A Rainy Day in New York

 A Rainy Day in New York (2020)

Starring Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Selena Gomez, Jude Law, Diego Luna, Rebecca Hall, Cherry Jones, and Liev Schreiber

Directed by Woody Allen

Written by Woody Allen

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2018)

Featuring the vocal talents of Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Lily Tomlin, Zoë Kravitz, John Mulaney, Kimiko Glenn, Nicolas Cage, Kathryn Hahn, and Liev Schreiber

Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman

Written by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman

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

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Isle of Dogs

Isle of Dogs (2018)

Featuring the vocal talents of Bryan Cranston, Koyu Rankin, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Liev Schreiber, Kunichi Nomura, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDorman, Scarlett Johansson, Harvey Keitel, F. Murray Abraham, Yoko Ono, Courtney B. Vance, and Tilda Swinton

Directed by Wes Anderson

Written by Wes Anderson

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Pawn Sacrifice

Pawn Sacrifice (2015)

Starring Tobey Maguire, Michael Stuhlbarg, Peter Sarsgaard, Liev Schrieber, Lily Rabe, and Robin Weigart

Directed by Edward Zwick

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

As a young boy growing up in 1950s America, Bobby Fischer lived with his mother (Robin Weigart) whose Communist beliefs didn't sit well with the population at large.  One particularly resonant moment in his life occurred when the young Bobby looks out the door at a party his mother is throwing and sees a man in a vehicle spying on their residence, taking pictures of the party's attendees.  As Bobby grows up (now played by Tobey Maguire), he becomes an incredibly well-known chess prodigy who places the game of chess squarely on the American map, particularly when he agrees to compete in a head-to-head battle against reigning Chess Master Boris Spassky (Live Schrieber) at the 1972 World Chess Championship.  However, moments from Bobby's difficult childhood -- including that moment from his mother's party -- have shaped the chess master into an extremely paranoid man who believes that he is being spied upon by everyone everywhere.  Bobby's personal inner demons stemming in part from his Communist-sympathizer mother are just as much a battle for him as it is going up against Spassky.

I am no chess player -- I know very rudimentary aspects of the game, but I was a checkers person growing up as no one in my family played chess -- and Pawn Sacrifice doesn't place the rules of the game front and center.  Instead, it tries to delve into the mind of Bobby Fischer, but this true story falls a little flat in achieving the dramatic moments I think it so desperately desires.  Part of the problem is its repetition of Fischer's psychological problems.  While the hammering home of his paranoia certainly paints a vivid picture of his psychosis, chess match met with paranoia followed by chess match met with paranoia is the film's only storytelling impetus.  Tobey Maguire has very little arc for his character to grow from and progress towards as his Fischer is played in a rather one note fashion because of the way the script unfolds.  There are some nice supporting performances from Michael Stuhlbarg and Peter Sarsgaard (Liev Schreiber has very little to do), but their characters similarly do very repetitive things over and over again as they try and get Fischer psychologically prepared for his various chess matches.

It's not that Pawn Sacrifice is particularly boring despite this repetition, but in the end the film lacks excitement (even for those of us like me who aren't familiar with the outcome of the 1972 World Chess Championship).  Director Edward Zwick's film can't overcome a script that lacks in depth character development and progression.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Spotlight

Spotlight (2015)

Starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Brian d'Arcy James, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, and Stanley Tucci

Directed by Tom McCarthy

There's a straightforward, no-frills temperament to the true story that is Spotlight that is oddly refreshing in a cinematic era in which we find ourselves often wowed by exquisite cinematography or fancy special effects or even edgy scripts.  Director and co-screenwriter Tom McCarthy has crafted a film that not only honors the young victims sexually abused by Catholic priests, but also pays tribute to investigative newspaper journalism, a seemingly dying industry that proved vital in exposing this particularly heinous injustice.

When new editor Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) is hired at the Boston Globe in 2001, several reporters find themselves on edge worried about their jobs, particularly Walter "Robby" Robinson (Michael Keaton) who heads up a four-person investigative journalism team known as Spotlight who take months to research issues in order to produce incredibly in-depth articles.  The team -- which also includes Michael Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer, and Matt Carroll (Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Brian d'Arcy James) -- is stripped of their current investigation and tasked by Baron to look at possible sexual abuse crimes within the Catholic Church after the editor reads about a low-rent lawyer Mitchell Garabedian (Stanley Tucci) who is representing several alleged victims, purporting that the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Law, is simply moved offending priests from parish to parish after being faced with claims of abuse.

Spotlight unravels like an intense mystery -- albeit one in which the audience already knows the horrific outcome -- and director and co-screenwriter McCarthy does an admirable job of keeping us invested in the proceedings especially when a whole lot of names come in and out of play and the legal logistics of things may seem too heavy for the average moviegoer.  While certainly a film that respects the atrocities the victims of the sexual abuse faced, Spotlight also is a great homage to print journalism which has certainly suffered in the wake of the internet and 24-hour cable news (both of which have likely harmed the "institution of journalism" in irreversible ways with in-your-face biases).  The acting ensemble is an incredibly solid one with no one single actor "standing out" -- and that's a positive in a film like this.  There's a "no one is greater than any other" mentality and given the teamwork necessary for the Spotlight writers to pull off this investigation, the ensemble blends into one another quite well.  Kudos also must be lauded on the many actors playing sexual abuse victims who undoubtedly add the heart and gravitas to the story.

This movie hit close to home to me as a Catholic and perhaps my views are skewed because of it, however, I think it's an important flick for people of my faith to watch.  There was some horrific wrongs inflicted on a great many people and we must face our misdeeds in order to try and move past them as best we can.  Spotlight was an engaging experience for me and a well-made film on top of that.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Fading Gigolo

Fading Gigolo (2014)

Starring John Turturro, Woody Allen, Vanessa Paradis, Liev Schrieber, Sharon Stone, and Sofía Vergara

Directed by John Turturro

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

Fading Gigolo works best when Woody Allen and John Turturro play off each other with Allen's typical neuroses and Turturro's serious tone juxtaposing surprisingly amusingly.  Whenever their two characters are separated, however, screenwriter-director Turturro's film lags with a romance that never really blossoms to anything captivating.

Woody Allen is Woody Allen -- oh no, wait...he's Murray (who is really just Woody Allen), an aging guy whose used book store is being forced to shut down.  Desperate for money, Murray -- after visiting his dermatologist Dr. Parker (Sharon Stone) -- spitballs the idea of his single buddy Fioravante (Turturro) sleeping with his skin doctor who mentioned that she and her single friend Selina (Sofía Vergara) were interested in having a threesome.  Fiorvante balks at the notion, but then acquiesces, although Dr. Parker wants to "try him for herself" first.  Fioravante discovers that he doesn't mind sleeping with women for money and Murray enjoys the commission he's receiving for setting Fioravante up with the ladies.

In and of itself, the storyline above is at least amusing.  However, Fading Gigolo tries for heart and attempts to achieve that when Murray takes one of his girlfriend's lice-stricken kids to see Avigal (Vanessa Paradis), the widow of an Hassidic rabbi, for treatment.  Avigal is in pain (both physical and emotional) and Murray convinces her to come and see Fioravante whom Murray says is a massage therapist.  Fioravante almost immediately has a connection with Avigal and the two begin a relationship that doesn't exactly go over well with Avigal's Jewish neighbors.

Unfortunately, the whole Avigal story -- which is really the bulk of the movie -- falls flat.  Avigal as a character is emotionally stilted and quite blasé.  While that's no fault of Vanessa Paradis' portrayal, the lack of vigor in her character brings the film to a halt whenever she's onscreen.  I never really believed the connection between Avigal and Fioravante either which I think is important to latch onto in order to care about the proceedings.  The Murray-Fioravante teaming was amusing, but the rest of Fading Gigolo lacks oomph.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - The Last Days on Mars

The Last Days on Mars (2013)

Starring Liev Schrieber, Elias Koteas, Romola Garai, Olivia Williams, and Johnny Harris

Directed by Ruairi Robinson

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

Seven astronauts are finishing up a research mission to Mars.  On their last day, one of the astronauts sees a spike in some scientific readings and goes out to investigate only to fall into a gigantic pit.  As other members of the crew go out to try and find the missing astronaut, they discover that some type of planetary bacteria has infected the crew member and turned him into a man-eating zombie.

Yeah...zombies...on Mars...

The Last Days on Mars is surprisingly well acted considering the ridiculousness of the plot, but the film isn't very tense and it certainly isn't scary.  With neither tension or scares, the film just falls flat and proves to be ultimately a bit boring.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Lee Daniels' The Butler

Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013)

Starring Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Lenny Kravitz, Terrence Howard, Robin Williams, John Cusack, James Marsden, Liev Schreiber, Alan Rickman, Jane Fonda, Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Redgrave, and Mariah Carey

Directed by Lee Daniels

Can someone please explain to me how Lee Daniels' The Butler was ever in the running for any category at the Oscars?  With an absolutely horrendous script by Danny Strong, pompously self-important direction by Lee Daniels, and overacting out the wazoo by nearly everyone involved, it's mind-boggling to me that people actually thought this movie was good in any way.  Incredibly heavy-handed in its way of trying to pigeonhole seemingly every important civil rights moment from the 1950s-80s into a two hour film, the film plays like a low-rent version of Forrest Gump as famous Hollywood celebrity after famous Hollywood celebrity pops up playing famous political figure after famous political figure.  And then, rather obnoxiously, the film ends with the triumphant crowning of Barack Obama as President signifying that "hope and change" have come and all is right in the world.  The final ten minutes of this movie had me so aggravated that they soured the entirety of the rest of the film (which, as stated, really wasn't that good to begin with).

Ugh.

Based on a true story (although changed DRASTICALLY in order to make things much more dramatic), The Butler centers around Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker), a man who escaped Southern slavery in the 1920s and became well known around Washington, D.C., as a fantastic server/butler in local bars and lounges around the big city.  After catching the eye of someone who worked in the White House, Gaines snags a job as a butler where he stays on to serve eight presidents.  The film attempts to balance Gaines' workplace with his family life, but the transitions between the two are always awkward and oftentimes incredibly heavyhanded.  For, you see, while his professional life is moving along swimmingly, his home life leaves much to be desired.  His wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey) is tired of her husband putting his focus on his job and abandoning her and their two sons so she fills the void she feels with alcohol and another man (Terrence Howard).  Meanwhile, Gaines' older son (David Oyelowo) is heading to college where he finds himself becoming involved in Woolworth counter sit-ins, Freedom Bus Riders, Martin Luther King's assassination, the Black Panthers, and rallies to free Nelson Mandela.  All this stuff -- and this son never even existed.  That's right.  It's simply the screenwriter's ploy to hammer home what they believe to be significant moments in the Civil Rights Movement.  There's certainly no denying each of these events' importance.  However, none of these moments are ever given anything more than snippets of attention.  Giving each of these pivotal aspects of the movement such short shrift is a disservice.

On Oscar morning, everyone was shocked that Oprah didn't garner a nomination, but her attempt at halfway channeling Mo'Nique's intense performance from Precious was laughable.  Forest Whitaker is as flat as could be, exuding an overwhelming sense of blandness.  Each and every presidential figure plays more like a really good impressionist you'd see on the Vegas strip than a person.  Lee Daniels really failed to reel in a good performance from anyone with the exception of Lenny Kravitz as another butler in the White House and David Oyelowo who, despite the horribly written role as Gaines' older son, does try his best with his ridiculous part.

Lee Daniels' The Butler begins with Cecil Gaines as a young child working on a cotton plantation and the film's first ten minutes echo similar sentiments espoused in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave.  However, there's simply no comparison and to have even placed The Butler in the same ballpark as 12 Years a Slave in the lead-up to awards season is an indignation that I'm trying to right with this review.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Scream 3

Scream 3 (2000)

Starring Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Patrick Dempsey, Scott Foley, Jenny McCarthy, Emily Mortimer, and Liev Schreiber

Directed by Wes Craven
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

The least loved of the original Scream trilogy, the third and final installment of the series (until the fourth film was released over a decade later) earns that "Worst Film in the Series" honor.  However, Scream 3 wasn't nearly as bad as I remembered it being, finding myself being rather impressed with the overarching connection to the previous two films, but disappointed in the fact that the film is really nothing more than a typical slasher film with better acting.

In this third flick we move from Woodsboro (the setting of the first two films) to Hollywood where a third film -- Stab 3 -- is being produced mirroring the life of Sidney Prescott.  Of course, there's a copycat killer on the loose again and this lunatic is wreaking havoc on the movie set and those involved in the production.  What ensues is simply a progression of people getting stabbed in the back again and again and again and again.  And unfortunately, that's where Scream 3 doesn't work.  The kills are uninventive, repetitive, and we have so little connection to these obnoxious Hollywood types biting the dust that we don't really give a damn that they're being offed.  

What does work, however, is the continuation of Sidney's storyline, delving into the reasons her mother was looked upon as such a tramp in the first film and building the Scream mythology in a decent manner.  It also helps that Courtney Cox and David Arquette take a more prominent role than Neve Campbell's consistently bland Sidney.  Their Gale Weathers and Dewey Riley provide comic relief while, at the same time, giving the viewer characters to root for in the midst of the fairly disappointing characters that are thrown into the mix in this third flick.

Despite all the qualms about this one, I was still entertained and, at times, on the edge of my seat.  Sometimes you can't ask for more than that.  Now I'll just have to sit back another month or two until the fourth installment makes its way to dvd (even though I'm fairly upset that I've had a significant portion of the flick spoiled for me thanks to a television interview I stumbled upon two months after that film had been released).  

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Scream 2

Scream 2 (1997)

Starring Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Liev Schreiber, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jerry O'Connell, Elise Neal, Timothy Olyphant, Laurie Metcalf, Omar Epps, and Jada Pinkett Smith

Directed by Wes Craven

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

I always thought that Scream was a solid horror film and, watching it years later, that fortunately still held true upon a recent revisit.  In that review, I mentioned that I didn't remember the next two films in the series with any fondness and I wondered if there was a reason for that.

Well, I'm pleasantly surprised to say that Scream 2 is also a pretty decent horror flick.  Yes, it's essentially the first film rehashed (but that's the point of the story in that a copycat killer is still enacting hell on Sidney Prescott's [Neve Campbell] life after she moved on to college), but it's a solid thriller.  Granted, there aren't as many nifty death scenes, but what keeps the flick afloat is the very game cast.  The return of Courtney Cox's Gale Weathers, David Arquette's Dewey Riley, and Jamie Kennedy's Randy all jump right back into things, expanding upon their characters and actually proving to be more enjoyable in some cases than in the first film.  The addition of Elise Neal as Sidney's best friend, Jerry O'Connell as Sid's boyfriend, and Laurie Metcalf as a podunk local newspaper reporter fascinated by the well-known Gale Weathers are all nice new faces.

Granted, the big reveal at the end is silly and the series loses some of its charm since it somewhat abandons the "poking fun at other horror films" premise, but it was still an enjoyable two hours, so I'll take that.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Ransom

Ransom (1996)

Starring Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Brawley Nolte, Gary Sinise, Delroy Lindo, Lili Taylor, Donnie Wahlberg, and Liev Schrieber

Directed by Ron Howard

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

Not that the trailer for Ransom in and of itself is all that amazing, but in 1996, Mel Gibson's uttering of the film's somewhat classic line, "Give me back my son!", was played seemingly ad nauseum in theaters and on tv.  It's a simple line, but in that one line reading from Mel, the primal, guttural instinct of a parent who has had a child kidnapped shines through and Gibson shows why everyone loved him prior to his late aughts breakdown.  As far as the film goes, despite it's completely generic nature and its by-the-book direction from Ron Howard, Ransom does the job required of it, continuously ratcheting up the tension until the rather silly, although plausible climax.

There's no need to go into any plot summaries here as the film doesn't deviate from any standard kidnapping flick.  Rich parents get their son kidnapped and the abductors demand a significant ransom for the return of the child.  Sure, there are slight turns along the way, but there's absolutely nothing new brought to the table either by the writers or by the director.  

Nevertheless, the film does exactly what it needs to do in order to be entertaining.  In part, all the actors really step up to the plate.  From Gibson and Rene Russo as the distraught parents to Delroy Lindo as the FBI agent helping to track down the kidnapper to Gary Sinise as a troubled cop, the acting lifts up all the generic roles to a degree higher than what they likely deserved.

Yes, I find myself criticizing the film above, but I also was thoroughly entertained throughout Ransom.  I'd seen this upon its release and remembered liking it back then and wasn't disappointed upon the rewatch.

On a completely unrelated note, I find it quite odd that I've now watched two kidnapping movies in the span of four days...slightly odd how that happened.

And on another completely unrelated note (one that I've said before), I miss Mr. Gibson as an actor.  

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Salt

Salt (2010)

Starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schrieber, and Chiwetel Ejiofor

Directed by Philip Noyce

It's not a shocking statement to say that Angelina Jolie is considered one of the hottest women on the planet.  And while I don't think she should top the Maxim 100 list or anything, she's certainly attractive.  So if you have an incredibly attractive woman starring in a full-blown action pic, why wouldn't you play that up a bit?  Sure, it's probably sexist for me to say it, but one would think that we'd get to see some modicum of hotness emanating from Ms. Jolie in a fun summer movie. 

That's never the case in Salt.  Instead, we see Angelina in an awful blond wig and later dressed up like a man...neither get-up falls into the "hot" category.  I'm not faulting the flick for this, but I just found it odd.

Jolie is Evelyn Salt, a CIA agent who is accused by a Russian spy she is interrogating that she herself is a Russian spy infiltrating the American agency to discover government secrets.  Her fellow agents immediately want to question her, but Salt escapes and finds herself on the run.

Overall, I'm just really lukewarm on the flick.  The action sequences were actually well-shot by director Philip Noyce.  There were a few surprises that I didn't see coming.  But, in the end, the film didn't excite me in the slightest.  

And I think that the problem lies with Jolie herself...not in her lack of hotness, but in her lack of emoting.  There was never a moment in Salt where I felt the least bit concerned for the title character.  As a spy, one would assume that Salt was trained to hide her emotions, but in a movie, an emotional disconnect just doesn't allow for an audience to give a damn.  Jolie just appears to be moving right through the movie, accepting her big paycheck, but not really doing much beyond running really fast.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Theatre Review - A View from the Bridge

A View from the Bridge
Written by Arthur Miller
Directed by Gregory Mosher
When: Saturday, February 13, 2010, 8pm
Where: Cort Theater
What: Drama, Professional Theater, Broadway

I'll readily admit that the only reason I went to see this is because Scarlett Johannson was in it (that, and the fact that balcony tickets were under $40). I really didn't know much about it and in the minimal "research" I did before going to see the play, I read that it was Arthur Miller's "modern" take on a Greek tragedy.

Complete with a Greek chorus of one (in this case the narrator is Alfieri, a lawyer that a character confides in), A View from the Bridge focuses on an Italian family of three in Brooklyn in the 1950s. Eddie Carbone (Liev Schreiber) and his wife Beatrice (Jessica Hecht -- best known to me as the woman who stole Ross's wife away from him on the tv show Friends) have been raising his niece Catherine (Johannson) after her parents died. Now, Catherine is older and is itching to get out of the house. However, Eddie doesn't want her to leave this secure environment.

When two of Beatrice's Italian cousins illegally sneak into the country, Eddie agrees to allow them to stay in their house. He doesn't plan on the fact that Catherine will fall in love with one of them -- the young Rodolpho. As Catherine and Rodolpho begin to plan for a wedding, Eddie's true feelings begin to surface -- and perhaps an underlying incestuous feeling is the reason why Eddie so greatly wishes his niece not to leave the household. This being somewhat reminiscent of a Greek tragedy, I don't need to tell you that things don't exactly end happily.

Unfortunately, I felt that the play itself fell a little flat. Perhaps it could've been the balcony seating, but I never really felt engaged with the story. The use of a narrator who spoke directly to the audience struck me as a bit odd and off-putting (although it certainly keeps with the Greek characteristics). The narrator just seemed completely unnecessary -- cut out the character and the flow would've been much smoother. Maybe it's just that I watched the play at the end of a long day, but I found the whole thing to be a tad dry. I didn't really see any deep underlying message here and it didn't stimulate my mind in the slightest.

Certainly, my issues with the play don't have a thing to do with the actors. I thought Scarlett Johannson did herself plenty proud. She pulled out the New Yawk accent I've seen her tackle in various SNL clips and she nails it. Her Catherine is a difficult role (torn between her family and her new beau) and perhaps she's a tad too old to playing a naive eighteen year-old, but I genuinely forgot that I was watching a "movie star." Jessica Hecht is also quite good. Apparently, she's done quite a bit of stage work and she was incredibly comfortable up there. She throws out a guttural scream towards the end of the play that kind of shocked me to my core.

Liev Schreiber is the star, though. From the reviews I've read of this play after I returned home, he's being called one of the best theater actors of this generation and I could certainly see why. While he was maybe too young to playing the worn-down Eddie, Schreiber exudes a believable gruffness that succeeds at transporting the audience back to the 1950s with his spoken words alone.

Just a side note: on the technical side, I enjoyed the revolving set (although I'm certain this has been done before, I think this is the first time I've seen such a set) and I thought that the "street" set was beautifully simplistic, making great use of the stage, horizontally and vertically.

So, unfortunately, there's really nothing wrong with this production except the story itself.