Escape Room

First Hit: Despite the lack of depth, I thought this film was very entertaining to watch.

The premise is that six strangers, who each have had a particular type of tragedy in their lives, are thrown together into a set of increasingly dangerous rooms and must escape.

We meet Zoey (Taylor Russell) in her dorm room and electing to study during Thanksgiving holiday instead of accepting her roommate’s invitation to go home with her.

Then we’re introduced to Jason (Jay Ellis) who is a Wall Street deal maker, making a deal with one of his large clients.

We also meet Ben (Logan Miller) trying to better his life by asking for a customer interfacing position in the grocery store he works in and then gets turned down, the quick camera flash to a flask on a desk gives you a hint of his past.

Each of the six Zoey, Jason, Ben, Mike (Tyler Labine), Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll), and Danny (Nik Dodani) receive a puzzle box, and because each of them knows how to solve puzzles, find the invitation hidden within the box to meet at a specific time and place.

When these strangers arrive into the reception room, they soon find out that the voice behind the glass reception window is recorded. Ben wants to go outside and have a cigarette and tries to leave. When he turns the door handle it breaks off in his hand, they are stuck. The group realizes that this room is part of the puzzle and they have to find a way out.

The room starts transforming into an oven and furnace with heating coils and flames coming out of the walls and ceiling. Together they start looking for clues to get out of the room.

Escaping this room by learning how to work together, they find themselves in a small comfortable mountain cabin room. Going out the front door, they are locked out of the cabin and in a freezing winter scene with a frozen lake. After finding an exit door they realize they need a key to unlock it.

The winter scene is getting colder and realizing they will die of hypothermia, they start working together to find the key that will allow them to escape this room.

While looking for the key, Danny falls through the ice and dies. Now the group realizes that the challenge their engaged in, is deadly.

As the group meets the challenge of each room, people are dying on the way. Finally, the remaining group find themselves in a dark grungy hospital room, where there are beds and corresponding folders that explain the history of each of them. Each of them was a lone survivor of an event in their life. Each was picked because they found a way.

Russell was the most compelling character in the film and as we discover in the end, cannot let the game go. There may be a sequel. Miller was very good as the semi-slacker who survives the game and subsequently changed his life. Woll was the most interesting person in the game. Her fearlessness and strength were perfectly portrayed. Ellis did a great job of being an arrogant jerk. His truth was exposed. Labine was very strong as the older experienced part of the team. Dodani was odd in his role as escape room junkie. His enthusiasm towards the dilemma the group found themselves in was over done. Bragi F. Schut and Maria Melnik wrote an OK screen play. I would have liked a bit more about the characters. Adam Robitel did a good job of creating tense situations and the sets were interesting, but the lack of depth didn’t quite work.

Overall: It wasn’t a great film, but I was intrigued by the rooms, clues and a couple of the characters.

The Mule

First Hit: Film lagged and spent too much time on an aging Clint Eastwood.

I was looking forward to seeing this film, but as it wound down, I realized that I simply was watching an old man be an old man making choices.

I like Eastwood and here as Earl Stone who is a horticulturist that’s running his own business, he’s good. However, as we begin to explore his life, we discover he was once married, didn’t show up to his daughter’s wedding, likes to be the life of the party, and he slowly becomes afraid of the internet because he knows it going to ruin his business.

As his flower business fails, he needs money, so he turns to driving drugs for a dealer. At first, it’s small quantities, which he does easily. Then he starts moving larger and larger amounts of cocaine.

Eventually, the head of the cartel becomes impressed with this old guy who seems to be able to easily move drugs around the country. After meeting the head, he moves the largest shipment ever moved to a mid-west city.

In the meantime, he’s being looked for by the DEA who need a bust to prove their worth. Leading the team of men is an outsider DEA Agent named Colin Bates (Bradley Cooper) and a local DEA Agent (Michael Pena).

However, the story seems to be focused on Earl, when we’ve got Pena, Cooper, and Laurence Fishburne (as a DEA Special Agent) who are great actors that have stories to tell the audience as well.

Additionally, the audience gets cheated on a background of Earl’s family with former wife Mary (Dianne Wiest), daughter Iris (Alison Eastwood), and granddaughter Ginny (Taissa Farmiga). It could have been compelling to share more about this. Why hire great actors if they only have small, almost meaningless roles?

To me this was the downfall of the film. We spent a lot of time with Earl driving down the highway when backstories of all these characters could have been brought forth for our enjoyment.

Eastwood was good, but he seems to either lack the fortitude to take on strong roles or he wanted it to be this fumblingly self-focused old man trying to make a living and be seen by others as king of the hill. Farmiga was strong as the granddaughter who believed in him. Wiest was great, but there was so little of her. Alison Eastwood was OK as Earl’s daughter. Cooper was OK in a limited but pivotal role. I think he needed to become more of the story. Pena was, as always, an excellent sidekick. Fishburne was strong as the leading Special Agent. Andy Garcia was excellent as the drug lord. Nick Schenk wrote this film from an New York Times article. Eastwood directed himself in this film and it appears he’s lost his touch.

Overall: This was a disappointing film, lacking in suspense as well as developing scenes.

Bad Times at the El Royale

First Hit: An oddly strange, yet engaging, film.

The El Royale is a hotel that is split down the middle between the Nevada and California borders. There is a red line that runs through the parking lot and through the middle of the lobby with some rooms in Nevada and the remaining rooms in California. The rooms in California are more expensive because they’re in California.

Father Daniel Flynn (Jeff Bridges) arrives just as Darlene Sweet (Cynthia Erivo) is parking her car. He introduces himself and assists her carrying two very large blanket covered foam rolls into the lobby.

In the lobby we have Laramie Seymour Sullivan (Jon Hamm) waiting for someone to come to the front desk so that he can check in. The three of them make some light chatter until Darlene bangs on a door and out comes Miles Miller (Lewis Pullman) who is the desk clerk and appearing to be the only hotel employee.

They each select a room. In the rooms each person does something that tells you why they’re at the El Royale. Sullivan is removing bugs previously planted there by the FBI. Flynn is really a bank robber from years ago and his partner brother stashed a bag full of money under the floor of a room. Sweet is there with foam to cover the walls so she can practice singing before heading to Reno for a gig. And Miller? He's a junkie.

The El Royale has a single access hallway behind all the rooms. Miller can view and listen in to each room from this hallway. For sound there is a switch under a one-way mirror that is in each room. There is a camera and we learn that Miller used this camera to film people for blackmail purposes.

However, Sullivan learns of this secret hallway and watches, through the one-way mirror, as Emily Summerspring (Dakota Johnson) checks into one of the rooms dragging her sister Rose (Cailee Spaeny). Tying her sister up in a chair, he’s puzzled.

Rose gets away and calls her cult leader boyfriend Billy Lee (Chris Hemsworth) who is a Charles Manson like leader that pontificates what he believes to be the truth. He drives up to collect Rose and find out why Emily kidnapped his prize pupil.

With all seven players engage, the story is about how everyone learns about each other’s reason for being at the El Royale.

Bridges is good as Father Flynn. However, the voice he uses is much like the voice he used for Hell or High Water. It’s sort of a gruff slurring voice that isn’t pleasing at all. Hamm is, at times, hilarious playing up the role as traveling salesman. Pullman is wonderful as the only hotel employee who is looking for absolution for the horrible things he’s done in life. Erivo is fantastic as the singer who is also clearly on her path with purpose. She suffers no fools and I enjoyed her singing – a lot. Hemsworth was strong as the cult leader who felt empowered by his good looks and charisma. Johnson was excellent as the protective sister who wanted to steer Rose away from Billy Lee’s clutches. Spaeny was excellent as the younger sister caught up in Billy Lee’s belief system and his good looks. Drew Goddard wrote and directed this film. His story was oddly interesting and engaging and use of 1960’s music was sublime.

Overall: It was interesting how the disparate reasons for each person in this ensemble  to be at the El Royale worked into a single storyline.

A Simple Favor

First Hit: I enjoyed this quirky, twist filled, film.

Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) is a widowed mother of one young boy named Miles (Joshua Satine). His best friend at school is Nicky Nelson (Ian Ho) whose mother is Emily (Blake Lively) a high powered marketing person and his father is Sean Townsend (Henry Golding) a one novel writer.

Stephanie has a video blog which she dedicates, each filming to her deceased mother. Each vlog has useful household tips, cooking tips, or advice for dealing with the world. However, she’s got a secret.

One day she helps Emily out by watching her child and Emily doesn’t come back. This leads the film back a few weeks, into how Emily and Stephanie met, how they learned about each other, and how they became best friends. One of the secrets is that, although Emily and Sean work, they really cannot afford the house they are living in and they desperately need money.

This leads to a crazy plot that includes death, false identity, and Stephanie’s ability to sort-out and resolve pieces of the puzzle.

When it comes down to who knows what and who can better deliver the goods, Stephanie, Emily, and Sean have their own ways to settle the score.

The dialogue between Lively and Kendrick was funny, pointed and filled with sarcasm. There are plot holes, and things that don’t quite add-up, but from an entertainment value, this film was fun.

Kendrick was strong in this leading role. I believe this is the first film in which she was expected to carry the main work-load and she does it well. Lively was a hoot as this know-it-all, seen the world, been there done that kind of high powered marketing person. She clearly enjoyed the role. Golding was good as Blake’s hangdog husband. I never really got the connection that made it work for them, except that Lively’s character was so strong, he was under her spell. Jessica Sharzer wrote a pointed and rapid fire script which kept the movie moving along nicely. Paul Feig did a good job of keeping it both light and funny as well as dramatic with mystery.

Overall: I enjoyed the dynamics of the two women characters and how Kendrick used her analytical plodding way to uncover the truth.

Hereditary

First Hit: A rather complex or complicated horror film that worked reasonably well.

This is a dark film and attempts, in its own way, to pose question about evil being hereditary. The story revolves around the horrible death of Charlie (Milly Shapiro). She is killed in an accident (or is it) when her brother Peter (Alex Wolff) is driving her to the hospital.

Although this scene is early in the film, the strangeness of the family and their dynamics are shown because Annie (Toni Collette), the mother, makes models of the house and other things in her work studio. Charlie sleeps outside in a tree house that's very cold. The main house itself is way out in the country and is given the feeling of being a bit dark. Peter is shown to be somewhat ambivalent about life, school, and spends a lot of time high on pot.

We learn later that this Annie’s accurate models are her art and livelihood. Her husband, Steve (Gabriel Byrne) is rather stoic about the family’s oddness and acts as the solid foundation of the family.

After Charlie’s death Peter and Annie have fights blaming each other for Charlie’s death while Steve tries to referee these fights.

Annie meets Joan (Ann Dowd) who speaks with her about losing a child and quickly becomes Annie’s confidant. But things become more bizarre and sinister when Joan teaches Annie about how to conjure up the spirit of her deceased Charlie.

From here the film takes some bizarre turns and outside of the strong performances, the story is not believable or, in the end, horrifying.

Collette is amazingly and bizarrely strong in this role. She’s required to portray a wide range of feelings and emotions and she does this very well. Wolff is the other prime role and his lack of outward rage was either script driven, or he didn’t have the ability to share this. His actions after the accident didn’t seem to fit the event and that was disconcerting to me. Byrne was OK as the stoic father who rarely ventured out of this role’s comfort zone. Shapiro was good in her short-lived part. Dowd was excellent as the friendly helpful person who also had a dark side. Ari Aster wrote and directed this film. I trust he got what he wanted but for me, the horror in the film was the shocking accident that killed Charlie, the rest was just oddly bizarre.

Overall: This film was unique in its storytelling that had strong performances.