Tag: Shea Whigham

Movie Review – ‘Joker’ – The Clown Prince of Gotham

Directed by Todd Phillips
Written by Todd Phillips & Scott Silver
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Douglas Hodge, Dante Pereira-Olson, Carrie Louise Putrello, Glenn Fleshler, Bill Camp, Shea Whigham, Marc Maron, Leigh Gill, Josh Pais, Brian Tyree Henry, Bryan Callen, Justin Theroux
Soundtrack: Hildur Guðnadóttir

To steal a quote from Fake Jeff Goldbum, Joker is stunningly bleak, darkly intimate, and, most of all, human.

Now, much like the film, I say that with equal measure seriousness and silliness. Not that Joker is a dramedy. Oh, no; it is rightfully classified as a psychological thriller, but there are moments where it is genuinely funny, just as there are moments where it’s sad, haunting, melancholy, and disturbing. As you might expect, most of this comes down to Joaquin Phoenix’s tour de force performance. While the movie as a whole may not live up to the arthouse hype it was receiving pre-release (I wonder if film festival audiences saw a slightly different cut with less DC imprint), Phoenix’s acting in a role that’s been well worn in Hollywood history is to be commended.

Inspiration-wise, it’s no secret that Scorsese’s The King of Comedy is a huge influence, not to mention Taxi Driver, Michael Winner’s Death Wish, and even a splash of Friedkin’s The French Connection and Walter Hill’s The Warriors for good measure. In fact, despite the fact that Joker takes place in the fictional Gotham City (in the year of our Lord 1981, according to Blow Out on a marquee), it’s probably one of the better New York movies we’ve had in a while (though shout-out to Newark, NJ for standing in as well), but I digress.

The common refrain about The Joker as a character is that he works best without a backstory, and for the most part I agree, but this film does an excellent job at providing an origin tale that feels extremely grounded and more than real enough for a comic book world (and on the whole it’s significantly better than the recent Killing Joke adaptation). And as I said, it’s largely a small, intimate story, which I appreciate.

That said, it’s magnificently captured for the big screen. The cinematography is at a high level and the attention to period detail (not unlike Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) is award-worthy.

My only real criticisms are that the storytelling becomes a bit heavy-handed in the third act, it ends four times when once is enough, and it seems like DC came in with last-minute studio notes to make sure people understood it’s their property. And, I don’t think it’s quite as successful as the films that inspired it at creating a snowballing sense of dread.

Other than that, Joker is a fine effort from writer/director Todd Phillips, whose pivot away from bro comedies began with War Dogs. Is it an utter masterpiece? Not quite. Is it Best Picture worthy? No. Is it worth seeing if you’re the least bit curious? Yes; and see it on the biggest screen you can.

Just don’t expect a barrel of laughs; ’cause it’s a glass case of emotion.

Rating: ★★★★☆

P.S.
No stingers.

Movie Review – ‘First Man’ – “Bang, zoom!”

Directed by Damien Chazelle
Written by Josh Singer, based on the book by James R. Hansen
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Corey Stoll, Pablo Schreiber, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Christopher Abbott, Patrick Fugit, Lukas Haas, Shea Whigham, Brian d’Arcy James, Cory Michael Smith, J. D. Evermore, John David Whalen, Ethan Embry, Skyler Bible, Ben Owen, Olivia Hamilton, Kris Swanberg, Ciarán Hinds, Shawn Eric Jones, William Gregory Lee, Steven Coulter
Soundtrack: Justin Hurwitz

To borrow a phrase from our friends in the District, I get “butt cised” for movies about manned spaceflight (and Pablo Schreiber).

Whether it’s The Right Stuff, Apollo 13, Interstellar, The Martian, heck, give me Moonraker, I’m on board,

Which is why it’s so painful for me to say First Man is a real mixed bag.

Overall, I give it a lukewarm recommendation based largely on the technical achievements (especially given a budget significantly under $100 million), in particular there’s some top-notch miniature work and some wonderful production design, but I absolutely hated the way much of the movie is shot (the camera is often way too close, and there are long stretches, especially in the Mission Control scenes, that are shot like an episode of The Office, and it’s awful), the story and what is and isn’t selected to be told feels very hodgepodge, there are a lot of characters to keep track of with zero help, and, in the end, I’m just not entirely sure what the goal of the movie was.

If the point was to demonstrate how insane it was to try to go the Moon with 1960s technology, mission accomplished, because that definitely comes across (and there’s another personal thread that gets paid off).  Beyond that though, First Man feels more like a bigger-budgeted mumblecore movie that happens to be about Neil Armstrong than anything else.

I mean, I get it, it’s hard to do movies based on real-life people and events, but even at the end of this film there’s a disclaimer that things have been generalized, so, just go out and make a movie; it’s okay if it feels like a movie.  I guess there was some thought of not doing things in typical Hollywood fashion, but it was hard not to think about this film in the hands of someone else to illicit more of an emotional response.

So, yeah, worth seeing once, I guess; maybe it’s worth doing in IMAX for the visuals, but I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Movie Review – ‘Sicario: Day of the Soldado’ – Generational Loss

Directed by Stefano Sollima
Written by Taylor Sheridan
Cast: Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Isabela Moner, Jeffrey Donovan, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Catherine Keener, Matthew Modine, Shea Whigham, Elijah Rodriguez, Howard Ferguson Jr., David Castaneda, Jacqueline Torres, Raoul Max Trujillo, Bruno Bichir, Jake Picking
Soundtrack: Hildur Guðnadóttir

I suppose things were going to have to slow down eventually for Taylor Sheridan.

I mean, when your first three films as a screenwriter are Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River, it’s only natural that the quality will start to wane at some point (although, full disclosure, Yellowstone might be great, but I don’t watch much television anymore, so I can’t confirm or deny this).

In Sheridan’s defense though, I think his screenplay could have been better served by more capable hands, as there’s quite a drop-off from Denis Villeneuve in the director’s chair to Stefano Sollima (whose work to this point has been out of sight of American audiences).

This is not to say that Soldado is bad, I didn’t feel ripped off or anything like that, and there were plenty of elements that I did appreciate, but it’s a noticeable step back in my eyes.  For one thing, the marketing gave so much away that I didn’t really have anything left to discover, and there wasn’t enough meat on the bone to make up for this (which a great, even very good movie can accomplish; a la The Usual Suspects).

Beyond that, outside of Emily Blunt’s character not coming back (which I actually don’t have a problem with; in fact, it makes sense to me), Soldado just has a certain je ne sais pas that I found lacking, especially in comparison to its predecessor.  Hard to say what would have helped but a quicker pace wouldn’t have hurt (as much as I appreciate Mat Newman’s laconic editing for Nicolas Winding Refn’s films, I’m not sure it was the right play here).  Presumably they were trying to build the tension, but I wasn’t feeling it; certainly nothing remotely close to the border crossing scenes in the first one.

But hey, it’s got fairly well executed action, and Del Toro and Brolin are still great, so I can’t complain too much.

Still though, it’s hard for me to give this one a big push, but I won’t talk you out of it either.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Movie Review – ‘Kong: Skull Island’ – Schlock & Awe

Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Written by Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein, Derek Connolly (screenplay), and John Gatins (story)
Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John C. Reilly, John Goodman, Corey Hawkins, John Ortiz, Tian Jing, Toby Kebbell, Jason Mitchell, Shea Whigham, Thomas Mann, Miyavi, Richard Jenkins, Robert Taylor, Terry Notary (Kong motion capture)
Soundtrack: Henry Jackman

With respect to the Japanese kaiju genre (which had a fantastic entry last year in Shin Godzilla), it was American cinema that cemented the rise of giant monsters with 1933’s King Kong.

With apologies to the Japanese kaiju genre, 2014’s American Godzilla was an absolute turd on stilts.

As everything has to be a cinematic universe these days (whether we want it or not), the inevitable match-up of these two giants (echoing Toho’s 1962 effort) has been obvious for some time now.  However, you can’t have a fight until both combatants have been introduced, and Kong: Skull Island is an explosive entrance that would make any pro wrestler proud.

It’s not a great film in the way that Logan or Mad Max: Fury Road are great films, but Kong: Skull Island is unquestionably a get-your-money’s-worth kind of movie.  It may go too far in a few places (sometimes a little too schlocky; sometimes a little too serious), and, without spoiling anything, I’ll say it ends on a decidedly odd note, but, overall, it’s trying to entertain you, which is very much in keeping with the spirit of the original King Kong (something neither the 1976 or 2005 remakes could get quite right).

Frankly, Kong: Skull Island is everything Godzilla (2014) isn’t.  It doesn’t tease you (you see Kong’s face within the first five minutes as opposed to nearly an hour for old ‘Zilla), it doesn’t bore you, it doesn’t saddle you with dull characters and bland creatures, it’s not afraid to occasionally make you laugh. and it’s got a lot of really interesting visual concepts (I enjoyed the period elements quite a bit).

It’s also big, as it should be.  No doubt a good chunk of work was done on sound stages, but it appears by and large that the movie was shot outdoors in real locations (including Hawaii, much like the Jurassic Park series and Kong ’76), and I give the cast and crew a ton of credit for subjecting themselves to some rather unpleasant conditions in order to make the movie look noticeably better than many other commensurate projects these days.

If there’s one major flaw I can point to, it’s that some of the dialogue feels out of place for the early 1970s, and some of it is just downright bad (John Goodman in particular gets stuck with a lot of exposition and I’m not sure he even tried to make the best of it), not to mention some of the jokes are too on the nose, but it’s not enough to soil the entire movie.  On the whole, the cast is at least adequate in its performance, with John C. Reilly charting as the most florescent in a largely comic relief role.

It has to be said that the movie deserves credit for not being just another King Kong remake, and actually doing something different with the story.  Sure, it wears its influences on its sleeve (Tom Hiddleston and John C. Reilly play characters named Conrad and Marlow, respectively; got it), but if the movie’s entertaining enough (which it is), then that’s perfectly fine.  It’s fresh where it needs to be and classic when called for.

Again, it’s not the best movie in the world, but if you’re looking for a big, fun, action-adventure creature feature, this one’s for you.

I don’t know that it gets me excited for the rest of the “MonsterVerse”, but Kong: Skull Island is plenty worth seeing on its own merit.

Get your popcorn ready.

Rating: ★★★★☆

P.S.
Yes, there is a post-credits scene (this is a cinematic universe after all).