Mother!

Perhaps the least realistic, least literal movie to be released in theaters since the last AFI genius had a movie. Malick, maybe? This is one of those movies that’s so obtuse and ambiguous that everyone will form their own theory of what it’s all about. My theory: The marriage in the story represents two sides of the same artist: the nurturing side and the ego side. The chaos in the story is what erupts in an artist’s psyche when fans get involved, when adulation and money start to drive the creative process, and when the artist is finally able to create, or give birth, to something truly unique and beautiful -- their “baby.” Kill your darlings, Faulkner said. Or maybe it was Stephen King. Performances here are great. They have to be, or else people would walk out in the middle screaming, “What the fuck?” Anyway, if you want to get beaten over the head and dragged behind a truck by a metaphor, this is your movie.

IT

Well-acted and beautifully filmed, but confusing. I need someone to explain the plot to me. The “evil” sometimes manifests itself as a scary clown, but also manifests as each individual kid’s greatest fear. The drama during these segments is strong and it’s provocative to see how much their parents play a role in their terror. We wonder, but also don’t wonder, what was happening to Beverly. King doesn’t pull punches in this regard, but director Andy Muschietti may need to -- to keep it an R rating. Despite the hodgepodge of themes and ideas feeling less grounded (and less scary) than they should be, the filmmakers made the shit out of this movie. Acting, music, cinematography, and designs are all top notch. I just wish it wasn’t a “kitchen sink” story. (Maybe this is just the inherent danger of filming a novel…)

War for the Planet of the Apes

Watching the opening third of this, I was thinking, “Holy crap! This could get a Best Picture nod!” But alas, the flame burns down in the long and contemplative second and third parts. The apes become the prisoners again, but this time there’s a crazed, right wing, Colonel Kurtz type, obsessed with destroying apes. The metaphor shifts a little here, and it’s less about a slave uprising and more about an eagerness to wage war. The filmmaking is beautiful; stunning really. But the whole story felt a little strained and obvious. It’s like they tried to introduce a little more "Serling" into something that already had plenty of "Serling." It’s impressively serious, but also not a whole lot of fun. Thank God, as always, for Steve Zahn.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Some of this looks SO dated. And I had a revelation while watching it: If you set a movie even slightly in the past, you have the ability to curate history a little. Weed out the ugly fashions and boring cars. But if you place it right smack in the present-tense, it almost always feels unstylish. Certain things about this, of course, are timeless: Dreyfuss, Williams, and the Devil’s Tower of mashed potatoes. (And nice seeing one of my gurus Seth Winston in the credits.)