Booksmart

First Hit: A potent mixture of comedy and how high school can bring out the best and worst in kids.

Many people have or had a best friend in high school. Those friends are your backstop; understanding enough of you to let you sense a level of acceptance bringing peace in turbulent times. Sometimes it is the group of like people you run with and other times it is just one person.

In Booksmart, we have best friends Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) as two very focused bookish girls who spent all their time, outside the classroom, studying to graduate high school and get into the best colleges.

The film starts on the last day as they walk through the halls of the school and the party has begun. All the other kids are just having fun, throwing stuff in the air, not caring about anything but having fun. Amy and Molly are severe students and think that others won’t amount to anything. They are playing it straight.

Sitting in Ms. Fine’s (Jessica Williams) class, the film gives a great picture of how these two do not fit into the school’s popular social structure. The fact that their teacher Ms. Fine suggests that they let loose a little is funny and telling.

Despite being outsiders, both of them have minor crushes on other students. Amy, being gay, has a crush on a quirky, edgy girl Ryan (Victoria Ruesga) and Molly has a crush on Nick (Mason Gooding).

When the girls learn that the other “party hardy” students are also smart and heading to ivy league schools as well, they decide on the last day before graduating, they are going to attend a significant high school party and cut loose.

The path to the party is full of high-jinx, and funny situations as the girls do their best to get into the party mode for the first time in their lives. Their boundaries get crushed, and they end up having their first all-out disagreement in front of the entire party.

I thought the dialogue was smart and whippet-fast. I liked the scenes they found themselves in, including a Lyft being driven by their principle Jordan Brown (Jason Sudeikis). Ms. Fine feels sorry for them and in a critical moment of the evening, provides real party clothes for the girls because she’s a single woman in LA and has lots of clothes in her car. Kids having crushes on their teachers and girls who maybe went too far with too many boys finding out that it can hurt. All of these vignettes were really well acted and staged.

Dever was terrific as the cute, conservative, young gay girl. She did a great job with her character. Feldstein was equally funny and engaging in her role. Williams was excellent, and I loved her walking up behind a student at graduation, mistakenly – an amusing scene. Sudeikis was his usual charming self and both as Principal and a Lyft driver, he made the role believable. Ruesga was outstanding as the quirky, fun loving girl. Gooding was excellent as the class VP and, in the end, a sweet boy. Molly Gordon, as Triple-A (Annabelle), was excellent as the girl who wanted to be loved for who she is. Skyler Gisondo was sublime as the rich boy who wished to have friends and had a kind giving heart. Diana Silvers (as Hope) was arresting as the slightly bitter girl who put down others but really cared as well. Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, and Katie Silberman wrote a powerfully relevant screenplay that was both insightful and hip. Olivia Wilde got outstanding performances and clearly had a strong vision directing this film.

Overall: Good movie for parents of teenagers and teenagers alike.

Detroit

First Hit:  Extremely powerful film about racial injustice in the city of Detroit in 1967.

Kathryn Bigelow has a history of taking on difficult powerful subjects and bringing them to life. She is a master director. Her filmography continues to get stronger and stronger. From her Blue Steel and Point Break days to The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty and now, Detroit.

I feel fortunate that, once again, in the matter of a few short weeks I’ve been able to see films where the focus is the story and not particular characters. And what makes this film even better is that although it takes place in 1967 it reflects the targeting of blacks today by law enforcement.

To do this Bigelow seamlessly incorporates actual 1967 film footage and stills into her vision of this story. We follow several black characters who end up being innocently targeted by law enforcement for being at a particular place, at a particular time, and because of the color of their skin.

The script was developed from court transcripts and proceedings, interviews of some survivors and an honest interpretation by the writer. The focus is the murder of three black men and the beatings of seven other black men and two white women by the Detroit Police Department and tacitly condoned by US National Guard. This incident took place at the Algiers Motel, in Detroit during the 12th Street Riots. They victims had gone to the hotel to hide out and stay off the streets because there was a curfew and people couldn’t get home.

One of the guests at the motel shoots a toy pistol, which is mistaken by the police and National Guard as sniper fire. In rushing the motel’s building the police drag these motel guests down to the bottom floor and begin interrogating them to discover where the gun was and who shot the gun. Despite killing the person who shot the never found toy gun, the police used extreme tactics to scare the other guests. They systematically pulled people into rooms threatening to shoot them if they didn't have answers to their questions. They also mercilessly beat each person.

In doing so, they killed another two. For hours they continued to beat each of the suspects to get them to talk. Finally, the police decided they need to leave. To cover their tracks, they threaten each of the remaining suspects, that if they were ever to speak of this event again, they will die.

Eventually, this event and the officers are brought to trial and the all-white jury exonerates the three guilty police officers. Sound familiar?

John Boyega (as Dismukes) is amazing as the black private security officer that attempts to be the peacemaker and mediator between the cops and guests. Boyega is great at hinting, what appears to be, regret that he didn’t do more to help his fellow brothers. Will Poulter (as Officer Krauss) did a wonderful job being everyone’s nightmare. It was not an enviable role but as the racist officer he made the hate real. Algee Smith and Jacob Latimore (as friends and bandmates Larry and Fred respectively) were fantastic as their dreams were taken from them that night. Hannah Murray and Kaitlyn Dever (as Julie and Karen respectively were the beaten white women) were wonderful. They really made their roles standout with honesty. Anthony Mackie as Greene the Vietnam vet who got caught up in the motel was perfect. Mark Boal wrote a fantastic Oscar worthy script. Bigelow, as I previously said, is clearly one of the strongest directors of our time. Her clarity of vision and storytelling is amazing.

Overall:  I recall reading and seeing television news stories about these events when they happened, but only until I saw this film, did I understand the horror.

Men, Women & Children

First Hit:  Interesting film about how social media is navigated and used.

I’m not a big Social Media person. I have a Facebook account which I look at about once every six months and I’ve a twitter account that I used 5 times 2 years ago.

However my company uses these and other social media vehicles to help us be seen and to grow our presence. In this film we have a paranoid mother Patricia (Jennifer Garner) monitoring every interaction her daughter Brandy (Kaitlyn Dever) has in her social media accounts. All except a secret account where Brandy dresses up and posts pictures as someone else.

She begins to like and meet up with Tim (Ansel Elgort), a loner guy whose mom left him and his dad and he’s wondering if life is worthwhile. His mom posts her adventures in California with new boyfriend on Social Media - then blocks his access to her account. Then there is Hannah Clint (Olivia Crocicchia) whose mother Donna (Judy Greer) takes suggestive photos of her and posts them for payment and view by clients.

There is also Don and Patricia Truby (Adam Sandler and Rosemarie DeWitt respectively) who have lost sexual interest in each other and use websites to find sexual partners. There were a lot of stories in this film and above were only some of them.

The point, which it did well, was to highlight how over control, under awareness, and not knowing what is going on with your child or partner leads to interesting uses of social media. With social media we separate ourselves and don’t talk face to face.

Conversely, we also will use it to also connect with strangers, call them “friends” although we don’t know them, and create relationships. Scenes where people were walking in shopping malls and school halls with their phone’s text message bubbles over them while they walk, heads down, looking at their screens was very telling.

Sandler was good as the man and husband who has lost his way and finds that treading old water won’t be helpful. The last scene in the kitchen with this wife as very good. DeWitt was very strong as the wife who was looking for some excitement in her life. Garner was so over the top (in a good way) and great as the paranoid mother. Dever was wonderful as the young girl hamstringed by her mom (Garner) and finding strength to live her life. Crocicchia was perfect as the girl who would do anything to be on reality TV and who thinks that what she looks like is the most important thing. Greer is very good as the mom who wanted to be a Hollywood star, didn’t make it, so she pushed and sold her daughter’s beauty. Elgort was excellent as the boy, who lost his mom, and was trying to make sense of his life and what was important. Additionally Elania Kampouris was very effective as the girl who made a guy’s opinion of her more important than her own opinion of herself. Chad Kultgen and Jason Reitman wrote the interesting but a bit too scattered script and Reitman got good performances out of his actors and the script.

Overall:  I think the story tried to tell too many stories and therefore there wasn’t enough depth in any one of them.

Short Term 12

First Hit:  Wow, this film is powerful in its portrayal of disenchanted and hurt youth.

Disenchanted youth, mistreated kids, and the young workers who care for them is what this film gives the audience a window to. The kids at this state sponsored foster facility,  don't have anywhere to go.

The day to day managing of the kids depends on young 20 year olds who work with them assisting their transitions to either a real foster home or society. It is an amazing topic and in this film it is done in an extraordinary way.

Through the eyes of Grace (Brie Larson) and fellow worker Mason (John Gallagher Jr.), we enter their working world of working with a group of kids. The young workers Grace and Mason are old hands at working with these young teens and it is apparent that they’ve paid their own personal price.

Mason was lucky that he got a strong foster family that gave him roots, while Grace, had been abused and had put her father in jail after her mother’s death. Afraid of getting close and opening to another human is Grace’s Achilles heel, but the kids she works with teach her how.

The other actors were phenomenal in portraying the symptoms of the kids. Two of the most powerful storylines were Marcus (Keith Stanfield) and Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever). Their stories unfold before the audience and one cannot help but feel engaged and hopeful.

Larson was great and I fully believed her struggles and how he shared them in her role. Gallagher was immensely sweet and wonderful as Grace’s boyfriend and associate. Stanfield was sublime as the quiet loaner who is concerned about his going into the world and being whole. Dever was perfect as the girl, slowly hurting herself into silence and submission. Destin Cretton wrote and directed this amazing film that shows the power of family regardless of how it is constructed.

Overall:  A very strong film.