4.5 Razors

Batman #36

/ / Comics

Batman #36 comic reviewOkay, this is pretty good. Kicking off a new arc, writer Tom King and artist Clay Mann tackle the issue of Batman‘s impending wedding to Catwoman, and his friendship with Superman, from the perspective of both the Dark Knight Detective and the Man of Steel. While both are attempting to get to the bottom of their latest cases (which will end up linked by the end of the issue) each has to deal with the women in their lives asking why one hasn’t talked with the other about the wedding.

The two storylines run parallel, at times side-by-side as both men struggle to explain the other. In an issue where each tries to explain how fundamentally different they are, the creative team perfectly illustrates how just the opposite is true. Along the way they’ll also tackle issues like Catwoman’s trustworthiness and Superman’s super-secret identity.

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Detroit

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Detroit
  • IMDb: link

Detroit Blu-ray reviewKathryn Bigelow‘s distressing and unflinching look into the Algiers Motel killings during Detroit’s 1967 12th Street Riot, is as masterful as it is hard to watch. It’s a brutal film to sit through as the director refuses to pull punches or tack on any kind of happy or hopeful ending. As a result the film struggled mightily at the box office despite being a critical success. There are obviously parallels between the story we see unfold and recent events, such as those in Ferguson, Missouri. In 50 years we may not have come as far as we had hoped.

Screenwriter Mark Boal pieced together the script from written accounts and interviews with survivors. Algee Smith leads an exceptional cast as one of many held captive at gunpoint, threatened, beaten, and subject to psychological torture by racist police officers (Will Poulter, Jack Reynor, and Ben O’Toole) and members of the National Guard in the Algiers Motel. The longer the police stay, looking for a shooter that doesn’t exist, the deeper the hole they dig for themselves and potential witnesses to their actions.

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Phantom Thread

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Phantom Thread
  • IMDb: link

Phantom Thread movie reviewIn a career that spans more than 35 years Daniel Day-Lewis has raised the bar for actors. While his role as dress designer Reynolds Woodcock may not be his most notable, Daniel Day-Lewis does not disappoint in what he has stated will be his final on-screen performance. Teaming up once again with writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson, the pair worked together previously on There Will Be Blood, the actor is terrific in the offbeat drama which I’ll admit I would like more if it didn’t save its best moments (at least plot-wise) for the finale.

Both Vicky Krieps, as the latest in a string of women Woodcock has brought into his life, and Lesley Manville, as Woodcock’s overbearing and controlling sister, raise their games here. In terms of acting, everything about Phantom Thread is first-rate. Where Anderson gets into some trouble is at the script level where the story meanders a bit with the ups-and-downs of Alma’s (Krieps) role within the household and Woodcock’s hot-and-cold reactions towards her. The slow pace is punctuated by some terrific moments (such as the ultra-sensitive dress maker’s overreaction to his Alma’s table manners), but the elaborate period drama certainly takes its time to get to the point.

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The Florida Project

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Florida Project
  • IMDb: link

The Florida Project movie reviewIn a rundown hotel walking distance from Disney World live 6 year-old Mooney (Brooklynn Prince) and her mother Halley (Bria Vinaite). Set during a single summer, the film focuses on Mooney’s friendships with Jancey (Valeria Cotto) and Scooty (Christopher Rivera) and her mother’s struggles, scams, and cons to come up with rent every week while a fall-out with her best friend (Mela Murder) causes trouble for her both herself and her daughter.

The Florida Project is amazing, but it isn’t a fun movie. There are no cute twists, easy answers, or tacked on happy endings for Halley or her daughter. Left largely to their own devices the kids get into trouble beyond regular childhood mischief, and the compromises Halley makes to feed and house her daughter lead to a heartbreaking finale. There’s not much plot as settings and circumstances are fleshed out by showcasing the average days in which the characters live. I’m not sure how much of the children’s scenes were scripted, and how much was improvised by letting them run wild, but young Miss Prince proves more than up to the challenge when the story gets serious in the film’s final act.

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Get Out

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Get Out
  • IMDb: link

Get Out Blu-ray reviewThe suburbs aren’t really this bad. Honest. As much satire as horror, Jordan Peele‘s delightful film delivers a young black man (Daniel Kaluuya) into the mostly-white suburbia of his girlfriend’s (Allison Williams) parents (Catherine Keener and Bradley Whitford). From the start, it’s obvious to Chris that something is off with the household, the family’s strange black servants (Marcus Henderson and Betty Gabriel), and the glut of odd-acting neighbors and friends Chris meets the following day.

Clever and wryly entertaining, the first-half of the movie would work terrifically as an episode of The Twilight Zone as Chris’ paranoia increases to a fever-pitch. The discovery of what is really going on in the sleepy suburb is more than a little odd, as Chris’ loud-mouth-conspiracy-obsessed pal (LilRel Howery) suspects, but leads the character into a final act where he’s forced to confront childhood issues and make a stand if he has any hope to make it out of the suburbs alive.

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