Month: January 2020

The Nightingale (2019)

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Director: Jennifer Kent
Writer: Jennifer Kent

I have to start this with a word of warning: this is an extremely hard film to watch. It’s not just that it’s bloody. There are also several scenes of rape, and a shit-ton of racism. My understanding is that people have walked out of the film when it’s been shown on the festival circuit. That said, if you can tough it out, you’ll find a very powerful, well-made film.

1825: Claire (Aisling Franciosi) is a young Irish woman and former convict who is indentured to Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam Claflin), the leader of an unruly group of British soldiers stationed in Tasmania. He refuses to release her from her servitude, and forces himself on her, angering her husband Aiden (Michael Sheasby), who confronts Hawkins and his men publicly one night. Once Hawkins’ misdeeds are uncovered, he loses the commission he was promised, and blaming Claire, he kills her family and leaves her for dead.

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The Irishman (2019)

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Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer: Steven Zaillian (screenplay)/Charles Brandt (source material)

It’s like a beautiful paint by numbers picture. It looks exactly like what it’s supposed to look like. Pretty, to be sure, but safe. There’s everything you would expect, but very little you wouldn’t. And for me, that’s what made it just a bit disappointing. It was long, although that in and of itself isn’t a reason to malign a film. Here, though, I just felt like we had seen all of this before from Director Scorsese and his merry band of gangsters in earlier films. What draws me to crime films is that glimpse into a world so unfamiliar, so if you want me to invest three hours, you’ve got to give me something a little different. I will say that it was worthwhile to see Joe Pesci cast against type as the calm, circumspect one. And Al Pacino FINALLY gets to play the loud boisterous guy for a change! (I kid, I kid!)

IMDb voters give it an even 8.0. I’ll go with a 7. There’s nothing really wrong with it, and maybe my expectations were too high going in, but it just didn’t “wow” me in the way that his previous films have. If you can spare the three-plus hours, it’s definitely worth a watch, but I don’t see myself going back to it again and again, like I do with, say, Goodfellas. (running time 3:29)

Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood (2019)

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Director: Quentin Tarantino

Writer: Quentin Tarantino

As usual with Quentin Tarantino films, I never seem to like them as much as others do. His movies always seem so self-indulgent, and this one seemed even more so than usual. As usual, QT fills the film, for better or worse, with pop culture nods to the time period. For me, too often, that just comes across as “stuff that Quentin thinks is cool.” A way of saying “look at how good I am at recreating 1969.” And I guess he is fairly good at it, but to what end? How many times do we need to see the cover of a TV guide, for example? Yeah, we get it—everyone had them back then. But all of that detail doesn’t quite make up for an aimless narrative and lack of character development. He spends more time demonstrating how well he knows the time period than he does giving us insight into the characters. And the other issue I have with it is that after all that effort to faithfully recreate the time period, he constantly reminds us that it’s NOT reality. He throws in an obviously fake dog food brand (“rat flavor?”) in among all the other, real products that are literally in just about every shot. And he once again plays with history. I won’t give any spoilers, per se, but I am about to hint at something, so skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to read even a hint. He uses the horrific Tate-LaBianca murders by members of Charles Manson’s “family” as a way to increase tension in the film, but then, sadly, turns them into an odd sort of punchline at the end.

Okay, hints are over.

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Mine 9 (2019)

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Director: Eddie Mensore

Writer: Eddie Mensore

I thought I’d do a couple of shorter reviews for films that I watched this year, just to get them out there. I especially wanted to cover those films “off the beaten path,” so to speak. I thought I’d space them out with regular reviews. The first one is Mine 9, the story of a group of coal miners trapped underground with less than an hour’s worth of air. It’s a low-budget film, but it doesn’t look it. Dark and weary in tone, the film tells the story of these men willing to do anything (and I do mean anything) to survive. I found it a little hard to keep track of the individuals on occasion, but that didn’t really detract from the film. This one’s a well-acted nail-biter.

IMDb has it at a 7.4. That’s a little high, I think, but I’d be okay with a 6.5. Don’t miss the interviews with real miners during the closing credits. (running time 1:23)

Countdown (2019)

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Director: Justin Dec

Writer: Justin Dec

Have you ever filled out one of those online quizzes which asks you about your age and weight and health and then purports to tell you, based on said information, how long you’re going to live? What if you download an app, and without giving it any personal details, it gave you the same information, but rather than just a statistical guess, it was an absolute certainty? That’s the premise of Countdown, a slightly better than average horror film that works because of some better than average direction.

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Dragged Across Concrete

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Director: S. Craig Zahler
Writer: S. Craig Zahler

This is what I like to call a film of convergence. We’re introduced to two separate storylines, with the knowledge that at some point, those lines are going to meet, and—in this case—bad things are going to happen. The first storyline has to do with two cops, Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) and Lurasetti (Vince Vaughn) who get caught on camera roughing up a drug dealer and get suspended without pay. They both need money, so they decide to rob another drug dealer, an “out-of-towner.” Needless to say, in this genre of film, things don’t always go as planned. The second storyline introduces us to Henry Johns (Tory Kittles), a smart, small-time crook who just got out of prison to find his mom working as a prostitute to support herself and his wheelchair-bound little brother, Ethan. Also needing money, he lets an old neighborhood friend, Biscuit (Michael Jai White) talk him into signing on with a gang of psychotics looking to steal a bunch of gold.

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1917 (2019)

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Director: Sam Mendes
Writer: Sam Mendes, Krysty Wilson-Cairns

My problem with Sam Mendes has always been that I think he too often sacrifices story and content for style and form. He never passes up a chance to get that beautiful shot, even if he has to sacrifice the film to do it. He did it in the last two Bond films, and he does it here. Make no mistake, he does get beautiful shots, but we’re often so wowed by his technique that the story suffers. In 1917, he again attempts to wow us with his technical prowess, using a series of long takes, digitally woven together to appear as one long shot.

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Booksmart (2019)

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Director: Olivia Wilde

High school seniors Molly (Beanie Feldstein, just announced as a Golden Globe nominee) and Amy (“Last Man Standing”’s Kaitlyn Dever) have spent the last four years doing all the right things: working hard, studying hard, eschewing a social life. And their sacrifices have paid off. Molly is headed to Yale, and Amy to Columbia. On the last day of school, however, they find out that all the popular, partying kids they thought were headed towards a life of adequate mediocrity (is that redundant?) are actually headed for top 10 schools or great jobs. Even Molly’s rival—the class tramp (Molly Gordon, also great in Good Boys this year!)—will be attending Yale with her. “I’m incredible at hand jobs,” she says, “but I also got a 1560 on the SATs.” Molly begins to wonder if they’ve missed out on four years of fun and decides that there’s only one thing for the two to do—try to cram four years of partying into one night!

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