I, Tonya

Hi movie fans!

Back again with another review!  Just a reminder: I never do spoilers...and I strive to keep my reviews short!

OK, this time the focus is on Tonya Harding.  You may recall the basics: Fantastic skater named Tonya is a wild child...goes to the Olympics...and is involved in breaking her competitor's knee.  Charming!  Haha.

When I heard they made a film about this bizarre event, I flippantly said, "Tonya should have done jail time."  In other words, I had absolutely NO sympathy for her apparent aggression against Nancy Kerrigan.

Enter the film.  In it, I learned for the first time about how miserable Tonya's upbringing was. I can't give details, but suffice it to say that she had a horrendous mother and possibly worse husband!

The result?  I now understand so much more about the knee-breaker.  I actually have empathy for her, which, given my preconception, says a lot about the quality of the film.

So how in the world did Tonya rise out of the cesspool that was her early life to become a world class skating star?

Therein is the fascination of the film!  As we learn about the obstacles Tonya faced, we realize that not every skating champion is born with a silver spoon.  Some, like Tonya, have to fight poverty, parental resistance, and abuse.  Some, with pure guts and determination, emerge from the ruins and become stars.

Let's talk about the acting.

First, Allison Janney.  Oh my, is she good!  She plays Tonya's mother, and let's just say she takes being a bitch to the next level.  She is brilliantly mean, harsh, crazy, and aloof.... a fantastic villainess!
Don't miss her great acting in The Help and Juno too.

Next, Margot Robbie.  She got started as just another pretty actress years ago on the short-lived TV series PanAm.  Afterward, she got better and better roles.  As Tonya, she is perfectly shaded and multi-faceted.  She seems to capture all the torment and passion of the skating star.  Want to see her in an even better role?   Go back and watch The Wolf of Wall Street.

Then there's Paul Walter Hauser.  He's not very well known.  Fact is, this is his big breakout role.  He plays Shawn, a dimwit friend of Tonya's awful husband.  When he explains his role in the Kerrigan assault, he sounds almost Fargo-ish.  We laugh at his stupidity!

Overall opinion:  This is a film NOT to be missed.  It is gripping, entertaining, and informative.  It teaches us so much we did not know about Tonya.  In doing so, the film reminds us that there is another side to so many events that seem clear-cut to us.

Like ballerinas, skaters are a viciously competitive lot.  They often wish ill on their foes...and on occasion, act on those feelings.

Tonya was a victim of a horrid childhood.  She committed a crime.  The film will tell you all about it.

I guarantee you'll no longer despise the infamous skater...and possibly even feel a bit sorry for her.

Suburbicon

Well, Mrs. Cohen’s boys are at it again. Joel and Ethan Cohen have teamed up with George Clooney as director, and a cast starring Matt Damon and Julianne Moore, for a strangely dark comedy as only the Cohen brothers can do. I sat down to watch Suburbicon knowing nothing about it. That can be a good thing. Halfway through, I thought, “Hmmm, not liking this. Don’t know if I’ll last.” Three fourths through I thought, “I’m getting into this. Gotta see this through.” By the last frame, I was loving it. The Cohen team managed to make a powerful statement about today’s stupid racism while wrapping it in a 1950’s murder plot ala Fargo. It's getting some pretty brutal reviews, not everyone's cup o' tea, but oh, well. This is a bizarre, deliciously grisly tale that has a bigger message. You’ll try not to smile or even laugh at times, then you will do some thinking. Welcome back, Joel and Ethan; we’ve missed ya!  

The Glass Castle

I intended to write a post about Atomic Blonde, which, by the way, I really liked! More on that later. Instead, I must tell you about an exceptional film I saw this weekend, knowing nothing about it than the cast and synopsis. Hadn't even seen a trailer. Maybe that's a better way, a more pure way. This movie has already passed my personal litmus test - will I be thinking about it for days to come. Yep!

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (who?), and based on auto-biographical best-seller by New York Magazine's Jeannette Walls, it is an exquisitely painful, poignant, stirring story of a young, sophisticated woman who must come to terms with her profoundly dysfunctional, yet enchanting childhood. Powerful themes. Powerful cast. Brie Larson is fast becoming one of my favorite actresses, and Woody Harrelson gives his greatest performance. But keep your eyes on little Ella Anderson who steals every scene she is in. Go see it! And then try to forget it!                    

Baby Driver

Hi again, movie fans!

Today's review is one of my more challenging jobs: I need to convince you to see one of the most original bad guys movies of all time...and do so without giving away anything of substance!  Harder task: How do I really describe the offbeat, one-of-a-kind film?

First, the title:  Baby Driver:  Huh?   Baby is the young star in the sunglasses in the picture above.  He's always wired into rock music.  He's quiet.  He's mysterious.  He's kind...and lives in a very violent world.  We get to know him through flashbacks.  And through his silence.

Baby drives a car like no one can!  You see, he's the getaway driver for the bad dudes who pull bank heists.  When the heists take place, Baby is in the car dialing up his heavy rock, usually a song by Queen, getting ready to do amazing feats with the car.

Enticing?  Hardly!

OK, I'm not a great fan of spinning car movies.  Sure, I was glued to the screen when Gene Hackman chased the druggies in The French Connection, and I will never forget Steve McQueen driving the streets of San Francisco in Bullitt.  But no movie can be based on great chase scenes alone.

The beauty of this film is that it does so much:  It presents bad guys like you've never seen.  Baddest of all: Keven Spacey.  Second and third baddest: Jamie Foxx and Jon Hamm.  Poor Jon...will he ever stop being Don Draper in Mad Men?  YES!  He's finally out of that role with this film!  He is downright wicked!

More: The movie presents a very touching and memorable love story.  In the midsts of all the action, the young male protagonist, Baby, falls in love with the beautiful waitress played by Lily James.  The love motif has a true Romeo and Juliet feel.  Absolutely captivating.

Before long, it's the lovers on the run.  Now the film is like Bonnie and Clyde!  What?

Yeah, confusing.  As I noted, this film does so much:  It  does love, crime, action, and even some witty comedy.  It grabs you with plot, characters, music, dialog.

It grabs you and does not let go

Who plays the young dude who lives for his rock music?  Ansel Engort.  Who?  He was apparently the lead in The Fault in our Stars, the film for teens about young folks dealing with serious illnesses.  He's GREAT!

One reason you'll feel sympathy for the young man is that he's actually forced into the role of getaway driver.  And he's so caring toward his elderly, mute foster father.  He's just plain likable!

This film has been getting rave reviews.  Online, it has a 97% approval rating.  Viewers are abuzz about this unique work of art.

RUN out and see it....and watch folks on the RUN!

My rating:  A+    A film that is unlike anything you've seen.  Enjoy!

Wonder Woman

Hi Movie Fans!

It's been a while since I've reviewed a film, so what better time than now?  OK, truth to tell, I've been watching lots of movies at home, particularly past series, including Fargo, which is great and must be discussed at another time.

Wonder Woman!  

Who would've guessed this comics-to-film story would be such a hit?  I have not seen the various iterations of Batman or Batgirl since, well, Michael Keaton knocked the role out of the park many years ago with Kim Basinger at this side.

So what got me to see the supposedly mindless action film?  Just the HYPE!  How often do we go online and see rave reviews, nearly all in the 90 percent approval range, for a comic books caper that is half animation, half acting, and probably all forgettable?  

Forgettable?  Wrong!!!

There is nothing forgettable about Wonder Woman. 

It's a huge, ambitious film, with extraordinary action scenes, beautiful people on screen, and a story that sort of grabs, in a sci-fi way.  A must if you go:  Put aside any prejudice you have about the Batman or Superman or Wonder Woman genre, suspend your disbelief, and enjoy!

What's not to enjoy?  First, the most beautiful actors you might have seen on screen.  Chris Pine seems to be a knockout for the ladies.  Curiously, his only really big roles have been in the Star Trek franchise. He played Captain Kirk in the 2016 version.  He is center screen, finally, in Wonder Woman.  So ladies, enjoy his good looks.

Then there's Gal Gadot,  Oh my, what a knockout!  She reminds me of a young Elizabeth Taylor, or Ava Gardner, or Laren Bacall.  She won Miss Israel in 2004, and she has been on the cover of Cosmo and other major glamor magazines for years.  She dazzles!   Talk about a "wonder"!  Yes, she's wondrously pretty!

OK, so much for the eye candy.  Is there anything else noteworthy about the film?  

Well, sort of.  The plot is bold and daring:  the writers combine the Wonder Woman prequel with a WWI story.  Crazy?  Yes.  But somehow, the story works.  We learn about how Wonder Woman grew up being trained as a warrior, left her idyllic island, joined a world war, and kept her ethics pure in spite of some seriously negative experiences! 

The special effects will blow your mind.  You'll see folks flying, ropes glowing, planes crashing, bullets flying in slo-mo, and so much more!  My prediction: The film will win the Oscar for special effects.  

Is it a masterpiece?  Hard to say.  It offers some deep philosophy to accompany the out-of-the-box story:  What is the true nature of mankind?  Are there gods in charge?  Can  anyone change the violence that is inherent in man?  Can a few brave souls change history?  Are women warriors equal to men?  Hmmmm....

True to my purported movie reviewing form, I have given away little of the plot.  It's for you to discover!  

Should you go?  

YES!  

It's fun, and you'll never think the same way again about "mindless" comic book stories that appear on the big screen. 

AND: You'll find that the movie is so entertaining that it "flies" by!  (Pun intended)

Appaloosa

Are you a fan of the WESTERN genre?  I am!  I was raised on it!  

Of course I'm referring mostly to TV.  As a kid, I watched Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, and more!  Then in the 50s, I sat glued with my family to the TV, enjoying such classics as Have Gun Will Travel, The Rifleman, Bonanza, Cheyenne, Wyatt Earp, and so many others.

What did the early westerns have in common?  They were "sanitized"! 

By that I mean, the cowboys were mythic, aggrandized, idealized folk heroes. There was no blood on the screen when folks got shot.  Everyone dressed well and looked as if they'd just arrived from a fancy clothing shop!  The cowboys seemed mannerly, kind, good natured, cultured, and sophisticated. 

Moreover, most of the westerns were morality plays.  Do you remember how Papa Cartwright would lecture his three sons?  Or how about the dad on The Rifleman who used his weekly adventures to "raise" his young son?  Yes indeed, the good were good, and the bad were bad.

Truth to tell, the good guys were not all good, and the bad guys were not all bad.  No one rode off into the sunset after a good gunfight.  There was dirt and grit in the streets, and drinkers, prostitutes, and scoundrels abounded.  And when folks got shot, they bled! 

Most of all, the "cowboy" was hardly a hero at all!  The word was used to describe the uncouth, unmannerly, often drunk ranch hands who came to town to burn off steam.

Enter Clint Eastwood.  In 1995, he decided to portray the west as it really was.  In The Unforgiven, a ruthless past killer seeks a bounty issued by a group of prostitutes out for revenge.  He joins up with other rogues, meets a sadistic sheriff, and in a climatic ending, hits the bottle in a bone-soaking rain on his way to killing six men!  Step aside, John Wayne.  Time for a dose of reality!

Appaloosa is like The Unforgiven.  It shows us the west as it probably was.  It strives to “unsanitize” life on the American frontier

Never a spoiler, I'll only give the overall gist of the film.  Two men, who just happen to make a living by killing people, ride into town, seeking their favorite job:  sheriff!  Killers?  Sheriff? 

By all means. If we look at the real Wyatt Earp, his morals were dubious.  He and his brothers were even put on trail for murder after the famous OK Corral shootout.

Enter our current anti-heroes:  They admit to having only one area of expertise: taking lives.  They also admit it's a darn good thing they get to do so with the law on their side! 

What makes this pair unique is that, in spite of their basic vicious nature, they are honest, just, and even have a certain likability about them.  They enforce the law with fairness, even if it means shooting a few ruffians.

Watch Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen dazzle you with dry, cowboy-style conversation.  See Renee Zellweger deftly play the floozy who creates havoc with the men.  And watch Jeremy Irons be a very, very bad dude!  Count on seeing dusty streets, amoral villains, and lots of gunplay. 

But most of all, see the wild west once more as it truly was.  This film shows you the dust, grime, and roughness of the cowboy days.  No singing cowboys here!

Appaloosa is a great film that will stay with you.

The Circle

In keeping with a world that seems upside down these days, here's another anomaly. For me, this movie of Dave Eggers' The Circle is EXACTLY as I pictured in the book. Every single scene was as I had imagined it. Naturally, not everything in the book is included, but what is is quite faithful. Probably because Dave Eggers wrote the screenplay with director James Ponsoldt.

I am a big Eggers fan, but The Circle left me weary and unsatisfied. It's a fairly unredeemable conclusion with a fairly boring protagonist.

However, both book and movie raise vitally important themes and questions for today's technological social media invasions. Eggers' points will probably haunt you, as they did me.

I'll see Hanks in anything. It's a solid enough film, but not great. However, go see it to get yourself to THINK!