A Ghost Story

— It’s been a while since I’ve been more irritated by a film. “A Ghost Story” is at its best when it’s over, because it grows on you once your patience is no longer being tested. It may have been too poetic or too meditative for my consumption. The first quarter of the film went on forever—long, long scenes with hardly any dialogue or narration and not much background music. From there it was nearly laughable as the ghost left the morgue wearing a sheet, appearing to have donned a cheap Halloween costume, and returned to his ranch home to watch his wife deal with her grief, while he dealt with his own loss of love and life. About halfway through, background music and dialogue were fully implemented, but the ghost could do little more than observe life without him, becoming the embodiment of sadness. Just before the film took a sudden shift for the better, I had begun to think about tedious foreign films of the 1960s and ‘70s, and I even fantasized about bolting for the exit when, onscreen, past and present and future became jumbled. The film managed to pull things together by focusing on human emotion, spiritual connections, and legacy—or something like that! What began as the dullest film I’ve seen in ages, left me scratching my head and wondering what the heck had just happened when the credits rolled. It raised lots of questions about love, loss, and legacy, but I think any answers are ours to find.

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[2017. 92 min. Written and directed by David Lowery. Starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-ghost-story-2017

Spider-Man: Homecoming

— I’ve seen the earlier Spider-Man films, some good and some not so good. I understand the allure of a high school kid thrust into superhero-dom, but at some point isn’t enough, enough? Evidently not. The good news is that “Spider-Man: Homecoming” may be the latest in a 15-year-old franchise, but it still feels a little fresh thanks to the focus on Spider-Man when he’s 15 years old and dealing with issues of puberty, geekiness, acceptance, and dating while experiencing Avenger-envy. Although it’s another CGI extravaganza, the focus stays on the human side of Peter Parker, leaving a film with plenty of action and a sometimes exasperating but always relatable teen hero.

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[2017. 133 min. Directed by Jon Watts, Starring Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, and Gwyneth Paltrow.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/spider-man-homecoming-2017

Baby Driver

— This one would be worth it for the music alone since the main character, Baby, always has earbuds and an iPod with a playlist going, but that’s just part of it. To enjoy it, I think you have to embrace plenty of clichés and smile as you see them pass before you. It’s fueled by high-speed chases, whacked out robbers, and a young driver who’s what I imagine his contemporaries think of as "cool as a cucumber." Of course, Baby’s a good boy in a bad situation and you have to love him. Oh, and did I mention it’s a love story too? Best line, and this pretty much says it, “Sometimes all I want to do is head west on 20 in a car I can't afford with a plan I don't have—just me, my music, and the road.” Don’t we all?

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[2017. 112 min. Written and directed by Edgar Wright. Starring Ansel Elgort, Jon Hamm, Eiza Gonzalez, Micah Howard, Lily James, Kevin Spacey, and Jamie Foxx.]
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jul/02/baby-driver-edgar-wright-ansel-elgort-review

Dunkirk

— I was amazed at how tense a nearly 2-hour film could be when the basic plot takes little more than a sentence to tell, but time flew by and my eyes were glued to the screen during “Dunkirk,” not because of bombs and bloodshed but because the very human emotions of the situation seemed so real. The story’s told from the perspective of a few, very normal people representative of the 400,000 Allied soldiers trapped by the German army on the beach at Dunkirk and of those trying to help them, but in a more subtle way so it isn’t a story in the American fashion with one or two swashbuckling heroes. Even the special effects are unusual—very well done but without endless blood and horror. It’s a film of long shots and close-ups with ambient sounds sometimes overpowering dialogue, depicting human triumph on a large-scale (about 300,000 people were saved) and a small scale (400,000 were specks on a beach and the more than 800 civilian boats that tried to help were specks in the ocean). If you’re not opposed to films of this genre, it’s worth your time to see. 

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[2017. 106 min. Written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Starring Fionn Whitehead Damien Bonnard, Aneurin Barnard, Mark Rylance, Barry Keoghan, Michael Fox, Tom Glynn-Carney, Tom Hardy, and Lee Armstrong.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dunkirk-2017

The Hero

— Sam Elliott plays a once popular western star now in his early 70s and doing voiceovers for commercials. He’s been divorced for years and is estranged from his daughter, but he isn’t the cliché “old guy” we’re used to seeing in films. Instead, he’s just trying to survive while coming to terms with a life of missed opportunities, with past notoriety now mostly gone, and with considerably fewer days ahead of him than behind him. His fairly quiet life shifts in another direction when he meets a young woman with whom an unlikely romance eventually blossoms at about the same time he’s diagnosed with cancer. Elliott does a remarkable job of maneuvering the shifts and cycles, living in the here and now while his past pushes heavily on him. There’s a bit more sentimentality than I like and, after developing such a realistic character, I was a little dismayed when they chose a May/December romance as the vehicle to allow him to move forward, but through it all, Elliott is mesmerizing and you can't take your eyes off him any more than you can turn a deaf ear to his smooth voice. It’s not as full or layered as last year’s “I’ll See You in My Dreams”, but you can't help but see the similarities in both films.

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[2017. 93 min. Directed by Brett Haley. Starring Sam Elliott, Laura Prepon, Krysten Ritter, Nick Offerman, and Katherine Ross.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-hero-2017

The Big Sick

— I’d heard the praise but still wasn’t prepared for how good this film is. So often lately I’ve focused on a film’s clever script or fine acting, and I seem to have forgotten what it is like to be swept into a love story with starts and stops, and laughter and tears, and with people who really are people you might know. It’s a world where everyone’s a little anxious all the time and the humor is within some oddly dark contexts, cultures are sometimes at odds, and life’s not all that tidy, but it is real. The two main characters are great, but imagine having Holly Hunter and Ray Romano in the supporting rolls—they both are a joy, one for her frenzy and the other for his calm. The whole film is a wonderful balancing act and sure to be one of my favorites for the year.

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[2017. 120 min. Directed by Michael Showalter. Starring Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, and Ray Romano.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-big-sick-2017

The Beguiled

— “The Beguiled” is a mesmerizing film, that’s executed with precision. It moves at a perfect pace as a wounded Union soldier is taken in by a handful of compassionate Southern women remaining at a ladies seminary. The women are proper nearly to a fault, with passions simmering just below the surface as they tend to the handsome stranger’s wounds. In the end, it’s hard to know who the real enemy is. It’s an intriguing film with melodrama, sensitivity, desire, black comedy, and enough turns and twists to keep us watching. Definitely worth seeing.

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[2017. 93 min. Directed by Sofia Coppola. Starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-beguiled-2017

Beatriz at Dinner

— “Beatriz at Dinner” was disappointing in spite of having Selma Hayek and John Lithgow carrying it. The script was just too heavy handed. A look at the entitlement of those with money and the sufferings of those without, while certainly topical, was just too overt. It isn’t a terrible film, but it should have been much, much better.

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[2017. 82 min. Directed by Miguel Arteta. Starring Salma Hayek, John Lithgow, Connie Britton, and Jay Duplass.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/beatriz-at-dinner-2017