Category Archives: 2018

Border

Border                                  4 ½ stars

The Swedish made movie, Border has to be one of the most unusual movies of 2018 or for that matter any year.  It concerns a young woman, Tina, who works as a customs inspector and possesses a most unusual and valuable talent.  She has the ability to smell emotions in people such as guilt, shame and fear which is instrumental in catching individuals trying to smuggle illegal goods into the country.  She even gets involved in a police investigation of a child trafficking ring.  Her unique qualities don’t end there though.  Tina’s appearance is especially striking as she has to be one of the most unattractive women ever to appear in film.  She has a protruding forehead and a very heavy jawline so one would always notice her in a crowd.  If I would have checked ahead I would have known that the film was nominated for the Academy Award category of Best Makeup and perhaps wouldn’t have been so surprised by her appearance.  Tina lives in her isolated shack of a house with her lazy boyfriend who likes to watch lots of TV and enter his dogs in dog shows.  Besides that she makes regular visits to her elderly father in a nursing home.  Then one day her world is changed forever when she meets a man on the job who resembles her in many ways including the facial features.  And she finds that her special skills don’t work on Vore which is very confusing to her.  As she spends more time with him she finds that they have much more in common such as an interest in walking through the woods, insects and worms and the occasional snack on maggots.  And that is far from the most bizarre thing about the movie.  As she makes a connection with Vore certain hidden aspects of her life become clearer to her especially when things get weird.  And then the movie gets even weirder.  And then when you think it’s as weird as it can get, it gets so weird that I can’t even describe it.  Something happens that I have never seen in a movie before and it might make you uncomfortable in mixed company.  It is certain that Vore has a very different take on people and the world than what Tina has ever felt.  Ultimately, I think the movie is about realizing who you are and finding your place in the world.  I know that despite all the weirdness I liked it.  I can’t spoil the surprises for you.  It will be more fun to find it out yourselves.

Free Solo

Free Solo                                                             4 ½ stars

It has been called awe inspiring and a celebration of one of the greatest athletic achievements ever.  Free Solo is a documentary from National Geographic  that covers rock climber, Alex Honnold’s quest to be the first person ever to climb the 3,000 foot face of El Capitan without a rope.  The film was three years in the making and includes interviews with Alex, his rock climbing friends, his girlfriend and his mother.  The film crew play a part in the film as well as they go into it not knowing how it will turn out.  One climber describes the event as a gold medal Olympic event, but if you don’t win the gold, you die.  We see how Alex studies the climb and memorizes every move he has to make on the rock’s most dangerous parts.  The film never shies away from the danger as it reminds us of many other free solo climbers who have died in pursuit of their dreams.  Certainly not for the squeamish, the final climb is a thrill to watch, even if you know the outcome ahead of time.  And it’s a good way to visit the national parks in a time when no one can.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse           4 stars

I made a real departure from the usual movies I see and took a look at Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, 2018’s animated version of the web slinging superhero from the Marvel universe.  I have not seen all of the Spiderman movies, but I’ve seen enough to be familiar with his story and some of his various enemies.  This animated movie bears little resemblance to the earlier live action versions and looks much more like a comic book, with its bright colors and fast moving action sequences.  It departs from the usual story as it creates a new Spiderman character in the form of a black teenager who gets his spider powers in the usual way, but is very unsure of himself through much of the film.  The story is quite bizarre with a large assortment of villains brought together by the sinister Kingpin who is conspiring to build a giant supercollider in order to kill everyone or some such plot.  It also involves a collection of other Spidermen gathered from alternate dimensions that are brought together to defeat the evil Kingpin.  One interesting one is Spider-Ham, a cartoon pig Spiderman (voiced by John Mulaney) who always has a clever wisecrack in any situation.  The movie collected some of the highest marks for an animated movie so I decided to finally take it in for a change of pace.  The story absolutely does not stick to the standard Marvel background.  It’s perfectly suited to the younger viewers out there.

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War   2 stars

I finally got around to Avengers: Infinity War, the continued adventures of the Marvel characters that was in theaters two years ago.  This two and a half hour extravagant CGI production is about all the superheroes in the series joining forces to battle their greatest enemy ever, Thanos, a supervillain who has such great superpowers he aims to destroy half the universe to create his vision of what the universe should look like.  He can accomplish his mission by collecting all the special stones scattered throughout creation and putting them in his gauntlet, a special weapon created just for him.  This story is scattered through so many different worlds and includes so many different characters that many of them seem to get lost and buried in the background.  There is the usual wit and personalities that we remember and the usual giant set pieces of battles between the heroes and the various villains.  Why do stories like this have to threaten the entire universe?  The writers pretend that we have no concept of how vast the universe is, like one individual could affect all of creation.  In my view there is only one franchise/science fiction story that could involve the whole universe and that is of Doctor Who.  All others need to limit themselves to a portion of the universe.  Infinity War is memorable for its overblown special effects and super-being battles, but I don’t recommend it for much beyond that.  Everybody probably knows how it ends by now, but I won’t mention that, except that there is a sequel after this.

Damsel

Damsel                                 3 stars

I went looking for movies that premiered at Sundance Film Festival again and found Damsel, a comedy western made by the Zellner brothers (David and Nathan).  Previously, they brought us Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, a very quirky comedy.  Here we follow Samuel Alabaster (Robert Pattinson), a pioneer who has come out west to marry his sweetheart, Penelope (Mia Wasikowska) and is accompanied by Butterscotch, a miniature horse as a wedding gift.  Samuel has enlisted the service of Parson Henry (David Zellner, also the writer and director), a drunkard and a preacher, so that he can immediately marry Penelope.  The surprise is that this is not only a romantic journey, but is also a rescue mission as it seems that Penelope has been kidnapped and is being held captive in a cabin deep in the woods.  To give you an idea of the comedy of the movie, the opening scene of a pair of travelers waiting for a stage coach at an isolated station, where one of them loses his mind seems unrelated to the rest of the movie.  The characters play their roles seriously and very well, especially Pattinson and Wasikowska, so the comedy comes with the absurdity of the situations the characters find themselves in.  Just as you think what you just saw was strange, something even more peculiar will follow.  Besides the miniature horse, there is a perpetually bent rifle barrel still in use, an abundance of dynamite and the bizarre reactions of Pastor Henry who is always lost in his life journey.  The pace of the movie is rather slow and it has a type of comedy that may not be for everyone.  Robert Pattinson previously has starred in The Lighthouse and High Life showing he is equally comfortable in drama, horror and comedy.  And I am looking forward to seeing him in the upcoming sci-fi thriller Tenet!

Christopher Robin

Christopher Robin            3 ½ stars

Christopher Robin brings us a new chapter in the story of the boy who went on adventures in the Hundred Acre Woods with his slow witted friend, Winnie the Pooh and his many friends.  This Disney movie picks up the story thirty years later when Pooh seeks out Christopher (Ewan McGregor), now a grown man with his family living in London and working for a luggage company.  It’s a charming story with a good family message about friends supporting each other through their trials.  The animal characters are done with CGI effects that make them look like talking stuffed animals and they keep their familiar characteristics from the cartoons.  This animation is much preferable to the new trend in Disney movies that make animals look as real as possible.  The character of Eeyore, the depressed donkey is especially entertaining as he always puts himself down and sees the worst side of every situation.  Christopher Robin isn’t quite as good as the original animated movies based on A. A. Milne’s children’s stories, but it is entertaining.  The audience is probably older than the children that enjoy Winnie the Pooh as there is certainly a darker tone of Christopher dealing with his family and work troubles.

Ready Player One

Ready Player One             4 stars

Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg seems like an appropriate movie for now as we isolate from one another and communicate through electronic devices.  In this movie, set decades in the future, most people live in poverty while a small segment live well working for giant corporations.  The masses escape their reality by venturing into the Oasis, a virtual world where people meet through their avatars and compete to find the treasures that its creator, James Halliday left behind but he died.  Our hero, Wade Watts is determined to do what no one has been able to do, find the hidden keys that will lead to the Easter Egg, giving the recipient total control over Oasis.  Of course there is a sinister corporation called IOI headed by the evil Sorrento, who will stop at nothing to get control of Oasis even if it means hurting Wade and his friends.  The movie is filled with pop culture references to movies, comic books and video games that others will appreciate even more than I did with what I managed to notice.  I especially liked the scenes from The Shining.  The references to Saturday Night Fever, Back to the Future and The Iron Giant were fun as well.  Even though I am not a video game player I enjoyed the action sequences and the visual effects.  The scenes continually alternate between reality and the virtual world with the result being a well put together story.  I was not at all bored through the two hour and twenty minute running time.  Be sure and watch for the appearance of one Simon Pegg!

Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody       2 ½ stars

I finally got the chance to see Bohemian Rhapsody, the 2018 biopic about Freddy Mercury, the lead singer of the legendary rock group Queen of the seventies and eighties.  It has much in common with other biopics about music legends we have seen in the past twenty years, the genius of a young performer, the troubled relationships with family, the flashes of genius and the downward spiral.  One type of movie I really love are those that show the creative process of writing a new song, how it gradually gets put together.  Here the formula is applied to We Will Rock You and Another One Bites the Dust,(both I remember well from the eighties) but it’s like the song is instantly put together in the heat of an argument.  Rami Malek does a good job as Mercury, but the look of his teeth was overdone.  There was some mention of his life style and his contracting AIDS, but for the most part the movie was not about this aspect of his life.  It did serve as a reminder of what the eighties was like, when gay people had to remain hidden even in the music industry and AIDS was ripping through the gay community.  The final scene of the LIVE AID concert was certainly entertaining even though much of it had to be lip synced.  If you watch it on DVD there is an extended version of the concert scene that is even more enjoyable.  There are other musical biopics I liked much better.  The ones about Elton John and James Brown come to mind.

High Life

High Life              3 ½ stars

I missed High Life in the theaters but finally got the chance to see it on video. This highly unusual film by Claire Denis is a confusing science fiction story concerning a group of people, all young and attractive, on a space ship hurtling through the solar system.  The movie has a slow pace and includes little in the way of special effects for a science fiction film. It is filled with symbolism and morally ambiguous characters.  High Life starts with Monte (Robert Pattinson) and his baby daughter on the mysterious spaceship.  The ship is completely self-sustaining including a green house and recycling of human waste.  Before long it is discovered that there was a whole crew on the ship who are now all dead, leaving the two remaining passengers to carry on.  The rest of the movie is a flash back that shows us the crew on the voyage and reveals (sort of) what happened to them.  We learn that this is an experimental space ship where all of the crew are criminals who have committed capital crimes and they are on a mission to a mysterious black hole, never to return.  There is a doctor named Doctor Dibs (Juliette Binoche), also a murderer who is the one in charge and who also performs medical experiments on her subjects which include trying to get some of them pregnant without their knowledge.  The crew all have some type of aberrant behavior leading some to commit murder and suicide.  Some seem to be trying to atone for their past misdeeds such as Monte being a caring father or Dibs trying to create new life after taking lives while on Earth.  I have not seen many movies by Denis, but have read that she always tries to make the audience uncomfortable which she has certainly done this time.  I also must warn you that the ending may be less than satisfying!  Once again here is a fine performance by Robert Pattinson.

Lizzie

Lizzie     4 stars

The psychological thriller Lizzie from 2018 is a retelling of the Borden family murders in Falls River, Massachusetts in 1892.  It was a personal project of Chloe Sevigny who served as producer and star and is made more relevant by the recent MeToo movement for women’s rights to be heard in cases of sexual abuse.  Sevigny has the title role with Kristen Stewart starring as Bridget, the hired maid for the rich family.  Lizzie’s oppressive situation is clearly outlined with her life being controlled by her domineering father Andrew (a lecherous Jamey Sheridan). The family also includes her step mother (Fiona Shaw) and her sister Emma.  Even though she is 32 years old she is not allowed to leave the house at night.  Lizzie strikes up a close kinship with Bridget (who is called the diminutive “Maggie” by Andrew Borden) especially when it is discovered that her father has been molesting her regularly. In this version their close relationship develops into more than being just friends.  The movie focuses little on the investigation of the murders and the trial and concerns itself mainly with the oppressive situation of the female characters and how they are trapped in their world and can see no escape from it.  Lizzie can’t even count on an inheritance as Andrew takes steps to ensure her life would be controlled by men even in the event of his death.  The way Sevigny plays the role and the way the scenes are shot gives the movie a closed in feeling.  Of course the gruesome scene of the actual murders is included so the audience has no doubt what happened even though the jury could not find a guilty verdict.  Lizzie brings new life to this classic American tragedy.