Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) * * 1/2

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Starring:  Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert DeNiro, Lily Gladstone, Scott Shepherd, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, Jesse Plemons, Louis Cancelmi, Tatanka Means

Killers of the Flower Moon is a study in the stupidity of greed.  In early 1920's Oklahoma, the Osage tribe is made very rich because of oil on their land.  However, the money is held by the government and the members must go to the bank and give reasons why they need their own money.  Local wealthy rancher William King Hale (DeNiro), who passes himself off as a friend of the Osage, conspires with criminals to murder the Osage so his white friends and relatives can inherit the money.  

Hale's nephew Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio) is a Great War veteran returning home to find the entire landscape of his hometown has changed.  Hale gives him a crash course in the Osage's most recent history and urges Ernest to find an Osage woman and marry her so he can soon be in line to cash in.  Ernest soon woos Mollie Kyle (Gladstone), who likes Ernest but also suspects his motives are not pure.  But she marries him anyway, mostly because Ernest talks a good game and says he loves her enough times to somewhat convince her.   That, or she is lonely. 

The countenances on Ernest and Mollie can't be more opposite.  Ernest has a perpetual frown, while Mollie at first has a slight grin like the cat that ate the canary.  Mollie, through Hale's connections, is among the first people to obtain insulin, which Ernest soon mixes with poison to slowly sap the life from her.  Ernest claims he loves Mollie, but he clearly loves money more.  Soon, as more Osage die, a Bureau of Investigation agent (Clemons) comes to Oklahoma to solve the murders.  Ernest is a prime target, because his sister-in-law, mother-in-law, and his aunt all passed away within a year.  An actuary's head would spin.  Pulling the strings, but keeping himself distant, is Hale, whose influence over Ernest is palpable.   

Killers of the Flower Moon is a decent, but not great Scorsese picture.   Why?  Number one, like The Irishman (2019), Killers of the Flower Moon runs nearly 3 1/2 hours.  The story could've been told in far less time.  The performances are terrific, and with this cast, how could they not be?  The payoff is delivered through an epilogue told by radio performers who tell us what happened to each of the main characters.  This is curiously flat climactic device which is possibly supposed to spark outrage, but doesn't.   Parts of Killers of the Flower Moon are gripping and intense, while others don't gain much traction.   By the end, Scorsese's movie is an exercise in exhilaration mixed with frustration as we can't quite learn to love it.  We don't sense Scorsese has an intimate love for these people like he did in Goodfellas, Casino, or many of his greatest films.   We are kept outside, which is the last thing you would expect from a Martin Scorsese picture.  

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) * * *

Directed by:  Henry Selick

Starring: (voices of) Chris Sarandon, Danny Elfman, Catherine O'Hara, Paul Reubens, Glenn Shadix 

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is not directed by Burton, but as producer he has his imagination and ability to create unique worlds all over it.  The creatures and even humans look like nothing or no one we've seen before, and their worlds look dark, gloomy, and begging for a remodeling.   As The Nightmare Before Christmas opens, Halloweentown has just finished another successful Halloween celebration.  Jack Skellington (Sarandon), the town's de facto leader even though he isn't officially the mayor, craves something more.  Bored with Halloween, Jack finds a wormhole into Christmastown and is delighted by what he finds there.   A town preparing for Christmas?  Presents?  Joyful songs?  Santa Claus?

Jack then reveals his plans to Halloweentown:  He wants to kidnap Santa and deliver presents himself.  It would sure be a lot easier to travel up and down the chimneys since he is a skeleton.  Halloweentown is stunned, but soon they go along.  Since Jack doesn't understand the true meaning of being Santa Claus, he gives gifts to the children of the world which are surely not what anyone would want.  Soon, everyone is looking for Santa's (Jack's) sleigh to shoot it down.  

The first half of The Nightmare Before Christmas consists of forgettable musical numbers, while the second half focuses more on the heart of the story.   The stop-motion animation is seamless nearly thirty years after the film's initial release and Halloweentown and Christmastown take on lives of their own.   Jack Skellington isn't a villain.  He is someone trying to broaden his, and his town's horizons, but has no real idea how to do so.  He thinks by stealing the sleigh, he could bring joy like Santa does, which is truly his only goal.  Jack finds he is out of his depth and then needs the help of the man he had kidnapped to bail him out of trouble.  

The Nightmare Before Christmas runs a lean 75 minutes, which today would only be a mere first act.  The movie's plot and characters aren't as intriguing as the world they're set in, which is almost precisely the point.  

Hocus Pocus (1993) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Kenny Ortega

Starring: Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thora Birch, Vinessa Shaw, Omri Katz, Charles Rocket, Stephanie Faracy

The Sanderson sisters Winifred (Midler), Mary (Najimy), and Sarah (Parker) are 1693 Salem witches hung by locals and then awakened 300 years later on Halloween night by kids new to the town.  The witches are bent on drinking the blood of a child so they could live forever with youngsters Max (Katz), Allison (Shaw), and Max's sister Dani (Birch) trying to stop the witches.  If the sisters do not succeed before sunrise, then they disappear forever...again or until a sequel.

Hocus Pocus is a cute, inoffensive Halloween movie which has gained enough of a following in ensuing years to warrant a 2022 sequel.  Like a Peanuts comic strip, the parents are mostly off screen, (in this case, every adult is at an all-night Halloween party), so the kids are forced to deal with the danger on their own. The sisters appear at the party long enough for Bette Midler to belt out a tune with an orchestra coincidentally on hand.  I have yet to see the sequel, but the events of this film has at least piqued my curiosity enough to take a look soon enough. 

The witches in Hocus Pocus don't seem fazed that they were once dead and have been resurrected 300 years later.  They haven't missed a beat and have little, if any, culture shock.  Hocus Pocus isn't built to be a movie that would have such reservations and I'd be a Grinch to keep pointing those out.  Oops, wrong holiday. 

Summer of Sam (1999) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Spike Lee

Starring:  John Leguizamo, Adrien Brody, Jennifer Esposito, Spike Lee, Michael Badalucco, Mira Sorvino, Ben Gazzara, Anthony LaPaglia, Bebe Neuwirth, Michael Rispoli

Summer 1977 New York City was a time of cultural change, record heatwaves, rolling blackouts, the emerging punk scene, and the Son of Sam who was shooting people dead in their cars while sending taunting letters to New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin.  Breslin provides the prologue and epilogue for Summer of Sam, stating New York is a city he loves and hates equally.  After watching of Summer of Sam, it is not hard to see why Breslin felt that way.

Summer of Sam isn't just about the oppressive summer heat, but the heat put on the city's neighborhoods as Son of Sam claims victim after victim.   Mob mentalities began to emerge and anyone who was different stood out as a suspect by paranoid groups of people who think they know more than the police.  Director Spike Lee examines all of these moving parts in a vibrant film with a distinct sense of time, place, and ultimately temperature.   Summer of Sam remains Lee's best film and one close to his heart.

We meet a group of people living in Brooklyn who are affected indirectly by the fear caused by the Son of Sam murders which reached their peak in July 1977.  The New York Yankees are chasing the pennant and provide temporary respite to New Yorkers suffering through the murders and the record heat.  Brownouts are common to conserve energy.  We meet Vinny (Leguizamo), a womanizing hairdresser married to Dionna (Sorvino), a waitress at her father's restaurant who may suspect Vinny's infidelities but doesn't act on them.  One night, Vinny is taking home Dionna's cousin and has sex with her in the car.  He thinks he sees the killer accost his car, so he promises to go straight and be faithful to Dionna...until his next erection.   Vinny cannot help but give in to his nature while Dionna lives in a fool's paradise.  

Vinny's friend Richie (Brody) comes around the neighborhood sporting a punk hairdo and a phony British accent.   He works as a dancer/prostitute at a local gay porn theater, but has a steady girlfriend (Esposito), who used to have a fling with Vinny.  Neighborhood denizens think Richie is odd enough to be Son of Sam.  We cut to scenes of David Berkowitz (Badalucco) in a filthy apartment full of trash and vermin tormented by visions of a dog telling him to kill.  We know Richie isn't Son of Sam, but the characters don't know and despite Vinny's protestations, they grow so convinced they are ready to kill him.   The mob continually needs Vinny's affirmations to allow them to move on Richie.  Why do they Vinny to co-sign on their suspicions?  In a way, they can be held blameless because if Richie's best friend agrees with them, then it makes their actions permissible.  

Summer of Sam is a triumph in an atmosphere of guilt, violence, and sex.  There was no AIDS yet to temper people's libidos and embrace monogamy.  I wonder how a serial philanderer like Vinny would cope with the AIDS epidemic.  Like in Summer of Sam, when he is frightened after a near-encounter with Berkowitz, he would make hollow pledges to change only to renege at the first opportunity.  The only characters who remain true to themselves are Richie and Dionna, both of whom find themselves being betrayed by Vinny, but I'm sure later on will find it was a blessing in disguise.   

Stand and Deliver (1988) * * *

Directed by:  Ramon Menendez

Starring:  Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips, Andy Garcia, Rosanna DeSoto, Bodie Olmos, Vanessa Marquez

Jaime Escalante was a real-life Los Angeles schoolteacher in the early 1980's who established one of the best AP high school calculus programs in the country from scratch.  The school where he just started working didn't have higher math programs, mostly because the administration didn't think the mostly Latino students could handle the work.   When Escalante reports to his first day of work, he finds a raucous, uninspired class.   But this isn't Dangerous Minds or even Lean on Me.  Escalante takes on a unique teaching style which outflanks his students and causes them to stay silent to hear what he has to say.  He acts strangely, but inspires confidence in them to the point that they are ready to take on trig and calculus.   His bosses think he is overreaching, but Escalante proves them wrong.  

Stand and Deliver is not a rousing biopic canonizing Jaime Escalante.  He is a middle-aged man who chose teaching as his new profession after working for years at tech companies.  He is able to change gang member Angel Guzman (Phillips) from delinquent to math whiz and get his students to buy into taking classes after school, on weekends, and during hot summers.   The students love math but they love the teacher more.  There are scenes involving the daily lives of some of the students, who toil at restaurant jobs or manual labor, which serve as a snapshot into their futures before Escalante came along.

Angel is the most fully developed supporting player.  He tells Escalante he carries one set of books for home and one for school, so his gang cronies don't see him actually engaging in schoolwork.  The success of Stand and Deliver rests on Edward James Olmos' Oscar-nominated performance.  He doesn't play Escalante as a saint, but a hard-working man who believes in his students and what he teaches them.  Later, after the entire class passes the state AP calculus exam, the results draw suspicions from the state due to the scores and the participants getting the same answers wrong.  This draws a fiery rebuke from Escalante, who points out that, as the instructor, he made the same mistakes teaching them.   Olmos imbues Escalante with an oddness which keeps everyone around him on their toes.  If Joe Clark from Lean on Me had fifty Escalantes in his school, it would have been whipped into shape a lot sooner. 

First Blood (1982) * * *

Directed by:  Ted Kotcheff

Starring:  Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Brian Dennehy, David Caruso, Jack Starrett

First Blood is the first and best movie which introduced the world to alienated Vietnam veteran John Rambo (Stallone), a killing machine triggered in this movie by mistreatment and abuse by a local sheriff.  Picked up and booked on dubious vagrancy charges by hard-line Sheriff Will Teasle (Dennehy), Rambo is tormented while in custody, violently escapes, and lights out for the mountains where he enjoys a considerable advantage over those on his trail.

Rambo kills or wounds several of Teasle's deputies, the National Guard is called in, and soon Rambo's former commanding officer Sam Trautman (Crenna) arrives at the scene to warn Teasle about the trouble he's in and offer to bring Rambo in unharmed.   "You'll need a good supply of body bags"  He isn't wrong.  The subtext of First Blood, made in 1982, was America's lack of support for Vietnam veterans.  They served in an unpopular war in which they were soldiers in an unfortunate situation.   Rambo, when he finally erupts verbally, expresses his anger over his loneliness and rage against those who spit on him and protested against him.   It's effective, even more so than the violent acts in which he makes booby traps out of wood and eats wild boars.  

I also liked the subtle dimensions Teasle shows.  He isn't simply the villain, but someone who doesn't realize the monster he created.   In the beginning, when he gave Rambo a ride out of town, he probably should've directed him to a nearby place to eat and offered him a few dollars.   It beats being shot up and having his town reduced to ruins.  

Only Murders in the Building-Season Three (2023) * * 1/2

 

Starring:  Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez, Paul Rudd, Meryl Streep, Matthew Broderick, Linda Emond, Jeremy Shamos, Jesse Williams 

The Arconia building had better ramp up security because three murders within three years is sure to drive away potential tenants and cause the current ones to move far away.  I would think the ownership or at least the board would want to investigate why these deaths keep occurring and not leave to it to Charles, Oliver, and Mabel to solve the crimes.  Season two ended with the death of actor Ben Glenroy (Rudd) on stage during the premiere of Oliver's new Broadway show.  Finally, we have a suspicious passing that didn't occur within the Arconia's walls.  

That break did not last long, as it turns out, because Ben survives the onstage calamity only to be later thrown down an elevator shaft in the Arconia.  This puts the show on hold as its lead actor now needs to be recast.  Oliver dreams up rewriting the show as a musical after learning of a critic's savage panning of it which was never published.   This season of Only Murders in the Building spends as much time on the reworking of the production as it does Ben's murder.   The investigation is more fun than the cast rollicking through the show's musical numbers.

Rudd plays the obnoxious victim Ben, who rubs nearly everyone the wrong way, while Meryl Streep joins the cast as Loretta Durkin, a lifelong, unsuccessful actress finally getting her big Broadway break who grows into Oliver's romantic interest.   She and Ben surely don't see eye-to-eye and harbors a secret.  Did she kill Ben?  Even Charles (Martin) got into a physical altercation with Ben shortly before the curtain rose on opening night.  Turns out, he and Ben have a beef dating back to Ben's time as a child actor.  Only Murders in the Building semi-successfully attempts to satirize Broadway and stick to its Agatha Christie-style with our amateur crime solvers, who should turn professional after this season because they're better at figuring these cases out than the cops.  Matthew Broderick makes a funny cameo appearance as himself whom Oliver idol-worships when he joins the play's cast, but then soon enrages him with his method acting and over-rehearsing to the point of exhaustion...for Oliver. 

However, the season as a whole is uneven, despite the terrific performances (even Selena Gomez abandons the constant deadpan).  The solution to the whodunit feels anticlimactic, as if the murder itself was an afterthought.  

The Exorcist: Believer (2023) * 1/2

 

Directed by: David Gordon Green

Starring:  Leslie Odom, Jr., Ellen Burstyn, Lidya Jewett, Olivia O'Neill, Jennifer Nettles, Ann Dowd, Raphael Sbarge, Norbert Leo Butz, E.J. Bonilla, Okwui Okpokwasili

I suppose the financial success of the recent Halloween trilogy has spurred David Gordon Green to tackle another famed horror franchise and put his stamp on it.  The Exorcist: Believer only serves to underscore how the original film tackled its story and subject so deftly, while this version trips over itself almost out of the gate.  Believer essentially, but clumsily, tells the same story as the 1973 original, only this time two young girls are possessed by the devil and the final exorcism plays like a checklist of faiths all trying to perform the same ritual.  In 1973, a Catholic priest battles the devil for the soul of an innocent twelve-year-old.  In 2023, we have Catholicism, voodoo, and Christianity (no denomination mentioned) all represented in efforts to thwart Satan.  There's strength in numbers, yes, but this feels like other religions wanting a piece of the action.  

The Exorcist: Believer stars Leslie Odom, Jr. as Victor Fielding, whose daughter Amanda (Jewett) and her best friend Katherine (O'Neill) become demonically possessed after the girls visited the cemetery where Amanda's mother is buried.  They follow a ritual to try and speak to the mother and this seemingly gives Satan an avenue to take over their bodies.  The girls disappear for three days and when discovered are physically healthy, but obviously not in spirit.  When all psychiatric explanations fail, Victor tracks down author Chris McNeil (Burstyn-from the first film), who experienced exorcism firsthand when her daughter Regan (Blair) was possessed fifty years ago.  

Chris is brought aboard to assist with the case.   She is not an exorcist, mind you, but she has experience with these things.  Her daughter's absence is chalked up to estrangement from Chris.  Soon, after Chris is blinded after being attacked by Amanda, and she spends the rest of the movie on the sidelines in a hospital bed.  Ellen Burstyn's involvement is limited to an extended cameo.  Her presence only further causes us to think about how superior the original film was compared to this dull retread.   

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) * * *

 

Directed by:  David Fincher

Starring:  Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Jason Flemyng, Julia Ormond, Elias Koteas, Tilda Swinton, Mahershala Ali

This a movie that can't have anything but a sad ending and an even sadder buildup.  There is no real payoff, but The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is nonetheless intriguing and touching.  The film, based on a 1922 F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, tells an unusual tale of a man who is ages in reverse.  Benjamin Button (Pitt) is born an elderly man and progresses toward infancy as he ages.  One wonders how much pain his mother went through when he was born.  If there was ever a time for a Caesarian, that was it.  

There are many scenes in which we see Brad Pitt as Brad Pitt, either with help of CGI and makeup or through his natural looks.  Pitt received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for this tricky role and he is able to find humanity beneath the gimmick.  The movie itself is an exercise in finding warmth and substance behind a plot which can only provide one sad outcome.  No attempt is made to explain why Benjamin Button was born the way he was, it just happened.   

Benjamin is born in 1910's New Orleans and whose presence is seemingly accepted by all.  No government agents trying to kidnap and study him.  He is such an oddity that people can't help but love him.  Fitzgerald wrote the story in 1922, possibly before the idea of government paranoia began to take shape.  However, I'm stunned he wasn't at least the subject of a newspaper story or two.  Word has a way of getting around.  

Cate Blanchett is Daisy, Benjamin's forever love interest who, like Jenny in Forrest Gump, doesn't get together with Benjamin until later in the movie mostly due to poor timing and intercontinental adventures.  Eric Roth, who wrote the movie, also adapted Forrest Gump, with plenty of similarities in the stories.  Forrest Gump injected more humor into its story, while The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is more solemn with very little comic relief thrown in.  This isn't to say Benjamin Button isn't a worthy story to tell, but it isn't a remote dropper like Forrest Gump.  

The Creator (2023) * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Gareth Edwards

Starring:  John David Washington, Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe, Madeleine Yuna Voyles, Amar Chadha-Patel, Sturgill Simpson, Allison Janney

The Creator's timely subject concerns AI, which is a sticking point in the recent WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.  There is nothing about The Creator which is fresh or original.  AI launched nuclear weapons against the planet as far back as The Terminator, which was released in 1984.  The conflicted hero has to save a child targeted for death, which was done as far back as Aliens (1986) or even The Golden Child, the Eddie Murphy comedy released the same year.   These themes are cliched and old hat by now.  The Creator gives us nothing new to the mix. 

The Creator contains lots of explosions and CGI, par for the course in sci-fi, but they don't make the movie any less dull.  The Creator simply moves through the motions with a lead played by John David Washington who doesn't move the needle in the sympathy department, even though he lost a wife and two of his limbs in a war against AI robots in 2070 East Asia.  You could say he gave an arm and a leg for this battle.  (Groan).

Washington plays Joshua, whose beloved wife and unborn child were killed during the U.S. battle against AI robots and people who are identifiable by the holes in the back of their heads.  Joshua is recruited by the military to capture and kill the AI "person" who is expected to be the leader of the future for them.  A John Connor, if you will.  Joshua pauses when he realizes the AI secret weapon is a child he names Alphie (Voyles), who is bald like The Golden Child.  Joshua soon makes it his mission to protect Alphie and destroy the American military structure which wants to obliterate all AI, especially after AI pulled the nasty stunt of causing near-Armageddon.  

The entire movie, despite impressive visuals, is a blah experience.  As much as I admired the perky energy of Voyles as Alphie, I was less impressed with Washington's flat performance.  The son of Denzel Washington, he is no doubt skilled, but I'm more often than not left unmoved by his performances.  It is possible the explosions, fights, and CGI overwhelm him and nearly all of the other actors in the movie.  That's the more likely answer. 

Pretty Woman (1990) * * *

 

Directed by:  Garry Marshall

Starring:  Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, Hector Elizondo, Ralph Bellamy, Laura San Giacomo, Jason Alexander

Pretty Woman was originally written as a harrowing drama involving a prostitute in 1980's Los Angeles.  Thank goodness it was converted to a romantic comedy, although it retains an edge because its two leads play jaded characters who cynically don't believe in the possibility of romance.  One is a hooker and one is a corporate raider who makes a fortune off of buying companies and selling off the parts.  As Edward Lewis (Gere) tells Vivian (Roberts), "We are the same type of person.  We screw people for money,"  

Edward breaks up with his live-in girlfriend over a brief phone discussion which Edward handles like many others.  He leaves a party with a flashy stick-shift car which he can't drive, gets lost on the Sunset Strip, and pays Vivian ten dollars to lead him to his hotel.  She even takes the wheel, displays vehicle knowledge, and Edward likes her.  He pays her three hundred dollars for her company for the rest of the night, although sex is the furthest thing from his mind.  He is plotting a takeover of a shipbuilder (Bellamy) who founded the company and planned to leave to his grandson upon his retirement.  Edward admires the man, but to him, it's all about business.  People be damned.  

Edward hires Vivian for $3,000 to be at his beck and call for a week.  There is sex involved because he's human and Vivian is wide-eyed, young, and attractive.  There is also something more:  Edward and Vivian begin to relate to each other and open up, discussing personal matters of which they've never spoken to anyone else, and each grows and changes.  Edward starts to see people as not commodities, but human beings, and Vivian realizes there may be a life outside of prostitution.  

Director Garry Marshall was wise to turn this material into an unlikely romantic comedy set amongst the unfeeling and cold corporate world.  Edward's right-hand man, Philip Stuckey (Alexander), is a bigger shark than even Edward who makes it his business to interfere in Edward's relationship with Vivian.  She is making him soft, he thinks, which could blow the whole deal and millions of dollars for him.   The key to the movie's success is Gere's and Roberts' abundance of chemistry, which elevates the movie from being a simple romcom.  There are depths to each character which Gere and Roberts plumb for all they're worth.  The movie itself transcends into something special.