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 Fall Guy

The Fall Guy       4 stars

The summer blockbuster season may have started a bit early with the release of The Fall Guy, directed by David Leitch (Bullet Train, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw). The action comedy starring Ryan Gosling as stuntman Colt Seavers and Emily Blunt as movie director Jody is designed as a tribute to the stuntmen who make action movies fun to watch. Part of the fun is watching Colt prepare for each shot and endure one take after another of getting blown up and burned. In addition, Gosling shows that he is made to be a comedic leading man whether he is crying to a Taylor Swift song or giving one liners while taking punishment from the bad guys (of which there are plenty). The pair of Gosling and Blunt work comedy gold in their scenes together with dueling dialogue especially in an early scene when Jody questions Colt about his character’s motivation in front of the entire production crew. Remember that last summer Gosling was discovering his manliness as Ken in Barbie and Blunt was enduring marriage to Robert Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer. (It is clear that Gosling has not lost his physique since Barbie.) The premise is that Colt, the main stuntman for action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), returns from an injury to work on a movie in Australia being directed by his crush, Jody in her first directing opportunity. Her big budget movie is a sort of Mad Max action film with some fearsome looking space aliens and big explosions. During production, the movie producer (Hannah Waddingham) approaches Colt, telling him that the star, Ryder has gone missing, and Colt must track him down. And with what is an obvious MacGuffin, he must not tell Jody about the missing star. (A MacGuffin is a device that keeps the plot moving but may not make any sense.) When Colt discovers a dead body, he soon realizes that he is in over his head and he must face off against multiple villains in car chases and fight scenes, something he is surprisingly good at. After that the plot loses all credibility and little about the story makes any sense. But don’t let that stop you from enjoying it. I finally gave up on trying to make sense of it. But I did enjoy the fight scenes that included Stephanie Hsu (Everything, Everywhere, All at Once) as an assistant fighting a villain at the wheel of a large truck a la Indiana Jones. (And then there is the dog that helps Colt in fights, while only responding to commands in French.) The level of action is high like Leitch’s earlier movie, Bullet Train. It slows down a bit when Blunt shares the screen, with her contributing to the comedic nature of the movie. The score is very upbeat including a few renditions of I Was Made for Loving You Baby performed by both Yungblud and Kiss. So, turn off your brain for two hours and enjoy some real mind-blowing action.

Poor Things

Poor Things        5 stars

What if you took Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein about a mad scientist reanimating a human of stitched together body parts in the 19th century, but substituted a woman for the monster, made it a comedy and oh, added a lot of sex? You would have Poor Things, the new movie by director Yorgos Lanthimos (known for his previous outings Dogtooth, The Lobster and The Favourite). The Greek director has created a sort of alternate world set in Victorian London, but with a mixture of odd architecture and transportation and clothing styles that shouldn’t exist. Behind the dark comedy and the science fiction aspects is a story of discovery of the depravity of the modern world and female empowerment. Early in the film in London we meet Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), our mad scientist who has a very disfigured face, along with a young woman named Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), who is his “experiment”. In his household are a few of his earlier experiments on live animals such as a dog with a goose head and a chicken with a pig’s head. Bella killed herself before Godwin (or “God” as she calls him) retrieved her body and then brought her back to life but with a few changes. Her mind is wiped clean, and she is being retrained in how to live. She can barely talk and struggles to walk and eat normally. Behaving like a toddler without inhibitions, Stone pulls off the act with comic effect. With the aid of a medical student as God’s assistant, Max (Ramy Youssef) Bella gradually learns to behave more normally and is taught about the outside world, but also discovers free will and masturbation. She is confined to the house, but when a self-centered lawyer (Mark Ruffalo) finds her and is stricken with her he convinces her to join him in travels across Europe. Leaving Dr. Baxter, Bella sees the world and is enlightened about many things like dancing and fashion and how others perceive her. She also learns about pain and suffering in the world and has empathy toward the unfortunate. But there is also the sex that she finds so enjoyable or as she calls it, “the furious jumping”. She even finds out that women can make money by having sex with men and becomes very accomplished at it in a Paris brothel! Lanthimos uses some innovative techniques like filming the first part of the movie in black and white to make it look older and using wide lens shots at low angles. The music is unquestionably strange throughout. The selection of placing the movie during Victorian times when women were especially subservient to men makes Bella’s transformation into an independent, confident woman who won’t be owned by a man all the more stark. There are several characters that can be regarded as cads, but strangely, Dr. Baxter isn’t one of them. He could be described as being paternal toward Bella, wanting to protect her from the evils of the world. The movie held my interest throughout and had many fun moments of satirical comedy, and did I mention there is lots of sex?

The Boy and the Heron

The Boy and the Heron                  4 ½ stars

A lot of movie goers were surprised at the release of The Boy and the Heron, by Hayao Miyazaki, Japan’s master animator. Ten years ago, he released The Wind Rises saying it would be his final feature film. Fans of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli fondly remember his earlier classics My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle. His style typically involves a fantasy world with strange creatures having human qualities, drawn in a way that evokes many emotions in the viewer. In his new final film, he bases the story on his own childhood growing up during World War II in Japan. The main character is Mahito, a 12-year-old boy recalling how his mother was killed in a hospital fire caused by a bombing attack. His father moves the boy to the country near the factory his father operates. Also in the new home are his father’s new wife, Natsuko, who is Mahito’s aunt and is already pregnant, as well as seven old grannies who tend to their needs in the house. Mahito is consumed by grief from the loss of his mother and spends time exploring the environs around the house. Only, he is routinely harassed by a persistent large gray heron wherever he goes. One day he follows the heron to a great decaying stone tower and tries to enter it to investigate but finds he can’t get inside the structure. Mahito is warned by the grannies not to go there and is told the tower was built by his mother’s uncle many years ago. Then one day Natsuko goes missing and the gray heron reveals that he is really an old, ugly gnome with a voice, telling Mahito that his mother is not dead, and she can be found in the tower. Mahito follows the heron into the tower entering a new fantasy world that is inhabited by the living and the dead. There are many strange beings there including a large flock of angry talking pelicans, a young pirate, thousands of balloon like creatures called the Warawara that float through the air, a girl named Lady Himi who protects the Warawara with fire, and a kingdom of giant parakeets led by the Parakeet king. Also, present is a version of Mahito’s great uncle who is striving to build a perfect structure out of stone blocks. He is seeking a successor to his job and wants Mahito to take his place. Some of the scenes may seem confusing and there is a lot going on here, but the point seems to be that Mahito is working through his grief and is struggling to do the right thing in his life. Like his earlier films Miyazaki uses many familiar techniques in The Boy and the Heron to illustrate certain life lessons. Here the lesson is how one is to carry on with living when weighed down by extreme sadness. This film is somewhat autobiographical and is different from most in that the main character is a boy where he usually has female lead characters. (Like in Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away.) As in many of his other films it has a variety of odd characters, some likable and many with undesirable traits and questionable motives. I recommend it for animation fans, but perhaps not for the youngest of viewers because of some frightening images.

Mean Girls

Mean Girls          3 stars

Twenty years after watching high school girls battle for dominance in their pack in Mean Girls, the movie is remade in musical form with the same title, but this time it is updated for Gen Z to include the new weapon of social media and cell phones used in the art of put downs. Mean Girls is a movie based on a Broadway musical based on a movie based on a book. The same comedy genius, Tina Fey is again behind the writing for the film, but while funny, the magic of the original movie starring Lindsay Logan as Cady Heron, the homeschooled girl raised in Africa and transplanted to North Shore High School doesn’t quite carry through. We get almost exactly the same story with a group of high school mean girls called the Plastics who are determined to be feared by most while maintaining their exclusive club, only with the musical numbers from the stage production transferred to the big screen. There are some very well performed numbers like the emotional “What’s Wrong with Me” and an elaborately choreographed number involving what seems like hundreds of students in the school hallways. There are also times when the songs make too much use of the students’ cell phones, so you end up with a montage of TikTok like videos. Tina Fey and Tim Meadows do a good job reprising their roles from the first film as Ms. Norbury and Mr. Duvall. (I really enjoy seeing Tina Fey as a Calculus teacher.) The cameo roles of Jenna Fischer, Busy Phillips and Jon Hamm were barely noticeable. But be sure to watch closely and you will see Lindsay Lohan as the Mathletes moderator. Angourie Rice does an admirable job in the Lindsay Lohan role of Cady, the girl who forgets who her friends are when doing the full mean girl act. The best performance of the film must go to Renée Rapp as Regina George. She really makes mean look good as she instills fear with a stare throughout the school as she walks through the hallways. She can certainly sing, never missing a note. Rapp is continuing the role from the Broadway production, and we can see why. She is perfect in the role first performed by Rachel McAdams. (She has been making the TV talk show circuit for the past year or so and recently even made an appearance on Saturday Night Live.) If you really like musicals, you should see Mean Girls. Otherwise, I recommend going back and watching the original starring Lindsay Lohan with its message of staying true to your friends.

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio                   5 stars

Pinocchio by Academy Award winner Guillermo del Toro is not your Disney’s Pinocchio. It is not at all like the underwhelming live action Disney version that came out the same year (starring Tom Hanks). Del Toro’s movie is done with creative stop motion animation using physical carved figures and has a very dark aspect to it. There are the same basic elements from the original 1883 story by Carlo Collodi. It opens with Geppetto (David Bradley), the carpenter losing the son he loves, only here it is due to a stray bomb dropped from a war plane during World War II. It is set during the reign of Benito Mussolini, who we actually get to meet at one point. Pinocchio (Gregory Mann) was carved by Geppetto out of grief and was brought to life by some magic spirits. He has some very bad habits, always getting into trouble breaking things and skipping school like someone with ADHD. Like the original story his adventures include joining the circus and encountering a giant fish at sea and having a tiny cricket friend (Ewan McGregor) who looks out for him. In this version Pinocchio is crudely carved and is very puppet-like, with a large head and narrow limbs so that it is obvious he is made of wood. He would not be described as cute. And since he is very gullible it is easy for a carnival master (Christoph Waltz) to persuade him to join the circus. When it is learned that Pinocchio can be brought back to life after being killed, the local Podestà (Ron Perlman) sees that he will make the perfect soldier for the Fascist cause and forces him to join the army. He goes on to meet Il Duce who is not amused by Pinocchio’s antics so promptly shoots him! Each time he “dies” he is instructed by the Blue Fairy (Tilda Swinton) about his fate and the choices he is faced with. The movie has more violence than the Disney versions but even so is still suitable for children. It still has the same positive messages of the importance of love and family like the other versions. It is a natural story for del Toro to tackle adding it to his previous dark fantasy movies like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water. It is very deserving of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature it received.

Sasquatch Sunset

Sasquatch Sunset             3 stars

I first heard about Sasquatch Sunset at Sundance where it premiered earlier this year. There was a lot of talk about this movie which follows a family of Sasquatches in the North American wilderness, so I naturally had to see it when it was released in theaters. I know that I previously said The Beast was the most unusual movie of the year so far, but I now must award that title to Sasquatch Sunset. This movie by the Zellner brothers (Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter and Damsel) imagines what it would be like to observe a quartet of these mysterious creatures in their natural habitat, following them for a full year. The movie is imaginative and frequently comical but is a little short on plot. But you must be warned that many filmgoers reportedly walked out early in the film. The actors are covered head to massive toe in hairy costumes that are certainly convincing, communicating through grunts and waling. The movie has the distinction of having a complete absence of dialogue in any language. Without getting too graphic, imagine going to the zoo and observing monkey behavior for a whole day and you might begin to understand what you will be in for. At some point the creatures engage in just about every bodily function you can imagine including sasquatch sex and childbirth. (There is even the rebuff of sexual advances.) As in their previous films, the Zellner’s provide plenty of comedic moments as well such as an encounter with a turtle and the consequences of consuming hallucinogenic mushrooms. This odd family consists of a papa sasquatch (Nathan Zellner), a mama (Riley Keough), and two juveniles (Jesse Eisenberg and Christophe Zajac-Denek) who spend their days munching on leaves and berries and encountering various wildlife in their lush green environment. There are times when you feel they are marveling at the natural world around them by their staring and the expression on their faces. (One of them struggles with the concept of counting when he looks at the stars or a handful of berries but finds he can’t express the idea of numbers.) We also sense that they were once part of a larger community when they try to signal others by pounding on trees with sticks and then listen for a response that will never come. Combine this with their reaction when encountering evidence of humans and you get a feeling of doom for this hairy bunch. Sasquatch Sunset is certainly not for everyone but can be a fun way to spend an hour and a half.

The Iron Claw

The Iron Claw     4 ½ stars

“Mom tried to protect us with God. Pop tried to protect us with wrestling.” These are the words of Kevin Von Erich speaking of how his father, Fritz Von Erich drove his sons to be successful in the professional wrestling arena, but ultimately as we discover to tragic results. The movie The Iron Claw, by Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Nest) is about the real life Von Erich family, the kings of professional wrestling in Texas in the eighties. The movie is inspired by the lives of Fritz, the father of the clan (Holt McCallany), oldest son Kevin (a muscular Zac Efron like you’ve never seen him before) who is filled with drive to be the best but is haunted by what he sees as a curse on the family, second son David (Harris Dickinson), the tall lanky blond who tag teams with Kevin, third son Kerry (Jeremy Allen White who you will recognize from The Bear (also Law & Order)) who left a career in track and field for the chance to join his brothers in the ring and finally Mike (Stanley Simons) who saw himself as a country musician; that is, until he too joined his brothers in the ring. The movie is about a family of wrestlers, but it is also about the firm grip of control that Fritz had over his sons, wanting them to be the best and earn the championship belt that eluded him in his wrestling career. “The Iron Claw” is the name of Fritz’s signature move, the use of his hand to squeeze an opponent’s head until they surrender, but it also symbolizes the way he controls his family including his wife (Maura Tierney) who must watch the destruction of the family as they pursue pop’s dream. (Fritz is not going to win any parenting awards with his approach.) The actors, especially Efron obviously had to work up their physique and train hard to wrestle to make this movie. The action in the ring looks as comical as the real thing to me. There is some reference to the staging that is done in pro-wrestling, it being the best performers that end up being champion, so I have no doubt that it looks as real as possible. Unfortunately for the Von Erich family the tragedy that befalls each is only too real as well. The effect on Kevin is devastating as we watch his descent into depression. This is probably Zac Efron’s best performance to date. (We should forget about 2015’s We Are Your Friends.) “The Iron Claw” is far from an upbeat movie and you should be prepared to shed some tears. But it does deliver its message about being loyal to one’s family no matter what.

Barbie

Barbie                   4 ½ stars

By now everyone who wanted to see the movie of the summer, Greta Gerwig’s megahit Barbie has seen it. I know I was late in getting to this party but still thoroughly enjoyed it. Sure, it is a blatant marketing ploy by Mattel to capitalize on their iconic adult doll, Barbie, that appeared in the sixties and has been a mainstay of popular culture ever since. But the director of Lady Bird and Little Women, Gerwig has also made it into something of a subversive movie with its commentary on “the patriarchy” and Barbie’s realization of female empowerment. Barbie (the perfect for the role Margot Robbie (I, Tonya and The Suicide Squad)) and Ken (a blond Ryan Gosling (La La Land and The Nice Guys)) are always in a state of partying in their houses at Barbieland or at “Beach” until Barbie has her existential crisis experiencing cellulite and flat feet! On the advice of Weird Barbie (the wacked out but wise Kate McKinnon), Barbie goes to visit the real world. She succeeds in finding her adult owner, Gloria (America Ferrera) who is having her own problems with her tween daughter, but Ken who has tagged along discovers horses! and the patriarchy which he fully embraces and brings news of it back to Barbieland creating the crisis that the Barbies must deal with. Barbie and the audience learn the lesson of critical thinking and what women can accomplish in this world with the help of Barbie creator Ruth Handler (Rhea Perlman), Weird Barbie and a dramatic speech from Gloria. I enjoyed the roles of all the actors with the possible exception of Will Ferrell as the CEO of Mattel. Gerwig and her co-writer Noah Baumbach have created a fun movie with a message that is sure to be enjoyed for years to come. The movie also proves you can never have too much pink.

Maestro

Maestro               5 stars

It has been five years since Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut of A Star Is Born, a remake of a true Hollywood classic that he also starred in alongside Lady Gaga. Now he has co-written, directed, and starred in Maestro, a biopic on the life of Leonard Bernstein, the legendary American composer and conductor. Cooper elected to focus on his twenty-five-year relationship and marriage to actress Felicia Montealegre (played masterfully by Carey Mulligan (An Education, Drive, She Said, Promising Young Woman), showing us how they met at a New York gala, how she stayed with the man she loved through many difficult years until her death from cancer. We see Bernstein’s rise to fame after he directed the New York Philharmonic and the attention to his career by the media. The film does not show us much of his creative process in his compositions, choosing to show us his conducting skills (which I understand are very accurate thanks to Cooper’s attention to detail), and his tendency toward having affairs with men causing great strife for Felicia. I think that he made the right choice in not making the movie too broad as often happens with biopics. I really liked some of the creative elements used in the picture, such as the moving camera work in an opening scene where Bernstein learns he is to conduct the New York Philharmonic and we follow him from a bedroom as he moves through hallways and appears in the concert hall all in one continuous motion. The early scenes in the forties and fifties are all done in black and white making it look like old Hollywood, but when we get to the sixties and seventies the screen turns to bright colors displaying the difference in the eras. I loved the fantasy sequence showing dancing sailors giving us a hint of On the Town, but with Bernstein showing up in the act as a foretelling of the troubles to come. The film wouldn’t be nearly the success that it is without Carey Mulligan as Felicia who loves Bernstein but must suffer through his infidelities and his selfishness over his own greatness. The scene of the two confronting one another in their apartment during a Thanksgiving parade, (complete with Snoopy balloon) with her exploding in rage is equal to what I’ve seen in Anatomy of a Fall and Marriage Story. I have admired her acting skills since 2010’s An Education. She has been nominated for acting Oscars twice before and will surely be nominated for Maestro come Oscar time. She could very well win it this time. Bradley Cooper has Bernstein’s mannerisms down cold and keeps the energy of the film high with the quick dialogue he delivers along with the rest of the cast. The makeup on Cooper is convincing as we see Bernstein age through the decades. Undoubtedly, the movie will be rewarded for this. The only problem I had was with the movie not telling us what pieces are being performed when Bernstein is conducting. It is assumed the audience knows them and while they are familiar to me, I would like to know what they are during the movie. I am just glad I got the chance to see it in the theater to get the full effect. All music lovers should see this one and even if you’re not you shouldn’t miss it. Maestro is one of the best movies of the year.

The Boys in the Boat

The Boys in the Boat                       2 ½ stars

Director George Clooney who brought us such movies as Good Night and Good Luck,
Leatherheads and The Monuments Men returns to the director’s chair for a feel-good
underdog sports movie in The Boys in the Boat. This true story about an
eight-man rowing team from the University of Washington that competed in the
1936 Berlin Olympics and won a gold medal for the US is based on the
bestselling book by the same name. It follows the team through their struggles
during the depression, focusing mainly on rower Joe Rantz (Callum Turner of
Emma and Fantastic Beasts) who was abandoned by his father at age 14 but is
trying to stay in school to earn an engineering degree. Joe and the others are
drawn to the sport primarily based on the promise that is a guaranteed paying
job for those who make the team. The team coach (Joel Edgerton: Loving, It
Comes at Night, Boy Erased) has a vision of success with the young men of the
junior varsity team at U of W and tells them they are competing in the most
difficult sport in the world. While I agree that this is a story worth learning
about, the movie becomes one sports movie cliché after another. You can insert almost
any sport into the plot, whether it is boxing, basketball, track and field,
tennis or horse racing and you will have basically the same movie. (But not
golf. There is no sport in movies more boring than golf.) You have the grueling
workouts, the early spark of talent, the belief in greatness, the setbacks (in
this case the challenges from the administration against the junior team, the
need for raising more funds to go to Berlin) and the final heart pounding
competition. In this case we even get the appearance of Der Feurer at the final
event who is there to see the triumph of the Germans over the other teams. The coxswain,
Bobby (Luke Slattery) shows some real personality as he shouts encouragement to
the team when they are racing. But otherwise, these athletes seem like bland
copies of one another in their scenes together. There is an amusing romance
when a former classmate (Hadley Robinson) tries to get Joe’s attention and you
would almost expect a musical number out of a thirty’s movie to break out.
There were some nice touches like the aerial shots of the boats in steady
rhythm and the moving grandstands on a train that follows the course of the
race. The movie is good as a comfortable sports movie, but empty of any
surprises.