Minamata reminds us what Johnny Depp’s charisma can do outside of his fantasy wheelhouse and Tim Burton security blanket. Pushing through aging makeup, a potty mouth, and other curmudgeon behavior, Depp channels a unique and dour bluntness as W. Eugene Smith. True to the usual inspirational movie path, the heart of this dire story helps reduce the quirk factors and allows the actor to pleasantly play something straight and affecting.
Read MoreBased on the graphic novel and webcomic of Bob Crosby, Marry Me is a kinetic collection of romantic, comedic, and musical moments that amount to more than enough appeal to create a pleasant journey and viewing experience. Honestly, that’s all it needs to be to succeed. Still, its looseness is bound by its limitations of being mere moments and not something a step or two more lingering.
Read MoreGeorge Clooney’s The Tender Bar has, above everything else, a crucial mentor character that wins over the entire film with everything he does. When regular dads are absent or inadequate, father-figures are incredibly important for an malleable kid. We’ve seen plenty of them in movies before, but Ben Affleck’s Charlie character feels more spot-on and special than usual. When he’s there putting an arm around a shoulder or mixing a martini, you’ll either wish for or recall your own Uncle Charlie from your life.
Read MoreRaising his stakes and his luridness considerably from dueling TV anchors, a housing crisis, and a maligned former Vice President, Adam McKay aims a comet at the entire planet ready to burn everything man, woman, child, Twitter handle, and political label to the ground. To both its credit and its eventual detriment, McKay’s Netflix entry sets out to push as many buttons as possible until one or more trigger the wrong responses to make one feel icky, offended, or, worse, seen.
Read MoreCalling down the inspirational Biblical thunder of Psalm 22:20 that swings like a pendulum between beloved darlings delivering souls and the deadly teeth of sin, The Power of the Dog allows straight bitterness to build its texture of smoke. You have a western that doesn’t pull a trigger to make its points. It kills without blades or bullets. Call it a woman’s touch, if you must, but that would be dismissive when you consider the source material and its notable twists.
Read MoreIn true Ghostbusters fashion, the climax of this long-distance sequel Ghostbusters: Afterlife is enveloped in foreboding dark clouds. People either cower at their sight or take initiative to save the day and the greater world. Those haunted thunderheads and the characters making those resolute choices might as well symbolically match the judgment and dread that’s building for this holiday blockbuster. Some folks are going to find rainbows, which may or may not be made out of proton streams, in those clouds and others will just see a swirling mess.
Read MoreProduction companies in the film industry have found great success in rebooting and reimagining classic films over the years, with certain titles like Cleopatra having been remade on numerous occasions. When it comes to masterpieces that are deserving of a remake, the original film must have been popular, and a new version needs to offer a sense of nostalgia for viewers. There are a few gems out there that could undergo this treatment, with Oscar and Lucinda perhaps being a strong option to suit modern audiences.
Read MoreTry as she may, though, I look at the woman playing Princess Diana, even with all the clear personal commitment, and all I see is Kristen Stewart. Thanks to her own natural twitches under her blonde helmet of hair, Stewart’s same agape expressions and same exasperating line deliveries land a lip bite or two away from showing us it’s more her than who’s she playing.
Read MoreThe grandiose convergence of mythic themes is all the talk of Eternals. It not so softly preaches the specialness of the planet and its people in the larger realm of existence where the exchange of energy at the end of one life begins another. Such heady motivations, coupled with heroism, is a lovely core away from the usual costumed good vs. evil throwdowns, but it’s very, very profuse, complete with all of the intergalactic gibberish in between.
Read MoreAll of the nimbleness from swimming in time-bending nightmares gets washed away by a present with little mystery to match. It’s odd to call an Edgar Wright film somewhat slow in pacing, yet here we are feeling drag when the pizazz is either turned off or soured by the ickiness. A level of extra oomph and shock is missing for the viewer. What was sensationally painted to linger doesn’t get the fullest chance to stain and sear more than just pretty clothes.
Read MoreAll can be asked in a simpler way. Can the melodramatic be made mythic and can the gaudy be made truly grand? Do that and you’ve got the fans and the newbies. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune moves a great many things in spectacular fashion: sand, swords, aircraft, plots, necks, eardrums, eyelids, and more. For all its triumphant fury, what Dune doesn’t move is the heart. That is the unconquered core barrier that remains unshaken. Golly, do we ever have a jaw-dropping and cold movie!
Read MoreIt is also through her side of the story, clearly a huge product of Holofcener’s storytelling contributions, where the historical behaviors in The Last Duel accurately yet problematically fly against our still-evolving modern attitudes. While Scott’s film may follow the charted multiple perspectives of Jager’s well-researched novel, folding its painful and triggering trauma three times makes for an exorbitant and unsettling movie experience.
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