautiful. I had to just sit quietly as the movie ended reflecting on what I had seen and experienced.

Thank you Alfonso for making such a beautiful film for us to enjoy.

Roma
Starring: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Fernando Grediaga, Jorge Antonio Guerrero, Latin Lover
Writer/Director: Alfonso Cuaron

Spider-man Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Some people talk about "super-hero movie fatigue" but the point they are missing is that when a genre becomes more common and mainstream this allows much more innovation within that genre, more exploration, and in fact what happens is the opposite of fatigue, but reinvigorating the genre. We're seen a number of examples of this, some more well received than others, but one such innovation is Spider-man Into the Spider-Verse. Unlike previous animated adaptations of the webslinger, and unlike the live action takes we've seen, this film literally breaks down walls and allows a story to be told that is truely refreshing.

The story of Miles Morales is one that comes out of a movement in comics to retell familiar stories in a way that is not only more inclusive of the whole comic reading audience but in a way that perhaps opens new doors to story telling. Therefore it is fitting that his film debut is one which also finds new ways to tell stories. Using the "multiverse" concept which is very familiar to comic readers and becoming more familiar with mainstream audiences, Into the Spider-Verse opens a lot of great doors to new opportunities for story telling.

Spider-man may have one of the most often retold story in the superhero world so a big part of what is refreshing is the way this film embraces that and breaks it wide open. Also telling this story through very innovating and beautiful animation gives it another unique identity to separate it from all the other superhero movies out there.

But the thing that truly makes Into the Spider-Verse work as well as it does is the good old fashion, tried and true technique of how well it tells its story. The characterization is remarkable, the story itself is gripping, and it's centred around a wonderful leading man.

I definitely want more trips to this universe.

Spider-man Into the Spider-Verse
Starring: Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Bryan Tyree Henry, Chris Pine, Lilly Tomlin, Kimiko Glenn, John Mulaney, Nicholas Cage, Liev Schreiber, Katheryn Hahn, Oscar Isaac
Directors: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman
Writers: Phil Lord, Rodney Rothman

Mortal Engines (2018)

I don't believe any book is "unfilmable" despite how often that word gets thrown around. There are plenty of examples of good movies based on properties people felt couldn't be translated to the screen. However there are also plenty of examples of movies made on difficult to translate to the screen books where the film makers just didn't find a way to make it work as well as it did on the page. Some need more art, more adjustments, more inspiration. I believe Mortal Engines could have been made into a good film. It just wasn't.

The story's premise is a difficult one to put on screen. The idea of large steam punk cities (think Howl's Moving Castle but 1000 times larger) that role around on giant tank wheels yet don't throw all their inhabitants through constant earth quakes is a difficult one to make believable as we watch it. In our heads we might be able to find a way to be okay with that, but onscreen it's one of those things that is just too hard to suspend our belief around.

So the film makers were starting with a difficult task already. But not only do they not tackle that well, they don't tackle the telling of a story part well either. The film's first scenes are all characters explaining in awkwardly unrealistic conversations, the realities of this world. Yes, the film makers needed to find a way to get us, as the audience, up to speed on how this dystopia works, but their way of doing it is clumsy and cheap feeling. It's bad writing.

The bad writing doesn't stop there. The jokes are all fairly groan worthy and the characterization is based on cliches. I don't know if this stems from the source material or from the movie's adapting it.

And it's too bad too because like much of the teen-lit genre is great for examining real world issues. Here the premise is pretty much hitting us over the head with a critique of  colonialism. But it's all symbolism and little substance. I'm not sure most audiences will get it despite the heavy-handedness of it.

Mortal Engines is one of those films that feels like part way through they knew they weren't really going to get anywhere with it so they just finished it as best the could and dumped it hoping it would find some sort of an audience.

Mortal Engines
Starring: Hera Hilmer, Robert Sheehan, Hugo Weaving, Jihae, Stephen Lang
Director: Christian Rivers
Writers: Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens

The Other Side of the Wind (2018)

Over 40 years in the making, we finally get a version of Orson Wells' last film The Other Side of the Wind, and in many ways it is searching for its own Rosebud. Only this time, instead of it being an item, a symbol for lost youth/innocence, it is something more complex and confusing, something terrifying, something so frightening it leads to death.

Wells takes us through two "stories," sort of. One is of the last night of an aging filmmaker, dismissed as venerated but no longer relevant, and unable to adjust to the changing world. He is throwing a party to screen his unfinished final film to drum up support for the project and is visibly aggravated by all he has to go through to get the funding to make his art. The second is the film itself, unfinished, chaotic, purposefully abstract and sexual. Both a comment on the world of cinema changing.

Huston's character (a stand in for Wells himself or perhaps Huston himself, or just their generation?) is immediately unlikable to a 21st century eye. Completely comfortable with his place above those he degrades through his language (he freely makes sexist comments, throws around homophobic words, uses racist slang) and frustrated that he can't command what he used to be able to, his Hannaford is worn and unremorseful. He smiles smugly throughout the film like he doesn't give a shit. But as the film goes on we see he does, and does in ways he won't admit.

He is hectically discussed throughout, even to his face as if he's not even there, and dissected, everyone giving their take on the old man. While he is victim of their harping he is also fully responsible for it. He has set himself in this position and has the gall to then be pissed about it.

But as the film progresses we get more and more of his sadness and longing. He is more frequently confronted about his feelings for the young man who stars in his film, a man he drove away through his bullish behavior. He never is willing to confront how his feelings for this man destroy so much of who he has made himself to be. He is the old guard, fraudulent and oppressive, and his own created identity and power structure is destroying him. He is classically tragic in that way. Undone by his own doing.

The world moves on without him, he becomes just an interesting anecdote. There is something beautifully satisfying about watching him self-destruct unwillingly, refusing to embrace what would make him whole, refusing to change. He is a symbol of what was, what needed to change, and what refuses to acquiesce to the future. The Other Side of the Wind doesn't set up pity for him. Instead there is more of a sense of loss of what he could have been if he'd let himself. He is his own villain. I think the thing that made me truly feel in this film is the way it was a portrait of refusal and the loss that comes from that.

The Other Side of the Wind is visually fascinating. His film within a film is gorgeous in its nonsense. It's the kind of sequence which would make a lovely set of stills. Kodor and Random's beauty is captured so lovingly by Wells and shot so perfectly it is a treat for our eyes. I loved the juxtaposition of that with the almost nightmarish party sequences (maybe it is the introvert in me that made them so terrifying for me). Wells' incredible eye (like he does in the gorgeous Touch of Evil) crafts something beautiful here that is a joy to watch.

We'll never know how Wells would have finished this film, if he even would have. But getting to see it put together like this is like getting a small piece of the past back. It is very much a work of its time and seeing it now does feel a bit like archeology. Putting together pieces of the way culture used to work and seeing that inner workings deconstructed by someone in that time. So different than we would do it today. It is fascinating, and it is lovely, and it is painful, and it is tragic. All the things we would want Wells' last film to be.

The Other Side of the Wind
Starring:  John Huston, Oja Kodor, Peter Bogdanovich, Susan Strasberg, Bob Random
Writer/Director: Orson Wells

Anna and the Apocalypse (2018)

After building up a reputation at conventions and late night film festival screenings, Anna and the Apocalypse storms into mainstream theatres, but maybe that's not quite where it belongs. While a zombie Christmas musical might play well with the crowds at a festival or con, it isn't necessarily the sort of thing that mainstream audiences might flock to. And the film falls heavily onto the B-movie side of things. It's almost the sort of thing you want to see at an event and not at the mall megaplex.

Cause despite its too smart for its own good premise, Anna and the Apocalypse isn't quite as subversive as one would assume. It is also far more plain than one would suspect. This isn't Shawn of the Dead or even Doctor Horrible. Despite the title the film ends up being a rather run of the mill low budget zombie film that doesn't push too many buttons. Sure it's a damn charming zombie film and it remains rather enjoyable. But it's not the nerdy Christmas miracle I was expecting.

The songs are Glee-like hummable, as is the cast. But the closest the film gets to being radical is a saucy little holiday tune sung before any of the gore gets going. So in the end it's silly and cute, but not a game changer.

Yet you could do worse if looking for a little holiday magic.

Anna and the Apocalypse 
Starring: Ella Hunt
Director: John McPhail
Writers: Alan McDonald, Ryan McHenry

Dumplin' (2018)

Dumplin' is a crowd pleaser kind of movie. Its message of empowerment is more on the side of fun and charming than on truly challenging the status quo. It never gets to the places a film like Little Miss Sunshine gets to and instead just tries to be as fun and inspiring as the main character's muse, Dolly Parton. It mostly succeeds and ends up being a fun time.

I loved star Danielle Macdonald in her break out film Patti Cake$. She has an "it" quality which is just remarkable to watch. She brings that magic here to her role as the title character but the film doesn't give her the chances she had in her previous film to truly explore the mother/daughter dynamic.

Mostly the film lets us put the pieces together. I never felt Jennifer Aniston's character was truly rounded out. She was fairly despicable in her treatment of her plus size daughter in the beginning, and never has a true redemption arc just eventually coming around to seeing how special her daughter truly is without us seeing her get there.

But that's not what this film is about. It's about "finding out who you are and doing it intentionally." The film comes alive when Dumpin seeks out guidance from a somewhat cliched group of wise of Dolly impersonating drag queens. As drag queens usually are they are delightful. They don't get to be multidimensional either. But they are damn fun. Harold Parrineau steals the show here as the mentor to the young women coming into being who they truly are. That's where Dumplin' works the best.

I will also give the film points on how Dumplin's love interest (aptly named Bo) never goes through the standard challenges of falling for a larger girl. He just knows he likes her and pursues her and I found that refreshing.

But even more than all that, the film works best when Dolly is singing. Her original songs for the film are beautiful and the mix of her classics gives the film exactly the vibe it needs to be a what it wants to be, intentionally.

Dumplin'
Starring: Danielle Macdonald, Jennifer Aniston, Luke Benward, Odwya Rush, Dove Cameron, Harold Parrineau, Maddie Baillio, Kathy Najimi
Director: Anne Fletcher
Writer: Kristin Hahn

Boy Erased (2018)

Boy Erased had my emotions all over the place. There were times I was completely engaged. I even teared up at moments. Yet there were times I felt disconnected, removed from what was going on, even a little bored. Just as the film jumps around with the timeline of its narrative, I felt it jumped around with its consistency in telling its story leaving me to feel somewhat conflicted about what I was watching. 


Boy Erased often feels like one of those LGBTQ movies made for straight people. The story is a rather familiar one for many queer people, so familiar in fact that it borders on cliche. Yet it is based on a true experience and I never doubted it was very honest. Based on the real life experiences and writings of Gerrard Conley, a writer who went through conversion therapy as a young man, the film captures a very quintessential story for many queer people. Yet the film, which stars a very queer cast, often feels like it is reaching to the straight audience and making sure they will find it accessible with its big stars and mainstream approach. Instead of affirming the experiences of those who may have survived something like the conversion therapy or the religious abuse presented here, it is for those who may not have had to consider what surviving something like that would be like.

Boy Erased most often felt somewhat removed from its subject. Despite a strong performance by Lucas Hedges, and very strong cameos from other queer actors such as Xavier Dolan and Troye Sivan, their characters' experiences are often what is discussed more than experienced. Much is kept at arms length, like the way those going through the "program" are restricted from real touch. We as an audience are also kept from seeing or feeling queerness throughout. The most graphic scenes are violent. The most queer scenes are safely demure.

There are two scenes, carefully constructed to balance each other, where Lucas' Conley analogue is shown dealing with his sexuality. In the first he is raped. In the second he makes a non-sexual connection. While both are powerful, neither finds the true beauty of queer sexuality. Both are rather safe to watch. This isn't to say they aren't powerful. The rape scene is quite upsetting although inert enough to likely not be triggering for most and Lucas' character is never forced to struggle with that rape. The positive connection is robbed of most of its sexual power, making it quite digestible to a straight audience who might be a bit afraid to see two men do more than hold hands.

Also the film doesn't quite show just how horrific conversion therapy is.  We don't viscerally feel the abuse. We are to read it in through seeing Lucas' reaction as well as the way some of the other characters react. Often the characters jump quickly from 0-60 on the emotional scale so scenes morph into drama without a lot of build up. I think the film could have been stronger if we too could feel it as we watched, feel it without being told.

But the film isn't completely inert. There are times when the film finds its emotional centre. Most of that is in when the film shows its relationship between Lucas and his mother (Nicole Kidman). Together they have the most riveting of scenes and they bring to the film the must needed pathos which felt stilted elsewhere. These two redeem much of the film. There are other moments too but often they feel like they drop out of nowhere. Sivan's character for example is mostly background but suddenly offers some words of wisdom that don't feel organic to what we've seen of him. Lucas' relationship with a young woman at the program also feels like it should have been something more yet feels rather meaningless on the screen. I wanted more of Dolan's character, there appeared to something fascinating going on there that just gets discarded when it no longer serves the plot.

I hope I don't sound too hard on the film. I do think there is a lot here for straight audiences to get out of starting to understand some of the queer experience. I also think that for some who have survived this sort of abuse the film might be fairly validating without being too triggering. But the film doesn't reach the emotional power I thought it might. It is still a very good watch and the score, with its almost horror movie sound, is powerful in conveying the feeling of the film. Troye Sivan's music for the film is also quite revelatory, finding a sincere beauty in this boy's experience and his surviving to become the man he does.

Boy Erased
Starring: Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Joel Edgerton, Xavier Dolan, Troye Sivan, Cherry Jones, Flea
Writer/Director: Xavier Dolan

Support the Girls (2018)

Mublecore isn't for everyone and the genre has its stronger examples along with its weaker. What makes Support the Girls stand out is its star. Regina Hall is brilliant here in a role which is one of the more completely drawn characters in film this year, a role she inhabits fully. She doesn't have to chew scenery or give that Oscar moment. Instead she just creates a fascinating real woman.

Director Bujalski does well mostly by just letting his cast do what they need to. The film is funny, not in a telling jokes sort of way, but in a life is hard and often hilarious sort of way. It ends on a beautiful inspiring note that is sold by the strength of its cast.

The film is short so when it starts to drag it doesn't do so for long. Set over the course of a shift at a Hooters style restaurant, Support the Girls mostly just winds through its slice of life story and focuses on Hall getting to shine in a truly impressive performance. 

Support the Girls
Starring: Regina Hall,  Haley Lu Richardson, Shayna McHale
Writer/Director: Andrew Bujalski

The Grinch (2018)

How hard is it??

Who is the brainiac who had the rights to adapt one of the most beautifully and cleverly written poems in pop culture and decided to cut out big chunks of that brilliance and replace it with subpar rhymes and forgettable catch phrases? Who takes a classic story dissecting modernity's obsession with pessimism and misanthropy and churns it into a simplistic story of loneliness?

You have the rights to tell the frickin Grinch! You don't go and change it so that it is about something else?

How hard is it??

The 2000 live action version of the Grinch also completely misunderstood the story. It reversed the characters so that it was the Whos who were missing the point of Christmas. It was so obsessed with letting Jim Carrey do the Jim Carrey shtick that it forgot it was about the Grinch. I was ready to see if a new adaptation could actually capture what Seuss' story was about.

But I shouldn't have got my hopes up. Illumination Animation studios makes the most pedestrian of animated movies of any of the major American animation studios and have already screwed up The Lorax. Not that Blue Sky Animation Studios did any better with Horton Hears a Who. I stand corrected. Illumination is second in pedestrainess to Blue Sky... but I digress...

Illumination's The Grinch is a rather lonely but lovable fella and has none of the sinister quality the Suess' character. His story is filled with pratfalls which aren't as funny as they should be, and none of the subversiveness of Suess' story or the originality of Chuck Jones' take. Illumination is a one trick pony. They've taken Cindy Lou Who and basically made her Agnes from Despicable Me. None of this is the story of the Grinch. It's fairly disposable Hallmark Channel Christmas movie BS.

But the biggest mystery is why they took the writing of Suess out of the story and put in their very poorman's version in instead. There was a film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet a few years back which decided to jettison Shakepeare's writing in exchange for putting in modern language. Watching The Grinch I was reminded of just what a bad decision that was.

The Grinch is the kind of film that will make a lot of money today but will be fairly forgotten in the years to come, while generations will return to Chuck Jones' spot on adaptation for all the brilliance it captures. This one is just today's fly by night flavour of the month.

I'm going to go watch the real adaptation now to wash this flavour out of my mouth.

The Grinch
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Rashida Jones, Kenan Thompson, Angela Lansbury, Pharrell Williams
Directors: Scott Mosier, Yarrow Chaney
Writers: Michael LeSieur, Tommy Swerdlow