Category Archives: 2020

The Photograph

The Photograph                4 ½ stars

The Photograph from this year is a well told film about two different love affairs taking place in the past and present. It has an all black cast of mostly known actors and I found it refreshing to have such an all black movie that is not about police brutality and racial injustice. Michael (LaKeith Stanfield from Sorry to Bother You and Knives Out) is a magazine writer on a story about a photographer, Christina Eames who has just passed away. His investigation puts him in contact with Isaac, a New Orleans fisherman who has a relationship with her in the eighties and he is eventually led to Mae (Issa Rae of HBO’s Insecure and Little), a New York museum curator who is the deceased photographer’s daughter. Michael and Mae hit it off and try to have a relationship that has to deal with the complexities of their career intense lives. The other story about Christina and Isaac is also told as the two stories are intertwined. We see how young Christina resents being limited by her life with Isaac and wants more out of life. Her ambition is to be an artistic photographer is New York so life in New Orleans does not exactly appeal to her. There aren’t really any surprises in the movie and there aren’t any conflicts involving police or any other outside characters. It is basically a romance story about the challenges that these couples are facing through the realities of life. This is a nice relief given what we have been going through lately. Issa Rae shows that she can do more than comedy in this dramatic role. The movie also features Lil Rel Howery (from Get Out) as Michael’s brother and Rob Morgan (of Just Mercy, The Last Black Man in San Francisco and Mudbound) as the older Isaac. Law & Order fans might also recognize Courtney B. Vance as Mae’s father. The movie also features some smooth background music of R&B and jazz. I have seen only a few 2020 releases so this one has to be the best so far.

The Half of It

The Half of It                      4 stars

While looking for new and interesting movies I happened upon one on Netflix called The Half of It. This is a new variation on the Cyrano de Bergerac story set in a small town high school with the kids going through the tortuous path of looking for love. Here we find Ellie Chu, a 17-year old Chinese American who seems to be the only minority in school and has not made any friends. She is very intelligent and well read as she seems to know about the great philosophers and great books. She also plays the piano and guitar and can write songs. Ellie lives with her immigrant father in a train station apartment where they are in danger of having their power cut off since they are poor. So, it makes sense that she makes a little extra money by writing class essays for her classmates for a fee. Along comes Paul, a jock who plays on the football team and is a little dimwitted but very sweet. Paul needs Ellie to write a love letter for him to the girl he is infatuated with, Aster, and is willing to pay for it. Ellie is soon drawn into this scheme and is soon coaching Paul on subjects like great books, films and art, so that he will sound more interesting to Aster. This arrangement only becomes more complicated when we see that Ellie is also attracted to Aster, so when she writes things for Paul she is really writing about her own feelings. Of course Ellie and Paul become closer too through the experience as he appears to be her first real friend. Eventually, things spiral out of control when the truth of what is going on is revealed. The movie is based on the director’s own life experiences. Alice Wu has written a genuine film that deals with the subjects of race, religion, family traditions and sexual orientation that feels real for the most part. Later in the film there are situations that depend on manufactured coincidences that felt contrived which goes along with the territory of teen romances. Viewers will not have to be concerned about any uncomfortable scenes. There is nothing more graphic than an occasional kiss throughout the movie. The Half of It is one 2020 movie that I highly recommend.

Relic

Relic       4 stars

The last time I was at Sundance I saw several good horror movies, but at the end of the festival ran into one moviegoer who said he had one more to see called Relic that was supposed to be pretty interesting. I finally sat down to watch Relic as it was just released and I wasn’t disappointed. The movie is by a new filmmaker and concerns the effects of a loved one’s dementia on their family. The movie is set in a big house is an Australian town that is home to an elderly woman, Edna (Robyn Nevin). Edna is reported missing which brings her daughter (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter (Bella Heathcote) to the house to investigate. After a few days of searching, Edna suddenly reappears without explanation of where she was. Although she is physically fine it’s clear something is wrong here. As daughter and granddaughter stay to take care of her, the house seems to mysteriously decay as a black growth slowly appears on the walls. This coincides with Edna hearing strange noises and having conversations with someone that’s not there. She behaves in ever increasing erratic and violent ways that confuses her family. The large house is full of cluttered hallways and mysterious doorways that helps to add to all the confusion the family members are experiencing. There is a background story about an ancestor who had a horrible death that offers some explanation of the seemingly supernatural happenings, like all good horror movies need to have. The movie does a slow moving buildup to an eventual frenzy of frightening events that will overwhelm the viewers. Although the movie is not quite at the level of The Babadook or of Hereditary, it’s good if you are up for some good family horror and clicks in at only 90 minutes long.

Palm Springs

Palm Springs      4 ½ stars

The last time I went to Sundance the Andy Samberg/Crintin Milioti romantic comedy was the hottest ticket going and I was not able to see it then (in spite of getting to over 30 movies). I finally saw it after it was released on Hulu and found it was a real delight. It seems to start out with the old formula of Groundhog Day as Andy Samberg’s Nyles is attending a wedding with his girlfriend Misty and finds that he is in a continuously repeating loop of the same day that always starts over the moment he falls asleep or is killed. He has apparently been at this for hundreds of days when we see him but things change when circumstances bring Cristin Milioti’s Sarah, the older sister of the bride into the same loop to share Nyles’s fate. Nyles plays seemingly amazing tricks on people as he already knows what events are going to happen to the second and tells people details about their lives that he has learned in previous iterations. Things take a darker turn as the two explore imaginative ways of trying to get out of the loop including killing themselves, but then speculate on how meaningless everything is in this strange world they find themselves in. Ultimately, the romance in the romantic comedy shows up as the two find out how much the other means to each. This “formulaic” romantic comedy works well and is definitely worth seeing.

The Rental

The Rental                          4 stars

With The Rental, actor Dave Franco shows that he can direct an effective thriller/horror film that will keep you on the edge of your seat. It’s hard to describe this movie without giving away spoilers so I can’t go into great detail. In the movie, a group of four friends decide to celebrate Dan’s successful business venture by renting an oceanside house for the weekend. Dan, his wife Michelle, his brother Josh and his business partner Mina travel to the house they found online planning a drug fueled fun weekend. Josh and Mina also happen to be starting their own relationship with each other. Tensions start to mount when they meet the caretaker who has racist tendencies toward Mina who has a foreign name. As in a good thriller, things get progressively more tense as we see that some of the characters are less than honest with each other. Suspicions arise when Josh’s dog, Reggie suddenly disappears. When one pair of our friends discovers evidence that someone has been watching them, the fear of revealing secrets set in and accusations are made. It is here that what starts as a character driven thriller suddenly transforms into something more sinister and the violence finds its way into the story. The movie is aided by effective cinematography, some well placed foggy night scenes and four good performances by the actors portraying some rather narcissistic and not so nice people. As in most horror movies, the characters make some very questionable choices that only make their situation worse. The Rental is good entertainment that takes its time to develop and does not rely on sudden scare scenes, but it will only work for true horror fans.
 

Tigertail

Tigertail                4 stars

The Netflix movie Tigertail is a drama about one man’s journey through life as an immigrant from Taiwan to America and the questioning of one’s choices through life. It’s a well-constructed story done in non-linear fashion going from Pin-Jui’s childhood on a Taiwanese farm until his old age in America. We see him as a carefree young man in the sixties who loves to dance with his girlfriend, but lives in poverty with his mother and works in a factory. Pin-Jui decides to give up this life for the promise of something better in America but does so by accepting and arranged marriage to the daughter of a wealthy businessman. In scenes flashing forward we see him as an older man in his seventies who lives alone and is questioning the choices he has made. Through his unwillingness to open-up and show any emotion with his family, he has pushed them all out of his life. The question becomes can he make amends before it is too late. The movie is both about how we treat loved ones and about what an immigrant can give up in their quest for a seemingly better life in America. It’s a worthwhile film, but the sequence of scenes the director uses will require the viewer to pay close attention to the screen. Tigertail is mostly in Chinese with subtitles and it appears to be Alan Yang’s first directorial effort.

Underwater

Underwater                       2 stars

While watching Underwater, the movie about a deep sea research facility that is suddenly attacked by strange sea creatures, I had the distinct impression that I had seen it before. Much of the elements of it are taken from The Abyss and Alien, both about mysterious creatures attacking a small group of survivors. This does not bode well. In Underwater we have a group of six survivors that must crawl their way through the wreckage of the laboratory that happens to be seven miles below the surface. As you would expect the suspense comes in as you wonder which one will be the next to die. The sets and effects look very authentic so this was an expensive movie to make. We know little about the characters as they try to stay together to protect each other and maintain sanity. The movie was derivative and you might say boring.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm      4 ½ stars

It’s been fourteen years since that odd-looking foreign journalist, Borat Sagdiyev invaded America and made a mockery of American values in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Now he has returned after spending years in a Kazakhstan prison and is sent on a mission to deliver a wise monkey to a prominent American politician in order to restore the glorious image of his native country. He arrives in America, only instead of the monkey his teenage daughter Tutar has stowed away, so the mission is changed to delivering the sexy girl to Vice President Mike Pence! The film by master funnyman Sacha Baron Cohen takes a hard look at America under Trump, Coronavirus and all and finds plenty for us to laugh at. This includes getting a cake decorator to write “Jews will not replace us” on a cake, getting a makeup stylist to recommend a skin shade to suit a racist family and getting a plastic surgeon to describe a Jewish nose, all without hesitation. The comedy is mainly done by filming people in real life situations without the knowledge that it is all part of a satirical comedic movie, just like was done in 2006. The targets of the film are mainly right leaning or hard right people who are the type that support Trump. Since most of the film takes place in Texas, Oklahoma and Georgia it wasn’t hard to find these folks. (Romania was a stand in for Kazakhstan.) In one scene Borat goes to an alt right rally and appears on stage where he sings a song about physically attacking President Obama getting cheering approval from the audience. The crowning achievement of the movie comes near the end when somehow he gets Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney to agree to a fake interview with Tutar (who calls herself Sandra Jessica Parker). The unsuspecting Giuliani ends up in a hotel room with the girl with his pants unbuttoned and his hand reaching in his pants! I believe everyone has heard of the scene by now and something about there being a lawsuit over it. The amazing thing is how Cohen hasn’t been beaten up during the making of the movie. Sasha Baron Cohen is known for his outspoken views against racism, religious bigotry and sexism. He uses this latest film as a biting satirical message against those that hold such beliefs and does it in hilarious fashion. The viewer should be warned that there is abundant use of crude scenes and graphic language throughout the film, so you are warned.

Bill & Ted Face the Music

Bill & Ted Face the Music              2 stars

Those dimwitted time traveling rockers Bill and Ted (Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves) are back 29 years after their last film and are on another adventure, this time to save the universe throughout time by finding their greatest song and uniting the world. This time around they are married to princesses Elizabeth and Joanna and each have a daughter, Thea and Billie who adore their dads even though their dads’ band Wyld Stallyns have not written a good song in all this time. The two girls even sound like their dads saying things like “Woa, dude”. The characters then embark on parallel adventures with Bill and Ted traveling to future years in search of their future selves who may have written great song that will unite the universe through all of time, while their daughters travel back in time trying to put together an incredible band composed of history’s greatest musicians with the likes of Jimi Hendricks, Louie Armstrong and Mozart. The film has some truly funny moments but for the most part it is full of glitzy special effects and loud retreads of the material from the original movie. There is an amusing reappearance of Death in the movie when Bill and Ted try to persuade him to let them leave hell. They finally agree to letting him join their band so they can make their escape in a SWAT van. George Carlin makes a magical appearance as Rufus from the future. I would rather not mention the robot sent from the future. Other than that there was not a lot to get excited about as many routines fall flat after a while. I would recommend revisiting the original Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure to get more entertainment.

The Trial of the Chicago 7

The Trial of the Chicago 7              5 stars

It may be a cliché to say it but if you see one new movie this holiday season make it The Trial of the Chicago 7. While not a documentary, writer/director Aaron Sorkin has put together a dramatic recreation of the 1969 federal trial of the leaders of the protests held in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. The movie is mainly a courtroom drama with eight defendants charged with conspiracy to incite a riot. It blends in archival footage of the Chicago riots and flashbacks showing the protests that started in Grant Park. I was too young at the time of the trial to be aware of it, but I do remember the news of the riots and some of the names of the main participants. While not a completely accurate portrayal of the trial, it does show real events like Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers being bound and gagged in the courtroom and the testimony of the former Attorney General Ramsey Clarke. The movie is supported by several first rate performances including Eddie Redmayne as Tom Hayden of the Students for a Democratic Society, Sasha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman and Jeremy Strong as Jerry Rubin of the Youth International Party (Yippies), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Bobby Seale, and Mark Rylance as William Kunstler, the liberal defense attorney for the defendants. Frank Langella is notable as the judge Hoffman who frequently loses control of the trial and frequently hands out contempt charges. Michael Keaton makes a brief dramatic appearance as Attorney General Ramsey Clarke who severely damages the government’s case. (It’s too bad the judge wouldn’t let the jury hear it.) The movie serves as a reminder of what the country went through in 1969 and how easy it is to lose our constitutional freedoms and as an education to those who weren’t here to see the events. It’s a safe bet to be nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award as well as a few others.