Ingrid Goes West

First Hit:  A wonderful reflection of the impact of social media on people.

This is an interesting story about how getting caught up in social media, like Instagram, can alter one’s perception of what relationships consist of.

The film begins with Ingrid Thorburn (Aubrey Plaza) getting herself in a tizzy over not being invited to a wedding. She perceives that she is a best friend of the bride. Breaking into the wedding, she squirts pepper spray into the eyes of the bride and escapes. We learn that the bride never met Ingrid before – just through Instagram.

Ingrid’s mom has just died and because Ingrid was her caretaker, this probably contributed to her isolation and use of social media to reach out to the world. After the wedding fiasco, she isolates herself and searching social media, discovers Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen) on social media.

Taylor makes her living by being an “influencer” on Instagram. She photographs herself in locations and with products and because of the size of her audience, companies pay her. Taylor lives in Southern California with her artist husband Ezra (Wyatt Russell). Ingrid, armed with money her mother left her, heads to CA to find Taylor and to find a new life.

She rents a studio from Dan Pinto (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) who ends up becoming her friend. Her first step after “following” Taylor on Instagram, is to track her down by going to the places she posts on Instagram. One day she runs into Taylor and stealthily follows her to her home. Noting that Taylor and Ezra have a dog, named Rothko, she creates a plan to steal the dog and return the dog to get in good, close graces with Taylor.

This plan works and they end up becoming pals hanging out together. What Ingrid doesn’t know is that Taylor has no teal intention of making Ingrid a real friend. As long as Taylor gets something from the relationship, she lets Ingrid hang out with her and Ezra.

The film evolves to where it gets pretty twisted because Ingrid will do anything to be close to and hang out with Taylor. As Taylor’s brother Nicky (Billy Magnussen) comes into the picture, he brings new audiences for Taylor and so Ingrid slips out of favor and importance to Taylor.

As we see how far Ingrid goes to stay in good graces with Taylor, I started to cringe. Nicky adds additional leverage against Ingrid by stealing her phone and threatening Ingrid with exposing her phone’s negative and intimate posts of Taylor to Taylor.

Spiraling into oblivion, Ingrid finds out that there are people who care, even if they were only known to her through social media. She also learns that she has the possibility of creating a real human relationship.

What I liked was how well Ingrid showed what it is like to be obsessive about pings on her phone. She made the feeling that her life depended on the pings, perfectly real.

Plaza is wonderful in this role. Her eyes and behavior really reflected the desperateness of her trying to connect the only way she knew how. This was a strong performance. Olsen was very good as the influencer who really didn’t care about the people who followed her. Russell was OK as Taylor’s husband. His abdicating to his wife’s preferences was well done. Jackson Jr. was strong as the landlord, friend, and lover with a Batman obsession. The story how he came to this obsession was wonderful. David Branson Smith and Matt Spicer wrote a fun script that came alive with the actors and direction by Spicer.

Overall: I liked how the social media obsession was portrayed as I am aware of people who’ve been hooked.

Wind River

First Hit:  Extremely well-acted character driven crime film in a stark cold setting.

Jeremy Renner is a fine actor and his turn in “The Hurt Locker” was amazing. In “Wind River” he gets an opportunity to shine once again. Here he plays Cory Lambert an agent with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Wyoming. He spends most his time alone in the wild hunting down animals that are killing local rancher’s animals. He's divorced, a father and haunted by loss.

He was married to Wilma (Julia Jones) a Native American. They had two children together, however the oldest, a daughter, was suspiciously killed one night while the couple were out together for much needed alone time. Their young son lives primarily with Wilma and she’s looking to move away for a new job.

While tracking mountain lions in the high country, he runs across a Natalie (Kelsey Asbille) who is frozen, dead and barefoot. He can tell she'd been running away from something horrible because of the tracks in the snow, wounds on her body and that the freezing cold air coagulated the blood in her lungs causing them to burst. Cory suspects she was also sexually assaulted because of the location of blood stains on her clothing. He contacts Sheriff Ben (Graham Green) who calls the FBI because they suspect it is a homicide and on government Native American land.

The FBI sends Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) to determine what happened and if a homicide, resolve the murder. Between Ben, Jane and Cory they figure out how Natalie was killed and who was responsible for her death.

The scenes and scenery were dramatically staged showing the wild, cold, wilderness of remote Wyoming. Camera shots were powerful and added to the suspense of the story. The scenes of Cory with Martin (Gil Birmingham), Natalie’s father are deeply moving as they share the experience of losing a daughter and having to deal with their respective losses.

Renner is amazing. He’s perfect for the role by being rugged, smart and sensitive. Jones is perfect as Cory’s divorced Native American wife who's looking to move on. She impeccably carries the sadness of losing her daughter and the status of her and Cory's relationship. Asbille is wonderful in her small, primary, yet pivotal role. Olsen is flawless as the FBI agent naïve in the ways of Wyoming reservation ways, but focused on getting the job done. Birmingham is priceless. I loved his reserved suffering ways and willingness to take another step. Greene is excellent as the Sheriff who bridges the gap between the native American and white man’s worlds. Taylor Sheridan wrote and directed this film. In both cases, he hit a home run. Some of the shots in the wild made me feel as if I was a voyeur and greatly added to the experience.

Overall:  This is a top-notch film because the story, acting and direction is sublime.

Captain America: Civil War

First Hit:  I was shocked that people applauded at the end of this film because the story was too fabricated and forced to make it interesting.

I like a good superhero film every once in a while. However, because they make money for the studios, storylines are created to put more of the heroes together.

It isn’t enough to have a group of Avengers focus on a single enemy, here the script writers and producers decided to have them pitted against one another. This, of course, will boost viewership, however I do not think it helps the brand in the long run. This action mirrors short term profits are more important than long term gain and integrity.

The best acting done in this film is by Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and Iron Man. The rest of the superheroes have their moments and it is obvious that the film is set up this way. Each of them gets to display their “super powers”.

The one exception to all of this is the introduction of Spiderman/Peter Parker (Tom Holland). His character is funny due to his newness to his spidey powers and his youthful attitude. The film does try to explore the importance of friendship through the relationship and actions of Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and the Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). Their lifelong friendship is tested here.

Also friendship is overtly tested between Iron Man and Captain America. Then there is the issue of government control of The Avengers and their response to issues in the world. This is brought up  because innocent people have been killed through their heroic involvement. Both of these subjects are feebly addressed by the story.

Downey Jr. was the best of the group of actors mostly because he had a fair amount of introspective and intelligent dialogue. Evans is only OK, but I cannot tell if it is only because of the role, script, or Evans own acting abilities. Holland is fun and is the most amusing character. Stan is good as the stoic semi-enemy of The Avengers and the general public. Daniel Bruhl (as the real enemy Zemo) is good enough to pull off being the real antagonist. Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, and Frank Grillo are only OK as the superheroes that are pitted against each other because their roles are minimized. Christopher Marcus and Stephen McFeely wrote this, let’s make money, script that doesn’t fully address the friendship and government control questions and minimizes the skills of this extensive cast. Anthony and Joe Russo’s co-direction is evident because of the scattered way this film interprets the screenplay and use of this fine cast.

Overall:  This was a film I didn’t need to see.

In Secret

First Hit:  Premise was pretty good but the execution was below fair.

A sexually repressed Therese (Elizabeth Olsen) who was trapped into a marriage with Camille (Tom Felton) by Camille’s mother Madame Raquin (Jessica Lange) finds herself sexually attracted to Laurent (Oscar Isaac) who is the Raquin’s family friend.

While living in Paris, Laurent and Therese begin an affair by his sneaking up the back way to where Therese, Camille, and Madame Raquin live. And there is where the film's script didn't work well. I found it odd that people could yell up and down the stairs to each other to communicate but the noise the Laurent and Therese would make while making love was not heard by anyone in the house or shop below.

The couple wants to spend all their time together so they come up with a plan to kill Camille. The opportunity presents itself when they are rowing on a lake. Camille doesn’t know how to swim and when Laurent hits him in the head with a paddle – he dies. The guilt ridden couple begins to implode with their feelings and guilt ridden angst.

Lange was strong as the controlling mother who manipulated the people around her. Olsen was good as the sexually repressed woman looking for a life far different than the one she finds herself in. Felton was very good as the sickly repressed son. Isaac was OK as the love interest but just didn’t think he possessed the character that made the story work. Charlie Stratton wrote a lifeless screen play, which was made worse by Stratton’s own direction.

Overall:  This film started with a few moments of promise but faded into boredom and writer and director self-absorption.

Martha Macy May Marlene

First Hit: Interesting idea but the slow paced execution left me wanting to understand more.

The idea of how someone is affected by living in a cult community and then deciding to leave and go back to their family is a very interesting one.

This film gives only the perspective of Martha (played by Elizabeth Olsen) as we see her leaving the compound where she has lived for 2 years. She calls her sister and goes to live with her.

During the two weeks she is with her sister Lucy (played by Sarah Paulson) and Lucy’s husband Ted (Hugh Dancy), her involvement with the commune/cult is flashed back upon. Her first sexual experience was with Patrick (played by John Hawkes) the leader of the commune while she was drugged and passed out.

Patrick sexually enters all his women from behind, which I found telling about him and what he teaches his followers. For someone who demanded others to be open and upfront with everyone, only to have his most intimate actions with the women of the community from behind so that his face isn't seen was poignant.

We learn, as the film moves along, that Lucy and Martha’s mother died when Martha was in high school and Lucy was in college. Lucy feels guilty because she didn’t come back and take care of Martha when their mother died. What didn’t happen in this film was storyline around what was Martha’s decision making process as to how and why she found herself in Patrick’s community.

What was very effective was how Martha portrayed this lost young woman caught between two different lifestyles, right and wrong, and how to find her path through life.

Elizabeth Olsen was very strong and believable as a young girl trying to find herself and what her role in life is. Sarah Paulson was very strong as Martha’s sister. She portrayed the right mix of love, concern and repulsion at her sister’s actions. John Hawkes was effective as the cult leader who uses guilt, intelligence and guile as a base of power. Hugh Dancy is good as Lucy’s husband who has had enough of Martha’s antics. Sean Durkin wrote and directed this film and it seemed to me that this was a good attempt but for such a complex idea there needed to be additional background information.

Overall: This was a valiant attempt to portray a very interesting subject but the execution lacked background to validate the basis.