Meryl Streep

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
  • IMDb: link

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again movie reviewBoth sequel and prequel to 2008’s Mamma Mia!, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again returns most of the core cast for another romcom plot set to the music of ABBA. Since we saw her last, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) has managed to breathe new life in the dream of her recently departed mother (Meryl Streep) and is working towards the grand opening of the hotel. The return of her mother’s best friends (Christine Baranski and Julie Walters) helps lessen the pressure of her estranged relationship to Sky (Dominic Cooper) and the absences of two of her three fathers on the eve of the big day.

There are some improvements here as co-writer and director Ol Parker limits the singing roles for some actors who struggled in the first film while allowing other actors to carry the bulk of the musical numbers. The flashback plot to Donna’s original trip to Greece allows the casting of younger versions of all the characters in actors who are a bit more comfortable belting out the songs when called upon. Lily James is the stand-out as the younger Donna as the other actors look to have been primarily cast first for their physical likeness, second for their singing ability, and (unfortuantely) last for their ability to act.

…

Mamma Mia! Here We Go AgainRead More »

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again Read More »

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.

…

The PostRead More »

The Post Read More »

Into the Woods

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Into the Woods
  • IMDb: link

Into the WoodsBased on the stage musical of the same name by Stephen Sondheim, Into the Woods offers a fairy tale adventure featuring a host of well-known characters whose stories all begin to intertwine over three days in the mysterious woods filling the space between their various homes. The story begins when the Baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) learn their inability to have children was caused by a curse put on his family by an evil Witch (Meryl Streep). The Witch, however, offers the couple a way to break the curse if they can gather an odd assortment of items before the blue moon in three days time. And that, as you might expect, is where the other characters come in.

To gather the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold the Baker and his wife will come into contact with Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) and his mother (Tracey Ullman), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Rapunzel (Mackenzie Mauzy), Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), and a pair of princes seeking true love (Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen).

…

Into the WoodsRead More »

Into the Woods Read More »

The Homesman

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

The HomesmanProduced, directed, and adapted from Glendon Swarthout‘s novel by Tommy Lee Jones, The Homesman is an odd little pet project with good intentions which eventually gets away from its creator.

Set in the mid 19th Century, Hilary Swank stars as tough-as-nails 31 year-old spinster Mary Bee Cuddy who would gladly trade a portion of her thriving Nebraska farm for the love of a man. Despite the danger, Cuddy agrees to take three local women (Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto, Sonja Richter) all driven insane by harsh western life back east and deliver them to a preacher who will reunite each with their families. Her time with the woman brings to the surface Cuddy’s own internal struggle to achieve the kind of life expected of her complete with husband and children.

As a companion she selects a surly claim jumper named George Briggs (Jones) who she saves from the noose and agrees to pay $300 dollars at the completion of their journey. Despite being the best thing about the film, Swank’s character is eventually overshadowed by Briggs whose madness and antics eventually take over the film.

…

The HomesmanRead More »

The Homesman Read More »

August: Osage County

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: August: Osage County
  • IMDb: link

August: Osage CountyAin’t family dysfuncion fun? If you could condense a single message from the two-hour running time of August: Osage County this, it appears, is all the film has to say. Having not seen the play of the same name by Tracy Letts I don’t know if the source material was any deeper, but since Letts alone adapted the play for the big screen I’m betting he didn’t make many significant changes.

The movie’s plot centers around the various troubled, bitchy, deceitful, and argumentative women of the Weston family who all return home to (theoretically) help their cancer-ridden mother (Meryl Streep) after their father (Sam Shepard) runs off and leaves her only a Native American nurse (Misty Upham) for support, because apparently Indians and racially-inappropriate comments from seniors are hilarious.

What follows, of course, is a series of fights, disagreements, the airing of family laundry and secrets, and the long overdue discovery by the entire group that they are all far better off separated by great distances.

…

August: Osage CountyRead More »

August: Osage County Read More »