'Avengers: Endgame' A Review

Avengers: Endgame is the latest installment of the MCU, the culmination of a decade long loosely-connected series, and part two of last year's innately unsatisfying Avengers: Infinity War. The film opens shortly after Thanos wiped out 50% of all living things with his snap. The Avengers quickly reassemble and immediately try to retake the stones but are unsuccessful. Time passes and a new opportunity presents itself for bringing back those who vanished.

The franchise has amassed some incredible talent over the past decade and they are all displayed here but only a few, mostly due to time and narrative restriction, are able to really shine. The three big tent-pole Avengers- Iron Man/Robert Downey Jr., Captain American/Chris Evans, and Thor/Chris Hemsworth- are given the most time and give the most interesting performances. Downey, is magnetic and effortless, and this is the culmination of a really compelling journey for the character that he nails and clearly relishes. Evans similarly has gone through a pretty substantial arc and is equally comfortable but no less layered. Hemsworth though gives the most dynamic and interesting performance, perhaps because his character is still transforming, this is not an ending for him it is the beginning of another adventure. This makes sense given the Thor character really only came into it's own in Thor: Ragnarok. Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo are more sidelined but have a few decent moments, for them also this is not an ending. Scarlett Johansson is the only original Avenger whose arch is someone underdeveloped and unsatisfying. Outside of the OG Avengers there are appearances from virtually every major character from the franchise and a couple fun cameos but to describe them would be to spoil them. The one major surprise was the sizable role played by Nebula/Karen Gillan who gets a significant slice of screen time and really capitalizes on it.

Visually the film is engaging and fun, outside the inevitable large-scale CGI battle, the aesthetic is much more intimate and provocative than is typical for the MCU. The narrative is a series of pay off after pay off and has a really effective streak of humor. It is effective not because of its action but because of the series of intimate emotional moments that unfold.

A fun, thrilling ride, that absolutely does not stand on its own nor outside of the sprawling franchise that its in. An incredibly satisfying film that makes up for the wait but not quite for the handful of mediocre or plot shuffling installments that came before it.

See It.

'Amazing Grace' A Review

Amazing Grace is a concert documentary about The Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin's 1972 live album of the same name. Filmed originally by Sydney Pollack but left unfinished for years, Alan Elliott has stitched together what is more a rough historical document rather than an actual piece of cinema.

The movie is essentially just the concert, truncated, with little to know talking or context other than the intro given to the audience by James Cleveland one of the musicians and defacto MC. There are a couple odd to disconcerting elements about the movie first is that Franklin herself sued to keep it unreleased. Second is Cleveland's role and behavior in the concert. He runs, dictates, and narrates Aretha's concert. It's unclear why and although he is talented and it's clear the two have some connection watching it play out onscreen comes across as overbearing and strange. Conversely Aretha barely speaks at all.

The music, of course, is incredible but you'd have to be a gospel fan or a big Aretha fan for it to really hold your attention as a movie. There is so little footage and it is so in-artfully shot there is no visual aesthetic beyond the spartan. The sound mix is only marginally functional and for a concert doc that's an issue. All taken together the question of why make and release this movie at all when the album on which its based is readily available doesn't have a clear answer. It's an interesting curiosity rather than film.

Stream It.

I Miss Smoking

Despite the specter
of various cancers.

Despite the regimented
ostracization by institutions.

Despite the silent
judgement of non-smokers.

I miss the burn, the heat
the companionable comfort
of a pack in my pocket
and a lighter in my hand.

I vape now.
Cool.

'Little' A Review

Little is a comedy about successful but authoritarian tech company owner Jordan(Regina Hall) who is transformed into her 13 year old self (played by Marsai Martin) as a result of her bad behavior. She must rely on her beleaguered and previously ridiculed assistant April(Issa Rae) in order to navigate her new circumstances, and maybe learn something.

Hall as always is a dynamo and clearly enjoys her turn as the self-centered heel at the start and Martin remarkably proficient and poised for a younger performer, together create a surprisingly fluid if emotionally lop-sided performance. This no fault of their own as both the predictable transformation the character goes through happens rapidly in the last ten minutes. As does Rae's mousy April, Rae is always captivating but it isn't particularly enjoyable to watch her play such a tentative semi-loser and the moments she really brightens up and lets it loose are few and far between. Her character development similarly comes truncated in the final moments of the movie. Not the fault of the performers, all are pretty stellar and give their all, but with the script and it's pacing.

The costuming is wonderful, colorful, stylish, and really enhances the playfulness of the story. Unfortunately the other design elements are more functional rather than inspired. But it's the story itself that really under-delivers. The formula is a playful inversion of 1988's Big and as a conciet has significant potential. Unfortunately the the emotional journeys of Jordan and April are totally back loaded, this magical bizarre event seemingly do not change them in the slightest until the very end in a very convenient, truncated, saccharine finish. The story basically meanders to the transformation and meanders through 13 year old Jordan being pretty awful and learning nothing and April being meek for so long by the time they change it's almost too late. And at an almost two hour run time the pacing feels almost glacial.

A wonderful idea and a stellar cast fails to excel because of a poor undisciplined script.

Stream It.

'High Life' A Review

High Life is a scifi movie written and directed by Claire Denis. The film opens on a baby crying in an otherwise deserted ship. The baby's father Monte(Robert Pattinson) is then shown cooing through the radio from outside the ship while making repairs. The film then cuts back and forth from when the ship was populated and the various crew member's eventual deaths and the "present" with Monte and the child Willow getting older.

Pattinson continues his trajectory further into bizarre/challenging indie territory and he's good at it but some of the material he chooses is somewhat half baked, this proceeded by Damsel and Good Time the previous to years are equally ill conceived. He's not bad, in fact he's very good, nuanced and compelling and present but the scripts are small budget fringe productions for a reason, the synopses function better than the finished product. Juliette Binoche as the ship's (evil?) doctor is absolutely captivating, as she always is, but it just makes you wish she had a script to actually do something with. The rest of the cast are given so little to do their inclusion is a distraction, although it is always a pleasure to André Benjamin he is clearly wasted here.

Visually the film has a lowfi scruffyness that work well with some deliberate expectations about "space" that are subverted in an interesting way. But ultimately that doesn't particularly matter because the script is so convoluted, under developed, and concerned with it's own false profundity that it's actually a boring incoherent trudge. The story has so many disparate and fractured ideas going on- fertility, criminality, imprisonment, parenthood, the power/perversity of sexuality, isolation, bodily fluids etc.- none of them are ever developed or explored or even particularly acknowledged in a way that makes any kind of narrative or emotional sense. There are some striking moments and scenes but for all it's ambition the film carries virtually no dramatic weight and holds very little attention because of it's lack of focus, context, and clarity.

Similar to the significantly more frustrating Under The Skin the creatives behind High Life ask the audience to do more of the storytelling work than they should. Too much is left to the pretentious and lazy directive of "individual interpretation" when what the script really needed was a good revision.

Don't See It.

Right Sized

In rehab life was small, simple-
meals, meditations, meetings, meds,
workouts, bedtimes, downtimes, visitations-
all segmented and scheduled
after years of boundless chaos and destruction
we had to shrink our scope of living
to rest some order from the grasp of our addictions
at first I found the confines maddening
my lack of freedom unjust and rancorous
but slowly piece by piece healthy habits-
punctuality, cleanliness, civility-
built toward a shaky confidence
and upon release I could continue
perhaps not with assurance
but with some measure of alacrity.

Over years my life has expanded
in responsibility and dimension
but I retain that lesson painfully won
through the tangles and the turmoils
the celebrations and successes
life is simple but not easy
and each day requires effort.

'Hellboy' A Review

Hellboy is a reboot of the series originally launched by Guillermo del Toro, all adaptations of the comicbook series of the same name. Hellboy(David Harbour) is a half human/half demon that works with an underground government organization headed by his father the Professor(Ian McShane) to fight the supernatural. A medieval witch Nimue(Milla Jovovich) returns from the semi-grave to attempt world domination, the only one that can stop her is Hellboy!

If we haven't yet become sick of superhero movies we certainly have reached reboot fatigue. The reboot/remake isn't a modern invention, Hollywood has been resurrecting previous properties since its invention however its the time elapsed and the intention behind it that has changed. Increasingly the time between a film and its inevitable reboot is startlingly short, the first two Hellboy films were released in 2004 and 2008, both unique stories, beautifully designed and prolifically available on streaming service for the past decade. The originals haven't faded significantly from the culture consciousness and as such don't necessitate a rerelease. The other factor is the why. Other than its hard R status this Hellboy isn't terribly inspired, its a gory retread without the effective humor, heart, or coherence of its predecessor.

This 2019 incarnation is mildly entertaining but ultimately there is no real purpose, no real direction, no new point of view that's brought to bear. With a unique perspective, a new take, reboots/remakes can really work, adapting to modern tastes, aesthetics, and stories- Dredd, Jumanji, Power Rangers- to name a few. But disproportionately they fall flat - Carrie, The Mummy, Tomb Raider, TMNT, Godzilla, Robocop, the list goes on and there are many more to come.

We can only vote with our dollars so I would recommend not giving this movie any but it can certainly fill a couple empty hours while doing chores.

Stream It.