Movie Review: A Dog's Way Home

A Dog's Way Home (2019) 

Directed by Charles Martin Smith 

Written by W. Bruce Cameron, Cathryn Michon

Starring Ashley Judd, Edward James Olmos, Alexandra Shipp, Bryce Dallas Howard

Release Date January 11th, 2019 

Published January 12th, 2019

 A Dog’s Way Home is a movie for kids. I had to keep telling myself that so that I would go easy on this otherwise tacky and manipulative melodrama. This is not a movie intended for an audience capable of seeing through its mawkishness and pushy sentimentality. A Dog’s Way Home is meant for yet to be fully formed intellects that won’t recognize the cheap dramatic tricks on display.

A Dog’s Way Home features the voice of Bryce Dallas Howard as Bella, a dog born living underneath a fallen house. Bella grows up alongside the sweetest group of feral cats in history until animal control grabs most of them and Bella’s mother and brothers. For the next part of her life, Bella is raised by a cat that she calls Mother Cat. Seeing a dog feed on a cat is a new experience and one I am not quite sure I am comfortable with.

Bella’s life is changed forever when she meets Lucas (Jonah Hauer King), a young man who has been working to rescue the cats living in this otherwise destroyed neighborhood. When he finds Bella, Bella falls immediately in love. Lucas takes Bella home even though his landlord doesn’t allow for him to have a pet. Lucas lives with his mother, played by Ashley Judd, an Iraq war vet with the lightest touch of PTSD, she gets a little sad sometimes.

This is the status quo for some time until Lucas crosses the developer trying to raze the building where the cats have been living. The developer sics animal control on Bella and because she is part Pitbull, and Pitbull's are apparently outlawed in Denver, where the film is set, Bella is taken away. Lucas decides to take Bella out of town until he and his mother find a new apartment outside of Denver.

Unfortunately, Bella doesn’t understand that she’s only temporarily going to be away from her owner and when she gets the chance, Bella flees the home in New Mexico and goes on a run through the woods and towns and some 400 miles to get herself back to Denver and back to her beloved owner. Along the way, Bella makes pals with a sweet hearted gay couple and a cougar that she calls Big Kitten.

You know how I said this is a kids movie? Well, there is at least one part that probably doesn’t belong in a movie for kids. In a subplot that left me utterly bewildered, Bella befriends a homeless man on her journey, played by Edward James Olmos, literally slumming for this role. The homeless man, like all of the supporting characters in this film, is a veteran dealing with PTSD. He keeps Bella tied to him until he is close to death when he decides to chain Bella to himself and then he dies.

Yes, this kiddie flick about a heartwarming dog’s journey home, features our hero dog chained to the corpse of a homeless veteran. It’s a scene as bewildering as it is bleak. I get that Bella needs life threatening crises for dramatic purposes but this one goes way too far, and we’re talking about a movie where a dog befriends a cougar and fights wolves. Bella nearly dies until two kids find her and the body because the trauma needed more witnesses I guess.

A Dog’s Way Home will, despite how tacky and cheap it is, still appeal to animal lovers. Much like the classic cheap child in danger plot, audiences can’t get enough of cute animals in danger plots. Add in a cutesy voiceover, as if the dog has a narrator trapped in its skull and audiences go crazy for it. Our love for animals runs so deep that we often give a pass to even the most trashy of cute animal movies and no doubt many audiences will give a pass to A Dog’s Way Home. I won’t but that’s just me.

Movie Review: Escape Room

Escape Room (2019) 

Directed by Adam Robitel 

Written by Bragi F. Schut, Maria Melnik 

Starring Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Deborah Ann Woll, Tyler Labine, 

Release Date January 4th, 2019 

Published January 4th, 2019 

The first new release film of any year is often not very good in my experience. I have been writing about movies on the internet for nearly 20 years, dating back to having that Microsoft’s now rather ludicrous Web TV. Eventually, I came to dread the start of the year at the movies. Sure, there were Oscar movies that arrived late but the new-new movies of the year, especially the first new release of any year tended to be awful year after year. 

That trend was only recently bucked just last year when director Adam Robitel delivered the terrific final chapter of the Insidious franchise, Insidious The Last Key. I really enjoyed Insidious The Last Key and while the rest of January lived up to the reputation that month has earned as a dumping ground for studios looking to bury their trash while we were dazzled by the Award winner, at least the first new release of the year was entertaining. 

What luck then to find that director Adam Robitel was leading off the year again, this time with a new horror effort called Escape Room. Sure, I was worried when the film appeared to have not been shown to critics but then, at the last minute, reviews started showing up and they weren’t all bad. And, indeed, much like Insidious The Last Key was pretty good this time last year, Escape Room is pretty good kicking off this year. 

Escape Room stars Taylor Russell as Zoey, a shy and mousey college student who receives a strange package. Inside is a puzzle box and inside that puzzle box is an invitation to a fully immersive gaming experience called an Escape Room. For the unaware, Escape Rooms are a real deal experience. The concept has you locked inside a room with a time limit to discover all of the clues and free yourself from the room. 

We also meet two other characters in the run-up to arriving at the Escape Room of the title. Jason (Jay Ellis) is a high powered stock broker who receives a gift from one of his clients. Inside is the same kind of puzzle box sent to Zoey. He and Zoey do not know each other but they will meet at the Escape Room along with Ben (Logan Miller), a supermarket employee who gets a puzzle box from his employer. 

Once at the Escape Room we meet three more characters, Amanda (Debra Ann Woll, from Netflix’s Daredevil) an Iraq war veteran, Mike (Tyler Labine) a truck driver, and Danny (Nk Dodani) who is an Escape Room obsessive. It’s Danny who figures out that the waiting room where they first meet is actually the first of several Escape Rooms they will experience. He’s also the last to accept that these are more than Escape Rooms, they are genuine death traps that they must solve in order to survive. 

What Escape Room does so much better than most recent horror films is give us characters that we genuinely care about. Each of these six characters are genuinely good people with character flaws and a deep and abiding compassion. Jason is set up as the sort of villain of the group, the one who appears to put his own survival ahead of everyone else’s but even he appears to be a good person who gets pushed to an extreme and reacts somewhat poorly. 

There is not one of these characters that I hated so much I hoped they wouldn’t survive. The worst trend in horror of this young century was the move to make villains the center of horror movies and make their victims so hateful, obnoxious and self-involved that we didn’t mind so much when they were hacked up. Escape Room goes the complete opposite direction and creates six characters that we invest in and care about. 

Yes, they are character types, recognizable for some stock characteristics, but they had a genuine quality and compassion for one another that is incredibly refreshing from a genre that revels in the survival of the fittest archetype and views compassion as weakness. I came to adore each of these characters to the point that when one of them sacrifices themselves to save the others I was honestly moved and sad that the character was gone. 

Escape Room does have its issues. The film does feel like assembled pieces from other horror movies such as Hostel and Saw but minus that nastiness. Don’t get me wrong, I truly enjoy the Saw franchise, but even that series tended to fall back on nasty characters rather than good ones. Hostel meanwhile, was wall to wall vile people to the point that I wanted to nuke the entire movie and the sick minded writer-director who assembled it. 

If the character from Escape Room were in a Saw movie, they’d all survive because these characters immediately embrace the ethos of working together and trusting each other's strengths and making up for each other's weaknesses. This is especially true of Taylor Russell’s Zoey who is a tremendously resourceful and compelling protagonist. She is so sweet that you assume she’s weak but Russell invests her with a rigorous intelligence. 

I am really happy to say that I kind of loved Escape Room. I did wish it had only ended once, the two sequel teases did push the wrong buttons for the potential franchise of Escape Room movies but as long as Adam Robitel is at the helm along with the witty and smart writing team of Bragi F Schut and Maria Melnik, nailing their first Hollywood script, I am on board for even more Escape Room fun.

Movie Review: The Theory of Everything

The Theory of Everything (2014) 

Directed by James Marsh 

Written by Anthony McCarten

Starring Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Charlie Cox, Emily Watson, David Thewlis 

Release Date November 7th, 2014 

Published November 5th, 2014 

Why does "The Theory of Everything" exist? Where did it come from? Why is it here? Not even Stephen Hawking could explain that. 

We have "A Brief History of Time," Errol Morris's remarkable documentary on the life of Stephen Hawking. It is the definitive story. "A Brief History of Time" combines Stephen Hawking's life and work as they should be, fully intermingled in time. Cross-cutting Stephen's childhood with bits of his theory, shifting between interviews about his past to his present theories, flows brilliantly with the way Stephen Hawking sees the world. It is timeless. 

"The Theory of Everything," on the other hand, is a linear, conventional, Hollywood biopic with all the soft edges and soft focus of classic hagiography. Eddie Redmayne suffers for his art as he contorts himself into an exceptional bit of mimicry. But for what purpose? Redmayne is a fine actor, but he doesn't give us anything new about Hawking. Redmayne and director James March merely recite Hawking’s life in image and dialogue. 

"The Theory of Everything" is based on the book by Jane Hawking, Hawking's first love and mother of his three children. The film is likely to make up for her diminished role in "A Brief History of Time," in which she chose not participate back in 1991. That’s nice, but it doesn't make the film all that more compelling. Jane is sweet and smart and above stalwart in the face of Stephen's many setbacks. But as played by Felicity Jones, she doesn't seem to have much inner life. 

Jones is a lovely actress who is left bland by the demands of a script. The story makes her out as both a saint and a victim who suspended her own life in favor of Stephen's, only to see him move on in a relationship with his nurse after 20-some years of marriage. That's not to say that this passage in the film has much drama to it either. The marriage breakup is followed by Jane immediately finding love again. She and Stephen are able to find friendship and peace without any seeming messiness. 

"The Theory of Everything" is a pretty movie with a pleasant score, a gentle sense of humor and a highly professional polish. So what? What is all of the polish in the world going to reveal about one of the most remarkable minds in history? Hawking's work is his most remarkable legacy. Here his theories are given  short shrift in favor of a kitchen-sink melodrama about potential or perceived marital infidelity. Even though it is based on fact, it’s the least interesting aspect of his life. 

Give me black holes and String Theory over marital morality plays any day of the week. You can have your gossip about who may have cheated on whom and when. I want to know more about time.

That's why "A Brief History of Time" makes "The Theory of Everything" irrelevant. In “Brief History” we get both a biopic (minus the gossip) and Hawking’s work. The work, not his love life, makes Hawking someone on which to focus a movie. 

Movie Review: Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian (2011) 

Directed by Marcus Nispel 

Written by Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer, Sean Hood 

Starring Jason Mamoa, Rachel Nichols, Stephen Lang, Leo Howard, Ron Perlman

Release Date August 19th, 2011

Published August 19th, 2011 

In all honesty, I expected to hate Conan the Barbarian. Critics aren’t supposed to be prejudiced against a movie but director Marcus Nispel doesn’t have a great track record. Nispel’s Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre remakes are exercises in brutality and I’m not talking about what he puts his characters through, but what he puts the audience through with his ham-fisted, overly stylized, blood and guts approach that treats characters as bags of meat that exist only to be split open like piñatas.

Don’t misunderstand, there are plenty of meat-bags in Conan the Barbarian waiting to be split open like so many pigs at a slaughterhouse, but somehow, one of the writers actually snuck a modicum of character development into the film and the yeoman work of the casting director found a few shockingly talented actors who miraculously manage to act amidst Nispel’s fetishistic bloodlust.

Jason Momoa plays Conan the Barbarian, a man born as a warrior; literally. He was born in the middle of a battle, cut from his dying mother’s womb amidst a clash of swords and the separating of limbs from bodies. Raised by his barbarian daddy, expertly played by that charming lunkhead Ron Perlman, Conan develops into a warrior at a very young age.

14 year old Leo Howard plays young Conan and the kid is a star. It was Howard as young Conan exhibiting badass skill in taking down a small horde of bad guys and carrying their severed heads back to his father as a trophy that won me over. When young Conan is forced to witness an atrocity against his family at the hands of the ruthless, power hungry Khalar Zym (Stephen Lang), Howard brings fierce intensity to Conan rather than the simple tears and fears of a child.

Jumping ahead a decade or so we find Conan as a warrior pirate sailing the scummy sea sides in search of any sign of Khalar Zym and the chance to avenge his family. When his chance arrives, following a siege by Zym and his nutty sorceress daughter, Marique (Rose McGowan), at a formerly peaceful mountainside monastery, Conan doesn’t let the opportunity pass, even if it means using an innocent beauty, Tamara (Rachel Nichols) as bait.

Jason Momoa, I’m told, is quite compelling on HBO’s Game of Thrones where his Khal Drogo is a silent yet imposing killer. In Conan the Barbarian however, Jason Momoa is shown up big time by the young Conan the Barbarian, Leo Howard. Howard is the star, Momoa merely carries on the compelling character that the kid creates. Momoa’s leaden line delivery nearly undoes the hard work Leo Howard put into making Conan so compelling. Thankfully, what Momoa failed at as an actor he makes up for as a physical presence and sword swinging apparatus.

I could sit here and hammer Conan the Barbarian for its blatant misogyny and massive lapses in logic but that would ignore the fact that I knew what Conan the Barbarian was before I saw it. I went into Conan the Barbarian aware that the film was going to treat women as sex objects and damsels in distress and I knew not to expect a heavy dose of brains other than those that spilled out of the cracked skulls of many CGI extras.

It seems unsportsmanlike to call out Conan the Barbarian for living down to expectations. And what would be more unsportsmanlike would be to deny that once you put aside the preconceived notions of Conan the Barbarian, the film is surprisingly compelling, even gripping in its blood and guts way.

Is Conan the Barbarian a little daffy at times? Absolutely, but it is also surprisingly involving and exciting. Do I welcome a Conan the Barbarian sequel? No, I don’t need to see this character ever again but for a one off, blood and guts, 3D epic, Conan the Barbarian is shockingly fun and surprisingly worth the 3D ticket price.

Movie Review: War Horse

War Horse (2011) 

Directed by Steven Spielberg 

Written by Lee Hall, Richard Curtis

Starring Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Peter Mullan, Jeremy Irvine 

Release Date December 25th, 2011 

Published December 25th, 2011

There is one truly great scene in Steven Speilberg's "War Horse." The scene involves the hero horse escaping from torture minded German soldiers, racing through a field covered in barbed wire. The horse manages to break through much of the barbed wire but eventually is taken down and looks to be dying a horrible death wrapped in barbed wire.

As the sun comes up British and German soldiers from opposite ends of this World War 1 battlefield see something moving in the middle of the battlefield and assume it may be a wounded soldier. White flags go up from both sides and a sentry is dispatched from each.

For a moment a tenuous peace is forged as two enemy soldiers work together to free the horse from the barbed wire. The dialogue, the acting and director Steven Speilberg's calm, observant style give this centerpiece scene in "War Horse" energy and excitement that is lacking in the rest of the film.

A Horse Named Joe

"War Horse" stars Jeremy Irvine as Albert, a farm boy with a loutish, drunken father (Peter Mullan) who brings home skinny horse more suited for racing than the plow horse he was supposed to purchase. Albert takes to the new horse and names it Joey.

When Albert's father sobers enough to realize what he's done he wants to shoot Joey. Albert and his mother (Emily Watson) manage to stop him at least long enough for Albert to try to teach Joey how to draw the plow over the rocky shoals of the family farmland.

Albert's task becomes a spectacle as their landlord, Mr. Lyons (David Thewlis) brings a crowd to watch what he expects will be a major failure. The plowing scenes are a solid piece of cinema; rousing and sympathetic but they are merely killing time until the major plot kicks in.

Separated by War

The major plot is World War 1 and Peter's father giving up Joey, against Albert's wishes, to the military cause. Joey becomes the property of Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston) who promises to return Joey to Albert after the war. Sadly, Captain Nicholls underestimates the toll of the war ahead.

Will Joey be able to find his way back to Albert? Will Albert join the cause and search for Joey? Can either survive the horrors of the First World War? Good questions all and each has the potential to be very moving and entertaining.

"War Horse" is filled with potential mostly unrealized. Steven Speilberg's approach here is almost entirely homage with little of anything new or exciting. Individual scenes of "War Horse" capture Speilberg at his best but most of the film is a droning bore of tributes to War movies past.

Old School Meets New School

"War Horse" is the first film that Steven Speilberg edited digitally rather than with a traditional editing suite on the back of a flatbed truck. This move toward a more modern approach is somewhat ironic in that it is applied to one of the most old school movies of Speilberg's long and illustrious career.

"War Horse" is certainly not a bad movie but it's not a great movie either. The film will appeal to fans of old war movies as well as to fans of horse movies, a genre all its own. I recommend "War Horse" for the very particular group of fans I just mentioned; for everyone else "War Horse" shouldn't be your first choice until it arrives on DVD in 2012.

Movie Review: The Matrix Resurrections

Matrix Resurrections (2021) 

Directed by Lana Wachowski 

Written by Lana Wachowski 

Starring Keanu Reeves, Jonathan Groff, Yahya Abdul Mateen II, Neil Patrick Harris, Jessica Henwick, Carrie Ann Moss

Release Date December 22nd, 2021 

Published August 20th, 2022 

The story of Matrix Resurrections proceeds as a pursuit of Neo by those who wish to save and protect Neo from a world that wishes to exploit him. That’s a description of the plot of Matrix Resurrections and a description of how modern popular culture feels about Keanu Reeves the actor. Any check of social media searches of Keanu Reeves reveals a wholesome, earnest appreciation for Keanu and his down to Earth approach to being a worldwide celebrity. 

The Matrix Resurrections picks up with Thomas Anderson/Neo working as a video game developer. Thomas’s most popular game is called ‘The Matrix’ and the incidents that we witness in the original Matrix trilogy are now things that happened in the video game that Thomas Anderson developed with his partner, Mr. Smith (Jonathan Goff). The plot kicks in when Thomas Anderson subconsciously creates a simulation in his code that creates a new program called, Morpheus (Yahya Abdul Mateen II). 

The Morpheus program catches the eye of Bugs (Jessica Henwick), a ship’s Captain in the real world who recognizes this strange blip in the code and goes to investigate it. Bugs ends up pulling Morpheus out of the Matrix and this begins their search for Neo, The One, the man who went missing many years earlier after being viewed by many as a God who may have the ability to destroy the Matrix and end the tyranny of the God-like machines that enslave humanity and have been trying to crush what remains of a society outside of their control. 

The Matrix Resurrections is very smartly cast with each choice providing a clever new layer to the Matrix mythos. The best addition to the cast is Jessica Henwick, a sort of fan insert character both fan-girlng over being the one to find Neo and getting the chance to protect and preserve his legend. Henwick is a capable action star, a convincing badass, and a hard as nails Captain as she lives out our fantasy of protecting Keanu Reeves from all harm. I say that in jest but it’s true, if you love Keanu you’d likely leap at the chance to protect him from harm. That makes Bugs a terrific fan avatar, smart and capable, tough and laying down her life on behalf of our beloved hero. 

Also joining the cast Neil Patrick Harris, an obvious program, at least to us, as he plays Psychiatrist to Thomas Anderson, feeding him Blue pills and repeatedly reassuring Thomas Anderson that this life he created for himself, the Matrix, is all in his mind. Harris is snaky and charming in the role, a proper and unique antagonist for this franchise entry. Bonus points for recognizing a distinct disdain for the industry of psychiatry of which director Lana Wachowski is not a fan. 

Then there is the glorious Jonathan Groff, the erstwhile King George of Hamilton, taking over the role of ‘Agent’ Smith. In the story that Neo is living in, Smith is his antagonistic business partner, a thorn in his side but one he can’t live without. The parallels between Thomas Anderson’s new life and Neo’s old life endlessly fighting with Agent Smith within the rubbery reality of The Matrix are beautifully illustrated even as Smith’s existence in this sequel story is a tad bit mystifying. 

Yes, there are reasons why both Morpheus and Agent Smith do not appear in their original form but you must discover that on your own by watching The Matrix Resurrections. And that is something I do recommend even as the movie does spin its wheels a bit while underlining Neo’s life as Thomas Anderson and the boring and suspicious repetitions in his daily routine. Once the movie advances to the real world things get much more interesting. 

Big shoutout to Jada Pinkett Smith who is excellent in her too short role. Some will complain about her makeup job but, for me, her performance is too good to complain about cakey makeup. Jada Pinkett Smith delivers gravitas and a believable sense of conflicted emotions, resentment and hurt battling against a sincere care and hope. It’s a very small role but Pinkett-Smith’s Niobe is a great way to link the past and the present in surprising and exciting ways. Her motivation and conflict is given weight and care. 

I also want to highlight the score which is exceptional. The final act score is propulsive to the point of exhausting, in a good way. The music, credited to Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer, and the chaotic action of the final moments of The Matrix Resurrections combines the electronica infused score of the early 2000s Matrix sequels with a post-modern orchestral sound heavy on piano and choir to deepen and enrich the electronica sound that Tykwer brought to the fore throughout his career. 

Is The Matrix Resurrections preaching to the choir, using nostalgia to appeal to a built in fanbase? Perhaps, but, since I am a member of that built-in fanbase, I didn’t really mind. Unlike supposed original concept blockbusters from this past year, the team behind The Matrix Resurrections are really good at making a blockbuster movie that doesn’t feel like just another cash grab. There is a strong sense in the work of co-writer and director Lana Wachowski had a story she really wanted to tell, far beyond the profit motivation that was undeniably always there. 

The Matrix Resurrections debuted in theaters and streaming on HBO Max on December 22nd, 2021.

Movie Review Il Mare

Il Mare (2000) 

Directed by Lee Hyun Seung

Written by Yeo-Ji-na, Kim Eun Jung, Kim Mi-Yeong, Won Tae-yeon 

Starring Jun Ji-hyun, Lee Jung-Jae 

Release Date September 9th, 2000 

Published 2004 

This summer Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock reunite, for the first time since Speed, for a sci-fi romance called The Lake House. I say it is a sci fi romance but in fact it's not typical sci fi. The Lake House is a remake of a 2000 film made in Korea called Il Mare and it's a time spanning romance that matches two lost souls through the fabric of time. I have not seen The Lake House, which does not come out until June, but I can tell you that Il Mare is a fascinating, delicate and beautifully told romance that if well adapted seems a surefire romantic hit.

Kim (Ji Sung Hyun) is moving out of her beautiful home by the sea. Leaving a forwarding message in the mailbox for the home's next tenant, Kim hopes for a letter to arrive from a former lover who has moved to America.

Kim returns to the house, it's called Il Mare (The Sea) because of its location, to find a letter but not the one she has hoped for. The letter she finds is from Han (Jung Jae Li) who claims to have no idea who she is or why she would leave such a strange message in his mailbox.

Why is the message strange? According to Han no one has lived in Il Mare before he moved in and that her letter is posted two years ahead in time. Thinking Han is messing with her Kim begins corresponding with him. Early jokes turn to serious discussion as Kim and Han slowly come to realize that they are indeed separated by two years in time and the mailbox is somehow connecting them.

Il Mare has a few nearly fatal flaws in it's sci fi setup. For instance, one of the characters decision not to search for the other is a contrivance of the plot, and only a contrivance. The decision is made nakedly to prolong the movie. There are other little touches that don't work but they are offset, a little, by what does work. For all the plot contrivances, Il Mare still manages to be hypnotic, romantic and enchanting. Both actors are expressive and committed to this unusual romance and their connection and chemistry, communicated often in split screen scenes, is palpable.

Hopefully when The Lake House is released this summer the writer, director and producers can work out the story's logic problems because if they do there is a chance this could be one of those great movie romances, even if it does  star Keanu Reeves. Il Mare demonstrates the wondrous possibility of the story and the storytelling.

Movie Review Imagine That

Imagine That (2009) 

Directed by Karey Kirkpatrick

Written by Ed Solomon, Chris Matheson 

Starring Eddie Murphy, Yara Shahidi, Thomas Haden Church, Ronny Cox, Martin Sheen

Release Date August 14th, 2009 

Published August 15th, 2009 

The problem with Eddie Murphy as the star of family movies is that he never seems sincere. Some of it is our fault as an audience. We pigeonholed Eddie as a foul mouthed comedy superstar. The move to becoming the star of family comedies came after we were tired of his act. There were also some unfortunate offscreen issues that dimmed Eddie's star. With few offers on the table Eddie jumped the family movie bandwagon and has never looked back. It is in that rather desperate move into the family genre where his insincerity lies and the latest evidence is called Imagine That.

Evan Danielson (Murphy) is a top stock speculator. He is in line to take over the Denver branch of a major investment firm and he owes it all to a focus on work at all costs. Evan lost his family due to his single minded focus on work and now only sees his daughter Olivia (Yara Shahidi) sparingly. There is however, an impediment to Evan's ascension to the top at work. His name is Whitefeather (Thomas Haden Church, a long way from his Sideways Oscar nomination), a fellow speculator who dazzles clients with his alleged Indian heritage. He undermines Evan at every turn with his eyes on the big promotion.

Things get even more difficult for Evan when his ex-wife (Nicole Ari Parker) drops their daughter on him for a week. He had agreed to take Olivia before the promotion came up, now she is holding him to it. For her part, Olivia is a troubled, quiet child with few friends and a possibly unhealthy attachment to her security blanket.

Instead of interacting with other kids at school Olivia places her blanket over her head and has long conversations with several imaginary friends. The 'friends' are princesses who not only talk to Olivia but have advice for her dad. They can predict stocks and soon they are giving Evan stunningly accurate advice.

Daddy and daughter bond over playing with the princesses, only she can see them, but convention tells us as moviegoers that the bond cannot last and eventually the need for stock advice from the princesses will come between them. Worse yet, like clockwork, the finale of Imagine That comes down to a chase to the school where...

Oh, do I even have to tell you.

You've seen Imagine That in different forms a thousand different times. Murphy and Director Karey Kirkpatrick adhere to absolutely every family movie cliche creating a rote, predictable and desperately unfunny slog through the typical and expected.

Well, there is one element of Imagine That I did not predict: The sad, despicable and ludicrous performance of the once promising Thomas Haden Church. Had he played this role before earning an Oscar nomination for Sideways and going on to star in Spiderman 3, it would make sense. Playing second fiddle to Eddie Murphy in a third rate family movie cannot be where Thomas Haden Church imagined his career.

Worse yet is the actual performance in which Church plays a white guy pretending to be a full blooded American Indian and using that heritage to become a successful stock analyst. Why Church or anyone involved in Imagine That thought this character was a good idea is, pardon the pun, unimaginable.

The stupidity of Church's character only makes worse the experience of the overall dreadful enterprise that is Imagine That.

Movie Review Imitation Game

Imitation Game (2014) 

Directed by Morten Tyldum 

Written by Graham Moore 

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear, Charles Dance

Release Date November 28th, 2014 

Published November 25th, 2014 

"Sometimes it is the very people no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine."

The above line is a lovely bit of inspirational sentiment. I ask you to say it aloud to yourself. Now, imagine that line used by an actor in a movie as a bit of dialogue. It's clunky. Even in the sonorous tones of Benedict Cumberbatch in "The Imitation Game," the line sounds like someone banging a gong rather than speaking; it thuds loudly and is exposed as sentimental claptrap. 

Too much of writer/director Morton Tyldum's take on the life of legendary mathematician Alan Turing in "The Imitation Game" lands with the same kind of thud. This conventional biopic about a highly unconventional man spends a great deal of time playing at being a military thriller when it should have been a subversive, rebellious story of a complicated and tragic anti-hero. 

The failure of "The Imitation Game" cannot be laid at the feet of star Benedict Cumberbatch, who enlivens Alan Turing with great vigor and offbeat tics that are fitting with the picture of a man few people liked or understood. Cumberbatch could very well have given us the Turing biopic the world needs. "The Imitation Game" just simply is not it. 

The movie skirts Turing’s life. We see him as a World War II codebreaker, who personally earned the approval (NOT SURE BECAUSE I HAVEN’T SEEN IT YET) of Winston Churchill himself. We flash back to one of Turing's formative relationships as a closeted homosexual, and flash forward to Turing's arrest for indecency that eventually led to his alleged suicide.

There is a rich amount of story to tell here. Sadly, director Tyldum gets caught up in only the most audience-friendly aspect: World War II. 

Yes, what Turing did during the war is a remarkable and important piece of history. In short order, Turing created a machine that won World War II by cracking Germany's legendary Enigma machine. And he invented what would come to be the very first computer. Turing was the first to create a machine which, independently of human manipulation, solved equations and produced data. It's completely astounding. Yet, in "The Imitation Game," it is reduced to the function of a thriller plot involving double agents and MI6. 

The greatest injustice of "The Imitation Game" is saved for Turing's personal life. Turing was a homosexual in England when homosexuals were persecuted. In 1954 Turing was arrested for indecency after a male prostitute admitted to having been with Turing and attempted to rob Turing's home. Turing was forced to agree to chemical castration to avoid jail time. The subsequent treatment is said to have led to his depression and eventual suicide. 

Turing's death is a grotesque tragedy. But the film tosses it off in the final minutes with barely a comment. Why? My feeling is that the filmmakers and the studio lack conviction and fortitude. The thriller stuff, the World War II heroism and Sheldon Cooper-esque comedy about Turing's lack of social skills were an easier sell to a mass audience than the far bleaker but more interesting tragedy of Turing's death. 

In the end, "The Imitation Game" takes the easy way out. The filmmakers set up the most audience-friendly take on Turing, depicting his homosexuality and tragic death as inconvenient plot points on the way to the box office. What a shame. Here's hoping we get the Turing movie we deserve someday instead of this pale “Imitation.”

Movie Review In Time

In Time (2011) 

Directed by Andrew Niccol 

Written by Andrew Niccol 

Starring Amanda Seyfried, Justin Timberlake, Alex Pettyfer, Cillian Murphy 

Release Date October 28th, 2011

Published October 28th, 2011

"In Time" is one of the more irritating brands of bad movies. The film has a highly intriguing premise and a pair of attractive and convincing lead performers; it also has plot holes you could drive trucks through.

Pretty for Life

Justin Timberlake is the star of In Time. As Mark Salas, Mr. Timberlake is a man with little time to spare. In the future, human beings are genetically bred to stop aging at 25 years old. Once you hit 25 however, a genetically implanted clock begins to countdown.

Money in this future has been replaced by time. Each citizen is given one year to spend beginning on their 25th birthday but they can earn more time by working in factories. Not everyone has to work however; some are born into eons of time as a family inheritance.

One Good Deed

The plot of In Time kicks in when Will meets Henry Hamilton (Matt Bomer, White Collar). Henry is 105 years old after having been born to a family fortune. After so many years he still has more than a century on his clock but he's grown tired of living.

When Will saves Henry during a bar fight the two end up spending an evening discussing time and the way those that have time use it to manipulate those who don't. When Will awakens the following morning Henry has given him his time and disappeared to die.

Time Literally on His Hand. 

After a tragedy strikes Will's family, he makes the decision to use his new found time, literally time on his hand (Ha!), to destroy the time management system. To do this he travels to New Greenwich, a rich suburb where those with endless amounts of time live and avoid the shame of watching others fall dead in the streets after losing time.

As Will's scheme is revealed he is chased by Timekeeper Leon (Cillian Murphy) who will doggedly pursue him throughout his revolutionary journey. Joining Will, at first not by choice, is Sylvia Weis, the daughter of Phillippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser), a centuries old man with seemingly all the time in the world.

Will takes Sylvia hostage but we aren't surprised when she and Will begin to fall in love and slowly morph into Bonnie & Clyde turned Robin Hood criminals who steal time from the rich and give it to the poor.

Occupy Time

The premise of "In Time'' is solid and Justin Timberlake is highly compelling in only his second lead role. Andrew Niccols directs In Time to Timberlake's strengths, playing up his charm before allowing IT to begin flexing his muscles in gun battles and chase scenes.

"In Time" has a timely premise, arriving at a time when the divide between the richest 1% in America are at odds with the other 99%; you could almost expect a movement in the movie to 'Occupy Time.' Sadly the film was completed well before the occupy protests began.

Stuck in a Plot-hole

Unfortunately, as intriguing and timely as "In Time" is, the film has a pair of logical fallacies so large that they undermine the movie as a whole. To describe these plot holes would reveal far too much about the film. All I will say is that the plot holes are fat and obvious and they render the film, especially the ending, ludicrous. For me, this makes ``In Time '' worse than most other bad movies because "In Time" isn't really a bad movie; it's one that squanders its goodness with bad choices.

If you are a fan of Justin Timberlake or Amanda Seyfried you may as well go ahead and give "In Time" a chance. If not, the plot holes render "In Time" barely worthy of a rental.

Movie Review Isn't it Romantic

Isn't it Romantic (2019) 

Directed by Todd Strauss Schulson 

Written by Erin Cardillo, Dana Fox, Katie Silberman

Starring Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemworth, Adam Devine, Priyanka Chopra 

Release Date February 13th, 2019 

Published February 14th, 2019

Isn’t it Romantic is a complete delight. This gimmicky, in a good way, romantic comedy stars Rebel Wilson who demonstrates the kind of star power and charisma we’d been expecting of Wilson after her numerous, scene stealing supporting turns in the Pitch Perfect movies and in trifles such as How to Be Single or her breakout cameo in Bridesmaids. Rebel Wilson has been expected to be a thing for some time now and now appears to be that time. 

Isn’t it Romantic stars Rebel Wilson as Natalie, a New York architect with strong self esteem issues. As a child, Natalie loved the bubbly romantic comedy of Julia Roberts but as an adult, in the real world, she has soured on the saccharine, synthetic cliches of the genre, many of which she rants about in a lengthy but funny gag that deconstructs nearly every trope in the genre. This is one of many inspired and hilarious gags in Isn’t it Romantic. 

The plot kicks in when Natalie is mugged in the subway and suffers a head injury. When she wakes up, suddenly, everything is perfect. Her doctor is a hunky, Gray’s Anatomy type who immediately flirts with her. The streets outside the hospital are lined with flowers and friendly, helpful and welcoming faces. And, notably, New York City doesn’t smell like an open sewer where people urinate in the streets. 

Then Natalie, quite literally, is run into by Blake, the handsome and jerky client at her architecture firm. When they first met, he insulted her and made her get his coffee. Now, out of the blue, he has a sexy Australian accent and appears to be completely enamored of Natalie. He gives her a ride home in his limo but because this is a romantic comedy universe, the 30 minute takes mere seconds. 

From here, Isn’t it Romantic sets in motion a plot with a ton of very obvious jokes about the tropes of romantic comedy. These are tropes that we, in the audience, have been poking fun at for years and you wouldn’t be wrong if you mocked the obviousness of these jokes. And yet, thanks to some crisp editing and direction, and especially Rebel Wilson’s exceptional timing and charisma, these jokes land, each with a big laugh. 

Rebel Wilson was made to play the role as the one sane, angry, snarky, voice of reason in this outer romantic comedy universe. Sure, she is poking some familiar, well worn, holes in the romantic comedy plot, but she does so with gusto and timing. Wilson is a movie star with the kind of genuine likability and relatability that you really cannot teach to actors. Wilson has a natural and genuine sense of humor that speaks to the audience and doesn’t stand above them. 

Wilson is not afraid to be the subject of the joke but she’s also not here to be humiliated and laughed at either. One of the criticisms leveled at Wilson has been that she uses weight as a punchline so often that it becomes her own kind of cliche. I’ve never felt that way about Wilson myself. I felt that her performance as Fat Amy had an empowering quality, stealing back the notion that she is to be ridiculed for her weight, not merely by making fun of herself but aggressively, confrontationally, putting your bias against her awkwardly to the fore. 

Her aggressiveness is part of her charm in  the Pitch Perfect movies and I really enjoyed how that energy is used here. Natalie is initially mousy and shy and then, in the romantic comedy universe she comes into her own out of frustration more than anything. She sees the falsehoods all around her and like being trapped in The Matrix, her mind rebels against all of the fatuousness and untruth. Almost by accident this experiment works on her and she begins a great arc about being more confident and assertive. 

On top of Rebel Wilson’s outstanding performance, we get stellar work from her supporting cast. Adam Devine plays Natalie’s best friend Josh who is part Ducky from Pretty in Pink and part nerdy, male best friend in every romantic comedy ever. Devine brings a great deal of charm to this character and his chemistry with Rebel Wilson is top notch, as it was when they co-starred in the Pitch Perfect movies. 

Brandon Scott Jones is a veteran of the improv comedy scene and he brings some of that anarchic, improv energy to his character in Isn’t it Romantic. Jones plays Donny, Natalie’s stock, gay best friend who appears to only live to give her advice and support. Jones throws himself into this broad caricature with comic verve and never fails to get a big laugh. He doesn’t steal scenes per se, but he’s the perfect addition to the scenes he’s in. 

Betty Gilpin and Priyanka Chopra round out this superior supporting cast as Natalie’s assistant turned romantic comedy rival, Whitney and Josh’s romantic comedy universe, perfect, supermodel girlfriend, Isabella. I will leave you to discover the fun of these characters when you see Isn’t it Romantic. Chopra has the bigger, broader laughs but keep an eye on Betty Gilpin, she provides just the right foil for Rebel Wilson as both friend and foe. 

I haven’t even mentioned director Todd Strauss-Schulson and his exceptional work yet. Strauss-Schulson was the acclaimed director of the indie darling, The Final Girl, a film that toyed with the tropes of horror movies. Here he takes a similarly satiric aim at the romantic comedy genre and once again nails it. Isn’t it Romantic has a great pace, strong visual style delineating between the real world and the romantic comedy world, and the movie has barely an ounce of any scene it doesn’t need or lingers on for too long. 

It’s not a flawless piece of direction, it relies incredibly heavily on the appearance, chops and charm of Rebel Wilson, but Strauss-Schulson makes smart choices. He, along with screenwriters Erin Cardillo and Dana Fox, keep the movie clipping along, getting big laughs and moving on. There is barely an ounce of fat on this screenplay, scenes begin, get to the big laugh and get out and on to the next joke. It’s efficient and funny which goes a long way toward overcoming the obviousness of many of these jokes. 

In case it isn’t clear, I completely adore Isn’t it Romantic. I am a major Rebel Wilson fan after this movie and I can’t wait to see this one again. It’s not the greatest comedy of all time, I feel like I might be overhyping it just a tad, but the film is outstanding in and of itself. The execution of this gimmicky premise is damn near flawless and in the hands of star Rebel Wilson, even the most obvious jokes still get a big laugh. 

Movie Review J Edgar

J. Edgar (2011)

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Written by Dustin Lance Black

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Josh Lucas, Judi Dench 

Release Date November 9th, 2011 

Published November 7th, 2011

J. Edgar Hoover's place in American history is remarkable. From the 1919 Anarchist Bombings to the Lindbergh baby to every famous gangster taken down by arrest or death, Hoover was there. When John F. Kennedy was killed; it was Hoover who informed Bobby Kennedy of the President's death with a terse phone call.

Hoover's place in American history is unquestionable regardless of his unethical, even treasonous acts. J. Edgar Hoover is a towering figure casting a shadow across the 20th century that touched everything from Al Capone to the Cold War to Kennedy's assassination to the beginning of Nixon's downfall.

A Fitting Tribute

The movie "J. Edgar," directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is a fitting tribute to the man. J. Edgar captures the best and the worst of the man who coined the phrase G-Man and revolutionized law enforcement while becoming infamous for his abuse of power and his private struggles with his sexuality.

The story of J. Edgar begins with an elderly J. Edgar Hoover (DiCaprio) dictating his memoirs. We begin with the origins of the Red Scare, the 1919 Anarchist Bombings. Hoover, at the behest of the Attorney General, a target of an assassins in the bombings, giving Hoover the authority to investigate the bombings with new, broader law enforcement powers.

Anarchist Bombings Raid

The Hoover led raid on a suspected communist labor headquarters was a debacle. While it could be proven that leaflets found at the scene of the bombing of the Attorney General's home were printed in this location there was no evidence that the people inside the supposed communist outpost had taken part in acts of terror.

Everyone, aside from Hoover, including the Attorney General lost their jobs because of the raid Hoover organized. With the infrastructure of the then Bureau of Investigations, the Federal moniker would be added later, and the job of director fell to Hoover as the last man standing. He would stay in the position for more than 40 years.

Three Important People

In his time as the head of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover had only three people close to him, his mother (Judi Dench), his secretary for 40+ years, Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts) and Hoover's right hand man, Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). The relationship between Hoover and Tolson has been the topic of great conjecture for many years.

The movie "J. Edgar" treats the romance between J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson with respect and care. Keeping in mind the times in which these men lived, a repressed era when homosexuals faced grave persecution, it makes sense that the relationship is very reserved. That said, "J. Edgar" is not without passion as DiCaprio and Armie Hammer demonstrate remarkable chemistry.

Private Punchline

J.Edgar Hoover's private life has been a punch line for many years. That's because while going out his way to use rumor and innuendo about alternative lifestyles in order to blackmail and manipulate other powerful individuals, it's a karmic comeuppance that Hoover's own private life becomes fodder for ridicule.

That said, director Clint Eastwood and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black treat Hoover's cross-dressing and homosexuality with grace and caring. In fact, it may be Eastwood's considerable tenderness in treating Hoover, making him something of a tragic victim of his time, which may be bothering people the most about "J. Edgar."

A Remarkable, Oscar Worthy Effort

Those who wish only to condemn Hoover's awful excesses will struggle with the moments in "J.Edgar" when Hoover is treated with respect and care and even rendered sympathetic. No man or woman is defined in a single way; there are always degrees and shades. Most of J. Edgar Hoover's life was spent on the wrong path but other parts of his life are worthy of a fair revision.

"J. Edgar" is a remarkable film. Clint Eastwood's direction is artful and studied while Leonardo DiCaprio's performance is layered with sadness, strength and a compelling will. The Academy Awards season has begun and "J. Edgar" is one film highly likely to make an impact on Hollywood's biggest night.

Movie Review: Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild things Are (2009) 

Directed by Spike Jonze 

Written by Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers

Starring Max Records, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, Catherine Keener, Lauren Ambrose

Release Date October 13th, 2009

Published October 13th, 2009

"It is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception and compassion and hope." Ursula K. Le Guin

The movie Where the Wild Things Are is, of course, an adaptation of Maurice Sendak's legendary children's book. However, the movie by director Spike Jonze lives the quote at the top of this page from sci-fi writer Ursula K. Le Guin.

In taking us on a journey through the wild imagination of Max in the wake of a fight with his mother and a disappointment from his older sister, we come to understand Max as he comes to understand himself. It's one extraordinary, revealing journey.

Max (Max Records) is an introverted little guy who longs for the days when he and his sister still played together. When he tries to recapture that feeling and is rebuffed in favor of boys with a car, Max turns his frustration into destruction.

His guilt matched with the kind, understanding and patient reaction of his mother (Catherine Keener) offers the first of a few perfect scenes in Where the Wild Things Are. The peace between mother and son is soon undone, mom has a male visitor of her own, leading Max to run away.

In a departure from Maurice Sendek's wonderful pictures, pictures in which Max's bedroom melts away and slowly builds into a forest, Spike Jonze has Max run through the streets, wearing his favorite wooly footie pj's with wolf ears, finally taking refuge in a forest.

From there we aren't sure where Max really is. In his imagination an ocean opens before him and a small sail boat waits to take him far, far away. He arrives on an island and there he meets the wild things and learns lessons of family, community, love and compassion from the denizens of his sub-conscious.

It is at time a dark journey and credit Spike Jonze and screenwriter Dave Eggers for not shying away from the scarier moments. Everyone has dark places in their mind, even kids. For a child that dark place in their minds is even darker, mystical and terrifying.

The Wild Things, voiced with wondrous vulnerability and heart by James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose, Forrest Whitaker and Catherine O'Hara, amongst others, are an impressive combination of old school effects and modern CGI. It's been a while since we've seen classic people in giant costume effects and the old school approach is perfect.

The CGI used to bring life to the faces of the Wild Things fit perfectly on the giant costumes giving a real impression of life. Gandolfini's Carol is especially well rendered as he has the most complex and expressive role of of all the Wild Things.

It is very easy to label the Wild Things as different aspects of Max's psyche, the various ways he see's the people in his life, so I will save the list. Let's just say that Director Jonze does a tremendous job of not laying the psychology on too thick. The film is more immersive and observant than sharp or incisive about Max's mind.

Where the Wild Things are is a marvelous revelation of the mind of a child, capturing all the joy, wonder, confusion anger and longing that every child experiences and how the imagination is the most effective way for a child to deal with these developing emotions.

I return to the quote at the top, perception, compassion and hope.

. Max creates these qualities within himself before our eyes in Where the Wild Things are and it is a remarkable thing to see.

Movie Review: Zombieland

Zombieland (2009) 

Directed by Ruben Fleischer

Written by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick

Starring Woody Harrelson Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Bill Murray 

Release Date October 2nd, 2009 

Published October 1st, 2009

I don't like zombie movies. There is an inherent undercurrent of nihilism that runs through most zombie movies that I find unappealing. I may be a cynic but I could not live in a world without hope, the world of the zombie movie. I will admit that elements of Romero's use of subtext in his Living Dead movies are appealing. I will also admit to admiring Danny Boyle's skilled technique in 28 Days Later. But, zombie movies remain for me an ugly, unwelcome chore to sit through.

Thus, I was not looking forward to the new zombie horror comedy Zombieland. Starring Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg, Zombieland deftly flips its tone from horror to comedy and somehow loses nothing in the transition. As much as I hate zombie movies, I must admit, I liked this one.

Columbus (Eisenberg) was not the most likely survivor of the zombie apocalypse. He's scrawny and skittish and carries a shotgun so big you may have a hard time believing he could fire it and remain standing. He has survived because his years of isolation, he was a videogame loving shut in before the apocalypse, taught him to run from people even before they were trying to eat him.

He has a series of rules that have guided him as well. Rule 1: Cardio. He has trained like an olympic sprinter so that he can stay ahead of the horde. Rule 2: Double Tap. Never just shoot a zombie, shoot it twice. The other rules make cameos throughout the film as computer added interstitials. The comic effect is strong and reminds one of Max Brooks's very funny book "The Zombie Survival Guide".

Columbus has traveled alone for a while but for the first time has begun to crave a little company. He's lucky enough to meet up with Tallahassee (Harrelson) who happens to be one of the best zombie killers in the country. He doesn't just run and hide from the zombie hordes, he runs at them guns blazing, bat swinging, hedge clippers... clipping.

The two form an unlikely alliance that grows to four when they happen upon Wichita and Little Rock (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin). (The names correlate to the cities where everyone is from. You don't want to get to attached to someone you might have to shoot in the head). Wichita and Little Rock are headed to California where they are hoping rumors of a human enlave in an amusement park is for real.

Whether their hopes are well founded I will leave you to discover. Zombieland comes from first time feature director and show stunning skill. Fleischer's directorial experience is limited to shorts and episodes of Jimmy Kimmel's talk show, yet he shows remarkable skill and control for such a relative novice.

Most impressive is how he balances the tone. The laughs in Zombieland come in buckets and yet, so does the horror. Zombieland makes you fear the zombies but still has the energy and wit to make you laugh louder than you have at most any comedy this year. It's a balance that a number of veteran directors could not achieve.

Keep an eye out for what will no doubt be the years best cameo. The actor involved is so unexpected and yet so very, very game for it all you will not be able to control the gales of laughter from this inspired bit of casting.

I still don't like zombie movies. This time however, because of a game cast and some surprisingly skilled direction, I can look past my issues with the genre and recommend Zombieland.

Movie Review: Fame

Fame (2009) 

Directed by Kevin Tancharoen

Written by Allison Burnett

Starring Debbie Allen, Kelsey Grammer, Charles S. Dutton, Megan Mullally, Asher Book

Published September 25th, 2009 

Published September 27th, 2009

In the first 10 to 15 minutes of Fame I was reminded of another movie about young artists and their art, Robert Altman's daring and ingenious Ballet observation The Company. That film exists really only as an excuse for the master Altman to indulge his love of ballet. The story was utterly meaningless to him. He likely failed to find funding for a straight up documentation of a ballet performance so instead filmed the ballet as part of what was supposed to be a movie.

That film has Neve Campbell and James Franco as the center of a romantic plot but Mr. Altman doesn't care in the least about that. Ms. Campbell is trained in ballet and her performance and practice scenes are observed with far more care and concern than the romance subplot on which Mr. Altman can barely keep his camera still, as if he were searching for ballet somewhere in the corner of the scene being played.

That may not interest you, it didn't interest much of the mainstream audience that ignored The Company in it's 2002 release. For me however, I found the film's anti-structure daring and Mr. Altman's antsy direction is mesmerizing for it's energy and life. It's as if he was telling his actor's 'not now, somewhere there is art happening, let's find it'.

The first few scenes of Fame have this feeling. The camera wanders the halls of the legendary Performing Arts High School in New York City searching for and quickly finding art in progress. In one room actor's deliver monologues and are critiqued by the great Charles S. Dutton. In another, piano's moan with the work of Mozart or Beethoven under the knowing ear of Kelsey Grammer. In another room singers sing and in still another Dancers leap and glide across the floor.

These scenes are intoxicating and a director with the boldness of Mr. Altman might have stuck with this energy. Bring in a few characters at the periphery but keep the camera roaming from room to room taking in the energy. Sadly, Director Kevin Tancharoen is no Altman. Bowing to convention and studio marketing concerns, Mr. Tancharoen cranks out what amounts to High School Musical crossed with  episodes of So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol.

7 relatively inconspicuous characters adopt high school movie types and play out the string of a very typical charmless plot. If you want the good version of this movie rent the indie flick Camp. Writer Director Todd Graf's 2003 musical set inside a camp for aspiring artists has all of the daring of Altman mixed with a plot with ten times the life of Fame and characters whose problems and joys resonate far beyond the character types played by the actors in fame.

But even before you rent Camp, maybe consider The Company. As I suffered through Fame, my thoughts kept falling back on this forgotten masterpiece from the late master Altman. It's a remarkable movie and one that was too quickly dismissed and forgotten. In a just world movies like Fame are the one's that get dismissed and forgotten.

Movie Review: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) 

Directed by Christopher Miller, Phil Lord

Written by Christopher Miller, Phil Lord

Starring Bill Hader, James Caan, Anna Faris

Release Date September 18th, 2009

Published September 18th, 2009

Sony has been trying to break into the big time of the animation biz for nearly a decade now. They've had modest success with movies like Open Season but no real home run shots like those of the industry standard Pixar. Their latest attempt to hit one out of the park is close, atleast a double in the gap.

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is a clever, quick witted and imaginative kids flick that never talks down to the target audience and finds more than a few moments everyone can enjoy.

Flint Lockwood (Voice of Bill Hader, SNL) has always wanted to be an engineer. As a small child he invented liquid shoes, a shimmering paste that hardened on your feet. Unfortunately, he could never take them off, but it kinda worked. His loving mom always supported his imagination while his fisherman father James (James Caan) just wanted him to learn to fish.

The island on which Flint was born and raised has long lived on the towns only export, Sardines. Now, Flint thinks he can change all of that. His latest invention converts water into food. While the town is gathered for the latest Sardine related tourist trap, Flint launches his new invention, accidentally, into the sky.

Meanwhile, an erstwhile weather reporter, Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) is desperate for a big weather scoop to make her career. She happens upon Flint and as they are bonding over mutual failure their salvation falls from the sky in the form of a juicy hamburger. Flint's invention is caught in the clouds and turning the rain to food, a major coup for a young weather reporter.

Not surprisingly things start out in fun and games with the town loving all of the new food and Sam getting scoop after literal scoop, Ice Cream snow, all the while falling for Flint and his wild imagination. Then the machine gets out of control and the movie switches to action mode involving a tornado of Spaghetti, a pit made of sharp peanut brittle, and sentient pizza.

The movie is based on a bestselling kids book and translates smoothly to the big screen easily capturing the spirit and good nature that made the book so popular. Bill Hader is terrific as the voice of Flint over and under playing at just the right pitch. Anna Faris's high pitched voice already sounds like a cartoon and she, like Hader, is perfectly at home here.

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs doesn't rewrite the book on digital animation and it may not launch Sony into upper echelon of animation where Pixar resides but it does help further establish a beachhead in what is the most consistent box office segment, kids animated feature.

The key is remembering that just animating a story doesn't make it a hit, you have to  team animation with strong storytelling and great voice talent. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs does just that.

Movie Review: Bright Star

Bright Star (2009) 

Directed by Jane Campion 

Written by Jane Campion

Starring Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox, Thomas Sangster, Paul Schneider

Release Date September 16th, 2009 

Published November 15th, 2009

What does it tell you about me when I say that Keats is my favorite poet? That I am a pretentious prick who still reads poetry? Maybe. That I have taken and passed High School lit classes? Maybe. Mostly, however, it should tell you that I am a sucker for romantic longings unfulfilled. Jane Campion's Bright Star captures those longings by turning Keats into a character and his poems a Greek chorus to the romance that inspired him.

In Bright Star Abby Cornish stars as Fanny Brawne a 19 year old with a love of stitching unusual frocks and no interest in poetry. No interest until she meets John Keats (Ben Whishaw) a seemingly failed poet who, though loved by his fellow artists, has not sold enough poetry to pay the bills.

Keats is Fanny's neighbor, living on the estate of his friend and patron Charles Browne (Paul Schneider). The affair between Fanny and Keats is one of those forbidden 18th century romances where the girl is only allowed to marry a man of means and he is but a poor poet. We've seen this story a few times. It's a little different however with the wondrous words of Keats accompanying it.

Jane Campion directs Bright Star with a stark eye, muted colors and quiet tones. It's an approach that brings the restrictions of the day to the forefront, as if the very environment itself were holding back young love. There are moments of brief color and life such as a scene where Fanny lies in a field of purple flowers or one in which she and her much younger sister have filled their bedroom with butterflies, but these scenes are brief, much like the happy moments of Fanny and Keats' love affair.

The educated are aware that Keats died young, only 25. He and Fanny Brawne, his real life neighbor, love and muse, had only two years together before tuberculosis forced Keats to abandon England for the warmer climes of Naples. The film plays a pair of moving scenes around Keats' illness and his departure. One has Keats performing his poem Bright Star, written about Fanny Brawne, as the two lay together for the last time.

The other scene is their very brief goodbye, Keats boards a carriage as Fanny turns her back and walks away without a word. It's a modest, brief scene but it captures the immature romance in unexpected ways. Brawne was only 19 when she met and fell in love with Keats and Abby Cornish well captures the dramatic circumstances of a love that young.

Keep an eye on Paul Schneider as John Browne as early on he will have many in the audience clawing their eyes wishing he would go away. His redemption in the end comes in the form of a moving, angry confession that is arguably the finest moment in a film filled with great moments.

Bright Star is not a perfect film, there are moments when Fanny's immaturity is overstated to an irritating degree and Whishaw can tend too far toward cheap melodrama in a few scenes, but for the most part Director Jane Campion keeps everything on track.

Focusing the story on Fanny and not Keats frees Director Campion from having to film his words and inspiration and instead she gets to feature them. Stay for the credits and a full reading of Keats' Ode to a Nightingale. That alone is nearly enough to recommend Bright Star.

Documentary Review Jig The Story of the Irish Dancing World Championships

Jig The Story of the Irish Dancing World Championships (2011) 

Directed by Sue Bourne 

Written by Documentary 

Starring Brogan McCay, Julia O'Rourke 

Release Date June 19th, 2011

July 14th, 2011

Jig: The Story of the Irish Dancing World Championships" is an inside look at Irish Dancing and like nothing you have seen before. Director Sue Bourne goes beyond "Riverdance" and "Lord of the Dance" and into the real, day to day lives of competitors and their families whose quirks, obsessions and intense dedication to their craft are as compelling as the prize they compete for is surprising.

Brogan and Julia

First, we meet 10 year old Brogan McCay from Derry, Northern Ireland. A lively and precocious youngster, Brogan is already a champion in Irish Dancing when we meet her for the first time. With her instructors Rosetta and Elizabeth, who storm about in tracksuits and bark instructions ala "Glee's" Sue Sylvester, Brogan is preparing for the 40th Irish Dancing World Championship where her top competition will be Julia O'Rourke from New York City.

Julia, the daughter of an Irish father and Asian mother, has long idolized Brogan having watched her competition videos on YouTube and copied her steps. Together, Brogan and Julia offer the most compelling and dramatic of all of the tremendous stories in this highly compelling documentary.

Eye on the Prize?

However, Jig is more than cute little girls in sparkly costumes performing extraordinary Irish Dances. Director Sue Bourne juxtaposes Brogan and Julia's story with those of older, teenage competitors, Claire, Simona and Suzanne and through them we see what may be a glimpse into Brogan and Julia's future, a future filled with obsessive dedication to dance that consumes not just the competitors but their families.

All of the obsessive, day to day, practice and all consuming dedication to perfecting routines grow even more fascinating when you find out that these girls and each of the more than 3000 people who compete in the Irish Dancing World Championships are not competing for prize money and that the judging of the event is wholly subjective, based on the tastes of the judges and not on any specific criteria.

Dedication and Obsession

Sue Bourne's approach glosses over the lack of prize money and shows little interest in the judges and their tastes. Instead, she is focused on these extraordinary young people and parents who have dedicated their lives to Irish Dancing purely out of the love of doing it including several Russian women who paid thousands for a world class coach after stumbling upon Irish Dancing almost by accident.

Then there is little John, a nine year old boy who endures the taunts of other boys who spend their time playing soccer while John practices his steps. Though John's love of Irish Dancing is obvious, you cannot help but be a little sad as you watch John working out his steps while watching other kids play. John later joins the game, softening the sad perspective but only a little.

Awe inspiring talent

John's idol is Joe; an American born in California whose parents gave up everything to move to Glasgow so Joe could be trained by world class Irish Dancer John Carey. Joe is a multiple time champion whose work is indeed remarkable but you cannot help but be astonished at how willing his parents were to trade in life in California to pursue a goal for their son that has no prize beyond personal pride and a gold plated trophy.

"Jig: The Story of the Irish Dancing World Championships" is a fascinating documentary about remarkable people doing something truly extraordinary and the awesome lengths they go to in order to achieve their goals. The story is informative, the dancing is awe inspiring at times, especially Joe, and in the end there is even some tense drama surrounding the results.

All of the elements come together to make Jig a must see when it opens Friday, June 17th, in limited release and whenever it arrives in your neck of the woods.

Movie Review: Unbreakable

Unbreakable (2000) 

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

Written by M. Night Shyamalan 

Starring Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Wright

Release Date November 22nd, 2000

Published November 20th, 2020 

Unbreakable was M Night Shyamalan’s last moment as a seemingly unimpeachable genius of pop cinema. After this came Signs which received strong box office but the first real critical grumbles since his little seen debut feature, Wide Awake. Don’t misunderstand, Unbreakable had its critics, but with Shyamalan still in the glow of his multiple Academy Award nominations for The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable was always going to benefit from that film's coattails. 

That Unbreakable wasn’t Shyamalan falling on his face but instead delivering a second straight crowd-pleasing blockbuster is no minor feat. Many directors have shown themselves to be one and done it-person directors in the past. To have back to back blockbuster critical darlings is far more rare than we imagine.

Unbreakable stars Bruce Willis as David, a seemingly ordinary guy with ordinary guy troubles. David’s marriage is failing, his relationship with his son is strained and his search for stable, well paying work has been hampered by his seeming depression. Then, David is seemingly nearly killed in a massive train accident. In fact, by some miracle, he’s the only survivor among more than 100 passengers and crew members.

David’s luck doesn’t go unnoticed. A comic book aficionado by the name of Elijah Price hears of David’s improbable survival and begins to seek him out. For years, Elijah has searched for someone like David on the bizarre belief that the man he is seeking is his direct opposite and thus his super-powered nemeses. Elijah himself, is nearly paralyzed by a brittle bone condition that causes his bones to shatter under pressure.

Elijah believes that David’s bones are unbreakable, making him his super-heroic doppelganger. Where David is unbreakable, Elijah is completely breakable and thus fashions himself as a mastermind type who uses his wits to orchestrate evil that David must work to prevent or avenge. David doesn’t buy Elijah’s superhero nonsense but as he begins to notice things about his body, how he’s never broken a bone, how he doesn’t experience physical fatigue, how he doesn’t get sick, he starts to think that maybe, just maybe the crazy comic book man might be onto something.

One of the clever aspects of Unbreakable is Bruce Willis’s refusal to buy into David as a superhero. Despite evidence in his very bones, Willis' David stubbornly holds on to his non-believer status. Even as Elijah begins to push him to test his limits and find his weaknesses. David eventually determines that he has ESP, Extra-Sensory Perception. When David touches someone he can sense the crime they committed.

David uses this ability to locate a janitor who had ambushed and murdered a local family man and has taken the man’s wife and children hostage. David rescues the kids and winds up in a pitched battle with the murderer. The journey of the film appears to be Elijah pushing David to become a superhero but, with this being from the mind of M Night Shyamalan, there is a twist to the ending that throws a new light on these characters.

What Shyamalan does so incredibly in Unbreakable is establish mood and tone. The mood is melancholy but with a growing sense of color and light as David slowly uncovers his abilities. The tone of the film is a slow burn of sadness and resignation to ordinary life that builds and builds with excitement through the second act before reaching a pair of jarring crescendos including that terrific twist ending that I mentioned.

Of course, if you are seeing Glass this weekend and you have seen the trailer, you know what the twist is. Still, no need for me to spoil it here. Just a warning though, you do need to see Unbreakable in order for you to understand the action of Glass and the importance of Samuel L Jackson’s character to Bruce Willis’ character. How they are tied in with James McAvoy’s murderous, multiple personalities from Split is the big question that Glass will have to answer.  

As for Unbreakable on its own, I cannot recommend it enough. In some ways, I actually prefer Unbreakable to The Sixth Sense. That’s not a popular position as The Sixth Sense, in many ways, has more dramatic credibility than the comic book quality of Unbreakable. I simply find the conceit of Unbreakable even more irresistibly mainstream and entertaining than even the ‘I see dead people’ conceit of The Sixth Sense.

Both are artfully made, mainstream blockbusters, based in familiar genres, but there is something rather bold and unique in Unbreakable where Shyamalan forces you to treat comic books as a form of serious film art. That takes guts today, let alone in the year 2000, before Marvel made comic book movies that critics could embrace. 

Movie Review Arthur

Arthur (2011) 

Directed by Jason Winer

Written by Peter Baynham 

Starring Russell Brand, Jennifer Garner, Helen Mirren, Greta Gerwig, Nick Nolte 

Release Date April 8th, 2011 

Published April 8th, 2011 

There was no urgent need to remake the 1981 comedy classic "Arthur." The legendary Dudley Moore had brought to the role of millionaire alcoholic Arthur Bach all of the assets that could be brought to it. While, the original did suffer a bit for the abominable sequel "Arthur 2: On the Rocks" that alone doesn't justify attempting a new spin on the original.

Nevertheless, we have an "Arthur" remake in theaters and starring comedian turned actor Russell Brand as the alcoholic, man-child, millionaire Arthur Bach. Brand is well suited for the role being both English, as Dudley Moore was, and having a history of alcohol abuse on which to draw a great deal of inspiration. That doesn't justify the remake but Brand does make it all quite pleasant.

Russell Brand is 'Arthur'

Arthur Bach (Russell Brand) is undoubtedly an overgrown child. When we meet Arthur for the first time he is dressed as Batman and planning to attend a black tie function being put on by his mother, Vivian (Geraldine James), arriving in the Batmobile alongside his driver and friend Bitterman (Luis Guzman), dressed as the Boy Wonder.

If you find this scenario charming then you are just the audience for "Arthur" a comedy that will repeatedly reinforce Russell Brand's man-child qualities through nerd culture signifiers. Later we will see what Arthur says is the original Darth Vader helmet among other pop culture ephemera that Brand's multi-millionaire character obtains throughout the film in order to remind fans of better movies, earning the good feelings by proxy.

A marriage of convenience

Arthur may be 30 years old but he is still cared for by his childhood nanny Hobson (Dame Helen Mirren), something he justifies by referring to her as his best friend. Hobson is supportive but mostly disdainful of Arthur's wasted life of whores and copious amounts of alcohol. Hobson is, for a short time, surprisingly in favor of seeing Arthur marry Susan Johnson (Jennifer Garner), a marriage Arthur sorely hopes to avoid.

Arthur has been instructed to marry Susan by his mother or he will be cut off from the family fortune. Susan's father (Nick Nolte) threatens to cut off something else entirely should Arthur not go through with the marriage. Arthur seems headed down the aisle until he meets Naomi (Greta Gerwig) an unlicensed tour guide and aspiring children's book author. They fall for each other immediately but will Arthur give up his fortune for love?

Charming, sarcastic and sugary sweet

Russell Brand charms his way through much of "Arthur" with well timed quips and lighthearted insults. It's a fun and funny performance well matched with Dame Helen Mirren's sturdy and often wearyingly sarcastic Hobson and Greta Gerwig's sugar sweet Naomi. But, these fabulously pleasant performances don't excuse "Arthur's" lack of necessity.

There simply remains no reason to have done a remake of "Arthur." I like Russell Brand and the rest of the cast but each could be doing something more original and constructive instead of going through the motions of someone else's comedy legend. Director Jason Winer and writer Peter Baynham offer too little that is new here and what little new there is doesn't make this "Arthur" relevant or unique.

Worth seeing for Russell Brand fans

If you have seen the trailers or commercials for "Arthur" and thought that you'd like to see it then I encourage you to go. You are likely a fan of Russell Brand and his work here is solid. If you are on the fence however, there is nothing in "Arthur" that screams must see.

Wait for the DVD and you will likely be just as satisfied. Or, you could rent the Dudley Moore original and be so delighted that you forget the remake entirely.