Andy's Film Blog: 2015

Showing posts with label 2015. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

The Visit

Two precocious adolescent siblings leave their single mother to visit their grandparents whom they've never met, and videodocument the entire encounter, although things are immediately amiss upon their arrival. M. Night Shyamalan's return to twist centered, old fashioned shocks also attempts to incorporate comedy and melodrama, and fails at all three, the scares being routine and obvious, the laughs feebly attempted and geared toward a preteen audience, and the melodrama unearned and coming out of nowhere. The young stars are obnoxious and insufferable.

* 1/2 out of ****

Thursday, August 31, 2017

Game of Thrones

It is difficult to review television without giving away something of the plot. Tread lightly if you haven't seen the series in its entirety.

Season 7 (2017)

As the threat from the White Walkers grows ever more imminent, Jon and Daenerys finally acquaint as they quarrel over patronage before coming to terms with an alliance and a potential love affair and Cersei and Jaime prepare for war at King’s Landing while the surviving stark siblings have a bitter reunion at Winterfell as Littlefinger’s presence ominously looms. As the end nears in this first half of the final season, the pace is quickened, the storylines converge, and the number of battle sequences increase, the series is still bogged down by unnecessary asides, woeful plotting and characters, absolutely insipid dialogue.

** 1/2 out of ****

Season 6 (2016)

Cersei plots revenge while sitting back helpless in humiliation as her son is taken in by the High Sparrow and the gods, Arya learns some harsh lessons in life and death, and Sansa, after being rescued by an unlikely source, reunites with an unsurprisingly resurrected and differently composed Jon as they gear up to retake Winterfell from the odious Ramsay Bolton. In this first season without George R.R. Martin as a writer and as the series eyes the finish line and moves all of its pawns into place, it is nice to see the pace finally pick up with so much finally happening in this multi-storied universe, with also some incredible set pieces to boot in the latter episodes. Still the quality of the dialogue seems the worst its ever been, some stories still seem stuck in limbo (i.e. Daenerys and Tyrion), while Arya's would be powerful tale comes off as insipid and disappointing.

*** out of ****

Season 4 (2014) and Season 5 (2015)

An act of treachery at the Royal Wedding sends Tyrion toward a new destiny and Sansa into greater peril. Daenerys learns how to rule over the recently liberated Meereen and Stannis provides relieve to the Night's Watch only to find more obstacles on his quest to the Iron Throne. The fourth season of Game of Thrones is a marked improvement over the previous one, with the intrigue at King's Landing exciting enough to cover for the dull wheel spinning that continues to go on elsewhere (i.e. The Wall, Meereen), only to return for a dreadful, monotonous fifth season that brings nothing closer to resolution except in killing off several major characters in the end, which surely will thrill many fans but seems a giant waste of their protracted storylines. Without having read the books, it almost seems as if George R.R. Martin crafted an excellent first entry, which was then adapted into a great first season, and then had absolutely no idea what he signed on for or where it was going after that. While watching the "previously on" segment for Sunday's finale I realized that I had never seen a show with so much going on where so little actually happens.

Season 4: *** out of ****

Season 5 ** out of ****

Season 3 (2013)

As the inhabitants of King’s Landing recover from the their costly victory at the Battle of Blackwater and Stannis and his few remaining followers lick their wounds on a remote island, war parties led by Rob Stark and Daenerys Targaryen continue their arduous march on the capital. I wanted to keep this short and sweet after feeling the ire from panning another highly popular show, but season three represents an even steeper decline for this beloved series and, even in the “Golden Age of Television” as many have dubbed it, provides further evidence of the difficulties of sustaining an extended serial, even one based on extensive source material. You can almost picture George R.R. Martin and the HBO execs sitting at their round table brainstorming their smoke and mirrors tactics saying, “You know, we could just go through with a long, boring, protracted season where things wind up basically where they started, so long as we kill off a few major players in the end, we’ll still have ‘em hooked.”

** out of ****

Season 2 (2012)

As three challengers to the throne march upon King's Landing, an unexpected foe lays siege on Winterfell, causing more turmoil and heartache to the already beset Stark family. Tyrion has his hands full as Hand of the King in dealing with his treacherous sister and malevolent nephew. Daenerys, her dragons, and dwindling tribesman remain stranded across the Narrow Sea and Jon Snow begins his tour beyond the Wall as the dreaded Winter finally arrives. Following the spectacular first season of Game of Thrones, the followup series, while still maintaining a high level of interest, meanders and goes in circles for many of its story lines, and ones which were the top draw in season one (ie Daenerys, Jon Snow and the Wall, Rob Stark and his army) now seem to have lost their way and are stuck in standstill for virtually this entire round. Also, following the exit of Sean Bean, the show does not have a lead actor to anchor itself around and while Peter Dinklage (who went from Best Supporting Actor Emmy Winner to first billed in the credits) is excellent, he is not a leading man. I was still engaged with this season. The court intrigue and Arya's storyline worked best for me but the show seemed only interested in its primary story, which was made evident in the climactic Battle of Blackwater episode. "Game of Thrones" is a vast drama, and about as in depth as anything you can expect from television that still nonetheless needs to iron out its storytelling kinks.

*** out of ****

Season 1 (2011)

A long and brutal winter is approaching the kingdom of Westeros and treachery is afoul as the Hand of the King has been murdered. Surrounded by the cunning and powerful family of his duplicitous wife, King Robert Baratheon sends for his old friend and battle mate Eddard Stark to take up the position of the deceased and be unwillingly hurled into the deadly title scheme. The HBO adaptation of the George R.R. Martin novels is an excellent entry in the fantasy genre, simultaneously telling an involving, intelligent, violent, but grounded other worldly tale. Filmed throughout Northern Ireland and Scotland, as well as in parts of Morocco, the series features the most stunning visuals to be found in any television series. Its epic cast of mostly British players is uniformly excellent and if forced to select a handful as my favorite I would chose Iain Glen as a courageous exiled knight, Emilia Clarke as his queen and charge, samely exiled, Peter Dinklage as a witty and underestimated dwarf, and Sean Bean as the noble, sullen Eddard Stark. "Game of Thrones" is wonderfully engaging entertainment that isn't afraid to break the "rules" of television and has characterization and intelligence to match its harsh tone and violence.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Monday, January 16, 2017

Embrace of the Serpent

In two separate expeditions with spanning the course of several decades, an Amazon jungle native leads Westerners on a search for a rare plant with healing powers, while witnessing the effects of colonization around them. Ciro Guerra's Embrace of the Serpent is probably too straightforward for the enigmatic film it purports to be, but is still powerful, often striking, with great cinematography.

*** out of ****

Friday, January 13, 2017

The Dresser

The delusional star (Anthony Hopkins) of a travelling Shakespeare company begins to show signs of dementia while preparing for his latest King Lear performance as the other members of the troupe, most notably his loyal dresser (Ian McKellen), assist and tiptoe around him while coming to terms with the news. It's hard not to compare this made for TV adaptation of Ronald Harwood's play to Peter Yates excellent 1983 film version (and also the leads to the superlative performances of Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay), yet Richard Eyre's treatment is damned good and the material just as moving and sad, even tragic in its own way. Emily Watson is unsurprisingly extraordinary and Edward Fox is lovely in a smallish role.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Mustang

Five female Turkish teen aged siblings are caught playing on the beach with a group of boys by meddling neighbors who report it to their parents. Restricted to the home, the process of finding suitable suitors is stepped up and as the younger girls witness their older sisters married off to unworthy admirers, they decide to rebel instead of being forced to face the same fate. Mustang handles a tough subject lightly but with regard and is in turns funny, moving, and sad.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Sunday, January 8, 2017

The Tribe

At a school for the deaf, a new student is initiated into a gang and begins to try his hand at thuggery, petty theft, and pimping. A version of Kids featuring deaf/mute youths, The Tribe is an overlong, sloggish piece of nastiness made with technique and craft. With a disclaimer proudly boasting "made entirely with no subtitles...," the film is so simple and drags on and on that it would have almost benefited from taking this obvious route rather than going by its daring narrative decision.

** 1/2 out of ****

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Theeb

In the midst of World War I in a barren Jordan desert, orphaned nomad boys are approached by a British officer carrying a mysterious container and tasked to lead him to an ancient Roman well. With parallels to Lawrence of Arabia in more ways the one, resplendent scenery doubles as character and carries Naji Abu Nowar's mostly involving story during lags or segments of disbelief.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

A War

A Danish soldier's participation in the Afghan War places immense strain on his family back home, a strain that is compounded up his return when he is put on trial for war crimes. Tobias Lindholm's A War is typical of the kind of Dutch film making their way to America lately and the kind of film they submit every year for awards consideration, namely moralizing, topical, and stagnant, while this particular one doesn't even have a point and adds nothing to any of the genres it dabbles in. The only interesting element is actress Tuva Novotny who plays the role of the wife differently than one might expect.

* 1/2 out of ****

Monday, December 5, 2016

Everest

In 1996, a overcautious mountain guide (Jason Clarke), while in competition with a rival climbing outfit, led an expedition to the summit of Mount Everest when a vicious snowstorm hit on the final leg of their journey. Everest is a surprisingly intelligent, apparently knowledgeable, and well crafted mountain climbing movie, a genre that seems difficult to scale, even though things turn expectedly cliche towards the end and the filmmakers have difficulty keeping track of characters and their fates. The casting is excellent.

*** out of ****

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Victoria

A Spanish born music student (Laia Costa) enrolled in the conservatory in Berlin and barely familiar with the language spends her Saturday night hitting the local clubs, carousing with a group of strangers, and somehow finding herself at the center of a bank robbery when an underworld figure comes calling in a marker on one of her newly made friends. Once getting passed the impressive feat that Sebastian Schipper's Victoria was filmed in one continuous, unbroken take, I started thinking how much is lost when you tell an entire movie (here a long movie) without editing, severely limiting what you can and cannot show in the process while pushing plot to the back burner. And in the end, when boiled down, is it really anything more than a filmed play on a large stage? While watching, my mind also retreated to Russian Ark, maybe the prime example of this kind of approach, and even with that movie's cast of 100s and magnificent stagings, it likewise became plotless and tiresome. These unobstructed shots seem to work best in smaller doses, see Touch of Evil, Goodfellas, The Player, or virtually anything by Alfonso Cuaron for a more effective employment. In the film's defense, however, there are some exciting moments and Costa's amiability aid the proceedings and keep the picture from being a total unceasing bore.

** out of ****

Monday, October 31, 2016

What We Do in the Shadows

A centuries old clan of vampires deal with the day to day rigors of urban life in modern New Zealand while preparing to attend the annual monster's society ball, always a smash social event. Matters are however complicated when an intended, uncouth victim is unintentionally turned into one of their own and an archenemy is unexpectedly chosen as master of ceremonies for the masquerade. Written and directed by Taika Waititi and Flight of the Conchords's Jemaine Clement, What We Do in the Shadows is a brilliantly conceived and, from costumes to staging to approach, supremely executed mockumentary that ranges from amusing to often hilarious.

**** out of ****

Sunday, October 23, 2016

It Follows

After making it with her new boyfriend in the parking lot of an abandoned Detroit warehouse, a young woman finds herself drugged, tied and bound to a chair inside the structure, and informed about the STD (sexually transmitted demon) that will continue to stalk her until her demise or until she passes it along to another unsuspecting victim. David Robert Mitchell's throwback to teenager slasher flicks is well-made, eerie, and intense while doing so without a lot of gore and stretching its idiotic premise about as far as it will go.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Sunday, October 16, 2016

The Look of Silence

An ophthalmologist who lost his brother during the Indonesian genocide of the mid-60s interviews surviving members of the regime while occasionally fitting them with glasses. Due to its personal approach and impact, Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence surpasses The Act of Killing, another acclaimed documentary take on the same subject, while again focusing depraved, pathetic men while creating a discourse on human nature.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Monday, October 3, 2016

Legend

The Kray brothers, suave, ill-tempered Reggie and the mentally deranged Ron (Tom Hardy pulling double duty), rule over London's criminal underworld in the 1960s until their operation grows too large and tempers, passion, greed, and ego go unchecked. From a novice screenplay and told with unnecessary, irritating voiceover, Brian Helgeland's Legend is just one more Goodfellas knockoff to add to the pile. It is almost worth watching for hardy's strong dual performances, though he still often seems like he is playing for laughs.

** out of ****

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

James White

After burying his estranged father , an educated, angry and aimless young man (Christopher Abbott), with desultory plans at a writing career, parties with his best friend (Scott Mescudi) while seeing his mother (Cynthia Nixon) through cancer’s final stages. James White is made with sincerity, which makes me hesitant to knock it, but director Josh Mond’s screenplay is so scant and the acting so amateurish at times the enterprise winds up feeling like a film school dissertation. There is an excellent scene near the end featuring Ron Livingston.

** ½ out of ****

Friday, September 16, 2016

Amy

This profile on Amy Winehouse, an Oscar winner for Best Documentary, is watchable though not all that compelling and struck me as a particularly unremarkable rise and fall documentary story (a descent into booze and pills, personal demons channeled into art, middle class angst, daddy issues, etc., etc.) of a talented songstress performing substandard jazz numbers. The film is more or less composed exclusively of home video footage which in and of itself is no small achievement for a nonfiction film.

*** out of ****

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Straight Outta Compton

The story of how an aspiring teen aged DJ (Corey Hawkins) at a low rent Southern California club teamed up with his lyrically gifted friend (O'Shea Jackson, Jr.), and a streetwise crack dealer (Jason Mitchell) to head what would become the contentious and short-lived rap supergroup N.W.A., which would be tainted by a self-interested manager (Paul Giamatti) and would leave several lasting hip-hop dynasties in addition to inspiration for forthcoming artists. Casting is key in F. Gary Gray's fresh, well-made ode to thuggery which still doesn't totally avoid music biopic trappings and sadly paints its subjects as victims and 1st amendment martyrs.

*** out of ****

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Wolf Hall

After his friend and mentor Cardinal Wolsey (Jonathan Pryce) is conspiratorially destroyed for failing to procure a divorce for Henry VIII (Damian Lewis), Thomas Cromwell (Mark Rylance), who began life as a blacksmith’s son, maneuvers his way onto the king’s court and plays a deadly game of intrigue and revenge. Drawn from two books in a Cromwell trilogy by Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall is a measured and involving BBC miniseries with exemplary costumes and set design. Rylance, a study in understatement, is outstanding and it is nice to watch Lewis playing against type, here an impotent, sympathetic Henry VII who is beginning to reveal the seeds of madness. As Anne Boleyn, Claire Foy is commanding.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, an inquest in to the life and enigma of the Apple prodigy, is ultimately a disappointment for prolific documentarian Alex Gibney, oddly refusing to look its hypocritical, egomaniacal subject in the eye when it clearly has the objective to set out to do so, and winds up as just one more failed screen translation of his life's work. Instead, the movie goes off on strange tangents and even nauseatingly succumbs to the same adulation it is so ponderous and critical of at its outset. Even the film's technical qualities are not up to snuff, appearing to be shoddily strung together with obvious narration by the director.

** out of ****

Thursday, September 1, 2016

The Assassin

As punishment for botching a mission due to a moment of weakness, a skilled female assassin is assigned to target a cousin to whom she was once betrothed. In The Assassin, director Hou Hsiao-hsien treats the viewer like a fishing lure, periodically and briefly reeling them in for scenes of great tension while mostly letting them drift on a painterly sea of tedium and puzzlement. The film clearly strives to be an arty, cerebral martial arts movie a la Crouching Tiger but is so languidly paced and limitedly plotted that it totally loses your interest by the time it reaches the intrigue.

** out of ****