Marriage Story

First Hit: Well-acted story about a challenging process that many people go through — divorce.

This is a story about Charlie (Adam Driver) and Nicole (Scarlett Johansson), who met in Los Angeles and moved to New York City, where Charlie was living. They got married, worked together in Charlie’s theater company, and had a young child, a boy named Henry (Azhy Robertson).

Over time, the story has Nicole becoming lost in Charlie’s shadow. Although she is the star of all his stage productions, she feels overshadowed. She’s also a long way from her LA family and her family home. Her mother and father were in show business, and before meeting Charlie, Nicole had received some fame for one of her television appearances.

As they contemplate the divorce, there seems to be an unspoken agreement that they will do this amicably. It is spoken that they both want the best for Henry and that both want to be involved in raising Henry.

During the opening scenes showing each of them in brief scenes while a voiceover has each of them stating what they like, love, or struggle with the other person. As the scene unfolds into a current moment, they are both sitting in front of a marriage counselor mediator. Each of them has been asked to read these statements about the other. Charlie is ready willing and able; Nicole is not and storms out of the office.

This made me wonder about some other underlying cause of her wanting to end the marriage. We do learn later that Charlie had a one-time affair with one of the people in his theater company.

The film takes a journey across the US from New York City to Los Angeles, where Nicole and Henry visit her mother. She has decided to stay there, despite her acting in the couples’ latest play heading to Broadway.

Charlie travels out to visit Henry. While in LA, he learns that Nicole has seen an aggressive attorney Nora Fanshaw (Laura Dern), who is pushing to make this divorce contentious. When he’s served with divorce papers, he feels blindsided. To protect his interests, Charlie engages a Los Angeles lawyer, Jay Marotta (Ray Liotta), who wants a $25K retainer to come up with a plan to make sure Charlie gets his son Harry in New York.

However, the aggressiveness of the whole thing turns Charlie off, so he engages a new, more passive attorney Bert Spitz (Alan Alda). During a discussion with Nicole and Nora, Charlie realizes things are out of control for him.

The film then moves to tell what happens to Charlie and Nicole as they go through the divorce court process and the subsequent fallout. A touching scene towards the end shows Henry reading Nicole’s list of traits to Charlie, and Nicole is standing near the door listening in. Very touching.

Driver is excellent as Charlie. The scene in the bar when he’s singing to his theater company employees was wonderfully staged and felt very real. Johansson was terrific as Nicole. I felt as though she captured questioning being swallowed up in Charlie’s life well. Robertson, as Henry, was enjoyable as Charlie and Nicole’s child. Dern was strong as an attorney who wanted her client to win on all counts. Alda was okay as the passive attorney who tried to weave the least obstructive way through the divorce. Liotta was powerful as Charlie’s aggressive attorney. Noah Baumbach wrote and directed this sensitive and sophisticated look at divorce.

Overall: This film touched many divorce subjects and implications both sensitively and effectively.

Jojo Rabbit

First Hit: A fantastic black comedy that digs deep at the idiocy of the Nazi movement.

Good black comedies are difficult to come by. In recent years “The Death of Stalin” was one such film. As I wrote the previous sentence, I realized that both films are about corrupt leaders of countries. However, I digress.

In this film, Jojo Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis) is a lonely young boy who idolizes Adolf Hitler and his movement. He lives with his mother, Rosie (Scarlett Johansson), while his dad is supposedly off fighting for the Germans in Italy.

To support his belief in the Nazi movement, he’s created an imaginary Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi) who visits him in his make-believe world. His version of Hitler is off the charts hilarious. Hitler struts around making outlandish statements and sings young Jojo’s praises for admiring Hitler and what he stands for.

Jojo and Rosie live in a small German town. All the young boys, like him, are signed up to be part of Hitler’s youth corps. His only friend Yorki (Archie Yates), is a slightly rotund young boy with glasses, and together they are heading off to a Hitler youth camp experience.

The boys and girls all gathered together at the camp are dressed up in their Nazi uniforms. They are led through hilarious drills by Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell), a drunken Nazi Youth Camp Leader, and his counterpart, Fraulein Rahm (Rebel Wilson), for the young girls.

One day while in his home alone, he hears noises upstairs and discovers a young woman Elsa Korr (Thomasin McKenzie) living in a secret compartment in the walls of a room upstairs. Elsa is Jewish and is being hidden there by Rosie. Why is his mother hiding a Jew in her home? Then we learn that maybe Elsa may also be a stand-in, of sorts, for his dead sister.

Although Jojo is supposed to dislike and want to kill Jews like Elsa, he discovers that she’s not a bad person and that he’s falling for her in his own 11-year-old boy way.

Discussing all this with his imaginary Hitler is hilarious at times. The absurd statements and thoughts about what Jojo should or should not do about his captive Jew make pointed jabs at Hitler’s insane ideology.

As the film moves along, we sense the end of the war is near, and the German Army is starting to lose the battle against the Russians, Europeans, and US forces. They are closing in which makes Jojo’s Hitler even funnier.

The film is quick-paced and moves rapidly from scene to scene. The quick-paced moments are exemplified when the boys at camp and when the war comes to their little town. However, this film knows when to linger. Scenes like when Jojo and Rosie are walking along the river, or when Jojo and Elsa are writing his book about Jews. The film is also deeply touching as shown when Jojo and Yorkie are shown hugging each other several times throughout the film. It was even moving when Captain Klenzendorf saves Jojo from being imprisoned by the allies. Later, when Jojo dances with Elsa, recalling an earlier time when Jojo danced with Rosie. In these moments the film glows.

I thought the sets and costumes were fantastic and really captured the heart of the film.

Davis was extraordinary as Jojo. He carried this story with a wide range of feelings, emotions, and actions. Waititi is superb as the innovative imagination of Jojo’s Adolf Hitler. He uses sarcasm, expressive physical movement, and whit to define and make this character come alive. McKenzie was sublime as Elsa. Her strength and compassion while attempting to stay alive in a country that reviled her kind was, at times, riveting. Johansson was excellent as Jojo’s mother. She embodied someone straddling the line of life and death along with survival and what’s right wonderfully. Rockwell was over-the-top perfect for this role. When he carefully validated Elsa’s papers, you knew of his heart. Wilson was well cast as Fraulein Rahm, a woman who got away with saying outlandish things. Waititi also wrote and directed this film, and it was clear he knew what he wanted, and he got it, a fun-filled touching black comedy.

Overall: This was an excellent film that also reflected the struggles of the current day.

Avengers: Infinity War

First Hit: Poorly conceived film because someone thought that putting every conceivable character under the sun into a single film was a good idea for a story.

Action for action’s sake is a waste of time because after a few minutes there’s no story to engage with and all the audience is doing is watching visual tricks on a screen. And, although I enjoyed the quips shared and pointed towards particular characters, in the end, it isn’t enough to make me want to recommend anything about this film.

I couldn't get into the plot of this film because there were so many small subplots and sidebars that I the real story became distractingly meaningless. However, my guess at the plot is: Thanos (Josh Brolin) was seeing his world fall apart because there were too many people, therefore by killing half the population in the universe, things will be peaceful and life would be able to support itself. The Avengers don't want this to happen.

To have the power to make this desire come true, Thanos needs six stones that are being held somewhere in the universe, a few of them are in possession of superheroes. So he goes about finding the stones and doing anything to get them.

To stop his quest, all the Avenger superheroes loosely come together to fight the good fight to defeat Thanos. Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), War Machine/James Rhodes (Don Cheadle), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Spider-Man/Peter Parker (Tom Holland), Black Panther/T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Nebula (Karen Gillan), and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) just to name some.

You can see from the above listing, along with another ten superheros, having this many characters makes for a confusing mess because each has to have their day in the story. This is exactly what we get - confusion.

Most all of the actors do their superhero thing and do it well enough. However, with everyone one splitting screen time and with minimal roles, it was difficult for anyone except Chris Pratt (As Star-Lord/Peter Quill), Downey, Hemsworth, and Cumberbatch to standout.  Ruffalo was also funny trying to turn into the Hulk. The rest was more like having them do cameos of their characters to show that everyone was onboard to fight Thanos. Brolin as Thanos was strong but it is hard to show the depth of character he was attempting give the audience through the heavy makeup. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeeely wrote an over ambitious screenplay that melted under the number of characters they had to bring in. Anthony and Joe Russo co-directed this mess and it showed. The use of effects was good, but effects to no make a film, characters do and shortchanging so many of them was its downfall.

Overall: I only went to this film because of the strong audience attendance and I cannot believe that the millions walked away satisfied.

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.

The Jungle Book (3-D)

First Hit:  An amazing, truly delightful and  well crafted film – Kudos.

This film is a real treat. The personalities of the animals worked from every angle and aspect.

Loosely based and inspired by Richard Kipling’s book of the same name, this movie truly comes to life on the big screen. Mowgli (Neel Sethi) is the boy, who is raised in the jungle by a wolf mother Raksha (voice by Lupita Nyong’o), the wolf pack and black panther Bagheera (voice by Ben Kingsley).

The wolf pack leader Akela (voice by Giancarlo Esposito) has accepted Mowgli and has the pack protect Mowgli from harm. Because he's being raised by wolves, the boy is trying to be a wolf and is discovering it is difficult. However, he does have magic (human) ways to creating things which Bagheera frowns upon.

The danger is that Shere Khan (voice by Idris Elba), a tiger, is out to kill Mowgli because the boy’s father burnt Shere Khan with the red flower (fire) when Mowgli was a baby and wants revenge. When Shere Khan kills Akela, the boy has to escape. Bagheera thinks the boy needs to return to mankind but on the way the boy gets lost and runs into Kaa (voice by Scarlett Johansson) a Python who wants to eat him. Just as this happens, he gets saved by Baloo (voice by Bill Murray) a honey eating brown bear.

Although the ending is predictable, the magic is in how this film gets there and in the way it is presented to the audience. This story is exquisitely shot and the attention to detail is extraordinary. The movement of the animals was so clearly researched that is seemed as though their animated bodies and Mowgli's real body were all in one world. It was perfect.

Sethi was wonderful as the young boy. My guess is that he did a lot of work to prepare for this role, especially because of the physical nature of it. His warmth and intelligence showed through in his character. Nyong’o's voice added a deep soulful feel to the mother wolf. Kingsley’s voice gave us a rich commanding panther that was filled with compassion. Elba’s voice for the tiger was perfectly intense, intimidating, and filled with fire. Johansson’s voice for the seductive Python was mesmerizing. Murray was both captivating and funny as the day saving bear. Christopher Walken’s voice (and singing) was scene stealing as King Louie (homage to Louie Armstrong whose voice was used on the 1967 version of this film) the Gigantopithecus Bornean orangutan and king of the monkey world. Walken was amazing. Justin Marks wrote a fantastic screen play from Kipling’s book. Jon Favreau did all his homework and made sure this film sets a new standard in animation. Additionally, his use of 3-D was spot on. It was an addition not a distraction. Bravo!

Overall:  Disney shows it still has the chops to deliver the highest quality animation film having an engaging story while setting a new benchmark for all those who follow.