BlacKkKlansman packs a powerful punch

The new film by Spike Lee tells the true story of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), a rookie black police officer who successfully infiltrated the KKK in 1970s Colorado Springs. Based on Stallworth’s 2014 memoir, the film is riveting in its scope and complexity. It won the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival and continues to win high praises. And justifiably so in my humble opinion. The genius of the film is in the eerie connections to modern times. These connections are at once subtle and hard-hitting, causing the audience to laugh uneasily at times and groan at others. The movie is not perfect – there are two characters who felt a bit overplayed to me, but I won’t give any spoilers of what to expect. Just see it. Think about it. Talk about it and pray for your country like never before. 5/5 stars.

Eighth Grade: a disturbing time

The story here is somewhat engrossing, especially for anyone with eighth-graders in their lives, but this is not a comfortable movie. It will have you squirming in your seat as you empathize at the same time you are repelled by the awkwardness, meanness and grossness of the characters. Every youngster seems basically glued to their smartphones, preferring screen time to real-time. Elsie Fisher as Kayla Day does an amazing job of showing us the angst and anxiety of wanting to belong without losing herself. Her single dad, (Josh Hamilton) is nice but clueless for most of the movie. Apparently he trusts her to navigate through the terrain of adolescence without monitoring her too closely. He could probably be a little more attentive as she barely sidesteps land mines from unwanted advances and turns to the internet for sexual information when the boy she has a crush asks her how far she’ll go. The story is entertaining, if a bit slow to get started and there is a sense of catharsis as we see Kayla finally making smart choices. First time director and writer, Bo Burnham does an admirable job, although he is a bit heavy-handed with the music at times. 3 stars/5.

Three Identical Strangers plods

This documentary story could have been told in half the time. Admittedly an intriguing situation – three identical twins separated at birth with no idea they have two twins until they reach college – the story bogs down in the telling. Add that to having to close my eyes to avoid nausea from the shaky home movies and filming techniques, and you have a long, uncomfortable experience. The story does pick up a bit towards the end but then meanders somewhat. 2 stars/out of 5.

Neighbors makes a gentle and welcome statement

I finally made it to the right theater at the right time and saw Won’t You Be My Neighbor? last weekend. What a treat! Although I knew about Fred Rogers and even watched his show with my son a time or two, this documentary added so much to my understanding and appreciation for this gentle man. The thing that struck me when I watched his show and that comes across loud and clear in the film is Rogers integrity. When he talks to the camera, he opens up his soul and we see a man familiar with pain and sorrow, who is unafraid of silence and who cares deeply for each person he encounters. We see the missionary zeal with which he approached his television show in an effort to counteract the negative media input being foisted on the young. We see a man discouraged at times but never shaken from his love for the individual child; a Mother Teresa of children’s television, one could even say.

I am starting to think that my experience of going to the wrong theater was not such a bad thing after all. In the first movie, The King, we see a young man who finds fame and power thrust upon him and who uses it primarily for his own gain. I think it is Ethan Hawke who says (in the movie) that whenever Presley had a choice to make, he chose the money. Yes, he may have been given the nickname of royalty, but he lived a small life and died a sad and useless death. Fred Rogers, in comparison, was a humble man of faith whose belief in something larger than himself sustained him and drove him to spend his days making a difference in so many lives. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? is timely and inspirational and well worth seeing. 5/5 stars.

Ambushed by The King

The following comes from the pages of my journal:

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Waiting to go to a movie, Won’t You Be My Neighbor. Bought ticket online so I’m committed but all I feel like doing is sleeping…

Friday, July 27, 2018

So, tired as I was, I dragged myself to the theater (The Limelight), found parking a block over and went in. The counter person was busy with a customer although another counter person was standing there doing nothing. I tried to catch his eye and wave the receipt I’d printed at home, but he ignored me. The others kept talking. I heard them mention the king but paid it no mind since it meant nothing to me. After waiting a decent interval, I just went in, found a row, excused myself to a couple sitting on the aisle and sat down a few seats in. I turned the volume off on my phone and rested my eyes. When previews started I roused a little to see what’s new. Then the feature started. It was The King and I was at the wrong theater.

At first I thought to get up and leave but was reluctant to bother the couple in my row and figured that by the time I got to the other theater I would have missed a chunk of the movie. So I stayed put. It was mildly interesting: about Elvis and exploring why he was (and is) such a phenomenon, but also paralleling his life and career with what was (and is) happening in America. I appreciated learning about some black perspectives; one, that he co-opted black music to make it palatable to whites, and two, that with so much power, he chose not to use it to speak out against the wrongs in society (think Civil Rights, Vietnam, etc.). The movie shows us less of Presley than it does of others who talk about him, musicians who play their own music, and celebrities who opine about American culture – all from the back seat of an Elvis Rolls Royce that periodically breaks down. As Don MacLean puts it, “the King has lost his thorny crown…”

I closed my eyes often due to fatigue and hand-held camera movement that could easily nauseate me and tried to keep a sense of humor about being a tricked viewer.

So, how did I get mixed up? The movie I wanted to see was playing at The Pickford (2 blocks away), but starting today (Friday) it will move to The Limelight, where I went last night. I still want to see it and hope to since its here for another week. Guess I just wrote a film review of sorts.

Phantom Thread Unravels

I’m a little uncomfortable about once again wearing a sour face about a movie that everyone is raving about. However, Phantom Thread was a disappointment overall. On the plus side, Daniel Day Lewis gave an outstanding performance as a curmudgeonly dress designer. He was, in fact, so believable that his usual attractiveness vanished beneath his unpleasant demeanor. I could find nothing in his character to justify the female lead, Alma (played by Vicky Krieps) falling for him. The music is lustrous and gossamer-like as it swells and ebbs around these strange human beings who play at relationships and toy with one another. While I enjoy character stories, I do generally like to see these characterizations played out against some external conflicts developed through an engaging plot. In this case, the relationship of these two characters IS the plot and I grew tired of the microscopic intensity of it and ultimately disenchanted at the precise point when the characters found their twisted equilibrium. 2/5 stars

Three Billboards perplexes

After hearing lots of buzz around this movie, I find it hard to figure out how to sum it up. Written by Martin McDonagh, the story focuses on a mother whose grief turns to righteous anger that the brutal murder of her teenage daughter has yet to be solved after many months. Her anger takes the form of publicly humiliating the town police chief by paying for signs on three billboards that ask why there are no arrests. But it doesn’t stop there. It seems that once started, her rage spills over onto school children (she kicks several of them in the groin), verbal poison that erupts over anyone who dares to mention that she might be overplaying it, and fire bombs. Along the way we feel for her as she wrestles with her own guilt about the last words she spoke to her daughter but that sense of guilt, rather than lending her compassion for others who fall short, turns into vitriol that threatens to consume everyone in her path.

The movie blends humor and violence, bitterness and grace in a blend that feels incomplete. Not only does the ending leave us guessing, but so many avenues and relationships feel unexplored. Frances McDormand is intriguing as the angry mother and does her best with a flawed script. It feels like the movie is trying to make a statement about American culture, but not really being clear about it. We have a racist cop who is deep down a good guy who just needs to release his anger to become a hero; we have an abusive ex-husband who has since married a 19-year-old air head, too ridiculous to be believed; and dysfunctional relationships galore. The mix of humor with life and death seriousness makes it difficult to find my footing as I wade back through the experience of watching this movie. One good point going for it: it is sufficiently complex to require some brain cells and I appreciate that. I’m just not sure if the movie (like The Shape of Water) deserves all the hype it’s getting. 3/5 stars

Darkest Hour Shines

As I sat in the darkened theater with a friend, I whispered to her that I had yet to see a film in 2017 that I would classify as truly great. One hundred and fourteen minutes later I had seen one. Darkest Hour is brilliant on a number of scores: as a historical drama that asks us to engage our brains, hearts and nerves; as an homage to subtle, yet powerful cinematography; and as a superbly crafted, intelligent and witty script. Gary Oldman is delightful as the gruff Winston Churchill who is by turns besieged by doubts, doggedly determined, and grimly realistic.

According to my limited research, the script by Antony McCarten is historically accurate. But it is so much more than that. At a time when there is so much division about politics, this story asks us to consider that no one definitively knows the future or what darkness looms over our present. The script is fast paced yet thoughtful, intelligent without being snobbish, and refreshingly complex. 5/5 stars.

Belated thumbs up for Lady Bird

It has been too long since I saw the movie, Lady Bird, for me to write a thorough review since I have forgotten a lot of it, but I do remember that it was fairly enjoyable. It is definitely a relationship movie: mother-daughter; father-daughter; sibling-sibling; girl-girl; boy-boy…you get the picture. It is also a coming-of-age film with an ending that is hopeful.

I do remember that one of my favorite characters (and character relationship) was the nun/school administrator played by Lois Smith. She was warm, wise and witty in the face of Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) and her antics. 3/5 stars.

Romanticism is Alive in The Shape of Water

Pure Romanticism (big R). That’s what I came away thinking after viewing The Shape of Water. For those not my American Literature students, or who may need some reference points: extraordinary people in unusual circumstances; nature (in the form of the creature) was God and was very good; check; human intuition replaced the Holy Spirit. And from Gothic Romanticism: use of supernatural; emphasis on the strange, bizarre, unusual or unexpected; and most glaringly, the idealization of love. This movie, could, in fact, be an advertisement for the worldview that held sway during the early 1800s.

The basic story line concerns Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a mute cleaner who works in a secret secure location in Baltimore, 1962. Her fellow cleaner is Zelda (Octavia Spencer) who watches over and translates Elisa’s sign language. Elisa’s isolation is epitomized by her daily bath routine, her devotion to her immense shoe collection, her longing gazes in shoe store windows, her penchant for old movies and her silence. When a new specimen is brought into the lab, Elisa’s fascination draws her to make a connection with the otherworldly water creature. The creature has some interesting features including bulbous eyes and blue glow lights under the skin, but is still, basically a man in a fish suit, folks. The connection she feels grows until the inevitable conflict between the villainous Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), a flat character, whose stereotyped role finds him torturing the creature and planning to vivisect him for parts.

I’ve seen glowing reviews about this story that describe it as a modern fairy-tale and I suppose it is that, but aren’t fairy-tales for children? As an adult, I have developed a taste for stories with nuance and depth, complexities that are not easily swept aside with magic. Yes, this one does nod to the idea of “The Other”, which is an intriguing topic in our xenophobic culture, but the character choices and plot devices are so extreme that it is hard to take the idea seriously in this context. I’m sorry, but I am not a fan. 2/5 stars.