The French Dispatch

 The French Dispatch (2021)

Starring Bill Murray, Elizabeth Moss, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, Benicio del Toro, Léa Seydoux, Tilda Swinton, Adrian Brody, Tony Revolori, Bob Balaban, Henry Winkler, Lois Smith, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Liev Schreiber, Jeffrey Wright, Willem Dafoe, Mathieu Amalric, Edward Norton, Winston Ait Hellal, and Saoirse Ronan

Directed by Wes Anderson

Written by Wes Anderson

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: D

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

The Laundromat

The Laundromat (2019)

Starring Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas, David Schwimmer, Matthias Schoenaerts, Jeffrey Wright, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Nonso Anozie, Will Forte, Chris Parnell, James Cromwell, Melissa Rauch, Larry Wilmore, Robert Patrick, Rosalind Chao, and Sharon Stone

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Written by Scott Z. Burns

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C-

Movie Review - The Good Dinosaur

The Good Dinosaur (2015)

Featuring the vocal talents of Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand, Raymond Ochoa, Steve Zahn, Anna Paquin, and Sam Elliott 

Directed by Peter Sohn

As much as I say Pixar is without faults, churning out one hit after another, that's perhaps being overly generous, overlooking the fact that films that some people love -- Finding Dory, Up -- just don't hit the mark with me.  Unfortunately, The Good Dinosaur joins that lukewarm bunch.  While the scenic animation is gorgeous and incredibly photo-realistic, the character design is the most basic we've seen from Pixar yet and the story feels like a retread of better animated films of the past.  All in all, The Good Dinosaur is one of Pixar's biggest disappointments.

The story has some strong similarities to The Lion King, although it obviously pales in comparison.  A young dinosaur named Arlo (voiced by Raymond Ochoa) is the runt of his family with a brother and sister bigger and more capable than he.  His father (Jeffrey Wright) decides to take Arlo on a journey to try and make him braver and more confident in himself.  However, on this journey, a horrible flood rushes down a riverbed and carries Arlo's father away.  Pushed to safety in his father's final courageous act, Arlo finds himself on a journey home where he meets several unique creatures including a dog-like four or five-year-old human he names Spot who he befriends on his trek.

Yes, humans and dinosaurs co-exist here and I just couldn't help but think that the potential for this premise could've been more fully realized.  While it's true that Spot is the most engaging character in The Good Dinosaur despite the character not speaking a word, the co-mingling of these two species is disappointingly developed.  Obviously, it doesn't help that the film's main character - Arlo - is bland, paling in comparison to the amusing Spot.  Sure, Simba in The Lion King may not have been the funniest or most unique character, but we cared about his plight.  Arlo's plight lacks a captivating thread for some reason.

Although there are certain aspects of the film that are stellar - a great score by Jeff and Mychael Danna and some beautiful environmental imagery, the story (by a slew of people) and the design of the dinosaurs feel pre-schoolish which doesn't allow for anyone older than the age of ten to really connect with the proceedings.  The Good Dinosaur is a big disappointment and quite possibly my least favorite Pixar film to date.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015)

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Sam Claflin, Mahershala Ali, Jena Malone, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, and Elizabeth Banks

Directed by Francis Lawrence

The thought that kept running through my head while watching this final chapter of The Hunger Games saga was that I'm not sure if there's been a more depressing film franchise placed to have such enormous monetary success.  While I rather enjoyed the first part of Mockingjay as it took a spin away from the titular fight-to-the-death battles set up by the tyrannical President Snow (Donald Sutherland), stretching what is a political flick across two over-two-hour films becomes a little tedious.  Everything heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) was striving to achieve in Part 1, she's still striving to achieve here.  That isn't to say that there aren't some nice moments as director Francis Lawrence has a good eye for crafting action set pieces, but Mockingjay Part 2 feels like a bit of a letdown for a series I rather enjoyed.

I could go on further in this review, but I'll leave things rather simplified.  It's not that Mockingjay, Part 2 is bad, but it's disappointingly bland considering what has come before.  Emotionally, I found myself rather disconnected at its conclusion and it's just a bit of a shame that the series couldn't end on a better note given all the positives that came before.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Only Lovers Left Alive

Only Lovers Left Alive (2014)

Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, Anton Yelchin, Jeffrey Wright, Slimane Dazi, and John Hurt

Directed by Jim Jarmusch

My only other experience with director-writer Jim Jarmusch was an absolutely awful flick called The Limits of Control, so when I checked out Only Lovers Left Alive from the library and saw that it was penned and helmed by him, the dvd sat atop my tv for nearly two-and-a-half weeks before I decided to give it a shot.  I must admit that I found myself pleasantly surprised.  The slow pace apparent in The Limits of Control was certainly still present, but Only Lovers Left Alive at least contains a story to latch onto that is surprisingly compelling.

In the simplest of terms, Only Lovers Left Alive revolves around Adam and Eve (Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton), two centuries-old married vampires who have evolved into creatures of the night who don't seek out living, breathing humans for their blood sustenance, but instead get their "fix" by other less brutal means.  When Eve's sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska) comes to town, things get shaken up a bit and Adam and Eve's mellow life becomes a bit more chaotic than they hoped.

Certainly uncomplicated, that's just about the entire summary of Jarmusch's film.  What keeps you interested are Swinton and Hiddleston, both of whom are surprisingly captivating considering that the first hour of the film is about as slow-paced a film you'll have seen from 2014.  Somehow, though, the two actors are compelling with Hiddleston's mopey and depressed Adam being countered by Swinton's more hopeful and pleasant Eve.  Swinton really is one of the best actresses working today and I continue to be impressed with nearly everything she chooses to take part in, and Hiddleston proves here that there's more to him than the egomaniacal Loki from the Marvel Universe.  In addition, Wasikowska really shines in a small role, popping in at about the one hour mark as the childish Ava to give the flick some much needed verve and pizzazz.

This is one of those flicks that you absolutely have to be in the "mood" to watch and it undoubtedly will not suit everyone's tastes.  However, I found Only Lovers Left Alive to be an intriguing piece of cinema -- one that I assume is much deeper upon subsequent viewings (the Adam/Eve symbolism alone would probably give you enough material to write a research paper), but works quite well on its initial watch as well.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Philip Seymour Hofman, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone, and Donald Sutherland

Directed by Francis Lawrence

Comparing The Hunger Games film series to the Twilight series is inevitably going to happen simply because both focus on female protagonists and both stem from extremely popular literary tomes.  The comparison isn't fair in the slightest, however, because there's simply no competition -- The Hunger Games beats the Twilight series to a pulp in all areas -- story, acting, and direction.

With the first film in the series ending with Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) formulating a plan for herself and her good friend Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) to win the Hunger Games together, her success and intelligence doesn't sit too well with President Snow (Donald Sutherland).  Seeing his nation desiring to rebel against The Capitol and his presidency, Snow decides to throw a twist at Katniss -- for the 75th Hunger Games, previous winners will be forced to battle each other to the death again with only one winner taking the glory.

Admittedly, Catching Fire is really just a rehash of The Hunger Games, however, I think overall, the film plays better than its predecessor.  We've come to hate President Snow which makes his maniacal ways even more disturbing.  We've grown to care for Katniss and feel more empathy for her being forced to take part in a love triangle with herself, her public love Peeta, and her private love Gale (Liam Hemsworth).  The battle between the twelve districts against the Capitol holds more gravitas after we've seen what the government puts its citizens through during the Hunger Games.  It's because of this increased feeling of import that Catching Fire works better than the original film despite similar plots.

Unfortunately, this very thing that makes Catching Fire resonate more also doesn't allow it to feel remotely original.  We're given, for all intents and purposes, the same story again.  The actors across the board sell it, keeping up the good work we saw in the original, and director Francis Lawrence also keeps the film looking as nice as the first flick.  However, I found myself longing for less of the Hunger Games themselves and more of the battle between the government and its citizens.  Fortunately, I hear that the third installment will grant my wishes.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Broken City

Broken City (2013)

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Barry Pepper, Jeffrey Wright, and Kyle Chandler  

Directed by Allen Hughes

Broken City is one of those films that makes you ponder how in the world the producers snagged such big names to attach themselves to it.  It's not that it's mind-numbingly bad (although it certainly isn't any good), but it's so utterly generic that it becomes painful to sit through.  There's a corrupt [Republican] New York mayor up for reelection (Russell Crowe), his possibly philandering wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones), the good cop who's forced into doing bad things (Mark Wahlberg), the police chief who may not be running things by the book (Jeffrey Wright), and the upstart [Democratic] opponent who wants nothing more than to bring down his competition (Barry Pepper).  We've seen all these characters' stories before scripted, acted, and directed better, so without Broken City doing a thing to differentiate itself from its predecessors, there's little to recommend about it.

And with that, I'm pretty much done with this one.  However, I will add that as I was watching this, I came to the realization that Catherine Zeta-Jones probably should retire from acting.  I'm not sure she was ever all that good, but her Academy Award win at least gave her some respect from the public and from this blogger.  Perhaps that respect was ill-informed, however, as with last year's Rock of Ages (which garnered her a Worst Performance of the Year award) and this year's Broken City (and even Side Effects, a film that I truly liked, but found her performance lacking), she's more than proven that it may be time to snuggle up with her Oscar, spend some time with Michael Douglas, and bid the acting world adieu.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Quantum of Solace

Quantum of Solace (2008)

Starring Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Giancarlo Giannini, Gemma Arterton, and Jeffrey Wright
Directed by Marc Forster

SPOILER ALERT AHEAD FOR CASINO ROYALE

After a great first experience with Mr. Bond in Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace had quite a bit to live up to and, unfortunately, it didn't really come close.  Taking place mere hours after the start of Casino Royale, Quantum is a quasi-sequel in that James Bond is still somewhat reeling (in that reserved British sense of "reeling") over the death of his lover and he finds himself on a mission to enact revenge on those who caused her death.  In and of itself, that would've been a good film, but we're given a eco-friendly villain (Mathieu Amalric) that I really couldn't care about -- the malevolence of taking away clean drinking water from the poor just isn't as much fun as world domination -- which doesn't help matters.

However, the biggest issue with Quantum of Solace is that director Marc Forster has no clue how to properly direct action sequences.  What I love about Casino Royale is that even the most ludicrous of action sequences are believable because of the way they are fluidly shot.  Forster resorts to the quick cuts that are so prevalent in action flicks today and there were several moments where I simply didn't comprehend what was going on.  Right from the opening scene in which two nearly identical black cars are involved in a chase, I knew I was in for disappointment.  When you can't tell which car is being driven by your protagonist and antagonist, you're in for trouble.

Here's hoping Skyfall is more like Casino Royale than this second Daniel Craig-starring venture.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Casino Royale

Casino Royale (2006)

Starring Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelson, Jeffrey Wright, and Judi Dench

Directed by Martin Campbell

I've gone thirty-two years without seeing a James Bond film and having now watched Casino Royale I have to ask myself why I waited so long.  Granted, one look at this long-lasting series of flicks may not be indicative of the franchise's overarching quality, but Casino Royale proved to be one of the best action movies I've seen in a long time.

I won't get into plots here -- the movie's been out for six years now -- except to give the briefest overview that as this flick starts Mr. Bond (Daniel Craig) is just beginning his British intelligence career.  With the need to prove himself to his boss, M (Judi Dench), he sets out on a mission to stop the criminal mastermind known as Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelson) from providing funds to terrorists around the world.

Two things elevate this movie to the higher echelon of action flicks.  First, Daniel Craig gives a suave, debonair, yet no nonsense performance as the superspy.  He makes both his mellower and action-packed scenes completely plausible despite seemingly impossible moments.  Second, director Martin Campbell has crafted some of the best action scenes I've seen in ages.  Nowadays, cuts and edits make many action sequences completely incomprehensible, but I found Campbell's work here to be fluid and amazingly coherent.  Even amidst what may very well be the most unlikeliest of scenarios, I was always aware of what was going on in the rapidly paced scenes and that's a huge credit to the director and a gigantic positive for the film.

Here's hoping any future Bond endeavors can live up to this experience.

The RyMickey Rating: A-

Movie Review - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)

Starring Thomas Horn, Sandra Bullock, Viola Davis, Max von Sydow, John Goodman, Jeffrey Wright, and Tom Hanks

Directed by Stephen Daldry

The last Best Picture nominee I needed to watch, I was dreading seeing Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close as it seems to be the most reviled of the nine films up for the top prize.  I had read the book and enjoyed it, but the reviews calling Stephen Daldry's flick emotionally manipulative and heavy-handed made me wait until the very last minute to see this.  Well, in the end, I can't help but feel that I've certainly saved one of the best flicks of 2011 for last because Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is powerful, heartbreaking, and inspiring -- a lovely film that has been unfairly maligned throughout this awards season.

Oskar Schell (newcomer Thomas Horn), an eleven year-old kid with symptoms of Asperger Syndrome (despite having an inconclusive diagnosis for the disorder), was having a perfectly normal day on September 11, 2001 -- but that was the day his life was personally changed forever.  His father (Tom Hanks), a jewelry store owner, had a meeting in the World Trade Center that morning and like thousands of others, he did not make it out alive.  Finding it incredibly difficult to cope with the loss, Oskar comes across a small manilla envelope holding a key in his father's closet.  On the envelope is written the word "Black" and, as a way to keep his father's presence alive in his mind, Oskar sets out on a mission across all of New York City to meet every single person with the last name of "Black" to find out if they know what the key will open in hopes that it will somehow tell him more about his father.

Perhaps the film could be labeled sappy, but I found it incredibly moving and touching.  Yes, it could be deemed heavy handed, but we're dealing with subject matter here that is incredibly intense and the film doesn't tiptoe around it.  In what is perhaps the best film I've seen that deals with the 9/11 tragedies (that isn't a "documentary-type" film a la the spectacular United 93), I'm not ashamed to admit that my eyes welled up multiple times here.  Yes, I know no one that was harmed on 9/11, but this film speaks to anyone who has experienced any type of loss, grief, and pain, and speaks to the courage and drive necessary to move on and continue living your life to its full potential.

A film which places a young fourteen year-old kid who has never acted before front and center in every single scene of the movie is asking for trouble if the kid doesn't connect with the audience.  That certainly isn't the case here -- I found Thomas Horn a revelation.  I realize that's not a word to throw around lightly, but I was really moved by this kid in an incredibly difficult role.  I wrote in my original review of the novel that I was so irritated by the character of Oskar that I almost put down the book 100 pages in.  The cinematic Oskar worked much better for me.  Perhaps I was simply prepared for the quirkiness of the character -- his carrying around of a tambourine to calm himself is just one of his eccentricities -- or perhaps Horn just embodied the character in such a way that made his idiosyncrasies more believable to me.  Regardless, despite having a completely different personality than me, I somehow felt incredibly connected to this young kid -- Horn is really playing an "everyman" trying to cope with grief and that portrayal deeply moved me.

Horn isn't alone in excelling in the acting department.  Hanks is rather charming in his small role as Oskar's father.  In his limited screen time, it's obvious why Oskar loved his father as much as he did and it was his father's joie de vivre that sends Oskar on his mission.  Similarly, Sandra Bullock is surprisingly powerful in her limited role as Oskar's mother.  Her scenes with the young Horn are gripping and oftentimes heartbreaking.

However, it's Horn's scenes with Max von Sydow that I'll remember the most.  Von Sydow plays a man simply known as The Renter, an elderly gentleman who has moved in with Max's grandmother who lives in an apartment across the street from his home.  The Renter doesn't speak and instead writes all his thoughts in a little notebook, but Oskar finds himself able to communicate with The Renter more than anyone else in his life.  With nary a word spoken, von Sydow is wonderful and positively moving, able to express everything we need to know with the raise of an eyebrow or a shrug of the shoulders.

[There is also a beautiful scene that occurs near the film's conclusion with a man played by Jeffrey Wright whom Oskar meets on his quest to discover the purpose of the key that nearly gave me chills. (Too much discussion of this scene would be a bit of a spoiler so I'll stop here, but I'll likely be discussing it more in my Best Scenes of the Year category in the RyMickey Awards.)]

What is a movie if it's not "manipulative."  Film is one of the most "manipulative" art genres around.  All movies have an agenda/story to tell and they all try to take their audience on whatever journey the director and screenwriter want us to see.  To toss the claim around that director Stephen Daldry and screenwriter Eric Roth are simply playing on our emotional connection to 9/11 isn't a fair critique.  They take a horribly tragic moment in our American history, narrow it down to a specific person's take on that painful day, but somehow manage to make it contain themes that speak to us all.  Kudos all around on this one.  Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is, by far, one of the best films of 2011.

The RyMickey Rating:  A

Movie Review - The Ides of March

The Ides of March (2011)

Starring Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Evan Rachel Wood, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Max Minghella, and Marisa Tomei

Directed by George Clooney

I'm not sure if The Ides of March was attempting to be something more thought-provoking than the simple melodrama I took away from it, but if George Clooney's film was trying to be meaningful and insightful, it didn't succeed at all on that level.  The slowly unfolding story (and I do mean slowly...particularly in the first fifty minutes of tedium) eventually turns into something rather riveting, but it's really just a glorified soap opera -- not that there's anything wrong with that if it's as well-crafted as this is in its final moments.  That said, The Ides of March tries to mask the overly dramatic moments, wanting instead to feign that it's incredibly important when, in fact, it simply reiterates what is already known -- politics is full of shady dealings and lapses in ethics by the very people who purport to be the moral pillars of society.

I knew very little going into The Ides of March and, in the end, that's probably for the best, so I'm going to reveal very little in terms of the plot except to say that the film focuses on thirty-year-old Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling), a young campaign advisor for Pennsylvania governor/Democratic presidential candidate Mike Morris (George Clooney).  Stephen is a strong up-and-comer and is lauded for his smarts when it comes to the political spectrum.  Stephen's partner/boss on Morris's campaign is Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a longtime advisor to Democratic candidates.  Paul and Stephen seem like a solid duo, offering the opposite spectrums of weathered experience and wide-eyed optimism, respectively, to the Morris campaign.  For nearly the first fifty minutes, the film simply feels like a look at these three men on the campaign trail with occasional looks at Morris's competitor's campaign headed by Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti) who is certain his candidate will overtake Morris's apparent lead.

Finally, nearly an hour into the movie, something interesting finally happens which I won't reveal here and the movie takes the viewer on an interesting little ride which, while not full of necessarily surprising twists and turns, is at least thoroughly entertaining.  As an auteur, George Clooney (like his fellow actor/director Clint Eastwood) is very old school, utilizing very little in terms of gimmickry.  Usually, I'd be all for that, but in all of Clooney's films (much like Eastwood's) he can't move the movie along at a quick enough clip to keep me interested.  While well shot and nicely framed, the story just lacks a powerful punch for nearly half of the running time.

Part of the problem in The Ides of March is that the film doesn't give the viewer anything new to chew on.  Are we surprised that members of the same political party do anything and everything they can to defame their fellow members (shades of Herman Cain and the current Republicans perhaps)?  Are we shocked by a lack of ethics from our political candidates and their campaign workers?  There's just nothing surprising about the uncouth underbelly of politics.  The film at least comes alive when it gravitates towards the melodrama that comes hand-in-hand with lapses in morality.  The lack of vivacity and any modicum of excitement in the first half, though, doesn't push the film forward at all.  [Truth be told here...I looked at my watch about twenty minutes into the movie and I seriously felt that at least fifty minutes had gone by...I almost said aloud, "You've got to be kidding me."]

"Star" George Clooney actually takes a backseat to Ryan Gosling's Stephen, but this is still Gosling's least interesting role this year (after Crazy, Stupid, Love and Drive).  However, Gosling continues to prove that he is probably the best actor of my generation.  He plays a smooth talker here with Stephen's up-and-coming status in politics not having sullied him yet by the cynicism that permeates his fellow older co-workers' daily lives.  Clooney is fine, but is hurt by an opening hour that simply has him spouting off speeches that seemed too well-written to ring true.  Hoffman and Giamatti are both quite good in their roles of the weathered campaign advisors and Evan Rachel Wood is also strong as the young intern who has a thing for Stephen.

Still, had The Ides of March simply dropped the pompous aire of self-importance in the opening acts and skipped directly to the smart soap opera-like twists and turns that made up the rather exciting climax, this would have been a flick I could have wholeheartedly recommended.  As it stands, though, it's too bland to really amount to anything worth talking about.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Source Code

Source Code (2011)

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, and Jeffrey Wright

Directed by Duncan Jones

Duncan Jones's previous directorial effort Moon was quite a mindgame and the bigger-budgeted Source Code attempts to be the same thing, but doesn't fare nearly as well.  For all intents and purposes, Source Code is trying to be suspenseful, but instead this 90-minute affair simply plodded along rather than keep me intrigued.

A commuter train headed into downtown Chicago blows up one morning in an act of terrorism killing every onboard.  The government has knowledge that another larger attack is imminent, so in order to try and prevent the second bombing, a new military program called Source Code is called into play.  Air Force pilot Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is essentially placed in the body of a passenger on the train eight minutes prior to it blowing up.  Within those eight minutes (which can be looped over and over again ad infinitum), he must attempt to discover who planted the bomb.  While he can't change the past, he can possibly alter the future by helping the military nab the bomber to prevent the future attack.

The concept of seeing the same thing over and over again with minor changes just flat out bored me (unlike the more successful Groundhog Day which essentially plays up the same basic premise but with a comedic edge).  Dull is an apt word to describe my feelings towards Source Code.  From the direction to the performances to the premise -- all of it can be deemed "dull."  Tack on an ending that completely negates everything that's been told to the viewer throughout the whole film and I can't help but feel that I was somewhat tricked (even though the ending could be seen a mile away).

In the end, the praise and 91% Fresh rating heaped on this film by the Rotten Tomatoes critics is kind of astounding to me.  Yes, it's nice to have more adult-centric, smart films in the marketplace, but this one really lacked an iota of pizzazz needed to sustain my interest.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+