Movie Review: One Night In Miami... (2020)

Genre: Drama  

Director: Regina King  

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

Running Time: 114 minutes  

Synopsis: In early 1964, Cassius Clay (Eli Goree) defeats Sonny Liston in Miami to become the heavyweight boxing world champion. Famous singer Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) and star football running back Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) attend the bout. Through his friendship with Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Cassius is considering joining the Nation of Islam, a radical movement advocating for black civil rights. The four men convene in a motel room, with Malcolm X intent on motivating his friends to do more for black rights.

What Works Well: Inspired by real events and real people, this adaptation of the Kemp Powers play is a worthwhile "let's put four famous people in a room and see what happens" exercise, carrying echoes of Insignificance. Here the focus in on the black experience and different perspectives on the responsibilities of famous men to deploy fame for social change. Kingsley Ben-Adir conveys passion mixed with traces of exhaustion and self-doubt, his Malcolm X the conversation instigator in demanding that his star colleagues rethink their considerable influence. In the company of headstrong men confined to a small room, the drama carries a persistent edge through punchy dialogue and physical presence.

What Does Not Work As Well: With Malcolm X forcefully challenging Sam Cooke to reconsider how he is using his voice, Cassius Clay and Jim Brown are sidelined for long stretches. Clay is anyway portrayed as young, cocky, and far from interested in contributing to serious discourse. The material's stage origins are obvious, despite good work from director Regina King to occasionally find reasons to leave the room.

Key Quote:

Sam Cooke: Everybody talks about they wantin' a piece of the pie, well I don't. I want the goddamn recipe.

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Movie Review: Minari (2020)

Genre: Drama  
Director: Lee Isaac Chung  

Starring: Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri, Will Patton  
Running Time: 115 minutes  

Synopsis: In the early 1980s, South Korean immigrant and expert chicken sexer Jacob (Steven Yuen) relocates his family from California to a mobile house on a large rural acreage in Arkansas. He has a dream to establish a farm, but his wife Monica (Han Ye-ri) is unconvinced. Their two young children David and Ann observe their parents fighting, and David is also suffering from a heart condition. The family dynamic changes when Monica's mother Soon-ja (Youn Yuh-jung) arrives to care for the children, while Jacob risks his health to get the farm going with help from local man Paul (Will Patton).

What Works Well: This is a semi-autobiographical nostalgic look back on childhood, based on the experiences of writer and director Lee Isaac Chung. The immigrant experience of hard work, determination, innovation, set-backs, and integration (here with the help of a church community) rings true, with the children experiencing a grand adventure filled with frustrations, uncertainty, and laughter. The rural Arkansas locations add laid-back and lyrical scenery. 

What Does Not Work As Well: After the premise is established and the family settles into their routines, the pace slows down to a grind and meaningful incidents become scarce and episodic. The thin material is unnecessarily stretched towards two hours, and the inconclusive ending just fades away rather than reaching for any meaningful resolutions.

Key Quote:

Jacob: They need to see me succeed at something for once.

Monica: For what? Isn't it more important for them to see us together?

Jacob: You go ahead and do what you want. Even if I fail, I have to finish what I started.

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Movie Review: Moment By Moment (1978)

Genre: Romance  

Director: Jane Wagner  

Starring: Lily Tomlin, John Travolta  

Running Time: 105 minutes  

Synopsis: In Los Angeles, socialite Trisha (Lily Tomlins) is pursued by beach bum Strip (John Travolta). She is lonely, going through a divorce, and staying at a beach house. Strip comes around frequently, and eventually they start an affair. Strip is a low-level drug dealer, younger than Trisha, and a misfit among her friends, resulting in predictable relationship problems.

What Works Well:  A couple of dogs hang around Trisha's beach house, and they are cute. For fans of ogling, Travolta spends most of the movie shirtless, and is often only wearing tight black bikini briefs.

What Does Not Work As Well: A leading contender for worst romance ever made, this is an excruciatingly bad example of tone-deaf writing colliding with shallow and unlikeable characters. The script by writer and director Jane Wagner grinds away with fingernails-on-chalkboard subtlety, Strip's pursuit of Trisha much closer to stalking than romancing. His child-man behaviour underlines the age difference, resulting in her imbecilic embrace of an affair with an annoying, homeless, and immature vagrant. Their chemistry-free, charisma-free, and charm-free relationship unfolds to a generic midnight jazz score, without any character contexts outside the claustrophobia of their dumbfounding interactions. 

Key Quote:

Strip: See, the thing is, most of my friends are undependable. Except for Gregg, and Gregg is in jail now.

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Movie Review: Walkaway Joe (2020)

Genre: Drama  

Director: Tom Wright  

Starring: David Strathairn, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Julian Feder, Julie Ann Emery  

Running Time: 89 minutes  

Synopsis: In rural Louisiana, small-time pool hustler Cal McCarthy (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) walks out on his wife Gina (Julie Ann Emery) and 14-year-old son Dallas (Julian Feder). Dallas is devastated, and sets out on his bike to track down his dad, who is presumably on his way to a Baton Rouge pool tournament. The teenager is soon picked up by Joe (David Strathairn), a wanderer traveling in his RV to escape his own demons. Joe and Dallas establish a bond as they track down Cal, but trouble awaits.

What Works Well: Dallas as a son looking for his irresponsible father and Joe as a father tortured by his inability to reconcile with his family are a matched pair of lost souls. Director Tom Wright allows the drama to breathe and the surrogate father-son relationship to develop organically, with plenty of mishaps and curves along the road. Broken Americana in the form of featureless back roads, small motels, nondescript diners, and uninspired pool halls create an ambience of lost opportunity and abandonment of responsibility. Both David Strathairn and Jeffrey Dean Morgan deliver lived-in performances surrendering to defeatism, the dank smell of failed fatherhood hanging over both. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The premise and resolutions are tidy to the point of predictability, and some story elements (the background to the tension between Joe and his about-to-get-married son; Cal's serious money issues), are either underdeveloped or only allowed to surface too late. The mechanics behind Dallas' pool talent wizardry are left unexplained.

Key Quote:

Dallas: Think God ever makes mistakes when he assigns children to their parents?

Joe: I don't know.

Dallas: He should have put us together.

Joe Haley: He did, son. He did.

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Movie Review: Proof (2005)

Genre: Drama  

Director: John Madden  

Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Jake Gyllenhaal, Hope Davis  

Running Time: 100 minutes  

Synopsis: After suffering from mental illness for many years, brilliant Chicago-based mathematics Professor Robert Llewellyn (Anthony Hopkins) dies. His daughter Catherine (Gwyneth Paltrow) sacrificed her own university mathematics studies to care for him in his final years. Now Catherine worries she may be experiencing the same mental atrophy as her father. Her sister Claire (Hope Davis) arrives from New York already assuming that Catherine is unwell, while graduate student Hal (Jake Gyllenhaal) goes through the Professor's latter-year notebooks, hoping to find undiscovered flashes of brilliance.

What Works Well: The adaptation of David Auburn's four-character play explores mental decay blurring the lines between reality and willful fantasy, Catherine missing her father, protective of his legacy, resentful that she was left alone to care for him, and now wondering if she is following his unfortunate path. With overbearing sister Claire and well-meaning student Hal acting as catalysts, the intellectual milieu finds time and space for dramatic twists both sharp and poignant. Gwyneth Paltrow's performance exposes unsettled fragility battling with inner strength, allowing Catherine's shortcomings and brilliance to collide into unexpected revelations.

What Does Not Work As Well: The theatrical origins are only partially overcome, and are most apparent in stagey dialogue exchanges. Catherine's mental fog becomes a convenient device to prolong a mystery (related to a potentially groundbreaking mathematical proof in one of the Professor's notebooks) well past the point of impact. Trying to create drama and narrative tension out of mathematical scribbles is an almost hopeless exercise.

Key Quote:

Catherine (addressing the attendees at her father's memorial service): Wow. I can't believe how many people are here. I never knew he had this many friends. Where have you all been for the last five years? I guess to you guys he was already dead, right?



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Movie Reviews: Da 5 Bloods (2020)

Genre: War Drama  

Director: Spike Lee  

Starring: Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Chadwick Boseman, Jonathan Majors, Melanie Thierry, Jean Reno, Paul Walter Hauser  

Running Time: 156 minutes  

Synopsis: Four black Vietnam War veterans (Delroy Lindo as Paul, Clarke Peters as Otis, Norm Lewis as Eddie, and Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Melvin) return to the country on a dual mission: find a cache of CIA gold they buried in the jungle during the war, and recover the remains of the inspirational fifth member of their group Norm (Chadwick Boseman). They are unexpectedly joined on their trek by Paul's estranged son David (Jonathan Majors). Although united by friendship, a sense of racial injustice, and wartime experiences, the group is tested by greed, mistrust, and trauma.

What Works Well: Spike Lee presents the Vietnam War experience as an epic collision between an unpopular overseas war and the continuing struggle for black rights at home. This is a sprawling journey into the past, the men's present psychology (especially Paul's PTSD) ill-equipping them to retrace hostile terrain. The country may have modernized, but not so much the jungle, where dangers from snakes to mines persist. With strong echoes of The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, greed is the most mammoth disrupter, and the seemingly tight knit group will discover that unimaginable wealth can threaten decades-long friendships forged under fire. Lee adds generous helpings of flashbacks to fill-in the men's combat-fueled backstory, as the war spills from the past into present moments of reckoning.

What Does Not Work As Well: The running time is excessive, with look-at-me editing adding to the test of endurance. Delroy Lindo's performance is powerful, but slips into over-the-top theatrics in the final act. The political preaching is of the in-your-face variety, the plot used as an unsubtle device to deliver rage-against-the-machine civics lessons.

Key Quote:

Paul: We fought in an immoral war that wasn't ours for rights we didn't have.

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Movie Review: Beast (2017)

Genre: Psychological Drama  
Director: Michael Pearce  
Starring: Jessie Buckley, Johnny Flynn, Geraldine James  
Running Time: 106 minutes  

Synopsis: On the rugged Jersey island off the UK coast, 27-year-old Moll (Jessie Buckley) is still living with her parents and stifled by her mother Hilary (Geraldine James). After being upstaged at her birthday party, Moll goes clubbing and then meets rough-edged but charismatic poacher Pascal Renouf (Johnny Flynn). They start a relationship, despite Hilary's disapproval. When the island is shocked by the latest in a series of murders, Pascal is a suspect, and Moll has to decide whether she wants to protect her new lover.

What Works Well: This emotionally dense exploration of "the beast within" is a compelling and dark story of breaking free from the shackles of the past and the expectations of the present. Jessie Buckley is exquisite as the superficially fragile (but actually only temporarily caged) Moll, who has a violent high school incident on her record. She shares the same soul with Pascal, who has several arrests for various offenses, but only one of them is a murder suspect. Civilized constraints (here in the form of Moll's mother and police authorities) can only do so much to control basic urges, with writer and director Michael Pearce using repeated sense of smell references to reinforce animalistic tendencies.

What Does Not Work As Well: The pacing is slow and some stretching of the material is apparent, including the involvement of a mainland detective who adds bluster but not much else. After all the careful build-up, the final act loses some control with loose plotting, leading to an intentionally vague ending. 

Key Quote:

Moll: I'd like to make a toast. To my family. For everything you have done for me... I forgive you.

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Movie Review: Happiest Season (2020)

Genre: Romantic Comedy  

Director: Clea DuVall  

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie Davis, Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, Mary Steenburgen, Victor Garber, Daniel Levy  

Running Time: 102 minutes  

Synopsis: Abby (Kristen Stewart) is planning to propose marriage to her girlfriend Harper (Mackenzie Davis), and agrees to spend Christmas at the home of Harper's wealthy parents. On the way, Harper reveals that she has not yet told her parents (Victor Garber and Mary Steenburgen) that she's gay. Abby plays along, pretending to be Harper's roommate, and meets Harper's sisters (Alison Brie and Mary Holland), a secret lover from high school days (Aubrey Plaza), and a former boyfriend. With Harper acting straight, Abby feels neglected, and her gay friend John (Daniel Levy) arrives to help.

What Works Well: The stellar cast extracts best value out of the limited material. The individual and sometimes difficult coming out journey is handled with notable sensitivity, here placed in the context of offspring struggling to meet lifelong parental expectations and the imperative to project a "perfect" family image (Harper's father wants to run for Mayor). 

What Does Not Work As Well: The entire premise is built on the rickety foundation of Harper inviting her partner to meet her parents, but before telling them she's gay. The contrivances get worse when Harper emotionally abandons Abby and starts flirting with her ex-boyfriend. After a significant investment in multiple difficult family dynamics (Harper's two sisters have serious issues of their own), the resolutions quick snap back to convenient outcomes.

Key Quote:

John (to Abby): You deserve to be with someone who shouts their love for you from the rooftops!

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Movie Review: The Trip To Greece (2020)

Genre: Comedy  

Director: Michael Winterbottom  

Starring: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon  
Running Time: 103 minutes 

Synopsis: Celebrated actor Steve Coogan (playing a version of himself) and his friend comedian Rob Brydon (similarly playing himself) take a trip through Greece, notionally tracing the travels of Odysseus. They exchange banter over restaurant meals and in the car, and they visit some historic sites.

What Works Well: A few of the jokes, improvisations, and impersonations raise a chuckle.

What Does Not Work As Well: This fourth instalment in The Trip movie series is a tiresome, self-indulgent, and often insufferable excuse for two adult men to converse like juveniles: plays on words (" 'Arry Stotle"), endless impersonations (including Dustin Hoffman, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, and King Henry VIII), bad singing (the song Grease, because we are in Greece) and needling (Steve rubbing his BAFTA awards in Rob's face at every opportunity). The intrusion of a tragic plot twist in the final 15 minutes drops from nowhere and achieves little resonance.

Key Quote:

Rob: So, that's what we're doing. 10-year odyssey, in six days, I mean, it's ambitious Steve.

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Movie Review: The Forgotten (2004)

Genre: Science Fiction Psychological Thriller Mystery 

Director: Joseph Ruben  

Starring: Julianne Moore, Dominic West, Gary Sinise, Anthony Edwards, Alfre Woodard  

Running Time: 94 minutes  

Synopsis: In New York City, Telly (Julianne Moore) is still grieving the loss of her 9-year-old son Sam, who died in a plane crash 14 months prior. Her husband Jim (Anthony Edwards) provides limited emotional support, and so Telly leans on her therapist Dr. Munce (Gary Sinise). When photographs and videos of Sam suddenly disappear, Telly believes that Jim is tormenting her, and Dr. Munce provides a diagnosis of delusion - Sam never existed. But then Telly connects with former professional hockey player Ash (Dominic West), who lost his daughter in the same plane crash, and together they race to find answers, chased by federal agents and monitored by supernatural forces.

What Works Well: The opening 30 minutes establish a promising premise exploring the intersection of excruciating grief and mental well-being. The cast is rich with talent, and Julianne Moore is well above this material.

What Does Not Work As Well: The middle act features a numbing sequence of repetitive chases, discarding the psychological set-up for cheap and routine action. But the wheels completely fall off in the final third. The introduction of an omnipotent alien abduction theme is awful at a dumbfounding level, both as an idea and in execution, catapulting the plot into ludicrous territory and hopelessly stranding the characters in an unsalvageable mess.

Key Quote:

Telly: Do you get drunk every night?

Ash: No. Sometimes I'm drunk by noon.

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