'Halloween' A Review

Halloween is a slasher movie a sequel to the 1978 original. Forty years after the events of the first flick Laurie Strode(Jamie Lee Curtis) has been preparing her house, her arsenal, and her body for the return of Michael Myers, think Sarah Conner in T2. Her obsessive preparation has cost her two marriages, the estrangement of her daughter and granddaughter, as well as her mental health. On the eve of Halloween Michael Meyers is being transferred to a maximum security mental facility and subsequently escapes, free to stalk the streets of Haddonfield once again on Halloween!

Curtis puts in an authoritative, solid performance, this incarnation of Strode suffers from PTSD and has a single-minded goal: revenge. There is something incessantly satisfying about seeing Curtis as the competent gun-toting avenging angle however her performance is only periodically matched by the script which supports it. Judy Greer does a nice turn as Laurie's daughter Karen but there relationship is sped through, revealed clunkily in rapid exposition, and blown by in favor of numerous set-piece killings by the iconic villain. Laurie's granddaughter Allyson played by Andi Matichak also does well with what little she's given, but her subplot also is truncated, abridged to the point of having little to no weight. What we are here to see, and what the movie makes clear it is really only concerned about, is the Strode/Michael showdown. Which, once we get to it, is undeniably satisfying.

The score, composed by original director and composer John Carpenter, has the same eerie compulsive magnetism. There are some impressive steady elongated takes, enough visual style to be engaging, enough crowd-pleasing omages/echos of the original, but it is the theme that really disappoints. Horror as a genre, especially during its recent resurgence, flourishes on metaphor, contemporary relevance. And this incarnation of Halloween has a rich theme that it leaves mostly unexplored ie the Strode women, not only Laurie but her daughter and granddaughter, standing up to the phantom Michael Myers(standing in for, perhaps, the patriarchy). But that reading is a stretch and not fully flushed out or developed in the movie itself. It is a hopeful conclusion to draw but not an explicit one.

An entertaining holiday movie that lacks the richness or ingenuity to become a classic.

Rent It.

What's Up Doc?

In college
I called
all my PhD
teachers
"Doc"
a term
of endearment
and because
I knew
even then
I wouldn't
get much chance
to use
the moniker
often.
They all
tolerated it
to various
degrees
but
my calc prof
really got a bang
out of it
I don't recall
her name
probably because
I always
called her
"Doc"
and calculus
is some
fifteen years
in the rearview
but I remember
her clarity
and humor
in the classroom
and her eyeroll
and grin
whenever
I called her "Doc".

'First Man' A Review

First Man is a biopic about Neil Armstrong(Ryan Gosling) and the Apollo 11 moon landing. The film opens on a breathtaking scene of Armstrong as test pilot skating along above the atmosphere. It quickly transitions into the illness and untimely death of his young daughter which becomes the driving force of Armstrong as a character and the film. Cutting back and forth between Armstrong pouring himself obsessively into his work and his wife Janet(Claire Foy) who stoically but clearly pained takes care of their home and two sons essentially alone. The film culminates in the historical moon landing.

Gosling is reserved but maintains his inherent magnetism, proving if he hasn't already that he is the heir to the Hollywood leading man title seemingly recently vacated by Brad Pitt. He's good and gives more with doing a lot less. Foy also gives a dynamic performance and the film allows relatively equal time to both spouses. Cutting between Gosling's character's obsession at work with the very real and emotional isolation Foy's character is left in forced to take care of their home and children solo, this forces her to actually feel (the only real character who emotes at all) and as such she is the heart of the film. The supporting cast is stacked with talent albeit almost all white male middle aged talent, which has an adverse effect on how compelling any of the character arcs turn out to be.

Most of the entire film is shot on shaky hand-held with the occasional gasp-inducing panorama which creates a very lived-in intimate feel. And this is the most captivating aspect of the film, the cinematography clearly and cleanly puts us in this time and place in all its fear and potential triumph.

The craft of the film is inarguable. The issues are the questions of why and why now. It's not reasonable to expect movies coming out in the wake of our current cultural upheaval to address it either directly or indirectly however it is reasonable to expect some attempt at diversity and inclusion, it is reasonable to expect some kind of reaction. It is a movie about a major historical moment in US history and art is not made in a vacuum. Certainly there is some intention at play here but what is it, blandness? Some kind of ill-conceived "neutrality"? This film, however well made, could have been made at any time, it is a film populated by white males, mythologizing the stoic white male hero, hearkening back to a time of (even more strident) white male dominance. We have seen this story countless times and there is nothing in it, beyond a skilled cameraperson, that necessitates its retelling. There is a brief scene of Leon Bridges as Gil Scott-Heron performing Whitey On The Moon however it's inclusion is not addressed or explored or even really acknowledged in any way.

First Man is well made and entertaining to a point but it is as toothless as Damien Chazelle's previous Oscar contender La La Land and right now I think we should require more of our art not less. 23 years after Apollo 13 and 2 years after Hidden Figures this can't help but feel regressive.

Exceeding visuals, lacking content.

Rent It.

Feeling The Pull

Wrote this as part of a send of show for MB, also a podcast Your Stories.

I was born and raised in Rockford, IL about an hour and a half west of Chicago. Over the years it has periodically been, unjustly from my perspective, on various lists for worst cities in america. Say what you want about many of it’s aspects but Rockford has one of the best municipal park systems in the country. There are seven major parks and countless small neighborhood ones with playground equipment and sports fields scattered throughout the city, there are also a couple large county maintained forest preserves in the area. Taken together they offer substantial recreation, adventure, and beauty.

Growing up I was a chubby kid the subject of no small amount of ridicule and cruelty. But every summer I was able to escape my archetypal role when I went to camp. The Rockford Park District offered a variety of types of camps for all age groups and I attended them all. Day camp, sleep away camp, backpacking, and bike. I loved them all and what they all had in common were two things. At them I could be whoever I wanted to be. I brought into into them no baggage, no history. I could make friends easily because all of us were working from square one. The second thing was that they all involved, no surprise, being in nature. And I discovered a deep resonance with the forests and hills, the rivers and lakes that I spent my summers in. I felt at home in the woods, I felt comfortable, there was a time it was one of the only places I did. And as time went on I found I had an affinity for it- hiking, canoeing, making a fire and cooking over it- I wasn’t a boy scout but I developed skills.

When I aged out of going to camp I became a camp counselor and that summer job along with the measured relief of high school opened up my social circle and got me out of my shell. I was a camp counselor for seven years, all through high school and for the bulk of college. Those was some of the best summers of my life. Stinking like campfire and bug spray, arguing with 8 year olds about what was for lunch, driving the tractor with 30 screaming kids in the trailer behind me.

In college after a summer of working at Camp Conestoga some friends and I, instigated by our love of the outdoors, planned a trip west for a little national parks tour. We left in the afternoon and drove all night. It was dawn when we came into The Badlands National Park in South Dakota, the sky was a screaming yellow and all around us were these beautifully alien mud/rock formations spreading out to the horizon. We stood there in awe. It was breathtaking, we were silenced by the splendor and vastness of Mother Nature. And for a moment we were part of her grace. And that feeling is something I’ve chased after ever since.

After the Badlands we went to Yellowstone then the Rocky Mountains National Park where we hiked Pike’s peak. On our way down fueled by youthful idiocy and THC we began to jog down the mountain, then run, letting gravity pull us forward gaining momentum as we corned switchbacks and lept boulders. And for a good ten minutes it was pure exhilaration, we were conquering the mountain, we were young, we were invincible. But like Icarus, my hubris was inevitably punished. I lost my balance and fell, crashing and sliding on the gravel path. The camera I wore on a shoulder strap was broken and my arms and legs were scraped and bleeding. I was hurt and I was embarrassed but I popped up and my friends washed me off with the water from their canteens and we finished the decent at a more stately pace.

Since that first trip I’ve been the Glacier National Park, the Grand Tetons, the Grand Canyon, Shenandoah, and many state and local parks all across the country. I just got back a couple days ago from a trip with my girlfriend to New Mexico the major reason for our visit was to go to Carlsbad Caverns and the White Sands National Monument. Which we did and both were spectacular.

All this to say nature is one of my great passions. Wherever I go I seek out the closet park and I hike through it. It gives me an inexpressible joy and a deep satisfaction. I return to it again and again and again. I place my time, energy, and money on the altar of the Earth Mother. And I encourage you to find your passions whatever they may be, to pursue them if you’ve found them, and if you already are I wish you good luck and godspeed.

If some day pride gets the better of you, and the gods justly bring you low, simply pick yourself up and continue down the path because around the next turn, the next bend, is the next opportunity, the next adventure.

'Studio 54' A Review

Studio 54 is a documentary about the famous NYC night club. Through archival footage, talking head interviews, and archival stills the tale of the influential club and the watershed moment which created it are told.

The primary narrator is co-founder Ian Schrager and all the recountings circle to various degrees around his vision of events. It is interesting, most especially the cultural significance and the diversity both sexual and racial the Studio 54 mentality promoted, however there is little mention of drug use or little to no reference or even discussion of exploitation. Because the individuals interviewed for the film are all regulars and former employees it is all painted with a particularly rosy shade which is not bad however it is relatively thin.

There is much talk of Studio 54 being historic but the time is not really taken explore the why, we are seemingly just supposed to take it on the word of our talking heads. So the documentary, although informative and filled with some intriguing characters, either doesn't attempt or isn't able to go much below the surface.

Maybe more appropriate for an hour long streaming special rather than a feature release.

Stream It.

'The Old Man And The Gun' A Review

The Old Man And The Gun is a romantic crime film about aging bank robber Forrest(Robert Redford) and his low key courtship of Jewel(Sissy Spacek). The film concurrently follows Detective Hunt(Casey Affleck) as he attempts to catch Forrest. Through flashbacks and exposition the life of Forrest is told which doubles as omage and retrospective for Redford as he has said this will be his last acting role.

Redford is charming and rakish, with the class but also edge that we know from some of his most notable roles. This certainly more so than All Is Lost feels like the appropriate swan song for the screen legend. Spacek is the perfect foil for Redford, the two have wonderful chemistry and provide all their scenes with an ease and subtle magnetism that make the relatively sedate crime story that envelopes the romance more tolerable.

The film, in essence, is a showcase for Redford and Spacek and as such is a success. The bank robbing heist element, the low key meditation on life element, the cat-and-mouse element aren't particularly engaging or original but giving the opportunity for the two leads to do what they do is what makes the film worth while.

Rent It.

The Moon And Me

I stood on the porch
outside our rented cabin
in the mountains
smoking a cigarette.

I looked up
at the foggy sky
wishing
I could see the stars.

Then for a moment
a break, a glimpse
a tantalizing ten seconds
of the full and shining moon.

I wondered
who else was looking up
during this brief
sliver of time.

Who else
saw the moon I saw
perhaps no one
no one at all.

And the thought
did not fill me
with loneliness or ennui
but a deep and abiding comfort.

For a moment
it was just the mountain
the forest, the moon
and me.

'Venom' A Review

Venom is a superhero action movie, the lead character a spin-off from the Spider-Man comics featured on the big screen first in 2007's Spider-Man 3. Eddie Brock(Tom Hardy) is an investigative reporter who stumbles upon secret experiments going on in the Life Foundation headed by the pervertedly altruistic Carlton Drake(Riz Ahmed). Eddie bonds with an alien organism (the titular Venom) providing him with superhuman abilities and all hell breaks loose!

Other than Hardy's performance not much is surprising or out of the now well-worn tropes of superhero movies but its different enough to excite and entertain. Hardy plays Brock as a periodic badass but mostly a cowardly panicked buffoon. Hardy gets to execute some serious slapstick when Brock and Venom battle for control of the body and Hardy gets to go full on Nicolas Cage crazy with the bizarre buddy routine he does with Venom. Unfortunately this absurd and surprisingly delightful performance is smack in the middle of a relatively pedestrian comic book movie with the necessary rainy action scene, mustache twirling villain, underutilized female supporting character(hope Michelle Williams got a fat check), and the classic boring the-villain-is-a-literal-version-of-the-hero we saw in he first half dozen Marvel movies.

Visually serviceable but unimaginative and with a score that is distinctly out of place and an overall tone that is, to put it generously inconsistent, the only real reason to watch the movie is for Hardy's performance. If the movie tonally followed his lead it would have been a more unique and more entertaining experience.

Stream It.

'A Star Is Born' A Review

A Star Is Born is the fourth iteration of this musical drama about an aging alcoholic roots rock musician Jackson(Bradley Cooper) who discovers talented unknown Ally(Lady Gaga) in a drag club. He takes her under his wing professionally and concurrently the two begin a romance. As his star fades, her's rises.

There are two stand-out performances in this mostly derivative Oscar hopeful. Lady Gaga who's musical abilities are beyond question but who's acting chops were as yet untested. She delivers decisively on both counts. Providing a magnetic, emotional, strong lead performance balanced perfectly with her thrilling, goosebump inducing musical numbers. Same Elliot as Jackson's brother and road manager Bobby gives a masterful and all too brief turn, conveying oceans with looks, short sentences, and only the occasional scene. Writer, director, star Cooper puts on a startlingly distracting "character voice" and seems to be swept up in the ecstasy of his own creation and forgets to focus his performance. Some of the major issues are in the foundation of the film, the script, but Cooper's breezy portrayal seems to rely more on the aforementioned voice and the creative mythologizing of alcoholism rather than actual acting.

The first half of the film which focuses on Gaga and the titular birth of her star is quite compelling and the chemistry between the two leads is decent enough to skate by. The second half of the film shifts the focus to Cooper's character and the story quickly falls apart. The focus is scattered, it attempts to tell the story of an addict(at least it regurgitates the "romantic" untruths fostered by Hollywood and is quite frankly dangerous as well as dishonest in its implications), the rise of a star, the fall of a star, the selling out of a star(there is some sophomoric criticism of pop music that is incredibly odd and tone deaf given who Gaga is), and the tragedy of stardom. But in attempting all these things, again most incorrectly and irresponsibly addiction, it fails to successfully deliver on any of them.

For a film so filled with promise and talent it suffers from the most obvious pitfall(for a story in its fourth iteration) predictability, rote hollow story arcs. And given the current cultural conversations going on the fact that the power dynamics, the possible manipulation, the conceivably tit-for-tat "romance" we see on screen isn't acknowledge let alone delved into is astonishing. The ending especially is not only uncompelling and fails narratively its offensive in its portrayal of addiction. It bastardizes a very serious and exceedingly difficult to treat illness, which has reached epidemic levels in the past decade, not only for dramatic catharsis but failed dramatic catharsis at that.

Watch Gaga in the first 80 minutes then shut it off or just listen to the soundtrack.

Don't See It.

Gypsum

White Sands
dry heat
rolling dunes
sweating feet
rationed water
periodic snacks
untrod path
cutting tracks
one step
then another
all hail
Earth Mother

White Sands

Hiked through White Sands National Monument today. Another gorgeous and bizarre slice of nature. The park is surrounded by military bases and periodically in the distance you could hear the roar of jets. White Sands was the thing that made me want to go to New Mexico in the first place and it didn't disappoint.

Carlsbad

Into the cavern mouth we strode
seeking answers in the halls of stone
surrounded by the silent dark
a forest of rock, sharp and stark
deep beneath the surface gleam
with blinded fish & bats that preen
enclosed in the womb of Earth
waiting on a second birth.

Carlsbad Cavern

Got up early and drove to Carlsbad Caverns, the #1 on Nicole's list. One of the towns we drove through was an oil town with a refinery right off the main rode, across the street from the McDonald's and just out of town there were oil derricks and off in the distance flaming plumes, it was all very surreal. When we got the park they told us you could either take the elevator down or hike which we did.

The hike just doubled down on an already surreal day. It was dream-like, you're instructed not to speak above a whisper and most of the visitors oped for the elevator so we were virtually alone walking down.

Descending into the dark surrounded by these huge monolithic formations. It was awe-inspiring.

 Once you get to the bottom there's a loop of the main chamber which was much more populated, still very cool and beautiful, but nothing like the eerie transportive feeling I got on the way down.

Any phrase that is used enough to become a platitude has a tendency to lose meaning but visiting the caverns was and definitely felt like a "once in a lifetime" experience.

The Mountains In Fall

Frosted pines
rolling out
into the chill
time trapped
by boundless fog
crystalline forest
hidden peaks
and we
the only two
who see it.

Grindstone Lake

Nicole and I are in New Mexico for the week, staying in the mountains. It's about 20 degrees colder than it usually is here this time of year but we came prepared with many layers and are enjoying the truly awesome beauty around us.

 Went on our first hike today. Chilly but really wonderful.

First Meal In Ruidoso

As the old woman
next to us
with purple streaked hair
sent back her latte
for the second time
because it "didn't taste right"
I realized
people are the same all over.

'The Sisters Brothers' A Review

The Sisters Brothers is a western based on the 2011 novel of the same name. The film opens on the on the titular brothers, hired guns Eli(John C. Reilly) and Charlie(Joaquin Phoenix), during a brutal and striking midnight shoot out. After getting a new job from their boss the Comadore(Rutger Hauer) the two set off after idealistic chemist Hermann(Riz Ahmed) and their lead man Morris(Jake Gyllenhaal).

Reilly and Phoenix both put in balanced compelling performances, both brutal and emotional, conveying a sense of the time and evoking the genre but in a way that is more open and melancholy than we have a tendency to see. There is none of the typical stoicism, in its place we get a strikingly practical violence with a degree of introspection that feels remarkably fresh if cutting. The film bounces back between the titular brothers and the unlikely pair played by Ahmed and Gyllenhaal and they too have transmit a originality of character that the setting and circumstances of the story don't typically allow for. All four of the defacto leads put in relatively understated turns but all have a deep honesty and sincerity that make returning to the well-worn western new, exciting, and thought-provoking.

The cinematography is beautiful and bleak, the production design clearly focused on a surprising amount of authenticity or at least realism. The violence is brutal but practical. The setting unforgiving and oppressive but also kind of magical. There's a lot going on and all the elements work harmoniously to bring this unique western tale to life. Shot through with humor and a deep heartbreaking yearning the film delivers a singular experience in a bloated genre.

The novel offers the different pleasure of being inside Eli Sisters head but the film breaks up the focus, virtually equally, between the four leads and paints a strikingly compassionate nuanced portrait of the interior lives of these characters who we would typically only understand externally.

See It.  

'Pick Of The Litter' A Review

Pick Of The Litter is a documentary that follows five potential guide dogs from birth through rigorous training and their eventual placement. The film uses psuedo reality TV competition format as the five doggos progress through various levels of training with various volunteers and specialized trainers. A graphic shows that only around 1/3 actually make it to being guide dogs. The film intercuts fly-on-the-wall footage with interviews of two perspective seeing-impaired individuals waiting for guide dogs as well as various interim caretakers.

The "will they make the cut" angle is nice enough and provides some necessary pacing but it's the people that populate the process that are really fascinating and moving. All dedicated with various degrees of success into shaping the potential pups into guide dogs. There's certainly many emotional moments, the five doggos inevitably pull the heart strings, it's clear how much good the dogs can do as guide dogs but also as brief companions for their various keepers. There's a lot of hope in the film and a lot of fun. Further explanation or description would simply spoil the low grade excitement and suspense.

In our current time bloated by vitriol, hyperbole, and aggression the world can seem too big, too cold, it can be too easy to despair. Now more than ever we need small stories, sincere stories, this is the latest example of the inevitable resurgence of sentiment. The world stage may be too broad, too bleak, but real day-to-day good people trying to make a difference is the grease by which the real world turns. Yes, this is a feel-good movie about puppies but it is also an example of human compassion and goodness. An example we need now more than ever.

See It.

'Night School' A Review

Night School is a comedy about Teddy(Kevin Hart) a high school drop out who is working overtime to present the image of a more successful wealthy person to his girlfriend loses his job and goes to get his GED at the titular Night School presided over by unorthodox but effective Carrie(Tiffany Haddish).

Haddish soars as the fast taking, sharp, demanding, ultimately nurturing teacher. She brings her natural high-wattage charisma, charm, and infectious humor to a role that is relatively flat on the page. The other members of the class- played by most notably Rob Riggle, Al Madrigal, Romany Malco, and Mary Lynn Rajskub- are all equally dimensional as characters and funny. Within the movie there's a really wonderful comedy hidden with this core group and Haddish. The biggest determent to the movie and it's least compelling aspect is Hart's character and his performance. The character is a throwback to a 90's trope that now feels so archaic, so unlikable, so irredeemable the inevitable "arc" the character goes through is not only unengaging it's preposterous. The role is either  out of Hart's range or as it's written it's impossible to pull off. With the success he's justly garnered over the past decade he seems to be continually funneled into these psuedo leading-man comedys(like Will Farrell and Eddie Murphy before him) which do not recognize or utilize his particular talents, and are above all mundane to the point of apathy. Contrast this performance with 2017's Jumanji where Hart is, essentially, playing a character within a character to great success there is no question of his ability and star-power but this is unquestionably a failure.

The runtime is a half hour overlong and while there is plenty of laughs the central story line is deeply flawed. The visual style and score are sufficient and modern but for comedys especially the story is of utmost importance and ultimately this one doesn't rise above decent.

Stream It.

Faith

to me
belief
is easier
than unbelief
Gaia and Odin
spirits and ghosts
more probable
more compelling
than bleak
infantile
nihilism