Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

In the world of Blade Runner, it has been almost 30 years since Roy (Rutger Hauer) gave his famous dying speech: "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."

It's hard to believe but in our world 35 years have passed since Blade Runner appeared in 1982. Ridley Scott, who directed the original, is now producing, but Blade Runner 2049 is in good hands. It is directed by Denis Villeneuve who is responsible for last year's wonderful Arrival.

It is now 2049 and some things have changed and some things haven't. It is still raining, and there are still Replicants and Blade Runners trying to retire them. Most of the characters in Blade Runner were dead by the end of the movie, so only two actors reprise their roles, Harrison Ford as Deckard and a cameo by Edward James Olmos as Gaff. No spoilers but there is some CGI magic also. You may be wondering what happened to Rachael (Sean Young)? You'll have to watch Blade Runner 2049 to find out.

The new Blade Runner is K (Ryan Gosling) and his lieutenant is played by Robin Wright. Tyrell Corporation has been taken over by Wallace Corporation, and Mr. Wallace (Jared Leto) is even creepier than Mr. Tyrell. His assistant/bodyguard is a new model Replicant (Sylvia Hoeks) who is basically a female Roy Batty. While tracking down a runaway Replicant (Dave Bautista, Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy), K uncovers a mystery that leads slowly and inexorably back to the question of what happened to Rachael and Deckard (still played admirably by Harrison Ford). As in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ford gets to play the same character 30 years later without needing any makeup. What will Ford do next? You guessed it, Indiana Jones.

Anyway, not much has changed in three decades except that the Ads are now holographs and the Replicants don't have expiry dates. There are some nice paeans to the first film but with a few curveballs thrown in. Mackenzie Davis (Mindy Park in The Martian) is styled to look just like Daryl Hannah's Replicant in the original, but she is human. And we know from the start that Gosling isn't human, he's a Replicant. No word on what Ford is. He seems human to me.

The casting is very nice. Gosling is perfect for the world weary Blade Runner who wants to quit and, of course, wants to be human. He practices with his beautiful, Siri-esque girlfriend (Ana de Armas). Robin Wright plays another strong role as Gosling's boss, following right after her parts in House of Cards and Wonder Woman. Jared Leto is creepy, but that's not a stretch for him. Hoeks' Replicant is beautiful and scary. Ford is great as always.

The first best thing about the new film, besides the fact that it is still pouring rain, is the very successful re-creation of the world of Blade Runner. It is as atmospheric as the original. Happily, Villeneuve does not try and make Blade Runner into Jason Bourne. I loved the leisurely pace of the movie which slowly ramps up the tension, although I did begin to wonder whether Ford had been edited out. But it turns out that Deckard has just been hiding in a very interesting place with lots of whisky for 30 years. The movie is pretty long at 163 minutes but it didn't drag for me. I really liked it, especially considering that Blade Runner is one of those movies that shouldn't have remakes or sequels. The original Blade Runner was not a hit at the box office or with the critics, but is now considered iconic and is much copied. Blade Runner 2049 is a hit among the critics but is also struggling at the box office. So go see it. It is a good film to see on the big screen.

The Best Films of the 21st Century So Far

The NY Times has a list today of the Best Films of the 21st Century So Far. You can read it here. I am listing my 25 Best Films below. There is only an overlap of two films between me and the NY Times, Boyhood, and Million Dollar Baby. I haven't even seen half of the NY Times list and I see 80 movies a year. Anyway, here is my list in alphabetical order:

About a Boy (2002)
Arrival (2016)
Birdman (2014)
Boyhood (2014)
Brooklyn (2015)
Cast Away (2000)
The Descendants (2011)
Gosford Park (2001)
High Fidelity (2000)
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Interstellar  (2014)
La La Land (2016)
Lost in Translation (2003)
The Martian (2015)
Memento (2001)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Serenity (2005)
Sideways (2004)
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
20th Century Women (2016)
WALL-E (2008)
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Top Ten Movies of 2016

Best Movies:
1. 20th Century Women
2. La La Land
3. Arrival
4. Manchester by the Sea
5. Captain Fantastic
6. Denial
7. Sing Street
8. A Hologram for the King
9. Swiss Army Man
10. Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Honorable Mention: Love & Friendship, Sully, Loving, Rogue One, Hello, My Name is Doris
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Deadpool, Fences, Lion, Queen of Katwe, Five Nights in Maine, Born to Be Blue, Hidden Figures, Moonlight

Best Actor:
1. Ryan Gosling (La La Land)
2. Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)
3. Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic)
4. Denzil Washington (Fences)
5. Tom Hanks (Sully, Hologram for a King)
Honorable Mention: Dev Patel (Lion)

Best Actress:
1. Annette Bening (20th Century Women)
2. Amy Adams (Arrival)
3. Emma Stone (La La Land)
4. Rachel Weisz (Denial)
5. Sally Field (Hello, My Name is Doris)
Honorable Mention: Natalie Portman (Jackie), Ruth Negga (Loving), Isabelle Huppert (Elle), Kate Beckinsale (Love & Friendship), Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts)

Best Supporting Actor:
1. Tom Wilkinson (Denial)
2. Lucas Hedges (Manchester By the Sea)
3. Sam Neill (Hunt for the Wilderpeople)
4. Daniel Radcliffe (Swiss Army Man)
5. Mahershala Ali (Moonlight, Hidden Figures)
Honorable Mention: Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water),

Best Supporting Actress:
1. Greta Gerwig (20th Century Women, Jackie)
2. Elle Fanning (20th Century Women)
3. Viola Davis (Fences)
4. Janelle Monae (Moonlight & Hidden Figures)
5. Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures)
Honorable Mention: Rooney Mara (Lion)

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.