The Incredible Hulk

 The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Starring Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, and William Hurt

Directed by Louis Leterrier

Written by Zak Penn

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Luce

Luce (2019)

Starring Kelvin Harrison, Jr., Octavia Spencer, Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Brian Bradley, Andrea Bang, and Norbert Leo Butz

Directed by Julius Onah

Written by JC Lee and Julius Onah

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

Movie Review - October Gale

October Gale (2015)

Starring Patricia Clarkson, Scott Speedman, and Tim Roth

Directed by Ruba Nadda

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

Despite a nice performance from Patricia Clarkson as Helen, a recent widow returning to her family's Canadian cabin following her husband's death there a year ago, October Gale is a film that doesn't achieve what it sets out to do.  Director and writer Ruba Nadda previously paired with Clarkson on 2010's Cairo Time, a film I admired and placed in my Top Fifteen of 2010 in addition to giving Clarkson a Top Five berth in my Lead Actress category that year.  Nadda definitely has an eye for lensing and creating well-rounded female characters, but in October Gale she attempts to tack on a "thriller" aspect that disappoints immensely which is a shame because there's certainly promise in this filmmaker's work.

Upon arrival at her lakeside cabin, Helen begins to clear out many of the things left there by her husband after he was killed in a boating accident the prior October.  Now, almost exactly a year later, during the middle of another brewing thunderstorm, a young man named Will (Scott Speedman) arrives on her doorstep, barely able to walk and with a bullet in his shoulder.  After taking care of him, Will reveals that he has been in jail for killing a man whom he had known for decades and considered to be his brother during a bar fight that got out of hand.  That man's father (Tim Roth) whom he considered to be his father as well is now hunting Will down, displeased with the prison sentence Will received and hungry for revenge.

During the film's first act, I appreciated Nadda's display of simplicity, taking her time developing the character of Helen, but as soon as Scott Speedman's Will shows up, things start to take a turn for the worse.  Through no fault of Speedman or Clarkson -- who pair nicely together in their scenes -- October Gale simply fails to create tension or suspense.  By the time Will's secrets are revealed and Tim Roth comes into the picture, I'd already lost interest.  This is an unfortunate misfire, but Ruba Nadda still has goodwill built from her previous effort so I'm willing to give her another shot when her next feature rolls around.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - The Hateful Eight

The Hateful Eight (2015)

Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demian Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, and Channing Tatum

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino movies piss me off...and I mean that in the nicest way possible.

As I sit and watch them (with the exception of Kill Bill which I admittedly haven't watched in a while), I often find myself cursing the writer-director for being so loquacious, adding scenes that seemingly do little to advance the plot except to showcase his (only sometimes) brilliant ear for dialog.  But by the time most of the conclusions to his films roll around, I end up giving him a pass on the preceding verboseness because he manages to tie things up on such a clever note.  Such is the case with The Hateful Eight - a nearly three-hour epic that features an awful lot of talking, very minimal sets, and a group of essentially eight actors who carry the film very adequately on their shoulders doing Tarantino's Western-Agatha Christie And Then There Were None mash-up justice.

In his eighth film as a director, The Hateful Eight unfolds across six chapters detailing how a group of people end up seeking refuge at Minnie's Haberdashery in Wyoming during a horrible blizzard in the time shortly after the Civil War concludes.  Arriving just before the snowstorm really hits is John Ruth (Kurt Russell), a bounty hunter, who has the elusive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) in tow ready to reap his reward upon delivering her to the authorities in Red Rock.  Ruth arrives at Minnie's with Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) - a Union major in the Civil War - and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins) - the newly appointed sheriff of Red Rock.  Pent up at Minnie's already are four men whom are immediately distrusted -- Bob (Demian Bichir), a Mexican who claims he's working for Minnie who has left to see her sister several miles away; Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), an Englishman who is also a hangman; Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), a cowboy just passing through; and Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern), a Confederate general.  With a large bounty on the head of Daisy, John Ruth questions his safety and perhaps he is justified.  As the night unfurls, secrets and motivations are revealed as one by one people begin to bite the dust.

There's no doubting that The Hateful Eight moves at a slow pace -- many of the reviews and personal comments I heard from people stated that "nothing happens" until the last hour.  While it's certainly true in that there's not much plot per se in the film's first half, there is a sense of character building that I must admit is Tarantino's forte.  We get a real sense of who these characters are by the dialog they speak and their interactions with others.  Yes, it's true that the characters present are racist misogynists (of which there was much hoopla upon the film's release), but that's Tarantino's modus operandi across his last three films (for better or worse).  And, admittedly, that's part of the reason for my first sentence of this review in that I can't help but think that Tarantino sticks too closely to what has worked for him in the past -- films broken up into chapters; films told out of order or with massive flashbacks; brash language; insanely rough violence; characters all cut from the same cloth in terms of personality -- rather than branching off in unexpected directions.  Kudos to him for finding a niche that works and sticking to it, but I do long for something new and fresh from the guy.  However, The Hateful Eight works so maybe I should just let him do what he does.

As far as the small cast, most successful at settling into their characters are Jennifer Jason Leigh (Oscar-nominated for her role) and Kurt Russell taking center stage in a film for the first time in a long time which this reviewer found to be a bit of a pleasure.  Leigh and Russell have a lot of interactions with one another and right off the bat the two click with Leigh portraying the tough as nails criminal and Russell playing the tough as nails bounty hunter, neither liking each other, but quite literally linked together by chains.  Samuel L. Jackson is certainly entertaining and a captivating entity, but he's the only one of the group that feels as if he was transplanted from a more modern time into the past.  He doesn't necessarily take us out of the era, but his character never quite clicks realistically.

The Hateful Eight will never be a film for everyone -- it's undoubtedly a Tarantino film and if they're not your cup of tea, this will not be for you either.  Yes, it's too long and that harms it, but it's definitely on par with the director's efforts as of late which have all been quality flicks that would all fare a little better if an editor tried to trim things a little more.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Grace of Monaco

Grace of Monaco (2014)

Starring Nicole Kidman, Tim Roth, Frank Langella, and Parker Posey

Directed by Olivier Dahan

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

First off, I must say that the critical lashing Grace of Monaco received after its premiere at Cannes in 2014 that led to the film not being released theatrically is completely unwarranted.  While the Nicole Kidman-starring pic isn't mind-blowing, it's certainly not anywhere close to the bottom rungs of films released in 2014 and should've at least garnered a bit of an audience based on the subject matter and star alone.  Seeing as how it's actually up for an Emmy for Best TV Movie (it premiered on Lifetime earlier in 2015), I'm obviously not alone in this assessment.  For the RyMickey's Ramblings blog, however, logistically, I'm going to call Grace of Monaco a theatrical film released in 2014.

Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956 and by doing so the Oscar-winning actress essentially ended her Oscar-winning film career at the young age of 26.  However, as the film tells us, by 1962, Princess Grace was considering a return to the big screen when Alfred Hitchcock paid her a visit with the script for Marnie.  Seemingly ready for a return to Hollywood, Grace's yearning to act again is put on hold when the people of Monaco begin to question her loyalty to their small country just as her husband Prince Rainier (Tim Roth) finds himself in a dispute with Charles de Gaulle of France over taxation.

Taking a small page out of Grace and Rainier's life, Grace of Monaco is not billed as a biopic and indeed it begins with the wording, "The following is a fictional account based on real events."  You may then ask yourself, "What's the point of the film then?"  To this blogger, it details the universal quest of most women to find balance in one's life in terms of family, career, and love -- here, it's simply amplified to someone more famous as she leaves her old world behind and is thrust into an even higher profile limelight.  Nicole Kidman does quite a good job at conveying Kelly's sense of doubt as to her place in Monaco and I actually think it's one of her better acted roles in recent years.  I was quite captivated any time she was onscreen (director Olivier Dahan excels at capturing the "glamour" of the star and of Monaco) and while I would've preferred her Australian accent be always muted (I was distracted at moments because of this), Kidman more than carries the film.

Considering its streaming status on Netflix, I think this one is worth a look if the subject matter is even remotely interesting to you.  The boos and hisses Grace of Monaco received after its premiere at Cannes in 2014 were simply those of uppity folks expecting a bit more than they probably should have.  For the Weinstein company to have abandoned this flick like they did is kind of ridiculous and paints an unfair portrait of the perfectly acceptable film itself.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Selma

Selma (2014)

Starring David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson, Tim Roth, Common, Renee Toussaint, Wendell Pierce, André Holland, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Colman Domingo, Omar J. Dorsey, Tessa Thompson, Giovanni Ribisi, Jeremy Strong, Henry G. Sanders, Keith Stanfield, Oprah Winfrey, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Martin Sheen

Directed by Ava DuVernay

For years, I've made note of how much I hate the film genre of the "biopic," but over the past few years, I've grown to appreciate what such flicks bring to the table in terms of opening my eyes to the intricacies of historical events that may have not necessarily flown under my radar, but perhaps been lower key in my mind than they probably should have been.  In 2014 alone, I've been treated to two very good stand-outs in the genre with The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything.  Selma joins that list.

Smartly detailing only a small segment of his life, Selma focuses on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s attempted 1965 fifty-four mile march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in order to raise awareness of that state government's refusal to give black Americans the right to vote.  Rather than introduce us to Mr. King via childhood anecdotes or college shenanigans, director Ava DuVernay and screenwriter Paul Webb sink us right into the action with King (played strongly and confidently by David Oyelowo) trying to persuade President Lyndon Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) to pass a Voter's Rights Act that would allow all Americans to be allowed to register to vote without harassment from government officials.  When Johnson denies that request, King decides that he must continue on his mission of peaceful, nonviolent protest in order to get his point to the American people since his government was not assisting in providing this basic human right.

The film very shrewdly shows that King was cunningly media-savvy, knowing that in order for him to succeed, he needed to have cameras and reporters present.  While he respected the work that some lesser black community organizations were doing to push voting bills into place, King knew that they would fail simply because they were "too small."  This sly intelligence and insight into this brilliant man's mind was interesting to see unfold.  Credit must also be given to the fact that the film doesn't present King as a saint as his well-known infidelities are touched upon more than once.

David Oyelowo takes on the unenviable task of embodying Mr. King -- a man whose recorded and televised speeches are some of the most well-known in American history.  Oyelowo is hugely successful at bringing the civil rights' leader's diction, mannerisms, strength, humility, and intelligence to the screen.  Oyelowo is moving in the film's quiet moments, yet powerfully rousing as the rather ingenious orator that King was.  Oyelowo is buoyed by a strong supporting cast that weave in and out of the tale, including a nice turn from Carmen Ejogo as King's put-upon wife Coretta.  Tom Wilkinson as a headstrong (less-than-eloquent) president provides a nice counterpoint to King's/Oyelowo's passionate fervor.  (Also interesting to note -- Democrats weren't exactly kosher with the African American community getting the right to vote -- yet us Republicans are constantly paraded around as the more "racist" party.)  Particularly moving is an incredibly strong small role by Henry G. Sanders as the grandfather of a young man killed in cold blood by an Alabama police officer.  Sanders has very few scenes, but I found him riveting and emotionally powerful whenever he was onscreen.

On the downside, the film felt a little longer than its two hour running time and I found myself checking the watch a few times.  However, I certainly was never bored.  Perhaps more than any other film I've seen this year, I came away from the theater thinking about how our society needs someone powerful like Martin Luther King, Jr., today.  The Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons of the world are only out for themselves despite what they may have you believe.  While I mentioned King's utilization of the media above, Sharpton and Jackson manipulate the media for their own time in the spotlight.  King used the press for the betterment of the people.  

The film certainly comes along at a pivotal time in our culture what with the Ferguson fiasco.  No matter where your opinion may fall on that spectrum, what this film showed me was that our society now doesn't have the voice that Martin Luther King, Jr., provided in the 1960s.  (I always thought Bill Cosby could maybe have been that voice -- but we all know where that ended up now.)  In that way, Selma made me quite sad for our current state of affairs.  King didn't pit society in a black-against-white type way, whereas nowadays that's the way everything is presented whenever "race" is involved.  King knew that a "race war" wouldn't solve any problems -- unity was needed, not race baiting.

Kudos to the relatively new-to-the-scene Ava DuVernay who has crafted a pic that resonates.  She doesn't necessarily pull out any tricks (and when she does, they sometimes fall flat -- like a slow-motion fight scene involving police officers and actress Oprah Winfrey), but she creates a impact showcasing the courage of not only Dr. King, but the many black and white Americans who quite literally joined hands with him to create change.  There's power in these images DuVernay brings to the screen -- the opening shot of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing starts things off with such an impact that I was taken aback (in a good way) by the way Ms. Duvernay decides to present things -- and there's absolutely something to be said for being able to create something that can carry such weight.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Arbitrage

Arbitrage (2012)

Starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Brit Marling, Laetitia Costa, and Nate Parker 

Directed by Nicholas Jarecki

Arbitrage is a taut, smart character study about how a single poor decision can balloon into something that can potentially ruin a man, his family, and his business.  Richard Gere is Robert Miller, a New York businessman who manages a seemingly successful hedge fund.  At age sixty, he's looking to step away from the daily rigors of the job and has found a wealthy man willing to buy his business.  However, despite outwardly appearing to be a great business and family man, Robert has secrets in both facets of his life that may very well lead to his downfall.

Rather than go into greater detail with the story, I'd much rather you experience Arbitrage without much knowledge about its plot.  I knew very little about the film except that Richard Gere played a businessman in trouble and I think that my naivete enhanced the viewing experience.  Nicholas Jarecki who both helmed and wrote the film does a really nice job in crafting a well-balanced story and a rich-looking film.  Considering that Jarecki's only other feature film credit was the heinously awful The Informers, I'm shocked that this tale came from his pen as it's a near 180-degree turnaround in terms of quality and overall story.

Jarecki manages to get a fantastic performance out of Richard Gere who was probably within shooting distance of snagging an Oscar nomination this year if his Golden Globe nomination for this film was any indication.  He's really very good here as a flawed guy who's made many bad decisions -- both personal and business-oriented -- and who thought he'd never have to deal with the consequences of his actions.  When he's forced to face his fraudulent actions in all aspects of his life, this man who's had everything handed to him for years finds himself in a downward spiral.

Gere is matched by some very nice turns from Susan Sarandon (who's been slumming it lately I feel in a Liam Neeson "I'll take any role" kind of way) as Robert's wife and Nate Parker as the son of one of Robert's former business partners who helps him when things begin to get rough.  The best supporting turn in the film comes from Brit Marling as Robert's daughter Brooke who is the Chief Financial Officer of her father's business.  When Brooke discovers her father's disappointing actions, she's forced to decide whether blood is thick enough to forgive, and it sets up a very interesting, conflicting, and surprisingly complex decision for a supporting character.

Arbitrage is the kind of movie Alfred Hitchcock would be making were he still around today.  Granted, Hitch liked to craft movies around innocent guys framed for horrible actions a lot of the time and Robert Miller here is fully aware of his poor actions.  However, this is a film that exudes that Hitchcock level of intelligence and character development and it's an underseen flick that I highly recommend.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Starring Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, and Quentin Tarantino

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

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

I came to the party late on Reservoir Dogs which probably caused the flick a little bit of harm in the grand scheme of things.  I'd heard that it was this fantastic piece of work filled with clever dialog and great performances.  While I'd agree with that to a certain extent, I have to be in the mood for Quentin Tarantino's writing sometimes and at the start of this heist-gone-bad film, I just didn't dig what I was hearing at all.

However, by the time the halfway point rolled around and "Quentin Tarantino, The Actor" took a backseat to folks who can actually act, I began to see what all the fuss was about.  Granted, I'm still not quite sure why it's revered as much as it is because to me now it seems just like every other Quentin Tarantino flick with its pop culture dialog, hip oldies soundtrack, and time jumping editing.  But, perhaps in 1992 this was new to the scene.  [Although now it really shows me that Tarantino is kind of a one-trick pony and while I may like his tricks, he really doesn't bring a whole lot new to the table in terms of technique in his films.]

The tale of a failed jewelry store robbery is filled with some solid performances from Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, and Michael Madsen as part of the group of men tasked to steal a load of diamonds and it's these performances that really make the movie work.  Sure, they've got a nice script from Tarantino that had a mild twist or two for the actors to sink their teeth into, but this is really a low budget actors' showcase.

In the end, I enjoyed Reservoir Dogs, but I probably would have enjoyed it more had I seen it fifteen years ago before every college student raved on and on about it thereby increasing expectations exponentially.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Funny Games (2008)

Starring Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbett, and Devon Gearhart
Directed by Michael Haneke

Side Note: I love the poster. And this one's pretty damn cool, too.

I'm sure I'm an awful person for saying this, but I loved this movie. This movie is sick, twisted, and I can completely understand why it would be reviled by the masses. For some reason, this sadistic remake made me tense and kept me on the edge of my seat, and with the exception of a minor quibble, there's really nothing bad I can say about this movie.

The story is incredibly simple. Two young men, Paul (a ruthlessly evil Michael Pitt) and Peter (a somewhat more nervous Brady Corbet), invade an upper-class family's vacation home, deciding to torture them with some perverse and vicious games.

Every actor here is stellar. Naomi Watts as the wife is heartbreaking here. Faced with some awful ordeals, she pulled me in and made me feel for her and her struggle. Tim Roth as the husband absolutely conveyed the notion that he is pained by the fact that he couldn't protect his family from these savage home invaders. There's a scene where he apologizes to Watts that really got to me. Young Devon Gearhart as the son had a difficult role in that I can't imagine it being easy to look scared nearly every second you're onscreen, but he performed quite well. And the two young adults committing the crimes were just plain scary...Michael Pitt, in particular, is one frightening guy.

The only problem here is that the first 20 minutes or so dragged a bit and was filled with some really silly dialog. Considering this is supposedly a shot-for-shot remake of an Austrian film by the same director, I can't help but think that if he copied the dialog directly from the Austrian version, it may have sounded better in a foreign language. Some slight change to the words may have helped. And, if it wasn't directly copied, they could've written Watts' lines a little better.

Still, that's a minor fault in this otherwise excellent film that utilizes some nifty directorial techniques that don't typically work in movies (there's a character that breaks the third wall and talks to the audience; there's a "rewinding" technique that was surprising and humorous; a few very long takes). And the way the movie unfolds was completely unexpected...it definitely doesn't follow the typical Hollywood "rules."

Now, the director apparently crafted this film to show that we've become desensitized to violence in films. Yes, I guess that's true (and is evident when parents bring their young kids to violent R-rated movies "as long as there's no nudity in them"...God forbid we see a boob...Heads getting chopped off, though, that's okay). But the funny thing is that the film is not incredibly violent itself. Yes, it's torturous to watch at times, but we actually don't see a whole lot of the violent acts -- a big chunk of the horror is heard, but not seen...and that's oftentimes worse.

Considering that the director said about this film, "Anyone who leaves the cinema [while this movie is playing], doesn't need the film. Anyone who stays, does." I mean, I guess he's insulting me since I really loved this movie, since he's stating that I've become so oblivious to violence in film. I'll take the insult.

The RyMickey Rating: A-