The Goldfinch

The Goldfinch (2019)

Starring Ansel Elgort, Oakes Fegley, Aneurin Barnard, Finn Wolfhard, Sarah Paulson, Luke Wilson, Jeffrey Wright, Denis O'Hare, Ashleigh Cummings, Willa Fitzgerald, and Nicole Kidman

Directed by John Crowley

Written by Peter Straughan

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: D

Movie Review - Concussion

Concussion (2015)

Starring Will Smith, Alec Baldwin, Albert Brooks, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mike O'Malley, Eddie Marsan, Hill Harper, Luke Wilson, and David Morse

Directed by Peter Landesman

In better directorial hands, Concussion would've been a great film.  As it stands with second-time director Peter Landesman at the helm, it's simply a good film that can't quite overcome some schlocky sentimental visuals that hamper the important and intriguing true story at its core.

Nigerian-born Dr. Bennet Omalu (Will Smith) is a forensic pathologist for the city of Pittsburgh's coroner's office.  When former Pittsburgh Steelers' football player Mike Webster (David Morse) is found dead in his pick-up truck after a prolonged mental break-down that left him in a disoriented, woeful, and suicidal state, Omalu happens to be the coroner on hand to do the autopsy.  During his work, Omalu discovers that Webster had severe brain damage consistent with repeated blows to the head.  In subsequent years, additional football players follow a similar mental break-down to Webster and Omalu is able to perform the autopsies on these individuals as well, discovering a consistent pattern of brain damage.  Certain of his findings, Omalu decides to write an article in a medical journal, but this sets up a war between the doctor and one of the most profitable organizations on the planet -- the National Football League -- a group that, as Omalu's boss Cyril Wecht (Albert Brooks) says, "owns a day of the week."

Dr. Omalu is a fascinating figure, tremendously smart, well-mannered, and strong, and Will Smith portrays him with much dignity.  While I'm not quite sure he deserved that Oscar nomination that his wife deemed appropriate, Smith is a captivating presence here alongside Gugu Mbatha-Raw who portrays his friend-turned girlfriend-turned wife.  Their scenes together are poignant, albeit a little treacly at times.  That sentimental mushiness comes on too strong accompanied by some generically obvious visual cues from the director that mar the film particularly in its latter half when the tension between Omalu and the higher-ups in the NFL should be at its most enervating.  It's the second half that disappoints the most with the film sometimes shifting to an odd thriller aspect (unknown men following Omalu's wife, threatening phone calls, etc) that simply doesn't fit well with the heavier (and better executed) dramatics of the film's first half.  Still, Concussion works as a film and is worth seeing as it exposes a side of the NFL that they wished to stay hidden for years.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Meadowland

Meadowland (2015)

Starring Olivia Wilde, Luke Wilson, John Leguizamo, Elisabeth Moss, Ty Simpkins, and Giovanni Ribisi

Directed by Reed Morano
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

In Meadowland, a typical stop at a gas station convenience store ends in horror when the young son of Sarah and Phil (Olivia Wilde and Luke Wilson) is snatched out of the bathroom right under their noses.  Panic sets in and unfortunately over a year later, their boy is still nowhere to be found.  Phil, a police officer, has succumbed to the fact that his son will likely never be returning, while Sarah, a middle school teacher, will not face the possibility that she will never hold her son again.  Unable to really connect with one another, they find other outlets to try and find relief, but relief doesn't equal happiness.

With some wonderfully nuanced performances from Olivia Wilde and Luke Wilson (two actors who I must say that I may never have appreciated as much as I did in this film), it's a bit of a shame that about halfway through Meadowland starts to fall apart.  Watching Sarah and Phil's initial devastation is heartbreaking, but as they begin to explore opportunities that give them a little joy, director Reed Morano's film doesn't really know where to go story-wise, ending in such an awkward and unappealing way that a good chunk of the goodwill it harbored in the very good first half is nearly diminished.

This is Morano's first film and there's certainly potential in the young director.  He got two great turns from his two leads and I think the fault lies more in the script (also from a debut screenwriter) than his direction.  While I'd like to recommend it (and the rating below infers a slight recommendation), Meadowland is really only worth watching for Wilde and Wilson -- there are better films about parental grief than this one.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Ride

Ride (2015)

Starring Helen Hunt, Brenton Thwaites, and Luke Wilson 

Directed by Helen Hunt 

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

Every review of a Helen Hunt movie I write begins with some form of the statement that I had a huge crush on the actress when I was growing up.  While jokes have been slung her way about her appearance in recent years, in those Mad About You days, I fell for her looks and (character's) wit.  Hunt actually looks pretty good and proves that she's still a darn good actress in Ride, her second attempt at theatrical directing, but the film itself (which she also wrote) is a ride not worth taking.

Here, Hunt is Jackie, a book editor based in New York City who is prepping her teenage son Angelo (Brenton Thwaites) to head off to college in the Big Apple.  Much to her surprise, when she attempts to deliver something to her son's dorm, she is told that Angelo has dropped out of school and she soon discovers that he has moved to California to live with his father whom Jackie divorced several years ago.  In an attempt to knock some sense into him, Jackie hops on a plane and covertly follows Angelo around California discovering that he has a knack for surfing.  As she tries to reconnect with Angelo, Jackie tries her hand at surfing as well, meeting an instructor (Luke Wilson) with whom she starts a little romance.

The acting by all parties and the direction are perfectly fine (though nothing more than that), but it's the script that fails Ride.  The story just meanders for ninety minutes floundering in repetition and some odd mother-son dialog that creates a relationship that never feels believable.  Interactions between Jackie and Angelo are always awkward and while that oddness sometimes works in comedic moments, as the film shifts to the dramatic towards the end, I frankly can't even comprehend the emotional notes Hunt is attempting to hit.  A seemingly pivotal confrontational scene between Jackie and Angelo is wasted because of both a lack of investment from us in the characters and a disappointing screenplay that does the characters no good.  And lest I forget that Hunt stoops to that least favorite movie go-to of mine -- old people smoking pot for comedic effect.  Ugh...

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - The Skeleton Twins

The Skeleton Twins (2014)

Starring Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Luke Wilson, and Ty Burrell

Directed by Craig Johnson

In the opening moments of The Skeleton Twins, we witness two Saturday Night Live alums Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig play characters who both try and kill themselves...and right off the bat, we know that we're in for a film that we may not have expected given our preconceived notions of the comic actors.  Neither suicide attempt was successful -- Milo (Hader) didn't slit his wrists deep enough and his twin sister Maggie (Wiig) was thwarted when she received a phone call that Milo was in the hospital.  Needless to say, both of the Dean twins have some emotional issues that they need to work out.

Milo moves in with Maggie, but the duo were estranged for several years following an incident that occurred in their home town, shattering their relationship.  They warm up to each other quickly, but things have definitely changed for both of them.  Maggie is married to Lance (Luke Wilson), a really nice construction worker who wants nothing more than to be a loving father and a doting husband.  Maggie repays that kindness by cheating on Lance with pretty much anyone who will look at her longingly.  Milo, meanwhile, meets up with Rich (Ty Burrell), one of his old flings from when he lived in the small town, but soon realizes that Rich may have buried his homosexual leanings in favor of heading a "typical" American household.

A dark comedy, the film works best in its opening half as the troubled Milo and Maggie get to know each other again and try to help each other out of their difficult times.  Unfortunately, as the flick progresses and the siblings are forced to face their suppressed psychiatric issues, the film's sense of darkly whimsical humor vanishes and director Craig Johnson's film becomes a bit too weighty for its own good.  That isn't to say that The Skeleton Twins doesn't work -- it just becomes a bit less enjoyable to watch.  Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader do some excellent work here, balancing these tricky characters' roller coasters of emotion, with Hader in particular showcasing that he's got some dramatic chops that I didn't expect in the slightest.  Luke Wilson also proves to be entertaining as a guy that the audience can't help but root to succeed.  Overall, The Skeleton Twins is a solid piece, but one that doesn't quite balance its humor and pathos in quite they way it should.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Battle for Terra (2009)

Featuring the voice talents of Evan Rachel Wood, Brian Cox, James Garner, Danny Glover, Amanda Peet, David Cross, Dennis Quaid, and Luke Wilson
Directed and Story by Aristomenis Tsirbas
Written by Evan Spiliotopolous

Well...if this is the start of the summer movie season, it can only go up from here.

Created to be seen in 3D, Battle for Terra was screened (in my case) in regular 35mm format. Most theaters across the country chose to show it in this "regular" way since there was zero buzz on this animated flick (deservedly so).

Pixar (and to a moderately lesser extent, Disney, and, to even lesser an extent, Dreamworks) realize that in order to have a successful animated film, you need to appeal to a broad spectrum of people -- kids, teenagers, their parents, their grandparents. Lesser studios (including the company MeniThings which produced this flick) can't seem to pick up on that...or, if they do, they can't quite grasp what needs to be done in order to achieve broad-spectrum appeal. Battle for Terra has no idea who it wants to appeal to -- the story is much too complicated and boring for kids and ridiculously heavy-handed for grown-ups.

Essentially, Earth has been destroyed in some type of power struggle between humans (we destroyed Venus and Mars, as well, both of which we were inhabiting). Desperate for some place to live, we come across Terra whose inhabitants are sperm-like, completely emotionless creatures (at least I felt no emotion towards them) that float around in their world with little airplanes made of leaves and stuff. These Terra things are "peaceful"...us humans love war. Because we love war so much, we utilize it to take whatever we want...at least the humans in the military do. Who will win in the end? The peaceful people of Terra or the awful, awful humans?

The film is an incredibly thinly veiled attempt at pointing out that war is bad, the military is awful, and peace needs to reign supreme. In an ideal world, the latter would happen, but we don't live that way. Instead, in this movie, it is painfully obvious that the white, Anglo-Saxon male is evil (for, you see, us white men are the military fighters). All we want to do is go kill things. Females and African Americans in this film (who partly make up what is essentially a futuristic Congress) are thoroughly opposed to this. In this Obama Age, I would expect nothing less. The movie was essentially "Down with Republicans! Up with Democrats! Go hug each other and throw away your guns!"

Anyone who knows me knows I fall on the conservative side of most issues, but I'm always willing to listen to jokes and poke fun at the party with which I align myself (I'm no Sean Hannity "Republicans Can Do No Wrong" kind of guy). But this movie was so blatantly in my face about its agenda, it was annoying.

Let alone the awful story, the animation was poorly done, and the voice acting was painfully boring. When the best thing about the movie is trying to figure out whose voice you're hearing, you know you're in trouble. On another note about the voicing...granted, there aren't "huge stars" in this, but that list of actors above is full of highly recognizable names. How the heck did this nobody podunk little animation studio sign up all these big names for this ridiculousness that I watched? Oh...I know...Liberal Hollywood must've fallen head over heels for this one...

The RyMickey Rating: F