The Peanut Butter Falcon

— Not every big film needs to feel big and this one lures you in with its soft edges and bayou sway until it’s compelling characters help you remember who you can be. There’s a bit of Mark Twain and some of Eudora Welty in the feel of the story that focuses on two people, a small-time crook named Tyler, and Zak, a person with Down Syndrome who has been placed by the state in a home for seniors. Both have fallen on hard times, are nearly out of options, and are being chased by different factions. Both are flawed and unlikely heroes. Both have different goals but bond on a shared journey toward a defunct wrestling camp run by Zak’s idol. Along the way they bring a third person into their fold, a woman who’s been sent to bring Zak back to the nursing home from which he’d escaped. As their friendships solidify, they begin to appreciate their own worth, their need for love and support, and the possibilities the future holds. I’m glad I got to witness their journey.

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[2019. 97 min. Directed by Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz. Starring Shia LaBeouf, Dakota Johnson, and Zack Gottsagen.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-peanut-butter-falcon-2019

Maiden

— I suppose if you’re in your 20s, 1989 seems like ancient history but to those of us who grew up in the '50s and ‘60s, it's still a vivid memory. That's why it’s so hard to believe, as recently as 1989, no one thought women could handle the travail of crewing a yacht. This documentary tells the story of the first all-female team to enter the 1989 Whitbread Round the World Race, focusing on Tracy Edwards, the captain who had the dream, got the financing, and pulled the crew together. Interviews with Edwards and some of her former crew members set the stage for the grueling race and how the crew members were perceived, both by the media and their male counterparts. No one gave them a chance at finishing the 32,000 nautical mile sailing race, so it’s no wonder they didn’t understand these women were about to open the doors for all women who followed to be taken seriously. It’s a well-done film that’ll make you feel good—at the credits, half the audience applauded and many had tears in their eyes.

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[2018. 97 min. Directed by Alex Holmes. Featuring Tracy Edwards, Frank Bough, John Chittenden, and Bruno De Bois.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/maiden-2019

Luce

— “Luce” is a psychological thriller that’s not as tautly held as the best of its genre, but it manages to raise questions that stick in your mind after you’ve left the theater. Luce is a model student who was adopted at age 7 by parents who helped him deal with the trauma of early life in Eritrea. When he’s asked in one class to write a paper in the voice of an historical figure, he turns in an essay from Frantz Fanon’s perspective, saying violence is sometimes necessary in a struggle for catharsis. Something about the tone alarms his teacher and, at that point, the stage is set for a tale where the audience is never quite sure where Luce falls on the psychopathy spectrum if, indeed, he’s on it at all. His teacher tries to figure it out but, thanks to a series of events, comes off as increasingly unhinged and aggressive herself. Even Luce’s liberal parents find themselves uncertain of his true psyche. In the end, his mother faces an ethical and moral dilemma with no “right” course of action to take. Questions of motives aren’t adequately answered and the issue of whether our backgrounds should affect the leeway given us for transgressions is raised but inadequately explored. It’s an interesting film but somehow missing something to keep it from seeming a bit too contrived.

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[2019. 109 min. Directed by Julius Onah. Starring Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, Tim Roth, and Kelvin Harrison, Jr.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/luce-2019

The Nightingale

— I knew this film was controversial, but I really wasn’t expecting the viewing experience to be as uncomfortable as it was. It’s a brutal tale of disrespect for human life, evidenced in rape, murder, revenge, racism, unfairness, inequality, and almost any other form of pain one human can cause another. Everyone is either uncaring or adversarial. While the antagonists have no redeeming aspects in the story line, it’s hard to find the protagonists as likable either except, perhaps, with a revisionist eye looking for some kind of 19th century “Me Too” moment of retribution. The journey feels like a mythic tale of good vs evil, but it's more complex than a simple tale of vengeance. In the end, what seemed to be a straightforward tale of a woman's revenge, widens to become a tale of the bias everyone has based on their culture and personal history, the line between morality and amorality, the effects of colonization on aboriginal people, and what responsibility each person has for what happened in the past and where we are today. I liked the film but it’s not for the squeamish and, wonderful and atmospheric as the journey and the dreams are, I wonder if it couldn't use a little more editing.

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[2018. 136 min. Written and directed by Jennifer Kent. Starring Aisling Franciosi, Sam Claflin, and Baykali Ganambarr.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-nightingale-2019

Ready or Not

— Grace, an unsuspecting bride, is drawn into a deadly game of hide and seek on her wedding night in this dark comedy. It may be an age-old tale, but it's well told. Grace stumbles and falters at first while her rich in-laws try to find her, playing something of a deer in the headlights until her stronger sense of survival takes hold. Luckily, the film appears to have been made on a tight budget so it’s missing the special effects that would have weighed it down. It's a little campy, but only a little thanks to a competent cast including Andie MacDowell, Adam Brody, and Samara Weaving, who help make it a wonderful example of its genre and much more than a look at off-kilter family values. It still scores high on the blood splatter scale, but it's hard not to enjoy the ride.

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[2019. 95 min. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet. Starring Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O’Brien, Henry Czerny, and Andie MacDowell.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ready-or-not-2019

Aquaman

— Hmmm. This film is in its own superhero category and that’s not really a good thing. There’s more effect and less substance than even the fluffiest of superhero films, and that’s saying something. It’s kind of like “The Little Mermaid” on acid. Or maybe LSD. Certainly steroids. True, there’s something interesting about the seriousness with which the action unfolds underwater with all types of sea creatures, real and imagined, life-size and ultra-size, zipping to the tune of a royal drummer. It’s among the bottom rung of DC cinematic universe and probably not worth viewing. Poor Nicole Kidman; how did she end up in this mess?

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[2018. 143 min. Directed by James Wan. Starring Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, and Willem Dafoe.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/aquaman-2018

The Farewell

— This is a thoughtful, delightful, and lovingly crafted tale of cultures stretched by geography and generations. Billi, a young New York writer whose family moved from China when she was six years old, has maintained a bond with her “Nai Nai” (grandmother). Her parents have learned Nai Nai has stage IV lung cancer but the family, following Chinese tradition, has decided not to let Nai Nai know she’s dying. Instead, they’ve pushed Billi’s cousin to announce his wedding as an excuse for the entire family to get together and see Nai Nai one last time. Billi’s parents don’t think she should join them in China, believing she’s been in the U.S. so long that she can’t mask her emotions and would be unable to keep Nai Nai’s prognosis secret. What follows is a bittersweet tragicomedy with layers in every scene, creating a textured look at culture, family, and our ability to reorient ourselves as we understand the importance of memories, heritage, and affection. Awkwafina is incredible as Billi, played somewhat low key, with just the right amount of introspection and confusion, and proving it may hard to go home again, but it may also add some clarity and substance to your life. This is a very good film. It’s also about the right length, something so many, longer films can’t say these days.

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[2019. 100 min. Written and directed by Lulu Wang. Starring Awkwafina, Tzi is aMa, Diana Lin, Aoi Mizuhara, and Gil Perez-Abraham.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-farewell-2019

The 15:17 to Paris

— I picked this on Netflix to pass the time but ended up paying some attention to it. It’s a recounting of a 2015 event when three Americans took down an AK47-brandishing man on a train headed to Paris. I was surprised that the film was pretty tight and nicely edited with decent cinematography—definitely a cut above many films capitalizing on a quasi-patriotic moment. It’s take away, that it was the result of God’s plan that the three men found themselves on the train and reacting to the situation as they did, was a little surprising but the action and story was interesting enough. Only afterwards did I realize the three men who were actually part of the event played themselves in the film and only afterwards did I remember that Clint Eastwood directed it, explaining its filmmaking polish. [Netflix Streaming]

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[2018. 94 min. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Starring Alek Skarlatos, Anthony Sadler, and Spencer Stone.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-1517-to-paris-2018