In 1929 we find Max Perkins sitting behind his desk at Scribners and Sons. He casually crosses out lines and makes notes in the margins of a manuscript with a red pencil. Someone comes in and tells him he needs to read a recent submission. The book is a mountain of pages a foot tall. Max asks if it’s any good. It’s different, the slush pile reader says. We have a montage scene of Max reading the massive manuscript on the train ride home, at the dinning room table, in the living room, and on the train returning to the…
Category: movie review
The Whole Truth
The story of a lawyer who is murdered in his bedroom. Like most murder victims in mysteries, he was not a nice guy and the list of suspects includes everyone who ever met him. The redneck Louisiana lawyer is played by Jim Belushi, a face I haven’t seen in awhile. He’s older and fatter, but looks much as he always has. His wife is played by a virtually unrecognizable Renée Zellweger. I didn’t know it was her until I looked at the movie’s IMDB page. The big name star is Keanu Reeves. In fact, the biggest mystery for me was:Why…
The Nice Guys
Set in 1977 and filled with all the classic style and music of the era, we find two P.I. types who end up working on the same case. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling play the mostly hapless and often lucky guns for hire. The Nice Guys reminded me a bit of the failed FOX TV Show The Good Guys, except that show was about a couple of losers who were cops. We open up with a kid reading a porno mag, featuring Misty Mountains. Moments later, Misty crashes through the wall and dies in the kid’s backyard. She was naked…
Me Before You
Spoilers. We open up with a man in his prime heading off to work. He starts to pick up his motorcycle helmet, then his girlfriend warns him that it’s raining out. So he walks instead-and is hit by a motorcycle. Holy Irony, Batman! Me Before You tells the story of a poor young woman who hits the jackpot by becoming the companion to a rich man who is paralyzed from the neck down. He does have a small bit of movement in one hand that lets him control his super wheelchair. He is a bit bummed out that life has dealt…
The Lady in the Van
Playwright Alan Bennett has met with some success in his career and decides to buy a new house in Camden Town. Before he is fully unpacked, he sees an old woman in a beat up van looking for a parking space. The people in the street know her, but would prefer that she not park in front of their house. Alan is a nice guy and Mary, the old woman in the van, senses his weakness and instantly takes advantage of him. The story is told my two Alans, one the Writer and one the Man. They often argue with…
Into The Forest
In the not too distant future, something happens. Our heroes are a family, Dad and two teenage daughters, out in the woods working on their dream house in the Pacific Northwest. One daughter is obsessed with dancing and the other has a big test coming up. Dad is a clever fellow who is working on the house on his own. One day they are all immersed in their private media and the power goes off. They meet a few minor challenges and find their way down the mountain into town. Things are grim. No gas, little food, and yet the older daughter still…
A Hologram for the King
I like Tom Hanks. He’s a fun guy, but A Hologram for the King ranks up there with Larry Crowne, not Forrest Gump. Our hero, such as he is, is Alan, a former member of management at Schwinn Bicycles. Like many other great American brands, it is now just a subsidiary of some MultiNational Evil Corp. In A Hologram for The King, Alan was the axman who killed Schwinn and now has a new job as a salesman for an IT company that wants to land a lucrative Saudi account. So right off, Alan, is not a very nice man. The…
Equals
In the future, everyone has been turned into Vulcans. This seems like a perfect role for Kristen Stewart, but she isn’t playing an emotionless drone, she’s playing someone who has a disease that makes her experience emotions. She meets Nicholas Hoult, who is a ‘normal’ person who contracts the disease and falls madly in love with Kristen. This is a mixture of two standard story types, 1) the star-crossed lovers and 2) someone different hiding from all the normals. Equals is basically an art film episode of the Twilight Zone. There are hints of other great love stories, it has a…
Irrational Man
Woody Allen used to make funny movies. Once in a while he makes magical movies, like Midnight in Paris. Then he makes movies like Irrational Man. Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone get the bulk of the screen time and share narrator duties as we switch from one point of view to another. Irrational Man is a very workmanlike film. Woody knows how to make movies now and he goes through the motions here. The story features a depressed philosophy professor at a small college. He is a little soft around the middle and projects an air of sorrow everywhere he…
Star Trek Beyond
Star Trek Beyond was better than Star Trek Into Darkness, and that’s a good thing. This was a fast paced movie and something was always happening. For the most part, that’s good as well. You don’t have any time to think about what makes sense and what doesn’t make sense. I’m not a fan of CGI and Star Trek Beyond had more than it’s share of bad computer generate images. A swarm of bad guys that looked a lot like every other CGI swarm you’ve ever seen and a lot of things that were supposed to look dangerous, but just…