Doug's Favorite Movies of 2016

La La Land
Rogue One
Arrival
Hell or High Water
Everybody Wants Some!!
Hail Caesar!
10 Cloverfield Lane

La La Land

Inevitably, there will be backlash. There’s always a backlash. I was part of the backlash bandwagon for Birdman. People don’t want to see other people be happy. I get that. The funny thing is: La La Land doesn’t care what you think. La La Land requires no context. La La Land is not a reaction to the downward spiral of morale in the U.S. or a rejoinder to the grimness of Spotlight. La La Land is a brightly-burning candle in a vacuum. It’s delightful, it’s innovative, it’s funny, and it’s heartbreaking. It deserves every Oscar it wins. “But I don’t like musicals!” People will say. That’s fine. La La Land doesn’t need their oxygen. It will burn brightly on its own.

Jackie

Despite being way too short to play Jackie, Natalie Portman mines extreme emotional depths to portray the famous grieving widow. But no amount of perfectly-accented, blue-blooded scenery-chewing can make up for the fact that there’s just not that much of a plot here. Jackie plans the funeral a little bit, then wanders around in the house a bit, and then wanders around in the garden a bit, all with the accompaniment of the depressing monotone piano score. It’s all very maudlin, even if, as people say, it’s a treatise of feminism.

Rogue One

**  May the SPOILERS be with you! **

“Wow them in the end and you’ve got a hit.”

Remember when the fake Robert McKee said that to the fake Charlie Kauffman in Adaptation? That’s how it feels to watch Rogue One. Unlike the JJ Abrams directed The Force Awakens, which doesn’t really end because we know that it’s a franchise and for some reason Disney and Lucasfilm don’t trust us to come back for the next movie, so they have to end everything on a cliffhanger like it’s an episode of Lost, Rogue One ENDS. And we already know how it’s supposed to end! It’s been completely forecast and foreshadowed. It’s the opening crawl of Star Wars! And yet, it still ends beautifully and tragically.  No sequels here. It’s all over for some of these people, but they go out more heroically then almost anybody else in Star Wars, and that is extremely satisfying. So the beginning is sort of a mess. There are a million unanswered questions, there seems to be scenes missing, and at times I felt like I had walked into the movie halfway through without a clear introduction to some of the characters. You ask yourself, “Who the hell are these people?”

But they wowed me at the end and that makes it worth the price of the ticket and a bucket of popcorn.

“I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me!”

Lion

Well-acted but depressing true story about a dumb kid who gets lost in India. Super, super depressing.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

The funny thing about an adult being the protagonist in a "Harry Potter" universe movie is: as the kids are always jaw-droppingly amazed by all of the outlandish creatures and magic, the adults tend to be pretty blasé about the proceedings. That’s “Newt” played by Eddie Redmayne, who is so unimpressed by all of the drama he’s causing in New York that’s he’s almost whispering his lines. That gives this “Harry Potter” chapter an almost droll, Doctor Who kind of vibe, which is still very British. Rowling packs her plays with plot, and the lingo of the universe which is very exclusive and hard for muggles like me to understand sometimes. And like all movies these days, this doesn’t end. It just sets up another movie. Big surprise. Nothing happens. But be that as it may, it’s still a perfectly light and entertaining fantasy, pitting a kind of hippie magical zookeeper against the forces of evil. Revelations will hopefully occur – eventually.

Elle

** RAPE SPOILERS **

Paul Verhoeven’s sexy rape thriller features lots of rape. There’s a few rapes, and then a couple more rapes. Isabelle Huppert is the actress who gets raped and then she turns the tables to start doing some rapes herself. She doesn’t seem to care a lot that she’s getting raped, and maybe that what interests Verhoeven in the subject of sexy, sexy rape. It’s not a BAD sexy, rape thriller, for what it is, I guess. It’s well-acted and unique, for a sexy rape thriller. But just so you know, you’re signed up for a lot of rape.  (Oh! Also: music by Anne Dudley.) 

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

An unfortunate case of “format overshadows function.” Ang Lee et al chose the brightest, deepest and most detailed 3D imaginable to tell a dull story about US soldiers getting way more credit than they want for fighting in the war in Iraq. Yes, the battle scenes and halftime football scenes make for some pretty cool footage in 12O frames per second. But that only represents about 10% of the movie. In the other scenes – rides in limos, arguments in sky-boxes, chatting in corridors, it feels like overkill. Intimate scenes are way, way over lit, and the acting feels stilted because the actors seem like they’re under a microscope. I could see how, for certain movies, this format would be amazing. But why this movie?? As for the story itself, there's not really a plot. It's a series of essays and vignettes that don't add up to much except for a vague theme -- a disturbing, conflicted, anti-war message. “Sorry you have PTSD kid, but if you don’t go back to Iraq, this cheerleader will think you’re a pussy. So, good luck!” If you see it, see it in a theater in the fancy, gimmicky format. This’ll be terrible on video.

Arrival

I’m always relieved when I sit down in a movie theater, the lights go down, and the aliens land. Alien parables always make poignant critiques of the human condition like war-mongering, environmental neglect, man’s inhumanity to man, etc. Arrival is analogous to the Tower of Babel, wherein an alien language is translated by different cultures, and of course, interpreted to reinforce their own fears and prejudices. But there’s one hero translator, Amy Adams, who trusts the E.T.s and listens with optimism and peace in her heart. Can she get entire cultures to listen before it’s too late?

Amy Adams is one of the best in the business. Her emotional journey is the spine of this movie, so it succeeds on an emotional level. There are some sci-fi time-jumps and alien razzle-dazzle that left the ending a little confusing for me. But I recognize: that’s not really the point. It’s about the interpreter being the hero. In the grimy, lie-filled era of Breitbart and Fox news, having a messenger who cares about the real truth can have global repercussions.

Doctor Strange

It’s kind of like The Matrix: A guy learns there are metaphysical netherworlds and he has to learn to navigate them. And the villain is determined to rule the world by dominating the metaphysical netherworlds. And then everybody fights.

Benedict Cumberbatch is really good here. He’s never reluctant or disbelieving of the metaphysical netherworlds, and gamely and humorously dives into them, at first for selfish reasons, but then for heroic ones. The visuals are fun and really trippy. The rules for metaphysical netherworlds are a bit fluid, as you can imagine, so creativity abounds.

More obviously than a lot of these comic book adaptations, this feels like an “act one.” The opening chapter. The odds aren’t greatly stacked against Doctor Strange and he has yet to be faced with tough choices. Danger will arrive in future episodes. (Stay for ALL of the end credits.) And you can’t really say this about a lot of movies these days: this must be seen in a theater. It won’t work on video.

Ouija: Origin of Evil

This is so close to being a Lifetime Channel movie it’s uncanny. A widowed mom and her 2 kids struggle to make the house payments. An evil man (in the form of a ghost) shows up to wreak havoc on their lives. Only the fact that it’s a period-piece and the acting is pretty good distinguishes this from those Saturday M.O.W.s. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t entertaining. Until the final moments, when a dogpile of twists undermines the skillfully rendered plot thus far, it’s pretty creepy. It almost feels like the final moments were filmmaking by committee -- lawyers or uncreative executive types forced ridiculous twists and sequel set-ups into a fairly solid story to squeeze every last dollar out of the project. It’s like a cake with way too much frosting. Be that as it may, this movie accomplishes exactly what I’m sure it aspired to do: scare 13-year-old girls and not embarrass itself in the process.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

There was a time when I couldn’t WAIT for the next Tim Burton movie. But I wasn’t that excited about this one, and I’m not sure why. Maybe because I never read the book? Nevertheless, it feels like someone copied the style of Tim Burton, but it doesn’t feel like Burton, and again I’m not sure why. The characters, the children in the home for peculiar children, all seem very similar: Polite, well-dressed, well-spoken, and very British. They’re not peculiar as much as they’re horribly deformed, but are trying their best to fit in by dressing nicely. I think the “X-MEN: mutants are okay” theme gets a little lost, which is too bad. There’s a jumpy, time-travel plot, which always means the stakes are pretty low, since all setbacks can be corrected. And there are some MAJOR logic holes. But Eva Green is good, so there’s one in the win column. The bottom line is: special effects have peaked. We can do anything now FX-wise, so to fill a movie with visuals just isn’t enough. We need a return to storytelling. I felt very “meh” about this, which is not the way I want to feel about a “Tim Burton movie.”

Hell or High Water

Texas. Beer. Guns. Throw in a couple of well-meaning bank robbers and you got yourself a movie. The cast is great here. The pace is brisk. The action is tense. And there’s no bad guy. The bad guy is the bank that low-balls sick people and repos their houses. So it’s not even that the story is so original or that the plot is so strong. These are pretty conventional pieces. It’s the THEME that makes this so good. It makes you want to rob a bank.

The Magnificent Seven

So you have a black guy, a Mexican guy, a Chinese guy, a Native American, a guy with PTSD, a giant person, and an addict. Is that seven? Yep, that’s seven. And the message is clear: when the discriminated-against minorities band together, then they can defeat armies of the establishment – white males who marginalize everyone so they can keep their power. Spoiler alert: There might be some martyrs for the cause. But sometimes you have to force change. There were no women in the "seven." Maybe they’ll make a sequel: The Magnificent 8?

Don't Breathe

When you boil this down, it’s a pretty conventional horror movie. College kids wander into a place they’re not supposed to be and suffer the consequences. There’s excellent cause and effect here, and a great use of setting and space. But like all movies in this genre, the characters lack basic common sense, and that can be frustrating. Jane Levy carries this – she’s always been good. And the pace and short running time keeps you engaged. So it’s slightly better than the average version of this type of thing. It’s a hit. I’m happy for Ghost House. But reinvent the wheel? They did not.

Suicide Squad

I’ll be curious to see the David Ayer/director’s cut of this if it ever gets released. They say WB hired the company who cut the trailer to spice this up a little bit. But it feels hackneyed and rushed. Lengthy segments feel like they were skipped over. Bottom line: Margot Robbie is good as Harley Quinn, but it’s hard to know what her super villain power is. Is she just a super smart-aleck?? Is that enough? Oh, and also: Jared Leto was TERRIBLE as The Joker. It makes you wonder if that’s why they had to hack up the movie.

The D.C. universe is 0 for 3. Here’s hoping Wonder Woman can rescue them all.

Lo and Behold

Werner Herzog’s new doc is about the origins of the internet. But it’s also about how the internet changed and affected society, in positive and negative ways. It’s a thoughtful essay, narrated, of course, by Herzog himself, whose poetic, German-accented whispery-ness hypnotizes and coaxes, but never proselytizes about his subjects. Gripping and enlightening.

Sausage Party

Hot dogs look like penises! Yay!

War Dogs

What if the characters in THE WOLF OF WALL STREET were war profiteers? WAR DOGS takes the zany, foul-mouthed bro-mance approach, enticing and then destroying the young, money-hungry whippersnapper anti-heroes with dreams of riches and financial security. Better than most movies like this, filmmakers do a good job of explaining exactly how their business worked, and how it was possible for it to go completely off the rails. So, it was actually educational and informative. It won’t make a huge splash, but it’s well-acted, it moves quick, and it’s captivating.

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie

I never watched this show, so there were a lot of inside jokes that I probably didn’t get. But the women are funny and I laughed. You can sense the desperation in the characters as they get older, but try to hang on to their old lives. Aren’t we all!

Jason Bourne

Overall, during a stale, disappointing summer of movies, this is a serviceable and enjoyable action movie. What was always different about the “Bourne” movies was the long takes and raw urgency. Unfortunately, Matt Damon doesn’t do the hand-to-hand the way he used to -- when the characters really seemed like they were trying to kill each other. But the raw urgency is still there. There are several epic set-pieces which are a thrill to watch, but what’s wild is: these are now becoming conventional. The new thing is: How does Jason Bourne hide from the evil higher-ups when there’s such a huge lack of privacy? Does he turn evil, government turncoats spying/privacy playbook against them? How? Has he been taking computer classes?

Batman: The Killing Joke

First of all, I’m proud to say I saw this in the theater.

Anyhoo… “Many critics consider the graphic novel to be the definitive Joker story and one of the best Batman stories ever published.” There was a lot of pressure on the DC/WB animation department to get this one right. They did a GREAT job with THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. Using the cast from the 90’s era animated series is a great step in the right direction. Unfortunately, this kinda sucked. The original book is short. It wouldn’t even make a half-hour episode. So they added an entire prelude to this involving Batgirl, which wasn’t at all terrible, but, you know, it just wasn’t THE KILLING JOKE. So, it didn’t really fit. Also, spoiler alert, Batgirl and Batman have steamy hot cosplay sex in this, which to my understanding, isn’t canon and seemed really silly. The small section of the movie that actually followed the book was cool, but my mood was already ruined by the prelude. Hard to recommend this. Maybe the next one, with the voices of Adam West and Burt Ward, will be better?

Star Trek Beyond

I couldn’t recall the plot if I had a phaser to my head. Suffice to say, it was a new story with new villains. Which is refreshing, since everything else about the Star Trek franchise is so well-worn and engrained. It’s entertaining, and it feels new, even though, as I said, forgettable.

Swiss Army Man

At some point during this movie, I found myself thinking, “This is why I go to the movies.” Even though there are some previously used plot points and themes in here, lifted from Castaway, Weekend at Bernie’s, and every 60’s era, live-action Disney movie, there’s something about this that feels really original. A lot of that uniqueness comes from the commitment of the actors, Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliff. There’s something very sweet and endearing about their friendship. Filmmakers have sublimely emotional aspirations here. It doesn’t always work, and the ending is a little disappointing, but… If you want something funny and weird and completely different from a super-hero movie: dive on in.

The Lobster

I hated this movie, but I’m not sure why, because it seems like something I would like. I’m okay with quirky, but I’m annoyed by quirky for quirky’s sake. When the rules of the quirky universe don’t have inner logic, then it’s really just an artistic jerk-off with no real point. There are laughs and the performances are astute. But when the themes and motifs contradict one another and can easily be deconstructed and ripped apart, than I start getting angry. I hate leaving the theater angry.

Nice Guys

Funny, and lot of throwback, signature Shane Black-isms, if there is such a thing. There’s a great physicality to this film, and excellent, action-movie cause and effect. There are times when it almost feels like a Warner Brothers/ Coyote and Roadrunner cartoon; the McGuffin bounces around from person to person and bullets fly and guys go careening through plate-glass windows, cracking wise the whole time. It’s all good fun.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Andy Samberg has proven himself to be consistently funny in Brooklyn 99. So with nothing to “prove”, he can just go out and be as silly as possible. Last summer’s HBO movie Seven Days in Hell did just that, and it acts as a precursor to this: a still R-Rated but more mainstream spoof. Like most of the Lonely Island sketches on SNL, the appeal of the songs was always that they were a little bit catchy, actually somewhat competent. The same is true here, especially a love/booty jam about Osama Bin Laden. Like The Rutles and CB4, there’s interviews and performances with real popstars, doing their best to play it straight. Pink is great here. It’s everything you’d expect from a Lonely Island movie, it’s funny and catchy, and it might inspire you to get on Youtube and look back at their old catalog.

X-Men: Apocalypse

Underwhelming and unremarkable. Performance wise, Lawrence and Fassbender do the heavy lifting, but unfortunately they find themselves standing around waiting for Oscar Issacs to finish his long speeches. Funny enough, there’s not a lot of action for an action movie. Like the last movie, Quicksilver gets his solo, which works, and the cameo from Wolverine kicks ass, as it should. It’s not terrible, but it feels a bit phoned in.

X-Men always seems to work best when it serves as an  allegory for discriminated-against minorities. There’s little smatterings of that here, especially with Cyclops’ origin story. But there needs to be more. Weird, blue Egyptian Gods bloviating entertains only for so long.

Keanu

It’s no surprise that a "Key & Peele" movie would just be a bunch of sketches strung together. While the plot of the movie is thin, there are laughs and there is a little bit of social commentary. What does it mean to be black? What does it mean to be tough? Why are these things expected to go hand-in-hand? This won’t really resonate, but wasn’t a waste of time either.

Money Monster

George Clooney says it’s not about Jim Cramer. It’s about the system. But the problem with this is: it turns out not to be an indictment of the system. There’s one guy, an evil British villain who broke the law, mislead investors, etc, etc. That being said, for what it is: Dog Day Afternoon meets Network, is a decent thriller, well-acted and well-directed by Jodie Foster. But I can almost hear the studio notes as I’m watching it. “There has to be a villain. A system can’t be a villain.”

Captain America: Civil War

** SPOILERS**

We need to talk about Bucky. He’s not himself. He’s either being brainwashed or framed or something by a German dude, who has no superpowers. And we should all fight about it. But maybe that’s what the evil, German dude wants??

I guess that’s as good a reason as any for superheroes to fight. Bucky seems like a peripheral character, and whether or not he’s in control of his actions or not doesn’t seem like it would warrant all of this superhero posturing and hullaballoo. But revelations happen, as they often do, and now vengeances must be strenuously undertaken.

The huge cast of this movie is remarkable. There are a lot of really expensive Oscar-types in supporting roles. The abundant action is thrilling and also somewhat track-able (But it’s no Mad Max). The visual effects are, of course, unparalleled. The music is good. Someone cared about this movie. Someone wanted audiences to get their money’s worth. Is it a great movie? Nah. Not really. But it gets an “A” for effort.

It’s hard to really predict when the bombardment of superhero movies will end, and how they’ll keep people’s interest going forward. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to Marvel’s Netflix shows: The scaled-back, day-to-day life of a costumed vigilante (Daredevil, Jessica Jones). For now, the “battle of the network stars” business model is fun, but is it sustainable? Why am I worried about the business model??  

Everybody Wants Some!!

It’s classic Rick Linklater. Like Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise, Suburbia, and Boyhood before it, it’s a movie driven by characters and theme, but the plot is a little fluid. Strong themes exploring the nature of young men forming a team, bonding, trying to fit in, and trying to get laid proliferate. And at the end of the movie, after the college baseball teammates have been to a disco, a country bar, and a punk bar trying to meet women, you kind of get it: It’s all an essay about having a posse, a tribe. Like other Linklater movies, there are a couple of young actors who turn in classic, star-making performances here: (think Ethan Hawke, Matthew McConaughey): remember the names Juston Street and Glenn Powell. But everybody in the ensemble cast is solid.  Linklater seems to be determined to prove that you don’t need a strong plot to invoke strong feelings.

Batman vs Superman: The Dawn of Justice

Who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman? Superman, obviously. But what if Batman had a weapon made of kryptonite? Well, then all bets are off, right?? I know: let’s spend 400 million dollars to answer the questions that stump eight-year-olds.

There are images in this that are beautiful. Perfectly composed, spectacularly lit, sublime. It’s too bad Zack Snyder and his team won’t hold on these beautiful compositions for more than a nanosecond. It’s also too bad that the script makes zero sense and seems like it was written by the eight-year-olds that were asking all those tough questions in the first place. The plot is baffling. If someone who understands it could please call me and explain it to me, that would be great.

Batman and Superman are both having dreams in this. The dreams seem to be important, and function as Easter eggs for the fans of the Justice League canon. But they do nothing but bog this movie down, because they make absolutely NO SENSE. Thanks for playing to the fans, but come on, guys, the movie still needs to be cohesive!

Like a lot of superhero sequels, this movie is guilty of biting off too much. It was the same story with Man of Steel: Make a five-hour movie, then cut it down to two. Affleck gets to make his own Batman movie at some point. Maybe he’ll bring the storytelling chops he brought to Argo and The Town.

I Saw the Light

This biopic of Hank Williams obeys all of the musical biopic tropes with strict adherence. He’s talented. He becomes famous. He abuses his women. His life spirals down in a maelstrom of booze and pills. Repeat. Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olson are top-notch, but the script is choppy and episodic. There’s no build up or crescendo to anything emotionally satisfying. So, it’s good for Hank Williams fans, I think, but just as a movie? Meh.

10 Cloverfield Lane

The only people who have bomb shelters and doomsday vaults are the conspiracy-nut kooks, right? So, when the apocalypse hits, which it inevitably will, all the normal people will be dead and only the bomb shelter kooks will be left alive, right? That’s the premise of 10 Cloverfield Lane. John Goodman masterfully realizes his paranoid rube, kidnapping, but also pretending to protect his captors. As an audience, it really makes you want the characters to try their luck on the outside world rather than deal with this nutball. Besides, was there even an apocalypse? How can you be sure if you’re not even allowed to look out a window? The pressure builds and the suspense piles on as the small cast of characters philosophically speculate over the fate of the world. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is strong here; resourceful and not the least bit victimy. Credit goes to the writer (Dan Casey) for straying from female victim stereotypes. It’s a big, satisfying ending, thankfully not too J.J. Abramsy, who seems to be intent on jerking his audiences around lately with a lot of questions and cliffhangers. It suffices to say: there’s answers.

The Perfect Match

Saw this again in a theater.

The Perfect Match

Watching Jorva’s theatrical release, on which I was Associate Producer. The ensemble elements of this work well. I wish Lionsgate had put this in more theaters.

Hail, Caesar!

Made as a love letter to all things Hollywood. Moments of this are hilarious, but seem to be laser-guided to people who know about or work in the movie industry. It’s essential satire too, and an appropriate companion piece to Trumbo. During the red scare, what did people think was going to happen? This preposterous what-if culminates in Channing Tatum, a closeted song-and-dance man, paddling out to sea to rendezvous with a Russian sub, carrying a headful of American “secrets.” McCarthyism brilliantly pushed to its illogical conclusion by the Coens, winking as fast as they can. Of all the Coens' rotating cast of repertory players -- the ensemble of nutballs -- there’s one standout: the new kid. Alden Ehrenreich nails his dopey cowpoke character, who’s way more sharp and sensible than his first appearances would demonstrate. There’s big laughs in this, at least for Hollywood types. Who knows if the rest of the world will get it?

Deadpool

Hey, hey! It’s an X-MEN comedy! There’s big laughs in this. A lot of fourth wall breaking and winking at the audience. It’s like a "Rocky and Bullwinkle" cartoon.  The action scenes aren’t all that original and kind of bereft of suspense and excitement. Typical punching and fighting and smart-alecky bravado is par for the course. But the zingers zing. And Deadpool gets to have a girlfriend, and she’s not so innocent either. So this is worth seeing for the gags, even if Deadpool gets tortured for a little too long, and the action is better on the Daredevil Netflix series. 

Spotlight

The journalists are the heroes, taking their jobs very seriously. They back up their stories with quotes, they verify and corroborate their sources, getting confirmations and second confirmations. You know: journalism. In this day and age, where TMZ style “journalism” rules, where the major news organizations prop-up and egg-on a clown candidate without asking any tough questions so they’ll see how outrageous he’ll become, we as a society could take a few lessons from these guys at the Boston Globe. The movie-making itself isn’t mind-blowingly original. The acting is subtle; not screamy. Scenes flow with suspense, drama, and finesse, but no one fights a bear. I guess you could say Spotlight is the polar opposite of The Revenant: it’s subtle, meaningful, and, most of all, relevant.

Steve Jobs

I’m a big, big fan of Danny Boyle. He has a true signature style. So it’s interesting to see his strong, bold style get trumped by someone with even MORE signature style: Sorkin. So this is really Sorkin-ish. Very Sorkiny. Fassbender and Winslet are both fantastic here and the rhythm of the dialogue and the scenes is like great jazz, it’s never anything but utterly gripping. But, I wonder what’s the PURPOSE of this movie? What does it teach us? Does it intend only to entertain and engage, like music? What should we take away? It makes you think a LOT about Apple and computers, and how much innovation happened in the span of 14 years. It also seems to be intent on branding Jobs as a big asshole with a lot of really nice people around him. A lot of questions about Jobs get asked, but a lot of answers are not provided. Worth watching for the cadence of it all, but as a drama, the final act seems like it’s missing.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Second viewing. 

More relaxing and enjoyable the second time around, and it’s more clear to me that this is obviously Rey’s story. Which makes it all the more infuriating that the filmmakers intentionally mislead about who she is and where she’s from. It’s not an episode of Lost, JJ. The only way that the filmmakers can reveal her origins is by introducing a series of flashbacks. So suddenly it’s an Alias episode. Most of the series hasn’t used the flashback as a narrative device, but then again I suppose you could argue that episodes 1, 2, and 3 are flashbacks after seeing 4, 5, and 6 first. Also, Rogue One will be taking place between 3 and 4, as does the TV show Rebels. So I guess we’re signed up for flashbacks and time jumps now, which means they never have to finish anything and they never have to explain anything. I’m sure the corporate big-wigs aren’t too worried about knowing who Rey is or selling the Rey toys. She is, after all, just a girl. Why would she be important? They even left her character out of the Star Wars monopoly game. One only hopes it’s just a mind game, and we all underestimate how important she’ll become in the galaxy.