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| Courtesy of Warner Bros. |
(Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action violence, bloody images, some suggestive material, partial nudity and language.)
The cast: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Lena Waithe, Ben Mendelsohn, Mark Rylance and Simon Pegg.
What it’s about: In 2045, the real world is so bleak that most of humanity spends its time in the OASIS, an immersive virtual universe that allows you to go anywhere, do anything or be anyone. It’s the only way orphaned, poverty-stricken Wade Watts (Sheridan) truly feels alive. After the death of James Halliday (Rylance), the Steve Jobs/Willy Wonka-esque inventor of the OASIS, he leaves his massive fortune and total control of his creation to the winner of a three-part contest he developed to find a worthy heir. After Wade conquers the first challenge, he and his friends (Cooke and Waithe) become famous to other participants and targets to a shady corporation (led by Mendelsohn’s character) who wants full control of the OASIS.
The good: After the first half hour, which is wobbly, and too heavy on exposition, I started to breathe a sigh of relief. Anyone familiar with this column knows how much I love Steven Spielberg, but even I was skeptical that the brilliant director could turn Ernest Cline’s disappointing novel into a good movie. I know the book has plenty of fans, but it became insufferable for me after a few chapters because Cline valued pop culture references over anything else (including characterization and consistent plotting).
Fortunately, Spielberg works his magic yet again (I constantly complain about how much we take him for granted, but it remains true). The movie still has a ton of winks and Easter eggs, but they’re employed in the service of compelling characters and a more intriguing story. Plus, most importantly, the filmmaker responsible for much of my childhood joy emphasizes that nostalgia is ultimately destructive if it keeps you from moving forward in life.
As with all of Spielberg’s sci-fi works, the visual effects here are simply incredible. Motion capture has come a long way since the creepy, dead-eyed kids of The Polar Express, and the director utilizes it beautifully. The real world and the OASIS have distinctly different looks and tones, emphasizing why most of humanity would prefer to spend their lives immersed in illusion. That’s particularly true in an extended sequence, inspired by a classic horror film, that had me giggling with delight.
The cast is top notch. Sheridan possesses an everykid quality that makes him an ideal audience surrogate, Waithe steals every scene she’s in (both in real and motion capture form), Mendelsohn clearly relishes playing a corporate slimeball and Rylance is simply perfect as the childlike, socially awkward Halliday.
The not-so-good: At a certain point, Ready Player One becomes too much of a good thing. It’s far too long at 140 minutes, with a third act that starts to drag just when the excitement should be ramping up. In addition, the novel’s best character (Art3mis/Samantha, played by Cooke) gets shortchanged in the jump from book to screen. The adaptation (written by Cline and Zak Penn) puts far more emphasis on Wade, which sidelines her for large chunks of the film.
Something similar happens with Pegg’s character, the co-founder of OASIS, who features more prominently in the novel. The actor is excellent (and pulls off a great American accent), but he’s relegated to an extended cameo.
Grade: B
Love, Simon
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| Courtesy of 20th Century Fox |
(Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, sexual references, language and teen partying.)
The cast: Nick Robinson, Katherine Langford, Alexandra Shipp, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Logan Miller, Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel.
What it’s about: 17-year-old Simon Spier (Robinson) has a great life, including wonderful, ridiculously photogenic parents (Garner and Duhamel) and cool friends (Langford, Shipp and Lendeborg). However, he’s hiding two secrets that he’s afraid will change everything. The first is that he’s gay. The second is that he has fallen for an anonymous classmate he’s been corresponding with through e-mail. He has the situation under control until a scheming classmate (Miller) finds out and uses the info to blackmail him.
The good: 20th Century Fox is billing Love, Simon as the first mainstream romantic comedy with a gay protagonist. While that certainly earned the movie a ton of publicity upon release, the most remarkable aspect is how un-revolutionary the story is. I don’t mean that in a bad way; it’s clear that the screenplay (credited to Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker, who adapted Becky Albertalli’s young adult novel) is formulaic by design. Straight teens have had sweet, clichéd movies to swoon over for decades. Now LGBTQ kids, a hugely underserved demo, have one of their own.
Director Greg Berlanti (who took a quick hiatus from his superhero empire on The CW) hits all the beats audiences have come to expect from romcoms and teen films, just with a slightly different romance than multiplex audiences are used to. If the mostly teenage viewers in my screening are any indication, no period of adjustment is necessary. The kids laughed, sniffled, “aww”-ed and cheered at all the appropriate points.
Obviously, the story is a rosier-than-real-life version of what coming out in high school must be like, but that’s par for the course in this genre. Still, Berlanti and his creative team make this heightened, stylized version of reality a blast to watch thanks to crackling dialogue, surprisingly strong cinematography (thanks to John Guleserian), great music from Rob Simonsen and Jack Antonoff, and incredible chemistry among the film’s magnetic stars.
Robinson has been on the verge of a Hollywood breakthrough for a while, and his work here will help him even more. He makes Simon a regular kid, avoiding the stereotypes a less perceptive actor might’ve employed in the role. The closest he gets to full cliché is in a hilarious fantasy sequence, but Simon immediately points out the joke and moves on. It’s one of the best scenes in the flick.
All of Robinson’s co-stars are equally strong, particularly Shipp (as Simon’s theatre buddy). But the standout performances come from Garner (criminally underrated) and Duhamel. They make the requisite coming out scenes late in the film incredibly poignant, instilling their speeches with little touches that make it seem like they’re a real family instead of actors getting paid to pretend.
The not-so-good: Any complaints I have about the film – a couple of coincidences too many, mandatory third act complications, issues that could be solved with a 30-second conversation, etc. – come standard with the genre. As an English teacher and new fan of Albertalli’s novel, this is also where I drop the following snobby, mandatory gripe: the book was better. Not by much, but better nonetheless.
Grade: B+
Flower
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| Courtesy of The Orchard |
(Rated R for crude sexual content and language throughout, graphic nude drawings, some drug content, and a brief violent image. Now playing in limited release.)
The cast: Zoey Deutch, Joey Morgan, Kathryn Hahn, Tim Heidecker and Adam Scott.
What it’s about: This pitch-black comedy centers on snarky, 17-year-old Erica (Deutch), who earns money by putting creepy men in compromising situations and blackmailing them to keep quiet. What she considers a fun hobby becomes a quest for revenge when her home situation changes dramatically. Her mom’s (Hahn) new boyfriend (Heidecker) has a teenage son (Morgan) who recently got out of rehab, and he eventually tells Erica a dark secret involving a local high school teacher (Scott). This info leads the potential stepsiblings into a perilous situation they never envisioned.
The good: Deutch, who I’ve adored since her understated work in Everybody Wants Some!!, delivers the exact opposite of that here. It’s a bold, uncompromising performance in a brutally dark, intentionally divisive film. In fact, everyone in the cast delivers strong work playing incredibly unlikable characters.
I’d be curious to see how many viewers make it through the entire movie. It feels like director and co-writer Max Winkler (Alex McAulay and Matt Spicer are the others) structures the story like an endurance challenge. Just when you think things can’t get worse, there’s a new complication or someone else reveals a toxic secret. It’s consistently funny, but in a shake your head, I can’t believe that just happened kind of way.
The not-so-good: The fearless actors elevate an otherwise lackluster film. As great as they are, at no point do they feel like real people making decisions the way normal humans do. Almost everything is done for shock value and there’s a turn in the final minutes that betrays everything we’ve come to know about the main character. She ends up becoming a supporting player in her own story.
Grade: B-
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