Destroyer

First Hit: Powerfully acted by Nicole Kidman in a story that teeters on the edge of oblivion at every turn.

After seeing Kidman in this film, I was struck by how amazing she is at morphing from innocent intense, edgy beauty, to a hollowed out, full of anger, women with one thing on her mind, revenge. When we see her becoming an undercover agent, I was reminded of this freckled face beauty in an early film, “Dead Calm.”

The film floats in and out of time. At first, we meet Erin Bell (Kidman) as a depraved, starved, focused angry addicted detective. Then we go back to seventeen years earlier when, as a brave, intense, and attractive police officer being assigned to work undercover with Chris (Sebastian Stan) to reign in a cult-like leader, Silas (Toby Kebbell), who robs banks.

Opening with a depraved Detective Bell walking onto a murder scene; she’s barely able to walk let alone articulate why she’s there. The officers at the scene, probe her, asking why she is there, and what she knows about it. She picks up a $100 bill that’s tainted with purple dye. She looks at a handgun that has been altered to be untraceable and says to the responding officers “I know who killed him.”

Beginning the story this way and Bell’s response lead you to believe, she’s now on a path to find and finish something that started many years earlier, to kill Silas.

Earlier, when Bell and Chris are fully embedded in the gang, they help plan to rob an out of the way bank that is supposed to have millions in their vaults. The film slowly uses these flashbacks to show how Chris and Erin began to care about each other and decisions they made that explain the hollowed, revenge-driven Bell and her goal to find and kill Silas.

At first, I didn’t entirely engage with the use of the flashbacks as used here; however as the film progressed, I found this process exciting and engaging. We learn of Erin’s discovery that she is pregnant. We see her attempting to have a relationship with her angry, rebellious fifteen-year-old daughter Shelby (Jade Pettyjohn) who lives with her stepfather.

In her search for Silas, she meets up with Toby (James Jordan), one of the former members of Silas’s gang. Toby has just been released from prison because he’s soon to die from cancer. Attempting to get information from Toby, Bell manually stimulates him to orgasm to get a name and location of another member of Silas’s gang.

Her search has her engaging with Petra (Tatiana Maslany) a former rich girl who falls into Silas’ spell. She bursts into the residence of a wealthy criminal attorney name DiFranco (Bradley Whitford) whom she suspects of laundering money for Silas.

The depraved intensity of Bell to complete her revenge on Silas after years of pain were etched on her face throughout the film. However, I felt the zenith of the superb acting in this film came at the last meeting of Erin and Shelby.

As Bell does her best to tell her daughter, who she barely knows, that she loves her, Shelby parries Bell’s attempts until a moment of realization that her mom is doing her best and does care. Shelby’s facial expressions and subtle movement towards the opening, were profoundly sublime as were Bells. Amazing scene.

Kidman was beyond profoundly amazing. Her ability to show this level of gut-driven intensity for revenge is unparalleled. In this one film we see Kidman as a young vulnerable police woman and as a singularly focused emotionally debt driven hollowed out detective. Stan was terrific as her undercover partner who would do anything for his partner. Pettyjohn was dynamite in this role. I loved her rebellious nature, yet in the last conversation with her mom, watch her subtle movement from disdain to respect and feeling compassion towards her mother. It is one of the most elegant pieces of acting I’ve seen in a long time. Kebbell was reliable as the semi-cult leader. The challenge he created for one of the gang with the pistol was telling of his exercising power over the group. Maslany was excellent as the once rich girl who has lost her way and feels stuck with her role in life. Whitford is perfect as the ego-driven lawyer that has lost his way. Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi wrote a compelling screenplay. Karyn Kusama got extraordinary performances from her cast and crew to create a fascinating story.

Overall: This is not a film of hope, but a movie about living with choices made and doing your best to the right the wrongs.

Megan Leavey

First Hit: I was fully engaged emotionally with this film and maybe it's because I have a dog and we're close.

Megan Leavey’s story is a true one and I appreciated seeing the real Rex and Megan in the final credits.

This story is about a young lost girl who finds love and a path through life by joining the US Marines and becoming a dog handler. Megan (Kate Mara) perfectly portrays a life not worth living. She is in constant dispute with her mother Jackie (Edie Falco) who just seems clueless about her daughter’s life and what she’s hurting from. Megan also hates her job and has recently lost her closest friend.

There’s a great scene in this film that emphasizes the struggle between Jackie and Megan. Jackie is complaining about her former husband Bob (Bradley Whitford) not giving her the $2,000 he owes her, and Megan’s retort points out that Jackie slept with Bob’s best friend Jim (Will Patton) so Megan doesn’t think Bob owns her mother anything.

Early on she drinks herself out of a job she hates, and drinking gets her in trouble in the Marines as well when she gets caught peeing next to the base provost’s home. Making wrong decisions are her trademark, but this latter one gets her duty cleaning up the kennel. And with most detrimental things in life, there are opportunities as well and Megan suddenly realizes she wants to be a dog handler.

The film takes us through the process and gives the audience a clear picture of how unique these dogs and their handlers are. After Megan meets Rex (her German Shepard), she begins to open up and feels caring and love towards something for the first time in a long time. There are wonderful touching realistic moments that are nicely captured.

Although these dog teams are not well loved by other ground troops and the enemy really dislikes them, they provide a valuable service and when they discover hidden explosives they are beloved.

The movie follows Megan to Iraq where she and Rex are assigned missions. Rex performs perfectly and bravely because Megan performs in the same way, they are connected. They are a team and become inseparable. However, after they both receive injuries, the expectation is that Megan will not re-enlist and Rex will be retired. She wants to adopt Rex but a very unmindful Marine Vet says Rex is unadoptable.

With Megan’s heart broken, she starts to slip away into her previous “I give up” life. However, her dad gives her a talk that highlights her strength and what she learned by being a Marine.

Mara is fantastic. I really felt her despair early in the film and later when Rex was re-assigned to another handler. I also bought her growth as she found strength to tackle the issues or challenges in front of her. Falco was strong has her mother who seemed clueless as to her own behavior and actions towards her daughter. The café scene when she asks about who gets how much money if she happens to die in Iraq was priceless and perfect. Whitford was wonderful as her quiet unassuming father. Common as Gunnery Martin was really good and he’s shown that he's become a strong actor. Ramon Rodriguez as fellow handler Matt Morales was wonderful. I loved his lightheartedness and open caring for both his animal and Megan. Pamela Gray and Annie Mumolo wrote a sensitive and strong screenplay. Gabriela Cowperthwaite did a great job of presenting this emotional strong story.

Overall:  I cried numerous times during this film, which told me it worked.

Get Out

First Hit:  I enjoyed it because it was both odd and interestingly good.

The very first scene before the initial credits, the audience watches a young black man Andrew (Lakeith Stanfield) who is looking lost while walking on a sidewalk in a dark suburban neighborhood when a white car pulls up next to him. He decides that it’s best that he leaves the area but gets mugged and stuffed into the car’s trunk. The way this scene is shot, the scared - this is not my neighborhood - feeling, the resulting fight, the stiffness of the body and the way it’s stuffed into the trunk is effective and encompases and the set up for the entire film.

Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya), who is black, is a photographer and is dating a white suburban girl named Rose Armitage (Allison Williams). She decides to take him to her home. When he asks her, "do they know I'm black?", she seems surprised and says her family isn’t racist and that there no need to tell them ahead of time.

Arriving, there is an initial openness and friendliness that supports her story about her family, but the black man, Walter (Marcus Henderson), working in the yard, and the black woman, Georgina (Betty Gabriel), working in the house seem off, not quite right. Chris takes note of this and during a conversation with Rose’s dad Dean (Bradley Whitford) things seem even more off center. Then at dinner Chris meets the Rose’s brother Jeremy (Caleb Landry Jones), and he makes even more odd comments about his physical characteristics that make him feel like a specimen.

Then he spends time with the Rose’s mother Missy (Catherine Keener) who is a psychologist that specializes in hypnotism. She puts him under without him knowing it and while under the guise to help him quit smoking, the audience knows there's more going on.

These events are followed the next day by a party with really odd guests that have Andrew reappearing as a zombie like friend of an older white woman. This slow buildup transitions to a rather bizarre story that has Chris reaching out to his friend Rod (Lil Rel Howery) who is a TSA agent, is talkative and curious type person. At first you think his thoughts and feedback are hyperbole but he might be onto something.

This whole thing leads to an interesting storyline that is entertaining, spooky, and fun to watch.

Kaluuya does an effective job in this role. His ability to cry while in a supposedly hypnotic state and talking about his mother’s death was wonderful. His curiosity and using his intuitive antenna to figure out what is going on was superb. Williams was wonderful and fully believable as both someone who cared about Chris and also the supported the family mission to alter lives to their best interest. Henderson and Gabriel were especially effective in their zombie like roles. Stanfield was wonderful as both the scared guy walking through the neighborhood and then as zombie arm candy. Howery was fantastic as someone who believed in himself and effectively leveraged his bizarre role of the guy who becomes the hero. Keener was strong as the psychologist mother who controlled people’s behavior though hypnosis. Whitford was clearly effective as the pleasing probing dad. Jones was excellent as the twisted brother. Jordan Peele had a clear interesting vision through his script and did a wonderful job of executing this vision as Director.

Overall:  This was a slightly different twist on horror through control of people

Saving Mr. Banks

First Hit:  A well told story based on an interesting personality.

I’ve never read any of the Mary Poppins series of books nor have I seen the Disney film based on the books and I found that it isn’t necessary to enjoy the film. That is a very good thing.

Here we have T.L. Travers (played by Emma Thompson) living in England and running out of money. She doesn’t care about money because of things her father said, but she loves her home. Walt Disney (played by Tom Hanks) has made a promise to his daughters that he would bring Mary to the big screen. He spent 20 years trying to convince Travers to let him do this.

With her money issues she comes to the US and stubbornly tells Walt, give me the contract, record on audio tape all the development sessions and I’ll let you know at the end of two weeks whether I'll sign the rights away or not. 

The working sessions with Robert and Richard Sherman (played by B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman respectively) were testy and frustrating for all of them with Travers saying “no, no, no” more than any other set of words. Don DaGradi (played by Bradley Whitford) the producer was in the mix all the time and tried his best to soothe the oil and water mix of creative people.

Disney would continue to intercede, talk with Travers and even took her to Disneyland (the happiest place on earth). When she refuses to sign the rights over, heads back home, Walt follows here there and with a bearing of his soul about his own childhood she sees he’s out to make good and that he gets her protective angst of her stories.

The audience is treated to her past story with segues of her life growing up in Australia. If you see this film, stay through the credits long enough to hear part of one of the recording tapes from which the film is based – true to form.

Thompson plays her somewhat unsavory character excellently. Her actions come from the fear of exposing her childhood experience and family. Colin Farrell plays Travers Goff T.L.’s father and he is very good at bringing the angst of alcohol abuse and fighting Tuberculosis. Paul Giamatti as Ralph, T.L.’s driver while in Los Angeles, was priceless. He slowly massages T.L. into understanding herself in a different way. Tom Hanks was very good as Walt Disney and the signature wave Walt used is mimicked perfectly. Novak and Schwartzman were amazing and perfect as the Disney song writing team. Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith wrote an outstanding script which appears to have come, in part, from the recorded tapes. John Lee Hancock directed segments, Travers past childhood and the work with Disney, with wonderful touches of brilliance.

Overall:  Almost made me want to see the film Mary Poppins.