First Man Is A Powerful Reminder Of What Humanity Can Accomplish

It's been a dark week in the United States... Pittsburgh, my adopted hometown, in particular.  The tragic shooting here has left us all with a horrible reminder of the worst in humanity.  And, for many of us, the rhetoric coming out of the oval office seems like a race to the bottom in many ways.  It was nice to go into a movie tonight and be reminded that we as a country can achieve greatness if we so choose.  First Man, shockingly the first true biopic about Neil Armstrong, shoots for greatness.  Directed with surgeon's focus by Damian Chazelle (La La Land, Whiplash), and acted with a quiet but gritty focus by Ryan Gosling, First Man is a shining star in a world that needs one.

Gosling leads First Man's stellar cast.

What was most interesting to me about this film is that while the moon landing was one of the most memorable moments of all-time, I hardly knew anything about the man who took mankind's greatest leap.  Armstrong is portrayed as a man haunted by the loss of his daughter and space compatriots who uses that pain to keep pushing forward.  Gosling is remarkable in this role.  It was interesting to see just how much of a loner that Armstrong was.  He kept everyone, including his wife (portrayed with steel resolve by The Crown's Claire Foye) and kids, at an arm's length.  Even his fellow astronauts couldn't get a true read on him.  There's a moment towards the end of the film, where you finally see Armstrong let go of the inner pain that haunts him throughout it.  This moment could very easily have veered into cheesy territory, but it's done in such a way that had my eyes welling up.

Speaking of direction, a lot of this film's success is due to the tight direction of Damian Chazelle.  He truly takes a step forward with this film.  From start to finish, this film is presented in a restrained manner.  We are presented with the story in a way that rightly steers clear of hero worship, while showcasing just how great these people were.  Chazelle presents the story in a "warts and all" manner, showing the sacrifice and human toll of walking on the moon.  He also does a lot with the camera, editing, and sound design to show just how harrowing space travel is.  This is not a movie that's heavy on musical score.  Instead, Chazelle let's the shaking of the camera and sound of the launch tell the story.  It reminded me a lot of my favorite movie from last year, Dunkirk, in this way.  The claustrophobia of such a big moment made it so much more intimate for the audience that I found myself white knuckling my chair at many moments this year.

First Man is a top rate movie.  It showcases the best of humanity at a time when many of us need that reminder.  I'm giving it 3.8 out of 4 stars.  It'll certainly make my top 10 of the year and should be a major player during awards season.

A Star Is Born is going to win best picture.

I've never seen any of the approximately 345 previous versions of A Star Is Born, so this review won't try to make any comparisons.  I'll judge this film on its own merits.  I can confidently predict that A Star Is Born will win this year's Best Picture.  It's an incredible character study with strong performances throughout.  The music is infectious and the Bradley Cooper's directing is strong.  While it's not currently my favorite movie of the year (That would be the incredible Annihilation), it'll be at the top of my year-end list. 

A Star Is Born is the fictional tale of an aging, drunken musician (Cooper in a breakout performance) who stumbles upon a no-name musician during a trip to a drag bar (the exceptional Lady Gaga).  He then takes her on the road with him and romance and heartbreak ensue on her rise to stardom.  This movie had a lot of chances to fall into a cliche trap, but Cooper's direction and the performances keep it from doing so.  For starters, the actors chose to sing live instead of to a pre-taped performance.  This gives each musical scene a sense of realism that may have been lost.  Cooper more than holds his own with the exceptional Gaga, which was something I didn't think he had in him.  The bond between these two characters was real and sincere.  Both their characters are given equal time to develop, so their choices have weight and meaning behind them.  I don't really want to spoil anything for those of you who aren't familiar with the story, but the film takes some dark turns along the way, and they hit so hard because of the time we as an audience are given to bond with them.

Cooper and Gaga have exceptional on-screen chemistry.

I was skeptical that Cooper and Gaga would be able to pull off such an excellent film, and boy was I wrong.  However, they aren't the only actors who shined in in A Star Is Born.  I can easily see Sam Elliott's brother/father figure character getting some awards' season recognition, and Andrew "Dice" Clay delivered a humorous yet relate-able performance as Gaga's father.

I'm giving A Star Is Born 3.75 out of 4 stars.  I predict it will be a major player come Oscar time.  It may not be the best film of the year, but I predict it will win Best Picture.

Watching Purple Rain for the first time in the shadow of the #MeToo movement

I've long been a fan of Prince's music, but for some reason or another, I've never gotten around to watching his 1984 breakout film Purple Rain.  I finally got around to it the other night when it made its way to the top of my Netflix DVD list (yes, I still use that service).  Making my way through this film, I couldn't help draw direct parallels to today's current climate... especially the Me Too movement.  While Purple Rain has some exhilarating musical performances and serves as a showcase for the then 23-year old Prince, it is rife with sexism and misogyny, which hasn't helped it age particularly well.  I realize that it's a product of its time, but its flaws are just so glaring that I had a hard time getting past them.

Purple Rain serves as a quasi-autobiography for Prince.  He plays "The Kid," the lead singer of The Revolution (Prince's real life band) who is striving to make it big in the Minneapolis music scene.  He plays at the First Avenue club, which is owned by Morris Day and his band "The Time."  This film definitely blends fantasy and reality in that it mixes real life artists with fictional characters.  Shortly into the film, we're introduced to Appollonia (played by Appollonia), as the muse to both The Kid and Morris Day. 

The major issue with this film is its portrayal of women (especially Appollonia).  They serve as objects to control by both Prince and Morris Day.  In an early scene, Prince's character plays a trick on Appollonia by convincing her to jump naked into a lake.  She's said maybe two words to him at this point.  Morris Day frequently refers to women as "Bitches" and seems to treat them as object.  His goal is to put together an all-girl group, but his only request is that they be "hot."  Their performance (in nothing but lingerie) of the laughable song "Sex Shooter" is her characters only real shining moment.  She is a victim of physical abuse at the hands of Prince's character.  The film poorly tries to make a connection between that abuse and the abuse that Prince's mother's character receives at the hands of her husband.  The reason this falls flat is that the violence comes out of nowhere, and it's never resolved.  There's a forced happy ending between The Kid and Appollonia, where it appears that nothing ever went wrong.  And this leads me to...

Purple Rain felt like a giant #MeToo foreshadow.  Watching it after the Kavanaugh hearings, I couldn't help but scream out "This is why victims don't come forward!"  It's ingrained in our society.  It's always "their fault," and the abusers always seem to be given the benefit of the doubt.  The Kid's music outshone the fact that he was a physical and mental abuser.  Just as Judge Kavanaugh's ability and record as a judge is more important than any potential abuse committed in his past.  While Purple Rain has many moments that shine, it feels like a relic of the past... though a past that is still rearing its ugly head.

Fahrenheit 11/9 Is An Impassioned Call To Action - And Michael Moore's Most Effective Film In Years

The biggest enemy in Fahrenheit 11/9, Michael Moore's latest film, isn't Donald Trump... But rather apathy.  Sure, the headlines from this film are that it's "Michael Moore's Trump Movie," and the 45th president plays a big role throughout the film.  However, he is presented as the result of a larger evil, and not the cause of it.  Moore states that we are at a tipping point in the world, and the rot and decay that has been building up in our political system is already boiling over.  Are we ready to stop it, or will our apathy destroy us?

Michael Moore has been making films for three decades now, fighting injustices as he sees fit.  He is a talented filmmaker, but even he doesn't escape Scott-free in this one. You see, we're all to blame 45... Including Moore.  There are call backs to each of his films in this one.  He questions whether he has used his considerable public effectively enough.  He questions the entire democratic process and shows how apathy has settled in throughout the voting base.  He calls the 100 million registered voters who didn't vote in the last election the most powerful political party in America. 

This film is by no means an attempt to try and sway Trump voters.  They have already been lost.  Fahrenheit 11/9 is a call to action for people who have been disenfranchised... and for the people on the left who felt betrayed by their own party to overthrow that machine.  Moore goes after the democratic establishment who he (and many) feels helped cheat Bernie Sanders out of a fair shot at office.  He goes after President Obama for staging a political stunt in Flint, Michigan.  He effectively draws the parallels between Trumpism and Nazism.  He excoriates Michigan Governor, Rick Snyder for poisoning the people of Flint in the name of profits.  Sure, there are occasional moments of Michael Moore showmanship (he sprays "Flint Water" on the lawn of Rick Snyder), but he is much more subdued in this film.  Moore uncovers the rot in our country with a surgeon's precision, while at the same showcasing the people making real difference in this country.  He shows how the effective West Virginia teachers strike was the result of people fighting for what they believe in.  He introduces us to roots activists that are taking the future of this country into their own hands.  Most importantly, Moore says that there is no more time to sit on the sidelines.  It's time for action.  The future of the country is now.

This is a cinematic gut punch, for sure, but I couldn't help but feel encouraged.  I'm already seeing the positives to come out of the 2016 election.  People I know who have never held elected office before are now holding positions in state and local government.  The Women's March (which I attended with my family) and the March For Our Lives were landmark events that show that the fight for real positive change is still out there.

Fahrenheit 11/9 is like taking your medicine.  It may taste nasty, but it's good for you.  It's someone telling you bad news about you that you know to be true, but  you've tried to make justifications for.  I'm giving it 3.75 stars out of 4.  It's an effective call to action and a small sliver of hope in an otherwise dark time.

Ocean's 8 And The Downside Of Hollywood's Obsession With Existing Intellectual Property.

Off the bat, I want to make clear that there's a good movie inside Ocean's 8... it's just too bad that they decided it was necessary to tie it into the Ocean's Universe.  I think that had this movie been made as an original heist movie, I'd probably view it more favorably.  Unfortunately, Ocean's 8 doesn't work for me because it felt like a bad cosplay of the original (remake) of Ocean's 11.  And that's unfortunate, because this cast deserved better than what they were given to work with.

From the very first moment of this film, Ocean's 8 feels like a poor woman's copy of Ocean's 11.  Sandra Bullock plays Debbie Ocean, the also incarcerated sister of George Clooney's Danny Ocean.  We meet her on her last day of a 5 year prison sentence, where she uses her cunning and skill to convince the parole board that she's a changed woman (hmmmm, where have we seen this before???).  Not so shortly after getting out, Ocean is immediately back to her old ways.  Sandra Bullock gives it her all.  There's a sequence of scenes very early in this movie that are an absolute delight, where we see Bullock's character con her way into a stay at the Plaza hotel in NYC.  From there, she immediately hatches a scheme to rob the Met Gala and puts together a team of criminals to pull of the heist of the century (again, nothing new to see here).  The rest of the film just feels like a copy of Ocean's 11 with a few tweaks to update the story and location.

In my opinion, there are three reasons why this film failed.  The first (and biggest) is that these characters are never really developed.  We get a brief introduction to each character, but they all left me wanting more.  Each character has a personality, but these personalities aren't different enough to distinguish them from the other characters.  Ocean's 11 wisely took its time to give each character a distinct personality that when put together in a team setting could shine as an individual and contribute to the team as a whole.  I kept forgetting what each character was supposed to do in Ocean's 8.  I wanted to see more of Mindy Kaling's jewel thief.  Cate Blanchett was basically doing an impression of Brad Pitt's Ocean's character.  Sarah Paulson was given an interesting backstory of a criminal gone suburban that needed a few more callbacks to be fully realized.  Anne Hathaway, while great as a vapid actress, makes an almost unbelievable turn in this one that ruins her character.  I could go on and on through each character and come up with the same conclusion.  It's like they took the first draft of the script and went with it.

Speaking of script, the second reason why this film failed was because of it.  This film was hampered by forcing it into the Ocean's Universe.  Major plot points were just copy and pasted into this film.  Bullock's character wanted to get revenge on the person who put her in jail.  In fact, there was an almost word for word remake of the scene were Brad Pitt's character confronts Clooney's character over his motivations in this one.  There's also a visit from an original cast member that completely ruins the vibe of this film for me.  These actors and characters deserved more than what was written on the page for them.

My final reason for the failure of Ocean's 8 is that while the idea of a heist of the Met Gala was a cool idea, the stakes never really felt that high.  Ocean's 11 was so great because there were many moments throughout the heist where you thought the characters were doomed.  Every time there was a moment like this in Ocean's 8, there was a quick and easy fix waiting around the corner to fix it.  Even the big reveal fell flat because there was never a moment were you felt like the gang was truly in over their heads.

Overall, Ocean's 8 was a bad start to the continuation of the Ocean's franchise.  If they do make a sequel (and it's a big if), I hope they take the time to flesh the characters out and up the stakes to something a little more perilous.  I'm still convinced that the film was hurt by tying it into existing intellectual property rather than making an original, female-led, heist film.  The creators of this one played it too safe, and if we've learned anything from heist movies, playing it safe is never very much fun.

The Fantastic 'Hereditary' Is A Slow Burn Of A Thriller That's Worth The Wait

Tonight, I finally had the chance to view the incredible new thriller, Hereditary.  I didn't have the opportunity to see it in the theater, but I was intrigued by the terrifying trailer and the incredible reviews.  It was billed as "The most terrifying movie since The Exorcist," but I found that to be a little misleading.  It has its terrifying moments, but it's much more than a typical thriller.  Hereditary takes its time to simmer, but once it reaches its third act, it's totally worth the wait.  The pacing of this film is on purpose.  Director, Ari Aster, lets the story build, and the tension boil until it explodes into a truly terrifying and ultimately satisfying finale.

Another reason that I was interested in this film is the divide between its critical and fan response.  It has almost universal critical praise, but audiences were turned away by it.  I think that in a summer dominated by a more typical horror movie, A Quiet Place, (a movie that I also really enjoyed), Hereditary chose to be different.  I think that the marketing of this film is partially to blame for its poor audience response.  Audiences went in expecting The Exorcist and were treated to something more akin to The Shining (another film with an early poor audience response).  It's more of a thinking character study than an outright horror picture... and I loved that about it.

I don't want to ruin the plot by giving away spoilers, but essentially it's a study of a family dealing with the loss of a loved one, that also has some supernatural elements to it.  I really enjoyed this character study, in part because the actors were all exceptional. Toni Collette shines as the mother trying to keep her family (and sanity) together as things around her unravel.  She gives such an honest and haunting performance that you never know whether she's actually seeing what she's seeing.  Gabrielle Byrne also gives an understated performance as a husband who is clearly in love with his wife, but also begins to expect that she's lost her mind.  Finally, newcomer Milly Shapiro gives a Shining-esque performance as the daughter of the family who may or may not have a form of evil inside her. 

I really enjoyed Hereditary.  It dared to be more than a typical thriller and I believe its stature will only grow over the years into the horror classic that I believe it to be.  Stick around for the incredible third act. 

BlacKkKlansman is an indictment of the past and present of America... and Spike Lee's best movie in years.

I've always been a big fan of Spike Lee.  Malcolm X, Do The Right Thing, and He Got Game were some of the seminal films of my youth that made me appreciate how directors can use their unique voices to tell impassioned stories.  His films always felt alive and lived in.  His characters were raw and always seemed like real people.  His movies felt and looked like they could very easily have been fly on the wall style documentaries.  But a funny thing happened to Spike Lee... he lost a step.  After his biggest commercial hit of his career, Inside Man, Spike Lee's films seemed to show up with a whimper and not a bang like they used to.  I've largely avoided them recently.  Critics reviled them and audiences largely stayed away.  However, Hollywood loves a comeback story and I'm really happy to state that BlacKkKlansman is the comeback we've been waiting for.  It's the perfect film that both looks back and takes note of where we are as a society.  BlacKkKlansman is THE movie of the Trump era.  It excoriates the past, while at the same time tying it into our political culture.

Klansman is the "based on a true story" of Ron Stallworth, an African American cop who successfully infiltrated the KKK in the late 70s.  He spoke with them on the phone and his partner showed up to the meetings to deal with the Klan in person.  The two sides of Stallworth in this movie are played impressively by John David Washington (Denzel Washington's son in a breakout role) and Adam Driver.  They work brilliantly together to expose this terrorist group, and their story is put together with great energy.  For the first time in awhile, Lee seemed like he was having fun making a film.

Make no mistake, this is not a subtle movie.  Spike Lee takes great delight in tearing down the Klan, and portraying them as bumbling doofuses.  In particular, David Duke (not so subtly shown chanting "America First") is shown as the complete ignoramus that he is, and you could almost feel Lee's energy bursting through during these scenes.

What I really enjoyed most about this film was that while it played out like an action comedy, it took great measures to show how much damage this line of thinking has done to the country.  The film directly mentions two films that have done more to glorify the Confederate South... Gone With The Wind and The Birth Of A Nation.  Images from these films are inter cut with a Klan monologue at the very open of the film shows just how much of an impact that they had on the modern Klan.  Lee takes great strides to connect the dots between these films and our current president's MAGA agenda (there's even a MAGA line thrown in there for fun).  Lee ends the film with a heartbreaking nod to the tragedy in Charlottesville.

The most powerful moment of the film was a scene showing the initiation ceremony of the Klan that was inter cut with a monologue from Hollywood legend Harry Belafonte.  His character speaks to an horrific incident of the Klan's history that shows the real life impact of the hate group.  It was a truly somber scene that has stayed with me since I saw the film.

I'm giving BlacKkKlansman 3.9 stars out of 4.  It's a must see and should hopefully be a major player come awards season.