by BoB Grimm
b g ri m m @ne w s re v i e w . c o m
SHORT TAKES
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“Why should you never make an agreement with me? Because of my retractable clause. Get it?”
Rated X
to Yuma remake.) to the proceedings, even making direct references to Shane. It’s remarkable the liberties he’s been allowed to take with an otherwise family-friendly franchise. People die hard in this one. Nobody sports any fancy uniforms. And now for something completely different … The action scenes are flawless, top-notch enterHugh Jackman—allegedly—says goodbye prises, a marvel of special effects and awards-worthy to Wolverine with Logan, a total shocker of a editing. There is a scene in this movie that is one of superhero movie that lays waste to the X-Men and the best scenes I have ever seen in an action film. standalone Wolverine movies that came before it. The sequence involves Xavier having an especially Director James Mangold, who piloted the decent The bad seizure. That’s all I’m going to give away. Wolverine, revamps the character’s mythos, and pulls Believe me, you’ll know it when you see it. along Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) for the gritty, Jackman has always been a terrific Wolverine. bloody, nasty, awesome ride. Of all of the “superhero” performances through the It’s the future, and the X-Men are gone. A mutant years, he goes into the Hall of Fame with the likes hasn’t been born in a quarter of a century, and Logan of Reeve, Keaton, Bale and Downey, Jr. He’s all isn’t looking too hot. He’s driving a limo to make in for this picture, and he’s finally allowed to take ends meet, coughing up blood, and basically not Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine, to his most violent, sadistic aging well. extremes. There’s no holding back He’s doing a lot better than with his work here. It’s a fitting Xavier, the mutant formally known conclusion to his run with the as Professor X, who’s prone to character. seizures and suffering from some There’s a long way to go in the sort of degenerative brain disease. film year, but Stewart should already Logan has to keep him in a big Director: James Mangold be getting some Oscar buzz for his empty tank to shield the world Starring: Hugh Jackman, turn in this movie. While Jackman from his spells, which can cause Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen takes Wolverine to an extreme some major physical distress to those in of us geeks might expect, Stewart is the vicinity, including Logan. He’s allowed to explore the sad, broken assisted in caring for Xavier by side of Xavier, and it’s absolutely heartbreaking. He Caliban (comedian Stephen Merchant), an albino honestly has some of the greatest moments of his mutant with mind powers. career in this film, and the same can most certainly In short, the days of X-Men glory are way, way be said for Jackman. over, with Logan and Xavier having a shit time in All elements of this movie are Grade A spectheir autumn years. tacular, and we’ll just make the call right now. Just when it seems as if the pair will waste away Logan is one of the very best comic book films ever in their miserable existence, along comes Laura (a made, and if you were to call it the all-time best, dynamite Dafne Keen). She’s a genetically engiyou probably wouldn’t be met with much opposineered mutant equipped with the same retractable tion. It’s an example of a great idea delivered with claws and viciously bad temper as Logan. When stupendous results. her life becomes endangered, Logan throws her and So, it’s only March, and the last two weeks have Xavier in the back of his vehicle, and they are off on given us Get Out and Logan. The movie year is off one wild, dark road trip. to one of its better starts in many years. As for the To say this movie is violent would be an X-Men franchise, it’s doubtful the accomplishments understatement. On the heels of Deadpool and its of Logan will ever be topped, but it will be interestR-rated success, Mangold and company have let the ing to see somebody try. Ω flesh and profanity rip with this one. Mangold brings some of his Western chops (He directed the 3:10
Logan
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Get Out
Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), a young AfricanAmerican man, is a little nervous. He’s going to visit the parents of Rose Armitage (Allison Williams), his white girlfriend. Rose is relaxed about the trip, but Chris is anxious. His anxiety proves justified shortly into the trip. Upon arrival at her large estate, her parents like Chris. They really, really like Chris. Actually, parents Missy and Dean (Catherine Keener and Bradley Whitford) like Chris at a level that’s a bit unsettling. Chris shrugs it off at first, as does Allison, but strange things start happening. Writer-director Jordan Peele, the comedic performer from TV’s Key & Peele, and the adorable, funny cat movie Keanu, delivers a huge cinematic surprise with Get Out, a twisted, darkly satiric, nasty little horror film that pulls no punches when it comes to race relations and dating. Peele has cited Night of the Living Dead and The Stepford Wives as inspiration for this journey to the dark side of his creative soul. Those films’ influences are detectable, and I’d say you could throw in a pinch of Rosemary’s Baby with a side of Being John Malkovich as well. Two of the hardest things to accomplish with a movie are to make people laugh and get them legitimately scared. Get Out manages to do both for its entire running time. Peele takes taboo subjects and stereotypes and doesn’t let his pen get restricted by fear of offending anybody. This is an appropriately evil, scabrous movie.
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The Great Wall
Matt Damon stars in this mess, and this may very well represent the low point of his career, a career that has included the atrocious Jason Bourne and Hereafter. He probably thought he was in safe hands because The Great Wall is helmed by director Zang Yimou, maker of such masterpieces as Hero, House of Flying Daggers and—one of my very favorite movies—The Road Home. Damon was probably all like, “Hey, Yimou is calling the shots. If anything, I’m going to look good in this pic!” Then … he saw his wardrobe. A wardrobe that begins with big furry wigs and beards, and then declines into a sad man-bun wig as the film progresses. He looks silly from frame one. He sounds silly, too. He’s attempting some sort of accent here, a cross between Irish, Scottish and just plain dickweed. Every time he talks in this movie, it hurts the ears and the soul—especially the souls of those who love Matt Damon. It’s all in the service of a wannabe period epic about non-distinctive, stupidlooking CGI monsters attacking China’s Great Wall, with Damon’s character being the savior with a bow. It’s a meandering, dull, ugly waste of everybody’s time.
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Hidden Figures
Katherine Johnson was part of a segregated division at NASA in the ’50s, a wing of mathematicians who did the work that computers do today. Hidden Figures 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. The women had to put up with a lot of racist bullshit, and the film shows their hardships, albeit in PG fashion. 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.
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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. This solidifies Gosling as one of the best actors of his generation. Stone doesn’t just make her mark with a beautiful voice and expert footwork—she embodies the character trying to “make it” in the business.
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The Lego Batman Movie
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Split
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This is the great Batman story that Batman v Superman failed to be. Even better, it has Will Arnett voicing Batman with a new, super amped, still dark, but amazingly well rounded and sometimes humorous incarnation. After all these years of dark—and admittedly sometimes brilliant—Batman movies, it’s nice to have a vehicle where we can just have fun with the character. Director Chris McKay, along with a long list of writers, has come up with a story that will please adult Batman fans as much as the kids who will most assuredly be dropped off at the local Cineplex to watch a movie while parents catch a break from the little mayhem makers. Arnett’s Batman not only faces off against the Joker (a very funny Zach Galifianakis), but finds himself in a scenario where he’s battling a smorgasbord of movie villains including King Kong, the Gremlins, Dracula, evil British robots and Voldemort (Eddie Izzard), to name just a few. It’s a nutty plot element that also allows for Batman mainstays like Bane, Two-Face (Billy Dee Williams, who was Harvey Dent in Tim Burton’s Batman) and the Riddler (Conan O’Brien!) to get in on the act. It’s a geek fest, a movie lover’s delight that has a funny little trivia bit at nearly every turn, and an emotional center.
Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan has finally made his first good movie since Signs (2002) with Split, a down-to-thebasics, creepy thriller propelled by excellent performances from James McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch). The film reminds us that Shyamalan can be a capable director and writer when he’s not getting too carried away. Taylor-Joy plays Casey, a high school outcast who attends a birthday party but soon finds herself and two classmates imprisoned by a strange man with multiple personalities (McAvoy). In addition to the angry man who kidnaps them, he’s also a stately, mannered woman, a 9-year-old child and, well, a few others. One of those other personalities plays a big part in taking the film into other realms beyond psychological thriller. McAvoy goes nuts with the role, and Shyamalan takes things into supernatural territories in a chilling climax. Taylor-Joy is quickly becoming the new scream queen, and McAvoy’s work will surely stand as one of the year’s most fun performances.
Four women direct short films in this horror anthology. Most notably, Annie Clark of the band St. Vincent makes her film directorial debut with a segment called “The Birthday Party,” where a frantic mom (Melanie Lynskey) panics when she finds a corpse just before her child’s birthday. The segment looks great, is acted well, and features some great sound and St. Vincent music. As a piece of horror, it’s a bit of a failure—it’s more jokey than horror—but the segment does show that Clark can direct performances and pull together the technical parts. It’s just not scary. Things get creepier in an Evil Dead sort of way with “Don’t Fall,” where some desert campers come into contact with demonic forces after seeing some sketches on a stone wall. The other segments, “The Gift” and “Her Only Living Son,” deal with starvation, parenthood and the antichrist. Available for download rental during limited theatrical release.
03.09.17
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RN&R
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