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.