Drama

Ferdinand

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

Ferdinand movie review2017 wasn’t the best year for animation. Although there are several solid films, including two from Disney/Pixar, there was no clear standout. Based on the 1938 children’s story, Ferdinand is another solid animated feature which is surprisingly moving coming from Blue Sky Studios (best known for the more comedic Ice Age franchise) as the combination of six writers work to build out the simple story of a bull who would rather smell the flowers than fight, into a feature film. The result is a funny, but also unexpectedly clever (including the best possible bull in a China shop joke) and heartfelt, film.

Opening with early scenes to showcase how unusual Ferdinand is from other young bulls, the film fast-forwards through a montage to a grown-up Ferdinand (John Cena) forced to leave his peaceful life in the country, and the little girl who loves him (Lily Day), and rejoin the life he previously escaped. Wrestler John Cena may seem an unusual choice for the lead, but the larger-than-life character (who likely knows something about being a bit too large for the world around him) proves to add just the right touch to the character of a ginormous bull with a peaceful spirit.

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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 Post

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Post
  • IMDb: link

The Post movie reviewThe Post is unquestionably lesser Spielberg and is more comparable to 1994’s The Paper than Spotlight or All the President’s Men in examining a newspaper room chasing down a story. While there’s nothing wrong with that (lesser Spielberg is still Spielberg), and cast and crew still deliver an entertaining and informative film, it never reaches the the heights to which it aspires.

Based on real events, the film focuses on The Washington Post and their decision to follow the lead of The New York Times and publish the results of a leaked government study that would come to be known as the Pentagon Papers and predicted the U.S. failure in Vietnam years before troops were recalled.

Director Steven Spielberg assembles an impressive all-star cast headlined by a terrific performance by Meryl Streep as the paper’s owner Katherine Graham who is faced with tough choices between balancing corporate concerns and her editor Ben Bradlee‘s (Tom Hanks) desire to print despite the U.S. Government’s legal efforts to stop the leaked documents from making it to the front page.

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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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