Category Archives: Crime

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery          4 ½ stars

Rian Johnson’s third installment of his iconic Knives Out murder mystery series, Wake Up Dead Man is out, and one thing is certain. He has hit a winning formula by casting Daniel Craig as the southern gentleman crime solver who is a master at working through some of the most convoluted murders this side of Sherlock Holmes. Johnson’s two previous films of the series, Knives Out and Glass Onion, were set in a mansion and a billionaire’s island retreat. This time around he gives up the usual extravagant location and cast of detestable rich people for a gothic church and a small flock of loyal church goers. The mystery to be solved is just as complicated and full of possible suspects as those earlier outings and with some misdirection’s. We start by meeting Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor who we remember from Challengers), a young priest who just assaulted a church deacon. His superiors must find a new parish for him so send him to Chimney Rock, New York, the location of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude. There he meets Monsignor Wicks (Josh Brolin), who he is to serve under. Wicks is not your normal priest. He is a real firebrand and has a style of preaching that is all about anger toward the world, something that poor Father Jud doesn’t find very comforting as he is more about serving the world. (He also goes to extreme lengths in confessing his masturbation habits to Father Jud.) Wicks tends to turn newcomers away from the church, leaving him with only a handful of dedicated worshippers. Without going into details about all the characters and giving much away, I’ll say that we have an all-star lineup of a cast that includes Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Mila Kunis, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Thomas Hayden Church and Jeffrey Wright. The story requires us to have a little background information that includes Wicks’ grandfather who served the church as priest and died at the altar many years ago, Wicks’ mother who was a harlot and Glenn Close’s character, Martha Delacroix, who has served the church for sixty years. It is after Wicks suddenly falls dead during the Good Friday service, and the police are stumped by the crime that sleuth Benoit Blanc is brought in to solve the murder. At this point I will not give away any spoilers and will just say there are plenty of clues the viewer learns of along with Blanc. It is not so much about identifying the murderer as about the how it was accomplished and the motive that really keeps things interesting. Of course, much of the entertainment value comes from the performance that Daniel Craig puts on with his dramatic way of speaking making him the modern-day Sherlock Holmes. I hope we don’t see the end of this series for a long time to come. It’s a really fun ride.

Just Mercy

Just Mercy                          4 stars

Just Mercy, written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton is mainly a legal drama about a young lawyer, Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) from the East coast who has taken a case to free a wrongly convicted black man of a brutal murder in rural Alabama in the early nineties.  Walter McMillian (a superb Jamie Foxx) is a private logger who was sentenced to death for the killing of a white teenage girl based solely on the unsubstantiated testimony of a convicted felon who was pressured into identifying McMillian as the killer by a corrupt local sheriff.  There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime.  The film is based on a true story about an attorney who is still active today fighting for unjustly convicted, mostly black prisoners.  It is the type of story we have seen frequently from Hollywood, but is aided by the quiet reflective scenes involving Foxx who just wants his previous life with his family back.  The villains of the story are the usual corrupt district attorney and sheriff who care more about their own records than about justice for the citizens.  The movie is a long one at 136 minutes, but the viewer stays involved due to the performances of the three main actors, Jordan, Foxx and Brie Larson as Bryan’s support advocate.  The movie clearly portrays the prejudices against black men that tear communities apart.  Despite the fact that it has been nearly thirty years since the events in the movie took place, many of these same problems are still with us today.  At the end of the movie, the postscript tells us that prisoners on death row are proved innocent at a rate of one out of nine, clearly an intolerable situation.  Please try to see Just Mercy when you get a chance.

Hustlers

Hustlers                               4 stars

Hustlers stars Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez as strip club dancers who come up with a scheme to get even with their rich clients and former employers who have been taking advantage of them for years.  It stars Jennifer Lopez as an exotic dancer is probably the best role of her career.  What is there not to like about that?  How did Jennifer not get an Oscar nomination for this?

The Irishman

The Irishman                      5 stars

Much has been written about Martin Scorsese’s newest gangster movie, The Irishman, about the relationship between Teamster union president, Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino) and mobster hitman Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro).  It is quite a masterpiece and at nearly three and a half hours in length, a challenge to last through in a single sitting.  There are plenty of brutal murder scenes as one would expect in a mobster movie and strained relationships between family members especially the women involved.  The special language used by the gangsters is always present as the characters have a certain way with words that sanitizes their true intent.  We hear Frank talk about how he is sorry about his life when we all know he doesn’t really mean it.  The movie was especially expensive to make which is partially due to the special effects used to “deage” the main characters to allow us to see them over a span of fifty plus years.  Never before have we seen what aging mobsters are like. (Since they typically don’t live to see their later years.)  Here we see Frank in a nursing home after all his associates are long gone and his family will no longer see him.  I especially want to take note of the performance of Joe Pesci as Russell Bufalino, the Italian mob boss in an understated role different from how we are accustomed to seeing him.  He deserves his Academy Award nomination.  The film earned ten nominations altogether and deserves its standing as one of the best films of the year.

Bugonia

Bugonia                4 ½ stars

If you have ever seen a Yorgos Lanthimos movie you know you are in for something bizarre and odd. The Greek filmmaker also typically has something to say about the state of our society. Sometimes they can seem absurd, such as The Lobster where each person is turned into an animal if they don’t find their soulmate, or Poor Things involving transplanting a baby’s brain into an adult body. Sometimes they involve extreme torture and violence like The Killing of a Sacred Deer. In the case of Bugonia you get both. And some commentary on societal issues like conspiracy theories, our dependence on drugs and a collapsing society. It starts out as a conventional story. We see Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone of Birdman and La La Land), a CEO of a large pharmaceutical firm that develops miracle drugs. She is an expert on corporate double speak, making promises to the public and advocating for a family friendly culture for the employees as long as it doesn’t affect their work. Then one day she is kidnapped at her luxury home by two young men who tranquilize her and carry her off to the basement of their isolated house. (But first they have to shave off all her hair while she is unconscious and cover her in some white lotion.) It seems that Teddy (Jesse Plemons of The Power of the Dog and Killers of the Flower Moon), who works in packaging at Fuller’s company, has been down a rabbit hole on the internet for years and is convinced that aliens from space have infiltrated earth and are ready to take over the planet from humans. He believes that Fuller is one of the aliens disguised as human. He wants to get a confession from her and have her contact her spaceship to negotiate a peace deal and save humanity. He also holds a grudge against her because of some experimental procedures conducted on his mother that did not go well. Helping him in this quest is his somewhat dimwitted cousin, Donny (newcomer Aidan Delbis) who worships Teddy. This is where things may get tough for some viewers to watch. Fuller must endure being chained as a prisoner and tortured by electric shock while she does all she can to try to tell Teddy that he has it all wrong. She is just a human person trying to do what is right as a corporate CEO. But there is no convincing Teddy. He has done his research and is convinced that she is in fact an alien and he must save Earth. Fuller thinks he is crazy and must match each point coming from Teddy. The scope of the movie is mostly confined to these three characters and their interactions in the house or the headquarters of the resistance. Both Stone and Plemons give the roles everything they can, putting in some incredible performances. Emma Stone was all in for the movie after seeing the script despite the grueling scenes and losing her hair on screen. (Alien hair is a communication device in Teddy’s conspiracy filled world.) Lanthimos’ film, Bugonia says a lot about our world today, with the effect of the internet, inequality among classes and distrust everywhere. The film goes to some extreme places you wouldn’t expect, but maybe that is what should be expected from Lanthimos, who has put some crazy ideas on screen before. This is the fourth movie where he has cast Stone in a lead role, the others being The Favourite, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness. These two obviously have a good working relationship. Plemons shows us a character filled with rage, lost in his misguided notions coming from the internet. Delbis who is autistic shows us someone who is not crazy but is taken advantage of by someone he trusts. Lanthimos brings them all together and once again creates a strange and troubling world out of his imagination.

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.

After the Hunt

After the Hunt                   2 stars

What can I say about Luca Guadagnino’s new drama After the Hunt? It has some of the most pretentious, condescending, full of themselves characters I can remember, but played by some of the greatest stars working in Hollywood today. We have two university professors of philosophy Alma (Julia Roberts) and Hank (Andrew Garfield) at Yale who are heavily involved in campus politics, being among the most elite in higher education. The movie has a theme of questioning cancel culture and wokeness and does it in a very heavy-handed way. The story focuses on Maggie, a PhD student (Ayo Edebiri of The Bear, Opus and Bottoms) who is a close admirer of these two professors and unfortunately gets a little too close to Hank and must decide whether to report his assaulting her to the administration but first must seek Alma’s advice. So, the characters get into questions about the MeToo movement and the impact of these accusations on their futures. Questions also arise about Maggie’s integrity as she is accused of plagiarism so there is plenty of bad behavior to go around. Alma’s husband (Michael Stuhlbarg), a therapist, is included with those with annoying behavior without being detestable other than his questioning Maggie’s motives. Before it’s all over there will be suffering and destroyed careers as a result of bad behavior. All the actors give excellent performances, but of very flawed people that one has no empathy for. I did not enjoy this movie. Guadagnino has made some good movies lately that include Queer, Challengers and Bones and All. Unfortunately, After the Hunt won’t be among them. It generally has not been getting good reviews. (Incidentally, if you like horror movies check out Suspiria by Guadagnino.)

One Battle After Another

One Battle After Another                             5 stars

It’s only October and I feel I may have seen one of the Best Picture nominees or even the Best Picture with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. Anderson, the master storyteller (remember Licorice Pizza, Phantom Thread and There Will Be Blood) has created a film that is part social commentary and part family saga. It tackles matters that are relevant to today’s social situations and has some exceptional heart pounding action sequences. The main story follows an ex-revolutionary figure named Pat or Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his sixteen-year-old daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti in her first movie role) as they try to escape an enemy from their past, a certain army colonel named Lockjaw (Sean Penn) who is trying to hunt them both down. But first we must learn what led to this situation through the first part of the movie. Bob and Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) are part of an anti-establishment revolutionary group called the French 75, a loosely organized group of freedom fighters who try to free detained undocumented aliens and cause general chaos through destructive actions. Perfidia is one of leaders of the group while Bob has skills with explosives. Their actions could fit in almost any time period, but here it seems to be the early 2000’s. They run afoul of Colonel Lockjaw, a hardnosed tough as nails army officer with a really bad haircut who literally has a hard-on for black chicks. He is also part of a secret Neo-Nazi white supremacist society (called the Christmas Adventurers Club) which creates a conflict when he meets Perfidia during one of the 75’s missions. Pat and Perfidia have a baby daughter, who they are raising together that is, until most of the gang gets rolled up after a bank heist, including Perfidia. She is convinced to reveal names by Lockjaw and is placed into witness protection only to flee into the wind. Sixteen years go by during which time the gang goes dormant and Bob must live off the grid while raising the baby, now named Willa on his own. Bob is no criminal mastermind and by now has become a stoner regularly getting high and drunk. Other than his skills with explosives, he is not good for much. But DiCaprio is very convincing as a father who has a real attachment to his daughter. Bob has a real problem when he is alerted through his underground contacts that the authorities are on to them and he and Willa will need to disappear. Fortunately for Bob, there are still a few members of the group around that can help keep him and Willa out of the hands of the government. They include Sensai Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio del Toro also of Inherent Vice) and Deandra (Regina Hall of The Hate U Give) who finds Willa and gets her out of harm’s way (at least for a while). The latter part of the movie is very intense as Bob and Willa try to stay one step ahead of Lockjaw’s soldiers who are closing in. The scenes are aided by a fast-moving original score by Johnny Greenwood. The audience will really be glued to the screen during two car chase scenes, with an outcome that is not expected. (Also, look for Alana Haim in a small role. Anderson featured her in his film, Licorice Pizza.) I fully expect One Battle After Another to earn several Academy Award nominations. It could be Paul Thomas Anderson’s best to date. Do not miss it.

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.

Caught Stealing

Caught Stealing                 4 ½ stars

Caught Stealing is the latest movie directed by Darren Aronofsky and it is one wild ride. I have seen all but one of his movies and have to say they vary greatly in style. Some of them have a surrealistic tone like Pi, The Fountainhead, Black Swan and mother!. Others are more down-to-earth dealing with the fragile nature of a character like The Wrestler and The Whale. Caught Stealing is neither of those, it being a more conventional story about a single individual finding himself in a tough situation. The movie is set in 1998 lower east side of New York City and has a very gritty feel to it. Hank (the very versatile Austin Butler) at twenty something was a promising prospect for major league baseball until he got into a car wreck, destroying his knee and killing his best friend. Now he is a bar tender working in a dive bar, but he worships the San Francisco Giants from his home state of California where his mother still lives. He is still constantly haunted by the accident that destroyed his career. Now things are going ok for Hank, and he often hooks up with his girlfriend Yvonne (Zöe Kravitz) who is an EMT. That is until his next-door neighbor, Russ, an English punk rocker takes off to England and leaves his pet cat, Bud for Hank to care for. The movie takes a sharp turn in tone at this point, becoming more of an action thriller. When a gang of Russian thugs finds Russ is not around they find Hank and give him a brutal beating putting him in the hospital because they think he is connected to Russ. Suddenly, Hank finds that he is the target of every local gangster in the neighborhood including not only the Russians, but Puerto Ricans and Hasidic Jews. At one point he goes to the police for help, finding Detective Roman (Academy Award winner Regina King in a very different role), but that doesn’t bring any help. With seemingly everyone against him, Hank must take matters into his own hands and find a way out of this mess that he never asked for. There are some unexpected twists that poor Hank must deal with in creative ways including using a device he is well acquainted with, a baseball bat. I don’t want to give anything away but will tell you to watch for the star cast that includes Matt Smith, Vincent D’Onofrio and Liev Schreiber. They are virtually unrecognizable so pay attention. There is even a role for Carol Kane (Between the Temples) that is a real treat. But the movie really belongs to Austin Butler who has distinguished himself in Elvis, The Bikeriders, Dune: Part Two as well as a small role in Eddington. He has shown he has the charisma and acting skills needed to put him in the higher echelons of Hollywood actors. Watch for him in his next project: Enemies, a crime drama.