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: .

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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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