Judy

Sad, sad, sad. No happy ending here. Nope. Nosireee. Judy Garland withers away and dies. It’s well-acted and well-directed, but it’s sad, man.

How the West Was Won

The revelations that were had during this movie-nerd, old people screening at the Dome in real, actual 3-strip Cinerama are as follows:

Cinerama’s not really THAT wide.

The stunts were REAL. You could FEEL them. No CG here.

 It’s Debbie Reynold’s movie. She’s the star. But she’s billed, like, 9th, because those were the days when you probably couldn’t sell a western with a female lead.

Carroll Baker should maybe have been more famous than she was.

 This is the Avengers of its day.

Downton Abby

I never really watched the show, so I didn’t much follow the political and social dynamic in the house. It lacks conflict, but the silverware is very nice.

It: Chapter 2

It’s supposed to be about overcoming personal demons, so I don’t think it’s particularly scary, nor is it supposed to be. Efforts to create an emotional saga succeed and it never felt long, despite the 3-hour running time. In movies like this, when the monster is “imaginary,” it’s always easily defeated once the heroes figure out they can just ignore it or belittle it. It’s a skillfully made parable about getting over things.

Blinded by the Light

Remember that movie when the rebellious teenager discovers a new art and passion, but the strict father thinks it’s a waste of time, until the end, when, during the teenager’s big recital, the father sneaks into the back of the auditorium and sees how passionate and talented the teenager is, and then they hug and all is forgiven? This is one of those movies.

Halston

Hey! Wow! I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries lately. While I enjoy learning about something new – a person or event that I knew nothing about – this doc felt a little pokey. There’s plenty of good information, but the stakes and the drama needed a shot in the arm.

Driven

This biopic about John DeLorean feels like it’s missing scenes. Efforts to open the movie on a big, exciting drug bust create confusion. The main character, played by Jason Sudeikis, suffers by not getting a proper introduction. The movie always feels like it’s trying to play catch-up; trying to develop and explain the inner desires of the hero/anti-hero who we never get to know as well as we should. Sets, costumes, and music are all fun and par for the era. And performances are strong. But the movie feels rushed, and the filmmakers seemed unwilling or reluctant to do that, and the pace suffers. Not the Lee Pace. Just the pace. Nevertheless, it’s always interesting to learn a new piece of history. Kudos for that.

Woodstock

Extended version of the famous documentary. Enjoyable to see the old bands again (I peed during The Who, dammit). This film could not have been easy to make. In the rain. In the mud. It’s a moment in time.

Apocalypse Now

Seeing this on the big screen again is always great. But having watched the “old” version 20+ times, the new scenes disrupt the flow. I’m sure it’s interesting for the filmmakers to add scenes, but for the audience, it’s disorienting. The thing is already baked. You can’t unbake a cake. Too, I noticed something I’ve never noticed before: both Willard and Kurtz talk about how much they hate lies – over everything else. Is this the quality they have in common? When Kurtz asks Willard to speak to his son, and tell him the truth about what happened, does he do it?

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

My second viewing. I still think it’s Brad’s movie. Even though it’s a bit unfair to hippies, I appreciate how much it wants to shine a light on a certain kind of middle-class Hollywood worker with recognition and validation. We’re all just one pool party away…

David Crosby: Remember My Name

Kind of a companion piece to Echo in the Canyon, this follows David Crosby as he apologizes to everybody he’s been an asshole to. I learned a lot about The Byrds, and never realized how influential they were, or people believe that they were. It’s a good doc – more about information than artistry.

Spiderman: Far From Home

It’s a pretty lightweight chapter, akin to the Ant-Mans. The stakes are low and the proceedings lack gravitas. Spider-Man is no longer Jesus, like the Raimi movies. But the cast is good and there’s a twist or two. And a nice turn from Jon Favreau (where does he find the time??). And not that it matters, because there’s plenty of room for lots of Spider-Mans, but it aint Spider-Verse. It’s never mind-blowing.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

What if you went on an Easter egg hunt and it was ALL Easter eggs? It was literally a ball-pit of Easter eggs? Watching Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is so filled with shout-outs, clues, references, footnotes, and historical wink-winks it’s hard to pay attention to the plot. Thankfully, that plot lingers so glacially at times that you can always catch up if you need to. Most of this is a day-to-day, day-in-the-life tale -- set-dressed to death and lovingly made, but not “exciting” per se. The suspense comes from the historical context – the dread of knowing what happened to Sharon Tate et al. Most of that dread dissipates as filmmakers rewire history to manage expectations. Historically speaking, nothing is what it seems. Rewriting history is only worthwhile if it serves as catharsis. It’s hard to tell who benefits from the happy ending here. It’s more about the color of the costumes…

Toy Story 4

It’s beautifully made, of course. But it’s not SURPRISING the way the previous films are. Some of the plots and themes of the previous chapters are revisited here and the “villain” doesn’t really redeem herself in a significant way. While there’s some missed potential, the quality of the film-making is so high it would be like saying, “The minibar in my Rolls-Royce doesn’t hold enough ice.” It’s really an embarrassment of riches.

Anna

This is so much like La Femme Nikita and The Professional that it’s practically a sequel. Kudos to Luc Besson for giving the world lots of supermodel assassins. We’re grateful. But there’s not a lot of new ground being broken here. Like Atomic Blonde, what matters here is that the supermodel assassin has the upper hand, and not the corporation. She’s less of a prostitute, I suppose. What we need next is a trained assassin that reluctantly becomes a supermodel.

Rocketman

What starts out as a kind of West Side Story/Music Man dancing-in-the-streets musical evolves into a psychedelic Ken Russell journey when Sir Elton’s life inevitably spirals down into a maelstrom of booze and pills. It checks all of the music biopic boxes. Taron Egerton and Jamie Bell are in top form, and the musical numbers are lively, but I’ll admit this didn’t MOVE me the way that it should have. I’m jaded, I think, by all the musician biopics and their tropes. It’s interesting, too, that they never touch on “Candle in the Wind” or The Lion King. Maybe that stuff’ll be in Rocketman 2.

Echo in the Canyon

A music doc that’s supposed to be about the Laurel Canyon music scene. But it’s not REALLY about that. It’s really about a certain style of mid 1960’s rock and roll, the bands who made that music, and the other bands who loved and emulated that music. Jakob son-of-Bob Dylan is the host and one of the filmmakers here. While his love of the musical style is firmly on display here, his concert during which he performs some of this music is a little off. When Dylan and his band are covering the Byrds or The Association, they don’t really nail the harmonies. Maybe it’s nit-picky, but it seems like if that’s the style you’re paying tribute to, you should try to nail those. Nevertheless, lots of good interviews and a loving tribute to that chapter of the rock and roll bible.

Booksmart

Nerds are hilarious! Look at ‘em dance! The thing about these nerds, though, is they’re not really all that nerdy. One of them is pretty, and the other one is smart and funny, but has a big ol’ chip on her shoulder for some reason. So, the super-awkward, embarrassing moments for these nerds feel contrived for the sake of the movie. The conflict doesn’t feel all that real. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t funny. It’s still plenty funny. A lot of that credit goes to the character played by Billie Lourd – “Gigi” – a mysterious, supernatural, multi-talented send-up of the “manic pixie dream girl” and a total scene-stealer.

Late Night

There’s a lot of wish fulfillment here. Not that there’s anything wrong with wish fulfillment, right? Preston Sturges made a living at it. In Mindy Kaling’s semi-autobiographical dramedy, she gets a dream job she’s not qualified for, she saves the soul of her TV hero, and manages to somehow please her parents in the process. I guess it’s important that young people watching the movie can believe that miracles can happen if you have a little pluck. There are a few jokes in this movie too, many of which work. So it’s a pleasant enough Working Girl/The Devil Wears Prada trope, which neither inspires nor offends.

Pokémon Detective Pikachu

This is a kid’s movie. You know: for kids. It takes the Who Framed Roger Rabbit conceit and just transfers it over into the Pokémon world. There are some funny creatures. Some bad creatures. There’s a mystery. They’ll probably sell some toys. Pikachu sounds like Deadpool. That’s surreal. But then, so is the whole enterprise. I don’t know what else to say. It is what it is? It isn’t what it isn’t?

John Wick: Chapter 3

“Let’s get high and think of funny places to have action scenes.”

The filmmakers love their sequences and their set-pieces. Each new location John Wick sprints to has its own unique set of weapons, animals, and vehicles, all of which John Wick uses to kill people in the most imaginative ways possible. The story and the plot, mostly revolving around the Continental Hotel and the worldwide consortium of assassins and their coins, is starting to make less sense. Potential for this world-building in the first movie was HUGE, but we’d be fooling ourselves if we thought that this could be anything other than a light-framework on which to hang the many, many murders with machine guns, knives, and dogs. Keanu is better at the gun than the fu, and he’s not quite as quick as some of the others on the stunt team. Future movies might benefit from being more gun-based. These movies are always a thrill. There should be Oscars for stunt teams.

Avengers: Endgame

** SPOILERS!! ** ** SPOILERS!! ** ** SPOILERS!! ** ** SPOILERS!! **

Marvel managed to tie-up a massive, 22-film serialized thing that’s probably more like a comic book than anything that’s ever been made. It’s a major achievement. Some of the cast have been in 7 or 8 of these movies, which is an impressive commitment. DC can barely hang on to the same Batman from film to film. This chapter wraps up a lot of the little subplots and movies in a way that (spoiler alert!) had to have been REALLY expensive. It’s truly a feat.

As for the movie itself, it’s three hours long but it never FELT long. It maintained its otherworldly urgency and stayed interesting. That being said, Thanos sits down a lot to brood and mope, which doesn’t make him very threatening, and you begin to wonder what his plan was this whole time. Someone told me he was in love with Hela and he was trying to impress her by killing everybody. No wonder he seems so tired. But I couldn’t really follow that. I was too busy watching all of the super-hero gladiator kung-fu. Superheroes seem to know a lot of kung-fu, which is weird because, if they’re GODS, maybe they could use their God–like powers to defeat Thanos instead of all of that Earthly kung-fu. It turns out, killing Thanos requires more than karate. But they keep trying the karate. At some point, somebody in the battle needed to shout: “Guys, karate isn’t working. We should try something else.”

And now some random observations:

So, was Steve hiding in Peggy’s house the entire time when she founded SHIELD? (This is a very “Bill and Ted’s” kind of question.)

Where did Hulk go? Hulk not smash.

How the hell could Peter go back to the doldrums of high school after all of that?

Wanda could stand to make herself a little more useful. Maybe she should learn some karate.

The most applause during my screening was when Steve picked up the hammer. Pretty cool.

Of all the people to get the big, sad crying scene at the end – it’s Goop lady?? Not really fair. She didn’t really earn it.

So, it turns out Nebula is pretty important.  I feel like I need to rewatch all the Nebula scenes to see what the deal was with her.

Who was the mystery kid looking all sad at the funeral? (I looked this one up and I know it now. It’s the kid from Iron Man 3.)

Where was Agent Colson?

Why are Nick and Carol acting like they don’t know each other at the end? What happened?

And where the hell was Carol during that big battle scene? Kind of a late arrival.

Shazam!

I watched the Saturday morning show as a kid, and I don’t remember much. A hippie in an orange shirt drove around in a Winnebago with an old man and they saved people and fought crime. Modern Shazam doesn’t have a creepy old man or a Winnebago, and he’s less about saving people and more about stopping this one really bad guy and the hideous demons he flies around with. It’s hard to understand the villain’s plan. He goes into a boardroom and kills all the top members of a company so he can run the company? I’m not sure that’s how corporate hierarchies work. There is a light-hearted, kid-friendly vibe to this. Early in the movie, when Zachary Levi is in the suit and doing the comedy thing, it’s crowd-pleasing and jaunty. Inevitably, there’s a bunch of superhero fighting, none of which is really original, visually or thematically. It almost feels extracted from the DC/WB tv show playbook, rather than the big-budget movies. Which is not a bad thing. There’s a reason why those shows have the staying power.

A Vigilante

The are several instances when Olivia Wilde’s vigilante Equalizer has the drop on the evil man, and for reasons that are unclear, she doesn’t break his neck. So, there’s a lot of wish-fulfillment, and a lot of simplifying of complicated themes about abuse, but there isn’t a lot of killin’. And there’s needs to be more killin’. It’s not like the lady isn’t ready. She spends about 25% of this movie “training” – punching and exercising in shitty hotel rooms. Kill a motherfucker or two, lady! Quit pulling punches.

Hotel Mumbai

Of all the Die Hard knock-offs we’ve seen over the years, it turns out all we had to do to get the best one was wait for the “true story” version. It’s a very well-directed, taught and tense action movie based on true events in 2008. The international cast is top-notch, doing their best with their action movie archetypes.
The setting, whether it’s sets or locations, feels authentic and carefully designed. The pace is expertly persistent. In so many ways, it feels like a good, old-fashioned action movie. If John McClane was a Sikh. It’s hard to know how accurate it is, and it dramatizes the terrorists and their motives in a way that might be more cinematic than realistic. But it IS a movie – and movies do that. So, I say: kudos and huzzahs to the filmmakers.

The Mustang

What’s striking about this is: as much as the main character must bond with a wily horse, the actor must also bond with the horse actor. That had to have taken lots of time and dedication. Overall, it’s a pleasant but dull prison-western driven by themes of captivity and rehabilitation. It’s never ham-fisted or insincere, but it also plays it pretty safe in most of the scenes – checking the “family film” box, which is funny because it’s rated R. See it if you like horses.

Us

Doppelgangers, evil twins, clones, and alter-egos have always populated volumes of parables in art and literature. The takeaway themes vary, but one of them is almost always: we are our own worst enemy. Beyond that, I’m not sure what to take away from Us. It’s a very well-acted and always mysterious yarn, but I’m not sure if I “get” it. It’s more funny than scary, and the big “uh-oh” eerie finish left me baffled. It swings for the fences, thematically, but I wish it had been more conclusive.

Captain Marvel

Who would win in a fight? Captain Marvel or Superman? Captain Marvel or the Hulk? Captain Marvel or Dr. Strange? You can practically hear the conversations comic-book geeks and eight-year-olds are having about Carol Danvers and how powerful she is – really. That’s probably the best thing about this: she’s seems to be one of the strongest and most powerful heroes in any of the universes, which raises the superhero stakes considerably. But I’ll admit I found this movie confusing, mainly because I’m not a big enough of a comic-book geek to keep track of all of the important colorful stones and glowing cubes, green people and blue people, planets and alternate universes, to fully understand what the hell is going on. But I enjoyed the actors and the fact that Captain Marvel seems to be more powerful than Superman. (I smell a Marvel/DC crossover!) Looking forward to finding out who will be her Louis Lane.

Greta

There are a lot of things to appreciate about DePalma. Audiences and filmmakers have been yakking about and discussing and dissecting DePalma for years and years. Often the conversation steers to: Is he serious? Is he kidding? Is this meant to be over-the-top and jokey? Is it meant to be this derivative? It’s possible that many filmmakers appreciate his movies so much because he was able to get away with so much. “I want to get away with that much!” They think. “I want to cheat like DePalma cheats!” The filmmakers of Greta are these filmmakers. Let’s rip-off DePalma but also wink at the audience that we know we’re ripping off DePalma, who also ripped-off himself, and who also ripped-off Hitchcock… Ultimately, you can see a lot of these plot points and goofs coming, so the whole experience is a bit dull.

Alita: Battle Angel

There’s an expression – “the uncanny valley” that I’ll admit I really don’t understand. It has something to do with objects and creatures that aren’t real but that look so real that it creates a distant, repulsive feeling in the viewer. That’s Alita, whose voice doesn’t quite match her body, whose super-human movements don’t obey the laws of physics, and whose eyes seem freakishly huge and focused. She’s a robot, for sure. But you have to wonder why her creators would treat her exactly like she's human knowing full well that she isn’t. Doesn’t that mean she doesn’t have free will if it has to be given to her?

The script and the story also contribute to this uncanny problem. If she had free will would she really choose to roller-skate competitively? There’s just something off about this. The tone, the themes, the pacing. It all feels rushed. Decisions were made to get to the action scenes as quickly as possible. And granted: they’re amazing. But they don’t really resonate emotionally because the whole thing feels like you’re watching somebody else play a video game. I can’t really define the uncanny valley. It’s hard to put your finger on it. There’s just something… off.

You Were Never Really Here

I know I saw this movie. I think I saw it. I’m not sure I remember it all. Does that mean it’s unmemorable? What I DO remember is the way the movie plays with dreams and memory. It’s kind of an "unreliable narrator" mind-fuck with fancy, stylistic editing to… I don’t know… convey confusion? Joaquin Phoenix plays Liam Neeson – a guy who rescues kidnapped girls – which he does by beating the fuck out of people in a potboiler that devolves into a sequel to The Raid. I can’t remember how it ended. Did it end?

Eighth Grade

This feels very honest. There are some pacing problems and some logic problems, but this will serve as an excellent time capsule of "Generation Tech" and the terrifyingly quick assimilation with all social media. Still, there are some teen tropes and rites of passage that technology doesn’t change and this movie handles those well, too.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Yep. Saw it again. Best movie of the year. I wish I understood the amount of innovation that went into this. The techniques that make it so surprisingly different. Whose creative decisions are these? The writers? The editors? The directors? Sony’s? It’s electrifying.

Leave No Trace

Really strong character-building and a rich father-daughter relationship here, but the plot lacks. Missing details about why these two are living in the woods and the serious lack of social workers leaves too many unanswered questions at the end. The strong performances aren’t enough to spin a satisfying yarn.

Free Solo

A heroic doc in which the hero is the camera gear. As admirable as it is for the subject, Alex Honnold, to climb El Capitan without ropes, to FILM it without getting in the guy’s way and causing him to fall to his death is what earned this doc all of its well-deserved trophies. Because, let’s face it: it’s not like it’s really suspenseful. They would have never released the movie if the guy had died, right?

Green Book

This is a solid best picture candidate with two unforgettable performances. It behaves like a road movie, and cruises along with a steady and engaging clip. Like Bohemian Rhapsody, it touches on some of the real-life characters more complicated qualities, but it never lingers for long. It’s expertly acted, directed, shot and edited and it might very well win best picture. And it’s also really human, depicting a heart-felt friendship in an era of change. You kinda wish some of our “leaders” liked movies. They might learn something from this.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Animated superhero stories were always the bargain basement in terms of quality. The cheap looking cartoons on Saturday morning had so much potential, but I’m sure were thought of as low-art or commercials for toys. It wasn’t until the Batman: Animated Series in 1992 that superheroes started getting some super-serious animated love. Sam Raimi’s live-action Spidermans started ten years later and it seemed like the comic books would be “live action” from then on. But then Pixar released The Incredibles, which was, in my mind, the most beautifully animated superhero saga to date. (Why did it take so long?) When I saw The Incredibles 2 this year, I was blown away and believed it was, at the time, the best animated thing I’d ever seen, in any genre. It’s absolutely gorgeous.

That is... until I saw Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, which is sublime in a way that’s almost impossible to describe. So, also and including Mary Poppins Returns, 2018 seems like it was a banner year for animation, because this is… ground-breaking and game-changing. It redefines the animated superhero model and obliterates the cartoons. The story is spellbinding, the voice acting is top-notch, and the use of music is unprecedented. Before I saw this, people were saying that this was the best movie of the year. I was skeptical, but the people are right. This is awesome. Steve Ditko and Stan Lee may rest in peace because their legacy is safely wrapped in a web with this: an achievement for the ages. DO NOT MISS IT IN THEATERS.

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

As with any bio-pic, you have to wonder how much of it actually happened and how much is dramatized for effect. You could argue that if it’s an entertaining movie than it shouldn’t matter that much. But I still wonder about this: the story of Lee Israel and how it all went down. Be that as it may this is a very well-acted drama about a desperate (or was she?) and alcoholic author who’s strapped for cash and willing to swindle some collectors so she can take her cat to the vet. The main character is such an unlikable grouch that the movie runs the risk of not working, if not for the complicated and careful performance by Melissa McCarthy, who nails it. The story also dives into to an unfamiliar but surprisingly interesting sub-culture of collectable, old letters written by famous people. It’s like baseball cards for literary types and the world therein can be dark and seedy! Kudos to Richard E. Grant here, too, who shines as a breezy con-artist who conspires to hock the counterfeit goods. A strong and intimate character study well worth the time.

Mary Poppins Returns

Emily Blunt can’t sing like Dame Julie Andrews. You wouldn’t expect her to. But she CAN sing a little. More than a little. And as she takes on a more stern and disciplinary tone with the Banks children, she leaves a lot of the Disney showiness and sparkle to… the filmmakers. And the results are fantastic. The make-up, the costumes, the sets, the animation, and the songs are all glorious. The crew did an incredible job working, obviously for years, to craft one of the best movies of 2018. I can only imagine the numerous meetings at Disney headquarters fretting about the risk of fucking up one of the most beloved movies of all time by making a sequel. “Don’t fuck this up…” must’ve been the on-set mantra. They didn’t.

Doug's Favorite Movies of 2018

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
The Incredibles 2
Mary Poppins Returns
Green Book
Bad Times at the El Royale
Can You Ever Forgive Me? 
Game Night
RBG

Honorable mention: 

Mission Impossible: Fallout
Ready Player One

BlacKkKlansman

Watching the first half of this, I was really impressed. Despite some typical Spike Lee weirdness (i.e. scenes going on too long, weird camera angles, etc.), it was an emotional and gripping biopic. But during the second half, I began to roll my eyes. Embellishments to the true story seemed preposterous. The story falls away, the hero’s journey peters out, and the movie becomes just a preachy essay. Too bad. It started out really good.

Vice

Poor Dick Cheney. Poor, poor Dick! His daughter is gay! GAY! That must have been SOOOO difficult for him. How conflicted he and his wife must have been when they found out.

Please.

The filmmaking is expert. The acting is superb. But this is an ugly, off-putting movie about ugly, off-putting people. There’s not a single redeemable, likeable character throughout the whole thing. It’s just about a bunch of assholes. Granted, some of the best actors in the business play these assholes, which makes it watchable in a dumpster-fire, train-wreck kind of way. But heroes they are NOT. Hard to recommend because it might just make you angry, rather than make you marvel in the Richard III, Shakespearean way that America was taken over by assholes.

The Favourite

What starts out as a corset farce skillfully evolves into a corset thriller, which is neat. But the resolution to this is more about the farce and less about the thriller, which is completely dissatisfying. Nevertheless, all of the acting is top-notch, even if the plot is as muddy as the castle moat.

Bumblebee

Use E.T. as a template. Replace E.T. with the lovable robot/car and Elliot with a teenage girl, and voila! You got yourself a toy advertisement. Hailee Steinfeld does a great job here, acting effectively on her own but pretending to care about and hug and love a CG car/robot. It can’t be easy. This movie benefits considerably by not being directed by Michael Bay, so it doesn’t have an unnecessarily macho vibe. It’s sweet, and it works for what it is. Herbie: 2018.

Bohemian Rhapsody

Publicity about the fired director and the historical inaccuracy could have sunk this project before it ever hit theaters. But Rami Malek, Dexter Fletcher, the rest of the cast, as well as the guardianship of the members of Queen, bring a “fake-it-til-you-make-it” rock-and-roll enthusiasm to this, which makes it fine and watchable. It strikes all of the necessary notes of the music bio-pic subgenre and features a rousing finale. But I can see how the gay community and the AIDS awareness advocates might be put off by this. It’s clearly trying to rush through that stuff quickly so that they can arrive at the next musical number. This movie will help sell a lot of records for years to come, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I just wish they had said SOME-thing about Flash Gordon.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

This short film compilation by the Coens is tied together with one common theme: death. It’s always a treat to get a new film from the Coens, although admittedly the Netflix release makes this a more muted affair. While the entire thing takes place in the “old west”, it doesn’t feel like a western. It’s not fun or action-filled and is more of a measurement of existential wrangling than it is about shoot-em-ups in the OK corral. I like the Tom Waits segment the most, perhaps because it’s the most optimistic? Typically of the brothers, it’s technically flawless and visually innovative, and strikes its creepy and silly chords with snappy timing. But you’ll mosey away from this feeling gloomy -- it’s not a day at the carnival, just like the old west, I suppose.

First Man

Opening minutes of this biopic of Neil Armstrong are exhilarating. One of the best action sequences of the year. A lot of this reminded me of The Right Stuff, to the point where it almost feels like a sequel. The filmmaking and technique here is perfect, but efforts to pepper in an emotional quest for Armstrong to find some kind of closure for himself and his deceased daughter feel forced. The finale was in IMAX and beautiful to behold, so again the whole thing is technically awesome, despite misbegotten, character-driven internal strife.

Bad Times at the El Royale

Nifty thriller from the sci-fi TV whiz and Cabin in the Woods director Drew Goddard. All the performances are excellent and the Agatha Christie/Alfred Hitchcock plot is full of genuine surprises. It’s one of those “What the Hell is going on?” kind of movies in which one of the twists is what genre the movie will eventually be (like genre hybrids Buffy, Lost, etc.). While everyone in the cast is in top form, one actor stands out: Cynthia Erivo, who I’ve never seen before, and is the glue that keeps the whole labyrinthian mystery grounded and engaging. Many times in the “what the Hell is going on?” sub-genre the resolution can be cheap or lame. “It was all a dream” or whatever. That’s not the case here. The finale is dark and fantastic and totally thrilling.

The Predator

This feels like it was edited with a crowbar. Lengthy sequences seem to be missing and the result is a disorienting hodge-podge. Shane Black’s chippy dialogue, blue humor, and cartoony action is fun. But as a whole story? It’s a mess.

A Star is Born

Too much Bradley Cooper. Not enough Gaga. This is a pretty ham-fisted musical, attempting to update the dusty “aging star discovering a new star” trope by adding drag queens and pop music. I think that Bradley Cooper has been in one to many Clint Eastwood movies and has adapted his sentimental, melodramatic style. It feels like it’s trying too hard, and it didn’t really resonate for me.

Mandy

What if Hunter S. Thompson wrote a horror movie? Would it even BE a horror movie, or would it be something else entirely? Story-wise, and structurally speaking this is a pretty traditional revenge tale. But that’s where the conventional part ends. Because when your revenge-thirsty hero is Nicholas Cage and he’s tripping on acid, and he’s killing multiple, cult-member, acid-trip bikers, things get really bonkers really quick. It’s difficult to recommend because it’s so weird and very slow. But if you’re into that sort of thing…

Kin

What if Elmore Leonard wrote a gritty, hard-boiled sci-fi movie? Kin is filled with gangsters, murderers, scumbags, and strippers from the hardest of hardboiled pulp novels, and, oh-by-the-way, a laser gun from the future. The cast is all strong and play along with the wild conceit well, except for James Franco who plays his villain too cartoony; only mimicking the great slimy movie baddies of the past. Filmmakers (including Dan Casey!) make a crazy unpredictable mash-up; a new genre with no precedent. Elmore Leonard meets Douglas Adams. Buckle up.

Mission Impossible: Fallout

Yep. Saw it again. Admission possible.

Mission Impossible: Fallout

Ethan Hunt is having bad dreams. We should be worried about him. He’s not the operative he used to be. As much as the filmmakers intend to entertain (and they succeed spectacularly) they also intend to open a window and explore Ethan Hunt’s psyche. But because Tom Cruise is such a… mysterious fellow, these explorations into his love life and motives leave us more confused than we already were. The supporting cast, including Rebecca Ferguson, are all top notch. But we’re not sure if Ethan really loves Ilsa. They’ve never even kissed! Sequences and stunts are, as always, incomparable. Twists are well-crafted. There is never any doubt that you’re getting your money’s worth, despite the fogginess of Ethan’s love life.

Sorry to Bother You

This bites off a lot. It’s a satire of whitewashing, American greed, income inequality, telemarketers, guerrilla artists, and office politics. It’s very funny at times, but as these sci-fi satires go, it culminates in chaos. Story-wise there’s really no other place to go. We’re headed to an ugly future. But kudos to the filmmakers for swinging for the fences.

Ant Man and the Wasp

Gravitas-less. Everything about this is light and little. The characters. The plot. The stakes. It’s almost like a kid’s movie – a Sid and Marty Krofft, Saturday morning adventure. Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, et al have a really light, fun rapport with a quick and easy delivery. So it’s fine for what it is: featherweight fun. But these people don’t stand a chance against Thanos.

RBG

Good-natured doc about the Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. What stands out is her background facing the courts as an advocate for civil rights. It’s amazing to think about how many pivital cases she took to the court and how, in many ways, she transformed America by winning those arguments. But her body and mind seem frail and this movie makes you worry that she may not have very long to go.

The Incredibles 2

A beautifully animated and dazzling adventure from Brad Bird. It a shame about John Lassiter and all of the unwanted hugs, because it’s feeling like the end of an amazing era from Pixar. The quality and the entertainment could NOT be higher.

As for the story itself, you can guess who the villain is by how intricately their hair is animated. A secondary character would NEVER have hair this cool. It must have taken thousands of people thousands of hours. There are lots of ideas about brain-washing the masses, which, because of the nature of super-strong super-heroes, can only be stopped with lots of chasing and fighting. Nevertheless, it’s a gorgeous achievement in animation.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

This is like a "Jurassic" greatest hits. Throw in some of the Michael Crichton novels, throw in some stuff from the Spielberg movies, throw in a little Congo, a little bit of Frankenstein, a piece or two from King Kong… That doesn’t mean it isn’t entertaining. It just feels like a rehash. Much of this movie is filmed on soundstages in very controlled environments. Instead of moving around in the natural world with plants and rocks and bugs and birds, the dinos are interacting with cages and hallways and furniture and stuff. Easier to control and probably a lot cheaper to animate. Which means there’s a lot of cool camera moves and geography, but don’t stop and think about a guy fighting an evil dinosaur in a library.

Solo

One of Ron Howard’s best movies, which means: lower those expectations, folks! If you do, it’s a fun but light Star Wars prologue. It might have worked better as one of those animated things like Clone Wars or Rebels. The introduction and bromance of Han and Chewy works really well, and it’s the best part of this. But other subplots: failed heists, double crosses, and Casablanca-lifted thematic elements are less dazzling, even though they do eventually work. The cast is strong, especially Alden Ehrenreich, who delivers the right balance of youthful swagger and emotional inexperience. The stakes just feel… low. The fate of the galaxy isn’t on the line. There’s no real love lost. It’s just kind of a slapdash adventure. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if you need to make a billion dollars, some planets need to explode.

Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1

** INFINITE SPOILERS!! **

More of a prelude of things to come than an actual movie. It’s so crowded that most of the characters only get cursory appearances. Often there will be four or five super-people in the frame at the same time, as one character doles out ominous exposition. The other super-people in the scene don’t seem to be listening and look bored. The Russos neglect to block the scenes, maybe because none of the actors were there at the same time and they were all superimposed together in post? That being said, there are a couple of pairings filmmakers spend a little more time on: Vision and Scarlet Witch, which could have been a whole movie by itself, and Gamora and Thanos, a nicely-expanded backstory for Zoe Saldana. Again and again, the biggest problem with these superhero movies is there’s no suspense because you know there’s sequels and franchises coming. And the thrill of cg just isn’t enough anymore. So if you can’t have any death, where else do you find conflict? Love, maybe?

A Quiet Place

** SPOILERS AHEAD **

More of a series of sequences than a whole movie. The sequences are suspenseful but the big picture is lacking. Efforts to play with story structure by eliminating the intro and the climax are valiant but gimmicky. Who are the aliens? What do they want? Who else is building signal fires at night? There’s no context. No sense of a larger world. That being said, a hugely successful debut for John Kraszinski, who made a lot of money for somebody, and now he’ll get to do what he wants.

Ready Player One

Spielberg and company summarily change the novel, for the better I suppose, even though that’s always considered a high-crime. The story weaknesses in the novel, of which there are many, are torched all together and a new plot emerges from the ashes. The novelist’s affinity for certain, very specific 80’s pop-culture treasures falls by the wayside, which is why we don’t see War Games clips in this, but instead it’s… I’m not spoiling it. Filmmakers drastically improve on the motives of “Halliday” -- the Willy Wonka of this adventure, peppering in a taste of Spielbergian sentimentality. It’s a pleasure to watch and purely entertaining, even if it’s not the purely 80’s trip down memory lane that audiences were expecting.

Red Sparrow

“Jennifer Lawrence is a hilarious, Academy Award-winning ray of sunshine. I know: let’s put her in a movie where she pouts the entire time.”

Academy Award Nominated Animated Short Films

DEAR BASKETBALL

With music by John Williams, this essay about how much Kobe Bryant loves basketball is nicely animated, but thematically shallow and obvious.

GARDEN PARTY

Beautifully animated, with a dark-comedy twist at the end.

LOU

Not that animated films HAVE to be logical. But this doesn’t make a lot of sense. Sentiment supersedes inner logic, I suppose.

NEGATIVE SPACE

Thematically strong short about a narrator’s relationship with his father based on how he learned from his father how to pack a suitcase.

REVOLTING RHYMES

A twist on the old red-riding hood fable. Felt long.

Game Night

We laughed all the way through this; a comedy version of the Fincher movie The Game. And it's not like the premise is all that original, but it's the delivery of the actors -- the perfectly timed jazz of Bateman, McAdams, and Jesse Plemons is so smooth it could settle your stomach. Lots really funny riffs on twist-endings, too. A blue-chip farce. Huzzah, etc.

Black Panther

Beautifully imagined and rendered comic-book saga with all of the necessary ingredients. African and racial politics work their way in occasionally, but they don’t really drive the plot and they don’t get resolved in any kind of interesting way. The cast is great but the action feels par-for-the course. It’s the typical running and driving and chasing and fighting stuff. What this movie lacks (and what all the super-hero movies really lack now days) is suspense, because you know that Black Panther can’t really die. This is a dilemma for all the comic-book, superhero movie-makers I suppose. How do you ratchet up the stakes?? Be that as it may, it’s a great, big feline leap for black heroes, no longer relegated to being supporting characters or starring in b-movies.

The Darkest Hour

Gary Oldman is undoubtedly impressive in this. His technique, along with the great makeup, makes this performance muy authentic. But this is not a very personal or emotional movie. It’s all about important speeches and Churchill screaming at the minions. There’s very little insight into who Churchill was as a person. As a history it’s fine, but as a drama, it’s a lot like British food: it needs a little salt.

Call Me By Your Name

What if Brokeback Mountain had turned out well? Well, not “well” but better? Here you have a love story about acceptance. The stakes are low, mainly because the setting is isolated; away from the hate speech and the AIDS crisis of the era. When you strip away all of the socio-political hullaballoo, what’s left is a nice, warm-hearted travelogue through the small towns and swimming holes of Northern Italy. While the pace is meandering, the main character makes several interesting choices in his assent to manhood.

I, Tonya

A well-made but violent dark-comedy about that well-covered incident before the 1994 Olympics. Robbie (who also produced) is excellent and Janney will probably win an Oscar. In the 90’s, the media portrayed Tonya Harding as a master-manipulator; a femme fatale who tricked her husband into carrying out her evil bidding. But in this depiction, there is a brutal cycle of abuse. Harding gets smacked around A LOT by her husband, and for many complicated reasons, she can’t shake him off. When the story is told in a different way, you can see that she was a victim of circumstance, and didn’t have the support system to overcome the rotten people in her life. In some ways, it’s the perfect, juicy film noir. In other ways, it’s an American tragedy.

Paddington 2

We regretted not seeing the first movie in the theater since it was better than we thought it would be and skillfully sentimental. This behaves more like an action movie (albeit one for toddlers), in which the action culminates on a speeding train. It’s very well-done, big-budget, family fare with some charming word-play and Britishy shenanigans. Kudos to Hugh Grant for delivering, full-bore, his hilariously narcissistic but non-threatening antagonist.

All the Money in the World

This is a true docudrama, unfolding realistically and never stopping for any emotional reflection. Michelle Williams, the best (as always), must deliver any emotion with her eyes, her body language, her “instrument”, because it’s not on the page. Sir Ridley seems determined to keep the pace moving, which makes this a somewhat dry, impersonal experience. The Mark Wahlberg part could have been played by any macho leading man, which brings an extra level of irony to the whole public squabble about the pay difference. Nevertheless, Christopher Plummer as J. Paul Getty is electric. What a historically rotten prick, and a great performance from Plummer. The facts about this incident and how it all unfolded are the best thing about this movie, and add new context during your next drive by the Getty Center. It’s very watchable, but tissues will not be needed.

Doug's Favorite Movies of 2017

Get Out
The Shape of Water
Blade Runner: 2049
The Big Sick
Dunkirk

Honorable Mention:

John Wick Chapter 2
Thor: Ragnarok
Logan

The Disaster Artist

I think this was supposed to be funny, but I actually found it sad. Because it revels in a hacky filmmaker who believes in his dream, but never realizes how hacky he is. And I can’t help but worry that I, too, might be a filmmaker that’s THAT hacky. The acting and directing by James Franco is on-point, as is the delivery by brother Dave. I’ve seen The Room a few times, and it’s truly terrible. But not really funny/terrible, just terrible. Again, I think I dislike artistic train-wrecks because I’m always thinking: that could be ME! Be that as it may, this is a strong and passionate offering from the Freaks and Geeks kids. I think they’ve got a future in this business.

Obey Giant

Interesting and worthwhile doc on Hulu about Shepard Fairey – from the Andre the Giant “Obey” stickers to the Barack Obama “Hope” campaign. Lots of insight from Fairy himself about his art and purpose.

Downsizing

This is like 3 movies crammed into one. A sci-fi move, a upstairs-downstairs class satire, and a travelogue. I’m sorry, Alexander Payne and company, but there’s too much stuff in the pie. Swing and a miss. The silver lining here is a great, funny, human performance from Hong Chau, who might get some nominations.

Lady Bird

Greta Gerwig took a page out of the Noah Baumbach playbook for this; a episodic and uniquely female portrait about a senior in high school. It’s not super plot-heavy, but it’s clear what “Lady Bird” wants: to get into a college across the country and "get out of Dodge." It’s honest, awkward, and funny. Saoirse Ronan, who’s always been good, navigates friends, family, and Catholic school, but she never really resolves or copes with any of her unresolved issues. She just moves-on from them. Change occurs when she accepts who she is and what she wants. It’s an accomplished debut by Gerwig.

The Post

All of the necessary, newspapery tropes are here, and welcome. Reporters are sticking to their story, never revealing their sources, and putting their ass on the line. And it’s all about that very important democratic thing: holding the government accountable for their actions. If you were Vladamir Putin and you were trying to undermine a democracy, how would you do it? Make people distrust the news by contaminating the newsfeed with misinformation, right? Sounds like a plan. A vital and necessary movie, full of great acting, brains, and constitutional truths. So it will inevitably be accused of being liberal propaganda.

The Shape of Water

Lovingly derivative, Guillermo refers to  mythology, 1950’s cold-war, b-movies, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet in this very adept and sweet “beauty and the beast” love story. Some of Del Toro’s dark and twisted sensibilities find their way in, but it’s mostly a love letter. All of the performances are SUPERB (and nomination-worthy), including Doug Jones as the slimy creature with the heart of gold. There’s an acceptable level of schmaltz in this, too, which makes you feel all warm and squishy and goopy inside, a lot like that sensitive swamp creature, I suppose. A must-sea. (Ha!)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

This is the “trials and tribulations” chapter of the saga, where nothing works out, nobody trusts anybody, and everybody generally gets their ass kicked. If you find yourself liking something a character is doing, it will eventually backfire. If you find yourself expecting a character will do something, brace yourself – they will do the opposite. The problem with the whole saga now (the brand) is that the movies will never end; they will always require sequels. That means that the dramatic effect is watered down. How do you author surprises in a movie that never ends?? With soap opera plotting, and shattering expectations.

It’s always a thrill to see a Star Wars movie in the theater. The effects are amazing and the music is beautiful. But if the corporation is going to be releasing chapters once a year, the chapters themselves need to have a little bit of resolution. Not “Death Star blowing up, applause in the theater” resolution, but something conclusive.

Phantom Thread

Let’s ruminate about dresses. For them to be exquisite, they must be built by an army of women and one obnoxious asshole. The Phantom Thread is about that asshole. There’s a subgenre of dramas about misunderstood geniuses and artists who get to be assholes to everybody because they’re so gifted and talented that they aren’t held accountable for their assholey behavior. They must be allowed to work in silence. (see also Mother!) Only an artist who feels misunderstood would make a movie about an artist who’s unappreciated or misunderstood. But it’s kind of hard to feel any sympathy for the asshole in this, which makes the experience kind of distant and unemotional. But the dresses are pretty and the teapots are grand.

As for the character we the audience are asked to feel something about, she gets swept up rather easily by the asshole from a life we know nothing about. She doesn’t really exist before he (the asshole) asks her to move in to his house. How can we know if she’s able to restore sanity or normalcy to her life if we never know who she was before she met the asshole? Be that as it may, the dresses are pretty and the teapots are grand. It finally gets a little bit Hitchcockian in the final third when filmmakers weave in some thrillerish threads. You might find yourself wishing that the opening minutes of this yarn would have started out as taut.

Justice League

I kind of didn’t hate this as much as I thought I would. It’s analogous to eating one (1) Cheeto™. It’s bad, it’s unfulfilling, but you want more. So it’s a calorically empty, but not terribly painful chapter of the DC universe. The villains are baffling. Zach Snyder is obsessed with fire, glowing, molten lava, flying demons, and all things gladiator. (Remember the weird flying creatures on Krypton in Man of Steel?) But you never really understand what these weird, flying aliens want from Earth, except: to conquer it. The WB Animation movies from the DC Universe have richer plots than this! But there are a few charming moments, too. And the cast, all 6 of the superfriends, are game and up to the challenge, even though they’re only given short vignettes throughout the story to reveal their character. The Danny Elfman music is noteworthy. Not only did he nail the original score, but he also functions as a kind of D.J., weaving-in nostalgic snippets from his own Batman score and John Williams’ score from Superman: The Movie. I would never advise anyone to eat just one Cheeto. It would be frustrating and unfulfilling. But it also wouldn’t kill you either -- you would want more. Welcome to the WB/DC universe.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

It’s like a twisted Lifetime movie with better cursing. Performances are really strong. Filmmakers walk a delicate high-wire of tone; combining heavy grief with deadpan wit and southern sarcasm. The stakes are high, and Martin McDonagh and company handle these sudden shifts in tone skillfully. As my lovely wife Kristen Haldeman Kauffman said, “It’s more Coen Brothers than a Coen Brothers movie.” The aforementioned tone shifts, are, in some moments, exhilarating; there are several instances when humor is mined from terminal cancer. So it’s well-done, but occasionally sad.   

Murder on the Orient Express

Past incarnations of Poirot have depicted him as a big, fat slob. Who knows? Maybe Christie imagined him that way, too. But Kenneth Branagh has done for Poirot what Guy Richie did for Sherlock Holmes -- made him lean, spry, and a black belt in karate. The structure of Christie’s murder mystery means that we never get to know very much about the man murdered, the backstory, or the suspects until the very end, which makes the proceedings feel impersonal and distant. Be that as it may, the acting by the ensemble is top-notch, the sets are as "Harry Potterish" as they could be, and the pace is peppy.

Thor: Ragnarok

This was closer to a Power Rangers movie than the actual Power Rangers movie that came out a few months ago. Neon colors blast from the screen, heroes and villains crack wise and never shut up, nobody ever seems to be in any real peril. I was impressed by the music score composed by Devo guy and new wave guru Mark Mothersbaugh. It’s a combination of typical, bombastic superhero music, a "Missing Persons" album, and a Bret Easton Ellis, new-wave coke party. Usually, people want their superhero movies to be heroic in some way. Do good, save the world, conquer the evildoers. Act as some kind of remedy or analogue for society’s ills. Maybe we could learn to be better humans. "Ragnarok" intends to be pure fantasy. Funnier and more colorful than it should be. Irreverent and barely human. It’s never boring, but it’s not really a sustainable tone, either. Brief moments, like when the Valkyrie recalls a bygone battle atop a flying Pegasus, stoke the potential for a serious opera; a myth; a true Norse saga. I’d see that movie, too.

Ghost in the Shell

I watched this on the plane which I regret because it was beautiful. I bet it looked good in theaters.

American Made

I didn’t hate watching this, but it didn’t really resonate either. It aspires to be like Blow, Goodfellas, or The Wolf of Wall Street. An ordinary family man (Tom "I can actually fly airplanes myself" Cruise) gets sucked into a life of crime based on a true story. The docudrama aspects of this story are fascinating, but as a character study it feels rushed and impersonal.

Blade Runner 2049

The central conflict -- the “inciting incident” -- of Blade Runner 2049 is frank and fascinating; a mind-blowing “what if” that delivers a truly essential sequel to Ridley Scott’s opus. The visuals are so beautiful you could break down into tears. The acting is always sublime. But this movie lingers a little too long. Emphasis on beauty presides over story, which ends up ultimately being confusing, and it requires a second viewing. You can walk away from this having “experienced” something, but it’s difficult to explain what, exactly. The director’s cut of Ridley Scott’s original is, in many ways, the masterpiece of sci-fi ambiguity. “2049” tries to emulate that, and it’s a noble effort. Unfortunately, a shitload of bad Blade Runner knock-offs (I'm looking at you, Hot Bot!)have been released in the last 35 years that have over-exposed and spoiled that special kind of Ridley Scott/Philip K. Dick flair for un-resolved questions about robots, making Denis Villeneuve and the crew’s job especially difficult. His beautiful but confusing attempt gets an “A” for effort.

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.)

Logan Lucky

…feels like an old Dukes of Hazard episode. The southern accents are pushed to the hilt, the smart guys are dumb and the dumb guys are even dumber, and there can’t be enough car chases. It’s comforting to have Steven Soderbergh back in the driver's seat, doing his funny/heist thing. It seems so effortless for him to wave a wand and make a popcorn movie. Will it resonate? Nope. But it’ll pass the time nicely.

Atomic Blonde

At some point in this movie, Charlize Theron, covered in bruises, soaks her body in a bathtub full of ice. And you can almost feel the bruises and feel the cold ice. This thing is brutal. And as much as I love John Wick, he’s never quite out of breath and a never quite totally injured -- you always assume he can spring back any minute. Charlize (as MI6 Agent Lorraine Broughton) brings an added level of emotional charge to the karate/assassin narrative. You can feel her pain. So, it’s good that she’s there, because otherwise the plot doesn’t make a lot of sense and we’re never quite sure what her goal is. In John Wick (same director, btw), we NEVER question his motive: revenge. Simple. So, this takes place in a greyer world of divided loyalties and evolving goals. Despite the story not being satisfying per se, it’s Charlize’s neck on the block, and she delivers.

Dunkirk

The reverence that Christopher Nolan has for movies and stories and photography and film stock is absolutely sterling. This is a love letter to exposure. Story-wise, this behaves a lot like those big, old war movies, when you jump back and fourth from one character’s story to another. Think The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Great Escape, or Midway. You never really get to know the characters, except for a recreational yacht owner played by Mark Rylance, sailing into a war zone, as the true story goes, to help evacuate British soldiers. It’s interesting too that this movie starts when most movies begin their final third: at the beginning of the climax. So it’s relatively short and always tense. It’s bold filmmaking. It embraces the tropes of the genre, but twists them slightly to the point where your expectations are unhinged. It’s both a quintessential example of a war movie and also a consummate one. And it’s full of laughs! (Not really. It’s a war movie.)

The Big Sick

This is about a Pakistani guy dating a white girl. But the conceit of it is: it’s not ALL ABOUT the guy being Pakistani. The guy’s culture definitely plays a part, but thankfully (and this is why the movie works) it becomes about things that are WAY BIGGER than our cultures and why dating is so hard. Because, for reasons that I can’t remember, the girl gets really sick and slips into a coma. And the girl’s parents rush into town, and suddenly it’s “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner in the Hospital Cafeteria While Your Daughter’s in a Coma.” The cast and the acting is top-notch and the script is really personal and funny. Apatow-ish story notes rear their sentimental heads occasionally, which is unfortunate. Small contrivances are too obvious here, in Kumail Nanjiani’s very personal and probable milieu. Also, it’s not always as light-hearted as you might expect. Hospitals and illnesses can be heavy and un-funny. But, again, it’s obviously SO personal. Nominations are likely.

Spiderman: Homecoming

** TONS OF SUPER-SPOILERS **

The new Spiderman is good only because it’s not horribly, painfully, catastrophically bad. It has NONE of the gravitas of the Raimi movies, but it’s also not as dull or forgettable as the Mark Webb movies. Sometimes, accidentally, filmmaking by committee can work. Six writers, one unknown director, and a studio so desperate to keep their franchise alive that they RENT some of the best characters from their competitors, and they all somehow managed to make a marginally entertaining movie. Who knew?

But now some questions and random thoughts:

Why does a crew that’s cleaning up volatile, radioactive material from another planet not wear hazmat suits?

Stark Industries decides, after the clean-up has started, that maybe they should clean up the powerful, highly radioactive alien power supply instead of the New York schmos from Waste Management??

Tony, Happy Hogan, and the off-screen Avengers seem pretty blasé about all of this alien tech falling into the hands of bitter New York garbage men.

If Tony Stark is so hung up on inhumans and mutants being dangerous in Civil War, why would he fund a superhuman kid that was bit by a radioactive spider?

In Iron Man 3, they make such a big deal of Tony breaking it off with Pepper, and in Civil War, they make it clear he’s got the hots for Aunt May. So why dust off Pepper??

Captain America is funnier than everybody else. 

Filmmaking by committee aside, the one who’s coming out of this smelling like gold is Spiderman’s sidekick “Ned,” played by Jacob Batalon. That kid’s going places.

Baby Driver

I kind of feel like I’ve seen this movie before. The getaway driver who agrees to do one last job. Count the tropes. Efforts to give this concept a “haircut” to make it look like something new only partially succeed. Would The Transporter be a vastly different movie if the “transporter” had a backstory? Or an old guy he’s trying to protect? Or a weird ear thing that makes him play music all the time? Otherwise, really, this feels like Edgar Wright pandering to the Fast and the Furious crowd. Moments of this are watchable and fun, but it’s really nothing new.

It Comes at Night

A lot of movie company bosses seem to forget the existence of John Carpenter’s The Thing. Because it seems like a lot of hot-shots rolling in off the street, who just happened to have caught Carpenter’s aforementioned paranoid opus on cable or something, pitch their remakes and rip-offs with aplomb. And the bosses and critics seem to be saying, “That’s so original! Let’s do it.” The main guy played by Joel Edgerton even LOOKS like MacReady. So those people who’ve never seen The Thing, or people with amnesia, might like this. Which is fine, but Mr. Carpenter deserves royalties.

Wonder Woman

Watching the perfectly cast Princess Diana of the Amazons leap out of the World War One trench and easily kill dozens of enemy soldiers is exhilarating. Much has been made about this hero being a woman and the movie being directed by a woman. And this is a lot like eating a gluten-free pizza crust. The conversation is always like: how does it compare to the real thing? Wait! This crust is gluten-free?? Really? It tastes like the real thing! And so: Wait? This movie was directed by a menstruating woman? With a vagina? You’re kidding?! It would be nice if, someday, this novelty wears off and we could just look at the story of Diana as a piece of popular entertainment. As it stands now, ignoring the forced novelty of it all, it’s overlong but pretty good. Origin stories tend to not be very suspenseful. I mean, you know they’re going to live at the end. And so the weird, overwrought, CG ending of this feels a little bit like comic book lip-service. Here’s a battle... because battles are required. But the casting here is precise and it does feel like there’s a different point of view of the proceedings, as trope-filled as they are. There’s a refreshing lack of Zack Snyder’s cuttiness and bombast that makes the popcorn taste a little bit better. So, kudos to Patty Jenkins and company for trying to salvage the DC universe…