Ad Astra

What does Ad Astra have in common with Spider-Man and WALL-E? In Ad Astra, Brad Pitt's character survives while hanging off the side of a rocket during launch like Spider-Man in Avengers Infinity War and WALL-E. This also gives you an idea of the realism of Ad Astra. It definitely falls in the category of bad-science movie, and I'm afraid it's also just a bad movie. I had a bad feeling when I saw the scene in the trailer for Ad Astra with astronauts shooting at each other from lunar rovers. The setup of Ad Astra is that a space mission headed by Brad Pitt's father (Tommy Lee Jones) is sent to Neptune, which beyond the Heliosphere (not), and where it will be easier to contact intelligent life (not), while taking high resolution pictures of exoplanets (not). It has something to do with antimatter (not) and somehow that creates a blast of cosmic rays that knocks out power on the Earth (not).

The rest of the plot makes very little sense unless you realize that someone apparently thought this movie needed more action, so instead of just going to Neptune directly from Earth, Pitt flies to the Moon, drives by lunar rover to the back side of the Moon (this is thousands of miles) while fending off Moon pirates, blasts off to Mars, then launches to Neptune while hanging on the side of the rocket. Then there are some Gravity-esque scenes while he transfers from his ship to another in Neptune orbit. Pitt needs to get from one ship orbiting Neptune to another so he launches himself using a rotating radar antenna and flies through Neptune's rings carrying a shield like Captain America.

There are some nice performances in this movie but they don't get much screen time. Donald Sutherland plays an astronaut who comes out of retirement to help Pitt, and Ruth Negga plays the head of the Mars base. And, of course, Tommy Lee Jones is Pitt's absent father, and Liv Tyler is his ex-wife. They are all good but barely register before they die or disappear. Natasha Lyonne has a funny cameo as an administrator on Mars. I love Brad Pitt, but go see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. In Ad Astra, he's just doing that little frown of his all the way through the movie with lots of extreme close-ups.

And I haven't even mentioned the space monkeys...

The Nantucket Film Festival 24 (2019)

Movie#1: Nice to see Woody, Buzz, and the gang again. But it is mostly just Woody, Bo Peep and too much Forky. A toy from Canada, Duke Caboom, steals a few scenes. The evil toys are very scary.

Movie#2: Yesterday. An unsuccessful musician is about to give up when he is hit by a bus and wakes up to find that no one has heard of the Beatles (and a few other things). Well, you can guess what happens next at least up to a point. Ed Sheeran is involved. The direction is by Danny Boyle and the screenplay is by Richard Curtis so, ya, it's very good. Himish Patel is very good in the lead role. Lily James is great as his friend and road manager. And Kate McKinnon steals every scene as Patel's music company rep after he becomes famous. So what happened to the Beatles? You'll get some answers if you see this nice film. There is an amazing scene toward the end.

Movie#3: Toni Morrison. The Pieces I Am
This a fab documentary featuring, prominently, Morrison talking directly to the camera. It takes a fascinating look at her books and their origins, and also, the importance of her "other" job as an editor at Random House. Lots of Oprah, Angela Davis, and Fran Lebowitz.

Movie#4: Brittany Runs a Marathon
The title sort of says it all. A young woman who is overweight and has self-esteem issues, decides to change her life by starting to run. But it's way more complicated than that. Definitely a dramedy, this film has a some nice moments, but is a bit rough around the edges. A typical first-time writer/director effort.

Movie#5: A Faithful Man
This film (in French with subtitles) is a modern bedroom farce. After Abel and Marianne have been living together for 3 years, she tells him that she is pregnant but the baby is not his. She has been having an affair with his best friend. She leaves him. Eight years later, the best friend dies and Abel and Marianne reconnect. Now there is her son who thinks his mother murdered his father, and the best friend's sister (played by Johnny Depp's daughter), also in love with Abel. Who knows why a schlub like Abel is a love god, but this is a French comedy. There are some funny moments but not enough to give this a thumb's up.

Movie#6: South Mountain
Like A Faithful Man but much more serious. A couple with two teenage daughters breaks up when the husband reveals he has a girlfriend and a baby. Lots of love, hate, anger, and sadness between all the characters. Very good.

Movie#7: The Farewell
I just love Awkwafina. She was the best thing in Crazy Rich Asians. She has the lead role here, playing a young woman who mostly grew up in the US, who is returning to China with her family because her grandmother is dying. But this is mostly a comedy so the family is trying to hide the medical news from the grandmother. No spoilers. You have to watch the ending. Awkwafina is fab as usual and has a nice group of supporting actors. Sort of heart warming.

Movie#8: Vita & Virginia
I loved this film. It tells the story of the "friendship" between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West. The film contains many of the letters they wrote each other and is filmed at Sackville-West's actual home. Gemma Arterton (Vita) and Elizabeth Debicki (Virginia) really heat up the screen. The supporting cast, particularly Isabella Rossellini (Vita's mother), Peter Ferdinando (Leonard Woolf), and Emerald Fennell (Virginia's sister) are all great. Rossellini is ferocious. Try to see this when it opens in August.

Movie#9: Mickey and the Bear
Another first time writer/director Annabelle Attanasio has produced a very intense little film about a high school senior in a small town in Montana whose father, a former Marine with PTSD, is an alcoholic and drug addict. The parent/child relationship is reversed and the daughter (Camila Morrone) feels she can never leave her father even though she has been accepted to college in California. Morrone is very good as the daughter who is trying to be both a kid and a mother.

Movie#10: Official Secrets
This is a "true" story about a British spy (Keira Knightly) who leaks a memo that she believes will prevent the Iraq War. She confesses and is arrested. Her lawyer is Ralph Fiennes so how could she lose? In fact the UK government dropped the charges rather than release damaging documents. This film is pretty good but maybe a bit overly dramatic. Also, it was very disconcerting to see two characters from Game of Thrones (Ellaria and Varys) dressed like normal people.

Movie#11: The Peanut Butter Falcon 
Two words that strike fear into the hearts of the average moviegoer, Shia LaBoeuf. Yes, he is one of the eclectic group of actors in this strange but heartwarming movie. Also featured are Bruce Dern, Dakota Johnson, John Hawkes, and Thomas Haden Church. The film follows the story of a young man with Down Syndrome (Zack Gottsagen) who is living in a retirement facility (hilariously rooming with Bruce Dern) because the State doesn't know what to do with him. He escapes to pursue his dream of becoming a professional wrestler and is befriended by a good-for-nothing fisherman (LaBoeuf). They build a raft and float down a river like Huckleberry Finn along with Gottsagen's caregiver (Dakota Johnson). The film goes from one bizarre scene to another, but it does grow on you, and Gottsagen's performance is very compelling. And everyone lives happily ever after.

Movie#12: The Sound of Silence
Peter Sarsgaard makes a lot of weird and wonderful movies and this one gets added to the list. He is a House Tuner. This isn't Feng Shui. He listens to the sound of your fridge (B flat) and your toaster (G major) and solves your life issues. He believes this is scientific and is always trying to get his paper published. Rashida Jones also stars as a client whose toaster has the wrong key and makes her tired all the time. Like I said, weird but wonderful. The direction is nice and slow and often silent.

Movie#13: Ophelia
This is the biggest disappointment of the Festival. I was really looking forward to this retelling of Hamlet from Ophelia's point of view, starring Daisy Ridley (Ophelia), George MacKay (Hamlet), Clive Owen (Claudius), and Naomi Watts (Gertrude). But it was awful. It was definitely not written by Shakespeare plus they change all the lines from the play to the vernacular which makes it worse. And they don't add much. Ridley is good but Ophelia remains a cipher. And Hamlet and Ophelia spend very little time together. Watts as Gertrude is at least a character with some depth, but Owen is just having a bad hair day. They invent some strange stuff like Gertrude's identical twin sister who is a witch, and add some plot elements from Romeo and Juliet. But, it just doesn't work. I was also deeply disturbed by the fact that Laertes was being played by Draco Malfoy.

Movie#14: Maiden
This is a fabulous documentary telling the story of the first all-female crew to participate in the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989. There is lots of actual footage taken during the race itself as well as interviews with the crew from the present day. Until you watch the film, you may have forgotten how revolutionary this was even in 1989. No one thought that women could actually do this. Spoiler alert. They do it and do it well.

Top Ten Movies of 2018

This was a hard year to pick a Top Ten. I did my due diligence. I have seen about 90 movies that came out in 2018. There are lots of good movies, but very few that blew me away. Number 1 on my list, Won't You Be My Neighbor, definitely did blow me away when I saw it back in June at the Nantucket Film Festival. The other ones that really filled me with joy when I saw them were, Bohemian Rhapsody, On the Basis of Sex, and Spider-Man into the Spiderverse. Only four of my Top Ten overlap with the Best Picture Nominees for the Oscars, Roma, Vice, Bohemian Rhapsody, and The Favourite. The others are good too, especially Black Panther, but there are only 10 spots available. So here they are...

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                                    1. Won't You Be My Neighbor?

This is the feel-good film of the year and isn't even nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary. The writers at the New York Times predicting the Oscars gave it Best Documentary anyway. I was too old to have watched Mr. Rofers when I was a kid but it doesn't matter. Won't You Be My Neighbor will make you feel better about the world and make you marvel at how ahead of his time Mr. Rogers was. You can stream it now.

2. If Beale Street Could Talk

This movie is directed by Barry Jenkins who directed Moonlight the Oscar winner two years ago. If Beale Street Could Talk isn't even nominated this year except for Best Adapted Screenplay (it's based on a James Baldwin novel) and Best Supporting actress for Regina King. It did win Best Picture and Best Director at the Independent Spirit Awards. If Beale Street Could Talk is a lovely, sad film about two star-crossed lovers with a great cast and music.

3. Roma

This film based on the director Alfonso Cuaron's childhood in Mexico is in Black & White and in Spanish with subtitles. But Roma is nominated for Best Picture, Best Foreign Film, Best Director, Actress, and Supporting Actress. It is an excellent movie. But Roma kicks it old school. Not only is it shot in B&W, but it is also has long scenes with people talking and no car chases. Roma is also controversial because it is a Netflix film, and Steven Spielberg, no less, thinks it shouldn't qualify for Oscar nominations. You can see it anytime on Netflix.

4. First Man

Obviously, I was going to like this film about one of the pivotal moments in my life, but it's actually very well done and strives for the kind of accuracy seen in Apollo 13 and The Martian. As a kid, I was obsessed with Gemini and Apollo, and followed every moment. I had my parents make special arrangements when I went to summer camp in July 1969 so that I would have access to a TV throughout the mission. Ryan Gosling is Neil Armstrong and does his usual amazing job playing this role which is very understated. Claire Foy, best known for playing Queen Elizabeth in The Crown, is very good as Armstrong's wife. This movie sank without a trace and has only a nomination for Best Visual Effects. It deserved better.

5. The Favourite

This is one of the best films of 2018, starring two of my "favourite" actresses, Rachel Weitz and Emma Stone, as well as Olivia Coleman as Queen Anne. They are all nominated for Oscars. The Favourite is definitely a romp but it also has an edge to it, and it's mostly a true story. It is a joy to watch these three great actresses play off each other. The cinematography, production design, and costumes are all nominated for Oscars also. They are just divine.

6. Bohemian Rhapsody

I didn't know what to expect from this movie. I loved Rami Malek from Mr. Robot, so I wanted to see it and I wasn't disappointed by Bohemian Rhapsody. In fact, I loved it. Malek and the other actors playing the band members of Queen were perfectly cast, and the last part of the movie showing Queen's performance at Live Aid filled me with joy. So, ignore Rotten Tomatoes on this one and stream it.

7. Spider-Man into the Spiderverse

This new take on Spider-Man (there are so many in the multiverse) had lots of good buzz and it did not disappoint. The many spider-people (and animals) that get together to save the multiverse really re-energize this somewhat tired part of the Marvel universe. There are two Peter Parkers, Peni Parker, Gwen Stacy, Miles Morales, and, of course, Spider-Ham. The late, great Stan Lee also makes an animated appearance. You don't need to be a kid to enjoy this movie.

8. On the Basis of Sex/ RBG

These two movies are linked, of course, but I watched both of them recently and they are very complementary. I recommend doing them as a double bill. Felicity Jones is fab and looks so much like the young RBG that it is spooky. This may be my favorite Armie Hammer role playing RBG's wonderful husband. On the Basis of Sex and RBG were two of my few feel good movies of the year. Left-wing wack-jobs like me will feel nothing but joy and inspiration. Please stream these.

9.  Vice

In case you are having moments where you wish W were president again, Vice should disabuse you of that notion. Dick Cheney is the epitome of the banality of evil and this film really brings it home. Written and directed by Adam McKay, who did the The Big Short, Vice completely blows up the 4th Wall, and paints a surreal portrait of the former VP. The actors, all nominated for Oscars, include an unrecognizable Christian Bale as Cheney, Sam Rockwell as W, and Amy Adams as Cheney's wife. Adams' performance is scary as hell and Rockwell is perfect as W. This movie may not be as good as The Big Short, but you have to see the scene where Dick and Lynn do Shakespeare.

10. Isle of Dogs

I love me my Wes Anderson. I will be forever grateful to him for rescuing Bill Murray and bringing him back to us, beginning with Rushmore. Like with the Coen brothers, I don't like all of Anderson's films but I want him to keep making them. Isle of Dogs is weird and great. How do describe a movie about dogs banished to an island of garbage that is is Japanese with subtitles except that the dogs speak English? Isle of Dogs is a really sweet movie. 

Honorable Mentions:

At Eternity's Gate
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Ben is back
Black Panther

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot

Eighth Grade

Green Book

Incredibles 2

Juliet, Naked

Leave No Trace

Mid90's

The Old Man and the Gun

Operation Finale

A Private War

Puzzle

Woman Walks Ahead