Category: Film Listings/Ratings

This is a documentary about a guy who wants to free solo climb El Capitan, a sheer rock wall that stands 3000 feet or so in Yosemite park. Free solo means he is going to climb the thing with no ropes. Just upper body strength, chalk, grip and a whole lot of practice. It’s a stunning, terrifying and nerve-wrecking experience. At any moment, as his crew/friends are filming, Alex can fall from the frame to his death. If a bird flies out from the mountain it could cost him his life. One wrong step, one blast of wind…I am not ever going to understand the psychology of what drives someone like Alex. Whether he succeeds or fails at this is only half the experience, the intense drive and practice to excel is the other half.

I had never heard of Mr. Dolemite aka Rudy, the person who might or might not have invented rap. I’m not even sure how accurate this movie is or how true to life it is. Least of all did I expect it to be a movie about the making of a movie! Then I was so pleasantly surprised with how good Murphy is playing the role of Dolemite. This is a delightful vulgar romp that is both funny and sweet and is so much fun.

His monsters, he loves his monsters. I got around to seeing Del Toro’s debut movie finally. It involves a man called Jesus Gris (interesting name…) who stumbles on a device that can extend his life indefinitely. He’s a good guy, living with his granddaughter and wife in Mexico City. Of course the device comes with a bloody price tag and it is being pursued by a dying rich guy and his violent nephew, played so well by Ron Perlman. We expect that Jesus Gris will become slowly more evil, his granddaughter freaked out by him after he “returns” and so on. Del Toro is much more interested in the humanity of the monster that Jesus turns to though. Even the little girl is not horrified and still sees her beloved grandpa under the skin.

The widows are the wives of the crew lead by Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) whose latest heist goes horribly wrong and they are all killed in a hail of bullets by the Chicago PD. Since Henry had stolen $2M from another Chicago gangster, Jamal, (played really well by Brian Tyree Henry) in Jamal’s eyes his widow, Veronica (Viola Davies), now owes him a cool 2 million dollars. She sets about recruiting the other widows and is intent on executing Harry’s last plan that he documented in his journal. Jamal is also running for alderman of his district against Jack Mulligan (Colin Farrell) and everything is sort of connected in obvious and not so obvious ways. Chicago setting, corrupt politics, a heist gone wrong. A good combo in a well-made genre film in the hands of a very capable director.

The Vuillard family is an interesting one but not really that dysfunctional. That somehow makes this drama more interesting. They have the black sheep, the estranged, the cold mother and sweet father. The catalyst that brings them all together in the family home is the news that the mother (Catherine Deneuve) has cancer and needs a marrow transplant. Everyone, even the youngest grandchild, is getting tested to see if they are a match. It’s also Christmas so why not get together as well and spend a few days together? It’s mostly subtle in how old grievances (and new ones) and not-so-hidden secrets start coming out. It’s a really good Holiday movie…maybe not an entirely feel good Holiday movie but a good one.

The more I think about this one the more crappy it seems. It really maybe means that the entire Star Wars series is not particularly good as a single body of work. There are a few movies in it that work well and introduce cool concepts and character twists and builds worlds with imagination (Yes, Last Jedi is up there with those) but as a whole it’s not that well put together. They repeat themselves, they crack at the slightest question of “why?”, motivations are mostly muddled and I end up caring for almost no one. They are usually fun and spectacular though…as in they have some cool spectacle. This one has the fun spectacle but it so lacks coherence, imagination, intelligence that it ranks among the worst of the bunch.

A tape shows up at the their doorstep. It shows their house from the outside. No explanation. Another one shows up too and another…each is a bit more revealing. This sends the couple George and Anne Laurent played by Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche into a spiral. It clearly points into some deep buried secrets in Daniel’s past and his family. We start discovering all those secrets as he starts recalling more and following the tapes. It’s a tightly wound and strange film that mostly worked for me. Although I am not sure what, if anything, it is trying to say. At face value it is an engaging thriller with excellent performances, but I think it is missing something that kept it from digging deeper…or maybe I need to watch it again.