Dream Horse (2021) * *

Directed by:  Euros Lyn

Starring:  Toni Collette, Owen Teale, Damian Lewis

Movies about race horses tend to follow the same unwavering formula:  Down-on-his/her luck person buys the horse, the horse isn't fit for racing but the trainer "sees something in him" and trains the horse anyway, the horse has minimal success at first, but just as the horse begins to improve the poor animal suffers a life-threatening injury.   The horse then not only recovers but stuns doubters by being a better racer than before.   Horse wins the big race.   All is well.

Dream Horse follows the racehorse movie playbook step by step.   It is spirited and the people who entrust their life savings and faith in this horse are colorful, but let's face it:  We've seen this movie before.   There are no surprises and a modicum of suspense.   Dream Horse is as generic as its title.  Secretariat or Seabiscuit it ain't. 

Supermarket cashier and moonlighting bartender Jan (Collette) is bored with her humdrum life and her husband Brian (Teale).   She looks for something to look forward to every day, so she researches race horses after listening to bar patron Howard Davies (Lewis) tell his drinking buddies about the glory days of owning a race horse.   Howard, an accountant by day, nearly went bankrupt and lost his marriage when his last horse investment went belly-up, but he's willing to listen when Jan suggests members of the small Welsh town in which they reside pony up (no pun intended) the funds to buy a mare and breed her with a racehorse with pedigree.   Their horse, which they name Dream Alliance (a better name for the movie), is soon born and learns to race with help from a top breeder and trainer.

I did not exactly give away spoilers, since Dream Horse doesn't deviate from the racehorse movie formula one iota.   I suppose what sucks about horse racing is how the horse itself doesn't benefit from winning.   I'm sure the horse sees its owners jumping for joy when he wins, but he has no idea how he is carrying the burden of making his owners' lives meaningful and making them rich.   He can't figure out what the hubbub is about.   All he wants to do is run as fast as he can so the person riding him stops hitting him with a riding crop.   It doesn't sound like much of a life, even if he is fed extra hay or vegetables for winning the Kentucky Derby.  

Now, if a horse racing movie is ever made from the point of view of the horse, then maybe we might have something there.   

Wrath of Man (2021) * * * 1/2

Directed by: Guy Ritchie

Starring:  Jason Statham, Josh Hartnett, Andy Garcia, Holt McCallany, Eddie Marsan, Scott Eastwood, Jeffrey Donovan

Wrath of Man is Guy Ritchie's (and for that matter Jason Statham's) most assured crime drama.   It isn't merely a crowd-pleasing action film, but it transcends the genre into superior crime noir.   There may or may not be any "good guys" in the film, but there are people whose motives we care about and we are guessing every step of the way.   Who are these characters?   What drives a man like Patrick Hill (Statham) to join an armored truck company and nearly crack a smile when thieves attempt in vain to rob the truck he is assigned to protect?   Hill, nicknamed H, lays waste to the would-be robbers.   He is clearly not who he seems, and many of the people in Wrath of Man can lay claim to that distinction.

H has personal reasons to join Fortico, the armored truck company in question.   We witness an armored truck heist in the opening frames of Wrath of Man.  Two employees are killed and we later discover a third person unrelated to the crime is murdered in cold blood as well.   This person is connected to H, who is either a crime lord, a government agent, or both.   No matter what, Statham approaches the role with his usual repository of self-confidence and quiet anger.   But there is a bit more to H than meets the eye, which is one of the pleasures of not just H but Wrath of Man itself.

Gone is the over-stylized story telling and camera movement which had populated Ritchie's films as of late.  He tells a straight story here with timelines which reveal not just the story, but the motives of H and the thieves he is ultimately chasing for revenge.   The thieves have their reasons for wanting to knock over armored trucks, or at the reasons for most of the thieves.   One seems to like the action, while the others like the money.   Money doesn't seem to drive H in any of his endeavors.   Part of the lure of H and the Statham performance is the mystery surrounding him.  

Wrath of Man is among the most engrossing crime dramas in recent years.   It isn't just a Statham vehicle.  Ritchie takes great care to make it special by not just making the other characters future targets for H, but people with their own back stories who had the unfortunate luck to cross paths with hm.   The action scenes are not just silly shootouts which follow action movie cliches, but ones that are loud, suspenseful, and high human stakes.   Ritchie's past crime films had a soft, comic touch which were hit or miss.   Wrath of Man is all hit with a few nifty surprises thrown in not just for effect, but are actually plausible and quite masterfully done.  

The Woman in the Window (2021) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Joe Wright

Starring:  Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Julianne Moore, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Anthony Mackie, Tracy Letts, Fred Hechinger, Bryan Tyree Henry, Wyatt Russell

Anna Fox is an agoraphobic child psychologist with her own set of traumas to deal with in The Woman in the Window, a solid if not outstanding thriller in which Anna (Adams) swears she witnesses a murder in the home across the street.   However, Anna doesn't make a reliable witness because of the large quantity of medications she ingests and chases with alcohol.    

For reasons made clear later, and I will not overstep and reveal spoilers, Anna hasn't been out of the house in a long time.   She is now separated from her husband (Mackie) and daughter; only speaking to them via phone and she has a tenant living downstairs (Russell) who isn't around all that much.   The new neighbors include a seemingly abused teenager Ethan (Hechinger) whose father Alistair (Oldman) has a sketchy past and warns Anna to stay away from his family.   That doesn't stop Ethan's mother Jane (Moore) from dropping in one night and sharing drinks and laughs with Anna, which may have led to Jane being murdered.  But, when Anna calls 911 and reports the murder, Alistair shows up to the apartment with his wife Jane intact, only it isn't the Jane that Anna hung out with nights earlier.   This Jane looks more like Jennifer Jason Leigh than Julianne Moore.   So, is Anna crazy or is something afoot?

The detective assigned to the case (Henry) wants to believe Anna, but he knows she takes too many pills and drinks too much to be completely credible.   The house Anna never leaves must cost a fortune.  A bigger mystery than if Jane was murdered is how Anna manages to keep the mortgage paid on her gargantuan, three-story Gothic home despite seemingly having no patients and even with a tenant paying rent.   Since The Woman in the Window is a nod to Hitchcock, these aren't the questions we should be asking.   

The resolution of the murder itself is fairly uncomplicated in the grand scheme of things.   The Woman in the Window is front-loaded with A-list actors (including two recent Oscar winners in Oldman and Moore) whose performances are better than the material.    When all is said and done, The Woman in the Window is well-made and gives us moments of suspense, but not anything substantial or even particularly memorable.  

And perhaps Alistair and company should invest in curtains or blinds so neighbors won't see what they're up to.  

Sprial: From the Book of Saw (2021) * 1/2

Directed by:  Darren Lynn Bousman

Starring:  Chris Rock, Samuel L. Jackson, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols

The Saw series began with Saw (2004) in which an ingenious serial killer lures his victims into traps in which they must choose between death or permanent disfigurement.   I wasn't crazy about Saw, but at least it had a plot.   The ensuing movies in the series were little more than a series of gorefests in which the traps grew more elaborate and sickening.   Body parts are severed and blood spurts all over the screen.   They were depressing to watch.   I stopped after Saw 3.   I don't believe I missed much by not watching the other movies.  

Many years later comes Spiral, starring Chris Rock as a detective on the tail of a Jigsaw copycat killer who targets cops.   I went in knowing full well the victims will be secured in contraptions of agonizing complexity.  My first question is:  How much time, energy, patience, and resources does this killer have to keep setting up these booby traps?   He must buy chloroform and pig masks by the gross.  And how does he perform test runs of the traps?   The opening sequence features a dirty cop hung by his tongue while a subway train races towards him.   The killer sets up a small TV set which outlines the two possible outcomes to the would-be victim:  The cop can die when the train hits him or he can free himself from the contraption which will sever his tongue clean off.   The cop will live but have trouble eating and speaking for the rest of his life.   Fun times.

Not even the comic presences of Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson bring any levity to Spiral.   Rock's Zeke Banks is a department pariah for testifying against his former partner who coldly murdered someone.  He is put on the case when what is left of the cop is found splattered all over the subway tracks.   His dialogue to his new partner (Minghella) about marriage and divorce sounds like something out of his stand-up act.   Jackson appears in a few scenes as Zeke's dad, a former department captain also targeted by the killer in the pig mask, drops four and twelve-letter words and then disappears for a long stretch.  

Spiral leaves room open for yet another sequel, but it merely continues a wearying film series which is among the least fun you will ever witness.   There is nothing new in Spiral except upping the ante on gore, blood, and severed body parts.   

Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021) * 1/2

 

Directed by: Taylor Sheridan

Starring:  Angelina Jolie, Jon Bernthal, Nicholas Hoult, Aiden Gillen, Finn Little, Jake Weber, Medina Senghore

Those Who Wish Me Dead is about a Montana fire jumper who is Haunted By Her Past and soon has a chance to Make Amends by protecting a young boy from hired killers.   If Taylor Sheridan's film didn't introduce so many characters with their own issues that we forget at times its star is in the movie, maybe Those Who Wish Me Dead could have worked.  Instead, it is ultra bogged down long before it gets to the main event.

And boy is it Bogged Down.   Jolie's Hannah Faber drinks a lot and is relegated to manning a fire tower after she fails to save the lives of children in a forest fire.   She Blames Herself and is Haunted By Flash Backs.   We also meet:  Hannah's former boyfriend (Bernthal), the local sheriff's deputy with a pregnant wife (Senghore), a forensic accountant (Weber) who flees Florida with his son (Little) after two assassins kill a local district attorney.   The accountant and son flee to Montana in hopes no one will find them.   The killers search the accountant's home for five minutes before determining somehow that the dad and son have fled to Montana.   These hitmen aren't known for being conspicuous.   They set up the most laborious trap on a mountain road to kill the dad which results in collateral damage.   The son survives, lights out for the woods, and the would-be killers start a forest fire as a way of distracting the local townsfolk so they could kill the kid in peace.

The kid stumbles across Hannah, who helps guide the boy through a fast-moving inferno which sweeps up and down the countryside while avoiding the killers.   These killers are supposed to be seasoned pros, but are masters of using shotguns to kill mosquitoes.   The fire itself is kind enough to stop its spread long enough for Hannah's final showdown with the assassins.   By the time the movie ends, the fire is ridiculously out of control and then, poof, the heroes wake up the next morning with the flames completely put out.   I am no forest fire expert, but I would assume it would take days to contain such a rapid forest fire.   

Those Who Wish Me Dead strives to be Meaningful, but it is so ludicrous we can't take it seriously even though it desperately wants us to.   The characters are not established long enough for us to care about them.   The hired guns maliciously and coldly dispatch everyone in their path but yet are reluctant to kill Hannah and any of the more important characters without at least giving them a chance to save their own lives.   They act according to who has top billing on the movie poster.   Sheridan's Hell or High Water (2016) was frustrating but at least had its moments of power.   That was a near-miss.  Those Who Wish Me Dead never had a chance to hit.   

2021 Oscars: A Look Back

April 25, 2021 is the strangest Oscar telecast I've ever seen.   Its biggest issue was the producers' attempt to reinvent the wheel in their attempts to "simplify" or freshen up the ceremony.   Presenters were not only asked to present multiple categories, but were also forced to recite verbal diarrhea about the nominees or gush over them to the point of nausea.    Here is the most effective way to show the audience the power of a performance or to ratchet up suspense:   Show a clip of the acting nominees.  This produces suspense which in turn produces interest.   We see with our own eyes what made the performances special without a presenter telling us so.   

The acceptance speeches were encouraged to be long-winded and expansive, which many were.  The trade-off was the absence of clips and an In Memoriam segment in which the deceased's names and photos were shown so quickly the viewer could've sued for whiplash.    This is the first Oscars telecast in many a long day in which Best Picture wasn't presented last.   Nomadland won Best Picture with Best Actress and Best Actor still to go.   I understand the producers were anticipating closing the show with a poignant, emotional finale in which the late Chadwick Boseman was awarded the Best Actor Oscar.   It was not to be.   Anthony Hopkins snagged his second Best Actor Oscar for The Father.   He wasn't there to accept nor did he give his speech via satellite.  (Zoom acceptance speeches were not permitted).   The telecast ended with presenter Joaquin Phoenix announcing Hopkins as the winner and then accepting the award on his behalf.   End of show.   Peace out!

Here are the awards vs. my predictions.   Guess what?   I didn't fare well.

Best Picture:  Nomadland.   My prediction:  Nomadland

Best Actor:  Anthony Hopkins.   My prediction:  Chadwick Boseman (just like everyone else's prediction)

Best Actress:  Frances McDormand.  My prediction:  Carey Mulligan

Best Supporting Actor:  Daniel Kaluyya.  My prediction:  Daniel Kaluyya

Best Supporting Actress:  Youn Yuh-Jung.   My prediction:  Glenn Close (8th Oscar defeat)

Best Director:  Chloe Zhao.  My prediction:  Chloe Zhao

Best Original Screenplay:  Promising Young Woman.  My prediction:  Promising Young Woman

Best Adapted Screenplay:  The Father.  My prediction:  One Night in Miami

That's four out of eight in the major categories.   An underwhelming 50%.   

The telecast suffered a record low viewership.   Maybe there is no way to restore the Oscars to their glory.   By the time the Oscars bows, perhaps the viewing audience has had it with awards season.  Would nominating blockbusters help?   I would say no.   Would more people have a vested interest in seeing a smash hit film win vs. a smaller production?   They would still have to outlast a three-hour plus bloated ceremony in which the only thing that stays the same is the constant attempt to change the show.   Since this year's Oscars took place in Union Station in Los Angeles and was held in late April as opposed to February, it just felt odd all around.   

Here Today (2021) * * *

 

Directed by:  Billy Crystal

Starring:  Billy Crystal, Tiffany Haddish, Penn Badgley, Barry Levinson, Kevin Kline, Sharon Stone, Anna Deveare Smith, Laura Benanti, Louisa Krause

There is something warm and fuzzy about Billy Crystal that takes the edge off of a subject even as harrowing as dementia.   In the opening sequence of Here Today, famed comedy writer Charlie Burnz (Crystal) is taking the same walk to work he takes every day.   He even recognizes what to do when he approaches a familiar stop sign or intersection.   ("Turn left here").  Charlie has been diagnosed with the early stages of dementia and is trying to do what he can to maintain his normal lifestyle.   He works as a writer for a weekly cable TV show, serving as a mentor to the younger writers whose material never seems to make it to the show.   If you watch the unfunny skits which do air, you wonder how bad these writers have to be to not have any of their segments deemed funny enough to make it to broadcast. 

Charlie loves typing on an old fashioned typewriter and his routine, mostly because his routine helps him remember things.   As his doctor advises, though, this and medication can only hold off the inevitable for so long.   Charlie will soon be overtaken by his condition and won't remember anything, including his kids with whom he has a chilly relationship.   He is attempting to write his memoirs but mostly stares at a blank page.   He only appears to recall the bad moments in his life, such as when a police officer appears at his door to tell him his wife was killed in a car crash.   

Enter Emma Page (Haddish), who after her breakup with her cheating boyfriend decides to take his place at a lunch with Charlie which he bid on for charity.   Charlie is shocked to learn the lunch didn't cost much at auction and is even more shocked when Emma develops a nasty seafood allergy and needs a trip to the emergency room.   Even after that episode, Emma and Charlie develop a warm friendship.  They get along and they like each other.   A romantic subplot here would be unnecessary.   Charlie becomes a father figure and Emma becomes a daughter figure, especially since his real daughter Francine (Benanti) still blames him for her mother's death.

Emma, a singer who works mostly in underground night clubs, catches on that Charlie suffers from dementia.   Charlie hasn't told his children or granddaughter whom he dotes on, but Emma decides to forego a world tour to take care of him.   We witness a sweet side to Haddish we haven't seen before.  It suits her, although I wish Crystal pared down some of her singing performances such as her rendition of "Piece of My Heart" at his granddaughter's bat mitzvah.   It's well done, but drags on.   

Crystal films his recollections of his late wife Carrie (the luminous Krause) by having her speak into the camera which acts as Charlie's eyes and ears.   These scenes work without the technique becoming distracting.   Krause's eyes smile even when she's angry, so we are not surprised Charlie fell in love with her so fast.   The camera adores her.   So do we.   

Does Here Today run a bit too long?   Yes, but hey it's Billy Crystal so we forgive him.   Is it schmaltzy?   Of course, but Crystal the actor and director knows just what heartstrings to pluck and for how long.   Here Today could've been a depressing slog, but Crystal and Haddish figure a way to make it fresh and explore even some comic possibilities with the material.   Here Today is a comedy about a serious subject that doesn't come off as depressing or underplay the seriousness. 

Four Good Days (2021) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Rodrigo Garcia

Starring:  Glenn Close, Mila Kunis, Stephen Root, Joshua Leonard

As a father of a now deceased addict, many sequences in Four Good Days rang bone-chillingly true.  What Four Good Days captures most is the paranoia and fear of the addict's loved ones who can't trust the addict and are waiting for the next shoe to drop.   It's tricky and painful.   You want to believe your child when he or she swears this time they want to get clean.   When they go out or borrow money, you fear it is for buying drugs or using them.   It's almost as thin a tightrope as the addict walks. 

Glenn Close stars as Deb, whose daughter Molly (Kunis) is seen in the opening moments banging on the front door and camping out on the front porch.   With track marks all over, scabs on her face, and filth all over her body, Molly only wants to stay the night and have mom take her to rehab in the morning.   Deb swore that she wouldn't walk down this dark path again.   We learn Molly has unsuccessfully tried rehab fourteen times to no avail.   What makes anyone think the fifteenth time will be the charm?  Deb's husband Chris (Root) attempts to dissuade Deb from falling for Molly's promises yet again, but what is she to do?  One of the more horrible aspects of addiction is how you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.   You are forced to make nearly impossible choices.

A plot hole you can drive a truck through occurs as Chris stays offscreen for so long you think he moved out.   Chris pops up from time to time, tries to keep Deb strong, and disappears again.   He serves no functional purpose.   While checking into rehab, Molly and Deb learn of a new miracle injection which will curb the addict's desire for heroin for thirty days until the next shot.  In order to ensure Molly has no drugs in her system when she receives the medication, she must wait four painful days until she's ready.   Any drugs in her body would cause a perhaps deadly adverse reaction.  

Molly and Deb now play the waiting game for the four days.   Molly could easily relapse and maybe this time she won't rebound.   Or she could harm herself.   Or she could disappear never to be seen again.   Close is her always dependable self even and Kunis isn't simply playing a role where she uglies herself up in an attempt to gather awards season attention.   Kunis has depth and brings sympathy to this portrait of a self-hating soul who turned to drugs to deal with her issues.

Despite the good intentions and occasional powerhouse moments, Four Good Days mostly has an afterschool special feel to it.   It is worthwhile because of some of the emotions it touches upon, but I couldn't help but think it was only scratching the surface of an issue that better movies about addiction like Less Than Zero truly delve into.  

Together Together (2021) * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Nikole Beckwith

Starring:  Ed Helms, Patti Harrison, Tig Notaro

The font for the opening credits is the same one used for Woody Allen's films since time immemorial.  My curiosity was piqued.   Would Together Together be a comedy in the Woody Allen tradition?  It didn't take long for my curiosity to be unpiqued, which isn't a word but it fits the description of my emotions at the time. 

The stars of Together Together are Ed Helms and Patti Harrison.   They play Matt and Anna and have an unusual relationship.   Matt is a divorced man who wants a child and Anna is the surrogate who will give birth to his baby.   At first, their relationship is strictly business, but the more time they spend together the more they seem to like each other.   Will they fall in love?  Maybe.  They talk, they laugh, they go to birthing classes together, they eat, they date.   Helms and Harrison are likable actors and do their best with characters and dialogue which aren't nearly as appealing as they are. 

We assume Together Together will lead to an inevitable and predictable payoff.   We are wrong.  A predictable payoff would at least be a payoff.   Not that there is much to spoil, but the ending of Together Together doesn't allow for a payoff for all of the lackluster moments which came before it.  There is a brief chat involving Allen between Matt and Anna in which Anna brings up the ick factor of Allen's Manhattan.   Juxtaposed with the lettering of the title credits which were meant clearly as an homage to Allen, I was puzzled by dialogue which surely condemns Allen.   I shouldn't be wondering where writer-director Beckwith stands on Woody Allen in the middle of the film she's trying to present.

Hey, at least puzzlement is a reaction.   The rest of Together Together doesn't inspire much of anything else.