Category: Film Review

Paul Thomas Anderson often takes his time between projects, and there’s a good reason why. He’s a perfectionist when it comes to screen style, making sure everything’s where it needs to be to help bring out the best in his actors, creating gorgeous spaces to stage emotional breakdowns. Anderson’s last two efforts, 2012’s “The Master” and 2014’s “Inherent Vice” were accomplished technical achievements, but icy and periodically tedious, with tonal whims often sabotaging pace, and the helmer’s interest in the mumbly range of star Joaquin Phoenix often registered as more permissible than it needed to be. “Phantom Thread” reunites Anderson with his “There Will Be Blood” star, Daniel Day-Lewis, who restores a certain illness the director’s last decade has been missing. While deliberate to a point of stillness, “Phantom Thread” is deliciously twisted and nuanced work, returning Anderson to the psychological games he’s skilled at capturing, while Day-Lewis provides one final reminder (he announced his retirement from acting last summer) that he’s the very best at what he does. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

Co-writer/director Fatih Akin doesn’t make it easy for himself with “In the Fade.” The picture deals with the aftermath of terrorism, detailing modern fears of everyday violence striking the innocent, erasing entire lifetimes in a single horrific moment. Most movies play up the exploitation possibilities of a revenge scenario driven by grief, knowing that audience sympathy is easy to achieve. Think “Collateral Damage” or the recent “Patriots Day,” which used the fury generated by fear and grief to power breathless cinematic thrills. “In the Fade” teases this style of filmmaking, with Akin trying to walk the thin line between a thoughtful understanding of the primal scream of violence and the urge to celebrate comeuppance. The material doesn’t provide easy answers, and perhaps plays it all a bit too easy, but “In the Fade” handles frustration properly, asking necessary questions about the vicious cycle of violence.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The fire, anxiety, and curiosity of a young man’s first love is brought vividly to life in “Call Me by Your Name.” It’s an adaptation of an Andre Aciman novel, but screenwriter James Ivory (“The Remains of the Day,” “Howard’s End”) strips the source material of literary pause, offering a more loosely defined sense of awakening, providing ample inspiration for director Luca Guadagnino, who delivers a highly sensual viewing experience, punctuated with powerful flashes of exposed emotion. “Call Me by Your Name” doesn’t force itself on the viewer, winding softly, almost aimlessly until it begins to form a connection between two people that’s more powerful than even they were expecting. Perhaps it’s not the most haunting tale of devotion found in the film year, but Guadagnino creates an evocative understanding of time and place, generating a sincere picture, and one that taps into the blur of primal longing.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After taking command of last summer’s disappointment, “Alien: Covenant,” director Ridley Scott explores a different kind of parasitical relationship with “All the Money in the World,” which examines a moment in time where industrialist J. Paul Getty had the opportunity to free his grandson, Paul, from kidnappers in Italy, and chose to do nothing. It’s the burden and power of vast wealth that drives the story, with David Scarpa (adapting a book by John Pearson) hammering home an atmosphere of denial as the haves and the have nots play careful games of negotiation as a dire situation slowly unfolds. “All the Money in the World” is mindful of its look at greed and familial indifference, but it’s not a particularly well defined feature, too slack to register as a thriller and too simple to dissect J. Paul Getty and his special disdain for the rest of the world.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For their first entry into the big-budget tentpole release game, Netflix has turned to director David Ayer to take command of “Bright.” Ayer is a helmer who favors gritty street and war stories, essentially making the same movie over and over with efforts such as “End of Watch,” “Street Kings,” and “Fury.” Last summer, Ayer was handed the keys to a comic book-inspired franchise in “Suicide Squad,” and while profitable, the feature divided audiences, weakening potential for multiple sequels and spin-offs. Now he’s handling “Bright,” which also has big aspirations to feed into additional films (a follow-up is already set), delivering a grim fantasy to viewers for the holiday season. And, once again, Ayer botches the execution, with far too much dependence on old habits to make it through an unsavory blend of the silly and the aggressively ugly. Ayer certainly likes to do that one thing, but after a 12 years of making urban horror shows with shell-shocked characters, perhaps enough is enough. Even with magic in the mix, this is moldy routine.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Lawrence Sher is a talented cinematographer, delivering clear, colorful visuals for some of the biggest comedies of the last decade, including his work on “The Hangover” trilogy. “Father Figures” represents his graduation to the director’s chair, finally in command of his own silly business. However, the new goofballery is the same as the old goofballery, with Sher playing it very careful with “Father Figures,” which offers few laughs as the lumbers from scene to scene. It’s a crude picture about a heartfelt subject, and Sher (along with screenwriter Justin Malen) can’t decide if they want to hold hands with the audience or slap them across the face with lowbrow jokes, keeping the movie wildly uneven and predictable in its desire to shock. Granted, this is Sher figuring out the next stage of his career, but the laziness of the production is disappointing. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

There was really no need for “Pitch Perfect 2.” Everything about the premise was covered in 2012’s “Pitch Perfect,” completing the saga of The Barden Bellas, taking them from assembly to domination. Now there’s “Pitch Perfect 3,” which attempts to stretch the one-movie idea for a second sequel, and it’s clear franchise writer Kay Cannon (joined by Mike White) has run out of ideas, transforming what was once a tale of a struggling a cappella group into a…spy film? Singing and performance remains in “Pitch Perfect 3,” but Cannon attempts to add comedic adventure to the mix while moving the action to Europe, doing what she can to delay the reality that she’s tapped when it comes to the evolution of the group and their obsession with competition. Fan favorite characters are back and some mild weirdness is celebrated, but energy is sorely lacking from the unnecessary continuation.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

In recent years, the promise of an Aaron Sorkin screenplay has become a big screen event, creating excitement around “Moneyball,” “Steve Jobs,” and “The Social Network,” which won him an Academy Award. Perhaps tired of other filmmakers having their way with his writing, Sorkin finally graduates to the director’s club for “Molly’s Game,” which details the coke-rush lifestyle of Molly Bloom, the “Poker Princess” who accumulated and lost a small fortune arranging backroom high-stakes card games for the elite and the corrupt. If there was ever a perfect match of material and helmer, it would be “Molly’s Game,” with Sorkin firing on all cylinders as he works through the pressure points in the subject’s life and technical particulars of poker, clearly having a blast shaping player personalities and potent psychological trials for Molly.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Greatest Showman” is not a bio-pic of P.T. Barnum. Instead, the production uses his accomplishments and failures as a father, husband, and businessman to inspire a Broadway-style movie musical, hoping to capitalize on the rising interests in genre, even employing “La La Land” songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul to create the soundscape of the picture. There’s a lot to be done with Barnum, and other stage and screen efforts have had their way with the controversial figure, but “The Greatest Showman” is only interested in the surface details of the subject, cherry picking his hunger for success and financial achievement to tell a tissue-thin tale of corruption and redemption. The material remains more of a stage show than a movie, and while the music is appealing and blessedly energetic, the storytelling presented is frustratingly fractured, speeding through life events without explanation, overly simplifying a life that was filled with enticing complexity.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Alexander Payne has made a few quirky films during his career, but “Downsizing” is a whole new level of idiosyncrasy for the co-writer/director. After experiencing a black and white world with 2013’s “Nebraska,” Payne goes big with color and scale for his latest endeavor, making a fantasy that’s also something of a romance but sort of a warning siren for the end of the world. “Downsizing” is a whole bunch of movies competing for screen time, and a few of them are quite nifty, but the overall strength of Payne’s vision is lacking this time around, with the feature representing his first real misfire. Not that the effort is a mess, but the production aims big with themes and arcs of enlightenment that grow tiresome before they become profound, finding Payne (and co-writer Jim Taylor) uncharacteristically constipated when it comes to securing the whimsy and potent dramatic undercurrent of the material.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2010’s “Skyline” was a low-budget alien invasion endeavor from the directors of “Alien vs. Predator: Requiem” (Greg and Colin Strause) It wasn’t intended to be much, but the film soon found itself picked up by Universal and offered a wide release, trying to tap into audience interest in all things kaboomy and apocalyptic. “Skyline” was met with vicious reviews and toxic word-of-mouth, but it was slightly profitable, assuring that the producers would likely take another chance on an iffy brand name. That it took seven years for “Beyond Skyline” to materialize is somewhat surprising, but there’s a unique challenge tied to the creation of this sequel: how does one make a follow-up to a movie that few people actually liked? The Brothers Strause have been demoted to producer status (they haven’t actually made another feature since “Skyline”), clearing way for Liam O’Donnell, the co-writer of the original effort, to make his directorial debut, and he’s determined to craft a simpler, more action-oriented, and slightly less stupid picture, trying to offer an apology for the mess he co-created years ago. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I get that Al Pacino just wants to work, keeping a career that’s enjoyed unparalleled critical success going for as long as it can. However, some professional choices have been difficult to understand, beyond the usual paycheck explanations. Joining the likes of “88 Minutes,” “Jack and Jill,” and “Misconduct” is “Hangman,” which is a serial killer story that uses the famous guessing game to energize a tale of murder and mystery, inching moviegoers to the real possibility of a Tic-tac-toe screen adaptation in the future. The screenplay, credited to Charles Huttinger and Michael Caissie, creates a grim mood of “Seven”-style police work, dealing with a macabre villain, but suspense is in short supply, with more tension created by Al Pacino’s overacting than the central quest to bring down a baddie who deals exclusively in elaborate crime scenes.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Michael Shannon plays a lot of villains, currently in theaters as the heavy in Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water.” He also gravitates toward the mentally unstable, enjoying consistent employment portraying various men experiencing a crack in their sense of reality. Rarely does Shannon get to play a nice guy, which makes the overall disappointment with “Pottersville” all the more painful. Here’s a chance for Shannon to appear in a Capra-influenced fable about small town redemption, and director Seth Henrikson doesn’t have any idea what to do with the actor and the overall movie, which would rather linger on a character defecating in the woods than crank up the feelgoods. “Pottersville” is moronic and unfunny, leaving Shannon with nothing to do as he figures out how to portray a milquetoast man for a change. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

After going huge with 2013’s “Pacific Rim” and gothic with 2015’s “Crimson Peak,” writer/director Guillermo del Toro tries a little softness on for size with “The Shape of Water,” but warm and cuddly means something slightly different to the famously fantastical filmmaker. He’s created a romance (written with Vanessa Taylor) with his own unique fingerprints, eschewing dewy acts of tenderness for a bloodier, more hostile examination of forbidden connection, which also features far more masturbation than I’m sure any viewer is expecting. Offered a chance to make an R-rated fantasy that celebrates a love for monsters and the kindness of strangers, and del Toro runs with it, delivering his best effort in years, preserving his idiosyncrasies and extremities with an often wonderfully bizarre movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Steven Spielberg matured as a filmmaker a long time ago, but he's recently been determined to showcase a certain level of wisdom in his work. Granted, the maestro’s last endeavor, “The BFG,” involved fart jokes, but “The Post” returns Spielberg to the land of “Lincoln” (along with “Munich,” “War Horse,” and “Bridge of Spies”), sharing a story of history in the most refined manner possible. “The Post” isn’t an Earth-shattering creative accomplishment, but it’s clockwork Spielberg, which is certainly better than most directors can summon. Detailing a critical moment of journalism and the fight for free speech, the picture strives to capture the thrill of reporting and the horror of secretive government misconduct, and the movie achieves these dramatic goals. It’s the overall urgency of the effort that’s up for debate.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Story of Ferdinand” was written by Munro Leaf and released in 1936, were it began its long domination as a children’s literature staple, still selling well to this day. It’s a 32-page exploration of nature and character, charming readers with its cultural thumbprint and relative simplicity. Walt Disney took a shot at adapting the story in 1938, and he only needed seven minutes to identify themes and personality. Blue Sky Studios (the force behind the “Ice Age” saga and 2015’s “The Peanuts Movie”) offers their take on Leaf’s book, only this “Ferdinand” is bull-sized, offering family audiences a 105-minute-long cartoon that barely has anything in common with the source material. Director Carlos Saldanha (“Rio”) goes the more-is-less route with the numbing CGI animated endeavor, furiously trying to pad a tale that was just fine as it was.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I’m not sure if it’s a tale of career redemption, but “The Tribes of Palos Verdes” marks the return of directing duo Emmett and Brenden Malloy, who were last seen on the screen with 2001’s snowboarding comedy, “Out Cold.” You remember, the movie that featured a pre-fame Zach Galafianakis portraying a character who gets his penis caught in a hot tub jet? The Malloys didn’t score with crude entertainment, but they fare better 16 years later, showing confidence with this adaptation of a Joy Nicholson novel, which allows them to pursue more meaningful drama and deeper characters. “The Tribes of Palos Verdes” isn’t an upbeat film, but the production doesn’t get caught in the undertow of despair, managing to find a level of alarm that keeps the story engrossing while it surveys some desperate emotional issues.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Small town hostilities and murder in a working class community isn’t a new idea, but writer/director Scooter Corkle handles the routine well in “Hollow in the Land.” Evocative and capably scripted, the film attempts to launch a whodunit with emphasis on the misery of an upbringing interrupted, exploring the true strength of family ties when put to the ultimate test. “Hollow in the Land” has all the identifying marks of a low-budget production, but Corkle captures a welcome intensity to the unfolding drama, and he finds a terrific lead in Dianna Agron, who makes a move to expand her career possibilities with a turn as a downtrodden detective, showing newfound range as she carries the weight of this effective but bleak picture.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When we last left the world of “Star Wars,” Rey was about to hand a special lightsaber to Luke Skywalker, arriving at the end of her long, perilous journey to locate the missing Jedi Master. Now, two years later, Luke finally has a little more to do than deliver haunted looks and a long pause. Luke Skywalker speaks in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” which is a promising development. In fact, he does a lot more than simply speak in the eighth chapter of the space fantasy saga, returning to the mess of the galaxy as it succumbs once again to the battle between good and evil. Weirdly, “The Last Jedi” is not a completely Luke-centric movie, with new writer/director Rian Johnson (taking franchise reins from J.J. Abrams) using the aging hero sparingly, concentrating on the group effort as the Resistance squares off against the First Order, summoning a mix of “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” to inspire this latest adventure, which remains thrilling, but only in fits and starts. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com 

It was always strange that 1995’s “Jumanji” never received a sequel. Yes, there was 2005’s “Zathura,” which was more of a remake than a true follow-up, but a true continuation of the animal rampage antics never materialized. Now Dwayne Johnson has the urge to battle fantasy creatures, leading an eager cast for “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” which offers a few ties to the earlier picture, but mostly reheats the gameplay formula for a new generation. Director Jake Kasdan and the screenwriters (four in total) try to rework the central concept of panicked adventuring, giving the premise a video game setting, moving away from board games and suburban hellraising to make noise in the tropics. It’s an entertaining romp, wisely avoiding the burden of topping what’s come before, with Kasdan mindful of silly business and CGI chaos as he strives to remain true to character, offering as much personality as this type of extravaganza allows.  Read the rest at Blu-ray.com