Filmbound - Episode 8: Annihilation

On this week's episode Paul Markoff and I venture into ANNIHILATION.  It didn't occur to me until I was writing this that the film's metaphorical zone, The Shimmer, could be thought of as cinema itself, although I don't think that's what writer-director Alex Garland was necessarily trying to say.  Still, art can refract how we understand ourselves and our surroundings.  This reading could put a more pointed or amusing spin on the climax as it regards the interaction between the observed and observer.  I really need to have this kind of revelation prior to or during the podcast recording and not days after the fact, though.



The recommendations segment on this episode is expanded a bit because I wanted to spread the word about the Wexner Center for the Arts' Cinema Revival: A Festival of Film Restoration. The event is a fantastic way to see a bunch of old films that look and sound perhaps as good as they ever have.  The educational components, such as an enlightening session on the art of subtitling, are well worth attending too.  A pass costs less than the manufacturer's suggested retail price of a Criterion Collection Blu-ray, so you get great value for all the films you can see at this easy-to-attend festival.  Aside from the presenting guests, I suspect it draws few out-of-towners, but if you live within a reasonable drive or somewhere unlikely to get most of what is shown, it's worth your time and money to make a weekend of it.  Screenings are spread over six days, but the bulk of the festival takes place Friday through Sunday.

We also spent more time than usual talking about Paul's recommendation of writer-director Cory Finley's debut THOROUGHBREDS.  The drama with dark comedic elements was on my shortlist of potential recommendations for this month's recording session as well.  If it hadn't been a film I was unaware of until it showed up in theaters, we might have given it the featured slot on an episode.

This is the first of two new episodes this week in an attempt to put out future episodes about three weeks from their films' release dates.  You'll also notice below that we have scheduled our first episode featuring a film not in current release.  I don't know how often we'll dig into the past for an in-depth film discussion, but it's something we'd like to do from time to time.   

Upcoming episodes:

-March 23: GAME NIGHT and a discussion about the ideal theatrical experience
-March 28: RED SPARROW and our recommendations segment
-April 4: A WRINKLE IN TIME and a discussion about films from the last twenty years that were critically or commercially unsuccessful when released but may come to be considered classics
-April 11: MINORITY REPORT and our recommendations segment

Filmbound - Episode 7: Early Man

To state the obvious, the big difference between FILMBOUND and our defunct TV show NOW PLAYING is that Paul and I have much more time on the podcast to talk about the selected films.  On a typical TV episode each of the five films was allocated 30-40 seconds for a scripted intro, 45-60 seconds for a clip, a minute and a half to two minutes for one person's scripted review, and 70 seconds for the impromptu discussion between us.  If there was time left over at the show's end, we could use it to add to the conversation about one or more of those films.

With the podcast our discussions per film have generally lasted 20-25 minutes, yet neither of us say everything we would like to or intend to.  For instance, a couple comparisons I'd meant to make regarding THE 15:17 TO PARIS came to mind after the show was recorded.  The way the conversation gets steered sometimes veers away from comments I intended to make.  Nevertheless, I appreciate that the podcast provides the space for fuller analyses of the films.

If the discussion about EARLY MAN seems shorter than the time we usually set aside for a film, that's because it is.  It happened that both of us saw Nick Park's stop-motion animated comedy directly before our recording session for episodes 4-7.  In theory that should mean we would have more to say about it than something more distant in memory.  I don't know if our more limited conversation had to do with needing more time for reflection, holding positive but mild appreciation of the film, or being tired from hours of recording.  Maybe it was a combination of those three factors.



The episode gets a little feistier when we consider if qualifying some films as guilty pleasures diminishes them.  I am not a fan of such a classification, so as things tended to go with our spoilers discussion on episode 5, I play the role of the grumbler. 

We're recording this weekend, and as I mentioned before, we're going to try to get new episodes released a little closer to their opening dates.  To do that the plan is to release two episodes next week so the RED SPARROW and A WRINKLE IN TIME episodes don't arrive via your preferred podcast service more than a month after they've opened.  We'll also be doing our first episode devoted to a non-current film, but I'll wait to reveal what it will be.

Upcoming episodes:

-March 21: ANNIHILATION and our recommendations segment
-March 23: GAME NIGHT and a discussion about the ideal theatrical experience
-March 28: RED SPARROW and our recommendations segment

Filmbound - Episode 6: Black Panther

One of the tricky things about developing and planning the FILMBOUND podcast has been determining the release schedule.  Originally I thought we'd feature two films, utilize a third segment per episode, and release twice a month.  After our first recording session and my time editing the initial batch of episodes, it seemed like we'd be better off releasing weekly and focusing on one film, plus devoting additional time for recommendations or a topical discussion.  The catch, though, is that recording once a month and distributing the episodes over four weeks has meant that the films being discussed have already been in theaters for three or four weeks, which seems like an eternity in the front-loaded film conversations online.  Will EARLY MAN, the film featured in next week's episode 7, still be in theaters by the time our discussion becomes available?  Then again, it's not as though these episodes have an expiration date on them. 

While the studios and theaters cycle films through the system at an increasingly rapid pace, I recognize that the average moviegoer isn't seeing these films on the same kind of schedule.  Nevertheless, we're working on trying to shrink that gap a little when we record in March, although in most cases we're probably going to have about three weeks between a film's opening day and its episode release.  With BLACK PANTHER, the featured film on episode 6, that isn't a big deal as the blockbuster continues to dominate film discussions.



Upcoming episodes

-March 14: EARLY MAN and a discussion about the concept of cinematic guilty pleasures
-March 21: ANNIHILATION and our recommendations segment

February 2018 Film Log

My number of films seen in February was lagging until I made the foolish (from the standpoint of all the MBA classwork I needed to complete) choice to attend nine screenings in the Wexner Center for the Arts' Cinema Revival program on the month's last weekend.  While I felt stressed to get all that homework done, gorging on old movies that looked and sounded fantastic was helpful in clearing my head before diving back into researching the Chinese car market.

I will note that my ratings for the Jean Renoir and Claire Denis films may strike some of you as far too low.  I'll simply say that THE CRIME OF MONSIEUR LANGE caught me when I was feeling somewhat drowsy and I wasn't entirely sure what to make of TROUBLE EVERY DAY other than noting that is a singular film.  I also wasn't completely certain how I felt about KING OF HEARTS because of its whimsical treatment of how to act in the face of war, but ultimately I found myself willing to let it work on its level.  I revisited BLACK PANTHER mainly because I didn't trust my initial reaction seeing it the Thursday night before the official opening day.  (The screening was way less than ideal as the theater was extraordinarily warm, a young child wailed through early portions, and the person next to me regularly checked his super-bright smartphone and still had it shining when he turned it over to rest on his leg.)

While it doesn't have anything to do with the film log below, this month I was quoted in an article in The Ringer entitled "The Delayed Gratification of Midwest Oscar Season."

-The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (Nathan Juran, 1958): B-

-The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood, 2018): C

-2018 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Animation: (Various artists, 2018): B-
     Includes:
     -Dear Basketball (Glen Keane, 2017)
     -Negative Space (Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter, 2017)
     -LOU (Dave Mullins, 2017)
     -Revolting Rhymes Part One (Jan Lachauer, Jakob Schuh, and Bin-Han To,
      2016)
     -Garden Party (Florian Babikian, Vincent Bayoux, Victor Caire, Théophile
      Dufresne, Gabriel Grapperon, and Lucas Navarro, 2017)
     -Lost Property Office (Daniel Agdag, 2017)
     -Weeds (Kevin Hudson, 2017)
     -Achoo (Lucas Boutrot, Élise Carret, Maoris Creantor, Pierre Hubert, Camille
      Lacroix, and Charlotte Perroux, 2018)

-Black Panther (Ryan Coogler, 2018): B -- first and second viewings

-The Cloverfield Paradox (Julius Onah, 2018): C- -- HD stream

-The Crime of Monsieur Lange (Le crime de Monsieur Lange) (Jean Renoir, 1936): B-

-Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995): A -- repeat viewing (first theatrical viewing)

-Dementia 13 (Director's Cut) (Francis Ford Coppola, 1963): B-

-Early Man (Nick Park, 2018): B-

-Fifty Shades Freed (James Foley, 2018): D

-Game Night (John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, 2018): B

-The Insult (L'insulte) (Ziad Doueiri, 2017): B+

-King of Hearts (Le roi de coeur) (Philippe de Broca, 1966): B-

-Monkey Business (Howard Hawks, 1952): A-

-Peter Rabbit (Will Gluck, 2018): C

-The Revolt of Mamie Stover (Raoul Walsh, 1956): B

-Tom Jones (Tony Richardson, 1963): B+

-Trouble Every Day (Claire Denis, 2001): B- -- 35mm print

Shorts compilation program:

-Saving Orphan Films: The Amateurs and Others
     -Home movie of French Quarter, New Orleans, before Katrina (Helen
     Hill, ca. 2002)
     -Venus and Adonis (J. V. D. Bucher and Harry Dunham, 1935)
     -The Inner World of Aphasia (Edward R. Feil and Naomi Feil, 1968)
     -Përjetësi (Eternity) (Dhimitër Anagnosti, 1973)
     -Long Binh Post Exchange [South Vietnam] (Marcellus Hartman, ca. 1971)
     -EPH 4/27/16 (Ephraim Horowitz, 1979)

Short:

-Lick the Star (Sofia Coppola, 1998): B

The top films new to me (current releases):

-The Insult (L'insulte)
-Game Night
-Black Panther
-Early Man

The top films new to me (repertory):

-Monkey Business
-Tom Jones
-The Revolt of Mamie Stover
-The Crime of Monsieur Lange (Le crime de Monsieur Lange)
-Dementia 13 (Director's Cut)

Viewing locations & formats:

-Theatrical viewings: 19 (DCP: 18, 35mm: 1)
-Home viewings: 1 (HD stream: 1)

February Totals:

-# of screenings: 20
-# of unique films seen: 17 features, 2 shorts compilation programs, and 1 short
-# of feature films new to me: 16

Year-to-date Totals:

-Theatrical viewings: 31 (DCP: 30, 35mm: 1) (includes one live performance)
-Home viewings: 7 (HD streams: 4, HD recordings: 2, DVD: 1)
-Live performances: 1

-# of screenings: 38
-Unique # of films seen: 34 features, 2 shorts compilation programs, and 1 short
-Unique # of feature films new to me: 32

Because it seems like the podcast got off the ground before this month, I almost forgot to mention that FILMBOUND, the podcast I'm doing with Paul Markoff, launched and has five episodes currently available.  Please check it out.

Finally, a dumb joke of mine became the most popular tweet I've posted and likely is responsible for an invitation to be interviewed on an entertainment program on state-run Turkish TV.

THE 15:17 TO PARIS should have ended with a photo of the actors who would have played the three leads

— Mark Pfeiffer (@markpfeiffer) February 11, 2018

Filmbound - Episode 5: The 15:17 to Paris

There's some nice synchronicity at work with releasing episode 5 of FILMBOUND as I'm headed to the True/False Film Festival.  This episode is focused on THE 15:17 TO PARIS, clearly a fictionalized narrative drama yet one that recreates real events with three of the people who played central roles in disrupting and stopping a terrorist attack on a train.  It's not as though Clint Eastwood has morphed into Abbas Kiarostami with his approach on this film, but it's a conceptually interesting, albeit dramatically inert, project that prompts good discussion.  We also mix it up, more than I expected, regarding the topic of spoilers in film criticism and in casual conversations about movies.

Upcoming episodes:

-March 7: BLACK PANTHER and our recommendations segment
-March 14: EARLY MAN and a discussion about the concept of cinematic guilty pleasures

Filmbound - Episode 4: Fifty Shades Freed

After recording the first three episodes of FILMBOUND, the new podcast I'm doing with Paul Markoff, we decided to make a minor tweak with the format and release schedule.  The good news is that a new episode discussing one film will be released weekly on Wednesdays rather than covering two films per show and releasing twice a month.  The idea is to deliver shorter episodes more regularly than long episodes less frequently.  Episode 4, which is focused on FIFTY SHADES FREED and features Oscar-related recommendations, follows this revised plan. 



Upcoming episodes and release dates are:

-February 28: THE 15:17 TO PARIS and a discussion about spoilers
-March 7: BLACK PANTHER and our recommendations segment
-March 14: EARLY MAN and a discussion about the concept of cinematic guilty pleasures

As we're recording once a month, there will be some lag between opening weekends for the films and when our episodes are released.  Anymore it feels like a film is old news a week after it has opened, but our hope is that, by providing more space between the availability of what we're covering and the episode releases, listeners will have had time to check out those films.  Although we may need to adapt to keep from getting too far behind, that's the idea.

Announcing new podcast Filmbound

Although our cable TV show NOW PLAYING has ended its run after 550 episodes, Paul Markoff and I are keeping the film conversations going with our new podcast FILMBOUND.  You can listen to and download episodes from the FILMBOUND site and also find them on iTunes and Google Play Music.  Subscribing gets new episodes to you as quickly as possible.  We've also submitted to be available on Spotify and the RadioPublic app, so if the show isn't at those locations when you read this, it should be there soon.



We have three episodes already available for you.  The first episode covers STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII - THE LAST JEDI, PADDINGTON 2, and a recommendations segment to touch on other films we've seen that are worth your attention.



Episode 2 features MOLLY'S GAME, PHANTOM THREAD, and a discussion about how to attract more ticket buyers to movie theaters when ticket sales are trending downward.



Our special edition episode 3 reveals our picks for the best films of 2017.

As this format is new to us, we're still figuring out how best to structure and release the episodes.  The initial idea was to record two episodes per month, with each episode covering two films.  To make episodes a little shorter and maintain a more regular and predictable release schedule, we may be switching to episodes that feature one film each and publishing weekly.  Stay tuned for updates, and enjoy the show.

January 2018 Film Log

With the TV show having completed its run, I'm no longer obligated to catch as many of the new releases as possible, although let's face it, I'm still likely to try to keep up.  Nevertheless, I do feel as though I have more time to watch whatever strikes me, which wasn't always the case when producing a half-hour show focused on the latest offerings every two weeks.

I'm not always good about posting snap reactions about what I've seen on Twitter, and while I'm trying to resurrect my Letterboxd account, I tend to fall behind on updating it.  So, I'm going to make the effort to publish a monthly log here, if just for my own sake.

For ease of browsing, here's an alphabetical list of the films I saw in January 2018:

-12 Strong (Nicolai Fuglsig, 2018): C-

-Caddyshack (Harold Ramis, 1980): B -- HD stream

-Call Me by Your Name (Luca Guadagnino, 2017): A-  -- DVD

-The Commuter (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2018): B

-The Hidden (Jack Sholder, 1987): C+ -- HD recording

-Hostiles (Scott Cooper, 2017): C-

-Insidious: The Last Key (Adam Robitel, 2018): C

-Lady on a Train (Charles David, 1945): B+ -- HD recording

-Mary and the Witch's Flower (Meari to majo no hana) (Hiromasa Yonebayashi, 2017): C+

-Memories of Murder (Salinui chueok) (Bong Joon-ho, 2003): B+  -- HD stream

-Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968): B+

-Paddington 2 (Paul King, 2017): A

-Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017): A -- first and second viewings

-Proud Mary (Babak Najafi, 2018): D+

-Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (Rian Johnson, 2017): A -- third viewing

-A Thousand Thoughts (Sam Green, 2018): A-

-Wormwood (Errol Morris, 2017): B+ -- HD stream

The top films new to me (current releases):

-Phantom Thread
-Paddington 2
-A Thousand Thoughts
-Call Me by Your Name
-Wormwood

The top films new to me (repertory):

-Memories of Murder (Salinui chueok)
-Night of the Living Dead
-Lady on a Train

Viewing locations & formats:

-Theatrical viewings: 12 (DCP: 12)
-Home viewings: 6 (HD streams: 3, HD recordings: 2, DVD: 1)
-Live performances: 1

Totals:

-# of screenings: 18
-# of films seen: 17
-# of films new to me: 16

One last and important piece of news: Paul Markoff and I have recorded our first three episodes of the new podcast.  Look for its launch early next week.

Now Playing 1997-2017

In March 1997 Paul Markoff and I produced, hosted, and recorded our first episode of NOW PLAYING. This movie review show was created to run on the public, educational, and governmental access channel WOCC TV3, which was funded by the city of Westerville and operated by the staff and students of Otterbein University.  On December 13, 2017 we recorded our 550th, and final, episode.

WOCC TV3 is ceasing operations at the end of this year, so as the cable channel shuts down, so has production of the TV show.  I think it’s fair to say that neither of us could have expected that for almost 21 full years we would be on TV, with complete editorial control, to discuss movies.  Much of the show was given to reviewing films playing on a few hundred or thousands of screens, but it's a point of pride that we were able to be a rare place on TV devoting a few minutes to show clips from and talk about less widely familiar titles such as HOLY MOTORS, ABOUT ELLY, and THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER.  We’ve been very fortunate to have the platform and privileged that anyone would take the time to watch.

Contrary to what some might think, making the bi-weekly, half-hour movie review show was not a full-time job for either of us. As an Otterbein employee helping with WOCC operations, I have been able to incorporate producing NOW PLAYING as a small part of my work day duties. Paul holds a full-time job elsewhere. It would have been understandable if changes in life circumstances and demands on time might have brought about this show’s end sooner, but both of us have remained committed to doing it because it’s something we enjoy.

Still, NOW PLAYING would not have been possible solely because of our dedication to making it.  The show also needed the colleagues who granted permission for it to go on the channel and provided other behind-the-scenes assistance, not to mention the students who have worked as crew members as part of their education. We’re thankful to them.

We’re also thankful for the viewers, some of whom we’ve met by chance around town. For various reasons NOW PLAYING was more of an old media program and had little internet presence, so we’ve neither had the positive nor negative interactions with our audience that we might have had if this show lived online.

While NOW PLAYING's final episode will run for a few more days, this is not the end of us talking about films for those who are interested in hearing what we have to say. We’re developing a podcast with a new, to-be-determined name and hope to start making it available in January.  More information about it will be published on this site as we figure out the future.

Whether you have agreed with our opinions or not, we hope you’ve been able to find some of your new favorite films through our discussions on NOW PLAYING. Thanks for watching.

The Post

THE POST (Steven Spielberg, 2017)

When the New York Times starts to publish reports from the Pentagon Papers in 1971, Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) bristles at the competition’s ability to break such big stories. In THE POST his newspaper is viewed as a local publication scratching for access to the President’s daughter’s wedding rather than a national outlet revealing how multiple administrations got the country involved with the Vietnam War. Even when the paper gets its hands on some pages from the classified Department of Defense studies, the Times is already ahead of them.

Opportunity arises when the Nixon administration pressures the Justice Department to impose an injunction blocking the Times from printing stories based on the Pentagon Papers. Post reporter Ben Bagdikian (Bob Odenkirk) tracks down the leaker, Daniel Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys), but as he and other writers and editorial staffers work furiously against the deadline, legal concerns may kill their pieces. It’s ultimately up to Post publisher Kay Graham (Meryl Streep), the first woman in the country to hold such a high role, to decide whether or not to risk going to press. Not only does she and others risk being charged with a felony and a prison sentence, but such an action could also drive investors to pull their funding of the Post’s initial public offering.

Collected with LINCOLN and BRIDGE OF SPIES, THE POST completes an unofficial American civics trilogy from director Steven Spielberg. All three films depict the struggle to live up to the country’s foundational ideals and the openness needed for a healthy democracy to function. The camera glides around the official and unofficial newsrooms, and telephones are like physical extensions emphasizing the connections to spread the information to the masses. Still, many of the most consequential conversations occur in confined spaces, marked by characters closing doors and showing how the biggest decisions are made by a select few out of view.

Spielberg ensures that this isn’t stodgy history about the importance of a free press. THE POST is paced, shot, and lit like a thriller. The delivery of a shoebox is fraught with the uncertainty of the explosiveness of its contents. Although a cardboard container wrapped in twine is less ornate than the Ark of the Covenant, the low angle opening of it is treated as though it too holds unimaginable power. When the printing press rumbles to life to produce the Post’s first Pentagon Papers story, Spielberg makes its strength known by showing items bouncing around on a desk like the ripples in a cup signalling a Tyrannosaurus rex’s arrival in JURASSIC PARK.

THE POST recognizes that rights are meaningful as long as they are exercised. In that way the film honors the people who jeopardized their well-being for the greater good. Hanks has grown to stand for Hollywood’s conception of American decency, a modern Jimmy Stewart, and although his newspaper editor acts with self-interest, his position is built upon principles he believes are essential to free society. His performance crackles with humor and righteousness, in part because Bradlee is privileged to be able to express himself unquestioningly. Streep is more reserved but no less determined. THE POST often shows how Graham is overwhelmed in rooms by men and how women are often split off from where power resides. Streep is so good at showing how her character thinks through the situation and stands up for her choices even as her board and advisers challenge her decisions. THE POST understands that bravery can take many forms, even if it’s merely ink on a page.

Grade: A

The Shape of Water

THE SHAPE OF WATER (Guillermo del Toro, 2017)

The life of a mute cleaning woman in the early 1960s changes dramatically when she encounters the strange creature being studied in THE SHAPE OF WATER. Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon) found an amphibian man (Doug Jones) in the rivers of South America and brings this great discovery to an aerospace facility in Baltimore with the intention of using it in research to assist the U.S. in the space race with the Soviet Union. While working the late shift there, Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) grows curious about this humanoid animal.

Injuries as an orphan have left Elisa unable to speak, but lacking a voice is no barrier to communicating with the amphibian man. Elisa feeds him hard-boiled eggs, plays him music, and teaches him signs. She is horrified by the abuse he receives from Strickland. When she overhears that the amphibian man is to be vivisected, Elisa is determined to break him out. She executes her plan with the help of her artist neighbor Giles (Richard Jenkins), co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer), and, to her surprise, Dr. Robert Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg), a Russian mole posing as an American researcher.

As strange as it sounds, THE SHAPE OF WATER might be thought of as AMÉLIE meets CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. Director and co-writer Guillermo del Toro’s ravishing film swirls together fantasy, romance, black-and-white Hollywood musicals, and old monster movies into a simple and oddly affecting love story. The film emphasizes the power of being seen and accepted as one is, even if in this instance half of the unlikely couple looks like the sort of abomination spoken of in legend to terrify children. Through the perspective of del Toro, whose fondness for monsters runs through his body of work, and Elisa, who can identify with feeling out of place, the amphibian man is not to be feared but empathized with. Alexandre Desplat’s lush score feeds the sense of longing that pumps through the lovelorn characters.

Hawkins grounds the film with the soft heart and dancer’s grace she brings to Elisa. THE SHAPE OF WATER hinges on her expressiveness. Listening and reacting are often said to be the most important parts of acting, and Hawkins does both beautifully as she manifests her emotions and thoughts through the looks she gives and the smoothness of her movements.

THE SHAPE OF WATER cuts to the feelings, working in broad strokes and bold colors. The visuals are drenched in gorgeous, storybook tones indicative of the time in which the film is set and its fairy tale qualities.

Grade: A

The Disaster Artist

THE DISASTER ARTIST (James Franco, 2017)

In TO DIE FOR Nicole Kidman’s aspiring TV news anchor is said to believe “you’re not really anybody in America unless you’re on TV.” For wannabe actor Tommy Wiseau (James Franco) in THE DISASTER ARTIST, the same sentiment applies to the movies. Tommy envisions himself as a to-be-discovered Hollywood star, but as much as he wants it, no one else sees this indeterminately-accented, much-older-than-he-claims oddball as a screen idol. Deep down Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) surely doubts Tommy’s ability to make it too, but the timid nineteen year-old can’t help but be won over by the enthusiasm and unself-consciousness of his new acting friend. Plus, Tommy has an apartment in Los Angeles that he offers to share with Greg if he’s willing to make the move from San Francisco.

Rejection comes frequently for them in Tinseltown, but Tommy knows how he can turn their dreams into reality. He will write and fund a movie called THE ROOM for them to make. It’s all terribly exciting even as it becomes clear during filming that Tommy’s ambition far exceeds his abilities and his ego is jeopardizing other opportunities for Greg. To most of the cast and crew, Tommy is a laughingstock, but Greg still feels obligated to defend his friend.

Plenty of bad independent films are made every year and go unremembered and unseen. THE DISASTER ARTIST, based on the book Sestero co-wrote about the making of THE ROOM, describes the conditions for creating a cult film howled at as one of the worst movies of the century. If it weren’t for Tommy’s willingness to promote it and, more importantly, the notorious reputation and mocking laughter it produced, his passion project would have suffered a similar fate as so many other forgotten indies. Rather than hide from the derisive acceptance of audiences, Tommy embraced his role, doing his weird laugh all the way to the bank.

Tommy’s utter ridiculousness and Franco’s spot-on impersonation never cease to be funny. He’s able to convey how Tommy’s strength of conviction, not to mention a lot of money, is generally enough to get people to execute the strange and nonsensical choices in his creative vision. Tommy isn’t especially charismatic, but Franco locates a certain charm in his flat delivery, even if it is just affirming to people that they can become stars. In fact, he may be more encouraging to those in his orbit because he’s so obviously out of his element. If this guy can get a movie made, who’s to say I can’t break into the industry?

Nevertheless, THE DISASTER ARTIST peddles a false inspirational story that settles uncomfortably. While there’s value in accomplishing what you set out to do, Tommy receives tarnished glory. He achieves fame and acceptance but at the cost of demeaning himself. THE DISASTER ARTIST doesn’t seem to see any problem with that. The misguided opening scene features celebrity testimonials regarding their enjoyment of THE ROOM. That section plays like the cool kids egging on an unpopular student to act foolishly for their amusement. I laughed quite a bit during THE DISASTER ARTIST and the incompetent film it recreates, but as director Franco comes up short in examining the thematic complexity.

Grade: B

Lady Bird

LADY BIRD (Greta Gerwig, 2017)

Strong-willed high school senior Christine McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) has a good idea of what she wants and is willing to pursue it tenaciously in the coming of age comedy LADY BIRD. Christine decides she would rather be known as Lady Bird and insists upon being called by the name she gives herself. When a boy captures her attention, be it sweet fellow thespian Danny O’Neill (Lucas Hedges) or budding anarchist Kyle Scheible (Timothée Chalamet), she focuses on him like a sniper. While she has a deep connection with best friend Julie (Beanie Feldstein), that relationship is susceptible to Lady Bird’s self-interested choices causing a rift.

Inevitably Lady Bird’s biggest conflicts are with her loving but equally resolute mother Marion (Laurie Metcalf), who is quick to call her out for real and perceived shortcomings. Lady Bird’s dad Larry (Tracy Letts) is a soft touch, so Marion’s demanding nature helps to balance the parental qualities their daughter needs as she moves toward independence, self-sufficiency, and, if Lady Bird has her wish, far away from Sacramento.

Greta Gerwig is already established as a talented actress with a flair for comedy. She co-wrote and starred in the exquisite FRANCES HA, and with LADY BIRD she expands upon her gifts in character creation as the writer and director. This sharply observed film understands the hair trigger emotional state of adolescence, particularly in that transitional period from high school to college and youth to young adulthood. The highs are higher, and the lows are lower. Lady Bird’s first kiss with Danny brings her the kind of overwhelming joy she can’t contain, but she plummets in an instant from that peak moment to the bottom of the valley when her mother chastises her for not putting away her clothes. Walking home alone after the kiss Ronan shows how Lady Bird is so happy she screams, covers her mouth, and doubles over, as if it’s only polite not to beam too much. That her unaware mother won’t let the feeling linger only increases the injury.

The loving tension in families, specifically between mothers and daughters, is central to LADY BIRD. The film opens with Lady Bird and Marion sleeping face to face in the same hotel bed and then bonding while listening to THE GRAPES OF WRATH on tape on the long drive home from college visits. They have a tight connection, yet that also means they can expertly press one another’s buttons and obliterate the peace that existed one second earlier. Lady Bird and Marion exchange cutting remarks while shopping for a dress in a thrift shop, but when Marion pulls the perfect one off the rack, they both light up like the noon sun.

Coming of age films are inclined to empathize more with the person growing up, but in LADY BIRD Gerwig fairly distributes the sense of who’s right and who’s wrong. Lady Bird can be an outspoken, self-centered brat, and Ronan leans in very humorously to the character’s attitude. She’s also more vulnerable than her exterior tends to reveal. Marion is tough, probably in an overcompensatory manner, but Gerwig’s screenplay and Metcalf’s performance detail how her sternness with Lady Bird comes from a good place and can be necessary.

LADY BIRD is a very funny movie with its witty dialogue and retroactively embarrassed observations of high school. The theater rehearsal scenes are the sort of thing that students would find fun in the moment and be mortified by in retrospect, especially if anyone not involved saw. The film also has a big heart for the complexity and challenges in being a teen and a parent, even if sometimes you can’t see the bigger picture until it’s in the past.

Grade: A

Mudbound

MUDBOUND (Dee Rees, 2017)

In MUDBOUND two families in the Mississippi delta farm the land, often with a great deal of difficulty, but while there is much they have in common in post-World War II America, their races make profound differences in how their lives unfold. Henry McAllan (Jason Clarke) moves his wife Laura (Carey Mulligan), their two daughters, and his racist father Pappy (Jonathan Banks), from Memphis flush with the expectations of what being a landowner will bring. They soon are faced with the hard reality that the grueling labor and stark living conditions aren’t entirely what Henry had in mind when he purchased the property. Nearby with a wife Florence (Mary J. Blige) and three children is Hap Jackson (Rob Morgan), a tenant farmer who wishes to own the land that his descendants worked as slaves.

Henry’s brother Jamie (Garrett Hedlund) and Hap’s son Ronsel (Jason Mitchell) enlist when the time comes for the United States to enter the Second World War, and both come back seeing things differently. Ronsel has become accustomed to being treated more equally. He also leaves behind a German woman for whom he was great affection and seems restless back home. Jamie is haunted by the death he witnessed in wartime and often gets drunk to assuage the pain. The two bond over what they saw and did in the European theater even as such chumminess draws negative attention from the locals.

MUDBOUND’s screenplay by Virgil Williams and director Dee Rees fluidly shifts among perspectives through weary narration stained with the disappointment and bitterness that colors the day-to-day realities and futures for these characters. All wish for something better but know that they seem doomed to be stuck in the mire.

Racism exerts a strong pull on what transpires, and MUDBOUND demonstrates how it destroys through overt and less obvious guises. Pappy’s virulent strain of hatred is the most appalling and easiest to condemn. Its consequences for those he targets and his own corroded soul are readily apparent. Rees also shows how a quieter, less loud form of racism tips the power dynamic. Henry does not make explicit threats or direct disgusting comments toward Hap and his wife, yet they know that if they don’t heed his requests, he won’t continue to ask nicely. Their interests are subservient to his, whether it’s jeopardizing their health or taking leave from their family to attend to his.

While MUDBOUND observes that the muck in this mindset drags everyone down, it also spots the potency of shared experiences to foster understanding that breaks down barriers. Hedlund and Mitchell give the richest performances, in part because their characters breach what separates the others.

Grade: A-

Justice League

JUSTICE LEAGUE (Zack Snyder, 2017)

Superman (Henry Cavill) is dead, and a villain too strong for any other superhero to stop threatens to destroy the planet in JUSTICE LEAGUE. Thousands of years ago a coalition of gods, superheroes, and humans defeated Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds). Different parts of the alliance were responsible for hiding and protecting three cubes, but the Mother Boxes are no longer dormant. Their awakening draws Steppenwolf’s return to Earth so he can find and unify the Mother Boxes in his quest for immense power.

Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) know that they need assistance in stopping the pending apocalypse. Bruce Wayne’s search for other superheroes to join the team leads him to Barry Allen (Ezra Miller), a university student known as The Flash for his superhuman speed, and Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa), whose Atlantean heritage and abilities pertaining to water cause him to go by Aquaman. Diana Prince works on bringing into the fold Victor Stone (Ray Fisher), a former athletic star referred to as Cyborg because of his post-accident cybernetic reconstruction.

JUSTICE LEAGUE is the DC Extended Universe’s equivalent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s THE AVENGERS. While online fandoms engage in heated battles regarding which is superior, such distinctions seem increasingly silly when the two AVENGERS films and JUSTICE LEAGUE share Joss Whedon as a creative force behind both. As viewers it’s impossible to know how much influence Whedon wielded on the final theatrical version of JUSTICE LEAGUE, as he was brought in for reshoots and post-production while director Zack Snyder took time off to deal with family tragedy. Nevertheless, the comedic sensibility and overall lighter feel, especially in comparison to the brooding verging on nihilistic DC films, seem attributable to Whedon, who gets a co-screenwriter credit with Chris Terrio. It’s a solid comic book-like joke when The Flash pushes a few people in a truck to safety and then looks to see that Superman has relocated an entire building.

Although JUSTICE LEAGUE isn’t as oppressive in tone or visual palette--this film looks notably brighter and more colorful than BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE--it has the personality of an instruction manual. This is a schematic assembly more than a story, and the lengthy build-up culminates in a third act battle that, like many of its superhero film predecessors, can seem interminable and less consequential because it’s simply a stepping stone to the next three years of sequels. JUSTICE LEAGUE can stand as a self-contained film, but it plays as an enormously expensive TV episode.

Gadot remains the best thing about the current DC films. While her character is an immortal, she brings the humanity lacking amid the noise and darkness. Miller’s Flash provides winning comic relief. Still, with so many superheroes to devote time to, not to mention their primary task, JUSTICE LEAGUE doesn’t accrue a lot of valuable character moments so much as it teases what you can get when each returns to their individual showcases.

Grade: C

Goodbye Christopher Robin

GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN (Simon Curtis, 2017)

Wrestling with how to appreciate a work of art when the artist’s actions range from objectionable to abhorrent is nothing new, but in light of the number of sexual misconduct and assault allegations emerging in creative communities, such a question seems particularly worthy of consideration right now. Because 2017 seems to be the year of explaining why we can’t have nice things, along comes GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN to potentially ruin Winnie the Pooh. The author behind the beloved character didn’t do anything as horrid as what is dominating today’s entertainment news, but becoming aware of how he exploited his son in promoting the Pooh books introduces some acidity into the gentle mystique around them.

Years after serving during World War I, writer A.A. Milne (Domnhall Gleeson), who often goes by the nickname Blue, remains haunted by the experience. Blue wishes to get out of the city decides that he, his wife Daphne (Margot Robbie), and their eight-year-old son Christopher Robin (Will Tilston), who they call Billy Moon, will move from London to the countryside. The new home in Sussex isn’t the cure-all for what ails him, though. Frustrated with his inability to work, Daphne leaves and vows not to return until he writes again.

Neither Blue nor Daphne are the most active parent, leaving the child care to the nanny Olive (Kelly Macdonald), who Billy is attached to like a mother. When Olive needs to leave to care for her ill mother, Blue is left to watch over the boy for awhile. This time could have been yet another obstacle to his writing, but instead it inspires his most enduring work. Their walks in the woods and Billy’s play with stuffed animals, including a yellow teddy bear named Edward, generates a popular poem and then the Winnie the Pooh books. Daphne comes back home, and the works are massively successful. The public’s love for the books also prompts a keen interest in the real Christopher Robin. The Milnes eagerly involve Billy in the publicity cycle.

GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN attempts to tell a rather acrid tale within a placid, storybook world. The prim and proper surface disguises the sourness of the material. It’s like taking a drink of what one thinks is light lemonade and discovering it is lemon concentrate. As directed by Simon Curtis, Gleeson and Robbie appear to be playing very loving and very emotionally distant parents. The actors aren’t at fault for the lack of consistency in which they interact with their screen son. Rather, Curtis seems to want to resist the truth as represented in the screenplay while achieving some measure of vindication on Billy’s behalf. Macdonald, playing a tender and concerned motherly stand-in, is the only one who comes across with any awareness of what is happening in this household.

It doesn’t help that GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN lacks a perspective. This isn’t Milne’s reckoning of his shortcomings as a father. Nor is the film viewed from Billy’s side as a kid or an 18-year-old who resents how the books affected his life. Curtis sands off the rough edges and tries to be sympathetic to father and son, but it simply isn’t credible in the way he tells is, especially the especially phony-seeming ending.

Whether Curtis deserves all the blame or if some can be attributed to Frank Cottrell Boyce and Simon Vaughan’s screenplay is difficult to know, but it is easy to see how GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN could have been much different in someone else’s hands. A hypothetical Terry Gilliam version might have played up the phantasmagoric fairy tale qualities of a child whose imagination is plundered for his father’s creative renewal and whose odyssey through the media circus denies his real self. Another director might have focused on how the trauma of war lingers long beyond the battlefield. Yet another might have zeroed in on the public’s weird fascination with child stars, made all the stranger here because Billy is the basis for a fictional book character. GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN could have rich thematic layers, but Curtis settles on a bland, psychologically confused way of exploring them.

Grade: C-

Murder on the Orient Express

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (Kenneth Branagh, 2017)

The celebrated Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) expects a brief respite from sleuthing on a three-day luxury train ride from Istanbul to London, but in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS he finds himself confronted with solving the killing of a fellow passenger. The murdered man is Samuel Ratchett (Johnny Depp), an American businessman of questionable repute who tried to hire Poirot to protect him during the journey. As the suspect assuredly must be on board the express train, the case would seem to be an easy one to crack for someone with his considerable talents, but it proves to be possibly the greatest challenge of his career.

The social statuses of the passengers complicates the investigation, as who could imagine such esteemed or responsible people descending to act so primitively. Nevertheless, among those to be questioned are the husband-seeking socialite Caroline Hubbard (Michelle Pfeiffer), the governess Mary Debenham (Daisy Ridley), Dr. Arbuthnot (Leslie Odom Jr.), Princess Dragomiroff (Judi Dench), missionary Pilar Estravados (Penélope Cruz), Ratchett’s associate Hector MacQueen (Josh Gad), and the temperamental Count Rudolph Andrenyi (Sergei Polunin) and his reclusive wife Countess Helena Andrenyi (Lucy Boynton). Not to be overlooked is Bouc (Tom Bateman), Poirot’s roguish friend and the director of the Orient Express. Tensions run high among the riders as an avalanche derails the train, leaving them isolated with the unknown murderer until help can arrive.

As director, Branagh packs the compartments with stars, recognizable faces, and the unfamiliar as we attempt to uncover the truth behind the murder alongside his prominently moustached detective. MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS is a decidedly old-fashioned film and one that has been adapted often enough from the Agatha Christie mystery that for some there is no secret in the famous ending of this whodunit. Whether you know what awaits at the big reveal or not, the film’s success hinges on the interactions leading to it.

In that regard, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS can be a bit of a mixed bag. Michael Green’s screenplay unfolds in basic fashion, with Poirot interviewing one person, then the next, and so on. There’s a lot of shoe leather, and with so many suspects to interrogate, the film can ease into a pattern that lulls like the rhythmic clatter of a train on the tracks. Moving action outside the train minimizes the squeeze all parties should feel either as potential victims or as an unmasked killer. The solution should land with a more dramatic flourish instead of the lengthy but momentum-sapping explanation that details the logic and deduction.

While the film is less than fully gratifying as a mystery, Branagh uses the camera with big and bold movements and painterly framing, such as the scene when all the suspects are arranged as if in an elegant police line-up. His Poirot is also more vulnerable than the brilliant character can be portrayed. Although done with a much softer touch implicating the viewers than provocateurs like Lars von Trier and Michael Haneke wield, Branagh broaches the topic of whether a murder, even a fictional one, should be treated as light entertainment. A life has been lost, and the soul of the perpetrator is soiled for eternity. The most surprising quality in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS is not putting the pieces of the puzzle together but examining why doing so is attractive in the first place.

Grade: B-

A Bad Moms Christmas

A BAD MOMS CHRISTMAS (Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, 2017)

Even those families with relatively low levels of dysfunction can find the holidays to be stressful and chaotic. For the three female heads of households in A BAD MOMS CHRISTMAS, the festive time of year ramps up the burdens they feel. Amy (Mila Kunis), Kiki (Kristen Bell), and Carla (Kathryn Hahn) vow to take Christmas back this season, but the pledge faces a tough challenge when each of their mothers turn up on their doorsteps unexpectedly or unexpectedly early.

Amy desires a low-key Christmas with her kids and boyfriend’s family, but that plan disintegrates when her demanding mother Ruth (Christine Baranski) and agreeable father Hank (Peter Gallagher) show up with a punishing number of activities and expectations in the week’s lead-up to the big day. Before Kiki is ready, her clingy mother Sandy (Cheryl Hines) arrives and disrupts the home with her creepy lack of boundaries. Carla’s freewheeling mother Isis (Susan Sarandon) usually only turns up when she needs money, so Carla is suspicious of what brings her to Chicago after years of not seeing her.

Like BAD MOMS, its Christmas sequel spots and expresses real frustrations that mothers deal with. Much of the perceived success of holiday gatherings does tend to fall on such women, and the pressure and judgment felt from their own mothers, whether well-meaning or not, adds to the burden. While A BAD MOMS CHRISTMAS identifies something emotionally and interpersonally true, the film is anything but a high-striving overachiever in finding humor in the stress. Writer-directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore lazily cobble together a bunch of cliches and rely heavily on music montages to pad out the running time. Much of the comedy is supposed to derive from suburban, middle class women using stereotypically unladylike language, but at this point in pop culture, it’s hardly as subversive or shocking as the filmmakers would have us believe.

The previous film disappointed by giving its three funny stars little to do that was actually funny. A BAD MOMS CHRISTMAS doubles that, giving six actresses with comedic chops cut-rate fodder from which they are tasked to make an extravagant feast. Kunis gets a few funny moments in displaying her character’s humiliation. Bell hits the mark when trying to strike a balance in putting up with her mother and calling her out when necessary. Hahn sometimes connects with Carla’s unfiltered comments. Baranski, Hines, and Sarandon get the occasional good line, but overall the starpower in the film greatly exceeds the dimness of the jokes.

Grade: C-

Buster's Mal Heart

BUSTER’S MAL HEART (Sarah Adina Smith, 2016)

For five years the scraggly-bearded mountain man dubbed Buster mostly eludes being spotted as he scavenges in the wilderness during the warm months and breaks into Montana vacation homes when the weather turns cold. BUSTER’S MAL HEART alternates between the police chasing him toward a showdown, the life he had before he withdrew from society, and his time at sea.

Prior to going off the grid, this fringe figure was known as Jonah (Rami Malek), a late-night hotel concierge with a wife, Marty (Kate Lyn Sheil), and a two-year-old daughter. They live with her parents in a tense arrangement, so he dreams of one day buying some property and living off the land. One night at work someone proclaiming himself The Last Free Man (DJ Qualls) approaches Jonah about the societal illusion and the collapse in a few years with Y2K. Jonah may or may not fully buy into talk of a second inversion and how to escape the system, but he is happy to listen to what this stranger has to say.

Like MR. ROBOT, a TV series that features Malek, BUSTER’S MAL HEART is steeped in a paranoid world in which mysterious forces are at work behind the scenes manipulating the rest of us. Writer-director Sarah Adina Smith’s film is less plot-driven and more opaque, something along the lines of Shane Carruth’s mindbender UPSTREAM COLOR. The dreamy quality running through BUSTER’S MAL HEART isn’t so abstract to be thoroughly confounding, yet the resolution amount to less than the enigmatic elements trying to be pieced together. Smith employs religious symbolism in telling the main character’s tale, although this Jonah only seems fleetingly connected to his Biblical namesake.

Malek’s expressiveness performs the hard work of convincing that this weary family man could fracture, disappear into the countryside, and become the stuff of local legend. His eyes reveal how weighed down he is by frustrations of what his circumstances offer and the need to trick his body into getting a decent rest while the sun is out. They reveal Jonah’s internal vacancy and the opportunity for anyone to fill him up with even a halfway persuasive argument. Malek voices skepticism while those eyes appear to plead for the answers he hasn’t found. Even after his conversion of sorts in reverting to a more animalistic state, his civilized humanity shines through when face to face with those who assumes are blind to his reality.

BUSTER’S MAL HEART likely doesn’t succeed if the flashbacks with Jonah’s family weren’t so effective. Malek, Sheil, and Sukha Belle Potter as their daughter Roxy have minimal moments to flesh out a loving relationship facing the strains from personal finances, especially as they relate to living situation and expectations. The tenderness in their interactions and the rawness between Malek and Sheil emphasize the enormous support in this unit perceived to be threatened by those in the shadows.

Grade: B-

Only the Brave

ONLY THE BRAVE (Joseph Kosinski, 2017)

In ONLY THE BRAVE Eric Marsh (Josh Brolin) oversees a unit within the Prescott, Arizona Fire Department that fights wildfires, but because they are not certified at the highest level, they are relegated to tasks he feels the team is overqualified for. With the help of the department’s Duane Stinebrink (Jeff Bridges), Eric gets his chance to get the team to the level of hotshots. He also convinces the mayor that as hotshots they'll earn more for hire to other communities than it costs to maintain the team. Among the firefighters is Brendan McDonough (Miles Teller), a burnout who says he’s determined to turn around his life after fathering a daughter.

ONLY THE BRAVE holds up the honor and dignity of a group working tirelessly and selflessly toward a common cause. Although the men may carry themselves with a certain swagger, the danger in what they do is always apparent to them and the loved ones worrying as they rush off to stop a big conflagration. While Ken Nolan and Eric Warren Springer’s screenplay holds these men up as heroes, it doesn’t do so at the expense of portraying their flaws and the tensions among them. These guys must rely on each other, but the personality clashes and self-destructive behaviors that exist in every team are just as visible here. Such a large crew can make it difficult to get to know all of them beyond a defining trait or two, which is why Marsh, McDonough, and Taylor Kitsch’s Chris MacKenzie, the wilder spirit in this bunch, receive the majority of the focus. Still, ONLY THE BRAVE does well at providing glimpses of those who are no less important than the ones who dominate the story.

Director Joseph Kosinski shoots the firefighting scene with attention to the technical requirements and strategy involved in taming the flames gobbling up the land before they reach homes. The hotshots literally fight fire with fire, which sounds counterintuitive but proves to be a remarkably effective approach as long as the situation has been properly assessed. ONLY THE BRAVE houses deep respect for the people who do this work, and in explaining how they achieve positive results, it honors all those whose accumulated knowledge and losses allow for such remarkable achievements now.

It’s fair to assume that a film about civic protectors probably contains its share of tragedy. ONLY THE BRAVE fits into the tradition of memorialization for such people. Rather than doing so with a plaque, the moving images, in the literal and metaphorical senses, depict what some are willing to risk for the safety of all. Kosinski handles the inevitable scene of informing loved ones about deaths on the job with delicacy and power combining the joy and jealousy for those who survived and anger and sorrow on the part of those who don’t come home. There can be a tendency for empty valorization of sacrifice, as though death in service makes it more acceptable while denying the impact that resonates through those left behind. ONLY THE BRAVE acknowledges the heroism but respects that all of the ringing words of praise can never make up for what is given.

Grade: B