A- | A young man's life depicted at three ages. Directed by Barry Jenkins Starring Naomie Harris, Mahershala Ali, and Trevante Rhodes Initial Review by Phil Crone |
We all have our criteria for what makes a movie a definitive A+. It could be as simple as just being entertaining. It could be because it has no discernable flaws in a precise checklist. It could be quotability and rewatchability. For me, an A+ is a movie that I keep returning to in my head days and even weeks later, pondering and re-analyzing scenes in my head, finding new takeaways and challenging initial conclusions. I watched “Moonlight” five days ago, and it continues to permeate my thoughts. By my own subjective measure, I believe that makes “Moonlight” an A+. Ultimately, what “Moonlight” does so perfectly is take, on the surface, a very unique and unrecognizable situation and turn that into a universal truth. “Moonlight” is a stark reminder of how much who we are is an influence of who came before us and our intensely human desire to belong and be accepted for who we are.
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“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” might pander to critic sensibilities with the famous movie parodies and decidedly hipster references early on, but it’s a great story with a lot of heart built around three likable characters. The movie lives and dies with its characters, and most of all with Greg. I could see Greg being polarizing, but I found him likable. He’s got a dry sense of humor, rattling off several great lines throughout the movie, and he’s the type of painfully-stunted introvert that I think is easy to root for. We’re getting the story through his eyes, and it’s interesting to see how the story morphs as Greg tells it. His opening line winds up being all we think we need to know about his ruined senior year and terrible movie that killed a girl. As we go along, we feel Greg soften to his situation of being forced into an awkward friendship with Rachel and how it helped him grow as a person. This gave me the sense that Greg didn’t realize how much he cherished his time with Rachel until he’s actually telling the story. This impression is only reiterated by the details as the story progresses. Early scenes feel very stiff, as they should, given the situation Greg and Rachel find themselves in. By the end, I get the sense that Greg began to soften and present a more distorted, lighter side to the affair. He even goes so far as to retract his opening statement of Rachel dying, attempting to convince himself more than the audience that the ending isn’t already written. Ultimately, this gives me the sense that we don’t know the whole story about Earl or Rachel, but in Greg’s version at least, they’re impossible to dislike.
At the heart of Sicario is a complicated question: What is victory in the face of an unwinnable war? Is it the small wins that serve as a beacon of hope to spread from this epicenter? Or is it in the very understanding that the war cannot be won, but a more favorable outcome can be achieved? This serves as the central conflict between the idealistic FBI agent Kate and the ever-pragmatic CIA agent Matt and is the driving force behind the action of Sicario. Much of the first act is spent setting up this world, giving the audience an understanding of the dire straits border towns are in. The proxy for the viewer is Kate, an FBI agent in the kidnap rescue division. Opening with a tactical mission for her team immediately gives us the impression that Kate is no pushover when she makes it into Juarez, which is where our story begins in earnest. Right from the opening aerial shot over serene El Paso & dilapidated Juarez, we know we’re dealing with two different worlds here. The sounds of Juarez as the task force drives through are littered with gunfire. Multiple bodies, decapitated, hang from a bridge. Yet, we see the townspeople go about their business in the meantime. This is commonplace, and that jarring juxtaposition of people playing games while the bullets fly is just another day in Juarez, or any other border town that has become a nexus for drug trafficking. That point is further driven home by the shootout on the bridge, which “won’t even make the papers in El Paso.” Kate and the viewer now know this is the war we are dealing with.
There are two types of movies that fall into that dreaded B- to C range. The first are those that are just a big, fat nothing. The second are those that try hard and have a number of really good things and really bad things. They’re interesting but flawed. That’s the best way I can describe “Stardust.” While Stardust is successful at providing a refreshing take on the fairy tale genre and subverting a few of its tired tropes, it is ultimately weighed down by one of the most muddled third acts I can remember in a long time.
I have a friend at work with the last name Patel. We’ve had lunch together, hung out on a couple weekends, and are familiar enough that if I ever leave my company, I think we’d stay in touch and still see each other a few times a year. He’s early 30’s and single. In short, his situation isn’t much different from Ravi’s. |
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