A Day at the Movies (Part 2)

Last week I gave my thoughts on 3 movies that I saw during a marathon day at the theater.  This week, part 2, where I discuss 2 now-Oscar nominated films that I saw last weekend.  Both have gotten critical raves, but I had very different opinions of them.

1.  If Beale Street Could Talk: I didn't know anything about this film until I started reading some positive reviews and heard positive feedback on one of my favorite entertainment podcasts ("Pop Culture Happy Hour").  The movie follows Fonny (Stephan James), a young black man in 1960s New York who gets wrongly accused and arrested for sexually assaulting a neighborhood woman.  He leaves behind his pregnant fiancée Clementine (Kiki Layne) while sitting in jail for months and months.  Fonny is close to Clementine's family, especially her mother Sharon (Regina King), but he's mostly estranged from his extremely religious and disapproving family.  I enjoyed James's performance opposite Julia Roberts in the recent Amazon drama Homecoming, and here he's just as magnetic.  The core of the film is his character's sweet romance with Clem, and the actors do share a ton of chemistry, but this alone wasn't enough to sustain my interest in the film.  The message of injustice against wrongly accused black men is an admirable one, but the writers don't seem very interested in the case itself, keeping the details of the assault mostly in the background of the plot.  This takes away much of the film's overall impact.  There are some interesting scenes in which Sharon tries to talk to the accuser into dropping the case, in which King really shines.  But there are other extended sequences, such as Fonny talking to his friend about nothing in particular, which bored me to death.  The movie was far too long, and editing it down more would have made me enjoy a lot more than I did.

2.  A Star is Born: I had been wanting to see this film for a while, and I'm glad that I was able to do so before it ended its theatrical run.  The film follows aspiring singer Ally (Lady Gaga), who by chance meets the already-famous country singer Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) and soon becomes a star herself.  The two singers share a tumultuous relationship marred by Maine's alcoholism and resentment over Ally's fame eclipsing that of her husband.  By moving away from the weird image that she became known for early in her career and becoming a more down-to-earth performer, Lady Gaga has proven that her career has legs.  She's also stretched her acting muscles with her performance in American Horror Story, but that was also a weird, out-there type of performance.  In this film, she strips all of that down and proves that she's also a serious dramatic actress.  Her character's relationship with Maine is believable, and that's mostly due to the strength of both actors.  Cooper, who also directs the film (but shockingly wasn't nominated for a Best Director Oscar) is gruff and ragged; his character spirals downward for much of the film, culminating a shocking ending that I definitely didn't see coming.  He's a generous performer, letting Gaga steal much of the spotlight.  The movie also boasts several strong supporting characters, particularly Jackson's older brother and sometime manager Bobby (Sam Elliott, also Oscar nominated) and even several scene-stealing drag queens played by RuPaul's Drag Race alums Willam and Shangela.  I still haven't even mentioned the amazing original music which gives the movie much of it's life; it's no wonder that the soundtrack topped the music charts for week.  Even with a running time over 2 hours, this movie kept my rapt attention the entire time, and it deserves all of the awards that are coming to it.           

A Day at the Movies (Part 1)

I've been MIA from this blog for far too long because of, you know...Christmas, work, ...laziness.  Well never fear, because I'm back!  Recently I've done a couple mini marathons at the movies, trying to see as many holiday movies as possible during any free time that I've had.  I'm here to share my quick takes on these movies, so that you're hopefully a little more prepared for Oscars season.

   

1.  Mary Poppins Returns: I went into this not expecting much beyond a serviceable kids movie.  The trailers made Emily Blunt seem like a fine Mary Poppins, which was enough to get me to the theater, but I wasn't expecting to have such a toe-tapping good time and to leave in such a good mood.  To describe the plot as bare-bones is being generous: the children from the original Mary Poppins, now grown, are about to be foreclosed on their childhood home unless they can find a certificate proving that they own shares in the bank.  Young Michael (Ben Whishaw), now the father of 3 young children, is also dealing with the recent death of his wife and the children's mother.  Enter Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt) to lighten the mood and help take care of the kids, with the help of lamplighter Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda).  The film features a variety of new, mostly catchy, songs, my favorite being "Nowhere to Go But Up", an imaginative ditty with an uplifting message, featuring the characters carried high into the sky by magical balloons.  Blunt was simply great in the role, and even though I've never been a huge fan of the overly perky Miranda, he did a fine job as well.  There were even cameos by Dick Van Dyke (of the original film), and Angela Lansbury, which both brought smiles to my face.  This is a great family film, and I fully expect to see some additional sequels to this sequel.

2.  The Favourite: Of all the movies that I saw on movie day part 1, this is the one that I was most looking forward to.  And it definitely didn't disappoint.  A twist on the typically stuffy Oscar-bait period piece, this film follows the power struggle between two close advisors of Britain's early-1700s Queen Anne (Olivia Colman): Duchess Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz) and the queen's distant cousin Abigail Masham (Emma Stone).  The queen herself is nothing far from regal: she's sickly, grouchy, and a terrible public speaker.  She suffers from multiple debilitating ailments, including gout, and she enjoys taunting her handmaids and the palace guards.  The Duchess occupies the queen's confidence, manipulating her into doing her political bidding, until Abigail enters the picture and rises through the palace ranks.  The two women then into a bitter battle over their the attention of their queen and, yes,...lover, including even poisoning.  I've been a fan of Colman since I saw on the excellent British tv series Broadchurch, and she's soon to take over the role of Queen Elizabeth II in the also excellent Netflix series The Crown.  She adds an enjoyable dose of sardonic humor to her royal roles.  Weisz does a fine job in the film, but Stone somewhat overtakes her with her innocent-girl turned manipulative bitch role.  However, both are overshadowed by the sheer acting force of Colman, who I fully expect to take home an Oscar next month.

3.  Mary Queen of Scots: I honestly don't have much to say about this bore of a film, which was basically the complete opposite of The Favourite in every way.  It follows the story of the famous exiled Scottish queen (Saoirse Ronan) by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I (a completely unrecognizable Margot Robbie).  Ronan and Robbie do a decent job in their roles, but the real problem here is the writing.  Despite a bloated run time, the film never gets to real reasons that Mary was sent to the execution block by her cousin.  The action onscreen makes it seem as if the two women are in little more than a teenage spat.  So when, after their climactic meeting near the end of the film, which ended ambiguously, viewers see that Elizabeth had Mary imprisoned and years later killed, anyone unfamiliar with this true story would be understandably confused.  Mary seems like a sexually promiscuous young woman with little more to define her personality, and Elizabeth seems like a stuck-up bore with ugly hair and makeup.  The film lacks any semblance of humor, but doesn't make up for it in dramatic effect. 


Coming up in my next post, movie day part 2, featuring If Beale Street Could Talk and A Star is Born.  Stay tuned...