American Woman

 American Woman (2019)

Starring Sienna Miller, Christina Hendricks, Aaron Paul, Will Sasso, and Amy Madigan

Directed by Jake Scott

Written by Brad Inglesbey

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Ratitng: B+

Pottersville

Pottersville (2017)

Starring Michael Shannon,  Judy Greer, Ron Perlman, Thomas Lennon, Christina Hendricks, and Ian McShane

Directed by Seth Henrikson

Written by Daniel Meyer

***This film is currently streaming via Netflix***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  After discovering his wife (Christina Hendricks) wants to leave him, small town store clerk Maynard (Michael Shannon) goes on a nighttime drunken romp through the town of Pottersvilee in a gorilla costume.  When he wakes up the next morning, Maynard discovers that the town is all abuzz with a sighting of the mythical Bigfoot the night before.  Upon realizing how much Pottersville community has come together over this Bigfoot excitement, Maynard decides to continue dressing up in the gorilla costume in order to keep the town at its best.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C-

Crooked House

Crooked House (2017)

Starring Glenn Close, Terence Stamp, Max Irons, Stefanie Martini, Julian Sands, Honor Kneafsey, Christian McKay, Amanda Abbington, Preston Nyman, Gillian Anderson, and Christina Hendricks

Directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner

Written by Julian Fellowes, Tim Rose Price, and Gilles Paquet-Brenner

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

Summary (in 500 words or less): A detective (Max Irons) is called to the sprawling Leonides estate when its patriarch, Aristide, dies under suspicious circumstances.  With multiple suspects determining who killed Aristide proves to be a difficult task.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B-

Movie Review - The Neon Demon

The Neon Demon (2016)

Starring Elle Fanning, Karl Glusman, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Desmond Harrington, Alessandro Nivola, Christina Hendricks, and Keanu Reeves

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

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

The fashion industry is a brutal one -- but one can only hope it's not as bad as what's depicted in The Neon Demon which details a profession that eats you up and spits you out...quite literally.  Young Jesse (Elle Fanning) has just moved alone to California in the hopes of making it big as a model.  Told to lie about her age in order to get more jobs, the innocent and naive fifteen year-old girl is nearly immediately fawned upon by some big-name photographers and designers which doesn't sit well with a few struggling industry models (Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee).  Adrift in the cutthroat world, Jesse befriends Dean (Karl Glusman) -- a nice guy who genuinely cares about her success and well-being -- and Ruby (Jena Malone) -- a make-up artist who's intentions may not be as pure as they seem.  As Jesse rises up in the ranks rather quickly, it's only natural that there will be some who want to take her down and they'll stop at nothing to succeed.

Totally original, but also completely full of WTF moments that had me questioning why I was watching, The Neon Demon is a visually stunning film with director Nicolas Winding Refn upping the stylish quotient from his previous endeavors.  That said, once you move beyond the look of things, there's not a whole lot here.  Fashion industry metaphors are obvious and they do nothing to advance the underdeveloped story which eventually devolves into a laughable horror movie of sorts.  Admittedly, the stylization of this film proves to be a near perfect match for the industry it's trying to send up, but with one-note characters and a too-basic story, The Neon Demon doesn't quite make the grade.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Dark Places

Dark Places (2015)

Starring Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Christina Hendricks, Corey Stall, Tye Sheridan, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Drea de Matteo

Directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner

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

Gone Girl is perhaps my favorite film of the decade thus far -- a brilliant Hitchcockian piece of cinema crafted with a deft hand from director David Fincher and a biting screenplay from Gillian Flynn adapting her own novel.  So, when I saw that another novel of Flynn's was getting a feature film adaptation, I had to check it out.  Disappointingly, there was a reason for Dark Places to get an extremely limited release last summer as writer-director Gilles Paquet-Brenner is unable to create any modicum of suspense with his story or direction thereof.

When Libby Day was eight years old, she saw her mother and sisters be brutally murdered in their Kansas house.  Libby's testimony put her brother (Tye Sheridan as a youth, Corey Stall as an adult) behind bars for the crime, but thirty years later, an adult Libby (Charlize Theron) is compelled to reexamine the murders thanks to a young true crime "enthusiast" (Nicholas Hoult), realizing that her memories may not be accurate depictions of that horrific day.

Ultimately, Dark Places fails at creating a compelling storyline.  At its center, Charlize Theron's Libby lacks the emotional gravitas to be placed front and center due not so much to Theron's performance, but moreso because of the character's forlorn and malaise-filled life.  Sure, Libby has certainly been through a lot and has every right to lead a depressing life given her past, but her journey becomes tiresome rather quickly and lacks a payoff that excites.  The twisted humor and sensibility that runs rampant through Gone Girl and elevates it beyond the typical "thriller" is nonexistent here.  Instead, we're treated to a bland story with even blander characters and even blander twists and turns.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - God's Pocket

God's Pocket (2014)

Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Richard Jenkins, Christina Hendricks, John Turturro, Eddie Marsan, and Caleb Landry Jones

Directed by John Slattery

Talk about a snooze fest.  One of Philip Seymour Hoffman's last films, God's Pocket tells the tale of a working class Philadelphia neighborhood known as Devil's Pocket wherein tough guys and broads abound.  Leon (Caleb Landry Jones) is a live wire -- a twentysomething factory worker whose racist remarks and poor work ethic don't sit well with his co-workers.  One day, after a spouting a particularly cruel diatribe against an older black man, the elderly gentleman whacks him on the side of the head with a pipe and Leon dies.  The manager of the factory and the crew decide to cover up the death, saying that it was an accident...and one would think that the movie would be about setting up whether these crew members would be discovered for their crime.

But no...after the murder in the film's opening ten minutes, we don't really revisit the investigation in the slightest.  Sure, Leon's death looms over the rest of the film's proceedings, but the film instead focuses on Leon's mother and stepfather Jeannine and Mickey (Christina Hendricks and Hoffman) and Jeannine's newfound affair with a reporter (Richard Jenkins) investigating Leon's death.  Taking place over the course of three days, God's Pocket goes nowhere with all of its characters wallowing around in dank, dark places not talking about anything of much importance except how hard life is in The Pocket.

This is actor John Slattery's first film as a director and there are sparks of interesting moments, but nothing ever truly lights up.  The acting is all so dreadfully sullen and dull that there's never a moment of respite from the dreariness.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Drive

Drive (2011)

Starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Oscar Isaac, and Albert Brooks 

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

There's a low budget B-movie noirish vibe that I got while watching Drive, the latest film by director Nicolas Winding Refn whose Bronson I appreciated in 2009 (and is available to stream on Netflix for those interested).  Ubiquitous Ryan Gosling plays the main character, a man with no name who is a movie stunt car driver and garage mechanic during the day and a getaway-car-driver-for-hire by night.  As the film opens, the Driver (as heretofore Gosling's character will be called as that is how imdb lists him) is in the midst of a crime in progress.  Seemingly calm, cool, and collected, the Driver never appears to break a sweat even when he's being tailed by police cars and helicopters, and, sure enough, he completes the getaway without any problems.

On the surface, the Driver is oddly emotionless, but when he meets the lovely Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her cute son Benicio, it's obvious that despite the stolid face and the lack of expressive words, the Driver is growing to care for the two of them.  When Irene's husband Standard (Oscar Isaac) is released from prison, he still finds himself needing to repay his debts to his former criminal friends.  The Driver agrees to help Standard by being his getaway car driver in a robbery in order to keep Irene and Benicio out of harm's way.  From there, things begin to spiral out of control for the typically sedate Driver as he finds himself caught up in an imbroglio the likes of which he hasn't seen before.

Like many noirs, a woman leads to the main character's potential downfall and this is the case here as well with Carey Mulligan's Irene.  Much like the Driver, Irene is calm, pensive, and a lady of few words.  One has to wonder what led her down the path to marry the rough-edged Standard, but considering the fact that she's also obviously attracted to the less-than-angelic Driver, maybe it shouldn't be too surprising.  Mulligan plays things subdued, but is positively charming and tender.

The subdued nature of the acting carries over to Gosling as well who manages to relay all he needs to via his facial expressions seeing as how dialog is not the Driver's strong suit.  Taking on a completely different role from his last film Crazy, Stupid, Love, Gosling is truly the actor to watch right now.  He's a confident actor who seems to be right at home in his role here as a nice guy with slightly shady tendencies.

In the end, though, if you notice a lack of excitement in this review of Drive, it's because I have an overall general lack of excitement for the film.  Drive is a good film, but it's not as good as the raves would lead you to believe.  The tremendous buzz over Albert Brooks' role as a seedy criminal mastermind is groundless, in my opinion.  Like the film itself, Brooks was fine, but nothing rave-worthy.  Yes, the chase scenes are well shot, the film exudes a smart arthousey vibe which I enjoyed, and I never once found that the film lagged or felt boring (as was the major complaint I've heard from the haters of this movie).  Still, the film just didn't rouse me the way the "best" movies are wont to do.

The RyMickey Rating:  B