Bohemian Rapsody

Plot: This is the life story of Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek), the singer for the 1970's rock band Queen. It shows Freddy as a teenager with his Pakistani Zoroastrian family, and then joining Queen when they were a college band. The band gets a record deal, gets bigger, plays LiveAid in 1985, leading up to the end, which I am not revealing here.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: The biopic made me see the trouble in Freddie's life, his passions, and problems. The is told through his musically career.

It is a powerful story, and Rami Malek delivers a deep performance, but a little guarded, that keep the drama from really landing. He sings great though. 

Cast: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton (I did not recognize Mike Myers.)

Directed by: Bryan Singer and Dexter Fletcher, see the More section below

Written by: Anthony McCarten, Peter Morgan, Anthony McCarten

The Music: Good renditions of Queen songs, and Rami Malek sings well. Having just watched some old Freddie Mercury videos, Freddie emotion and phrasing is better. 

The Visuals: Some good rock video with good fan videos. I am not sure how they did the stadium scene. The movie version of the LiveAid concert was better than the actual concert video, except the real Freddie was sweating all over. 

Rating: 3.5 stars: I am a sucker for musical. No fourth star because Rami does not hit it out of the park. 

More: Dexter Fletcher replaced Bryan Singer because Fox did not like Singer's work ethic while singer said he needed to care for a sick parent. Gossip was that Singer was very emotional, crying on set, and not arriving on time.

Even More: Here is the real Queen.

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Simple Favor

Plot: Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) meets her young son's friend's Mom Emily (Blake Lively), who is a free-spirit and not typical. After a few visits, Stephanie agrees to babysit, but the Emily goes missing. Emily reports this on her Mommy Vlog (which is a plot device to recap the story, and to communicate how nerdy Stephanie is.) Stephanie asks around about Emily, who  has mysterious past. Emily is not traveling on business, but really rented a car and drove to [location cloaked]. Stephanie tells Emily's husband Sean (Henry Golding), and in Emily's absence they start an affair. There are three good plot twists, and a final confrontation. In the end Emily puts it all on her Vlog. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Simple Favor is a darkly comic murder mystery. Not a lot of jokes or sitcom humor, but head-shaking absurdity instead. Director Feig gave the film a campy Noir vibe, and that kept the film from being too heavy. He called it Suburban Noir.

Anna Kendrick is likable and earnest, and earnestness is difficult acting. Blake Lively's role is strong and diabolical and anarchistic. Surprisingly, Henry Golding is only a necessary prop. Simple Favor is a two woman movie. I liked Gia Sandra as the hard-boiled feminist artist whose life was ruined by Emily.

Cast: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding

Directed by: Paul Feig

Written by: Jessica Sharzer based on the book by Darcey Bell. I checked it out on Amazon, and it starts just like the movie with a Vlog. I am tempted to read it because I like the absurdist tone of the movie. 

The Music: Jazzy orchestral music by Theodore Shapiro; more noticeable are the old-time French pop songs that give Noir mood, but still being foreign and out of place. 

The Visuals: Mostly talking inside in stylish kitchens. The giant raunchy picture of Emily that Gia Sandra's character Valerie painted is hard to forget. 

Rating: 3.0 stars, and maybe close to a 3.5. Likable and fun. I recommend it. No social message because caper movies never have a message. 

More: Director Paul Feng, known for Ghostbusters and Bridesmaids, says he likes to make genre pictures and then twist it. He likes to put extremely different people in genre-typic roles to watch the comedic contrast. He said that this movie is about booze and fine clothes, and that makes it his most personal movie (which I think is a self-depricating joke, but it's clever. )

Even More: Fieg said he read the book, and that he had to do it. " Here is more from the LA Times interview:

"Stephanie's such an A student," Feig agreed. "She's covering up this dark history she has by dressing really bright and fun and goofy. There's just something so nice about the contrast between what people think they're hiding [and how they present themselves]."

"I think it's kind of this beautiful metaphor for peeling back the layers of who someone is," Kendrick added. "In this movie, Emily has more literal secrets, but Stephanie has a lot of tricks up her sleeve that people who know her don't expect from her. The entire community thinks they have her figured out and it's nice to have a mystery as a backdrop via which to peel back the layers of her personality."

This is another poster design. I liked this one too. 

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Searching

Plot: 16 year old Margot (Michelle La) disappears on the way home after studying with kids from school. Her Dad David (John Cho) isn't too worried at first, but no one can find her. Detective Vick (Debra Messing) volunteers to work on the case. David pokes around her computer looking at Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, and a YouTube knockoff. It looks like a murder by a vagrant, but just as they are having the memorial service, one of the YouTube friends turns out to be fake, and the movie goes down a rabbit hole that leads to a roller coaster ride. I didn't see that coming. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: This film is emotional and gripping even though it is (almost) entirely told in video chats, text messages, and search results. This gimmick is refreshingly different, but it worked great here.

Searching is a good mystery: you learn more and more about the crime, and then everything you thought you knew gets turned upside down.  It's emotional roller-coaster too. I liked how I gradually I became aware that something was wrong.

The writing and directing is the real star of the movie. That is what makes it different and suspenseful. Director Chaganty says the editing was also critical, the way the text appears and the its timing were critical to the emotional experience.

John Cho gives a good performance that is surprisingly wide ranging. Debra Messing is intense too. 

Cast: John Cho, Michelle La, Debra Messing

Written and directed by: First time director Aneesh Chaganty

Editted by: Nick Johnson, Will Merrick

The Music: A pretty piano-heavy soundtrack by Torin Borrowdale. I bought the the end credits track. 

The Visuals: Searching is mostly computer screens, but there are some interest stuff effects, for example the screen gets pixelly when they want you to realize you are looking at a computer.  

Rating: 3.5 stars: Emotional, well-made, creative, but not 4 stars because it is pure entertainment; it is an elaborate story that is just for fun.  

More: There have been computer-only movies before, such as the horror movie Unfriended.

Big time spoilers: When it comes down to it, this is a worst-case cyber-bullying story, where a quiet pretty girl is stalked by a nerdy, quiet boy, but when they meet IRL everything goes wrong and there is a fatal accident. Like idiots, the boy & his mom cover up the accident, and draw in an ex-con to take the blame, but he might talk, so now it's a murder.

Even More: This is the official poster with all the floating windows. It succinctly describes the film, but I don't like the way it looks.

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BlacKKKlansman

Plot: In 1970's Colorado Springs, black undercover detective Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) begins to investigate the local KKK, and later recruits Jewish colleague Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) to go undercover with the group. Ron attends a lecture with Kwame Ture/ aka Stokely Carmichael (Corey Howkins) and meets cute student activist Patrice (Laura Harrier). Patrice becomes a love interest and the top local black-power activist. Flip goes to Klan meetings where they say outrageous things and plan for the coming revolution. Ron talks to David Duke (Topher Grace) the head of the KKK nationwide, and when Duke comes to Colorado Springs Flip meets him. Soon after this the local KKK gets violent, and this leads to the final scenes.  After the drama resolved, there are pointed images from recent events linking the KKK's hate mongering to recent events. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: A well-made film that builds to a strong anti-racist message: pro-police, pro-tolerance, and unmistakably anti-Trump. This is a cop story that illustrates carries a pro-civil rights story from the Black students, and a violently, hateful and racist story from the local KKK chapter. When the movie ends, there are scenes from the news that ratchet up the tension, and take the events from the 1970's to now. Director Lee deftly moves from outrage about the past to outrages of the present, and perhaps to thoughts of what to do about it. I left the theater very thoughtful.

BlackkKlansman has some slow stylish parts, for example, Patrice and Ron dance a long time, and Stokely Carmichael/Ture  gives a lengthy polemic that made me squirm, and that speech was intercut with artistic images of the audience members faces floating in darkness. The photography at the bridge with the FBI agent is beautiful. The interior meeting scenes were stylish with earthy costumes and round Afros.

Both Patrice and Duke are planning for revolutions, but quite different ones. Director Lee does NOT give us any solutions, but he does help us feel the problem more clearly.

I had the occasion to listen to Slate's series on the slavery and reconstruction. I never realized how badly the Union's reconstruction project failed and that southern whites assembled a culture with myths of Southern dignity, statues of generals, heritage marches, and white power groups. There is  link between slavery, Jim Crow, and today's voter intimidation, gerrymandering, building-the-wall, hatred of foreigners, even import tariffs. Slavery was a terrible thing, and even 155 years later, it's intrinsic evil and corruption linger.

Cast: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Topher Grace

Directed by: Spike Lee

Written by: Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee; based on the book by Ron Stallworth 

The Music: Melodic orchestral music by Terence Blanchard intercut with some 70's oldies. 

The Visuals: As mentioned above, there are several stylish scenes, the dancing, the bridge, the floating faces. Laura Harrier's hair and costume are pretty great too. 

Rating: 4.0 stars: Skillfully made, always interesting, well-engaged in our political moment, and with a clear moral message.

 

More: I was surprised how few people were at the movie. People should go see it.

Even More: The real Ron Stallworth was born in 1953 in El Paso, Texas. More here.

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Crazy Rich Asians

Plot: . [imdb]    [photos] Nick (Henry Golding) has been dating fellow NYU Professor Rachel (Constance Wu) for a year, and he invites her to Singapore meet his Mom Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh), and to go to a wedding. Nick's family turns out to be Crazy Rich. His mother is a bitch and hates her. All the young women are all jealous and hate her too. Rachel's friend Peik Lin (Awkwafina) is a refreshing savior,  and Nick's cool sister Astrid (Gemma Chan) is great when she's around. Nick's gay cousin Oliver (Nico Santos helps with fashion advice. 

Review: I loved it. It's all soapy romance with sitcom humor and a few drops of social satire.

My story is that I downloaded a sample of the novel, and loved the opening scene where Eleanor buys the hotel where the desk manager insulted her. In the book the scene plays longer, and it is so good. Anyway I bought the book so I could read it all before the movie. (The book is not all as great as the opening scene, but 4 stars out of 5.)

Michelle Yeoh's Eleanor is so mean; it is fun to watch.

Even though it is all Asian, the different cliques are universal: the insiders vs. the outsiders; the rich vs almost rich vs poor; the rich daughters vs the gold-diggers; the new money vs. the old money.

Cast: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Awkwafina, Gemma Chan, Nico Santos

Directed by: Jon M Chu

Written by: Peter Chiarrelli and Adele Lim based on the book by Kevin Kwan

The Music: A variety of Chinese language pop music in different styles. 

The Visuals: .There are a number of nice visual gags, and the rich opulence is overwhelming - sort of like Great Gatsby

Rating: 3.5 stars:  I loved it. 

More: Hard to believe the novel was written by a man

Even More: .The movie is as good as the book. The book is pretty long. Between the book and the sequels there is enough for many seasons of TV mini-series.

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Momma Mia! Here We Go Again

Plot: Sophie (Amada Seyfried) is opening her island hotel with a big party, even though her mother Donna (Meryl Streep) has died. Her three Dads, her Mom's girlfriends, and lots of cute guys are also in tow. Intercut with the above story is a 25 year flashback where we see young Donna meet and mate with the three fathers on the same beautiful Greek island. In the end, everyone comes for the party, and it ends Bollywood style with singing and dancing.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Momma Mia! Here We Go Again is a lot of fun. The art direction is wonderful; the clever visuals make this more than expected. The combination of the great art direction, energy of the cast, clever choreography is fun. The dynamics and energy made the show better than the plainly-produced Broadway version (which I have only seen on You-Tube.)  Even though the movie actors' voices are not all excellent, the show is much stronger.

Alexa Davies, who plays the young Donna, is very strong. Much better than Meryl was in the original.

I expect a silly, estrogen-fueled musical, but its dynamism and positivity won me over. 

Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Alexa Davies, Jessica Keenan Wynn, Christine Baranski, Julie Walter, Cher, Meryl Streep 

Directed by: Ol Parker

Written by: Ol Parker and Richard Curtis

The Music: Its great, though I didn't like the soundtrack. The mixing is odd, and the vocalists seemed more on-key in the theater. If you want to hear the songs, buy the Abba greatest hits album. 

The Visuals: The highlight is the Momma Mia song with people off-shore on boats singing & swaying with the waves, and with the rest of the cast singing on shore. Several of the other songs are done imaginatively like Waterloo, which I thought would be impossible to work in to the story. 

Rating: 3.0 stars: 

More: .

Even More: .

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Mission Impossible Fallout

Plot: Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is trying to get three balls of plutonium back before they are made into bombs by anarchist terrorist John Lark. Starting in Berlin, then Paris, then Kashmir, Nathan, with sidekicks August (Henry Cavill), Luther (Ving Rhames, Benji (Simon Pegg), and Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) undertake big chase scenes, big bathroom fights, parachute jumping, ending with bomb defusing and mountain climbing. Ex-wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) shows up to up-the-stakes. [imdb]    [photos]

 While it is mostly about Tom Cruise in the chases and fights, there is some good acting on the part of Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg. 

Review: This was fun popcorn movie. Big action. Good scenes. Easy-to-follow -- although hard to remember afterward. 

Cast: Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Monaghan, also with Alec Baldwin, Vanessa Kirby, and Angela Bassett

Written and Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie

The Music: .Gotta like that Machine Impossible theme. Most of the film is supenseful orchestral music by Lorne Balfe. Not a crazy amount of drums, so I liked it. 

The Visuals: . Great fight scenes. They look like they are really bashing each other around. Not like TV fight scenes. Gotta like the helicopter chase. The introductory scene with White Widow was Noir and stylish. 

Rating: 3.0 stars: Lots of fun. Good re-watchability

More: The two female actresses, Rebecca Ferguson, and Michelle Monaghan, looked too much alike.

Even More: Not sure why it is called "Fallout."

Yet More (minor spoiler): Director McQuarrie said they wrote in two bombs so that all the characters would have something to do.

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Ant-man and the Wasp

Plot: Dr Frank Pym (Michael Douglas), invented a shrinking technology that makes people shrink to ant-sized, or grow to Paul Bunyan size. Thirty years ago, Pym's wife was trapped in the super-miniature "quantum realm", and now Ant-man/Scott (Paul Rudd) and the Pyms' now-grown daughter Hope/Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) try to save her. They are opposed by the FBI, a local gangster, and Ghost/Ava (Hanna John-Kamen), who was injured in a shrinking technology accident as a girl.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: I liked Ant-man and the Wasp. It was a welcome respite from hard-core comic-book action and massive head-count battles in Avengers. Ant-Man 2 is over half sitcom humor based on the superhero lifestyle plus visual tiny-people jokes. This is just a different genre movie than Superman.

There is no science in this movie that hold up, but there were a few things I liked. The did just make stuff up, and the joked about putting the word quantum in front of what ever they wanted. However. They had real quantum mechanical calculations on the board in the science lecture, although who writes on chalk boards anymore? The quantum realm had virtual particles just popping up from the spatial ooze. I liked that. It would have been cool if they could have done something visual with the plank length.

Paul Rudd is not my favorite actor, but he does a goodjob with the half-serious role he has. 

Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Hanna John-Kamen, Michael Douglas

Directed by: Payton Reed, who also directed the first Ant-man

Written by: Five people including Paul Rudd

The Music: Jazzy music by Christophe Beck including one track based on Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korasakov that I liked.

The Visuals: Good visuals of shrinking and growning. I liked driving underneath the other cars on the road. I liked the visuals of Ghost/Hanna blinking back and forth between dimensions. 

Rating: 3.0 stars: I liked it. I might watch it again. 

More: With the exception of Lego Batman, this is the lightest comic book movie. It has a simple plot, but it enjoys being goofy.

Even More: Evangeline Lilly is known for Lost.


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Incredibles 2

Plot: In a ploy to make Superheroes legal again, Elastogirl goes back to crime fighting while Mr Incredible stays home with the kids, including baby Jack-Jack. Of course it is never that simple, and soon the superheroes are being hypnotized. Can the kids save the day?  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Incredibles 2 is a comedy and a family story. Like most sequels most of its satire was spent in the original, and now it is a bit warmed over. Still II is still clever, but now it is an action/sitcom.

We get a good dose of superhero home life when Mr Incredible takes care of super-baby Jack-Jack, who keeps developing powers to foil his caregivers.             

Incredibles 2 is a step down from the creative, satirical and family-oriented story of the the first Incredibles movie.

Written and directed by: Brad Bird

The Music: Zippy

The Visuals:  Lively orchestral music by Michael Giacchino, and a capella music by DCappella. I never recognized the a capella music during the film. Perhaps it was deep in the end credits, or I wasn't paying attention. There is a new version of the end-credit sequence called The Incredits 2. I never realized that the end-credit theme from the first movie was such a hit. 

Rating: 2.5 stars: a well-made animated movie; fun, but I won't see it again. 

More: This movie is set 3 months after the end of the previous movie, according to director Bird. 

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Adrift

Plot: Tami (Shailene Woodley) meets Richard (Sam Claflin) in Tahiti. They get a gig transporting a rich guy's yacht to San Diego, but there is a Hurricane; the boat gets swamped, and they are adrift. The films starts during the storm with Tami in the water; thereafter the timeline is chopped up to tell the story in pieces.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: It's OK. If you like boats, maybe more than OK. Its love story before and after the accident and it is also about sailing  and survival after the accident.

The sailing and disaster half of the story were interesting, but the love story is lukewarm.

Shailene Woodley has some great acting moments. She is 80% of this film. No Oscar though.

There is a fun twist at the end, that gives them movie some punch.

Cast: Shailene Woodley, Sam Claflin

Directed by: Baltasar Kormakur

Written by: Twins Aaron Kandell & Jordan Kandell, David B Smith; based on the book by Tami Ashcraft, originally called Red Sky in Mourning

The Music: Pretty quiet;

The Visuals: Great seascapes. The giant waves were fun. I liked the shots of the accident, though they may not have been realistic.

Rating: 2.0 stars: .

More: Did vegan Tami ever eat that Spam?

Major Spoiler! Don't Read This: The big twist makes Adrift less truthful story. Richard is a hallucination. Reminds me of Life of Pi.  Directory Kormakur justifies it call the story the emotional reality. He also points out the scene of a man sinking to the bottom of the sea is the opening scene, and second scene when Tami is playing the guitar on the boat - suddenly she is by herself. 

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Ocean's 8

Plot: Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) gets out of prison, and sets up to steal a a bunch of jewelry from the Met in NYC. She recruits Lou (Cate Blanchett) and a roomful of other women to help. The characters are likable, and the caper action is lively.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: I was pleasantly surprised by Ocean's 8. So what if you know the story, it is the characters that make it interesting. So what if it is wickedly improbable. It is isn't completely a caper movie; it is  equally a farce.

Interestingly, there isn't any male-bashing humor, or gender stereotype humor. 

I did not recognize Rihanna. She was pretty good. I really liked her in Valerian. 

Sandra Bullock is engaging, and Cate Blanchette is strong. Helena Bonham Carter was too over the top for me. I liked Anne Hathaway-

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Awkawfina, and a zillion cameos. 

Directed by: Gary Ross

Written by: Director Gary Ross and Olivia Milch

The Music: Wonderful soundtrack by Daniel Pemberton. From that first note while the opening credits are going by, it is a cool jazzy soundtrack. I bought the album. 

The Visuals: Just OK

Rating: 3.0 stars: I enjoyed it. Clearly it is derivative, but so are 99% of movies. 

More: Ocean's 8 grew out of the relationship between George Clooney's character and Sandra Bullock's character in Gravity. Writer/director Ross wanted to think about whether Bullock could play the sister in the Ocean's movies.

Even More: How much different would the box office be, if there were a co-ed movie, or what all- male? This movie opened on Friday at 15.8 million, which is more than the first day number for Oceans 13, the last sequel. Forecasts are for Oceans 8 to be slightly lower than the gender-reversed version of Ghostbusters.

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Solo, A Star Wars Story

Plot: Young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) and girlfriend Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke) try to escape their home planet Corellia, but get separated. Han ends up in the army, but he deserts to take up a life of crime with Beckett (Woody Harrelson). After a caper to steal the space fuel coaxium from a train goes badly, he meets Qi'ra again who now works for a crime boss. Han, Beckett, and Qi'ra link up with Chewy (Joonas Suatamo) and head out to steal more. They get a ship from Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), and head to Kessel and coaxium mines. What follows is lots of thieving and double-crossing that leads to the twist-filled ending.   [imdb]    [photos]

Review: There are some great scenes in a story that is easy to follow. Like James Bond movie there are big, showy scenes that individually are fun, and a story to string these together. Most of the characters are well acted, and the end was surprising.

This is a Han that shoots first, and the fans like that. He also gets to talk himself out of trouble just like in older movies, and he brags, but gets caught doing so, like in the older movies. These are welcome fun. Ehrenreich said he tried to incorporate Harrison Ford's mannerisms.

I liked the robbery scene on the train, and the theft of the ore. I did not care for the Kessel Run portion of the movie, because the space monster seemed silly.

 I liked to performance from Alden Ehrenreich, and the irreverent tone that the writers gave him. I loved Donald Glover, he instantly made a character right from the beginning. Emilia Clark was not so great, aside from her initial scene on Kessel, she doesn't show much emotion. Perhaps her coolness was to foreshadow her inner loyalty, or it was just poor acting. Woody Harrelson as Beckett is a central figure in that he is the big-hearted, seen-it-all, rascal that Han grows up to be. He does a great job with it.

The casting of Erin Kellyman as be-freckled young pirate/revolutionary Enfys Nest was a little odd. I can easily imagine a young woman revolutionary. She would be strident, active, and urgent, and that is not what Erin showed us. After she takes her mask off she wants a drink, which seemed out of character; more like a has-been older pirate.  On the other hand, she may be a message that a revolutionary can be anyone. That ties into the end of The Last Jedi with all the children readying for the fight.

Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, Donald Glover, Erin Kellyman

Directed by: Ron Howard

Written by: Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan who are father and son. Lawrence wrote Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Force Awakes. 

The Music: Orchestral music by John Powell with one song by John Williams. The music was familiar and briefly had themes from older movies, but was generally new melodies in the same style. 

The Visuals: Top notch throughout, except the Kessel run, which I didn't care for. 

Rating: 3.5 stars: It was fun to watch, and I'd like to see it again. Does it have a moral center? Maybe. Han did give his money away before he went thieving again.

Somehow this movie feels like a three and not a three and half, but the pieces are good. So I am staying with it. 

More: Veteren writer Kasdan says Han has a cynical, "I am going to survive this scene" attitude.

Spoiler: Han gave 99% of his treasure away to the photo-revolution, and stiffed his criminal partners. I'm not sure how true to the character of Han that is. Although it fits with winning the Millennium Falcon in a card game.

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