August (Agosto)

First Hit: A beautiful intimate story about a young man coming into his own during the 1994 crisis in Cuba.

Here Cuba is going through an economic crisis because the Cold War between the United States and Russia has ended. Russia, being Cuba’s benefactor, is in its own turmoil and this satellite country of theirs, just 90 miles from the United States, is now caught without a support system.

The country is in deep poverty, the government supplied electricity is sporadic, and food is difficult to find. People are fleeing the island in unsafe boats and other homemade floatation devices and attempting to make their way to the US.

It’s August of 1994 and Carlos (Damian Gonzalez Guerrero), and Carlos is out of school for their recess. He’s in love with Elena, as is his best friend, Mandy. The talk on the radio is how people are fleeing Cuba.

His grandmother is old, lives with him, and is in constant need. She lives with him and his mother and father. She has bouts of daydreams and fantasies. He takes care of her by feeding her, talking with her, and giving her water when she cries out.

In one poignant scene, his grandmother seems to intuitively know that sex is on Carlos’ mind, so she tells him that his deceased grandfather was an outstanding lover. Her graphic details were hilarious to me in the audience but very confusing and educational to Carlos.

The beautiful photography of a decaying Cuba highlighted by spots of fresh paint on a few walls exemplified the economic struggles and hopeful outlook of this prideful nation in crisis.

What makes this film stand out was the non-verbal power of Guerrero to share Carlos’ struggle to become a man. His sweet way of holding Elena’s hand, and their first sweet kiss was exquisite. When he thinks Elena wants more in their subsequent kiss, he’s shocked and hurt in Elena’s rebuffing him.

When he sees Elena sitting on a wall holding hands with Mandy, the audience can feel his hurt. Then to add to his quiet ways, the reluctance to share his sadness with his mother when she asks him about what is wrong exemplifies many young boys' unwillingness to share these types of troubles with their mothers.

After he learns that Elena’s family has left on a boat to the US, he decides to take matters into his own hands and find a way to escape the island. His hubris and inexperience show up on the beach at night.

Guerrero was sublime, and I felt like I knew him because I was him during different moments of this story. The rest of the actors Alejandro Guerrero Machado, Glenda Delgado Dominguez, Luis Ernesto Barcenas, Rafael Lahera Suárez, Lola Amores Rodríguez, Verónica Lynn López, and Tatiana Monge Herrera were excellent in their respective roles. As writer and director, Armando Capo put together a beautiful piece of art while sharing a very personal story.

Overall: This gorgeous film marinates within you long after you leave the theater.

Joker

First Hit: Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker is powerfully twisted in overt and subtle ways.

Arthur Fleck (Phoenix, aka Joker) works as a clown. Living with his mom Penny (Frances Conroy) in a dark Gotham low rent slum apartment, he’s very thoughtful of his mother’s inability to take care of herself. He has a semi-secret wish to become a standup comedian and bring smiles and joy to everyone.

While watching his favorite program, The Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro) Show, he fantasizes about appearing on the show and becoming famous.

In an opening scene, Fleck standing and dancing in front of a going out of business shoe store twirling a sign to entice people to visit the store. He’s got his clown outfit on, face painted, and seems to enjoy what he’s doing. This is the first sign of the subtle way Phoenix shares the depth of his character. There is a glint in the facial expressions that give the audience a notion that all is not right with him. He gets mugged by some kids who take his sign and, in the chase, ends up being beaten.

He gets reprimanded by the company (HaHa) he works for because the sign was broken, and the shoe company wants it back.

Beaten by the young thugs, a fellow clown employee, Randall (Glenn Fleshler), gives Fleck a gun for protection.

We learn that Fleck has an inappropriate behavior of laughing at the wrong times when he’s feeling tense. He carries a card that he hands people stating his illness.

The film digs a little into his mental state with scheduled visits to a city-run social worker who can and does, prescribe a litany of drugs. The social worker, at one of their meetings, tells him the city is stopping this program, and he won’t be able to get his drugs through them any longer. He plows into a dialogue about how the social worker never listens to him, askes him the same questions each and every meeting. Here again, the audience knows he’s right, but we also are seeing ways that he’s slipping through the cracks.

This is one of the points of the film. Society in this story is one of the struggles between the haves and have-nots. Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen), father of the young Bruce Wayne, and a wealthy man believes that people that don’t have anything need to pull themselves up from their bootstraps. He’s also running for mayor. It is here and in other places this film touches on today and our current societal state of affairs where the top 1% of the people own 90% of the wealth.

This point runs through this film. The story is filled with moments that reflect how society has become lawless, and there is an uncaring towards our fellow man.

A turning point in the film is when Fleck, after being fired for bringing a gun to a clown gig in a children’s ward of a hospital, he starts laughing while watching a tense encounter between three young drunk well-to-do businessmen who are harassing a young woman on a subway train.

His inappropriate laughing causes the men to start picking on him, and during the resulting fight, he shoots and kills all three. Poignantly this attack becomes a rallying cry for the poor and disenfranchised in Gotham. All they see are the headlines that a man with a clown face (mask or makeup) stood up to three of the “haves” and now there is a slow movement of people having protest marches and rioting with many of the participants wearing clown masks.

This story is complicated, just like Fleck is complex. Being hunted by the police for the killings, learning about his past through his mother, then through records at a mental hospital, and being off his medication creates a man who is acting out of anger, loss, and desperation.

When Murray shows and then posts on social media, a hilarious video of him attempting to do a standup routine, he becomes a laughingstock across the country. However, the viralness of the post, Murray decides to have Fleck on his program.

The depth and complexity of the film, the character, and the way it puts a realness to the “Joker” (DC Comics’ character) was profound. It’s almost a perfect layup to Heath Ledger’s version of the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” with Christian Bale being Bruce Wayne. The scenes and sets in this film are wonderfully shot. The mental hospital, the social worker’s office, Flecks apartment, and the street scenes all carried the sense of a troubled world.

Phoenix absolutely became this character. The overt and subtle shifts in his eyes and mouth said so much throughout the film. As someone who was disregarded by society, he ended up being the man of the moment. He kept me on the edge of wondering what he will in each scene. De Niro was oddly a curious character and excellent as an aging talk show host. He, partially, reminded me of his role as Rupert Pupkin, a wanna be talk show host, in “The King of Comedy.” Zazie Beetz, as Sophie Dumond, Fleck’s neighbor, and short-term lover was outstanding. The way she saw Fleck as someone who could relate to her was powerfully displayed when they went out, and she saw his comedy routine. Conroy, as Arthur’s mother, was good in this subtle, yet pivotal role. Cullen as Wayne was a perfect reflection of a have’s arrogance. Fleshler, as a manipulative friend and co-worker of Fleck, was excellent in this protective backstabbing role. Todd Phillips and Scott Silver wrote a power-packed script and screenplay. Phillips directed this story with absolute clarity of delivering the story he wanted to make.

Overall: I fell into this story from the very beginning, and it worked.

Judy

First Hit: This film opened the door to possibly seeing a more in-depth and human Judy through her last year of life.

I loved and was deeply touched by this story.

After seeing this film, and then reading some of the reviews, I found that the reviews saying that they should have dubbed Judy’s voice on the songs that Renee Zellweger sang as Judy, missed the point of the story that was presented.

This story is about Judy’s final year of life, her voice worn out from surgery, drinking, smoking, and her soul ripped out by enablers and poor decisions. Have a dubbed voice of a Judy in her prime would have been both dishonest and not real.

Judy died at age 47, six months after she was removed from the set of London concerts which are the focal point of this story. Judy was strung out on pills and booze most all of her adult life. It felt as though Judy was simply a commodity that people used to make money, and in this way, Zellweger nailed what it must felt like.

As this movie pointedly shows in scenes sprinkled throughout, as a child, Judy was fed drugs by the head of motion picture companies to keep her alert and awake when they wanted her to work, to keep her thin, and then to have her sleep when they didn’t need her. The story shows that people had only one focus, use her voice, to make others, including her parents, husbands, and movie studios money.

With little real support from husbands (she married five times) or someone who had her best interests at heart, Judy ended up broke, strung out, and desperate to find inner peace.

This story begins with Judy and her young children Lorena and Joey Luft being shuttled on staged and in front of a live audience to do a quick song with a silly dance. They were handed an envelope with $150. Heading back to the hotel, where they’ve been saying, they find out that because Judy was in arrears to the hotel, their room was repurposed.

Getting into a taxi, Judy, with kids in tow, ends up at Sidney Luft’s (Rufus Sewell) home. The scene that shortly follows sets up their antagonistic relationship. Leaving the kids with Sid, and nowhere to go, she heads to a party where her older daughter Liza Minnelli (Gemma-Leah Devereux) is located.

Meeting Mickey Deens (Finn Wittrock) at this party, Judy decides to stay at the party instead of leaving with Liza because Mickey is charming and flirtatious with Judy. It’s here we see out easily she’s influenced and charmed.

We move forward a few weeks and, in need of money to buy a home, pay her debts, and become a full-time mother, Judy signs a 5-week agreement to do concerts in London. With Roslyn Wilder (Jessie Buckley) assigned to keep Judy in line and show up sober to the sold-out engagements, Judy does try her best, but her inner demons continue to gnaw at her, and soon she shows up on stage drunk and ends up walking out.

However, she does get a swan song helped by her true fans - this was a lovely scene.

Zellweger was absolutely fantastic as Judy. The, I don’t know what to do, and I’m a fish out of water, look Zellweger brought to the role absolutely fit with the story as told. Over the years, I’ve listened recordings of Judy and could easily imagine her voice losing its sublime tone after surgery, drugs, alcohol, and lots of cigarettes. That some think that Judy’s premiere voice should have been used in the singing scenes, would have been a false story. Buckley was excellent as Judy’s minder while in England. Slowly seeing the depth of Judy’s suffering was beautifully portrayed when she presented Judy with a birthday cake she could eat. Deans was good as Judy’s last savior husband. Royce Pierreson as Judy’s bandleader in London, was beautiful. I felt as though he knew the path Judy had taken and would do anything to make it work for her on stage. Andy Nyman and Daniel Cerqueira play two London gay men who are full-fledged fans of Judy’s and the scenes with them and Judy in their apartment were incredibly sweet and heartfelt. Sewell as Sidney Luft was excellent but unexplored. Lastly, Darci Shaw as a young Judy was excellent. The scene of sitting with Mickey Rooney in a restaurant with Judy’s minder not letting Judy eat anything was incredibly telling of how her life was controlled. Tom Edge wrote an interesting script about the final months about Judy’s life. Rupert Goold did a fantastic job of creating pointed scenes and excellently staged sets. But ultimately his getting Zellweger to take on and embody Judy Garland was perfect.

Overall: I was deeply touched by this story.

Downton Abbey

First Hit: This film attempted to be significant in scope and ended up small and lacked being an engaging story.

I never watched any of this series on television as every preview just looked trite and uninteresting. Although I cannot speak for the series, the film was mostly dull and certainly wasn’t worth my time. I guess there’s a real group of people who feel different because there were two women in front of me, purchasing tickets, dressed up in costume from the era.

Most of the film revolves around how the Downton Abbey house staff dislikes being replaced by the royal team when the King and Queen of England (Simon Jones and Geraldine James respectively) come to spend a night at the house. For the staff, it is about personal pride in themselves and their abilities to serve the royals. Without much background I found this trite.

Then there is the discussion around who will get Downton Abbey. Violet Crawley (Maggie Smith) wants her grandchild to run the show after she’s gone. But unknown to her, her younger sister Maude (Imelda Staunton) had a child (Lucy Smith played by Tuppence Middleton) out of wedlock who is the rightful heir. That drama plays out in a couple of sarcastic and quippy conversations. My internal response to these scenes was that they were tired and “so what.”

The most exciting set of scenes were about how gay men had their own bawdy nightclub, and it was raided by the police. As being publicly gay in England was illegal at the time, it was interesting to see how the men handled it and how they were able to connect with each other given society’s norms.

Despite the grandeur of Downton Abbey in many of the long-range shots, I found the scenes and sets less engaging and somewhat drab. The whole story about a thieving seamstress had little value.

I don’t think any of the actors are worth a mention because the whole film felt flat, fell flat, and reaffirmed why I did not choose to watch the television series. Julian Fellowes wrote a tiresome screenplay that might interest a small segment of the population, but I couldn’t engage. I’m not sure even the fans of the television series would find this story of any interest. Michael Engler directed this tiresome story in a lackluster way.

Overall: Simply uninteresting.

Ad Astra

First Hit: Although Brad Pitt is excellent in this role, the expanse of the story, lack of substantive depth, and slow pacing left me unengaged.

The opening scene has Roy McBride (Pitt) is servicing an antenna that reaches from Earth deep into space. Then there’s a discussion about outposts on the moon and mars.  These two items alone tell the audience that we’re way into the future.

Roy’s job outside on the spacecraft type antennae tower gets interrupted by a power surge from space, they believe near the planet Neptune, causing part of the antenna to collapse, killing someone, and sending Roy falling from space back to Earth. Entering the more massive atmosphere his parachute finally opens. However, the chute gets punctured from pieces of the collapsing antenna and McBride cashes to the ground.

A theme throughout the film is McBride’s mental and physical state. His heart rate never goes above 80 bpm, even during the fall, and his responses to the questions about his psychological state are monitored by a machine. Approval by the machine voice is required for him to continue his missions. We see him sit down with the computer multiple times. Because he’s the only one we see take these tests, I wondered if others had to take these tests as well.

After the antennae accident which proves his mental, physical, and mettle to solve problems and that he has real guts, he’s called into a meeting with senior NASA and government officials.

In this meeting, we learn that the government believes that the Lima Project, which was headed to Neptune and led by Roy’s father H. Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), may be causing the power surges and destroying Earth. They also believe that the senior McBride is still alive although, in Roy’s mind, his father is dead.

They want Roy to help them locate his father or the ship they were using so that they can send another ship, near Neptune, and destroy what is sending the power surges back towards Earth. In other words they want to use Roy as bait to coax his father out of hiding, if he’s alive. Once that is done, they don’t want Roy to actually go out and retrieve his father.

This is the premise of the story: Will Roy find his father alive? Is Clifford creating the power surges? Will Roy and his father make amends for all of the senior McBride’s absence in Roy’s life? Will the team be able to stop the power surges that are threatening Earth’s existence?

Roy wants to be an integral part of the final mission to Neptune, but he’s not given a chance. He’s only used to create messages that are sent to the Neptune area and see if his father respondes. After finding that his father is alive, because he cannot join the final mission to Neptune, he steals aboard the ship to Neptune and to confront his ever-absent father.

The film has multiple events and circumstances that do not make sense. One such set of facts is while on the moon and being transported from one base to a rocket launch base, Roy and Pruitt (Donald Sutherland) are attacked by pirates in other moon rovers. My question is where did these pirates come from? Where did they live? And, why was this scene needed? It seemed like they needed some action in the middle of the film so this is what the story used.

Pitt was great. There’s an integrated quality he brings to the character that made me believe, he loved what he did and was able to do it expertly and dispassionately. Ruth Negga (as Helen Lantos) was excellent as someone who supports Pitt on his journey. Sutherland as Thomas Pruitt, a friend of Clifford McBride and Roy’s guardian during part of the trip, was okay, but I’m not sure the role was needed. Jones was engaging and entertaining in this role as someone who only cared about his mission and learning if there is life beyond our solar system. James Gray and Ethan Gross wrote, and script that languished while hoping the philosophical concepts the story proposes will make the story engaging. Unfortunately, it doesn’t entirely fill the bill. Gray also directed this film, and although it seems he borrowed heavily from some of the pictures presented in 2001: A Space Odyssey, it fell short of being as engaging.

Overall: This movie was entertaining enough to keep me present, but lacked enough depth to make me really want more.