Movie Review - Suffragette

Suffragette (2015)

Starring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne-Marie Duff, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw, and Meryl Streep

Directed by Sarah Gavron

There are certain movies that seem made purely to garner awards attention.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes the "importance" of a piece can too highly overshadow a film's cinematic values and that's unfortunately the case with Suffragette, a film that never succeeded in bringing me into its story.  While it certainly tells an important tale as it deals with the British suffrage movement in the late 1910s, Suffragette suffers from relying too heavily on contrived predicaments in order to emphasize the struggles facing women a century ago.  While the heavy-handed plot lines our characters face may very well be based in reality and truth, when placed into a film setting, they can't help but feel piled on in order to achieve a desired emotional impact.

Carey Mulligan is, as always, doing excellent work as Maud Watts, a married laundry worker and mom of one who stumbles onto the suffragette movement one afternoon when she spots co-worker Violet (Anne-Marie Duff) tossing rocks into a store window in an attempt to have civil disobedience bring awareness to their cause.  However, as great as Mulligan is at taking us on her character's journey that begins with nonchalance towards the movement and ends with staunch advocacy on behalf of equality for voting rights, it is Maud who is inherently the film's problem.  A fictionalized character, screenwriter Abi Morgan piles heartbreak after heartbreak onto this women which, while once again may have truly happened to some in the 1910s, feels in a cinematic setting as an easy way to emotionally tug at audiences' heartstrings rather than resonate as realistic.

Morgan's script isn't helped by Sarah Gavron's pedestrian direction which, given the subject matter, fails to rouse the audience to join the cause in any way.  Weighed down in grays and browns with production design that always seems as if we're on a set rather than in a natural setting, Suffragette keeps the viewer at a distance rather than involving them in the plot despite its obvious intentions to do just the opposite.  While Gavron consistently gets good performances from key cast members -- including a nice turn from a subdued Helena Bonham Carter as a leader in the suffragette movement -- they're not enough to save this one from being a disappointment.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Cymbeline

Cymbeline (2015)

Starring Ethan Hawke, Ed Harris, Milla Jovovich, John Leguizamo, Penn Badgley, Dakota Johnson, and Anton Yelchin

Directed by Michael Almereyda

Text from the opening moments of Cymbeline tells us the following about one of Shakespeare's lesser-known tales:  For years Cymbeline (Ed Harris), King of the Briton Motorcycle Club, has maintained an uneasy peace with the Roman Police Force.  The Queen (Milla Jovovich), Cymbeline's second wife, has her own agenda.  But she's losing hope that her son Cloten (Anton Yelchin) will pair up with the King's only daughter, Imogen (Dakota Johnson).  Without consulting her royal parents, Imogen decides to marry Posthumus (Penn Badgley), Cymbeline's penniless protégé.  The marriage triggers the King's rage, setting in motion a series of disastrous events.  But fortune brings in some boats that aren't steered...  I presume that the unsteered boat is Iachimo (Ethan Hawke), an acquaintance of Posthumus who sets up a wager that if he can prove to have taken Imogen's virginity he'll win a coveted ring of Posthumus's, but if he doesn't succeed, he'll have to give Posthumus money and a sword.

Quite frankly, Cymbeline feels like an amalgamation of many of Shakespeare's other works and the placement of this particular film adaptation into modern times as is written and directed by Michael Almereyda simply adds to the confusion in tone.  After we grow accustomed to the Shakespearean language (which always takes a little bit of time), the general plot of the play/film lays itself out somewhat clearly.  However, the ultimate problem with the flick is that the character of Iachimo seems sorely out of place and, seeing as how his bet with Posthumus is the integral cog to setting the plot in motion, this causes issues.  Attempting to steal a woman's virginity may have been radical in 1600s England, but by placing this story in a modern setting, this key plot point seems ludicrously childish and silly.

Although Dakota Johnson and Penn Badgley are actually quite good (and given the cast they may not seem at first glance to be the members who would really shine), nearly everyone else feels as if they're overacting, upping the dramatics in order to make us feel like we're watching "SHAKESPEARE" in ALL CAPITALS!  While I'll always appreciate a Shakespearean cinematic adaptation for simply existing, this one just doesn't work.  Being unfamiliar with the play itself, the fault may lie moreso with the original work than the film, but as it stands, there are cinematic problems running rampant here as well.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - The Peanuts Movie

The Peanuts Movie (2015)

Featuring the voice talents of Noah Schnapp, Bill Melendez, Hadley Belle Miller, Alex Garfin, Mariel Sheets, Noah Johnston, Venus Omega Schultheis, Rebecca Bloom, Francesca Angelucci Capaldi, and Kristin Chenoweth

Directed by Steve Martino

There's a nostalgic charm that runs through The Peanuts Movie.  Despite utilizing computer animation as opposed to the hand-drawn lines of our childhood, that's the only update for our Charles Schulz-created beloved characters.  No cell phones or computers make appearances in this Bryan Schulz-written screenplay that (sometimes slavishly) harkens back to the Peanuts stories of yore.  Brightly colored and visually appealing, if Charlie Brown holiday specials are always on your tv-viewing agenda (or if you happened to play Charlie Brown in a high school musical like your revered blogger here), you'll find yourself quite satisfied by this new incarnation of beloved cultural icons.

The story is incredibly simple and reminiscent of cherished Peanuts tales -- Charlie Brown (Noah Schnapp) falls for the new cute little red-haired girl (Francesca Capaldi) who has moved into his neighborhood, but our downtrodden and sullen guy can't seem to ever have things go his way.  Although we've seen this story many times before, it's always pleasant to see Charlie have repartee with Lucy, Linus, his sister Sally, Schroeder, Peppermint Patty, and a variety of others.  The odd friendship Charlie has with his fellow classmates has always fueled my fascination with Schulz's writings and this film is no exception.

The film falters a little bit when it flips to Snoopy's storyline wherein our beloved dog takes on his Red Baron flying ace persona as he tries to rescue his paramour Fifi who was captured by some evil men.  This aspect of The Peanuts Movie drags on much too long and keeps popping up nearly every ten minutes when all I really wanted to see was Charlie Brown's story.  While not necessarily bad, the Red Baron aspect simply isn't as interesting and does bog down the tale a bit.

Still, the animation is very good, the voice acting is top notch, and there's a nostalgia here -- and admittedly I think that nostalgia plays a role in the grade The Peanuts Movie receives from me below.  While not without an aforementioned problem, I found myself pleasantly surprised by how much the film eschews modern culture and really plants itself firmly in a "G-rated" past.  That alone is something we don't often see nowadays and it's a bit of a treat to see something as innocent as this.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Little Accidents

Little Accidents (2015)

Starring Elizabeth Banks, Boyd Holbrook, Jacob Lofland, Josh Lucas, and Chloë Sevigny

Directed by Sara Colangelo

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

Inherently, there's nothing particularly wrong with Little Accidents, a film from first-time writer-director Sara Colangelo.  It's fairly well made and well acted, but Colangelo's film is so heavy that it lacks a drive to push its story forward.  An overwhelming sense of depression looms over everything which, in and of itself, would normally be fine except for the fact that here there isn't quite enough story to merit its existence as a feature film.

As the film opens, we are told of a horrible mining accident that killed all men in the mine with the exception of Amos Jenkins (Boyd Holbrook) who is now trying to return to work unsuccessfully thanks to the injuries he sustained.  On the other side of town, we find Diana Doyle (Elizabeth Banks), wife to mine executive Bill (Josh Lucas) who is being investigated by the company for possibly causing the horrible accident.  At the same time, however, Diana and Bill are faced with the heartbreaking fact that their teenage son JT has gone missing.  Only one person knows where JT has gone and that's young teen Owen Briggs (Jacob Lofland) who is harboring a secret that eats at him every day.

Amos, Diana, and Owen's stories end up intertwining, but rather than seem overly natural, their relationships feel as if they were put together strictly to make a better movie.  It's not that it ever feels overly forced, it's simply that it always seems overly happenstance that these three individuals have relationships with one another.  I never felt particularly comfortable with any aspect of this triangular interaction.

Colangelo gets some nice subdued performances from everyone, but she's not able to drive the narrative forward in a satisfying way.  The film overstays its welcome by about half its running time and the ending, while yielding an appropriate conclusion for each character, somehow feels oddly unsatisfying.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Get Hard

Get Hard (2015)

Starring Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Tip "T.I." Harris, Alison Brie, and Craig T. Nelson

Directed by Etan Cohen

When millionaire hedge fund manager James King (Will Ferrell) is accused of fraud, arrested, convicted, and sentenced to ten years in a "non-cushy" prison, he finds himself completely at a loss as to how he's going to survive in the slammer.  Hoping to gain some street cred, he turns to Darnell (Kevin Hart), his car washer whom he assumes has been in prison because he's black (this is a comedy, remember...).  Desperate for money to move out of the inner city in order to send his daughter to a better school, Darnell reluctantly agrees to help, although Darnell may not be qualified to show James how to Get Hard.

There are a few laughs in Etan Cohen's Get Hard and when they land, they succeed quite well.  However, there are just too many long stretches of time where either the comedy falls flat or the screenplay keeps hitting the same notes over and over again.  This certainly isn't a politically correct movie and for that I appreciate its insistence on trying to push the line, but the "white guy pretending to "be black"" joke can only be utilized so many times before one's eyes start to roll.  Ferrell and Hart are both fine and their interactions together make up the funniest aspects of the film, but Get Hard is too repetitive to really be successful.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Unexpected

Unexpected (2015)

Starring Cobie Smulders, Anders Holm, Gail Bean, and Elizabeth McGovern

Directed by Kris Swanberg

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

Anchored by nice interaction between Cobie Smulders and Gail Bean as, respectively, high school teacher Samantha Abbott and her student Jasmine, Unexpected is a relationship dramedy that details what happens the two aforementioned women find themselves unexpectedly pregnant and how this both bonds them and changes their lives.  Both Samantha and Jasmine were destined for better things -- Jasmine had plans to attend college and Samantha intended to leave her shuttering inner city school to work at a museum -- but impending motherhood ended up beckoning them instead.

Smulders and Bean complement each other quite well and they certainly add depth to their characters.  Unfortunately, the film doesn't quite know what to do with them after about forty-five minutes.  Writer-director Kris Swanberg kept hitting the same dramatic and comedic notes over and over again and while these notes aren't particularly irritating or grating, the repetition prevents the movie from really progressing.  Unexpected is pleasant, but not overly ambitious and while not every movie needs high aspirations, this one needed to have a bit more story in order to really make it worth a watch.

The RyMickey Rating:  C 

Movie Review - San Andreas

San Andreas (2015)

Starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Ioan Gruffudd, Hugo Johnstone-Burt, Art Parkinson, Archie Panjabi, and Paul Giamatti

Direted by Brad Peyton

There's not much to San Andreas except for what we'd expect -- a giant earthquake wreaking mighty havoc over the southern portions of California.  Sure, there are attempts at a little more substantive story -- divorced father and mother (Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino) band together to find their stranded daughter (Alexandra Daddario), earthquake expert (Paul Giamatti) creates a device to predict quakes but no one will listen -- but at the heart of it all, this is simply a flick filled with special effects earthquake mayhem.

The pure special effects-driven nature works for the film's first hour quite well wasting very little time getting into the action and driving the story along from set piece to set piece.  However, as the second hour begins, the idiocy of what we're watching begins to rear its ugly head.  With Giamatti given absolutely nothing to do except hide under desks after spouting warnings similar to "This aftershock will be the biggest one yet!", the film tries to create some form of realistic story behind Johnson and Gugino attempting to find their teenage daughter in the shambles of San Francisco as the two parents are forced to face increasingly ridiculous scenarios.  How will they outrun a collapsing building?  How will their boat make it over the wave of this rising tsunami?  How will they land a helicopter with engine failure?  Seeing the chaos caused by the earthquake in the first hour seemed naturally plausible...seeing two apparent super humans try and rescue their equally superheroic daughter who McGuyvers her way out of quite a few tight spots herself makes the second hour laughable.

For the most part, the actors are game and actually do a nice job of keeping us interested in the action despite the building implausibility.  Johnson and Gugino are a nice match and Daddario more than carries her storyline with the help of British mates she meets along the way played charmingly by Hugo Johnstone-Burt and Art Parkinson.  In the end, San Andreas is about what can be expected, however, the film hurts itself by presenting a surprisingly solid first half only to dive deep into the realm of impossibility in its second half.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs (2015)

Starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg, Katherine Waterston, Perla Haney-Jardine, Ripley Sobo, and Makenzie Moss

Directed by Danny Boyle

Told in three acts in "real time" with each detailing the forty minutes leading up to a product launch, Steve Jobs is a unique experience of a film told in a provocative way by director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin who have created something I've yet to see before that quite frankly shouldn't have worked, but proves exceedingly successful.  Providing excitement through dialog -- a rarity in art nowadays -- Sorkin and Boyle have crafted not so much a biopic, but a look at how a man's psyche and emotional state can both change over time and remain disappointingly the same.

There's certainly no way that prior to the 1984 launch of Macintosh, the 1988 launch of the Next computer system, and the 1998 launch of the iMac that Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) received visits from Apple CEO John Sculley (Jeff Daniels), Apple programmer Andy Hertzfeld (Michael Stuhlbarg), colleague Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen), ex-wife Chrisann (Katherine Waterston), and daughter Lisa (played at the three stages by Makenzie Moss, Ripley Sobo, and Perla Haney-Jardine). There's also certainly no way that this group of people conveniently visited Jobs so that their respective story lines with the Apple founder/genius could progress in their respective manners.  There's also certainly no way that in the moments leading up to some incredibly important product launches, a man like Jobs would allow himself to be pulled away from such pivotal career moments to deal with crumbling personal and workplace relationships.  Yet, for some reason, thanks to the rather ingenious storytelling by Aaron Sorkin, this film and its rather obvious regimented set-up works.

Rarely do I write a review where I find myself giving tons of credit to the screenwriter, but in the case of Steve Jobs, I think what Aaron Sorkin does to create an atmosphere where the obviously manufactured set-ups work is something of a revelatory experience.  Part of the reason I think the three act structure is so hugely successful is Sorkin and director Danny Boyle's insistence to have the scenes play out in real time.  As Jobs's right-hand woman Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet) tries to wrangle her boss into prepping for his big event(s), we in the audience find ourselves gradually inching towards the edge of our seats desperate to see whether everything will be resolved by the time Jobs needs to take the stage.  As the film progresses and the second and third acts begin, we in the audience are now aware of the gimmick and the insistence of Sorkin to have Jobs meet up with all the aforementioned people, and the anticipation we felt in Act One grows even more as we now find ourselves desperate to discover how Jobs's relationships will either become positively or negatively affected by his actions.  This concept is a writer's conceit but it, along with Sorkin's fast-talking, highfalutin dialog, works.  (Seriously, how often do we hear the words "halcyon" and "somnambulant" in movies?)

Three paragraphs in and I've yet to discuss what may very well be the best cast assembled for a 2015 release when the RyMickey Awards roll around next year (there's a ways to go still, though).  There's not a bad egg in the bunch and everyone bites into the Sorkin mile-a-minute pitter-patter style with gusto and rolls with it.  Michael Fassbender is great as Jobs, although the film admittedly doesn't quite give the character the emotional arc it actually thinks it does -- his comeuppance at the hands of his teenage daughter while bitingly written and believably acted is the only aspect of the film that feels a tad contrived (and that's saying something in a film whose structure is entirely contrived).  Still, Fassbender is in every moment of the film and his interactions with each and every actor feel natural, real, and never forced.  Great work is also had by Katherine Waterston and Kate Winslet -- two women playing very different roles, neither of which are easy by any means, but both of which are absolutely necessary for the title character to be a fully realized one.  Quite surprising is Seth Rogen's take on Steve Wozniak.  Usually the star, Rogen is relegated to second banana, but his Wozniak is a character desperate for attention from his father figure in Steve.  Much like Jobs has all but abandoned his daughter (a pivotal Act One moment that resurfaces in subsequent acts), he has also left Wozniak behind and Rogen's depiction of Woz's woeful despondency and his deteriorating relationship with Jobs is the emotional crux of the piece for me.  (Their showdown in Act Three is fascinating stuff.)

Although I've heaped much praise on Aaron Sorkin, credit is also due to Danny Boyle who has created a rhythm in Steve Jobs that causes this talky, play-like film to move at a breakneck pace.  I'm not sure I've ever seen a film so chockfull of dialog that felt this fast-paced to me and the real time aspect of the three acts ingeniously keeps the tension palpable.  Kudos also to the concept of utilizing three different types of film -- 16mm, 35mm, and digital -- creating unique visual imprints in order to capture the various acts.

Whether or not Steve Jobs depicts the exact psychological journey of Steve Jobs "The Man" I don't know; but I do know that the film showcases talented folks in front of and behind the lens who have crafted a cinematic experience that still has me thinking about it nearly a week after watching it.  There aren't too many films that I experience in a theater that have me wanting to rush out and see it again -- and there certainly aren't many biopics that make me feel that way -- but Steve Jobs did just that.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-

Movie Review - Truth

Truth (2015)

Starring Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, Topher Grace, Dennis Quaid, Elisabeth Moss, Bruce Greenwood, Stacy Keach, John Benjamin Hickey, and Dermot Mulroney

Directed by James Vanderbilt

Despite a solid performance from Cate Blanchett (who, lets be honest, rarely disappoints), Truth feels as if it's not quite doing what its title implies.  Based on a true story, Blanchett is Mary Mapes, a producer for the venerable CBS news series 60 Minutes.  With the 2004 presidential election on the horizon, Mapes and segment host Dan Rather (Robert Redford) present a story that claims that then-current President George W. Bush received preferential treatment from Air National Guard officials in the 1970s.  Nearly immediately after the airing of the segment, a variety of sources begin to question the thirty-plus year-old documents that were the building blocks and particularly damning evidence of Mapes and Rather's report.  As Mapes attempts to quell the criticism, she finds herself at odds with her CBS bosses who keep questioning her journalistic ethics.

Taking politics out of the equation, the ultimate problem with Truth stems from the fact that it is based on Mapes's memoir and it makes out her CBS bosses and the litigation team investigating her journalistic ethics to be manically devilish in their attempts to take her down.  You can almost see Dermot Mulroney's lawyer character twirling his comedically villainous mustache as he tries to silence Mapes, and a lengthy and vindictive diatribe against the CBS honchos spoken by Topher Grace's ambitious reporter (and Mapes colleage) proves laughably farcical rather than substantive.  While there may be some truth behind the preferential treatment Bush received (and there may very well not be), the lack of well-roundedness in the side players of Truth and the need to make Mapes seem "right" hinders the film greatly.

As mentioned, Blanchett is good as the strong-willed Mapes who faces a possible career-ending crisis with the actress allowing us to see the pain Mapes internally confronts, but the film steers her wrong at the end and the self-aggrandizing, boastful attitude of the film does Blanchett no favors.  The film is blatantly telling us how to feel about her character rather then letting the audience naturally come to that conclusion.  The rest of the typically solid cast isn't given much to do at all with Redford in particular inhabiting a role that feels underwritten and shockingly sidelined for much of the film.  Then again, this is Mary Mapes's story and despite its attempts at trying to balance both sides, the film, although adequately produced and lensed, just doesn't land in the way it hopes.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Circle

Circle (2015)

Starring a Group of Fifty Actors

Directed by Aaron Hann and Mario Miscione

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

Fifty strangers awaken from a drug-induced "sleep" to find themselves standing on lighted red circles, facing one another around a central black orb-like device.  Step off of the red circle, you die.  Touch another person, you die.  As if that weren't bad enough, the strangers soon discover that every one to two minutes they are forced to vote for someone they think doesn't deserve to live and the person who receives the highest votes will die.

While Circle is innately a horror film, it's unlike any horror film you'll likely have ever seen.  Saw comes to mind with its characters needing to turn against one another in order to live, but there's nary a drop of blood here.  Instead, this is one of the talkiest movies I've seen in a while because the entire film revolves around human nature -- how do we see others and do they see us in the same way?  As the fifty people are whittled down to less and less, first-time writer-directors Aaron Hann and Mario Miscione ask the viewers to question what we would do in this situation -- how desperate would we be to survive?

Granted, as prejudices and the worst of human's psyches come to the surface, Hann and Miscione are sometimes a little too blunt and obvious with their reveals of the basest of human reaction/interaction. There are moments where subtlety would've been just as effective for some of the characters as the ungracious tactlessness they exhibit, but overall, Circle proves to be a very unique concept.  With close to fifty speaking roles, Hann and Miscione not only compiled a solid cast of relative unknowns, but the writers impressively and effectively keep the audience completely guessing as to who is going to bite the dust next.  Characters whom you think may make it to the end don't last more than ten minutes and just because they're speaking the most doesn't mean they're going to be staying around the longest.  This is truly the epitome of an ensemble film and the cast for the most part steps up to the plate.

Most impressively to this viewer, for a film that is based essentially around people talking to each other for ninety minutes with no real action so to speak, Circle moves at a relatively breakneck pace.  It was almost an hour in before I looked at how much time was left and I was blown away that I had been riveted as much as I had for so long.  Admittedly, the film falters a bit at the end -- a little open-endedness would've maybe been more effective than the actual ending -- and I still stand by the fact that certain political and societal topics that are brought up are sometimes done too heavy handedly to really be effective, but Circle is a unique cinematic experience that I highly recommend.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Pitch Perfect 2

Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)

Starring Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld, Brittany Snow, Skylar Astin, Adam DeVine, Elizabeth Banks, John Michael Higgins, and Katey Sagal

Directed by Elizabeth Banks

I wasn't a huge fan of the original Pitch Perfect and expectations were not high for its sequel...and that's a good thing because Pitch Perfect 2 simply rehashes all the same jokes, character traits, and plot points as its predecessor.  The biggest problem with Pitch Perfect 2 is that not a single one of the a cappella numbers in the film seems as if it has any basis in reality.  Where exactly did the Barden Bellas headed by Beca, Chloe, and (Fat) Amy (Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow, and Rebel Wilson) get the money for fire effects for a show set up in a hotel ballroom?  And let's not even delve into the opening scene that places the Bellas at a concert celebrating President Obama's birthday.

It's that concert for the president that sets the ball rolling as Fat Amy inadvertently exposes her nether regions to the public when her pants rip while hanging from a Cirque du Soleil-ish device.  Amy's commando ways bring shame to the Bellas and the a cappella community and higher-ups John and Gail (the rather hilarious John Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks) ban the girl group from participating in any events or competing anywhere except for the World Finals in Copenhagen.  With the Bellas in chaos, they must regroup and regain their illustrious status once again.

Unfortunately, the film feels like a complete retread of the original with the same jokes, set-ups, and types of songs being made a cappella.  Like the original, there are a few laugh-out-loud moments here and there, but the directorial debut of Elizabeth Banks just doesn't ring true in any single moment of its screen time.  Perhaps on the plus side, the best aspect of the film is a rather subdued performance by Hailee Steinfeld as a freshman at Barden College who joins the Bellas -- Steinfeld will presumably carry the torch for subsequent sequels seeing as how this film concludes with the majority of the Bellas facing graduation.  Steinfeld is pleasant enough and perhaps the most grounded character, but my hopes aren't high that future films will maintain this realistic approach for character's wide-eyed innocence.

Pitch Perfect 2 is watchable, but not much works.  Anna Kendrick looks like she doesn't want to be there, Brittany Snow's Chloe is too ditzy to be believable, and Rebel Wilson doesn't improve her acting skills at all from her first attempt at Fat Amy.  Wilson, in particular, is just an embarrassment and while I imagine some tweens may find her shtick funny, I find it nearly unwatchable.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Tom at the Farm

Tom at the Farm (Tom à la ferme) (2015)

Starring Xavier Dolan, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Lise Roy, and Evelyne Brochu

Directed by Xavier Dolan

***This film currently streaming on Amazon Prime***

When Tom (Xavier Dolan) arrives at the Canadian farmhouse of his deceased lover Guillaume, he is greeted by a mother (Lise Roy) who has no idea that her dead son was gay.  Confused, Tom then meets his lover's brother Francis (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) who through aggression and force manipulates Tom into crafting a story about his brother's heterosexual tendencies.  Tom agrees to keep his true relationship with Guillaume a secret, but soon finds himself in a twisted battle with Francis whose savage demeanor may be hiding his own secrets.

Tom at the Farm is an odd duck of a film that plays at times like a thriller, at times like a drama, and at times like a twisted romance.  Just when you think director-cowriter-leading actor Xavier Dolan is taking it down one side of that triangle, he veers to another angle or reins things in just enough that it feels a bit like a tease...in a good way.  The film feels soap operatic and overly dramatic at times, but the tone works for the most part.

The problem with the film lies in the character of Tom himself.  Attempts are made to showcase that Francis is forcibly keeping Tom on the farm, but there was never any moment during the movie where I felt that Tom couldn't have just walked down the road and left.  While I understand that Dolan was trying to show that Francis wielded some masculine control over Tom which, having just lost his lover, he may have found intriguing, but attempting to build tension from a story aspect that to me is easily solvable by a character simply walking out of a door doesn't quite work.  I won't even discuss the heavily anti-American tone to the film which becomes horribly blatant in the film's climactic moments and then is hammered home by a rather horrid song by Rufus Wainwright that runs over the end credits.

These qualms aside, though, Tom at the Farm is interesting.  I'm not sure I'll be rushing to see another Xavier Dolan film, but this one proved unique enough to maintain my interest throughout.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Poltergeist

Poltergeist (2015)

Starring Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie Dewitt, Kyle Catlett, Kennedi Clements, Saxon Sharbino, Jared Harris, and Jane Adams

Directed by Gil Kenan

I know full well that it's not the least bit cool to say this, but I actually found this 2015 remake of Poltergeist surprisingly tense and much better than I expected it to be.  It's surely not without its share of story problems, but director Gil Kenan does his job of creating an atmosphere that keeps the audience always a bit nervous for the ominous outcome.

Much like the 1982 original (which, I must admit, I don't particularly hold any fawning affection towards), this remake focuses on a family relocating only to discover that their home was built upon an ancient Indian burial ground.  When the ghosts lure the family's young daughter Madison (Kennedi Clements) into their world, mom Amy, dad Eric, and older brother and sister Griffin and Kendra (Rosemarie Dewitt, Sam Rockwell, Kyle Catlett, and Saxon Sharbino, respectively) do all that they can to get the youngest member of their family back into the real world.

At its heart, the story of Poltergeist is successfully realized here, but attempts at adding modern updates -- cell phones, camera drones -- conjure up nothing but laughs as they are utilized to try and further the story.  Despite these moments of silliness (and a severely underwritten and overly exaggerated performance by the family's teenage daughter), the film still creates a foreboding environment thanks to the direction (which, like the original, eschews gore in favor of atmospheric creepiness) and a game cast led by Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie Dewitt who definitely elevate this horror flick.  As mentioned, tension is present here and there were multiple moments throughout the film where I found myself on the edge of my seat which is sometimes all I can ask for from a horror flick.  Yes, it's not without a couple issues (and the question of "did the original really need to be remade" still lingers), but this reboot of Poltergeist is much better than the consensus of negative reviews would have you believe.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - The Lazarus Effect

The Lazarus Effect (2015)

Starring Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover, Evan Peters, and Sarah Bolger

Directed by David Gelb

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

If you've seen the Scarlett Johansson flick Lucy, there's certainly no reason to watch The Lazarus Effect which is essentially a horror version of that film.  If you haven't seen Lucy (and really you're missing nothing if you haven't), there's still no reason to watch The Lazarus Effect because besides an ending that perks up the thrill quotient after a decidedly bland and surprisingly boring first hour, the conclusion fails to really make a whole lot of sense and ends things hugely disappointingly.

Here, a group of scientists headed by engaged couple Frank and Zoe (Mark Duplass and Olivia Wilde) create a manipulated serum of cells that through injection and electrical stimulation have the effect of being able to bring the dead back to life.  After years of unsuccessful attempts, the team succeeds in bringing back to life a dog, but they discover that the newly resuscitated canine is utilizing huge portions of his brain, making him overly aggressive and violent as he's unable to control his emotions.  Needless to say, following an unfortunate accident, the team doesn't just stop the experiment with the dog and instead find themselves using it for more a more advanced carbon-based life form which may yield some truly frightening results.

The overarching question of this film (and Lucy for that matter) is what happens when humans -- who typically use only 10% of their brain capacity -- are given the opportunity to utilize much more than that.  Whereas Lucy somewhat succeeds in answering this question through the format of an action film, The Lazarus Effect as a horror movie isn't nearly as successful.  The biggest reason for this is that it's utterly boring for the film's first sixty minutes.  Part of the reason I was intrigued with the flick was the cast who I thought may elevate this beyond your typical cliché-ridden genre pic, but the quintet listed up above just sputters out scientific mumbo-jumbo for the film's first twenty minutes and then spends the rest of the first hour debating whether to continue with their now successful experiment.  In a better film, the tension between the scientists may have been intriguing, but here it amounts to nothing but absolute boredom.

Unfortunately, when the film delves into horror during its final twenty minutes (although its eighty minute runtime should seem short, it feels interminable), it's more laughable than anything else and that's never a good thing.  There are no scares whatsoever with the film throwing out one horror cliché after another trying to get something to land successfully.  Nothing does.

The RyMickey Rating:  D-

Movie Review - I'll See You in My Dreams

I'll See You in My Dreams (2015)

Starring Blythe Danner, Martin Starr, June Squibb, Rhea Perlman, Mary Kay Place, Malin Akerman, and Sam Elliott

Directed by Brett Haley

At the center of I'll See You in My Dreams is a lovely performance from Blythe Danner (in her first leading theatrical role after nearly five decades in the industry) as Carol Petersen, a widow whose husband died two decades prior and is now finally contemplating the possibility of getting into a relationship with another man.  Danner is very good, easily anchoring the film with her charm, glowing exuberance, and reflective emotion.

However, as you move away from Danner at the center, I'll See You in My Dreams as a film doesn't quite match the actress's performance.  Director/co-writer Brett Haley has the makings of a nice short film here, but when stretched out to feature length, the flick flounders a bit.  We're given typical "girlfriend" moments where a cast of funny co-stars -- June Squibb, Rhea Perlman, Mary Kay Place -- are rather wasted despite working well off of each other.  A rather odd (although admittedly somewhat intriguing) friendship for Carol with a much younger pool cleaner (Martin Starr) walks a weird line of hinting at romance while at the same time creating a maternal-type relationship.  (Granted, I think that was the point, but it never quite feels anything but unsettling.)  And let's not even delve into the fact that once again we're given the "old people smoking pot for comedy" trope which is, as loyal readers know, quite possibly my least favorite movie go-to and reason enough for me to knock this one down a few pegs.

Once again, Blythe Danner is very good here and reason enough to give this one a watch.  Her performance is absolutely captivating and as she navigates the tricky road of her character's late-in-life renaissance, Danner certainly holds the audience's attention.  It's just a bit of a shame that the film itself feels as if it's in need of a little more critical re-writing in order to fully flesh out Carol's new lease on life.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Hot Pursuit

Hot Pursuit (2015)

Starring Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara

Directed by Anne Fletcher

Reaching levels very close to the abysmal bar set by last year's wreck The Other Woman, Hot Pursuit is another heinously unfunny comedy featuring two actresses who are forced to try and act their way through one of the most poorly-written scripts I've seen in a long time.  The horridness should've been evident from the get-go when Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara signed on to this one, but for some reason, the two ladies decided to tack on producer credits for themselves which makes them equally responsible for the end result.

Witherspoon is Officer Rose Cooper, a hickish Texas cop who despite having had a well-respected cop father who died in the line of duty finds herself relegated to manning the evidence lockers in the police station.  One afternoon she's called to her superior's office where she is told that she is going to be the police escort to drug cartel informant Felipe Riva and his wife Daniella (Sofia Vergara) who is testifying against his recently arrested boss.  Upon arrival at the Riva residence, Felipe and Daniella are attacked with Felipe being killed and Daniella managing to escape with Cooper.  The remainder of the film follows the two ladies as they move from place to place meeting a variety of men who come into the picture for a five minute dalliance only to have them be dismissed without doing a thing to advance the plot.  Bland, unfunny vignette followed by bland, unfunny vignette leads to very little actual plot development and makes the 87-minute runtime feel exorbitantly long.

Unlike The Other Woman which featured some disappointing performances, the ONLY compelling thing about Hot Pursuit is that I felt a genuine chemistry between Witherspoon and Vergara.  That isn't to say that their roles were well-conceived or even that their acting wasn't anything better than a stereotypical caricature, but the two actresses admittedly played well off one another.  And that's the single thing Hot Pursuit has going for it.  Beyond that, the script is filled with way too many ludicrous plot holes, the humor is nonexistent, and the direction ill-conceived at best.  It's a bit shocking how truly awful this is.

The RyMickey Rating:  D-

Movie Review - The Walk

The Walk (2015)

***viewed in 3D***

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Charlotte Le Bon, Clémont Sibomy, James Badge Dale, César Domboy, and Ben Kingsley

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

There's a charm and innocence that accompanies The Walk that one doesn't often see in live-action PG-rated films.  Let's be honest -- what was the last live-action PG-rated flick aimed squarely at adults that was even released?  A movie of this ilk is rare these days.  That said, considering the film's length -- it clocks in at more than two hours -- there's a lack of tension present as we learn about the true story of high wire walker Philippe Petit's 1974 attempt at traversing the two World Trade Center towers in New York City.  While The Walk still works -- thanks in part to a very nice performance from Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Petit -- you may be better off watching the 2008 Academy Award-winning documentary Man on Wire which details the same event with a slightly better result.

Now typically, this is where I'd toss in a summary paragraph about The Walk's plot...but I've essentially already done that with the one sentence description of the film above.  Petit is a Frenchman who has devoted his life to street performing and tight rope walking and upon opening a magazine in 1973 while at a dentist's office, he reads about the construction of the World Trade Center towers in NYC and sets a goal of crossing the two on a thin metal rope.  The rest of the film deals with Petit finding a team to help him and researching the necessary mechanics to make such a crazy plan work.

I must say that I was never bored during director and co-screenwriter Robert Zemeckis' film as he keeps a light and airy feel to the proceedings (including Gordon-Levitt's Petit talking directly to the audience throughout the piece), and despite a bit of repetition in the plot, the pace chugs along rather nicely.  However, it's that lack of tension that really does the film harm.  We all know that Petit manages to rig up the tight rope and we all know that he makes the crossing (in part because of the character's direct talking to the audience), yet in a better film, there'd still be a sense of nervousness and tension surrounding both the covert plan and the walk itself.  That doesn't happen here.

There's been some negative talk of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's accent in the flick, but I had no qualms with it whatsoever.  In fact, I found Gordon-Levitt's portrayal of Petit quite engaging as he undeniably showcases the high wire performer's drive and passion for conjuring up such a ludicrously dangerous scheme.  In fact, it's Gordon-Levitt who who adds the excitement and pizzazz to the film.

To be frank, for a film that was so highly praised for its 3D usage, I found nothing alluring or thrilling about the 3D -- sure, depth was added, but I think I'm over the 3D craze.  (Although, I must admit there was one scene where a projectile came towards the screen that caused me to jump -- which is the way I feel all these 3D movies should play out -- what's the point otherwise?)  Overall, The Walk is decent and its story is compelling -- it's just a shame that the film doesn't create the tense moments needed to really and truly succeed.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Project Almanac

Project Almanac (2015)

Starring Jonny Weston, Sam Lerner, Allen Evangelista, Sofia Black-D'Elia, and Virginia Gardner

Directed by Dean Israelite

At some point in time, the found footage genre is going to lose its allure.  Until then, we're going to be treated to seemingly endless movies focused on teens who come across something odd which either causes some horror or science fiction aspect to take place in their lives (because naturally the found footage genre is seemingly only ever used for horror or sci-fi flicks).  Project Almanac falls into the sci-fi realm and it at least shows some promise in the beginning, but when it comes to the found footage aspect of the film, it's ludicrously preposterous.

David (Jonny Weston) is a high school senior intent on going to MIT thanks to his somewhat brilliant mind for science.  When he's accepted without the necessary scholarship money, David searches through his attic to find some of the clever experiments his deceased father had worked on.  While looking, he comes across an old VHS camera with footage of his seventh birthday party...except on this footage is a clear image of David as a seventeen year-old.  How in the world did "current David" show up at the birthday party of "seven year-old David?"  After a little more digging, David discovers that his father had worked on creating a time machine and while he had some success, he never utilized the device.  Using his father's schematics, David and his buddies soon discover that time travel may not be beyond the realm of possibility.

I was actually moderately on board with Project Almanac at first.  Yes, the found footage aspect is unnecessary, but the story at first is surprisingly interesting and the young cast of relative unknowns is decent and moderately compelling.  Unfortunately, after the group's initial attempts at time travel, the writers begin to delve into the tricky space-time continuum aspects present in every single time travel movie ever made and the whole thing falls apart.  It's entirely possible that the screenwriters actually stuck with their mythology concerning the continuum and it all actually makes logical sense, but it just didn't translate to making any sense to me.  Having been along for the ride for the first hour, it's a shame that this thing disintegrates in the last forty-five minutes.  Let's not even delve into how ridiculous the found footage aspect becomes with these teens needing to constantly pick up the camera when they really should just be running away from things or strategically placing the camera in a position that no one realistically would in order to capture whatever the next image would be.  It really got cinematically horrible in this aspect in the final act -- quite frankly, it may be one of the worst attempts at trying to finagle a found footage aesthetic into a film I've seen yet.  The fact of the matter is that this film didn't need to utilize the found footage aspect and yet because it did it hurt the film even more.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - The Last Five Years

The Last Five Years (2015)

Starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan

Directed by Richard LaGravenese

In the liner notes of the cd of the movie's soundtrack, lyricist and composer Jason Robert Brown says that he has read often that The Last Five Years is "the musical for people who don't like musicals."  While I would certainly consider myself a fan of the genre, I can understand the meaning behind that sentiment.  Although it's told nearly entirely through song (there is likely less than three minutes of spoken dialog in the ninety minute film), The Last Five Years is a hefty drama moreso than anything else that just happens to tell its story through music.  Much like the fantastic 2007 musical Once, The Last Five Years is a story about the highs and lows of love.  Also much like Once, The Last Five Years is one of the best musicals yet to come out of the recent influx of the genre ever since the one-two punch of Moulin Rouge-Chicago back in 2001-02.

With literate, smart lyrics and intimate orchestrations oftentimes utilizing only a piano and a violin or two, The Last Five Years tells the story of Cathy and Jamie (Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan) and the inevitable dissolving of their marriage.  Don't worry - that's not a spoiler.  The Last Five Years tells its story in a very unique way.  Cathy's side of the story is told from the end to the beginning, meaning as the film opens, we see Cathy devastated after Jamie has walked out the door.  Jamie's side of the story begins at the start of their blossoming relationship.  The film goes back and forth between a scene involving Cathy (moving backwards in time) and a scene involving Jamie (moving forwards in time).  The two timelines eventually meet in the middle...and then continue moving along so as the film ends we see Jamie's despair and Cathy's hope concerning their pairing.

It may seem confusing in concept, but if you have knowledge of the conceit before the film begins it actually works pretty well and provides a rather ingenious way of looking at things.  Granted, the back-and-forth timeline does take some getting used to and there are moments where I had to question at what time we were during "the last five years," but that confusion does dissipate quickly and the uniqueness of the whole thing shines through.  [This does beg the question that if it's necessary to know of the back-and-forth nature before the film begins, did director and adaptor Richard LaGravenese do a good enough job?  I'll try and answer this one in a bit.]

With the exception of the timelines crossing in the middle of the film, all of the songs are solos with Cathy or Jamie expressing their thoughts to one another through song...and it's rather genius.  While it's true not everything lands perfectly -- there's a little bit of a lull in the fifth and sixth songs -- the seeming simplicity of the tunes (which are really anything but simple) make the constant singing instantly believable and shockingly introspective.  Jason Robert Brown's libretto and accompanying music span a wide range of genres from jazz to ballads to uptempo, but even the "showstopper" numbers are done modestly -- as mentioned, we're not talking about full orchestral pieces here, but rather smaller orchestrations that may mimic rousing toe-tappers, but don't completely take us to that typical "musical" place.  And that's a good thing.

The film essentially is a two-person piece and for a film like this to succeed, the actors playing Cathy and Jamie need to really excel at their game and Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan do not disappoint.  From Kendrick's opening number as tears roll down her face as she grippingly tells us about Jamie having left her to her gleefully happy final number following the initial consummation of their relationship, Kendrick takes us on a believable backwards journey as an aspiring actress who finds herself living in the shadow of her famous author husband.  Kendrick has become the go-to gal for musicals, but this is the film that really gives her a chance to shine and showcase her ability to truly emote through song.

Her counterpart Jordan is also a revelation here.  A relative unknown on the cinematic landscape, he perfectly conveys Jamie's infatuation with the engaging Cathy, yet understandably gets frustrated when Cathy distances herself from him when her acting skills can't match her husband's success as a writer.  While Kendrick gets to start the film with a real emotional bang, Jordan is the one who gets to end it with a revelatory final number that I found absolutely riveting, showcasing the emotional depths to which his character has fallen.

Director Richard LaGravanese has a difficult task in making the film comprehensible and I think he does all that he can to help his audience grasp where we are in the story's timeline.  Clever placement of calendar dates or the script's usage of certain words key us in -- but you have to be paying attention.  Having read up on the Off-Broadway production of this piece, on stage the two actors never share a scene except for at the very beginning, the middle, and the very end.  They're essentially singing to an empty stage only acting as if the other character were there.  Obviously, that wouldn't work in a film, but LaGravanese still is tasked with the rather tricky concept of only one of the characters doing any singing in any particular scene while the other stands and simply has reaction shots.  Somehow, this works with LaGravanese utilizing a variety of camera techniques -- including some rather long takes which are simplistic but stellar -- in order to keep things interesting.

The Last Five Years has a few flaws, but I have found myself over the last several days being willing to overlook them.  Much like Once, this musical film has stuck with me in ways I never expected.  The story of Cathy and Jamie and their relationship is beautifully told.  I may not have necessarily been humming Jason Robert Brown's tunes at the film's conclusion, but they touched me in rather surprising ways -- and managed to motivate me to purchase the film's soundtrack which is something I rarely do.  If you go into this with the knowledge of the time-jumping conceit, The Last Five Years is a movie that stands a chance of really affecting you and I'm sure will land on my Best Film list in next year's RyMickey Awards.  Even if you're not a musical aficionado, as Jason Robert Brown says, this is "the musical for people who don't like musicals."

Edit 12/28/15:  So, a second viewing has unfortunately sullied my view of the film a tiny bit.  The biggest issue with the film is that the flick the whole "middle" of the film is just disappointing in terms of its songs.  The opening moments of sheer happiness and utter sadness and the closing moments also of sheer happiness and utter sadness are fantastic and contain some of the best scenes of films in 2015.  However, it's those middle moments that prove to be confoundingly repetitive and admittedly lacking in excitement.  Also, despite the nice acting job on display by Kendrick, there is a slight grating aspect to her voice which I absolutely noticed the first time around, but tried to gloss over.  

I note in my final paragraph above that "The Last Five Years has a few flaws, but I have found myself...willing to overlook them."  On a second viewing, it's much more difficult to overlook the flick's issues.  I still stand by the fact that there are portions of this film that are astoundingly heartbreaking and beautifully shot, directed, and acted.  It's just that the middle thirty minutes are a bit of a rougher go.

Edit 9/15/16:  So, a third viewing of the flick recognizes the problems I noticed in the second viewing, but I appreciated the storytelling aspects of these slower moments much more.  I appreciated different songs than I had the first and second times around.  The more "grating" aspect of Kendrick's voice on some of the higher belts wasn't as prominent (although I will admit it is there) and she does such a good job at emoting throughout the film that I walked away thoroughly impressed.  I'm still keeping my grade a 'B', however overall, this 'B' is better than several of the 'B+'s" I doled out in 2015.  I'd much rather watch this flawed movie than several of my B+'s.

The RyMickey Rating:  A- (original 10/15/15)
The RyMickey Rating:  B (updated 12/29/15)
The RyMickey Rating:  B (updated 9/15/16)

Movie Review - Black Mass

Black Mass (2015)

Starring Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rory Cochrane, Jesse Plemons, Dakota Johnson, Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgaard, David Harbour, Adam Scott, Julianne Nicholson, and Corey Stall

Directed by Scott Cooper

With an impressive cast, Black Mass is a solid mob pic that's impressively shot, but lacks a real riveting storyline.  That isn't to say that Black Mass is particularly boring, but it didn't quite lure me in as much as I wanted despite very good above- and below-the-line aspects.

Johnny Depp tackles the lead role in this true story as James "Whitey" Bulger, brother to state senator Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch) and also one of South Boston's nastiest and violent criminals from the 1970s through the 1990s.  Not only a crime boss, Whitey ends up being "recruited" by FBI agent (and childhood friend) John Connelly (Joel Edgerton) to be an informant, spilling beans on other crime gangs throughout Boston.  As the film details a variety of Whitey's crimes, we also witness his ability to twist things in his favor, most evident by the coercing of Agent Connelly into allowing crimes to be committed with the agent's knowledge.  This manipulation (to which Connelly knowingly acquiesces) makes up some of the best aspects of the film.

Much has been made of Johnny Depp's performance which finally brings the actor back to a serious role after many years of comedy, action, or Tim Burton-esque weirdness.  The praise is warranted with Depp pretty darn scary as the headstrong, violent, and downright nasty Bulger.  He's matched by a solid supporting cast none of which give a bad performance, but none of which can really hold a candle to the admittedly electric charisma Depp has onscreen even behind his character's somewhat harrowing make-up job.

While good, Black Mass never quite reaches levels of greatness.  There's a been there-done that quality that make the film feel not quite as unique as I'd have liked.  Director Scott Cooper does a solid job here, but the film feels as if it meanders a bit in the middle and its conclusion involving the uncovering of some of Agent Connelly's actions doesn't quite land as satisfyingly as expected.  Overall, it's a bit rote and by-the-book, and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just doesn't get me overly excited about the piece as a whole.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-