REVIEW: “Widows”

February 6, 2019 by Keith Garlington

On paper there was nothing about the story of “Widows” that interested me. A heist movie about a heist that goes fatally bad. Then the widows of the men killed in the heist plan a heist of their own. Obviously that is a very basic (and admittedly unfair) reading of it but story-wise I didn’t see much to get excited about.

But it’s amazing how a compelling director and a stellar cast can dramatically change your outlook. Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”) handles the directing duties but also co-writes alongside Gillian Flynn (“Gone Girl”). With that kind of talent working the pens you expect the story to have more going on than a mere surface reading would reveal. That’s definitely the cased for “Widows” although it does have a few kinks.

The film opens with seasoned thief Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) and his crew being killed after a botched robbery turns violent. The always fabulous Viola Davis stars as Veronica, Harry’s widow. Turns out Harry swiped $2 million from Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry), a Chicago mob boss running for alderman in a Southside precinct. He needs his money back to fund his campaign against his equally crooked but politically established opponent Jack Mulligan (Colin Farrell).

Manning and his cold-blooded strong-arm Jatemme (Daniel Kaluuya) begin pressing Veronica giving her three days to get their money or clearly something bad will happen. Her only out is to pull off a heist of her own and to do so she rounds up two of the widows from Harry’s crew, Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) and Linda (Michelle Rodriguez). They later recruit Belle whose played by a terrific but terrible underused Cynthia Erivo.

Most of the film takes place as they get ready for the heist, but it doesn’t focus specifically on that. Instead McQueen uses this time the flesh out these women (some better than others). Their actual heist prep gets the back-burner treatment and ends up being thrown together a little too neatly. McQueen does a good job of making this more than a simple heist film but in doing so he shortchanges the very elements of the heist.

Time is also spent on a subplot that explores dirty municipal politics and the plays for power by Manning and Mulligan. They battle for influential endorsements and each manipulates the lower income voter base for their own reasons. Manning wants to extend his criminal control, Mulligan is pushed by his loathsome father (Robert Duvall in a nostalgic but lightweight role) to preserve their family’s long run of political standing.

Davis is the perfect person to anchor the film and its swirl of moving parts. She provides a strong emotional center and some of the film’s best scenes are of Veronica alone dealing with her pent-up anger and unrelenting grief. The other women also hand in good performances especially the often underappreciated Debicki.

McQueen gets good work from the supporting gents as well. Henry is particularly good as a figure who’s both persuasive and intimidating. Farrell is very convincing as a wealthy political slimeball. Kaluuya is handed the more crowd-pleasing role. There is practically no complexity to his character whatsoever. He’ll pop up throughout the film, each time just for a moment, and then he’s gone. I do wish he had more depth, but he’s very effective as a chilling and ruthless killer.

“Widows” may frame itself as a heist movie but it can hardly be put in that box. McQueen has a much broader aim and his film touches on a lot of different things. It’s loaded with subtle (and some not so subtle) statements on politics, race, economic standing, crime, and even a wedged in critique of police brutality. Some are more effective than others. The film is strongest when telling the women’s story – about their fight through systems stacked against them to carry out their mission. Unfortunately some of that story gets lost amid McQueen’s ambition.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

REVIEW: “Miss Bala” (2019)

February 5, 2019 by Keith Garlington

I found the very concept of “Miss Bala” to be promising. It’s a female-driven crime-thriller with a predominantly Latino cast and crew built around an interesting story premise and with plenty of big action. I found myself genuinely hopeful and rooting for the movie to offer a new and unique point of view.

We certainly get glimpses of that as director Catherine Hardwicke tries to walk the line between fresh and conventional. For the most part she succeeds. To my surprise “Miss Bala” isn’t wall-to-wall action with story beats only meant to move us to the next set piece. Instead Hardwicke and writer Gareth Dunnett-Alcocer give more attention to storytelling than to bullet-soaked bravado. If only the script had covered all its bases.

The film stars Gina Rodriguez who gives a truly eye-opening performance. She plays Gloria, an ambitious make-up artist working in Los Angeles. She heads to Tijuana, Mexico to visit and help her best friend Suzu (Cristina Rodlo) prepare for the Miss Baja beauty pageant. The trouble starts when the two friends go to a swanky nightclub in hopes of making connections with some of the pageant bigwigs. A shootout breaks out, Suzu disappears and Gloria finds herself in the clutches of a ruthless boy band…..errr… drug gang.

The leader of this young and often shirtless band of hoodlums is Lino (Ismael Cruz Córdova). He tells Gloria he’ll help her find Suzu but first she has to do some jobs for him (not that she really has a choice in the matter). At the same time the DEA gets wind of her and demands she works as their mole in Lino’s gang in exchange for their protection. Gloria ends up a pawn between two warring groups and must play both sides in order to stay alive.

“Miss Bala” is most effective when it centers on Gloria’s quest to survive in a world dominated by devious, power-hungry men. Rodriguez sells fear and dread at the perfect temperature. Her emotions ring true and every action she takes feels as though they are coming from a real place. In other words she is no female take on John Rambo. Hardwicke’s perspective always keeps her humanity in focus.

Where the film falls short is in its characterization of its villains. First off it never goes as deep as it should in describing who these violent baddies are. Does the strangely dreamy Lino and his goons work for a cartel? Are they middlemen or do they run the show? The other group is just as undefined – generic corrupt politicians somehow linked to a sex trafficking ring. It also doesn’t help that most of them are as smart as a bag of rocks.

“Miss Bala” lacks the edge you would expect from this type of movie, and its story plays out in the most implausible way. I also think you could argue that the film comes a little to close to glamorizing gang life. But Rodriguez is really good and she’s given just enough to keep us invested in her and her survival despite the pieces around her sometimes falling short. She ends up being enough for me to recommend the film while at the same team fully realizing it could have been a lot better.

VERDICT – 2.5 STARS

First Glance: “Hobbs and Shaw” Trailer

February 4, 2019 by Keith Garlington

With eight movies in the bag and over $5 billion in the bank I think it’s safe to say that the Fast and Furious franchise has been a huge (and probably unexpected) success. So in normal Hollywood fashion you gotta gave a spin-off, right?

The first of probably several offshoot films dropped its first trailer and lets just say it looks to be fully embracing the outrageous action and overall absurdity the series has become known for. That’s a good thing. “Hobbs and Shaw” thrusts Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham into the spotlight and there looks to be no shortage of big set pieces and goofy humor. Oh, and Idris Elba as the baddie? I’m in.

“Hobbs and Shaw” lands August 2nd. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing this sure-fire box office hit.

REVIEW: “At Eternity’s Gate”

February 4, 2019 by Keith Garlington

There is no denying that within the troubled man that was Vincent van Gogh resided the heart of an artist. He was a man intensely dependent on painting. For him it was as vital as air or food. At the same time van Gogh’s struggles with mental health are almost as legendary as the timeless art he left behind. “At Eternity’s Gate” seeks to bring this immensely talented but deeply troubled man to life.

Director and co-writer Julian Schnabel, a painter himself, focuses his film on the last few years of van Gogh’s life. His intention is to capture the spirit of the artist more so than provide an authentically detailed historical account. It’s an approach that allows for him to use his film as a canvas and his camera as his brush. Much like the thick, heavy stroke of van Gogh’s brush, Schnabel and cinematographer Benoît Delhomme lean heavily on visual technique to emote and inform.

Van Gogh is played by 63-year-old Willem Dafoe and some have pointed out the age discrepancy between actor and character (Van Gogh died at age 37). But mere seconds into his first scene it’s clear that Dafoe is the perfect choice. Always the immersive actor, Dafoe prepared for the role by learning to paint, scouring over van Gogh’s many letters, and visited the French countryside, gazing upon many of the same landscapes that found there way onto the artist’s canvases.

Schnabel paints us an intimate portrait that seeks to get in the painter’s headspace and show us things from his perspective (at times even using his camera in first-person). This proves to have a duel effect. First it gives us a riveting look at the creative impulses that drove him to paint and the near therapeutic joy he took from it. We see it in these entrancing sequences where van Gogh takes off walking, loaded with painting gear, searching for inspiration and nature’s perfect image. The gorgeous locales, Dafoe’s impassioned and affecting portrayal, the exquisite piano chords from Tatiana Lisovskaya score all work together to help us see things as Vincent sees them.

Second, we experience the cracks in his sanity from his point of view. Simple anxieties slowly give way to voices and visions which haunt the artist but tragically inspire some of his best work. The deeper the dive into his tormented psyche the more Schnabel blurs the lines between Vincent’s visions and reality. Not only does he begin questioning what he sees, but so do we. Through it all the film smartly makes no judgements nor does it try and diagnose his madness.

Along the way we get some fabulous supporting work, mostly in small parts but each equally good. Oscar Isaac is a nice fit as fellow post-Impressionist (and short-time friend) Paul Gauguin. Rupert Friend is really good as Vincent’s supportive brother Theo. And Mads Mikkelsen has a short but brilliant scene playing a priest tasked with determining Vincent’s mental fitness.

“Sometimes my mind goes out on me.” It’s a heartbreaking line from a tortured soul trying to make some sense of his mental decline. These laments of introspection and self-examination are countered with touching creative moments where Vincent, with a child-like wonder, loses himself in his art and the natural beauty that inspired it. And it’s all conveyed without leaning on sentimentality or needless melodrama.

Vincent van Gogh’s death in 1890 has long been attributed to suicide but that belief has since come up for debate. Schnabel’s film sides with biographers Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith who in 2011 presented a much different and arguably more rational theory. Their idea definitely feels right for this particular portrait which I quite loved. And among the many cinematic turns taken at depicting van Gogh’s life (and there have been some good ones), “At Eternity’s Gate” is my new favorite.

VERDICT – 4.5 STARS

REVIEW: “The Upside” (2019)

February 1, 2019 by Keith Garlington

“The Intouchables” was a funny yet sensitive 2011 French dramedy that became a mammoth box office hit. In France it still sits as the second highest grossing French film of all-time. It was a movie loaded with charm, with a great chemistry between its two leads, and an unforgettable score from Ludovico Einaudi. It would go on to spawn several international remakes including the new (and inevitable) American version titled “The Upside”.

Without question “The Upside” has had a rocky path to the big screen. It actually premiered back in 2017 at the Toronto International Film Festival. Unfortunately it was one of several movies put aside and eventually sold off in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Now two years later it has a distributor and has found its way to theaters.

The story centers around the unlikely friendship between Phillip Lacasse (Bryan Cranston), an extremely wealthy but deeply depressed quadriplegic and Dell Scott (Kevin Hart), a man just out on parole who desperately needs a job to stay out of prison. Phillip haphazardly hires Dell to be his live-in caretaker against the recommendation of his loyal but uptight assistant Yvonne (Nicole Kidman).

These two polar opposites form a bond that goes beyond their economic and racial differences. Dell offers Phillip the chance to feel alive again while Phillip gives Dell an opportunity to earn back the trust of his estranged wife (Aja Naomi King) and son (Jahi Di’Allo Winston). The movie sprinkles in several ‘fish out of water’ gags along the way, some of them landing better than others.

As you would expect Cranston is solid but it’s Hart who surprises. He has always been an actor I could only handle in small doses. Here he dials back his hyperactive brand of comedy and gives what is easily some of his best work. The problem is director Neil Burger and writer Jon Hartmere barely push these characters. Cranston and Hart are left with good chemistry but plenty of unexplored territory.

Despite the nice performances, the central relationship in “The Upside” doesn’t quite have the same energy and charm we got with François Cluzet and Omar Sy. Also missing is any real tension between them. “The Intouchables” begins with a genuine disconnect which makes the journey towards respect and friendship more compelling. With one lone exception “The Upside” keeps everything pretty lukewarm, once again missing out on some good dramatic opportunities.

I don’t want to be too hard on the film. Much like the original it still has a good story to tell and uses some strong performances to tell it. While some have taken shots at the movie for its lack of angry modern-day racial commentary, I wonder if they have forgotten this is based on a true story. The film’s investment is in telling us about this crazy and unique friendship. In doing so it may not hit every note it should, but it still manages to be a worthwhile watch.

VERDICT – 3 STARS

REVIEW: “Bohemian Rhapsody”

January 31, 2019 by Keith Garlington

When you think of rock-and-roll biopics it’s hard to come up with a better subject than the incandescent and enigmatic Freddie Mercury. As lead singer for the legendary British rock band Queen, the wildly flamboyant Mercury became a household name across the globe. He would perform with Queen for over 20 years until his AIDS-related death in 1991. He was just 45.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” sets out to tell the story of Freddie Mercury starting around the time Queen was formed in 1970 and finishing up with their famous twenty-one minute Live Aid performance at Wembley Stadium in 1985. In between it hits on a several significant moments in Mercury’s life while making up a few of its own. The results are a by-the-numbers musical biopic that feels pretty basic despite the compelling character at its center.

The embattled Bryan Singer handled the bulk of the direction before being fired due to constant no-shows and clashes with the cast and crew most notably the film’s star Rami Malek. Dexter Fletcher replaced Singer with around two-thirds of the movie shot and ready for post-production. I’ll let others figure out which one deserves the most credit and/or the most blame for how things turned out.

Rami Malek is easily the film’s biggest strength. He seamlessly maneuvers between the two sides of Freddie Mercury – the shy and intensely private man and his garish, energetic stage persona. He deftly unveils Mercury’s quiet sensitivity and insecurity. But even more impressive is watching Malek lose himself onstage, perfectly reflecting Mercury’s rock-and-roll alter-ego. Whether strutting charismatically or belting out (kinda) classics with a four-octave range. It’s amazing to watch.

Mercury is very much the centerpiece to the point where the rest of the band almost gets lost in the background. It’s a shame because the movie is best when viewed as a simple celebration of their music. The very best scenes are when the band is together fighting over and making music. That includes a fabulous final twenty minutes which recreates Queen’s Live Aid concert performance and perfectly captures the band’s remarkable chemistry and energy.

But the movie struggles when the focus is solely on Mercury. The filmmakers make several weird omissions and peculiar changes to his timeline. In the film’s most glaring bit of fiction an arrogant and selfish Mercury, enamored by his own stardom, breaks up Queen to pursue his solo career. In reality Queen never broke up. It’s a needless demonization. There is an attempt to representation Mercury’s descent into the grips of drugs and debauchery. It gets the message across but isn’t what I would call enlightening.

So with “Bohemian Rhapsody” you end up with a very safe and conventional biopic that aims more at being a crowd-pleaser than an in-depth character exploration. When viewed in that light it’s a pretty enjoyable film. Malek is fantastic as is most of the supporting cast (Gwilym Lee’s resemblance to Brain May is uncanny). And while I learned nothing new about Queen or Freddie Mercury, the movie concentrates enough on the music to make it worthwhile.