2019 Films: #11.The Hole in the Ground

A Netflix viewing on July 4th in Chicago, part two of a horror double header.

Lee Cronin writes and makes his feature directorial debut with this supernatural/creepy kid/parental distress film set in Ireland. Single mother Sarah (Seána Kerslake) and her young son Chris (James Quinn Markey) have recently moved to the Irish countryside to start a new life (it's implied that Chris's father may not have been a real joy to be with). One night, Chris gets out of the house and while looking for him in the woods (did I forget to mention that they live in a secluded house in the woods! They might as well have a sign on the front door that says "come chop us up!") Sarah comes across a rather large and dubious sinkhole. As she's on the phone to call for help, Chris show back up. Problem solved right? But Chris just doesn't see right after that night and Sarah slowly starts to succumb to fear and paranoia (the descent into madness begins!).

One day while driving home, Sarah and Chris come across a pajama clad crazy old lady in the street. Some time later, Sarah and Chris notice that the pajama clad crazy old lying is lying face down on the ground. It turns out that her head is buried. Sarah frantically digs her head up but she's dead. At the funeral, the old lady's husband has not been the same since the death of their son, who was about Chris' age when he died. He tells Sarah that she started to believe that her son was not really her son. Sarah now believes that this isn't the Chris she brought into the world. She confronts the alleged doppelganger, traps it in the cellar and heads off to the mysterious sinkhole.

This was probably the best creepy kid film I've seen since The Babadook. Markey plays the creepy kid really, really well and Kerslake really pulls of the paranoid parent and descent into madness. Cronin does a nice job with the pace and the tension. The film received a deserved 86% Rotten Tomatoes rating. My wife and I kept talking about the film over the weekend and that's a sing of an interesting film. You're still talking about later. This was a creepy film is is worth watching if one has a Netflix subscription. 

2019 Films: #10. The Perfection

A Netflix viewing on July 4th in Chicago.

Richard Shepard directs and gets a writing credit for this thriller starring Get Out's Allison Williams and Logan Browning as Charlotte and Lizzie, two students from a prestigious Boston private music academy.

Charlotte was a cello prodigy that had to leave the prestigious Bachoff academy to care for her terminally ill mother. After her mother death, she to decides to call her old instructor Anton (Steven Weber), and get back into the life. She travels to Shanghai to join them for a concert by Lizzie and a selection of a new student. Charlotte and her replacement, Lizzie become fast friends and go clubbing and spend the night together. The next morning, despite the Mount Rushmore of hangovers (of which Charlotte "helps" to to get over), Lizzie invites Charlotte to join her on a trip to rural China (after just meeting her the night before).

Lizzie's hangover is getting worse despite the fact that Charlotte is giving her "ibuprofen." It comes to a head during the bus ride when Lizzie starts barfing all over the place and quite frankly starts to lose it. She loses it enough to get kicked off the bus onto a deserted road in the middle of nowhere China. This is where things start to get really dark. Flash forward three weeks and Lizzie shows up back at the academy with only one hand. She blames Charlotte for cutting off her hand and is in a bad way. Anton, feels sympathy for Lizzie but doesn't really have a place for a disabled cellist and banishes her. Lizzie, justifiably still upset, travels to Minneapolis. kidnaps Charlotte and brings her back to Bachoff. When Anton sees this, he puts a plan in motion that's really creepy. There's a big reveal, a big showdown and a final creepy performance.

I tried not to give too much away because this was a good film. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 73% rating. The only big problem I had was the fact that Charlotte needed a lot of things to fall just right in order for her plan to work. There's a few cliched scenes as well but not too bad by any stretch. Shepard makes good use of flashbacks to give exposition into  Charlotte that doesn't give the plot away. We find that Bachoff has a very ugly side to it that it's prestige covers up (it's bad what Anton and his lackeys are up to). Really solid acting from the cast, Allison Williams is particularly chilling and Browning's descent into madness is unnerving. Paul Haslinger's score is really good. Shepard did a nice job with the pace and mounting the tension and of course there's a nice reveal at the end. 

If you're a Netflix subscriber and are into thriller/horror films, you will not be disappointed ny this picture. 

2019 Films: #12: Midsommar

July 6th in Chicago.

Ari Aster writes and directs his second feature about a group of american graduate students travelling to Sweden for a once every 90 year festival at a secluded commune. What could possibly go wrong?

The film opens with Dani (Florence Pugh) going through a crisis with her bipolar sister. This is putting a strain on her relationship with her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor). Christian decides to leave his pals; Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren), Josh (William Jackson Harper) and Mark (Will Poulter). Much to the chagrin of Mark who thinks he should break up with Dani. On his way over to Dani's, her sister kills herself and her parents. Dani understandably is an emotional wreck. 

While at a party later in the school year it comes out that Christian is going to a commune in Sweden where Pelle grew up with Pelle, Mark and Josh for a few weeks. Suffice to say he neglected to inform Dani of this. If you know anything about relationships, Dani is going to Sweden with the boys. When the gang arrives in Stockholm, they have a 5 hour drive to the isolated commune, so you know there's going to be trouble.

Upon arrival the gang starts taking drugs as it's a essentially a Swedish hippy commune. Between the drugs and the weird rituals, things start to breakdown. Dani slowly descends into madness; Christian and Josh are at odds and Mark is basically a putz. Things get weirder and weirder around the commune. Mark and Josh go missing along with an english couple brought by Pelle's brother Ingemar. Christian gets picked as a mate for a young girl and partakes in the sexual ritual with the female elders under the influence of psychedelics. Meanwhile Dani, also under the influence, wins the May Queen competition and catches Christian having sex. The film ends with a ritual sacrifice and Dani's grip on sanity loosening.

First and foremost, this film is weird. It keeps your attention but it is weird. Aster is one f*cked-up mofo with the things that are floating around in his head. The only major problem is the runtime. The film clocks in at 147 minutes. I was never looking at my watch but there are some scenes that could have been cut to make the film a bit more efficient at 105-120 minutes. There was a plot line about incest that never really panned out in my book. That could have been cut. Other than that the film was well acted and Aster really dialed up the tension. Beautiful cinematography. Creepy score.

The film received an 83% Rotten Tomatoes rating which is about right but I liked this film a bit more than Hereditary which received a higher rating. The thing that got me about the picture, the same happened with Hereditary, is the post film discussions my wife and I had two days after viewing it. We were debating about whether or not Pelle had planned to bring Dani or some of Ingemar's decisions. That's a sign of quality film, you're still talking about it days after you've seen it. Aster, much like Jordan Peele, is a filmmaker that needs to be followed. Aster is a bit more off the beaten path than Peele but both have weird sh*t in their heads. This film may not be for everyone and the runtime may turn people off but it's worth the time to see it. Check it out.

2019 Films: #9. Godzilla: King of the Monsters

June 7th in Chicago.

Michael Dougherty directs and gets a screenwriting credit to this sequel to the 2014 original. The crypto-zoological organization known as Monarch is back again keeping tabs on giant monsters they refer to as titans (because Kaiju is being used for another franchise and monsters is too cliche). 

The film focuses on the Russell Family; Emma (Vera Farmiga) a cryptobiologist, her daughter Madison (Eleven) and husband Mark (Kyle Chandler), an  animal behavior and communication specialist who used to work for Monarch with Emma. The Russells loss their youngest son in the 1st film and the loss caused Emma and Mark to divorce cliche. Emma perfected the Orca, a device that allows for communication with the titans. Also, Emma believes that humans and titans can co-exist and Mark does not. 

Emma is working on communicating with a cocooned Mothra when the facility is attacked by British eco-terrorist Twynn Lannister. Lannister and his goons kill all of the Monarch employees and "kidnap" Emma and Madison (what teenage Madison is doing in a highly classified secured facility is anyone's guess but that's what was in the script) and Mothra gets loose to pupate under a waterfall.

Monarch sends Dr. Ishirō Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Dr. Vivienne Graham to collect Mark to figure out Lannister's next move. That next move takes them to Antarctica where Lannister is attempting to awaken the dreaded Monster Zero!

Otherwise known as King Ghidorah.

When the good guys show up they walk into an ambush and Godzilla and Ghidorah start round one.  The terrorist flee Antarctica to Mexico to wake up Rodan. 

Rodan briefly battles Ghidorah but is quickly brushed aside when Godzilla ambushes Ghidorah. During their fight, Ghidorah loses a head and it's determined that the titans must go. The U.S. military sends a special weapon to destroy Godzilla and Ghidorah but surprise, surprise it doesn't work. Ghidorah flies off to regrow his head and summon all of the other titans. Godzilla goes off to is underwater lair to recuperate from his injuries. 

Monarch used their submarine (yep they have one), to track Godzilla to his lair. Dr. Serizawa is able to somehow determine that it will take years for Godzilla to mend so they need to speed it up. Using a specialized mini-sub and a nuclear device (which they just happen to have), Serizawa enters the lair (on a one way trip mind you), detonates the device therefor healing Godzilla. The final battle is now set. 

For some reason Boston will host the final battle. Mothra and Rodan fight, because Rodan is working for Ghidorah and Godzilla and Ghidorah get together for the last dances. Mothra beats Rodan but is defeated by Ghidorah. In her last act, Mortha is able to give her, let's call it life essence to Godzilla to give him the energy he needs to defeat Ghidorah once and for all. Which of course Godzilla does and with his victory, Rodan and the other titans that sat and watched bend the knee to the "Big G."

Apologies for the lengthy plot description but there's a lot going on. The aspect of Godzilla is simple; he battles other monsters. That's what we as the audience want to see. The scenes with real actors are sometimes ridiculous. In the five years in between the films, science has managed to become experts on titans. Science has been studying things for decades and has failed to come up with concrete answers!

The CGI and SFX are cool. The monster battles are cool as well but there's always something that clouds the battle. Whether it's clouds, a blizzard or water there is never a battle in ideal conditions. I get that the SFX cost a lot of bread and that's why they have to obscure the fights but the monster battles are why we pay for the ticket. 

The acting was ok but nothing spectacular. The main characters are pretty much cliches. In fact there are too many cliches too count at times. The most prevalent are the needless sacrifices. Between Dr. Serizawa and Emma at the end of the film saying "I'll be right behind you" when they're evacuating Boston, you know she's going to die. The main human bad guy, Twynn Lannister, is essentially a Bond villain. He used to be a British army colonel and an MI6 agent but has become insanely rich in trafficking titan DNA (in just five years btw) in order to fund his eco-terrorist organization. This organization has all of the up to date military equipment as well as a large army and they get to operate with impunity without law enforcement doing anything about them. 

Monarch also seems to have everything at their disposal ready to be summoned at a moments notice. Need a giant aircraft, like a helicarrier, to make an emergency landing? Done. Need a super sophisticated submarine to track Godzilla to an underwater lair? No problem. Need a mini sub to go into a special section of Godzilla's lair that just happens to have a breathable atmosphere? Got just the thing. Need a nuclear device to give out just the right amount of radiation to heal Godzilla? Not a problem. Where did this organization get their funding? 

Lastly there's the "Big G" himself. He has a safe place in an ancient submerged city that happens to have an air pocket in it so that humans can breathe if they want to pop in. The nuclear blast the accelerates his healing also increases his power to out of control levels. During the final battle in Boston, Monarch monitors his radiation levels and has to evacuate a wide radius because the blast will be huge. However, Godzilla can control the radiation by letting go pulses that he uses to defeat Ghidorah. After the battle, there's no mention of any possible devastation these controlled nuclear blasts may have caused. 

The picture received a 41% Rotten Tomatoes rating and rightfully so. It wasn't that great. It's hard to create tension when Godzilla vs. King Kong, being plugged since 2017, is set for a 2020 release. Just like the MCU, when you're trying to establish a big franchise, the main characters are not going to get killed off. The runtime is 132 minutes and I found myself hoping the climax would take place soon. There are some quality moments as I mentioned but it doesn't hold up. I saw this film because I invested a lot of time back as a kid watching the Toho Godzilla films and the 1997 piece of dreck. I will also go see the next installment as well. This film isn't for everyone. If you need to see it, be forewarned. 

2019 Films: #8 Avengers: Endgame

May 7th in Chicago. 

At the end of Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos had snapped his fingers and half of the universe ceases to exist.

But if there's one thing the comic world has taught me it's that death is never certain. If there's one thing the MCU has taught me is that you never kill off franchises that you can still drain a dollar from.

Tony Stark and Nebula are adrift in space. Captain America, Black Widow, Thor, Rocket and War Machine are left back on Earth after the Battle of Wakanda wondering, "what the hell just happened?" Enter Scott Lang who made it back from the quantum universe and has gone cross country to the Avengers HQ. Enter Captain Marvel who saves Stark and Nebula and brings them to Earth. From there the plan becomes to use the quantum realm to, you guessed it, time travel. By using time travel they can obtain the stones before Thanos combines them. It's decided that they need Hawkeye and Black Widow brings him back to reunite that original Avengers line-up. Oh by the way, Banner has managed to turn himself back to the Hulk but keep Banner's intelligence. Once Banner and Stark build the time machine, the plan is set in motion.

They break into teams and go off to the first Avengers film, the 1970s, Asgard and some Avengers: Infinity War locations. Each venue carries different levels of success. Stark then creates a new gauntlet but Thanos gets wind of the plan and sets his own plan in motion. With a new gauntlet our heroes bring everyone back (SURPRISE!) for a big final battle with Thanos and his goons.

Now the film ends with a few deaths that I do not want to spoil. Stark and Rogers get to get some level of satisfaction from the time travel: Tony gets to speak to his dad when in the 70s and Rogers get to hang out with Peggy Carter. That was nice to see. I feel that despite having a very convoluted plot, the film ended about as well as it could end. There are some lighthearted moments to keep things from being too dark and not all the heroes get a happy ending. The picture received a 94% RottenTomatoes rating which seems a bit high but I can live with it. The film had a budget of $356 million dollars and has gross nearly $2.8 billion worldwide.

Sold acting from the huge ensemble cast. The special effects were really good and there's a lot of action. Lots of action. Despite a 3 hour runtime, the film moves along very well. It never gets too slow and the action doesn't go on too long for it to get boring. As I have committed over 10 years to the MCU I was very pleased with the way they tied everything together. I am also mildly interested in MCU moving forward (Black Panther: Yes. Spider-Man: Not that much. Doctor Strange, Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy: Maybe). This was a fun film that brings Phase Three a nice conclusion.

2019 Films: #4. Us

Part 1 of a double header on March 23rd in Chicago. 

This is the much anticipated second feature from writer/director Jordan Peele. The film opens in 1986 with a young girl, Adelaide, hanging out at the beach in Santa Cruz. Addy wanders from her father as he's playing whack-a-mole and ends up in the house of mirrors. Lightning flashes and Addy leaves the house of mirrors and is visibly upset. Jump to present day and Addy, Lupita Nyong'o, is back vacationing in Santa Cruz with her family; husband Gabe (Winston Duke), teenage daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and son Jason (Evan Alex).

Addy is uneasy about the vacation and has flashbacks about the aftermath of her experience in the house of mirrors. Addy's husband Gabe convinces Addy to go to the beach despite her trepidations. At the beach Jason witnesses some weird and creepy sh*t prompting Addy to bring everyone back to the house. When darkness comes that's when things really start to go downhill. Jason spots a family in the driveway. Gabe goes out to try and scare the family away but it backfires. He manages to get back to the house and lock the doors but the family breaks in. The "family" are actually doppelgangers of the Wilsons. Creepy!

The Wilsons are separated and Addy's doppelganger, Red, gives us some much needed exposition. Red and the doppelgangers are known as the "tethered." They share a soul with their counterparts and their lives mirror their counterparts but in a much less nice way. Eventually the Wilsons escape the house and make their way to the Tylers place, the Wilsons are kind of in competition with they Tylers or at least Gabe is. But the Tylers have been killed by their doppelgangers and the Wilsons are back in the frying pan. The Wilsons manage to dispatch the Tyler doppelgangers and escape to the boardwalk.

After a confrontation with Jason's doppelganger, Red abducts Jason and takes him into the tethered catacombs under the boardwalk. Addy gives chase and has a final showdown with Red.  Addy rescues Jason and gets back to the surface. As the Wilson's drive away, Addy has a revelation that gives the audience a very interesting twist ending.

Although not quite as good as Get Out, Us was a very, very good picture. The film received a 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating and grossed over $254 million worldwide against a $20 million budget. This is a really creepy film with a cool ending. I don't believe that there is as much symbolism as Get Out but I have a tendency to focus on a film's mistakes more than symbolism, it usually has to be obvious for me. There are a lot of questions about the tethered. For instance, where did the rabbits come from for them to eat? How did they learn how to make and sew their red jumpsuits? How did they come about? Who monitored them? Things like that.

Peele himself said the film's central theme is about American privilege. Until I read that, I figured he just made a creepy film. With this follow-up, Peel continues to be a must see director until he runs into multiple hiccups and then we can reassess. Great acting from a solid cast, a lot of actors playing dual roles. Peele creates a lot of tension that keeps your eyes glued to the screen. There's some humorous moments to break the tension but the tension always comes back. There's good 80's pop culture references. Michael Abels creates a very creepy score that adds to the film's tension. A really well made film. A must see.

2019 Films: #7. Velvet Buzzsaw

A Netflix viewing on April 14th.

When I saw that Dan Gilroy wrote and directed this supernatural horror picture, I wanted to see it since I am a fan of Nightcrawler. Set in the contemporary art world of Los Angeles (therefore ensuring that some characters will be reviled for being uber-snooty) we get a an interesting group of characters:

• Morf (Jake Gyllenhaal): Art critic.
• Rhodora (Rene Russo): Snooty gallery owner.
• Josephina (Zawe Ashton): Rhodora's minion, who gets sh*t on by Rhodora.
• Gretchen (Toni Collette): Art Curator and rival to Rhodora.
• Coco (Natalia Dyer): Another minion for Rhodora who gets sh*t on a lot.
• Jon Dondon (Tom Sturridge): Art gallery owner and another Rhodora rival.

Josephina is stuck in a dead end job working for Rhodora. She's under appreciated until she discovers some paintings of a dead neighbor in her apartment complex, Vetril Dease. The paintings put the hook into Josephina and she shows the to Morf, whom she's now in a sexual relationship with, and Rhodora. Rhodora puts the Dease pieces on display and they're an instant hit. That's when weird sh*t starts to happen.

Rhodora sends some paintings into storage but her employee goes missing, he actually succumbs to a gruesome death. Morf starts to research Dease and discovers that his history is disturbing. Really disturbing. Rival owner Jon Dondon is also researching Dease in order to spoil Rhodora's new found success. Gretchen, a curator for the city gallery gets some Dease pieces to display. Morf also starts to descend into madness from the research into Dease's life. Morf tires to get everyone to destroy the paintings but because there's so much money involved now, no one listens. 

Basically everyone suffers a gruesome death at the hands of Dease's pieces except for Rhodora and Coco. Rhodora gets a special death from Dease courtesy of her Velvet Buzzsaw tattoo, a band she belonged to back in the 80's. Coco is the only survivor and she sees a homeless man selling Dease's works. 

Apparently I am not a big fan of supernatural artwork murdering people that I don't care for. I really wanted to like this movie but was disappointed. Perhaps I should have paid more attention to the summary. This was such a departure from Nightcrawler and it didn't work. It's unknown to me if this could have worked on any level. If Gilroy had eliminated the supernatural aspect, could it have been better? Granted I am a stalk and slash horror film guy as I grew up on Halloween and the Friday the 13th films, mainly 1-5. 

This should have been a better film. Gilroy is talented and there was a great ensemble cast. But it just didn't work for me. The film received a 63% Rotten Tomatoes rating and that seemed a bit high for me. Skip it. 

2019 Films: #6. The Dirt

A Netflix viewing on March 31st in Chicago. 

This biopic based on the book The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band written by the band members and Neil Strauss was directed by Jeff Tremaine with screenwriting credits to Amanda Adelson and Rich Wilkes. The film starts off in 1973 as we see a young Frank Feranna having issues with his family which would eventually lead him to leave Seattle in 1978 and become Nikki Sixx in 1980. 

From there Nikki is in a band called London and that leads him to bringing together the line-up that would become Mötley Crüe. From there we get a tale of how the band is put together(in classic film cliche where the band members just show up when needed) and go off on a life of debauchery. Tremaine gives us the highs and lows of the band through the early 90's when Vince leaves the band after the death of his daughter and their subsequent reunion. We get all of the highlights of their career; Nikki overdosing on heroin, declared dead then coming back to life after a paramedic gives him 2 shots of adrenaline, Tommy marrying Heather Locklear, Vince's drunk driving accident that leads to the death of Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle (the true devastation caused by the accident is heavily glossed over) and Mick's ankylosing spondylitis.

The book is based off of what the and members relayed to writer Neil Strauss and to say the film made a few changes is a given. The film is a cleaned up version of the book that's a little on the dull side. Sure it got most stuff correct but if the reality of the situation is interesting, why change it? I understand glossing over things like Razzle's death or Tommy's abusive behavior towards women but some things didn't need to be changed. I read the book and it's a lot better than the film. 

The film is put together nicely and the actors playing the band:

• Douglas Booth as Nikki Sixx
• Colson Baker or Machine Gun Kelly as Tommy Lee
• Daniel Webber as Vince Neil
• Ramsay Bolton as Mick Mars

They were ok at best as a whole. I never got the sense that Booth gave me the fire within Sixx to make it as a rockstar. Baker/Kelly looked a lot like Tommy Lee. Webber channeled Vince here and there so he was adequate. Ramsay did a nice job as Mick Mars but he never really seemed to be asked to do too much. It seemed like the actors playing the band were just reliving the events while looking like the band and not really acting at times. 

As with most musical biopics, all that the band needs to succeed is attitude. Mötley Crüe had attitude to spare. No one likes seeing the real process of how a band writes the songs or how things get put together in the studio. It's just easier to do a montage of that stuff over a song and it's done. The film received a 39% Rotten Tomatoes rating and deservedly so. It wasn't that good and did not live up to the book. Plus it was probably about 10 years too late. Apparently the attempt to bring the book to film started back in 2006. Reading the book will take longer than watching the film, but it's worth it.

2019 Films: #5. Captain Marvel

Part two of a double header in March 23rd in Chicago.

Seeing how Avengers: Endgame was coming out not too long after Captain Marvel, I pretty much had to see this film. Not too mention that it's the first MCU film with a female protagonist. So there's that too. The 21st film in the MCU was written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.

The story takes place in 1995 and opens with our protagonist as member of an elite Kree special forces unit known as Starforce. During a sparring session with her commander, we get a glimpse of her immense power. On their next mission, the Starforce walks into a trap and Captain Marvel (she's not yet Captain Marvel as we know it) gets captured by the Kree's arch enemy, the Skrulls. Marvel escapes and crash lands on Earth.

On Earth she meets Nick Fury while hunting Skrulls and they become fast friends. Marvel, who's been suffering from amnesia and visions all film, starts to piece things together as she meets up with her old wingman Maria Rambeau. It also turns out that the Skrulls are refugees who needs Marvel's help. Eventually it all comes together; she remembers everything, solves the Skrulls problems, realizes the full scope of her power and gives Fury a pager so that he can contact her in case of an emergency.

I guess this qualifies as an emergency. 

Whenever possible, I try to leave the serious nitpicking to my pals over at Cinemasins. This was a fun movie. The cast was great, especially Larson (who's really tough not to like in her roles). Boden and Fleck do a nice job of putting things together to tie nicely (or as nice as they could get it) into the MCU. They also did a nice job of keeping true to the Carol Danvers source material in terms of her role as Captain Marvel (Danvers has a complicated history). I also like the Rambeau tie in; Monica, the daughter of Maria, was an Avenger in the comics during the 80s as Captain Marvel after Danvers had lost her Ms. Marvel powers in Avengers Annual #10 but before she became Binary in the X-Men (I hope I got that timeline right). 

When I was reading comics back in the 80s, the Skrulls were villains. Evil to the core. Sure they homeworld was destroyed by Galactus or something but they were still evil. However, I just kind of shrugged that change off. Now, there have been two main types of MCU films; the equally matched hero and villain (Iron Man, Black Panther and Ant-Man) and "hero realizes how heroic they are (any Thor film)." This film falls into the realization category. I guess it was too much to ask for Marvel to give something a little different but why mess with success. My other issue is that her power has no limits. She's like the MCU Scarlet Witch as in, she's as powerful as the script needs her to be. 

The film took in over $153 million during it's opening weekend. The worldwide gross as of June 23rd is over $1.12  billion. The picture received a 78% Rotten Tomatoes rating which is about right. The film had a few laughs and some roll my eyes moments but it was fun. It's hard to get a lot of tension in the film when I know that she plays a part in Endgame. It's good to see that Marvel was able to have success with a female protagonist following the success of Wonder Woman. Personally I thought that Black Widow should have had a stand alone film first, as I am sure other did as well, but instead we got Red Sparrow. If you have been following the MCU as I have, then you have to see the film. 

2019 Films: #3. The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley

March 22nd in Chicago.

Veteran filmmaker Alex Gibney wrote and directed this film about the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theranos. Holmes dropped out of Stanford to work to start a healthcare company. Her goal was to take a small amount of blood and determine all sorts of ailments. Skeptics said it couldn't be done with a such a small amount but Holmes forged and picked up investors along the way. If her theory did work, it could revolutionize healthcare.

By 2010, Holmes and her business partner/lover Ramesh Balwani had over $92 million in venture capital. By 2013, Theranos partnered with Walgreen's and would end up being worth up to $10 billion. Despite all of the hype and list of high profile endorsers it was all a lie. The "Edison," the machine that was supposed to analyze the blood, never worked and Theranos faked any previous results. In 2015, Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou began sniffing around Theranos and with the help of whistleblowers, blew the lid of Theranos. 

Gibney does a nice job of building the narrative. He was able to use actual company footage as well as interviews with the whistleblowers, high profile endorsers and employees. He also digs into the Silicon Valley culture of "fake it until you make it." The film received a 77% Rotten Tomatoes rating. This is a really good film that upset me that this stuff goes on. Holmes' trial is set for summer of 2020. If she's found guilty, and I hope she is, it will be interesting to see how hard the sentencing is since she's a woman. 

2019 Films: #1 & 2. Dueling Fyre Festival Documentaries

A Hulu and Netflix viewing on January 19th.

Hulu's Fyre Fraud came out with the first documentary about the heinousity that was Fyre Festival. Fyre Fraud  focuses a lot on Billy McFarland, the main organizer of the festival along with Ja Rule. McFarland was the money man and Ja Rule was the celebrity promoter. They delve into McFarland's past and his previous sketchy businesses. The film basically tries to steer you towards the conclusion that he's been a fraud his entire adult life. It also brings to light, whether on purpose or by accident, the gullibility of his mostly millennial marks. They wanted to be special and elite. McFarland gave them that opportunity and they couldn't get their wallets open fast enough. It's worth it to note that Hulu actually interviewed McFarland while Netflix did not. Apparently Hulu paid McFarland.

Netflix's Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened focuses in on the origins of the festival. It relies mostly on interviews from the people that were tied to McFarland. They mostly come off as victims of McFarland but they went along with him every step of the way even when things started to look sketchy. My takeaway was that these guys turned a blind eye to what was going on in the hopes of a huge payday. They also raised the idea about having "influencers" take more responsibility about what they're promoting. However, if I were an Instagram person that was given $250,000, as Kylie Jenner allegedly was, to promote some concert... I am taking the money. Maybe these "celebrities" should be more responsible but my guess is that falls on the handlers and agents of said "celebrity." 

Both films are really well done. At least in the sense that it made me angry that these people exist and can get away with it. I do not have a lot of sympathy for the spoiled concertgoers that were ripped off and had a genuinely horrible experience. The real victims were people like Mary Ann Rolle, a local restaurant and bar owner that went out of her way to feed local workers and concertgoers even after the scam fell apart. She ended up being cheated out of being reimbursed and bankrupted herself trying to take care of people. Netflix did a nice job to show you that it wasn't just spoiled American rich kids that got ripped off, there were hardworking Bahamians who took a huge loss. 

I am not one of the old white guys that thinks millennials are the cause of all the problems. Every generation gets that. As a Gen Xer, we got hit with how apathetic we were. It's a cycle. I will say that the ripped off concertgoers and influencers came off as spoiled jerks and it's hard to drum up sympathy for them. Both films are worth watching. 

Iran: The Next American Forever War

Things just escalated between the U.S. and our old pals Iran. Secretary of State Pompeo stated that there is overwhelming proof that Iran is behind the recent tanker attacks. Iran of course denies it was them and the footage is grainy but I can't say either way as I am not a professional when it comes to stuff like this. In turn, President Trump rejected Iran's denials and accusation of claims on economic terrorism by the U.S. The owner of the Japanese ship contradicts the U.S. stance and our European allies are skeptical of of both the U.S. and Iran. So who knows.

The U.S./Iran relationship has been a biot rocky since 1953 but we don't need to go back that far (another time perhaps as it's a doozy). We only need to back to May of 2018 when President Trump decided to pull the U.S. out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action despite Iran's compliance and against what the American people and our allies wanted. Why? Well racism is the answer. The JCPOA was a President Obama initiative and since President Obama is black, Republicans and Trump hated it. Was it the best possible deal? Probably not but it was a deal that kept Iran's nuclear ambitions in check. Trump and a lot of other racist Republicans have been trying to erase President Obama from history. Republicans didn't try to eliminate President Clinton from history despite their hatred for him but a black man? Well to them, he's got to be erased. Also, Trump has boasted that he could have gotten a better deal but has not bothered to try and make good on it.

Make no mistake, Trump and the Iran hawks are goading Iran into a war. As I mentioned earlier, Iran was compliant with the JCPOA. But to Trump and the hawks, it didn't matter. Trump doesn't like forever wars but he has said that the U.S. should taken Iraq's oil, so why not Iran's.

Trump also mentioned that in a war with Iran, he doesn't need an exit strategy.

Anyway, things have been heating even more up even more since Iran shot down a U.S. drone and Trump has enacted new sanctions on Iran. Trump should be commended for not responding  with military action to the drone situation but he put the U.S. into this situation in the first place. U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton has been calling for an Iranian regime change for years. Bolton and Secretary of State Pompeo want war with Iran and they want it bad. Iran is a bad actor in the Middle East and they are a threat to Israel. If things go bad, it's on Trump, Bolton and Pompeo. Trump even went so far as to claim Iran has ties to Al-Qadea. Sounds familiar doesn't it?

2018 Films: #29. The Favourite

December in Chicago. Director Yorgos Lanthimos tells the tale of 18th century English monarch Queen Anne and her court. Queen Anne, Olivia Colman, is in poor health and seems to have little interest in running the country. Anne's adviser and subsequent lover Lady Sarah Churchill, Rachel Weisz is pretty much running the country, rather effectively, due to her influence over the queen.

Then along comes Abigail Hill, Emma Stone, the broke and disgraced cousin on Lady Sarah looking for work, he father gambled her away. Lady Sarah gets her a gig as a low end maid. Abigail toils away at a dead end job until she gets in the good graces of the queen by helping her gout, earning her a promotion to lady of the bedchamber, it was a real job back then.

As Lady Sarah's duties keep her away from Queen Anne, Abigail uses her new position to gain influence over the queen and eventually into a sexual relationship with her. Abigail has now replaced Lady Sarah as the queen's confidante and she's able to score a marriage that reinstates her noble standing. When Lady Sarah comes back to court she's pretty upset by this and it starts a back and forth with Abigail.

Lanthimos admitted that the film is far from factually accurate but if you're looking for a film to be factually accurate, you're looking in the wrong place. As John Ford once said, "print the legend." The film was well written and put together nicely. Strong performances from Colman and Weisz as expected and even Emma Stone wasn't too bad with her accent and she did a fine job in the role. The film received a 93% Rotten Tomatoes rating and grossed $96 million against a $15 million budget. I also received 5 Golden Globe and 10 Oscar Nominations with Colman winning the Oscar for Best Actress.

Lanthimos is a talented director and is worth watching. However, his films are an acquired taste and may not be for everyone. His films do not normally get a wide release and are very arthousey. So you have to look for them but they're worth it. 

2018 Films: #32. Ant-Man and the Wasp

An OnDemand viewing on February 22 in Chicago.

Since Avengers: Endgame is coming out, I figured I should watch this picture in case I needed some extra exposition since time travel and the quantum realm were going to play a part in saving the Earth from Thanos. Since I am late getting around on this review, I will let my pals over at CinemaSins cover the problems with the film. They're much wittier than I am. Plus it's a video.

This film takes place just before the events of Endgame. Our protagonist is wrapping up his house arrest after the events of
Captain America: Civil War. Just as the house arrest is set to end, Scott gets kidnapped by Hope and Hank to help free Janet from the quantum realm that she's been trapped in for 30 years. I mean it's only been 30 years and they couldn't wait a few more days? I guess they needed that extra tension.

Anyway, the quest to get Janet back takes some cartoon like twists and turns that eventually lead to a match-up with the Marvel standardly evenly matched villain, Ghost, who's not really evil but needs help with a condition brought on by Pym technology. The main villain is Sonny Burch, a black market tech seller who needs the same technology that Hope and Hank need to get Janet and that Ghost needs for her condition. Eventually, everything works out for the best. Janet is rescued from the quantum realm looking no worse for wear; Janet, Hank and Hope agree to help Ghost and Burch meets justice. All wrapped up nice and neat like an episode of Scooby-Doo.

Peyton Reed returned to direct along with the most of the cast and crew from the first film. Ant-Man represents the light hearted side of the MCU. Lots of laughs. Sometimes the goofiness goes a bit too far but it's hardly worth getting bent out of shape over. This was a fun film to watch. The picture received an 88% Rotten Tomatoes rating which is high in my opinion. It probably plays an integral part in the MCU because of the quantum realm technology needed to change the results of the Thanos finger snap.

2018 Films: #31. The Kindergarten Teacher

A Netflix viewing on February 16th in Chicago. This one caught my wife's eye since she herself taught kindergarten.

The film is directed by Sara Colangelo and stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as the aforementioned kindergarten teacher, Lisa Spinelli. Lisa teaches kindergarten on Staten Island and does not appear to be all that happy with her life. She and her husband love each other but the fire has gone out. Her teenage children are distant and quite frankly a bit ungrateful, probably like most teenagers. Lisa is taking a poetry course at night but she's really not that good a poet.

One day at school, she hears one of her students, Jimmy Roy (Parker Sevak), starts blurting out verse and it catches Lisa's ear. A six year old randomly spouting poetry? To say she becomes obsessed with Jimmy is a bit of an overstatement. She begins investigating Jimmy's family to find out where it comes from. Eventually Jimmy tells her that it just comes out. She even takes Jimmy to a Manhattan poetry open mic night to recite his poetry. She believes Jimmy to be a prodigy that no one will understand or care about because it's poetry. Suffice to say Lisa makes a series of bad decisions that won't end well for her. Or Jimmy for that matter.

This is a really underrated film. It received a well deserved 91% Roteen Tomatoes rating. Strong performances all around, Colangelo does a nice job of keeping your attention with good pacing a tension build ups. If you have Netflix, then this is a film worth seeing. It has a 96 minute run time and moves well. It has a sad ending so be warned,

2017 Films: #30. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

A Netflix viewing on January 11, 2019 in Chicago. Since this film is written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, it needed to be viewed. Now the title and the trailer can be a little misleading. This is an anthology film with six different stories about the American West.

The stories are very different. The opening segment, "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" is kind of an homage to the singing cowboy films of the 30's. It's the best of the six. It has the most humor and ridiculous violence.

The next segment, "Near Algodones," deals with a bank robbery gone bad and the series of ironic twists that the protagonist endures. The third segment, "Meal Ticket," deals with a man with a traveling show with the main attraction being a limbless man who theatrically recites bible stories, Shakespeare and the Gettysburg address. As they go from small town the small town, they collect less and less money and after a particular bad night, the caretaker buys a chicken that performs math tricks. The much lower overhead seals the fate of the young performer.

The fourth segment, "All Gold Canyon," deals with a grizzled prospector finding a river in a beautiful valley and searching for gold. You see him go through the process of deciphering where the gold vein can be and overcoming a potential thief. Segment five, "The Gal Who Got Rattled," is about a brother and sister's journey to Oregon that is beset by a series of unfortunate events. The brother dies just after the depart and he's buried with all the money they have. One of the wagon train's leaders, Billy Knapp, takes pity on poor Alice and offers to help her. But Alice breaks away from the wagon train and is found by the wagon train leader, Mr Arthur. As they begin to make their way back to the wagon train, they're spotted by a war party. The final segment, "The Mortal Remains," is about a group traveling by stagecoach. They swap stories, giving a little bit of exposition about each other. It gets a little weird but that's about it.

The film has a great cast with really strong performances all around. The cinematography is beautiful and the Coen Brothers do a nice job of recreating the time, for keeping things gritty and authentic as well, or as authentic as it could be. The opening segment is the best and each additional story drops off some from the previous. The film has a 133 minute runtime with each segment having it's own pacing and tension. Which made the final segment almost forgettable to me. It wasn't bad but five segments would have been better.

The film received a 91% Rotten Tomatoes rating and that seems a bit high to me. It's an interesting direction the Coen's took and is worth seeing if you're a follower of their work. The Coen's can tell a good story and the technical aspects are great but it just ran a bit long for me.

Making America Great Again: Burning Black Churches

From March 26th to April 4th 2019 three black churches in Louisiana were torched by "MAGA brownshirt" Holden Matthews. Matthews apparently decided he would be Making America Great Again by going for the white southern tradition of burning black churches.

It would seem that burning black churches isn't confined to the KKK's reign of terror during the civil rights era. It predates the civil war. Which is worse than I would have thought but I can't say that I am surprised by any stretch. It wasn't relegated to the south either, between 1825-1850 six black churches were repeatedly attacked in Philadelphia. Then there were the Cincinnati Race Riots of 1829.

Vice President Pence drew the short straw and went to Louisiana to visit the community but it was a little too late. Pence is a conservative fundamentalist christian so he's not a big fan of black people. That must have stung when he had to go out there. Matthews is being charged with hate crimes, though there are no domestic terrorism charges as of now and make no mistake Matthews is a domestic terrorist, with trial set for September. I hope he goes away for a long time.

Alabama Mayor Calls for "killing" Minorities!

Recently, Carbon Hill, Alabama mayor Mark Chambers called for killing gays and other minorities. A real shocker coming from a probably self proclaimed pious christian and elected official from Alabama of all places.

Now this was a response to a comment that someone put on his FB page bu Mr. Chambers made the choice to respond in such a manner. First he denied he wrote the comment then said he was taken out of context, Then used the "I thought it was a private message excuse." Followed by I “never said anything about killing out gays or anything like that.” He said his comment was specifically referring to what would happen “in a revolution.” Thanks for the clarification.

Of course other pious types came to his defense, including Reverend Colbert of the city council who called Chambers "a good man." I'm sure the men who fired bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church were pillars of their community. It's not like they were terrorists or anything (wait, they were).

Does Mr. Chambers have a right to say these things? He sure does but that also means you have to deal with the consequences. Chambers should step down as mayor so they can get another racist jerk in there but I doubt Chambers will do the right thing and go away. These pious christian types always find a away to get themselves up on the cross in some hope for martyrdom. Just like Iowa's favorite racist politician Steve King.

Apparently, Carbon Hill has produced previous gems as mayor.

2018 Films: #28 Tyrel

OnDemand viewing in Chicago on December 8th. This film was discussed on a podcast I listened to and it made it seem like this was going to be something similar to Get Out. I was a bit intrigued and gave it a shot.

Suffice to say that this film has very little in common with Get Out. It's not a horror film. It's a fish out of water tale and that's ok. The film is written and directed by Sebastián Silva. Tyler (Jason Mitchell) and Johnny (Christopher Abbott) are best pals that are going off to a weekend birthday party in a remote area. Tyler is going to be the only black guy there. If this was a horror movie then Tyler would be in a bad spot. Even though it's not a horror film he's still in a bad spot because he's trapped with people he doesn't know, who seem to be mildly racist and who can't get his name right (they call him Tyrel not Tyler, hence the title). Tyler makes attempts to try and fit in but it doesn't go very well as he's not accustomed to hanging out with a bunch of caucasian bros (first night requires getting wasted, day 2 is more chill but drinking is still mandatory).

Even though I was lured into this film under false pretenses, it was enjoyable. a 65% Rotten Tomatoes rating which makes this a decent watch. Good story and solid acting all around. You feel for Tyler as the unfortunate outcast. It's not a film for everyone for sure but it's a nice film. 

2018 Films: #27. Bohemian Rhapsody

November 24th in Chicago. This was the second picture in the doubleheader.

Directed by Bryan Singer, the film tells the tale of the rise of Freddie Mercury and Queen through their performance at Live Aid in 1985. Let me start out by saying that Rami Malek was about as spot on as you can get as Mercury. In fact, the actors who portrayed the rest of the band, were dead ringers.

The story starts out with Farrokh Bulsara living with is family in London, working as a baggage handler at Heathrow and dreaming of better things. Freddie sees a band called Smile, consisting of Roger Taylor and Brian May, and decides to join the band after their lead singer quits. May and Taylor say sure why not and enlist John Deacon as the new bass player. The band takes off from there. Nice and easy.

This was an interesting take on the band but I always questioned why it needed to be made almost 20 years after Mercury's death. There are some factual inconsistencies for sure...

Which is too bad really because the facts are interesting enough where maybe so much poetic licensing wasn't needed. One of the main things that musical biopics have in common is that talent doesn't really matter. Attitude is all it takes. Attitude is all Freddie needed to convince May and Taylor to let him join the band. It was attitude that convinced the record company to get behind the "Bohemian Rhapsody" single.

Sure there's a montage of A Night at the Opera recording but no one wants to see the slow process of lyric writing and musical arrangements. The magic just happens.

The film received a 61% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Which seems about right to me. This was far from a great film but a good one.

2018 Films: #26. Widows

November 24th in Chicago. First part of a double header. Widows piqued my interest when I saw it was a heist film. I did a little research and found that Steve McQueen not only directed the film but wrote the screenplay along with Gillian Flynn. So yes, I was in.

The picture is based on a 1983 BBC series of the same name. Set in modern day Chicago, we have Harry Rawlings, Liam Nesson, and his wife Veronica, Viola Davis. They live the good life with a sweet apartment on Lakeshore with a fantastic view, a driver, the whole nine yards.

Harry has a Neil McCauley occupation. He and his crew take down scores. Harry's crew consists of Florek (Jon Bernthal, who seems to be cast in this type of role a lot but I guess it's better than taking the road Gerard Butler of doing screwball rom-coms), Carlos (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and Jimmy (Coburn Goss). Things go bad, really bad, during their last score and the whole crew gets killed after the police arrive at their hideout. After the husbands die, the widows; Veronica, Linda (Michelle Rodriguez), Alice (Ayesha, leader of the Sovereign Race who just happened to be hanging out on Earth) and Amanda (Carrie Coon) all realize that their husbands didn't plan for the future too well. Veronica is broke, Linda gets her store repossessed, Alice is left with nothing and Amanda is pregnant and left with nothing. Their husbands worked for years taking down high end scores but have nothing to show for it. At least McCauley's crew set themselves up, except for Chris Shiherlis. He would have fit in fine with Harry's crew.

So not only is Veronica broke, but local crime lord Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry) informs Veronica that the money Harry died stealing and subsequently went up in flames was his and he wants his $2,000,000 back. Jamal needed the money to run for alderman against Jack Mulligan, Collin Farrell. The Mulligan's are led by the patriarch Tom, Robert Duvall, and have had a stranglehold on this south side alderman seat for decades. They don't want to give it up.
Manning gives Veronica a deadline she can't possibly keep and tells her if she doesn't get the money then his brother/top enforcer, Jatemme (Daniel Kaluuya) is going to kill her. Given.

After "finding" her husband's crime journal, Veronica decides to pull of Harry's next heist he had planned. A $5,000,000 score. She reaches out to Linda and Alice and they're in. She decides to leave Amanda out of it. But eventually they need a driver after the Manning's kill Veronica's. In comes Linda's babysitter, Belle (Cynthia Ervio) to fill in the spot.

The heist does not quite go as planned but there's a lot tension as things wind down with a very interesting twist ending, there's foreshadowing but not too much. This is a really good film. It got a 91% Rotten Tomatoes rating that is well deserving. There are a few issues though. Does Veronica really not know how Harry made his money? Or why they don't have a retirement account? I understand the death of their son, a nice social commentary, put a strain on their marriage but she's a smart woman and she had to know something. There's also the fact that as tough and smart as this group of women may be, this is still their first foray into crime and their first job is a high stakes $5,000,000 score.

Excellent acting. Lots of tension. Very gritty. Perhaps not McQueen's best work, but a very good film. Now I happen to hold Heat as the gold standard of heist films (I need to see more) and Widows got a better rating than Heat and I do not agree. The film made a list of great recent films that have may not have been seen and I agree. This is a film worth watching but it's not as good as Heat. Watch both films and judge for yourself.