Tag Archives: film

Black Bag

Black Bag is compact. Tight. Succinct. Slick. Director Steven Soderbergh does not waste a frame in this 90-minute spy thriller. 

Plus it has a cool percussion heavy soundtrack from David Holmes who did those wonderful soundtracks for Soderbergh’s Ocean’s movies (11, 12 & 13.) Black Bag’s music has more of a 60s-70s feel to my ear.

From the opening shot of George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) walking through a boisterous nightclub for a meeting to the quieter setting of the dinner he serves his guests in his home, the story keeps you guessing as to what’s next and who’s the transgressor. Which is the point, right?

Woodhouse is charged with figuring out which of a list of intelligence operatives is sharing secrets with the other side. His methods include an uncomfortable game played with his dinner guests which takes a surprisingly violent turn.

Those guests from the spy agency include his wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke), Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela), Col. James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page) and Dr. Zoe Vaughn (Naomie Harris). All of them, as well an agency guy played by Pierce Brosnan, are flawed and some of their missteps are known (or become known) to Woodhouse and to the film’s audience.

Revelations occur in sessions with therapist Dr. Vaughn, in interactions at agency HQ, via lie detector tests, via long distance observation of Kathryn’s visit to Geneva and even on a quiet lake in a fishing boat. And, of course, in private conversations between George and Kathryn.

Though marketing for Black Bag has stressed the issue of the married couple having to keep secrets from one another AND the issue of their not being able to completely trust the other partner, there’s more to the movie than that simple element.

Fassbender and Blanchett are both excellent in their roles and the other players make up a compelling ensemble. Soderbergh and writer David Koepp toss in Black Bag’s various narrative points at an occasionally rapid pace so don’t take a long potty break once the show starts.

Black Bag is rated R.

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My Top Ten Movies of 2024

#1. Conclave—Classic movie for grown-ups. Story, script, acting, directing all top-notch! Ralph Fiennes could finally win best actor.

#2. Dune: Part Two—Stunning visuals. Booming soundtrack. Timotheé Chalamet leads a strong cast. But this is director Denis Villaneuve’s movie.

#3. Wicked—Ariana Grande is so dang cute and Cynthia Erivo is awesome and the music’s great and it’s colorful and almost totally fun.

#4. Thelma—An under-the-radar movie about an elderly gal who gets scammed out of $10K and tries to get it back. 95-year-old June Squibb is excellent in the title role.

#5. Sing Sing—Not your usual prison movie! Incarcerated men form a repertory theatre company and put on a unique production. Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin are award-worthy in their performances.

#6. A Complete Unknown—Timotheé Chalamet looks like Dylan, talks like Dylan, sings like Dylan. Plus Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, too! The early 60s come alive!

#7. The Fall Guy—This film has everything: drama, comedy, romance, stunts. OMG, stunts! Two of our best stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt are both charming in this fun movie about… making movies.

#8. Knox Goes Down—Michael Keaton is the title star and the director of this compelling tale of a guy with early stage dementia who comes to the aid of his estranged son. Another under-the-radar film seen primarily via streaming.

#9. Twisters—Tornados are horrible but this film is not. Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glenn Powell are the leads in a Hallmark-type romance. Effects are good and the vicarious rush of chasing tornados bursts through the screen.

#10. A Real Pain—Kieran Culkin is the title co-star of Jesse Eisenberg’s personal project—the story of two cousins who visit their family’s homeland of Poland. Eisenberg wrote, directed and stars.

A few more movies I liked…

Argylle—Bryce Dallas Howard has fun in a goofy fantasy.

Monkey Man—Dev Patel takes a licking (actually several) in this violent revenge film.

Piece By Piece—Colorful, musical Pharrell Williams biopic told with Legos!

The Beekeeper—Action/adventure vengeance carried out by Jason Statham.

It Ends With Us—From the Coleen Hoover novel, a well-made film about domestic violence.

Blink Twice—Island antics with Channing Tatum and friends turn weird.

A few movies I DID NOT like…

Deadpool & Wolverine—Expected fun and excitement, got a tedious slog.

The Brutalist—For film fest fans only. The 2nd half of this overlong film is interminable.

Fly Me To The Moon—ScarJo looks great but this film misfires on the launch pad.

The Nickel Boys—Watered down reworking of Colson Whitehead’s intense novel of racism in mid-century Florida.

Bob Marley: One Love—Lots of music, lots of ganja, heavy accents. Too much narrative squeezed into two hours.

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A Complete Unknown

If you said “hmmmmm, I’m not sure about that” when you heard that Timotheé Chalamet had been cast as Bob Dylan, your can rest your fears and rejoice because the young star is excellent as the legendary singer/songwriter. He nails Dylan’s nasally mumbling speech patterns and he also sings and plays guitar with style and passion in the new film A Complete Unknown. For music fans, it’s a “must see.”

Chalamet and director/co-writer James Mangold do a nice job of contrasting the raw rookie Dylan of the early 1960s with the very different Dylan of 1965. The early Dylan who rolls into New York is aware of his own talent but needs audiences. One of his first is Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) who is bedridden in a New Jersey sanitarium. 

It’s there he meets folk music icon Pete Seeger who give his young friend a strong leg up. Dylan’s relationship with Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) which goes from warm to icy, as Dylan gears up to take his music to a new level, is one of the film’s key conflicts. Here was the young savior of folk music who did the traditional folk songs as well as his own compositions in the style of the folk legends of the day. Would he follow Pete’s will and stay within the strict boundaries of the Newport FOLK Festival?

Dylan had bigger dreams. As fans know, he had a prolific period in 1965 and 1966 which saw him release three new albums (one of those a double album) in just over a year. He also had his first hit single which introduced him to America via Top 40 radio and contained the lyric that gives this movie its title. Those three albums were not like the ones that had come before. One of the cool scenes in the film is Dylan and his band playing the song Highway 61 Revisited—complete with police siren whistle!—in a recording studio. 

The 1965 version of Dylan in the movie is cool, detached, arrogant. He’s made some money, rides a motorcycle and is surrounded by adoring fans. He has an attitude.

Another of the film’s conflicts is the hot and cold relationship Bob has with Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro). Their songs together are among the film’s top musical moments, not unlike the memorable duets in Mangold’s 2005 biopic Walk The Line between Johnny Cash and June Carter (Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon). More conflict: Dylan’s girlfriend Sylvie (Elle Fanning) has enough of Bob and Joan and departs Newport just before the film’s climax. And, by the way, Cash (Boyd Holbrook) was a few moments in this film.

Looking back six decades later, it doesn’t seem that Dylan’s “going electric” was that big a deal. More like just another event in the rapidly changing pop culture scene of that tumultuous decade. But—at the time—it was a big deal. And it’s the crux of Bob Dylan’s evolution and the next step in the dawn of the folk/rock era as presented here.

A Complete Unknown is the best kind of biopic because it doesn’t try to cram decades of its subject’s life into a couple of hours. It focuses instead on just two distinct periods in the early years of this musical icon. And like the best movies that include music, the music is just as vital to the film as the story. Maybe even more vital. The songs provide the film’s most magical moments.

Not that it matters, but A Complete Unknown has already received awards nominations and more are sure to come. Chalamet, Norton, Barbaro and Mangold could be holding trophies soon. And even though the Dylan songs in the film are too old to be considered for new awards, wouldn’t it be cool to have Timotheé Chalamet perform a Dylan classic or two on the Oscars telecast?

Among my feelings after seeing A Complete Unknown is a desire to rewatch the movie Inside Llewyn Davis a 2013 Coen brothers film about a talented young folk singer in New York in 1961 who keeps making missteps and running into bad luck. That film, like this one, recreates the era beautifully even if the fictional tale is not so beautiful. 

To be sure, there are many more Dylan stories to be told and Dylan songs to be sung. Would Chalamet and Mangold want to tackle those in a future film? Is it completely insane to suggest such a thing even before this movie has been released? Maybe a romantic film focusing on Dylan and Joan Baez in their times together in California and upstate New York? Would that work?

Sorry for thinking too far ahead. Let’s just enjoy this superb movie A Complete Unknown right now and not worry too much about what may be blowing in the wind. 

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A Real Pain

A Real Pain is a sweet little movie about two cousins who travel to Poland together via funding from their late grandmother. On the trip they explore grandma’s homeland, their Jewishness and their relationships with one another.

David is played by Jesse Eisenberg who wrote and directed the film. He’s the straight arrow, married with a kid, working in marketing in NYC. He has anxiety but controls it with meds.

Cousin Benji is the title character, played by Kieran Culkin. He’s a mess. One might easily conclude that he is “on the spectrum,” based on his erratic behavior and his responses to certain elements of their trek.

Shortly after they arrive in Warsaw, they meet up with their entourage including recent divorcee Marcia (Jennifer Grey!) who Benji pals up with, though not in a romantic way. There’s also an older couple from Cleveland. And, interestingly, a black man from Wisconsin, who escaped genocide in his native African land and became interested in Judaism from a support group in the U.S.

The tour leader is an Englishman who narrates the group’s visits to a war memorial, a cemetery and a concentration camp. David and Benji break off from the group to see the place where grandma lived.

The film’s soundtrack is primarily Chopin piano pieces which, like anything that’s overdone, become tedious after a while. Of course, it’s entirely appropriate to use his music as he is a Polish icon. Heck, the Warsaw airport is named for him!

Benji lives in Binghamton so he and David haven’t spent much time together recently. Their interactions with each another and with the travel group are often uncomfortable as the cousins revisit their family histories and try to understand each other’s current life situations.

For fans of Kieran Culkin’s work on the recent series Succession, A Real Pain is a must-see. His performance is the spice that gives the story some necessary conflict and helps showcase his range as an actor. Some folks have suggested that his work here may even be award-worthy. TBD.

A Real Pain clocks in at just under 90 minutes. It is rated R for language and drug use, mainly weed. 

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Piece By Piece

Hey, gang, here’s a way to spice up a tired storytelling format: Go Lego!

The new film Piece By Piece has those familiar elements seen time after time in documentary biopics: archival footage plus soundbites from associates/family/observers, tied together with narration and/or onscreen text. But this story of musical polymath Pharrell Williams has that big difference. It is told… via Legos!

The movie is colorful, musical, kinetic and full of cool images that would not be seen had the story been told in the traditional way.

Does the Lego innovation/gimmick work? Yes, to an extent. But after a while, it gets a bit tedious. And it is a bit dishonest. Do the projects in Virginia Beach where Pharrell grew up look like they’re presented in this film? Is his high school where he met many of his first musical chums similar to its cartoon representation here? 

Among the people who contribute soundbites to Piece By Piece are Pharrell’s parents. After about their third appearance onscreen—as Legos—I wanted to see what his folks really look like, not just their cartoon images. Also, I wonder if all the musical folk who contributed comments are pleased with their Lego depictions? 

Interestingly, when Pharrell’s story gets to 2013, one of the three gigantic hit songs he was involved in that year gets just a brief mention. Blurred Lines, performed with Robin Thicke and rapper T.I., has since been cancelled in popular culture because of its lyrical content. To have ignored the song, a monster hit, would’ve left fans wondering WTF. But acknowledgement of the tune, set between more screen time for the two others, is appropriate.

Pharrell’s part in Daft Punk’s Get Lucky was his first 2013 mega hit. Then, in summer, as Blurred Lines was ruling the charts, his song Happy was heard as the closing theme of the film Despicable Me 2. Toward the end of the year, the song began ascending the charts and in early 2014 the song and its video were making people everywhere… happy! Positive responses from the song’s fans get good play in this new movie.

For those who know Pharrell Williams mainly for his time as a judge on The Voice or from his song Happy, Piece By Piece delivers a good opportunity to learn more about the man. His love of music from childhood when he was a Stevie Wonder fan. His involvement with many of music’s giants including Justin Timberlake, Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani, Jay-Z. His family life including not just his parents but also his wife and his grandmother. 

The Lego innovation/gimmick offers parents a reason to bring their kids along to the theater. Even if they don’t care for the story, the Lego images and the creative animation should keep them amused. Or even, as the song title says, happy.

Piece By Piece runs just over 90 minutes. Rated PG.

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Twisters

Is it okay for a movie about something as terrible as tornadoes to be… fun?

Twisters has its share of perilous moments and amazing depictions of the devastation a tornado can cause. But it also has a Hallmark-like rom-com element and a Dukes of Hazzard quality as well. 

One Hallmark Channel boilerplate plot has a young woman leaving her small town for the big city, coming back for a visit, meeting a man who initially rubs her the wrong way. But as they keep encountering each other, attraction ensues.

In Twisters, Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones), now working for the National Weather Service in New York, had a frightening tornado experience years ago but is lured back into the plains of Oklahoma to test a new tornado tracking system. She soon partners with Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) a reckless storm chaser who posts his storm videos on social media channels. And off they go!

Will they find tornadoes? Um, if they don’t, there’s no movie here. Will they become a romantic item? Um, if they don’t, there are gonna be lots of disappointed folks when the movie’s over. 

How hot is Glen Powell? Well, he’s hot in that he’s a good looking guy with a great smile and good hair but he’s also hot in that he’s had significant success in movies in the last couple of years. And his work in this film will only add to his appeal to casting directors, not to mention it will add to his future paydays.

How hot is Daisy Edgar-Jones? She’s gorgeous. Cute in a wholesome, Hallmark babe kind of way. (She starred as Kya in the 2022 film Where The Crawdads Sing.)

How good are the effects? While this new movie doesn’t have the money shot of flying cows that made the 1996 Twister buzzworthy, there are numerous scenes that are frightful AND make you wonder… how did they make it look so real? Objects and people do go flying through the air. Minor spoiler: a gigantic blade from a wind turbine plummets to the ground. Yikes.

Just like your computers and cell phones have made gigantic advances in the past 28 years, so have CGI and other movie making magic tools. You may not gasp in amazement at everything but you will enjoy the ride.

When Tyler is introduced, the film’s cool country music soundtrack kicks in. When he drives his pickup truck off road through rough terrain, you may be reminded of the Duke boys and their reckless driving in the General Lee. A rodeo scene lets Tyler inform Kate that he was once a bull rider. And Kate’s down home roots are confirmed when she goes home to the farm to see her mother (Maura Tierney).

Unlike many of the potential perils presented to audiences in movies, tornadoes are real and often catastrophic. I recall videos of the monster that hit Tuscaloosa AL in spring 2011 and then driving through the area of impact a few weeks later. Wow! Just a month after Tuscaloosa was hit, Joplin MO was pounded by an enormous twister that cut a huge swath through that town.

Why do people chase tornadoes? Is it for the adrenaline rush? The urge to tempt fate? Why do any of us do risky things? Twisters director Lee Isaac Chang says, “There’s a contradictory element to tornadoes. They’re so destructive, yet we all want to see them.” Twisters provides all the vicarious tingle I need without exposing me to danger. 

Plus the film has two lead characters who have great charisma and chemistry. It’s rated PG-13 so you can take most all of your family members. It clocks in right at two hours with nary a wasted frame. And, yes, it is a fun movie.

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The Fall Guy

Like one of Stefon’s hottest clubs, The Fall Guy has EVERYTHING: Action, comedy, romance and drama. And, of course, awesome stunts. And some cool dogs. And a unicorn.

Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt are excellent, as you would expect. But it’s their characters and the story that make The Fall Guy a movie you will want to see. As is often the case with films full of explosions, chases, fights, etc., you will want to see it at a movie house rather than wait a few weeks for streaming.

Colt Seavers (Gosling) is a stunt man who injures his back when a fall goes wrong. After which he goes into a shell and ghosts his girlfriend Jody Moreno (Blunt) who is camera operator on the film. Eighteen months later, when Jody is directing her first film, producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) recruits Colt to jump on a plane to Sydney to do stunt work.

Their relationship ramps up again slowly as an insecure Jody tries to tie her film-within-a-film together. Her film Metalstorm involves aliens and cowboys,BTW. Meanwhile Gail asks Colt to track down missing star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), setting in motion much of The Fall Guy’s action sequences which occur away from the Metalstorm filming locations.

Director David Leitch and screenwriters Drew Pearce and Glen A. Larson have stitched together a tale whose plot takes a few clever turns but doesn’t get too weird. The tale’s resolution and the film’s coda are both hugely satisfying. 

Also enjoyable are some of the “inside baseball” elements of movie making. Along with “real” views of some of Metalstorm’s action, we see the onscreen versions in brief clips. The stars talk about movies like Pretty Woman and Love, Actually. At one point, after Colt says something sweet to Jody, he wonders to himself if his remark was an ad-lib or a line from a movie.

The Fall Guy feels just a smidge too long but that qualm is extinguished when one considers all the stuff that’s in the movie. Including a few clever director’s tricks like split screens and quick cuts between static scenes and action scenes. To avoid the risk of this review also running too long, a quick mention that the film is rated PG-13 so you can take your parents and even most kids. No sex, just violence.

Bottom line: The Fall Guy is a winner.

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