“Marriage Story” Movie Review

    When you love passionately in love with someone and decide to spend the rest of your life together as husband and wife, does that love ever die, even in the face of divorce?  Can you love someone as much as you grow to hate them?  “Marriage Story” is a character study of a couple in the middle of a divorce and how the separation effects each of them and their child.  Divorce is a painful and heartbreaking experience that is far to common these days so this movie is sadly very relatable to a large chunk of audiences.

    The film tells the story of a young married couple named Charlie and Nicole currently going through a divorce.  The couple have a child and decide to keep things simple and negotiate anything between themselves.  Things grow complicated when Nicole hires a divorce attorney on the recommendation of a friend and things spiral out of control.  Rival lawyers, court dates, skyrocketing costs, and broken dreams are only but a few of the hardships face in order to start new lives apart.  Unfortunately their child is caught in the middle in a nasty custody battle when all the couple really wanted was for child not to be caught in the middle of their divorce.

    This film isn’t a movie I would normally be much interested in and if this wasn’t on Netflix, I wouldn’t have went out special to see it.  Films such as “Kramer vs Kramer” are well done and beautifully acted but they don’t tend to emotionally connect with me.  Much to my surprise, “Marriage Story” actually managed to connect with me and left me caring about the couple.

    A lot of the strength of this film comes down to the performances of Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson and how vulnerable they make their characters feel.  This isn’t about a couple trying to destroy the other person (though on the surface it might appear that way), this is about a couple terrified to have to start all over again and admit their own failings.  Added to Driver and Johansson’s powerful performances, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, and Ray Liotta all deliver strong performances as the couple’s lawyers.

    What makes this film standout is that it plays all the characters as real and avoids going over the top.  Each character is deeply flawed but also lovable.  You could understand what the couple saw in each other and loved, and also what tore them apart.  The film also sends an important message about the importance of communication in a successful relationship and marriage.  Once someone builds walls up, they can’t always be torn down.

    I also preferred that the film decided to focus more on the couple’s love for their child and how that can turn toxic over the couple’s hatred over each other.  The divorce gets ugly but only to prove their love for their child.

    “Marriage Story” isn’t a movie I would normally enjoy which is perhaps the best testimony to how powerful it is.  With some of the strongest performances of the year, Netflix has another win this awards season.

Grade: B+

"BlacKkKlansman" Movie Review

    I remember seeing the previews for the film “BlacKkKlansman” and being intrigued by the premise.  I wanted to see the movie based on the fact that it was inspired by true events and because it was directed by Spike Lee.  Still, I never got around to seeing this in theaters.  I ended up coming across the movie again at our local movie rental store, Family Video, so I decided to rent it to see how it turned out.

    I have to admit, the previews for “BlacKkKlansman” reminded me a bit of the classic ‘Black White Supremacist’ sketch from “Chappelle’s Show”.  Now, the movie was more serious in tone, but they both shared a similar plot.  That was just my first impression however.

    Now, this film was recently nominated for Best Picture so do I feel it was among the best of the year?  Well, I don’t think I would have personally nominated the film for best picture, but I still think it was very enjoyable.

    “BlacKkKlansman” tells the story of Detective Ron Stallworth (the first African America detective in Colorado Springs) who decides to infiltrate the KKK and uses his partner, Detective Flip Zimmerman, as his public face.  The two start contacting David Duke to gain access to the KKK as part of an under cover investigation in Colorado Springs.

    The film was directed by Spike Lee.  As stated above, I rented this in part because it is a Spike Lee film and I find the director to be fascinating.  Now, that isn’t to say I love all of his films or think he is the best director ever.  Instead, I find him to be a director I very much enjoy but often find myself frustrated with because his movies often get bogged down with a sense of self righteousness in my opinion.  In a movie like “BlacKkKlansman” with a clear sense of right and wrong, it isn’t as much of an issue however.  All that said, I do think he earned his best director Oscar nomination with this film.

    The acting relays heavily on that of John David Washington and Adam Driver.  John David Washington, the son of Denzel Washington, does a solid job.  He isn’t quite on the level of his father yet, but this is a very impressive start and I have no doubt he may end up on his father’s level in no time at all.  To me, Adam Driver stole the movie.  He gives a realistic and conflicted performance that I found to be the most interesting in the film.  Topher Grace plays David Duke and looks the part.  He does a good job in the role but there are limits to playing a character like David Duke that you can get by with.  Topher Grace could have easily been the next Tom Hanks, it’s kind of sad that he fizzled so quickly after “That ‘70s Show”.

    A trait that most Spike Lee ‘joints’ have in my opinion are tone issues and this movie certainly continues that same pattern.  The film is presented as both a drama based on actual events and a comedy because those events are so outlandish.  It isn’t an easy balance and very few movies strike the right note when trying to balance drama with comedy but it is part of what kept the movie from being a masterpiece in my opinion.

    All that being said, “BlacKkKlansman” is an important movie to watch to remind us how toxic our current political climate is.  Perhaps a lot more work needs to be done to get our country as a whole to a more tolerant place.  It’s sad to realize that a man as terrible as David Duke was a key political figurehead in the past Presidential election.

    “BlacKkKlansman” isn’t a perfect film but it is still very good.  While I don’t think it was quite Oscar worthy, I can certainly see the argument that can be made that it was.

Grade: B+

“Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens” Movie Review

    After the release of “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith”, we Star Wars fans just accepted the fact that the franchise had officially ended.  We knew that there would always be cartoons, books, video games,  and comics but we accepted that live action Star Wars movies were now a thing of the past.  There would be no more chapters to add to the Skywalker saga and perhaps it was better that way.  No one wanted another prequel situation, where Lucas promised for more than a decade he would make more films but didn’t.  The Star Wars saga was now one with the force.

     Unbeknownst to almost everyone, George Lucas was working on a sequel trilogy and had even started to get his cast in line.  One key cast member was Mark Hamill who would once again play Luke Skywalker but would take on a more Obi-Wan Kenobi role training a young Jedi Padawan named Kira.  This obviously changed by the time the movie started filming for a number of reasons but Lucas supposedly even had a finished script.  Then Disney came along throwing around crazy money.  George Lucas had been considering retiring and when Disney got wind of this, the mouse house offered Lucas a little over four billion dollars for Lucasfilms.  George Lucas accepted the offer and the transition began with Lucas and Disney agreeing to apoint Kathleen Kennedy as the new head of Lucasfilms.  Disney also received George Lucas’ script for Episode VII in the deal which they wasted no time in throwing away.

    Disney didn’t trust George Lucas after the prequels received generally negative feedback.  They wanted to make a film for the fans.  They wanted to sell nostalgia.  In a nut shell, they wanted to remake “A New Hope” but wrap it up like a sequel and hope no one noticed.  Well, plenty of people did and it wasn’t exactly like it was a fact they were hiding.  They even hired lifetime Star Wars nerd J.J. Abrams to direct the movie.  No one really knew what a Disney Star Wars movie would be like.  We were all a little scared but also incredibly excited to see what Force Awakens had in store for us.

    The movie is set thirty years after “Return of the Jedi” and sees the galaxy has once again fell into turmoil.  The Empire was destroyed but in it’s ashes, the First Order arose.  The First Order is basically just the Empire with a different name, they even have the same stormtroopers and tie fighters and guns and so on (not much has changed).  They are led by Kylo Ren who is a Darth Vader fan boy with a secret of his own.  Kylo Ren is definitely one of the highlights of the film.  His unhinged emo and spoiled brat personality seems very different from Darth Vader’s calm and reserved demeanor.

    “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens” largely ignores the legacy material which came before it.  So any event that happened in a book or comic became non-canon.  This was a wise decision in my book because so much has happened in the books that would be hard to go over in a single movie.  They did borrow fairly heavily from the legends though.

    The film stars Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and a non speaking cameo from Mark Hamill.  I like the new characters and Ridley, Boyega, and Driver are among the three best standouts.  Harrison Ford is a delight as Han Solo, one of his greatest characters.

    The film sets up a lot of interesting questions, or as Abrams describes them, mystery boxes.  The only problem with these mystery boxes is that it passes the buck onto the next filmmaker so the success of that movie is tied into the success of this movie.  John Williams once again scores this Star Wars film but it isn’t the best in the saga.

    The new characters act as stand ins for the original characters.  Rey is essentially the Luke for this trilogy.  Han is the new Obi-Wan,  Maz is the new Yoda, Poe is the new Han, Finn is the Leia of this franchise, BB-8 is the new C-3PO and R2-D2, and Ren is the new Vader.

    The film rehashes a lot of aspects from the original Star Wars but if you are going to steal and sell it as nostalgia, you can’t beat Star Wars.  The force really did awaken with this film.

Grade: A-

"Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi" Movie Review

    The Last Jedi had all the fixings to be the dark second chapter of the sequel trilogy.  The Empire Strikes Back to The Force Awaken’s A New Hope.  It was set to feature the return of fan favorite Luke Skywalker and fans were practically salivating with excitement.  So many questions were poised in The Force Awakens and while no one expected all of those questions to be answered, we were hungry for even hints.  Needless to say, when the movie finally hit and Rian Johnson decided to subvert expectations, the fan base was decidedly mixed and it has led to a huge ugly nerd war that still rages on to this day.

    Perhaps neither side is completely right or wrong.  The fans who applaud the movie have every right to do so.  The film is fun and a pleasing popcorn film.  The fans who dislike the film for not respecting the previous installments are correct as well.  I would argue that any sequel should respect the source material of previous films.  A Star Wars fan can not ignore the fact that Luke Skywalker’s character went from someone willing to risk everything to redeem his father to someone ready to murder his nephew over a vision of what may come to be.  Luke Skywalker wouldn’t do that.  Mark Hamill even expressed the same feeling during the development of this film.  The movie also took all the questions we had and basically said those answers don’t matter.
    The movie picks up almost directly after The Force Awakens and finds Rey trying to convince former Jedi Master Luke Skywalker to train her which he is very reluctant to do since he also trained Ben Solo who later became Kylo Ren.  The Resistance is on the run and things are looking dark for our heroes.
    Much of what makes the film so entertaining is it’s cast.  With Harrison Ford no longer in the new films, Mark Hamill takes up the role of the wise mentor.  Daisy Ridley once again delivers a strong performance as Rey, a young Force sensitive whose powers scare even herself.  This film is also noteable for being the  final film Carrie Fisher shot before passing way.
    While the cast is undeniably talented, the script leaves a lot to be desired.  I am not sure the reason for some of Johnson’s choices but I feel like he went for the easiest solutions to questions set up by J.J. Abrams.  Who is Snoke?  It’s too hard to explain how he is more powerful than Palpatine so let’s just not explain it and get rid of the character.  Rey was hinted at having parents of importance, well that would be hard to explain so let’s just say they were nobodies.  So many seemingly lazy script writing decisions beyond what he did with Luke.
    The Last Jedi is a good movie but just isn’t a great Star Wars film.  I feel like it’s the type of chapter that will be mainly glossed over in the future.  I just hope the next episode is a step in the right direction for a change.

Grade: C+