Late Night

Late Night (2019)

Starring Emma Thompson, Mindy Kaling, Max Casella, Hugh Dancy, John Lithgow, Denis O'Hare, Reid Scott, and Amy Ryan

Directed by Nisha Ganatra

Written by Mindy Kaling

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

Beautiful Boy

Beautiful Boy (2018)

Starring Steve Carell, Timothée Chalamet, Maura Tierney, LisaGay Hamilton, Kaitlyn Dever, and Amy Ryan

Directed by Felix Van Groeningen

Written by Luke Davies and Felix Van Groeningen

Summary (in 500 words or less):  The college-aged son (Timothée Chalamet) of a concerned father (Steve Carell) deals with a debilitating addiction to crystal meth.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C+

Movie Review - The Inflitrator

The Infiltrator (2016)

Starring Bryan Cranston, Diane Kruger, John Leguizamo, Benjamin Bratt, Yul Vazquez, Juliet Aubry, Elena Anaya, Olympia Dukakis, and Amy Ryan

Directed by Brad Furman

***This film is currently streaming via Amazon Prime***

During the 1980s, the Medellin Cartel smuggled 15 tons of cocaine a week into the United States.  Special agent Robert Mazur (Bryan Cranston) went undercover in 1985 Tampa in order to become a trusted confidante of drug lord Pablo Escobar's men as they attempted to launder money in America.  The Infiltrator details this true story with a solid -- albeit rote -- exploration of Mazur and his intense dealings with some very bad people.

The Infiltrator doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it's not exactly a film that has to do that anyway in order to succeed. What it does need is performances that capture the audience to carry them through the type of story that we've seen before and fortunately, The Infiltrator has that in spades.  Anchored by a compelling Bryan Cranston, the central cast of Diane Kruger, John Leguizamo, and Benjamin Bratt create an atmosphere that more than makes up for the somewhat convoluted screenplay which in its opening third takes a little too long to get the ball rolling.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Central Intelligence

Central Intelligence (2016)

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Amy Ryan, Danielle Nicolet, Jason Bateman, and Aaron Paul

Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber

***This film is currently available via HBO Now/Go***

Central Intelligence is more enjoyable than it has any right to be thanks to the natural charm and comedic buddy repartee of its two stars Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart.  It's a shame that a better, less generic story couldn't have surrounded the two elevating their chemistry.  Still, they try to make the most of things with a script that has formerly popular high school student Calvin Joyner (Hart) meeting up with formerly unpopular Bob Stone (Johnson) the weekend before their twentieth high school reunion after not having seen each other in those two decades.  Although they weren't close friends, Calvin had helped Bob through a difficult and embarrassing moment and Bob always looked fondly on Calvin because of that.  Through social media, Bob reconnects with Calvin but Calvin soon discovers that the seemingly timid and meek Bob is actually an undercover CIA agent who needs a bit of Calvin's help in solving his latest crime.

Ultimately, the "comedy" aspect of Central Intelligence falls a bit short...and the action side doesn't really do much to buoy it either.  The film works best during its first act as it sets up the relationship between Calvin and Bob with Hart and Johnson playing well off one another in these opening scenes.  Unfortunately, the film doesn't really succeed in creating tension as it progresses so the "superspy" intrigue it tries to muster never really comes to fruition.  However, despite all this, the two stars make this surprisingly watchable and actually end up doing enough to boost this one to slightly above average in the RyMickey rankings.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Goosebumps

Goosebumps (2015)

Starring Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Ryan Lee, Amy Ryan, and Jillian Bell

Directed by Rob Letterman

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Were I a nine to twelve year-old kid, Goosebumps would be a great film.  Hints of comedy, teen romance, and fun horror-adventure would've been exactly what I was looking for in a Jumanji-style flick.  However, I'm over two decades removed from that ten year-old me, so the faults in Goosebumps stand out more than they would to the targeted viewer.  While Goosebumps is a fun watch (even for someone who wasn't a Goosebumps reader as it came on the scene several years too late for me), it doesn't have the universality to appeal to all age demographics.

When his mother (Amy Ryan) moves to Delaware(!) for a new vice principal job, teenage Zach (Dylan Minnette) is disappointed to have to start anew.  However, he soon meets his next-door neighbor Hannah (Odeya Rush) and she keys him in to the fun stuff in the small town of Madison.  Unfortunately, Hannah's father (Jack Black) is a bit overprotective of his daughter and forbids Zach to hang out with her.  One evening, upon hearing what he thought was a scream from inside Hannah's house, Zach and his new buddy Champ (Ryan Lee) break in to the house and discover that Hannah's father is the popular author R.L. Stine.  His Goosebumps manuscripts are all kept individually locked and when Zach opens one up, chaos ensues as all of Stine's literary creations begin to wreak havoc on the town.

Goosebumps works best when it focuses on the comedically scary creations of Stine's books.  Whether it be a smartly sarcastic dummy that's come to life or the Abominable Snowman or a cadre of sweet-looking though menacing garden gnomes, the special effects sequences in the film (which are tinged with moments of comedy) all work surprisingly well.  Disappointingly, when the flick doesn't focus on Stine's creatures, things are a bit of a mess.  We get subplots galore that are either unresolved or unnecessary.  Zach's crazy aunt looking for love (played by an admittedly humorous Jillian Bell); a gym teacher trying to make the move on Zach's mother; Champ trying to find a(ny) girlfriend; a quickly tossed together love story between Zach and Hannah; Zach's father's recent death and its effect on him -- it's just too many subplots for a film that doesn't need any of them, quite frankly.

There was potential here for Goosebumps to be an instant kids' movie classic, but the writers squandered that away by throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the mix.  As it stands, Goosebumps is only a moderately entertaining diversion that doesn't live up to what it could have been.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Bridge of Spies

Bridge of Spies (2015)

Starring Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan, Alan Alda, Austin Stowell, Will Rogers, and Jesse Plemons 

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Bridge of Spies is two movies for the price of one -- unfortunately, only one of those movies is really compelling.  Despite decent direction from Steven Spielberg (that isn't without its faults) and a nice performance from Tom Hanks, Bridge of Spies works for its first half, but falters a bit during its second half with a story that becomes a bit repetitive and proves to be not quite as intriguing as it thinks it is.

Based on a true story, Hanks is James B. Donovan, an insurance lawyer, who is asked by the US government to defend Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), a man accused of being a KGB spy.  Despite the disapproval of Donovan's own firm, judges, and the public, Donovan believes that he owes Abel the best defense possible.  In the film's successful first half, we see the intricacies of law as Donovan tries to maneuver his way around all the barriers to a fair trial set up against him.  The film falters a bit as it proceeds, however, when Donovan is then chosen by the government to head to a newly formed and very volatile East Germany in order to negotiate with both the Germans and the Russians to formulate a trade to bring back both a young US Air Force pilot (Austin Stowell) being held as a spy whose plane crashed in the USSR and a young US graduate student (Will Rogers) captured by the Germans who fear the kid was attempting to harm their communist agenda.  While these aspects seem compelling in print, the film doesn't do the best job at integrating the two "Prisoner of War" stories into the overall plot and, quite frankly, the negotiations simply aren't as interesting to watch as Donovan's struggles with the US judicial system.  While I recognize the appeal of including both halves of the story -- and they do connect with one another in an absolutely logical way -- the halves just aren't equal to one another in terms of quality of plot and the fact that the better half is first ends the movie on more of a down note.

Granted, that isn't to say that the second half is unwatchable, but it does come as a disappointment because the first half is surprisingly compelling thanks in large part to Tom Hanks' performance as Donovan.  Hanks has had a bit of a career renaissance as of late and it's good to see him back in top form.  While I don't think the role of Donovan was a particularly tricky one to play, it proves that Hanks is still the go-to guy to play the "everyman" -- we're fully taken in by his struggles and are right there with him as he fights to do his job to the best of his ability and protect his family from the slings and arrows being thrown his way by the American public who aren't fans of his defending a purported spy.  Mark Rylance is also good as spy Rudolf Abel, but the Oscar buzz surrounding him is a bit confounding to me.  While he plays Abel as a completely different spy than we're used to seeing -- which was unique and admittedly refreshing -- I never felt as though his character had much of an arc to go through and because of this there wasn't a lot that he could really dig his teeth into story wise.

Bridge of Spies is certainly solid, but it's really just a mid-level Spielberg flick.  The director nicely balances a surprisingly light-hearted tone throughout the piece (likely thanks in part to a script co-written by the Coen Brothers), but he too often tosses in some obvious symbolic references that are eye-rolling as opposed to powerful -- as an example, as some Germans attempt to cross the Berlin Wall, they are shot; thirty minutes later in the film, Spielberg shows American kids freely climbing over a fence between houses in New York.  Cue the groan-inducing eye roll or the obviousness of that visual allegory.  Still, overall the film works, is worth seeing, and depicts an interesting true story from our past.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Devil's Knot

Devil's Knot (2014)

Starring Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth, Alessandro Nivola, James Hamrick, Seth Meriwether, Kris Higgins, Dane DeHaan, Mireille Enos, Bruce Greenwood, and Amy Ryan

Directed by Atom Egoyan

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

On May 5, 1993, three young boys went missing in West Memphis, Arkansas, after riding their bikes one evening.  A few days later, their bodies were found naked and bound in a small river.  Nearly a month later, three teens were arrested for the crime after the police force and the town in general found the youths' love for heavy metal and penchant for learning the Wiccan religion to be red flags.  This is the true story behind Devil's Knot, a flick by Atom Egoyan that I found engaging, though a bit too "surface" to really have much of an impact.

Reese Witherspoon as the mother of one of the murdered boys is solid, bringing the requisite amount of emotion to her character (and actually probably faring a little better than even her Oscar-nominated work in Wild which I felt was a tad overrated).  As the heart of the movie, she pulls the viewer in, although her character's constant doubts concerning the guilt of the three teens plays much too obvious.  There is reason for doubt which I won't delve into here, but because of the time constraints of the movie, once the film shifts to the trial of the three teens, things feel rushed and forced.

This whole true saga has apparently been played out in three well-regarded documentaries which I can only assume allow for a little more thoroughness.  That said, Devil's Knot is better than the disappointing reviews it received and it certainly piqued my interest in this case as a whole which definitely isn't a bad thing.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Breathe In

Breathe In (2014)

Starring Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones, Amy Ryan, and Mackenzie Davis

Directed by Drake Doremus

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

A bit too subdued for its own good, Breathe In treads a familiar path -- older married man (Guy Pearce) falls for a much younger teenage high school student (Felicity Jones) -- but finds itself buoyed by some nicely mannered performances.  Pearce and Jones certainly make Drake Doremus' film watchable, but its slow pace and slight payoff leave a little to be desired.

When British exchange student Sophie (Jones) boards with a suburban New York family for a semester, husband and wife Keith and Megan Reynolds (Pearce and Amy Ryan) and their teenage daughter Lauren (Mackenzie Davis) look forward to being able to show the young woman what the United States has to offer.  A rather advanced pianist, Sophie finds herself placed in Keith's high school music class where her talent and focus is a turn on to the struggling cellist Keith who wants to leave his teaching career behind and earn a coveted spot in a world-renowned orchestra.  Heretofore, Keith certainly never seemed unhappy in his marriage to Megan, but Sophie's interest in his interests invigorates him with the two eventually finding themselves bonding a bit more than they should.

Rather interestingly, Doremus and his co-writer Ben York Jones keep things as innocent as possible for as long as possible and even when Keith and Sophie turn towards romance, their feelings are depicted as more like lustful puppy love as opposed to lustful abandon.  While this is certainly an intriguing idea to keep things more "clean," it also doesn't quite provide the spark that a movie like this really needs.  Once again, Pearce and Jones have a palpable chemistry that makes their burgeoning relationship work and I guess there's kudos to be given to the duo for making the whole situation not feel "icky," but Breathe In doesn't quite overcome its overarching sense of dullness.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Birdman

Birdman (2014)

Starring Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Zach Galifianakis, Naomi Watts, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, and Lindsay Duncan

Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu

Talk about overhyped Oscar bait.

Birdman is the story of Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) who, in the early 90s starred in a series of popular comic book movies in which he starred as Birdman, but has found his career in a downturn after he refused to partake in the fourth entry of the series decades ago.  Now, in an attempt to revitalize his career and make himself relevant, Thomson is adapting a Raymond Carver book -- "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" -- to the stage by acting, directing, and starring in the production, but is finding the process much more difficult and much less rewarding than he expected.

Of course the "meta" self-referential aspect of Birdman and how it relates to Michael Keaton's own Hollywood trajectory has been much discussed and that's certainly an intriguing aspect to director/co-screenwriter Alejandro González Iñárritu's film.  However, a film needs a little more substance than "meta" in order to work.

Birdman works best and is most interesting when it details the inner workings of putting on a Broadway show and how an actor's dramatic process works.  The script is good at not taking itself too seriously all of the time and the comedic jabs at the entertainment industry and the sometimes self-important Hollywood actors and drama critics are enjoyable.  Unfortunately, whenever the film focuses on Riggan's sense of worthlessness -- which is the key element of the film -- I found myself being bored and completely uninterested.  With his lawyer/agent (Zach Galifianakis) pressuring him to soldier on with the play in order to make much-needed money, his just-out-of-rehab daughter (Emma Stone) hating her job as her father's new assistant, his ex-wife (Amy Ryan) showing up to support him in his new Broadway endeavor, and his current girlfriend (Andrea Riseborough) sharing the stage with him and announcing that she's pregnant, Riggan's world is chaotic.  Despite the constant cacophony, however, there's not much there there.  The script tosses in an element of weird telekinesis thing with Riggan and various objects that I'm sure means something about the guy's emotional state, but just read kooky to me and not the least bit interesting.  (I could delve more into meaning if I desired, but I don't desire.)

Iñárritu presents the film as one continuous take and the technique is admittedly impressive and surprisingly not detrimental to the production.  Rather than stand out, the lack of cuts allows us to constantly be in the moment with the characters, giving a naturalness to the events of the film.  Despite this unique cinematic technique, I was thoroughly impressed with the fact that it never "felt" like a technique.  Kudos for that.

Kudos also to Edward Norton who is the most impressive member of the cast, taking on the role of Mike, a famous Broadway actor who joins Riggan's play at the last minute when one of the cast members is rendered incapable of performing.  Mike butts heads right away with Riggan, and Norton and Keaton's scenes together are the best in the flick.  However, Norton's so good that he makes Keaton look like a bad actor.  Then again, maybe that was the point.  I wasn't all that impressed with Keaton's Riggan, but maybe I wasn't supposed to be.  Maybe he wasn't supposed to be a fantastic actor after all.

I don't know.  I feel like there's so much I could say about Birdman, yet I've funnily enough got nothing to say about it at the same time.  The film is...interesting...but it's not the least bit riveting (a la Whiplash) or touching (a la The Fault in Our Stars) or simply entertaining (a la Gone Girl).  I didn't hate the experience, but I wasn't won over by any aspect of it.  While the behind-the-scenes moments provided a glimpse into a world we don't often see, the characters of Birdman didn't really intrigue me.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Win Win

Win Win (2011)

Starring Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Bobby Cannavale, Jeffrey Tambor, Burt Young, Melanie Lynskey, and Alex Shaffer

Directed by Thomas McCarthy

I went into Win Win thinking I was in for some quirky low budget indie comedy (a genre that I find myself quite wishy-washy on), but what I got was a movie that has a surprising amount of heart and humor and one of the best ensemble casts I've seen so far this year including a very nice debut turn from young actor Alex Shaffer.

Lawyer Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) is in a bit of trouble.  With clients few and far between, he ends up taking over guardianship of Leo, one of his elderly senile clients (Burt Young), in order to receive a monthly commission of $1500.  One Sunday morning while stopping by Leo's home, Mike and his wife Jackie (Amy Ryan) spot a teenager sitting on the front porch who, it turns out happens to be Leo's grandson Kyle (Alex Shaffer) who has run away from home and has a mother who is currently residing in a drug rehab facility.  Feeling a bit of guilt for collecting the monthly stipend from Leo, Mike takes the teen into his home and soon discovers that despite Kyle's typical teenage quirks, he's a good kid who Mike and his family begin to deeply care for as he slowly becomes acclimated to the community, even joining the wrestling team that Mike coaches at the local high school.

Director and screenwriter Thomas McCarthy has crafted an absolutely lovely dramedy here with moments of laugh-out-loud humor and bring-a-tear-to-your eye emotions.  That's due in huge part to the absolutely terrific cast led by Paul Giamatti in what I think may be his best role yet.  Yes, he's just playing a normal suburban dad, but there's just a genuine true quality to his performance that I latched onto right away.  He loves his wife; he loves his family; he (kinda) loves his job...he's just an all around good guy and, although he's certainly flawed, the audience understands that his slight imperfections are only there in order to do the best he can for his wife and two young daughters.  

Similarly, Amy Ryan is near perfect in a simple role, but one that is incredibly effective thanks to its strong roots in reality.  Bobby Cannavale as Mike's best friend and Jeffrey Tambor as Mike's assistant wrestling coach provide much of the humor and, although neither are essential to the plot, never feel shoehorned into any scenes simply to provide comedic elements.  Melanie Lynsky is turning out to be one of my favorite small-time character actresses and as Kyle's mom who comes onto the scene late in the film, she is the impetus behind many of the film's most dramatic moments.  Alex Shaffer plays Kyle as a moody teenager, but there's something oddly different, innocent, and somewhat sweet in his portrayal and it was a fresh take that was a welcome change from the typical "troubled" teens we so often see.  He plays Kyle as a good kid who's been in a bit of trouble, but has overcome a lot and deserves better than his lot in life.  

Despite a few F-bombs dropped here and there, Win Win is a really great "family-style" film that may not necessarily think "out of the box" when it comes to storytelling, but it tells its story so darn good that it makes it incredibly easy to overlook its sometimes melodramatic moments.  It's not the least bit flashy, but it is a pleasure to watch and it's a flick that I'll certainly revisit in years to come.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-