Sunday, May 5, 2019

May Movie Reviews


*****  Exceptional
****    Great
***      OK
**        So So
*          Blah

Beast was about a young woman who lives with her parents in a community where a serial killer is killing young women. She begins dating a man who is a suspect. Jessie Buckley who is in the lead role is wonderful. ***

Boundaries is about a woman who feels she was abandoned by her father. She has no boundaries, hoards stray animals, and has a teenage son who rebels by drawing nude pictures of people. Her father gets kick out of his care center so she agrees to drive him to California so he can live with her sister. Along the way he sells his stash of pot with the help of his grandson. Some LOL moments. Great all-star cast. ****

The Clovehitch Killer Sixteen year old Tyler (Charlie Plummer) lives in a community that has been terrorized by a serial killer for longer than he's been alive. His family is very religious. His father (Dylan McDermott) is the scout leader, lectures his son about sex, and seems to watch every move his son makes. After finding photos of bondage and a Polaroid of a woman who might be one of the murder victims in his dad's shed, he starts to believe his father might be the Clovehitch Killer. It's a weird, creepy story. McDermott makes a good clean-cut, religious nut-psychopath. I didn't even recognize him. The rest of the performances were lacking in realism or maybe the script was too cliche. I couldn't tell. A lot of it was unrealistic and staged. Interesting ending, also unrealistic. ***

Colette was about the life of French author, Collette, with Keira Knightley in the leading role. Great costumes, sets and performances, unfortunately I kept wanting to get up or turn it off. It was a little boring.***

Final Portrait is about the final portrait done by Alberti Giacometti (Geoffrey Rush) in 1964, Paris. He told the sitter, James Lord, it would only take two hours and twenty days later he's still at it. He paints, then destroys it, starts over. It was a very compelling story, interesting characters, outstanding sets of 1960s Paris. ***

Frontera was about illegal Mexican immigration and all that entails: the good, the bad and the truly ugly. It's about a Mexican man (Michael Peña) who travels across the border onto a rancher's land (Ed Harris). He encounters the rancher's wife (Amy Madigan) who is out riding her horse. She gives him water and a blanket and tells him he'll be safe on her land all the way to the highway. Three teenagers are out with rifles taking pot shots at the Mexicans. The wife hears the gunshots and rides back, her horse spooks and she falls hitting her head on a rock. The Mexican tries to help her but she tells him to get her horse. The husband shows after hearing the gun shots, sees the Mexican holding his wife's horse's reins and points his gun at him. He runs later to be picked up by the police. The wife dies and he's charged with murder assuming he caused her death while trying to steal her horse. Rancher is an ex-police officer and when law enforcement fails to investigate properly, he finds the evidence and witnesses someone in a green and white [border patrol] truck murder a Mexican with a long range rifle. Rancher doesn't think the Mexican caused his wife's death. In the meantime, Mexican's wife (Eva Longoria) is desperately trying to get across the border to get to her husband, pays a sleazy Coyote to help and well, that's never a good plan. Great story from start to finish. Love the beginning. Excellent performances and great cast. Excellent well-informed view of immigration. ****

The Guest OMG Dan Stevens has the most beautiful ice blue eyes. I always really like him in movies but why haven't I ever noticed those eyes before? It's about a family whose son died in the military. A man shows up to their house claiming to be their son's friend. There is a photo of him on their mantle with their son. He is invited to stay and he seems to be fulfilling a vow he made to the friend to protect the family. Then everything goes south and all hell breaks loose. It was outstanding. Excellent performances, excellent story with all kinds of unexpected. ****

A Long Way Down is about four people who go to the top of a skyscraper on New Year's Eve thinking they were going to commit suicide in solitude. Each has their own problems and reasons and after much arguing and trying to save each other make a pact not to do the deed until Valentine's Day. I tried listening to the book on tape and got bored really quickly. Great cast and it has potential, but there are too many things wrong with the story that make me not like it. It's bordering on stupid humor but using a serious topic. It didn't feel right in book form or film. ***

Mahogany  I LOVED this movie when I was a kid at a time when my dream was to be a fashion designer. Diana Ross is gorgeous. Bill Dee Williams is gorgeous. Anthony Perkins is psycho (he plays psycho very well). The costumes were sensational. I remember drooling over her clothes and now decades later, still think her clothes were awesome. Performances were superb. Now that I'm older the message that women should give up their dreams to work to make their men successful is outdated to the extreme although back then I just thought it was romantic. I'm not fond of the main character using sex to get ahead, but our society is still as sexist as it was back then. A great movie. *****

Oh Lucy is about a life-less Japanese woman who buys her niece's English language classes after the niece decides she needs the money. The English teacher (Josh Hartnett) is a little unconventional, hugs his students, makes them wear wigs and gives them American names while teaching them "American" English as in "Hey, how are ya?" When the teacher quits his job to run away with her niece back to America, she seems a little lost and decides to follow. Her sister goes with although they don't get along. It was an interesting story, but gets a little convoluted when she professes her love for the teacher and they have mindless sex. The story had a lot of potential for good humor and life-changing themes, but kind of missed the mark. Lots of suicide themes...everyone was offing themselves which I don't find funny so it was a little confusing..is it a comedy or a drama? It couldn't make up its mind. ***

Pali Road is about a doctor who is in a car accident with her boyfriend just as he's asking her to marry him and she says no she's not ready. She wakes up in a life with the creepy doctor who's been stalking her. Really bad acting, bad script, predictable plot except the ending. I kind of liked the ending - it's unexpected. **

Puzzle is about this mousy, sheltered housewife (Kelly MacDonald) who lives to serve her self-centered husband and two grown sons. She cleans, cooks, and shops for them, isn't allowed to think about anything else let alone do anything else unless it's for the church where she serves more people. She gets a puzzle for her birthday, finds she's really good (fast) at doing it, goes shopping for another and sees a notice at the puzzle store advertising for a partner for the national puzzle competition. She meets (Irrfan Khan) who's wife and puzzle partner just left him, who knows about current events and the world outside his home and they begin practicing for the competition. She falls in love...with her newfound freedom...but confuses it with falling in love with him. I don't like that she breaks both her husband's and the guy's hearts because she finally discovering herself. I've never understood women like her, but the world is full of them. ***

Quaker Oaths  So boring. I can't even comment. *

Quality Problems is about a woman who finds out her breast cancer has returned and all that entails. In addition, her father's Alzheimer's is creating major problems and she's trying to maintain sanity while planning a birthday party for her eight year old daughter. She has an outstanding support system of family and friends. Great story, but more importantly the humor is fresh and hilarious with the exceptional performances. The relationships between characters are what everyone dreams relationships to be. Love the husband. ****

The Rider is about a young, barely twenty-something rodeo star who is thrown and is kicked in the head. The story starts after he gets out of the hospital with a metal plate in his head, back home, taking lots of drugs, smoking lots of pot, vomiting and having seizures that paralyzes his hand. He's surrounded by immature, inconsiderate people who are constantly reminding him what he lost, harassing about "cowboying up" and getting back in the saddle before he loses courage, without any consideration for the fact he has been instructed not to ride or rodeo as any injury could be life threatening. Young kids he runs into wants to shake his hand and take photos with him, telling him they look forward to when he's riding again. His life is over and he has to reassess everything he's lived for and has known all his life. He visits his friend who also had a life-altering rodeo injury, but who is unable to walk, talk or function in any meaningful way. His visits involve simulated riding exercises and watching rodeo videos. The story is psychologically driven, understated but emotional performances, well-written, beautifully filmed. Very sad. ****

A Star is Born (1976). Well, I was wrong - Kris Kristofferson is just as cute as Bradley Cooper if not cuter. Way cuter even. Even the same dazzling blue eyes.  Cooper, however, sings better. Great movie. There is absolutely no nakedness in this movie, too, which is unusual compared to contemporary movies where nakedness abounds in every scene, but Streisand does have some serious plunging necklines. Outstanding costumes, classic coolness even by today's standards. And the whole follow-through on the death...he dies, she responds, she grieves, she sings. Still sob worthy. The modern version of this movie failed in so many ways but especially with the death scenario. It has been so long since I last saw the movie I forgot most of it. Yeah, it's dated and Streisand acts goofy like she's in a comedy all the way through it, but she's beautiful and can sing like no other. Great movie. *****

Transcendence is a sci-fi about a computer scientist (Johnny Depp) who is shot by a radical group who think computer technology is evil. He doesn't die but the bullet was laced with radiation so he has about a month to live. His wife (Rebecca Hall) and scientist friend (Paul Bettany) upload his brain into the computer which is then downloaded into the universe. His computer brain and his wife build a huge lab in the middle of no where and the brain starts developing new technology, able to rebuild anything that is destroyed: environment, humans. The government and Morgan Freeman decide it's not Johnny who is doing it but some rogue and dangerous technology and opt to destroy it with a computer virus. It was an interesting story but a little far fetched. ***

A Walk Among the Tombstones is about a retired-cop, ex-alcoholic private investigator (Liam Neeson) who is hired by a drug dealer (Dan Stevens) to find out who kidnapped his wife and chopped her up into little pieces. Other drug dealer wives, girlfriends, and daughters are being kidnapped and murdered as well. Excellent performances, excellent story, gripping murder mystery, outstanding characters who were very interesting and well-developed. ****

Wilby Wonderful is about a little town with an interesting variety of characters in the midst of a "scandal" that is constantly referred to but never detailed. People just want to love and be loved. Great performances.  Made me want to live in a small town...then I remembered I DO live in a small town and it's never as quaint, innocent, friendly, or joyful as they are in the movies. ***

Windstorm is a great "girl-and-her-horse" movie. Girls would love it. Great story. German dubbed in English so that could be why the dialogue was a little cheesy although the acting wasn't that good either. Awesome horse, incredibly trained. ***

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