Some Other Movies From 2017 (2)

For further background on the year in film, please refer to the Some Other Movies From 2017 entry.

The following things happened in 2017:

• Millions of people worldwide joined the Women's March in response to Donald Trump's election to the office of President.
• North Korea fired a ballistic missile across the Sea of Japan.
• The United Kingdom began negotiations to leave the European Union.
• The U.S. announced its intention to leave the Paris Climate Agreement.
• Russia was banned from the Winter Olympics following a doping scandal.
• The Walt Disney Company announced that it would be buying most of 21st Century Fox.

Excellent

1. Blade Runner 2049

I'm gonna go on record and say this is better than the first one.  Respect to Ridley Scott for a groundbreaking movie, but yeah, Denis Villeneuve took it to another level.

Ryan Gosling is all over this movie, Harrison Ford reminds you why he's such a big star, and Jared Leto makes you forget Suicide Squad entirely.  Blade Runner 2049 is a wonderful tour of augmented reality which asks the questions what is real?  Who is real?  What embodies real?

Oh, and I neglected to mention Ana de Armas.  She's achingly beautiful in this film, and even more than that she adds a lot of humanity to it.

2. The Florida Project

Willem Dafoe stars as the manager of a motel/short term stay complex in Orlando.  It tells a heartrending story of life on the bottom, and does so without becoming formulaic.

3. Baby Driver

In many ways this movie "out Tarantinoes" Tarantino.  It's got the same swagger, it's got the same taste in music, but there's a greater depth of characterization alongside its stylistic choices.  It all works together.  It feels organic.

I really liked star Ansel Elgort in The Fault in Our Stars, and I was happy to see him again in this movie.  The rest of the cast - yes, even Kevin Spacey - were well chosen, and the story hums along without ever growing boring.  I didn't really get Edgar Wright until this movie.  I now think he has a promising career ahead of him.

A Suggestion: If you liked this movie the next obvious choice would be Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive, but a less obvious choice would be 1976's The Driver.  All three movies share the same love of cars and heists.

4. Wind River

Jeremy Renner is excellent in this crime story set on the Wyoming Indian reservation.  Yes, it's a little distracting seeing Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch in the same movie, but both Renner and Olson are convincing as two people thrown together in the pursuit of a murderer.  There's also a lot of interesting cross-cultural subtext in this movie, and not all of it focused on Native Americans as cultural artifacts.

Fun Fact: Director Tyler Sheridan considers this the third movie in a trilogy following Sicario (which he wrote) and the equally excellent Hell or High Water.

Cause for Argument: Harvey Weinstein's company was originally attached as distributor, though home media distribution rights were transferred to Lionsgate after sexual abuse allegations were leveled against him.  Kelsey Chow, who plays the murdered girl, also claimed to be of Native American descent after the movie's release.  Her claims were later debunked by the Eastern Band Cherokee, of which she claimed to be a member.

A Disturbing Two Hours

1. Killing of a Sacred Deer

This movie violates my previously held "Colin Farrell rule," in which a casting director is best served by casting Farrell in a supporting role, not as the lead.

So much for that rule.  In Killing of a Sacred Deer Farrell plays a doctor ensnared by a young boy, with the doctor's family held ransom for a mistake very few are aware of.  For Nicole Kidman it was a return to the Eyes Wide Shut school of acting, and Barry Keoghan, an Irish actor perhaps better known for Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, is a revelation as a boy with a grudge.  Director Yorgos Lanthimos is far from a household name, but the wide angles, stilted dialogue and unemotional delivery which make this movie so unique are all evidence of his sense of style.

In Complete Agreement: Some critics called this the best horror movie of 2017, even though there's very little violence present in the film.

Some Good Ones

1. Pitch Perfect 3

These movies have always walked a line between funny and embarrassing, and while this one is definitely more embarrassing than funny, I have to say I still enjoyed it.  It's not nearly as good as the first two, but it's OK.

2. Ferdinand

A bull dedicated to pacifism finds himself forced into a bullfight.  Like Pitch Perfect 3 it's simply OK.  I doubt I'll remember any of the plot points beyond next week.

Fun Fact: Former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning voices one of Ferdinand's rivals.

3. Forgotten

Korean thriller in which a young man discovers that his family aren't what they appear to be.  It's not quite Memories of Murder, and it's definitely not Parasite, but it has a few interesting twists and turns.  My biggest complaint is the home invasion near the end.  The protagonist's motives for doing what he does are very unclear.

4. Revenge

Masterfully filmed, delightfully gruesome film about betrayal and retaliation in the desert.  The first half of this movie is excellent, even if the second half is very implausible.  What about dehydration?  The temperature of the ground they're walking on?  The wound in her back?  The fact that her hair goes from blonde to brunette in the course of a single night?

Fun Fact: Star Matilda Lutz is actually from Italy, and this was her second non-Italian movie.

5. The Hitman's Bodyguard

Gary Oldman was wasted on this movie.  He'd win the Oscar the same year for The Darkest Hour, and yet somehow here he is, in this movie, playing an off-the-shelf Bond villain.

As an action movie it works, even if there's nothing here we haven't seen in other movies, with greater emotional impact.  Ryan Reynolds and Samuel Jackson are an engaging duo, the action scenes are well paced, and the plot stumbles onward to its foregone conclusion without getting bogged down in the kind of details that would only make it harder to take seriously.  I can't say it's a flawless film, but it's far from the worst and I get why they made a sequel.

6. Wonder

Sure it's manipulative, sure it bounces between characters a bit too much, but it'll have you on the verge of tears anyway.  In Wonder a boy with birth defects struggles to integrate into school life while his sister tries to win their parents' attention.  Julia Roberts makes this movie better than it ought to be, and Owen Wilson reminds you that yes, he is a good actor when the occasion calls for it.

Fun Fact 1: Director Stephen Chbosky also directed The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which was based on his novel.

Fun Fact 2: Keep an eye on Jacob Tremblay, who plays the protagonist in this,movie. I have the feeling he's going to be a bigger and bigger deal in the near future.

The More You Know: The boy in this movie suffers from Treacher Collins Syndrome, which affects facial features.  Other complications include problems breathing, problems seeing and hearing loss.

7. Cars 3

Lightning McQueen tries to get his mojo back after losing to a much younger car.  Of course the person typing this and the people reading this aren't 5 anymore, but hey, it's not like the Transformers movies are any less far-fetched, are they?

Some Bad Ones

1. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Parts of this movie certainly look cool, but there's a great big absence right in the middle of it.  What's missing?  Likable and/or sympathetic protagonists.  As it is, Dane DeHaan and Carla Delevingne run around in a series of outfits, trade some truly embarrassing dialogue, and pretend to be in love with each other.  Luc Besson has directed some amazing films, but this is not one of them.

Fun Fact 1: This is the most expensive European AND the most expensive independent movie ever made.  Luc Besson paid for a lot of the movie out of his own pocket.

Fun Fact 2: Ethan Hawke briefly appears in this movie.  He'd appear with Dane DeHaan again in 2019's The Kid.

2. Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds

Effects-heavy Korean movie about a fireman on trial in the afterlife.  I found the beginning somewhat interesting, but towards the hour mark the heaven-hell (or good-evil) dialectic really put me off.  Why would that guy even be on trial in the first place?  If he has such a hard time in the afterlife there's not much hope for the rest of us.

This movie made a ton of money in East Asia, and went over especially well in South Korea, where it was produced with a considerable Chinese investment.  I think it owes a lot of its success to earlier movies like Train to Busan and The Host, which built up a big demand for Korean movies in this part of the world.

3. Transformers: The Last Knight

In fairness to this movie, the end of it looks really cool.  If you're ever wondering about the state of special effects in the modern era, yeah, check out the last 20 minutes of Transformers: The Last Knight.  I'm not even sure how they did some of those shots.

That aside, it's a real haul to get to those last 20 minutes.  The plot of this movie is just barely there, and between Arthurian legends and Cybertron's robot queen there's miles of senseless dialogue and a multitude of human characters who seem completely out of their depth.  Who gives a fuck about this "TRF" entity anyway?  And why do they have such a fighting chance against aliens whose technology should be able to crush them at any moment?

Hats off to the cast for cashing that paycheck though.  Some of the lines in this movie would be extremely difficult to say without laughing.

Fun Fact 1: Mark Wahlberg's love interest in this movie is played by the same actress who played Peter Quill's mom in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.

Fun Fact 2: Gemma Chan voices Quintessa.  She'll be appearing soon in The Eternals.

4. A Ghost Story

I'm sorry, but the minute Casey Affleck started walking around in the sheet I couldn't take this movie seriously.  Critics loved it but I just couldn't get past the sheet.  If they'd refrained from cutting out eyeholes, maybe, or if he hadn't been wearing the sheet for so long...

Mission Aborted

1. Fifty Shades Darker

The leads look great naked, but I struggled.  The Seattle setting kept me going for a while, but then I realized that it was NEVER going to stop raining, and that they weren't likely to leave the vicinity of Pioneer Square anytime in the near future.  The dialogue is uniformly bad, the situations are contrived, and at around the 15 minute mark you start to wish that Anastasia would just respect herself a little more and find another boyfriend.

I Had No Idea: Actress Dakota Johnson is the daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith.  Antonio Banderas was also her stepfather while he and Melanie Griffith were married.

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"Soul Mountain" by Gao Xingjian (2000)

Gao Xingjian is a Chinese author who lives in France.  His work is very controversial in China, from which he emigrated and where his works are still banned.

The author provides his own review of Soul Mountain within the book itself:

"'This isn't a novel!'

"'Then what is it?' he asks.

"'A novel must have a complete story.'

"He says he has told many stories, some with endings and others without.

"'They're all fragments without any sequence, the author doesn't know how to organize connected episodes.'

"'Then may I ask how a novel is supposed to be organized?'

"'You must first foreshadow, then build to a climax, then have a conclusion.  That's basic common knowledge for writing fiction.'

"He asks if writing fiction can be written without conforming to the method which is common knowledge.  It would just be like a story, with parts told from beginning to end and parts from end to beginning, parts with a beginning and no ending and others which are only conclusions or fragments which aren't followed up, parts which are developed but aren't completed or which can't be completed or which can be left out or which don't need to be told any further or about which there's nothing more to say.  And all of these would also be considered stories.

"'No matter how you tell a story, there must be a protagonist.  In a long work of fiction there must be several important characters, but this work of yours...?'

"'But surely the I, you, she and he in the book are characters?' he asks."

I could go on, but the gist of the author's argument is there.  

My opinion?  I had a very difficult time getting through this book, and at several points I lost patience with the more abstract chapters/conversations between "he" and "she."  

This said it's interesting in parts, and those fighting their way to the end might find it rewarding.

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Some Other Movies From 2016 (2)

For further background on the year in film, please refer to the Some Other Movies From 2016 entry.

The following things happened in 2016:

• Several countries ended diplomatic relations with Iran.
• Tsai Ying-wen became the first female President of Taiwan.
• The United Kingdom voted on whether or not to leave the European Union.
• Pokemon Go was released.
• The Philippines won an arbitration case against China concerning China's "Nine-Dash Line" policy in the South China Sea.
• The Summer Olympics were held in Brazil.
• Donald Trump was elected President of the United States.
• David Bowie, Prince and George Michael died.

Linked entries were viewed on YouTube.

Underlined entries were viewed on Netflix.

Excellent

1. Your Name

Two young people find their lives intertwined in more ways than one.  The animation in this movie is beautiful, and the story is very original.  It might seem derivative in the beginning, but give it a half hour and you'll see what I mean.

Some Good Ones

1. Sing

Various animals enter a singing contest.  It doesn't have much of a plot, and at times it feels like they're trying to cram every hit song since the Beatles into two hours, but it's entertaining nonetheless.  A sequel is on the way in December.

2. Trolls 

OK.  I was really, really drunk when I watched this (a couple of beers + several vodka tonics), but to the best of my recollection the soundtrack is slammin' and parts of this movie are really funny.  Would I watch it again?  Yeah, totally.

3. Paterson

Adam Driver stars as a bus driver/poet in Paterson, New Jersey.  I wasn't loving director Jim Jarmusch's previous movie, Only Lovers Left Alive, and I also didn't love his following movie, The Dead Don't Die, but I thought this one was good in an understated way.  After watching Paterson I've seen all of Jarmusch's films, and I'd rank it second behind Ghost Dog.

Sad Fact: Driver's costar in this film, the beautiful Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, is forbidden from returning to her native country as a result of an appearance in the American film Body of Lies.  She presently resides in France.

4. Raw

Speaking of France, is veterinary school that different over there?  Whatever the case, this movie is a disturbing two hours, and I mean "disturbing" in the best way possible.  If you've seen movies like Martyrs or Inside you'll be ready for it.  If you haven't, you probably won't be.

Further Investigations: Director Julia Ducoumau's, most recent movie, Titane, came out this year.

5. Don't Breathe

Three burglars get more than they bargained for after breaking into an ex-serviceman's house.  It's cool to see Stephen Lang in a movie again, even if the burglars make some truly questionable choices in the course of the film.  And that aside, why would they assume that he'd have that much money, in cash, after the settlement?

Fun Fact: Fede Alvarez, the director of this movie, also directed the Evil Dead remake.

6. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

A young man attempts to catch 'em all in 1920s New York.  What's that, you say?  No, I'm not talking about Detective Pikachu.  Honestly though, I'd take the Pokemon universe any day of the week.  It's cuter.  It's more to the point.  It's easier to relate to.  This movie's OK, the world's fairly cohesive, and the ending's satisfying, but I'd much rather have another Pokemon movie.

Fun Fact: There will be a third Fantastic Beasts film next year.

7. Boyka: Undisputed

Scott Adkins fights another round in this sequel to Undisputed III: Redemption.  As action movies go it's very formulaic, but the story's solid and Adkins can hold his own as an actor.  To be honest, I admire the hell out of the guy.  Not only is he a skilled athlete, but he knows exactly what his skill set is - and that skill set is right there up on the screen.  Does this tale of Russian gangsters reinvent the wheel?  No, but it's entertaining nonetheless.

Some Bad Ones

1. Now You See Me 2

Implausible?  Most of this movie is pure impossibility.  Parts of it look cool, but don't think too hard about how some of those "tricks" actually work.  For me the worst part of this movie was the CGI playing card hand-off in the "secure facility."  Mark Ruffalo does his best to soldier through it, but you can tell he's out of his depth.

Try to Contain Your Excitement: There will probably be a third one.

2. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

Not so much bad as boring.  I fell asleep halfway through.  Sure, I was tired from work, but I'm not sure I could have kept my eyes open anyway.  In this one (as you'd expect) Alice and her aesthetically pleasing friends marginally disrupt zombie/monster gatherings everywhere, this time with an eye toward ending the zombie plague for good.  And of course this wasn't the final chapter.  Did anyone ever think otherwise?

Unsurprising Fact: The next installment will arrive in November.

Real-Life Horror: Milla Jovovich's stunt double suffered some horrific injuries on set, and another crew member was crushed to death under a Hummer.

3. Me Before You

Overacting, thy name is Emilia Clarke.  In Me Before You she falls in love with a quadraplegic, and that would be fine if her character wasn't so manipulative and self-consciously cute.  Nothing is quite as maddening as Emilia Clarke pretending to be the ugly duckling.  In fairness to this movie I did hate it slightly less than Last Christmas, but that's not saying much.

4. London Has Fallen

Gerard Butler saves the President from terrorists.  I saw the first installment, Olympus Has Fallen, and I'd have to say that this one isn't much better.  If you think about it... where was the U.S. military when all of this was going on?  And how many motorcycle-riding terrorists could the bad guys have recruited, anyway?

5. Game of Aces

I guess if you wanted to see what Chris "American Pie" Klein has been up to you could watch it.  It doesn't make a great deal of sense though.

Terrible.

6. 正宗哥吉拉 "The Real Godzilla"

I include the Chinese title because I'm not sure what the correct English title would be.  I watched this on Netflix, and because I was in Taiwan watching a Japanese movie there was no English title to refer to.

The only good thing I can say about this movie is that the "U.S. liaison" is very cute.  The rest of the movie involves long, long scenes of people discussing how they should react to Godzilla, what he/she/it might do next, and whether or not the Japanese bureaucracy is equipped to deal with the threat.  In the short term no; in the long term yes.

In other hands this movie could have been goofy fun, but "The Real Godzilla" is instead stupefyingly boring.  Come on, guys.  Give me something here.  A robot?  A team of sexy robot pilots?  More destruction?  Less talking?

So Bad It's Good

1. The Great Wall

I was laughing at this movie around the 10 minute mark.  It's SO preposterous, even when taken as a fable.  And why all the fuss about this "black powder?"  The recipe is easily explained, the ingredients are easily obtained in Europe, and Willem Dafoe's character has to know that carrying it back to Europe is completely unnecessary.

If nothing else the Chinese threw a lot of money at this movie, and all the money's up there, on the screen.  Matt Damon is solid in the lead role, and I get why he took the part ($$$ + the chance to work with Zhang Yimou) but yeah, it's preposterous.

Those criticizing this movie for having Matt Damon as its "white savior" might have missed the mark.  There are often two versions of American-Chinese co-productions, one edited for American audiences and another edited for audiences in Mainland China.  It could be that the version I saw was the one intended for Americans, and that Damon's role was reduced in favor of Andy Lau's character in China.  I have no way of knowing.

I will say, however, that this movie sits uncomfortably when considered from another racial standpoint, that of Han Chinese attitudes toward foreigners and minority groups.  Given that the true historical purpose of the Great Wall was to keep out northern, non-Han invaders, what does recasting these non-Han peoples as monsters say about present-day attitudes to minorities in China?  Sure, I could be accused of thinking too hard, but this movie, I think, invites those kind of comparisons.

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