Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Dir. David Yates
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The Harry Potter series was one of the biggest, most reliable cash cows ever for Warner Brothers Entertainment. Every year or so saw another guaranteed box office hit with a rabid built-in fan base and studio execs were showering themselves in gold doubloons a la Scrooge McDuck. But look - uh oh - there aren't any more books left to adapt in J.K. Rowling's Potter series! Now how will the executives pay for their third or fourth beach houses?! The answer lies in returning to the wizarding well in a new form: the spin-off/prequel, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Though it may be a fresh property not based on an existing book, featuring a whole slew of new characters, Fantastic Beasts still feels like one of the most calculated movie productions this year, manufactured to be a hit.
Beasts moves away from the enchanting world of rural England to the muggle-centric (non-magical) concrete jungle of 1920s New York. Our hero is the charmingly awkward Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), who has arrived in the Big Apple as a pit stop after a long expedition documenting a fantastic array of magical creatures around the globe. However, after a classic "screwball comedy" suitcase-switch scenario, Newt accidentally hands his case to the blue collar wannabe-baker Jacob (Dan Fogler) and the creatures locked inside his Mary Poppins-loaned suitcase with unlimited space are unleashed, and it's up to Newt, Jacob, and their no-nonsense friend Tina (Katherine Waterston), a former member of the Magical Congress of the USA, to re-capture the loose monsters like an extreme version of Pokemon Go.
While it's hard to not be cynical about this movie's existence, admittedly, Rowling does a nice job here (with her screenwriting debut) making us care about this cast and creating a new world, feeling markedly different from the main Potter series. Rowling mixes the fantasy genre with everything from film noir, screwball comedy, to even a bit of kid-safe horror. While they may not be as developed as Harry, Ron, and Hermoine, the main "trio" definitely have that spark that holds promise for future films in this inevitable multi-film franchise. So if you've been shivering in a corner since Potter ended and need your wizard fix, this should tide you over for the time being.
That being said, the main plot and most of the side characters are just plain bad. Aside from Newt's city-wide creature search, there's a whole second story going on involving a wizard-murdering mystery entity that feels like it only exists to set up sequels. There's some dark, strange family at its center, with Ezra Miller playing some kind of weirdly-haircutted psycho son and the Head of Magical Security (Colin Ferrell) on their tail. None of this weird side plot worked for me, so almost the entire latter half of the film fell flat. Had Rowling stuck to simply using this movie to introduce new characters and center the story entirely on the titular "fantastic beasts," it would have been more fun and streamlined and less like the cold, franchise-building "assembly line" style that many of the lesser Marvel and DC superhero films stoop to.
Overall, I don't think Fantastic Beasts is going to hold many surprises. The visual effects are spectacular and transport you into a cool, imaginative world, the costume and set design are top notch, the acting is great (Redmayne's imitation of a "Erumpent" is something to behold), and I even got a little misty eyed at the end as the characters go their separate ways. But as the main characters start to take a backseat to the mind-numbingly generic city destruction sequences in its latter half, Beasts feels like any other given crappy big budget "spectacle" movie churned out for studio "safe" money.
Rating: B-
Arrival
Dir. Denis Villeneuve
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SPOILERS in the second paragraph for the first 5 minutes of the film!
Denis Villeneuve is one of the best directors working today, with Prisoners, Enemy, and Sicario - all beautifully-shot, thoughtful, intelligent movies - having been released within a year of each other. I don't know how the guy does it (must be a Canadian thing), but he's at it again with his fourth movie in four years, Arrival, a similarly high-concept film made with the directorial deftness of a master craftsman. The movie follows a linguistics professor, Louise Banks (Amy Adams), who is tasked to lead an elite team of scientists and military personnel when gigantic, obelisk-shaped spaceships touch down on 12 locations around the Earth. Nations are scrambling to understand why they are here, how to communicate with them, and why they chose to land where they did (even at one point claiming "Sheena Easton had a hit in each area in the 80s").
Watching Arrival reminded me of Soderbergh's Contagion - each movie creates elaborate "what if" scenarios that feel exactly like how they would happen in real life. In Arrival, each nation responds differently in how to handle the situation - heck, individual members of the same science team disagree - and part of the film feels like an intense game of chess. Arrival is all about communication - communication between nations, between species, between family, and between yourself. The way Villeneuve ties together Louise's personal struggle in coping with the death of her young daughter (in an opening montage reminiscent of Pixar's Up) with this otherworldly ET scenario is amazingly handled. I don't want to spoil the revelations, but the way the story converges on itself using science fiction ideas I have yet to see depicted on screen (at least in this way), and how that relates to Adams' motherhood makes this a surprisingly emotional, poignant film.
To limit Arrival as simply a well-made B-movie is a complete disservice to what I consider a new sci-fi masterpiece. But it's also hard to discuss or talk about without giving away details that are best left to be awe-struck by watching it in a dark theater. From a visual and aural standpoint, it is absolutely perfect and features some of the best cinematography, sound design, and music scoring of the year. Arrival was also the first movie I watched after the election results, and I don't want to pull a Hamilton and get all political, but its message of communication between vastly different cultures and finding common ground for the benefit of humanity is something I hope we can try to do in real life, even if the next four-eight years are going to be scary and unpredictable.
Rating: A
The Edge of Seventeen
Dir. Kelly Fremon Craig
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It seems like the "teen" high school movies of the 80s and 90s have gone by the way side in favor of pubescent wizards and sparkling vampires. The Edge of Seventeen is here to take that genre back, retrofitting the formula of the 'Brat Pack' flicks for a millennial audience. But to say that Kelly Fremon Craig's delightful directorial debut is nothing but a hollow imitation of a bygone era would be totally wrong - The Edge of Seventeen is one of the best movies I've ever seen of its kind and deserves to be a cult hit. Why this was released in theaters the same weekend as Harry Potter 2.0 is beyond me, but this deserves to become a high school classic.
The film follows high school junior Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), whose life is nothing more than a series of awkward moments. Things somehow take a turn for the worse when her annoyingly flawless brother (Blake Jenner) starts dating her best - and only - friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson). Nadine feels like God is poking at her life with a sharp stick, and making matters worse is her deadbeat mother (Kyra Sedgwick) and her sarcastic history teacher (Woody Harrolsen), who ribs her at every opportunity. The movie unfolds like a series of small uncomfortably relatable, humiliating moments that all feel thoroughly authentic and true. Unlike even some of the better John Hughes movies, none of characters here feel like stereotypes - they feel real and lived-in, with the headlining Steinfeld giving one of the best performances of the year - made even more impressive by the fact that Steinfeld has probably had anything but the typical adolescent experience to draw from, seeing as she's worked with A-list celebrities and has a successful side-career as a pop singer.
The Edge of Seventeen is a witty, funny movie with just the right amount of sentimentality without straying into pure "schmaltz" territory. It's a film about learning to live with yourself, and Craig taps into those universal moments we all experience with an expert precision (I regularly found myself thinking "I've said that..." or "Yup...that was me..."). It might be predictable, and formally it might exist as a remnant of an old genre, but The Edge of Seventeen is one of the best examples of coming-of-age storytelling I've seen in either film or literature.
Rating: A-
Loving
Dir. Jeff Nichols
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Loving, the latest film from Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Mud), is basically a courtroom drama without a courtroom. It follows the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving (Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga), whose marriage in 1958 Virginia was declared illegal due to the different colors of their skin. They actually end up in jail literally just for loving each other. Their case went all the way to the Supreme Court and established the Loving v. Virginia decision, holding that laws prohibiting interracial marriage are unconstitutional. It's an incredible story that seems perfectly suited to be dramatized on screen - but Nichols is far less interested in the case itself than in the mundane, everyday minutae of Richard and Mildred's life - which for me, was not nearly as interesting.
I feel like Loving is one of those movies everyone else loves but me, and I think it's because of the whole "snapshot" mentality of the film, meant to evoke the same feeling as looking at an old photograph. But what works for photography doesn't necessarily work as well for a motion picture. Like a photograph - this movie seems to be at a standstill. Although Joel Edgerton's performance is great, his part is pretty thankless on the page - having to grunt and harumph his way through a part that's nearly dialogue-free. I bought Edgerton and Negga as a couple, but watching people doing their daily chores feels like a chore. The few glimpses we do get of the court case are also pretty bland as the Lovings' representative, Bernie Cohen, is played by comedian Nick Kroll, who simply does not fit in this straightforward dramatic movie.
Overall, there's nothing particularly "bad" about Loving; it dramatizes the private lives of a couple who wanted to live a simple, pleasant working class life, but were forced to create history if only to remain together. It's shot exceptionally well and the two leads are sure to be in contention for some Oscar nominations this year, but for whatever reason I found it bland and uneventful. Having not really heard of this story before, I'd be much more interested in checking out the HBO documentary The Loving Story than revisiting this frankly boring movie.
Rating: C+
Rating: B-
Arrival
Dir. Denis Villeneuve
Watch Trailer
SPOILERS in the second paragraph for the first 5 minutes of the film!
Denis Villeneuve is one of the best directors working today, with Prisoners, Enemy, and Sicario - all beautifully-shot, thoughtful, intelligent movies - having been released within a year of each other. I don't know how the guy does it (must be a Canadian thing), but he's at it again with his fourth movie in four years, Arrival, a similarly high-concept film made with the directorial deftness of a master craftsman. The movie follows a linguistics professor, Louise Banks (Amy Adams), who is tasked to lead an elite team of scientists and military personnel when gigantic, obelisk-shaped spaceships touch down on 12 locations around the Earth. Nations are scrambling to understand why they are here, how to communicate with them, and why they chose to land where they did (even at one point claiming "Sheena Easton had a hit in each area in the 80s").
Watching Arrival reminded me of Soderbergh's Contagion - each movie creates elaborate "what if" scenarios that feel exactly like how they would happen in real life. In Arrival, each nation responds differently in how to handle the situation - heck, individual members of the same science team disagree - and part of the film feels like an intense game of chess. Arrival is all about communication - communication between nations, between species, between family, and between yourself. The way Villeneuve ties together Louise's personal struggle in coping with the death of her young daughter (in an opening montage reminiscent of Pixar's Up) with this otherworldly ET scenario is amazingly handled. I don't want to spoil the revelations, but the way the story converges on itself using science fiction ideas I have yet to see depicted on screen (at least in this way), and how that relates to Adams' motherhood makes this a surprisingly emotional, poignant film.
To limit Arrival as simply a well-made B-movie is a complete disservice to what I consider a new sci-fi masterpiece. But it's also hard to discuss or talk about without giving away details that are best left to be awe-struck by watching it in a dark theater. From a visual and aural standpoint, it is absolutely perfect and features some of the best cinematography, sound design, and music scoring of the year. Arrival was also the first movie I watched after the election results, and I don't want to pull a Hamilton and get all political, but its message of communication between vastly different cultures and finding common ground for the benefit of humanity is something I hope we can try to do in real life, even if the next four-eight years are going to be scary and unpredictable.
Rating: A
The Edge of Seventeen
Dir. Kelly Fremon Craig
Watch Trailer
It seems like the "teen" high school movies of the 80s and 90s have gone by the way side in favor of pubescent wizards and sparkling vampires. The Edge of Seventeen is here to take that genre back, retrofitting the formula of the 'Brat Pack' flicks for a millennial audience. But to say that Kelly Fremon Craig's delightful directorial debut is nothing but a hollow imitation of a bygone era would be totally wrong - The Edge of Seventeen is one of the best movies I've ever seen of its kind and deserves to be a cult hit. Why this was released in theaters the same weekend as Harry Potter 2.0 is beyond me, but this deserves to become a high school classic.
The film follows high school junior Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), whose life is nothing more than a series of awkward moments. Things somehow take a turn for the worse when her annoyingly flawless brother (Blake Jenner) starts dating her best - and only - friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson). Nadine feels like God is poking at her life with a sharp stick, and making matters worse is her deadbeat mother (Kyra Sedgwick) and her sarcastic history teacher (Woody Harrolsen), who ribs her at every opportunity. The movie unfolds like a series of small uncomfortably relatable, humiliating moments that all feel thoroughly authentic and true. Unlike even some of the better John Hughes movies, none of characters here feel like stereotypes - they feel real and lived-in, with the headlining Steinfeld giving one of the best performances of the year - made even more impressive by the fact that Steinfeld has probably had anything but the typical adolescent experience to draw from, seeing as she's worked with A-list celebrities and has a successful side-career as a pop singer.
The Edge of Seventeen is a witty, funny movie with just the right amount of sentimentality without straying into pure "schmaltz" territory. It's a film about learning to live with yourself, and Craig taps into those universal moments we all experience with an expert precision (I regularly found myself thinking "I've said that..." or "Yup...that was me..."). It might be predictable, and formally it might exist as a remnant of an old genre, but The Edge of Seventeen is one of the best examples of coming-of-age storytelling I've seen in either film or literature.
Rating: A-
Loving
Dir. Jeff Nichols
Watch Trailer
Loving, the latest film from Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Mud), is basically a courtroom drama without a courtroom. It follows the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving (Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga), whose marriage in 1958 Virginia was declared illegal due to the different colors of their skin. They actually end up in jail literally just for loving each other. Their case went all the way to the Supreme Court and established the Loving v. Virginia decision, holding that laws prohibiting interracial marriage are unconstitutional. It's an incredible story that seems perfectly suited to be dramatized on screen - but Nichols is far less interested in the case itself than in the mundane, everyday minutae of Richard and Mildred's life - which for me, was not nearly as interesting.
I feel like Loving is one of those movies everyone else loves but me, and I think it's because of the whole "snapshot" mentality of the film, meant to evoke the same feeling as looking at an old photograph. But what works for photography doesn't necessarily work as well for a motion picture. Like a photograph - this movie seems to be at a standstill. Although Joel Edgerton's performance is great, his part is pretty thankless on the page - having to grunt and harumph his way through a part that's nearly dialogue-free. I bought Edgerton and Negga as a couple, but watching people doing their daily chores feels like a chore. The few glimpses we do get of the court case are also pretty bland as the Lovings' representative, Bernie Cohen, is played by comedian Nick Kroll, who simply does not fit in this straightforward dramatic movie.
Overall, there's nothing particularly "bad" about Loving; it dramatizes the private lives of a couple who wanted to live a simple, pleasant working class life, but were forced to create history if only to remain together. It's shot exceptionally well and the two leads are sure to be in contention for some Oscar nominations this year, but for whatever reason I found it bland and uneventful. Having not really heard of this story before, I'd be much more interested in checking out the HBO documentary The Loving Story than revisiting this frankly boring movie.
Rating: C+
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