Movie Review

Crazy Rich Asians (Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Awkwafina) – Let’s get this out of the way: It’s nice to see a movie featuring an (almost) all-Asian cast for the first time since The Joy Luck Club.  The actors, many of whom are familiar from supporting roles in other movies or TV shows, creditably carry off a two-hour rom-com that never gets boring.

That said, Crazy Rich Asians is a formulaic chick-flick, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Rachel (Constance Wu) is an economics professor who is dating Nick (Henry Golding of A Simple Favor), a history professor.  He’s in love with her; she’s almost in love with him.  He invites her to attend a family wedding in his native Singapore.  She is a tad reluctant to meet his whole family but relents, of course (or else we wouldn’t have a movie).  It turns out that Nick has neglected to tell her that his family is crazy rich (she already knew they were Asian).  

The backdrop is the estate of Nick’s family.  We also get to attend a $40 million wedding preceded by a bachelor party aboard a cargo ship in international waters and a bachelorette party on its own island.  Nobody lives this way … even crazy, rich Asians. 

I don’t need to tell you the rest of the story so I’ll just tell you about a few of the stereotyped characters you’ll be meeting.  There is the disapproving mother (Michelle Yeoh, best known for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), the crazy friend (Awkwafina), the gay fashionista cousin, the former girlfriend, the obnoxious relatives, and so on.  

The best part of the film is the travelogue of Singapore.  The place is modern and beautiful.  The photography is top-notch.  The score is generally excellent with a combination of Asian versions of familiar pop and techno songs.  The writing occasionally borders on amusing at times and overwrought in others.  And the film is definitely a half hour too long, probably because Director Jon Chu (Now You See Me 2) wanted to stay true to the book upon which the movie is based.

Golding, who is Malaysian, is a rising star.  In this and A Simple Favor, he is more than just a pretty boy.  Here, he plays an almost perfect man; in Favor, he hides secrets in that engaging smile and perfect body.  Wu, the U.S.-born daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, is best known for her role of Jessica on the TV series Fresh Off the Boat.

Crazy Rich Asians is harmless enough.  By no means is it among the best of the rom-com genre but it sure isn’t the worst.  The photography, music, and peeking into the mythical lives of the rich and famous makes it worth the price of admission. Indeed, it is almost a good movie.

Perfectly cast by the director of Spy and Bridesmaids, A Simple Plan is a wonderful parody of the Gone Girl genre.

A Simple Favor (Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding) – If you set out to produce a parody of Gone Girl, you would create A Simple Favor.  What Mel Brooks did to Vertigo in High Anxiety and what Kennan Ivory Wayans did to Shaft in I’m Gonna Git You Sucka is what Director Paul Feig does to Gone Girl in A Simple Plan.

Funny, suspenseful, and a little naughty, A Simple Plan is first and foremost funny.  After that, it is a thriller with a little hint of Big Little Lies, Bandits, and Spy. I picked those references purposefully because “Lies’” female-driven cast led by Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman plays like Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively here.   Both sagas are set in a tony town with a seemingly perfect mother (Witherspoon/Kendrick) and a career-driven, self-confident schemer. The Bandits’ reference is largely aimed at the stunning physical and psychological similarities between Lively and Cate Blanchett. Cocky, brash, lanky and desperately insecure, the two characters seem larger-than-life.  Spy is a Paul Feig comedy with brilliant performances by Melissa McCarthy and Rose Byrne.  Feig created a clever 007 yarn for jokes while seemingly putting his heroine and her foil in desperate trouble.  A Simple Favor is just like that.  It is mostly a comedy but it feels like it is devolving into danger.

Kendrick plays Stephanie, a young mother who is just a little too perfect to the point of being annoying.  Lively’s Emily is the wisecracking, foul-mouthed anti-mother who befriends Stephanie like a vulture circling her prey.  Stephanie desperately wants to be liked; Emily doesn’t give a damn.  Before long, Kendrick thinks she has a best friend and Lively has a nanny for her cute but foul-mouthed son.

Emily’s husband, Sean (Henry Golding of Crazy Rich Asians), is a college professor who once wrote an acclaimed novel but whose writing career is over.  Emily is a PR executive for a design company with a narcissistic owner.  Kendrick is a widow whose husband and half-brother were both killed in the same car accident.  Now, she vlogs (that’s video blog for those of you who didn’t know).

But everything is not as it seems, of course.  

There are numerous plot twists, all of which seem ridiculous until you remember that IT’S A PARODY!  There is a murder – or is there?  There is a cadre of wacky “moms” at the school where Emily’s and Stephanie’s kids go.  There’s a cop who is more than a little curious about what is going on between Sean, Emily and Stephanie. And there are loads of wisecracks by both of the female stars.

Kendrick and Lively look like they had a blast doing the film.  Golding is largely eye candy.  And that is all OK because Feig has crafted a first-rate comedy thriller with plenty of laughs and a touch of intrigue perfect for a Saturday afternoon.

Some of you will remember the review of Love Gilda from early September.  This documentary about Gilda Radnor was released on a limited basis later that month but not many people saw it.  Like RBG, this documentary was partially funded by CNN so it gets first crack at airing it.  Look for it on New Years Day.

Love, Gilda (Gilda Radner) – For Baby Boomers, the golden age of Saturday Night Live came at the beginning with the Not Ready for Prime Time Players.  I’ll bet 90 percent of those reading this can name all of them.  And almost all of you will say that Garrett Morris and Laraine Newman were the two who did very little afterwards.  And everyone remembers the short but meteoric career of John Belushi, who died of an overdose.  Chevy Chase, who only appeared on the show in its first year, became a mega-movie star.  Dan Aykroyd became the most versatile actor of the group.  No one will forget his spoof of Julia Child, the commercial for the Bass-o-matic, and his Jack Kirkpatrick Point/Counterpoint with Jane Curtin, that “ignorant slut.”

But my favorite … and I wasn’t alone … was Gilda Radner, that whirlwind of comedy madness whose Roseanna Roseannadanna, Bawbwa Waawa, Emily Litella, Lisa Loopner and so many more.  Unabashedly bold and un-self-conscious, she smashed the TV screen and made us laugh till our cheek muscles hurt.  That’s the Gilda we thought we knew.

Love, Gilda is a funny, sad, and revealing documentary four years in the making.  Lisa Dapolito never met Gilda but she felt compelled to make this film.  Despite being told that no young people today would know who Gilda was, she hustled for the bucks to get the movie made.  And thanks to Magnolia Pictures, the distributor of RBG, and CNN Films, which serves as its broadcast partner (it will air in 2019), Love, Gilda was made.

It is must-see viewing.  I almost passed out watching it I was laughing so hard.  The revelation here comes in low-quality video from Gilda’s days in Toronto and Chicago at Second City.  Watching her work with Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, Paul Shaffer, John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Martin Short (among others) in those pre-TV days will leave you speechless.  It turns out Gilda dated almost all of them.  She was also popular in college at the University of Michigan where she discovered she could major in being funny (in theater).

Her formative years as a rich, chubby kid are chronicled in home movies. Always wanting to perform, Gilda was destined for stardom.  But as so many comedians, not all was happy in Gilda’s personal life.  An eating disorder came first; ovarian cancer came later.  Her marriage to G.E. Smith didn’t work; her marriage to Gene Wilder did.

This is a deep dive into one of the pioneers of comedy.  She served as a role model for many funny women.  Interviewees include Amy Poehler, Melissa McCarthy, and Maya Rudolph.  From the old days, Marty Short, Chevy Chase, Paul Shaffer and Laraine Newman provide commentary.

Most hauntingly, we hear Gilda herself narrating much of the film through tapes she made around the release of her best-selling autobiography, It’s Always Something.

The film opens on only 51 screens late in September so you will have to look hard to find it in art houses.  It is well worth the search and the time.

I know a lot of white people who don’t think Spike Lee movies are for them.  And some of them are just not films the many white people can relate to.  BlacKkKlansman is not one of those.  It is a film that all people should see, particularly in light of the disturbing resurgence of white supremacy.  

BlacKkKlansman (John David Washington, Adam Driver) – Spike Lee is an outspoken social advocate as well as an exceptional and complicated filmmaker.  Almost all of his films focus on life in the “hood” and paint a less-than-hopeful picture of race relations while shining a light on the African-American experience in the America.

For white audiences, Lee can be a polarizing figure as detailed well in a recent cover story in Time magazine.  Mainstreamed in the recent Capital One commercials with Samuel L. Jackson and Charles Barkley, Lee is also known for his fierce support of the New York Knicks and Yankees. Lee is an ever-present celebrity presence while using that fame to criticize Donald Trump and the racism so rampant in the President’s rhetoric.

BlacKkKlansman is one of Lee’s best films in part because it combines his exceptional directorial skills with the true story of a Colorado Springs detective who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s.  Ron Stallworth (played nonchalantly by John David Washington, the son of Denzel Washington) joined the Colorado town’s police department as the first black cop in this lily-white town.  Stallworth, well educated, well-spoken, and ambitious, just wants to be a good cop but faces obstacles within the Department and outside.  His 70’s Afro target him as a child of the era but he belies black stereotypes.

Amazingly, he picks up the phone in response to an ad for new recruits to the resurging KKK in Colorado in the ‘70s.  Having convinced the white supremacist on the other end of the phone that he is a white bigot and anti-Semite, he “infiltrates” the local chapter.  A black guy in the KKK?  Not exactly. His fellow detective, “Flip” Zimmerman, assumes Stallworth’s identity and becomes a Klansman. Ironically, Flip (Adam Driver) is white and Jewish and, frankly, takes all the risks while Stallworth calls the shots.  When Stallworth decides to call national KKK Grand Wizard David Duke (Topher Grace), the movie gets implausible … except that it really happened!!  Then, ironically, Stallworth gets assigned to protect Duke when he comes to town for a visit.

This is the point when most directors would play it like a merry mix-up, but Lee doesn’t.  He makes it uncomfortable for everyone and starts to draw the inevitable parallels between the Klan in the ‘70s and today’s scary resurgence of white “nationalism.”

As the plot gets more risky, Lee dials up the toxicity of the Klan.  Using his distinctive cinematic style (that is similar to Quentin Tarantino),  Lee tells this serious story with some humor and irony.  By the time the movie ends, we feel the appropriate disdain for the Klansmen and the satisfaction of exposing these wretched human beings.

But then Lee tacks on a coda, which is no surprise if you have read much about the movie, but I will leave it unsaid.  I’m not sure I would call BlacKkKlansman an “important film.”  I would call it a really good movie that will shock you and entertain you.

Hold on for the $178 million ride in the latest geriatric version of Mission Impossible.

Mission Impossible: Fallout (Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Henry Cavill, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Angela Bassett) – I loved the TV show, Mission Impossible.  Peter Graves (though he wasn’t the first head of the IM Force; Steven Hill was), Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Greg Morris, and Peter Lupus.  Their weekly adventures were fun, dangerous and mesmerizing.  I was excited to see what the movie incantations would bring.  The first one, with Tom Cruise as the flawed Ethan Hunt, was very true to the TV show with lots of special effects added.  With each passing film (there are six now), the resemblance has almost disappeared.  This is distinctly different than the Star Trek movies, which remained very true to Gene Rodenberry’s vision.

The Mission movies are much more like Bond/Bourne films these days.  That’s OK.  But if I want to see a Bond/Bourne film, I’ll wait for their next installments.  And while special effects have kind of ruined those too, at least the Bond flavor has remained the same.

In MI: Fallout, Tom Cruise and his gang, played by an aging Ving Rhames and a scene stealing Simon Pegg, take on a nuclear threat … like that has never been done before.  There’s a bad guy, a pretty super-incredible new good gal (played by Rebecca Ferguson), a rogue scientist, a good Secretary (who won’t disavow knowledge of Hunt’s action), and a bad Secretary (who doesn’t seem loyal to anyone).

The plot doesn’t matter.  Cruise runs … a lot … and fast, too.  Not bad for a 56-year-old guy with a death wish who still does his own stunts and got injured in the process.  Hunt still plays Superman, repelling every threat, flying helicopters, climbing ropes in the sky.  Masks are still in play, one of the few holdovers from the TV show.  And there is still a reel-to-reel tape machine that plays Ethan’s assignment.  We travel all around the world (the photography is spectacular) with lightning precision.  And, of course, the IM Force prevails in the end. (Sorry for the spoilerJ).

The new twist is the planting of a new agent, August Walker (Henry Cavill), with the team by Director Erika Sloane (played by my least favorite actor in the world, Angela Bassett).  She and the Secretary (played by Alec Baldwin) are at odds but who cares?  What do you think: is the new agent a good guy or a bad guy?

The film is definitely entertaining.  Stick around for the credits and try to count the number of CG artists, special effects gurus, animators, stunt people, and assistants to everyone who ever touched this film.  You’ll see that there is plenty to catch your eye.  With a budget of $178 million, it better be good.

Here’s the problem: Cruise and Rhames, to quote Butch Cassidy, are “too old for this s***.”  Really!  Heck, Matt Damon is quitting the Bourne series for the second time and yet another Bond (Daniel Craig) is too. And they are younger than Cruise. 

If you just want to be entertained and love action flicks and great special effects, Mission Impossible: Fallout is for you.  I enjoyed my 2 ½ hours of mindless, blow-your-socks-off special effects.  But if you don’t want to see one more of the same-old-same-old, you can skip it.

Operation Finale (Oscar Isaac, Ben Kingsley) – In the history of bad people, Adolf Eichmann ranks right up there.  Architect of the “final solution,” Eichmann was the highest-ranking Nazi to escape Germany after World War II.  Unlike Hitler, Himmler and Goebbels, Eichmann didn’t kill himself.  Rather, he escaped to Argentina, a notorious post-war Nazi haven.  Tracked down by Israel’s Mossad, he was hunted down and returned for trial.

Operation Finale tells the story of the hunt, the capture, and the harrowing escape to justice.  Starring (and produced by) Oscar Isaac as the leader of the Israeli unit sent to Buenos Aires to find and kidnap Eichmann, Operation Finale is riveting if a bit “talky.”  As played by Oscar winner Ben Kingsley, Eichmann doesn’t regret anything but explains away his crimes against humanity as merely the act of a loyal soldier.  He doesn’t think he should pay for the sins of the Reich, and he is a loyal family man, who ultimately agrees to go back to Israel for trial if he gets one more chance to see his wife.

The time frame is Argentina 1960-62.  The story is a familiar one to Jews of that age and to students of the history of the Holocaust.  Not so for people of the last two generations who barely know that the Holocaust occurred. And I can’t imagine what the white supremacists and Holocaust deniers actually know about Eichmann.

Operation Finale is your basic well-acted, well intentioned independent film that won’t do much box office. It is reminiscent of Munich in tone and plot.  It will have a fierce and devoted audience because it delves deeply into a story about which few people know.  It is a critical reminder in these days of scary nationalism and growing anti-Semitism that evil takes many forms and never disappears.

Pittsburgh, my home town, is often called the City of Champions, the City of Bridges, and the Steel City.  But it was also the home of Dr. Jonas Salk; industrialists and philanthropists Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon; entertainers from Gene Kelly to Michael Keaton; artists like Andy Warhol and August Wilson; Arnold Palmer; and Mr. Rogers. 

Won’t You Be My Neighbor (Fred Rogers) – For those of us who grew up in Pittsburgh, Fred Rogers was an icon.  From his earliest days on Pittsburgh’s PBS station, WQED, as part of Josie Carey’s The Children’s Hour to the creation of his own masterpiece, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Rogers was a comfortable, fatherly, rational voice to kids in turbulent times.  His heavy Pittsburgh accent never detracted from his amazing sense of what children wanted and needed to hear and know.

An accomplished musician, writer, producer, and puppeteer, Rogers was rarely appreciated for his multiple talents but was lauded for his almost singular focus on educating children.  He talked to them about important subjects like death, divorce, race, assassination, disabilities, war and fear just as he talked with them about friendship, acceptance, sadness and, above all, love.

Rogers believed that the human condition was all about love.  He connected with kids because he listened to them, identified with them, and believed they were moved by the same things as adults.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor is a stunning, emotional documentary playing in many mainstream theaters.  While it is, naturally, a love letter to Rogers, it also deals with some of the controversy that came later in his life from those who believed that his message that “every kid is special” helped breed a generation of narcissists.  

Neighbor provides great insight into Rogers from his own childhood as a shy, insecure kid to his education as a Presbyterian minister.  But rather than head to a church, he established his congregation on TV, a new medium in the early 1950s.  By the time he built his own neighborhood in the mid-1960s and donned his cardigans, Rogers was syndicated nationwide and burned a lasting imprint on generations of children.

In a year with some impressive documentaries, Won’t You Be My Neighbor is a must-see.

George Clooney and his partner, Stephen Soderburgh, aren’t ready to give up on the Ocean’s franchise they resurrected earlier this century from the early 1960s “Rat Pack.”  I’m glad. The latest iteration features an all-star female cast (perfectly timed with the #MeToo movement).  Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, Dean Martin, Richard Conte, Norman Fell, Joey Bishop and the rest of the original gang would be proud.

Ocean’s 8 (Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Sarah Paulson, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Rihanna, Awkwafina, Helena Bonham Carter) – There is nothing new in Ocean’s 8.  Thank Goodness.  The all female cast of Ocean’s 8 picks up where George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and the gang left off in the tremendously successful Ocean’s franchise.

Sandra Bullock plays Danny Ocean’s (Clooney’s) sister, Debbie, who gets released from prison and promises to stay on the straight and narrow just like her brother did. But we know better (or else there wouldn’t be a movie).  She reconnects with her buddy, Lou (Cate Blanchett), to pull off a big jewelry heist at the Met Gala in New York.  They recruit others with special expertise in a variety of pursuits.  These characters are played by a mostly famous array of actresses: Sarah Paulson, Mindy Kaling, Helena Bonham Carter plus unknown actress Awkwafina (I just drank a bottle), and SURPRISE, rock legend Rihanna.

Their goal is to steal an enormous necklace worth hundreds of millions of dollars worn by superstar, Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway), who is wearing them on loan from Cartier. It’s impossible!  But not for Ocean’s 8.  What ensues is pure movie heist: sleight of hand, seemingly merry mix-ups, cameos (you’ll enjoy searching for famous people), and an audience “sting” or two.

It is all good fun, just like Ocean’s 11(12was not as good, 13 was better).  Other than showing some aging, these A-list actresses pull it off with aplomb and just the right amount of parody.  Especially noteworthy is Helena Bonham Carter, who remains the most funny-looking, oddly appealing, talented international superstar of the last two decades. Rihanna, in her movie debut, is passable as a tech wizard.  Cate Blanchett shows all of the range we have enjoyed as moviegoers in such varied roles as Bandits, Carol, Elizabeth, Blue Jasmine, Notes on a Scandal and The Good German (with Clooney).  The enormously talented Sarah Paulson and Mindy Kaling are a bit wasted here while Anne Hathaway and Sandy Bullock are just what you expect when they turn on their comedic acting chops.

Ocean’s 8 is a reliable, fun summer heist flick with enough appeal for men and women alike with a heavy dose of fashion and star power.  And in case you heard that Matt Damon has a cameo, he doesn’t. His comments during the emerging #MeToo movement got him bumped out of the summer’s premier smart comedy.

The Visitor (Richard Jenkins, Hiam Abbass, Haas Sleiman) — In my years of movie mavenhood, I have made a special effort to note career character actors, the mainstays of the movie business.  These are people who appear in dozens of films, never for a big paycheck, but are so good at being supporting cast members that they both make a good living and get steady work.  They are the actors whose faces you always remember and sometimes can place, but whom you have no recall of their names.  My favorites include J.T. Walsh, James Rebhorn, James Cromwell, Sydney Pollack (recently deceased and most known for directing), Ed Lauter, Bonnie Hunt, Holland Taylor, Bob Gunton and Richard Jenkins.  Most of the time, they either play bad guys, best friends or plot-moving sidekicks.  The Visitor puts Jenkins front and center in what I hope is an Academy Award-nominated performance.  He plays Walter Vale, a small-college, tenured professor whose life has been empty since his wife, an
accomplished pianist died.   He goes through the motions of teaching a course and writing another tedious book but he is really as dead as she.  To compensate, he tries learning piano — presumably to remain close to her — but his heart is not in it.  Sent to New York City to present a paper that he co-authored but had little to do with, he returns to the apartment he and his wife often enjoyed but he never got around to discarding.  To his surprise, he finds a couple — illegal immigrants both — living there (they were duped into it).  The rest of the story is rich, engaging, maddening and heart-breaking.

Jenkins’ multi-layered performance takes his character-acting experiences to a pitch-perfect level as he moves emotionally from comatose to angry to loving to free.  While the film has done less than $4 million in box office, it is easily the best independent film I have seen this year and probably the best movie period.  If you can find it, please see it.

Flawless (Demi Moore, Michael Caine, Joss Ackland) — It’s very British and very much a throw-back to the old-time heist film.  This one is set in 1960 at the start of Camelot, the space age, and the birth of the British music invasion.  But this is a period piece, set at a very prim and proper … and very sexist … London Diamond Corporation (Lon-Di).  Laura Quinn (Demi Moore) has given up any semblance of a personal life to outperform the men but remains a middle level manager who is frequently passed over despite having the best ideas and the work ethic.  In walks the janitor, Mr. Hobbs, played by Michael Caine, who talks to Quinn almost every night and sees all and knows all.  He watches as Miss Quinn is consistently passed over, and approaches her with an intriguing scheme whereby she can become rich and gain a measure of revenge.  His motives appear to be pure greed.  A widower, he is a mere working man watching as hundreds of millions of dollars in diamonds pass through the corridor he polishes every night into the vault that is never, ever opened after business hours.  As all great heist movies, this one has twists and turns, things you see and others you miss.  Quinn is reluctant and panicky but Hobbs is cool and calm, a part Caine plays better than anyone.  This feels like an art-house film and is distributed that way.  And it’s a jolly good time with a satisfying result.  A must see.