Tag: Historical

3SMReviews: The Old Man and the Gun

3SMReviews: The Old Man and the Gun

David Lowery gives us an early-80s period piece with the Old Man and the Gun and Robert Redford is not shuffling off into the sunset with this, his supposed last film. Which is not to say this a lively film, as the old man style of robbing banks involves steady, calm walking (and not theatrics and shootouts,) plus some quiet romancing of a woman (Sissy Spaseck, who is good at playing the standard female romantic interest.) Casey Affleck does his usual Casey Affleck stuff as the detective on the case, and overall this makes for a fine Sunday Afternoon Movie*

Verdict: good

Consider also watching: if you want more Casey Affleck, but with him playing the outlaw, you can go for an earlier David Lowery film: Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. For a more lively Robert-Redford-as-outlaw movie consider Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Or The Sting, which is con man, not outlaw, and more fun.

Cost: $1.50 (the new Redbox price is $1.75, but I got a discount for renting two movies.)
Where watched: at home

*Movies that are entertaining, but not challenging and serve as one final breath of fresh air before you plunge into the last hours of your weekend.

3SMReviews: Mid90s

3SMReviews: Mid90s

Mid90s, Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, is not a great movie, but it’s got so many good scenes strung together that it transforms into a good movie, despite not really having an ending. How much you like this movie will depend on your tolerance for 90s male skater culture—one of the character’s nicknames is FuckShit—and all the baggage that comes with that.* I’m always interested in depictions of how boys are socialized by their friends into being whatever their version of a man is; this movie provides plenty of examples of this, both good and bad.**

Verdict: good

Consider also watching: Boyhood, Stand by Me

Cost: $1.50 (the new Redbox price is $1.75, but I got a discount for renting two movies.)
Where watched: at home

*I have a soft spot for skater culture, which makes it easier for me to overlook a lot of the questionable things that happen in this movie. Further thoughts: Jonah Hill’s liberal use of the N-word in his script. Okay because correct for the characters? Or not okay due to Hill being white? There was a lot of “faggot” too, but having been a teenager/young adult in the 90s I can report that the liberal use of that word was historically accurate. Unfortunately.
**Na-kel Smith’s Ray is headed in the right direction, Gio Galicia’s Ruben, not so much.

Picture via IMDB found on this page.

3SMReviews: If Beale Street Could Talk

3SMReviews: If Beale Street Could Talk
Stephan James as Fonny and KiKi Layne as Tish star in Barry Jenkins’ IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK, an Annapurna Pictures release.

Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk is gorgeous to look at, expertly acted and also just a tad slow. Tish and Fonny’s story is a weighty one, and I especially enjoyed Regina King’s performance as Tish’s mother Sharon. The pure love story dominates through the complications and injustices.

Verdict: Good

Consider also watching: Jenkins’ Medicine for Melancholy, which was his first movie. And he also did a little film called Moonlight.

Cost: $6.00
Where watched: at the Laurelhurst Theater with S. North.

3SMReviews: Anne with an “E” seasons 1 and 2

3smreviews: Anne with an E

Anne with an “E” takes the Anne of Green Gables story and characters, grounds it in a trauma-informed viewpoint and steers the series in a different direction than the books.* Amybeth McNulty as Anne carefully balances the tightrope that is Anne’s enthusiasm and (potentially annoying) unbridled joy. The rest of the supporting players are very good, especially Geraldine James and R.H. Thomson as Marilla and Matthew;** plus they have cast the excellent Lucas Jade Zumann*** as Gilbert Blythe.

Cost: Netflix monthly subscription fee ($7.99)
Where watched: at home
Adapted from the book: Anne of Green Gables

*I’ve talked to two people who say that the 1985 Megan Follows Anne of Green Gables was THE Anne of Green Gables and there is no reason to ever make another version. One was rather vehement in her statement. I disagree with this view. After all, I watched four versions of the same movie this year. All were made in different decades and brought different things to their recycled plot. Just like this version’s focus on how Anne’s time as an orphan would reverberate even after she was adopted.
**Also quite good: the belt Geraldine James wears throughout the series.
***Who was so amazing in 20th Century Women

3SMReviews: The Favourite

3SMReviews: The Favourite

Yorgos Lanthimos gives us the Christmas gift of three amazing actors in The Favourite and I enjoyed every moment of the characters’ slow-motion train wrecks. Aside from great acting and an intense story, there are amazing costumes* and a scene so good that it caused people in my screening to break into applause. Despite its drawing room appearance, this movie changes things up (like a traditional formal dance at a ball that morphs into all sorts of current dance moves) and is contemporary in every way.

Verdict: Recommended

Cost: $9.00
Where watched: Hollywood Theatre with friend Kelly.

*The women look good in their gowns, but Nicholas Hoult really dazzles in his fancy dress and powdered face and wig.

3SMReviews: First Man

3SMReviews: First Man

Damien Chazelle teams up with Ryan Gosling in First Man, a very feelings-based telling of Neil Armstrong’s story. Both Gosling and Claire Foy (as Janet Armstrong) are very good as the stoic couple who never thought they would be public figures. This movie has the White Guys in Suits* problem, and I would have rather watched it with subtitles as the dialogue gets lost in places amid the very industrial sound design, but I loved this movie’s focus on a man with a lot of feelings who never lets any of them out.

Verdict: Recommended

Cost: $4.00
Where watched: at the Academy Theater with S. North and an audience that wandered in and out of the theater during the movie, plus a guy behind us who commented loudly and often.**

*It was very hard to get names of the supporting cast and match them with faces. Being the 60’s, there were a lot of similar looking men in shirtsleeves with ties. This movie also had the same problem as in Lincoln: there were so many “Who is that guy?” moments.  Patrick Fugit I recognized from the get-go, but there was also the guy from Girls, the guy from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the guy from Mudbound, the guy from Inception, the guy from the first Ant-Man movie, etc. etc. etc.
** “Space junk!” was perhaps my favorite of his eruptions.***
***He didn’t bug me tremendously, as it reminded me of when S. North and I saw the preview for this film and it so annoyed an audience member he loudly proclaimed, “WHY ARE THEY TRYING TO MAKE IT TENSE? We already KNOW what happens!” Both of us laughed.

3SMReviews: Roma

3SMReviews: Roma

Alfonso Cuarón lets his camera linger in Roma, which is nice because then we can draw our own conclusions. In this black and white film, we experience Cleo’s life as a servant in an upper-class house in Mexico City. Much like Y Tu Mamá También, I loved watching the relationships develop and change, plus there are some pretty intense scenes.*

*One extended male full frontal scene was intense and funny. Some other scenes were intense and heartbreaking.

Verdict: Recommended

Where watched: at home
Cost: Netflix monthly subscription ($7.99)

3SMReviews: Can You Ever Forgive Me

3SMReviews: Can You Ever Forgive Me

Marielle Heller achieves the ultimate in Can You Ever Forgive Me. She gives us a movie about an unlikable character* and provides us with enough details so we can feel sympathy and like that character. Part of the credit goes to the marvelous Melissa McCarthy, who excels in a person who can’t let anyone in, and feels love only for her cat.**

Verdict: Recommended
Consider also watching: Heller’s excellent The Diary of a Teenage Girl

Cost: $5.55 (though free due to gift cards)
Where watched: Regal City Center Stadium 12.

*A post-40, lesbian, fat woman to be precise.
**I also love that this movie was not about a total transformation of this very flawed character.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2018/can_you_ever_forgive_me.html

3SMReviews: Bohemian Rhapsody

3SMReviews: Bohemian Rhapsody
poser from: http://www.impawards.com/2018/bohemian_rhapsody.html

Like all biopics, Bryan Singer’s Bohemian Rhapsody is a little draggy and lingers too long on the bacchanalian debauchery period of Mr. Mercury’s life. Despite that, it was a delightful feast for they eye (clothing! interiors! concert scenes!) and ear (Queen’s music!*). Rami Malek’s performance was so very good and I liked the performances of the rest of the actors playing Queen band members.

Verdict: Good

Cost: $6.00
Where watched: Laurelhurst Theater with a ton of people with white hair (who were probably Queen fans in real time).

*I am a casual follower of Queen’s music, only owning Queen’s Greatest Hits volume I and II and only really listening to volume I.

3SMReviews: Outlaw King

3SMReviews: Outlaw King
http://www.impawards.com/tv/outlaw_king_ver2.html

Chris Pine and his blue, blue eyes star in Outlaw King, a movie about Robert the Bruce which includes a lot of bloody treachery, especially concerning horses.* This is a solid story with attempts made to include women in the narrative.** The costumes are great in their raggedness and there are a ton of gorgeous landscape shots.

Verdict: Good

Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($7.99)
Where watched: at home

*I mean, I got what was going to happen to the horses when they outlined the technique in the training scene, so I didn’t need to watch it repeatedly during the battle scene. (The battle tactics were, admittedly, a genius move on Robert the Bruce’s part.)
**This is always appreciated, though I suspect if more women wrote and directed movies, we would see war movies where women are something besides helpers.