REVIEW: “West Side Story” (2021)

December 13, 2021 by Keith Garlington

Let’s be honest, there aren’t many filmmakers out there who can suddenly decide to make a musical and it turn out to be something truly extraordinary. Yet that’s exactly what Steven Spielberg has done with “West Side Story”. Think about it, he’s the man behind the camera for such movies as “Jaws”, “E.T.”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “Jurassic Park”, and “Saving Private Ryan”. And now he’s given us the best movie musical of 2021 and one of the very best since the genre’s recent resurgence.

Story has it that Spielberg has wanted to adapt Leonard Bernstein’s 1957 Broadway musical for years. It took a while, but now late in his incredible career he’s given the chance. There are so many ways this could’ve went bad. But Spielberg isn’t simply remaking the well-known Natalie Wood led 1961 adaptation. He and screenwriter Tony Kushner offer a surprisingly fresh take on the story while still capturing that classic movie musical style.

**Image Courtesy of 20th Century Studios**

The story is set in 1950s New York City and it’s a time of obvious change. There’s a growing Puerto Rican community in the city’s West Side. Meanwhile poor families are losing their homes to powerful land developers who were buying up blocks and tearing down old apartment buildings with plans to replace them with fancier lofts for higher paying renters. That helps set the powder keg dynamic that simmers all throughout “West Side Story”.

The musical is essentially part romance and part street gang drama. A turf war has broken out in the West Side between the Jets and the Sharks. The Jets are a pack of local kids from poor broken families who’ve been raised on the neighborhood streets. The Sharks are a Puerto Rican gang carving out and protecting a few blocks of turf for their community. Both gangs are pressed under society’s thumb and both are about to be squeezed out by a common threat. But their unbridled animus towards each other blinds them to the reality of their shared situation.

Spielberg does a good job developing what divides the Jets and the Sharks. Both groups of angst-filled young men have been shaped by an assortment of factors – cultural, socioeconomic, domestic, and even racial. “Go back where you came from” yells Riff (Mike Faist), the street-tough yet pained leader of the Jets. “Stick with your own kind” warns Bernardo (David Alvarez), the straight-shooting and protective leader of the Sharks.

But what really brings things to a head is the romance that springs up between Tony (Ansel Elgort) and Maria (Rachel Zegler is her stunning feature film debut). Tony is best friends with Riff and is a co-founder of the Jets. But he’s fresh off a year in prison and determined to stay clean. Maria is sweet, hard-working and the sister of the overly protective Bernardo. So when their eyes lock at a school-sponsored dance and they immediately fall in love, you have all the ingredients for a combustible situation.

Already hungry to fight, the two gangs use the budding romance to set up a ‘rumble’ – an armed showdown 1950s style. The cops, led by the shady Lieutenant Schrank (Corey Stoll), get wind of the rumble and search from Lincoln Square to San Juan Hill to find it and stop it before the violence erupts. Meanwhile Tony and Maria are caught in the middle; torn between their love for each other and their loyalty to their friends and family.

It may be hard to imagine a story like this in the form of a musical, but Spielberg tells it through a near seamless mix of song, dance, and drama. With its soaring music and energetic dance numbers, “West Side Story” plays like a smile-inducing ode to the classic movie musical. By that I mean it gives a hearty embrace to both music AND dance. The choreography is terrific as is the overall look of the film thanks to the eye-popping production design from Oscar-winner and Spielberg favorite Janusz Kamiński’s lively and immersive cinematography.

As for the performances, Spielberg’s casting is mostly spot-on. Rachel Zegler is a star born, with a deep emotional resonance and a powerful voice that I never expected. Stoll is great in a small role as is Rita Moreno who gets some great scenes playing the owner of a neighborhood drug store who tries to guide Tony down the right path. I also loved Ariana DeBose as Bernardo’s spirited girlfriend Anita. But for me, the scene-stealer is the charismatic Faist. He’s a perfect fit for his role, and both his acting and dancing transported me back in time, both within the story and as a fan of 50s era big screen musicals. It’s some of my favorite supporting work of the year.

I went into “West Side Story” not knowing what to expect. But Spielberg’s latest swept me away and I left the theater on an emotional high. Some of his points are a little too on the nose and there’s a small underdeveloped side story that never feels true. But those are small things in a movie that put all my reservations to rest. Some have questioned the need for another “West Side Story”. I don’t know whether we “needed” it. But I’m thrilled that Steven Spielberg gave us one. What a rush. “West Side Story” is in theaters now.

VERDICT – 4.5 STARS

REVIEW: “Don’t Look Up” (2021)

December 10, 2021 by Keith Garlington

It’s true that filmmaker Adam McKay has a pretty devoted following. His six(ish) hit-or-miss comedy collaborations with Will Ferrell earned him a pretty enthusiastic fan base. Then in 2015 he tried something a little different with the intriguing but exhausting “The Big Short”. He followed it with the bloated and insufferable “Vice”, a movie that showed what can happen when indulgences run wild.

I tend to approach any new McKay film with tempered expectations and a fair amount of caution. That’s precisely what I did with “Don’t Look Up”, his new star-studded affair first announced in 2019 by Paramount Pictures and then acquired by Netflix. It’s another big grab for the streaming leader and a movie with obvious awards season ambitions.

As it turns out, “Don’t Look Up” is a welcomed surprise and a considerable step up from McKay’s last film. It’s a cynical and biting satire in the grandest sense of the word. The film takes aim at everything from our culture, to our politics, to the basic way we interact with each other. Nothing is safe or sacred. Cable news, social media, big tech, the entertainment industry – all find themselves in McKay’s crosshairs.

It’s also really funny. In contrast to “Vice”, which was too full of itself and left McKay resembling the political left’s comic version of Dinesh D’Souza (but with a bigger budget and a great cast), “Don’t Look Up” is a craftier blend of McKay’s early silliness and later message-driven storytelling. The result is a laugh-out-loud, gag-a-minute romp full of well-placed jabs at nearly every hot button issue of our day (and several lukewarm ones as well). There’s so much crammed into this movie, and it’s a miracle that (for the most part) McKay manages to hold it all together.

While he has never been one to hide his own political slant, here McKay actually takes a broader look at the world, finding that there’s plenty of scrutiny to go around. His film confronts modern society’s division, arrogance, self-righteousness and backwards thinking, revealing what could happen if we continue to let those things ferment. In essence, his movie is saying our world is full of dumb people, many of them in positions of power and influence. And it’s a condition that permeates both sides of the political aisle and every social class.

Of course McKay examines all of the above through his own bluntly comical lens, highlighting the absurdity of our positions, obsessions, and reactions often to a chorus of laughter. And while his script deserves a lot of credit, he’s helped by an all-star cast who seem completely in-sync with McKay’s wacky rhythm.

At the top is Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, two good-looking Hollywood stars garnished with hideous mops in an effort to make them look more like the rest of us (I’ve read both were drawn by the movie’s themes, but I’m sure the $55 million Netflix paid them didn’t hurt). Leo plays Dr. Randall Mindy, an intensely antsy small-fry astronomer who leads a team of Michigan State grad students. Lawrence plays Dr Kate Dibiasky, Randall’s manic research partner and a Ph.D. candidate who makes the big discovery that sets the movie in motion.

It turns out that a nearly ten-kilometer-wide comet is barreling towards Earth. After crunching the numbers Kate and Randall determine that the “planet killer” should arrive in six months resulting in an extinction level event. The duo contacts Dr. Clayton “Teddy” Oglethorpe (played by the always superb Rob Morgan), an esteemed scientist who helps them get an audience with the President of the United States, Janie Orlean (Meryl Streep).

The comedy really kicks into gear when the three scientists arrive at the White House. There’s a hilarious Oval Office scene where Randall, Kate, and Teddy attempt to warn the President and her oblivious administration. They quickly learn that optics, poll numbers, and the upcoming mid-terms carry more weight than the looming Armageddon. This is also where we get a good taste of Jonah Hill’s Jason Orlean, the President’s spoiled son and her Chief of Staff. Normally Hill is an actor I can only take in small doses. But here his pinpoint improv-heavy delivery offers some of the film’s biggest laughs.

Adding to the fun is Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry as two incredibly pompous cable news hosts (both are great). Ron Pearlman gets one of the funniest monologues I’ve heard in years. Timothée Chalamet pops up and gets some good lines as a skater-boy named Yule. And with his snowy white hair, pearly uppers, and cosmetically smoothed skin, Mark Rylance is hysterical as the celebrity CEO of a huge tech company.

The movie makes an unexpected pivot at around the two-hour mark. The humor mostly evaporates and the story takes a more serious turn. In one sense it loses some steam as it veers away from its biggest strengths. It’s also where the movie’s running time becomes noticeable (it clocks in at a whopping 145 minutes). But the shift in tone isn’t without purpose. McKay wants to ensure that we don’t miss the point of his movie. He wants us to stop, think, and feel. For the most part he succeeds.

The humor in “Don’t Look Up” ranges from subtle to ridiculous, and there are a number of fun callbacks to movies like “Network”, “Dr. Strangelove“, and even (gulp) “Armageddon”. Yet there’s more to glean from this waggish doomsday comedy. It’s an indictment of our tech dependent society. It’s an on-the-nose allegory for climate change. But most effectively, it’s a stinging examination of a divided nation and its inability to communicate. It’s an urgent issue that demands consideration. McKay just lets us laugh while we do so.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

My Guest Appearance on Tavern Talk: Initial Reactions to “Don’t Look Up”

December 8, 2021 by Keith Garlington

I had a great time appearing on Tavern Talk by Initial Reaction to discuss Adam McKay’s wacky end-of-the-world satire “Don’t Look Up”. It was late and we had screened two movies, so please forgive my rambling. But (as it always is on that show) I had a lot of fun.

Please click below and check it out.

REVIEW: “8-Bit Christmas” (2021)

December 8, 2021 by Keith Garlington

I remember it like was yesterday. Waking up on Christmas morning in 1987, glassy eyes and my hair looking like I had just excited a wind tunnel. I hadn’t slept much that night. I never did on Christmas Eve, even during my teen years. Call it a side effect of being a big ol’ kid during the holiday season. But that year was special. It was the year when our parents completely surprised my brother and me with a Nintendo Entertainment System. It’s something we weren’t expecting as we walked into our living room on that chilly December morning.

Our Nintendo was quite the treat and I couldn’t begin to tell you the number of hours we logged on that console. Those with fond memories of the NES automatically have a nostalgic connection to the new Christmas comedy “8-Bit Christmas”. It comes from director Michael Drowse and screenwriter Kevin Jakubowski and chronicles a young boy and his friends as they try to secure a coveted Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas.

Based on Jakubowski’s novel of the same name, much of the movie plays like a knockoff of the perennial Yuletide classic “A Christmas Story”. Instead of Ralphie pursuing a Red Rider BB Gun, it’s an 11-year-old named Jake (Winslow Fegley) after an NES. It has the same style of narration. There’s the neurotic yet caring father. It even has its own Scut Farkus (played here with a nice mix of menace and humor by Cyrus Arnold).

But the more you watch, the more you begin to notice that “8-Bit Christmas” has a few of its own unique markings that set it apart from its better and more memorable inspiration. It’s hard to recognize them at first, as it’s so blatantly pulling from “A Christmas Story”. But as it goes, it begins to develop its own identity. It delivers some well-landed lighthearted laughs and ends on a warm and touching note that frankly I wasn’t at all expecting.

Jake’s quest to get his own Nintendo is framed as a story told by his older self to his young daughter. Adult Jake (Neil Patrick Harris) is hearing it from his flustered daughter Annie (Sophia Reid-Gantzert) after telling her she’s too young to get a cellphone for Christmas. He begins telling her the story of certain Christmas in the late 80s when the Nintendo Entertainment System was what (almost) every kid wanted. Annie sours at the thought of listening to her dad blab, but over time gets sucked into the story.

We’re then transport back to 1987, the time of the Trapper Keeper, Lite Brite, leg warmers and Swatches. Jake lives outside of Chicago with his scatterbrained wannabe carpenter dad John (Steve Zahn), his coupon-clipping mom Kathy (June Diane Raphael), and his snarky little sister Lizzy (Bellaluna Resnick). All Jake wants for Christmas is a Nintendo, but as you would expect he runs into all sorts of obstacles.

Jake’s parents aren’t interested in getting him an NES and their reasoning is strangely murky. It’s made even weirder by the fact that the Nintendo seems easily available in stores. His folks just aren’t into it, I guess. Later they’re given a little motivation when an advocacy group rises up protesting the violence in video games. So Jake and his eclectic group of friends must hatch their own plan if they’re ever to get a Nintendo for themselves.

“8-Bit Christmas” has its rocky patches and the storytelling can be pretty uneven. And at times it seems handcuffed by holiday movie expectations. But you kinda look over those baked-in tropes that are in nearly every movie like this. Instead, it’s the funny bits that end up standing out. It’s the wackier side characters like psycho rich kid Timmy (Chandler Dean) or Farmer (Max Malas), Jake’s friend and well documented pathological liar. And then there’s the film’s heart which really comes out at the end. Sure, it’s a little sentimental, but who cares. I responded to it which is all I could ask. “8-Bit Christmas” is now streaming on HBO Max.

VERDICT – 3 STARS

First Glance: “Munich – The Edge of War”

December 7, 2021 by Keith Garlington

George Mackay stars in the upcoming World War II thriller “Munich – The Edge of War”. One of the first in Netflix’s 2022 slate of movies, “Munich – TEOW” comes from director Christian Schwochow and screenwriter Ben Power. It’s based on a Robert Harris novel of the same name and is set in late 1938 on the eve of Hitler’s planned invasion of Czechoslovakia. So automatically we’re in historically rich territory.

The story follows two young men, British civil servant (George MacKay) and a German diplomat (Jannis Niewöhner) who join together to try and broker a peace deal. With Europe on the brink of war, Neville Chamberlain (Jeremy Irons) and the British government hatch a plan to stop the inevitable attack that would eventually set in motion events that would lead to the deadliest military conflict in history (an estimated 75-85 million perished as a result). I’m a sucker for thoughtful historical war dramas and I like the look of this one.

“Munich – The Edge of War“ opens in limited release before dropping on Netflix January 21, 2022. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

REVIEW: “Black Friday” (2021)

December 7, 2021 by Keith Garlington

What better day than Black Friday for an alien parasite to crash to earth turning bargain-hungry shoppers into flesh eating mutants? While COVID-19 and online shopping may have been the death knells for the “busiest shopping day of the Christmas season”, many of us still remember the absolute madness that was (and in a few places still is) Black Friday.

Director Casey Tebo’s horror comedy, fittingly titled “Black Friday”, takes its above-mentioned nutty concept and runs with it. Written by Andy Greskoviak, the story centers on a group of disgruntled toy store workers forced to work Thanksgiving evening as hordes of Black Friday shoppers line up across the front and around the corner of the store. Little do they know an alien parasite has made its way to earth. Soon the blood-thirsty shoppers are turning into blood-thirsty zombie-like mutants, leaving the employees to fight for their lives.

**Image Courtesy of Screen Media Films**

The characters mostly consist of a blend of personalities and the movie follows the familiar “who will survive” blueprint. Devon Sawa plays Ken, a divorced father of two who’s stuck in a go-nowhere job. Marnie (Ivana Baquero) is a young disillusioned clerk. Archie (Michael Jai White) is the brawny maintenance man. Chris (Ryan Lee) is a germaphobe still living with his parents. There’s the new guy Emmett (Louie Kurtzman). And running the store is regional manager Jonathan (the great Bruce Campbell) and Brian (Stephen Peck), Jonathan’s overly enthusiastic lackey in charge of the sales floor.

There’s not a lot in “Black Friday” that will catch you by surprise. We’ve seen variations of this kind of story several times before. The big difference here is the setting and a gooey alien parasite which is brought to life via some pretty cool makeup and practical effects. The problem is the movie never fully embraces the goofiness of its premise. Things starts off on a fun and silly note, but the humor gets a little more sporadic in the second half. The film never takes itself seriously. It simply doesn’t take the absurdity as far as it needs to.

It also never builds any real tension to speak of. It’s not that the story needs a lot. But when you dial back the humor you need something to take it’s place. As a result “Black Friday” sits and spins its wheels in the second half, seemingly unsure of how far to take things. We’re left with a middling and sadly forgettable horror comedy featuring not enough horror and not enough comedy. Still, it’s an entertaining premise and the cast are all onboard. That’s enough to keep your attention, but not enough to stick in your memory. “Black Friday” is now available on VOD.