Ocean's 8
Dir. Gary Ross
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Heists are almost inherently cinematic. You get to watch a group of criminals play against the rules and plan an elaborate scheme in which there's a high probably of being caught. There are obviously a lot of stakes involved, and usually the more creative the plan and its execution, the more fun there is to be had. Steven Soderbergh understood this with his rat pack remake Ocean's Eleven, but this gender-swapped sequel, despite featuring a great, star-studded cast, misses the mark when it comes to the heist itself, which is as bland and rote as a plain donut with nothing on it.
The story follows Danny Ocean's sister, Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), as she is released from prison. Although she promises the parole board she'll be a good girl, you see the "Clooney" twinkle in her eye - and she promptly wastes no time in assembling a team for her next big heist. Debbie wants to rob the Met Gala, recruiting her best friend Lou (Cate Banchett), Rose (Helena Bonham Carter), a disgraced Irish fashion designer, a jewelry expert, Amita (Mindy Kaling), Nine Ball (Rihanna), a hacker, Constance (Awkwafina), a streetwise pickpocket, and Tammy (Sarah Paulson), a suburban mom with a hobby for fencing stolen goods. This eclectic group plans to manipulate the Gala's star celebrity, Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway), replacing her insanely expensive necklace with a 3D-printed copy and smuggling it out of the museum to split the take.
This jewel heist plot is incredibly generic, and unfortunately the film lacks the cinematic style of Soderbergh's films to give it energy, opting for a strange, "grey" look. While I did NOT appreciate the snores I heard in the row behind me, I agree with its sentiment that Ocean's 8 lacks the humor and stylish pizzazz that I want out of a Ocean's movie. There's no real drama, no surprises (the title itself pretty much gives away a late-movie twist), no central villain to root against, and a bizarrely low-key attitude, considering the bigger-than-life personalities of the characters.
What works in Ocean's 8 is entirely thanks to the cast, all seeming to have a blast with the material, but nothing about this movie is creative or truly suspenseful. It's competent enough, but has "in-flight entertainment" written all over it.
Final Verdict:
WAIT FOR NETFLIX
Hereditary
Dir. Ari Aster
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Since premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, Ari Aster's feature film debut Hereditary has been generating a lot of buzz, with some critics touting it as one of the scariest movies of all time! Obviously the energy of a film festival lends one to make hyperbolic statements, but still, as a horror fan, I was excited, especially to see Toni Collette's return to the genre after her amazing performance in The Sixth Sense almost 20 years ago! While I don't think Hereditary is some holy, standard-raising horror movie, I do think it's a disturbing, artful, thought-provoking, challenging, well-acted one!
Annie Graham (Collette) is an artist who creates small models and lives with her somewhat distant husband (Gabriel Byrne), pot-smoking teenage son (Alex Wolff), and strange 13-year old daughter (Milly Shapiro), whose hobbies include cutting off animal heads and carrying them around. After the death of her mother, Annie spirals into a grief-filled madness, letting loose at a grief support group that her family has a history of severe mental illness. Later, when a second tragedy strikes the Graham family, Collette takes a one-way ticket to crazy town, fearing that a supernatural force may be at work, and the resulting film is a twisted family drama that keeps you guessing as to what's real and what isn't.
Hereditary is bursting with themes and a sense of dread similar to Kubrick's The Shining. Every frame feels meticulously composed to create tension or contribute to a sense of reality not feeling quite right. The cliche of "is she crazy or not" drives ME crazy sometimes (in fact, in my review for Steven Soderbergh's Unsane this year I mention how refreshing it was that they bypassed that story element), but there's much more going on here under the surface than that. Hereditary wrestles with ideas such as the fear of passing mental illness on to your family and how we process grief, using a supernatural presence as a catalyst. Filled with nightmarish imagery, an Oscar-worthy performance from Toni Collette, and an ambitious script, Hereditary is a challenging, but affectively creepy arthouse fright flick!
Final Verdict:
SEE IT!
RBG
Dir. Betsy West & Julie Cohen
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RBG is a fairly straightforward documentary from CNN Films chronicling the life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Now 84, this unassuming pop culture icon - dubbed by the internet "The Notorious RBG" - has had an impressive career. The film covers her days as a young lawyer crusading for women's rights, her relationship with her supportive husband, many of her "landmark" court cases, and it even shows her human side as she watches SNL's Kate McKinnon do an impression of her.
RBG is a breezy, educational, entertaining, at times moving portrait of an important American figure, and if you know little about her you should give this doc a watch!
Final Verdict:
SEE IT!
The Gospel According to André
Dir. Kate Novack
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NOTE: I saw this movie followed by a Q&A with director Kate Novack at the Landmark Cinema in Cambridge, MA.
I know next-to-nothing about fashion - most of my wardrobe is made up of khaki pants - so I knew nothing about icon of fashion journalism André Leon Tally before watching this documentary. But now I'm glad that I've "met" this flamboyant, intelligent, barrier-breaking tastemaker!
Tally's life is fascinating, going from living in the segregated American South to writing for Vogue. This intimate portrait shows how his upbringing in the Black Church helped influence his style, combining lots of archival footage with present-day interviews to get a sense of his rise to fame. I do think this movie is too long for its own good, and I didn't care for the way the story was "framed" around Tally's reaction to the 2016 Presidential Election, but if you want an overview of this man's life, The Gospel According to André does a solid job.
Final Verdict:
WAIT FOR NETFLIX
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