Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill

 Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill (2016)

Starring Audra McDonald

and the musical talents of Shelton Becton, George Farmer, and Clayton Craddock

Directed by Lonny Price

Written by Lanie Robertson

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:

Floyd Norman: An Animated Life

Floyd Norman: An Animated Life (2016)

Directed by Michael Fiore and Erik Sharkey

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 - Life, Animated

Life, Animated (2016)

Directed by Roger Ross Williams

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

At the age of three, Owen Suskind turned from an outgoing, talkative boy into a silent kid who withdrew from his family.  Diagnosed with autism, Owen's mother, father, and older brother were devastated.  Their one moment of ever seeing sparks of life from Owen was whenever they would watch an animated Disney movie together.  As time progressed, Owen became more talkative -- often repeating lines from Disney films in order to express his feelings -- and he eventually as able to go to a specialty school where he graduated at the age of twenty-three.  Upon his graduation, Owen is able to move out of his parents' home into his own apartment which brings with it a whole new set of difficulties that prove difficult to overcome.

Life, Animated is a documentary that tugs at the heartstrings and, as a self-proclaimed Disney lover, hits close to home for this reviewer.  As viewers, we long for Adam to succeed and the film inherently has us rooting for the young kid.  Unfortunately, the flick feels a bit manipulative and staged at times.  There are several scenes in particular that feel set up simply as a means to advance the story the film wants to push instead of feeling real.  Once again, all documentaries manipulate to push their agenda and Life, Animated is no exception.  Even with that, the film explores autism in a way I haven't experienced before and that, along with the Disney connection, makes it a worthwhile watch.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Denial

Denial (2016)

Starring Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Spall, and Andrew Scott

Directed by Mick Jackson 

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

Based on a true story, Denial details the story of Deborah Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz), an American professor of Holocaust studies who is sued in Britain by renowned Holocaust denier David Irving (Timothy Spall) because of something she wrote about him in her recently released book.  British law differs from American law in that the burden of proof when it comes to libel falls to the defendant so Deborah and her legal team headed by Richard Rampton (Tom Wilkinson) must prove that Irving's denials of the Holocaust are false.  One would think that determining the legitimacy of the Holocaust would be an easy task, but in the court of law, one mustn't take anything for granted and Rampton  and his team find it a surprisingly more difficult job than they initially believed.

Denial is one of those interesting pieces of history that deserves to be told and is seemingly too crazy to actually be believed.  Would a Holocaust denier really sue a professor simply because she disparaged his crazed beliefs in a book?  Yep...and to think that the British legal system almost let him get away with his nutty lawsuit.  The film itself is rather straightforward, but it's well-paced and well-acted with a strong leading performance by Rachel Weisz who carries the film ably on her shoulders.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Paterson

Paterson (2016)

Starring Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani, and Barry Shabaka Henley

Directed by Jim Jarmusch

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

Paterson is very much a "day in the life" movie.  For a week, we follow the titular character (Adam Driver) as he wakes up at 6:15am, kisses his creative, yet overly ambitious wife Laura (Golshifteh Farahani), walks to the Paterson, New Jersey, bus depot where he drives a city bus until 5pm when he walks home, eats dinner, and then walks his wife's dog to the local bar where he chats up the elderly owner Doc (Barry Shabaka Henley) as he drinks his singular beer and then goes home.  This same pattern unfolds across the movie's two hours with minor changes that create just enough change to make Paterson's life feel different despite falling into the same old routine day in-day out.  It's a wonder that the film can sustain the audience's attention, but somehow writer-director Jim Jarmusch succeeds as I never found myself bored despite the very obvious fact that I so easily could have been.

Initially, Adam Driver's Paterson did seem like a bit of an emotionless blank slate, tired of his day-to-day routine or perhaps a bit defeated that this is the life that he has been destined to live.  While that admittedly doesn't change a whole lot as the film progresses, we do see sparks of life in part thanks to Paterson's love of poetry which allows him (and the audience) to see his mundane world in a different, more nuanced light.  Driver has some subtle moments here that give his dry character spark and verve and it's in those moments that we appreciate Driver's decision to highlight the typically humdrum nature of Paterson even more -- when we see those pivotal emotional moments, they end up resonating even more.

Paterson will not be for everyone.  It is a rather mellow film that doesn't have big story or character arcs, but for some reason, at 1am in the morning, this one worked for me which, I must admit, was quite a surprise.  I was fully expecting to turn it off about thirty minutes in, but somehow, I found myself drawn in to the mundanity of it all which is quite a surprise for me.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Miss Sloane

Miss Sloane (2016)

Starring Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alison Pill, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jake Lacy, David Wilson Barnes, Dylan Baker, Christine Baranski, Sam Waterston, and John Lithgow

Directed by John Madden

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

There's certainly an undeniable anti-gun tone that squirms its way through Miss Sloane, a seedy look at the art of lobbying in Washington, D.C., but even this conservative is okay with that as I tend to agree that we need some greater from of oversight when it comes to our firearms in this country.  So while I was personally able to look beyond the slant, others may be less inclined.  With that in mind, Miss Sloane does take us inside the cutthroat world of lobbying, but it's a tad too emotionally detaching to really succeed at sucking me in.

That lack of emotional connection comes from the sheer brittleness of its headstrong, ballsy, and determined titular character Elizabeth Sloane played by Jessica Chastain.  Sloane is emotionally attached only to her job -- every relationship is sidelined, every waking minute is spent trying to advance what she's lobbying for at the moment.  Chastain is an actress who has the strength to take on a role like this -- a role where emotions are waylaid for gritty steadfastness.  Yet, as is the case with many of Chastain's roles, the lack of warmth in the character of Miss Sloane makes it almost difficult to really become invested.  Chastain is always an admirable performer, but the brittleness she brings to Miss Sloane is a bit disarming and admittedly harmed the film a bit for me.

(Sidetrack:  Would I say this about a male in this role?  Is it unfair that I make this comment about a female performance?  Maybe it's time to be a bit introspective, because I'm honestly not sure.  Do I need a female lead to have a more emotionally resonant character because I'm used to females being a little more emotional onscreen?)

That isn't to say that Chastain isn't successful in creating an interesting character -- she, along with Jonathan Perera's screenplay do just that.  The problem is that Perera's screenplay has one too many manipulations and oneupmanships by Sloane and her adversaries to really feel truly believable despite a game cast doing their best.  Sure, I'm certain underhandedness runs rampant throughout our nation's capitol, but that doesn't mean it always translates into a believable cinematic experience.  There's a convoluted nature to the film that director John Madden isn't able to wrangle and the flick suffers from a lack of brevity.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - 20th Century Women

20th Century Women (2016)

Starring Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, Lucas Jade Zumann, and Billy Crudup 

Directed by Mike Mills

***This films currently streaming via Amazon Prime***

Santa Barbara.  1979.  Fifteen year-old Jamie Fields (Lucas Jade Zumann) is in that awkward stage of a teenage boy's life where he's becoming more sexually cognizant of his surroundings, but he lacks a male role model to go to with any questions he may have.  He lives with his well-meaning mother Dorothea (Annette Bening) who rents out two rooms in her house to a twentysomething cancer survivor/budding photographer named Abbie (Greta Gerwig) and a fortysomething hippie carpenter/mechanic William (Billy Crudup) whose spare time is spent practicing yoga and other Zen-like things.  While Dorothea is a liberal, open-minded woman, she finds William a bit of a kook, so she asks Jamie's best friend, the sexually free Julie (Elle Fanning), and her boarder Abbie to help her help Jamie through these difficult stages of his pubescent years.

On the surface, 20th Century Women doesn't seem like much, but thanks to a rather brilliant ensemble of actors and a quick-witted and sharp script that creates characters and situations that feel legitimate and fully realized, the film by writer-director Mike Mills is one of the best of 2016.  At its heart is Annette Bening whose Dorothea could so easily have been turned into the "flower power"-type stereotypical California liberal, but instead is a wonderful balance between that laid-back West Coast demeanor mixed with a headstrong mother who wants the best for her son.  Bening deftly balances the humor and pathos necessary for her character and shines.  The rest of the ensemble also makes the most of Mills' screenplay by crafting likable, though flawed, characters who never once feel like caricatures.

While this review may be on the shorter side, don't mistake its brevity for a lack of appreciation for this fine film.  Seek out 20th Century Women as I don't think you'll regret the decision.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Mr. Church

Mr. Church (2016)

Starring Eddie Murphy, Britt Robertson, Xavier Samuel, Lucy Fry, Christian Madsen, Natalie Coughlin, McKenna Grace, and Natascha McElhone

Directed by Bruce Beresford

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

There's nothing wrong with sentimentality done right and Mr. Church has mushy sentiment in spades...now, whether it's done right is the question.  Based on a "true friendship" (as the title card at the beginning of the film relays to us), the film focuses on Marie Brooks (Natascha McElhone) and her daughter Charlie (played as a young girl by Natalie Coughlin and as a teen by Britt Robertson) and the secret that Marie is keeping from her daughter -- cancer is riddling Marie's body and doctors tell her she only six months to live.  Marie had been dating a rich entrepreneur, only to break up with him once she discovered he was married, but that didn't stop her former beau from hiring a chef -- Mr. Church (Eddie Murphy) -- to help Marie until she passes.  Marie, however, is a fighter and those six months come and go, allowing Mr. Church to become a permanent fixture in the Brooks household with Mr. Church becoming a father figure to the young Marie.

I'm going to be honest -- writing this summary, I had the most difficult time trying to make this film sound anything but boring.  I don't think I succeeded in the slightest, but it should be noted that Mr. Church is an okay flick that's unfortunately weighed down by treacly mushiness.  Eddie Murphy, Britt Robertson, and Natascha McElhone elevate the simplistic and typical material.  In the end, Mr. Church is like a really good Hallmark movie, but even really good Hallmark movies aren't that good.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - King Jack

King Jack (2016)

Starring Charlie Plummer, Cory Nichols, Christian Madsen, Daniel Flaherty, and Erin Davie

Directed by Felix Thompson

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

Jack (Charlie Plummer) is a fifteen year-old kid who is a bit of a loner.  His tough exterior can't help prevent him from getting bullied by Shane (Daniel Flaherty) or being hurt when he's rejected by his crush.  When Jack's younger cousin Ben (Cory Nichols) visits for the weekend, Jack's attempts at being more responsible don't exactly go as planned and he and Ben experience a weekend that's full of a few euphoric ups and several scary downs.

King Jack is a low budget indie that tells a simple story, but thanks to a riveting lead performance by the young Charlie Plummer, it's elevated to something that's a bit more than the sum of its parts.  First time writer-director Felix Thompson has crafted a film that feels strongly grounded in reality.  The young cast is engaging, but Plummer in particular is strikingly impressive.  Jack's hardened exterior masks a melancholic nature that is palpably felt by the audience thanks to Plummer's facial expressions and dialog.  The film itself isn't reinventing the wheel, but sometimes that's okay when it's trying to tell a realistic day-in-the-life type story and it's especially okay when your film is anchored by such an impressive younger actor who I hope has an opportunity to showcase his talent in the future.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Goat

Goat (2016)

Starring Ben Schnetzer, Nick Jonas, Gus Halper, Daniel Flaherty, Virginia Gardner, Jake Picking, Brock Yurich, Will Pullen, and James Franco

Directed by Andrew Neal

I've never understood the concept of fraternities and sororities.  I mean, I guess there's this brotherhood/sisterhood thing going on, but this concept of having to be judged by complete strangers who act as if they're more important than their pledges simply to become part of some group so then those pledges can do the same thing to the next group of people seems almost like bullying to me and always has.  And then you add in the concept of Hell Week in which the frightened and excited rushes to the Greek society are forced to commit secretive acts in order to "belong" and I'm truly disturbed by the whole thing.  While I'm certain that not all fraternities and sororities enlist torturous acts for its pledges, Goat -- based on a true story -- details Phi Sigma Mu's horrid Hell Week which is filled with demeaning and abhorrent events that prove to be physically and psychologically damaging to its incoming young men.

A surprisingly decent Nick Jonas is Brett, a member of the Phi Sigma Mu fraternity, who is hoping that his younger brother Brad (Ben Schnetzer) will be chosen to be part of the group.  Brad has been through hell recently, viciously attacked by two unknown assailants after returning home from a college party during his senior year of high school.  Brett thinks the fraternity will do his brother good with the sense of camaraderie helping Brad to overcome his reclusiveness since the attack.  However, Brett soon realizes that Phi Sigma Mu's hazing initiations may be too similar to Brad's recent assault and may trigger some horrible memories.

Goat had the potential to be something really special.  There's a gritty realism on display that makes much of the film very difficult to watch.  Yet, by the time its conclusion rolls around, there's something a bit too convenient about the way things are wrapped up.  Good performances all around help the film feel lived in and real, but the screenplay's denouement feels a bit too convenient and ultimately too telegraphed from the film's onset.  Still, it's a horrifying look at an outdated concept that should be eradicated from college life.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016)

Starring Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina, Christopher Abbott, and Billy Bob Thornton

Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa

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

A film about an embedded American news reporter in Afghanistan from 2003-2006, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot works for its first half when its goal is a fish out of water comedy.  However, as it progresses and becomes a bit more serious, it falls apart.  It's no fault of Tina Fey who plays Kim, the central character of the piece who leaves behind a serious boyfriend to try and find her career calling as an on air cable news reporter in the war-torn Middle East.  Fey holds our attention and does a nice job of balancing her character's comedic moments with the weight of her character's situation of being a woman in a society that treats women in a much different light than America.

Still, while Fey balances things well, the film itself doesn't succeed in that regard.  When it shifts to be something way too serious in its final half, it stands in too stark contrast to what came before it.  Like Fey, the cast is engaging, but the likes of Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, and Billy Bob Thornton aren't enough to lift this one above being a disappointment.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Nerve

Nerve (2016)

Starring Emma Roberts, Dave Franco, Colson Baker, Emily Meade, Miles Heizer, and Juliette Lewis

Directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman

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

A mindless teen thriller, Nerve conjures up its titular online game in which players must perform increasingly more intense dares in order to earn money.  This community of players and watchers grow to frighteningly crazed proportions one evening in New York City and things get out of control very quickly.  At the center of the game is high school senior Vee (Emma Roberts) who is anything but a risk taker.  However, with the school year winding down and her good friend Sydney (Emily Meade) taking part in the game, Vee takes a chance and joins the game one night.  Her first dare is to kiss a random stranger in a local diner.  The recipient of her smooch is Ian (Dave Franco) who also happens to be taking part in the game and the two team up to try and get as far in the game as they can.

Taking place over the course of one evening, Nerve is quickly paced and doesn't overstay its welcome with its quick ninety minute runtime.  It tries much too hard at the end to create a social commentary about our technology-addicted society and the group-think snap judgment bully mentality that media websites like Twitter bring to the table and that's where it falters a bit when it nears its conclusion.  Still, for strictly entertainment purposes, Nerve is moderately successful.  Emma Roberts and Dave Franco are decent together and if you're in the mood for a throwaway teen flick, Nerve works in that regard.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Zoolander No. 2

Zoolander No. 2 (2016)

Starring Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Penélope Cruz, Kristen Wiig, Fred Armisen, Kyle Mooney, Milla Jovovich, Christine Taylor, Justin Theroux, Nathan Lee Graham, Cyrus Arnold, Billy Zane, Jon Daly, Sting, and Benedict Cumberbatch

Directed by Ben Stiller

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

There are just as many jokes that fall flat as make you laugh out loud in Zoolander No. 2, but in the end the balance works out slightly in the film's favor with the sequel to the cultish 2001 comedy proving to not be nearly as bad as the abysmal reviews would have you believe.  No one's coming to this one hoping for a great cinematic masterpiece -- all one would want is a worthy sequel to the original which I'll admit to not having seen in years, but remember having fond memories about the ludicrousness that it brought to the screen over fifteen years ago.  Fortunately, this delivers on being an amusing piece of mindless entertainment.

And boy is it mindless.  After a prologue which details in ridiculous fashion how our title character's life fell apart following the events of the first film, ex-model Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) has become a hermit after losing custody of his son (Cyrus Arnold).  In the midst of the frozen tundra that is "Extreme Northern New Jersey," Derek receives an invite to model for a prestigious new designer in Italy.  With some coaxing, he reluctantly agrees, hoping that it would look good to the child welfare agency.  However, little does Derek know that he's going to find himself in the midst of another fashion-related conspiracy hatched by the evil designer Mugatu (Will Ferrell).

There's no mistaking Zoolander No. 2 as a "good" film, but it's so ridiculously bad that it really does almost land in that "so bad, it's good" category.  It never quite gets to that territory completely, but I laughed enough that Zoolander No. 2 was a worthwhile experience for me.  Sure, it relies much too heavily on an overabundance of dumb cameos from every aspect of pop culture -- Justin Bieber, Kiefer Sutherland, Willie Nelson, Katie Perry, and Anna Wintour pop up just to name a mere few of the boatload that spout a line or two -- but for some unknown reason, I was never upset by any of them.  Instead, I embraced this film's utter corniness and accepted the absurdity.  Apparently this isn't a popular opinion, but maybe I just watched this one at the right time in order for it to work for me.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Dheepan

Dheepan (2016)

Starring Antonythasan Jesuthasan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan, and Claudine Vinasithamby

Directed by Jacques Audiard

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

Winning the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival doesn't always mean that you're in for a good movie as I often feel it carries with it the weight of pretentiousness.  That's the case with Dheepan, a flick that means well in its depiction of the immigrant plight across Europe, but ends up feeling unfocused.  After his side loses the Sri Lankan civil war, Dheepan (Antonythasan Jesuthasan) manages to receive asylum in France by receiving a dead man's passport, but he must pretend to be married to a woman he's never met in order to escape his country.  Dheepan, his "wife" Yalini (Kalieaswari Srinivasan), and his "daughter" Illayaal (ClaudineVinasithamby) -- a girl whom Yalini plucked from a poor Sri Lankan family in order to secure her visa -- arrive in France unscathed and live in an apartment complex where Deephan gets a job as a superintendent.

If the film had just dealt with the isolation they felt in a foreign country or the difficulty of living together despite not knowing one another, Dheepan may have been successful.  Instead, it shifts in its second half to focusing on a Parisian mob group that lives in the complex where Dheepan lives and works.  In the final minutes, the flick turns into some odd Taken-esque revenge saga that fails to make much sense in the midst of everything that comes before it.  Granted, considering the military man Dheepan was back in Sri Lanka, it's not necessarily out of his character, but the final minutes of the film stand in such contrast to much of what comes before that it simply didn't work for me.  It doesn't help that the story that precedes this tonal shift fails to be very interesting.  There are some nice performances here from the three central characters, but Dheepan squanders them in a dry, unexciting film.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - The Inflitrator

The Infiltrator (2016)

Starring Bryan Cranston, Diane Kruger, John Leguizamo, Benjamin Bratt, Yul Vazquez, Juliet Aubry, Elena Anaya, Olympia Dukakis, and Amy Ryan

Directed by Brad Furman

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

During the 1980s, the Medellin Cartel smuggled 15 tons of cocaine a week into the United States.  Special agent Robert Mazur (Bryan Cranston) went undercover in 1985 Tampa in order to become a trusted confidante of drug lord Pablo Escobar's men as they attempted to launder money in America.  The Infiltrator details this true story with a solid -- albeit rote -- exploration of Mazur and his intense dealings with some very bad people.

The Infiltrator doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it's not exactly a film that has to do that anyway in order to succeed. What it does need is performances that capture the audience to carry them through the type of story that we've seen before and fortunately, The Infiltrator has that in spades.  Anchored by a compelling Bryan Cranston, the central cast of Diane Kruger, John Leguizamo, and Benjamin Bratt create an atmosphere that more than makes up for the somewhat convoluted screenplay which in its opening third takes a little too long to get the ball rolling.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek Beyond (2016)

Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoë Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yeltsin, Sofia Boutella, and Idris Elba

Directed by Justin Lin

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

I have admiration for the new incarnation of the Star Trek film series and I think it's been quite successful thus far thanks to its ability to balance an homage to the past with an updated aesthetic.  Star Trek Beyond, the third film in this modern reboot, still maintains this equity, but it's the least engaging of the three films thus far, failing to really create a story that feels cinematic and instead seemingly could've taken place over a 45-minute episode of one of the Star Trek tv series.

The cast remains rock solid in this third film, but the direction shifts hands from J.J. Abrams to Justin Lin and the screenplay also moves to co-writers Simon Pegg and Doug Jung and unfortunately both aspects end up being quite lacking when compared to their predecessors.  While Star Trek Beyond adds a little more comedic and emotional rapport between its characters, it comes as a bit of a disappointment after what is likely the best Star Trek film to date in Star Trek Into Darkness.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - American Honey

American Honey (2016)

Starring Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf, and Riley Keough

Directed by Andrea Arnold

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

There is nothing about American Honey that even remotely validates its epic nearly three-hour runtime.  Its plot can be explained in a simple sentence:  Impoverished teenager Star (Sasha Lane) joins a ragtag group of kids headed by the harsh twentysomething "den mother" Krystal (Riley Keough) who travel across the country hoping to earn money by selling magazines whilst doing drugs, drinking alcohol, stealing trinkets, and sleeping with one another.  Conflict is slim to none throughout the film and there are tons of lengthy shots of these disheveled, dirty-looking teens singing rap songs for no apparent reason other than to show the mundaneness of everyday life for this group.  Yet, despite this myriad of issues, I found myself oddly captivated by American Honey.  Sure, it's a film I never want to watch again and I can't even say I'd want to subject anyone else to attempt a viewing, but the simplicity and naturalness of writer-director Andrea Arnold's film kept my intrigued more than I could ever have imagined.

I mean this in a complimentary fashion, but there's a dirtiness that permeates throughout American Honey.  This group of kids on display exudes a griminess and a grossness that's anchored in realism and while at least these teens are trying to make a living, they are kids with whom I'd never want to hang.  First-time actress Sasha Lane is at the center of this gang of miscreants and she certainly embodies the lower-class aesthetic that runs rampant through the flick.  Her blossoming relationship with Shia LaBeouf's Jake, a member of magazine-selling group, feels lived-in and naturally develops over the course of the film's runtime.

I really do find it incomprehensible that I sat through this entire film.  There was a moment about seventy minutes in -- which is just a third of the way, mind you -- that I was extremely tempted to stop because, as I mentioned, nothing really happens in this film.  Yet, thanks to the solid performances and the lived-in aesthetic created by Andrea Arnold and her cast, the lack of plot becomes a shockingly insignificant issue.  Now, don't mistake this positivity for all-out affection.  American Honey really could've afforded to have been shortened or, at the very least, had some story added to it.  And, as I've mentioned before, I never need to watch American Honey again nor can I in good conscience recommend it.  However, something surprisingly worked for me and I found this flick to be much better than I expected.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - King Georges

King Georges (2016)

Directed by Erika Frankel

As I've grown up, I've admittedly become quite the foodie, fascinated with the Food Network (when it aired how-to shows, that is), Top Chef, and The Great British Baking Show to name a few entertainment-driven culinary television shows.  I've also visited some restaurants owned by famous chefs including Top Chef winner Nicholas Elmi whose Philadelphia-based Laurel provided a delicious meal a few months ago.  I mention Elmi because he is highlighted in the engaging documentary King Georges which showcases the world-renowned Philadelphia restaurant Le Bec Fin which closed its doors a few years ago.  Owned by French chef Georges Perrier, Le Bec Fin was known has one of the best restaurants in the world -- not just the United States -- in its heyday of the 1970s-80s.  However, changing taste buds challenged Perrier to keep up with the burgeoning foodie revolution and even his hiring of the talented younger chef Elmi couldn't help Perrier from having to close the doors of the beloved restaurant in the early 2010s.

Director Erika Frankel follows Perrier and Elmi across several years, capturing them during successful times, then as they prepare to close the doors on the ritzy French restaurant.  Being from the Philly area and being quite familiar with Elmi, I'll admit to prejudicial bias in enjoying the subject of this documentary.  Your mileage may vary, but regardless the piece is well-made look into how a restaurant actually runs behind the scenes.  The chaos that occurs each night in the kitchen of a fancy restaurant such as this is something I'd never want to be a part of and this film made me appreciate even more the chefs, sous chefs, line cooks, and waitstaff that help restaurants such as Le Bec Fin run.

I also must admit that back in my high school days, I actually ate at Le Bec Fin.  Watching this film, I desperately wish I fully understood what I was experiencing.  I undoubtedly failed to appreciate the intricacies and talent that Georges Perrier brought to the Philadelphia (and culinary) landscape.  I was probably panicking at the mushroom that was on my plate or turning my nose up at being served quail or duck instead of embracing the skill and artistry that was likely on display in front of me.  While I have been fortunate enough to visit Nicholas Elmi's restaurant and been able to appreciate the culinary craftsmanship he learned from his mentor Georges Perrier, I really do regret not knowing what I was getting myself into twenty years ago.  King Georges helped me to appreciate things a bit more and for that I'm grateful.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-

Movie Review - Christine

Christine (2016)

Starring Rebecca Hall, Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts, Maria Dizzia, J. Smith-Cameron, and John Cullum

Directed by Antonio Campos

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

Based on a true story, director Antonio Campos' film Christine is an intense character study of its titular female, television news reporter Christine Chubbuck who worked for a small-town Sarasota, Florida, news station in the early 1970s.  Although initially lacking in personality and seemingly way too serious to be considered even remotely engaging, we soon discover that the headstrong and desperate-for-success Christine (Rebecca Hall) has more than a few emotional problems with which she's failed to come to grips.  These issues eventually rear their ugly head in a way that will likely be a huge surprise for those unfamiliar with this film's conclusion prior to watching it.

Rebecca Hall is impressive as Christine, carrying the entire film on her shoulders.  Christine isn't a warm person in the slightest and that admittedly puts up a barrier between the audience and Hall's portrayal, but it's still an admirable turn that captivates.  The film slogs a bit to its conclusion -- especially if you know the way it's going to end -- but it still is successful enough to warrant a watch.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-