56 San Diego Reader January 5, 2017
MOVIES
without swerving from the cause of realism. (The controlled chaos of battle, however, is another matter.) Star Andew Garfield’s slight frame holds up remark- ably well under the weight of scorn, abuse, misunderstanding, judgment, and oh yes, bodies. 2016. — M.L. ★★ (IN WIDE RELEASE)
Hidden Figures — NASA’s gone funky when a trio of African-American women (Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe), all experts in the field of analytic geometry, prove they have the right stuff needed to crack the elite white boy’s space program. An important historical achievement — and apparently, the space center’s best kept secret — is brought to light in this entertaining, at times thoughtful big screen adaptation. Filmed in the bright, colorful mode of a ’60’s romantic comedy, the film admirably captures the look and feel of the period — and it does so without lecturing or wagging an admonishing finger. Those pondering the meaning of seamless editing need look no further than Peter Teschner’s flair for cutting on action. The exposition is cumbersome at first as co-writer and director Theodore Melfi’s (St. Vincent) script has a habit of repeating itself: two runs to the bathroom were enough to get the point across. Still, a crowd pleaser in the best sense of the term. 2016 — S.M. ★★★ (IN WIDE RELEASE)
La La Land — Billed as a movie lover’s dream for a reason: the eye hasn’t seen this much color on screen since Vincente Minnelli passed. The songs and musical numbers are lively, the cast attractive, all attempts to transform city streets into expressionistically lit studio backlots successful, and the ending decidedly downbeat. And there’s this five-and-a- half-minute long take that starts in search of a parked car and ends with a slow and deliberate pan over to the Hollywood Hills at twilight time that found me strug- gling to pick my jaw up from off the floor. Ditto a lovely romantic walking tour of the Warner Bros. lot. But, and it’s a big but, any number of the movie musicals that director Damien Chazelle refer- ences (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Band Wagon, It’s Always Fair Weather, etc.) have more depth of characteriza- tion than either Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone’s comparative stick figures are assigned. But enough grouching. This is one crowd-pleaser worth get- ting behind. 2016. — S.M. ★★★ (IN WIDE RELEASE)
Lion — I’d be lyin’ were I to express indifference to Lion, the story of a young man who, twenty years after an unexpected trip on an decommissioned train car deposited him 1000 miles from home, uses Google Earth to reunite with his long-lost family. The task of wringing overpowering visuals out of the simple act of watching characters interface with a computer display has proved daunting to most. Screenwriter Luke Davies and director Garth Davis bypass the cliches with the greatest of ease only to be briefly set off course with a repetitive third act. How many pensive shots of a Christ- like Saroo (Dev Patel) staring into space do we need? Nicole Kidman as Patel’s adoptive mother from down under and Rooney Mara as his supportive girlfriend leave one wanting more of both. The same can be said of five-year-old Sunny Pawar, whose work as the young Saroo deserves major attention from Awards groups. 2016. — S.M. ★★★ (IN
MOVIES@HOME The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die
KATE DANCEY Author
Gattaca
JEFF BERKWITS Scientific writer and self- professed tech geek
Genuine science can appear in the most unexpected places. In The Hunt for Red October I was thrilled to see the eponymous sub ran on magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), a propulsion system I’d based a high school sci- ence-fair project upon over a decade earlier. Though the study of MHD as a power source has largely been shelved, I still get chills every time I see the film. While Jurassic Park
made genetic research “cool,” it was Gattaca, which came out four years later, that was scientifically rivet- ing. For me, the movie’s more-or-less dystopian plot was outshined by its fore- sight and insight into genet- ics and personalized medi- cine that, relatively quickly after the picture’s release, began to move from science fiction to science fact.
THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (USA) 1990, Paramount Pictures Available on Hulu and Vudu
GATTACA (USA) 1997, Columbia Pictures Available on Crackle and YouTube
I love a convincing scare. Jessica Biel delivers as Julia in The Tall Man. Desperate conditions and small-town lore underscore an unknown menace snatching local chil- dren. The first half intrigues and teases, but alas, deflates in climax. The Tall Man stands as kissing cousin to Gone Baby Gone. See it for the twists, haunting atmo- sphere, and Julia’s gritty chase to find her child. Hitchcock protégé
Gordon Hessler deftly blends horror and thriller together in The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die. Crippled business mogul Ellen Garth is a striking study in contrasts. Deeply erotic, pitiable, yet domineering, she drives husband Raymond to cheat with her “innocent” niece. Together with the male secretary Ellen is blackmailing, Raymond plans to kill his wife. Murdered brutishly, Ellen’s corpse lay in the toolshed. But does she rest easy? Mysterious happenings and a twist complete Raymond’s watch- worthy slide into horror.
THE TALL MAN (Canada/ France) 2012, Cold Rock Productions Available on iTunes and Amazon Video
THE WOMAN WHO WOULDN’T DIE (USA) 1965, Warner Bros. Available on Watch TCM and DVD
The Nice Guys
CESAR SALDANA Filmmaker
A man driving the same direction for two hours. There are no car chases or big set pieces just one per- son taking phone calls as he drives along the freeway. The setup sounds boring but once Locke begins to play, you can’t help but feel engrossed in the story. With Tom Hardy as the titular character, Locke is a great example of what can be accomplished with a good actor and engaging drama. The Nice Guys was
largely overlooked by audi- ences but it might be one of the most fun movies of the year. The script is entertain- ing, the action is hilarious, the characters are interest- ing, and the soundtrack is amazing. It’s a pulpy detec- tive story set in ’70s L.A. that’s lots of fun to watch. With Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, who shows off some great comedic acting, it’s a movie well worth watching.
LOCKE (UK/USA) 2013, A24 Available on Amazon Video and Vudu
THE NICE GUYS (USA) 2016, Warner Brothers Available on YouTube and iTunes
spoken. (It’s tempting to add, “Until the marble angel standing atop a tombstone is once more a man,” but that’s precisely the sort of high-flown hooey that Lonergan avoids.) 2016. — M.L. ★★★★ (IN WIDE RELEASE)
A Monster Calls —
...because therapists don’t pay home visits. Liam Neeson gets transmogrified into a weirdly muscular tree-man summoned by the tortured psyche of young Conor O’Malley, who is plagued by nightmares about his dying mother. (As a withdrawn artist type, he’s also plagued by a nasty cardboard bully.) The monster promises to tell three stories in his quiet boom of a voice, after which, Conor must tell the truth about his nightmare. But while the stories are built from the stuff of fairy tales — queens, princes, healers, angry townspeople, etc. — they’re all twisted up into something more like highly personalized parables (and unhelpful ones at that). Conor needs the monster’s wisdom, in part because the real world is busy teaching him that “love isn’t enough; it doesn’t carry you through,” that there’s no point in apology or punishment after transgression, and that he should smash things if he feels the need. Director J.A. Bayona presents appealing worlds (real and imagined) awash in color and detail, but while his movie and its monster are very interested in exploring and explaining humanity,
they don’t quite get people. 2016 — M.L. ★ (IN WIDE RELEASE)
Moonlight — Best suited for those who found brilliance in Beasts of the Southern Wild, here comes a hackneyed tale of a young black man’s passage from childhood to maturity in a tough Miami neighborhood. Bullying, poverty, closeted sexuality, drug abuse, and racial strife combine to form an overworked agenda of cultural woes that’s more concerned with rubber-stamping issues than telling an original story. Suffocating close-ups, rocking-chair camerawork, and a few unnecessary 360-degree pans lifted from the Christopher Nolan playbook do little to elevate the visual storytelling, while the script — based on the life of playwright Tarell McCraney — is content to churn out one cliché after another. The three actors who share the lead are all first-rate, while Mahershala Ali actually manages to breathe new life into the character of a good-natured drug dealer. That’s more than can be said of Naomie Harris’s standard-issue hysterical crack mom. Here’s just what liberal-minded, visually challenged Academy voters need to make up for last year’s lily-white ceremony. I predict Oscars all around. Written and
directed by Barry Jenkins. 2016. — S.M. ★ (ARCLIGHT LA JOLLA; LAND- MARK KEN)
Find more S een on DVD re views at
SDReader.com/dvd WIDE RELEASE)
Manchester by the Sea — Some films you watch to escape from the frequently painful and/or difficult reality of life. Pacific Rim, perhaps. Some films you watch to impose a satisfactory narrative onto the seemingly random chaos of life. Casablanca, maybe. And some films you watch to enter more deeply into life — the difficulty, the chaos, all of it. Writer-
director Kenneth Lonergan’s masterful Manchester by the Sea, which tells the story of a penitent exile who is asked to give up both his penance and his exile, falls into the third category. And it does so without a hint of bravado or flourish, except perhaps for a single devastating scene between the exile (Casey Affleck) and his ex-wife (Michelle Williams). But even there, everything is earned and nothing is wasted in service to any-
thing beyond the characters themselves. Williams’ is only one of the outstand- ing performances surrounding Affleck; Lucas Hedges also merits mention for his portrayal of a teenager who remains recognizably human — and what’s more, recognizably himself — in the midst of adolescent grief. But it’s Affleck’s movie to quietly own as layer upon layer of Irish impassivity is stripped away from his visage until the unspeakable can be
Nocturnal Animals — A vile, vulgar nightmare of a movie that amounts to little more than a dirty garbage bag filled with closeups. Tom Ford’s (A Single Man) latest begins on shock with a quartet of naked Mrs. Grapes go-go dancing and quickly plummets. Ford intercuts two stories — the life of cauterized gallery owner Amy Adams clashes and the visualization of an existential hallucina- tion in manuscript form penned by her long-estranged husband (Jake Gyllenhaal) that recently arrived in the mail — nei- ther of which is particularly meritorious. Borrowing liberally from the Hot Rods to Hell playbook, the novel details a violent encounter between a gang of hoodlums and the unsuspecting family that acts as their target. The only laughs the film has to offer come in the form of embarrass- ing flashback transitions. One redeem- able facet: Laura Linney does a dead-on impression of Dina Merrill. Other than that, file this messy nocturnal emission
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