Over Christmas break, I tried to watch as many movies as I could squeeze in between shopping, wrapping presents , eating, sleeping, visiting family, and walking the dog. It was the usual combination of new films in the theater, catching up with movies on disc that I missed during year, and streaming a few mystery films just to see what they were all about. I will discuss a couple of the movies I watched at greater length in the next couple of weeks, but for now, here is my annual post-Christmas, seven movie reviews in four minutes:
Edgar Wright’s Baby
Driver is wonderful. Cool, exciting, sweet, funny at times, harrowing at
others. The first ten minutes, the initial chase scene set to Jon Spencer Blues
Explosions’ song “Bellbottoms” as well as the sequence of Baby getting coffee
for his fellow thieves set to Bob and Earl’s “Harlem Shuffle,” are pure
moviemaking genius.
The Planet of the Apes
reboot trilogy has been one of the most surprisingly effective and poignant
film franchises of the last decade, and it’s final installment, Battle for the Planet of the Apes is the
best of them all. Again, Andy Serkis gives what should be a Oscar-nominated
role as Ceasar, the wise, compassionate, haunted leader of a tribe of sentient
apes, and the digital effects that transform him and other actors into their
simian counterparts are literally flawless.
Valerian and the City
of a Thousand Planets reminded me a lot of 2015’s Jupiter Ascending – visually stunning with more detail and
imagination than you can absorb in a half-dozen viewings, but narratively a hot
mess from start to finish. It features a ridiculous script, bizarre performances,
and a lead actor who, honest to goodness, seems to be patterning his character
on early 90s Keanu Reeves. If you like beautiful sci fi and don’t mind the fact
that everything but the visuals is a giant mess, this is the one for you.
Spiderman: Homecoming
brings Spidey firmly into the Marvel Universe after languishing at Sony
Pictures for years, and you can tell the difference. Snarky, slick, funny, and
fast, it unfortunately loses some of the low-to-the-ground quirk and humanism
from the Sam Raimi versions but fortunately loses everything from the Andrew
Garfield reboots that sucked. Homecoming
is fun, and Michael Keaton as the Vulture makes the best Marvel villain since
Loki.
The Hero stars Sam
Elliot as basically himself, an aging actor known primarily for his roles in
westerns and his voicework in commercials for things like barbeque sauce. He’s
at a standstill in his career and in his life, divorced, estranged from his daughter,
and spending his time between commercial gigs smoking pot with his neighbor.
Then two things happen: he’s diagnosed with cancer and begins a relationship
with a much younger woman played by Laura Prepon. The film isn’t so much a
story as it is a poem meditating on aging and mortality. Elliot is fantastic
and certainly deserves more starring roles, especially in movies that actually
have endings.
Detroit focuses on
a specific incident that took place during the 1965 riots in our own beloved
Detroit. A group of African American men and two Caucasian women were
terrorized, brutalized, and some eventually murdered by Detroit police officers
in the Algiers Motel. Director Kathryn Bigelow is a master of maintaining
tension and a sense of structure throughout a story that is largely about
chaos. It’s a harrowing film, not just for the events it portrays but for how
timely the film feels over fifty years after these events took place.
I also watched Passengers
with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. I heard it was garbage but wanted to
find out for myself. The film is proof positive that even the most charismatic
performers and the biggest production budget cannot overcome a script that is
ham-handed, clunky, and without a satisfying ending. If you haven’t already,
skip Passengers.
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