Molly's Game was marketed as an insider look at the high stakes poker world, we get a couple of those every decade, but it's actually a middling study of ego penned by famed screenwriter Aaron Sorkin in his directing debut. Jessica Chastain stars as Molly Bloom (not the James Joyce character) a champion skier who went on to manage some of the most lucrative poker games in Los Angeles and later New York during the 2000s. Despite a first rate cast and Sorkin's trademark hyper-drive dialogue, Molly's Game disappointingly never strikes the right tone, wavering between all knowing "this is how the world really works" sequences and strained attempts to make these cold characters engaging.
Molly's Game opens with an annoying montage sequence with Molly informing us on her family's awesome accomplishments. Kevin Costner, growing more insufferable with each year, plays her "driven" father Larry who demands greatness from his children (he's a prominent psychiatrist.) Costner's speechifying as the tough love Dad comes off as obnoxious, verging on self-parody. Determined to prove she can make it on her own, Molly skips law school moves to L.A. and gets a job as a personal assistant for sketchy real estate dealer Dean Keith (Jeremy Strong) who verbally berates her, but eventually allows Molly to run his high stakes poker nights that include power players from the entertainment industry. In time she's running her own games. After A-list actor "Player X" (Michael Cera) buys her out Molly relocates to New York City.
Once the story shifts to New York, we enter into Scorsese lite territory. We see elite, beautiful people flaunting their money as they pull the levers of the global economy. The Russian mob gets involved. Idris Elba co-stars as Molly's lawyer and brings a conscience to the film to a thankless role. The scenes between Elba and Chastain do achieve a compelling dynamic.
Chastain's believable, but her character motivations are never fully explained, other than wanting to make money. But, for what? In a problematic scene towards the end, Molly's estranged father Larry (Costner) randomly shows up and psychoanalyzes her! It's a strange moment to select for a film's emotional high point. Almost every set piece features Molly playing opposite a man, usually in negotiation, and she does hold her own, but the never ending verbal warfare gets wearisome, especially for a 140 minute movie.
Sorkin's memorable scripts for Steve Jobs (2015) and The Social Network (2010) were keen insights into character and ambition in the 2000s, while Molly's Game explores similar themes, it never hits the dramatic heights of those two films.
Spike Lee's BlackKKlansman is one of the most prescient films of 2018. John David Washington (Ron) and Adam Driver (Flip) star as undercover cops who infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado Springs circa 1970s. How do they do it? Washington talks over the phone with KKK wizard David Duke while Driver appears as the physical manifestation of the voice. The film deals with race in post-Civil Rights America, including a white nationalist movement re-branding itself, racism within police departments, and African-American and Jewish-American identity. While it's one of the funniest movie of the year, the film also engages with history and the power of cinema to shape cultural memory on a much deeper level than most mainstream films.
First and foremost, BlacKKKlansman is a wildly entertaining movie with sharp dialogue combined with a sense of dread of the past shaping an undefined future. The film opens with the most iconic shot from Gone With the Wind and then transitions to Alec Baldwin portraying a terrifyingly racist Southerner who wants to make a propaganda film about Martin Luther King.
There's a sense that something changed in the 1970s, America had survived the 60s and there was a sense of progress being made, yet at the same time little had changed. Despite the sacrifices and accomplishments of the Civil Rights Movement, racism remained deeply ingrained within American culture. Enter David Duke, played by Topher Grace in a memorable performance. Duke wanted to remake the Klan as cultured and educated "interest group." The white robes and hoods were discarded in favor of suits and ties. Grace plays Duke as a banal man who makes corny jokes who happens to be a white supremacist.
Washington and Driver are likable on the screen as 70s cops, but something about their characterizations lack dimension. Flips must confront his Jewish heritage for the first time when he encounters antisemitism, but it's never explored in much depth. The same with Ron, well played by Washington, but something of a cipher. There's perhaps an unconscious Quentin Tarantino influence going on (aware of the ongoing feud between Tarantino and Lee), in the sense that character development gets downplayed in favor of riveting stand alone set pieces.
Lee wants to make a statement about today through the prism of the 1970s, made apparent on a scene that pays homage to Blaxploitation movies of the decade. Scenes and even some throwaway lines are aimed directly at today. America's history of racism and the harsh truths are leveled at the audience, especially in a scene featuring Harry Belafonte as he bears witness to a lynching his character witnessed, juxtaposed with Duke laying his devious vision for the future leaves a haunting impression.
As Lee intended, we walk away from BlacKKKlansman feeling uneasy as the final images cascade across the screen (the audience at the show I attended fell in to a deafening silence.) A confrontational film that only the most cynical would dismiss as propaganda, it rises to the current moment. As other reviews have pointed out, it's a long overdue response to Birth of a Nation.
In one of the most entertaining movies of the year, possibly the decade, Tom Cruise and his band of IMF comrades zoom through one jaw dropping sequence after another. Starting with the original Mission Impossible movie in 1996, the franchise over the past 20 years has continued to get better, taking the action genre to new heights. By the sixth entry most film franchises are running on fumes, Fallout revels in showing in its age and builds upon the mythology of the series.
The film begins with spectacular slight of hand opening sequence that sets up the story. A group of ultra mercenaries have banded together, known as the apostles, who want to overthrow the world order and inaugurate an era of chaos. The premise is more than enough to sustain a popcorn movie, one where darkness is always just around the corner.
One stunning action sequence follows another involving sky diving, mountain climbing, car chases in Paris, hand to hand fight scenes, and a helicopter chase. While many action movies feature these types of action, Fallout makes it all look realistic and logical. These sequences recall the early years of cinema, more Buster Keaton than Arnold Schwarzenegger.
At the center of it all is the enigma of Tom Cruise. Few modern screen presences have the ability to win over audiences as he can. He literally put his life on the line and broke his ankle performing dangerous stunts for Fallout. Somehow the moody actor of the 1980s became the premier action star of the 21st Century. As Ethan Hunt, Cruise brings a compelling combination of swagger and tragedy, a true American James Bond.
Fallout builds upon the mythology of the previous five films with reliable Ving Rhames returning for the sixth film, Simon Pegg's deliveries never miss a beat, and Michelle Monaghan even makes a poignant return. Henry Cavill co-stars in a weighty role as the new member of the team, a younger and stronger version of Ethan.
As summer entertainment goes, Fallout leaves the competition in the dust. Intelligent, exciting, and well acted - a blockbuster in the best sense of the word.
The post vanishing Avengers outing Ant-Man and Wasp is here to lighten the mood after the epic defeat that played out in Infinity War. The first AntMan was pleasant enough thanks to Paul Rudd's going against the grain of the traditional Marvel hero, basically a kid friendly Deadpool. The second outing obviously takes place before the events of Infinity War, pitting Ant-Man against some low level villains who are after the technology of his benefactor Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). Joining him is Wasp (Evangeline Lily) in a series of heists and chases. There's much to like here, the actors have excellent chemistry and they appear to be having a good time. Michael Pena gets the best laughs as Scott Lang's best friend Luis. There's some pleasant humor, especially in the first half, but the characters start to wear thin (everything wears thin) as the movie unwinds to a predictable conclusion. The packed theater ate it up, but I will credit Marvel with the occasional subversive reference-The Naked Lunch!
I don't have much to say about Skyscraper except that it offers cliche overload and predictable plotting. Dwayne Johnson stars as a safety consultant for the world's most advanced building in Hong Kong, referred to as heaven on earth, who gets more then he bargained for. All the elements are present: a past trauma, kids in peril, European Crime Syndicates???, and one liners (not very good ones at that). Johnson can be an affable screen presence when he interacts with others, but there's hardly any dialogue in Skyscraper, most of it never goes beyond one sentence. Skyscraper combines Die Hard with The Towering Inferno minus the intelligence and drama. The only point of interest is the setting of Hong Kong, suggesting the real innovations of the future, the new visionaries, will be Asian, evidenced by America's current schizophrenic relationship with the continent. Chin Han plays the building's architect, a fascinating character with great potential who gets pushed aside in favor of The Rock's banal heroics. Asians are generally relegated to being bystanders or villains, in one scene Neve Campbell (heroic wife of Johnson in the film) outsmarts other Chinese characters because she knows the language, drawing an applause from the audience at the showing I attended, a crowd nervous about press one for English I would conclude. Skyscraper is a routine exercise in 21st Century cheese, forgettable and humorless.
Won't You Be My Neighbor tells the story of Fred Rogers. His long running TV show on PBS Mr. Roger's Neighborhood was a place where children could feel safe from the trials and tribulations of their young lives. Rogers was an ordained minister for the Presbyterian Church who believed television could create a community. In 1969, he testified before the Senate and won funding for PBS as the Nixon administration about to slash their budget. Despite the coarsening of pop culture in the decades that followed, the documentary illuminates the gaping hole left in pop culture since Rogers left the scene.
Mr. Rogers passed away in 2003, but his legacy lives on. Family and co-workers share their moving and sometimes hilarious stories of Rogers, a man aware of his square image, yet kept a sense of humor about it. His show took on the hard questions of his time and helped children make sense of them. Episodes deal with divorce, political violence, intolerance, disabilities, death, but most importantly, celebrating life.
Countless recollections in the documentary, confirm Mr. Rogers was the real deal - he practiced what he preached. Much is revealed about ways he helped people, stories best left to experience while watching the movie.
Won't You Be My Neighbor does not avoid the sad irony it's a film celebrating a voice of compassion in the current era of fear and uncertainty. In 2001, Rogers was called back to PBS to make some short films to reassure children after 9/11, a task he found overwhelming. The deterioration of discourse over the past few decades is especially tragic. Fox News ran stories that blamed Rogers for brainwashing children with notions they are "special" beings and hate groups picketed his funeral.
In addition, Won't You Be Neighbor is a trip down memory lane with stunning archival footage of Rogers at work. The message and life of Rogers was indeed radical - in the best sense of the word.
Few recent movies I've seen have instilled a greater sense of dread than Hereditary. The debut film of director Ari Aster, Hereditary looks like a modern horror film in the Blumhouse Style (this was distributed by A24), yet at the same time wisely uses tropes from the 1970s, especially Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist. The sense of dread also recalls an Ingmar Bergman film, Through A Glass Darkly comes to mind. While not without flaws, it proves a horror movie can still send out chills. I would never call Hereditary a fun experience (The Shining is fun), but a compelling one that will touch some raw nerves. A nuclear family meltdown of the first degree.
Toni Collette stars as Annie, an artist with a husband and two kids. The story begins with Annie delivering her Mom's eulogy, a mother with whom she was estranged for most of her life. She speaks of her mother being a private person, hinting at a history of mental illness. Her son Peter (Alex Wolff) appears carefree and likes to smoke pot, but the daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro) is deeply troubled. Gabriel Byrne, always a welcome presence, plays the supportive husband Steve.
Without going into further plot details, an awful tragedy occurs at about the 30 minute mark and everything goes downhill from there. There's a multi-dimensional horror to Hereditary: the fear of death, the dull pain of grief, disconnection from loved ones, inheriting the sins of the past - not even taking into account the supernatural elements that are introduced.
Hereditary runs over 2 hours, yet never feels overlong, and at the same time you want it to end. These characters are going through misery and it's hard to watch at times. Yet there's a sly humor that comes at the most unexpected of times The performances are excellent, especially Toni Collete. Aster's direction is steady and methodical, avoiding those annoying jump scares, often holding back and just letting things happen.
Hereditary is as close to modern horror epic we are likely to get. Enter with caution.
