First Man

Last night I had the chance to see a Thursday preview of First Man, one of my most anticipated films this fall.  This is the very human story of Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) and his journey from a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base to be the first man to walk on the moon with the Apollo 11 mission.  This journey includes the death of his daughter from a brain tumor, applying to the NASA Gemini program as a way to distract himself from the pain of that loss, dealing with a malfunction during the Gemini 8 mission, the death of colleagues and friends, the waning public support for space exploration, becoming emotionally distant from his children and wife Janet (Claire Foy), and, finally, the incredibly dangerous mission to the moon.  I don't know that I have ever fully appreciated what these astronauts went through to go to space and I think director Damien Chazelle does an excellent job of putting us right in the middle of the action with Armstrong.  We get to experience the claustrophobia of being in a tiny space capsule, the jarring vibrations of lifting off, and the disorientation of being in space.  It is intense and there were moments when I felt like I was on an amusement park ride.  Some of the scenes are incredibly suspenseful, especially when Armstrong has to manually land the lunar module before running out of fuel.  I also really liked the juxtaposition of life at NASA with Armstrong's home life and I think the helplessness and isolation faced by Janet is portrayed very well  There is a particularly poignant scene where she is trying to discipline her sons while Armstrong is trying to regain control of a spacecraft.  Both Gosling and Foy give understated yet powerful performances and the closeup shots of their faces show more of what they are feeling than the dialogue does.  I think this is a brilliant film and I am now in awe of what Armstrong and the other astronauts accomplished!  Go see it in IMAX!

Wait Until Dark at HCT

The movie Wait Until Dark, starring Audrey Hepburn as a blind woman trapped in her apartment with a killer, is incredibly suspenseful so I've been very intrigued about HCT's production (the movie is originally based on a stage play) and I had the opportunity to see it last night. Sam Hendrix (Jacob Theo Squire) is unknowingly given a doll containing heroin and there are three criminals who are trying to get it back: Mike Talman (Lonzo Liggins), Sgt. Carlino (Zac Zumbrunnen), and Harry Roat (Benjamin J. Henderson). They arrange for Sam to go out of town and stage an elaborate plot in order to get his blind wife, Susy (Riley Branning), to trust them and allow them to search the apartment for the doll.  She, with the help of a neighbor girl named Gloria (Bridget Maxwell), eventually figures out that she is being conned and uses the dark to confront Roat in an epic showdown! The first act is full of a lot of complicated exposition and, I have to admit, that it did get a bit tedious trying to keep everything straight.  But the second act really gets going with a lot of edge-of-your-seat action, greatly enhanced by the lighting and sound design. I actually jumped about a foot during one particularly intense scene and I was not alone (the woman behind me screamed). The set design is quite innovative. I liked the use of the stairwell beyond the door to the apartment and the large windows in the kitchen area to convey the action taking place outside and I liked the fact that I could see everything in the apartment (which is not always the case in the Jewel Box Theatre). Branning is very convincing as a blind woman and the rest of the cast is solid but Maxwell absolutely steals the show as Gloria! She is a hoot and I loved watching all of her funny facial expressions! This is the perfect show to see during the month of Halloween (it runs through November 17).

The Children Act

Yesterday I went to see The Children Act which is based on a novel of the same name by Ian McEwan.  I have not read the novel but as McEwan is one of my favorite writers I knew that this fim would be thought-provoking.  It opens with Fiona Maye (Emma Thompson), a judge in the High Court of Justice in England and Wales, ruling on a case involving conjoined twins.  The hospital is petitioning the court to separate the twins without the consent of the parents.  If they are not separated, both of them will most likely die but, if they are, one of the twins will definitely die.  Even though the case is an emotional one, she states that she must follow the letter of the law without prejudice or passion and rules in favor of the hospital.  Her husband Jack (Stanley Tucci) accuses her of becoming just as dispassionate in their marriage and contemplates having an affair.  She is clearly distraught at this news and, when she hears her next case involving a seventeen-year-old boy (Fionn Whitehead) with leukemia who is refusing treatment on religious grounds, she becomes emotionally involved.  Her decision impacts her life just as much as it impacts the boy's and Thompson gives an incredibly powerful performance.  There is an amazing scene where Fiona is playing a piano recital and all of the emotion that she has been trying to suppress is suddenly revealed on her face.  Whitehead also gives a sensitive portrayal of a young man caught between his parents' beliefs and the law.  It is a compelling character study but I felt that the resolution was a bit rushed and it fell a little flat.  I found it to be rather unfulfilling after all of the emotional investment.  However, I would recommend this film for Thompson's performance and for the provacative discussion of morality and law.

 Note:  This film reminds me a bit of The Wife in that a strong central performance overcomes any shortcomings it may have!

Venom

Last night I thought I was going to see a fun new entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Not so much because Venom is merely "in association with" Marvel and, frankly, it is a disaster.  Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is an investigative reporter assigned to interview Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), the CEO of a bioengineering company called the Life Foundation, but this interview goes badly and Brock is fired.  He also loses his fiancee Anne (Michelle Williams) because he uses confidential information from her email to confront Drake (her law firm represents Drake).  It turns out that Drake, fearing the inevitable destruction of the Earth, has sent a rocket into space to look for other inhabitable worlds and has found symbiotic lifeforms.  When the rocket crash lands in Malaysia, one of the symbiotes escapes and the rest are brought to the Life Foundation where Drake tries, unsuccessfully, to achieve symbiosis with various test subjects.  Dr. Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate), a scientist working with Drake who has second thoughts about the ethics of testing subjects against their will, contacts the down-and-out Brock to offer him evidence of what has been going on.  With her help, Brock breaks into the Life Foundation and accidentally achieves symbiosis with one of the lifeforms named Venom.  Drake attempts to get Venom, now working in tandem with Brock, back until the other symbiote, named Riot, travels from Malaysia and achieves symbiosis with him.  This leads to an epic confrontation between Brock/Venom and Drake/Riot.  The script is a convoluted mess, jumping from scene to scene without much cohesion, and it is filled with dialogue that is meant to be witty banter between Brock and Venom but, for some reason, it just didn't work for me.  Maybe it is the tone because many of these quips and one-liners happen during scenes of intense mayhem and destruction (I think Upgrade does a better job in achieving a tonal balance because it doesn’t take itself seriously).  I also found the character of Brock to be very inconsistent because, initially, he is a hard-hitting and intelligent journalist so the slapstick between him and Venom comes out of nowhere.  I really like both Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams but, in my opinion, they give unusually bad performances.  Hardy is so weirdly frenetic that watching him was exhausting and Williams is clearly just phoning it in.  There are some really cool action sequences, especially a motorcycle chase through the streets of San Francisco and a fight between Venom and an entire SWAT team in the lobby of a building, but that is not enough to keep this from being a big disappointment.  I recommend giving it a miss.

Note:  I had thought of skipping this movie and seeing A Star Is Born again.  Clearly I made the wrong choice.

A Star Is Born

It seems like I've been anticipating A Star Is Born for such a long time and I finally had the opportunity to see a Thursday preview last night.  Wow!  Bradley Cooper plays Jackson Maine, an alcoholic and drug-addicted rock star who clearly has many inner demons.  Strung out after a gig, he has his driver find a bar where he can continue getting wasted but, instead, he finds Ally (Lady Gaga), a young singer/songwriter who is so insecure about her looks that she pretends to perform in drag.  He is captivated by her and, after she sings him one of her original songs, he pulls her on stage to perform it with him.  She eventually joins him on tour and gets noticed by a record producer who offers her a contract.  Conflict arises as Ally becomes successful and Jack's addictions become more severe.  I saw the Barbra Streisand/Kris Kristofferson version so long ago that, while I knew the basic premise of the story, I didn't remember many of the details so I was completely blown away by my emotional response to the tragic love story.  Bradley Cooper is hit or miss with me but his performance is incredible and so affecting, especially in a scene where Jackson breaks down and apologizes to Ally.  I've always respected Lady Gaga as a gifted musician despite her rather outlandish stage persona and she, as expected, gives a tour de force performance while on stage but she is also very believable in the role of a singer who doubts herself.  The chemistry between Cooper and Gaga is palpable and I really cared about their relationship.  I also really enjoyed seeing Anthony Ramos as Ally's friend Ramon.  Cooper wrote many of the songs with Lukas Nelson, the lead singer of Promise of the Real (the band appears in the movie as Jackson's band), and he sings and plays the guitar live on screen as well which really impressed me!  I was also impressed by Cooper's direction (it is his directorial debut) because he gives such an intimate portrait of two flawed characters.  I loved this movie!  It is definitely one of my favorite movies of the year and I highly recommend it!

Note:  I have seen Promise of the Real in concert and I really like their sound so I loved the music (I downloaded the album before the credits finished).