The Dig

 The Dig (2021 - Oscars 2020)

Starring Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James, Johnny Flynn, Ben Chaplin, Ken Stott, Monica Dolan, and Archie Barnes

Directed by Simon Stone

Written by Moira Buffini

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C+

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)

Starring Lily James, Michiel Huisman, Glen Powell, Jessica Brown Findlay, Katherine Parkinson, Matthew Goode, Tom Courtenay, and Penelope Wilton

Directed by Mike Newell

Written by Kevin Hood, Don Roos, and Tom Bezucha

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Sorry to Bother You

Sorry to Bother You (2018)

Starring Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Danny Glover, Steven Yeun, and Armie Hammer

And the Vocal Talents of David Cross, Lily James, and Patton Oswalt

Directed by Boots Reilly

Written by Boots Reilly

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

Yesterday

Yesterday (2019)

Starring Himesh Patel, Lily James, Ed Sheeran, and Kate McKinnon

Directed by Danny Boyle

Written by Richard Curtis

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C+

Baby Driver

Baby Driver (2017)

Starring Ansel Elgort, Lily James, Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, Eiza Gonzalez, Jon Bernthal, and Jamie Foxx

Directed by Edgar Wright

Written by Edgar Wright

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Baby (Ansel Elgort) has worked as a getaway driver for a series of heists headed by kingpin Doc (Kevin Spacey) for several years.  However, he calls it quits until Doc pulls him in for one more crime that ends up being a bit more than Baby bargained for.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour (2017)

Starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn, and Lily James

Directed by Joe Wright

Written by Anthony McCarten

Summary (in 500 words or less): British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) accepts the job and is immediately thrust into how to tackle the Axis forces as they invade Dunkirk in France. With tens of thousands of British soldiers in harm's way, Churchill faces the difficult decision of bargaining with Hitler or saving his men utilizing a very unique method of recruiting civilians with boats to head into war territory to carry of British troops.

• There's nothing particularly wrong with Darkest Hour, but in the end, it lacks uniqueness, playing a bit too much like typical formulaic historical biopics.  
• I did appreciate that writer Anthony McCarten focuses on only a short span of Churchill's job as PM (maybe a little over a month is all we're looking at here), rather than an entire biography of Churchill's life.  Having the Dunkirk invasion as the primary focus is a smart decision in that it (a) is a pivotal moment in WWII, and (b) shows us how Churchill handled a stressful and unique situation right off the bat upon starting his job.
• Gary Oldman is good as Churchill and creates a commanding presence, but I'm not quite sure he wowed me beyond delivering a solid performance.
• I did find some historical elements interesting -- it's amazing how close the Brits were to caving in to Hitler and his demands -- and this film does a better job than Dunkirk at conveying the extent of the amount of soldiers on the ground in Dunkirk that needed rescuing.
• Joe Wright is a consistently solid director whose visual aesthetic breathes a bit of fresh life into what could typically be stolid pieces of cinema.  He works his magic here as well to an admittedly lesser effect in part because much of the scenes feel purposely cloistered (particularly in the British War Rooms) as we see the weight of the situation caving in on Churchill.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Cinderella

Cinderella (2015)

Starring Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Richard Madden, Sophie McShera, Holliday Grainger, Stellan Skarsgård, Derek Jacobi, and Helena Bonham Carter

Directed by Kenneth Branagh

While director Kenneth Branagh's live action retelling of Cinderella certainly doesn't reinvent Disney's animated film to any great lengths, the story of our title heroine who falls in love with a charming prince while attending a lavish ball is given a little more depth in a screenplay by Chris Weitz that fleshes out the backstories to our title character, her prince, and her evil stepmother.  While this apparent trend of Disney remaking its animated films in live action form is a little worrisome and seemingly lacking in the imagination upon which Walt Disney founded the company, should any forthcoming reboots match the class and charm of this production, the company may win me over.

At the heart of Cinderella is an absolutely lovely performance of Lily James as the title character.  In the film's opening moments, we see how the deaths of her mother and father affect her, shaping her into woman who, despite adversity, still carries on the mission of her parents to be kind and generous to all.  This little bit of extra background makes Cinderella a much more well-rounded character and gives Ms. James a little bit of development to sink her teeth into.  The heartbreaking moments upon hearing of her parents death are handled just as nicely as when James is asked to look in awe upon an opulent ballroom or fall head over heels for a prince she just met.  To me, Lily James is the epitome of what Cinderella should be and she is one of the biggest reasons the film succeeds.

Of course, the counterpoint to Cinderella's kind heart is the conniving nature of her Stepmother played with gusto and on-point scenery chewing by Cate Blanchett.  Also given a bit of backstory, the audience is given the chance to discover why she becomes so nasty to her stepdaughter and this added bit of depth gives at least a little bit of reasoning behind her actions.  Cloaked in some elegant garb, Blanchett snarls and jabs at Cinderella yet still manages to avoid being too cartoonish.

Cartoonish may be a descriptor that could be ascribed to Helena Bonham Carter's Fairy Godmother, but Branagh and Weitz smartly decide to keep her role small, similar to the animated film.  Adding a nice amount of comedic relief in the middle to the film, Carter's quirkiness doesn't overstay its welcome.  We also get a nice turn as well from Richard Madden as the Prince who gets more screen time and more background than nearly any other Disney film prince we've seen before.

In this day and age of modernization and experimental reboots, Kenneth Branagh instead decides to play things old-fashioned -- and there's an unmistakeable charm that accompanies this decision.  Sumptuously designed and elegantly filmed, by eschewing the cynicism we may have come to expect in something like this, Branagh has crafted a rather timeless film in Cinderella that will last through the ages.

The RyMickey Rating:  B