Movie Review Last Flag Flying

Last Flag Flying (2017) 

Directed by Richard Linklater

Written by Richard Linklater, Danny Ponicsan

Starring Steve Carell, Laurence Fishburne, Bryan Cranston

Release Date November 3rd, 2017

Last Flag Flying is a rare movie. It’s a daring depiction of the aftermath of death in a modern war. It’s an exploration of the hearts and minds of the people left behind. It’s also a movie that feels at times as if it isn’t going particularly anywhere and manages past fits and starts to reach a deeply affecting end. It’s the kind of mainstream drama that you expect Richard Linklater’s idiosyncratic style might render inert in the same neutered manner of his mainstream take on The Bad News Bears.

At times early on in Last Flag Flying, I found myself miffed at the trite nature of the characters. The ways in which Steve Carell’s sadsack Doc, Bryan Cranston’s obnoxious Sal, and Laurence Fishburne’s cranky priest Mueller fall so easily into sitcom type characters got on my nerves very early in the film and I prepared myself to write a review of the film that was not going to be fun to write. Then something began to change. Slowly but surely, the film began reeling me in and when it reached the end, I was a little teary-eyed as Bob Dylan’s warm tones flowed over the end credits.

Last Flag Flying tells the story of Doc, who attempts to reunite with his friends, Sal and Mueller. The three fought in Vietnam together and while Sal and Mueller remember taking on the much younger Doc, they also consider it a stretch of the term to call the kid a friend. Something happened near the end of the war that sent Doc to a military prison and prematurely ended their friendship, but Doc never forgot about his buddies. Now that he is facing the biggest crisis of his life with no family at home, his thoughts go back to his only friends.

For his part, Sal has been drinking away the memories of Vietnam for more than 30 years. Doc finds him at a bar in Virginia that he owns and somehow operates through his various stupors. Doc had already found Mueller and collects Sal to take him to see the sight of their formerly hellraising friend, now a Baptist Preacher. Doc soon after explains why he’s tracked down his army pals. His son was killed in action in Iraq, and he wants his only friends on hand to help him lay Larry Jr. to rest.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. 

Movie Review Good Time

Good Time (2017) 

Directed by Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie 

Written by Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie

Starring Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie 

Release Date August 11th, 2017

Why don’t I love Good Time? So many of my critical colleagues adore the film and yet I can’t see the full appeal. I love the look of the film, a grimy, color saturated chase through the underbelly of small-time Brooklyn crime, but the story just leaves me cold. Scene after scene I keep waiting for the film to find another gear and kick into the movie that so many of my colleagues have raved about and it just never comes. What I am left with is a fine-looking movie with a terrific score that relies far too heavily on a contrivance-filled plot to get from one scene to the next.

Good Time stars a properly de-glammed Robert Pattinson as Connie. Connie is the overly protective brother of Nick, a troubled and mentally handicapped young man who we meet as he is perhaps being committed to a mental facility, the film isn't clear on this. Connie rescues his brother from this meeting, but his rescue is quickly revealed to have an ulterior motive. Connie has Nick join him in a low stakes bank robbery that unfolds with no sound, just a passing of notes.

This is one of several terrific sequences in Good Time but like so much of the film; it stands alone as a great piece of stage craft but not necessarily a great piece of film storytelling. Connie and Nick pull off the robbery, but they’re upended when a dye pack stuffed in their loot bag goes off and foils their getaway. Covered in pink dust they have to improvise but that only leads to more disaster as they are pegged by the cops and paranoid Nick decides to make a run for it, leading to his capture.

The rest of the narrative stems from Connie’s attempt to obtain bail money. With most of his stolen money unusable thanks to the dye pack he needs $10,000 more to free Nick from Riker’s Island. Here, he turns to a friend named Corey and played by Jennifer Jason Leigh in a rather needless cameo. Corey is a space cadet who could care less about Connie’s brother, she wants Connie to whisk her away on a vacation she’s deluded herself into thinking that Connie could afford or even be interested in.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. 

Documentary Review Dawson City: Frozen Time

Dawson City Frozen Time (2016) 

Directed by Bill Morrison 

Written by Bill Morrison 

Starring History 

Release Date September 5th, 2016

The awards season is an extraordinarily busy time for film critics. With hundreds of films big and small jockeying for our attention, it can be nearly impossible to get to everything. When you’re a critic who also has a day job, that task becomes even more daunting. That’s why I love year-end Top 10 lists. I follow as many as I can find from every place around the world so I can try to get to anything that deeply touched a fellow critic.

I was lucky then to be reading the Film Comment list of the Top 20 movies of 2017 when the title Dawson City: Frozen Time caught my eye. I had seen that the film had been added to FilmStruck, the arthouse streaming service I subscribe to. Since it was one of the few I hadn’t seen and it was so available I decided to watch it and I am so glad I did. Dawson City: Frozen Time is one of the most fascinating and exceptional documentaries I have ever seen.

Dawson City: Frozen Time combines two of my passions: movies and history. This unique and engrossing documentary has a very distinctive premise which centers on a treasure trove of old film reels that were found buried in, of all places, the Canadian Yukon. Using music, still images, and clips from films that date back to the creation of the film medium—the legendary Lumiere Brothers themselves appear in one of the reels—Dawson City: Frozen Time crafts an artfully edited documentary filled with the wonders of history and the movies.

In 1978 a man with a backhoe in the tiny Yukon town of Dawson City was clearing the remnants of an old building when he made a remarkable discovery. Buried beneath this historic building, a former hockey rink and meeting hall, was a treasure trove of film stock dating back to the creation of the medium. What was it doing here? No one was quite sure at the time, but it turned out to have quite a history with a mysterious and even romantic backstory.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. 

Movie Review Ferdinand

Ferdinand (2017) 

Directed by Carlos Saldanha 

Written by Robert L. Baird, Tim Federle, Brad Copeland 

Starring John Cena, Kate McKinnon

Release Date December 15th, 2017

Blue Sky Animation is the home of the truly mediocre in modern animation. The house that the awful Ice Age movies built is back again and apparently attempting to hide their latest bit of sub-par animation by opening Ferdinand opposite Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Smart move, Blue Sky. Burying Ferdinand is definitely the right call. No, the movie isn’t terrible, it’s just mediocre. And in a world where Pixar still rules, it’s not a bad idea to drop your more modestly ambitious products where few audiences will see it.

Ferdinand tells the story of a young bull, voiced by WWE legend John Cena. Young Ferdinand has decided at a very early age that he wants nothing to do with being a bullfighter. Ferdinand, you see, dear reader, loves flowers. That’s all the explanation you are going to get about young Ferdinand’s nature: he loves flowers. When his father, voiced by Jeremy Sisto, doesn’t return to the stable after facing down a matador, Ferdinand decides his best bet in making a run for it.

Through luck and guile, Ferdinand manages to get aboard a train and winds up outside of town and on the farm of a local gardener known for his fantastic flowers. Ferdinand is adopted and loved by Nina (Lily Day) and grows up with her until he becomes a 2,000 pound behemoth. No longer able to hide, Ferdinand gets himself captured when he can’t resist attending the local flower festival and ends up back on his old farm where he is now the biggest bull in the yard, and the one that the new matador has his eye on.

The animation in Ferdinand is good. It’s not Pixar good, but it’s good. The characters have a rubbery exterior that thankfully doesn’t press into the uncanny valley, but it’s also not particularly pretty, either. It’s just OK. The best animation is likely the three hedgehogs, voiced by Gina Rodriguez, Daveed Diggs and Gabriel Iglesias. The spiky hedgehogs are beautifully rendered, but they’re also underwritten and rarely ever funny, which is surprising given the talented voices behind them.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal 

Movie Review Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Star Wars The Last Jedi (2017) 

Directed by Rian Johnson 

Written by Rian Johnson 

Starring Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega 

Release Date December 15th, 2017 

The nostalgia is no longer mine when it comes to Star Wars. A new generation of fans has picked up the mantel and while I still have strong feelings for my childhood favorite film series, it no longer belongs to me and my generation. Star Wars: The Last Jedi affirms the fact that the franchise has transcended what George Lucas created and morphed into something new. Does that mean I didn’t enjoy it? No, it just means that all things pass and while Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a fine movie, it’s no longer something I have deep feelings about.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi picks up the story of the battle between The First Order, led by Supreme Emperor Snoke and his apprentice Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), and the Resistance led by General Leia Organa. As we join the story, the Resistance is in grave danger. A First Order destroyer ship is on the tail of the Resistance and preparing to blow Leia and her army out of the universe. This opening scene is shockingly funny and smart and exciting with an outstanding performance from Oscar Isaac as resistance pilot Poe Damron.

From there, the story will branch out into three narratives. The first is the Resistance eluding the Empire, I mean The First Order. The second finds our former storm-trooper turned hero, Finn (John Boyega), teaming with a newcomer named Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) to try to find a hacker who could provide them the key to helping the Resistance escape from the encroaching First Order. The final thread in this triple narrative follows Rey (Daisy Ridley) as she tries to convince Jedi Master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) to return to the Resistance.

The third thread of the narrative is the most powerful with Rey exploring the light and the dark of The Force while Luke tries to overcome his fear after having lost Ben Solo to the dark side. Mark Hamill is Oscar caliber, I kid you not, as the wise and conflicted Luke, still impetuous and still with much to learn even as he has become a master. Daisy Ridley brings out the best in Hamill, and I can’t wait to see where this arc goes.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal 

Movie Review Just Getting Started

Just Getting Started (2017) 

Directed by Ron Shelton 

Written by Ron Shelton 

Starring Morgan Freeman, Tommy Lee Jones, Rene Russo, Joe Pantoliano, Glenn Headly 

Release Date December 8th, 2017 

Why does the movie Just Getting Started exist? Having seen this ghastly comedy, I can’t for a moment divine why anyone involved thought making this movie was a good idea. The jokes are creaky and unfunny; the story is past its sell by date and the direction is clumsy, bordering on amateurish? What type of blackmail was required to draw Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones to appear in this film? What kind of blackmail was required to get movie theaters to make space for this movie in the same month in which Star Wars The Last Jedi is being released?

Just Getting Started stars Morgan Freeman as Duke, the manager of a high end retirement home in Palm Springs. Duke is living the high life with numerous elderly girlfriends, a loyal coterie of cronies and a seemingly endless pile of cash that he takes out of the company till. But that isn’t even Duke’s biggest secret. He’s also a former mob lawyer who was installed at the retirement home as a cover for his witness protection.

Duke’s idyllic lie is interrupted by the arrival of Leo (Tommy Lee Jones). Leo moves in to the retirement community and immediately takes the attention of Duke’s lady friends. Then, he takes all of Duke’s ill-gotten cash in Duke’s weekly underground poker game. Leo even takes Duke on the golf course, though to be fair, their showdown was cut short by a cobra hidden in Duke’s bag. It appears that Duke’s secret has been uncovered and someone is trying to kill him and make it look like an accident.

Now you might think from my straightforward description that Leo’s appearance in the retirement community would not be coincidental to Duke’s being found by the mob but you would be wrong. I know, it seems like the perfect set up to perhaps have Jones be the hitman and the two battling wits perhaps? Nope! Or maybe Leo would be an undercover agent sent to infiltrate the home and keep Duke from getting wacked, but nope!

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal 

Movie Review The Darkest Hour

The Darkest Hour (2017) 

Directed by Joe Wright 

Written by Anthony McCarten 

Starring Gary Oldman, Kristen Scott Thomas, Lily James, Stephen Dillane, Ben Mendelsohn 

Release Date November 22nd, 2017 

With the release of the movie Darkest Hour starring Gary Oldman, there has been a new reckoning with the legacy of Sir Winston Churchill, one that has brought to light some of Churchill’s more horrific qualities. On his podcast Revisionist History, journalist Malcolm Gladwell reflected on Churchill with specific criticisms about the legendary Prime Minister’s policies toward India, policies that many feel were driven by Churchill’s Hitler-like disdain for the Indian people. Then there was the policy of strategic bombing in Germany which may have actually extended the war by two more years even as Churchill is recalled as that war’s great, heroic leader.

There is also talk of Churchill’s treatment of black people and women, none of it flattering. These revelations have cast a pall over the legacy of one of largest and most vaunted figures of the 20th Century. Thus, the release of a movie which chooses to focus on making the Prime Minister's legacy more suitably entertaining, it’s natural to cast a side eye at such a movie. Or one may be driven to madness trying to balance the notion that Darkest Hour is a very good film but one which aims its greatness at a figure who may not be so great, or at the very least, not worthy of such historic hagiography.

May 1940

Darkest Hour stars the inimitable Gary Oldman in the role of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The story picks up in May of 1940 in first days in which Mr. Churchill inherited the office of Prime Minister from the deposed Neville Chamberlain. Churchill was no one’s first choice, a suspicion confirmed by King Edward (Ben Mendelsohn) early in the film when he asks why Lord Halifax (Stephen Dillane), his choice for Prime Minister, had passed on the job.

Churchill is the only candidate that both parties in Parliament will accept as a war time Prime Minister, despite what the King describes as a litany of military failures dating back to World War 1. Even with Churchill being offered and accepting the position, it’s barely a day before backbiting and jockeying for position to replace him begins, all the while Europe is falling quickly as German Panzer tanks decimate Holland and Belgium and begin an assault on France that will eventually lead to the beaches of Dunkirk and England’s "finest hour."

Find my full length review on the Geeks Community on Vocal