Author Archives: Ron

About Ron

I like to watch movies and share my thoughts on them. I have been writing reviews and distributing them since 2013.

The Tragedy of Macbeth

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The Tragedy of Macbeth               4 stars

Joel Coen does his take on Shakespeare’s play Macbeth in an unusual style. Oscar winner Denzel Washington is excellent as the power hungry Macbeth who is driven to be the king of Scotland by the combination of his wife, Lady Macbeth (Francis McDormand) and the three witches who help him hatch his murderous plan. Of special note is Kathryn Hunter who portrays the three witches in a scene where she seems not human as she contorts her body into odd shapes and utters the scheming words of all three parts. Brendan Gleeson is very appropriately cast as the loved king who is doomed to die by the hand of Macbeth. The scenery is very stark and minimal with the filming all done in black and white. It serves to bring all the viewer’s attention to the performances on the screen by the very talented actors. Some parts of the film have a fantasy like quality to show how Macbeth seems to be losing his mind as his mad plans fall apart. It has been a while since I heard the story of Macbeth, that is, when I was a senior in high school so I confess I could not follow the whole story. The movie uses the Shakespearean manner of speaking so it will be tough to get used to. If that doesn’t turn you off you would be well advised to see The Tragedy of Macbeth. I have to agree that Washington is deserving of his Oscar nomination for this role.

The Worst Person in the World

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The Worst Person in the World                  3 stars

The subject of The Worst Person in the World is not a war criminal but a young woman in Oslo, Norway who is trying to manage her love life and find a career that has meaning and that she can stick with. The film is by acclaimed director Joachim Trier, this being the third film of a trilogy. Not having seen any of her earlier work I have only this film to go by. It is billed as a romantic comedy though I would have to say it is untraditional. The actors are first rate and believable, but I did not find them to be very likable. Julie wanders from one career to another including medical student, psychology student, writer and photographer and meets and falls for Aksel, a popular underground comic book artist who draws a catlike character that many women find offensive. At first I found him annoying and needy, but later on I came to empathize with him. Julie is apparently the title character and some of her actions made her deserve it, especially the way she treats Aksel when things get tough. There are also instances where the film veers into fantasy sequences that I could not see the need for. Why does the filmmaker have to get so cute and go in such a weird direction? Also, you should be warned there is some rather graphic sexual talk. The film has created a stir in the film festivals, but I can’t say I shared in the enthusiasm. The film is from Norway and is nominated for International Feature Film.

tick, tick…BOOM!

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tick, tick…BOOM!             4 ½ stars

tick,tick…BOOM! takes us into the world of Broadway musical theater in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s movie directorial debut. We are introduced to aspiring playwright Jonathan Larson played exuberantly by Andrew Garfield (who we just saw portray Jim Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye). This musical was actually written by Larson about his own life when he was writing his first musical, Superbia, a futuristic never produced play he has been working on for eight years. Larson went on to write the musical Rent, the hugely successful production but unfortunately he died just before it was performed. tick,tick…BOOM! captures the ambition and desperation of Larson as he struggles to become a success at age 29, hoping not to be just a waiter with a music writing hobby. His behavior is so manic he puts off his girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp) and alienates his childhood friend Michael (Robin de Jesus) who recently left the theater to pursue a successful career in advertising. The performances and music nearly rises to the level of In the Heights, the Miranda creation from last year. The joy and inspiration of the movie is balanced by the tragedy of many of Larson’s friends dying of AIDS. This is 1990, during the height of the epidemic, so there is plenty of sadness going around. There are some very well staged musical routines here with Andrew Garfield being worthy of his Academy Award nomination. I have enjoyed every role I have seen him in including the first film I remember him in, 2010’s Never Let Me Go.

The Catcher Was a Spy

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The Catcher Was a Spy   3 stars

The Catcher Was a Spy takes us back to the espionage days of World War II when men in trench coats and fedora hats met secretly at night to gather intelligence and plan strategic assassinations. Here director Ben Lewin tells the true story of professional baseball player Moses “Moe” Berg who volunteered for the OSS and was sent on a mission to find and assassinate nuclear physicist Werner Heisenberg who may or may not be working on a German atomic bomb. The usually comedic Paul Rudd steps into the dramatic role of Berg and does a decent job given the material. I wanted to like the movie more but there wasn’t enough to get excited about though the combination of sports hero, wartime intrigue and harrowing situations would seem to provide plenty of material. Berg is an interesting subject, given the facts that he was Jewish, studied at universities, spoke several foreign languages and was sometimes perceived as being gay. We don’t get a full picture of Berg and his motives making him a mysterious figure which may be a good thing for the movie. With hindsight we now know that Germany was not close to producing an atomic weapon though it was feared they might be. So perhaps the premise of tracking down a scientist who could be working on such a weapon during a war is not that interesting of a story after all despite the background of the baseball player turned spy. That’s just a thought.

Didi

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Didi        5 stars

Once again, I had the chance to see a popular movie that first appeared at the Sundance Film Festival but couldn’t see while there because of its high demand. Didi, a coming-of-age movie about a 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy who is struggling, (though very badly) through those tough adolescent years. Writer director Sean Wang has created a semi-biographical film about a boy trying to make sense of his changing world and be popular but manages to be a complete jerk in going about it. Chris (or Didi as his mom calls him) lives with Mom, his older sister who is about to leave for college and Nai Nai, his father’s elderly mother. Father is absent, while working to support the family. Chris constantly gets into arguments with his sister and his mom and makes life hell for them. To call him an annoying little brother is an understatement. (How would you like to discover that someone peed in your skin lotion?) In this immigrant family the adults speak almost exclusively Chinese, while the kids understand it, but only speak English, an interesting dynamic. He has a circle of guy friends who are all East Asian that he hangs out with and occasionally goes to parties where there are girls including one he is interested in. Their language is graphic and typical for kids of this age. While not being a total jack ass, he spends his time making videos and skateboarding, the only interests he seems to have. It is 2008 and Facebook and YouTube have just become a thing. (It is fascinating to see again how social media worked back in this time.) Chris keeps track of his friends on Facebook, a list that becomes progressively shorter as his actions turn them away. At one point he meets some older kids who are not Asian but are skateboarders, so he tries to get in with them by claiming to be good at filming scenes of action, while at the same time disenfranchising his other friends. His temper is not limited to his family as he at one point physically assaults another boy, creating another headache for his suffering mom who must also take criticism from the mother-in-law. It is not spoiling anything to say that eventually Chris must come to realize that he is creating hell on his mother who does everything in support of him. At the same time, he learns that in real life not all relationships can be repaired, but hopefully the most important ones can. In the long list of coming-of-age movies, Didi ranks high. It was recently released in theaters and hopefully will soon be available on streaming.

Turning Red

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Turning Red                        4 stars

Pixar’s 2022 animated film Turning Red takes a different twist on the coming-of-age theme. This first full-length Pixar film to be directed by a woman (Domee Shi) tackles the subject of puberty and menstruation in a teen-age girl by using a metaphor in the form of a giant red panda. 13-year-old Chinese Canadian Mei lives with her immigrant Chinese family in 2008 Toronto and is a normal kid, though anxious and an overachiever in school. Her mother, Ming (Sandra Oh) is very controlling and likes to keep a watchful eye on her only daughter. Mei likes to hang out with her girlfriends and talk about their favorite boy band. Things seem perfectly normal, that is until she experiences a sudden change in her mood and finds herself very attracted to a certain boy in school. It is then that she discovers that feeling strong emotions makes her transform into a giant red panda with extraordinary strength. This is symbolic in movie terms of something powerful going on in her body, making her temporarily lose control of her emotions, a common occurrence in teenagers. Naturally, she tries to hide the transformation from her friends; that is, until she finds it can be a way to be more popular. Then the trick is to hide the change from Mom and her family. The girls secretly scheme to use Mei’s gift to raise money so they can attend a concert of their favorite boy band, 4 Town. (Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell wrote much of the original music that makes the boy band seem genuine.) But then there is more to the story when it is revealed that the giant red panda is really a sort of family curse that is visited upon all the female members of this family. Traditionally, they must perform a ritual that will keep the panda in check. The movie is a tactful yet amusing way of presenting the change that will relate to teenage girls while likely be over the heads of, yet be fun to much younger viewers. Turning Red adds to Pixar’s list of successful films dealing with certain human conditions that includes Coco, Soul and Inside Out. In a way, Inside Out 2 addresses the same subject as Turning Red but is a little more abstract. Unfortunately, for Pixar, they were forced to remove the movie from theaters and show it exclusively on streaming platforms because of pressure put on them from concerned parent groups who found the subject matter too controversial for their sensitive tastes. But at least young audiences have a way of seeing this colorful, action-filled film from Pixar. Domee Shi is an Academy Award winner having previously made the animated short film, Bao, about Asian parents becoming empty nesters.

The Outfit

The Outfit           4 stars

Writer-director Graham Moore of The Imitation Game has created a tense well-crafted crime drama in The Outfit, starring Academy Award winner Mark Rylance as Leonard, a soft spoken tailor who operates a tailor shop in 1958 Chicago where he makes finely crafted suits. That is, a shop that is also frequented by shady gang figures who use a drop box inside to pass thick envelopes with mysterious markings and who also will have Leonard make new suits for them. Rylance is very low-key as Leonard who stays intensely focused on his craft and only wants to be able to survive the night when the mobsters become aware that there is a “rat” in their midst who is informing a rival gang of their comings and goings. The movie is unique in that the entire story takes place within the rooms of the shop, most of it in a single night filled with suspicion and murder. Two of the gangsters are played by Dylan O’Brien and Johnny Flynn who speak with convincing Chicago mobster accents. Simon Russell Beale is equally effective as the mob father figure, Roy Boyle, who wants to get to the bottom of the evening’s events, even if he has to kill someone. Zoey Deutch appears glamorous in 1950’s wardrobe as Mable, the receptionist, who is treated like a daughter by Leonard. (Deutch is the daughter of actress Lea Thompson.) The show really belongs to Rylance who gives a fascinating performance of a man who must always keep his wits about him even with a gun pointed at him. There are many lies and misleading stories being told so, the audience too must stay focused on who said what to who and who really knows the truth. I chose to see the movie based solely on seeing the trailer and am glad I made that choice.

Cyrano

Cyrano                  4 ½ stars

In Cyrano we get a reimagining of the classic tale of Cyrano de Bergerac, the poetically gifted man who thought himself too hideous to be loved by the woman he adored. This latest version stars Peter Dinklage as the man of wit who is also an expert swordsman able to fight off ten men at once when challenged. The story has been done on film innumerable times with the title role taken by Jose Ferrer, Christopher Plummer, Gerard Depardieu and Kevin Kline among them. There have been adaptations such as Roxanne, The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Megamind and most recently The Half of It. Usually the story is told as a romantic comedy, but here director Joe Wright tells it as a tragic love story with dire consequences for all those involved. We get the added feature of it being a musical with melodious songs sung by Dinklage and Haley Bennett as Roxanne, the object of affection. The singing really adds a new dimension to the story especially with the rich voice of Dinklage, who also has one of the most expressive faces I have seen in the movies. Bennett, previously known for The Girl on the Train and Swallow is effervescent as the woman who is smitten by Christian (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.), a common soldier, but is forever just friends with poor Cyrano. One of the opening scenes at the theater introduces us to Cyrano and the mood of the film where he ridicules a popular actor on stage to the point of humiliation and then proceeds to kill another man in a duel in a sword fight on the stage. We know then that this is no light comedy. Besides the musical numbers there are some interesting dance numbers with swordplay by soldiers to music. Cyrano is a welcome addition to the musicals of the past year that includes West Side Story and tick, tick…BOOM! Without giving too much away the movie is tragic, but with a ray of hope by the time we get to the end.

CODA

CODA                    5 stars

I finally found the movie CODA being shown at a local theater and had the chance to see it before the Academy Awards. It has been showing on Apple TV+ and before that it was at Sundance where it won multiple awards. For those who haven’t heard of it before, this is the movie about a young girl who is a CODA; that is, Child Of Deaf Adults. Ruby, played by Emilia Jones loves to sing, but she only does so privately, such as when we first see her singing “Something’s Got a Hold On Me” on her father’s fishing boat. Her parents, (Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin) as well as her brother Leo are all deaf leaving high schooler Ruby as the only hearing person in the family making her indispensable as a way for the family to communicate with the world. The conflict is set up when Ruby joins the high school choir and the music teacher recognizes her talent and encourages her to try for entrance in an elite music school. The question then becomes whether her family can recognize Ruby’s desire to pursue something they cannot even hear and allow her to leave the family and the fishing business, something she has been a part of her whole life. It is a story using a formula that makes it a family hit and is aided by fine performances including those of Jones, Kotsur and Matlin. Eugenio Derbez is also effective as the music teacher who spends time coaching Ruby after school. Derbez is a well-known actor in his native Mexico. Everyone should see this favorite from Sundance that many have predicted to be the Academy Award Best Picture winner. And surprise! Last night CODA went on to win the Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor in a Supporting Role Oscars.

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Everything Everywhere All at Once           4 ½ stars

The title is a good description of the Daniels’ (Dan Kwan and Daniel Schweinert) new movie Everything Everywhere All at Once because it seems like everything imaginable is happening. It’s a science fiction, action, comedy adventure that features a lot of kung fu fighting including that of action star, Michelle Yeoh. Yeoh is Evelyn Wang, who owns a California laundromat, along with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan, who was known as “Short Round” in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and also “Data” in The Goonies) and is expecting a visit from her aged father, Gong Gong, and is planning a Chinese New Year party in his honor. (Gong Gong is played by James Hong who is probably one of the most recognizable character actors working in Hollywood today.) The thing is before the party Evelyn, Waymond and adult daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) must visit the Internal Revenue Service where the business is being audited by a petty inspector named Deirdre (played by a practically unrecognizable (and fat) Jamie Lee Curtis). It is at the IRS office that Waymond pulls Evelyn aside, slaps some Bluetooth receivers on her ears and explains that the fate of the universe rests in her hands. It turns out that Evelyn, Waymond and a host of other characters are all connected to thousands of other alternate selves throughout the multi-verse and these alternate beings can transfer their consciousness across the cosmos to one another. This sets up the opening battle between one alternate Evelyn with an alternate Dierdre plus a few security guards where a fanny pack becomes a deadly weapon. Eventually we meet Jobu Tupaki, the evil force who threatens the universe, also played by Stephanie Hsu. Evelyn’s alternate selves include a singer, a celebrity chef and many other people with talents that she can draw from in the colossal battle. Waymond says that she was chosen because she can’t do anything well. The many imaginative scenes include people with wiener fingers, sentient rocks, a racoon chef on Harry Shum’s head and battles involving sex toys that give the users certain extra powers. Then there is a giant bagel that seems to be at the heart of what is going on. The movie is almost non-stop pandemonium that pays tribute to many Chinese made action movies of the past. Veteran action star Michelle Yeoh has shown her fighting skills before in movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and dramatic acting skills in Crazy Rich Asians and Memoirs of a Geisha. She uses all those talents once more in Everything Everywhere All at Once plus a few more skills. Be sure you are up for it. The twists and turns and the non-stop fighting can get exhausting! But it is guaranteed to be fun.