In ‘Mary Queen of Scots,’ filmmaker Josie Rourke shows us a dramatic and intense time in history, cleverly focusing on and examining the life of the ever charming, ever bewitching and sharp, Mary Stuart (Ronan), who wants only what is rightfully hers. The film is written by Beau Willimon and based on the book, ‘Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart’ by John Guy. The world Rourke creates with cinematographer John Mathieson (X-Men: First Class, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, The Phantom of the Opera) is flush with color, showing beautiful landscapes however the piece is dark and lonely because though the spotlight is on Mary Stuart, there’s another woman who’s casting a pall over the entire situation. That woman is Queen Elizabeth I (Robbie), the Queen of England. Mary’s very existence threatens her in many ways.

Mary was the Queen of France at only sixteen years of age. Now widowed at the age of eighteen, she wants to be the Queen of Scotland, her homeland. After her husband’s death, she returns to her country of origin to reclaim the throne. This is where she is met with great opposition… and a jealous rival. Feisty and strong-willed, Mary pleads with her cousin to meet her face to face, so they can rule ‘side by side.’ She begs that they not allow men to get in the way of what could be an amicable and peaceful kinship. She wants and asks for unity. Of course, men twist her thoughts and encourage Elizabeth to believe that Mary is more foe than friend. Hungry for power, the men helping Elizabeth govern want to rule over both Scotland and England. Elizabeth is unable to bear a child and they fear what may happen when Mary weds and has a child. This child would then be the next in line to take over and lord over all the land.

This chapter in the tale is tedious. There are a lot of characters to get to know but once you learn everyone’s names and where they fit in the plot, the pacing never slows. You settle in rather nicely, in fact, and the two hours goes by comfortably. Ronan plays a bullheaded and determined Mary who wants to be with a man ‘fully,’ but not if she’s owned by him. Shocking for the day, she is her own woman. You’ll be surprised to learn that who Mary does eventually pick to marry is actually gay. How she handles the situation when she finds out is what endears you to her even more. You’ll find yourself wanting her to succeed and get what she’s due and you’ll need for Elizabeth to see her point of view and share her vision. The script is decent except for the few times when men and their games of war slip in. It wasn’t really needed but the reasons for it are understood.

At times, I was both fascinated and confused by the story. It’s well-done, powerful and intriguing but at times a lot to take in. That said, do not miss a thing! No going up to get popcorn or taking bathroom breaks or anything because every second of screen time is filled with something you’ll regret having missed. The ending when the two women’s eyes fall upon one another for the first time is remarkable. Their conversation is the perfect way to close this film. It’s definitely a watch on the big screen if possible.    

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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’ 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. 

‘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.

The nominations for ‘Darkest Hour’ alone will make you want to bolt to the theatre and see it but spectacular are the performances of Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas.  Now that I got that out of the way, let me introduce the film by saying that there is a particular audience for it.  If you love history and if you love war pictures, well, the behind the scenes drama of war, this could very well be one of your favorites for the year.  It’s the best of its kind to come along in a long time.  Gary Oldman gives an exceptional Oscar-worthy performance and for that alone, it’s well worth your time.

It’s long at two hours and five minutes but only a few times do you feel its length.  The film centers around a very short period of time in 1940 during World War II.  With Nazi soldiers breathing down their necks, Parliament makes a decision.  The Prime Minister of England is hoisted from his position for being too weak with Hitler, but they struggle with knowing that quite a crisis will befall his replacement. They now toil with who that replacement will be.  Who can handle the evil that Hitler has shown himself to be?  They need someone strong and, as you already know, decide to give Winston Churchill a try though many have their doubts.

We go heavily into the life of Churchill during these days.  We even see him in bed, as he demands his breakfast, to get to know him more.  It’s easy to see that he’s gruff with everyone he’s around, his wife and his secretary, but for some, it’ll take a while to see another thing… Churchill is played by… Gary Oldman!  It really is Oldman peeking out from behind a pound of makeup and camouflaged beneath tons of padding to make him more believable.  He’s outstanding and watching this on the big screen will allow you to absorb the performance that much more which is something I truly hope you do.  He deserves that much, and you’ll be the richer for having witnessed it the way director Joe Wright (Atonement, Hanna, Pride & Prejudice) meant for you to see his portrayal.  If you’re not aware of the importance of who this man was in the grand scheme of things and in the larger picture of ‘what could have been,’ this movie can serve not only as a captivating piece of history or reminder for you but a cautionary tale of how close we once came to no longer being who we are today and how close things still can escalate to put us in that same position.

Churchill kept his wits about him and saw that England was done for sure if Hitler wasn’t stopped.  He had a broad strategic approach and unlike the previous Prime Minister, he knew the situation couldn’t be met with talks of peace.  He realized Hitler knew nothing of peace.  He approached the United States for help but was sadly turned away and as Hitler got closer, he had another political battle.  He had to convince his own party that fighting was the only thing they could do if they were to survive the assault on their country.  He went to the people of England and put it to them, in a scene you won’t soon forget, and got his answer.  Fight.  As the enemy swarms the shores of Dunkirk, Churchill calls on all of England to help and is on his way to victory.

Darkest Hour is remarkable and I recommend you get your ticket early and get to the theatre to see this TONIGHT!  You’ll be moved, you’ll be that impressed and I think you’ll agree… Oldman is on fire in this film.  His supporting cast is equally as good.  You’ll be thoroughly entertained.  By the way, after seeing this movie, one might feel compelled to watch Dunkirk.  It’s only logical that you do.  Though they feel quite different because they’re made by different directors they are perfect for back to back viewing.