by BoB Grimm
b g ri m m @ne w s re v i e w . c o m
SHORT TAKES
2
A Monster Calls
This is a well-meaning movie with good heart, but it was better when it was called The Iron Giant. J.A. Bayona’s film of the Patrick Ness book tells the tale of Conor (Lewis MacDougall), a young boy whose mother (Felicity Jones) is dying. Conor is, understandably, having issues, not just with the impending loss of his mother, but bullies at school and a domineering grandma (Sigourney Weaver) he doesn’t quite understand. When things come to a boil, a tree monster (voice of Liam Neeson) shows up to offer guidance and tough love. MacDougall gives a respectable performance, as do Jones and Weaver, but the film never really works as a whole. The relationship between the boy and the imaginative monster never makes much sense, so the human interactions wind up being far more interesting. Problem is, this movie is called A Monster Calls, and much of the film leans on the effectiveness of the monster scenes. There are moments where everything jells, but just moments.
“Say hi to your mother for me!”
Marathon man
Wolff is on target as the baseball cap-wearing, oblivious douche that doesn’t know how to say no to his brother. There’s nothing sympathetic about the portrayal of his brand of evil in this movie. He’s a The latest collaboration between director Peter cold-hearted, ignorant villain, and Wolff captures that Berg and actor Mark Wahlberg, Patriots Day, stands essence. As Dzhokhar’s older brother, and bombing as not only a valuable tribute to the victims and mastermind, Tamerlan, Themo Melikidze delivers a heroes of the Boston Marathon bombings, but a solid, chilling rendition of radicalism and psychotic egotism. meaningful, gritty look at what it took to take down Michelle Monaghan is effective as Saunders’ the terrorist Tsarnaev brothers. wife, as are John Goodman as police commissioner Wahlberg plays Sgt. Tommy Saunders, another Ed Davis and Kevin Bacon as FBI Special Agent one of those fictional composite characters that often Richard DesLauriers. J.K. Simmons is hard edged show up in historical dramas. You may forgive this and a little bit funny as Sgt. Jeffrey Pugliese, who kind of artistic license, because the goal of Patriots took part in the showdown that claimed the life of Day is to take you through the entire drama, from the Tamerlan. Jimmy O. Yang is memorable as the man bombing itself, through to the capture of Dzhokhar the brothers carjacked. Tsarnaev (Alex Wolff) inside a boat in somebody’s This is definitely one of 2016’s better ensembles. backyard. While the film got a wide release in 2017, it got a There probably wasn’t a single limited release last year to qualify person who was at all of the events for awards considerations. Berg, leading to the ultimate capture like Jeff Nichols (Midnight of the final living suspect in the Special, Loving) had two good bombings. It’s best to just view movies in 2016 with this and the Wahlberg character as a partial Deepwater Horizon. representation of the heroism and Director: Peter Berg He’s no stranger to historical Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Alex Wolff diligence that led to that arrest. drama. Ever since Berg nearly The film begins with Saunders derailed his promising directobitching about being on street rial career with the abysmal Battleship, it’s all he’s security detail for the Boston Marathon, serving out done on the big screen. Lone Survivor, Deepwater a probationary period on the Boston police force. He Horizon and now Patriots Day, all Wahlberg collabshows up in the “clown suit,” takes some ribbing from orations, are based on real-life events. Much to Berg’s fellow cops and detectives, but generally sports a good credit, all of those events are represented with great attitude and does the gig with an admirable level of detail, emotional honesty and integrity. They are also conviction. The event itself actually gets his spirits a very entertaining. Right now, he’s kicking Spielberg’s little up. Then, as runners are crossing the finish line, ass in the historical drama department. the bombs go off. The film is about heroes, the heroes who worked The film doesn’t shy away from the carnage to find the perpetrators, and the selfless, persevering caused by those bombs and the tragic mess they left heroes who were standing close to an explosive device behind, and it shouldn’t. It earns its R rating. The when it went off. You’ll walk away from this movie movie dives into the bombing aftermath, then straight feeling that Berg, Wahlberg and company did all of into the investigation and tense standoffs that occurred these good people justice with Patriots Day. Most in rapid succession. importantly, it’s a moving tribute to those who lost Wahlberg has done some of his best work in Berg their lives. films (Deepwater Horizon and Lone Survivor), and Some might say “too soon” for the existence of this film represents the apex of their collaborations. a film such as this one. I say it’s never too soon to Yes, the character he’s playing isn’t totally real, but honor the good people of Boston. Ω it’s an honorable deviation.
Patriots Day
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4
Hidden Figures
Katherine Johnson, one of the most brilliant mathematicians of the last century—and still going at age 98—gets the movie she deserves with Hidden Figures, an entertaining, enlightening and educational look at the contributions of her and her cohorts to NASA and space flight in the late 1950s and after. Johnson was part of a segregated division at NASA in the ’50s, a wing of mathematicians who did the work that actual computers do today. The movie depicts the humiliation she and two other historical African-American figures, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, went through while solving equations that helped put men safely into space and return them to their families. The women had to put up with a lot of racist bullshit on their way to, during and after work, and the film shows their hardships, albeit in PG fashion. There was a stretch where Johnson was making monumental calculations for the likes of Alan Shepard, yet she wasn’t allowed to use bathrooms in her building or drink from the same coffee pot as her white counterparts. Taraji P. Henson plays Johnson, the “smart one” astronaut John Glenn personally demanded check the coordinates before his historical flight launched. Octavia Spencer is her usual great self as Vaughan, doing the work of a supervisor without the title and curious about that new IBM thing they just installed down the hall. Vaughan would become crucial to the implementation of computers at NASA, as well as being the agency’s first African-American supervisor. As Jackson, NASA’s first female African-American aeronautical engineer, singer Janelle Monae is so good, it’s easy to forget that this is just her second movie role. As a composite, fictional character named Al Harrison, Kevin Costner does some of his best acting in years.
5
La La Land
This is an all new, original musical from director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) that’s surprisingly low on melodrama while full of vibrancy, beautiful tunes, outstanding set pieces and a stunning sense of realism for a movie where the characters bust out singing. It’s the best original movie musical ever made. The story follows wannabe actress Mia (Emma Stone) and jazz composer Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) as they try to make it in crazy Los Angeles. They meet, they don’t like each other much at first, but then they fall in love, which provides Chazelle and his performers ample opportunities for musical numbers that surprise at every turn. In one of the year’s greatest scenes, the film opens on an L.A. traffic jam that evolves into a full-blown dance number featuring many extras and top notch editing and camera work that make the whole thing look like one shot. This solidifies Gosling as one of the best actors of his generation. He can wow you with insightful indies and carry big budget blockbusters. Now, with La La Land, he takes his game to a new level. He proves he can pretty much do anything when it comes to movie characters. He can sing with the best of them, he’s definitely no slouch when it comes to dancing, and he sure can play the piano after a
few months of intensive training for the movie. Stone doesn’t just make her mark with a beautiful voice and expert footwork—she embodies the character with the honest and almost tragic drive to “make it” in the business.
5
Manchester By the Sea
2
Passengers
4
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Be prepared to get your heart ripped out by Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams in this—one of the more emotionally powerful movie experiences of 2016. Affleck plays Lee, uncle to Patrick (Lucas Hedges), who must return to his hometown and raise his nephew after his brother (Kyle Chandler) dies. Lee is a true mess, and we learn through flashbacks what got him to his messed up state. He’s battling some major past tragedy on top of his brother’s death, and there’s no telling how things will work out for him and Patrick. The flashbacks are brutal, revealing things that go beyond terrible, and it’s no wonder Lee has coping issues. Affleck has turned in good work before, but nothing like what he does in this film. He’s incredible. Williams turns in a blistering performance as Lee’s ex-wife, and a scene Affleck and Williams share together is guaranteed to knock you on your ass, and will probably earn them both Oscar nominations. Hedges is mighty good as the confused teen dealing with the loss of his dad and the presence of his somewhat strange uncle. Kenneth Lonergan directs from his own screenplay, and he’s put together some kind of movie miracle. His last big film was You Can Count On Me 16 years ago.
Two of Hollywood’s biggest, most lovable stars labor away in the pretty but dumb Passengers, a movie that doesn’t have the guts to be as ugly as it should be. Chris Pratt plays Jim Preston, a mechanic dedicated to starting a life on a distant planet. He and 5,000 other passengers are in suspended animation aboard a ship taking a 125-year journey. That ship has an unfortunate encounter with a meteor shower, and Jim’s sleeping pod awakens him … with 90 years to go on the trip. What to do, what to do, what to do? Jim gets it into his mind to do a very bad thing, and that’s when Jennifer Lawrence’s character comes into play. The movie is good-looking for sure, and I really liked the design of the ship. That’s essentially what’s keeping Passengers from getting my lowest rating. That, and the fact that Jennifer Lawrence really can act, even when she’s in a junk-food movie. She can salvage the most mundane of dialogue and almost make it sound good. Almost. Passengers won’t frustrate you so much for what it is, as for what it could have been. Imagine if somebody like Stanley Kubrick got ahold of this premise. Oh man, that would’ve been a movie to be reckoned with. This could’ve been one of the sickest science fiction epics since Alien.
There was a quick little moment in the very first Star Wars (now known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) where a character mentions rebels possibly obtaining vulnerability secrets regarding the Death Star. That group of people actually gets their own movie in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a Star Wars spinoff that’s technically another prequel. In fact, it tells a story that leads right up to where A New Hope begins. It’s also a little different from your typical Star Wars movie in that it doesn’t mainly deal with the Skywalker saga—although a couple of them make notable appearances—and doesn’t prominently feature the John Williams score (although that makes some appearances, as well). Director Gareth Edwards (Godzilla) goes for something a little different here, a tonal shift that reminds of the big change The Empire Strikes Back brought to the saga. The result is a different kind of Star Wars film that’s immensely entertaining and fun. Felicity Jones is terrific as Jyn, a woman who finds herself with strange ties to the Death Star, and becomes part of the effort to destroy it. Star Wars fans will delight in all of the tie-ins and cameos, while newcomers will simply have a blast with an action movie that delivers on many fronts.
01.12.17
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RN&R
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