'Ready Player One' A Review

Ready Player One is a scifi adventure movie an adaptation of the novel of the same name. In 2049 wide spread poverty and a faltering environment have forced the majority of people to log in to the virtual reality world OASIS not only for entertainment but for employment. Wade(Tye Sheridan) is a teen who lives in a slum in Columbus, OH who dreams of finding the Easter Egg the OASIS creator James Halliday(Mark Rylance) hid upon his death. Finding it is Wade's obsession however he and his friends are opposed by evil corporation IOI helmed by Nolan(Ben Mendelsohn).

I suppose Rylance may be the only one in the cast doing anything particularly interesting as far as performance but almost unilaterally character and emotion are sacrificed in the name of action and plot. The disadvantage of this adaptation, and in many book-to-movie, is it's length. It doesn't have, or at least allot, the necessary time and energy to make the characters three dimensional, hell two dimensional. There's a very palpable sense that all the "main" characters are going through the motions with virtually nothing to differentiate them or shade their personalities in anyway. This is exacerbated by the lengthy swatches of the story that take place in the OASIS which feel more like extended video game cutscenes for PS2 rather than an immersive imaginative alternate world.

The action is interesting enough, the pop culture references thick, with a plot that clips along- it's entertaining but not new. All spectacle with the themes lost in the relentless eye-popping morass. It is a blatant and surface level mining of nostalgia with no message, no real thought behind it.

It looks cool enough, like watching a friend play a video game well.

Rent It.

'Isle of Dogs' A Review

Isle of Dogs is a stop-motion comedy from writer/director Wes Anderson that takes place twenty years in the future in a fictional Japan. The film follows the beginning of the dog deportation to Trash Island, a policy enacted by mayor of Megasaki City, Kobayashi(Kunichi Nomura). His ward Atari(Koyu Rankin) steals a bi-plane and crash lands on Trash Island in search of his lost dog Spots(Liev Schreiber). He meets a pack of dogs lead by Chief(Bryan Cranston) and they set out to find the missing Spots.

Cranston puts in an exceptional vocal performance, gruff yet emotional with great chemistry with Rankin. And Schreiber too brings something fresh, almost a flat affect, to the cadre of stars that pop-up during the film. Although none of the performances are weak it quickly gets to the point of diminishing returns after the 10th supporting/minor character is an A-list star. They are all servicable but the incessant pararde of fame becomes distracting, and mostly unnecessary.

The real performances are done by the figures themselves and their animators. The amount of nuance and subtly they are able to impart, the emotion, the humor, the playfulness, its stunning. This paired
with the beautiful, sometimes haunting, production design makes for a stunning transportive journey. The music also compliments the story wonderfully with a handful of 60's pop songs and a couple sequences of Japanese percussion, the soundtrack is the most balanced and effective of Anderson's career, it also shows the most restraint.

The film does have some issues. There is a psuedo "white savior" character that is at the very least out of placed and ill conceived. The only female dogs are there as mates to the male dogs, the film even goes so far at one point to directly call one a "bitch". There's also the choice to leave the spoken Japanese unsubtitled. On the other hand there is some clear reverence for the Japanese people and Japanese culture on display- an extended meticulous sushi scene, the story and structure itself inspired by folklore. It's not something that should condemn the film however it is important to be aware of and question.

Gorgeous and compelling despite the potential for cultural appropriation.

See It.

Clinton St.

What I remember most

about my grandparents house

is the slate gray stone

from which it was constructed.

Old and regal.

Almost Gothic

in it's jagged age

at least that's how it appeared

to my child's eyes

timeworn and

mysterious.

But despite it's impassive aesthetic

it was a place of comfort.

For a time.

My sister, cousins, and I

would spend hours

producing puppet shows

from the balcony

with stuffed animals

dangling from ribbon.

In the basement
a disused pool table

the remenant
of a fabled
marital argument.

A pear tree

in the back yard

a wedding gift

to my parents

which they planted there,
where they had their reception.

The garage which

as we grew

we stealthily climbed atop.

Those and a hundred memories

too faded by time, 

too dream like

to exhume.

But last

my grandfather's tan recliner

large, soft, and safe.

In it, the mythic presence

of my grandfather

Irv

who towers 

over my childhood,

his kindness in life

and the void he left

in death.

Everything changed after that.

Mighty Mike's Maze

As a child
the closest
I got to magic was
Might Mike's Maze
a converted warehouse
with hanging
itinerant
red canvas walls,
darkly lit,
the gloom and silence
punctuated
by the occasional
burst
from the fog machine
and the periodic
blast
of a strobe.

The stated goal
was to find four
multi-colored
poker chips
stashed
in hanging bags
at four obscure
dead-ends
throughout
the maze
within a certain timeframe
and that was fun
the game itself
but more than that
it was a fertile place
for fantasy
in it
I was Thesus
hunting the Minotar
I was Ged
evading the priests of Atuan
I was someone else
somewhere else
lost on an Adventure.

'Leaning Into The Wind' A Review

Leaning Into The Wind is a documentary about land artist Andy Goldsworthy, a sequel to/ continuation of 2003's Rivers and Tides. The film follows Goldsworthy over various projects and installations, both international and domestic. We follow Goldsworthy as he observes and shapes clay, stone, sticks and leaves this time working with his daughter Holly and even doing some work within city limits, something he acknowledges he previously thought he would never do.

The film, much like it's predecessor, is simple. It is an engaging meditation on the process and work of a particular unique artist. Goldsworthy is a bit more forthcoming in this installment, a bit more sociable, with a somewhat goofy sense of humor on display. One particular sequence, pictured on the poster above, where he struggles horizontally through a hedge is both captivating and kind of hilarious.

More comfortable with the camera, and perhaps his place in the world or art community, Goldsworthy seems significantly more relaxed, less driven and more contemplative, more playful. And that is reflective in the various pieces and projects the film captures.

Describing the film further would quickly degenerate into describing the pieces themselves and that would only cheapen them. Sufficient to say the art and the artist have a stunning, inspiring clarity and magnetism along with a kind of subtle absurd wryness. A must see for creative types.

See It.

'Love, Simon' A Review

Love, Simon is a teenage romcom about closeted high school senior Simon(Nick Robinson) and his mostly "normal" life with his solid friends and supportive family. When an anonymous student posts on a PostSecret style blog that he's secretly gay Simon strikes up a correspondence with him and shares his own thoughts, feelings, and problems and the two grow closer. After Simon leaves this email exchange up on the library computer it's discovered by Martin(Logan Miller), resident nerd/creep, who blackmails Simon. In order to not be outed Simon has to manipulate his best friends Leah(Katherine Langford), Abby(Alexandra Shipp), and Nick(Jorge Lendeborg Jr.). As the lies stack up Simon reaches his breaking point.

Robinson is expertly cast giving Simon dimension and charm but also an understated, laid back energy that makes him a little blank, easy to see ourselves in. His friends all do decent jobs although Shipp is the only one given much dimension, Lendeborg has very little to do, and Langford's character functions almost totally as an outgrowth of the lead. Even so it is Simon's story and the time is, purposefully, spent else where. Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel, and Talitha Bateman as Simon's mom, dad, and sister respectively are all understated in an easy, light, emotionally plugged in kind of way. And Tony Hale as the kind-of-hip kind-of-clueless Vice Principal offers some much needed levity and reality when the film drifts into taking itself to seriously.

The biggest issue in the cast and in the film is the character Martin and Logan Miller who plays him. The seeming villain is given a mystifying amount of the story's time and energy, the writing and portrayal are contradictory and beyond confused, stereotyping psuedo-nerdy activities and interests while having the character transparently and disgustingly utilize leverage Simon's sexuality in a display of cruelty that is incongruous with what we're shown. The script takes cheap shots at the character(close up magic is lame, his shirts are dumb) while also asking us to feel for the kid(a ludicrously scored and acted diner scene, an embarrassing declaration in front of the school) and yet there is no real justice, no real explanation of his bogus plot-driven motive. It's makes no sense and detracts from the whole.

What is so refreshing and fun about the film is that it is mainstream. The town is kind of picturesquely upper-middle class and diverse. Even the bullying feels somewhat idyllic. Every kid's room is enormous and unbelievably thoroughly decorated, every parent is nurturing and understanding. It takes place in the nameless non-existent everytown that teen movies are always set in along with the appropriate and catchy pop song driven soundtrack. It's an entertaining story, its a relatable story, and its a coming out story. It normalizes in a way that prestige drama isn't able to. The film is more pervasive, will most likely reach more movie goers than 2017's less palatable, less honest Call Me By Your Name.

Groundbreaking in representation if not necessarily cinema.

See It.

Turnover

The guy I sit next to
just resigned
abruptly
and perhaps
I'll have more work
which is stressful
but it is a relief
to no longer hear
his raucous incessant
coughing,
his decrepit labored
wheezing,
or endure
his bizarre offers
of gas station
peanut butter.

Life Is Not Static

My father likes to say, paraphrasing Heraclitus, "there's nothing constant in life save change". And as I get older, as time has passed, I find that more and more true.

Life is mercurial. Family, work, ambition, geography are all in flux. Grandparents age, parents become grandparents, children become adults become parents, babies are born, families divide and segment as they expand and become familes of their own. Careers shrink and grow and morph. Hirings and firings and layoffs and promotions. Raises and title changes. Professions vary- finance to consulting to management to law to medicine to sculpting to street sweeping to ticket tacking- on and on. The push and pull of economics and interpersonal connection precipitate moves from apartment to condo, condo to house, or back again, may precipitate moves rural to urban to suburban or back again. Alternating region, climate, population. Life in constant swirling motion, at whatever speed, sonic or glacial.

This is fact, indisputable. And for people like me, people reluctant to change, it can be unpleasant. Even feel, at times, like a betrayal. But that is the way things are. Humanity a wonderful chaotic pulsing web of expanding and contracting, criss-crossing, connecting and isolating paths which parallel then diverge, twine then deviate. This is the nature of life over time. Things change. On a long enough timeline, everything changes.

And that is just. That is correct. That is natural. Acceptance of this fundamental truth can bring balance and contentment in the face of those sudden(or gradual) digressions from the norm that may so perturb us. The future is uncertain, certainty an illusion we construct for comfort. But the opposite of stability is adventure. The unknown a font of opportunity.

As we age we most evolve, grow, learn, adapt. For nothing is still, nothing silent, nothing static.

'A Wrinkle In Time' A Review

A Wrinkle In Time is a family fantasy film, an adaptation of the classic young adult novel. Meg(Storm Reid) struggles with life at home and at school, still grappling with the sudden disappearance of her scientist father Alex(Chris Pine) some four years before. Her younger brother Charles Wallace(Deric McCabe) introduces Meg to some eccentric woman Mrs. Whatsit(Reese Witherspoon) and Mrs. Who(Mindy Kaling) and implies that something is going on/they will be doing something big. After looping in Meg's classmate Calvin(Levi Miller) Charles Wallace introduces them to the third and most powerful celestial mystery being Mrs. Which(Oprah Winfrey). They then travel to another world and begin their adventure- to rescue the missing Alex from the malevolent dark force the IT.

Reid does a good job shouldering the bulk of the narrative and emotional burden of the film but is hamstrung by CGI spectacle and an uneven arch. She shines in the moments where she can but much of the script is gummed up with clunky exposition and muddled intent. McCabe puts in a valiant effort but he is simply miscast, he's attempt at preciousness is grating, and tonally his chipper smiles don't match with the contemplative age-inappropriate wisdom the character calls for. Miller is a waste of space, seemingly only there as, barely, teen eye-candy. Yikes. Witherspoon is frenetic to the point of incoherence, Kaling is hobbled by beautiful but cumbersome costuming and only being able to communicate through quotes, Winfrey is the only one of the three that is comfortable and confident providing the necessary gravitas and emotion. Pine is another stand out but has limited screen time, the most effecting scene of the film by far is between him and Reid at the end. Gugu Mbatha-Raw as the mother Kate is criminally under used and barely has a presence in the film. For the most part the casting is decent but the actors have to put forth such Herculean effort to make sense of the bedraggled script there isn't time or energy left to do much else.

Many of the production elements are confused and confusing. For a seemingly dark film or at least with some dark content the film utilizes a color pallet of mostly pastels. All the scenes, until the predictable CGI monster finale, are brightly lit. It is oddly disconcerting to seemingly have the bulk of the action take place at a bright and cloudless 2pm. The three Mrs. all have glittery almost abstract fantasy fashionista costumes for seemingly no reason nor is it ever explained what they are. When we visit the IT it is equally bright for all darkness has been brought up repeatedly. There a number of large CGI action sequences that seemingly come out of no where or have no motivation or both. The script takes some baffling liberties in its adaptation that seemingly make the plot and relationships more confusing not less. No real time is spent on character development or emotional connection and the "message" of the film only comes in at the very end when we are belted about the head with it.

The film isn't bad it's disjointed and messy. There are some touching moments and some cool visuals but it just doesn't come together. The heart and imagination the source material calls for do not coalesce.

Stream It.

A Parable About Balance

There once was a woman who lived on the Line.
On her left,
A lake of lava and fire spit.
On her right,
Miles and miles of glacier ice.
But on the Line the woman lived.
A fertile stretch where she survived.
Never venturing far into the heat
Nor becoming friendly with the freeze.
She lived on the Line.
Between the hot and the cold.
But the Line was narrow and confined.
She was sometimes bored, felt pressurized.
But if she strayed too far away
Her flesh would either singe or numb and gray.
So, she lived on the Line.
And learned to find contentment
With simple living
On her slim strip of land.
Between the fierce flames
And the futile frost.

Narnia

As a boy
I checked
cabinets,
cupboards,
closets,
and of course
wardrobes
for a portal
looking for adventure
but even more
Escape.

As a man
I no longer search,
contented
with the majesty,
mystery,
and beauty
of life
in all it's
wondrous
(sometimes mundane)
Reality.

But perhaps
(to be fair)
I remain aware,
still harbor
a small
and secret
sliver
of belief,
for were I
to find a door
I would, thoughtless,
cross the threshold
into the divine
Unknown.

'Thoroughbreds' A Review

Thoroughbreds is a dark comedy/thriller about two teens in an affluent Connecticut suburb. Childhood friends Lily(Anya Taylor-Joy) and Amanda(Olivia Cooke) reconnect on the pretense of Lily tutoring Amanda in her SAT's after Amanda gets involved in a scandal. Amanda reveals she has no feelings, is essentially a sociopath, and the seemingly put-together, ambitious, smart Lily reveals that all may not be as happy and composed as she pretends. As the two cautiously grow closer they begin to discuss the murder of Lily's brash and condescending stepfather Mark(Paul Sparks).

Cooke puts in an incredibly magnatic performance, the brutal honesty and perverse pragmatism of the character pair beautifully with her flat delivery and detached performance. She's almost like an observer to the story, floating through it untethered. The real trick though is that, as the film progresses, she becomes perhaps the most symptomatic and engaging. Taylor-Joy is well cast and has both a very grounded emotional engagement with the story as well as a disturbing other-worldliness. The two together have tactile chemistry, complicated and corrupt but getting at that something that feels so relevant but also so mercurial. Anton Yelchin appears in a great supporting turn, his last on celluloid, and provides a wonderful balance to the two leads portraying a low-level scuzzy drug dealer but with surprising pathetic nuance and an odd but compelling optimism. The cast is very small so the only other real character with any significance onscreen time is the stepfather, Sparks does well at playing an oblivious sleaze and has one great crackling scene with Lily where he spouts some truth.

Originally written as a(unproduced) play the transition to film is astonishingly well wrought. The liquid, lurking cinematography and the percussive almost Kabuki score are chillingly effective and display a skill and poise that makes this freshman offering from Cory Finley very very exciting.

The story is disarming. On the surface you'd think the film would have its work cut out for it making the story of two extremely affluent teens interesting but it paints a cutting and multifaceted portrait of privilege, ambition, and morality that is not only entertaining but culturally pertinent.

A pleasing and startling captivating in its surety.

Don't Miss It.

Phantom Call

Back in high school, a time before cell phones and constant communication, I was in a play at the local theater called Scapino. Unlike a school production this was a professional theater with two stages and our run was six weeks not one weekend. Pretty cool. Because we had so many shows over an extended period(and the fact I had a supporting part) there was a lot of down time. During that production I taught myself to juggle(with left over limes from our opening night party), read, explored, and made prank phone calls.

Now my calls weren't malicious I just called random numbers and tried to engage people in conversation. Ask them how they were, what they were up to, if they had seen O' Brother Where Art Thou?. During my random dialing I found a woman's work voice mail, because our shows were always outside normal work hours I was confident she would never answer so I started leaving her messages. From what I remember they were relatively innocuous. I'd wish her well maybe tell her some interesting thing I'd seen or read, maybe share some piece of personal information like I thought this or that park was really great for hiking. I left probably half a dozen messages or so over the course of a couple weeks and they got increasingly more introspective. I'd ask her if she was happy, try to figure out if I was, that sort of thing. 

One of our last shows I called the number and someone answered. It wasn't the woman it was one of her co-workers that had to come in on the weekend to pick something up. The first thing she asked me was "Are you him?" worried I might be in trouble I reluctantly said I was. She told me the woman would be crushed that she had missed me, that the whole office was intrigued by the mystery, and that the woman herself seemed to be touched by my messages. I said I was sorry to missed her and quickly said goodbye. The show closed and the next time I was out and by a payphone I found I had forgotten the number.

It was a nice cool thing. Kind of reaching out and connecting sight unseen. With the pervasiveness of cell phones, the extinction of the pay phone, and the slow decline of privacy and anonymity(and by extension mystery) this situation would be impossible in this day and age. The challenge then is to find ways to connect, find ways to be kind, despite the impersonal and acidic illusion of connection that social medial and the internet provide. Not to say the past was better or easy but there are different issues that the technological necessity has uncovered, some of which we have yet to address.

Young Love

People talk
as if it was
unparalleled
mystic,
mythic,
fertile,
fabled,
enshrined
in song
and celluloid
but
what I remember
is awkward
evenings-
strained silences
between
amorous fumbelings
too young
to effectively
communicate
sharing the bulk
of our buregoning
emotions
over AOL
Instant Messenger.

Oscar Rights and Wrongs

Best Picture
Who won: The Shape of Water. A decent film and visually stunning but narratively pedestrian and the "message" of acceptance(?) is kind of muddled. A good movie but not best-of-the-year. Absolutely one of the many Best Picture winners that will quickly fade into obscurity(anyone still talking about The Artist?).
Who should have won: Get Out. Innovative cinema with a hard-hitting and timely social message. Every aspect of the film is near perfect and it is not only a product of the times we live in but will absolutely be watched in years to come.

Best Director
Who won: Guillermo del Toro. He's innovative with a stunning ability to bring his imagination to the screen. Was this his best film? Not by a mile but this smacks of classic Oscar its-time type win.
Who should have won: Guillermo del Toro. He does deserve it. The film itself may not equal the sum of its parts but the work and the collaboration behind the production design alone is stunning.

Best Actor
Who won: Gary Oldman. Again, an it's-time type win. Does Oldman deserve an Oscar? Yes. For Darkest Hour? probably not.
Who should have won: Daniel Kaluuya. This category was a little thin this year and Kaluuya was the only one who, as a relative new comer, did something different, gave us something new moved us in a compelling and complex way.

Best Actress
Who won: Frances McDormand. Hands down best performance of the year.
Who should have won: Frances McDormand. After the turn in the interrogation scene with Woody Harrelson she was a shoe in as far as I'm concerned.

Best Supporting Actor
Who won: Sam Rockwell. A great performance which has been, reasonably, criticized for being problematic. I love Rockwell and he deserves recognition for this as well as most of his roles however I understand this caused some contention.
Who should have won: Willem Dafoe. The avant-garde actor puts in one of his most normal and compassionate performances in The Florida Project and from a career standpoint at 62 he may not have a lot more opportunities to go to the big show. Would have been nice for Dafoe and for the film to get the win.

Best Supporting Actress
Who won: Allison Janney. No question a great performance in I, Tonya however for much of her limited screen time she is sitting directly addressing the camera, literally reenacting an existing interview.
Who should have won: Laurie Metcalf. Lady Bird gives Metcalf a platform to sore. She is stunning in her complexity and emotionally devastating. The dimension she's able to achieve, the heights she's able to reach far exceed any of the other nominees.

Best Original Screenplay
Who won: Get Out – Jordan Peele. Totally earned.
Who should have won: The Big Sick – Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani. However if Get Out had won best picture it would have been nice to give this a little love.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Who won: Call Me by Your Name – James Ivory. This movie was mediocre at best, disturbing at worst.
Who should have won: Logan –  James Mangold. A fitting conclusion to Hugh Jackman's Wolverine. Gritty, brutal, thrilling.

Best Live Action Short
Who won: The Silent Child. This was overwrought and cringe-worthy. From this we can presume the UK offers no assistance to deaf children and they are thrown into school to just figure it out? It's as if people in the UK don't understand what deafness is? As an American the film and it's message come across as stunningly dated.
Who should have won: Watu Wote/All of Us. Although all but one of the nominees were heavy-handed political pieces this at least was interesting and emotionally resonant.

Best Animated Short
Who won: Dear Basketball. Aside from the politics involved it is stunning this won as it is feels like a child wrote the script with animation from a mid-90's Nike ad. It's boring and borderline incoherent.
Who should have won: Garden Party. Not a great year for either shorts category but this one at least had rich animation and a fun reveal.

'Game Night' A Review

Game Night is a thriller/comedy about a game-obsessed married couple that get caught up in a live-action murder mystery that may or may not be real. The film opens on Max(Jason Bateman) and Annie(Rachel McAdams) at Bar Trivia, two intensely compeditive people who connect over the course of the night. Through a montage we see their relationship and eventual marriage. In the present they host a weekly game night with their friends. One night after excluding their awkward cop neighbor Gary(Jesse Plemons) they are surprised by Max's charming successful brother Brooks(Kyle Chandler). The night goes well and Brooks invites the group to his place the following week for a more interactive evening. When Brooks is assaulted and dragged out of his house by masked men it begins a game night to remember.

Bateman and McAdams have a wonderful chemistry, operating as a team, conveying what feels like a real healthy partnership. Neither of them may not be doing anything new but McAdams magnetism is always wonderful and Bateman tried and true everyman fits much better within this film than some of his other more recent pedestrian offerings. The ensemble cast is wondeful from the stunningly weird and hilarious Plemons to the clearly having a ball in a comedy Chandler. The Max and Annie's friend group also really contribute to making the chemistry seamless. Lamorne Morris and Kylie Bunbury as Kevin and Michelle respectively have a couple great running gags and are just along for the ride but even so anchor and elevate the film by just being in it. Billy Magnussen and Sharon Horgan as Ryan and Sarah respectively have a fun divergent little storyline that never distracts only enhances the main action of the film. All the small character arcs and running jokes are woven together with a surprising delicate grace considering on paper or from the trailer this appears to be an unremarkable post-Apatow comedy.

Aside from pitch-perfect casting the production design has surprising style. The thrumming score and sharp cinematography create a sense of mystery and momentum that hook you in and propel the film forward. It also clarifies the film's identity, defines it in a way a lot of modern comedy doesn't bother to do. There's an extended hot-potato-esk sequence that is shot in one unbroken take that, visually, puts the Game Night in a more sophisticated playing field altogether.

The film tries, and succeeds, in creating a satisfying genre piece that is also funny. It takes risks and makes stylistic choices that feel very fresh and fun because modern comedy is almost defined by its stunning lack of cinematic panache. Hopefully this is the start of a trend.

Don't Miss It.