Category Archives: Drama

Touch of Evil

Touch of Evil                       5 stars

I recently viewed Orson Welles’ classic film about an ethical lawman facing off against a corrupt police captain, Touch of Evil, starring Charton Heston as Mike Vargas, the Mexican drug enforcement officer, and Welles as Hank Quinlan, the corrupt American police captain. It is a film full of notable performances but is equally known for Welles’ inventive ways of filming shots and for its labyrinthine plot. It’s important to note that I saw the restored version that was made in 1998 based on the extensive notes that Welles wrote after his disappointment with the edited version that the studio released in 1958. The story takes place in and around a Mexican-American border town with rundown storefronts, hotels and brothels. In one of Hollywood’s best known long takes we follow a doomed car with a planted bomb driven by a wealthy American through the streets of the town for 3 minutes and 20 seconds before it finally explodes. (In the restored version we hear the sounds of the street and background music instead of the theme music the studio used.) The investigation is led by the very heavy and alcoholic Quinlan with bystander Vargas inconveniently inserting himself into the case. Vargas’ new American wife, Susan (Janet Leigh) is accompanying him and eventually finds herself the subject of attention of a local gang. The story becomes rather complicated but basically involves Quinlan trying to frame the car bomb crime on a local Mexican boy with Vargas getting in the way, then Quinlan getting revenge by setting up Vargas and his wife to take the blame for murder and drug crimes. With the longer restored version the plot becomes easier to follow than in the original studio version. As the plot progresses, the drunken Quinlan, who has a history of faking evidence, becomes more obsessed and reckless with a scheme to stop Vargas. Toward the end of the movie in a scene with a fortune-telling madam (Marlene Dietrich), Quinlan asks, “Come on, read my future for me.” She responds prophetically, “You haven’t got any.” Quinlan is racist and has contempt for the local Mexicans he encounters. My only criticism is that Heston does not make a convincing Mexican. He has only a couple of short lines spoken in Spanish. Otherwise, Touch of Evil is a masterpiece by Welles and his cinematographer, Russell Metty. They implement multiple tracking shots with a moving camera in Welles’ innovative style. Two other notable appearances are Zsa Zsa Gabor as a strip club owner and Dennis Weaver as a very odd night clerk at a seedy motel. The film was named the best picture at the 1958 Brussels World Fair, but got even more recognition much later from film critics in the late 1990’s. If you can find it be sure it is the 1998 restored version. You will be pleased.

Vice

Vice                                       4 stars

In what has to be one of the zaniest movies of the year screenwriter Adam McKay and actor Christian Bale take on a biopic of Vice-President Dick Cheney, following him from a drunk and college drop out to becoming the most powerful man in the world as the VP to George W. Bush.  Bale does an amazing job of immersing himself in the part, gaining over 40 pounds to become the short speckles wearing Cheney.  He has the speech patterns and mannerisms down perfectly.  The film takes us through many decades as Cheney takes an assignment working for Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell), becomes Chief of Staff for President Ford, Secretary of Defense for President George H. W. Bush and finally the VP to George W. Bush (Sam Rockwell in another great performance)  The film does an outlandish take on everything you may remember from the Bush administration, the Iraq war, the surveillance of US citizens, the enhanced interrogation techniques and the black sites for holding prisoners.  We see how he took control of the situation during 9/11 while Bush was still on Air Force One.  Cheney’s brashness is sometimes shown in comedic fashion as he doesn’t hesitate tell others what needs to be done.  Especially enlightening is his conversation with Bush before he accepts the nomination when he suggests that the Vice President take care of mundane things like foreign policy, intelligence, budgetary matters and defense leaving the president take handle the important things.  The film also takes time to show a softer side of him in the moments with his wife Lynne (Amy Adams, which you have to see) and his two daughters.  He even handles Mary’s coming out as gay well.  Though it is mostly a comedy, it leaves us something to contemplate as it alludes to the current administration and how it is that we have reached this point in history.  Look for Vice to get substantial attention this awards season.

Mary Queen of Scots

Mary Queen of Scots                      2 ½ stars

Mary Queen of Scots is a partly historical, partly fictional account of sixteenth century England when Mary Stuart (Saoirse Ronan), the teenage queen returns to Scotland to claim the crown and threatened the rule of Queen Elizabeth I (Margot Robbie) over England.  The film is remarkable in its sets, costumes and dialogue, but gets bogged down in the story that focuses on the men who serve the monarchs as they scheme to gain power and influence for themselves.  We are frequently bombarded with the message that these two “sisters” could accomplish great things if they could find a way to work together and unite the two kingdoms.  Elizabeth’s authority is questioned by the fact that she has not produced a royal heir and Mary is despised by many of her own people because she is both a Catholic and a woman in a mainly Protestant land.  I was confused a bit by the multitude male characters all sporting beards with their English accent, so had some trouble keeping them straight.  Since there are two different kingdoms involved, the two main characters never come together except for one seemingly fabricated scene near the end.  The film does deliver one clear message being most of the men are unwilling to accept the authority of a woman which is still a relevant message today.  The film is still worth seeing for the performances of both Ronan and Robbie who are genuine talents in Hollywood.  David Tennant appears as John Knox, the Protestant leader who preaches against the whorish ways of Mary and is unrecognizable in the long beard and heavy accent.  This year a more entertaining movie than Mary Queen of Scots about British royalty is The Favourite.

If Beale Street Could Talk

If Beale Street Could Talk              5 stars

A leading contender for a Best picture nomination this year has to be If Beale Street Could Talk, Barry Jenkins follow up film to 2016’s Moonlight.  This film, set in the early seventies in Harlem is based on a novel by African American writer and novelist James Baldwin and is about racial injustice as it affects the two families in the story.  However, the movie is mainly a love story between the two young lovers, Tish (newcomer Kiki Layne) and Fonny (Stephen James), childhood friends who have gotten engaged and are about to spend their lives together.  Their world is suddenly shattered when Fonny is wrongfully accused of a rape that he did not do and is caught in a legal system that has little regard for the truth or justice.  It is when Tish comes to visit Fonny in jail that the news is broken that she is pregnant with their child, so the injustice spreads further.  In one very dramatic scene, Fonny’s family is invited over to Tish’s family where the news is broken to all.  Then we really find out the family dynamics involved, especially when Fonny’s holy roller mother come down hard on young Tish condemning her for her sins causing all sorts of fireworks to come out.  Regina King is perfect as Tish’s mother struggling to hold the family together and do what she can to get to the truth and free Fonny.  The masterly done scene set ups and dialogue gives the film a very authentic feel.  Much attention to detail went into the costumes and sets making it seem like the early seventies again.  Much of the film is told in a nonlinear fashion so we see the loving couple together interspersed with scenes dealing with lawyers and prison guards showing the peril the characters are in.  Count on Best Picture and Best director nominations for If Beale Street Could Talk.  And look for it in theaters as it goes into wider release.

Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour                      4 ½ stars

I finally got to see Darkest Hour, the 2017 release about Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England during World War II.  This film starring Gary Oldman follows Churchill through the first four weeks of his service in the office.  It is the time of greatest peril to the country, when the Nazi war machine was raging across Europe conquering one country after another.  Not long after assuming office the Germans invade Belgium and France and threaten to destroy most of Britain’s army as they are caught facing the coast at the English Channel.  Besides this threat, Churchill has to deal with opposing Parliament members who are scheming to cause his downfall.  Gary Oldman puts on an inspiring performance as he captures Churchill’s mannerisms and his style of speaking under some very convincing makeup.  We only get some glimpses of what is happening in Europe as the bombing of the British forces continues.  Most of the action centers on Churchill’s interactions with the King (Ben Mendelsohn), his wife Clemmie (Kristin Scott Thomas), a secretary (Lily James) and a collection of common people he encounters in public.  The scene stealing moments come when he delivers his greatest speeches though, including the memorable We Shall Never Surrender speech before parliament.  I am just sorry I waited so long to see it and that I missed the effect it would have in the theater.  The picture won two Oscars last year including Best Makeup and Best Actor for Oldman.

Second Act

Second Act                          2 stars

Jennifer Lopez is back for another romantic comedy, something she does so well based on previous efforts like Maid in Manhattan, The Wedding Planner and Shall We Dance.  Unfortunately, the story isn’t quite up to her talents in this Peter Segal directed film.  Maya (Lopez) is single, has a boyfriend (Milo Ventimiglia) and is a talented employee who knows the products working in a big box store.  She is up for a promotion but gets passed over for a man with a better education who she finds difficult to respect.  Maya is encouraged by her friends to find something better and applies for something out reach on Madison Avenue.  One of her friends happens to be very tech savvy and he sets up a fake job profile for her much more attractive to the Madison Avenue execs.  She lands the big consultant job and settles in for the huge challenges ahead.  It is then that things take an unexpected twist and one of the greatest coincidences takes place that changes the course of the lives involved.  I won’t go into it here, but suffice it to say some past relationships resurface in surprise fashion.  The most interesting time I had was trying to identify the many supporting actors that appeared in the movie that I immediately recognized.  Leah Remini is Maya’s best friend Joan.  Vanessa Hudgens of High School Musical is a product developer and the daughter of the company executive (Treat Williams from What Happens in Vegas).  Charlyne Yi from Knocked Up and Paper Heart is one of Maya’s assistants.  The usually evil Dave Foley from the Middle and The New Adventures of Old Christine is here in a typical role.  Larry Miller from the Christopher Guest/Eugene Levy comedies is the manager at the big box store.  And Annaleigh Ashford of masters of Sex shows up as one of the employees hoping to take down Maya in the competition for best new product.  Things get very tense for the main character in this comedy, but things will work out in the end as they inevitably do.  See Second Act if you are a Jennifer Lopez fan like me, but otherwise I am sure you can find other more interesting films.

Disclosure Day

Disclosure Day                   4 ½ stars

We are not alone. Movies and TV have been exploring this subject for decades. On TV there were episodes of The Twilight Zone and The X-Files. In the movies we have seen Men in Black, Arrival and Cowboys and Aliens. Then there are the Steven Spielberg films of E.T: The Extraterrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and War of the Worlds. They consider what it would be like if we are visited by beings from another world. This weekend we saw that Mr. Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic World Rebirth and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) are still very much interested in this subject with the release of the much-anticipated Disclosure Day. Disclosure Day captures the current mood of the country with the backdrop of turmoil and distrust in the government. In the movie tensions start out high with the threat of a coming war. From the opening scenes we find out that there are government agents trying to prevent a closely guarded secret from getting out to the public. There is a not well-known private organization hired by the government called Wardex that is charged with hiding the fact that aliens have been visiting Earth ever since that first incident in Roswell back in 1947. (This organization is so secret that not even the President knows about it.) Wardex is led by the villainous Noah Scanlon (brilliantly played by Colin Firth) who will stop at nothing including murder to keep the secret from getting out. There is a pair of especially gifted individuals that Scanlon is after. Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor (Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery and Challengers)) is an ex-employee of Wardex who has joined a wider group of ex-Wardex folks led by Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo (The Color Purple and Drive-Away Dolls)). Hugo has entrusted Daniel with a backpack full of hard drives that contain decades worth of evidence about the truth, but Daniel is reluctant to take on this role. Then there is Margaret Fairchild (the extremely talented Emily Blunt in one of her best performances yet), the weather person at the local Kansas City TV station, who believes she belongs somewhere else. (Along the way she will discover talents she didn’t know she had, like the ability to speak and understand foreign languages and read minds.) Spielberg uses his established methods in storytelling by alternately allowing us to get to know the characters in personal conversations and then giving us an intense action sequence with lives on the line. The truth is an often-used term in the movie as some of the characters are determined that people must see the truth on what is referred to as Disclosure Day. The question of what the known presence of alien beings will do to the faith of the God-fearing public is raised, particularly by Daniel’s girlfriend, Jane (Eve Hewson). Will they still believe in a supreme being if they see that they are not alone? Unfortunately for Jane, at the hands of Scanlon she will experience a powerful alien technology that allows one person to invade the consciousness of another and influence their actions. Can she resist his evil intensions? Besides all the action and the fast-moving plot, the film delivers a message of empathy; that is, if we can just recognize the pain that others are going through, this will be a much better world. Spielberg has once again put together a communal experience that will blow our minds and open our thoughts to the possibilities that the future holds. Disclosure Day looks like the big movie of the summer. You should not miss it.

Destroyer

Destroyer                            4 stars

In the new crime drama, Destroyer by director Karyn Kusama, Nicole Kidman gives her most gritty and unusual performance of her career.  She is Erin Bell, a corrupt and substance abusing detective with an appearance to match.  Her look is absolutely unrecognizable with bad skin and sunken eyes and a stare that can nearly kill.  In the story she is on the path of a criminal from her past, Silas, a leader of a gang of bank robbers who has resurfaced after nearly twenty years.  On a past undercover assignment, she failed to stop the deaths of several people in a robbery that Silas masterminded.  Now she is on a personal mission to right past wrongs as if she was somehow responsible for the deaths herself.  Along the way she has to deal with a sixteen year old daughter who is becoming a juvenile delinquent.  The story is likely similar to past police/crime dramas featuring a tough anti-hero, the difference being that here the main character is a woman.  There is no modern technology used here like we see in police procedurals today.  Erin Bell uses good basic police work in tracking down her target.  There are some creditable supporting roles here including Sebastian Stan as Bell’s undercover partner and Toby Kebbell as the evil Silas.  It is Kidman that is the true heart of the film as she is in virtually every scene.  One can’t help get the feeling that she is stretching for awards glory is taking on such a difficult role.  She already has received a Golden Globe nomination for the film.  One warning for viewers is that you need to pay close attention to the plot as it is told in a nonlinear fashion.  All is not as it initially appears.

Blindspotting

Blindspotting                     4 ½ stars

Blindspotting deals with some very familiar issues to the movies but does things differently from what we are used to.  Two friends, Collin and Miles are childhood friends, one white and one black.  They work together at a moving company and Collin has three days left on probation stemming from an assault charge because of a bar fight.  Then he witnesses a police shooting of an unarmed black man which has a profound effect on his life.  Both characters go through some challenging situations where they realize that all individuals have many aspects to their lives, but others tend to limit their view of them, thus creating the term Blindspotting, invented by the filmmakers.  The film was co-written by the two main actors (Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal) who have been friends for many years.  The film is set against the backdrop of Oakland, California as it undergoes a transformation brought about by rapid gentrification.  Also, many scenes in the movie are done in spoken verse, also known as hip-hop.  The movie was one of the main features at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and received some rave reviews.  There are some very violent scenes to be aware of as expected for this kind of movie.

Robot Dreams

Robot Dreams   4 ½ stars

I had not heard of Pablo Berger’s animated movie, Robot Dreams before but after viewing it I have to call it a masterpiece about lost friendships. Set in 1980’s NYC, the movie is based on a graphic novel by Sarah Varon. Using a simple style of animation with no dialogue, all the characters are animals living in a busy urban environment. The main character, DOG, lives alone in a small apartment and is very alone. That is, until he sees an ad for a mail order robot, which he acts on. After a few days he receives a package in the mail containing the mechanical robot, plus some assembly instructions. Before long ROBOT is up and running and a fresh relationship blossoms. The pair become fast friends, sharing activities in the city as ROBOT takes it all in with a sense of awe. DOG is equally inspired as they go roller-skating to Earth, Wind and Fire and hang out under the Queensboro bridge. They spend a day at Oceans Beach going swimming and sunning, until ROBOT suddenly freezes up and can’t move since salt water is bad for his circuitry. The tone changes as DOG is forced to abandon his friend at the beach but hopes to return to retrieve ROBOT the following summer. This is where the movie turns sad, as DOG pursues other activities such as sled riding alone and endures the abuse of other riders like an evil pair of anteaters and going bowling with a snowman. ROBOT, still alone on the beach encounters other creatures too, some abusive, but others caring. We also find out that this mechanical being can dream as he fantasizes of being reunited with his new friend. As time goes by, the close friendship slowly fades and the relationship becomes a thing of the past, though each character treasures the memories. The audience is left wondering if the two friends will find a way to reunite. And if they do, what will it be like. This is the Spanish film director’s first effort at an animated film. Previously, he made Biancanieves, a take on Snow White. He has an effective style of portraying human emotions in his characters using facial expressions and a lack of any dialogue. Aspects of the film have been compared to Charlie Chaplin, who the director is a fan of, as he gives us moments of hilarious comedy alternating with a punch in the gut. The movie is available on Disney + and Hulu. If you see it, I advise that you be emotionally prepared and be ready to be humming EW&F’s September. The movie is also appropriate for children. Robot Dreams was nominated for the Animated Feature Academy Award but lost out to The Boy and the Heron in 2024.