2017 Films: #20. Wind River

August 19th in Chicago, IL. Taylor Sheridan directs and writes a tale of murder on a reservation in Wyoming. The cast includes Jeremy Renner as Corey Lambert, Elizabeth Olsen as Jane Banner and Graham Greene as Ben, the tribal police chief.

The film opens with a young girl seemingly running for her life through the deep snow. Lambert is called out to his in-laws place to investigate a cattle mauling as Lambert works for the Fish and Wildlife Service as a hunter. In the course of the tracking the animals, its believed that mountain lions are culprits, he comes across the frozen body of a young woman ill suited to be out in the weather; no shoes or proper winter attire. Lambert recognizes the girl as Natalie Lambert.

When Ben gets out to the scene, he suspects foul play and contacts the FBI. The FBI sends in the ill-prepared Jane Banner straight from Las Vegas to deal with the situation. Banner gets off on the wrong foot while questioning Natalie's family and butts heads with the coroner when he balks at calling Natalie's death a murder (his explanation makes perfect sense but Banner cannot get any additional FBI help if the death is not ruled a homicide.

During the course of chasing down a lead, Banner shoots a suspect and a second body is discovered. That of Matt (Jon Bernthal), a security guard at a drilling site, who was actually Natalie's boyfriend. During this time Lambert divulges to Banner that his own daughter, Emily, died about two years ago in similar circumstances to Natalie, both were friends. She had a party at the house, while the parents were away, and was found dead of exposure miles from the house. The next day Banner, Ben, Lambert and a few sheriff's deputies head out to the drilling site. They're met by the security team who show signs of brawling. In course of going to question one of the guards, Banner is ambushed and a fire fight ensues.

The audience is treated to a flashback scene that shows what went down the night Natalie died. Providing cover, Lambert shoots the remaining guards and goes after the suspect. When Lambert catches him, he drags him up to an isolated spot without any shoes and gives him the same opportunity to save himself as Natalie had.

Great cinematography (that really captures the near hopelessness of the harsh winter isolation) and solid acting. He story isn't a "whodunit" since you don't really get to the suspects until the end of the film. My only real issue is that the character that raped Natalie, was the weaseliest guy in the bunch, obviously the most likely to commit a rape. The gang that is involved, they also kill Matt and dump the body, go from drunken douche bags to murderers real fast. They're ok with beating up their friend when he gets pissed about them razzing Natalie, raping his unconscious girlfriend, eventually killing their friend and dumping the body. None of the guys show any problems with their actions when the authorities arrive and are even willing to kill law enforcement officials. It doesn't seem possible that they would escape. Even if they got away with what happened to Natalie, killing an FBI agent is not the way to go.

This is a really good film, not quite as good as Hell or High Water, Sheridan wrote that one, but you can mention Wind River in the same breath as Hell or High Water without any repercussions. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an 87% rating and it lives up to it. The pacing of the film was just right to me, it never seemed slow but never moves too fast either. Everything is deliberate. Since the deaths of Natalie and Emily are similar, Sheridan feints at the possibility of there being a serial killer at large but that's as close as it gets. The film has a post script about how no statistics on missing native american women are kept. This a really good picture that is worth seeing. Keep an eye out for more of Sheridan's work in the future. 

2017 Films: #19. Icarus

A Netflix viewing on August 18th. Writer/director Bryan Fogel is a bicycling enthusiast who competed in the Haute Route, the biggest amateur biking competition in the world. He manage to placed in the top 20 without taking any PEDs. He was going to compete in the next race while on a regimen of PEDs just to show how lax the anti-doping system is and to see if he could improve on his finish. He was steered toward Grigory Rodchenkov, the head of the anti-doping lab in Russia. Rodchenkov would help Fogel with getting him through any drug tests.

What happens is that Fogel's drug regimen and racing take a backseat to the the international doping scandal of Russia against the backdrop of the Rio Olympics in 2016. Fogel ends up doing worse in the Haute Route, still in the top 50, due to unforeseen circumstances but Rodchenkov becomes the centerpiece of Russian state sponsored doping of athletes.

Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 93% rating and with good reason. Fogel begins with one story and follows the story down another road when it makes that turn. Fogel becomes to emotionally attached to Rodchenkov even helping him obtain legal counsel as well as putting him in touch with the media to tell his side of story. Suffice to say it does not put Vladomir Putin in a nice light and because of that, Rodchenkov eventually goes into protective custody. The film is a stark tale of the win at all costs mentality in international sports as well as how easy it is to avoid the anti-doping agencies. Very interesting film that is worth watching. 

2017 Films: #18. Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press

A Netflix viewing on August 17th. The film deals with the trial of Terry Bollea vs. Gawker. Not sure who Terry Bollea is? He's this guy...

The Ultimate Male himself, Thunderlips.

In case you were not aware of the facts around this case, Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan, had sex with the wife of "Bubba the Love Sponge" and a video recording of the some enchanted evening was made and Gawker released it. It also came out in the movie that "Bubba" often videotapes his wife having sex with others. WEIRD! Apparently the tape did not paint a very nice image of Mr. Bollea and he sued Gawker in Flordia for $100 million.

It turns that Gawker had made an enemy of Silicon Valley billionaire, Peter Thiel. Gawker outed him as a homosexual years earlier and Thiel still held a  grudge. So much so that he bankrolled Bollea's suit. Side note: it was wrong for Gawker to out Thiel. The article may not have been malicious but it was wrong. So Thiel wanted to use his wealth to crush Gawker. He was successful. What I found weird about this portion of the film was that Bollea managed to get the jury to believe that Hulk Hogan and Terry Bollea are separate people. He bragged about his male endowment on Howard Stern but in the trial he made it clear that Terry Bollea does not have a "ten inch penis" but the character of Hulk Hogan does. Weird.

Then the film switches gears to the sale of the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2015. It was later revealed that billionaire Sheldon Adelson was behind the purchase. Apparently, Adelson felt articles about him should have been more flowery, he even went so far as to offer to pay the medical expenses of a reporter's daughter if the reporter would retract an article about him. He wasn't satisfied with being filthy rich so he bought the paper out of spite.

The point the filmmakers wanted prove was that the free press is under siege. If a billionaire doesn't like the articles being written about him, it's usually a white male, then they will use their limitless wealth to crush the publication. Or just buy it out. Even Trump himself famously warned that he would open up the libel laws to make it easier to sue the media.

The film received an 89% Rotten Tomatoes rating. If the film's purpose is to solicit an emotional reaction from the viewer, then it was successful. If you are a free thinker, then this film is a must watch.

2017 Films: #17. The Saint

A Netflix viewing while on a trip from Baltimore to Chicago on August 14th. As a kid I was familiar with the Roger Moore tv series from the sixties and since I was looking for a short film to watch on a short flight, I took a chance.

Simon Templar has a history that dates back to 1928. The character has been in every form of entertainment since then. After Roger Moore played the character on television from 1962-69, there was a revival of the character in 1978 with a series called Return of the Saint that starred Ian Oglivy as the title character. It lasted one season. Val Kilmer played Templar in the 1997 film version but it was awful and the character went back to the shelf.

Which brings us to now. Adam Rayner plays the title character as an international Robin Hood type, stealing from bad people and doing something good with it. Luckily there's a backstory of him coming from a very wealthy English family, so he doesn't need to take a cut of the score. Eliza Dushku, plays Patricia Holm, an ex-spy who is Templar's partner and helps with all the technical stuff like getting IDs and disabling electrical alarms with a laptop from a poolside location.

The plot premise is that a crooked banker is stealing money set for relief of a fictional African nation. The banker has a change of heart and decides to hide the funds and go to the FBI. The main villain finds out and decides to pull the old daughter kidnap ploy to get his ill gotten booty back. The banker gets a message to Templar so he can save his daughter. Templar and Patricia embark to save the girl while being chased by the main henchman and the FBI. Basically, the case is solved in under 90 minutes.

The film is very tongue and cheek and never takes itself seriously. It seems more like a pilot for a series than anything else. Rayner plays Templar more like Roger Moore's James Bond. It's not a very good film per se but it was better than the 1997 film version. You can skip this film and not miss out on anything. There are better ways to kill 90 minutes but if you do watch this, you won't regret it. I only watched this film because I am familiar with the brand. If it had a different title, I would've passed it over.

2017 Films: #16. Spider-Man: Homecoming

August 13th in Owings Mills, MD. After viewing all five previous Spider-Man films since 2002, I finally got around to seeing the 2nd reboot of Spider-Man now that Marvel has the licensing rights back or something to that affect.

Tom Holland, who is 21 years old, is making his 2nd turn as 15 year old Peter Parker/Spider-man. Thankfully Marvel and director Jon Watts decided against giving us another version of the character's very well known origin story, instead they give the radioactive spider bite some lip service.

The film opens 8 years ago after The Avengers just defeated the Chitauri expeditionary force and the clean up of NYC is underway. Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) has the city contract to clear the Chitauri debris. All of a sudden, Detective Lacey, who's now working for the feds, declares that the the salvage is now under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Toomes' contract is void and he's sh*t out of luck. Toomes and his crew manage to steal some of the alien technology and eventually use the technology to create very high tech weapons, what I found interesting about this scene was that Toomes and his entire crew go from legitimate contractors to a criminal enterprise in the drop of a hat (plus, how did a small business get this contract to begin with? Toomes does not have the manpower to clear of New York of the debris).

So when we get to present day, Toomes and his crew are successful criminals. Toomes used the alien tech to create the Vulture suit and he steals whatever alien technology he can get his hands on. All while avoiding any sort of run in with the authorities or a Marvel superhero. Seems to me that it would be easy to track where criminals using the technology got their weapons. Toomes' turn to villainy only happens because the big, bad government went after his small business. All he had left was to turn to crime. He just steals stuff to sell on the secondary market. No one ever seems to get hurt when he pulls a job. So he's not a evil person. He's not out to rule the world or anything. However, he will not hesitate, nor feel any sympathy, to kill anyone who threatens his way of life/family. That's how he justifies his criminal ventures.

Anyway, the basic plot is that Peter Parker is juggling being a teenager and his ambition to be a part of the Avengers. He's pining away for the hottest girl in school as well as pining away for Tony Stark.

Obviously, two very attractive well to do people, with nice hair and great fashion sense. Who wouldn't want to hang around them? 

We see the trials and tribulations of Peter Parker the high school student and Peter Parker, the Spider-Man. As he steps up his Spider-Man duties, his school life slips a bit. He wants to be popular with his classmates but at the same time popular with Stark. He stumbles upon the Toomes' alien weapons and tracks them down. By doing this he missed out on the Academic Decathlon with his classmates, they manage to win without him in case you were wondering, in Washington, DC. As Spider-Man he puts his friends in danger by giving his pal Ned (played nicely by Jacob Batalon) a power source of a captured weapon that explodes while inside the elevator at the Washington Monument. Peter saves them given but he put them all in danger in the first place.

During this time, Peter and Ned manage to hack the suit, which they do quite easily, that Stark gave him so that Stark can't track him. Peter manages to foil a robbery that set in motion the monument crisis and learns about another Toomes sale about to go down. The sale is going to go down on the Staten Island Ferry and Peter shows up to stop it. As Peter crashes the deal, so does the FBI and things breakdown from there. The Vulture shows ups and causes havoc. Peter gets Vulture's weapon away from him and it causes catastrophic damage to the ferry. Peter has his Jesus moment...

Look familiar? Why mess with success.

But it fails and Iron Man shows up to save the day. Stark harshly reprimands Peter and goes so far as to take the suit back. Peter tells Stark that "he's nothing" without it. To which Stark says that maybe he "shouldn't have it" if that's the case. This is the new version of the "great power comes with great responsibility" scene. Peter goes meekly back into teenage life and manages to score a date with Liz (Laura Harrier) to homecoming (Liz is a senior and Peter is a sophomore, senior girls as beautiful as Liz DO NOT date sophomore boys in high school. It's not a thing. Liz would be dating college guys).

That all changes when Peter picks up Liz for the dance and meets her father. The Vulture. I found it funny that Toomes manages to deduce that Parker is Spider-Man in less than 30 seconds when no one else pieces it together. Peter has to ditch Liz at the dance and go after Toomes. Toomes however is ready for this contingency, even though he just deduced his identity a few moments earlier, and has The Shocker ambush Peter.  With Ned's help, Peter eludes the Shocker and heads off after Toomes. Peter is able to stop Toomes from hijacking a plane carrying alien and Stark tech. No one is hurt during the plane crash and he manages to save Toomes from a fiery death in order to turn him over to the police.

Back at school, Peter apologizes to Liz for running out on her and she's surprisingly cool about it. In fact, now that her father is going to prison, she and her mother are moving to Oregon. Just like that! This nicely ties the love interest loose end so that the a potential love interest can start with Michelle (Zendaya), who clearly likes Peter but he never notices her because he's so smitten with the most popular girl in school cliche.

This is what passes for awkward, nerdy yet edgy high school girl. 

The film ends with Peter getting his suit back and declining a bid to join the Avengers. Thus enabling Stark to avoid any child endangerment laws by putting Parker in danger as a member of the Avengers. The post credit scene shows us Toomes in prison meeting with the buyer of the weapons in the deal on the ferry. Its a foreshadowing of Spider-Man villain, the Scorpion. How do you know it's the Scorpion? Why because he's got a Scorpion tattoo on his neck that's why.

So far Spider-Man: Homecoming has grossed on $700 million worldwide. This was a fun movie but it got tedious for me at some points, those points coincided with the hamfisted product placement scenes. Of which Audi was extremely egregious. I feel that the 92% Rotten Tomatoes rating is a little high. This is the best Spider-Man film since 2004 by far but I felt that the high school dynamic was weak. Some of the scenes really agitated me and none of the high school characters looked high school aged, though Holland looked close. There are some nice references to the comics and I kind of dug the way Holland uses the suit in an attempt to impress Liz, because who among us wouldn't use their super powers to try and score with the babes. Secret identity be damned. I did like the fact that they went in a different direction with some of the secondary characters; do we really need to see a love interest with Mary Jane Watson or Gwen Stacy again?

 There were times I wondered if this was just an Iron Man film disguised as a Spider-Man film, kind of the way a tv show will showcase a spin off. In Addition to Stark, Happy Hogan plays a significant role and even Pepper Potts show up at the end. Making me wonder how much that cost. I understand that the reason Marvel got the licensing deal for Spider-Man was because Sony wasn't making enough money after a failed reboot and Marvel is going to go all out for the film to be successful so they bring out their biggest gun. Iron Man. To me, they didn't let Spider-Man stand on his own, even the suit had a (sexy) voice like Iron Man's suit. Iron Man/Tony Stark were never too far away. Tom Holland will be back as Spider-Man in the MCU but there won't be sequel to Homecoming until 2019. That's the way Marvel wants to play it.

They did a lot of things right and did some stuff I didn't much care for. There are also the same problems in cinematic universe, the setting up of the next installment. Parker nor anyone close to him was ever in any real danger. The film was ok but not a must see by any stretch.

2017 Films: #15. Salt and Fire

I watched this film on Netflix on a flight from BWI to Ft. Lauderdale on August 5th. The tricky part about this film was that it was released internationally in 2016 but premiered in the US in early April of 2017. Since Rotten Tomates refers to this picture as a 2017 film, then I will count it as a 2017 film.

Legendary director Werner Herzog wrote the screenplay and directed this picture. The film stars Veronica Ferres as Dr. Laura Sommerfield, Gael García Bernal  as Dr. Covani and Volker Michalowski as Dr. Meier are European scientists that are en route to South America to study an ecological disaster. Michael Shannon plays Matt Riley, the CEO of an international consortium that had a hand in the disaster. Obviously, he's the villain.

The three scientists are kidnapped and taken into the mountains. Dr. Sommerfield is brought to the masked leader of the villains. He knows why the scientists are in country and makes it clear it's not about ransom. When Sommerfield inquires about the statuis of Covani and Meier, she's informed that they were subdued via diarrhea inducing dumplings. It's revealed that the "host" is Matt Riley, the CEO of the consortium that caused the ecological disaster that Sommerfield and her team came to analyze. Riley explains that he's feels responsible for what happened. Riley is an intellectual who's love of art begins to make Sommerfield soften her stance on him. The two grow to mutually respect each other.

Riley then takes Sommerfield on a field trip to the salt flat that the disaster has become. The salt flat is spreading and threatens to destroy the environment. It's also revealed that the salt flat sits upon a super volcano and is due to erupt (kind of like Yellowstone) and an eruption of a super volcano would make the human race extinct. Riley ends up stranding Sommerfield on the flat with two boys and a week's worth of supplies. The boys are partially blind and Sommerfield cares for them.

When Riley comes back he reveals that the boys are his adopted sons. Their mother died after childbirth as a result of the salt flat and the boys will eventually become completely blind due to the poisoned environment. Riley wanted to make Sommerfield feel the emotional and human costs of the disaster firsthand instead of just giving a statistical report. Riley gives her a ticket to Rome and says that he will turn himself in. Sommerfield wants him to join her but he says he'd get caught. Film ends.

Werner Herzog is a film legend and if I come across a film of his then I am going to watch it. Sure he might be past his prime but he's capable of delivering. The film received a 30% Rotten Tomatoes rating which I think is a bit cruel. The story is more or less fluid and the cinematography is very good. Solid acting and a run time of only 98 minutes. The plot has its ups and downs and gets a bit cliche at times. The film has a pro-environmental message that man screws with nature at his own risk. Riley's character has some good qualities and some that are cliche. One of his henchmen though is a bit ridiculous. Herzog wastes the talents of Bernal as he's only briefly in the film. Could the film have been better? For sure. It's not Herzog's best work but it's ok. This film is definitely not for everyone though.

2017 Films: #14. Free Fire

An iTunes rental that I started on the flight from BWI to ORD but finished in the hotel after the flight was cancelled on August 3rd. This film was completed back in 2015 and was slated to have a US release last year but the distribution company ran into some financial trouble and didn't get into US theaters until April 21st of this year.

Ben Wheatley directed and wrote the screenplay. Wheatley has been directing films for only a few years but has done some pretty nice work. Though it's never mentioned, the film is set in 1978 and you can tell this because of the wardrobe...

I think the guy in the hat played with the Doobie Brothers and the collar on that shirt can double as a hang glider. The porn star mustaches are also a dead giveaway.

The plot is pretty simple, one group of people wants to buy some guns from another group of people. There are two intermediaries, one for the buyers and one for the sellers. Everyone involved is a character. On the the buyers side you have Frank (Michael Smiley) and Chris (Cillian Murphy) from the IRA. Stevo (Sam Riley) and Bernie (Enzo Cilenti) are brought in by Frank to help move the merchandise. The intermediary for the buyers is Justine (Brie Larson)...

The tough "chick" with the great hair and good fashion sense.

Before going to the buy, the group is met by Ord (Armie Hammer), the middle man of the purchase. It seemed to me that Frank and Chris called Justine to buy some guns. Justine calls Ord and Ord calls Vernon (Sharlto Copley). Vernon's crew consists of Martin (Babou Ceesay), Gordon (Noah Taylor) and Harry (Jack Reynor). The setting is an abandon warehouse on the docks. The sale goes smoothly despite the fact that Chris wanted to buy M16s and Vernon brought AR70s. Things go south when Stevo recognizes Harry as the guy who beat him up the night prior. Harry eventually spots Stevo and tempers flare. Chris offers a solution in order to broker a truce but when Stevo goes to apologize, he pulls out a gun and starts firing. All hell proceeds to break loose.

At some point everyone takes a bullet but somehow, none of the wounds are life threatening. So much so that Martin take a bullet to the head but is not quite dead a few scenes later. During the standoff a third group comes in to rob the sale but are soon killed. It's weird how much terrible shooting there is until another crew is introduced then everyone becomes Annie Oakley. Eventually people start dying off and its revealed that some of the players tried to pull a double cross and steal the money. In the end, only one survives.

The film received a 67% rating from Rotten Tomatoes and that's fair. There's a lot of witty dialogue, the acting is solid and the identity of the double crosser is a twist but, all of the characters who get killed off, are killed off predictably (by importance). The film is only 91 minutes long but the stand off drags on too much. The run time was spot on but there were 10 minutes in the warehouse that could've been replaced with some exposition.  I liked this movie, Larson and Copley had standout performances. I'm going to go back and view some Wheatley's prior films. Perhaps there's a reason that no one went to see this picture when it was in the theaters. It's not a dud by any means, it's just meh. A good start and a good ending and a lot of repetition in the middle.