Les Misérables - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Courtesy of SRAB Films/Rectangle Productions/Lyly films

Surprise!  Oscar-nominated ‘Les Misérables’ is a gritty, non-musical crime drama

Directed by:  Ladj Ly

Written by:  Ladj Ly, Giordano Gederlini and Alexis Manenti

Starring:  Damien Bonnard, Alexis Manenti, Djibril Zonga, and Issa Perica

“Les Misérables” – “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” – Charles Dickens, “A Tale of Two Cities”

Quoting – or to be more precise, partially-quoting - Dickens to kick off a “Les Misérables” movie review might be brazen, foolish and a bit sacrilegious, but after watching director Ladj Ly’s gutsy, modern take on Victor Hugo’s celebrated novel, it also feels apropos. 

For Issa (Issa Perica), a young Parisian teen, life is the best of times and also the worst.  France just won the 2018 World Cup, and the nation celebrates!  In Paris, Parisians are dizzy and giddy with pure unsullied bliss.  Issa, his friends and thousands and thousands of smiling locals rush the streets, surround cafes, gather at Jardins du Trocadero with the Eiffel Tower proudly fixed in the background, and flood Champs-Élysées with the equally famous Arc de Triomphe that offers a striking spectacle of superb salutations. 

Ly’s camera captures white faces, brown faces and every shade in between in the massive crowds and intimate close-ups of this positive, carnival-like atmosphere, as the city’s citizens toss aside any and all physical, monetary, cultural barriers and embrace one another. 

Although the enjoyable World Cup hangover will last for years and years, reality also arrives the very next day after the big win.  Issa lives in Les Bosquets, a struggling, neglected suburb east of Paris, where cracked concrete, broken windows and kilometers of graffiti are the most notable elements of the landscape, and he frequently embraces trouble, including theft.  Most recently, Issa inexplicably steals a bag of hens, which naturally triggers a trip to the police station.

A bag of hens?   

Issa’s continued mischief will also, unfortunately, fall into the collective purview of police officers Stephane (Damien Bonnard), Chris (Alexis Manenti) and Gwada (Djibril Zonga).  It’s Stephane’s (Damien Bonnard) first day on the city’s anti-crime task force, and he’s paired with Chris and Gwada, who have patrolled these streets for about 10 years. 

Hardened and bitter, Chris fears no repercussions for bullying the folks in Les Bosquets, including taunting a 15-year-old girl at a bus stop and smashing her friend’s phone to bits.  And Gwada?  Well, he’s – figuratively and literally - just going along for the ride and is complicit with his silence. 

Certainly, Ly’s film channels obvious parallels to Hugo’s original work, including the prime location, a police manhunt (or in this case, a boyhunt) and a sincere focus on the underprivileged, but instead of a more traditional telling of “Les Misérables”, it seems like a French grandson of director Dennis Hopper’s “Colors” (1988).  Just as Los Angeles police officers Bob Hodges (Robert Duvall) and Danny McGavin (Sean Penn) walk along moral compass edges of South Central Los Angeles in the late 1980s, Chris, Gwana and Stephane march in the grooves of Les Bosquets in 2018. 

No, Chris is not throwing bodies into the Catacombs, as they did during the French Revolution (which incidentally is not the timeframe of Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables”), but he inflicts caustic, twisted logic to keep the peace, which of course, has the opposite effect. 

“Les Misérables” is a sobering, present-day crime drama, and it’s not a musical at all.  Not at all.  Instead, it teases a troubling butterfly effect from one ill-behaved action, and along the way, Ly – who grew up in Les Bosquets - introduces several struggling, supporting characters with hip names like Buzz, Zorro, Slim, Salah, and the Mayor.  They, along with Issa, cope with their trying surroundings and form necessary creeds that are uniquely understood in Les Bosquets and other similar neighborhoods from around the globe.

Hugo understood these principles too.

“People weighed down with troubles do not look back; they know only too well that misfortune stalks them.” – Victor Hugo, “Les Misérables”

(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.

Bad Boys for Life - Movie Review by Ben Cahlamer

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in ‘Bad Boys for Life’.

Directed by: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah

Screenplay by: Chris Bremner, Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan, Story by: Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan

Based on Characters by: George Gallo

Starring: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, Paola Nunez, Kate del Castillo, Jacob Scipio

As I get older, it has been a pleasure to watch films whose intent is to recognize that its stars are not ageless.

In the case of “Bad Boys for Life,” co-directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah charge headstrong into a story that reflects this mode of thought. Long gone are the characters created by George Gallo but the script by Chris Bremner, Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan really drives home the theme through our legacies, both good and bad.

“Bad Boys for Life” suffers because of those charges.

It’s not that the mode of thought is incorrect. Rather, Mike Lawrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence), who have been partners on the Miami PD force for the better part of 24 years, haven’t aged gracefully and they don’t accept their characters’ legacies with as much grace as, say Riggs and Murtaugh from “Lethal Weapon,” which felt like a huge influence on this film.

Marcus, who has found religion once again, is now a grandfather. We can see him fit easily into the retirement he has planned for himself and being a grandfather. But, Mike’s past catches up with him forcing Marcus out of fogginess of feigned retirement.

El Arbi and Fallah use some fancy editing techniques to build up sympathies for our favorite duo and for the most part, it works. They get some laughs out of us and in the end, we appreciate our intrepid heroes more than we have in the past. Joe Pantoliano steps back into the shoes of Captain Howard just perfectly, along with the requisite Pepto.

As the story gets more personal, our duo step up their game. The team assembled to support Lowrey and Burnett in this round offer some levity, especially Dom (Alexander Ludwig), Rafe (Charles Melton) and Rita (Paola Nunez) under the command of Vanessa Hudgens’s Kelly. In layering those characters and their antics, they have become more cardboard props than anything else, but they do alleviate the tension.

Lowrey’s legacy is just as important an element to the film as it was for Burnett. However, once the duo get ramped up, implications behind the brazen attacks on Lowrey’s history get fuzzy; the “optics” become less clear, blurred by frenetic editing that doesn’t do the story justice.

This isn’t to say that the film’s outcome is any less important, something that has been reflected in Will Smith’s roles since he returned from retirement last summer. In that regard, Kate del Castillo’s Isabel Aretas and Armando Aretas (Jacob Scipio) made for formidable enemies.

There’s a pivotal moment in the film where the context of legacy changes and while it might have sounded really strong on paper, it changes the flavor of the film unnecessarily.

The third act benefits the most from Robrecht Heyvaert’s cinematography along with Lorne Balfe’s score, but the heavy handed editing made me feel like I was watching “A Good Day to Die Hard” all over again: bloviated action and frenetic pacing while abandoning the elements of the story that did work.

The fact that “Bad Boys for Life” is better than “Bad Boys II” says something about the story, the themes and the characters themselves; however, the film being ceremoniously put into a January slot is usually a death knell. Sony was hedging its bets that it would  overperform like “Escape Room” this same time last year. If the first third of the film, which was fun and energetic, is any indication of what Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are truly capable of, then their own legacy is worth looking at. If we get more of the last act from them, then serious doubts emerge.

“Bad Boys for Life” suffers no fools: this uneven tale of legacies is certainly worth checking out on the big screen.

2.5 stars out of 4

Clemency - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Alfre Woodard and Alex Castillo in ‘Clemency’. Photo Credit: NEON Studios.

Woodard commands the screen with steely and hazy gazes on capital punishment in ‘Clemency’

Written and directed by:  Chinonye Chukwu

Starring:  Alfre Woodard, Aldis Hodge, Wendell Pierce, and Richard Schiff

“Clemency” – For Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge), his days in prison are lengthy and torturous.  Each drab minute feels like the next, because sitting in a 10-by-10 foot cell day after day, week after week, and month after month does nothing to spur joy or optimism. 

Time has become his sworn enemy, packaged as a double-edged sword, because the seemingly endless moments are also brutally finite. 

Anthony is on death row, and he unenviably stands next in line.

Warden Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard) is enduring troubling days of her own.  She bears the constant burden of managing her prison, that houses over a thousand incarcerated souls, by proficiently and gracefully clamping a lid on a potentially explosive jar, one constructed of concrete and fortified with steel.  Her employees’ routines are methodical and organized, and the incarcerated residents surprisingly and amicably avoid trouble. 

An odd, invisible haze of calm floats everywhere. 

Calm, but no peace.   

Director Chinonye Chukwu’s measured prison drama “Clemency” delivers an effective, deep character study, but she takes a fresh, uncommon approach.  Although Anthony greatly figures into the film’s narrative, this is mainly Bernadine’s journey, as Woodard steps into a thorny, introspective role and commands a standout, Oscar-worthy performance that was not quite recognized by the Academy in a crowded year for actresses. 

Chukwu spoke at a New Directors/New Films event in March 2019 and discussed her focus on Bernadine.

“I thought that it would be a much more complicated, nuanced way of examining the cost of incarceration and capital punishment through one of the perpetrators of that system.  I think that it’s a perspective we haven’t seen before,” she said.

Films like “Dead Man Walking” (1995), “The Green Mile” (1999) and most recently “Just Mercy” (2020) feature convicts staring at death’s door, and complimentary characters – a nun, prison guard and lawyer, respectively - stand by their sides.   Far more than friendly faces, they are allies.  Tim Robbins’ “Dead Man Walking” might just be the most emotionally effective in portraying a relationship between ally and inmate, as Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon) helped admitted killer Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn) recapture his humanity.

Bernadine has no such luxury to not only govern the institution but also offer personal reassurances to her death row constituents.  It’s just not her place.  Stoic and regimented, she must leave her feelings at the door.  She’s also courteous and professional but does not bend the rules, and why should she?  If a man ran the show, compassion and empathy certainly would not be expected.  Chukwu plays against expected-type with Bernadine, as she’s a woman overseeing a male prison, and furthermore, her husband Jonathan (Wendell Pierce) has a much more empathetic, altruistic vocation.  He teaches high school. 

With such a trying profession, Chukwu and Woodard demonstrate that Bernadine needs daily releases to cope, even if she does not fully recognize the negatives.  Her marriage becomes widely exposed to collateral damage, and she also regularly indulges in an unhealthy daily practice (that will not be named in this review) that isn’t helpful to her personal life, but she needs something to offset her 9-to-5 days. 

Bernadine’s days mostly remain free from drama, but with men waiting for - and fearing - an executioner pointing a judging, threatening finger in their direction, prepare for a couple explosive moments.  Otherwise, the narrative is purposely filled with quiet, long stretches, where gray, everyday conversations encircle and encapsulate the grave surroundings, along with patient camerawork that is not afraid to sit and wait with the detained characters.  

Although he could be saved by a miracle, Anthony awaits his - most likely - doomed fate, and so does the audience and his lawyer (Richard Schiff), who seems eternally defeated after the government has put too many of his clients to death over the past couple decades.

Accordingly to Google, 29 states carry the death penalty, and this unnamed prison in an unnamed state does not resemble a place for hope.  “Clemency” is an anti-capital punishment movie that sets a decided bleak tone from the very beginning, and we – through pure necessity – lean on Bernadine to carry us through to the very end, even though it is obvious that she silently grapples with her chosen universe. 

She just might be imprisoned as well.  If so, can she escape? 

(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.

Just Mercy - Movie Review by Ben Cahlamer

Jamie Foxx and Michael B. Jordan in ‘Just Mercy’.

Directed by: Destin Daniel Cretton

Screenplay by: Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Lanham, based on “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by: Bryan Stevenson

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson, Rafe Spall, Brie Larson

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of Truth. ~ Albert Einstein

Destin Daniel Cretton’s “Just Mercy,” a story of a wrongfully accused African-American man sitting on death row and the idealistic Bryan Stevenson’s, played deftly by Michael B. Jordan, attempts to prove that innocence in the Deep South plays to our modern sympathies in a most unique and compelling fashion.

Cretton clearly defines the screen version of Stevenson within the first few frames of the film. Although he is an idealist from the underserved Milton, Delware, we first see Stevenson in a death row prison, though he is not a lawyer. When he delivers news to an inmate, something that gives such relief to the prisoner, Stevenson knows that he is on the right path to serving those who cannot help themselves.

“Just Mercy” is more than just Stevenson’s journey. We get a glimpse in to how African Americans were treated in the Deep South in the late 1980’s, impediments that would later be used to slow down his efforts to free Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), a small business owner who is detained for the 1986 murder of a white woman and is ultimately sentenced to death.

The film is ultimately an actor’s showcase. As Stevenson, Jordan wears his emotions on his sleeves, showcasing his range since his biggest hits have come from a pair of boxing gloves; his imposing figure strengthened by his courage and restraint while showing empathy for his cause, building our sympathies to not only his own struggles, but that of his client.

Jamie Foxx, who has been nominated with a Supporting Actor nomination from both SAG and the African-American Film Critics Association is deservedly so. We’ve seem his restraint before in films like “Collateral.” With this performance, he has to intentionally keep his guard up at every corner, even as he supports fellow inmates, Herbert Richardson (Rob Morgan) and Anthony Ray Hinton (O’Shea Jackson, Jr.)

The story by Cretton and Andrew Lanham, who collaborated with Cretton on “The Glass Castle” eventually breaks down the psychological barriers of isolation within Walter as he realizes that Bryan is the real deal, not some other shyster promising the moon, only to fail to deliver it.

We don’t blame Walter for his reticence, but the family, a wife twice scorned still stands by his side. They are the hope that something good can come out of this. Cretton reminds us, rather painfully, of the failure that Stevenson must endure before he finds his true path forward.

Brie Larson as Eva Ansley is by Stevenson’s side all throughout the case. As his assistant, we even see the struggles she endures to find an office for them to work in. The role eventually fades in to the background to support Stevenson. Rafe Spall plays Tommy Champan, the District Attorney who is as much a roadblock as any, though we see just the smallest waver in the attitude toward the case.

The story meanders just a bit to get to the heart of McMillan’s case, though it goes to build the credibility that hope is not worn on a shoestring, but on the backs of every single individual in a community.

“Just Mercy” is hope personified in courage in the face of adversity. Jamie Foxx remains a strong player and Michael B. Jordan personifies Einstein’s quote – we must question everything, but we must also be prepared to defend our questioning.

3.5 out of 4 stars

Like a Boss - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Rose Byrne and Tiffany Haddish in ‘Like a Boss’.

‘Like a Boss’ should be fired

Directed by:  Miguel Arteta

Written by:  Sam Pitman and Adam Cole-Kelly

Starring:  Tiffany Haddish, Rose Byrne, Billy Porter, Jennifer Coolidge, and Salma Hayek

“Like a Boss” – “Oh, you're the best friend that I ever had.  I've been with you such a long time.  You're my sunshine, and I want you to know that my feelings are true.  I really love you.  Oh, you're my best friend.” – Queen, “You’re My Best Friend” (1975)  

Mia (Tiffany Haddish) and Mel (Rose Byrne) are best friends and have been for decades.  Now, while their gal pals are scoring big jobs, getting married or having kids, Mia and Mel are housemates and share a bathroom, Brady Bunch-style.  These two girls are pushing 40, but they frequent recreational drugs and random one-night stands through the joy of singledom, but arrested development also flies as their trusty co-pilot. 

They do, however, show some semblance of adulthood, because they own a make-up store, which they built on a foundation of love.  Love doesn’t exactly pay the bills though, because they are nearly half a million dollars in debt.  Thankfully, cosmetic icon Claire Luna (Salma Hayek) solves their financial woes by buying 49 percent of their company. 

Little do Mia and Mel know that Ms. Luna carries nefarious intentions, so how will their little corner of the world (or Atlanta, to be precise) and their friendship survive?

Their future looks bleak and – most unfortunately - so does this comedy’s hope for big laughs and rewards, because “Like a Boss” is an unfunny clown show that will most likely disappoint its target audience. 

Look, director Miguel Arteta’s movie features two very likable comedic actresses, whose characters own a make-up company.  A make-up company!   This translates to girlfriends, mothers and daughters planning dinner-and-movie dates at thousands of cineplexes.  Who could blame them?  On the surface, “Like a Boss” hits all kinds of girly-beats, but most of the film’s laughs can be enjoyed in the 2-minute 18-second trailer.  

What about the actual movie, this potential wonder of feminine bliss?  Well, the chuckles start to wane after the first 20 minutes, and the remaining 60 are largely spent feeling pity for Haddish and Byrne.  

This pair has great chemistry, and they seem to be having a blast when shooting the breeze about dream-sex and smoking weed.  Although the fun – for them and the audience – comes to a screeching halt once Claire appears.  She forces Mia and Mel to drum up new business ideas, which is not their expert forte.  So the cheery shenanigans suddenly morphs into dull idea generation and bickering.

So unless one’s idea of groundbreaking comedy is cutting up a hot pepper, placing it in your best friend’s food and watching her suffer in agony, this film is a painful exercise, as we sit there and wish that these women starred in a better movie. 

The movie’s arc feels similar to Amy Schumer’s vehicle “I Feel Pretty” (2018), but at least Michelle Williams – in that film – dove into unique territory with one of the strangest performances of her career.  Hayek is an engaging actress, but her mean-rich girl act gets old after Claire’s second insult, and she doesn’t project enough villainy to feel empathy for Mia and Mel. 

Strange, because Hayek terrified every man on the planet as a dancer-turned-demon in “From Dusk Till Dawn” (1996). 

Well, “Like a Boss” may not introduce twisted, supernatural ghouls, but screenwriters Sam Pitman and Adam Cole-Kelly certainly pile on crass, warped adult humor in spades, as they absolutely earn the film’s R-rating with content that would make 1982-Eddie Murphy blush.  

So, as a public service announcement: if moms must see this movie, leave the kids at home.  For girlfriends, perhaps call up one another and cancel this particular dinner-movie night.

Think of it as a needed obligation, because hey, that’s what friends do!

(1.5/4 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.

Midnight Family - Movie Review by Ben Cahlamer

Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival.

Written and Directed by: Luke Lorentzen

Featuring:  Fer Ochoa, Josue Ochoa, Juan Ochoa

“Mexico City has fewer than 45 government ambulances for 9 million people.” That’s a scary proposition when you consider what happens if an emergency happens.

The Ochoas are as hardworking as anyone in Mexico City. As Documentarian Luke Lorentzen quickly establishes though, they are struggling to make ends meet in the fiercely competitive for-profit field of Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) who support the needs of a thriving community.

The tax revenue that Mexico City provides for emergency medical services can offer only so much support, and have limited resources to respond. In its place, people like the Ochoas spend much of their late nights and early mornings on a side street, glued to a CB radio for notices of patients in need.

Interestingly, their time is spent in a more affluent part of Mexico City where the patients can afford to pay directly out of pocket. As the nights go by though, the Ochoas encounter challenges with getting the patients to pay up. They aren’t confrontational about the need for payment; they are still focused on getting the best possible health care for their patients, finding the right hospitals.

Lorentzen contrasts the type of patients the Ochoas find with their own financial struggles. At one point, the cost of operating the ambulance, even after being detained illegally by the Mexico City police and having to pay a fine to get themselves out of trouble for not having the correct supplies on board, is even a factor.

“Midnight Family” not only exposes the Ochoas’ financial plight, but the lack of governance over these programs as the police enforce lax and or changing policies that the Ochoas simply cannot keep up with. The Ochoas make the best of the situation though and that’s the most endearing trait – they are a true family unit watching out for one another.

Even as they struggle, their reaction time to a call was exceptionally fast. “Midnight Family” explores the competitiveness of the cottage private ambulance industry as the Ochoas rely on technology and, ultimately, each other to outwit the competition through back streets deep in Mexico City.

Lorentzen also acts as his own cinematographer, which won him acclaim from the film’s Sundance premiere a year ago. His editing along with that of his co-editor Paloma López really heightens the tension between the race to take care of a patient and the issues that make their lives that much more challenging.

“Midnight Family” offers hope that there are better ways of taking care of its citizens. For the Ochoas there is a satisfaction in the struggle, but we know it wears on them. For the citizens of Mexico City, and the government, support is available when resources are stretched to their limit.

3 out of 4 stars

Underwater - Movie Review by Monte Yazzie

Kristen Stewart and Vincent Cassel in ‘Underwater’.

Dir: William Eubank

Starring: Kristen Stewart, T.J. Miller, Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick, John Gallagher Jr., Mamoudou Athie

The tagline for the 1979 horror-science fiction classic “Alien” was “In space no one can hear you scream”. The vastness of outer space, it’s deep dark nowhere, provided a film with a concept of a single alien lifeform threatening the lives of a crew on a commercial space vessel with an atmosphere and tone that is completely a horror film.

The influence of “Alien” on William Eubank’s new film “Underwater” are easily identifiable, except this film takes places in the immense depth of the ocean seabed, it’s sunken murky nowhere, that provides this film with a terrifying, claustrophobic environment where a crew on a deep-water aquatics research facility discover a new species of ancient water humanoids. The tagline, slightly modified, aptly applies here too, “On the ocean floor no one can hear you scream”.

Seven miles beneath the water an engineer named Norah (Kristen Stewart) is quietly making her way around a bathroom. She spots a spider stuck in the sink and helps it to freedom, sparing its life if only for a moment. Norah hears something strange, a creaking noise and then shaking that turns into a catastrophic event for the vessel. Norah barely escapes, saving the life of a coworker and then proceeds to search for escape and other survivors. But something strange is happening outside the vessel, in the darkness of the ocean floor something has awakened.

“Underwater” recognizes the kind of the film it is trying to be, quite simply a good ol’ fashioned monster movie that happens underwater. And, it makes use of it’s simple premise by creating opportunities to craft tension with its unique environment and offering a nice blend of thrills and jump scares that are accommodated by some really great creature designs that are slowly revealed. There are few scenes in the muddy and cloudy water when some of the action is hard to distinguish but this embellishment within the scene also allows the creatures to be gradually discovered, which is a nice touch in building expectations and surprises throughout.

The film starts in the quiet, but this only lasts for a few moments as everything soon ramps into high gear action. And when the quicker pacing arrives it doesn’t let up, instead it builds with different set pieces that each offer a new challenge for the characters to survive. Whether an underwater walk in near darkness or the quick escape from a falling vessel, it works in keeping the attention off the barebones narrative.

The narrative is filled with unnecessary science components that only create distracting questions and the characters are more plot devices than emotional beings. However, Kristen Stewart, through her interesting performance, does a nice job of adding some emotional depth to her leading character. T.J. Miller, who usually does of nice job of being comic relief, feels out of place amongst the other characters in this film. The jokes he makes fall flat in many scenes and his character doesn’t seem to fit in amongst supporting characters. Vincent Cassel is also stuck in a strange place in this film, playing a character that has an emotional back story that is only hinted at. For most of the film Mr. Cassel’s character, which could be the most interesting, is pushed into the background or forced to spout information to keep the narrative moving.

“Underwater” doesn’t spend much time developing a complicated narrative, instead it focuses on being a fun, mostly thrilling, sometimes scary, monster movie that has some interesting designs to watch development and consume the screen. Kristen Stewart holds this film together with her interesting performance, even with the limited character development available. “Underwater” is an entertaining addition to the aquatic horror genre.

Monte’s Rating
3.50 out of 5.00

1917 - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman in ‘1917’.

‘1917’ is a must-see on the big screen

Directed by:  Sam Mendes

Written by:  Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns

Starring:  Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay

“1917” – “I wanted you to feel like you were there with the characters, breathing their every breath, walking in their footsteps. The best way to do that is not to cut away and give the audience a way out, as it were.” -  Sam Mendes, Variety, Dec. 5, 2019

One military order.

Director Sam Mendes’ “1917” can be summed up as one military order carried out by two British lance corporals through No Man’s Land and beyond at the height of WWI.  On the surface, this seems like a conventional WWI story, but there are real reasons that this film won the Best Picture – Drama and Best Director Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 5, 2020, because “1917” is unlike any war movie that you’ve ever seen.

It’s a spectacular, harrowing and most unique war experience that is part frightening, part courageous and wholly unforgettable. 

The camera apparently walks, steps, jumps, and runs next to the two young protagonists - Lance Corporals Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George MacKay) – as Mendes and cinematographer Roger Deakins give the audience a first-person perspective of the soldiers’ journey to the 2nd Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment’s position.  Blake and Schofield need to warn their British brothers of a German ambush, but their passage appears to miraculously unfold on-screen as one continuous shot over the film’s 118-minute runtime.  

Now, “1917” is not one continuous shot over two hours.  Instead, it’s a series of individual shots that run for perhaps 6 to 10 minutes at a time (and maybe longer), much like Alejandro G. Inarritu’s “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” (2014).  Mendes’ film, however, isn’t set in a Broadway theatre, but in spacious French plains (actually filmed in the UK) with much of the land under hideous distress, so the logistical complications become immeasurably more vast for Mendes.  Whether Blake and Schofield are climbing down into an empty German base that looks like a post-apocalyptic open pit mine or hiking next to a wretched muddy pond, littered with corpses, the filmmakers have no easy time shadowing the actors. 

The narrative is also a stressful race against time, because Blake and Schofield need to reach the 2nd Battalion before the 1,600 soldiers attempt to strike against the Germans, which will surely be a suicide mission. 

The script throws other obstacles in the young men’s way, but the camera never leaves their sides.  The audience does not see or hear other soldiers, banter, fights, or anything else that Blake and Schofield do not see or hear, so it truly feels like we are with them, as noted in Mendes’ aforementioned quote. 

As one would expect, Chapman and MacKay – by clearly demonstrating their characters’ fear, apprehension, but also valor in the face of danger – deliver utterly convincing performances.  Since the two actors are not widely-known household names, they bring an everyman vibe to the picture that speaks to the many, many young men who fought in WWI.

One of those young men was Mendes’ grandfather Alfred, who enlisted at 17, and he was Mendes’ inspiration to direct and co-write “1917”.

“He was a small man, and they used to send him with messages because he ran 5 ½ feet, and the mist used to hang at about 6 feet in No Man’s Land, so he wasn’t visible above the mist.  And that stayed with me.  And that was the story I found I wanted to tell,” Mendes said in a Dec. 21, 2019 NPR interview.

(Note: Mendes’ film is not an actual account of a particular mission, but inspired by one of his grandfather’s roles in the war.)

With Mendes’ personal connection to WWI, the apparent one continuous shot and astonishing visuals accompanied by Thomas Newman’s thundering and emotive score, “1917” is a must-see movie, and please, watch it on the big screen.  It’s the best way to walk in Blake’s and Schofield’s footsteps.

(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.

Jeff Mitchell’s Top 20 Films of 2019

It’s December 2019, and yes, the year and the decade are nearly over.  Well, any new year (or decade) conjures up hopes of new beginnings and quiet moments of reflection, so before we all step into 2020, when flying cars will be all the rage and parachute pants make a triumphant comeback, let’s enjoy a few moments to revisit the best movies from 2019.  Here are my top 20 films of year. 

Joaquin Phoenix in ‘Joker’.

20. “Joker” – Director Todd Phillips takes a stark departure from comedies, as he ventures into a dark, dystopian 1981 Gotham City to tell the origin story of Batman’s foremost nemesis.  Filled with crime and grime, Gotham is a miserable, hopeless mess, and so is Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a man suffering from mental illness and surrounded by negative influences and triggers in all directions.  Arthur eventually cracks, and in turn, Joaquin should break into Best Actor Oscar-status with his hypnotic performance.  Quite frankly, another actor will have to give a superhero-like effort to wrestle Oscar gold away from Phoenix.

Mads Mikkelsen in ‘Arctic’.

19. “Arctic” – Mads Mikkelsen plays the lone survivor of a plane crash who is stranded in a freezing, desolate anti-wonderland, and the aircraft’s carcass serves as his only indispensable refuge.  Like “127 Hours” (2010) and “Cast Away” (2000), the harsh environment forces our solitary hero into resourceful ingenuity, but unlike those films, director Joe Penna doesn’t flashback to leisurely moments or feature stretches of screen time in urban civilization.  His movie – filmed in Iceland – is always on location, and it’s up to Mikkelsen to carry the torch throughout the picture.

Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Alexa Demie in ‘Waves’.

18. “Waves” – An affluent, hardworking family appears to have all the answers, but one’s teenage years - no matter how much support is felt - are anything but straight-forward.  Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) is a high school wrestler and his life is falling into place, but after an initial misstep, he takes a much larger plunge.  Writer/director Trey Edward Shults (“Krisha” (2015), “It Comes at Night” (2017)) pushes a modern score, and his free-flowing camerawork dives into the characters’ souls, as they struggle for answers.  This heavyweight drama packs a wallop.

John Chester in ‘The Biggest Little Farm’.

17. “The Biggest Little Farm” – Santa Monica residents John and Molly Chester left their careers and the Los Angeles life to start a 200-acre organic farm in nearby, but comparatively very rural, Moorpark, Calif.  They take an altruistic approach to connect with nature, but this also creates a steady stream of seemingly impossible struggles, which certainly shakes the Chesters’ original vision.  John and Molly, however, are infinitely likable, and we become emotionally invested in them, their plants, trees, animals (i.e. their pig Emma and family dog Todd), and every inch of Apricot Lane Farms.  This is a hopeful documentary in several ways, and if every couple supported each other like John and Molly do, the world would have a zero percent divorce rate.  

Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas in ‘Knives Out’.

16. “Knives Out” – An extremely clever and entertaining whodunit!  Writer/director Rian Johnson thought up this murder/mystery about 10 years ago, and after creating “Looper” (2012) and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (2017), he saved his best for last.  Crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) dies on his 85th birthday, but master detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) arrives on the scene to assess any foul play.  Johnson turns the genre on its head a bit and keeps us guessing, laughing and gasping in suspense, while Toni Collette, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, and Ana de Armas seem to be having as much fun as the audience.

Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce in ‘The Two Popes’.

15. “The Two Popes” – Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI have personality and philosophical differences that reach a mile-long, but they both share the same job title and therefore, are card-carrying members of a most exclusive club.  Director Fernando Meirelles (“City of God” (2002)) gives us an insightful look at these two men through Anthony McCarten’s script, one that is conversational in nature.  Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins play Francis and Benedict, respectively during the Vatican’s transition of power in 2013, and the two Welsh actors should share numerous exchanges at the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020.

Taika Waititi, Scarlett Johansson, and Roman Griffin Davis in ‘Jojo Rabbit’

14. “Jojo Rabbit” – Growing up in Germany in the 1930s and 40s, Jojo Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis) loves his mom (Scarlett Johansson) and hangs out with his best friend Yorki (Archie Yates).  In many aspects, Jojo is a typical 10-year-old boy, except for one glaring difference: he’s a proud Hitler Youth member.  Jojo, however, begins to question everything, when he discovers that his mom is hiding a Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) in their home.  Director Taika Waititi also dons a Nazi uniform to play Adolf Hitler, so he pushes boundaries, but with hilarious slapstick, sarcasm and delicate touches of humanity.  Really?  Ja.   

Lupita Nyong'o, Evan Alex, and Shahadi Wright Joseph in ‘Us’

13. “Us” – When the Wilsons’ vacation takes a stop at a Santa Cruz boardwalk, the matriarch Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) becomes visibly nervous, and deservedly so!  She suffered a traumatic experience at the aforementioned beach spot as a little girl, and 30+ years later, her worst fears – and more – come roaring back.  This time, her entire family (Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex) and she have reasons to worry.  Writer/director Jordan Peele’s follow-up to his 2017 smash “Get Out” descends into a most unique and bizarre vision that frightens as well as poses provocative questions about our country’s haves and have-nots, and you cannot say U.S.A. without “Us”.  The best horror film of the year.

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

12. “Marriage Story” – Charlie (Adam Driver) and Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) - a successful and loving New York City couple who care for their young son and each other - seem to have it all.  Unfortunately, “all” also includes the strong possibility of divorce.  Writer/director Noah Baumbach pulled material from his parents’ divorce (as well as his own), but he broadens this most challenging experience with many, many universal stops on the road to Splitsville.  “Marriage Story” rarely gets explosive except for one signature scene, and the couple’s imperfect-but-agreeable bliss painfully shifts into something else.  Something more distant.  More clinical.  More transactional. 

Tom Burke and Honor Swinton Byrne in ‘The Souvenir’

11. “The Souvenir” – Set in Sunderland, England during the 1980s, writer/director Joanna Hogg’s picture purposely feels like a hazy dream.  A look back to yesteryear, in which the film’s individual scenes seem to reveal themselves as separate recollections with little connective tissue, although collectively, this story of Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) and Anthony (Tom Burke) is linear and whole.  Hogg’s autobiographical tale reveals a poisonous relationship, where Anthony repeatedly cuts into Julie’s wide-eyed, naive devotion, and in the end, “The Souvenir” is a toxic keepsake that serves as an awfully important teaching moment. 

Tzi Ma, Shuzhen Zhao, Han Chen, Aoi Mizuhara, Hong Lu, Diana Lin, Awkwafina, and Yongbo Jiang in ‘The Farewell’

10.  “The Farewell” – Writer/director Lulu Wang’s film is about family. For those who advocate to write about what you know, Wang took those words to heart.  “The Farewell” is a personal story, and as noted in the opening credits, this particular life-chapter is based on an actual lie.  Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen), a spunky, spirited grandmother, contracts lung cancer and only has three months to live.  Her family, however, doesn’t tell her, so she can enjoy her remaining days free from worry.  Awkwafina – who plays Nai Nai’s granddaughter – and Zhao anchor the film through their deeply-relatable, soulful performances, and all the supporting players flawlessly fit as principled, imperfect beings.

Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever in ‘Booksmart’

9. “Booksmart” – Upon the eve of high school graduation, Molly (Beanie Feldstein) discovers massive regrets over never attending a wild party after studying nonstop for four straight years, so she talks her best friend Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) into an evening of hopeful debauchery.  Even though the girls’ trek towards social-nirvana makes highly memorable stops along the way, their friendship is paramount, and first-time director Olivia Wilde (yes, that Olivia Wilde) never loses sight of that emotional bond.  A bond wrapped in sidesplitting comedic timing, fresh surprises and brilliant adolescent foolishness.

George MacKay in ‘1917’

8. “1917” – British General Erinmore (Colin Firth) gives Lance Corporals Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George MacKay) an order to cross No Man’s Land and beyond to warn their fellow soldiers of a lethal German trap.  Well, director Sam Mendes straps us to our theatre chairs, as his camera follows Blake and Schofield on their harrowing journey that appears to be one continuous shot over 118 cinematic minutes.  In reality, “1917” is a series of long takes, but the result is a unique war experience that captures a first-person’s perspective through an unworldly nightmare.  Part frightening, part courageous and wholly unforgettable.  

Hatidze Muratova in ‘Honeyland’

7. “Honeyland” – Documentary filmmakers Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov trek to a remote North Macedonia spot that time forgot to meet Hatidze Muratova.  A beekeeper by trade and by love, Hatidze spends her waking hours tending to her tiny, friendly yellow and black companions and her woefully sick mother, but a family of nomads unwittingly disrupt her daily rituals and livelihood.  Kotevska and Stefanov spent a remarkable three years filming on location, and as Hatidze’s story unfolds, their film feels like a feature rather than a doc.  Intimate and heartbreaking, Hatidze explores unexpected internal spaces in a vast countryside rarely visited by anyone.

Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci in ‘The Irishman’

6. “The Irishman” – The boys are back!  Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci reunite, and they include Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, and Al Pacino.  Frequent Scorsese favorite Harvey Keitel makes a brief appearance too, in a sprawling, infectious mob movie centered around Frank Sheeran (De Niro), a driver turned hitman.  The narrative transpires over decades, so the filmmakers employ a remarkable de-aging technology that allows De Niro, Pesci and Pacino to act throughout the film.  As a satisfying side effect, this also transports Scorsese fans to fond memories of “Goodfellas” (1990) and “Casino” (1995).  Although not as explosive as those pictures, “The Irishman” delivers big rewards.  Speaking of rewards, Pesci deserves the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

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

5. “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” – As a silent protest to her upcoming, unwanted and arranged wedding, Heloise (Adele Haenel) refuses to pose for a portrait which greatly displeases her mother (Valeria Golino).  La Comtesse (Golino), however, takes a different approach.  She hires a new painter Marianne (Noemie Merlant) and asks her to befriend Heloise, rather than reveal herself as an artist.  Marianne will then paint Heloise’s portrait in secret.  Writer/director Celine Sciamma and cinematographer Claire Mathon are masterful celluloid illustrators, as they fashion a breathtakingly gorgeous picture - set in 18th century France - that glows, breathes and lives on the coast of Brittany, and like the small, needed nuances that help define a particular painting, Heloise and Marianne communicate so much – to each other and to us - through the subtlest of expressions.

Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski in ‘Transit’

4. “Transit” - Writer/director Christian Petzold’s movie is a surreal puzzler that begins two moves ahead of us, and then we play catch-up for most of the 101-minute runtime.  Georg (Franz Rogowski) is on the run.  He’s a German living in Paris, but he needs to quickly flee the city and country.  He’s close to his escape while hiding in Marseille and waiting for his getaway-ship to arrive.  As Georg lingers in this seaside city, one might wonder why the events occur during World War II, when everything on-screen looks like 2019.  Meanwhile a mysterious woman (Paula Beer) repeatedly appears in his life for a few seconds and then scurries away.  It is not important to actively investigate your questions during Petzold’s film, but rather, let the narrative run through you.  

Adam Sandler in ‘Uncut Gems’

3. “Uncut Gems” – Adam Sandler takes a departure from comedy and becomes one-man car crash, as a New York City gem dealer with a horrible gambling addiction in the white-knuckler of the year.  Directors Bennie and Josh Safdie (“Good Time” (2017)) shadow Howard Ratner (Sandler) to his jewelry shop, trips to see his bookie, and semi-insincere pitstops at home, but an unsettling aura of doom – no matter where he is - constantly chokes him.  Howard doesn’t partake in (or seem to accept) any moment of peace, and since he lives on the edge, his every move becomes unpredictable….and so is this movie.

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

2. “Parasite” – When Ki-woo (Choi Woo-sik) scores a part-time job teaching English to Da-hye (Jung Ji-so), a high school girl from a well-off family, other opportunities suddenly present themselves in the most surprising ways.  It difficult to classify director Bong Joon-ho’s movie.  It’s a comedy, a caper film, an emotional drama, a thriller, and throw in a dash of horror, but ultimately “Parasite” is a biting social commentary on wealth and poverty, and Bong chooses two families on opposite ends of the monetary spectrum to make his point.

1. “A Hidden Life”

August Diehl and Valerie Pachner in ‘A Hidden Life’

Franz Jagerstatter (August Diehl) enjoys a beautiful life with his wife Franziska (Fani) (Valerie Pachner) and their daughters in the quiet, hidden Austrian village of St. Radegund, but trouble begins when World War II breaks out, and he refuses to pledge loyalty to Hitler.  Writer/director Terrence Malick offers his organic filmmaking perspective and embraces the true story of the Jagerstatters by reaching to nature, classical music, and Franz and Fani’s actual letters that gel into both haunting fragments and dreamy concoctions of operatic majesty.   

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.

The Two Popes - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce in ‘The Two Popes’.

Pryce and Hopkins deserve praise and Oscar nominations for their ‘The Two Popes’ performances

Directed by:  Fernando Meirelles

Written by:  Anthony McCarten

Starring:  Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins

“The Two Popes” – Pope Francis (Jonathan Pryce) became The Pope in 2013, but he had a chance of being The Pope eight years earlier!

You see, Pope John Paul II passed away in 2005.  The Church needed a successor, and the cardinals pondered choosing a reformer.  They had Cardinal Bergoglio (a.k.a. Pope Francis) in their sights.  In the end, they took a more traditional path, and Pope Benedict (Anthony Hopkins) became the head of the Catholic Church.  After several years, however, the glare from the Church’s sex scandals were white hot, and the Vatican found itself at a crossroads yet again.

Director Fernando Meirelles (“City of God” (2002)) finds 2013 as a backdrop for his insightful, engrossing conversational film that features three key discussions between Popes Francis and Benedict during their transition of power.  Meirelles’ films don’t usually dive into comedy, but he surprisingly does here.

Now, “The Two Popes” is a serious film, but it has many truly fun moments, which make this movie part-“My Dinner with Andre” (1981) and part-“The Odd Couple” (1968) with Pope Francis taking the Oscar-title, while Pope Benedict gravitating towards Felix. 

More surprising, however, is that the three lengthy conversations portrayed on-screen in “The Two Popes” are not exactly real.  Six years ago, screenwriter Anthony McCarten did not follow the two men around with an audio recorder.  Instead, McCarten gathered and adopted various writings, interviews, speeches, etc. from both Francis and Benedict and penned a script for his play “The Pope”, which then was adapted for Pryce, Hopkins and Meirelles. 

Now, the substance, views and insights spoken by Popes Francis and Benedict in the film are real, but McCarten depicted them into three meetings that feel one thousand percent natural and authentic.  Actually, in a Phoenix Film Festival interview with Meirelles at TIFF in Sept. 2019, he mentioned that Pryce was an obvious choice to play Francis, partially because he looked authentic. 

“If you Google the Pope and Jonathan – one next to the other – they look alike.  I also watched an interview with Jonathan, and I felt that he has a warmth and a (great) sense of humor, and I saw the Pope,” Meirelles said.  

With Hopkins playing opposite Pryce, these two Welsh actors (who both deserve Oscar nominations for their work here) share the screen and seize the moments to explore their characters’ diametrically different beliefs, perspectives and personalities.  

Many times, and most notably in the first act, Meirelles’ camera captures large closeups, and Hopkins’ or Pryce’s face will occupy most of the screen, so their disagreements are even more pronounced.  At first, Benedict feels very defensive and becomes combative, but when he does soften his stance, these scenes are both a relief to Francis and to us.

Meirelles does explore the church scandals and has opportunities to truly drive the point home with a sledgehammer, but instead, he takes a lighter approach and shows Benedict’s regret for overseeing such a difficult time in the Catholic Church’s history.  Both men have their struggles or crosses to bear, but they share their vulnerabilities too, and possibly a true friendship.

“The Two Popes” serves friendly and substantial insight into these icons, and Pryce and Hopkins embrace their characters who share the same job title and therefore, are card-carrying members of a most exclusive club.  As an audience, it’s easy to feel that we are part of these sacred, exclusive conversations.  In a way, we are, and who knew that Pope Benedict enjoys Orange Fanta soda, and Pope Francis follows soccer like a religion?  Well, not a religion…

(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.

Ten Favorite Films of 2019 by Ben Cahlamer

When did Christmas get here? It feels like it was just the Fourth of July! It’s amazing how one’s sense of time can get warped from a solid crop of films in a given year, and 2019 has proven to be no exception. We’ve had some amazing films and some duds, but there has been something for every taste out there.

2019 will go down as a year in which the directors of these films showed a level of maturity in their respective films. Instead of doing a Top 10, because there are still a few films that I have not seen yet, I’m going to run down my 10 favorite films of 2019.

These films, for me, mark a highlight in cinema, not necessarily the best films of the year, and they are not in any particular order.

·         “The Irishman”: This entry here might shock a few people because I’ve remained relatively silent on the film, but there is a strange beauty in the way Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro)  tells of the rise and fall of Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). The film runs just a bit long and there are details that don’t necessarily add to the overall exposition of the film, but it is Joe Pesci’s return from retirement as Russell Bufalino that makes the film one to watch.

·         “Avengers: Endgame”: The end of an era is marked with a soulful as the Avengers try to right the transgressions of the past. It’s a bit cheeky and it runs a bit long, but I don’t think I’ve seen a finer performance out of Robert Downey Jr in the Marvel franchise.

·         “The Lion King”: I’m going to get gruff for this because it’s a rehash of the 1994 classic animated film, but there was something about the way Jon Favreau injected life into the characters. Yes, the criticisms that the faces on the lions were expressionless and that’s where I thought the voice cast shined.

·         “Toy Story 4”: Who would have thought that after all this time the folks at Pixar could come up with a new story involving Buzz Lightyear and Woody while still causing folks to bring their Kleenex to the theater.

·         “Hobbs & Shaw”: I didn’t get to review this offshoot of the “Fast & Furious” franchise, but Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham are perfectly matched here against Idris Elba. The story presents a “Tron” like quality that drew me in to the mayhem and kept me there until the very end.

·         “Cold Pursuit”: Even though the film was marred by Neeson’s name being run through the mud, this snowbound “Fargo”-esque murder mystery has just enough mayhem in the snow to keep us stuck to our seats.

·         “Brittany Runs a Marathon”: This is a film for anyone who has ever felt that they couldn’t endure through change and come out the other side smelling like roses.

·         “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”: Call it sentimentality, but seeing Tom Hanks occupy the personae of Fred Rogers is a master stroke in casting. The story itself doesn’t always work, but the framing devices make this one to tug at your heart strings.

·         “6 Underground”: Michael Bay’s return to onscreen mayhem matched with Ryan Reynolds’s antics adds up to an explosively good time in front of your television screen.

·         “Ford v Ferrari”: Another excellent showcase for Matt Damon and Christian Bale, the story suffers from being too much about the internal struggle within Ford to bring a car and a driver to the ’66 LeMans 24 Hour race. The over the top performances really capture the essence of the excitement and bring this non-driver into the racing seat.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Movie Review by Monte Yazzie

Anthony Daniels, Oscar Isaac, Brian Herring, Dave Chapman, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, and Joonas Suotamo in ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’.

Dir: J.J. Abrams

Starring: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Carrie Fisher, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Kelly Marie Tran, Billy Dee Williams, and Mark Hamill

As that iconic text scrolls down the screen with the piercing musical theme from John Williams playing at high volume, it becomes clear that it’s near impossible to fully grasp the cultural effect “Star Wars” has had on cinema and popular culture. And with the 9th installment, “The Rise of the Skywalker”, positioned as the finale to the saga started in 1977, it’s impossible that a film will be able to live up to the high expectations of so many years of establishing its mythos into the world.

“The Force Awakens”, released in 2015 and helmed by director J.J. Abrams (“Super 8” and 2009’s “Star Trek), utilized a near perfect blending of nostalgia in the development of a new story focused on a young girl named Rey (Daisy Ridley) who, in the process of searching for answers to her unknown past, becomes connected to the Skywalker lore. Bringing in familiar faces from the past and mixing new characters into a story that had strong ties and themes to “A New Hope”, “The Force Awakens” was a fitting reintroduction to all the feelings that made fans love “Star Wars” in the first place.

“The Last Jedi”, released in 2017 and written/directed Rian Johnson (“Looper” and “Knives Out”), made bold and inspiring steps in separating the new story from the past and setting up a version of “Star Wars” for a new generation to claim as their own. In the process of taking the film in fresh, unexpected directions that refused to follow expectations and unnecessary fan service, “The Last Jedi” was met with divisive results amidst its noble attempts to take the myth of the Jedi in different directions.

“The Rise of the Skywalker”, directed again by J.J. Abrams, has the unenviable task of wrapping up the “Star Wars” saga. But Abrams has a keen understanding of the love fans have for these films, and while the fascinating potential established by Rian Johnson’s “The Last Jedi” is somewhat suppressed for a return to more familiar movements and easy answers to lingering questions, “The Rise of the Skywalker” has some exceptional “Star Wars” moments amidst a struggling narrative that is hampered by unnecessary fan service.

The story continues following Rey on her quest to find answers about her past but also leading the Resistance in battle against a dominating First Order lead by a new supreme leader Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). Echoes from the past begin to haunt both Rey and Kylo Ren, pushing them towards an ultimate confrontation between good and evil, the past and the future.

Abrams does a great job of keeping the focus on the characters established in the “The Force Awakens”; Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), and Poe (Oscar Isaac) rejoin to pursue one final journey in defense from the First Order, who are on the verge of striking one final blow to end the Resistance. These characters, played with such conviction and determination from the talented actors, encompass the emotional core of the film. Their strong friendship and undaunted comradery keep hope alive even as Kylo Ren continues to find the upper hand in battle and with his new ‘Force’ connection/bond to Rey.

Kylo and Rey are provided with some odd, a few times interesting, story setups this time around. Unfortunately, their newfound connection doesn’t make full use of the opportunity to portray the complex relationship between the power of the Force and the Darkside, the proverbial ‘good versus evil’ that gives every single “Star Wars” film its conflict. Abrams instead uses these characters to compose fight scenes, one of which is highlight of the entire film, and story bridges attempting to connect the messy plot in a cohesive way.

The composition of the film, with its jumps from space to different planets, from land to water to air, are strikingly rendered. One scene involving glowing lightsabers and crashing waves is completely stunning. Abrams excels in finding ways to blend the past with the present, introducing new characters that have traits of old familiar characters and sometimes allowing the old characters, like Carrie Fisher’s Leia, moments to lovingly shine bright.

J.J. Abrams understands what fans want and tries his best to accommodate expectation with a new exploration of familiar “Star Wars” themes. While there are moments when this doesn’t always work nicely, creating conflicting emotional tones, unnecessary and unearned callbacks, and story imbalances that make the 2 hour and 20-minute run time feel every bit as long, “The Rise of the Skywalker” will still render smiles from those who love the franchise. While it may not be the most fitting finale for this beloved space odyssey, it doesn’t feel like “Star Wars” is ending either. As the title suggests, “Star Wars” will continue to rise.

Monte’s Rating
3.25 out of 5.00

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