Jumanji -- Welcome to the Jungle

Plot: Four high schoolers become characters in a video game. They must beat the game to win, and game over has serious consequences.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: It has the adventure story in the jungle, the sitcom jokes of its absurd premise, plus a teen soap opera. All together it works pretty well.

The movie is self-aware of its silliness, but near the end it gets a little cheesy.

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, 

Directed by: Jake Kasdan

Written by: A staff of twelve featuring Chris McKenna; based on the 1981 kids book by Chris Van Allsburg

The Music: Drum and horn heavy tracks by Henry Jackman

The Visuals: Well done, but not top quality.  I loved the rhinos. The visuals aren't quite trying for realism; they look like animated animals. The jungle shots looked like paintings.  

Rating: 2.5 stars: Its not great, but it is fun

 

More: Jumanji was made with Robin Williams in 1996. Apparently there was a dramatic rhino stampede like in this movie.

Even More: I didn't know that Karen Gillian played Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy.

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Game Night

Plot: Max (Jason Bateman) and Anne (Rachel McAdams) invite a group of friends play a murder mystery game that turns out to be too realistic. Kyle's brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) gets kidnapped, and the friends try to sleuth  it out. You never know what is real and what is part of the game. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: I loved Jason Bateman & Rachel McAdams. The script is funny and clever. It is the best comedy I've seen in a long time.

Game Night has the thriller plot twists of a mystery; the catty dialog among the friends; and sitcom humor based on the odd situations.

Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams are so good together. McAdams is so likable to begin with, and 

the dialog is has them bickering and making obscure references to games and movies. Jesse Plemons plays a neighbor in a strange and obsessive way that was occasionally that sets up much of the sitcom humor.

Cast: Rachel McAdams, Jason Bateman, Kyle Chandler, Sharon Horgan, Billy Magnussen, Larmorne Morris, Kyle Bunbury, Jesse Plemons

Directed by: John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein

Written by: Mark Perez

The Music: Good jazz-electronica soundtrack by Cliff Martinez; I liked the moodiness. 

The Visuals: There are some fun visuals like Gary's bloody computer room, and the chase around the mansion with the Faberge Egg. 

Rating: 3.5 stars: It doesn't have any social message, but it is a great comedy. Fun-to-Watch

More: The original score was lighter and comedic, but the test audiences liked the film better with thriller sound track.

Even more: The directors said getting the tone right was the toughest aspect. It couldn't be too zany or too dark to keep the movie working.

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Black Panther

Plot: T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) becomes Black Panther  and King of Wakanda when his father the old Black Panther dies, and after he wins a one-on-one dual with a rival prince. Wakanda is futuristic and wealthy country that hides itself. Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) and Eric Killmonger (Michael B Jordan) steal valuables from Wakanda, and the Black Panther with his all-female posse including Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) and Okay (Danai Gurira) go to get it back. They chase them around Busan, Korea, and Killmonger eventually finds his way to Wakanda. He reveals himself as a long lost Princely cousin, and challenges T'Challa for the throne. This starts a civil war leading to the final battles. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: The beginning is best. I liked the set-up: the mythology of a rich, advanced African country hiding from colonizers.  The art direction was great. I liked the arm-crossing gesture and the female soldiers pounding their spears on the ground. I liked the fighting challenge in the water.

It is slow going early as back-stories unspool including Jordan's Killmonger as the long lost prince. I liked drama of an psycho becoming King; an analogy to Present Trump, as they spell out in the dialog for anyone who misses the symbolism. When the bad guy takes over the government, the army falls into place and the government's resources are now available to profit from.

After Killmonger's initial success, there isn't much cleverness left. The writing delivers some bleak, dark situations for the good guys several times. This whipsaws our emotions, and that's OK.

There is a debate between Killmonger and T'Challa about why doesn't Wakanda open itself to immigrants or share its technology freely with the outside world. Killmonger wants to help the oppressed overthrow their rulers. Killmonger makes good points than T'Challa, but he [not a spoiler] gets defeated by T'Challa, standing up for property rights. This is a Disney film after all, and intellectual property rights are sacred to them. Having said that, in the first post-credit scene, T'Challa and Shuri (Letitia Wright) start a mission in Oakland; so Killmonger seems to have won part of the argument.  (Director Coogler is from Oakland.)

Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Andy Serkis, Michael B Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright.

Directed by: Ryan Coogler

Written by: Ryan Cooglar and Joe R. Cole based on the comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

The Music: Disappointing. There is a hip-hop soundtrack by Kendric Lamar and a regular soundtrack by Ludwig Goransson. Goransson has African themed orchestral music; some repetitive: nothing that sounds good when reviewed the clips on iTunes. Lamar's hip-hop is nothing special, except for Pray for Me by The Weekend and Kendric Lamar. 

The Visuals: I loved the lab. I loved the moving symbols on the walls and the other walls painted with African symbolism. I loved first shots in Korea, outside and in the casino. I liked how the female soldiers were bald and had tattoos on their scalps. You gotta like the armored rhinos; so sad I can't find a photo of them. 

Rating:  3.5 stars: I liked the clever ideas and art direction early. I liked the epic sweep. It has stayed with me. It gets points for the world-building of an a high tech African utopia -- something that I'd never seen in a big budget movie. This is like Brokeback Mountain getting extra points for being unlike anything made before. 

 

More: Here is info on the two end credit scenes.

Even More: Even with all the female actors, my wife didn't like it.

Yet More: My sympathies to those people being driven out of Oakland by the high housing prices, but 2018 Oakland is not so poor. Having been to Oakland during my last vacation, I can only shake my head at the million dollar price tags on the houses. I see a gentrified city, and the idea that Oakland is full of poor people needs a reality check. Even in the low rent neighborhoods, the houses are ½ million.

In Detroit, you can buy a block-full of houses for ½ million.



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Hostiles

Plot: Captain Joe (Christian Bale) is taking old Apache Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) and his family to Montana so he can die at home. Along they way they meet Mrs Quaid (Rosamund Pike) whose family was just killed by outlaw Comanche. Captain Joe aided Yellow Hawk to find and battle the Comanche. Mrs Quaid tags to Montana with them. On the way the women (Q'orianka Kicher, Tanaya Beatty) get kidnapped and raped by white fur trappers.  When they finally get to Montana, there are more hostile men to shoot. Everyone in this movie is Hostile.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: You can make a 2010's Western about the 1890's, by drawing out all the subplots that got skipped in mid-20th Century Westerns. The hostile people are different groups of white people and different groups on natives. In Hostiles the suffering of the women is foregrounded. The theme is common humanity of the Native Americans, the White people and the one Black soldier. A second theme is the hardness and arbitrariness of life in the old west.

Hostiles is slow paced. Lots of faces talking slowing at night, or just staring. The style is either supposed to evoke old-fashion Westerns or more modern Art movies. It was particularly slow at the beginning.

Christian Bale's Captain Joe is evocative, but really under-acted; He is not trying to be a 1890's soldier -- he is a little more woke. Rosamund Pike's Mrs Quaid was so great when she was hiding under the rock from the Comanche. She played a traumatized Mom pretty well with a nice mix of primal scream and stoic blank stare. Like all 2010's heroines, Mrs Quaid shoots the bad guy who says she doesn't have the nerve for it.

Hostiles shows that you can update the Western to modern moral standards, but so what? It is still a boring old Western. 

Cast: Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi

Directed and Screenplay by: Scott Cooper

Manuscript by: Donald Stewart

The Music: Almost no music. It makes the stillness stiller. I liked the shrieking sound effect at the first Comanche attack.

The Visuals: Some great outdoor landscapes.

Rating: 2.5 stars: With all the strong points, it is still a boring old Western.

 

More: A surprisingly international cast: Rosamund Pike is English, Adam Beach - Canadian, Tanya Beatty - Canadian, Q'orianka Kilcher - German

Even More: Editor Tom Cross says that he was trying to set up a mediation on the landscape to show the vast distances and to show how far the characters are going psychologically. link

Yet More: "One other interesting technical tidbit was that because of the SPCA [Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals] and the desire to keep horses safe, you’re not allowed to use full load blanks near horses, and you’re not really allowed to use squibs very close to horses. So a lot of the muzzle flashes and gunshots were enhanced digitally later." From an interview in at deadline.com

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Lady Bird

Plot: Rebelous high schooler Lady Bird (Saorse Ronan) goes through a couple boyfriends and girlfriends on the way to her dream college. She butts heads with her Mom (Laurie Metcalf) as she goes through Senior year, picks a college, gets a summer job, and goes to prom. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: I really thought this was a biopic of President Johnson's wife Lady Bird, just like they made Jackie last year. I was surprised and confused that it was set in 2002. Unexpectedly, it is about another girl named Lady Bird.

This one lives lower middle-class and somewhat rebellious life in a Catholic high school, and has all the problems of regular high school girls, though more rebellious and well-read than most.

Everyone has to love the acting, because it is wonderful. It is a seminar in emoting. Saorse's Lady Bird is fun, quirky, and always likable. The script is strong, but not overwrought like an Aaron Sorkin movie. It's never boring.

 I liked it, and it is staying with me like a thoughtful movie should. 

Cast: Saorse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Timothee Chalamet, Lucas Hedges

Directed and written by: Greta Gerwig, who grew up in Sacramento. She said she was much more conventional -- though we know she was a drama kid. 

The Music: A variety of pop songs. I liked the oldie from the Monkees, As We go Along. Other highlights are The Crossroads by Bone Thugs and Harmoney, and Little of Your Love by Haim. 

The Visuals: Mostly people talking. I liked the dance scene at the end. 

Rating: 3.5 stars: You have to love the acting. It is a feel good story. Not sure it has a message, and that keeps this from being 4 stars. (4 star dramas should be more than just character studies, see Marshall.)

More: Writer/director Gerwig says the "concept of home [...] only comes into focus as it is receding." I think that is true.

Even More: We saw this because it is an Oscar movie. It is not "Classic" enough for best picture.

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I, Tonya

Plot: The story of Olympic skater Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie), who is infamous for the attack on  rival Nancy Kerrigan prior to the 1994 Olympic trials. It is told in flashback by actors playing older versions of the characters including Tonya's mother LaVonna (Allison Janney), husband Jeff (Sebastian Stan), and low-friend Shawn (Paul Walter Hauser.)  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: I, Tonya a bio-pic telling Tonya's story before deep-diving into the kneecapping incident on rival Nancy Kerrigan. It is interesting because of the strange characters especially Tonya's bitter and irritable mother LaVonna, played wonderfully by Allison Janney. The drama turns on delusional friend Shawn who is wonderfully played by Hauser. Instead of playing a prank, Shawn decides to play James Bond. Shawn is the pathetic center of the plot. The emotional center is LaVonna, Tonya's mom. She is mean, bitter, and selfish. Her treatment of Tonya makes us sympathetic for Tonya. It helps explain why Tonya stays in an abusive relationship with Jeff.

Writer Rogers blames Harding's working class origins as the real source of the problem. Initially, he runs down the other skaters as too privileged, and later blue-collar American culture is blamed for poor sportsmanship and ineptitude. In reality there are many blue collar Americans with strong character and many upper class villains.

In these #MeToo times, the abuse that Tonya received from fruitcake husband Jeff deserves extra comment. Is poverty an excuse for domestic violence? Tonya's life reminds me the abuse by gymnastics doctor Larry Nasser.

It is humorous to think of Shawn and LaVonna as a hopeless losers, and that serves the interest of the plot. I think Shawn was mentally-ill, and it stops being funny when you think about it too much. He does think he is secret agent after all. LaVonna was probably an alcoholic.

Where are we after it all? Entertained by the acting. Impressed by the special effects. Rethinking the role of poverty in making people miserable.

I wonder if Tonya would have admitted everything and then blamed mentally-ill Shawn. 

Cast: Margot Robbie, Allison Janney, Sebastian Stan, Paul Walter Hauser

Directed by: Craig Gillespie

Written by: Steven Rogers

The Music: Mostly 1980's music

The Visuals: The skating scenes realistically show actress Margot skating. The movies are smooth and faster -- faster than the real Tonya did them. This was impressive, and I'd like to see how they did it. 

Rating: 2.5 stars: Good acting; Entertaining. No extra points for social commentary because it gets that wrong. 

 

More: I finally understand what a triple Axel is.

Even More: Here is the real Tonya

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The Post

Plot: The Post is about the leaking and publishing of the "Pentagon Papers," a history of the Vietnam war that had embarrassing government's secrets and bleak military assessments. We see the Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys) give the papers to the NY Times, and the later to the Washington Post. Brash editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) pushes to obtain the papers, and then owner Mrs Graham (Meryl Streep) agonizes about whether to publish them because of the risk of being sued by President Nixon.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: I'm never excited to see a movie starring 69 year old Meryl Streep, but time I see her I get sucked in because she is that good an actress. I am less sick of Tom Hanks, but he good too. Noisy and strutting, but never over the top.

The story of the Pentagon papers is old and well-trodden, and we already know the end. The script takes an offbeat angle by focussing on the editors and publishers. This gave the story more movement, and the content of the papers gets in by osmosis.

The best part is the analogy between Nixon and Trump. Trump is attacking Post owner Bezos today, just like Nixon swears vengeance on the Post in the final scene. The movie was written and shot before the election of Donald Trump. Strange but true.

I liked Don McNamara, who had the Pentagon Papers written for his successors and future historians. Government secrecy & manipulation of the populous reminds me of Machiavelli. McNamara's situation is an interesting example of whether the end justified the means. One takeaway is that states  have a different morality than individuals. As Wikipedia says:

Machiavelli believed that public and private morality had to be understood as two different things in order to rule well. As a result, a ruler must be concerned not only with reputation, but also must be positively willing to act immorally at the right times.

The Post was entertaining. The acting was great. The script kept moving despite the potentially dry subject matter. It was not super-fun, and the story of Kay Graham's bravery in publishing I had heard before. 

Cast: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Bruce Greenwood

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Written by: Liz Hannah, Josh Singer

The Music: Orchestrial Score by John Williams; This score is better than his other recent work. I liked The Presses Roll. 

The Visuals: Mostly talking and Tom Hanks scowling. I liked the scenes of the type setting machines and the letterpress printing machine. 

Rating: 2.5 stars: Good acting, but it just an average movie. Because it is tired subject matter, no extra points for social awareness.

 

More: I wonder if rich people really wandered around in the pajamas so much in 1972; makes me think of Charlie Rose who at home with female CBS colleagues in his pajamas.

Even More: Here is the real Katherine Graham. Meryl looked a bit like her in the movie make-up.

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