DVDS REVIEWED BY GEORGE OXFORD MILLER
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Daniel Craig and Dwight Yoakum in Logan Lucky.
Wind River (2017) HHHHH Cast: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Graham Greene Genre: Mystery, Drama Rating R. Running time 107 minutes. The opening scenes of this story are as metaphorical as they are prophetic. A frantic woman races barefooted across a snow-covered meadow. Next, a wolf feeding on a slaughtered lamb drops when a shot rings across the remote valley. The hunter, Cory Lambert (Renner), a U.S. Game and Fish warden tasked with predator control on the Wind River Indian Reservation, rises silently, purposefully from the snow. When Lambert discovers the frozen body of the murdered woman, we intuitively understand that the woman’s predator will himself become the hunted prey. FBI agent Jane Banner (Olsen) leads the investigation as ill-prepared for the hard realities of life on the reservation as her windbreaker is for the sub-zero temperatures. She solicits help from Lambert to negotiate the hardships of the reservation and surrounding wilderness. With back stories that root the characters in the tragedy, Renner and Olsen team up with performances as powerful as the Wyoming winter.
The Hero (2017) HHHH
Cast: Sam Elliott, Laura Prepon, Krysten Ritter Genre: Drama Rated R. Running time 93 minutes. In The Hero, Sam Elliot primarily plays himself, but as a fictional, faded movie star near the bottom of the downhill slope called life. The 71-yearold Lee Handen, revered for his western movies, mustache, and masculine bar room voice, is reduced to voiceover barbecue commercials. Smoking weed is Lee’s primary activity as he coasts toward the vast unknown. But when the unknown suddenly becomes known—he gets a cancer diagnosis— Lee realizes his legacy comes up short of his life expectations. The high-octane fuel needed to restart his ambitions turns out not to be weed, but love. Charlotte (Prepon), a beautiful, young comedian, happens to have a thing for older men. Sure, the fantasy affair and geriatric rejuvenation sound cliché, but Elliot’s nuanced portrayal sidesteps the ordinary and spotlights the feelings and fears that make us all human, regardless of age. The role, written especially for Elliot, showcases his legendary star power on all levels.
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Lost in Paris (2017) HHHH Cast: Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel, Emmanuelle Riva Genre: Comedy Unrated. Running time 123 minutes. In French and English with English subtitles This slapstick farce opens doors Hollywood dares not enter. With unabashed enthusiasm, Lost beguiles us with sight gags, comic mishaps, absurd coincidences, and daffy personalities. Fiona (Gordon), a librarian in a snowbound village in remote Canada, receives a frantic letter from her kooky Aunt Martha (Riva) in Paris, begging for help. Seems she’s about to be carted off to a nursing home. Fiona stuffs a Canadian flag in her backpack and books the next flight. The escapade begins when she falls into the Seine and loses her pack, including her passport and money, then falls in love with a hobo, Dom (Abel), who recovers it. The husband-and-wife team Gordon and Abel, former circus performers, remain true to the classic French tradition of physical-comedy and give us a lighthearted romp filled with smiles and belly laughs, and heartwarming, life-affirming emotions.
Logan Lucky (2017) HHHH
Cast: Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig, Riley Keough Genres Comedy, Crime Director Steven Soderbergh Rated PG-13. Running time 119 minutes. With credits like “Introducing Daniel Craig,” “Nobody was robbed during the making of this film,” and even the ironic title itself, you know director Steven Soderberg is out to have fun. While a washed-up West Virginia coal miner Jimmy Logan (Tatum) is working at North Carolina’s Charlotte Motor Speedway, he sees mountains of cash siphoning from the fans’ wallets to a below-ground safe. One thing miners know how to do is dig tunnels. A plan is born. The hillbilly Robin Hood needs a crew so he rounds up his one-armed brother Clyde (Driver) and fireball sister Mellie (Keough). Joe Bang (Craig), the safecracker he needs, is in jail, but no problem, just bust him out for the job, then sneak him back to his cell. And so it goes, one improbable bad idea after another. Scripted and filmed with his Oceans Eleven template, Soderbergh combines odd-ball characters and harebrained ideas to turn the common heist movie into a work of surrealistic art. n