Films that rose above the fray in 2018

This was a particularly good year for films. At first I didn’t think so but after I reviewed the films I watched and wrote about this past year, I was pleasantly surprised. I was entertained by outstanding acting, strong and poignant films about racism, and out loud laughs. My next post will be about the Oscar nominations.

Game Night: This film was funny from the get go and I laughed out loud all the way through.

Leaning Into the Wind: Andrew Goldsworthy: If you liked the film River and Tides, you’ll love Leaning....

The Death of Stalin: There are very funny moments, but I couldn’t help but wonder was his regime filled with that much personal corruptness? Probably.

Flower: The acting lifts this bizarre storyline to funny, engaging and entertaining levels.

Red Sparrow: Although long at 2h 19min, it had enough twists, turns, and detail to keep me fully engaged.

You Were Never Really Here: Beautifully shot scenes, dynamic soundtrack, but this oddly paced film tells a story of redemption, salvation or deeper despair.

Beirut: I really liked the way this film was put together and came to fruition.

A Quiet Place: Well done film and the silence of the actors made all the difference in the world.

Deadpool 2: First Hit: This film is fun, irreverent and filled with out-loud laughs.

RBG: Excellent film about a woman who lives within her strength and defined and changed U.S. law.

Disobedience: Extremely well-acted film about how antiquated thinking can split families and a loving relationship.

Hotel Artemis: Who says Hollywood cannot create a unique and well-acted film.

Blindspotting: Extremely powerful and pointed film and raises the bar for Best Picture of the Year. In my view this unnominated film is by far and away the best film of 2018.

Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot: A unhurried film revealing the power of how forgiveness of others and self, can make one’s life different.

Three Identical Strangers: A truly amazing story about how sciences’ curiosity didn't take into account the effects on human beings.

Sorry to Bother You: What I liked about this film is that it is funny, unique, and unlike any other film I’ve seen.

Leave No Trace: Sublimely acted and evenly paced film about a man and his daughter living in a public forest.

Puzzle: I thoroughly enjoyed this poignant film about a woman finding herself through a passion.

BlacKkKlansman: Fantastic film about race relations in the United States while reminding the audience about how far we have to go.

Eighth Grade: Outstanding acting and script gives us an insightful view of what it is like to be in the Eighth Grade today.

Fahrenheit 11/9: Covers a lot of stuff but I think it was mostly about Presidents and people in power managing and acting poorly.

Pick of the Litter: It was an fantastic and interesting way to learn about how guide dogs are taught to be amazing caretakers for the blind.

First Man: Compelling reenactment of an audaciously brave time in the 1960’s where we were challenged by President Kennedy to go to the moon.

The Hate U Give: A fantastic film about the existence of racism and, as indicated here, in our police departments as well.

Green Book: Excellent acting, engaging story, and both funny and thought-provoking make this film fun to sit through.

Boy Erased: Outstanding cast delivers sublime performances in a powerful story about LGBT conversion programs.

A Private War: Rosamund Pike (as Marie Colvin) gives a deeply complex performance of a war correspondent who brought personal stories of war victims to the forefront.

Bohemian Rhapsody: Accurate or not, this film was fun, well-acted, engaging, and joyful.

Can You Ever Forgive Me: Excellent acting about a caustic, friendless author that finally finds her voice.

Mary Queen of Scots: Saoirse Ronan (Mary Stuart) and Margot Robbie (Queen Elizabeth 1) give powerful performances in this adaptation of how Mary Queen of Scots tried to claim her title to the throne of England and Scotland.

Vice: I liked this oddly created film about a powerful yet enigmatic man who really ran our country for a period of time.

Ben is Back: Extremely well-acted story based on 24 hours of a mother and her addicted son’s return for the holidays.

Roma: Outside of the beautiful black and white photography and languid movement of the story, I left the theater with little.

The Favourite: A stark, intense musical score underscores the bizarre and tension filled interrelationships between the queen and her court.

Shoplifters: Wonderfully engaging film about a Japanese family who chose each other while fighting to stay nourished and together.

Hostiles

First Hit:  Although it is long and at times languid, it tells a wonderful story of coming to grips with our internal and external enemies.

I like films that have the main characters learn from introspection and if done well, they bring a smile to my face.

The film’s setup is watching the cruelty of a family being slaughtered by a small band of renegade Comanche Indians. They come to steal their horses, will kill everyone, and set fire to their home. The wife/mother finds a way to hide and although her husband and three children are killed, she survives.

Then we switch to lifelong (since age 14) Indian fighter Captain Joseph J. Blocker (Christian Bale) of the U.S. Calvary, as he captures and brings in what he hopes to be the last of the Apache Indians that have been fighting settlers.

His hatred for the Indians that have scalped and killed settlers is ever present in his face and manner. When summoned to Colonel Abraham Biggs office, we learn the depth of his hatred. The cause for his outburst is that he’s been assigned, under the orders of the President of the United States, to take his sworn enemy Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi), who is dying, to the Chief's home in Montana to die peacefully.

During this mission, he comes across Rosalie Quaid (Rosamund Pike) the lone survivor of the first scene’s massacre. He takes her with him on the mission and together they find it in their hearts to both suffer, learn, and forgive.

The film just takes a while to get there but in the end I thought it was worth it. The hints of Blocker's deeper compassion are displayed through the kind gestures Blocker he shows his men and Quaid.

The beautiful scenery in the film improved and made the journey of watching much better. The way Blocker’s past kept arriving to him as a reminder of his ways while watching Quaid grow from her terrible ordeal, was exquisite. The scene when Blocker speaks with Corporal Henry Woodsen (Jonathan Majors) while they said goodbye was deeply touching of the deep respect and love they had for each other. The caring Blocker had for Master Sergeant Thomas Metz (Rory Cochrane) was divine. When Metz said that he was tired and done with this path, instead of dismissing this, Blocker embraced the place from which Metz said it. As Quaid supported the Indian women and men during the journey, the audience felt her movement towards forgiveness.

These connections made this film work. However, it does take a while to get there, so if you see this film, sit back, relax and let the film speak to you internally.

Bale was clearly wonderful in this role. His ability to show compassion and caring for another human being as well as his hatred was amazing. His physical expressions rarely changed much, it all came from his eyes. Pike was sublime. She showed a depth of angst that is rarely expressed on screen, and her movement towards forgiveness was perfect. Cochrane was great. I loved his ability to make his role real. Majors showed great depth of character in a role where he gets to stand for something and honor another as well. Studi was perfect and the Chief who kept his honor while making his way towards death. Scott Cooper wrote the script and directed this film. I saw both his reasoning for making it 2 hours and 14 minutes long and also saw where there could have been cuts which would have made it crisper.

Overall:  After letting the film settle in, I found that I enjoyed the journey.

The Magnificent Seven

First Hit:  The original 1960’s film had heart, this one doesn’t.

As much as I like Denzel Washington (playing Chisolm) and Chris Pratt (playing Josh Faraday) in films, this one felt dead. No character was really given a story to care about until the end when Chisolm shares why he really took the job to kill and defeat Bartholomew Bogue’s (Peter Sarsgaard) group of men who controlled the small western town. But until this moment, there was only some “telling” as to why this small band of men decided to protect this small town versus engaging the audience in a story having heart.

It is a shame, because there's a slew of wonderful actors in this film but they cannot make up for a mediocre script by Richard Wenk and Nic Pizzolatto and direction without vision. Yes, director Antoine Fuqua got the action of movement and shooting to kill reasonably well. He even got the small western town set well, but the heart of the film, the townsfolk’s fear as shared by Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett), lacked depth as did most of the Seven hired men.

The strong points of the film were initial discovery of each of the characters. But after this, it fell flat. Besides Chisolm, the main characters were:  Faraday as a self-professed great lover and fast drawing gunslinger. Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke) and Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee) as a team of two who bet on their skills of speed to take people's money. Goodnight, who was formerly a confederate sniper with legendary rifle abilities haunted him. The overall story about his connection with Chisolm is that Chisolm saved Goodnight from self-destruction.

As in kind, Rocks, a foreigner, was being help to interpret the West by Goodnight. Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) was the least defined character. Still not sure how or why he joined the group. Red Harvest (Martin Sensmier) was a Comanche Indian that was ousted from his tribe and seemed like he needed something to do.

The most amusing and fun character was Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio) who was a bear mountain man sort of a guy. He was fond of pontificating religious beliefs and sayings all the while being part of the team of seven. The basic story is that these seven men help a small town from a siege by Bogue and his army of killers that have taken over their gold mines.

Washington did what he could do to make this film work, but the lack of a good screenplay and an action only focused director, let him down. Pratt made the most of his character and, although he didn’t seem to care about the lack of story, he made it fun for himself and the audience. Sarsgaard’s role didn’t work for me. He didn’t seem to embody the role from the inside although his actions were rather ruthless. Bennett did what she could to create caring about the town and its hapless citizens. She was one of the stronger characters. Lee was OK and seemed to relish his role as fast with a knife. Garcia-Rulfo did what he could but I didn’t get his particular “role”. Hawke was OK but his fear of killing more people wasn’t developed very well. Sensmier had a strange role in that I never got why he would bother helping this band of white men in their quest. I did like his handling of the Indian character on Bogue’s team as it was inevitable that these two would tangle. D’Onofrio was very engaged in his role. He embraced the nuttiness of this man bear. Richard Wenk and Nic Pizzolatto’s screen play from the famous Akira Kurosawa Seven Samurai screenplay was poorly conceived. It lacked heart and a way for the audience to care. Antoine Fuqua did the action part OK, but everything else was empty – no soul.

Overall:  Don’t bother seeing this version go back to the 1960 version – much better.

The Hateful Eight

First Hit:  A very well shot film that had out loud moments of laughs punctuated on all sides with gore.

Violence is one thing you can depend on in a Quentin Tarantino (Writer and Director) film.

There is no disappoint in this film on that note. Everyone in this film gets a bullet or two. There are also moments of out loud laughs. Some of those laughs come at the expense of absurdity (John “The Hangman” Ruth speaking with Daisy Domergue) while others driven by outlandishly pointed dialogue (Major Marquis Warren speaking with General Sandy Smithers). However, my favorite set of laughs were the issues with closing the door – laughed each time even when I knew it was coming.

There are moments in the dialogue where it seemed that it was being pushed out by the actors and therefore I lost engagement, however those moments were few and far between. Most of the time, the dialogue was so strong, good, and well executed that I was totally immersed in the play of the words.

There is no faulting in any way, shape, or form, the absolutely beauty of the pictures presented on the screen. Even if you don’t like seeing violence, one cannot fault the beautiful way it was shot.

The outside shots of Wyoming, spectacular. The cabin’s close quarters could have felt small and confining, however the film’s format allowed for the real feeling of one large open room for eight people to the interact in and you were there voyeuristically. The storyline around the use of the word "nigger" was OK, not great, as I keep hoping we’ve moved beyond the derogatory use of this term.

Here is it used emphatically to make a point and to paint the connotation of its ugliness when used. The story didn’t hide itself well because both Ruth (Kurt Russell) and Major Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) telegraphed the problem about why all these people were in the cabin without the cabin’s owner being present.

Although there were a number of “Acts”, I’m not sure why the 3rd was so long in comparison. There was an obvious break part way through the third.

Lastly, I’d heard that the film was designed to be shown with a 10 – 15 minute intermission. Our theater did not do this and ran the 187 minute film straight through. Not that I needed or wanted an intermission – I personally don’t like them – despite its length, time went quickly while allowing each scene to breathe and develop.

As Major Warren said at one point:  “… let’s slow it down… let’s slow it way down.”

Jackson was bombastically present in this role as if it was made for him. When he’s laying out a lengthy discourse about his being on the right side of justice, he’s perfect. His eyes telegraph his intense nature. Russell was effortlessly and gruffly suspicious. Wrapped up in a large coat, hat lowered on his forehead, and a face full of hair he was an impeccable rendition of a lone bounty hunter. Jennifer Jason Leigh was oddly amazing as a wanted woman being brought to justice by Ruth. Like a caged cat, her defiance of her keeper, and her hatred towards blacks spewed forth in hisses. Truly a remarkable performance (Oscar worthy). Walter Goggins as newly appointed Sheriff Chris Mannix was very strong as he vacillated between being weak to get an advantage or strong when he was in control of varying situations in the cabin. Demian Bichir as Bob, the suspicious Mexican holding down Minnie’s, was very good stirring the soup of dialogue from time to time. Tim Roth as Oswaldo Mobray the man who hangs people dispassionately was very strong. Interesting that his take so reminded me of Christoph Waltz, that it was a bit eerie. The part could have been done by Waltz but his power would have been too much for the film. Michael Madsen as Joe Gage the quite brooding man with semi-hidden agenda was wonderful. Bruce Dern was great as the old Southern General Sandy Smithers. James Parks as stage coach driver O.B. Jackson was very good especially in the scene when he comes back from the outhouse after dumping the guns in the hole.  Channing Tatum as Jody was great to see. It isn’t often that Tatum plays a heavy and he did this well. Tarantino wrote a mostly wonderful fleshed out script. There were a couple of times where it felt forced or a little stilted coming from the actors, but overall it was very strong. The direction was superb. The camera angles, the broad vista shots, mixed with the wide 70mm lens showing the dance of each of the characters was perfect. The dark humor mixed in with intense situational dialogue was great.

Overall:  This is a strong 8th film by Tarantino and helps his resume.

The Homesman

First Hit:  A well-acted slow evolving film that seems to end in mid-sentence.

Hilary Swank as Mary Bee Cuddy is anything but plain, although the makeup personnel did their best. I think she is and was interestingly beautiful in this film.

Here she is a single smart capable and headstrong woman who is making her way as a farmer in the desolation of “the territories” (later known as Nebraska). She propositions men for marriage by announcing her assets (money in the bank, two strong mules and land) but they decline saying she’s as “plain as a pail” and “bossy”.

The harsh winters have caused three women to “go crazy”. However, to me it was the men who pushed these women towards their craziness by being thoughtless. Anyway, Cuddy decides to take them back to Iowa where they can be with their families.

To help her on this journey she employs George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones) who is just surviving by cheating and stealing. How they meet is a hoot and sets up their relationship perfectly. Together they set out to take Anabella Sours (Grace Gummer), Theoline Belknap (Miranda Otto), and Gro Svendsen (Sonja Richter) to Iowa so that they can be reunited with their families.

The trip is about the relationship between Cuddy and Briggs and how they survive the long trip through the cold, desolation and their ability to become friends while minding their precious cargo. What was fittingly odd, was the ending – would Briggs have closure or would he just do what was next.

Swank is amazing and could get an Oscar nod. Jones is amazingly strong and he also wrote and directed this film. Gummer, Otto and Richter were good in their limited but strategically important roles. Kieran Fitzgerald co-wrote the longish film with Jones who also directed this film with some great prairie visuals and some very interesting one on one scenes.

Overall:  I didn’t love this film, but watching great actors act was worth the time.