Beauty and the Beast (2017) Review

rating: ***

summary: Belle meets and falls in love with a beast.

review: These Disney live action remakes have been such hit-and-miss affairs, it always depends on how much the director really wants to revisit the material.  Beauty and the Beast is at once a worthwhile and listless effort in the series.

It's a constant struggle to breathe free from its confines, to be the lively kind of movie it wants to be and hopelessly devoted to play-acting the animated film it's based on.  If this had been made, say, fifteen years earlier, it would've fit right alongside the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.  At heart that's what it desperately wants to be.  Obviously having to be a musical puts a damper on such ambitions.  Bill Condon, who staged such a brilliant adaptation of Chicago, seems incapable of bridging the divide, staging a series of karaoke scenes instead, the songs lost to the soundtrack as they seem stubbornly unmoored from the screen material.  It begins to feel more like a tribute than anything.

One of the great signifiers of all this is Josh Gad, not because of his overblown gay element, but that he can't compete, in live action, with the voice work did as Olaf in Frozen.  Luke Evans, if he didn't have to sing, might be able to sell his part, too.  If it had been Russell Crowe (how interesting would that have been!), no critic would've thought twice to mention it (although Crowe almost certainly has more credentials than Evans on every score).  Evans is constantly being undercut by the material he chooses; in most other eras besides the ones he keeps popping up in, he'd have been a much bigger deal.

I'd be lying if I said I decided to watch for any other reason, really, than seeing Emma Watson in another big story and a role other than Hermione Granger, but she'd swallowed whole, too, by the intended pomp, and like Evans has no answer to the jukebox playing around her.  Dan Stevens plays well as the Beast, but as the Prince isn't given anything at all to work with, the very embodiment of how hollow all this is.  Ewan McGregor is barely recognizable either in voice or when we finally see him, a wasted opportunity.  Emma Thompson, let's face it, is no Angela Lansbury (although the kid voicing Chip is great, even if he doesn't get much to do, and once transformed back into a human is thoroughly undermined by the production).

The two shining lights are Kevin Kline reimagining the father and Ian McKellen as Cogsworth.  McKellen's career has been one constant string of frustration for anyone expecting any kind of consistent interest from the industry.  For every Gandalf or Magneto or Da Vinci Code, there's really almost total silence, which is a terrible shame, even when he makes it clear he outclasses everyone and thing around him in something like this.  

Stanley Tucci and Gugu Mbatha-Raw show up in undercooked supporting roles, more examples of what might have been.  I guess they can't all be David Lowery's masterful Pete's Dragon.  Well, I suppose, of course not...

2017 Capsule Reviews

Logan
rating: *****
review: One of the truly great superhero movies, the kind the genre will be able to tout among the classics in decades to come, at last treating Wolverine as the icon he is but also as the man he is.

Dunkirk

rating: *****

review: Christopher Nolan usually has some high concept attached to his films, and while stories play at different intervals, this one's merely a piece of WWII history at its most human level, tracking events related to a massive evacuation of the British army.  

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

rating: ****

review: A wicked satire of the age but unexpectedly poignant for the two characters you least expect, played by Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson.

A Ghost Story

rating: *****

review: A modern classic from David Lowery.

Gifted

rating: *****

review: One of those movies that hits hard on a personal level, and another sign that Marc Webb is a modern treasure.  Chris Evans in one of his finest roles as a brother whose sister dies, leaving behind a niece who needs caring for, brilliantly portrayed by Mckenna Grace.

Justice League

rating: ****

review: At this point a DC movie being trashed by critics and/or audiences (and an MCU being praised by both) is so old hat you just have to laugh.  I loved this one, but the later Snyder Cut is better.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer

rating: ****

review: As far as esoteric movies starring Colin Farrell from this general period go, I liked The Lobster better, although this one does feature the secret origin of Barry Keoghan.

Star Wars - Episode VII: The Last Jedi

rating: ****

review: The period surrounding its release was a trying time for me, but even that didn't stop me from viewing Last Jedi very differently from its (un)popular reception.  Contains at least one definitive moment in the saga.

Wonder Woman

rating: ****

review: Took me a few viewings, but I eventually understood what everyone loved about it.

Murder on the Orient Express

rating: ****

review: The stellar cast led by director Kenneth Branagh makes this a statement on a classic.

John Wick: Chapter 2

rating: ****

review: I only got into the series later, so I was playing catch-up when I saw this one, but the ending brilliantly set up the next one, and as such sold me on the series itself.

Logan Lucky

rating: ****

review: What were the odds that two movies released in 2017 featuring "Logan" in the title would not only exist but be well worth watching?  This one stars Daniel Craig in probably the role that led to his far more famous turn as a Southern-voiced gentleman in Knives Out.  And a great cast around him, including Adam Driver.

I, Tonya

rating: ****

review: It wasn't just my sister who in later years carried the torch forward, but at the time these events played out figure skating was a huge deal, so you really couldn't help being aware, to the point where I have a distinct memory of a classmate acting out the programs that headlined the resulting Olympics, neither of which featured Tonya Harding.  This is a movie that will hopefully help you feel some sympathy for her.

Darkest Hour

rating: ****

review: Winston Churchill was a tough pill to swallow both before and afterward, but he was the hero Britain and the Allies needed, and Gary Oldman portrays him brilliantly.  

Wind River

rating: ****

review: Director Taylor Sheridan has become one of the voices of modern film, but at the time this was also one of the last headlining performances in film for Jeremy Renner.  Well worth experiencing for both.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

rating: ****

review: Sometimes people are just looking for disappointment, especially when they know there's something at stake, such as a potential franchise around this one.  But Charlie Hunham and company are a fine new version of the story all the same.  Also the movie that definitively made me a fan of Guy Ritchie.

Good Time

rating: ****

review: The Robert Pattinson renaissance began with this performance as a bank robber who makes one terrible decision after another.

The Beguiled

rating: ****

review: Sofia Coppola has been one of my favorite directors for years, and this is her take on a forgotten Clint Eastwood film, this time starring Coli Farrell and a host of famous actresses.

It Comes At Night

rating: ****

review: Joel Edgerton trumped, for me, the team of John Krasinski and Emily Blunt from the similar A Quiet Place.  I just couldn't bring myself to even let them compete.

Blade Runner 2049

rating: ****

review: Hey, I actually got into Ryan Gosling for this!  Probably a better film than its predecessor.  If Keanu Reeves can star in sequels to all his notable movies like Harrison Ford, he'll really have something.  

The Fate of the Furious

rating: ****

review: The one where everything starts blatantly hinging on Dom, which in this instance means that everyone thinks he's defecting (but he's really not).

The Hitman's Bodyguard

rating: ****

review: Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson.  I mean, do you really need a further explanation?

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

rating: ****

review: This really shouldn't have worked.  But it did!

The Only Living Boy in New York

rating: ****

review: Marc Webb's other offering.  Not as compelling for me, but it's still a testament to his talent, and probably his most conventional movie to date.

T2: Trainspotting

rating: ****

review: The fact that this happened at all is amazing.  The fact that it repudiates the ending of the first one is astonishing.  But, since there's a sequel now, is maybe to be expected.  

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

rating: ****

review: I actually think Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne as disaffected space agents is a breath of fresh air in space opera filmmaking.

American Made

rating: ****

review: The fact that Tom Cruise even made a conventional drama at this point in his career should be celebrated.

Hostiles

rating: ****

review: Christian Bale as a soldier attempting to rebalance the portrayal of Native Americans after the hero worship of recent decades.

Molly's Game

rating: ****

review: Jessica Chastain navigating poker games and Aaron Sorkin.

Roman J. Israel, Esq.

rating: ****

review: Not quite the achievement Denzel Washington got out of Flight, but still noteworthy.

The Dark Tower

rating: ****

review: Another supposed bomb, but it really couldn't be with the perfect casting of Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, in exactly the opposite of the roles anyone would have expected, and all the more perfect for it.

Atomic Blonde

rating: ****

review: Charlize Theron stars in this straight up Cold War action flick from emerging director David Leitch.

Baby Driver

rating: ***

review: All style makes Edgar Wright lose some of his cool.

Get Out

rating: ***

review: A satire so wicked its point was completely lost.  

The Mummy

rating: ***

review: Tom Cruise starring in a would-be franchise starter that also features Russell Crowe.  Probably the only time these two will ever be in the same movie, which is itself fascinating.  A totally different tone from the Brendan Fraser movies, and that is itself refreshing.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

rating: ***

review: Its best moment, Yondu's goodbye, elevates the results.

Baywatch

rating: ***

review: It's definitely better than the TV series.

Daddy's Home 2

rating: ***

review: I haven't seen the first one, but I don't think that really matters.  Love how this one basically subverts it, though.

Split

rating: ***

review: Got people to like M. Night Shyamalan again, and ends with a surprise link to Unbreakable, not to mention being the secret origin of Anya Taylor-Joy, but Glass is better.

The Greatest Showman

rating: ***

review: Probably gets a little ahead of itself, but a rare original musical in film, starring Hugh Jackman.

mother!

rating: ***

review: Darren Aronosky can get a little too precious, but this is worth experiencing.

The Bad Batch

rating: ***

review: In what is otherwise strictly B-grade material, this is actually the start of Jim Carrey's comeback in a supporting role.

My Little Pony: The Movie

rating: ***

review: Anyone who's seen the show knows exactly what to expect.  If you like one you'll like the other.  If your niece has you watching, there's no problem.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

rating: ***

review: I think Ned as "the guy in the chair" cheapens the results, but he's there for at least the next two movies, so what am I gonna do?  Not as riveting as the two previous incarnations.

Thor: Ragnorak

rating: **

review: I'm being generous, here, as I honestly think this was a jump the shark moment.  Of course, it was otherwise popular.  And of course Love and Thunder, which I love, is considered the shark moment for everyone else.  This only figures.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

rating: **

review: I will forever have to revisit the fourth and fifth films in this series, trying to figure out what they really add to it, except more entries.  Not terrible.  Just not noticeably necessary. 

Get Out (2017)

rating: ****

the story: Chris finds out it's dangerous to be black among white folks with ulterior motives.

review: Wow, so this is a great example of knowing what a movie technically accomplishes, and getting a totally different grasp upon actually seeing it.  Get Out, for me, was a victim of the vast scaling back of film watching I've experienced over the past decade.  I was pretty out of control, generally speaking, for a few years.  I went to the movies all the time.  I had a pretty comprehensive sampling of what was released.  Then I had to become more selective.  I had to start making some snap judgments before movies ever hit theaters, including must-see picks and things that didn't seem like they were for me.  Get Out seemed like it wasn't for me.  It seemed like one of those movies hipsters like, that only seemed to be clever.

Boy was I wrong.

The surface elements are certainly there but even those underscore its greater message.  It's funny that Get Out even had a chance to be widely celebrated, as it mocks liberal attitudes at a time when liberals have virtually succeeded in dominating popular entertainment, both the product and reception of it.  But by the end, it becomes so savage as to become inexplicable.  Clearly a lot of people just didn't get it.  They chuckled knowingly, without comprehension.

You see, Chris's fate is damn ironic.  That he ends up escaping it is much a part of how we've reached this endless public hysteria as anything that helped create it.  When Bradley Whitford says he would've voted for Obama a third time if only given the option, which he repeats after Allison Williams has already told us he'd say so, director Jordan Peele has shown his hand.  That's the whole message right there.  Liberals somewhat liberally exploited black people to get the White House.  Period.  And then moved on, after everything spiraled out of control. 

Yeah.  Peele's ascent as filmmaker came from a popular sketch comedy series, Key & Peele, which can be felt in Chris's best friend, who hilariously puts the whole thing in context for viewers and comes to his rescue at the end.  Chris himself, as portrayed by Daniel Kaluuya, is dumbfounded by the whole experience but never at a loss for action.  The only time he's a victim is when Catherine Keener brainwashes him. 

Stephen Root shows up in a supporting role, subverting his usual comedic persona by both leaning into and away from the stereotype Southern racist the movie never actually delivers.  This is a horror movie with comedy instincts, not a comedy with horror instincts, not a parody.  That's what makes the whole thing so refreshing, so subversive, and so biting.  It might even be called satire.   Probably the way it will properly be understood later.

So I'm glad I finally saw it. 

American Made (2017)

rating: ****

the story: Based on a true story, an airline pilot finds himself drafted into the Iran-Contra Affair.

review: Tom Cruise was one of the biggest movie stars of the '80s and '90s.  At the turn of the millennium his reputation took a big hit due to his increasingly visible affiliation with the Church of Scientology.  Subsequent film projects had to compete with this reputation, and he's never been as popular since.  All that being said, his career remains fascinating.  He starred in Born on the Fourth of July in 1989, a drama that helped define his career.  Suddenly Cruise wasn't just a hotshot playboy but someone who had something to say about the state of the country, even if he was commenting on the war in Vietnam, already fifteen years in the past by then.  It wasn't until Lions for Lambs in 2007 where he offered a true follow-up.  This was a movie about the increasingly toxic cultural divide that had resulted in part from the Vietnam era. 

And then in 2017, he gave us American Made.  Unlike his earlier efforts, this one doesn't attempt to lecture about what's right or wrong.  The whole point of the movie is that Cruise's character has no idea, and never really cares, about the implications of his actions, which involve the CIA hiring him to take reconnaissance photos in Central America, and then to deliver drugs to revolutionaries in Panama, including future dictator Manuel Noriega, and finally guns to the Contras in Honduras.  Director Doug Liman's whole approach to the movie draws on Cruise's charisma and recent reputation as an action star, and turns all that on its head.  This is a movie to be enjoyed with irony.

Late in the film Cruise has been arrested and charged for his activities, but the sequence feels more like Jack Reacher, in the second movie Never Go Back, explaining to authorities that he's going to walk away from the situation.  For a split second he has to worry about actually facing consequences, going to jail, but then he hears his sentencing as community hours.  But he begins worrying about real ramifications, from something worse than a trial, expecting his car to be laced with explosives, after a car his brother-in-law has just gotten in blows up.  It's really a movie that understands tone, and its message about what these events really signify doesn't need to be hammered as a result, and that's refreshing in an era where everything is delivered with as much bluntness as possible.

Domhnall Gleeson, appearing in just about everything these days and constantly changing up his persona, is Cruise's CIA handler, depicted much as CIA handlers tend to be (similar to how they're depicted in The Hunting Party, for example), but elevated thanks to Gleeson's uncanny ability to be fascinating in the most mundane ways possible (his scene-chewing snarls in Star Wars films notwithstanding).  Jayma Mays plays the prosecutor who thinks she's nailed Cruise; ever since her breakthrough in Red Eye I've been waiting for something worthy to fall in her lap, and this is it.  Caleb Landry Jones picks up another scene-stealing supporting role as the ill-fated brother-in-law.  For me, it was fun seeing Star Trek: Enterprise standout Connor Trinneer in a small role as a young George W. Bush.  His character isn't identified, but Trinneer certainly looks the part, and his scene adds a nice additional irony to the proceedings. 

Given his lowered profile, Cruise can no longer count on his projects landing the way they once did.  More often than not his interesting work is slipping through the cracks.  It'd be a shame if American Made did.

Gifted (2017)

rating: ****

the story: A gifted seven-year-old will either live with her uncle or her grandmother, who have conflicting visions of her future.

what it's all about: In the interests of full disclosure, I'm several steps away from the subject matter.  For most of my niece's two and a half years of life, I've been asked to step in and help raise her, and recently been confronted with the gut-wrenching thought of being asked to step back and just be an uncle.  I won't really go into further details on that, but suffice to say, I have an idea of what the heart of this story's about, and so on that level it certainly speaks to me personally.  This may affect my objectivity.

I've been a fan of director Marc Webb, a fairly big fan, since his breakthrough debut film (500) Days of Summer, a heartbreaking drama about a relationship that turns out poorly and an attempt to deal with that.  Webb then directed The Amazing Spider-Man and its sequel, both of which continued his trademark ability to speak to uncomfortable emotional truths.  Webb is a filmmaker who understands that life is complicated, whether or not you're a superhero.  Gifted is a fine extension of his filmography.  It asks you to put aside any particular prejudices you may have about what's in the best interests of gifted children.  Naturally, because that's what society tends to tell you, a gifted child should be given every opportunity to reach their potential.  But for every Mozart, there's a Diane Adler.

Diane is Mary Adler's mother, or rather, she was.  Diane committed suicide when Mary was half a year old.  Before she died, Diane visited her brother Frank in Florida.  Frank took that to mean his sister was entrusting Mary with him.  We catch up with Mary and Frank when he's decided to put her in school, as he says so she'll learn social skills.  She does have a friend, Frank's neighbor Roberta, but Roberta's older than Frank!  Frank just wants Mary to have a normal life.  He saw what happened to his sister, and desperately wants better for Mary.

His mother sees it different.  At this point she comes back into their life and demands custody.  Mary's principal has contacted her after several incidents leave a negative impression on her ability to adjust, regardless of Frank's wishes.  Like her daughter and mother, Diane was a math wiz.  In fact, she was close to solving a "Millennium Prize Problem," which would have been a surefire lifetime achievement, the culmination of all her work and potential.  Frank thinks their mother push Diane too hard.  The court ruling on the dispute sides with her.  Mary is placed in a foster home as a compromise.

The whole situation is really about who relates to Mary on a human level.  Clearly it's Frank.  Too often we forget that beyond everything else it's really our ability to empathize that's our best attribute, to see worth in the person and not just what they can do for you.  Or as Mary says, Frank loved her before she was smart.  He loved her for her.

Critics who were only looking for the dramatic arc and how cathartic the climax felt overlooked the message, and what it meant for Mary and Frank, and its greater applications, especially in a society that has all but eliminated basic acceptance.  We're always saying, you need to have a reason to be accepted.  We've all become cogs in one machine or another, we've all been assigned labels.  This is a movie that says there's something else worth embracing.  Mary's best friend is a one-eyed cat named Fred.  Mary doesn't care that Fred is missing an eye.  She loves him because she loves him.  It's not because he's damaged, anymore than you should care about Mary because her mother died or Frank because of the sacrifices he's made. 

Mary's teacher begins to understand all of this pretty rapidly.  By the time Mary shows up in her classroom, Bonnie notices her brash attitude right away, but she also notices that challenging Mary constructively produces constructive results.  And she becomes attracted to Frank not because he's played by hunky Chris Evans, but because he's endlessly intriguing.  This isn't a movie that ends with a happy, bow-tied ending.  Bonnie and Frank don't end up in a relationship as an official new set of parents for Mary.  We aren't even assured that Mary ends up having the best of both worlds, even though we do get to see where Frank compromises in ways that make sense for Mary, giving her university-level classrooms and girl scout social time.  It qualifies as heartwarming.

Evans has long intrigued me.  Along with a lot of other people, he was the most interesting element of the first two Fantastic Four movies.  He was also a standout in material like The Losers and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.  And of course as Captain America.  Here he's in an approachable mold of Captain America, rather than the jokier role he used to specialize in.  He proves he's ready for mature, nonsuperhero roles, possibly the best of the Avengers crop in that regard. 

Octavia Spencer is a revelation in this movie.  Other directors have a way of making her look like a caricature, but Webb keeps her human.  You can always tell the true talent of a director in how they turn perception completely around like that.  Jenny Slate is credible as the teacher.  The real find, as seemed to happen in several movies in 2017, is child actress Mckenna Grace.  Child actors are notoriously a mixed bag.  In years past most were expected to be merely precocious; Grace joins a recent tradition of finding real talent.  Without her the movie would probably fall apart, no matter how appealing Evans and his adult costars are.  As it is, this is one you'll be able to enjoy without reservation for years to come.

2017

Viewed/Ranked

1. Logan
2. Dunkirk
3. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
4. A Ghost Story
5. Justice League
6. The Killing of a Sacred Deer
7. Star Wars - Episode VII: The Last Jedi
8. Wonder Woman
9. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
10. Good Time
11. The Beguiled
12. It Comes At Night
13. Blade Runner 2049
14. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
15. Roman J. Israel, Esq.
16. The Dark Tower
17. Atomic Blonde
18. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
19. Baywatch
20. Split
21. The Bad Batch
22. My Little Pony: The Movie
23. Spider-Man: Homecoming
24. Thor: Ragnarok
25. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Other Notable Releases

1. A Cure for Wellness
2. Alien: Covenant
3. American Made
4. Baby Driver
5. Beauty and the Beast
6. Daddy's Home 2
7. Darkest Hour
8. The Fate of the Furious
9. Get Out
10. Gifted
11. Goodbye Christopher Robin
12. The Greatest Showman
13. The Hitman's Bodyguard
14. Hostiles
15. I, Tonya
16. It
17. Jigsaw
18. John Wick: Chapter Two
19. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
20. Kingsman: The Golden Circle
21. Lady Bird
22. Logan Lucky
23. The Lost City of Z
24. Molly's Game
25. mother!
26. The Mummy
27. Murder on the Orient Express
28. The Only Living Boy in New York
29. Professor Marston & the Wonder Women
30. The Shape of Water
31. T2: Trainspotting
32. The Wall
33. Wind River
34. Wonder

I'd call 2017 a really strong year.  You can go as far down as Split in the viewed list and I'd argue these were all inspired movies.  Split is itself something of a split decision (heh), fun as an extension of Unbreakable (can't wait until Shyamalan completes the story), but more of his comeback tour of just trying to win back fans than one of his creative triumphs.  My Little Pony, meanwhile, isn't really a bad movie, but I doubt I would've even thought to watch it at all unless my niece had developed an interest in the original cartoon.  This is to say, I don't know if I'd watch it independently.  Fun to watch with her, anyway, and that's what really matters.  Pinky Pie!

2017 (or at least what I've seen so far, and what I expect to see in the near future)

I've seen significantly fewer movies in the past few years than I have in a decade.  Ten years ago I was at what has so far been my peak, catching more than sixty movies in a year.  I made it to a theater eight times in 2017, and so far caught two additional films on home video.

Here's what that looks like, roughly speaking:

1. Logan
2. Dunkirk
3. The Beguiled
4. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
5. Justice League
6. Star Wars - Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
7. Wonder Woman
8. Spider-Man: Homecoming
9. Thor: Ragnarok
10. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

There's a bunch of movies I am already primed to catch up on, and more I fully intend to in the near future:

• A Ghost Story
• Atomic Blonde
• Blade Runner 2049
• The Dark Tower
• Good Time
• Hostiles
• The Killing of a Sacred Deer
• The Only Living Boy in New York
• Roman J. Israel, Esq.
• Split
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
• Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
• The Wall

So that's an additional thirteen movies.  Can't say what I might add to that number, out of the more than seven hundred movies released this year, but I'm sure there'll be some, at some point.  I can't even say for sure I'll catch those thirteen soon, but I'll do my best.

The Beguiled (2017)

rating: ****

the story: A Union soldier ends up resting in a house full of Southern belles.

what it's all about: The story began as a book (1966's A Painted Devil by Thomas Cullinan) and then a Clint Eastwood film in 1971.  Sofia Coppola turned it into her sixth feature film in 2017.  It seems befitting for the director of The Virgin Suicides.  And also the star of Miss Julie, Colin Farrell.

Critics seem to have dismissed it as a mostly unnecessary duplication of Eastwood's film.  This is odd, as Eastwood's film really has no lasting cultural legacy.  You can tell when critics can't come up with a better way to dismiss a movie when they start referencing stuff they probably had to research in order to talk about, or otherwise material the general public has never heard of. 

At any rate, I think, as a movie layman, that The Beguiled works quite well, especially in relation to Coppola and Farrell's back catalog.  Coppola's first movie, The Virgin Suicides, was about a brood of sisters who, ah, beguile the neighborhood boys who can't understand what happens to them.  Farrell and Jessica Chastain matched wits in Liv Ullmann's Miss Julie, a 2014 adaptation of the August Strindberg play; it's Chastain who dominates Farrell in that one, although there ends up being a fair amount of blame to go around in how it ends.

Likewise, Farrell is both criminal and victim in The Beguiled.  His Union soldier can't help but exude charm amongst the women he becomes surrounded by, and he leads basically all of them on.  But this ends up backfiring on him when he chooses one of them and by default betrays the rest of them, which leads to...ah, well, nothing good. 

The women are led by a few heavy hitters: Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning, and Coppola veteran (she appeared in Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette) Kirsten Dunst.  Between Kidman's and Dunst's characters, Farrell has the most trouble.  He arrives at their doorstep with an injured leg, and reinjures it when Dunst sends him tumbling down a stairway.  Kidman makes the decision to amputate it, believing she has no other choice.  Farrell interprets it as a spiteful gesture. 

In Miss Julie, it's Chastain who becomes totally unhinged; in Beguiled it's Farrell (I kind of wish it had been Chastain, rather than Kidman, who played the matriarch, for that reason alone).  It occasions his best scenes in the movie, anyway.  Kidman channels her Cold Mountain performance; Dunst is again her classic shrinking violet, a role that thrust her to prominence early in the millennium (the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy, where she portrayed Mary Jane Watson), and as in her previous Coppola collaborations, she again finds new ways to present it.

The story itself must be considered fascinating.  Even if you fault Farrell for his fate, you can't say it's justified.  In some ways it seems a rebuke from Coppola for the exaggerated emotions running rampant today.  And it can't be a mistake that it's a Civil War drama, in an age where the United States seems to be teetering on schism once again. 

It's a contemplative drama well worth relishing, and a sobering reflection on the battles of the sexes.

Dunkirk (2017)

rating: ****

the story: British soldiers try to evacuate France.

what it's all about: I've been a huge fan of Christopher Nolan for as long as he's been making movies.  I can say that because I had the pleasure of enjoying Following early on, and that's his first movie, before Memento, which for a time was my favorite movie, or at least very near the top, period.  So I've watched the progress of his career with great interest.  Dunkirk, plain and simple, was a bid to be taken seriously by critics.  It's his Saving Private Ryan, a war movie about risking terrible losses for a noble cause.  Surprisingly, there are few war movies like that.  That's actually all of Nolan's movies, risking terrible loss for a noble cause.  Dunkirk may make that most plain for general audiences who have become more accustomed to his blockbuster material than his nuance as a filmmaking visionary, caught up in his gimmicks and getting lost along the way.  But Nolan never gets lost.

The gimmick of Dunkirk is one of his most straightforward yet, and it's hugely rewarding for the rare unambiguous ending to one of his films, where the British eventually get to leave the hell of a beach under constant siege by the enemy.  He follows three tracks of narratives, neatly laid out with cards explaining what they are, how long they take.  Keeping track of them then becomes the business of the viewer.  Tom Hardy's is shortest.  As one of the few pilots trying to clear the airways of enemy fire, his work is accomplished in an hour.  He's there to provide the muscle of star power.  Everyone watching knows who he is, so his eyes get to do most of the work, while Michael Caine cameos early as the voice helping explain the situation.  Mark Rylance, who has become a late-blooming standout in recent years, spends a day as a civilian bringing his boat, and a couple of callow youths, to the rescue.  Kenneth Branagh leads the evacuating troops over the course of a week. 

By the time Branagh celebrates "home," and one of the soldiers remarks that all they did was survive, and Hardy watches his ship burn, the full impact of the events comes into focus.  This is not a movie that beats you over the head with its significance.  This was an historic event that occurred before the Americans even entered WWII.  Churchill is quoted, calling on the British to keep fighting wherever the need arise, a famous speech, at which point you get a sense of where all this falls, if you'd never heard of Dunkirk before.  The experience itself, which like some of the best historic dramas seeks to immerse you directly into it, becomes the whole point, and because of those three story threads you get a good sense of what it was all about, what it took to reach the ending, without sensationalizing any of it.  Rylance takes on a stowaway at one point, Cillian Murphy, who at one point was to emerge as one of Hollywood's bright new stars, but things change, and Murphy seems fine to weather a different storm, even as he suffers brilliantly in Dunkirk, in the tempered Dunkirk fashion.

I don't think it's Nolan's best movie, but it'll be the favorite of a lot of other viewers, who won't question how it fits in with the rest of his movies, who maybe will never see most of his other movies, who may not even be aware that Christopher Nolan has been a significant name in film for nearly twenty years.  That's fine.  Nolan's been playing by his own rules from the very start, and he's managed to create an unbroken string of success doing it, which is incredibly rare.  He's always looking for that next challenge, that next depiction of the classic Nolan narrative, and he's managed to do it at a high level since 2005, when he did the first of three Batman movies.  He's got an epic vision every time, but it always looks different.  By virtue of its apparent awards conventions, Dunkirk may be among his most unique to date.  By removing the central figure that has previously been so integral to his movies, Nolan offers a new challenge, one that will require time, perhaps, to fully absorb. 

Maybe it is his best movie.  Finally, an enigma wrapped up in straightforward packaging.  So that's what it looks like...

Top Picks from 2017 Sundance film festival

One of my dream jobs would absolutely be to watch movies all day (and, I guess, write about them), so I'd love to attend something like Sundance (1/19-1/29).  Here're some films from this year's festival I'd love to catch, ideally at Sundance.  Any omissions are strictly an indication of the extent to what I miss by not being able to live that particular dream...

A Ghost Story

 

Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara always intrigue me, and the premise of this particular movie is beyond intriguing.

 

 

The Discovery

 

Rooney Mara, plus Jason Segel in a dramatic performance?  Heck ya!

 

 

The Hero

 

Sam Elliott's Crazy Heart might finally be his worthy spotlight.



I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore

 

Mostly because Melanie Lynskey is a screamingly underrated talent and this is one of several films she appears in at Sundance this year.

The Little Hours

This pick is mostly for how ridiculously natural Alison Brie and Aubrey Plaza look as nuns.  Plus I'd love to see them act as nuns...

Manifesto

 

Are you kidding me?  This is another Cate Blanchett tour-de-force.  Only cinephobes would hate seeing this.

 

 

Wind River

 

The latest from Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water).

 



 

The Yellow Birds

 

The forthcoming Young Han Solo stars in this, plus Jason Patric, who's the longest-working brilliant actor who critics have yet to really discover, or possibly has yet to appear in a film to truly spotlight him (besides Narc).