REVIEW: “If Beale Street Could Talk”

January 8, 2019 by Keith Garlington

Barry Jenkins became a household name with his 2016 Best Picture winner “Moonlight”. Despite the film’s universal acclaim, I could never get in sync with its storytelling rhythm and felt it dropped off significantly in its second half. That’s certainly not the case with his follow-up feature “If Beale Street Could Talk”.

Adapted by Jenkins from James Baldwin’s 1974 novel, “Beale Street” has a very distinct voice. It’s a movie filled with longing and not just between two lovers. There is also an ever-present longing for hope, peace, equality, justice. This longing is in every frame of Jenkins’ soulful film and you see it burning in the eyes of nearly every character we encounter.

Jenkins begins his film by introducing us to Tish who is 19 and Fonny who is 22. Their opening gaze makes it clear that these inseparable childhood friends have fallen in love. They are two black kids in early 1970s Harlem with plenty of societal hurdles and a deck stacked against them. But in this early moment their love is all they see. In a very poignant way their simple yet central romance is the catalyst for everything else the film has to say.

The young couple’s world is turned upside down when Fonny is arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. He is sent to prison while Tish discovers she is pregnant with their child. Jenkins elegantly maneuvers back-and-forth on his timeline, braiding together their challenges during Fonny’s incarceration with touching looks back at their lives as a couple subtly framed as memories more so than flashbacks.

Jenkins shows off an impressive knack for drawing a ton out of his characters, not just through his dialogue but even more so from his camera. Take relative newcomer KiKi Layne who plays Tish. She brings a heartbreaking innocence and vulnerability to her character. Layne’s earnest portrayal conveys an inherent goodness in Tish which Jenkins wisely locks in on. He does the same for Stephan James as Fonny. He’s gentlemanly and sincere; so full of life and love yet slowly being drained of hope with each passing day behind bars.

Then there is the stellar supporting cast led by Regina King who is winning every award she’s nominated for. She plays Tish’s mother Sharon, a realist but also a loving encourager determined to help Fonny despite there being no easy road to justice. Colman Domingo is superb as Tish’s father, also a realist and equally compassionate, yet forced to help the kids in his own unique ways. Both performances offer up some of the year’s best supporting work.

I should also mention Brian Tyree Henry who appears in a key sequence midway through. He plays Fonny’s old friend Daniel who just got out of prison for a crime he also didn’t commit. In a bit of on-the-nose foreshadowing, Daniel shares his experience with Fonny almost like a prophet warning us of what’s to come. Obviousness aside, Jenkins allows their conversation to play out, probably a hair too long, but still in the way it needed to. And within the framework of their conversation, every word they express feels authentic and honest.

Perhaps the most magnetizing sequence sees Tish and her parents inviting Fonny’s family over to break the news of her pregnancy. It’s tense and contentious from the start eventually bringing out thoughts of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”. The scene is almost undone by Fonny’s belligerent and over-the-top mother (possibly Jenkins’ attempt at channeling Baldwin’s negative perception of religion). Still, you find yourself glued to every character and every exchange.

Barry Jenkins clearly has something to say about racial injustice, not just of the past but also how it still resonates today. It forms an ominous cloud that hangs over his entire film. But at its deepest core “Beale Street” isn’t a loud, angry social lecture. It’s an aching love story lusciously shot by Jenkins favorite James Laxton and accompanied by one of the year’s best scores from Nicholas Britell. The tragedy is in how this love is forever effected by a cold, prejudicial system. Tish’s burdened father once says “These are our children, and we gotta set them free.” This becomes our longing as well.

VERDICT – 4.5 STARS

REVIEW: “Vice” (2018)

January 7, 2019 by Keith Garlington

Adam McKay’s makeup and costume dramedy “Vice” is quite the movie to unpack. With its double-edged title and full lather of political messaging, “Vice” resembles a progressive manifesto more than a stinging satire or credible biographical sketch. And McKay comes across as the political left’s version of Dinesh D’Souza but with a bigger budget and an attention-grabbing cast.

Now I am all for filmmakers having their own voices and relaying their own messages. It’s one of the things that makes cinema great. But when that message is used like a blunt weapon you can end up with the exhausting mess that is “Vice”. It is a frustratingly schizophrenic movie, bouncing around from scene to scene with no sense of focus. Good luck figuring out what McKay wants his film to be.

The game plan for the story was pretty simple – portray Dick Cheney to be the devil incarnate and use every single frame and every line of dialogue to do so. But in doing so, McKay ends up giving us someone who more closely resembles an 80’s Saturday morning cartoon villain than a character with any real human qualities. It’s a shame because Christian Bale’s stunning transformative performance deserves the critical acclaim it has received.

Storywise “Vice” makes the same mistake you often see in these types of movies – it tries to cover way too much ground. It starts with Cheney’s early days as a drunken “dirtbag” and then moves to his marriage to Lynne (a very good Amy Adams). It then meanders through six different presidencies showing Cheney’s various political roles in his (as McKay presents it) quest for power. Of course then there are the Bush years and Cheney’s time as VP and alleged puppet master.

And to bog things down even more why not wedge in as many conservative stalwarts as you can – Roger Ailes, Antonin Scalia, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, the Koch brothers, and that just scratches the surface. There is plenty you could say about some of these people, but they aren’t here to enrich the story. They are simply targets of McKay’s detestation both for them and Dick Cheney.

Oh, and after all of that, if somehow you didn’t get McKay’s blaring point that Chaney is pure evil in human form, you get a final 20 minutes where the director starts throwing as much as he can at the screen – Valerie Plame, the infamous hunting incident, and more. It all feels tacked on, as if he ran out of time but still didn’t know when to quit jabbing.

McKay’s structural choices aren’t much better. The story is jolted by several weird time jumps as well as out-of-the-blue attempts at humor that mostly land with a thud (apparently Cheney’s heart attacks are quite a gas). There is also an assortment of ham-fisted, on-the-nose imagery much of which probably looked better on paper than it does on the screen. But worst of all is this bizarre Jesse Plemons narration that plays out in the dopiest way imaginable.

Sam Rockwell is fun as George W. Bush but he’s not much help. His scenes are more like sketch-comedy bits than a meaningful movie role. Steve Carell comes off even worse. He plays Donald Rumsfeld as if he was doing an episode of “The Office” or another “Anchorman” sequel. Ultimately you end up clinging to Bale and Adams who give standout performances but can’t save the film from its plethora of flaws and miscalculations.

“Vice” is one big frustration especially considering the tons of potential it wastes. It’s a textbook example of how bad things can go when you have such rotten tone management and a dogged fixation on your message that smothers your storytelling and character building. To no surprise there has proven to be an audience for this slog. I can confidently say I’m not a part of it.

VERDICT 1.5 STARS

REVIEW: “Bumblebee”

January 2, 2019 by Keith Garlington

If you’re like me the very notion of a “Bumblebee” movie was easy to dismiss. I have been numb to the Transformers movie franchise since its second installment 2009. For me the movies spiraled into the kind of blockbuster I generally push back on – tons of CGI-fueled spectacle but barely a shred of story or character substance to sink your teeth into.

Then along comes “Bumblebee” and several things automatically grab your attention. For starters it’s the first Transformers film not directed by Michael Bay. Second, it stars a really good young actress in Hailee Steinfeld. Lastly, the movie is currently sitting at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. That was just enough to lure me into letting my guard down and actually going to the theater.

“Bumblebee” is both interesting and surprising – a prequel to the 2007 original film and far more intimate and clear-eyed than any of Michael Bay’s concoctions. It’s the second film from director Travis Knight, his first being the exceptional “Kubo and the Two Strings”. He and screenwriter Christina Hodson place a heavy emphasis on character which gives “Bumblebee” an emotional pulse missing from the franchise’s other installments.

As civil war rages on his home planet, Autobot soldier B-127 (later named Bumblebee) is sent to earth by leader Optimus Prime. His mission is to covertly establish a resistance base while protecting the planet if their enemies the Decepticons happen to show up. Bumblebee lands in 1987 California but has to fend off a testy government agency captained by John Cena and even worse a Decepticon who tailed him to Earth. Bumblebee survives the encounter but ends up seriously damaged, unable to speak and with a broken memory core. As a result he helplessly takes the form of a Volkswagen Beetle and shuts down.

Steinfeld’s Charlie is a bit of an outcast only days away from her 18th birthday. She still grieves the loss of her father and has been unable to move on like her mother (Pamela Adlon) who has since remarried. Charlie’s life is a perpetual state of disappointment and frustration whether it’s her downer job at a local carnival or she’s trying to fix up an old car she and her dad worked on together. She finds a glimmer of purpose in a dusty yellow Volkswagen Beetle (guess who) she discovers in her uncle’s junkyard.

While working on her new ride Charlie inadvertently wakes Bumblebee and in the process emits a signal quickly picked up by the Decepticons. The two quickly form a bond which Knight smartly spends a lot of time on. Both characters share a similar lostness but find a much-needed comfort in their relationship. This could have been an easy misfire but Hodson’s script has a legitimate heartbeat. It’s sweet and surprisingly tender without ever turning to mush. And Steinfeld is such a good actress either in the film’s softer moments or once the inevitable threat eventually arrives.

Other things that work – the movie’s sense of humor. Most of the Transformers films have tried to incorporate some level of humor. Here it comes from a better and more digestible place. It’s far from the crude and obnoxious nonsense several of Bay’s movies would peddle. “Bumblebee” also leans heavy into its 80’s setting. There are fun little 80’s nuggets spread throughout the film (who else remembers Mr. T cereal?) and the soundtrack is a blast.

As for what doesn’t quite work – while I did fall for the 80’s vibe there are moments where it is glaringly on-the-nose especially with the music. This is most noticeable in the first half (admittedly I still got a kick out of it). And then there is John Cena who inevitably pops back up as the misguided government antagonist. The character isn’t well written to begin with, but Cena doesn’t really help matters. He’s a bit is stiff, cheesy and often too cartoony to be taken seriously.

I realize calling “Bumblebee” the best film in the Transformers franchise isn’t much of a compliment. So let me try this – “Bumblebee” is a good spin-off that easily stands on its own unique merits. It’s able to dodge nearly every comparison to the more abyssmal of Michael Bay’s efforts while also giving us hope that the franchise can offer something worthwhile. The question becomes is it a case of too little too late?

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

Top 10 Films of 2018

December 30, 2018 by Keith Garlington

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It seems like I say this every time but another year has flown by. Now here we sit looking back at the movie year that was. 2018 was unique in that so many of my favorite films were never on my radar. A handful of blockbusters delivered while several small independent movies were huge surprises. Parsing this year’s batch of contenders was no easy task. Nonetheless we do these things so here we go:

As always I’ll begin by showing love to the fine movies that just missed my top 10. Here are my #11 – 20 picks:

#20 – “The 12th Man”
#19 – “Bad Times at the El Royale”
#18 – “Won’t You Be My Neighbor”
#17 – “Apostle”
#16 – “Custody”
#15 – “Eighth Grade”
#14 – “Paddington 2“
#13 – “You Were Never Really There”
#12 – “If Beale Street Could Talk”
#11 – “At Eternity’s Gate”

Here are my Top 10 films from 2018:

This innovative and surprisingly original horror film came from John Krasinski who not only starred but co-wrote and directed it. The movie’s central horror conceit is effective but at its core is the story of family shattered by grief and in a desperate struggle to pick up the pieces. Each family member is struggling under the weight of their own guilt and sense of loss. Each struggle to deal with it in their own ways. The craftiness in melding the horror and family elements can’t be praised enough.

This was easily one of the most beautiful films of 2018. It comes from French filmmaker Xavier Beauvois and tells a little known yet powerful World War I story. It’s not about the troops but the women left behind to keep their families, their farms, their livelihood together. The film’s slow observant rhythm rewards the patient viewer with a unique perspective on these characters and the uneasy drama that unfolds in the final third. Fine performances throughout and top-notch direction inspired by some of the great French filmmakers of the past.

Despite missing some key players from the first film, this worthy follow-up captured most of what made its predecessor so effective. It’s a tense, slow-boiling border thriller that tackles a highly contentious current issue and leaves neither side of it unscathed. Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin return to wreak havoc among the cartels stepping over any legal/illegal line set in front of them. Some saw the film as a pointless sequel. I saw it as opening up the series to a wealth of interesting possibilities.

The awards curcuits have been buzzing over Alfonso Cuarón’s intimate and deeply personal “Roma” and for good reason. Inspired by a key figure from his childhood, Cuarón weaves together one gorgeously crafted visual composition after another. Every frame is crafted with painstaking detail and not an inch of the shot is wasted. It’s a film that hearkens back to the filmmaking of Fellini, Tati, and even a touch of Bresson. Still, it’s much more than gorgeous eye candy and it definitely feels fresh among the steady stream of modern filmmaking conventions.

Paul Schrader’s intense yet sensitive “First Reformed” is unlike anything else I saw in 2018. It’s a film rich in themes – faith, guilt, obsession, self-destruction, and spiritual despair just to name a few. It’s a film wrestling with the idea of “a world without hope” and it does so with the most open and earnest of intentions. And then there is Ethan Hawke, a great actor giving a career best performance. As fascinating as the subject may be, it doesn’t get off the ground without Hawke who is nothing short of superb.

2018 saw Damien Chazelle follow up his award-winning “La La Land” with a biopic of the enigmatic Neil Armstrong. It was bogged down early by undeserved criticism and seemingly overlooked by many throughout its box office run. It’s a stirring portrayal that aims to be more personal than theatrical. It’s an approach I really appreciated. The movie is helped by a widely misunderstood performance from Ryan Gosling who is understated by design and hardly without an emotional underpinning. It makes for a wonderful study of an iconic American figure.

Talk about a movie I wish more people would see. Director and co-writer Debra Granik’s subtly piercing father/daughter drama left an impression on me and I have felt its emotional tug since. Granik (who gave us “Winter’s Bone”) once again gets down on the most human of levels and does it through a segment of our population on the fringes. Ben Foster’s performance is powerful in its restraint, but it’s newcomer Thomasin McKenzie who shines brightest. She’s the emotional anchor and it’s impossible to not be moved by her story.

I’ve long had reservations about Paul Dano the actor. I have no such reservations when it comes to Paul Dano the director. “Wildlife”, his directorial debut, sees him telling a piercing family story with the delicacy and precision of a seasoned filmmaker. A very good Ed Oxenbould is our eyes. Jake Gyllenhaal is fantastic. But this is really Carey Mulligan’s show. She brilliantly cracks open her character and works a wide range of emotions to give form to her many complexities. It’s one of the year’s best performances from one of the year’s best movies.

Whenever the Coen brothers make a movie it automatically has my attention. “Buster Scruggs” shows the siblings flexing their creative freedoms in ways we haven’t seen before. The movie is an anthology – six short stories with very different flavors but each connected with a familiar thematic throughline. While its structure is unconventional, even a bit wacky, it’s unquestionably a Coen brothers film. You’ll find their dense wordplay, beautiful visuals, and quirky sense of humor stamped all over this thing.

In a year where independent films shined the brightest for me, it’s a big budget blockbuster that was my easy choice for best of the 2018. “M:I – Fallout” tops my list for a very simple reason – it is easily the most fun I had at the theaters this year. It is exactly what I want from a blockbuster. While the action is exhilarating and the thrills non-stop, writer-director Christopher McQuarrie never shortchanges his story or his characters. For me it sets a high bar not just for the franchise itself but for what blockbusters can and should be.

There you have it. Please let me know what you think in the comments section below. What did I get right and where did I go wrong? I would love to hear you thoughts. Lets do it again next year!

REVIEW: “Welcome to Marwen”

December 27, 2018 by Keith Garlington

Inspired by Jeff Malmberg’s fantastic 2010 documentary “Marwencol”, director and co-writer Robert Zemeckis sets out to dramatize the incredible true story of Mark Hogancamp. It’s unquestionably a worthwhile story which Malmberg’s film told well. Zemeckis takes a hearty swing at it but ends up with a pretty big whiff.

In 2000 Hogancamp was attacked by five men outside of a Kingston, NY bar. He was beaten within an inch of his life and would spend nine days in a coma. Hogancamp suffered brain damage and severe memory loss. With no means of paying for therapy he lived out a second life within a meticulously crafted miniature town he built modeled after a World War II Belgian village. Within his town of Marwen resides dolls representing those who have influenced his life both for good and bad.

Zemeckis drops us right into Hogancamp’s therapeutic fantasy. Steve Carell stars as both Hogancamp and as Hoagie, Mark’s war hero avatar in Marwen. The two-sided story bounces back-and-forth between his battle to overcome his real world anxieties and the CGI animated Marwen where the dolls come to life and tell stories that mirror his struggles. Problem is neither side is truly fleshed out or given the attention it desperately needs.

The events that led to his state are only covered through flashbacks, newspaper clippings, or gleaned from casual conversations. Instead Zemeckis concentrates on a mundane series of days leading up to the sentencing hearing for Hogancamp’s attackers. Along the way we bump into an assortment of people from his life, several of whom makeup his ‘women of Marwen’. All of them feel brushed over with hardly an ounce of depth. Leslie Mann is the one exception playing a new neighbor. But even she is paper-thin and you know exactly where her story is going.

The animation sequences are cool visually but are often at odds with the other scenes. Zemeckis doesn’t seem to have a grasp of the overall tone he is going for. While these scenes do reflect (to varying degrees) the inner pain and turmoil Hogancamp struggles with, they are often too silly to carry any emotional weight. And too often they rob the other scenes by popping up time the movie could have invested into the real-world story.

Overall “Welcome to Marwen” is a frustrating (and frankly boring) mess. It’s a case of Zemeckis locking into a good concept but not having the clear-eyed vision to see it through. He gets so bogged down in his fictional additions to Mark Hogancamp’s account that he misses what made this strange, heart-tugging story so compelling. Carell certainly gives it his all, but even his good performance couldn’t keep me from constantly checking my watch.

VERDICT – 2 STARS

Merry Christmas!!!!

December 25, 2018 by Keith Garlington

Just wanted to take a second and wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Thanks for all of the visits, likes, comments, and support this past year. You all truly make this whole movie blogging thing fun.

Here’s to a great 2019!