Personal Shopper

I really enjoyed The Clouds of Sils Maria so I have been looking forward to Personal Shopper, the latest collaboration between Olivier Assayas and Kristen Stewart.  I saw it last night and my mind was blown.  Maureen (Stewart) has moved to Paris to visit the house where her twin brother died of the same congenital heart condition that she has.  The two of them made a vow that whoever died first would return to give the other a sign that there is an afterlife.  As she waits for this sign, she works as a personal shopper for a celebrity, borrowing couture clothing and designer jewelry for her client to be photographed in.  Maureen is haunted by a spirit in her brother's house (in some of the scariest scenes I've ever seen) and is harassed by an unknown stalker who sends her menacing texts.  The film begins as a typical ghost story, then becomes a murder mystery, and ends as a psychological study of a young woman in an existential crisis.  It is a brilliant juxtaposition of the spiritual and the material.  It is incredibly suspenseful and part of that is due to the fact that I never knew what would happen from one moment to the next.  The atmospheric score only added to my unease.  Stewart gives the best performance of her career, in my opinion, and she is simply riveting.  It is definitely the best performance I've seen this year.  The scenes on the Eurostar where she receives a string of texts are intense, to say the least, and the final scene raised the hairs on the back of my neck.  I know that this film won't appeal to many moviegoers, especially those who don't like ambiguous endings, but I found it to be fascinating and I'm sure that I will be thinking about for many days to come.

T2 Trainspotting

Twenty years ago, in the cult classic movie Trainspotting (which I absolutely loved), Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) betrayed his three best friends and took the £16,000 that the four of them had stolen all for himself to start a new life.  In the voice-over he told the audience that he was a bad person but that was going to change.  Have you ever wondered if things really did change for him?  I liked Mark Renton as a character but I hoped, rather than believed, that he would overcome his heroin addiction and make something of himself.  I felt the same way when I went to see the sequel, T2 Trainspotting, last night.  I hoped, rather than believed, that it would be a good movie.  Although Renton is going through a divorce and the company he works for is downsizing, he has been clean for the past twenty years so he is doing much better than I expected.  He returns to Edinburgh after the death of his mother and is reunited with Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), who is now running his aunt's pub while engaging in a blackmail scheme with his Bulgarian girlfriend (Anjela Nedyalkova), Spud (Ewen Bremner), who is still addicted to heroin and estranged from Gail (Shirley Henderson) and his son Fergus, and Begbie (Robert Carlyle), who has recently escaped from prison.  The three of them are still bitter about Renton's betrayal and their interactions are highly amusing.  Like the first movie, there is an opportunity and a betrayal but there is also a twist so the story feels fresh but there are many nostalgic nods to the original for hard-core fans, including a new "Choose Life" speech, this time railing against social media rather than consumerism, a scene with a toilet (thankfully not as gross as the first movie), and a cameo by Kelly Macdonald, Renton's underage girlfriend who is now a lawyer.  The first movie explored the existential angst of young men who didn't see a future for themselves while this one centers on the cynicism of middle-aged men who now long for the past.  Once again Danny Boyle employs fast cuts, freeze frames, text on the screen, and pulse pounding music underneath the action and, while this seemed groundbreaking and mind-blowing in the first film, it seems a little tired in this one.  However, this movie, much like the fate of Renton, is a lot better than I expected!

North by Northwest

Yesterday I had the chance to see North By Northwest on the big screen again!  It is one of my very favorite movies so I couldn't pass up the chance to see it as it was meant to be seen one more time.  It is the first Alfred Hitchcock movie I remember watching (on PBS late at night when I was in high school) and I think it is a great introduction to Hitchcock because it is a stylish and suspenseful action thriller with Cold War intrigue that is highly entertaining.  Cary Grant is Roger Thornhill, a Madison Avenue ad executive, who is inadvertently mistaken for George Kaplan, a nonexistent CIA agent created to protect a real agent in pursuit of a spy seeking to smuggle microfilm out of the country.  Eva Marie Saint is Eve Kendall, the requisite icy blonde who helps Thornhill elude the police.  In my opinion, almost every scene in this movie is absolutely iconic, including the kinetic typography in the opening credits, the drunken car chase along a winding coastal highway, the crop duster attack on a lonely prairie highway, and the final confrontation on top of Mount Rushmore.  I look forward to each of these scenes with anticipation.  I love all of the locations in this film:  the Plaza Hotel, the mansion in Glen Cove, the U.N. General Assembly Building, Grand Central Station, the cafeteria at Mount Rushmore, and the house inspired by architect Frank Loyd Wright.  The costumes are fabulous, especially the grey suit worn by Cary Grant through most of the movie, and those worm by Eva Marie Saint, which, apparently, she selected at Bergdorf Goodman.  I love the characters and I find Roger Thornhill to be the very definition of suave and sophisticated (all men should try to be more like Cary Grant).  The witty banter between Roger and Eve is so much fun.  Finally, the score by Bernard Herrmann, who scored many of Hitchcock's movies, is quite stirring and adds much to the suspense.  I love this movie so much!

Note:  It was screened as part of TMC's Big Screen Classics series.  Go here for more information about the upcoming movies in the series.  I am really looking forward to quite a few of them!

Ghost in the Shell

Last night I saw Ghost in the Shell, the other major release this weekend (for the record, I categorically refuse to see Boss Baby).  Let me say at the outset that I have not seen the iconic anime classic upon which this new film is based so I have nothing to which to compare it.  I have to judge this film on its own merits and on that basis I think it is pretty spectacular!  In a terrifying future, most humans have been cybernetically enhanced but Hanka Robotics has created a technological breakthrough by implanting a human brain into a mechanical shell named Mira Killian (Scarlett Johansson).  She is programmed to be a counter terrorism operative and achieves the rank of Major.  When several Hanka scientists are killed, Major discovers that a hacker who has connections to her past life is responsible.  To be sure, when all is said and done, it is basically a police procedural but the visuals and special effects are absolutely incredible.  I was completely immersed in this world, a pan-Asian city with giant holographic billboards, and the action sequences are amazing, especially an assassination using robotic geishas and an invisible fight in a lagoon.  Scarlett Johansson gives a great performance with a steely-eyed stare and an almost mechanical walk and I also enjoyed Juliette Binoche as the scientist who crated Major and Pilou Asbaek as another operative.  I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and I recommend it, although fans of the original might make negative comparisons.

Note:  I saw this film in IMAX 3D and, for once, I highly recommend paying extra to see it in this format!

The Zookeeper's Wife

The Zookeeper's Wife is a true story about an ordinary woman who did extraordinary things to save countless Jews during the Holocaust.  Historical dramas, particularly those set during World War II, are very appealing to me so I was definitely predisposed to love this film as I walked into the theater last night.  I didn't love it by the time I walked out of the theater.  Antonina Zabinska (Jessica Chastain) and her husband Jan (Johan Heldenbergh) run the Warsaw Zoo on the eve of the German invasion of Poland in 1939.  During the bombing of Warsaw, many of the animals are killed but the Zabinskis do their best to save as many as they can.  The director of the Berlin Zoo, Lutz Heck (Daniel Bruhl), arrives because he wants to save some of the best stock for breeding purposes.  After Antonina reluctantly agrees, Heck transfers the animals he selects but ruthlessly kills the rest, mirroring certain aspects of the Holocaust.  The Zabinskis propose that they keep the zoo open to raise pigs as a food supply and receive permission to collect scraps from the Warsaw ghetto to feed them.  They decide to hide one of their Jewish friends in an underground cage and then decide to help other Jews escape from the ghetto in the garbage truck as they collect the scraps.  They eventually fill the underground cages with as many Jews as they can right under the nose of Lutz as he uses the zoo for his breeding program.  Jan joins the resistance and is wounded and captured during the Warsaw Uprising so when Lutz realizes what has been going on, Antonina evacuates all of the Jews to face him alone.  This movie does so many things very well: it has a compelling story, beautiful production design, and an outstanding performance by Chastain.  However, the action left me feeling somewhat flat.  There is no tension because there is never a sense of peril for the Jews.  The German officers are portrayed as either benign, especially Lutz because he is enamored with Antonina until he turns on her in the final scenes (and even then he takes pity on her), or downright clueless, especially the guards at the ghetto who always seem to be looking away as the Jews climb into the garbage truck.  In fact, I felt more emotionally connected to the animals and the scenes that affected me the most were when they were in peril.  It is a good period drama but I was expecting so much more.   

A United Kingdom

Last night I went to see A United Kingdom and it was such a lovely and inspiring film!  It tells the true story of Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo), the King of Bechuanaland when it was a British protectorate in the 1940s, and Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike), the woman he met in London while studying law.  Not only is this a touching romance (they fell in love over a shared passion for jazz) but it is also a story of political intrigue.  At first the British government tries to prevent their marriage because South Africa, an important member of the Commonwealth due to their valuable resources needed by Britain, opposes it because of their policy of apartheid.  Later the government tries to remove Seretse as king in a stunning betrayal.  However, the strength of their love wins over Seretse's people as well as Ruth's family and eventually leads to the independence of present-day Botswana.  It is a film which will leave you cheering (and will make you hate the perfidy of Britain's colonial policies).  To be sure, the film is predictable (scenes with Ruth's parents disowning her and British bureaucrats plotting behind closed doors) but I was completely drawn into the love story between Seretse and Ruth.  Oyelowo and Pike give incredibly affecting performances and I had tears in my eyes several times, particularly when the women of Seretse's village sing to Ruth and when Seretse, with tears streaming down his face, gives a powerful speech about unifying Africa.  This film is visually stunning with scenes in London shrouded in fog and scenes in Africa suffused with an orange glow.  It has flaws but the love story is riveting and the message is powerful.

Life

Last night I went to see the movie Alien Life.  Like the 1979 classic by Ridley Scott, this movie features six crew members who must battle an alien life form in a confined space as it hunts down and kills them one by one.  In the near future, the crew of the International Space Station, including Dr. David Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal), CDC representative Miranda North (Rebecca Ferguson), engineer Rory Adams (Ryan Reynolds), pilot Sho Murakami (Hiroyuki Sanada), scientist Hugh Derry (Ariyon Bakare) and captain Ekaterina Golovkina (Olga Dihovichnaya), intercepts a probe from Mars and discovers a single cell organism which is proof of life on Mars.  Of course, the organism grows rapidly and turns malevolent and, in a breach of quarantine (never go in and rescue a crew member who is being attacked by an alien!), it gets loose in the space station and begins attacking crew members until there is one left to escape back to Earth.  Sound familiar?  This movie is unbelievably predictable and the only thing that kept me engaged was trying to determine the order in which the crew members would be killed (I was actually surprised by which crew member was killed first).  There is a bit of a twist at the end but I predicted it well before it was revealed.  The scenes with the alien are intense and incredibly graphic.  That is not necessarily a good thing because, if you are least bit squeamish, you may need to turn away.  I think zero-gravity is depicted very well and I like how the claustrophobia of the space station is emphasized.  The characters are pretty well developed, although I felt like Ryan Reynolds was playing an astronaut version of Wade Wilson (lots of swearing).  Overall, it is a pretty good sci-fi thriller but if you want a great one I would recommend watching Alien instead.

Note: I like to be genuinely scared rather than shocked.  Alien scared me while Life shocked me with the manner in which each crew member was killed.

The Sense of an Ending

Last summer I read the best-selling novel The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes and in my review I wrote that people would either love it or hate it.  I loved it and so I have been eagerly anticipating the film adaptation.  After seeing it last night, I have the same assessment of the film as I did of the novel.  It is definitely not for everyone but it is a poignant exploration of one man's life as he is forced to reexamine the past after receiving an unexpected letter.  Jim Broadbent is Tony Webster and Charlotte Rampling plays Veronica Ford, Tony's girlfriend at university.  Their story, as Tony remembers it, is told through a series of flashbacks, with Billy Howle and Freya Mavor playing the younger characters, as Tony recounts the story to his ex-wife (an amusing Harriet Walter).  Then their story, as it really happened, is revealed as Tony arranges a series of meetings with Veronica.  As he sheds his delusions about the kind of person he was and is, he begins to make amends with the people in his life, namely his ex-wife and pregnant daughter (Michelle Dockery).  I really enjoyed this character study because I think that we all view our pasts the way we need to in order to validate our opinions of ourselves.  Jim Broadbent is marvelous (I think that his portrayal of Tony is much more sympathetic than the character is written on the page) and Charlotte Rampling, once again, gives a haunting performance.  I highly recommend this film but, because the mystery unfolds very slowly, I recognize that many might find it to be tedious.

Note:  My favorite line in the film comes when the young Tony goes home with Veronica to meet her parents.  Her mother asks him what he hopes to do with an undergraduate degree in English literature.  I laughed out loud...

My Life as a Zucchini

My Life as a Zucchini is a French stop-motion animation movie about a boy, nicknamed Zucchini, who is sent to a foster home after his alcoholic mother dies where he learns the true meaning of friendship.  This movie was screened at Sundance this year and several of my friends recommended it to me so I saw it last night.  Even though I had an almost visceral reaction to this movie I loved it so much!  It just might be my favorite movie of the year so far!  The subject is one that is very close to my heart.  Both my niece and nephew are adopted and they were both in foster homes before they came to my family so many of the scenes depicted in this film brought tears to my eyes, especially when one of the children says that there is no one left to love them and when another child runs out to see if her mother has come back for her every time someone visits.  It was difficult for me to see children in such distressing situations but I admire the filmmakers for tackling these issues in a way that feels authentic.  They are all wise beyond their years and they have been exposed to things that no child should ever have to deal with but they are, nevertheless, still children so their explanations for things, such as sex, are hilarious.  Despite the grim subject, there is quite a bit of humor in this film.  I absolutely loved the children and I thought they were all fully realized characters with distinct personalities (something to be commended as the film has such a short run time).  I was particularly touched by Simon, who initially comes across as a bully but has a few vulnerable moments.  I really enjoyed the relationships between the children and the love story between Zucchini and Camille is very sweet.  Finally, I really loved the quirky look of all of the characters.  They have oversize heads with large expressive eyes and red noses as if they are all perpetually suffering from a cold and this makes them incredibly sympathetic, in my opinion.  I cannot recommend this film enough!

Note:  I saw it in French with English subtitles but there is a dubbed version, as well.

Beauty and the Beast

Late last night I went to an early screening of Beauty and the Beast, the live action version of the 1991 Disney animated classic, and I loved so much about it (and didn't like a few things).  Emma Watson plays Belle, a smart and independent girl stuck in a provincial town, and Dan Stevens plays the Beast, a prince who has been cursed by an enchantress because there is no love in his heart.  This adaptation follows the familiar story of Belle being taken prisoner in the Beast's castle as a substitute for her father (Kevin Kline), who unknowingly wanders in, and then learning to look past the Beast's gruff exterior with the help of some enchanted objects in the castle:  Ian McKellen as the uptight Cogsworth, Ewan McGregor as the rakish Lumiere, and Emma Thompson as the motherly Mrs. Potts.  Meanwhile, the local war hero Gaston (Luke Evans), with the help his buffoonish sidekick LeFou (Josh Gad), pursues Belle and then sets his sights on killing the Beast.  I loved the big production numbers, especially "Belle," "Gaston," "Be Our Guest," and "Beauty and the Beast," and I actually thought they were pretty magical because the production design is simply gorgeous.  This movie is just visually stunning!  I liked all of the performances (I even thought that Emma Watson sounded fine in her songs) but my favorites are Evans as Gaston and Gad as LeFou because they are absolutely hilarious and Stevens as the Beast because his voice is unexpectedly amazing in the song "Evermore."  I really enjoyed watching this movie, particularly with the rowdy crowd who cheered during several scenes, and I laughed out loud many times.  However, there were a few weak spots for me.  I didn't really like the CGI of the enchanted objects because they didn't seem to be "real."  I was hoping that the objects would actually resemble the actors portraying them (I remember being so excited when I heard that Ewan McGregor was going to play Lumiere) so that was a little bit disappointing.  I thought that Belle's iconic yellow ball gown was extremely underwhelming, especially in comparison to all of the other costumes.  I also didn't especially like most of the new songs (I had the same problem with the new song in Les Miserables) but that might be because I am so used to the original movie and the Broadway musical so I might grow to like them more (I did, however, like the aforementioned "Evermore").  Finally, I thought Belle's backstory where she and the Beast visit Paris was weird and unnecessary; in fact, I wasn't really sure what was even going on and my mind started to wander (this movie is quite long).  However, for me, the positives outweighed the negatives and I really enjoyed it.  I predict that I will be seeing it again soon (especially since Spring break is coming up).

Note:  About that "explicitly gay" scene?  If you blink, you will miss it.

Before I Fall

I saw Before I Fall at Sundance this year and it received a bit of a lukewarm reception at my screening and, recently, a few of my friends have panned it.  I decided to see this film again last night because I have very strong opinions about it and, for some reason, I feel the need to defend it.  Based on the best-selling novel by Lauren Oliver, Sam Kingston (Zoey Deutch) is a popular high school student who is forced to live the same day over and over again until she realizes what is most important in her life beyond her superficial happiness.  She has a trio of best friends, Lindsay (Halston Sage), Ally (Cynthy Wu), and Elody (Medalion Rahimi), who all behave badly, particularly to a classmate whom they bully mercilessly.  All Sam cares about is receiving the most roses during the school's annual "Cupid Day" (I always say that you haven't really lived unless you have spent Valentine's Day in a high school) and losing her virginity to the most popular boy in school.  Each time she relives the day she attempts to change her behavior in the hopes of changing her fate and I really enjoyed her journey as a character.  Every iteration of the day seams fresh and unique based on the choices she makes.  Obviously, I view this film through a much different filter than most people I know because I have worked with this age group for many years as a high school teacher.  The situations ring true and the dialogue is incredibly authentic (however much we might wish for the light and effervescent teen comedies we are used to).  Just yesterday I had to deal with a horrible case of bullying within the group of student leaders I work with.  Lindsay, the ringleader of the group of friends, is especially brutal in her treatment of Juliet (Elena Kampouris) but the film does a good job, in my opinion, of showing her motivation.  The two girls were once friends but Lindsay lashes out at her to cover up her own insecurities.  It has been my experience that the student who exhibits the worst behavior in class is often the one who most needs my attention and understanding.  I really liked the fact that Sam is able to find redemption after all of her bad behavior (I don't think the film glorifies this behavior at all) because I like to think that no teenager is beyond hope, no matter how unlikable they may appear to be.  She is a very different girl at the end of the movie from the one we meet at the beginning.  Just my two cents.

Note:  I really think that this film will appeal more to the demographic for which it was intended.  This second screening was filled with teenage girls and they seemed to really enjoy it.

Kong: Skull Island

Late last night (early this morning?) I saw an early screening of Apocalypse Now Kong: Skull Island and it was quite the spectacle.  At the end of the Vietnam War, a team of scientists (John Goodman and Corey Hawkins) armed with satellite images mount an expedition to an uncharted island to prove the existence of heretofore unknown monsters.  Along for the ride is a military escort led by an officer bitter that the war is over who may or may not be insane (Samuel L. Jackson), a tracker (Tom Hiddleston), and a photojournalist (Brie Larson).  Helicopters, with speakers blaring music (not the only reference to Apocalypse Now), begin dropping explosives on the island in order to draw out the monsters and are immediately attacked by a giant primate known as Kong.  These scenes are absolutely relentless, with unbelievable effects, and I was holding my breath as Kong swatted helicopters out of the air, broke them in two, and stomped on soldiers as they fled.  Several scattered groups survive and one of them encounters a pilot who has been marooned on the island since World War II (a hilarious John C. Reilly who provides much comic relief).  As Jackson's character vows revenge on Kong for killing his men, Reilly's character informs them that there are other monsters (in the form of these strange lizard-like creatures) on the island and Kong is their only protection which leads to conflict and then to an epic battle.  I have to admit that, while these scenes are also pretty exhilarating, I was less engaged because they seem to go on forever.  Just when I think Kong has finally gotten the better of the lizard, it crawls back for more.  Also, I really had to suspend a lot of disbelief to buy that Kong could tell the difference between those who meant to harm him and those who who wanted his help.  Having said that, I thought this movie was a lot of fun which is something that I didn't necessarily expect (I despised Peter Jackson's version).  Reilly and Jackson are great (although Hiddleston's and Larson's characters are a bit one-dimensional) and the action scenes are spectacular (I saw it in IMAX 3D).  I loved the music, especially "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath as the helicopters storm the island and "Run Through the Jungle" by Creedence Clearwater Revival as the soldiers, well, run though the jungle.  I liked it and I am sure that fans of monster movies will love it (the group of twenty-something guys that I walked out of the theater with discussed their plans to see it several more times over the weekend).

Note:  There is an end of credits scene setting up the sequel in the so-called MonsterVerse.

Logan

Well, I did it.  After deciding that I didn't really want to see Logan and turning down an opportunity to see an advance screening on Thursday night, I went to see it last night (in IMAX, no less) because it got such great reviews.  I didn't expect to love it but I did!  Let me say at the outset that it is not your typical stylized superhero movie with sanitized violence.  It is laden with profanity and the violence is shocking and bloody (Logan uses those adamantium claws to decapitate someone).  But, in a way, it is a real and very raw portrayal of a tortured man living with regrets who, ultimately, finds redemption.  In 2029 mutants have all but been destroyed.  A grizzled and weary Logan (Hugh Jackman) is holed up in an abandoned silo in Mexico with Caliban (Stephen Merchant) and an ailing Professor X (Patrick Stewart).  He is still pretty lethal in a fight but it takes him much longer to recover.  There has definitely been a cost.  He eventually meets a young girl named Laura (Dafne Keen) who also has adamantium implants.  She was genetically engineered (using Logan's DNA) as a weapon by the Transigen Project but she escaped and is now on the run from Transigen's cybernetically enhanced mercenaries.  Logan reluctantly agrees to take her on a cross-country journey to find an elusive safe haven for mutants in Canada.  This eventually leads to an epic showdown with Logan, Laura, and all of the other surviving genetically engineered children against the mercenaries.  What I liked most about this movie is that it is very character-driven.  Logan is flawed, to be sure, and he is broken and angry but he is unbelievably sympathetic, especially in his interactions with Charles.  Jackman's portrayal is highly nuanced and more affecting than in any of the other X-Men movies and Keen is remarkable as the newest mutant in the franchise (could we see her again?).  While the tone is somber, the message, in my opinion, is incredibly hopeful and the ending is so moving that I had tears in my eyes.  I am surprised by how much I liked this movie but it is definitely not for everyone.

Note:  There is no end of credits scene (so don't wait like almost everyone in my theater did) but there is a hilarious Deadpool teaser before the movie which made me laugh out loud.

The Red Turtle

Yesterday I decided to go to the Broadway to see the Academy Award nominated film The Red Turtle and I am so glad that I did!  It is absolutely brilliant with a simple yet profound narrative about life, love, and fate.  A man is washed ashore on an uninhabited island.  After discovering a plentiful supply of bamboo, he makes a raft and attempts to leave the island.  The raft is broken up by a red turtle not far from shore and the man is forced to return to the island.  After several more attempts with the same result, the man sees the red turtle wash up on shore and, in an act of revenge, he turns it upside down.  Feeling remorse the next day, he tries unsuccessfully to revive the turtle.  When the turtle's shell cracks, it is transformed into a beautiful woman.  Years go by and the man and woman eventually have a son with an unusual connection with turtles.  When their son decides to leave the island with a group of turtles, the couple remains to live out their lives in a series of beautiful vignettes.  After the man dies, the woman is, once again, transformed back into the red turtle and it slowly swims away from the island.  The story is incredibly beautiful and affecting and even though there is almost no dialogue (aside from a few exclamations) the characters are able to convey genuine emotion.  I also loved the distinct portrayal of the animals on the island.  My favorite "characters" are the crabs which become the man's constant companions in some amusing situations.  The animation is absolutely stunning and even the gray and sepia tones of the ocean in a storm are somehow vibrant.  I loved this film and I highly recommend it!

Note:  Speaking of Academy Awards, I am so glad that Moonlight won Best Picture.  It is such a beautiful film and I highly recommend it, too!

Hell or High Water

Every year it is a goal of mine to see all of the Academy Award nominees for Best Picture.  Now I can officially say that I have seen them all!  Megaplex Theaters are screening all of the nominees this week and yesterday I saw Hell or High Water, the only film I hadn't seen yet (you can read my commentaries on Arrival, Manchester by the Sea, La La Land, Lion, Moonlight, Hacksaw Ridge, Fences, and Hidden Figures).  My friend enthusiastically recommended this film to me last summer and now I know why.  Toby Howard (Chris Pine) and his reckless and impetuous brother, Tanner (Ben Foster), rob a series of branches of the Texas Midlands Bank.  They take the proceeds of these robberies to a casino on an Indian reservation to be laundered and, in an ironic twist, have the check made out to the Texas Midlands Bank.  It turns out that they need the money to pay a reverse mortgage held by the Texas Midlands Bank which is due within the week.  A Texas Ranger on the verge of retirement, Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges), and his partner are hot on their trail and just miss catching them as one of their robberies goes awry.  Tanner leads the Rangers into the hills, allowing Toby to escape, and is eventually killed by Hamilton in a dramatic shoot-out.  Toby pays the mortgage and puts the ranch, on which oil has been discovered, in trust for his sons, thereby breaking the cycle of poverty in his family.  I am not normally a fan of Westerns (although I really enjoyed this movie) but I think this film is a brilliant indictment of the economic depression felt by much of small town America.  What I liked best about this film, other than the outstanding performances of both Bridges and Pine, was the pacing of the narrative.  Information is revealed little by little to explain the motivation of both the brothers and the Rangers. I also really enjoyed the resolution which, for some reason, was incredibly satisfying to me!  I highly recommend this film, especially to fans of the genre.

Moana Sing-Along

I really love the movie Moana (I actually saw it twice in one day!).  It is probably my very favorite Disney animated film because it has a wonderful story filled with adventure, vibrant animation, and amazing songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda (one of which is nominated for an Academy Award).  My sister Marilyn found a special sing-along engagement and last night we took my Mom and Tashena to see it.  As you may know, I've been singing songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda at the top of my lungs in the privacy of my car for the past year so it was a change to sing his songs in public (also at the top of my lungs!).  The original movie features on-screen lyrics and during the first song, "Where You Are," people in the theater were pretty tentative but everybody eventually got braver and started singing louder and louder.  Tashena basically belted out the song "How Far I'll Go" complete with dramatic gestures.  I especially liked singing "We Know The Way"  and "Shiny" but everyone in the theater really raised the roof during "You're Welcome."  We may or may not have been a bit boisterous ("I'm just an ordinary demi-guy.")  I even heard my Mom singing!  Not only did we sing every song but we also started speaking the dialogue ("I am Moana of Motunui.  You will board my boat and sail across the sea to restore the heart of Te Fiti.").  This movie was so much fun!  Tashena told us on the drive to the theater that she wouldn't sing along and that she was going to be really embarrassed by us but we could hardly contain her in her seat.  She was laughing and giggling the whole time and she even kept singing through the lobby and parking lot!  If you are a fan of this movie, you definitely do not want to miss this!  Tickets can be purchased here.

Note:  Speaking of Academy Awards, I've seen all of the 2017 nominees for Best Picture except one (you can read my commentaries on Arrival, Manchester by the Sea, La La Land, Lion, Moonlight, Hacksaw Ridge, Fences, and Hidden Figures).  My friend enthusiastically recommended Hell or High Water but it was released when I was in Australia and it didn't have a long engagement in SLC.  I am hoping to be able to see it somehow before the big night.

Sundance Film Festival 2017

The 2017 Sundance Film Festival is wrapping up tonight and, even though I saw fewer films than I did last year, I certainly enjoyed myself this week.  Last Saturday I saw Their Finest which stars Gemma Arterton and Sam Claflin as screenwriters who make a propaganda film about Dunkirk to boost morale at home and to persuade America to enter World War II.  Catrin Cole (Aterton) is hired to write the "slop," or women's perspective, and, at first, Tom Buckley (Claflin) is resentful but eventually the two discover romantic feelings for each other.  It is a predictable period piece but I really enjoyed it, especially the over-the-top performance of Bill Nighy as the aging but pompous actor Ambrose Hilliard and a hilarious cameo by Jeremy Irons.  Sunday night I saw Before I Fall.  Since I am a high school English teacher, I read a lot of young adult fiction and I loved Lauren Oliver's best-selling novel about a young girl who must relive the day of her death over and over until she learns an important lesson about living.  It is incredibly clever and authentic and this film is a great adaptation.  I especially enjoyed how director Ry Russo-Young was able to keep the repetition of the same day fresh and interesting and I enjoyed Zoey Deutch's portrayal of Samantha Kingston's journey.  I'm sure this film will appeal more to a younger crowd that the one at my screening.  On Wednesday I took my students to see Deidra and Laney Rob a Train.  Deidra (Ashleigh Murray), the valedictorian of her high school class, must assume the responsibility for her siblings after her mother is put in prison.  She figures out a way to rob the trains that run behind her house in order to pay the bills, enlisting the help of her sister Laney (Rachel Crow) while eluding her dead-beat Dad (David Sullivan), an over-zealous guidance counselor (Sasheer Zamata), and a bumbling railroad investigator (Tim Blake Nelson).  It is both funny and heart-warming and my students and I loved it!  Thursday night I saw Marjorie Prime, an atmospheric film about the fallibility of memory.  Set in the future, Marjorie (Lois Smith) is an 85-year-old woman struggling with memory loss who has been given a "prime," or hologram, of her dead husband Walter for companionship.  The hologram (Jon Hamm) can only learn about himself through the memories provided by Marjorie, their uptight daughter Tess (Geena Davis), and Tess's husband Jon (Tim Robbins) and each of their memories are colored by their emotions.  Eventually, after everyone has died, the holograms of Walter, Marjorie, and Tess have conversations with completely false memories. Despite the fact that the timeline was sometimes confusing, I found the film to be very powerful and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.  Friday night I saw The Hero.  Sam Elliott is Lee Hayden, an aging actor known for the Western roles he played 40 years ago and the voice-over work he now does for a barbecue sauce, who confronts mortality after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  He must deal with a resurgence in his popularity after a drug-fueled speech given at an award ceremony goes viral, an estranged ex-wife and daughter (Katharine Ross and Krysten Ritter, respectively), and a romance with a much younger woman (Laura Prepon).  The film has a common theme but it is entertaining, especially Nick Offerman's portrayal of Lee's drug dealer.  Last night I had a double-feature, beginning with A Ghost Story.  This film was a highly coveted ticket; in fact, there were more people wait-listed for this film than any other I have ever seen.  It has gotten quite a bit of buzz at the festival and I thought it was bizarre but brilliant.  Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara play C and M, a young couple in love until C is killed in a car accident.  After M identifies his body, C rises from the gurney, still shrouded in a large sheet, and follows M back to the house they shared which he haunts for decades in a series of vignettes until he can leave his life behind.  Affleck literally wears a sheet, complete with eye holes, for most of the film and, after a few snickers from the audience, he somehow becomes one of the most profoundly sympathetic characters I have ever seen.  With minimal dialogue and many of the scenes consisting of long, sustained shots with very little action, it is somehow entirely compelling.  I can't think of anyone I know who would like this film but I loved it.  It is a masterpiece.  The last film I saw, Rebel in the Rye, is easily my favorite of the festival because of the subject.  It is a standard biopic about J.D. Salinger (Nicholas Hoult) and how he came to write the classic novel, The Catcher in the Rye.  What made this film so enjoyable for me is that The Catcher in the Rye is one of my very favorite novels and there are many subtle references to it in the narrative, such as having a bartender named Ernie (writer/director Danny Strong called these references "easter eggs for the superfan" in the Q & A).  I liked all of the films I saw, for different reasons, and, as always, I loved the conversations I had with other film lovers while waiting in line.  The Sundance Film Festival is definitely a great way to start the new year!

Note:  There are quite a few films that I really wanted to see but couldn't, such as The Berlin Syndrome, Golden Exits, and The Discovery, but I am sure that my favorite art house theater will eventually screen them!

Hidden Figures

Last night my parents took me and my sister to see the movie Hidden Figures (we are reinstating movie night in the new year).  I suggested this particular movie because Octavia Spencer is getting a lot of Oscar buzz for her performance and, even though my parents weren't very enthusiastic, they ended up loving it as did I.  It is a feel-good movie that will have you cheering.  It tells the true story of Katherine Johnson (Teraji P. Henson),  Dorothy Vaughan (Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae), three brilliant African-American mathematicians working at NASA during the space race.  Johnson is asked to compute the trajectories for John Glenn's historic orbit around the earth and the crowd cheered out loud when Glenn (Glen Powell) rejects the numbers computed by the IBM and asks for the "girl" to check the figures before he will agree to the launch.  There is also an extremely powerful moment when the head of the Space Task Force (Kevin Costner) learns that Johnson has been walking to the colored bathroom, in another building quite a distance away, and then destroys the sign outside the colored bathroom declaring that everyone pees the same color at NASA.  Vaughan secretly learns how to program the new IBM (while the employees of IBM are unable to get it running) and eventually becomes the first African-American supervisor at NASA.  Another cheer-out-loud moment comes when Vaughan's supervisor (Kirsten Dunst) calls her Mrs. Vaughan rather than Dorothy.  Finally, Jackson is assigned to work with one of NASA's best engineers and, when he suggests that she become an engineer herself, she must fight to be allowed to attend an all-white school.  The crowd cheered again when she wins her court case.  All three women give very affecting performances (I actually had tears in my eyes several times) in an incredibly compelling story.  I loved it, my family loved it, and the audience, judging by the incredible applause at the end, loved it, too.  I highly recommend this inspiring movie!

Fences

On New Year's Eve I went to see Fences, an adaptation of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis.  Troy Maxson (Washington) is a sanitation worker in 1950s Pittsburgh living with his wife Rose (Davis) and his son Cory (Jovan Adepo).  The fence he is perpetually building with his son becomes a metaphor for how trapped he feels and he lashes out against the people in his life.  Troy is a despicable character who does despicable things such as sabotaging his son's chance for a football scholarship because he is bitter about his own lost opportunity to play baseball, cheating on his wife and forcing her to take in his illegitimate daughter, and swindling his disabled brother (Mykelti Williamson) out of his war pension.  It was very difficult for me to watch Denzel Washington, an actor I have always liked and admired, play such an unsympathetic character but his performance is brilliant.  The same could be said of Viola Davis.  I had difficulty with her character, as well, because, although she confronts her husband about his behavior (in an incredibly powerful scene which, no doubt, secured her the Golden Globe), she becomes his apologist after his death.  In the end it is a movie about a flawed man who ultimately gets redemption for hurting the people in his life because he himself has been hurt.  I didn't like this resolution because, in my opinion, he doesn't deserve redemption.   Despite the lauded performances of Washington and Davis, it's not a movie I would recommend.

Hacksaw Ridge

Hacksaw Ridge is garnering a lot of attention for the outstanding performance of Andrew Garfield and Mel Gibson's direction so, of course, I wanted to see it.  This late in the run, it was only being screened at one theater late at night but it was definitely worth the effort.  It tells the extraordinary true story of Desmond Doss (Garfield), a Seventh-Day Adventist who feels compelled to enlist in World War II despite the fact that he refuses to kill or even handle a firearm.  He hopes that, as a conscientious objector, he will be allowed to be a medic.  However, during basic training, he is tormented by the men in his company and his commanding officers, Sergeant Howell (Vince Vaughn) and Captain Glover (Sam Worthington), try to have him discharged.  Later, his company is sent to the Pacific to relieve the decimated troops in the Battle of Okinawa.  When his company is forced to retreat, Doss goes back to rescue the wounded, ultimately saving 75 men, many of whom called him a coward.  There is also a secondary story involving Desmond's courtship of a nurse named Dorothy (Teresa Palmer) that is very sweet.  This movie is absolutely incredible and the battle scenes are intense and unrelenting (I've heard that veterans who have seen it describe it as very accurate).  Garfield is incredible and the scenes of him being bullied and beaten during basic training are quite affecting and his scenes with Dorothy are adorable.  I was also very impressed by Hugo Weaving's performance as Tom Doss, a man shattered by the events of the First World War who must watch both of his sons enlist in a new war.  This movie is difficult to watch (I liken it to Saving Private Ryan) but the story of one man's courage is definitely compelling and I highly recommend it.