Drama

Cyrano

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Cyrano
  • IMDb: link

While it may not be my favorite adaptation of Edmond Rostand‘s 19th Century play, Cyrano proves to be a perfect vehicle for Peter Dinklage who shines as the title character. Our brave and witty protagonist yearns for the beautiful Roxanne (Haley Bennett) only to see her attentions fall on the gaze of a strapping young soldier (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) instead, who Cyrano agrees to help woo the woman they both love while hiding the depth of his true feelings from them both.

All the basic trappings from the story are here including Ben Mendelsohn as yet another, more villainous, rival for Roxanne’s affections and the humorous balcony sequence in yet another stylish period piece from director Joe Wright. Added to the mix are a number of musical numbers which vacillate between additions or distractions from the main plot at various points in the tale.

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The Worst Person in the World

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Worst Person in the World
  • IMDb: link

If there’s a weakness for me in writer/director Joachim Trier‘s The Worst Person in the World it’s that I never come to love the lead character of Julie (Renate Reinsve) nearly as much as the writer nor the characters who cross her path. Don’t get me wrong, Reinsve is terrific here in the role of a woman who abandons careers and relationships at the drop of a hat while searching blindly for something she can never quite articulate. I’m never won over to root for or against Julie’s choices; I’m simply along for the ride.

It’s in the small moments of Julie stumbling through life, largely without any self-reflection or regard to more than the moment, that the movie provides some of its most memorable scenes, such as an unexpected slow-motion sequence that highlights the delight of potential new love versus that which been worn down with age.

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Parallel Mothers

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Parallel Mothers
  • IMDb: link

For a film that centers around a plot point that would be right at home in any soap opera, Parallel Mothers provides a surprisingly strong drama. Penélope Cruz and Milena Smit are strangers who meet in the hospital, both giving birth to their first child. Each will take home a boy, but what they won’t realize for quite some time is that each mother was given the other’s son.

It’s Janis (Cruz) who begins to suspect the truth when the father (Israel Elejalde), a flirtatious archeologist with a wife and no real interest in a more permanent relationship with the photographer, sees no resemblance in the child to anyone in his family. A chance meeting with Ana (Smit) brings the characters back into each others orbit as Janis’ suspicions are realized and a gnawing guilt over the truth begins to color all that will follow.

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The Power of the Dog

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Power of the Dog
  • IMDb: link

Sometimes a movie just doesn’t work for you. I didn’t hate director Jane Champion‘s The Power of the Dog but I’ll admit to being underwhelmed by the critical darling so many are quick to praise. Yes, it has a strong performance by Benedict Cumberbatch and some lovely scenery but it’s also saddled with a predictable plot and a host of single-note characters whom I never became invested in.  In fact, on my first viewing, the film literally put me to sleep.

Our leads are Benedict Cumberbatch as rough-and-tumble rancher Phil Burbank (the mean one), Jesse Plemons as his more genteel brother George (the bland one), Kirsten Dunst as inn owner and George’s new wife Rose (the female one), and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Rose’s nearly full-grown son Peter (the creepy one). The plot mainly involves Phil acting horribly to everyone and the eventual fallout of that behavior. The payoff of which, for me, wasn’t worth the time spent to get there.

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That’ll Do, Nicolas Cage

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

Nicolas Cage stars as former chef turned hermit and truffle hunter who is pulled out of his seclusion when his pig is kidnapped. With the reluctant help of the supplier (Alex Wolff) to whom he was selling his truffles, Rob (Cage) begins a search for his missing pig (who, despite the love Rob obviously has for the pig, doesn’t appear to have a name).

Pig is something like John Wick or Taken with all of the violence taken out (okay, almost all of the violence). The film relies on Cage’s performance and the atmosphere provided from the visuals of cinematographer Patrick Scola in exploring both Rob’s wilderness experience and also the underbelly of big city restaurants. Pig glosses over some nagging plot questions and supplies a not-completely-satisfying ending, but that don’t detract too much from Rob and Amir’s (Wolff) unusual journey.

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