Passengers

Plot without Spoilers:  Jim (Chris Pratt) and Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence) are mistakenly awoken from hibernation on a interstellar spaceship, and no one else is awake. They can't go back to sleep so they try to make the best of it, until spaceship malfunctions threaten to kill them. [imdb]    [photos]

Review without spoilers: It is hard to discuss Passengers without knowing the plot twists and the questions of sacrifice and selfishness. There are multiple levels and most obvious is the Sci-Fi problem solving like The Martian at the beginning and the special-effects heavy action scenes at the end.

Most interesting are the moral quandaries Jim and Aurora puzzle through. In their impossible situation we see what the characters do, and I wondered what I would have done.

Because the moral situations are the driver, the plot twists are contrived to make the choices more stark and absolute -- whereas on a Star Trek episode focused on adventure Scotty or Jordy would  find an Sci-Fi engineering solution to avoid a moral catastrophe -- this give a happy ending and avoids immoral or questionable choices that would make a network executive cringe. Here writer Tyldum wanted the characters to figure it out.  (See the Even More section below.) This change in tone is a little unfamiliar, but it is the core of the movie. 

Passengers is staying with me. I keep thinking about what would I have done. The moral dimension is why it is getting three stars.

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Plot with Spoilers: After a spaceship accident, Jim (Chris Pratt) is awoken from hibernation by a malfunction decades early with no way to return to hibernation and therefore fated to die before rest of the passengers awaken. He is lonely so he awakens cute female passenger to keep him company through the remaining decades, Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence). It's great for a while, but then she finds out that he woke her on purpose, and she is pissed. The spaceship continues to malfunction threatening their lives until Jim & Aurora work together to save themselves and the sleeping passengers.

Review with spoilers: Passengers is primarily about one or two people stuck in a life threatening situation. It is really about the moral choices especially Jim's selfishness in awakening Aurora, Aurora's choice when she learns about it, and the how Jim and Aurora choose to spend their future. While it looks like a Sci-Fi movie: most obvious is the Sci-Fi problem solving like The Martian at the beginning and the special-effects heavy action scenes at the end; it really is about the moral choices.

The soul of the movie is the moral lapse where Jim awakes Aurora just because he is lonely and in doing so sentencing her to death. This permeates every scene both before and after Aurora knows, and it deeps the ending where she agrees to stay with him. Jim seems likeable, but we know he may be a predator, and Chris Pratt's acting conveys that.

In their impossible situation we see what the characters do, and I wondered what I would have done.

Because the moral situations are the driver, the plot twists are contrived to make the choices more stark and absolute -- whereas on a Star Trek episode Scotty or Jordy would  find an Sci-Fi engineering solution to avoid a moral catastrophe -- this gives a TV happy ending and avoids immoral/questionable choices that would make a network executive cringe. Here writer Tyldum wanted the characters to figure it out.  (See the Even More section below.) This change in purpose is a little unfamiliar in Sci-Fi movies, but it is the core.

I liked Jennifer Lawrence a lot. She has a subtly in her expressions. Chris Pratt is more comic, but he is relate-able and amiable. It is easy to see why Aurora likes him. Michael Sheen shows up as a robot bartender, and give the characters someone to talk to. His deadpan delivery provides levity.

I liked the movie. Passengers is staying with me as I roll over the moral issues in my mind. 

Cast: Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence

Directed by: Moren Tyldum

Written by: Jon Spaihts, who also wrote Doctor Strange. It is not based on a novel

The Music: Nice instrumental music by Thomas Newman.

The Visuals: There are many well-composed shots evoking loneliness and the beauty of space. I  liked the swimming pool and the window. I like the helical ship too.  

Rating: 3.5 stars: 

Even More:  This interview with writer Jon Spaihts talks about the moral quandaries at the core of the film, and some interesting insights into his process. He likes to minimize exposition at the beginning of the movie, and then dole it out as the audience needs it. In a Sci-Fi this can seem phoney in that it seems like -- Oh look the write set up this new twist in the "universe" just to enable this plot twist. On the other hand, the lack of exposition at the beginning made the film more lonely and beautiful.

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LA LA LAnd

Plot: Mia (Emma Stone) has been trying to break into acting for four years, and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is a frustrated, overly-idealistic jazz musician who is paying the bills playing restaurants. Mia and Sebastian meet, flirt, and after singing a few songs become a couple. They discuss their frustrated dreams and try to inspire each other keep trying to be successful in acting or music. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: LA LA LAnd is a musical with some good songs and earnest storytelling. The songs are spotty: there are good ones like the opening song on the freeway, and less good ones like Mia's audition for the French film. It's always interesting, but the drama is not dramatic enough, and the songs are not fun enough.

I like musicals, like 2015's Into the Woods or 2012's Les Miserables. I loved Evita (2006) or Moulin Rouge (2001). Musicals can be fun and imaginative.

The photography and art direction are great. There are some great images. Emma Stone's looks great in her stylish retro dresses. We get great images and dispense with the realism, which is fine with me.

Emma Stone has some great facial acting, and Ryan Gosling is OK, but not as good. The other supporting actors are not well developed, but they do get to sing and dance.

There is a part where the screen goes black, so we can concentrate on the audio. I thought that was effective. It was foreshadowed earlier in the film when a film stopped in a theater where Mia and Sebastian were.

The best part is that LA LA LAnd is different and fresh. It is strong on style, but the conventional drama of the story is a little weak. 

Cast: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling

Written and directed by: Damien Chazelle

The Music: It's a musical, and its all about music. Most of the songs are show tunes with additional piano and jazz instrumental music. 

The Visuals: Very stylish photography throughout. Great images.

Rating: 3.0 stars: a 2.5 star movie with an extra half star for the visual style and imagination. Not fun enough for 3.5. It will make my 2016 top ten list.

More: Writer-director Damien Chazelle made the music-oriented and very intense Whiplash in 2014. This is his third movie.

SPOILER - Even More: People are too cynical for a happy ending. Mia can't live happily ever after with Sebastian because our depressed zeitgeist. Chazelle gives us the happy ending as a dream sequence and a wan, tired smile across a crowded room as the real ending.

I liked this ending.

I am also happy that Mia and Sebastian both get satisfaction in their artistic lives too. I wonder how realistic that is.

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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Plot: Jyn Erso's (Felicity Jones) father was pressed into service building the Death Star, and he had Jyn raised by a friend, Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker). When she grows up,  her father wants to see her, and the rebels try to take her to him. On the way, she makes friends with the rebels especially Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and robot K-2SO (Alan Tudyk). Because this is a prequel to "A New Hope," it is not a spoiler to say that the team steals the plans, and transmits them to Princess Leah's ship.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: I liked it. It is a fresh story but it has all the familiar elements from the original Star Wars movies. The characters are clearly motivated, and the bad guys are characters we know already. When the battles come, they are grittier and smarter versions of the battles in the original movies. The special effects are non-stop perfect, and the art direction is inspired and detailed.

Rogue One is dark. No jokes or funny robots. Very little smiling. It is a tragedy and that means a sad ending. The worst part of the movie is the sad ending.

I liked the performances by Felicity Jones, Forest Whitaker and Diego Luna. They were much more concerned about people than about their technology, and I liked that. The humanity of the characters made the story better.

 I also liked Donnie Yen who played a blind monk who kept chanting "I am one with the force and the force is with me." I am sure he will inspire of a generation of Force-oriented mystics.

The battle scenes at the end seemed long, and while I could follow it all, the fighting not the most interesting part. 

Cast: Felicity Jones, Forest Whitaker, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk

Directed by: Gareth Edwards

Written by: Chris Weitz, Tony Gilroy, John Knoll, Gary Whitta

The Music: Orchestral music with a nice majestic feeling like John Williams'

The Visuals: All top notch

Rating: 3.5 stars: A good movie; fun to watch, but dark and with a sad ending. I want to see it again. 

More: Director Edwards as a young man made a trip to Tunisia (where the Tatooine scenes were filmed) with food coloring so he could drink blue milk like Luke Skyworker. He was and probably still is a real fan.

Even More: Jyn Erso: We have hope. Rebellions are built on hope!



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Manchester by the Sea

Plot: [imdb]  [photos]

Lee (Casey Affleck) feels guilty and responsible for a past tragedy, so he is angry and depressed. When his brother dies, he goes back to Manchester for the burial. His brother left his 16 year son Joe (Kyle Chandler) in Lee's care, and this causes Lee to move back to Manchester and all tragic old memories. Joe and Lee have many sharp worded arguments. He encounters his ex-wife Randi (Michelle Williams) at the funeral and later around town.

Review: The film is all about Lee and his depression about the tragedy (that I am not going to spoil.) Lee can't forget and never learns to cope. The film is tragic because it is not a redemption or come-back or healing story. At the end, I wondered, why did the movie end here?

Manchester by the Sea has a core pessimism, and perhaps that fits the national zeitgeist -- leading to its surprising popularity.

Casey Affleck's performance is the highlight thoughout -- playing the broody and boiling Lee with intensity and sadness. There is snappy dialog with Joe, but young Kyle Chandler isn't up to the role and he sounds like a 40 year old scriptwriter. Joe isn't fully realized, but he challenges Joe just like the internal voices of his younger self might have. Joe does provides the few moments of levity -- primarily involving attempting sex with his girl friends.

The end is the least satisfying part. It does not resolve Lee's central issues, and his life will become much like it was at the beginning. Manchester by the Sea is a fictional story where a writer has concocted all the characters and all the plot twists, I expect the writer's message to be embedded inside. I don't find one here: just a cold, stormy reality -- just like all those wintery seascapes director Lonergan shows us. The message is that life sucks, and while people can fight it, in the end life still sucks.

"Why did the movie end where it did?" The answer is that it could have ended anywhere, because just like Godot nothing ever is going to change. If Manchester by the Sea has a message for this modern age, it is an icy, windy, bleak seascape. 

Cast: Casey Affleck, Kyle Chandler

Written and directed by: Kenneth Lonergan

The Music: Simple minimal music by Lesley Barber mixed with orchestral classics

The Visuals: Many photos of the ocean, the harbor, and sea birds. Few special effects.

Rating: 3.0 stars: Worthwhile and with deep characters. 

More: After the election, I read that this is an age for the Black Madonna -- not the pop star Marea Stamper or Kanye West -- rather the 12 Century European original. A dark faced woman who embodied the tragedy of the plague and the descent in to ignorance. The Pope is planning to visit her shrine on his trip to Poland.

New age pantheists link her to the Hindu goddess Kali, who is called the dark mother and associated with destruction & doomsday.

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Miss Sloane

Plot: Miss Sloane (Jessica Chastain) is a high powered lobbyist working on a high-profile gun control law. She steam-rolls over obstacles as she fights the NRA. It shows the fast-moving tough and strategic moves of the competing lobbyists. Miss Sloane is tough and not encumbered by morality. At the darkest moment, there is a twist ending.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: The character of Miss Sloane is so restless, confident, and relentless that she is fun to watch. She is the smartest and the most hard-working. Jessica Chastain is fun to watch as she plays this over-the-top tough girl.

Miss Sloane is a sort-of superhero of Washington -- a supernatural lobbyist. Instead of bashing buildings, the battles on TV new shows, and they sling twisted half-truths at each other. Their weapons are dirty tricks and media theater. I thought this was great. Wife Jenny thought some of this was dull -- guess that is why smashing buildings is more popular -- easier to understand.

Even before I looked it up, I knew the character was written by a man. She is the male vision of the perfect woman: exactly like a man except in a pretty body. She is tough, and strong, and bold, and smart, and resolute, and pretty-much exactly like the male hero ideal -- except she is a sexy girl too. Like Lara Croft. Would a realistic female hero really be seeing prostitutes?

All the talk in the press about Miss Sloane being a new kind of hero is ironic in that way. In the movies press, director Madden says the opposite that usually male heroes are this dark and flawed.

Angelina Jolie's character in salt was originally written as a male. Would this movie have been as good if the genders were reversed?  Probably -- the clever plotting was the interesting part. Miss Sloane really didn't have any female characteristics or gendered back-story that motivated her. If there was a difference, it was the Miss Sloane was a-social or even anti-social -- she would double cross people and trick people to win. She was such an individualist or even sociopath.

In the radical feminist mindset, there isn't a difference between genders and a hero is a hero, for example Katy Ledecki swims like male swimmers, because all superfast olympic swimmers swim in the same way. In this sense Miss Sloane is the evolution of androgynous amorality. Probably not a role model for anyone -- although Miss Sloane is more Leaned In than anyone else.

Having said that, it was fun to watch. I liked it.

Cast: Jessica Chastain, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mark Strong, John Lithgow

Directed by: John Madden

Written by: Jonathan Perera

The Visuals: No special effects. Some nice facial shots. 

Rating: 3.0 stars: Good story. Nice twist ending. 

More: Jessica Chastain describes her character like this: “It’s an ambitious, over-prepared, one-step-ahead-of-you woman that actually mentors other women and takes them under her wing. Elizabeth Sloane operates at a much faster engine than I do…” link

Even More: Writer Perera said this: “It seemed like very fertile ground for a script. We’ve seen the politicians front-and-center in shows like ‘The West Wing’ and various movies as well. What we haven’t seen are the power-players behind the scenes, trading in influence, pulling the strings…”

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The Edge of Seventeen

Plot: High school Junior Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) has a party while her Mom (Kyra Sedgewick) was away, and her best friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson) hooks up with her brother Darian (Blake Jenner). Nadine hates her brother and then gets in a fight with Krista -- leaving Nadine friendless in high school. Nadine is in a social pickle and only nerdy Erwin (Hayden Szeto) pays any attention to her.. As Nadine considers suicide, she confides in teacher Mr Bruner (Woody Harrelson). Nadine is her own worst enemy, and her situation only gets worse -- until the twist at the end.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Edge of Seventeen is a drama about the intense relationships between high schoolers. It is a dialog-driven drama like Juno or Perks of Being a Wallflower, and while there is some sitcom humor, it isn't a comedy. The tension is in the mind of Nadine with extra tension from her Mom's head.

The dialog is clever without being too forced, and the elements of plot are conversations where Nadine says something that turns the screw on her social situation.

Hailee Steinfeld does an outstanding job with the subtle emotions, and writer/director Kelly Fremon Craig's script is the other star. Clever social observations overlaid with Nadine's hopelessness are delivered in a snappy and interesting way. Nadine's insults are especially good. Writer/director Kelly Fremon Craig needs to make more movies.

I really liked this film. I like getting into other people's heads, and I like complicated and twisted situations. There is a theme about death and loss, but most is about being a social misfit. Even though it is about high school, it is not only for high schoolers, because people are so complicated.

Cast: Hailee Steinfeld, Kyra Sedgewick, Haley Lu Richardson, Hayden Szeto, Blake Jenner, Woody Harrelson

Directed and written by: Kelly Fremon Craig

The Music: Pop songs with a score by Atli Oovarsson

Rating: 3.5 stars: I liked it a lot. It would be fun to see again.

More: Writer Craig said she just wanted to capture what it is like to be seventeen. Producer Brooks said the voice is so specific to you (Craig), that you are the only person to direct it.

Even More: This is the first major project for writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig. Looking for more from her.

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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Plot: In 1920's New York, wizard zoologist Newt (Eddie Redmayne) arrives on a ship from London with a suitcase magically-filled with magic animals/monsters. One animal escapes and while trying to catch it the suitcase ends up with aspiring baker Kowalski (Dan Fogler), and then more animals escape. The chaos attracts the attention of Tina (Katherine Waterston) and Graves (Colin Farrell) who are like magic police, as well as Chastity Barebone, who is a feverish political opponent of magic.  Tina and her sister Queen (Alison Sudol) and Kowalski help Newt capture the animals and satisfy the authorities. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Fantastic Beasts is a lot of fun. I enjoyed seeing a  new take on JK Rowling's magical world.

I liked the personalities of all four main actors, Redmayne, Waterston, Sudol and Fogler. Redmayne is full of emotion. Waterston seems serious and coy. Sudol had a great flirting scene and her mind reading scenes were funny. Fogler starts out so stiff, and is lovable by the end.

The basic story is catching the monsters, but it is paced out by the introduction of all the characters and interludes where we get to know the  monsters -- primarily to foreshadow the more lively action later.

At the end there are several subplots planted for the sequels -- if you are already looking forward to the sequels as I am, these are valuable clues. If not, then these are fluff not contributing to the drama.

Rowlings magical universe in the US has different politics than in England. Here the witches are more oppressed and egalitarian, without the class distinctions that were the major theme of Harry Potter.

I liked how the main monster of the story was an incarnation of the repression traumatic events and denying ones identity, so the psychological evil becomes physical evil. Unlike some summer thrillers, there is a clear political and sociological message being sent in the construction of the story. In this season of Trump, the cross-cultural themes may be more timely or more controversial. 

Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Colin Farrell

Directed by: David Yates

Story and screenplay by: JK Rowling

The Music: Orchestral music by James Newton Howard

The Visuals: Some top 1920's era visuals, and some of the smaller monsters were cool. The interior of the Magical Congress Building was cool. I did not care for the big monsters.

Rating: 3.0 stars: Fun to watch. Good acting. Interesting story, but thrilling.

More: This is the first of five Fantastic Beast films.

Even More: There is no novel, but there is a screen-play, which I have not bought because I have a new novel I am working on, but maybe over Christmas.



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