Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Daisy Ridley in ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’.

‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ lifts our spirits just enough

Directed by: J.J. Abrams

Written by: J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio

Starring: Daisy Ridley, Adam Scott, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Domhnall Gleeson, and Richard E. Grant

“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” – When “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (2017) reached theatres two years ago, sharks chewed over the head scratching decisions that found their way on screen. Well, some sharks anyway, or at a minimum, this one. Director Rian Johnson’s venture into the iconic series took some strange, nonsensical turns.

For instance, why did Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern) sacrifice herself by ramming her ship into a First Order Star Destroyer, when about 50 droids onboard could have done the job instead?

Why did Luke (Mark Hamill) promise Rey (Daisy Ridley) three Jedi lessons, when he only delivers two?

Why introduce an insidious new villain Snoke (Andy Serkis) in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (2015), when the script unceremoniously kills him in “The Last Jedi”?

Why does Luke project himself across the galaxy and his image only seems to stop countless laser blasts? If he actually traveled to this random Salt Planet and authentically blocked them with his hand, that moment would have garnered spontaneous standing ovations in theatres everywhere.

Did we really need our heroes to ride horse/camel creatures on a Casino Planet?

The list goes on and on, but rather than continue to snipe about past issues, let’s look to the film that concludes a 42-year cinematic journey. Well, an unspecified amount of time has passed, and since Rey and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) are not grey and decrepit, “The Rise of Skywalker” isn’t set light years after “The Last Jedi”. In separate quadrants of the galaxy, Rey continues her Jedi training, and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) still wields his dastardly light saber with a sociopathic bent. For reasons that will not be stated in this review, Kylo Ren is now singularly focused to find Rey – yet again – but persists with his mixed messages of killing Rey vs. asking her to join the First Order Team. Hey, a shiny new black and gray uniform would certainly top her current look, because quite frankly, Jedi outfits never really garnered high fashion acclaim.

Anyway, General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), BB-8, Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), Poe (Oscar Isaac), and Finn (John Boyega) are all back after their two-year break, and director J.J. Abrams’ film doesn’t take very many pauses, as our heroes travel non-stop to several planets, ones that are brand new trips for casual Star Wars fans. The narrative mostly carries the audience on a scavenger hunt for one particular artifact, but Kylo Ren is in constant hot pursuit, and his tenacity would make Sheriff Buford T. Justice beam with pride. Meanwhile, Abrams is dialed in with familiar beats that Star Wars fans enjoy, chock-full of space dog fights, light saber duals, light speed jumps, and a good old fashioned land speeder chase.

Visually, the screen is filled with agreeable, souped up polish, but Abrams also includes a decidedly grimy, gritty edge – that we didn’t see in Episode VII and XIII – in some key villainous spots. These striking slants are similar to his work in his “Star Trek” (2009) reboot with the Romulan and Klingon technology and the aliens themselves. Audiences had real reasons to fear the Romulans and Klingons already, so the added spookiness did not help any preexisting anxieties. Those same distinct touches nicely exist in “The Rise of Skywalker” as well.

Unfortunately, some familiar odd quirks overlap from “The Last Jedi”. Finn, for example, constantly insists on protecting Rey and harps on standing by her, but she can obviously handle herself just fine and could take him down faster than you can say, “Laugh it up, Fuzzball.”

Picture Jimmy Olsen always asserting that he’ll be there for Superman, and that’s Finn. He may have yelled, “Rey!” at the top of his lungs about a dozen times, and it gets old after the first. He does, however, meet a new group of rebels who ride horses of some kind, and at one point, Finn and his new team find themselves charging and fighting on top (not inside) of an undisclosed ship. This, of course, brings back horrible memories of “The Last Jedi” Casino Planet, and truly, nothing says “jumping the shark” more than a group of horses running into battle on top of a spacecraft.

Yes, this nine-film Skywalker thread has run its course. At times, it does feel tired and certainly recycled, where “I’ve seen this before” will cross your mind, including a spectacular Rey and Kylo Ren skirmish that looks like a carbon copy duel from two different characters in another movie.

On the other hand, with eight movies behind it, “The Rise of Skywalker” does successfully answer key burning questions and delivers enough aha, moving moments for the fans, both diehard and casual. The film’s high points, and there are several, are not with panoramic, chaotic clashes or luminous stops from planet to planet, but are through the personal connections between the characters.

These searing memories will sit alongside permanent recollections from the previous eight films, which make the “The Rise of Skywalker” a flawed, must-see picture for anyone who cares about these adventures that occurred a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. There’s enough here to get you to the Skywalker-finish line, even if you openly wish that Abrams, Johnson and company chose an entirely different path with this trilogy.

(2.5/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic. Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

A Hidden Life - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

August Diehl in the film ‘A Hidden Life’. Photo by Reiner Bajo. © 2019 Twentieth Century Fox Film

Malick shines a caring, admiring light on ‘A Hidden Life’

Written and directed by: Terrence Malick

Starring: August Diehl, Valerie Pachner, Franz Rogowski, Bruno Ganz, Michael Nyqvist, and Matthias Schoenaerts

“A Hidden Life” – “It seemed no trouble could reach our valley. We lived above the clouds.” – Franziska (Fani) Jagerstatter (Valerie Pachner)

Franz and Fani Jagerstatter (August Diehl and Pachner) have a beautiful life. This happily married couple own a farm, have three young daughters and much love is felt within their home and also with their supportive neighbors in the tiny village of St. Radegund, tucked away in an Austrian valley.

They live openly in St. Radegund, but this community is generally unseen to the rest of the world.

The year is 1940, and World War II has been raging for a year. Franz is called up by the Austrian military for basic training at Enns Military Base, but he thankfully returns home after some time. Still, the war is escalating. It’s not winding down. He could be called back for duty, and his negative feelings about the war and Adolf Hitler will no longer be private but common knowledge.

Writer/director Terrence Malick knew and embraced Franz’s story, and he offers his organic filmmaking perspective and shines a caring, admiring light on this family’s hidden life.

Certainly, World War II films can carry familiar threads, but Malick’s picture does not feature military clashes in France or horrific sights in concentration camps. His film squarely lands on Franz’s silent protest. This man does not pledge allegiance to Hitler, like every Austrian solider is supposed to do, but severe consequences will await those who refuse.

By saying, “No,” Franz could lose everything.

Everything is a simple word to say, but to actually quantify this intangible sum seems like an impossible task. Malick, however, wholly captures Franz’s everything during the film’s first 10 minutes by pouring the Jagerstatters’ foundation on-screen with wondrous, affectionate pools of flourishing greens, distant jagged and rounded peaks, and their family’s earnest enthusiasm for balance with nature and each other in a personal Eden. Malick and cinematographer Jorg Widmer fit perfectly here, and since Franz and Fani are farmers, we see the couple kneeling in grass with their hands gently pulling clumps of rich earth or swinging their scythes with an incalculable, joyous rhythm from some otherworldly, existential math.

We learn about Franz and Fani’s first meeting and enjoy bursts of their smiling children, and much more. These images dance in concert with James Newton Howard’s score of sweet, soaring strings that rise into achingly beautiful, dreamy concoctions of operatic majesty that can truly reduce grown men to tears.

This is Franz’s everything.

These are the riches that he could lose by saying, “No,” to Hitler.

Diehl explains at a 2019 Cannes press conference, that Franz isn’t trying to be hero.

“I don’t think it’s a movie about heroic things. A hero is something that we say afterwards about a person who did certain things, but this is a movie about a private and silent choice. Something invisible,” Diehl said.

He later adds, “(It’s about) somebody in the room that says, ‘No,’ out of a simple feeling, not with any intellectual explanation, not doing actually anything. Just saying ‘No,’ because something is wrong.”

Hence, Franz stands with his convictions against intimidating political and institutional machines, but the pull between standing up for his beliefs and returning to his beautiful life in St. Radegund is excruciating. He isn’t the only one suffering, as Fani struggles at home, and Malick not only includes earthy frames of the girls, Fani and her sister on the farm, but also haunting fragmented snippets of Franz’s existence elsewhere, and Diehl and Pachner narrate the couple’s actual letters when Franz and Fani are not together.

These true events occurred almost 80 years ago, and “A Hidden Life” – a nearly three-hour experience - works as a diary of memories, as flashes of beauty, belief, love, and pain gel into the most moving cinematic experience of the year.

(4/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic. Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Movie Review by Ben Cahlamer

Photo Credit: DISNEY / LUCASFILM

As an experience, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” works. It reminds us of what “Star Wars” has meant to so many people over the last 42 years. Nothing I say is going to change that.

That’s because I’m a fan.

The journey toward a self-serving prophecy to bring balance to the Force is a satisfying one in a way that makes the best use of characters, both new and old. It manages to inject a sense of nostalgic fun and vibrancy, something for which J.J. Abrams is well known.

That’s because he has a strong eye for casting. Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, ever searching for Rey (Daisy Ridley) never relents. Gone are the childish-like tantrums we saw in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” replaced with a dedication to discovering his own truth, just the same as Rey continues her training under the guidance of General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher). Rey and Kylo’s story is at the heart of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” as a ‘force’ from the past makes a mysterious appearance – Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious (Ian McDiarmid).

The circumstances under which the Emperor appears are questionable in the script from Abrams and Chris Terrio, as it lays the stage for an uneven conclusion 42 years in the making.

That’s the pragmatist in me.

The reality is that these three films have fractured the fan base so much so that I went in completely cold. I hadn’t watched a trailer, read an article; I was blinded by the Force.

The nostalgia factor kicked into high gear on seeing Carrie Fisher on the screen one last time. Her interactions with Daisy Ridley are those cinematic moments we look forward to the most. Poe (Oscar Isaac), Finn (John Boeyga) and Chewie (Joonas Suotamo) all had their functions in the movie, especially Chewbacca. It was nice to see Finn come into his own just a bit. Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) was a nice addition to the story as well, the charmer that he is. C-3P0 (Anthony Daniels) also has a significant function in the film, in addition to being the only star to have appeared in all nine films. BB-8 rolls right on through the movie and R2-D2 is ever faithfully by our sides.

For my money though, Poe made the greatest leaps and bounds as a character and it shows in Isaac’s performance. Within that though is the exceptionally thin dialogue at a pivotal moment. The dialogue supports his arc and Isaac says it with conviction, yet it felt obvious: obvious to the flow of the story and to what the Force has represented for those who were drawn in by its mysticism over the past 42 years.

The other struggle for me is that it lifted one too many beats from what has come before in that we get a Tatooine-like sequence; we are thrown back in the Emperor’s Throne Room on the second Death Star. Though it plays like a bookend, the conversation with Rey and Luke that has an air of familiarity about it too.

There’s a damn good twist that I saw coming that I hope fans really appreciate it for what it is.

That I feel let down by this story is not that the ride is over. As I said, it is an experience; one that I think was respectful yet familiar. It spends so much time bringing everything together that they are just beats on another ride in another fun park. The ride over the last three episodes has been so bumpy, my space shocks are worn out and frankly, I’m ready to retire my lightsaber.

But, not my imagination, and, “the road to hell is paved with good intention.”

This might be the end of the Skywalker Saga, and there will be more endless opinion-slinging. “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” has all the right intentions mixed with strong fan expectation. “The Rise of Skywalker,” which sees the culmination of almost 42 years’ worth of work, something the film does pat itself on the shoulder for in the movie, has genuine character moments and some nice twists that bring this saga to a fan-safe conclusion.

2 out of 4 stars

Bombshell - Movie Review by Ben Cahlamer

Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron, left), Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman, center), and Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie, right) in ‘Bombshell’.

Directed by: Jay Roach

Written by: Charles Randolph

Starring: Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, John Lithgow, Kate McKinnon, Connie Britton, Malcom McDowell, Allison Janney, Margot Robbie

“Bombshell” is the story of the downfall of Roger Ailes at Fox News following the revelation that he had sexually harassed several personnel during his tenure. On the surface level, the story by the Academy Award – winning Charles Randolph is exactly that – it’s a humorous, yet insightful look into the man behind the news.

In that regard, John Lithgow plays the arrogance of Ailes to the hilt, and just as with last year’s “Vice,” the makeup reasserts the vicious nature of the man.

And, yet, Randolph’s characterization of Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) is the film’s nerve center as someone who realizes that, in spite of all the challenges, there is an opportunity for her to make a name for herself in primetime cable news. It isn’t until Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) takes a stand that Kelly realizes the historic opportunity to expose the unfolding drama.

There’s a lighter touch though to the seriousness behind the allegations, Ailes’s reaction to it and Carson’s gamble that others are going to fall. This supports young Kayla Popisil (Margot Robbie) who oozes sensuality in the way she dresses that, when the opportunity presents itself, that she can get in front of Ailes to propose an opportunity to anchor a news desk.

Barry Ackroyd’s cinematography is intentional in that we see a neutral grey pattern to the lighting, sometimes diffused to suggest the illicit nature of what Ailes was doing to the women that were under his regime.

While the story doesn’t break much ground in terms of diving deeper into Ailes as character, the film isn’t really about him – he is a peripheral character as Kelly comes to terms with his threatening personality through Kayla. Roach infuses a dark humor that echoes Adam McKay’s “The Big Short” from a few years’ back.

The flow of a newsroom at the beginning of the film really sets the stage for each of the character’s motives, itself becoming a character in the film. In such a closed environment, it’s not easy to set a work environment that would force an employee with the stature that Gretchen Carlson had, but Randolph managed to capture the same essence of “The Big Short and Roach ran with it.

If anything, “Bombshell” ran the risk of repeating “Vice” from Adam McKay. What sets them apart, and ironically, Ailes is referenced in that film as well during the Nixon White House era, is that Roach and Randolph chose to soften Ailes’s image through his wife, Beth (Connie Britton) and through the Murdoch’s when Ailes is finally asked to face the music; McDowell nailed Roger Murdoch. There was a nice subtlety that served the frenetic nature of the newsroom at the opening of the film, that the sacrifice that Kidman emoted in playing Gretchen Carlson balances. Theron, ultimately played Megyn Kelly. Theron with a stoicism until the moment when the realization of what Ailes was hit her; just the briefest flicker of shock and then, right back into fully composed and driven.

Whether you fall on the left or the right, “Bombshell” is not a political-driven film; it is truly about the professionals who remained professional in bringing down the most powerful newsperson in our recent lifetime and for that, I’m recommending “Bombshell.”

3.5 out of 4 stars

Lost Holiday - Movie Review by Ben Cahlamer

Kate Lyn Sheil and Thomas Matthews star in ‘Lost Holiday’.

Written and Directed by: Michael Matthews and Thomas Matthews

Starring: Kate Lyn Sheil, Thomas Matthews, Keith Poulson, William Jackson Harper, Ismenia Mendes, Joshua Leonard, Tone Tank, Emily Mortimer

Highbrow society meets hooligans and shenanigans in the Matthews’ brothers “Lost Holiday.” Co-written by Michael and Thomas Matthews, the story involves a group of bored, rich socialites in the Washington, D.C./Maryland area as a kidnapping happens right underneath their eyes.

Margaret (Kate Lyn Sheil) is a New York social worker with a connection to Henry (Thomas Matthews), a wayward individual with more time on his hands then he knows what to do with, and Mark (William Jackson Harper), a lawyer who is desperately in love with Margaret while also being engaged to another woman.

Within the opening frames, we get the sense that we’re in a haze of drugs and alcohol as Margaret weaves her way through a house party, with Mark as the host. Henry is as lit as Margaret, but we get the sense that Margaret really doesn’t care about her surroundings, even when she’s sober.

Sheil plays Margaret with an aloofness that helps us not mind the shenanigans happening about her; we’re just as impaired as she is, but we’re not helpless. The story is carried along, rather inventively through an ongoing commentary on the radio provided by Emily Mortimer . . . . oh, that accent.

Anyway, following the party, Margaret and Henry wander aimlessly from bar to bar, just losing themselves. Following the party, the haze slowly wearing off while still nursing beers, the duo stumble on to a news announcement about the disappearance of Amber Jones (Ismenia Mendes), the news waking Margaret and Henry out of their slumber, taking them on a wild goose chase, literally.

The Matthews’s infuse a frenetic camera style as Margaret and Henry start their search, Henry’s faithful Volkswagen Cabriolet carrying them around the D.C. area, taking time to show the sites as they wander toward Russian’s (Tone Tank) house, a drug den.

After a bad acid trip, the duo follow Russian when they suspect him of kidnapping Amber Jones. The scene staged at a house in the burbs is exceptionally funny as they try to figure out the details on their own. The style of wit that the Matthews’s infuse during the first encounter with Russian speaks volumes to the dark comedy that is “Lost Holiday,” including a rather unorthodox escape.

Unorthodox is a good way to describe “Lost Holiday.” The drug-infused haze really guides our heroes as they amble through clues, thinking they’ve solved the crime when the film takes a hilarious and` unexpected twist.

This Christmas-themed story is sure to jingle its way into future holiday screenings and I for one, am recommending it.

3 out of 4 stars

Monte's Favorite Films of 2019

Monte’s Favorite Films of 2019

As the final credits roll on a rather confounding decade for society, the film landscape of the last 10 years has been an exceptional canvas of larger-than-life movie marvels, eye opening documentaries, beautifully crafted dramas about the best and worst of humanity, surprising social commentaries shrouded in genre fairytales, and some staggeringly heartfelt tributes to romance and love.

2019 continued the forward progression of storytelling and the upward innovation of artistry found in the filmmaking techniques. With films from seasoned auteurs like Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Claire Denis, Pedro Almodóvar, and Bong Joon ho displaying the how and why these filmmakers are regarded with such esteem to new filmmakers like the Safdie Brothers, Ari Aster, Jordan Peele, Robert Eggers, and Céline Sciamma flexing and honing their voices with captivating cinema.

Here are my favorite films of 2019…

Adam Sandler and Kevin Garnett in ‘Uncut Gems’.

10. Uncut Gems

There are movies that build tension, that craft an atmosphere of anxiety that inches the viewer closer and closer to the edge of their seat. The Safdie Brothers have taken the elements of tension, anxiety, and distress, mashed them together, and have crafted a film that lives and breathes these concepts. Anchored by an exceptional performance by Adam Sandler, one of the best of the actor’s career, “Uncut Gems” revels in the unease of sitting passenger seat with a character on the verge of self-destruction…you won’t want to look away.

Mats Blomgren, Lars Väringer, Anna Åström, and Isabelle Grill in ‘Midsommar’.

9. Midsommar

“Midsommar” is only the second film from director Ari Aster, who last helmed the terrifying “Hereditary”, and it only continues to strengthen the captivating style and unique voice of the filmmaker. Mr. Aster, amongst many qualities as a filmmaker, understands how one can utilize genre characteristics to tell emotionally complicated stories. “Midsommar” demonstrates that sometimes the scariest monster isn’t a monster at all, sometimes it’s the emotion connected with the fear of loss and the outlook towards the unknown or misunderstood elements of the world we live in. 

“Kamera wo tomeruna!”

8. One Cut of the Dead

The zombie subgenre of horror is completely oversaturated, but it hasn’t stopped inventive filmmakers from utilizing the living dead to tell creative stories about humanity, society, and culture. “One Cut of the Dead” does something truly inventive here, a narrative design that is best left to discovery than a cheap spoiler, composing a film that is lighthearted, funny, and sweet. It’s more than a B-movie horror film, it’s an ode to the process of creativity and creation, to the joy of chasing a dream and dedicating oneself to achieving the goal no matter what stands in your way.  

Photo by Peter Prato/Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

7. Last Black Man in San Francisco

The word “home” elicits so many different emotions and visions. It might be a place, a person, a smell, a piece of food, a feeling…for Jimmie in Joe Talbot’s striking debut, “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”, it’s the physical family house in San Francisco that he grew up. Jimmie, played poignantly by Jimmie Fails, is connected to this location, it’s a piece of his identity that defines who he is as a person in the ever-changing landscape of San Francisco. “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” is more than just a story about gentrification, it’s about the history, culture, and tradition that composes the identity of the person and the place one calls “home”.

Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, and Azhy Robertson in ‘Marriage Story’.

6. Marriage Story

There is a good possibility that I will never watch “Marriage Story” again. Not because it’s a terrible movie but because of its brutal honesty in dissecting a terrible situation, divorce. Filmmaker Noah Baumbach, in what can only be a story written from an experiential account, takes focus on the final days of a marriage between Charlie and Nicole played with tenderness and honesty by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson. The brilliance of “Marriage Story” is in the compassion it finds between two emotionally complicated, never taking defensive sides or allowing for easy answers. This is one of Baumbach’s best films.

Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Ray Romano, Jesse Plemons, and Kelley Rae O'Donnell in ‘The Irishman’.

5. The Irishman

“The Irishman” comes at an interesting time in the career of Martin Scorsese who recently has come under criticism from some film fans concerning his views on the state of cinema. Film is a subjective art-form, but if anyone has the right to make comments on the art of cinema, it’s Martin Scorsese. If the auteur’s past catalog doesn’t prove that point, “The Irishman” displays all the reasons why cinema should be regarded with the kind of seriousness Scorsese commands. With standout performances from Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, this film is the greatest hits of everything that the auteur has been tailoring, sometimes perfecting, throughout his storied career.

Antonio Banderas and Nora Navas in ‘Pain & Glory’.

4. Pain & Glory

Director Pedro Almodóvar uses the story a depressed, lonely, and physically affected film director named Salvador, a subtle yet intricate performance from Antonio Banderas, to discuss the multifaceted emotional process of the artistic process. Almodóvar is a director who utilizes melodramatic narrative properties to craft films bold and confident yet bustling with a sense of complete freedom. “Pain & Glory” has those same flourishes but the emotion is toned down from the usual roar the director’s films typically compose. The result is a beautiful examination of growth, the creative and emotional process of growth that happens throughout the journey of life. It’s a beautiful tale of love and loss, of growth and identity, of creation and destruction.

Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant in ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’.

3. Portrait of a Lady on Fire

An artist is tasked with painting a portrait of a lady, who refuses to pose for a painting, on the verge of being married to a distant suitor. The painter must disguise her true intentions, painting the portrait of the lady by firelight from recollections captured during walks and discussions. Through the artistic process the two women form a romantic bond. “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” is a soulful, beautiful costume drama, from director Céline Sciamma, that takes an intimate look at love, femininity, and empowerment. The portrayal of love, the emotional and physical depictions, throughout the film is meticulously and subtly composed. Longing glances, delicate gestures, and the formation of language all contribute to the complicated nature of these two women’s romance. There is rarely a misstep in Sciamma’s exceptional story and style.

Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood’.

2. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” has everything that Quentin Tarantino loves about films imbued into its design yet it still feels farthest from the style he is known for. There are flares of vocabulary, perfect musical cues, and the occasional scene of brutal and bloody violence, but the underlying tone in Tarantino’s ninth film is something sweet and personal. The introspection shown in regards to the aspects of film that Tarantino loves so deeply and the history that permeates every single inch of this film gives “Once Upon a Time…” its beautiful beating heart. And through the journey of an aging movie star, played impeccably by Leonardo DiCaprio, and his stunt-doubling best pal, one of the best performances from Brad Pitt, Tarantino deliberates on his own relevance as a filmmaker in the changing landscape of film. It’s a beautiful, somber, and touching film.

1. Parasite

Kang-ho Song, Hye-jin Jang, Woo-sik Choi, and So-dam Park in ‘Parasite’.

“Parasite”, director Bong Joon-ho’s masterful multi-mood drama, comedy, thriller, horror film, is working on numerous emotions, sometimes individually and sometimes all at once. Bong Joon-ho taps into uneasy subject matter and then easily finds a way to see the unflinching humor within these truths, he introduces fascinating characters who are pushed into complicated situations and forced to navigate the many obstacles, he finds the humor and horror of real life, and surprisingly amongst all these attributes easily finds the metaphors that shed light on cultural, political, and social commentary. Bong Joon-ho simply has a keen understanding of people and what motivates them to do both beautiful and disgusting things. “Parasite” is a fascinating exploration of humanity in the best film of the auteur’s career.

Honorable Mention:

o   A Long Day’s Journey into the Night

o   A Hidden Life

o   Apollo 11

o   Ash is the Purest White

o   Atlantics

o   Booksmart

o   Climax

o   Doctor Sleep

o   Dolemite is my Name

o   Good Boys

o   Her Smell

o   High Life

o   Honeyland

o   In Fabric

o   John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum

o   Jojo Rabbit

o   Knives Out

o   Little Women

o   Motherless Brooklyn

o   The Lighthouse

o   The Souvenir  

o   Tigers Are Not Afraid

o   Toy Story 4

o   Us

o   1917

Divergent Forces: A Perspective on “Star Wars” and It’s Characterizations by Ben Cahlamer

To my childhood, “Star Wars” was the expression of imagination. Admittedly, I was 1 when George Lucas’s space epic hit cinemas in May, 1977. As I grew up, it didn’t take me long to latch on to his world for my imagination to take over (partially fueled by Gene Roddenberry’s “Star Trek;” yes, I’m one of THOSE fans.)

Lucas’s film changed the box office, taking it by storm. His film also changed film merchandising as well, a lesson that Twentieth-Century Fox did not immediately recognize, thinking the filmwasn’t going to do very well.

Ever the entrepreneur, Lucas used every dime he had and then some to develop a film, based in part on Akira Kurosawa’s “The Hidden Fortress,” and finally had to turn to Fox to complete the film in exchange for the rights to that first film, in perpetuity.

That first film was a success and spawned three more films each of which were bigger successes. Those two films allowed him to be an independent filmmaker, retaining rights and control to the two sequels, “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” as well as future entries.

This trio of films followed a lone farm boy, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher(, Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), the androids C-3P0 (voiced by Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 (Kenney Baker) and the villainous Darth Vader (voiced by James Earl Jones; performed by David Prowse)

Following an extended hiatus, Lucas returned to the world that had made him a modern household name. (“THX-1138” and “American Graffiti” brought him to the minds of general moviegoers.) This new trilogy focuses on . . . *SPOILER ALERT* Luke Skywalker’s father, Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd in “Episode I” and Hayden Christensen in “Episode II” and “Episode III”).

Lucas would wow audiences with amazing computer generated images/effects and amaze us with a rather complex story involving economics and governance, amidst a trio of films in which we see young Anakin growing to the powerful, villainous figurehead he would become . . . . *SPOILER ALERT*, Darth Vader. This prequel trilogy began in 1999 with “Star Wars – Episode I: The Phantom Menace” continuing with 2002’s “Star Wars – Episode II: Attack of the Clones” and finally, 2005’s “Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.”

Lucasfilm, the company that George Lucas started to own the copyrights, fostered an open environment in which fans could “play with the characters” in the environment that “Star Wars” was set in. It allowed, in a way, fans to take control of the future of “Star Wars.”

Mind you, this way of thinking doesn’t make the company money and Lucas, feeling pressured by the fans, decided to sell the company to Walt Disney in 2012.

Disney immediately ramped up with Kathleen Kennedy, a stalwart producer in her own right at the head of the Lucasfilm division of Walt Disney. 2015 saw the release of the first Disney “Star Wars” film, “Episode VII: The Force Awakens” from J.J. Abrams and in 2017, Rian Johnson directed “Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.”

These two episodes featured our returning heroes, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, R2, 3P0 and introduced a new series of characters including Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) among other characters . . . .

Characters. That’s become one of my favorite subjects when discussing films recently. Characters can be animate and inanimate. They can make us laugh; they can make us cry.

In the case of Rambo, they can probably make us bleed, if not end up with a profuse headache by the end . . . .

I digress. The characters that populate the “Skywalker Saga” as it is now being referred to are as complex as we want them to be, or, as simple as they appear on the screen. Of course, the characters influence the path a story takes, but no one destiny is held for our characters.

Except for when it comes to an all-powerful, all-knowing Force. As Obi-Wan Kenobi defined 42 years ago, “the force is what gives the Jedi his power. It’s an energy file created by all living things. It surrounds us. It penetrates us.”

The Force is a parallel for believing in one’s own abilities, having faith that, when we set our minds to something and focus on it, we can accomplish anything.

So why then is Anakin Skywalker an exception to this rule?

As we discovered in “The Phantom Menace,” Anakin was created out of midi-chlorians. Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) explains to the young Anakin, “Midi-chlorians are a microscopic lifeform that reside within all living cells and communicates with the Force.” Qui-Gon goes on to say that midi-chlorians continually speak to us telling us about the Force.

Notice here how the perspective of the Force changed between “Star Wars” in 1977 and “The Phantom Menace” in 1999 – perspective shapes our view of the world, or in this case, the universe.

More importantly, and I feel the key to understanding “Star Wars” is the vantage point from which each of the two trilogies is told. Obi-Wan would tell Luke that he was “going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend on our own point of view.”

Experience shapes our worldview. Yet, experience isn’t everything. It takes knowledge too, making “Star Wars” one of the most unique sets of trilogies of films out there to be told, or rather framed, from a certain point of view.

“Your destiny lies along a different path from mine.”

In the original trilogy, the three stories are about a young, impetuous boy, Luke Skywalker (Hamill), not the central character telling his own journey to become the greatest Jedi in the [future] history of the universe. Luke is nothing without Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness), who in the first film tells young Luke of his father, Anakin Skywalker.

As I mentioned, Luke isn’t telling his own story. It is about Luke. We discover, almost immediately, that R2-D2 is actually conveying this first story along with C-3P0.

“But, BEN! R2 just beeps!”

Well, R2 does beep, but each beep has a different tone conveying emotion. C-3P0 is a universal translator and in this first movie, 3P0 is there to translate R2’s needs.

R2 eventually leads Luke to Obi-Wan, who has the knowledge and the experience, plus the wisdom to tell Luke of his father and what became of him, the treacherous Darth Vader. In this R2 develops enough of a bond with Luke that the droid becomes synonymous with him throughout “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi.” By the point at which Obi-wan tells Luke of Darth Vader, we’ve already seen what a menacing figure he is; Lucas established there’s a direct correlation between R2 and Darth Vader with Leia in between.

The scene where the Master Jedi and the young wayward boy both with a troubled past and a cloudy future, who also happens to be an amalgam for George Lucas, slowly begins a transition of the Force between Obi-Wan and Luke. This is repeated in a final confrontation with Darth Vader and Obi-Wan:

“I’ve been waiting for your, Obi-Wan. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I met you, I was but the learner. Now I am the master.” Obi-Wan quickly responds, “Only a master of evil, Darth” marking the ascension of Luke’s journey.

Obi-Wan continues to be a presence in Luke’s training as a Force Ghost in “The Empire Strikes Back,” and of course, in “Return of the Jedi.” Yoda (Frank Oz) would be a physical manifestation of the Force while remaining a peripheral character. But there is no more potent moment in Sci-fi cinema history than when Obi-Wan and Luke first meet, as told by R2-D2. This is Lucas’s masterstroke.

We still haven’t dealt with Anakin, but he is as divergent a character as any one.

“You were the Chosen One!”

If you’ve watched “The Phantom Menace,” you notice a similar trend in Lucas’s use of characters. He realized that as he was writing this new, prequel trilogy, that it still needed to be about Anakin, but finding the right vessel to tell the story where he can frame Anakin’s journey was actually in the hands of that pivotal moment where Luke meets Obi-Wan in “Star Wars”.

Lucas used the prequel trilogy to back fill the myth of the Force, the Jedi, the Sith, the light and the dark (we have cookies.) That is for every positive, there is a negative.

Obi-Wan becomes the prequel trilogy’s torchbearer if you will, his presence at the very beginning of the movie as he describes his feeling of something “elusive” to Qui-Gon, who tells his padawan apprentice to be mindful of the moment, “to concentrate your feelings on the present.”

A similar transition in the Force happens between Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan in “The Phantom Menace” as it does in “Star Wars.” Qui-Gon who actually discovers Anakin, leading to the wholly cheesy midi-chlorian explanation as Qui-Gon explains Anakin’s reason for existence and yet, it works. We’re convinced that this young boy will eventually “bring balance to the Force.”

And just like R2 becomes attached to Luke in the later episodes of the original trilogy, Obi-Wan becomes attached to Anakin in the prequel trilogy, even as Padme Amadala (Natalie Portman) and Anakin form a relationship in secret, something that goes against the Jedi code.

This, of course leads to a confrontation toward the end of “Revenge of the Sith” that forces Obi-Wan to kill Anakin and in a way, he succeeds; Anakin left to die in the fiery hell that is Mustafar. Obi-Wan is not happy to have to kill his padawan learner, but when he learns that Anakin has a new master, he must do so to protect the future of the Jedi Order. It’s a lesson in failure, supported by hope for a better future.

In that moment, Anakin becomes Darth Vader connecting that prequel trilogy to the original trilogy.

Lucas had in fact always planned to do a nonet of films to tell the Skywalker saga. The fans seem to have gotten in the way of his ability to tell his own story, which is what prompted him to sell to Disney. A story that seems to be affecting the perspective of this new series of films.

In the current trilogy, JJ Abrams uses the same approach only this time, the small droid BB-8 frames the Resistance efforts to stop the First Order. BB-8 is loyal to Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), but finds Rey (Daisy Ridley), which leads them to Han and then to Leia and ultimately to Luke and Kylo Ren (Driver), so Abrams and then Rian Johnson have laid the seeds with respect to telling a similar trio of films.

What will happen next? I’ll see you at the theater on December 20, 2019. For now, May the Force Be With You. Always.

Jumanji: The Next Level - Movie Review by Monte Yazzie

Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Dwayne Johnson, and Karen Gillan in ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’. Photo by Hiram Garcia - © 2019 CTMG, Inc

Dir: Jake Kasdan
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, Colin Hanks, Danny Glover, Danny DeVito, and Nick Jonas

What started with a mystical jungle board game in the ‘90s, then reinvented to an adventure video game for a new modern audience, the mischievous “Jumanji” continues to play its wicked games with a group of young people who narrowly escape being entrapped inside it forever in “Jumanji: The Next Level”.

The sequel to the 2017 reboot, directed again by Jake Kasdan, continues the adventure with the same cast, adding three new players to the mix with the grumpy duo of Danny DeVito and Danny Glover and a thieving in-game burglar played by Awkwafina, and much of the same thematic adventure storytelling that made the 2017 film such a hit with audiences.

The young group of friends who barely escaped Jumanji have returned to normal life, graduating high school and moving to different colleges, though they still remain close friends after their video game adventure. Spencer (Alex Wolff) however is having trouble adjusting in New York city after leaving his larger-than-life video game personality Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson). Spencer is also struggling to maintain a relationship with his girlfriend Martha (Morgan Turner), who helped him inside Jumanji as Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan). After coming home for the holidays Spencer is tempted by Jumanji to return to play the game one more time, leaving Spencer’s friends to return to the game to try and save him.

Returning for the fun and laughs is the lively cast lead by the charismatic Dwayne Johnson, the hilarious talents of Kevin Hart and Jack Black, and the spirited Karen Gillan. This cast is a major reason this film, which often retreads much of what it does well in the first film, works so well. The chemistry of the group, who are game to do the silly stuff with the most serious face, keeps the film very lighthearted, entertaining, and fun. It has an odd Saturday morning cartoon tone.

As the film likes to reinstate numerous times, “the game has changed”. It has, well…it wants to…but it never fully deviates in any way that would cause the film to stray too far from the formula that found success a few years ago. It has changed some of the flaws from the first film, this time strengthening the big bad guy known here as Jurgen the Brutal (Rory McCann) and allowing the lone female actioner Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan) more time to lead the group. Also, a nice narrative touch found in a body of water that allows the video game characters to switch avatar personalities provides the funniest moments in the film.

Still, this doesn’t prevent “Jumanji: The Next Level” from feeling very familiar and more formulaic than the last outing. Some scenes here are directly replicated from the last movie, replace CGI hippos with CGI anacondas or squabbling young people with irritable old people and repeat scenes that worked before. Still, the focus here is fun and laughs, and even though the film doesn’t try to reinvent the story it proudly understands its own entertainment value.

Monte’s Rating
3.00 out of 5.00

Mickey and the Bear - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

James Badge Dale and Camila Morrone in ‘Mickey and the Bear’.

Take notice of Attanasio’s feature film debut ‘Mickey and the Bear’

Written and Directed by: Annabelle Attanasio

Starring: Camila Morrone and James Badge Dale

“Mickey and the Bear” – “Well, I was born in a small town, and I live in a small town. Probably die in a small town. Oh, those small communities.” – John Mellencamp

Writer/director Annabelle Attanasio’s “Mickey and the Bear”, sounds like a throwback 70s or 80s television detective drama like “Hardcastle and McCormick”, “Starsky and Hutch” or “Jake and the Fatman”.

Except for this film’s focus on two people, it doesn’t carry much resemblance to those aforementioned programs at all. Mickey (Camila Morrone) and the Bear (James Badge Dale) are not partners, live in a big city or solve crimes. They are daughter and dad. They reside in a modest trailer in Anaconda, Mont. – population 9,000 and located between Missoula and Butte – and Hank (a.k.a. The Bear) is not solving anything at the moment. He plays video games, drinks too much and isn’t earning a steady living. He’s a military vet who suffers from PTSD, but he also carries a noticeable case of arrested development.

He does, however, have a thoughtful, pleasant daughter, who acts as his caretaker but - in the process - enables his behavior. Mickey doesn’t exactly have much choice, because she’s his dependent, at least legally, but she’s also a high school senior. The right path for her future clearly lays in front of her: any step away from her current circumstances is the right one.

“Mickey and the Bear” is an intimate indie, and writer/director Annabelle Attanasio wholly captures the physicality of this small town located in a beautiful part of the world. Neighboring buttes embrace Anaconda, and they also spring lush streams, as on-screen memories of “A River Runs Through It” (1992) may come rushing back. People seem generally happy, but Mickey sees dead ends, and Attanasio expresses this teen’s perspective with opening shots of, not necessarily blight but, limited opportunities throughout the community, where construction may have last occurred 50 years ago. Mickey works at a taxidermy shop after school, where the animals posted on the walls feel as alive as new possibilities.

A slice of life picture, we see snippets of Mickey’s days at school and work, and she also has bright moments with a new classmate named Wyatt (Calvin Demba). Mickey rides her bicycle everywhere, because she’s free when outside of her home, where - in this backwards family relationship - Hank comfortably nests into a daily irresponsible haze.

Mickey’s choices are obvious, but family loyalties and perceived responsibilities can cloud anyone’s judgement. Over the course of the film, however, these previously hard choices might just become easy ones.

Morrone and Dale easily and effortlessly play disconcerting on-screen adversaries, and their unequal relationship is framed by her youth and naivety versus his grizzled experience and years of ongoing resentment.

Free of makeup and usually wearing old sweatshirts, Morrone projects Mickey’s stripped down innocence. Mickey is girlish and navigates through life without her mom, so she’s particularly vulnerable to negative forces, and Hank freely and willingly exploits these pain points. Meanwhile, Dale, 41, purposely looks older than his years, with a graying beard and a supply of wife beater t-shirts. The actor has a recent history of playing screwups (“Little Woods” (2019)), and tough guys (“Only the Brave” (2017)), and here, he cements both personas into Hank, which makes this particular character a combustible one.

“Mickey and the Bear” can be hazardous and painful to watch at times, and even though it sports a nifty runtime of 88 minutes, Attanasio’s film isn’t a disposable 80s television show that will be forgotten the next day. Not even close.

(3.5/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic. Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

Richard Jewell - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Sam Rockwell and Paul Walter Hauser in ‘Richard Jewell’. Photo Credit: Claire Folger

Eastwood’s ‘Richard Jewell’ is a gem

Directed by: Clint Eastwood

Written by: Billy Ray, based on Marie Brenner’s magazine article

Starring: Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Olivia Wilde, and Jon Hamm

“Richard Jewell” – Who is Richard Jewell?

Richard Jewell is a hero.

During the summer of 1996, Richard (Paul Walter Hauser) became – in a flash - a bona fide hero and was widely recognized across the country by anyone who picked up a local newspaper or who casually watched television in late July. During the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Ga., Richard - working as a security guard in Centennial Olympic Park - discovered a backpack filled with pipe bombs and helped evacuate the area. The bombs killed one person and injured over 100 others, but the numbers could have been much worse, if not for the quick action of Jewell and other nearby police and security officers.

Richard appreciated the national and worldwide recognition, but for someone who dreamt of becoming a police officer, the simple act of saving lives was the ultimate personal satisfaction. No, the swarming media attention was not his dream, and his life soon became a nightmare.

Richard Jewell is a villain?

He became the FBI’s prime suspect, and the mass media attention immediately and dramatically altered from a welcoming spotlight to one thousand red laser beams pointed at his head. He was innocent, but through the laws of inertia, this erroneous accusation stayed in motion, and the media exponentially increased its speed.

The history books have rightfully and thankfully written Jewell’s true story, but director Clint Eastwood decided to raise awareness with his cinematic document.

“It’s a great American tragedy that should be pointed out,” Eastwood said in November 2019 interview.

Well, Eastwood pointed to Paul Walter Hauser to play Jewell, a stroke of casting genius. Hauser burst onto the scene with his “I, Tonya” (2017) breakthrough supporting performance as Shawn Eckhardt, the infamous accomplice in the 1994 Nancy Kerrigan attack. “I, Tonya” skates between black comedy and drama, and just about every speaking moment from Hauser induces smiles or robust laughter, including Shawn’s absurd claims of working as an international counter terrorism expert. Shawn also planned the assault while munching on potato chips – without wearing a shirt - in the back seat of a moving car.

Yes, Hauser certainly leaves an impression.

Here, he plays the title role, and although Eckhardt and Jewell were both caught in white hot national scandals, Richard is the only one with altruistic, noble intensions.

In a key way, Hauser’s two performances feel like Christoph Waltz’s turns as the brilliant but sinister Col. Hans Landa in “Inglourious Basterds” (2009) and the helpful, friendly bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz in “Django Unchained” (2012). Quentin Tarantino cast Waltz as a despicable villain in the former and a warmly received hero just three years later, and this talented Austrian actor won two Oscars for his dazzling work. Hauser probably won’t win a coveted golden statue as Jewell, but he should be considered for a nomination.

He’s that good. Hauser’s Richard is a gentle loner, someone who has been bullied about his weight for years and years and has retreated to familiar, stunting comforts for solace. Aside from hoping to become a police officer, Richard is not terribly ambitious, and this current moment of national scrutiny overwhelms him. Of course, it would overwhelm anyone, but rather than repeatedly lash out and cry foul, Richard swallows these accusations like so many taunts from his off-screen past.

He cannot fight the media and FBI blitzes on his own, so he turns to his friend, a lawyer named Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell) for help. Oscar winner Rockwell is so good as an everyman coping with conflict much larger than his initial capabilities, and Watson becomes Richard’s much-needed ally. In fact, Eastwood and Hauser scoop us up so easily into the narrative, we need Watson to help Richard almost as much he does. Oscar winner Kathy Bates assists as well by dialing in a terrific performance as Richard’s mom Bobi, a woman coping with the dual roles of dutiful mom and public defender.

Hauser, Bates, Rockwell, and Eastwood all offer their support to the late Richard Jewell in this enlightening public service announcement that kindly and enthusiastically offers the answer to the question: Who is Richard Jewell?

A hero.

(3/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic. Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

In Fabric - Movie Review by Ben Cahlamer

Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Fatma Mohamed in ‘In Fabric’.

Written and Directed by: Peter Strickland

Starring: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hayley Squires, Leo Bill, Gwendoline Christie, Julian Barratt

It is interesting to note just how informed horror and drama are by comedy or vice versa.

Take for instance, A24’s “In Fabric” which is hitting American cinemas this weekend from writer-director Peter Strickland. Here he weaves an intricate tail of a dress who possesses its owner. But said owner is not just any bloke can buy the dress off the rack for their partners.

No, this dress is wont to own its owner, and in this case it is the recently divorced Sheila (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) who takes up these stunning red threads. Strickland takes great care to define who Sheila is and is not. We get a sense of modern dating for those in the later years of their lives (I’m not discounting myself from that statement).

The caretaker of the dress is Miss Luckmoore, played divinely by Fatma Mohamed. As Sheila is drawn into the store with 1970’s – esque television commercials, appealing to her prurient needs rather than her practical needs, she decides to buy the dress, though as we discover throughout the film, the dress really chose her.

Strickland goes to great lengths to build Sheila as a character. We see her ups and downs as she first tries to date and then secondly, has to ward off what appears to be her lazy son Vince (Jaygann Ayeh), who happens to be dating the exceptional – looking Gwen (Gwendoline Christie). Add to which, Sheila is a bank teller. We don’t know much about the company she works for, but there are definitely rules within which she must operate, both professionally and personally. These points are deftly handled through meetings with her managers, Stash (Julian Barratt) and Clive (Steve Oram) give her the third degree for small infractions with the funniest one being that Sheila waved inappropriately to the bank managers’ wife on the street one time.

Though much of the drama is driven by humor, we can feel the blanket of horror bearing down on us as Sheila becomes uncomfortable with the dress, trying to return it. Ari Wegner’s camerawork uses beautiful close-ups and odd angles to define the deviant nature of the people who inhabit the store, especially Mr. Lundy (Richard Bremmer), who pleasures himself over a mannequin. This dark humor plays to the story’s strengths as the film attempts to dominate its audience.

Because the story is more about the dress than its inhabitant is, Strickland is able to weave in a second story involving Reg Speaks (Leo Bill). The dress in fact ends up in one of his mates’ hands as a fun moment during Reg’s stag party. The dress latches itself on to Reg and affects his relationship with his fiancée, Babs (Hayley Squires). It is this second story that becomes more gruesome. Yet, there is a beauty in the horror being presented to us that compels us to see this story through.

From the opening credits, Strickland’s vibe is mid-1970’s fashion catalogue look through disrupted VHS video or ads that appealed to a certain mindset. Even the characterizations felt of the sterilized corporate-governance feel of Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil”: even poor Reg is chastised for fixing his own washer (he’s a washer repair man). His boss just decimates his working life with a look, and a swallow. Strickland spares no character any shame in this story.

Once the dress takes its own shape, the story changes, but Strickland keeps the story’s sensibilities in tune to a 21st century audience and that’s what is so compelling about this horror film – it plays off our love of laughter, our feelings of freedom when we get that perfect outfit and the horror of being dominated and controlled.

3.75 out of 4 stars.

The Aeronauts - Movie Review by Ben Cahlamer

Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones in “The Aeronauts”. Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios

Directed by: Tom Harper

Screenplay by: Jack Thorne

Story by:  Tom Harper and Jack Thorne

Starring:  Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Himesh Patel, Tom Courtenay

Arizona in Winter brings out a particularly fascinating opportunity, that of hot air balloon rides in the desert. While I’ve not personally done an excursion, I look up to the morning sky and see these small dots and think about what it must be like to be lifted into the air by hot gasses and to be able to experience the air without any other limitations than the basket you’re standing in, or the air you’re riding on.

I applied this same curiosity as James Glaisher (Eddie Redmayne) and Amelia Rennes (Felicity Jones) take to the air in the 1860’s – set “The Aeronauts” which opens this weekend.

Tom Harper, who co-wrote the story with Jack Thorne and directed the film uses some of the same tropes he developed in “Wild Rose” to tell the story of two people who desperately needed to prove their theories to a world who would not give them the time of day.

More than that though is the adventurous spirit with which Glaisher and Wren go about their adventure into the atmosphere. The time when the film is set, dirigibles are the only way off the ground and no one has a fundamental understanding of how the weather works, but Glaisher does.

In order to prove his theories though, he needs a way up into the air, and that’s where Amelia comes in. We get the sense from the opening frames, as they each try to one-up the other, that there is an unexplored sexual tension between the two. Amelia, a widow is as restrained a character as Redmayne is an actor and yet, Harper manages to get more mileage out of Redmayne because Jones is so effervescent in her determination as Amelia to prove the male-led Royal Society wrong and set a new height record while proving his theories correct.

There is an understated bravery in the adventurous spirit with which Glaisher and Amelia take to the skies supported through flashbacks. Thorne designed them to fill in gaps as the story reflects on what brought our characters to where they are today. These flashbacks are filled with wonderful characters, most notably that of Arthur Glaisher (Tom Courtenay), but do very little to support the modern adventure that Amelia and James are on.

Harper drives a feeling of romanticism between the characters. There is a tension between the two as Amelia, just having come out of a panic attack, tries to upstage James at the beginning of the movie. By the end of the movie, they find that they can rely on one another.

Where the use of flashbacks deter the course of the journey, the special effects more than support Glaisher’s and Amelia’s ambitions, allowing the wonderment of each of their characters’ excitement or horror to leap out of the screen. Nevermore is this present than in the harrowing scene where they realize that they must let the gas out in order to begin a descent. The trouble is that they’ve hit the coldest part of the atmosphere and the cap has frozen shut. In a brilliant moment that plays to our modern sensibilities, Amelia climbs out on to the balloon and manages to de-ice the latch, but not without putting herself in considerable danger.

It is this ambition that appeals to me; that adventurous spirit that captures a “brave new world” so very well. While I’m ambivalent toward the flashbacks, they do ground the characters a bit more, giving each of them a foundation. Amelia’s spitfire attitude is more about Felicity Jones’s performance than it is the character background, which is interesting because, while James Glaisher is a real-life individual who made these feats, Amelia is a completely original character and Jones filled the adventurous spirit with great aplomb.

The effects and the performances are what save “The Aeronauts” from completely deflating the story, but the unnecessary flashbacks put just as much pressure on those performances. Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne shine against the special effects and still come out on top.

2.75 out of 4

My Week with Marilyn - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in ‘My Week with Marilyn’.

With Eddie Redmayne starring in “The Aeronauts” (2019), which arrives in theatres on Friday, Dec. 6, let’s look back at his notable, complimentary performance with Michelle Williams’ turn as Marilyn Monroe in “My Week with Marilyn” (2011).

‘My Week with Marilyn’ says so much in a short time capsule

Directed by:  Simon Curtis

Written by:  Adrian Hodges, based on Colin Clark’s books “The Prince, The Showgirl and Me” (1995) and “My Week with Marilyn” (2000)

Starring:  Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh, Julia Ormond, Toby Jones, and Judi Dench

“My Week with Marilyn” (2011) – “Everyone remembers their first job.  This is the story of mine.” – Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne)

Colin Clark, a 23-year-old dreamer, decides that he needs to work in the film business, and it just so happens that Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh), of all people, says, “Let’s try to find him something to do.” 

Olivier is about to direct a comedy called “The Sleeping Prince” - which eventually becomes “The Prince and the Showgirl” (1957) - and his production stars Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams).

After a completing a series of errands, Mr. Clark eventually befriends Ms. Monroe and becomes her escort during her stay in London on the shoot, and since she’s a stranger in a “strange country and playing a strange part” (as noted by her co-star Dame Sybil Thorndike (Judi Dench)), Colin’s sincere, positive outlook provides the support that she needs. 

Williams and Redmayne are perfect support for director Simon Curtis and his film, which is based on Colin’s memoirs. Williams – who rightfully earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her work here - is quite uncanny as Monroe.  She not only looks the part and captures Monroe’s cutesy charm and bombshell looks, but Williams also channels the woman’s insecurities and bad habits that come with the noted positive qualities. 

“My Week with Marilyn” cannot work without the audience believing that Williams is Monroe.  Well, cue the movie’s opening scene.  Clark sits in a theatre and marvels at Monroe belting out “When Love Goes Wrong (Nothing Goes Right) and “Heat Wave” on-screen, and before you can say, “It’s me, Sugar”, Williams has us believing. 

In a 2011 interview with journalist and humorist Mo Rocca, Williams reveals that she spent months studying Monroe and even wore a belt tied around her knees to properly capture Marilyn’s wiggle while she walks.  Williams is a star in her own right, but she did her homework before playing one of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities, and Redmayne’s turn as a starry-eyed young assistant is this movie’s perfect compliment. 

Colin is just a kid, but he displays good judgment and cultural wherewithal.  Olivier trusts Colin, and so does Marilyn, but hey, this upstart is still a mere mortal.  Yes, he’s a friend to Marilyn, but he also channels considerable fortitude to prevent his knees from turning to jelly in front of this living legend.  Redmayne is wholly likable here, and in many ways, Colin is Marilyn’s British knight in shining armor, as he helps shield her from negative forces with a kind face and warm words. 

He’s her confidant, friend and muse.   

“My Week with Marilyn” is a confident and brisk 93-minute biopic.  Although it captures a short moment in time, it says so much about Monroe, at least through the eyes of Clark.  The movie hooks us through Williams’ remarkable performance but also with Clark’s luck, because he finds himself helping Ms. Monroe in her time of need…on his first job. 

Quite a remarkable line on his resume, don’t you think?  For Williams and Redmayne, “My Week with Marilyn” is a proud line on theirs.

(3/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

Five Essential Mark Ruffalo Performances by Jeff Mitchell

Mark Ruffalo stars in “Dark Waters” (3.5/4 stars), a true story about Robert Bilott, a lawyer who exposed Dupont’s pollution practices in a small West Virginia town.  Bilott’s work helped so many lives and brought light to an insidious 21st century problem that has been cultivating since the mid 20th century. 

You can easily see Ruffalo’s passion for the film in his performance, and he’s offered that same emotion in his on-screen work for over 20 years.  He’s delivered many, many memorable moments during his fruitful career in films like “13 Going on 30” (2004), “The Brothers Bloom” (2008), “Margaret” (2011), “Begin Again” (2013), “Infinitely Polar Bear” (2014), “Foxcatcher” (2014), and more, but let’s look his five most essential performances, and note that his work in “Dark Waters” is probably his sixth.

“Dark Waters” opens in Phoenix theatres on Wednesday, Nov. 27.

Mark Ruffalo in “You Can Count on Me” (2000)

Terry, “You Can Count on Me” (2000) – Writer/director Kenneth Lonergan earned a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination in his directorial debut, a soulful family drama about Sammy (Laura Linney) - a lending officer and single mom - taking in her irresponsible brother Terry (Ruffalo) for a short while. 

Linney garnered plenty of accolades too with a Best Actress Oscar nomination, and Ruffalo’s portrayal of an unfocused, unreliable drifter is the breakout role that eventually led to a supporting turn in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004) and Jennifer Garner’s love interest in “13 Going on 30” (2004).  Speaking of ages 13 and 30, Terry owns a serious case of arrested development, but Sammy hopes that he might still be a good influence on her young son.  The other men in Sammy’s life have fallen short, but can she count on her brother Terry?  Oh, we really, really hope so.

Mark Ruffalo as police inspector David Toschi in “Zodiac” (2007)

Police Inspector David Toschi, “Zodiac” (2007) – A serial killer, who calls himself Zodiac, is baffling Northern California police officers and newspaper reporters, and an all-star ensemble cast - including Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Brian Cox, Anthony Edwards, and Ruffalo – are willing pawns in director David Fincher’s sprawling, purposely exhausting crime drama.

While San Francisco Chronicle reporter Paul Avery (Downey Jr.) and cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Gyllenhaal) track grizzly clues, San Francisco police inspector David Toschi - who carries his gun like Steve McQueen’s Bullitt and has a fondness for animal crackers - hits the pavement with pragmatic sensibilities.  All the men feel the stress of continually falling one step behind the killer, and the results impact them in unpredictable ways.  Toschi is not immune from the frustration of missing Zodiac’s signs, but perhaps Graysmith, of all people, might eventually point the case in the right direction. 

Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Hutcherson, and Mia Wasikowska in The Kids Are All Right (2010)

Paul, “The Kids Are All Right” (2010) – Joni (Mia Wasikowska), 18, and Laser (Josh Hutcherson), 15, are doing just fine.  They have two loving and supportive parents, Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore) and live comfortably in a wealthy Southern California suburb.  They seem it have it all, but Laser wants to know their biological father.  Both moms were artificially inseminated by an anonymous sperm donor, so Joni and he arrange to meet him.  His name is Paul (Ruffalo). 

Director Lisa Cholodenko finds some room for Paul in this modern American family, as this free-spirited restaurant owner takes some hesitant steps forward to meet and connect with his kids and their four-person household in a constantly-engaging comedy/drama.  In 2010, “The Kids Are All Right” was a forward-thinking picture, and nine years later, it continues to age well.  Meanwhile, all the leads deliver spot-on performances, and Ruffalo is the film’s perfect wildcard, as Paul unloads equal measures of good intentions and awkward moments that ripple throughout the narrative and the aforementioned happy home.

Mark Ruffalo as Dr. Bruce Banner/The Hulk in The Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Dr. Bruce Banner/The Hulk, The Marvel Cinematic Universe (2012 – Present) – Bill Bixby, Eric Bana and Edward Norton played live action versions of Dr. Banner, but Ruffalo has enjoyed an eight-year-run as the green gargantuan over a number of marvel films, and his future looks bright for more romping, stomping adventures.  Ruffalo carries Banner’s intellectual panache, but also gives the good doctor spaces for emotional vulnerabilities - like having feelings for Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) – but he also can rip amusing one-liners to keep up with the refreshingly-comic Thor (Chris Hemsworth).  These days, Banner and Hulk are bosom buddies, and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) recently introduced audiences to a new version of the character:  Professor Hulk.  He is an intellectual smashing machine, so Ruffalo has zero reason to be angry.  Just the opposite, actually, as MCU fans and he are all smiles!

Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo in Spotlight (2015).

Mike Rezendes, “Spotlight” (2015) – Four reporters – Walter ‘Robby’ Robinson (Michael Keaton), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), Matt Carroll (Brian d’Arcy James), and Mike Rezendes (Ruffalo) - make up The Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team, and they dive into long, investigative stories that could take a year to come together.  In 2001, the paper’s new editor Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) suggests that someone follow up on a specific sexual abuse case involving the Catholic Church by filing a motion to lift a seal on court documents.  Many wish to proceed with caution, but not Rezendes. 

“He wants to sue the church?  Hey, that’s great,” Rezendes says. 

The reporters soon discover that the Boston Archdiocese is involved in a vastly larger conspiracy, so Robinson, Pfeiffer, Carroll, and Rezendes persistently knock on doors, ask questions, look for documents, and chronicle their findings.  Director Tom McCarthy’s “Spotlight” presents the very best of journalism, as Keaton, McAdams, d’Arcy James, and Ruffalo play reporters who pursue one thing:  the truth.  In 2019, journalists who report the truth are under siege more than any other time in recent memory, so McCarthy’s film and the actors’ first-rate work are precious reminders of the Fourth Estate’s vital importance.

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic. Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

Knives Out - Movie Review by Monte Yazzie

From left to right. Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis), Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), Richard (Don Johnson), Walter (Michael Shannon), and Jacob (Jaeden Martell) in “Knives Out”.

Dir: Rian Johnson
Starring: Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, and Christopher Plummer

It was Colonel Mustard in the library with a candlestick!

Everyone loves a good, old fashioned whodunit; that stealthy murder mystery suspense thriller in the vein of an Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle novel. The kind of mystery story that starts with the discovery of a dead body and weaves through a group of people, where everyone is a suspect, leading towards the final reveal of the devious plans and the uncovering of the murderer who tried to get away with it all.

Writer/director Rian Johnson, who last helmed the monolithic “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”, takes a step back with a smaller more restrained film and also into the past with “Knives Out”. Johnson, obviously influenced by films like the Agatha Christie adaptation “Death on the Nile”, Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s “Sleuth” starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine, and “Deathtrap” from Sidney Lumet, crafts a clever and entertaining whodunit with an exceptionally talented cast of players.

The mystery takes place at the sprawling, ornamented estate owned by world-renowned mystery author Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer). His family, a group of ravenous vultures who have become dependent on the immense wealth Harlan has cultivated with the production of his library of novels, is celebrating his birthday when at the end of the evening, Harlan is found dead in his study.

Funeral arrangements are made, the last will & testament reading is planned, but the police (LaKeith Stanfield and Noah Segan) have some final questions concerning the circumstances of Harlan’s death. Most especially interested is Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), a sort-of-famous investigator, who’s involvement in the proceedings is dubiously unknown. As are the motives of Harlan’s caretaker Marta (Ana de Armas), his arrogant nephew (Chris Evans), belligerent son (Michael Shannon), and entitled daughter (Jamie Lee Curtis). Everyone is a suspect.

Rian Johnson clearly understands the setup and execution of these specific narratives, spending a meticulous amount of time building the maze of clever clues, amusing MacGuffins, and witty fake outs. Johnson understands that what makes these types of films so enthralling is that viewers will place themselves into the story as amateur gumshoes, analyzing background objects, dissecting comments made by characters, and following the many diverting bread crumb trails. Johnson executes this component effectively throughout, building the mystery and revealing secrets in interesting, if sometimes familiar, ways. There are only a couple of moments when the twists and turns overtake the pacing and momentum of the story.

The cast is exceptional and part of the reason the film works so well. Everyone in the film has a specific motivation and each has very identifiable character traits that set them apart from one another. Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, with a thick southern accent and showy gestures, swaggers through scenery with confidence and glee. Jamie Lee Curtis, playing the stoic figure of the family, is having fun giving long glares and sly smirks. Michael Shannon, playing Harlan’s son, is consistently amusing to watch as he stumbles and grumbles from scene to scene. The entire ensemble is provided an opportunity to shine.

“Knives Out” is a meticulously crafted environment and story from start to finish. While there are a few moments when the film reveals its tricks too early and sometimes too plainly, Rian Johnson ultimately displays a masterful understanding of how to craft a good ol’ fashioned whodunit.

Monte’s Rating
4.00 out of 5.00

Dark Waters - Movie Review by Ben Cahlamer

Mark Ruffalo stars as "Robert Bilott" in director Todd Haynes’ “Dark Waters", a Focus Features release.

Directed by: Todd Haynes

Written by: Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan

Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, Bill Pullman

Mark Ruffalo’s career continues to amaze me. There is an earnestness and a seriousness for each of the roles he has taken on. Within that seriousness, there is an empathy drawing you into his performance and we feel his compulsion to see something through to its end.

In Todd Haynes’s latest film, “Dark Waters,” Ruffalo takes on, not only DuPont Chemical Corporation, but the very health of a small community and ultimately the nation when it is discovered that DuPont purposely withheld vital information about the toxic pollution of a West Virginia town’s water supply.

Ruffalo plays Robert Bilott, a Philadelphia corporate defense attorney, whose law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister, curiously starts out as a part of DuPont’s defense against such claims. Haynes paints Bilott as a hard working attorney, who understands where his paycheck comes from, but doesn’t mind it either. He plays his promotion off with jokes as his status raises, leaving behind colleagues.

Haynes sets up the drama in a bold way as a mysterious visit by a cattle farmer, Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp) rattles Bilott; firstly because he wasn’t expecting a visitor and secondly, he wasn’t expecting to revisit his home, Parkersburg, West Virginia. Tennant, an obtuse individual storms his waiting room with a box of video tapes, demanding that Bilott look at them as he levies a charge of corporate malfeasance.

Bilott, who has been defending the very company that Tennant charges a wrongdoing with, doesn’t want to believe him. Nevertheless, Ruffalo’s earnest and empathetic nature compels him to start investigating, which as we know eventually takes years.

The script by Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan, based on Nathaniel Rich’s The New York Times Magazine’s “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare” methodically lays out the evidentiary phase as Bilott starts uncovering the surface-level evidence. His investigation takes him to Phil Donnelly, the CEO and Chairman of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. Donnelly, played by Victor Garber is at first helpful. There’s an early soiree where Donnelly and Bilott are friendly. As Bilott’s investigation deepens, Donnelly withdraws his support.

Haynes and Ruffalo underpin the dramatic tension with Billot’s family life or lack thereof.

His wife, Sarah played by Anne Hathaway, is also an attorney. However, she is a stay-at-home mom, taking care of their kids. We get a sense early on that there are challenges in their relationship, that Rob is keeping things from her; it’s not an untrusting relationship between them, rather a “I’m protecting you by not telling you everything” type of relationship.

“Dark Waters,” follows in the footsteps of Michael Mann’s “The Insider” with a solid antagonist in its own unfolding drama. Haynes uses his pacing in a deliberate and methodical manner to stymie Rob at every corner, through his own firm; DuPont, the legal system, the pressure to find the evidence and collect it, and his own health.

On the periphery of Rob’s discovery phase is lead partner Tom Terp played with great bombast by Tim Robbins. Robbins’ role is dialog-heavy; he relishes the opportunity to chew scenes, especially when Rob’s investigation finally leads to a push by the law firm that formally represented DuPont. There’s a scene that sets the third act in motion, where a junior partner, James Ross (William Jackson Harper) speaks out against the firm taking on the class lawsuit. An exhausted Billot is silent while the established partners argue for taking on the case. Terp just blasts out what the audience is feeling, not even looking at the reams of bound paper in front of him: he knows that their moral obligation is to defend the indefensible.

Bill Camp deserves recognition for his performance as Tennant, carrying a range of emotion as he tries to save his farm and then, desperately, his family. Victor Garber’s repulsed look as he is presented evidence of his company’s malfeasance echoes our own horrors.

But, it is Anne Hathaway’s silently frustrated performance that reminds us of what’s truly at stake: not the burden of carrying the case (I know the feeling, I’ve pulled stunts like Billot did before, but not at such a great sacrifice), but the burden of not being there for his kids and wife as they grow up around him.

Haynes cleverly disguises the passage of time through each vehicle Rob drives. There’s a running gag throughout the film that he buys cheap, used cars until they run into the ground, a sign of his sparse nature.

That’s the brilliance of Haynes’s direction: all throughout the drama and the horrific scenes that permeate the film, there are subtle touches that define each performance as well as the flow of the film, the subtlety punctuated with explosive, emotional anger, keeping our pulse rate elevated.

“Dark Waters” is about the compulsive nature of Rob Bilott. Ruffalo’s earnest and empathetic performance plays right into the unfolding drama. That drama plays directly into the themes that are on the minds of moviegoers around the world.

And that makes “Dark Waters” a compelling and worthy trip to the movies.

3 out of 4 stars

The Irishman - Movie Review by Monte Yazzie

During a break in the trial of Jimmy Hoffa, Chuckie O’Brien (Jesse Plemons), Bill Bufalino (Ray Romano), Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) and Hoffa (Al Pacino) are shocked at the news of JFK’s assassination. © 2019 Netlfix US, LLC.

Dir: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino, Harvey Keitel, Bobby Cannavale, Jesse Plemons, Anna Paquin, Kathrine Narducci, Stephanie Kurtzuba, and Ray Romano

A deliberate camera wanders elegantly through a nursing home, down hallways and past medical staff, finally coming to rest in a cold and lonesome room where one single old man sits, almost waiting for the arrival of someone to engage his company. This all happens as “In the Still of the Night” by the Five Satins sets the mood for the story about to be told, a tale of murder and mobsters, tough guys with tough tales, with both the known and unknown elements of history equally famous and infamous supplying influence.

“The Irishman”, from director Martin Scorsese, is another gangster story from the auteur many would identify as the curator of the modern mob movie. Films like “Goodfellas”, “Casino”, and “The Departed” all tackled stories of money, power, respect and the violence, arrogance, and betrayal that permeates those areas. “The Irishman” sets a different mood, the familiar elements are all still present but the emotion and intention are different this time around. Scorsese tells a tale that focuses on loss and remorse, decision and intention; it’s a three and a half-hour long cinematic achievement from one of the greatest film directors of all time. 

Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) is the Irishman and also the lone elder waiting in the nursing home to tell a story about his life. Frank, after being a soldier in World War II, made a living as a truck driver in Pennsylvania, but after a chance meeting with a local gangster named Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci), Frank takes a role as “the muscle” for the Philadelphia mob. It doesn’t take long for Frank to impress the higher-ups, opening an opportunity for him to work with James Riddle Hoffa (Al Pacino), president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. 

The plot for “The Irishman” is an interesting device, told with voice-over narration from Frank, who is in the nursing home, and with the same emphasis that old men recall stories about long-forgotten fishing trips or family vacations from the past. Frank looks back on the past, recalling the events that will eventually lead to the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa while taking moments to talk about other gangsters, family life, and historical events pertinent to Frank and his journey through time. With such an extensive running time, it might seem like all these elements would become convoluted or muddle the emotion for the characters. It’s the exact opposite, the deliberate pacing and extensive time spent wandering through time with Frank and other associates helps in establishing the conflict Frank develops as elements of betrayal and loyalty arise throughout his life. It’s less about the history of things or the structure of the mob and more about the emotion of everything that happens to the characters. 

The script allows so much for the cast to work with, it’s a beautiful thing watching these amazing actors work in this film. De Niro is fantastic throughout, offering a character that starts as a loyal soldier who matures into a leader who is conflicted yet still devoted to his superiors. It’s a fascinating transition for the character, but also, transformation as De Niro and others in the cast are digitally de-aged for the film, an effect that is strange at first but quickly dissipates. Al Pacino plays Hoffa with a combination of big bold swagger when in the public eye but also sensitivity in smaller scenes when he and Frank are sharing hotel rooms or having ice cream with the family. Joe Pesci completely captivating here; the actor, who hasn’t been in much on the silver screen since the ’90s, composes a quiet character, doing more with subtle glances and small expressions than big dialog moments or boastful gangster antics like we’ve seen in the past. 

The look of the film, photographed by Rodrigo Prieto, is stunning at times. The film seems to glow during flashbacks and slowly desaturate as Frank and Russell make a fateful road trip with their wives. The beginning long, continuous shot is beautifully composed and a scene involving a big celebration for Frank looms with ominous intentions.  

“The Irishman” comes at an interesting time in the career of Martin Scorsese who recently has come under criticism from some film fans concerning his views on the state of cinema and the connection to Marvel comic book movies. Film is a subjective art-form, but if anyone has the right to make comments on the art of cinema, it’s Martin Scorsese. If the auteur’s past catalog doesn’t prove that point, “The Irishman” displays all the reasons why cinema should be regarded with the kind of seriousness Scorsese commands.  

Monte’s Rating
4.50 out of 5.00

Waves - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Kelvin Harrison Jr.; left, and Sterling K. Brown in “Waves.” (A24)

‘Waves’:  An explosive and hypnotic domestic ride

Written and directed by:  Trey Edward Shults

Starring:  Sterling K. Brown, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Taylor Russell, and Lucas Hedges

“Waves” – Writer/director Trey Edward Shults’ vibrant and explosive film is about families.  Fathers and sons.  Mothers and daughters.  Parents and children.  

Actually, it’s about one family, and no matter how much love and guidance that Ronald (Sterling K. Brown) and Catharine Williams (Renee Elise Goldsberry) openly bequeath to their kids Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and Emily (Taylor Russell), open lines of communication between generations are sometimes impossible to find, even when a father, stepmother, son, and daughter live under one roof, frequently within whispering distances.

First definition of a wave:  Move to and fro with a swaying or undulating motion while remaining fixed to a point.

Ronald and Catharine Williams created a world of support for Tyler and Emily in the Miami suburbs.  They work hard and expect a lot from their teenage children, although the focus these days is squarely on Tyler.  Tyler is the older sibling, and Ronald seems to relish pushing him to excel, especially on the high school wrestling mat.  He even trains with his son, and they frequently lift weights without their shirts and flex in front of the mirror, which pushes their collective macho-quotient to 11.  Despite having a tight, ever-present rein on Tyler, Ronald has no idea that his son is stressed about two massive issues.  

Second definition of a wave:  a long body of water curling into an arched form and breaking on shore.

Tyler and his girlfriend Alexis (Alexa Demie) enjoy a carefree, loving relationship, and Shults introduces the audience to the happy couple with dazzling camerawork, as the two zip along the highway.  His camera somehow swivels and spins in tight quarters, and modern, pulsating beats are in sync with the kids’ laughter and smiles, as their heads and limbs sometimes extend outside the open windows.  With passion in the hearts and nothing but time on their hands, Tyler and Alexis perfectly capture the joy of youth in just a minute or two of screen time. 

Shults presents similar movements at the kids’ high school, as he dives and darts in the weight and wrestling rooms, but also outside on green football fields where cheerleaders practice.  Libraries and books aren’t particularly featured, but we get a first row seat into this aforementioned celebratory fervor.  School, however, is also noticeably separate from the rigidity of Tyler’s and Emily’s home life, so a clear divide between parents and kids exists.  

Third definition of a wave: a sudden occurrence of, or increase in, a specified phenomenon, feeling or emotion.

Unfortunately, the exuberance of youth can spill into immaturity and irrationality.  This fragile combination can quickly manufacture unexpected consequences, and not even the strongest parental foundations can prepare for them. 

It’s difficult to prepare for a couple key moments in “Waves”.  It’s a film that tests our limits.  It throws the audience into a meat grinder, but then opens up hypnotic spaces to help us cope.   It feels organic.  Then again, Shults’ direction is certain and unmistakable, and we are powerless to course correct.  Thankfully, we can regain autonomy after the movie, and the best course of action is to search for those evasive lines of communication in our own lives.  In the meantime, waves are always crashing against the shore.

(3.5/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood - Movie Review by Ben Cahlamer

Tom Hanks and Matthew Rhys star in TriStar Pictures’ ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’. Photo Credit: Lacey Terrell

Directed by: Marielle Heller

Written by: Micah Fisteman-Blue and Noah Harpster

Based on: “Can You Say… Hero?” by Tom Junod

Starring: Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Cooper, Enrico Colantoni, Maryann Plunkett

As Marielle Heller’s “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” unfolded in front of me, it was difficult not to compare my own childhood experience of seeing Fred Rogers appearing on the television, talking directly to me.

I get misty eyed just thinking about it.

Tom Hanks’s nearly pitch-perfect performance has something to do with my misty eyes. However, it is the way Ms. Heller used the script from Micah Fitzeman-Blue and Noah Harpster to define the well-nuanced layers of the story.

More importantly, their script and Ms. Heller’s treatment of the script relies on the audience being open to what the film’s message is truly about, which is to say that Fred Rogers is telling Lloyd Vogel’s (Matthew Rhys) story as if it were another of the 895 episodes that Rogers produced between 1968 and 2001. The film opens to Vogel giving yet another award-winning speech, laced with sarcasm, but we can tell from the onset that there is a lot of pain.

The film is set in 1998 and follows the cynical Vogel, who at the time was writing for Esquire Magazine when he was asked to do a profile on Mr. Rogers. There’s a scene early in the film in which Vogel is sitting in his editors’ office and she reminds him why this assignment is being pushed in his direction. It’s a darkly humorous moment which begins a journey of change.

When Mr. Rogers and Lloyd first meet, there’s a playful banter between he and Lloyd; sitting just off the set, Lloyd begins a series of questions, but the focal point is the bandage across Lloyd’s nasal bridge. Within that moment, something brilliant happens as their conversation reaches through the cinema screen with that endearing trait that Mr. Rogers was known for – his ability to get people comfortable enough to open up.

Ms. Heller also buoys that sequence with Lloyd’s arrival on set – a child who is suffering is willful and disrespectful as his parents try to get him to calm down. While the parents scramble to control their child, Lloyd is having a conversation with Bill Isler (Enrico Colantoni), the President & CEO of Family Communications, Fred Rogers’s production company. Isler comments on the quality of Vogel’s articles, saying that he had Rogers read every article they could find written by Vogel and that Vogel was someone who Rogers loved to work with. Incredulously, Vogel asks Isler, “why, because I’m broken?”

The story’s conflict is one of family; a distanced father, Jerry played by Chris Cooper and an isolated, but understanding wife in Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson) along with a son, Gavin. It is also about perspective and that’s something that Rogers thrived on – changing perspectives through gentle probing questions. There is never malicious intent in their interactions.

This thesis is supported through a scene about midway through the movie where, following a traumatic argument with his dad, Lloyd returns to Mr. Rogers as a way of escape. They meet in an Asian restaurant and through their conversation, Lloyd admits to certain things. Mr. Rogers asks Lloyd to take a moment of silence, seeking out all the people who love him. The low hush of dishes clattering in the kitchen and other diners’ conversations comes to a halt; the passersby outside the restaurant and the traffic just completely stop. It’s a moment of pure serenity as just a simple exercise and taking a moment to stop and realize just how much support we all really have was amazing.

As I think about it, Hanks flourished in bringing his own iconic mannerisms to another icon while keeping within the boundaries of who Fred Rogers was. Rhys had a conviction about himself that his cynic side was his driving force. There was a stoic side to him, but he always had a twinkle about him as if he was ready to laugh.

There’s a natural symmetry and flow to the story. Nothing ever really feels forced about the way Hanks portrays Rogers. In fact, the primary method of Rogers’s outlets for his anger and rage, for which he was known for having a temper, is beautifully contrasted with the opening outlet for Lloyd.

“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” does not pander. It doesn’t suggest that change can happen immediately; that the change within ourselves is a constant battle. But, given the circumstances of the story, the speed with which that change happens quickens in the second half of the film and I think that pace weakens the film just slightly.

One might be inclined to think that change isn’t possible, that we’ve gone down a dark path and that we can’t change our ways. The world thrives on failure and “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” reminds us that we are each of us, special in our own unique way and that we can be loved just for who we are.

3 out of 4 stars

Honey Boy - Movie Review by Ben Cahlamer

Shia LaBeouf plays his own father in his film ‘Honey Boy’.

Directed by: Alma Har’el

Written by: Shia LaBeouf

Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Lucas Hedges, Noah Jupe

I remember watching the Disney movie “Holes” on DVD in the late 90’s and the young actor at the center of the film, Shia LaBeouf was dramatically captivating. He went on to other roles, but his biggest performance has been his fall from Hollywood’s grace over the years.

His prophetic screenplay for “Honey Boy,” Alma Har’el’s directorial debut, serves as much of a release from his own internal pressures as much as it is an apology letter to his fans and his colleagues for his transgressions.

The story starts in present day as Otis Lort played by Lucas Hedges enters rehab following a DUI. He doesn’t believe he has a problem, but he does have Laura San Giacomo’s Dr. Moreno to talk about his challenges. The story is predicated on this DUI and his visit to a rehab facility as being his third strike.

The stakes for Lort have never been more serious and through Hedges’s expert performance, he simply doesn’t care. At the beginning.

Har’el takes us back to when Otis was a lad. Noah Jupe plays the younger Otis. In the opening scene, Jupe is set against a pitch black background and a cream pie just hits him perfectly square in the face – the joke’s on him. We quickly realize he’s a child actor and his father, James (LaBeouf) is his manager.

We can tell from James’s reaction to the production running later than scheduled, that there’s a lot of pent up anger. James teaches, or remind Otis to mind his manners and his place. We know that young Otis is a playful soul; one that is not being let out, so acting is his release.

Although we know that “Honey Boy” is autobiographical in nature, the way the film switches from young Otis to present day Otis doesn’t give the film an autobiographical feeling, allowing Hedges and Jupe to naturally progress through the opposite ends of one personality. Jupe is the standout here, showing a range of emotions, eventually taking control of his own life from his abusive father.

Adding a rich context to the characters is the court motel outside L.A. that James has them shacked up in; a home to prostitution and drugs and not exactly the best way to raise a son. LaBeouf’s performance as his own abuser is some of the most powerful acting I’ve seen this year – it is truly a release for him to finally acknowledge his own pain and to deal with, but it is Jupe that truly supports LaBeouf’s transformation.

Hedges, who is having yet another amazing year in 2019 stands out as the result of all the abuse. More importantly, the character realizes that his outlet is just an escape, something his father did to himself as well – life father, like son, until they both eventually become drifters; there is a lyricism about the way in which they drift, the powerful music from Alex Somers drives the characters toward their destinies.

As strong as the performances are, Natasha Braier’s cinematography must not go unnoticed: her work during the modern day settings with lots of natural sunlight flowing through the interior spaces, suggesting, in fact encouraging an open place in which to share our darkest fears contrasts with dingy, cramped surroundings of the motel young Otis and James lived in. Braier’s exterior shots are all about the gorgeous sunsets, the golden halo that permeates the Los Angeles Basin punctuating the dreams with which Otis has for his life, but his father can’t see.

LaBeouf has continued his acting career even through his recovery period and his performances get deeper and deeper; “The Peanut Butter Falcon” from earlier this year is a shining example.

As a screenwriter, even if he focuses on down and out recovery type characters, he has a future as a screenwriter. “Honey Boy” proves the exception to LaBeouf’s rule and I, for one, hope he continues to write as well as act.

3.75 out of 4