Crisis

There are not a lot of new releases this weekend (the new Tom & Jerry movie gets a hard pass from me) so I spontaneously decided to see Crisis even though I didn't know a lot about it.  This gritty crime thriller about the opioid epidemic is actually quite riveting and I'm glad I saw it.  DEA agent Jake Kelly (Armie Hammer), motivated by a younger sister (Lily-Rose Depp) addicted to heroin, is working undercover to bring down a multi-cartel operation smuggling fentanyl from Canada into the U.S.  Claire Reimann (Evangeline Lilly) is a recovering addict investigating the suspicious death of her son (Duke Nicholson) from an oxycodone overdose.  Dr. Tyrone Brower (Gary Oldman) is a university professor who conducts tests on prospective drugs for a large pharmaceutical company in return for grant money to fund his other research.  He has a crisis of conscience when he discovers irregularities in the test results for a non-addictive pain medication about to receive FDA approval.  The movie alternates between these three narratives until there is a loose, but incredibly thought-provoking, connection between them.  I found all three stories to be very compelling and my only criticism is that each of them could have been (should have been?) expanded and developed more for a deeper analysis because they each had the potential to stand alone.  Characters such as a university dean (Greg Kinnear), pharmaceutical company executives (Luke Evans and Veronica Ferres), the head of the DEA task force (Michelle Rodriguez), members of the Armenian drug cartel (Michael Aronov and Adam Tsekhman), and an FDA official (Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi) get a bit lost in the shuffle.  Hammer (I like him as an actor despite his recent troubles in the media), Lilly, and Oldman give powerful performances and I was always invested in each character's arc.  There will be the inevitable comparisons to Traffic (which is, admittedly, a better movie) but I think seeing this is an entertaining way to spend a Saturday night and I recommend it.

Blithe Spirit

Last night I went to see Blithe Spirit and, while it was a nice change to see a comedy after all of the serious dramas of late, I didn't like it as much as I hoped I would.  Successful crime novelist Charles Condomine (Dan Stevens) is trying to write a screenplay based on one of his books but he has been suffering from writer's block ever since his first wife and muse, Elvira (Leslie Mann), died seven years ago.  He is desperate for inspiration because he is facing a deadline imposed on him by his father-in-law.  While attending the stage show of Madame Arcati (Judi Dench), a fraudulent spiritualist and medium, he decides to incorporate the supernatural into his screenplay and invites her to perform a seance at his house to learn the tricks of the trade.  Instead, Madame Arcati inadvertently summons the ghost of Elvira, much to the dismay of Condamine's second wife Ruth (Isla Fisher), and chaos ensues.  I really wanted to like this movie because it is based on a hilarious play by Noel Coward and includes an outstanding cast with a stylish Art Deco production design and glamorous period costumes.  Despite all of this I think it lacks a certain spark.  There are changes to the source material, particularly in the final act, that make the narrative unnecessarily convoluted in the service of promoting a feminist message and the inclusion of Madame Arcati's sentimental backstory creates a strange tonal shift.  While there are moments of physical comedy that are really funny, most notably during scenes where Charles is the only one who can see Elvira, they are few and far between and the slapstick is a poor substitute for the usual witty back and forth banter that this play is known for.  I was really struck by the fact that the large crowd in my screening didn't seem to laugh very much.  Finally, Mann is the only one who delivers her lines with the charm and sophistication necessary for a Noel Coward comedy.  Everyone else seems bland in comparison.  The best thing that I can say about this movie is that it looks good (I found myself paying more attention to the details of the set design than to the action).  I was a bit disappointed in this adaptation and I would definitely recommend seeing this on the stage instead of the screen.

The Mauritanian

I finally checked the last movie off my must-see list with a screening of The Mauritanian last night.  This movie tells the true story of how Mohamedou Ould Salahi was held for fourteen years in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp without being charged with a crime.  Soon after 9/11, Salahi (Tahar Rahim) is apprehended by the U.S. government on the basis of suspicious activity and loose associations with people responsible for the attacks but no direct evidence.  Several years later, defense attorney Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster), with the help of her associate Teri Duncan (Shailene Woodley), decides to take his case because holding him is a violation of habeas corpus while Lt. Colonel Stuart Couch (Benedict Cumberbatch) decides to prosecute him for very personal reasons.  When Hollander and Couch begin their separate investigations, they both uncover the same disturbing details of his detention.  This information causes Hollander, who only wanted to protect the rule of law, to become personally invested in freeing Salahi and causes Couch, who wanted someone to blame for the death of a friend, to question the legality of the case.  In my opinion, The Report, another movie which exposes the enhanced interrogation techniques sanctioned by the Bush administration, has a much better narrative structure than The Mauritanian because the latter is very slow and meandering with flashbacks that are sometimes confusing within the timeline.  However, I was much more emotionally invested in this story because it focuses on the plight of one man (rather than the investigation of several cases as in The Report) who, despite the fact we are not really sure of his guilt or innocence until the final act, is portrayed very sympathetically.  As with The Report, I found this movie to be incredibly upsetting with many scenes that made me angry, several that moved me to tears, and several that caused me to look away (the torture scenes, especially the waterboarding, are very difficult to watch).  Rahim and Foster give outstanding performances and, while I was very moved by Cumberbatch's portrayal of Couch's disillusionment, I didn't really buy his Southern accent.  Despite a few flaws, The Mauritanian has an important and compelling story to tell so I would recommend it.

Minari

I took a little break from seeing the movies on my must-see list last week because my area received a ton of snow and I didn't feel like driving in it!  I resumed my quest once again last night by seeing Minari.  This has been one of my most anticipated movies of 2021 and I was not disappointed because I loved this incredibly moving story.  Korean immigrants Jacob (Steven Yeun) and Monica Yi (Han Ye-ri) leave the West Coast and move to rural Arkansas with their daughter Anne (Noel Kate Cho) and son David (Alan Kim) in the 1980s.  Jacob is thrilled to be following his dream of farming his own land but Monica is horrified to be living in a mobile home, concerned about borrowing so much money for a risky investment, and worried about living so far away from a hospital because of David's heart condition.  The two of them argue incessantly but, as a compromise to keep Monica from moving back to California, Jacob agrees to have Monica's mother, Soon-ja (Youn Yuh-jung), come from Korea to live with them and help with the children.  David struggles with his free-spirited grandmother and all of her old-fashioned ideas but he bonds with her when they plant minari seeds, which grow anywhere and have many uses.  The minari plants eventually become a metaphor as the Yi family endures hardship after hardship in this unfamiliar place while David thrives.  This is such a beautiful movie about the American dream as seen through the eyes of an immigrant family, particularly those of a seven year old boy, and Kim gives an absolutely enchanting performance. In fact, all of the performances are brilliant.  I loved the relationship between David and his grandmother and I just about cried my eyes out when she tells him not to worry about dying and then sings him to sleep.  It is a meditative, yet powerful, narrative told through the accretion of tiny details that eventually come to have enormous significance and my attention never wavered.  The cinematography is gorgeous, particularly the use of light, and the haunting piano score creates an evocative mood that had me feeling so many different emotions.  After anticipating this movie for so long I can honestly say that the hype is real!  It is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time and I highly recommend it!

Girl A

My Book of the Month selection for February was Girl A by Abigail Dean (the other options were The Kindest Lie by Nancy Johnson, Infinite Country by Patricia Engel, The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, and Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers). I read it in one day because I found it so compelling! Alexandra "Lex" Gracie escapes from what the press dub the "House of Horrors," where she and her six siblings were held prisoner and abused by their religiously fanatical parents for years, when she is fifteen. As the oldest daughter, she is given the designation "Girl A" in the press and, after extensive medical and psychological treatment, she is eventually adopted, as are the rest of her siblings. Her father commits suicide when the truth is discovered but her mother is given a lengthy prison sentence. Fifteen years later Lex is now a successful attorney in New York when she learns that her mother has died in prison and has made her the executor of her will. This necessitates a return to England in order to dispose of her childhood home and it also necessitates contacting her siblings, who have all coped with their trauma in different ways, to get their approval. This causes all of her memories of the abuse to resurface. The narrative is told from Lex's point of view and alternates between the past, when the siblings are going though the abuse, and the present, when they are dealing with the effects of it. It is a fascinating exploration of what happens during a high-profile case as well as what happens after the media attention dies down. I found the discussions about the people who profited from the tragedy, such as the psychologists who lobbied to work with the siblings to bring attention (and new clients) to their practices, the family who adopted a sibling as a way to further their own cause celebre, and a relative who did nothing to help the siblings but wrote a tell-all book about the family, to be incredibly interesting and thought-provoking. I was also very intrigued by the sibling dynamic in this novel because it was not what I was expecting. Just because a group of people go through a traumatic incident together doesn't mean that they will all view it in the same light (Delilah is an especially fascinating character). Finally, it was very eye-opening to read that, while the public wants to believe in a happily-ever-after scenario for the victims once they have been rescued from their abusers, it is only the beginning of a lifetime of healing from the trauma with no easy solutions. This is a difficult novel to get through but I honestly couldn't put it down (I suspected a major plot twist with one of the siblings but, when it was revealed, it was not at all what I imagined). I highly recommend it!