Gone Girl

Plot: Nick (Ben Affleck) comes home and his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) is missing, and there are signs of a fight. He calls the police and they search the town. Nick comes under suspicion. After this, there are big twists that are too much fun to give away.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Gone Girl has a long, long wind up to excruciating and clever conclusion. It starts like a murder mystery and ends as twisted psychological thriller. The end is super fun:  four stars.

Just like the book, the ending is creepy and tense and wonderful. Both Nick and Amy are sociopaths bound by that common thread. Both characters were trapped by their actions and the tension between them was so great. 

I loved the performances of Affleck and Pike. Affleck sold his contrite confession on TV seeming more sincere then confessionals seem in real life. Pike manages a range of emotions, but she is best when she is the driven, smart Amy -- the super-competent Amy. Even though real women aren't like that all the time, she was so good at it that she sells it.

Writer Gillian Flynn brings the tension from the book right to the screen. Even though there are some logic gaps -- the plot twists hold together pretty well.

There is a level where Gone Girl is an allegory for a real marriage -- where two high damaged people stay together by mutual manipulation. The end makes more sense when viewed that way. The end makes sense poetically more than realistically.

More in the spoiler section below.

Cast: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Carrie Coon

Directed by: David Fincher

Written by:  Gillian Flynn, based on her novel of the same name.

Rating: 4.0 stars: This is what movies should be like. 

More:   The TV reporting plays a major role in the movie, that the book did not need. They become one of the motivating forces in the story. It reminds me of the Hunger Games book in how the media culture can motivate a new kind of evil. 

More with SPOILERS: The two big twists are so jarring even though I had read the book. I was swept along by the dynamic of the movie  Because we had begun to believe that Nick really had done it, when see Amy alive, suddenly we see everything that we thought was wrong.  It happens again when Amy kills Desi (Neal Patrick Harris) and a third time when she drives up to her house in front of the camera crews, and it is just as surprising when Nick gives her a hug on the sidewalk.

The strength of the story is that Amy is a great villain -- she is smart and works endlessly hard on her plan -- then she carries them out -- with a pretty smile. 

.

The Drop

Plot: Bob (Tom Hardy) and his cousin Marv (James Gandolfini)  work at a bar owned by Chechen gangsters. Marv needs some money so he enlists Eric Deeds (Matthias Schoenaerts) to rob the bar. Detective Torres (John Ortiz) comes around to investigate to raise the tension level.  Meantime Bob meets Deeds ex-girl friend Nadia (Noomi Repace) and adopts his old dog. This sets a conflict with Deeds that gets deeper as Marv's plan plays out.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: The Drop is a crime drama with Tom Hardy and Noomi Replace underacting -- very subdued -- almost like Noir movie; but the styling of the movie is gritty not stylized. Despite the subtle acting, the interpersonal scenes are solid and engaging. The dialog is similarly understated.  

The early film evokes Rocky, the boxing movie, wiht scenes about pets being used to introduce a shy potential girlfriend. 

The soundtrack was minimal, and the photography was pretty standard. 

Overall, the slow pacing sapped energy, but the well plotted story steadily increased the tension leading to the surprising end. 

Cast: Tom Hardy, Noomi Repace, James Gandolfini, John Ortiz, Matthias Schoenaerts

Directed by: Michael Roskam (based on the short story by Dennis Lehane)

Rating: 2.5 stars: Slow moving, but still enjoyable. Recommended.

More: Three puppies were used in the filming of the movie. The puppies kept growing too fast. 

Even More. James Gandolfini finished filming prior to his death -- that is there were no scenes rewritten for that reason. 

.

Maze Runner

Plot: Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) wakes up in a freight elevator in amnesia. He is in a walled garden that is in the center of a maze.  The other young men have been for years. They don't know why they are there, and every night monsters eat anyone still in the maze. Thomas helps them solve the puzzle of the maze, and set up the sequel. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Maze Runner is a light-weight horror movie with an over-designed plot that is typical of video games. My biggest problem was the artificialness of the plot which was not only artificial in set-up but kept on getting simpler and less clever (i.e. dumber). There is not any humor and little satire. It is a pretty dumb horror with a post-apocylpse vibe.

Thomas is an interesting character, but everyone else was a blank. I would not mind seeing Dylan O'Brien again.

The movie is dreary with many shots of blank walls. The action scenes are the best part, but the animation of the monsters is only OK. 

Cast: Dylan O'Brien, Ami Ameen, Ki Hong Lee, Kaya Scodelario

Directed by: Wes Ball, who has never made a full length film before.

Based on the novel by: James Dasher, a four book series.

Rating: 1.5 stars: Not recommended. Might be OK if it were on free TV.

More: It was interesting that when a girl (!) shows up in the movie; the guys just leave her alone. No harassment, no romance, no flirting, and certainly no sex. Seems like the script was written for younger actors than the 21-23 year olds that were cast. 

Boyhood

Plot With Spoilers: Boyhood follows Mason (Ellar Coltrane) growing up from age 6 to age 18. It was made with the same actors over a 12 year period and everyone ages realistically. Mason lives with his mom (Patricia Arquette) and sees his divorced father (Ethan Hawke) on weekends. Little Mason fights with his sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater) and we watch their relationship evolve as they go to middle school and high school. Mason gets picked on in middle school, gets kissed in high school, gets high, plays video games, graduates high school, breaks up with his girlfriend, and goes to college.  As this happens the adults age as well, getting married, changing careers, and getting divorced.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Boyhood is an epic movie. I have never seen anything like it. I relived my own adolescence seeing these events flow past over 3.25 hours. The sense of time passing is real as the kids age, and the clothes, music and electronics change. 

This is a masterful movie with deserves a lot of attention.  There is a script and everyone is an actor -- it is not a documentary, but the events are typical events that would happen in an American family.

One of the fun parts is figuring out when the one year gaps occurred, and what happened during the intervening year. Did someone move or change jobs or get divorced or, or, or?

Boyhood gets away with its philosophical and psychological dialog because bad life choices are played out on the screen over and over again. In another movie, this much philosophy would be too preachy.

There are many wonderful scenes like the kids fighting in the back seat, the drunken step dad throwing dinnerware, and Samantha talking about contraception with her dad.

I liked the actors especially Patricia Arquette. Lorelei Linklater and Ellar Coltrane are great when they get past 15 or so. 

Cast: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Lorelei Linklater. 

Directed by: Richard Linklater

Rating: 4 stars -- an epic achievement

More: The script was written as time passed, and the actors took part in writing the dialog.

Even More: It is wrong for Boyhood to get an R rating. Young teens should see this most. The drug use scenes have natural consequences.

Chef

Plot: Carl (Jon Favreau) is a chef in LA, who gets in a Twitter fight with a critic, and ends up out of work. He gets an old food truck in Miami, starts making Cubano sandwiches, and drives back across the country with his 10 year old son (Emjay Anthony) and friend Tony (Bobby Cannavale.) They stop along the way cooking and learning life lessons. When they get back to LA, he meets up with his ex-wife (Safia Vergara) and the critic.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Chef is underrated, likeable and fun. The characters are interesting. The story is something different, and the music is good. 

Jon Favreau delivers lots of great performances especially the scene where is telling of the critic in the restaurant -- very tense and very believable. He had other good scenes with son Percy. 

There several minor characters played by celebrity actors like Scarlett Johansson (always good), Dustin Hoffman, Amy Sedaris, and especially Robert Downey Jr. Robert Downey Jr is hysterical. He kept changing the subject so fast you can't tell what he is talking about, but no matter what he means he is funny. 

The music is exceptional. The salsa heavy soundtrack is anchored by Mariachi legend Pereco Hernandez, who plays ex-wife Inza's father. Why do so many movies have boring soundtracks?  The music makes the cooking seem like a party. 

The photography is solid -- there are some food porn scenes early as Carl is tenderly working out his ideal menu, and a few panoramic landscapes as they drive back across America. 

The story is driven by an Twitter feud, and I thought that was refreshing. 

Starring, written and directed by: Jon Favreau

Cast: Safia Vergara, Bobby Cannavale, see above for more.

Rating:3.5 stars: Fun to watch, charming, peppy, clever, good performances. A well-crafted film. Why not 4 stars? 

More: .Favreau says this is the message of the movie

"I'm most proud of the fact that it shows there's a recipe for success if you dial into the shit that is going to make your life better. It's counterintuitive, but if you take time away from your career and invest it in your personal life, your career flourishes. That's a lesson I've learned a decade ago. That was the real underlying message of the movie." 

Even More: This Jon Favreau is different from the Obama speechwriter and White House staffer Jon Favreau.

.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill for

Plot:  Four stories from Sin City one about Marv (Mickey Rourke) hunting down some college kids who dissed him. Another about a gambler named Johnny (Joseph Gordon Levitt) who wins too much at a poker game against corrupt Senator Roarke (Powers Booth.) The third about Dwight (John Brolin) who is called by an old girlfriend Ava Lord (Eva Green) to  rescue her from her husband, but the husband's bodyguards turn out to be formidable, and  Ava's story is not what is seems. Dwight enlists Gail (Rosario Dawson) and her gang of female killers to help out. The final story is about dancer Nancy (Jessica Alba) who wants to kill Rourke to get revenge for his killing of her old boyfriend (Bruce Willis) who is now a ghost. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: I went to see this moving because most of it just looks great. All the Noir scenes! The style! Cool. Really outstanding! Beautiful at times!

The characters are trying to be cool too, and therefore they are hard to relate to. Also four stories dilutes the dramatic action. By halfway through the movie, I wanted more characters that I could care about.

At the very end, I thought there is all too much casual killing. By the end of the movie, even this nice characters are just shooting people. As I left the theater, it was hard to be enthusiastic about the film due to the violence and sexism. The magic of the film did not last the whole 102 minutes.

Cast: Mickey Rourke, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Powers Booth, John Brolin, Jessica Alba, Eva Green

Directed by: Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez

Written by: Frank Miller

Rating: 2.0 stars: Early in the movie, I loved it  -- solely because it was so cool. As the stories played out, I liked it less. I think I would have liked it better as a silent movie. Good enough for 2.5 stars but minus 1/2 because the message of the movie is to shoot people who bother you to death.

More: OK, this is fantasy, almost superhero fantasy, but I don't like how characters live through multiple gunshot wounds. It may make real life shooting too easy to justify.

.

Get on Up

Plot: Get on Up is a bio-pic about the R&B singer James Brown (Chadwick Boseman) -- it starts with his lonely, poor childhood, his struggling early career, the early hits, and then the pitiful, wash-up, egotistical, old man. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: James Brown's story is told in a powerful way with many times-out for funky R&B. The music has its hits and misses. The best songs are great, and some seem dated and sleepy. 

Chadwick Boseman is the center of the action as his character is on screen continuously either singing or acting. He handles the lip-syncing flawlessly -- no doubt helped by flawless editing. 

James Brown is shown as a larger-than-life music and business genius who does not seem to owe his success to anyone. It would have been interesting to see who his musical influences were. Brown has passions and genius, but he seems too monomaniacal to be realistic. 

The supporting performances by Nelsan Ellis and Viola Davis helped carry the dramatic scenes, and the dramatic scenes are the binding glue to keep us interested. It would have been nice to see the relationships with women played out more -- aside from just abusing or ignoring them.

Highlights were the early childhood scenes which edged on being "poverty porn," as well as the faster songs. Lows were the photography which was not so artistic, the old-age make-up which was distractedly bad, and the music toward the end of the movie -- which dragged on.

Cast: Chadwich Boseman, Nelsan Ellis, Dan Aykroyd, Viola Davis, Jamarion & Jordan Scott as young James.

Directed by: Tate Taylor

Rating: 2.5 - stars: often fun to watch, but it had its dull parts too. Seemed stale -- too much like other musical bio-pics.  Chadwich Boseman was great though. 

More of the Real James Brown: 

.