Respect

 Respect (2021)

Starring Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald, Marc Maron, Tituss Burgess, Tate Donovan, and Mary J. Blige

Directed by Leisl Thomas

Written by Tracey Scott Wilson

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B-

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey

 Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020)

Starring Forest Whitaker, Keegan-Michael Key, Hugh Bonneville, Anika Noni Rose, Madalen Mills, and Phylicia Rashad

and the vocal talent of Ricky Martin

Directed by David E. Talbert

Written by David E. Talbert

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Arrival

Arrival (2016)

Starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, and Michael Stuhlbarg

Directed by Denis Villeneuve

While Arrival is most definitely a science fiction film, it doesn't feel like any science fiction film we've seen grace the movie screen in a long time.  Eschewing action or scares for a surprisingly humanistic approach, Arrival continues the intriguing streak of director Denis Villeneuve who has crafted films over the past three years that are varied in their subject matter and approaches, but place humanistic drama front and center.  Villeneuve has yet to helm that "amazing" film for me, but his work is never dull or boring and he has become a harbinger for quality cinema.

Aliens have arrived on Earth.  Across the globe, twelve extraterrestrial spaceships have positioned themselves at various locations, opening their hatches a few minutes a day never leaving their ships, but allowing humans to enter.  Linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is summoned by US Army Colonel GT Weber (Forest Whitaker) to come to Montana -- the US location of the alien spacecraft -- to help decipher the language being utilized by the foreign beings.  Almost ink blot-esque in its design, Louise and physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) try to bridge the communication gap with the alien creatures who are seemingly peaceful, but, seeing as how they are intruders, are a cause of great concern with the US government headed in Montana by David Halpern (Michael Stuhlbarg) as well as agencies around the world.  With time ticking on an attempt at diplomacy with the extraterrestrials, Louise struggles to put her past behind her -- she lost a child to cancer a few years prior -- and help save the world from what could be intense warfare.

The most shocking aspect of Arrival is the simplicity of the Eric Heisserer-penned and Denis Villeneuve-directed film.  With nary a jump scare or frightening alien imagery, the film still manages to be oddly captivating as we in the audience utilize Amy Adams' eyes as our own.  As she sees the aliens for the first time, so do we.  As she communicates with them for the first time, so do we.  As she fights the government for more time to determine the purpose of their arrival, we're right there by her side.  Adams carries the picture and she does a great job of conveying Louise's intelligence and perseverance, as well as her growing connection to the extraterrestrials.

This is a human-driven story as opposed to an alien-driven one as is often the case in films of this ilk and Denis Villeneuve keeps the drama high by placing the focus squarely on Adams as opposed to the creatures with which she is communicating.  Beautifully lensed, Arrival is always a visual treat.  Unfortunately, the film takes a twist in its final fifteen minutes that while legit and comprehensible feels a bit tacked on and perhaps unnecessary.  It disappointed me a bit to be honest because up until that point the film had felt "real" and "possible" and then in its final chapter, the script shifts to something a bit implausible for this viewer.  I've discussed this conclusion with others and I'm seemingly alone in my assessment, but the ending concluded things on the tiniest bit of a sour note for me.  I still think Villeneuve is one of the brightest directors working at the moment and this is one of Amy Adams' best roles in a while, but the end just made Arrival a bit of a disappointment for me.  Your mileage may certainly vary and the film is still well worth a watch.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk, Donnie Yen, Wen Jiang, Ben Mendelsohn, Forest Whitaker, Riz Ahmed, and Mads Mikkelsen

Directed by Gareth Edwards

As some may recall, I had not seen a single Star Wars film until last year.  I had gone more than three decades without fully learning about the travails of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia.  That all changed, however, as I watched Episodes IV through VII within the span of 48 hours with the last edition -- The Force Awakens -- landing on my Top Ten films of 2015.  With that newfound appreciation of the massively popular series, I will admit that I actually wanted to see Rogue One: A Star Wars Story...but it was a huge letdown for this "newcomer" to the Star Wars pantheon.

A prequel of sorts to Episode IV, Rogue One tells us the tale of how the Rebel forces got hold of the plans for the Imperial's Death Star and were able to destroy it at the end of the 1977 film.  Here, a young girl named Jyn is sent into hiding by her research scientist father Galen (Mads Mikkelsen) right before he is captured by the Imperial forces to help with the plans for the planet-destroying Death Star.  Now grown up, Jyn (Felicity Jones) finds herself on the wrong side of the law and imprisoned, but is broken free by the Rebels when it's discovered that her father is trying to send them messages to help them defeat the Imperial armies.  Jyn leads a group of men to retrieve the blueprints to the Death Star which - surprise, surprise - is ultimately successful.

Part of the issue with Rogue One is that we already know the premise of the ending before the film even begins.  This group of ragtag folks - Jones along with Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk (as a smart-aleck robot), Donnie Yen, Wen Jiang, and Riz Ahmed - succeeds or else Episode IV would've never happened.  The overarching dramatic tension simply isn't there.  Sure, there are individual moments in Rogue One that may excite, but the overall outcome is already known from the start.  Coming off of The Force Awakens which had quite a few surprises, this film felt like a huge letdown.

Ultimately, Rogue One is just a huge bore.  There are hardly any moments of lightheartedness (like in the form of Han Solo's wisecracks or Ewoks or R2D2) and attempts at laughs via Tudyk's K-2SO fall flat.  With the exception of Forest Whitaker (who is overacting to the nth degree), the cast is fine, but their characters are one-note and utterly bland, giving the audience no one to really latch onto in terms of a character to really relate.  In fact, the only bright spots in the film occur when Ben Mendelsohn takes the screen as the villainous Orson Krennic, the overseer of the Death Star project for the Imperial military.  He revels in his devious role and livens things up whenever he's onscreen which is more than I can say for anyone else.

I have been severely disappointed by director Gareth Edwards previous two efforts -- Monsters and Godzilla -- and Rogue One continues the trend of me not caring for his work.  Much like those other two films, he fails to create a momentum that's sorely needed in an action-centric story.  His key action-oriented scenes do little to enhance the story and are filmed in a bland, almost nonchalant fashion.  Edwards isn't helped by the screenplay which fails to flesh out the characters beyond a most basic set of descriptors, but he doesn't help himself either when it comes to creating a film that builds excitement and tension.  With the exception of the film's final ten minutes which admittedly (finally) holds one's interest, the preceding two hours could've been condensed into a crawl at the beginning of a Star Wars film -- oh wait...it was.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Southpaw

Southpaw (2015)

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker, Naomie Harris, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Oona Laurence, and Rachel McAdams

Directed by Antoine Fuqua

I am by no means a boxing film aficionado, but perhaps my journey into the realm of the Rocky films earlier this year has soured me to any other film outside of Stallone-headed series.  Granted, it's not like Balboa's story wasn't filled with clichés, but some of the flicks at least felt well-written with realistic dialog.  The same can't be said for Southpaw - a film so riddled with silly words and typical storylines that I couldn't invest myself in what I was seeing despite a decent turn from Jake Gyllenhaal as Billy Hope, an undefeated boxer who, after a family tragedy, finds himself spiraling out of control, struggling to make ends meet and unable to keep his daughter Leila (Oona Laurence) who is taken away by Child Protective Services.

Southpaw has moments of almost dramatic brilliance -- a pivotal scene involving Billy and his wife Maureen (Rachel McAdams) as tragedy strikes; ten year-old Leila angrily and heartbreakingly slapping her father -- but they're surrounded by silliness in a script by Kurt Sutter that does his characters no favors.  It also doesn't help that director Antoine Fuqua's lensing just can't compare to that of Ryan Coogler's who breathed life and vigor into Creed's boxing scenes while Fuqua's appear generic and bland.

Gyllenhaal is solid here, but he's had better performances in the past few years and that's in part due to the fact that Billy Hope feels like an amalgamation of clichéd roles from other sport films.  Forest Whitaker plays Billy's new coach spreading sanctimonious wisdom seemingly culled from self help books every time he opens his mouth.  Oona Laurence is a bit of a bright spot as Hope's beleaguered daughter, but she's given some ridiculous scenes towards the film's end that stifle her character's emotional arc.  Overall, I really don't have much good to say about Southpaw which admittedly is a bit shocking because I had heard plenty of positive things about it.  In this reviewer's opinion, though, it's certainly not even close to being a knock out.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Lee Daniels' The Butler

Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013)

Starring Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Lenny Kravitz, Terrence Howard, Robin Williams, John Cusack, James Marsden, Liev Schreiber, Alan Rickman, Jane Fonda, Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Redgrave, and Mariah Carey

Directed by Lee Daniels

Can someone please explain to me how Lee Daniels' The Butler was ever in the running for any category at the Oscars?  With an absolutely horrendous script by Danny Strong, pompously self-important direction by Lee Daniels, and overacting out the wazoo by nearly everyone involved, it's mind-boggling to me that people actually thought this movie was good in any way.  Incredibly heavy-handed in its way of trying to pigeonhole seemingly every important civil rights moment from the 1950s-80s into a two hour film, the film plays like a low-rent version of Forrest Gump as famous Hollywood celebrity after famous Hollywood celebrity pops up playing famous political figure after famous political figure.  And then, rather obnoxiously, the film ends with the triumphant crowning of Barack Obama as President signifying that "hope and change" have come and all is right in the world.  The final ten minutes of this movie had me so aggravated that they soured the entirety of the rest of the film (which, as stated, really wasn't that good to begin with).

Ugh.

Based on a true story (although changed DRASTICALLY in order to make things much more dramatic), The Butler centers around Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker), a man who escaped Southern slavery in the 1920s and became well known around Washington, D.C., as a fantastic server/butler in local bars and lounges around the big city.  After catching the eye of someone who worked in the White House, Gaines snags a job as a butler where he stays on to serve eight presidents.  The film attempts to balance Gaines' workplace with his family life, but the transitions between the two are always awkward and oftentimes incredibly heavyhanded.  For, you see, while his professional life is moving along swimmingly, his home life leaves much to be desired.  His wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey) is tired of her husband putting his focus on his job and abandoning her and their two sons so she fills the void she feels with alcohol and another man (Terrence Howard).  Meanwhile, Gaines' older son (David Oyelowo) is heading to college where he finds himself becoming involved in Woolworth counter sit-ins, Freedom Bus Riders, Martin Luther King's assassination, the Black Panthers, and rallies to free Nelson Mandela.  All this stuff -- and this son never even existed.  That's right.  It's simply the screenwriter's ploy to hammer home what they believe to be significant moments in the Civil Rights Movement.  There's certainly no denying each of these events' importance.  However, none of these moments are ever given anything more than snippets of attention.  Giving each of these pivotal aspects of the movement such short shrift is a disservice.

On Oscar morning, everyone was shocked that Oprah didn't garner a nomination, but her attempt at halfway channeling Mo'Nique's intense performance from Precious was laughable.  Forest Whitaker is as flat as could be, exuding an overwhelming sense of blandness.  Each and every presidential figure plays more like a really good impressionist you'd see on the Vegas strip than a person.  Lee Daniels really failed to reel in a good performance from anyone with the exception of Lenny Kravitz as another butler in the White House and David Oyelowo who, despite the horribly written role as Gaines' older son, does try his best with his ridiculous part.

Lee Daniels' The Butler begins with Cecil Gaines as a young child working on a cotton plantation and the film's first ten minutes echo similar sentiments espoused in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave.  However, there's simply no comparison and to have even placed The Butler in the same ballpark as 12 Years a Slave in the lead-up to awards season is an indignation that I'm trying to right with this review.

The RyMickey Rating:  D