Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

Starring Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Zoë Kravitz, Callum Turner, Claudia Kim, William Nadylam, Jude Law, and Johnny Depp

Directed by David Yates

Written by J.K. Rowling

Summary (in 500 words or less):  The evil Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) escapes from custody while being transported from the USA back to Europe.  He settles down in Paris and prepares his evil wizards to stand up to the rules set forth by the wizarding world while also attempting to track down the young Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller) whose powers are some of the strongest known to wizards.  Meanwhile, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) try and track him down.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C-

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

Starring Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Carmen Ejogo, and Colin Farrell

Directed by David Yates

Written by J.K. Rowling

Summary (in 500 words or less):  In 1926 New York City, wizard/British author/magical creature zoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) finds himself caught up in a city under siege by some mystical entity that seems to be a beast that he may be able to catch.  Can the magical wizards keep their secrets from the Muggles of the USA?

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

Movie Review - The Danish Girl

The Danish Girl (2015)

Starring Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Amber Heard, Ben Whishaw, and Matthias Schoenaerts

Directed by Tom Hooper

Talk about Oscar bait -- every single solitary thing about The Danish Girl just screams "GIVE ME AN OSCAR IN ANY AND EVERY IMAGINABLE CATEGORY!"  From the cinematography's soft lighting to the musical score's dramatics to the direction that is sometimes laughably mannered to a leading actor who seems to be trying so desperately hard to "inhabit" a role, all aspects of The Danish Girl seem to have been made with the hope of claiming film's most coveted prize.  Needless to say, director Tom Hooper's film is so utterly disappointing and bland in nearly every aspect -- save one -- that I hope the Oscar voters don't take the obvious bait.

Based on a true story, The Danish Girl tells the tale of Dutch artist Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne) who was born and lived life as a man, but feels that he is truly meant to be a woman.  Back in the 1920s, terms like "transgender" weren't known and Wegener certainly didn't know what was "wrong" with him in terms of his inability to truly feel his natural self.  His wife Gerda (Alicia Vikander), who is also an artist, has seemingly always known of Einar's proclivities to femininity and she embraces it, thinking that it will make their relationship better also presumably completely unaware of Einar's true feelings.  One evening, Gerda convinces Einar to attend an art gathering dressed as a woman whom they name Lili and Einar's world is turned upside down as he realizes that being a woman is who he truly longs to be.

In the grand scheme of things, buying into the story of The Danish Girl isn't particularly difficult, but the film makes it impossible to give a damn about nearly everything we see unfold.  Director Tom Hooper takes Lucinda Coxon's bland and watered-down screenplay and drags things out interminably.  There's really not much that happens here plot-wise and yet somehow I feel like Hooper and Coxon failed miserably at creating soul and dramatics around this life-changing moment in Einar's world.

Of course, Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne (who was so fantastic in The Theory of Everything) is also a huge reason as to why the film lacks emotional connection as well.  Rather than really dig into the role, Redmayne's mannered performance feels paint-by-numbers and studied rather than natural.  Granted, some would say that Einar is learning how to be a woman so of course he would feel uncomfortable, nervous, and mannered at first.  I'd certainly agree with that which is why it may seem unfair to say that every moment of Redmayne's performance felt as if he was "acting" rather than "inhabiting" (since Einar is kind of, sort of "acting" at first, too), but there wasn't a single moment here where Redmayne breathes life into Einar/Lili.  Even towards the end when Lili is finally coming into her own, it's as if we're watching a soft-spoken, one-note audio-animatronic rather than a real person onscreen.  To say Redmayne is a disappointment here is an understatement.

It certainly doesn't help that for every lack of insight in Redmayne's eyes, we see the exact opposite of that from Alicia Vikander who is the only good thing going for this film.  Vikander is compelling as Gerda and she does her best to make things as compelling as possible.  There are scenes where you get a sense of desperation, sadness, and yet understanding of her husband's plight (which becomes her plight as well seeing as how her world will drastically change), but none of that emotion is reciprocated to her by anyone else onscreen.

The Danish Girl is truly a disappointment.  With the pedigree behind it -- I truly enjoyed Hooper's The King's Speech -- I can't help but say I was hoping for something more than softly-lit scenes of softly spoken words being whispered to one another by characters as they run their fingers over pieces of clothing or make brushstrokes on a canvas.  Rather than artfully tell a story, this film reeks of desperation to win awards moreso than any other film I've seen in a long time which in part would be acceptable if it was any good which The Danish Girl is certainly not.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Jupiter Ascending

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Starring Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Sean Bean, and Eddie Redmayne

Directed by The Wachowskis

Essentially incomprehensible, Jupiter Ascending is an utter mess brought to us from the Wachowski siblings.  Lest you forget, I'm actually one of the few people who enjoyed Cloud Atlas, placing that unjustly reviled film in my Top Twenty of 2012, so I'm not inherently opposed to their crazy notions (although I was certainly not a fan of The Matrix).  Their latest incarnation is just a disaster.

Mila Kunis is Jupiter Jones, a Russian immigrant who came to the US as a baby and is now working with her mother as a maid for rich folks in Chicago.  About an hour into the film, we discover that Jupiter is the reincarnated mother of three alien siblings from some far away planet and one or more of them may want to kill her.  Prior to this discovery, Jupiter is seen attempting to be captured by a variety of different people despite the fact that we in the audience are clueless for sixty minutes as to why she's being hunted.  I literally found myself looking up things on Google like "Why is Jupiter Jones being chased" because the film sets up the story as if we should know what's going on and I found myself utterly clueless thanks to the piss-poor storytelling on display.

Ultimately, it's the script that's the biggest problem here with the Wachowski's failing to make sense most of the time.  Eddie Redmayne as one of those aforementioned bad siblings mumbles his lines, Channing Tatum rides around on gravity-defying boots acting tough (yet sensitive), and Mila Kunis unsuccessfully attempts to act surprised at everything going on around her.  The final hour of the film is one big action sequence that's just a bunch of noise and clanging and banging.  Ugh.  This one really is a worthless waste of your time.

The RyMickey Rating:  D-

Movie Review - The Theory of Everything

The Theory of Everything (2014)

Starring Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Charlie Cox (boyfriend), Harry Lloyd (Hawking's friend), David Thewlis (professor), and Emily Watson

Directed by James Marsh

I can't even begin to pretend that anything that comes out of the mind of renowned physicist Stephen Hawking makes any lick of sense to me.  Hence, I was a bit hesitant to venture into a viewing of The Theory of Everything which takes a look at his life, biopic-style.  However, much to my surprise, I found director James Marsh's film to be an engaging look at a young couple (Stephen and Jane Hawking) fighting the odds to try and make it despite the many hardships that accompanied Stephen's ALS diagnosis in his early twenties.

Marsh doesn't hide the fact at any point in time that The Theory of Everything is a romance.  We get beautiful shots of two people wooing each other, winning each other, and, however unfortunate, falling out with each other.  Still, Marsh has crafted a film that in many ways epitomizes what I'd like a lasting romance to be for me.  There's a connection between his two main characters that he manages to capture that's obvious from the very get-go that builds and blossoms as his film progresses.

Of course, there would be no romantic connection between characters if the two actors portraying said parts didn't exude some chemistry and Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones do just that.  I'll admit that I came into this film thinking that it was going to be a showcase for the young Mr. Redmayne (and it was...more on that in a bit), but I found myself pleasantly won over by the lovely Ms. Jones as Mr. Hawking's paramour Jane.  Jones has a very difficult part that I'll admit at first I believed was going to be one note.  Playing the young college age Jane, she's seemingly just your average student who's fallen for some guy.  However, as Stephen's disease begins to rear its ugly head and he gets progressively worse, the strength of character that someone like Jane needs to survive not only for herself but for her husband is overwhelmingly massive, and Ms. Jones exquisitely paints the picture of a woman with a huge weight on her shoulders.  We see the struggle in her every expression and her love for Stephen in each gesture.  Jane is not a cookie cutter person and we discover as the film progresses that she isn't perfect, either, but this well-rounded portrayal by Jones is one of the better female performances I've seen this year.

Of course, Eddie Redmayne rightfully deserves praise, too, in a fabulous portrayal of a man facing head-on a debilitating disease.  There's a joy and vigor imbued into Redmayne's Stephen Hawking at the film's onset that it becomes all the more painful to watch as Stephen is forced to reconcile with the notion that he will become incapable of completing the simplest tasks on his own.  Redmayne certainly captures the physicality -- both vocally and physically -- of an ALS patient, but he also captures the emotional pain that obviously must accompany such a horrible illness.  We see the glimmers of joy in his eyes as he remembers his jubilant past or his love for Jane, but Redmayne also captures the devastation of this extremely intelligent man being relegated to having someone else have to feed and clothe him.  This is an emotional performance -- perhaps the most emotional performance I've seen this year.

Granted, I think the film falters a bit in its final act -- I won't spoil things entirely, but the film asks us to infer a few things regarding possible speed bumps in Stephen and Jane's relationship and I think for a film that's been so honest with us throughout, this vagueness is a bit off-putting.  Still, the flick is full of passion and that emotion is the key to The Theory of Everything working as well as it does.  I've been waiting for a movie this year to hit me on that emotionally guttural level and The Theory of Everything does just that.  You'd be forgiven if your eyes well up a time or two by what you're seeing onscreen with the magnificent combination of two great performances and fantastic direction.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Les Misérables

Les Misérables (2012)

Starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Amanda Seyfried, Samantha Barks, Aaron Tveit, Isabelle Allen, Daniel Huttlestone, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Helena Bonham Carter

Directed by Tom Hooper

Goodness, there really isn't any modicum of happiness in Les Misérables.  The title is certainly apropos, hinting about the miserable existence of the characters we'll meet, but I still expected maybe a hint of joy.  However, you certainly don't feel uplifted walking out of the film.  That being said, I mean that not as a slight towards Tom Hooper's adaptation of the long-running and tremendously popular musical version of Victor Hugo's lengthy tome.  Many claim that Hooper stole away David Fincher's Best Director Oscar when he triumphed over The Social Network with The King's Speech back in 2010, but my RyMickey Awards crowned Hooper the winner that year and Les Misérables does show that The King's Speech wasn't just a fluke.  More on Hooper later, though...

***Moderate spoilers ahead only if you've lived under a rock during this awards season***

The epic Les Mis is overarchingly the story of Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), a man imprisoned for over a decade for stealing a loaf of bread in early nineteenth century France.  When released, Valjean is told that as a parolee he must periodically check in or else face heading back to prison.  Valjean, however, wants to leave his past behind him and manages to find himself a successful businessman running a factory of sorts that employs a bunch of lower income women, one of whom is Fantine (Anne Hathaway).  It is soon discovered that Fantine has a young child which I guess implies she's a whore (although I found myself questioning this whole plotline), throwing the other ladies into a tizzy causing Fantine to be fired and thrown out onto the streets unbeknown to Valjean.  Forced to do whatever she can to provide for her child whom she has sent to live with others, Fantine sells all that she can (her hair, her teeth, and her body) and eventually dies, but not before Valjean meets up with her again and promises her that he will take care of her young child Cosette (Isabelle Allen).

Time passes and Cosette grows up (and is now played by Amanda Seyfried), but Valjean still finds himself constantly on the run from his former captor, Officer Javert (Russell Crowe) who is on a mission to get Valjean back behind bars for breaking his parole.  Every time Javert discovers their location, Valjean and Cosette are forced to move, but when Cosette sees the dashing Marius (Eddie Redmayne) across a crowded street, she instantly falls in love with him (and he with her), wanting to stay with him rather than travel elsewhere with Valjean. Marius is quite politically minded, wishing to overthrow the French government to provide a better environment for the lower classes (or something like that...it's probably a pretty important part of French history that's glossed over in terms of depth here).  We then add Eponine (Samantha Barks) into the mix who secretly loves Marius and also happens to have a connection to Cosette in that Eponine's father and mother (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter) were the ones who watched after young Cosette over a decade before.

Whew...that seems like a lot to take in...and it is.  However, with all that story and character connections, you'd think there'd be more depth and weight to the story.  Unfortunately, the fact that this is a musical takes away a bit of the gravitas that I imagine is present in the novel.  I am certainly someone who appreciates musicals and am definitely aware that most musicals utilize their songs in order to advance the story.  Because of this technique, oftentimes the plot in musicals is simplified, but Les Misérables is a story that shouldn't be simplified.  The songs, while beautiful (though perhaps not as memorable as I expected them to be seeing as how I was not familiar with this musical at all), made this heavy story seem more one-note than it should be.

For the most part, the performances were fairly solid.  Mr. Hooper did a smart thing considering the operatic nature of the piece in having his actors sing live rather than lip sync as is the case in most musicals.  This allows for quite emotional, real, and true moments to be present, best exemplified in Anne Hathaway's showstopping number "I Dreamed a Dream."  Utilizing one long take with the camera focused solely on Fantine, Hathaway won herself the Best Supporting Actress Oscar with a riveting and heartbreaking rendition of the only song I'd heard from this musical prior to watching the film.  For some reason or another, I had never listened to the lyrics clearly enough to comprehend the utter sadness and devastation that Fantine feels while singing this song, but Hathaway made me fully understand the pain of her once hopeful character.

The other standout to me in the ensemble was Eddie Redmayne who has a lovely voice and is also granted a Hathaway/Fantine-like moment at the film's conclusion with "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" as he looks back on the revolution of the lower class and the many friends he lost in the battle.  There is also nice work from West End performer Samantha Barks in her first film role.  Hugh Jackman has been a bit overpraised for his work here, but it was still perfectly acceptable, and, on the other end of the spectrum, Russell Crowe has been a bit too harshly criticized as I thought his gruffer voice suited his part fine.

Tom Hooper has done a nice job filming this operatic musical, but even he is unable to assist the hefty story not coming across with the importance it likely should.  That's just an inherent flaw of the musicalization of a work such as this.  When French Revolution aspects are thrown aside for a love story between characters simply because it suits the music better, there isn't much Hooper can do.  Yes, the film has a murky, grayish-brown quality that does grow a bit tiresome as it heads into hour two, but I fully respected Hooper's hand-held, close-up style that he's actually been taken to task for.  It does allow for the focus to be placed on the characters rather than their surroundings, bringing more emotional power to the songs.  Still, despite some nice music, I can't help but think Les Misérables shouldn't have ever been made into an opera as the story seems to call for much more plot than a simplified musical can allow...then again, millions upon millions of theatergoers will disagree with me on that one.

The RyMickey Rating: B-

Movie Review - My Week with Marilyn

My Week with Marilyn (2011)

Starring Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh, Emma Watson, Derek Jacobi, Julia Ormond, Dominic Cooper, Dougray Scott, Zoë Wanamaker, and Judi Dench

Directed by Simon Curtis

I say this whenever I write of review of films like these, but I am not a fan of biopics.  I greatly admire actors who are able to mimic the well-known personas of others, but oftentimes, I find myself left completely empty by the films they inhabit which all seem to want to tell the same tale -- more or less -- about the character's rise from adversity to something greater.  While My Week with Marilyn certainly follows the biopic formula, it fortunately only gives us a glimpse at the sexy and alluring Marilyn Monroe (played quite well by Michelle Williams) during a brief stint in her life when she traveled to London to make the film The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier (played over-the-top [although I imagine Olivier was that way in real life] by Kenneth Branagh).  Giving the audience only a small chapter of the well-known Monroe's life proves to be a much better moviegoing experience and allows the viewers to infer how events prior to making this film, her time during the filmmaking process, and her years after starring in The Prince and the Showgirl all shaped her into the tragic figure she became.  The sheer fact that we're allowed to "infer" things is a welcome relief in this day and age when we're always hit over the head with everything as filmgoers.

The film -- which is a showcase of the power struggle between Monroe and Olivier during the making of the frivolous romantic comedy in 1956 -- can be summed up in one good line spoken by Dominic Cooper (I believe) portraying Marilyn's manager Milton Greene:  "[Sir Laurence] is an artist wanting to be a film star; [Marilyn] is a film star wanting to be an artist."  The two just don't mesh, but by the end of the filming process they've perhaps made each other a bit better at their craft.  Although this struggle between the two powerhouse actors is certainly front and center, the "My" in My Week with Marilyn refers to the young 23-year-old Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), a young Brit who, despite his parents' disdain, travels to London to work on the set of the Olivier picture.  While performing the task of the third assistant director -- essentially a glorified intern position -- he befriends Marilyn whose method acting techniques are causing huge issues with the cast and crew of the production.  The two bond and, as any young man would be, Colin becomes quite enamored with Ms. Monroe who despite having just married her third husband Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott) is already having some marital issues which may very well work in Colin's favor.

As a fan of movies, admittedly it's fun to see "behind the scenes" stories like these and this film is no exception.  The scenes on set with the bombastic Olivier and out-of-her-element Marilyn are brilliantly funny -- Branagh's Olivier, in particular, is also a hoot as he grows ever more exacerbated in the scenes.  Admittedly, I'm not all that familiar with Olivier, but I can't help but imagine Branagh's rather snooty interpretation of the guy -- who not only acted in The Prince and the Showgirl, but also directed it -- is spot-on.  Adding to the excitement is a very nice turn from Judi Dench playing Dame Sybil Thorndike who becomes somewhat of a loving mother to Marilyn on set and a hilarious turn from Zoë Wanamaker as Paula Strasberg, Marilyn's famous acting coach in the Stanislavski acting method which created much tension with Olivier.

The film falters a bit, however, when we walk away from the movie set.  Most notably, there's a throwaway subplot involving a romance between Colin and a young costume designer (played by Harry Potter's Emma Watson in a completely thankless role) that could have been (and should have been) left on the cutting room floor.  Additionally, as Marilyn begins a downward spiral after several difficult weeks on the set, the film shifts much too awkwardly from a light comedy to a rather serious look at the toils and troubles that made up Marilyn's life.  The tonal shift never quite finds an appropriate balance which is a shame.

Fortunately, never once does Ms. Williams' performance shift into a caricature of Monroe which it so easily could have done.  Surprisingly, however, Williams ends up shining in the more intimate moments of the film's second half rather than the comedic realm of the first half.  This ends up working in the movie's favor as us viewers can latch on to Williams' performance when the film -- which becomes a bit too psychoanalytical for its own good -- begins to falter.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Savage Grace

Savage Grace (2007)

Starring Julianne Moore, Eddie Redmayne, Hugh Dancy, and Stephen Dillane

Directed by Tom Kalin

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

I don't know why in the world this movie was in my Instant Queue, but it's been there for a while.  I must have read some decent review of it somewhere, because it's a film that wasn't on my radar at all.

And I'm tremendously thrilled that I watched Savage Grace if only so that I can now remove it from the queue and never think about it again.  While watching this movie, I couldn't help but wonder at what point have you invested too much time in a movie to stop watching even though you're completely aware that the movie is pure and utter crap?  I got 45 minutes into this biographical tale detailing the 1940s-1960s life of Barbara Baekeland (Julianne Moore) and her incestuous relationship with her son, Tony (Eddie Redmayne), and I was ready to check out.  But then I said to myself, this is halfway over...and according to the Netflix description, Tony's gonna kill Barbara so that's gotta be somewhat interesting, right?

Well, nope...it wasn't interesting.  Not in the least.  All the characters (all real-life people, apparently) seemed completely fake, lacking any kind of true depth.  None of their emotional arcs seemed like arcs at all, and I didn't understand any of the motives or reasoning behind their ever-changing thought processes as scene after scene progressed.  Julianne Moore never seems to come to grasp of who Barbara really is.  I never once had any sense of why the heck she was the twisted rich housewife she was portraying.  Eddie Redmayne as her son seemed rather normal and then appeared to change into some psychopath on a dime.  

Really despised this one.  That rating below doesn't come often, so in that regard, congrats to those involved with this dreck.

The RyMickey Rating:  F

Movie Review - Black Death

Black Death (2011)

Starring Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, and Carice van Houten

Directed by Christopher Smith

***An early review...of sorts***

For some reason or another, I can't seem to find a theatrical release date for the period horror flick Black Death.  Part of me understands why this won't hit US theaters...the film has no stars, it's not as if films set in the 1300s are hot commodities, and this isn't exactly a movie that screams "art house" which is where it would have certainly been screened.  Still, it's a bit of a shame because Black Death, while not a great film by any means, is an enjoyable diversion that's certainly worth the inevitable Netflix streaming that will be in its future and is probably worthy of even a most limited theatrical run.

I know Sean Bean's been in a lot of other movies, but he always seems like the go-to guy when casting directors need some moderately buff warrior-type for a flick that takes place ages ago (see Troy, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Percy Jackson and the Olympians where he played Zeus).  I'm not faulting the man -- he's good in that strong leadership-type of role and here it's not an exception.  Bean is Ulric, a knight who, after the deaths of his wife and child, lives only for the Church, eradicating non-believers.  1348 is a very difficult time in England with the bubonic plague rearing its ugly head, and Ulric has heard of a small community that has not been affected by the disease.  Believing that the only logical explanation for their lack of sickness is that the town has been taken over by wily witchcraft, Ulric persuades the Church to allow him to go on a crusade (of sorts) to bring back the heretics in the community.  He brings along a young monk, Osmund (Eddie Redmayne), who is having a difficult time giving himself over to God completely (for, you see, he is in love with the beautiful Averill which is obviously something that is not permitted). Together, Ulric and Osmund along with a small group of soldiers head out to find the nonbelievers.

Looking back on the film, it's all rather silly, but I must say that after a shaky, slow, and plodding opening act, the film picked up its pace considerably and had a general aire of eeriness on display.  It's a "horror" film in the loosest sense of the word, but any time you throw cults into the mix in movies, your flick is gonna fall onto the "horror" side of things.  Still, there are no moments that will make you jump (although there are a few moments of medieval torture that may make you cringe a bit) and it's not as if the blood flows profusely.  

The acting is perhaps a step above what one would expect in a film like this and director Christopher Smith does an admirable job keeping things on edge in the film's final two-thirds.  That said, I can certainly see why this film isn't getting a big push on the US cinema front (it's already been released overseas). Black Death is not nearly as bad as the stigma that a lack of theatrical release would make you think.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+