Movie Reviews

Assassin’s Creed

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  • Title: Assassin’s Creed
  • IMDb: link

Assassin's Creed movie reviewStop when this gets too silly for you. For hundreds of years a creed (which is the franchise’s term for ill-defined shadowy group) of assassins has been in a secret war with the Knights Templar over control of a divine object know as the Apple that has to power to remove free will from all humankind. The Templars wish to use it to subjugate the human race. To find the lost artifact, the Templars steal a career criminal (Michael Fassbender) from his execution and hook him up to a machine which reads genetic memories from his code so he can relive his ancestor’s experiences while jumping around tied to a giant metal arm with those experiences manifested around him as ghostly visages.

Still with me? In charge of the project is a die-hard believer (Jeremy Irons) and his daughter the scientist (Marion Cotillard) who needs a blood descendant of the last person to have the Apple to lead the Templars to it (on the assumption that no one could have possilby found and/or moved it in more than half a millennium). The only way to find the Apple is to have these decedents of various assassins relive the experiences (gaining knowledge, purpose, and murderous skills which, of course, will eventually backfire on the evil corporation).

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The Most Overrated Movie of 2016

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  • Title: Jackie
  • IMDb: link

Jackie movie reviewThe goal of a biopic is to offer insight into its subject, to explore the life of an individual and share something new or interesting about its central character. By that definition Jackie is a complete failure. The only takeaway from director Pablo Larraín‘s film is that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was upset by the assassination of her husband. That’s hardly worth the price of admission (let alone the film’s $9,000,000 budget). Natalie Portman may shine in the role, but to what purpose?

Oscar-bait, the film is notable only for its recreation of the time period and for Portman’s peformance. The problem with the former is the glamour is wasted as window dressing on a film without a reason to exist (other than grab Portman some statuettes). The problem with the later is Portman’s performance is undercut by both a questionable accent and Noah Oppenheim‘s script which is never sure who Jackie was, as it jumps from portraying a vapid creature out of touch with reality (as seen in the flashbacks) to a woman of cunning and guile completely controlling an interview with a journalist (Billy Crudup) looking to find the real Mrs. Kennedy.

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La La Land

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  • Title: La La Land
  • IMDb: link

La La Land movie reviewI enjoyed La La Land; it’s fun, light-weight entertainment with likable stars and straightforward (largely predictable) storyline. It doesn’t ask much of the audience other than to enjoy the ride. During the award season release of heavy dramas, the film works well as a palate cleanser. However, I object to the growing consensus that it’s one of the year’s best films.

Writer/director Damien Chazelle‘s film is a nostalgic throwback to the golden age of the Hollywood musical, with a decidedly post-modernist slant. As a love story to Hollywood the film works well enough, as a musical the film runs into a few issues beginning with the choice to cast its stars based on their acting, rather than singing, ability.

In pretty much the most cliched set-up possible, we’re introduced to barista and aspiring actress Mia (Emma Stone) and promising Jazz musician Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) who meet cute, dislike each other, and eventually fall in love. Along the way there will be singing, dancing, the inevitable rough patch, and a questionable ending (not unlike Woody Allen’s Café Society) which ends the movie on a sour note.

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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

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  • Title: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
  • IMDb: link

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story movie reviewThe first of the standalone Star Wars movies, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is set just prior to the events of the original Star Wars as a struggling Rebellion learns about the newest Imperial weapon capable of destroying an entire planet. Just as memorable for what it keeps from the Star Wars template as what it chooses to change about the formula, Rogue One offers no opening crawl, no screen wipes, and the unnecessary need to name every planet shown on screen in subtitles (something George Lucas’ original films allowed the dialogue itself to deal with).

For as much as it leaves behind, however, Rogue One recycles plenty of Star Wars ideas including an orphaned hero (Felicity Jones) reluctantly called into the service of the Rebellion, a soldier of questionable character (Diego Luna) and his lumbering sidekick, a funny robot (Alan Tudyk), an impossible mission, strange aliens, and a Rebellion (albeit a less united one than fans will remember from the previous films) focused on taking down the Galactic Empire. Along with new planets such as Jedha, Wobani, and Scarif, there’s plenty of familiar sights including Yavin 4 and, of course, the Death Star.

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Nocturnal Animals

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  • Title: Nocturnal Animals
  • IMDb: link

Nocturnal AnimalsFrom the unconventional opening credits to the crushing final scene, Nocturnal Animals is a tour-de-force you won’t be able to take you eyes off of. Using a story within a story to reveal the truth about his characters, writer/director Tom Ford delivers a taut psychological thriller involving art gallery owner Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) whose blasé hoity-toity life is shaken by the arrival of a manuscript by her ex-husband (Jake Gyllenhaal). Shown in three interlocking tales, we are witness to Susan’s current timeline and marriage to husband number two (Armie Hammer), flashbacks of her marriage to Edward (Gyllenhaal), and the fictional tale which unfolds in brighter tones and more visceral glee than anything in her current life, rocking Susan to her core.

Of the three, it’s Edward’s manuscript which turns out to be the most impressive on film. Also casting Gyllenhaal as a husband and father whose family (Isla Fisher, Ellie Bamber) is harassed and attacked late one night on a empty stretch of road in west Texas by a group of hoodlums (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Karl Glusman, Robert Aramayo), we’re given a front-row seat to the tragic consequences of that night.

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