Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more
Patriots Day, the other 2016 film from director Peter Berg that stars Mark Wahlberg, is a big question mark of a film. It is not a question mark in terms of why it was made or how it was put together, but in how to approach it from a viewer’s perspective.
The film is a dramatic depiction of the Continue reading Patriots Day (2016) Movie Review
There is something cautionary about a film that opens with a scene that outlines a superficial context by having every line of dialogue out of the characters’ mouths point to the obvious mores of the day, to the point where a character has to exclaim what year it is to highlight the already obvious irony of their immediate situation.
It is this retrograde rose-tinting of history that plagues Hidden Figures. Morality films such as these often fall into this pitfall, where characters are hyper aware of their situation as if they themselves are looking back as we are. The film is designed around Continue reading Hidden Figures (2016) Movie Review
Ove (Rolf Lassgard) is rigid, resolute, decisive, cynical, cantankerous, embittered, emboldened, unfriendly. But mostly he is a man of simple means who wants things just to his liking. He doesn’t like people driving through his neighborhood, as it is strictly forbidden. He argues over the coupon price of a bouquet of flowers that he leaves for his deceased wife. And, when he loses his job of 43 years to a pair of 20-somethings, he decides to hang himself from his living room ceiling.
Except, each time he tries, he is interrupted by his new neighbors: a family who means well in spite of pushing all of Ove’s buttons.
The narrative of an elderly man hardened over the grief for Continue reading A Man Called Ove (2016) Movie Review
Fences is an adaptation from the stage written by August Wilson (the playwright) and directed by/starring Denzel Washington (the star on stage). It is the stage talent taking the play and directly adapting the source material to the screen. And it feels like it takes place on a stage.
Sets, even the city streets filled with film reference shops like Rosebud beauty salon and the Grand Hotel, feel like Continue reading Fences (2016) Movie Review
The biopic is a tiresome genre. It is predicated on formula and stuffy grandiose representations. When a film like Jackie comes around, then, it acts as a feat of restorative faith in the biopic.
Jackie is shot with opaque symmetry. There are many angular, straight on shots that mirror the subject’s mournful resolve. It is an elegant Continue reading Jackie (2016) Movie Review
The first notable aspect of Lion, the international homecoming story from Garth Davis, is the abrupt sound design. The vibrant score of piano and strings that accompany massive birds-eye-view shots of the countryside is immediately striking.
The mechanical dissonance of trains and people in a busy market are contrasted by immense silences, as when Saroo (Sunny Pawar) loses his brother Guddu (Abishek Bharate) in a train station. When the train pulls off with Saroo Continue reading Lion (2016) Movie Review
Elle opens on the immediate aftermath of a rape. More specifically, Paul Verhoeven’s film opens on protagonist Elle (Isabelle Huppert) cleaning up afterwards as a means of hiding the crime’s existence. Her nonchalance over the issue becomes an anomaly. “I guess I was raped” is how she breaks the news to her closest friends. The police are never involved.
Yet she prepares herself for another attack. She sleeps with a hammer by her pillow. She purchases pepper spray and a hatchet.
Elle is a slow-burn thriller about the nature of power. Elle’s character is introduced as a bifurcated one, trapped between Continue reading Elle (2016) Movie Review
Elizabeth Sloane (Jessica Chastain), a take-no-prisoners Washington lobbyist, comes under scrutiny by Congress for potentially illegal dealings. The film opens on a Congressional hearing, then jumps three months back to establish how Sloane ends up in this situation. As the film jumps back and forth between temporal locations, an intricate story of morally gray political competition emerges.
Miss Sloane paces with the snappy dialogue of an Aaron Sorkin drama. It is no wonder that the film sports Continue reading Miss Sloane (2016) Movie Review
Susan (Amy Adams), an art gallery owner, receives a novel manuscript from her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal). The twisted work, a thriller involving characters not dissimilar to Susan and Edward, proves to be an added hindrance to Susan’s already strained life, a life of lavish emptiness and a philandering new husband (Armie Hammer). As she progresses through the novel, she begins an introspection into her own life that could prove to change her.
Director Tom Ford, a fashion designer by trade, brings his talents to this film, and his touch becomes clear on the Continue reading Nocturnal Animals (2016) Movie Review
Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) lives a mundane existence as a building handyman. Cold and blunt, he works all day and drinks all night, isolating himself into a bubble. When his brother (Kyle Chandler) dies, Lee is asked to take custody of the man’s son (Lucas Hedges).
Affleck plays Lee bristly, but not icy. In an extended conversation sequence in a hospital following his brother’s death, Lee reacts with Continue reading Manchester by the Sea (2016) Movie Review
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