Spoor (Pokot – original title)

First Hit: Somewhat confusing, as this film tries to make too many sociological points and wants to be a mystery as well.

What I didn't walk away with was knowing if this film was about honoring and living with nature, gun control, the state of a fading Polish democracy, or women’s rights and a willingness to change all these.

Janina Duszejko (Agnieszka Mandat-Grabka) is a women who lives alone in the Klodzko Valley in Poland. She had two dogs, is an astrologer, vegetarian and teaches part time at an elementary school. She is loved by her students as she teaches them about nature and joy.

Early on, she comes home to find her dogs missing. She searches far and wide, puts up posters everywhere, asks friends and the police department, and even her students help her, but to no avail.

There are lots of hunting scenes in the film and to make this point a calendar is shown at key segments listing what can be lawfully hunted in that particular month. There are scenes that saddened me greatly as they show animals being killed by hunters. There is also a local man who captures and cages foxes only to skin them for money. We see these foxes in their cages.

Often when Janina hears the gunfire of the hunters, she either races to where the hunters are located and yells at them to stop, or she goes to the police and asks them to do their job as hunters are killing animals that are not on the monthly list.

The police think she’s just a crazy old lady who is an advocate for gun control and strict hunting regulations.

There are lots of scenes where you notice how men treat women poorly and as second class citizens.

One day one of her neighbors comes to her house and says another neighbor, whom she calls Big Foot, is dead. Together they go to this man's house. She’s not very sad that he’s died but neither is her neighbor. She hated Big Foot because he used illegal traps to snare animals. Waiting for the police to come she finds a picture in his home that she keeps.

Shortly after the death of Big Foot, other hunters start dying. She and others find these bodies and the only tracks around the bodies are deer hoof prints. At one point, she rants to the police that the animals are attacking the hunters for revenge. But when the church burns down the mystery of who is killing the hunters opens the question even wider.

Anyway, there are lots of points being made in this film. The darkness of the subject matters are enhanced because of the clouded sky, the location, and because many of the scenes are shot with little lighting. It is not a bright film. Conversely, there are some funny moments in this dark film and many of them have to do with Duszejko’s interest in astrology and the young man who helps her.

Mandat-Grabka was strong as this in-touch with nature and idealized woman who has strong beliefs. Wiktor Zbrowski as her neighbor Matoga is great. Jakub Gierszal as the young man, who works for the police office, is very capable with computers, and has befriended by Duszejko, is wonderful. His enthusiasm and simplicity of living is great. He's a bright spot in this film. Patrycja Volny is fantastic as the beautiful shop keeper who is being kept by the man who cages the foxes. Her movement towards breaking herself free is wonderful. Miroslav Krobot as the entomologist who teaches Duszejko about how beetles and bugs work together to clean up dead flesh was great. His singing of ‘House of the Rising Sun’ was perfect. Olga Tokarczuk and Agnieszka Holland wrote a slightly over complicated screenplay that felt like it carried too many themes. Holland and Kasia Adamik co-directed this film. I cannot tell you if they purposefully created all these themes or if I projected them, however it complicated my viewing and understanding the film. There were too many physically dark scenes, and this didn’t help the overall film. I thought some of them could have used more lighting, thereby helping engagement to the story.

Overall:  This film couldn't seem to decide if it wanted to make a point of if it was a mystery.

mother!

First Hit:  It was not very interesting, was poorly scripted and had little to offer.

Director Darren Aronofsky probably had something to say by making this film, but I can only come up with snide thoughts like:  The battle between control and chaos is difficult. One needs to ask their partner before inviting people into the house. People like Him (Javier Bardem), need to have their ego stroked. Well-known artists, Him, would sacrifice his family for outside admiration. People will give the artists they admire leeway to act poorly. Life is a never-ending sequence of the same stuff over and over again. I could go on.

One troubling aspect about this film was that Darren had some great actors, but Mother (Jennifer Lawrence) seemed like she was saying lines and occasionally her actions were more engaging. Him seemed to take on the poor struggling artist role rather mediocrely. Together they were a shipwreck ready to happen throughout the entire film.

The story is that Mother has rebuilt a very large house because it burned down in a fire. It was Him’s family home. She’s doing this because she loves Him and the poems that he’s written in the past. However, he’s had writer's block since the fire burned down his family’s home.

One day, Man (Ed Harris), a chain smoking doctor, shows up at their home thinking it is a place where he can rent a room while doing research. Without asking Mother, Him tells Man that he can stay there as long as he wants. Feeling pushed aside, Mother reluctantly goes along with this.

Then the rest of Man’s family shows up. Woman (Michelle Pfeiffer) is pushy and is very passive aggressive while Mother waits on her. All the while Him likes their company. Woman tells Mother that she needs to have a baby to really know what life is about.

During an argument, Him and Mother have make-up sex and she gets pregnant. Also, Woman and Man’s boys come to the house and start a big fight and one of the boys gets killed.

With Mother being pregnant and the killing of the boy, Him writes another poem that causes a national stir and now thousands of people come to the house to both grieve the dead boy and the celebration of this new poem. This makes Mother angry as she tries to kick everyone out because they are wrecking the house she built.

Then the film heads into over weird with rituals and demons and other stuff. Why? I cannot tell you why even if I knew. It is beyond my understanding of the point and purpose of this story and film.

Lawrence gives a uneven performance. It was both difficult and easy to understand her love and devotion based on whatever scene she was in. Bardem had an easier role of being egocentric and caring about himself more than the people for which he professed his love. Harris was OK as the initial interloper. Pfeiffer was interesting because her sarcasm and disdain towards Mother was well done. Aronofsky wrote a confusing and unclear script that came off as being overindulgent towards bizarre behavior. If the audience doesn’t get the point, why do a film like this? As director, the point was lost in the script, and therefore the acting wasn’t reflective of a cohesive story leaving the audience lost.

Overall:  This was self-indulgence at its finest and a waste of my time.

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.

Atomic Blonde

First Hit:  Action filled with Charlize Theron showing strong fighting skills.

Although this film is done in a flashback mode, following the story is not hampered. Although, as the film unfolded and after the end, I wondered how it would have played out if it was done sequentially?

The film begin by showing agent Lorraine Broughton (Theron) being interviewed by her boss Eric Gray (Toby Jones) and CIA department head Emmett Kurzfeld (John Goodman) while Gray’s boss Chief ‘C’ (James Faulkner) watches this behind glass. Lorraine is badly bruised but being sure of her story, she begins telling it.

She starts the interview with talking how she was sent to Berlin to find and obtain “The List” which has been put on microfiche and stored inside a watch. The list has information about each agent in British Intelligence and possibly the CIA, where they are and their possible covers.

Immediately after getting to West Berlin she gets attacked by Russians who what to kill her because they are the ones who are trying to obtain "the list" at all costs. Her contact and co-agent is David Percival (James McAvoy), however, the audience sees that Percival is sabotaging Lorraine’s attempt to obtain the watch (list). The one who put this list together and stored it in a watch has a code name and it’s Spyglass (Eddie Marsan). He’s doing this because he wants to trade giving up the list for freedom to West Berlin.

As the story unfolds and until the end, the audience thinks David is on multiple sides but so is Lorraine, it is just that the audience doesn't know how many she’s on.

Lorraine gets involved in so much fighting, shooting and stabbing that I can only imagine that she was really sore after doing this film.

One of the things I loved about this film was the color mood used to present this film. Everything was muted down from a color perspective. This in honor of being in both West and East Berlin at the time the wall comes down between the two parts of the city.

Theron was amazing in how she used her body and gave the audience a perception that she fights for a living. I loved her character and at times I laughed out loud in the audacity of some of the scenes. McAvoy was strong and his smart-alecky version of the character worked for me. Jones was perfect as Lorraine’s boss. Marsan was very good as the meek Spyglass. Goodman was very good as the CIA connection. Kurt Johnstad wrote an wild and fun screenplay. David Leitch had a clear vision in mind and for me it clearly worked well.

Overall:  It was a fun film and Theron was a joy to watch.

My Cousin Rachel

First Hit: Although the story was telegraphed from the beginning, it almost worked.

Ambrose Ashley (not credited) owns a large estate on the Cornish coast of England. He’s kind hearted and is guardian to an orphan boy who is his cousin Philip (as an adult Sam Claflin). Because Ambrose is sickly, he goes to Italy to heal in the sunshine.

There Ambrose meets Rachel (Rachel Weisz) who he falls in love with and marries. We know this through the letters he sends some to Philip. Then the letters get fewer and far between but each letter that comes through tells a tale of Ambrose thinking Rachel is poisoning him.

After Ambrose’s death, Philip swears he will kill Rachel if he ever see’s her. Because Ambrose never signed a new will, Philip inherits the estate but will not have sole control until he’s 25. Prior to his 25th birthday Rachel shows up to his home. Instead of disliking her, Philip finds Rachel appropriately humble and thoughtful.

It is obvious that she is not really being kind for the sake of kindness but because she has a plan. This is the failing of the film. There are too many obvious hints that Rachel is at Philip’s estate to make money. There is nothing really hidden. I don’t know if it was the script or acting but I didn’t buy the premise and therefore the ending seemed obvious.

Weisz was strong, beautiful and seductive; however, I think the script had too many breadcrumbs to make it mysterious. Claflin was OK as Philip. He was naïve enough, but again I think the script was overtly obvious and therefore, knowing the story before it unfolds in not a good trait for a film. Iain Glen was strong as Nick Kendall, the role of Philip’s Godfather. I liked the way he carried the aristocracy of his position. Holliday Grainger as Louise Kendall was the best of the lot. Her desire for Philip was perfectly subdued and obvious. Roger Michell wrote and directed this film. It was a mediocre attempt to create suspense and mystery.

Overall: Despite being a good idea, it didn’t quite make it.