The Gentlemen

First Hit: A few scenes were to fun watch, but as a film, it was poorly constructed.

I’ve never seen a Guy Ritchie film that I thought was constructed with thoughtfulness and skill. He either attempts to cover too much ground or is more inclined to use pop and dazzle to engage the audience.

In this film, he has to use narration throughout to create, set up, and deliver the story. He hides his inability to write a good screenplay by making the narration of his story part of the storyline his characters say to each other.

Specifically, watch most of the scenes between a dirt-digger detective and reporter Fletcher (Hugh Grant and Ray (Charlie Hunnam). Ray is the right-hand man and consigliere for Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), the weed lord of England. Because Fletcher is attempting to blackmail Mickey and Ray, he explains the whole story to the theater’s audience by reading the screenplay with Ray.

This is the main issue with this film. Having to rely on this narration to provide a lot of the movie’s context is troubling. However, I will say the way it is done here is better than having an unknown voice over-explanation.

The story as I saw it, was that Mickey wants to sell his vast marijuana growing and distribution empire to Matthew (Jeremy Strong). The reason for selling was unclear and unconvincing. Matthew is a wealthy eccentric Englishman who is intrigued with the possibility of buying this empire for $400M. However, it is a lot of money, and to drive the price down, Matthew engages “Dry Eye” (Henry Golding and a term used for Asians). Dry Eye makes an offer that Mickey scoffs at, but because the offer to sell to Matthew was supposed to be secret, Mickey is now on guard.

Then the story adds complexity because we learn that Matthew and Dry Eye are working some sort of side deal to assist each other in reducing the price, but each plans to screw the other as well.

Adding to this is Fletcher, who, through his detective work, documents all the goings-on between all the parties, which led to the script he reads from. His hopes are to sell the screenplay to Mickey and Ray for $20M so that Mickey and Ray will know all the subversive planning that is going on to drive the price down.

The most fun part of the film is when we have scenes with Coach (Colin Farrell). His group of boys is caught raising havoc in one of Mickey’s underground farms, so he owes Mickey and Ray. The payback to Ray and Mickey are amusing and fun to watch.

Confused? One could be, but this convoluted story is kept on track by the narration scenes. This saves the film from being a total disaster and it also makes it a poorly constructed film.

Anyway, there are lots of side plots and stories in this movie, including Mickey’s wife, Rosalind Pearson (Michelle Dockery). She’s supposed to be the most magnificent woman in the world, but it is only in the eyes of the beholder. There is the newspaper owner who hired Fletcher. There is Lord George (Tom Wu), head dragon, heroin distributor who crosses Mickey.

The movie has lots of twists that are used for creating interest and complexity, and in some cases, it works, but mostly it doesn’t.

McConaughey's role in this makes me wonder. At times he selects fantastic parts like in film Dallas Buyer’s Club and other times, he chooses roles like this one. He does it well enough, but it’s really a role of false, blustery, and cool-man behavior. Hunnam is outstanding as Ray, Mickey’s right-hand man. Grant is oddly compelling as a bad guy. I’ve not seen him recently, and seeing him here was fun. Farrell is brilliant as the Coach of a group of guys and honest to his word. Actually, I liked his character and role the best of all. Dockery is okay as Mickey’s wife and auto builder entrepreneur. Strong is mediocre as the wealthy and odd Englishman who wants to buy Mickey’s empire. Golding is formidable as Dry Eye, a youngish Asian who wants to make his mark. Wu was perfect as the wry old heroin distributor. Ritchie wrote and directed this film, and as I’ve indicated, Guy has little to offer in the realm of filmmaking and his background in music videos is where his talent may lay.

Overall:  Although entertaining at times, being so convoluted the required narration means the story and film needs additional work.

Dumbo

First Hit: Overdone, overreaching, and overproduced leaving little to the imagination — dumb.

Director Tim Burton has a habit of creating worlds and often what we see is his complete vision. He tidies the storyline in such a way that the audience can only watch and not imagine themselves. With fantasy, I think it is important to leave things to the imagination.

With Dumbo he’s created a world where we have to feel sorry for the Medici Circus because it has fallen on hard times. The circus is run by Max Medici (Danny DeVito). The train cars are perfectly faded. There is the strong man who is also the accountant, as well as assorted clowns, snake charmer, and other mixed people. The only animals that are left in this dilapidated circus are dogs with colored fur and elephants.

Two children are running around the circus, Millie and Joe Farrier (Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins respectively). They are being taken care of because their mother has died and their father, Holt (Collin Farrell), had to leave the circus to fight in the war.

Upon the father’s return, he’s missing an arm which adds to the depressing scene. Holt’s act with the circus was riding horses, and when he returned with one arm, he discovered the horses were already sold. He’d hoped he’d do a one arm riding act. Max tells Holt his new job will be to tend the elephants, including the new huge one who is pregnant.

When the elephant gives birth, they find out the baby elephant has enormous, I mean really huge, ears which makes him the laughing stock of the circus audience. Here is where I see a mistake, why is the audience laughing? It is merely a ploy used to make everyone feel even more bad for the Medici Circus clan.

The children are fascinated by the big-eared pachyderm, and through an accident of inhaling a feather, Dumbo sneezes and ends up leaving the ground. Soon the kids discover they can induce Dumbo to fly by flapping his ears and coaxed by a feather.

The circus is about to fold when evil villain V.A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton) and his girlfriend, Collette Marchant (Eva Green) come to see the flying elephant. Vandevere likes what he sees and buys the Medici Circus, and now everyone works for Vandevere.

Unfortunately, V.A.’s money man J. Griffin Remington (Alan Arkin) puts conditions on V.A. and Dumbo’s performance. This enhances the sadness because Dumbo’s mom is taken away again and now the Medici Circus team wants to retaliate.

You can easily imagine what happens. The whole story is to make everyone feel bad, then let Dumbo save the day along with the kids.

The most positive aspect of this film was the quality of the pictures. Burton does this well, and he’s to be commended for this, but otherwise, the movie is predictable and sadly lacking soul. The computer-generated Dumbo was a work of thoughtful art, but at times, he seemed to human-like.

Farrell was reasonably adequate to the role, but there was nothing for him to stretch into and make it his own. Keaton was OK as the villain, he’s good at it. DeVito was charming as the small circus owner, but I found it hard to believe he owned or ran the circus. The actual running of the circus, like putting up tents, seemed to happen through magic. BTW: The tent poles were longer than a train car, so I kept wondering how did they get them from place to place? Parker was stunning. Her intelligence and maturity were well beyond the child character she played. She embraced this role and was the best thing in the film. Hobbins was equal to the task as well, and it is his and Parker’s performances that kept me engaged. Green was excellent and put something of herself into this role and made it work. Arkin was sardonically perfect for this role as an arrogant banker and money man. Ehren Kruger wrote the screenplay which seemed too buttoned up and left little to the imagination. Burton was himself. His visuals were good and generally dark in character. I also thought that Vandevere’s “Dreamworld” was overdone and took the film too far out of any sense of wanting this film to be real and down to earth.

Overall: Everything was perfect and the way it was to be seen, therefore when I left the theater, nothing came with me.

Widows

First Hit: Despite all the strong actors, just didn’t think this film held together very well.

In the attempt to put complexity in this story, director Steve McQueen mishandled this screenplay. The issue with the story is that to make the wives of thieves the heroes, they create a story about a crime boss wanting stolen money back from the wives who, for the most part, knew little of their husbands ventures. I don’t think the story needed to be this overly complicated to make a film about four women who become heroes of a heist. The story tried to make us care and it didn't work.

Veronica (Viola Davis) is married to Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) who heads up a group of guys he pulls jobs with. Florek (Joe Bernthal), Carlos (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and Jimmy Nunn (Coburn Goss) are killed, along with Harry, during a job when they rob Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry) a Chicago crime boss. Their significant others, Veronica, Linda (Michelle Rodriguez), Amanda (Carrie Coon), and Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) are being pressured to return the money by Jamal and his strong arm son Jatemme (Daniel Kaluuya). The supposed reason is that this money was going to be used by Jamal to finance his campaign to become alderman.

Jamal is running for alderman against a family dynasty, the Mulligans. Outgoing Tom (Robert Duvall) is very much the prototypical version of an Irish Chicago alderman; controlling, suppressing anyone or anything that takes his control away and wanting to keep his meal ticket in place by having his son Jack (Colin Farrell) run for the office.

Pressed by both Jamal and his strong arm lackey son, Jatemme , Veronica needs to find a way to pay back the $2 million. She finds a detailed plan that Harry created to make a heist that will net them $3 million after they pay back the $2 million their husbands stole from Jamal.

There are amusing times when the women have to buy a getaway car and guns, but the planning and getting everyone on the same page it was the seriousness of Veronica.

There are other complications, including one of the widows is hesitant to participate, and when Veronica and Harry’s driver, whom she recruited to drive their getaway car, gets killed by Jatemme, they hire Belle (Cynthia Erivo) who is Linda’s babysitter.

There’s a twist with Amanda and why she doesn’t participate in the robbery with the other widows and it is an odd reveal.

Davis was OK as the lead widow. I didn’t sense or feel a real connection with her husband Harry. Neeson was mediocre as the double-crossing husband and thief. Rodriguez was strong as the woman who wanted to show up and make things happen. Debicki was excellent as the woman tired of being abused and taking charge of her life and becoming a critical part of the widows team. Erivo was very good as the babysitter pressed into action as driver. Duvall is strong as a character he embodies in many roles, controlling, mean, and cantankerous. Kaluuya was excellent as the over the top, mean, strong arm enforcer. Coon was OK as the widow that doesn’t participate in the robbery and has a secret. Henry was good as the crime boss wanting a piece of the semi-legitimate pie the alderman’s post would give him. Farrell was OK as the reluctant son who was being pressed into running as alderman, thereby keeping the family tradition alive. Steve McQueen and Gillian Flynn wrote this somewhat misguided screenplay. The misguidedness led to McQueen’s mediocre direction.

Overall: Some of the scenes didn’t fit together well and seemed pressed, while the overall film lacked cohesiveness.

Roman J. Israel, Esq.

First Hit:  I enjoyed the innocence, charm , clumsiness, and brilliance of Denzel Washington’s Israel.

Roman J. Israel, Esq. (Washington) is a savant in knowing civil law. Teamed with his former professor, who is the court face of this law firm, Israel is the brilliant man behind the curtain. Israel has spent his entire career at a desk in the office preparing all the paperwork and briefs for his partner.

One day his partner has a heart attack and passes away. When Israel goes to the office he's greeted by Lynn (Amanda Warren), his partner’s daughter. She tells him the firm is broke and defunct. He’s asked to get a continuance for all the pending court cases, but instead, he goes to court and starts arguing the cases and immediately gets hit with a contempt of court citation because he lacks tact and courtroom experience.

The firm is being swallowed-up by a law firm run by George Pierce (Colin Farrell). Pierce offers Israel a job doing what he’s been doing for more money and initially Israel says no. Discovering that he’s stuck in the 1970’s, as reflected by his taste in music, electronics, and clothing, and has poor communication skills, he cannot get a job.

Forced to make some money, he takes Pierce's up on his offer and becomes the office odd-ball. But some soon learn just how brilliant he is and how he set the tone for civil rights law during his career. In an opportunity to address a local ACLU group led by Maya Alston (Carmen Ejogo), he again discovers how misplaced his views can be to a young group of activists.

As he sees his life careening out of the mental box he’s lived in, he makes one attempt to move into the 21st century. In doing so, he breaks attorney / client privilege and turns in the name of a trigger man in a murder robbery. Collecting reward money, he begins to treat himself.

This is where we get to watch Washington do his magic in acting. He makes the constant shifting between be the 70’s boxed-up guy and a modern guy taking advantage of the world. It's sublime.

Of course, as a Hollywood movie would do, all this catches up with Roman and his way of making it right and how Pierce honors this choice is touching.

Washington is brilliant. He climbs into role and the character with a clear understanding of making this part really work. Farrell is wonderful as the quick smart lawyer and business owner. The moments where he shows us and Israel his humanness is just enough to make it all work. Ejogo was fantastic. She made me believe she loved what she did and that she knew the civil rights history Israel brought to her life. Dan Gilroy wrote and directed this film. I loved the look and feel he brought to Israel as a throw-back to today’s world.

Overall:  I liked the story and thought it worked well.

The Beguiled

Overall:  This film was a slow-moving beast that was ultimately unsatisfying.

With a cast consisting of Nicole Kidman (as Miss Martha), Colin Farrell (as Corporal McBurney), Kirsten Dunst (as Edwina), Elle Fanning (as Alicia) and Oona Laurence (as Amy) and being directed by a Sofia Coppola, you’d hope to see a strong interesting film.

However, I was bored through most of it as it languished in the dark moody scenes both inside and outside the home where the girls lived.

The basic story is that Miss Martha runs a girls home and school in her large southern styled columned mansion. The civil war is going on around her home, but she does her best to keep the home going and girls shielded from the outside strife. One day, when Amy is collecting mushrooms, she finds an injured Corporal McBurney. Carrying him back to the home Martha puts him in a locked room and fixes his wound. His presence changes the tone of the home because the girls start discussing him and do little things to get noticed by him.

The film takes forever to move the story along and finally the corporal shows his lusty stripes by sweet talking Martha, tells Edwina to run away with him, and gets caught in Alicia’s bed by Edwina. As the corporal attempts to calm Edwina down she pushes him down the stairs and reopens his leg wound.

Martha determines she has to cut it leg off. When McBurney wakes up to find his leg missing he freaks out and goes on a rampage. Using guile and pressure on Alicia, gets out of the locked room and takes control of the home by using Martha’s gun.

Martha and the girls decide they must do something to protect themselves and find a way to get rid of the corporal.

Kidman was good as the head of the home. However, the script and direction let her down. Farrell was good as Corporal McBurney but the story let the audience down as to how he ended up in the woods and as to what his motivation was for seducing all the women. Dunst was strong as the pretty and dour Edwina but I wondered why McBurney selected her as the one he wanted to love and run away with. It didn’t make much sense. Fanning was very good as the young girl wanting to be an adult and experience more in life. Laurence was excellent as the young Amy whose kind compassionate heart was put to the test. Albert Maltz wrote an uninteresting script from a very interesting novel. Coppola had a vision but it was an uninteresting one and the result lacked reason and engagement unlike one of her other efforts “Lost in Translation.”

Overall:  This film was painful to watch as the two women sitting down the aisle would attest to by their comments while the film played on.