Arrival

I have been waiting avidly for Arrival to arrive. It won Best Film at the Venice Film Festival and, for a while, it was 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. It is down to 93% now. Anyway, there was a danger that my expectations were a little too high. But, I am happy to report that Arrival was worth the wait. I will try and keep the Spoilers to a minimum. Arrival begins with the arrival on Earth of twelve alien spacecraft which open up every 18 hours so the humans can "talk" to the aliens. At first, there isn't much communication going on so a couple of university professors, a language expert (Amy Adams) and a theoretical physicist (Jeremy Renner) are brought in to help the American team led by a very harried colonel (Forrest Whitaker). Similar things are happening with the other eleven spacecraft which have landed in other countries. There is some and then no cooperation between the nations as they try and figure out what the Aliens' intentions are.

Arrival is a very well put together film. It not only has subtle plot twists but it also twists time and space. The movie starts slowly but the tension keeps rising as the movie goes on. The plot seems very simple at first. Amy Adams is almost like Harvard symbologist, Robert Langdon from The Da Vinci Code as she tries to decode the Alien language which consists of circles of various types. But then suddenly the plot isn't so simple, and the viewer will take a while to figure out what is happening along with Adams. Just as Adams is starting to understand the Aliens, the crisis peaks as various other countries decide that the aliens are a threat.

The director of Arrival is the Canadian, Denis Villeneuve. This is his first SciFi movie, but he does likes to make films with strong female leads. His last film was Sicario with Emily Blunt. His next film is the Blade Runner reboot. The direction is simple and low key as are the characters. This quietness provides a stark contrast with the chaotic events that are unfolding. Amy Adam, seen most recently as Lois Lane in Batman v Superman, is perfect for the role of the person "chosen" to speak to the Alien visitors. Jeremy Renner, best known as Hawkeye in the Avengers movies, is a good foil for Adams character. It is almost too much gender stereotyping since Adams is the emotional communicator and Renner is the unemotional scientist. But it works and, of course, when the chips are down, the gender roles reverse quickly. Whitaker is very good as the military man who learns how to deal with very unmilitary academics.

It is impossible when watching Arrival not to think of other Alien "first contact" movies like ET, Close Encounters, and 2001.  But, although the plot itself is very different, there are a lot of strong echoes of Jodi Foster's character in Contact.  Both Foster and Adams are women in a sea of men who are the only ones sensitive enough to "hear" what the Aliens are saying. There are other similarities too, but no spoilers. This is a very good film and you should try and see it before you hear too much about the plot. The ending may surprise you.

Denial

Denial tells the true story of Deborah Lipstadt, a professor at Emory University. Many of you will wonder why no one has yet made a film about my life. But then no one has yet sued me for libel. In 1993, Lipstadt wrote a book called, Denying the Holocaust. Three years later, she was sued by David Irving, perhaps the best known Holocaust denier. He didn't deny that he was a Holocaust denier, but rather that his claims were true. Since the case was in England, the burden of proof was on the defendant, Professor Lipstadt. She and her lawyers had to prove in court that the Holocaust was real. They also had to show that Irving was not just wrong, but that he knew he wrong when he denied the Holocaust. First, a trigger warning. Denial is obviously about the Holocaust, but this is no dry, academic discussion. Auschwitz and its gas chambers are discussed in detail and Lipstadt and her lawyers visit Auschwitz during the film. That being said, this is a powerful and emotional film, all the more so because it is a true story.

It has an amazing British cast. The role of Lipstadt, an American from New York City is played by Rachel Weisz, who is actually English. Irving is played by Timothy Spall, best known as Wormtail in the Harry Potter Movies, but who gave an amazing performance last year in Mr. Turner. If you are a fan of Masterpiece Theater and Mystery, you will know that since the trial is in England, Lipstadt needs both a Solicitor (played by Andrew Scott) and a Barrister (played by the wonderful Tom Wilkinson). Actually everyone in this film is wonderful. Wilkinson is ubiquitous. He the classic British character actor. He can and has played almost any character you can think of, and has two Oscar nominations. Scott is instantly recognizable as Moriarty in the Sherlock series. Mark Gatiss, who plays Mycroft in Sherlock, also appears in Denial as an expert witness. But Denial is all about Weisz as Lipstadt and Spall as Irving. And they are up to the task. Weisz is one of my favorite actresses. She is amazing but also her intelligence is always projected strongly through the characters she plays on the screen. She won an Oscar for The Constant Gardener.

Denial is a courtroom drama which I always find appealing. Spall as Irving acts as his own lawyer with Wilkinson taking on the defense. It is well directed (Mick Jackson), written (David Hare!), and scored (Howard Shore!). It builds nicely to the courtroom climax. Lipstadt takes a very strong stand and will not settle the suit. She decides to fight the case in court and so must prove that the Holocaust happened and that Irving was purposely lying to promote his anti-semitism. And right up until the climax when the judge's final ruling is revealed you don't know whether Lipstadt and her lawyers have been successful. Spoiler alert! You can look this up on Wikipedia. Denial is particularly timely as we live in a time where facts are not accepted, and where every argument needs to have two sides even if one side has all the facts and the other just opinions. But don't take my word for it. Prove it for yourself and go see the movie.

The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Magnificent Seven (2016)

There are a few similarities between the two movies called The Magnificent Seven, one made in 1960 and the new one that opened this weekend. They both tell stories of the American West where seven gunfighters are hired to protect defenseless villagers from marauding bad guys. But that's about it. There is remarkably very little similarity between these two movies. The only overlapping dialog that I can remember is a story that Steve McQueen tells in the original that Chris Pratt also tells in the new movie to explain their situation. A man jumps off a building and as he passes each floor, he is heard to say, "So far, so good, so far, so good." Besides, McQueen and Pratt, some of the others are obvious counterparts to the original cast. Denzel Washington is Yul Brynner, Ethan Hawke is a combination of Robert Vaughn and Brad Dexter, while the new Asian gunfighter played by Byung-hun Lee is James Coburn. They are both pretty Zen and like knives. Manuel Garcia-Rulfo would be Horst Buchholtz since they both play Mexicans. That leaves Charles Bronson and Vincent D'Onofrio as the last matchup. No comment.

The original movie is a remake of The Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa, which tells the story of seven Ronin, Samurai with no masters, who are hired to protect a small village from bandits. The 1960 The Magnificent Seven tells the same story with gunslingers hired to protect a small village in Mexico. The seven gunslingers, like the Ronin, are lost and out of work because the West is changing and becoming too civilized. When their characters are introduced, Bronson is chopping wood for his breakfast, and Robert Vaughan is in hiding out in a storeroom. The original has a bittersweet feeling that even as they are protecting the lives of the Mexican farmers, the Seven realize that they have given up any chance of such a normal life and can never experience it themselves. The new The Magnificent Seven isn't such a bad movie but it has nothing to do with The Seven Samurai. This new movie is a western about seven gunslingers hired to protect a town, but it is not The Magnificent Seven. They should have given it a different name. In the new movie, the Seven are all gainfully employed and if not happy, they are certainly not at the end of their strings.

It is impossible perhaps to compare any cast to Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, and Eli Wallach who plays the leader of the bandits. And no one moves like Brynner, Coburn, and McQueen, although Denzel Washington comes close. Chris Pratt is always good and Vincent D'Onofrio is always weird. Ethan Hawke is a bit overwrought as Goodnight Robicheaux. He is meant to be a Cajun but doesn't have the accent. His character bears the most resemblance to Vaughn's PTSD gunslinger although Brynner is referred to as "you old Cajun" once in the original.

This new movie was made in 2016, so the Seven are much more diverse. The original had 5 1/2 whites and 1 1/2 Hispanics (Bronson was supposed to be half Mexican and half Irish). The new Seven has one African-American, one Native-American, one Asian, one Mexican, and one Cajun. And although Horst Buchholtz's girlfriend was very feminist for 1890 Mexico in the original, the Seven are hired in the new movie by a gunslinging woman (Haley Bennett) who was widowed by the leader of the bad guys (Peter Sarsgaard).  Sarsgaard leads an army of 100 against the new Seven while Eli Wallach only has 40 banditos. I like Sarsgaard, but Wallach is much, much more entertaining and a smarter bad guy. Not much explanation or comment is made about this diverse group of gunfighters. D'Onofrio's character does hate Native Americans, and there is a scene where Washington is not welcome in a saloon, but they don't really try to deal with this important issue. It's a fantasy I guess. Take a look at the very entertaining western, Silverado, and Danny Glover's character for a much better look at race in the West.

At the end of the original The Magnificent Seven, most of the Seven are dead, along with the bad guys, and a few of the villagers, but life in the village goes on as before. In the new movie, the entire town including the church has been blown up and burned, and many of the townsfolk are dead. It's a holocaust. The end of this movie is more like Aleppo today than the old West. The new movie is watchable and it's always nice to see a Western, but it's a bit flat and without a memorable screenplay. There are lots of good lines in the original. And the new movie has nothing to compare to the early scene where Brynner and McQueen ride shotgun on a hearse. The most important thing missing from the new movie is the stirring and iconic soundtrack by Elmer Bernstein, although it does show up in the end credits. You don't even notice the soundtrack in the new movie. As you may have already guessed, I recommend watching the original 1960 The Magnificent Seven. It's available On Demand. If you've never seen it, you are in for a treat.

Sully

I definitely cry at the movies. Usually, it's near the end of the movie when it is reaching the emotional climax. But, there are some exceptions.  In We Are Marshall, the big emotional scene is only 15 minutes into the movie, and I always start crying at the beginning of Apollo 13 when they are watching the Apollo 11 Moon landing. But the effect of Sully on me was just crazy. I was verklempt from the beginning to the end of this movie. I was in tears during the rescue scenes. I'm sure that some PTSD is still there from 9/11 and I cannot watch planes flying low over New York City without having my heart in my mouth. Whatever it is, Sully taps into something very deep.

As everyone already knows, the story of Sully, tells the story of Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who made the only safe water landing of a commercial airliner in history. Tom Hanks, who else, plays Sully and Aaron Eckhart plays Jeff Skiles his co-pilot on the flight. Sully is extremely low key except when it isn't. What I mean by that is that the flight itself and the rescue are so emotional, and rather than have those events play out at the beginning or the end of the movie, it is very cleverly interleaved with the events afterward so that you can't really relax at all. Most of the time, Sully is showing the actual flight or a simulation of the flight or Sully's nightmares about the flight. 

All this comes from a great director, Clint Eastwood. I may not agree with his politics, but he can really make a movie. He is 86 years old and is still one of the most productive directors in Hollywood, having made 10 movies in the last decade. Sully is very well done. It is mostly about the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) investigation of what happened during the 208 seconds of US Airways Flight 1549 which ran into a flock of birds shortly after takeoff and lost both engines necessitating an emergency landing in the Hudson River. Or did it? The movie makes a big deal out of whether Sully had time to turn the plane around and fly back to LaGuardia. In this, Sully departs from the true facts for dramatic effect. No spoilers, but the NTSB is a bit peeved at how they are portrayed in the movie. You can read about it (Spoiler Alert) here. But the end result is the same. Sully is an f-ing hero. 

Hanks plays Sully much like he played James Lovell in Apollo 13 with an understatement that makes the performance more powerful. Eckhart follows Hanks lead. The real life Sully and Skiles are probably like this, just the kind of guys who you would want piloting your plane. Laura Linney is a bit, ok more than a bit, wasted as Sully's wife. She gets to cry a lot. There are some other familiar faces including Katie Couric playing herself, Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad), Jamey Sheridan (Spotlight), and Michael Rapaport. But Sully is all about Sully and the landing in the Hudson. I don't know who else could have played Sully other than Tom Hanks. Go see it and bring a box of Kleenex.

Jason Bourne

More than one person told me that Jason Bourne only says 25 words in the new film, the eponymous, Jason Bourne. actually, it's 25 lines not 25 words, but really, when did Bourne ever say more than that? I think he has said more words to Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) than anyone else. She is the last character still hanging in there through The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, and now Jason Bourne. She did not appear in the multiverse version, The Bourne Legacy, that didn't include Matt Damon either. That one starred Jeremy Renner. The other surviving character, Pam Landy (Joan Allen), has disappeared. There is a new CIA director (Tommy Lee Jones), an up-and-coming analyst (Alicia Vikander), and the usual assassin, known as The Asset (Vincent Cassel). Nicky, as you may remember from 9 years ago, is still on the run having cast in her lot with Bourne.

The plot of Jason Bourne is ripped from today's headlines, as they say. The CIA director is in cahoots with a Mark Zuckerberg clone (Riz Ahmed). His platform, Deep Dream, is being used by the CIA to spy on all Americans. What a shock. Beyond this, it all gets a bit murky as is the norm for anything Bourne. Bourne is taking part in high-stakes bare-fisted boxing matches in Russia and would probably have happily stayed there if the CIA would just stop trying to kill him. Plus Nicky is making trouble. So Bourne gets sucked back into the whole thing. You would think after all this time that the CIA would have learned that fucking with Jason Bourne is not a good idea. But no. I don't think I need to say anything more about the plot.

If you like Jason Bourne movies, which I do, you will like this one. Although something troubling does happen which takes some of the fun of it. But then, I'm still mad that they killed off Bourne's girlfriend (Franka Potente) five minutes into movie #2 (The Bourne Supremacy). There will be another Bourne movie and Alicia Vikander, who is full of secrets, will definitely be back. She is really good in everything I've seen. It was only last year that she became the "it" girl, appearing in The Danish Girl, Ex Machina, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. , and won an Oscar. Vincent Cassel is a very entertaining assassin, and Tommy Lee Jones plays Tommy Lee Jones, which is also entertaining. And Matt Damon, well, he is Jason Bourne. I hope he will be back for the next sequel too.

Jason Bourne was directed by Paul Greengrass, who also directed Ultimatum and Supremacy, but not Identity or Legacy. The Bourne movies sort of invented the the half-second cut. By this I mean cutting the scene every half second during fights and chases. But these movies are very well put together. I like them a lot. Jason Bourne is no different. And he doesn't need to talk if he doesn't want to.

Star Trek Beyond

It's so nice that there is Star Trek in my life again. The new film Star Trek Beyond is the third film in the reboot, which goes where no one has gone before, because it puts Star Trek into the multiverse for the first time. Also, just released at Comic-Con this weekend was the first teaser trailer for the new Star Trek TV series, Discovery, starting next year. I have been very happy with the Star Trek reboot. The first film re-introduced us to the original Classic Star Trek characters, living in a universe with a timeline that has been altered somewhat due to some Romulans and a wormhole.  I loved it. The second film, Star Trek into Darkness, was a clever reworking of The Wrath of Khan where the classic Spock/Kirk death scene is reversed. I particularly love the Spock/Uhura relationship which has been created in the multiverse. The new/old characters played by new actors have all been enjoyable. But I get the most joy out of Karl Urban's portrayal of Bones McCoy. He is perfect. In fact, he may be better than DeForest Kelley. 

The new film is Star Trek Beyond. (A few mild spoilers follow) The Enterprise is three years into its five year mission to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before. Anyway, Kirk (Chris Pine) has a birthday coming up and is wondering what the point of it all is. He has even applied for a desk job. This setup reminds me of the beginning of the original Wrath of Khan when Kirk has already taken a desk job and Spock gives him a copy of A Tale of Two Cities for his birthday. He also gets some Romulan Ale from Bones. In the new Star Trek Beyond, Bones and Kirk enjoy some whiskey liberated from Chekov's (Anton Yelchin) locker. The rest of the crew is doing ok except that Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) are having serious relationship problems. And as you may know, there is a revelation about Sulu (John Cho) that George Takei wasn't that happy about. 

Anyway, Kirk's reveries are disturbed by a distress signal, and, yes, as usual, the Enterprise is the only ship in the quadrant available for the rescue mission. As you may expect the mission does not go as planned, and if you have seen the trailers, the Enterprise gets destroyed and the crew is stranded on an alien planet. This may have happened once or twice before. And I can announce (spoiler alert) that there is a Saucer Separation. Haven't seen one of those in a long, long time. Lots of ships have crashed on this planet thanks to the evil villain of this movie, Krall (Idris Elba). The crew are aided by a nice new alien character, Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), who has been stranded so long on this planet that she has built her own starship out of Lego. Ok, just kidding about the Lego. She likes Scotty (Simon Pegg) and I think the feeling is mutual. Jaylah is a fun character and there's some indication that she might be in the next film. Then again, there was no sign or mention of Carol Marcus in Star Trek Beyond so maybe not. 

Idris Elba is pretty much unrecognizable as Krall for most of the movie, and is not nearly as fun as Benedict Cumberbatch was as Khan in the last movie. The Beastie Boys are instrumental in defeating Krall. Who knew that they would still be popular in the 23rd century. You may remember that young Kirk was playing the Beastie Boys on the radio when he drove his stolen car off the cliff in the first movie.

The first two new Star Trek movies were directed by J. J. Abrams who was mainly responsible for the reboot. He remains as a producer on Star Trek Beyond but the movie is directed by Justin Lin, who also directed many of the Fast & Furious movies. There are no cars in this one, but a motorcycle does figure in the plot. Star Trek Beyond is very entertaining and moves right along. It continues the nice plot and character development of the new multiverse Star Trek. The writing is good with some very nice lines, written by Simon Pegg (Scotty) and Doug Jung. My favorite is when Krall says, "This is where the frontier pushes back!" 

Anyway, what's not to like in Star Trek Beyond, except for feeling a bit verklempt every time Chekov is on the screen. I am a lifelong Trekkie. It is now 50 years since the original, now classic, Star Trek first aired with me watching. It's great that Star Trek has been reborn in this way. 

Ghostbusters

It is with a heavy heart that I cannot give a thumbs up to the new and highly anticipated (by me) Ghostbusters. For those of you living under rocks, Ghostbusters has been rebooted with all the gender roles reversed (except for the Mayor of NYC). In this new film, Kristin Wiig is Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy is Dan Aykroyd, Kate McKinnon is Harold Ramis, Leslie Jones is Ernie Hudson, and Chris Hemsworth (aka Thor) is the secretary (Annie Potts). They have reversed gender but not race so Jones and Hudson are both African-American. Even though Murray, Aykroyd, Ramis et al. were amazing, the new cast is great too. The SNL connection is still strong. Aykroyd and Murray were on SNL back in the day as were/are Kristin Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon. The casting for the new Ghostbusters is perfect. I like Wiig and McCarthy a lot from previous movies, and I instantly liked McKinnon, who I hadn't seen before (ok I don't watch SNL anymore).

There are cameos by all the surviving Ghostbusters, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson, as well as Annie Potts and Sigourney Weaver, oh, and the the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Daniel Ramis, the son of Harold Ramis does appear. Harold Ramis is missed, not just because he died and can't do a cameo, but in the writing or lack thereof in the new Ghostbusters. The original Ghostbusters was written by Ramis and Aykroyd. Reboots are always problematic because they will be compared to the original, and in this case the original is pretty damn good. Ghostbusters had great comic actors, a really funny script, and some snappy directing by Ivan Reitman. There are several lines that I still quote regularly in conversation, "Don't cross the streams." "When someone asks you if you are a god, you say yes!" "Generally, you don't see that kind of behavior in a major appliance." and my favorite quote of all time, "Cats and dogs living together!"

The new Ghostbusters has a great comic cast, but it leans very heavily on physical gags and is quite light on the brilliant repartee. The plot is a bit vague. It is more like Ghostbusters II in that there is an actual bad guy (Neil Casey), who is creating the paranormal emergency. Not that Zuul wasn't the baddest dude ever. BTW, Zuul does get mentioned in the new movie, but you have to wait for the scene at the end of the credits which indicates that a sequel is planned. Speaking of the credits, they are dominated by Chris Hemsworth, who plays the role-reversed secretary.  The writers and director seem to think that the only significant male character in this movie is the funniest thing in the movie. It's a bit creepy actually.

Where was I? Oh ya, the plot is a bit vague and tends to wander. There are some strange directorial choices. The last scene of the movie is a cameo by Ernie Hudson which ends things on a very weird note.  The new Ghostbusters only actually catch one ghost and then they let him go. And I hate to say it, but it isn't very funny. I don't think I laughed out loud once, ok once, but that was during Dan Aykroyd's cameo. The CGI is obviously better than in the original but there is no need to see this movie in 3D. With the exception of a little slime coming out of the screen they don't make much use of it.

Besides all the cameos, the hearse and the fire station return unchanged. Although, for most of the movie they are living above an ethnic takeout restaurant which is the source of several vaguely racist and extremely unfunny scenes. It was great to see the backpacks and have them "light 'em up." And there are some scenes that play homage to the original like one with Wiig that is reminiscent of Rick Moranis' scene where he is banging on the window of the restaurant. They also have a meeting with the Mayor of New York (Andy Garcia), which is much less dramatic than in the original.

I was really looking forward to the new Ghostbusters. I wanted to love this movie but I didn't. Oh well. Back off man. I'm a Scientist!

Swiss Army Man

Sometimes, it is easy to describe the plot of a movie. Swiss Army Man is Cast Away crossed with Weekend at Bernie's. A man (Paul Dano), stranded, possibly, on a desert island, is trying to commit suicide when he notices a body washed up on the beach. The body, played by Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, is dead. As Charles Dickens said, "There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate." The dead body does have some superpowers related to the gases forming in the body as it decomposes. In Cast Away, as Tom Hanks starts to lose it, he befriends and talks to his volleyball, Wilson. Similarly, in Swiss Army Man, the dead body begins to come to life and becomes a friend to Paul Dano.

Dano's charater is batshit crazy so we don't believe that the body is actually alive anymore than Wilson the volleyball was alive. Nevertheless, Dano and the body set off to find their way home, inspired by the woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) whose picture is on Dano's phone. Dano keeps checking for a cell signal even though his charge is only at 10%, and the body, Dano's alter ego, becomes obsessed with the woman, who Dano had loved from afar.

All of this is in the trailers for the movie, but I won't say more about what happens. No spoilers. Paul Dano has made a career playing slightly crazed characters, most recently, an actor about to play Hitler in Youth, the Beach Boy's Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy, and a sadistic plantation owner in 12 Years a Slave. Daniel Radcliffe forever associated with Harry Potter has been trying, I think, to pick roles as far away from Hogwarts as possible. Both Dano and Radcliffe are great here. Swiss Army Man is an unusual movie, to say the least, and you just have to accept everything it throws at you including what comes shooting out of the dead body. And in the end, there is a resolution. We do find out what the reality is. And the dead body is alive in a certain way. So if you are tired of superheroes and sequels, you might want to go for something different and see Swiss Army Man.

Independence Day: Resurgence

As everyone knows, Independence Day: Resurgence, is a sequel to the original Independence Day, which came out 20 years ago. Most of the characters who survived the original are back. The one exception is Will Smith. I guess he didn't want to do it. He cannot really be replaced, and there is no way to replace Randy Quaid, who turned out to be just like his character in Independence Day in real life. The plot of the new movie is almost identical to the original. The Aliens are coming back to destroy the Earth and Earth isn't ready. Like in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, people are having dreams where they see a round shape with a slash through it. So added to the cast is Charlotte Gainsborough as a sort of Robert Langdon Symbologist. I'm not sure why she is there, but it's nice to see her. She's wonderful, but usually makes arty foreign films. I hope she made some money. Robert Loggia, who was perhaps the best thing in the original Independence Day died recently, but has been inserted by CGI into one scene as a tribute. He is missed. 

The President is now a woman (Sela Ward), but the ex-president (Bill Pullman) is still around, and tries to channel his inner Randy Quaid. The crazy scientist at Area 51, played by the wonderful and crazy Brent Spiner, has been in a coma for 20 years but wakes up just in time. Jeff Goldblum is now a respected Alien expert, but his father (Judd Hirsch) is still insufferable. Will Smith is gone, but is represented by his now grown up son (Jessie T. Usher) a hot-shot pilot, and Viveca Fox returns as the boy's mother. Two other young pilots, one Pullman's daughter (Maika Monroe) and Gale from Hunger Games (Liam Hemsworth) make up a love/hate triangle. 

The original Independence Day is a classic not because it is a great film, but because it falls in the category of a bad film that somehow rises above the material to make a very entertaining movie. The sequel is fun too, but Spiner and Pullman cannot make up for the crazy out-there performances by Smith, Loggia, and Quaid in the original. And what's wrong with Jeff Goldblum? He almost seems like a normal person in Independence Day: Resurgence. What's with that? 

X-Men: Apocalypse

I like to think that the pitch line for X-Men: Apocalypse was, "Sansa Stark is Jean Grey." Sophie Turner joins the cast of the X-Men as a young Jean Grey. I do love that a sea-change is happening in recent fantasy/superhero/dystopian films. Of course, we have the Hunger Games with Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), Divergent with Tris (Shaileen Woodley), and Star Wars VII with Rey (Daisy Ridley). But, the supposedly male dominated DC and Marvel superheroes are also beginning to crack. In Batman vs Superman, Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) shows up to save their bacon, and in Captain America: Civil War, it is Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) who tries to keep the peace. In the new film, X-Men: Apocalpse, Professor X ( James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) seem powerless in the face of the ultimate mutant Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac). It is up to Raven/Mystique, played by the indefatigable Jennifer Lawrence to become the de facto head of the X-Men. She gets some help from Jean Grey, Qucksilver (Evan Peters), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), and Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee).

I'm not sure it is worth explaining but the plot of X-Men: Apocalypse involves the original mutant, who somehow gave birth to the pharaohs before being buried "forever." He is reawakened and with his gang of four, a young Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Angel (Ben Hardy), Psylocke (Olivia Munn), and Magneto. I'm not sure why Magneto joins up. Let's face it, he's not a joiner and he switches sides three times in this movie. Olivia Munn is very scary as Psylocke. Anyway, Apocalypse co-ops Professor X's mental powers to take over the world. Also in the mix, is the evil Colonel Stryker (Josh Helman) who, as usual, has Wolverine on ice. In a typical X-Man cameo, Raven releases Wolverine and he runs off into the woods. Oh ya, since this is a Marvel film, there is a final scene at the end of the credits. The plot makes no sense but I don't really care. It's always nice to see those adorable mutants. I think X-Women might be a better name.

Love & Friendship

Jane Austen is the most successful screenwriter in Hollywood today but she has not produced anything new in quite a while! So, just when we thought that Jane Austen was never going to produce any new screenplays, we have a new one. It is Love & Friendship which is based on an early unpublished novel, Lady Susan. Lady Susan (Kate Beckinsale) is a matchmaker but unlike Emma, is only interested in matches for herself and her young daughter (Morfydd Clark). And the matches must be rich. Lady Susan will stop at nothing to achieve her twin goals and she must manipulate a large number of people. You almost need a program to keep everyone straight. In fact, there is an explanation with subtitles every time a new character is introduced. 

There is Lady Susan's American confidant (Chloe Sevigny) whose husband (Stephen Fry) is "just old enough to be formal, ungovernable and to have the gout – too old to be agreeable, and too young to die." Also, they are staying at the house of her in-laws (Emma Greenwell, Justin Edwards) and her sister-in-law's brother (Xavier Samuel). The brother is in love with Lady Susan and another lord (Tom Bennett) is in love with the daughter. Lady Susan is also having an affair with a married man and his wife (Jenn Murray) is very upset about it. 

No spoilers but Lady Susan and her daughter do quite well for themselves by the end. The cast is a bunch of great British character actors in addition to the A-listers. The most entertaining character is Sir James who is in love with the daughter. He is a complete nutter and very, very happy about it. His joy is extremely infectious and the audience was laughing out loud whenever he was on the screen. The director, Whit Stillman, keeps this film moving right along and it is a very entertaining and light-hearted romp. Love & Friendship has had a lot of buzz since it was shown at Sundance this year and it has an unbelievable 99% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. What's not to like?

Money Monster

Sometimes it's just nice to see the old-pros on the A-list do their thing. The big Hollywood movie isn't what it used to be, but Money Monster stars George Clooney (Two Oscars, eight nominations) and Julia Roberts (One Oscar, four nominations), and is directed by none other than Jodie Foster (Two Oscars, four nominations). I don't mind saying that I just love Foster. I also think a lot of George and Julia, so maybe this is a biased review. The A-list stars are backed up by a nice supporting cast, Jack O'Connell (Unbroken), Dominic West (The Affair), Giancarlo Esposito (Homicide: Life on the Street), and Caitriona Balfe (Outlander).

Money Monster is the name of a financial investment cable TV show that is more circus than investment advice. Clooney is the manic host and Roberts is his cool-headed producer.  They have a lot of history together, and Roberts is about to jump ship for a job at another network. During the taping of their daily show, a young man with a gun (O'Connell) comes on camera, takes Clooney hostage, and forces him to wear an explosive vest. He is upset after losing all of his savings after following Clooney's advice to buy a certain stock. Of course, the SWAT team, led by Esposito, soon arrives, and Money Monster seems to be heading toward a typical hostage standoff. But the company that O'Connell invested in and lost his money has wheels within wheels, and so Clooney tries to figure out what is really happening by trying to pigeonhole the company's spokesperson (Balfe) and CEO (West). All the while, Clooney is trying to keep O'Connell alive. Stockholm Syndrome takes hold pretty quickly.

I need to mention two small roles in Money Monster. In one, Lenny Venito, one of those character actors who looks always vaguely familiar, has a breakout role here as Lenny the Cameraman. In the other, Emily Meade has only one scene as O'Connell's pregnant girlfriend who is brought in to talk him down. Meade almost steals the whole movie with one scene. It is great.

Money Monster is directed by Jodie Foster. All of her Oscar nominations have been for acting, but she has been concentrating on directing recently. Money Monster is her fourth feature film and she has been directing episodes of House of Cards, and Orange is the New Black. Foster does a good job here, keeping the action simple and moving along. This film makes good use of the intimacy between the on-air talent and the producer in the control room talking through their earpiece. This technique has been used to good effect before in Broadcast News (a great movie if you've never seen it)  and more recently in the HBO series, The Newsroom (a great series if you've never seen it).  Anyway, it's fun to see Clooney and Roberts is action. Hollywood is not dead yet.

Captain America: Civil War

Aunt May and Tony Stark? I have to say that I never considered that one. But they are both New Yorkers, and having Aunt May played by Marisa Tomei doesn't hurt. But I digress. Yes, Spider-Man is back and he is from the Marvel Universe, so here he is in Captain America: Civil War. Wait, I think I am still digressing. This is a review of the aforementioned Captain America: Civil War, the latest in the many Avengers movies. It is the third in the line of Captain America movies. This one follows a plot that was in the comic books where, yes, there is a war between the Avengers. The New York Times review was discussing it as a political allegory. Think Tony Stark as Donald Trump and Steve Rogers as Bernie Sanders. I am reticent to even try to describe the plot. But it is quite a bit similar to the other "war" move on the DC Comics side, Batman vs Superman. In both movies, a superhero with control issues decides that another superhero is a vigilante not a superhero and needs to be reined in. And in both, a villain is pulling the strings. Here it is Daniel Bruhl. he is good. You gotta see him as Niki Lauda in Rush.

In Captain America: Civil War, the US Secretary of State (William Hurt) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) decide that the Avengers should be put under UN control. I have to say that I am on Captain America's side here. But Cap (Chris Evans) is somewhat biased since he really just wants to save his boyhood pal, Bucky (Sebastian Stan), who keeps killing people and laying waste to the planet. Anyway, as I said, let's not analyze the plot too closely. The Avengers take sides. Thor, the Hulk, and Nick Fury are MIA, so we don't know what they think. Added to the mix are Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), and Spider-Man (Tom Holland). The other Avengers from Age of Ultron are all back, some just briefly. Natasha Romanov aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) is the only sane member of the Avengers and that's saying something. She tries to keep them together, then sides with the Iron Man team, but not really since her best buds Steve and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) are on the other team. She is also smarter than the others because she just disappears rather than be put in Supermax with the other bad Avengers. Unfortunately, then she isn't in the last third of the movie.

This is really three movies, one where they are all trying to find Bucky but can't and blame each other, and then a very entertaining middle bit where the two Avenger teams face off. This is the best part of the movie and it's obvious no one is going to get killed. Spider-Man and Ant-Man get the most laughs. Then, there is a third movie where it is just Tony versus Steve with Bucky in the middle.

The Avengers movies are mostly well-made and, happily for me, very well written. This movie is no different. It continues the subplot of Black Widow trying to set up Steve with the nurse (Emily VanCamp) who turns out to be in the CIA and has other secrets. But I can report that there is a kiss somewhere in this movie. You can also look out for some nice cameos, William Hurt and Marisa Tomei as mentioned above, Alfre Woodard as a grief-stricken mother, John Slattery and Hope Davis as Tony's parents, and Martin Freeman as a nasty CIA torturer. Don't ask why Martin Freeman is in this because I don't know.

What else? Now we know what was in the folder that Romanov gave to Steve at the end of the last movie. Also, there are two scenes in the final credits, one right at the end which you should stay for. Oh, and look out for Stan Lee playing a Fedex man.

A Hologram for the King

I hadn't even heard about A Hologram for the King until about a week before it opened. But there was Tom Hanks in the trailer and the NY Times liked it. So did I. This is a very interesting movie. A Hologram for the King, based on the novel of the same name, is a great title because it says a lot but you can't figure out what it means. Tom Hanks plays Alan, a businessman who can sell anything, but is down on his luck, just got a divorce, and lost his job. He is offered a new job to sell a holographic conferencing system to the King of Saudi Arabia. He and his IT team are supposed to demo the system for the King, but when they arrive in Saudi Arabia, they find that they are situated in a mostly non-existent city out in the desert, in a tent with no Wi-Fi. And no one knows when the King will be showing up for the demo.

A Hologram for the King is a bit reminiscent of Groundhog Day. Each day, Hanks sleeps through his alarm, misses the shuttle to the city, has to call his Saudi driver (Alexander Black), and then try to find someone who can explain what's happening or at least get them some Wi-Fi. Lots of things happen along the way including wild embassy parties and visits to the hospital. Hanks has a lump on his back and is suffering anxiety attacks. Along the way he befriends his female Saudi doctor (Sarita Choudhury), and spoiler alert, some sparks eventually fly between them.

This film is by the German director, Tom Tykwer, most famous for Run Lola Run. He keeps it moving even though, most of the time, "nothing" is happening. The supporting cast is mostly non-arabic, even the arabic parts. Choudhury, who broke out with Mississippi Masala 25 years ago, is half-Indian, and Black is American. They are both very good. It's also nice to see Tom Skerritt who plays Hanks father. I wished he had more scenes. Tom Hanks is great as always. I know not everyone loves him as much as I do, but it is a joy to watch him work. This is another good everyman role for him, but he makes it better than the script. A Hologram for the King plays out mostly inside the jet-lagged, culture-shocked head of Hanks character, and Tom is very good at making that work. This film is only playing on a few screens around the country. If it appears at a theatre near you, you should go see it.

Born To Be Blue

Ethan Hawke has been around for a long time. he was one of the students in Dead Poets Society, and I loved Gattaca. But I hadn't seen him in anything for a long time when he burst back into view as the father in Boyhood for which he was nominated for an Oscar. He is back this year with a new movie with buzz, Born To Be Blue. In this film, Hawke plays Chet Baker, the famous jazz trumpeter from the 50's and 60's. Born To Be Blue is very meta. It opens in black and white sometime in the 1950's with Baker (Hawke) and his then wife. But then the director calls cut and it is really Baker playing himself in a movie and the time is the 1960's. The woman playing his wife (Carmen Ejogo) in the movie becomes his girlfriend. When they visit Baker's parents back on the farm in Oklahoma, his mother's first comment is, "You look just like Chet's ex-wife." His father's first comment is, "Are you here to dry out again?"

Chet Baker is in a loop that he can't get out of. He became a heroin addict in the 1950's and was still using when he died in 1988. This film is set around the time in 1966 when he was severely beaten and his teeth were all knocked out. He could no longer play the trumpet and begins a long comeback once he has some dentures. Born To Be Blue is bookended by concerts he gives in New York City with Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie in the audience before and after his beating.

Born To Be Blue is not a happy movie. Baker's life doesn't have a happy ending, even though he was able to continue his jazz career. Hawke seems to be perfect for the role of Baker, a basically nice guy with a great musical gift but no impulse control. The film centers on both his struggle to regain the ability to play but also his struggle to stay clean with the help of his girlfreind. Ejojo, who played Coretta Scott King in Selma, is very good as the girlfriend who truly loves Baker but isn't willing to go down the drain with him. She is yet another English actor playing an American. They are everywhere and you don't even notice! Selma was hilarious since MLK, Coretta Scott King, LBJ and Wallace were all played by English actors. But I digress. Born To Be Blue is nice little movie and Ethan Hawke may get another Oscar nomination.

Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant...

Allegiant is the third movie in the Divergent Series. it is part of the wave of Dystopian young adult books, which started with The Hunger Games trilogy. Like that series, the third Divergent book has been split into two movies. The last film in the series will be out next year. I quite liked Divergent, the first film. The set up is that civilization has been destroyed (duh) and the survivors in a semi-ruined Chicago have been split into 5 factions, Amity, Erudite, Candor, Abnegation, and Dauntless. Each faction plays a prescribed role in society. Each child grows up in a faction but gets to pick what faction to belong to when they grow up. A young woman from Abnegation (Shailene Woodley) shocks her parents (Ashley Judd and Tony Goldwyn) by choosing Dauntless while her brother (Ansel Elgort) chooses Erudite. It's like choosing a college where everyone has the same major. Woodley even starts to fall for her TA (Theo James). He's pretty cute. But all is not well. As with all of these dystopian stories, dark forces are at work, in this case, Erudite's leader played by Kate Winslet is planning a coup with Dauntless providing the muscle. Divergent, as with the first parts of all these trilogies, is by far the best. I like this story because it isn't some stupid dystopian high-school love triangle like The Hunger Games. As most of you know, I threw the last book of the Hunger Games trilogy against the wall because I am a Gale lover and a Peeta hater. But I digress.

By the end of Divergent, Woodley and James, now in love, and their merry band including Elgort, Zoe Kravitz, and Miles Teller, are outlaws. In the second movie, Insurgent, they hook up with a larger band of rebels led by James' mother (Naomi Watts). I love that this series features a female lead (Woodley) trying to maintain the peace between the two warring factions led by two very strong, slightly crazed women (Winslet and Watts). The casting is great. My favorite character is Peter played by Miles Teller, who exploded on the screen last year in Whiplash. His character has changed sides about 5 times in the three movies so far ,always betraying his former side but somehow he is still alive. He is very entertaining. Woodley and James are also very good, but as with all these series, as we approach the end, the plots get more and more far-fetched.

In Alegiant, we find out that the two centuries of factional life in Chicago has been some kind of genetic experiment. This would be a spoiler but none of it makes any sense. But we do get to see Jeff Daniels, as the leader of this other mystery group who are ensconsed at O'Hare airport, try to explain which is very fun. Anyway, there is one movie to go and I'm sure Woodley will save the day. I much prefer Woodley's Tris to Jennifer's Lawrence's Katniss. You should definitely see Divergent but the other two not so much.

Eye in the Sky

Eye in the Sky refers to the drones, used by the US military and others, that watch but also kill terrorists. The story of this film seems to be loosely based on a real terrorist, the so-called White Widow, a British woman who joined Al Shabaab in Somalia. In Eye in the Sky, a mission to capture her has been arranged, led by the British with support from the Americans and the Kenyans. A drone is being flown from a US Airforce base by two soldiers (Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) and Phoebe Fox). The mission is run by a British Colonel (Helen Mirren) and her superior officer (Alan Rickman). Things go wrong from the start and the mission quickly changes from capture to kill. The terrorists are planning an imminent suicide attack, and so they must be killed by a missile from the drone. Even though there are some qualms, permission is quickly given for the strike until the drone operators notice that a young Kenyan girl is selling bread right next to the target house and will be killed if the missile is launched. What follows is a nice study in military vs political needs and agendas. The British colonel, played by Mirren with a very competent iciness, wants to proceed. She is supported by her General (Rickman) but the politicians are not so sure. As we watch the terrorists prepare their suicide vests through a tiny drone disguised as a large fly (I don't make this stuff up) and operated by a local officer (Barkhad Abdi), the politicians dither, and the drone operators come close to mutiny. It is quite entertaining to watch the British ministers, played by Jeremy Northam and various nice British character actors,  as they keep "referring up." Eventually, the British Foreign Secretary (Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont in Game of Thrones)) and the American Secretary of State get involved. Meanwhile, all involved watch the little girl as if she is in a reality show, hoping she will sell all her bread and go home. Eye in the Sky features some very good performances including the always reliable Helen Mirren (I do love her), and very sadly, the last performance of the incomparable Alan Rickman who died in January. Barkhad Abdi, who was the terrorist in Captain Phillips, gets to play a good guy this time. Eye in the Sky is a nicely put-together film directed by the South African, Gavin Hood, who first hit the big time with Tsotsi a very good film that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2005. This one is worth seeing.

Batman v Superman

This film is unusual because it got overwhelmingly bad reviews and a 29% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, but it also got an overwhelmingly good response from the people who have seen the movie. I am siding with the latter. Batman v Superman is actually pretty good. Maybe my expectations had been appropriately lowered but I enjoyed it a lot. I will go into this in detail below, but you should see this movie because:

1. Wonder Woman rocks! Superman and Batman may be sad sacks grinding out the crime fighting but Wonder Woman enjoys her work.
2. Jeremy Irons is The. Best. Alfred. Ever. Sorry Michael Caine.
3. Amy Adams has made Lois Lane into a real character.
4. Jesse Eisenberg IS Lex Luthor.
5. Kryptonite!

The plot of this film is stated in the title and I'm sure you have seen the trailer, but no big spoilers here. The plot of Batman v Superman parallels the upcoming Captain America: Civil War in that some people, Batman (Ben Affleck) included, have decided that Superman (Henry Cavill) is a potentially dangerous vigilante, and he's an Alien! The Senate holds hearings to look into the issue. There are few nice scenes with Holly Hunter as the lead senator. It's nice to see her. But behind the scenes, pulling the strings is Lex Luthor. I'm sure some people find Jesse Eisenberg annoying at times but he was born to play Lex Luthor just as he was born to play Mark Zuckerberg. There may be some similarities between those two characters. Henry Cavill is as stolid as he was in Man of Steel. But that is his character. And Amy Adams as Lois does soften him up a bit. Adams was the best thing in Man of Steel. She is great here too.

Much has been made about the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman. I had my doubts. But the portrayal of Batman as a world-weary crime fighter in his 40's is perfect casting for Affleck. As Batman says, "Criminals are like weeds. If you pull one out, another grows in its place." This is a very different Batman from Dark Knight or its predecessors. For one thing, this Batman likes guns. The juxtaposition of Batman's cynicism with Superman's idealism is nice, and both characters get to evolve a bit during the movie. Which brings me to Alfred. Who would a world-weary Batman want as his Alfred but Jeremy Irons. Irons is always great but he is wonderful here. He steals all the scenes he is in in Batman v Superman. I was wishing he was in the movie more.

Batman v Superman is also setting up the Justice League of America to be the DC version of The Avengers. We are introduced to Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) aka Wonder Woman, who helps out Batman and Superman against Luther. And believe me they need the help. We also see short scenes with The Flash and Aquaman, who will join the other three superheroes in Justice League in 2017. Gadot is good. You might remember her from the Fast and Furious movies.

This is a superhero movie with lots of fights and trashing of cities. Both Gotham City and Metropolis get trashed. And it's a bit long at 2 1/2 hours, but it's surprisingly good. Besides all the characters I mentioned, Perry White (Laurence Fishburne), Ma and Pa Kent (Diane Lane & Kevin Costner) return. The casting throughout is great. Oh, yes, and did I mention that there is Kryptonite! Spoiler alert, it is the green variety. So ignore the reviews (other than this one) and join the throngs at the movie theatre.

The Lady in the Van

This is not a review of Batman v Superman. In fact, The Lady in the Van is the antithesis of that. It is a nice little film that tells the true story of a homeless woman (Maggie Smith) who lives in a van in Camden Town in London. She is befriended by a writer (Alex Jennings) who eventually allows her to park her van in his driveway. She ends up staying for 15 years. The film is shot in the actual house and street in Camden Town, and the writer who befriended her, wrote the book, play, and screenplay. The Lady in the Van is a tour de force for Maggie Smith. She is 81, but is having a hugely successful career late in life, including Harry Potter, Downton Abbey, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. In The Lady and the Van, Smith can emote in almost every scene. Most scenes in the film are mostly just the two characters, the lady and the writer. It does use a cute device of splitting the writer into identical twins, one who is experiencing The Lady in the Van, and one who is writing about it. So even nice little films these days use CGI. So, if you are tired of superheroes, this film is a good bet.

10 Cloverfield Lane

You may remember Cloverfield, which was a sort of Blair Witch Project crossed with War of the Worlds and set in New York City. That movie and the new 10 Cloverfield Lane were both produced by JJ Abrams, also known for directing a few small films like the new Star Trek and Star Wars: Episode VII. The coincidence of the names is not a coincidence, although it is not clear whether the two films are supposed to exist in the same multiverse. It is hard to write a spoiler-free review of 10 Cloverfield Lane. But I will describe the first 15 minutes, which is basically everything in the trailer. Unusually, this movie is not only shot in Louisiana, but it is set in Louisiana. In the first scene, a young woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is looking out of her apartment in New Orleans at the Mississippi River bridge and the Algiers Ferry. She has just broken up with her boyfriend (voiced by Bradley Cooper. This will be good for Pub trivia) and is driving west on I-10 when she is kidnapped by a somewhat crazed guy (John Goodman) who lives near Lake Charles. Ok maybe that is redundant. Anyway, she wakes up in a locked room in a bunker and the guy tells her that he has saved her, since something bad has happened outside, nuclear war, chemical attack, Mars attack, he makes several suggestions.  So, maybe since this movie has Cloverfield in the title, this is Room crossed with War of the Worlds. Well, you are just going to have to go and see for yourself. The only other thing I will say, is that there is a third person in the bunker, a young man (John Gallagher Jr.) who helped to build it. Obviously, from inside the bunker it is not apparent what if anything is happening outside. You can assume that Winstead tries to escape, and you can assume that by the end of the movie, someone makes it out and sees what if anything is happening in the outside world. But you will just have to assume. The very small cast is great. I like all three actors. John Goodman is always fantastic but is usually seen in a supporting role. So, it's nice to see him in a leading role.  I also like Winstead who has been in a few movies and is slowly becoming a star. I loved her in Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Gallagher is perhaps best known for taking the Sex and the City Bus tour to impress his girlfriend in The Newsroom. Anyway, 10 Cloverfield Lane is 91% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes so people are liking it. It is good, although I certainly felt like it wasn't breaking any new ground in the "guy kidnaps beautiful young woman and keeps her in a bunker to save her from aliens" genre. And all through the movie, I just wanted to find out what was going on outside. I had a few theories including, nothing was going on. But, I really can't say. Like I said, you'll have to go see it.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

It is very difficult for actors, even successful ones, to get out of their comfort zone and try something new and different. It is difficult because audiences seem to have a tough time accepting it. Bill Murray starred and bombed in "The Razor's Edge" by Somerset Maugham. He's very good in it but people couldn't accept it. Audiences also had a hard time with Meg Ryan playing a chopper pilot in Iraq in "Courage Under Fire." It's another good film. Tina Fey seems to be having a similar problem in "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot." Fey stars in this true story of reporter Kim Barker who with no experience as a foreign correspondent, jumps at the chance to go to and cover the Afghan war. This is not a comedy about the war in Afghanistan, but there are a lot of funny moments as Fey tries to adjust to life in a war zone. This is a perfect role for Fey, and this movie was a very pleasant surprise. Fey projects just the right "fish out of water" feeling as she arrives in Kabul woefully unprepared, starting with the fact that she brings an orange backpack into a war zone. But slowly with help of her Afghan assistant, and some fellow journalists (Margot Robbie and Martin Freeman), she becomes a combat happy Joe. She ends up staying three years trying to cover the Afghan war while the Iraq war is getting all the press coverage. The real Kim Barker is now a reporter for the New York Times. The supporting cast is great. Robbie plays the classic beautiful BBC reporter and Freeman is a Scottish photographer. Billy Bob Thornton is very entertaining as the American Army commander, as is Alfred Molina as the Afghan Attorney General who keeps trying to seduce Fey. This is a story of culture shock and the juxtaposition of a nasty war with the off-duty lives and nightlife of the Expat community. The script is a very nice balance between comedy and tragedy. This film deserves to be seen.

Some Thoughts about the Oscars.

Tomorrow night is the Oscars and tonight is the Independent Spirit Awards for Indie films. You can see my Top Ten List for 2015 here, but there were other entertaining films last year. The Spirit Awards have nominated Beasts of No Nation, Anomalisa, and Tangerine for Best Feature as well as the more mainstream, Carol, and Spotlight. I'm never sure how these Hollywood films qualify as Indies. Beasts of No Nation was made for Netflix and tells the story of a rebel army in an unnamed African country. The wonderful Idris Elba stars as the rebel commander. Tangerine has had a lot of buzz. It was "filmed" entirely on an iPhone, and tells the story of transgender prostitutes in Hollywood. It is a bit rough but it is worth seeing. Other good films with Indie nominations include Me and Earl and the Dying Girl which I liked a lot. It is about a high school kid whose mother forces him to spend time with a sick classmate. Another good one is The End of the Tour, starring Jason Segel as the author, David Foster Wallace, and Jesse Eisenberg as the Rolling Stone reporter who interviews him for several days.

Among the Hollywood films that missed getting nominations and didn't quite make my Top Ten, there were some good ones. My favorites include:

• Creed: See my mini-review here. This was probably the best film featuring African-Americans in front and behind the camera and deserved some more nominations.
• Trumbo: This movie is very good, particularly with Bryan Cranston in the title role. It's also a grim reminder that free speech has been under attack before. See my mini-review here.
• Pitch Perfect 2: What can I say, I am in love with Rebel Wilson. There I said it. This film isn't rocket science but I laughed through the whole thing. 
• Bridge of Spies: See my mini-review here. Sylvester Stallone will win Best Supporting Actor for Creed, but Mark Rylance gives the best performance of the year in Bridge of Spies as the Russian spy, Rudolph Abel. Tom Hanks is pretty good too. Duh.

Some good movies sank without a trace, but they are still out there and worth seeing:

• Pawn Sacrifice: The story of the Chess championship between Boris Spassky (Liev Schrieber) and Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire) in Iceland in 1972. This film is very well done.
• Ricki and the Flash: If you've always wanted to see Meryl Streep play an aging rocker, here is your chance. This is an interesting movie because it is a rare story where a woman leaves her family to pursue a career leaving the husband (Kevin Kline!) to pick up the pieces. 
• The Woman in Gold: This film came out at the beginning of 2015 and was well received. It is the true story about a woman played by Helen Mirren who tries to reclaim some painting stolen from her family by the Nazis. 
• Suffragette: This film does a nice job telling the story of the suffragette movement in England. Carey Mulligan is great. See my mini-review here.

Finally, who should win the best acting Oscars?

Best Supporting Actor:
I already mentioned that Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies) should win Best Supporting Actor but Sylvester Stallone (Creed) will win. Stallone was great too so I don't mind him winning. The other nominees, Christian Bale (The Big Short), Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight), and Tom Hardy (The Revenant) were all good too. Hardy should get an award for playing this role along with Max in Mad Max Fury Road and two identical twin gangsters in Legend. Legend is well worth seeing. See my mini review here. Domhnall Gleeson who appeared in four good movies, Brooklyn, Star Wars, Ex Machina, and The Revenant, should get an honorable mention. And why not John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)? Why no big nominations for Star Wars just because this is a big budget SciFi movie? He would have been a good non-white nomination.

Best Supporting Actress:
The nominees are Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs), Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl), Rachel McAdams (Spotlight), Rooney Mara (Carol), and Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight). Kate Winslet seems to the slight favorite followed by Alicia Vikander. I think Winslet should win. Steve Jobs is the most underrated movie of the year. See my mini-review here. Vikander is great too although The Danish Girl isn't that great. She had an even better role in Ex-Machina. Mara should be nominated in the Best Actress category but is supporting for political reasons. She was good in Carol but the movie left me a bit cold. See my mini-review here. Rachel McAdams is doing some interesting things these days including True Detective. Spotlight is a very good film and she is good in it. See my mini-review here. The less said about The Hateful Eight the better. I love Jennifer Jason Leigh but read my mini-review here.

Best Actor:
We all know that this is the year for Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant). I don't agree
but other people think it was a better movie than I do. See my mini-review here. I would pick any of Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs), Matt Damon (The Martian), and Bryan Cranston (Trumbo). These are all great movies with great lead performances. I didn't think much of Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl. Some other very good performances that could have been nominated include Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Walk), Ian McKellen (Mr. Holmes), and Michael B. Jordan (Creed).

Best Actress:
This is another category that is supposed to be a lock for Brie Larson (Room). She is deserving and the film is good. See my mini-review here. Another very good movie she made that no one saw is Short Term 12. Then, there are two perennial nominees Cate Blanchett (Carol) and Jennifer Lawrence (Joy). Blanchett has 7 Oscar nominations and two wins. Lawrence although she is only 25 already has 4 nominations and one win. Joy was a mess of a movie but Lawrence was still great. See my mini-review here. Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn) is nominated for a very sweet performance in a movie I loved. See my mini-review here. Finally, Charlotte Rampling (45 Years) has been making movies for 50 years and this is her first nomination. She might have been a sentimental favorite if not for her comments on #OscarsSoWhite. I haven't seen 45 Years.

The Top Ten Films of 2015

Well, it's only a week until The Oscars so here is my Top Ten List of last year's films. You can click on them to read my individual reviews except for Mr. Holmes. Steve Jobs is an amazing film which almost no one saw apparently because they don't like Steve Jobs. It has the best screenplay of the year by Aaron Sorkin despite his not being nominated. Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet are both nominated for Oscars for their great performances. The Big Short is also excellent. It has an amazing energy and a great ensemble cast including Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt and Christian Bale. Bale is nominated for an Oscar. The Big Short also has an amazing screenplay which is nominated. I really loved Brooklyn. It is a very nice coming of age film about a young Irish woman who moves to New York city. Saoirse Ronan is perfect for this role and I fell in love cinematography and art direction. The Walk is another film that almost nobody saw because of fear of heights, but it is maybe the best 3D movie ever. It's the true story of the frenchman who walked a tightrope between the Twin Towers. Mr. Holmes tells the story of Sherlock's last case, set when he very old and his fabled memory is beginning to fade. It is a beautiful little movie with Ian McKellen in the title role. It's nice to have a couple of SciFi movies, The Martian and Star Wars, in my Top Ten. The Martian starring Matt Damon as the wise-cracking astronaut marooned on Mars is very well done, and not much needs to be said about Star Wars. As Han says to Chewie, "We're home." Youth was surprisingly good, but maybe it's not surprising considering the cast of Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel and Rachel Weisz. Set in a very upscale Spa in Switzerland, Youth tells the story of a retired Maestro who feels that his life is over.  Spotlight is another very good ensemble piece with Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo and Liev Schrieber. This story, in the mold of All the President's Men, follows a group of reporters for the Boston Globe as they uncover abusive Catholic Priests. Finally, Room is the story of a young woman kidnapped and held for years in a shed by a predator who has fathered her young child. The film is split into two stories before and after the life in the Room. Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay both give outstanding performances. The Revenant will probably win Best Picture but I gave it a big thumbs down.

1.   Steve Jobs 

2.   The Big Short 

3.   Brooklyn

4.   The Walk 

5.   Mr. Holmes

6.   The Martian

7.   Star Wars: The Force Awakens 

8.   Youth 

9.   Spotlight 

10. Room