The Goldfinch (2019)

Perhaps some stories work better in novels.

The Goldfinch, lushly shot in soft lighting with a cast who can act circles around anyone, ends up being an anemic snooze over which it is hard to muster any emotions. It has the sort of plot which is common in award winning books filled with unlikely characters and meaningful coincidences. But what it doesn't have is the sort of story that is interesting to watch people go through. I am a big believer that no novel is "unfilmable." One just needs to find a way to take the story and make it cinematic. Unfortunately pretty lighting just isn't enough to save this rather pretentious story.

Filled with all the Hallmarks of awardsbait The Goldfinch attempts to tell a grand meaningful narrative but barely manages to tell a compelling tale. Each and every character is a 2 dimensional set of cliches who are everything your stereotype of them would have them be. At the centre of this is a poor damaged boy who convinces himself he's done something terrible even thought we're all clear that he hasn't. He is the most vanilla of vanilla characters and since the whole movie hangs on how we're supposed to feel about him, and it's ever so hard to have any feelings for him, the whole movie ends up feeling lifeless. No one around is anything more than a stock character and he has no soul whatsoever. The film lurches through its unlikely coincidences and then wraps up in the most unbelievable manner in the last 20 minutes by having a character explain what happened off screen.

This is not how you make a novel like The Goldfinch "filmable."

The title refers to a painting referred to throughout the film. If ever there was an object in a movie that is the textbook definition of a "McGuffin" this is it. The painting is so irrelevant to the plot and the character's journey yet the story acts like everything hinges on it. This highlights what is essentially wrong with the film, a film that has so little to say and is about no one and nothing.

The Goldfinch
Starring: Ansel Elgort, Oakes Fegley, Nicole Kidman, Jeffery Wright, Finn Wolfhard, Sarah Paulson, Luke Wilson, Ashleigh Cummings, Denis O'Hare
Director: John Crowley
Writer: Peter Staughan

Brittany Runs a Marathon (2019)

I was cautious going into Brittany Runs a Marathon, a film which sells itself as an inspiring story of a "fat" woman who "improves" herself through exercise. Yeah it's a pretty problematic plot line. These sorts of things tend to end up fat shaming the characters we're supposed to love despite their size, and celebrate them as they shed the pounds. The trailer fell into all the typical jokes and patterns we would expect from this sort of thing. But it also centres on Jillian Bell who is hilarious and magnetic to watch, so I hoped the film wouldn't be as troublesome as it suggests.

And it wasn't. From the get go Brittany Runs a Marathon is a much darker, complicated, and nuanced film than the trailers make out. It's adult and smart and tackles the very problem I laid out with sophistication. Brittany's problem isn't her size or her looks, it is something more devious than that and the film handles it all in ways that are both clever and affirming... and funny. Without spoiling the film I can say the film starts out with her feeling she needs to loose weight. But it quickly comes to her that she needs to let go of why she thinks she needs to loose weight. It needs to be about something else.

Bell is the star of this show and she delivers on all counts. She does a very good job on the dramatic elements, making her Brittany feel completely authentic. And she is as funny and entertaining as she always is. Her interpersonal relationships with those in her life feel real and inspired. There are a few moments where the film feels like it rushes some plot elements, for example her romance transitions from annoyance to friendship to sexual feelings fairly quickly. This is likely more a product of the film's run time than the script itself. Her chemistry with her supporting cast is top notch.

Sure Brittany Runs a Marathon hits all the notes one would expect in a film like this but it does so with style and grace, and by exploring the themes a bit deeper. There is a moment with a side character which is extremely moving where forgiveness is given which touches on so much of what the Brittany in all of us is struggling with.

So Brittany is a little guilt free indulgence, a sentimental journey which crosses the finish line.

Brittany Runs a Marathon
Starring: Jillian Bell, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Michaela Watkins, Lil Ray Howery, Micah Stock
Writer/Director: Paul Downs Colaizzo

It Chapter Two (2019)

For me It works best when it is being a drama about the horrors we face as children and the way we reckon with that as adults. When It's trying to be what it's sold as, a horror film, It tends to loose me. Perhaps even more so with Chapter Two than the first film. As I am not a fan of the novel, with its dues ex machina resolutions and its reliance on horror cliches, the films have both been an improvement for me, but some of the problems with the book seep through for me into the films. But there are ways that the films do reach me and transcend some of Pennywise stuff.

For me, the moments when It is working is when director Andy Muschietti focuses on the characters, their interpersonal relationships, and their personal growth. I enjoyed the way the characters in the first film as children each faced the terrifying things in their lives, reminding so many of us of the things we survived. In It Chapter Two we get to see the legacies of those developmental moments, the ways adults are broken by their pasts, and the healing that come come through connection. It is in these moments when It shines and offers something more. The best horror always finds something to offer its audience beyond scares, something cathartic and cleansing.

But perhaps some of the success of the first film hinders this one a bit. Like with The Lord of the Rings, the runaway success of the first film gave permission to err on the side of excess. The film is long and likely doesn't entirely need to be. There are parts where I truly appreciated the film taking its time to tell its story, but other times when the film seemed to be playing up stuff that just didn't add value or emotional weight. The film, like the first, is heavy on the CGI and although its good CGI, never looking cheap, it also never feels quite real.

It as a story suffers from so lack of constraint. The evil entity at the heart of the tale is never defined, which in someways is good but in many ways it means the film can just have it do whatever the film needs it to do taking away any sense of real threat. The parameters of the confrontation are never laid out clearly so what happens often feels random, without purpose.

But the biggest downfall for me was that I want a horror film to scare me and It doesn't scare me. The film relies on what we are supposed to be scared of (clowns, creatures with crazy teeth, naked old ladies???) as opposed to building up real fear and existential dread. So when we cut away from the stories of our characters and their wrestling with their own demons, we are then supposedly entertained by jump scares and CGI effects. It never quite did it for me.

But once it comes back to the heart of It, the story of who we are and how that is formed through the adversity we face, the film becomes fascinating again. Muschietti is a beautiful director how can tell a compelling story. For me the horror part just wasn't all that compelling.

Still, overall this is my favourite telling of this narrative. For me it had more impact than the book or the TV series.

It Chapter Two
Starring: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Skarsgard, Jay Ryan, Bill Hadar, Isaiah Mustafa, James Ransone, Andy Bean, Jack Dylan Grazer, Jaeden Martell, Sophia Lillis, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Wyatt Oleff, Teach Grant, Nicholas Hamilton, Xavier Dolan
Director: Andy Muschietti
Writer: Gary Dauberman

Good Boys (2019)

Good Boys is exactly what you would expect. Pretty much down to every joke. With little surprising or shocking and a heavy dose of adorability, Good Boys ends up being perfectly average. In all its attempts to be provocative it fails to be at all. Mildly amusing, sailing by mostly on the charisma of the three leads, Good Boys is forgettable but somewhat charming. Especially with its messages of friendship. So for all the hype of what this movie could be, it ends up being just another film with sex jokes, mild ones at that.

Good Boys
Starring: Jacob Trembly, Keith L Williams, Brady Noon, Will Forte
Director: Gene Stupnitsky
Writers: Lee Eisenberg, Gene Stupnitsky

Luce (2019)

If you don't leave the film Luce with a broken heart, a sore head, and a question about everything you think might be true you aren't paying attention. This is a complex heady film which rips your heart out and reminds us just how little we understand anything about ourselves.

Luce never gives you the luxury of knowing what side to be on. Luce never entertains the idea there might be a right answer. Luce never lets you feel there are good characters or bad ones, at least not for very long. Just when you start to feel like you are getting a handle on whats going on the film makes you see another perspective. And then it ends leaving you in the exact same place.

Young director Julius Onah is still early in his career but Luce is an achievement usually reserved for more seasoned directors. He handles the film's complexities with grace and dexterity. The film never drags or becomes predictable. He doesn't play any tricks, just tells us his story without holding our hands. He casts a trifecta of talented vets in Octavia Spencer, Naomi Watts, and Tim Roth who all play their difficult parts well making us love, hate, resent, pity, and empathize with. A film like this wouldn't work without such a strong cast. But it's Kelvin Harrison Jr. as the title character who truly shines, giving one of the most complicated performances of the year, and showing a real potential. He's certainly one I want to watch.

Luce is described as "provocative" but I find that word can be misleading. Sometimes it evokes the idea of provocation for the sake of provocation. I didn't get that with Luce. Instead I got a story which challenged me to see all sides of an issue, to understand why people do bad things, and question what being good and bad even means. It's a rumination on how difficult, no impossible, it is to live up to our ideals and what failure looks like. Luce is riveting if completely discouraging while at the same time feeling utterly human.

You need to be ready for a film like Luce. It's not passive, escapist viewing. This film is a challenging watch but worth the payoff. When the last scene abruptly ends, you just sit there with the weight of it. And you need a good discussion after.

Luce
Starring: Kelvin Harrison Jr., Octavia Spencer, Naomi Watts, Tim Roth
Director: Julius Onah
Writers: JC Lee, Julius Onah

The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)

Born out of a collaboration between the writers/directors and the actor who all desired to make a film centering the actor living with down syndrome. Setting his tale as a retelling of Huckleberry Finn, they have put together a completely entertaining movie which showcases the talent of all three as film makers to watch. But in some ways they undercut this by making the film more about the people around Zack than about Zack himself.

The Peanut Butter Falcon is funny and entertaining all the way through. It manages to be a crowd-pleaser without patronizing its audience or its subject. Falcon is beautifully shot and its story is told efficiently and with a spirit of adventure which is infectious.

But a film like this faces a specific challenge. It is easy for the film to end up being more about LaBeouf's character, making him a hero for taking Gottsagen's under his wing. It shows that even with all the input from Gottsagen as part of the creative process, our ableist culture still makes us focus on the average guy over the guy with down syndrome. As much as Falcon tries to centre Gottsagen and making him into the hero his character wants to be we still see LaBeouf as the character with the true journey.

And it's too bad because young actor Zack Gottsagen truly makes the film. He gives the kind of performance that makes a new star.  Hollywood likely won't have a lot of rolls for him which is too bad because he shows so much potential here. But the film centers the interactions of LaBeouf and Johnson. Even as it argues for Gottsagen's character's agency.

As a rather well made film it is, I guess, a step forward. But perhaps it just shows how much further we still need to go.

The Peanut Butter Falcon
Starring: Zack Gottsagen, Shia LaBeouf, Dakota Johnson, Bruce Dern, John Bernthal, Thomas Hayden Church
Writers/Directors: Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz

The Death & Life of John F. Donovan (2019)

When Won Kar Wai released his (so far only) English language film critics were not kind.  While I loved much of his Chinese work, I truly enjoyed and loved My Blueberry Nights even though Nora Jones' performance is admittedly weak. American audiences often aren't overly accepting of non-English language directors making English films and it appears the same has happened to Canadian film maker Xavier Dolan.

While I enjoy many of Dolan's films I am not a blind fan. There are some of his films which are miss for me. But I have been excited for his English film debut, the complicated and enigmatic (naturally) story of a closeted actor's pen pal correspondence with a young boy. When the common festival reaction was one of derision, I was a bit nervous. As I said I have not loved all his work. But when he hits it for me he truly hits it. And it wasn't long into John F. Donovan that I knew he had delivered for me again.

Dolan is the kind of film maker that I appreciate because he embraces the visual and narrative natures of the medium making films which are electric to watch visually while challenging to follow in their stories. He doesn't just lay out the plot and then this happens and then that happens. He finds a way to tell a story that focuses on how his characters are feeling and experiencing the world, and films his stories so that we as the audience are flush with emotions as well. All of that is here in John F. Donovan. I personally appreciated the way he frames his main story through an interview with a jaded journalist and a precocious rising star. It gives a (The Usual Suspects-y) air of distrust to the narrative, that we are being told a story that may or may not have happened this way. It allows a sense of mystery to permeate every scene. We question what is being shown to us. Because do we ever know the truth in these things, the lives of our matinee idols?

Written by Dolan and another Canadian I am a fan of, Jacob Tierney, they find a way to express a range of queerness from Tremblay's pre-adolecent otherness, to Harrington's closet, to Schnetzer's confidence. I appreciated the way the film shows us glimpses of the experiences of queer men without making it a gay man 101 experience. The film also creates relationships and connections in a way that isn't typical and straight forward. Both Donovan and Turner's relationships with their families (especially mothers) is opaque, we aren't lead into it obviously. There is stuff to ruminate on here.

Maybe the film isn't perfect. I don't feel Harrington is a strong enough actor to make his central figure completely honest. Dolan has famously said he had a 4 hour cut and while I feel the film works at this length and leaves enough bread crumbs for us to find our way through there are times I wanted more. perhaps there is a director's cut out there that gives even more of an emotional punch to the story. But despite this the film worked for me, the film moved me, the film entertained me.

I would recommend this film to people who want to see films to discuss after, to reflect on. Dolan gives us enough to enjoy but leaves enough out for us to wonder about.

The Death & Life of John F. Donovan
Starring: Kit Harrington, Jacob Tremblay, Natalie Portman, Thandie Newton, Ben Schnetzer, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Jared Keeso, Michael Gambon
Director: Xavier Dolan
Writers: Jacob Tierney, Xavier Dolan