A Hologram for the King

Attempting to recover from a mid-life crisis, which consisted of divorce and poor work performance, a salesman (Tom Hanks) travels to Saudi Arabia aiming to pitch state of the art communications equipment to a sovereign and finds himself unexpectedly drawn to a beautiful doctor whose services he had to seek. Tom Tykwer's adaptation of David Eggers novel is well-paced and amiable but ultimately inconsequential, starting out down an interesting and unconventional road but detouring along the way onto the expected pc path before coming to an abrupt halt. Also, the film contains another effective, unchallenging Hanks performance. 

** 1/2 out of **** 

Family Plot

A psychic (Barbara Harris) employs her out of work actor boyfriend and part time cab driver/private investigator (Bruce Dern) to locate the long lost son of a client given up years ago for adoption as their schemes intersect those of a pair of highly skilled high profile kidnappers (William Devane and Karen Black). Alfred Hitchcock kept his touch right until this final film, on which he reunited with North by Northwest screenwriter Ernest Lehman. Family Plot is excitingly edited, with a thrilling finale (plus another amusing out of control car sequence) with dialogue that is a little too tongue in cheek and welcomed performances from Harris, Dern, and Devane.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Blood Simple.

The owner of an old-fashioned Texas honky-tonk saloon (Dan Hedaya) hires an unsavory private investigator (M. Emmet Walsh) to murder his employee (John Getz) whose sleeping with his unsatisfied and much younger wife (Frances McDormand), a seemingly straightforward proposition that grows more and more serpentine as it coils back and back on itself with bloody repercussions for all. This Coen Brothers debut is stylish, sometimes overly so, and instantly identifiable as they own with a screenplay with many brilliant touches that probably gets a little too convoluted for its own good. The principal players are excellently cast and all fine in their respective roles.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Babel

6/4/10 Babel represents the final entry in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's so called trilogy. All three films are hyperlink films, meaning that they contain multiple characters who are linked with a plot that is weaved back and forth through time. Babel is his most successful and most ambitious work to date and it tells the story of how four seemingly unconnected groups of people are connected through one event and how each group struggles with a language barrier: a man trying to find aid for his injured wife in a foreign country, a Mexican woman trying to explain an awkward situation to border control, and a deaf Japanese girl struggling with a tragedy. The film is beautifully shot and well acted with Brad Pitt standing out in a talented cast. However, it is unsuccessful at pulling these four threads together and maintaining its theme. I felt I was watching four different albeit well-made stories, which were not at all related by plot nor theme. Also, and again the hyperlink movie has become tiresome and I think that although Inarritu has established himself with this genre, that he has done all he can with it. He recently debuted his new film at Cannes with great success and I look forward to that film with great interest.

*** out of ****

2/2/17 While rewatching Babel, it is intriguing for awhile but goes on way too long with too many needless, protracted sequences and phony, pretentious dramatics and political correctness ultimately ruling the day while the audience is supposed to ooh and ahh about the quasi interconnectedness of the screenplay.

** out of ****

Groundhog Day

An arrogant, egocentric Pittsburgh weatherman (Bill Murray) begrudgingly embarks on his annual trip to cover Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney along with his doltish cameraman (Chris Elliot) and a beautiful, high spirited producer (Andie MacDowell). Following a miserable day of small-town inanity, an unforeseen blizzard traps him for one more night and soon he finds himself living the same day over and over and over again. Harold Ramis' enduring modern classic is a clever and insightful morality play featuring Murray in top form though the ending favors cheesed out sentimentality and excessive pontification over laughs.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

A foster home tyrant and officially the worst boy in the system (Julian Dennison) is taken by a warmhearted woman (Rima Te Wiata) and her misanthropic husband (Sam Neill) on their isolated, mountain property. After she suddenly passes away and with social services en route to retrieve him, the boy and his foster father take to the hills and lead the officials on a chase that gains national media attention. Sweet-natured and funny, Taika Waititi's Hunt for the Wilderpeople changes gears too often and works much better on a smaller scale than as a loud action comedy.

*** out of ****

Berlin Alexanderplatz

Franz Biberkopf (Gunter Lamprecht) is released from prison in Weimar Germany after serving four years for brutally murdering his girlfriend in a blind and drunken rage. After securing desirable parole terms and acceptable living arrangements, he is lured into the criminal underworld and embarks on a tragic relationship with an adoring prostitute (Barbara Sukowa). Unusual, glum, and extremely long, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's miniseries Berlin Alexanderplatz, from a novel by Alfred Doblin, is brilliantly directed, harshly lit, and hard to watch at times with the noted final episode being a surreal and occasionally transcendent trip. Lamprechecht, Sukowa, Hanna Schygulla playing Franz old acquaintance, and Gottfried John as an imbalanced manipulative pimp are all excellent.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Another Woman

An happily married and tenured professor (Gena Rowlands) eventually elects to eavesdrop on the psychiatric sessions which can be heard through the vents of her new office and which serve as a reflection of her own impending mid-life crisis. With Another Woman, Woody Allen ventures into Bergman territory once more and even borrows his longtime cinematographer Sven Nykvist for an intellectual ride that opens and closes brilliantly (who could ask for anything more from a film really?) but is just too dry and stagy in the middle passages.

** 1/2 out of ****

Army of Shadows

As German troops march on the Champs-Elysee (in one of the great movie openings), members of the French Resistance plot, traffic in contraband, bear torture, face death, escape confinement, and smoke out informants from their own cells. Jean-Pierre Melville's tense, gripping and personal Army of Shadows is a thriller told with meaning and purpose with no delusions of happy endings, false hope, and phony heroism, dealing instead with self-sacrifice in the face of an apparent losing battle. The film is, however, almost too murky and atmospheric and with a thriller of this sort, despite its realistic intentions, i don't think it would have hurt to have been plotted a little more deeply.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Miles Ahead

A Rolling Stone writer (Ewan McGregor) forcibly insinuates himself into the life of Miles Davis (Don Cheadle) during a period of self-imposed exile and the unlikely duo schemes to retrieve one of the artist's unreleased recordings from the record company. Cheadle's rambling, unfocused jazz biopic is poorly conceived, with a dubious flashback structure, and just as badly executed with the director being the project's only asset as an actor, and even he himself looks ridiculous when attempting to portray a younger version of the musician.

** out of ****

Grizzly Man

In 2003, after 13 summers spent living in the Grizzly Maze at Katmai National Park, Alaska, an endeavor that gained his national recognition, nature enthusiast and filmmaker Timothy Treadwell, along with his then girlfriend, were mauled and consumed by one of his beloved bears. Extensive, composed largely from hundreds of hours of Treadwell's footage, Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man is a fascinating character study of a troubled individual that makes suggestions and even leaps about his motives. The director's narration is alternately helpful and unnecessary, the same to be said for what appear to be staged interviews, though the project achieves a quality that can only be called Herzogian.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Au Revoir Les Enfants

A young French boy yearns for home while at his forested Catholic boarding school that seems a world apart from the ongoing war and the German occupation, and befriends a similarly lonely and gifted Jewish student, one of several whom the Brothers are hiding from the authorities. Drawn from director Louis Malle's own personal experience, Au Revoir Les Enfants has that feeling of acute authenticity while being told by a seasoned maestro. Funny, poignant, and sad with great youth performances and many memorable, beautifully photographed sequences.

**** out of ****

Ripley's Game

Tom Ripley (John Malkovich) living anonymously off the fruits of his crimes in an idyllic Venetian suburb involves a terminally ill man (Dougray Scott) as the centerpiece of his latest murderous financial scheme. Ripley's Game is another engrossing, sophisticated piece of nastiness from Patricia Highsmith, a quiet thriller told with twisty logic on great locations with one of those sublime, all-knowing, laconic performances from Malkovich. Ray Winstone is excellent in support as his crony but Scott is unconvincing in his complex role.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Three uninhibited, sadistic and robust women break a man's neck after a drag race and kidnap his girlfriend winding up in the company of a lusty old cripple and his mindless, muscle bound son in their desolate desert home. Russ Meyer's Faster, Pussycat! Kill Kill! outrageously subversive and suggestive with surprisingly sharp banter, amusingly animated performances and effective, relentless editing.

*** 1/2 out of ****

A Murder in the Park

In summer 1982, stick up artist and gang member Anthony Porter murdered two teens at a Southside Chicago pool and, after being apprehended and tried with the corroboration of witnesses, was sentenced to death. Years later, his cries of blamelessness were heard by the Innocents Project of Northwestern University who took on his case and were successfully able to have the guilty party's conviction overturned and in his place, with the aid of agents from the program, have an innocent man put away behind bars. Murder in the Park is a rigorous dissection of a case that is likely to stoke ire and shows the sickening lengths some will go to in order to push their agendas.

*** 1/2 out of ****

LBJ

A profile of the life of the 37th President and his tumultuous administration, starting with his humble beginnings in Stonewall, Texas and early political career leading up to two elections involving ballot-box stuffing instances, one which cost him the Senate in 1942 and another which gained him the job in 1948. From there he ascended in Washing politics through his bullish tenacity and gained the vice presidency, despite a deep rooted hatred for the Kennedys, and ultimately the unexpected Presidency which saw his massive push for his Great Society social programs but was dominated and ultimately cut short by the Vietnam War and his widely perceived mishandling of the conflict. This entry in the superb American Experience President series is a consummate look at a gruff, flawed, and human political animal.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Howards End

After her sister (Helena Bonham Carter) is jilted by the youngest son of an upper class family, Middle class Margaret Schlegel (Emma Thompson) befriends its dying matriarch (Vanessa Redgrave) who unofficially wills her family's centuries old home to her. Soon she finds herself married to stern widower (Anthony Hopkins) and affecting the lives of an intertwined lower class couple. Merchant Ivory production of E.M. Forester's class examination is beautifully designed, unfolding like a novel, and benefiting from wonderful performances (especially Thompson and Hopkins) and Richard Robbin's offbeat musical score.

*** 1/2 out of ****

O.J.: Made in America

An expansive look at the rise and fall of Orenthal James Simpson, with a focus on race, from his impoverished childhood to his phenomenal celebrity as a running back and media personality to his tumultuous marriage to Nicole Brown and the double murder acquittal and subsequent Las Vegas armed robbery conviction which truly require no more words. Ezra Edelman's in-depth documentary miniseries somehow finds balance and insight subject that just won't go away. Through the use of great footage and fruitful guests, the prolonged profile presents a tragedy in the truest sense of the word.
*** 1/2 out of ****

Samurai Rebellion

A feudal lord orders his mistress, a source of vexation, out of his house and into marriage with the son of a contented subject (Toshiro Mifune). When the lord changes his mind and orders the woman back, father and son (who is now happily married) must decide whether to accept the decision or take the deadly turn against the unjust act. Maski Kobayahi's Samurai Rebellion is a touching tale of pride, love, and loyalty,  uniquely and effectively edited, with an older, more restrained Mifune still demonstrating much power.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Hidden Figures

Three black women (Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spenser, Janelle Monae) in 1960s Virginia contend with Jim Crow laws and condescending white folk while doing their part to assist NASA in the Space Program as human computers. Call it The Help in Space or a Right Stuff for the politically correct age, Hidden Figures is formulaic and tepid at best, a movie made to win Oscars and live a nice long afterlife as comfort food for middle aged ladies on TNT.

* 1/2 out of ****

Oscar Nominations Reaction

In a film year as terrible as 2016 it is only natural that its Oscar representatives would be just as lacking and when I heard this year's nominees the first words to come to mind were unimpressive, overpraised, undeserving, etc etc. Here's a brief rundown:

While the Academy will certainly pat itself on the back and reward the uninspired La La Land, Manchester by the Sea is really the only film of considerable substance of the nine nominated. Lion fell apart in its second act as did Moonlight in its third, Arrival and Hidden Figures are overrated liberal fantasies, Fences was a worthwhile adaptation but only really for its source material, and the nominations for the familiar Hell or High Water and Hackneyed Ridge sorry Hacksaw Ridge left me scratching my head. And with all of their phony political correctness, the Academy showed their true prejudice by failing to nominate Silence and Scorsese, their greatest living practitioner. 

As for the actors, thankfully we should see a winner for a great performance in Casey Affleck. Denzel Washington got nominated for playing himself, Ryan Gosling for being a worse singer than Russell Crowe, Andrew Garfield for failing at playing a hillbilly (he should have been up for Silence) and Viggo Mortensen was a welcomed surprise. 

Another unexpected nod was Isabelle Huppert's for her sly turn in Elle. Natalie Portman's was expected but still blah, Emma Stone, who was just as unimpressive as Gosling, Meryl Streep because they had to, and Ruth Negga may as well have been part of the wallpaper in Loving because she was put to so little use in Jeff Nichols' bland movie. I was pleased, however, that Amy Adams was overlooked for Arrival. 

In a category that is usually the most lively, the male supporting actors couldn't be more dull: Lucas Hedges in a disappointing performance in a great movie, Jeff Bridges for impersonating a Jeff Bridges caricature, Michael Shannon in a performance bordering on parody in one of the worst movies of the year. Dev Patel was strong however and Mahershala Ali was excellent in a role he was written out of far too quickly. 

On the girls' side, I think I'm rooting for Viola Davis but Michelle Williams was great too. Nicole Kidman's performance was in earnest but Octavia Spenser's was obnoxious and Naomie Harris was nothing to write home about.

For the directors, it bears mentioning Scorsese's snub again in what could have been a celebration of a great career and movie. Any sane Academy would vote for Kenneth Lonergan and Manchester but right now I would say it is too close to call between Barry Jenkins and Damian Chazelle. Denis Villeneuve and Mel Gibson (in an inexplicable reversal of fortune) were given make up nominations.

Captain Fantastic

Raising his children in a self-sufficient leftist utopia where they hunt their own food, learn foreign languages and celebrate Noam Chomsky's birthday, a singular, forthright hippie must leave paradise and venture into civilization to attend his wife's funeral who has just committed suicide. Aside from an inclination towards precocious mawkishness, Matt Ross' Captain Fantastic funny, smart, and truly excellent headed by a superb Viggo lead performance.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Blue Collar

Fed up with their do-nothing, self-satisfied union, a trio of autoworkers (Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, Yaphet Kotto) decide to rob the safe in their federation's local offices making off with petty cash and a mysterious ledger purporting backroom misdoings. Now, not only do they find themselves as targets, they also see forces pitting themselves against each other. Paul Schrader's Blue Collar strives for authenticity and realism which is achieved through the help of gritty Detroit location shooting, with even some slipshod, hazy elements of the story adding to the overall effect. Pryor is surprisingly exceptional in the lead, Kotto's performance is offbeat and amusing, and Keitel, though inconsistent, really delivers in the finale.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Children of Heaven

After picking up his sister's shoes from the repair shop, a young boy stops into the market on his way home, sets the pair aside, and finds they have been stolen. Under fear of his father's discovery he begins to share his own shoes with his sister while he attempts to retrieve the purloined sneakers until he learns of a footrace where the third place prize is a brand new pair of footware. Iranian based Children of Heaven is a universal film that anyone can relate to (it took me back to a terrifying incident where I broke the arm off the old man's favorite chair and had to think on my feet while repairing the break and concealing the crime). While seeming to draw from The Bicycle Thief both in set-up, simple emotions, and social awareness it is no less heart rending and contains no fewer than three exciting and uniquely drawn action sequences.

**** out of ****

Eye in the Sky

An Army Colonel (Helen Mirren) finally has eyes on a long sought terrorist target, about to transact a gun deal in a Kenyan market district. While awaiting permission to discharge him from the face of the earth, a young girl wanders into the blast radius complicating matters and causing officials all the way up the chain of command to either shirk or pass on responsibility. Gavin Hood's Eye in the Sky is a movie that thwarts any hope for tension in favor of legal and moral debates that are about as lively as an ethics memorandum all the while patting itself on the back and basking in its unearned sentiment. Mirren is miscast with a bunch unworthy British actors filling out the supporting roles along with an insufferable Aaron Paul as the teary eyed morally conflicted drone pilot. Only Rickman delivers in one of his last screen roles.

* 1/2 out ****