Red Sparrow

Red Sparrow (2018)

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlotte Rampling, Mary-Louise Parker, and Jeremy Irons

Directed by Francis Lawrence

Written by Justin Haythe

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

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 - A Bigger Splash

A Bigger Splash (2016)

Starring Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ralph Fiennes, and Dakota Johnson

Directed by Luca Guadagnino

***This film is currently streaming via HBO Now/Go***

Critics fawned over A Bigger Splash upon its release last summer, but I find director Luca Guadagnino's piece beautiful to look at, but empty in content.  I'm sure there's some deeper meaning than what's on the surface, but for the casual viewer, there's not a whole lot there there and it doesn't arouse enough excitement to warrant a second viewing to try and figure out if it's got more important things to say.

Tilda Swinton is Marianne Lane, an aging rock star who is taking a break in Italy along with her significant other Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts).  On strict doctor's orders, she has been told to rest her voice and not speak and she obliges (throughout most of the film with the exception of flashbacks), but Marianne and Paul's quiet respite is interrupted when Marianne's former record producer and boyfriend Harry Hawkes (Ralph Fiennes) and his twenty-three year-old daughter Penelope (Dakota Johnson) show up and want to have a bit of fun.

The quartet's relationships are tested throughout the weekend...which should provide some modicum of excitement or tension, but it really doesn't.  The film is well acted.  Swinton is always good and she doesn't disappoint here, taking on an oddly Charlie Chaplin-esque persona seeing as how her character is unable to speak throughout the flick.  Fiennes is also endearingly manic crafting an amusing persona that adds comedy to the mix.  Unfortunately, these two engaging performances don't counter the boring, blasé story that envelops the characters.  Sure, the lensing adds a lushness to the proceedings, but nothing plot-wise happens here until thirty minutes remain, pivoting the film in a different direction that feels natural, but not necessarily indigenous to all that came before.  The out-of-left field conclusion at least adds some much needed excitement to the preceding monotony, but it's not enough to save A Bigger Splash which despite pretty visuals, is too bland to matter.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Far from the Madding Crowd

Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)

Starring Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge, Juno Temple, and Jessica Barden

Directed by Thomas Vinterberg 

Far from the Madding Crowd is a lushly-lensed romance reminiscent of films shot decades earlier when sweeping Victorian love stories adapted from famous novels were commonplace occurrences in cinemas.  Sometimes these types of films can feel stuffy, slow-moving, and ostentatious, but thanks to a winning performance from Carey Mulligan as a liberated and independent English woman, Far from the Madding Crowd doesn't fall into any of those disappointing stereotypes, instead proving to be surprisingly captivating.

Two hundred miles outside of London in Dorset, Bathsheba Everdene (Mulligan) is living with and working on her aunt's farm.  While there, her aunt's neighbor and sheep farmer Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts) falls for the stunning Bathsheba, but she does not accept his advances and turns down his offer of marriage.  Bathsheba soon hears that she has inherited a large estate from her uncle following his death, while at the same time Gabriel loses his flock after a new sheep dog leads all of his sheep off a steep cliff into the ocean.  Both Bathsheba and Gabriel leave Dorset thinking they'll never see each other again, but fate works in mysterious ways.  One evening, the barn at Bathsheba's estate catches fire and Gabriel just happened to be walking by at the time, completely unaware that the estate belonged to Bathsheba.  He saves her barn and Bathsheba offers him a job on the estate which he reluctantly accepts seeing as how he still harbors feelings for the young woman.

Against all odds, Bathsheba is making it on her own which doesn't sit well with all the men in her town.  However, her neighbor William Boldwood (Michael Sheen) is immediately taken with her strength and falls for her.  At the same time, English soldier Frank Troy (Tom Sturridge) wanders onto her estate and also finds himself taken with Bathsheba.  With three suitors and independence always a goal in her life, Bathsheba faces the difficult question of whether to give herself to love or remain untethered to a man.

Far from the Madding Crowd embraces old school aesthetics and storytelling, yet somehow feels modern and fresh without ever feeling out of place.  Adapted from an 1874 Thomas Hardy novel, part of the "modernness" stems from the fact that Bathsheba is such a headstrong and independent woman.  Not knowing the story at all, I was quite taken by the character of Bathsheba, finding her a refreshing change to female characters we're used to seeing from novels of this one's era.  Carey Mulligan embraces the confidence of the character without ever coming across as overly feminist or off-putting.  The intelligence that radiates from Mulligan's persona is key to the film's plot and she successfully conveys it in what I think is her best role to date.

Next to Mulligan's Bathsheba, the men in the film are written with a little less depth, and as the film tries to give all of them their fair share of time attempting to woo her, it falters a bit towards its conclusion.  However, Far from the Madding Crowd was a wonderful surprise to me.  I expected to be bored silly, but I was anything but that.  Director Thomas Vinterberg has not only crafted a lovely film to look upon, but manages to create a bit of a romantic epic that doesn't feel the least bit tired or stale.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

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 - The Loft

The Loft (2015)

Starring Karl Urban, James Marsden, Wentworth Miller, Eric Stonestreet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Isabel Lucas, and Rachael Tayler

Directed by Erik Van Looy

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

There is not a single character in The Loft that stands on any moralistic ground.  And it's not even just that everyone is such a deplorable character, it's that there's not even a modicum of pleasantness in anyone.  If you look at movies like The Godfather or Goodfellas, you can at least say, "Hey, these guys are all crooks...but they love their families!"  In The Loft, the five main male characters who purchase a loft together as a sex pad for their out-of-welock dalliances have no love for anyone or anything except for their hormones which appear to be constantly telling them to screw someone other than their wives.

In an attempt to demonize these men a little bit for being such jerks, a female acquaintance of one (or more?) of the men is found murdered in the loft one morning.  This causes the group of friends pointing fingers at one another in order to try and determine which of them (if any) is responsible for the murder.  With every twist and turn, The Loft's ludicrousness grows and grows.  By the end, you're hoping that the entire quintet of male actors ends up going to jail for the crime.

Karl Urban with his stolid demeanor and James Marsden as the "nice guy" are moderately compelling leads, but Eric Stonestreet and Wentworth Miller really should just stick to tv, with Miller particularly growing more laughable as the film progresses.  And the less said about the wooden Isabel Lucas the better.  She landed on my Worst Actor's List a few years ago and I'm already keeping a spot warm for her for next year's RyMickey Awards.

Ultimately, you're supposed to be rooting for these guys to find out who killed this woman in their loft, but the only thing you're rooting for is for them all to get their comeuppance.  Their deplorable actions create an atmosphere where you always find yourself cringing rather than enjoying the experience.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Rust and Bone

Rust and Bone (De rouille et d'os) (2012)

Starring Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Armand Verdure, and Corinne Masiero

Directed by Jacques Audiard

I was expecting the two hour length of French drama Rust and Bone to be dreadful, but right off the bat, I'll state that the film moves along at a nice clip considering this is a small, intimate relationship story between two people whose chance meeting one night at a club links them together after a tragic moment strikes one of them.  While I was engaged in the film, I must admit there's something missing here -- the film strikes me as wanting to be deep and meaningful, but it failed on that front.  While Rust and Bone presents a good story, its pieces don't quite come together in the end in order to create a cohesive and emotionally riveting tale.

As I began to describe above, Rust and Bone tells the tale of Alain (Matthias Schoenaerts) and Stéphanie (Marion Cotiallard) -- two people who meet by chance at a popular French dance club where Ali works as a bouncer.  When Stéphanie is punched in the nose during a fight, Ali agrees to take her home where he discovers that she's living with a significant other which he finds a bit odd considering that she was alone at the club seemingly looking for some form of hook-up.  While he may have entered her apartment with romantic intentions, Ali leaves and doesn't really plan on ever hearing from Stéphanie again.

A few months later, Stéphanie is involved in a horrible accident at a local marine park (reminiscent of Sea World) where she works as a killer whale trainer.  After waking up from a coma after the incident, Stéphanie heartbreakingly discovers that both her legs have been amputated below the knees.  Homebound and feeling destitute, she calls up Ali on a whim and he agrees to come and see her.  A friendship is formed almost immediately and the relationship between the two of them grows into something quite surprising for both parties.

The story is fine here and the time spent focused on Stéphanie and her recovery from her accident are actually quite touching and very well acted by Marion Cotillard.  However, ultimately, the film doesn't quite click because the arcs of the characters of Stéphanie and Ali don't quite mesh together.  Stéphanie's character grows in an obvious way (and I mean that not in a negative manner) as she learns to cope with her new way of living.  Ali's character, though, is an enigma to me.  At the beginning of the film he's a down on his luck guy who moves to his sister's home with his young son (Armand Verdure).  He's rough around the edges and hasn't spent much time with his kid, so he's learning the ropes as he goes.  Without any money, he takes jobs in security positions -- bouncer, nighttime guard -- until a friend convinces him to start fighting in a "fight club"-type street tournament.  This character background is all well and good, but it doesn't take the character of Ali anywhere worth going.  Yes, we find out he has a heart at the end when tragedy strikes him as well, but I feel like the writers simply didn't know what to do with his character and it blatantly shows onscreen.  The unfortunate thing is that Ali is actually the main character here -- the film starts and ends with his story -- whereas we in the audience are much more invested in Stéphanie and her struggles.

Rust and Bone is not a bad film, but the potential for more was evident and not realized.  The performances all around are quite good (with Marion Cotillard giving the best performance I've seen from her...but I should say that I haven't really been a fan before this).  If it shows up streaming on Netflix, I'd say it's worth a watch, but I wouldn't exactly be going out of my way to see this one.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+