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Colette Movie Review

September 28, 2018 (updated September 28, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

“Colette” is a lovingly constructed look back at the female French author known as Colette. She was quite a liberated lady for a country girl who had married a famous author who had taken her to the City of Lights. Her much-older husband was quite a bounder and a cad, who always spent more than he took in. Be he saw great talent in Colette and eventually brought out the artist within her. At the turn of the prior century, Colette and her exploits kept the Paris scandal sheets full of juicy gossip. Her husband took credit for all of Colette’s writing, and it took everything in her power to get that changed.

Gabrielle Colette (Keira Knightley) was a curious school-girl at a small country village in France when she first met Henry Gauthier-Villars (Dominic West). He became very famous using his pen name Willy, and has a large group of writers creating content and publishing in his name. Willy marries the much younger Colette, and they move to his place in Paris. Colette is astonished by the hubbub of activity and constant noise of the city. She attends the lavish parties that Willy brings her to, and she is entranced by some of the talented people. But just as many are non-talented gossip-mongers. Colette has no time for them.

Willy finally sees that Colette has a flair for writing, and he encourges her to produce a short book. It is published, of course under the byline of ‘Willy’. Colette’s story of a country schoolgirl named Claudine is an overnight success, but it is very scandalous for that time. Suddenly, Willy is again the talk of the town. Colette knows that the real brains behind ‘Claudine’ is not Willy.

But she also knows that the 1890’s society would frown upon a female author getting a huge book released under her own name. Willy and Colette are soon invited into the upper-crust of the Paris culture. They meet an American heiress living in Paris named Georgie Raoul-Duval (Eleanor Tomlinson). Colette finds herself drawn into a forbidden love affair with Georgie, but soon she finds that Willy is also secretly dipping in that same inkwell…

Soon more ‘Claudine’ books are published and the book sales break records, and Willy becomes an even more pompous ass. Colette sees that her relationship with Willy is fading, and she finds a new love. The new ‘man’ in her life is Mathilde de Morny, of noble birth and lineage. Known as Missy (Denise Gough) is a manish-looking woman who is more at home in trousers and a crisp men’s shirt and vest. She would be frowned upon and shunned by the Paris society, except for the fact of her royal blood and wealth. Colette and Missy become inseparable, and Willy is upset that Colette has no interest in writing. Instead Colette and Missy study acting and then try out the new art of pantomime. Willy has entered the world of stage, also. He has a play created from the ‘Claudine’ books and it is a big hit. He backs a new production at the Moulin Rouge for Colette and Missy, but it backfires on them.

Colette becomes more involved with acting and with stagecraft. She and Missy travel all over Europe. Willy fades from her view and he tries to prevent her from claiming her rightful status as the creator of ‘Claudine’. After a long period of performing, Colette takes down all of her thoughts as a book about being a ‘Vagabond’ on the road. She gets it published under her own name and becomes a major author in her own right. She eventually receives the rights for all of her work done on the ‘Claudine’ books, also. She lives a rich and full life, and is remembered now as a writer and as a performer. She even later wrote the book that became the basis of the movie ‘Gigi’…

Keira Knightley is wonderfully cast as the precocious and peppy Colette. She and Dominic West work well as the married ‘power couple’ in the high society of France. She steals the show with her performance, and her bold moves that transition her character are very fascinating. Starting out as a young country girl who turns into a fully liberated woman who is the talk of the town, she makes the character of Colette her very own. Living in that time period, Colette was far advanced in her thoughts and her work. Not to mention her sexual partners…

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Assassination Nation Movie Review

September 21, 2018 (updated September 20, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

“Assassination Nation” takes the idea of social media, privacy and a reactive social mob mentality, and throws it all in your face. And it hits with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to your nether regions. It is slick, over-the-top and in the end, very silly. In a small town called Salem (get it? Witch Hunts?), the four young high school teenaged girls become the focal point of the town’s seething rage. There have been data breeches and leaks posted on the Internet, and now everyone’s sordid secrets have been exposed. The main suspect is one of the girls, and now the place is armed to the teeth for revenge. Out-of-control social media meets mob violence and social upheaval – call it “Insta-Purge”.

Lily Colson (Odessa Young) is a high school senior, with a lot of emotional baggage and internal pain. She hangs out with her gal pals; Sarah (Suki Waterhouse), Bex (Hari Nef) and Em (Abra). They talk and act and behave like any character created by a middle-aged male writer/director focusing on his own fantasies. That is to say, none of the dialog or action is very realistic at all. They talk about the awfulness of being objectified and oversexualized. This is while the movie objectifies and oversexualizes each girl. But one day a massive data dump of the private hidden details of the Mayor’s secret sex life are laid bare to the Internet world. Everyone is outraged, and then the Mayor commits suicide.

The next subject of a privacy leak is the high school Principal Turrell (Colman Domingo). He tries to downplay the details, and he will not resign, but he is hated from that point on. The next one to be outed is Nick (Joel McHale). Lily has been friends with Nick for years, and she has sent numerous sexy pictures, but nothing way too racy. She enjoys Nick’s playful text messages, which are a bit naughty. But she has never done anything with him. But Lily’s boyfriend Mark (Bill Skarsgård) starts to realize that Lily is going ga-ga over Nick. Nick’s wife leaves with their child, and he goes into isolation. The cops force an innocent computer hacker to cough up a name. And he gives them a name: Lily Colson.

Of course Lily is not responsible, and she does not know who is behind it all. But she and her friends think they are safe over at Em’s house. Her mom Nance (Anika Noni Rose) is a little Xanex-ed out, but she wants to help keep the girls safe. But outside, the Salem “Purge” team is forming to bring Lily and her friends to violent justice. Nance is killed and Sarah and Em are taken by the police. Bex escapes, but is caught by a band of vigilantes. Lily escapes and starts to get help from her old friend Nick. That is, until Nick turns into sex fiend and attempts to rape her. All in all, there are few allies that the four girls can find. So, grabbing a large survivalist arsenal they find in Nick’s house, they are about to go out guns a’blazin’…

“Assassination Nation” is a parody of a John Hughes high school movie redone as a Quentin Tarantino splatter fest. It is “Easy-A” crossbred with “The Purge”. There is a mountain of hot garbage to sit though before you can find a molehill of an original idea. There is questionable writing and direction, and it blurs together like a bad death-metal music video. Even with the best actors in the world, it could not give them anything like an actual role to play. The biggest production expense, it seems, was for gallons of fake movie blood.

By all means, if you are pimply-faced angst-filled teen, then perhaps this movie will mean something to you. For most everyone else, grab your passport and check out a different “Nation”.

White Boy Rick Movie Review

September 14, 2018 (updated September 14, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

“White Boy Rick” must be the most truthful movie title yet. The main character is white, and yes, he is basically a boy. Oh, and his name is Rick. This is based on a true story. It tells a complex drama of what becomes of a lower middle-class family from Detroit. This is set back in the mid 1980’s, when the American Dream turns into a virtual nightmare for many inner-city people. Many jobs dried up in the city. Yet – guns flowed into the streets, along with crack cocaine. And that result was the set up for this story.

Richard Wershe, Sr. (Matthew McConaughey) lives in a very run-down section of Detroit. His daughter Dawn (Bel Powley) is living with drug addiction. His son Richard Wershe, Jr. (Richie Merritt) is 14 years old, and he works with his dad. Rich (the Senior) does gun sales to make money for the family. Rick (the Junior) goes with him to gun shows. Ricky sometime takes this merchandise to the local black street gang to sell the illegal small arms. The black gang takes a liking to ‘White Boy Rick’, since he has the guts to approach the gang. He becomes an accepted and trusted member.

But there are FBI agents on the horizon (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rory Cochrane, and Brian Tyree Henry). They force Ricky to act as undercover informant to the street gang. It is either that or the Feds will shut down Rich (the Senior) and his semi-legal weapons operation. They also get Ricky into setting up a small side-deal business of distributing crack cocaine. That way, Rickey can get information on the street level dealers, who can lead the FBI up to the top-level distributors. Ricky is in with the gang, he is running his own drug operation and he is still getting orders from the Feds.

But after the big parties and trips to Vegas, there is an incident that comes to a head. The main gang leader (Jonathan Majors) believes that Ricky is really a rat, and he orders up a hit on the young boy. When the bad things all go down, it goes down hard. Ricky survives, and Rich and Ricky have to start over. They also get his sister Dawn out of a drug flophouse and work to get her off the crack. Rich (the Senior) also has his parents who live across the street (Bruce Dern and Piper Laurie). They help out with Dawn and get her back to normal life. Ricky also finds out that he has a new-born daughter.

Ricky feels the need to get back into the drug trade, so he can get some cash flow back into the family. He gets approval from his dad and the rest of the family. Ricky is still only 17, and he has become a big shot in the underground crime network. The FBI comes back to visit, and they are not too happy. Ricky is forced to (again) go undercover and try to get the goods on some of his cocaine contacts. But if he does not help them, he and his family will all face charges. The outcome for ‘White Boy Rick’ does not look good at this time. At his age (17) – he could be sent to prison for life. That would be a lo-o-ong time.

“White Boy Rick” is a thoughtful retelling of Ricky’s true life adventure into the seedy side of life. Matthew McConaughey nails it as a caring father with great intentions and horrible execution. Richie Merritt is very new actor, and he holds his own in the midst of some very talented co-stars. Bel Powley has a very difficult character, but she makes Dawn’s pain and struggle with addiction a real thing. Bruce Dern and Piper Laurie are both good, but wasted in such minor roles.

This movie has something to say, but it has trouble picking a single topic. Drugs are bad, no wait, so is inequality in criminal sentencing for blacks versus whites. Guns are trouble for the neighborhood, but crime is commonplace and violent crime is on the rise. The Feds are smart to set up a young white kid as an informant, but no – there is so much police corruption and dirty cops are everywhere. To reduce crime, get tough on criminals, but wait – mandatory sentencing is bad…

So the acting is superb, but the story bobs and weaves and never chooses a single lane.

Blast from the Past (September 2018)

September 9, 2018 Published by JMcNaughton

Yeah, the Box Office is rockin’ today with a whole lot of movies. But there are some from prior years that you may (or may not) remember. These older movies came out 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago, maybe even longer back. Some were instant classics, while others were not. So let’s jump into the DeLorean and travel backwards in time to revisit a few of these forgotten gems…

September 2013 (5 years ago) — Prisoners – Director Denis Villeneuve locks you up in a chilling revenge story

Before Villeneuve had the world enthralled with ‘Arrival’ and ‘Blade Runner 2049’, he came out with this movie. He centers on missing children and a desperate father’s act of vengeance. The perspective of the people grieving and the people unjustly accused makes for a raw display of emotion. It is a very dark and disturbing view and good versus evil, and how sometimes evil can be done in the name of good.

September 2008 (10 years ago) — Burn After Reading – Directors Ethan & Joel Coen take on the CIA and spill the beans

The Coen brothers can have very deep and meaningful movies, about common people in uncommon situations. However, this one is a very dark comedy of errors multiplied by everyone in the all-star cast. George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, Brad Pitt take all that talent and channel it into a crazy-quilt of idiots ready to screw up at every turn. As the CIA chief says at the end: “I guess we learned not to do it again.”

September 2003 (15 years ago) — The Rundown – Dwayne Johnson starts to change from ‘The Rock’ to ‘The Star’

Johnson changed from a wresting star (known as ‘The Rock’) to a movie star (who outgrew his wrestling moniker). One of his first major roles was in this movie. It takes his bounty-hunter character to Brazil to locate and return Seann William Scott. But not before the two of them cause great mayhem and mischief, of course. Johnson would go on with bigger (and better) movie parts.

September 1998 (20 years ago) — Rush Hour – Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker are a mismatched team – and start a trend

The buddy cop film is a familiar genre. So when Chan and Tucker change it up with a Hong Kong cop paired with a black L.A. street cop, the laughs were super charged. The cultural and language barriers were funny to watch. “DO-YOU-UNDERSTAND-THE-WORDS-THAT-ARE-COMING-OUT-OF-MY-MOUTH?”

September 1993 (25 years ago) — Dazed and Confused – Director Richard Linklater brings the world Matthew McConaughey (All right, all right, All right!)

Linklater has some real gems, such as ‘Boyhood’, ‘Before Sunrise’, and ‘A Scanner Darkly’. But this high school reflection on ‘high’ times brings some great characters. Such as McConaughey as Wooderson: “That’s what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age.”

September 1988 (30 years ago) — Director John Carpenter has come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and he’s all out of bubble gum

Carpenter had already entertained audiences with ‘Halloween’, ‘Escape from New York’, ‘The Thing’, and ‘Big Trouble in Little China’. So a cult-classic Sci-Fi adventure about alien beings subverting humanity with subliminal advertizing is just another great addition to his spooky list of films. Roddy Piper is the bank robber slash hero with the lack of bubble gum. So all he can do is kick some alien ass.

We the Animals Movie Review

September 7, 2018 (updated September 7, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

“We the Animals” is an independent film that shares some of the goals and ideas from other indies, like “Moonlight” and “The Florida Project”. It also shares a similar feel to the films of Terrence Malick, having a very slow-paced and almost documentary feel to it. Some parts of the movie are contemplative and other parts use an alternative fantasy sequence to show the characters inner-most thoughts. It is entirely dependent on having three young actors play the main parts, three brothers living with difficult circumstances. But the young actors overcome whatever issues that can sometime sink an otherwise worthy production.

Jonah (Evan Rosado) is the youngest of three brothers, at age nine. Joel (Josiah Gabriel) and the oldest Manny (Isaiah Kristian) are normally found with all three of them together. It does not matter, as they run around the semi-rural area in upstate New York where they live. They have a dad, Paps (Raúl Castillo) who is Puerto Rican, and Ma (Sheila Vand) who is white. The three boys are olive-skinned and have close cropped hair. They are all younger than twelve or so. But they are bursting out with energy and vitality. These three are never shown attending any school, but they are being taught every day.

They are mostly taught by example from Paps and Ma, but usually not very good examples. Paps struggles to keeps a late-night shift job, and when he is upset about something, he will take it out (and beat up) on Ma. She also struggles to keeps a job, and she struggles to keep any self-respect. Ma knows that Paps loves her and the boys but wishes he would not be so brutal. Paps is angry that he had to marry Ma when they were both teens, and she was pregnant. Jonah is very observant and keeps a private journal about all that he sees.

Jonah has very mixed inner feelings, and he tries to express them in writing. He also draws a lot in his journal and sometimes he imagines that the images on the paper come to life and explain what he thinks. Sometimes he thinks in an alternative fantasy sequence that shows some of Jonah’s deepest feelings. There is a repeated idea of everything and everyone being underwater. There is a repeated idea of Jonah being lifted up off the ground to fly. Or, maybe, at least to float in the air. There are confused and mixed images of sexuality, and these might be indicating that he is internally gay. But he is way too young to express anything like that.

There is not much in the way to story movement. It slowly meanders back and forth to the three boys and what they are doing. Sometimes the focus is on Paps, and how he has trouble staying with the family, and trouble staying with a job. Ma wants to run away from the stress, but she is unable to decide what she should do. She looks to the boys to tell her what her next move should be. Joel and Manny do not know about Jonah’s secret journal, but when they find it, they feel they cannot trust him anymore.

“We the Animals” will not be a movie for everybody, but there some very moving performances from the trio of young actors. Given the subject matter, it might be difficult to watch. Jonah is just around ten years old, yet the story strays into his questioning feelings about other boys and men. The other odd part is the fantasy style sequences that do not mesh up all that well with the rest of the ‘documentary’ and ‘hard reality’ style of most of the other scenes. Also, Jonah’s journal creeps me out. The small writing filling up the entire page, plus the wild cartoonish drawings resemble something that serial killer might keep…

For More Info:

Official Website
https://www.wetheanimals.film/

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/WeTheAnimalsFilm

Twitter
https://twitter.com/TheAnimalsFilm

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Peppermint Movie Review

September 7, 2018 (updated September 7, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

Director Pierre Morel is known for the movie “Taken” which made Liam Neeson famous again, and revenge murder cool again. Since then, the movie “John Wick” showed that revenge murder could be an artistic ballet of bullets and bodies. So now with an added healthy dose of “Death Wish”, which is the old-school revenge murder original, he has a new movie. “Peppermint”, and you might want to call it — “Taken by a Death Wish with Jane Wick”. Revenge has never tasted so minty…

Riley North (Jennifer Garner) is a loving wife to her hard-working husband and mother to her precious daughter. But there is a local Los Angeles drug kingpin named Diego Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba) who is pissed that her husband ALMOST was part of a plot to rip off a Garcia drug house. Her husband called and backed out, but that did not stop Garcia to put out a hit on the whole family. In a hail of bullets, the North family was torn to pieces, with only Riley barely hanging on. The police were attempting to talk her out of being an eyewitness and giving testimony. She thought that she needed to get that scum off the street.

Riley worked with Det. Moises (John Ortiz) and Det. Carmichael (John Gallagher Jr.) from the LAPD to ID the perps. Then the slimly defense lawyer for Diego Garcia visits Riley and attempts to buy her silence, or at least threaten her safety. The three gang members get off — due to the bribes and payoffs to dirty judges and dirty Assistant District Attorneys and dirty police officials. Riley is going to be taken to mental hospital, but she escapes — and is not heard from until five years later. And she comes back with a vengeance!

Five years of martial arts training and firearms training have made Riley a well-oiled revenge murder machine. She comes back to LA and hides out in the Skid Row area, becoming a local ‘avenging angel’. But on the five-year anniversary of her tragedy, Riley sets out to take on Diego Garcia and his minions, and will not let any LAPD or FBI official stand in her way. She makes quick work of the three main perps, the corrupt judge, the dirty D.A. and most any other people who were involved. There are still some bad cops out there, and the main bad guy Diego Garcia. There are quite a few hard targets that Riley will use for her next practice.

Riley takes out Garcia’s drug house and his main drug warehouse, and they she goes after the fortified Garcia mansion. Det. Carmichael has an idea about where Riley might be staying, and the FBI also on to her location. Det. Moises is wondering if there is information getting from the police to the Garcia organization. Riley takes a beating over and over again, but she still has the juice to go after anyone who is working with Garcia’s gang. When the media starts to track Riley in real-time, the social media goes nuts to support her. It does not matter how many people Riley has killed…

“Peppermint” is a hot mess of female revenge fantasy and weapon worship. There are huge gaps, like the five-year disappearance of Riley North, that go unexplained. Where did she go? Where did she get the training, and where did she get the money to live on for all those years? They explain something about how she took money from the bank where she worked before she left, but – come on! That will last for five years? There were times in the screening that brought (unintentional) laughter. Not good for an action flick.

This “Peppermint” shtick is weak attempt to turn Jennifer Garner into an action hereo, making Riley North into a new ‘Jason Bourne’ or ‘John Wick’. Nah, that’s not in the cards. But if you team her up with ‘The Atomic Blond’…

God Bless the Broken Road Movie Review

September 7, 2018 (updated September 6, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

“God Bless the Broken Road” is an odd-ball combination. There is a Christian view on life that goes from being overly preachy to almost an afterthought. There is a main plot of a woman recently widowed, who gets a treatment straight out of the Book of Job. After her husband dies in Afghanistan, all sorts of tribulations befall her. She doubts her faith, and loses her house and even her young daughter turns against her. Yet at the same time, there is a sub-plot that is straight out of the movie “Cars”. A hot-shot driver meets up with an old-timey mentor who can teach him out to ‘correctly take the turns’, both on the track and in real life.

Amber Hill (Lindsay Pulsipher) lives is an ideal little town located in the heart of Kentucky. Everything is perfect, with all of her friends at the local church. She is a choir leader and she loves her husband, who is off in a war overseas. She loves her little daughter Bree (Makenzie Moss) who spouts off some cute biblical sayings when times are tough. Her friends at church are Karena (Robin Givens) and her daughter Bridgette (Jordin Sparks). The church is led by Pastor Williams (LaDainian Tomlinson) who is a linebacker-size preacher.

But after Amber’s husband is killed in battle, everything falls apart. Two years later, she has not recovered from the shock and the grief. She stops going to church and she works a lot more hours at the diner. Many more things are working against her, including a mother-in-law Patti (Kim Delaney) who always seems to criticize her. Bree is getting worried that her mom is giving up on her life. Amber is missing payments on the house, so the bank is getting ready to foreclose. Her van is held together with duct tape and bungee cords.

But a super-cool NASCAR driver named Cody Jackson (Andrew W. Walker) comes to town to work with a guy named Joe Carter (Gary Grubbs). Joe is master mechanic and a NASCAR driving coach. Cody is having problems with the turns and he only has the need for speed. He is being sent down to the minors for a while to pick up tips from Joe on how to drive fast, but still make the corners without spinning out. Cody meets Bree at the church, where he get ‘volunteered’ by Joe. There is a go-kart club that they start up for the youth group. Cody feels an attraction to Amber, and tings might get serious.

If this sounds like it is meandering and unfocused, then I have correctly described the plot. Just think of Amber as a Biblical version of Job, and think of Cody as Lightning McQueen. Amber’s life continues to crumble around her. She is a widow with very little money, the house is taken away, Bree runs away and then decides that staying with her Grandma Patti is better then her own mom, Amber.

The acting is stiff and wooden, except for Gary Grubbs (as Joe). The whole story-line is strained and fuzzy. The child actors are not up to today’s excellent standards. The melding of small-town religion and NASCAR idolatry seems to be forced. The movie shares only the (extended) name in common with a Rascal Flatts country song (“Bless the Broken Road”).

“God Bless the Broken Road” is a poor attempt to make an uplifting, spiritually strong movie. It’s in not even clear if that was the intention of this production. This might be a re-envisioning of “Talladega Nights”, for all I know. Know that this movie was better as a song.

God may bless this “Broken Road” – but sure as the devil, you don’t need to sit through it.

Searching Movie Review

August 30, 2018 (updated August 28, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

“Searching” is a new movie about a missing person and the resulting search, and it portrays it in a unique way. Only a few other movies have used the idea that a window into the modern world can be done with various screens. That is, computer screens, laptop screens, iPhone screens, security monitor screens, TV screens, etc. — you get the idea. The movie “Unfriended” does a similar thing, but only with computer screens. With “Searching”, the idea is opened up a little more, and the resulting movie draws you into the mystery. By examining social media and other online posts and Internet trails, the mystery deepens and is becomes a compelling look into current life online – and how the surface image can hide much different truths.

David Kim (John Cho) is introduced as a happily married man. With his wife Pam (Sara Sohn) they have a little girl. Margot is first a small baby, and then young girl and then a high school teenager. All of this unfolds with fifteen-year old technology, think Windows XP, AOL Mail and Messenger and the like. But the happy family has a breakdown when Pam develops cancer, and it relapses, and it then returns with fatal results. This is all done in the first few minutes of the movie, and it outlines the personal tragic story of this family. In some ways it is emotionally similar to the beginning of the movie “Up”, with a twist on the way that the audience learns the various details of the family story.

With the wife and mother gone, both David and Margot (Michelle La) have been dealing with the loss in very different ways. David becomes very busy with work, and every time he talks with Margot it is a reminder of his late wife. So, he tends to communicate more and more via technology, with iPhone calls, and FaceTime and instant messages. Margot is having a rough time with the death of her mother, but she knows that her Dad is feeling very fragile right now. She tries not to bother him about little things. So she does not tell him everything. David has a brother named Peter (Joseph Lee) who is much closer to Margot than David knows.

Then one night, David insists that Margot do some chores at the house when she gets home from a study group. She calls and tells him she will be home much later than usual. David sleeps, and as he does there are two phone calls from Margot, plus a FaceTime request, deep in the middle of the night. He misses them and does not know that she never came home. It does not register that she did not come home until David gets back from work the next evening. He sees that Margot did not take out the trash when she got home. But she also did not take her laptop. Why would she go to a school study group without her laptop? He also realizes that he does not know any of the people that Margot would know.

He gets into the old laptop and finds Pam’s notes and records and contact lists. He makes many phone calls to find out there was a ‘ditch day’ and camping up in the mountains. He is sure that Margot will call when she gets back from camping. Until he finds out that Margot did not go with that group. He calls 911 to report Margot as missing. Detective Vick (Debra Messing) shows up and tells him that she is assigned to case and not to worry. They will go over all the details that David has found and contact many of the people that he feels might know Margot’s whereabouts. David searches further and finds an online personal streaming site that Margot had used to post quite a few videos. Margot has also been taking money meant for piano lessons and putting into a private PayPal account. Until she withdrew $2,500 a few days before she disappeared.

David is going crazy in his mind, with all the possible thoughts of what might have happened. There are some online posts that allude to Margot and her online activities. David finds someone who has been posting to Margot about her online videos, but the person appears to be miles away in another state. But could someone be ‘catfishing’, making a fake fictitious online presence to pretend to be somebody else? There are more clues, and David takes off to a nearby lake, where a car is found underwater. It belongs to Margot, but she is not in the car. What has happened? Could the person involved in the disappearance be somebody very close to Margot? Could it be a random stranger, recently released from parole? How can David be sure what is the truth, when everything online can be changed and adapted and modified?

“Searching” does take a very specific approach to the technology that has become an everyday part of our life. It uses that tech to both tantalize and torture the main character by showing him various version of what might be the truth. John Cho is superb as the grieving husband who cannot stand another loss in his life and is determined to figure out the puzzle. The clues and red herrings are everywhere, and the use of modern social media tools to explain the recent past show the real limitations of those online systems.

The movie goes about displaying the entire story as if it were unfolding on the devices that we use every day. This brings a closed-in, claustrophobic feel to the overall movie, but also gives it a larger sense of urgency. David is not the only one who is feverishly finding and mentally processing the clues. So is the audience.

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Papillon Movie Review

August 24, 2018 (updated August 23, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

“Papillon” is a story of survival. It is the story of the unbreakable spirit in a man named Henri Charrière. He was a safecracker in Paris in the early 1930’s. His nickname was “Papillon” for the tattoo of a butterfly on his chest (it is French for butterfly). He worked with a low-rent crime boss, and earned enough to impress his girlfriend. But when he failed to impress the crime boss, he was framed for murder and sent to French Guiana. That island off of the coast of South America was home to a horrible prison camp. He was sent there and never was expected to return.

Papillon (Charlie Hunnam) is a talented thief, and he is a ladies man. He has a sweetheart named Nenette (Eve Hewson) who wants to sell the diamonds that he just robbed go to live in the country. The trouble is, the merciless crime boss wanted to have all the diamonds that Papi stole, but Papi kept a few for himself. Big Mistake. Next thing Papi knows is that he is charged with murder and sentenced to serve at the penal colony at Devil’s Island in French Guiana. On the ship sending the convict to the prison island, Papi meets Louis Dega (Rami Malek). Dega is an artist and a forgery expert, who was extremely wealthy. Dega was able to carry quite a bit of cash in — ahem — Deadpool 2 would call it a “Prison Wallet”.

Papillon was big and strong and willing to fight off any goons who attempted to kill Dega. So Papi agreed to protect Dega, as long as Dega would finance any escape attempt for Papillon. The protection and the financing parts worked out fine. The escaping part did not. Papi was able to try and escape, but when he did make it out the front gate, he did not make it very far. Papillon was sentenced to internal solitary confinement for two years.

Part of that time, Dega was able to pay off a trustee to deliver a hidden coconut to Papillon in his isolated cell. When the warden found out, he demanded that Papi tell him who paid for the coconut. But Papi was loyal, and silent. There where other escape attempts, and soon Papi was spending more time in solitary than in general population. Louis Dega could not make it through confinement, but the warden trusted Dega to handle the prison financial books. He was able to be a position of security. More escapes were planned, and with some assistance they made it off the island and landed in Colombia. But the long French arm of the law found them again. Dega was sent to Devil’s Island, and Papi (again) to solitary confinement. He was there for such a long time that he hallucinated most of the time. Then he was sent to join Dega at Devil’s Island.

At the Island, there was no method to escape. There were impossible cliffs around the deadly jagged rocks at the base, where the waves would crash violently into the Island. But past the base, there was a gentle tide, and tide pulled out into the sea — and off to a current that lead to the mainland. If only Papillon could devise a way to get past the danger zone, he could float gently out to freedom. Dega would not dream of leaving the Island, even if it meant dying there. However, Papi — he could not live the rest of his life in captivity. He would finally escape, or he would die trying…

Charlie Hunnam is well cast and has a physical appearance that resembles Steve McQueen. McQueen played Papi in the original movie adaptation. Hunnan plays Papi as strong and shows a brutal willingness to do anything, just to survive. Rami Malek plays Degas with an air of sophistication that is above an ordinary convict. The way that all of the historical places are recreated is excellent. At the end of the movie there are black-and-white photos of the actual prison. They have been able to capture that quite well.

The reason that a remake of “Papillon” was required to be made now is unclear. But the effort that is made to make this movie will not make you think of trying to escape the theater.

The Coolest Guy Movie Ever Movie Review

August 21, 2018 (updated August 20, 2018) Published by JMcNaughton

Back in 1963, “The Great Escape” was a smash hit with audiences around the world. It was a hit because of the major acting talent that director John Sturges brought together for the film. Tough manly guys like Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, David McCallum plus many others played the roles of prisoners in a German POW camp. Their only goal was to escape.

Based on true events, the movie was a dramatic reenactment of the meticulous planning that went into the escape. The movie was filmed in Germany, and many scenes were shot in small villages and towns in Bavaria. Hollywood stars and local German townsfolk, farmers and villagers would meet and become friends. Now there is a documentary that shows the lengths to which the movie production went for an accurate and scenic movie.

Christophe Espenan has put together an extensive (if short – it runs about an hour long) listing of iconic scenes from the movie. Then he revisits that same area today, over fifty years later, to show that the movie locations are still around. There are some major differences, of course. The POW camp was placed just north of a studio sound stage. There was an agreement with the German government that the production company could tear down a section of trees to construct a camp for the movie. But when they were finished, they were required to plant two trees for each single tree that they removed.

Many places and streets in and around the small Bavarian town of Füssen are compared to the original movie. Many scenes match up today, even after a generation has passed. They find the place where a majority of the actors stayed during the six weeks of filming. They interview many local people, or sons and daughters of local people who remembered the making of “The Great Escape”. The plot of the movie is that all the prisoners will break out of the POW camp and escape into the nearby town. That takes the action right here, into the countryside.

Back when the main stars were the biggest names in Hollywood, this movie became known as ‘The Greatest Guy Movie Ever’. Getting Steve McQueen to ride a motorcycle and jump a barbwire fence was very exciting. Perhaps his stunt double Bud Ekins should be famous for performing the jump. But McQueen did a huge amount of riding on the bike, and he even dressed up as a German soldier so he could ride again and chase himself!

Lawrence Montaigne narrates the documentary, and he actually had a part in the move, so many years ago. Even though his role was not a major part in the movie, he still says that just being part of that movie had opened up many doors for him.

“The Great Escape” was a film based on a true event. It also did not gloss over the fact that after the men escaped from the POW camp, almost all of them were recaptured. All but a few of the men were soon killed, for trying to escape. Only three men made it out to freedom. But since this documentary is only about an hour log, it does not attempt to get into any depth as to what the film actually accomplished.

From filmmaker and film historian Chris Espenan comes The Coolest Guy Movie Ever — a fascinating forensic documentary about the making of the classic World War II adventure film The Great Escape — to DVD and digital HD from Virgil Films on August 21, 2018, after a special screening earlier this year at Marché du film in Cannes.

Author: JMcNaughton