11/21/2016 0 Comments 'The Eagle Huntress' Movie Review
0 Comments
11/21/2016 0 Comments 'Land Of Mine' Movie Review
11/21/2016 0 Comments 'La La Land' Movie ReviewWith credentials such as Grand Piano and Whiplash, writer and director Damien Chazelle is rapidly proving himself to be one of the current generation's most prolific filmmakers, with music being a common theme that runs through is films. His newest entry, La La Land, is no exception.
Set in sunny Los Angeles, the story essentially spans a romance between two aspiring artists: an actress named Mia (Birdman's Emma Stone), who has attempted and lost so many auditions that she's considering throwing it in for good; and jazz pianist Sebastian (Drive star Ryan Gosling), who's trying to scrape together the resources to start his own jazz club. After a couple of chance encounters, a spark ingites between the two of them, and their romantic adventures begin to take flight. But as both of their dreams begin to take form, they realize that their pursuits may lead them on separate paths in life. This is Stone and Gosling's third time sharing the screen together, and it really shows from how well they play off of each other. Whether they're exchanging snarky quips of dialogue or singing their hearts out, the passion is high in every scene they share. In this film in particular more than any of her others, Stone is able to give a nuanced performance that relies mostly on her facial expressions, despite having a fluid singing voice. Even when she's not singing, her eyes are able to say a lot about what she's feeling, and that subtlety is a rare quality that I really enjoy. Powerhouse actor JK Simmons also gives an entertaining turn in a supporting role, but as with Chazelle's other two films, the focus is firmly on the central characters, as it should be. Speaking of Chazelle's other films, La La Land is starkly different, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. While I really enjoy Grand Piano and Whiplash, it's undeniable that their defining trait is slowly building up tremendous suspense, which isn't for everyone. Because it's the most light-hearted of the three, La La Land is the most accessible to a wider audience, and it's impressive that Chazelle is able to make this change so seamlessly. Every directing choice made for the film is ultimately driven towards the goal of embracing the style of mid-20th century musicals, such as Singin' in the Rain or West Side Story. The visual aesthetic is soft and inviting, using lighting and choice of color as a clever visual method to illustrate the characters' emotions, and often invoking a dreamlike atmosphere that reflects the music. And what is a good musical without good music? Fortunately, you don't have to ponder that question in the case of this film. The songs, all originally composed by Justin Hurwitz and written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, each have their own tempo and rhythm, and each mark a particular point in the plot progression. This is the rare musical that only uses songs when it's absolutely necessary to do so, as opposed to grasping every opportunity for one. As such, each tune has a purpose: to reflect on a moment, to open the door to a new story direction, or to simply take us away to somewhere mesmerizing. Somewhere foreign, yet friendly, which is a feeling that can only be found in the best of dreams. Best of all: they're all original. I can't wait until the soundtrack's release. Yet, among all this talk of dreams and mysticism, the film still finds time to ground its conflict in the realm of realism, without ever feeling conflicted in its tone. The high moments feel free and victorious, and contrast beautifully with the lower points that pull back the curtain to reveal real world consequences. It's as though the film is making a statement that while aspirations are being met at one point, a more tragic story that we're often unaware of is unfolding simultaneously, as is often the case in life. To me, this speaks a message that we all have dreams, and while it's a wonderful thing to pursue them, it's equally critical to consider the bigger picture. At its core, La La Land is ultimately a love letter to classic musicals from the days of yore, and at the same time, a gesture inviting that classic era to recieve a real-world treatment. The result is unique, embracing the film's charmingly vintage roots while taking them to new ground. And while all of the technical aspects - the music, lighting, and visuals - are excellent, it's important to remember the two stars at the heart of the film. All of these factors are beautifully executed, and I think it's safe to say that Chazelle is on his way to his second Best Picture nomination. The film is scheduled for a limited release December 9, and will screen everywhere the following weekend. I may even see it again, and for me, La La Land recieves four out of four shining stars. 11/16/2016 0 Comments 'Suicide Squad' Movie ReviewHave you ever had your opinion of a movie change after watching it? You take a few days to consider the whole effect of the film, and now you have a whole new outlook on it? Well, that was my experience with Suicide Squad, and my impression didn't change for the better.
The story is set in motion by corrupt government, Amanda Waller (The Help's Viola Davis), who is looking to assemble a team of hardened criminals to do special ops missions. If the mission goes awry, Waller can simply blame it on them, given that they're already criminals. Out of the cast that she's selected to form a team, there is an overwhelming myriad of faces, but the two that recieve the most attention and focus are Harley Quinn (The Wolf of Wall Street's Margot Robbie), a deranged wild card and girlfriend to the Joker (DC comics newcomer Jared Leto); and Deadshot (Will Smith), a highly skilled assassin whose greatest ambition is to protect his daughter. The first thing to notice about this film is its visual aesthetic, which can be broken into two aspects: lighting, and editing. In short, both are terrible. But I suppose I should give you more than that. Whenever an action scene occurs, it's decently filmed, but you can hardly tell because the film is so overwhelmingly dark. Now, I don't mean emotionally dark, but rather that you find yourself wishing there were a way to turn the film's light switch on. Even in scenes where it takes place outside in broad daylight, it looks as though the color has been drained from the camera. As for the editing, for the most part, it's hardly noticeable at all. It's nothing to write home about, but it's not distractly bad. For the most part. But when it is bad, it's abhorrently awful. The camera jerks around wildly, bursts of color are splashed on the screen, and the frame zooms in and out uncontrollably, all of it occurring in a short burst. This trend generally happens during scenes that center around the Joker, and I think it's an attempt to give the film a nightmarish tint, but it just ends up taking you out of the experience. It's as though the 2013 cut of The Great Gatsby was viewed in preparation, with notes taken that entirely misinterpreted Gatsby's flaws and made them worse. The music is another technical flaw, and arguably just as bad of one. Every transition ends up calling for a new song: a scene change, a character introduction, a stride made in the plot, any kind of transition at all warrants the chorus of a pop song to be played. And while a lot of the songs that are chosen are of good quality (ranging wildly from Eminem to Queen to 21 Pilots to Creedence Clearwater Revival), none of them are consistent. It's not a consistent music style, and it's certainly not consistent with what's happening in the narrative. In Guardians of the Galaxy, you could make the argument that '70s rock has little to do with space exploration, but in that film, all of the songs that were featured belonged on the protagonist's music collection, and reminded him of his home. There was an emotional connection that resonated throughout the heart of the film. Here, you get the impression that songs were featured because the music director liked them. I like them too, I just don't like them here. Now, the plot is paper thin, but that's surprisingly not a big issue for me, and here's why: it reminded me of another film with a narrow plot that existed for the sheer purpose of assembling a team of characters: The Avengers. That movie worked because of the impressive chemistry and commeradery displayed among the cast, and so Suicide Squad has the same purpose; if the film can effectively establish a convincing and engaging group dynamic, I can forgive all of its technical shortcomings. So how do the Suicide Squad members play off each other? Not nearly well enough for me to pardon everything else. Again, Robbie and Smith are the two brightest standouts, but hardly anyone else on the team seems to leave much of an impact. Now to be fair, there are moments of strong characterization, particularly from a fire-controller named El Diablo (Jay Fernandez of Friday Night Lights), whose back story is surprisingly sympathetic and tragic. But similar to recent seasons of The Walking Dead, moments of characterization are really all you get, and just as in The Walking Dead, moments aren't nearly enough to justify how sloppy everything else is. But if you've been keeping up with DC comic-based movies, the big casting question you're probably wondering is, how is Jared Leto's Joker? How does he compare with Jack Nicholson or Heath Ledger? Well, as for comparisons, Leto has the unfortunate circumstance of coming on the heels of Ledger's iconic performance, so I'll do him the courtesy of simply judging him on his own merits. On his own, there are aspects of his performance I enjoyed, and some I really didn't. For one, I liked that this is a different Joker than that which viewers have become accustomed to. Whereas Nicholson's clown prince of crime was a mafia-style gangster, Leto plays it as a more modern crime boss, with a uniquely sleazy aesthetic (imagine Breaking Bad's drug dealer, Tuco, in clown makeup). So, the writing is unique, take it or leave it. The thing I don't like is what Leto brings to it. Despite being a show-stealer in Dallas Buyers Club, Leto just plays it way too wacky and over the top here, coming off more as Rocky Horror's Frankenfurter. I will say I had a blast watching him give his best "crazy Nicholas Cage" performance, but that certainly doesn't make it good. Overall, Suicide Squad is a disaster, no two ways around it, and one of the worst kinds of disasters: a misguided one. It's not nearly as dull as Batman v. Superman, but it's not nearly as energetic as Guardians of the Galaxy. Instead, it plays more like X-Men Origins: Wolverine...it's just terribly, terribly flat. The lighting is drab, the music is haphazardly focused, the editing is unnoticeable at its best and insufferable at its worst, and worst of all, the cast is tragically under-utilized. A lot of these characters are uniquely and delightfully odd and seem perfectly cast, but they never get enough of a spotlight to confirm that. I'm giving Suicide Squad one and a half out of four stars. 11/16/2016 0 Comments 'Arrival' Movie ReviewWith credentials under his belt such as Prisoners and Sicario, Québec-born filmmaker Denis Villeneuve is quickly becoming one of today's up-and-coming visionaries. Similar to film artists such as Damien Chazelle and David Fincher, Villeneuve has developed his own personal style, and his newest entry, Arrival, may just be his best.
The story begins when aliens land arrive on Earth in massive, egg-shaped crafts that hover over twelve locations across the globe. No is sure what these visitors want or the purpose of their arrival; is this Close Encounters or Independence Day? So, in order to try and figure out the aliens, the US government has tasked linguistics professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams) with trying to communicate with the creatures. But not everyone else is interested in taking such a democratic approach. While Banks and her team are trying to understand the aliens and teach them how to understand us, the rest of the world is ready to declare war. So it's up to Banks to try and keep the world unified long enough to decode the aliens' goal. You've probably already heard Oscar buzz about Adams' performance, and it's absolutely true. Her character is reeling internally as she attempts to navigate the meaning of an emotional loss (something I won't dare spoil), and she connects it to the navigation of the aliens' language. When she gets down to the business of analyzing their language symbols, her determination is unwavering, and similar to Robert Downey, Jr. in the Iron Man films, it's a real treat to see a brilliant mind at home in their element. And while Adams carries the film, expectedly impressive performances are also delivered by Jeremy Renner and Forrest Whitaker. Renner portrays Ian Donnelly, Banks' partner in the communication effort; and Whitaker plays Colonel Weber, who enlists each the two of them for their task. Renner plays his part with natural charm, and serves as the character that most audience members can gravitate towards. While he's not the outright source of comedy, he's the most light-hearted of the cast, and takes the most personable approach. A good example is his move to name the aliens that he and Banks communicate with, "Abbott and Costello," but with that said, he still takes his job very seriously. As for my personal reaction, my favorite aspect of Arrival is its nuanced script. I was not only surprised to see a sci-fi movie about aliens that wasn't action-driven, but to see one that relies heavily on philosphical thought. The most prominent theme at play is the importance of communication and cooperation as a vital tool for problem-solving, which is a message that today's world really needs to hear. And while all of that is up in the forefront, if you're looking for something just a little deeper, you've got that, too. In the film's final act is when a major twist is revealed that makes you reevaluate everything you've seen thus far. But it's not a Shyamalon twist that makes you groan in your seat; in fact, it's been there the whole time, directly under the radar, and knowing it made me want to rewatch the movie immediately to catch everything I missed. But don't let a lack of action put you off, because despite that, there is still a strong execution of a pleasing visual aesthetic. There aren't a whole lot of special effects aside from the aliens themselves, which are cleverly created. While I won't give away the details of their appearance, I really enjoyed that they were kept mostly in shadows. Since the creatures breathe a different atmosphere than us, they are separated by Banks and Donnelly by a glass pane in their craft, and the air that they breathe has a very misty look to it. The choice to keep them mostly in the fog and emerging forward when it's most important was excellent, because it made them more mysterious, and made their appearances more impactful. So on the visual front, the best aspect isn't so much how it looks (which isn't at all bad), but rather how it's presented, and the same quality applies to the cinematography. The way each scene is framed shows that cinematographer Bradford Young (Selma) really knows how to properly place the characters within the shot, and do so with meaning. For someone like me who notices things like this, it's such a treat to see a story be told visually as well as thematically. This is the first of Villenueve's films that isn't lensed by master cinematographer Roger Deakins (The Shawshank Redemption, The Village, and True Grit, just to name a few), but if I hadn't known that detail, I wouldn't have been able to tell a difference. So many shots look like they could be framed on a wall, particularly those from the inside of the spaceship, and the first reveal of the craft's exterior, hovering against mist-rolled mountains. Overall, Arrival is quite simply a work of art. Not just in the visual sense, which is wonderfully framed, but also in the sense of the story it's trying to tell, which, despite mainly focusing on extra-terrestrials, is startlingly relevant to today's culture. The themes are deeply thought-out on the surface as well as in the layers underneath, with it all being tied together by Adams providing one of the year's finest performances. I can't wait to watch this film again to discover what surprises I've missed on my initial viewing, and I'm giving Arrival four out of four stars. Most of us have never been able to attend a renowned film festival, such as Toronto or Sundance. So for those of us living in the Northern Virginia area, it's a real treat for that kind of cinematic allure to spring up right here at home, as it has at the Middleburg Film Festival. Started in fall of 2013, MFF just finished its fourth year, and I thought it would be fun to look back on some of the most favorable gems that the festival has produced.
1. Spotlight (2015) A future classic that joins the ranks of All the President's Men and Zodiac, Spotlight is a dedictated representation of hard-hitting journalism that does exactly what a good journalist does: it doesn't sugarcoat or attempt to pursuade, but rather presents a story with all of the facts, and leaves the conclusion up to the audience. But even with that said, you're able to see yourself in the place of the star team of reporters, who have such a strong commeradery that watching them shoot the breeze in the newsroom is almost as entertaining as watching them cover a sprawling and intimidating true story. 2. Land of Mine (2016) From its complicated script to its unnverving suspense, Land of Mine is a masterclass in filmmaking. The mostly unknown story takes place following the end of World War II, when Denmark, previously under German occupation, is forcing German POWs to dig up their own landmines from the Danish beaches. Daring to pull back the curtain and reveal a portion of the war that not many people know about, the script is effective for its ability to make both sides feel understandable; the Danish shouldn't have to clean up the enemy's mess, but on the other hand, the POWs at hand haven't even seen a landmine! That sort of dual-sympathy is what makes a really memorable conflict, and I haven't even covered the brilliant suspense techniques. 3. Two Days, One Night (2014) For some, Two Days, One Night may play out in a similar rhythm to National Treasure: the plot is a pattern of an interesting protagonist doing something cool, and then doing the same thing in a different location. Rinse, repeat. But for me, this film totally won me over because of its simplicity on the surface, but wells of depth the more you sit on it. The bitterly relatable plot follows a depression-racked worker named Sandra (the excellent Marion Cotillard) who has only a weekend to fight to keep her job. It's so refreshing to see an enduring hero fight to the bitter end for something daunting, yet understandable. Not trying to save the world, not even trying to save her job, but at the end of the day, simply trying to save her self-worth, and that's a battle a lot of us can understand. 4. The Eagle Huntress (2016) It would be one thing if The Eagle Huntress were a nature documentary that educates its audience about the Mongolian tradition of hunting with beautiful golden eagles. It would be another thing if it were an underdog story about an incredible protagonist with a girl-power message. But what if it were both? Well, it is, and it's awesome. Because the documentary filmmaking flows with the plot of progressive training, we get to learn about eagle-hunting alongside the film's hero, 13-year-old Aisholpan, and it makes her journey all the more exciting to follow. Plus, the film is gorgeous to watch, so there's that. 5. La La Land (2016) Music-minded director Damien Chazelle's La La Land is ultimately a love letter to classic musicals of a former era, such as Singin' in the Rain or West Side Story. The original songs, combined with the clever lighting and camera work, evoke a dreamlike sense of aspiration that never seems to lose its ground in reality. Starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as a pair of struggling artists (an actress and a jazz performer), the film spans the highs and lows of pursuing a dream, while keeping sights of its real-world consequences, both good and bad. 6. The Imitation Game (2014) From Sherlock to Doctor Strange to 12 Years a Slave, Benedict Cumberbatch is quickly becoming one of the busiest actors of the modern era, and if you want to know why, look here. There are moments when his screen presence feels like a dedicated performance, and others where his talent just emerges naturally. He shares excellent commeradery with costar Keira Knightley, and their chemistry does a good job of propelling the impressive story. Cumberbatch portrays Alan Turing, the innovative scientist whose technological curve helped the British get the edge on defeating the Nazis, a tale more effectively realized by the immersive period set design. 7. Paterson (2016) On the surface, Paterson sounds like a rather mundane narrative: the story chronicles a week in the life of a bus driver named Paterson (Adam Driver, of Star Wars), who follows the same routine every day, with slight changes along the way. While it may sound boring to some, this endearing tale highlights the everyman who relishes in routine, and, more importantly, casts a spotlight on the notion of chance encounters. Every person that Paterson meets, whether knowing it or not, has some impact, and the overall product tends to celebrate the beauty of ordinary interactions. 8. Loving (2016) An interesting aspect of Loving is that the real couple at the center of the moving true story didn't set out to make history. Richard and Mildred Loving (Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga), a Virginia couple who were arrested in 1958 for having an interracial marriage, had simple ambitions of loving each other, but their journey to the Supreme Court ended up changing history. Along the way, Mud director Jeff Nichols wisely allows us to feel every frustrating misstep and gratifying milestone that the Lovings share, in what may just be Nichols' most emotionally poignant film to date. 9. Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013) The Butler is an interesting chronological journey that spans the entire 20th century, through the perspective of a former slave, turned White House butler. While the character of Cecil Gaines (portrayed with natural fluidity by Forest Whitaker) is fictionalized, he is based on an actual White House butler who lived to see eight presidential terms, including our first African American president. The story also examines his adolescent son's coming-of-age perspective during the Civil Rights Movement, and how the father and son's ideologies tend to clash over how to properly move forward progressively as a society. 10. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013) Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is the kind of biopic that patiently uncovers nearly every detail of a person's life, that person in this case being Nelson Mandela, the first democratically-elected president of South Africa. The story follows Mandela's early life, prison sentence for his strong involvement in Civil Rights activism, and ultimately ends in his death, and the aftermath of his work. While the narrative's pacing may feel rather slow for some, it's worth it to see every detail uncovered. The biggest allure of the film by far are the two leading performances by Idris Elba as Mandela, and Naomi Harris as Mandela's wife, Winnie. Both are excellently invested in their roles, and make their respective performancese all the more believable and engaging. |
|