Category Archives: 2017

Roman J. Israel, Esq.

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Roman J. Israel, Esq.                        3 stars

Roman J. Israel, Esq. features a wonderful performance by Denzel Washington in a movie that had great potential but falls short in the writing department.  Washington stars as Roman, an idealistic lawyer who is the junior partner in a criminal defense practice when the well-known senior partner is suddenly incapacitated by a heart attack.  Roman may be very talented in how well he knows the law, but suffers from a lack of social skills, like someone who has Asperger’s syndrome.  He gets the chance to work for a first rate lawyer played by Colin Farrell, but takes some convincing before taking on a new role.  I found that I felt for the character who has his flaws but ultimately wants to do the right thing.  The story seemed to wander for a while before it finally turns into a thriller that won’t end well for somebody.  The writer and director, Dan Gilroy could have worked out a more interesting plot before starting the production.  At least two of his earlier works, Nightcrawler and The Bourne Legacy were must more compelling.  The film is also notable for a nice performance by Carmen Ejogo as Maya, a dedicated social activist.  We’ve seen her before in It Comes at Night, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Selma.  Denzel Washington received a well deserved Oscar nomination for this role.  Let’s hope he does even better on his next outing.

The Boss Baby

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The Boss Baby                   3 ½ stars

While not the best animated film of the year, Dreamworks The Boss Baby has a good helping of originality and funny moments.  It’s based on the idea that there is a giant corporation known as Baby Corp. that actually delivers babies all over the world.  In this story we find 7 year old Tim who suddenly finds out he is getting a new baby brother, only when he arrives, the “Boss Baby” actually wears a suit and speaks with an adult voice (Alec Baldwin).  At first Tim is very troubled by this newcomer who has invaded his space and is taking his parents’ love from him.  Then later a secret plot is uncovered about a rival corporation planning to make a special type of puppy that will consume all of the love in the world for babies.  So Tim and the Boss Baby have to team up to counter this new threat.  If that all sounds ridiculous, don’t worry about it too much and just enjoy the action and comedy.  And naturally there is a family friendly message that is ultimately delivered.  There certainly have been worse animated movies in the theater lately.

Wonder

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Wonder                               4 stars

For a different turn I saw the very family friendly movie Wonder, starring Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson and Jacob Tremblay as August, “Auggie”, a ten year old boy whose facial deformities have kept him at home away from schools with other children.  His parents have decided it’s time for him to enter fifth grade at a mainstream school and get acquainted with the real world.  Of course things don’t always go well for little Auggie and he has to face the expected share of bullying before things start to turn around for him and he makes a few friends.  His knowledge and high marks in science aid him in his quest for acceptance.  Of course by the end of the film he will be accepted as a hero in many people’s lives.  This is certainly a safe film for the family and is helped by the usual good performances of Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson as the understanding parents.  Based on a best-selling book, Wonder is one of the better feel good movies of last year.

The Breadwinner

The Breadwinner                             4 ½ stars

The Breadwinner has to be one of the most enthralling and fascinating animated films I have seen in quite a while.  It takes us into the world of Afghanistan during the time when the Taliban have taken control while focusing on one eleven year old girl and her family.  We live through the suffering that this family goes through as the young self-righteous soldiers of the Taliban inflict unimaginable cruelty on those who cannot defend themselves.  Parvana’s father is forced into prison for nothing more than matter of factly addressing a soldier.  When the family is left with no male adults the women are beaten for the crime of walking alone in public trying to buy food.  Parvana then cuts her hair and passes as a boy to go on a quest to free her father from jail.  The story is aided by the stories Parvana tells about a young man trying to save his village by confronting the monsters that have stolen their seeds for crops.  The movie is done with very expressive and colorful animation and treats its characters as very real and believable.  The Breadwinner is suitable for adults and children, though perhaps not for the very young because of the acts of cruelty portrayed.  The Breadwinner is done by the same studio that made The Secret of Kells and The Song of the Sea, two of the best animated films of the last several years.

Victoria & Abdul

Victoria & Abdul                               3 stars

Victoria & Abdul brings actress Judi Dench and director Stephen Frears together again for the telling of the story of Queen Victoria, who in her later years develops an attachment to a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim.  Abdul has been summoned from India to participate in the Queen’s Golden Jubilee where he finds the old queen seeks to consult with him on a variety of matters and he becomes a teacher of sorts.  All of this is very troubling to the Queen’s staff and in particular, her son Bertie, the Prince of Wales.  They consider it demeaning that a man from a poor family of color could find his way to a position of honor among the royal family.  We are told that this is all based on a true story, but it is one that has gone largely untold. Presumably the family at the time had tried to keep it hidden.  The film is based on a book that was recently published.  Much of the film is done in a comic fashion as it finds comedy in how differently the cultures involved find one another.  Therefore, I have to wonder just how much of the story is true.  But putting all that aside, the film is still quite enjoyable and gives us two fine performances from Judy Dench and Ali Fazal.  Victoria & Abdul was nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Costume Design and Best Make up.  Stephen Frears is a very prolific director in Hollywood having directed such outstanding works as Florence Foster Jenkins, Philomena, The Queen, Mrs. Henderson Presents and Dirty Pretty Things.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2

Guardians of the Galaxy 2             4 stars

It has been four years since we heard from those heroes from the Marvel universe that includes Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Baby Groot.  Now they are back again in their heroic fashion to once again save the universe from its latest threat.  This time circumstances force them to ally with enemies Yondu and Nebula as they must find out the true nature of Peter’s family.  Now they must deal with Peter’s recently found true father, Ego who turns out to be a millions of years old celestial being who inhabits entire planets and has desires to control the entire galaxy.  The team must battle to put their internal differences aside while they do the usual, engage in a colorful, explosion filled conflict of mega proportions in long action filled sequences.  One of the best performances has to go to Michael Rooker as the enemy turned friend, Yondu, who upon being betrayed by his barbarian like gang, must join with the misfit Guardians.  The second installment of Guardians may have lost a bit of its sparkle, but still has plenty of heart with its soundtrack of seventies and eighties music that seems to inspire their leader, Peter.  I am sure we will soon be hearing about the next sequel, Guardians 3.

The Wife

The Wife                              4 ½ stars

In what is sure to be one of the most critically acclaimed movies of the year, The Wife, Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce star as a couple who have been married for nearly forty years who are about to face the greatest test of how solid their marriage is.  Joe Castleman (Pryce), a famed novelist has just been awarded the Nobel Prize in literature so he and his wife Joan (Close) are about to travel to Stockholm, Sweden to accept the award.  It will be on this trip, also with their son that everything about their marriage will come out in the open causing the full gamut of emotions to be released by these people.  Their son David has been doing some serious writing as well and is very troubled at not receiving the attention from his father that he thinks he deserves.  Flashbacks to the late fifties and sixties show us the early relationship between Joe and Joan, how he had an affair while married to his first wife and how he struggled as a writer at first but became more successful after being married to Joan.  As I watched Glenn Close’s reaction to events and the expressiveness of her face I felt I was viewing a true master of acting.  She will make you feel what the character is feeling.  The story is rather slow moving at first but is well written and I think it is safe to say there will be some Academy Award nominations for this film including Best Actress for Glenn Close (to add to her six previous nominations).

Kong: Skull Island

Kong: Skull Island             2 ½ stars

Kong: Skull Island reimagines the classic Kong story with some significant revisions.  First instead of the setting being in the 30’s, this time it is set in the seventies right after America’s withdrawal from Vietnam. (Thus the anti-war references). Second, instead of being perhaps 30 feet tall, this Kong is the size of a skyscraper, thus eliminating any possibility of capturing the beast.  There are several spectacular action sequences that depend heavily on special effects that feature various giant creatures attacking and devouring various members of the cast while others devise clever means of surviving.  The scientists of this team are accompanied by a small army that seem to be equipped for all-out war until they meet the featured ape who easily dispatches everything the military can through at him.  The characters are mostly two dimensional other than John C. Reilly’s Hank, a soldier who has been left behind on Skull Island since the end of World War II.  Reilly gives the movie a much needed dose of comic release.  Other notable cast members are Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson and Shea Whigham.  Kong: Skull Island is mostly an updated version of Land of the Lost and not a great one at that.  Based on the end scene of the movie we can probably count on there being another in a series of these lost monster movies.

The Post

The Post              5 stars

In my quest to see all Oscar nominated movies of last year I watched The Post, the Spielberg directed thriller drama about the Washington Post struggle to stay relevant in 1971 by reporting on the secrets revealed in the Pentagon Papers.  In this true story, the first woman major newspaper publisher Kay Graham (Meryl Streep) and the Post’s editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) must make the critical decisions about whether to publish the government secrets about the failures of the Vietnam War, risking the very future of the newspaper business.  This film was put together in near record time as the producers including Steven Spielberg wanted to make a movie that was very relevant to the relationship between Washington and the press of today.  The film pays great attention to detail and gets the feel of the newspaper business of the early seventies.  The newsrooms and printing press equipment are very authentic down to the metal desks and loud typewriters.  The drama brought to us by the acting skills of Streep and Hanks as well as the excellent supporting cast is compelling and will keep your attention throughout the movie’s run time.  The movie was written based on the memoirs of Graham, Bradlee and Daniel Ellsberg, thus it is very close to a representation of the true story.  It’s hard to imagine putting together a team of filmmakers more talented this this crew.  The Post may not have won best picture last year but it had to be in the running.  One interesting piece of trivia about the movie is that it took only nine months from putting the screenplay together until completion of the editing, which is close to a miracle in Hollywood.

Mudbound

Mudbound                         4 ½ stars

One of the most culturally relevant films of last year was Mudbound, written and directed by Dee Rees, takes of back to 1940’s Mississippi, where the Jim Crow laws are strictly enforced.  This story brings two families together, one white and one black as they each struggle against the odds to make a living farming in the Mississippi Delta, while dealing with the social norms of the time.  The McAllans (Jason Clarke and Carey Mulligan) just moved here after buying a farm they hope will fulfil their dreams.  The Jacksons are poor black tenants who work under them and are led by the father, strong and quiet Hap (Rob Morgan) and the mother, Florence (May J. Blige).  These families are of course very different, but must depend on each other to survive the realities of farm life.  At the same time the strong undercurrent of racism is always present and threatens to upend their world at any time.  Some of the most interesting moments are the scenes with younger brother Jamie McAllan and Hap’s son, Ronsel, both returned from World War II as war heroes as they share their stories of the war.  The title of the movie perfectly describes the conditions the families face as most of the farm scenes depict the dirty conditions these people face daily, there being no electricity or running water for these poor farmers.  Hollywood has seen plenty of movies portraying the deep roots of racism in the deep South, but Mudbound presents it in a dramatic fashion that keeps us interested throughout.  The movie is long at 2 hours and 15 minutes.  It was nominated for Academy Awards in Supporting Actress (Mary J. Blige), Cinematography and Adapted Screenplay.