Spider-Man: Far from Home

Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)

Starring Tom Holland, Samuel L. Jackson, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau, JB Smoove, Jacob Batalon, Martin Starr, Tony Revolori, Marisa Tomei, and Jake Gyllenhaal

Directed by Jon Watts

Written by Chris McKenna and Eric Sommers

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

Table 19

Table 19 (2017)

Starring Anna Kendrick, Craig Robinson, June Squibb, Lisa Kudrow, Stephen Merchant, Tony Revolori, and Wyatt Russell

Directed by Jeffrey Blitz

Written by Jeffrey Blitz

***This film is currently streaming via HBO***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  A group of unwanted guests find themselves seated at a table at the back of a wedding reception where they bond over their various foibles and idiosyncrasies.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: D+

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Starring Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, Laura Harrier, Jacob Batalan, Tony Revolori, Marisa Tomei, Chris Evans, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Robert Downey, Jr.

Directed by Jon Watts

Written by Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Jon Watts, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, and Erik Sommers

Summary (in 500 words or less):  After the events of Captain America: Civil War, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) - AKA Spider-Man - returns to New York where he wants to officially join the Avengers, but is told by Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) that he is not ready.  Peter returns to high school while fighting minor crimes in the city underneath the Spider-Man outfit.  At the same time, Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) is incredibly angry after the Department of Damage Control reneges on the deal his salvage company had received to continue clean-up of the Battle of New York (which was seen in the original "The Avengers" movie).  Toomes had already uncovered several pieces of extraterrestrial paraphernalia and has discovered that he can utilize them to create advanced weapons.  Eventually, the worlds of Peter Parker and Adrian Toomes will combine as Parker attempts to prove to Tony Stark that he deserves to be an Avenger.

• Undoubtedly the best Spider-Man movie to date, Spider-Man: Homecoming is a fun ride, filled with some great performances and a bad guy in Adrian Toomes - AKA The Vulture - who feels based in reality as opposed to being some maniacal supervillain hellbent on the destruction of Earth.
• Despite having storylines being built upon from previous Marvel films, I couldn't help when watching this to think that this would be a great introduction into the Marvel Universe for a young kid.  There's something refreshingly innocent about the proceedings.
• Sure, there may have been a sextet of screenwriters for this one -- a number which usually doesn't bode well for things -- but this group manages to create a balance between typical Marvel tropes and a 1980s John Hughes-ian vibe which the screenwriters and director Jon Watts admitted they were going for.
• Tom Holland is absolutely engaging as Peter Parker and actually feels like a high school kid which is something the previous iterations could never quite manage.  His classmates -- Zendaya, Laura Harrier, Jacob Batalan, and more -- help to create a humorous and realistic high school atmosphere that doesn't feel fake, but also doesn't feel outside the realm of the Marvel Universe itself.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Dope

Dope (2015)

Starring Shameik Moore, Tony Revolori, Kiersey Clemons, Zoë Kravitz, A$AP Rocky, Keith Stanfield, and Kimberly Elise

Directed by Rick Famuyiwa

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

Dope starts out quite clever, amusingly smart and engaging -- there's seriously a joke about Neil de Grasse Tyson and Ice Cube that lands so humorously in the first few minutes that my hopes went sky high.  While director-screenwriter Rick Famuyiwa's flick doesn't quite maintain its momentum after some great opening moments, Dope still provides a rather unique glimpse at African American culture.

Malcolm (Shamiek Moore) is a high school senior growing up in Inglewood, CA.  Obsessed with 90s rap culture, Malcolm also finds himself getting trashed on by other students for liking "white stuff" like skateboards, comics, "TV on the Radio," getting good grades, and applying for college.  It's that last "white thing" that's prominently on Malcolm's mind when the film opens.  Desperate to head to Harvard, things are going rather swimmingly for Malcolm until he's convinced by his friends and fellow geeks Jib (Tony Revolori) and Diggy (Kiersey Clemons) to attend the birthday party of drug dealer Dom (A$AP Rocky) at a popular club.  Malcolm obliges in part because he knows that Dom's on-again/off-again girlfriend Nakia (Zoë Kravitz) will be there and Malcolm hopes to make an impression despite the fact that he's not exactly adept with the ladies.  However, the party gets raided by the police and Dom hides his stash of dope in Malcolm's backpack unbeknown to the high schooler, leading to a chaotic series of events that turns Malcolm's life upside down.

While Dope maintains its insightful humor throughout, I could't help but think that it lost a little bit of its original point of view once Malcolm becomes an unwitting drug dealer.  Directorially, Famuyiwa always keeps things sly, both visually and story-wise, and he gets some great performances out of his three main cast members.  Shameik Moore, in particular, is a fresh-faced newcomer who more than carries the film with his exuding of both intelligence and street smarts, and Tony Revolori and Kiersey Clemons (the latter, a sassy tomboy lesbian) add authenticity to the proceedings.  Beyond this trio, however, the film finds itself teetering a little bit, unsure of whether it wants to stay based in reality or go a little over-the-top and whenever it veers towards the latter, I found myself disappointed and removed from the story.  Still, Dope's aesthetic and main performances provide a unique experience that I wish was a bit more carefully executed throughout.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Starring Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Matheiu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, Jude Law, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman, Léa Seydoux, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Owen Wilson, and Tony Revolori

Directed by Wes Anderson

Director and screenwriter Wes Anderson's films are always easy to pick out by their colorful visual style, exquisite production design, sardonic, quirky humor, and the presence of Bill Murray, but with the exception of Fantastic Mr. Fox, I always tend to feel that Anderson can't quite craft a great story around his admittedly unique style.  While The Grand Budapest Hotel is one of his better efforts, I still find myself waiting for one of his live action flicks to really grab me and pull me in with its story.

Told in a flashback within a flashback, the film focuses on Monsieur Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes), the concierge at the prestigious Grand Budapest Hotel in the fictional Republic of Zubrowka in 1932.  While Gustave runs the hotel with precision, he's also well known amongst the elderly lady crowd for providing something a little bit extra during their stay.  (That "extra" would be sex...in case I was too vague.)  One such lady -- Madame Céline Villeneuve Desgoffe und Taxis (Tilda Swinton in a ton of make-up) -- has fallen in love with Gustave and while he admittedly reciprocates the feeling to her, he has too many other "duties" in the hotel to fully give himself to her.  However, after she leaves to travel back to her home, Gustave receives word that Madame D has been killed and that he must attend the reading of the will for she has left something to him.  Upon arrival, Gustave learns that Madame D has bequeathed the terribly expensive painting "Boy with Apple" to him much to the chagrin of his relatives.  Not only that, but Madame D was murdered and her sons and daughters are pointing to Gustave as the main culprit.

There are so many great things about The Grand Budapest Hotel that it pains me to not love it more.  Ralph Fiennes is fantastic as Gustave.  The dry humor and wit that exudes from every line reading and every movement from Fiennes is an enviable feat and he really is the unsung hero from the piece.  The rest of the supporting cast is pitch perfect as well with a very nice turn in particular from newcomer Tony Revolori as Gustave's lobby boy/right hand man.  Fiennes is a strong presence in the film and Revolori holds his own, providing his own bit of humor from his reactions to the oddness going on around him.  The cast itself certainly gets the tone of things from Wes Anderson himself who, as a director, has a way of creating humor simply from his direction -- the pan of a camera may be all that's needed in order to elicit a chuckle.  As I watched, I realized that not too many directors have this ability and Anderson understands how to utilize the lens itself in order to create humor.  And the production design -- top notch, melding old school and new school designs with ease, creating a storybook-like world that completely brings us into the fake land of Zubrowka.

But it's that darn story that doesn't quite elevate things.  For about an hour, I was onboard, but the thing peters out towards the end as it shifts from focusing on Gustave to focusing on Gustave's escape plan from those trying to pin him for murder.  I can't say that I want an emotional connection in Anderson's films -- that's not what I'm looking for from his pictures.  But there seems to be some fundamental piece of the puzzle missing in his live action flicks for me that fail to click with my mind on some level as the film progresses.  Perhaps it's just that I tire of the quirkiness after about an hour and I'm left with some pretty basic storytelling in nearly all his films.

Still, The Grand Budapest Hotel is a good flick -- certainly one of Anderson's better films -- with fantastic production values and great acting, but it's just missing that last bit of pizzazz from its screenplay.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-