Coco
Dir. Lee Unkrich
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"They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." These words helped elect our current wall-obsessed president into office - words that paint a portrait of Mexican immigrants as, to put it in Obi Wan terms, a hive of scum and villainy. Pixar's latest, Coco, is pretty much the cinematic antidote to those hate-filled diatribes spouted by ignorant people. Celebrating Mexican culture, its music, traditions, mythology, and family dynamics, Coco is a beautiful a love letter to our neighbors south of the border.
The story follows Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez), an aspiring musician who idolizes the mariachi singer Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt). However, for generations his humble shoe-making family has banned all music ever since Miguel's great-great grandfather abandoned his wife and daughter Coco for a life playing music. Desperate to follow his dreams, Miguel secretly enlists in a talent show for the Day of the Dead, Mexico's festival celebrating passed loved ones where the dead visit the living. But due to an unforeseen supernatural snafu, Miguel accidentally enters the colorful Land of the Dead along with a friendly street dog named Dante. Desperate for a way back to the Land of the Living, he befriends a charming, down-on-his-luck skeleton named Hector (Gael García Bernal) on a journey to go back home, and along the way unlock secrets about his family history.
It almost goes without saying that the animation here is stunning. Pixar continually tops itself, and with Coco, they bring to life both the streets of Mexico and the Land of the Dead with so much warmth and humor. Despite its grim subject matter depicting undead skeletons and the afterlife, Coco isn't eerie in the manner of Tim Burton or Henry Selick - it's joyous and vibrant. The way the skeletons move is slick and kinetic, and it's incredible how the animation team made them light on their feet and light in spirit as well.
I'm not a religious person, but I found the concept of the "Land of the Dead" a beautiful idea. Despite their "dead" status, there are stakes involved with the skeleton characters, because as soon as they are "forgotten" in the Land of the Living (i.e. no photograph or memory exists of them), they disappear forever. Coco is essentially a film about family and keeping your ancestors alive in your heart, whether through music or otherwise, and you'd have to have a chunk of coal where your heart should be not to be moved during this flick.
Writer and co-director Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3) spent six years trying to "get it right" with Coco. The characters and the world feels totally authentic (complete with Latin-American grandmother shoe-throwing) and the plot is expertly and precisely executed, especially considering all the exposition needed to simply explain the rules of the afterlife. While it may be a somewhat predictable "hero's journey" with some familiar plot developments seen elsewhere in Pixar's filmography, Coco is a fun, visually stunning, tear-jerking adventure filled with great music and a lot of heart. ¡Es fantástico!
Rating: B+
PS: Before the main feature, there's a 20-minute long short film, Olaf's Frozen Adventure, that has been getting a lot of hate from critics and cinemagoers. It got so bad that it was subsequently removed from theaters in Mexico. Maybe I'm crazy, but I found it to be a fun and delightful story about friendship and traditions. It is kind of odd though that Disney would tack on literally the whitest possible short in front of one of their most specifically non-white films.
Roman J. Israel, Esq.
Dir. Dan Gilroy
Dan Gilroy's follow-up to Nightcrawler (my #2 of 2014), features yet another socially-awkward misfit going through a kind of ethical dilemma in the city of Los Angeles. Only instead of the world of TV news, Roman J. Israel depicts the underbelly of the criminal justice system. Denzel Washington stars as an idealistic savant lawyer, Roman Israel, whose life is upended when his law partner, a civil rights icon, dies suddenly. While his partner was the "face" of the firm, it's Roman who was the brains behind the operation. He's soon recruited to join a firm led by one of his mentor's former students, George Pierce (Colin Farrell). Thrust into the frontman position for the first time, Roman starts to learn some unsettling truths about the firm he's worked for, and finds himself in an existential crisis leading him to unpredictable, extreme actions.
My big problem with Roman J. Israel, Esq (besides its unwieldy title), is that Denzel's over-the-top character is hard to pin down and utterly confusing at times. Roman makes certain head-scratching ethical decisions that make little sense other than in the context of Dan Gilroy trying to make a "complex" character who doesn't act all in one prescribed way. But the ultimate effect is a character that's difficult to know how to feel about, unlike the well-drawn character of Lou Bloom in Nightcrawler. As I left the theater, in addition to being bored (this film is aggressively uncinematic at times), I had no clue what message or theme I was supposed to get out of the movie.
Roman J. Israel Esq. sports a watchable performance from Denzel Washington and hints at a better movie about ethics and the criminal justice system, but the story is a muddled mess without much to latch onto. I can't think of a single person I'd recommend this to other than die-hard Denzel completists.
Rating: C-
Loving Vincent
Dir. Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman
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Loving Vincent is one of those movies that's hard to imagine even exists. This animated film brings the story of Vincent van Gogh to life through a series of oil paintings professionally created by over 125 artists. Every single frame of this film (roughly 65,000 of them), was hand-painted and seamlessly animated to a feature film format. It's an absolutely gorgeous movie where the work that went into it is clear in every detail, bringing many of van Gogh's iconic works to life. It's a shame that the movie itself isn't as great as its format.
The film takes place one year after Vincent's death, with the son of a postman, Armand (Douglas Booth), tasked with personally delivering Van Gogh's last letter to his brother, Theo. However, Armand discovers Theo died shortly after his brother, and the rest of the film more or less has Armand bouncing around different people who knew van Gogh and learning more about him, discovering the secret complexities and relationships of this genius painter.
Unfortunately this "Citizen Kane" treatment of the story just doesn't work very well, and it soon becomes watch-checkingly slow. Once the magic of the individual paintings starts to wane after getting used to the animation, the movie just slows to a crawl. The performances are stilted and the detective angle feels pointless when the "mystery" is relatively slight. It's too bad, but despite being one of the best looking movies of the year, Loving Vincent is a bit of a snoozefest.
Rating: B-
Novitiate
Dir. Maggie Betts
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"Nun movies" have a reputation for being exceedingly dry and a difficult sit, but Novitiate, from first-time director Maggie Betts, is anything but. Set in the 1960s, the film follows 17-year-old Cathleen (Margaret Qualley) who is pursuing a vocation to be a nun. Her childhood was dysfunctional and despite coming from a secular home with an agnostic mother (Julianne Nicholson), she is drawn to Catholicism due to its comforting quietness and order she never had growing up.
To her mother's dismay, Cathleen enters the convent under the tutelage of the "old school" Reverend Mother (Melissa Leo), who is reluctant to enact the new church rulings under Vatican II which rules out some of the more "extreme" religious practices. At the same time, Cathleen and many of her fellow nuns-in-training are feeling the effects of their new lifestyle, isolated from the world and feeling sexually and emotionally frustrated.
Novitiate is an absolutely fascinating movie that examines why people would choose to make these vows while both respecting and criticizing the system that these young women fall victim to. At the end of the day, nuns are human beings with human desires, as repressed as they are, and this film humanizes their struggles better than any I've seen. Even the ruthless Reverend Mother is not a one-dimensional witch; she's terrified that the Vatican II changes will destroy their community and way of life.
Superbly acted across the board and beautifully directed by Maggie Betts, I'm hoping I can squeeze Novitiate into my crowded "top ten" this year.
Rating: A-
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