American Woman

 American Woman (2019)

Starring Sienna Miller, Christina Hendricks, Aaron Paul, Will Sasso, and Amy Madigan

Directed by Jake Scott

Written by Brad Inglesbey

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Ratitng: B+

Movie Review - High-Rise

High-Rise (2016)

Starring Tom Hiddleston, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Elisabeth Moss, and Jeremy Irons

Directed by Ben Wheatley

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

High-Rise is like some very weird warped Downton Abbey -- an Upstairs, Downstairs-type situation that morphs into a Lord of the Flies-style war depicting the differences between the upper classes and lower classes in an amped-up, manic manner.  And, just as you'd imagine, the chaos of trying to mix those three aforementioned disparate British classics makes High-Rise a bit of a mess.  Although it's visually appealing with some beautiful sets and costumes coupled with a classically retro 1970s vibe, director Ben Wheatley's film simply doesn't work, overstaying its welcome by nearly a third and devolving into a mess in the flick's second half.

Brain surgeon Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston) has just moved into an apartment on the twenty-fifty floor of a new luxury high-rise forty-story tower built by architect Anthony Royal (Jeremy Irons) who himself lives in the penthouse with his uppity wife.  The high-rise contains a pool, gym, and even a grocery store, so its occupants find themselves with nary a need to leave.  The further up you live, the ritzier and more expensive your amenities become and the film soon becomes an allegory about class warfare with allusions at the end that capitalism is bad.

This is an odd film -- director Ben Wheatley peppers the flick with weird flash-forwards and it's full of some of the most bizarre characters I've seen in a long time.  The oddness of the whole thing had me intrigued initially, but I soon grew wary, only holding out hope that the allegorical nature would provide some philosophical intrigue.  Instead, the film becomes even odder, full of anarchic nihilism that had me angry I held on for as long as I did and didn't stop the flick sooner.  The cast admittedly gamely bites in to the quirkiness, but it's not enough to save this one.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Burnt

Burnt (2015)

Starring Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Omar Sy, Daniel Brühl, Matthew Rhys, Alicia Vikander,  Uma Thurman, and Emma Thompson

Directed by John Wells

Burnt is a well-acted film about a once great Michelin Star-earning chef named Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) who lost it all when drugs and horrible behavior upended his career at an early age.  After taking time to reflect on his wrongs back home in the United States, Adam returns to London to start his career again, opening a new restaurant and trying to right the wrongs of his past.

Despite the aforementioned notion that Burnt is well-acted, it's a film that just kind of sits there and doesn't excite the audience in any way.  Director John Wells paces the already short film in such a way that it doesn't engage us and pull us in to Adam's life.  Sure, the glossy and well-lit scenes of kitchen work are pretty, but once we move beyond the boiling pots, buttered-up pans, and fancy sous vide machines, there's no dramatic tension in this otherwise typical film about a formerly unpleasant guy becoming pleasant.

Bradley Cooper is quite good and his character is at least a little bit captivating.  His relationships with his sous chefs (Sienna Miller, Omar Sy), his front-of-house staff (Daniel Brühl), and rival (Matthew Rhys) are all pleasant enough and all well-performed by the cast.  Unfortunately, there's very little for the actors to sink their teeth into which goes hand-in-hand with the lack of any tension and significant plot.  Burnt isn't a particularly bad movie, but by the end I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Unfinished Business

Unfinished Business (2015)

Starring Vince Vaughn, Tom Wilkinson, Dave Franco, Nick Frost, and Sienna Miller  

Directed by Ken Scott

***This film is currently available on HBO Now***

I wasn't expecting much from Unfinished Business...and boy did it deliver!  There is not a single redeeming thing about this film with the exception being that Sienna Miller is easy on the eyes and that alone is not worth a damn thing.  The premise revolves around businessman Dan Trunkman (Vince Vaughn) who leaves his job at a major company after his boss (Sienna Miller) demands he take a pay cut.  Refusing to agree to this request, Dan sets out to form his own small business to compete against the job he just left.  With the help of an older employee who was also let go (Tom Wilkinson) and a young man who failed to get a job at the bigger company (Dave Franco), Dan and his two employees head around the world to try and secure that "one big get" that will put them on the map.

Horribly directed (it's one of those movies where the camera is behind a person and you hear them talking, but their mouth is obviously not moving), horribly written (one of the running jokes is that Dave Franco's character's last name is "Pancake" -- funny?), and acted in a ho-hum manner (presumably because the cast knew what utter dreck this was), Unfinished Business is truly one of the worst films of 2015.  Admittedly, I almost stopped watching this one halfway through in order to allow it to live up to its title, but I decided to finish it so I could give it the worst grade possible.

The RyMickey Rating:  F

Movie Review - Foxcatcher

Foxcatcher (2014)

Starring Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Vanessa Redgrave, and Sienna Miller

Directed by Bennett Miller

Although the term "methodical" oftentimes carries a somewhat negative connotation, using that word to describe Foxcatcher conveys no ill will towards director Bennett Miller and screenwriters E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman.  Instead, their methodical (which some may call slow or [egads!] even boring) approach of retelling the true story of the relationship between wrestling aficionado John du Pont (Steve Carell) and wrestler brothers Mark and David Schultz (Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo) gives such depth and insight into the characters being portrayed onscreen that I couldn't help but find myself totally captivated and involved in this tragic story from beginning to end.

Knowing full well that the film ends in tragedy, it's often a difficult task to maintain a sense of discovery.  Miller doesn't necessarily hide from the end result as there's always a foreboding sense of disquiet afoot.  However, in a somewhat risky move, Miller takes his time getting to the finale by slowly peeling away the layers of each of his trio of main characters, revealing their initial psychoses which lead them to befriend one another and how their internalized emotions gradually change as their relationships blossom and disintegrate.  This is a film where the absence of speaking says just as much as a spoken word and Miller capitalizes on this beautifully as he brings us into the minds of both the innocent and guilty parties with equal time allotted to both.

Foxcatcher would not have been remotely successful, however, without the work of three fantastic actors -- two of whom are not the least bit known for being able to carry a film of this weight.  While Little Miss Sunshine may have clued us in to the slightly sullen side of Steve Carell, his taking on of the exceedingly wealthy John du Pont is certainly not de rigeur for the actor.  While he has the money, Carell's du Pont certainly doesn't have the social skills, keeping himself decidedly distant in any conversation he carries on, attempting to stay as disconnected as possible -- seemingly the result of a strained childhood relationship with his mother Jean (Vanessa Redgrave).  When he finally allows Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) into his life, the sense of entitlement that we witness du Pont feeling (and Carell conveying) is frightening.

Mark, on the other hand, views du Pont as a bit of a father figure seeing as how his parents were not a large part of his life.  From the film's start, Mark is a loner who is committed to his sport.  There's a depression embodied by Channing Tatum that's undeniable and his animalistic monotone delivery of monosyllabic words indicates that he can't help feel that he doesn't belong anywhere.  Upon discovering du Pont's interest in his talents, there are tinges of pride that creep into Tatum's performance which inevitably, by film's end, harm the character as Mark begins to see the man du Pont truly is.

While the film tends to focus on the psychological mindsets of John and Mark, part of the reason for their disintegrating relationship is the brotherly bond between Mark and older brother David played by Mark Ruffalo.  Thinking that Mark needs a little space and time to clear his head after his successful Olympic run and having lived in his brother's shadow for years, David accepts Mark's decision to train at du Pont's newly formed Foxcatcher wrestling facility, but David recognizes Mark's near-immediate lack of commitment to the sport he once loved which causes David to question du Pont's training techniques (or lack there of) and motives.  Needless to say this doesn't sit too well with du Pont and David finds himself in the ominous glare of the wealthy man.  The amiable David isn't necessarily a difficult role for Ruffalo to play (and is certainly the least showiest of the three), but he is the crux of both John and Mark's emotional upheavals by film's end and Ruffalo certainly does a nice job.

Foxcatcher is a warped love triangle of sorts -- and I don't mean that in a sexualized way as the real-life Mark Schultz criticized.  There is a dark comic tinge to all of the proceedings thanks to the obvious jealousy on display by all parties involved, particularly du Pont.  The overbearing sense of power, prestige, and perniciousness that du Pont brings to the party ominously hangs over everything we see.  Bennett Miller elevates the film beyond my expectations thanks to his careful developing of every single character.  Motivations are rarely spoken, but are never vague, and that's an enviable feat which makes Foxcatcher one of the best films of 2014.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-

Movie Review - American Sniper

American Sniper (2014)

Starring Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Plain and simple, I just don't think Clint Eastwood as a director creates an atmosphere in which actors can create characters that take us on an emotional journey.  (Granted, I'm several years removed from his heralded Mystic River so that may be an exception to the rule, but I can't recall.)  The same can be said for American Sniper -- the true story of Texan Chris Kyle who joined the Navy SEALs right around 9/11 and became the most accurate sniper in US military history.  Eastwood captures the horrors of war quite well, but when he steps away from the warfront, the esteemed auteur (by others, not me) fails at crafting any modicum of emotional impact.

Bradley Cooper plays Chris Kyle with a hearty (sometimes undecipherable) southern drawl, but don't allow the hickish initial appearance of Kyle make you doubt his intelligence or passion for both his family and his country.  Cooper does a nice job of tackling the authoritative nature of Kyle on the battlefield and, as the film progresses, we do grasp the sense that Cooper's Kyle is slowly mentally deteriorating from the horrors of war that he witnessed.  Unfortunately for Cooper, Eastwood is anything but subtle and Kyle's post-traumatic stress is sometimes a bit too blatant.  

This PTSD aspect of the story isn't aided by the fact that Eastwood and screenwriter Jason Hall paint Kyle's home life as a by-the-books, paint-by-numbers, stereotype.  Poor Sienna Miller.  After an admittedly amusing meet-cute with Kyle at a bar, her Taya is relegated to crying into a phone begging for her husband to give up his missions and come home.  I don't doubt for a second this happened, nor do I doubt that conversations like this happen every single day with our servicemen and their spouses.  However, Eastwood and Hall just keep hitting the same emotional beats over and over again and the repetition (however truthful) is wearing on the audience's patience.

Yes, I understand that it's perhaps unfair to critique a true story for its lack of originality, but it's the job of the director and screenwriter to make us (a) care for these people, and (b) create a sustainable story that's worth watching.  Eastwood and Hall do a more than adequate job accomplishing this task when Chris Kyle is on the ground in the Middle East, but when the action brings him to his home soil, things fall apart.  When real life shots of Chris Kyle's funeral during the film's credits are the only thing that create an emotional impact, I can't help but think the director is at fault.

Negative critiques aside, this is Eastwood's best work in a while thanks to the incredibly intense war sequences.  With the exception an unfortunate slow motion shot during the film's final skirmish that forced me to stifle a laugh, whenever Bradley Cooper and his fellow actors are placed into combat situations, we can't help but feel viscerally involved with the images.  For this, Eastwood deserves a large amount of credit and proves that he has some chops as a director.  Unfortunately, the staid and tired way he directs the film's other sequences brings this down more notches than Chris Kyle's story deserves to be dropped.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+ 

Movie Review - G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)

Starring Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayans, Dennis Quaid, Sienna Miller, Christopher Eccleston, Jonathan Pryce, Rachel Nichols, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Written by Stuart Beattie and David Elliot
Directed by Stephen Sommers

So we're into August and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is going to be the last "big" action movie (I guess there's Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, but I don't know if that'll fall into the same "category"). We've seen one great action flick in these past four months (The Hurt Locker), two good ones (Star Trek and Terminator: Salvation), one less than average one (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), and one of the worst movies I've seen this entire year (Transformers 2). Where does G.I. Joe fall? It's filled with some really crappy CGI stuff, incredibly stupid dialogue, and two of the worst acting performances I've seen this year...but it's not even close to Transformers levels of heinousness.

Some evil mastermind has created these nanobots (or something like that) that eat away at everything they touch, effectively destroying both living and non-living things. He plans to release them in order to gain power...same old stuff any other evil mastermind plots to do. The G.I. Joe team of special agents is going to stop him. There's more story than that (an unrequited romance, a brother-sister relationship, two Ninja Warriors who hate each other), but none of that matters despite the fact that the filmmakers try to make us think it's important.

And the reason none of that matters is because the whole point of this movie is simply to move from one action sequence to the next. And there were several action-filled sequences in this movie that completely throw logic and reality to the wayside...which is fine, but after the second such scene, it gets old quickly. And when your action sequences are so blatantly CGI'ed, it bums me out.

As far as the acting goes, there's nothing really good to say. Red-haired Rachel Nichols (who I remember thinking was hot on Alias when she took over for a pregnant Jennifer Garner) and the blond and brunette Sienna Miller were both a treat for the eyes, but I wouldn't exactly call them good actresses (sorry, ladies, but I think you were aware of that when you signed onto this and got fitted for the skintight gear). Marlon Wayans is the Silly Black Guy. Christopher Eccelston is Diabolical Evil Mastermind (complete with Token Foreign Accent -- this time, Celtic!). Joseph Gordon-Levitt is okay in a role that is quite different for him, but he was certainly directed to be over-the-top and oddly shaky and twittery.

And then there's two of the worst acting performances I've seen this year -- Dennis Quaid is horrifically awful as the head of the G.I. Joe "branch." I actually really like Quaid most of the time (he's my mom's favorite actor, so there's some family loyalty there, I guess), but his stereotypical gruff Army guy was just dumb. The less that can be said about the lead actor in this movie, Channing Tatum, the better. He is so emotionless and vacant onscreen...and he needs to open his frickin' mouth when he talks instead of just mumbling. Mumbling doesn't equal "Tough Guy." Oh, and there's a ridiculous cameo for some completely unknown reason by my favorite actor working today (please note the sarcasm) -- Brendan Fraser.

So I've pretty much bashed this thing completely, but it's definitely not the worst thing I've seen this year by a longshot. In terms of those action movies listed above, it falls below Wolverine, but way above Transformers. It's just mindless and silly and stupid (a la Crank: High Voltage but not nearly at that level of ridiculosity) and, while I wouldn't recommend it, if you've got a choice between this and Transformers, Funny People, The Collector, or Aliens in the Attic which are all currently in wide release, this is better than those...how's that for a ringing endorsement?

The RyMickey Rating: D+