City of Stars (When Sebastian Met Mia)

The subject of my final review of 2016 also happens to be the best of the 65 movies I’ve seen in theaters this year, Damien Chazelle’s reverently crafted and wondrously exuberant musical love letter to the City of Angels, Golden Age “CinemaScope” musicals (RIP, Debbie), classical jazz and lost love told through the eyes of two young lovebirds struggling to realize their dreams in modern-day Los Angeles.  With ‘La La Land' the immensely talented Harvard man Chazelle, who previously directed and wrote the Oscar darling ‘Whiplash,’ single-handedly rejuvenated the movie musical and gave us the perfect feel-good movie in which to surrender ourselves.

 

Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone (the adorably cute couple from ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love’) are reunited on-screen as two idealistic twentysomethings pursuing their flights of fancy.  Sebastian is a talented pianist who aims to keep the torch of traditional improvisational jazz (not the new age elevator "smooth jazz" of Kenny G, that's Keith played by John Legend) burning and to save enough money for his own jazz club someday, while Mia is a lover of classic TCM movies and dreams of becoming an actress and playwright.  The two cross path by chance and, despite their initial feigned indifference and nonchalance toward each other, soon fall madly in love.  While the story is a familiar one, we can’t help but be swept along by their blossoming romance and eventual drifting apart through the four seasons on the strengths of the performances and chemistry between the two engaging leads.  The always endearing Emma Stone had never shone brighter and is an utter delight to watch, proving once again why I've been a fan since first seeing her in 'Zombieland' and 'Easy A.'  Just listen to her half of the wistful ditty below:



Evoking the kind of movie magic all too rare these days, ‘La La Land’ is an exercise in pure whimsical fantasy but is also irresistibly charming and sweet.  The original songs and musical score from composer Justin Hurwitz and the dance numbers by choreographer (not to be confused with the singer) Mandy Moore are Oscar-caliber, eliciting feelings from joy to melancholy, and the film's bittersweet “what might have been" epilogue is a sublime masterpiece of such heart-wrenching beauty and tenderness that only elevated its poignancy and resonance.  Light on its feet but heavy on our hearts,  'La La Land’ is a stunning cinematic musical tour de force that appeals to the hopeless romantic in all of us and makes our hearts swoon.  Now that's entertainment!  Have a safe and happy new year, my friends.

Grade: A+

Going Rogue

RIP, Carrie.  Thanks for playing "Beauty" to the Beast and being the best. slave. ever.

‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ is Disney’s first stand-alone movie set in the popular Star Wars universe, a spin-off rather than a numbered installment in the Star Wars film franchise.  Directed by British helmer Gareth Edwards (‘Monsters,’ ‘Godzilla 2014’), it was made clear from the very outset that R1 is going be a darker, grittier Star Wars movie that promises to put the “war” in Star Wars.  Edwards even went so far as to say that it’s inspired by one of the best WWII movies of all time, Steven Spielberg’s ‘Saving Private Ryan’ which, by the way, should have won Best Picture instead of ‘Shakespeare in Love’ in 1999.

 

Unless you’re ignorant about everything Star Wars, it would be no spoiler for me to tell you that R1 is a prequel to Episode 4 (aka ‘A New Hope’), about a ragtag group of rebels who successfully stole the plans of the Death Star which Luke Skywalker destroyed in his X-Wing starfighter in Episode 4.  This “Dirty Half Dozen” includes Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), the daughter of the scientist forced to build the planet-destroying superweapon; Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a Rebel Alliance intelligence operative; Chirrut Ĭmwe (Donnie Yen, Chinese #1), a blind warrior monk who thinks that “The Force is with him and he’s one with The Force”; Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen, Chinese #2), a Boba Fett-like bounty hunter and friend of Ĭmwe; Bodhi Rook, an Imperial pilot-turned-rebel and K-2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk), an Imperial enforcer droid reprogrammed to serve the rebel cause (think of "him" as a more kick-ass or less wimpy version of C-3PO).  How do you think Luke and his Red Squadron knew where the critical flaw/weakness of the Death Star is?  Thanks to the one-way suicide mission these brave misfits undertook, that’s how!

 

R1 is the Star Wars movie we’ve all been waiting for, providing us with a tale of heroism and sacrifice from the grunt’s POV as well as the space-spanning galactic battles we've come to expect while keeping the overall tone of the movie light enough for a Disney picture.  The realism and immediacy of the pitched laser gunfights have come a long way from its humble beginnings in the original trilogy, and Storm Troopers actually displayed "proper tactics" and behaved in a way that’s semi believable even if their marksmanship still leaves a lot to be desired.   What I like the most about R1 is that it maintained the dusty “space western” feel of the original trilogy; the rebels are all dirty-grungy looking like desperados and wearing their gun belts loose.  All that’s missing are cowboy hats.

 

Grade: A-
 

Love Lies Bleeding

The new movie from fashion designer-cum-director Tom Ford, ‘Nocturnal Animals,’ is a weirdly compelling art-house gem which defies convention and description.  Not having seen his directorial debut from 2009, the critically acclaimed ‘A Single Man,’ I probably wouldn’t even have sought out his latest release if not for the fact that a friend mentioned it to me.  Thanks, Penny!

 

The narrative structure of ‘Nocturnal Animals’ involves two parallel stories.  One is set in the present and follows art gallery owner Susan Morrow (Amy Adams), who’s trapped in an unhappy marriage with an unfaithful husband.  One day she receives the manuscript of a novel (dedicated to her) entitled ‘Nocturnal Animals’ from her ex-husband, whom she left on bad terms some years ago, and finds herself increasingly engrossed in it.  The other story is the one told in the novel itself, a tale of obsession and vengeance that was set into motion when a teacher's road trip through West Texas with his wife (Isla Fisher, who kinda looks like Amy Adams!) and teenage daughter turned into a hellish living nightmare.  The two otherwise unrelated stories are told in alternating fashion and are tied together by Jake Gyllenhaal, who played both the protagonist (teacher) in the novel and Susan’s real life ex-husband shown in a series of flashbacks, which gave me the unsettling impression that the events which unfolded in the novel are real. Alas, it is an allegory of the death of true love.

 

Billed as a “neo-noir psychological thriller,” ‘Nocturnal Animals’ is a boldly provocative film that’s unafraid to go where few other movies would dare.  From its shocking and disturbing opening scene featuring plus-sized burlesque strippers to its final act, ‘Nocturnal Animals’ never ceases to surprise (though not always pleasantly) and manages to hold us spellbound even as it repulses us in its surreal excess and nihilistic violence.

Grade: A- 

 

 

Axis & Allied

It’s ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ versus Nazis with ‘Casablanca’ as the backdrop in Robert Zemeckis’s sizzling World War II spy actioner/romance ‘Allied.’  The accomplished and accessible director of such films as  ‘Back to the Future,’ ‘Forrest Gump’ and ‘Castaway’ is no stranger to pairing flirtatious male and female leads, with 1984’s ‘Romancing the Stone’ starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner among his directorial credits.

 

Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard play dashing Canadian commando Max Vatan and sultry French Resistance fighter Marianne Beausejour, rendezvousing in Casablanca and posing as French socialites on a daring mission to assassinate the German ambassador to Morocco at a high profile Nazi party.  Their mission goes without a hitch and their budding romance soon blossoms into marriage after they returned to London, but things get a bit, ah, more complicated when Marianne is suspected of being a Nazi spy by British intelligence.  How can this be?  Please say it isn't so!

 

‘Allied’ is an action-packed and suspenseful thriller anchored by its two strong leads. The cinematography and period flavor evoke nostalgia and remind us of ‘Casablanca,’ which undoubtedly is its intent.  It is also surprisingly sexy.  There is one memorable scene inside an automobile where the raw passion and desire between Max and Marianne build up with increasing urgency, before reaching a crescendo in tune with a raging sandstorm outside.  No wonder Brangelina broke up.  Just kidding.

 

Grade: B+
 

A Failure to Communicate

Hollywood loves alien movies, be it the apocalyptic mayhem of a full blown invasion from outer space or the idea that aliens are harmless and virtually everything in between.  From ‘War of the Worlds’ to ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ to ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’ aliens have been portrayed as brutal conquerors to sinister infiltrators to benevolent beings who just needed our help to go home (not just ‘ET’ but ‘Starman’ and ‘Paul’).  Just when you think you’ve seen them all, along comes ‘Arrival,’ French-Canadian auteur Denis Villeneuve’s fascinating and rather introspective look at how we might realistically react and behave in a “First Contact” scenario.

 

Based on Ted Chiang’s Nebula Award-winning novella “Story of Your Life,” ‘Arrival’ centers on linguistic professor Dr. Louise Banks’ (Amy Adams) attempt to communicate with “Abbot” and “Costello,” two Heptapod alien creatures whose highly advanced giant elliptical spaceship hovered above the plains of Montana.  Along with theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), she was tasked by the US government to determine what the aliens want.   The simplicity of the question belies its very complexity in execution, as Louise and Ian try to decipher the aliens’ highly complex and enigmatic written language and come up with a way to effectively communicate with them.

 

If you’re expecting the typical dumbed-down alien fare we’ve seen all too often from Hollywood, you will no doubt be disappointed.  Quiet and poignant in tone, ‘Arrival’ is a hard sci-fi film that’s cerebral and deep, delving not only into the scientific but also the metaphysical.  Like 1997’s ‘Contact,’ ‘Arrival’ seeks to answer some of our most pressing questions through the personal experience and journey of its main protagonist as opposed to simply provide mindless entertainment.

Grade: A 

 

The Conscientious Medic

For whatever reasons, World War II movies on ground combat in the Pacific Theater lag well behind their ETO (European Theater of Operations) counterparts in popularity and impact.  There were a couple of early notable ones to be sure, like ‘The Sands of Iwo Jima’ and ‘Halls of Montezuma,’ but it wasn’t until Clint Eastwood’s ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ in 2006 that managed to give audiences something good after such misfires as ‘Windtalkers’ and ‘The Thin Red Line.’  However, that film told the story strictly from the Japanese perspective.

 

Mel Gibson’s latest directorial feature, a remarkable and faithful (in more ways than one) biopic on the life of Private First Class Desmond T. Doss, finally gave us a “grunt movie” set in the island-hopping campaign of the Pacific worth gushing about.  You may have seen the trailer of ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ but are debating whether to see the movie or not because you suspect Gibson may have gone cuckoo for cocoa puffs.  I don't blame you because that too has crossed my mind.  But let me assure you that he is back in top form and ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ represents his best directorial effort since ‘Apocalypto’ and perhaps even ‘Braveheart.’    Imparting Doss with a certain small town country boy charm, Andrew Garfield delivered his best performance yet as the medic who was awarded a Medal of Honor for saving numerous lives during the pivotal battle on Okinawa despite being labeled a coward because he refused to carry a weapon into battle.  Hugo Weaving and Rachel Griffiths were also great as Doss’s deeply religious but dysfunctional parents, but my favorite character in the movie is arguably Sergeant Howell (Vince Vaughn), whose most memorable contribution in the movie isn’t training the raw recruits or even leading them into battle himself but making us laugh our asses off.

 

‘Hacksaw Ridge’ doesn’t sugarcoat the horrors of war or pull any punches in its depiction of war as a brutal and gory hell-on-earth, but as a biopic it is a powerful and inspirational portrait of courage under fire and selfless sacrifice as well as the convictions of one's deeply held religious beliefs.  Hallelujah, the “lesser” theater has finally found its own ‘Saving Private Ryan.’

Grade: A
 

 

When You're Strange

The latest film from Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a bit “strange.”  I have to admit, Doctor Strange is one of those characters from Marvel who isn’t familiar to me because I’ve never read his comics in my youth other than maybe a couple of cross-overs.  Not that I dislike him or anything; it’s just that there are so many superheroes and characters in the Marvel and DC universes that I simply don’t have the time to cover them all even if I had the allowance to buy every comic book of every title.  

 

In a way this is refreshing because, as in the case of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ I don’t have to wait impatiently for the familiar obligatory origin story to be told, in this instance that of a brilliant but egotistical neurosurgeon played by Benedict Cumberbatch who’s vain (not stupid) enough to attempt multi-tasking with a tablet while driving his speeding sports car in the rain on a slippery mountain highway, which proved to be a fatal mistake and his undoing as a surgeon.  The “unfortunate” accident also proved to be fateful and maybe even fortuitous, however, as it placed him on a path to enlightenment and becoming part of a group of mystical warriors entasked with protecting our world against magical and mystical threats, much like The Avengers protect earth against physical threats as the first among them known as the “Ancient One” (Tilda Swinton) succinctly put it during his orientation.

 

While it is derivative and borrowed liberally from oriental Buddhist traditions and mysticism as well as the good-pupil-turned-bad soap operatic tragedy of ‘Star Wars’ and other stories, ‘Doctor Strange’ nonetheless managed to be yet another solid addition to the MCU that is mind-blowing, entertaining and smart.  The reality-bending special effects (which is best viewed in IMAX 3-D) are reminiscent of ‘Inception’ with its topsy-turvy skylines but are fun to watch.  My favorite scene is probably the one at the end of the movie when Doc Strange insists on striking a bargain with “Dormammu,” a malevolent god-like being from the Dark Dimension, which serves as a perfect example of never-say-die (no pun intended) persistence.

Grade: A