The Little Things (2021) * *

Directed by:  John Lee Hancock

Starring:  Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, Jared Leto, Terry Kinney, Michael Hyatt, Chris Bauer

The Little Things wants to be more than a whodunit and more than a study of how searches for serial killers wreaks havoc on not just victims, but the cops who exhaustingly investigate them.  It winds up being more the former than the latter, but in any respect it is unsatisfying.   Those who expect a traditional thriller mixed with the darkness of Seven will be disappointed.   Those who simply want to know who committed the murders will walk away frustrated.   The movie's slow pacing deserves more of a crackling payoff, and we never truly get one.   There are elements of a good movie here, but only mere elements.   We see where The Little Things could have worked, and it never does.  Pity.

Circa Los Angeles 1990, a few years after The Night Stalker killings ravaged the city, there is another serial killer on the loose.   Detective Jimmy Baxter (Malek) is on the case, but as the bodies pile up in gruesome fashion, he has no suspects and no leads.   Help falls into Jimmy's lap in the form of disgraced former detective Joe Deacon (Washington), who left the department under mysterious circumstances years earlier while he was investigating a similar killing spree.   Joe now works in remote Bakersfield in the sheriff's office and is down in Los Angeles to pick up evidence for trial.  Joe's former captain (Kinney) is none too pleased to see him, while others like his former partner Sal (Bauer), who is now Jimmy's partner, is thrilled.   Jimmy at first isn't thrilled to have Joe around to help out, but soon sees value in having an experienced veteran assisting.   Jimmy soon leans on Joe for more help than anticipated, especially when things get really dark after they nab their first suspect in creepy Albert Sparma (Leto).  Unlike most normal people, Albert is overjoyed to be interviewed about the killings and under the police microscope.   He enjoys jerking the cops' chain, but does that make him a killer? 

Jimmy and Joe think Albert is the guy and Albert's behavior suggests he is and he isn't.   Before Albert shows up, The Little Things features grounded performances and a sluggish start.   There is never a sense of urgency or intensity to carry us through.   Leto, who to my never recollection never undergoes a change of clothes in the entire movie, throws the grounded part right out the window.   His overacting and forced menace tips his hand.   A calmer approach, like Kevin Spacey took in Seven, would have been more chilling.   Washington is the steadying voice of experience he has played in numerous films and he's very good at it.   He is incapable of uttering a sentence that doesn't sound like he hasn't been there dozens of times.   Malek gives us an affecting portrait of ambition clashing with desperation.

Frustratingly, The Little Things fails despite having some parts in place for at least a passably entertaining thriller.   The whole, however, is never greater than the sum of its parts, and the last question you should be asking at the end of a whodunit is "who?"   And another would be why you would poke the bear when that person has a gun and a shovel and you are unarmed.   

As Good As It Gets (1997) * * *

 

Directed by:  James L. Brooks

Starring:  Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Shirley Knight, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Harold Ramis

Melvin Udall (Nicholson) is a slave to his routine.  His obsessive-compulsive disorder is off the charts.  His Manhattan apartment is as sterile as a doctor's office.   It's a good thing he is a famous writer who doesn't have to go to a job every day.   Melvin just wants to be left alone, but he finds that isn't possible.  He insults even those who might even like him, including the waitress Carol (Hunt) who serves him every day at his same table at his favorite restaurant.   One day, Carol had to call out of work to deal with her young son's ongoing illness and Melvin doesn't know what to do.   He tracks down Carol to her apartment and decides to help out with the boy's medical care.   He does this not out of the goodness of his heart, but because he needs Carol to be at work to feed his stomach and his disorder.

The more Melvin tries to pull away from others, the more he's drawn in.   He is not a fan of his gay artist neighbor Simon (Kinnear), but is forced to look after Simon's dog after Simon is beaten up by thieves.  You would think a dog and Melvin together would be like mixing oil and water, but Melvin grows to love him.   Melvin grows to grudgingly like Simon and agrees to drive him (and Carol who Melvin recruits for his own reasons) to Virginia so Simon can visit his disapproving parents for the first time in years.   

As Good As It Gets is anchored by layered performances of some wounded characters.   Nicholson and Hunt won Oscars for their work, while Kinnear was nominated.    Melvin is not an easy guy to like, mostly because he keeps people at bay with wounding insults.   But because he is played by Jack Nicholson, we are curious not only to see what he's up to, but how he will change.   He does change, albeit kicking and screaming.   Hunt's Carol has a bit of an edge to her, and it isn't a stretch to find her attracted to Melvin because hey, the man provided for the best medical care her son has ever received.  Kinnear is not overshadowed by the leads, but finds his own sympathetic niche as a gay man still looking to reconcile with his parents.   Watch him in a scene where he discusses his father's actions on the day Simon left for college.

Because As Good As It Gets is a romantic comedy, it pushes in that direction while being all edges and elbows.   These aren't people you would normally find in a rom-com, but the performances make it worth watching, along with some sharp writing.   As surely as night follows day, Melvin and Carol will wind up together, but I would check in on them in a week or two to see if that is still the case.   I have a hunch it wouldn't.  

A Rainy Day in New York (2020) * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Woody Allen

Starring:  Timothee Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Selena Gomez, Jude Law, Liev Schreiber, Cherry Jones, Kelly Rohrbach, Diego Luna, Will Rogers 

"He's phoned in roles before, but this was the first time I wanted to hang up,"-Roger Ebert's review of Marlon Brando in Christopher Columbus: The Discovery.

This is how Woody Allen's A Rainy Day in New York feels in a nutshell.   It takes place in the present day, but the cultural references spoken by its characters makes me believe the script has been sitting in the bottom of a desk drawer since 1970.   One character asks another, "Have you seen Out of the Past?"  Huh?   That line is uttered by Gatsby Welles (Chalamet).   Yes, Gatsby Welles is his given name, and his parents either adored F. Scott Fitzgerald and Orson Welles way too much or are stark raving mad.  The entire movie is rudderless and anemic.   There's no energy.   It's as if Woody Allen himself couldn't wait to get filming over with.

A Rainy Day in New York promises another lively Allen romantic comedy with Chalamet acting as Woody's stand-in.   Poor Chalamet not only has to recite this inane dialogue, but he also has to take on Allen's physical traits; all for such a forgettable character and movie.   Gatsby is a walking, talking anachronism.   I was expecting a plot swerve in which we find out Gatsby is indeed a time traveler from the past.   That would explain some of his mannerisms and speech, including walking around with a cigarette holder.   At first, I thought perhaps the movie took place in the 1970's or 1980's, but nope there are cell phones and social media abound.   Allen simply dusted off the screenplay and filmed it, not even bothering to update its allusions to classic literature or decades-old movies which would be unlikely to be spoken about by a twenty year old.

On to the plot (plot?) in which Gatsby and his girlfriend from college Ashleigh Enright (Fanning) come to the Big Apple so Ashleigh can interview famed director Roland Pollard (Schreiber) for her school paper.  While Ashleigh fawns all over Roland, who hates his latest film and is on the verge of a breakdown, Gatsby looks up old friends on, you guessed it, a rainy day in New York.   I felt bad for the actors having to get drenched for the sake of appearing in a Woody Allen film, but such is life in the big city.   Gatsby also tries to avoid going to his wealthy parents' party while he's in town.   When Ashleigh goes on adventures in search of Roland, who flees the private screening of his own movie, she winds up in screwy situations involving Roland's producer Ted Davidoff (Law) and a famed stud actor (Luna) who would like to make Ashleigh his next conquest.

Gatsby goes on a museum trip with Chan (Gomez), the younger sister of a former girlfriend.  Chan confesses to having a crush on him back in the day.  Gomez has the liveliest performance in the movie.  She smiles like she means it, but she disappears for so long that when she does pop up again for the unearned romantic ending I forgot she was in the movie.   The dialogue feels tired, with occasional Allen trademark one-liners that miss the mark.   It isn't simply Chalamet who has to embody Allen, but I see glimpses of Allen in Roland and Ted complete with glasses and angst.  

A Rainy Day in New York was filmed over two years ago, and due to Allen's legal battles with Amazon (the film's distributor) and continued allegations of child molestation against Allen, the movie was held out of release until this past year.   They should've waited longer.   A Rainy Day in New York is a movie which breaks no new Allen ground and feels like a retread of his much more heralded works.   Annie Hall, it isn't.   Heck, Anything Else it isn't.  Or even Wonder Wheel, and that's saying something.  

Fatale (2020) * *

 

Directed by:  Deon Taylor

Starring:  Hilary Swank, Michael Ealy, Damaris Lewis, Danny Pino, Mike Colter

(Potential spoilers alert) 

Brought to you by the same creative team from last year's insipid The Intruder comes Fatale, a noir thriller starring Hilary Swank which is at least better than her last effort The Hunt (2020).   That's faint praise and leads me to wonder what agent is representing the two-time Oscar winner that recommends she star in such dreck.   

The title Fatale suggests a sultry female lead who twists men around on her finger.   That's not the case here.   Hilary Swank is a lot of things, but she can't pull off sultry.  She arrives about fifteen minutes into the movie as a woman named Valerie with whom our protagonist Derrick (Ealy) has a one night stand in Las Vegas.   Derrick is a former basketball player who runs his own fledgling sports agency.   He has having Problems At Home though despite owning a mansion off Mulholland Drive.   His realtor wife Traci (Lewis) is distant and comes home late after apparent midnight house showings.   Derrick's partner Rafe (Colter) asks Derrick to consider an offer from William Morris to buy their agency, which would net them both a boatload of cash.   When Derrick goes with Rafe to a Vegas bachelor party, Rafe tells him to have some extramarital fun and even takes Derrick's wedding ring off.

Derrick soon encounters Valerie.  They dance and are soon doing the nasty in bed.   When Derrick wakes up the next morning, he tries to slink away but finds his cell phone is in Valerie's hotel room safe.   That is tip-off number one that Valerie will soon move into Fatal Attraction territory.   When Derrick arrives home (with cell phone in hand), he cooks a dinner for Traci out of guilt and then they have makeup sex interrupted by a home invasion.   And guess who's the detective working on the investigation of the intrusion?   Valerie of course.   

At this point, I was enjoying the possibilities of the unhinged Valerie making life hell for the straying Derrick while holding his indiscretions over his head.   But then Fatale turns into another movie entirely.   Valerie involves Derrick in a labyrinthine plot involving infidelities, Valerie trying to win custody of her daughter from her cruel ex, Valerie's Past, and plot twists which owe something to Strangers on a Train and Double Indemnity.   If Valerie had gone the Fatal Attraction route, Fatale may not have been entirely successful, but it wouldn't be a needlessly complicated snoozer either.   

I started to have questions, such as:  Do Valerie's neighbors grow annoyed at all of the gunfire going on in her loft?    Isn't it a bit too easy to access her loft or the elevator?    What about the death of Valerie's ex at the hands of Derrick?   How did he manage to avoid criminal charges there?   Is Valerie related to Michael Myers?   This all could've been fun if it weren't so determined to be dark and have its characters all be guilty of something.   There had to be a way Valerie could've accomplished what she wanted without all of these moving parts.   What a headache.  

What's Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Lasse Hallstrom

Starring:  Johnny Depp, Juliette Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Darla Cates, Mary Steenburgen, John C. Reilly, Crispin Glover

We know what's eating Gilbert Grape from the inside out:  A house that's falling apart, a 500-pound mother who hasn't left the house in seven years, a special needs younger brother with an affinity for climbing the town water tower, and being the guy to whom everyone turns to fix everything.   This all weighs on him, and even occasional romps in the hay with the wife of the town insurance broker don't provide much relief.  

One thing What's Eating Gilbert Grape has going for it is that it isn't a downer.   There's hope on the horizon in the form of Becky (Lewis), a young lady passing through whose grandmother's truck breaks down hauling their trailer home.   Becky is a Free Spirit and encourages Gilbert (Depp) to come out of his shell because that's what happens in movies like this.   In a way, Arnie (DiCaprio), Gilbert's special needs brother, is free and uninhibited, because he knows no other way to be.   Arnie is unencumbered by the daily grind which Gilbert must face and completely unaware that he is part of the reason why Gilbert's face sags.   Arnie just wants to climb the water tower.

Gilbert Grape takes place in Endora, Iowa; the prototypical small Midwestern town where everyone knows each other and each other's business.   We think no one knows about Gilbert's trysts with Mrs. Carver (Steenburgen), but the way her husband keeps inviting Gilbert to drop by the office sends ominous signals.   Gilbert's 500-pound mother (Cates) draws snickers when she finally does emerge from the house.   Local kids try and catch a glimpse of her through the window.   Cates draws sympathy as a woman who wonders how she became a prisoner of her own sofa.  

DiCaprio's performance was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar and it is an authentic performance of a brain-damaged young man who still can sense when things are wrong in his own way.   It is not difficult to admire the Depp performance, which isn't overly verbal but we see the physical toll his life takes on him in his eyes and his face.   Juliette Lewis was fresh off her Oscar nomination for Cape Fear (1991) and employs some of the same sensibilities as Becky as she did in Cape Fear, but I'm not sure I bought her effect on Gilbert.   I sensed more chemistry between she and Arnie.

I'm also not convinced by the all-too-tidy ending which leads me to the question:  Arson is still illegal, no?    One year passes from the penultimate scene where Gilbert burns his house to the ground with his mother's body still inside, but I wondered where the family stayed and how they managed to avoid criminal charges before the forced happy ending.   What's Eating Gilbert Grape has strong performances and a folksy quality which prevents the actors from suffocating under the glum material, but once viewed overall it just doesn't quite work. 

Crack: Cocaine, Corruption, and Conspiracy (2021) * * *

 

Directed by:  Stanley Nelson

Crack: Cocaine, Corruption, and Conspiracy examines the effect crack cocaine had on the 1980's and beyond.   The 1980's started with Ronald Reagan elected President.  Cocaine was the drug of choice, but it was expensive and seen as the affluent white person's drug.    Crack cocaine soon made its way into the poorer neighborhoods as cocaine in a more purified form.   It was cheaper, even more addicting than coke, and soon it was being dealt everywhere.   Guns and violence followed as the market became saturated, lives were ruined, deaths from overdose and guns followed, then politics got involved.  Crack: CCC (my abbreviation for it) interviews former crack dealers, journalists, and some politicians as its subjects, and this makes for a credible documentary told by people in the know. 

Crack: CCC not only focuses on the damaging, deadly effects of crack, but questions how it was made so readily available in mostly poor urban areas.   It's as if the streets were flooded with it.  President and Nancy Reagan started the "Just Say No" campaign, leading to mandatory drug sentencing which seemed to inequitably throw more blacks in prison than whites over possession convictions.   Even more frightening is watching women addicted to crack interviewed explaining how they sold everything including their bodies for the drug.   Some have to give up their children to live with relatives because their lives became unmanageable.   Others died.   The death of Len Bias in 1986 hours after being drafted by the Boston Celtics thrust the drug into intense scrutiny.  After came the possibly overblown idea of "crack babies," which the interview subjects claim was more myth and sensationalist media coverage than anything else. 

The most intriguing interviews are with the former users and dealers who either sought to make quick bucks or get a quick high.   They bore witness to devastation and death.  Mostly all of now regretful for their pasts, but knowing regret and remorse won't wash away their sins.   Crack: CCC doesn't judge, but instead shows how drug addiction was treated as a criminal issue and is now treated more as a public health issue.   I was once one of those people who didn't believe addiction was a disease, but after witnessing and enduring what I have, I fully agree that it is.   Diseases make you sick, and addiction makes you sick in body and spirit, so how could it not be a disease?   

Crack: CCC interweaves news footage with stark images documenting the drug's wave of destruction.  It is crisply paced and edited, while posing questions with a broader scope.   Is Crack: CCC as deep and affecting as other documentaries?  No, but it serves as a reminder of the dangers of drugs and chasing that temporary high.   As if we needed one.  

One Night in Miami (2020) * * *

 

Directed by:  Regina King

Starring:  Eli Goree, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom, Jr., Beau Bridges

One Night in Miami tells the tale of a fictional meeting between four famous Black Americans centering around Cassius Clay's first title bout against Sonny Liston in February 1964.   Clay won the title (I hope that isn't a spoiler) and would soon convert fully to Islam as Muhammad Ali.   Before that, Clay meets up with pals Jim Brown (Hodge), Sam Cooke (Odom) and Malcolm X (Ben-Adir) in a Miami hotel room following Clay's win to relax and shoot the breeze between old friends.   It doesn't work out as intended.  The conversations start light, but soon tread into deeper, murkier waters when they begin to politely discuss then argue about their lives in 1964 America.   Each man has to find himself defending his place as a Black man and what he is doing to advance the cause of his people.   

Clay is heavyweight champion, Cooke is among the world's most successful singers, Brown is the most famous and feared player in pro football, and Malcolm X is teetering on leaving the Nation of Islam which leaves him with far more enemies than friends.   For one night, these men can pour out their souls to each other.   No matter how famous each man is, the one thing each has in common is he will be treated as a second-class citizen in his own country.   An example:   Jim Brown returns to his hometown in Georgia to meet with an old family friend, Mr. Carlton (Bridges).   Carlton tells Jim how proud he is of him and the meeting on the front porch seems warm and inviting.   Then Jim offers to help Carlton move some furniture, and the conversation quickly comes to a shocking end when Carlton states: "You know there are no n***ers allowed in the house."   The hurt on Brown's face says it all, as does the matter-of-fact, shameless way Carlton expresses his house rules.

Each man has had to put up which such blatant racism in his life; and will continue to in the future.  That doesn't stop Malcolm X from accusing Cooke of not using his fame enough to further the Black cause, or for each argument to splinter off into deeper ones.   These men are flawed, complex, and intelligent; each carrying themselves in their unique way and each trying to push on despite their hurt.  Based on his own play, Kemp Powers' screenplay and Regina King's direction don't allow One Night in Miami to appear to be a filmed play.  The conversations grow naturally and in some cases very uncomfortably.   Like any long talk, there are ebbs and flows.   Some parts are more interesting than others, but the underlining emotions remain powerful.

The actors take on the task of portraying four famous men who have been portrayed on screen before and making them fresh and new.   Each performance is not simply an impersonation, but an uncanny humanization of the man himself.   I've seen countless characterizations of Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X over the years, and Goree and Ben-Adir bring new dimensions to these famous conflicted men.   We forget for a few moments that Cooke and Malcolm X would both be dead within a year, Muhammad Ali will soon face his greatest challenge when he refused to be drafted into the Army, and Jim Brown will retire from football for a sometimes controversial career in Hollywood and activism.  

For one night in Miami, we see these men as they were, even if the meeting between them never happened.  

Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer (2021) * * * 1/2

 

Streaming on Netflix.  A four-part documentary series.

Detectives Gil Carrillo and Frank Salerno worked tirelessly over the course of months to capture the prolific serial killer who became known as The Night Stalker.   Richard Ramirez went on an indefatigable spree of crimes in Los Angeles beginning in March 1985 and ending with his capture on August 31, 1985.  Ramirez didn't just kill; he molested underage boys and girls (and shockingly let them live), while raping others and leaving Southern California terrified when nightfall came.   His pattern was that he didn't seem to have one.   Ramirez would break into a random home at night and commit whatever crime tickled his fancy at that moment.   One night he would strike in the heart of Los Angeles and the next he would kill or rape in a nearby town.   Detective Salerno was famous for capturing the men who committed the Hillside Strangler murders in the late 1970's.   Now, teaming up with the relatively green, but smart and tough Carrillo, Salerno is after a more elusive target.

Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer grips the viewer right away.   We get the feel for the booming, upbeat Los Angeles of the mid-1980's.   Los Angeles just held the 1984 Summer Olympics and the city was trendy and happening...until Richard Ramirez besmirched it with his evil.   Composite sketches of the killer betrayed hollow eyes of a man without a soul.   When Ramirez was finally caught, the eyes stand out from his gaunt frame.   Who was inside?   We learn briefly about his horrible childhood, which no doubt contributed to his murderous rage.   Or was he always evil and just biding his time to carry out his true nature?   Not that any of this matters to his victims or those left behind to make sense of the senseless.    

When Los Angeles became too hot for Ramirez in terms of publicity, he went north to San Francisco and began killing there.   He began leaving behind drawings of a pentagram on the wall suggesting his worship of Satan.   One rape victim pleaded to be let go, saying she swears to God she wouldn't look at him.   Ramirez would reply:  "Swear to Satan."   Carrillo and Salerno's home lives suffered as they worked nearly round the clock on The Night Stalker cases.   Carrillo determined this was the work of one person.   Ramirez may have been caught earlier had it not been for bureaucratic red tape involving the impounding of a stolen car and the failure of a robbery alarm to work when it was suspected Ramirez would seek dental care for his rotting teeth.   As the tension of the Los Angeles nights increased, so did the pressure on Carrillo and Salerno to catch The Night Stalker.   The local media, including then-San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, did the case no favors by revealing crucial pieces of information the detectives wanted to keep secret so their case won't be undermined. 

Carrillo and Salerno come across as intelligent, ultra-competent, driven, determined, and most of all sympathetic to the victims.   They refused to be worn down by the same cynicism one would see in full force on a Law and Order episode.   Thousands of leads poured in to police tip lines, and some actually led to Ramirez being apprehended quicker.   An anonymous woman being interviewed about the killer on television wondered aloud in frustration how the perpetrator hasn't been caught yet.   "He lives somewhere and someone knows him," which is true even for monsters like Ramirez.  

The series wisely does not grow into a biography of Ramirez other than a brief overview of his childhood.   This story is about the detectives and the victims, whose families and loved ones still grieve to this day.    Following Ramirez' highly-publicized arrest, his criminal trial which took nearly four years to conclude and resulted in a death sentence, became a Ramirez side show.   He somehow became the subject of unhealthy interest for a lot of female admirers, who one can only conclude are either mentally unbalanced or simply lack ordinary decency.   Why would they choose a murderer, rapist, and child molester as the object of their desire?   As one subject puts it: "He looks at them as if they are ringing the dinner bell."  Ramirez would be convicted on thirteen counts of murder and other counts of rape and robbery.   There is suggestion this is only a partial listing of his actual crimes.  

Ramirez died in 2013 from cancer after nearly twenty-five years on death row.   Why was he on death row for so long?   What does it say about the criminal appeals process when someone like Ramirez can survive for twenty-plus years and denies the victims their chance for closure and justice?   It's something not even Carrillo and Salerno have the answers for.   Ramirez' end provides an unsettling coda to a series which is among the very best in displaying how a serial killer can claim the lives of victims in more than one way.  

The Marksman (2021) * *

 

Directed by:  Robert Lorenz

Starring:  Liam Neeson, Jacob Perez, Katheryn Winnick, Juan Pablo Raba

The Marksman is the latest Liam Neeson action vehicle which at least tries to be Thoughtful and About Something.   Neeson plays Jim Hanson, a rancher along the Arizona-Mexico border who isn't Border Patrol, per se, but he uses a walkie talkie to alert the real patrol of illegals crossing into the U.S.  His wife died from cancer in the past year and his ranch is in foreclosure.   He has enough troubles when a young Mexican woman and her son Miguel (Perez) fleeing from drug cartel thugs cross the border on to Jim's property.   When confronted by the bad guys, Jim engages in a shootout which causes the mortal wounding of Miguel's mother.  Miguel has family in Chicago and Jim begrudgingly agrees to transport Miguel there with the cartel on his tail. 

We don't really know how Jim feels about Mexicans.   He doesn't seem to have anything against them except when they walk on his property after crossing the border.   He doesn't own a cell phone and speaks almost no Spanish, which is bizarre considering where he lives.   Miguel at first doesn't speak at all, so I'm thinking this will be the third movie in a month in which an older man can't communicate with a preteen youth in his charge.  But Miguel speaks English, thank goodness, and at least we are spared a dozen more scenes in which the man speaks to the child in English and the child doesn't respond.  Not unlike most of the characters Neeson has played since Taken, he has a military background and a particular set of skills which make him a nightmare for people like the cartel.   The movie is after all called The Marksman.  

Those viewing The Marksman expecting Taken 4 will be disappointed by the lack of action sequences.  People like me won't mind that but will wonder when the movie will start picking up the pace.   The plot coagulates when it should hum along.   There are so many pit stops on the way from Arizona to Chicago one might wonder if Jim will ever get there.   Jim's lack of technological inclination only drags things down further, since he doesn't own a GPS and has to rely on the world's last road atlas to find his way to his destination. 

The Marksman is simply the latest in the list of forgettable Liam Neeson actioners.   Directed by longtime Clint Eastwood producer Robert Lorenz, it wants to be different than other Neeson spectacles where he thrashes men half his age with those aforementioned skills.   Different doesn't necessarily mean good.   We are expected to care because Liam Neeson is helping a boy escape the clutches of cartel goons, but the outcome is never in doubt.   The tangents the movie goes on feel like marking time until the final showdown, which takes place on a farm outside of Chicago which no one seems to own or work at.   In any movie or TV show featuring a Mexican drug cartel, they always ride around in large black SUV's.   They may as well post a bumper sticker stating boldly, "WE ARE WITH A DRUG CARTEL. STAY BACK 100 FEET."  

I at least give The Marksman points for trying to be more than just a typical  Liam Neeson action film.  But it never comes together as a satisfying whole, and maybe we need a bit more substance than a typecast Neeson and some feckless villains biding their time to be Neeson's next victims.   

Pieces of a Woman (2020) * *

 

Directed by:  Kornel Mondruczo

Starring:  Vanessa Kirby, Shia Labeouf, Ellen Burstyn, Molly Parker, Sarah Snook, Benny Safdie, Iliza Shlesinger

The first thirty minutes of Pieces of a Woman makes dramatic promises on which the rest of the film doesn't deliver.    The tense opening moments of Martha (Kirby) undergoing the excruciating pain of a home birth with her partner Sean (Labeouf) and replacement midwife Eva (Parker) trying their damndest to deliver the baby successfully give way to another ninety minutes of silence, moping, self-destructive behavior, and too much internalization of grief to be interesting,

I know people process grief in different ways.   The baby dies shortly after delivery.   Weeks pass.  The midwife is soon brought up on criminal charges of negligence even though Martha is reluctant to participate in such a flimsy case.   Maybe there will be a courtroom drama?   Not really.   Only ten minutes of screen time are devoted to the trial at all, including an unconvincing statement by Martha to the court exonerating Eva for the death of her child.   Instead, we get the whole "grieving on the inside" drama where Martha walks around like a zombie numbed from the pain and Sean deals with his grief by looking and sounding intense all the time.   Martha and Sean drift apart, each engaging in different versions of self-destructive behavior.   Sean relapses into drug and alcohol abuse coupled with demands that Martha sexually please him even though she is so not in the mood.   Martha's mother Elizabeth (Burstyn) dislikes Sean, partly because he's a working-class grunt and mostly because of his past.   Who is to say Martha and Sean would've made it even if the baby had lived?   There is so little chemistry there you wonder how they got together in the first place.

Internal grief isn't cinematic.  A little of it goes a long way.   Granted, the internalization of mourning isn't uncommon, but it doesn't make for thrilling viewing.   Sean eventually lashes out with violence, and it is all the more frustrating for him when Martha doesn't fight back.   Shia Labeouf has seemingly cornered the market on characters driven by intensity and internal rage much the same way Sam Rockwell has the monopoly on racists who decide to stop being racist.   Vanessa Kirby was wonderful in the first two seasons of The Crown as Princess Margaret.   She is more muted here, mostly because that is how Martha is written.   Martha is only allowed to suggest complex emotions without fully expressing them and it robs the viewer and movie of a satisfactory payoff. 

Ellen Burstyn's Elizabeth undergoes problems of her own dealing with her age and the onset of dementia.   She has one terrific scene where she urges Martha to snap out of her doldrums and fight back against the pain which has consumed her.   It will likely be enough to secure Burstyn another Oscar nomination at age 87, and she can still pack a wallop.   There has been talk of a nomination for Kirby, but what would the clips be?   Martha stomping around town like she's mad at the sidewalk?  I'm not blaming Kirby, just the way she is utilized.   I would've liked to have seen more about Eva and how she is processing the possibility of going to prison and losing her livelihood over something she had no control over.   Pieces of a Woman has a more powerful story locked up inside, yearning to be freed, but instead it is a prisoner of its own self-imposed dramatic limitations.   

Cobra Kai (Season Three streaming on Netflix) * * *

 

Starring:  Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, Courtney Henggeler, Martin Kove, Tanner Buchanan, Mary Mauser, Peyton List, Jacob Bertand, Xolo Mariduena

I'll get the gripes out of the way at the top.   Season three of the continuation of the Karate Kid saga tidies up some loose ends from the preceding films while evoking pop nostalgia and backstories.   On that level, Cobra Kai entertains and moves along swiftly.   The thirty to forty minute running time on each episode doesn't hurt.   However, there are some tropes the show could do away with:

*  The season finale of season three unfolds nearly identically to season two.   A massive brawl breaks out between the warring dojo factions causing untold amounts of property damage and serious (if not potentially fatal injuries) while Daniel and Johnny have an uneasy dinner with their significant others and form a temporary, grudging truce...again.

*   If there is one scene in which either Daniel, Johnny, or Kreese threaten each other, make offers to align, or suggest dire consequences if such offers are rejected, then there are ten throughout the show's history.

*   The teens, even after a few lessons, seem to have channeled their inner Bruce Lee and fight like black belts.   The battles between them are a cross between John Wick (minus the guns) and Enter the Dragon.

However, even with these issues, the third season of Cobra Kai is the best so far; moving confidently through its narratives in a soap opera way.   This isn't a criticism, but affirmation of what the show does best.   Trying to recap the twists of the ten episodes will take far too long, and would rob the viewer of some of the surprises.   If you recall, the season two finale ended with an all-out brawl between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai dojos which left Johnny's student Miguel (Mariduena) paralyzed.   Johnny and Daniel are both distraught and feel responsible, just as they do for Robbie (Buchanan), who did the paralyzing and is now on the run.  

The school brawl has resulted in negative publicity for Daniel's dojo and car dealerships and hurts business for both.   A rival dealership has a cut a deal with Daniels' main Japanese auto supplier and Daniel must go to Japan to fix it.   He feels lost, and takes a side trip to Okinawa (the locale for The Karate Kid, Part II) seeking a spiritual reconnect with his long dead mentor Mr. Miyagi and reuniting with his love from the second film, while in turn burying the hatchet with that movie's villain.    These scenes are handled beautifully and are the highlight of the season.   

Daniel (Macchio) and Johnny (Zabka) undergo changes, with Johnny evolving the most since the shaky days of season one.   The malicious Kreese (Kove) has now usurped Cobra Kai from Johnny and instills ruthless aggression in his willing students.   There is a Vietnam backstory involving Kreese which shows how Kreese became such an enemy of mercy.   It doesn't excuse Kreese's evil, but it explains the man's obsession with sadism.  Kove's eyes light up when he watches his students pound each other into oblivion.   Maybe even he is surprised by how many youths are teenage versions of himself.

I also enjoyed how Daniel's wife Amanda (Henggeler) extracts herself from the sidelines and jumps into the war courtesy of a showdown with Kreese.   It's a satisfying scene and shows just how far she is willing to go to protect her family.   Season four promises a new villain emerging from behind the scenes and may wade into the waters of Karate Kid, Part III.   My advice would be to spend as little time revisiting that chapter as possible. 

You Can Count on Me (2000) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Kenneth Lonergan

Starring:  Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, Rory Culkin, Kenneth Lonergan, Matthew Broderick, Jon Tenney

Terry Prescott wants to do the right thing by his sister Sammy and her son Rudy.   There is no doubt his heart is in the right place, but then why does he wind up acting against his better nature?   Terry (Ruffalo) and Sammy (Linney) raised each other after the death of their parents in a car accident years ago.  Sammy is responsible; raising an eight-year old son (Culkin) as a single mom and working as a loan officer at the local bank.   Sammy lives in her childhood home in upstate New York and has settled into a quiet life.  Rudy's dad has been out of the picture for a while, and Sammy dates Bob (Tenney), a nice guy who one day can't commit and the next asks Sammy to marry him.   

Sammy's workday includes confrontations with her annoying boss Brian (Broderick), who doesn't like his staff's computer screens to be set to loud colors and especially doesn't appreciate Sammy having to leave work to pick Rudy up at the school bus stop each day.   While being finicky about bank rules, Brian has no qualms about starting an affair with Sammy even with a many-months pregnant wife at home.   Terry's life is one of drifting.   He left behind a girlfriend to visit Sammy, only to pull his usual move of asking for money to send back to the girlfriend.   He then hangs around, tries to fix a nasty leak in the house (although this is way beyond his skill set), and provides Rudy with a man in his life even if Terry takes him to shoot pool when the kid should be in bed.  

The dynamic between Sammy and Terry has been going on like this for years.   Sammy is thrilled to see Terry, hoping this time he may have changed his irresponsible ways, and maybe because Terry at least provides some change in her otherwise humdrum existence.   What makes You Can Count on Me such a fascinating watch is how intimately we feel we know these siblings.  Linney and Ruffalo have easy chemistry and familiarity.   We think we have Terry wired, but then he pulls something out of his sleeve which makes us think differently, such as dealing with Rudy's dad when he decides to return after many years away.   That is sometimes temporary.  

Written and directed with subtlety and grace by Kenneth Lonergan (who also plays the local priest Sammy confides in regularly), You Can Count on Me never has to raise its voice to be heard loud and clear.   It is a film as quiet as the small New York town in which it takes place, but the drama is stirring and the characters aren't cookie-cutter people, but flexible, imperfect, and ever-changing.  Even Terry, to a degree.