Category Archives: 2019

Sound of Metal

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Sound of Metal                 4 ½ stars

I had not heard much about Sound of Metal before, but am glad that I saw it. Riz Ahmed of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story stars as Ruben, a drummer in a heavy metal band who is on tour with his band, Blackgammon. With him is his girlfriend/manager, Lou (played by Olivia Cooke of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl). Ruben begins to notice something is wrong early on when his hearing become muffled. He is soon diagnosed as having lost 80% of his hearing for an unknown reason, though playing in a very loud band might have something to do with it. Much of the movie focuses on how Ruben learns to live with being deaf by joining a deaf community where he must learn to communicate with others like him including connecting with a teacher for the deaf children at a local school. The feeling of silence is enhanced by imaginative sound effects in the movie that gives us some idea of what things might sound like for the deaf. The subdued acting of Ahmed contributes greatly to the understanding of his character. While at first he is enraged over what he is going through, he learns that he is not alone and must be willing to accept the help of others in his new journey. Sound of Metal is nominated for several Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actor (Ahmed), Original Screenplay, Sound and Film Editing.

Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker

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Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker                     3 ½ stars

The long Star Wars saga that started back in 1977 finally comes to a conclusion in 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. J. J. Abrams packs a lot into the 2 hour, 20 minute running time bringing many familiar characters together for the last go round. We have the usual gang, Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2, BB-8, Rey, Poe and Finn. There are also appearances by the dead including Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, and a pieced together role for the late Carrie Fisher as Princess (now General) Leia. Naturally, there is one more cute droid in this one who goes by the name Coneface. There are all the usual elements in a Star Wars story such as X-Wing dogfights, light saber duels and a character (Rey here) seeking to find their true identity and purpose. This time the evil emperor Palpatine has mysteriously returned from the dead and seeks to control Darth Vader’s grandson, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver, excellent in the role) to bring Rey (Daisy Ridley) to the dark side and destroy the resistance to the Sith and the First Order for good. It’s a long story of how this comes to be, but suffice it to say, at least the final battle is not a repeated sequence like The Force Awakens was. There are a few too many minor characters that clutter up the story including Lando Calrissian (now 83 year-old Billy Dee Williams) that have little to do in advancing the story. While Skywalker doesn’t rise to the level of A New Hope or The Empire Strikes Back, it is certainly superior to the dreaded The Phantom Menace. Now that the Star Wars story has come to a definite conclusion will there be more sequels to come? Do not bet against it.

Avengers: Endgame

Avengers: Endgame                        4 stars

Avengers: Endgame picks up where Avengers: Infinity War left off with the defeat of the Avengers at the hands of supervillain Thanos (Josh Brolin) leaving many of the heroes turned to dust along with half of all living creatures. Earth has been left a shell of its former self with many of the remaining Avengers: Tony Stark/Ironman (Robert Downey, Jr.); Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo); Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans); Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson); Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) struggling to adapt to bleak prospects without so many of their companions and family. Then five years later Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) suddenly reappears from the past giving the heroes the idea of time traveling to the past, collecting the six Infinity Stones from before the tragedy and bringing everybody back to life. Any story involving time travel and superpowers is going to be mind bending, but the overall premise seems to work in this culmination of the Avengers story that was started back in 2008 with Ironman. The movie is certainly bloated with too many characters and an over long at a three-hour running time. But it has plenty to offer with memorable scenes (like Tony Stark meeting his long gone father), comic relief (especially from fat, alcoholic Thor and Smart Hulk) and of course all that action with our heroes battling the evil Thanos and his army of bizarre creatures. With so many characters it is inevitable that many of the cast are reduced to just cameo appearances displaying brief acts of heroism. (There’s Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olson) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to name a few.) I hope it is not a spoiler to suggest that events in the movie would tend to rule out additional Avengers movies, but we shall see. Even though I have not seen anything close to all of the movies of the series, I think the latest film should be satisfying to the devoted fans of the franchise.

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon                              4 ½ stars

That most mischievous animal on the farm, Shaun the Sheep is back for another full length animated picture, but this time around he is battling wits with a new visitor, the kind that arrives from outer space. The production company Aardman Animation has made this new stop motion animation movie using the lengthy process of photographing the clay figures one frame at a time, with wonderfully entertaining results. Shaun is up to his usual fun playing all sorts of pranks on the Mossy Bottom farm to the chagrin of poor Bitzer, the dog who must keep order. Things change one day when the visitor from space arrives in the form of a cute little alien with special powers who seems to just want to have fun too. Thus, Shaun and the alien get along quite well whether they are sampling the candy at the local store or navigating the alien spacecraft. The farmer in the meantime gets the idea of constructing a theme park on the farm with the name “Farmageddon” to take advantage of the craze about aliens that has taken ahold of the locals, only his herd of sheep are the ones that have to build the park. As you might guess there are obvious flaws in this plan. At the same time there is a government agent who has been sent to the town to track down the sightings of a mysterious UFO. All of these events combine to form a very amusing movie that will appeal to all ages. Be sure to watch for all the references to past science fiction movies and TV shows.

Collective

Collective            4 ½ stars

The Romanian documentary Collective is a rare achievement in filmmaking, the filming of an investigation into a scandal while the investigation is unfolding. The film starts with a tragic fire at a night club in Bucharest in 2015 where 27 young people were killed. The scandal occurs later though when it is discovered that the burn victims being treated in the hospitals are dying from bacterial infections at an alarming rate. The investigation being run by a sports magazine called The Sports Gazette, finds that the disinfectant being used in operating rooms has been diluted by a factor of ten rendering it ineffective at killing bacteria. The publication and the journalist, Catalin Tolontan create a sensation when they reveal the company supplying the diluted disinfectant, and the fact that the company supplies the disinfectant used in hospitals throughout Romania. This well constructed documentary goes on to show the extreme levels of corruption that has infested the Romanian government and the health care industry. This is an industry that rewards people connected to the ruling political party with management positions in the hospitals, where they are free to line their pockets at the expense of public safety and abuse the health system employees. We even see the Romanian Health Minister giving a news conference where he assures the press that everything is fine with the disinfectant and that tests show that it is effective, a story that the press is not buying. The Minister is soon forced to resign. It’s an amazing story about a little sports magazine willing to take on a story that the larger media organizations stayed away from, even under threat of retaliation from a group of mobsters. The movie was nominated for Academy Awards for both Best Documentary and Best Foreign Film and it is well worth your while to check out.

Pinocchio

Pinocchio             3 ½ stars

Last year’s Pinocchio by Matteo Garrone updates the Disney animated movie to a live action version, where the bright fairy tale gets converted to a much more grimy version about a wooden boy puppet who desires to become a real boy. Having never seen the Disney cartoon I didn’t have anything to compare it to, but I understand that it is more true to the original novel than the 1940 Disney version. Pinocchio and company live in a fantastical world where fantasy and magic abound. We can understand why the puppet wants to run from Gepetto (Roberto Benigni) and find a better life. The problem is that Pinocchio is not all that smart and constantly finds ways to get into trouble, leaving others to rescue him including a fairy who looks out for him. The movie is long but is suitable for children and brings with it a message about the consequences of mischief and disobedience.

Better Days

Better Days         4 stars

The movie Better Days, released in 2019 is a representation of the high stress levels on high school students in China combined with the prevalence of bullying among peers in the schools. Based on actual events it follows the life of Chen Nian, a high school girl going through final exams which determine the fate of millions of Chinese every year. Nian is from an impoverished home where she lives with her mother and where they are being hounded by creditors. As if this isn’t enough Nian is being bullied by some of the girls at her school, but the level of bullying is much more extreme than what kids experience here in America. It rises to the level of criminal behavior, and for poor Nian the police and her teachers are completely ineffective in dealing with the problem, so she turns to Xiao Bei, a local street punk who himself is constantly beaten by local gangs. Bei vows to protect her from the abusive classmates. It is then that the movie turns into more of a doomed romance story between the two main characters. There are more aspects of the story including a police investigation and deaths of some students that I won’t go into, but it is a very compelling story with some good performances. The story does get a little confusing as some of the editing is done with flashbacks and because of the unfamiliar Chinese names the characters have. It helps to be able to do a little rewinding to follow the plot. The movie is significant as the real events led Chinese authorities to examine the problem of bullying in their schools that resulted in reforms that successfully reduced the problem. Be warned that the level of violence toward these kids is more than we would expect in a story concerning high school students. Better Days was nominated for Best International Feature Film in 2021.

Swallow

Swallow                               4 stars

Swallow is a difficult movie to describe. It may be a thriller turned horror movie about female empowerment in an environment controlled by men. It does concern a little known psychological disorder called pica. Hunter Conrad (Haley Bennett) is a newly married housewife whose husband is a rising star in the corporate world. Hunter is put on display in 1950’s wardrobe in a lavish, isolated house where she is expected to be the perfect wife and home decorator. The husband, Richie, is very controlling and her in-laws are judgmental toward her. The pressure only grows when it is learned that she is pregnant. It is then that the mental illness surfaces as Hunter finds satisfaction from swallowing inanimate, inedible objects and then “recovering” them. She does all this in secret trying to get greater satisfaction with more and more dangerous objects. I felt the movie gave a realistic feel for why someone would seek to cause harm to themselves when there was little they could do to control the world around them. I heard about the film when the pandemic was just starting and finally picked it as one to watch. I feel it fits in well with what we were facing in 2020 when events were controlling what we could and could not do. Haley Bennett gives an excellent performance as the housewife who is dominated by the men around her. Eventually, some additional context is offered to help explain this mental condition. There are some scenes that the squeamish may have a little trouble with, but there is no violence in the film. The film received well deserved favorable attention at film festivals before getting its brief theatrical run when Covid struck.

The Vast of Night

The Vast of Night              4 ½ stars

I first heard of The Vast of Night in the early days of the pandemic and finally saw it recently. This is a very low budget science fiction thriller set in a 1950’s small town in New Mexico. Two nerdy teenagers, Everett (Jake Horowitz) and Fay (Sierra McCormick) are not interested in the night’s high school basketball game, preferring to spend the evening talking about their technical pursuits like recording conversations on Fay’s new tape recorder and going to their night jobs as a radio DJ for Everett and a switchboard operator for Fay. But this is a night unlike any other when they hear strange sounds over the telephone and learn of bizarre reports of something in the sky. Things are slow through the first half hour of the movie but pick up as the pair track down older people who have stories from their past about strange happenings involving government UFO projects and disappearances of people. The film pays homage to some of the science fiction movies of the 50’s and uses some interesting techniques like filming with a camera soaring through windows and through the streets of the town. McCormick performs magnificently in one scene where she works the switchboard for what seems like ten minutes gradually picking up clues from callers that something is amiss. The scene is done in one continuous take. The film really picks up the pace in the final twenty minutes as the two get closer to the truth about what could be an alien invasion. This is the first movie made by Andrew Patterson who filmed it in Texas on a shoestring and came up with something that is truly original.

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom  4 ½ stars

In an Academy Awards first, a movie from the mountainous country of Bhutan was nominated for an Academy Award in the Foreign Language category. Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom takes a familiar theme of a new teacher assigned to a class of poor students and gives it a new take, with a setting in the Asian village of Lunana, a real village in Bhutan that must be one of the most isolated spots in the world. Ugyen is a young man who is fulfilling his government contract as an elementary school teacher who really wants to move to Australia and perform as a singer. His boss remarks that he is the most unmotivated teacher she has ever seen so gives him the assignment to serve one term as teacher in the remote mountain village of Lunana where a post is available. Ugyen, who likes to listen to music on his iPod most of the time has no choice but to make the journey to Lunana, a trip of six days on foot through the mountains accompanied by two guides and three horses. When he finally arrives he is greeted by the village elder Asha who has great respect for teachers who “touch the future”, along with most of the village and the children who are to be his students. Lunana is without running water, has only solar panels for electricity and the main source of heat is burning yak dung because paper is too valuable to burn. Ugyen undergoes something of a transformation from thinking of teaching as an annoyance to seeing its value and having a sense of purpose when seeing the enthusiasm of the students even amid such conditions. He also learns more of the local culture by hearing the music dedicated to the life of a yak herder. The audience feels the transformation going on as Ugyen’s experience progresses. The movie’s premise may sound like a cliché, but it is moving especially since all of the cast has never acted before. The real life residents in the village had never even seen a car or a camera before. The movie’s film crew had to manage in the remote location for a three month shooting schedule as well as make the long journey on foot. I will leave it to you to discover what Ugyen decides to do at the end of the movie.