Category Archives: 2019

Brittany Runs a Marathon

Brittany Runs a Marathon            4 stars

Brittany Runs a Marathon is the new starring vehicle for comic actress Jillian Bell who I have seen previously in several movies always in supporting roles.  Here she is Brittany, a young woman in New York City who is facing issues of low self esteem mainly due to her weight and physical appearance.  She gets to know a neighbor in the building, Catherine (Michaela Watkins) who is a runner so she decides to join her running group, then meeting Seth (Micah Stock) who is also clearly out of shape also, so they have that in common.  Of course there are several comedic scenes of these two struggling to complete short distances that comes so easily to the other runners.  Then at the same time Brittany has to deal with her roommate Gretchen, who is of course petite and beautiful and Jern, the young Indian man who she shares house sitting duties with.  Then there is also Brittany’s sister and her husband, Demetrius, who are there to offer encouragement through her difficulties.  The trio, Brittany, Catherine and Seth decide to train to enter the New York City Marathon so this serves as the back drop to all of the relationship issues going on in Brittany’s life.  The movie succeeds due to the acting and comic timing by Bell who finally has her starring role in a movie.  I have not read any interviews with her but she clearly goes through an amazing transformation during the movie losing over thirty pounds from beginning to end.  Among all the comedic situations, the movie delivers a clear message about allowing others to be a part of one’s life and not shutting people out.  This is actually the second movie this year that paired Bell and Watkins.  The two also appear together in Sword of Trust which was out just a few weeks ago.  Jillian Bell also made appearances in Bridesmaids, Rough Night and Office Christmas Party.  Brittany Runs a Marathon was a hit at Sundance earlier this year where I first heard about it.

Little

Little                      3 stars

For a film on the light side you can see Little, a comedy produced by and starring teen actor Marsai Martin from Black-ish.  Jordan Sanders (Regina Hall) runs her own company and is a tyrant in doing so.  Her employees including assistant April (Issa Rae) are run ragged trying to satisfy Jordan’s wishes.  That is until a little girl uses her magic powers to turn Jordan into her thirteen year old self (Marsai Martin) putting her back in middle school.  As fantastic as this turn of events seems it doesn’t take long for the characters to accept it as the new reality.  Despite being so young again Jordan still seems to see the world through her adult eyes and strives to manipulate people into doing her bidding.  The film certainly has its funny moments and some great music, but the story is unconvincing.

The Goldfinch

The Goldfinch    2 ½ stars

The Goldfinch is the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning book of the same name about Theodore, a boy who suffers through the death of his mother in a terrorist attack on the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  There is a lot to pack in to this story in two and a half hours, but the story unfolds very slowly before certain secrets are revealed.  The film has several time jumps as the story goes from the time the boy is a teenager being cared for by his mother’s saintly friend (Nicole Kidman) and his uncaring father (Luke Wilson) and then to Theodore as a young man (Ansel Elgort) working with an antiques dealer (Jeffrey Wright).  The movie takes an extremely long time for the story to come together and it hits us again and again with its symbolism such as the red headed girl Theo is fascinated with.  If you watch this one don’t do it too late at night or it may put you to sleep long before reaching the end.

Judy

Judy       4 ½ stars

The highly anticipated biopic Judy features Renee Zellweger as the doomed singer-actress Judy Garland in her final months before she died.  This is truly a showcase of Zellweger’s talents as she clearly captures the decline of the health and stature of one of America’s greatest talents.  Those who remember Garland from the sixties will find Zellweger’s approach to the role as remarkable as she is engulfed by the character.  I am so glad that the story was not the usual biopic piece that covers a performer’s entire career, but rather only focuses on a brief period of Garland’s life, that being the London tour she went on in 1969 only six months before she died of a barbiturate overdose.  This allows us to see what feels like a complete story that doesn’t jump over large periods of time.  It also allows the supporting characters to have parts that blend in with the story.  There are flashbacks to Garland’s early years as a child star under the control of the studio headed by Louis B. Mayer.  These scenes are meant to show how she had no childhood as her personal life blends into her onscreen performances including how she was given amphetamines to keep her energy up.  The movie is not all tragedy though as the viewer will be delighted to see her with adoring fans and to see a moving rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow near the end of the movie.  A near certainty is that Renee Zellweger will be expected to take home the Best Actress Academy Award next year.

Parasite

Parasite                5 stars

The movie to see in theaters now is Parasite, the creation of Korean director Bong Joon Ho, who previously brought us The Host, Snowpiercer and Okja.  This movie does have a message about the haves and the have nots, but does so with biting wit and a story that holds our interest throughout its 130 minute run time.  We are introduced to a poor family in South Korea who are scraping by with menial jobs but are far too smart to starve.  The son learns of a wealthy family who needs a tutor for their daughter to learn English so he easily gets the job through lies and false credentials.  Before long the family of four all secure jobs with this family using lies and various deceitful schemes landing them work for which they are not qualified in this luxury home.  It doesn’t hurt that the rich couple seem to be extremely gullible willing to believe almost anything.  Just as this family of con geniuses are enjoying their newfound wealth, an unfortunate discovery is made that takes the movie through an unexpected and dark turn.  I will leave you to find out what happens at that point, but be assured you will not be bored or distracted from what lies in store for these characters.  There is plenty of suspense and action for the faithful moviegoer.  I found Parasite to be one of the best films I’ve seen this year.  I just hope that more people skip the usual Hollywood fantasy/action movies and seek it out.

The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse                 4 stars

The Lighthouse is a very dark moody horror film that follows the interactions of two lightkeepers who must work together on an isolated island somewhere in New England in the 1890’s.  This film is by the horror movie master, Robert Eggers who made The Witch a couple of years ago.  This movie may not have quite the supernatural elements that that excellent horror movie did, but certainly scores on its hopeless mood using black and white filming, a smaller screen and some very mournful music and sound effects.  The two actors portraying the lightkeepers give us amazing performances.  Willem Dafoe is the aging experienced man who gives the orders, instructing the younger worker, Robert Pattinson in some of the worst back breaking, miserable work you can imagine.  Both give us haunting and masterful performances.  If there were an Oscar for the best curses uttered by an actor, Dafoe would win easily.  The story centers on the conversations and interactions between the two men as they alternate from hating each other to showing genuine concern for one another.  But ultimately the movie is about a slow descent into madness with a few fantasy elements thrown in.  It is up to the viewer to interpret what these fantasy scenes are about.  And since it is a horror movie there are some very unsettling scenes involving human bodily functions and sexual images.  This film is definitely a downer about humans in a deteriorating situation, but does it in a most impressive manner.  It is not a movie for everyone.

Jojo Rabbit

Jojo Rabbit                          4 stars

In a time when our society seems to be tearing each other apart in the culture wars who would conceive of a satirical comedy about Adolf Hitler and the Nazi campaign to exterminate Jews?  Here comes Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit to take on the task of telling us the insensitive, comedic story about a 10 year old German boy who is a member of the local Hitler Youth during World War II, where the children are taught to fight for their country and to hate the Jews.  Besides all this, young Jojo as he is called, has an imaginary friend who just happens to be Adolf Hitler.  There is plenty of comedy here that is used to poke fun at the hate being spread against our fellow man.  When little Jojo has to return home to his mother, he happens to discover that Mom is secretly hiding a young Jewish girl in the house.  Jojo considers turning her in to the Gestapo, but is reluctant when the girl promises to cut off his Nazi head if he does.  Given this stalemate, Jojo decides to learn about what Jews are like by quizzing the girl who tells him all sorts of nasty things that Jews do.  Of course by doing so the two are only becoming closer and come to realize how much alike they are.  The film delivers on its message with the help of fine performances from Thomasin McKenzie as the Jewish girl, Roman Griffin Davis as Jojo and Sam Rockwell as the incompetent Captain Klenzendorf who serves as the camp commander for the local Hitler Youth.  Waititi brings us a movie with a message of hope amid all the slapstick humor and dramatic moments.  I highly recommend it.

The Good Liar

The Good Liar                    3 ½ stars

The Good Liar brings together two senior Hollywood legends in Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren for an intricate con game as McKellen’s Roy, an experienced con man seeks to gain the trust of elderly widow Betty (Mirren) and deprive her of her millions in life savings.  We get a steady building story for a while as we learn of Roy’s background as a con man and see how he convinces Betty that he is everything she is looking for after they meet with the help of an online dating service for mature people.  All is not perfect as Betty’s grandson Stephen (Russell Tovey from Years and Years) gets suspicious and looks into Roy’s background.  The viewer gets a good dose of Roy’s character as certain scenes make it clear that he has little regard for the suffering of others.  Things take a turn when flashbacks reveal some of Roy’s true story dating back to the 1940’s.  After this point things start to get a little unbelievable when the characters make decisions that you wouldn’t expect them to.  The movie does have a twist as all good con movies should, but it’s not unexpected as the promotions for the movie have already hinted at it.  This movie gets an A for the acting talents of its stars and C for the story.  It’s best to see this one if you haven’t already seen the previews.
 

Knives Out

Knives Out                          4 ½ stars

One of the best movies of this year has to be Knives Out, the traditional murder mystery in the style of Agatha Christie.  Written and directed by Rian Johnson, the renowned detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) has been hired to solve the murder of crime mystery writer Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) who has been found in his estate with his throat cut.  There is no shortage of suspects as his entire dysfunctional family seem to have enough motive to do him in.  there is plenty of changes in direction and red herrings as are required in a good mystery.  One such event happens at the reading of the will which points to one particular suspect of great interest.  It is then up to the great Blanc to sift through all of the clues and mis-directions to come up with the real explanation for Harley’s demise.  The movie is filled with stars including Don Johnson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Ana de Armas, Toni Collette and Frank Oz.  This is a very enjoyable film that will keep your interest throughout.

Bombshell

Bombshell                           4 stars

My first reaction to Bombshell is that any movie that features Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie deserves some major attention.  And for the most part it delivers.  It tells the story of a small group of women at Fox News endured years of abuse at the hands of the CEO, Roger Ailes and finally banded together to bring him down in 2016. The performances by Theron as Megyn Kelly, Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson and Margot Robbie as a fictional character, Kayla are all first rate.  John Lithgow does a convincing job as Ailes, the perv who controls the lives of these women and treats them like his personal playthings.  The film stops short of indicting the entire network of Fox for its corporate culture that allows this behavior to take place.  You certainly don’t get the feeling that Rupert Murdoch (Malcolm McDowell) really cares about these women.  He is only too eager to put all the blame on Ailes and put his name in all the headlines.  One very memorable part of the movie are the interchanges between Kayla and Kate McKinnon’s character, Jess Karr who is a closeted Democrat and lesbian working at Fox and knows what has been going on for years.  The movie doesn’t tell us much about what happened to these people beyond 2016, but it is certainly worth seeing.  Look for a few Oscar nominations to come from Bombshell.