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| Courtesy of Universal |
(Rated PG-13 for some thematic content involving peril, and brief strong language.)
The cast: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Corey Stoll and Kyle Chandler.
What it’s about: Gosling reunites with his La La Land collaborator Damien Chazelle for this biopic about Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. Focusing on the decade leading up to the historic Apollo 11 flight, specifically chronicling some of the most dangerous missions in history, the film offers a modern perspective on a legendary era.
The good: Fair warning, it’s tough for me to be neutral with this subject matter. I was obsessed with NASA – especially the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs – through my childhood and teenage years. I read every book I could get my hands on, watched every movie, learned all the astronauts’ names, etc.
So, with that disclosure out of the way, I absolutely loved First Man. It’s a familiar story to be sure, but Chazelle frames it as a psychological thriller, as well as a tale of how men of a bygone era weren’t allowed to publicly process grief. Over the course of a few years, Armstrong loses his two-year-old daughter and several friends, but he’s forced to internalize that pain.
Because viewers experience the Space Race from the reserved, no-nonsense Armstrong’s perspective, events we’ve seen in dozens of other movies have been stripped of their sentimentality. These missions aren’t tinged with nostalgia. Instead, they’re harrowing sequences of slightly controlled chaos, where disaster can – and frequently does – strike at any time.
Gosling is outstanding as Armstrong, measured and unemotive on the surface while internally battling a host of complex emotions. It’s not the kind of showy performance that wins awards, but it’s absolutely the right choice for the character. The supporting cast is packed with a murders row of character actors: Chandler, Clarke, Stoll, Shea Whigham and Patrick Fugit all deliver stellar work with relatively limited screen time.
The visual effects are spectacular, Linus Sandgren’s cinematography is stunning (the movie looks like it was shot in the late-’60s or early ’70s) and Justin Hurwitz’s powerful score adds dramatic weight without resorting to bombast. Josh Singer’s screenplay hits all the high points without feeling like a filmed Wikipedia entry, while Chazelle’s speedy pacing makes the 141-minute movie feel far shorter.
The not-so-good: Sadly, despite her best efforts, Foy is ultimately wasted in the thankless role of Armstrong’s wife. She does all she can with the material, but there are only so many ways to cry and look anxious. I’m sure the real Janet Armstrong was a far more compelling woman and I wish the movie could’ve made a stronger effort to reflect that in her cinematic counterpart.
Finally, it’s frustrating to see a compelling film about the triumph of the American spirit get mired in such a stupid pre-release controversy. Don’t listen to the cable news pundits, bloggers and politicians calling First Man unpatriotic because it doesn’t show Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin literally planting a flag on the moon.
Anyone making that accusation clearly hasn’t seen the movie. They’re also not familiar with the astronauts’ near-disastrous attempt to raise the flag in an environment with no wind and a lack of gravity. They eventually got the job done, but a cinematic moment it was not.
Yes, we get a couple of shots of the American flag on the moon, post-assembly. But there are also flags in practically every other frame of the movie – on the astronauts’ suits, on the rockets, in buildings, and being waved by joyous people celebrating the successful mission. Heck, there’s even a shot of Armstrong’s son raising one up their flagpole in slow motion. I’ll put it this way: if you played a “spot the American flag” drinking game while watching First Man, you’d die of alcohol poisoning within the first hour.
Grade: A-
Bad Times at the El Royale
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| Courtesy of 20th Century Fox |
(Rated R for strong violence, language, some drug content and brief nudity.)
The cast: Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Lewis Pullman, Cailee Spaeny, Nick Offerman and Chris Hemsworth.
What it’s about: In the late 1960s, a group of strangers cross paths at the El Royale – a rundown hotel that literally straddles the border of California and Nevada. All of them are running from troubled pasts and most of them are seeking some kind of redemption. However, as dark secrets are slowly revealed, it becomes clear that not everyone is going to survive the night.
The good: Bad Times at the El Royale is the latest thriller from Drew Goddard, the twisted genius behind one of my all-time favorite horror movies, The Cabin in the Woods. He brings the same sensibility to El Royale that made Cabin far more brilliant than the sum of its parts. Once again, he uses familiar archetypes and genre tropes to make a point about the culture that creates those storytelling elements and why they’ve endured so long.
The actors in this film aren’t playing flesh-and-blood characters as much as they’re playing personality traits that embody America at a pivotal time in its history. It’s not an accident that Bridges plays a priest with a dark side, that Hamm evokes Don Draper and then dismantles him, or that Hemsworth is unmistakably playing a fictional (and much better looking) version of Charles Manson. It also becomes clear early on who the movie’s true protagonist is and why that matters.
As far as performances go, Bridges and Hemsworth are the most expected standouts, chewing the scenery with glee. Pullman also delivers poignant work, deftly handling some of the film’s most tonally tricky scenes. But they pale in comparison next to Erivo’s astonishing performance – simply put, she’s a revelation. Learn her name now, because you’ll be hearing it a lot in the future.
Goddard isn’t exactly subtle, hammering home his points about cultural anxiety and a society on the brink with a soundtrack packed with Motown hits and grungy rock, frequent glimpses of Richard Nixon’s face on television, and a creepy connection to JFK – who is alluded to, but not mentioned.
The not-so-good: El Royale is a bit of a narrative mess, full of shaggy subplots that don’t always go somewhere and there are a couple of unnecessary characters. At 141 minutes, it’s bound to wear on many viewers’ patience. Plus, the fractured timeline, constant reversals and untidy resolution are likely to be divisive.
Some people are going to loathe this movie, but not me. In fact, I found it kind of endearing. I’d rather watch an interesting flick that doesn’t always work than a technically “good” film that checks all the boxes without any emotional investment.
Grade: B
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| Courtesy of Disney |
(Rated PG-13 for some sci-fi action violence. Available October 16.)
The cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, Walton Goggins, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne and Michael Douglas.
What it’s about: In the aftermath of Captain America: Civil War, but before the devastating events of Infinity War, Scott Lang (Rudd) is under house arrest for helping Cap. He’s looking forward to resuming a simple life with his daughter, but that’s interrupted when he’s kidnapped by Hope van Dyne (Lilly) and Dr. Hank Pym (Douglas). They need his experience shrinking into the Quantum Realm to help them locate Janet van Dyne (Pfeiffer) – Hope’s mother and Pym’s wife – who has been trapped there for decades.
The good: After Infinity War left viewers reeling, it’s nice to see Marvel take a step back for a minute so we can all catch our breath. Returning director Peyton Reed (working from a screenplay credited to Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Andrew Barrer, Gabriel Ferrari and Rudd) seems to adhere to the philosophy of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Everything that made the original so enjoyable is amplified in Ant-Man and the Wasp: the sardonic humor, the palpable chemistry among the cast and the entertaining action sequences that utilize everyday objects and locations in immensely creative ways. Rudd, Lilly and Douglas are still a dynamic team thanks to the way their characters’ personalities compliment and conflict with one another.
But the award for most talented scene-stealer goes, once again, to Michael Peña. An already fun movie gets even better anytime he shows up. As Scott’s motormouth partner-in-crime, he gets almost all the best lines and injects every scene with an oddball charm. There’s a sequel of sorts to his “he told me that she said that another guy said” story from the first movie and it’s even more hilarious this time around.
The not-so-good: Sadly, the film does have a couple of weak spots. After showcasing two compelling villains in a row (Killmonger in Black Panther and Thanos in Infinity War), Marvel is back to its longtime problem with lackluster antagonists. The creepy Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and weaselly Sonny Burch (Goggins) are intriguing, but they’re practically non-entities. They don’t bring anything substantial to the plot other than minor hurdles for the heroes to overcome on their way to the inevitable conclusion.
Special features: Director’s intro by Reed, four making-of featurettes, gag reel and outtakes, and two deleted scenes with director’s commentary.
Grade: B+
The cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, Walton Goggins, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne and Michael Douglas.
What it’s about: In the aftermath of Captain America: Civil War, but before the devastating events of Infinity War, Scott Lang (Rudd) is under house arrest for helping Cap. He’s looking forward to resuming a simple life with his daughter, but that’s interrupted when he’s kidnapped by Hope van Dyne (Lilly) and Dr. Hank Pym (Douglas). They need his experience shrinking into the Quantum Realm to help them locate Janet van Dyne (Pfeiffer) – Hope’s mother and Pym’s wife – who has been trapped there for decades.
The good: After Infinity War left viewers reeling, it’s nice to see Marvel take a step back for a minute so we can all catch our breath. Returning director Peyton Reed (working from a screenplay credited to Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Andrew Barrer, Gabriel Ferrari and Rudd) seems to adhere to the philosophy of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Everything that made the original so enjoyable is amplified in Ant-Man and the Wasp: the sardonic humor, the palpable chemistry among the cast and the entertaining action sequences that utilize everyday objects and locations in immensely creative ways. Rudd, Lilly and Douglas are still a dynamic team thanks to the way their characters’ personalities compliment and conflict with one another.
But the award for most talented scene-stealer goes, once again, to Michael Peña. An already fun movie gets even better anytime he shows up. As Scott’s motormouth partner-in-crime, he gets almost all the best lines and injects every scene with an oddball charm. There’s a sequel of sorts to his “he told me that she said that another guy said” story from the first movie and it’s even more hilarious this time around.
The not-so-good: Sadly, the film does have a couple of weak spots. After showcasing two compelling villains in a row (Killmonger in Black Panther and Thanos in Infinity War), Marvel is back to its longtime problem with lackluster antagonists. The creepy Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and weaselly Sonny Burch (Goggins) are intriguing, but they’re practically non-entities. They don’t bring anything substantial to the plot other than minor hurdles for the heroes to overcome on their way to the inevitable conclusion.
Special features: Director’s intro by Reed, four making-of featurettes, gag reel and outtakes, and two deleted scenes with director’s commentary.
Grade: B+
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