Molly's Game

First Hit:  Although a very interesting story, I felt pummeled by the constant voice overs and rapid fire conversational tone of most of the scenes.

This is a powerful and interesting story about a young woman who had a promising career in ski racing, but because of an injury, headed to California to clear her head and ended up running a gambling operation.

Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) was raised by her father, Larry (Kevin Costner), to be competitive and self-reliant at whatever she did. He was her primary ski coach and was a well-respected psychologist and pushed her with little mercy. There are numerous scenes in the film to help set-up this important dynamic.

When Molly leaves the skiing scene and heads to CA, she is doing it to relax, save some money and get her head together before she heads to law school. However, she ends up working for Dean Keith (Jeremy Strong) who is a small time real estate developer who happens to have a gambling problem as well. To make money, Keith holds gambling nights and invites Hollywood stars to his games. One such person, Player X (Michael Cera), plays well, wins often and likes to destroy his opponents. The games start out as cash games with the buy-in being $10K per player.

Keith tells Molly to set-up and run the games while he participates as one of the players. She gets really good tips from the players which far exceeds what she makes as a waitress and working for Keith’s real estate firm.

At one point Keith decides he cannot afford to pay Molly for her employment work and tells her to subsist on her tips from the running the games. She decides to run her own games when Keith fires her.

She becomes the "go-to" person for holding these card games. She knows that as long as she doesn’t take a skim/draw from the table it is all legal. However, some of her clients don’t have the cash and she ends up carrying them. So to protect herself she begins to skim from the table stakes which means that what she’s doing is now illegal.

When she opens a game in New York City, with $250K buy-ins, the Russians become players and this is when the shit hits the fan. The FBI is looking to see how the Russians are laundering money and they suspect Molly is doing this. When they raid her home as well as many of the other player’s homes, Molly refuses to give up any names. Because she’s facing huge prison sentence, she hires Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba) to defend her.

Much of the film uses Molly and Charlie’s meetings as a jumping off point for viewing past scenes. During these flashbacks, Molly does voice overs to set-up the scenes. This happens a lot during the film and is generally effective. However, the intense, combative, and defensive way Molly speaks in the voice overs to set up the flashbacks, to Charlie, and to everyone else wore on me and I think the audience as well.

It became almost affrontive and I found myself wanting to tell Molly to take a break, breath and tell me what’s going on.

At the end when her father, Larry, comes back into the picture and they have three years of therapy in three minutes, Molly finally breathes.

Chastain was very strong as Molly. I felt Molly’s drive through her. Elba was also very strong as Molly’s attorney. His own intense nature was equally matched with Chastain’s. Strong was excellent as the semi-slimy guy who took advantage of Molly and got his comeuppance. Cera was great as Player X. His inner intelligence and drive to win and make people feel their losses was excellent. Costner was wonderful as the father and the scene of them during the three-minute therapy session where he will give the answers she’s looking for was perfect. Aaron Sorkin wrote and directed this story with an edge that didn’t quite work for me. The rapid fire conversational tone, eventually wore me down and pushed me away from the film.

Overall:  I loved the story and didn’t like the rapid fire beating I took to get the story.

Hidden Figures

First Hit:  A very touching and wonderful film about strong smart women overcoming prejudicial perceptions about their capabilities.

This film is based on the book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly, which tells the story of how smart intelligent black women persevered and overcame the challenges of 1960’s discrimination in Virginia to help the United States come from behind and beat the Russians in the space race. This movie chronicles their journey along with the journey of the early space program.

Having grown up in this era, but in Southern California where the overt and obvious signs of segregation didn’t exist, I was shocked knowing that Virginia had segregated lunch rooms, bathrooms, and bus seating. This issue drives this film’s story.

Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) are three friends who work for NASA in Langley Virginia. The Russians have successfully launched manned orbital space flight with Yuri Gagarin. Because we were in a cold war with the Russians, it was a societal imperative of the time, that we beat them in the space race.

Under the guidance Al Harrison (Kevin Costner) NASA was struggling to develop rockets, space capsules, and the ability to calculate orbital exit and entry points of these space vehicles. To assist with the more mundane calculations, NASA used a unit called “Colored Calculators” of which Katherine, Dorothy and Mary were a part.

There are three major stories about these women in this film, plus other side stories. This is both the strength and weakness of this film. We didn’t need every story, however the main story about the three finding their rightful paths was divine. Katherine was a mathematical genius graduating high school at age 14 and college at age 18. She is a single mother raising three daughters, while working long hours calculating numbers. When she is discovered as the only one who knows analytical geometry, she gets assigned to Harrison’s group to figure out how the United States will launch a man into orbit and bring him back alive. This is the main theme of the film.

It also documents how Mary had to find a way to become a certified engineer with NASA. As she assisted Research Engineer Kazimierz Czarnecki he asks her why she didn’t become a certified engineer, she tells him, “I wouldn’t have too. I would already be one.”. Dorothy, managed the Colored Calculators but they refused to give her the title of Supervisor because she was black. When NASA attempted to install a IBM computer, she learned Fortran and ended up Supervisor of the computer programmers. However, when there were calculation discrepancies by the IBM computer and the orbital launch was in jeopardy, John Glenn (Glen Powell) says; “Get the girl (Johnson) to check the numbers… if she says the numbers are good, I’m ready to go.”

The mixture of using old original film footage tying together the major events of the day with events in the film was very well done. Emotionally and at a feeling level, this film is very well done. From the moment Katherine’s daughters talk about diving underneath their desks at school to protect themselves from bomb fallout to the hurdles of racism that were being jumped over; tears of joy and sorrow fell down my cheeks.

Henson was amazingly wonderful as a brilliant mathematician and woman who finds her way into a very elite world. Spencer was very good as a woman that wouldn’t let herself be slighted any longer and took matter into her own hands and learned computer programming. Monae was fantastic as the sassy woman who outwardly challenged the status quo. One of the best scenes in film is when she went before the Judge to make her case for getting into an all-white school. Costner was good as the head of the space program and one of my favorite scenes with him was when he ripped the “Colored Only Women’s Room” signs off the wall. Mahershala Ali as Colonel Jim Johnson, Johnson’s beau, was very good. His strength and sensitivity were perfect. Kirsten Dunst, as Johnson’s boss, was strong. She had an appropriate level of aloofness. Powell as Glenn was excellent. His open welcoming personality made everyone’s life better. Jim Parsons as Paul Stafford the lead analyst heading up the development team was very good. Allison Schroder and Theodore Melfi wrote a very good screenplay but it had more side stories than needed. Melfi did a wonderful job of directing this cast, however it felt more complicated and longer than it needed to be.

Overall:  This film documents a changing and glorious time in our country and these women led the way.

Criminal

First Hit:  Although a very improbable storyline, I enjoyed seeing Costner again.

I found it hard to believe the foundation that Dr. Franks (Tommy Lee Jones) found a way to implant the memories of CIA agent Bill Pope (Ryan Reynolds) into an uncaring prisoner Jericho Steward (Kevin Costner).

However, once I got past this and accepted the premise, the film was interesting enough to keep me focused. The reason why this transfer is to take place is that Pope had learned of a plot by “The Duchman” Jan Stroop (Michael Pitt) to sell dark-worm code.

This code allowed the owner to control all of the US Military’s defense systems while also being able to launch nuclear missiles. What he wants in return for the code is; $10M, a passport, and a new identity in the US. Pope was closing this deal but was shot and killed by an anarchist Xavier Heimdahl’s (Jordi Molla) team of enforcers.

Although Pope is physically dead the CIA is keeping his brain alive by hooking him to machines. Heimdahl wants the code for himself so that he can rule the world and will do anything to get it. Pope’s CIA boss Quaker Wells (Gary Oldman) is also very determined to get the code because he knows Heimdahl will hold the world hostage. This is when Wells hires Dr. Franks to try this experimental approach of moving the dying Pope’s memories to Jericho.

Costner is good at being the guy who sees and feels no consequences for any action he takes. There are multiple scenes showing this and he pulls it off. Ryan Reynolds has a more minor role although his thoughts are major part of the film. Pitt is sufficiently nerdy and agitated to pull of his role. Jones is somewhat miscast as he does better in stronger roles. Molla is very good as the antagonist. Oldman over acted his role, especially in the initial hospital interview scenes when Jericho gets out of surgery. Douglas Cook and David Weisberg wrote the improbable script although sections of when Jericho interacts with Pope’s wife and daughter were very good. Ariel Vromen did a good job of making the improbable story watchable.

Overall:  Costner's acting held this film together and made it very watchable.

The Bronze

First Hit:  It was tough to watch and listen to Hope's (Melissa Rauch) dialogue, however, I think the overall concept held together.

Hope is deeply holding on to the fame she gained by winning an overall gymnastic bronze medal she won in the 2004 Olympics.

Her winning overshadowed other gymnastic Olympians because she severely hurt her ankle on the balance beam but did finish the completion by doing the uneven bars which earned her a Bronze Medal.

Coming back to her hometown she received a hero’s welcome and benefited from  perks the town gave her (own parking space in town, free sneakers, and other things) ever since. This even includes a sign of her achievement under the town’s “Welcome” sign.

She doesn't have a job, she steals from her dad’s mail truck, she wears her Olympic warm-up suit each and every day. She’s gained some weight but keeps the hair style, including the bangs she had during her heyday. She’s rude to almost everyone she meets and has a horrible attitude. Watching the scene when she first meets Maggie (Haley Lu Richardson), the town’s new gymnastics super star, she barely looks at her during the entire conversation.

She is challenged, by money, to coach Maggie because Maggie’s coach dies. They end up working together at Ben’s (Thomas Middleditch) gym. There are a few nice gymnastic sequences to watch and if you can get by the raunchiness of Hope, it actually isn’t a bad film.

Rauch holds her character most all the way though the film, but it isn’t a character we can really care about, even at the end there’s an edge that is bothersome. Middleditch is very good as Ben (Twitch). Richardson is almost too naïve as the upcoming gymnast. Gary Cole as Hope’s dad Stan was very good in that he was believable. Melissa and Winston Rauch wrote the screenplay which erred on the side of too raunchy and mean. Bryan Buckley directed this with reasonable clarity and what failed was the script.

Overall:  The concept for me worked well but the film’s main character seemed overboard in the role.

MacFarland USA

First Hit:  Predictable yet an engaging and inspirational film.

Jim White (Kevin Costner) is a coach that has strong beliefs and he wants all the kids he coaches to have the determination, dedication, and drive to excel in high school sports. When they don’t, he gets upset and is reactionary.

He lost his previous three jobs through his reactionary ways and now the only job he can get is in MacFarland, CA. MacFarland is a farming community in central California and inhabited by Latinos who survive by picking produce in the fields. Most the kids are picking next to their family members before and after school - it's a family affair.

White, his wife Cheryl (Maria Bello), and his daughters Julie and Jamie (Morgan Saylor and Elsie Fisher respectively) are out of place in this community. Initially they hate it but, as you know, they begin to love it as they learn the culture and people. White decides that these high school kids can run after watching them run to and from work. He then challenges them  and attempts to recruit them for his newly formed cross-country team.

As you might expect he gets laughed at by the kids and the adults, but after recruiting the minimum 7 kids, this story becomes all inspiration. The story line is written in the history of MacFarland High School Cougars 9 all state titles in 14 years.

Costner is good as the guy who has lessons to learn and makes the right choices. Bello is very good as the supportive loving wife. Saylor and Fisher are both wonderful and effective as kids who learn to see the love in their community. Ramiro Rodriguez, Carlos Pratts, Johnny Ortiz, Rafael Martinez, Hector Duran, Sergio Avelar, and Michael Aguero were all outstanding as the Cougars Cross-Country team. I loved their distinct personalities. Christopher Cleveland wrote this predictable and inspired script. Niki Caro captured the feel of the community effectively with her direction.

Overall:  This is a feel good movie and it works for that reason.