Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

The nine film Star Wars saga is now complete (for the time being). The Rise of Skywalker has a lot to tackle and resolve and the results are unsurprisingly mixed. Fans (and some critics) have a primal attachment to these films. A disappointing Star Wars film will trigger musings on childhood ending, while a good Star Wars episode may promise a new hope. Regardless of fan reaction, all nine of the films and their spin off stories are designed as adventures to inspire the imagination of young people. We tend to like or dislike these films based not on what they are, but on what they're not. Many will nitpick on Rise of Skywalker for what it's not, yet it passes for a space adventure film better than most, albeit with diminishing returns.

The trajectory of this sequel trilogy has followed that of the original. Like the original 1977 Star Wars, The Force Awakens for a brief moment rekindled a sense of adventure and mystery to a moribund franchise. The Last Jedi challenged audiences and offered some complexity much along the lines of The Empire Strikes Back. Rise of Skywalker resembles Return of the Jedi which concluded the original trilogy on a jaunty note, but eschewed the complexity of Empire.  

The story begins year or two after Last Jedi. The Resistance is still running on fumes as the First Order continues to conquer the galaxy. Rey is honing her Jedi skills with Leia. Poe and Finn try to rally the resistance as Kylo Ren tries to increase his power. Footage of Carrie Fisher from The Force Awakens allowed the saga to give her character a moving conclusion. Billy Dee Williams returns as Lando to represent the original trilogy as the old sage. Meanwhile, Emperor Palpatine (dispatched in Return of the Jedi) is somehow back in the picture

J.J. Abrams returned as director and moves things at a frantic pace, a pace so fast the movie starts to feel sluggish. There's way too much sleight of hand and bait and switch going on with the plot. When Abrams tries to take chances, the film suddenly backtracks and lets you know everything will be fine. The visual rhyming of The Force Awakens had a charm, here it gets exhausting. 

The film works better on the micro level. The principals Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, and John Boyega all gave it their best. They bring a nervous humor and manage to stretch their characters a bit, but not all that much. Adam Driver as Kylo Ren/Ben Solo is given a good arc, but under utilized. The cast contributed a lightness of tone to all the plot shenanigans. 

Rise of Skywalker is weighed down by the loaded history of Star Wars. The Last Jedi was all about letting the old ways die, but Rise of Skywalker cannot extract itself from the baggage of the past. The result is a remix of familiar Star Wars themes of boilerplate good and evil - concluding the saga on an uncertain beat. 

***

The Irishman ***1/2 (2019)

Many years in the making, The Irishman serves as the capstone to Martin Scorsese's cycle of mob themed movies, an anti-nostalgic epilogue to the passing of era, one rhyming with our own in uncomfortable ways. A fitting contrast to Quentin Tarantino's irresistible portrait of the late 1960s in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, The Irishman unfolds in blues and grays, a character study overcast with existential malaise told in dank Midwestern bars, hotel rooms, and offices. A gloomy film redeemed by Scorsese's steady hand, Steven Zaillian's literate script, and heavy duty performances from Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino.

The film follows Frank Sheeran (De Niro), a truck driver who by tricks of fate fell into the orbit of mob figure Russell Bufalino (Pesci) and Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino). CGI helped de-age the actors for a story spanning several decades, providing a verisimilitude that's never too distracting. A WWII veteran of the Sicilian and Italian campaigns, Frank is an unassuming man familiar with violence. He never enjoys the act of killing, but he's really good at it. He also makes for reliable confidante to Bufalino and Hoffa. One could read the film as a dark version of Forrest Gump.

Pesci came out of retirement and here he's far cry from the violent psychopaths he played in Goodfellas and Casino, here he's a quiet and gentle man who wields great power. Pacino also delivers as Hoffa, portrayed as a besieged figure whose need for power and respect led to many disastrous decisions. By turns petty and sensible, Pacino exudes a wave of contradictions, by turns comical and tragic.

De Niro's performance is not dissimilar to his talk show appearances, cryptic and impenetrable. We never get inside the head of Sheehan, on the surface a simple man who powerful figures were drawn to and used to further their own ends. Taken deeper, there's something much more disturbing - the everyman hero turned on its head.

The violence, when it occurs, is never stylized or overstated. No music from Cream or Rolling Stones to accompany a beating, just an uneasy silence. When the climatic act of violence in the film occurs, it's brutal and heartbreaking. But what follows in the last act is a chilling denouement, chilling for its banality.

The Irishman is also a meditation on how violence has driven American history, most often carried out by white men who believed they were doing their duty. The question hangs - for what? Whatever the justifications - for the country, an organization, family, friends - all that's left is unspoken pain and regret. Yeah, The Irishmen is a downer movie, but a necessary one. There's no redemption. There's no repentance.

Primarily a story about aging men, many have pointed out the lack of women in the story, limited to wives and daughters who are oblivious to the lives their fathers and husbands lead. Anna Paquin appears as Frank's daughter throughout, but has little dialogue. The male dominated climate of film makes it colder and begs more questions about the past and today. 

An apt comparison would be Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, another film about a man who lived in high places but died forgotten. Many have called The Irishman the "anti-Goodfellas" in that it seeks to deconstruct the mythos of such films. Goodfellas is celebrated despite its critique of the lifestyle. The Wolf of Wall Street the same, but it also anticipated the Trump era with its portrayal of thuggish capitalism. The Irishmen explores power and corruption as interwoven into a fable of high tragedy - wintry and methodical.

With a 3 1/2 hour running time, Scorsese forces the audience to slow down and take in the story. We spend an awful lot of time with these characters and the movie sticks with you after watching it. 

Doctor Sleep ***1/2 (2019)

Almost 40 years after its initial release, the story that began with The Shining is continued in Doctor Sleep. The story picks up with Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) decades after the events at the Overlook Hotel. As an adult Danny is still dealing with the trauma caused by his father and the Overlook. A redemption story above all else, Mike Flanagan's direction exemplifies character driven story telling.

The first part serves as an epilogue to the events of the first film with Danny and his mom Wendy relocating to Florida. One of the biggest risks of the film was recasting iconic characters played Shelley Duvall, Jack Nicholson, and Scatman Crothers. Carl Lumbly replaces Crothers as Holloran, adding depth to the character who met an ignoble end in the original. An unrecognizable Henry Thomas appears as Jack Torrance. Casting new actors was the right choice instead of going the CGI route.

McGregor gives first rate performance as a recovering alcoholic who finds solace in a small New Hampshire town by working at the local hospice. An especially calming presence for patients during their final moments, Danny earns the nickname Dr. Sleep. McGregor is especially effective as playing Danny as child like, but never a simpleton. He's a decent soul who leads a quiet life until ghosts from the past start to reappear.

Newcomer Kyliegh Curran plays Abra Stone, a teen who shares Danny's gift. She has a lot to do in the story and in a way ends up becoming the protagonist. Curran and McGregor have a good chemistry in one becomes a moving mentor/student relationship. Cliff Curtis also anchors the story as Danny's best friend.

New threats come in the form of a gang that travels across country in trailers who abduct children for a nefarious purpose. Their leader "Rose the Hat" is played by Rebecca Ferguson as a New Age disciple gone wrong. She's charming and seductive enough to keep her from being completely despicable. Ferguson's speech cadence is especially effective, emphasizing words in mid-sentence.

Flanagan never tries to imitate Kubrick, but provides just enough call back to appease fans of the original. The Overlook Hotel plays a pivotal role and the music by the Newton Brothers channels the Wendy Carlos score. In a contrast to the overwrought It: Chapter 2, Flanagan has a knack for tapping into Stephen King's emphasis on childhood. Doctor Sleep has its own story to tell without resting on the laurels of the The Shining.

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool

A new documentary on the life and music Miles Davis explores his various incarnations as one of the great Jazz artists of the 20th Century. The film takes a straight forward approach and it mostly works. A combination of archival footage, new interviews with those who knew him, and Miles's own words set to narration provide worthwhile insight. His beginnings in East St. Louis and his coming of age in New York and Paris comprise the first act. A prodigy on the trumpet, Davis had a relentless drive to innovate, taking his sound as far it could go and never repeating himself. His encounters with racism and determination to be an independent black artist are also major themes. MIles kept the world at arm's length, never suffering fools, he could also be distant to those closest to him. Not a hagiography by any means, the film never shies away from troubling aspects of his life. He struggled with addiction and was abusive towards women. The release of Kind of Blue in 1959 brought international fame, a string of influential records followed. Periods of seclusion were usually followed by creative breakthroughs that allowed him to keep performing until his passing in 1991. An excellent primer for anyone unfamiliar with the music of Miles Davis, Birth of the Cool is an immersive trip into mid-century America.

***1/2

Joker (2019)

Ominous cellos flutter throughout Joker in an original story focusing on the definitive Batman villain. Set in the early 1980s, Joker attempts to evoke the grittiness of 1970s movies set in New York. Such an approach holds endless creative possibilities, but there were also many bands who tried to emulate The Beatles. Going for a certain aesthetic may look and even feel like Taxi Driver or Prince of the City is only half the battle. While Joker does make you forget it's a comic book movie at times, Joker remains tethered to its comic book universe. 

Joaquin Phoenix stars as the Joker in an intense, dark performance. One could expect no less from Phoenix, but it will remain in the shadow of Heath Ledger's in The Dark Knight. The character here is somewhere between Norman Bates and Travis Bickle, a put upon misfit named Arthur Fleck living in a decaying Gotham City. He shares a place with his needy mother and tries to make a living as a clown and stand up comedian. His only joy comes from watching a popular late night talk show with Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro). Arthur also struggles with mental health issues, struggling with a condition that causes bouts of uncontrollable laughter.

One night on the subway Arthur lashes out with violence after a group of Wall Street traders harass him. The turn to violence creates a change within Arthur and he begins to feel empowered. Meanwhile, like Taxi Driver, there's a political campaign in Gotham with Thomas Wayne running, a Trump like businessman who demonizes the poor. Arthur and Thomas are on a collision course that plays out in a slightly clever way.

There are some memorable scenes in Joker, mostly due to Phoenix's bravura performance. He'll often break into bizarre dance routines and oddly grows more charismatic as the story moves along. But when Joker tries to make a larger social statement it misses completely. The class war theme was explored in The Dark Knight Rises, but here it's even more simplistic. In a comic book story such an approach works, but it comes of as shallow in a movie trying to be more than that. The anti-climatic ending leaves us with an interesting performance trapped in a derivative landscape.

The controversies surrounding the release of Joker were a brilliant marketing gambit presenting the film as something dangerous. But the film offers minimal insight on humanity and the nature of evil, but instead revels in its own routine descent into darkness. 

***

Ad Astra (2019)

An engaging space adventure, Ad Astra explores humanistic themes in the midst of a fairly stable future. Director James Gray has compiled an impressive filmography. From historical films (The Immigrant and The Lost City of Z) to intelligent character studies (Two Lovers and We Own the Night) he's one of the more consistent filmmakers of the past two decades. His first venture into Sci-Fi for the most delivers, avoiding pretension in a realistic vision of space travel. Brad Pitt proves a steady presence as astronaut Roy McBride in search of his father Clifford played by Tommy Lee Jones. 

In a decade of ambitious movies set in space there's been a new emphasis on the realities of space travel. From the space survival story in Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity and the pro-science swagger of The Martian, to the emo/trippy Sci-Fi of Interstellar, all these films are exploring the notion of humans surviving in space. French filmmaker Claire Denis offered a grittier, bleaker vision of space travel in High Life is an outlier to the recent trend. Ad Astra utilizes elements from all these films. There's also the unavoidable influence of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

The future in Ad Astra depicts burgeoning colonies on the Moon and Mars. One sequence features chain restaurants on the Moon - looking like any bland airport. Various corporations have carved out spheres of influence on the Moon in a repeat of the wild west, resulting in a buggy chase that's highlighted in the trailer. People are still greedy, still killing each other over resources.

The primary plot device deals with power surges disrupting the electric grid on earth. Emanating from the far reaches of the solar system, the destructive power surges are connected to a mission commanded by Roy's father which embarked on a failed mission to make contact with intelligent life. Roy is drafted (against his will) to discover the the mystery of the mission to save the Earth.

Roy's journey takes him to Mars and beyond. Alternating between action sequences and quiet meditations on loneliness, at just under two hours the film is well paced. Once Roy reaches his destination the big reveal may disappoint some. Gray is more interested in the human condition whether it's immigrants in 20th Century America or Victorian explorers in Africa. Kubrick viewed human exploration as moving towards a destiny, while Gray's more grounded view of space exploration is more concerned with its effect on the human heart. 

As a study of masculinity, women are on the periphery on the story. Roy resents Clifford for abandoning him and his Mom when he was a child. Without children, Roy wants to avoid the mistakes of his father, not wanting to abandon his loved ones in pursuit of some lofty idea. Reconciliation is not the point here - it's catharsis. Not too far from his role as the stern father in Tree of Life, Pitt's quiet performance emotes a perseverance and burgeoning empathy. 

Technically, Ad Astra avoids showy special effects in favor of realistic ones. Space travel is free of the comforts in 2001 and utopia of Star Trek. A claustrophobic depiction of space travel, but still full of cosmic wonder. 

***1/2 out of 4

Martin Scorsese on Spirituality and Movies

Actually when I was a little younger,there was another journey I wanted to make, It was a religious one. I wanted to be a priest. However, I soon realized that my real vocation, my real calling, was the movies. I don't really see a conflict between the church and movies - the sacred and the profane. Obviously there are many differences, but I also could see great similarities between a church and a movie house. Both are places for people to come together and share a common experience. and I believe there's spirituality in films even if it's not one which can supplant faith.

-Martin Scorsese from A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies

One of my favorite quotes ever made about movies.