’71
A new recruit ends up caught in the crosshairs of duplicitous rival factions in strife-torn Northern Ireland circa 1971, from which ’71 takes its name; lean, taut drama follows as the stranded British soldier (Jack O’Connell) tries to make it back to base, or at least through the night. Sobering and nerve-wracking by turns, this political action thriller doesn’t waste a frame and doesn’t let up in trapping everyone in a situation that’s Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition. –YSM
Danny Collins
A great cast (Al Pacino in the title role, the always amazing Annette Bening, the working-class hot Bobby Cannavale, the winningly dimpled Jennifer Garner, and the stalwart Christopher Plummer) elevates DANNY COLLINS beyond the safe material that writer-director Dan Fogelman provides. When a lost letter from John Lennon finally finds the hands of dissipated, stagnating Collins, an aging rock superstar, it unleashes a lifetime of regret and sends him on a quest for redemption…to backwater, New Jersey. Though what comes next doesn’t deviate much from the predictable, the warmth that still animates these tired old bones flows from the performances, especially Annette Bening. Always Annette Bening. –YSM
Trailer Trash:
BLACK SOULS (foreign gangland war, or something)–no
WELCOME TO ME (offbeat comedy in which loner loser Kristen Wiig bankrolls her own vanity TV show)–100% yes!
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (Carey Mulligan stars as the Victorian-era heroine of the Thomas Hardy novel who must choose between suitors)–a glossy English bodice-ripper with the charming Ms. Mulligan? I’m game.
It Follows
The best horror films take some deep-seated human anxiety and give it supernatural form; and what causes more anxiety, esp. for young adults, than sex? IT FOLLOWS gets that much right, making its unsettlingly simple menace essentially a living STD and thus highlighting the link between sex and one’s survival chances even more than is usually the case for teens in horror films. The movie’s successful premise ends up undermined by unremarkable acting, some lagging pacing, an amateurish score, and a failed ending…but none of it is enough to negate some chilling scenes in this small, independent find. –YSM
Cinderella
Kenneth Branagh directs Disney’s live-action remake of the classic tale CINDERELLA, with competent results. Lily James in the title role is as sweet as Downton Abbey‘s Lady Rose (I kept waiting for her to ask Cousin Robert to buy a wireless), and Game of Thrones‘ Richard Madden stares with blue-eyed longing as the Prince. (Is it wrong that I longed for their fairy-tale wedding to erupt into unparalleled violence?) The cast is littered with other recognizables, including Helena Bonham Carter doing her usual eccentric shtick as the fairy godmother…but it’s Cate Blanchett as the evil stepmother who saves the day for us grownups, offering the most savage (and even a bit nuanced) period fashion-plate predator since Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons. Preceded by a not-quite-bearable animated short featuring FROZEN characters. –YSM
Trailer Trash:
HOME (cartoon E.T.)–no
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 (animated cutesy monster sequel)–no
PAN (Hugh Jackman as a Neverland villain in tale of Peter’s origin)–Spielberg’s HOOK was atrocious, but maybe this is the big-budget FX re-imagining that will work, so yes
MINIONS (spinoff from DESPICABLE ME animated franchise)–yes
LITTLE BOY (kid tries to wish his dad home safe from WWII with imaginary powers…or are they imaginary?)–I caught a whiff of religious indoctrination, so no
TOMORROWLAND (Clooney stars in Disney’s latest attempt to monetize one of its theme park rides)–feh
INSIDE OUT (Pixar animates different aspects of a girl’s personality as they try to guide her through the shoals of adolescence)–I can’t say the premise or the trailer grabbed me…but I said Pixar, so yes.
Chappie
CHAPPIE is most notable for its depiction of the worst dysfunctional workplace ever: bumbling CEO (Sigourney Weaver), jealous psychopathic co-worker (Hugh Jackman) who visits the next cubicle to threaten his rival (Dev Patel) with a gun pressed to the temple. (But hey, he reveals afterwards it was unloaded, so ha-ha, just a prank! And nobody in the office so much as emails HR??) Too bad the movie is supposed to be about a robot who becomes sentient. Neil Blomkamp, a writer/director of science-fiction films including the wonderful District 9 and the mediocre Elysium, here fails to make anything convincing, from the world he depicts to the actions of the characters to most especially the robot of the title (voiced by Blomkamp’s go-to actor, Sharlto Copley), who’s supposed to be cute but comes across as an annoying contrivance of the screenwriter. (Note–Truly cute robots don’t speak much in human dialogue: R2-D2, the drones of Silent Running, WALL-E. It would have helped if Chappie had learned how to STFU.) The result is as clumsy as a droid with bad motor control. –YSM
Trailer Trash:
FANTASTIC FOUR (a multi-racial reboot of the Marvel Comics franchise about a superpowered family)–yes
FURIOUS 7 (Vin Diesel, the late Paul Waker, Michelle Rodriguez, et al., go at it in fast cars yet again)–no
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (delicious Tom Hardy takes over the Mel Gibson role in punked-out, car-crashing, post-apocalyptic Australia)–absolutely
SELF/LESS (shady entrepreneur of breakthrough tech Matthew Goode dumps aging mogul Ben Kingsley’s consciousness into Ryan Reynolds’ supple young frame; sinister complications ensue)–yes
PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2 (Kevin James in slapstick sequel)–I said PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2, so no.
Futuro Beach
A ponderous procession of pretty pictures does not a movie make. The gay romantic drama FUTURO BEACH proves that the hard way, as German Konrad (handsome Clemens Schick) and Brazilian Donato (Wagner Moura) fall for each other, mostly in Portuguese and German with English subtitles. Not that the language matters much; dialogue and plot are so scarce that we learn next to nothing about who these men are or why they’re together. Combined with inexplicably tortured pacing, all those pretty pictures become pretty boring. –YSM
Trailer Trash:
THE LONGEST RIDE (from a novel by romance sausage factory Nicholas Sparks)–I said Nicholas Sparks, so an emphatic NO
ALOHA (military contractor Bradley Cooper meets Air Force officer Emma Stone in a romantic dramedy)–OK, I’ll bite
TRAINWRECK (Judd Apatow comedy about commitment-phobic woman)–yes
TERMINATOR GENISYS (Arnold rehash)–I guess
THE GUNMAN (Sean Penn rampages past Idris Elba, Javier Bardem, Ray Winstone, et al)–great cast in an action-packed shoot-’em-up? I’m game
SAN ADNREAS (SFX spectacle as the Big One hits Cali and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson must rush to multiple rescues)–in honor of Irwin Allen, yes!
GET HARD (clueless rich guy Will Ferrell, headed to prison, enlists Kevin Hart to prep him; wackiness ensues)–no
5 TO 7 (Anton Yelchin–Star Trek‘s new Mr. Chekov–gets drawn into a French couple’s open marriage)–yes
THE WRECKING CREW (20 Feet From Stardom for the band)–only if musician documentaries are your thing
OCTOBER GALE (handsome man on the run washes up on widow Patricia Clarkson’s isolated island; trouble follows him, fight for life ensues)–I said Patricia Clarkson, so yes.