Bad Boys for Life (2019) * *

Directed by:  Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah

Starring:  Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Joe Pantoliano, Paola Nunez, Jacob Scipio, Kate del Castillo

The Bad Boys ride together, but are not dying together anytime soon.    After seventeen years, the Miami detectives Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) are back in a third installment which distinguishes itself somewhat from the previous two Bad Boys movies.   First of all, the guys aren't getting any younger, and Bad Boys for Life examines that idea as Mike's past comes back to haunt him.    After being shot and nearly killed by the vengeful son of a drug lord the guys offed in the first film, Marcus, a new grandpa, decides to retire while Mike spends months recuperating from his wounds.

Marcus correctly tells Mike that there are more days behind them than in front of them, family is important, blah, blah, blah.   Mike is less than thrilled at Marcus' retirement, even labeling Marcus QUITTER in his phone contact list, but with the help of a new squad of young cops, Mike goes after the man who nearly shot him dead on a Miami sidewalk. 

The trouble is, Bad Boys for Life falls back into the pattern of high speed chases, gunfights, and fisticuffs whenever it threatens to be about anything more than high speed chases, gunfights, and fisticuffs.    I remember very little about the first two Bad Boys films, except I'm sure there was lots of violence and explosions.    Bad Boys for Life also presents Mike with an intriguing dilemma concerning the shooter, but the dilemma is all too neatly handled in a fiery conclusion in which Mike seems to forget the same person also killed some of his close friends and associates. 

Smith and Lawrence have easy chemistry.   So much so they seem perfectly comfortable spouting off one-liners while bullets whiz by them and explosions occur just feet away.    This is par for the course in the cop-buddy genre, as is the apoplectic captain (Pantoliano), who loves Mike and Marcus, but wishes they would stop costing the city millions every time they work a case.

Bad Boys for Life opens the door for a Bad Boys 4, and based on the box office grosses of Bad Boys for Life, I'm sure the fourth film will be coming to a theater near you sooner than later.     Like the previous sequels, Bad Boys for Life is heavy on slick production values, and some scenes are amusing, but barring anything unforeseen, I can't imagine Bad Boys 4 would be different from the last three.    After all, if a formula works, stick with it.    And Bad Boys for Life is the epitome of formula. 

Parasite (2019) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Bong Joon-ho

Starring:  Song Kang-Ho, Lee Sun-Kyun, Cho Yeo-jeung, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Lee Jeung-eun, Chang Hyae-jin

This isn't Crazy Rich Asians.   Parasite is a tale about a poor family which isn't virtuous, and a rich family which isn't amoral or cutthroat.   The poor Ki-taek family maneuvers its way into the wealthy Park family through devious means, while the only thing the Park family does wrong is trust the Ki-taeks.   Something is bound to go wrong, and when it does, it does spectacularly and bloodily.

The Kai-teks, consisting of a father (Kang-Ho), a mother (Hyae-jin), an older sister (So-dam), and a younger brother (Woo-shik), who all have zero jobs between them.   They live in a basement dwelling which floods during heavy rains and can only achieve cell phone service by standing in just the right place to feed off of a neighbor's Wi Fi.    They try folding pizza boxes for a living, but manage to screw that up too.    One day, a family friend takes the brother out to dinner and tells how he is an English tutor for the wealthy Park family's oldest daughter.    The friend is going abroad, and talks the Kai-tek son into posing as an experienced, college-bound tutor.    The Parks are impressed, and their daughter now has a new English tutor.

Through fiendish means, the Kai-tek clan manage to gain employment with the Parks as a driver, housekeeper, and art expert to tutor the Parks' artistically gifted son.    There is the small matter of removing those already employed in those positions, which is done swiftly and mercilessly, and with the Parks not suspecting a thing.    The Kai-tek family is now experiencing steady paychecks and can finally witness how the other half lives, but this comes to a grinding halt one stormy evening.

I won't reveal what happens next, except to say the lives of both families are soon forever altered.   Just because the Kai-teks are selfish, opportunistic louts and the Parks are generally good, albeit troubled people, does not mean that fate or karma will punish the Kai-teks or reward the Parks.   The full scale of the treachery is eventually discovered, but by then so much damage has been done.

Parasite is able to switch its tone on a dime.   The first hour, as the Kai-teks position themselves to work for the Parks, is darkly satirical, but then the torrential rainy night hits, and the satire goes away while the darkness remains.     The film then turns Hitchcock-esque, if that's even a word, but the viewer will recognize the style when he sees it.    Parasite is South Korean film with subtitles, but hopefully this doesn't dissuade viewers from seeing it.   I prefer subtitles to dubbing because with dubbing you are always trying to observe how closely the words match the lip movements.   Subtitles or not, if the movie is compelling, the words on the screen will soon fade into the background.   Parasite is odd, absorbing, tragic, and a film in which not everyone gets what they deserve, while a happy ending remains an unreachable fantasy for those still left standing.

2020 Oscars Nominations and Predictions

The Oscars telecast comes earlier this year (only one week after the Superbowl) and it's time for my picks.   I had a bad year picking last year, so here's hoping for considerable improvement.   Barring any major upsets, I think I can get them all.   Please note these predictions do not specify what my preferences are, just how I think the Academy will vote.

Best Picture

“Ford v Ferrari”

“The Irishman”

“Jojo Rabbit”

“Joker”

“Little Women”

“Marriage Story”

“1917”

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”

“Parasite”

Winner:  1917.   Having won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture-Drama and the Producer's Guild Award, 1917 is a clear favorite.    The overall lot of Best Picture nominees are all ones I've given positive reviews except 1917.  (Parasite will be reviewed shortly).   My favorite of the group is Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood, but that movie has clearly lost its steam.

Lead Actor

Antonio Banderas (Pain and Glory)

Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood)

Adam Driver (Marriage Story)

Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)

Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes)

Winner:  Joaquin Phoenix.   Like Heath Ledger, Phoenix will win an Oscar for playing Batman's arch enemy, but Phoenix's performance would've been Oscar-worthy even if he weren't playing the already established villain.    Joker is a backstory of a wannabe stand up comedian slowly coming apart due to mental illness.    Phoenix delivers his career-best performance.

Lead Actress

Cynthia Erivo (Harriet)

Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story)

Saorise Ronan (Little Women)

Charlize Theron (Bombshell)

Renee Zellweger (Judy)

Winner:  Renee Zellweger.   Barring a monumental upset, Zellweger will win her second Oscar in the role of fading Judy Garland, whose addiction to drugs and alcohol send her into a career tailspin in the time shortly before her death at age 47.    Is Zellweger's role Oscar bait?   Sure, but Zellweger inspires sympathy and she can also sing.  

Supporting Actor

Tom Hanks (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood)

Anthony Hopkins (The Two Popes)

Al Pacino (The Irishman)

Joe Pesci (The Irishman)

Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood)

Winner:  Brad Pitt.   Already a Golden Globe and SAG Award winner, Pitt will add his first acting Oscar to his resume (he previously won as a producer for 12 Years a Slave) in a performance which stole the movie, relying heavily on Pitt's charm and charisma.  

Supporting Actress

Kathy Bates (Richard Jewell)

Laura Dern (Marriage Story)

Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit)

Florence Pugh (Little Women)

Margot Robbie (Bombshell)

Winner:  Laura Dern.   Like my predictions in the three other acting categories,  Dern has already nabbed a Golden Globe and SAG Award for her role.   She will carry the momentum to a well-deserved Oscar.   

Best Director

Martin Scorsese (The Irishman)

Todd Phillips (Joker)

Sam Mendes (1917) 

Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood)

Bong Joon Ho (Parasite) 

Winner:  Sam Mendes.   The Directors' Guild has yet to announce its winner, but I strongly suspect it to be Mendes, and thus Mendes will go on to secure his second Best Director Oscar.   His first was twenty years ago for American Beauty.    The DGA and Academy rarely differs on its picks.    

Best Original Screenplay

Knives Out

Marriage Story

1917 

Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood

Parasite 

Winner:  Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood.    With the Best Picture hopes fading by the day and Best Director likely to be won by Sam Mendes, Tarantino will have to settle for his third Best Original Screenplay win.   His previous wins were for Pulp Ficion and Django Unchained.    Hollywood is Tarantino's most complete vision.

Best Adapted Screenplay

The Irishman

Jojo Rabbit

Joker

Little Women

The Two Popes

Winner:  Little Women.   With the uproar surrounding the lack of female Best Director nominees, including Gerwig, whose Little Women is up for Best Picture, Greta Gerwig will win this award as a consolation prize.   

I'm supremely confident in going 8 for 8 for the first time maybe ever.   We'll see come February 10 when I post my post-Oscar thoughts.   I'm sure I'll have a few, although thankfully the program comes without a host for the second year in a row.    Last year, the show clocked in at just over three hours and ended while it was still Sunday on the East Coast.    When you employ a host, you must then find him or her something to do, and this leads to boring skits no one will remember and plenty of filler which only adds to the running time.    Instead of writing jokes about how long the show is, why not just eliminate the middle man and get on with the presentations?   The Academy saw an uptick in ratings for the first time in years last year, so keep the host on the sidelines.    You won't hear much uproar from anyone.  

Just Mercy (2019) * *

Directed by:  Destin Daniel Creighton

Starring:  Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Brie Larson, O'Shea Jackson, Jr., Tim Blake Nelson, Rafe Spall, Rob Morgan

Just Mercy is based on a true story, but feels a lot like other movies which have covered the same ground.    It is a bland, muted treatment of a story of social injustice which sticks too close to formula.   Just Mercy feels too safe, as if it is holding its outrage in reserve for a sequel.

The movie begins in 1986 rural Alabama, where Walter McMillian (Foxx) is arrested for a murder of an eighteen-year-old white woman.    Thanks mostly to testimony from a sketchy witness (Nelson), Walter is convicted and sentenced to death.    Five years later, Harvard law grad Bryan Stevenson (Jordan) opens up a law center in Alabama for poor people who can't afford a strong legal defense.  Walter, along with a few other death row inmates, become Bryan's first clients.    Bryan is assisted by Eva Ansley (Larson), whose primary function is to receive phone calls at home from wacko racists spewing hatred and bomb threats. 

Another of Bryan's clients is Herbert Richardson (Morgan), who unlike Walter is guilty of setting off a bomb which killed a woman.    He is a Vietnam veteran who suffers from PTSD, a fact not brought up in his trial.   Morgan's performance is the best in the movie as a man suffering from guilt and trauma whose eventual execution provides the most powerful and emotional moments of Just Mercy.

Once Herbert leaves the scene, we are drawn back into the predictable main event, in which Bryan works nonstop to prove Walter's innocence, which can be proven if the shaky, scared witness from the first trial can be trusted to recant his original testimony at great expense to himself.    Tim Blake Nelson's performance leans so heavily on physical and facial tics that it borders on distracting.    Who in a million years would ever find this guy credible?

Does Bryan himself experience subtle and (sometimes not-so-subtle) racism in the form of strip searches, brush offs by the local DA, and unnecessary traffic stops by white cops?    Through it all, Bryan maintains a stoic face, almost because he knows he has to keep a stiff upper lip in order to win the case in a South still trying to grasp the concept of civil rights. 

Just Mercy never stirs our souls enough to feel any catharsis or joy when justice is finally served.    Bryan triumphs in this case over a system in which Walter describes as "you're guilty the day you are born,"   Just Mercy only superficially explores that theme, and does it strike anyone as odd that Walter, despite growing up poor in rural Alabama, has perfectly straight white teeth?

1917 (2019) * *

Directed by:  Sam Mendes

Starring:  George MacKay, Dean Charles-Chapman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch

1917 is a massive technical achievement and a failure as a story with a tepid, cynical payoff.   Is there any payoff which would've been worthy of the painstaking efforts the movie takes to get there?    We follow nearly every step (NEARLY EVERY STEP) of the journey of two British soldiers sent on something tantamount to a suicide mission during World War I.    There isn't much buildup before thrusting the two young men (MacKay and Chapman) headlong into a time-sensitive mission which will take them behind enemy lines in order to deliver a message to British troops about to walk into a German sneak attack.

In case you were wondering why the British general (Firth) would send two non-descript members of the rank and file to deliver such an important message which would save 1,600 British soldiers' lives, it seems the Germans knocked out all telegraph and telephone communication.   Ok, we will grant this so the story can commence.   But, then the camera follows the two men as they maneuver their way through the long, winding trench which stations exhausted and hungry soldiers.   I found myself hoping this wouldn't be 1917's visual style, because it draws too much attention to itself and not enough to the plot or the men.

My hopes were dashed, and 1917 became distracting to watch.   I couldn't embrace it because I realized I was watching an exercise in cinematography and cuts.   1917 attempts to appear as one long, unedited cut, and kudos to editor Lee Smith for allowing this to appear to be the case, but who even cares?    Cinematography, editing, sound, and visuals are supposed to be part of the overall cinematic effect which complements the story.    The story should remain at the forefront.  

Alas, we have a story which is secondary to the production values.   The actors, unfamiliar to me, do their best to make us care about them, but by then they've nearly been killed by a downed German airplane.    Director Mendes has approached war in 2005's Jarhead, which was not as overly stylized as 1917 while presenting a story rich in human nature.    1917 is stylistic excess at the expense of a story which collapses under the weight of the marvelous production surrounding it.

YOU (2019) * * (Season 2 on Netflix)

(Spoilers present)

Starring:  Penn Badgley, Victoria Pedretti, James Scully, Ambyr Childers, Charlie Barnett, John Stamos, Chris D'Elia, Carmela Zumbado, Jenna Ortega

What's missing in Season 2 of YOU is the allure of Beck, the object of Joe's obsession killed off in the season finale of Season 1.    Beck, played by Elizabeth Lail, was a sexy, wounded doll of a heroine whose life is nearly as tragic as Joe's, just in different ways.   She has now left the scene, Joe has moved to Los Angeles under a different identity, and the show suffers.    Beck makes a cameo appearance, and it only serves to let us know how much we miss her.

Joe assumes the name of Will in Season 2 and finds a job at a trendy bookstore specializing in self-help books and juices.    He almost immediately finds a replacement for Beck in the form of Love Quinn (Pedretti), and when we hear Joe's voice-over narration discussing "Love", he is not speaking in abstracts.    Joe doesn't have the spark with Love as he did with Beck.    He says he loves her, wants to be the best man he could be for her...blah, blah, but there is little chemistry.    Love, who runs the bookstore with her recovering addict twin brother Forty (Scully), is a nice enough woman with "there there" eyes, but Beck she isn't. 

YOU Season 2 only exhibits flashes of what made the first season such a rich surprise.    Will/Joe, of course, can't go an episode without tossing someone in the Hannibal Lecter cage which he has dragged with him to LA and kept in a storage unit bigger than some apartments.    The dramatic arc of these scenes in the cage, with the victim pleading for his life and Joe halfheartedly promising to let him/her go, contained unnerving power in Season 1 and now border on self-parody.   Is this the only way for Joe to deal with those who get in the way of his forever love with Love?    As it turns out, no.

A lover from Joe's past, believed to have been murdered by him, reemerges to dangle his past over his head.    She is Candace Stone (Childers), who popped up at the end of Season 1 to confront Joe with extreme aplomb.   She follows him to LA, ingratiating herself into Joe's inner circle by pretending to be in love with Forty, and we wait for the inevitable scene where Candace is disposed of.    Two other women who play important roles are Delilah (Zumbado), Will/Joe's landlord and her younger sister Ellie (Ortega), who makes a nasty habit of hanging out with famed comedian and possible pedophile Henderson (D'Elia).   Frankly, Joe has more heat with Delilah, and the writers should've found a way to switch Deliliah's and Love's roles.

I won't reveal too many spoilers, except to say that there were times I found myself tiring of Joe's shenanigans, only to be temporarily reinvigorated by a neat plot twist.    Badgley once again does a fine job in a role which must be exhausting to play; the psychotic pseudo-romantic who can't keep his penchant for violence away long enough to even pretend to have a shot at happiness.    His past keeps coming back to bite him in the ass, and the list of crimes he needs to cover up becomes extensive.
It is a cruel cosmic joke that the universe contrives reasons for him not to be caught.

The season ends tidily enough, and Joe finds another potential conquest to obsess on.   Considering his new circumstances with Love, my interest is perked for Season 3. 

YOU (2018) * * * 1/2 (first season on Netflix)

Starring:  Penn Badgley, Elizabeth Lail, Shay Mitchell, John Stamos, Ambyr Childers, Ethan Cherry, Hari Nef, Mark Blum, Lou Taylor Pucci, Michael Park

YOU is about a very damaged young man who would rather desire than possess.   His obsession is fueled by obtaining the unobtainable, but once this is accomplished, it is on to the next hurdle to clear.    The trouble is: He is a psychopathic liar and killer who fancies himself as morally superior to his rivals, and many of his obstacles to happiness are his own doing.   It's not as if he can simply keep that side of himself hidden. 

What we have here is unapologetic, trashy fun; reminiscent of the nighttime soaps I would watch in the 80's, and that's a compliment.   The young man, a Manhattan bookstore manager named Joe Goldberg (Badgley), begins an obsessive quest to win a fetching fledgling author named Beck (short for Guinevere Beck) the moment she enters his quaint bookstore.   Beck is friendly enough, maybe even flirtatious, and he thinks they might have a chance.   When she leaves, he checks social media to learn about her.   He takes it a step further than most would by Googling where Beck lives and standing outside to watch her roam about her apartment in front of wide-open bay windows.   When she undresses, he masturbates in the shadows, nearly getting busted by an unsuspecting woman leaving her apartment building.

Joe soon stalks, er, follows Beck around, hoping to manufacture a chance encounter with her and win her heart.    Beck's sometime booty call, a sleazeball named Benji (Pucci), is seen as a threat to be discredited or disposed of.   Joe does both, with the aid of a cage in the bookstore basement which looks eerily similar to the one which imprisoned Hannibal Lecter all those years.   Joe, of course, indefatigably juggles his lies perilously in the air as Beck slowly falls for him. 

Joe's thoughts are narrated by the intelligent, perceptive Joe throughout.   What precisely goes through the mind of a guy like Joe, who thinks guys like Benji are scum for not appreciating and adoring Beck, but yet he has no qualms about lying to her and killing the friends he sees as roadblocks to winning her eternal love.    Joe is appalled by his own crimes, but sees them as a necessary evil.   His thoughts mostly act as self-rationalization of his deeds.

Badgley is handsome, but not too handsome; intelligent, but not a genius.   He manages to make us understand Joe's motives without approving of them, and this is not an easy feat.    Joe's boyish face masks great internal scars from an abusive childhood, and Badgley is the right actor for this tightrope of a role. 

Beck is somewhat damaged goods herself.    She does not realize her own worth, choosing to hang out with insufferable friends like Peach (Mitchell), who may or not be in love with Beck herself and uses sly putdowns to keep Beck from believing in herself.    This low self-esteem makes Beck easier prey for predators like Joe and Peach, who dislike each other from the start, mostly because they are alike.   Lail is a beauty, yes, but what makes Beck so hypnotically watchable is how sad, wounded, and troubled she is.    We care for her and shake our heads as she makes one wrong decision after another to trust the wrong people and seal her fate.

YOU is dark, tragic material.   Joe is tragic for not being able to understand what a monster he is, and for failing to understand that Beck actually loves him.   Beck is tragic for not understanding that her love is wasted on Joe.   What happens in between is deliciously satisfying stuff.

Little Women (2019) * * *

Directed by:  Greta Gerwig

Starring: Saorise Ronan, Emma Watson, Laura Dern, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Timothee Chalamet, Laura Dern, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts

Louisa May Alcott's famed novel has been remade numerous times, including Gillian Armstrong's 1994 version which netted Winona Ryder a Best Actress Oscar nomination.   We now have a remake written and directed by Greta Gerwig, who announced her arrival loudly as a prominent filmmaker with Lady Bird (2017).   What new insights can Gerwig provide with such familiar material?   Plenty, including storytelling steeped in flashbacks and four young women who are allowed to have personalities and thoughts of their own.

It took time to get used to Gerwig's bold attempt to reinvent the story, especially with the utilization of flashbacks.    But then we are swept up in the stories of the March sisters, led by Jo (Ronan), who wants to be a writer, Meg (Watson) who has acting aspirations, Amy (Pugh) who feels she is always second-best to Jo, especially since the object of her affections clearly makes a play for Jo's heart, and Beth (Scanlen), who is frequently ill and would love nothing more than to live long enough to experience the joys and sorrows of young womanhood like her older sisters.

The March sisters are led by their strong, determined mother Marmee (Dern), whose husband is away fighting the Civil War, and family matriarch Aunt Josephine (Streep), who prefers her nieces to follow compulsory tradition and marry rich men.  On the periphery always is Theodore "Laurie" Laurence (Chalamet), a family friend who loves the wild, stubborn Jo and tries in vain to win her heart.    She likes Laurie well enough, and may even love him, but enough to sacrifice her individuality for the sake of marriage?    Amy, who loves Laurie herself, is forever jealous of her older sister.

Little Women's subplots play out closely to previous incarnations, but what makes Gerwig's version better is its spirit.   She has affection for the material and gives her women their true voices, although as Jo learns when attempting to publish her novel, that women in the 19th century had to play ball in the male-dominated world at least somewhat.   We see the first printing of Jo's novel being produced, and Jo stands and watches with satisfaction.   She was able to write her story (except for a shoehorned happy ending forced upon her by her publisher) and achieve her dream.    Can she live with the concession she made?   The smile on her face says everything.

Saorise Ronan, who played the title character in Gerwig's Lady Bird, remains one of the best actors around.    Her Jo is pig-headed, forthright, and honest sometimes to a fault.   She knows who she is and what her place in the world will be, and it won't necessarily be as someone's wife.   But, yet, like all people, she aches from the loneliness she has created for herself.    Ronan's Lady Bird and Jo March are similar in many ways, as well as equally touching.  

Uncut Gems (2019) * * * *

Directed by:  Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie

Starring:  Adam Sandler, Julia Fox, Idina Menzel, Eric Bogosian, Kevin Garnett, LaKeith Stanfield, Judd Hirsch

Uncut Gems is relentless; a pressure cooker of a movie bearing down on the hapless, luckless Howard Ratner (Sandler), a degenerate gambler with a shady jewelry shop in New York's Diamond District.    Howard owes $100,000 in gambling debts to his brother-in-law Arno (Bogosian), who is not shy about using goons to rough up Howard, and the deadline is fast approaching to pay or be killed.    He juggles so many personal and professional balls in the air that, if one of Arno's thugs don't kill him, a heart attack might.    When we first meet Howard, after the excavation of a rare uncut diamond in Ethiopia which will soon finds its way into Howard's possession, he is undergoing a colonoscopy.    As if this guy didn't have enough to worry about.

Howard's problems are all his own doing; a byproduct of his self-destructive nature.   He is not happy unless he's hustling someone or trying to worm his way out of a jam.    He lives for the adrenaline and stress of having to solve one escalating issue after another.    He barely has time to sit down, let alone enjoy his daughter's recital.   Howard is stretched so thin he is about to snap, with a family in a posh house and a mistress put up in a Manhattan apartment.   His wife Dinah (Menzel) can't even look at him anymore, and the two are waiting until after Passover to announce their divorce to the kids.    Arno and the thugs are forever lurking.    Howard believes the uncut diamond is his ticket to paying off his debt and living a life of relaxation and luxury (ha ha).   He values its worth at about three million, the auction house he consigns it to has a much lower evaluation. 

Taking place in 2012, with the NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals between the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers looming as the source of Howard's parlays and dangerous bets, Celtic Kevin Garnett (playing himself) has a key role in the events concerning the uncut gem.    For a while there, Kevin is sucked into Howard's vortex of swindling, double talk, and shadiness.    The closest thing Howard has to a genuine relationship is with Julia (Fox), his mistress/employee who, gulp, may even love Howard.  Or is she trying to stake her own claim should his desperate plans bear fruit?

We all know Adam Sandler's sketchy filmography.    He has made some awful comedies, some funny ones, and showed the world his dramatic acting chops in Punch Drunk Love (2003).   But Sandler was born for this role.    He sure looks like Adam Sandler, but we forget it is him.   His transformation into Howard is seamless.    The most astounding trick Sandler is able to pull off in this tense, high-wire performance, is managing to evoke sympathy from the audience.    Sure, he is digging his own grave, but do we root for him to lie in it?    No, because we pity the poor schmuck. 
His insatiable need for more is going to kill him, and we can't look away.   

Josh and Benny Safdie announce their arrival as top flight filmmakers here.   Their previous crime caper, Good Time (2017) started out with the same full throttle approach only to be sidetracked by a middle which screeches everything to a halt.    The Safdie Brothers keep their foot on the accelerator in Uncut Gems, and the experience is riveting, with a flawed, troubled man at its center who lacks the insight into his own sickness to stop himself from sealing his fate. 

Bombshell (2019) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Jay Roach

Starring: Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, John Lithgow, Kate McKinnon, Mark Moss, Allison Janney, Malcolm McDowell, Alanna Ubach

Maybe if The Loudest Voice didn't premiere as recently as this past summer, Bombshell would seem fresher.   The Loudest Voice starred Russell Crowe as Roger Ailes, and the focus was how such an egomaniac misogynist formed Fox News and made television history.   Bombshell is more about the women who were finally fed up with Ailes' bullying and harassment and put the wheels in motion to remove him from his lofty perch.    But Bombshell isn't as angry as it needs to be.   When Ailes gets his, (no spoiler alert to anyone hopefully), the payoff isn't as emotionally satisfying as it could've been.    If The Loudest Voice wasn't shown until after Bombshell, maybe I would be writing a more glowing review.   Maybe.

Bombshell begins with business as usual at Fox News circa 2016.   Donald Trump is the leading Republican candidate and makes war with Fox's lead anchor Megyn Kelly (Theron) after she asks him some pointed questions during a Republican candidates' debate.   We all know what Trump said about Kelly and how it made Kelly the story as much as himself.   Ailes feigned support for Megyn, but in reality, he did his best to urge the conflict on.   When Megyn Kelly finally sat down with Trump for a "hard hitting" interview, she is accused of softballing the interview.   Megyn simply wanted to put the whole ordeal behind her and her family.

Then, there's Gretchen Carlson (Kidman), who is bumped from her morning show to a less desirable afternoon slot after rejecting repeated advances from Ailes and decides to sue Fox News and Ailes after being fired.    Gretchen's lawyers feel her case would be strengthened if other female employees came forward to join the lawsuit.    There are plenty of prospective plaintiffs, since Ailes made intimidation and harassment a cottage industry while running the Fox News empire.  Among them is Kayla Pospisil (Robbie), a newcomer looking to get on the air.   She goes to Ailes to convince him to give her a shot, and he does, after sexual quid pro quo.  Kayla feels dirty and cheapened by the experience, and blames herself. 

Naysayers claim women like Kayla could've said no to Ailes and his advances.   What they fail to realize is that a power monger like Ailes wasn't merely asking Kayla or others to sleep with him.   There was an implied consequence to rejecting him, such as firing, demotion, or further harassment.   Women like Kayla, Gretchen, and Megyn were forced to make career choices entirely upon Ailes' whims or the desires of other powerful men who wielded their power like a weapon.

Another character forced to suppress her sexuality (and her admiration of Hillary Clinton) is Jess Carr (McKinnon), who shows Kayla the ropes and has a one-night stand with her.   For Jess to actually declare herself a Democrat and a lesbian would be tantamount to revolution at Fox News.   There are female supporters of Ailes, like show host Jeanine Pirro (Ubach), who rallies the troops with "Team Roger" t-shirts. 

Bombshell is replete with terrific performances from among the very best actors around.   Jay Roach has directed Recount and Game Change, two superior political dramas, so the stage was set for a pointed, topical storm of a movie which never developed fully.   I expected more anger, more bile, more scathing commentary.   Instead, Bombshell plays like a Cliffs Notes version of the story.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) * * 1/2

Directed by:  J.J. Abrams

Starring:  Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Richard E. Grant, Ian McDiarmid, Keri Russell, Billy Dee Williams

This is now Episode Nine and the Star Wars series is now old hat, like it is turning back on itself and repeating the same things we saw in better Star Wars movies.    The First Order is no Empire, and even the re-introduction of Emperor Palpatine, who was thought to be long dead after Darth Vader threw him off a platform and into the Death Star abyss in Return of the Jedi, feels like a desperate attempt to make the First Order seem like something more than the lightweights they are.

We finally discover who Rey's parents are, the Rebellion obtains a tracking device leading straight to Emperor Palpatine's hideout, Lando Calrissian (Williams) returns at the age of 82 to steer the Millenium Falcon into battle once more, and battles of dizzying proportions occur where First Order and Rebellion fighters whiz at, past, and through each other.   The air dogfights are hard to follow. 
Unlike Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope for fanboys), we can't gain any sense as to who is shooting at whom or why.   It is CGI overload of the highest order. 

A Star Wars movie, no matter how the story lines play out, will always have superior production values that won't fall below a certain level of quality, although Rogue One was iffy with its CGI de-aging of Grand Moff Tarkin and Princess Leia.   Speaking of the Princess turned Rebellion general, Carrie Fisher again appears in The Rise of Skywalker despite passing away three years ago.   Her scenes are a distraction.   I found myself concentrating more on the editing techniques which make her appear as if she is actually occupying scenes with other actors.   They were pretty good, by the way, but were they necessary to be included at all?

The Rise of Skywalker's best scenes involve the conflicted Kylo Ren, whose fate is never in doubt, but Adam Driver is up to the task of leveraging pathos to his role.   His relationship with Rey is more complex than expected, and contains some touching nuances.   The rest of The Rise of Skywalker, where Poe (Isaac) and Finn (Boyega) continue taking it to the Empire, er First Order, despite being outgunned and outmanned and making banal declarations about being both, are mostly marking time until we get back to the more engrossing drama of Kylo Ren. 

We have cameos from not just Billy Dee Williams, but other past Star Wars notables brought in to tidy up subplots or just to elicit a "whoa" reaction from the audience.   One is particularly effective, and echoes back to a similar scene in The Force Awakens, which seemingly set Star Wars back on course before The Last Jedi exploded it.   J.J. Abrams was brought in to clean things up, and maybe send this Star Wars trilogy out on the right note, but even he is seemingly recycling past Star Wars movies with Palpatine urging Rey to strike him down and thus allowing the Dark Side to win.   It isn't fully explained how Palpatine even survived his fate in Return of the Jedi.   Let's say he was able to survive an infinite fall, didn't the Death Star blow up again ten minutes later?   There was some offhand mention of cloning, but did Palpatine get cloned only to reenact the same death wish he had before?   He said he foresaw Luke killing him thirty years earlier, and now Rey doing the same thing.  The evil emperor had better get the batteries checked on his foresight mechanisms.

I conclude by saying The Rise of Skywalker was better than The Last Jedi, but it is hardly a satisfying conclusion to this third Star Wars trilogy.   (Spoiler alert, although probably not), when the First Order is eliminated and the rebels win, I wasn't stirred as much as relieved it was over.   Is Star Wars over for me?   I should hope not, and I'm sure we will see more Star Wars in the future, but will anything bring back the inspiration and spirit which made the original trilogy such a trio of masterpieces?