Winter's Bone

The feel good movie of the season it ain’t. This is like watching a Dorothea Lange picture set in motion, and with an equal measure of sociological implications in the viewing. Most prominent in this viewer’s thought: the remarkable persistence of this sort of living, even into our postmodern, allegedly advanced world. Some minor details might be different—meth rather than moonshine, for instance—but otherwise this could just as easily be a story from the Depression years as the 21st century. And that suggests the question: how do people stay in this state, seemingly without any aspiration toward some better kind of life? The implication, if not the actual answer, is that even if aspiration does exist in this sort of setting, then it has little efficacy in most people's lives. That must be due to people giving up—and, based on what we see here in a fairly true-to-life telling, then the give-up must typically happen at a remarkably young age. That's depressing. Apart from such cultural musings, what stands out here is Jennifer Lawrence in her breakout role, which was helped immensely by her bringing personal verisimilitude to her character and that character’s journey through the ins and outs of a tricky, dangerous subculture. She really shines here, both in this context and also in terms of being the very picture of someone who was bound to break out. You can put Lawrence in as many stocking caps and hunting jackets and other countrified accoutrements as you like, but the embryonic movie star underneath still shows through. Again, this is not exactly a crowd-pleaser, but the film tells a strong story with realism, fine acting, and a note-perfect script that keeps the tale moving and comes across as spot-on throughout. If this vision reflects your upbringing, my condolences; if you’re just visiting through the magic of cinema, take it in and leave with plenty to think about. 

No Hard Feelings

There’s no way that, going in, you thinking this movie will be what it turns out to be. Everything about the premise screams silliness and cheap laughs—if any. And there is a bit of that here—but there’s far more of something that’s real and honest and downright charming. A lot of that credit must go to Jennifer Lawrence, who not only brings her star power to the film but delivers a note-perfect performance as a flawed but still likable heroine (and, not to mention, looks stunning as well). Her costar Andrew Barth Feldman is good, too, bringing a believability despite his character’s seemingly unbelievable lack of social skills. (If this kid is based on true Generation AA neuroses, then there’s really no hope for the future.) Mostly, you walk away from this one appreciating its gentle humor and modest humanity—something that’s become all too rare in current cinema. Better than your average summer fling, for sure.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix

It looks like it's time for these mutants to mutate into something else. Though a certifiable box-office bomb, I didn't think this flick was quite that bad--just not anything particularly interesting and necessary. Like a lot of today's franchise movies, there's a little too much template involved here--large scale battle sequences, angsty interactions between the principals, too many characters on the screen to give any one of them adequate story time--to make this anything other than unwieldy and less than enjoyable, even as popcorn entertainment. There is some joy to be had, particularly in watching several good actors do their thing; McAvoy and Fassbender still bring it, and Lawrence makes a brief impression. But there's not enough of that, and some of the inherent silliness of these films flies over the top in this outing. The folks in charge of this franchise need to come up with a new formula soon--think The Wolverine as an example--or else there won't be any bouncing back for this series, regardless of the special abilities those involved bring to the table.

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.

Red Sparrow

Spying is hard. That may be the main takeaway from this flick. There are some downsides to this outing: the story gets a little murky with all its convolutions, Jennifer Lawrence is good but not as good as she usually is, and the edges here a quite rough. Indeed, watching this movie is a bit like looking at the cinematic version of Brutalism; there's none of the panache that so many Bond movies have imprinted upon us as a necessary component of the typical espionage thriller--particularly when Russia vs. the West is involved. And note: the violence here is particularly hardcore; no punches are pulled, and it's fair to assume that this film will be tough for some people to watch. Still, all in all, the story stays interesting all the way through, and the whole thing is intriguing enough--and challenging enough--that it earns relatively high marks. Take a look, but proceed with caution.

Passengers

This is a difficult movie to read, and review. It's a very watchable film--especially so given the very liberal utilization of star Jennifer Lawrence's watchability; almost every scene of this flick shows off Lawrence's attractiveness to maximum effect. No wonder she is as ubiquitous in today's movie scene as she is--though of course she's outdone in ubiquity by her co-star here, Chris Pratt, who is in more films these days than that suite of production logos--film processing companies, teamsters, the Humane Society--that you see at the end of every credits roll. Pratt may be wearing out his welcome, as he has more screen time here than anyone, and not quite as much impact. And none of that even addresses the story itself, which seems to have a lot of holes in it--and verges into the preposterous in the last third of the film. But, again, this one held my attention throughout, thanks in large part to Lawrence and a really good visual presentation. It's a tough call: you can skip it, but if you're a fan of the principals involved, you probably want to see this one. You really have to know what you like to make this judgement.

Joy

I think this is supposed to be an uplifting story, and I guess if you only look at pieces here and there, it works on that level. Eventually, it gets to where you think it’s going. But there’s so much in the way of downers along the way that, ultimately, the total effect is something less than it should be. You get the usual good work from the David O. Russell Players--at this point, I’m not sure if either Jennifer Lawrence or Bradley Cooper is capable of a bad performance--but this one turns out to be a little less than the sum of its parts. Not bad, to be sure--just not what it could have been.

X-Men: Apocalypse

The recursiveness of these movies is starting to take over the whole franchise. Indeed, maybe it has become the entire point of the exercise. The constant back and forth through time; shifting allegiances as characters move from villain to hero and back again--and maybe back again; the neverending origin-izing, of characters, characteristics, relationships; and the inevitable cameo by everyone’s by-far favorite manly X-Man...An actual plot to the movie almost becomes superfluous to the assemblage of all the things that make the franchise the franchise. Oh, yeah, and it also has the now-standard superhero-movie traits of all-life-as-we-know-it in peril and global destruction depicted with almost porn-fetish detail. So is this a bad movie? No, it has its upsides, too: some very, very good actors bringing dimensions to this story cycle that would otherwise be absent (though Oscar Isaac is largely wasted through being buried under his costuming); a certain amount of “cool” factor that remains even after it should have long since played out; and, in particular, one sequence in the movie--Quicksilver’s star turn at Xavier’s school--that is so well done that it almost makes watching this flick worth the effort all by itself. Bottom line: it’s possible that this well is just about dry now, but if this entry shows up on your favorite premium channel, you won’t regret watching it

X-Men: Days of Future Past

What's the strength of this franchise? Most would say action, special effects, the metaphor--whatever else is obvious about these movies. I'd say it's casting. The reason we care at all about what's going on here is simply how well these actors inhabit their roles, and make the characters meaningful to us despite all the hullabaloo. This is particularly so with Jackman's Wolverine, but also applies to Stewart and McAvoy as Xavier (they don't really look that much alike, but you still buy them as different ages of the same guy), Fassbender as Magneto, even the lightning quick kid whose name (and actor) I didn't catch. Oh, and what is going on here, a.k.a. story? Preposterous bullshit, of course--which is sort of the point of these things. Regardless, it's enjoyable bullshit, and worth at least a couple hours of your future time.

Silver Linings Playbook

You’re not likely to like this one right away. The dysfunction is very up front and in your face, right from the start, and it’s tough to find much that’s likeable in the main characters. But, much as with the lead characters themselves, the audience will find a slow thaw creeping over them, until the climax comes and you find yourself rooting for these misfit toys much more than you thought you would. And, if you’re from Philadelphia, you’ll know that they got a lot of that Eagles fan stuff spot on. It worked for me, at least.

X-Men: First Class

Lots of fun. True, lots of silly, profoundly implausible fun, but for what it is--a backdrop that plays while you munch away at your grain-silo-sized tub of popcorn--the movie performs its task admirably. There's plenty of easy on the eyes--certainly for the male viewer; probably for the female viewer, too, though I'm not one to judge that--and a good dose of cool visuals (nice but not overbearing special effects included), and an easy, comfortable attitude about the materials that more than makes up for the profound absurdity of the base premise. And, of course, Nazis with submarines; you never go wrong with Nazis with submarines. Wrap it all up and it's worth a couple of your hours.