Bad Times at the El Royale Movie Review

You absolutely must get online and get your reservations for the El Royale tonight! This Tarantino style noir or ‘black’ film has dustings of Hitchcock and early Hollywood capers and mysteries. Don’t waste another moment reading about it. Just go. The trailer does a spectacular job of keeping certain plotlines a secret which is rare these days so if you were already interested by watching them, you haven’t seen anything yet.
The opening of the film declares why a certain character is at the hotel and what he’s searching for. ‘Bad Times at the El Royale,’ like similar films before it, allows us to get to know each of her other characters one by one. Little is revealed about them but as more people and circumstances crop up, with the use of flashbacks, you’re investigating the characters yourselves and learning more. Often, you’ll be surprised at what you see. A little warning to those who are faint of heart, there are several jump-scares that will leave you unsettled and anxious for what’s to come during the rest of the film. This is something I liked about Drew Goddard’s film ‘The Cabin in the Woods,’ too. He knows how to keep you sitting on the edge of your seat and he likes it.

The film’s two hours and 21 minutes are rather long but for the most part, the cast makes each minute count. And don’t ask me to pick who, out of this magnificent assembly of actors, is best. They were all outstanding! Okay, fine. If you’re going to twist my arm, I have to admit that I couldn’t take my eyes off Jeff Bridges. The man is unbelievable in this role. But I digress. Let’s get back to the length of the movie. Though a well-orchestrated film otherwise, where Goddard could have shaved off some time would have been by not having the characters discover things the audience has already seen through the eyes of several others before. That said, I’d see it again in a heartbeat. Let me tell you some about what to expect from your bi-state stay in the El Royale. The hotel sits on both Nevada and California and is split in half by a red line painted down the middle of the lobby. The hotel has hosted many performers of the stage and screen where gambling is allowed only on the Nevada side, obviously, but plenty of boozing and canoodling have happened on both. With the band of misfits joining us now, it certainly hasn’t been and still isn’t a virtuous place to stay. The hotel is very much a central figure of the film. It reveals and has as much personality as any of the others do.

Through Goddard’s clever and inventive script and exceedingly brilliant and vivid imagination, you get involved in their stories and grow to either love or hate them. The bellboy named Miles (played by Bill Pullman’s son) Lewis, is perhaps the most compelling by movies end, something not expected upon first meeting him. I don’t really want to introduce you to them or reveal too much so I’ll not be saying much more. You need to be sitting in the theatre watching, not reading about, why you need to see this. You’ll be sucked in right away with a very impressive and striking opening. The thrills, the wit, and the outlandish situations along with the players and the music that accompanies them will take you voluntarily to the end of your stay.

First Man Movie Review

‘First Man’ focuses on the beginnings of Nasa and invests most of its two hours and twenty minutes to Neil Armstrong, the first man to ever set foot on the moon. It’s captured beautifully with an incredibly exciting screenplay by Josh Singer, who wrote ‘The Post,’ ‘Spotlight’ and twenty-six episodes of ‘The West Wing,’ that’s filled with motivation, trepidation, elation and plenty of heartaches.
If you want to feel what Neil Armstrong felt as he flew his jet across the sky and if you want to experience the inside of a space capsule with him, as well, see this movie at the theatre but if you can, get to an IMAX theatre quickly for an enhanced adventure into space.

Director Damien Chazelle (La La Land, Whiplash), obviously no novice when it comes to music and tone, had a sound department of thirty people working overtime for this one! The metal of the rocket the astronauts are jammed into before it takes off and after speaks to them. It moans and groans, shrieks and creaks, articulating its disapproval of what is being asked of it, setting your nerves on edge before you’re anywhere near the moon. Chazelle manages to make us see and feel the vibrations and each bump, jolt, quiver and jerk they are going through as they train for their mission and as they’re launched into orbit. Uncertainty is a big part of the film which is puzzling because we all know how it turns out but that’s how beautifully structured the film is and how strong the characters are. It’s so believable that even YOU aren’t sure of what’s next for them.

Though Armstrong and other astronauts were in happy marriages, Chazelle was able to catch and target in on their lives at home during the 1960’s with the Apollo missions going on. As they watched friends burn up or blow up, they tried not to show it but were a bundle of nerves inside. Armstrong kept himself at a safe distance from his wife Janet, played quite skillfully by Claire Foy. They lose a child, Karen, which Neil never seems to recover but as they continue to have more children, he pulls away emotionally, saving it for the missions, and she remains strong for their family. She understood he had to direct his attention on surviving but wasn’t about to let him kill what they had. The scene between the two of them toward the end of the film strengthens an already powerful film and cements this as one of the best movies of the year. That said, however, it’s no ‘Whiplash,’ which is a more determined Chazelle film, but this is still intense and a must-see this weekend. Don’t wait to watch it at home. The exceptional photography and superb score deserve to be seen and heard properly. 

First Man Movie Review

“First Man” is a gripping personal view of one of humanity’s crowning achievements. When three astronauts traveled to the Moon, and two of them touched down and explored the lunar surface, it was a stunning accomplishment. Now there is a movie that defines the inner drive and personal demons of that initial person who put down a boot onto the crusty dust of the Earth’s satellite. That person was Neil Armstrong, and he was the “First Man” to get that historical privilege. This movie is a reminder of the technological push of the 1960’s that took America to the Moon and back.

Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) is an engineer and a test pilot at NASA. He is not one of the military-bred astronauts that first rose in the ranks of the Air Force. Yet his cool-headed ability to think deeply, even in extreme circumstances, makes him a valuable addition to the group of space-bound pioneers. He and his wife Janet (Claire Foy) have a perfect 1960’s marriage. She tends the home front, and he ventures into space. Neil and Janet have a young daughter named Karen, but she passes away from cancer. Even with all the up-to-date technology, their little two-year-old could not be saved. They already have a son, and soon after, they have one more boy. But Neil is shattered inside from the pain of his loss. He is introverted and a shy person to begin with, so the loss does not help.

Neil has skills and knows how to take high-level math equations and then using that knowledge to fly and pilot a spacecraft. He has experience with the experimental rocket planes, and he jumps at the chance to get into the Gemini program. That space program will be another step on the way to the big cheese – the Moon. The Gemini craft will hold two astronauts, and the planned Apollo mission will carry three. When Neil gets selected, he is very pleased to be working for former astronaut Deke Slayton (Kyle Chandler). The Gemini missions will be important to pave the way for Apollo and moon landings. The mission that gets Neil into space goes well, and the docking tests go smoothly. That is, until there is a problem with the thrusters…

Neil and his fellow astronaut are soon spinning out-of-control. Neil figures out a way to reverse the bad thruster, and gets the Gemini under control again. It uses up most all the fuel, so the mission needs to be aborted. But one bad mission left the astronauts safe. Not so with the first testing of Apollo 1, with all three astronauts on-board in the capsule. In the simulated launch, there was an electrical spark that ignited the pure oxygen in the capsule. All three died in the test, and the Apollo missions were delayed for a while. But then Neil was picked for Apollo 11, as was Buzz Aldrin (Corey Stoll) and Michael Collins (Lukas Haas). This was the mission that would go to the Moon, land and explore the surface, and get the three explorers back in one piece.

Neil and Buzz make it to the lunar surface, and they are true explorers. But every step of the way was a catastrophe that did not happen. Every piece of equipment had potential for failure, no matter how many engineers worked on the design. Some of the people lost their lives along the way to Neil’s ‘one small step’.  He knows that, and he knows that his safe return is only the best of the calculated odds. His trip is successful and NASA still explores into space.

Damien Chazelle has taken the story of the first man on the moon and explored the difficult personal journeys of the people involved. There is always an emphasis on the characters and what they can see and how they react to all the events that surround them. Even with a ground-breaking walk on the moon, there is the inner pain of Armstrong’s loss of his daughter. The launch is not shown as a breath-taking wide shot of the rocket zooming into the sky. There is a real person strapped into the Spam can attached to the top of a big firecracker. The sounds of creaking and straining bolts make you think at any moment it will become the Fourth of July.

Ryan Gosling plays Neil Armstrong ass a very soft-spoken and subdued man. He is always examining and recalculating the situation, to make sure there is way to continue the mission. That includes his marriage. Claire Foy also gives a powerful performance as Janet; the wife who needs to raise her kids but is not afraid to raise her voice. The other actors have also been cast with an idea as to how well they would fit in the 1960’s Space Race.

“First Man” is nearly fifty years in the making since the actual events that mesmerized the world. It tells of real adventure in the outer space, but still keeps in focus the difficult emotions of Armstrong’s inner space.

22 July Movie Review

‘22 July’ is shocking, stirring, it’s heart wrenching, unsettling and hard to wrap your mind around. Greengrass is best known for making several of the ‘Bourne’ films and ‘United 93’ which was a real-time account of United Flight 93, the plane that was hijacked on 9/11, but crashed due to passengers willing to take drastic measures to stop the terrorists in their tracks. ‘22 July’ is, again, the story of a terrorist’s actions as he carries out brutal killings only this time it’s a right-wing extremist named Anders Behring Breivik, played very coolly by Anders Danielsen Lie, in 2011 near Oslo Norway, who feels that he, as a white man, is being discriminated against.

He attacks what he refers to as a political summer camp which is located on an isolated island. He sees this camp as a place where the ‘Marxist, Liberals and members of the elite’ send their children to learn to accept minorities.

Dressed as a police officer, he packs guns, plenty of ammo and explosives and leaves the house. He drives a van near the Prime Minister’s office and parks. He gets out, lights a fuse, and slyly walks down the street where he easily slips into another vehicle and drives away, headed for the teenagers who await their fate like sitting ducks. He gets onto the island where the children are and starts, one by one, picking them off. They run but he knows there is absolutely nowhere for them to go. He’ll get them all eventually.

The explosion is well done, along with the confusion in its aftermath, but watching the children run screaming is brutal. Anders goes into a building where people are hiding and tells them, ‘You will die today!’ It’s hard not to put yourself in that scenario once you start thinking of how often murder in the name of someone’s beliefs goes on in this world.

One child, Viljar, gets a call off to his mother to tell her what has happened. She’s involved in politics and was near the explosion so she’s able to alert the police about what her son informed her of and they head to the island immediately. An intense scene shows us that, sadly, Anders is still shooting and gravely injures Viljar. When he’s found by his parents, he’s only clinging to life. Greengrass does a beautiful job of making all the events seem as realistic as possible. What follows is how these people restore their lives in the wake of such a tragedy but on top of that, being very much alive, the gunman has ways to still twist the knife. He doesn’t care about his victims, he tells his lawyer, Geir Lippestad, he would do it all again for the cause. He also tells Geir his demands or a third attack will be coming. He wants the liquidation of the political camp and a ban on immigration. This is where my interest was piqued even more. I knew of this story but it so parallels what’s happening in my own country today which makes it more relevant than I thought it would be.

It’s frightening to take a good hard look at certain activities in our world, but I rather like that films are bringing these subjects to light. It’s important not to hide racism and pretend it’s not going on.

The rest of the film is court filings, Viljar’s struggle to come back from what happened to him and the Prime Minister realizing where he went wrong. All of this is notably well done. It’s an explosive, captivating story of good versus evil with meaningful dialogue and pacing that doesn’t bore. Don’t think for one minute you have to see it on the big screen to appreciate it. Netflix is doing more and more and with this proves they’ll continue to get better and better. But if you’re lucky enough to be in a city where it’s coming out… it would be good to experience it that way.

In case you were curious, the only reason ‘22 July’ didn’t get a higher score is for the few times it felt as if it went a little long and one other mistake that writer/director Paul Greengrass made, which was crucial, and that’s where we first find ourselves in the story. Coming in at two hours and twenty-three minutes, he captured us by getting straight to the meat of the matter. That said, to the viewers, it felt as if he had nowhere to go but down. Turns out that it’s quite enough to be considered a must-see, but had he stretched out the action a bit… had the action happened a little later in the film, instead initially introduced to us some of the characters, it wouldn’t have become the long-lasting drama it felt it became. Then again, maybe this was done on purpose because what these Norwegians endured didn’t end with Anders Behring Breivik’s massacre of seventy-seven people, not to mention the hundreds of others he injured. The slaughter was only the beginning.

*22 JULY will debut Wednesday, October 10th globally in select theaters and on Netflix.

Vice – Trailer

VICE explores the epic story about how a bureaucratic Washington insider quietly became the most powerful man in the world as Vice-President to George W. Bush, reshaping the country and the globe in ways that we still feel today.


Writer/Director: 
Adam McKay

 Production Companies: Annapurna Pictures, Gary Sanchez Productions and Plan B.

Producers: Megan Ellison, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Adam McKay, Will Ferrell, Kevin Messick

Cast: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Jesse Plemons, Alison Pill, Lily Rabe, Tyler Perry, Justin Kirk, LisaGay Hamilton, Shea Whigham and Eddie Marsan.

Genre:  Drama/Comedy 

In Theaters Nationwide Christmas Day


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In Theaters Nationwide Christmas Day

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Lizzie Movie Review

There’s a nursery rhyme, for lack of a better term, that you probably heard while you were growing up that goes as follows, ‘Lizzie Borden took an ax and gave her mother forty whacks; When she saw what she had done she gave her father forty-one.’ This was based on Lizzie Borden and the murder of her parents and the movie does a great job of getting down to ‘IF’ Lizzie was guilty, why did she do it? The very thought of it is horrible and you immediately think her a monster but was she guilty? If she were, was she pushed too far? Was she in her right mind? At trial, a jury of all men deliberated for ninety minutes and returned a not guilty verdict because they, ‘refused to believe a woman of her social standing could commit such a heinous crime.’

 

During the film, we learn that Lizzie’s (Sevigny) father, Andrew (Sheridan) and his icy cold second wife Abby  (Shaw) are very wealthy. Andrew requires an undeserved amount of respect from everyone, from those he employs to work around the house and from his daughters and their stepmother. All are to do as he says and to submit. He takes advantage of those in his charge and when the movie picks up, in the year 1892, we learn that everyone does do as they’re told… everyone except for Lizzie. She’s very strong willed and refuses to be ruled over. Lizzie has seizures, something he sees as an embarrassment to his name. He doesn’t even want her going to the theatre in case she has a ‘spell’ that others may see.

 

Lizzie is very kind to animals and staff, paying particular notice to the new maid, Bridget (Stewart) who starts teaching to read. The film then leads to Lizzie and Bridget having a lesbian affair. This is handled quite beautifully with one woman offering love to someone who had never been allowed to experience it before. Before this, we see Andrew at his worst after he discovers that Lizzie had pawned some of her mother’s jewelry. He does something appalling and Lizzie lets him know that she’ll not be victimized by his fear tactics. Soon after she finds out that her father is changing his will. This is when it’s suggested that a plan has already been in place for her to murder her father for his misdeeds and his mistreatment of her, her sister and of Bridget.

 

The blows to the head come next, which are no surprise, of course, but it’s gripping to find out how it actually happens and what happens directly after. Since all we ever really knew of were the whacks themselves, if it were Lizzie, we, at this point, could certainly find a reason to empathize. Even though they were beyond brutal to sit through and watch. So brutal it hardly leaves room for doubt who would have delivered to these people such savagery but someone who was greatly pained by them. The film’s pacing can be slow at times but the sets, the acting and the history of it all are fascinating. Stewart and Sevigny are fantastic, and I have to strongly suggest you see this for the performances if nothing else.

 

In Phoenix, it’s playing at the following theatres:

 

AMC Desert Ridge 18

Camelview at Fashion Square

Tempe Marketplace 16

Arizona Mills 24

Harkins Arrowhead Fountains 18

The Favourite – Trailer

Early 18th century. England is at war with the French. Nevertheless, duck racing and pineapple eating are thriving. A frail Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) occupies the throne and her close friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) governs the country in her stead while tending to Anne’s ill health and mercurial temper. When a new servant Abigail (Emma Stone) arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah. Sarah takes Abigail under her wing and Abigail sees a chance at a return to her aristocratic roots.

As the politics of war become quite time consuming for Sarah, Abigail steps into the breach to fill in as the Queen’s companion. Their burgeoning friendship gives her a chance to fulfill her ambitions and she will not let woman, man, politics or rabbit stand in her way.

 

A Film By Yorgos Lanthimos Written by: Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara

Produced by: Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday, Yorgos Lanthimos

Starring: Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult, Joe Alwyn, James Smith, Mark Gatiss

 

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In Select U.S. Theaters November 23rd

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At Eternity’s Gate – Trailer

CBS Films will open AT ETERNITY’S GATE in select theaters in November…

Directed by Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Before Night Falls, Basquiat)

Screenplay by Jean Claude Carrière, Julian Schnabel, Louise Kugelberg

Produced by Jon Kilik

Starring Willem Dafoe, Mads Mikkelsen, Emmanuelle Seigner, Amira Casar, Niels Arestrup, Oscar Isaac

Academy Award® Nominee Julian Schnabel’s At Eternity’s Gate is a journey inside the world and mind of a person who, despite skepticism, ridicule and illness, created some of the world’s most beloved and stunning works of art. This is not a forensic biography, but rather scenes based on Vincent van Gogh’s (Academy Award® Nominee Willem Dafoe) letters, common agreement about events in his life that present as facts, hearsay, and moments that are just plain invented.

Indiewire says, “Willem Dafoe Is an Inspired Van Gogh in Julian Schnabel’s Impressionistic Masterwork. No ordinary biopic, this portrait of the artists takes you inside Van Gogh’s mind.”

 

Variety says, “Willem Dafoe has his greatest role since Jesus Christ in Julian Schnabel’s luminous present-tense drama about the last days of Vincent van Gogh.”

 

The Hollywood Reporter says, ”…due in large part to the febrile intensity Dafoe brings to the central role. With his craggy features and piercing blue eyes peering out from under a battered straw hat, he fully evokes the van Gogh we know so intimately from self-portraits. The dangerous urgency of Dafoe’s performance reveals an artistic genius whose crippling mental illness seems to feed rather than impede his capacity to create ahead-of-their-time works of stunning originality and sensitivity.”

In Theaters In November

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First Man – Trailer

FIRST MAN

One giant leap into the unknown.

On the heels of their six-time Academy Award®-winning smash, La La Land, Oscar®-winning director Damien Chazelle and star Ryan Gosling reteam for Universal Pictures’ First Man, the riveting story behind the first manned mission to the moon, focusing on Neil Armstrong and the decade leading to the historic Apollo 11 flight.  A visceral and intimate account told from Armstrong’s perspective, based on the book by James R. Hansen, the film explores the triumphs and the cost—on Armstrong, his family, his colleagues and the nation itself—of one of the most dangerous missions in history.

Written by Academy AwardŽ winner Josh Singer (Spotlight, The Post), the epic drama of leading under the pressure of grace and tragedy is produced by Wyck Godfrey & Marty Bowen (The Twilight Saga, The Fault in Our Stars) through their Temple Hill Entertainment banner, alongside Isaac Klausner (Love, Simon) and Chazelle.  Steven Spielberg, Adam Merims and Singer executive produce, while DreamWorks Pictures co-finances the film.  www.firstman.com

Genre: Drama

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll, Ciaran Hinds, Christopher Abbott, Patrick Fugit, Lukas Haas

Director: Damien Chazelle

Screenplay by: Josh Singer

Based on the Book by: James R. Hansen

Produced by: Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen, Isaac Klausner, Damien Chazelle

Executive Producers: Steven Spielberg, Adam Merims, Josh Singer

FIRST MAN – In Theaters October 12

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In Theaters October 12

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Operation Finale Movie Review

‘Operation Finale’ is the true story of an operation that gave the people of Israel peace from something terrible they had suffered through. Interestingly enough, this film couldn’t be coming out at a more perfect time in the history of our own country. I’m not suggesting that we can compare our situation in the slightest but our national discord and division, at the moment, is felt in a few moments of ‘Operation Finale,’ especially when you realize how easy it is to influence others and turn a country completely around.

Writer Matthew Orton used as his subject matter the fascinating account of when Israel gets a chance for the first time ever to try, in open court, one of the evilest men ever to walk the earth. ‘For the first time, we’ll judge our executioner.’ Other Nazi’s, most famously Hitler, who were responsible for the atrocities of World War II, killed themselves before they could be captured but Adolph Eichmann (Kingsley), the architect of the ‘Final Solution,’ (the Nazis plan to annihilate the Jewish people), got away and lived a full life. By 1960 he had faded into the past and was forgotten by most of the world but not by Israel. They wanted them all to pay for what they had done.

Many of Hitler’s top officers fled to Argentina which is where our story starts.  Eichmann’s son Klaus (Joe Alwyn), unbeknownst to him, begins dating a Jewish girl, Sylvia (Haley Lu Richardson) whose family is hiding as German immigrants. He brings her to a Nazi rally and terrified at what she sees, she abruptly leaves. She passes what she witnessed along to her father, Lothar Hermann (Strauss), who then passes word to Isser Harel (Raz) whose skeptical at first but when given photographic proof, immediately pulls together a team to try and pick up Eichmann. Argentina will never give him up so capturing him alive isn’t the safest or smartest way to go but it would mean so much to bring him in alive and make him pay, once and for all, for what he had done. Can they pull this off? They have a simple plan that becomes quite complicated, which is what works to give the audience moments of tension, otherwise, you’re watching the story play out very heavy on the drama with little action. They capture Eichmann, not in a graceful way, but they do succeed and they hold him in a safe house until their plane is ready to go. Nervous already, as there are many sympathizers looking for them not to mention they’ll be in prison themselves if discovered, they learn not only has the plane been delayed but that the airline that agreed to help the mission gets wind of its true purpose and doesn’t want any part of it. Before they’ll agree to let them board, they insist Eichmann give them a signed letter stating that he is going willingly to stand trial.

Israeli operative Peter Malkin (Isaac), after losing a sister and her family to the Nazi’s, takes it upon himself to be the one to do whatever it takes, even to befriend the beast, to get the signature. Instructed not to speak to Eichmann because he, ‘convinced Rabbis to fill the trains himself.’ The leader of the team will try but warns there’s no getting through to someone who has little humanity. Malkin gives it his best. This is when Kingsley goes from one spectrum to the other, appealing to his captors’ good senses and eventually using them against him. Isaac and Kingsley have wonderful chemistry and their scenes alone makes the film worth a watch.

A drama such as this can be somewhat slow but ‘Operation Finale’ keeps you engrossed with not only good dialogue, the issue and the acting but the assignment itself. They show enough of what the Jewish people truly went through, something the world at the time didn’t believe was happening, that at the end, learning of Eichmann’s fate, it made you want to stand up and applaud the team that made it all come together. Hearing Eichmann say, ‘You and your lying press will just try who you think I am.’ Was a bit too close to home but hopefully, people do learn from history and no other country will allow something like this to ever happen again. See the film. It’s powerful and it’s also important that you do.