Friday, August 4, 2017

"Dunkirk" and The Week in Reviews

[I review the new movie "Dunkirk" as well as DVDs "Patriots Day" and the new Netflix original film "To The Bone."  The Book of the Week is "The Cake and the Rain," a memoir by songwriter Jimmy Webb.  I also bring you up-to-date with "My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project" with "Stairway to Heaven" (orig. title "A Matter of Life and Death."]




Dunkirk


During World War II, by the end of May, 1940, the Nazis had driven British and French forces to the beach near the French village of Dunkirk and 400,000 soldiers waited anxiously on the beach to be evacuated.

Since the United States didn't enter WW II until after Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Battle of Dunkirk is not a WW II event that most Americans are familiar with. But Britain and France had been fighting the Germans since 1939, so it is vividly remembered by the British, whose soldiers, after fighting in France, were driven back by the Nazis and were stranded on the beach like sitting ducks as enemy fighters pummeled them with bombs and bullets.  And the event is vividly remembered and stunningly recreated here by director Christopher Nolan (he also wrote the screenplay), who has already stunned us with "Interstellar," The Black Knight Rises," "Inception," "Memento" and other wonderfully smart and beautifully conceived films.

The story of the Battle of Dunkirk is told in three parts:  from the vantage point of Tommy (newcomer Fionn Whitehead), a young British infantryman on the beach with his comrades waiting to be rescued; from the vantage point of Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance), his son, Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Peter's friend, civilians taking their own boat from Dover across the English Channel to help evacuate the soldiers; and Farrier (Tom Hardy), one of the ace Spitfire pilots sent to protect the evacuation.

So there is the action on the beach as Commander Bolton (Kenneth Branagh) and Captain Winnant (James D'Arcy) try to  evacuate the stranded soldiers and get them on board boats and ships while at the same time dodging German bullets and bombs; there is the human story of Dawson picking up a shell-shocked soldier (Cillian Murphy) who doesn't want to go back to Dunkirk; and there is the action in the air with Farrier and his cohorts dog-fighting with the German Luftwaffe as they try to protect the soldiers on the ground.

It all adds up to a terrifically tense bit of filmmaking and a remarkable story.

There are some filmmakers that no matter what the subject matter can make a riveting film.  Director Christopher Nolan is just such a filmmaker.  I am not a huge fan of war films but from the opening scene when some British soldiers are seen walking down the lane of a quaint and quiet French village, and suddenly leaflets rain down upon them, leaflets from the Germans telling them they are surrounded to the final scene when our pilot, Farrier, commits to a heroic act, I was riveted.

There are also some amazingly emotional scenes.  As the British civilian boats arrive at Dunkirk to help evacuate the soldiers, Captain Winnant asks Commander Bolton what he sees.  He replies "Home."  I lost it.

Near the end of the film when Tommy reads Churchill's famous speech:


"...we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender..."

I lost it!

And at the very end of the film, I completely lost it.

From the editing to the cinematography to the acting, this film was perfect and will stand as one of the great war movies.  And it wasn't too long, either, which is often an ego thing with directors that I often don't appreciate.  It plays for less than two hours and it is white knuckles all of the way.  Nolan likes to play with time and this film is no exception but it's not confusing as that device can often be.

As you probably already know, Tom Hardy is my guy.  He is one of our preeminent actors who can do anything. Here as the ace pilot Farrier, despite the fact that his face is covered by an oxygen mask for almost the entire film, you knew what his character was thinking.  He acted with his eyes.

Rylance also proves why he deserved an Academy Award in 2016 with another stunning performance as Mr. Dawson, the epitome of British stoicism as he calmly drives his boat toward Dunkirk and danger.  Speaking of which, after what the British went through in WW II and being able to come out the other side, and after seeing this, all I can say is "Don't mess with the British!"  They are a tough lot.

Oh, and for you fans of One Direction, Harry Styles acquitted himself well.

Even if you don't usually like war films, this one is a must see.

Rosy the Reviewer says...you know that when I have a really good movie experience, I cry, right?  Did I cry after seeing this?  I bloody well did!  Academy Award nomination FOR SURE!


***Some Movies You Might Missed***
(And Some You Will Be Glad You Did)!

On DVD



Patriots Day (2016)



Dramatic reenactment of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings and the hunt for the perpetrators.

Mark Wahlberg seems to have made a career out of these dramatizations of real life events, if "Lone Survivor" and "Deepwater Horizon" are any indication (both also collaborations with Director Peter Berg, who directed this).  I would like to see him in a one-to-one drama without any action for a change. But he is particularly believable here as a fictional Bah-ston cop, Tommy Saunders, because, well, Wahlberg is a real-life Bostonian.

The movie starts by setting up the various characters - first responders and runners - some of whom will be heroes and some of whom will be victims.  Then we meet our young terrorists, the Tsarnaev brothers (Themmo Melikidze, Alex Wolff), and all of these people are on a collision course that will lead to death and a manhunt. Though there is not a lot of suspense here, because we all know how it turned out, the intensity lies in the seemingly benign and safe atmosphere of a marathon race as everyone participates and goes about their day while we wait for the bombs to go off. 

Likewise, there is suspense in the aftermath as the cops and the FBI try to find the perpetrators, and we discover things we didn't know about them and their bombs. The damage those pressure cooker bombs could inflict was horrifying.  However, I take issue with how long the film lingered on the whole chaotic period of evacuating the victims.  We get it already.  How many bloody legs and feet do we need to see to get the fact that this was a horrible event?

There was also suspense in wanting to find out more about the Tsarnaev brothers. In fact, I hate to say it, but I cared less about Wahlberg's character and the other "good guys" (the story went back and forth between what was happening with the victims and the police) and more about the Tsarnaev brothers, not because I am sympathetic to their cause, but because they were more interesting characters, especially the younger brother, Dzhokhar (Wolff) who was a seemingly reluctant participant but wanted to do what his older brother, Tamerlin (Melikidze), expected when all he really wanted to do was hang with his college friends and smoke dope. And it was also fascinating to see how the police and FBI were able to ID the brothers so quickly.

The film plays like a dramatized documentary and uses real footage from the day.  Remember "Unsolved Mysteries," where actors would act out the scenario?  This film felt very much like that except with A-list actors.  So as a recreation of events, the film was effective. but when it came to Wahlberg's character, not a real person but a composite, he just seemed extraneous because his role wasn't really established early on, and I was totally distracted by his eyebrows which just scream that he has had plastic surgery. 

The strength of this movie and the most interesting part of the film was the aftermath and how the police zeroed in on the perpetrators in the crowd.

"He was the only one who walked the other way."

Also I learned things about the brothers that I didn't know: what they did after the bombings and what their plans were (to do more bombings in New York City).  There is a scene where they carjack a car from Dun Meng (Jimmy O. Yang), a young Chinese man and they take him along with them.  It was his escape from the Tsarnaev brothers that called attention to them and led to the final shootout.  Had that not happened, they might have gotten away with it. 

It's an all-star cast consisting of mostly cameos.  Michelle Monaghan, who I really like, has little to do as Tommy's wife; J.K. Simmons is not his usual hard ass bombastic self, but again, I couldn't help but wonder what he was doing there and Kevin Bacon as one of the FBI guys also shows up with not much to do.

John Goodman plays Commissioner Ed Davis and, oh gee, I feel a rant coming on.  Goodman seems to be one of those actors who started out in a TV sit-com, became a movie star and now takes himself VERY seriously.  Here he is particularly overdoing it as he huffs and puffs around acting officious and Commissioner-like, sticking his chest out and trying to sound like he is from Bah-ston when in fact his Boston accent stinks.  Sorry, John.

Directed by Peter Berg with a screenplay by Berg, Matt Cook and Joshua Zeturner, I liked this film much better than I thought I would but not because of the all-star cast.  It was those two brothers who fascinated me as I tried to understand what drove them to do what they did.  And just what did Tamerlin's wife know?  That's something we may never find out.

The film ended on a flagrantly sentimental, and actually jarring note, which I could have done without, when Mark/Tommy gets to make a speech about how terrorists will never take away our way of life and the love we have for our families followed by a long montage showing the real life first responders, the victims and how they are doing, followed by the Boston Strong message. The ending was very much a memorial to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, I get that, but it took away from a lasting impression of the drama itself.

Rosy the Reviewer says...a mostly well-done docudrama with a strong message: good will always defeat bad.  I hope that's true.





To the Bone (2017)


Lily Collins plays Ellen, a young woman struggling with anorexia.

The film starts with a disclaimer that some of the pictures may be challenging for some viewers, which as I watched the film I found very strange.  Yes, the young people in the film are very, very skinny, and we see rib cages and backbones sticking out, but I don't remember seeing such a disclaimer in any films that showed violence and destruction - no such disclaimer for "Patriots Day," for example, which lingered so long on bloody limbs and faces (see review above), so I thought that was very odd.

Anyway, based on writer/director Marti Noxon's own experiences with anorexia, this Netflix original movie (now streaming on Netflix) follows Ellen as she unwillingly undergoes treatment for anorexia.  She is not only begrudgingly seeking treatment, she is in fact, defiant about not changing.

She returns home to live with her stepmother, Susan (Carrie Preston) half-sister, Kelly (Liana Liberato), with whom she is close, and her father. It is established early on that Ellen does not approve of her stepmother whose well-meaning attention annoys Ellen, but Ellen eventually learns that her step-mother has her back. Ellen's father is clearly a big force in Ellen's life, but he is never home and in fact never appears in the film. Ellen's mother came out when Ellen was 13 and basically abandoned her and lives a new age type of life on a horse therapy farm with her girlfriend in Phoenix and feels she can't cope with Ellen. It's a self-preservation thing, I guess.

After Ellen is kicked out of the latest treatment facility for being defiant, Susan  hits upon yet another treatment center run by a Dr. Beckham (Keanu Reeves) who is known to use unusual but effective treatment methods, so off Ellen goes, with her usual negativity, to another rehab place. 

But we see early on that this place is different. It's a big house with only six other people, five girls and a young man. Luke (Alex Sharp), who was once a dancer but an injury has curtailed his career, is obsessed with Raymond Chandler and Jonathan Gold's restaurant reviews. The other girls all have their own issues and eating fetishes.  One is pregnant, one is obsessed with peanut butter, another loves "My Little Pony." This potpourri of troubled youth gathered together reminded me of the Angelina Jolie film, "Girl, Interrupted."

And then we meet Dr. Beckham - Keanu Reeves.  OK, sorry, it's rant time.

Keanu has always been a problem for me as an actor. I have never understood his appeal or how he became an A-lister.  He is so phlegmatic most of the time as an actor that I feel like I need to take his pulse to see if he is really alive, but then when he wants to be really dramatic, he does a 360 and starts yelling.  So that is his range.  Barely alive with the occasional shouting thrown in.  Nothing in between. And that's how he plays every character.

Anyway, rant over.  Moving on.

This film depicts the world of the anorexic: the daily rituals to avoid eating, memorizing the exact calorie count for every food, talking about which foods come back up the easiest (ice cream) and starvation as a high to avoid feeling. 

"It's not about thin enough - it's  the numbing of the thing you don't want to feel." 

But the film also depicts how the disease affects the entire family and the well-meaning but ineffective things people say when confronted with something they don't understand.  Word to the wise. Saying "Be strong" to someone struggling with a disease is not helpful.

An Anne Sexton poem is a particularly moving centerpiece to a turning point in the film:

"Your courage was a small coal you kept swallowing..."

Collins, the daughter of singer/musician Phil Collins, who was part of the rock band Genesis, already has a Golden Globe nomination under her belt ("Rules Don't Apply") and is a lovely actress  - those eyebrows - and she is the centerpiece of this film.  She has stated in interviews that she too has struggled with an eating disorder so it was particularly challenging to have to lose weight for this film.

Despite what might seem like depressing subject matter, this is a wonderful film that brings understanding to a disease that is rarely shown in films.  It's also a film that you won't be able to take your eyes off of, mostly because of Collins' extraordinary performance.  As for Keanu, well he's always Keanu.

Rosy the Reviewer says....an uplifting message:  No matter what we are struggling with, in the end we all have to find our own way.  I teared up and you know what that means.




***My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project***


191 to go!

Have YOU seen this classic film?





Stairway to Heaven Orig. Title: "A Matter of Life and Death" (1946)




You've seen the films and read the stories of people having to plead their case to the devil to stay out of hell?  Well, this time a man must plead his case to God to stay out of heaven.

There are several movies directed by Michael Powell in the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" book and there is a reason.  They are beautiful, lush films in Technicolor with dramatic scores, extreme closeups and lots of fantasy. They are the kinds of films I grew up with watching with my Dad so I have a particular soft spot in my heart for these kinds of films.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger wrote, directed and produced films under the name "The Archers," and they made 24 films together from 1939 to 1972.  They shared writing duties, but Powell did most of the directing while Pressburger mostly produced. Their most famous film is probably "The Red Shoes," but they were very influential during the 1940's and 1950's with such films as "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp," "Black Narcissus" and others. Originally titled "A Matter of Life and Death," this film was renamed "Stairway to Heaven" for the American market.

The film opens with...

"This is the story of two worlds the one we know and another which exists only in the mind of a young airman whose life and imagination have been violently shaped by war -- any resemblance to any other world known or unknown is purely coincidental."

Here David Niven stars as Peter Carter, a WW II Royal Air Force aviator whose plane has been hit by enemy fire, and he is going down.  His crew has bailed out or are dead, and he has no parachute.  He makes contact with June (Kim Hunter), an American radio operator at the military base, and the two share a moment before he plans to jump from his plane. He spouts poetry and makes witty wise-cracks in the face of death which was a common part of showing bravery in these old WW II movies. Then he jumps. 

Miraculously, though (and I mean that literally), he wakes up in the sea -- and he's alive!  Turns out there was a hiccup in heaven, and the angel, who was supposed to go get him and escort him to heaven, couldn't see him because of the fog. Well, that's his story anyway, and Peter escaped his time of death.  Now heaven has to scramble to figure out what to do about it, because, as we all know, in filmdom, God has a file on all of us, and when it's our time, it's our time.

According to this film, Heaven is also a clean black and white place where there's a Coke machine, lots of wise-cracking airmen and soldiers who are all issued their wings - literally, their angel wings. 

In the meantime, wouldn't you know, Peter picks himself up and heads for the road and meets, guess?  Why it's June, who is riding her bike home from work.  Because of "that moment" they shared on the radio, they are instantly in love with each other. Like I said, I love these old movies. 

Now heaven really has a problem.  Because of those unaccounted for hours when Peter was supposed to be dead, the two have fallen in love and that can't be discounted.  Peter now has made a commitment to June. 

So God sends Conductor 71 (Marius Goring) to fetch Peter.  He is a French fop of an angel who is the one who missed Peter and screwed this all up in the first place.

Remember I said Heaven is depicted in black and white?  Well, the "real world" is in color, kind of like how they worked "The Wizard of Oz."  So when Conductor 71 arrives on earth to find Peter, he remarks, "We were starved up there for Technicolor." Then to really make the point, there is a whole montage of beautiful colored flowers blooming all over the place as the camera discovers Peter and June making out. Again, I love these old movies.

The Frenchman finds Peter and tells him a mistake has been made.  He was supposed to escort him to heaven when he died from jumping from his plane, but he missed him because of the fog but now he must go with him to heaven.  However, Peter says, "No way!" He makes his case as to why he should stay alive, so a deal is struck.  Peter must go on trial in heaven to plead his case as to why he should stay alive.  He can choose any dead person to defend him.  Unfortunately, the prosecutor is Abraham Farlan (Raymond Massey), an orator from the American Revolution and, naturally, he hates Brits.

While all of this is going on, everyone on earth thinks Peter has gone nuts because he keeps seeing visions - mostly that French guy.  June takes Peter to see Doctor Reeves (Roger Livesey) and brain surgery is prescribed.  But before the surgery can be performed, Dr. Reeves is killed. Now Reeves is in heaven, and Peter chooses him to defend him.

At the trial, Reeves argues that, through no fault of his own, Peter was given additional time on Earth and that, during that time, he has fallen in love and now has an earthly commitment that should take precedence over the afterlife's claim on him.

And let's just say, love triumphs.  Doesn't it always in the old movies?

"Nothing is stronger than the law in the universe, but on Earth, nothing is stronger than love."

Then we hear that Peter's brain surgery was a success.

Mmm - so did all of that really happen? What was real and what was all in Peter's mind?

Relatively early in Niven's career as a leading man, he was already the charming wise-cracker we came to know and love.  This was an early role for American actress Hunter, too, and she went on to be a staple on TV dramas such as "Playhouse 90" and "General Electric Theatre."

A very smart film, it's a comment on war, wartime love affairs and a satire on English and American relations, and to get the jokes and the allusions, it helps to know something about history and literature.  The set design is stunning and the whole film is visually beautiful and stimulating.

It's interesting to note that these old films are often of their time when it comes to  outdated speech and mores, but this was a British film, and I find the British and European films from the 30's, 40's and 50's to be much edgier and contemporary than what Hollywood was putting out, probably because of the Motion Picture Production Code which was implemented in the U.S. in 1934 and which was basically censorship in the guise of "moral guidelines" for films. 

Why it's a Must See: "...intended as a propaganda film to ameliorate strained relations between Britain and America...The movie outstrips its original purpose...ending up a lasting tale of romance and human goodness that is both visually exciting and verbally amusing."
---"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" 

Rosy the Reviewer says...a wonderfully fun film experience.  They don't make 'em like that anymore! 





***Book of the Week***





The Cake and the Rain: A Memoir by Jimmy Webb (2017)



If you ever wanted to know what the hell the song "MacArthur Park" was about and why the cake was left out in the rain, then here's your chance!






Webb was a prolific songwriter starting in the 1960's.  If you loved a ballad back then, he probably wrote it. His memoir includes 17 single-spaced pages of songs he wrote and it's only a partial list! He was also the only artist to win Grammys for music, lyrics and orchestration and was hugely successful and rich by the time he was 26.  In addition to "MacArthur Park," he was responsible for "Wichita Lineman," "Up, Up and Away," "Galveston" and countless other hits. 

However, his success was a double-edged sword.  He became known for his middle of the road pop hits at a time when the Rolling Stones and other rock groups were the anthems of the young.  It's a little hard to be cool with the young in-crowd when Frank Sinatra was singing your songs in Vegas and the young people were listening to the Grateful Dead at big concert venues. He also had a personal identity problem. He was a pot-smoking, cocaine-snorting, young hippie writing songs for the straight folks.

Born Jimmy (not James or Jim), Webb's father was a self-proclaimed preacher who moved his family around the country.  Webb grew up poor so when his songwriting career took off and the money started pouring in, he took off, too, into the world of sex, drugs and fast cars and it almost killed him. 

This memoir covers Webb's life from 1955 to the early 1970's, and since he has had a 50 year music career, I would guess there will be another book.  But this one covers his rise to fame, his inability to deal very well with lots of money at a young age, his drug use, and his penchant for married women which could explain why many of his songs are so sad. But he must have had something, because he always seemed to get the beautiful ladies his heart desired, including an early love who became "Miss America." He also shares anecdotes about rubbing elbows with some of the great singers and musicians of the day (The Beatles, Harry Nilsson, Janis Joplin) and includes some great behind-the-scenes stories about recording "Galveston," "Up, Up, Up and Away," and others.

Webb also shares his singing career. What is it about actors who want to be directors, comedians who want to be dramatic actors and songwriters who want to sing, songwriters whose voices are not that great?  Burt Bacharach comes to mind...and Jimmy Webb.  He shares his attempts at a singing career and is a bit self deprecating about it, though I will say, Webb's ego always seems to shine through.

Speaking of his ego, most of the bad stuff he did or bad decisions he made, he blames on the devil who actually plays a real role in the book. Though I found his story interesting and Webb is a good writer, I have to say that the conversations he has with the devil in the book, basically blaming his "bad side" on the devil - "The devil made me do it" as Flip Wilson used to say - was really annoying.  About page 50 I was wishing that old Beelzebub would go away but he never did.

This is the story of the rise and fall of one of our great American songwriters and since the book ends with a drug overdose, I am assuming there will be another installment that will show him rising from the ashes of addiction.

But for this one, just remember the Devil made him do it.

Rosy the Reviewer says...If you enjoy reading about the musicians and the antics that characterized the 60's and 70's, you will enjoy Webb's experiences.  But don't call him Jim or James.  It's Jimmy!



Thanks for reading!
NOTE:
See you Tuesday for

"Rosy's Test Kitchen #4:

Cooking Successes and Cooking Conundrums -

"Sweets!"
 
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Check your local library for DVDs and books mentioned.

Friday, July 28, 2017

"Girls Trip" and The Week in Reviews

[I review the new movie "Girls Trip" as well as DVDs "Wilson" and "Table 19."  The Book of the Week is the novel "Do Not Become Alarmed!"  I also bring you up-to-date with "My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project" with "Man Bites Dog."]





Girls Trip


Four ladies who have been friends since college gather in New Orleans to rekindle their friendships and have some fun.  And, boy, do they!

Well, my peeps, I am on a roll. Not one, but two funny comedies two weeks in a row. Hallelujah!  Last week I reviewed "The Big Sick" which was sweet and funny and now we have this one. It's also funny, but where "The Big Sick" was sweet funny, this one is raunchy funny so leave your tsks-tsk's at home.

The four friends:

Ryan Pierce (Regina Hall) has made a name for herself as a motivational speaker and author and is hyped as the next Oprah.  Her book "YOU Can Have it All" is a best-seller and an inspiration to her fans.  She is married to Stewart (Mike Colter), a handsome ex-NFL player, and the two are about to sign a big "Live with Kelly and Michael" kind of deal. (I know, I know, it's "Live with Kelly and Ryan" now, but that just somehow didn't fit with where I was going with this analogy).

Sasha (Queen Latifah) was a journalism star in college but instead of making a name for herself as a serious journalist circumstances led her to "Sasha's Secrets," a celebrity gossip blog, but it's barely paying the bills and she is about to be evicted from her apartment. 

Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith) is a divorcee with two small children who in her college days was a wild one, but since her divorce, lives a nice, quiet buttoned-up life being an over-protective mom.  I mean, she's worried about leaving her kids with her own Mom!

And then there's Dina (Tiffany Haddish), who was just fired for assaulting a co-worker for "stealing" her lunch - she clearly has anger issues - and who is up for anything.  She is also a little crazy.

When Ryan is asked to be the keynote speaker at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, she decides that this trip is just what she and her "Flossy Posse" need to rekindle their friendships and relive the good times.  What she doesn't know is that Sasha has seen a picture of Stewart kissing another woman and is torn about what to do. Should she tell Ryan? Should she post it to her gossip blog?  If she did, it would solve all of her financial problems. But then what would that do to her friendship with Ryan?

Tiffany Haddish is getting all of the love for her performance, and she is definitely a stand-out.  She is like a female Tracy Morgan in her delivery and like Morgan, she is very, very funny. The now infamous scene with the grapefruit is one you will never forget.

But the other actresses also pull their weight.

Jada Pinkett Smith was another stand-out for me.  I have never seen her in a part like this. She is natural and effortless as she goes from buttoned-up Lisa to Lisa the Freak!  And Queen Latifah?  She has a screen presence that is like, well, a queen.  She just exudes REAL and warmth just oozes off the screen.  I loved her. And she is funny too! Regina Hall gets to play straight woman to the other three's antics, but definitely holds her end up as Ryan deals with a cheating husband and rekindles a romance with Julian (Larenz Tate), an old college friend. 

I also have to give props to Kate Walsh as Ryan's agent.  Her attempts to impress Ryan by acting and talking like a hip black woman are awkwardly funny. 

As you know, I am always looking for a comedy that is actually funny.  Last week I struck gold with "The Big Sick," and now, here is another funny comedy, but, be warned, it's very "R-rated."  But amidst all of the crazy antics, it had it's sweet elements too and a message.  There is nothing sweeter than a loyal posse of girlfriends.  Your husbands and boyfriends may come and go, your children will grow up and leave, but your girlfriends are always there for you.

But that doesn't mean this film is sentimental and mushy. 

Quite the contrary.  It's out there.  

Speaking of out there, there was one scene early on in the film where on the plane headed for New Orleans, Dina takes over First Class and the flight attendant's tray and starts serving the passengers shots.  In this flying climate, that would never happen, and, in fact, the plane would have turned around and Dina would have been escorted off the plane.  Kind of hard to suspend disbelief when the disbelief is so strong.  Sometimes comedies go a bit too far to try to be funny, but other than that little blip, the movie was right on! It's right up there with the best of the "women behaving badly" genre ("Bad Moms," "Bridesmaids") that we have come to love, but this one goes much deeper in celebrating the power and joy of female friendships.

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee and with a screenplay by Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver, there are some scenes you have never seen before.  Let's just say that you will never look at grapefruit the same way again.  Likewise, when the ladies get high on absinthe and Sasha mistakes a lamp for a man...well, you have never seen Queen Latifah like that, and it's all very, very funny.

Oh, and since this is the Essence Festival, keep your eyes open for all of the celebrity cameos from Iyanla Van Sant to Ne-Yo to Sean "Diddy" Combs to Carla Hall to Mariah -  over 20 celebrities make an appearance as themselves.

Rosy the Reviewer says...a very funny film that celebrates the joys of female friendships. See it with your posse!  But you guys will like it too!




 

***Some Movies You Might Have Missed***
(And Some You Will Be Glad You Did)!

On DVD




Wilson (2017)



A lonely middle-aged guy with no filter (which could explain why he has no friends) finds his estranged wife and discovers he has a daughter.

I have to say that I've never been much of a Woody Harrelson fan. 

I didn't like him as the clueless bartender in "Cheers," didn't particularly like the parts he has played in films since (always wise-cracking and annoying) and even in his personal life he comes across as a wise-cracking smartass who finds himself in strange taxi car chases in London. So you can imagine that I wasn't planning to like him or this film.

But I was wrong.  That happens from time to time.

Woody stars as Wilson, a middle-aged curmudgeon who is a negative kind of guy who doesn't seem to enjoy life very much.  He is socially awkward, quick-tempered, intolerant, overshares, lacks self awareness and bitches about all kinds of things, but at the same time he is desperately trying to make connections with people.  He is the kind of guy that would come and sit right next to you on an otherwise empty bus, or if you are a guy, he would choose the urinal right next to you in the mens' room, unselfconsciously start up a conversation and when finished, comment on your having a nice penis.  He's that kind of guy.

But when Wilson's Dad dies and he is confronted with his Dad's storage unit filled with pictures and his Dad's meager belongings, Wilson has a sort of epiphany.

"I don't have a single person that shares my same memories."

So he decides to go find his ex-wife, Pippi (Laura Dern) who left him 17 years ago and moved to L.A.  She was also pregnant and got an abortion. Wilson leaves his beloved dog, Pepper, with a dog sitter, Shelley (Judy Greer), and heads to L.A. in his Dad's old car, driving down the center of the road as clueless, self-absorbed people are prone to do.

Guess what?

He finds her.

And guess what else?

She didn't get an abortion.  Wilson has a daughter out there that Pippi gave up for adoption, and Wilson thinks this is his one chance to have a family so he decides to find her too.

Wilson and Pippi find their daughter, Claire (Isabella Amara), who turns out to be a teenager with a weight problem and an attitude and who is bullied by the kids in school.  Like Wilson and Pippi, she is a bit of an outcast.

Let the generational schism commence as Wilson tries to forge a relationship with Claire.  And when Pippi gets the idea that they should all go on a road trip to her judgmental sister's house to show her that she has a family and that she hasn't screwed up her life after all, we not only have the road trip cliché but the fish out of water trope as the outcasts visit the perfect family in the perfect suburban setting.

And if that's not enough, it all gets worse for Wilson when he ends up in prison.  You will have to see the film to find out how that happens, but surprisingly it's all very funny, in a very dark way.

Speaking of road trips. 

Have I ranted about road trip movies yet?  I will spare you, but road trip movies are such a cliché that they are getting on my nerves.  Can't someone take the train or go by boat once in a while?

This is a tour de force for Woody (he is in every scene), and he manages to keep his usual mannerisms to a minimum.  One can't help but wonder, though, does Woody choose these strange roles or do they find him because he himself is so strange?

But Woody actually pulled me into this story. 

Laura Dern plays against type here as the ex-crack whole Pippi (those are Wilson's words, not mine), because it seems she has been playing smaller forgettable roles lately such as the long suffering faithful wife ("The Founder") or TV roles like Renata in "Big Little Lies."  Here she makes Pippi edgy but likable without falling into sentimentality.

Directed by Craig Johnson with a screenplay by Daniel Clowes (from his graphic novel), I can't believe I liked this film as much as I did even with Woody and a road trip.  What could have been a drippy sentimental coming of middle-age tale actually manages to avoid that route and tell an original, engaging story.

Rosy the Reviewer says...a dark comedy about coming of age - middle-age that is.  It's never too late to figure things out.







Table 19 (2017)


When Eloise is demoted from Maid of Honor in her best friend's wedding, because the Best Man, who also happens to be the bride's brother, dumped her via text, she decides to attend the wedding anyway and finds herself at the table reserved for "The Randoms."

Anna Kendrick stars as Eloise, and let me rant for a minute. Am I the only one who doesn't get Anna Kendrick?  I particularly don't get her in the "Pitch Perfect" movies which is all about singing, basically because I don't like her voice.  I find it very nasally.  And as an actress, she's OK, but I am getting sick of the characters she seems to play of late - the put-upon-yet-perky heroine who always perseveres.  What happened to all of that promise she showed when she was nominated for an Academy Award for "Up in the Air?"  That was nine years ago! She needs to find some roles with some meat where she can show some acting chops. Rant over.

But yet again we have that same character. This time she plays Eloise, who has been dumped and is suffering.  She was supposed to be the Maid of Honor at her best friend's wedding, but when Teddy (Wyatt Russell), the bride's brother, dumps her for another girl, the bride must have felt that would be a tad awkward so she relieves Eloise of her Maid of Honor duties, probably hoping she won't show up at the wedding.

But Eloise decides to go to the wedding anyway (see? perky!), but gets yet another blow.  She finds herself at Table 19, the one reserved for "The Randoms," those people that didn't fit in at any of the other tables, a table that is in no man's land, so far from the bride and groom you would need to send a messenger pigeon to communicate with them. Think the worst table in a restaurant, near the kitchen and next to the restrooms.  My idea of hell.  

This turn of events is particularly hard for Eloise, who when fulfilling he Maid of Honor duties had helped the bride decide who was going to sit where e.g. one table called "Eligible Singles," another, "Iffy Singles," etc.  Table 19 is clearly the worst table and it gets worse when Eloise sees who she is seated with.

  • Walter (Stephen Merchant) is an ex-con who lies about everything.
  • Jo (June Squibb) was the bride's first nanny.
  • Renzo (Tony Revolori, who made a splash as Zero in "The Grand Budapest Hotel") just wants to get laid but is a loser with the ladies and a mama's boy, and I never figured out his relationship to the bride and groom or how he even got invited to the wedding.
  • Bina (Lisa Kudrow) and Jerry (Craig Robinson), a married couple who own a local diner.  They don't get along and haven't had sex in years.

This is one of those films that uses the Table 19 concept as a device to put six very different and odd characters together who eventually all end up helping each other.  That's a device that has been used many times before and here nothing new is brought to the, er, table.

Each character has his or her own storyline, and we follow them as they go off and do stuff and then come back to the table and interact with each other in a non-funny way. All of these characters have secrets that are revealed by the end of the film e.g. nanny Jo is a pothead (see rant below about how old people are portrayed in films), but by the time that happened, I just didn't care anymore.  And that's the main problem with this movie.  Despite the fact that all of these actors are good actors, there just wasn't any depth to these characters.

Anna Kendrick plays yet another young woman in a fix. As I said earlier, I'm not a huge fan.   She needs to get some more challenging roles.  Wyatt Russell, son of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, was actually quite good in that his character was really a believable sleaze, but he reminded me so much of T.J. Miller that it was actually a distraction for me.

June Squibb came to out attention in 2014 when she was nominated for an Oscar for her work in "Nebraska." As with most actors, she had been toiling in character roles since the 1980's but now she is everywhere.  If a film needs a wise-cracking old lady, she gets the part.

And now I am going to rant about that. 
(Not about June Squibb, but about wise-cracking old folks and other old people stereotypes in movies).

Being a woman of a certain age, I am getting sick of old people being the butt of jokes in films.  Old person?  Let's make sure that person knows nothing about those newfangled computers and have a funny scene with the old lady poking the keyboard with one finger and ending up on a porno site.  Old people?  Why, wouldn't it be funny if they smoked pot and got all silly or, hey! What about a sweet little old lady who turns out to have a filthy mouth or what about an old guy with a cane who suddenly starts break dancing?  STOP THAT!!!  Quit making us old folks the butt of jokes like that.  It's been done already and it wasn't funny then and it's not funny now.

OK, rant over.
(This movie brought out the rant in me)!

Directed by Jeffrey Blitz with a story by Mark and Jay DuPlass, this was an interesting concept that just didn't go anywhere.  I wasn't sure if they were going for a comedy or a drama.  If it was supposed to be funny, it wasn't. 

There is a running joke that because Bina is wearing a jacket that looks exactly like the jackets worn by the servers, she keeps getting mistaken for a server.  If you think that's funny, you might like this film but I didn't and I didn't.

If this film was supposed to be dramatic, it wasn't. There was a scene between Eloise and Teddy that was actually overdramatic followed by a slapstick bit where the wedding cake gets knocked over - and, can I just ask, is there ever a movie about a wedding where the cake DOESN'T get knocked over?

And, oh, yes, the music in this film was so loud it was difficult to hear the dialogue.

However, despite all of my complaints, I will give the film credit for it's spoof of cheesy wedding toasts and the funniest line in the film:

"You are Romeo and Juliet and we all wish you the same happy ending."

But that's as good as this movie ever got.

Rosy the Reviewer says...when Lisa Kudrow's character, Bina, says, "What are we doing here?" I asked myself the same thing.  You can skip this one.






***My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project***


192 to go!

Have YOU seen this classic film?





Man Bites Dog (1992)



A film crew follows a serial killer as he goes about his deadly deeds in this pseudo-documentary where the film crew becomes part of the story.

Ben (Benoit Poelvoorde) is a serial killer and rapist who agrees to let a film crew follow him around and film him.  Ben is a seemingly ordinary guy with a sense of humor who wants to find love.  However, Ben just so happens to also be a cold-hearted serial killer.  As the film crew follows Ben around, the objectivity between the filmmakers and their subject becomes less and less as the crew actually become involved in the killings, helping him dispose of bodies. Ben even helps them out financially.

This pseudo-documentary is a satire on reality TV well before reality TV became the reality it is today.  

Very much in the vein of Christopher Guest's pseudo-documentary "This is Spinal Tap," except this one has murder and rape, the film is funny up to a point until the film crew starts getting involved in the killings that culminate in a very graphic scene that is decidedly not funny.  Then the film seems to be asking the question: 

How complicit are those who film people doing things they shouldn't in the name of showing reality, and how complicit are we, those who watch this stuff? How far will filmmakers go to get the public's attention and when do we draw the line at what we do and don't want to watch?

In showing a serial killer's human side, are the filmmakers condoning what he does for a living and saying, see? He's just a regular guy who happens to kill people?  I mean, Ted Bundy was a handsome charming guy, but does that make him any less evil?

Why it's a Must See:  "[This film] is probably the most controversial film in the history of Belgian cinema [and]...According to the creators...the idea for the film stemmed from a Belgian tabloid journalist TV series, one which blew small stories out of proportion and intruded on people's private lives.  This underlying concept helped guarantee the film's success, and secured its status as an all-time cult favorite."
---"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die"

Rosy the Reviewer says...this film is not for everyone, and it's very much a one joke pony...one very sick joke...but resonates loudly 25 years later.
(In b & w, in French with English subtitles)





***Book of the Week***




Do Not Become Alarmed: A Novel by Maile Meloy (2017)


Three families become friendly on a beautiful cruise to Central America, but the cruise turns ugly when the children go missing on a shore excursion.
 
When long-time friends and cousins, Liv and Nora, decide to take their husbands and children on a holiday cruise, everyone is happy. The adults are happy for a chance to get away and relax and the kids are happy to be free of the adults as they explore the ship and eat the food from the endless buffet. But when they all go ashore - the husbands to play golf and the women and children for a zip line adventure - things take a turn.  The tour guide's car breaks down leaving Liv, Nora and their new friend Camilla and their children stranded near a beach.  So the group decides to spend the day at the beach while they wait to be rescued, but a series of events lead to the adults and the children getting separated and the children being kidnapped.

As the parents try to find their children, they blame themselves and turn on each other.
 
In the meantime, the children - one of whom is a Type 1 diabetic without his insulin - must become resourceful to find their way back to their parents.  Will they make it?

There is also a side story about another child, a poor Ecuadorian who is on her way to the U.S. with her uncle to be reunited with her parents and her story eventually becomes entwined with that of the American children's.

This is a page-turner that could be written off as a nice summer beach read, but there is a deeper message: being a parent is a blessing and a curse.  We love and enjoy our children, but once we have children, we have the continuous burden of worry and fear that something will happen to them.

Rosy the Reviewer says...a fast read that you won't be able to put down.



Thanks for reading!

 
See you next Friday 

for my review of  
  
"Dunkirk"


and
 

 The Week in Reviews

(What to See or Read and What to Avoid)


 and the latest on



"My 1001 Movies I Must See Before 

 I Die Project."

  

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