Moana, Allied, Bad Santa 2, Christine Reviews

Moana
Dir. John Musker & Ron Clements
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For nearly eighty years, starting with Snow White, Disney has found success with adapting fairy tales under a familiar template - typically involving a naive, but ambitious young girl who ventures outside her safe home, finding her destiny and identity in the dangerous world outside while singing catchy songs and a cute sidekick or two tags along. Moana, the latest in Disney's "princess" canon, follows this same formula to a T and then some, but the difference lies in the execution: here the story beautifully captures ancient Polynesian myths that provide a unique backdrop as yet unseen in a film like this and a handful of songs developed by Hamilton's Lin Manuel Miranda that are sure to get some Oscar attention this year.

The story follows a teenager named Moana (Auli'i Cravalho) living on an island in the South Pacific, where she is being trained to rule as chief after her father. But like Ariel from The Little Mermaid or Rapunzel from Tangled, Moana has dreams beyond her little island paradise, to explore the great wide ocean. She gets her chance when some vague evil force starts taking over her homeland, and she must venture out to seek help from the hubristic, tattooed demigod Maui (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) to stop her island village from being wiped out.

Because these Disney flicks are fairly predictable and almost necessarily generic (therefore risk-free), the "checklist" elements I look for in these movies are fun characters, catchy songs, and high quality animation. As for the animation quality, Moana is stunningly beautiful and visually inventive, especially concerning the ocean water and how they were able to make it into its own "character." I'm sure a whole separate crack animation team worked tirelessly around the clock to make every strand of The Rock's flowing mane as realistic as possible. The music numbers aren't quite as strong as you'd expect coming from Miranda, and surprisingly sparse, but I enjoyed the show-stopper "How Far I'll Go" and Maui's introduction song "You're Welcome" quite a bit (who knew The Rock could sing?). Lots of "traditional" Polynesian instruments and even languages are used to round out the soundtrack, which reminded me of Hans Zimmer's African-influenced score for The Lion King.

However, I found the characters to be likable but unremarkable, and the humor was often repetitive and childish. After the tenth time Moana's chicken friend falls upside down for a cheap laugh I'd say the gag wore out its welcome. Moana herself, while a "strong" and positive role model for little girls, fits so tightly into the typical "hero's journey" archetype that she's not really memorable or distinct in any way. The character of Maui provides some nice comic relief with his exaggerated machismo, but he's also come under some criticism for being a "stereotypical" depiction of a South Pacific Islander - he's obese, tattooed, pig-nosed, and considered a "demigod" who's not to be taken too seriously (not to mention the respective Halloween costume that veered into Blackface territory). It's not my place to say if it's offensive or not, but it's still worth pointing out, especially considering Disney's storied history with racial insensitivity.

At the end of the day, Moana, to me, is nothing more than a solid example of a tried and true formula. Similarly to my problems with Kubo and the Two Strings, its outward beauty somewhat masks its bland, "fetch quest" narrative underneath. While I wasn't as enchanted by Moana as the last few Disney princess offerings (The Princess and the Frog being the best of the bunch), it's still a fun ride that at the very least gives its heroine more agency as we transition into the new wave (pun intended) of modernized Disney princess movies.

Rating: B

Allied
Dir. Robert Zemeckis
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When people say "They don't make them like they used to," Robert Zemeckis heeded their call. Allied is a total throwback to classic Hollywood romantic wartime thrillers like Casablanca, only with 70% more green screen action and sexual tension. It has an old school battle-of-the-sexes plot: In WWII, Canadian agent Max Vetan (Brad Pitt) and French resistance fighter Marianne Beauséjour (Marion Cotillard) pose as a married couple during an assassination mission and seem to fall in love - but their love is called into question by Pitt's superiors back in London. It's unclear whether Cotillard is simply a loving wife who wants to move on from the war, or if she's a conniving German spy who is willing to play Pitt like a deck of cards. It's kind of like Hitchcock's Notorious...if Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman had banged in the backseat of a car during a sandstorm.

While I'm predisposed to like this as a fan of classic Hollywood movies, Allied is almost completely ruined by a terrible, stilted performance from Brad Pitt. Whether or not this movie worked was almost completely due to the steamy tension between the leads - Cotillard is great, but Pitt acts like a 2x4 wood plank with a face painted on the front of it. At times it almost seemed like I was staring at one of Zemeckis's "uncanny valley" humans from The Polar Express. This movie could have been an interesting modern take on a retro genre with a contemporary critique of gender roles (similar to the "can you trust your spouse?" narrative of Gone Girl), but the chemistry just wasn't there.

Allied is a watchable, occasionally entertaining film that showcases Zemeckis's skills as a craftsman, but ultimately it's a middle-of-the-road thriller that could use a little more "art" with its "craft."

Rating: B-

Bad Santa 2
Dir. Mark Waters
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In this ultra-politcally correct world of 2016, Bad Santa 2 seems to have showed up at a very strange time. Arriving thirteen years after the first film, it still sports an unapologetically nasty and offensive tone that flies in the face of your friendly neighborhood social justice warrior. Kathy Bates' character at one point says to a 'little person': "I don't speak politically correct, so if you got a problem with that, take it up with the Lollipop Guild."  She might as well have been wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat. So, it's no surprise to me this movie is getting such aggressively negative reviews, but for me, Bad Santa 2 is about despicable people doing despicable things, often around innocent children, and I can't help but find that funny on some primal level.

Ex-criminal Willie Soke (Billy Bob Thornton) hasn't exactly had a great life since we last saw him - Bad Santa 2 literally opens up on Thornton's character ready to commit suicide, and he even fails at that. He's brought back to Christmas-themed heisting by his old partner in crime Marcus (Tony Cox), who plans on using Willie's safe-cracking skills to rob a charity in Chicago, along with the help of Willie's estranged mother (Kathy Bates). Also returning is Willie's dim-witted friend Thurman Murman (Brett Kelly), who despite growing from a boy to a man between films, is just as dumb and kindhearted as before.

What "plot" there is in this movie is meaningless; if Bad Santa 2 works at all it's in seeing Thornton creatively cuss his miserable way through his meaningless existence while dressed as Santa Claus. Kelly as Thurman was particularly funny to me; even though the novelty of him being a child is gone, his burgeoning adulthood creates an incredibly uncomfortable "father-son" dynamic between him and Willie, as Willie is probably the last person anyone should have as a role model. Kathy Bates is also having fun by letting loose as Willie's equally wily mother (at one point he comes home to her sitting on the toilet with the door wide open, watching the finale of The Bachelor). The humor here is about as low-brow as you can get, and it's not exactly cutting edge or satirical in any way, but as someone who's not above a cheap laugh, I enjoyed the film for what it was.

Unfortunately, the typically milquetoast director Mark Waters is no replacement for the eccentric Terry Zwigoff, and Bad Santa 2, despite sporting a number of crude laughs and memorable lines, never pushes too many buttons, sticking extremely close to the formula of the first film. Like another unnecessary and late-on-arrival comedy sequel Dumb and Dumber To, it's a hollow return to the characters you love.

Rating: C+

Christine
Dir. Antonio Campos
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I'm having trouble writing a review for Christine for the same reason I had trouble writing a review for Florence Foster Jenkins: the main conceit of the film is spoiled by even talking about it. So I'll keep it as brief as I can, hopefully encouraging you to find it wherever it's playing near you. I urge you - please do NOT read about this movie before seeing it!!!

Christine, not to be confused with the Stephen King killer car movie of the same name, is a true story about a 29-year old local news reporter from the 1970s, Christine Chubbuck, whose ambition and talent wasn't enough for her superiors, telling her to deliver increasingly "juicier" stories to bump up their ratings - stories geared more towards exploitation and crime than Christine's typically wholesome "around the town"-type stories.

All I'll say about this movie is that Rebecca Hall is amazing, the screenplay is powerfully structured in a way that all "clicks" together by the end, and I left this movie truly affected by what I watched. It may be because I could relate to this movie in a number of ways, both good and bad; the way director Antonio Campos recreates how a small-time TV news station operated in the 70s felt authentic and cinematic (which I found fascinating having a degree in TV production). I also imagine it's very difficult to take a true story like this and shape and condense it into a poignant, yet fairly accurate depiction of events, but first-time screenwriter Craig Shilowich manages to do exactly that.

I also really felt for Christine, who may be good at her job, but has a difficult time connecting with other people, feeling like she's not being valued. It may seem ironic for someone in communications (like Christine being an interviewer/reporter) to be unable to effectively communicate socially, but I have certainly felt that way about myself in the past. Not to get all "Dear Diary" for a simple movie review, but I related to this during my first few years in college - even when I performed stand-up comedy those years ago and got big laughs from the audience, there was still a social disconnect when I got off the stage. While Christine may be more kooky than I ever was, I could certainly empathize with her problems.

I'm probably biased when it comes to this movie because I connected to it in certain abstract ways, but I'll just say that Christine is a film that I will not soon forget about. In a just world Hall would be at least nominated for an Oscar and I hope this movie finds the people who could benefit from having watched it in a similar place to its main character.

Rating: A-