Mother!

Crazy people--You can't live with them...and that's our show. Thanks for coming! It's generally common courtesy to keep ones nightmares to oneself; in this case, it might have been nice if Aronofsky had done so. No doubt those playing along at home could spend hours trying to assign one referent or another to this film's mega-metaphor, but I feel little compulsion to do so myself. What I do note is the fact that the viewer is really given precious little reason to care about these people, from the get go. Thus, all that happens seems, no matter how consequential from a plot standpoint, distant and unmoving. Of course, given that these characters are less characters and more archetypes, that's to be expected. But from a filmmaking viewpoint--and particularly a film viewing viewpoint--archetypes represent stuff on an intellectual level; they don't particularly engage people at the emotional level required for a full cinematic experience. So we wind up with something closer to an experiment in discourse rather than an actual story. And, alas, people tend to watch movies for the story. That makes this flick, ultimately, a success only within remarkably narrow confines, and otherwise a failure. A noble failure, perhaps, but a misfire nonetheless.

Star Wars: Episode IX -- The Rise of Skywalker

It's hard to say whether this is a good movie or not. It's hard to say much of anything about it. Partially, that's because, at this point, what is there to say about any of these movies? Partially, it's because this entry caps a series of films that some of us have been watching practically our entire lives; it is virtually impossible to filter out one's personal associations with the franchise versus its actual accomplishment (or not) as a piece of filmmaking. This episode has taken a big chunk of critical bashing; I doubt those complaints are sincere reflections on the nature of this work, rather than the verbal posings of those who want to burnish their intellectual bona fides by not throwing their lot in with the hoi polloi. I'll try to avoid that trap. Simply put, this movie works as a descendant of the early, Saturday matinee serial action adventure shorts, to which the series owes so much. If one recognizes it as such, then the viewer can appreciate the offering to a substantial degree. Anyone expecting Oscar-bait will not only be disappointed, but will be walking into the theater (or, at a future date, sitting down in front of a home screen) as a fool. Best to be wise and enjoy the simple pleasures--they're there in this piece, despite the critical carping--one last time, at least along this storyline.

American Made

You're being glib, filmmakers. There is, no doubt, an interesting story embedded in this work, though here the dots connect a bit too directly. There's too little development from point to point for everything not to feel rushed and incomplete. One suspects that those behind this flick decided to rely a little too heavily on Tom Cruise's charisma, which is still there but is not quite forceful enough to overcome this movie's defects. And it engenders no goodwill when the director insists upon using the utterly hackneyed technique of the shaky, hand-held camera to impart faux energy. That decision alone tells you that everything was not quite well thought out here. The MEOW is precarious; it could be a HISS, but there's just enough entertainment value here to keep the Cat in a relatively good mood. But one suspects this could have been a lot better.

Goodbye Christopher Robin

This movie would have you believe a number of propositions. One, that children's literature often springs from places of deep darkness. (That one's true. Trust me.) Two, that Winnie-the-Pooh was, in at least a roundabout way, the product of World War I vet A.A. Milne's untreated PTSD. Plausible. And third, that Mr. and Mrs. Milne, when faced with the challenges of fame, failed their son miserably. Don't know about that one; it may be true, or it may just be a tool of dramatic tension here. That's a hard distinction to make, as is the overall worth of this movie. I can't say it's a bad film, because it has inherent appeal and the story holds the interest most of the way through. Then again, the Britishness of the characters depicted is, in places, so thick and stiff that the performances almost border on parody or satire. Besides that, the dialogue occasionally lapses into clunky exposition instead of feeling like natural discussion. So the movie is certainly flawed, but if you're a Pooh fan--who isn't?--getting even a flawed glimpse into the backstory has its appeal. If you're really a fan of the author and his works, or of very British dramas, this one probably works for you. Others...you can probably let this one go.

Star Wars: Episode VIII -- The Last Jedi

The previous installment was a very "green" movie: lots of recycling. This one's more along the "reuse" lines; elements we've seen before come back at us again, but with just enough turns to show different facets and seem like something (almost) new. The viewer can even believe that something truly surprising is about to happen at more than one point in the proceedings, though it never really works out that way. And if the twist of the climactic scene is telegraphed...well, it's still a good bit of work anyway. You can say that very thing about this whole film: it's very strong conceptually, the execution is nearly flawless, and--most importantly--it is immensely entertaining throughout. Forceful indeed.

Ex Machina

This is a good movie...just not as good a movie as the breathless hype that surrounded it made it out to be. It does make you think, mostly about how you would react--and interact--in just such a situation. The film also makes a point of keeping things ambivalent enough that you don't really know if Oscar Isaac's inventor is a villain, or not...or, for that matter, if the AI is a villain or not, a murkiness about the subject that mirrors the real life debate on the seemingly inevitable rise of the robot world. I guess we'll find out that answer eventually, but you're not going to get it here. Still, I'd say this one's worth a look, as a change of pace if nothing else.