Review: Cold War

Image courtesy of Amazon Studios.

Director Pawel Pawlikowski follows up his haunting award winner "Ida" with another tragic tale set against the backdrop of the mid-20th century in Poland that has been shot in gorgeous black and white. But while "Ida" was somber, "Cold War," although often sad and bleak, is a smoky, jazz-scored drama about amour fou that spans several decades.

Inspired by the tumultuous relationship of the director's parents, "Cold War" follows the story of Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) - whose appearance gives him the look of a protagonist from a 1960s French gangster noir - a musical director who is traveling across Poland in the late 1940s and early 1950s, searching for musicians to take part in a concert centered around Polish folk traditions. Wiktor often finds himself at odds with the government officials who want him to include positive songs about communism and Joseph Stalin in the concerts.

While visiting a small village, he is impressed by the musical talents and aura of Zula (Joanna Kulig). Wiktor is told that Zula had spent time in jail after having stabbed her father. "He mistook me for my mother and I explained the difference with the help of a knife," she notes. Before long, the two have become lovers. Their fraught relationship, which includes its share of betrayals and reconnections in a variety of countries over a period of years, is the focal point of the picture. After fleeing Poland, they meet up again in Paris and, much later, Yugoslavia, but their travels also take them to Berlin and Russia during the duration of the concert tour.

One of the most convincing elements of "Cold War" is not only the excellent performances by the two leads, but also their undeniable chemistry, which remains intact even as their relationship frays. Wiktor lives in a state of perpetual sadness, with the jazz music he plays at night in Paris clubs acting as an appropriate soundtrack, and accepts the trials he faces, while Zula is more of a fighter. Eventually, she'll come to resent him for his submissiveness that he has found in exile, while he loses patience with her freewheeling attitude toward sleeping with others.

And yet, their love lasts over a period of decades as they make their way in and out of - and often attempt to remain on the other side of - the Iron Curtain. The picture culminates with a haunting moment of sadness, and much of the picture is filled with gorgeous shots - a massive tree swaying by an empty field, views from a boat on a canal of Paris denizens hiding in the shadows, lonely landscapes - that set the movie's tone.

At its brief 89 minutes, "Cold War" covers a lot of ground and spans a significant amount of time. Pawlikowski does a good job of condensing this story into such a compact little film and not losing any of its emotional impact in the process. The film exists in the classic mold of tragic love stories, and makes its case to rank with some of the finest of them. It's one of 2018's best movies.

Review: Serenity

Image courtesy of Aviron Pictures.

Only talented people could have made a film as ridiculous as "Serenity." The picture has gorgeous cinematography by Jess Hall and was written and directed by Steven Knight, who has made at least one pretty solid movie ("Locke") and written the screenplays for others that vary from good ("Dirty Pretty Things") to great ("Eastern Promises"). The film's cast includes Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jason Clarke, Djimon Hounsou and Diane Lane.

And yet, "Serenity" is not very good, often borderline absurd. The first half of the film is the more watchable of the two. As the picture opens, we meet Baker Dill (McConaughey), who leads fishing trips on a tropical island known as Plymouth, where something appears to be slightly off.

In one of the film's more bizarre subplots, Dill is obsessed with catching a massive tuna that constantly eludes him. The film's first scene involves him attempting to catch the fish and then threatening at knifepoint some tourist who is paying him for a fishing expedition when the man gets upset that he's not being given the chance to catch the fish. Duke (Hounsou), Dill's assistant, spends much of the film shaking his head at his partner's antics, that is, when he's not delivering cryptic bon mots about how to live his life and so forth.

Enter Karen Zariakis (Hathaway), a femme fatale who happens to be Dill's ex-wife and the mother of his son, whom we see in fleeting glimpses playing some sort of oddball video game that might have something to do with the film's overall plot. Karen wants Dill to lure her abusive husband (Clarke, hamming it up as a sleazeball rich guy) out for a fishing expedition and then dump him in the water for the sharks to feed on.

About halfway through the picture, a traveling salesman - who is constantly attempting and failing to get Dill's attention - corners Dill and explains the film's major plot twist, which is a nonsensical jaw-dropper of major proportions. After this, it's hard to take the movie's second half very seriously, since the stakes have been lowered.

The film's first half is moderately enjoyable in a lurid film noir sort of manor. McConaughey spends much of the time semi-clothed, whether he's getting it on with Lane's character (who seemingly only exists for this purpose or to look out the window for her missing cat) or jumping nude off a cliff and into the ocean, where the camera lingers on him in various stages of undress for lengthy periods of time. The picture is paced like a thriller, which manages to hold one's interest for about 45 minutes.

But once the plot twist kicks in, the film really begins to sink - and fast. Knight is a talented screenwriter of gritty films that are typically set in London and involve both crime and a sense of realism. I'm not sure what prompted him to write and direct this film, which is pretty silly and fantastical in a manner that is neither particularly convincing or interesting. "Serenity" might be good for a laugh, unintended or not, but it's otherwise not one to seek out.

Review: Glass

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.

M. Night Shyamalan has combined the story from one of his greatest successes ("Unbreakable") and his most recent hit ("Split") and, unfortunately, come up with his hands mostly empty. Not only does the director waste a great opportunity to return to the well by expanding a story that once worked for him, but he squanders it with a petulant theme that recalls one of his biggest bombs ("Lady in the Water") and a woefully misbegotten twist in the final scenes.

The film picks up shortly after the events of "Split," in which Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) has eluded authorities after having murdered several teenage girls. Crumb and his multiple personalities - which vary from the childlike Hedwig and matronly Patricia to the monstrous Beast - have now kidnapped a group of cheerleaders and plans to sacrifice them to the Beast. Meanwhile, David Dunn (Bruce Willis) is living out his life as a vigilante known as The Overseer, taking on low-rent criminals, while his son (Spencer Treat Clark) gives him directions via a microphone.

Shortly into the film, Dunn and Crumb cross paths and begin to fight, but they are soon captured and sent to a mental hospital where, I kid you not, a psychiatrist (Sarah Paulson) who specializes in people who believe they are comic book heroes arrives to convince them that they are all merely circumstantially powerful, and that their abilities have nothing to do with the supernatural. This, unfortunately, leads to a number of sequences in which Paulson's character and the three lead characters - and even some of the supporting characters - sit around and discuss their lives as if they were living in a comic book. Trust me when I say this is even more tedious than it sounds.

Even more bizarre is the fact that Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), the one victim whom Crumb let escape in "Split," has returned benevolently because she, for whatever reason, is deeply concerned about her previous captor's psychiatric care. Much of the film takes place in the psychiatric hospital, which doesn't make for very compelling drama.

But once Dunn and Crumb are exposed to Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson, who spends the first half of the picture pretending to drool and look dead-eyed), the primary villain in "Unbreakable" and catalyst for all three films, an escape plot is hatched and the pieces start to come into place. This is not to say that the film gets better, as the pieces are often ludicrous.

Much like his huge flop "Lady in the Water" and similar to an attitude taken by Kevin Smith, another 1990s filmmaker whose critics have turned on him, "Glass" features a prominent anti-critic theme that reeks of bitterness. Paulson's psychiatrist character is the critic who makes Dunn, Crumb and Elijah believe that they are not superheroes, and even makes them question whether they (as stand-ins for Shyamalan) ever had any special talents. Paulson's character also represents the shadowy government who uses science to rain on the characters' parades, when all they want to do is believe in something.

While McAvoy earns some points by jumping back and forth between Crumb's various personalities, the routine quickly becomes exhausting and Willis appears more resigned than anything in this film. His character is given the least to do here. Jackson is the only one who appears to be having any fun in the film, so it's a shame that his wily Elijah is often forced to convey the most obvious and obligatory expository dialogue regarding origin stories and comic book lore. And don't even get me started on the film's big reveal, a typical Shyamalan plot twist that ranks as one of his worst.

There are moments when Shyamalan utilizes flashbacks from "Unbreakable" and, on occasion, "Split" to remind viewers of the characters' previous stories. Sadly, these moments are the most watchable in "Glass." It's not a good sign when old footage from previous films is the most resonant. More than any other Shyamalan picture in recent memory, "Glass" had potential, so it's a shame that it ends up being such a misfire.

The Best Movies Of 2018

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

While it might not have been the great year for movies that some have proclaimed, 2018 was pretty decent. One way to tell is that not only was I able to come up with 20 movies that I'm very enthusiastic about, but there were a number of pictures that I would really liked to have included in my top 20, but couldn't find the space for all of them.

These include "Eighth Grade," "Black Panther," "Leave No Trace," "Juliet, Naked," "Gemini," "Won't You Be My Neighbor?," "First Man," "A Quiet Place," "Love, Simon," "Private Life," "The Miseducation of Cameron Post," "Hearts Beat Loud," "The Mule," "Shirkers" and "Isle of Dogs."

Without further ado, here are my top 20 movies of 2018.

Ten Runners Up

20. Green Book (Peter Farrelly) - I'm aware of the problems associated with the film, and while they may be valid, Farrelly's film is still a wonderfully acted and highly enjoyable road trip movie. Reviewed here.
19. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Marielle Heller) - Melissa McCarthy proves her dramatic talents and Richard E. Grant provides a great foil. Reviewed here.
18. A Star is Born (Bradley Cooper) - The fourth time's the charm (to be fair, so was the first) for this often-told tale, which is given a fresh spin, courtesy of Cooper and Lady Gaga. Reviewed here.
17. Tully (Jason Reitman) - Reitman's best film in nearly a decade is a surprisingly moving take on postpartum depression. Reviewed here.
16. You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay) - Ramsay's 21st century "Taxi Driver" is a tense, 90-minute showcase for the talents of Joaquin Phoenix. Reviewed here.
15. The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos) - Lanthimos' acerbic, witty and outrageous costume drama is the director's finest since "Dogtooth." Reviewed here.
14. Happy as Lazzaro (Alice Rohrwacher) - This peculiar Italian fable plays with the notion of time and casts a beguiling spell. Reviewed here.
13. The Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles) - One of cinema's greatest artists gets in a final word some 30 years after his death with the restoration and completion of this unfinished work, which feels more like Jean Luc Godard than "Touch of Evil." Reviewed here.
12. Mandy (Panos Cosmatos) - Batshit crazy doesn't even begin to describe this future midnight movie classic, which finds Nicolas Cage at his most brilliantly insane and feels like it was inspired by 1970s prog rock and 1980s heavy metal album covers. Reviewed here.
11. Hereditary (Ari Asher) - Imagine if John Cassavetes directed an extremely creepy horror movie, and you'll get a sense of what you're in for with "Hereditary," the best American horror movie since "It Follows." Reviewed here.

Top Ten

10. Shoplifters (Hirokazu Kore-eda) - The Japanese master's Palm d'Or winner finds the director at his best and most melancholic. Reviewed here.
9. Widows (Steve McQueen) - The year's best action movie has a fantastic cast, a #MeToo vibe and proves that McQueen is not only a purveyor of high art, but also capable of a great genre movie. Reviewed here.
8. First Reformed (Paul Schrader) - Schrader makes a major comeback as a director and Ethan Hawke gives one of his finest performances in this tense exploration of holding onto faith in a fallen world. Reviewed here.
7. Cold War (Pawel Pawlikowski) - Following up his award winner "Ida," Pawlikowski's jazzy, smoky film about a stormy love affair set behind and beyond the Iron Curtain in the mid-20th century is a haunting tale of amour fou. Reviewed here.
6. Blindspotting (Carlos Lopez Estrada) - The year's best debut and most underrated movie is an equally hilarious and intense picture, obviously inspired by "Do the Right Thing," that tackles everything from gentrification and police brutality to race relations in Oakland. Reviewed here.
5. If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins) - In the follow up to his masterpiece, "Moonlight," Jenkins takes on James Baldwin to haunting effect, exploring the concept of trusting in love in a hate-filled world. Reviewed here.
4. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Joel and Ethan Coen) - This anthology western from the Coen Brothers starts out as a lark and then gets progressively darker as the six stories unfold. The ending forces you to rethink the entire picture. Reviewed here.
3. Burning (Lee Chang-dong) - Chang-dong's first film in eight years is 2018's most mystifying and enigmatic movie, a slow burn meditation on perception that will have you questioning what you think you know about its story for weeks afterward. Reviewed here.
2. Roma (Alfonso Cuaron) - Telling a personal story on a grand scale, Cuaron's artistic triumph is a visually astounding and deeply moving memoir-like tale, set against the backdrop of the 1971 Corpus Christi Massacre, that pays homage to the women who raised him. Reviewed here.
1. BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee) - With his best film in more than 20 years, Lee's incendiary latest is full of righteous anger, but also extremely funny - and its final moments, which utilize documentary footage of a recent event, pack a gut punch. Essential viewing for our deeply troubling times. Reviewed here.

Review: On The Basis Of Sex

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a superhero, and Mimi Leder's new film about a pivotal moment in her life doesn't shy away from hagiography - and that's perfectly fine. "On the Basis of Sex" is cut from the Hollywood mold of biopics of influential people, but even when the film relies on cliches that you'd expect in this type of film, it remains inspiring due to its subject's real-life work and story and a number of solid performances.

When we first meet Ruth (Felicity Jones), she is attending a welcoming event for a group of young women who will be the first to study law at Harvard in the late 1950s. First, Ruth sits through a speech in which the school's dean discusses what he believes are the defining traits of the Harvard man, and then she suffers through a dinner during which that same dean (played by Sam Waterston) forces the young woman to stand up and give the type of introductory speech that you know the college's new male students haven't been asked to give. Ruth jokes that she is attending the prestigious school so that she can learn about her husband Martin's (Armie Hammer) work and, therefore, be a "a more patient and understanding wife."

But Ruth is turned down by employer after employer after graduating at the top of her class. During one particularly wretched interview, the man questioning her appears to be sympathetic to her plight after she explains how she has been rejected by numerous top firms due to her gender, but then gives her a lame excuse about how the wives of the other lawyers at the firm might become jealous if she is around the office. Dejected, Ruth takes a job teaching law at Rutgers University as Martin's star rises as a tax attorney and the couple's young daughter becomes wrapped up in the political revolution of the late 1960s.

Attempting to be comforting, Martin tells Ruth that she'll teach generations of young women who will change the world, but she is upset because, naturally, she wants to do the same thing herself. Her opportunity arises after Martin points out a case in which a man has been discriminated against due to a caretaker law that is based around gender stereotypes. The man who the Ginsburgs end up representing has never been married and cares for his ailing mother - and yet, due to the accepted mores of the early 1970s, he is not able to deduct expenses on his taxes since men, at that time, were considered to be the breadwinners, while women were the caretakers. Ruth sees an opening for changing the nation's laws that define women and men by their gender. The rest, as they say, is history.

Jones and Hammer make a convincing Ruth and Martin Ginsburg, and the supportive relationship between the two is the heart of the film. However, there are a number of solid supporting performances here as well, including Kathy Bates as pioneering attorney Dorothy Kenyon and Chris Mulkey as Charles Moritz, the man represented by the Ginsburgs.

Yes, "On the Basis of Sex" is a rah-rah Hollywood biopic about a woman who was a trailblazer and whose story has since become the stuff of legend - hell, most recently, that legend was given a new chapter as the Notorious RBG voted from the hospital where she was being treated for lung cancer to block Donald Trump's asylum ban. And the film isn't much for subtlety. But that's no matter. The picture is nowhere near as groundbreaking as its subject, but it's an enjoyable and well-made underdog movie.

Review: If Beale Street Could Talk

Image courtesy of Annapurna Pictures.

"Every black person born in America was born on Beale Street, whether in Jackson, Mississippi or in Harlem, New York. Beale Street is our legacy," says James Baldwin, referring not only to the Memphis street, but also a shared experience, if you will, for African Americans. In the context of Barry Jenkins' new film, that experience is racism and injustice.

Two years ago, Jenkins was the director of a small, mostly unknown movie, "Medicine for Melancholy," before breaking out with a massive critical hit, "Moonlight," which I still contend is the best sophomore film since the mid- to late-1990s, when Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson came onto the scene. So, following up a picture of that magnitude is a feat - and although "Beale Street" doesn't reach the heights of Jenkins' previous picture, it's still very good and among this year's best.

Based on Baldwin's novel, it tells the story, non-sequentially, of a tragic love affair between a shy young woman named Tish (KiKi Layne) and Fonny (Stephan James) in early 1970s Harlem. Fonny is arrested on a false accusation - created by a racist white cop with whom he'd previously had a run-in - that he raped a Puerto Rican woman and thrown in jail. Shortly thereafter, Tish realizes that she is pregnant, and that she'll likely have to raise the child on her own.

The film is narrated by Tish and jumps around in time. As it opens, Tish and her family have invited Fonny's parents and two sisters over to break the news of the pregnancy, and suffice it to say that it doesn't go over too smoothly. Rather than focus heavily on the story, the film drifts back and forth through time in a patient, melancholic manner, and Jenkins' focus is less on narrative than it is on evoking a particular mood and time. The dreamy cinematography, which recalls the work of Wong Kar Wai, and jazz music, which is drifting in from the record players in the characters' apartments, as well as the frequent portrait-like shots of the film's characters go a long way in creating that mood.

During the course of the film, Tish and Fonny find themselves at the mercy of white people's whims. He tells a friend named Daniel (Brian Tyree Henry), whom he hasn't seen for a long time, about how Tish had nearly secured an apartment, but the landlord balked when he found out that Fonny would also be living there. Later, Fonny and Tish are surprised when another white landlord, a young Jewish man played by Dave Franco, rents them an apartment on the grounds that he appreciates meeting people who clearly love each other. A young white lawyer who is representing Fonny at first appears to be all business, but later finds himself at odds with the system for taking up Fonny's case. Then, there's the racist cop who nearly arrests Fonny after he gets into an altercation with another white man, who is harassing Tish at a grocery store.

I bring all of this up - Tish and Fonny's uneasy and occasionally surprising dealings with white people - because it is at the heart of a particularly sad scene that in many ways is pivotal in the picture. Fonny brings Daniel home for a meal after running into him on the street, and finds out that his old pal has recently been released from prison. Daniel tells Fonny that he had been framed for stealing a car, which he didn't do, but had marijuana on him at the time of the arrest. Therefore, he pleaded to stealing the car, although he can't even drive, because it was a lesser charge than having drugs in his pocket. Fonny will later face similar circumstances. During their discussion, Daniel and Fonny speak of such a plight as being the way it is - in other words, injustice in their lives is a given.

Ultimately, "Beale Street" is about relying on love in an unfair world filled with hatred. "You've trusted love this far, so don't panic now, trust it all the way," Tish's mother, Sharon (played by a very good Regina King), tells her daughter as she faces down the prospect of raising a child on her own, while the baby's father is kept behind bars. Jenkins' most recent two films - "Moonlight" and this one - both focus on young people traveling through a cruel world in which the color of their skin often determines their fates, and love is the only antidote. The combination of these two films makes Jenkins one of the most talented and exciting new American filmmakers.

Review: Vice

Image courtesy of Annapurna Pictures.

There's a whole lot going on in Adam McKay's "Vice" and much of it is interesting, from a number of solid performances to a story bursting with intrigue. So, it's a shame that the director attempts to mimic the style of his much more successful "The Big Short" and comes up a little short with this sort-of biopic of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Alan Bennett once said that "history is just one fucking thing after another," and that is the format in which McKay's film often, unfortunately, unfolds. First, we briefly meet a young Cheney (Christian Bale) being pulled over for drunk driving by a cop, then we see his then-girlfriend Lynn (Amy Adams), who ends up becoming his wife, berating him for his lifestyle. Then, Cheney is suddenly a congressional intern for Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell) in the Nixon years, then higher up in the food chain during the Reagan years, the chief of staff in the Bush administration, and so on until finally becoming the vice president under George W. Bush. And the film presents this material as merely one event after the other.

In "The Big Short," McKay employed a variety of stylistic techniques, most notably one in which characters - often lead characters, but also random Hollywood stars - break the fourth wall to explain complex financial issues relating to the 2008 economic meltdown. In that picture, the technique worked and was often humorous. When employed here, it feels unnecessary and bogs the film down. McKay also utilizes Jesse Plemons as the film's narrator, and when we finally realize his connection to Cheney, there is seemingly no particular reason that this character has been chosen to narrate the film.

But the lack of subtlety doesn't end there. There's a completely unnecessary sequence at the film's end when Cheney himself breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience in a manner befitting Frank Underwood in "House of Cards," spelling out everything that the film has been hammering us over the head with for the previous two hours. In another sequence, we are told that Cheney has mastered the art of selling ridiculous ideas through his delivery, and then we are treated to an exaggerated example of this, but it's a case of over-selling. Even less successful is a scene in which Dick and Lynn Cheney speak in Shakespearean verse to compare them to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

Despite these myriad problems, "Vice" has a fair amount to recommend. When it's not overly indulgent on style, it can be quite funny. The performances here are all mostly very good. Bale disappears into the role of Cheney, both literally and figuratively, but Adams is the scene stealer as the steely Lynn. Carell and Sam Rockwell are clearly having fun as Rumsfeld and W. Bush, respectively, and Tyler Perry makes a surprisingly convincing Colin Powell.

But "Vice" is all over the place. It's an exercise in style over content, despite there being a fair amount of substance in this story. Cheney played a profoundly - and disturbingly - large role in reshaping the U.S. government in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and his reach for unlimited executive power is still being felt today. In other words, there's a great story to be told here, but the filmmakers often trip over their own feet. It's been said that a great film is often decided not by what it's about, but how it goes about telling its story. With "Vice," something was lost in the telling.