Directed and Edited by Todd Douglas Miller Soundtrack: Matt Morton
In an era in which we have seemingly unlimited options for content, and the only event “everybody” stops and looks at anymore is the Super Bowl, it can be difficult to: A. have an appreciation for a truly shared cultural experience and B. think of a “documentary” as a must-see cinematic event.
Apollo 11, however, will make you a true believer.
This is a big, beautiful movie; as big as anything you’ll see on the big screen this year.
Rather than a traditional documentary with face-to-face interviews and a lot of experts explaining things, Apollo 11 is more of an art house experience, but make no mistake, it’s for everyone, not just a niche audience. Whether you’re a NASA nerd or a complete space novice, the power of the film is undeniable.
There’s not much else I can say in terms of the moon landing itself or the movie, but the score by Matt Morton is as nearly perfect as the rest of the film (and, as confirmed to me by a source, was performed on strictly Sixties period instruments, which is impressive).
You will laugh; you will cry; you will cheer.
If you see nothing else theatrically in 2019, go see Apollo 11.
Rating: ★★★★½ (out of five)
Directed by Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck Written by Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck (story and screenplay), Geneva Robertson-Dworet (story and screenplay), and Nicole Perlman & Meg LaFauve (story) Cast: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Annette Bening, Clark Gregg, Jude Law, Akira Akbar, Azari Akbar, Mckenna Grace, London Fuller, Marilyn Brett, Stan Lee Soundtrack: Pinar Toprak
It stands to reason that after twenty-one feature films since 2008 (and three per year since 2017) the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) would start to unravel at some point.
I haven’t seen every MCU film theatrically, but I have seen every single one in full. They’re not all great, but to this point they’ve all maintained a certain level of quality, be it through ambition, emotion, charm, or just being quirky.
Unfortunately, Captain Marvel is lacking in all of these areas.
Frankly, it’s a boring, predictable tonal mess that feels like a Frankenstein’s monster of a script, and it tries to skate by on some mild Nineties nostalgia that largely falls flat (REMEMBER BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO!?).
The one true highlight of the movie is some quality de-aging effects for Sam Jackson (who finally gets to have some fun in these movies).
Other than that, there’s just not a lot to grab onto. I like Brie Larson as an actress, I’ve seen her do quality work, but her attempt to be laid-back and cool here just comes off as lethargic; and she’s not the only quality performer who goes wasted (Jude Law and Ben Mendelsohn among them).
Overall, there’s nothing Captain Marvel does better than any MCU film beforehand, and for the first time ever in seeing this giant franchise I felt like the movie was just total a waste of time.
The worst sin, though, is that the biggest question the film asks goes unanswered. I could forgive a lot but to get to the end of a movie like this and not have that “Why?” answered is just too much.
Directed by Colin Trevorrow
Written by Gregg Hurwitz Cast: Naomi Watts, Jaeden Lieberher, Jacob Tremblay, Sarah Silverman, Lee Pace, Maddie Ziegler, Dean Norris, Bobby Moynihan, Geraldine Hughes, Wass Stevens, Donnetta Lavinia Grays Soundtrack: Michael Giacchino
Sometimes the world throws interesting parallels your way.
Just on a bare surface level, you could compare The Book of Henry to Gifted, in that they both center around highly intelligent children (albeit ENTIRELY different plots and tones), but the comparisons don’t end there. You’ve also got directors returning to more independent roots after not-so-great uber-mainstream projects (Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2 for Marc Webb, Jurassic World for Colin Trevorrow), and two comediennes I don’t particularly care for in supporting roles (Jenny Slate and Sarah Silverman, respectively).
But hey, enough about me. The real question is whether or not The Book of Henry actually works (aka “Should we have any hope for Star Wars: Episode IX?”).
Well, apparently to the contrary of every published critic out there, I really dug this movie.
Is it perfect? No.
Is it “believable”? No.
Do I care? Obviously not.
I found the movie entertaining based on the performances, the story, the moral dilemmas, the beautiful Westchester setting, and the fact that it was unafraid to make bold narrative decisions (huge spoilers, can’t talk about it; have to see for yourself).
I’m usually the first to say “No” to a movie that so prominently features children, but Jaeden Lieberher is a wonderful young actor, as his turns in St. Vincent and Midnight Special will confirm, and he’s joined here by the critically-acclaimed Jacob Tremblay and even reality TV alumnus Maddie Ziegler as kid actors putting in good shifts.
Even before all that though, the movie won me over right away simply for having a main title sequence, which I was just thinking this week about how much I miss those (*cough*), but, again, enough about me.
I don’t know what else to say to convince people this is worth seeing, maybe I shouldn’t even try, but what I do know is that I found the movie heartwarming, funny, and intense, which is an odd combo, it’s a different combo, but, as I said before, I give Henry credit for taking risks, and for trying to do something at least somewhat original in these dark days of IP overload.
Maybe that’s not worth anything to you, but I appreciate it.
The Hobbit Directed by Peter Jackson Written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, and Guillermo del Toro, based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien Cast: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Ken Stott, William Kircher, James Nesbitt, Stephen Hunter, Mark Hadlow, Graham McTavish, Dean O’Gorman, Peter Hambleton, Aidan Turner, Jed Brophy, John Callen, Adam Brown, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee, Bret McKenzie, Sylvester McCoy, Lee Pace, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Stephen Fry, John Bell, Craig Hall, Benedict Cumberbatch, Billy Connolly, Thomas Robins, Antony Sher, Manu Bennett, Andy Serkis, Barry Humphries, Kiran Shah, Elijah Wood, Ian Holm, Dan Hennah
Soundtrack: Howard Shore
Oh, my head.
Yesterday, I made the decision, perhaps foolish, to see all three Hobbit films in one sitting (at my old favorite, the Alamo Drafthouse Theater in Yonkers, NY).
I had not seen the previous two Hobbit films at all, frankly, because I wasn’t really interested in seeing another three movies about Hobbits and Dwarves and whatnot in Middle Earth, but, ultimately, the opportunity to see a complete trilogy, with fresh eyes, in a theater with plenty of food and drink at hand, was too enticing to pass up, even if I did have to take time off from work to do so.
Was it worth it? In the end, I suppose so, if for nothing else than it gives me something to talk about. It’s not often that I get to write about a movie (or series of movies) before most people get to see it, so here goes.
Now, when I first heard that J.R.R. Tolkien’s [roughly] 300-page novel, The Hobbit, was going to be adapted into not just one film, but a whole trilogy of films, I said to myself, “It’s going to be the Star Wars Prequels all over again,” in that a later-produced trilogy that takes place before the events of the original trilogy could not possibly live up to the original, and might even leave a black mark on the whole franchise.
Now, is Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit anywhere near as bad as Star Wars: Episodes I-III?
No, of course not.
Unlike the Prequels, which are almost completely irredeemable as films, there are many enjoyable aspects of The Hobbit movies, but there are a few themes, somewhat reminiscent of Episodes I-III, that run throughout these films and make it difficult for me to recommend them as presently constituted.
What am I talking about?
1. The Characters (aka “Who’s the protagonist?)
This is, in fact, a very minor complaint, and I don’t actually mind movies straying away from traditional storytelling and featuring multiple leads, but for what is essentially a nearly eight-hour long motion picture called The Hobbit, there are an awful lot of long stretches where the title character isn’t around, or, if he is, the story is not from his perspective. I get that Peter Jackson essentially raided the Tolkien library for any other unadapted source material related to Middle Earth to pad out the running time (which is the proper way to do so; add more STORY…we’ll come back to padding later), but, at times, it’s just a little tough to reconcile how much of The Hobbit is told without him, and how often it feels like the Dwarf or Wizard show.
2. Tone (aka “You’re making a movie for children, right?”)
One issue with the Star Wars Prequels, and it’s echoed almost perfectly by The Hobbit, is that the movies get darker and darker as the trilogy progresses, as if the filmmakers think they need to compensate for something. Now with the Prequels I think this was entirely intentional, as a response to the negative audience reaction to Jar Jar Binks and other such attempts at “comedy.” With The Hobbit one could argue that it’s part of the natural progression of the story, and at the end of the day I don’t specifically have a problem with Peter Jackson wanting to make an adaption for mature audiences, but at the same time he’s making an adaptation of a children’s novel, complete with lots of kid-friendly moments (like dwarves doing annoying dwarf things). Do we really need to also see decapitations and people burning and dead children? Again, who are these movies really for?
Which leads me to my next point.
3. Excess (aka “I may have gone too far in a few places.”)
Peter Jackson is a huge Tolkien fan.
He’s also arguably the most excessive director working today, and has been going all the way back to his schlock horror days with movies such as Dead Alive (aka Braindead) and Meet the Feebles. Now, excess can be good when properly channeled (think Quentin Tarantino), but a three-hour long King Kong movie that nobody wanted or needed, and fails to justify its own existence (unlike certain other ape-themed movies which are fantastic), is not what I had in mind.
The core problem with these movies isn’t just how long they are, it’s WHY they’re as long as they are; and while there are other Tolkien works folded into the story, the excessive running times are ultimately due to excessive action scenes, some of which look fine, and others of which look like cutscenes from videogames (and I don’t mean no PS4; I’m talking XBOX 360 at best). In fact, a great deal of tension is lost from our heroes actually physically behaving like videogame characters; with such speed, strength, and agility that they basically become unbelievable within their own fantasy universe.
You see, Peter Jackson and George Lucas both failed to realize that even in this amazing age of digital technology, just because you can dream something, and just because you can create it in a computer, does not outright mean you should commit it to film. And it also seems like both of them are in favor of pushing technology in the wrong direction: Lucas, to further his own laziness, and Jackson, well, I guess to make 48fps telenovelas about Middle Earth.
Anyway, I could more easily accept a Hobbit trilogy if it was three 100-120 minute films, or like a 6-8 part TV miniseries; but three two-and-a-half to three-hour long films is just insane, and I’m not just saying that because I saw all three in a row. Remember, this whole thing is essentially based on one 300-page children’s novel. The Rankin/Bass animated version from the late-1970s clocks in at a crisp 77 minutes, and while it does leave some story elements out, does Peter Jackson’s version really need to be over six times as long? I argue no.
Now I’ve spent nearly a thousand words hammering what I don’t like, and why I don’t recommend this trilogy as it stands, but I don’t want to end on a totally down note, because I don’t actually hate these movies. In fact, you could say I really want to like them, but overwhelming factors prevent me from doing so.
If you’ve already seen Journey and Smaug, going #OneLastTime to see Five Armies can’t hurt, but if you haven’t seen any of them before, I say don’t bother with them.
I hope there will come a day, after Five Armies is released on home format, that someone in the fan-edit community will take all the footage available and compile together a reasonable-length version of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, because as I said before, there are plenty of gems to find: good performances; emotional moments; all the wonders of a fantasy world.
Right now, it’s just not worth 8 hours (474 minutes, to be precise) of your time.
Tarantino
), but a three-hour long King Kong movie that nobody wanted or needed, and fails to justify its own existence (unlike certain
other
ape-themed movies which are fantastic), is not what I had in mind.
animated version from the late-1970s clocks in at a crisp 77 minutes, and while it does leave some story elements out, does Peter Jackson’s version really need to be over six times as long? I argue no.