Operation Finale

Operation Finale (2018)

Starring Oscar Isaac, Ben Kingsley, Lior Raz, Mélanie Laurent, Nick Kroll, Joe Alwyn, and Haley Lu Richardson

Directed by Chris Weitz

Written by Matthew Orton

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Support the Girls

Support the Girls (2018)

Starring Regina Hall, Haley Lu Richardson, James Le Gros, Shayna McHayle, Dylan Gelula, AJ Michalka, Brooklyn Decker, Jana Kramer, John Elvis, and Lea DeLaria

Directed by Andrew Bujalski

Written by Andrew Bujalski
***This film is currently streaming on Hulu***

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Split

Split (2017)

Starring James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula, Sebastian Arcelus, Brad William Henke, Izzie Coffey, and Neal Huff

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

Written by M. Night Shyamalan

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

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Three teenage girls are kidnapped as they leave a shopping mall outside of Philadelphia.  Their captor is Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), a man with dissociative identity disorder -- he has split personalities.  Some of these entities are kind, but some are much more malicious...and the most evil of all is a man known only as "The Beast" whose strength is unmatched by normal man.

• Unfortunately, it's that last sentence of the summary that makes Split falter because up until "the Beast" is introduced in the film's final twenty minutes or so, this film was utterly exciting, thrilling, and had me on the edge of my seat.  Writer-director M. Night Shymalan had returned to much of his former glory crafting a tense flick.  Unfortunately, things fall apart a bit at its conclusion.
• That said, Split works for the most part.  This flick is all about the acting and Shymalan directs a great performance from James McAvoy anchoring the film.  He's buoyed by three nice turns from the teens whom he captures -- Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson, and Jessica Sula.  
• The claustrophobic sense created by Shymalan is felt by the audience and I will admit that I didn't necessarily see things ending the way they did.  SPOILER ALERT -- That said, Shymalan's insistence to tie this in to one of his prior films hurts it more than it helps it.  Perhaps in his upcoming film Glass things will come together a bit more, but as for now the ending of this film disappoints.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - The Bronze

The Bronze (2016)

Starring Melissa Rauch, Gary Cole, Thomas Middleditch, Sebastian Stan, Cecily Strong, and Haley Lu Richardson

Directed by Bryan Buckley

Movies that have a disarmingly unpleasant main character have an uphill battle to connect with an audience because we're inherently disinclined to gravitate towards them.  With great writing, this tricky proposition can be successful (see: Charlize Theron in Young Adult), but with a lukewarm script, the nastiness of the unpleasant character can make a film be a chore to watch...and that's the case with The Bronze, co-written and starring Melissa Rauch.  Rauch (best known for her role on The Big Bang Theory, a show which I've never watched) goes all in with the abrasive character of Hope Ann Greggory, an Olympic gymnast who successfully won a bronze medal despite a horrible injury that happened at the Games that nearly sidelined her chances.  She was the golden child following her win -- landing a spot on Dancing with the Stars even -- but a decade has passed and her ability to live off being a celebrity has faded as she finds herself living at home with her mailman father Stan (Gary Cole) who desperately wants his daughter to find a profession to earn some money.  When her former coach dies, Hope discovers that her coach left her half a million dollars in her will if Hope will coach new, up-and-coming gymnast Maggie Townsend (Haley Lu Richardson) through her entire Olympic run.  This doesn't sit well with the lazy, nasty, and uncaring Hope, but the prospect of $500,000 forces her to attempt the task.

Plot-wise, The Bronze has the bones of a perfectly acceptable indie comedy, but Hope is too much of a caricature to craft anything more than a recurring Saturday Night Live skit around.  After you've heard Hope curse at her father or try to undermine Maggie once, nothing is added when she does it again...and again...and again.  The repetition of Hope's unpleasant bitchiness is too one-note, lacking depth.  Without that depth to the character, the audience has no rooting interest for Hope to better herself because we've not become attached to any backstory or history.  Melissa Rauch certainly dives into the crudeness that she's created for Hope, but the spoiled brat we see onscreen just proves to be unpleasant, funny in only mild doses, and unable to sustain the humor across 100 minutes.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Edge of Seventeen

Edge of Seventeen (2016)

Starring Hailee Steinfeld, Woody Harrelson, Kyra Sedgwick, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner, and Hayden Szeto

Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig

While it's certainly light on substance and not all that unique in its story, Edge of Seventeen works thanks to some cleverly written dialog by writer-first time director Kelly Fremon Craig and a grounded, realistic performance from Hailee Steinfeld as a loner high schooler dealing with a variety of teenage angsty problems.  As Nadine (Steinfeld) maneuvers through the rough road of being a teenager which carries with it fights with her widowed mother (Kyra Sedgwick) and a will-they-or-won't-they flirtation with classmate Erwin (Hayen Szeto), she's also placed in the the difficult position of her twin brother Darian (Blake Jenner) starting to date her best friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson).  With the help of her caring, yet greatly sarcastic, teacher Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson), Nadine tries to come to grips with all that being a teenage entails.

The high school landscape wasn't nearly as treacherous for me as it seems to be for most cinematic teenage characters (this film being no exception), so I oftentimes find the neuroticism of films of this ilk lacking in grounded realism.  Somehow, though, that isn't an issue here as Nadine (who lost her father a few years prior) feels lived-in and believable.  Certainly part of the credit goes to Ms. Steinfeld whose roller coaster of emotions as Nadine successfully translates to the screen.  The other part of the credit falls to director-writer Craig who taps in to the teenage psyche without making things feel over-the-top.  With great performances all around from the ensemble -- there's really not a bad egg in the bunch -- Edge of Seventeen is a light-hearted, fun watch that deserves to be remembered as a solid addition in the "teen coming-of-age" genre.

The RyMickey Rating: B