It (2017)
I watched the 1990 miniseries as a preteen and read the massive novel shortly after. I have a fond attachment for the performances of Annette O’Toole, John Ritter, Harry Anderson, Richard Thomas, and especially Tim Curry as Pennywise.
But, sadly, I watched it again a few years back and it doesn’t hold up. It’s long, repetitive, and boring. The more graphic parts of the novel have been gutted; it feels like they took the movie’s soul.
I desperately wanted this adaptation to succeed, and it did. In fact, it’s one of the better Stephen King inspired works. I loved that they updated the story to the 1980s and focused on the kids instead of flashing back and forth to their return as adults. Side note: Finn Wolfhard is now the go to kid for 80s nostalgia.
Bill Skarsgaard doesn’t have the charisma Curry did, but his version of Pennywise is more menacing; the clown is frightening.
Happily, this film embraces the King mythology more than previous adaptations have, even the crazier stuff (like the turtle).
I wholly endorse director Muschietti’s decision to excise the kid orgy from the novel. Such a weird scene would have dominated the movie and the controversy could have engulfed it.
As a longtime admirer of Stephen King’s works, this almost makes up for the travesty of The Dark Tower adaptation from earlier in the year.
Ruthless People (1986)
Before millionaire Sam Stone (Danny Devito) can murder his wife Barbara (Bette Midler) and run away with his mistress Carol, he receives a phone call saying she’s been kidnapped. Sam ignores their demands, hoping her kidnappers (Judge Reinhold and Helen Slater) will kill Barbara for him.
Meanwhile, Carol plans to blackmail Sam with the help of her boyfriend Earl (Bill Pullman).
The various double crosses and deceptions highlight the darkest aspects of humanity. None of the characters are pleasant and all are more than willing to do despicable things to accomplish their goals. With its labyrinthine plot and amoral characters, it feels like a template for the best Seinfeld episodes.
DeVito is at his best playing an unscrupulous sleazeball; Midler is surprisingly likable; Slater is fine, but unspectacular; Pullman is a little too goofy; and Reinhold is a less sophisticated John Cleese.
It’s a fun, dark comedy unafraid to embrace evil at a time when most films were trying to soften their edges.
Logan (2017)
There may be a few more X-men movies by 20th Century Fox before the characters are subsumed by Disney’s Marvel universe, but if not, this is a fitting end to one of the biggest film series.
Jackman’s Wolverine has long been the face of the franchise, with Stewart’s Professor X a close second. Both are given something increasingly rare in franchise tent poles: a final act which brings their characters to a close.
Stewart gives one of the best performances of his career as the mental giant whose mind fails him at the end of his life and I loved seeing Stephen Merchant in a blockbuster comic book movie.
I believe Jackman will eventually succumb to the massive money on the table and reprise his role as Wolverine in an official MCU film, but I hope this is the last time we see his version of the character. It gives a real depth and purpose to his torturous life and brings the adopted father-son dynamic between him and Xavier into sharp focus.
Serenity (2005)
Sadly, Firefly and its eclectic mix of Eastern mysticism, Wild West adventure, and progressive science fiction, debuted approximately ten years too soon. It would have been a perfect match for Netflix or Amazon Prime, but 2002 network television was a poor fit for its ambitious genre bending.
It’s comforting to see Mal, Kaylee, Jayne, and River continue their adventures, while the deaths of Shepherd Book and Wash raise the stakes from the television show, making this film more about the danger of their world than the community formed on the titular ship.
At times this feels like a special finale episode, but I’ll take any excuse for more stories in this unique world.
Mustang (2015)
Five Turkish sisters struggle to find fulfillment in a patriarchal society. They’re not allowed physical contact with boys or to leave their home. They’re expected to be domestic servants until they’re old enough to marry.
Inspired by a former teacher, the youngest sister, Lale leads the others on several unorthodox adventures including a surreptitious trip to a forbidden soccer game.
The two oldest sisters are married. One happily to her lover, the other to an ill-suited stranger. The third sister, unable to cope with her uncle’s lecherous advances, commits suicide. At the fourth sister’s wedding, the indomitable Lale convinces her to runaway to Istanbul and reunite with their former teacher.
This harrowing film forces us to confront the harsh realities of life in the middle East and other places of the world where women are treated as property. It’s a beautiful statement about the power of the human spirit to overcome seemingly insurmountable difficulties.
While we’re obsessed with the gender politics of celebrity tweets, there are real young women like Lale struggling with issues larger than the implication of Taylor Swift’s new haircut. This film chastens us to not get so lost in the rabbit hole of western feminism we forget the people left behind in its wake.
Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966)
Morgan Delt struggles distinguishing between fantasy and reality. When his wife, Leoni (Vanessa Redrgave), asks for a divorce, it severs his already tenuous hold. He tries vainly to win her back through a series of absurd plans, culminating in crashing her wedding in a gorilla suit.
Redgrave was Oscar nominated, but Warner carries the movie, providing a layered portrait of a man going slowly insane. Remarkable for the time, this is a balanced and nuanced treatment of mental illness and declines to pass judgment on Morgan, instead choosing to blame the society around him for his travails. His connection between the entertainments he’s seen (notably King Kong and Tarzan) and his own situation are an indictment of our obsession with entertainment.
This is a fine treatment of mental health issues and an important marker for how we treat the issue.
Best of Enemies (2015)
During the 1968 Republican and Democratic National conventions, floundering ABC news shook things up, hiring conservative intellectual William F. Buckley Jr. and liberal intellectual Gore Vidal to debate the issues.
The “debate” quickly became personal and heated, culminating in an ugly exchange where Vidal called Buckley a “crypto-Nazi” and Buckley responded by calling Vidal a “queer” and threatened to assault him.
This is fascinating because the two men profiled are fascinating. The personal animosity and rage were unheard of in 1968, but have since sadly become commonplace; their confrontational rivalry is the template for today’s nightly cable news channels.
Their hatred for each other did not subside with the conclusion of the program. Each man wrote an inflammatory article recounting the experience which led to a protracted legal process alleging libel and slander. Their enmity lasted for the next forty years: when Buckley passed away in 2008, Vidal wrote he hoped Bill was enjoying his time in hell.
The film uses archival footage to recreate the intensity of their time together, as well as personal written material of the two principles, with Kelsey Grammer reading as Buckley while John Lithgow stands in for Vidal.
I love politics, and I love arguments, and I especially love eclectic characters. This is a great movie about an important turning point in our political discourse.
The Eagle (1925)
After Vladimir Dubrovsky (Rudolph Valentino) rescues Mascha, the Czarina (Catherine the Great) notices his bravery and offers to make him a general. However, when the insatiable Catherine attempts a seduction, he flees.
After a letter informs him an evil nobleman, Kyrilla Troekouriff, is harassing his family, Dubrovsky returns home to find his father has died. He dons a mask and becomes the Black Eagle to avenge his father’s death, but his plans are complicated when he falls in love with Kyrilla’s daughter, Mascha, the girl he rescued earlier.
I enjoyed the film’s depiction of the ravenous sexual appetite of Catherine the Great, but it’s too convoluted, and the story of love complicating revenge has become commonplace. The reason this film is worth watching is Rudolph Valentino. He exudes charisma and his raw sexuality elevates the flimsy premise of a Russian Robin Hood into something interesting.
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) escorts outlaw Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Red Rock where she’ll be hanged.
Joining them on their stagecoach is Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a black bounty hunter, former major in the Union Army, and possible pen pal of Abraham Lincoln.
Soon the coach picks up one last passenger, Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), a Confederate sympathizer and the incoming sheriff of Red Rock.
When the coach arrives at Minnie’s Haberdashery, the quartet take shelter from the upcoming blizzard and meet the rest of the titular octet, Bob (Demian Bichir), Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), and former confederate general Sandy Smithers (Bruce Dern).
None of the group trusts each other, with good reason. As they feel each other out, there’s copious snappy dialogue, and plenty of racial epithets hurled at Warren, including a particularly nasty exchange with Smithers.
As everyone’s back story and hidden agenda are slowly revealed, there are fights, bloodshed, and death.
Ironically for a film where most of the action takes place in a small cabin, Tarantino filmed in expansive 70 mm, which somehow makes the film feel huge and claustrophobic at the same time.
I love Goggins and this is his best work since The Shield. Leigh’s performance is her best in a decade. Jackson is the film’s emotional centerpiece and carries the weight well. Russell trades in on his iconic and beloved performances of the 1980s, but doesn’t do anything new. Bruce Dern was disappointingly pedestrian.
I enjoyed most of the film, but the Tatum ex Machina felt contrived (even by Tarantino standards). Perhaps the original ending would have been more satisfying, but after the first draft of the script leaked online, Quentin defiantly refused to film that version.
The characters and dialogue will stick with me, but my memory will be clouded by my distaste for the ending.
Dunkirk (2017)
There have been war pictures bigger in scope than Christopher Nolan’s depiction of the retreat and evacuation of Dunkirk, but few have combined so many critiques of war into one film.
The heroism and sacrifice of random individuals, the overwhelming sense of duty, the palpable, paralyzing fear. The hopelessness, the confusion, the sense of inevitability.
This is the closest we can approximate what the “fog of war” must be like. Some thrive in it, but many wilt under the intense pressure.
With this film, Nolan continues his move from popular, tent pole films to films with purpose (like Spielberg twenty years earlier). Extra bonus: we learned Harry Styles can act.
Lady Windermere’s Fan (1925)
Oscar Wilde’s wit and insight combined with Ernst Lubitsch’s magnficent direction: that pedigree makes this appointment viewing for every serious film buff.
Unusual for Wilde, there’s little levity. He’s smart enough to hint at humor, but consistently thwarts our expectations.
Like Satan in Paradise Lost, Ms. Erlynne is where all of the play’s energy lies. Wilde knows we desperately want a happy ending for her and want her to find redemption. Yet even after she saves her daughter from ruin (sacrificing her own chance at a renewed reputation), she’s unrepentant for the life she’s lived and doesn’t intend to start living according to anyone’s standards but her own.
By focusing all our attention on a woman who refuses to accept conventional norms of decency and motherhood, the film (and source play) defiantly point towards the sexual revolution of the mid twentieth century. It’s easy to see Wilde’s homosexuality and his own precarious position lurking in the shadows, wanting for all the world to be as free as Ms. Erlynne.