Midnight Special review

Jeff Nichols is a filmmaker whose work often reflects the lives of working class Middle-Americans. He’s also interested in contrasting the realistic, and often hard world of U.S. laborers within the genre trappings of their own populist cinema. In the case of “Midnight Special,” a title that suggest a certain type of boilerplate, pulp storytelling, Nichols has captured the uncanny sense of otherworldly danger and childlike wonder that Amblin-era Steven Spielberg branded in the late 1970s and early 80s, but does so while retaining his own sense of minimalist thriller direction.

The film begins with Michael Shannon and Joel Edgerton as two men who’re armed and on the run from the police with a child named Alton (Jaiden Leiberher), who’s stowed away in the back of their pickup, reading comic books with a flashlight under a sheet. Shannon plays the boy’s biological father who has captured Alton from an unusual foster home situation, ran by a religious zealot/cult-leader who believes the child in question is part of a holy prophecy. This might not the most outrageous theory, as the government has their own interests in Alton because his psychic ramblings have been linked to important U.S. intelligence, making him and his father suspects of treason. Shannon believes that that they have to take Alton to a set mysterious coordinates before the boy’s strange, and dangerous abilities weaken him to point of certain death.

Like Spielberg’s 1977 classic “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”—of which, alongside “E.T.”, this owes much of its structure and aesthetic—Nichols’ allows this science-fiction thriller to reveal itself slowly, working from its realistic exterior to its fantastic core as the story blossoms, uncovering more popcorn-bait with every piece of new information the script lays out. The stakes are immediately apparent which drives the story forward. A seductively dark sense of mystery shrouds the picture, taking place on the deserted desert roads of twilight Texas. Though Nichols’ employs more special-effects here than in his previous films, they are used sparingly and usually to good effect. In one scene we are shown what looks to be meteorites falling from the sky, first as small twinkling lights in the distance and then huge fireballs that violently and convincingly annihilates the rural gas station our characters are stopped at. We later find out this was a satellite that Alton managed to telekinetically crash through our atmosphere.

Scenes like this are captivating in an uneasy way and provides gravitas to the movie’s pulpier elements. That’s why it’s all the more disappointing when the director shows us too much his hand and robs us of the film’s mounting tension by delving further into its sci-fi world-building, with an ending that registers far sillier than the concealed intrigue teased before that point.

Despite its clanging and on-the-nose conclusion “Midnight Special” is a compelling dark fantasy, full of eerie set-ups, an economically written screenplay and a host of great performances, including Adam Driver as a curious NSA agent who’s in over his head. Nichols again proves himself to be an exciting talent who fully understands the unconscious effect classic Hollywood genre filmmaking has had on lives of rural America.

Grade: B+

Originally Published in the Idaho State Journal/April-2016

Listen to this week's episode of Jabber and the Drone to hear more conversation about "Midnight Special."

Everybody Wants Some review

Director Richard Linklater has never been known as a plot-driving storyteller. His movies generally focus on his characters and the conversations they have on camera. The settings and time also play a big part in informing these conversations, which, in the case of “Before Sunrise,” “Slacker” and even last year’s Oscar-nominated “Boyhood,” tend to highlight the natural cadence of the mundane, the comic and the self-gratifying ah-ha moments of armchair philosophy. His latest comedy “Everybody Wants Some” reunites Linklater with one of his favorite age-groups, the recently enlightened college student, as he explores the dreams and desires of a group of baseball players who’re meeting each other for the first time.

Based loosely on the director’s own life-experience, the film takes place at the Texas university in 1980, the weekend before class is set to begin for our characters. Blake Jenner plays our point of view Jake, a confident freshman who has to learn quickly what the masculine hierarchy is within the off-campus house he and his fellow ball-players will spend the semester. There he meets a diverse range of All-American, corn-fed athletes that include McReynolds (Tyler Hoechlin), the hot-headed rooster of the house, Finnegan (Glenn Powell), the wise-cracker who has a theory about everything, and Willoughby (Wyatt Russell), the stoner shaman who seems wise beyond his years. Jake has to carve out his own role and function within the long-standing traditions of this established group while they go out, dance the disco, and crash theater parties, looking to meet chicks and get loaded.

This has been marketed as Linklater’s ‘spiritual sequel’ to his 1993 cult-comedy “Dazed and Confused,” and because of the retro period, because it’s ensemble piece featuring a young, mostly unknown cast and because of the lackadaisical way the director decides to structure the events of the story, it’s a comfortable comparison to make. Of course the classic rock and roll soundtrack and the many scenes of peer-group hazing also helps. After the end of high school exhalation of Dazed, this film picks up with the sense of self-discovery and freedom that comes with the early college experience. Keep in mind, these guys were all the favored jocks of their High Schools, so the coming of age portrayed here is paved for more of a successful transition than many leaving home for the first time.

The stakes are low and the drama isn’t immediately apparent, but the film hints at a broader message about defining yourself as an independent person. Jake’s peer group is like-minded and single-minded when it comes to their tireless search for alcohol and sexual conquest, but underneath all the party-time Linklater exposes a coded form of existential subtext about going your own way and the seeds of individuality that are planted by the happenstance moments of our lives. Jakes budding relationship with a theater geek named Beverly (Zoey Deutch) explicates this theme as her art world contrasts with that the house’s beer-soaked, competitive masculinity. I probably would have liked to see a bit more between these actors than we got, as Deutch is the only substantive female role in the picture, but its minor inclusion is saved for significant narrative impact.

Though the film is never begging to be loved and Linklater’s natural comedy breathes far more than then what we’re used to these days, there’s a lot to appreciate about “Everybody Wants Some.” It’s an entertaining hang-out flick full of great performances and memorable characters. The period sets and consume are varied and authentic and the movie both pokes fun at the era while portraying it with warm nostalgia. I find myself wanting more as the film only hints at its most compelling beats before drifting off into yet another scene of “Animal House” styled debauchery, but after I found locked in step with the movie’s rhythm I became fully immersed in this virile jock world and was curious to see where these guys would end up by the end of the school year.  

Grade: B 

Originally Published in the Idaho State Journal/April-2016

Listen to this week's episode of Jabber and the Drone to hear more conversation about "Everybody Wants Some."

The Bronze review

The earnestness of the traditional sports drama has always been ripe for parody. The clichés of the genre (aspiring youngster, grumpy coach, training montage, mean rival, final showdown) are so well ingrained in our cultural consciousness that it provides a perfect structure to hang some jokes on. “The Bronze,” written by and starring Melissa Rauch of “The Big Bang Theory,” is a filthy sports movie send-up with a committed central performance and a lot of funny ideas. This dark comedy aspires to the small-town satire of films like “Waiting for Guffman” and the subversive shock of films like Alexander Payne’s “Election” but the Rauch’s natural humor is too often tampered by director Bryan Buckley’s mismatched, somber tone.

The film is set in everyone-known-everyone Amherst Ohio, where former Olympic gymnast Hope Greggory (Rauch) struts as the town’s queen bee. Even though she was only able to compete once before injuring herself and taking home a bronze metal and a broken ankle, she still’s able to get away with treating everyone like dirt while getting a free slice of pizza from her local mall’s Sbarro. Though Hope seems to lack ambition and has become bitterly beholden to her faded glory days, she is thrown back into coaching a new young athlete named Maggie (Haley Lu Richardson) when she learns that her former coach has passed away and will only release her 500,000 inheritance when and if she can make Maggie a star.

The movie hinges on Rauch’s performance and seeing as she co-wrote the part for herself, she convincingly transforms into this hilariously pathetic, monster of a human being and her raunchy, profanity-laden dialogue, delivered in a thick Midwestern accent, never fails to shock or earn a chuckle. Side performances by Thomas Middleditch as Rauch’s twitchy assistant and Gary Cole as her put-upon mailman father serve to balance Hope’s unrelenting contemptibility and gives the audience a comfortable way into her world.

This comedy contains many quotable lines laced throughout the screenplay and like the film’s tonal reference points, such as “Heathers” and the aforementioned “Election,” the movie revels in its un-PC meanness.  It’s a shame then that two thirds into the story, the film loses its nerve and slides comfortably back into the inspiring sports movie framework, undercutting the subversive edge of its unsympathetic main character.

Director Bryan Buckley lets too many scenes fall flat with simple, hand-held camera techniques and a distractingly mournful piano score that suggest a Sundance seriousness that the movie never really fulfills—nor needs to fulfill. Despite the smaller budget and the specificity of its topic and location, at its heart this is an absurdist comedy with an oafish lead character, not unlike the average Will Ferrell vehicle, and it should have been pitched just as broadly. The choice to present the material with an indie-friendly, dramedy aesthetic is more often than not a huge disservice to the final product.

 “The Bronze” may not be the instant comedy classic it wants to be and many things about its filmic execution leaves a something to be desired, but Rauch shines through as a bold comedic voice and the movie's more outrageous moments, such as a full-frontal gymnastic sex scene and the jaw-dropping opening sequence, should earn the satisfaction of some cult audiences.

Grade: B - 

Originally Published in the Idaho State Journal/April-2016

Listen to this week's episode of Jabber and the Drone to hear more conversation about "The Bronze."

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice review

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Many were worried that Warner Bros’ rush to compete with Disney/Marvel’s brand of interconnected comic-book movie franchises would lead to something too ambitious and too concerned with setting up future projects to really stand on its own. “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” suffers from all of that and it’s so much worse than we could have expected. 

Spawned as semi-sequel to 2013’s “Man of Steel,” director Zack Snyder was given the directive by the studio to create a movie-universe that could churn out many of its own sequels and spinoffs. Therefore, it needed to continue Snyder’s Superman narrative, introduce a new conceptual take on Batman--now played by “Daredevil” star Ben Affleck--establish a foundation for the forthcoming Justice League film and somehow wrangle all of these ideas in one succinct way. “Batman v Superman” is anything but succinct, in fact, it’s an incomprehensible Frankenstein of a movie. 

The film begins with a montage recapping Batman’s origin story, in case you somehow forgot it from the previous six Batman flicks. It ends with Bruce watching a skyscraper he owns in Metropolis destroyed during Superman’s battle with General Zod; the same orgiastic destruction sequence that concluded “Man of Steel” and put off a lot of viewers with its clumsy 9/11 evocations. Henry Cavill’s Superman/Clark Kent is now seen as hero by some and a danger by others, which has further developed his Christ complex that eventually leads him into problems by the third act. Said danger comes in the form of Lex Luther (Jesse Eisenberg) who’s discovered Superman’s only weakness, Kryptonite, as well as functioning Kryptonian technology at the bottom of the ocean. Through a convoluted and frustrating plot involving Russian gangsters, encrypted spy decoding, classified bullets, crippled Zod survivors and Lois Lane always managing to be at the wrong place at the right time, Lex manages to get Batman and Superman to fight. Oh yeah, and for some indiscernible reason, Gal Gadot makes an appearance as Wonder Woman, complete with her own corny heavy metal theme. 

This movie barely makes any sense. Plot threads are started and then later abandoned and the character’s motivations are solely dictated by which set-piece they need to get to next, but those who’ve followed Snyder’s past work (“300,” “Watchmen,” “Sucker Punch”) should know that story has never been the director’s strong suit. Generally speaking, suits seem to be his strong suit – costume and production design is where his interests have always gravitated and the more narrative or emotional heavy lifting he is asked to do the harder he fails as a storyteller. 

Certainly “Man of Steel” had its problems but at least the movie held together and Cavill really fit the part as Superman. Here both he and Affleck look visibly bored on screen, as does Amy Adams, whose Lois Lane has been relegated to a paging device to make Superman appear whenever she needs to be rescued. Eisenberg is devouring the scenery and embracing the unintended camp of it all, but even he comes off as overly manic compared to the stone-faced zombies he’s trying (usually, too hard) to play against.  

With all of the different studio notes and competing plots shoved into this two and half hour edit, the movie's been patched into a messy collage of incongruent scenes and story elements that shift back and forth like an extended recap that plays before the next season of a television show. Snyder likes to highlight his epic comic-book-y tableaus and there’s enough ‘cool’ imagery to cut together an exciting trailer but even the fanboys will be hard-pressed to defend this labored clunker, as it fails to anchor enough emotional grounding to make any fight worth investing in.   

Grade: D -

Originally published in the Idaho State Journal/March-2016

Listen to more discussion about "Batman v Superman" on this week's Jabber and the Drone Podcast.

10 Cloverfield Lane

J.J. Abrams’ production company Bad Robot, which produced 2009’s “Cloverfield,” and “Super 8,” has made Abrams’ concept of the ‘mystery box’ a big part of the way it they tell their stories and an even bigger part of the way market their projects. “10 Cloverfield Lane” is a conceptual successor to the 2009 found-footage, monster-movie but it’s not necessarily a sequel. Of course Bad Robot sold the, as with many of its others, with a shroud of mystery, releasing a vague but enticing trailer. Luckily the film itself lives up to most of the intrigue of the trailer and though it only takes about 30 minutes before you realize this has nothing to do with the original “Cloverfield,” it settles in successfully as a contained thriller on its own... that is until it loses its nerve in a jarring and disjointed final sequence.

In keeping with the ‘mystery box’ narrative style we are introduced to our movie’s lead Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as she is racing down the highways of rural America after initiating a bad breakup. On her way, she collides with a truck and is left for dead on the side of the road, where she is eventually rescued by an intense survivalist/conspiracy theorist named Howard (John Goodman). Michelle wakes up to finds herself in a hand-built bomb shelter where her captor/savior Howard insists that Armageddon has begun outside of the walls of their sanctuary and that she must live with him and his younger apprentice Emmet (John Gallagher Jr) until the air outside has become clear of nuclear fallout.

This would be a great premise for a bottle episode of anthology television shows like “The Twilight Zone,” “The Outer Limits” or even “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” The contained locations and the intimate cast focus the energy of the film on steady, deliberate scene direction and performances. All three of the leads are convincing in their parts – Winstead proves again that she can hold the camera’s attention and can bring both emotional heft and levity when it’s needed. Gallagher Jr works as a great foil that helps to settle the story’s tension with a general sense of everyman relatability. Goodman is given the license to ham it up and he chooses to use it, integrating many acting ticks into his creepy portrayal of a deeply paranoid and lonely control freak. Much of this is presented like a perversion of the American family archetype and in the background there’s only a hint of something more dangerous and otherworldly at stake. Unfortunately, the movie’s awkward landing doesn’t maintain the same kind of subtly and suggestion.

 First time director Dan Trachtenberg is able to keep the pot simmering for the most part but reported on-set rewrites lead to the movie’s downfall in a tonally jarring conclusion. I can’t give away what happens, but let’s just say that the human interactions happening inside of the seller is a hell of a lot more interesting than what’s apparently happening outside of it. Because the “Cloverfield” brand was slapped on this otherwise good thriller, Abrams’ made more effort to connect the two movies in ways that undercut this film’s deeper themes of fanaticism and the results of dangerously regressive gender dynamics. Like a pulpy cousin to last year’s Oscar-nominated “Room,” “10 Cloverfield Lane” wants to explore bigger ideas outside of the confines of its genre, but those ideas are ultimately trapped within a problematic rewrite.  

Even though the movie is hobbled by its misjudged ending, the merits of everything leading up to it can’t be ignored. As such, the film will sit alongside Steven Spielberg’s “A.I” and Danny Boyles “Sunshine” in the pantheon of sci-fi near-masterpieces that are marred by their last half hour.


Grade: B -

Originally published in the Idaho State Journal/March-2016 

Listen to more discussion about "10 Cloverfield Lane" on this week's Jabber and the Drone Podcast.

Eddie the Eagle review

It’s not necessarily a terrible thing when a movie perfectly exemplifies the genre it’s working in. Such is the case with “Eddie the Eagle” -  a wholesome, underdog sports movie that ticks every box expected in that kind of narrative. There’s nothing new or surprising about the way the plot develops but it’s confidently told and competently made, and sometimes that’s just enough effort to keep an audience satisfied. Despite the training montages, the corny humor, and and gee-golly innocents it exudes, “Eddie the Eagle” is a very satisfying movie. 

Matthew Vaughn, director of genre defying, post-modern send-ups like “Stardust,” “Kick-Ass” and last year’s gleefully subversive teen-spy movie “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” somehow produced this sincere throwback, based on the true story of an unskilled English underclassman who finagled his way into the 1988 Olympics. Kingsman’s Taron Egerton plays Eddie, an enthusiastic Brit with ambitions to compete, despite never receiving any formal training or encouragement to do so. His father would rather his son learn a useful trade while his mother politely indulged Eddie’s fantasies. After trying sports and failing to master them, Eddie learns that nobody has competed on behalf of England in the field of competitive ski-jumping, thus sending him to Norway to learn the skill well enough to qualify within a short window of time. There he meets Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman), a drunk groundskeeper who just happened to be an ex-Olympian who ski-jumped for America in the 1970s. 

As previously warned, this movie hits every sports movie cliche;  the young ambitious underdog meets a world-weary and damaged pro and in working together the novice athlete learns the value of sportsmanship and victory while the older man rediscovers his original love of the game. It’s all there. We also have period-specific 80s pop-music and broad victory metaphors that are called back to repeatedly. And yet, every one of these paint-by-numbers elements are perfectly realized and actually pay off in the way they were originally intended.

What elevates the storytelling is the wonderful character choices by Egerton, that include many physical affectations and an unusual mumble-through-his-teeth accent, without the character becoming too cartoonish or losing credibility as a real person. Egerton and Jackman have great screen chemistry and the juxtaposition between Eddie’s acceptance to compete without contending and Peary’s frustration in Eddie’s resolve to likely finish in last place speaks to how the British class system differs from the American exceptionalism. 

Director Dexter Fletcher made this film with a lot heart and it manages to beat through familiar plot mechanics. Plots, overall, are not that important as long as they make sense within the context of the story. A movie’s success usually has more to do with how well film portrays a  character’s emotional state than it does with the ways a script decides to get them from act-1 to act-3. “Eddie the Eagle” is an unabashedly traditional film without a shred of self-referential cynicism and ultimately the warmth and confidence in that choice becomes the film's most unique quality. 

Grade: B

Originally Published in the Idaho State Journal/March-2016

Listen to more discussion about "Eddie the Eagle" on this week's Jabber and the Drone Podcast.

The Witch review

Robert Eggers debut horror film “The Witch” is one of those rare tour de force first features that spotlights a true talent to look out for.  This black metal folk tale is a near-perfect study in tone and immersive tension, with a keen sense of setting and period that boasts a handful of completely credible performances. It not only uses the macabre to sell its aesthetics as a horror film but it embraces a true sense of darkness and slithering evil that will stay in your consciousness long after the initial shock of its deranged third act.

Even more astonishing, “The Witch” has finally broken the hex that dictates that movies starring actors from “Game of Thrones” must suck (“Pompeii,” “The Other Woman,” “Terminator: Genisys”). Ralph Ineson and Kate Dickie play the mother and father of a 1630 puritan family who decide to leave their New England pilgrim community to settle their own property in the middle of a nearby gloomy forest. There they hope to build a purer relationship with God, away from the noise of regular society. Their eldest daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) has begun to question the logic of her parents, their son Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw) is coming to terms with his difficult puberty, their two young twins may or may not be talking to evil spirits through the family's farm goats and their unbaptized newborn has just gone missing. After the kidnapping, the family begins to find themselves crushed with religious guilt, exposing each member’s personal struggles with sin. Soon internal battles with lust, pride and dishonesty manifests themselves into real or perceived oppressions from the dark forces lurking within the shrouded forest.

What makes this film more narratively enriching than your average cabin in the woods shocker is that the screenplay, laced with biblical, old-English dialogue, is just as committed to the drama and the interior lives of the characters as it is with hitting all the intended genre beats as a thriller. The performances by the mostly-unknown cast are realistic and heartbreaking, especially by lead actress Taylor-Joy whose emotional and symbolic arc within the film is both complex and challenging. Rather than lacing the plot with empty boo-scares and gotchya moments, every character is tormented by their own guilt and their own fears, with the titular Witch preying on the family’s vulnerabilities in ways that are visually creative and truly horrific.  

The sets look lived in and the grim 1600's period imagery is never played for theatrical camp. Because of the intense attention to the film's cosmetic details, Eggers portrayal of pagan magic is strangely believable within the context of this satanic melodrama. Cinematographer Jarin Blaschke uses single-source lighting-schemes with metaphoric intent, etching the characters and subjects out of the natural darkness, while never defaulting to flat desaturation or an overuse of digital color-correction.

Some might search for a contemporary message within the story and when talking about dangerous accusations of witchcraft, feminism rises to the surface, and if you’re looking for it, that’s certainly in there. But the picture’s more prevalent theme is of man’s relationship with sin and the unhealthy consequences of repression. 

Given the character’s conflicts with their own faith alongside the high-contrast imagery that's obscured by spindly tree-branches, Swedish art-house auteur Ingmar Bergman would have been proud of this film's relative mainstream success.

“The Witch” was released wide and is being sold as a casual winter horror programmer but unlike the seemingly generic title, this movie is anything but a lazy and predictable experience. The pace is deliberately slow and not unlike Kubrick’s “The Shining,” its taught sense of dread moves closer to you as each sequence pulls the cord a little tighter. There’s certainly entertainment to be had in all its artful spookiness, but this is not really a popcorn film. Rather, this is a masterful study in atmosphere, history and religious philosophy that deserves as much discussion as it deserves your gasps and nightmares.

Grade: A+

Originally Published in the Idaho State Journal/Feb-2016

Listen to more discussion about "The VVitch" on this week's Jabber and the Drone Podcast.