Spies in Disguise (2019)

Blue Sky animation studios has produced about one (count em) film I've enjoyed in their entire run. Now they have been bought out by Disney and will be folded into the Mouse House which I hope means Blue Sky will pretty much disappear and not that they will start to influence how Disney makes their animated movies. While lately I haven't been a big fan of what Disney and even their other division Pixar have done, I still have hopes they will return to making great films soon. The influence of Blue Sky not withstanding.

But I digress. I am here to review their latest (and second last as I understand it) animated feature Spies in Disguise a Bond spoof where the superspy is turned into a bird which naturally turns out to be the best thing that could happen to him and his spying career. Along the way he learns the meaning of friendship and trying something different. I know, I know. It is as predictable and as common as it sounds but coming from Blue Sky that is what we have come to expect. They aren't known for being revolutionary but for producing mass market, assembly line, cookie cutter crowd pleasers with no lasting impact. I mean does anyone truly have any nostalgic love for the Ice Age or Rio movies? No matter how many of them they make.

But it turns out Spies in Disguise is one of their more entertaining outings. Mostly it works due to the unending charm of its lead Will Smith who plays his self centered super spy with all the charisma he can muster. I'm sure he adlibbed some of the lines and some of his riffs end up being really funny. Holland's character is less successful but overall the film ends up being fun enough to suffer through.

As these animation studios seem want to do, Spies in Disguise sets up what could be a franchise and a series of spy/bird movies. I hope Disney shelves this stuff and just leave it at this. It really wasn't terrible so don't tempt fate. Focus instead on mining whatever talent was at Blue Sky and putting them to good use on the Disney aesthetic.

Spies in Disguise
Starring: Will Smith, Tom Holland, Rashida Jones, Ben Mendelson, Karen Gillan, DJ Khalid, Masi Oka, Reba McEntire, Rachel Brosnahan
Directors: Troy Quane, Nick Bruno
Writers: Brad Copeland, Lloyd Taylor

1917 (2019)

Gimmick movies can be tricky. Does the "gimmick" take away from the story or is it used as a tool to tell the story in a way that reveals something, that gets to the heart of the story in a way that couldn't have been done otherwise. I went into 1917, a movie shot to look like one long take in "real time," curious to see how I would respond to, well... another war movie with a similar story to others (the idea brings to mind Saving Private Ryan) that also uses a "gimmick" to get its story across. Fortunately I was impressed on all counts.

Sam Mendes has made some problematic films (American Beauty) and some beautiful ones (Road to Perdition) and the best Bond film of all time (Skyfall) so while I think he is very talented, I am not always drawn to what he does but when he touches on something I can embrace I often truly love it. I think here he has done something remarkable.

First of all I'll address the "one take" issue. Here I think the idea works wonders. By shooting the film in real time the film feels as if we are there with our protagonists, walking beside them, living their experiences. It brings the film a sense of intensity of being in the moment and drives forward the story. It also connects us to our two protagonists rooting the story in their first person experience. Mendes uses this tool very effectively to set us right into the story as we otherwise wouldn't. We live it with the leads.

But the film impressed me more than that. For me for a war movie to work it has to stare war in the face the show us the horror of it. 1917 doesn't try to glamorize war but makes these soldiers' experience feel honest. The characters confront death without confronting an evil it can be easily blamed away on. It explores the demons in us and the way he tackle them. I liked that the film didn't go where I thought it was going. Developments happen along the way which surprised me. I was riveted because I didn't know where the story would take me and it doesn't end as I would have expected. 1917 surprised me at turn after turn.

Mendes makes the most of his "one shot" gimmick visually as well. He has crafted a remarkably beautiful film. There are stunning sequences throughout as he finds ways to craft magnificent set pieces within his real time narrative. Mendes has told a fascinating story in a beautiful way and that is what we all hope for when we go to the movies.

I have to give a shout out to Andrew Scott, an actor who only appears for a minute or two but who is amazing every time I see him and here stole so much of the movie just in his brief moments.

1917
Starring: George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch
Director: Sam Mendes
Writers: Krysty Wilson-Cairns, Sam Mendes

Uncut Gems (2019)

I loved the Safdies' last film Goodtimes. When the enthusiastic festival reactions came in for their follow up Uncut Gems I started to get excited to see what they would do next. Based on the potential I saw in their work I knew they'd deliver something great and the reaction seemed to confirm it.

I don't know what the hell happened.

As I watched Uncut Gems I kept trying to figure out what was missing for me. While I enjoy how the Safdies tell a story, from the way they frame their narrative, colour and light it, from the dialogue that comes fast and furious, building to a frenetic crescendo near the end which is the sort of scene I would normally eat up. But I wasn't. I was bored. I was frustrated. I struggled to figure out what wasn't working.

In the end I guess what it came down to is the story just wasn't compelling to me. The film never made me care about Sandler's character. Sandler plays an sadder version of the character he always plays and one that I had difficulty mustering any emotion for. His journey through a series of bad choices just wasn't compelling for me. I can admire his work as an actor here. I think his performance is overrated for sure but on a Sandler scale it's some of his better work. But again it wasn't enough to invest me.

At the start of the film he has a problem purely of his own making, a problem for which his solution is likely worse than the problem. But it's not just him. The film is filled with characters who make horrible choices, horror movie running up the stairs instead of out the door choices. Seriously most of the problems here could have been solved if people just acted rationally. Then we watch as that plays out and people scream "fuck you" at each other. I kept waiting for their to be a part of the film where I could begin to break through his shell of awfulness to get into the human underneath, but the film never allows that. It just keeps showing people be awful.

Maybe that's the point. Maybe they are just exploring how awful people can be. Perhaps. That's just not very interesting to me. Or the film never found a point in that which made it interesting for me. I can sit back now having seen it and appreciate the Safdie's skill as film makers but I can't bring myself to want to sit though Uncut Gems again.

Uncut Gems
Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin Garnett, Idina Menzel, Lakeith Stanfield, Judd Hirsch, Julia Fox, The Weeknd, Eric Bogosian
Directors: Josh Safdie, Ben Safdie
Writers: Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Ben Safdie

A Hidden Life (2019)

There is a scene near the end of A Hidden Life that reminded me what makes auteur Terrence Malick such a remarkable film maker. He has the ability to communicate things so clearly and complexly to his audience without having to tell us. His work is the epitome of "show don't tell. " He crafts a small scene near the end of this epic film where everything is said without words, and we are to understand who we are and how we might be complicit in evil, and it is profound. 

Terrence Malick attempts to tell us the story of the life and death of real life hero Franz Jaegerstaetter, an Austrian conscientious objector who refused to swear allegiance to Hitler or fight in WWII on behalf of Germany. He portrays his idealistic pastoral life as some of the most gorgeous cinema you'll see all year. He fills his foggy mountains with a joy of innocence, love, and true spirit. Then he slowly begins to insert a sense of dread. His Franz begins to feel the pressures of the world come down on the life he has built and he faces a choice one that only he puts on himself. To the rest of his village and later his country, there is no choice. But he knows better and it is through his commitment to that choice that he transforms those around him.

But his power goes beyond that. Back to the scene I mentioned at the beginning. He is questioned by a nazi officer who implores him to see that his act of resistance accomplishes nothing, that in fact by not taking his place in the nazi order he is leaving space for someone worse to fill it. But Franz holds fast and as he is ushered out to his trial the officer uncomfortably sits in Franz' chair, wringing his hands, and we, like he, are fully aware that no matter how we convince ourselves of our justifications for our choices, we are complicit.

A Hidden Life is a powerful film of true beauty. Malick's work can often get lost in his excesses. A Hidden Life is truly long but there is little to no excess here. Each shot, scene, moment, word is powerful and beautiful. He moves us through Franz' peaceful world into the sinking fear as his world turns against him, and finally into the true horror of outright nazism, where he finds his resolve.

August Diehl is remarkable as Franz proving to us that such a man could be as strong as he is. Valerie Pachner as his wife Franziska is also strong as she is left to pick up all the pieces of continuing on in light of losing everything. Together they help build the world of A Hidden Life making it such a powerful story.

Perhaps it was Malick's desire to do right by the Jaegerstaetters which made A Hidden Life my favourite of his work. His lyrical style doesn't carry him away but keeps him connected instead to this story of the sacrifice of real heroes. And it is one of the most beautiful films you'll see this year.

A Hidden Life
Staring: August Diehl, Valerie Pachner, Michael Nyqyist, Mattias Schoenaerts, Bruno Ganz
Writer/Director: Terrence Malick

Little Women (2019)

When I was a teen I identified strongly with Laurie, because I too was in love with Jo and knew she was out of my reach. Honestly, like Laurie, I was in love with all the March sisters; how could you not? As I grew I came to see why Jo would never succumb to Laurie's charms and imagined I would be Bhaer and impress her enough, but I think most readers understand Jo's journey is her own and so much of the joy in this story is reveling in that understanding.

I think this may be the first filmed adaptation I have seen of the novel which gets the complicated nature of the characters and their relationships as much as I gleaned from the novel. I am a huge fan of Gillian Anderson's 1990s film version but I believe writer/director Gerwig has captured something remarkable here, a spark of writer Alcott's vision. As each moment would arrive, I would tingle with excitement, waiting to see if come to life. This is maybe the adaptation I have been waiting for.

Gerwig is rather bold in her take, deciding not to do a linear narrative and instead introduce her little women as adults who flash back to their childhood memories to explore who they are. It is in this use of memory that she gets deeper into the complex relationships between each of the figures. Jo and Amy's connections are so profoundly dissected through these moments, and their intricate love triangle with Laurie is played out so exquisitely, reaching places I haven't seen another adaptation accomplish.  I love that Beth's journey isn't sidetracked as here she is more central to the story than I have seen her before. Gerwig's Beth is the impetus for Jo writing Little Women. And Meg gets her relationship to be more honest, more than just a moral lesson for Jo to learn from. Gergwig gives each of her women a true arc, the time jumping allows this to all happen within the film's run time as we see their moments connect across the years.

But at the centre of Little Women remains Jo, and her conflict between pursuing her passion for writing and the pressure to fall in love has never been more satisfying as it is here. Gerwig doesn't make Jo unfeeling, she makes her complicated, difficult, and remarkable. Her love for Laurie and Amy and Bhaer and the rest of her family is all there and is all complex, as is her passion to be her own person. The film's use of her novel to make an deliciously ambiguous ending, and ending which may be dismissed as a modern feminist trope, I think it a brilliant way to balance the tension between our desire for romance (as well as Jo's real desire to be loved) and our modern understanding for gender justice. Gerwig plays with whether or not what we are seeing as the film comes to a close is in Jo's story or in Jo's real life. I like that we don't necessarily know.

Gerwig also brings into the story the novel's desire for justice. Very much a story of liberation for women the story brings in ideas of liberation generally as it is part of who these people are. The story is set during the civil war and the Marchs believe strongly in that justice, whether it is the liberation of the poor or the abolition of slavery, this is a family that inspires us to be better in our on time.

Gerwig fills her cast out with some of the most talented actors of the time. Saoirse Ronan is her usual strong and scene stealing presence at the heart of the story as Jo but for me is was Florence Pugh as Amy who stole the show. She takes this rich character and truly digs her teeth into her, making her the most realized I have ever seen her. Timothee Chalamet is also strong, as always, playing all the complications of Laurie beautifully, and Laura Dern's Marmee is a pillar of strength with vulnerability lying always underneath. But the whole cast is powerful (I mean... Streep and Cooper) and really they all lift each other up to make an amazing ensemble.

What the film does show is a loving and complicated family of women and their interdependent relationships, the story of the young man who falls so helpless in love with who that family is, and the way that family of women changes the world around them. Gerwig has made a truly beautiful film that makes us look at this story in new ways and experience it as something brand new.

Little Women
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Timothee Chalamet, Emma Watson, Laura Dern, Eliza Scanlen, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Bob Odenkirk, James Norton, Louis Garrel
Writer/Director: Greta Gerwig

The Two Popes (2019)

I love director Fernando Meirelles' City of God and his underrated Blindness. But as his story of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis began I struggled to see how my interest in watching these men talk was going to be able to be sustained when I do not value either's view and in fact may believe their impact on the world is less than positive. It is a testament to Meirelles' skill as a film maker that I was entertained throughout despite feeling that he is a bit soft on them. I still came away thinking he was too kind to these men, the film wears its rose coloured glasses devoutly, but yet it still gave me a glimpse into the humanity of two very powerful people as well as into some of the inter-workings of the Catholic hierarchy in the modern age.

This isn't all do to Meirelles. Hopkins and Price (to no one's surprise) are masterful. Yes Price looks remarkably like Pope Francis but it is in the way they both make their Popes into real people that they bring a feeling of connection for the audience. Hopkins especially. The film posits Francis as the flawed hero of the story. Reform is the message of the movie and each of these to men is held up as the symbol of either tradition or progress meaning Benedict has the burden of overcoming our bias against his position. He handles this by giving one of his amazing, full performances. Price does so as well, getting into what makes his Francis flawed so he isn't just the perfect progressive voice of the future. The film ends on this rather gleeful moment of the two friends watching football together.

But I think this is emblematic of what I struggled with watching The Two Popes. The film is overly optimistic about this organization which controls so much wealth and so many people's lives, being on a good path and I worry the film doesn't explore how untrue that is. Francis' flaws are romanticized and much of what makes him truly problematic isn't explored, partially because to do that would make us also see those flaws in the Catholic Church itself. And this film is too much of a love letter to that institution, reframing it as a more human creation for sure, but ignoring much of what makes it a problem. Instead this film, in its loving portrait of these men, lulls us into a sense of comfort. I wish it had just been a bit more honest.

But what it does do is remarkable. Meirelles proves he can tell me a story I have little to no interest in and make me enjoy it and the two leads give outstanding performances which show they both still have it. So in that the film is a blessing.

The Two Popes
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Price
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Writer: Anthony McCarten

Cats (2019)

In one of my favourite movies ever, Six Degrees of Separation, the characters (one of whom is played by Ian McKellen) discuss why there should or shouldn't be a movie version of the musical Cats. Cats is a thing unlike anything other. Either you embrace it or you don't. Either you are okay with humanoid cat people dancing and singing without much plot beyond who gets into kitty heaven or you aren't. Either you get into it or you don't. I find most discussion about the movie nonsensical. Cats is Cats. Critiquing it for being absurd is admitting you just don't get it. It's fine if it's not for you. That's not the same thing as saying it's bad.

If there was to be a movie of Cats, this is what it should be. It recreates in the only cinematic way possible the spectacle of seeing humanoid cat dancers. It creates magical, and truly quite beautiful, litter filled London back streets for its stray cast. We move through each cat introducing itself in each lovely preposterous manner. The songs with their awkward but gorgeous TS Elliott lyrics comes to life and we get swept up in it. It is exactly what Cats is.

And much of it is brilliant. Ian McKellen's moments as Gus is an incredible walk on cameo, Jason Derulo sexes up the screen as the frisky Rum Tum Tugger, Idris Elba is surprisingly terrifying as Macavity, and Judi Dench brings a stately gravitas to Old Deuteronomy. Rebel Wilson and James Cordon are fun if their parts err a little too much on the silly side but as I type that I realize saying anything in this film is "silly" is also absurd. For me the only misstep is Jennifer Hudson as Grizabella, her one note acting paired with her million note singing throws the character even too far over the top for even this film. So much of the success of this "story" is based on our emotions for her character and all she can do is mope. A stronger actress here would have been warrented.

I don't recommend Cats unless you want to see Cats. It is truly on of the most polarizing pieces of pop theatre and most people don't get it, won't get it, and will miss out. For that special few who understand the glorious madness that is Cats, enjoy!

Cats
Starring: Judi Dench, Jennifer Hudson, Francesca Howard, Idris Elba, Robbie Fairchild, Laurie Davidson, James Cordon, Rebel Wilson, Jason Derulo, Taylor Swift, Les Twins, Ian McKellen
Director: Tom Hooper
Writers: Lee Hall, Tom Hooper

Star Wars Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

In many ways The Rise of Skywalker is an impossible movie. How do you tell a final chapter in such an iconic franchise? Is there any way to actually please fans AND critics AND bloggers, AND general audiences and warp up everything after 40+ years? Probably not. Endings to iconic pop culture are notoriously hated. I think The Rise of Skywalker manages to come pretty damn close, even if it tries to give something to everyone it manages to be the satisfying conclusion I had hoped for. I went in letting go of any expectations, allowing the movie to tell me the story it was going to tell. What a novel idea for watching a film?

The Rise of Sky Walker surprised me by not being anything that I expected. It didn't do what I had imagined but also didn't do what others were predicting. By doing so it allowed me the surprise and wonder I had when I first saw the first trilogy as a child. In the meantime I have built up expectations and demands which this film wasn't willing or able to give me. but in the end it also connected me to the entire Star Wars experience, to my own history with the series, and I guess, if I was being honest, that is what I was looking for.

The Force Awakens was about bringing us back to the world of Star Wars and The Last Jedi was about upending all we thought we knew. Now The Rise of Skywalker is about bringing it all full circle. There are almost endless plots which need to be resolved and a plethora of characters who need to be showcased. There wasn't time to do all of it. The ambition here is immense, and perhaps the film doesn't always succeed it capturing it all. But it is admirable in the attempt, truly a fan's tribute.

The Rise of Skywalker goes at breakneck speed. Structured differently than any Star Wars film before it eschewing the typical at structure of these films, Skywalker hits the ground running and barely stops to breathe. At times I felt overwhelmed with the pace, but eventually I got into the rhythm. My main critique of this film would be its relentlessness but I understand it is trying to pack in a whole lot of story. Sometimes it goes too far. When there is so much to do introducing Keri Russell's character seems to use up important screen time for not much payoff. But on the other hand the introduction of Naomi Ackie's character is quite refreshing. In some ways the story being told here needed to be 4 hours long to really do it all justice. There is some much packed in here, some of it is powerful, some rushed. I felt Revenge of the Sith has a similar ambition problem but both find ways to tie up the endings emotionally even if they don't wrap everything up clearly. 

While it often feels it is packing too much in it also focuses more narrowly that I expected. It takes our core group, Rey, Finn, Poe, Kylo Ren, and fixates on them. We get a good amount of Leia and Lando (I mean I always want more Leia but given the constraints of the situation they managed that well) but mostly this film focuses on the sequel trilogy's core. Characters new and old like Rose and even R2D2 get sidelined a bit. The rest of the galaxy happens in the back ground. This helps the movie get grounded which it needs to balance all of the references it tries to pack in. We end not with the connections of the new characters but with our core and their love for each other. I was taken aback at how much this affected me, both in seeing our heroes come together at the end but also with seeing the legends find peace. Still there will be those who want resolution to the newer characters and stories reach fulfillment. The film throws a few bones in that direction but stays rooted in the main line story. It is this tension and the failure to completely resolve this which most prevents The Rise of Skywalker from reaching the heights of the series. But as I said it comes close.

Despite this The Rise of Skywalker is a fan's wish list of characters, items, ideas, places, ships, everything we nerd out about so much that we want to revisit. However if the main fault with this film is how much it tries to do I'm okay with that. I very much enjoyed seeing it all come together, all fit in, even messily, and not in the ways I had imagined or hoped. I liked that it wasn't the movie I expected, not the story I would have told. Lately our film culture is to expect we are entitled to get our story told instead of the story the film makers want to tell. I let myself sit back and let the story I was seeing guide me. I didn't need it to plot out my dreams. I needed it to surprise me and entertain me. It did that.

I had my own ideas about where Rey and Kylo Ren should go in their arcs, what I wanted to see from Poe and Finn. But the movie made me see there are other possibilities and that's okay. What I did like is how the film focuses on giving them their agency, they get to be fully realized people who make their own choices and in the end create their own identities. The final moments are about choosing who you want to be, not being told who you are. I know a big plot point will be controversial. It was a meaningful story for me and I had ideas about where it should go. But even though it didn't get there the way I had thought it got there in another way. We get to choose who we are. That is a lesson this whole series has been wrestling with since 1977, never truly achieving, until now. It was always held back from us, but The Rise of Skywalker gets us there. For me that was a truly meaningful end to this journey.

I have been watching Star Wars movies my whole life. Yes, this chapter is over as this story line, the story line of the Skywalkers, is done, but I will always have it. The Rise of Skywalker won't be my favourite chapter in the saga but it will still be beloved to me as a part of something I truly love, something that gives me joy, something that I will return to again and again. And it gives me a fitting close.

Now bring on more Star Wars!

** Spoiler Section**

Okay I'll say a bit more but this part touches on plot points so don't read it if you don't want to know.

One of the main critiques of the film, which I am sympathetic to as I had similar feelings upon my first viewing, is that The Rise of Skywalker "undoes" much of the progress The Last Jedi made. I think this is a misreading of the film. It is based on the idea that the film must match our expectations of how to deal with these issues to actually deal with the issues. Upon more viewings I came to see the film didn't need to resolve The Last Jedi's questions in the way I had in mind to actually resolve them.

For example The Rise of Skywalker faced a number of challenges including resolving the arcs of Rey and Kylo Ren. First Ren's redemption was necessary but difficult. How do you find a way to make it honest without betraying all the bad he had done and what he represented as the heir apparent, a spoiled man child who needs to control the galaxy and looses his temper when a woman becomes the hero instead of him. Well this is where I think the film reaches some of its best moments. Watching it a couple times I came to see it was Leia who saved him. It was only the unconditional love of his mother which could save him from who he made himself to be and undoes his entitlement. And once he was saved he could do what he needed to do, sacrifice himself and his needs for Rey for the real hero of the story. While I don't feel their kiss was necessary his death was, like Anakin's before him, also saved by the unconditional love of his family. He comes to the place where he realizes he has to support her place as the lead.

Finally Rey's arc, finding out who she "is." She finds out that is completely up to her. Many who liked the idea that she comes from "no where" are upset she is given a family lineage. But again I think this misses the point. She is told who she is and what that means and she rejects that, given the ultimate act of agency she chooses who she is, no one can tell her. We get not only to see Rey's story resolved but we get to see Leia's as well. We see her Jedi skills as we never have in live action before. Despite the loss of Carrie Fisher the film makers were able to give her the heroic arc she always deserved. And at the end we have Rey, Finn (clearly force sensitive himself), and Poe, embracing in one of the many emotional beats the film manages to make for us. Weather it is Luke and Leia's ghosts, Han's memory, Chewbacca finally receiving his medal, C3P0's true heroism, The Rise of Skywalker moved me more than I expected it to.

Because it's not about fan service as critics will want to say. It is about delivering on all that has been built to so far. Yes the film is obsessed with that but that is what endings are about. When I came to let the film be what it was and not what I had set out for it to be, I was able to see if met and often exceeded what I had in mind. Is the film perfect? No. There remain some changes I would want to see. I still see Episode VIII as being the strongest in the new trilogy. But this film, like each of the Episodes before it, has offered me something special and will be a satisfying conclusion to the epic each time I watch it.

Star Wars Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker
Starring: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Naomi Ackie, Kelly Marie Tran, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong'o, Naomi Ackie, Keri Russell, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Jimmy Vee, Greg Grunberg, Dominic Monaghan, Denis Lawson, Warwick Davis, Andy Serkis, James Earl Jones, Ewan McGregor, Frank Oz, Freddie Prinze Jr., Ian McDiarmind, Harrison Ford
Director: JJ Abrams
Writers: Chris Terrio, JJ Abrams

Bombshell (2019)

Bombshell, which follows the true story of how media mogul and Fox News mastermind Roger Ailes was fired over sexual harassment allegations, finds itself in an interesting paradox. On the one hand it narrates the story of women who brought down a sexual predator who held significant power, a man who helped craft a world in the image he wanted, where white straight men ruled without accountability. On the other it neglects to explore the way those women contributed to helping build that world, a world where they held power over other women who were not blonde and white, over people of colour. I kept asking myself while watching Bombshell how the film could be so astute regarding one issue while feeling blinded on all others.

Director Roach has some experience with political drama like this and his deft touch creates some tantalizing moments. He channels Adam McKay's style (think Vice) in breaking the third wall a bit and using documentary style techniques to make the film feel ripped from the headlines before he mostly settles into more traditional drama by the second half of the film. Bombshell is entertaining and salacious while remaining rather restrained. There is a lot to admire about Bombshell, especially the way it breaks down the nuts and bolts of sexual harassment into digestible chunks. Also to admire are the performances of the leads. Theron, Kidman, and Robbie each giving top notch performances as does Lithgow. Together the cast and film makers look at the subtleties of how men exercise sexual power in corporate America.

But I kept coming back to wanting to see a deeper analysis. The film flirts with this. There are a number of times women in the film say "I'm not a feminist" reminding us of the ways each of them support the power structure that is in place. But it doesn't get into that. I wanted to explore that more. The film inserts a lesbian (closeted liberal) into the mix but never gives her the kind of agency to deconstruct what is going on around her. She too is a victim, in another way. While the film goes to great lengths not to fat shame Ailes, showing that powerful men can be predators even if they don't fit our culture's ideas of sexy, it doesn't get into just how white the power at Fox is.

The film almost deifies Kelly, giving her a hero's arc, a rewarding family with her supportive husband and loving children (she is shown fighting for her daughter's future) but what she is not given is fair treatment. No where do we get into the ways her work has contributed to steering America in a direction where marginalized people are hurt. Even her famous "Santa is white" comments are explained away as if we are too harsh to judge her for her contributions to white washing America. She stands up for her daughter's future but would she otherwise? If it wasn't affecting her directly or if it didn't endanger her blonde progeny would she lift a finger? I would love a look at how the privileged fight for their own rights ensuring that their privilege remains in tact.

Bombshell glosses over looking at how the conservative culture of that corporate world supported that structure of abuse, and completely ignoring how other power issues such as race and sexual orientation play into the dynamics that underlie and support men like Ailes and their control of power. The film does scratch the surface of just how toxic a world Fox News is but never gets deep enough into that world to truly explore how and why those who will suffer in it really stay. Carlson and Kelly for example did horrible things in their careers and were a part of building the world which they then tried to change, but only for themselves, perhaps for women like them.

So for me Bombshell worked to a degree but stopped short of being something richer, something more revealing. Still, it is filled with great performances and one of my favourite scores of the year. There is much about it that makes it worth a watch. Just keep in mind what else is not there.

Bombshell
Starring: Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, John Lithgow, Connie Britton, Mark Duplass, Kate McKinnon, Rob Delaney, Alison Janney, Malcolm McDowell
Director: Jay Roach
Writer: Charles Randolph

Togo (2019)

Dog movies are a breed of their own (I couldn't resisit). They tend to be heavy on sentimentality and light on nuance. There is a reason people watch these films and it is not often about depth or artistry. But there is no reason a film about a dog can't also be a beautiful film.

Togo is gorgeously shot, taking full advantage of the Alberta landscape they shot it in (filling in for Alaska). Director Core uses the winterscape to craft a portrait like canvass filled with greys and whites and icy blues. The film jumps back and forth in time following the beginning and ending of the relationship between man and beast, using the summers of the past contrasted with the winter of the present to tell a holistic story about that relationship. It is truly watchable in this format, a clever way to tell a story that might feel more cliche told in a more linear fashion.

Dafoe brings a gravitas to the story by heightening his speech patterns as if he's readying poetry with that amazing voice of his. He plays off Julianne Nicholson very well as his wife, the two making up the heart of the story. A story which follows all the typical tropes of the dog movie genre, yet manages, through Core's beautiful direction and the two leads' earnest performances, to transcend the genre just enough.

Togo will please dog movie fans but might also just be entertaining enough to please any audience.

Togo
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Julianne Nicholson
Director: Ericson Core
Writer: Tom Flynn

Star Wars Saga (1977-2019) REVISIT

I am the perfect age for Star Wars. I was a little kid when the first films came out and was captivated by them. I was in college when the prequels came out and my nostalgia translated to good will allowing me to enjoy more of what I had always loved. And now I am a father able to share the last chapter with my child and experience it all with fresh eyes. These are the first films I can remember watching repeatedly. These are the films that had the most influence in making me become a cinemaphile. While I recognize all their flaws, they speak to me and my generation in a way no other movie series ever has or will. In my rewatch leading up to the final chapter Episode IX I decided to speak about what I love about each film, not getting into any of their problems or weaknesses, just speaking to what makes me love them when I watch them.

Episode I The Phantom Menace

Before the prequels I could only imagine the extended galaxy that Star Wars existed in. Places like Coruscant only lived in my mind. Seeing these worlds come to life, seeing a culture where Jedi’s were real and a part of the fabric, seeing the universe was much bigger than the small pocket Luke Skywalker inhabited was revelatory for me. The pod race remains one of the best action sequences ever filmed. The three way lightsaber duel is exhilarating cinema.

But for me the real magic of the prequels, something begun here and carried through the next few films, is the astute portrait of how democracy can be undermined and actually die through the mechanizations of powerful people with selfish intent. Lucas’ prequel trilogy is almost Shakespearian in the way it sets up its tragedy and as a young adult coming in to my own understanding of how the world works, this allegory is powerful and frightening.

The Phantom Menace is told from the point of view of a child, or children. Anakin is hungry to satiate his ambition. Padme is brilliant yet too idealistic. Obi Wan is young and dedicated almost blindly. They will all fail in their ideals. The sense of hope soon to be dashed during the course of this story is delicious irony for me. I once believed the arc of history moved towards justice as did our plucky heroes. They are to learn a lesson that I needed to learn.

Episode II Attack of the Clones

For me watching Anakin and Padme fall in love isn’t a cringy misfire, it is purposefully horrific. There is no way they should be in love and everything about it is wrong. That’s the point. When Padme succumbs as they are being lead off to their execution (and I suspect Anakin might be using some of his Jedi power to make that happen, perhaps even subconsciously) it is a tragic moment, not a romantic one. Attack of the Clones is about failure, as each second in the trilogy is and it is filled with truly enjoyable moments. Yoda in a lightsaber duel is beyond what I could have expected. I smile each time I watch that scene. For me following Jango Fett’s arc is truly enjoyable as he is the strong villain Boba never got to be in the original trilogy. He is truly unlikable and vile while also being cool and formidable. And he stands up to the Jedi.

Episode III Revenge of the Sith

This is where we see democracy die, with thunderous applause. Lucas’ critique of how free cultures willingly abandon freedom is powerful and epic and it all comes to fruition here. From the moment of Anakin’s turning, Order 66, and scramble for survival, I am riveted each time I watch. Some of my favourite moments include Chewbacca helping Yoda escape,Yoda and Palpatine battling through the senate, Mace Windu’s death echoing Palpatine’s own later in the series, the reveal of the Death Star, Vader’s transition, and Luke and Leia brought to their future homes. Everything we have been waiting for and imaging for years culminates ringing in a dark age.

But in the end it was Obi Wan and Anakin’s final battle which resonates for me most powerfully. Seeing this moment makes their eventual reunion at the end of Episode IV so much more powerful than it had every been before. I end the prequel trilogy with an anticipation of a New Hope that is around the corner.

Episode IV A New Hope

This is one of the first films I ever saw. I’ve likely watched it more than any other film yet I never tire of it. It set the bar high for me in terms of what I expect from movies which now have to offer something special for them to resonate for me. From score to characterization to plotting to emotional impact. There is nothing I would change about this film.

I’m not talking about the side Star Wars stories in this article as I’m focusing just on the Skywalker saga, but there is nothing like watching this film in a double feature with Rogue One right before it. How that film leads into this one, and how it enriches this film makes this even stronger than it had been on it’s own. I highly recommend it.

Episode V The Empire Strikes Back

Rightly considered by most to be the best of the series, Empire is a miracle. The rare sequel to surpass its source material, it deepens and darkens all that has come before. It gives us even richer characterizations of the heroes we fell in love with in A New Hope. Han and Leia’s romantic banter, Luke’s learning of the Jedi ways, the introduction of Lando and Boba Fett, walkers, meteor showers, swamp creatures, "I know," the reveal of all reveals! I remember seeing this movie with my dad perched on the edge of my seat trying to take it all in. Even then as a small child I knew I was seeing something remarkable.

Now as an adult and as a film lover I understand just what an achievement this film is. Director Kershner pulled off a remarkable feat making a blockbuster which would go on to influence generations of film makers. There was never anything like this before and while much tries to emulate it nothing comes close.

Episode VI The Return of the Jedi

As I child I believed evil could be overcome by good people coming together and doing what is right, and so much of that is due to this movie. It was the first time I understood a villain could be a good person underneath, that standing up to injustice would defeat it. Return of the Jedi made me believe the corrupt could be brought down as in the fall of Jabba's court, that might didn't make right, as in the Ewoks bringing down the Empire. But my favourite moment is watching Luke and Vader’s final lightsaber battle with the operatic score and emotional resonance that inspires me each and every time.

For much of my life I imagined everyone living happily ever after. I now know that isn’t the case and that makes it mean even more for me than it did before. But there is a brief moment of relief and celebration and it is those moments that I have come to see are what we live for.

Episode VII The Force Awakens

I think when people criticize this film for being too much “like” previous films, or "recycling" them, I feel they are missing the entire point or this series. Star Wars is like a symphony, it has repeating themes and movements which build on each other and crescendo into glory. For me, seeing The Force Awakens for the first time was that powerful.  It was Star Wars. It confirmed how history returns to its struggles, that people don’t live up to who we want them to be, that we must never give up hope.

The film introduces us Ray, Finn, Kylo Ren, and Poe, some of the richest characters the franchise has ever seen. I love the way the film mixes their journeys with the characters from the past. We get a new Star Wars experience which is filled with the emotions and ideas of the originals. When Han finds his ship, steps aboard and says “we’re home” I felt it in a way that I don’t get to feel in many movies. His arc with Leia and Ben hits me in the gut every time. While the story of our new trinity is hilarious and fun it is also inspiring in the way Star Wars has always been at the same time. Rey is the culmination of all that we have been building towards here so far. She is the perfect centre for this final act.

Episode VIII The Last Jedi

For me The Last Jedi may be the only rival to The Empire Strikes Back for best of the series. Instead of following the same pattern, the film makers decided to take all the ideas we’re used to seeing in big action block busters and upend them. Like the second movie of each trilogy in the Star Wars series, The Last Jedi is about failure and redemption. It does so by pushing us, making us question what we think we know, and offering us something revelatory. It is subversive and revolutionary. It is in fact Star Wars. It takes the legacy character, who has all the right that we deem to be the hero, and makes him the villain, but not any villain, one who is both spoiled and small but wildly successful. He is everything we are taught to admire but we are shown that admiration is misplaced. Instead we are given a true hero, a no one, who is everything we are not supposed to want to be, and make her our hope and our centre. It takes our heroes and helps us see their failings, makes us thirst for something better. This is why the film is so upsetting for many, and why I think it is one of the most remarkable blockbusters of my lifetime.

This is a series that I will always love and will always be a part of my film DNA. Each episode offers me something special which I love and speaks to me, the child me, the adult me, the parent me. I will return to each of these films again and again and each time they will bring me joy.

6 Underground (2019)

I have never enjoyed a Michael Bay film. Not Bad Boys, not Pearl Harbor, not The Rock, not one Transformers movie (that he directed - I actually liked Bumblebee). His films are overblown and silly, overcompensating for their lack of intelligence with ridiculous explosions. Their stories are thin and filled with toxic masculinity. He makes bad movies.

I can no longer say all that is true. 6 Underground is the first time he's made a movie I enjoyed.

He starts with a fun idea (although not original, the idea behind the Secret Six comic is basically what this is). A billionaire puts together a team of highly skilled but emotionally wrecked agents to do the stuff official groups won't like taking out "truly evil" people like dictators. Reynolds (playing his usual smart ass shtick) is the billionaire and his team is made up of international actors I enjoy like Melanie Laurent and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo. They go on a mission where they might not all survive. Stealing from Suicide Squad they kill off a lead early to make us know that we can't know for sure. Bay uses all his fancy camera tricks (slow mo, wind blowing, big explosions, you know the drill) to do something he's never done before; tell a fun story.

It's fun. It's light. It isn't insulting. I didn't think he had it in him.

Yes it's still incredibly over the top. But watching 6 Underground I came to understand that it wasn't the pyrotechnics and physic defying camera work that ruined his films for me. It was the stories he wanted to tell, stories that reinforced manchild values. When his story takes a different turn it can be quite watchable. This film is almost self-aware in the way it skewers the toxic masculinity found in this genre. There is an underlying message tied to ideas of chosen family and of seeking justice. But that's not quite all. It also is that the film's script is just that much smarter than a Bay film usually is, not that smart, but enough to make it all work. Watching his other work I always feel the films are talking down to me. I never got that from this film. 6 Underground is still simplistic just not in an insulting way.

I can't believe I'm saying this but I want a sequel.

6 Underground
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Melanie Laurent, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Dave Franco, Adria Arjona, Corey Hawkins, Ben Hardy
Director: Michael Bay
Writers: Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese

Dark Waters (2019)

Todd Hayes veers from what I normally expect from him in this based-on-real-events ripped-from-the-headlines film. Not in the quality of his film, he has crafted a quiet but powerful and gripping tale. He moves from his beautiful queer oddballs to something that feels more direct. But in doing so he has made a substantial film centered around a quiet but powerful performance.

Dark Waters follows the true story of Robert Bilott, an attorney who takes on Dupont and wins. Ruffalo plays him as frumpy but determined hero yet defies all stereotypes about this to show how he does something heroic. Ruffalo gets into him as a whole person. I often get irritated when movies portray real people and don't make them seem like real humans. I felt Ruffalo's Bilott was a person. His scenes with Hathaway as his wife are honest.

Hayes films his story in a rainy grey haze which gives it both a feeling of malaise and melancholy appropriate for such a discouraging narrative, but also feels chilled and unsettled. Finally it looks beautiful, all gloomy and pale. Hayes has taken his more straight forward story and made a film that looks as good as Carol or Far From Heaven.

But unlike those films, Dark Waters isn't a sexy film. The crimes it exposes aren't straight forward so to tell this tale takes some skill. Not only does he need to tell the story he has to help us understand. And he does that brilliantly. His audience both emotionally and intellectually understands. It is alot to take in but he makes it understandable. And we leave angered. Just as we are supposed to.

While I personally am drawn to stories that show how lawyers can be heroes I am also drawn to stories which help us face the world we live in a little stronger. I think Dark Waters is one of those films.

Dark Waters
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, Bill Pulman, Bill Camp
Director: Todd Hayes
Writers: Mario Corea, Matthew Michael Carnahan

Jumanji The Next Level (2019)

Sometimes sequels take a story in a new direction, taking the characters and plot to the next level. Sometimes a sequel just regurgitates the same story over again and the characters end up in the same spot they were in in the first film. Despite the title of this Jumanji sequel, The Next Level is squarely in the latter category. Basically The Next Level is Welcome to the Jungle all over again, with Devito, Glover, and Awkwafina thrown in for shits and giggles.

However, despite the fact that most of the time sequels like this bore me to tears, or annoy the hell out of me, or both, this one basically had the same effect on me as the first. Despite the shallow predictable nature of the film I had a good time. I laughed, was on the edge of my seat, and left feeling good, even open to the idea of one more visit to Jumanji. I know, right?

Once again Jack Black is the standout. But both Johnson and Hart are fun doing their surprisingly good impressions of Devito and Glover (who are also both a lot of fun). Yes the story is still rather average and as I said, there is zero character development. But Jumanji remains fun if overly dispensable entertainment. If this is all Jumanji's going to be I can live with that. It doesn't cross the line into insultingly dumb so there is that.

Jumanji The Next Level
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillian, Awkwafina, Danny Devito, Danial Glover, Nick Jonas, Alex Wolf, Morgan Turner, Ser'darius Blaine, Madison Iseman
Director: Jake Kasdan
Writers: Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, Jake Kasdan

Honey Boy (2019)

It feels a bit weird sitting through Shia LaBeouf's therapy but that's pretty much what we're doing watching Honey Boy. After being sentenced to rehab LaBeouf wrote this screenplay, a very thinly veiled autobiography, about his life as a child rising star with his clown dad. His story does a meticulous job of showing us just how much abuse he suffered while also painting a rather sympathetic portrait of his abuser. Probably the thing that works the most in Honey Boy is the way it plays in that space between love and resentment, the way it explores forgiveness and understanding.

Actually the thing that is the strongest about Honey Boy is the performance of Noah Jupe, who plays the young LaBeouf... I mean Otis, the name LaBeouf gives his character. Lucas Hedges plays the elder version and is also strong but it is Jupe who truly stands out. We've seen him shine in a few films now but this one gives him the most to work with and he knocks it out of the park.  He is a young actor to watch.

LaBeouf himself plays the analogue of his father, and he plays him with a sad and raw power. He is wrestling with all the love and anger and sadness he must be feeling and it all comes out on the screen. LaBeouf is a talent no matter what else he might be. His self-portrait and tribute to his father is a tour de force. Perhaps he takes it a bit too far. Perhaps not. He knows what it was like. Is he colouring it in some way? Perhaps. But what he does give us is powerful regardless.

But the film really is just a memoir and in that doesn't always grip our attention. It isn't terribly long but there isn't a lot happening. It does feel like your watching something for someone else. But having said that it isn't a waste of time at all. Some of that personal exploration may be saved a bit by director Alam Har'el's deft hand. She finds lovely ways to capture these personal moments, moments that often feel outrageous, stranger than fictiony, yet are more common than we want to admit. And, as LaBeouf seems to want to find redemption, she finds a way to make us feel for all invovled, even when they are being terrible. She finds the love. And that makes Honey Boy endearing.

Honey Boy
Starring: Lucas Hedges, Shia LaBeouf, Noah Jupe, FKA Twiggs, Natasha Lyonne
Director: Alma Har'el
Writer: Shia LaBeouf

Marriage Story (2019)

I get that we need a new Woody Allen but I'm just not sure Noah Baumbach is it. I know Baumbach is hot shit and all but his films have never really done it for me in their bleak nihilist senses of humour often tinged with hints of homophobia. Marriage Story leaves me feeling very much like I did with his other films. Marriage Story, which feels like a not-funny re-imagining of Annie Hall, feels bitter and nasty, like someone who has gone through something painful and is searching for blame  in everyone(the lawyers, the extended family) but themselves. Its subject, the dissolution of a relationship and marriage, is a tough one and one that likely deserves some true catharsis exploring, but Marriage Story feels like it falls into obvious cliches about the topic and never really says anything interesting about it. It feels like what we're supposed to think divorce is like as opposed to finding a place that feels real.

Baumbach crafts a tale of two people who no longer love each other, growing more and more distrustful of each other despite the way they convince themselves they want to do the right thing. The system gets in the way, forcing them into conflict, taking the control out of their hands. We feel for them, no matter how awful they behave. His thesis appears to be they could have done better if the rest of the world hadn't got in the way. There is something interesting to that but he doesn't get into it more because everything around them is fairly 2-dimensional. It is all constructed to force them to be fake. I would have loved to see that explored but again Baumbach's idea of their real lives is so limited.

He focuses more on Adam Driver's character's perspective, perhaps fairly, and therefore Scarlett Johansson's character remains less developed. The film therefore also puts more blame on her, giving us more reason to resent her than him even when he explodes into a rage that is dangerously frightening.There is a scene closer to the end when the parties fight bitterly. It's been building and they lash out. So much is brought up but never addressed. Maybe that's the point, maybe that's his approach. But that approach just felt like it was missing something for me.

And Marriage Story chooses to slip into some absurdity at points which I felt took me out of the film. A bloody scene was I think supposed to be played for laughs but had me concerned the film was going to take a much darker turn, then ended up doing none of the above. At the film's climax Driver bursts into song in a manner which is never quite explained. Was it in story karaoke or a fantastic moment of self reflection? Not sure the answer is interesting enough to me to care.

And then, like a sitcom, everything is resolved. The parties reach a rather stable and overly comfortable new status quo without ever really earning it. The film builds through layers and layers of mistrust, never fully processing it, only to end up with the characters suddenly healthy. The ending is presented as either complacency (the bleak ending I was expecting) or ongoing hostility (the more predictable endgame). It just gets there without any reason. Again maybe that's Baumbach's point. And if it is good for him. It just doesn't resonate for me.

Marriage Story
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta, Julie Hagerty, Wallace Shawn
Writer/director: Noah Baumbach

Waves (2019)

Waves is one of the more difficult films I've seen in a while because it never quite lets you feel comfortable. Writer/director Shults starts his ambitious story by throwing us off balance right away. His camera spins and he flirts with the sort of film tropes which make an audience think something bad is going to happen, an accident, something out of left field. We are immediately made to feel like things are not safe.

Waves is the sort of film whose story shouldn't be explained, you just have to follow it. It doesn't necessarily go where we think it is going to go. The story doesn't have a predestine feel. There are many moments where it feels it could go in a number of directions. So much of the pleasure comes from not knowing, not having it go just where you expect.

Waves explores the fall out when someone you love does something horrible and how you wrestle with that. Most of our narratives are about good guys and bad guys. Waves transcends that by making us care about all involved and the way that ripples outward to those around them.

Shults has made a gorgeous film of beautiful light and melancholy pain. His casting of the incredibly talented Taylor Russell and Kelvin Harrison Jr. allows him to just give them a platform to live into their characters and imbue them with rich, complex layers of emotion. But he doesn't stop there; he frames them in beautiful visuals which add to that richness in a way that explodes off the scene.

Waves' story is difficult but powerful and one of the most beautiful films of the year. It makes me excited for whatever Shults, Russell, and Harrison will each do next.

Waves
Starring: Kelvin Harrison Jr. Taylor Russell, Lucas Hedges, Alexa Demie, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Sterling K Brown
Writer/Director: Trey Edwards Shutls

Atlantique (2019)

The idea of haunting is often used as a good metaphor for the way the past stays with us, affecting who we are well into our futures. Writer/director Mati Diop uses this idea to powerful effect with her directorial debut Atlantique. This haunting little story is lovely and melancholy with an inspiring ending that brings some hope to what feels hopeless.

Her film is shot in a lush blue hue which gives it just a hint of an air of fantasy while she roots her film in a very real world. She focuses on marginalized workers, telling of how they are exploited, but finding a way to empower them, through the use of a fantastic narrative. Atlantique creates a feeling that justice is possible, perhaps even inevitable, that there may be a way for the voiceless to find a voice. It does this through the use of some sort of magic, a magic that traditionally has been used to represent evil and create a sense of dis-ease. But here it is used for the opposite. It is revelatory and revolutionary.

Atlantique is beautiful to watch. Diop finds beauty in each scene, in each landscape, and in the cold dark reaches of the ocean. Visually she also upends our expectations and subvert our assumptions. Her visuals strongly create a rich world for her story to play out in, a story of haunting beauty. Atlantique is contemplative but tells a compelling and entertaining story that grips you. And perhaps might haunt you just a bit.

Atlantique
Starring: Mame Bineta Sane, Amadou Mbow, Ibrahima Traoré
Director: Mati Diop
Writers: Olivier Demangel, Mati Diop

J'ai perdu mon corps/I Lost My Body (2019)

Yes this is the story of a disembodied hand searching through the world, in the style of Thing from The Addams Family, for the rest of its body. But that in itself isn't enough to to describe what this story is. It is a romance, or the longing for one, and the realization of loss of one, and it is one of the mostly lovely sad movies I've ever seen.

The animation style in J'ai perdu mon corps is anime-esque but finds its own style and beauty. There are moments of the grotesque, rendered here in quite manageable moments, but mostly the film is a series of the mundane. And it is in that balance J'ai perdu mon corps finds its beauty. This is one of the reasons I am drawn to animation, its ability to bring forward stories that live action cannot capture. For an example of this see any of Disney's "live action" remakes of their animated classics, which almost entirely miss the point. J'ai perdu mon corps is the sort of film that needs to be told through drawing, and is all the more beautiful for it.

We don't get many mainstream features in 2D hand drawn animation these days so it is always refreshing to come across one. However, as much as it's animation is gorgeous and a real draw for making this film so damn impactful, the real strength of J'ai perdu mon corps is its beautiful melancholy story, told so eloquently and so painfully. In the English dub Dev Patel and Alia Shawkat come together in such a beautifully mismatched way, their feelings running over and through the drawings to make one of the most believable missed opportunities of the year.

J'ai perdu mon corps is a treat for being nothing like anything else you've seen this year. And that in itself is such a strength in this time.

J'ai perdu mon corps
Starring: Dev Patel, Alia Shawkat, George Wendt
Director: Jeremy Clapin
Writers: Guillaume Laurant, Jeremy Clapin

Knives Out (2019)

Knives Out, like all classic mysteries, is about misdirection. In the spirit of that this film isn't what it purports to be at all. It's not a murder mystery. The circumstances of the death is revealed early in the film and it becomes about something else entirely. I can't say what that is without spoiling the film. But the mystery here isn't whodunit. It is another mystery entirely.

I have often felt writer/director Rian Johnson can be a bit overrated but I do appreciate what he tries to do in his films, upending our expectations and challenging the tropes in movie genres. Sometimes I think he is more successful at than than other times. I think Knives Out is one of his more successful times.

His second take on the mystery genre (the first being the also impressive Brick) goes in a completely different direction than one would expect. It fits quite nicely into the mold it is breaking but upends it from the inside out. He does to the mystery genre some very similar to what he did with the sci fi blockbuster genre in The Last Jedi.

All the pieces of the classic mystery are there. He has his brilliant but eccentric detective, the dysfunctional rich family (every member of which has a motive), the twisted events of the night in question. And then he takes it all and does something different with it. Knives Out is most successful when it is doing the opposite of what this sort of story is supposed to be.

It is also so much fun because of the kind of cast which makes these sorts of films so much fun. Star studded, clearly all having the time of their lives, camping and hamming it up just enough to be fun but not overdoing it as to be silly. Johnson films his story in a similar fashion, adding just enough creativity and character without overdoing it beyond reason. It's a perfectly balanced fun time which surprises just enough. It is a smart crowdpleaser.

But it is also a critique of our current cultural reality. The story explores themes of immigration, wealth creation, and social hierarchies.  In this way it exposes our xenophobia and hypocrisy, so prevalent at this time in history. By centering his story around his lead character and tying the motives behind the crime to racial, gender, and cultural stratification he finds a way of embedding within his fun film a critique of American politics in the film's era. Knives Out once again defies what we think it is going to be.

Knives Out is clever and fun and entirely satisfying all while being subversive, but no so much as to spoil the fun.

Knives Out
Starring: Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Christopher Plummer, Jaeden Martell, Noah Segan, Frank Oz
Writer/Director: Rian Johnson

Queen & Slim (2019)

From the first scene of Queen & Slim there is a sadness running through the film which permeates every moment. We see a couple on a date that isn't going well. There is a loneliness, a disconnect, which is recognizable. And as the film progresses through what feels fairly inevitable to anyone paying attention to life in America in the 21st century, that sadness grows as there is more and more loss. But the beauty of Queen & Slim is how in all that sadness, there are moments when we find pure joy, where connection is made and refound. That even in this America there is a possibility of happiness, maybe fleeting, maybe ephemeral, but real none the less.

"Are you happy?" one character asks another. "Sometimes" is the simple yet brutally honest answer.

Screenwriter Lena Waithe keeps her dialogue gorgeously simple. She doesn't have her characters give loquacious oratories filled with colourful clever dialogue. Her characters here speak with a concise and poetic straightforwardness which gives them a chance to express much with their faces, their eyes. There are moments the film has the characters speak without moving their lips, as if we are hearing their thoughts or echoes of something they said. So much more is said visually but when they do speak, what they say is powerful.

"What do you want?" we hear Kaluuya's character ask as he looks at Turner-Smith. She answers, also without opening her mouth a painfully honest response.

Director Melina Matsoukas explodes in her feature directorial debut by filming what may be the most beautiful film of 2019. Her use of colour and light is stunning. She sets he scenes in a way that keeps her leads separate at first, slowing bringing them closer together until they are almost blending together in a powerful love scene near the end, a scene boldly juxtaposed with a scene of protest and violence. Her choices are rich and original. Queen & Slim is absolutely gorgeous to watch and the story she is telling is continually surprising, despite the sense of inevitability I mentioned established early on. It is like we all know where this has to go but how it gets there remains unexpected.

At the centre of the film are two powerful performances. Kaluuya has broken out recently but I think I have still never been as moved by him as I was here. His face is riveting to watch as he wrestles with becoming something he never thought he would. And Turner-Smith is a magnetic vision. Her character is a complex revelation through her performance. "I know how strong you are" Kaluuya tells her near the end. And we feel every ounce of that strength.

Queen & Slim is just about everything I could want from a movie. I can't stop thinking about the little moments of happiness, of joy, which sit with me after the credit roll.

Queen & Slim
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Jodie Turner-Smith, Bokeem Woodbine, Indya Moore, Chloe Sevigny, Flea, Sturgill Simpson
Director: Melina Matsoukas
Writer: Lena Waithe

The Irishman (2019)

The Irishman is a masterclass in classic Scorsese. It's a gangster period film, filled with the kind of new-Hollywood assassination set pieces that audiences come to appreciate in these films, laced around sympathetic character studies of flawed Italian American men with toxic masculinity issues, played by his troupe of usual A+ list actors, topped off with the holy grail of highbrow crime drama casting coups, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. It is Mean Streets, Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed, and even Gangs of New York all rolled into one. It is long without ever dragging, filled with the cinematic visuals and the story telling panache Scorsese excels at. Fans of this sort of film and this director's work will eat it up.

What I am not sure The Irishman does is offer us anything new. It is so busy being everything we expect from a Scorsese film it never veers from that. First off I will clarify this isn't a bad thing. We get exactly what we would expect. It is entertaining and delivers the exact payoffs we want from this sort of film. Devotees will flip out over any suggestion Scorsese and his signature style aren't the be all and end all, but that doesn't change the fact that The Irishman feels like every Scorsese film. For what it is The Irishman delivers the goods. I'm just not as excited about these goods as I might have been at one time.

What risks and innovation Scorsese is not taking with his art, he is taking with the release of that art. The hubub around the film is centered on its streaming released on Netflix, a controversial but growing in popularity approach to distributing film, especially the sort of films we call "cinema." Sure it was one thing for Alfonso Cuaron to release an art film on Netflix, but New Hollywood's God almighty?? And Oscar baiting epic featuring expensive age defying special effects? In an age when Spielberg is deriding the changing nature of the way we consume film, Scorsese is charging right in and it is not only bold but likely smart.

In many ways Netflix is perfect for this film. The runtime might be prohibitive for a larger audience but now that we are used to binging on our own couches, a 3 hour twenty minute pulpy crime drama is easily digestible. One can rewatch moments, perhaps those which clarified certain plot points or moments which were just extremely enjoyable, or moving. Watching the film on demand at our own pace, may be the best way to experience The Irishman.  It will probably reach a much larger audience than it would in a traditional theatrical run.

Cause lets face it, The Irishman isn't cutting edge cinema. Scorsese's style has moved from the emerging Hollywood revolution, to the dominant cinematic art form, to the style of the previous generation. This is not a condemnation. I know I'm going to get flack for not worshiping at the temple of Scorsese. His work is brilliant. The Irishman is the work of a master. But it is not the work of a master who is innovating and redefining what he can do. And he shouldn't have to. When you are as good as him do what you want. But as I watched it, I rarely found myself excited to be watching it, not in the way I was excited to see Goodfellas. This isn't the Scorsese who re-made Cape Fear a film which feels like he's trying to be something new, for better or worse. This is the Scorsese who does what Scorsese does best.

This is similar for De Niro and for Pacino. They are doing excellent work here, the kind of excellent work playing the kinds of characters they always do. I'm not sure these performances are going to stick out when I think about the great performances of these actors. Any actor would be praised for giving such a performance but in the repertoire of these men will it be remembered as a stand out? The film is getting quite a bit of attention right now in the moment. Will The Irishman stand out over time as a stand out or be remembered as just another strong turn from some artists with great careers?

Whether one wants to buy into this version of events of one of the most captivating mysteries of the 20th century, one can certainly see the power of the story. By the end De Niro's restrained expression of all he lost through his work is palpable. The Irishman is quality entertainment made by experts at their craft and it is available in ways that will give audiences a chance to enjoy it. Really what else do we want from a good movie?

The Irishman
Starring: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Ray Romano, Bobby Canavale, Anna Paquin, Harvey Keitel, Jack Huston
Director: Marin Scorsese
Writer: Steven Zaillian

21 Bridges (2019)

21 Bridges is a solid cat and mouse action thriller with a strong cast, a fun premise, and a satisfying run. While the film likely won't throw you for any loops as its story is rather predictable, the route to get there is entertaining and fun. For an average time at the movies, 21 Bridges manages to be pretty good.

Interestingly the movie's title, referring to the gimmick introduced in the trailer, has very little to do with the story. Yes the NYPD close off Manhattan while they search for the criminals but the film does little to nothing with that for something that is such a big part of the promotional material and is the name of the frickin movie for crying out loud. As the story went on I kept waiting for that plot point to be relevant and it never got there.

Instead the film skims the surface of some rather of the moment social issues and ends up falling in line with some pretty well trod cop movie cliches. But the film's cast are all strong making the story a fun watch as they get into their roles. Stephen James and Sienna Miller in support roles are both are extremely gorgeous and both are just as talented, but it is Chadwick Boseman and J.K. Simmons who light up the cinema with their chemistry and screen presence.

So 21 Bridges is a solid popcorn film. Could it have been more? Likely. There is potential in this plot to make a deeper dive into the issues the film raises. There was a small part of me that wished it had reached a little higher. But in the end, I was entertained and wasn't disappointed.

21 Bridges
Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Sienna Miller, Stephen James, J.K. Simmons, Tayler Kistch, Keith David
Director: Brian Kirk
Writers: Adam Mervis, Matthew Michael Carnahan