Juliette, Naked

First Hit: A funny and enjoyable story about how people can awaken enough to create a second chance with their life.

The thing I like most about films that feature Ethan Hawke is that often the dialogue is thoughtful. In the Before series of films he and Julie Delpy have such spirited, insightful, and engaged dialogue that one couldn’t help but really care about the characters.

Here as Tucker Crowe, a 1960’s, retired, aged out rock and roll musician, he’s living in a garage just off his ex-wife’s home while helping to raise one of his children Jackson (Azhy Robertson). His most fervent fan is Duncan (Chris O’Dowd) who is a professor at a small English college. He posts and runs a website where the sole focus is Tucker Crowe’s music and career. He regularly blogs about his hero and there are a few hundred people that regularly follow him. He’s such a fan, he’s got an entire room dedicated to Tucker that is filled with posters and other memorabilia.

His long time live-in girlfriend, Annie (Rose Byrne), runs the local historical museum in this small coastal town in England. Her life is, day in and day out, the same old thing. There is a slight resignation in voice when she speaks and in her eyes. It especially comes out in conversations with Duncan. Her sister Ros (Lily Brazier) is gay, works with Annie at the museum, and keeps prompting Annie to expand her closed in life.

Duncan receives a bootlegged copy of the “Juliette, Naked,” an acoustic version of Tucker’s seminal album. The album was created after Tucker’s breakup with a woman he loved. After listening to it, Annie decides to write a critical review of the blog Dunan wrote of the album. Of course, Duncan is deeply hurt as she is criticizing his hero.

She gets a response to her post from Tucker who says she’s exactly right. This turns everything upside down as she begins to have an email relationship with her husband’s hero and he doesn’t know it.

Eventually they meet, and their lives unfold more fully with each other and the world around them. For him, he’s got 5 kids, and Jackson is the only one he knows or has been active with. Events will have him meet most of them.

For Annie, she realizes she wants children, although her and Duncan vowed never to have children, and she wants to expand her life more. This is the crux of the film, with their lives being so small, meeting each other, their lives begin to open to themselves and the world around them.

Byrne is fantastic. Her subtle looks of desperation belied the deeper anguish she was living. Hawke was wonderful and perfect in his role. The dinner conversation he had with Duncan was pointedly perfect. I loved his rendition of the Kinks song Waterloo Sunset. O’Dowd was great as the star stuck follower of Tucker who got seduced by a young fellow teacher at his college. Robertson was super as Tucker’s son. His quizzing of Tucker’s other children was divine. Ayoola Smart was amazing as Tucker’s daughter who was pregnant. Evgenia Peretz and Jim Taylor wrote a very strong script. Jesse Peretz did a wonderful job of directing these characters in a funny, yet smart pointed story.

Overall: I thoroughly enjoyed this film and the meaning behind it—it’s never too late to change.

Rich Crazy Asians

First Hit: There are some very funny bits in this revealing film about Crazy Rich Asians.

Having dated a number of Asian women, I’ve experienced some of the familial ties as represented in this film. The closeness, nepotism, and sacrifice in business and family situations is difficult to fully comprehend by an outsider. The cultural differences are part of this film’s attraction. Adding social and financial differences within the Asian community only adds to the insight and delight.

The film sets up the Young family as wealthy and ruthless in the first scene. It opens with a young Eleanor Young (Michelle Yeoh) entering a swanky hotel with her two young children (Nick and Astrid) and her mother. They have reservations for the biggest and best suite in the luxurious hotel. However, because they walked in wet from a pouring rain and the kids had muddy feet, the snooty desk staff felt they weren’t really the type of people they wanted in the hotel. Refusing them their reserved room, and suggesting a room in Chinatown, Eleanor calls her husband who immediately buys the hotel. Walking back into the lobby, the current owner pops out the elevator and tells the staff that the hotel is now owned by the Youngs. The now sufficiently humbled staff get them checked into the hotel immediately.

This is a wonderful setup to show racism, the power of money, and how family ties can make something work.

The film moves forward in time about 25 years and we meet Rachel Chu (Constance Wu), a gaming theory economics professor, teaching her class about confidence through a poker demonstration she had in class. Rachel was raised by her single mother Kerri (Kheng Hua Tan) who worked multiple jobs to sacrifice her life for her child’s education and wellbeing.

Rachel’s boyfriend is Nick Young (Henry Golding) who was the young boy in the opening hotel sequence and who went to school with Rachel and hasn’t told her about his family’s wealth which has now blossomed to be the wealthiest family in all of Asia.

Nick wants to bring Rachel home to meet his family while he serves as best man for his best friend’s wedding. The wedding is in his home country of Singapore. What makes this an easy decision for Rachel to join him is that her best friend from college, Peik Lin Goh (Awkwafina), lives in Singapore and Rachel will get to visit her.

Getting on the plane, Rachel expects to eat what her mother packed for snacks and sitt in the crowded economy section. However, Nick and her are ushered to a private first class room at the front of the plane and this is when he explains to Rachel his family is wealthy.

The rest of the film shows an overindulgence of rich Asian families. For instance, Peik, who comes from a wealthy family of her own, drives Rachel to the Young family compound in a Audi R8 sports car. Remaining outings in cars feature Bentley and Rolls Royce cars. The parties are over the top extravagant and beyond the means of 99% of the population, including the bachelor party where everyone is flown out to a huge container ship, tricked out as a huge disco, in helicopters. The maid of honor party is the take over of an entire island and it's resort facilities where they shop, get massages, and party.

The heart of the family rejection of Rachel is Nick's mom Eleanor who doesn’t think Rachel is good enough for her boy, although Eleanor’s mother Ah Ma (Lisa Lu) likes her and her “auspicious nose.” Many of Eleanor’s friends participate in the hating of Rachel, and that is only part of the problem. There are many girls in Singapore that want to be hooked up with the very eligible and rich Nick, so most of young girls despise Rachel as well and think she is just a gold digger.

With these plot devices, the story is filled with comic opportunities and the director takes advantage of this. The romantic part of the film is a test of Nick and Rachel’s love for each other along with Rachel’s ability to own her power.

Wu was wonderful as Rachel. She showed the right kind of strength of character to make this role work. Awkwafina was hilarious as Rachel’s best friend. I loved how she kept specific outfits in her car for all occasions. Golding was strong as Nick. He embodied humbleness and his position of wealth is an elegantly. Yeoh was outstanding as Nick’s protective mother. Some of her steely looks were perfect. A priceless scene was when she and Rachel played a round of Mahjong. The intensity and pointed dialogue was executed by both Wu and Yeoh was spot on. Tan was great as Rachel's mom. Lu was wonderful as the matriarch of the family. Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim wrote a poignant and culturally pointed screenplay. Jon M. Chu did a wonderful job of keeping the film both light hearted and well intentioned through all the scenes.

Overall: This somewhat tongue-in-cheek film has some great comedic and heartfelt moments.

BlacKkKlansman

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

This film opens with a clip from the film Gone with the Wind, showing Scarlett walking through hundreds of dead and injured bodies from the Civil War. Then after a horribly racist rant film clip of Dr. Kennebrew Beaureguard (Alex Baldwin) setting the stage for the depth of white racism, this story begins.

We then move to the late 1970’s and Spike Lee captures the feeling, look, and sounds of the time. Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is looking to find work and sees a billboard advertising about being a cop in Colorado Springs. He’s got the perfect afro and in the interview he's told he'll be the first black cop on the police force - the Jackie Robinson of their force.

Stuck in the records room, he gets on a detail to monitor a black power meeting put together by Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier). The star of the meeting is Stokely Carmichael (Corey Hawkins), now named Kwame Ture, who gives an amazing talk about ending racism in America and embracing black power. Engaging Patrice after the meeting, Ron was both awe struck by Patrice's commitment to the movement along with being smitten by Patrice the beautiful woman.

After this initial work as a detective, he ends up convincing the chief that he could infiltrate the local KKK chapter. Of course, everyone on the force laughs until, on the phone, he gets an interview with the local leader Walter Breachway (Ryan Eggold). When Walter asks to meet him in person, Ron elicits the assistance of white Detective Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver).

Together they make an amazing team as they navigate the process of being Ron Stallworth, Klansman nominee.

To move his official membership along, Ron calls David Duke (Topher Grace) to ask him if he could get his staff to hurry the membership along. David says he’d be happy to help and that he’ll come to Colorado Springs for Ron’s induction into the KKK. All during this time Ron is dating Patrice and Flip is pretending to be Ron during one on one meetings with the KKK.

These components plus a possible bombing and cross-burning, the story about Ron, Flip, Patrice, Walter, David, and Felix (Jasper Paakkonen) as Walter’s radical right-hand man, the story became wildly engaging.

As the film unfolds, Spike Lee does an excellent job of giving the audience, scenes that run the gambit from humor (Ron calling David for the last time), to intenseness (Flip being pulled into Felix’s basement because Felix thinks Flip is a Jew), to today’s racist displays (when the end of the film easily segues into the 2017 Charlottesville march). Then, watching Harry Belafonte as civil rights leader Jerome Turner, I was transported to how real this story was.

The brilliance of Ron and Patrice moving down the hall almost surrealistically and comically as they watched a cross burning through a window was inspired.

Washington was absolutely wonderful as Ron Stallworth. He perfectly captured the struggle of a black man believing in the law and the black power movement. Harrier was divine as the President of the local black caucus. She definitely looked the part as a radical black woman and I couldn’t help but think about Angela Davis each time she was on the screen. Driver was amazing as Ron’s white counterpart. He embraced the role of Ron perfectly. Eggold was very strong as the local KKK leader. Grace was credibly incredible as David Duke. Paakkonen as the wildly unpredictable member of the local KKK was sublime. Belafonte was beautiful speaking his truth through his character. Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, and Spike Lee wrote an engaging power script from Ron Stallworth’s book. Lee showed me again, why you can never count him out from making a powerfully amazing film.

Overall: This is the second film I’ve seen this year that is Oscar worthy.

Eighth Grade

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

I cannot express the wonderful way Elsie Fisher (Kayla) expressed the insecurity and desire to be a confident eighth grader.

The film drops in on Kayla while she makes videos that give the audience the belief that she’s confident and very secure in herself. The fact is that her videos represents what she wants to be, not who she is.

She lives with her dad Mark Day (Josh Hamilton). He’s trying to be both mother and father to Kayla and he does the best he can. Their interaction is very genuine in that there is an awkwardness that it palpable, and also ensconced in love.

When Kayla unexpectedly gets invited to a pool party at the most popular girl’s house, her awkwardness and vulnerability were perfectly expressed. Loved her interaction with Gabe (Jake Ryan) and her dream love Riley (Daniel Zolghadri).

Her eighth-grade class goes to high school to spend a day with a shadow high schooler. She prays in bed the night before that she really wants the day to go well. Her prayers are answered, she’s linked with Olivia (Emily Robinson). Olivia likes her and shows her genuine friendship. For the first time, it seems as though she has a real friend that sees and accepts her as she is.

There is a wonderfully sweet scene with her father as she burns a box of memories in the back yard. There is a corresponding sweet scene as she makes a box of memories for her future self.

Fisher is absolutely amazing. She was the perfect confused, self-questioning, eighth grader. Hamilton is wonderful as her dad. He’s appropriately unsure of how to respond and guide an eighth-grade girl. Zolghadri is very strong as the cute guy in the class who expects girls to like him. Ryan is very funny as the awkward young man who has some interest in Kayla. Robinson is great as the girl who was maybe once like Kayla but, in high-school, found her group. Bo Burnham wrote and directed this film. His ability to write this dialogue for a girl is to be commended. His direction was spot on and provided a glimpse into today’s young girls.

Overall: This was a wonderfully developed and executed film.

Blindspotting

First Hit: Extremely powerful and pointed film and raises the bar for Best Picture of the Year.

Opening the film, is a sequence of short video shots of Oakland. Among the short montage of clips are the Fox Theater, Oakland homes, jump roping, Whole Foods, and a shoving match between two women on BART. Each of these are perfectly brief and set the stage for the racially tense film to come.

Collin (Daveed Diggs) is living in a probation facility and he’s got just a few days to go before he’s free. He came out of Santa Rita prison for something, we find out later, was a horrible fight outside a bar.

He’s working for a moving company with his lifelong friend and troublemaker Miles (Rafael Casal). Miles has a hair trigger and lashes out from time to time. As a racially mixed friendship, they have each other’s back and have had their fair share of run-ins together.

One of the early opening scenes, they are sitting in a very tricked out car, smoking weed, while Collin laments that he’s only few days away from being free of his court mandated probation. When Miles finds a pistol between the seats he brandishes it about, Collin gets upset and asks Miles to keep it away from him.

What does Miles do? He finds more guns in the car, playfully holds them up, and buys one. Collin, although upset, just asks Miles to not let me see or know that he has the gun on him while they work or hang out together. The way this scene unfolds is both pointed and funny.

Miles lives with Ashley (Jasmine Cephas Jones) and they have a son Sean (Ziggy Baitinger). Collin picks Miles up for work the moving truck. Because Collin is on probation he uses the truck to get home and to work. Arriving at the moving company's office to punch the time-clock, you can tell that Collin and Val (Janina Gavankar), the front desk receptionist and dispatcher, have some history together. It is obvious that she’s called off the relationship by the way they interact.

After dropping Miles off at home one night, Collin is waiting for the light to turn green when all of a sudden, a black man appears in front of his truck, looks at Collin, and continues to run. An Oakland policeman soon follows and when the policeman is adjacent to the truck’s door, he fires four shots and kills the running man. The policeman turns and looks directly at Collin.

This scene and image haunts Collin throughout the film. From this point on, the ominous tone of guns, racially charged words, social-economic and cultural differences begin to shape this film. The gun Miles owns plays a prominent role in two incredibly powerful scenes, as does their friendship and how it is tested. Collin wants to clean up his act, but racial tensions that build in the community because of the shooting, the have and have nots, and what he's going to do next once he's off probation makes his path difficult to master.

The term "Blindspotting" is explained in a very moving scene with Val and Collin and it’s usage is one I will not forget as it points out something we all do.

Diggs is sublime. The range of emotions and actions he shows as Collin are engaging and powerful. Casal as Miles was amazing. He’s powerfully rowdy but when Ashley reaches out to him about a particular incident, his compassion and love is amazingly evident. Gavankar is wonderful as Collin’s former girlfriend and truck dispatcher. She holds true to her beliefs and is a powerful force in Collin’s life. Jones was wildly wonderful. Her clarity of boundaries was perfectly expressed. Baitinger was great as Miles and Ashley's young boy. Ethan Embry as the Oakland Police Officer who shoots the running black man is incredibly engaging in both his scenes; the shooting and in his confrontation with Collin. Tisha Campbell-Martin as Mama Liz, Collin’s mother, is a scene stealer. Casal and Diggs wrote this insightful engagingly powerful script. Carlos Lopez Estrada directed this story with amazingly deft hands. He totally captured the feel of this powerful story.

Overall: Because this film is so powerful it must be considered one of my favorites as film of the year.