Gotham Awards Honor Ethan Hawke, Toni Colette, 'The Rider'

The Gotham awards given out tonight went to First Reformed, The Rider, and Eighth Grade, with Won’t You Be My Neighbor? winning the Audience Award, although not Best Documentary. I think if that film makes it into the Oscar nominations (it will), it’s probably a lock for the Doc category. Best Feature went to The Rider, a film most people probably haven’t heard of, but we’ll see if this early critics love for First Reformed lasts as the critics awards start coming in this week. I think it probably will, and the screenplay and Ethan Hawke at least will likely make it through for Oscar nominations. Toni Colette is a harder sell, because the movie is difficult to sit through, but it’s cool that she won here.

• Best Feature: The Rider

• Best Actor: Ethan Hawke, First Reformed

• Best Actress: Toni Colette, Hereditary

• Best Documentary: Hale County This Morning, This Evening

• Best Screenplay: First Reformed

• Breakthrough Actor: Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade

• Breakthrough Director: Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade

• Breakthrough Series (Long Form): Killing Eve

• Breakthrough Series (Short Form): 195 Lewis

• Audience Award: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

‘Eighth Grade’ singled out for breakthrough awards

Lightning Round Reviews 2018: October-November

My latest batch of reviews are still on a delay, as these are mostly movies I finally caught up with that came out this summer, but there are couple of recent releases in here too, such as Cold War and 22 July. I’m slowly making my way up to the present. Dig in!

INCREDIBLES 2 * * * (Dir. Brad Bird)

A fun return to Parr family heroics

I was a little worried that a sequel to 2004’s now classic The Incredibles would be a slight rehash of the first one, especially once it was clear that the decision was to pick up the story from the exact moment it left off. But I should have had a little more faith in writer-director Brad Bird, whose animated films (The Iron Giant, Ratatouille and The Incredibles) have always been a shining example of the medium, far above what others are doing in it (even within the realm of Pixar itself, his are a cut above). So I’m happy to report that Incredibles 2 is a delight- clever, fun and this time focused on the women, giving Holly Hunter’s Elastigirl center stage and Violet a bigger role, while moving Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) and Dash to the side to give it a timely, 2018 kind of feel. Even though the film does pick up right where the last one left off, the Parr family continues to feel authentic and familiar in its problems- after being moved into hiding again, Helen wonders if she should be the one to get a job this time and support them while Bob takes care of the kids. She gets her chance when businessman Winston Deaver (Bob Odenkirk) and his sister Evelyn (Catherine Keener) recruit her to launch a PR campaign and become an advocate for re-legalizing superheroes. So while Elastigirl takes the spotlight, Bob does the Mr. Mom thing, which is pretty hilarious and leads to some amazing Jack-Jack feats (the baby with the powers of a god, basically), and the sophistication of the script and social commentary never talks down to kids, making the movie truly one for adults as well, in the vein of the first. The villain in this sequel isn’t as good as Jason Lee’s Syndrome, and I think the action scenes aren’t quite as memorable either (and feel a bit frantic in the ending sequences), but the movie is never less than entertaining and is a lovely companion piece to the original. I don’t know if a third one is planned, but now that superheroes are out in the open, how about aging everybody up this time, to mine some new material out of the family dynamics with the kids at different ages? I know I’m no writer, but I can’t let go of the potential that idea would have.

LEAVE NO TRACE * * 1/2 (Dir. Debra Granik)

A well-acted father daughter story

In her first feature film since 2010’s Winter’s Bone, Debra Granik has crafted another tale about outsiders, people struggling along the fringes of society, more or less hidden away from the wider world. Thomasin Mackenzie has a breakout role as Tom, a teenager living with her father Will (Ben Foster) an Iraq War vet with PTSD (possibly undiagnosed), who has chosen to be homeless and live on public land in the pacific northwest outside Portland, Oregon. He and Tom sleep in a tent and live minimally, occasionally going into town to buy some groceries and basic necessities, and Will makes some money by using his VA connections to sell prescription drugs to other homeless veterans in the park. Eventually they’re caught by the authorities and placed on public assistance, since keeping Tom out of school and denying her choices in life constitutes neglect on Will’s part, and though he puts on a show of adapting, it’s only temporary, as he’s back out in the woods as soon as he can get there, dragging Tom along with him. Mackenzie is wonderful as the meek, intelligent Tom, who loves her dad and only wants to please him, but she can’t help but long for normalcy and the company of other people. Ben Foster conveys Will’s misery and depression with authenticity and very little dialogue, but since we never find out exactly what happened to him or why he feels he has to live this way, his utter selfishness and failure as a parent is the main takeaway from his character. His insistence on forcing his only child to endure a vagabond life comes across as selfish, self-indulgent and neglectful. He has no consideration towards how his own actions will negatively affect his daughter in her formative years, and yet the movie wants you to feel his pain and sympathize with his plight the way Tom does. Well, to be honest, I couldn’t. All I could see was his refusal to accept the help of others and his irresponsibility in choosing to wallow in his own misery at the expense of his daughter’s development and future. It’s one thing to choose to ruin your own life, but it’s quite another to deny your child the opportunity to build one of her own. In spite of sensitive direction and terrific performances, the resolution to this story is open-ended and feels vaguely dissatisfying.

BLACKKKLANSMAN * * * 1/2 (Dir. Spike Lee)

No other film this year feels more timely and relevant

For anyone whose worldview was shattered on November 9th, 2016 to the idea that we no longer lived in a racist country, BlacKkKlansman, Spike Lee’s best film in years, serves as a reminder that times are cyclical, and this so-called great nation of ours has a long way to go yet. Ostensibly a period film that doesn’t play like one, this movie is a gut punch, a potent shot in the arm that relays the wild true story of Ron Stallworth, the first black cop on the Colorado Springs police force, played by John David Washington (son of Denzel), who infiltrated and exposed members of the KKK in the 1970’s. The crazy plot involved Ron talking to its members on the phone while his Jewish partner Philip “Flip” Zimmerman, played by Adam Driver, met with them in person, taking on much of the risk himself. Lee takes this story and makes it incredibly current, juxtaposing the horrific rhetoric of the KKK with the black power movement of the 70’s as Ron meets Patrice (Laura Harrier), a Black Student Union activist and hears the rallying cry of Stokely Carmichael while moving to get in deeper with the Klan. Washington and Driver are both excellent as partners in the scheme, but this is Lee’s movie all the way, as the sprawling, sometimes messy screenplay is always fraught with incredible energy, urgency and the freshness of both its time and ours. At times moving, funny and always entertaining, this is not the work of an aging director, but one with much to say that we still need to hear, now more than ever and this is not the time for subtlety. No, this is the time for action and Lee takes it, even in the film itself. We hear and see the echoes of our ugly past informing our present horror as Lee ties the insurgent racism of Charlottesville directly around Trump’s neck in a powerful closing montage. I can’t think of a more relevant, timely American movie and it’s nice to know that 29 years after Do the Right Thing, if we have to keep hearing the same messages, Spike Lee is still here to deliver them, with style, energy, humor and righteous passion.

CRAZY RICH ASIANS * * (Dir. Jon Chu)

Meeting the family goes wrong

John Chu’s Crazy Rich Asians got a lot of attention this year for being the first big studio film starring an all Asian cast since 1993’s The Joy Luck Club, a shameful 25-year gap that should never have existed. As such, this is a film that puts together a big ensemble of talented actors, but unfortunately gives them subpar material. There’s a bright energy to this romantic comedy, but the general formula is so thin, cliche-ridden and predictable from beginning to end that it outweighs the energy the cast brings to it. Constance Wu (from TV’s Fresh Off the Boat) stars as Rachel Chu, an NYU economics professor whose boyfriend Nick (Henry Goulding) is the oldest son of an extremely wealthy family from Singapore, and who is now taking her home to meet the relatives. As a lowly American, Rachel is not the right fit for Nick, especially in the eyes of his mother (Michelle Yeoh, bringing the only hint of gravitas and depth to this movie), who wants her son to move back home, take over the family business and marry the “right” woman. With a plot like that I’m sure you can connect the dots to where this is headed, in typical rom-com fashion, though this movie is less comedic than it should be. Most of it is solid luxury porn, as Rachel experiences the vast everyday riches of this elite Singapore family, wallowing in the production design, costumes and luxurious surroundings of what might as well be royalty. There’s a superficial shallowness to it all, however, as the message seems to be that Rachel ought to do everything she can to fight her way into this world, and there’s little exploration of her relationship with Nick, so the romance at the center of the story hardly feels like the heart of it. By the time the movie ends, you can see every cliche and every bit of dialogue coming a mile away, and the celebration of mass wealth for its own sake is mildly nauseating.

22 JULY * * * (Dir. Paul Greengrass)

A pulsating recreation of a deadly terrorist attack on Norwegian soil

In 2011, a right wing terrorist and white nationalist named Anders Breivik attacked the country of Norway, detonating a bomb in the capital of Oslo and killing 69 people at a summer camp for teenagers on the island of Utoya in a mass shooting. The massacre received global attention for its horrifying nature and the rarity with which these types of attacks (mass shootings) occur in European countries. Paul Greengrass has now made a film based on that event and its aftermath, which he also wrote (adapted from the book One of Us, by Anne Seirstad), and it is an intense, visceral experience in the first half, recreating the shocking events with as much sensitivity as possible, yet with Greengrass’s typically aggressive camera work and sense of immediacy. The film plays as a docudrama, mostly following one of the teen victims, Viljar Hannsen, who is shot five times and miraculously survives, suffering painstaking physical therapy as he recovers enough to testify against Breivik at his eventual public trial. The movie speaks to the dangers of right wing extremism, as Breivik operates as a lone wolf, yet was a harbinger of things to come all over the world, as the rise of the alt-right and resurgence of fascism in response to the increasing multicultural world has shown us in the years since. After the compelling first half, Greengrass settles into less familiar territory for him, as the movie starts to sag a bit in the middle while Breivik begins court proceedings and scenes become a bit scattered. It halfheartedly follows a government inquiry into what went wrong on the day (with unsatisfying resolution) and is less bold in its hesitance to make surefire statements about how to handle right wing propaganda, the political climate that leads to this extremism, or even a firm endorsement of the rule of law in handling this problem. Instead we follow Viljar as he struggles to recover and Greengrass stays on the less thorny footing of sympathy for the victims and their families in the wake of tragedy. There’s a semblance of political undercurrents in this movie, but less of a strong grasp on how to approach the underlying meaning of it all- perhaps British director Greengrass wanted to stay away from making declarative stands in a foreign country out of respect for the real life victims, but I sense a greater desire to say something in this film that doesn’t quite get said. I wish it had. This is an important story to tell, not just for what happened, but for what it foresaw, and now is not the time to be ambivalent. 

COLD WAR * * * (Dir. Pawel Pawlikowski)

A passionate love affair that spans decades

Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War is a 1950’s set love story that could have easily been made in the 50’s or 60’s- it’s a glossy, black and white tribute to the kinds of tortured relationships filmmakers like Michelangelo Antonioni or Jean Luc-Godard explored in their day. As such, the material feels a tad familiar, even if told with a smooth, controlled hand and fabulous performances from actors Tomasz Not and especially Joanna Kulig, whom the camera adores. Set in post-war Poland, we meet piano player Wiktor and singer-dancer Zula, who are part of a touring dance troupe, as they fall in love and try to escape the Communist government of the new Soviet Union. Zula and Wiktor get separated and meet up occasionally in different countries over the next decade, as their love remains passionate yet difficult to sustain in the face of oppression and Zula’s constant dissatisfaction. Pawlikowski’s last film, the Oscar-winning Ida, was also a stark, black and white experience that kept you at a distance from its main character and felt like an homage to Ingmar Bergman’s work, while this one, as I mentioned earlier pays its nods to the Italian and French New Wave directors. Though it’s gorgeously photographed and well acted through a brisk 80 minutes, it’s hard to invest emotionally in what feels mostly like a technical exercise. I enjoyed it for what it was, but wished it amounted to a little bit more in the end.

See First Teaser for Live-Action 'The Lion King'

Obviously this is going to make a billion dollars for Disney- they might as well be printing money with this thing. I don’t see the point. Yeah, it’s The Lion King. In CG. There will be no difference between this and the cartoon, except the look of it. It’s a nostalgia ploy for one of the biggest hits of all time, and it will work like a charm on gullible millennials. I say if you want to see these movies again, WATCH THE MOVIES AGAIN. They’re still there and they’re still good. Why is a CG version of The Lion King better than the original? (On the other hand, if they’d somehow figured out how to train live animals to re-enact the movie, now that’d be an impressive feat. I’d watch that).

Independent Spirit Awards Nominations Spread the Wealth; 'First Reformed' Leads

So the nomination season is kicking into high gear, with the Indie Spirit noms today, and the critics set to weigh in with top ten lists and their own awards over the next few weeks. Not sure you can tell too much from these ones though- over the last few years the Indie Spirits have been really trying to get back to their roots with genuine independent films taking the place of expected Oscar fare that had been infiltrating the awards body, to much complaining from its members. So here it looks like First Reformed (which also did well with the other independent film group, the Gothams) leads over all, with noms for Feature, Director, Actor and Screenplay. Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk also did well with three nominations, but otherwise they really spread the wealth this year, honoring everything from Eighth Grade and Leave No Trace to Private Life (three women nominated for Best Director even). I’m surprised BlacKkKlansman was shut out aside from one nod for Adam Driver- I wonder if that film can gain ground with Oscar or if it just hits too hard for some people. The other big question is if this indie love for First Reformed will translate to Oscar attention- I still wonder if it’s too small a film to get noticed by them.

BEST FEATURE
“Eighth Grade”
“First Reformed”
“If Beale Street Could Talk”
“Leave No Trace”
“You Were Never Really Here”

BEST DIRECTOR
Debra Granik, “Leave No Trace”
Barry Jenkins, “If Beale Street Could Talk”
Tamara Jenkins, “Private Life”
Lynne Ramsay, “You Were Never Really Here”
Paul Schrader, “First Reformed”

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Glenn Close, “The Wife”
Toni Collette, “Hereditary”
Elsie Fisher, “Eighth Grade”
Regina Hall, “Support the Girls”
Helena Howard, “Madeline’s Madeline”
Carey Mulligan, “Wildlife”

BEST MALE LEAD
John Cho, “Searching”
Daveed Diggs, “Blindspotting”
Ethan Hawke, “First Reformed”
Christian Malheiros, “Socrates”
Joaquin Phoenix, “You Were Never Really Here”

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Kayli Carter, “Private Life”
Tyne Daly, “A Bread Factory”
Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk”
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, “Leave No Trace”
J. Smith-Cameron, “Nancy”

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Raúl Castillo, “We the Animals”
Adam Driver, “BlacKkKlansman”
Richard E. Grant, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
Josh Hamilton, “Eighth Grade”
John David Washington, “Monsters and Men”

BEST SCREENPLAY
Richard Glatzer (Writer/Story By), Rebecca Lenkiewicz & Wash Westmoreland, “Colette”
Nicole Holofcener & Jeff Whitty, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
Tamara Jenkins, “Private Life”
Boots Riley, “Sorry to Bother You”
Paul Schrader, “First Reformed”

Toni Colette getting recognized for ‘Hereditary’ so far at Spirits and Gothams

BEST FIRST FEATURE
“Hereditary”
“Sorry to Bother You”
“The Tale”
“We the Animals”
“Wildlife”

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Bo Burnham, “Eighth Grade”
Christina Choe, “Nancy”
Cory Finley, “Thoroughbreds”
Jennifer Fox, “The Tale”
Quinn Shephard (Writer/Story By) and Laurie Shephard (Story By), “Blame”

BEST DOCUMENTARY
“Hale County This Morning, This Evening”
“Minding the Gap”
“Of Fathers and Sons”
“On Her Shoulders”
“Shirkers”
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
“Burning” (South Korea)
“The Favourite” (United Kingdom)
“Happy as Lazzaro” (Italy)
“Roma” (Mexico)
“Shoplifters” (Japan)

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
“A Bread Factory”
“En El Septimo Dia”
“Never Going Back”
“Socrates”
“Thunder Road”

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Ashley Connor, “Madeline’s Madeline”
Diego Garcia, “Wildlife”
Benjamin Loeb, “Mandy”
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, “Suspiria”
Zak Mulligan, “We the Animals”

BEST EDITING
Joe Bini, “You Were Never Really Here”
Keiko Deguchi, Brian A. Kates & Jeremiah Zagar, “We the Animals”
Luke Dunkley, Nick Fenton, Chris Gill & Julian Hart, “American Animals”
Anne Fabini, Alex Hall and Gary Levy, “The Tale”
Nick Houy, “Mid90s”

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
“Suspiria”

‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ proves a favorite with the Spirit awards

Dumbo Flies in the Full Trailer for Disney's Remake

So here’s the full length trailer for Tim Burton’s Dumbo, which looks…I don’t know. An awful lot of CG, as per usual with these Disney remakes. Also, I can’t help but think Dumbo looks sort of creepy in this (especially in that clown makeup). All the humans are to make up for the fact that the only characters who actually speak in the 1940 animated classic are Timothy Mouse (missing entirely in this version) and the other elephants. But people went nuts over the new version of “Baby Be Mine” heard in the first teaser, and maybe circus nostalgia is in right now (the recent success of The Greatest Showman), so I’m guessing this will probably be a hit.

Woody and the Gang Are Back in First 'Toy Story 4' Teaser

This weird teaser shows a new toy, Forky, being introduced but is basically just a glimpse of the toys again- Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Slinky, the Potato Heads and Hamm are back for another movie, the first since 2010’s Toy Story 3, which was always the perfect ending. I had mixed feelings about them doing another one, but of course I’ll be seeing it, because you can’t not, if you’re a Toy Story viewer. Summer 2019, people.

I feel like this poster seems a bit ominous for Woody somehow- maybe he’ll be separating from the rest of the guys at the end of this one?:

'How to Train Your Dragon' Series Concludes With 'The Hidden World'

I’ve always liked this series, so I’m glad it got to end on its own terms. The Hidden World sees Toothless, Hiccup and the gang reunited for the final chapter, where Toothless attracts a mate in the female version of his species. This is the first film in the franchise to be distributed by Universal, which acquired DreamWorks in 2016. Be interesting to see how that affects the movie’s box office. It’s coming out February 22nd.

Natalie Portman is a Villainous Pop Star in 'Vox Lux'

This movie is sort of a last minute entry into the awards race this year, but it got pretty great reviews when it premiered in Toronto. The trailer makes it look like Portman’s the star, but apparently Neon is placing her in the supporting actress category for potential Oscar buzz, because most of this movie is about her younger self, played by a different actress (again, you cannot tell that from this trailer). It comes out December 7th.

'First Reformed' and 'The Favourite' Lead the Gotham Award Nominations

Here we go, people. The first awards body of the season has put out its nominations for the year, and though it’s very early and everyone else will start to announce about a month from now, this kinda sorta kicks things off officially. The Gotham Awards are a New York based group of critics and journalists, and function as the precursor to the Independent Spirit Awards, but there are usually some bigger contenders in here too. Glad to see they liked First Reformed a lot- that movie isn’t expected to land much Oscar attention, so it’s good to keep it alive somehow, remind people about it (Ethan Hawke certainly deserves a nomination, in my opinion).

Best Feature
The Favourite
First Reformed
If Beale Street Could Talk
Madeline's Madeline
The Rider

Best Documentary
Bisbee '17
Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Minding the Gap
Shirkers
Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Best Actor
Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman
Ben Foster, Leave No Trace
Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Ethan Hawke, First Reformed
Lakeith Stanfield, Sorry to Bother You

Best Actress
Glenn Close, The Wife
Toni Collette, Hereditary
Kathryn Hahn, Private Life
Regina Hall, Support the Girls
Michelle Pfeiffer, Where is Kyra?

Best Screenplay
The Favourite
First Reformed
Private Life
Support the Girls
Thoroughbreds

Breakthrough Actor
Yalitza Aparicio, Roma
Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade
Helena Howard, Madeline's Madeline
KiKi Layne, If Beale Street Could Talk
Thomasin McKenzie, Leave No Trace

Breakthrough Director
Ari Aster, Hereditary
Bo Burnham, Eighth Grade
Jennifer Fox, The Tale
Crystal Moselle, Skate Kitchen
Boots Riley, Sorry to Bother You

Special Jury Award for Ensemble Performance
The Favourite: Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz

Gotham Tributes
Willem Dafoe
Paul Greengrass
Jon Kamen
Rachel Weisz

Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘The Favourite’ is expected to be a big Oscar player too

Nicole Kidman Seeks Revenge in 'Destroyer'

As a longtime Nicole Kidman fan, I’m always in for a good performance from her, but this one reminds me of The Hours a little bit, where the excessive makeup might be distracting from the movie. Other than that, it’s supposed to be pretty good, according to the reviews, if somewhat relentless and grim. It’s coming out at Christmas, in case you’re in the mood for the exact opposite of holiday fun.

Keira Knightley and Alexander Skarsgard Star in 'The Aftermath'

This post WWII drama is based on a book that I actually read, and it’s coming out next April. The romance in the book was a pretty slow burn, but obviously the movie is going to play that part up big-time, especially with the actors they cast. Actually, Skarsgard’s character is the most interesting one in the book, but I’m not sure if he has the chops to give him all the complexity he had on the page (I think he tends to get cast for his looks- he’s supposed to be German in this, but not sure that’s a German accent I’m hearing in this trailer).

Lightning Round Reviews 2018: September-October

Here we go- my latest batch of reviews for movies that have come out this year. Notice I pretty much see everything on a 3-4 month delay, but now that fall season is here, these may be coming a bit more frequently, as the slate gets pretty full over the next few months and there’s a lot more to catch up with. Enjoy these reviews, all but one of which, I’ve just realized are sequels. Yikes.

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY * 1/2 (Dir. Ron Howard)

A terrible origin story that had no reason to exist

It’s strange how so many Star Wars movies can be so unsuccessful in so many different ways. I haven’t liked the prequels, the reboots or the spinoff movies and all for completely different reasons. You can add this latest Han Solo origin story to the list, because I’ve rarely seen a film so desperately searching for a reason to exist than this one. After a troubled pre-production and original filming stage, Ron Howard was brought in to replace directors Christopher Lord and Phil Miller, and basically reshot the entire movie from the very beginning. Yet you can’t tell from the way it was put together that it suffered production problems- this is a fairly competent film, technically. But the story is so dreadfully dull and pointless that it ceases to hold any interest in what’s happening onscreen, no matter how many perfunctory action scenes enter the story at the prescribed moment. Alden Ehrenreich plays young Han Solo and doesn’t hold a candle to Harrison Ford (who is the reason Han Solo is a beloved character to begin with), most unfortunately in terms of screen presence. He tries, but often fades into the background of his own movie, and not because the other actors are so much more dynamic. His inability to hold the screen aside, this is a boring story about a guy who wants to be a pilot and drifts into a smuggler gang led by Woody Harrelson, meets Chewbacca, meets Lando, likes a girl, and obtains the Millennium Falcon, which I guess is all anyone wanted to see, but there’s so little energy or interest in any of the scenes comprising these mandatory events. No memorable action sequence grabs your attention, despite there being quite a lot of them (it feels like the movie knows its characters aren’t interesting enough to watch them talk for too long before being attacked), a terribly bland romance sees zero chemistry between Ehrenreich and Emilia Clarke as his hometown love interest, and not even Donald Glover’s obvious Billy Dee Williams impersonation brings any life into this script. At 2 hours and 15 minutes, it feels at least an hour longer and you wonder when this endless, lifeless, generic action movie (which would hold NO interest if you didn’t already know the names of these characters) will come to a merciful end. When it finally does, you know that you’ll never watch it or think about it again.

OCEAN’S EIGHT * * * (Dir. Gary Ross)

A new Ocean’s crew plots to take over the Met Gala

You wouldn’t think an all female spinoff of the Ocean’s series would necessarily feel like something the culture needed, but while its necessity is questionable, it runs smoothly and entertainingly enough to make me glad I watched it anyway. After all, what were the Ocean’s movies in the end, but slick, easily digestible surface entertainments with no deeper layer to them aside from Steven Soderbergh’s tinted cinematography and some snappy dialogue? Cinematography aside, this is an easy companion piece to those films, and is probably better than two of them. Sandra Bullock stars as Debbie Ocean, sister to George Clooney’s now inexplicably deceased Danny, who is released from a five year stint in prison and wants to pull off her own heist. With fellow thief Lou (Cate Blanchett, sort of filling the Brad Pitt role), she plots to rob the Met Gala of some rare jewels, in particular an out-of-the-vault, $150 million diamond necklace to be worn on the neck of a pampered celebrity (Anne Hathaway, in one of her better cast roles). The film then follows the familiar Ocean’s formula of planning and executing the heist, but it’s done with a likable cast including Helena Bonham Carter, Sarah Paulson, Mindy Kaling, Awkwafina and Rihanna, and planned with a such a light, fizzy, air of fun surrounding every step that you’re carried through to the end, especially if you happen to be into the fabulous fashion and glamour that crowds the air at a red carpet event like the Met Gala. It’s unapologetically geared towards women and women’s tastes, without once condescending to its audience or basking in the annoying smugness of the actors (a problem that has occasionally plagued this franchise in the past). It may not have a deeper meaning to it all, but as far as all female reboots go, this one is far more successful than say, the recent Ghostbusters. I enjoyed it.

JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM * * (Dir. J.A. Bayona)

Familiar shots abound in latest ‘Jurassic’ adventure

2015’s Jurassic World was one of the loudest, dumbest blockbusters I’d ever seen and the sequel pretty much follows its predecessor’s tone, although with new director J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage, The Impossible) it’s mercifully devoid of the kind of shameless nostalgia that invoked every frame of the last movie. This time it’s pretty much just a straight generic follow-up with dinos roaming around, attacking more throwaway cardboard characters, but not much of it takes place on the island. Bryce Dallas Howard returns as Claire (minus the blatant sexism that was tossed at her character last time around), now an anti-extinction activist, since the dinosaurs on Isla Nublar are in danger of being wiped out by an active volcano. I’m not sure exactly why there’s a whole lot of sentiment towards trying to keep them around, given all the catastrophes they’ve caused over the course of this franchise- I think I’m with Ian Malcom on it, who returns for bookend scenes in this one to argue once again for allowing nature to take its course (they never listen to him in these). But Claire wants to save the dinosaurs, so she recruits ex-boyfriend Owen (Chris Pratt), who inexplicably joins her in going back to the island to save the creatures, but what do you know, they’re tricked by an evil corporate villain (Rafe Spall) who wants to kidnap and sell the dinos as weapons instead, and now they’re all trapped in the mansion of Sir Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell) the until now never before seen or mentioned partner of Richard Attenborough’s late John Hammond, with the dinosaurs trapped in cages underneath the house. Most of the movie actually takes place in the house strangely enough, with Claire and Owen running around attempting to save their favorite monster pets while the bad guys get picked off by them. As always in a Jurassic Park movie, there’s a kid, this time’s Lockwood’s mysterious granddaughter, and the inherent silliness of it all (the Indo-Raptor knows how to fake his death and actually smiles before he eats people) makes it sort of mindlessly watchable, but also predictable. That is until the ending, which sets up a new reality in which somehow dinosaurs and man must coexist on the streets of civilization, which is so nuts it’s almost laughable but I guess makes for an endless future of sequels to follow. The thrill and the shock of dinosaurs wreaking havoc onscreen is long since gone for me (it really hasn’t been there since the very first Jurassic Park), but the continued box office success of this series shows that audiences clearly disagree, so I guess we’re in this new Jurassic World for the long haul.

SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO * * * (Dir. Stefano Sollima)

He’s back- Benicio Del Toro goes up against the cartels once more

The original Sicario was a kind of mixed bag for me, but what undoubtedly made it worth seeing was Benicio Del Toro’s outstanding performance (should have been Oscar nominated) as the stone cold assassin whose family was murdered by the cartel, and who takes his revenge in a climactic sequence that left you breathless with suspense. The sequel erases Emily Blunt’s FBI agent from the first film (which is for the best, storywise), and gives Del Toro’s Alejandro Gillick a bigger role, but the plot is slightly muddled and confusing, as we have to figure out exactly what’s happening as it goes along, given that the original mission of starting a war with the cartels is instantly disastrous and then dispensed with. The Sicario series, as it is, is not exactly your standard action movie franchise. Josh Brolin’s American black ops agent is impossible to root for and he still takes up too much screentime, as the foiled U.S. plot must be discussed and explained in full. But every scene (and there are more this time) with Del Toro is compelling and gives the movie its energy. I wanted him to be the star of a Sicario sequel and this one still refuses to let him take over completely. But his side mission to save the life of the teenage daughter (Isobela Moner) of his enemy is engaging and the incredible final sequence where Gillick displays his badass nature in a completely different way from the first, while mirroring the timing of that final feat feels like yet another triumph for this unstoppable antihero. But if there’s going to be another one, can he please be the lead now? Why sideline the most compelling character and actor of your action franchise, who is the sole reason for the success of these films? 

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP * * (Dir. Peyton Reed)

More shrinking antics in the latest ‘Ant-Man’

The sequel to 2015’s Ant-Man is every bit as silly and inconsequential as the first, which to some people makes this series one of the most delightful of Marvel’s ongoing sagas, and to me their most dreadfully boring. Paul Rudd returns as ex-con Scott Lang, who’s been under house arrest for his part in the events of Captain America: Civil War (this movie takes place right before last May’s Infinity War), and is now recruited back into the suit by his ex-girlfriend Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and her father Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) in their quest to retrieve his long lost wife Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer, digitally brought back for a moment to her early 90s face, along with Douglas and Laurence Fishburne) from the quantum realm, where she’s been floating around for the last thirty years. This goal is jilted by a couple of villains who are out to steal Pym’s tech for themselves, including Jusitified’s Walton Goggins and Game of Thrones’s Hannah John-Kamen, but every meaningless action scene feels perfunctory and un-amusing. The shrinking and enlarging cars, suits and buildings do nothing for me in these movies- there’s just no real stakes involved in any plot that Ant-Man gets caught up in. The meant to be entertaining antics of Michael Pena and co. are a mild diversion at best, and the potential for this movie to be Marvel’s first real romance/partnership (implied by the title) is all but totally ignored, as Lilly gets a couple of action scenes in the Wasp suit, but once again comes completely devoid of screen presence or a personality as the movie’s straight man. I don’t love the Guardians of the Galaxy movies either, but even those have more flavor and character to them than these mild, bland, utterly paper thin adventures. I never thought I would suggest looking back to the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids franchise for more creative suggestions on what to do with the idea of shrinking as a concept (which does have potential!), but these guys could use some tips.

EIGHTH GRADE * * * (Dir. Bo Burnham)

Capturing Kayla’s world

Writer-director Bo Burnham has crafted a different kind of coming of age story, one that places you largely inside the head of 14-year-old Kayla (Elsie Fisher), an awkward, quiet, anxious middle-schooler as she struggles to fit in with the other kids and find her place in the world. It’s a delicate, highly realistic look at the modern world of teens, who pretty much live on their phones, and that’s not even a metaphor. Kayla does live in the online world of instagram and snapchat, etc., and she uses her youtube channel as a kind of diary to communicate in the way she wishes she could with those in front of her. Fisher is outstanding as the shy, introverted Kayla, and Burnham displays a real talent for conveying the internal world of a young person in highly intimate terms. There’s no real plot to speak of, just episodic events in Kayla’s life, as she embarks on the last week of middle school, none of which are too dramatic in reality (except for one harrowing encounter with a predatory high-schooler), but to an eighth grader it’s the whole world and it feels overpowering. It’s an impressive debut for both director and star, even if treading on familiar ground.